NOD – VIHE Nectar of Devotion—Part 01

Giriraj Swami:

nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saḿsthāpakau

lokānāḿ hita-kāriṇau tri-bhuvane mānyau śaraṇyākarau

rādhā-kṛṣṇa-padāravinda-bhajanānandena mattālikau

vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Gosvamis, namely Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Sri Jiva Gosvami, and Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, who are very expert in scrutinizingly studying all the revealed scriptures with the aim of establishing eternal religious principles for the benefit of all human beings. Thus they are honored all over the three worlds, and they are worth taking shelter of, because they are absorbed in the mood of the gopīs, and are engaged in the transcendental loving service of Radha and Krishna.”

nama oḿ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāḿ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare

So, we welcome you to Vrindavan dhāma, to the Vaishnava Institute for Higher Education, the course on The Nectar of Devotion.

Before we begin the actual course, I’ve been asked to give some actual information about the course. The course will go on for four weeks, five days per week, and there’ll be twenty class periods, and midway through the course and at the end of the course, there will be exams. So, two days will be for exams and eighteen days will be for discussion. Then, to make sure that everyone’s reading nicely, we’ll have some quizzes every now and then, every few days, maybe we will have one tomorrow, and then we can be sure that we are reading properly so that we can discuss properly also. And about 25 percent of the grade will be based on attendance, class participation, maybe 25 percent on the quizzes and 50 percent on the two main examinations.

I’ve compiled verses from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu that appear in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta because the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu expanded from the instructions that Lord Chaitanya gave to Rupa Gosvami, and Lord Chaitanya gave many of the same instructions to Sanatana Gosvami and to different persons that He met. So Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami has included many of the verses from the original Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And also, the discussions or instructions that Lord Chaitanya gave to Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami, and others, which are all closely parallel to the statements of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu or The Nectar of Devotion. There is an index in the beginning. The verses had been arranged in the order that they appear in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, which is the same as The Nectar of Devotion, and then, where it appears in Caitanya-caritāmṛta and other references. Many are verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Padma Purāṇa. Because the original verses can be discussed effectively when we know all the Sanskrit words that make up a verse, and actually even Srila Prabhupada, with some of the important verses, has spent two or three pages just on one verse; and in the verse that we are going to discuss today, he has even discussed some of the important words. So generally, one can get the most complete understanding of the verse by analyzing the words that make up the verse.

So, before we begin, I’ll read some verses from Caitanya-caritāmṛta about Rupa Gosvami, because we should begin by offering obeisances to Rupa Gosvami and to The Nectar of Devotion.

Cc Madhya 19

TEXT 118

In his book Caitanya-candrodaya, Kavi-karṇapūra, the son of Śivānanda Sena, has elaborately described the meeting between Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

TEXT 119

kālena vṛndāvana-keli-vārtā
lupteti tāṁ khyāpayituṁ viśiṣya
kṛpāmṛtenābhiṣiṣeca devas
tatraiva rūpaṁ ca sanātanaṁ ca

TRANSLATION

In the course of time, the transcendental news of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in Vṛndāvana was almost lost. To enunciate explicitly those transcendental pastimes, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu empowered Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī with the nectar of His mercy to carry out this work in Vṛndāvana.

TEXT 120

From the very beginning, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī was deeply attracted by the transcendental qualities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Thus he was permanently relieved from family life. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and his younger brother, Vallabha, were blessed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Although the Lord was transcendentally situated in His transcendental eternal form, at Prayāga He told Rūpa Gosvāmī about transcendental ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa. The Lord then embraced him very fondly and bestowed all His mercy upon him.

COMMENT

When we went for Kumbha-mela with Srila Prabhupada in 1971, Srila Prabhupada took us to Dashashwamedh ghat, which is the place that Lord Chaitanya instructed Rupa Gosvami and which is the basis of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

TEXT 121

priya-svarūpe dayita-svarūpe
prema-svarūpe sahajābhirūpe
nijānurūpe prabhur eka-rūpe
tatāna rūpe sva-vilāsa-rūpe

TRANSLATION

Indeed, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, whose dear friend was Svarūpa Dāmodara, was the exact replica of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he was very, very dear to the Lord. Being the embodiment of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s ecstatic love, Rūpa Gosvāmī was naturally very beautiful. He very carefully followed the principles enunciated by the Lord, and he was a competent person to explain properly the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu expanded His mercy to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī just so he could render service by writing transcendental literatures.

TEXT 122

The characteristics of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī have thus been described in various places by the poet Kavi-karṇapūra. An account has also been given of how Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu bestowed His causeless mercy upon Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī.

TEXT 123

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī were the objects of love and honor for all the great stalwart devotees of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

COMMENT

So, we are very indebted to Srila Rupa Gosvami. He received knowledge directly from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, just as Lord Brahma received knowledge directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead; and then he expanded the knowledge that he received in the form of many books, of which Srila Prabhupada chose to translate Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the complete science of bhakti-yoga.

So Rupa Gosvami begins his book with one very nice verse. Actually, why don’t you all come up and get your copies of The Nectar of Devotion because then you can follow them.

You can turn to the Introduction, because the first twelve verses of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu actually come in the Introduction. So the first verse is:

TEXT 1.1.1

akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrtiḥ prasṛmara-ruci-ruddha-tārakā-pāliḥ

kalita-śyāmā-lalito rādhā-preyān vidhur Jayati

TRANSLATION

Let Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, be glorified! By virtue of His expanding attractive features, He subjugated the gopīs named Tārakā and Pālikā and absorbed Śyāmā and Lalitā. He is the most attractive lover of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and is the reservoir of pleasure for all devotional mellows.

COMMENT

So, the title of the book Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, is discussed by Srila Prabhupada in the preface with special reference to the word rasa, because rasa is very difficult to translate into English, but Srila Prabhupada accepted the use of the word mellows, following Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, meaning the sweet taste that one derives from rendering devotional service to Krishna. Now, rasa, in the higher sense, is actually composed of five different types of bhāva, or ecstasy, and when the five different types of bhāva combine, they produce rasa. So later we will discuss something about the five different types of bhāva, but we can just imagine how ecstatic rasa is. Because it is made up of five different types of ecstasy, and one of the types of ecstasy is called sthāyi-bhāva, which means permanent ecstasy, and the permanent ecstasy will come in one of five categories: neutrality, servitorship, friendship, parental affection, and conjugal love.

So, when the person becomes established in his eternal relationship with Krishna, he is continuously feeling ecstasy in one of the five types of relationships. And then the basic continuous ecstasy becomes mixed with other types of ecstasies and the combination produces rasa. So the mixture of different types of ecstasies has been compared to a mixture of yogurt, sugar candy, black pepper, and camphor, which is exceedingly tasty.

So, the reservoir of all rasas is Krishna, the reservoir of all pleasure and all mellows. And only Krishna can be said to be the reservoir of all rasas, because in relation to other expansions of Krishna or incarnations of Krishna in Vaikuntha, or even in Dvaraka, the higher rasas of conjugal love and parental affection and friendship without any mixture of awe and reverence, or servitorship, they don’t exist. They only exist in Vrindavan and in relation to Krishna, so Krishna is the only one who actually fits the description here in the first verse.

Then, in the second verse, after offering obeisances to Lord Krishna, Rupa Gosvami offers obeisances to Lord Chaitanya. Then he offers obeisances to his spiritual master, Sanatana Gosvami, and then he offers obeisances to all the Vaishnavas, who are compared to sharks, who swim in the ocean of bhakti, or the ocean of nectar. Then he prays that Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu be protected from the arguments of mundane persons, and then he explains something about the ocean of nectar that just as in the ocean of water there are four sides, so in the ocean of nectar there are also four sides: the eastern side, the southern side, the western side, and the northern side.

And thus, there are four divisions of the book. So the first division is the eastern side, which discusses the general. . . It’s a general description of devotional service, so that’s what we’ll be dealing with in the course. And on the eastern side there are four waves: the first wave is a general description of devotional service, the second wave deals with sādhana-bhakti, devotional service in practice, the third wave is bhāva-bhakti, devotional service in ecstasy, and the fourth wave is prema-bhakti, or devotional service in pure love of God. Then, Rupa Gosvami says that in order to have any discussion of bhakti, we first need a definition, and in the eleventh verse he gives the definition, and the eleventh verse is called the paribhāṣya-sutra, or the verse which governs all of the other verses in the whole book, or the verse which explains all the other verses in the whole book. Like in Brahma-saṁhitā, the paribhāṣya-sutra is the first verse (5.1):

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

So most of the introduction is devoted to explaining the eleventh verse:

TEXT 11

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

TRANSLATION

When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṇa favorably, as Kṛṣṇa desires.

COMMENT

So we’ll discuss some of the important words as Srila Prabhupada does in The Nectar of Devotion:

Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ—without desires other than those for the service of Lord Krishna, or without material desires (such as those for meat-eating, illicit sex, gambling, and addiction to intoxicants). So pure devotional service must be without any other desire except to serve Krishna. Now someone may say that we also have some desire when we render sādhana-bhakti, and that is to achieve bhāva-bhakti or prema-bhakti. But such desire to achieve higher stages of bhakti are not against the principles of pure devotional service, because at every stage the basic principle is service to Krishna. So, Srila Prabhupada said that in Krishna consciousness everything is absolute – the means and the end are the same. So the means is bhakti and the end is bhakti. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ is meant to exclude jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam: fruitive activities, mental speculation, artificial detachment, mechanical practice of yoga, impersonal philosophy, and so on. Those things which cover bhakti, they have to be avoided. Here jnana does not mean knowledge which is favorable to Krishna consciousness, like the knowledge we get from devotional scriptures, and karma does not mean the activities that we perform in relation to Krishna consciousness, but it means fruitive activities or impersonal speculation.

Now here some interesting questions may be raised. We had one devotee in Bombay who asked Srila Prabhupada that if a devotee sees a man drowning, should he save him? Because a devotee is supposed to engage in unalloyed devotional service, he is not supposed to mix any other activities. So where does saving a drowning man come in the list of devotional activities? So should the devotee save him? So Srila Prabhupada replied that in principle he should not save him, because actually we have no business interfering with people’s actions and reactions. Because their actions and reactions will go on, and by interfering we are not really helping them or doing anything good for ourselves either. Then Srila Prabhupada said that if we don’t save the drowning man, people may criticize that, “Oh, he is a devotee, he could have saved the man! He didn’t save the man, he has no compassion,” and they’ll go on criticizing. So Srila Prabhupada said there is another consideration called loka-vicāra, or public sentiment. So sometimes a devotee will do something which is not strictly included in the category of devotional service out of consideration for public sentiment or popular opinion, so that the people don’t become hostile to the devotees and thus make it harder for themselves to take to Krishna consciousness, make it harder for the devotees to preach Krishna consciousness.

So sometimes, someone may do something that is actually in the category of material ritualistic activities, but if he does it for the sake of avoiding the criticism of ordinary people, or in other words, for the sake of preaching, then it’s not against the principles of devotional service. But if the person thinks that, “Unless I do some pious material work, I cannot achieve bhakti,” then that is against the principles of pure devotional service. If the person thinks that, “If I don’t do it, some bad will come to me; if I don’t do some material pious activities some bad will come to me,” that is also against the principles of pure devotional service, because pure devotional service is completely independent. It doesn’t depend on any other process like jnana or karma or yoga, but to the contrary, karma, jnana, and yoga depend on bhakti for real success.

Then, ānukūlyena means favorable; kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ—cultivation of service in relationship to Krishna; bhaktir uttamā—first class devotional service. So Srila Prabhupada has analyzed the word “Krishna” for The Nectar of Devotion. He said that the word “Krishna” includes Krishna, the Original Personality of Godhead, all the various expansions of Krishna, the paraphernalia of Krishna, and the pure devotees of Krishna. So cultivating favorable service to them is all in the category of bhakti. And the word “cultivate” means there should be some activity. It doesn’t mean just like silent meditation. And Srila Prabhupada also analyzes that there are different agents of activity. There is the body, the mind, and words, and all of the activities of the living entity, with body, with mind, and with words, should all be done in relation to Krishna. And he explains the importance of the spiritual master to guide the disciple in engagement in devotional service. And he also explains that some actions are positive and some actions are negative. Just like the first ten items of devotional service are do’s: you must accept a spiritual master, you must take initiation from him, you must follow his instructions; and then the next ten items are don’ts: you should not commit offenses, you should not listen to blasphemy of the Lord or the devotees, you should not associate intimately with non-devotees. So both, the positive actions and the negative actions, are included in the term ānu-śīlanaṁ : cultivation or activity.

Now, ānukūlyena, favorable, is very important. There are actually two applications of the criterion of favorability. One is that the person’s activity should actually be favorable to

Krishna’s pleasure. In other words, Krishna should get pleasure from it. And the person’s attitude towards Krishna should be favorable. And if both conditions exist, then we can say that there is bhakti. Now, if we take the example of Kamsa, and so many other demons who fought with Krishna, or even the example of Hiraṇyakṣa or Hiranyakasipu. . .(end of side one)

The meaning is that they get liberation. But they don’t get the same type of liberation. The demons merge into the effulgence of the Lord whereas the devotees enter the planet of the Lord to render service to Him.

Devotee: Putana, she got the mother-service?

Giriraj Swami: But she is a special case, which we can discuss later. We’ll discuss that when we discuss the question of the demons and the devotees, but we have another very interesting question to consider now, and that is that when Mother Yasoda was feeding Krishna with her breast milk, the milk that was on the pot on the fire began to boil over, so she set aside baby Krishna, put Him on the floor before He was satisfied drinking her milk, and tended to the fire on the stove. And the result was that Krishna became very angry and started to cry. So, was Mother Yasoda engaged in pure devotional service? Because what she did doesn’t seem to be favorable to Krishna’s pleasure; in fact, to the contrary, Krishna became very upset, and she was giving more importance to the milk than to Krishna. So, was she engaged in pure devotional service or not?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, her attitude was favorable, but in the end Krishna wasn’t pleased. So we are discussing two requirements: one is that the attitude of the performer should be favorable and the other is that Krishna should actually be pleased. I’ll give one example and then we’ll hear other answers. One very big man in Bombay, he was sort of telling us about how devoted he was, and then he pulled out a little silver box from his pocket which had tulasi leaves in it, and he said that he never takes anything without first putting tulasi in it, even when he drinks tea; he first puts tulasi and then drinks. So is that devotional service? No. His attitude was favorable, he was thinking that he was doing service to Krishna, but actually Krishna won’t be pleased, ultimately because he wasn’t acting according to the injunctions of the scriptures – and that also we’ll come to later that if one executes devotional service without following the injunctions of the scriptures, then he just creates a disturbance. Just like there are so many deviant groups who think that they are devotees, who claim that they are devotees, but because they are not really following sadhu, shastra, and guru, it’s not favorable. Yes, so now, was mother Yasoda engaged in devotional service when she neglected Krishna for the sake of the milk?

Devotee: . . . for the sake of Krishna’s pastimes. . . [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: The same type of answer: that she was in vātsalya-rasa and in vātsalya-rasa the parents have to chastise the children or they have to discipline the children, and the children have to accept what the parents do and say, whether they like it or not. But there is one other point: it goes back to the definition of Krishna that Krishna isn’t just Krishna, but it also includes His paraphernalia and His devotees. So the milk, Krishna’s milk, is also non-different from Krishna, so by serving Krishna’s milk, she is also serving Krishna. And Jiva Gosvami explains that actually the milk is a devotee of Krishna, because in the spiritual world everything is spiritual and conscious, so the milk is a devotee of Krishna, and the milk was thinking that, “If mother Yasoda goes on feeding Krishna with her breast milk, then I’ll never get the chance to do any service to Krishna.” So the milk decided, “Let me boil over. In that way Yasoda will have to put down Krishna before He is satisfied and then Krishna will drink milk from the pot.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ 

viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param

tasmāt parataraṁ devi

tadīyānāṁ samarcanam

“Of all types of worship the worship of Vishnu is the highest. But even higher than the worship of Vishnu is the worship of things related to Him.” [Padma Purāṇa]

Giriraj Swami: Very correct!

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Because Vrindavan is non-different from Krishna or tadīyānāṁ samarcanam. . . correct.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:31:30]

Giriraj Swami: In the higher rasas, the apparent conflicts between the Lord and the devotees all are meant to give more and more pleasure to Krishna. There is one verse in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta where Krishna says that, “I appreciate the. . .” The background is that once Uddhava visited Vrindavan with Krishna, when Krishna was still in Vrindavan, and He saw Jatila, who plays the part of an old lady who’s sort of nasty to Krishna, so Krishna detected that there was some disrespect in Uddhava towards Jatila. And then he told Uddhava that actually, “I find the words of the older gopīs of Vrindavan, who may be a little nasty or sarcastic, more pleasing than the prayers of the sages and the demigods.” So inwardly He actually enjoys it more.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:33:01]

Devotee: . . . difference between the milk in the pot and the milk of mother Yasoda. . .?

Giriraj Swami: Well, everything in the spiritual world is personal, like there is Yamuna-devi. So she has her personal form, but she is also manifest as the Yamuna River.

Devotee: What’s your conclusion?

Giriraj Swami: That it is devotional service!

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, He was pleased, and it was devotional service because the milk is Krishna’s paraphernalia and serving Krishna’s paraphernalia is non-different from serving Krishna, or it’s actually better. And her attitude was favorable; she tended to the milk for the sake of Krishna’s service.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:34:00]

Giriraj Swami: The residents of Vrindavan always please Krishna, but the demons who enter Vrindavan to kill Krishna. . . He is pleased anyway, but what they do is not in the category of devotional service, because their attitude towards Krishna is not favorable. But the eternal residents of Vrindavan, their attitude towards Krishna is favorable, and it’s true that although what they do may seem to be contrary, like Krishna’s parents may scold Him, call Him a thief, raise the stick, but it’s all favorable, because whatever they are doing is out of love for Krishna. If some cowherd boys fight with Krishna and they defeat Krishna in some sport, that’s favorable. Everything is done with love for Krishna; they want to please Krishna and they please Him more by fighting with Him as equals than by praying to Him as a subordinate. So when Krishna is defeated and He has to carry the other cowherd boy on His shoulder, He is pleased, because it’s part of their rasa. So, ocean of rasa, pleasure. . .

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:35:35]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, because he is remembering Krishna. In other words, drinking alcohol is not devotional service, but remembering Krishna is one of the main types of devotional service. So that’s a very good analysis: the remembrance of Krishna is devotional service but the drinking of alcohol is not devotional service, and Prabhupada said, “We can’t whimsically do something and offer it to Krishna. We actually have to offer to Krishna what Krishna wants.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:36:54]

Giriraj Swami: Well, there is something called ajñāta-sukṛti, which means some activity favorable to Krishna consciousness, in which the person is not aware of the fact that he is doing devotional service. So, in a broad definition of bhakti, just like someone sees a devotee and he just appreciates that the devotee is nice, so that appreciation. . . one makes advancement by that appreciation, but he doesn’t know that the person is a devotee and that he is engaged in devotional service or anything, but he just appreciates the person, so the person makes advancement.

Now, whether we want to say that’s devotional service or something preliminary to devotional service, it would depend, because definitions can be more broad or more narrow, and when Srila Prabhupada is in a more generous mood, he may call it devotional service, but when he is discussing in a more strict way, it becomes like a preliminary activity, and when enough of such preliminary activities accumulate, then one can engage in devotional service. But you see, it can’t be considered pious activity, because devotional service isn’t caused by anything material, so no amount of pious activity can cause devotional service to manifest. But these activities, they’re like devotional service, but they’re not exactly devotional service.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: No, it’s favorable; they are favorable to the devotee, the devotee is related to Krishna, so therefore they are favorable to Krishna and Krishna will be pleased, “Oh, he is appreciating My devotee. . .”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:39:45]

Giriraj Swami: Oh that! Well, we couldn’t really say it’s devotional service to put tulasi in the tea, because it’s not according to the scripture. . .

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:40:00]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, but you can’t offer something whimsically. There are many deviant sects where they offer things which aren’t offerable. Just like if someone offers fish to Krishna, is that devotional service? I mean we offer what Krishna wants, that’s the basic criterion of favorability. We can read about it in the purport. Prabhupada says a little in the purport. He quotes the verse, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru. Then he says, “These are the desires of the Supreme Lord, and one who fulfills His desires favorably is actually a pure devotee.”

[Devotee enters the classroom]

Giriraj Swami: Oh!

Devotee: Haribol! How are you?

Giriraj Swami: Fine! I mean you are here. I think it’s so nice. I think we’ll continue tomorrow. We can’t end in one day. Okay. Thank you! We’ll continue tomorrow. Hare Krishna!