Raganuga-bhakti only possible with a pure heart?

Someone wrote to me, of course with a false name (LOL), telling me that I misrespresent my beloved Gurudeva, Srila Ananta das Babaji.

He quoted with emphasis to the last three lines:

yasya purvoktam raga-viseshe rucir eva jatasti na tu raga-visesha eva svayam, tasya tadrisa-raga-sudhakara-karabhasa-samullasita-hridaya-sphatika-maneh sastradi-srutasu tadrisya ragatmikaya bhakteh paripatishv api rucir jayate | tatas tadiyam ragam rucy-anugacchanti sa raganuga tasyaiva pravartate ||
(Bhakti-sandarbha 310)

“When even a semblance of the moonrays of raga shines upon the crystal-like heart of a person in whom a taste for the aforementioned specific raga has awakened, but who himself does not possess distinct raga, his heart rejoices. He then hears from the scriptures about such ragatmika-bhakti and consequently develops a taste for the same. Following his taste for such raga, he engages in raganuga-bhakti.”

These are the original words of my Gurudeva:

…tatparya ei ye, ye bhakter hrdoy svaccha arthat kama krodha matsaryadi bhave dusit nohe, sei bhakta sastra o sadhu mukhe ragatmika bhakter premamayi seva paripatir visay sravana korile tahate tahar rucir udoy hoya thake…

…that bhakta whose heart is transparent, which means, not polluted by lust anger, envy and other feelings, if such a bhakta hears from shastra and sadhus about the loving expertise of the ragatmika bhaktas he gets ruci for that…

With these lines, he wanted to make the point that I say in my recent raganuga-blog something different than my Gurudeva, namely that I wronlgy claim raganuga starts with bhajana-kriya and my Gurudeva says not…

Of course I understand my Gurudeva:
He is talking here about a VERY high stage in raganuga-bhakti. A stage, where the heart is crystal-like (pure).
This is the stage of raganuga-bhava-bhakti and here, the REAL taste and the REAL raganuga-bhakti “starts”…with a heart full of loving feelings and emotions.
Here also REAL smaranam takes place.
Also he may generally refer to the more gross transgressions caused by envy, greed and lust which happen on the stage of raganuga-sadhana-bhakti and which pollute our heart.

My Gurudeva doesn´t write here that “raganuga-bhakti begins at RUCI”…he just makes a very strong point that to practice raganuga-bhakti the heart should not be polluted with unwanted desires.
Now, even at the stage of bhava-bhakti there are still some subtle anarthas or unwanted desires…so, does this mean that we have to wait until the stage of bhava-bhakti, where the heart may still be “polluted” by traces of anarthas? Never.
These are the opening lines from my Gurudeva´s commentary to the following verse from Raga Vartma Chandrika (2.7):

Now it is described how the sadhaka attains the personal service of his beloved deity in His lila-kingdom, after attaining the perfection of prema. Two kinds of sadhana have been desribed of the raganugiya devotees – the external practice of hearing and chanting in the sadhaka-body and the desired mental service in the self-conceived siddha body. When the sadhaka’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 sadhaka deha is completed. In other words, when all the stages of the stream of sadhana – faith, surrender, taking shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Guru, serving Sri Guru and Vaishnava, 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 Sri Ujjvala Nilamani how, after attaining this prema, all these raganugiya sadhakas that do bhajana in the madhura rasa with the feelings of sakhis or manjaris, will attain the personal service of the Lord in the kingdom of lila:

tad bhava baddha raga ye janas te sadhane ratah
tad yogyam anuragaugham prapyotkanthanusaratah
ta eko’thava dvi-trah kale kale vraje’bhavan
(Sri Haripriya Pra.- 49 and 50)

“Those who are especially attracted to the feelings of the gopis and are thus engaged in raganuga bhajana, attain the abundance of anuraga that is proper for raganuga, and according to their eagerness, take birth in Vraja at different times as Vraja-gopis alone or in groups of two or three.”

The verse is:

atha raganuga bhakti majjanasyanartha nivritti nishtha-rucyasaktyantaram prema-bhumikarudhasya sakshat svabhishta-prapti-prakarah pradarsyate. yathojjvala nilamanau “tad bhava baddha raga ye janas te sadhane ratah. tad yogyam anuragaugham prapyotkanthanusaratah. ta ekaso’thava dvi-trah kale kale vraje’bhavan” iti. anuragaugham raganuga bhajanaut¬kanthyam natvanuraga sthayinam sadhaka-dehe’nuragotpattyasambhavat. vraje’bhavann iti avatara samaye nitya priya¬dya yatha avirbhavanti tathaiva gopika-garbhe sadhana-siddha api avirbhavanti. tatas ca nitya-siddhadi gopinam maha-bhava-vatinam sanga mahimna darsana sravana kirtanadibhih sneha mana pranaya raganuraga maha-bhava api tatra gopika-dehe utpadyante. purva janmani sadhaka-dehe tesham utpattyasambhavat. ataeva vraje krishna preyasinam asadharanani laksha¬nani. yad uktam – “gopinam paramananda asid govinda darsane. kshanam yuga-satam iva yasam yena vina bhaved” iti. “trutir yugayate tvam apasyatam” ityadi ca. kshanasya yuga satayama¬natvam maha-bhava lakshanam.

Now it will be described how the raganugiya bhakta gradually advances through the stages of anartha nivritti (cessation of bad habits), nishtha (fixation), ruci (taste), and asakti (attachment to the beloved deity) upto the stage of prema (love of God) and the direct attainment of his beloved deity. In the Ujjvala Nilamani it is said that ‘those who are specially attracted to the ecstasy of the Vraja¬vasis and thus perform raganuga bhajana will attain that abundance of eagerness that is fit for performing raganu¬ga 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 anuragaugha means ‘that eagerness that makes one qualified for doing raganuga bhajana’. The anuraga mentioned here does not refer to the sthayi bhava (permanent mood) of that name, because the sthayi bhava named anuraga cannot be attained within a material body. The words ‘having taken birth in Vraja’ means the sadhana siddhas take birth from the womb of a gopika, just as Krishna’s eternally beloved gopis appear with Him when He descends to earth (prakata lila). After that, gradually sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga and mahabhava will become manifest in the gopika-body of that sadhaka on the strength of associating with the gopis that are endowed with maha-bhava and by hearing and chanting and seeing the greatness of Krishna’s eternally liberated gopis. These feelings could not possibly have arisen in the material body of the sadhaka, in his previous birth. In this way the extraordinary characteristics of Sri Krishna’s beloveds in Vraja has been shown. In Srimad Bhagavata it is said that the gopis attained the pinnacle of transcendental bliss by seeing Govinda. Without Him, they experienced a moment to last like a hundred ages. Their statement (in Srimad Bhagavata 10.31.¬15) ‘Without seeing You, we consider a second to last like an age’, is a symptom of mahabhava.

Clearly we can see that the raganuga-devotee goes through all the stages of bhakti.

In his essay “Raganuga-tattva vijnana”, my beloved Gurudeva writes:

Srimat Jiva Goswamipad has stated the characteristics of raga-bhakti as follows –

“There are devotees who feel slight interest in raga-bhakti; however they have still not actually felt raga-bhakti. Raga-bhakti is like a radiant moon; when a little trace of the moonlight of the moon-like raga-bhakti falls in these devotees, their heart dazzles like crystal. Then they hear from the scriptures about the wonderful seva that ragatmika devotees perform, and then they are interested to achieve the same. Here we should note the point that the devotee’s heart should be clean – it should not be polluted with lust, anger, jealousy and the like. If such a devotee hears from the sadhus and the scriptures about the perfect seva rendered by the ragatmika devotees he becomes interested. Now with this interest, if he follows the footsteps of the ragatmika devotees, we can say he is performing raganuga-bhakti.

In this context ‘hear from the sadhus and scriptures’ means the devotee should hear about the loving seva performed by the Vrajavasis and how Sri Krishna relishes the rasa of their seva. When the devotee hears and glorifies these pastimes his enthusiasm knows no bounds; just as when a moon ray disperses through a prism it looks all the more beautiful, similarly the hearing and glorifying enters the clear heart of a devotee and he becomes more joyous. Thus the devotee is enthused with interest in prema-seva. This induces him in the path of raganuga-bhakti. Here ‘interest’ means the devotee realizes that the bhakti-shastras that reveal the bhava of the eternal Vrajavasi associates of Sri Krishna as the best for hearing and he wants to follow those instructions only. This happens when the devotee has past samskara in this field. From the very beginning the devotee is greedy for Sri Krishna-seva (please note: only that kind of seva which the Vrajavasis do) and does not practice bhakti simply because the scriptures order us to do so.

“Ragatmika-bhakti is full of pure loving service. Some rare fortunate person is tempted by hearing about it and then he follows in the footsteps of the eternal Vrajavasi associates. A raganuga devotee does not practice bhakti just because of scriptural injunctions.”
– (C.C.Madhya. 22.87-88)

It is true that when we feel tempted, we do not care for scriptural injunctions; however if we want to gain His seva it becomes necessary to follow the processes prescribed by the bhakti- shastras.
Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipad has ordained –

“When we hear about the sweet bhava of the Vrajavasis we feel tempted; we do not care whether the scriptures tell us to practice bhakti or do not tell us. If we want to practice bhakti simply because the scriptures order us to do so we cannot say we were greedy for seva.”
– (Raga-vartma Chandrika)

However if we want to achieve the topmost goal that is Vraja-prema, then we must necessarily practice bhajan according to the rules prescribed in the raganuga–scriptures. This is because –
“If someone performs exclusive Hari-bhakti by rejecting the shrutis, smritis, purans and the pancharatra – we find that he only creates trouble.”
(Brahma-Yamal-Tantra)

Earlier we have mentioned something about ‘interest’. Now the fact is that majority of the devotees do not have this interest in the preliminary stage. Yet, when they perform bhajan according to the rules of bhakti and they continue to hear about the raga-bhakti of the Vrajavasis, they develop interest. Then they become raganuga devotees. When we hear from the devotees who are always immersed in pure love then we quickly gain interest. We also strive to follow these devotees in the same mood as they possess. This means that if we feel greedy after hearing about the loving seva of the eternal associates who are in madhurya-bhava, we too start practicing in madhurya-bhava. Raganuga-bhajan is the spiritual practice by which we can attain that same stage of love as those devotees whom we are following (the eternal Vrajavasis in the madhurya-bhava). We have to follow scriptural rules in this process, since the raganuga scriptures aim to tell the raganuga devotees about the behavior of the eternal associates, and thus they inuse vigorous interest in us.

“siddhasya lakshanam yat syat sadhanam sadhakasya tat.”

Meaning – “We have to practice to get all those qualities that they already possess.”

When we really gain interest then the scriptures will follow us. It means that in the early stage of interest we should perform bhajan according to the rules and regulations prescribed in the scriptures, and after we gain complete interest, the rules follow us – this is the difference between early stage and mature stage.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.1.7) says –’

prāyeṇa munayo rājan
nivṛttā vidhi-ṣedhataḥ
nairguṇya-sthā ramante sma
guṇānukathane hareḥ

Srimat Jiva Goswamipad has explained this verse as follows –
“Raganuga-bhakti starts from the time we develop the slightest hint of interest. No one steps into raganuga because the scriptures order to do so. Therefore some people call it ‘avihita’ (not according to the rules). However, the ones who step in the path of bhakti not caring for the scriptural injunctions – we cannot say that they are not practicing bhakti, because we see in Srimad-Bhagavatam from above –

‘O king, very often sages, who are beyond the rules prescribed in the scriptures, are immersed in relishing Sri Hari-katha.’

For this reason the vidhi-marga is weak since the devotees in this case practice bhakti because the scriptures order them to do so, while the devotees practicing raganuga-bhakti do so not caring for the scriptural order – hence it is much stronger – we should know this fact.”
– (B.S.310)

As soon as a devotee starts with Raganuga-bhakti it makes him disinterested in anything other than bhakti. This is synonymous with greed. Srimad-Bhagavatam states that when we bend towards Sri Hari-katha then it increases our interest gradually to such an extent that all topics other than Sri Krishna lose importance for us.

Two verses onward in his Bhakti Sandarbha, 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.”

Check these videos and you will find out if I represent or misrepresent my beloved Gurudeva:
(They are from my Gurudeva and from a very senior Godbrother of mine who TRULY represents my Gurudeva)