Ter-kadamba
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2022
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Invocation prayers at Terkadamba
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-ślākayā cakṣun unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhur nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tārine vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrītāsādi-Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Krishna.
So today by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and all our Parampara,
we are here in this place which is called Terkadamba and close by there is a bhajankutir of Srila Rupa Goswami so it's proper to ask Srila Rupa Goswami to give us permission to enter into Dhamma.
It's not an easy process to be in a holy place because there is every chance that instead of being in a holy place, we will remain being in our own mind. This is our usual place of dwelling, our the space of our mind.
And And the external surroundings, even in the holy place, may not be sometimes conducive to enter deeply into the holy space of the Dham.
Dham is an eternal abode of Krishna and And to get there you need to have a permission. And those who are eternal residents of this abode, who have the right to be there, they can grant their permission.
Especially those of those who also coming to this world specifically with the purpose of opening to us the entrance into the transcendental realm of the holy Dhamma.
Creation of Vrindavan through emotions
And Śrīla Rūpa Goswami is one of those souls. He was specifically empowered by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to re- establish the holy Dhām of Vrindavan.
And sometimes we say that his mission was to go from place to place and to discover the lost places of the pastimes. He did this, but not really. Yes, he found Govindaji in Govardhana in Vrindavan.
But his creation of Vrindavan,
or rather recreation of Vrindavan was completely different. Mostly all the places in this earthly realm of Vrindavan, Dhām of Vrindavan, were discovered by Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa Goswami, who is not even one of the six Goswamis. He's a great devotee, no doubt about it. And he discovered most of the places, including Varsana. Varsana is entirely his achievement.
But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī recreated Vrindavan in a different way. He created or recreated Vrindavan by explaining different emotions which are displayed in the transcendental realm of Vrindavan.
He uh explained Vrindavan in a different way. Kavirṇapura,
while glorifying Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he says: vṛndāvanyāḥ rasakeli-vārtāṁ kālena luptāṁ nija-śakti-rūpayā utkhāya sañcārya ca rūpa-karṇe vyatānot punar asau prabhur iva lokasya. Kavirṇapura, Praburi Vap Evo Low Loka Shi Kavikarnapur
glorifying Rūpa Gosvāmī, says that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as much as he compares the process which took place in Daśāśvamedha Ghāṭ, in Prayāga, where Caitanya Mahāprabhu met with Rūpa Gosvāmī.
He compares it with the empowerment of Lord Brahma for creation of this material world.
As much as the Supreme Lord has to empower certain personality with Shakti to create this world in the same way, exactly the same way.
In Daśāśvamedha Ghāṭ, in Prayāga, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu empowered Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī to recreate Vrindavan. Vṛndāvanyāḥ rasakeli-vārtāṁ kālena
luptāṁ nija-śakti-rūpayā, because because of the powerful influence of time, this rasakeli-vārtā, the news about Rasakeli, about the intimate rasas of Vrindavan disappeared from the surface of the world. Kalena Luptam.
It became non-existent.
And therefore Niji Shakti Utkah Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took his own śakti and sañcārya rūpeṇā, he invested the heart of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī with this śakti, sañcārya rūpeṇa. Vyatanot punaḥ. Vyatanot to expand this transcendental place of exchange, loving exchange between Krishna and His devotees. Punakh again.
Again means again after the Vrindavan disappeared from the surface of the world.
Establishing the science of bhakti
Vrindavan never disappeared from the surface of the world, but people forgot what is the place, what is the real nature of this place, and punaḥ also means in the same way, like prabhur iva in the same way like the Supreme Lord empowered Lord Brahma to create this world.
So basically, I wanted to say a few words about what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did, especially because we are sitting here under this Terkadamba tree, or rather the tree which is growing on the place of original Terkadamba.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, you know in the let's say historically speaking, in the middle age in India, there was so many different bhakti movements.
Rāmānujācārya started Bhakti movement as the as the to counteract the influence of Śaṅkarācārya, he started Bhakti. He was the first one to say something against this absolute monism, absolute Advaita.
And he created his school of Vishishta Advaita. Then Madhvacharya came and he created this Dvaita Vedanta school. And even before that, Nimbarkachary came and Vishnu Swami came, and Valabhacharya basically recreated Vishnu
Swami school and Ramananda came later and he started his movement on the basis of Viśiṣṭādvaita and so many, you know, Tulsidas and many, many many different great Vaishnavas.
And they were all speaking about bhakti, but and they were all giving some definition of bhakti, what is bhakti? But what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did, nobody else was able to do.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, first he actually created the science of bhakti. Before bhakti was the sentiment.
Bhakti was something ethereal, which you know, which nobody knows where it's coming from, how it develops, and you know what are the different grades and shades of bhakti.
For people, people who were before Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī uh there was bhakti as something and uh poorly defined not really clearly defined, and there was no really understanding of the structure of the realm of bhakti.
You know, Dhruva Mahārāja has bhakti, Prahlāda Mahārāja has bhakti, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja has bhakti, Gopīs of Vṛndāvana have bhakti, queens of Dvārakā have bhakti. Is there any difference between their bhakti?
You know, of course sometimes devotees are trying to argue with Śrīla Prabhupāda and saying Prabhupāda gopis are the highest and Śrīla Prabhupāda says, for you there's no difference between them.
When we are in the beginning realms, there is no difference. Bhakti is bhakti, there is bhakti and there is not bhakti.
You know, Dhruva Mahārāja is bhakti, yes. Prahlāda Mahārāja is bhakti, yes, Gopī is bhakti, yes. For us, no difference. Nevertheless, there is difference. And how to define this difference, how to understand, and that's what science is doing.
You know, for those who don't know the science of botany, you know, all the trees are, you know, there's not much difference, you know, this tree or that tree or this tree, you know.
But those who know the science, they know the difference, they know what is this tree, what is that tree, they know the name and they know what is the uh what are the different shades of of these manifestations.
Those who don't know the science of music, for them, Sa Re Ga Ma Padani sa, it's the same. No difference.
But those who really know the science of music, they can minutely discriminate between these notes and you know srutis, 22 śrutis and this and that. So that's what science means.
Science means the conceptual framework and by taking this conceptual framework you will be able to first of all to recognize different manifestations of bhakti, discriminate between them and ultimately be in this realm of bhakti.
You know, our goal is to come from this material world,
from this bhautika jagat to the spiritual world, to adhyātmika jagat. But there is only one way to come from material world to spiritual world is through the guidance of
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. At least this is our understanding. This is our understanding why?
Because Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he created this Vṛndāvana which is in between the transcendental realm of Vrindavan and material Vrindavan, which is accessible to us.
We are coming to this realm of Vrindavan, to this Vraja Dham, so that ultimately we could go to the transcendental Dham. But the way between these two, between these two, there is a creation, there is a
Defining pure devotional service
Vṛndāvana created by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī who actually charted out the path of bhakti in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and this is the place where Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī was writing his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. This is one of the most prominent places of his bhajan.
He first defines bhakti. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives a very scientific definition of what pure bhakti is.
Not to discriminate it with different miśra-bhakti. You know, there is jñāna, there is karma, and you know, and there is bhakti, and there is uh karma-miśra-jñāna and jñāna-miśra-karma and uh and whatever and all kinds of mixtures are there.
If you don't know the science, for you it's there is no difference. But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī first he defines this is the pure bhakti, this is śuddha bhakti, this is uttama bhakti.
Because otherwise it's very easy, you know, to go for the lower grade. For example, if you if you want to buy gold, you need to know what is the real gold.
Otherwise, you will come to the market and everyone will say, This is the best gold, take this best gold, and you know, and you will be cheated.
Like, you know, sometimes you go to, uh, Jagannātha Purī and on the beach people give you, you know, this bead, you know, and say this is diamond. This bead, only two hundred rupees, no problem. And
they take some glass and they, you know, make some scratches on this glass by this diamond. Of course it's not diamond, you know. You cannot buy this big diamond for 200 rupees.
But you can be cheated only because you don't know what real diamond is. And therefore you see, yeah, yeah, looks, looks real, and it's a good deal, 200. So uh this is the point.
If we want to know what is the what is the very valuable thing you have to really clearly understand what is valuable thing. Otherwise you will be cheated and you will get some cheap variety of it.
And you will be you will cheat yourself at the end of the day. And therefore he first he gives the Which is very high, very high. Nobody gave such a high ideal of bhakti.
You know, anya bilaswata sunyam that there is not even tendency to to have other desires. Only when this tendency is eradicated from your heart you will be able to get the pure bhakti.
You will be able to taste pure bhakti. Before that, some bhakti will come, no doubt about it. You know, bhakti is bhakti, bhakti is transcendental. But uh to get the pure variety, we have to strive for this ideal.
And jñāna and karma should be there in our life. We are studying scriptures, we are doing some pious activities, karma, some Vedic sacrifices, this and that.
There's no problem with this, but they should not cover over bhakti. They should not overshadow bhakti. And if we have to choose between bhakti and something which is jñāna and karma,
We definitely have to choose bhakti because sometimes you know the covering of this karma becomes so thick, then you know there's practically very difficult to discover bhakti underneath of discovery.
You know sometimes you know people who are following bhakti but they become so ritualistic, you know, Madhu Mati Pushkarini, she can confirm it. They perform all kinds of pious activities and rituals and this and that.
But where is bhakti? Where is this? You know, of course there is bhakti there, there's no doubt about it.
But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī he warns us that in our zeal, in our eagerness to perform some sort of Vedic stuff, we may lose the most important thing, bhakti. They may overshadow bhakti as such.
And uh uh and then he gives the svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of bhakti, uh anukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṃ bhaktir uttamā.
So, but not only this, even this, if Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī would only write this one verse, his name would be immortalized. Because again, nobody gave such pure and such exact and scientific definition of bhakti before.
In Nārada-bhakti-sūtra bhakti is defined as Śāṇḍilya-bhakti-sūtra bhakti is defined, Madhvācārya defines bhakti, Rāmānujācārya defines Bhakti.
But with all due respect to their achievement, nobody gave such simple and at the same time essential definition of bhakti.
Three divisions of devotional practice
Just one verse and the essence of all the Vedic literature is there in one verse. But then he goes further, he classifies bhakti into sādhana-bhakti. This is the general definition of bhakti.
He he gives the definition of sādhana-bhakti, he gives the definition of bhāva-bhakti, and he gives the definition of premā-bhakti. And again, this is something completely new. Nobody did it before.
Because usually when we speak about some process, some sadhana, there is sadhana part and there is siddha part. There is only two parts.
Sadhana means systematic endeavors to achieve some goals, siddha part means you achieve the goal, you're enjoying the perfection of this goal, you achieve the success by following this path.
You know, but Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, no, no, bhakti has three big divisions. How is that possible? How if first of all he defines sādhana-bhakti, kṛti-sādhya bhāva-sādhya.
He says that kṛti-sādhya, something which you do with your senses. Bhāva-sādhya. Uh what is this? Uh bhāva sādhana s uh bhāved s uh kṛti-sādhya.
Kṛti-sādhya. No sādhanaṁ bhidā kṛti Just one word, not Bhadav Sadhya. Kritisadya. Anyway he he defines I know the meaning, I just forget Sanskrit. It's very interesting what he did.
He defines first Sadhana Bhakti and he says Sadhana Bhakti is something which you perform with your senses it means that it's Indri Preana, it's instigated from the level of your senses.
It's not instigated from the level of the soul from the Yeah.
Krithi sadhya bhavet sadya bhava sasad It says that uh sadhana, the beginning stage of bhakti, how to enter to this Utama Bhakti or to this Siddha Bhakti realm.
First, we should start with this Sadhana Bhakti and sadhana bhakti we perform from the level of the senses uh uh bhaved sadhya bhava uh but you should do it with sadhya bhava
you You should do it with the sense of achieving the sadhya, the goal of your practice.
If you only chant Hare Krishna or if you only listen Krishna Katha or Chant Kirtan, and you don't have this sadhya bhava, the uh clearly established goal of your practice, then you will never you're not even doing sadhana really.
It's just a shadow of sadhana. It's just a semblance of sadhana. It's not real sadhana. Sadhana is something which you perform from the level of your senses but you perform with this clear sadya bhava.
I want to achieve this. I want to achieve this goal of bhakti.
And by doing this, niti siddhasya bhava sy, prkatyam khridi sadhyta, the eternalternally existent bhava or eternally existent prema of the eternal associates of Krishna will descend upon you.
And again I'll I'll I'll do it very short but still I I wanted to explain uh briefly uh the difference, the contribution of Silarupa Goswami into the realm of bhakti.
And then he says that when you're doing this, at one point Sudhasattva Vishesatma, the influx of Sudasatma, which is actually the essence of jnana, the essence of samvit shakti, Sudasattva Vishesatma together with particle of ananda will descend upon your heart.
And then you do the same thing.
You already perfected in your bhakti, you do the same sadhana, you hear, you chant, but the instigation is coming from your heart. It's coming from this spiritual energy which is descended upon you, which is the mixture of Samvit Shakti and Chladini Shakti.
When samvit and chladini shakti descends upon your heart, should the sat-visheshatma, then your heart becomes softened Visheshatma, then your heart becomes softened by certain desires, and that basically means that you achieved the level of bhava-bhakti.
And bhava-bhakti in this sense it's a siddha stage because it's already perfection, you're not really forcing yourself anymore to do bhakti, you are already having this bhakti, and bhakti becomes your inspiration or prerana to perform bhakti.
Your bhakti, when you chant on the level of bhava, now we have to really, you know, force sometimes ourselves. Spontaneously we would like to, you know, browse. That's very raganuga spontaneous activity. So from the level of the senses we have to force ourselves to a certain extent, even though we may have some nice experience at the end of the day, but still it's not spontaneous.
But on the level of bhava, the performing of bhakti will become anubhava of bhakti. It becomes a spontaneous outcome of bhakti which is there in the heart and externally this bhakti which is there in the heart will manifest in the form of chanting and hearing.
You know. We will spontaneously think about Krishna. Yeah, there is some lila is going through. He's taken something. Taken something. Oh he's taken something. Okay. Uh so that's Bhava Bhakti.
And therefore Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says bhava-bhakti means that you already have bhāva and bhāva means that you already established in certain relationship with Krishna.
You achieve this going through the stages from śraddhā to sādhu-saṅga, from sādhu-saṅga to bhajana-kriyā, from bhajana-kriyā to anartha-nivṛtti, from anartha-nivṛtti to niṣṭhā, from niṣṭhā to ruci, from ruci to āsakti, and you achieved bhāva stage. And this is the first stage when bhakti becomes natural to you.
Because you become of the nature of the spiritual world. Before that, bhakti is unnatural.
And it's natural in one sense because we do have inclination and we do have some sort of pulling which is pulling us in this direction. Yes, but still our material nature predominates before that stage. And it's pulling us in a different direction.
So it's a gradual process and this process you know has to be continuous and has to be, you know, we have to be disciplined. And therefore we need guru, therefore we need, you know, so many other things. Uh we need, you know, rewards and punishments, we need all kinds of different stuff, you know, like sometimes in the temples they say if you don't come to Mangalarati we will not give you breakfast.
So if you don't listen to this class you will not have breakfast today. So, so, but it's because uh we have a different nature and this nature has to be rectified, has to be, uh, has to be basically spiritualized.
The gradual process of spiritualization is taking place and sometimes it's not easy.
But at the same time, even though bhāva-bhakti means that you already achieved your sthāyi-bhāva, means you already know the relationship between yourself and Krishna, still you are you are still not free from all the impediments.
Bhāva means that some shadow of anarthas are still there, especially those anarthas which are coming from aparādhas.
Because while performing bhakti in this not very perfect stage, we inevitably, because there is a tendency to create aparādhas. We're performing bhakti in an offensive way. We're a little selfish.
Well maybe not so little selfish, but we are we are thinking about ourselves. We are not really performing pure bhakti. We always uh calculate what we will get in return.
Sometimes when we we do it in a pure heart we feel really blissful, you know, I did something and I'm I'm happy. But oftentimes uh you know we have this calculator in our
mind and it calculates what will I get, what will I get. You know, when I become happy. Prahlāda Mahārāja says you'll become happy, but only when you forget the desire to become happy.
When the desire to become happy vanishes from your mind, you'll become happy, no problem. But before that, you have to get rid of this desire.
Anyway, so therefore, these shadows of impediments or obstacles on the path of bhakti remain even on the level of bhāva. And therefore, it is said that you can even, even, uh, you know, fall down from the level of bhāva.
And therefore, uh, Rūpa Gosvāmī, he puts, uh, this amazing classification, he puts this bhāva-bhakti in between sādhana-bhakti and siddha-bhakti.
Because siddha-bhakti is when you are on the level of prema, which is very difficult and rare, and from that level you can never fall. No problem, no fall down from prema.
The fall down can only take place if you're on bhāva platform. From śānta you cannot fall down because there is nowhere to fall. You're already fallen.
From premā there is no fall down because it's impossible. But from bhāva you can fall. That's how Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī classifies this bhāva. And then bhāva-bhakti.
And then after that, he says that you know when you achieve bhāva, you're already established in your relationship with Krishna.
And then this relationship with Krishna solidifies completely or becomes very, very concrete and yeah, very solid when you achieve premā only.
Because on the level of bhāva, still sometimes because of these you know impediments, your mind sometimes is distracted from this. You're more or less concentrated on your relationship with Krishna.
You are so happy, you love him, but still sometimes maybe some little distraction here and there. You know, like now we're totally distracted. Our mind is distracted into, you know, thousands of different directions.
Yeah, sometimes we do concentrate on Krishna, on holy name, but it's rare.
But on the level of premā there is no, you know, on the level of premā, when people want Krishna says that the highest goal of bhakti is man-manā, when we think about him.
And you know, gopīs sometimes when Krishna leaves Vṛndāvana they complain: we want to forget about him, we cannot forget about him. We want to remember about Krishna, we cannot remember about Krishna.
Gopīs, they have different problems. They want to forget about him. They cannot forget.
Integration of rasa into bhakti
They cannot take out their minds from him because they love him so strongly. And this is where Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī describes premā, he describes premā from the vantage point of rasa.
And again, he's the first one who kind of united the theory of Bharata Muni, of rasa, of aesthetic bliss and the conception of bhakti. Before that, some scientists or some
scholars who were describing rasa were saying: yes, there is so many rasas are there. They were counting sometimes 12 rasas, sometimes 13 rasas, sometimes 14 rasas. And bhakti is one rasa.
They would say yes, bhakti is one rasa.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī came and he started describing what really rasa is. And we know that in Taittirīya Upaniṣad said Rasovai Saha, the Supreme Lord, the absolute truth is Rasa. He is Rasa personified, and you can only achieve bliss when you achieve rasa. And when you achieve this rasa, only then you will become blissful.
Anandi Bhavati. Only when you achieve this rasa. So but uh when they were speaking about rasa, they were really you distracted in different directions.
Then they say: yes, some southern theoreticians scholars of rasa, they were saying that bhakti is one rasa. But they were meaning śānta-rasa. But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says there is no rasa besides bhakti. Everything else is not rasa. Everything else at best is the shadow of rasa.
Because rasa means very intense bliss, and this intense bliss is only possible when the soul is connected with the Lord.
When this connection is established and when the your function in this connection is established, then only you will be able to experience real rasa. Otherwise there is no point of experiencing rasa.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī took this formula of what is rasa from Bharata Muni from Nāṭya Śāstra. He says that what is rasa? Rasa is the proportionate connection, proportionate
bhava, anubhava, sañcārī bhāva, sthāyi-bhāva, when all these bhāvas and sāttvika bhāva, when all these different bhāvas, when all these different manifestations of your relationship with the Supreme Lord come together in a very proportionate way, in a very harmonious way, then only you will experience
rasa and it means that you are on the level of premā.
On a level of bhāva you experience these different bhāvas, anubhava or vibhāva, or sañcārī bhāva, or sāttvika bhāva. But while you experience these bhavas, you experience them separately.
And therefore, Prabhupāda explains what premā means. Premā means he says there is a special drink when you take yogurt and you take some sugar and you take some camphor and you take some black pepper and you mix it in a certain proportion, then the resulting taste is completely intoxicating.
On a level of bhāva, you take some little black pepper or some camphor or separately yogurt, they have they maybe they have some taste, they are nice in themselves, but it's not the same when you totally completely mix them, then you cannot really distinguish these different tastes.
You have one taste, this one taste is the taste of rasa, and this is what premā means according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.
So he gave the definition of sādhana-bhakti, he gave the definition of bhāva bhakti, he gave the definition of prema bhakti. He explained what is the difference between these different gradations of bhakti.
And then he didn't stop there. After explaining this, he said that after premā, there are so many other stages which cannot be even experienced on this material realm.
After prema there is, you know, there is sneha and māna and praṇaya and rāga and anurāga and bhāva and mahābhāva and madanakī mahābhāva and whatnot. You know, he experienced this and he experienced this himself.
Otherwise, how he could explain this?
Realizing spiritual emotions while writing
And he gave the examples of all these different emotions which are being experienced in the spiritual world.
So he wrote first Bhakti-rasāmṛta- Sindhu, where he gave the general conceptual outline of the bhakti and he created this masterpiece in this place where we're sitting right now.
And if we ask this Kadamba tree, Kadamba tree, it is said that sometimes Sanātana Gosvāmī used to come from his bhajana-kuṭīr in Nandagrām to this place.
And sometimes he would see this Kadamba tree would be full of flowers, and a couple of days later he would come again and he would see that the whole Kadamba tree is completely dried up.
And then a few days later he would come again and again see this Kadamba tree is totally completely flourishing.
And Sanātana Gosvāmī asked Rūpa Gosvāmī what's happening with this Kadamba tree. One day it's full of flowers, another day it's dried up. And Rupa Gaswami says, I'm sitting under this tree and I am sometimes writing
about separation of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and the tree becomes dried up. And then I am explaining the meeting of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and the tree becomes flourishing. His moods, his emotions were so strong that while sitting under this tree, he was experiencing this emotion.
You know, he was seeing what he is describing. He is not really describing something theoretically. We may explain this theoretically. There's no problem with this. We may pass Bhakti Shastri exam. That's okay, no problem.
We may pass bhakti shastri exam without having any experience of bhakti, no problem. And we will get the first grade of bhakti shastri. But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, whatever he wrote, he wrote uh while experiencing it.
There is a beautiful pastime which happened while he was sitting in his Radhakunda Bhajankuti. He was writing his Stava-pushpāñjali, his one of his last books, practically his last book, he was writing at that time.
And Sanātana Gosvāmī was very old and we know Sanātana Gosvāmī was doing everyday parikrama of Govardhana. And he came to him and he asked Rūpa Gosvāmī, his younger brother, what are you writing now?
And he showed to him the first verses of Chatupushpanjali. And in one verse, he compared the braid of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī with a snake. He says this like black cobra.
And we know black cobra has this hood, you know, and when the black cobra, you know, opens his hood, you know. So this this part of black hairs of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was like a hood, and there was a you know long snake.
And, uh, Sanātana Gosvāmī says it's very nice poetry, but I don't like this comparison between the black snake and the braid of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
And Rūpa Gosvāmī said, You're a great poet yourself. You know, you please edit my verse. I understand it's inappropriate, just write something else.
And then Sanātana Gosvāmī continued his parikrama and close by near Rādhā-kuṇḍa he saw some girls who were playing and they were on the swing under the tree and, uh, the girls were very happy and then all of a sudden he saw that the snake is crawling and
you know wants to bite and he started, uh, calling sarpa sarpa sarpa the snake is there.
And all of a sudden, you know, when he came closer, he saw that this is not the snake, this is the braid of the girl who was swinging.
He realized and that the girls disappeared and he realized that this is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī herself and her braid is indeed like a snake.
So he came to Rūpa Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī says: So, you found some better version of this comparison? He said, No, this is the best, no problem. This is good.
The idea here is that when Rūpa Gosvāmī was writing something, he was not imagining it.
He was not like an ordinary poet who would sit somewhere, you know, scratch his head and you know, wrote something and then maybe you know crossed it over, wrote something else.
Systematizing the transcendental rasas
No, he was directly experiencing everything, so uh and
he explained these amazing things in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi which is the sequel of this Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu he gave this ocean of bhakti's, but in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi he explained mādhurya-rasa. And nobody before him explained this things the way he explained it.
He described there 360 different heroines which are playing with Krishna in different moods. Some are very bold, some are very shy, some in between. You know, he classifies 360 different heroines.
And then he described 96 different moods of Krishna. How Krishna reciprocates with different heroines in their moods by manifesting his nature and his moods. You know, who knows these things about God?
Please tell me that there could be 96 different moods of God and all these innumerable kinds of His reciprocation with living entities, with the spirit souls. This is how Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explained Vṛndāvana.
His recreation of Vrindavan, coming to the first point which I started, was not discovering the places of past times, lost places of past times.
His recreation of Vrindavan, his mission, which Srila Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave to him, his mission was to create this Vrindavan which is at the same time accessible to us and not accessible to us.
This earthly Vrindavan, Bhakti-ratnākara is accessible to us. But what we will understand about this earthly Vrindavan?
Only when we read the books of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and try to connect the earthly Vrindavan with what he wrote. Because actually the real Vrindavan is the Vrindavan which he described in his books.
But when we only, you know crawl on the surface of this earthly Vrindavan, we will never understand the real Vrindavan. We may become a snake in the next life crawling on the surface of this Vrindavan.
But you know to enter into real Vṛndāvana we have to take the writings of Rūpa Gosvāmī and then come here with the writings of Rūpa Gosvāmī. Come here to this Terkadamba.
And then maybe, you know, while sitting on this Terkadamba, we may have some Spurti of Krishna. This Terkadamba is called Terkadamba. Term means calling or meeting together.
Terkadamba is the meeting place and that's why this Rasa Mandala is here. Sometimes Krishna is dancing, Rasa dance here. But mostly he is calling, there was a huge kadambatri here before in the times of Krishna.
And the one branch of Kadamba tree was very conveniently coming down so that Krishna would easily climb to this tree. And the end when Krishna would be coming from the pasturing grounds from all of Vraj near Nandagram.
He would come to this place and he would count all his cows. And when some cows would be missing, he would call them.
You know, Krisikes Maharaj, he's he's Dhauli, Harini, Rangini. He had uh nine uh different nine lakhs of cows, so nine groups of cows. And he had no he had actually uh one hundred and eight different groups of cows.
And he would be sitting on this tree and calling different cows by chanting their names on the beads. Krishna had his uh jeweled beats, 108 beats
on the bead, and uh to get all the cows together he would uh call the names of all the groups of cows on the names, on the beats. We're chanting his names on our beats and he's chanting the names of his cows on his beats.
And the cows would come and you know, here the cows when they hear their name, they would run with ears, you know, up, uh, running when Krishna is calling them. So this is the place, that's why it's called Terkadamba.
And sometimes at night Krishna would run from his home in Nandagram and he would again conveniently climb this tree and start playing his flute on the tree.
And while playing the flute he would call different gopis by names. And this place is exactly in between Nandagram and Yavat.
So, you know, while playing the flute he would call Radha. And Radha would run from Yavad to this particular place.
Radharani mercy during Vyasa Puja
So it's a very secret and intimate place and the most important pastime
which is usually being told in this place happened when Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī wanted to celebrate Vyāsapūjā of his guru mahārāja. His guru mahārāja was Sanātana Gosvāmī and he was living in Bhajana Kuṭira on the bank of Pāvana Sarovara in Nandagram.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, for many days before his Vyāsapūjā, he was in anxiety how to celebrate properly. Like sometimes disciples also they want to make some grand arrangement for the Vyāsapūjā of their guru.
And because he was poor, he only had some you know dry rotis which he madhukari rotis. He didn't know how to celebrate, but he thought, you know, in his mind he wanted to cook a very nice kheer to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī.
And while he was in anxiety, in complete anxiety about it, he he couldn't even sleep, he was always thinking how to how to properly celebrate Sanātana Gosvāmī.
One girl came and brought all the ingredients and she said, My Ma sent me to you. Please take this and cook something.
And he was in bliss and he was so blissful that he didn't even notice that this girl is specially beautiful. And this she's special, you know, he was so absorbed in the desire to please his guru.
He didn't even care about Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. This is what service means. So he cooked this first class kheer for Sanatana Goswami and Sanatana Goswami came and he said, I have a special gift for your Vyasa Puja day.
This is sweet rice which I cooked and Sanatana Goswami tasted this sweet rice and he said, uh, and all of a sudden, uh, eight ecstatic symptoms manifested in his body. He started crying and he was stunned and he was shivering and you know his voice was choked and
he said, only once I experienced these eight ecstatic symptoms at once. After a long time, you know, it took a long time for him to come back to his normal state. And he said, there's something wrong with this rice.
Only once I experienced the same: it was when Krishna brought them in the milk. There is another story: while he was sitting there, and the śravaṇam is over, He was also in anxiety, but his anxiety had another cause.
His anxiety was that I still don't have Krishna. I am here in Vrindavan and Krishna is not coming to me. And he became very morose and he stopped eating.
And for many days he didn't eat anything because of this eagerness to meet with Krishna. And all of a sudden a little boy came to him and said, My mother brought some milk for you. She sent it to me.
She said, You know, this nice sādhu is sitting there and he's so skinny. Please give him some milk. He drank the milk and he realized that it was not ordinary milk, that was the milk brought to him by Krishna.
And he said to Rūpa Goswami, you know, this sweet rice is the same as this milk. Can you describe this girl who brought to you all these ingredients?
And he started describing, and Sanatana Goswami, he knew everyone. He knew all the local girls. He was... And he said, there is no such girl here. I know the name of this girl.
This girl came from Varsana and her name is Rādhārāṇī.
Synthesis of classical rasa theories
She brought all these ingredients to you, and it's not good to use Rādhārāṇī for your own service.
So this is the glory of this place of this Terkadamba and Bhajan Kutir of Śrīla Rūpa Goswami and moreover the contribution which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did, how geniously he combined the Bharata Muni theory of Rasa and the Puranic conception of Rasa.
Because in Puranas there are five rasas, and Bharatamuni explains eight different rasas. And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī combined them together.
He says, yes, there are five main rasas and seven gauṇas, secondary rasas, gauṇa rasas, five mukhya rasas. Yeah, and one rasa which is there pretty he divided into five rasas which we know.
And in this way he created a completely new rasa theory, explaining that there is only one way to experience rasa is bhakti. And bhakti starts with sadhana. And sadhana starts with sradha.
And this is what we are working on. To establish the proper Shraddha, the foundation of Shraddha, upon which we can uh build this impressive edifice of bhakti. Bhakti is a skyscraper.
But to build this skyscraper we need to have a very strong foundation. And because of Rūpa Gosvāmī, he gave us everything which we need from the foundation up to the highest experience and the highest realms of Bhakti.
Okay? Like uh somebody may not know the teachings of Rūpa Gosvāmī, but now we see so many people come to Vrindavan, they are practicing some bhajan, they are having some practice.
Now Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī clearly mentions that Śrī rūpānusārataḥ tat-prāthama-sāgrajam So without following Rūpa Gosvāmī you cannot achieve uh the rāgānugā, but we see many thousands of people are coming and doing bhajana.
So is it uh they will get something? They will get something, there is no doubt about it. Krishna is very generous, the holy dhamma is very generous. If they sincerely chant and practice bhakti, they will get something.
The problem is that you know if you don't know exactly the scientifically how it works, you know, there is a great chance that you will get something which is not very pure, which may be mixed.
You know, to to get the highest grade of bhakti you need to know the moods of the service which are there in the spiritual realm, how the eternal associates serve Krishna in their specific relationship.
And this you can only know from the writings of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura.
So you know and when your mood is mixed, like Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī he explains that there is you know uh pure rasa and there is rasābhāsa. When the mixture is not appropriate you know then this taste is not really pleasing.
Krishna is not pleased. You want to please him, but you know, because you're not refined yourself. You're pleasing him in in an appropriate way. And yes, your motivation is pure.
That's why you're performing bhakti, ānukūlya-kṛṣṇānusīlana. But whether he will be pleased or not, that's another thing. You're trying to do Anukul, but in the meantime, you may do some pratikul,
something which is not pleasing to him. So sometimes you know it's it's it's easy. Uh you know when people are especially when you're so close, when people are closely associating with each other, there is
greater opportunities for them to please each other, to enter into loving relationship, but at the same time the opportunity to offend each other also increase.
So when we try to enter into this close relationship, it's a very dangerous position, therefore we really have to be under somebody's expert guidance. Then what will be the destination of all this? It really depends.
It depends what they practice, how they practice. If they are very sincere, Krishna will provide them with proper guides, you know. It depends on the sincerity of the heart and uh your endeavors.
Krishna sends you somebody whom you deserve. And under his guidance you you practice what you practice and according to what you practice and what you achieved.
But if you very sincere, then you know you can be upgraded more and more and more. We're not fanatical, you know. They they all deserve something, they will achieve something. What they achieve, it depends, you know.
I can't say you know they will achieve Swargalok or whatever. They will achieve what they achieve. Everyone according to purity of his or her endeavor. And consistency of his or her endeavor.
We are very scientifically trying to understand and practice. But there is also saying like if you leave your body in Vṛndāvana in old days and no any animal or a dog, they'll all be given mercy of Rādhārāṇī.
So now we are making so much and some things looks very shortcut. How to understand of course we don't want to give up we want to practice properly but why how to understand that saying it's not difficult to understand.
You know your chief liberation because still some mixture is there. You know, you can only achieve closeness of Krishna if you you know if you if you want to achieve it. If you just want liberation no problem.
You know, you can die here in Vrindavan and you'll achieve some liberation. But you know, the all the nuances and, uh, blissful exchanges, if you don't really want them, how will you achieve them?
You can only achieve something which you want to achieve. And therefore you have to be very clearly established in the goal which you want to achieve. Before practicing, uh, you have to know the goal of your practice.
Otherwise, you know, you will practice something and you will come somewhere.
That's why this scientific understanding is very important, and but ultimately even more important is the level of association which we have with whom we associate.
Because we are learning by hearing, but we're also learning by seeing somebody, by associating, by serving somebody. When we serve somebody, we achieve his moods. His mood is coming to us.
So sometimes people, they may not be intellectually equipped to understand all these things, but if they serve somebody with a very pure heart, they will achieve the same thing.
Because ultimately, the secret of bhakti is in the heart of a devotee, and if you serve this devotee, he will disclose the secrets to you and in a way of moods which you will experience. That's it.