If our svarupa is fixed, then is our endeavor to experience a different rasa futile?

Transcript

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when they actually start coming upon me.
Umesh Prabhu, if our swaroopa is fixed, doesn’t that mean we have our own specific relation with Krishna in a particular rasa in the spiritual world? So no matter how much we aspire for saakhya, dasya or any other rasa, but if we have a fixed rasa, then what is the use of endeavouring for that particular rasa which our swaroopa cannot experience? Answer, yes, our swaroopa is fixed. That does not mean that we have to be deprived of anything. What it essentially means is that when we become purified, our natural spiritual desires will harmonize with whatever is our swaroopa.
Just like if water is flowing along a particular surface, now if the surface has some grooves where this land is at a slightly lower level, then naturally water will flow into those grooves. Nothing has to be done separately. So just as the water naturally flows to a lower level and goes along those grooves, similarly when we become purified, our natural spiritual desires will flow in accordance with the swaroopa.
So we don’t have to endeavour to experience any particular rasa during our sadhana. Even in our vaidhi sadhana, right now when we are practicing the initial stages of bhakti, in the vaidhi sadhana also, we don’t have to practice. We don’t certainly have to endeavour for sakhi rasa or vatsali rasa or madhuri rasa or anything like that.
Right now we simply have to become purified in terms of becoming detached from matter and attached to Krishna. If we read the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, the instructions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Rupani Sanatana Goswami, there he describes even the characteristics of shanta rasa, which is considered to be the first of all rasas, the lowest, or the preliminary, the beginning of the various rasas. In shanta rasa, the characteristics are complete detachment from matter and complete attachment to Krishna.
This itself is a very exalted level and we should strive, at our stage, to attain that level first. We don’t have to endeavour during our sadhana to think, maybe I am in vatsali rasa then how will I serve Krishna in vatsali rasa. That’s premature, unnecessary and can be counterproductive.
So, as we become purified, naturally, according to our swarupa, our desires will start manifesting. So now we may be attracted to, say, Krishna as a child. Maybe because we heard songs like Krishna doing mischief in our childhood or whatever.
That doesn’t necessarily reflect our spiritual swarupa. But as we become purified, it may be that our swarupa will serve Krishna in sakhya or vatsali and we will be attracted to Krishna as a child. Or it may be madhuri and we will be attracted to Krishna in a kishore rupa.
That doesn’t matter right now. Right now, what we should focus on is becoming purified. What about when we come to advanced Jiva bhakti, Raghana bhakti, Bhava bhakti? At that time, naturally, according to our swarupa, we will be able to practice devotional service in a spontaneous way.
In Jiva dharma, Bhaktunath Thakur envisions the meeting of a sadhaka and a siddha guru and then he describes how the swarupa can work out in two ways. That means the guru reveals the swarupa to the disciple and then the disciple starts practicing according to that swarupa. However, if the disciple is not able to relish that swarupa and feels an incompatibility with that, then the guru and the disciple discuss deeply, seriously, profoundly and then after that, the guru explains to the disciple what the swarupa is and then the disciple starts practicing bhakti harmoniously according to that swarupa.
So, therefore, the important point is that we don’t be premature in our devotional service and don’t worry about problems that we don’t have to face right now. Just as water flows to its lower region, similarly, our natural spiritual desires will harmonize with our swarupa when we come to a level where our spiritual desires are awakening at the pure transcendental level. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.