What is the rasa-abhasa in chanting “nitai gaur radhe shyam” mantra?
From Raj Parikshit P
If it brings Balarama in Radha-Krishna pastimes, then isn’t the same done by the Rama in Hare Krishna mahamantra?
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
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does it answer your question question from raj kanchipuram if the nithayagraha radheshyam mantra is considered rasabhas because there is the invocation of balram in madhurya ras and krishna cannot perform pastimes with the gopis when his elder brother is present that’s why there is a rasabhas then the hare krishna mahamantra why does that not have rasabhas because there also ram is there and that ram is also prabhupada explained that ram refers to balramji answer there when we go into rasa there is there we have to understand carefully what is being talked about in this particular mantra which was chanted by a particular gauri vishnu teacher and it became very popular thereafter at least popular in bengal area at that time bengal and odisha area so bhakthishastra was a prominent opponent of the chanting of this mantra and his first concern was that this particular mantra is not shastric there is no explicit mention either in the in any of the gauri shastras of about this particular mantra then the opposition that came to it was that what is the harm even if it is not any shastra it is actually a combination of the names of the lord only and what’s wrong with that so then he pointed out from the rasa point of view that actually the mixing of the names of chaitanya of the mixing together of chaitanya mahaprabhu with prabhu means krishna balram with radha krishna it is inappropriate so now the question comes up isn’t this too fine a point do we have to criticize people for making such a small difference as i said if you want to go to technicalities you can go here also and say that in the hare krishna mahamantra there is ram which also refers to balram so is that also rasagas no as far as siddhanta is concerned certainly it’s not harmful to chant itai gauri radhesha the names of names of the lord only and if chanting if we are so broad as to accommodate chanting the names of allah and jehovah and in the other traditions also then what’s wrong with chanting itai gauri radhesha certainly it’s not going to be offensive it will depend on the intent the consciousness of the chanter but if a particular person is aspiring for a particular elevated rasa then one has to follow the prescribed path which is given in the shastra so when we go into see there is the the vaishnavas can be so broad-minded that when uh you see at least within the vaishnava tradition itself you can see when chaitanya mahaprabhu sees that a devotee is a ram bhakta is an agony because he is he is uh feeling that how could the goddess of fortune sita have been abducted by ram by ravana then see then lord ram actually then mahabharata actually goes and find madhya purana references to pacify that devotee and then that devotee uh he appreciates the devotion to that to ram but then we also have where at another extreme where raghunatha dosvami in sakisthali and when the leaves are brought or raghunatha dosvami is in near radha konda and when a leaf when he is given some curd on a leaf that has come from the place of champaklata he throws away that leaf saying that i cannot take anything from champaklata’s place so now you can say this is such narrow-mindedness she’s also great devotee but we have to understand that there a particular mood and a particular rasa is being demonstrated so the point is that a devotee is so devoted to serving radharani and that he doesn’t even want to be deviated to champaklata also not to speak of anyone but is it that those who are that doesn’t make champaklata a villain sorry not champaklata sorry chandrarani sorry champaklata is one of the associates of of radharani herself ashram sakis whereas chandravali is like the rival rival group in the left wing gopi the right wing gopis so chandravali is in the opposite group and there is that friendly rivalry which intensifies their devotion to krishna sarvandha dosvami consider that chandravali is in a in a different group and i won’t touch anything from her so here we should not consider a narrow-mindedness we should consider that as the extent of the absorption in one’s ishtadev in one’s particular bhava so if we see that gaudiya vaishnavism can be so refined then we understand that how elevated and how specific is the realization that we are being offered so if somebody wants generally chant the names of god fine then the philosophy is so open that one can chant names even outside the gaudiya outside even the vedic tradition and still because one is remembering god one will be elevated but if one is representing the gaudiya tradition and is claiming that one can rise to the highest level of the gaudiya traditions realizations one can attain madhuri bhava then one has to understand the subtleties of rasa and align oneself properly so from that point of view of subtleties of rasa this nitya yuga radhesha mantra mixes the process and that’s why it has to be avoided so is rasavas offensive well it is not exactly offensive in terms of that it’s not that one is going to it’s not a sinful activity it’s not that one is going to fall down because of uh because of doing particular kind of rasabhas if one does that rasabhas with a with a arrogant mentality that i have found a mantra and this mantra is better than what the mantra the acharya is again then that arrogant mentality can cause fall down it is not the particular chanting of the mantra that will cause the fall causing problems but it will not take one to the elevated destination that uh gaudiya vaishnavism and follow properly can take on so this is subtlety of rasa now with respect to the hare krishna mahamantra now if you look at the meme it can also be at multiple levels so at a broad level when prabhupada asked why don’t you worship ram so prabhupada said ram’s name is there right in the mantra itself and at the time prabhupada said that ram refers to lord ramachandra that is true it can refer to lord ramachandra so again if you consider that there are different there are there there are different levels of god consciousness when somebody who doesn’t know much about various rasas and various levels of bhakti then even if that person is just thinking of it as a reference to lord ram that’s fine person is moving forward in life then at a more focused on not just vaishnav bhakti not only vishnu bhakti alone but in krishna bhakti if we focus then in there there ram can refer to pal ramachandra but then prabhupada also told us that if we go deeper then the ram actually refers to radhika ram and ram that means it refers it’s an alternative way of referring to krishna himself from that lord who gives pleasure to his devotees that is ram that is actually krishna giving pleasure to his devotees so the ram also refers to krishna himself so that ram can refer of course if you go further it can even refer to parashuram which can refer to parashuram or ramachandra at a general level it can refer to vishnu it can refer to pal ramji it can refer to radhika ram and ram also that is krishna so in that sense the hare krishna maha mantra if a devotee is chanting it in a specific gaudiya vaishnav mood then there is no rasabhas because the mantra has multiple meanings at multiple levels and more importantly this is the mantra which we find in shastra and which has been chanted by the disapproved by the bhakti sanskrit of gurus that firstly it was not shastric and secondly it involved rasabhas because it directly put balramji in the same place where as strada krishna were there but that sort of problem will not come in shastric mantras because shastric mantras like the hare krishna maha mantra they can be referred to various levels and if one is chanting at a very high level bhakti is not talked about in his one of his books one of his books he not a yajna chikshamrita i think krishna bhajanamrita rahasya he mentions about how he gives the meaning of the hare krishna maha mantra and he actually specifically each hare krishna and hare ram each of them within that means he has got specific deep meanings of it so that way when the mantra is shastric and when there are multiple levels of meanings then the rasabhas is avoided but when the mantra is non-shastric and when it is predetermined according to one’s own is not shastric then it is then it in this particular context leads to rasabhas that’s