Q. Is it possible for jivas to evolve through the various stages of love and eventually end up in the highest platform of service to Srimati Radharani?
A. Evolution is there in prema through the stages of sneha, pranaya, mana, raga, anuraga, bhava, and mahabhava, relative to one’s dominant emotion (sthayi-bhava). Subala’s love reaches to bhava (this bhava is different than the general conception of bhava that preceeds prema), and manjari-bhava reaches up to mahabhava.
dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, srngara-cari rasa cari bhavera bhakta yata krishna tara vasa
“Servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love are the four transcendental rasas. By the devotees who cherish these four mellows, Lord Krishna is subdued.”
Sri Caitanya said, “I shall personally inaugurate the religion of the age, nama sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of loving devotional service.” Four kinds of devotees are the receptacles of the four kinds of mellows in love of God, namely servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love: nija nija bhava sabe srestha kari’ mane nija-bhave kare krishna-sukha asvadane. Each kind of devotee feels that his sentiment is the most excellent, and thus in that mood he tastes great happiness with Lord Krishna: tatastha ha-iya mane vicara yadi kari saba rasa haite srngare adhika madhuri.
But if we compare the sentiments in an impartial mood, we find that the conjugal sentiment is superior to all in sweetness. “Sri Caitanya himself tasted all four of these bhavas. With Paramananda Puri he tasted parental love. In relation to Govinda dasa he tasted servitude. With Raya Ramananda he tasted fraternal love and in association with Svarupa Damodara he tasted conjugal love in the mood of Radha.
While objectively speaking conjugal love is best, subjectively speaking any of these bhavas is best. In our lineage, manjari-bhava of conjugal love is significantly similar to dasya-bhakti. In the case of manjari-bhava, Radha-Krishna are the object of love, and not merely Krishna. This bhava has come to be the predominant one. Within it all other bhavas are contained. A guru situated in this bhava can awaken or any of the other three bhavas in the heart of his disciple.
Sakhya bhava is also prevalent in our lineage, especially the sakhaya bhava of Subala, Krishna’s bosom buddy (priyanarma-sakha). Raya Ramananda pacified Sri Caitanya in the mood of Subala when Mahaprabhu felt separation from Radha while in the mood of Krishna, whereas Svarupa Damodara pacified him when he was in the mood of Radha and experiencing separation from Krishna. Subala’s love is very special and reaches just short of the highest ecstatic development of prema known as mahabhava. In Gaura-lila Subala appeared as Gauridasa Pandit.
Due to the influence of Nityananda Prabhu, other varieties of sakhya-bhava have appeared throughout the sampradaya. Vamsidasa Babaji, a siddha-mahatma recognized by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, exhibited parental love for Krishna.
Gaudiya Vaisnavism is a very open-minded tradition. It tells is to do our own thing, prefacing this with knowledge of what it is that we are to begin with. Know you are spirit not matter and fly as high as you can in the sky of your heart, embracing the association of advanced devotees as the wind beneath your wings.
Q. If Krishna’s mercy truly is causeless, how are we to understand that through vaidhi-bhakti, or practice, we will come to experiential/spontaneous devotion?
A. It is causeless in the sense that it does not arise from within the jurisdiction of karma, the plane of cause and effect. Devotional practices are also a manifestation of Krishna’s mercy, appearing in the scripture as they do. It is not by works, but by love that Krishna is pleased. If the act of so-called devotion has no love, no devotion, it will not be very fruitful in terms of drawing Krishna’s mercy. There is some labor to love. Mother Yasoda labored hard to bind Krishna, and Krishna became merciful to her and allowed himself to be bound when he realized that her efforts were more out of fear that he would run away than they were in pursuit of punishing him.
Q. Can you please explain the significance of pada-sevanam (serving the lotus feet of God)? Why this preoccupation with the feet? Is this similar to the idea of Christians bathing the feet of Jesus?
A. Pada-sevanam includes visiting holy places, bathing in sacred rivers, circumambulating temples, making obeisances to the Lord, etc. Those places graced by the feet of the Lord are sacred and worshipable. Mother Ganges washes his holy feet in his appearance as Vamana, and thus service to her, bathing within her waters and other waters that have bathed the Lord’s lotus feet constitutes pada-sevanam. The worship of Tulasi is also pada-sevana, for Krishna is attracted to the forest of Tulasi, and wherever she grows he goes there. Laksmi is the literal example of pada-sevanam, as she is often depicted massaging the feet of Visnu. Otherwise you are correct in comparing this notion to the bathing of the feet of Jesus.
Q. What is the meaning of “hierarchy of affection?” Who measures? How is it that God measures affection? Isn’t that a material conception?
A. Liberated devotees are all materially selfless. However, in Gaudiya Vedanta there are degrees of spiritual selflessness. This gradation begins with Prahlada and culminates with the Vraja gopis’ love for Krishna. It may be better to merely acknowledge the hierarchy than try to understand it with our intellect. If we study Krishna lila, we will find a gradation of absolute love. Unmarried Rukmini’s unwillingness to cross over Vedic socio-religious standards in her desire to have Krishna for her husband stands in stark contrast to the gopis’ willingness to leave their husbands, etc. From the angle of tattva, Narayana and Krishna are one, whereas from the angle of bhava (rasa-vicara) there is a great difference.
Q. What is meant by twenty-four hour service, a term found throughout the Gaudiya literature? Do not all pure devotees of God participate in this?
A. When Gaudiya Vaisnavas speak of twenty-four hour service, it is in reference to parakiya-bhava, in which the Vraja gopis alone are involved with Krishna, even in the dead of night. It is in reference to the nitya-lila, wherein other devotees such as the cowherds go to sleep at night. Of course, even they are engaged in dreaming about Krishna all night, but the gopis are active with him. This is the idea. It does not mean that others are not fully 100% engaged in serving God.
Q. How is ruci ultimately attained? What is the crossing point for a jiva to attain to that?
A. Ruci refers to an acquired taste for hearing and chanting about Krishna. There are two kinds of ruci, that which is dependent upon excellence and that which is not. Ruci that is not dependent upon how musically correct the chanting of Krishna’s name is performed or how artfully the Deity is decorated is superior to that which is dependent upon these things. Both types of ruci are a product of associating with advanced devotees. Srimad Bhagavatam says, susrusoh sraddadhanasya vasudeva-katha-rucih syan mahat-sevaya viprah punya-tirtha-nisevanat. We must hear about Krishna with faith form great souls and render service to them, for they are virtually sacred places themselves. This will result in ruci for hearing and chanting about Krishna. Ruci develops after one’s practice has become steady (nistha).
Q. What is meant by ritualistic bhakti?
A. I have used the term ritualistic bhakti as a contemporary reference to vaidhi-bhakti, the Gaudiya tradition’s term for devotion in which rituals and rules predominate over love. The word vaidhi is derived from viddhi (rules). Vaidhi-bhakti involves devotion that is motivated more by scriptural rules and regulations than it is by spontaneous love for God. In ritualistic devotion, knowledge of God predominates over love of God. In Krishna’s appearance as a prince, and more so as four-armed Narayana, he is the object of ritualistic bhakti.
For the Gaudiyas, ritualistic devotion is contrasted with devotion of spontaneous love (raganuga-bhakti), in which the rituals, rules, and knowledge of God’s Godhood are superceded by extraordinary love. To those on the path of raganuga-bhakti, God appears as Krishna of Vraja, the flute-bearing cowherd adorned with the peacock’s plume. Grounded in ritualistic bhakti with one’s ideal that of raganuga-bhakti, one can cross over ritualistic bhakti and tread the path of sacred passionate love in due course.
Q. I love God but I want to know the meaning of loving a god. So please let me know the way to do it.
A. If you already love God, the question as to its meaning would be one you yourself could answer, as could you explain the way in which you do it. I suggest that you have interest in loving God but at present you have other interests as well, thus your dilemma: you want to love God, but do not know how. I have explained the path of loving God—what it means to do so—in considerable detail in Aesthetic Vedanta. Since this site is dedicated to the book, you might want to pick up a copy and read it. Otherwise, one cannot teach how to love God, for love implies spontaneity and a knowing of its own. However, one can teach that which will draw sympathy from God. This centers around serving those who have realized love of God. In their company love of God will awaken in our heart. Witnessing their love, we will be moved in love’s direction.
Q. Some esoteric western traditions (eg Cathars, esoteric chivalry) have presented a spiritual path of cultivating an all-absorbing paramour feeling for someone who is unattainable as a lover or spouse (and not consummating that feeling in any physical manner, often not even making it known to the other person). Is there any way this could be a part of bhakti? Similarly, can a practitioner of bhakti justify getting inspiration from hearing heartfelt love songs, perceiving them as expressing at their foundation, the soul’s yearning for a relationship with God in conjugal love?
A. I am not familiar with the Cathars unless you mean Cathari (pure ones), as the Albigenses were also known. If it is the Albigenses that you are referring to, I was unaware that this aspect of doctrine you cite was embraced by them, or that they were current at all. However, as you have presented it, their doctrine does not have an application in bhakti of paramour love for God (parakiya-bhava) because bhakti is about cultivating an all-absorbing service attitude towards Krishna, the Godhead. Mundane paramour love in any form has nothing to do with transcendental paramour love. While the former is irreligious, the latter is supratranscendental.
Ordinary love songs will not be of much help for practitioners aspiring for love of Krishna. The sentiments that they are generated from will override those of the neophyte practitioner bringing the neophyte into material consciousness. However, this is not always the case, and the effect is relative to the level of the practitioners advancement. For advanced devotees, bhava-bhaktas and siddhas, such songs could conceivably act as a stimulant for spiritual love. Sri Caitanya demonstrated this when he sang a secular love song from Kavya Prakasa during the Ratha Yatra festival in Jagannatha Puri. While singing it, he was absorbed in spiritual parakiya-bhava. The nature of his prema (love of God) was such that it converted the mundane into the transcendental. After seeing this, Rupa Goswami wrote a beautiful verse revealing the transcendental sentiments in Sri Caitanya that this secular love song gave rise to.
Q. It is said that sraddha (initial faith) develops by sadhu-sanga (association with saints). In the stages of development from sraddha to prema (love of Krishna), sadhu-sanga only seems to kick in at a later stage. Could you please explain where the initial bit of faith comes from?
A. Initial faith comes from the influence of saintly persons and reading the sacred literature. This sraddha implies trust in infallibility of the scriptural teachings regarding God, the individual soul, the universe, and illusion, their interrelationship along with the conclusion of the scriptures. Sadhu-sanga, in Rupa Goswami’s developmental stages from sraddha to prema, refers to embracing the association of sadhus after sraddha has awakened. It implies giving up other types of association and being taught in the practical application of spiritual culture.
