Srila Sadhu Maharaja at the house of Suniti dd and Gaurasundara das

…slowly more and more guests arrived and the gathering grew bigger and bigger.
We started with bhajans and then Srila Gurudeva started his lecture.
He let Suniti dd read the text on the back of her newly published book, the German translation of Srila Narayana Maharaja´s “Hidden path of devotion”.
Suniti dd did an excellent job in choosing this book and she most wonderfully published a very nice German edition. Gurudeva was very very happy with her amazing efforts.

So she read the text on the back, describing the subject matter of this book, namely Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipada´s “Raga-vartma-chandrika” which is discussed and explained by Srila Narayana Maharaja.
It is said there that the book “Raga-vartma-chandrika” is like a moonbeam in the darkest night which shows us the way to our goal, pure love to Radha and Krishna, expressed in our RAGA or passion for the service to the Divine Couple.

Srila Gurudeva compared the dark night with the ignorance in our hearts. We forgot about our eternal nature and therefore we are in the dark night of the soul.
He explained that love or BHAKTI is like the full moon illuminating the dark night. With BHAKTI we can have light on our way to our goal. We need this light. Where there is light, there can never be darkness.
Srila Gurudeva told us that we need this RAGA, this most wonderful longing for being together with Radha and Krishna. When we want to love Them, we need this greed. We can´t only gather knowledge life after life. What do we want? Know Them or LOVE Them? BHAKTI makes us love Them. Our hearts need to be full of RAGA, full of passionate love for Them. He told us that this is not a worldly love-passion. Focused on the Divine Couple, our love will become pure.

He wonderfully explained that we should follow the ragatmika-devotees in Goloka Vrindavana. We then are called raganuga-devotees: Followers of those who have RAGA in their souls eternally, like Srila Rupa Manjari.

He made the point that this path of raganuga-bhakti is a very narrow one and that we have to be careful when we walk on it.