Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

At a cursory glance, frequently adduced passages from
Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati’s Shri Caitanya-candramrita and
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Shri Navadvipa-dhama-mahatmya
may appear to allude to this erroneous impression. However,
these statements could never persuade anyone who has
ventured to seriously scrutinize the various scriptural texts and
commentaries of the Six Gosvamis and their followers to
subscribe to such idiocy. The correct conception is quite the
sound of a different drummer and also not so unmelodious. It is
said in Caitanya-candramrita that yatha yatha gaura-padaravinde
. . . – “to whatever extent a pious person becomes devoted to
the lotus feet of Lord Gaura, to that extent the flood of the
nectar of Radha’s lotus feet spontaneously arises in his heart.”
The word “extent” is crucial here. Similarly discussed is the
matter of attaining the service of Krishna in all primary rasas,
through the preliminary worship of Gauranga Mahaprabhu in
dasya-bhava. Here, the word dasya-bhava in relation to the
service of Mahaprabhu certainly does not connote reverential
servitude in terms of the vaidhi bhakti format, any more than it
would when used to denote the rasa of servitude to Krishna in
Vraja. Rather, particularly for those souls who have the innate
capacity for the conjugal rasa, the word dasya-bhava should
serve only to indicate one’s spontaneous attitude of loving
service to the merciful Radha aspect of Gaura’s personality.
Serving Lord Caitanya in dasya-bhava becomes tantamount to
serving Shrimati Radharani in dasi-bhava (radha-dasya).

Generally, in the Rupanuga-sampradaya, one is advised to
dive deep into the ocean of service to Lord Gauranga’s
Navadvipa lilas, internally conceiving oneself to be a kishora-
brahmana who, as a servant of the servant (dasanudasa) of
Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, accordingly assists to augment
Mahaprabhu’s relishment of various vraja-bhavas. In doing so,


one transitionally surfaces in the nectarean ocean of Radha’s
madhurya-lilas as a blissful kishori-gopi maidservant of the
maidservant (dasy-anudasi) of Shrimati Lalita Devi within the
group of Radha’s sakhis in the land of Vraja. The Rupanuga
approach to gaura-lila and Krishna-lila is not the dull-headed
affair of the prakrita-bhaktas. Indeed, a conscientious internal
culture of bhavas is most certainly required – a culture above
and beyond though not necessarily exclusive of the external
apparently vaidhika program of missionary duties. With this in
mind, the basic unconditional service attitude practiced at the
very onset of a novice’s humble surrender to the acarya’s
external missionary training program may be easily adapted and
internally applied at a more mature stage to fittingly promote
the true, cognitive, esoteric evolvement of one’s eternal
constitutional bhava-deha or vraja-svarupa.

When Gaura’s mercy will flood the heart with an aspiration
to serve Radha’s vraja-lilas, one will come to appreciate the
value of service to the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. Just as
Gauranga inclusively embodies the bhavas of Krishna’s foremost
svarupa-shakti counterpart, Shri Radha, so also, Nityananda
Rama inclusively embodies the foremost baladeva-svarupa-
shakti-tattva who appears in Vraja as the younger sister of
Radharani, Shrimati Ananga Manjari. Balarama’s Kali-yuga
avatara as Nityananda is markedly more than Baladeva Himself
in that He, unlike Balarama, can directly relish the internal
mood of loving service to the lotus feet of Radha, in the
madhurya-rasa parallel to Gaura’s relishment of radha-bhava. As
previously mentioned, Krishna and His supreme svarupa-shakti
counterpart, Shri Radha, though morphologically differentiated,
are ontologically one. So also is the case with Baladeva and His
topmost svarupa-shakti expansion, Ananga Manjari, from whom
Balarama’s own personal consorts such as Varuni and Revati
expand. All the members of Krishna’s family, including
Balarama, possess the deepest regard, affection, and love for the
sweetest, most eminently loveworthy Shrimati Radharani. Yet,
owing to certain social constraints, Balarama, as Krishna’s older
brother, is practically dispossessed of any opportunity to
directly express His love for Her. So, to fulfill His most


confidential desire to serve Radha’s lotus feet, He accepts an
expanded feminine form as Her younger sister. Still He Himself,
in His masculine Baladeva svarupa, is unable to directly relish
the experience of being in the position of His shakti-tattva
expansion, just as Krishna is unable to directly relish the moods
of Radha. He, therefore, in gaura-lila, accepts the bhava and
complexion of His supreme self-same svarupa-shakti counterpart
to experience that which was transcendentally impossible in
Krishna-lila. Thus Balarama manifests the form of Nityananda
Rama in the same way that Krishna dons His Gaura svarupa to
savor the ultimate loving disposition of Radha in vipralambha-
maha-bhava. As Krishna and Balarama are one, so, similarly,
Radha and Ananga Manjari are one. In fact, Ananga Manjari is
celebrated as a veritable second Radha. Yet, by the will of
Balarama, she acts as dasy-anudasi in the capacity of a prana-
sakhi (upa-manjari of Lalita Sakhi) in the service of Radharani,
just as Balarama Himself functions as servitor Godhead to assist
svayam-rupa Krishna in various ways. Balarama as servitor
Godhead is adi-guru in the vatsalya, sakhya, and dasya rasas.
Similarly, Balarama’s expanded madhurya-svarupa, Ananga
Manjari, is the madhurya-rasa adi-guru, who most
compassionately acts as the liaison linking the jivas with the
confidential services of Radha and Krishna. Her position as
Radharani’s younger sister greatly facilitates this role. This is a
hint as to the import of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura’s
statement heno nitai bine bhai, radha-Krishna paite nai. Indeed,
it is only by Nitai’s boundless mercy upon the most fallen
conditioned souls that the vraja-gopis’ superexcellent
spontaneous devotional bhavas have been made readily
accessible to the whole world. Just as Ananga Manjari is the
special mercy manifestation of Radha, so Nityananda (in the
mood of Ananga Manjari) is the special mercy manifestation of
Gaura (in the mood of Radha). By Nitai’s special causeless
mercy, one becomes free from material attraction, attains the
land of Vraja, and finds shelter at the lotus feet of the Six
Gosvamis headed by Shri Rupa. By seriously acquainting oneself
with the writings of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavana and their
authorized representatives, one accesses the truths concerning


parakiya-rasa-maya Radha-Krishna and the appropriate bhajana-
kriya required for attaining Their eternal relationship on the
path of spontaneous loving devotion.

Mere rudimentary vaidhika devotion to the feet of Lord
Caitanya can hardly evoke a highly evolved nectar-flood of
Radha’s direct influence upon anyone. “Extent,” as applied to
the principle of gaura-bhakti, refers to the degree of internal
devotional qualification in one’s approach far more than to any
externally quantifiable mass of regulative devotional practice.
The factual proof that the nectar of Radha’s lotus feet is
extensively flooding one’s heart will be seen in one’s
attentiveness to deeply understand and practically pursue the
path of vraja-bhakti-bhajana. Either sambandhanuga-bhakti
(dasya, sakhya, or vatsalya-bhajana) or kamanuga-bhakti
(madhurya-bhajana) will be practiced under the guidance of the
Gosvamis according to one’s progressively perceivable natural
internal inclination or aptitude for a particular mellow of loving
service to divinity. The edict seva sadhaka-rupena siddha-rupena
catra hi / tad-bhava-lipsuna karya vraja-lokanusaratah mentioned
in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu truly for all time
applies both externally and internally to sadhakas who have yet
to transcend material bondage as well as to siddhas who are
jata-rati Vaishnavas having attained the perfect realization of
sthayii-bhava, or constant devotional ecstasy. There is no
broadly applicable streamlined institutional lame way out. No
founding acarya of any Krishna conscious establishment ever
casuistically instructed in such a way so as to shrink from the
responsibility of deliberately enhancing or nourishing the
deserving disciple’s progress onto the path of beatified vraja-
bhakti-bhajana.

When purposefully prescribed to forcibly inculcate the
principles of Krishna consciousness, vaidhi bhakti certainly
functions to coercively rehabilitate a conditioned soul’s
misdirected or unconstitutional raga (attraction) or asakti
(attachment) to worldly objects of material sense gratification,
by obliging one to focus upon Krishna-ized sense objects. This
is, no doubt, a step in the right direction, and in the beginning it
is actually required. If, however, one does not intelligently


endeavor in the present life to surpass the rudimentary stage of
obligatory, reverential devotion strictly governed by scriptural
regulations and embark upon the path of spontaneous, internal
raganuga attraction (para bhakti), one will almost invariably
remain a kanistha-adhikari or prakrita-bhakta, moored to the
modes of material nature. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At
best, one may come to the platform of aishvarya-jnana-mayi
bhakti, gaining fitness for mahima-jnana-yukta-prema. This type
of bhakti, contaminated with knowledge of the Lord’s
supremacy, leads to the spiritually conditional realm of
Vaikuntha-loka or the majestic Vaikuntha-vrindavana on
Krishnaloka, where the aishvarya-lilas of Radha and Krishna are
served in awe and veneration or, at utmost, the opulent realm of
Dvaraka.

Vraja-lokera bhave yei karaye bhajana / sei jana paya
vraje vrajendra-nandana. “One who worships the Lord by
following in the footsteps of the inhabitants of Vraja-bhumi
attains Him in the transcendental planet of Vraja, where He is
known as the son of Maharaja Nanda.” (Cc. Madhya 9.131) All
bona fide Gaudiya Vaishnava Acaryas agree that the madhurya-
lilas of Vraja can only be attained by ascending to the terrace of
kevala-madhurya-prema via the path of raga-bhakti under the
merciful guidance of an emissary of Vraja Dhama. Furthermore,
it is clearly declared by Kaviraja Gosvami in his Shri Caitanya-
caritamrita, with reference to the appearance of
Vrajendranandana Shyama, that raga-marga bhakti loke karite
pracarana. Pracarana means to propagate, to make the super-
excellence of the path of raga-bhakti known to the conditioned
souls of this world. Unless one is exposed to the vibrant,
esoteric transcendentally erotic principles of the spiritually
constituted damsels of Vraja, which surpass all considerations of
mundane morality, one can hardly expect to clearly construe
the lie of its lustful perversion projected upon the illusive
material panorama. It is imperative that the preachers of
Krishna consciousness become solidly acquainted with the
truths regarding the propriety of the sublime pastimes of Radha
and Krishna so as to powerfully eradicate the misgivings
concerning these affairs abounding among scholars, theologians,