Chapter 12: Every Word is a Song

«Where every word is a song, every step is a dance, and the flute is the favourite attendant ...»

Every word is a song . . . but this is not a sound of this plane. This is from some other world, some other world that is so soft, so sweet, so heart-capturing. It is a world where correct behaviour occurs most sweetly and harmoniously. Every word is like a song (kathā gānam). Every movement is sweet, like dancing (nāṭyaṁ gamanam api). It has been described in this way. Everything is replete with the highest degree of beauty. This is the land of beauty — there everything is beautiful. Everything has the touch of beauty divine. The prime cause is charming, attracting, and arresting heart and soul, «Stop!»

There is a land of such existence. Our aspiration is for such a life (rādhikā-mādhavāśām). We can sincerely foster the idea to feel attraction to a life of such a plane, where everything is of a musical character. The flute of Kṛṣṇa guides everything. That can even draw out the life from the body.

The sound is so charming, it appears that one’s very feeling wants to come out of bodily existence. Whatever part of our body is touched with any sort of such dealing, that part seems to disconnect from the other parts, and — if it is possible to imagine it — that part runs to join the subject. If there is colour, the eye wants to feel it, as though separating himself from the other parts of the body. There is such a competition: «I don’t want your connection, O body! I want to run towards that direction — a call has come from there.» The hands, the eyes, the touch — all faculties will compete; whatever part is touched will want to run away from the other friendly companions.

Once, after conducting the parikramā (circumambulation) of the whole Vraja-maṇḍala (the perimeter of Śrī Vṛndāvana), Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Prabhupāda asked his disciples, «Which pastimes attracted you most? Which location in Vṛndāvana has attracted you most?» When he asked me this question, I replied that Kadamkhāṇḍi, the place of Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu’s bhajana, attracted me most of all. Midway between Nandagrām and Yāvat there was an āśrama where Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī settled and used to write his book Śrī-Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. That place attracted me most. Again, after a year or two, when we were at Śrī Rādhā-Kuṇḍa in the company of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he very suddenly remarked, «Your place. That place of yours ...» I was astounded. «What, where is my place?» He said, «Your place is Kadamkhāṇḍi, the place of Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī.» I thought, «Oh, he had some purpose when he enquired a year or two ago which location was attractive to who; he kept these things on his mind, and accordingly today he is saying, ‘Your place.’ «

So he was very particular about ruchi-parīkṣā, or to examine the taste of a particular person for a particular līlā and a particular group of sendee. It is necessary for the Achārya to examine his disciple and determine the place where he is to be located. He must determine where his disciple stands and accordingly in harmony with that innate taste help him in his march towards that land of his aspiration.

The destination has been settled, but how shall I reach it? When shall I reach it? Those who come to my aid to take me there — they are my masters, my Gurus: Śikṣā-gurus and Dīkṣā-guru. Whoever helps me to go there is my Guru. He is my guide who will help me to reach my located destination, the station of my innermost hankering (rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ prāpto yasya prathitaḥ kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi). He has helped me to locate my destination; he has educated me how and what to aspire after, and how to reach that highest aspired shelter. I have attained all these things through him. He is my all-in-all in life, the master of my life. There is a boat, and he is the helmsman (guru-karṇadhāram). I have surrendered unto him, I have accepted him. I have boarded his boat and he is taking me towards the goal of my life.

The human body (nṛ-deham) has been compared to a boat. By utilising my resources in this body and mind, my Gurudeva, as the helmsman, is guiding me towards the goal. One who does not take this opportunity after coming into the human species commits suicide. He commits suicide by failing to take advantage of crossing the ocean of life and death, birth and death, birth and death. The very nature of the ocean of mundane existence is waves — life and death, birth and death. The helmsman to take us across this ocean of life and death, birth and death, is Gurudeva. It is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that anyone who misses this chance is committing suicide:

nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ
plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram
mayānukulena nabhasvateritaṁ
pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātmahā

Here, the Lord is inferring, «So many boats are passing, and I am helping like a favourable wind. The helmsman is Guru, and I am the favourable wind. The boat is this human body, and you should all take this opportunity to cross the ocean of life, birth, and death. The world is compared to the infinite. It resembles infinity; it is very difficult to cross the ocean of life and death, birth and death. If you want to escape these troubles (janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duhkha-dosānudarśanam), you must take the chance. Otherwise, you will lose so much that it amounts to suicide.

The grace of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu presupposes some selection, but Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace has no selection. He gives His grace to whoever He comes across. Nityānanda Prabhu is so magnanimous that He saves whoever He comes across on His way. His mercy is so raw, undiscriminating, and broad. Nityānanda Prabhu is most benevolent. Mahāprabhu has a sort of discrimination, but Nityānanda Prabhu does not care for any discrimination whatsoever. Whether one is a fit or an unfit candidate, he is still counted as worthy. Such is His mercy.

Never dare to approach Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, neglecting the grace of Lord Nityānanda (hena nitāi vine bhāi, rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi). So, our revered Śrīpāda Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja laid stress on Nityānanda Prabhu. Nityānanda Prabhu is Lord Balarāma. Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace is stressed for the fallen; His grace is real wealth for them because discrimination has hardly a place in it. Although not much, we nonetheless find some sort of discrimination in the magnanimity of Lord Gaurāṅga. But Nityānanda Prabhu is more generous. So first go to Nityānanda Prabhu, and by His grace you will go to Mahāprabhu. And by the grace of Mahāprabhu you will easily reach Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda in Vṛndāvana. This is the way shown to us.

yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde
vindeta bhaktiṁ kṛta-puṇya-rāśiḥ
tathā tathotsarpati hṛdy akasmād
rādhā-padāmbhoja-sudhāmbu-rāśiḥ

«As devotion unto the lotus feet of Śrī Gaurasundara is attained by a greatly pious person, unexpectedly the ocean of nectar which is the service of the lotus feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā is accordingly born within his heart.»

Percolated by the mercy of Śrī Gaurāṅga, try to approach Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇi. Then there will no possibility of any dirt entering you and disturbing you in that plane. That will be percolated by Śrī Gaurāṅga. If you have the shelter of Śrī Gaurāṅga you can be sure that you will very safely, smoothly, and intimately attain to the service of Śrīmatī Rādhārānī. Otherwise it is very dangerous, and sometimes suicidal. If you do not approach through Śrī Gaurāṅga the attempt will be reactionary. It is very dangerous to approach Śrī Vṛndāvana and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī directly. You must approach commanded by Śrī Gaurāṅga. In other words, if you can appreciate the life of Śrī Gaurāṅga, the ideal of Śrī Gaurāṅga, then kāma (mundane desire), etc., will be exhaustively eliminated. You will be really purified to be acceptable to that domain of the highest līlā.

So here, in Koladvīpa, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu gave His best to all (kuliyā-grāmete āsi’ śrī-kṛṣṇa-chaitanya, hena nāhi, yā ’re prabhu nā karilā dhanya). He gave the most desirable service, service of the sweetest type. Such service is found in Vṛndāvana, and Mahāprabhu Śrī Chaitanyadeva recommended Vṛndāvana life as the highest. Neither knowledge nor power can even approach this Vṛndāvana service. In Vṛndāvana, heart is everything. Śrī Uddhava also said,

āsām aho charaṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāt,
vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām
yā dustyajaṁ svajanam ārya-pathañ cha hitvā
bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām

«Ignoring society and even scriptures, they (the Gopīs) have given themselves up to the Absolute. They gave up their own relatives, and what is socially considered to be holy; they gave up everything for the cause of the service of the Lord.» So Uddhava, the highest type of devotee, said, «I aspire after a birth as a blade of grass or some plant in Vṛndāvana, so that the feet-dust of the Gopīs easily falls on my head.» So high is the position of the Gopīs and Vṛndāvana. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu recommended that very thing, with the added feature of distributing it to others. Giving it to others, one may have a wholesale dealing with a life so divine. All conceptions of dharma (duty), adharma (irreligion), jñāna (knowledge, renunciation, liberation), etc. — they are very, very low in comparison to these affairs of Vṛndāvana. Here, the heart is everything. Whoever has tenacity to follow this line has the greatest hope of success in life.

And again, diṣṭyā yad āsīn mat sneho, bhavatīnāṁ mad āpanah (Bhā: 10.42.44): «It is supposed that one who gets My connection is fortunate, but I consider it My fortune that I got your (the Gopīs’) connection. Others say that anyone who gets My connection is fortunate. But I consider Myself fortunate because I have your connection. I am the most fortunate. It is My fortune that I have your connection, so it is sure that I shall be yours — I shall always be yours.» Such things were spoken by Kṛṣṇa when He met the Gopīs at Kurukṣetra. Such things are unattainable — people cannot even think so high, that such a life is possible. Bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā (Bhā: 11.3.31): bhakti will produce more bhakti, and that bhakti will also produce more bhakti — in this way. Nothing else comes as a fruit. Bhakti is such a thing, it is its own reward.

yasyāḥ kadāpi vasanāñchala-khelanottha
dhanyātidhanya-pavanena kṛtārthamānī
yogīndra-durgama-gatir madhusudano ’pi
tasyāḥ namo ’stu vṛṣabhānubhuvodiśe ’pi

Here it has been told that once the flow of the wind had touched some part of the cloth or dress of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī; that wind touched Kṛṣṇa’s body, and Krṣṇa was besides Himself with cheer, with gladness, with pleasure. «Oh! I felt a touch of the wind that blew past the dress of Rādhārāṇī — I am so fortunate!» And who is that Kṛṣṇa? All the religious experts, scholars, yogīs, etc., they are all hunting after Kṛṣṇa’s grace — and that Kṛṣṇa, He thinks Himself fortunate if He gets a little touch of the breeze that blew past the dress of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So pure is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Her surrender, Her service, is so pure, that even a touch of that wind makes Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, the Supreme Lord Himself, think that He has gained the highest fortune. He feels, «I am so fulfilled in My life.»

Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī’s position is first and foremost. Śrī Jayadeva Goswāmī has written that Kṛṣṇa wants the feet-dust of Śrīmatī Radhārāṇī (dehi pada-pallavam udāram, Gita Govinda). However, ordinary people cannot understand this. Only the followers of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, by His grace, can understand anything of the substance of Rādhā-dāsyam, the servitude of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So Rādhā-dāsyam is the highest aspiration of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava.

After Śrī Chaitanyadeva took sannyāsa, He wandered throughout South India, and conquered the religious conceptions there. At Benares, Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara also wanted to take sannyāsa, but the function was half-done. When the Lord arrived at Purī, Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara became as though mad, and with his sannyāsa-function half-completed he ran to Purī. His name was Puruṣottama, and his brahmachārī name was Svarūpa Ānanda. So, with this name still, he ran to Purī, like a madman, to see his guardian and friend, his everything. He greeted Śrī Chaitanyadeva with this śloka:

heloddhūnita-khedayā viśadayā pronmīlad āmodayā
śāmyach-chāstra-vivādayā rasadayā chittārpitonmādayā
śaśvad-bhaktivinodayā śarmadayā mādhurya-maryādayā
śrī-chaitanya-dayānidhe tava dayā bhuyād amandodayā

«O ocean of mercy, Śrī Chaitanya — that mercy which effortlessly dispells all lamentation; that mercy within which absolute purity resides; that mercy within which supreme ecstasy is revealed (overshadowing all else); that mercy which ends all scriptural debates by its appearance; that mercy which charms all directions by its pastimes of divine love — by its absolute sweetness may that all-expansive mercy of Yours, the bestower of all goodness, awaken in our hearts.»

Srī Svarūpa Dāmodara fell at the feet of Śrī Chaitanyadeva, with this śloka on his lips. «O great ocean of mercy, Śrī Chaitanyadeva, let Your grace be distributed to one and all. You are the ocean of grace — let that grace be distributed to one and all. It is the grace which once begun never comes to end in any other wave; it will never produce any bad thing thereafter. Your dayā, Your mercy, is of such quality that if anyone gets a particle of it, then in no time that mercy will eliminate any bad position. Mando means ‘bad position,’ so amandodayā is such dayā that won’t bring inauspiciousness at any time.» Like a mad friend fallen at his feet, Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara sang this śloka to Śrī Chaitanyadeva. In the line of instruction from Śrī Chaitanyadeva, Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara is first, then Śrī Rūpa-Sanātana (viśvambhara priyaṅkara, śrī-svarūpa-dāmodara, śrī-goswāmī rūpa-sanātana). Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara’s position is such.

In Vṛndāvana, his position is Lalitā-sakhī. Bhuyād means āśirvāda, blessings; «I bestow my blessings to one and all; one and all may get the blessings of Śrī Chaitanyadeva.»

A hint of the particular standard of Śrīmatī Lalitā Devi’s service has been given by Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī:

rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharmabindu
nirmañchanopakaraṇe kṛta-deha-lakṣyām

When Lalitā Devi finds a drop of perspiration at the feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda, she furiously engages herself to remove it. «How has it come there? We are circumambulating Them to see that not the least pain can enter this domain to trouble Them. But how without our notice has this perspiration appeared? Perspiration, perspiration!» So she is furiously chastising herself, and wants to immediately take birth one lakh (100,000) times — with that force she comes to remove that drop of perspiration from the lotus feet of either of the Divine Couple. It the least difficulty is seen in the serving area, the Lord’s Associates can’t tolerate it in any way, and such eagerness, self-abuse and earnestness is found in them. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu said,

sanātana, deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye
koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye

«O Sanātana, to attain the service of Kṛṣṇa, I want to immediately die ten million times. I am ready to embrace ten million deaths if that will help me serve Him.»

The Hlādinī-śakti, the feeling potency, is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Even She feels dissatisfaction within Herself; «I can’t . . .» This holds the extreme position: «I can’t do My service, My duty; I can’t do it.»

At the meeting in Syamanta-pañchaka at Kurukṣetra, Kṛṣṇa Himself suddenly fell at Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s feet and begged forgiveness: «I am an offender, a criminal to your position. You are so self-giving, I cannot fulfill My real duty towards You. Your service to Me is so loving, I can’t do My duty to You.» But Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī said, «It is I who am committing offences, because I am still living despite Your separation. In Your separation I am still living — that proves that I am the offender. I am the offender, not You, because I am living. That is sufficient proof that I am not fit for You. Why did I not die with the separation? There is the proof.»

Kṛṣṇa fell at Her feet: «Your position is so high, so high. So long I was without You, increasing My different duties. Without trying to satisfy You, I engaged Myself in consideration of different duties.» But Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī said, «No, no, it is I who am the offender, that I did not die without Your company. We find in the scriptures that the male has such freedom, but not the female. So I should have died in the separation, and You have no offence that You left Me to do so many duties here and there. You have so many duties to discharge, but I am only for Your service. As such, I could not keep up the standard.» Such was the meeting at Kurukṣetra.

So in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, the potencies are Sandhinī, Saṁvit, and Hlādinī. Hlādinī holds the highest position because of wholesale self-surrender. Next is Saṁvit, and then third is the position of the Sandhinī. Thinking, feeling, and willing: willing is Sandhinī, thinking is Saṁvit, and feeling is Hlādinī. Ordinarily we may think that feeling is the last of all, but no, it is the first. Feeling is first. Feeling, real feeling, has been given such a high position. We are all under feeling. We are all searching, and feeling is commanding. We think feeling is the result. No. Feeling is commanding everything. First feeling, then thinking, then willing. Generally the karmīs give the better hand to willing — willpower — all command; and the jñānīs place everything in thinking — «We command the will, so we are holding the high position.» But feeling is at the basis of everything. He, or It, or She — is commanding everything. It has been told like that; we have to understand the position of feeling. Hare Kṛṣṇa.