{"id":4140,"date":"2019-06-25T15:47:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T19:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2019-06-25T15:50:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T19:50:19","slug":"its-possible-to-experiment-prema-in-this-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/its-possible-to-experiment-prema-in-this-world\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s possible to experiment prema in this world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Mataji Paramesvari,
\nPlease accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That one has to take birth in one of Krishna\u2019s pastimes as a condition to go back to the spiritual world is one of the many concepts I heard in my youth but that never found hard evidences in Guru, Sastra, Sadhu, our final authorities.
\nIn the early times that was a joke in our movement that we could write a book about the things that Srila Prabhupada said that never said.<\/p>\n

I am not saying that this is one of those, but if you or anyone could provide me with an evidence I\u2019d be more than happy to accept it. Certainly it doesn’t sound logical….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A nice definition of prema is given in the Caitanya Caritamrita (Adilila 4.165)
\n\u0101tmendriya-pr\u012bti-v\u0101\u00f1ch\u0101 \u2014 t\u0101re bali ‘k\u0101ma’
\nk\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47endriya-pr\u012bti-icch\u0101 dhare ‘prema’ n\u0101ma
\n\u201cThe desire to gratify one’s own senses is k\u0101ma [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a is prema [love].\u201d<\/p>\n

So the difference between Kama and prema is clear. In kama to be happy you have to get personal satisfaction. In prema you don\u2019t care about your own happiness but you only care about Radha Krishna\u2019s.
\nSrila Prabhupada furtherly explains (Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 13):
\n\u201cIn Sanskrit this highest stage (of love) is called prem\u0101, prem\u0101 can be defined as love of God without any expectation of exchange or return. Actually the words prem\u0101 and love are not synonymous, yet one can say that prem\u0101 is the highest stage of love. One who has attained prem\u0101 is the most perfect human being. Only by the association of pure devotees can one develop a taste for K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a consciousness, and when he tries to apply K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a consciousness in his life, he can achieve everything up to the stage of bh\u0101va and prema.\u201d
\nIf prema is the \u201chighest stage\u201d, then there must be lower stages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prema can only be experienced by pure devotees, not by anyone else. The verse atah sri-krishna-namadi is clear on this point.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once one is at the level of suddha-bhakti there is no difference between the body you have or the place you are living in, because you are on the absolute platform. You can experiment prema anywhere in the universe and in any body and you will be able to withstand it because everything surrounding the pure devotee acts on a absolute platform.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your servant
\nManonatha Dasa (ACBSP)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS
\nArchive: www.isvara.org
\nBookstore: www.kadachaeditions.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Mataji Paramesvari, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.   That one has to take birth in one of Krishna\u2019s pastimes as a condition to go back to the spiritual world is … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 09:37:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}