TLC – The Teachings of Lord Caitanya—Part 14 VIHE

Giriraj Swami:

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda (3)

So, we have come to Text 156-157.

What is the definition of rāga?

Devotee: Intense attachment.

Giriraj Swami: Intense attachment with?

Devotee: Krishna, full absorption.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, with full absorption.

So what is rāgātmikā-bhakti?

Devotee: Devotional service performed by people who possess rāga.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, devotional service rendered by people who possess rāga. What are the two divisions of rāga or rāgātmikā-bhakti?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]  

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada translates kāmānugā as sexual attraction and sambandhānugā as relationship. And what is the qualification for. . . Oh yes, so then what is rāgānugā-bhakti?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: And what is the qualification for entering rāgānugā-bhakti? What makes one eligible to perform rāgānugā-bhakti?

Devotee: Greed.

Giriraj Swami: Greed, I thought we were supposed to give up greed. Lust, greed, and anger -  these are bad things. We have to give them up.

Devotee: Spiritual greed.

Giriraj Swami: Spiritual greed. Yes, for? What are we greedy for exactly?

Devotee: A certain kind of relationship.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, a certain type of relationship with Krishna, or a certain type of mood of service, a certain type of love for Krishna, or else we’ll have greed for rasagullā and gulābjāmuns. That is another type of transcendental greed.

TEXT 156–157

“There are two processes by which one may execute this rāgānugā-bhakti — external and internal. When self-realized, the advanced devotee externally remains like a neophyte and executes all the śāstric injunctions, especially those concerning hearing and chanting. But within his mind, in his original, purified, self-realized position, he serves Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana in his particular way. He serves Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day, all day and night.

TEXT 158

sevā sādhaka-rūpeṇa
siddha-rūpeṇa cātra hi
tad-bhāva-lipsunā kāryā
vraja-lokānusārataḥ        [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 22.158]

Giriraj Swami: Sevā means service. The service is performed in two ways. One is in sādhaka-rūpa, which means the external body as a devotee practicing the regulative principles of devotional service. Siddha-rūpeṇa is the. . . Srila Prabhupada translates it as a body suitable for eternal self-realized service. Here we have the example of the Gosvamis, like Rupa Gosvami. Externally, he served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as Rupa Gosvami, and he was always busy as described by Srinivasa Acharya in the Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭakam.

kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī
dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau nirmatsarau pūjitau
śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau bhuvi bhuvo bhārāvahantārakau
vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

They were always busy in Krishna kirtan, loudly singing and dancing. And nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau - they were busy writing literatures for the benefit of all mankind, establishing religious principles. They had so many activities - chanting the holy names, dancing, chanting a prescribed number of rounds, offering obeisances a certain number of times every day - all the activities a sādhaka or a practitioner of sādhana-bhakti should perform.

Just as we saw Srila Prabhupada render service - reading books, writing, giving class, chanting the holy names, preaching - everything that we saw as a follower of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as a devotee of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.  That is sādhaka-rūpa.

In siddha-rūpa, is the body that one develops to render eternal service to Krishna in one’s own particular relationship - as a cowherd girl, as an elderly gopī in vātsalya-rasa, or as a cowherd boy in sākhya-rasa.

tad-bhāva-lipsunā kāryā vraja-lokānusārataḥ - one should always be thinking of the mood, bhāva of service of a particular resident of Vrindavan that one wants to follow. Just like the Six Gosvamis - in the pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they were the Six Gosvamis. In the pastimes of Radha and Krishna, they were the maid servants of Srimati Radharani.  So someone who is the follower of the Six Gosvamis, both internally and externally. Externally, he will follow the example of the Gosvamis as we mentioned. Internally, he will also follow the mood of service to Srimati Radharani and Krishna.

That Rupa Gosvami as Rupa-mañjarī or Santana Gosvami as Lavaṅga-mañjarī and Rupa Gosvami, especially Rupa Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, have written books in the mood of rāgānugā-bhakti because as we mentioned by the influence of yoga-māyā, they did not think that they were eternal residents of Vrindavan in kṛṣṇa-līlā. They thought that they were conditioned souls who have been delivered by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Mahaprabhu’s other associates.  So they have the same mood of the sādhakas that they have to practice devotional service and attain perfection. So they exhibited the intense desire for perfection as a rāgānugā Vaishnava must have. They wrote many prayers in the mood of rāgānugā Vaishnavas praying for service to Srimati Radharani.  And the prayers of Rupa Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami are exemplary for rāgānugā Vaishnavas, aspiring for the same mood of service to Srimati Radharani and Krishna, and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is especially appropriate for us in the line of Rupa Gosvami to follow because he was a rūpānuga, both externally and internally.  In other words, we are all Rūpānugas. Rūpānuga means a follower of Rupa Gosvami.