A raw, very minimally edited transcript:
82.01.09.C
…subsidiary friends to come in direct contact with Kṛṣṇa. But the very nature of the sakhīs, she friends of Her, they never wants any contact, direct contact with Kṛṣṇa. Always the nature of very serving tendency is such that they seek the best satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa and they are fully conscious that Rādhārāṇī alone can supply that happiness to Him. “And we shall all help Her so that She being helped by our services, approaches, to satisfy the desires of Kṛṣṇa. And thereby we will be more—we shall derive more benefit. If we approach direct we will be loser. But if we approach Kṛṣṇa through Rādhārāṇī, in every way we shall derive more benefit, more benefit.”
So Rādhā-kaiṅkarya, Rādhā-dāsya, that has been told for us to be our highest, the summum bonum of our life, highest end, highest end Rādhā-kaiṅkaryya: haiba Rādhāra dāsī. Kaiṅkarya of Kṛṣṇa in a general sense, but in a particular, we are servitors in different—this is in mādhura-rasa, in vātsalya-rasa, in sākhya-rasa, and the Guru represents the highest position. In its highest conception he holds the position in every rasa, the direct servitor of Kṛṣṇa. It reaches gradually there, in its highest conception. But relatively, again we are required to come down a little more. From Rādhārāṇī there is the Lalitā group, sakhī, and there are so many groups of sakhī, and the Rūpa Mañjarī, the principal of the girl servitors. And so on, in the vātsalya-rasa, sākhya-rasa, dāsya-rasa, everywhere, in this way.
But we are more concerned with the mādhura-rasa, as in our mantra, the Rūpānuga sampradāya, and in the mantra and the Guru paramparā we find that all within mādhura-rasa. That is mādhura-rasa is the combination of all rasa. Ādi-rasa, ādi-rasa, one of its names and [acquaintance?] is ādi-rasa. That is the most original rasa and it is the combination of all rasa: the sākhya, vātsalya, dāsya, śanta, all the essence of all other rasa is present in mādhura-rasa. Or the mukhya-rasa, mukhya-rasa, that is principal rasa in the service of Kṛṣṇa, kiśora-Kṛṣṇa. And our highest approach should be the service of Rādhārāṇī in the hierarchy, and it is Her business to look after the real satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, and none else can do so. Only She is the fittest to render real service to Kṛṣṇa. And we should be accordingly adjusted under Her serving hierarchy in a proper place. Then we will be best beneficially. Otherwise if we are located here and there wrongly, then we are gone. We can’t hope what will be our normal position and normal gain. Only properly located we will be able to draw our most, our salary, our remuneration, in the term of love. In term of love. Love, attraction towards Kṛṣṇa, that will be more and more, and that is the coin by which we are paid, the coin of love, more attraction towards Kṛṣṇa, if properly located. And then our service, our remuneration will be more. Otherwise we shall have to labour on some anomaly. And to the fine adjustment we shall have to come, anyhow. That is the, and that the nearest leader we should see through whom the order for the necessary service is reaching me, and who is taking my service and passing it through the proper channel to Kṛṣṇa.
And they are not hindrances, not opaque, but transparent. Not only transparent but they are helping more. Our capacity will be enhanced. By that, when it is passing through that it will be purer, purer. Any anomaly, that will be purified and it will be taken to Kṛṣṇa in its purest quality. So they are all guardians, they are all well-wishers, and though they are mediator, standing on the middle, not hampering but improving my fortune, in this way we are to reckon. It is all—so we are seeing always: dāsa-dāsa-dāsānam, dāsatvam, this is the clue they are giving. Mahāprabhu says, so many devotees say that, “Only the direct servant, I can’t tolerate that tejaḥ (heat, power) that who are in power by direct—,” Just as we can get best benefit of the sun if we are adjusted in a particular distance. If we are put in the nearer we will be burned to ashes. So adjustment is a very precious thing, proper adjustment. There we get our best benefit, adjustment. So in the question of adjustment and our innate value, valuation of calculation we are posted, quality, quantity, we are posted in a particular place, position, where we can get most. That is—.
Our Guru Mahārāj used in his last days, often he used: “Religion is proper adjustment, proper adjustment.”
So we shall try to adjust, to realize, to understand, this maxim: that is the Hegel’s, I always say [chuckles], “Die to live.” Die to live. This is Vaikuṇṭha. Death is finished in this world. But in the eternal world where death is absent, there ‘die to live’ means by sacrifice we can become great. Here also partially, one may give up the money, he gets the fame, the life of a fame. So ‘Die to live’, and, ‘Everything is *for* Himself.’ We are to adjust with this, that *He* is the enjoyer, and we are supplier of His enjoyment. That is our natural position and we can thrive only in *that* plane, in *that* attitude. By giving we can thrive, to Him. We are to accommodate ourselves with *this* tendency. Through service we live, and through renunciation, exploitation, we die. That is our innate nature. We must adjust ourselves with *that* principle. Then we are invincible. We are invincible. None, nothing in the world can take away from this principle of life, if we can adjust properly, what is service, what is dedication, what is surrender, and how helpful that is to us, especially when we are in the midst of gross exploitation, and if not so, renunciation of any type. The renunciation and exploitation, these are the two general enemies of the devotees. And if we can cross these two enemy lands then of course, then there is Vaikuṇṭha, and the highest position is that of automatic, spontaneous surrendering love of Kṛṣṇaloka. Mainly, these few planes we are to be acquainted with, what is what. Then we can maintain our consciousness, ourselves in the plane of Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana.
What is Vṛndāvana, in the ontological conception? We must have such idea. And if we can adjust with this we can be invincible. And we will be bold enough to announce to the world, so many, to all the souls we find:
yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa,
āmāra ājñāya [guru hañā tāra ei deśa
kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga,
punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]
[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”]
(Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9)
Quite confident, strongly established in such position, anyone I shall see, “Oh, what are you doing? Save yourself. Come in contact with Kṛṣṇaloka. You will be saved and prosper beyond your conception. Why do you lose your capital, investing them in this mundane and filthy world of exploitation? Everyone is trying to exploit the vitiated world. Why do you put your energy, capital, in this filthy and mundane world? Go. Come. And put your investment, whatever you have got, little, on such bank, invulnerable bank you deposit. It will come to you in time of need and immensely beyond your expectation you will have profit there.” In this way we are to approach one and all, whatever he be.
Swāmī Mahārāj told, “So many dogs, in the UNO, they are talking about Russia and America and this Iran, this oil, the oil problem is the greatest problem for the civilisation nowadays. And because the Arabian countries they’re in possession of that oil everyone is looking with a greedy eye, and talking and gesturing, posturing. All these things to that oil centre.”
America, two or three years ago declared that, ‘Oil is indispensable to keep up our civilisation. So without oil we shall die, we shall have to die. It is better that we shall fight. We shall fight and die. Why should we die for want of oil? Our civilisation will be finished if we don’t get the oil. So why should we be finished in that way? Rather, we shall give a fight, and then if we can’t attain victory we shall die. We won’t allow our civilisation to die fasting, but rather in a battlefield.’ That was declared two or three years ago. I remember. I saw it in the paper.
Gaura Haribol, Gaura Haribol …
Achyutānanda once told, he was sent by my advice to stay with Dāmodar Mahārāj and to find some land there for purchasing. And he went and lived there for few days. And Dāmodar Mahārāj he is a little cracked brain, somewhat. Leaving him in his house he went for collection, and few day’s food only in store, and finishing that Achyutānanda he is fasting. After one day’s fast he came to me.
“What’s the matter?” “Dāmodar Mahārāj gone out and the food he kept for me that is finished in two days. And I’m fasting the last day wholesale, and today also I have to fast, I have come here.”
Then Govinda Mahārāj or someone he, “Why did you not come yesterday?” “He told that he will come back.” “Unnecessarily you are observing fast one day and a half without anything.” He told, “Kṛṣṇa dancing.” That was his very charming reply he made, “Kṛṣṇa dancing. He has no time to think of others. And we are cast aside by the wave of His dancing, hither and thither, and some falling, some breaking his legs, and some losing consciousness. But He is engaged in His dancing.” Something like that, I am elaborating.
He told, “Kṛṣṇa dancing, He has no time to think about us. And we are suffering, we are cast aside by the wave of His joyful dancing, and we are thrown this side, that side, no care, no caretaker of us.” The Kṛṣṇa dancing: the līlā of the Lord. And this is of course our desirable thing, that He will dance. And we shall rather fall at His feet, “Dance over my chest, my Lord. Why do You dance on the earth?” [chuckling happily]
Gaura Haribol, Gaura Haribol, Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa…
Devotee: You told us an example of Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī, about the pregnant woman and a woman who’s not really pregnant, just imitating.
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Imitation. Imitation is not realisation. We are to know it as a general thing that imitation is not proper realisation, the outward imitation. The taking the dress of a sannyāsī is not real sannyāsī, but mockery. That is rather offensive: without realising a particular position you take. If I take the dress of a king or a police officer I will be punished. If I take the police officer’s dress or anyone to deceive the public I should be punished. So in the spiritual world no such punishment is seen from this plane, but punishment it asserts there on the higher plane. But now there are agents who make us careful about the imitationists. ‘Don’t mix with them. Try to understand what is the real symptom of a real thing. Don’t approach the sham, the adulterated goods. Don’t approach to buy or purchase the adulterated things. All that glitters is not gold. Glittering is not the only qualification of gold, there’s something more.’ Something like that. Do you follow?
Devotee: Yes.
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: It is a general thing, but it is very difficult to understand the highly valued things. There is every possibility of being imitation. Imitation comes in the market, why? To get more money. So highly valued things will have most, greater imitation. They are [more] dangerous than the ordinary exploitationist.
You see, you know the Rāma Rāvaṇ Yuddha? Mahirāvaṇ, have you heard, any one of you? When Rāma is engaged in fighting with Rāvaṇ in Laṅkā, in Laṅkā, many of the heroes of the Rāvaṇ group had been killed, then Rāvaṇ disappointed remembered that one of his sons is living underground in the lower world, subterranean. Perhaps as I was told the atomic war, they are creating town underground, is it not? To save persons from atomic attack. And that will be controlled by the machine man, robot. The robot controls the subterranean town. Anyhow that Mahirāvaṇ, Rāvaṇ’s one son, he lived in the subterranean town of his own, and he was informed and he came to see Rāvaṇ and told, heard, ‘So many things have happened. Almost all the stalwarts are killed in the battle with Rāma.’
After hearing, the Mahirāvaṇ also went to advise Rāvaṇ that, “Why in this unfortunate battle you have engaged yourself? Still there is time. You may be saved if you respectfully return Sītā Devī, His beloved wife, only wife He has got. Generally the kings they have got any number of wives. He has got only one wife. How beloved She is to Him, and you have taken Her. It is very deplorable, father. You give Her back to Rāma and get a truce, a peace.”
But Rāvaṇ enraged, “What do you know? I have called you only to help me, not to instruct me.”
“Then of course, if you wish, desire so, I am ready to sacrifice my life.”
So he was a highly qualified magician. He anyhow managed, Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ, he wanted, he planned to carry Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ to his subterranean palace. And Vibhiṣan, the brother who had sided Rāmachandra, he cautioned Rāma. “The most dangerous mystic hypnotist, magician, son of Rāvaṇ has come, and something inconceivable is going to happen. You, Hanumān, Sugriva, keep Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ in a very guarded position. I suppose he will try his best to steal Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ from our midst. I think if his plan will be such, so guard Them in any way, especially in the night when They will sleep.”
Then Hanumān, they constructed a temporary room and Hanumān is guarding: night guard always. And Vibhiṣaṇ he is giving a view, surveying the whole battle position of the army and he is patrolling, and now and then coming: “Hanumān, are you ready, none have entered?”
“Yes. Some came to enter. One came in the form of Kauśalyā, Rāma’s mother: ‘I can’t see Rāmachandra. I can’t keep my life any more. Please show my affectionate son, Rāma.’ In this way I have dismissed her: ‘No. Where Kauśalyā has [been] for so long, only today you have come? I don’t believe in you.’ Then came as Rāmachandra’s father-in-law, Janaka, in this, that, in so many forms.”
“Very careful, if your father comes don’t allow him to enter within. Guard very strictly.” In this way he is warning, and he is patrolling the whole position.
Then, when so many attempts failed, that Mahirāvaṇ he had some new play, plan. He took the figure of Vibhiṣaṇ himself, and came, “Hanumān, are you looking very careful? Very careful you should remain. If your father himself comes don’t allow him to enter.”
“No, no.”
“But are They safe? Are you sure?”
“Yes, They are safe.”
“Let me go inside and see whether They are in safe order or not.”
Hanumān thought, “the Vibhiṣaṇ he is my guide. He told about this mischievous plan and he’s the most interested person.” He allowed him to enter.
Then Vibhiṣaṇ again came in his patrol, “Hanumān, are you alert?”
“What is this? Just a minute ago you entered the room and told—”
“Oh, finished, Hanumān, finished!” Went, no Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ there. “The demon has taken away those sleeping masters of ours. What to do, Hanuman? But there is the door, there is a hole, and if you can go there, there is a subterranean town.” And Hanumān also went, and anyhow there is a story how he killed that demon and took out Rāma-Lakṣmaṇ on his shoulders here.
That Vibhiṣaṇ’s imitation. So the highest thing we want to aspire after, and if imitation is there how loss can be effected on us, on our fortune. So we must be careful about the imitation. And Bābājī Mahārāj has warned in a plain way that śuddha-bhakti is very rare, it is not very cheap. What we have come after by our inconceivable great fortune, it is not cheap. We must try to follow, to be acquainted with the steps. Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Maha, Jana, Tapa, Satya, Virajā, Brahmaloka, then Vaikuṇṭha, Paravyoma, then Goloka, in this way. The steps we must not omit, and try to know something about the nature of those steps. When the sound is coming, ‘Oh, it must have come from that plane: it is sound which can be produced, the vibration, it is only from that plane.’ In this way we must acquaint ourselves. The sound, the Name, the name why? The Name, the mantram, the Name, it may be everywhere, even in a book you can find, but why the sound comes from a Guru? Who is living in that plane, the sound of that plane, that will come within us and awaken us. Just as a homoeopathic globule, externally it is all one and the same, but, nāmākṣara bahiraya batu nāma [kabhu naya]. But the meaning must have such depth which when it will exert, it will show, take me to Goloka.
brahmāṇḍa brahmite kona bhāgyavān jīva,
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
[“Wandering throughout the material universe, the very fortunate living entity who receives the grace of Guru and Kṛṣṇa receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.”]
mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa,
śravaṇa-kīrttana-jale karaye sechana
[“When a person receives the seed of devotional service, he should take care of it by becoming a gardener and sowing the seed in his heart. If he waters the seed gradually by the process of śravaṇ and kīrtan, the seed will begin to sprout.”]
upajiyā bāḍe latā ‘brahmāṇḍa’ bhedi’ yāya
Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janar, Tapar, Satyaloka, brahmāṇḍa.
virajā,’ ‘brahmaloka,’ bhedi’ ‘paravyoma’ pāya
Vaikuṇṭha Paravyom, Nārāyaṇ’s domain.
tabe yāya tad upari ‘goloka-vṛndāvana’,
‘kṛṣṇa-charaṇa’-kalpavṛkṣe kare ārohana
[“The creeper of devotion is born, and grows to pierce the wall of the universe. It crosses the Virajā River and the Brahman plane, and reaches to the Vaikuṇṭha plane. Then it grows further up to Goloka Vṛndāvan, finally reaching to embrace the wish-yielding tree of Kṛṣṇa’s Lotus Feet.”]
(Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.151–4)
The creeper of devotion will grow and pierce through the different planes, atmosphere, and go direct to Kṛṣṇa-pāda-padma, Kṛṣṇa conception of Godhead, and there it will take its place and that will surround him. His holy feet, generally, at His feet means His own paraphernalia. And gradually Kṛṣṇa will locate himself in a proper serving school and then give him engagement fully in His holy service. Sambandha jñāna, that is sambandha jñāna, sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana, in three groups we are to understand the thing. Sambandha, place, purpose, position, all these things; and destination, prayojana, and abhidheya means the means to attain the goal. That is in three heads we are to understand, under three heads. Sambandha-jñāna and prayojana and abhidheya, under these three classifications we are to understand, we are to realise the nature of the whole thing which we aspire after.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari, Gaura Hari, Gaura Hari, Nitāi Gaura Haribol, Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Advaita Bol, Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gadādhara Bol, Gaura Gadadhara Bol. Gaura Advaita Bol, Gaura Śrīnivāsa Bol, Gaura Bhakta Vṛnda Bol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
34.30
Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj, when you first came here you were worshipping Śālagrām-śilā?
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: No. We came with Giridhari. We came here with Govardhan-śilā. Mahāprabhu gave Govardhan-śilā to Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī. So in Vṛndāvan His followers generally they begin the worship, go on with Govardhan-śilā. That is in rāga-mārga, Goloka process. But Śālagrām-śilā is a system of Vaikuṇṭha, it is in Vaikuṇṭha. So our Guru Mahārāj he wanted to show that Goloka is above Vaikuṇṭha. So one who has climbed up to Goloka, necessarily he has passed the Vaikuṇṭha, that is Śālagrām worshipping. But that is not our end. That is provisional, something. Mahāprabhu gave Giridhari, and Prabhupād also, generally he used to give Giridhari, Govardhan-śilā to his devotees, especially the householders, Govardhan-śilā. He told, “You worship, as He is Kṛṣṇa. Worship Him.” And Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī also he, the other half he has supplied. It is mentioned that Tulasī Mañjarī, this gunja, the kind of beautiful seeds to be had somewhere that is known as gunja-phal. A favourite of Kṛṣṇa also, and the garland made of all that beautiful red and little black and almost the whole body is of red. Gunja-phal, a garland of that putting on the Govardhan and that is conceived as Rādhārāṇī, the small garland. It is in Chaitanya-charitāmṛta we find. This Govardhan-śilā, that is meaning Kṛṣṇa, and that small garland of gunja-phal, that is Rādhārāṇī. With this idea Rādhā-Govinda worshipping continued by Dās Goswāmī Prabhu, who is supposed, who is accepted [as] the Āchārya of our highest goal, destination, prayojan Āchārya. And whose famous poem,
āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit,
[kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi
tvaṁ cet kṛpaṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me,
prānair vrajema cha varoru bakārināpi?]
[“O Varoru my beautiful, most magnanimous Goddess, my heart is flooded with an ocean of nectarean hopes. I have somehow been passing time until now eagerly longing for Your grace, which is an ocean of ever cherished nectar. If still You do not bestow Your mercy on me then of what use to me are my life, the land of Vraja, or even Śrī Kṛṣṇa who without You, is simply a mighty hero, the destroyer of demoniac forces like Baka.”]
(Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali, 102)
When Prabhupād used to chant this śloka, we found him most excited and sometimes shedding tears. This is Rādhā-dāsya. This is the basis of Rādhā-dāsya, to be our highest realisation.
āśābharair-amṛtasindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit,
kālo mayātigamitaḥ
Dās Goswāmī he is addressing Rādhārāṇī in this way. “O my Mistress, or my Lady, so long a time I am passing my days with a great hope, a great, great hope, amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit. I can’t, now it is surpassing my forbearance, toleration, I can’t continue more. What for? Āśābharair. Āśābharair. The forceful, or the heavy hope, and surcharged, weighty hope, āśābharair…