Do You Want To Hear The Rest?

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja : On Raganuga-bhakti - Do you want to hear the rest? Burijana dasa: Dhanurdhara Maharaja and I were not here the last time you spoke, but we listened to the tape. Sripad Dhanurdhara Maharaja: But we couldn’t understand from the tape what you were doing. We couldn’t understand your hand-motions. Sripad Tamal Krsna Gosvami: The manjaris. Sripad Dhanurdhara Maharaja: It was about the manjaris. You said, “It is like this.” Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Tamal Krsna Maharaja can describe more than I. Sripad Dhanurdhara Maharaja: He already told us, but we want to hear it from your realizations. Sripad Tamal Krsna Gosvami: You told us that what you were saying was not in any book. Burijana dasa: My understanding from that example was that the heart of Rupa Manjari is so dedicated to Srimati Radharani that she feels everything Srimati Radharani feels. I also understood by your statement at the end that one must be dedicated to his guru in the same way. Without surrender and without giving one’s heart to the guru, it doesn’t work, especially in raganuga. Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: This surrender and complete dedication of the heart to guru is called tadatmya (oneness of heart) in Sanskrit. When an iron rod is placed in fire, the qualities of the fire enter the iron. When fire permeates an iron rod it is the fire that burns other objects; it is not that the iron rod burns other objects; The iron rod may ‘consider,’ “I am fire,” in the sense that the qualities of the iron have become one with the qualities of the fire; it now does the work of fire. Similarly Sri Rupa Manjari and all the other manjaris are tadatmika (one in heart) with Radha, so the action of Radha becomes the action of all the manjaris. In other words, whatever She realizes is also realized by every manjari; nothing is hidden from them. Some things may be hidden from Her sakhis, but not from Her manjaris. Sripad Tamal Krsna Gosvami: So, today you will carry on from where you left off? Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Do you want to hear the rest? Sripad Tamal Krsna Gosvami: Oh yes, very much. Just from what you have been speaking, it is already so helpful. Burijana dasa: I would like to have the references for the first two verses. Sripad Tamal Krsna Gosvami: The verses are found in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: I told them three slokas, the first of which is this: krsnam smaran janam casya prestham nija samihitam tat tat katha ratas casau kuryad vasam vraje sada ["While remembering Sri Krsna and His beloved associates whom we desire to follow, being fully absorbed in discussions of their pastimes, one should always reside in Vraja. If this is not possible, then one should reside there by mind." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.294)] Have you heard the explanation of that sloka? It refers to remembering Krsna along with His dearmost associates.