Re: Six Questions about Rasa

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

Dear Swamiji, Bhakta Igor and devotees, please accept my humble obeisances. Realizing to be fully unqualified to give answers on such exalted questions Bhakta Igor has posted here I humbly ask Gurudeva and the senior devotees to forgive this wretched soul for taking the freedom in attempting to give some clarification on this subject.

I would like to start with answering question 2: Some devotees are saying that all devotees in this age are meant to some day serve in madhurya rasa, as servants of manjari or gopi. Is this true?

This tendency of understanding is very much developed under the influence of the Rupanuga followers which is the main line of understanding in our sampradaya. It is also understood that madhurya rasa is the highest of all rasas and that it is something we should �aim� for. This is a widespread misunderstanding and seems deeply rooted in the perceptive of modern, especially western, devotees. We have to understand that on Krishna�s planet everything is Krishna conscious. A blade of grass, the trees, the cows, the rivers, the elders, the gopas, the gopis, and every single soul is there for the pleasure of lord Sri Krishna and all have only one thing on their agenda: to help making arrangements for the meeting between Radha and Krishna. Each soul has his or her unique way of contributing to this arrangement and because of this uniqueness each and every soul is perfectly situated and hundred percent satisfied with its eternal position and can only be executed uniquely by only that particular soul. Therefore every relationship with Krishna is unique and irreplaceable by any other soul. When we understand this we can see that there is not such a thing as a better or a lesser rasa. They are all unique and full of Krishna consciousness. On the relative level with our dualistic minds, we may make some distinction between higher and lower but on the eternal absolute plane there is not such a thing. 

It is said that our original svarupa, our eternal spiritual form and our eternal spiritual relationship with the Lord, is inherent to our eternal existence. Our foundation is already there since time immemorial and is just covered with the material contamination. We don�t obtain a certain svarupa, we already have an unique svarupa, an unique form and relationship with the Lord. It is not some choice we make in the relative world and then it becomes eternal. No it is an eternal fact and will be uncovered by the grace of the Lord while we become purified from the material contamination. When we would say that we are all destined to become servants of manjari or gopi we try to give our lives a relative direction thereby overwriting the eternal fact of who we really are. As long as we have not the vivid inner insight of who we really are we should not make any assumptions of who we might be. It would just block our real spiritual development because we would create an imaginary outcome that might not match our real identity.

Now I like to reflect on question 1: What should a devotee do to achieve a service in mood of priya-narma-sakha?

As understood above we cannot just assume that we are situated in any particular service mood before the inner revelation discloses our real position. However we are servants of the Lord so we always should try to be of service the best we can but without considering the specific mood. The mood will come as we perform our service. We just patiently await when and how it comes. Any servitorship is in no way inferior to any other mood or rasa in which we can serve the Lord. In the Chaitanya Chandramrita it is explained that even the Vaikuntha devotees are amazed when they see the kind of service to Lord Gauranga:

aho vaikuntha-sthair api ca bhagavat-parshada-varaih
saromancam drishta yad anucara-vakreshvara-mukhah
mahashcarya-premojjvala-rasa-sadavesha-vivashi-
kritangas tam gauram katham akrita-punyah pranayatu (44)

Purport by Swami Gaurangapada:

Verse 44: "When the most exalted topmost associates of Lord Vishnu in the Vaikuntha planets behold the lotus faces of the most intimate devotees of Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu headed by Shrila Vakreshvara Pandita, which are constantly overcome and agitated by their supremely astonishing and splendidly pure love for Lord Gauranga, the Vaikuntha associates experience great wonder and bliss and their bodily hairs stand on end being unable to fully comprehend these ever-fresh blissful ecstatic symptoms of Lord Gauranga's associates. This proves that it is the topmost fruit of all accumulated pious deeds to become an associate of Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu and chant His Holy Name and Pastimes."

3. Devotee may feel stronger attachment toward Balarama/Nitaai then Krsna/Gauranga, spontaneously meditating, chanting etc about worshipable Lord? Is this all right with standards of our sampradaya?

Yes this is a natural inclination however we should be careful that we are open for all horizons. It can be at a certain time in our spiritual development that we are more attracted to Lord Nityananda and we see that tendency especially under ourselves. Because we chant the Mantrarajas along with the Maha Mantra we see often a strong attraction to Lord Nityananda. At least in my case that is true. Lord Nityananda is soo attractive and soo accessible that we cannot but fall totally in love with Him. Then when we develop by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, we get a different feeling about Lord Gauranga and Sri Sri Radha Krishna. At times we can feel so overwhelmed with ecstatic love for the Lord from so many angles while chanting the Raja- and Maha Mantras that it seems we are in all rasas at the same time. The keyword you have used here is �spontaneous�. When we get a spontaneous feeling while chanting the holy Names of the Lord, please follow that direction because that is the �mood� in which you have the most intense contact with the Lord at that moment. However be open for changes. The next time you chant you might be looking forward to that same mood and it is not there. When we are looking for a particular mood we more or less block ourselves from the development of a spontaneous approach that might be right around the corner. So we always try to be open, humbly asking the Lord to reveal Himself in whatever way He wants to appear at that moment to us. The motto here is �expect less and receive more� or even better: �expect nothing and receive everything!�

4. Devotee may find that spontaneously he or she is meditating or praying to associates of Lord in specific position like Subala, Sridhama or Abhirama Thakura etc. and becoming attached to such specific mood of service. How to properly understand this? 

Same answer as 3. I think that whatever happens spontaneous is the lead of that moment. But again don�t fix it in your mind so it becomes an expectation. Be open to real revelation and don�t try to project an imaginary one.

5. There is great fear/ignorance about such topics, basicaly because all such realizations or topics  are in many cases automatically categorized - sahajiya. Many devotees are saying - just chant Hare Krsna that is what you need. They may also say that Srila Prabhupada never spoke about that. So devotee may be frighten to ask, and hesitate. How will devotee know are such aspirations genuine of simply cheating/sahajiya? 

The cheating propensity is known in the heart of the devotee if harbored purposely. Any other case is ignorance and will be overlooked by the sincere devotees of the Lord. So there should be no hesitation at all to ask questions about this topic. How can we generate answers when we don�t ask? And when we make a �fool� out of ourselves it is for the benefit for all the genuine devotees. That�s wonderful service in itself and should be carried out with confidence and with dignity.

6. In Nectar of devotion we may find many relevant and wonderful descriptions about such topics. I have heard that many devotees are saying that we should read and learn about first part of the book and that second part of this book is not for us? Why will Srilla Prabhupada wrote his commentaries on Nectar of devotion if they are not for us?

Srila Prabhupada has written his books to give us full instruction in the science of Krishna consciousness. He said that everything was there in his books. Certain follow-orders are recommended but not mandatory. In my case the very first book I read was the Krishna book, the most confidential part of the Srimad Bhagavatam. It is recommended to read the nine cantos before the confidential tenth one, but I just read Srila Prabhupada�s Krishna book and it brought me to Krishna. That�s all that counts in the beginning. Later I reread the tenth canto after reading the first nine ones and I saw it with new eyes. I would say it is good to read the first part of the Nectar of Devotion first before the second one but that�s a natural sequence anyway. When something was not meant for us to read Srila Prabhupada would not have written it down, and when he has written it down we will read it but not understand. Although it is right there before their noses in his books so many devotees don�t see Srila Prabhupada�s direct instructions to chant the Mantrarajas along with the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. They read it but they don�t understand it. The same is with the revealed scriptures: there are so many secrets there right for our noses but do we see them?

I hope this was of some help.

Aspiring to be the servant of the devotees,

Hadai Nityananda dasa

Nityananda Guaranga Hare Krishna!

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