The following is a transcription of a discourse delivered by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja in Mathurā, India, on November 23, 2002

 

(Two days before paramārādhya Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja left Mathurā to embark on his winter preaching tour in the West, he raised a controversial topic in his evening class. He spoke for some time in Hindi and asked Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja to convey the same ideas in English. The following is a transcription of Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja’s talk. – ed.)

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja: Śrīla Gurudeva has ordered me to speak, and I will explain to the best of my ability.

Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: What is the question? First, say the question.

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja: Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda, who is one of the six Gosvāmīs, has stated that the jīvas are performing sādhana-bhajana here in this world. In the meantime, in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, meaning Vaikuṇṭha, Ayodhyā, Dvārakā, Mathurā and Goloka Vṛndāvana, there are some pārṣadas (associates of Bhagavān) who came from His effulgence, and they are in a latent or dormant position. When a jīva becomes perfect by performing sādhana-bhajana, he obtains any one of these pārṣada-dehas (bodies of these associates). This is one side.

On the other side, seemingly different from Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda, are Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmīpāda, and all our ācāryas up to the present day. They are saying that the jīva already has a constitutional form, his own spiritual body, along with its transcendental qualities and services. But now his spiritual body is unmanifest, or in a latent position. As the potency of an entire tree, along with its leaves, flowers, and fruits, is present in its seed, everything is present in the soul, but in seed form. In this way, it appears that Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda is on one side and the other ācāryas, up to our present guru-varga, are on the other side. It seems that both ideas are quite opposite. How can we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Actually, these two points of view are not contradictory at all. We are judging from our mundane point of view, from the point of view of our material consciousness, and therefore, we do not understand. Therefore, the two statements seem contradictory to us. From the point of view of our guru-varga, there is no contradiction at all, so I will try to express what I have heard from Śrīla Gurudeva.

In his commentary of Śrī Śikṣāṣṭakam (the first śloka), Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura writes:

ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahādāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya-līlā 20.12)

[“Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.”]

In this verse, seven stages of bhakti are explained. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam contains śraddhā, bhava-mahādāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ contains sādhu-saṅga, bhajana–kriyā and anartha-nivṛtti, śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ contains niṣṭha, and the subsequent lines contain the subsequent stages up to prema. Each stage is explained in each line.

Pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ comes in the stage of bhāva, and Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura discusses this in his commentary of Śrī Śikṣāṣṭakam. He writes that according to the sādhaka’s constitutional form up to gopīka-deha (the body of a gopī), that particular body manifests at the stage of bhāva-bhakti. Gopikā-deham api prakaṭayati.*

For those who have dāsya-bhāva (the mood of a servitor) in their hearts, their relationship of servant and master will manifest when the stage of bhāva awakens. For those who have a friendly relationship with Kṛṣṇa in their dormant constitutional position, that relationship will manifest; for those in a parental relationship in their latent constitutional form, that form will manifest; and for those who have a paramour mood, that will manifest. Whatever is in a latent position at this present time, that type of spiritual body will manifest at the stage of bhāva. Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Prabhu, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, and others have all explained the same truth.

Apparently contradictory to this, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda has stated there are spiritual bodies in the Vaikuṇṭha planets waiting to be occupied by the liberated living entities. These spiritual bodies have manifested from the effulgence of Bhagavān. When jīvas do bhajana and become perfect, they will be awarded one body from there. The jīva and that body combine.

We have seen in the history of Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi:

prayujyamāne mayi tāṁ
śuddhāṁ bhāgavatīṁ tanum
ārabdha-karma-nirvāṇo
nyapatat pāñca-bhautikaḥ

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.6.28)

(“Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an associate of the Personality of Godhead, I quit the body made of five material elements, and thus all acquired fruitive results of work [karma] stopped.”)

How can we reconcile this?

martyo yadā tyakta-samasta-karmā
niveditātmā vicikīrṣito me
tadāmṛtatvaṁ pratipadyamāno
mayātma-bhūyāya ca kalpate vai

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.29.34)

(“A person who gives up all fruitive activities and offers himself entirely unto Me, eagerly desiring to render service unto Me, achieves liberation from birth and death and is promoted to the status of sharing My own opulences.”)

It is also stated in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 19.151)

(“According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. By the mercy of both Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.”)

The living entities are wandering throughout many brahmāṇḍas (universes). By the causeless mercy of Śrī Guru and Kṛṣṇa, a fortunate jīva receives the seed of bhakti, called bhakti-latā (the desire to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa). The word guru–kṛṣṇa has two meanings. One meaning is Śrī Gurudeva and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and a second meaning is that Śrī Guru is Kṛṣṇa. There are two features of Kṛṣṇa – viṣaya Kṛṣṇa and āśraya Kṛṣṇa. Viṣaya Kṛṣṇa is Bhagavān, and āśraya Kṛṣṇa is Gurudeva. It is sometimes mentioned in śāstra that it is by the causeless mercy of Śrī Gurudeva, and sometimes it is mentioned that it is by the combined causeless mercy of Śrī Gurudeva and viṣaya Bhagavān that we can get the bhakti-latā-bīja.

When we do sādhana-bhajana, we gradually advance in bhakti, and then we achieve bhāva-avasthā (the stage of bhāva-bhakti). The symptoms of bhāva-avasthā are:

śuddha-sattva-viśeṣātmā
prema-sūryāṁśu-sāmya-bhāk
rucibhiś citta-masṛṇya-
kṛd asau bhāva ucyate

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 23.5)

(“When devotional service is executed on the transcendental platform of pure goodness, it is like a sun-ray of love for Kṛṣṇa. At such a time, devotional service causes the heart to be softened by various tastes, and one is then situated in bhāva [emotion].”)

In bhāva-avasthā, samvit (the knowledge potency) and hlādinī (the pleasure potency) combine on the platform of sandhinī (the spiritual existence potency). On this stage, called the stage of pure goodness (śuddha-sattva), the essence of sandhinī and hlādinī always resides in the hearts of the eternal associates of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. From there, it will manifest in our hearts by the causeless mercy of Śrī Gurudeva and Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Then we will know our svarūpa (constitutional nature), but not before that. Before that, we can only imagine a little bit. According to the jīva’s svarūpa, he will manifest his spiritual body. There are so many types of bhāgavata pārṣada (associates of Bhagavān) in the spiritual planets, and we can get a body like theirs.

We can somewhat understand this by the example of Bharata Mahārāja. He was absorbed in thinking about his lost baby deer, so much so that in his next birth, he became a deer. He did not become the same deer; he became another deer. Similarly, by the causeless mercy of Gurudeva and Kṛṣṇa, when we do sādhana-bhajana here in this world, we can gradually understand, at least intellectually, what we have heard from them. Even before entering the bhāva stage, we will hear, in a general way, about the identity of our svarūpa, and which bhāva – dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya or mādhurya to follow. Then, when bhāva-avasthā awakens, that mood will manifest. Some associates are dāsya, some are sakhya, some are vātsalya, and some are mādhurya. When we do bhajana, we gradually come to a mature stage, and we can achieve the mood of that eternal associate who is a personified ocean of the mood for which we aspire, either in Vaikuṇṭha, Ayodhyā, Dvārakā, Mathurā, Goloka, or Vṛndāvana.

This is one of the meanings of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s statements. Jīva Gosvāmī also means to say that since the svarūpa of the jīva, which is in an unmanifest or seed-like state in the jīva’s conditioned life, has everything in it in seed form (as a seed of a tree has the whole tree in it). Therefore, the planet on which we live, Vaikuṇṭha, Vṛndāvana, etc., is also there in the soul. In this way, the pārṣada (spiritual body) of the jīva that is presently in a latent position can also be explained.

(Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja explains further in Hindi, and then Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja resumes)

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja: Our constitutional body is transcendental, but now it is in an unmanifest form. By the causeless mercy of Śrī Guru, our form will manifest in our heart, and then we can realise it. Some anubhāva (realisation) will come in the bhāva stage; not before that. As explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, prayujyamāne; it will manifest. In this world, our material language cannot express the transcendental thoughts we want to explain; some fault is bound to be there. Those on the transcendental platform can understand very clearly, but due to our absorption in the material world, we cannot. When we develop in sādhana-bhajana, we can understand and realise everything. Śuddha-sattva will manifest in our heart, and we will understand that transcendental form which is now in a latent position, because we will have attained our siddha-svarūpa. That is called prayujyamāne. So we must perform sādhana and pray; when God is pleased with us, we will understand.

We can understand something by hearing the example of Mother Yaśodā:

sva-mātuḥ svinna-gātrāyā
visrasta-kabara-srajaḥ
dṛṣṭvā pariśramaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ
kṛpayāsīt sva-bandhane

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.9.18)

(“Because of mother Yaśodā’s hard labour, her whole body became covered with perspiration, and the flowers and comb were falling from her hair. When child Kṛṣṇa saw His mother thus fatigued, He became merciful to her and agreed to be bound.”)

Mother Yaśodā was trying to bind Kṛṣṇa, and when Kṛṣṇa saw her endeavour and hard labour, His heart melted. Similarly, we have to do sādhana-bhajana under the guidance of Guru and Vaiṣṇavas; when they see that we want only this and nothing else, āśāsya dāsyaṃ vṛṣabhānu-jāyās (they will bestow their causeless mercy upon us).**

*

śravaṇa-kīrtanādi-sādhana-samaye yadā
śuddhā-bhaktir udeti tadā svasyā ’vidyatvaṁ
parihṛtya vidyayā cidetara vitṛṣṇājananī sāpi
jīvasya sthūla-liṅgamaya-saupādhika-dehadvayaṁ
vināśya tasya svarūpagata śuddha-ciddehaṁ
adhikārabhedena madhura-rasāsvādanā
yatanaṁ gopikā-deham api prakaṭayati

As the sādhaka jīva continues to hear and chant, pure bhakti arises in his heart, and the function of the essence of hlādinī and saṁvit, known as Bhakti-devī, removes all desires and aspirations except for the service of Bhagavān. After all ignorance is dispelled, the jīva’s gross and subtle coverings are both destroyed by the vidyā-vṛtti (function of the knowledge potency). At once, the jīva’s pure, constitutional, transcendental body appears. Those who are eligible to taste madhura-rasa attain the purely spiritual body of a gopī.

** In Śrī Rādhā-rasa-sudhā-nidhi (198) Śrī Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī prays:

āśāsya dāsyaṁ vṛṣabhānu-jāyās
tīre samadhyāsya ca bhānu-jāyāḥ
kadā nu vṛndāvana-kuñja-vīthiṣv
ahaṁ nu rādhe hy atithir bhaveyam

O Rādhā! O Vṛṣabhānu-nandinī! When will I, who am residing on the bank of the Yamunā with the hope of becoming Your maidservant, become a guest on the pathways of Vṛndāvana’s kuñjas?

Source(s): Purebhakti.com

Image(s) made possible by Pixabay.com, Krishnapath.org.in, Keystone Press / Alamy Stock Photo and / or Bhaktiart.net

Unless indicated otherwise, all verse translations and quotes are from the books by Śrīla Prabhupāda (Vedabase.com)