DVITIYA PRAKASA : “Second diffusion”

Sri Sri Raga-Vartma-Chandrika (Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipad)

TEXT 1:

nanu ‘na hanim na glanim na nija griha-krityam vyasanitam na ghoram nodghurnam na kila kadanam vetti kim api. varangibhih svangikrita suhrid anangabhirabhito harir vrindaranye parama nisam uccair viharati’. ityadibhya eva sri vrindavanesva¬ryadi prema vilasa mugdhasya sri vrajendra-sunor na kvapi anyatravadhana sambhava ityavasiyate. tatha sati nana dig desa vartibhir ananta raganugiya bhaktaih kriyamanam paricaryadikam kena svikartavyam vijnapti stava pathadikam ca kena srotavyam. tad amsena paramatma naivamsamsinor aikyad iti cet samadhir ayam samyag adhir eva tadrisa krishnanuragi bhaktanam. tarhi ka gatih? sakshat srimad uddhavoktir eva. sa ca yatha – “mantreshu mam va upahuya yat tvam akunthitakhanda sad atma bodhah. priccheh prabho mugdha ivapramattas tan me mano mohayativa deva”. asyarthah – “mantreshu jarasandha-vadha rajasuyady artha gamana vicaradishu prastuteshu mam vai niscitam upahuya yat priccheh uddhava tvam atra kim kartavyam tad bruhi iti priccheh apricchah akunthitah kaladina akhandah paripurnah sada sarvadika eva atmano bodhah samvicchaktir yasya sa mugdha iva yatha anyo mugdho janah pricchati tathety arthah tat tava yugapad eva maugdhyam sarvajnyam ca mohayativa mohayatyeva. atra mugdha iva tvam na tu mugdhah iti. mohayativa na tu mohayat I iti vyakhyayam sangaty abhavat. asangatyeshu karmanyanihasya bhavo’bhavasyetyadi vakyeshu madhye etad vakyasyopanyaso vyarthah syad ityatas tatha na vyakhyey¬am. tatar ca dvaraka-lilayam satyapi sarvajnye yatha maugdhyam tathaiva vrindavana-lilayam api satyapi maugdhye sarvajnyam tasyacintya-sakti siddham eva mantavyam. ataeva varnitam sri lilasuka caranaih “sarvajnatve ca maugdhe ca sarvabhaumam idam maha” iti.

Sri Syamasundara is always so absorbed in His pastimes with the beautiful girls of Vraja, that have accepted Cupid as their heart’s friend, that He is not aware of any loss, exhaustion, household duties, danger, fear, worry or defeat by His enemies. From all these statements we can understand that He has no chance to think of anyone else but Sri Radhika and the gopis of Vraja, since He is enchanted by His loving pastimes with them. Who will then accept the service rendered to Him by the countless raganuga bhaktas, that come to Him from different directions and from different countries? Who will listen to all the different prayers that are offered to Him? One may offer the solution that Krishna’s expansion, the Supersoul who lives in everyone’s heart, listens, and that the expansion and the origin are actually one, but that will hurt such raganuga bhaktas very much. What is then the solution? The answer can be found in the words of Sri Uddhava Mahasaya. He says: “O Lord! When You considered whether or not it was proper to kill Jarasandha and to go to the Rajasuya-sacririce, You called me to You and said: “O Uddhava! What should I do now?” like a bewildered person. You bewildered me at that time, acting like an ignorant, yet omniscient man who needed advice from a counsellor, although You are not conditioned by time and space and You are full of causeless eternal knowledge, that can never be deluded or lost. But if someone will explain that in this case You seemed bewildered, but actually You weren’t, then that is also not right, because Your activities are without endeavour and Your birth is birthless – amidst all these words, this proposal is useless. Therefore we should not explain it in the latter way. We must accept that just as Krishna is sometimes bewildered in His Dvaraka-pastimes, although He is omniscient there, similarly by His inconceivable potency He is sometimes omniscient in His Vrindavana-pastiAmes, although He is bewildered there. We must therefore accept the words of Srila Bilvamangala Thakura (Krishna Karnamrita 83) that “In all His pastimes the effulgent Lord is simultaneously bewildered and omniscient.”

Kripa-kanika Vyakhya (by Srila Ananta das Babaji):

In the first diffusion of Raga Vartma Candrika the blessed author has described the nature of both vaidhi and raganuga bhakti and the varieties of raganuga bhakti, and in this second diffusion he will ascertain the nature of Sri Krishna’s prowess and sweetness.

The special feature of raganuga bhakti is that the raganuga upasaka is blessed with the sweet relish of the form, qualities and pastimes of the embodiment of sweetness Sri Vrajendranandana. Mainly, the Lord’s Godhead can be experienced in prowess (aisvarya) and sweetness (madhurya). His form as the embodiment of supreme bliss and natural, unrivalled and endless lordship constitute His aisvarya and the beauty of His all-enchanting pastimes, qualities and form constitute His madhurya. Through the practice of jnana His real form can be experienced, His prowess can be experienced through the practice of vaidhi bhakti, which is endowed with an awareness of His prowess, while His sweetness can be experienced through the practice of pure Vraja-bhakti or raga bhakti. Without practising any of these above three sadhanas nothing can be understood of the sweetness and prowess of the Lord, who is the aggregate of transcendental truths. Before the Vraja-devotee the high unsurpassable waves of the great sweetness of Sri Krishna, who is the embodiment of sweetness, surge up. The great loving devotee forgets about his body and his home and becomes immersed in this great ocean of sweetness. This is the supreme culmination of the practice of Vraja-rasa. This is also the limit of God-experience, since sweetness is the essence of Godhead.

The truth on madhurya is hard to enter into and hard to understand, hence the blessed author has submitted the distinction between the perfection attained in madhurya and aisvarya here, so that the raganugiya bhaktas will understand it.

The Lord is controlled by bhakti, which is the essence of His own innate energy (svarupa sakti). This is the constitional nature of bhakti. Sri Krishna is wholly subdued by the pure sweetness of Vraja-bhakti. Sri Krishna, who is the transcendental youthful Cupid, is especially taken beyond Himself in all respects by the culmination of mahabhava reached by the Vraja-devis, and most of all by the madana rasa of Sri Vrindavanesvari Sri Radharani. Sri Radha’s complete love swallows Sri Krishna’s heart and mind in such a way that He forgets everything and becomes absorbed in His complete playful mellows with Srimati, day and night. He does not find time to concentrate on anything or any place else anymore. If that is so, then who will accept the service rendered to Him by the raganugiya bhaktas that worship Him in different countries of the world, and who will hear their prayers and praises? It is natural that such a question arises.

When one says to this that Sri Krishna accepts all devotional service and hears all the devotees’ prayers in the form of the Paramatma, His partial prowess (amsa-vibhava) that resides in the hearts of all the innumerable living entities, and He can accept and hear everything because there is no difference between the expansion and its original, then the Sri Krishnanuragi Vraja-rasopasakas will feel great heartache, because each devotee exclusively yearns to attain the grace of that particular form or feature of the Lord that he worships, and the devotion in his heart awakens a desire in the heart of the worshipped deity to attain the devotee’s loving service. Particularly the Vraja-devotees practise the worship of pure sweetness and their hearts cannot be satisfied by attaining the mercy of anyone else but their worshipable Sri Vrajendranandana. In Sri Brihad Bhagavatamrita it is described that even though Sri Narayana assumed the form of Sri Krishna in Vaikuntha, Sri Gopakumara, who worshipped in the fraternal mood of Vraja, could not become happy with it. When the Lord finally showed Gopakumara his beloved gocarana-lila (Krishna’s pastime of cowherding) in a garden of Vaikuntha, Gopakumara could still not feel fulfilled, because he wanted to see the gocarana lila in the purely sweet environment of Sri Vrindavana.

Therefore, the Vraja-worshippers cannot even imagine that Vrajendranandana would hear their prayers in His monitor Paramatma-feature. Then how is this problem solved?

The blessed author says: The answer lies in a verse that Srila Uddhava Mahasaya spoke to Sri Krishna.

This statement runs as follows:

mantreshu mam va upahuya yat tvam akunthitakhanda sadatma bodhah priccheh prabho mugdha ivapramattas tan no mano mohayativa deva (Bhag. 3.4.17)

“O Lord! Your complete knowledge is never bewildered or decreased, and You are Yourself always aware, nevertheless You called me to Yourself to consult me and question me like an ignorant person. This bewilders my mind.”

The blessed author has explained the meaning of this verse himself. The kings that were imprisoned by Jarasandha took shelter of Sri Krishna’s lotus feet and sent a messenger to Him, and right at the same time Sri Yudhishthira Mahasaya sent Devarshi Narada to Him to invite Him to attend the Rajasuya sacrifice. Sri Krishna was simultaneously attracted to His attribute of protecting the surrendered souls and His attribute of affection towards His devotees. He could not ignore the kings that had taken shelter of Him, nor could He ignore the invitation of Yudhishthira, who had given his heart to Krishna. Having fallen into this dilemma He became bewildered about what to do and thus called for Sri Uddhava Mahasaya to seek his advice.

When Sri Krishna disappeared from this world Sri Uddhava Mahasaya remembered this and said: “O Lord! Although You are endowed with full, unchecked eternal knowledge, You inquired from me like a bewildered person, “O friend Uddhava! Tell Me what I should do now!” Just as an ordinary bewildered person, who does not know what to do anymore, seeks advice from a wise counsellor, similarly You bewilder me by simultaneously appearing bewildered and omniscient.”

In the quoted verse the words ‘mugdha iva’ and ‘mohayati iva’ are used. If someone thinks the words iva imply that ‘You were as if bewildered, but actually You were not bewildered’, and ‘You are acting as if you are bewildering Me, but actually I am not bewildered’, then that explanation cannot be accepted, because, if the Lord is just acting as if bewildered, although He is actually omniscient, and if that bewilderment is not real, then it would not have been possible for a person like Sri Uddhava, who is the very embodiment of transcendental knowledge, to become bewildered. Therefore the word iva should be explained here as ‘like another bewildered person’. If Sri Uddhava Mahasaya was not actually bewildered and just acted as if he was, then there would have been no reason for him to bring forward this point in this verse. What actually bewildered Sri Uddhava Mahasaya was Sri Krishna’s simultaneous bewilderment and omniscience, His bewilderment despite His omniscience. He also said in the previous verse:

karmanyanihasya bhavo’bhavasya te durgasrayo’tharibhayat palayanam kalatmano yat pramadayutasramah svatman rate khidyati dhir vidam iha (3.4.16)

“O Lord! Your activities are without activity, and Your birth is birthless. Although You are time personified You flee into a fortress out of fear of Your enemies, and although You are Self-satisfied You remain in householdlife with many wives – all these facts torment the wise and the learned with doubts.” In all these inconceivable statements it is useless to find a juxtaposition, therefore it is not proper to explain Uddhava’s words to mean that Sri Krishna was ‘as if bewildered, but not actually bewildered’.

All these statements will make us accept that Krishna was sometimes bewildered in Dvaraka, though He is usually omniscient there, and in the same way it is to be accepted that Sri Krishna can also be omniscient in His Vrindavana-lila, although He is usually bewildered there. These contradictions bring Sri Krishna’s inconceivable potency to perfection. The bewilderment of the omniscient person, the defeat, fear and fleeing away of the invincible, the all-worshipable Supreme Truth offering obeisances unto the feet of Sri Nanda and Yasomati, the hunger, thirst, theft and the adultery with the housewives of Vraja of the Self-blissful and Self-satisfied One are all the great sweetnesses and mellows of Vraja-lila.

Sripada Lilasuka Bilvamangala Thakura has also said in his Sri Krishna Karnamrita (83): sarvajnatve ca maugdhe ca sarvabhaumam idam mahah “There is no doubt about it that when Sri Krishna’s pastimes all show Him simultaneously omniscient and bewildered, this is the perfection of His inconceivable potency. That is because Godhead is the shelter of all contradictions. This bewilderment is also the very soul of the Lord’s blissful pastimes, that are the essence of the transcendental potency. It is not something that exceeds Krishna’s constitutional position.

TEXT 2:

atra sarvajnatvam mahaisvaryam eva na tu madhuryam madhuryam khalu tad eva yad aisvarya vinabhuta kevala naralilatvena maugdhyam iti sthula dhiyo bruvate.

 

Here omnisciency means that Krishna has great power and opulence, not sweetness; and outside of His majestic pastimes He is only sweet when He imitates humans in His pastimes.
This is what those with a superficial view are saying.

Kripa-kanika Vyakhya:

Here it is described how Godhead consists of the Lord’s extraordinary constitution, prowess and sweetness. The constitution and the prowess are the foundations of the sweetness; without constitution and prowess there can be no perfection of sweetness. It has been said that God consists of supreme transcendental bliss. The constitution of the transcendental Supreme Brahman has been written down again and again in different places of the Srutis (Upanishads). For instance: sac cid anandamayam parabrahma (nri purva 1.6), sarva-purna-rupo’smi sac cid ananda lakshanah (Maitri 3.21) satyam jnanam anantam brahma (Tai. 2.1.1) vijnananandam brahma (Bri 3.9.28) anandam brahmeti vyajanat (Tai. 3.6.1) ananda rupam amritam yad vibhati (2nd Mundaka 40.8) and so on. When the living being attains this Supreme Brahman, who is the embodiment of bliss, it becomes blissful itself, for He is the object of its causeless love. preyah putrat preyo vittat preyo’nyasmat sarvasmat antaratara yad ayam atma (Bri. 1.4.8) “This innermost self is dearer even than one’s son or one’s wealth, or indeed anything else.” Thus, although brahma is being worshipped in many ways in the Srutis, it is revealed in different places in secret, confidential ways that the most intimate meditation on brahman is as that of the beloved.

Just like brahman’s constitution, its prowess has also been mentioned in the Srutis again and again. esha sarvesvara eshah sarvajnah esho’ntaryami (Mandukya -6) “He is the Lord of all, the Omniscient and the Overseer.” Sri Yajnavalkya told Gargi: etasya va aksharasya prasasane gargi surya candramau vidhritau tishthata, etasya va aksharasya prasasane gargi dyava prithivau vidhrite tishthata “On the order of this infallible Supreme Person the sun, the moon and the stars are engaged in their duties and assist Him in the creation of the world. On His order the sky and the earth remain in their stations. In this way the whole world is pervaded by the majesty of God.” isavasyam idam sarvam (Isa 1) sarvasya prabhum isan sarvasya saranam brihat (Sveta. 3.17.3) “He is the Lord of all, and the Isvara and the whole world act under His command. He is the only controller of the creation, maintenance and destruction”. vasi sarvasya lokasya sthavarasya carasya ca (Sveta 3.18) “All the moving and unmoving creatures are under His command.” The Srutis also say: etavanasya mahima tato jayams ca purushah pado’sya visva-bhutani tripade’syamritam divi “One fourth part of this Purusha’s opulence is manifest in this world, and three quarts of His prowess is in the divine abode.” In the tenth chapter of the Sri Gita, which is the essence of all the Upanishads, the Lord Himself, being unable to describe His own opulences, told Sri Arjuna:

yad yad vibhutimat sattvam srimad urjitam eva va tat tad evavagaccha tvam mama tejo’msa-sambhavam (10.41)

“Whatever in this world has opulence, prowess or beauty you should all know to be a spark of My splendour.” The description of godly prowess of the universal form that follows in the eleventh chapter can not be found anywhere else. In the g Veda a semblance can be found of the honey-filled and flavour-laden experiences the sages of yore had of such a concept of constitutional prowess –

madhu vata ritayate madhu ksharanti sindhavah madhvirnah santaushadhih madhu naktam utoshaso madhumat parthivam rajah madhudvau vastunah pita madhuman nau vanaspati madhuman astu suryah madhvir gavo bhavantu nah om madhu om madhu om madhu (1 Mandala 91 Sukta g Veda)

When the sages experience the honey-sweet God, who is an ocean of characteristics, prowess and sweetness they use this mantra in relation to themselves. The meaning is: “We are the worshippers of the honey-sweet God, may the wind carry honey for us, may the oceans exude honey, may the herbs be full of honey, may the day and the night as well as the specks of earth appear to us as honey-filled, may the demigods that maintain the universe by showering water, be filled with honey, may the trees be filled with honey, may the sungod shine with sweet rasa and may the cows give us sweet juice. All of them are like honey, honey, honey.” If the sages had not found a wonderful honey-filled truth within their inner faculties, then they could not have developed a desire to experience such a sweet feeling for the outer world.

As a result the abovementioned mantra gives us clear insight that the worshippers of the Lord have prayed that they may experience the whole world in a honey-sweet way as having emanated from a honey-sweet basic truth. Therefore we can understand from this that the Lord, who is an ocean of prowess and character, is filled with sweetness.

Here we easily experience that the perfection of sweetness can never be accomplished without experiencing the svarupa (characteristics) and the aisvarya. Therefore there can be no doubt about it that those who think that sweetness cannot be accomplished within the framework of great prowess and omniscience and that sweetness only means the imitation of human pastimes in complete ignorance without any sign of prowess, is possessed of a superficial view. The blessed author here personally defines the characteristics of prowess and sweetness. (2)