"Shaktipujah"
Poetry and prose in Bengali composed by Shri Baidya Nath Sircar the famous Ayurvedic physician of Delhi populary known as Vaidji of Pahan Dhiraj. We are glad to go through the pages of the little emotional booklet of Shri Sircar in which we can have a peep into his heart which is full of devotion towards Mother Shakti or the material energy of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is recognised by the author as Shri Krishna and has tried to explain the non-differential aspect of the Potent and the Potency. Mother material energy of Godhead known as Durga, Kali, Chandi Bhadrakali, Tungabhadra etc. are different features of the same external energy of Godhead, described as Daivi Maya in the Bhagwat Geeta, In Bengal, specially, there are two classes of devotees of which one is called the Vaishnavas and the other is called the Shaktas. There are many Shakta devotees headed by Shri Ram Prasad Sen, Gadadhar Chatterjee (later one Ramkrishna Paramhamsa) etc. and they are considered as good as the Vaishnava devotees like Jayadeva, Chandidas, Vidyapati etc. This opinion is maintained by the impersonalists of the Shankara school who advocate that the Absolute Truth is ultimately an impersonal glowing effulgence and according to the devotional attitude of the particular devotee the Absolute Truth accepts a Form which may be either in the form of Shakti, Surya, Ganapati, Shiva or Vishnu. This process of workship is called Panchopasana and the whole idea is merged into one, never mind whatsoever the form is worshipped in the initial stage! Shri Sircar is somewhat influenced by this school of Panchopasana but at heart he appears to be a different student from the Panchopasana school.
From his writings it appears that he is on the progressive path of pure devotional cult which is distinct from the Vaishnavism of the Panchopasana school. To be more clear Panchopasana is a mode of devotion of the Sha(n)karites whereas pure Vaishnavism is the cult of the four Vaishnava schools headed by Shri Ramanuja Madhya, Vishnuswami and Nimbarka. Pure devotional activities are different from the devotional activities of the Shankara school. The last pages of Sri Sircars' book (page 38-39) gives a vivid picture of the heart of the author and we cannot restrain ourselves without rendering it into English for presenting it to our readers. He says as follows:- "There is definitely a decline in the form of religiousity. The Personality of Godhead cannot remain silent. The eternal servant of God in a state of forgetfulness does not any more try to go Back to Godhead. And for this the merciful Lord in a compassionate mood has causelessly descended to reclaim the fallen souls. Out of His causeless mercy He is calling back all of us towards our eternal home. He (the Lord) says that nobody has any more to enter in to the hills or forest for meditation or to perform austere penances. Here is for you the word of deliverance; you can simply ask for it from Me and it is yours. Just remember your eternal Lord. And He has sent His representatives also for this deliverance of the fallen souls. All such representatives are fully empowered by the Lord. And because they have descended with deligated power - they are called Avatar (or the servants with deligated powers) It is the order of the Lord that everyone of us, inspired by that order, must move from door to door of the eternal servants, who are in slumber of forgetfulness for awakening them. And the awakening process is to chant the message of the Lord or the message of liberation. For this purpose only, has come down Nadia's Nimai" etc
Within this small passage, the whole mission of the paper "Back to Godhead" is inculcated as if some body has forced Shri Sircar's pen to write down the manifesto of "Back to Godhead." The message of Nadia's Nimai, Who was later on known as Lord Chaitanya, is potentially expressed by Shri Sircar. The Lord (Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) said that every one born in India must perfectify his life by His instruction and then distribute the same message to the whole world for bringing in real peace and prosperity.
The people of the world are almost cent percent forgetful of their eternal relation with the Personality of Godhead. They have forgotten their constitutional position as eternal servant of God and by such forget fulness everyone is trying to become a tiny God by himself! By doing so the illusioned soul is putting himself more and more under the strigent trident of His (God's) external potency Mahamaya Who is equally strong like God, to put down the rebellious audacity of the Ashuras headed by Mahishasura. The descendants of Mahisasura Ravana etc. have increased in a numberless quantity but the mother Chandika has insurmountable weapons to punish this rebellious attitude of the false gods. The false gods who wants to enjoy Sita or Laxmi of Narayana are sure to be vanquished by the material energy of God. Presently the atomic weapons are created for such Ashuras. And Persons who are intelligent enough, must take shelter of the lotus feet of Shre Krishna so that one can get rid of the powerful weapons of Durga the superintending goddess of the material world. She cannot be hoodwinked by clever manoeuvres Do not try therefore to enjoy the material world and be punished by Her (Mahamaya). On the contrary try to serve the Lord by all energy (Shakti) that you have because it is all God's property that you falsely claim to be yours. This is called surrender unto the Personality of Godhead. And whoever so surrenders, becomes liberated from the rules of Mahamaya—as it is confirmed in the Bhagwat Gita.
- Daivi hyesa gunamai mama maya duratya
- Mameiba ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te
A surrendered (?) theif is sure to get relief from police action.
Similarly
"The laws of the material energy is insurmountably hard and stringent and no body can surpass them by the tiny efforts. The only way out is to surrender unto Me (Shri Krishna the Personality of Godhead) and thus get rid of the trident rod (Trisula) of Mahamaya. The conclusion is that effective Shakti Pujah is resulted in the attainment of transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead. That is the highest stage of Mukti or liberation. Except this everything is bondage. Om Tat Sat.