jueves, 29 de septiembre de 2011

Śrī Dāmodarāṣṭakam --- Verse Five by Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja

Śrī Dāmodarāṣṭakam --- Verse Five

Oṁ viṣṇupāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja

Dig-darśinī-vṛtti

In the previous verse, it was as though Śrī Bhagavān had become pleased by Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s devotional sentiments and said: “O sage, I am satisfied with you. Ask a benediction from Me.” In response, Śrī Satyavrata Muni prayed: “O Prabhu, O Master of all those who grant benedictions, You are the most exalted. There is no limit to the benedictions You can grant. But, my dear Lord, none of those benedictions are of any use to me.”

In the present verse, Śrī Satyavrata Muni prays “idaṁ te mukhāmbhojam – All I want is to see Your exquisitely beautiful lotus face in my heart again and again.” He is remembering the indescribable beauty of Śrī Bhagavān’s lotus face in His form as Bāla-gopāla. Śrī Satyavrata Muni only had a glimpse of that form within his heart (sphūrti) during his meditation.

What was it like?

At first, the sage uses the word avyakta. “It is beyond the grasp of the material mind or material words.” Further reflecting on what he saw in his sphūrti, he says, “His lotus face is encircled (āvṛtam) by dark-black curls of hair, which have a soft red glow that makes them look like bumblebees. Mother Yaśodā and the gopīs kiss that lotus face again and again.”

In the previous verse, Śrī Satyavrata Muni prayed to see Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s Bāla-gopāla form within his heart, but now he is praying specifically to see His beautiful lotus face, which he yearns to kiss. He wonders: “I want to achieve something so rare.

Will this hope of mine ever be fulfilled?”

The present verse marks an escalation of the intense longing developing within Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s heart.

At first, by the power of sādhu-saṅga, an inclination to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa enters the heart. When one’s anarthas are gradually driven away by performing bhajana in sādhu-saṅga, the inclination to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa will continue to increase and one’s consciousness will blossom more and more through the progressive stages of love of God, beginning from niṣṭhā, then through ruci, āsakti and bhāva and finally prema.

However, a profound concept must be considered regarding each soul’s ultimate development of love for Kṛṣṇa. If the intrinsic and eternal inclination of a particular soul is to dedicate himself to Śrī Bhagavān in the mood of a servant (dāsya-rasa), then his deepest inner hankerings will only be fulfilled by that mode of service. His service tendency will never proceed beyond dāsya-rasa.

Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s prayers reveal that his mood is destined to develop beyond dāsya-rasa, and that is why this verse expresses increasing longing within his heart. We can understand his situation by considering the history of Gopa-kumāra. Even when Gopa-kumāra had attained residence in Vaikuṇṭha, his inner hankering was not satisfied. It was not even satisfied when he reached Ayodhyā or Dvārakā within Vaikuṇṭha. Finally he reached Goloka Vṛndāvana and when he experienced loving exchanges with Kṛṣṇa in the mood of friendship (sakhya-bhāva) all his desires were at last fulfilled. His mood never went any further. Similarly Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s longing is advancing through progressive levels of bhakti.

Each sādhaka will relish the sweetness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes according to his own relationship (sambandha) with Him and also according to his qualification (adhikāra). Thus, in the description of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus face being kissed again and again, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains that the word gopyā can refer to either Mother Yaśodā or Śrī Rādhikā.

The phenomenon of relishing Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes according to one’s own mood is illustrated in the following example. Once, upon seeing scratch marks on her son’s limbs, Mother Yaśodā exclaimed:

“Oh, where did all these scratches come from?”

Kuṇḍalatā, who was standing nearby, heard this and commented:

“Your son performs rāsa at night. These marks are from that.”

Rāsa-līlā is the prominent pastime in mādhurya-rasa (conjugal love), so how could Mother Yaśodā be privy to this amorous pastime?

The answer is that Mother Yaśodā was simply inquiring like an ordinary mother who was worried about the scratches on her son. Still, she is not necessarily unaware that her son is in fact performing rāsa-līlā. Vātsalya-rasa assists and nourishes mādhurya-rasa. Nevertheless, as soon as Mother Yaśodā heard Kuṇḍalatā’s reply, she at once said:

“My darling boy is still breast-feeding. He does not even have His milk teeth! He can barely speak; He just talks in broken, childish language.

But you are saying He engages in amorous affairs at night!?

My dear young lady, you do not know. I will tell you how He got these marks. When He takes the cows into the forest to graze, He loses Himself in play with the other boys. Sometimes, while chasing stray calves, He runs through thorny bushes. He is so absorbed in playing at such times that He is not even aware that He is being scratched. That is where these marks actually come from.”

The devotee will hanker for a particular rasa according to his own eternal mood. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī presents Śrī Satyavrata Muni as a perfect example of this. According to his own mood, Śrī Satyavrata Muni is trying to awaken the bhāva of one of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal rāgātmika-jana within his own heart by performing sādhana-bhajana under their guidance.

Following in the footsteps of Śrī Satyavrata Muni, a sādhaka should think:

“If earrings, which are only gold, can kiss the cheeks of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then why can’t I?

Certainly, I will also do this.”

 With this yearning, he should endeavour to attain his goal with the conviction that he does not need any other benediction. Such endeavour is called abhidheya. When he at last attains his own eternal, constitutional mood of service in one of the five rasas, then he will attain the ultimate goal, the stage of prayojana.

Whose prema is stronger?

Mother Yaśodā’s prema for her darling son is certainly stronger than His prema for her. Her prema can control Kṛṣṇa and bind Him. If any devotee hears the pastimes of Mother Yaśodā binding Kṛṣṇa with her prema and of her kissing His lotus face again and again, a longing will enter his heart:

“If I follow in the footsteps of Mother Yaśodā, perhaps I will also be able to kiss the lotus face of her darling boy.”

But who kisses Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s face the most?

More than anyone else, Śrīmatī Rādhikā drinks the nectar of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus face by kissing it again and again.

At the beginning of this aṣṭakam, Śrī Satyavrata Muni was praying in the mood of dāsya-rasa. Now, in this verse, his prayers are imbued with a desire to enter the mood of vātsalya-rasa: “May that supremely charming lotus face, which is kissed again and again by Mother Yaśodā, manifest within my heart forever.” In the same way, every sādhaka will initially consider himself to be the servant of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in a general sense. However, by performing intimate service and by acquiring Śrī Bhagavān’s mercy, he will gradually progress and a deep longing to perform service under the guidance of one of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal associates (anugatya-mayī sevā) will begin to manifest within his heart.

Just like the omniscient Supersoul present in the core of everyone’s heart, the guru has the special characteristic of perfectly knowing our heart. He knows the eternal constitutional mood of our soul – our eternal relationship with Bhagavān – and accordingly, he connects us with Him. Then, by supplying the water of hearing, chanting and remembering, he nourishes that relationship and cuts down anything that obstructs that nourishment with the sharp axe of his words. He does this so expertly that the sādhaka barely notices, but all the while the needful is accomplished.

This is what the bona fide guru and genuine Vaiṣṇavas do. They do not have bodies of flesh and bone, which are subject to change, and which may die at any moment. They are the eternal associates of the most merciful incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who descended to deliver the fallen souls in this age of Kali. Guru and Vaiṣṇavas are among the intimate companions of the Divine Couple, Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. The way Śrī Bhagavān extends His loving mercy to the souls bound by māyā is by sending associates like these in the form of Vaiṣṇavas.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lips have been compared to red bimba-fruits – bimba-rakta-adharam. Although ripened bimba-fruit is extremely soft and beautiful, in reality, it is far excelled by the softness and beauty of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lips. Still, even though Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lips are so beautiful, He constantly hankers to drink the nectar of the lips of His beloved gopīs.

Then what must their lips be like?

The most clear example of how Śrī Kṛṣṇa hankers to drink the nectar of the gopīs’ lips is found in Bhramara-gīta, in the conversation between Śrīmatī Rādhikā and a bumblebee:

sakṛd adhara-sudhāṁ svāṁ mohinīṁ pāyayitvā
sumanasa iva sadyas tatyaje ’smān bhavādṛk
paricarati kathaṁ tat-pāda-padmaṁ nu padmā
hy api bata hṛta-cetā hy uttamaḥ-śloka-jalpaiḥ
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.47.13)

Just as you abandon a flower after drinking its honey, Śrī Kṛṣṇa completely bewildered us by making us drink the nectar of His lips only once and then suddenly abandoned us. Why does Goddess Padma (Lakṣmī-devī), who Herself is just like a lotus flower, serve His lotus feet? It seems that Her mind has certainly been stolen by His cunning words. However, we are not naive like Lakṣmī-devī.

Śrīmatī Rādhikā spoke these words to the bumblebee in intense separation from Kṛṣṇa.

“O bumblebee, messenger of Śrī Kṛṣṇa”

She said

“Your master knew that when He would leave us in the future to go to Mathurā and elsewhere, we, the young damsels of Vraja, would die from being separated from Him. He likes to see us writhing in the pain of separation so much that He forcefully made us drink the nectar of His lips just once, for only a few moments. He knew that death cannot come to anyone who drinks that nectar, and knew that later, unable to die from the pain of separation, we would simply writhe in agony”

Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eyes, His eyebrows, His smile and His lips are the sharp arrows of Cupid. Once someone has seen them, he will remain wounded forever. Devotees who cultivate rāgānuga-bhakti (bhakti following in the wake of rāgātmikā-bhakti) or who are Rūpānuga (followers of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī) remember all these moods of Śrīmatī Rādhikā in separation as they perform sādhana, and thus lose all awareness of their bodies, their homes and so on.

Śrī Vṛṣabhānu-nandinī continued to angrily lament to the bumblebee as She burned in the blazing fire of separation:

yad-anucarita-līlā-karṇa-pīyūṣa-vipruṭ-
sakṛd-adana-vidhūta-dvandva-dharmā vinaṣṭāḥ
sapadi gṛha-kuṭumbaṁ dīnam utsṛjya dīnā
bahava iha vihaṅgā bhikṣu-caryāṁ caranti
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.47.18)

O messenger, descriptions of your master’s pastimes are exactly like nectar. If someone accepts even one drop of that nectar through his ears, even once, then his sense of obligation to worldly dualities is utterly ruined. Because of that nectar, many people have quit their homes and families leaving them utterly miserable only to become miserable themselves. They live as mendicant beggars wandering through these forests of Vraja like birds without shelter.

As if Śrī Rādhikā heard the bumblebee ask for an example of this, she said:

“We are the unavoidable proof that this is true, there is no need to look for evidence anywhere else. Simply by hearing about His pastimes we have become homeless.”

What becomes of such a miserable, homeless person?

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.40) it is described:

evaṁ-vrataḥ sva-priya-nāma-kīrtyā
jātānurāgo druta-citta uccaiḥ
hasaty atho roditi rauti gāyaty
unmāda-van nṛtyati loka-bāhyaḥ

Saintly people, who have firmly devoted themselves to serving Śrī Bhagavān with deep love, constantly engage in kīrtana of their most beloved names of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. When deep attachment (anurāga) arises in them, their hearts thoroughly melt and they become mad in love of God. They laugh and cry loudly. Agitated by love, they sing about their Lord in sweet voices, and, just like madmen without a trace of shyness, they dance and sing unaffected by the opinions of ordinary people.

Even Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s flute, a dry piece of bamboo, drives the three worlds mad when it is touched by the powerful nectar of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lips. However, the gopīs regard the flute with spite as if it were their co-wife.

gopyaḥ kim ācarad ayaṁ kuśalaṁ sma veṇur
dāmodarādhara-sudhām api gopikānām
bhuṅkte svayaṁ yad avaśiṣṭa-rasaṁ hradinyo
hṛṣyat-tvaco ‘śru mumucus taravo yathāryaḥ
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.21.9)

O dear sakhīs! We cannot imagine what sort of sādhana and bhajana the flute must have performed in previous births that in our very presence it is drinking the nectar of Dāmodara’s lips, which rightfully belongs to us alone. It is not even sparing a drop of that rasa for us. On the pretext of their blossoming lotus flowers, the rivers, which have nourished the flute with their water (rasa), are exhibiting symptoms of ecstatic horripilation. The trees, who are forefathers of the flute, are equal to the best of men. Seeing their descendant filled with such intense love for the Lord, they have become overjoyed, and tears of ecstasy are flowing from their eyes.

The strength to attain these exalted feelings will enter our hearts by reciting the prayers of the exalted ācāryas in our guru-varga headed by Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Raghunātha. Then, step by step we will make progress on the path of bhakti. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī prays:

rādhe! jaya jaya mādhava-dayite
gokula-taruṇī-maṇḍala mahite

O Rādhā! All glories to You, all glories to You, the most beloved of Mādhava. You are the most celebrated among all the young damsels of Gokula. (1)

dāmodara-rati-vardhana-veśe
hari niṣkuṭa-vṛndā-vipineśe

The beautiful way You dress causes Śrī Dāmodara’s attachment to You to swell. You are the presiding Goddess of Śrī Hari’s pleasure groves in the forests of Vṛndāvana. (2)

vṛṣabhānu-dadhi-nava-śaśīlekhe
lalita-sakhi-guṇa ramita viśākhā

From the milk ocean of Śrī Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja’s affection, You have arisen like a beautiful young moon. O dear friend of Lalitā, by Your qualities of playfulness and friendship You have enchanted the heart of Your intimate sakhī, Viśākhā. (3)

karuṇāṁ kuru mayi karuṇā-bharite
sanaka-sanātana--varṇita-carite

You are so full of mercy that great yogīs and brahmacārīs like Śrī Sanaka Kumāra and Sanātana Kumāra are always engaged in describing Your exalted nature, so please be merciful to me! (4)
(Gītam—Śrī Śrī Rādhikā Pāda-Padme Vijñapti)

hā devi! kāku-bhara gad-gadayādya vācā
yāce nipatya bhuvi daṇḍa-vad udbhaṭārttiḥ
asya prasādam abudhasya janasya kṛtvā
gāndharvike! nija-gaṇe gaṇanāṁ vidhehi
(Śrī Gāndharvā-samprārthanāṣṭakam 2)

O Devī Gāndharvikā, I am suffering greatly. I have fallen at your feet and I am lying on the ground in front of you just like a stick. With a choked voice I am begging You, please be merciful to this fool and count me as one of Your own.

As we sing these verses, we should meditate on our guru-varga and consider:

“It is you who are actually submitting these prayers; it is you who are singing them. Without your mercy I will never be qualified to make such prayers.”

It is only by their mercy that we can follow in their footsteps and pray like this and thus gradually attain loving service to the Divine Couple in Vraja.

There are two modes of meditation: mantramayī upāsanā and svārasikī upāsanā. When one deliberately concentrates on remembering only one particular pastime while performing bhajana, it is called mantramayī upāsanā. But when Śrī Bhagavān’s pastimes manifest in one’s heart spontaneously, one after another, it is called svārasikī upāsanā. When performing bhajana in Vraja, only svārasikī upāsanā is present. In Vraja, wherever the sādhaka goes he has sphūrtis (momentary visions) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternally new pastimes.

Beholding new sphūrtis everywhere he looks he exclaims:

“Oh, Śrī Kṛṣṇa performed this pastime here.”

He then beholds another sphūrti:

“And He performed that pastime over there!”

In an unbroken chain, Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are stirred up in his heart. Svārasikī upāsanā is called rāgānugā or lobhamayī-bhakti (bhakti imbued with intense hankering). All our guru-varga are immersed solely in this mode of meditation.

Śrī Satyavrata Muni has prayed alam-lakṣa-lābhaiḥ, “Millions of other attainments are of no use to me.” His prayers till now reflect the mood of someone absorbed in vātsalya-rasa, but we should not mistake these words to mean he rejects the attainment of something higher than vātsalya-prema. Fortunately, however, if one obtains the association of one of Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s companions, her mood will enter his heart and cause him to implore Śrī Kṛṣṇa:

“O Śrī Kṛṣṇa, if You are pleased with me and want to give me something”

And then he will submit this prayer:

śyāmasundara śikhaṇḍa śekhara
smera---hāsa muralī-manohara
rādhikā-rasika māṁ kṛpā-nidhe
sva-priyā-caraṇa-kiṅkarīṁ kuru
(Śrī Rādhā-Prārthanā - Śrī Viṭṭhalācārya)

O Śyāmasundara, O beautiful dark boy with a peacock-feather crown, Your playful smile and Your flute completely bewilder our minds. You are expert at tasting the nectar of Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s love, and You are an ocean of mercy. Please make me a maidservant of Your beloved.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa is truly satisfied, He considers it His own success to bestow this benediction upon the sādhakas and sādhikās. This is how the process of rūpānuga-bhajana gradually unfolds. We pray that the fruit of our bhajana will be that He gives us this topmost benediction.

~ Thus ends the Dig-Darśinī-Vṛttir on the fifth verse ~

  • Añjanā Mittal le gusta esto.
  • Rama Kānta Dāsa At first, by the power of sādhu-saṅga, an inclination to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa enters the heart. When one’s anarthas are gradually driven away by performing bhajana in sādhu-saṅga, the inclination to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa will continue to increase and one’s consciousness will blossom more and more through the progressive stages of love of God, beginning from niṣṭhā, then through ruci, āsakti and bhāva and finally prema.

    However, a profound concept must be considered regarding each soul’s ultimate development of love for Kṛṣṇa. If the intrinsic and eternal inclination of a particular soul is to dedicate himself to Śrī Bhagavān in the mood of a servant (dāsya-rasa), then his deepest inner hankerings will only be fulfilled by that mode of service. His service tendency will never proceed beyond dāsya-rasa.

    Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s prayers reveal that his mood is destined to develop beyond dāsya-rasa, and that is why this verse expresses increasing longing within his heart. We can understand his situation by considering the history of Gopa-kumāra. Even when Gopa-kumāra had attained residence in Vaikuṇṭha, his inner hankering was not satisfied. It was not even satisfied when he reached Ayodhyā or Dvārakā within Vaikuṇṭha. Finally he reached Goloka Vṛndāvana and when he experienced loving exchanges with Kṛṣṇa in the mood of friendship (sakhya-bhāva) all his desires were at last fulfilled. His mood never went any further. Similarly Śrī Satyavrata Muni’s longing is advancing through progressive levels of bhakti.

    Each sādhaka will relish the sweetness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes according to his own relationship (sambandha) with Him and also according to his qualification (adhikāra). Thus, in the description of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus face being kissed again and again, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains that the word gopyā can refer to either Mother Yaśodā or Śrī Rādhikā.

    The phenomenon of relishing Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes according to one’s own mood is illustrated in the following example. Once, upon seeing scratch marks on her son’s limbs, Mother Yaśodā exclaimed:

    “Oh, where did all these scratches come from?”

    Kuṇḍalatā, who was standing nearby, heard this and commented:

    “Your son performs rāsa at night. These marks are from that.”

    Rāsa-līlā is the prominent pastime in mādhurya-rasa (conjugal love), so how could Mother Yaśodā be privy to this amorous pastime?

    The answer is that Mother Yaśodā was simply inquiring like an ordinary mother who was worried about the scratches on her son. Still, she is not necessarily unaware that her son is in fact performing rāsa-līlā. Vātsalya-rasa assists and nourishes mādhurya-rasa. Nevertheless, as soon as Mother Yaśodā heard Kuṇḍalatā’s reply, she at once said:

    “My darling boy is still breast-feeding. He does not even have His milk teeth! He can barely speak; He just talks in broken, childish language.

    But you are saying He engages in amorous affairs at night!?

    My dear young lady, you do not know. I will tell you how He got these marks. When He takes the cows into the forest to graze, He loses Himself in play with the other boys. Sometimes, while chasing stray calves, He runs through thorny bushes. He is so absorbed in playing at such times that He is not even aware that He is being scratched. That is where these marks actually come from.”

    The devotee will hanker for a particular rasa according to his own eternal mood. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī presents Śrī Satyavrata Muni as a perfect example of this. According to his own mood, Śrī Satyavrata Muni is trying to awaken the bhāva of one of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal rāgātmika-jana within his own heart by performing sādhana-bhajana under their guidance.

    Following in the footsteps of Śrī Satyavrata Muni, a sādhaka should think:

    “If earrings, which are only gold, can kiss the cheeks of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then why can’t I?

    Certainly, I will also do this.”

    With this yearning, he should endeavour to attain his goal with the conviction that he does not need any other benediction. Such endeavour is called abhidheya. When he at last attains his own eternal, constitutional mood of service in one of the five rasas, then he will attain the ultimate goal, the stage of prayojana.

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