All posts (page 5)

Inconceivable oneness and difference

acintya-bhedābhe [inconceivable oneness and difference]

‘Realisation’ is the name we give to our understanding of the Divine in the world. Or maybe: our understanding that the world, in all its depth and complexity, is divine. 

When we say we have realised something we mean that we see and feel and grasp the reality that lies behind the facts of the world. We understand the origin and the purpose of what we experience and what we feel. It means that we do not observe the facts as facts alone, but as parts of the divine story. We understand that facts have another purpose, maybe many other purposes, and that the hidden energy behind the facts will lift and carry us to places we do not know, if we surrender to it, like clues in a detective novel we have not yet read to the last page.

Srīla Prabhupāda call this way of seeing: ‘science (vijñāna)’, ‘spiritual knowledge’ or ‘wisdom’. It means the understanding of the divine in the mundane, the reality of God. 

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What is sevā? II

sevā [service, servitude, hommage, devotion]

In mundane experience sevā, or service, is a common notion. In its simplest form it is the name of a transaction. If I do something for you in  exchange for som reward, be it material or immaterial, this called a service. 

In material form this reward could be money or perhaps som object of value, or even another service. sevā is often done under material constraints or coercion. We render service under the power of another pressed to do what we otherwise would not do. 

But in immaterial form the reward might be some form of recognition, a moral reward, or some kind of immediate satisfaction that only the recognition of another can give. 

In the Bhakti tradition sevā is practice. It is service to another at thehighest level. It is the greatest gift the greatest giving of oneself, and therefore the greatest form of spiritual relation. Every spiritual relation is sevā, every sevā is spiritual relation.

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What is a mañjarī?

mañjarī [maidservant, bud, flower]

On the transcendental plane called Goloka Vrindāvan, a mañjarī is a female maidservant of Rādhā. Sheis both a servant of Rādhā but also a friend. She is friend through service and a servant through friendship. She does not serve by obligation or personal gain, but by love. The relation or Rādhā and her mañjarīs is of the most intimate kind, only surpassed by the intimacy of conjugal lovers.  

What is an intimate friend? First, an intimate friend is one who has knowledge of her friend, one who shares experiences, who knows the same feelings, the same desires, one who is curious about the same things, who seeks the same things, who loves the same things, who fears the same things. 

But an intimate friend is something more. An intimate friend shares not only interests and goals, tastes and preferences. She shares a world, a reality. An intimate friend is one who as the same answer to these questions: what is real? what is true? what is beautiful? and most of all, what is love?

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Rādhā’s love is not given externally 

I constantly remember the foot-dust of Śrī Rādhikā, whose unlimited power instantly subdues even the Supreme Person (Śrī Kṛṣṇa), Who Himself cannot be easily seen even by the greatest devotees like Lord Brahmā, or Śiva, Śuadeva Muni, Nārarada Muni and Bhīṣma. 

Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, Rādhā Rasa Sudhānidhi

In Verse 4 of Rādhā Rasa Sudhānidhi, Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī sings praises of Rādhā in two ways. First, he glorifies the dust of her lotus feet. The power of this dust is so great, he says, that even Kṛṣṇa, God himself is under its power. Then, he notes that she is so glorious that other powerful devotees cannot even see her.   

Dust that is powerful enough to subjugate Kṛṣṇa himself? Gods, demigods and mighty kings who cannot see what they wish to see? What can this mean?

The answer lies in the mystery of Rādhā’s power.

Prabodhānanda describes Rādhā’s power as unlimited, capable of instantly subduing Kṛṣṇa, where other great beings cannot even see him. Her power is greater than any ordinary material power. 

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What is sevā? I  

sevā [service, servitude, hommage, devotion]

The word sevā is often translated with the word service. Sevā is indeed service, but in the Bhakti tradition, it is much more. 

In everyday experience, service is a common idea. In its most simple form it refers to a transaction: this for that. I do something for your benefit in exchange for something you do or provide for my benefit. There is an action and there is a reward, either material or immaterial. This action is commonly called a service. 

In material form the benefit we gain from a service might take the form of money or some other object of value, perhaps even another service. The reward can also take an immaterial form as some kind of recognition or honour, perhaps a moral reward, or some other kind of intangible satisfaction. 

Sometimes service refers to action done under material constraints of power. We render service not because we choose, but because we are subject to the power of an other. 

In the Bhakti tradition sevā is the highest form of religious practice. It is the most elevated express of devotion, the purest relation to the divine. 

In stark contrast to service done in the mundane, everyday mood, sevā in religious practice is action done without the expectation of reward, payment or compensation. It is action take without ego, self-less action. It is action as gift, as generosity, as love. 

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Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave us mañjari-bhāv

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 1 Chapter 4, Verse 16

The Lord wanted to taste the sweet essence of the mellows of love of God

Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmi

Throughout the ages Lord Kṛṣṇa is beloved by all. The word ‘kṛṣṇa’ itself means ‘all attractive’.  Nowhere is this more clear than in the rāsa pastime, in which the countless milkmaids (gopīs) of Vrindāvan are irresistibly drawn to him, the local cow-herd boy . According to the legend their eagerness and jealousy is so great that Kṛṣṇa expands into countless embodiments of himself, one for each gopī, so that the dance can go on, each girl delighted that she alone has the privilege of entertaining Kṛṣṇa.

There seems to be no end to the love for Kṛṣṇa. And why not? He is after all everything: all existence (sat), all knowledge (cit) and all bliss (ananda). In other words, whatever exists stems from him, whatever can be the object of consciousness, stems from him, and whoever knows pleasure knows it from him. 

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I am yours

What does it mean to belong to God?

In one of the final verses (Verse 96) of his passionate and moving Vilāpa Kusumāñjali (Bouquet of Lamentations) Raghunātha Dāsa cries out in ecstasy:

I am Yours, I am Yours! I cannot live without You! O Goddess! 

The ardent cry is directed at Rādhā, the lover of Kṛṣna, and therefore the source of the highest love in the world, the love for God. In the Bhakti tradition of Vaishnavism, the goal of life is service to this divine love, embodied through loving service in everyday life. 

Of all the disciples of the diving loving pair Rādhā-Kṛṣna, Raghunātha Dāsa is known as the deepest and the most passionate. He wants so ardently to serve divine love that his very being merges with the loving energy of Rādhā, the Goddess of love. 

In Bhakti, the path to transcendence is through devotional service, serving others in a way that recognises and honours the divine love in every soul. To love means to love from the heart, from the soul, not from the mind and the ego.

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Diving into the nectar-ocean of love

By diving into this nectar-ocean his body, mind and life-airs had become wholly nectarean. 

Ananta Dās Bābāji

In Verse 84 of his Rādhā Rasa Sudhānidhi Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī derides what he sees as the misguided principles of traditional religious practices.

First, if traditional Vedic principles warn against material sense gratification, they do not recognise the meaning of the spiritual senses, the spiritual longing that appears in the heart of everyone. Second, seeking the answers to our prayers by studying the many verses of the Vedas is equally fruitless. Third, to search for liberation by the merging with the divine, will only deny us the experience of a loving relationship with God. Finally, worshiping only the power and opulence of Vedic gods will leave us incapable of appreciating or sharing in the tender loving emotions of divine love. 

Instead, Prabodhānanda assures us that all we need in order to find fulfilment is to become absorbed in the loving flavours of Rādhā. Ananta dās Bābāji shares the same sentiment in his commentary to the verse : ‘By diving into this nectar-ocean his body, mind and life-airs had become wholly nectarean’.

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