Excerpt from “Manjari Svarupa Nirupana” by Sri Srimat Kunja Bihari das Babaji

Kṛṣṇa and his devotees are the props of devotional rapture as the object and shelter of the love respectively. In his commentary to the Bhakti- rasāmṛta-sindhu, Jīva Gosvāmin says that the person who possesses love for God, i.e., the receptacle of that love, is called the āśraya. Through contact with such a “vessel of love,” the present day devotional aspirant can also become loving and affectionate toward the Lord as the love flows from the vessel to his heart and he thus attains perfection. Because these shelters of love are its original containers, in one’s own meditative devotional practice, one should concentrate on, as an object of emulation, one of these direct associates and eternal participants in the pastimes of the Lord, each of whom is a personification of great spiritual emotion.

There are five rasas or spiritual tastes namely śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and madhura. The practitioner of devotional service according to a particular flavour will follow the āśraya devotee in that mood. The devotee wishing to serve the Lord in the mood of peacefulness will follow a personification of great spiritual emotion in that mood, for example, Sanat Kumāra. The followers of dāsya-rasa will follow the ideal presented by the aśraya devotees of that rasa, such as Uddhava. If he wants servitude in Vṛndāvana, then he should follow the great personifications of that mood, namely Raktaka and Patraka. One who wishes to attain the mood of the priya-narma-sakhās (those friends of Kṛṣṇa who have a role in his affairs with the gopīs) will follow in the mood of Subala and Ujjvala. One desiring to attain the affection of the Lord’s superiors will follow the āśraya bhakta in that rasa, namely the King and Queen of Vraja, the parents of the Lord.

Those who wish to attain the direct mistress-ship of the Lord, nāyikā-bhāva, will follow the great personifications of spiritual emotion in that mood, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī or Candrāvalī. Those who do not directly wish to become the mistresses of the Lord, but prefer the spirit of approval of that love that is personified in the mañjarīs who carry out the service of the Lord and his Beloved in the groves of Vṛndāvana, should follow the chief of those mañjarīs, the great incarnation of the spiritual emotion known as bhāvollāsā rati, namely Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī.

Following Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī means that the execution of the Holy Couple’s intimate service in the hidden groves of the Vṛndāvan forest will be carried out fully well.

Narottama Dās has prayed:

When will I stand behind Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī, filled with qualms, when the two of them will look directly at me and speak out? Laughingly the Divine Couple, whose hearts are full of compassion, will ask, “O Rūpa, where did this new handmaid come from?” Hearing them, Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī will answer, “O, Mañjulālī Mañjarī brought her here and put her in my care. She told me that she is very humble and I saw it was true; so I kept her with me and let her help me.” After telling the two of them these facts, she will engage this Narottama Dās in service to their lotus feet.

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmin writes that one must follow and serve the Lord in both his external body as well as his internally meditated-upon spiritual body, in both cases following in the footsteps of the residents of Vṛndāvana.

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta these ideas are expressed as follows:

There are two systems of practice, one internal, the other external. In the external practice one performs hearing and chanting, while mentally he meditates on his spiritual body and performs service in it to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Always following behind his favorite devotee who is dear to Kṛṣṇa, he constantly engages in service in a meditative mood.

The intent of these verses is that the practice of rāgānugā bhakti is to be done on two levels. In the original text it is said that the first of these is conducted in the sādhaka-deha, the external body, that is, the body in which one is presently situated. The second is conducted in a siddha-deha, or the desired form that is especially suitable for direct loving service to Kṛṣṇa and which is meditated upon. In this second body, one follows the particular resident of Vraja whose quality of love for Kṛṣṇa one has become ardently eager to attain. These residents of Vraja are those intimate associates of Kṛṣṇa such as Rādhā, Lalitā, Viśākhā, Rūpa Mañjarī, etc., and those who follow them in this world are Rūpa Gosvāmin or Sanātana Gosvāmin, etc.

In the spiritual or perfected body (siddha-deha), mental service (mānasī sevā) is to be performed in a spirit of obedience to Rūpa Mañjarī and other such residents of Vraja, while the same spirit is to be demonstrated externally towards those devotees of Vraja such as Rūpa Gosvāmin and Sanātana Gosvāmin who set the standards of the practice.

Some people who comment on the lines vraja-lokānusārataḥ from the Bhakti-rasāmṛta- sindhu verse object that when the words “residents of Vraja” has been taken to mean Rādhā, Lalitā and Viśākhā, etc., then the aspiring devotee should also perform exactly the same service to Kṛṣṇa in his perfected body as they. This is not a logical proposal for this would go against the principle of adherence to the tradition in the practice of rāgānuga devotion as established by the great Lord Caitanya. This attitude shows signs of the condemned ahaṁgrahopāsanā, in which one identifies himself as an existing eternal associate of the Lord, or even as the Lord himself. The words “following the residents of Vraja” does not mean exact imitation. Following someone here means being obedient or subservient to or following in the tradition of that person. Thus the aspiring devotee should follow Rādhā, Lalitā and other intimates of Kṛṣṇa by awaiting their orders that will be carried out in the spiritual perfected body.

Once again, Narottama Dāsa illustrates the principle in various songs found in the
collection, Prārthanā:

Lady of my life! When will you gaze upon me with mercy? Upon receiving your order, when will I bring
varieties of flowers and hear your and Kṛṣṇa’s sweet words?
On the orders of Lalitā, Viśākhā and all of your friends, When will I serve your lotus feet?
 
When will Lalitā give me the fan
so that I can cool you with a gentle breeze?

In the ideal of a handmaiden to Rādhā as established by Caitanya in his incarnation, one has to worship in the perfected body in obedience to Rūpa Mañjarī. Without following her, there is no possibility of receiving orders directly from Rādhā or Lalitā. Narottam Dās sings:

I have heard from the saints, everyone tells me
that one attains the feet of the Holy Couple
by the grace of Śrī Rūpa.
 
When will my guru and lord Lokanātha take me with him and give me to Śrī Rūpa? And Rūpa will look at me, saying, “So this is the new handmaiden.”
 
She will quickly command me, “Servant-girl! Come here! Quickly tidy all these things needed for service.”
Afraid, I will remain standing behind Śrī Rūpa;
then the two of them will speak, looking upon my face.

The devotee on the path of passion aspires to relish the sweet flavours of the activities of the son of the king of Vraja, but it must be emphasized that one cannot experience that world without first entering into the spirit of the acts of Caitanya. In this connection, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja has written:

Kṛṣṇa’s actions are the ultimate nectar of the gods; their hundreds and hundreds of currents stream in every direction. Send the swan of your mind to swim on the lake of Caitanya, the fathomless spring from which they arise.

The devotees, like swans and geese, all sport in this lake in many moods. The devotee swan can always find the lotus stems of Kṛṣṇa’s playful activities there, and he constantly ingests them.

Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī also writes:

One who has accumulated a great deal of merit, will find
that as his devotion to Caitanya’s lotus feet increases,
the ocean of nectar that is the lotus feet of Rādhā manifests itself suddenly in his heart.

The purport of this verse is that in as much as an aspirant realizes Caitanya’s nature and his absorption in the mood of Rādhā, one will develop an understanding of Rādhā’s great love (mahā-bhāva), its extent and amazing influence. Through the Lord in his form of Caitanya one will be able to fully understand the glory of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s love and thus he will develop true and deep attachment for her.

The following discussion is found in Rādhākṛṣṇa Gosvāmin’s comments on the first verse of the Daśa-ślokī:
“Brahmā, Śiva and Ananta Śeṣa, etc., are not able to gain access to the service of the feet of the lover of Rādhā. That service is available only to the devotees who are dedicated to the pastimes of Vraja through intense eagerness and ardour.”

According to the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, the love of Rādhā for Kṛṣṇa is exclusively of the erotic type. Thus, only devotional service following in her footsteps or in submission to her can be tad-bhāvecchātmikā bhakti—the devotional mood of approval. Otherwise, the word gāḍha or “intense,” which modifies laulya or “ardour” in this verse, becomes meaningless.

Because the love of Vṛndāvana’s other damsels for Kṛṣṇa is somewhat less intense than that of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, their love is called gauṇa-kāmaika-rūpā or secondary love of the erotic type (whereas Rādhā’s is primary). Following in their footsteps is gauṇa or secondary tad-bhāvecchātmikā bhakti. Thus the intimate service of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the groves of Vṛndāvana is only obtainable by those who have ardent eagerness or laulya (greed) for it. This greed is present in the mañjarīs alone.
Only those devotees who have even greater affection for Rādhā than for Kṛṣṇa, who are thus following the primary erotic devotional mood, whose spirit of devotion takes the name bhāvollāsā rati, are practicing devotion with “intense ardour” or lobha.

The process by which such ardour is produced is varied, but Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmin gives a general outline in five divisions called (1) svīya-sādhana (“personal, individualized practice”), (2) svajātīya-sādhana (“practice with a common base”), (3) vijātīya-sādhana (“practice with a different basis”), (4) taṭastha-sādhana (“neutral practice”), (5) viruddha- sādhana (“contradictory practices”).