Verse 42
In his commentary to Verse 42 of Vilāpa-kusumāñjali, Ananda Das Babaji describes the different classifications of love. There are four levels of intensity of that love, spanning from the love of ordinary devotees, to the love of the great sages, to the love of the Vrajavāsīs, to the love of Rādhārāni, which is the greatest love of all.
Kṛṣna, he goes on, ‘is controlled by His devotees according to the amount of love they have for Him, and Śrī Rādhikā has the greatest love for Him (parama mahān), therefore She controls Him to the utmost’.
Ananta das babaji thus gives us an important lesson about the difference between divine love (prema) and mundane love (kama)
With our material bodies (sadhaka-deha) we express mundane love (kama). With our spiritual bodies (siddha-deha) we love divinely.
When we experience mundane love in maya, in our material bodies, this love comes in the form of a feeling of exposure to the emotional dangers of life, to the risk we run in putting our hearts in the hands of an other. Mundane love in the material world is an experience of vulnerability and fragility. We love under the sign of fear. We love as an attempt to protect ourselves, or at least our ego-selves.
Love in our spiritual bodies is the opposite. Loving divinely empowers us, frees us, clears away our fears and vulnerability.
The strength we find in our spiritual love corresponds to the love we give in our spiritual bodies. Whether we are devotees, sages, or Vrajavāsīs, the divine love we give is the divine strength we will receive.
Kṛṣna is powerless over Śrī Rādhikā, not because she exerts power over him. On the contrary, Kṛṣna is powerless because Śrī Rādhikā loves him perfectly, endlessly, divinely.
This love, divine love, which is pure giving, generosity itself, is our goal.