Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa- Jagad Guru said that –“If we are going to express indifference attitude towards that excellent and absolute vraja mādhurya rasa , then surely today or tomorrow we are going to fall down into material rasa to lose all our character.”
tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita-hṛt-saroja
āsse śrutekṣita-patho nanu nātha puṁsām
yad-yad-dhiyā ta urugāya vibhāvayanti
tat-tad-vapuḥ praṇayase sad-anugrahāya (ŚB 3.9.11)
O my Lord, Your devotees can see You through the ears by the process of bona fide hearing, and thus their hearts become purified, and You take Your seat there. You are so merciful to Your devotees that You manifest Yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence in which they always think of You.
According to the mood of bhajan of devotees Bhagavan appears in their hearts. Surely Nanda Nandan Śrī Kṛṣṇa cannot appear inside the heart of Tulsi dasji Maharaj, because he always wants to take darśana of Śrī Rāmacandra his Ista deva.
One very vital point we can find in the above śloka— “śrutekṣita-patho…..”, which we should never forget. Our way of bhajan is śrauta-panthā. First of all we will have to hear from Guruparampara then we can come out successful to catch hari-kathā in true sense. Then it will be possible for us to see everything (apprakrita) inside our heart as it is. Material people thinking that they can just buy one flight (or train) ticket to reach to Vṛndāvana, but how it is possible to reach Vṛndāvana this way, it is never possible. Śrīla Svarūp Gosāi– he never went to Vṛndāvana, but Śrīman Mahāprabhu Himself has said that—“iṅho dāmodara-svarūpa — śuddha-vrajavāsī, that means this Svarūp Damodar is a pure Vrajavasi.” Similar way Śrīla Prabhodānanda Sarasvatīpad never visited Śrī Dhām Navadvīpa, but all his aprākṛta writings about Śrī Navadvīpa Dhām are beyond human comprehension. Those writings already glorified by all our previous ācāryas. We always try to visit Vṛndāvana with our dirty darśana (material darśana), whereas by the help of which only we can see monkeys, pigs, stool and urine, etc. nothing else.
One day one so called devotee came back from Śrī Dham Vṛndāvana to take darshan of my Guru Padapadma. Then Guru Maharaj asked him—“Oh! You are coming from Vṛndāvana, how was it for you, nice?” Then the devotee replied–“Oh! Maharaj it was ok, but so much dirty all around, stool and urine everywhere and the drainage system not working properly”. After the devotee went out of the room, Śrīla Guru Maharaj said to me that –“You see! This is his Vṛndāvana darśana.”
aprākṛta vastu nahe prākṛta-gocara
veda-purāṇete ei kahe nirantara (C.c.Madhya-9.195)
Perception of spiritual objects (aprākṛta –vastu) is not within the range of the material senses and those are beyond the range of our material mind. The Vedas and the Purāṇas proclaim this repeatedly.
That’s why our material eyes can never see the Holy Dhām, because — adoksaja vastu sravanika vedya, only under the guidance of śuddha praṇaya bhakta we can have the opportunity to see aprākṛta Dhām by hearing the glories of dhāma from them.
yathā yathātmā parimṛjyate ’sau
mat-puṇya-gāthā-śravaṇābhidhānaiḥ
tathā tathā paśyati vastu sūkṣmaṁ
cakṣur yathaivāñjana-samprayuktam (ŚB 11.14.26)
According to the ratio of hearing of hari-kathā from right source (authentic source) one can clean heart to see all super fine objects relating to that aprākṛta jagat, just like by the application of Ayurvedic black medicine in to eyes one can develop eyesight.
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagat Guru said that –“If we are going to express indifferent attitude towards that excellent and absolute vraja mādhurya rasa, then surely we will fall down into material rasa to lose our character.” Surely braja mādhurya rasa is our ultimate goal in our Gauḍīya bhajan life. But we are really very unfortunate to discover ourselves in such a fallen poor condition, from where it is quite impossible for us to reach up to that unique platform. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvamipad has written in his Namaṣṭakam that — “mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ”, only those who are mukta puruṣa— free from material bondage, for them this kind of rāgānuga bhajan is possible. Surely this is not at all open to all, and i just want to remind you the answer given by Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura to the following question of some important personality, the question was — “Can we not allow everybody to do kṛṣṇa bhajan ? Why not? I think finally, ´survival of the fittest´ formula can lead us up to our satisfaction, yes or not ?.” Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura answered that— “No, not at all, it is better to keep the Gośala empty than to maintain all wicked cows”. So from this answer by Śrīla Ṭhākura we should understand that it is the responsibility of each and every Acharya to check them up very carefully, those who are approaching them to do Hari bhajan. Because in the name of Hari bhajan they are running after lābha-pūjā-pratiṣṭhādi etc. Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura identified himself as the sweeper of nama hatta, that is why our Gauḍīya ācāryas they also wanted to identify themselves as the sweepers of nama hatta–The market place of the Holy Nama. It is the duty of an Acharya to keep the place of aprākṛta hari-kathā –kīrtana clean. Only if we can maintain absolute purity, then we can have the right to discuss about this kind of secret topics regarding Braja mādhurya rasa under the strict guidance of rasik Acharya. We can see the life of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, how he spent his last 12 years inside the solitary Gambhīra mandira castle. At that time only the association of Svarūp Damodar and Rāya Rāmānanda was His support. During that periode Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to express His deep vipralambha bhāva day and night. If somebody like to ask me – “What do you mean by Gauḍīya Bhajan?” Then according to what I have learned from my Gurudeva and guru-varga, I would answer that – “Gauḍīya-bhajan means only to cry day & night from the starting point up to the endpoint.” But our present condition is just opposite. We should have a strong feeling of separation from the absolute object Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura has expressed this bhāva very nicely in one of his kīrtanas—
viṣaye je prīti ebe āchaye āmār
sei-mata prīti hauk caraṇe tomār
(Text 5 , Prabhu Tava Pada Yuge, Śikṣāṣṭakam Song 4)
Oh my Prabhu! Let me love Your lotus feet as much as I now love my sense gratification; please convert my affection from the material objects of the senses unto Your lotus feet.
Also Śrīla Gaura Kishore das Babaji Maharaj was asked by some so called devotee that – “How we can get Kṛṣṇa darśana”. Śrīla Gaura Kisore das Babaji answered – “Can you cry in the name of Kṛṣṇa day and night? If you can do so from heart then surely you can get Kṛṣṇa darśana.
Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura told that –“We cannot get Braja rasa simply by reading books”. He used to give us one very nice practical example—Just like two different pieces of heavy black clouds if approaching towards each other to collide with each other to develop a lightening signal followed by a heavy sound of roaring due to the process of mutually balancing of free electrical charges resting in them. The potential difference can be balanced automatically without any external pre-information. Similarly, if a very honest and sincere devotee comes in front of a Braja rasik paramahaṁsa sādhu with full submissive & serving mood, then automatically the prema- sevā bhāva of that paramahaṁsa sādhu can touch the heart of that particular devotee to help him develop Braja rasa bhāva. This can be compared with some contagious disease like Corona, so this is called prema roga (disease). Any amount of manpower or money power or educational power just cannot help us to get Braja rasa bhāva. This is not a matter of learning or teaching or preaching. Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura wanted to give us warning regarding this matter. He has written that— “Oh men! Braja rasa is not a matter of teaching, this is an automatic process (as already mentioned above)- through which this can be had. If someone speaking that—”Come on—I can teach Raganuga bhajan (Braja rasa bhajan) to you, then be sure that he is obviously a cunning cheater, because Braja-rasa can never be thought.” From Daśa-mūla-tattva book we can see the following śloka and vichar written by Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura—
yadābhramam bhramam harirasagalad-vaiṣṇava janaṁ
kadācit sampasyamstadanugamane syadruciyutāḥ
tadā kṛṣṇa vṛttyā tyajati sanakairmayaikadaśāṁ
svarūpam vibhrano vimalā rasa-bhogāṁ sa kurute
(Daśa-mūla-tattva No.7)
“In course of repeatedly wandering through the path of mayik existence, a fallen soul may meet a pure Vaisnava from whom trickles the nectar of the mellows of pure devotion to Lord Hari. By following that pure devotee, he becomes attracted to imbibe the sweet principle of devotional service. By constant practice of kṛṣṇa-bhakti, he slowly abandons the mayik condition, and at the end finally can discover his own real nature, then he enjoys the sweetest unalloyed rasa, which is the ultimate status of the soul.”
It is only when in course of wandering amongst the higher and lower species in the material world, a jiva can behold a Vaiṣṇava absorbed in the flowing rasa of hari bhakti, then the taste of bhakti arises inside heart to follow the Vaiṣṇava way of life. By chanting Śrī Kṛṣṇa Nama, he gradually becomes free from this material bondage. Step by step he then discover his intrinsic, cinmoye savrūpa (transcendental form), and then he becomes qualified to get the taste of pure spiritual rasa of direct service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It is only in the mature stage of sādhana-bhakti, when the jiva becomes situated in his own savrūpa, then by the influence of the hlādinī potency, the state of bhāva in vraja mādhurya rasa arises within him. In other words, the mood to follow in the footsteps of the dear most associates of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in Vraja Dham arises inside heart. Gradually he obtains apprakrita happiness and prosperity that is unsurpassed in this world, in the form of absolute service of paramānanda-tattva, which is known as aprākṛta–līlā-vilas of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda Jugal Sarkar. There is no other supreme achievement than this for the jiva. In course of traveling through these fourteen worlds by chance one lucky jiva can meet with sādhu–guru to get bhakti-latā-bīja. From Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta we can see the following śloka—
brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151)
“According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. By the mercy of both Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.
Gaura Hari Hari Bol