Verse: Teachings Of Lord Chaitanya
We will be discussing today the prayojana aspect of the teachings of Mahaprabhu to Sanatana Goswami. Yesterday, we discussed about abidheya i.e., the process of re-establishing our relationship with Krsna. The process of developing our relationship with Krsna is non different from devotional service. Devotional service is of two kinds – sadhana bhakti and prema bhakti. Sadhana bhakti is again divided into two categories – vaidhi bhakti and raganuga bhakti. Vaidhi bhakti is observing devotional service following the rules and regulations of injunctions in the scriptures. Raganuga bhakti is rendering devotional service by following one of the associates of Krsna in Vrindavan. The primary criterion for raganuga bhakti is the intense greed to follow the footsteps of one of the inhabitants of Vrindavan. Devotion has a gradual development as explained by BhaktiVinodThakur. The atheistic moral consideration is the first step in spiritual life which leads to theistic moral attitude. In the present society, most of the people have a strong sense of morality. People with little higher understanding accept the sense of morality because of the recognition of God. The theistic morality leads to varnashrama. The structure of this theistic society is in varnashrama which leads to Vaidhi bhakti. This Vaidhi bhakti leads to raganuga bhakthi. Finally, it culminates at prema bhakti. One should be concerned about his level of devotion and should always aspire to move higher. If one is complacent with his devotion then religion becomes a dogma. Consequently, the religious practices will be performed with a fanatical attitude. Thus, all the progress will be stifled and all their good intensions will be lost. In the present society, the followers of some religions with lower understanding of spirituality are prejudiced and obstinate; they reject the higher philosophy. They are not open-minded and they cause damage to the humanity. A person who is really eager to make his human form of life successful should always be open for higher understanding. Raganuga bhakti is not rejecting Vaidhi bhakti but transcending it. A devotee in the stage of raganuga bhakti may externally practice Vaidhi bhakti but actually has a spontaneous love for Krsna. A devotee’s love affair is a very private and personal one which he allows to mature and develop further. There are 64 limbs of devotional service among of which five are considered to as primary. One of them is association of advanced devotees. A person in the mood of Vrindavan should look for an advanced devotee in a similar mood. For example, it will be contradictory for such a devotee if one associates with a devotee who is in the mood of awe and reverence. There is distinction like the mood of Nityananda prabhu (friendship) or that of Advaita acharya(more of sakhya) or that of Rupa Goswami (conjugal) even in Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya. And even in Rupanuga Gaudiya Vaishnava, there is special mood of Srila Prabhupada’s mood. Many other Gaudiya Vaishanavas couldn’t understand how Krsna consciousness can spread in other countries like China, Japan or Africa. But Srila Prabhupada’s mood is international. Therefore we have a special mood that is Prabhupadanuga mood. Of course, we shouldn’t consider ourselves to be elite community of Vaishnavas, instead he should earnestly feel that it a place where his heart feels at home. A devotee must be very calm and composed. By his association one should naturally feel peaceful. He naturally should be very advanced devotee than us. The other limbs of devotion are studying the scriptures and Bhagavatam in the association of advanced devotees, congregation chanting of the Holy name and worshipping deity with respect. In present world it is not possible for all devotees to reside in the pastimes of the Lord. A dham is a place where the Lord is present. For example, a temple is a dham. ISKCON is firmly based on these five limbs of devotion. Srila Prabhupada made arrangement all over the world for the association of devotees. He translated Srimad Bhagavatam with extensive purports to give easy access to all the people of the world. The devotees carry out congregational chanting which is enhanced by their preaching. Preaching and sankirtan are non different. Bhakti Vinod Thakur explains that hearing Krsna katha is the real sankirtan. The standard of deity worship is highest in ISKCON even as compared to the deity worship in Vrindavan. These five limbs of devotion are practiced perfectly in ISKCON.
Prayojana means necessity. The ultimate need of one’s life is to love and serve Krsna. Service is rendered out of love which is the source of joy. Mahaprabhu explained that this love is the ultimate goal of life. He revealed it in His conversation with Ramananda Roy. Ramananda Roy was the governor of Southern India. Mahaprabhu met Ramananda Roy on the banks of river Godavari. Mahaprabhu asked him about the ultimate goal of life. Ramananda Roy replied that varnashrama is the ultimate goal of life. He started with various levels of devotion starting with karma yoga and finally culminated at devotional service. He also went on to explain the highest platform of devotional service rendered in the mood of Srimati Radharani. Mahaprabhu being afraid of his identity could be revealed stopped him. There are five mellows of devotion namely, mood of neutrality, servitude, friendship, parental and conjugal. The mood of neutrality is favorable but there is no active reciprocation. The mood of neutrality doesn’t come under pure devotion since there is no activity or service performed. When the service attitude becomes intensified, the Lord becomes the master and the devotee becomes the servant. At the culmination of this service attitude comes the friendship where the devotee starts to treat the Lord as his friend. Friendship again culminates at parental love. MotherYasoda treats Krsna as her own child where Krsna becomes subordinate to her. Conjugal and parental are opposing in nature. It branches from friendship and develops into parental or conjugal. Balaram is a friend and Krsna’s elder brother. The other branch from this friendship is girl friendship referred as conjugal. This friendship is so intense that the gopis situated in the conjugal mood are prepared to do anything for Krsna. In this way, Mahaprabhu gave the extensive understanding of prayojana aspect. Faith in Krsna leads to spiritual taste which in turn leads to emotional attachment. These emotions intensify as love for Krsna. In material world, the love is perversely reflected as lust. Love is a force that brings two living entities together. There cannot be love between two inert objects. The purpose of the force of love is to unite us with Krsna. This love is referred as devotion. Everyone is craving for some love which is available only in Krnsa. When one becomes a devotee, he learns to love the real object of love. Sometimes devotees appear to be cruel while in reality they have realized that the real object of love is Krnsa. They do not want to waste their time in investing their love on phony objects. The gopis perfectly demonstrated this pure love for Krsna. From material moral consideration, many people in India think that Krsna’s relationship with gopis is immoral. They don’t understand that the highest sense of morality is to develop a loving relationship with Krsna. If somebody loves his dog he is deemed as a great personality while if some one wants to develop a relationship with god he is criticized. Everyone is bestowed with this spiritual potency to love Krsna. One becomes eligible to go back to Godhead when he projects his love on Krsna. The more one practices devotion, the more one’s spiritual sentiment intensifies in the form of love. This is the ultimate goal of life. All forms of energy are controlled by a personality. For example, the electricity supply is controlled by the electricity department. In the spiritual sky, the love energy is controlled by Srimati Radharani. This spiritual potency is called hladini shakti. This energy enables us to become united with Krsna. We will be drawn towards Krsna if we let this energy flow towards him. Just as water stored in reservoir will start flowing if the outlet is opened, the living entity has to just let this love to flow towards Krsna by chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare with all sincerity from its heart.
Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Is there any question?
Question: What about people who are in different mood other than the mood of Srila Prabhupada, like the mood of awe and reverence. How can they associate with ISKCON?
Answer: One, who remains in ISKCON and follows Srila Prabhupada, will naturally develop Srila Prabhupada’s mood and give up his mood of awe and reverence. The mood of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or Srila Prabhupada is the mood of magnanimity inducing every single soul to become Krsna conscious. In awe and reverence, a person thinks like this - you are not in this caste. Some day you will be born in a Brahmin family and you get a chance to worship the deity. If somebody is in that mood and associates with ISKCON devotees, he might realize the greatness of the magnanimity of this mood of devotional service where Krsna consciousness is distributed to all living entities. If it still persists he might leave ISKCON and go to some place it is available or may even fall into Maya.
Question: Maharaj, you explained about how one should aspire for the association of higher devotees. Sometimes we associate with devotees who are on same devotional level still we have a chance to fall down. Comment
Answer: Sometimes one associates with devotees out of fraternity. If it not motivated by the aspiration to spiritually elevate oneself, it might prove detrimental. Association is like a colored light through crystal. It projects the color of light that is incident on it. Human consciousness is similar to that where with whomever one associates, he develops that consciousness. Anyone is really serious about his spiritual life must associate with advanced devotees as the association of advanced devotees who are endowed with Vaishnav qualities will enable us also to develop the same. Mahaprabhu gave a very clear instruction that one should give up the association of non devotees so as to advance in spiritual life. Some might question that why do devotees go and associate with non devotees. The answer is that a devotee doesn’t go to the non devotees to associate with them but to preach to them. We go there not to take any thing but to give Krsna consciousness. Therefore one should associate with non devotee close enough to just give Krsna consciousness.
Question: Prabhupada was able to attract so many devotees. Still he associated with people from sampradayas in other moods of devotion.Comment.
Answer: Prabhupada associated with many people from different sampradaya. But, Prabhupada was not affected by them; in turn they became affected by Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada’s association with other people didn’t change anything. His mood was the same as that of Mahaprabhu. He always remained the same old Prabhupada to everyone who had associated with him from his initial days. He didn’t change after having founded ISKCON or becoming founder Acharya. He used to crack jokes or might chastise somebody. The personality is the same though it might appear to be different from different perspectives.
Question: Where does this love for Krsna culminate?
Answer: Love is translated form of prema. The love again becomes more and more intense and develops into maan, prenai, sneha, raag, anuraag, bhav, mahabhav. sneha means affection. Initially, the love is in the form of affection. It becomes intensified in the form of loving anger. Krsna fights with the gopis of Vrindavan. Prenai means loving exchange. Raag means color. It is the color of heart that one experiences towards the object of love. They are all different degrees of love. Anuraag is also another form of love. Mahabhav is available only in Srimati Radharani. One of the symptoms of Mahabhav is fainting. Love gradually increases and manifests in these intensified stages.
Question: Is this raag, (mentioned in previous answer) that is the degree of devotion same as that you pointed out as one of types of sandhana bhakti i.e., raganuga bhakti?
Answer: Yes. It is a Very good point. Raganuga means following raag. This raag in Vraja is called Raagatmika. The devotees in Vrindavan love Krsna, out of the spontaneous love for Him. When sadhana bhati takes place following raagatimika, it is called raaganuga bhakti.
Question: Love is the force that brings us together. How can one reconcile this with his family and Krsna?
Answer: When one values something, one becomes prepared to sacrifice the less valuable ones. For example, when one is holding some pebbles and getting some gold coins, an intelligent man will just drop those pebbles to collect the gold coins. Similarly, a living entity has a choice to project one’s life either to Krsna or Maya. Krsna is the source of everything. There is no rejection to Him. One can bring his family into Krsna consciousness.
Question: In order to become Krsna consciousness one has to become cold. Is it a misinterpretation?
Answer: Yes. Krsna consciousness is juicy and sweet process. The devotees are warmhearted and hospitable. When someone is not Krnsa conscious then he might think that he is wasting his time with him.