Sucirani Mataji passes away

[Guest guest]

Dear Banke Bihari and Ananda Tirtha prabhus,

 

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

 

You have done a wonderful service, facilitating Suci Rani's departure in

this way. I'm sure you will receive her continued eternal blessings, and

those of her Lord, Sri Krishna.

 

I am sorry for your loss, and wish you a soft, caring and swift recovery

process. Please do not ignore the pain, as it is valid and must be attended.

 

The following verses were sent to me by HH Kesava Bharati Maharaja after the

passing away of my dear spiritual master, HH Tamal Krishna Goswami. They

helped me immensely, and I hope they will also help you. It is about the

pain of separation....please take a moment to read. It is Krishna Himself

speaking to Narada Muni. It is only a few verses, but they turned my world

around when he left his body.

 

May Krishna bless you....

 

Your servant

Braja Sevaki dd

 

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Brihad Bhagavatmarita 1.7.126-130

 

It is true that, when one is parted from those one loves, pure love makes

one suffer within, as if from a blazing fire. The burning pain creates a

remorse that further deepens into irrepressible sorrow. Thus one at first

seems wretched.

COMMENTARY

N€rada may agree that he need not be embarrassed for unavoidably losing

control amidst the ecstasies of bhagavad-bhakti. Yet he had caused KŠa

great distress by sending the Lord into a bewildered trance of remembering

His devotees in Vnd€vana. In this verse and the next, KŠa therefore tries

to convince N€rada that he need not blame himself. The misery of

transcendental separation is only apparent; even while outwardly showing

many symptoms of mental pain, a person feeling viraha-bh€va is absorbed in

incomparable bliss. Thus the apparently wretched devotee is actually most

fortunate. Whatever momentary distress he may feel will soon give way to

complete happiness.

 

TRANSLATION

But this anguish of separation is praised as greater than the happiness of

enjoying with those one loves. Separation is so pleasing to the mind that it

cannot be described. It always transforms at last into an abundance of

pleasure. Only experts in tasting these moods can understand how this

happens.

COMMENTARY

The so-called bliss of merging into the impersonal aspect of the Absolute

Truth is often said to be indescribable, but the bliss of pure prema is even

harder to describe. And most hard to describe is the inconceivable ecstasy

of transcendental love in separation, which is born in pain but grows into

the greatest possible pleasure. The ecstasy of separation is not the

miserable experience it seems to outsiders; it is mano-rama, the cause of

full satisfaction for the heart. If someone still asks how one can feel

happy within misery, he should know that only the rasikas, those who have

spontaneous eagerness to taste this prema, can understand it.

 

TRANSLATION

After the pain of despair is relieved, one’s heart feels fully satisfied,

delighting constantly as one enjoys the great pleasure of meeting with one’s

beloved.

COMMENTARY

Those who have not yet realized their natural attraction toward KŠa cannot

understand the ecstasy of separation. They should not vainly pretend to be

expert in things to which they have no real access, but should instead take

guidance from the authentic rasikas in the line of VaiŠava parampar€ on how

to gradually become fit for understanding the subtleties of devotion.

Faithful hearing and service are required.

Still, the material mind is demanding, so neophytes may ask, “Doesn’t

excessive misery normally result in either delusion or death? Why should

unlimited joy arise from misery? Granted, the laws of nature dictate that

pleasure is generally followed by pain, and pain by pleasure. But this

doesn’t mean that pain literally becomes pleasure and vice versa; it means

that circumstances in this world are always changing, so that neither

pleasure nor pain can long continue without being replaced by the other. To

say that some kind of suffering matures into the highest ecstasy is

unreasonable.”

In answer to such demands to justify viraha-bh€va by logic, what pure

devotees personally experience may be offered as definite evidence. Pure

devotees do indeed enjoy ecstasy in separation. And since no other cause for

this ecstasy can be ascertained, the cause must be their intense experience

of what appears from the outside to be suffering.

To help newcomers to the devotional process understand viraha-bh€va, KŠa

speaks the current verse, comparing the ecstasy of viraha-bh€va to the

pleasurable sensation of relief from pain, a relief with which everyone is

familiar. A person may struggle to achieve some object of satisfaction, and

though his struggle may be painful, when he achieves his object the pain

turns into joy. The ecstatic distress of viraha-bh€va may appear similar to

the pleasure that follows pain, but as expressed here by the phrase

sampanna-vat (“as if experiencing”), this is only the external appearance.

In reality the ecstasy of separation comes not from the eventual meeting and

enjoying with one’s beloved but from the “pain” of separation itself. That

ecstasy is complete satisfaction, in which one never feels any

insufficiency. That ecstasy may be compared to the pleasure of gratification

after deprivation, but actually it is much more sublime. The mind of an

ordinary person is relieved when he can rejoin those he loves and again

gratify his senses, but a pure devotee’s greatest ecstasy arises from

serving and remembering KŠa in separation.

 

TRANSLATION

One may want to feel that separation again, and may indeed feel distressed

if one cannot. Thus a person who can remind one of a beloved not present is

considered the most sincere and helpful friend. Please understand: When

somehow made mindful of those one loves, one is given back one’s life.

Forgetting those more dear than one’s own breath is more painful than

dying.Those dear as life one can never forget, but when reminded of them in

a special way one feels happy, like one who has lived a life of good

fortune.

COMMENTARY

Just as one always remembers the most important events in one’s own life,

KŠa’s devotee always remembers KŠa, and KŠa always remembers the

devotee. Sometimes, however, that remembrance becomes especially sweet, as

when stimulated by the words of an eloquent VaiŠava. This enhanced

remembrance is like the satisfaction of a person whose life has been filled

with fortunate events, one success after another. In contrast, a humdrum,

mediocre existence with no outstanding events is as sad as a life encumbered

by poverty. Or, applying this analogy to the matter at hand: without

transcendental love, remembrance of dear ones becomes tasteless.