Servants on Goloka Vrindavan

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>I wish to be one millionth class of a devotee if I can faithfully

>understand that Krishna is God, understand devotional service to Him, and I

>can thus surrender to His pure devotees.

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

In other words, before we forget that Krsna is God we have to first learn it

(or rather recall it).

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati used to say that while we are still situated

in the material world, looking up to Vaikuntha will only reveal its lower

half to our spiritual view, which is comprised of two and a half rasas -

santa, dasya and gaurava (or reverential) sakhya. All of them imply our

knowledge of Lord Krsna's majesty to a greater or lesser extent.

 

The other two and a half rasas - visrambha (intimate or equal) sakhya,

vatsalya and madhurya, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta would say, are on the other,

higher, side of the spiritual world [like the opposite side of the Moon] and

are not perceivable unless we get there, that is, until we become liberated.

 

Unfortunately, I cannot provide the exact reference at the moment.

 

There is a relevant passage from Srila Prabhupada's purport on SB 2.7.53 in

this regard as well:

 

TRANSLATION

 

The Lord's activities in association with His different energies should be

described, appreciated and heard in accordance with the teachings of the

Supreme Lord. If this is done regularly with devotion and respect, one is

sure to get out of the illusory energy of the Lord.

 

PURPORT

 

The science of learning a subject matter seriously is different from the

sentiments of fanatics. Fanatics or fools may consider the Lord's activities

in relation with the external energy to be useless for them, and they may

falsely claim to be higher participants in the internal energy of the Lord,

but factually the Lord's activities in relation with the external energy and

the internal energy are equally good. On the other hand, those who are not

completely free from the clutches of the Lord's external energy should

devoutly hear regularly about the activities of the Lord in relation with

the external energy. They should not foolishly jump up to the activities of

the internal energy, falsely attracted by the Lord's internal potential

activities like His rasa-lila. The cheap reciters of the Bhagavatam are very

much enthusiastic about the Lord's internal potential activities, and the

pseudodevotees, absorbed in material sense enjoyment, falsely jump to the

stage of liberated souls and thus fall down deeply into the clutches of

external energy.

 

Some of them think that to hear about the pastimes of the Lord means to hear

about His activities with the gopis or about His pastimes like lifting the

Govardhana Hill, and they have nothing to do with the Lord's plenary

expansions as the purusavataras and Their pastimes of the creation,

maintenance or annihilation of the material worlds. But a pure devotee knows

that there is no difference between the pastimes of the Lord, either in

rasa-lila or in creation, maintenance or destruction of the material world.

Rather, the descriptions of such activities of the Lord as the purusavataras

are specifically meant for persons who are in the clutches of the external

energy. Topics like the rasa-lila are meant for the liberated souls and not

for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls, therefore, must hear with

appreciation and devotion the Lord's pastimes in relationship with the

external energy, and such acts are as good as the hearing of rasa-lila in

the liberated stage. A conditioned soul should not imitate the activities of

liberated souls. Lord Sri Caitanya never indulged in hearing the rasa-lila

with ordinary men.

 

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the science of God, the first nine cantos prepare

the ground for hearing the Tenth Canto. This will be further explained in

the last chapter of this canto. In the Third Canto it will be more explicit.

A pure devotee of the Lord, therefore, must begin reading or hearing

Srimad-Bhagavatam from the very beginning, and not from the Tenth Canto. We

have several times been requested by some so-called devotees to take up the

Tenth Canto immediately, but we have refrained from such an action because

we wish to present Srimad-Bhagavatam as the science of Godhead and not as a

sensuous understanding for the conditioned souls. This is forbidden by such

authorities as Sri Brahmaji. By reading and hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam as a

scientific presentation, the conditioned souls will gradually be promoted to

the higher status of transcendental knowledge after being freed from the

illusory energy based on sense enjoyment.

 

Your servant,

Madana-mohana das