He Sees the Inner Mood, Not the Presentation

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While reading Bhagavat, Srila Gurudeva always recited slokas in Sanskrit. He also advised us to sing bhajans in the language in which they were written by great Vaishnav acharyas. He said that within these sounds bhava is present— the mentality of the love of God which we get from acharyas. Any translation conveys the realization and state of mind of an interpreter.

Our Gurudev said that if there will be such a poet and translator on the level of realization that is comparable to Bhaktivinoda Thakura and other great acharyas, then we'll sing the bhajans in our native language.

Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur underlined that in order to understand Harikatha or shastra, it's not enough to be just having a knowledge of the language. Even without understanding the language, having the feeling in the heart in the form of bhava, inherent in the words of the saints, you can obtain the eternal spiritual benefit.

The Lord is called bhava-grahi, the one who looks at our Bhava, the mentality, and not on how beautiful we recite something. Therefore, the Guru-parampara goes by this value within the line of spiritual succession by which alone can be transferred spiritual knowledge. From Guru to disciple, and so on. 

There is a sloka saying that who surrendered himself completely to Guru easily obtains the whole meaning of the Vedic scriptures. And there is no other way, otherwise, many pundits and Sanskrit scholars would all have become devotees. But we see the opposite picture. Krishna in the Gita calls them Maya-pahrita-jnana. Those whose knowledge is stolen by illusion.

—Vrindavan Das, Ukraine


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