Devotee: So where is this siddha-pranali coming from?
Srila Gurudeva: Siddha-pranali is coming from the very beginning. It is in our epics. It is there, but not like that. Ekadasa-bhava is there, but it will come when anyone will reach the stage of bhava. One will reach asakti and after that this ekadasa-bhava will come down from up there and descend into the heart. It is not like this, taking anything from anyone else. That is why they are all characterless, bogus people. In Jaiva-dharma, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written, in his songs he has written that it will come by the mercy of Srimati Radhika at a higher stage.
Not that they should give ekadasa-bhava when they do not know anything. He cannot clean his stool and all other things even, they don’t know anything, but yet they are giving them siddha-pranali. They want moksa, liberation, and they think that by doing so, by practicing this, then they will have liberation and will engage in nikunja-seva. They want to merge in brahma. They think that after doing all these limbs of bhakti, by chanting harinama, hearing harinama, then if they will be siddha then they will merge into brahma and they will become brahma. There are so many Babajis like this.
They give ekadasa-bhava to these kinds of people. Who first gave this siddha-pranali? Where is the origin of giving this siddha-pranali? Where? Did Caitanya Mahaprabhu give this to anyone? Who gave it? Who is the originator? They cannot say. So they are bogus people with no parampara. But we are parampara. Did Nityananda Prabhu give anyone ekadasa-bhava? How many Babajis were there at the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu? At that time, was there anyone that was Babaji? Who created Babaji? There was never Babaji. In Caitanya-caritamrta, can anyone show where is this line of Babaji? Is there even a name of a Babaji given anywhere in Caitanya-caritamrta? Never. Caitanya Mahaprabhu only said:
antare nistha kara bahye loka-vyavahara
acirat krsna tomaya karibe uddhara
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 16.239
[Within your heart you should keep yourself very faithful, but externally you may behave like an ordinary man. Thus Krsna will soon be very pleased and deliver you from the clutches of maya.]
bahya antara ihara dui ta’ sadhana
bahye sadhaka-dehe kare sravana-kirtana
mane nija-siddha-deha kariya bhavana
ratri-dine kare vraje krsnera sevana
Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 22.157
[There are two processes by which one may execute this raganuga bhakti—external and internal. When self-realized, the advanced devotee externally remains like a neophyte and executes all the sastric injunctions, especially those concerning hearing and chanting. But within his mind, in his original, purified, self-realized position, he serves Krsna in Vrndavana in his particular way. He serves Krsna twenty-four hours a day, all day and night.]
He has said this. This is siddha-pranali. How will prema come? Caitanya Mahaprabhu said:
ye-rupe laile nama prema upajaya
tahara laksana suna, svarupa-rama-raya
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila 20.20
[O Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Ramananda Raya, hear from Me the symptoms of how one should chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra to awaken very easily one’s dormant love for Krsna.]
He is telling them, “Oh, you should follow trnad api sunicena (CC Antya-lila 20.21).” Then prema will come. This is siddha-pranali.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 27th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]