Different Perspective

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
23 January 2012, Khammam (Telangana, South India)

You know what is the difference between Laksmi Devi and Radharani? Laksmi Devi serves Narayan, Krishna, but she serves Him for her own enjoyment, and Radharani serves Krishna for Krishna's satisfaction. That is the difference.

You know that Krishna left Vrindavan and went to live in Mathura, Dvaraka. There, Krishna said to Uddhav Maharaj, "Uddhav Maharaj, you are so dear to Me! Even Lord Siva, even I Myself am not as dear to Me as you are!" Hearing this, Uddhav Maharaj got some ego... One time, Krishna sent this Uddhav Maharaj to Vrindavan, saying, "I left Vrindavan so many days ago, go there and see how attached the gopis to Me are. Go and see what they are doing there." Krishna also gave him His clothes to wear.

When Uddhav Maharaj came there, the Vraja gopis came running to meet him thinking that Krishna Himself had come, but then they saw, "Oh, this is not Krishna!" and started walking back... Uddhav Maharaj quickly stopped them, "Wait! Yes, I am not Krishna, but I always stay near Him. He has sent me here to see you all. How are you all doing? How are you continuing your life? Do you sometimes remember Krishna?" The Vraja gopis replied, "Yes, we remember Him..." Then Uddhav Maharaj suggested, "If you want to see Krishna, you can close your eyes, meditate and you will see Him." All the gopis started laughing, "If we want to see Krishna, it is not necessary to close our eyes! We see Krishna wherever we look! We have become crazy—we cannot see anything except Krishna!"

Having seen, having understood what kind of devotion to Krishna the gopis and Radharani had, Uddhav began to cry—a large kunda (pond) appeared from his tears. You can see that Uddhav Kunda in Vrindavan... Then you can understand how much love and affection the Vraja gopis have for Krishna.

Chaitanya-charitamrita says,

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

You are worshipping Ramachandra, Krishna, but if you want your own enjoyment (if you are asking for something material, some material enjoyment in return), Krishna will give that to you—He will fulfil your desire and make you happy, but He will not give devotion to you. Devotion is a very high position, so Krishna will hide it from you. Do you understand it?

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥

krsna kahe,—ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi' visa mage,—ei bada murkha

"Krishna says, 'They worship Me, desiring material happiness—leaving aside nectar, they ask for poison. They are great fools.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.38)

At the same time, Krishna Himself also says, "If you worship Me but you have some material desires, I will not give it to you. In lieu of that, I will give devotion to My lotus feet, then you will forget everything!"

Gurudev said, "Brihat svartha paite haile, ksudra svartha tyaga korte haya (বৃহৎ স্বার্থ পাইতে হইলে, ক্ষুদ্র স্বার্থ ত্যাগ করতে হয়): if you want to get great things, you must give up small things." Krishna Himself says, "If you think about Me, I will think about You," but we always think about our own selves, then what can we hope to get?

কনক-কামিনী প্রতিষ্ঠা-বাঘিনী
ছাড়িয়াছে যারে সেই ত বৈষ্ণব

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,
chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

We always run behind kanak (money), kamini (companions), and pratistha (name and fame), always worry, "How will I get everything?" But we have only three duties:

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

Jive daya, Name ruchi and Vaishnav seva. Jive daya means bringing the souls who have turned away from Krishna to this path. Name ruchi means having taste for chanting the Holy Name. You can have some good food in of you, but if you are sick you cannot get its taste—we are sick because we have material desires in our heart, that is why we are not getting taste through chanting. Rupa Goswami said,

tunde tandavaniratim vitanute tundavali-labdhaye
karna-kroda kadambinighatayate karnarbudebhyah sprham
cetah prangana-sanginivijayate sarvendriyanamkrtim
no jane janita kiyadbhir amrtaih krsneti varna-dvayi

When the holy name of Krishna descends and captures the tongue and lips, it controls them so strongly that it engages them in chanting the holy name as if the lips and tongue have gone mad. In this way, the power of the name descends in them, and one feels that only one tongue and one mouth are not enough; thousands of mouths are necessary to taste the name. Then the holy name of Krishna enters the ear with such a great force and current that the ears are captured, and one thinks that only two ears are insufficient; he wants millions of ears to attend to the sweet current entering the ears. Two ears are nothing to him; he wants millions of ears. The nectar of the holy name is coming like a flood through his ears, pushing its way within the heart.

It is so sweet that as it goes to capture the heart, the center of all senses, everything is paralyzed. Wherever that sweet aggressor touches, the whole thing is captured with such intensity that everything else is ignored. Rupa Goswami writes, "I don't know, I can't say, I fail to express how much nectar there is in the holy name of Krishna. These two syllables contain so much sweetness, and such a high quality of sweetness. And this sweetness is so aggressive that it captures everything."

(Vidagdha-Madhava, the translation is quoted from 'The Search for Sri Krishna')

"We chant the Holy Name, but one mouth is not sufficient—millions of millions, billions of mouths are necessary! We hear the chanting of the Holy Name, but two ears are not sufficient—billions and billions of ears are necessary!" This how Rupa Goswami describes the glories of the Holy Name (Nama mahatmya) in his sloka.

Through association we can get everything in our heart. For example, you can see that the electric charge is running here and there is light, but once the fuse goes off, the light will also be off. We have everything that we need but the problem is that we have no fuse—the fuse is cut. When some expert comes and puts the fuse in your heart, then you can understand everything clearly...

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