CC daily 177 – 6.263 – When compared to devotion, liberation is deprivation

Service to the lord. Thank you Deliberation of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, text 263 Bhattacharya kahe bhakti sama nahe muktipal bhagwatya bhakti vimukhe rahe danda keval Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has commented here questioned Sarvabhauma that why has he altered the verse from the Bhagavatam where muktipade is there and he has said bhaktipade sadai bhak so Sarvabhauma is now tasting the nectar of bhakti and having tasted this nectar he is feeling so enlivened so thrilled that he feels that as compared to that mukti is simply danda keval it is actually a punishment this is a amazing, inspiring eye opening kind of insight that is being spoken sometimes there is a saying in English to speak from the horse's mouth from the horse's mouth means if something is spoken by a person who is an authority a past master a person who is an undisputed authority in a particular field and if that person speaks something then the authority that that declaration enjoys few other things enjoy that level of authority so Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was himself an impersonalist and he had not only been an impersonalist he had been an impersonalist scholar and leader and quite a influential and successful person in his own right and such a person is now stating that actually whatever whatever joy of liberation he had experienced or joy in contemplation on Brahman he had experienced he is saying that the joy of contemplation on Bhagawan is so great as compared to that that to be deprived of the joy of contemplation on Bhagawan for anything else is a great deprivation and that deprivation is dandakival is simply a punishment for the soul this concept of punishment it is to be understood in terms of the devotional ecstasy of the devotee relishing the joy of Krishna Prem so when a devotee is fully relishing the ecstasy of bhakti at that time that devotee feels this is such a great happiness anything apart from this is nothing nothing is worth so great that this should be given up for that sake and anybody who does that is actually being deprived being cheated being misled and suppose a person is starving and that person gets is getting very very is getting some food that person will be enormously grateful but if that same person gets a feast then that person will be so much more happy and then if person who had eaten that very very austere dry food and then gets a sumptuous feast and then that person sees that people are turning away from the sumptuous feast to go towards that dry tasteless food you will feel like you are being deprived now often this example is given for the lower and higher taste and usually here the lower taste is said to be taste of sense gratification that is like some some dry chapati or dry bread dry tasteless bread whereas the taste of bhakti the joy of remembrance of Krishna is like a profuse feast and yes that is a valid example but along with that one more level of example that can be given is the example of how that the same contrast between lower and higher taste can also be applied within the realm of what is considered to be spiritual taste so within spiritual there can be Brahman and there can be Bhagwan in the Kaushitakya Upanishad different levels of happiness are compared and there because the Upanishad is focusing on Brahman it says that okay there is earthly happiness and there is heavenly happiness and like that there is a hierarchy which culminates in Brahman Bhakti Samrut Sindhu takes that hierarchy further and states that actually as compared to the happiness of bhakti the happiness of Brahmananda is also insignificant and so one should go beyond the happiness of Brahmananda to the happiness of bhakti and therein is the perfection of a person's life so it is that happiness which Sarvabhauma is now tasting and therefore he is feeling that as compared to that everything else is a deprivation it's like a punishment and his feelings are echoed by Prabodhananda Saraswati when he says Kaivalyam Narakayate not only echoed they are spoken even more strongly he is comparing Kaivalyam liberation to Naraka to hell so hell is a state of great suffering and there are various kinds of punishment but being sent to hell is considered to be a very severe punishment so Prabodhananda Saraswati is saying that for one who has tasted the merciful side glance of lord Chaitanya for such a person everything else seems a distraction and Brahman realization that there is no opportunity to connect with Krishna that is a state of great suffering that state is akin to the state of being in hell so Sarvabhauma's personal realization and conviction is being communicated in a forceful and endearing way in this verse when he says my dear lord, without bhakti mukti is so utterly bankrupt so utterly empty that it is akin to a punishment and as will be indicated in the future narrative Sarvabhauma doesn't want anyone to be deprived of the nectar of bhakti and he is ready to go to the extreme of even changing the word of scripture so that people will not be misled into neglecting into neglecting bhakti for the sake of mukti.