Lecture by H. H. Radhanath Maharaj on 12th
November 2001 at Maan Mandir, Barsana during the Vraj Mandal Bhumi & Jaipur
Yatra
For many of us, it is only one night per year that we are
here at Sri Man Mandir. For others it may be the only time in their lives.
Under the beautiful stars of Vrindavan, in this holy place which is so very
isolated from all modern life, commercialism and materialistic comforts, we can
deeply experience the simple beauty of Sri Vraja dhaam.
Man Mandir is worshipped as one of the most important of
all holy places by the residents of Vrindavan because it is here that love
completely conquers the object of love. Especially here, pure unalloyed
devotion brings the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna under helpless
subordination. The lila that is eternally enacted here is the deepest mystery
of the Holy Scriptures. It is the essence of all transcendentalists. It is here
that Krishna Who is the proprietor of everything, all the material and
spiritual worlds, becomes a beggar, begging for the love of His devotee.
I would like to share one story that I
heard many times from the local residents of this place. Srimati Radharani is
the best of all singers. In fact, whatever musical abilities exist in all
spiritual and material worlds have their fullness and origin in Her. She only
sings for the pleasure of Krishna. There is a beautiful bhajan which explains
that She is kokilavaani, Her voice is like a cuckoo, multiplied infinitely. How
does She have such a sweet voice? Because in the spiritual world, all qualities
exist as the expression of the heart’s love for Lord Krishna. Because Her love
is unlimited, all of Her devotional expressions are unlimited; the sweetness of
Her voice is unlimited. This is something that cannot be comprehended by one
whose mind is limited by material conceptions. Krishna longs to hear Her sing.
He asked Srimati Radharani if She would be His musical Guru and teach Him how
to sing. She sang a line of a beautiful raga and told Him to repeat it. He did
so, however, it was all wrong. “No, no. Not like that!” She sang it again and
Thakurji Shyamsundar sang even worse the next time. “No, no. Not like that!”
She sang again. Sri Radha Raman sang even farther off tune the third time. Then
She realized that He was doing this on purpose because He simply wanted Her to
go on singing. So she became angry.
This is called Maan lila. Actually Rupa Goswami
tells us that a pure soul in this world gives up the pushings of anger. So how
could anger exist in the pure spiritual world which is pure vishuddha satva? It
exists as the willing offering of the heart to increase the pleasure of
Krishna. So She was angry. She said, “I do not want to see You. I do not want
to hear You. Be away from Me.” In loving affairs, there is nothing more painful
than neglect. When we are praised or we are being chastised, at least our
existence is being acknowledged. But when we are neglected, our heart becomes
like a dreary void. This was the state of Lord Krishna. The vraja gopis were
trying to do everything they could to reunite Radha and Krishna. She said, “I
do not want to see anything blue.” But the gopis said, “All your clothes are
blue! And the sky is blue.” She said, “I don’t want to hear His name.” “But,”
they said, “In Vrindavan, every bird, every insect, every living entity is
chanting His name.” Krishna placed the crown of His head on Her lotus feet.
Sometimes He would even bathe them with His lotus tears. Radharani’s heart
would melt and She would cast Her benevolent smile upon the Lord. Srimati
Radharani is always conquered by the love of Krishna and Lord Sri Krishna is
always conquered by the love of Sri Radharani.
Our Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta is not
to try to be with Krishna. That is Radharani’s position. We desire to be the
servant of the servant of the servant of Her servants, because that position
ultimately gives the greatest pleasure to Krishna. And therefore it brings the
greatest pleasure to our own hearts. The purpose of this human life is to
purify our hearts. These wonderful pastimes of Sri Maan Mandir cannot be
understood by our intelligence, but it does give us the revelation that bhakti
is the only means of approaching Krishna. Krishna said, “It is only by pure
devotion that I can be understood as I am.” He is bhakta vatsal. He favours
only one who has simple and humble devotion. Our power, our knowledge, our
fame, our wealth, our abilities, bring no satisfaction to Krishna, He does not
need that. He is the possessor of all power, all fame, all knowledge, all
beauty, strength and renunciation. But if we have devotion, if we have a
sincere desire to serve, to serve the servants who the Lord loves dearly, the
Lord considers Himself unable to repay the debt. That is the ultimate
understanding of the Absolute Truth.
In the Western scriptures we read about
a God Who is almighty, Who throws firing brimstones upon the sinners and Who
awards the pious with great benevolence. But that is the Lord how He exists in
the material world. But in the transcendental realm of the Supreme most of all
the planets in the spiritual world, the Supreme Lord in His all beautiful form
of Shyamsundar is eternally immersed in the oceanic nectar of the love of His
devotees.
Srila Prabhupada taught us that in the
beginning stages we must worship Radha and Krishna with reverence, strictly
following the regulative principles. Through this process of chanting of the
Holy names and hearing of the glories of the names and pastimes of the Lord,
our hearts will be cleansed. In the perfect stage of transcendence, by the
mercy of Guru and Vaishnavas, Srimati Radharani awakens bhakti within our
heart. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world to give us that. Here at
Maan Mandir, we should pray from the very core of our hearts on this moonlit
night that this be our real goal. The only thing that ultimately matters is
how we are awakening the dormant love of Krishna from within and how we are
helping others to do the same. That is in fact the charity that wins the heart
of Krishna. That is the charity that attracts the mercy of Srimati Radharani.
When King Prataprudra chanted that
verse, tava kathamritam, tapta jivanam.. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became
ecstatic. That verse exclaims that one who shares the message of pure
devotional service with others is most munificent, who brings the greatest
welfare to all living beings. Mahaprabhu embraced him with tears in His eyes
and said, “You are most munificent!” In Goloka Vrindavan, Srimati Radharani is
eternally engaging everyone in the most ecstatic joy of serving Krishna and She
appears in this world as Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu to share that joy even with
sinful wretched conditioned souls who have rejected the Supreme Personality of
Godhead since time immemorial.
We have come here to Maan Mandir to beg
for mercy. To the degree we feel empty, insignificant and unqualified, we can
actually beg wholeheartedly. A proud person cannot really beg. It is lip
service. We must understand our fragile, helpless condition in this material
world and how far we are away from Krishna consciousness and with tears in our
hearts, beg! Begging for bhakti. Begging for the opportunity to be a dear
servant of Guru and Gauranga. Begging for the only reality in all of existence,
divine love. Without that we are in poverty.
Here at Man Mandir life is so simple. I
first came here exactly thirty years ago. While living in Vrindavan, whenever I
would come to Barsana, I stayed here. At that time, it was very simple – just
dirt on the ground and these buildings were not here. Just some ancient ruins
resembling small caves and two great Vaishnavas lived here. Such a simple life!
To get water we had to walk all the way down the stairs and carry a bucket all
the way up. There was no food, no cooking, we would go down to the villages
behind Maan Mandir and do madhukari, beg for some Vraja rotis. Such a simple
life! But every night twenty or thirty small children from the villages would
come up and for about two or three hours have incredible dancing kirtans with
gongs and bells and drums and cymbals. There was a little temple made out of
straw with a painting of Krishna, very ancient painting. One small boy about
four years old, took me by the hand and brought me in front of that painting of
Krishna in the old straw hut on the roof of the building just behind us. And he
said with such conviction and faith, “THIS IS MY GOD!” My heart was shattered.
Such conviction! Such faith! I considered in comparison that I was an atheist.
This is the sweetness of a Brijabasi. Such natural, simple, implicit faith that
Krishna is their friend, their Lord and protector.
One day, a rumour came that a
man-eating leopard had killed several people and that leopard was seen coming
up this mountain. There were two great devotees staying here and myself, just
the three of us. Where we are sitting now, there used to be just simple earth.
We slept on the earth under the moonlight and the trees. One night, this
devotee was holding just a small branch of a tree, small stick. I asked, “Why
are you holding this stick? I never saw you with this before." He told me
about the man-eating leopard. I asked him that do you really think that you
could protect yourself from a man-eating leopard with a simple stick that is
hardly a half inch thick? He said, “No. It is impossible. The stick cannot do
anything to help us. However, we have complete faith that Radharani will
protect us if it is Her will.” However, She is pleased when we try our best. We
make our effort, but we know that our effort will never be successful; it is
ultimately only the mercy of Sri Radha Gopinath that can save us. And then
smiling, he immediately went to sleep. Myself, I was listening to see if
anything was coming. But then I was thinking that he has that stick so there is
nothing to worry about and I happily went to sleep.
That is the simplicity of bhakti. That
is Vrindavan lila. Not by our material calculations can we save ourselves from
death. But just by having faith, faith in the mercy of Krishna. Simplicity
means no duplicity, no ulterior motives. When our heart is actually simple,
actually innocent, deeply grateful can bhakti naturally manifest. So let us pray for that simplicity. Let us
pray as beggars to be the servant of the servant of the servant with pure, pure
devotion. Bhaktivinod Thakur prayed that when will that day be mine when I
can chant the holy names of Krishna without offense. When will that day be
mine when I can genuinely feel compassion for the fallen souls – this should be
our prayer and certainly Sri Radharani will fulfill that prayer.
Vrindavan is chintamani dhama because
any desire that any devotees has is immediately fulfilled. We should understand
what we should desire. Srila Prabhupada told us that if we have no desire for
pure devotional service, we should desire the desire. If we are not even able
to desire the desire, we should just desire to desire to have the desire. And
the way we can express our desire, is by serving those persons who truly have
that desire. By serving the great personalities who are on the path of bhakti,
Krishna rewards us with the eagerness to hear His glories. And when one has the
desire to hear the glories of Krishna, Krishna is so pleased that from within
the heart, He purifies all the unwanted things and awards pure devotional
service. It is so simple. The yogis, they spend lifetimes, performing such
severe austerities, so dry! Just for some mystic powers which are temporary and
ultimately a source of misery. But the devotees can achieve the ultimate bliss
of Krishna consciousness simply by having the eagerness to hear the glories of
the Lord. This eagerness is awarded by Krishna when He is pleased with us.
Therefore it is said in Srimad Bhagavatam that when we serve the great souls,
Krishna is pleased and awakens that eagerness to hear His message from within
our heart. The message of Krishna is like the river Ganges. It completely
purifies whatever it comes in contact with. Maharaj Parikshit was the proper
candidate to hear Srimad Bhagavatam because of his eagerness to hear it. And
Sukhdev Goswami was the proper candidate to speak because he was eager to hear
from his spiritual master Srila Vyasadev and he was eager to repeat that message
as it is. Srila Prabhupada told us often that if we really want the Srimad
Bhagavatam to enter into our heart, and be digested, we must follow in the
footsteps of Maharaj Parikshit and be very eager to hear.
During this month of kartik, in the
land of Vrindavan, in the holy forest of Bandiravan, we cannot possibly
calculate what great spiritual merit we will be awarded by eagerly hearing the
pastimes and teachings of Lord Sri Krishna on this day. Many of you may be
tired, may be a culture shock, coming from your cities and towns and just
wandering through the dusty pasture grounds of Vrajabhumi. However all these
austerities and inconveniences are all the blessings of the Lord because if we
are eager to hear, eager to chant, eager to serve, under these circumstances,
it is a greater expression of our desire to serve the Lord. Therefore
Thakur Bhaktivinod prayed that the sufferings and difficulties that I undergo,
I consider to be the great blessing of the Lord, because they give me the
opportunity to actually express loving devotion. And in the purified state,
there is a beautiful shloka by Narayan Bhatt Goswami that when I am doing the
parikrama of Govardhan, when the thorns of Vrindavan pierce my feet… How many
of you have had this experience? Narayan Bhatt Goswami thought it was a great
celebration. He said, “The happiness or the bliss of the jnanis when they
attain perfection of their path and they enter into Brahman realization, mukti,
that bliss of mukti multiplied by millions and trillions of times does not
equal even a fraction of the pleasure that I feel when the thorns of Vraja
enter into my feet.”
It is a matter of consciousness. We
should take it as a gift of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord to purify us. If a
thorn enters your foot, certainly you should take it out, you shouldn’t be so
advanced, when we are not so highly realized. But when we are taking it out, we
should be thanking Krishna. “This is
the mercy of Vrajabhumi. Millions and millions of sins may be evaporating just
through the pain of this thorn in my foot.” If we see with spiritual
vision we can always be enlivened in every situation. But this is only possible
when we are eager to hear the message.
- Hari Bol!