The Five Most Potent Practices of Sadhana

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The Five Most Potent Practices of Sadhana

Essence of the Ambrosial Ocean of Devotion - Part 9

By Victor D. DiCara (Vraja Kishor das)

 

As mentioned briefly in a previous article, the five most potent practices of

vaidhi-sadhana are:

 

1. Serve the feet of the Deity with love

2. Savor the objective of Srimad Bhagavatam

3. Keep company with devotees who are compatible and affectionate

4. Loudly glorify Krishna's name

5. Reside in Mathura

 

These five practices are "most potent" because they quickly bestow sadhana's

goal, bhava-bhakti, to a sincere person who even slightly practices them. In

most cases sädhana must gradually progress through seven stages of development

(to be described in more detail in a later article), but these five items, done

 

by a person who is not inimical to God, bestow the bhava-bhakti immediately.

 

These practices not only bestow realization of love for Krishna, they also

bestow

realization of Krishna himself. In all five practices one comes into direct

contact

with entities that are non-different from Krishna: his deity, his pastimes, his

 

devotee, his name, and his abode.

 

Rupa Goswami therefore describes these five practices at length.

 

Serving The Feet Of The Deity With Love

çré-murter-anghri-sevane-prétaù

 

Rupa Goswami already listed worship of the deity as the 30th practice of

vaidhi-sadhana.

However, worshiping the deity with great love and affection is such a potent

means to manifest love of Godhead (bhava-bhakti) that Rupa Goswami mentions it

again, as one of the five most potent practices.

 

Worshiping the deity is an effective sadhana, but taking joy in it and doing

so with great love is especially effective. This is even more effective when

the deity is Govinda. Rupa Goswami writes:

 

Smiling, in his famous triple-crooked stance,

with his big crooked glance.

With newly blossomed lips cast on his flute

…so bright in the moonlight

 

This form of Hari called "Govinda," here, near Keçi Ghäö…

 

My friend, if you want to find pleasure in the company of your friends,

then don't look!

 

Savoring the Objective of Srimad Bhagavatam

çré bhägavatärthäsvädo

 

Vedic scriptures are like "desire trees" because they fulfill humanity's

desires

for pleasure, achievement, righteousness, and liberation. Srimad Bhagavatam is

like the fruit of that tree. As all a tree's energies culminate in it's fruit,

the four types of human desires culminate in the fifth desire: love of Godhead.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam is the "fruit" of the Vedic desire tree because it bestows

the culmination of all desires - love of Godhead.

 

The Bhagavatam-fruit is so ripe that it oozes and drips on the ground,

overflowing

with love of Godhead. It is so "ripe" because it was the final scripture

composed

by Çré Vyäsa, after his realization of Godhead became fully mature.

 

The beak of a parrot pierced this fruit and thus made it ripen even further,

attaining an almost liquid state, as sweet as nectar, and totally perfect

without

skin or pit. The "parrot" (çuka) is Çuka-deva Goswami, who "pierced" the

Bhagavatam

with his mouth when he spoke it to King Pariksit, embellishing and perfecting

it in three ways:

 

1. Making it "liquid-soft," or easily swallowed and appreciated by all

2. Making it as sweet as nectar by infusing it's words with his own deep

love

of Godhead

3. Removing any remaining pit or skin of jnana (pursuit of liberation) or

karma

(pursuit of pleasure, achievement, or righteousness).

 

Connoisseurs of beauty and poetry ("rasika-bhävuka") should drink the divine

juice of Srimad Bhagavatam ("bhagavatam-rasa"). They will find it so

pleasurable

that they will not be able to stop, and will thus drink again and again without

 

cessation.

 

Saying that a rasikä will savor Bhagavatam-rasa implies that only the

Krishna-bhakta

can properly hear or speak Srimad Bhagavatam. But even persons enamored by this

 

world can savor the divine juice of the Bhagavatam when it is presented to them

 

by a rasikä, like Çukadeva Goswami.

 

Rupa Goswami already mentioned serving scriptures like Srimad Bhagavatam as the

 

54th practice of vaidhi-sadhana. But relishing the loving objective of the

Bhagavatam

is so especially effective that Rupa Goswami mentions it again, as one of the

five most potent practices.

 

Serving the Bhagavatam is an effective sadhana, but relishing the love of

Godhead

in the Bhagavatam while doing so is especially effective. This is even more

effective

when one relishes the Bhagavatam's Tenth Canto. Rupa Goswami writes:

 

The sounds of the letters of the Tenth Canto's poems

seem to have just traveled the path to your ears…

 

Oh my, what a fool you are, my dear child!

 

Now you reproach those most auspicious goals:

religion, achievement, and pleasure

And you throw away the blissful goal of liberation.

 

Keeping Company With Devotees Who Are Compatible And Affectionate

sajätéyäçaya-snigdha çré-bhagavad-bhakta-saìgo

 

Not all devotees of God are equally compatible with oneself. Rupa Goswami

therefore

specifies that one should seek the company of devotees who are "sajätéya-äçaya"

 

- of compatible nature.

 

In the company of compatible persons, communication is effortless, facilitating

 

deep sharing of thought and emotion. In such deep exchanges one realizes the

person's soft, tender, gentle nature ("snigdha"). One's heart therefore opens

up entirely and the each person imbibes the good qualities of the other. To

associate

with compatible persons who are attached to Krishna is therefore an extremely

efficacious way to manifest attachment to Krishna in one's own heart.

 

In addition to ordinary compatibility, one should associate with devotees who

are spiritually compatible with oneself. Not all devotees of God aspire to

please

him in the form of Krishna. Even among those who do, not all have a specific

aspiration to please Krishna is a certain mood. Even among those who do, not

all aspire to a mood similar to one's own. Furthermore, not all devotees will

have exactly the same methods of fulfilling their various spiritual

aspirations.

One should especially try to associate with devotees whose means and goals are

compatible with one's own.

 

Among such persons, one should seek a devotee who is "snigdha" - soft. This

means

that his or her heart should be affectionate, not harsh, having been melted by

the splendid rays of the rising sun of bhava-bhakti.

 

Rupa Goswami already mentioned associating with Vaishnavas as the 55th practice

 

of vaidhi-sadhana. But associating with a loving Vaishnava with whom one is

both

materially and spiritually compatible is so especially effective that Rupa

Goswami

mentions it again, as one of the five most potent practices.

 

Associating with Vaishnavas is an effective sadhana, but associating with

compatible

and affectionate Vaishnavas is especially effective. Most effective of all is

when such Vaishnavas have attained bhava-bhakti. Rupa Goswami writes:

 

Washed by the water of own his eyes,

blossoms of goose-bumps decorating his body,

Stumbling under the weight of his wide-blossomed heart,

full to the brim, and shivering…

 

Since my eyes have seen that person

My mind no longer finds pleasure in my home.

I don't know why.

 

Loudly Glorifying Krishna's Name

näma-saàkértanaà

 

In his comments on this practice, Vishvanath Chakravarti says that expressions

of bhakti are the only means to obtain realization of bhakti. All the

innumerable

expressions of bhakti fall into nine categories. Of these nine, the first three

 

- hearing about (çravaëaà), glorifying (kértanaà), and remembering (smaranaà)

- are the most important means to realize bhakti. Of these three, glorification

 

(kértan) is the most important. Of all types of kértan, the most important type

 

is näma-kértan, glorification of God's name. And of all ways to glorify God's

name, näma-anu-kértan is of foremost potency.

 

What is näma-anu-kértan?

 

It is glorification that is done by "following" the name, by pronouncing the

name with a mood of loving servitude. When the name is spoken in this mood,

Krishna

himself personally manifests before the speaker.

 

How can saying Krishna's name in a certain mood cause Krishna to manifest? The

name of Krishna is inseparable from Krishna himself. Thus, when one manifests

the sound "Krishna," one also causes Krishna, the named, to manifest.

 

If the name can be created and conceived by the limited material senses, how

can it possibly be identical to the Supreme Godhead, Krishna?

 

The Supreme Godhead is beyond the perceptual grasp of the material senses. His

name and qualities, being not different from him, are equally beyond the grasp

of those senses. Therefore, one cannot produce Krishna's name with one's mouth

or hear it with one's ears. Krishna is unlimited and one's senses are limited.

The limited cannot fully grasp the unlimited. However, since the unlimited

Krishna

is truly without limitation, he can, if he wishes, fully reveal his unlimited

name, form, personality, etc., even within the grasp of the limited senses.

 

Therefore the only means to truly pronounce the name of God is to speak from

a heart saturated with loving feelings for God. Saying Krishna's name in this

mood attracts Krishna, who then manifests his true name and person to the

senses

of the speaker.

 

Rupa Goswami already mentioned Loudly Glorifying the Name as the 33rd practice

of vaidhi-sadhana. But doing so with a sincere loving mood is so especially

effective

that Rupa Goswami mentions it again, as one of the five most potent practices.

 

Loudly Glorifying the Name is a most effective sadhana, but doing so with a

sincere

loving mood is especially effective. This is even more effective when one

participates

in such loving glorification of the name in a musical context. Rupa Goswami

writes:

 

The cooling sound of that musician and his song

Walked the path to my ears

glorifying the name and destroying all sin.

 

At that very moment, my child,

I lost all my old desires and attractions,

for it completely overwhelmed my inner mind.

 

Residing in Mathura

çré mathurä-maëòale sthitiù

 

Rupa Goswami already mentioned residing in sacred places as the 7th practice

of vaidhi-sadhana. However, Mathurä is such a special sacred place that Rupa

Goswami mentions it again, as one of the five most potent practices.

 

Why is Mathurä so special? Because while other sacred places eventually grant

the boon of liberation, Mathurä, being the birthplace and home of Krishna,

grants

the boon of love for Krishna, "Krishna Prema" - which even liberated persons

hanker for.

 

Residing in any sacred place is an effective sadhana, but residing in Mathurä

is especially effective. Most effective of all is to reside within Mathurä in

Vrindaban, on the banks of the Yamunä. Rupa Goswami writes:

 

That splendid, golden place on the bank of the blue-black river,

where bees hum sonorously

around trees bent low with new Kadamba flowers.

 

Why does this heavenly forest decorate my mind

with such inexpressible sweetness?