Recently I had a most wonderful discussion with Sripad Sadhu Maharaja about a very important subject matter.
We talked about the wonderful book called „Raga-vartma-chandrika“ and specifically about the part, where Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipad talks about what happen to the devotee when he leaves the material body.
“One may ask: “Why don’t you say: ‘When the sadhaka attains the stage of prema and leaves his body, he will take a gopika-body in the spiritual world (aprakata prakasa) without first taking birth from the womb of a gopika, after which he manifests sneha, etc. there in that body through the association of the eternally perfect gopis?” The answer here is: “No, that will not happen, because without taking birth from the womb of a gopi one can not get a proper acquaintance according to the human-like pastimes there, like: “Whose daughter is this sakhi? Whose wife is she? Whose daughter-in-law is she?” “Allright then”, one may say, “then why not take birth in the aprakata prakasa?” Then the answer is: “No, that can also not be! Sadhakas (practising devotees) or materially conditioned souls can not enter into the transcendental manifestation named Sri Vrindavana, only perfected souls can enter it. Even through one’s own sadhana the feelings of sneha and so on are not easily attained there. Therefore Yogamaya takes those devotees, whose prema has awoken, to Krishna’s materially manifest pastimes in Vrindavana when Krishna descends there, for the sake of perfecting their feelings like sneha etc. before they attain Sri Krishna’s bodily association. Because practising devotees, fruitive workers and perfected devotees can all be seen to enter into the materially manifest Sri Vrindavana, it is experienced as both sadhaka bhumi (the land for practitioners) and siddha bhumi (the land for the perfect).
“Then where will those most eager sadhakas stay all this time?” The answer is: “After the sadhaka-body perishes, that loving devotee, who has eagerly desired direct devotional service for a long time, will at once, by the Lord’s grace, receive the gift of the desired service and the audience of the Lord and His eternal associates, even though he has not yet attained the manifestations of prema like sneha and so, just as the Lord once bestowed His Personal audience to Narada Muni in his previous birth (see Srimad Bhagavata Canto One, Chapter Six). He will give the sadhaka a transcendental gopika-body. Yogamaya will make that body take birth from a gopika-body in the manifest pastimes, when Sri Krishna descends to earth with His eternal associates. There will be not even the slightest delay in that, because the prakata lila goes on without interruption. The liberated devotee will take birth in that material universe where Krishna plays His manifest Vrindavana-lila at the time. Sri Krishna and His associates always appear when the loving practising devotee leaves His body. Therefore, O greatly eager anuragi devotees! Do not fear! Be at ease! All is auspicious for You !”
This really is a very deep subject and we are very lucky to have available the beautiful commentary of my beloved Gurudeva, Srila Ananta das Babaji.
But then again, I realized how essential it is to be in the association of great self-realized sadhus who can „extract“ the deepest nectar from already existing nectar.
Now, here we basically find that there are two descriptions about what happens after the devotee leaves his material body.
„Therefore Yogamaya takes those devotees, whose prema has awoken, to Krishna’s materially manifest pastimes in Vrindavana when Krishna descends there, for the sake of perfecting their feelings like sneha etc. before they attain Sri Krishna’s bodily association.“
So here we get to know in this paragraph, that actually without developing the higher stages of pure love after attaining prema, we cannot have DIRECT contact with Sri Krishna and we have to REACH perfection BEFORE we can come into His personal association. We would have to ‘wait’ until we attained perfection AND until Sri Krishna descends in the universe we live in.
But later on, Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada mentions another description about what happens if a „MOST LOVING devotee“ leaves his mortal body.
„After the sadhaka-body perishes, that most loving devotee, who has eagerly desired direct devotional service for a long time, will at once, by the Lord’s grace, receive the gift of the desired service and the audience of the Lord and His eternal associates, even though he has not yet attained the manifestations of prema like sneha…“
Here we can find a most wonderful incident of the working of Krishna´s unlimited mercy, in sanskrit called KRIPA.
The devotee who is most loving and who eagerly desires DIRECT devotional service, this devotee will receive from Sri Krishna the gift of this desired service AND the association of the Lord and His associates AT ONCE, without ANY DELAY. And not only that, this most loving devotee receives this gift ALTHOUGH he has not yet attained perfection, meaning having not yet reached the stages after prema like sneha, etc..
Such a devotee is called ‘someone who reached perfection through grace (mercy) or KRIPA’ and therefore is named ‘KRIPA-siddha’.
This truly is a most wonderful thing and exactly because of this, the author proclaims boldly:
“Therefore, O greatly eager anuragi devotees! Do not fear! Be at ease! All is auspicious for You!”
All is indeed wonderful for such a devotee. Like always with great literature from eternally liberated souls, EVERY word is most significant.
Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipad most carefully chose the words ‘most loving devotee’ who is ‘eagerly desiring’ the direct service of Sri Krishna.
We as raganuga-devotees are topmost fortunate because we can follow in the footsteps of those who have the HIGHEST love for Sri Krishna and the highest DIRECT SERVICE, the ragatmika-devotees in Vrindavana.
So if we follow such a ragatmika-devotee, we will certainly be amongst those who are ‘most loving’ and who are ‘eagerly desiring’.
The first step in raganuga-bhakti is to take shelter at the lotus feet of a true guru.
Now, in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, our Gurudeva is a manjari of Srimati Radhika.The manjaris of Srimati Radhika possess the topmost limit of “attainable” love for Radha and Krishna. Of all the manjaris, those who have more love for Radhika (adhika-sneha) are so much connected to Krishna´s highest lover, Radhika, that She shares all Her feelings with them. In fact, these manjaris even feel the same bodily experiences like Their Svamini Radhika.
In Sripad Raghunatha Das Goswami´s masterpiece ‘Sri Vilapa Kusumanjali’, we can read:
TVAM RIPA MANJARI SAKHI PRATHITA PURE’SMIN
PUMSAH PARASYA VADANAM NA HI PASYASITI
BIMBADHARE KShATAM ANAGATA BHARTRiKAYA
YAT TE VYADHAYI KIM U TAC CHUKA PUNGAVENA
“My dear friend Rupa Manjari! In the township of Vraja you are well known for your chastity. You don’t even look at the faces of other men! It is therefore surprising that your lips, that are as beautiful as red Bimba-fruits, have been bitten, although your husband is not at home. Has this maybe been done by the best of parrots?”
So whatever Radhika feels, the manjaris who are extremely close to Her, feel too.
By taking diksha-initiation from our Gurudeva, we receive the mantras which contain everything we need to attain perfection in this life. Our eternal relationship to our most worshipful Deities, our relationship to our beloved Gurudeva, Vraja-dhama, our eternal form…everything is there.
Also within the process of diksha we find the receiving of our siddha-deha from our Gurudeva.
Srila Gurudeva is entering a state of deep meditation and receives all information about an eternal form suitable for our own personal bhava. This form is “there” in Goloka Vrindavana, waiting to be “animated” by us so to say.
We can imagine our form like a most wonderful “dress” made by the spiritual energy, “hanging there” in a most wonderful spiritual wardrobe. When we perfect our spiritual emotions, our bhava, we can “wear” that dress forever.
We receive what is known as ‘ekadash-bhava’. There are eleven ‘informations’ about our eternal spiritual form, like name, dress. nature, age, service, etc…
The process of diksha is completed when we fully realize our guru-given svarupa. This is called perfection or SIDDHI.
By the mercy (or KRIPA) of our beloved Gurudeva, we are in the most fortunate position to actually start manjari-bhava-sadhana which is the highest gift of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The more we develop the desire, the greed to start this kind of bhajan in raganuga-bhakti, the more we will progress through the stages of bhakti like sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya, anartha-nivritti, nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava and finally prema.
At the stage of asakti we actually get REAL glimpses of our eternal form and we can REALLY see how we REALLY look like when we reach the stage of bhava.
The final stage, prema, cannot be fully experienced in this mortal body. The energy of this highest and purest love for Radhika and Krishna is too much to bear for our material shell. We have to give up our body.
Here we now arrive at the point of the discussion about the above mentioned verse in Sri Raga-vartma-chandrika.
By being fully surrendered with our material body to our beloved Gurudeva and with our spiritual body to our Guru-Manjari, we are able to receive this incredible mercy of being able to have direct association with Sri Sri Radha and Krishna in Their manifest pastimes in Vrindavana.
By serving the Divine Couple day and night in our mentally conceived, guru-given manjari-form, we surely will attain the direct association and the direct service of the Divine Couple, since we already engage in the most direct service under the guidance of our Guru-Manjari, starting from mentally conceived up to spiritually experienced already partly in this body.
There is just nothing more “mercy-showering” like performing manjari-bhava-sadhana under the shelter of a true sad-guru.
Yogamaya will then make all arrangements and we will appear in our REAL family in Varsana, even if we may not have developed these highest stages like sneha, mana, anuraga, etc…
This is real KRIPA, real mercy and grace. Our Guru-Manjari will always be with us and we will be always under her shelter. Therein we can find true perfection, even in the here and now.
Amrita-Tarangini 