20240820 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.7. The Ultimate Goal of Life

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

First Shower — Seventh Stream

Jayapatākā Swami: Is the sound working? Hare Kṛṣṇa dear devotees!

Object and shelter of Prema

Devotees situated in madhura-rasa also attain the excellence of love.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.66

mayi nirbaddha-hṛdayāḥ
sādhavaḥ sama-darśanāḥ
vaśe kurvanti māṁ bhaktyā
sat-striyaḥ sat-patiṁ yathā

As chaste women bring their gentle husbands under control by service, the pure devotees, who are equal to everyone and completely attached to Me in the core of the heart, bring Me under their full control.

TEXT: Kṛṣṇa is seen in Vraja with madhura-rasa, complete with the sixty-four qualities. Unlimited sweetness likewise arises in the devotee of Vraja. The Lord has said about Śrīmatī Rādhikā, in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.86:

ananta guṇa śrī-rādhikāra, paṅciśa — pradhāna
yei guṇera ‘vaśa’ haya kṛṣṇa bhagavān

Similarly, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī has unlimited transcendental qualities, of which twenty-five are principal. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is controlled by these transcendental qualities of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here it states how Kṛṣṇa is controlled by the service attitude of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So, Rādhārāṇī has 25 principal qualities. But it also states that She has unlimited qualities. And Kṛṣṇa is controlled by Rādhārāṇī’s transcendental qualities.

TEXT: Madhura-rasa is to be relished, not for deliberation. Only those who have been greatly fortunate with the madhura-rasa, can relish this rasa.*

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.29.52

sa vai priyatamaś cātmā
yato na bhayam aṇv api
iti veda sa vai vidvān
yo vidvān sa gurur hariḥ

One who is engaged in devotional service has not the least fear in material existence. This is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supersoul and friend of everyone. One who knows this secret is actually educated, and one thus educated can become the spiritual master of the world. One who is an actually bona fide spiritual master, representative of Kṛṣṇa, is not different from Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the bona fide spiritual master is trying to please Kṛṣṇa by giving the transcendental instructions. That is how this aspect of the spiritual master is very confidential. He is trying to please Kṛṣṇa and He gives appropriate instructions to the disciples.

TEXT: It cannot be made to understand to anyone by judgment. Therefore, the Lord said, that:―

ei rasa-āsvāda nāhi abhaktera gaṇe
kṛṣṇa-bhakta-gaṇa kare rasa āsvādane

“The exchange between Kṛṣṇa and different devotees situated in different transcendental mellows is not to be experienced by non-devotees. Advanced devotees can understand and appreciate the different varieties of devotional service reciprocated with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.99)

Jayapatākā Swami: So, it is told that the different rasas which are experienced by these devotees are not experienced by those who are not devotees. So, because Kṛṣṇa is sanctioned, the Absolute Truth is sanctioned, therefore the devotees can have a personal relationship with Him. And those relationships fall in . . . categories. So the impersonalists, the scientists who think Kṛṣṇa as impersonal, they are not able to explain this confidential relationship. So this shows how the Lord is personal and how His relationships are transcendental.

TEXT: All of these was instructed by the Lord to Sanātana and finally taught him the state of yukta-vairāgya which is favorable to the attainment of love and śuṣka-vairāgya which is unfavorable for attainment of love, namely: —

yukta-vairāgya-sthiti saba śikhāila
śuṣka-vairāgya-jñāna saba niṣedhila

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu then told Sanātana Gosvāmī about proper renunciation according to a particular situation, and the Lord forbade dry renunciation and speculative knowledge in all respects. (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.105)

Jayapatākā Swami: So śuṣka-vairāgya is a type of renunciation which is dry and artificial, and the devotee, he does a type of renunciation, yukta-vairāgya which engages the devotees in spiritual activities.

Phalgu-vairāgya

TEXT: Through the indirect statements in the Vedas that are favorable for reason and logic, some persons decide in their minds that indeed, I am Brahman, but have fallen away from the realization of Brahman by being involved in material. What is the way to get rid of the material world? The human body is material, the house is material, the wife material, the food and so on are material, everything is material. How can I be saved from this material disturbance? Busily engaging in this thought, a person smears the body with vibhūti (ash) etc. and covers it with kaupīnas (loin cloth). While eating dry food and abandoning the wife and son and in order to identify himself as mumukṣu (liberationist), he leaves the house and so on, either roaming around in the forest or living in a maṭha (monastery). Not understanding well what would be the benefit of doing that, he keeps thinking only dry knowledge, being indifferent to the fact that he could be saved by the relationship with Hari. Sin also has gone, and virtue also has gone, and all the conceptions of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ have gone, but he does not understand what has been gained. He began to spend the days with the study of the chapters of Vedānta. When he died, two or four people like came and broke a coconut on his head and put him on the ground. What happened? Hari was not obtained. Their becoming Brahman was only to that extent. Without doing that, if he had practiced relationship to Hari with body, house, food, sleep, time, directions, he would have gradually increased his bhakti and he would have obtained love which is the ultimate result.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, there are five types of relationships – the first type is neutral or impersonal. The devotee doesn’t want that. The devotee wants a personal relationship. That is like service, friendship, parental and conjugal. So Kṛṣṇa, He has a personal relationship. One has to understand that He has to sanction the personal relationship. Kṛṣṇa, He wants to taste that love and He reciprocates with that love. The boys with Kṛṣṇa as their friend, they all take prasāda together, each boy thinks that Kṛṣṇa is always looking at Him. Everybody thinks that! So, like this, Kṛṣṇa performs little miracles!

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.20.27–30

jāta-śraddho mat-kathāsu
nirviṇṇaḥ sarva-karmasu
veda duḥkhātmakān kāmān
parityāge ’py anīśvaraḥ

tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ
śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ
juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān
duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan

proktena bhakti-yogena
bhajato māsakṛn muneḥ
kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti
sarve mayi hṛdi sthite

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś
chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ
kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi
mayi dṛṣṭe ’khilātmani

Having awakened faith in the narrations of My glories, being disgusted with all material activities, knowing that all sense gratification leads to misery, but still being unable to renounce all sense enjoyment, My devotee should remain happy and worship Me with great faith and conviction. Even though he is sometimes engaged in sense enjoyment, My devotee knows that all sense gratification leads to a miserable result, and he sincerely repents such activities. When an intelligent person engages constantly in worshiping Me through loving devotional service as described by Me, his heart becomes firmly situated in Me. Thus, all material desires within the heart are destroyed. The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this is how a devotee surpasses or transcends all these material ideas and has developed or awakens spiritual love for Kṛṣṇa. This is described here.

I had dialysis today and then had SMOVP meeting after. So I am a bit tired.

Koṭi, koṭi bār! Kṛṣṇe matir astu!