Will those who reject Gaur-Nitai go to hell?

From Jacob P

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Jacob Nielsen Prabhu.
Question from Jacob Nielsen Prabhu. Sometimes it is said that if you do not accept Gaunatai, you are a demon. And something more, I think, like you are going to hell.
I do not remember, but very heavy. How to understand there are four Sampradayas and going to Vaikuntha is also good. Can you explain and support it by Shastra also? Answer.
In the scriptures, there are statements which are expressions of devotees’ ecstasies, devotional ecstasies. And those devotional ecstasies give us indication of the depth of the devotion of their heart. And that is how they need to be seen.
We shouldn’t absolutize them and thereby reject other scriptural statements. Now it is well known that there are four Sampradayas and in any form of Lord Vishnu, they will go back home, back to Godhead. So this is very clearly explained by Jiva Goswami in his Brahma Samhita commentary, as well as by our Acharyas elsewhere.
But when statements like these come, there is one statement in Chaitanya Charita Amrit like that, and there may be other statements in Vaishnav songs. The point there is to demonstrate the unparalleled nature of the mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and to show how the devotee who has actually been touched by the extraordinary, unprecedented love of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu feels that nothing can equal it. And these kind of statements or these kind of incidents are often seen elsewhere in scripture also.
For example, we may see that there is a famous pastime of Raghunath Das Goswami when he was fasting, he was finally given a small leaf. He would usually take a small leaf of buttermilk. That would be his meal, and that also he would take not daily, but once in two, three days.
So some of his followers, desiring that he nourish his body a little bit more, take care of himself a bit more, they brought buttermilk in a large leaf, and then he asked them, where did you get this leaf from? So they said, we got it from Sakhisthali. Now Sakhisthali is the place where Chandravali lives, that is the place where Chandravali primarily performs pastimes. And then as soon as Raghunath Das Goswami heard this, he threw it away.
And he said that, what is this? How can you do that? We are the followers of Radharani. How can you get anything from somebody like Chandravali who is so opposed to Radharani? Now, Chandravali is also a pure devotee. In fact, she is also very exalted, not just a devotee, but very exalted among the gopis also.
Krishna has right wing and left wing gopis. So the left wing gopis are the gopis who actually, who do not, there are gopis who very readily submit themselves to Krishna, and there are other gopis who are more difficult, who make themselves more difficult. So Rupa Goswami’s Ujjvali Nilmani gives the example that both are relishable for Krishna in different ways.
So Chandravali’s love for Krishna is like, to some extent, like ghee. An example is given that when a he-elephant chases after a she-elephant, when they are attracted to each other, so the he-elephant goes after the she-elephant. That is the relationship between Krishna and Radharani.
Krishna goes after Radharani, and Radharani often makes her difficult for Krishna. Whereas Chandravali, she actively pursues Krishna. So Chandravali is the she-elephant running after the he-elephant of Krishna, and Krishna is the he-elephant who is running after the she-elephant of Radharani.
Now all these are extremely exalted realities, and they are filled with pure devotion, and Krishna gets immense pleasure in the relationship. Even Chandravali and Radharani get pleasure, although within the pastime, they may act in ways in which sometimes they appear to be slightly jealous of each other. But that jealousy is also out of love, and that also pleases Krishna.
In the Raas Leela, in Anandavan Champu, it is described that when Krishna left all the other gopis to be with Radharani, all the other gopis felt extremely distressed. But still, the gopis who were on Radharani’s side, Radharani’s team, they felt happy that Krishna has gone with Radharani. And the gopis who were on Chandravali’s side, they felt especially bad, and they felt that Krishna has left them and left their mistress Chandravali.
And they were so devastated by that. But eventually when they came and saw that Radharani had also been left by Krishna, and they saw how much was the agony of Radharani, they did not delight in that agony. They also felt pain, oh, Krishna has left her.
And then all the gopis together, they started searching for Krishna, both Chandravali’s group and Radharani’s group, and they both tried to find Krishna, and they prayed to Krishna, the Gopi Geetha sung by them. So actually these are very exalted realities. And when Raghunatha Das Goswami is rejecting the leaf that is coming from Sakhi’s thali, that is in one sense fanaticism.
But that fanaticism doesn’t breed intolerance in terms of violence, which is seen in this world. And this is something which is there in not just the Gaudiya literature, in all literature. In the Venkatesh Totra it is said that It is said that that Lord who plays the flute and attracts the gopis and satisfies each of the gopis in the best possible way, he says that And immediately the next verse is saying that I know no lord apart from Lord Ram.
It says that that Lord who has a very beautiful face, a beautiful heart, who is very easily obtained, who is extremely strong, that Lord, that Lord Ram is my master and I know no master apart from him. The previous verse said I know no master apart from Krishna. Now the next verse says I know no master apart from Ram.
So now they are the same person but in a particular mood, particular form is worshipped. So this is with respect to the understanding of the devotees when certain exclusive statements seem to be made. Now if we take this context further and see what happens when the devotees encounter somebody who is offensive.
So when somebody commits offenses at that time, that means that person not only doesn’t accept Lord Chaitanya as God and then that person further commits offenses to Lord Chaitanya and that can become harmful. And so in such situations, now the offenses are also of various degrees. The Bhadda Haris came and tried to attack and kill Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
So that kind of offenses are serious, there can be offenses of different degrees and especially when one blasphemously rejects and condemns Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, then that leads to another level of response from the devotees. And that is also, if it is with people who are of a demoniac mentality, then it is true, the offenses to the Lord can lead to serious problems. But on the other hand, if it is referring to other devotees from other sampradayas who do not accept Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s divinity, we have to understand that scriptures are always understood through the context, not just the text.
And there are other places where the same Chaitanya Charita Amrit, the same author Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami describes how Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to the people of various sampradayas and when he interacted with them, especially when we see Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Madhya Leela, chapters 7 and 8, there we will see that, actually the whole chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, they are his South India tour. And there we see a different level, somebody who worships Lord Ram, in some cases Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inspires that person to continue worship of Lord Ram. In other places, by the influence of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that person becomes a devotee of Krishna.
Either way, in some places Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is accepted as divine, in some places Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not accepted as divine. But all this doesn’t matter, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu respects devotion wherever he sees it. And Bhaktivinod Thakur, in his book about Lord Chaitanya’s precepts, in the introduction he says that, for the Vaishnavas accept Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s divinity, for those who do not do so, they can at least accept Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a great spiritual teacher.
And by that they can, so he says Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has performed miracles, but the Vaishnavas don’t insist that the miracles are the proof of his divinity. What they focus on is that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given the teachings of love of God. And by applying those teachings one can experience a flood of love in one’s heart.
And that flood of love in one’s heart is the ultimate gift that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come to give. And that is the gift that we want everyone to accept. So therefore what we should focus on in our outreach is philosophical truths.
As far as I have seen, Shri Prabhupada has not quoted this anywhere in his lectures. There are statements like this, and whenever they come in Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Prabhupada translates them. But in his own classes Prabhupada has never quoted them practically speaking.
And Shri Prabhupada focused on the universal principles of Krishna Consciousness. You are not the body, you are the soul, there is God, and by forgetting God you will become miserable. By remembering God and serving God you will become happy.
So we need to focus on these principles in our outreach and even in our own assimilation. And as far as some kind of exclusive statements like this which we find, we have to understand that they are more expressions of devotional ecstasy. And they are not necessarily absolute truths in the literal sense of the word.
Even Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explains Vrindavan Das Thakur’s words like this. Vrindavan Das Thakur says that anyone who doesn’t accept Lord Nityananda as the supreme, I kick that person on the head. So what happens by this, he says that when somebody is kicked on the head, you see this is the explanation given by Rajcharya, that person will get angry and that person will go to the master of Vrindavan Das Thakur, Nityananda is very merciful and Nityananda will bestow his mercy on that person.
So that means basically what he is saying over here is, that even that anger and that strong statement is also meant, not in literal sense that I condemn that person by kicking that person, but by kicking that person will be impelled to go to Lord Nityananda and then he will get that Lord Nityananda’s mercy. So therefore, these statements have to be taken as expressions of the extraordinary mercy of the Lord, the extraordinary devotion that is there in the hearts of those who are his devotees, who are his intimate devotees. At the same time, in our outreach, we should follow the example of our Acharyas, especially Srila Prabhupada and focus on the universal themes of Krishna conscious philosophy.