Why does Bhaktivinoda T say that sakhya rasa, a lower rasa, manifested beyond India after vatsalya rasa, which is a higher rasa?
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question we see that even before the present age Karna was discriminated based on birth and Drona was a Brahmana who trained and fought so was Varanashram not followed in the past also in previous ages answer Krishna is stating this that by the power of time things have declined so he is talking about this in the context of his times that he has descended because the timeless wisdom and culture of yoga of connection with the divine has been lost so the society depicted in the Mahabharata is not necessarily an ideal society, it is society as it was present at that time and it had several non-ideal characteristics to it in another conversation in the Mahabharata between Yudhishthira and Nahusha there also Yudhishthira says that because of interbreeding between various Varanas the determination of Varana is difficult and it should be done primarily by by qualities not by birth so these two points suggest that there was an awareness that Gunakarma and Janma might not match in those situations Gunakarma should be given higher priority and yet because the Vedic principles were not being followed during those times so one of the Yogon Ashtah Parantah one of the manifestations by which one of the manifestations of Adharma, of Yoga being lost was that Janma was given greater priority than Gunakarma so yes, we have to recognize that not everything in the past was idyllic and the many good things in the past in Bhakti is not about romanticizing the past it is about going beyond the three domains of time, past, present and future to the timeless and we can take what is good from the past we can also take what is good from the present and we can be open to what will be good in the future we do not uncritically endorse or uncritically condemn anything from any of the three phases of time because the material world is always a mixed bag that is one of the reasons that it becomes Dukhale it is a place of distress of course we could say the percentage of Dharma vs Adharma was much more in the past and it is much more tilted towards Dharma in the past and it is differently tilted now but Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that as devotees we are Sarak Rahi we are ascetic seekers not Bharvahi not burden carriers, it is not that we have to defend we have to carry the burden of the past and try to defend each and everything that was done in the past