Question:

Hare Krishna! Dear Tarun Govinda das, in your nice blog I oftentimes read that your tradition (Nityananda parivar) recommends to meditate or contemplate on Sri Sri Radha Krishna´s lila during the chanting of the Maha-Mantra after having heard about these lilas or read about them in the books of our acaryas.

In our tradition (ISKCON), it is not recommended and even sometimes forbidden to meditate on the lilas of the Divine Couple while we chant the Maha-Mantra. Could you elaborate on this different approach?

Also, in our tradition it is forbidden to hear about the rasa-lila or similar intimate lilas of the Divine Couple until our heart is fully pure. Any thoughts?

Reply:

Radhe Radhe.

Actually, I promised myself not to engage in any “controversial” discussions and I certainly will keep up my promise.

I will try to answer because I was in ISKCON and I know what Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami told about these topics.

1)

I fully agree with you here in that it is NOT recommended to contemplate or meditate on the lilas of Radha and Krishna during the chanting of the Maha-Mantra in the beginning stages of our spiritual life. When we start to chant the Holy Name [japa], our minds will not be very focused in the beginning and it will jump from tree to tree like a monkey in a jungle.
Of course, there are “beginners” in bhakti who are not “real” beginners and they start off where they left in previous lives and they immediately have great taste in chanting and a very steady mind. But these are in my experience rather exceptions. Usually we struggle with our restless mind and it refuses to even hear the names nicely…always trying to do or focus on something else completely. If we fight with our mind that hard, how can we expect to be able to contemplate on the Divine Lilas AND hear the name simultaneously? It will be not possible.

But the more we chant and hear properly during nama-japa, the more our mind becomes focused and the more taste we will develop in practicing it. It will take the time it needs according to our adhikara and our previous samskaras and most of all, how we live our life without committing any aparadhas.

At one point we will develop the greed to hear about the lilas of the Divine Couple from the lips of realized souls, best case scenario from our Sri Gurudeva. Hearing from realized souls about the lilas will have a huge impact on our heart and our greed will continue to grow.

Receiving initiation from a true sat-guru will improve our chanting manifold. He will impart his power into our hearts if we follow properly and develop love for him. Thus, our taste in nama-japa will increase and our greed to dive deep into the lilas of Radha and Krishna will get stronger and stronger as our heart is cleansed.

Reaching a certain point of spiritual maturity, we can try to do the following:

Sit down, take your japa-mala and before you chant a round, read a wonderful verse about a lila or read a passage about a lila. Read very attentively. Close your eyes then and start to chant the Holy Name. Come into its flow. At one point, try to to both: HEAR the Holy Name AND contemplate upon what you have read. It will work one time. Observe yourself.

The chanting and the contemplation will nourish each other, and you will be able to dive deep into the lila, all the while thinking that you are there with Them in your desired spiritual form.

sevā sādhaka-rūpeṇa siddha-rūpeṇa cātra hi tad-bhāva-lipsunā kāryā vraja-lokānusārataḥ ||Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu 1.2.295||

Translation: Following the inhabitants of Vraja, one should perform service in one’s physical body and in one’s siddha body, with a desire for a particular bhāva.

Jīva Gosvāmī’s Commentary

s

ādhaka-rūpeṇa yathāvasthita-dehena | siddha-rūpeṇa antaś-cintitābhīṣṭa-tat-sevopayogi-dehena | tasya vrajasthasya nijābhīṣṭasya śrī-kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhasya yo bhāvo rati-viśeṣas tat-lipsunā | vraja-lokās tv atra kṛṣṇa-preṣṭha-janās tad-anugatāś ca tad-anusārataḥ

Sādhaka-rūpa refers to the physical body of the practitioner. Siddha-rūpa refers to the body which is suitable for one’s desired service, and which has been developed by internal meditation. One serves with a desire for the particular bhāva or rati of an associate of Kṛṣṇa situated in Vraja (tad-bhāva-lipsunā). One should follow in the footsteps of the dear associates of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja (vraja-lokā) and others loyal to them.

In the beginning, the mind will not be able to “do” both, HEARING and CONTEMPLATING…but the more we progress, the easier it gets.

The written words of our acaryas, their prayers, their songs, their realizations will purify our hearts and minds and we will feel the soothing effect and nama-japa will start to become a wonderful “MEDITATION”.

We must be careful and not jump into the lilas of extreme intimacy. There are plenty of wonderful verses, poems or songs counting as “lila-katha” without touching the erotic lilas until our Gurudeva sees us fit to “digest” even those lilas.

Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami writes in a letter to Sevananda, 12.4.68:

“Regarding your first question, is it offensive to think of Krishna’s pastimes while chanting, I think you should know that it is not offensive, but rather it is required. One must try for the point when one simply hears Krishna and immediately all of Krishna, His pastimes, His form, His qualities, are in his thoughts.”

Later he says that in the beginning, we should focus only on HEARING the Holy Name.

But clearly, he says that at one point, it is REQUIRED and certainly not FORBIDDEN.

Best is to consult with one´s Sri Gurudeva when the time is right for the sadhaka to start contemplating lilas during nama-japa.

Srila Jiva Gosvamipad delineates five successive stages of smarana for the Gaudiya Vaisnavas in his Bhakti Sandarbha (278):

1)  The first step is called simply smarana and is defined as irregular reflection.

2)  The second is dharana,defined by Jiva Goswamipad as a withdrawing of the mind from everything and fixing it on the object of meditation.

3)  The third step is dhyana.Jiva Goswamipad defines it as a special meditation on the forms and other characteristics of Krsna.

4)  Fourth is druvanusmrti.As employed by Jiva Goswamipad it denotes a state of meditations that is similar to the previous dhyana but uninterrupted,like a shower of ambrosia.

5)  The final step is samadhi,a term used by Jiva Goswamipad to designate the point in the practice of smarana when the object of meditation itself appears.

1) To think of the Lord in whatever manner and to whatever extent is known as smaraṇam, or remembrance.

Now, of course our mind cannot see or realize the eternal form of the Divine Couple, but we must start at one point.

“In whatever manner.”

In Anuccheda 262 he writes:

Optimization of hearing

Regarding hearing, the following should be considered: To hear about the names, forms, qualities, pastimes and associates of the Lord is supremely auspicious. Superior to this is to hear the essays written by elevated devotees and when such compositions are sung by a great devotee, the benefit is greater still. To hear Srimad Bhagavatam is superior even to this, and better yet when sung by a great devotee.

In addition, one should repeatedly hear the names, forms, qualities and pastimes of the manifestation of the Lord for which one feels an attraction, as indicated in this verse:

labdhvānugraha ācāryāt
tena sandarśitāgamaḥ
mahā-puruṣam abhyarcen
mūrtyābhimatayātmanaḥ

Having obtained the mercy of his guru, who reveals to the disciple the injunctions of Vedic scriptures, the devotee should worship the Supreme Lord in the particular personal form of the Lord the devotee finds most attractive.
(SB 11.3.48)

Furthermore, one should hear about the deity of one’s choice from the lips of a great devotee who has the same devotional mood.

2) About hearing about the rasa-lila:

“The conditioned soul should hear the rasa-lila dance from an authorized spiritual master, who is in the disciplic succession, and is always engaged in Krishna consciousness. When a person hears the rasa-lila in this way, the effect will be sure: he will be elevated to the highest position of spiritual life.”
(Krishna Book, Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami)

“Although lust is also considered a fault on the path of bhakti, one can still enter the devotional path, despite being still afflicted by lust and other material desires.

Srimad-Bhagavata (10.33.39) says:

“A person who faithfully hears or describes the Lord’s pastimes of rasa-lila with the gopis of Vraja attains supreme devotion of the Lord. He quickly becomes steady and conquers over the senses, giving up lust, the disease of the heart.”

In this text “after attaining supreme devotion” is an unfinished act showing that bhakti can be attained even though one has lusty desires. This shows the most independent nature and power of bhakti to destroy lusty desires. Sometimes lusty desires exist even while practicing devotion.
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, Madhurya Kadambini)

In the Vaishnava-toshani commentary on this verse it is explained – “atra tu hrid rogapahanat purvam eva parama bhakti praptih tasmat parama balavad evedam sadhanam iti bhavah” – the common principle is that first lusty and other material desires are destroyed, and then one attains prema-bhakti. Here, however, the attainment of prema-bhakti is described, though lusty desires still exist.

This indicates that hearing or describing the rasa-lila is a very powerful process of devotion by which one quickly attains prema-bhakti.

The Gosvamis explain here that the word para- bhakti refers to the most exalted prema-bhakti, existing in the Vraja gopis.

All we need is FAITH.