Madhurya Kadambini. Lecture 1
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Opening invocation and auspicious prayers
O Magyanati Mirandasya, Jyanam Jana Salakaya, Chaksurun Militamy, Tasmay Sri Guravenama, Sri Chaitanya Manobisham, Stapi tamjale, swamrupayam, dada,ti swa padantikam, Vandeham Sri Guru, Shriutapadakamalam, Sri Gurun Vaishnavamscham, Sri Rupam Sagrajatam, Sahaganaragunatam Vitam Sadivam, Sadvaitam Savadam, Parijana Sahitam Krishna Chaitanya Devam, Shri Radha Krishna Padam, Sahaganalita, Srivishaka Vitamscham, E Krishna Karuna Sindho Dinabandho Jagatpate Gopisha Gopikakanta, Radakantha Namusute, Taptakanchana Gourangi, Radhebrindavaneshwari, Vrisabanu Sudedevi, Pranamamiari, Vanchakalpatarubescha, Kripasindu bevacha, patitanampavaneby, Vaisnavebyonaham, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhunitananda, Sriadvaitara, Srivassadi Guru Bhakta Vrindam Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Harema Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Yum tahishi Mamavachimuprasuptam Sanji Vaya Takila Shakti Daraswadamna
Anjam Chahastacharana Shravanat Vagadim Pranandamu Bhagavatam Swastavishwasya Kalahprasidatam de Yantu Bhutani Shivam Mito Dia, Manascha Badramva Jatata Doksha Javishitam no Mati Ratya Haituki Hare
Krishna, dear devotees, aspiring candidates to become sannyasis. First of all, I would like to congratulate you that you are the first batch of candidates for sannyas for getting this systematic education.
And my whole life I was trying to institute the systematic education, knowing the value of uh this uh sort of education. Usually in Iskon people get a lot of education. They get something from here, something from there.
But it's uh in most cases highly unsystematic. And if somebody wants to have some system to bring some system into their knowledge, nn they have to endeavor, sometimes struggle, sometimes they have to come to Vrindavan
for three months or Mayapur, stay there for a long time or do something extra whereas in proper cas it should be very natural.
From the very beginning, when devotee becomes a devotee, he should get what is appropriate to his status as a beginner and then gradually, gradually get upgrades into his knowledge and into his practices.
So it's a very beautiful initiative by the Sannyasa Committee, headed by Prahlada Anandamurti, and I can only congratulate
Overview of Madhurya-kadambini and reaching ruci
you and Prahlada Anandamurti for this initiative.
Now, regarding the topic which was given to me by Braj Sundar Prabhu, he said to me, even though somehow rather in the schedule it was said differently, but he said that I should speak on Mādhurya-kādambinī.
And he immediately said that I should bring you to the stage of ruci during our course of lectures or discussions because you cannot be a sannyāsī unless you reach the stage of ruci or taste.
I completely agree with this thesis that it's very difficult to remain a sannyasi or to be a sannyasi or function as a sannyasi, with all the temptations which are there in sannyas life and in our active preaching activities when we always interact with opposite sex and uh quite closely in touch with the material energy.
So it's definitely the only safe position for a sannyāsī. To be a sannyāsī, you should reach the stage of ruci, but at the same time, the stage of ruci is not an easy stage.
So uh that's the main thesis which I'm supposed to prove during my seminar. I don't know if I will be able to prove it in a proper sense because Mādhurya-kādambinī is such a big and deep book.
Most probably I will not be able to come to the stage of ruci, but therefore, from the very outset, I'm saying that, you know, be prepared. If you want to be a sannyāsī, you better reach the stage of ruci.
But in the meantime, we should also talk: what does it mean to have śraddhā? What does it mean to have sādhu-saṅga? What does it mean to perform bhajana-kriyā properly?
And what are the difficulties on every one of these stages? So let's see how far we will be able to reach in our discussion.
Because even the first chapter of Mādhurya-kādambinī probably would take all the time allocated for this seminar. First chapter is a very important chapter. But I'll skip this chapter mostly coming
to more practical topics described by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura in Mādhurya-kādambinī.
Analysis of the invocatory verse
Anyway, let us begin with the maṅgalācaraṇa verse which is important. If I understand this one verse it more or less encapsulates what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura wants to say to us in this book.
And therefore, this verse is important to understand. I didn't want to skip it.
Kridva prenava bhti sasyavitateh Sanjivini svaga ma rambe Kamata paritu dhadamani. Vistapagolasi, duran me Maru Sakki no Bisarasi, Bavan Bavayabhuyat Prabhuch, Sri Chaitanya Kripani Rangusumah He
basically in this invocatory verse is invoking the auspiciousness, invoking the blessings of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but also describes in a metaphorical Mahaprabhu, but also describes in a metaphorical way the subject matter of this book, therefore, Madhuryya Kadambini, the name of the book, the title of the book, is also in this particular verse.
This is a special kind of Mangalacharana which is called Vastu Nirdeshatmika Mangala Charana, the Mangala Charana verse which describes the subject matter of the book.
And he's begging for the mercy, Sri Chaitanya Kripani, Mahama Kadanbini.
He's begging that the shower of the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, completely unrestricted shower, Nirankusha, with no restriction or downpour of the mercy would come to him and to all of us his readers.
Madhuri Kadambini means literally the cloud bank of sweetness. And he is comparing the this book with the showers which are coming from the clouds, especially in the rainy season.
Of course, in Vrindavan nowadays the rainy season is not very impressive at this moment of time, but probably before it was much more impressive.
And he is comparing the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu with this tropical shower when the water is downpouring just not just by drops, like in other parts of the world, but by the rivers literally.
And therefore he says, Nirankusha, Sri Chaitanya Kripa, Nirankusha, Mahamaduria Kadambini.
And he said first Hridva Pre, he compares his own heart or in this case our heart as well, with the filt. And this filth is kama taparitu daha damani. It's taparitu, taparitu means summer.
And Daha Dhamani it became completely dry and actually burned Daha Dhamani by this intense sun, intense heat of the sun. Taparitu. Taparitu means very difficult season.
Those who were in India during summer, especially in Vrindavan, knows it's taparitu. It's the time for austerity.
Overcoming lust through Lord Chaitanya's mercy
And what is this element which acts within us as this scorching heat of the sun? This element is kama, is lust. Therefore I thought we should uh understand this verse very deeply in the beginning before we go further
because basically sannyas means the no lust. So he says that everyone has this problem of the lust and this lust is burning from inside and making the field of our heart very hard and unproductive.
And basically, we can see that our heart becomes very dry and we become very selfish, we become very cruel.
For fulfillment of our own desires, we are ready to do anything, we are ready to inflict any pain to any living entity without any hesitation. And this is all just due to this desire, to this kama.
Because kama is so strong it basically burns our heart and our heart becomes like the field the dry field, it becomes really unproductive. Nothing can grow in this field.
The heart or chitta, human consciousness, is actually meant to produce beautiful fruits of love.
And therefore he says that Nava Bhakti Shasyavitek Sandjivani if this shower of Lord Chaitanya's mercy will come down to our heart, then the heart will again re-establish this quality of producing beautiful flowers and plants of love.
Because actually that's what we are meant for. The heart, the consciousness of living entity is supposed to be loving.
And we know that these fruits are very tasty when we experience some sort of love even in this material world. It's very tasty. But the heart becomes very dry and therefore fruitless, but
luckily, we know as soon as the rain comes, immediately the heart re-establish its own fertility.
So we can hope that if this rain, beautiful rain of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will come to our heart, then Sanjivani it will enliven our heart. It will again make our heart fruitful and will immediately give this quality, return this quality to our heart.
And dūra-maru-śākhino, śākhinaḥ. He said, even though I am very far away from this mercy because Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura was born a couple of centuries later than Lord Chaitanya.
And what to speak about us, we were born even further away from Lord Chaitanya.
But nevertheless, he says that even though I'm so far away from this mercy and I'm like a dry tree, completely dry and useless fruitless tree in this desert. Śākhinaḥ. Śākhinaḥ means tree and maru means desert.
In this desert, which is completely dry because of the scorching heat of kāma lust, far away from Lord Chaitanya, still I hope because when the rain comes then the flow of this rain becomes
like a river and a, priyasa-sarasi-bhāvāya bhūyāt prabhuḥ śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-kaṇāṅkuramahā-mādhurī-kādambinī.
So even though we are very far away, even though we can Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakur, still we have the hope that Lord Chaitanya will manifest his mercy upon us, give us his
mercy, and immediately we know that immediately when the rain comes during this summer season when the heat and the sun is very difficult and very hot. Then immediately it cools down. Immediately.
So the effect of Lord Chaitanya's mercy is like this. Immediately it cools down.
When we come in contact with devotional service with the sweetness, not the devotional service as such, but with the sweetness which permeates the devotional service given by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Madhurī-kādambinī.
It's not just an ordinary cloud, it's the cloud of nectar. And immediately when we come in touch, we feel the relief immediately.
But then we also know that when the first rain comes and it's a hot summer, first rain comes, you feel the relief, but then when the rain stops, the heat becomes even more.
So, in the same way, sometimes devotees also experience it. They come in contact with Lord Chaitanya and His mercy, His movement, and they start practicing, they feel relief, but then after some time, again the heat of lust becomes unbearable.
Therefore, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he metaphorically calls the chapters in this Mādhurya-kādambinī as showers of rain. And he knows that it's not enough to have just one shower.
We need shower after shower after shower before really the heart will re-establish its original natural quality of softness and fruitfulness, productivity, and before it will bring this this nava-bhakti and this nine kinds of bhakti.
It can be translated as nine kinds of bhakti according to the verse of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇuḥ smarṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, nava-vidhā bhaktiḥ. It can be also translated as nine stages of bhakti,
that gradually, gradually we will go through these nine stages of bhakti when the showers of mercy will come to our heart. And nava also means new, nava-bhakti, sa-sevita tejas.
Something new, some new feelings, new emotions will come to our heart. You know, actually material life is very tedious.
It's the same thing as Prabhupāda said, punaś ca carvita-carvaṇānām, it's uh chewing the chewed, something which already doesn't have any juice, and you chew it and chew it again and chew it again with desperate hope to get some drop of juice.
But when bhakti comes, something special may come.
If we get in touch with these showers of mercy of Lord Caitanya, if we manage to get or to invoke this mercy upon us. Therefore, this invocation and this first verse of Mādhurya-kādambinī is very important.
The causeless nature of devotional service
And the main point of this verse is actually on every stage of our spiritual development, the dynamic force behind it is mercy.
It's not that by our own endeavor we will be able to turn a completely dry and useless heart into something different. We will never be able to do it ourselves.
We completely depend on the mercy of the Supreme Lord or on the mercy of the devotees. So that's a very essential point because only by the mercy of devotees can we get the sweetness, the shower of sweetness.
What actually Lord Chaitanya did. Lord Caitanya, he brought this understanding of mādhurya of the Lord, which is very difficult to get.
You cannot get the understanding of the sweetness of the Lord by your own endeavors, by reading the books and by trying logically to understand the sweetness. The sweetness is sweetness because it's completely logical.
So Lord Chaitanya was experiencing this sweetness up to the highest extent without any restrictions. And he was giving this same experience of sweetness to others. And ultimately, the problem of lust can be solved only by
experiencing of the sweetness, Mādhuryāka-dambinī. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda always uh quoted the verse from the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, rasa-varjam paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate.
Only if you experience the higher taste you will be able to go through this nirāhārasya, through this stage when you are fasting. Nirāhārasya basically means you're fasting from material enjoyments.
Sannyāsa means you declare the fast, you're fasting from material enjoyment. And basically, the whole devotional service means that we are restricting ourselves in terms of material enjoyment.
So how will we be able to solve this problem when the taste for material enjoyment is there, only by param dṛṣṭvā, by seeing the Supreme or by experiencing the Supreme, by having the real experience of the Supreme.
Supreme in his sweetest form. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in his Krama-sandarbha or, no, in Laghuvaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, his commentary to the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he explains that the sweetness is What is sweetness?
What is mādhurya? Mādhurya is incomparable sweetness which is within the Lord's rūpa, his guṇa, and his līlā. So, Lord Chaitanya, that's what he did. He gave us access to the sweetness
which is there in Lord's Rupa, in Lord's Lila, and it's in Lord's Guna. Because without him, you know, we would be reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which describes this sweetness.
And uh we would be like this uh fly which is crawling uh over the glass jar with honey.
We need some access, and Lord Chaitanya, that's what he did, and his followers and first and foremost for all of us, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they gave us this access to this sweetness.
And by giving the access to the sweetness, they solved the problem of lust which we have, and that's what this prayer of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is all about.
Let us try to get access to this mercy, let us see how to get access to this mercy of Lord Chaitanya. Which is freely available in one sense.
But nevertheless, still, because we are so far away, we need to know the secret how to invoke this mercy upon ourselves.
Progressing through the stages of bhakti
So that's a little introduction to our seminar on this topic, very appropriate to the goal which was set to me. And the whole book is basically an explanation of two verses from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Sindhu.
Famous verses Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes, often verses which describe the gradual development of bhakti in stages.
And these two verses they describe the ladder of bhakti, ladder which ultimately is supposed to lead us into the spiritual world.
If we step on one on the first step of this ladder and then go uh step by step, ultimately we will find ourselves in this spiritual world. It's like Śrīla Prabhupāda, he often told the story that Rāvaṇa.
It's actually from not from Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa, but from as far as I know, from the Bengali version of Rāmāyaṇa, that Rāvaṇa and Prabhupāda sometimes called Rāvaṇa as the first scientist, he wanted to create a ladder or staircase to the spiritual world, to or to heavenly planets, not even to the spiritual world, to heavenly planets.
But he was unsuccessful because you cannot do it by material means. Nevertheless, this staircase is there. And this staircase is explained by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in these two verses.
And it's a very unusual explanation in one sense, or unusual concept, because from the very beginning,
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and especially Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his book, Mādhuryā-ka-dambinī, Kadambini establishes a self-manifesting nature of bhakti. Bhakti is not sādhya.
Because usually what is sadhya? Sadhya is something created.
You know, if you're cooking something, then your sādhya is soup. And you take the ingredients, you put them together, you put them on the oven, you boil them, you put some spices, and here is sādhya.
And sādhana is the process to assemble something, something new from the ingredients. So in Caitanya-caritāmṛta it's very clearly said that sādhya kabhu naya, kṛṣṇa-prema nitya siddha, nitya-mukta sādhya kabhu naya.
Kṛṣṇa-prema is not sādhya. Prema, love of God is not concoction, concoction means it's not a creation. It's not, it's not sudden, it's not something which you can cook, basically.
In other words, you cannot really do anything to achieve this divine status of life, this divine consciousness. It doesn't depend on our own endeavors. Sadhya Kabu noy. Nitya Siddha Krishna Prema. Sadhya Kabu noy.
Krishna Prema is Nitya Siddha, it's it's completely it's not a part of this world. It exists, eternally exists in another realm. So, and therefore from the first apparent look in this verses there is a contradiction.
Because Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gosvāmī in these two verses he describes the gradual stages which may be interpreted as the production of prema, love of God. But actually they are not producing prema.
They're not because prema is not result of sadhana, there is no causal relationship between sādhanā and sādhyaprema, the result of sādhanā. prema, the result of sādhanā.
But nevertheless, sādhanā is there. Bhakti sādhanā is a very special case of sādhanā. It's sādhanā which we are supposed to do, but at the same time we cannot say that the sādhya is being achieved by this sādhanā. Still, we have to do this sādhanā.
So the comparison to understand this is very simple. Let's say somebody is drowning and he is he starts crying. Help me, help, help, help.
So you know crying is sadhana, but you cannot say that that you're being saved is a result of your crying. Yes, somebody can come and take you out, but somebody may not come and take you out.
You may cry and cry and cry for a long time and still drown. So devotional service is like this. We may chant and chant and chant and still nobody comes.
But nevertheless, we have to chant, we have to cry, we have to try to invoke the mercy of the Lord. And ultimately, completely understanding that it depends on the mercy. It doesn't depend on our own endeavor.
You know, it doesn't depend how loudly you cry or how pitifully you cry. It ultimately depends on the mercy of the Lord. But cry we should do. We should definitely do it.
And we have to from the very beginning, and that's the basically subject matter of the first chapter of Madhuri Kadambini, understand the independent nature of bhakti. So let's and to understand this, let's have
a look on these two verses which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.
Adoshradatah, Sadhu Sangho, Tabajana Kriyatato Nartani Vritis Yat Tatoni Staru chis tataha, asaktis as tataha no Adusradata Tata Sadhusangotha Bajana Kriyata Nartani Vrit Something is wrong here.
Anyway, Tato Bawsta tahprema Byudanchati Sadakana Mayampre mnach pradur bhave bhave It's very interesting.
Usually, we know all the stages of bhakti which are being listed here, starting with Shraddha, uh you know those Shraddha Tata Sadhu Sangha then Sadhu Sangha, Atha Bhajanakriya, uh Tataha after the Tanartanivriti, Syat maybe it's in uh potential mood in Sanskrit. It may happen, may not happen.
Tataha Niṣṭhā, after that Niṣṭhā, then Ruchi, Tataha Sakti, then Bhāva. And Tata Prema Abhyudanchati Sadakana Mayam Primnach Pradur Baveba Ved Kramaha. This is how it's very important.
This last line of this verses is very important. This is how prema gradually kramaha manifests itself. Why it is so important why I emphasize this last line of this verses because
actually every stage of spiritual development is actually prema. It's prema of some sort. It's the manifestation of the same prema. It's not anything else. Sradha is not entirely different from prema.
Sadhu Sangha is not entirely different from Prahma. Bhajanakriya is not entirely different of Prahma. It's different stages of manifestation of Prima.
Sometimes people they complain, you know, there is love, Verisla, Verisla. But even if we have Shraddha, it means that we have a tiny particle of love already. What is straddha?
Shrada is an atom or tiny seed of love, but it's of the same nature because the seed cannot produce anything of different nature.
The seed must be of the same nature as the plant and as the fruits and flowers of this plant. Therefore, all these stages, in all these stages we experience prema from the very beginning, it is not full-blown prema.
It may not solve all our problems immediately from the outset, but still, nevertheless, it has the same quality. And we can see it.
You know, and therefore, all these stages, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describing these stages, he calls them showers of madhurya of nectar.
The showers are coming, showers of uh this nectar are coming, washing away different problems which we have, and giving us some transcendental experience from the very beginning.
And we all know, you know, people who come in contact with Lord Chaitanya's movement, they have amazing experience from the very beginning.
Especially, you know, if you read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta and get the first hand experience of his disciples who came in contact with him from a completely degraded background.
From hippie background in America, New York, Lower East Side or whatever. Prabhupāda.
From the very beginning, they started seeing in their dreams Lord Caitanya or Lord Krishna Himself with Arjuna, talking with each other, seeing amazing, having amazing experience. Why?
Again, because very important thing, prādurbhāver bhaved kramaḥ. This is how svayaṁ-siddha prema manifests itself.
In reciprocation with our endeavors, in reciprocation with our little meager endeavors to prepare ourselves to the downpour of mercy.
And another very important point which we have to understand that why sadhana is so necessary for us, because basically it prepares the heart, our consciousness to this experience.
The experience of prema is not an easy one. You know, when we read the description of people who reach this very high stage of love of God when they cry all the time. And they you know they do some strange things.
Or Lord Chaitanya's ecstasies when his body would become elongated with all his limbs of his body, and or his body becomes completely shrunken as a tortoise.
When we see this, we can understand it's it's very difficult to cope with these emotions of bhakti. And we are not used to. If all of a sudden Krishna would give us real bhakti,
we would probably we would not be able to handle it. We would be completely confused and bewildered. Therefore, Brahman manifests itself in a very gradual manner.
According to our endeavors and our readiness to experience this Brahman. So, sadhana, in one sense, is preparing our consciousness, our citta to these experiences. And this is what we also have to understand.
While asking why Krishna doesn't give us all of a sudden everything, you know. Because you, he can give, but you will not be able to hold it. You will not be able to really keep it.
And you will not be able to appreciate it. Why also prema comes in small instalments? Because prema is something, it's a personal energy of the Lord. Bhakti is his svarūpa-śakti.
It's not even his svarūpa-śakti, it's the essence of his svarūpa-śakti. It's the very essence of his own spiritual energy.
And when you have something which is very valuable, it's the essence of his consciousness, consciousness of the Lord.
So when you have something valuable, you will never give something which you value so much to somebody who will not be able to appreciate it.
If you have a very valuable painting of some old master, some Michelangelo or whoever, Raffaello, Van Gogh or whatever. And then you know you cannot give it to some bum on the street. Or somebody, you know, some passerby.
You met some passerby and said, ah, by the way, I have this. Why don't they, you know, you will give it only to somebody who will be able to appreciate it properly and keep it properly and really be grateful that he got this gift.
Therefore, Krishna gives us through his devotees in small installments the essence of his bhakti, the essence of his svarūpa-śakti, of his wonderful energy.
And at every stage of our development, he sees whether we appreciate his gift or not. You know, you know very well probably you've been through these situations.
You give somebody something which is dear to you and then he neglects it. And he doesn't he doesn't care or he just gives it away or throws it away somewhere. And you feel pain.
And therefore, next time you will not be in a hurry to give to the same fool something which is dear to you. In the same way, Krishna gives us Shraddha and then if we say, oh yeah, Shraddha, yeah, what is this?
I need Prema. You will never get it. But if you are capable of appreciating properly this gift of the Lord and understand that this is the gift, that it's already the seed of prema there.
And you cherish this and you really take care of this seed as something the most valuable which you have, then it will step by step manifest higher stages.
And in every higher stage, you really have to not take it for granted. Our problem as dull material living entities who are used to this material experiences we take everything for granted.
So therefore, we are not getting everything at once. We are getting everything in small installments and prema, as Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī properly says, appears gradually.
And the whole book is how this prema gradually appears within our heart and what is happening.
And commenting on these two verses, both Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and Jīva Gosvāmī wrote commentaries on Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Sindhu. And the commentaries are very tiny and small.
And both of them, they repeat the same thing: that what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains in these two verses, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā, is a usual path. It's not the only path of bhakti.
There may be different paths in obtaining prema. Like Putana, she also obtained prema. In her own way. She had her own Putana sadhana, special kind of sadhana. Not very elaborate.
She just wanted to kill Krishna and put some disguise and came to Vraja. But that's also something. But let's say it's not a very usual way of getting prema. It's a possible way of getting prema.
But not recommended, not a common way of obtaining prema. Whereas the way which is described in these two verses is a common way. Is a is a more or less standard way, but we cannot exclude some other ways.
You know sometimes we can see people. We should not be in a hurry of judging people.
If they really achieve something spectacular in their devotional career or devotional life, even though they may not go through these stages painstakingly from one stage into another.
Nevertheless, we should not look down at them and say, you know, who do you think you are, you should, you're a new bhakti, and you think you already have bhāva. Maybe he has. You know, who knows?
Bhakti is completely independent. It's not within your purview, you cannot say it has to be like this, but usually for normal people or less than normal people like ourselves, it usually goes this way.
This is how it—this is how it progresses.
Purpose of Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura's work
So why it is so difficult in our case, and that's also the question which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura deals with in this book, Madhurya-kādambinī.
Because why we have to go through all these stages and sometimes it takes a long time. Actually, even to reach the stage of niṣṭhā is uh is difficult. Strictly speaking, before niṣṭhā are we all kaniṣṭhas.
Before niṣṭhā we are on this kaniṣṭha platform. And basically, if we take the metaphor which is there in Caitanya-caritāmṛta of planting the seed of bhakti. Guru plants the seed of bhakti within our heart.
All these stages, śraddhā, sādhu-saṅga, bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, up until niṣṭhā is the stages of planting the seed. You cannot really say that your seed is really planted until you reach niṣṭhā.
Because you may throw the seed, you know, but we know that the seed not necessarily will give some plant, some sprout.
So up until the stage of niṣṭhā, it's a very difficult period where the seed is put in the not a very fertile soil of our heart and it's struggling.
The seed of premā is there. Uh, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde, uh, by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa, we got the seed of devotional service in the form of śraddhā with some little taste attached to it. Like in the seed, when the seed is there, there is some I'm using my scientific jargon you know DNA is there some genetic material is there which can give rise to the tree.
But also there is some nourishment material is there. So that the first initial stages when the seed is very fragile in the seedling stage, there is some nourishment to this already, to this little sprout which is there.
In the same way, immediately from the outset, Guru and Kṛṣṇa gives us some Shraddha, which is the seed, with some ruchi, which is nourishment.
And you know, everyone experiences this, everyone who comes to Krishna consciousness, he experienced some ruchi, some amazing taste. It's given to us with the faith, with Shraddha, it's attached to the faith.
Which are given to us. But what we can see up until the stage of Nishta, the forces which work against bhakti are very very strong.
We have very strong saṁskāras in our citta, in our consciousness, the different tastes, basically material taste.
And initially, the initial stages of development of bhakti is this struggle between the little spiritual taste which is there, the seed of bhakti sown within
our heart is struggling to give rise to little sprout of bhakti using little taste which is there, which was already given, which is not our own taste.
It's a reflected taste of a devotee whom we met, of Śrīla Prabhupāda, or one of his followers.
But there is a lot of not very favorable circumstances or other you know factors which are working against it, which do not really allow the seed to give sprout
so quickly, and to to give this, you know, this kṛpā of bhakti to make it very strong from the very beginning. Of course, it depends.
Some people have better situation in this regard, less saṁskāras. Some have even bhakti samskaras from previous life, which is very, very helpful. You know it's much more fertile ground.
But nevertheless, everyone has some contrary element. Some element which is against the growth of bhakti within our heart. And we have to struggle with this.
Anyway, so and basically why Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura writes his book. What is the purpose of this book? The purpose of this book is to give us very clear understanding what is
happening within our heart and how the opposite forces are creating some impediments for the seed of bhakti to sprout within our heart and to give rise to the creeper of Bhakti, to Bhaktilata, Bhaktilata-bija.
And therefore, he gives us and he I will not elaborately describe first chapter. It's a very important chapter, but you can read it. Indeed, it's a very important chapter.
Six characteristics of pure devotional service
But what is the purpose of this chapter of first rain of shower, first shower of mercy, first shower of sweetness.
The first shower of sweetness, the first chapter of Madhurya Kadambinī, in this first shower, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains
independent nature of bhakti, that it's completely self-willed, it's not dependent on any other cause. It's causeless. It's absolutely causeless.
But being causeless, which is very difficult for us to understand for us who are used to live in this world of cause and effect. We are on this side of the causal ocean. We are in the causal part of creation.
And therefore, we always look for causes, trying to get the effects.
For us, it's very difficult to understand the causeless nature of bhakti, but he is establishing that bhakti being causeless is completely spiritual and transcendental.
And therefore, that's the only worthy goal which we can put, because everything else is useless. Everything else ultimately will not bring us satisfaction.
Ultimately it will be lost because it's the part of this material creation, it's the part of cause and effect. What you will get by the causal process only something which is of this world.
Therefore, if you want to get something which is the price which is beyond this world, if you want to get rid of this world and come to the transcendental realm of existence, then you have to adopt the process which is causeless itself.
This is one of the proofs which we have that the process of bhakti is the only process. Because this is the only process where the call, the method and the goal, the means and the goal are the same.
In any other the process is material when the goal is different from the means. If we want to get moksha, and we can adopt different means to adopt moksha. But they're different from moksha itself.
Some people to get moksha to get liberation they even adopt bhakti. But when they get moksha desired result, they give up bhakti.
But in case of bhakti, like Prabhupada, when he was asked by a journalist, Swamiji, you know, what are you doing? We're chanting Hare Krishna. Why are you chanting Hare Krishna? To chant more Hare Krishna.
So there is no question of why. Because it's the goal in itself, the process is transcendental because the means and the goal are not different.
You know, nobody asks if you say I want to be happy, you know, nobody asks why do we want to be happy? Because it's the goal in itself. So bhakti is like this. And to get this condition of consciousness.
You can only get it by adopting bhakti itself.
So bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā. And that's the little Sanskrit aphorism or phrase from the eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the third chapter which is basically described as being proven by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura in the first chapter of Madhurya-kādambinī that the only goal worthy of our endeavors is bhakti because
it's completely independent, it doesn't have any material tinge in it, it helps to achieve other goals, but it doesn't require any other help, other processes uh will not be able to help us to perform bhakti.
Sometimes people think that you need psychology to practice bhakti. You need the help of psychology.
You need the help of, you know, I don't know, jñāna or karma or, you know, you have to go to astrologer, and astrologer has to give you some Navagraha mantra or should make some special ritual and then you will be able to achieve the goal of bhakti.
No. No, bhakti is not coming like this. Yes, all other means they may be appropriate for appropriate material goals, but ultimately bhakti does not depend on this. Bhakti only depends on bhakti.
Bhakti only comes from bhakti.
And the main point which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura proves in the first chapter of Madhurya-kādambinī is that that yadṛcchayā mat-kathādi-jāto nirviṣaṇa-sarva-karmasu he is explaining this verse that Yadrichaya, by some good fortune.
How bhakti comes by good fortune. What is this good fortune? What is this ati bhagena, this unprecedented fortune which price which you get by getting the Siddhav Bhakti.
And ultimately he said the bhakti is coming from the bhakti in the heart of a devotee. That's the only source of bhakti. And there is no other source of bhakti.
Bhakti you can get bhakti only from the heart of a devotee and you can nourish your own bhakti only by being in touch with the heart of a devotee.
You know, all these disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, they get bhakti from his heart, his complete dedication and endeavor, his bhakti, which was so visible and so strong, created bhakti in their hearts and they're spreading them around.
And if we want to nourish our bhakti, we have to be in touch with their hearts.
We have to continue to be in touch with the heart of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the form of reading of his books and the form of serving his mission, his society, spreading his books, distributing his books, or serving his followers, the devotees, and chanting the holy name, which is also Which is also coming from the heart of Lord Chaitanya ultimately.
Lord Chaitanya took this mantra from his own heart, impregnated it with prema, and invested this holy name in the hearts of his followers, and in this way. It was going on from heart to heart, heart to heart.
And this is what Parampara system is all about.
So he is he' stressing this point, and this point is very crucial because many many deviations in our society they are somehow rather connected with misunderstanding of this point.
Like the famous Ritvik philosophy says that you don't really need the living guru you can develop spiritually without being in touch or serving a devotee. No, but this doesn't work.
Yes, you can definitely serve Srila Prabhupada's mission and read Srila Prabhupada's books.
Nevertheless, you shouldn't exclude the living process of bhakti or surrendering process of bhakti which are important by substituting it by some mechanical means, which what this ṛtvik philosophy is all about.
And if we take many, many deviations, we can see at the root of these deviations, not understanding where the bhakti is coming from. The bhakti is coming only from the heart of a devotee, even not from Krishna.
And this chapter, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he says that Krishna doesn't give you bhakti. In rare cases he may, like in case of Pūtanā, but you know you really have to be Pūtanā to get bhakti from Krishna.
You have to achieve something. I always have to push the button because somebody is knocking at the door, and I don't know why I'm given this right. Something is wrong with it. But anyway, I'll continue doing it.
So that's, that's the first chapter which we have to understand that bhakti is coming from the heart of a devotee and bhakti is a transcendental process.
And I want to read since I'm not explaining in details this first chapter, but nevertheless we have to establish this foundation, I want to read the very last sentence of this first chapter of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura.
Tad evam bhāgavatāḥ sva-rūpa-bhūtā mahā-śakteḥ. So, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that in this way Tad evam bhāgavatāḥ sva-rūpa-bhūtā mahā-śaktiḥ.
To a certain extent we have described the great manifestation of Krishna's svarūpa-śakti, mahā-śakti.
Because naturally you cannot claim that you cannot describe mahā-śakti of Krishna svarūpa-śakti completely fully. So bhāgavatāḥ eva, eva little bit, svarūpa-bhūtā, svarūpa-bhūtā mahā-śaktiḥ.
So this mahā-śakti, bhakti is mahā-śakti, svarūpa-śakti of the Lord Himself, of Bhagavān, the personality of Godhead Himself.
And it has six characteristics which are or which were described in this first chapter of Mādhurya-kādambinī. Sarva-vyāpakatvam.
The first characteristic of bhakti of this mahā-śakti of the Supreme Lord is that it's all pervading.
Sarva-vyāpaka, sarva-vyāpakatva, it's basically means that it's available everywhere and it pervades all the phenomena of this world.
If we take any religion, there is some little element of bhakti or mahā-śakti of the Lord is there, otherwise the religion would not be working.
Even Buddhism, the Buddhists they officially don't accept God, but nevertheless they worship Buddha, they have all the rituals, they have all the pujas and they chant mantras. This is all bhakti.
So the first we have to understand how bhakti manifests and how it pervades everything. It's there. Even communism, the communism, there was some bhakti in the hearts of the founding fathers of this stupid system.
Even though they denied the existence of the Lord, still, there was some sort of little drop of Mahashakti of the Lord. And basically, it means Sarvavyapakatvam means that it's available. It's basically available.
If you want to extract it, you don't have to come to India. It's available. It's available all over the place, but of course, you know, somewhere it's more available, some somewhere it's less available.
But still, it's everywhere. It's spread. Therefore, when Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West, he actually showed that you know actually bhakti is already within your heart. That was the slogan of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The love is dormant within your heart. You just have to understand this. And sometimes Prabhupāda would say very simple things, but the simple things would open or reveal this bhakti which is there.
So the first thing is that it's all pervading, sarvavyapakatvam. The second quality or characteristics of bhakti being described in this first chapter, which we're briefly going through, is Sarvavashikara Vashikaritvam.
Sarvavashikaritvam means uh it's all controlling. It's um yeah, it's uh it's controlling everything. It's basically uh it's all how to say this. It's conquering everything. Sarva Vashikaritvam.
You know, it it actually conquers the heart of a devotee when he feels bhakti, he feels the attraction of the Lord, and he becomes completely surrendered. The Lord conquers over him.
But when the Lord sees the devotion within the heart of a devotee, he becomes conquered by his devotee.
So Sarva Vashikaritvam means that when you have bhakti uh uh you know if you love somebody and if you sincerely love somebody uh this person whom you love uh when he sees your sincerity of love uh he will surrender to you. He has no choice.
Because this is the power of bhakti. As much as you have this pure bhakti, pure love, pure love is very powerful and therefore if you it subjugates.
Basically Sarvava Vashikaritvam it's all subjugating. It can subjugate anyone, everyone's heart it can subjugate. So that's the nature of bhakti, the amazing nature of bhakti.
We can see, you know, this when Lord Chaitanya came to the South India and he saw this Brahmana who is crying by looking at the picture in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. And Lord Chaitanya asked, Why are you crying?
He said, Because I see my Lord and He is doing this menial service to His devotee, and I start crying.
And Lord Chaitanya says, You are the great authority of Bhagavad-gītā, you understand the essence of Bhagavad-gītā, because the essence of Bhagavad-gītā is to give the sense that bhakti is the highest goal because it can subjugate the Lord.
It can even conquer over the Lord. The Lord is becoming surrendered to His devotee. This is how great is Bhakti. Bhakti Reva Bhuyasi.
There is nothing better than bhakti according to Mantrāra Śruti, Mantrāra Upaniṣad. That because of this point. So that's that's the thing. And when we read Mahābhārata, what Krishna was doing for His devotees.
And even in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of course. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said in the fifth canto, Sukadeva Goswami says that to Maharaja Pariksit the Lord has become the messenger of your grandfathers.
He has become the menial servant of your grandfathers. He became the friend and the well-wisher and protector. And he was doing everything to your grandfathers. Why? Because this is the power of bhakti.
And the third point of bhakti, the third point of or quality of bhakti, sarva-saṁjñā-vikattvam. Sarva-saṁjñā-vikattvam means it's all enlivening.
It's as in the beginning we said that dry and basically, that piece of matter which has become our heart, our heart, our consciousness have become dead. When it's being touched by bhakti, we become enlivened.
Like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he says that you know if you have faith, you have enthusiasm, you become enthused.
It's also said in Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Muni, Patanjali Muni says that Sradha and then virya and then smriti, and then Samadhi, and then Pragya.
He says that when little Shraddha, which is the initial stage of bhakti, comes, then you get a lot of enthusiasm, you get a lot of power.
You know, we can see uh devotees, they're doing sometimes amazing things when they have bhakti because they are empowered. There is this upsurge of energy. They become enlivened.
You know, I know people, you know, I knew very old devotees, something like 85 years old. Who would start dancing in a kīrtana. Jagannātha Dāsa Bābājī. He was 144 years old when he died, so he could hardly move.
His servant Bihari would carry him in the basket. He became very small because of this osteoporosis. When you become old, you know your your body shrink because your bones shrink.
But when the kīrtana would start, he would jump from this basket and start start dancing. Why? Sarvasanjivikatwam? Because this is the quality of the bhakti.
When you're really in touch with bhakti, if you don't have enthusiasm, something is wrong with you. Somehow or other your bhakti is covered over.
But when you have even little faith, you become very enthusiastic, you become enlivened, and you want to share it with others, your you have a lot of energy, you don't need too much sleep or too much eat. Sarvôtkarṣa.
Sarvôtkarṣa means it's all attractive, Utkarṣa, super excellent quality, it's very, very attractive. And Parama-svātantryam. It means absolutely independent. It doesn't depend on anything.
It can come to anyone immediately without asking, you know, to a near five devotee, it can give very amazing experience to very old and senior devotees. It may not give anything.
And you cannot say, you know, I am GBC, you know, I'm entitled to get Bhakti, no. You know, Bhakti doesn't care whether you're G B C or ABC or whatever. You know, all your claims are useless.
You're not. You're not entitled to Bhakti. Bhakti is parama-svātantryam completely independent. It's not acting akin to the human justice. It's self-wilt. It can come to anyone.
And you cannot even ask why did it come to him and why didn't it not come to me? You know you can only hope that at one point it will come. And Svaprakasatvam. Svaprakasatvam basically, means that it's self-manifesting,
like the Lord. Like the Lord, you know, He can manifest anywhere, anytime. In the same way, Bhakti may manifest completely independently. There is no material logic behind the workings of bhakti.
And this is what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has proven, or as he himself said, little bit described. Kinchit Utankitam. Kinchit.
Very little, little bit he touched upon these qualities of the Lord or of the bhakti, of the energy of the Lord, main energy of the Lord. Why? He starts this book from this subject matter.
Why he doesn't go immediately to the first stage of spiritual development, which is Shraddha. There is a very important reason for this, because Shraddha means Shraddha in this particular quality of bhakti.
So he first establishes what bhakti really is, what are the super excellent qualities of bhakti, features of bhakti. And by establishing this, he prepares the ground for Shraddha.
Because if we start Shraddha, you know, Shraddha in what? Shraddha in Bhakti.
Because the special quality of śraddhā, of faith, is that it has to be one-pointed, which is very difficult to achieve because our intelligence tends to be many branched. We tend to have many different goals just in case.
Just in case we need it. So therefore, he first wants to focus our consciousness upon this goal and say that this is the real goal of your endeavors. Don't be distracted by anything else. Don't be so foolish.
You know, he quotes Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says that somebody in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, uh, it is said that somebody uh who is not performing bhakti, he's not even human. He is less than human. He cannot be called human. So stupid he is.
You know so we are all very intelligent. That's that's good news.
But but we are not very intelligent because sometimes we look around, and sometimes we think that maybe there is something else. Maybe we should do something else.
Maybe you know this this sounds good, but you know who knows, maybe there is something higher.
So what he is doing by this first chapter, he is really focusing our consciousness and really tuning up our faith. Because again, the faith is only the faith, and this we will start soon. This is the new topic.
What is the face? The face when it is said Shraddha, it means one-pointed face. If the faith is not one-pointed, it's not really the shraddha from which this staircase to the spiritual world starts.
You are not yet on the first stage or on the first step of this staircase.
You can only climb to this first step of the staircase which will bring you to the spiritual world if you become ekantika, if you become one-pointed in your endeavors.
If you understand that everything else, it may be subsidiary. It's not that we neglect anything else, but there is only one goal.
And we try to do everything else so that it would facilitate us to reach this goal and not to be distracted to achieve the other things as a separate goal.
So that's that's the point which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says and therefore he so uh painstakingly proved
the the completely spiritual and perfect nature of bhakti on the stage of sādhana and on the stage of sādhya, on the stage of achievement, success and on the stage of practice.
In all these stages the bhakti has the same nature and therefore from the very beginning we should try to develop very pure attitude towards our bhakti, towards the practice of bhakti. And the price is very high.
And if we get this very high price we will not be we will not be cheated. So I guess we should start with the uh with yeah uh I I will say just a few words more about the nature of the process or what's going on.
Is what is the Rasasundar Prabhu I online? Should I speak the whole allocated Nobody answers. Okay. So So okay. Hare Krishna, devotees, it's your servant Kalanidhi Dasa. Yes, Ekalavya Prabhu. Yes. Time for questions.
Devotees like to have some interaction. I'm sure devotees would be happy to get your deep realizations and have some interaction with you. Do some questions Okay, Kalavya Prabhu, no problem. I I can finish at any time.
Basically, I I mean I I gave the introduction and this described the first chapter without touching the details of it.
What I want to say more, little bit, I probably not uh come to this subject matter of Shraddha today. We'll keep it for tomorrow.
Transformation of material and spiritual identity
But I will say something general about the process of bhakti. What is this climbing from one step of this ladder of bhakti to another step? What is happening?
In each and every stage of spiritual development, this is what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura will explain in the eighth chapter of Mādhuryā-kādambinī, which we will never be able to reach in this seminar,
and I doubt that we will be able to reach it in this life, but maybe somebody who is lucky will be able to do it. But in any case, and therefore it's best to say something which he says there in the beginning.
He says that what is bhakti? Bhakti, we have our ego, which consists of two elements, ahaṅkāra and mamatā, I and mine. We all know the concept of I and the concept of mine. This belongs to me.
And in the material life, when we are engaged in material life, this ahaṅkāra and mamatā is completely material, 100%. All our conceptions or all our understanding of who we are are completely based on a bodily conception of life.
I am this body, I am this piece of flesh. I belong to this country, I you know, I'm a member of this family, I have such a nationality, this and that.
And mamatā, mamatā is also in terms of matter, you know, this is my achievements, this is my diplomas, this is my education, this is my family, this is my wealth, this is my bank balance, this is my dog.
This is all part of mine. This is all part of my identity in the material world. And we all have this material identity and
this is why Arjuna was so horrified when he saw the sum total of his material identity, this collective ego, all his relatives standing in front of him, and he understood that he's supposed to kill them, which was tantamount of committing suicide, and therefore he was so afraid.
Anyway, so in the beginning, we have this completely material identity. Viśvanātha Cakravartī and the path of karma more or less reinforces this material identity.
As long as we perform karma, whether it's pious karma according to Vedas or impious, sinful activities according to you know modern quote-unquote culture, Vikarma or Ugra karma, we are more or less reinforcing our material identity.
And even uh pious activities, they just uh you know create or reinforce our uh pious identity. We have this identity, I am a very religious person, and therefore I do this religious rituals. But it's all material.
Religion is a part of this material world. It's not transcendental per se. It's actually the means, normally when we say religion, it basically means to live happily in this world. This is how usually people take religion.
Dharma. By religion we mean dharma. So when you go to the path of jnāna, Viśvanātha Cakravarti Thakur says, this is the path of complete destruction of your identity, ahaṅtā and mamatā.
On the path of jnāna, you're supposed to destroy this identity altogether. No more I and mine. Not in any way or shape. You become nothing. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada called this as spiritual suicide.
You try to become nothing. Basically, that's what jnāna is. You may call this nothing as Brahman, you may call this nothing as anything else, but it's nothing. No I, no ay-ness whatsoever.
So, but on the path of bhakti you the path of bhakti is facilitating to form the spiritual identity, re-establishing or restoring our spiritual identity. Our I and mine become spiritual.
I am the servant of the Lord and the Lord is mine. In the matter, in the material consciousness, I am this matter and you know whatever part of the matter belongs to me is mine.
I am this body and the matter belongs to me. This is mine. In a spiritual consciousness, I am the servant of the Lord, and the Lord is mine.
This is the transformation which is supposed to take place when we are practicing bhakti.
And Viśvanātha Cakravarti Thakur says that what is the difference between these stages of spiritual development from śraddhā to premā. He says basically, this is the different stages of spiritualization of our ego or forming of our spiritual ego and simultaneously destruction of our material ego.
And on pasu-bhakti, our material identity is gradually being destroyed and on the part, uh, and uh at the same time our spiritual identity is being formed.
So and he says that this process starts from the very beginning when we get Shraddha, little seed, or little atom of Brahma, as we said.
Little little particle of transcendental energy of the Lord or coming in touch with this transcendental energy of the Lord in the heart of a pure devotee or a devotee.
So the little bit, little bit spiritualization, little smell, Gandha, he says, little smell of spiritual eye and mind appears. We still consider ourselves as a body, but little smell is there.
Maybe I'm not this body, maybe I have spirit soul. There is little, little, uh, doubt is there.
Uh, and gradually, gradually from sadhu-sanga, uh, to bhajana-kriya to anartha-nivritti to nishta to ruchi to asakti to bhava and to prema, the we will see that the spiritual identity will manifest more and more and more.
We will experience the more tight connection with the Lord: "Lord is mine."
We will experience the greater sense of understanding that I'm not this body, and death is actually not so difficult, it's just a change of the body. And the parallel process is the destruction of material identity.
Very interestingly, it's not exactly the same process. It's two different processes.
If we analyze how Viśvanātha Cakravartī describes this, we can see that from one side our spiritual ego grows and becoming more and more mature, and from the other side our material identity is being dissolved, but they're not 100% paralleled.
Like on the stage of nishta, we still have very strong material identity. Because there is not much spiritual experience on the stage of Nishta. It's our mostly our experience is mostly still material.
We still identify with the body. Even though we may not be so much identifying with the mind, with the matter that was destroyed before.
But we still don't have too much or too strong or too pronounced profound spiritual experience but But at the same time, the spiritual ego is somewhat formed already on the stage of niṣṭhā. So it's an interesting process.
We still have complete material identity on the stage of niṣṭhā, but at the same time already some little spiritual identity is pronounced. And then it goes on like this.
So when we're describing all these stages, we have to understand what's going on. This is the change of our ego. And this is a necessarily gradual process because we cannot really change our ego abruptly.
So I guess I stop here. I don't know if we didn't uh reach Ruchi yet, uh but we still have two more sessions.
Questions on endeavor and divine mercy
Yes. This is your servant, Pran Govinda Das Pramalachwa. Oh Pran Govindaji, Hare Krishna. Very happy to hear your voice. It must be very early in Atlanta. Yes we start at two thirty. Is it okay if I ask you a question?
Yeah I'm happy. I'm trying to I I love the elaborate explanation you have, but I'm trying to see another angle
that in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, chapter 7, text 99, that Mahāprabhu did not deliver the navadvīpa citizens, but what he did in South India, and he... Prabhupāda gave a nice purport for that: tāṅhārai prabhulitā laṅiyā vidāya karilā, tāṅre śakti sañcāriyā. prabutaya langya vidai karila tare sapti sancharya. That when a conditioned soul comes in contact with sādhana, he gets these two potencies: pleasure potency and cognition potency. And later on... uh sorry, previous chapter, in 6.160, Prabhupāda said without these two potencies nobody can escape from the material covering and attain love of God. So it seems like these two potencies are the primary focus of the whole tradition. This is one way to look at it.
Uh, and I want you to correct me. No, no, you're calling like also... uh, no, no, you continue, continue. Yeah. In Bhagavad-gītā, uh, is it okay Maharaj? Yeah yeah please continue. Okay.
And also in Bhagavad-gītā, I noticed that 11.33, it just to summarize that it looks like Krishna has the result, what he is seeking is our endeavor, what he was looking from Arjuna. Because he already revealed them, he already put them into death.
So I'm trying to put together a few other things, like Prabhupāda said that Jaṭāyu's achievement of goal was not a material estimation of success.
So instead, if we understand that Krishna wants us more than the result, this is what I understand, then we will strive diligently to offer him the result to express our devotion, which we call sādhana, as you mentioned. And even if the result doesn't work out, still our sādhana itself will please him.
He will reciprocate by revealing his all-attractiveness and thereby increasing our attraction for him, the resulting divine absorption will provide us security, satisfaction in both failure and success.
In an example of Jaṭāyu versus Arjuna, both are success.
I want your comment on it or also to understand that it's okay to think like this or actually we should focus on step by step and examine my own consciousness where I am.
See the I I don't see any contradiction between these two points of view. We have to examine where we are, uh, but at the same time uh uh irrespective of where we are we have to endeavor, and that's
the whole point of the book, because the main point of the book and these two verses of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu is to say that even though bhakti is Rasamrita Sindhu is to say that even though bhakti is causeless, still you can do something to expedite or to attract this causeless mercy. It will still be causeless.
The causeless nature of bhakti will not change, but nevertheless, you have to endeavor yourself and you have to get this.
It will come on its own accord, but why there is this why both Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and Jīva Gosvāmī says that this is the normal or usual way of getting bhakti because this is uh this is like more or less standard procedure, which doesn't give you guarantee but explains what you're supposed to do to maximize your chances to get bhakti.
So, yes, we are doing this, and from the very beginning we have to understand this self-manifested nature of bhakti, and therefore our endeavors will also be pure. We will not be causal in our endeavors from the very beginning.
And as you said, if your endeavors from the very beginning are not causal, you're just doing it just for the pleasure of the Lord. Not because you expect something in between in exchange, not because even you want bhakti.
You're just doing it because you want the Lord to be pleased.
If you understand this the nature of bhakti, you from the very beginning you will have the proper approach to sadhana. And this proper approach to sadhana will make your progress in bhakti very quick. So we have to endeavor and we have to be happy.
It's interesting. Thank you for saying this. I will I will say few more things about the nature of Shraddha. You know, when we reach the level of Bhava,
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that on the level of bhāva, citta- mās-ṭanya, our heart becomes completely softened. And Jīva Gosvāmī, of course, explains that what is this softening of the heart? Ruci-bīja.
It's softened in the heart by many different routes, by many different tastes. So Jīva Gosvāmī explains what the tastes which are there on the level of bhakti.
And he says it's basically three desires which the person on the level of bhakti develops or on the level of bhāva develops the desire for the happiness of the Lord, desire to understand what Lord wants from you and to be close to the Lord and experience of the happiness of the Lord by your endeavors.
So that's the fully developed stage of, uh, of bhakti when these three desires become very prominent and there's no other desires. I only want Lord's happiness. This is what I want.
I only want to do something which will be pleasing to the Lord. And I only want to experience to see His happiness. So, like it's not something which we can relate to.
Like if we love somebody, let's say it's our spiritual master, and we really sincerely love him. What does it mean? It means that you know we want him to be happy.
We want to understand which our you know what we do, what we should do to make him happy, what brings him happiness, and we want to see he's smiling, he's happy. We really want to see that he's happy with us, and he says, Oh, yeah, I'm so pleased with what you're doing.
So, why I'm saying this because in Shraddha, these desires are already there in a very minute form.
When we develop faith, faith means real faith, not some magic faith, not conventional faith. But the real faith means that we already know or understand that from the very beginning I have to endeavor to make the Lord happy. I have to try to figure out what makes him happy. And I have little experience that I'm doing something, and he becomes happy, and I feel happiness myself.
This is exactly what you said: so, the same desires in very If the seeds of devotional service is proper, if the seed is not proper,
If the seed of devotional service is proper, if the seed is not proper, if I still want or hanker to achieve something from bhakti, my own satisfaction, my fame, name, glory, this and that, then I'm not even on the first stage of bhakti.
So I don't see any contradiction. You have to understand very clearly what's going on on every stage of spiritual development to make sure that you're doing something properly.
And at the same time, you also, you know be happy with doing what you can do on this stage. You cannot jump over your head, just do whatever you can and be happy with this
and try to do it as purely as possible, you know, applying all your heart with it and Krishna will surely notice it. So I don't know if I understood you properly, but this is what I kind of heard in your question.
I don't know if I replied to it, but, uh, there is no contradiction in my opinion. I appreciate your um beautiful explanation. You have a very good understanding. I really, really appreciate.
I hope I take advantage of your mercy. Thank you, Maharaj. Thank you. Thank you, Maharaj. On behalf of Wisconsin National Ministry, we would like to thank you for your time and, uh, giving us insight.
Looking forward for your association more. Thank you so much, Maharaj. Yes, Hare Krishna. Thank you. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna. Thank you so much. Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!