20260221 Śrī Caitanya-śīksāmṛta 7.7. Conjugal Bhakti-rasa

Seventh Shower — Rasa vicāra (Analysis of the mellows)

Seventh Stream — Conjugal Bhakti-rasa

Sneha—affection

When prema reaches its perfection, it attains the symptom of a brightly burning transcendental lamp, causing the heart to melt. This prema is called sneha. Sneha is of two kinds: ghṛta-sneha and madhu-sneha. Extremely affectionate sneha is called ghṛta-sneha. The sneha with an overabundance of the mood of “He is mine” is called madhu-sneha. There are two forms of rati: the rati with the thought “I am His,” and the rati with the thought “He is mine.” The feeling “I am His” in ghṛta-sneha is Candravalī’s sneha. The feeling “He is mine” in madhu-sneha is Śrī Rādhā’s sneha.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this is a very important difference. The difference between Śrī Rādhā and Her counterparts. Rādhārāṇī thinks Kṛṣṇa is mine, and Her counterparts like Candrāvalī think, I am His. So there is only a subtle difference but that is a difference. The elevated form of this prema which is called sneha is in this situation. I am His or He is mine!

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Māna—abhorrence

When excellent sneha expresses indifference and cunningness, it becomes māna (transcendental anger). There are two types of māna: udātta and lalitā. Māna with an unbroken sense of confidence (viśrambha), based on the thought of non-separation, is called praṇaya (love). In some cases, praṇaya is born from sneha and attains the state of māna. In other cases, māna arises from sneha and attains the state of praṇaya.

Jayapatākā Swami: It doesn’t describe the difference between udata and lalitā. These are various levels of prema. So someone may have this intense affection for Lord Kṛṣṇa and they may become in mana or kind of anger. It is not ordinary anger, it is not in tamo-guṇa, it is out of pure love.

Rāga—attachment

When praṇaya reaches its height and is experienced as both extreme distress and extreme happiness, it is called rāga. There are two types of rāga: nīlimā and raktimā. The permanent mellow of mādhurya-bhāva, thirty-three transient emotions (vyabhicārī-bhāva), and the seven ecstatic symptoms (sāttvika-bhāva) such as laughter, together constitute the forty-one emotional transformations (bhāvāntara).

Jayapatākā Swami: So in this level of prema, the devotees are experiencing these 41 emotional transformations. So, different kinds of emotions. Not an ordinary thing – it is very special! So, this is something we can look forward to and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra very sincerely we can achieve rati. But then when one goes even more, it is more thick or consistent, then it  becomes prema and these different stages. So, 41 bhāvāntaras, emotional transformations are beyond our realization!

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Anurāga—further attachment

Anurāga is the stage where rāga itself makes the beloved, who is always experienced in new ways, appear new at every moment.

Jayapatākā Swami: When the gopīs they perceive Kṛṣṇa, they are in the stage of anurāga and then they see Kṛṣṇa new at every moment! So their  devotion to Kṛṣṇa is very intense! Anurāga. Rāga and anurāga.

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Vipralambha—separation

In vipralambha (separation), anurāga attains infinite growth, experiencing the mood of being overwhelmed, emotional bewilderment (prema-vaicittya), and the intense longing to be born among non-living things, and this makes Kṛṣṇa manifest. Vipralambha is the same as prema-vaicittya.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya taught this vipralambha. Worshiping Kṛṣṇa in separation. That we can all do, we are all separated from Kṛṣṇa. So this intense feeling of love for Kṛṣṇa and separation from Him, that is something that which is very intensive. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how maybe when you are present with the guru or Kṛṣṇa, you may be thinking oh, it is time for prasāda! This and that! Your mind may be distracted. But when you are feeling separation or vipralambha, then your mind is fixed! I want Kṛṣṇa! He is not here. When He left Hastināpura after the Kurukṣetra war, the Pāṇḍavas,  and queen Draupadī, called for an emergency war meeting. The War Council! They had a discussion, how do we get Kṛṣṇa back? HOW DO WE GET KṚṢṆA BACK! All our enemies have been defeated. And Kṛṣṇa would come to help us defeat the enemies, but now we are bereft of Kṛṣṇa? How can we get Him to get him back? HOW DO WE DO IT?! This was the war footing! So vipralambha, separation from Kṛṣṇa is very intense and it is a manifestation of ecstasy.

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Mahā-bhāva—great ecstasy

When anurāga itself manifests as the ecstatic state (bhāva) or mahābhāva, it assumes the state of being perceivable (vedya-daśā) for its own support and function. In Śrī Rādhikā, the principle of āśraya (shelter) of anurāga is at its peak, and in Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as the personification of the amorous sentiment (śṛṅgāra), the principle of viṣaya (object) is at its peak. The ultimate limit of this permanent ecstasy (sthāyī-bhāva) in the form of anurāga is the function of being the complete shelter. Attaining the perceivable state (vedya-daśā), meaning the state of being perceived by special beloved associates, it manifests in due course through the sāttvika-bhāvas like suddīpta and others, and it joins the shelter (āśraya) and the object (viṣaya) indistinguishably, causing them to be moistened by great ecstatic transformations (mahā-sāttvika-vikāra).

Jayapatākā Swami: So this is a very technical description. But actually it means that the person serving this mahā-bhāva is actually almost mad in love of Kṛṣṇa. They do things which nobody can understand, out of their great love for Kṛṣṇa. So this is called mahābhava. This is kind of a shall we say, it is the sāttvika-bhāva are being multiplied and diversified. Rādhārāṇī was talking to a bumblebee – I mean, nobody talks to the bumblebee! But She was so ecstatic that She was portraying the bumblebee as Kṛṣṇa’s messenger! And when the bumblebee  disappeared She became overcome by lamentation and separation! This is something we will not be able to understand. But such a state exists. We are just trying to take ourselves out of material attachment and develop an attachment for Kṛṣṇa. But these are the perfectional stages of somebody already has a deep attachment for Kṛṣṇa. So bhakti-yoga, even if you have some kind of superficial attachment for Nārāyaṇa or something, you go to Hari-dhāma. Then if you have attachment to Lord Kṛṣṇa, then you go to Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka. But then we see different levels of love for Kṛṣṇa and this is the highest level, mahābhāva.

Mahābhāva is rare in Kṛṣṇa’s conjugal love. This is perceptible only to the vraja devīs. There are two kinds of mahābhāva: rūḍha and adhirūḍha. The symptoms experienced in both union (sambhoga) and separation (vipralambha) include: intolerance of even a moment’s separation, agitating the hearts of onlookers, a kalpa feeling like a moment, sadness from the fear of causing any unhappiness to Kṛṣṇa, and the complete forgetfulness of one’s own self in the absence of delusion, a moment felling like a kalpa. In adhirūḍha, there are two further divisions, modana and mādana. From mohana arises divyonmāda (divine madness), which manifests as udghūrṇā (spiritual excitement) and citrajalpa (imaginative talks). In separation, these two emotions arise. The ten parts of citrajalpa are prajalpa, parijalpa, vijalpa, ujjalpa, sañjalpa, avajalpa, abhijalpa, ājalpa, pratijalpa, and sujalpa.

When the quintessential love of the hlādinī potency becomes supremely joyful through the manifestation of all emotions, that supreme emotion, known as mādana, is perpetually present in Śrī Rādhā.

Kṛṣṇa alone is rasa. He is infinite, omniscient, and omnipotent. Nothing is unknown, unattainable, or impossible for Him. Due to the nature of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference, He is eternally both one rasa and many rasas. In the single rasa, He absorbs everything into Himself and becomes self-satisfied. At that time, nothing remains separate from Him as a distinct rasa. At the same time, He is also many rasas. Consequently, besides the internal mellow (ātma-gata-rasa), there is also the mellow experienced with others (para-gata-rasa) and the various types of mixed mellows experienced in union (ātma-para-yoga-gata-vicitra-rasa). The happiness of His pastimes (līlā) lies in these latter two types of rasa. When the para-gata-rasa expands to its ultimate degree, it is known as parakīya-rasa. This ultimate expansion is vividly manifested in Vṛndāvana. Therefore, the sublime bliss of parakīya-rasa, which stems from the self-contained ātma-gata-rasa, is the highest limit of mādana. This is present in its pure form during the unmanifest pastimes in Goloka. It descends to Vraja slightly tinged with the deluding energy.

Jayapatākā Swami: So one day Rukmiṇī was talking to Kṛṣṇa saying how He knows everything. But there is one thing He doesn’t know. He knows that Brahmā is doing, what Śiva is doing, He knows what is happening in the ananta-koṭi brahmāṇḍas, universes, but there is one thing He doesn’t know! So He was astonished! What is that?! So He was told by Rukmiṇī devī, Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, but You don’t know! He said, “What is that?!” “How much Your devotees love You and in what way we love You! Since You are the Supreme Lord and no one is above You, You don’t know this.” So Kṛṣṇa said, “In Kali-yuga I will come as My devotee.” He said that three times. “I will come as My devotee, I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE!” So that is when He combined with Rādhārāṇī and came as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is the most merciful avatāra. So, you should all take full advantage of Lord Caitanya’s presence. And get this special love for Kṛṣṇa! Even Kṛṣṇa Himself did not give it, but Lord Caitanya does!

The Ladder to the Natural Parama-haṁsa-dharma

O practicing (sādhaka) devotees aiming for love (premārurukṣu)! By means of vaidhī-bhakti, on the path of ecstasy (bhāva-mārga), you have crossed over the fourteen gross layers of this world. Go up further by giving up the four subtle abodes of Hara (Lord Śiva) that are situated above these fourteen gross layers. Ascend higher by crossing the two layers of the pure sattva energy, which resemble the Virajā River and then you will reach the border of Goloka Vṛndāvana. Those two layers are Brahmaloka and Vaikuṇṭha. In Goloka, five layers of loving emotion (ātma-bhāva) are effulgent: śānta (neutrality), dāsya (servitude), sakhya (friendship), vātsalya (parental affection), and mādhura (conjugal). Upon reaching the madhura layer, and taking shelter of your own eternal, perfect, spiritual body in the form of a gopī enter the group of Śrīmatī Rādhikā and join the entourage of Śrīmatī Lalitā. By the grace of Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī, elevate the permanent ecstasy (sthāyī-bhāva) in your heart to the state of rasa, through the pure spiritual vibhāva (special ecstasy), anubhāva (subordinate ecstasy), sāttvika (natural ecstasy), and vyabhicārī (transitory ecstasy). If you are a rasa-knower attracted to the holy name, you will easily earn the wealth of love up to the stage of mahābhāva, and thus feel fulfilled. Ascertain your present qualification (adhikāra), adopt proper renunciation (yukta-vairāgya) even while in your material body, and continuously drink the nectar of the holy name to attain the highest qualification. I have not collected more evidence regarding this madhura-rasa, because those who become qualified to enter it will see all the details of this rasa in the books Śrī Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi and Jaiva-dharma. By understanding all the aspects of rasa and entering into the eternal, eightfold daily pastimes of Kṛṣṇa (aṣṭa-kālīya nitya-kṛṣṇa-līlā), and then adopting the activities, service, and emotion befitting your qualification, you will easily attain spiritual perfection (vastu-siddhi). When situated in yukta-vairāgya, then the natural parama-haṁsa-dharma will manifest on its own and remain until the end of your life.

Those individuals who honor the happiness of the gross body and who are not aware of the varieties of joy pertaining to the spiritual body should not look upon, reflect upon, or discuss these matters. For if they do so, they will either condemn those descriptions as obscene, thinking them to be merely actions of flesh and skin, or, treating them casually in a materialistic way (sahajīyā), they will fall down. Śrī Jayadeva has written:

yadi harismaraṇe sarasaṁ manaḥ
yadi vilāsakalāsu kutūhalaṁ
madhurakomalakānta padāvalīṁ
śṛṇu tadā jayadeva sarasvatīṁ

If your mind has relish for remembering Hari, and if you have curiosity for the arts of love, then listen to the sweet, soft, and beautiful verses of Jayadeva’s Sarasvatī.

naitat samācarej jātu
manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ
vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād
yathārudro ‘bdhi-jaṁ viṣam

In the Rāsa-pañcādhyāya, this is stated:

One who is not a great controller should never imitate the behavior of ruling personalities, even mentally. If out of foolishness an ordinary person does imitate such behavior, he will simply destroy himself, just as a person who is not Rudra would destroy himself if he tried to drink an ocean of poison.

The instruction of Śrī Mahāprabhu is this: engage in the study of Kṛṣṇa’s character in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; only then will you attain the highest rasa. It is said in the final verse of the Catuḥślokī of the Bhāgavatam:

etāvad eva jijñāsyaṁ
tattva-jijñāsunātmana
anvaya-vyatirekābhyāṁ
yat syāt sarvatra sarvadā

A person who is searching after the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, must certainly search for it up to this, in all circumstances, in all space and time, and both directly and indirectly.

It is exclusively the realization of the supreme spiritual truth (Paramātma-tattva-jñāna) that is the ultimate goal of life (prayojana), in the form of love of Godhead (prema). This is depicted in Kṛṣṇa’s character in two ways. The direct taste of rasa is found in the everyday eternal pastimes, which are the aṣṭa-kālīya (eight-fold daily) līlā. Through pastimes like the killing of demons, the truth about Kṛṣṇa is known indirectly. Beginning from the killing of Pūtanā until the killing of Kaṁsa are the demon-killing pastimes. All these pastimes exist indirectly in Vraja and merely as a trace or impression in the spiritual Goloka (abhimāna-mātra-svarūpe). In reality, they are not present there and cannot be. By reading about the indirect pastimes, a connoisseur of rasa becomes pure in heart and will be granted a vision of Goloka while tasting the mellow of the direct pastimes. I have briefly explained this much here. The practitioner (sādhaka) and the man who aspires to love (premarurukṣu puruṣa) should understand this by practicing it with special care.

The third verse of the Bhāgavatam is this:

nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ
śuka-mukhād amṛta-drava-saṁyutam
pibata bhāgavataṁ rasam ālayam
muhur aho rasikā bhuvi bhāvukāḥ

O expert and thoughtful men, relish Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.

As long as indirect practice (vyatireka) remains necessary, one cannot be fully absorbed in the supreme rasa. Only when the actual fruit of vyatireka arises does the nirguṇa-rasa of Goloka begin to manifest. Until that point, it is essential to engage in both direct (anvaya) and indirect (vyatireka) practices, steeped in the rasa of the Bhāgavata.

While entering the aṣṭa-kāla līlā, relish the rasa and by tasting the other līlās of Vraja, eliminate all subjects that obstruct direct tasting of rasa. Only then—at the time of fruition, when the guṇas dissolve—will the vision and attainment of Goloka arise effortlessly.

Jayapatākā Swami: Have you digested all that? So, what this is saying is that in our effort as sādhakas we should absorb ourselves in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is why I was encouraging devotees to read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, get the Bhakti-vedānta, Bhakti-vaibhava degrees. Now we know how beautiful are the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa! These are not material, but people who are still thinking that material sense gratification is something to be desired, they cannot understand the transcendental love of Kṛṣṇa. And they may make some offences if they are exposed to these pastimes. Because they do not understand Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental emotions of love! So, here Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has described some of the different levels of prema. And by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, you can all achieve that! But initially we have to be absorbed in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and you have to gradually absorb yourself in studying the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Hare Kṛṣṇa!