If our svarupa is fixed then why is it is said that Lord Chaitanya came to teach love in the mood of the gopis?

Transcript

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If our Swarupa is fixed, then why is it said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to teach worship in the mood of the gopis? And also, because a worship in intimacy or service in intimacy or relationship of intimacy with Krishna is revealed in Vrindavan, that attracts our heart to God in a way that would not be attracted if we were told about worship in avid reverence. So, we are primarily attracted towards worshipping Krishna in intimate relationship rather than avid reverence. So, is it that actually our Swarupa is fixed or is it that we will go back to Krishna in intimate relationships? So, we have to understand here that ultimately the super soul is guiding every living entity’s journey.
So, it is quite likely that those souls who become attracted to the Gauri Sampradaya, they have eternal positions in the spiritual world, in Goloka, in an intimate relationship with Krishna. But it is not necessary again. And another point is that it is not necessary to have the highest revelation to just become detached from matter.
Actually, there are many pure-hearted practitioners of other religions who just by meditating on preliminary teachings, by understanding the temporary nature of material existence and just by understanding how the spiritual world is eternal, do become detached from material existence. And they also advance. So, it is not that they don’t advance.
They can also develop their love for God. So, is it that a richer description or a more intimate description of the spiritual world will attract us more to Krishna? That may offer a greater facility that ultimately the choice is ours. And those who make that choice, those who want to make that choice, they can make it without even that clearer description of Krishna.
But that is just an additional choice. Now, interestingly enough, in the spiritual world also there is subjectivity. That means, the Brihad Bhagavatam describes that when Gopakumar goes to Dwarka, and the Dwarkavasis or for that matter the Vaikunthavasis, do they know about the other manifestations of Krishna, other manifestations of Godhead? Dwarkavasis, do they know about Rajakrishna or do the worshippers of Krishna know about Krishna? They know.
But interestingly, they consider the Lord whom they are worshipping as the highest. And they say, okay, he is also expanded as Krishna. So, now we will come to how is it possible that somebody is worshipping our reverence and that person thinks that a Lord who is revealing himself in intimacy, that is an expansion, that is a further manifestation.
So, that is actually the nature that there is. There is a transcendental subjectivity in love. So, Hanumanji doesn’t feel that Lord Ram is a lesser manifestation of Krishna.
He is completely satisfied in service to Lord Ram because that is his general relationship. Similarly, there is actually love, one, once the love is directed to the eternal object, love that is the Supreme Lord, then the Lord reveals himself in such a way that one’s heart gets attracted. So, the residents of Vaikuntha actually feel Vishnu is the ultimate love and they are perpetually right in believing that because that is the vision of love.
So, this is another way of saying that the Swarupa doesn’t leave us dissatisfied, whatever Swarupa, whatever we are Swarupa. So, now for us, when we are attracted to the intimate relationships that Krishna displays, that attraction is good at our level, whatever way we can be attracted to Krishna, that is wonderful. But beyond that, we also need to define the broader philosophical principle that we are ultimately individuals and every individual is right now conditioned by certain material conditions and as those material conditions become purified.
So, we have an individuality that is expressed right now at a material level and how much of this individuality is actually coming from our conditioning and how much of it is coming from our scope. It’s very difficult to say right now. Somebody may have a female body right now and that’s why that person, that female may feel that I can identify with the Gopis mode.
Somebody may have a male body and that’s why somebody can feel I can identify with the Gopas mode. But this feeling, how much of it is because of the original Swarupa and how much of it is because of the current body that I have, it’s very difficult to say. That’s why these premature, these very advanced levels of devotion, if we try to prematurely visualize them or assume that we have got them, we will just be overstepping our Adhikar.
Bhakti Santhosh Thakur would quote a traditional saying that fools rush in when angels fear to tread. This is don’t advance, don’t trespass into the higher levels of love of God. So therefore, at our level, whatever helps us in becoming detached, we should use that.
So if it is Krishna’s intimacy, that is fine. Actually speaking, Krishna’s childhood pastimes, Krishna’s boyhood pastimes, Krishna’s Vatsal Rasa pastimes may help us to become detached. Now Madhura Rasa is highest, but the Madhura Rasa may not actually help us to become detached.
If we prematurely try to understand Madhura Rasa, that may make us attached materially. Actually Prabhupada is very practical. Prabhupada says you can read Krishna’s book, you can read the Tenth Canto, but if you feel agitated, don’t read it.
That means till now the purity is not enough, so that we don’t see this transience, don’t read it. So therefore, it’s not an absolute universal mandatory principle that the highest Rasa will provoke the highest, will evoke the highest attraction. Sometimes the highest Rasa is going to can actually provoke our worldly desires actually.
So at our level, we should focus on coming to the platform of first Shanta Rasa, which is characterized by complete detachment to matter and complete detachment to Krishna. And we should also focus on developing the Dasya Bhaav. So Dasya Bhaav is that level of service.
So these are, we are not saying that this is the Rasa we should aspire for, but these are the fundamental attributes, detachment from matter, attachment to Krishna and the desire to serve Krishna. These three if we develop, then over a period of time, our natural Swarupa will be revealed and then we will go back to the spiritual. So in the transitional stage, if the highest manifestation helps us to become attracted to Krishna more, that is wonderful.
But it is not essential. Others can become equally and more detached just by the desire to love God. And what will inspire that desire? That may be inspired by, for Christians, that may be by the sacrifice of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus or the example of their predecessors, saints, or even if somebody is in a religious path that doesn’t give much revelation of God, the attraction to God may come because of one’s past cultural practices also.
So overall, we should just broadly focus on understanding that whatever way I can be detached from matter, attached to Krishna, that is what I should do right now. So why as I said, the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come to give love of God in the mood of the Gopis. See, this is again to understand that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is himself Krishna in the mood of Bhagavan and most of his associates are Gopis who have taken up male forms over here.
Gopis and Manjiris have taken male forms over here. Somewhere in the form of Goswamis. So in that sense, what he is relishing and what he is teaching is this.
But again, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s vision has to be envisioned as expanding concentric circles. So at one level, we will see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s South India travels. Sometimes he would, for example, there was one Rama Bhakta when first Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was chanting Ram Ramne, in the name of Ram.
Another time when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went back, he was chanting in the name of Krishna. So and that is seen by Krishna as Kavaraja Goswami as a glorification of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was saying till now, I am never attracted to Krishna.
Although I knew from the scriptures that Krishna exists. But after associating with him, now I am attracted to Krishna. On the other hand, there is a story of another Rama Bhakta who was so absorbed in Ram Leela.
He was saying that, Oh, Sita has been abducted by Ravana. Why should I live? How can I live? And he did not make lunch for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for a long time. Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu found Kurma Purana and brought it back to him.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not try to interfere with his transcendental Rasa by saying that, Oh, forget Sita and Rama. Come, I will reveal you Radha and Krishna. Very much higher.
He did not do that. So that means, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is, if you read the second and third chapters of the Chaitanya Charita Amritabhi Leela, you will find that there are external reasons and there are internal reasons. So one of the internal reasons is that he has come to share, to experience to Radharani’s love, to understand what is it that attracts him and to relish that love and to share that love.
To understand the greatness of that love, to understand what is it that attracts him and then to relish that love and share that love with the world. These are all internal reasons. But the external reason is that it is the time for Yugavatar.
He has come to teach the Yugadharma of finance and people. He has come in the response of the call of Advaita Acharya. Like that, external and internal reasons are there.
So both are true. Both reasons are true. So now, that means, when we want to emphasize the uniqueness of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s contribution, then this is said, that he has come to teach the worship of Rajesh Dhanesh and he has come to teach worship in the mode of the Gopis.
But then, that is like the internal reason. At the external reason perspective, he has come to teach Yugadharma and the Yugadharma is chanting of the holy names and chanting of the holy names will elevate a person back to whatever Swarupa he is. So that is why there is that specific emphasis is from the internal reason perspective and that would be like an inner concentric circle.
But there is an outer concentric circle where he is focusing on elevating people to love of God, whatever be the form of God they are attracted to.