Mid-day pastimes—Bhajan with taste

The true worshipper of Harinām has got no other desire except causeless devotion to Sri Krishna. If there are any other desires, then Harināma is not possible. Our Guruji used to explain this giving an example.

Medanipur District is a big District in Bengal. In those days, villagers used to fear to come to cities; city people are deceivers. But now villages have become more deceitful than city people. It was not like this before. One villager was in need of funds for his daughter’s marriage. He decided to sell some silver and gold jewelry he had. But there were no jewelry shops in that village. There are many jewelry shops in the city. So he took some three-four intelligent persons along with him and went to a Jeweler’s street in the city Medanipur. While he was searching for the shop where he can sell the jewelry, he had the fear of getting deceived. That time he came across a shop in which he saw a man sitting in an easy chair wearing Tulasi-mala in his neck with big-big Tulasi beads and chanting Harinām. He thought, “He seems to be a good person”. The shop owner’s servant invited them into the shop and enquired on how he could help them?

The villager asked, “Do you purchase jewels?”

The salesman said, “Yes, we deal in jewels. We purchase, make and sell jewels. What do you want?”

The villager, “I have some jewels which I want to sell as I am in need of money”.

The salesman said, “Okey”, and uttered, “Keshava.. Keshava”. He takes the name of the Lord. The owner of the shop who is sitting outside in the easy chair, listening to the salesman, started uttering, “Gopal.. Gopal” in response. Now after listening to them, there remained no doubt in the mind of the villagers of them being devotees. So they brought all the silver and gold jewelry out of the bag they carried. The salesman started weighing the jewelry and while doing so also he was uttering, “Hari Hari!! Hari Hari!!” After listening to him uttering so the owner, sitting outside, uttered, “Hara Hara!!”

So all the names they were uttering are Lord’s names only. But their intension of uttering those names was different. The servant, by uttering, “Keshav.. Keshav”, was asking the owner in code words ‘Ke-shaba’, the meaning of which in Bangla language is, “Who are these people? Are they known to you?”

The owner responded uttering, “Gopal.. Gopal”, meaning, “They belong to the class who take care of cows. They are foolish people.”

The man then asked, “Can I steal the gold?” by uttering, “Hari, Hari !!” Hari is one who snatches other’s belongings.

The owner then uttered, “Hara.. Hara!!” meaning, “As much as you like”.

Are these Lord’s Names? Their motive of uttering the Names of the Lord is not for calling the Supreme Lord. Chanting the Lord’s Name with other worldly motives is not Harinām. The purpose of chanting Lord’s Name should be to call the Lord. One who calls the Lord for Lord’s satisfaction attains the mercy of the Lord. The Lord’s Name manifests Himself. Therefore it is said the worshipper of Name has no ulterior motive than to get causeless one-pointed devotion to Lord.

na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukḥ tvayi
(4rd Verse of Sri Shikshastaka)

O Supreme Lord, I have no desire for wealth, manpower or erudition or even liberation. My only prayer is to get causeless one-pointed uninterrupted devotion to You birth after birth. If there are ulterior motives then that will cause hindrance between Lord’s Name and the worshipper and one cannot chant Holy Name. Supreme Lord is Absolute whole. Western philosophers say, “Absolute is for Itself and by Itself.” We do not call ‘It God’, we call masculine God ‘He God’. We say, “Absolute is for Himself and by Himself”. So if one calls for Supreme Lord only, He will come. If one calls with worldly motives, then Maya will come, Supreme Lord will not come.

gṛha dravya śiṣya paśu ādi dhana
stri putra dāsa dāsi kuṭumbādi jana

We accumulate wealth for worldly benefits and sense enjoyment. All these worldly things come under wealth—house, material things, making disciples for my convenience and sense-enjoyment, domestic animals, paddy-crops, so many. One who lives in Krishna’s family he thinks, “Krishna is my Master; I am his servant, my wife is Krishna’s maid servant, all servants of mine are Krishna’s servants, Krishna is the only Master, there is no reason for sense-enjoyment. I am of Krishna’s, Krishna is mine, everyone is in Krishna by Krishna and for Krishna. Wife, sons, daughters, servants, maid-servants, relatives, these are all worldly relations. When we pray for getting worldly things, we cannot chant Krishna’s Name.

kāvya alankāra ādi sundari kavitā
pārthiva viṣaya e saba vārtā
ei saba pāībāra āśā nāhi kari
śuddhabuddhi deha more kṛṣṇa kṛpā kari

Desire for erudition, material knowledge, kavya—book of verse relating to poetic drama, rhetoric art, poetical talent, for acquiring name and fame, all these relate to worldly matters. I do not desire to get these. This has to be spoken from the heart, just speaking from mouth will not do. So speak from the heart, “O Krishna, kindly bestow me pure devotion. I do not want any of those temporary things.” One who prays like this is the most intelligent of all.

Lord is the master of infinite universes, infinite Vaikuntha planets. Leaving such a great master of infinite universes is like begging for ten rupees from a so called rich man of this world? Krishna can give crores of rupees, and even more. It is foolish to beg for ten rupees. Lord is the master of infinite Brahmandas so when you become His, then you automatically become the master of infinite Brahmandas. So to ask for this and that from His is foolishness. One who does not have knowledge about the Supreme Lord (Bhagavat-tatva) begs for temporary benefits.

A devotee is very intelligent; he prays for pure devotion. He does not want anything other than pure devotion. Like Vitrasura, when Lord Sankarshan appeared before him and asked him, “What do you want? You want Dhruva’s position?”

Vitrasura, “No.”

The Lord, “Do you want the position of Brahma?”

“No.”

“Want to be emperor of this world?”

“No.”

“Want to rule lower planetary worlds?”

“No.”

“Take any of the eight mystic powers.”

“No, I do not want.”

“Take Liberation.”

“No, I do not want.”

“What do you want?”

“Except You and Your association, I do not want anything.”

So Lord’s devotee is niṣkāma—desire-less, but he is intelligent of all. Other than devotees all are fools; they beg for little things from the greatest master. If one follows a devotee, then he will get some intelligence.

premera svabhāva jānhā premera sambandha
sei māne kṛṣṇe mora nāhi bhakti gandha

When there will be actual pure love, the votary will have the feeling of humbleness within his heart and he will admit that he has got not even a tinge of devotion.

Indication of Midday Pastimes of RadhaKrishna

A hint has been given here about the mid-day pastimes of Sri RadhaKrishna.

madhyāhne ‘nyonya saṁgodita vividha-vikārādi-bhūṣāpramugdhau
vāmyotkaṇṭhātilolau smaramakha lalitā dyāli-narmāptaśātau
dolāraṇyāmbu-vaṁśī-hṛti-rati-madhupānārka-pūjādi-līlau
rādhā-kṛṣṇau satṛṣṇau parijana-ghaṭayā sevyamānau smarāmi
(Govinda-lilamritam)

During mid-day, by the meeting of Sri RadhaKrishna, all the ecstatic feelings of highest order including asṭasāttvik-vikār—eight principal ecstatic feelings, thirty three kinds of other subordinate ecstatic feelings— sancāri—all kinds of highest sweet inciting transcendental ecstatic feelings are manifested. The mid-day pastimes at Radhakunda are highest and holiest. How to realize it? Only by hearing about this pastime we cannot understand what this pastime is. We may think it something of this worldly novel, drama, etc. There should be desire to do Harinām to get a bonafide guru who has got the mantra through a bonafide preceptorial channel. After getting mantra, you have to practice it. To go to the Supreme Lord the first medium is sound. In this world sound, the characteristic of the sky, is the subtlest. The knowledge of spiritual world is manifested first through sound. This sound through which this spiritual knowledge gets manifested is not material sound, it is transcendental spiritual sound. Those words (Mantra) have to be received from the transcendental personality—receiving Mantras, receiving Harinām. And after receiving the Mantra, one has to perform sādhan according to their instructions. Everything is within the Name. The material sound which is said subtle is actually gross as compared to śabda-brahma—Harinām, the transcendental sound we receive from the pure devotee, sad-guru. Within the Name of the Lord, the form, qualities, pastimes, everything is there. Sri Jiva Goswami has written that first one should hear the Lord’s Names in order to purify the heart. First, one has to accept the Name from sad-guru. By your own efforts, by your gross mind and intelligence do not try to think about the form, qualities and pastimes of the Lord, it will not be of any benefit. In the Mantra received from sad-guru there is form, qualities, pastimes, everything is there. Finer than the transcendental sound is the form. Not the form like we see with our eyes.

Bilvamangal Thakur destroyed his eyes—the eyes which take us in different direction. Then with transcendental eyes, he saw the Lord. These material eyes are destroyed when pierced with a broom stick, so these are of what value? We cannot see Lord with our material eyes. When we chant Lord’s Name without offences, the heart will be purified and the form will manifest automatically. Have courage and patience. Artificially we should not think about the form of Supreme Lord. It is not material form that material mind can grasp it. Not possible. When the heart is cleansed then eligibility is attained to hear about the form; the form will be manifested. We cannot see Supreme Lord by our own efforts. By chanting Names, form which is more subtle, finer than sound will manifest. When form completely manifests, then even more finer than form, qualities manifest. Lord’s personal associates are not ordinary material world’s persons, they are transcendental, they are more subtle, they then manifest in the heart. And at the end, pastimes of the Lord will manifest which is the most finest.

When we haven’t got Lord’s Holy Name—the Mantra from sad-guru, how can we think about pastimes of the Lord? We think them as material world’s men-women relations like in novels. By that we will go to hell. Our relation to RadhaKrishna is not established yet. So we do not understand them. Intense greed is the only price to attain the real understanding and entrance into these pastimes.

There are eight principal ecstatic feelings, thirty-three kinds of other subordinate ecstatic feelings—sancāri—all kinds of highest sweet inciting transcendental ecstatic feelings are manifested in Radhakunda. In no other pastimes such excellent charmness of sweet ecstatic feelings can be found. Some extraordinary ecstatic feelings have been mentioned here. ‘Vamyā’—crookedness of prema, external expression of rudeness, harshness is there but inside actually just the reverse—which is inexplicable. ‘Utkaṇṭhā’—supreme eagerness to get contact with the object of love, which removes all kinds of restlessness but in this ecstatic feeling they have become externally too much restless. We have not experienced such feelings any time so how do we understand them? The shadow feelings like utkaṇṭhā and vamyā are sometime seen in worldly dealings, but there is a gulf of difference, like the difference between earth and sky between worldly activities and Lord’s pastimes.

By hearing jokes of the gopis RadhaKrishna get happiness. In addition to these, there are innumerable pastimes, viz. swinging ceremony of RadhaKrishna, pleasant strolling in the forest, water sports in ponds and rivers, stealing of flute and other transcendental amorous pastimes, drinking of sweet honey, worship of Sun God etc. Only gopis have eligibility in these pastimes. Gopis worship RadhaKrishna, arrange for their meeting. Devotees who in śānta, dāsya, sākhya and vātsalya rasa do not have eligibility to enter into these pastimes.