ÿþ<html><head><title>Krishna Links - Madhurya Bhava Page</title></head><body text="#11ff14" vlink="#aaaaff" link="#00ffaa" bgcolor="#011146"> <font size="3"> <!---BANNER TABLE---> <table width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="250"><i><font color="#ff0022"><img src="links_files/radha-krsnaF.jpg" align="left" alt="The soul's longing is..."></font></i> <p> <i><font color="#ff0022"><br>Smile...<br>and enjoy<br>this lila!</font></i> </td><td><center><h3>Welcome to</h3> <h1><i>Radha's<br>Krishna Links</i></h1> <b><i>~ Spiritual Enhancement Page ~<br>Adoring my Beloved Krishna!</i></b></center> </td><td width="250" align="right"><i><font color="#ff0200"><img src="links_files/radha-krsna1.jpg" align="right" alt="fulfilled in Krsna!"> </font></i> <p> <i><font color="#ff0200"><br>This page was last updated 03.01.08</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center>"I am the origin of all. Everything emanates from Me.<br> The wise who understand this adore Me with love and devotion.<br> My devotees remain ever content and delighted.<br> Their minds remain absorbed in Me and their lives surrendered unto Me.<br> They always enlighten each other by talking about Me."<br> -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita 10.8-9)</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <!---DOWNLOAD ZIPPED WEBPAGES LINK---> <table width="50%" align=center border=0 bgcolor="#7778ff"> <tbody><tr><td> <table width="100%" align=center border=0 bgcolor="#011146"> <tr><td> <table width="99%" align=center border=0 bgcolor="#011146"> <tr><td><font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font></td> <tr><td><center><i>Due to the bandwidth limitations of<br> this website, you can now</i><br> <a href="http://www.geocities.com/radhainathens/radhasbhava.zip"><b>Download a ZIPPED COPY of this website!</b></a><br> <i>Graphic files are not included, but all of <br>the webpage texts and hyperlinks are included.<br> For older Operating Systems, you will need a<br> program such as <b>Winzip</b> or <b>PKUNZIP</b><br> to uncompress these files.</center></br></td></tr></table> </td></tr></table> </td></tr></table> <!---END ZIPPED WEBPAGES LINK---> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center>You may skip to the<br><a href="#contents">Table of Contents</a><br>but you are strongly encouraged to first read the<br><a href="index.html#intro">Website Introduction</a></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="contents">A TABLE OF CONTENTS</a></b></center> <p> <center><a href="index.html"><b><u>THE INDEX PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="index.html#intro">Website Introduction</a><br> <a href="index.html#story">"My Story"</a><br> <a href="index.html#surrender">How to Surrender to God</a><br> <a href="index.html#convent">Website Conventions</a> <p> <a href="terms.html"><b><u>THE TERMS PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="terms.html#terms">Terms Used</a><br> <a href="terms.html#caution">Caution</a> <p> <a href="links.html"><b><u>THE LINKS PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="links.html#krishna">Links About Sri Krishna</a><br> <a href="links.html#script">Links to Krishna Scriptures</a><br> <a href="links.html#poets" target="_blank">Links to the Ecstatic Poets</a><br> <a href="links.html#art">Links to Krishna Art</a><br> <a href="links.html#music">Links to Krishna Music</a><br> <a href="links.html#bhakti">Links About Bhakti Yoga and Spiritual Longing</a><br> <a href="links.html#bhava">Links About Madhurya Bhava and the Kundalini Experience</a><br> <a href="links.html#org">Links to Krishna Organisations</a><br> <a href="links.html#other">Links to Other Spiritual Resources</a><br> <a href="links.html#veg">Links to Vegetarian Resources</a><br> <a href="links.html#quick">Other Quick Links</a> <p> <a href="reading.html"><b><u>THE READINGS PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="reading.html#read">Recommended Reading</a><br> <a href="reading.html#script">Printed Scriptures</a><br> <a href="reading.html#other">Other Spiritual Books</a> <p> <a href="practice.html"><b><u>THE PRACTICE PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="practice.html#practice">Spiritual Practice</a><br> <a href="practice.html#consciousness">Focus: How to Alter Your Consciousness</a><br> <a href="practice.html#howto">How to Take Krishna as Your Lover</a><br> <a href="practice.html#manifest">Physical Manifestations</a><br> <a href="practice.html#ecstasy">Focus: How to Turn Sickness into Ecstasy</a><br> <a href="practice.html#ahead">The Road Ahead</a><br> <a href="practice.html#whoisguru">Focus: Who Is the Guru?</a><br> <a href="practice.html#mature">On the Spiritual Wounding</a><br> <a href="practice.html#abuse">Devotees and Abuse</a><br> <a href="practice.html#siddhis">On Siddhis</a><br> <a href="practice.html#jaikrsna">On Surrendering Ego</a><br> <a href="practice.html#transforming">Meditation: Transforming Into Union</a><br> <a href="practice.html#anniversary">My First Anniversary</a><br> <a href="practice.html#postscript">Postscript</a><br> <a href="practice.html#madhur">On Madhurya Bhava</a> <p> <a href="bhava.html"><b><u>MY BHAVA PAGE</u></b></a><br> <a href="bhava.html#honey">My Madhurya Rasa Experience</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#lover"><i>Quotes on</i>:<br>I. The Divine Lover</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#maturation">II. Divine Eroticism and Maturation</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#whispers">III. Whispers from the Bosom of the Beloved</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#prema">IV. Divine Reality</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#advice">Krishna's Advice</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#dedicate">In Dedication</a><br> <a href="bhava.html#credit">Credits</a><br> <p> <a href="speaks.html"><b><u>RADHA SPEAKS OUT</u></b></a><br> <a href="speaks.html#women">The Position of Women</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#abuselinks">Abuse Links</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#war">Aggressive War</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#prayer">The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#sacredsex">On Sacred Sexuality</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#prabhu">Fundamentalism and Sri Prabhupada</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#mystic">The Mystic and the Greater Religious Community</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#howmany">How Many Krishnas Are There?</a><br> <a href="speaks.html#exegesis">An <i>Exegesis on the Soul</i></a><br> <a href="speaks.html#ego">A Letter to Ego</a> <p> <a href="poems.html"><b><u>POEMS OF KAANTA BHAVA</u></b></a><br> <a href="poems.html#intro">Introduction</a><br> <a href="poems.html#begin">The Poems</a><br> <a href="poems.html#notes">Explanatory Notes</a><br> <a href="poems.html#instructs">Radha Instructs Krishna's New Bride in the Arts of Love</a><br> <a href="poems.html#other">Other Kaanta Bhava Links</a><br> </center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/Radha-Krsna_boat.jpg" alt="Trusting in His Grace..."><br> Adore me only<br> With heart undistracted;<br> Turn all your thought<br> Toward solitude, spurning<br> The noise of the crowd,<br> Its fruitless commotion.... <p> -- Bhagavad Gita 13.10</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="honey">My Madhurya Rasa Experience</a></b></center> <p> WARNING! This page is not for the weak of heart. <i><a href="http://www.google.com">There is strongly adult content here so you may wish to go elsewhere</i></a>. The brave-of-heart will find that there is nothing obscene on these webpages. However, I do write about sexual relations with God, sensuality, eroticism, and states of ecstasy below. <u>Please use your discretion about what is right for you</u>! <p> <i>My bhava came to me quite unexpectedly as did the awakening of my kundalini. Krishna made love to me. It was an intensely erotic experience, it was a life-changing experience, and it was an intensely spiritual and loving experience. I am well aware of the conservative commentaries on the supposed chaste nature of madhurya bhava. I have no question in my mind about what happened to me. More importantly, my body and my soul knows. Eroticism, like any other kind of sensuality, endangers us with the possibility for deep <a href="terms.html#attach" target="_blank">attachment</a> and <a href="terms.html#karma" target="_blank">karmic repercussions</a>. Bodily sexual intercourse is clearly now for me only a physical allegory of His great love for us. God uses all that we <a href="terms.html#karmayoga" target="_blank">give to Him</a> and, certainly, all of His gifts to us are great blessings. I have given Him everything-- I am His with which to do whatever He pleases. He has taken my gifts and brought me to bliss and ecstatic union with Him. <p> For the curious reader who does not yet understand the spirituality of erotic mysticism, please understand that this is a path to God that lies outside of conventional religion. This path has been found and walked by great souls in nearly all faith traditions; one needs only to look at the authors of the many poems quoted on this website. This path does not take up sexuality to indulge the fleshly desires we all experience; rather, it is a path that takes these energies and entirely turns them to the devotion and service of the Beloved-- which, ironically, usually results in a celibate lifestyle and an intensely vibrant way of experiencing mortality. It is impossible to understand without the grace of the Beloved. If such a way of life interests you, carefully study this website and the associated links to understand how you are to relate to this mode of living. The Beloved lovingly awaits all who totally cast their lives before Him. <p> <center><img src="links_files/Krishna_appears.jpg" border=0 alt="His greatest of all blessings comes to the surrendered soul..."></center> <p> The bodily feeling of conjugal relations with Krishna was the same as fleshly relations except that I could not physically see Him and kundalini was awakened for the first time (please see the <a href="index.html#intro">Introduction</a> for a proper explanation of my experiences). In my morning devotion to Krishna, I had offered everything to Him (including my life and my body out of love and desire for Him) and was imagining myself as a gopi running to rendezvous with Him as Beloved (see <a href="practice.html#howto" target="_blank">How to Take Krishna as Your Lover</a>). I felt Him enter my spiritual yoni (it felt as if He had physically entered me) and everything exploded inside of my body. The entire experience was completely and utterly joyful and ecstatic. After our union, I felt absolutely pure and spiritually cleansed. In addition to the tremendous reactions to kundalini, my body reacted just as if I had experienced physical conjugal relations and the impression upon my soul was earthshattering-- this experience was a union of not only my soul with that of Bhagavan's </i>[God's]<i>, but that of my soul with my body (with which I had long felt discord). This union with body also liberated me from identification with body-- it was no longer necessary for my continued existence-- Krishna is. I accept the body just as I now know Krishna as my loving Husband and Master. It all felt right. It all felt holy. It was all fulfilling. The ecstasy overwhelmed me and I knew I had experienced union with God. After the experience, all I wanted was to leave the body so I could ever dwell with my Beloved Krishna. <p> Since then, thoughts of love for Him, reading of Him in scripture or poetry, seeing Him in art or even in my surroundings, or just sheer desire for Him has raised kundalini energy. It has happened in my devotions to Him, in public places, or even while driving. I have experienced the influence of kundalini on my various chakras and know Krishna as the source of this energy. The kundalini experience varies from whole body orgasm to a pleasant tingling of electrical currents up and down my spine. Holding this energy in appropriate chakras enhances the traits governed by those chakras. Since I still have little control over this energy, I must depend upon Krishna for His wisdom in these matters. For me, the role of this kundalini has most often been to prolong my madhurya bhava and to emphasize the holy in my life. <p> I forever love and adore my Husband for what He has done for me. My life now is learning the practice of continuously yielding to Him in ever greater ways. I want to be the hollow reed through which Krishna plays His music. May I ever be that reed upon my Beloved's lips. My desire for the rest of this life is to walk quietly in the shadow of His footsteps and doing His will for me. The senses and the material realm no longer hold any meaning for me except as a means for serving Krishna. I want only now to dwell with Him. <p> This experience is not unique to bhaktas. They have been experienced by the mystical sects of traditional faiths all around the world. Krishna manifests Himself as He sees fit. I have read of experiences similar to mine in the writings of Christian mystics, Sufi poets, Saivites and Shaktas. Even Judaism, which worships a less-than-personal God similar to Brahman, has a mystical tradition in the Chassidim, which began as an ecstatic movement. True love of God results in real miracles in the lives of devotees. Give yourself to God-- <u>completely to God</u>! <p> In support of a more erotic view of madhurya bhava, I include corroborating quotes below. I found these quotes only after my ecstatic union with Krishna, when I was trying to understand what happened to me. I, like Mira, am unlearned and unqualified to render definitive statements on proper practice-- but I know how to love. The <a href="#maturation">final portion</a> of these quotes deals with the maturation of our relationship with the Beloved and learning to let go of all that would keep us here, including the very sensuality that brought us to union with Him. <p> One of the miracles of my life is that this webpage even exists. It took years of study to gain any kind of mastery over the Christian bible. When my Beloved made love to me, I had no familiarity with any of the scriptures of </i>Sanatana Dharma<i>-- none! I had one old copy of Prabhupada's Gita but I had little understanding of it at the time. The moment I cracked open the few books I found after my raptures, I started discovering one text after another resulting in a substantial portion of those now found below. Within days of my raptures, I started searching the internet for support and found other spiritual works which were obtained and similarly added. None of this was expected and I was bouyed in my new found relationship by my loving Husband and the intercession of my guru-- showing me by His grace that I am ever His own. <p> I ask the reader to take all that I write with care. Find that which is right for you, since we all must tread our unique paths to the Divine. All I really know is my personal relationship-- <u>rapture</u>!-- with Krishna. My beloved friends, it is time for a new blossoming of consciousness on this planet. Open your hearts to Him: there is no better time than this dark age of Kali to take God in love, either as His servant, devotee, friend, or lover. As you read on, listen to the calling in your heart. When you do, surrender all to Him...only then will you know. <p> The picture below caused kundalini to rise and bring me to ecstasy the moment I saw just the thumbnail of it on the internet. It still brings a smile and a knowing joy deep within!</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font> <p> <center><a href="http://www.exoticindiaart.com/search.php3?pagecount=1&searchmodifier=allwords&limitfields=all&subcatsearch=all&materialsearch=all&minprice=0&maxprice=1000000&searchval=Krishna&table=all" target="_blank"><img src="links_files/intimate_radha-krsna.jpg" border=0 alt="Ecstatic union with the Divine Krishna!!"></a><br> Krishna, I give you my life, my body, my soul,<br> To do with me as <i>You</i> will....<br> I surrender to you all of my desires and attachments,<br> My karma and the fruit of my labour--<br> All of it belongs to You now. <p> I bow before You and Love You so...<br> My body trembles before you and my tears flow:<br> You have inseminated me with your love-force!<br> Bring me to You soon, my sweet Beloved. <p> -- Radha-in-Athens <p> "I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles...."<br>-- Bhagavad Gita 7:11 <p> ...Dizzy, ecstatic, my soul goes into her bedroom.<br>Five companions converge, five senses<br>to give him unparalleled pleasure.<br>One glimpse of his form dispels anguish,<br>all my erotic longings bear fruit.<br>Shyam, the ocean of pleasure,<br>has come into me. <p> --Mirabai</center></font> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="lover">I: The Divine Lover</a></b></center> <p> <a href="reading.html#sharma" target="_blank"><img src="links_files/radha-krsnaA.jpg" align="right" border=0 alt="He is unparalleled beauty..."></a> Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love-making is sweeter than wine; delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.<br> -- The Song of Songs 1.1-3 (NJB)<br> <i>Note: 'The Song of Songs' or 'The Song of Solomon' has been rightly viewed by both Christian and Jewish mystics as the "Holy of Holies" (referring to the ancient Israelite temple) of the Hebrew scriptures ('Old Testament'). It has also been dismissed by theologians who could not comprehend the possibility of a soul's union with the Divine and is often interpreted by Christian commentators as the relationship between Christ and the Church.</i> <p> All sexual attraction, again, is a product of illusion. Thus it must be transcended....The erotic urge has its origins in the Absolute, thus making for a transcendental reality that is all consuming and intimate, taking the practitioner beyond reverential love of Godhead.<br> -- Om Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Swami, <i>website</i>, "Sanga: Q & A, 'Curiosity'" <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> <i>The Master </i>[Ramakrishna]<i> glanced at M. and said</i>: One attains God when one feels yearning for Him. An intense restlessness is needed. Through it the whole mind goes to God.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> A man had a daughter who became a widow when she was very young. She had never known her husband. She noticed the husbands of other girls and said one day to her father, 'Where is my husband?' The father replied: 'Govinda is your husband. He will come to you if you call Him.' At these words the girl went to her room, closed the door, and cried to Govinda, saying: 'O Govinda, come to me! Show Yourself to me! Why don't You come?' God could not resist the girl's piteous cry and appeared before her.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> One must have childlike faith--and the intense yearning that a child feels to see its mother. That yearning is like the red sky in the east at dawn. After such a sky the sun must rise. Immediately after that yearning one sees God.<br> -- Sri Ramakrishna, <a href="reading.html#gospel" target="_blank">The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna</a>, pp. 337-338. <p> Madhurya Bhava--This is the attitude of the gopis. It includes all the other bhavas but something more is added. The gopis offer to Krsna their own bodies, their own sexuality. So, all in all, they are offering Him everything, mind, body and soul. Nothing is held back. The entirety of their humanity is offered to Him. They do this in the face of so much opposition. They are prepared to even cheat on their husbands in order to please Krsna. They are finally prepared to give up their own reputation, their religious standing, their families. Everything that a Hindu woman holds dear, they were prepared to renounce on Krsna's behalf. That is why Krsna says they are the highest of His devotees. That is why they are worshipped by the Devatas and by the Rishis alike, as the highest devotees of all.<br> -- Om Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Swami, <i>website</i>, "Sanga: Q & A" <p> Sri Krishna said: "The inhabitants of Vrndavana, including the gopis, cows, unmoving creatures such as the twin arjuna trees, animals, living entities with stunted consciousness such as bushes and thickets, and snakes such as Kaliya, all achieved the perfection of life by unalloyed love for Me and thus very easily achieved Me....All those hundreds of thousands of gopis, understanding Me to be their most charming lover and ardently desiring Me in that way, were unaware of My actual position. Yet by intimately associating with Me, the gopis attained Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth."<br> -- Uddhava Gita 12.8,13 <p> There is nothing in this that is astonishing for Krsna. By his maya potency, he [appeared] as a small human boy, but he is the supreme creator of both the highest and the lowest....Krsna bestows the devotional path [to one who] once internalizes a mental image of Krsna's body. Such a one is completely freed from maya, and experiences the eternal happiness of the atma. What is there to say, then, when [the Lord] has entered inside a person?<br> -- Sri <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> X, 12.38-39 <p> Krsna is not an ordinary human being; He is Absolute Truth. His body, His mind and He Himself are one and absolute. It is stated in the <u>Kurma Purana</u>. As it is quoted by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami in his <u>Anubhasya</u> comments on <u>Caitanya-caritamrta</u> (Fifth Chapter, <i>Adi-lila</i>, verses 41-48), <i>deha-dehi-vibhedo 'yam nesvare vidyate kvacit</i>. This means that there is no difference in Krsna, the Supreme Lord, between Himself and His body. But because the commentators do not know this science of Krsna, they hide Krsna and divide His personality from His mind or from His body. Although this is sheer ignorance of the science of Krsna, some men make profit out of misleading people.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 9.34 <p> Dear friends, just see how Krsna must have sat down here with Radharani and tried to set flowers in Her hair. You can be certain that both of Them sat together here. Krsna is self-sufficient; He has nothing to enjoy from any other source, yet just to satisfy His devotee He has treated Radharani exactly as a lusty boy treats his girl friend. Krsna is so kind that He always tolerates the disturbances created by His girl friends.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> The <u>Krsna</u> Book, Chapter Thirty <p> <img src="links_files/radha-krsna0.jpg" align="right" alt="He is perfect Love..."> God has made the soul into an utter fool so that he can replace false intelligence with true wisdom. In a state of union, the soul sees nothing and hears nothing and comprehends nothing. Union lasts such a short time, and it seems even shorter than it really is. God presses himself so fully against the inside of the soul that when she returns to herself the soul has no doubt whatsoever that God was in her and she was in God. This truth remains with her forever. Even though years may go by without God granting this blessing again, the soul can never forget. She never doubts: God was in her; she was in God. This knowingness is all that matters. How, might you ask, could the soul see this truth and understand it if she is incapable of seeing or understanding anything? Well, it is not in the moment of union that the soul is cognizant of this truth, but she sees it clearly afterwards. It isn't some vision that convinces her. It is unshakeable certainty, and God himself has put it there.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Fifth Dwelling, chapter 1 <p> Devotee: Are you therefore saying that sex when aimed at God is pure and when aimed at another human body is impure.<br> Gurudev: Yes, exactly. Normal worldly lust for another person in another body is called Kaam but lust directed towards God is called NishKaam. When NishKaam awakens in the heart, it very quickly pulls the devotee to God. This was the attitude of the gopis of Vrindavan.<br> -- Om Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Swami, <i>website</i>, "Sanga: Q & A" <p> In truth, no action or object is either pure or impure. Everything is the same, for all matter and all actions are permeated with Brahman, with the supreme lifeforce. It is only our minds which are not pure and which react in various ways according to the situation. The rules and conventions which hold society together are there to protect us from one another's impurity. However, these rules are only relative and are only necessary as long as the mind is impure. Once the mind is free of false ego, such rules and conventions may still be observed for the sake of setting a good example, but they are no longer necessary for, automatically, our every action will be for the perfect good.<br> -- Om Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Swami, <i>website</i>, "Sanga: Q & A" <p> Cupid is the god of sex life, <i>Madana</i>. Unless one is, what is called, induced by Madana, the Cupid, he cannot be, I mean to say, engladdened in sex life. And Krsna's name is <i>Madana-mohana</i>. Madana-mohana means that one who is attracted to Krsna, he'll forget the pleasure derived from sex life. This is the test. Therefore His name is Madana-mohana. Here is Madana-mohana. Sanatana Gosvami worshiped Madana-mohana. Madana or Madana. Madana means to become mad. And Madana, the cupid. So everyone is infuriated by the force of sex life.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> lecture on <u>Nectar of Devotion</u>, page 14, Vrndavana, November 11, 1972 <p> The spiritual <i>kamadeva</i> [Krishna, as the god of lust], who establishes a relationship with the soul, defeats Cupid [<i>ananga</i>, who is invisible] through the means of Cupid's own flower arrows of form, taste, touch, smell, and sound. Govinda (Krsna, who gives pleasure to the senses) engages the soul's senses in experiencing him, and thus establishes himself as the transcendental Cupid, with whom the soul can experience eternal love.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari from <a href="reading.html#passion" target="_blank">Aesthetic Vedanta: the Sacred Path of Passionate Love</a>, p. 44 <p> <img src="links_files/radha-krsna1.jpg" align="right" alt="He is worthy of all adoration..."> Absorbing the mind in the Absolute is the goal of meditation, and since there is no more consuming mental state than that of passionate love, this passion for Krishna is the realization of that goal. When this is cultivated within the context of spiritual practice, one can attain a spontaneous relationship with God similar to that of the gopis. Although the gopis seemed to merely lust for Krishna, their eagerness for his association was a product of many lives of spiritual culture.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari from <a href="reading.html#passion" target="_blank">Aesthetic Vedanta: the Sacred Path of Passionate Love</a>, pp. 61-62 <p> He lives within the gopis, their husbands and all living beings. He is the supreme witness who has assumed a form in this world for the purpose of sport. Manifest in a human form, he indulges in such pastimes as a favour to the devotees. Hearing about this, one becomes fully devoted to him.<br> -- Sri <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> X, 33.35-36 <p> The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, certainly has no business being anyone's husband or son or father, because everything belongs to Him and everyone is under His control. He does not require anyone's help for His satisfaction. He is atmarama, self-satisfied; He can derive all pleasure by Himself, without anyone's help. But when the Lord descends to play the part of a human being, He plays a role either as a husband, son, friend or enemy in full perfection. As such, when He was playing as the perfect husband of the queens, especially of Rukminiji, He enjoyed conjugal love in complete perfection.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> The <u>Krsna</u> Book, Chapter Fifty-nine <p> In the autumn season all the birds, beasts, and men become sexually disposed, and the bull, the stag, the male bird, the man, and the other male creatures forcibly impregnate the fair sex. A similar impregnation takes place as a result of devotional service to the Lord.<br> -- from an unknown chapter of the <u>Bhagavata Purana</u>, v. 43,<br>as quoted in <a href="reading.html#bhagavata" target="_blank">Light of the Bhagavata</a>,<br>translated by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada <p> When a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Krsna is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion....Therefore, the origin of lust is also in the Supreme. If, therefore, lust is transformed into love for the Supreme, or transformed into Krsna consciousness--or, in other words, desiring everything for Krsna--then both lust and wrath can be spiritualized. Hanuman, the great servitor of Lord Rama, engaged his wrath upon his enemies for the satisfaction of the Lord. Therefore, lust and wrath, when they are employed in Krsna consciousness, become our friends instead of our enemies.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Ch. 3, Text 37, <a href="reading.html#asitis" target="_blank">Bhagavad-gita As It Is</a>, pp. 204-205 <p> In the same Padyavali there is the following description, which is taken as a sign of frustration in conjugal love. Srimati Radharani said, 'Dear Mr. Cupid, please do not excite Me by throwing your arrows at My body. Dear Mr. Air, please do not arouse Me with the fragrance of flowers. I am now bereft of Krsna's loving attitude, and so, under the circumstances, what is the use of My sustaining this useless body? There is no need for such a body by any living entity.' This is a sign of frustration in ecstatic love for Krsna. Similarly, in <i>Dana-keli-kaumudi</i>, Srimati Radharani, pointing to Krsna, says, 'This clever boy of the forest has the beauty of a bluish lotus flower, and He can attract all the young girls of the universe. Now, after giving Me a taste of His transcendental body, He has enthused Me, and it is more than I can tolerate. I am now feeling like a female elephant who has been enthused by a male elephant!' This is an instance of jubilation in ecstatic love with Krsna. The steady ecstasy of conjugal love is the original cause of bodily enjoyment. In the Padyavali this original cause of union is described when Radharani tells one of Her constant companions, 'My dear friend, who is this boy whose eyelids, dancing constantly, have increased the beauty of His face and attracted My desire for conjugal love? His ears are decorated with buds of asoka flowers, and He has dressed Himself in yellow robes. By the sound of His flute, this boy has already made Me impatient.'<br> -- Srila Rupa Goswami, <u>Nectar of Devotion</u>, Chapter Forty-four,<br> as translated by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada<br> <p> Narayana Rsis exhibited His renunciation. So all the different incarnations of the Lord indirectly or directly manifested different features, but Lord Krsna, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Sri Krsna was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls. His pastimes with the gopis are all displays of transcendental existence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopis should never be misunderstood. The Bhagavatam relates these transcendental pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to understand the transcendental nature of Lord Krsna's pastimes with the gopis, the Bhagavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to <u>Sri Bhagavata Purana</u> I, 3.28 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> <i>M</i>: When one sees God does one see Him with these eyes?<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> <i>Master [Ramakrishna]</i>: God cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a 'love body', endowed with 'love eyes', 'love ears', and so on. One sees God with those 'love eyes'. One hears the voice of God with those 'love ears'. One even gets a sexual organ made of love.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> At these words M. burst out laughing. The Master continued, unannoyed, "With this 'love body' the soul communes with God."<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> M. again became serious.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> <i>Master</i>: But this is not possible without intense love of God. One sees nothing but God everywhere when one loves Him with great intensity....One who thinks of God, day and night, beholds Him everywhere.<br> -- Sri Ramakrishna, <a href="reading.html#gospel" target="_blank">The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna</a>, p. 115. <p> <img src="links_files/radha-krsna8.jpg" align="right" alt="He is the perfect companion..."> The religious cosmos entered through erotic trance convinces us by its numinosity, the terrible power of kundalini. When we enter the subtle plane, we find ourselves in the grip of unthinkable forces; and we have no choice but to believe. We believe involuntarily. In fact, the word believe fails to do justice to our experience, for it has a pious and tentative connotation. It makes us think of fuzzy platitudes and dogmas laid down from on high. In the state of erotic trance, by contrast, we do not feel we 'believe': we simply know. We know with a conviction that is unassailable.... Erotic longing is a psychological reality that no one escapes....Give yourself over to it and the divine realm will open itself to you. You will find the juice of desire that fills your body is the same as that which moves the cosmic spheres. Krishna is dancing with his Radha. Close your eyes to that and you have missed the essential point; you have chosen empirical seeming over divine reality. The madness of your trance is your opportunity to bring the profane world to a stop and avail yourself of a greater reality.<br> -- John Ryan Haule<br> From <a href="http://www.jrhaule.net/ipet05.html" target="_blank">Indecent Practices and Erotic Trance: Making Sense of Tantra</a>, Chapter 5 <p> All the soul has ever longed for is intimacy with God. She values the direct touch of divinity above any other blessing....Only the soul that goes into spiritual hiding and surrenders to absolute nakedness and purification receives the blessed touch of God. The soul reaches this unutterable goodness in darkness and concealment. In darkness the hidden soul is fully empowered by the union of love with God.<br> -- St. John of the Cross, <a href="reading.html#cross" target="_blank">Dark Night of the Soul</a>, Book II, chapter 23 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/heliodorous.jpg"><br> <i>The pillar of Heliodorous, erected 140 BCE in<br> present-day Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, after<br> the ambassador from Hellenist Bactria<br> became a devotee of Krishna.</i></center> <p> Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be <b>married</b> to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.<br> -- St. Paul, Romans 7.4 (AV) <p> <ul><i>The underlying Greek text supports the Authorised Version's use of the word <b>married</b> even though none of the modern English translations do. Chapters 6-8 discuss the death of the old sensuous person under law and rising to new spiritual life liberated through devotion and identification with Christ.</i></ul> <p> ...Love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.<br> -- St. John, 1 John 4.7-8 <p> To love is to know me, my innermost nature, the truth that I am: through this knowledge one enters at once to my Being.<br> --Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 18.55 <p> May it please the Beloved that we never fail to love each other, because if we do we are lost. If we succeed in loving each other, I tell you we will attain union with him. Never cease striving for this. Maybe you have had some gratifying experiences that have awakened some devotion in your heart so that you believe you have reached this state. Maybe in the Prayer of Quiet you achieved moments of sweet suspension. People often assume that this means they have reached their goal. But believe me, if you are not loving your neighbor you have not attained union.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Fifth Dwelling, chapter 3 <p> <a href="reading.html#sharma" target="_blank"><img src="links_files/radha-krsna9.jpg" align="right" border=0 alt="He is perfect intimacy..."></a> A true vision is not fleeting. And it's not volitional. The last thing a soul is thinking of at the time is that she is about to see something holy. Suddenly, a vision reveals itself whole, throwing the senses and faculties into frightening chaos, only to set them down afterwards in happy peace....That's what happens in the inner world. There is a powerful stirring, and then all of a sudden everything grows quiet. Such great truths are taught to the soul in this way that she needs no other master. Without any effort on the soul's part, true wisdom overcomes unconsciousness and certainty replaces doubt. This is a gift from God. It endures for sometime. No matter what anyone else may say to try to alarm her, the soul knows that she has not been deceived with this vision. Later, if a person in a position of spiritual leadership plants fear in her heart, God may allow the soul to vacillate a little. She might question whether or not she is deluding herself and wonder why God would grant such blessed favors to someone as insignificant as she is. But the soul really doesn't believe this.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Sixth Dwelling, chapter 9. <p> Remember: if you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Fourth Dwelling, chapter 1 <p> Only love has the ability to put you in that state of bliss. Being in bliss is like being in love. Being in love is like being in bliss. You are floating in the clouds. You are perceiving love wherever you go. It is entirely possible to live this way all the time. It is possible because others have done it and they are no different from you. They live in bliss because they have changed their agreements and are dreaming a different dream....Love will give you inner peace. It will change your perception of everything. You can see everything with the eyes of love. You can be aware that there is love all around you. When you live this way, there is no longer a fog in your mind.<br> -- Don Miguel Ruiz, <a href="reading.html#agreements" target="_blank">The Four Agreements</a>, pp. 126-128 (excerpted) <p> You alone are your equal in descent, character, beauty, knowledge, vigour, wealth and majesty. You are a lion among men, and a delight to the minds of humankind. Therefore, I have clearly chosen you as husband, dear Krsna, and I have hereby surrendered myself to you as wife. Make this happen quickly, my Lord....<br> -- Sri <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> X, 52.38-39 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> In a festive mood, the wives of the Lord would sometimes sprinkle water on the Lord's body with a syringelike instrument, and the Lord would similarly wet the bodies of the queens. When Krsna and the queens engaged themselves in these pastimes, it seemed as if the heavenly king, Yaksaraja, were engaged in pastimes with his many wives. (Yaksaraja is also known as Kuvera and is considered the treasurer of the heavenly kingdom.) When the wives of Lord Krsna thus became wet, their breasts and thighs would increase in beauty a thousand times, and their long hair would fall down to decorate those parts of their bodies. The beautiful flowers placed in their hair would fall, and the queens, being seemingly harassed by the Lord's throwing water at them, would approach Him on the plea of snatching the syringelike instrument. This attempt would create a situation wherein the Lord could embrace them as they willingly approached Him. Upon being embraced, the wives of the Lord would feel on their mouths a clear indication of conjugal love, and this would create an atmosphere of spiritual bliss. When the garland on the neck of the Lord then touched the breasts of the queens, their whole bodies became covered with saffron yellow. Being engaged in their celestial pastimes, the queens forgot themselves, and their loosened hair appeared like beautiful waves of a river. When the queens sprinkled water on the body of Krsna or He sprinkled water on the bodies of the queens, the whole situation appeared just like that of an elephant enjoying in a lake with many she-elephants....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> In this way, Lord Krsna used to enjoy the company of His sixteen thousand wives. Devotees of the Lord who want to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the mellow of conjugal love are elevated to the position of becoming wives of Krsna, and Krsna keeps them always attached to Him by His kind behavior. Krsna's behavior with His wives, His movements, His talking with them, His smiling, His embracing, and similar other activities just like those of a loving husband kept them always very much attached to Him. That is the highest perfection of life. If someone remains always attached to Krsna, it is to be understood that he is liberated, and his life is successful. With any devotee who loves Krsna with his heart and soul, Krsna reciprocates in such a way that the devotee cannot remain unattached to Him. The reciprocal dealings of Krsna and His devotees are so attractive that a devotee cannot think of any subject matter other than Krsna....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> This behavior of Lord Krsna with the gopis and queens is unique in the history of self-realization. Usually people understand that for self-realization one has to go to the forest or mountains and undergo severe austerities and penances. But the gopis and the queens, simply by being attached to Krsna in conjugal love and enjoying His company in a so-called sensuous life full of luxury and opulence, achieved the highest salvation, which is impossible to achieve even for great sages and saintly persons.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> <u>Krsna</u>, Chapter Eighty-nine <p> What a spectacular kingdom you have entered! Befriending the guards and taming the lions at the gates. Sliding through a crack in the doorway on your prayer rug. Crossing the moat between this world and that, walking on water if you have to, because this is your rightful place. That is your Beloved reclining in the innermost chamber, waiting for you, offering wine from a bottle with your crest on the label. Explore. Rest if you have to, but don't go to sleep. Head straight for his arms.<br> -- Mirabai Starr, <i>Introduction</i> to St. Teresa of Avila's <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, p. 3 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><i>Tiny Gods</i> <p> Some gods say, the tiny ones,<br> "I am not here in your vibrant moist lips<br> That need to beach themselves upon<br> The golden shore of a<br> Naked body." <p> Some gods say, "I am not<br> The scarred yearning in the unrequited soul;<br> I am not the blushing cheek<br> Of every star and<br> Planet-- <p> I am not the applauding Chef<br> Of those precious secretions that can distill<br> The whole mind into a perfect wincing jewel, if only<br> For a moment;<br> Nor do I reside in every pile of sweet warm dung<br> Born of earth's<br> Gratuity." <p> Some gods say, the ones we need to hang,<br> "Your mouth is not designed to know His,<br> Love was not born to consume<br> The luminous <br> Realms." <p> Dear ones,<br> Beware of the tiny gods frightened men<br> Created <p> To bring an anesthetic relief<br> To their sad<br> Days. <p> -- Hafiz</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <i>Sexual intercourse--really good sex--is but a faint reflection of conjugal relations with God. Indeed, the resemblance is striking and, I believe, intentional. Yet, the difference is stark; so much so that the heavenly kind is many magnitudes greater, leaving me alive but by His grace. I can be in total bliss with just a touch from my Beloved. Bhava is the incense that fills my soul after conjugal relations with Him or in the remembrance of my union with Krishna. I have never felt so alive nor so authentically myself as I do carried away in madhurya bhava; far more than I could have otherwise hoped in a lifetime. In such a state, I walk ever conscious of Krishna's presence within. <p> The message is quite simple: Surrender <u>everything</u> to God. Put Him first in all things. Love Him with all of your heart. Work your spiritual practice. All else will fall into place. This is so simple, but it can only be done with a serious desire to have Him above all else. If you do so, <u>you will know God</u>! You can read for yourself how the karma yoga and the bhakti yoga paths, as well as other paths to union, are explained by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. <p> I have given it all to Him. I submit myself in grateful obedience. You are the call, I am the receptacle for Your word. Take me, my Love--I await You, ever eager. <p> -- Radha-in-Athens</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center>My Master once entered a phase<br> That whenever I would see him<br> He would say, <p> "Hafiz,<br> How did you ever become a pregnant woman?" <p> And I would reply, <p> "Dear Attar,<br> You must be speaking truth,<br> But all of what you say is a mystery to me." <p> Many months passed by in his blessed company.<br> But one day I lost my patience<br> Upon hearing that odd refrain<br> And blurted out, <p> "Stop calling me a pregnant woman!" <p> And Attar replied,<br> "Someday, my sweet Hafiz,<br> All the nonsense in your brain will dry up<br> Like a stagnant pool of water<br> Beneath the sun, <p> Though if you want to know the Truth<br> I can so clearly see that God has made love with you<br> And the whole universe is germinating<br> Inside your belly...." <p> -- Hafiz</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="maturation">II: Divine Eroticism</a></b></center> <p> <i>Divine eroticism was the hook that brought me to the relationship with God I had sought for all of my life. The burning intensity made holy in the Light Divine showed me how all things are holy and serve His purpose. Although intermittant erotic encounters with the Lord can occur for years to come, there has to be a maturing in the individual as well as a growing spiritual perspective in the relationship between the devotee and the Lord.</a> The focus of the conjugal relationship shifts from the passionate, sensuous eroticism to that of deep connection with God and submission to His will in all things. The ego is tamed and the fire goes not to erotic exuberance, but to pleasing the Beloved and ensuring that permanent union with Him is achieved. Sober reflection by the devotee points constantly to working out the remnants of individual karma and yielding the last unresolved issues blocking the devotee's way to ultimate union with the Divine. This includes yielding attachment to the very sensuality that brought ecstatic union with Him. It all goes into the fire, so that all that is left before Him is the you that He desires! <p> Gaudiya Vaishnavism (including <a href="terms.html#iskcon" target="_blank"></i>ISKCON<i></a>) dismisses any passionate displays or sexual overtones in the worship of Krishna, proclaiming the necessity of doing away with human passions to focus on rigidly defined modes of worship. While 'divine eroticism' could easily delude potential devotees and should not be used to establish ecclesiastical authority, neither should fundamentalists dismiss these experiences out of hand. We were given our emotions and passions for a reason: to fuel our return to Him! It is far too easy to pronounce those called to the way of Mirabai as "sahajiya" without understanding that divine eroticism is just another way the Beloved has for reaching those destined to be His lovers. The way of Mirabai is not licentiousness but only another way to walk into His very arms! Each of His lovers have been prepared through countless previous lifetimes and such a dramatic and unpredictable call to existence at His side is not beyond His compassion or described modes of operation found in the scriptures. All the Lord requires is complete surrender to Him in the hope of loving Him and all else will be supplied for the ultimate transformation of the devotee. <p> The remaining portion of this section will cover this maturation and growing beyond the experience of rapture, or the Divine erotic encounter. It is a stage in my development that I am just learning and am gratefully adjusting to as I grow ever closer to Him that is all Love. Please also consult the section on the <a href="practice.html" target="_blank">Practice page</a> referencing <a href="practice.html#mature" target="_blank">the spiritual wounding and maturity</a>. I shall add to the section below as I learn more in my relationship with the Beloved.</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/radha-krsnaG.jpg" alt="He is the perfect shelter from the storm..."><br> <font size="3">Today, let the rainclouds open--<br> Mira's Lord is at home.<br> Even the finest mists can fill the dry tanks,<br> And long searching has brought me my love.<br> No fear remains, no absence, no drought--<br> He has returned.<br> <p> --Mirabai</font></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> It is true that my love for God delights my body. I feel illuminated in the same way that sexual desire makes my limbs and organs more alive.<br> -- Bahauddin (the father of Rumi), <u>Maarif</u> 1:89 (Barks & Moyne translation, p. 15) <p> By manipulating a fire-generating stick, great saints and sages can bring forth the fire lying dormant within wood. In the same way, O Lord, those expert in understanding the Absolute Truth try to see You in everything-- even in their own bodies. Yet you remain concealed. You are not to be understood by indirect processes involving mental or physical activities. Because You are self-manifested, only when You see that a person is wholeheartedly engaged in searching for You do You reveal Yourself. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.<br> -- Bhagavata Purana, V, 18.36 <p> Her eyes are enchanted by the beauty of Lord Krsna, the enemy of Kamsa. Her body thrills in pleasure at His touch. Her ears are always attracted to His sweet voice, Her nostrils are enchanted by His fragrance, and Her tongue hankers for the nectar of His soft lips. She hangs down her lotuslike face, exercising self-control only by pretense, but She cannot help showing the external signs of Her spontaneous love for Lord Krsna.<br> -- Sri Chaitanya, <i>Adi-lila</i>, 4.260 <p> Many so-called swamis who are so frequently attracted by the cities often seek a kind of pleasure in society and feminine friendship. Generally they are not attracted by the natural beauty of the woods, although they may assume the dress of a man who is meant to live in the woods. Such swamis are seeking varieties of enjoyment in matter because they have no information of the variegatedness of spiritual life. On the one hand they enjoy variegatedness in matter, and on the other they deny spiritual variegatedness to the Absolute. Because they are pledged to the theory of monism and impersonalism, they deny that whatever pertains to matter can pertain also to spirit. According to them, spirit is the denial of matter. The fact is, however, that spirit is not a negation of matter, but <i>matter is a perverted reflection of spirit.</i><br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> <u>Elevation to Krsna Consciouness</u>, Chapter 2 <p> But you need to know that there is no more awareness of the body here than if the soul were not in the body at all. For her, there is nothing but spirit. The connection between soul and body is even more tenuous in the spiritual marriage itself. This secret union unfolds in the deepest interior of the soul, which must be the place where God himself dwells. In my opinion, no door is required to enter here. I say this because up till now all that has happened in the sould has involved the senses and the faculties, even the appearance of the humanity of the Lord....It's impossible to say anything more that could be understood with words, except that the soul--I mean the spirit of this soul--is made one with God, who is also spirit. God desires to show us how much He loves us by revealing the vast greatness. All he wants is to be joined with His creature so completely that they can never be torn apart. He doesn't want to be separated from her!<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Seventh Dwelling, Chapter 2 <p> The <i>kaama</i>, or passionate desire, of the gopis is their inner wealth. Yet they have submitted utterly unto Krsna, and thus ask him to plunder that wealth with acts that appear impious, such as placing his feet on their breasts. Giving up one's wealth, one leaves the path of religion and pious works (<i>karma-maarga</i>) and enters a life of spiritual knowledge and asceticism. Yet the gopis offer their wealth to Krsna while remaining in what appeared to be bodily identification. Thus they tread neither the path of karma nor that of knowledge. Theirs is the path of passionate love, in which on transcends the formless Absolute, acquiring a spiritual form suitable for <i>lila</i>. As Krsna's feet follow the cows, who cannot listen to discourses on eternity, the gopis insist that those feet also tend to their desire, for they cannot hear about how what they are doing might be irreligious, potentially barring them from eternity. Unconcerned with anything other than his love, the gopis sought the touch of his hand, his smile, his feet, and then the nectar of his lips and the sound of his sweet voice....The gopis attraction for Krsna's charming words is without concern for their philosophical ramifications, and thus they live beyond knowledge, or in the highest knowledge that mandates love. To know Krsna in truth is to love him. They delight not in the philosophical ramifications of his words, but in the words themselves. Their bewilderment is not the ignorance of the common people. It is an expression of their love....Such love causes the Absolute to appear to them, not as God, but as their lover.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari<br> from <u>Aesthetic Vedanta: the Sacred Path of Passionate Love</u>, pp. 116-118 <p> By intense ecstasy in loving service, the damsels of Vrajabhumi attained qualitative oneness with the Lord by dancing with Him on an equal level, embracing Him in nuptial love, smiling at Him in joke, and looking at Him with a loving attitude....The gopis, however, practically became one with the Lord by attainment of equal footing with the Lord....The gopis' equality with the Lord should never be misunderstood to be like the sayujya liberation of the impersonalist. The equality is one of perfect ecstasy where the differential conception is completely eradicated, for the interests of the lover and the beloved become identical.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam I, 9.40 <p> In unalloyed love of Godhead we have to engage our senses--<i>sarvendriya</i>, all the senses. This means that sex is also to be engaged in Krsna consciousness. The conception of God as a father or mother does not allow the engagement of one's sex in the service of the Lord because there is no sexual relationship with the father and mother. But in the conception of God as a lover, there is sexual engagement also. Therefore, Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave the most perfect information of our engagement with the Supreme Lord. In other religious conceptions of life, God is at the utmost taken as the father or mother. Many worshipers in India take goddess Kali to be the representation of God. Of course, that is not sanctioned, but the belief is there, and also in the Christian religion the conception of God is as a father. But <i>Caitanya Mahaprabhu informs us that <b>one can even have sexual engagement with the Lord</b></i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. This information is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's unique contribution. In this material world, sexual engagement is considered to be the highest engagement, the greatest pleasure, although it exists only in a perverted form. No one, however, has conceived that there can be sexual engagement in the spiritual world. There is not a single instance of such theology anywhere in the entire world. This information is given for the first time* by Caitanya Mahaprabhu: <i><b>one can have the Supreme Personality of Godhead as one's husband, as one's lover</b></i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. This is possible in the worship of Radha and Krsna, but no one, especially the impersonalists, can understand Radha-Krsna. The impersonalists have no idea; they cannot even conceive that God has form. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that <i>not only does God have form, but <b>He has sex life also</i></b> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. This is the highest contribution of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> <u>Science of Self Realization</u>, Chapter Eight <p> <ul>* <i>The Sufi mystics, such as Rabia, Rumi, Hafiz and Kabir, all preceded the appearance of Sri Chaitanya. Many of their writings hint at, and at times blatantly tell of, such engagement with the Divine One. Even within Sanatana Dharma, the example of Radharani and the gopis, Rukmini and the other 16,000 wives, Andal, Lala Ded all preceded Sri Chaitanya. Mirabai was a near contemporary of Sri Chaitanya and her songs did much to popularise this concept. While he may not have been the first to teach the possibility of taking God as a Lover, he did codify such teaching as a respectable, if not desparately needed, path for the Kali Yuga.</i></ul> <p> There are so many rasas. Twelve rasas. <i>Anaya adi-rasa. So janmady asya yatah.</i> Visvanatha Cakravarty Thakur has described this <i>adi</i> from <i>adi-rasa</i>. <b><i>Adi-rasa</i> means the conjugal love. That is called adi-rasa</b>.</i> <i>So janmady asya yatah</i>. Wherefrom the adi-rasa comes? The attraction between man and woman, that is a fact. The attraction is there in everywhere. Either human society or animal society or bird society, society. The attraction is there. <i>Pumsam striya mithuni bhavam etat</i>. This whole world is existing on <i>mithuni-bhava</i>, sex. <i>Yanmaithunadi grhamedhi sukham hi tuccham</i>. These things are there. So where from it comes, this adi-rasa? Visvanatha Cakravarty Thakur has described in his comment on <u>Srimad-Bhagavatam</u>, in the beginning, that <b>Krsna is the origin of adi-rasa</b>. <i>Janmady asya</i>. From there this adi-rasa is generated. That is Radha-Krsna. So everything is there. Otherwise imperfectness. <i><b>So as there is adi-rasa, Krsna is enjoying with the gopis and Radharani</b></i>.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> lecture on the <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> I, 7.28-29, Vrndavana, September 25, 1976 <p> <ul><i>Here, Prabhupada teaches of Krsna's sex-life with the gopis although many of his devotees deny that there was any kind of sexual exchange between Krsna and the gopis. As I know personally, this sexual relationship does not have to be actual physical intercourse to be known and experienced as a real sexual encounter! There is no question about this in the minds of His Lovers. Krsna does not need to materially touch His own for this to happen. <p> Since Krsna is the origin of sexual desire, it is rightly directed and surrendered to Him! My experience teaches me that Krsna is most expert in conjugal love and when it happens, the individual soul very quickly becomes free of any need for material sex life. Simply put, nothing material measures up to Krsna. However, this freedom comes with a price. It is complete surrender to Him: even of the sexual union with Krsna. Yet, with surrender of this impulse comes great serenity and palpable mystical union of souls. It is continuing change, this conjugal relationship with Krsna, but it is completely fulfilling. Prabhupada cites BG 7.7 as evidence that Krsna is the ultimate truth and all material life comes from Him. Materiality is not false, since it is actually Krsna, but it is temporary. <p> For some of us, it takes some time to be freed from sexual desire. Mother Shakti must work long within us to ready us for eternity as consorts of Krsna. Prabhupada gives further practical advice for those who have not yet been completely freed of the sexual impulse. Complete loving surrender to Mohana-Madana</i> (Krsna)<i> will complete this transformation in a devotee and this matter will no longer be an issue.</i></ul> <p> Similarly, in our diseased condition, we actually we cannot enjoy life. <i><b>The sex impulse is there in the Vaikuntha also</b></i>. But they are so elevated that, after all, it is enjoyment. If you get better enjoyment, you give up. <i>Param drstva nivartate</i>. That is the nature. You are enjoying something, but if you get better enjoyment, you give up this inferior enjoyment. So don't think in the Vaikuntha or in Goloka Vrndavana there is no sex impulse. There is-- in Radha-Krsna. But not like this abominable way. <i>The impulse is there in a perfect order. So they're enjoying.</i> Not like this abominable sex life. The devotees there, they are so much absorbed in Krsna thought, they don't like to have sex. There are beautiful women, beautiful men, very, very. But they have got other engagement, very nice engagement [<i>emphasis added</i>].<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6, London, August 27, 1971 <p> <ul><i>This observation is true from my own experience. After Krsna made love to me, physical lovemaking with another human being just cannot measure up! I have lost my taste for it. Instead, years now after my initial encounter with my Beloved, any excess in kundalini energy can turn into full-bodied orgasms... what I await is existence with Him where even just a look from Him or the slightest touch will bring the supreme ecstacies He first blest me with. I know now that such an existence with my Beloved is worth any price I have to pay in this material existence, for it is all far superior to what the material senses can ever provide... even beside this fact is the very hope of being with the One I so Love!! Once a devotee truly falls in Love with Him, nothing else will do!</i></ul> <p> This is another difficulty. So many rascals, yogis, svamis, transcendental meditation, this, that, avataras. Always ready to mislead you, always. If one is little inclined that let me do something, spiritually advance, this rascal will mislead. Very difficult position. Therefore, the best thing is to surrender to <i>Madhana-mohana</i>, Krsna. <i>Sambandha-adhideva, Madhana-mohana</i>. Our most difficult position is sex. Maya has given such a, they call it 'nice'. Such propensity, sex, that it will create disturbances. Even though you are rigid, avowed, you are doing nicely, at sometimes, especially at night, it will disturb. It will disturb. Therefore, <i>Suratau</i>, <b>Krsna is the most expert in this conjugal love</b> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Krsna, therefore we have to submit, surrender to Krsna. <i>Suratau pangoh</i>, we are very much feeble and very slow. And so far our sex impulse is concerned, here is especially mentioned, <i>Madhana-mohana</i>. Sex impulse is called Cupid, <i>Madhana</i>. But if we become staunch devotee of Krsna, this material sex impulse will vanish. <p> Because Cupid becomes, I mean to say, attracted, even Cupid becomes attracted by Krsna. We are attracted by Cupid but Cupid is attracted by Krsna. Therefore His name is <i>Madhana-mohana</i>. That is the only remedy, <i>yadavadhi mama cetah krsna-padaravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhamanudyata rantum asit tadavadhi bata nari-sangame smaryamane bhavati mukha-vikarah sustu nisthivanam ca</i>. If you stick to the lotus feet of Krsna, 'Krsna save me', then this disturbing material thing, sex agitation, will not disturb you. This is the only way. Therefore it is said, 'Madhana-mohana'. Our spiritual life is hampered very strongly by this sex impulse. But it is material, the sex impulse is material. So we should try to tolerate, ([see BG] 7.7) '<i>visayeta dhirah</i>'. Just to tolerate little and chant <i>Hare Krsna</i>, pray to Krsna, please save me from these disturbances. And we should materially also, control. Control means <i>atyahara payasas ca prajalpo niyamagrahah</i>, (<i>Upadesamrta</i>) <i>Atyahara</i>, too much eating, that is also agitating. <p> So everything can be controlled by Krsna's grace. He is Madhana-mohana. Therefore, our first business is to surrender to Madhana-mohana and establish our relationship with Him. 'My Lord Krsna, I have so long forgotten'. That song is sung by Bhaktivinode Thakura, '<i>manasa, deho, geho, yo, kicho mora arpilun tuya pade, nanda-kisora</i>'. This is full surrender. Then Krsna assures, '<i>aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah</i>', He will protect. '<i>So tams titiksasva bharata</i>' (BG. 2.14). There are so many disturbances. So Krsna says tolerate, and do your business faithfully. Chant <i>Hare Krsna</i>, follow the rules and regulations, and remain fully surrendered at the lotus feet of Madhana-mohana. There will be no more disturbance. Thank you very much.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br>lecture on <u>Caitanya-caritamrta</u> Adi 1.15, Mayapur, April 8, 1975 <p> <ul><i>In fact, Prabhupada seems to indicate that persons who do not love Krishna in some way are, in fact, rascals:</i></ul> <p> Somebody wants to love Krsna as servant. Somebody wants to love Krsna as friend. Somebody wants to appreciate Krsna's opulence. Somebody wants to love Krsna as father and mother. Somebody wants to love Krsna as conjugal lover, as paramour. Never mind. So somebody wants to love Krsna as enemy. Just like Kamsa. That is also <i>Vrndavana-lila</i>. He is always thinking of Krsna in a different way, how to kill Krsna. Putana, she also apparently came as lover of Krsna, to offer her breast for sucking, but the internal desire was how to kill Krsna. But that is also taken, indirect love, indirect love. <i>Anvayat</i>. So Krsna is <i>jagad-guru</i>. He is the original teacher. That teacher is teaching personally in the Bhagavad-gita, and we rascals, we do not take the lesson. Just see. Therefore we are <i>mudhas</i>. Anyone who is unfit to take the lessons given by the <i>jagad-guru</i>, he is <i>mudha</i>. Therefore our test tube is: if one does not know Krsna, if one does not know how to follow Bhagavad-gita, we immediately take him as a rascal.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> lecture on the <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> I, 8.25, Vrndavana, October 5, 1974 <p> Unalloyed devotional service of the Lord progresses in different stages. Practice of devotional service in the material field is of eighty-one different qualities, and above such activities is the transcendental practice of devotional service, which is one and is called <i>sadhana-bhakti</i>. When unalloyed practice of sadhana-bhakti is matured into transcendental love for the Lord, the transcendental loving service of the Lord begins gradually developing into nine progressive stages of loving service under the headings of attachment, love, affection, feelings, affinity, adherence, following, ecstasy, and intense feelings of separation. <p> The attachment of an inactive devotee develops up to the stage of transcendental love of God. Attachment of an active servitor develops up to the stage of adherence, and that for a friendly devotee develops up to the stage of following, and the same is also the case for the paternal devotees. Devotees in <i>conjugal love</i> develop ecstasy up to the stage of intense feelings of separation. These are some of the features of unalloyed devotional service of the Lord. <p> According to <u>Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya</u>, the import of the word <i>ittham-bhuta</i> [in this text] is "complete bliss." Transcendental bliss in the realization of impersonal Brahman becomes comparable to the scanty water contained in the pit made by a cow's hoof. It is nothing compared with the ocean of bliss of the vision of the Personality of Godhead. The personal form of Lord Sri Krsna is so attractive that it comprehends all attraction, all bliss and all tastes (<i>rasas</i>). <i>These attractions are so strong that <u>no one wants to exchange them for material enjoyment, mystic powers and liberation</u></i>. There is no need of logical arguments in support of this statement, but out of one's own nature one becomes attracted by the qualities of Lord Sri Krsna. We must know for certain that the qualities of the Lord have nothing to do with mundane qualities. All of them are full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. There are innumerable qualities of the Lord, and one is attracted by one quality while another is attracted by another.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purports on <u>Srimad-Bhagavatam</u> I, 7.10 <p> The melding that happens in the spiritual engagement is less integrated than the union of the spiritual marriage. The two beings who have joined are still frequently separated and return to being things-by-themselves. This is a matter of common observation. The experience of connection to the Beloved passes quickly and afterwards the soul is deprived of His company--or at least she thinks she is. But in total union no separation is possible. The soul remains perpetually in that center with her God....The spiritual marriage is like rain falling from the sky into a river or pool. There is nothing but water. It's impossible to divide the sky-water from the land-water. When a little stream enters the sea, who could separate its waters back out again?<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Seventh Dwelling, Chapter 2 <p> True celibacy means that the sexual energy is completely utilized and transformed for the service of God. Celibacy does not mean merely repressing sexual ideas and pretending those urges do not exist.<br> -- Om Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Swami, <i>website</i>, "Sanga: Q & A" <p> <a name="shakti">The cycle of birth and death ceases for one whose mind becomes situated in you through service to the righteous, O lotus-navelled one. Homage to you, who are full knowledge, the source of all awareness and the foremost of the Lords of human beings. You are brahman, of unlimited shakti power.</a><br> -- Sri <a href="reading.html#purana" target="_blank">Bhagavata Purana</a> X, 41.28-29 (excerpted) <p> On the other hand, our relationship with Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is eternal. <i>Nitya-siddha krsna-prema</i>. The pure souls are eternally in love with Krsna, and this permanent love, either as a servant, a friend, a parent or a conjugal lover, is not at all difficult to revive. Especially in this age, the concession is that simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra (<i>harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam</i>) one revives his original relationship with God and thus becomes so happy that he does not want anything material.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to <u>Sri Bhagavata Purana</u> VII, 7.39 <p> <a href="reading.html#sharma" target="_blank"><img src="links_files/radha-krsnaJ.jpg" align="right" border=0 alt="He is the perfect adornment for the soul..."></a> In this state of prayer [of permanent union with the Divine], the Beloved teaches the soul so quietly, so peacefully, it reminds me of the construction of Solomon's Temple where not a sound could be heard. Here in the temple of God, in His innermost dwelling place, God and the soul rejoice in each other, in the deepest silence. There is no reason for the mind to be stirred. It has nothing to seek, nothing to find. The Lord who created the soul is now offering her sanctuary, providing the vantage point of a peephole through which she can gaze at all that is unfolding around her. Sometimes she loses sight of what's happening. For a moment she can't see anything at all. In my opinion, it's not that the soul has lost her faculties; they just cease to operate, dazed and amazed.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> I myself am quite dazed and amazed to discover that when the soul reaches this stage her raptures cease, except for very occasional occurrences. And even these rare absorptions do not include those transports and flights of the spirit. And they hardly ever occur in public anymore. Nor are they triggered now by moments of devotion. We can look at sacred images, hear spiritual talks, and listen to religious music and it's almost as if nothing had happened....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> Believe me friends, there is no lack of crosses to bear. But they do not disquiet the soul in this state or steal away her serenity. Storms pass quickly here, like ocean waves, and fair weather soon returns. Then the presence of the Beloved inside of her makes her forget everything else.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Seventh Dwelling, Chapter 3 <p> Oh, my friends! The Beloved is dwelling in this soul in a unique way. She should relinquish all thought of resting and let go of any craving for personal honor or recognition. If the soul is so deeply with God, then she should not think much about herself. She will be exclusively concerned with finding ways to please Him and showing Him how much she loves Him. This, my friends, is the purpose of prayer. This is the reason for the spiritual marriage. Good works are born from this. Good works.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> Remember, good works are a sign of God's blessing. What benefit comes from me isolating myself, absorbed in making acts of love to our Lord, proposing and promising to do all kinds of wonders in His service, if as soon as I leave my private sanctuary I find the least opportunity to do the exact opposite of my lofty intentions? Actually, I am wrong to question this. The truth is, everything having to do with God does us good. Even though we may turn out to be too weak to carry out our bold resolutions, sometimes His Majesty will give us the power to do so. Of course, this in itself may be a great burden to us. When He sees a timid soul, He presents her with some kind of severe trial that opposes her own will, and then He helps her to bear it in such a way that she grows from the experience. The soul understands this later and it alleviates her fear, allowing her to offer herself to Him more willingly....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> What we cannot accomplish all at once, we can do little by little. If the soul wishes for her prayer to be fruitful, let her give up her attachment to her own way and open to the divine will. In the numerous nooks and crannies of the spiritual life, there will be plenty of opportunities to do this.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <a href="reading.html#castle" target="_blank">The Interior Castle</a>, Seventh Dwelling, Chapter 4 <p> <i>Bhakti</i>, being independent, can enter the heart of anyone, even the most sinful person. She is constituted of God's primary <i>shakti</i> and is thus not dependent on knowledge or renunciation. Whereas knowledge requires the support of a pure heart, <i>bhakti</i> is self-supporting. Once she enters the heart, all impurities will gradually be removed by her grace. One whose heart she enters, by the desire of another whom she has so graced, need not be concerned with the details of religious duties, renunciation, or knowledge independently of <i>bhakti</i>. Paying attention to <i>bhakti</i> alone as one's primary spiritual practice, however imperfectly, is more fruitful than strict adherence to any other discipline. Indeed, knowledge and renunciation follow in the wake of <i>bhakti</i>.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari purports to BG 18.56 <p> At that time one has to abandon illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. If one is still attached to all these habits, he should know that he is not making progress. When one is actually advanced in <i>bhajana-kriya</i>, all these <i>anarthas</i> (unwanted things) will be finished. <i>Param drstva nivartate</i>. When one appreciates something better, he rejects all kinds of nonsense. Once one gets a taste of Krsna consciousness, he cannot remain without it. A drunkard cannot remain without a drink, but a devotee is drunk with Krsna consciousness. The immunization against all material diseases is this Krsna consciousness. To be immuned to the infection of the gunas, we have to engage in bhakti-yoga. Once we attain the perfectional stage, we attain ecstatic love of Godhead. In that state we cannot remain without Krsna for a moment. That is called bhava, and that bhava may increase to maha-bhava. This is not possible for ordinary human beings, but it was possible for the gopis and Radharani. Indeed, they could not live without Krsna. This is the highest stage of liberation."<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> <u>Teachings of Lord Kapila</u>, Chapter Eight <p> Tribulations imposed upon the devotees by the Lord constitute another exchange of transcendental bhava between the Lord and the devotees. The Lord says "I put My devotee into difficulty, and thus the devotee becomes more purified in exchanging transcendental bhava with Me." Placing the devotee into material troubles necessitates delivering him from the illusory material relations. The material relations are based on reciprocation of material enjoyment, which depends mainly on material resources. Therefore, when material resources are withdrawn by the Lord, the devotee is cent percent attracted toward the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Thus the Lord snatches the fallen soul from the mire of material existence. Tribulations offered by the Lord to His devotee are different from the tribulations resulting from vicious action. All these glories of the Lord are especially known to the great mahajanas like Brahma, Siva, Narada, Kapila, Kumara and Bhisma, as mentioned above, and one is able to grasp it by their grace.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> I, 9.20 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> The dominant emotion of a dramatic scene is portrayed through the characters and props, which have been labeled <i>vibbhavas</i>. The <i>vibbhavas</i> are thus determinants, or causal factors, in the production of <i>rasa</i>, as they reveal the dormant dominant emotion. In a dramatic scene, one of the characters, such as a male lover, would be the <i>visaya-aalambana-vibbhava</i>, or the object to which the dominant emotion (or this case <i>rati</i>, or love) is directed. His female beloved would then be the <i>aasraya-aalambana-vibbhava</i>, or the vessel of that love. Thus we have a subject/object relationship as a requirement for <i>rasa</i>. The props such as the moonlight, the scent of blossoming flowers, romantic music, and so on would be the <i>uddipana-vibbhavas</i>, or excitants that stimulate the emotion of love. All of these <i>vibbhavas</i> serve to give expression to the dominant emotion. When the lover and beloved manifest bodily symptoms such as the exchange of loving glances and smiling, these outward symptoms of the the dominant emotion are called <i>anubbhavas</i>, they serve to further express the dominant emotion....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> No doubt ultimate reality requires that we efface our present egotistical identification with matter, which gives rise to our material personality and illusory individuality. Yet this is only half of the equation. If ultimate reality is beautiful, if it is <i>rasa</i> as the Upanisads declare, and if for us it is the experience of <i>rasa</i>, we must have a spiritual identity through which we can experience it....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> The degree of beauty one can find in merely ending one's mental and sensual identity crisis is limited. Yet when this crisis ceases through the culture of self-realization, when we feel at one with all, in opposition to no one, real life begins. It is this real life in transcendence that we are concerned with, not merely ending <i>samsaara</i>. In this lies the potential for a truth that is inherently beautiful--the very world, person, and form of beauty.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari<br> from <u>Aesthetic Vedanta: the Sacred Path of Passionate Love</u>, pp. 8-14 <p> One can see God through bhakti alone. But it must be 'ripe' bhakti, prema-bhakti [ecstatic love of God] and raga-bhakti [supreme love, which makes one attached only to God]. When one has that bhakti, one loves God even as the mother loves the child, the child the mother, or the wife the husband. When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn't feel the attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man's having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly wisdom.<br> -- Sri Ramakrishna, <a href="reading.html#gospel" target="_blank">The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna</a>, p. 173 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center>I<br> Have<br> Learned<br> So much from God<br> That I can no longer<br> Call<br> Myself <p> A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,<br> A Buddhist, a Jew. <p> The Truth has shared so much of Itself<br> With me <p> That I can no longer call myself<br> A man, a woman, an angel,<br> Or even pure<br> Soul. <p> Love has<br> Befriended Hafiz so completely<br> It has turned to ash<br> And freed<br> Me <p> Of every concept and image<br> My mind has ever known. <p> -- Hafiz</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="whispers">III: Whispers from the Bosom of the Beloved</a></b></center> <p> <i>This section is given for the wife or lover who has come to know the intimacies of the Beloved but is faced with the seemingly interminable remainder of mortality. We often seem abandoned and without rudder in a world tossed by the blind furies of materiality. There is yet more work to do before the Beloved takes us forever home. These texts are provided to help those of us who may be confused or disoriented by the Beloved leaving us to wander the forest path where we first loved Him; they provide immediate guidance on the conduct of life for the newly espoused. Rest assured, dear ones, that He has gone to provide shelter in the precious bedchamber awaiting us not far ahead.</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <table align=center border=0><tbody><tr><td> <table align=left border=0><tbody><tr><td><dl><dt>While I stood at the door, <dd>all at once <dt>He came like the afternoon sun <dd>in silence... <p> <dt>A moment <dd>without You is no moment. <p> <dd>-- Mirabai</dl> <p><br /></td></tr></table></td> <td><img src="links_files/woaini.gif" alt="I Love You"></td></tr></table> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> Krishna actually took away the dresses of the Gopis and actually He saw the girls naked. There is no interpretation there. The girls of Vrindaban of the same age like Krishna wanted Krishna as their husband. In India the girls are married earlier by ten years at least and thus the girls who were of the same age were married although they wished Krishna as their husband. Krishna fulfilled their wishes by this pastime. Nobody can ask any woman or girl to become naked except the husband. That is the moral etiquette of Vedic culture. Krishna is actually husband of every woman. There was no necessity of formal marriage. But still Krishna played like husband by asking them to become naked.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> letter to Rayarama, San Francisco, 28 February 1967 <p> <ul><i>Finding this little text was like finding a nugget of pure gold: another confirmation of something I felt inside. What is so special about this is that I was naked infront of my image of Krsna when He came to me and made love to me-- making me the wife I now feel myself to be. This confirmation is a reminder to carry me through what is left of mortality, just so that I remember He is readying me for my place by His side. <p> When Krsna came to me, saw me naked before Him, imagining myself meeting Him and He fulfilled this most basic of wishes! How awesome is this? How is it He fulfilled ancient Vedic practice long before this ignorant foreigner knew anything about it? All I can say is that I am very grateful for His touch, His grace, and His profoundly efficacious Love. There is no greater blessing for those destined to such madhurya bhava. Also see <a href="practice.html#krsnabook" target="_blank">Taking Krsna as Husband</a> on the <a href="practice.html" target="_blank">Practice page</a>.</i></ul> <p> Do not think, my sisters, that because you do not go about trying to please people in the world you will lack food. You will not, I assure you: <i>never try to sustain yourselves by human artifices, or <b>you will die of hunger, and rightly so</b>. <b>Keep your eyes fixed upon your Spouse</b>: it is for Him to sustain you</i>; and, if He is pleased with you, even those who like you least will give you food, if unwillingly, as you have found by experience. [<i>emphasis added</i>]...Worrying about getting money from other people seems to me like thinking about what other people enjoy. However much you worry, you will not make them change their minds nor will they become desirous of giving you alms. <i>Leave these anxieties to Him Who can move everyone</i>, Who is the Lord of all money and of all who possess money [<i>emphasis added</i>]. It is by His command that we have come here and His words are true they cannot fail: Heaven and earth will fail first. Let us not fail Him, and let us have no fear that He will fail us; if He should ever do so it will be for our greater good, just as the saints failed to keep their lives when they were slain for the Lord s sake, and their bliss was increased through their martyrdom. We should be making a good exchange if we could have done with this life quickly and enjoy everlasting satiety.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 2 (Peers translation) <p> Believe me, daughters, once we begin to subdue these miserable bodies* of ours, they give us much less trouble. There will be quite sufficient people to see to what you really need, so take no thought for yourselves except when you know it to be necessary. <i>Unless we resolve to put up with death and ill-health once and for all, we shall never accomplish anything</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Try not to fear these and commit yourselves wholly to God, come what may. What does it matter if we die? How many times have our bodies not mocked us? Should we not occasionally mock them in our turn? And, believe me, slight as it may seem by comparison with other things, this resolution is much more important than we may think; for, if we continually make it, day by day, by the grace of the Lord, we shall gain dominion over the body. To conquer such an enemy is a great achievement in the battle of life. May the Lord grant, as He is able, that we may do this. I am quite sure that no one who does not enjoy such a victory, which I believe is a great one, will understand what advantage it brings, and no one will regret having gone through trials in order to attain this tranquillity and self-mastery.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 11 (Peers translation) <p> <ul>* <i>While human life can be enjoyable and a wondrous experience even in the most simplest of existences, Krsna concludes that mortal life is ultimately miserable (BG 9.33).</i></ul> <p> Why, then, do we shrink from interior mortification [<i>self-denial</i>], since this is the means by which every other kind of mortification may become much more meritorious and perfect, so that it can then be practised with greater tranquillity and ease? This, as I have said, is <i>acquired by gradual progress and by never indulging our own will and desire, <b>even in small things</b>, until we have succeeded in subduing the body to the spirit</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. I repeat that this consists mainly or entirely in our ceasing to care about ourselves and our own pleasures, <i>for the least that anyone who is beginning to serve the Lord truly can <b>offer Him is his life</b></i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Once he has surrendered his will to Him, what has he to fear? It is evident that if he is a true religious and a real man of prayer and aspires to the enjoyment of Divine consolations, he must not [turn back or] shrink from desiring to die and suffer martyrdom for His sake. And do you not know, sisters, <i>that the life of a good religious, who wishes to be among the closest friends of God, is <b>one long martyrdom</b>?</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 12 (Peers translation) <p> Take this advice from me and do not forget it: you should see to it that your sisters profit by your temptations, not only interiorly (where it would be very wrong if they did not), but exteriorly as well.... The Lord will show you ways of doing so and this will soon rid you of the temptation. <i>God deliver us from people who wish to serve Him yet who are mindful of their own honour</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Reflect how little they gain from this; for, as I have said, the very act of desiring honour robs us of it, especially in matters of precedence: there is no poison in the world which is so fatal to perfection.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 12 (Peers translation) <p> I often tell you, sisters...not to forget that we...must flee a thousand leagues from such phrases as: "I had right on my side"; "They had no right to do this to me"; "The person who treated me like this was not right". God deliver us from such a false idea of right as that! Do you think that it was right for our good Jesus to have to suffer so many insults, and that those who heaped them on Him were right, and that they had any right to do Him those wrongs?...Do you think you can ever possibly have to bear so much that you ought not to have to bear any more? How does right enter into the matter at all? I really do not know. Before we begin talking about not having our rights, let us wait until we receive some honour or gratification, or are treated kindly, for it is certainly not right that we should have anything in this life like that. When, on the other hand, some offence is done to us (and we do not feel it an offence to us that it should be so described), I do not see what we can find to complain of. <i><b>Either we are the brides of this great King or we are not</b>. If we are, what wife is there with a sense of honour who does not accept her share in any dishonour done to her spouse</i>, even though she may do so against her will? [<i>emphasis added</i>] Each partner, in fact, shares in the honour and dishonour of the other....Let the sister who thinks that she is accounted the least among all consider herself the [happiest and] most fortunate, as indeed she really is, if she lives her life as she should, for in that case she will, as a rule, have no lack of honour either in this life or in the next.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 13 (Peers translation) <p> Anyone whose sole pleasure lies in pleasing God and who cares nothing for her own pleasure will find our life a very good one; if she wants anything more, she will lose everything, for there is nothing more that she can have. A discontented soul is like a person suffering from severe nausea, who rejects all food, however nice it may be; things which persons in good health delight in eating only cause her the greater loathing.<br> -- St. Teresa of Avila, <u>The Way of Perfection</u>, Chapter 13 (Peers translation) <p><br /> <table width="94%" align=center border=0> <tbody><tr><td width="50%">Everything is new now for me.<br> My mind is new, the moon, the sun.<br> The whole world looks rinsed with water,<br> washed in the rain of <i>I am That</i>. <p> Lalla leaps and dances inside the energy<br> that creates and sustains the universe.<p></td> <td width="50%">If you live on the breath,<br> you won't be tortured<br> by hunger and thirst,<br> or the longing to touch. <p> The purpose of being born is fulfilled<br> in the state between "I am"<br> and "That."<p></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=2><p align="justify"><i>These two poems by Lalla show us both the newness of our condition and the place we need to dwell in what is left of our time on earth. We must practise our beingness by remaining ever a conscious gift to the One we love, where each breath is something we give to Him and our sustenance for each moment is His grace. In fully living every moment for the Presence within it, there is no longer room for unconsciousness or complaint. He is all.</i><p></td></tr> <tr><td width="50%">When you eat too much,<br> you forget your truth, <p> and fasting makes you conceited,<br> so eat with <i>some</i> discipline,<br> and consciously. Be<br> an ordinary human being. <p> Then the door will open,<br> and you'll recognize the way.<br> Lalla, be moderate!<p></td> <td width="50%">On the way to God the difficulties<br> feel like being ground by a millstone,<br> like night coming at night, like<br> lightning through the clouds. <p> But don't worry!<br> What must come, comes.<br> Face everything with love,<br> as your mind dissolves in God.<p></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=2><p align="justify"><i>The poems here show us that the way is 'the middle path' and whatever adversity we face is done in complete surrender to our Beloved. Acceptance and love of each moment becomes possible knowing He is within the moment. We dissolve into that experience. He is our all!</i></td></tr></table> <p><br /> <table width="94%" align=center border=0> <th colspan=2>Deadly Business</th> <tbody><tr><td width="50%"><p> <dl><dt>I try to give up Maya, <dd>but I can't give her up. <dt>Again and again <dd>she wraps herself <dt>around me. <p> <dt>Honour is Maya, <dd>pride is Maya <dt>Where there's no Maya, <dd>there's knowledge <dt>of the ultimate reality. <p> <dt>Maya is pleasure, <dd>Maya is the chain <dt>that shackles living things. <dd>Because of Maya we renounce <dt>the very breath of life. <p> <dt>Prayer-beads are Maya, <dd>austerities are Maya, <dt>yoga, too, is Maya. <dd>Maya ties up <dt>everybody. <p></td> <td width="50%"><dt>Earth and water are Maya, <dd>sky is Maya. <dt>Maya spreads <dd>and surrounds us <dt>on all four sides. <p> <dt>Maya is mother, <dd>Maya is fathers, <dt>father and mother are Maya. <dd>And, in the final count, <dt>Maya is wife and child. <p> <dt>Maya carries on <dd>her deadly business <dt>by killing. <dd>Kabir says, in this sport, <dt>Rama is my sole support. <p> <dt>Refrain: <i>maya tajum taji nahi jai</i> <p> <dt>-- Kabir, <u>Panchavani Manuscript IV</u> (1675), pada 72; Raga Gaudi (Dharwadker translation, pp. 152-153)</dl> <p></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=2><p align="justify"><i>A big part of the karma we experience is expressed through the type of conditioning we receive, often limiting our options and our own spiritual lives. Once we have seen through this particular kind of maya, we are much more able to act effectively as spiritual agents in bringing the kind of surrender necessary for His greater grace and blessing. Our attitude and outlook must change to effect His blessing!</i><p></td></tr> <tr><td width="50%"><dl><dt>O yogi, <dt>the world of Maya <dd>is hard to renounce. <p> <dt>When I renounced my home, <dd>I was trapped in my clothes; <dt>when I renounced my clothes, <dd>I was stuck with my mendicant's rounds. <p> <dt>When I renounced desire, <dd>anger wouldn't leave me; <dt>when I renounced anger, <dd>I was stuck with greed. <p> <dt>When I renounced greed, <dd>my ego wouldn't leave me-- <dt>my self-regard, my boastfulness, <dd>my attachment to appearances. <p></td> <td width="50%"> <dt>When my mind was finally detached, <dd>I renounced the world of Maya: <dt>my concentration, my ancient memory <dd>then fused with my words. <p> <dt>Kabir says, listen, <dd>my good brothers-- <dt>one in a million <dd>has solved this mystery. <p> <dt>Refrain: <i>avadhu, maya taji na ai</i> <p> <dt>-- Kabir, <u>Kabir-bani</u>, pada 5 (Dharwadker translation, p. 198)</dl> <p></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=2><p align="justify"><i>The commitment has to be present within to know total release from the world of maya. Fortunately, this becomes much easier to complete once our Beloved has made love to us for we now truly know that nothing of materiality can ever compare with </i>[the spiritual]<i> Reality.</i></td></tr></table> <p><br /> <img src="links_files/godisbeautiful.gif" align="right" alt=" * God is beautiful and loves beauty * "> Someone asked me what <i>is</i> the knowing I speak of and how does the love I mention <i>feel</i>. I said if you don't know, what can I say? And if you do know, what can I say? The taste of knowing love has no explanation, and no <i>account</i> of it will ever give anyone that taste.<br> -- Bahauddin (the father of Rumi), <u>Maarif</u> 1:143 (Barks & Moyne translation, p. 21) <p> When I was sick, it came to me that there are two approaches to work. One is bold and quick, fearless in action. The other is worried and constricted with concern about things that could possibly go wrong. If action flows from anxiety, the outcome is murky and disturbed. But if action moves with a swift joy and courage, the world begins to resolve its difficulties and grow whole.<br> -- Bahauddin (the father of Rumi), <u>Maarif</u> 2:24 (Barks & Moyne translation, p. 92) <p> I am afraid for anyone to see my faults, my baldness, my privates, the body flaws I hide with clothers. But bride and bridegroom see everything about one another. They can be many ways with each other, tender and mocking, playfully rough, any way at all, because they have no fear with each other. Likewise, the mystery of God knows everything about me. Here, out in the open in front of that, I say, Do whatever you want with this body. Every part of me stands naked in front of you, like a new bride ready for whatever will happen-- love, fear, service, difficulties, humiliation, delight.<br> -- Bahauddin (the father of Rumi), <u>Maarif</u> 2:139-140 (Barks & Moyne translation, p. 120) <p> In every civilized human society there is some set of scriptural rules and regulations which is followed from the beginning. Especially among the Aryans, those who adopt the Vedic civilization and who are known as the most advanced civilized peoples, those who do not follow the scriptural injunctions are supposed to be demons. Therefore it is stated here that the demons do not know the scriptural rules, nor do they have any inclination to follow them. Most of them do not know them, and even if some of them know, they have not the tendency to follow them. They have no faith, nor are they willing to act in terms of the Vedic injunctions. The demons are not clean, either externally or internally. One should always be careful to keep his body clean by bathing, brushing teeth, shaving, changing clothes, etc. As far as internal cleanliness is concerned, one should always remember the holy names of God and chant <i>Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare</i>. The demons neither like nor follow all these rules for external and internal cleanliness.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 16.7 <p> <ul><i>Prabhupada teaches here from the chapter of the <u>Bhagavad-gita</u> informing us of the divine and demonic natures. Although many of us may actually come to Krsna ignorant of the Vedic scriptures and way of life, most of us have had some kind of religious training. This should serve as a backdrop to living as clean, if somewhat untamed, wives and lovers. While we, in the way of Mirabai, may be advised that much of '<a href="speaks.html#mystic" target="_blank">the law</a>' is no longer necessary for us, we should continue to learn of the Vedic rules for living; they may teach us a great deal of the One we so love. If our resources are limited, we should study those scriptures that deal directly with Krsna. As we grow in knowledge and experience, we may even prove useful to the One we love! If we are surrendered before Him, this will always be the case.</i></ul> <p> <i>The Supreme Personality of Godhead said</i>: Fearlessness; purification of one's existence; cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and <i>freedom from envy and from the passion for honor</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]-- these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature.<br> -- BG 16.1-3 <p> <i>Akrodha</i> means to check anger. Even if there is provocation one should be tolerant, for <i>once one becomes angry his whole body becomes polluted</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Anger is a product of the mode of passion and lust, so one who is transcendentally situated should check himself from anger.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 16.1-3 <p> <i>Whoever <b>knows Krsna's transcendental body</b>, activities and perfection, after quitting his body, returns to Him and doesn't come back again</i> to this miserable world [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Therefore one should know that Krsna's activities are different from others. The best policy is to follow the principles of Krsna; that will make one perfect.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 11.44 <p> Happiness and distress are concomitant factors of material life. One should learn to tolerate, as advised in <u>Bhagavad-gita</u>. One can never restrict the coming and going of happiness and distress, so <i>one should be <b>detached</b> from the materialistic way of life and be <b>automatically equipoised</b> in both cases</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. Generally, when we get something desirable we are very happy, and when we get something undesirable we are distressed. But <i>if we are actually in the spiritual position these things will not agitate us</i> [<i>emphasis added</i>]. To reach that stage, we have to practice unbreakable devotional service. Devotional service to Krsna without deviation means engaging oneself in the nine processes of devotional service-- chanting, hearing, worshiping, offering respect, etc.-- as described in the last verse of the Ninth Chapter. That process should be followed.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 13.8-12 <p> But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form-- to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.<br> -- Krsna, BG 9.22 <p> One who is unable to live for a moment without Krsna consciousness cannot but think of Krsna twenty-four hours a day, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies, which make the devotee perfect in self-realization, so that his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a devotee undoubtedly approaches the Lord without difficulty. This is called <i>yoga</i>. By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. <i>Ksema</i> refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Krsna consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Krsna conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 9.22 <p> The word <i>mat-paramah</i> refers to one who considers the association of Krsna in His supreme abode to be the highest perfection of life. Such a person does not wish to be elevated to the higher planets such as the moon or sun or heavenly planets, or even the highest planet of this universe, Brahmaloka. He has no attraction for that. He is only attracted to being transferred to the spiritual sky. And even in the spiritual sky he is not satisfied with merging into the glowing brahmajyoti effulgence, for he wants to enter the highest spiritual planet, namely Krsnaloka, Goloka Vrndavana. He has full knowledge of that planet, and therefore he is not interested in any other. As indicated by the word <i>mad-bhaktah</i>, he fully engages in devotional service, specifically in the nine processes of devotional engagement: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, making friends with Him, and surrendering everything to Him. One can engage in all nine devotional processes, or eight, or seven, or at least in one, and that will surely make one perfect.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to Bhagavad-gita 11.55 <p> <i>While a great deal changes in our lives once we become His lovers, we must always remember to keep our Beloved first in our lives and thought. Let love drive our actions. Everything happens for His purpose and can teach us. Remember to walk ever surrendered before Him. Do those things that keep our love for Him ever vibrant and brilliant. This period of wandering is our <a href="practice.html#quiescence" target="_blank">desert experience</a>. We must exist in the moment and find Him there. This is the proofing and the strengthening of our spiritual selves-- there is no longer any going back. Ultimately, we will find ourselves back in His arms, all of our previous cares "<a href="#night">among the lilies</a>, forgotten."</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center>Troubled?<br> Then stay with me, for I am not. <p> Lonely?<br> A thousand naked amorous ones dwell in ancient caves<br> beneath my eyelids. <p> Riches?<br> Here's a pick,<br> my whole body is an emerald that begs,<br> "Take me." <p> Write all that worries you on a piece of parchment;<br> offer it to God,<br> Even from the distance of a millenium. <p> I can lean the flame in my heart<br> into your life<br> <p> and turn<br> all that frightens you<br> into holy<br> incense<br> ash. <p> -- Hafiz</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><b><a name="prema">IV: Divine Reality</a></b></center> <p> <i>The time comes that the love one experiences for Krishna </i>[or, that personality which <i>you</i> identify as God]<i>, becomes so great that the relationship passes from selfish desire, the pain of absence, and selfless devotion to absolute silence. One starts to deeply understand the 'why' of your past sufferings and the soul pranams to Him in gratitude for each. The very nature of this love itself is ineffable. This love becomes increasingly difficult to relate to an earthly perspective and the devotee is left with what is called <b>prema</b> by the scriptures. At this writing, I have only had a slight taste and have no maturity in this experience to guide the reader. Let go of your material references and allow Bhagavan and guru to guide you through this unexplored territory. You are approaching your true home. <p> The following quotes speak of this highest form of love and devotion. It is up to you to release yourself from your self-imposed strictures and find the fulfillment of these texts through your own relationship with Bhagavan. Hari Krishna.</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/R-K_backlit.jpg" alt="Krsna is the soul's bath of Ecstasy!"></center> <table width="445" align=center border=0> <tbody><tr><td><a name="gopipride">[The gopis said to Krsna:] <p align="justify"> "It is clear that you have accepted birth to remove the tribulations and fears of the Vraj just as the Lord, the primeval person, protects the denizens of heaven. Therefore, since you are the friend of the afflicted, place your lotus hands on the burning breasts and heads of your servants.... <p align="justify"> "The master of the masters of yoga, hearing their despairing words, laughed and engaged in amorous pleasures from compassion, even though his satisfaction is self-contained. Krsna, the infallible one, whose conduct is upright, shone forth with the assembled gopis, who were dazzling with jasmine teeth and broad smiles.... <p align="justify"> "Accompanied by the gopis, Krsna approached the back of the river. Its cool sand was swept by a wind bearing the scent of kumunda flowers and refreshing from its contact with the waves. Arousing Kama in the young women of Vraj with jokes, smiles, and glances, playfully scratching their breasts, girdles, thighs, hair and hands with his nails, and embracing them with outstretched arms, he gave them pleasure. Such attention from Krsna Bhagavan, the supreme soul, made the gopis proud. Indeed, they thought themselves to be the best of women on earth. Kesava saw their pride, which was born from the exhilation of their good fortune, and vanished from the spot out of kindness, in order to moderate [their pride]."</a> <p> -- Sri Bhagavatam X, 29.40-48</td></tr></table> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <i>Prema</i>, the highest love, by nature hides itself. As love is a secret, a private affair, so too is the highest love kept hidden by the gopis. If the selfless nature of the gopis' love should be verbalized by them, that love would be diminished in stature.<br> <ul><i>Love's candle burns bright in lover's hearts<br> to set aglow the chamber's darkest parts,<br> if one should bring it out the verbal door,<br> pride's wind blows and it glows no more.</i><br> [from the <u>Prema-samputika</u>]</ul> Rather than verbalize the truth of their love, the gopis do just the opposite, speaking and acting as though they are selfishly motivated. The union in love between Radha and Krsna thus hides itself, manifesting overtly as something most selfish.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari from <a href="reading.html#passion" target="_blank">Aesthetic Vedanta: the Sacred Path of Passionate Love</a>, pp. 143-144 <p> For those engaged in <i>suddha bhakti</i> (pure devotion), vibrating the supramental name is both the means and the end of their culture of divinity. The form, qualities, and pastimes of Godhead are contained within the pure name. The perfection of the culture of the divine name lies in accessing the spiritual realm and participating in the divine love sports of the Absolute--a very lofty ideal. Liberation from the cycle of birth and death, which is the goal of most transcendetalists, is incidental to those engaged in this culture. It is said that the mere reflection of the pure name of Godhead (<i>namabhasa</i>), rather than the name proper, terminates the cycle of birth and death. The practical idea of liberation in which one is progressively freed from all of the painful constituents of our life of bondage, such as lust, anger, greed, envy, and pride, is passed over in the course of approaching only the blossoming of the culture of the holy name. Its flower--<i>prema</i>, or love of Godhead--belittles liberation as but the other side of the coin of material exploitation. Enjoyment and renunciation, which produce the effects of karma and liberation respectively, are both worldly centered. One mentality is to "enjoy" the world of illusion and the other is to flee from it. Both mentalities fall short of a transcendental synthesis of these two principles that govern the <i>mayic</i> world. Transcendence cannot be the polarization of opposites; it must be a synergy of both. Thus the focus of the servants of the divine name is dedication, through which exploitation and renunciation are harmonized.<br> -- Swami B.V. Tripurari from <u>Ancient Wisdom for Modern Ignorance</u>, pp. 143-144 <p> <ul><i>Swami shows us here that once we are truly and deeply in Love with the Divine Beloved, nothing else matters. Arguments about liberation and monism or duality just slip away for the real focus of our souls is now the Beloved! It is He or She that really matters.</i></ul> <p> The heartache of the gopis had been assuaged by the bliss of seeing Krsna, just as the Vedas attained the culmination of their hearts' desire. The gopis made a seat for their friend of their heart with their outer garments, which were smeared with the kunkum powder from their breasts.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> Bhagavan, the Lord, whose seat is fixed within the hearts of the masters of yoga, sat down there. He was worshipped as he sat in the company of the gopis, and revealed himself in a form that was a unique embodiment of beauty in the three worlds.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> Those women worshipped the inciter of Kama [lust] by massaging his hands and feet, which they had placed on their laps. They praised him, their eyebrows quivering, with playful looks and laughter. Then they spoke, somewhat angrily.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> The beautiful gopis said: 'Some serve those who serve them. Some do the opposite of this [i.e. serve those who do not serve them]. And some do not serve either. Can you explain this for us clearly?'<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> Sri Bhagavan said: 'Friends, there are those who serve each other reciprocally but their exchange is exclusively out of self-interest; there is no dharma or friendship there. Personal gain and nothing else is the motive.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> 'Those, like mothers and father, who serve those who do not serve [them] are truly compassionate. There is perfect friendship and dharma in this, O slender-waisted ones.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> 'Some do not serve even those who serve [them], let alone those who do not serve [them]. They include those who take pleasure in the spiritual self, those whose desires are fulfilled, the ungrateful and the guru-haters.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> 'I do not serve even those beings who serve me to enhance their devotional state of mind, O friends. The case is like that of the poor man who is not conscious of anything else when the wealth that he had gained is lost, but continues to contemplate that wealth obsessively.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> 'In this way, O women, when I disappeared from your presence--you who had abandoned relatives, the [injunction of the] Vedas, and the world for my sake--it was really to further [your dedication] to me. I was serving you. Therefore, beloved ones, you should not be displeased with your beloved.<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> 'You have broken the enduring shackles of the household, and have served me. You are full of goodness and without fault, and I am unable to reciprocate, even in the lifetime of a god. Therefore, let your reward be your own excellence.'<br> -- Sri <u>Bhagavata Purana</u> X, 32.13-22 <p> When one is thus inclined to become an associate of the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, in one of the innumerable planets of the spiritual sky, especially in Goloka Vrndavana, one has to think always that he is different from the material energy; he has nothing to do with it, and he has to realize himself as pure spirit, Brahman, qualitatively equal with the Supreme Brahman (Paramesvara). Maharaja Yudhisthira, after distributing his kingdom to Pariksit and Vajra, did not think himself Emperor of the world or head of the Kuru dynasty. This sense of freedom from material relations, as well as freedom from the material encagement of the gross and subtle encirclement, makes one free to act as the servitor of the Lord, even though one is in the material world. This stage is called the jivan-mukta stage, or the liberated stage, even in the material world. That is the process of ending material existence. One must not only think that he is Brahman, but must act like Brahman. One who only thinks himself Brahman is an impersonalist. And one who acts like Brahman is the pure devotee.<br> -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,<br> Purport to <u>Srimad-Bhagavatam</u> I, 15.42 <p> Ah! How wonderful was the yearning of the gopis for Krishna! They were seized with divine madness at the very sight of the black tamala tree. Separation from Krishna created such a fire of anguish in Radha's heart....There were other times when nobody could notice the depth of her feeling. People do not notice the plunge of an elephant in a big lake. Ah! If anyone has but a particle of such prema! What yearning! What love! Radha possessed not only one hundred per cent of divine love, but one hundred and twenty-five per cent. This is what it means to be intoxicated with ecstatic love of God. The sum and substance of the whole matter is that a man must love God, must be restless for Him. It doesn't matter whether you believe in God with form or in God without form. You may or may not believe that God incarnates Himself as man. But you will realize Him if you have that yearning. Then He Himself will let you know what He is like. If you must be mad, why should you be mad for the things of the world? If you must be mad, be mad for God alone.<br> -- Ramakrishna, <u>The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna</u>, p. 449 <p> Once Hanuman was asked, 'What day of the lunar month is it?' Hanuman said: 'I don't know anything about the day of the month, the position of the moon and stars, or any such things. I think of Rama alone.'<br> -- Ramakrishna, <u>The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna</u>, p. 260 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> Your way of knowing is a private herb garden.<br> Enclose it with a hedge of meditation,<br> and self-discipline, and helpfulness to others. <p> Then everything you've done before<br> will be brought as a sacrifice<br> to the mother goddess. <p> And each day, as you eat the herbs,<br> the garden grows more bare and empty. <p> -- Lalla <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <img src="links_files/radha-krsnaH.jpg" align="right" alt="Adore Him as the centre of all being..."> But a time will come when you will feel more and more that you are the instrument and not the worker. For first by the force of your devotion your contact with Divine [One] will become so intimate that at all time you will have only concentrate and to put everything into [His] hands to have [His] present guidance, [His] direct command or impulse, the sure indication of the thing to be done, and the way to do it and the result. And afterward you will realize that the [kundalini] not only inspires and guides, but initiates and carries out your works....There can be no more happy condition than this union and dependence; for this step carries you back beyond the borderline from the life of stress and suffering in the ignorance into the truth of your spiritual being, into its deep peace and its intense Ananda [bliss].<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> While this transformation is being done it is more than ever necessary to keep yourself free from all taint of the perversions of ego. Let no demand or insistence creep in to stain the purity of the self-giving and the sacrifice. There must be no attachment to the work or the result, no laying down of conditions, no claim to possess the Power that should possess you, no pride of the instrument, no vanity or arrogance. Nothing in the mind or in the vital or physical parts should be suffered to distort to its own use or seize for its own personal and separate satisfaction....<br> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">....</font> The last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with [Krsna] and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant, or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of [His] consciousness and force. Always [He] will be in you and you in [Him]; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from [Him] and are [His]. <p> -- Sri Aurobindo speaking of union with his ishta deva, <a href="#shakti"><i>Mahashakti</i></a>,<br> replacing references to the Divine Mother with those of Krsna, and adapted from<br> Andrew Harvey (editor), <u>Teachings of the Hindu Mystics</u>, pp. 123-125 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <a name="night">Wind blew down from the tower,<br> Parting the locks of His hair.<br> With His gentle hand<br> He wounded my neck<br> And all my senses were suspended. <p> I lost my myself. Forgot myself.<br> I lay my face against the Beloved's face.<br> Everything fell away and I left myself behind,<br> Abandoning my cares<br> among the lilies, forgotten.</a> <p> -- St. John of the Cross,<br> describing the wounding and the subsequent <i>love-silence</i> in the poem<br> that sows the seed of his book, <u>The Dark Night of the Soul</u> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> At the end of a crazy-moon night<br> the love of God rose.<br> I said, 'It's me, Lalla.' <p> "The Beloved woke. We became That,<br> and the lake is crystal clear. <p> -- Lalla <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> Freedom is that triumphant state of consciousness that is beyond the influence of desire. The mind ceases to thirst for anything it has seen or heard of; even what is promised in the scriptures. And supreme freedom is that complete liberation from the world of change that comes of knowing the unbounded Self. The settled mind is known as <i>samadhi</i>. In <i>samprajnata samadhi</i>, the settled state is accompanied by mental activity: <p> <dl><dd>first on the gross level, <dd>then on the subtle level, <dd>then a feeling of bliss, <dd>and finally the sense of pure "I-AM-ness".</dl> <p> After the repeated experience of the settling and ceasing of mental activity comes another samadhi. In this, only the latent impressions of past experience remain. This is the nature of existence for beings without gross physical bodies and for those who are absorbed in the womb of all life awaiting rebirth. For others, this <i>samadhi</i> is preceded by trust, perseverance, recollection, tranquillity, and wisdom. It is near for those who ardently desire it. Yet even among them there are degrees--mild, moderate, and intense. <i><b>It can also come from complete surrender to the almighty Lord.</b></i> The Lord is a unique being who exists beyond all suffering. Unblemished by action, He is free from both its cause and its effects. In Him lies the finest seed of all knowledge. Being beyond time, He is the Teacher of even the most ancient tradition of teachers. He is expressed through the sound of the sacred syllable <i>OM</i>. It should be repeated and its essence realized. Then the mind will turn inward and the obstacles that stand in the way of progress will disappear. These obstacles are: <p> <dl><dd>illness, <dd>fatigue, <dd>doubt, <dd>carelessness, <dd>laziness, <dd>attachment, <dd>delusion, <dd>the failure to achieve <i>samadhi</i>, <dd>and the failure to maintain <i>samadhi</i>.</dl> <p> They are distractions from the path of yoga. Such distractions make the body restless, the breathing coarse, and the mind agitated. They result in suffering. But they can be eliminated if the mind is repeatedly brought to a single focus. <p> -- Patanjali,<br> <u>The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali</u>, 1.14-32 <p> <ul><i>That single point of focus can be reached in Krishna. Even in just practising pure devotion to the Beloved, the devotee will be initiated into the way of freedom--such freedom that the soul can wander blissfully into His everlasting Love.</i></ul> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> Don't be so quick to condemn my nakedness. <p> A <i>man</i> is one who trembles in the presence.<br> There are very few of those.<br> Why not go naked? <p> The ram of experience must be fed<br> and ripened for the sacrifice. <p> Then all these customs will disappear<br> like clothing. There's only the soul. <p> -- Lalla <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> I give the powers of analysis and reasoning to understand the metaphysical science--to those who are ever united with Me and lovingly adore Me--by which they come to Me. I, who dwell within their inner psyche as consciousness, destroy the darkness born of ignorance by the shining lamp of transcedental knowledge as an act of compassion for them. <p> -- Krsna, Bhagavad Gita 10.10-11 <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/radha-krsnaM.jpg" alt="He is the completion of human existence"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <i>Eventually, the realisation starts coming to you that everything that makes up your identity in this world is false. There is only one truth: Krishna. Everything else in your lila with Krishna is illusion. Nothing that takes place here is all that important nor is anything really insignificant. It just is. Krishna is everything. The creative energy that flows through me in the form of shakti is Krishna. Even the energy which gives life to my body is the same energy that Krishna uses to form and maintain the cosmos--His very lifeblood. I am composed of my Beloved's love-force and, thus, He is part of me--the only real part of me--in absolute intimacy. I am found in Him, and alive within Him. I am no longer just the woman to whom Krishna has made love--I am permanently joined to Him, the two made one. I am His, His, His--We are One Being--eternally bonded in love. This is a knowledge that lodges itself within the very centre of Being. <p> There is a difference between surrendering to what already is and trying to become something. The first acknowledges reality while the second accepts an alternate concocted reality. The key is to let go of all desire and anticipation to simply accept what is. In the quiet of acceptance, be what it is your heart has been desiring to tell you about what you already are. <p> I cannot write more of this phenomenon of divine union as I am just beginning to realise these things. However, I cannot help but feel that the very nature of my Being is "evolving" to something very different from what I have been. May you find Him in the way that best fulfills you. <font color="#011146">...</font> Namaste.</i> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <table width="450" align=center border=0> <tbody><tr><td> It has been said "God is love" but that is not absolutely correct. God is the One Life in and beyond the countless forms of life. Love implies duality: lover and beloved, subject and object. So <i>love is the recognition of oneness in the world of duality</i>. This is the birth of God into the world of form. Love makes the world less worldly, less dense, more transparent to the divine dimension, the light of consciousness itself. <p> --Eckhart Tolle<br> <u>A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose</u>, p. 106<br> </td></tr></table> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <table width="450" align=center border=0> <tbody><tr><td><center><i><a name="advice">Krishna's Advice</a></i></center> <p> <font color="#8bdfff">Hear me, O Uddhava,<br> As I tell you the secret<br> Of spiritual enlightenment.... <p> In each and every age<br> Satsanga is the supreme means of salvation.... <p> The gopis who tended the cows<br> And kept me company in childhood,<br> The wives of the brahmins of Vrindavana,<br> And countless others-- <p> None of these studied the scriptures,<br> And they never served the great saints,<br> Or observed any vows or austerities.<br> Yet through their association with me<br> Or with saints, sages and my devotees,<br> They attained liberation. <p> The gopis who tended the cows,<br> Even the cows, antelopes, serpents and trees,<br> All reached ecstatic union with the One<br> Through satsanga.... <p> When I was taken away from Vrindavana<br> With my brother Balarama,<br> The gopis, because of their love for me,<br> Were bereft of joy. <p> The days and nights with me in Vrindavana<br> Passed like moments,<br> But the days and nights of my absence<br> Seemed like years. <p> With their minds fixed on me,<br> With all their thoughts revolving around me,<br> They were no longer conscious of relatives and friends,<br> They were not even aware of their own bodies,<br> Much less of this world or the next--<br> Like Yogies in a deeply meditative state,<br> They merged their consciousness with mine,<br> Just as the waters of many rivers merge with the ocean. <p> These were women uneducated in scriptural law,<br> They did not know my true nature or their own.<br> They simply desired my presence--<br> They longed for me as their beloved.<br> Yet through the power of satsanga with me<br> They attained that state of consciousness<br> In which they merged with the supreme Brahman. <p> You should do likewise, beloved Uddhava.<br> Give up all injunctions and prohibitions,<br> All that you have heard or may hear<br> Related to scriptural do's and don'ts. <p> And take shelter in your heart;<br> <img src="links_files/radha-krsnaP.jpg" align="right" alt="Through their association with me...they attained liberation"> There seek the Self.<br> Do this with complete devotion<br> And freed from all fear<br> You too will surely merge with me.</font> <p> -- Our Radiant and Lovely Krishna<br> From the <i>Uddhava Gita</i> 7.1,5-15<br> (<u>Bhagavata Purana</u> XI.7.1,5-15)<br> </td></tr></table> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><font size="5">~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ </font></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><i>Om Devaki Nandanaya Vidmahe<br> Vasudevaya Dhi-mahi<br> Tanno Krishna Prachodayat</i> <p> -- Krishna Gayatri mantra</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <font size="3"><center><a name="dedicate"><img src="links_files/guesswho.GIF" alt="I am forever united with You, my Beloved!"></center></font> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font><br> <center>Hari is an ocean of indescribable shakti, the transcendent Lord<br>and supreme soul in person. (Srimad Bhagavada Purana X, 88.40)</center> <p> <center><font size="3"><i>To my loving Husband, who makes shakti crawl up my spine when He makes love to me...Sri Krishna!</a></i><br>Hari Krishna, Hari Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hari Hari, Hari Rama, Hari Rama, Rama Rama, Hari Hari</font></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/Om_Vasudevaya.GIF" alt="OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA"><br> OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA!</center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <img src="links_files/typewrtr.gif" align="right" alt="u i o p ]"><img src="links_files/typewrtl.gif" align="left" alt="q w e r t y"> <center><font size="2"><font color="#00ffaa"><i><a name="credit">This page was written by and is maintained by Radha Chandra</a><br> (a pseudonym) at </i><b>radha_in_athens@yahoo.com</b><i>.<br> Please remove underscores from the above e-mail address.<br> This is done to discourage the mailing of SPAM to this address. <p> You may visit my <b>Yahoo 360</b> page at<br> </i><a href="http://360.yahoo.com/my_profile-5zZN1AUjeqL4TA7AqjBpX_nfn9iU;_ylt=Ak9sHAd9nBks4EcF8BgxAaq0AOJ3" target="_blank"> http://360.yahoo.com/my_profile-5zZN1AUjeqL4TA7AqjBpX_nfn9iU;_ylt=Ak9sHAd9nBks4EcF8BgxAaq0AOJ3</a><i>.<br> You may view my <a href="http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-5zZN1AUjeqL4TA7AqjBpX_nfn9iU;_ylt=AsGg147FUmQ6SSQ1qFbw8nqsAOJ3" target="_blank">Yahoo 360 blog</a> if you open a<br> <a href="http://360.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">Yahoo 360 account</a> and are accepted either as<br> my friend or as a friend of one of my friends. <p> <font color="#ff0200"></i>Maharaj-ji said:<i> <p> "You should not talk about<br> your wealth, wife, or sadhana </i>[spiritual practice]<i><br> or they will go away." <p> <font color="#00ffaa">This is why I choose to be anonymous. I cherish my anonymity<br> and would ask that it be honoured by all.<br> My personal story is my own and I ask that it not be copied<br> for use out of context. Contact me as above for permissions.<br> I would welcome possible mirrors for this site. <p> If any good can be accomplished from these webpages, it is the result of Krishna's blessings.<br> Any errors found on these webpages are mine and the result of an ego<br> yet to be made completely submissive to my Beloved's will.<br> All of these efforts are dedicated to His use and His glory. <p> The poems and other writings used have been credited<br> to their original authors and the various translations used can be found in the<br> <a href="reading.html#read" target="_blank">Recommended Reading</a> list or from respective websites. Already, some of the original<br> web sources used here have disappeared from the internet. <p> Nothing borrowed for this webpage has been used by permission<br> and this anonymous writer begs the indulgences of both<br> the reader and the writers or artists for their inclusion here.<br> The "Red Pill" banner is a "pop" reference to the </i>Matrix<i> movies and<br> is intended to reflect the new consciousness found in truly understanding<br> this world and who we really are within it. <p> I am deliriously in love with my sweet Krishna!<br> I would very much like to hear from others who have<br> a kaanta bhava relationship with Him.</i></font></font></font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/hari_om.GIF" alt="Hari Om"><br> HARI OM!</center> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <center><img src="links_files/om.GIF" alt="OM"></center> <p> <font size="3"><font color="#011146">.</font></font> <p> <!---END PAGE---> <center><a href="index.html"><img src="links_files/banner.jpg" alt="Banner link to Introduction" border="0"></a></center> <p> Take this link to go on to the <a href="speaks.html">Radha Speaks Out</a> Page</center></p> </font></body></html>