Madhyahna kalia bhajan - Mid-day worship – Worship with taste (Ruchi bhajan)

nāma sādhakera ahaituki kṛṣṇa bhakti binā anya kāmanā nahi

The true worshipper of Harinam (Nama sadhak) has got no other desire except causeless devotion to Sri Krsna. If other desires are there, then there cannot be Hari bhajan.

So, if there be any desire other than causeless devotion to Sri Krsna, target is (becomes) that desire. Holy Name and the Lord are identical. He is for Himself and by Himself. You will call for anything of this world He will not come, He will not descend. His external potency maya will come. So, you will not do exactly Harinam.

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

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave teaching in the 4th verse like this.

The nature of the conditioned soul of this material world is also conditioned, so he blames everyone and considers himself good. So (Mahaprabhu says) utter this prayer (of 4th Verse) from the core of the heart. You have some other desires in the heart and you utter the prayer from mouth, this is deceitfulness, hypocrisy. You want something inside and you say just the opposite, reverse, in the words. This is hypocrisy. By hypocrisy you cannot get Supreme Lord. You are blaming Supreme Lord and others. You have to see your own defect.

O Supreme Lord! I do not want wealth. Say this from the heart. I do not want worldly scholarship (panditya). I do not want even emancipation (mukti). Saying from the mouth will not be sufficient, then what do you want? Mahaprabhu is giving teaching here, ‘May I have causeless one-pointed devotion to You birth after birth.’ Such devotion I can give. But one who has bodily conception that I am this body he will naturally have desire for temporary non-eternal things (asat-trshna). The root cause of all unwanted evil desires (anarthas) is Swarupa brahma, misconception of self. That is at the root of the other evil desires. Misconception of self is when you think I am this body and bodily relations are my relations, I will have the desire for those things. But if you have the company of a bonafide suddha bhakta and the eternal nature of your self when it is awakened then you can submit prayer from the core of the heart, no, I do not want all these worldly things, not any kind of things of this world nor emancipation. I want only You, Your service, causeless devotion. And those who have got no association of suddha bhakta they cannot have this sort of desire because their eternal nature of the self is not manifested. They will only speak like a parrot, not from the heart.

gṛha dravya śiṣya paśu dhānya ādi dhana
strī putra dāsa dāsī kuṭumbādi jana

The wealth (dhana) consists of all things starting with the body, gross and subtle body, and bodily needs like house, desire for objects of sense enjoyment, desire for making disciples with worldly motive, for one’s enjoyment, is material desire, this is not bhakti. Making disciples for the service of the Lord is also a kind of devotion. But it is for the Lord’s service, not for one’s own sake.

Our Guru Maharaj gave us teaching. No guru considers himself a guru, I have become a guru and I will redeem the world. Such type of pride are not the feelings of the real guru. But the suddha bhakta, pure devotee, a genuine guru always desires to serve the Lord, for Lord’s pleasure. Like for example, parents have some ten children. One son who has a disturbed mind leaves parents and goes away. Parents have natural affection for their children. And when the son leaves, they will naturally feel pained. When another son convinces him and brings him back, the parents feel pleased. The son has gone astray. Lord has such children who forgot Him and came to this material world. When those children are convinced and made to return to the Lord, the Lord is very pleased. So, to please the Lord they (the suddha bhaktas) go from door to door, from one living entity to the other and convince them, makes them understand. They give teaching to all the living entities to serve the Lord, they give mantras also, but their real purpose is to please the Lord. A third person sees that one is giving mantra and other is taking mantra and the former is guru. But guru has not made a disciple, he did it to please the Supreme Lord. But if acting as guru we make disciples with worldly motive, then it is a sort of material sense enjoyment. Like the caste gurus who act as gurus for worldly motives, they cannot be called Sadgurus. Prahlad Maharaj did not consider Shanda Amarka as real gurus, but accepted Narada Gosvami as his guru from whom he got Visnu bhakti. So if one makes disciples for worldly motive, then it is material sense enjoyment and is bondage and is considered wealth. Men rear domestic animals for own use, grow paddy, crops and consider them their property. But our body itself is not ours, it is Lord’s. Gross body, subtle body and atma are all Lord’s. I am the owner of this house. Like this even a dog has such pride. In Kolkata our math is at the Hazra road junction where four roads meet. Three-four dogs stand on one side of the road, another few on the other side of the road. They do not need any registration, they declare this is our area and if you come this side crossing the boundary line we will bite you. If some other dog comes to his area, the dog will bark and attack. Like this we have false pride. We register the property and say it is ours. Everybody’s proprietor is the Lord. He is the proprietor of my body also. By His external potency I got this body and also the subtle body mind, and by His internal potency I have got the atma. The proprietor of the material energy is Lord and the proprietor of that which has emanated from the material energy can be someone else? We have no right or authority over our own body and we say I am the owner of this house, this property, so on and so forth. This is all untrue, false by which we will have difficulty; by ignorance we will have difficulty. Wife, children, servants, maid-servants and other relatives, every body’s proprietor is the Supreme Lord, not me. When we live with this kind of knowledge then it is called ‘Krsnera Samsar’, i.e. we are part of Krsna’s family. The owner of the house is Krsna and I am His servant. My wife and children are all His servants, for His service. Like this there are household devotees too, though rare. By such thinking association of people (jana sanga) does not happen when we see people and wealth in relation with the Lord. With false pride that I am their Lord and desire sense enjoyment from them, such thinking has to be abnegated. So it is said ‘na dhanam, na janam…’ with some material knowledge gain some material pride and prestige, all these things are objects of sense enjoyment (vishaya) and have to be given up. They come to the temple, show off before others we are also great devotees, but this is not devotion. They sit through kirtan, and after kirtan they say, please bless my son that he gets good result, good marks, so that he can go abroad for higher education. They offer pranams to Lord for fulfillment of such desires but when opposite happens, then they decide we will not go to temple again. They stop visiting temple and their devotion disappears. Such sort of devotion they have! Worship should be for the Lord’s pleasure.

ei saba pāibāra āśā nāhi kari
śuddha-bhakti deha more kṛṣṇa kṛpā kari

Krsna is merciful, all the time He desires from within that His children be with him, but we do not want to.

premera svabhāva yāṅhā premera sambandha
sei māne kṛṣṇe mora nāhi bhakti-gandha

A Lord’s devotee has no pride in his heart.

Indication of Midday transcendental Pastimes of Radha-Krsna:

A glimpse or idea has been given here.

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
(Sri Govinda-lilamrta)

Gaudiya Vaishnavs regard the mid-day pastimes as the highest and the supreme. One thing, our friends who had question yesterday, but you have to think very deeply. According to me, delightful relation, is that stable delightful relation, not unstable, master-servant relation or friendship relation or parent-child relation or consort-hood of love, all these things. This sort of delightful relation is stable and whatever relation a devotee has and with that relation tasting the transcendental beauty and blissfulness of Supreme Lord, he thinks this is the best, according to his taste or eligibility of delightful relation. He thinks it is the best. Confidantes will think sakhya rasa is the best. Those serving Krsna in master-servant relation, they think this is the best. Parents think by loving Krsna as son, this relation is the best. But if you consider it neutrally then you will find that the highest is gopi prema because others are not eligible for this. Radha Kunda is the highest, Gosvamis say this is the highest and only gopis are entitled to enter. Although according to the taste of the delightful relation, there should be stable relation, permanent, then they think their respective relation is the best. But neutrally if you consider the highest is gopi prema to Krsna, that is the highest. Radha kunda is the place of mid-day worship. All are delightful, transcendental and blissful realm, everything is good, but all are not entitled to have entrance in Rasa lila or in mid-day worship, only gopis you will find. And Gaudiya Vaishnavs say that in rasa lila there are so many pastimes, different pastimes with Krsna, transcendental sports we may say, but highest you will find in the mid-day worship at Radha-kunda. Gosvamis say this and we have to accept what they say, the realized souls they are saying. For that reason this mid-day worship will be the highest.

But what we do? Now I am worshiping Krsna without any direct contact. If I come in contact with Narayana directly now, then I will never be able to give up Narayana, I shall be there, I cannot go to Krsna because I have no taste, I have only heard it. Even if I come in contact with Fish God, I shall be pinned down there. Some attraction is there. Gopis who have got Krsna’s beauty and sweetness when they see Narayana can say ‘namo narayana’ but we cannot do that. Now say, if Narayana comes to me, will we be able to give up Him and go to Krsna, impossible. But if you have got the direct contact of Krsna then you will be able to give up Narayana, the higher bliss you have got. So, you will not go, you have no aptitude to go to worship Narayana. But now, any form of Supreme Lord if you come in direct contact with Him, it will be impossible for you to give up that worship. So you have to understand. You have got this mantra through the preceptorial channel. If you go on doing this and if you get the grace of your guru-varga then you can reach the ultimate goal. But if you stop anywhere by getting the object of worship you will be there. One instance is there in Brhad Bhagavatmrta, he does not stop his Krsna bhajan, he went to newer and higher places, ultimately reached the destination. But we shall stop by seeing it. There is difference.

All kinds of highest sweet transcendental ecstatic feelings that are manifested during the meeting of Sri Radha Krsna (at Radha Kunda) are inexplicable. In ordinary relations such ecstatic feelings do not arise, where there is deep relation like in consort-hood (madhur rasa) more such ecstatic feelings manifest. But in parental relation (vatsalya rasa) it is comparatively less and in friendship mood (sakhya rasa) it is still less. But in whatever stable relation one is in he considers it the highest and the most blissful. But from a neutral point of view if it is considered then there is difference. What can we know about ‘Vamya, Utkantha’ – crookedness of prema, supreme eagerness to get contact with the object of love, which arise in consort-hood relation? By hearing jokes(parihas) of the gopis during transcendental amorous pastimes(kandarpa-yajna), Radha Krsna get happiness. There is lot of difference between the jokes by the gopis and by the sakhas in friendship mood. There are innumerable pastimes viz. swinging ceremony (dola) of Radha Krsna, pleasant strolling in the forest (vana-vihar), water sports in ponds and rivers (jala-keli), stealing of flute(vamsi-haran) and other transcendental amorous pastimes(rati-krida), drinking of sweet honey(madhu-pana), worship of Sun-God(Surya puja), etc. Such transcendentally sweet and blissful pastimes which occur at Radha Kunda are not manifest at any other pastimes. So Gaudiya Vaishnavs regard this as the highest, Srila Rupa Gosvami wrote this in his Sri Upadeshamrta. We remember such pastimes of Radha Krsna at Radha Kunda at mid-day who are being served by the gopis. But, when we are not established in such a mood, what can we remember?