(4/4) Love and Rupture

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Rama Navami: appearance of Lord Rama
Siliguri, 21 April 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

You can see what kind of vatsalya-rasa there is in Rama-lila: the father sent his son to live in the forest. What madhura-rasa is there? Rama had a wife, Sita Devi, but He threw her into fire to test her chastity. She was innocent, but people said, ‘She lived with Ravan, so she has become impure!’ That is why she had to go through the test of fire. Then, even though she had passed the test, people were still not satisfied. They demanded that she should be exiled, and Lord Rama sent her to Valmiki’s ashram. That is all there is to ‘madhura-rasa’. But in Krishna-lila, when there was a solar eclipse and everyone went to Kuruksetra to bath, the gopis came there, but when they saw Krishna seated kingly on His chariot, surrounded by His soldiers, they said, ‘This is not our Krishna. Our Krishna is a cowherd boy who wears a peacock feather in His hair – He never wears any jewels on His head.’ Feeling overwhelmed, they started pulling Krishna back to Vrindavan because they wanted Krishna when He was one of them, not Krishna who was a king. When they cried for Krishna in their divine separation, even all the trees and plants in Vrindavan became grief-stricken – everybody suffered so much… But in Rama-lila, to upkeep His moral obligation, to save His kingdom and to please His subjects, Ramachandra sent Sita to the forest. Is there any love there?

These are the distinctive peculiarities of Krishna’s and Ramachandra’s pastimes. That is why there is an avatara (incarnation) and an avatari (the source of incarnations). Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Krishna are avatari, but Lord Rama is an avatara. I have written about all this very nicely in the fourth volume of Guidance. If you read it, it will be good.

Laksman said, ‘I am coming in Dvapar! I was Your younger brother in Treta-yuga, so I could not disobey Your rules and regulations, but in Dvapar, I will come as Your elder brother!’

In the world of service, rules and regulations are obstructions. Sometimes, morality disrupts service life as it belongs to a much lower plane. What is the value of ethical principles or morality when there is love? If there is loving service, moral principles have no value. Why did Sita Devi have to go to the forest following Rama’s order? She had to do it to show support to ethical principles. Ramachandra called His younger brother and said, ‘You know why I have appeared, so You must take Sita Devi to the forest.’ This extremely difficult order of His elder brother broke Laksman’s heart. A flood of tears fell from His eyes. Still, He carried out His elder brother’s order – He took Sita Devi to Tapovan, Valmiki’s ashram.

The secret purpose of Rama-lila is to set an example of these moral principles. Wherever Sri Ramachandra performed His pastimes – be it in Ayodhya, Lanka, Dandakaranya or when slaying the demoness Tadaka – He never broke the moral etiquette. He descended to this world to establish the necessity to follow moral rules: it is necessary to follow them for the benefit of jiva souls. To nourish these pastimes, Laksman also had to yield to moral principles. But in Krishna’s pastimes, rules and regulations have no value. This is the peculiarity of His pastimes.

Three Lords ride in chariots: Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. But Balaram says, ‘I will go first, You two wait.’ What kind of service is this? Why must the servant go first, and why must the master go behind him? ‘Because if there are any thorns on the way, if any danger comes in the way, I will take care of it.’ That is why Baladev always goes first at the time of Ratha-yatra. In this way, Balaram becomes elder and gives orders to Krishna: ‘I will go before You. Whether You like it or not, You have to obey Me.’ Balaram is elder, so even if Krishna gives Him an order, He does not listen to Him.

You must remember these things about the pastimes of Lord Rama. Today is His appearance day…

Suffering unbearable pangs of separation, Sita lost all her beauty – her golden form dried out. The sight of the soiled face of Sita Devi suffering from separation from her beloved causes deep pain. However, the Vraja-gopis of Vrindavan became mad from love for Krishna. Sita Devi’s pangs of separation from her Lord did not drive her crazy. All the servants, all the Vraja-gopis, Nanda Maharaj and Mother Yasoda – everyone went mad because of Krishna; they lost themselves in anguish. The dust of Vrindavan became flooded with the tears of love. Krishna-prema of Sri Radhika exceeds the love of Hanuman to Sri Rama. This is so not only in the case of conjugal relationship; such an intense love for Krishna is also seen in the devotees serving Krishna in the relationships of neutrality, servitude, friendship and parenthood.

[His Divine Grace remarks: I have written everything nicely here, in Guidance 4. I wrote it with much love. If you read it, you can understand it.]

Vasudev said to Kamsa, ‘Do not kill Devaki now. I am giving you my word that as soon as I get a son, I will hand him over to you. I am a religious person, I never tell a lie, so please believe me.’ But did he do it? He had given all his children to Kamsa, but when his last son appeared, he did not keep his word – all rules and regulations were gone. Vasudev told a lie for the Lord. Even when devotees steal, they do it for Krishna – Krishna’s devotees can do anything for the service to Krishna.

If you read this book (Guidance 4), you will learn many things. I wrote about the relationship between the guru and the disciple and about what kind of relationship should be there between you and Krishna.

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

‘Devotees submit their entire being when they take initiation. At this time, Krishna accepts them as His very own.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.192)

Initiation (diksa) means divine knowledge (divya-jnana). When we surrender ourselves to the Lord and take initiation, we must keep everything (our minds, hearts, egos, everything) at the lotus feet of gurudev. If there is some deficiency in our surrender, we will not get the proper result. Then, even if you have taken initiation, this is not all. It is necessary to serve the Lord. Do you know why we chant the Holy Name? To get service to the Lord (to get the right to serve Him). But our situation is such that we forget everything, along with the service to the Lord. This is not what our relationship with the guru and the Lord should be like.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

‘May I have the same kind of love for Your holy feet as I now have for this material world.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We think, ‘Everything is fine as long as I am alive. If the Lord dies, if my guru dies, it does not matter – as long as I am alive’…

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Beauty of Lord's Incarnation
2) Sevya and Sevak
3) Dasarath's Morality
4) Love and Rupture