The more purified the heart is the more vivid these transcendental experiences are. By the mercy of Śrī Gaurasundara all these beautiful things have been revealed by the ācāryas. Is there any greater cause of heart-rending lamentation if I am deprived of the treasure they came to bring, although I was born in Gaurasundara’s age?

In the previous verse Śrī Raghunātha dāsa had a vision of himself washing Śrī Rādhikā’s lotus feet in the morning and when this vision disappears he feels a greatly burning sensation in his heart. sevā diyā prāṇa rākho— “Save my life by giving me Your devotional service!” These aspirations for Rādhārāṇī’s devotional service do not arise in an ordinary heart. They will arise in the heart of a person who is able to completely give up his dependence on the material world. How can rādhā-dāsya find a place in a heart which is filled with worldly feelings? The working of māyā must have disappeared from the mind and intelligence. The Lord tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gītā: mayyarpita mano buddhir yo mad bhaktaḥ se me priyaḥ: “The devotee who has offered his mind and intelligence to Me, is very dear to Me.” rādhā-dāsya is even more difficult. Without full absorption it cannot be done. Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was once absorbed in his bhajana in an open place on the bank of Śyāmakuṇḍa while Kṛṣṇa stood right behind him, relishing the sweetness of this devotee’s love. Just then two tigers came to drink water from the kuṇḍa, passing by right before Raghunātha, who did not notice anything, being completely absorbed. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī saw what happened from a distance and said: “Raghunātha! You will spread your fame if you sit out here in the open! bhajana devoid of humility is lifeless! Unless you engage body, words and mind you can not savour the rasa of bhajana! Therefore stay in a cottage and meditate on Svāminī’s form, qualities and pastimes there!” Sanātana Gosvāmī, whose mind was sprinkled with love for Śrī Raghunātha, did not tell him what had actually happened. From that day on the kuṭira-system started at Rādhākuṇḍa.

When Tulasī takes Svāminī into the bathroom after combing Her hair, she gives Svāminī a matchless savour by showing Her a sweet picture of Śyāmasundara there. Pointing at it with her finger, Tulasī says: “Your teeth look like pomegranate-seeds that attract the parrot of Vṛndāvana! Here He is! Look at Him!” Viśākhā had drawn that picture when she had just fallen in love with Kṛṣṇa (pūrva rāga). Tulasī reminds Svāminī of the sweet history of that picture, saying: “Svāmini! I remember you once wrote a letter (to Kṛṣṇa), saying: “You are living in My house as a picture and wherever I flee, there You are standing to stop Me with stretched-out arms!” In this way Tulasī makes Svāminī relish the sweetness of Her previous pastimes and simultaneously washes Her mouth and brushes Her teeth. Blessed is this maidservant! This is the internal beauty of Rādhā-dāsya! Absorbed in identification with the Guru-given siddha svarūpa one serves Svāminījī’s ujjvala mūrti. The practising devotee should learn services like toothbrushing by meditating on how the eternally perfect maidservant Tulasī performs them. They are the gurus of the Yugala-sevā, that have descended from the Vraja-nikuñja along with Śrīman Mahāprabhu to take the neophyte devotees out of this material world into the nikuñja-abode by teaching them mañjarī bhāva sādhanā — tad bhāva lipsunā kārya vraja lokānusārataḥ “Those who desire that mood follow in the footsteps of the people of Vraja.” (Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu) Śrī Rūpā and Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī are these people of Vraja, that have given the sādhakas a perfect example of how to perform mañjarī-sevā both in the internal and external bodies.

The devotee who is fixed in smaraṇa should be completely free from external consciousness and should identify himself only with his siddha svarūpa. The form, sound, touch, taste, and fragrance of Svāminī is the only means of survival for such a devotee. He has closed his eyes for the material world, and all other thoughts are insignificant for him. prema bhakti sudhānidhi, tāhe ḍubo niravadhi, āra yoto kṣāra-nidhi prāya (Prema Bhakti Candrikā): “Always dive in the nectar-ocean of loving devotion; everything else is like an ocean of alkali.”

By simply continuing to meditate on these things the revelations will come. bhāvite bhāvite Kṛṣṇa sphuraye antare; Kṛṣṇa kṛpāya ajña pāya rasa sindhu pāre (C.C. Madhya 19, 235) “Through constant meditation Kṛṣṇa will appear in the heart, and by Kṛṣṇa’s grace an ignorant soul will cross over the ocean of rasa.” In Śrīmad Bhāgavata (7.1.28), Nārada Muni gives the example of the absorption of the grassworm:

kīṭaḥ peśas kṛtāruddhaḥ kuḍyāyāṁ tam anusmaraṇ
saṁrambha bhaya yogena vindate tat svarūpatām

“The grassworm, who gets trapped in a hole by a hostile bee, becomes a bee also by always being absorbed in thoughts of it, be it in fear and enmity” If one can go through such a metamorphosis through a material process, what doubt can there be then that one can attain mañjarī svarūpa, giving up material bodily consciousness, as a result of intense transcendental devotional meditation?

Śrila Ananta das Bābājī