Sri Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu 8 12 2012

Vaishnavapada das Babaji Maharaja

Srila Rupa Goswami explains what bhava bhakti is. When sudha sattva appears in the heart, the taste of bhajan will be there. At that time the heart is stable in bhajan. The consciousness of ordinary jivas are attracted to the material world. But those who have taste for bhajan, who have suddha sattva in their heart will show eagerness. What is their position? It is like a sunrise, before prema appear. At the time of sunrise, the sun is making the sky pink. It is the same way before prema is coming. Morning sunrise appears in the sky from darkness. Until asakti everything is sadhana bhakti. This is the time for making personal efforts. The devotee has to make efforts by body, mind and action. He has to control his feelings and this involves some effort. He is taking darshan of the deities. Why will a devotee do sravanam? From inummerable years and ages we are in maya and we dont have natural attraction for bhajan. Bhajan depends on effort. Without effort we dont want to listen to katha. The mind is not attracted to seeing the deities and the hands dont want to serve Krishna. The feet dont want to go to the temple and do parikrama. The feelings are going to different sides. This is a natural condition of a beginner devotee. It is called sadhana bhakti. Sometimes we may question why we should make effort. But we need the greed of conscious effort! Before a devotee has past anartha nivriti, tama guna steps away and he is getting spiritual knowledge. Nistha appears in the heart and slowly ruci is coming, taste for bhajan. Krishna katha becomes very sweet and Krishna nama becomes very attractive. Then the devotee doesnt want to leave this even for a moment without any effort. Spontaneously the devotee is attracted to sravanam and kirtanam. When this condition becomes ripe, he gets established in asakti. Ruci is determination in bhajan and asakti is attraction and taste for Bhagavan. In asakti there is spontaneous love for Bhagavan. Just like most people enjoy material enjoyment, in asakti there is spontaneous attraction to Bhagavan. Ordinary material persons have attraction for material things. In the same way devotees in asakti naturally are attracted to Bhagavan. The jiva is suffering very much in the material world. He always serves somebody. Why is this so? It is because the jiva doesnt love Krishna. Thats why he is born and dies, is born and dies. But when asakti appears, then the devotee loves only Krishna and nobody else. He feels, You are my only shelter. You ar the only one for me. You are my friend and my brother. This is the asakti level, one of the highest points in sadhana bhakti. By listening and listening to katha about Krishna, singing the names of Krishna, and meditating on Krishna, associating with His devotees, living in dhama all this is great luck. Much effort is needed. After a long time, when
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asakti comes, this happens by special mercy of Bhagavan, guru and vaishnavas. Finally the devotee reaches asakti. And when asakti becomes ripe, he gets a special position. His heart becomes very soft and gentle, softer than a lotus. This devotee doesnt want to bring sorrow to anybody. This sadhu is very compassionate to others. He doesnt think of himself as being in any high position. He doesnt think about his own sufferings at all, like Haridas Thakur. But by seeing the sufferings of others he suffers. When Narada saw the position of Hayagriva he was filled with compassion and his heart melted. He was also very merciful to a hunter he met and he saved him. The heart of this kind of sadhu is very much enjoying. What kind of enjoyment? Taste of nama, rupa, guna and lila and he is eager for the service of Bhagavan. His heart is filled with eagerness. He is in bliss and joy. By service he wants to bring joy to Krishna. These are the symptoms of sadhana bhakti - to bring joy to Sri Krishna. And Krishna also wants that the devotee should be happy. Their desire is to bring each other happiness. It is the eternal mood of Krishna. It is the base of bhakti. We cannot see the beginning or the end of this relationship. It is an eternal relationship between the jiva and Bhagavan. Bhakti doesnt have any boundries. It is always growing. The devotee thinks, How can I make Krishna happy? How can I satisfy Him? He also wants to be close to Krishna and love Him. He thinks, I will love You and I will serve You. I want Your happiness see that You are happy. If I will have to suffer a lot for this, for me this will be unlimited happiness. One sakhi is saying to another sakhi, Oh friend, I cannot serve Krishna. My life will be empty if I do not serve Krishna. If I have a chance to serve, I will be so happy! What kind of suffering can there be in seva? This is just anada! Only in the beginning there are some difficulties. But when the bhakti becomes ripe there is more sweetness and it is only growing. Bhakti means that the devotee enjoys more and more. What is bhakti? Bhakti is love. Eagerness to be close because the heart is melting. This is also felt in the mind and the senses. This desire to serve and to be with Krishna is in every action and in every step. The consciousness and heart is going to Krishna. It is a very ripe stage of bhakti. It is called bhava bhakti. The main part of bhava bhakti is suddha sattva. Suddha sattva means self-appearing mercy of Krishna. In the heart samvit shakti (spiritual knowledge) opens. Bhakti cannot be disconnected from knowledge. Bhakti has knowledge, all transcendental knowledge knowledge about Krishna and about everything. By listening to harikatha, doing bhajan and harinama, all the knowledge is opened in the heart. This is the principle of bhajan it gives knowledge as well. Those who do bhajan know the supreme personality of God and they have knowledge about Him. This is samvit shakti, the self-appearing aspect of suddha sattva. When samvit shakti comes with hladini shakti, when they are connected, these two combined energies are called suddha sattva. The svarupa of Bhagavan appears when samvit and hladini together manifest in the heart of the devotee. In the hearts of the eternal devotees it always exists. The symptoms are an eagerness to always serve and an eagerness to be near.
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The conditioned souls dont know about the service to Krishna. Their consciousness is very astray. Nitya baddhas are wandering in the material world, but the nitya muktas are always realized souls. They have love for Krishna. When we follow them (anugati), then this bhava, the moon of their moods start illuminating our hearts and we can feel in our hearts samvit and hladini shakti coming from them, filling our hearts. This position is called bhava. Here Goswamipada is saying, If prema is the sun, then bhava is the sunrise. The sun is almost appearing prema is almost coming. This darkness of ignorance is disappearing and the sun is rising, the rays of prema are coming. The first part of prema is bhava. There are nine internal symptoms and also external symptoms like tears, trembling and hair standing up. These are external symptoms appearing at the stage of bhava. But these are not the main symptoms. Somebody can also simulate that. When some people suffer they may have these symptoms also. When some devotees suffer and they listen katha there may be trembling appearing, but this is not bhava. Some devotees may have a soft heart and may exhibit some of the symptoms, but it is also not bhava. Some emotional person may have some symptoms, but again it is not bhava. There are nine internal symptoms and they are the main ones. Those who are very deep and serious in bhajan have those symptoms. If an elephant is swimming in a lake, waves will come. But if he swims in the ocean no waves will appear. In the same way, if somebody is a deep bhajananandi he keeps his emotions under control. He doesnt show anything externally. He doesnt show his symptoms of bhava. A devotee like Ambarish Maharaja did meditation on the feet of Bhagavan. He was meditating in this way. In his heart he had deep emotions. His heart started melting. Bhava was born in his heart. For some time he lost eye sight and in his eyes tears appeared. When bhava is strong and aflame, tears are flowing like streams. These were the symptoms in the example of Maharaja Ambarish. So at that stage of bhava a devotee cannot keep his emotions hidden anymore. Tears are flowing like streams and other external symptoms may also appear. Bhava bhakti is a great fortune for the sadhaka - when the rays of prema is shining in his heart and the bija is sprouting in his heart. First it becomes like a small plant. It is like this in the steps and development of bhakti. Slowly the devotee reach this stage and then he goes on to the next stage. Somebody may think, Why is this devotee crying so much? Many may not understand. When the sattvika vikar start appearing, a devotee may think, I am most fallen in this world. Nobody is worse than me. I am just an ordinary person. But the sadhus know about this position. In this bhava the Self is appearing. It appears in a pure heart. First when we follow the path of raganuga bhakti we are doing sadhana and later mercy, Krishna kripa comes. It all depends on mercy. Also guru and vaishnava mercy. In maya there is no mercy. But where there is no maya there is mercy. There is a lot of kripa shakti in bhajan and sadhana. Around such devotees and places it is very powerful. When a
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devotee starts on this path, maya is still there. More kripa, less maya. In the beginning there is so much maya and therefore less mercy. Like the juice of Asefetida it is not condensed yet. First it has to evaporize and then it becomes Asefetida with a strong smell. Like this, the jivas have many material samskaras. But slowly, by mercy of sadhus and guru and because of the efforts in sadhana his heart becomes purified and he gets transcendental samskaras. Maya is leaving this devotee. But sometimes maya is coming back to check if the devotee wants Krishna or maya. If the devotee passes the test, maya feels ashame of her action and leaves that devotee. So maya is testing, making some examinations. Then, when bhava appears in the heart of this devotee as suddha sattva, it fills his mind, feelings, and intelligence. He is above maya at that time. Maya stops bothering him by entering his mind and intelligence. Bhava is fully filling the consciousness of this devotee. At this time he is very much enjoying the nama, rupa, guna, and lila. He is enjoying by this bhava. He becomes self-satisfied at this stage. He doesnt need anything. He enjoys by nama, rupa, guna, and lila. When is there enjoyment? When there is a tasty preparation of prasadam and there is hunger - both must be there. So when this kind of devotee enjoys by nama, rupa, guna, and lila, his heart is filled with ananda. There are two aspects of bhava. By entering more and more into sadhana, bhava becomes the fruit of this sadhana sadhana nivesh. One Siddha Baba is saying, Life after life we do some bhakti. Like Jade Bharata. He was a brahmana, but became a dear. Then in the end he took the position as Jade Bharata. He was living in a simple way under a tree. There is the subtle world of the mind and it is more enjoyment there. He said, I see the heavenly planets and the hellish planets. I see all my past lives. He saw his karma in all the past lives. By this he became very humble and he became maha purusha. He could also see others past lives. He worried about them very much. So we should be careful about doing our bhajan and compare it to what we were doing earlier. Before we wanted so many things and that created samskaras in our mind. Then they appear, even when the devotees reach a high position. Siddha Baba says this. All past desires will appear, but a devotee in bhava stage cannot be disturbed by all this maya because is already deep in bhakti. Some devotees have reached this stage. By having done sadhana life after life, in the end they get so much determination. In this way they overcome all obstacles. What do we read in the granthas? We read about spiritual knowledge. In theory all these things can be understood. Devotees follow the sastras. So in this first stage of bhava, when the devotee is fully in sadhana and has past anartha nivrti, ruci, asakti and when the asakti has become ripe, then he reaches bhava. The second kind of bhava comes by the mercy of Krishna and His devotees. Somebody who is very lucky, very fortunate can get this by the mercy of Krishna. The example is Lilasukha. First he was living a life in distress. He had been doing bhajan in a past life, but had stepped away
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from the path of bhajan. He got very much attracted to a prostitute. In order to reach her, he was swimming across a river in a storm. He found a dead body there and held on to it in order to cross. Then when he came to the prostitutes place he a saw a snake on the boundary. He mistook it to be a rope so he caught this snake and with its help he climbed over the boundry. He was so attracted to this prostitute. Cintamani asked her servant, What is happeneing in the garden? Then the servant found this young brahmana - he was unconscious at that time. He was born in a brahmana family, but he lost his path because of bad association. The servant saw that he was alive and brought him into the house of Cintamani. Through her, Krishna showered him with His mercy. Cintamani said to him, You are brahmana. You have been born in a good family, but you are ready to forget everything. You took so much effort and almost lost your life to come and see me. Why dont you give your heart to Krishna instead? It was amazing! All night she was telling him lilas about Radha Madhava. He heard about Krishnas lilas from her. He was listening and listening. She was singing. In this way he got taste for raganuga bhajan. In the morning he had become purified from all dirt. His heart was filled with eagerness to serve Krishna. He got bhava in such a way very quickly by the mercy of Krishna and His devotee. Bhava can appear like this. He did not do strong sadhana. Later on he wrote the book Krishna Karnamrta. So there are two ways to get bhava bhava born by sadhana and bhava born by by mercy. In Brihad Bhagavatamrta we read about Gopakumara. He was doing so much sadhana and he overcame many obstacles. He was going to so many planets in all planetary systemes Brahma loka, Tapa loka etc. He lived through a pralaya. He went to Vaikuntha and Dvaraka. Finally he went to Vraja. But to his disciple Janasarma he gave mercy very quickly. So somebody is going by the long way and someone else is acheiving bhava bhakti by mercy. Gopa Kumara gave mercy to Janasarma even though he did not do any long or particular sadhana. This is very rare. Usually bhava is coming by sadhana. Only some very rare souls get this mercy by sadhu because the heart of the sadhu is melting so much. So there are two types of bhava bhakti. There is vaidi bhakti bhava and raganuga bhakti bhava. Those who engage in sadhana do vaidi bhakti sadhana, like Gopa Kumara. By his hand he blessed Janasarma. He said, Whatever bhava I have in my heart, let this bhava appear in your heart. And this brahmana became a pure devotee. Immediately he started crying. He was in ecstasy! After this Rupa Goswami describes the internal symptoms of bhava. This brahmana stayed in Vraja and the nine symptoms of bhakti appeared in him. Then time came and he left the body. This is described in Sri Brihad Bhagavatamrta. So the bhava born from sadhana is vaidi bhakti. How did Narada get mercy? When in Caturmasya he served some sadhus, they gave him their mercy. His mother had left her body. So he was alone, not connected to the material world. After he got the mercy he continued his sadhana and then he got darshan of Bhagavan in his mind. Goswamipada is
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giving this example. He says that Naradas bhava appeared because of sadhana. Those who do bhajan also do sadhana.