Introduction

This Website is about attaining the spiritual perfection of pure bhakti – loving devotional service to the Divine Couple in Vraja, Sri Radha-Krishna. We love them in manjari bhava  – the mood of the girlfriends and maidservants of Sri Radha. Such spiritual perfection is attained through devotion to Sri Guru, Sri Nityananda and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The main process in bhakti is the chanting of the holy name, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. In our present state of consciousness our practice of bhakti must be under the guidance of a living genuine Guru, and we have taken shelter of Prabhupad Srila Premgopal Goswami. However, feel free to join our spiritual community, whoever your Guru is and whatever sanga you happened to belong to. Pure bhakti is not sectarian and every spirit soul is welcome to use this facility. Jai Nitai.

Here are the words of the Acaryas, the saintly teachers in the bhakti tradition, shading light on the spiritual mood we aspire for, beginning with ‘What is Love?” by Srila Premgopal Goswami.

1.      What is Love? Radha-Krishna Prema!

Devotee: What is Krishna Prema?

Prabhupād Śrīla Premgopāl Goswāmī: Prema is everything for us. Our life here, our smiling, our crying, our exchanging of love – everything. Without this prema, we cannot exchange our love in the material world. The love we exchange with family members, with friends, with everyone, this love we got from the Divine Couple. The love between Rādhā and Krishna is the source of all love.

Divine love, prema, is always pure. When it discontinues, or when we mix our thoughts with it, our desires, our material needs, then it becomes ‘impure’, mixed, contaminated: Love itself, prema, is always pure. But when it mixes with our material needs it becomes contaminated, adulterated, like metal, it can be pure gold or mixed with other metals.

We are pure spirit souls. When we come into contact with the material world, we get confused; the love gets mixed, but still the love is there. Love is always pure.

Even our material love originates from Śrī Rādhā-Krishna, because no-one can create love by himself. No-one can, because it is very pure – it is not from this material world. That is why we are here. Krishna sent us here to just practice re-awakening this love. We have to exchange this love, the same love, with Him, in these different moods (servitude, fraternal, parental and conjugal). That’s why we have so many relationships in this life, in this world. But we don’t know this, we have forgotten where love comes from – that’s why we are using this love in a wrong way, an independent way. If we get this feeling of wondering “Where has this love come from?” then our mind will go one way, towards the Divine Couple, to Śrī Rādhā-Krishna. Then our mind will start searching for it. It will be spontaneously attracted to where we got it from. At the beginning this love will take the form of trust in Śrī Gru (faith, devotion, dedication). When you feel this love, then your trust will grow.

However, we are always mixing this love with mundane emotions. We often feel that this emotion is love – no! It is not the same thing. Emotion can change, affection can change, but love – never changes. Love is for always. And this same love we can offer to Rādhā-Krishna. But we have to purify it. How? By Śrī Guru’s blessing. Guru transforms our contaminated love to pure love so that it can be offered to Rādhā-Krishna.

Q: So we transfer our love to the Guru?

A: No, not transfer. Just take shelter of Śrī Gurudeva. Then he will accept everything from us: Our good things, our bad things, everything.

Q: What does it really mean to take shelter?

A: Taking shelter means to offer everything to him. Now we are like soft mud, and the Guru can mould us, and present us to Rādhā -Krishna after purification. Because we are like clay, inside the clay are little stones, which all need to be sifted out so we can be offered. Śrī Gurudev is doing that. That is the duty of the Guru. Then he will present us to Rādhā-Krishna.

Remember how Bilvamangala Thakur loved Cintamani the prostitute? He had very deep love for her. He had this love, and she said, “You have this deep love and you are wasting it – if only you loved Krishna like you love me, your life would be perfect.” This made Bilvamangala Thakur realize, “Yes, this is true. If I have strong love in my heart, I should offer it to Krishna.” And then he took shelter of his Gurudeva, but he never forgot his first lesson about love from Cintamani. That is why she was his first Guru – she from whom he got the lesson of love, because sometimes śikṣa Guru is very important, more than dīkṣa Guru. Dīkṣa Guru will give us the mantras, these are the seeds of realization, but śikṣa Guru will help to cultivate and grow these seeds into the creeper of bhakti.

That is Krishna prema. Everything! When you feel the same love for everyone, anything, any subject – realize that this is Krishna prema. He gave you this love (all forms of love here in the material world). It is a reflection of the real thing, but love is love. (Delhi, March 2014)

Addressing a different audience in Śrī Rādhā Kund, ‘Baba’ (as we affectionately address him) said: “We shouldn’t give our heart in worldly affairs. We should keep our heart only for Yugal (Meaning either the Divine Couple Śrī Rādhā and Krishna, or the lotus feet of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī). We should use our mind to manage worldly (mundane) relationships, not our heart. We should love others but be detached. But the problem is that we do the opposite: We use our heart in worldly affairs and our mind in spiritual life. Don’t give your heart to others, not even to Krishna, only to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.”

Devotee: “So we shouldn’t give our heart to Gurudeva?”

PSPG: “Yes, you should give your heart to Gurudeva because he is the mercy manifestation of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī here in this world. You should give your heart to Śrī Guru, to Nitāi (Ananga Manjari in madhurya rasa) and to Gaurāṅga (Krishna in the mood of Śrī Rādhā) because they will all lead you to the lotus feet of our Svāminī Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.”

2. Sri Guru Dasyam – Devotion to Sri Guru

We pray to Sri Guru,

tvaṁ gopikā vṛsa-ravesa tanayāntike ‘si
sevādhikāriṇi guro nija pāda padme
dāsyaṁ pradāya kuru māṁ vraja kānane śrī
rādhāṅghri-sevana-rase sukhinīṁ sukhābdhau

O Gurudeva! You are immersed in an ocean of bliss and you can award transcendental service. You are the beloved gopīkā of Śrīmatī Rādhikā. Please bestow on me the shelter of your lotus feet, so that I can be blissfully engaged in the transcendental service of the Queen of Vraja, our  Svāminī Śrīmatī Rādhārānī. (Stava Kalpadruma, Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī)

3. Sri Nitai-Gauranga Dasyam – Devotion to Sri Nitai-Gauranga

We pray to Sri Nityananda,

nitāi-pada-kamala, koṭi-candra-suśītala,
je chāyāy jagata jurāy
heno nitāi bine bhāi, rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi,
dṛḍha kori’ dharo nitāir pāy

The lotus feet of Nitai are as cooling as millions of moons. Their shade gives solace to the entire universe. Without a personality such as Nitai, O brother, it is not possible to attain Radha and Krishna, so firmly take hold of His lotus feet (Srila Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Prema-bhakti-candrika). Without the mercy of Sri Guru, it is not possible to get the shelter of Sri Nityananda. Without the mercy of Nitai-Gauranga, it is not possible to get the shelter of Sri Radha-Krishna. Without Guru’s and Nitai-Gauranga’s mercy it is not possible to take shelter of Sri Radha. Without Her mercy and the mercy of Her followers – the gopis and manjaris – it is not possible to enter Radha dasyam. Sri Guru is the manifestation of the original Guru Sri Nityananda. Without serving Sri Guru we cannot serve Nitai, we cannot serve Gauranga, and we cannot serve Radha-Krishna, what to speak of serving Srimati Radhika in Her confidential nikuñja pastimes in the forest bowers of Vraja. Radha dasyam in manjari bhava is the ultimate goal of our sadhana-bhajana (spiritual practice). It is the essence of Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s mercy, His teaching and His unprecedented gift to the conditioned souls of this mortal world. Serving Srimati Radharani is the goal of raganuga bhakti, the very heart of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas, our innermost hearts’ desire. But the key for entering Radha dasyam is devotion Sri Guru and to Sri Nityananda whose form in Krishna lila is that of Ananga manjari.

4. Sri Radha Dasyam – Devotion to Srimati Radhika

We pray to Sri Krishna,

śyāmasundara śikhaṇḍa śekhara
smera-hāsa muralī-manohara
rādhikā-rasika māṁ kṛpā-nidhe
sva-priyā-caraṇa-kiṅkarīṁ kuru
(Śrī Viṭṭhalācārya)

O Śyāmasundara, O beautiful dark boy with a peacock-feather crown, Your playful smile and Your flute completely bewilder our minds. You are expert at tasting the nectar of Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s love, and You are an ocean of mercy. Please make me a maidservant of Your beloved.

 We pray to Śrī Rādhā,

tavaivāsmi tavaivāsmi na jīvāmi tvayā vinā
iti vijñāya devī tvaṁ naya māṁ caraṇāntike

“He Devī Śrī Rādhike! I am yours! I am yours! I cannot live without You. Knowing this, please give me shelter at Your lotus feet.”

We pray to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, “O Prince of the cowherders (Kṛṣṇa)! I offer my obeisances unto You and I pitifully pray to You: Please make me the object of mercy of the crown garland of the young girls of Vraja (Śrī Rādhikā)!” (Srila Rupa Goswami, Utkalika Vallarih, 19)

We pray to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, “Please make me the object of Śrī Rādhā’s grace”, and we pray to Śrī Rādhā, “May Kṛṣṇa give me mercy, knowing me to be Your loyal kinkari maidservant!”

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (aka Gauranga), the combined form of Radha and Krishna, manifested on earth 500 years ago to bestow upon us the supreme gift of divine love for Radha and Krishna, called prema. This gift is revealed through the writings of the ācāryas. This Rādhā-dāsyam is an unprecedented gift of mercy. The conditioned souls are floating in the ocean of material existence, but by some stroke of good luck some of them receive the mercy of Sri Guru and Nityananda in the form of the seed of the vine of devotion. 

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(Cc Madhya 19.151)

By taking shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Guru a fortunate person can attain purification of the self. Gurudeva is bringing the remembrance of a long forgotten thing back into the heart. When fortunate sādhakas take shelter of Śrī Guru’s lotus feet in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya, they become acquainted with the service of Śrī Rādhā. After establishing their spiritual self-identity as Rādhā dāsī (Radha’s maidservant), they continue their bhajana according to the love of rādhā snehādhikā (greater love for Rādhā than for Kṛṣṇa). How enchanting it is to think of oneself: “I am Rādhā’s fallen maidservant!” My bhajana is disturbed by bodily consciousness; my life is contaminated by all kinds of external endeavours for material comforts!

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī instructs us (Bhakti Sandarbhaḥ, 286): “What to speak of internally, even externally, while following the process of hearing, chanting and deity-worship, one should think of oneself as Rādhā’s maidservant.” This is the bhūta-śuddhi (spiritual self-identification) of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. “Here the bhūta śuddhih of the pure devotees is explained. This means thinking of one’s own desired spiritual body, in which one associates with the Divine Couple and which is suitable for serving Them. The real bhūta śuddhi for a pure devotee is to think of himself or herself in their own siddha svarūpa (spiritual body). This way of thinking is favourable for those who know that the highest goal of life is to love the Divine Couple in the mood of Srimati Radharani’s maidservants – mañjarī-bhāva.” (Adapted from Srila Ananta das Babaji’s commentary on Śrī Utkalikā Vallariḥ, verse 20).

5. Transforming Our Consciousness

There are three level of existence, corresponding to three levels of consciousness, leading to the attainment of three different goals.

     1.  The plane of sense enjoyment, covered consciousness, motivated by self interest and exploitation of others, leading to repeated birth and death in this material world – the realm of karma.

     2. The plane of renunciation, slightly blossoming consciousness, motivated by the desire for freedom from material anxieties or liberation from material existence, leading to impersonal liberation – the realm jñāna (cultivation of knowledge or mystic powers aimed at becoming one with the Supreme).

     3. The plane of dedication, fully blossoming consciousness, motivated by the desire to serve the Supreme Being, leading to spiritual existence in the kingdom of pure love – the realm of bhakti. 

The soul consists of three elements: sat-cit-ananda – eternity, knowledge and bliss. In the perfected stage of renunciation the soul merges into the impersonal aspect of the Supreme and attains eternity and knowledge, but not bliss because such impersonal liberation is devoid of loving exchange with the Supreme. In the perfected stage of dedication the soul attains its full potential of eternity, cognizance, and bliss by rendering loving devotional service to its eternal beloved, the Divine Couple, Sri Radha and Krishna.

Therefore, if we want to change the world, we should start by changing ourselves – changing our own consciousness. One can only transcend one’s limitations and attain spiritual perfection by changing one’s own attitude or consciousness. Such a change requires faith and commitment; it is a life-time marathon, not a sprint. It is a journey without a beginning to a goal that has never changed – the goal of divine love. The process to attain divine love is the path of bhakti. It is the only spiritual path that can dissolve our karma, purify our minds, transform our hearts, and elevate our consciousness to the spiritual realm. The main practice on the path of bhakti is the chanting of the holy name, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, the most powerful mantra for deliverance.

Chant and be Happy