Why does Srila Prabhupada “bhakti” in Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu as devotion instead of his usual translation “devotional service”?

Transcript

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Question, Vishwa Prabhupada generally translates Bhakti as devotional service but then Bhakti Rasa Amrit Sindhu, he has translated as nectar of devotion. Why is he not translated as nectar of devotional service? Answer, Vishwa Prabhupada himself not made any explicit statements on this topic as far as we know.
So therefore we don’t have Vishwa Prabhupada’s direct understanding on this. But based on his other writings and based on the overall message of the nectar of devotion, we get a general understanding. Vishwa Prabhupada presented Bhakti in a very practical way as contrasted to the sentimentality that was going on in the name of Bhakti.
He emphasized that practicality by talking about it as devotional service. But technically, before Vishwa Prabhupada, there was one scholar who had translated one book of, who was an expert scholar on Vallabha’s Pushrimag. And in Vallabha’s Pushrimag the word Seva comes.
So Tamar Krishna Maharaj, when he was doing a research for his thesis, he found that the only person who had translated Bhakti as devotional service before, who had used the word devotional service, was this scholar, western scholar of Vallabha Satradaya. And Tamar Krishna Maharaj wrote to him and then he said that actually this was my translation of the word Seva. So it was something like Bhakti my Seva, he said I translated.
They had the word Seva and the word Seva is infused with Bhakti. So that’s why he translated as devotional service. So the point which Tamar Krishna Maharaj makes also, after giving his analysis, he explains why Vishwa Prabhupada translated.
See Vishwa Prabhupada emphasized the practical, service-centered, visionary side of Krishna Consciousness in his preaching. Of course he emphasized sadhana and regulatory principles also. So that’s the point Vishwa Prabhupada wanted to highlight.
When he wanted to contrast the sentimentality that went on in the name of Bhakti with the serious commitment that he expected among the devotees and which was actually the Vedic tradition, devotional service. Now at the same time, if you look at the Bhakti Rasamana Sindhu, firstly Vishwa Prabhupada says that this is a summary study. So when Satsvarupa Maharaj asked Vishwa Prabhupada, what does summary study mean? Vishwa Prabhupada laughed and said, summary study means I do what I want.
So what does it mean when Vishwa Prabhupada says I do what I want? Ultimately what Vishwa Prabhupada wants is the spiritual upliftment of his audience. So what Vishwa Prabhupada does in the summary study is that he gives that profound message in a way that will elevate his audience. So in the nectar of devotion, Vishwa Prabhupada had to translate Bhakti Rasamana Sindhu.
So the Sindhu part, Vishwa Prabhupada has not exactly included that. You would have to have something like nectarean ocean of devotion. But rasa is not exactly nectar.
Prabhupada uses the word mellow and then he also says mellow is also not the mellow flavor. So Vishwa Prabhupada says that and then he starts using the word rasa itself directly. Shabda Ras, Sakhya Ras, Vatsalya Ras, Madhuri Ras.
So generally many of the translations are done from one language to another. The translation is always loaded with some level of interpretation. And Vishwa Prabhupada wants to translate rasa as nectar to indicate the happiness.
And if you look deeper into the content of nectar of devotion, while certainly the service aspect is there, like the devotees are rendering service, but more important than the service, what the Bhakti Rasamana talks about is the moods. Like Raga Atmika, Raga Anuga, and the devotion service in ecstasy, devotion service in love. So the emphasis of the Bhakti Rasamana Sindhu is on cultivating certain moods.
And to cultivate certain moods, certain activities may be done. And also to enter even into those moods, also certain activities are conducive. But the whole concept of rasa is not just an activity, but it’s an emotion.
When we say Vatsalya Ras, it’s not that when Krishna drinks the breast milk of Mother Yashoda, that activity of breastfeeding Krishna is Vatsalya Ras. No, when this activity happens, associated with that activity is a very intense emotional reaction that awakens in the heart of Mother Yashoda. And that intense emotional experience is Vatsalya Ras.
So when we talk about the concept of rasa, rasa is, it may be associated with an activity, but the essence is not the activity. The essence of rasa is emotion. The word rasa actually comes from the Bharat Murali’s Natya Shastra, where he says that when people are observing dramas, ideally natya should be done in such a way that it evokes emotions in the heart of people.
So traditionally the idea of rasa was that somebody is performing drama and the audience is observing. And the drama is performed in such a way that while the audience is passively observing, the rasa is actively being awakened in their heart. So Rupa Goswami, when he took Rasa as Bhakti Samasindhu, he takes the overall structure of the concept of rasa from Bharat Murali and others like Bhoja, who also wrote commentaries on Natya Shastra and elaborated on that.
But he explained it in a devotional framework. So certainly the activities are there, but the essential emphasis is the experience of emotions. So whereas in Bharat Murali’s concept of rasa in natya, it is mainly an experience that comes while observing a drama.
But Rupa Goswami explained that rasa is not just occasional experience that one gets while observing something artificial like a drama. It’s a perennial experience that comes by remembrance and connection through service and remembrance with Krishna. So for Rupa Goswami, the concept of rasa is a fact of life and not just a fact of life, but an eternal fact of life which will go on beyond this death into the spiritual world.
So in that sense, rasa may have some activity associated with it, but it’s primarily emotion, the emotion of devotion. And because of this emphasis on emotion in the Bhakti Samasindhu, Srila Prabhupada’s translation Nectar of Devotion reflects his content more precisely than the translation Nectar of Devotion service. So this is one way we can understand what Srila Prabhupada has done.
Of course, we do not know what a pure devotee’s heart is, but by looking at his other words, we can get a general understanding of what might have been his intention. This is my understanding.