Sāyaṁ-kālīya-bhajana - Bhāva

When, as I take Your Name, will my eyes pour streams of tears, my voice choke within my mouth, and my body become covered with horripilation?

Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja prays: Without the treasure of prema, this impoverished life is useless. Make me Your servant and pay me with that treasure of divine love.

The first stage of prema is called bhāva. At that stage the sāttvika transformations, such as tears and horripilation, appear in a slight degree.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: The initial condition of prema bears the name bhāva. Tears, horripilation, and the other sāttvika changes then arise gently.

Forbearance, not wasting time, detachment, absence of pride, firm hope, intense longing, constant taste for singing the Name, attachment to descriptions of the Lord's qualities, and love for the places where He dwells are among the outward signs found in a person in whom the sprout of bhāva has appeared.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Though cause for agitation is present, no agitation arises. One constantly worships Kṛṣṇa and never wastes time. Detachment from everything other than Kṛṣṇa remains firm. Though worthy of honor, one does not become proud. One remains certain, "I will surely receive Kṛṣṇa's mercy," and worships Him every day with a deeply eager heart. Taste for singing the Hare Kṛṣṇa Name never ceases; attachment to narrations of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's qualities grows abundant; and one always loves the places where Kṛṣṇa resides. These are the anubhāvas present when the sprout of bhāva has arisen.

Dancing, rolling upon the ground, singing, crying aloud, twisting the body, roaring, yawning, heavy breathing, disregard for public opinion, salivation, loud laughter, dizziness, hiccupping, and similar acts are external expressions of bhāva.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Dancing, rolling, singing, shouting, and roaring; swelling or contorting of the body, yawning, repeated deep breaths, disregard for onlookers, flowing saliva, loud laughter, hiccups, and dizziness reveal bhāva outwardly.

The eight sāttvika transformations are remembered as paralysis, perspiration, horripilation, breaking of the voice, trembling, change of color, tears, and fainting.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura lists: stillness, sweat, horripilation, trembling, faltering voice, pallor, fainting, and tears are the eight varieties of transformation.

I am not a brāhmaṇa, ruler, merchant, or laborer; nor am I a celibate student, householder, forest-dweller, or renunciant. I am only the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of the Lord of the gopīs, who is the rising, complete ocean of supreme nectar and bliss.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: I am never a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, or śūdra, nor a householder, celibate, forest renunciant, or sannyāsī. I am the servant of the servants' servants of Śrī Rādhā's beloved, the abode of full nectar and immeasurable supreme bliss.

One who longs to attain the mood of the residents of Vraja should serve in this world both through the practitioner's present form and through the internally conceived perfected form, following those eternal residents.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Externally, in the sādhaka body, practice hearing and chanting; internally, in the perfected body, render service by following the people of Vraja.

A woman attached to her paramour may remain busy with household work, yet within herself she continually tastes the ever-fresh nectar of meeting him.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Though engaged at home day and night, a woman devoted to another man secretly relishes within her heart the nectar of new meetings in supreme delight. In the same way, though outwardly busy in the household, the devotee inwardly and in solitude tastes Kṛṣṇa's rasa.

O lotus-eyed Lord, when will I wander upon the Yamunā's bank singing Your names, tears streaming from my eyes, and dance in wild abandon?

Alas, a heart that does not transform when Hari's names are uttered is made of stone. When true transformation comes, tears fill the eyes and the body's hairs stand erect in joy.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: During saṅkīrtana of Hari's Name, the hairs rise, the body changes, and streams of tears flow from the eyes. Condemned is the heart that does not transform at such a time, for its core is harder than a thunderbolt.

O Bhagavān, if firm devotion to You arises in us, then by divine grace Your beautiful adolescent form becomes its fruit. Liberation herself stands before us with folded hands to serve, while dharma, prosperity, and enjoyment wait for our command.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: For one whose devotion to Vrajendra-nandana has become firmly fixed, Your youthful form is the treasure attained. Liberation joins her palms and serves at his feet, while dharma, artha, and kāma obey his instructions.

Devotees speak with one another of Bhagavān's purifying glory. They develop mutual love, mutual satisfaction, and inward freedom. Remembering Hari, who removes floods of sin, and reminding one another of Him, they bear bodies thrilled with horripilation through devotion born from devotion.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Devotees sing Kṛṣṇa-kathā among themselves and thereby obtain affection, satisfaction, and happiness together. Each remembers Hari and awakens remembrance in the others; when bhāva arises from their practice, tears and horripilation appear.

Shamelessly reciting the names of the Infinite Lord, remembering His auspicious and intimate deeds, wandering the earth contented and free from craving, awaiting the appointed time, and without pride or envy, the devotee passes his days.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Abandoning embarrassment, he always recites Kṛṣṇa's Name and remembers Kṛṣṇa's sweet līlās. Content, free from desire, pride, and envy, he lives wholly intent upon Kṛṣṇa's will.

Sometimes, thinking of Acyuta, such devotees weep; sometimes they laugh, rejoice, and speak in ways beyond this world. They dance, sing, and enact the unborn Lord's deeds; at other times, reaching supreme fulfillment, they become silent.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: When bhāva awakens, one sometimes cries as a result of remembering Kṛṣṇa, and sometimes laughs and rejoices with transcendental power. One dances and sings, finds joy in discussing Kṛṣṇa, and, while experiencing His līlā, becomes almost entirely still and silent.

They behold Śyāma clad in golden cloth, adorned with a forest garland, peacock feather, mineral pigments, and fresh shoots, dressed as a dancer. One hand rests upon a companion's shoulder while the other twirls a lotus. Lotuses ornament His ears, curling locks frame His cheeks, and His lotus face smiles.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: At every moment they see Śyāma, wrapped in golden garments and adorned with a forest garland, peacock feather, colored minerals, and ornaments. Dressed as an actor, He places His lotus hand upon a companion's shoulder. Flowers grace His ears; locks frame His cheeks; a smile rests upon His lips.

Wearing a peacock feather upon His head, the body of the finest dancer, karṇikāra flowers at His ears, golden-yellow cloth, and the Vaijayantī garland, He filled the flute's holes with the nectar of His lips. Surrounded by the cowherd boys and praised in song, He entered Vṛndāvana, enchanting it with the marks of His feet.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: With a peacock plume upon His crown, the dress of the best dancer, karṇikāra flowers at His ears, yellow garments, and the Vaijayantī garland upon His neck, Hari fills the flute's openings with the nectar of His lips and enters Vṛndāvana with His friends.

To perform pastimes resembling those of mortals, He displayed the power of His own Yogamāyā and accepted a form that astonished even Him: the supreme perfection of His abundant beauty, with limbs that ornamented the very ornaments they wore.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: For humanlike līlā, Kṛṣṇa manifested through His spiritual potency an astonishing form, the wondrous summit of ever-increasing beauty. His form is the ornament of all ornaments and beyond comparison.

His face, with charming ears adorned by makara earrings, radiant cheeks, and a playful smile, became an everlasting festival. Men and women joyfully drank it with their eyes but were never satisfied, and they grew angry with the maker of eyelids for interrupting their sight.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Seeing His lovely cheeks and makara-shaped earrings, His spotless moonlike face and playful smile, all the men and women became absorbed in a perpetual festival and resented the creator of blinking.

When the three worlds beheld Him at Yudhiṣṭhira, Dharma's son's Rājasūya sacrifice, they found in Him the complete blessing of vision and concluded that every skill of the creator in fashioning the human form had reached its perfection here.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: At Yudhiṣṭhira's Rājasūya, all the inhabitants of the three worlds saw Kṛṣṇa's form, the highest auspiciousness for the eyes, and concluded that it was the most wondrous achievement in all the creator's work.

The women of Vraja gained special honor by beholding His loving smiles and rāsa pastimes. Following Him with their eyes and minds, they stood motionless, as though their remaining duties had already been completed.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: The gopīs of Vraja, honored by continually beholding Kṛṣṇa's smiles of anurāga and His rāsa-līlā, considered every duty fulfilled and stood spellbound, their eyes fixed upon His form.

He alone is without equal or superior, the Lord of the threefold energies, and every desire is fulfilled by the sovereign majesty of His own nature. For ages the guardians of the worlds have brought Him tribute, and the tips of their crowns worship the footstool beneath His feet.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Kṛṣṇa has neither equal nor superior and is Lord of the three potencies. Eternally fulfilled in the opulence of His own nature, He is praised by the crowns of the world-rulers who approach with their offerings and touch His footstool.

O Lord, we do not know by what spiritual power this serpent gained the right to be touched by the dust of Your feet. Longing for that dust, Śrī herself renounced all other desires and for a very long time faithfully performed austerity.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: By what merit did Kāliya obtain the dust of Your feet? O Kṛṣṇa, we cannot understand the reach of Your mercy. To obtain that same dust, Lakṣmī Devī abandoned other desires, maintained a vow, and practiced austerity for a long time.

O beloved Lord, not even Śrī, though devoted to Your chest with the most intense love, received the grace granted in the rāsa festival to the beautiful women of Vraja, whose necks were embraced by Your mighty arms. How then could heavenly women fragrant and radiant like lotuses, or any other women, attain it?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: In the rāsa dance Kṛṣṇa placed His arms upon the gopīs' shoulders and granted a grace impossible to describe. Lakṣmī did not experience that mercy; how could any other goddess attain such opulence of grace?

Ah, may I become some shrub, creeper, or herb in Vṛndāvana and receive the dust of these gopīs' feet. They abandoned relatives so difficult to leave and the path approved by respectable society, and worshipped Mukunda's footprints, which even the revealed scriptures seek.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays: The gopīs abandoned their dearest relatives and the conventional noble path to worship Kṛṣṇa's feet, sought by the Vedas. Ah, if only I could take the body of a bush, vine, or tree in Vraja and devotedly serve the dust of their feet.

Among all embodied beings on earth, these cowherd women are supreme, for they have attained mature love exclusively for Govinda, the Self of all. Fearful of worldly existence, sages and even we gods long for that love. Of what value are births as Brahmā to one who tastes the nectar of Ananta's narrations?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Sages afraid of becoming and the gods continually desire Govinda's feet. Blessed are the gopīs, whose bhāva for that Govinda has fully ripened. Before Kṛṣṇa's rasa, birth as Brahmā has no value.

What austerity did the gopīs perform that they may constantly drink with their eyes His form, the essence of beauty, without equal or superior, perfected by itself alone, ever-new at every moment, exceedingly difficult to attain, and the exclusive abode of fame, loveliness, and majesty?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura asks: His form is the inaccessible, exclusive dwelling of fame, beauty, and opulence, the self-perfect beloved who is the incomparable essence of loveliness. What austerity did the gopīs perform that at every moment their eyes may taste Śyāma's rasa?

In the evening I remember Śrī Rādhā sending many foods for Her beloved through Her sakhī, then rejoicing at heart when the sakhī brings back the remnants He has eaten. I also remember the moon of Vraja, bathed and beautifully dressed, affectionately tended by His mother after returning to the cowherd settlement, milking the many cows with His friends, and then eating again at home.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: In the evening Śrī Rādhikā sends many sweets to Kṛṣṇa through a sakhī. The sakhī returns with Kṛṣṇa's remnants and Rādhā receives them in delight. Hari bathes, dresses beautifully, and is affectionately tended by Yaśodā. With His friends He milks the cows, then receives many cooked foods and becomes pleased. I remember this with the greatest reverence.

Thus ends the practice for the sixth period in Śrī Bhajana-rahasya.