Jesus and Maryada bhakti

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EDITORIAL, Jun 14 (VNN) — Q & A with Swami B. V. Tripurari "There are many manifestations of the Divine and all of them have their purpose and sentiments in the grand scheme of the life of God. The beautiful and appropriate thing to do is to honor all of them for what they are, not to inordinately merge them together."

 

Q. The raga-marg, or path of spontaneous love, requires that the Godhood of Krsna be obscured in order to cultivate a special relationship with him. In Christianity we see that Mother Mary has a special relationship with Jesus in the parental mood (vatsalya rasa) and it seems that Catholic saints like Faustina and Theresa experienced a conjugal mood (madhurya rasa) of love for Jesus. Might then one cultivate a particular raga marg sentiment for Jesus as is done in Gaudiya Vaisnavism for Krsna?

 

A. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura specifically rejected this notion. He said that Jesus is the son and guru figure, not the Personality of Godhead. While there are certainly other ways to view Jesus, we follow his opinion and those of the Gaudiya parampara regarding the raga-marg.

 

The raga marg is defined as being in relation to the residents of Vrndavana, who love Krsna primarily in four spiritual sentiments such that his Godhood is obscured. Those sentiments are that of a servant (dasya rasa), friend (sakhya rasa), parent (vatsalya rasa), and lover (madhurya rasa). The residents of Vrndavana are known as ragatmikas, or devotees who have spontaneous love for Krsna. The path of raga means following the ragatmikas in their mood of love for Krsna. If we stretch this concept to make it generic, we must ask who are the ragamikas of Jesus that one is supposed to emulate and what particular pastimes, moods, feelings, and so forth do they exhibit on the eternal, transcendent plane of perfection.

 

Furthermore, making raga-marg universal and applicable to any manifestation of God is in a sense unnatural and defeats its purpose.

 

There are many manifestations of the Divine and all of them have their purpose and sentiments in the grand scheme of the life of God. The beautiful and appropriate thing to do is to honor all of them for what they are, not to inordinately merge them together. This kind of merging is usually done to bolster one's faith, but with regard to the raga-marg, faith in the uniqueness of the Vraja-lila of Krsna is central to its practice.

 

Ultimately, I think that under scrutiny it is apparent that the bride of Christ concept posited by Theresa and others is really not supposed to be taken as an ontological reality but as a psychological perspective from which to approach Christ. That is, I do not know of any Christian saint who taught that the goal of Christianity is to reside in the spiritual world as the eternal bride of Christ.

 

[Editor's note: The Gaudiya Vaisnava conception of rasa and the path to divine rapture (raga-marg) is explained in Swami Tripurari's book Rasa: Love Relationships in Transcendence. A sample reading and information on how to attain this book at:

http://www.swami.org/sanga/Books/pages/Rasa.html]

 

Q. Gaudiya Vaisnavism teaches that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna himself appearing as a devotee. On the Gaudiya path, one might follow the mood of Krsna's father and mother to develop parental feeling for Krsna or one might worship Sacidevi, the mother of Sri Caitanya to develop vatsalya bhakti for Sri Caitanya. Why then can't one follow Mother Mary and develop vatsalya bhakti for Jesus?

 

A. Your question implies that one can follow the ideal of Sacidevi and develop vatsalya bhakti for Sri Caitanyadeva. I think serious Gaudiya Vaisnavas would question this idea. Certainly there is no example of this. No siddhas have written about it, no sadhakas have been known to cultivate it. Sri Caitanyadeva, also known as Gaura, does reciprocate in vatsalya rasa with Saci, Malini, Sita Thakurani, and others, but these devotees are all manifestations of his svarupa-sakti (internal energy). They are his eternal associates in Krsna-lila. Sadhakas are in a different position. Gaura-lila grants entrance to sadhakas in dasya bhakti, from which they can also participate in Sri Krsna's Vraja-lila in dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, or madhurya rasas. We should honor the Lord in terms of his particular mood in any of his appearances. No doubt Gaura-lila is fathomless, but any relationship with Gaura for the sadhaka other than dasya bhakti is for the most part off the books.

 

Those empowered to teach about his lila are silent about--if not opposed to--any other suggestions.

 

Thus even within Gaudiya Vaisnavism we make certain distinctions between Gaura and Krsna, even though we teach they are essentially the same divine personality. Their lilas differ slightly, with Gaura-lila granting entrance to Krsna-lila. This being the case, it is questionable that God in the form of Jesus Christ entertains vatsalya bhakti with sadhakas who have the view to establish an eternal relationship with him in the mood of Mother Mary. In comparing this idea to the raga-marg of Sri Caitanyadeva, the question again is who are the ragatmikas of Jesus that one must emulate to attain perfection in the parental mood of Mother Mary? If one replies that Mary herself is a ragatmika in vatsalya bhakti, we must inquire further into the childhood lila of Jesus, for it is the childhood of Krsna that is central to Yasoda's parental love for him. However, such information does not exist. Also, what sadhana has been established in the Catholic Church or otherwise in Christianity that teaches how to shed one's material conception of self and enter into this mood? All considered, the Mother Mary or bride of Christ concepts are not the goal of Christianity and relate only vaguely to the raga-marg of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. I believe any Catholic theologian who is familiar with Gaudiya Vaisnavism will agree with this statement.

 

Q. Gaudiya Vaisnavas teach that outside of Vrndavana and Navadwipa pure vatsalya rasa isn't possible, so even the "parents" of other manifestations of God don't have pure vatsalya bhakti. But isn't the mood of the parents of other manifestations of God considered some form of mixed vatsalya/dasya and can't other devotees attain that? Or is it only open to the eternal associates of God (nitya-siddhas)? For example, in Rama-lila aren't there many devotees with a mixed vatsalya/dasya relationship with Ramacandra? The following quote from Sanatana Goswami's Brhad-Bhagavatamrta seems to remotely support this idea.

 

"The Personality of Godhead is a vast ocean of many different moods of loving exchange. His various devotees respond to His various pastimes by developing individual varieties of ecstasy, and the Lord reciprocates with these ecstasies by showing himself in different ways.

 

His devotees are concerned with him alone, and therefore whenever a devotee becomes extremely anxious to see him in a particular form, the Lord at once shows that form to the devotee."

 

A. In this case the quote you have cited from Sanatana Goswami refers to dasya bhakti in Vaikuntha. The dasya bhaktas there can change forms (not rasas) to serve Narayana. If they desire to see Narayana in one of his many avatara forms, he grants them that darsana.

 

According to Gaudiya acaryas, it is possible to attain dasya rasa in Rama bhakti. Sri Rama-lila is unique in Vaikuntha in that he has a mother and father. Other forms of the Lord in Vaikuntha all have their Laksmidevi and dasya bhaktas bordering on friendship, but Ramacandra also tastes vatsalya bhakti. However, you are correct in saying that the vatsalya there is not pure vatsalya, in the sense that it is not exactly the same as Yasodamayi's motherly love. Yasodamayi's love for her son Krsna is free from maryada, or awe and reverence. In fact, all the ragatmikas of Vrndavana love Krsna free of awe and reverence. This is what the raga-marg is all about. Rama-lila is maryada, steeped in awe and reverence, which is the opposite of raga.