Śrī Dāmodarāṣṭakam --- Verse Five - Dig-darśinī-vṛtti
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 ~
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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