"This path of bhakti is all optimism."

Here's a really amazing excerpt from Srila Gour Govinda Swami's book, Amrutera Tarangini - The Flow of Nectar.

"Somehow or other we have come to this path, so we should be serious. Our Guru Maharaja Srila Prabhupada says, 'This is for serious students.' It is for those who are very serious like Dhruva Maharaja. Dhruva was so serious and determined. 'I must get Narayana.' So be serious and determined like him, then in this very life we will get Krsna. But if there is no seriousness and determination, rather, so many material desires, still whatever little we have earned is never lost.
"There is no despondency or pessimism on this path. This path of bhakti is all optimism. Never become disappointed. If it will not be achieved in this life, definitely in the next life or the life after that it must come to us. This path of bhakti is all gain, there is no loss. We may commit some aparadha, fall down or whatever, so in this very life our advancement is checked. But whatever we have earned is with us, it is never lost.

"There is no loss, it is all gain. So there is no pessimism. This bhakti is so powerful, and this is the teaching."

Sincerely serve and take shelter of Sri Guru

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.

Just recently I picked up the book "The Principle of Sri Guru and Service to Sri Guru," by Sripad BV Madhava Maharaja. This book is very wonderful, as is its author, and elucidates so many truths on sri guru.

While reading it, I became very humbled. One part lists the qualities of a disciple who has sraddha, or firm faith, and I realized most definitely that I do not fit in that category. Another part, which I am going to share, I found very encouraging for its simplicity and loving mood. Reading this part answered a question that had been floating in my mind, many questions actually, such as, how to progress? And how to become a strong devotee and disciple?

Here is the excerpt:

"...if the neophyte sevaka is sincere and takes full shelter of Srila Gurudeva and the senior Vaisnavas, he will quickly be able to progress to the intermediate level, at which his determination to serve Gurudeva will be focused and strong. One who reaches the intermediate level is said to be mahabhagyavan, 'greatly fortunate.'" [CC Madhya Lila 22.67]

When I read this, I thought of myself and also of jiva souls in general. I thought how, if only I could realize how Gurudeva is my only shelter, and appreciate what he has given, then I could serve him every moment - heart, mind, body, words. Gurudeva said once that we can never repay him for what he has given, not in a million lifetimes. And yet still we should try, we should serve him, to show our gratefulness. Instead, I am in maya, and my mind is so weak, and I do not make extra effort.

I thought of examples we have where people take shelter of Krsna, and how we should follow these examples and take shelter of Guru. For example, Draupadi, she gave up the idea of independence and control, knowing Krsna as her only shelter (when the Kauravas were trying to disrobe her), so she literally threw up her arms and cried out, "Govinda! Krsna!" Because of her immense affection, because of her begging, Krsna gave her mercy and helped her; and also because he is so merciful.

We want to attract Krsna to us. Guru has already attracted Krsna; he can give us Krsna. If I can just take shelter sincerely at Gurudeva's lotus feet, than my life will be successful.

Today here in New Braj, Kishori Mohan prabhu gave a very nice class that is relevant to this post. He said many good things, but one was, we should be like a dog, and guru is our master. The dog has affection for master, he follows him always, he does not compromise and wander away, he barks when someone ambivalent to his master comes along, and he is controlled by the instructions of the master. So by following guru's instructions and serving, sincerely, then as Sripad BV Madhava Maharaja says, we can become strong! I want to become strong, and focused, and progress.

Jai Srila Gurudeva! Jai Srila Prabhupada! Jai Sripad BV Madhava! All glories to the vaishnavas!

One should endeavor with great eagerness for spiritual attachment

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.

Today I am sharing from Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's Sri Manah Siksa. This book has the commentary of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Gurudeva. Gurudeva instructs that we should read Upadesamrta, then Manah Siksa, etc. So this book is very important. I actually haven't read it before, so I was happy to read it. I might read it again, because there is so much in it, and I sortof whisked through it; I'm not able to take it all in, anyway.

Just think! Manah Siksa before Upadesamrta. And both of those before Bhagavad Gita...I find Upadesamrta intimidating, myself. So many things in it and Manah Siksa are beyond...but I guess it's supposed to be like that. They tell us the goal. Gurudeva says that Bhagavad Gita is the doorway to surrender; the doorway to Srimad Bhagavatam.
Anyway, the topic of this bit is, spiritual attachment versus material attachment, how spiritual attachment is true attachment -atma rati, our soul's attachment - and should be endeavored for with eagerness.

This part of the commentary is by Srila Gurudeva:

Apurva Rati
Atma rati or rati of the soul is pure rati (spiritual attachment). The jiva is by nature a servant of Krsna. Pure krsna-rati is present in his spiritual form. But when the jiva is diverted from Krsna and bound by maya, his rati (material attachment) is directed toward perishable material objects. This perverted rati which is connected with maya is incidental and distressful.

It is only in pure krsna-bhakti that rati of the soul finds its place. In other words, pure krsna-prema is itself atma-rati, because Sri Krsna is the Supersoul of all souls. In its mature state, the more this pure atma-rati evolves, the more it is known as apurva-rati or unprecedented spiritual attachment.

Atitaram kuru: Make Intensive Endeavors
One should endeavor with great eagerness to obtain atma-rati. One should not remain complacent thinking that bhakti will arise of its own accord by some good fortune. The more one's spiritual strength increases, the more the effects of one's karmic activities will diminish, and without doubt one will obtain the mercy of pure devotees and the Supreme Lord.
The purport of this instruction is that as long as the desire for reward-seeking activity is not diminished by the association of devotees, sraddha will not arise. As long as sraddha or deep faith does not arise, one is unfit to hear and assimilate harikatha and spiritual instructions.

When, by good fortune, paramarthika or transcendental sraddha arises, one should take shelter of a diksa-guru and receive the sri yugala-mantra. Having obtained this mantra, one should worship the diksa and siksa gurus with intense attachment or atma-rati.

One should not be satisfied simply to offer respect to Sri Gurudeva considering him to be a mere sage. Rather, one should serve him with love and devotion, accepting him as one's dearest friend and well-wisher. The three kinds of Vaisnava devotees - kanistha, madhyama, and uttama - should be offered respects suitably and received with affection. One should cultivate true attachment to harinama and the mantra given by one's diksa guru. Considering Sri Sri Radha-Krsna Yugala to be one's life and soul, one should take shelter at Their lotus feet.

I really enjoyed reading this. I found it very encouraging, and I also feel like it explains why so many times I heard Gurudeva, but I didn't *really* hear, because I still have material desires. I feel encouraged, like if I just take shelter of guru and cultivate love and affection, I will be okay; Gurudeva said that guru and Krsna are always supporting and protecting us. So of course, they are taking care of me, too.

Dear Srimati Radhika...

Here is another devotional poem by me:

Dear Srimati Radhika, whose eyes are blue
Whom do you search for, after morning dew?

Is it the thief who has stolen Your heart?
Carrying it with Him from morning till dark

Perhaps He holds it in His yellow cloth
Attracting You to Him, as flame with a moth

His five arrows are always slaying You,
His cheek, eyes, smile, form, and moving 'brows, too

But without a heart, how can You be slain?
Instead You defeat Him in Your love games

Your cunning words strike Him down like a lance
You teach Him the art of a sidelong glance

By it, He is felled like a forest tree
You celebrate, with friends, Your victory

He has stolen Your heart, You steal His flute.
He falls at Your feet, knowing You as root

Of His every happiness, day by day
With the noose of Your love, You make Him stay

Trapped by Your expert hunting, like a deer.
Losing Your favor is His only fear.

Sri Radhe, allow me to serve You, please
So that I may witness Your victories.

I want to serve You as a manjari
When oh when will You give this boon to me?

May this poem help me to melt Your soft heart
So in Your pastimes I may soon take part.

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!!Would anyone like to share or write a devotional poem of their own?

Dear Srila Gurudeva...

The other day, I was reading with some very sweet vaishnavis the 10th chapter of the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. In this chapter, in one particular verse, it is described how Mother Yashoda would sing Krsna's pastimes while churning yogurt. In the purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada says how one used to create poems in order to remember something. He glorifies Mother Yashoda for singing about Krsna while She works.

In a video at this year's New Braj festival, Srila Gurudeva spoke similarly. He instructed that whatever we are doing during the day, during this activity we should sing, "Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti..." Also, one vaishnavi said that Gurudeva told that he wanted his disciples to write something each day.

In light of all this, I have decided to write some devotional poetry. This idea occurred to before, during Kartik last year, but I did not follow up on it. Now, I have more desire to.

So here is one small, simple, not very good humble poem to Srila Gurudeva:

Dear Srila Gurudeva,
I want to love you more than I love anyone or anything else.

But I am out of breath
For Maya never rests

She chases me from behind
I hold onto her, so unkind

To myself, moment after moment
When will I relent, and repent?

I have made so much offense
To your lotus feet, which are rinsed

With drops of prem that emanate from you.
Give me strength to serve, and my life will renew.

Only by service can I gain affection, so sweet
For you, and be transported to Radha's lotus feet.

Jai Srila Gurudeva!

I will try to find the video I mentioned. I had the link before, but now I am not sure where it is. I will try to post it later. It is VERY sweet! It is in a class where Srila Gurudeva speaks on Srila Prabhupada's Upadesamrta purports - specifically tan nama rupa caritadi sukirtananu, that verse.

The 10 characteristics of religious life

In the 8th chapter of Jaiva Dharma, entitled "Nitya-Dharma and Vaishnava Behavior", Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura writes:

There are ten characteristics of religious life - dhrtih (determination with patience); ksama (forgiveness), which means not retaliating when wronged by others; damo (control of the mind), which means equanimity even in the face of unsettling circumstances; asteyam (abstinence from theft); saucam (cleanliness); indriya -nigrahah (restraining the senses from their sense objects); dhir (inteligence), which means knowledge of the sastra; vidya (wisdom, or realization of the soul); satyam (truthfulness); and akrodha (absence of anger), as demonstrated by even-temperedness amidst irritating circumstances.

- (Sri Manu Samhita 6.92)

[Babaji speaking] "Six of these characteristics - determination, control of the mind, cleanliness, restraint of the senses, knowledge of the sastra, and wisdom - are duties to one's own self. the remaining four - forgiveness, abstinence from stealing, truthfulness, and absence of anger - are duties to others. These ten religious duties have been prescribed for people in general, but none of them clearly indicate hari-bhajan."

[Later, Babaji goes on to say that the neophyte devotee vaishnava, or kanistha-adhikari, cannot relate to devotees or behave properly, therefore he can only relate to others according to these ten characteristics, and it is implied he or she should try to follow].

The Mercy of Srila Rupa Goswami

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.
Today I am sharing some more nectar about Srila Rupa Goswami. My last post was about Srila Rupa Goswami in his manjari form, where he serves Srimati Radhika very intimately in the form of a young gopi girl. This post will be about Srila Rupa Goswami in his sadhaka form, who heard from Mahaprabhu and knew His moods.

For example, when Mahaprabhu recited a mundane poem at Rathayatra about a person missing their lover, Rupa Goswami knew the true, deeper, inner meaning behind Mahaprabhu reciting this verse. He wrote the following in response:

priyah so’yam krsnah sahacari kuru-ksetra-militas tathaham sa radha tad idam ubhayoh sangama-sukham tathapy antah-khelan-madhura-murali-pancama-juse mano me kalindi-pulina-vipinaya sprhayati


"My dear friend, now I have met My old and dear friend Krsna on
this field of Kurukshetra. I am the same Radharani, and now we are
meeting together. It is very pleasant, but I would still like to go to
the bank of the Yamuna beneath the trees of the forest there. I
wish to hear the vibration of His sweet flute playing the fifth note
within that forest of Vrndavana.”

Srila Gurudeva spoke a class in Vrndavana in 1998 about the cleverness and excellency of Srila Rupa Goswami, his writings, and his mood for Srimati Radhika:

"All of the associates of Krsna act as if they are dumb when it comes to expressing themselves about their own loving exchanges with Sri Krsna. They personally relish Krsna’s pastimes, but they cannot tell anything about their experiences. Radhika will also not tell anything about how She meets with Krsna. Sometimes, in the early morning, Syamala visits Srimati Radhika and asks, “I want to hear something from You. I want to take bath in hearing Your krsna-katha; I want to hear how You met with Krsna last night.” Srimati Radhika replies, “I don’t remember. I went there and I saw Him, and then I fainted, and I don’t know anything about what happened after that.”

Srila Rupa Gosvami's samadhi at the Sri Radha-Damodara Mandira in Vrndavana

"If Candravali asks what happened, Radhika’s sakhis tell the opposite of what actually transpired. They will not reveal what incidents actually took place. Whenever they are asked this question, all act as if dumb. Neither Lalita nor Visakha nor any other sakhis will tell, and even Krsna will not tell what happened. They will relish their pastimes together, but not tell others about them.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said:

na prema-gandho ’sti darapi me harau
krandami saubhagya bharam prakasitum
vamsi vilasy anana lokanam vina
bibhrami yat prana patangakan vrtha

(Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 2.45)

[“My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of prema within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Krsna playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”]

"Mahaprabhu said, “I have not a scent of that prema.” In this way, He is also as if dumb.

"In Srila Raya Ramananda’s conversation with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Ramananda-samvada), Raya Ramananda – who is Visakha in Krsna’s pastimes – barely told anything. He was simply replying to Mahaprabhu’s questions, one after another. In Mahaprabhu’s instructions to Srila Sanatana Gosvami (Sanatana-siksa), what did He tell? He did not say anything about the confidential pastimes of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, nor did He reveal how the gopis serve Them.

"What has Mahaprabhu told in His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami in Sri Rupa-siksa? He told next to nothing regarding Radha and Krsna’s pastimes. And finally, He ordered Rupa Gosvami to reveal all that He Himself could not.

"Even Rupa-manjari cannot tell anything. Only Rupa Gosvami can tell; he tells everything.

...

"He tells us what he has seen: In the form of Rupa-manjari he is serving Krsna and Srimati Radhika. He is obeying the orders of Srimati Radhika and stopping Krsna from entering Her kunja. He is seeing how Krsna, being so much pleased, is begging her to be allowed to enter Radhika’s kunja and is placing His head at her (Rupa-manjari’s) own lotus feet to attain her (Rupa-manjari’s) mercy.

Sri Rupa Manjari

"Srila Rupa Gosvami is very clever. He has written all his prayers as though he has not already experienced the fruit of those prayers. Although he has actually experienced his personal services to Radhika, he is writing prayers as if he has never experienced this – for us. What he felt in the form of Rupa-manjari, he has very cleverly shared with us by means of his prayers.

"Rupa Gosvami has personally taken darsana of Radha and Krsna, but for the true, sincere sadhaka, he has written this verse in his prayer, “Gandharvika Prarthan-astakam”:

vrndavane viharator iha keli kunje
matta dvipa pravara kautuka vibhramena
sandarsayasva yuvayor vadanaravinda
dvandvam vidhehi mayi devi krpam prasida (1)

[“O devi Radhike! Like the intoxicated king of elephants sporting with his queen elephant, Sri Krsna and You are constantly enjoying Your ambrosial amorous pastimes in the lush pleasure groves of Vrndavana. Therefore, O Gandharvike, be pleased with me and mercifully grant me the darsana of Your two lotus-like faces.”]

"Srila Rupa Gosvami is teaching by his own example how a rupanuga Vaisnava prays to Srimati Radhika. Those who want to follow him never pretend to have already attained ekadasa-bhava (gopi-bhava, or manjari-bhava). Those who pretend to be already on that platform when they are actually not so, are actually mad; they have no sense at all. We should always pray as Srila Rupa Gosvami prayed. Then, by the mercy of the gopis and by the mercy of Srimati Radhika, we can realize all the truths hidden within Rupa Gosvami’s prayers. Srimati Radhika will give this realization. She will at once be pleased and give Her service.

"Srila Rupa Gosvami teaches us how to pray: “Vrndavane viharator iha – O, when will that time come? O my dear Srimati Radhika-devi, You are very merciful, so please be merciful to me. Please sprinkle Your mercy upon me.”

"...If Srimati Radhika hears these prayers uttered from the core of one’s heart, Her heart will melt and She will bestow Her mercy.

"Srila Rupa Gosvami has skillfully written prayers such as this, filled with the pastimes of Krsna. He is Rupa-manjari, a prominent nitya-siddha (eternally perfect) associate of Radha and Krsna, but in the form of a sadhaka he is explaining to us the pastimes and the process to understand and enter them, so that we may be helped. This is his mercy."

Source link [entire class]: August 6, 1998: "The Mercy of Srila Rupa Goswami"

Srila Rupa Goswami ki JAI!!! So much mercy!! Tomorrow is Lord Balarama's appearance day! Jai!!