Love is very sweet feeling and
this sweet, charming and cute premai (love) for Krishna is very divine,
full of sacrifice, and is completely free from desires. Such a love is
full of happiness, delight and pleasure. All the Gopis of the Vraja bhoomi
had got this type of premai only. One of the most important aspects of
this premai is to sacrifice everything. The Gopis of the Vraja bhoomi had
an approach called 'Tat Sukha Sukhitvam' which means all that they were
yearning for was only comfort and happiness of Krishna. They were never
bothered or concerned about their comfort or happiness. They had no desire
or wish of their own. They were completely free from the Mamakaha (me or
mine) feeling. They had a Tavakaha (you or yours) feeling for Krishna
which means 'Krishna I am all yours and I don't have any independent
existence'. All they knew was to offer selfless service to Krishna.
They were the ones who had
risen themselves from this material world and had entered into the
extremely pure world of love for Krishna. They had really purchased Him by
this and due to this love even His heart always and forever kept on
tempting to drink the nectar of their love and He used to keep on eagerly
waiting for it. Such was the innocent bhakthi of the Gopis which made the
supreme Lord Himself to yearn for their love. They lived only for Krishna
and His happiness and the result was they got Krishna forever and were
fortunate enough to engage themselves in Rasa kreeda with Him.
In fact till today there are no one and no words in this world with the
help of which this divine and pure bhavam of Gopis could be explained.
This love is indescribable, indefinable and unable to be comprehended.
Because of the every second prospering nature of this premai by the time
we try to explain it, it would have started growing still more.
But even today the ever green
queen of such a Mathurya bhavam and premai is the one and only 'Radhikaa'.
Radhikaa is a word which in itself is most adorable, lovable, sweet,
compassionate and full of mercy. Even all the Gopis of the Vraja bhoomi
got the premai and mathurya bhavam from her only. Radhikaa is in fact the
Krishna premai in a human form.
She is always and forever linked and drowned in the thoughts of Krishna
only. Her premai for Krishna is pure, unique, identical, and full of
sacrifice and dedication. She is the one who for every second and for each
step keeps on carving and making arrangements for the well-being and
happiness of Krishna. She is one who is filled with all the superior
qualities but in spite of this she is completely liberated and is devoid
of self-pride, jealousy, greed, arrogance or anger.
She has no desire, wish or liking of her own. Her entire life is for
Krishna only. She considers her mind, heart, body, everything as the
property of Krishna. According to her she is only a thing of Krishna's
enjoyment. Her premai for Krishna is such that she never expects anything
in return from Him. She is one who does not have even a little bit of
mental affection or desire for wealth, people, family, house, things of
pleasure or enjoyment, fame, worldly delight and glory and even super
natural salvation. Her one and the only unequalled and extremely great
love or affection is left over on the Lotus like feet of her beloved
Krishna.
Even if Krishna has 16,108 wives no one can take the place of Radha. She
is inimitable and incomparable. She can never be separated from Krishna
even for a single second. The true and the pure love between Radha and
Krishna shall last forever and can never be separated. It is like the sea
water and its waves, the sun and its rays, the flower and its fragrance,
the moon and its light, the fire and its heat, the sugar and its
sweetness.
It is just impossible for one to see, think, experience or attain Krishna
without her grace. One can experience Krishna only if Radhikaa exist.
Krishna Himself is drowned and entrapped in her premai. She is the queen
of Brindavan, the abode for Krishna, the lender of Krishna premai, the
teacher of mathurya bhavam, the ocean of mercy, the secret wife of Krishna
and the mother of all the jeevathmas.
Such was the love of the ever green Gopis of the Vraja bhoomi and our
Radhikaa. But such a love is extremely difficult to understand and
accept. It can be recognized and appreciated only by those who have a full
fledged grace and mercy of a Sathguru, Radhikaa rani, Gopis and Krishna.
Today's younger generation is very much advanced and is extremely
fascinated by the western culture. Getting involved in love affairs with
the opposite sex during our school and college life has become a craze,
trend and fashion for us. But can such type of love provide us as well as
our dear ones everlasting and unlimited happiness? Are such types of love
really pure, true, self-sacrificing, and free from the urge of satisfying
the bodily desire? Does this love have a capacity to keep us cheerful,
calm, peaceful, and pleasant till the end of our life? Many a times we
are very easily attracted towards many film stars, sports personality or
any well known celebrity. We are well aware that we cannot attain them but
still we keep on dreaming about them and lead a life with them in our
dream world. But what do we attain or gain from this? Just a temporary
fake happiness!!
When we can get infatuated and captivated towards all such persons or
icons then why not Krishna? The reason is we are so much drowned in our
own dream world, materialistic pleasures and charm that we hardly have any
knowledge about Krishna nor do we show interest in Him. The truth is we
live in a world of hallucination or imagination and hence refuse or are
not in a position to accept the facts and realities of our life. We may
quote that how can we love some one like Krishna who is not at all visible
to us? But the fault lies in us only. When the bhakthaas like Meera,
Aandal, Sackubai, Janabai who lived on this sacred Bharatha bhoomi just a
few years ago could enjoy the divine presence of Krishna with them through
out their life then why can't we? The reason is they loved and lived only
for Krishna and we fail to even remember Him and never ever call Him even
unknowingly. Try to pray and chant to make Krishna a part of your dream
world or imagination and you can definitely feel the difference. You shall
be bestowed with such an unlimited joy and bliss which you would have
never ever dreamt, thought, seen or attained in your entire life.
What is important for the worldly love is physical appearance, monetary
value, social status, good knowledge and so on. But for loving Krishna all
that we need is a pure heart with even a very little love for Him. He is
the sole unique personality who has the capability of calling even Kubjay
(a lady who had a very ugly physical appearance) as sundari (beautiful
lady). This is so because Krishna is not concerned with our appearance
looks, beauty, knowledge, wealth or status. According to Him we all are
the jeevathama and His aim is to enlighten our lives by blessing it with
delightful happiness. Krishna premai is the real purpose of our life. It
is the only food for our carving souls. It shall bless us with unlimited
happiness, charm and pleasure, bring an end to all our sorrows, sufferings
and misery, bring us out of our dream world and imagination, give a new
meaning to our life, and make us eligible to see, touch, talk, play, sing
and dance with the supreme Lord who is the creator and the only beautiful,
dashing, handsome, cute, cheerful and sweet personality in this entire
universe i.e., our Krishna. What else do we want? We all have a desire
that our beloved should be some one very special and extra 'ordinary. Who
else can be so special than Krishna? He is the king of all.
At times a company launches a new product in the market. Then it sets out
in the task of popularizing and promoting its product through
advertisement. Such advertisements create an impact and arises within us a
desire of trying out the newly launched product. Such a product shall
prove to be appealing to us only when we are fully satisfied and contented
both quality wise as well as with its cost. We can comment or give our
opinion or suggestion or get an impression about the product only after we
have engaged ourselves in the trial and error session of using the product
at least once. Our judgment about the product is based upon our first time
use. Hence in order to be familiar with the product we should be ready to
use it at least once. Whenever a new movie is released we spend our money
and watch the movie first and then we decide whether it is worth watching
or not. Similar is the case with bhakthi, namajavam, and Krishna premai.
When we are ready to practically experiment out the new things then why
aren't we ready to make an attempt to find out what exactly this Krishna
bhakthi and Krishna premai is?
We shall come to know the true form, depth, significance and the necessity
to do bhakthi only when we shall test, experiment and experience it at
least once. Krishna bhakthi and Krishna premai are such that once we get
involved in it we can never come out of it and it shall slowly and
gradually keep on drawing us closer to it. Krishna bhakthi shall surely
and undoubtedly provide 100% customer satisfaction in its first test
itself. We all are the children of Krishna. Each day He keeps on eagerly
and patiently waiting for us with a thinking that at least today this
child of mine shall remember or call me. But for us He remains unnoticed
forever. However still He has no complains or hatred for us. Even if we
keep one step ahead with intent to attain Him we really cannot even
imagine the pace with which He comes running forward to bless us. He has
an immense desire to lift us all from this samsara sagaram. His mercy is
really boundless. We all are well aware that in this kaliyuga Krishna
played rasa kreeda with Janabai, got tied up for Sackubai, called Meera
and merged herself within Him, married Aandal and similarly have blessed
many more bhakthaas. Such a Krishna shall surely bless us also with many
such divine and beautiful experiences if we have a sincere bhakthi and
love for Him.
We all are really fortunate to be born on this scared Bharatha bhoomi. In
fact ours is not just Bharatha bhoomi but it is a Bhgavatha bhoomi (the
land of devotees). In fact our land is the one which is cherished by Lord
Himself. All the incarnations of Bagawan took place on this sanctified
land only. In reality this land is a place where Bagawan loves and enjoys
dwelling in. Hence all the renowned and the most beautiful places of
pilgrimage are wide spread on this Bharatha bhoomi. Bagawan Krishna
resides in an extremely relaxed manner in the various states of this
Bharatha bhoomi in various form such as Pandarinathan, Udipi Krishnana,
Dwarakadeshan, Puri Jaganathan, Banke Bihari, Loganathan, Aanatha
Padmanabhan, Guruvayurappan, Ranganathan, Srinivasan, Varadarajan, and
many more. It is a land which has witnessed the birth of all the great
bhakthaas like Madhavacharya, Aanamacharya, Purandaradasar, Swami
Ramamnujar, Sankarar, Namadev, Dyaneshwar, Tukaram, Tyagarajar, Krishna
Chaitnya Maha Prabhu, Ram Krishna parmahams, Vivekananda, Jayadevar,
Padmavati, Meera, Aandal, Sackubai, Janabi, Laxshmi Devi, Vishnu Priya
Devi, all the Aazhwar and many more. The recitation of the divine scripts
and the holy epics keeps going on continuously in some or the other place
of this land. Each day, each hour and each minute some or the other
mahatma or bhaktha is experiencing the divine grace of Krishna on this
pure and holy land.
Nevertheless we are really unaware about the real strength and beauty of
our mother land. The sentence 'INDIA is my country' is restricted to
prayers and speeches only. We call it as our mother land but the fact is
it is not a mother but only a land for us. The true feeling of love and
devotion for our mother land is hardly visible today. Shall we ever listen
or forgive any one who criticize or pass improper comments about our
parents, friends or our dear ones? But our mouth gets stitched up and we
very calmly listen to all the offensive and crude comments passed on our
motherland. Frankly speaking we ourselves very often and very coolly
condemn our mother land. This is so because we are unaware about the
greatness of our mother land. She has got immense patience and tolerance
and hence in spite of all such criticism she is proving an extremely safe
and peaceful shelter for all of us.
We all lack true devotion and dedication for our mother land and Hindu
dharma. Hindu means happiness. But today we really feel ashamed or are
even afraid of calling ourselves as Hindu. We often feel proud on seeing
the people of other cast following their customs and traditions sincerely
and strictly. But who has restricted us from following the things
mentioned in our dharma? We ourselves neglect the things mentioned in our
dharma and refuse to follow it. Today we feel ashamed of applying Tilak on
our forehead while going to office or colleague, wearing the sacred thread
or having a kudumi (hair tuft also known as choti in Hindi) where as all
this is the rule of our vedham. Each and every teaching of our dharma is
true and there is no place for ambiguity or hum buck in our dharma. Today
Hindu dharma has just become a source of earning income for many. Though
we are the majority we lack the co-operation among us.
We all pray so much for the well being of ourselves and our family but we
never ever pray for our dharma. What is wrong in praying for our dharma? A
feeling that our dharma should be fine also never comes to our mind. In
what way have our dharma troubled us? We feel that the customs and
traditions mentioned in our dharma are restricted to the past and we in
present cannot follow it. There is no confusion in our dharma. It is very
clear and specific but it is we who unnecessarily con fuse ourselves. In
fact we all should have a love, respect and devotion for our dharma. We
all should have a feeling that this dharma is mine and it is safe guarding
me. We all should teach our children the significance of our dharma and
the need to strengthen it.
Our Hindu dharma has given us a big treasure in the form of many great
epics and divine scripts such as Narayaneeyam, Bhagavatham, Bhagavath
Geethay, Ramayanam, Aabhangam, Bhaga Govindam, Divya Prabandham, Vishnu
Sahastranamam, Geetha Govindam and many more which proves to us the real
need and strength of bhakthi. We are the lucky ones who are blessed with
so many bhakthaa charitrams (true stories about the life of devotes of
Lord). These bhakthaa charitrams have shown us the path of achieving
Krishna easily. We are very easily inspired by movies, plays, dramas,
novels etc. When these things of worldly pleasure can inspire us then why
cannot bhakthaa charitram be a source of inspiration for us? This is
because we lack interest in it. All the great mahatmas of the past were
well aware about the limitations and incapability of the people in this
kaliyuga and hence have provided us with a very simplified, modified and
instant form of bhakthi. But the truth is we are so incompetent that we
fail to experience even this.
Honestly speaking there is no problem if we do nothing for our Bahratha
bhoomi or Hindu dharma but it is just enough if we stop criticizing it
both. If anyone condemns our land or dharma we should have the courage of
opposing them. The valor which Shivaji Maharaj had for uplifting our
Bharatha bhoomi and for strengthening and stabilizing our dharma is hardly
visible today. We all have become coward. We don't have the shatriya
tanmay (daring like shatriyaas). All our ability and courage lies in
quarrelling and expressing our anger at home or on those who have insulted
us. But our blood doesn't get hot when some one insults our land or
dharma. Actually it is not others who criticize or insult our dharma but
it gets insulted and humiliated only because of us. Our main concern lies
in satisfying and fulfilling the desire of our family. Our thinking and
actions are restricted in providing happiness to our relatives and dear
ones. We have no love and respect for our country or dharma. What is our
contribution for our mother land or Hindu dharma? When we are incapable of
doing anything for them, then who has given us a right to criticize or
abuse them? If anyone criticizes our Bharatha bhoomi or Hindu dharma then
it is a big sin since our bhoomi and dharma is full of mahatmas and
bhakthas.
If we really love our mother land and respect our dharma and if we truly
wish to offer some tribute to it then all that we need to do is to just
whole heartedly chant and pray daily at least once for the well being and
prosperity of our Bharatha bhoomi and our dharma.
The real purpose of this times issue will be served only when:
1) It shall arouse within all an intense urge to pray and chant for
involving them in Krishna premai and experience the godly feeling which
the Gopis and Radhikaa Rani did.
2) It shall awaken within every Hindu a love, respect and the real
need to stabilize and follow the customs mentioned in our dharma and to
teach the greatness of our dharma to the coming generation.
3) It develops within each one a sincere devotion for our mother land
and courage of opposing all those who criticize or insult her.
4) It shall induce each one to pray and chant at least once in a day
for the well being of our dharma and for our country to regain all its
prosperity which once existed in India in abundance.
Keep praying and chanting till will meet you with our next month's issue.
Radhe Krishna.
jay sathguru maharaj ki
jay
The
great sishyar of Sri Krishna Chaithanya Mahaprabhu.