JIVA TANTRA - THE ORIGIN OF THE LIVING ENTITY

From the viewpoint of the tantra-śāstra.

Purports by Bhakti Candan Santo Maharaj

Introduction
First of all, I need to explain what the tantra-śāstra is and what its
specific contribution is. Tantra-śāstras emanate primarily from
Lord Śiva, who, I would like to point out, is the foremost authority
on Vaiṣṇavism, being simultaneously one of the great mahājanas,
one of the greatest devotees of the Lord and a direct expansion of
the Lord for consorting with the material energy. Lord Śiva is the
father of the living beings, and as Sadā-Śiva He is eternal, along
with His bi-partite abode, known as Maheśa-dhāma, which is
situated halfway between the darkness of Devī-dhāma and the
brilliance of Vaikuṇṭha. Lord Śiva is a doorkeeper, and as such He
holds the keys to Vaikuṇṭḥa and beyond. He is also the Guardian
of the dhāma and the revealer of its secrets to those who are newly
entering in. The tantras deal with controversial subject matter that
is normally kept secret. To understand tantra, we must open our
minds wide, because tantra deals largely with the resolution of
paradoxes through rising to a non-intellectual level of
understanding. Those who embrace tantra are often described as
walking the left-hand path, and much mysticism, a lot of it
spurious, has grown up around tantra and tantric practices. In fact,
like everything else, there are three types of tantra: tantra in the
mode of darkness, tantra in the mode of passion, and tantra in the
mode of goodness. Beyond these three, there is Vaiṣṇava-tantra,
which is transcendental to the modes of material nature and deals
with intimate matters of transcendence not normally dealt with in
other scriptures. These mostly concern the love dealings of Śrī Śrī
Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, which I do not intend to touch on, except in
briefly passing, in the present treatise. This treatise deals with the
controversial subject of the origin of the jīva. Does he descend from
Vaikuṇṭha? Is he an emanation from the brahma-jyotī? Does he
have an origin in time? Is he eternal in the past and in the future?
Who is he, and how does he relate with the Supreme Lord? These
and other intimate questions are dealt with here in a way that
stretches the imagination and gives us a new vision of our origins
and of the purpose of the material world.
The following texts are extracted from the Jīva-tantra spoken by
Lord Śiva to Māṇḍukya Muni during the Satya-yuga many kalpas
ago.

Enquiring soul, you’d meet your fate?

Read on! Do not prevaricate!
The Inner Guide will make you wise
And lead you through the wicket gate.
Tantra is the path of experience.

TEXT ONE
Just as the Lord never really leaves Vṛndāvana, so the living entity
never really leaves the spiritual atmosphere. What is lost is a
particle of separated consciousness.
PURPORT
Just as our consciousness is lost in dream when we sleep, although
we don’t physically leave the bed-chamber, so the living entity,
although apparently lost in material consciousness, nonetheless
remains essentially a pure spiritual identity. This cannot be easily
understood in the conditioned state, since we are under the
influence of space and time. We have a tendency to think of the
spiritual world, or atmosphere, as if it were another physical place,
to which we need to travel as if by some material conveyance.
However, we do not understand that we remain immersed in spirit,
just as a fish remains immersed in water, although we are not
conscious of it. Everything has spirit as its basis. The spiritual
world, therefore, is not some far distant country but is the very
atmosphere in which we are immersed constantly, yet which we are
unaware of.
Matter is a transformation of spirit; it is not a separate substance.
Its separation from spirit is apparent, not actual. When we come to
our real consciousness, namely Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we will see
matter as an emanation of spirit and not as a separate entity, as in
dualistic thought. The consciousness of the living entity can be
distracted due to its minuteness. Thus our consciousness is lost in
matter, although matter is, in fact, completely superfluous to us.
This is a great mystery. Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa appears within this
material world by dint of His internal potency and appears to be
one of the myriad living entities entrapped in this world, although
He is their Master. This is His great mercy for recovering the
illusioned living entity from his dream-like condition. The Lord,
however, never really leaves the spiritual world.

TEXT TWO
Every jīva in this world is, as it were, a shadow of one of the eternal
associates of the Lord, who is even now rendering service to the
Lord in the spiritual atmosphere.
PURPORT
Every living entity has his point of emanation and the spiritual
group to which he is attached. This will be explained in the verse
after next. Just as a tree casts its shadow on the ground in the
direction away from the sun, so the living entity casts a shadow, or
a form of darkness, in the direction away from Kṛṣṇa. This shadow
falls on the reflective surface of the material nature, like a tree
casting its shadowy reflection upon water. The surface of the water
ripples in the wind and the shadowy form seems to change and
move. Similarly, the material energy ripples under the influence of
time and the three modes of material nature. Thus, the living entity,
as he sees himself, appears to change from body to body,
circumstance to circumstance, although the original form remains
unmoved. When one’s vision is directed towards the material
energy, one sees the vagaries and changing scenes of the material
nature and forgets one’s eternal non-differentiated form, which is
that of an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa.
The duration of the material existence has no relationship with
spiritual time, which doesn’t pass away but is eternally present.
This eternal presence can be felt when the living entity detaches
himself momentarily from material engagement and concentrates
on his eternal self. Although one may be conditioned for millions
of years by material calculation, because it is but a snippet of
eternal time, like a leaf detached from a tree, the material existence
has no duration whatsoever by spiritual calculation, as a lengthy
dream may be of the duration of no more than the blinking of an
eye. This is naturally inconceivable, but it can be appreciated when
we study the relativity of time-span even within our material
consideration.

TEXT THREE
When we overcome the duality of material consciousness, the
shadow nature, or the material personality, will vanish away like
an evanescent dream, and our real nature will be revealed.
PURPORT
The self-realized spiritual master acts as Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s go-between to
awaken the living entity from his absorption in unreality. He
moves, as it were, in the living entity’s mistaken dreams. Coming
before him in a physical form, he instructs him in such a way that
he gradually becomes detached from the illusory condition and
reawakens his innate attachment for Reality. In the material world,
we are pretending to be something we are not, namely matter. The
material body and mind are masks over the real body and mind of
the living being, which are composed of spiritual substance and
have an eternal reality. The conception that the living entity is
ultimately impersonal is born out of frustration only and is actually
a material conception. The material energy, in its unmanifested
state, is impersonal and undifferentiated. It is the living entity
which imposes upon matter a semblance of form and
differentiation. Matter, however, is different from spirit, in that the
material form is not the original spiritual form. Therefore, in the
material world, the being and its form are always different from
each other. However, in the spiritual nature, the being and its form
are identical and, from an absolute point of view, are
undifferentiated one from the other: this is our real spiritual form.
The conditioned living being is attached to sense-gratification; this
is what causes the bondage to the material tabernacle. However,
despite this, everyone clearly experiences the difference between
the material body and the inhabiting spirit at the point of death. Due
to continued attachment, we assume body after body in the
variegated attempt to enjoy the senses in material life. The topmost
of these sense-pleasures is, of course, sex-life. From this expands
all the multitude of material engagements that have occupied
human society since time immemorial. When our attachment is
reposed in Kṛṣṇa, through the grace of the self-realized spiritual
master, we gradually awaken our spiritual consciousness and come
to know ourselves as pure spirit-souls, beyond the clutches of
material engagement.
Material life holds us like a fascinating gem or a multi-coloured
child’s toy. It beguiles us into thinking that we can perfect it by
manipulation, and thus we try again and again to adjust the material
energy to make our sense-gratification perfect. This endeavour is
doomed to failure, because material nature is not under our control
but is under the control of the Supreme Lord. No matter how expert
we may claim to be in material manipulation, death will master us
ultimately, and all our well-laid plans will be frustrated. The real
being has no material engagement nor any need for worry or
anxiety, because he is a non-material being. This can be realized by
the systematic performance of devotional service under the able
guidance of a self-realized spiritual master. Thus the shadow nature
will fade away, and at death one will become liberated from even
the semblance of materiality, and one’s contact with the material
world will be as if it never took place, the evanescent substance of
a dream.

TEXT FOUR
As the Lord is ever expanding His unlimited pastimes, so His
associates are ever manifesting from themselves unlimited
specialized assistants, who are in one sense aspects of their own
personalities, although they each have a separate existence as an
individual person, in their own right.
PURPORT
This is a very interesting verse, as it explains clearly the origination
of the living entity in an atmosphere which exists beyond the pale
of material time and space. Brahman means expansive as well as
great. Greatness may be static, but expansiveness is ever increasing
in its greatness. So the concept of greatness is a limited concept
when applied to God. A mountain may be great, or an ocean may
be great, but God is so great that He fills everything and continues
expanding. Kṛṣṇa does not limit Himself to an endless repetition of
the same pastimes but is ever expanding His infinite
variegatedness. As Kṛṣṇa expands, so His associates are expanding
to keep up with Him. The jīva is on the periphery of this eternal
expansion of the Lord and His energies. The root of this expansive
process in terms of associates of the Lord is explained in the verse
after next.
Spiritually, every expansion is separate and yet eternally connected
with its immediate branch, the branch from which it sprang. A
group of interconnected branches constitute a family. This process
of expansion is like a tree gradually branching out to fill up all
space. At each node, two or more branches might extend outwards.
As the number of activities to be performed in the Lord’s service
increases, so the number of assistants needed to fill these vacant
posts increases. In the spiritual world, there is no unemployment,
and there is always enough work or devotional service for everyone
to perform. In fact, generally speaking, each servant has his/her
own specific task, which has an infinite range, and under each
servant there might be a group of sub-servants, who assist in the
details of that particular task, and so on.
The intricacies and varieties involved in the service of the Lord are
never exhausted. This is ever-expansiveness. Of course, this
concept seems to give the living entity a definite time and perhaps
place of origination, but we must bear in mind that this process
exists beyond the limitations of time and space as we conceive of
them. It also has something to do with the desires of the pariṣads
(associates of the Lord) to expand and perfect their services. There
is an endless competition between the Lord and His eternal
servitors in the giving and receiving of service. Since there is
endless room and an eternity of time, plus a perfectly malleable
spiritual substance to work with, the enthusiasm to be creative in
the service of the Lord simply accelerates eternally.

TEXT FIVE
Some of these entities are manifested from the dakṣiṇa or
submission aspect of Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s serving mood, and others
are manifested from the vāma or rebellious aspect.
PURPORT
Śrīmatī Rādhikā, as will be explained in the following verse, is the
root of this expansive tree, so far as the living entities are
concerned. She is the personification of the hlādinī-śakti, or
pleasure-giving potency of the Lord. All living entities are meant
to give pleasure to the Lord by their service, as such they are all
expansions and sub-expansions and sub-sub-expansions of Śrīmatī
Rādhikā. Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s immediate expansions are the eight
principal sakhīs, and they similarly expand into their assistants and
sub-assistants, for the performance of variegated services. This has
been explained in the previous verse.
Among Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s servitors, some are always submissive to Him
and agreeable to His moods, whereas others are sometimes
opposed to Him in fun and may even rebuke Him or chastise Him.
These two aspects, the submissive and the rebellious aspects, may
appear as occasional moods in certain companions, or they may be
characteristic. Śrīmatī Rādhikā is said to be outwardly vāma,
although She is inwardly dakṣiṇa. Thus She sometimes manifests
moods of defiance towards Her Beloved, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Of course, this
subject matter is beyond common access for living beings within
this material world. Nonetheless, I think that we can begin to see
the point that is being made, although we may not appreciate the
intensity or pure quality of the feelings being exchanged in these
līlās.
Different entities are manifested to serve one or the other of these
moods. So the tendency towards rebelliousness can actually be
traced back to Śrīmatī Rādhikā, and it is for this reason that Śrīmatī
Rādhikā takes such an urgent interest in the redemption of souls.
The tendency towards rebelliousness in Śrīmatī Rādhikā, and Her
associates, however, is an external quality, and as such it is meant
to enhance or add interest to the deep internal submissiveness.
When rebelliousness is harboured as an interior quality, it becomes
offensive, no matter how much obsequiousness may be externally
manifested. Internal vāma and external vāma may be classed as
hell; internal vāma and external dakṣiṇa may be classed as heaven;
internal dakṣiṇa and external dakṣiṇa may be Vaikuṇṭha, or the
spiritual world; whereas internal dakṣiṇa and external vāma is
Goloka, or Gokula, God manifesting His pastimes as if He were a
human being. This world is the spiritual world turned inside out.

TEXT SIX
Śrīmatī Rādhikā is the root of the tree of unlimited expansions of
servitors of the Lord.
PURPORT
This has already been mentioned above. All expansions of the
goddess principle originally come from Śrīmatī Rādhikā; as such,
She is the origin of all living entities. The concept that the living
entities derive from the brahma-jyotī is also not denied; this is
indeed their material origination place, and the brahma-jyotī
originates in the spiritual world. Sometimes things are discussed
from a particular point of view and sometimes from another. For a
neophyte, therefore, the scriptures may sometimes seem to present
opposing conclusions. This is only apparent and not real
contradiction, for the scriptures never contradict themselves, even
if they may superficially appear to do so. Even great authorities
sometimes present apparently contradictory opinions regarding
certain subject matters. This is not because they disagree, for great
souls never disagree on the essential verities, but it is because they
are approaching the subject matter from slightly different angles.
One should therefore not become bewildered by apparent
contradictions in the scriptures or in the statements of great
authorities, but one should rather recognise one’s own
incompetence to understand. The idea that everything can be
clearly defined or intellectually categorized is a neophyte
conception. Spiritual life is quite elastic, but this is not made clear
to the neophyte to begin with, lest he use this elasticity as an excuse
to further his own sense-gratification. Therefore, it is said that no
one can understand the mind of the mahā-bhāgavata, because he
has gone beyond the rigidity of intellectual ideas and subsists in the
fluid realm of pure love of Godhead.
In the beginning stages of devotional service, rigid adherence to
predefined principles, as well as logical discussion of philosophical
points, is recommended. In the advanced stages of devotional
service, rāga-bhakti, the devotee is carried along on the waves of
love and may sometimes appear to violate principles that neophytes
are enjoined to adhere to, or show a disregard for philosophical
wrangling. This stage, of course, is not to be artificially imitated,
and the great mahā-bhāgavatas who are preaching nonetheless
adhere strictly to the rules and regulations for the edification of the
neophyte, who would otherwise be led astray from the strict
devotional practices of vaidhi-bhakti. Many a neophyte has thought
he could imitate an advanced devotee, only to find himself falling
down again under the clutches of material nature. One who thinks
that devotional service is cheap is known as a prākṛta-sahajīya, as
opposed to a genuine sahajīya who is actually on the natural and
spontaneous path. One has to have a subtlety of thinking to
understand these points clearly: one’s freedom depends on one’s
development of love.

TEXT SEVEN
When a rebellious mood is manifested, the devotee (pariṣad)
throws it off, like water thrown off from the hair of a dog when it
shakes itself.
PURPORT
Here we find the origin of the jīva in the mind of the pariṣad. To
understand what this verse means is to understand the origination
place of the jīva. Our connection is with an eternal pariṣad of the
Lord, of whom we are but an emanation. If we can understand our
origination place, we can make an effort to reestablish that eternal
connection. This process is called svarūpa-siddhi, a process which
is recommended by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and hinted at in the
Upadeśāmṛta but which Śrīla Prabhupāda did not elaborate on, for
reasons of his own. When the disciple is able to enter into an
intimate relationship with his spiritual master, such that he is
eternally and spiritually connected, then he becomes eligible to
gain knowledge of svarūpa-siddhi, and not before that.
This is very confidential knowledge, so confidential, in fact, that it
is only imparted unto the heart of the devotee concerned by the
mercy of the spiritual master, just as an egg is fertilized in secret
within the womb of the mother-to-be. The devotee who receives
this knowledge will never boast of it or disclose it to anyone, for
the reception of this knowledge induces a deepening sense of
humility, as the devotee realizes the futility of his own so-called
independence in the light of his complete dependence on the mercy
of the Lord.
Every thought of a pure devotee springs into life and takes on a
semi-independent existence , because everything spiritual is alive,
personal and living as a conscious manifestation of the life of the
Supreme Being. This is a difficult thing to appreciate. Even in the
material world, life is all-pervading, and we are all of us bringing
into life different beings that serve us temporarily, being imbued
with our life. As Kṛṣṇa’s wishes manifest into form immediately,
so do the thoughts and desires of the pure devotees take on life and
existence through their own power by dint of their connection with
Kṛṣṇa. We know that Kṛṣṇa expands, but we did not appreciate
perhaps that His associates also have that power. This is made
possible by dint of the inconceivable potencies of Kṛṣṇa. There is
no limit to the expansive power of the spiritual energy.

TEXT EIGHT
The jīvas in the material world are like droplets thrown off from
the pastimes of the Lord.
PURPORT
The living entities in this material world arise from the haze that
surrounds the eternal pastimes of the Lord. As the sun and shadow
co-exist eternally, so do the spiritual and material worlds. As the
pastimes of the Lord progress and expand, they throw off a haze of
temporary reflective pastimes. The brahmāṇḍas are like mirrors in
which are reflectively manifested the various temporary pastimes
that are engaged in in the material world. The temporary pastimes
have a beginning and an end, just as leaves shed from a tree wither
and die, whereas the eternal pastimes are unaffected by the
withering potency of material time. As the pastimes of the Lord are
eternal, so is the haze that they throw off. That haze consists of
separated droplets. The universes appear like bubbles in that haze,
which is known as the Causal Ocean. The material world, or the
outer region of darkness, serves as a limit and contrasting backdrop
to the eternal pastimes that are thereby accommodated. Thus
everything fits in to the map of the Kingdom of God and serves a
temporary or eternal purpose as designated by the Lord in His
infinite wisdom through the agency of His accommodating
potencies.

TEXT NINE
It is our job to investigate and examine the nature of the offence
which brought us into origination and rectify it.
PURPORT
What offence? There is no offence! Yet because of choice, offence
arises. We are the children of choice, the fruit of choices wrongly
made, as such we are meant to experience, realize and internalize
the fruitlessness of life without Kṛṣṇa. As life with Kṛṣṇa is eternal
bliss ever-expanding, so life without Kṛṣṇa is a yawning chasm,
and choosing to glance away from Kṛṣṇa leads us into a world of
ever-deepening shadow, opening a door on unimaginable horrors.
How could life be detached from its source, except through
illusion? How is it that that which is eternal becomes subjected to
death and rebirth? How can the spark exist out of touch with the
fire? What is the real meaning of our independence? The pleasure
we seek is not to be found here in the flickering darkness. Where is
the eternality, the awakened consciousness, the bliss which is our
very right? We stagger through a hall of mirrors, grasping at
temporary reflections, objects which are real in their essence or
archetypes but appear here as pratibimbas, reflective imitations.
What was the nature of our vāma? This is the subject matter we
should be researching. How was it that we turned away? No two
souls are ever the same in their service or in their offence. When
we recognise the nature of our offence, we can rectify it and regain
our original nature as eternal servants of the Lord. As it is, we are
servants of our senses, we serve a false conception of ourselves and
immerse ourselves more and more in illusion. Now we must go
back, reverse the process of material entanglement and get back to
that first wrong step, that first ill thought, that seed of rebellion that
led us here in the beginning. We must rewind the film, trace our
steps back to the entrance of the maze and note our wrong turning.
This the spiritual master can help us do, but it is we who must undo
that first offence, that seed of rebellion that led us into darkness.
This is the hardest thing: to dig down deep and find the root and
pull up our conditioning by the root: unmūlanam. How it hurts, but
how necessary! Without this effort, the tree of material life will
grow up again, and the material miseries will never be over.

TEXT TEN
This is the root of the doctrine of original sin. However, once that
mistake is rectified, all the acts of the living entity, whether past,
present or future, enter into perfection.
PURPORT
Original sin is not just a Christian concept. Our conditioning has a
root from which all other aspects of our conditioning have
expanded. There is an original rebellion. We ate the fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil, for which we have paid by being
excluded from Paradise. In the spiritual world, there is no good and
evil, no duality; everything there is all-good, beyond dualistic
conceptions. In the material world, there is duality: hot vs. cold;
happiness vs. distress; honour vs. dishonour; rich vs. poor etc.
When we fail to link ourselves with the all-good will of the
Supreme and follow instead our own selfish desires in a world
apparently detached from God, the spectre of duality arises, and we
labour with hankering and lamentation.
Duality arises due to the distinction between the self and the non-
self which is the result of adharma. Adharma means acting in a
manner that opposes one’s original nature and designed purpose.
The root of adharma, which lies in aversion to the service of the
Lord, must be sought out and eradicated. Thus sanātana-dharma,
which is devotional service to the Lord in pure love and
submission, can be reestablished within the heart. Sanātana-
dharma has nothing to do with temporary religiosity but is the
original function of the living entity, whereby he maintains his
eternal connection with the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, the source of life of all beings.

TEXT ELEVEN
The material world thus works for the greater glory of the Lord.
Here the living entity gets the opportunity to experience the
incomparable rasa of humility and repentance, and the Lord gets
the opportunity to be His most merciful Self.
PURPORT
It is difficult to comprehend, while subject to material inebrieties,
how the material world also acts for the greater glory of God. When
one achieves perfection, all of one’s sojourn in the material world
becomes a bonus; it adds lustre to the jewel which is the spirit-self.
This is perhaps the most difficult thing for the conditioned soul to
grasp: how the material world contributes to the greater glory of
the Supreme Lord. From a material viewpoint, the material world
seems to be a blot on the Lord’s perfection and a waste of time for
the jīva. Only if our sojourn here is seen as a period of training in
spiritual perfection, can it at all be made to seem worthwhile.
However, on attaining perfection, everything is perfected.
Strangely enough, there are rasas which are only experienceable
here within the material universe, to taste which the Lord descends
here personally. Only in the material world, do the living entities
experience that utter desperation for the Lord’s presence, such that
the whole universe appears empty without Him. Here the rasas of
humility and repentance on the part of the conditioned soul and the
rasas of unconditional generosity and mercy on the part of the
Supreme Lord are relished in full. Even the greatest demons will
gain the opportunity to surrender to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead; and the more one has been averse to the Supreme Lord,
the sweeter and more devastatingly overpowering is the realization
of His uncompromising mercy.

TEXT TWELVE
Who would deprive the Lord of the pleasure He feels in
manifesting His exquisite mercy? Thus even the greatest devotees
pose as fallen souls and beg the Lord to deliver them.
PURPORT
The material world is not only inhabited by conditioned souls,
sometimes liberated souls come here too and pose as conditioned
souls, begging the Lord for His mercy, as if they were in need of
salvation. They do this both to show an example to the conditioned
souls, as well as to experience for themselves the incomparable rasa
of repentance. Thus we find the songs of the ever-liberated ācāryas
full of admissions of sin and time-wasting, although they never
ever actually forgot the Lord even for a moment. It is not that they
are just imitating the activities of a conditioned soul for setting an
example. If that were so, how could they put into those songs such
sincerity and poignancy of feeling? Likewise, it is not a fact that
such liberated souls are temporarily conditioned. Such thinking is
directly offensive and undermines their liberated status. The truth
is that they are relishing a mellow.

AFTERNOTE
Gentle reader, think on the abstruse wisdom contained in these
texts repeatedly and with deep contemplation, for the pearls of their
inner meanings are yielded up only to the most persistent and
devoted intellects. When the platform of logic is transcended, we
enter the stage of gnosis, or direct perception and recognition of
truth, apprehended by the sākṣī, or the witness within. Thus this
Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not a speculative foray, but a precise and
distinct awareness of reality, gained through the awakening of the
internal senses. Paradox, as a method of jarring the logical mind, is
a tool to transcendence often used by tantrics. However, in this age
of kali, the simple process of glorifying the Supreme Lord in
association with His self-realized devotee is the recommended
method of coming to terms with Transcendence, who is not an
object to be exploited for personal power and sense-gratification,
but who is the Supreme Attractive Person, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ultimate
object of love and service for all living beings.
THE GAME OF LIFE
The same old farce,
The same old illusions,
The pattern of existence repeats itself
Time and time again
Until we learn to surrender.

Different actors, different props,

Different stage and scenery,
But the same old play:
Acting out the wiles of sense-gratification
And reaping time and time again
Its bitter fruit.

When will we call out the Holy Name in humility,

And cease casting aspertions on others?
Only then will we come to taste
The rich fruit of the Name of Hari.

Chattering on carelessly,
We have become proud of our chanting,
And that pride has strangled the growth
Of the creeper of devotion.
Let us uproot that pride
And recognise it to be the useless weed that it is.
Death draws nearer,
And the sands of our life’s days are running out.
Still we slumber in ignorance,
With our old vices as bedfellows,
Oblivious to the dawn of Kṛṣṇa consciousness,
The Golden Age of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu,
Which is brightening around us.

Locked we lie
In the cruel embrace of our unrelenting egos,
Entombed in our dark conceptions,
Breathing in the stench of nightly exhalations,
Behind closed windows and closed curtains,
While visions of self-glory
Dance like pariahs through our dreams.

O insignificant soul, awake!

Free yourself from this time-wasting!
Cast off the slough of sleep,
Throw open the windows of your mind,
And breathe deeply
The fresh air of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam!
Come out into the light of Love,
Which is the Holy Name,
And rejoice in the shedding of illusions!

Or sleep on, sweet soul.

It is your rightful choice
To dream of heaven and hell,
Until you tire of all your self-delusions.