The ultimate cause:
krsna-tad-bhakta-karunya-matra-labhaika-hetuka \
pusti-margataya kaiscid iyam raganugocyate
|| BRS 1.2.309 ||
“The mercy of Krsna and His devotees is the only cause of attaining raganuga-bhakti. Some call this type of devotion pusti-marga.”
The path of rāga mārga is very rarely attained and hard to understand, and it is very difficult to enter into without the mercy of the great saints that are fixed in bhajana.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
Interest:
The interest of the sadhaka in raganuga-bhakti starts with hearing (sravanam).
tat tad bhavadi madhurye srute dhir yad apekshate |
natra sastram na yuktim ca tal lobhotpatti lakshanam ||
(BRS. 1.2.292)
“When one hears about the sweetness of their feelings and so forth, and a desire for attaining the same awakens in the consciousness without dependence on scripture and logic, this is a symptom of the awakening of greed (lobha).
rāgamayī bhaktira hoy rāgātmikā nāma;
tāhā śuni lubdha hoy kon bhagyavan
lobhe vrajavāsi-bhāve kore anugati;
śāstra-yukti nāhi māne – rāgānugāra prakṛti
(C.C.)
“Devotion full of sacred passion is called rāgātmikā. If a fortunate soul becomes greedy for that devotion after hearing about it he will eagerly follow the feelings of the people of Vraja without bothering about scriptural injunctions and logical arguments. Such is the nature of rāgānugā bhakti.”
The devotion that is prompted by greed, caused by hearing about the pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is called rāgānugā mārga.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
“If one thinks: ‘Let me attain such sweet feelings also’, after hearing about feelings such as the transcendental erotic feeling towards Kṛṣṇa of His associates (the gopīs) in Vraja, then one need not wait for favorable sanctions from the revealed scriptures or logical arguments.”
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
When one becomes slightly experienced by hearing the sweet stories from Śrīmad Bhāgavata and the līlā-granthas of the rasika bhaktas that preach the same conclusion about the feelings, forms and attributes of the Vrajavāsīs like Śrī Nanda and Yaśodā that please all the senses of Śrī Kṛṣṇa one becomes independent from scriptural injunctions and logical arguments and develops a certain consciousness, a desire for those sweet feelings – and that is called the root cause of sacred greed.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
Greed:
By hearing from raganuga-sadhus, greed develops.
“Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has personally given the following definition of lobha (sacred greed) in Śrī Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu: ‘When the heart yearns for the sweetness of the mutual feelings of Kṛṣṇa and His eternal associates in Vraja, and one is not dependent on scriptural injunctions or logical arguments, then that is the definition of ‘the cause of sacred greed’.”
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
“There are two causes for the appearance of the aforementioned sacred greed: The mercy of God or the mercy of another anurāgī devotee. There are again two kinds of mercy bestowed by a devotee: prāktana and ādhunika. prāktana means mercy bestowed by a rāgānugā bhakta in a previous life, and ādhunika is mercy bestowed in the present birth. The prāktana-devotee takes shelter of the lotus feet of a rāgānugā guru after the sacred greed has arisen in him, the ādhunika will get that sacred greed only after having surrendered to the feet of such a guru. It is said (in Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu): “The only causes of the appearance of sacred greed is the mercy of Kṛṣṇa or His devotee. Therefore some call the path of rāgānugā bhakti also puṣṭi mārga (the path of grace).”
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
After giving the definition of the cause of sacred greed the blessed author now describes the causes for attaining this greed. Greed for rāgānugā bhajana can only be attained by the grace of Śrī Kṛṣṇa or the grace of the great saints that are themselves passionately attached to the sweet feelings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s associates. Kṛṣṇa rarely bestows His mercy on new aspirants, therefore almost always this sacred greed arises by the grace of the aforementioned saints.
There are two kinds of sacred greed that arises by the grace of the saints – prāktana and ādhunikī. Those who have attained lobha by the mercy of rāgānugā saints in previous births will revive the cultivation of that lobha in their present birth and go on with rāgānugā bhajana, taking shelter of the feet of a guru according to their previous lives’ saṁskāra (cultivation), which can be dāsya or sakhya or so. Those who did not cultivate such greed in their previous lives first take shelter of the lotus feet of a guru, and after they hear about the great love of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His eternal associates the greed awakens within them. There is no other means than the grace of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His pure devotees to attain this greed for rāgānugā bhajana, and the blessed author has proven it by quoting a śloka from Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu. In his commentary on this śloka Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmīpāda has written: kṛṣṇeti – mātra padasya vidhi mārge kutracit karmādi samarpaṇam api dvāraṁ bhavatīti tad vicchedārthaḥ prayoga iti bhāva. “The word mātra is used in the above śloka ‘kṛṣṇa tad-bhakta kāruṇya mātra lābhaika hetukā’ because sometimes the offering of fruitive activities can lead to entry into vaidhī bhakti, whereas rāgānugā bhakti is only (mātra) attained through grace.” Greed for rāgānugā bhakti is more rarely attained than bhāva or rati in vidhi bhakti, and it is only attainable through grace (Śrī Mukunda Dāsa Gosvāmī). The devotees from the Vallabha Sampradāya call this rāgānugā mārga puṣṭi mārga (the path of grace).
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
The greed “thickens” (purification):
The sadhaka in whom the greed for raganuga-bhakti has awakened, purifies his heart so that this sacred greed gets thicker, before turning into deep taste (RUCI). Only then can the moonlight of the raga of the eternal associates shine into the heart of the sadhaka.
Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself describes (in Śrīmad Bhāgavata 11.14.26) how the devotee on the path of sacred passion advances and becomes more purified and more obsessed with sacred greed by the day, from the initial stage of surrender to the feet of a guru up to the point in which he directly attains the Lord:
‘The more one’s mind gets purified by hearing and chanting of My beautiful pastimes, the better one is able to discern the subtle reality (of the Self), just as the eye is better able to perceive more and more subtle things when it is treated with medicinal ointment’.
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
Here we see that the path of raganuga-bhakti starts with “guru-pada-ashraya”, surrendering to Sri Gurudeva who then mercifully makes the sadhaka qualified to serve in raganuga-bhakti by giving him the diksha-mantras and who instructs the sadhaka on the path to perfection.
When the greed of a rāgānugā aspirant leads him down the road of rāga, keeping his beloved object in the centre, then it awakens a special taste for the forms and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His associates. At first the greed of an aspirant will be scattered over many different subject matters and cannot focus on the actual beloved object, but when sādhana bhajana ripens this greed will give up all other subject matters and will focus on the beloved. In this paragraph the blessed author shows how this sacred greed gradually develops.
After the rāgānugīya practitioner has taken shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Guru the stream of his bhajana starts flowing as he engages in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord in the company of the devotees. Thus his heart is gradually cleansed from vices like lust and becomes completely immaculate. The purer his heart gets through this cleansing-process, the stronger the sacred greed will get in his heart.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
Clearly raganuga-bhakti starts with bhajana-kriya.
Now it will be described how the rāgānugīya bhakta gradually advances through the stages of anartha nivṛtti (cessation of bad habits), niṣṭhā (fixation), ruci (taste), and āsakti (attachment to the beloved deity) up to the stage of prema (love of God) and the direct attainment of his beloved deity.
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
Srila Jiva Goswami writes:
ajata-tadrisa-rucina tu sad-viseshadara-matradrita raganugapi vaidhi-samvalitaivanushtheya |
tatha loka-samgrahartham pratishthitena jata-tadrisa-rucina ca |
atra misratve ca yatha-yogyam raganugayaiki krityaiva vaidhi kartavya ||
(Bhakti-sandarbha 312)
“Those in whom such taste (ruci) has not awakened, but who have a special interest for it, should engage in a mixture of raganuga and vaidhi. For the sake of establishing an example for the people of the world, the one in whom such ruci has awakened will do the same. Therefore, as appropriate, raganuga should be performed together with vaidhi.”
On the path of raganuga-bhakti, meditating on the divine pastimes is the main sadhana, however in the primary stage we are not qualified for lila-smaran (meditation on the pastimes). Therefore, we should concentrate more on hearing, chanting and following the other rules of bhakti. Then as our consciousness gets more and more purified, we are drawn towards lila-smaran. Slowly our smaran becomes more intense. Ultimately when we reach the zenith of bhajan, lila-smaran naturally becomes the major part of bhajan.”…
The very nature (dharma) of the mind is rāga (attachment, passion), and hence mental worship is the root cause of rāgānugā bhajana. Still the external practice of hearing and chanting must not be neglected or given up— this is to be noted specifically. The perfection of allegiance to the Vraja-people cannot be achieved by giving up external practices like hearing and chanting. As much as the external practices like hearing and chanting nourish the internal practice of smaraṇa, that much the internal practice also awakens taste for external practices. Since they nourish each other equally, efforts to fix one’s mind on līlā smaraṇa without taking shelter of external practices will not become fruitful. And again, efforts to perform only external practices without practicing līlā smaraṇa cannot be called rāgānugā mārga’s bhajana. Hence both are required.
All those new aspirants who are unable to meditate on their own siddha dehas or on Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s pastimes, but rather find this difficult to do, should initially not be too eager for līlā smaraṇa. If they, along with hearing and chanting etc., practise some light and easy smaraṇa while hearing and chanting texts like Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya’s ‘Prārthanā’ and ‘Prema Bhakti Candrikā’, Śrīmat Rūpa Gosvāmīpāda’s ‘Stavamālā’, Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmīpāda’s ‘Stavāvalī’, Śrīla Kṛṣṇa dāsa Siddha Bābā’s ‘Prārthanāmṛta Taraṅginī’, that glorify gopī bhāva or rāgānugā bhajana, and at the same time try to cultivate mañjarī bhāva within the heart, the heart will easily become qualified to practise līlā smaraṇa.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, Raganuga-tattva-vijnana)
From greed to deep attachment (ruci):
In his Bhakti Sandarbha (310), Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmīpāda has written:
atra viṣayiṇaḥ svābhāviko viṣaya saṁsargecchātiśayamayaḥ premā rāgaḥ yathā cakṣur ādīnāṁ saundaryādau; tādṛśa evātra bhaktasya śrī bhagavatyapi rāga ityucyate…
yasya pūrvokte rāga viśeṣe rucir eva jātāsti na tu rāga viśeṣa eva svayaṁ tasya tādṛśa rāga sudhākara karābhāsa samullasita hṛdaya sphaṭika maṇeḥ śāstrādi śrutāsu tādṛśyā rāgātmikāyā bhakteḥ paripāṭiṣvapi rucir jāyate. tatas tadīyaṁ rāgaṁ rucyānugacchantī sā rāgānugā tasyaiva pravartate.
“The natural love and desire of a sense enjoyer for his favorite sense objects is called rāga. Just as the eyes are attracted to beautiful scenes and other senses are attracted to their favorite sense objects and need no encouragement in this, similarly when the heart of a devotee is naturally attracted to the Lord then this anxious thirst of love is called rāga…”
When even a semblance of the moonrays of the aforementioned rāga (which is situated within the hearts of the eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa) falls on the crystal-like heart of a devotee who attained a little taste for this aforementioned rāga, but did not really developed the real rāga yet, then the whole heart rejoices, and when he learns about it from the scriptures he develops a taste for the expert devotional service of these rāgātmikā devotees.”
The purport of this is that when those devotees whose hearts are clear from lust, anger, greed and envy hear from the scriptures and the mouths of the saints about the loving skill in devotional service of the rāgātmikā bhaktas their taste (ruci) will awaken. With such ruci they will follow them and thus their real rāgānugā bhakti will commence. Thus it is to be understood.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
So, to feel the REAL “raga” in the heart, we have to be on the stage of RUCI, but this doesn´t mean that the PRACTICE of raganuga-bhakti starts at RUCI.
The sadhaka´s “job” is to purify the heart by hearing and chanting and being in the anugatya of Sri Gurudeva, thereby serving the Vaishnavas and performing all items of bhakti which are favorable to the desired goal.
yathā yathātmā parimṛjate’sau mat puṇya gāthā śravaṇābhidhānaiḥ
tathā tathā paśyati vastu sūkṣmaṁ cakṣur yathaivāṣjana samprayuktam
(Bhāg. 11.14.26)
Śrī Kṛṣṇa told Uddhava: “O Uddhava! Just as the eyes that are anointed with siddha ointments gradually become cleansed and free from disease so that they will be able to perceive more and more subtle objects, similarly the practising devotee will perceive more and more subtle things as his heart gets purified by hearing and chanting about My sacred pastimes.”
In his commentary on this verse Śrīpāda Viśvanātha Cakravartī has written:
ādi bhajanam ārabhya kevalayā bhaktyaivātma śodhana tāratamyena śravaṇa kīrtana smaraṇādi tāratamyāt man mādhuryānubhava tāratamyaṁ prāpnotītyāha yathā yatheti. –
As one commences the path of bhajana and cleanses one’s heart more and more through the practice of pure devotion, consisting of hearing, chanting and remembering the glories of the Lord, one will be able to experience My sweetness more and more. This is described in this verse.”
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
From RUCI to perfection (PREMA):
Now it will be described how the rāgānugīya bhakta gradually advances through the stages of anartha nivṛtti (cessation of bad habits), niṣṭhā (fixation), ruci (taste), and āsakti (attachment to the beloved deity) upto the stage of prema (love of God) and the direct attainment of his beloved deity.
In the Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi it is said that ‘those who are specially attracted to the ecstasy of the Vrajavāsīs and thus perform rāgānugā bhajana will attain that abundance of eagerness that is fit for performing rāgānugā bhajana and will take birth in Vraja in groups of one, two or three in their own time, according to their eagerness.’ Here the word anurāgaugha means ‘that eagerness that makes one qualified for doing rāgānugā bhajana’. The anurāga mentioned here does not refer to the sthāyi bhāva (permanent mood) of that name, because the sthāyi bhāva named anurāga cannot be attained within a material body.
The words ‘having taken birth in Vraja’ means the sādhana siddhas take birth from the womb of a gopikā, just as Kṛṣṇa’s eternally beloved gopīs appear with Him when He descends to earth (prakaṭa līlā). After that, gradually sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga and mahābhāva will become manifest in the gopikā-body of that sādhaka on the strength of associating with the gopīs that are endowed with mahā-bhāva and by hearing and chanting and seeing the greatness of Kṛṣṇa’s eternally liberated gopīs.
These feelings could not possibly have arisen in the material body of the sādhaka, in his previous birth. In this way the extraordinary characteristics of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s beloveds in Vraja has been shown. In Śrīmad Bhāgavata it is said that the gopīs attained the pinnacle of transcendental bliss by seeing Govinda. Without Him, they experienced a moment to last like a hundred ages. Their statement (in Śrīmad Bhāgavata 10.31.15) ‘Without seeing You, we consider a second to last like an age’, is a symptom of mahābhāva.
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
Kṛpā-kaṇikā Vyākhyā (Srila Ananta das Babaji)
Now it is described how the sādhaka attains the personal service of his beloved deity in His līlā-kingdom, after attaining the perfection of prema. Two kinds of sādhana have been desribed of the rāgānugīya devotees – the external practice of hearing and chanting in the sādhaka-body and the desired mental service in the self-conceived siddha body.
When the sādhaka’s obstacles, such as anarthas (different kinds of mischief) are removed by the continued practice of bhajana, he gradually becomes fixed up, gets (lasting) taste for bhajana and becomes genuinely attached to the Lord. Then, when rati and prema are attained the practice in the sādhaka deha is completed. In other words, when all the stages of the stream of sādhanā – faith, surrender, taking shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Guru, serving Śrī Guru and Vaiṣṇava, hearing, chanting, remembering, meditating, becoming free from mischief, becoming fixed up, acquiring taste, becoming attached to the Lord and rati – have been fulfilled – then one reaches the culmination named prema.
It is described in the book named Śrī Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi how, after attaining this prema, all these rāgānugīya sādhakas that do bhajana in the madhura rasa with the feelings of sakhīs or mañjarīs, will attain the personal service of the Lord in the kingdom of līlā:
tad bhāva baddha rāgā ye janās te sādhane ratāḥ
tad yogyam anurāgaughaṁ prāpyotkaṇṭhānusārataḥ
tā eko’thavā dvi-trāḥ kāle kāle vraje’bhavan
(Śrī Haripriyā Pra.- 49 and 50)
“Those who are especially attracted to the feelings of the gopīs and are thus engaged in rāgānugā bhajana, attain the abundance of anurāga that is proper for rāgānugā, and according to their eagerness, take birth in Vraja at different times as Vraja-gopīs alone or in groups of two or three.”
In the above verse the word anurāgaughaṁ means the eagerness that is proper for rāgānugā, not the sthāyi bhāva named anurāga, because only stages up to prema can appear in the sādhaka body.
The stages above prema, from sneha up to mahābhāva, that are required to attain personal service in the mood of the gopīs, can only appear in a transcendental gopī-body, for a sādhaka body is unable to tolerate the coolness of meeting with Śrī Kṛṣṇa or the heat of separation from Him.
The words ‘vraje’bhavan’, meaning “taking birth in Vraja”, must be understood to mean that the sādhana siddhas appear in the womb of a gopikā in the same way as the eternally beloved Vraja-vadhūs of Śrī Kṛṣṇa appear during the manifest pastimes. After that, on the strength of the association of nitya-priyās like Śrī Rādhā and Lalitā they gradually attain sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga and mahābhāva through seeing, hearing and glorifying Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His associates. Without this mahābhāva the personal devotional service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in a gopī body cannot be attained.
The example of this is given by Śrī Śukadeva in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata, when he described how the gopīs went on their way to dance the Rāsa with Kṛṣṇa after they heard Śrī Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, but some gopīs were locked into their inner chambers because they were sages from the Daṇḍaka-forest in their previous birth who were unable to get the association of the nitya siddha gopīs, although they had taken birth in Vraja as gopīs.
Since they were thus unable to attain mahābhāva and could also not get the aid of Yogamāyā, the gopīs who were locked into their houses by their relatives felt such great pangs of separation from Śrī Kṛṣṇa that on the strength of their meditations on Him they were quickly able to attain this stage of mahābhāva, that is usually only attained through a gradual process, and thus became blessed by attaining the Rāsa-dance. Thus the blessed author says that in the sādhaka body of the previous birth it is not possible to awaken the stages from sneha up to mahābhāva. Therefore, the extraordinary characteristics of the Śrī Gopikās in Vraja are described in Śrīmad Bhāgavata:
gopīnāṁ paramānanda āsīd govinda darśane
kṣaṇaṁ yuga-śatam iva yāsāṁ yena vinābhavat (10.19.16)
“The gopīs, that experience a single moment without Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be like a hundred ages, attained the topmost bliss when they saw Govinda.”
Then again in the Śrī Gopī Gīta we can find the Śrī Gopikās speaking the following words to Śrī Kṛṣṇa:
aṭati yad bhavān ahni kānanaṁ truṭīr yugāyate tvām apaśyatām
kuṭila kuntalaṁ śrī mukhaṁ ca te jaḍa udīkṣatāṁ pakṣmakṛd dṛśām (10.31.15)
“When You go out into the forest in the daytime to tend Your cows we consider even a splite second that we don’t see You to be like an age, and then when You return home in the evening we consider the Creator, who made our eyelids blink, so that our eyes cannot gaze constantly at Your face, that is decorated with curly locks, to be dull and arasika.” This experience of a moment like a hundred ages is a characteristic of mahābhāva. Śrīmat Rūpa Gosvāmī writes in his definition of rūḍha mahābhāva –
nimeṣāsahatāsanna janatā hṛd viloḍanam
kalpa kṣaṇatvaṁ khinnatvaṁ tat saukhye’py ārti śaṅkayā
mohādya bhāve’pyātmādi sarva vismaraṇaṁ sada
kṣaṇasya kalpatetyādyā yatra yoga viyogayoḥ
(Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi Sthāyibhāva Prak. – 161. 162)
“In the stage of rūḍha mahābhāva, either during union or during separation, the gopīs show the following physical expressions of permanent emotions (anubhāvas): they cannot tolerate a moment of separation, their hearts are disturbed by approaching people, they consider an age (when they are together with Kṛṣṇa) to be like a moment, they suffer when they are anxious about Kṛṣṇa’s happiness, even if He is happy, they forget all about themselves even when they are free from delusion and they consider a moment to be like an age (when they are separated from Kṛṣṇa).”
Amrita-Tarangini 