…and beg pardon. Perhaps what you previously thought about the jīva and bhakti has changed. Perhaps you are now thinking, understanding, and realizing differently. Similarly, your present understanding will also change when you will become a mahā-bhāgavata and cross over māyā. Then you will realize everything…
We see that clouds sometimes appear to fight with thunderbolts. Are they tṛṇād-api-sunīcena if they fight and thunder at each other? Hanumān is tṛṇād-api-sunīcena. Because Rāvaṇa was the enemy of his Lord Rāma, he killed and destroyed all of Rāvaṇa’s followers and land. Śrīla Gurudeva said that to fight to defend one’s Prabhu is proper application of tṛṇād-api-sunīcena. Nonetheless, this should only be done with the order and desire of the master. Without their approval, the devotee should be humble and silent…
What is gatir (in the above verse)? It is happiness, peace, bliss, love, and, ultimately, deliverance from this world. Where will you get all this from? You will get everything by the Lord’s mercy. Without mercy, the association of sādhus is not attained. Without mercy, even bhakti is not attained…
When a young girl falls in love with a boy, this relationship is very sweet and tasteful in the beginning. And when the boy is away, the girl is always anxious for his return. Is such deep attraction satisfactory? When Kubjā saw Kṛṣṇa in Mathurā, she tried to take Him to her room for enjoyment. Kṛṣṇa was very embarrassed and before Uddhava and Dāūjī said, “How is this lady? The Mathurā ladies are shameless.” He tried to chase her away, but the greedy Kubjā did not listen. Kṛṣṇa thought, “This is not possible. In Vraja-bhūmi the gopīs never do this with Me. Their love is spotless, devoid of any selfish desire.” Real love means that there are no conditions or selfishness. The gopīs are superior, for they carry Kṛṣṇa in their hearts and do not try to control or acquire Him by force. The behavior and rules of mundane attraction are not the rules of real love. Love means to be always ready to fulfill whatever one’s beloved desires…
When Kṛṣṇa plays His flute, the gopīs immediately want to leave their homes and run to meet with Him. Sometimes they get stopped by their mothers or sisters-in-law, who lock the door and brandish sticks. The gopīs who are thus trapped feel so sad and lowly that they leave their bodies and enter into another gopī body manifested by svarūpa-śakti. Then when they see their husbands and in-laws in the house, they feel as if they have absolutely no connection to them. This can only happen because they had the mood of tṛṇād-api-sunīcena…
Kṛṣṇa is wearing a vaijayantī-mālā, and on His head is a turban decorated with fragrant forest flowers. His beautiful limbs are covered by a dress made of peacock feathers, which He wears only because His beloved peacocks offered their feathers to Him. Kṛṣṇa accepts and respects any offering that is done with love, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to be. This is called love. When Kṛṣṇa walks in the forest, all the trees and creepers bend their branches down to Him and decorate Him with their flowers…
Many people think that by chanting harināma, nāma-śakti will come to them, and thus they will become powerful, superior, and great scholars. This is not the proper mood and is not helpful. With a humble mood, we should pray to the devotees who are themselves chanting harināma, and ask them how to get this śakti. Then we have to practice chanting harināma ourselves, and create a relationship with Nāma Prabhu. Then we will experience nāmnām-akari-bahudhā-nija-sarva-śakti…
It is not our duty to correct those who have faults. Our duty is nāma-sevā, vaiṣṇava-sevā, guru-sevā, and dhāma-sevā. We are not authorities. If we are sad to see wrong behavior, we can pray to Kṛṣṇa to help this person and change him. We can request Nāma Prabhu to help them, but we should personally not be against them or take sides. Being against means that we are becoming involved. Then we will think about it and forget our harināma. By this, material things come and acquire our hearts, and we will become the followers of this misbehaving person because we gave him a place in our hearts and minds. Then we will become crazy and depressed, and thus distance ourselves from Kṛṣṇa. If we do not have the power to change people, we should not think about their faults…
This verse is very sweet. The first verse ends with paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam, but in this verse, nāma comes at the very beginning. What is the meaning of nāmnām? Does this refer to the names of the Lord, like Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Vāmana, Kalki, and so forth. Nāma means kṛṣṇa-nāma, and akāri means form or Deity. What is the Deity? It is nija-sarva-śaktiḥ. The meaning of this is that Kṛṣṇa did not come alone. He came with all His potencies, sarva-śakti, the Vraja-devīs. All the gopīs and mañjarīs came along with Him. Someone who chants the holy name is very lucky, for all the gopīs, mañjarīs, and Vrajavāsīs come and give him affection, shelter, and maintenance…