Eagerness

“It is not good to have my own thoughts about how to attain Śrī Rādhā’s service. Those who are like bumblebees, intoxicated by drinking the honey that oozes from Śrī Caitanya’s lotus feet, are always eager to attain the intimate service of Śrī Rādhā, and they cannot attain it and experience it without following in the footsteps of the teachers of Vraja-rasa, Śrī Rūpa and Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.

rūpa raghunātha pada hobe ākuti;
kobe hām bujhabo sei yugala prīti
(Narottama Dāsa)

“When I become eager for Rūpa and Raghunātha Dāsa’s grace I will understand the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”
…
By the grace of Rūpa and Raghunātha the sādhaka’s mind becomes qualified to relish these flavours and to think of Śrī Rādhārāṇī. Without great eagerness this sweetness cannot be known.
How great is the eagerness of Rūpa and Raghunātha! Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Utkalikā Vallari’ and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vilāpa Kusumāñjali’ are proof of that.
They are lamenting over Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and if the neophyte devotees can also lament like that over them (the Gosvāmīs) their ecstatic mood can be infused in them.

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura lamented:

kāhā mora svarūpa rūpa kāhā sanātana;
kāhā dāsa raghunātha patita pāvana
kāhā mora bhaṭṭa yuga kāhā kavirāja;
eka kāle kothā gelā gorā naṭarāja
pāṣāṇe kuṭibo māthā anale paśibo;
gaurāṅga guṇera nidhi kothā gele pā’bo
se saba saṅgīra saṅge ye koilo vilāsa;
se saṅga nā pāiyā kāṅde narottama dāsa

“Where is my Svarūpa Dāmodara and where is my Sanātana Gosvāmī? Where is Raghunātha dāsa, the saviour of the fallen? Where are My Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa and Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, and where is Kṛṣṇa dāsa Kavirāja? Where has Lord Gaura, the king of dancers, gone this time? I will smash my head against the wall and enter into the fire. Where shall I go to find the ocean of qualities, Śrī Gaurāṅga? Narottama dāsa weeps when he cannot get their association, and the association of all those who sported with them.”

The fire of this love-in-separation is like the reviving nectar churned from the transcendental ocean of joy, sorrow, happiness and distress. The remembrance of this great love-in-separation tastes like nectar and keeps the rasika devotees alive.
The rāga sādhakas should always pray: “Hā Svāmini! In exchange for my life I just want to understand that You are everything to me! Although I am unqualified to attain Your lotus feet please make it clear to me at least that I have no one but You in this world!”

…

This enthusiasm will also arise in the hearts of any fortunate sādhaka who serves the mahā-vāṇī (great words) of the Gosvāmīs. mahā śakti-śālī vāṇī – these words are very powerful, and they will take the rāga sādhaka by the hand and bring him to the lotus feet of the beloved deity. This vāṇī will awaken a deep awareness of one’s spiritual identity within the heart.

“Unfortunately I have no self-identification as Rādhā’s kiṅkarī; I’m always intoxicated by bodily consciousness. I am boasting about my learning and knowledge, but I have never recognised my true self.”

How tender is the thought:

“I am Rādhā’s maidservant!”, and how much flavour arises within the heart then! Please awaken my svarūpa, O Svāmini! I don’t want anything else!”

…

With great attachment the devotee should meditate on the loving services he is rendering to His Īśvarī (goddess), who is dearer to him than millions of lives. It is not enough for the practising devotee to systematically memorize a quota of verses about these services and to remember the gradual aṣṭa kāliya līlā (Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s eternal eightfold daily pastimes) without having actual love, devotion, humility, intuition and spiritual experience. That is not rāgānugā bhakti.

This kind of devotion is not based on mere book knowledge or scriptural injunctions, but on divine passionate greed that arises after hearing about the activities of the people of Vraja, on the manifest plane (the six Gosvāmīs) and on the unmanifest plane (Nanda, Yaśodā, Rādhārāṇī, Rūpa Mañjarī etc.).

tad bhāva lipsunā kāryā vrajalokānusārataḥ
(Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhuḥ)

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī are the greatest shelter for such spontaneous devotees. Without hearing their expert loving prayers for devotional service one’s sādhana cannot be beautiful and successful.

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