TLC – Teachings of Lord Caitanya to Rupa Gosvami—Part 05

Giriraj Swami: So the desires for bhukti and mukti are compared to witches that haunt one. And as long as they have a place in our hearts, it will be very difficult for the real happiness of devotional service to enter. We discussed in the beginning, bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī — sakali ‘aśānta’ - those who desire bhukti, mukti, and siddhi, because they have selfish desires, they cannot be peaceful. kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma ataeva śānta, only the devotee of Krishna has no selfish desires and therefore only Krishna’s devotee can actually be peaceful.

So one may take to the process of devotional service, but if he still harbors some desire for bhukti or mukti, he cannot experience the happiness of devotional service. Srila Prabhupada says that as long as one desires to become more and more important, either in the material sense or in the spiritual sense, he cannot experience the sweet taste of Krishna consciousness. One time in Detroit, Srila Prabhupada was speaking and saying that one should become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. And the more one becomes the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, the more Krishna consciousness becomes sweet. It becomes sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. So we should have no desire for material importance or spiritual importance. Then

tṛṇād api su-nīcena
 taror iva sahiṣṇunā
 amāninā māna-dena
 kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

Then we will be able to experience the nectar of Krishna consciousness.

[CC. Madhya-līlā, Chapter Nineteen]

TEXT 177

sādhana-bhakti haite haya ‘rati’ra udaya
rati gāḍha haile tāra ‘prema’ nāma kaya

COMMENT

By the process of sādhana-bhakti one awakens rati or bhāva-bhakti. And when rati becomes intensified it becomes prema-bhakti. 

TRANSLATION

 “By regularly rendering devotional service, one gradually becomes attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When that attachment is intensified, it becomes love of Godhead.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.2) gives the following information about sādhana-bhakti:

kṛti-sādhyā bhavet sādhya- bhāvā sā sādhanābhidhā
nitya-siddhasya bhāvasya prākaṭyaṁ hṛdi sādhyatā

The process of devotional service — beginning with chanting and hearing — is called sādhana-bhakti.

COMMENT

When one engages in the service of the Lord with the senses, and by such service, bhāva-bhakti is awakened. That is sādhana-bhakti.

So there are two elements to the definition. One is that the devotee serves the Lord with the senses, especially by chanting and hearing. And the other element is that by such service, dormant love for Krishna is awakened, bhāva. Now there are different stages in devotional service in general, and in sādhana-bhakti also. So first is faith, adau sraddha, then association with devotees, sādhu-saṅga, then initiation by the spiritual master, and engagement in service under the instructions of a spiritual master. That is called bhajana-kriyā. Now along with the process of bhajana-kriyā, there should be the eradication of anarthas, which is called anartha-nivṛtti. Even though we engage in devotional service, but as long as anarthas remain, we cannot be steady. Even if we vow that, “From now onwards, I will not speak ill of any Vaishnava,” or if we resolve, “From now onwards, I will not eat more prasāda than necessary,” or whatever we may decide, yet we cannot keep our resolution. We decide that we will not find faults with Vaishnavas anymore, but something will happen, or somebody will come, and again we do the same thing that we decided that we weren’t going to do. Or we decide that we won’t eat more than necessary, but again some nice mahā-prasāda will come, or somebody will prepare some good feast, and we eat too much.

Now the reason that we cannot keep our vows, even though we decide with all good intentions to do certain things that are favorable and not to do other things that are not favorable, is because of anarthas within the heart. And as long as anarthas remain, we cannot achieve the standard of devotional practice that we want. So while we engage in devotional service, bhajana-kriyā, we have to face anarthas and overcome them, anartha-nivṛtti. And as long as the anarthas remain, we will always have many troubles in spiritual practice. But when the majority of the anarthas are eradicated, then one becomes steady, niṣṭhā. He doesn’t have any doubts as to what he should do, but he is firmly convinced about the value of Krishna consciousness. And he always wants to be engaged in devotional service. He does not want to waste time in any other activities. But still, even in the stage of niṣṭhā, there are some anarthas that can trouble him to some extent. But then, being free from anarthas and being steady in his spiritual practices, he can develop taste, ruci. And when he actually has taste, then he becomes very attached to devotional service, and ultimately to Krishna personally. And such deep attachment is the mature stage of sādhana-bhakti. From such deep attachment, one, when he gets the mercy of Krishna, or some rāgātmikā-bhakta, then he can get bhāva. Bhāva and rati are synonymous; both mean the same thing. So since Lord Chaitanya used the word rati in the verse, Srila Prabhupada quotes the definition of rati or the mention of rati in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

PURPORT (continued)

The word rati is explained in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu(1.3.41) as follows:

vyaktaṁ masṛṇatevāntar- lakṣyate rati-lakṣaṇam
mumukṣu-prabhṛtīnāṁ ced bhaved eṣā ratir na hi

“When a tenderness of the heart is manifested, there is rati, or attachment. But those who are interested in being liberated from material bondage will not manifest this tenderness.” This attachment is not like material attachment. When one is free of material contamination, attachment for Kṛṣṇa’s service awakens and is called rati.

COMMENT

So here again, there are two or three parts of the definition. The first part of the definition is that there is a softening of the heart. And the second part of the definition is that the person is liberated, or that rati exists on the liberated platform of śuddha-sattva, beyond the material modes of nature. And the third part is implied because when rati becomes intensified, it becomes prema. So, rati or bhāva is considered the first ray of the sun of prema. It is the preliminary stage of prema.

PURPORT (continued)

Transcendental rati can be awakened only on the spiritual platform. Ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa (prema) is described in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.41) as follows:

samyaṅ masṛṇita-svānto mamatvātiśayāṅkitaḥ
bhāvaḥ sa eva sāndrātmā budhaiḥ premā nigadyate

“When the heart is completely softened and devoid of all material desires and when one’s emotional feelings become very strong, one becomes very much attached to Kṛṣṇa. Such purified emotion is known as pure love.”

COMMENT

So here also, there are different elements. First, although the heart melts to some extent in bhāva, but it melts completely in prema, or in other words, when bhāva is intensified, it becomes prema. And all attachment is reposed in Krishna and not diverted to anyone else. All sense of ‘my’ness, mamata is reposed in Krishna. In other words, we don’t think we don’t have any attachment for “my body” or for “my family,” “I and mine,” but we think only “I am Krishna’s,” and “Krishna is mine.” We don’t have any other possession except Krishna, and we don’t care to have any other possession.

Now, we come back to the point that Lord Chaitanya instructed Rupa Gosvami at Prayag, Allahabad to inspire him and empower him to write Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. And the instructions given by Lord Chaitanya to Rupa Gosvami are the subject of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, in brief. So Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu means the ocean of the nectar of devotion. And just as the ocean of water has four sides—the eastern side, the southern side, the western side, and the northern side—so Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu is divided into four parts. And all of the elements of the four parts are explained briefly here in the instructions of Lord Chaitanya to Rupa Gosvami. So the eastern division is called “Varieties of Devotional Service.” And in the eastern division, there are four waves. The list is actually given at the back of The Nectar of Devotion. So the first wave is devotional service in general. And there we find the verse, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ and several of the other verses quoted here by Lord Chaitanya. Then the second wave is sādhana-bhakti, the third wave is bhāva-bhakti, and the fourth wave is prema-bhakti. Then the next division is the southern division, which is discussion of bhakti-rasa in general. And there are five waves which correspond to five types of bhāvas or ecstasy. There is the vibhāva, anubhava, sāttvika-bhāva, sanchari-bhāva and sthāyi-bhāva.

So now we are actually entering into a very high level of discussion because, as we read in the definition, that bhāva begins on the liberated platform, and therefore the topics can actually be understood properly, or realized actually by liberated persons. But as Lord Chaitanya gave instructions to Rupa Gosvami, and as Rupa Gosvami elaborated them in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and as Srila Prabhupada translated them in The Nectar of Devotion, and also here in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we shall try to discuss to some extent, so at least we have some idea of what the goal is. Sadhana means the means and sādhya means the goal. And both bhāva-bhakti and prema-bhakti are sādhya. Now, actually within the category of prema, just like from sraddha, there is sraddha, sādhu-saṅga, bhajana-kriyā, and so on, so similarly prema also develops into various higher stages. And the success of higher stages are sneha, which is affection; mana, which is the anger of love; praṇaya, which is love, but a higher development of love than simple prema. Then rāga, anurāga, bhāva and mahā-bhāva.

Now, the definition of sneha, of course, sneha means affection. When one has simple prema, he will have śānta-rasa only; śānta-rasa means that he is fixed in the Absolute Truth and detached from matter completely. But in dāsya-rasa, there is the added element of service, and the service is impelled by affection for sneha. In śānta-rasa, there is appreciation of the greatness of the Lord, and there will be some tendency towards the impersonal aspect of the Lord, Brahman, by the localized feature called Paramātmā. And very little contact with the personal form of Krishna. But when prema matures or increases to sneha and other stages up to raga, one can enter dāsya-rasa. So, one of the characteristics of sneha is that the devotee cannot bear separation from the Lord even for a moment. And in praṇaya, he is ready to accept any condition without any desire for name and fame.

Just like Bali Maharaja is the example because he was cheated by Vamana Dev, who came in the form of a dwarf, Brahman. In the form of a dwarf Brahman, he asked for only three steps of land, but after Bali agreed to give the three steps of land, Vamana expanded Himself into a gigantic form and with one step, He covered the higher half of the universe, and with the second step, He covered the lower half of the universe. So with two steps, He covered the whole universe. Then he asked Bali Maharaja that, “You have promised three steps, but you have only given Me two steps, so you are a liar and a cheater, and I am going to arrest you and punish you.” So, actually, Bali Maharaja offered the Lord that He could place His lotus foot on the head of Bali Maharaja and thus wanted to fulfill his promise for three steps. But still, Vamana said that “I am going to arrest you and punish you.” So he was bound with ropes and humiliated in front of his family members, his subjects, and everyone. In front of the demigods, who he had fought with and defeated. He was humiliated, but he was not unhappy at all. He was fully happy; he was very cheerful. So this is an example of one of the higher stages of prema, that one has no desire for personal honor; he is simply satisfied to be engaged in the service of the Lord.

So in rāga, happiness becomes unhappiness, and unhappiness becomes happiness. Here, one devotee prayed that, “Even if I am pushed into the hellish planets, but if I have the mercy of Krishna, I will be very happy. And even if I become the king of Dvaraka, but if I am bereft of the mercy of Krishna, I will be very unhappy.” So, it is like that: without Krishna consciousness, heaven becomes hell; where happiness becomes unhappiness, and with Krishna consciousness, hell becomes heaven, or unhappiness becomes happiness. And he is ready to do anything for the service of the Lord, even give up his life. And here, the example is Maharaja Pariksit. And when he was cursed by the Brahman to be killed, he thought that the Lord is giving me the chance to come to Him and serve Him. And therefore, he did not make any effort to protect his physical body or life, but he didn’t mind giving up his body for the sake of his service to the Lord.

So, if one develops one’s love up to the point of raga, he can come to the stage of dāsya-rasa. And when one goes further to the stage of anurāga, he can come to the stage of sākhya-rasa and vātsalya-rasa, or friendship and parental affection. And the characteristic of anurāga is that even having the association of the Lord, one wants to drink more and more the nectar of the Lord. And having such intense desire to experience the Lord more and more, or appreciate the Lord more and more, the Lord takes on newer and newer features. In other words, He doesn’t appear to remain the same, but He manifests newer and newer features which are always different, and always [Break in Audio] it becomes more intensified; it becomes bhāva. And when bhāva becomes more intensified, it becomes mahā-bhāva. And bhāva and mahā-bhāva are experienced in mādhurya-rasa. And in mahā-bhāva, even one moment’s separation from Krishna is experienced as millions and trillions of years. Even one moment of separation becomes like an eternity. And Lord Chaitanya has expressed that mood in Śikṣāṣṭakam also,

yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa
cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam
śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ
govinda-viraheṇa me

That one moment seemed like one yuga in separation from Krishna. So, the development from rati, rati is compared to the seed, then one gets the sugarcane plant, juice, molasses, sugar, rock candy, and so on. So when you have the juice and then you evaporate the juice, the juice becomes sweet, thicker, and it becomes molasses. When the molasses is further dried, it becomes dry molasses, and when it is further processed, it becomes sugar, raw sugar. Then it finally becomes raw candy, and so on. There is a whole process. And in Mauritius, there are many sugar factories which you can visit and see the process.

So, coming back to the general characteristics of bhakti-rasa, there are five elements. So now, Lord Chaitanya explains in brief how the five elements combine to produce bhakti-rasa. Bhakti-rasa is manifest in the stage of prema. So in the stage of bhāva, one experiences the different types of bhāvas at different times and in different ways. So everything is so scientifically explained, and that is why Srila Prabhupada has subtitled The Nectar of Devotion as the complete science of bhakti-yoga, so scientific. So, sthāyi-bhāva means continuous ecstasy. And we will discuss that in a few moments. But before continuous ecstasy, there is vibhāva, which means causes that give rise to ecstasy. And in vibhāva, there are two divisions. Now, you don’t actually have to, if you want to, you can write everything, but you don’t actually have to write because the same information is given in Madhya-līlā, Chapter Twenty-three. And the basic idea is to understand the different ingredients of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that when in the future when you read The Nectar of Devotion, you can understand how The Nectar of Devotion is presented, how the teachings of Lord Chaitanya have been elaborated in The Nectar of Devotion. But you can just try to hear something, and by hearing, definitely something will stick, even though it is a difficult subject.

Srila Prabhupada had one fellow disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, and he was a very nice devotee. So one time, he got very sick and he was not able to keep anything in that he ate; everything passed out, even water. So he was getting worse and worse, and he was about to die. Then one of the devotees took him to some place in East Bengal to some Ayurvedic physician. And the Ayurvedic physician told him that every day you should drink ghee. So everyone became quite upset, and they said that he can’t even hold water, so how is he going to hold the ghee? He will die. So the doctor said, “No, I know that he cannot hold even water, but he has to get something that will give him strength. So if he drinks ghee, some coating of ghee will stick to his stomach, and that will be enough to sustain his life. And then gradually, he will get strength, and he will recover.” And actually, it happened. Within one week or ten days, he started to recover his strength, and within one month, he was cured. So, in the same way, when we discuss high subjects, we may not be able to retain much, but something will stick, and that will help us.

So vibhāva, vibhāva are things that arouse ecstasy, and there are two divisions in vibhāva. One is the foundation, and the foundation also has two divisions. That is, the object of the love, which is Krishna, and the container of the love, which is the devotee. So, by seeing Krishna, one can experience ecstasy, or by seeing the devotee who has love for Krishna, one can experience ecstasy. Then, apart from the foundation for ālambana, there are other things which are called stimulants to ecstatic love, or uddīpana. And those include Krishna’s qualities, Krishna’s flute, Krishna’s footprints, Krishna’s decorations, Krishna’s dress, Krishna’s devotees also. For example, when Akrura was on the way to Vrindavan to get Krishna and Balarama and bring Them to Mathura, he saw the footprints of Krishna in the sand of Vrindavan. So, seeing the footprints of Krishna, he experienced transcendental ecstasy. Lord Chaitanya had one devotee named Mukunda dasa, who was the court physician of the Muhammadan king. So, one time Mukunda dasa and the king were on a high platform, and a servant of the king came with a peacock fan to fan the king. When Mukunda saw the peacock feathers, he remembered Krishna and he fainted in ecstasy. He fell from the platform. Such things are called uddīpana, or stimulants for ecstatic love or excitement. Srila Prabhupada uses different words; sometimes he says “the awakening.” It causes the awakening of ecstasy.

So, this is vibhāva, things that arouse ecstasy. And anubhava, “aṇu” means that which follows. So anubhava means the bodily symptoms that follow when one experiences ecstasy within the mind. There are so many anubhavas, and some are mentioned in the purport: dancing, rolling on the ground, singing, jumping, making loud noises, not caring for public opinion, and so on. Srila Prabhupada has said that the first symptom of ecstasy is dancing. When the devotees came to Madras with Srila Prabhupada for one program and did hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana on the main road, the newspaper wrote that the devotees were chanting and dancing in ecstasy. One envious godbrother or disciple of one envious godbrother of Prabhupada wrote to the newspaper and said that ecstasy is a very high stage, described by Rupa Gosvami in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and they could not have experienced ecstasy. So Srila Prabhupada became very upset with the envious remark, and he replied. But we can have, even at the stage of sadhana, some little experience of bhāva when we are in kirtan. And if spontaneously we feel like dancing, that is like a glimpse of transcendental ecstasy. But of course, if we like the music and we like the rhythm and we are dancing to be in tune with the music and the rhythm like people dance in discos, then it is not the same. But if it actually arises out of a spontaneous feeling of blissfulness, then we can say that it is a glimpse of ecstasy. Same with crying.

Then there is sattvika-bhāva, which is similar to anubhava in one sense. It is the same as anubhava, but the difference is that in anubhava, there is some emotion that passes through the intelligence first. Now, of course, when we talk about bhāva, we are discussing the liberated platform. So when we refer to intelligence, we don’t mean the material intelligence of conditioned souls, but we mean the pure intelligence of the liberated soul in the spiritual body. So, all the faculties that we have in the material body also exist in the spiritual body. So when the spiritual emotion passes through the spiritual intelligence and becomes manifest in some bodily transformation, that is anubhava. But when the bodily transformation occurs without going through the spiritual intelligence, that is called sattvika-bhāva, and it is considered even deeper, in one sense, than anubhava. Here, the main one is becoming stunned. When one is stunned, all of the external senses of the body cease to function, and the entire emotion takes place internally. I described the incident where Lord Chaitanya saw the sand dune and took it as Govardhana Hill, so He became stunned, and then so many other extreme symptoms became manifest. So those are sattvika-bhāvas, and the principal symptom is becoming stunned.

Then there are vaybhichari-bhāva, they are thirty-three of them, beginning with harṣa, or jubilation. So, they roam about the sthāyi-bhāva, which is the permanent ecstasy; when one comes to stage, it is the permanent ecstasy that one feels in terms of one’s particular attachment to Krishna. And the attachment, or rati can be śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya or mādhurya. So, that becomes the permanent ecstasy of feeling that “I am Krishna’s servant,” or “I am Krishna’s friend,” or “I am Krishna’s superior,” or “I am Krishna’s lover.” So, that becomes the permanent ecstasy that is always there. So, the vaybhichari-bhāvas are assistants that roam about the sthāyi-bhāva. And the sthāyi-bhāva is compared to an ocean, and the vyabhichari-bhāvas are compared to the waves in the ocean that rise up and fall back down into the same ocean. So, temporarily, any one or, in some cases, a combination of the thirty-three vyabhichari-bhāvas or transitory ecstasies, they may rise up and become very prominent, and then again, after some time, they fall back down into the ocean of sthāyi-bhāva, or permanent ecstasy. So, permanent ecstasy becomes the king, and the permanent ecstasy has to be able to subdue the other ecstasies, like the king has to be able to subdue the subjects. When the sthāyi-bhāva becomes constant and continuous, and all the other bhāvas become subdued by the permanent ecstasy, in other words, they don’t become more powerful than the king, but they are subdued by the king of the permanent ecstasy and they become servants of the permanent ecstasy to enhance the permanent ecstasy, then that becomes rasa. That combination of all five becomes rasa. So, this is the general description of bhakti-rasa, which comes in the southern side of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

Then we discussed something about the different sthāyi-bhāvas, which are called rati. Although we mentioned śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, and mādhurya, but within sākhya, or friendship, there are two divisions. One is reverential friendship, where the devotee has a friendly relationship with the Lord but mixed with reverential feelings, not the complete freedom of friends who consider themselves to be Krishna’s equals. There is a friendly relationship, but some sense of inferiority also. So, śānta-rasa, dāsya-rasa, and the reverential division of sākhya-rasa can exist outside Vrindavan, in Dvaraka, in Ayodhya, and in Vaikuntha. But pure sākhya-rasa, without any feeling of inferiority, exists only in Vrindavan. So, pure sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya exist only in pure forms in Vrindavan, and they may exist to some extent in Mathura and Dvaraka, but there they will be mixed; they will always be mixed with dāsya-rasa, with awe and reverence.

Now, of course, we always have to remember that the different attachments to Krishna described here are on the transcendental platform. And things that the devotees do on the liberated platform, especially the devotees of Vrindavan, would be definite transgressions if they were imitated by conditioned souls. Just like to think oneself as equal to God is most offensive, like the Mayavadis, think that they are equal to God, and the Mayavadis are aparādhi. They are great offenders. But when the cowherd boyfriends of Krishna think that they are equal to Krishna, they do so out of extreme love for the Lord, out of intense affection for the Lord. Because if there is consciousness of the Lord’s superiority or the Lord’s supremacy, then the intimacy and the intensity of the love and reciprocation will be interfered with. So, we should always remember that in our state of sadhana, we are always conscious of the fact that Krishna is the Lord. We are trying to become conscious of the fact that Krishna is the Lord and we are trying to become conscious of the fact that we are His eternal servants. But just so we know what the higher stages of bhakti are and what the goal of sādhana-bhakti is, we are discussing. And also, by hearing, we become purified at heart and enlivened.

Now, after discussing the general characteristics of bhakti-rasa, Rupa Gosvami then discusses the five primary relationships or rasas. This comes in the third division or the western division. So, rasa in general, consists of sthāyi-bhāva, vibhāva, anubhava, sattvika-bhāva, and vyabhichari-bhāva. In other words, not all will be the same in every rasa. So, in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rupa Gosvami takes each primary loving relationship one by one, and then he describes the vibhāvas, anubhavas, sattvika-bhāvas, and vyabhichari-bhāvas for each one. So, it is a complete science. Just to give you some idea of how he does it, and so that when you read The Nectar of Devotion, you can actually understand something of what is going on in The Nectar of Devotion, I will read briefly from two of the waves in the western division, two of the five waves.

So, parenthood: When ecstatic love develops into the relationship of parenthood and becomes steadily established, the relationship is called vātsalya-rasa. So, in every division, the first verse generally will be the definition of either śānta, vātsalya, or whatever rasa. Learned scholars have described the impetuses for parental love for Krishna, (impetuses means vibhāva) existing in the elderly personalities who are in relation with Him as follows. Now, again, the vibhāva, the foundation or the ālambana, has two divisions: the object of the love, which is Krishna, the viṣaya, and the container of the love, which is the devotee or ashraya. And that is the container of the particular type of love. For example, in vātsalya-rasa, the viṣaya or Krishna will be baby Krishna. He will awaken ecstatic love in parental affection, and the āśraya will be the containers of such love, like Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja, and so on. And then uddīpana, the qualities of Krishna or other things related to Krishna, specifically for parental affection, are mentioned. His blackish complexion, His mildness, His sweet words, His simplicity, His shyness, His humility, and His youth. . .