“I recited all the verses like the blowing wind. How could You completely learn by heart even one among those verses?” (Keshava Kashmiri speaking to Lord Chaitanya, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 16.43)

Download this episode (right click and save)

झञ्झावात-प्राय आमि श्लोक पडिल
तार मध्ये श्लोक तुमि कैछे कण्ठे कैल

jhañjhāvāta-prāya āmi śloka paḍila
tāra madhye śloka tumi kaiche kaṇṭhe kaila

1. A tape recorder

“Do you mind if I record this meeting? This is vital information you are passing along. I won’t be able to remember everything. We might not begin work on this project until months later, when resources free up. We will want to revisit this session or perhaps introduce others along the way.”

2. A transcriber sitting nearby

“This is my trusted assistant. I bring her along for important meetings. She is like the best court-reporter. She can generate transcripts almost instantly. She will be writing down everything we say. She uses the technique called shorthand. The content will then be officially transcribed later, turned into full and complete sentences.”

3. Speech-to-text technology

“Wow, we had such a wonderful conversation yesterday. I am so glad we recorded it for our podcast. Our listeners will be delighted to hear what you have to say. And don’t worry, I ran the audio through a converter program. It can turn speech into text with an alarming degree of accuracy. This way others can read what we discussed, without having to listen.”

4. A trusted assistant sitting nearby

“Hey, can you pull up that conversation I had yesterday? I need to reference something the other participant said. I think it was around the halfway mark. Once you find it, read it back to me. This will refresh my memory.

5. An earpiece

“I swear to you, during that one debate between the politicians, there was cheating going on. That one person was obviously wearing a wire. Someone was feeding the answers to them. How sad. You speak in platitudes to begin with. You say nothing of substance. Then, when someone calls you out on your hypocrisy and past corruption, you are not even smart enough to fake an answer. You need someone to speak to you directly. You give the illusion that you have remembered everything, but in truth you are like an empty suit. Pathetic.”

…

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the concept of a shruti-dhara. Taking the literal translation to these Sanskrit words, we have a person who is able to capture the meaning of something through hearing. They can remember everything necessary through listening to what is spoken.

“As soon as we find anything extraordinary, we should understand that such an extraordinary manifestation is the special grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied to the champion, Keshava Kashmiri, that just as he was greatly proud of being a favorite devotee of mother Sarasvati, so someone else, like He Himself, being favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, could become a shruti-dhara and thus memorize anything immediately simply by hearing it.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 16.44 Purport)

One of the more famous examples of shruti-dhara in action is the meeting between Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Keshava Kashmiri, who was a learned scholar visiting the area. Mahaprabhu was known as Nimai Pandita at the time, due to His exemplary intelligence and knowledge of the Sanskrit language.

It only makes sense for like-minded people to meet. Someone who rises to the top of their field might find it difficult to make friends. The ones they knew from childhood are now in a different class. You could call it a lower rung of the ladder of achievement. While this characterization might appear demeaning or arrogant, there is certainly a gulf of difference between the life of the successful person and the one who is not as successful.

The achieved person would be better served making friends among peers. If you are so accomplished, how will you find others? In comparison to the number of people who enroll in post-graduate courses, the number of doctorate recipients is small. The PhD professor might want to make friends with a PhD credentialed associate from another department.

Keshava Kashmiri was fortunate to meet with Nimai Pandita. Sadly, there was an internal rivalry of sorts. With the intent to defeat local scholars in mind, Keshava Kashmiri proceeded to show off the gifts granted to him by the goddess of speech, Sarasvati Devi.

He produced one hundred verses of Sanskrit poetry in praise of Ganga Devi, the sacred river. There was no prior warning. The scholar did not know in advance the subject matter upon which to speak. The speech was extemporaneous, but since it was in the Sanskrit language there was reason to be impressed.

Nimai Pandita kept everything within memory. He did not require repetition. There were no external tools assisting Him. Keshava Kashmiri was astonished. Who wouldn’t be flattered? If I am proud of my accomplishment in learning, and someone listens so attentively that they can remember what I have spoken, I will surely take a liking to them.

Except Nimai Pandita wanted to be respectful to the relationship. If this is two scholars discussing Sanskrit poetry, they should be able to review both the glories and the faults, the merits and demerits. Nimai had one verse in mind that would be ideal for review.

Keshava Kashmiri was insulted by the proposal, but he eventually agreed to continue with the discussion. He was surprised to see Nimai Pandita pick up on the combination of words bhavani and bharta. This accidentally insults that great daughter of the king of mountains, Parvati Devi, implying that she might have more than one husband.

We live in the modern day. We are likely not trained in rigorous austerity and attention to detail. Things change with the passing of a single generation. Perhaps when we were attending school there was a ban on the use of pocket calculators when learning mathematics. We had to write our essays down on paper before submitting them.

Today, a student can simply voice a question into their smartphone device and receive an answer almost instantaneously. To be perfect through hearing is not easy, but the same Nimai Pandita, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, has kindly passed down a way to achieve liberation, the summit to an existence, through chanting and hearing a single mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

In Closing:

Scholarship quite clear,
From one hundred verses to hear.

And within memory to retain,
To repeat at will the same.

Not necessary with ability to pretend,
Since Mahaprabhu with mercy to extend.

That perfect in hearing through mantra repeat,
And highest achievement of living to meet.

Categories: the five

Tags: god, hare krishna, hinduism, poem, poems, poetry, religion