Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Govardhan · 2025
Chapters
Introduction and opening prayers
Swasyastudiswasya Kalahva Sidatam Dayanta Butani Shivamithodiat Manaschabadram Vajatata Doksaja Havesatamakir Adyaha Aradya Bhagavan Vraje Satanayastamu vrindavanam Ramya ka chitupasana
Vrajavadu Vargaya Kalpitam, Sri Mad Bhagavatam Pramanamalam Premapumartamahan, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Matamidam Tatradarana Para. Okay.
So we are studying Madurika Dandini, beautiful book written by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami to explain to us the intricacies of the pass of bhakti and the dynamic of this pass.
It's a very practical book because it teaches us practical hints of how to apply the methodology of bhakti in our life.
So we'll first chant pranam mantra to Vishwanatha Chakravarti Thakura. This pranam mantra was written by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thakura Prabhupada himself.
Bhaktivartma pradarsanat, bhakti-vartma pradarsanat, bhakti-cakre vartivat, varti-sakhri va, cakravarti, akhyaya pape, yakhavat, so
in this pranam mantra, Śrīla Bhakti- siddhānta Sarasvatī is explaining the title of Viswanatha Chakravarti Thakurs. His uh initiated name was different, Harivallabha, but uh he is widely known as Visvanatha Chakravarti.
Chakravarti means Emperor. And he is Viswanatha Chakravarti, the emperor of the whole world. He is the uh Viswanatha, the lord of Vishwa, of this universe.
So Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thakura explains the meaning of this title and he says, Visvasyanatha rupa so shall I click here? Yes. Uh Visvasyanatha rupa. So, uh he is okay. Yes.
Because he is the protector of Bhakti Vartma. Because he's showing Bhakti Vartma, the path of Bhakti, Bhaktivartma Pradarsanat.
Therefore he is Visvasyanatha, he is the Lord of the whole world because the whole world is created for the sole purpose of showing or of finding the path of bhakti.
And bhakti-cakri-vartita-dhvatan, because he is sitting among Bhaktas in the uh association of the bhaktas bhakti chakri. So uh uh he is known as Chakravarti.
He's Vishwanata because he is showing the Pasav Bhakti and because he is always surrounded by uh bhaktas, he is called Chakravarti.
Unrestricted mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
That's his Mangalacharana and then let's chant
this very important verse mangalacharana to the whole book Sridva Preynava Bhaktis Sandivanis bagama, ramve Taparto dabadama, vishwa sini, dura me marushaki noti sarasi, Baba Prabhu, Srianyakripani, Madurya Padampini, Sriakaniram So
this is a very beautiful and very important poetical and at the same time philosophical verse, which has a lot of meaning. The metaphor which is given here, Sri Chaitanya, Kripa Nirankusha Mahamadhuria Kadambini.
So this unrestricted nirankusha, totally unrestricted, totally self-willed mercy Kripani Rankusha of Sri Chaitanya is compared here with Madhury Akadambini, with the cloud bank of mercy. Cloud bank of Madhuria.
So the meaning here, Mahamadhuria, Kadandhini.
So the mercy of Lord Chaitanya is totally unrestricted. Nobody can restrict, as much as nobody can restrict monsoon clouds from pouring down the rain, nobody can restrict the mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
Nobody can say you can give mercy to all the Bharatiyas, but not to the foreigners. Nobody can say that you can give mercy to Brahmanas and not to Shudras. It's Nirankusha.
It doesn't know any restrictions or any limitations and it's uh in a form of Madhury Kadambini, uh the uh clouds of Madhuryya, because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the only one, the only one who described supreme truths, Param Brahma, Param Tattva, Brahman, as concentrated form of Madhuryya.
There were many Vaishnavas before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who were describing the Supreme Personality of Godhead and his personal aspect in different features, in different beautiful qualities which Krishna has, but nobody made such an important stress that ultimately Lord is sweetness personified.
Madhurya-bhagavan, that's the words of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The essence of God is mādhurya. Not His aiśvarya, not His ruling power, not His ability
to restrict sinful people and treat saintly people. Nothing else, only mādhurya. In essence, in the very essence of his personality, he is sweet. He is amazingly sweet.
And this rain of mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is revealing this essence of God hidden before. It's there in the Vedas. In uh Rigveda, I believe, there is a beautiful uh hymn uh which uh explains the uh mādhurya.
It is said madhu madhu madhu madhu, we worship this madhu, everything is madhu, the cows are madhu and rivers are overflowing with madhu, everything is honey, honey, honey. So it's there.
In every scripture there is this understanding that ultimately the essence of the Lord
is sweet, but the whole world was waiting for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to come and to say that everything else is non-essential. The only essential point is that he is sweet.
Because in any other tradition, spiritual tradition, the sweetness is there, but it's hidden, it's basically overshadowed by all other descriptions of God, of His Majesty, of His power, of His whatever it is.
Three effects of divine mercy
So this unrestricted mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is pouring down as the rain, and this rain has basically three effects. Three very important effects. According to the intensity of the rain.
Sometimes we know you know the rain starts very slowly, then it becomes really intense, then it again becomes little slow monsoon rain. So the monsoon rain, it's monsoon rain, but it can be of different intensity.
And in the beginning, when this rain of mercy of Lord Caitanya, it's like... It's just showing somewhat. It is said: kṛtvā premā-nanda-bhakti-sārajitāṃ sañjīvanī-svāgamaiḥ. sāñjīvanī svāgamaiḥ. rambhai.
From the very beginning, svāgama-rambhai, it it gives life, sañjīvanī, to the crops which are growing in the field of our heart. Kṛtvā premā. It's a very important metaphor when the heart is compared with the field.
Because what is our heart? Heart is the place where we collect all kinds of impressions of this world.
And this impression, some saṁskāras which we collect constantly by looking here and there, by hearing something, you know, we always want to get the seeds of new saṁskāras of new impressions within our heart.
And then sooner or later, some of these seeds they don't give any crop. But some of these seeds which were very eager to sow in the soil hard will give a lot of crop. We see some for example, Ajāmila's life.
He saw this: he had this very powerful, emotionally disturbing image of a śūdra embracing a prostitute. And this one seed completely changed the course of his life.
It gave so much crop, so much result that the whole life was completely changed.
So, but he says, navā-bhakti-sasyāviṭa-sañjīvanī. Hṛdi-praveśe when this rain of Lord Chaitanya's mercy is coming and it touches the soil of our heart.
Then it gives navā-bhakti-sasyāviṭa-sañjīvani, new crop of navā-bhakti. Navā-bhakti means ninefold bhakti.
The new impressions or the new, yeah, emotions which are caused by navā-vidhā bhakti starts growing on the soil of our heart. So, and navā means two meanings. Navā means new and nava means nine.
So, navā-bhakti-sasya means ninefold bhakti and navā-bhakti sasya. Sasya means the good seeds, the, uh, how you call this, the, um, anyway, the uh, like rice or, yeah, rice or wheat. So now
bhakti-sasya, it's, it's extremely interesting and deep, uh, analogy, uh, because, because usually you can practice bhakti when you already have some bhakti-saṁskāras. In a normal case scenario, you can only practice bhakti in an intense way if you previously were engaged in some
sort of bhakti or it may be ajñāta-sukṛti bhakti, whatever. So it's very difficult to start bhakti from the scratch. But Lord Chaitanya, he doesn't care. Whether it's difficult or not, he's not only pouring the rain, he's
also pouring the seeds of bhakti. So it's basically that's, uh, the meaning of nava as new. You're completely new to bhakti. Like approximately half of this audience are people who are completely new to Bhakti.
They're from this western hemisphere and they don't know anything about Bhakti, nava bhakti. But Lord Chaitanya Mercy is so unrestricted, he's not only pulling the rain but also the seeds at the same time.
So the seeds are falling down on the field of our heart, and they give a lot of crop ultimately. And basically, it means this is something which we can relate.
From the very beginning, he is not without a reason stresses this point. Sva Agama Arambi. Sva Agama Arambi. From the very beginning, you already get very fresh and enjoyable saṁskāras of bhakti.
No matter who you are, you feel very much refreshed because you get the new impressions. Everything is new.
Maybe for those people who were born in Bharat, uh many of the things are not new, but still Lord Chaitanya movement has this amazing ability to impress people. People hear kīrtana and they're immediately impressed.
Even uh even uh Gopīnāthācārya uh was totally impressed when he saw uh saṅkīrtana of Lord Chaitanya and he said, what is this? What the heck it is? No, it was not. Sorry, it was Pratāparudra Mahārāja.
Pratāparudra Mahārāja is looking at this procession of people who are just you know swaying and singing Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And
he is asking uh Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya what is going on? I've never seen this. I've never seen this beautiful scene. So beautifully, people are worshiping God.
He has seen so many different forms of upāsanā, of uh Lord Jagannātha's worship, but he has never seen this. And therefore he says, we from the very beginning we get new impressions which change the course of our life.
So many people told me in Russia, one lady she was especially graphic about this. She said, I was sitting in my apartment on the tenth floor of an apartment building.
And somewhere down there there was Harinam Party. And I heard the sound of Harinam. And all of a sudden, without any understanding what am I doing, I ran down the stairs.
In the meantime, the saṅkīrtana party was already far away, and I started running behind this, and I was totally mesmerized by this sound.
And ultimately, you know, I came with them to the temple, I ate prasāda and I started chanting 16 rounds every day. This is how it happens.
This is exactly what uh Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is explaining here. Riddva preenava bhakti sasya vita tek sanjivani swa gama ramve.
So that's what happened in the beginning, you get a completely new experience. And this new experience which you get of this practicing
of bhakti of kīrtana or of śravaṇaṁ or whatever it is changes the course of your life and ultimately gives a very good crop and a good result within from the field of your heart.
And then he says when the rain becomes more intense, in the beginning it only gives some new positive impressions. But when the rain, and we know sometimes the monsoon rain starts slowly but then it becomes really intense.
So he says, Kamatapart to Dhaha Dhamani. It starts controlling Dhamani and ultimately completely extinguishing Kamatapart Daha, the fire Daha, which is burning within our heart of different desires.
and uh it's top uh it's very hot. The desires which we have the passions which we have within our heart they're very hot therefore, uh hell is a very hot place. Hell is the place where we naturally get because of so many desires, and that's the heat of the desires.
In every tradition it is explained that this is the you know hot place is the hell and uh and uh in uh Vedic tradition it is said that the hell is somewhere in the south direction. So it's somewhere towards this hot place. And but basically that's the heat of the desires.
So the next result, and sometimes we can see that this is a big forest fire or whatever some heat. But the next result, the if rain is very strong, then this uh fire, which is also very strong, subsides gradually gradually subsides until it completely extinguishes.
So that's the next result which we can also relate to. The first result, we see something, we get new impressions, we get very new kind of experience by coming in contact
with Lord Chaitanya and understanding that God whom I am supposed to fear should not be feared of. He should be instead of being feared, he should be tasted. It's a completely different relationship with God. He is the object of taste, Rasovai Saha.
But the next result is that I can feel that the fire which is burning quite strongly within my heart becomes less and less and less.
It may not be completely extinguished because the reign of Lord Chaitanya's mercy is not really pouring down, so sometimes we may put some little covering over the nice fire of our desires so that the rain of Lord Chaitanya's mercy would not extinguish it completely.
Sometimes we are very protective of it. Let it burn there, no problem. But we also can feel that it goes down. It definitely goes down.
And this is exactly and therefore he says then this Madhurya Kadambini, the rain of Lord Chaitanya's sweetness, sweet conceptions, controls to a certain extent this fire which is burning within our heart.
And then he says, viśva-plāva-vilāsinī. Viśva-plāva-vilāsinī, this is the third extent Of Lord Chaitanya's mercy.
We know when the rain is pouring, then it can extinguish all the fire which is there in the jungles, but it can also do when the rain is really heavy then all the rivers become overflowing. Sometimes there is a flood.
Like a few years back, there was this huge flood in Himalayas and Ganges completely rose up nine meters high. Huge, huge. So that's what he says.
viśva, all the rivers of this world, the fastly running rivers of this world, vilāsinī, they become overflowed with nectar.
And it basically means that's the third stage of spiritual development when we are completely washed away. Our little tiny soul is washed away by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
And the rivers are flowing towards what? Towards the ocean. And irresistibly, if the current of the river is so strong because of this overflood, then we will be washed away to the ocean of the spiritual world.
We don't have to do anything. The mercy is so strong it will just take us and uh even if we resist the mercy will say no problem. You know, just shut up. I'm taking you to the place where you need.
Like there is this beautiful story about Śrīla Prabhupāda.
There was one hippie girl who came to she was seeking for a guru to find God and ultimately somebody told her you just go, it was in San Francisco, you go to this temple, the Swamiji is there, maybe he's the one who is whom you're looking for.
And she came and Prabhupada was busy, and Prabhupada said, please wait, I have to do something. And Prabhupada was sitting with Garga Muni.
And Garga Muni, his nickname in thiscon was Gargamani. Because he was the first treasurer and he was he's really good with money. And he even calls his uh memories of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Gargamani.
So, and they're sitting and Śrīla Prabhupāda is checking his books. You know, two cents for this and one dollar for this and what is this, why is such a big expense?
And she's sitting there, she's a seeker, she's a hippie, and here is the guru and he is uh you know just uh counting pences and dollars and speaking about this and asking why so much expense, what are you doing?
And ultimately she's she's becoming angry and angry and angry and more angry inside. And ultimately she just got up, raised her hands and started shouting.
I came here to find love! Prabhupāda looks at her very calmly and says, sit down, you came to a proper place. Don't worry. Just sit here quietly.
So basically just sit down, don't worry, you will be taken to the proper place by Lord Chaitanya's mercy. Whatever is there.
But Lord Caitanya's mercy is so powerful and that's the point that uh when uh it really starts pouring, It takes you more or less automatically to the final destination of the spiritual world.
And then he says, Duran me marushakhi no, Pisarasib havaya Buya, Prabhu, Śrī Caitanya-kṛpā-kaṭākṣa. So but he said what I am I am a lonely dry tree, which is uh growing in the desert. And I'm very far away from this downpour of mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
Durang me Marusak Kinoabi I'm this dry tree which is growing in the desert and very far away from this.
Still give me just a few drops of your mercy so that I would become again alive so that uh the life would uh come back to me.
So He expresses the natural humility which we all should have to achieve the mercy of Lord Caitanya. The mercy of Lord Caitanya is there, it's totally nīrāṅkuśa, but we need to be humble to achieve this mercy.
Rupa Goswami and bhakti as rasa
And in this very verse, he explains the stages of bhakti. The three major stages of bhakti.
So, and then the second verse, uh second mangalacharana of this, bhakti Purva Sritatam Tu, Rasampa Shetya Dattadh, Tamnomi Satatam Rupa Nama Priyajanamare. So it's also very interesting.
After explaining the title of this book, Madhurya Kadamvini, and explaining the effects of Lord Chaitanya's mercy, he says he prays to Srila Rupa Goswami, who actually revealed this conception of Lord Chaitanya.
He says, Bhaktihpurvaih Sridatam too. There were many people before who were taking shelter of the devotional service.
Many, many people who were practicing devotional service, we should not be fanatics, we shouldn't say that nobody is practicing devotional service, only I am trying to do this, everyone else is useless.
It says bhaktipurvay Sri Tatamtu, even though Tamtu there were many people who were practicing bhakti. Rasaṁpāśyādyaṁ tatāṁtaṁ naumi satataṁ rūpa-nāma-priya- janaṁ harer.
He says, even though there were many people who were practicing this, uh The one who gave us the intelligence to see Bhakti as Rasa was Srila Rūpa Gosvāmī. Yadatta gave this intelligence which helps us to see bhakti not as a ritual.
Like in Śrī Sampradāya, they have this difference between bhakti, upāsanā and Saranagati and what we call Bhakti they call Saranagati.
But still, the understanding of Bhakti, the prevalent understanding of Bhakti before that, or if you take even Madhva Sampradaya, how they approach to Bhakti. What is Bhakti? Bhakti is a ritual. It's a ritual of worship.
It's a certain relationship, it's a certain procedure by which we enter into relationship with God. Certain methodologies, certain tantra by which we can enter into relationship with God.
But what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did, he just explained, he gave us the intelligence which helps us to see Bhakti is rasa. Bhakti is not ritual, bhakti is rasa, bhakti is taste from the very beginning.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare. In other words, Bhakti from the very beginning
It's not just ritualistic procedure, uh more or less mechanical procedure, but it uh it's uh it's from beginning to end. It's rasa in a very high stage but even in the very beginning
we feel little shadow of rasa and therefore taṁ naumi satataṁ rūpa-nāma-priya-janāṁ hariḥ. I'm always paying obeisances again and again and again to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī who is very dear to the Lord, rūpa-nāma hareḥ priya, he is hare-priya, he is very the person who is very dear to Lord Hari or to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
So that's the very important thing.
In other words, what he wants to say by this maṅgalācaraṇa by indicating bhakti-bīja and indicating the subject matter of this book, I will explain to you how bhakti develops within the heart by the mercy of
Lord Caitanya, if somebody is following the path of Lord Caitanya. How the gradual development of bhakti takes place in our heart and how ultimately it brings us to the final destination of rasa.
How from the very beginning this downpour of sweetness of the Lord gives us new experience. And that's another very important point to understand about Lord Caitanya's pastimes. It's all based on our experience.
We should not be satisfied with just some kind of theoretical knowledge. It's the path of practical realization of all these truths which we are entitled to understand in our own experience.
So uh yeah, I I was supposed to very briefly explain what I explained to go, but I was carried away by the river of Lord's lotus feet. After one hour we're still uh trying to understand maṅgalācaraṇa.
But in any case, let's go a little further, whatever our madness will allow us to proceed to.
Gradual stages of devotional development
And so this whole book is the explanation of two verses from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Let's chant them together.
Pados Rada Tata Sangota Bajanakriya, Tonartanivrit, Tatonistau chistaha, Asaktisatowstata prema Buyabnia, Dancha ti sadakana yam prema, pradub prava.
So in this verses Srila Rupa Swami is very clear what he's explaining. He says, Sadakhanam Ayam Preemnach Pradurbhavebhaved Kramaha. How gradually Kramaha the prahma is manifesting within the heart of sadhakas.
So from the from the seminal verses, there
is already paradox which is pointed out by Rupa Goswami. Because sadhana usually is a systematic practice to produce something. Sadhya literally means something which is being produced by sadhana.
Like for example, you know, if we are cooking something, if we are cooking samosas. There is certain sadhana, and then samosas will be uh will become the sadhya, the result of the sadhana.
We don't say that you know we're doing some samosa sadhana and then samosas manifest themselves. No, they're logical result of particular procedure. But in case of bhakti, it's not like this.
In case of bhakti, bhakti prādurbhāva. Prādurbhāva means it will just manifest, prema will just manifest at one point.
But still for prema to manifest we should do sadhana, but we should not mistake this sadhana as the cause of prema. So that's very important and paradoxical in one sense, but we will explain it a little later.
So that's uh and he says this is the gradual stages of manifestation of prema. Another very important point here is that even Shraddha is a manifestation of prema.
It's a very tiny atomic fraction of prema, but still it's prema.
Like in the seed, in a very compressed form there is all the genes which are necessary to manifest the whole tree in the same way, if śraddhā is proper, then prema is already there. It's a little tiny fraction.
You may not feel so much taste when you have Shraddha. Even though even seed quite tasty. But it's it's very small. But uh that's another very important point here.
Nature of sadhana and eternal prema
And I will tell a little bit about this point how prema manifests, why we should not call it sadhya.
This is the definition of Rupa Goswami sadhana from bhaktira samlita simple, let's chant it together. Kriti Sadya Bale Sadhya Bhava sa sadhana dida nitya sidasya bhavasya Prahatya Riti Sadhyatam.
So again, he he more explicitly, Silvarupa Gaswami more explicitly explains this this in verse where he says
that yes we do some sadhana and the definition of sadhana is that we're doing it by our senses, Kriti Sadhya Bhavet Sadhya Bhala.
And if we have this sadya bhava, if we understand that ultimately it should bring us to the level of bhava, and we are performing this sadhana with very clear intention of achieving the stage of bhava, then it is called sudden.
And only then. If the goal of our endeavors is not established, then ultimately it will become a mechanical ritual.
So Kriti Sadhya, because we're doing it with the senses, with the hands, with the ears, with the tongue, you know it uh if it does not enliven by the connection with the ultimate goal, uh it will become mechanical.
I've been, I don't know about you, but I've been in many lectures where you just want to come to the lecturer and try to wake him up because he's just mechanically repeating something uh because it is it is our ritual to say something.
And to quote some verses, you know you just don't come on, what are you doing? This is not a ritual. This is bhakti. This is something which we are supposed to do to achieve bhava.
And uh from the very beginning, it has to be uh somewhat saturated with bhava or at least with eagerness to achieve this goal.
Therefore he says, Kriti Sadya Bhaved Sadhya Bhava Sasadana Bidah, this is the definition of bhava. Sadhana Abheda, oh sorry, not Bhava, but Sadhana, the dictionary definition, sadhana abhida.
But immediately after that he said, nitya sidasya bhava syaprakatyam kidhi sadhyata.
So this nitya siddhasya, the eternally existing bhava, because of this, not because of this sadhana, but in connection with this sadhana, it prakatyam, it manifests in the heart.
And it's a very important point to understand from the beginning because everything which is created, if something is the product of creation, is created by some process, by some sadhana, what will happen with something which is created?
You know whatever is whatever appears at one point uh it will be disappearing in another point after some time. So if prema is like this, what is the use of achieving prema?
Okay, I'll work hard, I achieve prema, and then you know at one point it will be destroyed. So what's the point? You know, I can in the same way strive to achieve some material happiness and again it will be destroyed.
So, no, prema is not like this, it's nitya-siddha. It's eternally existing. And therefore, it cannot be created. It cannot be the result of sadhana.
So what what's the then what are we doing? If it's not the result of sadhana, so what what what are we doing here?
So if it's supposed to be given then we should just wait when it will be given and in the meantime we just have fun uh by going to cinema and you know anyway Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Kripani Radus doesn't have any restricting power so w what is this?
But no, uh it's very important and uh of course Krishna Daskaraj Goswami while uh translating this verse into simple
Bengali, he says, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema. Kṛṣṇa-prema is nitya-siddha. Eternally existing. Sādhya kabunai, it's never sādhya. It's never something created or conquered śravaṇādi-seve.
So even though these two verbs sādhana and sādhya they coming from the verbal root sad, sādH saṁsiddhau. Basically, samsidha means to finish, to accomplish, to perfect, to achieve the goal.
And therefore, sādhana is the means to achieve sādhya the goal, uh but uh here is a very special, kṛṣṇa-prema is not sādhya, uh but bhakti is sādhana. i it basically means and the example is uh can be given here. Yeah.
The example is given here. If a child is drowning and he's uh he's crying, help me, help me, can we say that his cries is the cause of his and somebody saves him.
Can we say that his helpless cries the cause of his salvation. Yeah if if he only cries and nobody is there, he may cry whatever he likes. It's not really the cause. But still it's connected with the cause.
Still it's it's uh it's very important to cry. Uh, it's because our sādhana is crying sādhana. And it's very important to cry loudly too. But ultimately the cause is different. The cause is the mercy of the Lord.
That's the real cause. Only if somebody hears this cries and believes that this is a sincere cry, then he can come to rescue us.
So that's that's the point here is that there is sadhana, but this sadhana is a special kind of sadhana, which Which does not necessarily give us the guaranteed result of sadhya, but still increases our chances to get the mercy of the Lord and in this way to receive real bhakti.
So that's that's what it is. And therefore Sri Lajiva Gaswami commenting on this two verses of Bhakti Rasamlita Sindhu, he says that uh this is a particular gradual stage which generally happens.
He says there are different ways for Bramma to appear in the heart. Because Prama is totally completely self-willing, it can appear in anyone's heart. It appeared in the heart of Putana.
She was also crying quite loudly when Krishna was playing with her. But she didn't go from Shraddha to Sadhu Sangha to She didn't undergo this cumbersome process.
So the idea here is that yeah, there are many different ways of prema to manifest with our heart because ultimately it's a manifestation. So you cannot really say you can manifest in this way but should not manifest in that way.
But Siladiv Gaswami explains that this is the stages which are described here by Srila Rupa Gaswami, the general way of manifestation, gradual manifestation of prama. So that's a very important point which we have to understand from the very beginning.
Spiritualization of the material ego
And Vishwanachakravati Thakur, at the end of this book, I'm just afraid that if we every year we will have this retreat on Maduri Kadambini, then by the eighth year when we will supposed to uh discuss the eighth shower of mercy nobody will be here because everyone will be already at work so therefore I'm including some material from the last chapter into this presentation
This is how it works so if we uh in the last chapter of this book, uh Viswanachakravati Thakur he explains what is happening during this gradual process. He explains this that ultimately the process which is taking place in our heart during Bhakti Sadhana is the process of gradual spiritualization of our ego.
Now we have material ego, material concept of I and mind. Very firmly established concept. This is I, this is me, and this is mine, this belongs to me. We all have this rigid kind of understanding and it's very sensitive.
If somebody tries to question our understanding of us, which we want to project, it's usually very painful and the reaction is very extreme.
If somebody's uh if you think that that you're very intelligent and somebody says and uh comes to you and says you're fool, naturally you will have to say a few uh kind words to this person that he is wrong.
That he's he's somewhat mistaken. So the idea here is that we do have our material ego and material ego is pretty firm. It's established very firmly within our heart. And we are on guard. Our material ego is very vigilant.
It's always guarding what is mine and what is me, what is I, against the onslaughts, against the attacks from outside. But the process of bhakti is gradually, gradually changing this material ego into spiritual ego.
He says that there are three kinds of ego. There is material ego, which basically means the conception of I am what I am in terms of matter.
I have this qualification and that qualification, I have this diploma and that diploma and this achievement, that achievement.
This is the material ego in terms of our material qualifications, material possessions and everything else. And that's the cause of bondage.
So when we try to dissolve our ego completely, I am not this, neti neti neti, or Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am just undefinable spirit.
I have nothing to do with this matter which is full of designations, I am the spirit without any designations. Just vague spirit.
Then this is pure spiritual ego which is achieved by the process of jñāna and which uh Śrīla Prabhupāda says is a spiritual suicide. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa he he gives a very interesting uh argument explaining the futility of jñāna. He says usually we do something to achieve result and the result which we want to achieve is eradication of suffering or the increase of our enjoyment. That's the two reasons why we're doing something.
You agree with me? It's basically the two the two motivating factors which impel us to act. And he says, you do some jñāna to practice of jñāna, to get rid of sufferings and to increase your enjoyment.
But at the end your ego is dissolved. And because your ego is dissolved, there is nobody to taste the result of your endeavors. Who is not suffering? Nobody. Who is achieving the spiritual happiness? Nobody is there.
So he says it's a completely useless practice. It's the practice which has no sense whatsoever.
So therefore, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa was the one of our ācāryas who was always insisting that this ego remains, but it's a different kind of ego.
And our individuality remains, it's it's undestroyable because it's our eternal nature. But when it is spiritualized then in the process of bhakti.
Then the idea here, then you develop the idea as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains here.
I belong to the Lord as his servant, and he, the personality of Godhead, the vast ocean of beauty, excellence and sweetness is the master. I must serve along with his associates. Then there is pure love.
So that's the stages which are listed before, the gradual stages of manifestation of this ego, when it becomes very firmly established within the heart. And the beginning is just very vague, shadowy conception.
Yes, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa. Yes, yes, yes. I am Krishna nitya-dāsa, no problem. I already passed Bhakti-sārvabhauma exam. But it's not yet ego. It's just the initial stage of developing of spiritual ego.
Because ego is the directing force, ego is actually all pervading in a sense. It pervades all our actions, all our words, and all our thoughts.
When this spiritual conception is very firmly established, then we cannot act differently.
Like, you know, people who have very strong material ego, they, they only can act in a certain way. They cannot act differently. Because their ego is so strong. You know, look at, uh, Mr. Trump.
Can he act differently? No way.
And, you know, somebody says he's very unpredictable and others say no, he's totally predictable, cause he has a very strong conception of who I am and you can really predict how he is supposed to act.
It's just a very vivid example, but actually it's true for everyone else. He is not an exception. He is just a very vivid example of this.
So when we have a very strong conception, We act in a certain way, we think in a certain way, we speak in a certain way. Sometimes we pretend, but, you know, but ultimately it's a pretension.
And in the same way, when we have a very strongly fully formed spiritual ego, then we will always act in a spiritual way. We will always serve.
We will always speak in a certain way, not differently. And we will always think in a certain way.
So that's, that's the idea here is that our way to establish us and to achieve goal is to firmly establish our spiritual ego.
Six essential qualities of bhakti
Yeah.
And therefore, in the first shower, in the first chapter of Mādhurya Kādambinī by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, this whole, the idea of the whole, the essence of the whole first chapter of Mādhurya Kādambinī is to impress upon us that even though there is a process of sādhana, but ultimately the desired result has to come by the mercy of the Lord.
So the whole point of this first chapter it says the blissful Lord descends to human perception of the ear, eye, mind and intellect not by any material cause, but simply by his own independent will.
Just as by his own will he appeared in the material world as Kṛṣṇa in the Yadu dynasty or Rāma in the Raghu dynasty.
Similarly, the non-different energy of devotional service bhakti, in keeping with its self-manifesting nature, is not dependent on any material cause.
So that's the first point which has to be very firmly established in our heart. Bhakti is there, but Bhakti is the own energy of the Lord and it descends or manifests within our heart
and our endeavors instrumental for this but not really the not the real cause of it. They just prepare our heart to receive this bhakti. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very beautifully explains this. Very important.
So it basically means that in the beginning we are not really practicing bhakti. It's a bad news uh of course we call our Bhaktas Bhakta program and you know Bhakta is somebody in a just low grade devotee.
First of all, they're not bhaktas. Second, they're not low grade because we are low grade. So, but the point here, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains, it's important.
It's important for the proper development of our spiritual ego, not to be inflated in the very beginning. And is uh he explains that uh This program always edits something.
Instead of bhāva it's brava, instead of bhakti, this is actually the illustration of being overintelligent. Sometimes a disciple is over intelligent. He's trying to to correct. So this is the same stuff.
Anyway, only from the stage of bhāva it becomes spontaneous. So uh so the the idea here is that till the stage of bhāva we have to apply conscious endeavors.
And therefore, whatever experience we have, it's not exactly experience of bhakti but it's a shadow of bhakti. Bhakty-ābhāsa, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains.
So Bhakti is the spontaneous energy of the Lord which acts within our heart and manifests in a certain way, and we become the servant of this energy, really manifest this energy through our actions, through our words, and through our thoughts.
But before that, we have this difficult period when bhāva is not yet there and sadhana basically means that we are trying to act as if bhāva is there. That's what bhakti-sādhana is.
We're chanting the holy name, we're listening about Krishna, trying to understand what it is. And trying to get some pleasurable experience of this and not without success, but uh basically it's not real
bhakti because bhakti is that when this energy fully manifests within the heart. So therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says in that condition when the bhakti is just bhakti-ābhāsa, bhakti is hard to attain.
It's a bad news again. I'm sorry for being the bearer of bad news today.
Because Śrīla Prabhupāda says bhakti is so easy, bhakti is so easy, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says. In that condition when we're not really practicing bhakti but bhakti-ābhāsa by imitating sādhana, bhakti is hard to attain.
But when pure bhakti arises during sādhana, the action of bhakti takes on beauty. It becomes very beautiful, it becomes very spontaneous, it becomes very easy and enjoyable.
So there is this period where we have to consciously apply our endeavors to realize this ideal of beautiful spontaneous bhakti. So it's uh it will become easier when you achieve āsakti, it's already uh not bad.
So just tolerate till āsakti, it's you know it's close by, no problem. So the conclusion of this, and basically that's the essence of the first chapter, which I will not go into details, that's the conclusion of the
first chapter of Mādhurya-kādambinī, where Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura summarizes the nature of bhakti. What is bhakti? Bhakti is called mahā-śakti because it has all the characteristics of the Lord Himself.
That's what he showed in the first shower that Bhakti is as independent as the Lord Himself, as beautiful as the Lord Himself, and as self-willing as the Lord Himself. No difference.
It's mahā-śakti, it's His great energy because it's potent similar with the Lord. And basically, what is this characteristics? What is bhakti?
Bhakti is that specific energy or specific power of the Lord by which He reveals Himself in His full splendor to others. So, what is bhakti?
Bhakti is the potency of the Lord which reveals Himself, which is revealing him completely. And therefore it is said Premandjana Churiti Bhaktivanena Santa Sadayava
Hridayeshavilokayanti Yamsya Masundara Machin You can only see Shyamasundara, the beautiful Lord, which is the of the color of monsoon cloud.
We saw his achintyaguna, with all his inconceivable potencies and qualities by bhakti. It gives you the reason to see because that's that's the function of bhakti.
The function of bhakti is to reveal the Lord in his full splendor, in his beauty. And here he He mentions six qualities of bhakti of this Mahashakti. First is Sarva Vyapakatvam, all-pervading,
or basically all-pervading means universally accessible. Bhakti is universal.
It's accessible to anyone. There's no discrimination, no gender discrimination, not even human being species discrimination, even dogs like Śrīla Prabhupāda's, even dog can achieve one. Even dogs can do something.
There are some uh videos on internet how the dog is trying to chant Hare Krishna and the how cats are practicing bhakti. So no problem.
Just to show us example they are showing that how bhakti is all pervading sarvavyapakatvam it's achievable it's uh it's accessible to everyone and the next one uh sarva vashik karitvam.
Basically means Sarvavashikaritvam means that everyone obeys to Bhakti. Everyone when when When we encounter Bhakti, when we come in touch with Bhakti we really
very happily obey its order and therefore the translation of it, it's all-attractive. It basically, everyone is just attracted to it and ready to accept its prominence or its dominance over us or something like this.
Sarva Vashikaritva. Even Krishna becomes completely obedient to bhakti. When bhakti comes, Krishna bows down his head and says, I am your obedient servant.
Dehi Padapallava Udaram. He says, please place your lotus feet on my head.
Like the other day we were in uh uh uh uh in months are over the beautiful lake on the other side of Yamuna, and there is a Prachina Mandir there, and this Prachina Mandir there worshiping
the picture, the chitra, where Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is sitting under the tree in her man, and Krishna is in front of her bowing down to her and saying, Put your lotus feet on my head. So that's that's the power of Bhakti.
Sarva Vashikaritva. All attractive. It attracts everyone and everyone becomes obedient servant of it. Sarvat Sanjivakatvam, it basically means that Bhakti gives life. It's giving life to any other processes.
If you do something with bhakti, it has life. If you do something without bhakti, it has no life. Even kirtan, if you do kirtan without bhakti, there is no life.
What to speak about karma, jñāna, yoga. Yoga only becomes uh enlivening if there is bhakti. Some element of bhakti has to be there, some element, some tiny fraction of bhakti.
And therefore we can see that like for example Buddhist tradition. Buddhist tradition is what? it's jñāna, right? It's it's kind of version of jñāna. But what did they do?
You know, you you go to any Buddhist monastery or temple. We went the other day to Bodh Gaya. And so what they doing, they're just chanting Hare Krishna, not Hare Krishna, something else, whatever.
They're still chanting, they're still sitting there and hardly anyone is doing just jñāna. Nobody is there, just you know either they're going to Lord Buddha with folded hands and worship him.
So basically Sarvasandjiva Katvam the process become alive when there is bhakti. Sarvaudkarsha it's supersedes everything, it's super excellent. Sarvaudkarsa. Nothing is.
When the real bhakti is coming to our heart, it's the most powerful experience. And then it's Paramaswatantriam, it's very independent, supremely independent.
It can come to anyone, everyone. Sarva prakashatvam, uh itself manifest, uh manifest on her own desires. So that's the essence of the first chapter of this book.
And what I will do, I will not go to the second chapter now, we'll do it in the evening. But now we can have a couple of questions to finish this class.
So just to say I explained Mangalacharana for this book, and the preliminary understanding why Bhakti is sadhana but Brahma is not sadya. So and then I also explained a little bit in just the essence of the first chapter which we have to understand to understand this point.
Bhakti is causeless as the Lord Himself and all sadhana is to attract the causeless mercy. It's not the cause, but it's um it has some sort of relationship like this.
So that's it and uh I will try to explain the uh second chapter this evening. Yes.
Questions on sadhana and spiritual stages
Yes, Ramaphada. Can I answer in the same manner? Yeah. Maybe it's stand up and say load. Stand up and ask just speaking.
Maharaj, you were explaining about uh uh Bhaktivinoda Thakura's quotation from Bhakti-tattva-viveka. Yes, that in the beginning the bhakti is not exactly bhakti, but bhakti-ābhāsa. I want to have a little more clear understanding on that.
Because in the root in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmī speaks about the adhikārīs to practice bhakti: kaniṣṭha, madhyama, uttama. Now, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in that chapter, I mentioned that he mentions that one who is a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī... And somebody who's on the... from the stage of niṣṭhā. So these are a little confusing, because we also know that one who comes to the level of śaraṇāgati, from there onwards these stages, you know, sadhu-saṅga, anartha-nivṛtti, and which are applicable.
But these are adhikārīs who are entering into the realm of... So how do we correlate with these two things? First of all, śaraṇāgati is definitely an entrance ticket to the realm of Bhakti.
But it's not that, you know, śaraṇāgati is complete and then the other stages are there. The śaraṇāgati is always there, and it increases its intensity of śaraṇāgati on every stage. To enter basically every stage, you need to have certain śaraṇāgati, so to speak.
And then yes, there are different adikaris and there is a confusion about this. When Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī speaks about this, kaniṣṭha, madhya and uttamādhikārīs,
he specifically says that this is the adhikāra for practicing vaidī-sādhana bhakti.
So adhikāra for practicing vaidī-sādhana bhakti is according to the level of your knowledge, śāstric knowledge, according to the level of your faith, the intensity of your faith, which are interconnected because your faith very much depends on the knowledge of the śāstras.
So, and also the gradation of adhikāra is different and therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that up to the stage of that, as far as vaidī-sādhana bhakti is concerned, then on the stage of niṣṭhā you become uttamādhikārī, you become the best equipped to practice bhakti.
The adhikāra for rāgānuga-sādhana is this, uh, lobham, the desire to, the, the greed to achieve
this and, uh, therefore the real adhikāra for practicing bhakti, you only get—the beginning adhikāra is on the stage of रुचि. You can practice kind of rāgānuga-sādhana before, but it's not really rāgānuga-sādhana.
On the stage of रुचि you can start practicing it. On the stage of āsakti you become equipped to do it, and on the stage of bhāva you are uttamādhikārī to do this, and then the prema is there.
So it's uh it's a different gradation and different adhikāra for different paths, for two different paths. And it's sometimes being confused.
In the present context, um uh, I would like to know, like, there are the sixty-four limbs of practicing vaidī-sādhana bhakti which are always mentioned.
Now, if somebody is practicing śuddha-bhakti, that means he has to only perform these sixty-four limbs, or नवधा भक्ति, constitutional functions of the soul. That is only to perform bhakti.
But we are all practicing part of our time sādhana and sometimes we are doing other work, and still uh, no, therefore, therefore, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says jñāna-karma-dhyānānavṛtam and that uh uh jñāna and karma uh and yoga and anavṛtam.
We are doing something else, but the performance of other things do not cover our bhakti, it means do not overshadow our bhakti.
We're practicing bhakti, but we're doing something else, but, uh, the other things which we are doing uh in our consciousness and our heart do not become something which overshadows bhakti.
We know we have to do it, definitely we have to go to job, this and that. But deeply in heart we are trying to practice bhakti even while being in the office or whatever is there. So we cannot live without jñāna and karma.
Therefore he says he doesn't say jnana karmadi Sunya. He says Anambrita should not be covered by this. And it's not a hindrance for pure bhakti if we are very fixed that bhakti is the goal, is the essence of my life.
Everything else I'm doing because I have to do it. Otherwise I I I can just refuse, you know. I'm a pure bhakta so I'm not doing anything now on the chant. Good luck. Maybe you have another two weeks to live in this world.
Thank you very much Maharaj for enlightening sessions. So in the spiritual world, so Bhakti Devi is personified by some personality other than Vṛndādevī and Rādhārāṇī.
Um every energy of the Lord has the personification but it doesn't doesn't mean that there is no other manifestation of this energy. It's there in the heart of every parikar of the Lord.
Energy of Bhakti is the main energy. But uh it's fully manifest, uh, personified in the in uh as Rādhārāṇī. Yes, Prabhupāda. Mahārāja, is trying to explain bhakti as a science, cause and effect.
But we also say bhakti is causeless, so how to understand that is a pleasure as a science, but it is something beyond logical. Yeah. So yeah. Or you want to understand something which is beyond logic.
So basically what he explains he explains that that even though something is causeless still there could be a science but it's a special science. Bhakti is a science.
And science usually is the you know investigation of the cause and effects.
So and from the very beginning we say ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. Bhakti is ahaitukī, it is no hetu for this, so it's causeless. for this, so it's causeless.
But uh still it can be described in terms of apparent causes and effects.
But only if I understand that the ultimate descent of bhakti is totally causeless, we can understand the mechanism of its appearance fully. To understand that it's causeless is also certain understanding, but how we are uh he's explaining to us what we're supposed to do to facilitate the appearance of body.
So the helpless cry out. Yeah. This is the way you can attract the mercy. Yeah. Yeah. Like uh now you are mentioning in the first from last the three levels we already know.
So Lord Chaitanya is not only showering the rain but also seeds. Now if it is coming so easily but when it comes to practice it is so much struggle for us.
What is the mercy I am receiving when it is so much struggle for us in our practice. Śrīla Prabhupāda had this famous phrase, what is the difficulty? Come on. What is the difficulty? No, it's all in the mind.
It's all pleasant, you know, you chant in the morning. It's only difficult because there are some force which is pulling us back.
Yes, and um yeah sometimes we feel this, you know, a powerful uh pulling but at the same time from the very beginning we get so much experience, so much interesting thing. You know, the Krishna here. He told me a story.
Very interesting story that.
Shall I tell the story about uh so he said in the beginning, mm, he was just started practicing bhakti, and they there was a group, some kind of Namahatta group, and and they wanted to do some retreats, some weekend retreat.
And they rented some house, and when they entered this house, which they rented in a forest in a secluded place. Naturally all these kinds of places, they're places of sinful activities. People come there to do all kinds of nonsensical activities.
So they were realized that the whole retreat will be completely spoiled because it's such a heavy atmosphere there.
kīrtana, and ultimately they said that everything loosened and uh everything was kirt and ultimately they said that everything loosened and uh everything was fine. And it was very successful retreat, everything purified.
And then the next week, when this house was again rented for something, the person who rented this house to uh the representative of this group she called her and she said uh did you notice something strange in this house when you when you using it for your retreat she said no no everything was fine.
She says very strange because I rented it to some other people who wanted to do normal things there and they said we cannot do it here. It's just it's very strange.
We cannot we cannot drink, we can we cannot do all kinds of things there. So what's the difficulty? Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm going to tell you.
In the second verse of the Mangalacharana it's explained how Rupa Goswami was the first who explained Bhakti is rasa. But then could you please show where where is rasa in the definition of Uttama Bhakti?
It seems like it's not obvious that Bhakti is rasa. Where is Rasa? Well first of all No in the paribasha sutra I mean that's the specific verse where we want to see. No, no, yeah, I understand.
But uh while explaining the topic of this book, he says Akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti. This is the first line of the book and the first verse of the book.
In Utama Bhakti, it's indicated uh rasa is indicated there by the words ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam because
Because it will be shown uh in the definition of bhāva later than when, when the desire to do something favorable for Krishna becomes very strong, like on the stage of Bhava, then automatically we feel pleasure.
So here he says, Ānukūlyena Kṛṣṇa-anuśīlanam, in the beginning you're doing it intellectually. You're pushing yourself to do something for the pleasure of the Lord. At the moment when this becomes your desire, desire that's in your heart, I want to please the Lord, then this very desire becomes the cause of your enjoyment and that's rasa. So basically that's where it is indicated.
I guess we finish now. Oh now. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna. And uh in the evening we'll continue along the same lines.