Showing posts with label gopis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gopis. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

When the pleasure of love interferes with the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the devotee becomes angry toward such ecstasy


CC Ādi 4.197 There is another natural symptom of the gopīs’ love that shows it to be without a trace of lust.
CC Ādi 4.198 The love of the gopīs nourishes the sweetness of Lord Kṛṣṇa. That sweetness in turn increases their love, for they are greatly satisfied.
CC Ādi 4.199 The happiness of the abode of love is in the happiness of the object of that love. This is not a relationship of desire for personal gratification.
CC Ādi 4.200-201 Whenever there is unselfish love, that is its style. The reservoir of love derives pleasure when the lovable object is pleased. When the pleasure of love interferes with the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the devotee becomes angry toward such ecstasy.
CC Ādi 4.202 “Śrī Dāruka did not relish his ecstatic feelings of love, for they caused his limbs to become stunned and thus obstructed his service of fanning Lord Kṛṣṇa.”
CC Ādi 4.203 “The lotus-eyed Rādhārāṇī powerfully condemned the ecstatic love that caused a flow of tears that hindered Her sight of Govinda.”
 
When due to devotional service we get some material comforts  do I relish in them or do I put them aside seeing them to be a distraction in my service?

Gopis dedicated their bodies and everything else they possesed to Krsna


CC Ādi 4.181 Now, whatever affection we see the gopīs show for their own bodies, know it for certain to be only for the sake of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
CC Ādi 4.182 [The gopīs think:] “I have offered this body to Lord Kṛṣṇa. He is its owner, and it brings Him enjoyment.
CC Ādi 4.183 “Kṛṣṇa finds joy in seeing and touching this body.” It is for this reason that they cleanse and decorate their bodies.
CC Ādi 4.184 “O Arjuna, there are no greater receptacles of deep love for Me than the gopīs, who cleanse and decorate their bodies because they consider them Mine.”
 
At our level, we can consider using our bodies totally in Krishna's service and in sharing Lord Caitanya's movement with others. Taking care of our health, cleanliness, exercise  etc because it is Krishna's body so it can be used in His service for His pleasure.
 
Sicne this body is meant for Krishna's pleasure sleeping too much, relaxing too much, wasting time on electronic gadgets and using the body for sense gratification is inappropriate. 

Difference between lust and love

.
CC Ādi 4.162 The love of the gopīs is called rūḍha-bhāva. It is pure and spotless. It is not at any time lust.
CC Ādi 4.163 “The pure love of the gopīs has become celebrated by the name ‘lust.’ The dear devotees of the Lord, headed by Śrī Uddhava, desire to taste that love.”
CC Ādi 4.164 Lust and love have different characteristics, just as iron and gold have different natures.
CC Ādi 4.165 The desire to gratify one’s own senses is kāma [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is prema [love].
CC Ādi 4.166 The object of lust is only the enjoyment of one’s own senses. But love caters to the enjoyment of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus it is very powerful.
CC Ādi 4.167-169 Social customs, scriptural injunctions, bodily demands, fruitive action, shyness, patience, bodily pleasures, self-gratification and the path of varṇāśrama-dharma, which is difficult to give up — the gopīs have forsaken all these, as well as their own relatives and their punishment and scolding, for the sake of serving Lord Kṛṣṇa. They render loving service to Him for the sake of His enjoyment.
CC Ādi 4.170 That is called firm attachment to Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is spotlessly pure, like a clean cloth that has no stain.
CC Ādi 4.171 Therefore lust and love are quite different. Lust is like dense darkness, but love is like the bright sun.
CC Ādi 4.172 Thus there is not the slightest taint of lust in the gopīs’ love. Their relationship with Kṛṣṇa is only for the sake of His enjoyment.

Definition of Pure Love
The revealed scriptures describe pure love as follows:
sarvathā dhvaṁsa-rahitaṁsaty api dhvaṁsa-kāraṇe
yad bhāva-bandhanaṁ yūnoḥ
sa premā parikīrtitaḥ
“If there is ample reason for the dissolution of a conjugal relationship and yet such a dissolution does not take place, such a relationship of intimate love is called pure.”

The predominated gopīs were bound to Kṛṣṇa in such pure love. For them there was no question of sexual love based on sense gratification. Their only engagement in life was to see Kṛṣṇa happy in all respects, regardless of their own personal interests. They dedicated their souls only for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. There was not the slightest tinge of sexual love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa.


Sexual Love is for one's own enjoyment :
  • The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta asserts with authority that sexual love is a matter of personal sense enjoyment. All the regulative principles in the Vedas pertaining to desires for popularity, fatherhood, wealth and so on are different phases of sense gratification.
  • Acts of sense gratification may be performed under the cover of public welfare, nationalism, religion, altruism, ethical codes, Biblical codes, health directives, fruitive action, bashfulness, tolerance, personal comfort, liberation from material bondage, progress, family affection or fear of social ostracism or legal punishment, but all these categories are different subdivisions of one substance — sense gratification.
  • All such good acts are performed basically for one’s own sense gratification, for no one can sacrifice his personal interest while discharging these much-advertised moral and religious principles.
  • But above all this is a transcendental stage in which one feels himself to be only an eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa, the absolute Personality of Godhead. All acts performed in this sense of servitude are called pure love of God because they are performed for the absolute sense gratification of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The Confidential Reasons for the Lord's Appearance

CC Adi 4.16
The Lord’s desire to appear was born from two reasons:
  •  the Lord wanted to taste the sweet essence of the mellows of love of God,
  •  and He wanted to propagate devotional service in the world on the platform of spontaneous attraction.   
 
CC Ādi 4.230 "Desiring to understand the glory of Rādhārāṇī’s love, the wonderful qualities in Him that She alone relishes through Her love, and the happiness She feels when She realizes the sweetness of His love, the Supreme Lord Hari, richly endowed with Her emotions, appeared from the womb of Śrīmatī Śacī-devī, as the moon appeared from the ocean.”



From the Introduction to Adi Chapter 4- 3 reasons for the Lord's appearance
In this chapter of the epic Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī has stressed that Lord Caitanya appeared for three principal purposes of His own. 
  1. The first purpose was to relish the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, who is the prime reciprocator of transcendental love of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of transcendental loving transactions with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. The subject of those loving transactions is the Lord Himself, and Rādhārāṇī is the object. Thus the subject, the Lord, wanted to relish the loving mellow in the position of the object, Rādhārāṇī.
  2. The second reason for His appearance was to understand the transcendental mellow of Himself. Lord Kṛṣṇa is all sweetness. Rādhārāṇī’s attraction for Kṛṣṇa is sublime, and to experience that attraction and understand the transcendental sweetness of Himself, He accepted the mentality of Rādhārāṇī.
  3. The third reason that Lord Caitanya appeared was to enjoy the bliss tasted by Rādhārāṇī. The Lord thought that undoubtedly Rādhārāṇī enjoyed His company and He enjoyed the company of Rādhārāṇī, but the exchange of transcendental mellow between the spiritual couple was more pleasing to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī than to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Rādhārāṇī felt more transcendental pleasure in the company of Kṛṣṇa than He could understand without taking Her position, but for Śrī Kṛṣṇa to enjoy in the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was impossible because that position was completely foreign to Him. Kṛṣṇa is the transcendental male, and Rādhārāṇī is the transcendental female. Therefore, to know the transcendental pleasure of loving Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself appeared as Lord Caitanya, accepting the emotions and bodily luster of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
Lord Caitanya appeared in order to fulfill these confidential desires, and also to preach the special significance of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare and to answer the call of Advaita Prabhu. These were secondary reasons.