Niti and Priti

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
9 October 2019, Kolkata, part 2

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay

It was Ramachandra's vijay utsav yesterday, and we would like to clarify some things about Rama-tattva and Krishna-tattva, or Rama-lila and Krishna-lila.

You all know Ramayana, and you can also see in Chaitanya-charitamrita that Mahaprabhu says that Ravan could not kidnap original Sita—he kidnapped maya Sita. Valmiki wrote his Ramayana 60,000 years ago and he does not write about it there. Still, what Ramayana says is also correct. Anyhow, Ramachandra knows everything—He is the Lord.

vitarasi diksu rane dik-pati-kamaniyam
dasa-mukha-mauli-balim ramaniyam
kesava dhrta-rama-sarira jaya jagadisa hare

O Hari! O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! You have assumed the form of Ramachandra! All glory to You! During the battle at Lanka You distributed to all the directions the most pleasing, crowning offering of the ten heads of Ravan, which were desired by the guardians of the directions.

(Sri Dasavatara Stotram, 7)

Keshava Krishna has become Rama, a king.

When Lord Ramachandra came back from His exile into the forest (vana-vasa), all His prajya (subjects, ministers) said, "Oh, Ravan has stolen Sita, we do not know if she is pure or not. We must check it." Because Rama is the king He has to listen to them—He did not think about Sita, there is no display of love and affection.

What is Vraja gopis' love and affection like? When Krishna left, all the Vraja gopis always cried and shouted, they always felt so much separation, and Krishna also always felt so much separation. But what do we see here? Here we see that first Ramachandra put Sita Devi into fire to test her purity. Nothing happened to Sita Devi, but all the ministers and citizens again said, "We still cannot believe it. You are the king and You cannot stay with Sita." Ramachandra thought, "I have to maintain the rules and regulations properly. If I do not behave perfectly, people will not follow Me." That is, Rama is maryada-purush—He is always truthful, He always maintains proper conduct and follows all rules and regulations, He shows affection for moral principles (niti, নীতি) and His kingdom. Everything must be perfect. So, when He was told to send Sita to the forest to stay in Valmiki's ashram, He did that. At that time, Sita Devi cried so much, "Ha Ram! Ha Ram!" Rama knows Sita is perfect, He knows Sita has no fault, He knows everything, but for the sake of his kingdom and proper conduct, He thought, "I have to do this. I have to send Sita away because people do not believe she is pure."

What happened before Ramachandra's exile to the forest? That is the matter of Dasarath's vatsalya-rasa. There are five relationships with the Lord—there is santa-rasa (neutral relationship), dasya-rasa (servitude), sakhya-rasa (friendship), vatsalya-rasa (parenthood), and madhura-rasa (consorthood). When Ramachandra sent Sita away, Sita felt separation from Rama, but Rama did not show it, thinking, "I am a perfect man, and I must maintain My perfection." Here also, on the one hand, Darasarth has much love and affection for Ramachandra—when Dasarath sent Ramachandra to live in the forest for fourteen years, Dasarath was so sad that he died soon after that. Still, Dasarath is truthful and law-abiding—he follows rules and regulations, he follows the laws strictly. Where is love and affection (priti) here? Here there is first niti (law), then only priti (love), but in Krishna-lila, priti goes first, and niti means nothing.

Vraja basis, all the gopis, Radharani left everything—they have no shame, no shyness, no fear, nothing. They only always think, "Krishna is my property! We do not care who says what!" That is pure love and affection. "Oh, people will say this," "Oh, people will speak bad"—no, they do not care for anything. But Dasarath did care—he thought, "I am the king, and I must follow rules and regulations. I have promised my wife to do whatever she asks me for, so I have to fulfil her desire." Where is love and affection there?

Ramachandra is the Lord, and Dasarath sent the Lord to the forest! Whether the Lord eats or fasts, what He is doing, where He is sleeping—he does not care. At that time, Laksman and Sita Devi went with Ramachandra. Dasarath did not send Sita or Laksman with Rama, but because Sita has love and affection for Ramachandra, she went with Him, and Laksman is His junior brother, he also has love and affection for his brother, so Laksman also went with Ramachandra. They have love and affection, but what does Dasarath do? He knows Ramachandra is the Lord and he sent the Lord to the forest!

I am not criticising Dasarath. I am only giving some clarification. Somebody can say, "Oh, Maharaj is criticising Dasarath!" No. What I am saying is that there is not so much love and affection in Rama-lila. Dasarath knows Ramachandra is the Lord, he knows, "I am sending the Lord to exile for the sake of my kingdom and all my rules and regulations." In Rama-lila, rules and regulations are the highest, and love and affection go down, but this is not the highest ideal. What happens in Krishna-lila?

When Kamsa was about to kill Devaki, Vasudev pled with Kamsa with folded hands and so much earnestness, "Please, do not kill her! You have heard that it is the eighth son that will kill you, so you can lock us in jail and I promise you I will hand you over each child we get, one by one." And he did that. Vasudev gave Kamsa each of his babies, one by one, and Kamsa killed each of them. However, when the eighth child came, what did Vasudev do? He saw sankha, chakra, gada, padma (conch, disk, club, lotus) and realised that the Lord Himself had come. What did he do then? He took his son and carried Him to Gokul! He kept His son there and brought back a baby girl instead of Him. Vasudev was not afraid—he did not care there was the Yamuna, there was rain, etc. That night there was so much rain—it had been raining the whole day and night, but Vasudev had no fear. When he came out, Anantadev came and sheltered him from the rain. There was the Yamuna river, but when Vasudev came to the river, Yamuna gave way to Vasudev. He was walking across the Yamuna holding Krishna in his arms, and no rain fell on the baby. Who can kill Him? Think about it. Then, when Vasudev came back with the girl, he called some lady and Kamsa came to the prison cell, "The eighth baby has come! Where is He?" Vasudev said, "No, it is not a he, it is a she." He told a lie—he did not care because his niti (law, moral principles) was to protect his son. This is vatsalya-rasa. He did not care about telling a lie, going to hell as a result, etc. It was nothing for him. He only knew, "I have to protect my son!" That is called vatsalya-rasa. And Nanda Maharaj has even more love and affection for the Lord than Vasudev because although Vasudev had got the Lord as his son, he could not make the Janmastami festival for his son. Who made that festival? Nanda Maharaj. Nanda Maharaj is so fortunate, he has so much love and affection, even more than Vasudev.

That is called love and affection...

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