The Truth of Divine Love

Within the divine bower, disembodied existence cannot be; There eternally shines the supremely divine truth of love in Bhagavan's own form.

Sakhis and manjaris, the bed's adornment, and every other means of lila - All are filled with Shyama and Shyama; blessed are those bearing these worldly names.

That person alone can speak, hear, and understand who abandons attachment to enjoyment, Remains forever absorbed in service, and offers devotion in complete reliance.

That person alone beholds the incomparable, divine, and majestic lila of the bower Whom the Divine Couple Themselves authorize and enable to see.

The Truth of Divine Love

Bhagavan Subject to Love

The Dark One is forever subject to love; The supreme connoisseur, made of love's rasa, is eternally absorbed in the honeyed rasa of love.

He constantly repeats His lovers' names and meditates upon those who love Him; He remains enchanted at the sight of their sweet smiles.

To make them happy, He relinquishes every sign of divine lordship; Forgetting His divinity, He serves them naturally and with immense delight.

Spontaneously surrendering everything, He regards them as His chosen deities; Taking particles of dust from their feet, He accounts His life blessed.

The Place of Prema-Bhakti Among the Different Forms of Devotion

"Victorious is the moonlike Beloved of Radha, the embodiment of the nectar of every rasa, whose spreading radiance subdues the hosts of stars and who keeps graceful Shyama at His side."

Bhakti is the mind's continuous and uninterrupted absorption in Sri Bhagavan as one's chosen form; or it is supreme attachment to Bhagavan, selfless and exclusive love for Him.

Bhakti has many disciplines, levels, and divisions. The sages have explained it with great beauty. The Puranas, the Mahabharata, histories such as the Ramayana, and the Tantra scriptures are filled with descriptions of devotion. Christian, Muslim, and other religious communities too possess beautiful and sweet expositions and practices of devotion. Our own Indian Shaiva, Shakta, and Vaishnava traditions proclaim the triumph of devotional practice. In truth, Bhagavan is brought under devotion's sway as He is by no other discipline. Bhakti can be compared only to bhakti itself.

Uttama Bhakti

"The highest devotion is cultivation of Krishna undertaken for His pleasure, free from all other desires and unobscured by knowledge, action, or anything else."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu)

The ordinary beauty and sweetness of Sri Krishna irresistibly drew the minds of great holy persons, knowers of Brahman, and ascetics, while His unsurpassed, wondrous, infinite, and sovereign power of complete majesty astonished even Shiva and Brahma. Favorable, devoted cultivation of Sri Krishna Himself, the foundational refuge of all these qualities, is called uttama bhakti. Favorability means constantly doing through body, speech, and mind whatever pleases Sri Krishna and brings Him happiness. Kamsa and others also maintained an intense awareness of Sri Krishna, but they lacked this favorability. Here the name Sri Krishna may be understood to include every form of Bhagavan, such as Sri Rama, Nrisimha, and Vamana. The discussion, however, presents the form of Sri Krishna directly; hence devotion in the form of cultivation performed for and relating to Bhagavan's form as Sri Krishna is said to be primary.

The Conditions That Qualify Devotion

Bhakti has two qualifying limitations: 1. the presence of other desires and 2. admixture with karma, jnana, yoga, and the like. As long as even one of these two qualifications remains, prema cannot be attained.

Other desire is of two kinds: desire for enjoyment and desire for liberation. Bhakti's coverings are of three kinds: jnana, karma, and yoga. Here jnana means knowledge of the attributeless Absolute in the form "I am Brahman"; yoga means hatha-yoga and similar practices devoid of worship; and karma means scripturally prescribed rites such as sacrifices devoid of devotion, as well as worldly actions performed to gain enjoyment and the like. The knowledge by which one learns the mystery of Bhagavan's auspicious divine form and His worship, the yoga by which the movements of the mind become absorbed in Bhagavan's form, qualities, lila, deeds, and so forth, and the action through which service to Bhagavan is performed all assist bhakti and are limbs of bhakti itself. They are not limiting qualifications imposed upon it.

Devotion with Personal Desire

Bhakti containing desire for enjoyment is called sakama bhakti, devotion with personal desire. Sakama bhakti is of two kinds, rajasic and tamasic. Devotion practiced for sense pleasure, fame, reputation, power, and the like is rajasic; devotion motivated by violence, hypocrisy, envy, and the like is tamasic. Desire for sense objects arises only from rajas and tamas. This sakama bhakti is also called saguna bhakti. Devotion containing desire for liberation is called kaivalya-kama or sattvic bhakti.

Uttama bhakti is made of consciousness. It has three divisions: sadhana-bhakti, bhava-bhakti, and prema-bhakti. Hearing, singing, and similar acts that can be practiced through the senses are called sadhana-bhakti.

This sadhana-bhakti has two qualities: it destroys affliction and bestows auspiciousness. Afflictions are of three kinds: sin, latent desire, and ignorance. Sin is of two kinds: prarabdha and aprarabdha. Sin whose results have begun to be experienced is called prarabdha sin, while sin whose results have not begun to be experienced is called aprarabdha sin. The seed of sin is latent desire, and the cause of latent desire is ignorance. The root cause of all these afflictions is turning away from Bhagavan;

when, through the influence of devotees' company, one turns toward Bhagavan, every cause of affliction disappears by itself. Hence the quality of destroying all sorrow manifests in sadhana-bhakti.

"Auspicious" means that the practitioner extends love and affectionate regard toward the entire universe, all noble qualities unfold, and happiness arises. Happiness too is of three kinds: happiness from sense objects, the happiness of Brahman, and the happiness of the Supreme Lord. All these can be attained through sadhana-bhakti.

Bhava-bhakti has two qualities of its own: it makes liberation seem insignificant, and it is extremely rare. In addition, it incorporates sadhana-bhakti's two qualities of destroying affliction and bestowing auspiciousness. Just as the qualities of space are naturally present in air, and the qualities of space and air in fire - so that each succeeding element contains the qualities of the preceding elements - the qualities of sadhana-bhakti are present in bhava-bhakti, and those of both sadhana- and bhava-bhakti are present in prema-bhakti. Thus bhava-bhakti possesses four qualities in all, while prema-bhakti possesses six, including its own two: it is the distinctive embodiment of concentrated bliss, and it attracts Sri Krishna. These are the six qualities of uttama bhakti.

"It destroys affliction and bestows auspiciousness; it makes liberation seem small and is exceedingly rare; it embodies a special concentrated bliss and draws Sri Krishna Himself."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu)

1. The nature of destroying affliction and 2. bestowing auspiciousness has already been explained above.

2. Making liberation seem insignificant means that this bhakti produces a sense of triviality toward dharma, material prosperity, desire, and moksha - including all five forms of liberation: residence in Bhagavan's realm, similarity of form, nearness, equal opulence, and merger - and turns the mind away from them all.

3. "Exceedingly rare" means that sovereignty, mystical power, heaven, knowledge or liberation, and similar attainments can be obtained through various disciplines; Bhagavan grants them readily. Yet even Bhagavan does not quickly bestow His own bhava-bhakti. It is not easily obtained even through selfless disciplines. It is given only to loving

devotees who disdain every form of enjoyment and liberation apart from devotion, offer everything for devotion alone, and remain dependent upon Bhagavan's grace.

5. "The distinctive embodiment of concentrated bliss" means that even millions of experiences of Brahman's bliss cannot compare with a single drop of this ocean of devotional happiness filled with the nectar of prema. It immerses one in the boundless and inconceivable ocean of love's joy.

6. "Attracting Sri Krishna" means that this prema-bhakti, together with all His loved ones, brings Sri Krishna under the devotee's sway.

Sadhana-Bhakti

Through the sadhana-bhakti described above, bhava and prema are treated as attainments. In truth, bhava and prema are eternally perfect realities and are not things to be produced. Practice reveals the bhava and prema hidden within the living being's heart. Sadhana-bhakti is of two kinds: 1. vaidhi and 2. raganuga.

Before loving attachment arises, worship undertaken solely in obedience to scripture is called vaidhi bhakti. Worship has sixty-four limbs. One remains qualified for vaidhi bhakti only until bhava arises.

The natural state of supreme absorption in Shyamasundara Sri Krishna, the Son of the king of Vraja - that is, love-filled thirst for Him - is called raga. Devotion permeated by such raga is called ragatmika bhakti.

Ragatmika bhakti too is of two kinds: kama-rupa and sambandha-rupa. Devotion in which every effort is made solely for Sri Krishna's happiness - in which kama has been transformed into prema - is called kama-rupa ragatmika bhakti. This celebrated devotion exists only among the Sri Gopis. Their divine and magnificent prema encounters an ineffable sweetness and becomes the cause of lilas of that kind; therefore the learned call this special

prema kama.

The awareness "I am Sri Krishna's father; I am His mother" is called sambandha-rupa ragatmika bhakti.

Devotion that follows this ragatmika bhakti is called raganuga. In raganuga bhakti, remembrance is the principal limb.

Raganuga too is of two kinds: kamanuga and sambandhanuga. The thirst that follows kama-rupa ragatmika bhakti is called kamanuga bhakti. Kamanuga is of two kinds: the desire for direct conjugal enjoyment and the desire for the respective bhava. Devotion containing longing for amorous play is called sambhogecchamayi; devotion suffused with the aspiration to attain the bhava and sweetness of a Vraja goddess who leads a group of gopis is called tat-tad-bhavecchatmika.

Those whose minds awaken to a desire for that bhava upon beholding the sweetness of the sacred form or remembering Sri Krishna's sweet lila are qualified for the two kinds of kamanuga bhakti described above.

Devotion through which one contemplates Sri Krishna in relationships such as fatherhood or motherhood and adopts that very bhava as one's own is called sambandhanuga bhakti.

Bhava-Bhakti

Bhava is the supremely radiant movement of a mind composed of pure sattva, free from rajas and tamas in the form of desires and cravings for this world and the next. It resembles a ray from the sun of prema, and its radiance makes the mind tender and fluid. Another name for bhava is rati. At the stage of rasa, this bhava is described in two ways: as the enduring emotion and as the transitory emotions. The enduring emotion too is of two kinds: the sprout of prema, or bhava, and prema itself. Pranaya and the other higher stages fall within prema. The characteristic given above pertains to bhava called the sprout of prema. Dancing, singing, and all the anubhavas are movements or effects of this bhava. Bhava of this kind is attained only through the grace of Bhagavan and His devotees,

not through any other discipline. There is nevertheless a special reason for describing it as devotion to be attained. Though sadhana-bhakti is not bhava-bhakti's direct cause, it is certainly its indirect cause. Only when sadhana-bhakti matures does the grace of Sri Bhagavan and His devotees descend, and bhava-bhakti manifests through that grace. The following nine sprouts of affection are the marks of bhava:

1. Forbearance - the mind remains utterly undisturbed even when faced with causes of agitation such as the loss of wealth, children, or honor, failure, censure, or illness.

2. Never wasting time - not spending even a moment uselessly in worldly affairs, but remaining continually engaged through mind, speech, and body in acts related to Bhagavan's service.

3. Detachment - a natural distaste for every enjoyment in this world and the next.

4. Freedom from the wish for honor - though personally endowed with excellent conduct, thought, and spiritual standing, wholly abandoning honor and recognition and showing respect even to the lowly.

5. Hopeful confidence - a firm and deeply rooted hope in the heart that Bhagavan and love for Him will be attained.

6. Intense longing - an exceedingly powerful and exclusive longing to attain one's chosen Bhagavan.

7. Constant relish for singing the divine name - such a natural desire to sing Bhagavan's sweet and sacred name that the singing never ceases and one experiences boundless joy in every single name.

8. Attachment to speaking of Bhagavan's qualities - day and night singing Bhagavan's qualities and recounting only His love-filled lilas, becoming restless when unable to do so.

9. Love for Bhagavan's dwelling place - a love-filled wish to live only in those places where Bhagavan performed sweet lilas and whose ground has been sanctified by the touch of His feet, such as

Vrindavan.

When the nine sprouts of affection described above become visible, one should understand that the devotee has gained the qualification for direct realization of Sri Krishna.

These signs are sometimes seen to some degree in ritualists and jnanis, but they are not rati for Bhagavan; they are semblances of rati. A semblance of rati is of two kinds: reflected and shadowlike. When one or two signs of rati, such as a choked voice and tears, appear while desire for enjoyment and liberation remains, this is a reflected semblance of rati. When such signs appear even in uncomprehending people through devotees' company and participation in sacred recitation and singing, this is a shadowlike semblance.

Prema-Bhakti

The mature state of bhava is called prema. Prema arises only when the mind is wholly stainless and filled with intense intimate possessiveness toward one's chosen Sri Bhagavan. Its sign is that no obstacle can diminish or alter it even in the least. Prema is of two kinds: accompanied by knowledge of divine greatness, and unalloyed. The love of a devotee on the regulated path is accompanied by knowledge of divine greatness; that of a devotee on the path of raga is unalloyed, made of pure sweetness. As intimate possessiveness progressively increases, the state of love correspondingly changes. One elevated state of prema is called sneha, whose sign is the melting of the heart. A still higher state is raga, whose sign is deep sneha. Higher still is pranaya, whose sign is profound trust. When the enduring emotion in the form of rati for Sri Krishna combines with the determinants, outward expressions, sattvika bhavas, and transitory emotions and becomes fit to be savored in the devotee's heart, it is called bhakti-rasa. This Krishna-rati is of five kinds: peaceful devotion, servitude, friendship, parental love, and sweet conjugal love. That in which and by which rati is savored is called vibhava. The support in which rati is awakened is called alambana-vibhava, while the stimulus by which rati is awakened

is called uddipana-vibhava. Alambana-vibhava is also of two kinds: the object that supports the emotion and the subject who bears it. The one toward whom rati flows is its object-support, while the one who serves as the seat of that rati is its subject-support. Sri Krishna is the object-support of rati for Him, and His devotees are its subject-support. Garments, ornaments, and other objects that awaken remembrance of Sri Krishna and thereby stimulate rati are uddipana-vibhavas.

Dancing, rolling on the ground, singing, crying aloud, contorting the limbs, roaring, yawning, and releasing long breaths are signs of anubhava, the outward expression of emotion. Anubhavas are of two kinds, cooling and projecting. Singing, yawning, and the like are cooling; dancing and similar movements are projecting.

There are eight sattvika bhavas: paralysis or stillness, perspiration, horripilation, breaking of the voice, trembling, change of color, tears, and collapse or fainting. These sattvika bhavas are of three kinds: tender, anointed, and dry. Tender sattvika bhava is of two kinds, primary and secondary. That which arises in direct relation to Sri Krishna is primary; tender sattvika bhava arising in relation to Sri Krishna indirectly, with some intervening link, is secondary. Tender sattvika bhava occurs only in eternally perfect devotees. The sattvika bhava of devotees in whom rati, or prema, has arisen is called anointed. An emotion that sometimes arises through joy, astonishment, or the like in a person in whom rati has not arisen is called dry.

All these bhavas also have five degrees: smoky, flaming, radiant, intensely radiant, and supremely radiant. One or two sattvika bhavas that manifest distinctly but can still be concealed are called smoky. Two or three arising simultaneously are called flaming, and can be concealed only with great difficulty. Three, four, or five intensified sattvika bhavas arising at once are called radiant; this radiant state cannot be hidden. Six, seven, or eight bhavas arising simultaneously at extreme intensity are called intensely radiant. In mahabhava, this intensely radiant state becomes supremely radiant.

Besides these, there are sattvika bhavas produced by a semblance of rati, and they are of four kinds. Sattvika bhava arising in a seeker of liberation is called born of a semblance of rati. That arising in ritualists and sensualists is called born of a semblance of sattva. Sattvika bhava arising in those whose minds readily slip or who are engaged merely in practice is called devoid of sattva; that arising in people hostile to Bhagavan is called contrary.

There are thirty-three transitory emotions: self-disgust, despondency, humility, remorse, exhaustion, intoxication, pride, doubt, fright, agitation, madness, seizure, illness, bewilderment, deathlike swoon, laziness, stupor, shame, concealment of emotion, recollection, deliberation, anxiety, discernment, fortitude, joy, eagerness, ferocity, indignation, envy, restlessness, sleepiness, sleep, and awakening.

These bhavas manifest in varying degrees according to the devotees' hearts. The eight sattvika bhavas and thirty-three transitory emotions are also called moving emotions, for they direct the movement of all the other bhavas.

Now for the enduring emotion. It is of three kinds: general, transparent, and the distinct enduring emotions beginning with peaceful devotion. A general rati that arises from the maturation of ordinary worship without the company of a devotee established in a particular rasa is called the general enduring emotion. The rati that arises in a person's transparent heart according to one's association with devotees of peaceful or other rasas is called the transparent enduring emotion. The distinct ratis - peaceful and so on - of devotees firmly established in their respective rasas are called the enduring emotions beginning with peaceful devotion. These are of five kinds: peaceful devotion, servitude, friendship, parental love, and sweet conjugal love. Each succeeding rasa is superior to the one before it. In addition to these five are seven secondary rasas: laughter, wonder, heroism, compassion, fury, terror, and revulsion. Worship of Bhagavan through any rasa is beneficial, but the five just named are the principal exemplary rasas suitable for spiritual practice.

The Different Levels of Bhava

One can ascend this devotional path of prema only through the grace of Bhagavan's loving devotees. Conversely, if one offends devotees, even bhava produced through spiritual discipline gradually weakens and disappears. The deep and fully developed state of bhava is called prema. Even within prema, so long as knowledge of divine greatness remains, some deficiency remains. True prema consists wholly of pure sweetness. No obstruction or impediment affects it. Even when a cause of destruction is present, it is not destroyed at all - "entirely free from destruction even in the presence of a cause of destruction" - but instead increases at every moment. When bhava reaches its highest level through pure, selfless, intimate disciplines filled solely with the longing of love, the prema born from that bhava is called bhavottha. When Sri Bhagavan Himself nourishes bhava through His presence, company, and gift of love and carries it to the very highest level, the prema arising from that bhava is called atiprasadottha. This is Sri Bhagavan's supreme gift to an exalted devotee of bhava. It does not depend upon spiritual practice and can be attained only when Bhagavan Himself bestows it. The lila of giving this kind of prema visibly occurred in one sacred abode alone: Sri Vrindavan-dhama. Dharma, material prosperity, desire, and liberation are the four aims of human life, among which liberation is highest. Higher still is bhavottha pure love made of divine sweetness, regarded by devotees as the fifth aim of life. Highest of all is atiprasadottha love, bestowed by Bhagavan and identical with Bhagavan's own nature. Bhagavan Sri Krishna is love embodied and is governed by love alone. Love alone attracts Him, and true love is received from Him alone. Therefore practitioners who desire love should worship love-filled Sri Krishna Himself.

Three Kinds Each of Rati, Prema, and Raga

I received your gracious letter. A concise answer to your questions follows.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna is made of bliss, and every one of His lilas is blissful. His sweet lila may be called the romantic expression of bliss, but one must remember that this joyful romance is never the lustful play of the world of maya. The sweet mutual longing for union between Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself, Sri Radhikaji who is His hladini-shakti, and the gopis who are forms of Her may be called the romantic expression of bliss. It is pure prema, wholly free from even the scent of lust. The kama named in Sri Krishna's lila is nonmaterial kama. Material desire cannot approach Bhagavan, the direct Enchanter of the god of love.

Vaishnava devotees describe three kinds of rati: samartha, samanjasa, and sadharani. Samartha rati contains only the longing and effort for Sri Krishna's happiness. It is nonmaterial and is held to be fully developed in Srimati Radhikaji alone within Vraja-dhama. Samanjasa rati contains a longing both for Sri Krishna's happiness and one's own, while sadharani rati seeks only one's own happiness. Of the three, samartha rati is supreme. It extends as far as mahabhava and is the true discipline of rasa.

Prema too is described in three modes: like honey, like clarified butter, and like lac. Love in the honey mode is naturally sweet like honey. It contains not the slightest admixture of any other bhava such as affection, reverence, respect, or service, nor does it need any. It flows eternally and continuously of itself within its own exclusive bhava. This is love solely for love's sake. The Beloved's happiness is one's own highest happiness; no separate happiness of one's own remains. In this love, the Beloved's interest is one's single

interest. Complete self-surrender is its secret, and ceaseless growth its nature. In truth, it is an indescribable bhava.

Love in the clarified-butter mode requires admixture with other rasas - as clarified butter needs salt, sugar, or another ingredient - to produce complete flavor and sweetness. Moreover, just as clarified butter hardens in cold and melts with warmth, the color of this love changes through admixture with different bhavas. It grows when honored and respected by the beloved and nearly dies when met with disregard or aversion. The lover wishes to make the beloved happy, but also seeks personal happiness from the beloved through various emotions. When honor and regard are not received, this love diminishes. It is not wholly free of self-interest, nor does it contain complete surrender.

Love in the lac mode is naturally hard and without rasa like sealing lac, yet arises upon seeing the beloved just as lac melts at the touch of fire. Its aim is to receive sensual enjoyment and happiness from the beloved.

Sri Radhikaji's love may be called like honey, Chandravaliji's and others' love like clarified butter, and Kubja's and others' love like lac.

Raga too is held to be of three kinds: madder-red, safflower, and shirisha.

The brilliant red color of the vine called manjishtha is not destroyed by washing or by any other means, nor does it depend upon another color for its brilliance. In the same way, the raga called manjishtha shines and grows ceaselessly by its own nature. This raga is eternally established within Sri Radha-Madhava. No other bhava can alter it. It requires no external cause to produce love; it arises of itself and grows continuously without cause.

Kusumika raga colors the field of the heart like the hue of the safflower and gains beauty by manifesting other ragas such as manjishtha and shirisha. The safflower's color is not fast by itself, but becomes fast and brilliant when combined with another astringent substance. Likewise, this raga becomes stable and luminous through the astringent influence of Sri Krishna's sweet, enchanting beauty and other qualities.

Shirisha raga lasts only briefly. A faint yellow glow appears in a newly opened shirisha blossom but soon disappears; similarly, this raga arises during sensual enjoyment and withers in separation. Hence it is called shirisha.

Those whose lives exist for Sri Krishna's happiness possess samartha rati, honey-like prema, and manjishtha raga. Those who seek the happiness of both Sri Krishna and themselves possess samanjasa rati, clarified-butter-like prema, and kusumika raga. Those whose love seeks only to gratify their own senses possess sadharani rati, lac-like prema, and shirisha raga. The first bhavas are highest, the second intermediate, and the third lowest.

Prema and the State of Brahman

There is no difference between the state of prema and the state of Brahman. Yet because their disciplines differ, they are understood separately for practitioners of different qualifications. Both the lover and the jnani lose ordinary self-awareness, but this does not mean a bodily state devoid of external awareness. It is the state in which nothing remains "external" apart from the Supreme Self. Like knowledge, love is initially undertaken to attain the Beloved or Brahman. At first it is for oneself, then for Bhagavan, and in the end the distinction between oneself and Bhagavan disappears. Bhagavan, the unsurpassed embodiment of bliss, has no purpose to fulfill. Qualities such as prema take refuge in Bhagavan Himself and delight His devotees and lovers: "Hosts of qualities worship Me, who am beyond qualities and without need." For the sake of His lovers, Bhagavan graciously accepts those qualities. The immediate purpose is that lovers worship Bhagavan - the ocean of beauty's and sweetness's rasa, distinguished by infinite, inconceivable divine qualities - with the offerings of love and thereby attain inconceivable qualities. Yet even this is only a lesson in the lovers' primary school. Later no purpose appears to the lovers at all, while from Bhagavan's own perspective no purpose can ever be imagined in Him. There is then no question of what is to be accepted or rejected. Prema and bliss blend into one. Radha and Krishna no longer retain separate identities; the two become one:

"Radha became Kanh, and Kanh became Queen Radha; Though appearing as two, the two are seen as one."

During practice, just as a jnani in meditation has no awareness of anything external, neither does the lover. Just as the jnani wishes to maintain a continuous mental movement in the form of Brahman, the lover wishes to keep the heart absorbed through all eight watches of the day in blissful contemplation of Bhagavan, the Beloved. Just as nothing remains for the jnani to desire, nothing remains for the lover to desire except love. The disciplines differ according to qualification or taste; in reality there is no difference in the nature of the goal, for it is one.

The Relationship Between Bhagavan and the Devotee in Prema-Bhakti

Bhagavan alone knows His true nature, as do to some degree those whom He wishes to make know it. To this day no one in the world has been able to declare, "Bhagavan is exactly this and nothing else"; no one can, and no one ever will. Whoever dares make such a claim is naive, dogmatic, or untruthful. Even so, all the descriptions of Bhagavan given in the world are true within their respective scopes, for the great Supreme Self contains them all, just as the limitless sky contains every space enclosed by a monastery or pot. If, referring to an event in one village, we say that such a thing happens in the world, the statement is not false: the village exists within the world and is therefore part of the world. Yet the world is not merely that village. Even the world can be described, for it is material, finite, and capable of being measured by the subtle intellect. The nonmaterial, limitless, infinite, shoreless, immeasurable, transcendent Supreme Self, however, cannot be described; therefore the Vedas fall silent after saying, "Not this, not this."

The attributeless imperishable Brahman; the individual self as the immutable higher nature situated within the evolving inert lower nature; all entities subject to birth and destruction arising from the lower nature and its transformations; action as creative emission that brings beings into existence and furthers their growth; the cosmic intelligence presiding over the manifest universe as the governing deity; and Vishnu as the indwelling sacrifice established within this body - all are special modes or partial manifestations of that eternal and immutable Bhagavan, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda. Because they are inherently complete, even as partial manifestations they are complete as forms of Bhagavan. Who can describe Bhagavan, who dwells in all, governs all, supports all, gives existence and power to all, is the unique cause of all, transcends everything, and constitutes everything?

Bhagavan says in the Gita:

"In My unmanifest form I pervade this entire universe. All beings abide in Me, yet I do not abide in them.

"And yet beings do not abide in Me. Behold My sovereign yoga! Though sustaining all beings and bringing them into existence, My Self does not dwell within them."

(9.4-5)

"My unmanifest form pervades this entire universe. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. Nor are those beings in Me. Behold My sovereign yoga: though I produce, sustain, and nourish every being, in My essential nature I am not situated within them."

Bhagavan's statement appears to contain mutually contradictory claims: "I am in everything yet in nothing; everything is in Me yet nothing is in Me." Its meaning is not easily understood. It is therefore explained by distinguishing ultimate truth from practical experience. Yet this itself is Bhagavan's sovereign yoga. How can our inert intellect, deluded by sense objects, comprehend it? Everything impossible for us is possible for Bhagavan. Mutually opposed qualities and attributes manifest simultaneously in Him, and every contradiction is reconciled. Therefore any description of Bhagavan applies truthfully to Him within its perspective.

Bhagavan is beyond the gunas and possesses qualities; He is formless and has form. Though inactive, undifferentiated, unattached, and unsupported, He creates, sustains, and dissolves the universe, possesses distinctive qualities, pervades all, and supports all. Purusha and prakriti - the beginningless and mutually distinct principles described by Sankhya - are respectively His conscious higher nature and unconscious lower nature, the two powers from which the whole universe arises. Through these two natures, Bhagavan Himself is in fact manifesting Himself. Though dwelling in all, He transcends all. He is the witness who sees all, the permitter who grants true assent, the sustainer who nourishes all, the enjoyer in the form of the individual soul, the supreme Lord of every world, the Supreme Self pervading all, and Bhagavan filled with every majesty and sweetness. Though one, He appears divided among many forms;

though manifest in many forms, He remains one. He is the manifest, the unmanifest, and the eternal Unmanifest beyond even the unmanifest. He is the perishable, the imperishable, and Purushottama beyond even the imperishable. He is glorified by His own greatness, majestic through His own majesty, and luminous through His own light.

True knowledge or vision of Bhagavan's nature is impossible without His grace. Only those whom He favors and to whom He reveals Himself can know Him, and that grace manifests toward devotees. Action without devotion and knowledge without love cannot disclose Bhagavan's true nature. Selfless action reveals His form of majesty, and knowledge of truth reveals Him as imperishable Parabrahman, but His supremely sweet nature as Purushottama can be directly realized only through exclusive loving devotion. When regulated devotion matures into divine love; when, knowing Bhagavan's inconceivable power and indescribable majesty, the devotee regards Him alone as the supreme goal, refuge, and shelter and surrenders oneself completely at His feet through intellect, mind, heart, senses, and body; when one gives Him the mind, fixes the intellect in Him, offers life to Him, speaks of Him, sings His names and qualities, remains content in Him, and delights in Him; when body, mind, life-breath, time, action, qualities, this world and the next, enjoyment, attachment, desire, and craving are all offered to Him - then Bhagavan gives that loving worshiper His divine intelligence, through which the devotee effortlessly attains Him in His entirety as Purushottama.

Bhagavan declares that He is attained swiftly through bhakti as through no other discipline:

"Yoga does not subdue Me, nor Sankhya, dharma, study of scripture, austerity, or renunciation, O Uddhava, as does powerful devotion to Me."

"Neither yoga, knowledge, dharma, scriptural study, austerity, nor renunciation can bring Me under its sway as My exclusive devotion does."

Divine Love

The first and sole essential condition of prema is the absence of even the idea of desiring one's own happiness. There is a beautiful nikunja-lila. One day a sakhi adorned herself exquisitely from head to toe in a way certain to give the beloved of her life, Shyamasundara, supreme happiness. She looked into a mirror and set out with the sweet longing to show herself to Him and make Him happy. Beloved Shyamasundara lay in a secluded bower upon a fragrant bed of soft blossoms and tender leaves. Sleep veiled His languid eyes; from time to time His eyelids opened but immediately closed again. The love-filled gopi had come to delight Shyamasundara with the loveliness of her adornment. She held not the slightest desire for personal happiness. But Shyamasundara was asleep. She thought that if He looked just once, it would give Him great joy. Holding a lotus, she began to scatter its pollen, thinking, "If a grain of pollen enters beloved Shyamasundara's eyes, they will remain open for a few moments. In that interval He will see my adornment and experience supreme happiness."

Just then Sri Radharani, eternal sovereign of the bower, arrived. She asked the dear sakhi, "What are you doing?" The sakhi explained everything. Sri Radharani by nature desires only Shyamasundara's happiness, yet the sakhi's effort did not seem right to Her. She said, "Sakhi, your bhava is exceedingly sweet. Yet when you see Shyamasundara happy, you too will feel boundless joy, will you not? You will obtain that joy from His happiness only by disturbing His blissful sleep. It is never proper to disrupt His blissful sleep for the sake of this personal joy." The sakhi had adorned herself solely for Sri Krishna's happiness, but she had failed to recognize the hidden desire for personal joy that remained within it. Sri Radhikaji, love embodied and seer of the subtlest truth of prema, discerned it and stopped the sakhi. The sakhi rejoiced to receive this subtle understanding of love's truth.

The gopis long for Sri Shyamasundara's lotus feet to touch their hearts. This gives them boundless joy, and they know it also gives their beloved Shyamasundara immense happiness. Yet they suffer even more from the thought that their breasts might injure the tender soles of their Beloved than they do from the agony of separation itself. In the Gopi-gita of the Rasa-panchadhyayi they sing:

"Your lotus feet are so tender, beloved, that we place them slowly upon our hard breasts in fear. With those same feet You roam the forest; are they not pained by pebbles and the like? The minds of us, whose very life is You, reel at the thought."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.31.19)

"Your feet are softer even than lotuses. We place them slowly upon our hard breasts with great fear lest they be hurt. With those same tender feet You wander at night through the dense forest. Are they not pained by sharp stones and pebbles? The mere thought makes us faint and lose awareness. Shyamasundara, beloved of our lives, our life exists only for You. We belong to You alone."

Thus in the realm of prema there is no desire for personal happiness of any kind. It contains complete renunciation, the very limit of relinquishment. The word prema is exceedingly sweet, and the true nature of prema is the sweetest among all sweet things. Yet before it becomes filled with renunciation, it is intensely bitter and sharp. One must lose oneself completely within it; only then are its bitterness and sharpness transformed into the magnificent sweetness of nectar. In truth, a gopi has no conception at all of personal happiness, much less any deliberate pursuit of it. Every movement of her body, mind, and speech and every resolve arises solely for the happiness of Sri Shyamasundara, the delight of her life; therefore she need make no conscious effort. This prema is neither a discipline nor an unnatural exertion, and it involves no labor. The Beloved's happiness is the lover's very nature

and essential being. She is not moved to renounce by the deliberate thought, "This act of ours will make the Beloved happy." Her renunciation is spontaneous because her life is wholly surrendered. In other words, her longing for Sri Krishna's happiness is natural, not prompted by a sense of duty. This longing for Sri Krishna's happiness is the defining quality of her very being.

Bhagavan Shyamasundara's happiness is the gopi's life, whether one calls it prema or kama. Because this kama consists naturally of the Beloved's happiness and is filled with supreme renunciation, it is supremely worthy of honor and longed for by sages' hearts. There is no need to fear the word kama. Bhagavan has called desire that does not oppose dharma His own form: "Among beings I am desire not contrary to dharma, O best of the Bharatas." Bhagavan Himself desired, "May I, who am one, become many." The word ramana, delight or play, is likewise not frightening. Why did Bhagavan desire to become many from one? Because one alone does not delight: "The solitary one does not rejoice." Here too kama and ramana never bear a degraded or sensual meaning. One who desires liberation is called moksha-kama; this hardly makes that person lustful. In the same way, the gopis' kama is solely the longing for Sri Krishna's happiness, and this kama has become their spontaneous nature. The question therefore never arises that the gopis might wish this kama to be destroyed at any time. This kama itself is their nature as gopis. If a gopi desired its destruction, she would cease to be a gopi and fall to an immeasurably lower level - something that can never occur.

A gopi's intelligence, mind, heart, ego, and every sense are natural instruments of beloved Shyamasundara's happiness. She possesses neither adherence to duty nor awareness of what is not duty; neither knowledge nor ignorance; neither detachment nor attachment; neither desire nor craving. Her nature is simply to remain an instrument of Sri Krishna's happiness. This is why Sri Krishna - supremely selfless, fulfilled in Himself, every desire complete, desireless, and concentrated bliss - wishes to savor the nectar of the gopis' prema and thereby receive joy. He who is the eternal treasury of bliss, the unfathomable ocean of bliss,

the embodiment and primal source of bliss, from whom all joy proceeds and from whose droplets every kind of happiness in the world arises - how can Bhagavan desire joy? How can He wish to receive it? Philosophy cannot conceive such a thing, but the realm of prema is extraordinary. Here the Blissful One Himself longs for bliss. Thus Bhagavan Shyamasundara yearns to savor the rasa of His lovers' love. Hungry to drink Mother Yashoda's milk, Gopala cries. Distraught when the cowherd boys and calves disappear, Kanhaiya wanders from forest to forest searching for them. To steal the hearts of Vraja's beautiful women and summon them to Him, the Beloved of the gopis plays sweet melodies upon the flute while calling each by name. This is love's extraordinary, supremely glorious sweetness.

Prema is Bhagavan's own nature. Without love, a dry and austere Bhagavan would no longer belong to the realm of bhava. If the embodiment of bliss did not savor the rasa of bliss in this way together with bliss itself, if His bliss-giving hladini-shakti did not engage in delighting Him, then bliss as a bare essence would remain exceedingly dry and devoid of rasa. Therefore, to experience His own bliss, He manifests the power of bliss that is His own essential nature and performs with Her lilas filled with the rasa of joy. This bliss is not produced; it is not that it did not exist before and has now come into being. Prema is eternal and bliss is eternal; both are Bhagavan's very nature. Prema is the foundation of bliss, and bliss the extraordinary form of prema. No one manufactures this love. It manifests and rises wherever complete renunciation exists. Where there is renunciation, there is love; where there is love, there is bliss. Show where bliss has ever arisen from hatred or enmity - it is impossible. Bhagavan is the embodiment of the bliss of prema. Therefore Bhagavan's lila of love continues from beginningless time into endless time. It never pauses or diminishes; its nature is ceaseless growth.

Within the lives of all beings in the universe, the lila of love also proceeds partially in many forms:

parental tenderness in a mother or father's heart, sweetness between wife and husband, the sacred friendship of companions, a child's devotion to parents, a guru's affection, and a disciple's devotion to the guru. The stream of love flows through these many wondrous channels. Love grows, blossoms, and bears fruit only through renunciation. If this current dried up in the world; if children received no parental tenderness; the sweetness between husband and wife vanished; friendship among companions and relatives was destroyed; affection and devotion between guru and disciple ceased; and parents received no pure reverence and service from their children - the world would become dreadful, perhaps be destroyed, or turn into a stage for the frenzied dance of cruel demons. Love filled with renunciation is therefore an immense necessity. When that same love withdraws from the entire world and becomes fixed upon Bhagavan alone, it becomes supremely divine. The gopi is the stainless embodiment of this exclusive, pure love, and Shyamasundara is that love gathered into a concentrated form: "the concentrated prema of the women of Vraja."

Wherever there is a desire for one's own happiness and an object is kept for oneself, there is enjoyment. When that same object is offered to Bhagavan, it becomes service. Everything we do from a wish for personal happiness is enjoyment. When the same act is offered to Bhagavan and our joy lies in that offering, it is love. Any object in the home, the mind, or life remains an object of enjoyment so long as it serves personal happiness. So long as it remains enjoyment and stands in an enjoyed relationship with the senses, it will continue to produce suffering. Bhagavan Himself said:

"Enjoyments born of contact are indeed wombs of suffering and have a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti. The wise do not delight in them."

(Gita 5.22)

When all those same objects of enjoyment are offered to Bhagavan for another's happiness after abandoning the desire for one's own, they are called service to Bhagavan. This is love. Gopi-prema is therefore supremely radiant and wholly free of the desire for personal happiness. Here, even after surrender has become complete, the lila of eternal surrender

continues, and surrender takes place at every moment. As surrender proceeds in this way, even the act of surrender begins to be forgotten. Then receiving itself becomes a form of surrender and renunciation, because even in receiving there remains only the stainless wish for the Beloved's happiness.

Yet within this receiving, recognizing love is extremely difficult. We may eat halva, taste its sweetness, and experience pleasure. It is very difficult to determine whether eating the halva and experiencing its sweetness and pleasure occur for our own happiness or the Beloved's. Only those who have reached this level of prema know its true nature. The lover tastes flavor, but accepts the pleasure of taste only when it gives happiness to Shyamasundara, the beloved treasure of life. The lover experiences the flavor, yet if the Beloved takes no happiness in it, that flavor is never desired. While savoring sweet halva, if the lover learns that the Beloved wished one to eat bitter neem instead, the halva instantly becomes bitter and undesirable, and the lover begins to eat neem. Here it becomes clear whether the act of receiving arose from a desire for personal happiness or for the Beloved's joy. The same applies to wearing clothes, sleeping, waking, and every transaction in the world. In every action the Beloved's happiness should be the sole desired end. If the lover learns that the Beloved rejoices in the lover's death, then continuing to live for even a moment becomes supreme suffering.

Those whose life has thus become the Beloved's happiness need not search for what the beloved Lord holds in His mind; it remains revealed before them of itself. The Beloved's mind comes to dwell within the lover's mind. Therefore Bhagavan said to Arjuna concerning the beautiful gopis:

"The gopis alone know in truth My greatness, My worship, pure faith in Me, and what lies within My mind, O Partha; no others truly know."

"O Arjuna, only the gopis know in truth My greatness, the nature of My service, the nature of faith in Me, and what is in My mind; no one else knows."

A gopi therefore need not discover what will please Bhagavan; Bhagavan's own mind works within her. Bhagavan Himself said to Sri Uddhavaji:

"Their minds are Mine, their lives are Mine; for My sake they have abandoned all bodily concerns."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.46.4)

"They possess My mind and My life-breath. For My sake they have completely renounced bodily possessions and activities." Sri Krishna Himself is the gopis' mind; Sri Krishna Himself is their life. Every resolve and action naturally arises only for Sri Krishna's pleasure and happiness.

Prema moves in an exceedingly wondrous way. It is profoundly deep and immensely restless. In the lover, love's unfathomable ocean rests in perfect stillness; yet as the great ocean begins to dance at the sight of the full moon, waves and billows rise in that ocean of love for Bhagavan's happiness at the sight of the Beloved's delighted face. These waves themselves are the lila of love. No action exists in the gopis' lives apart from these waves of prema. They are the surging billows of love, dancing as they grant an ever sweeter savor of love's nectar. Sometimes these waves rise tremendously high, sometimes they soften; sometimes they leap upward, sometimes they gently rise and fall; sometimes they move straight, sometimes right and left. Prema contains two dispositions, compliant and contrary. Through both, lilas of mutual love proceed. When Sri Radharani, filled with the bliss of love, or the women of Vraja assume the contrary mood, beloved Shyamasundara pacifies them. When Shyamasundara, treasure of prema, assumes it, Sri Radharani or the gopis pacify Him. Upon the shore of separation in this ocean of sweet, enchanting love, the rasa of separation is savored; upon the shore of union, the rasa of meeting is savored. At times even within union an awareness of separation arises; this is called prema-vaicittya.

"The pain felt from thinking oneself separated even while near the beloved, arising by the very nature of love's intensity, is called prema-vaicittya."

Because of love's exaltation, one experiences the anguish of believing the Beloved absent even while remaining close to Him; this is called prema-vaicittya. In this way infinitely sweet waves rise in the ocean of prema. Who can describe them? One standing on the shore cannot know the condition within the waves, while one who merges into them becomes a wave. Thus the nature of prema is indescribable: "Love's essential nature cannot be expressed."

Sometimes lover and Beloved forget themselves and become one another. Sri Shyamasundara, supreme connoisseur among dancers, thinks Himself Radha and begins calling, "O Krishna! O Shyamasundara! O Beloved of my life!" Sri Radharani, sovereign of the rasa and eternal queen of the bower, becomes absorbed in Sri Krishna and calls, "O Radha! O sovereign of my life, dearer than life! O Enchantress of my mind!" All these are the most sacred, sweet waves of love's ocean. The prema, loving sport, and lila of Sri Radha-Madhava are eternal and eternally increasing; hence Their incomparable bliss too is eternal and grows at every moment. In some ages, loving saints arise who wish to behold this lila of love. Moved by their affection, Bhagavan descends to this mortal earth together with His divine abode, loving retinue, friends and sakhis, and the divine conscious animals, birds, trees, and vines of that abode. This is Bhagavan Sri Raghavendra's lila in Ayodhya and Sri Vrajendra-nandana's lila in Vraja. Only those who lose themselves, erase every desire for personal happiness, and become Bhagavan's alone may enter this realm of love. Vaishnavas call the divine prema that arises from this utmost renunciation the fifth aim of life. Material prosperity, dharma, desire, and liberation are the four well-known aims; prema is the fifth, in which even the desire for liberation is abandoned. Loving devotees do not accept liberation even when it is offered if it excludes loving service:

"My people do not accept what is offered without service to Me."

This is the limit of renunciation. It contains no concern for the ego or desire for its

welfare. Where there is a desire for liberation, bondage is assumed. If there is no bondage, from what is one to be liberated? And who is bound? Only one who is bound desires release. Thus the experience of bondage and the wish to be freed from it are called mumuksha, the longing for liberation, and one who possesses it is a mumukshu. The very wish for release contains the experience of bondage; one who experiences bondage wishes to become free. Whether we call such a person a seeker of liberation, an inquirer, or a practitioner, an ego remains and desires its own welfare. In the realm of prema, however, there is no concern for the ego; the self is wholly forgotten. The Beloved's happiness alone is life. Therefore prema is the fifth aim of life.

The Gita's final chapter is called Moksha-sannyasa-yoga. "Renunciation of liberation" may be understood to mean that this chapter concerns abandoning even moksha. That alone is complete surrender. We must accept that no one could have understood the Gita better than Arjuna, whom Bhagavan instructed directly upon the battlefield, whom He called exceedingly dear, beloved, and qualified, and for whose welfare alone He taught:

"You are firmly dear to Me; therefore I shall speak what is for your highest good."

Whose life could have conformed more closely to the Gita than Arjuna's? Arjuna acknowledges, "My delusion is destroyed, and I shall follow Your word," and the Gita ends there. The destiny of one who understood the Gita in this way should therefore reveal the fruit intended by its divine speaker. Look now in the Mahabharata: did Arjuna attain liberation by merger, or did he receive something else?

The Svargarohana-parva of the Mahabharata tells:

"Hearing himself praised by gods, sages, and Maruts, King Yudhishthira reached Bhagavan's divine abode. There he saw Bhagavan Sri Krishna seated in His divine Brahman form. His form resembled the form seen before and could therefore be clearly recognized.

Divine light streamed from His sacred body. His weapons, including the Sudarshana discus, had assumed divine bodies and were engaged in His service. There too the immensely radiant heroic Arjuna was absorbed in Bhagavan's service. Seeing Yudhishthira arrive, Bhagavan Sri Krishna, worshiped by the gods, and Arjuna received him with due honor."

This makes clear that Arjuna did not attain liberation by merger; he attained Bhagavan's loving service.

Through surrender, Arjuna's delusion was destroyed: "My delusion is gone." Freedom from the world had thus already been accomplished. Only the bond of loving service to Bhagavan remained, desired both by surrendered Arjuna and by Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself, speaker of the Gita. It is as though Bhagavan told Arjuna, "Your delusion has been destroyed. You were My servant and will remain My servant. Deluded, you were saying, 'I will not do this; I will do that.' Now you will follow My word alone. The matter is complete. Remain My eternal servant. What have you to do with liberation?" This is renunciation of moksha: the lover renounces even liberation.

I do not know the true meaning of renunciation of liberation; I have neither studied nor mastered the Gita. I have merely expressed for my own inward joy the meaning that arose in my mind. I do not claim to know, seek scriptural debate, or wish to dispute; I am always defeated. May the learned great souls who know the Gita's heart kindly forgive my boldness.

One point must nevertheless be kept in mind: as long as the desire for liberation remains, the wish for personal happiness also remains, for it contains the experience of one's own bondage. Bondage is suffering; seeking release from it, one wishes to obtain the happiness of liberation. This is desire for personal happiness. Complete renunciation is therefore absent here as well. Lovers practice total renunciation; abandoning even liberation, they remain spontaneously absorbed only in loving service.

Such lovers belong to an altogether different order. Even liberation cannot compare with the slightest association with them. Srimad Bhagavatam says:

"I do not compare heaven or freedom from rebirth with even a moment's company of one who associates with Bhagavan - what then of mortal blessings?"

(1.18.13; 4.30.34)

One who associates with Bhagavan means one lovingly attached to Him, His companion and lover, one immersed in gopi-bhava. If one receives the company of such a lover of Bhagavan for even a moment, worldly enjoyments cannot compare with it; neither can heaven, nor even freedom from rebirth. Freedom from rebirth here means liberation by merger, from which one never returns. Even this liberation does not compare with a moment's company of one who lives with Bhagavan. Such is the glory of divine love. Thus Shiva, Narada, great sages, ascetics, and others long for this divine love and the rasa of Vraja. Brahmavidya Herself yearns for it.

Once, while wandering through a vast forest, a Brahman-knowing sage named Jabali saw an incomparably beautiful, supremely radiant young goddess practicing severe austerity beneath a banyan tree beside a vast stepwell. Her splendor shone on every side like the moon's stainless light. Astonished, the sage wished to know who she was and why she practiced austerity. Upon asking, he learned that she was Brahmavidya Herself: by taking refuge in Her, the darkness of ignorance is forever destroyed, rare knowledge of Reality is attained, and the soul, freed from maya's bondage, attains Brahman, its own essential nature. When he humbly questioned her, the ascetic goddess said:

"I am the incomparable knowledge of Brahman, sought by the greatest masters of yoga. Longing for Hari's lotus feet, I have practiced austerity for a very long time.

"I am filled with the bliss of Brahman, and my understanding is satisfied by that bliss. Yet I wander this dreadful forest meditating upon Purushottama.

"Even so, without rati for Krishna I consider myself empty."

(Padma Purana)

"I am that incomparable knowledge of Brahman whom the greatest yogic sovereigns forever seek. Longing to attain Sri Hari's lotus feet, I have long practiced austerity here while meditating upon Him. I am filled with Brahman's bliss, and my understanding is fully satisfied by it; yet I have not attained rati, love directed toward Sri Krishna. I therefore always find myself empty."

Brahmavidya Herself practices austerity for ages to attain this transcendent prema, and Arjuna practices until he becomes Arjuni to receive even a trace of its rasa. Who can say how radiant, divine, sacred, and supremely sweet it is? Blessed are the women of Vraja, who savored this prema-rasa, enabled their beloved Shyamasundara to savor it, received His supreme delight, and before whom Bhagavan revealed Himself fully.

Bhagavan does not reveal Himself fully before us; He remains concealed by Yoga-maya, His own inner power.

"Veiled by Yoga-maya, I am not manifest to everyone."

(Gita 7.25)

Bhagavan says, "Why am I not revealed before everyone? Why do people fail to recognize Me? Because I keep Myself covered by Yoga-maya." But matters differ with the loving women of Vraja. Before them Bhagavan is not covered by Yoga-maya; He takes refuge in Yoga-maya. It is as though He manifests His inconceivable supreme power Yoga-maya separately and says, "At this moment I stand unveiled and without a screen. Arrange the entire drama and prepare every adornment of lila." Yoga-maya acts, and the divine rasa-lila of Bhagavan and the women of Vraja unfolds. Nothing here is concealed; it is Bhagavan's unveiled lila. What is the gopis' chiraharana, the taking of their garments? It is certainly nothing degraded. If it were, it would appeal to corrupt sensualists and lead to hell for endless ages. Why then would Shukadevaji narrate it before Parikshit? It is instead a wholly transcendent reality filled with divine bhava. Impurity, distraction, and covering are the three great obstructing faults that prevent the practitioner from reaching one's true Self

or Bhagavan. Impurity is destroyed by worship or merely by the wish to attain Bhagavan. The fault of distraction is destroyed by fixing the mind upon Bhagavan; the restless mind becomes still. The fault of covering remains, a great obstruction. For practitioners of knowledge, it is removed through a realized person's gracious instruction in truth. For loving devotees, Bhagavan Himself removes it. With His own hands He breaks the covering and tears away the veil. This is the taking of the gopis' garments. In worldly life we see love between woman and man, wife and husband, in which no fear, shame, hesitation, or separation remains; nothing is left that can be called concealed. When that same worldly love becomes a transcendent divine bhava directed toward Bhagavan, free of the worldly relation of husband and wife and established instead as the eternal divine relation beyond all created ties, nothing remains concealed. Every covering is destroyed; no sexual feeling remains. This is the unveiled meeting of Bhagavan and devotee. Maya's covering has been removed and the veil of separateness torn. Chiraharana and rasa-lila signify the great meeting of unveiled Bhagavan, free of Yoga-maya's screen, with unveiled gopis, wholly free of maya's veils of ego, possessiveness, and attachment: the soul and Supreme Self, devotee and Bhagavan, blending into one.

This is divine love for Bhagavan. Even the dust of the feet of those who enter this realm of love is supremely purifying. Uddhavaji, crown jewel of knowledge, desires not liberation but birth as a vine, shrub, or herb in Vraja so that he may receive the dust of the feet of these loving gopis. What then need be said of others? Bhagavan Himself forever follows behind such devotees to purify Himself with particles of their foot-dust:

"I follow behind them eternally, that I may be purified by the dust of their feet."

"I follow behind such a devotee forever, thinking, 'May the dust of this person's feet rise and fall upon Me so that I may become pure.'"

Beloved treasure of my life, beautiful and wise Shyama! Without You my suffering life-breath struggles day and night.

My heart breaks without Your sight; each moment life is unbearable sorrow. The terrible fire of nonunion burns body, senses, and mind.

My days pass in yearning and lamentation; at night no sleep will come. Even a vision in dream has become impossible - how can this mind find rest?

Delay no longer, Enchanter of the mind; hold a little mercy in Your heart. Grant Your supremely nectar-filled vision and extinguish the fire within my breast.

The Nature of Prema

There is no difference between prema and the Supreme Self. Just as Brahman cannot be described in speech and the Vedas fall silent after saying, "Not this, not this," love too cannot be described by words. Even in worldly life, we see that language can never express the joy felt in the heart upon meeting a beloved object, receiving news of it, or gaining the blessed opportunity for touch, embrace, and loving conversation. Love that can be described in words is merely love's wholly outward form. Prema is a matter of direct experience.

Love is experienced in the mind, and the mind forever remains with the Beloved. When the mind is absent, where can speech find even the slightest true material for description? Therefore every description of prema is merely indicative and external. Before attaining love, no one knows it; after attaining it, one loses possession of the mind. Words can be uttered through the mouth in water only so long as the mouth remains above the surface. When a person sinks into the bottomless depths, even the drowned body is difficult to find. In the same way, one submerged in the ocean of love cannot speak at all, while whatever is said by those merely dipping at the surface and bobbing up and down concerns only the surface.

Just as a mute person eats jaggery, rejoices, and smiles but cannot describe its taste, loving saints experience prema and become immersed in bliss but cannot tell anyone the nature of their experience. This love involves complete absorption; therefore the lover does not know what one is or what one knows. Sri Radha once said, "Sakhi, I neither know nor understand anything about love for Krishna, and for whatever I do know, I possess no language capable of expressing it. I know only this: the moment His touch is felt within my heart, all my knowledge disappears."

It is certain that words cannot disclose the nature of prema. Yet when a fortunate great soul, intoxicated with love's wine, forgets body and mind and begins to act in divine madness, some radiance of prema becomes visible to people. At that time rays of love emerge of themselves not merely from such a saint's speech and eyes but from every pore of the body. This manifestation of prema is a direct manifestation of Bhagavan. Such a revelation occurs only in a rare great lover.

True love does not depend upon qualities. Where would a lover find leisure to inspect virtues and faults in the Beloved? There is only natural and spontaneous love. We may also say that love transcends the gunas; it belongs beyond the circumference of all three.

Prema contains no desire, for nothing self-interested remains except the single wish to see the Beloved happy. The Beloved alone is its highest end. Wherever there is a desire to obtain anything, love's sacred seat is being stained by crooked lust. Thus not the slightest desire exists in prema.

True love never diminishes; it always increases. Prema has no final limit. The lover always feels, "My love is deficient." In no state does the lover regard one's love as abundant,

and every action naturally seeks to increase it. The sequence of ceaseless growth in this unbroken love never fails. This pure love doubles by day and quadruples by night.

Immersed in the divine rasa of supreme love, the lover filled with love's bliss sees everywhere only the beloved, made of love and rasa. No second thing appears. Every sound entering the ears is a melodic wave in the love-song of the Love-filled One, and the lover remains forever intoxicated by the sweet notes of His flute. Likewise, no word except the Love-filled One emerges from the lover's mouth. The lover never tires of singing His qualities, tastes the incomparable nectar of divine prema-rasa in every circumstance, and remains forever intoxicated by drinking it with an insatiable tongue. No space remains in the heart for another. The one Beloved alone holds undivided sovereignty and complete dominion there. Not even the smallest place remains where the memory or shadow of another thought could enter. The heart becomes the direct embodiment of the Beloved's love, and every limb experiences Him alone. All the senses take Him as their only object. Day and night the eyes see the entire universe filled with Shyama. The ears always hear His supremely sweet flute-song, made of the Absolute as sound. The nose eternally smells the fragrance of that supreme dancer's limbs. The tongue uninterruptedly savors His nectar of love, and the body forever experiences the incomparable bliss of the touch of Sri Nanda-nandana - source of bliss, sovereign of rasa, bestower of supreme joy through touch, and ocean of every beauty and sweetness. In space He is sound, in air touch, in fire light, in water flavor, and in earth fragrance. He fills all things and through all reveals a glimpse of His unique beauty of form. Everywhere there is love alone and bliss alone. The entire universe consists of love, bliss, rasa, or Sri Krishna. Everything is filled with joy, beauty, and sweetness. Seen and seer are sweet; you and I are sweet. Everything belonging to the Lord of sweetness, filled with the nectar of supreme bliss-rasa, is sweet:

"Everything belonging to the Lord of sweetness is sweet." "The winds blow sweetness in accord with truth; the rivers pour sweetness; may the herbs be sweet for us." "The dust of earth is filled with sweetness." Everywhere there is sweetness alone.

Exclusive love for Bhagavan is true nectar; it is sweetest of all, and whoever receives and drinks this nectar of love becomes immortal. Worldly craving itself is death. In the heart of an exclusively loving devotee, no desire remains except one eternally fresh and sacred longing for divine love. Through this supremely rare longing, the devotee becomes an instrument of Bhagavan's graceful lila that enchants sages' minds and is entirely released from the cycle of birth and death bound by karma. The devotee forever dwells near Bhagavan, and Bhagavan near the devotee. This eternal and unwavering union of loving devotee and beloved Bhagavan is true immortality. Therefore devotees seek devotion, not liberation:

"Reflecting thus, the wise devotees of Hari Disdained liberation and delighted in devotion."

Some Thoughts Concerning Love for Bhagavan

"I received your three letters. I could not understand what I should write in reply, so instead of answering them I write whatever arises in my mind. I do not know your spiritual state and cannot estimate it accurately. If what I write concerns practitioners below your level, simply read it and set it aside. If it is useful to you, please reflect upon it.

"Although I have not experienced a very exalted state, through some source or another I have learned to think and speak about certain matters on the path of divine love. I write on that basis. To the extent of my faith, what I write is correct. Those who walk the path of love for Bhagavan may consider it."

Travelers on the path of divine love have one goal alone: love for Bhagavan. Apart from that love, they do not desire even liberation. If direct meeting with Bhagavan appears to obstruct love, they disregard even that meeting, though their hearts remain eager for union. No earthly object, thought, person, condition, relationship, or experience can impede their path. They can abandon anything effortlessly, without hesitation, difficulty, pain, or strain. No object in the world attracts them; no condition can settle upon the field of their heart or draw them toward itself. Infatuation with the body disappears. Every attachment, intimate possessiveness, clinging, experience, current of thought, and action converges upon a single center: love for Bhagavan, just as rivers arriving by diverse paths merge into one ocean. Bodily relationships, concern to preserve and nourish the body, attachment to it, attraction toward one's own or another's body, and anxiety over either all vanish like darkness at sunrise. Indeed, they disappeared long before. Detachment from sense objects, destruction of lust and anger, absence of despondency and anxiety, and dispersal of ignorance's darkness are inevitable signs of the path of divine love. The path is wholly sacred, free of delusion, filled with sattva, undeviating, renunciatory, and pure. The discipline of divine love occurs only within exceedingly elevated sattva. The apparent lust, anger, sorrow, anxiety, and delusion seen there are not results of tamasic tendencies; they are exalted experiences of pure sattva whose nature cannot be described. People mistakenly place their own tamasic disturbances in that category and thereby stain the name of prema. Those experiences arise only as fruits of immensely exalted practice. They contain not the slightest trace of the subtle or gross tamasic movements of craving for enjoyment that arise within us. Only great souls who have reached a very high state can experience them. They cannot be put into words; far from speaking or hearing of them, even our delusion-veiled

intellect cannot even imagine them. Only by Bhagavan's grace can they be inferred, and even then one receives only a dim glimpse. Yet that indistinct glimpse reveals such extraordinary qualities that it becomes evident these realities belong to an altogether different order. Their names may resemble ours, but in substance they differ so completely that no connection or comparison can be made with our worldly tendencies. By Bhagavan's grace, no one can judge from outward circumstances how far another has progressed upon this path of love or what level one has reached, for this reality does not emerge externally; it exists as direct experience. What appears outwardly is often counterfeit. Someone we consider loveless may be a great lover. Someone we judge at fault may be a saint far advanced upon love's path. Someone we assume to be a lover may remain caught in worldly attachment. Millions of salutations to the lovers of Bhagavan; they alone know their state. The straightforward and simple practices for us are these seven:

1. Cultivate detachment from enjoyment.

2. Abandon harmful thoughts, actions, and company.

3. Strive to replace thought of sense objects with contemplation of Bhagavan.

4. Repeat Bhagavan's name.

5. Sing and hear Bhagavan's qualities.

6. Seek holy company and study sacred texts.

7. Increase faith in Bhagavan's grace.

True Solitude

External solitude has no intrinsic importance. True solitude is the state in which none but the one Lord ever enters the heart - where not only grief, dejection, desire, and craving, but even the happiness of liberation cannot intrude. So long as the heart contemplates many sense objects, solitude and silence remain

external, with no more significance than acts performed merely for outward display. Blessed are those great lovers dyed completely in Sri Krishna's color alone, whose hearts never seek the world's perishable pleasures even by mistake, whose mental movement never glances toward even the highest temptations of the world, whose eyes see beloved Shyamasundara's divine form everywhere, and whose senses always experience Him alone. True dwelling in solitude and true silence belong only to such loving saints.

Love and Distortion

You write, "I am empty of the treasure of love. What is life without love? It is only a burden." In principle, this is correct: a life empty of love is empty indeed. In truth, however, matters are otherwise. Love exists in everyone's heart; Bhagavan sent the living being into the world endowed with love. We distorted it in many ways by directing it toward sensual gratification, and so it is no longer visible - or where it is seen, it appears in a deeply distorted form. The moment the distortion is destroyed, delusion's veil is torn and love's true luminous form appears; at its mere appearance, the ocean of bliss surges. Love and bliss are eternally and necessarily united. Love was born from Bhagavan's bliss, and through love bliss unfolds and is nourished. No state of love lacks bliss, and no bliss exists without love present as its cause. But wherever lustful play begins in love's name, love conceals itself. For ages, under the delusion of impure maya, we have engaged in lustful play and mistaken lust for love. Love has therefore hidden from us, and in its absence, deprived of bliss, we have become only those who "cling to immeasurable anxiety ending only in death" and

"regard sensual enjoyment as supreme" (Gita 16.11), embodiments of sorrow. To wash away lust's blackness, we need an alkali capable of destroying it to the root, and that alkali is detachment. One cannot simultaneously be a bee drinking nectar from Govinda's lotus feet and a bee circling the champaka blossom of sense objects. Our duty is to remember again and again Shyamasundara, the supreme ocean of love, the infinite sea of nectarous prema-rasa. Resolve to destroy all accumulated darkness of delusion through the light of His divine toenails, and in every thought of every moment experience boundless, transcendent joy - or, if direct experience does not arise, cultivate the corresponding bhava. Through the power of this sweet contemplation, every flavor of the world will become tasteless, bitter, and fit to be abandoned. Then the rays of that embodiment of rasa will fall upon us, awaken our sleeping love, and grant us His divine vision.

Love Is Not a Matter of Words

Dear Sir, loving remembrance of Hari.

Merely hearing someone lecture and deciding that person is a lover can be deeply deceptive. Prema is not an object of speech. The more genuine and pure love becomes, the greater its renunciation. In truth, renunciation is love's foundation. In prema one must wholly forget personal interest, individual gain, and oneself. When love manifests, these are forgotten of themselves. No expectation or longing to receive anything from the Beloved remains. There is only giving: take my body, life, and mind; take wealth, power, and prosperity; take honor, fame, and standing; take dharma, material prosperity, desire, and liberation; take whatever You wish. In this giving alone the lover finds supreme happiness and satisfaction. Self-offering is love's root mantra. The Beloved's good and happiness are the lover's supreme joy. Such a state cannot arise through speech; it requires renunciation. You heard a lecture, heard love's glory, perhaps saw a tear or two, and judged someone a lover.

That is not right. Love is known only when renunciation can be felt in every one of that person's actions. Many selfish people explain prema merely so that others will become their lovers and they in turn will become those people's worshiped beloved - in other words, so that people will surrender everything to them. This is deceiving people in love's name. Here degraded lust arrives dressed in the clothing of love. In truth, love is not lectured upon; it is lived. And this conduct is not deliberately performed - it happens irresistibly, because the lover cannot refrain from it. The Beloved may not want the lover, may not love in return, may scorn the love, or reject the lover; but the lover has no free attention with which to consider any of this. The heart is naturally fixed upon the Beloved.

If the mind desires, "May I become someone's beloved and the object of a lover's worship; may those who love me nourish me by giving me their love," one should understand that it is falling under degraded self-interest - lust that stains - and wishes to deceive innocent people. One must become vigilant. If prema is taught anywhere, its instruction is meant for oneself alone: "May I become such a lover. May I conduct myself with such complete renunciation that my sacred love blossoms." The rest rests with Bhagavan's grace.

Love for the Beloved Lord

Respectful victory to Sri Krishna. I received your gracious letter. When that Beloved "removed the world from your mind," what else remained there? That empty place belongs to Him. He does not like to dwell with another; therefore one who desires Him must remove everyone but Him from the heart. By your own account, He Himself emptied your mind of the world. There is no reason to fear. Love will certainly come. In truth, if love were absent, how could the world have departed? Yet love's nature is such

that even when present, it is experienced as absent. Love alone produces the feeling of separation within eternal union, and that separation is the crown of every yoga. It is great good fortune that your heart yearns so intensely to attain His love and that you suffer so deeply for it. What greater means could exist for attaining His love than this yearning and pain? Continue to take refuge in this yoga filled with separation. This itself is the loving worship of the Beloved: to burn forever and within that burning experience infinite peace.

What place has a third party between Beloved and lover? Do not ask me to pray; pray directly to Him. According to your letter, you and He have already fought thousands of battles. Such quarrels occur far above the level of formal prayer. Even the anger you feel toward Him is a limb of love. How then can one say love is absent? Since your desire is that "upon seeing my love, He may torment me as much as He wishes," why not behold love within His torment? If He delights in inflicting it, if the Beloved finds joy in making you yearn, that is cause for great happiness. If He were a stranger, how could He torment you? Without love, how could He make you yearn? The question does not arise. You asked my opinion. Mine is simply this: depend upon Him alone, pray to Him, scold Him, and quarrel with Him. Never lose courage and never despair. He hides and peeks in just this way. Without letting Himself be caught, He first ensnares in this way. He only takes and does not give. Yet believe this as truth: He peeks from hiding only so that He may fall into your hands. He ensnares only to be ensnared and takes only to give away His entire being. Victory to Sri Krishna.

Sri Krishna as Both the Highest Good and the Dearest Delight

What brings happiness to the self is the highest good; what brings pleasure to the senses is the immediately dear. Bhagavan is the Self even of the self, the Supreme Self. Worldly enjoyments accepted for His pleasure are not in truth sensual enjoyment; they are worship of Bhagavan through materials that appear as sense objects. Their ultimate fruit is therefore the supreme good alone.

Sri Radhikaji, supreme empress of devotion's realm, and the women of Vraja, Her inseparable images, performed every act of life for their supremely beloved Bhagavan Sri Krishna with this bhava. Their surrender and sweet feeling toward Him rested upon this understanding. When King Parikshit asked why the gopis loved Sri Krishna more even than their husbands and sons, Sri Shukadevaji said:

"The self is dearest to every embodied being, and this entire moving and unmoving universe is dear solely for its sake. Know this Krishna to be the Self of all selves."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.54-55)

The self alone is dearest to every living being. The whole moving and unmoving world - husband and children, land and home, kingdom and renown - becomes dear only for the self's happiness, and Sri Krishna is the Self of all selves. This is why the gopis possess such affection for Him. Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself said to Uddhavaji concerning the women of Vraja:

"Their minds are Mine, their lives are Mine; for My sake they have abandoned all bodily concerns."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.46.4)

"The gopis have made My mind and My life their own mind and life, and for My sake they have renounced all bodily activities." This establishes that no distinction remains here between the highest good and the dearest delight. The highest good is the dearest, and the dearest is the highest good. Sri Krishna, embodiment of the supreme good, is the Beloved; beloved Sri Krishna is Himself the supreme good.

The Nature of the Lover

How could one forget even for a moment the one who is dearest of all, the support of one's life-breath, the sole foundation of life, whose remembrance and hoped-for meeting alone give consciousness to life at every instant? Someone may say, "Remember Him for two hours each day and spend the remaining twenty-two upon other necessary household work." But how could this be possible for a lover? However many hours the lover must perform any task, it will be done while remembering the Beloved. The lover cannot remove Him from the temple of the heart even for a moment. His image remains eternally revealed there, and while beholding Him the lover's body continues to work like a machine. Bhagavan is eternally present to such a single-hearted lover absorbed in constant, perpetual contemplation; He can never disappear from the lover's inner sight. Surdas, who attained this state, said:

"You release my hand and leave, thinking me weak; When You depart from my heart, then I will call You strong."

Instructions to remember Bhagavan, repeat the divine name for one or two hours or another fixed period, or complete a certain number of repetitions - whether from the inducement that fulfillment will follow upon reaching that number, or because counting prevents one from forgetting and therefore a numerical limit should be set - are meant for beginning practitioners who are not yet lovers of Bhagavan. This is far better than doing nothing. Once prema is attained, no one need say, "Remember Him for this much time or this many repetitions." Who would keep account of number or time? When the Beloved's memory never leaves the heart for even a moment, where can calculation remain? In the Sri Ramcharitmanas, while carrying Sita's message to Bhagavan Sri Rama, Sri Hanumanji says, "Lord,

Sita wishes to relinquish Her life, but Her life-breath will not depart." Sitaji said:

"Your name stands guard day and night, and meditation upon You is the barred door; Her eyes are fastened upon Her own feet - by what path could Her life depart?"

"The life-breath has been imprisoned. Through all eight watches, meditation upon You keeps the doors barred. Contemplation of You never breaks, and Your tamala-dark, sweet form never passes beyond the mind's eyes. Even if the doors were opened, a guard stands outside day and night. Who is the guard? Rama's name. The tongue does not cease uttering Rama's name even for a moment. How could the life-breath escape?" In such a state, did Sita need the instruction, "You remain alone in Ashoka-vatika with ample time and also fear the demonesses, so remember Rama for a little while"? Such instruction is for nondevotees or loveless recruits.

To lovers, the Beloved's name is so dear that they can never forget it themselves, and if they happen to hear another utter it even accidentally, they run to take the dust of that person's feet. If one who repeats the Beloved's name, sings His qualities, and loves Him is not worthy of heartfelt honor and love, who is? The slightest mark of the Beloved awakens joy in the heart. Seeing dark rain clouds, the gopis remember Sri Krishna and bless those clouds with long life:

"Dark cloud, may you live forever! At the sight of you, our dark Shyama appears within the temple of our hearts."

Seeing Sri Rama's footprints and the blades of grass from His bed of kusha, Bharatji begins placing the dust and grass upon his head. He presses the garments of Sri Rama and Sita to his heart:

"Seeing the beautiful bed of kusha, he bowed and circled it in reverence; He placed the dust from the footprints upon his eyes - words cannot tell the excess of his love."

The great sage Vasishtha and Bharatji regard Guha as their Rama's dear friend and show him affection and love like that shown to Rama Himself. Sri Rama expresses indescribable gratitude toward Hanuman for bringing Sita's message, and Sri Bharat does the same toward Hanuman for announcing Sri Rama's arrival. Both declare themselves eternally indebted to Hanuman.

Sri Rama's words:

"Listen, vanara: among gods, humans, sages, and all embodied beings, none has benefited me as you have. What return can I make for your service? My mind cannot even face the debt. Listen, son: after reflecting within my heart, I see that I can never repay you."

Sri Bharat's words:

"Reflecting carefully, I find nothing in the world equal to this message. Dear one, I can never repay you. Now tell me the Lord's deeds."

When Uddhavaji arrived in Vraja carrying Bhagavan Sri Krishna's message, the gopis surrounded him upon seeing that he was dressed like Sri Krishna. Learning that he had brought their Lord's message, their joy knew no bound:

"Knowing him to be the bearer of the Lord of Lakshmi's message, they bowed humbly and honored him with bashful smiles, glances, gracious words, and other courtesies. Seating him, they questioned him in private."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.47.3)

They bowed with humility and received him with loving, bashful glances and sweet words.

Only so long as Bhagavan has not become our supremely beloved do we need practice in remembering

1. "Pressing the cloth to his heart, he grieved intensely."

2. "The sage forcibly embraced Rama's friend, as though gathering love rolling upon the earth. No one is as lowly as this man, he thought - yet who in the world is as great as Vasishtha?"

3. "Bharat met him with immense affection; people marveled at the ways of love."

and contemplating Him. In the blessed moment when we offer ourselves at His feet and merge our mind into His, His form, dearer than life, will be visible to us at every hour. Then, like the gopis, we too will be able to say in the words of the poet Deva:

"If love does not dwell in the heart, then undertake vows and disciplines; Practice special restraint only when the lotus face is forgotten. Bind yourself in a posture when hope for the Beloved is absent; Discipline and seal the breath, and behold your Lord.

"From nail to crown the woman has become wholly filled with Shyama; Within and without, Deva sees no second. Practice yoga to meet the Lord of Vraja only if separation from Him exists; If Hari were not already present, then seek Him through meditation."

Yoga means attaining what has not been attained; viyoga, separation, means the absence of what has been attained. Here there is eternal union with Nanda-nandana, beloved of our life. Why then practice yoga? If separation does not exist, what yoga can there be?

There cannot be many beloveds; the Beloved is one alone. Every dear and dearer thing in the world is spontaneously offered at the feet of the supreme Beloved. Nothing can rival Him. So long as any object or bhava in the heart competes with the sense of supreme Beloved, that bhava has not truly been established. Once it is attained, everything else appears trivial and negligible. Among worshipers of this bhava, the divine sage Narada gives the fortunate gopis of Vraja, beloveds of Sri Krishna, as the example: "As among the gopis of Vraja."

The poet Ratnakarji beautifully describes the gopis' bhava:

"We desire neither heaven nor final liberation - listen: Within our hearts we cultivate detachment from both enjoyment and liberation.

"Ratnakar says: in the affliction of your yoga, We count the body's, mind's, and breath's torment as proof.

"In one faint gracious smile of the moon of Vraja, Our hearts know the joy of this world and the next. His separation contains such happiness even within pain That upon attaining it, we regard even Brahman's bliss as suffering."

For such a lover, no one remains in the world apart from the dark supreme Beloved who supports one's life.

Rahim said:

"The Beloved's image dwells in the eyes; where could another image fit? Seeing the inn already full, the traveler turns back."

This is very exalted worship. It contains not merely detachment from the visible world; no attachment remains toward anything but the Beloved.

To the lover, everything belonging to the Beloved is dear, at times dearer even than the Beloved. Even in worldly relationships we see that after a connection has formed between a young woman and man, hearing the other's name or any mention of them from someone in the household produces a subtle thrill in the heart. The Beloved's clothing and food, even a torn shoe, become dear. If this is true of worldly love, what need be said of divine love? At Shringaverapura, Bharatji became immersed in love's bliss upon seeing the bed of kusha touched by Bhagavan Sri Ramachandra's body. Akruraji forgot body and mind upon seeing Bhagavan's footprints. Even today, seeing the land of Vraja naturally awakens remembrance of Bhagavan Sri Krishna and brings a unique joy. Love and bliss are inseparably related; where love exists, bliss necessarily exists. Hence the greatness of the gopis' love. Bhagavan Sri Krishna and Srimati Radharani are embodied forms of this very love and bliss.

Srimati Radha is Bhagavan's very nature of bliss. Bhagavan is Radharani's Beloved, and Sri Radha is Bhagavan's beloved. Love's nature is "to be happy in the Beloved's happiness." This is the distinction between kama and prema: kama desires one's own happiness, while prema desires the Beloved's. Radhaji manifested solely to give happiness to Sri Krishna and experiences supreme joy upon seeing that Her service delights Him. Sri Krishna's happiness increases when He sees Radhaji happy, and the growth of His happiness increases Hers still further. Thus each one's joy causes the other's to grow without end. This ever-increasing bliss is Bhagavan's eternal rasa. Here lies love's wonder: it never says "enough." Prema's nature is to grow at every moment. The Beloved's happiness is the lover's happiness, however painful it may appear for the lover from the world's perspective.

Why do worldly sorrows frighten us? Because we do not see within them beloved Bhagavan's pleasure and ordinance; we do not feel the touch of His supremely tender lotus hand within a harsh blow. But Bhagavan's loving devotee is frightened by no hardship, for such a devotee feels Bhagavan's touch in everything. In truth, the loving devotee has passed beyond every suffering and lives wholly in service to Bhagavan. Such a devotee does not desire even liberation apart from service. One who experiences bondage desires liberation. The bond of love for Bhagavan arises only after every other bond has fallen away, and the devotee never wishes freedom from it. What kind of devotee would seek release from this bond of love? Therefore it is said:

"Even when these are offered, My people do not accept them without service to Me."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.29.13)

That is, even when liberation and similar attainments are offered, devotees do not accept them apart from My service.

In a Vaishnava text, Srimati Radhaji says, "I feel that if I possessed millions of eyes, I might receive some joy from beholding Shyamasundara. If I had millions of ears, I might enjoy hearing Shyama's name." This is not imagination; such is the nature of prema. On the day we come to love Bhagavan, His name will become so dear that it will be life's greatest necessity. We need a rosary and similar aids only so long as we lack love for Bhagavan. Once love arises, every vein will dance at the mere utterance of the Beloved's name. We will become so intoxicated with love for Him that the divine name will resound from every pore of our bodies.

When single-hearted lovers gather to speak of the Beloved who is their very life, their ocean of love surges. Then, however they try, they cannot speak; their throats choke, their bodies thrill, and streams of love's radiance emerge from every pore, spreading pure light throughout that place. Its atmosphere becomes utterly stainless and filled with love. Overwhelmed by prema, the loving devotees pour streams of love's tears from their eyes and become immersed in supreme bliss. This state is exceedingly rare and supremely sacred. The families of those fortunate people who attain it are purified, and by their very existence the earth too becomes pure. At such a time, even one whose body is touched by the slightest breeze that has touched the bodies of those sacred devotees, embodiments of love, becomes purified.

Beloved Bhagavan as the Object of the Lover's Desire, Anger, and Every Other Emotion

Just as beloved Bhagavan is the object of His loving devotee's prema, He alone is the object of the devotee's desire, anger, and other emotions. No other dwells in the heart; who else could receive them? This does not mean that Bhagavan's loving devotees harbor the lust, anger, and pride of sensual people. Where could corrupted lust exist in loving saints? Where attachment to sense objects, violence, hatred, or worldly anger? In those free of pride, where could even its scent remain? Such defects possess no seed within them. When no craving for personal happiness exists, from where could they arise? The purpose of those devotees' lives is only to make the one Beloved happy: "The supreme gopi-bhava is wholly intent upon Krishna's happiness." No impression of the world remains in their hearts. Forgetting shame, aversion, family, propriety, honor, body, home, enjoyment, and liberation, they have offered themselves solely to beloved Bhagavan. Thus, just as the devotees themselves possess divine bhava, their desire, anger, and pride are divine. This is why supremely detached, liberated sages consider themselves fulfilled by singing and hearing the lilas of such lovers dyed in Bhagavan's color. Their hearts withdrawn from every side, with Bhagavan alone remaining as the object of desire, they suffer beneath the force of longing for His vision and cry out in tears:

"O Divine One! O Beloved! O sole friend of the world! O Krishna! O restless One! O only ocean of compassion! O Lord! O Lover! O delight of the eyes! Alas, alas - when will You become the object of my sight?"

(Sri Krishna-karnamrita)

"O Divine One! O Beloved! O sole friend of the universe! O You who irresistibly draw our hearts! O playful One! O only ocean of compassion! O Lord! O Lover! O delight of our eyes! Alas, alas, when will You appear before our sight?"

Sri Rukminiji, whose life is fixed in Sri Krishna, says:

"Beautiful One of the worlds, hearing Your qualities, which enter through the passages of the ears and remove the hearer's bodily anguish, and hearing of Your form, the complete attainment for all who possess eyes, my shameless heart has entered You, O Achyuta.

"O Mukunda, what noble, steadfast, and well-born maiden, at the proper time, would not choose You as her husband - You who equal Yourself alone in lineage, character, beauty, learning, youth, wealth, and splendor; O lion among men, enchanter of the human world?

"Great souls such as Uma's Lord long to bathe in the dust of Your lotus feet to remove their inner darkness. If, lotus-eyed One, I do not receive Your grace, I shall relinquish my life, emaciated by vows, even if that grace comes only after a hundred births."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.52.37-38, 43)

"O Achyuta, O beauty of the three worlds! Your divine qualities enter the heart through the ears and remove the hearer's bodily anguish; Your divine form is the highest fulfillment of sight for all who possess eyes. Hearing their praise, my heart has abandoned all social modesty and become intensely attached to You. O Mukunda, in lineage, character, form, learning, age, wealth, and influence, You alone are equal to Yourself. O Purushottama, You enchant the human world. O lion among men, what noble, virtuous, and intelligent maiden - what loving devotee - would not wish to bind herself to You when the time of marriage, the opportunity of meeting You, arrives? O lotus-eyed One, great gods such as Shiva, Lord of Uma, forever pray to bathe in the dust of Your feet to dispel the darkness in their hearts. If I do not receive that foot-dust as Your grace, know with certainty that, emaciating my body through vows,

I shall abandon these anguished life-breaths. Continuing thus, surely within a hundred births I will obtain Your grace."

Bhagavan Sri Krishna's principal queens say to Draupadi:

"Virtuous lady, we desire neither earthly empire nor Indra's sovereignty or enjoyment, neither universal dominion nor Brahma's station, neither infinity nor Hari's supreme abode.

"We desire only to bear upon our heads the glorious dust of the feet of the bearer of the mace, rich with the fragrance of Sri's breast-kunkuma."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.83.41-42)

"Virtuous lady, we desire neither sovereignty over the earth, Indra's kingdom or their enjoyments, mystical powers such as becoming minute, Brahma's station, liberation, nor even Vaikuntha. We desire only to place forever upon our heads the dust of beloved Sri Krishna's feet, fragrant with the kunkuma from Lakshmi's lotus breasts." Liberation rolls at the feet of such devotees:

"If concentrated bliss in the form of devotion to Mukunda exists, the splendor of liberation's empire rolls before one's feet."

"For one who possesses devotion of supreme bliss at Sri Mukunda's feet, the sovereign glory of liberation rolls at one's feet."

When beloved Bhagavan disappears from their sight, the gopis - crown jewels among exemplary, love-filled devotees - lament:

"Chief of the Vrishnis, Your lotus hand grants fearlessness to those who approach Your feet in fear of worldly existence. Beloved, fulfiller of desire, place upon our heads that hand which took Sri's hand.

"Hero who destroys the suffering of Vraja's people, Your smile shatters the pride of Your own. Friend, accept us, Your maidservants, and show us Your beautiful lotus face.

"Your lotus feet fulfill the surrendered, are worshiped by Lakshmi, adorn the earth, and are meditated upon in distress. Lover, destroyer of anguish, place Your supremely peaceful feet upon our breasts."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.31.5-6, 13)

"O crown jewel of the Yadus! Those who seek refuge at Your feet out of fear of worldly existence receive fearlessness from Your lotus hands, which fulfill their desires.

Beloved, place upon our heads those very lotus hands with which You took Lakshmi's hand. Hero who removes the sorrows of Vraja's people, Your gentle, sweet smile destroys devotees' pride. Friend, we are Your maidservants; graciously accept us and show us Your beautiful lotus face. Lover, destroyer of affliction, Your lotus feet fulfill the surrendered, are forever served by Lakshmiji, adorn the earth, and bestow welfare when remembered in calamity. Beloved, place those supremely auspicious and cooling feet upon our burning hearts."

Thus loving devotees, afflicted by longing for Sri Krishna, forever weep and call only for Him. Bhagavan, sportive Lord of lila, plays as though at hide-and-seek. When He hears their call of love, He suddenly appears in His form that enchants the three worlds, is difficult for yogis to behold, awaited by the gods of gods, draws the hearts of sages and great souls, and embodies the essence of all nectarous beauty and sweetness: the source of bliss, Madana-mohana, Enchanter of the god of love. Smiling gently and filling His flute with His divine captivating note, He scatters the sweetness of prema's bliss and rasa everywhere. When the moon of His face, cool with the nectar of beauty and sweetness, spreads its stainless light on every side, no one has the power to describe the state of the hearts of those fortunate saints endowed with divine sight and bhava. It is an ineffable mystery.

At that moment everything belonging to the devotee offers itself at His feet, and intoxicated by the ecstasy of bliss, heedless of the entire world, the lover cries:

"I will leave home and forest, cultured town and city; I will leave the bank of Vamshivata and feel shame before none. I will leave body and house - but tell me, how can I leave love? Today I shall adorn every royal affair in just this way.

"The world has gone mad and calls me mad; Though it calls me mad, I will rebuke no one. I will leave speakers and listeners, father and mother; I will leave compassion and brother, but never leave Kanhaiya."

"Living and dying will be for You alone and at Your feet. This is my heart's sole desire. Now that everything has been offered, even after death the body's five elements, scattered separately, will continue to serve You."

Fearing that when the five elements leave the body and separate, they might cease serving the Beloved, the overwhelmed devotee prays to the Creator:

"Let this body come to its fivefold end and the host of elements visibly enter their respective portions. Bowing my head to the Creator, I ask even then for this blessing: May its water enter His bathing pools, its fire His mirror, its space the sky of His courtyard, its earth His path, and its air the fan made of palm leaves that serves Him."

Translating this, a poet said:

"I do not fear dying under fate; let the five elements find their homes: Water in the Beloved's pool, earth in His path, fire in His mirror, air in His fan, and space in His courtyard."

"The five elements must separate. Lord, grant only this: may the portion of water merge into the lake or stepwell whose water my Beloved uses to bathe and drink; the element of fire into the mirror in which He sees His face; earth into the path by which He comes and goes; air into the fortunate fan with which He is cooled; and space into the sky of the courtyard where He sits."

As for the living soul, it can never be separated from the Lord's feet; He will hide it within His own heart. This is a small glimpse of the devotees' kama. Now behold their anger.

One day Sri Radhaji became irritated by one of Sri Krishna's teasing maneuvers.

When a sakhi tried to reason with Her, She said in anger, "Do not even speak His name before Me. Indeed, I will abandon every object that bears a dark color. I will burn lifelong in the pain of separation from Him, but I will not meet Him."

"By no mistake will I meet Him so long as I remain alive; I will endure separation's thorn and burn within its flame.

"I have now resolved this in my mind: I will not drink water from His path; Never apply collyrium to my eyes, never adorn my body with dark musk; Never hear the bee or cuckoo's voice, never touch the blue lotus in water."

Reflect carefully and see how much delight fills this irritation.

One day the Lord of lila disrupted a game and annoyed His devotee friends so that He might savor their loving anger. The friends decided together, "Remove this mischief-maker from the game." Not one of them was prepared to endure Shyamasundara's separation even for a moment, for to separate Him would be to separate themselves from life. Yet outwardly making a firm agreement, they said, "Kanhaiya, You create trouble Yourself and then stand aloof in a sulk. Go away. We will not let You play with us." The instant they scolded Him, Shyamasundara, treasure of their lives, softened. He fell at their feet and repeatedly swore oaths while begging forgiveness. Surdasji sang:

"Who is anyone's master in play? Hari lost and Sridama won - why then do You angrily insist otherwise?

"You are no greater than us in caste or lineage, nor do we live in Your shade; You claim excessive authority only because You own more cows than we do.

"Who will play with one who sulks? You cry 'alas, alas' and fall at our feet. Surdas says: the Lord longs only to play and offers Nanda as surety for His turn."

This is their anger.

Now as for mana, loving indignation free of defect is an ornament of this prema-bhakti.

Once Sri Radharani became displeased, sat in loving indignation, and told Her sakhis:

"Sakhi, do not let Nandalala enter; Do not allow Him to set foot inside, however much He tempts you. How can such a one be trusted? He speaks deceitful words. Narayana says: leaving my one dwelling, let Him go wherever else He desires."

Bhagavan grew weary from trying to pacify Her and finally said:

"Never before have I labored so much; Listen, Radhika: all the effort I have ever made, this one mana of Yours has demanded from Me.

"I upheld the earth, rescued creation and the Vedas, and slew the enemy Madhu; I made a brahmana king, dispelled unbearable sorrow, and took away Bali's kingdom.

"I broke the bow, fulfilled the svayamvara, and conquered invincible Ravana; I crushed Agha, Baka, Vatsa, Arishta, and Keshi, and swallowed the forest fire.

"To restore My guru's dead son I searched the ocean; I took a woman's form, deluded demons and gods - who in the world did not fear Me?

"I do not know what within this rasa becomes naturally new; Sur says: while trying to pacify You, I have forgotten all that strength."

"Blessed is Your mana. I accomplished immense deeds without accepting defeat or feeling fatigue; today all My strength has vanished in trying to pacify You."

This is the loving lila of devotees and Bhagavan. Raga, kama, anger, and mana are all present, but each in an altogether different form. They are merely other names for sacred prema. Here the abandonment of every ordinary dharma is the highest dharma, and freedom from ordinary rules is the supreme rule of love.

Means of Attaining Divine Love

Truly, a person who spends life turned away from Bhagavan commits a grave mistake. When life has passed, deep regret comes: "Alas! I have squandered the precious opportunity granted in this human life."

The sole purpose of human life should be the attainment of Bhagavan, or of love for Him. Just as the Ganga flows ceaselessly toward the sea, removing every hindrance and obstruction while keeping a single destination before it, so should all our mental currents, endeavors, reflections, actions, and experiences move only toward Bhagavan.

It is true that to attain divine love one must renounce every other love. One must joyfully become ready to burn everything in the fire of that love and, as soon as the opportunity arises, consign it all to the flames without fail, just as we promptly cremate a corpse. When a corpse is burned, we weep because of our bond with the departed. But when the corpse of sense objects is consumed in the fire of divine love, the very roots of weeping born of grief and sorrow are destroyed. If tears come thereafter, they become a source of immense joy, for they themselves arise from bliss.

Therefore, contemplate Bhagavan alone. Pray to Him that our entire life, down to its smallest act, may be for Him alone; that with our whole heart we may worship Him alone; that no other may occupy our mind and that our body may never be engaged in another's service. Body, mind, speech, wealth - whatever we possess is already His. Let His property be offered back to Him. Only what is offered to Him is preserved; it becomes priceless and carries us across the fathomless oceans of calamity.

In love there is neither loss nor separation. Even in apparent loss and separation there is only attainment. This is the mystery of love.

Aspiration for Divine Love

So long as faults remain within us, we should never regard ourselves as virtuous. Even when every fault seems to have vanished, we should continue searching for defects, and even the smallest one should pierce the heart like a thorn. So long as the faintest tainted feeling remains there, we should, like Surdasji, regard ourselves as great sinners and weep before the Lord. We should speak the pain of our heart to the indwelling Lord in the language of distress.

A human being may not listen. He may fail to grasp the meaning of another's words; even if he understands, he may remain indifferent; or he may understand but lack the power to help. None of these limitations exists in Bhagavan. He listens, understands the secret language of every heart, is never indifferent, and possesses complete power to remove every fault and sorrow. Therefore, to destroy our defects and suffering, we should pray to the Lord alone.

The Lord is the indwelling knower and knows everything. Yet unless we pray and desire His help, the good He continually does for us does not become manifest in our lives, nor does that specially wondrous work occur which follows from earnest longing. There is no doubt that in response to our ant-like pace Bhagavan comes at the wish-swift speed of Garuda. Yet it is our task at least to begin walking toward Him, even at an ant's pace.

"As people approach Me, so do I respond to them." (Bhagavad Gita 4.11)

Its secret is this: a person must begin to desire Him and start moving toward Him at his own pace. Bhagavan will then move at His pace and reach that person in no time. He will not abandon His own swiftness merely because our pace is slow; but we must first desire Him and set out toward Him. If you have begun walking, trust the Lord's words: He is coming swiftly toward you, matching the movement of your mind with His own rapid stride. If you have not begun, forget everything else and start; then see how quickly He arrives.

The gift of exclusive love for Bhagavan should be begged only from Bhagavan, who Himself loves exclusively.

If our aspiration is sincere, exclusive love will certainly be attained. That you long for such exclusive love is a matter of extraordinary fortune and joy. No noble aspiration is more blessed than the longing for pure and exclusive love of Bhagavan. This is the highest aspiration, born only after one has cast aside even the desire for liberation. Divine love is the fifth and supreme aim of human life. It is realized by relinquishing even the wish for moksha, and beyond it stands nothing but Sri Bhagavan Himself. Indeed, bound by the cord of that love, Bhagavan seems to dance as the lover makes Him dance, be bound as the lover binds Him, take birth at the lover's bidding, and even die when the lover would have Him die. Who, then, can fully describe the greatness of pure and exclusive love? This love is received only from Bhagavan, the ocean of love; who else possesses the power to trade in it?

The Means of Attaining Divine Love - Intense Longing

Although attainment of Sri Bhagavan's love is exceedingly rare, by His grace it may come - and come naturally - to the one who truly desires it. The person who truly desires it is ready to offer everything as its price, though divine love cannot actually be obtained at any price, for it is priceless. Even kaivalya, absolute liberation, is not sufficient to purchase it. Indeed, divine love cannot be bought at all. It comes only to the one upon whom Bhagavan bestows it in grace; and He gives it to the person who, even after laying everything at His feet, still considers himself unworthy of love and remains enchanted at every moment by the love of the beloved Lord.

Love is attained neither by any technique nor under any condition of time. On the path of love there is no place for conditions of any kind. Here there is only unconditional surrender. Give everything away; offer body and mind. Empty the heart like a flute and desire nothing in return. If one must desire something, let it be this: "May even the emptiness of this heart remain unknown to the Beloved,

for even though it is empty, it is still unworthy of love. If His sacred love were to come here and enter this heart, the very dignity of that love would be diminished. The beauty of the Lord's love lies in His withholding it from me, who am utterly unworthy of love. Yet despite this, who knows why that supremely beloved Lord continues to love me? Has He forgotten the dignity of His own love, that He continually casts His loving glance upon proud renouncers like me, who preserve even the memory of what they have renounced, and regards love as present even in me?"

After the natural offering of everything, when such a feeling arises, Bhagavan's sacred love manifests in the heart. Love itself has already been given by Bhagavan within every living being, but it is covered by the dense, heavy wrapping of attraction to sense objects - hidden behind the dark curtains of attachment, possessiveness, and ego. The moment this covering is removed, love appears in its stainless and sacred form. This manifestation is the dawning of love.

Therefore, until attachment to objects, possessiveness, and ego have disappeared, one should continue removing them: attachment to objects through hearing and reflecting on Bhagavan's virtues, glory, beauty, sweetness, compassion, and the like; possessiveness toward worldly objects through constant contemplation and firm conviction of His supreme intimacy; and ego through the spirit of surrender. At the same time, one should practice continual contemplation of Bhagavan. Give up worrying about how many days it will take to attain love; worry only about how His remembrance may continue without interruption. Repetition of the divine Name, recounting His virtues, hearing, reflection, and meditation upon His form - all assist in this. But the feeling of complete dependence is especially helpful.

Dependence does not mean that longing for love should diminish. Let longing continue to increase; let the life-breath ache for Bhagavan's love; let the flame of separation blaze within the heart. Yet let the sole means be dependence upon Him, with no reliance whatever on one's own effort. Let the heart's anguished yearning and blazing fire continually torment and consume it, and let that very anguish and heat become the support of life. Let this fire, which devours blood and flesh, itself sustain the vital breath. Through immense good fortune, while burning in this fire and making this very fire the support of life's breath,

one receives the blessed opportunity to do so. At that time one desires only this: "O Support of my life, may this fire never be extinguished. May it keep increasing and give me joy by burning me again and again. I have no right to the attainment of love; my only right is to burn. Let me go on burning."

The Nature of True Longing

1. True longing means that life without the desired object becomes difficult. It takes the form of an unavoidable necessity. Every desire other than that single object has long since perished. When the lover cannot live without the chosen Beloved, the Beloved must grant him a vision. Eating and drinking, sleeping and waking, rising and sitting - everything becomes a burden. Once true longing arises, the divine vision is not delayed.

2. Needless to say, true longing must be free of selfish desire. If we yearn to receive anything from Bhagavan other than Bhagavan Himself, He will give us that thing; why should He give Himself? In ancient times even those who worshiped with worldly desires received visions of Bhagavan, but such visions do not immediately increase divine love. Such worshipers generally do not truly attain the bliss of His vision. They may receive enjoyment or liberation, but not love.

3. One effective means of increasing longing is to recognize enjoyments as impermanent and productive of sorrow, and to abandon every desire for them. So long as any other desire remains, yearning for Bhagavan cannot become intense.

The Rare State of Separation from Bhagavan

Separation from Bhagavan is a rare state which, through supreme good fortune, comes spontaneously to certain ardent lovers. Rules and prohibitions do not operate here. The lover's task is simply to intensify the pain of separation by increasing remembrance of the Beloved. When that pain becomes unbearable, even the Beloved finds it difficult to remain far away. He must either come Himself or call the lover to Him. At that sweet summons, the lover casts off the body like a blade of grass and enters Bhagavan's divine abode. To call this suicide would be a grave offense. Here there is neither anyone who dies nor anyone who kills. It is the sweet meeting of Beloved and lover.

The Joy of Separation

Sri Sri Gaurangadeva said:

"A moment has become an age; my eyes pour rain; The whole world is empty for me in separation from Govinda."

How can a heart devoid of love estimate the boundless joy within this sorrowful separation? The separated lover burns, yet within that burning experiences profound peace. He never wishes the burning to end. He finds less joy in meeting than in continuing to burn in the flame of separation. He says: "O Lord of my life! O Beloved! O Sri Krishna! May birth after birth pass while I weep and moan in this way. I do not wish to meet You. I wish to weep to my heart's content in separation from You and keep burning in the fire of Your absence. I alone know what joy I find in this."

May this pain of separation keep me forever mad; I alone know how much delight it holds for me. May God preserve the delight of waiting; Let Him answer my plea only after years have passed.

Mad with divine love, the separated lover knows no one but the beloved Sri Krishna. She makes herself forever the maidservant of His feet, leaves herself entirely to His will, and while burning in separation experiences supreme joy simply by seeing Him happy. Mahaprabhu says:

"Let that libertine clasp me tightly, the maidservant at His feet, Or crush me beneath those feet, or break my heart by never appearing. Let Him do whatever He wishes; He alone is the Lord of my life, and no other."

If you find some rasa in separation from Bhagavan, it is a sign of immense good fortune. If you find joy in weeping, that too is most excellent. Simply keep weeping. Water the vine of separation again and again with tears of love until it spreads throughout body and mind. Send its roots down to the netherworld; then sit entwined with it beneath its dense shade. See how greatly your delight increases.

Sri Surdasji sang while weeping:

"My eyes have sown the vine of separation; Watered by tears from my eyes, dear friend, its roots have reached the netherworld. The vine has flourished by its own nature and grown into dense shade; How can I uproot it now, dear friend? It has spread through my entire body."

It is true that such a separated lover is not deprived of union. The truth is that within eternal union itself he experiences this joy of separation. Bhagavan is never apart from him.

Lovers possess a most extraordinary feeling: they experience greater joy in separation than in meeting. Meeting takes place in one location and at one time. In meeting, the beloved Syamasundara is seen only outside oneself. But in separation He is seen everywhere and always, filling both within and without, freely meeting and speaking with the lover:

Sweet meeting is exceedingly joyful, for there the Beloved is joined; His tender, sweet, enchanting smile grants incomparable divine nectar-rasa.

Yet that occurs in one place, at one time, and in one way; Inner sight is absent, and awareness remains entirely outward-turned.

But the Beloved's difficult separation bestows supreme and everlasting joy; Throughout every direction His sweet vision and union appear day and night.

No obstacle of place or time remains there in the least; The Beloved is met within every object, forever giving joy.

Through His constant touch each hair thrills and every limb blossoms; Thus separation is superior, for there ever-new colors bloom without cease.

The Lover's Absorption

The devotee's mind becomes so deeply absorbed in love of the Lord that it does not delight in anything else even for half a moment. The gopis tell Uddhavaji:

"Uddhava, we do not possess ten or twenty minds. There was only one, and it went away with Syama; with what mind should we worship your Lord?"

The mind no longer remains with oneself; how then could it delight in another? This is why the lovers' Bhagavan is called the Thief of the Heart:

"Friend, our Syama is a thief; That form of sweetness glanced from the corner of His eye and stole away the mind."

He steals the loving devotee's heart with such skill and makes it His property so completely that no other can ever cast a glance upon it. Only if another were visible could attachment or affection arise toward that person. Where even the thought of another finds no room in the mind, how could attachment or love arise for anyone else? The love-filled gopis say:

"Syama is our body, Syama our mind, and Syama our wealth; Through all eight watches, Uddhava, we have business only with Syama.

"Syama is in the heart, Syama in life; without Syama no woman can live; Like a blind person's staff, the Name of Syama is our sole support.

"Syama is our path, Syama our understanding, and Syama alone the Lord of our life; Our welfare lies with joy-giving Syama, the abode of beauty.

"Uddhava, you have gone mad, rushing here with that letter; Where could we keep your yoga? Every hair of our bodies is filled with Syama."

When no one but the one beloved Sri Krishna is permitted to enter the mind, how could enthusiasm arise to attain anyone else? One must first see or hear someone and feel desire for that person before making an effort to attain him. The mind must delight in someone before enthusiasm to attain him can arise. But this mind already belongs to One. He has established complete authority over it and entered it to dwell there forever. No room remains for anyone else. If another approaches, he must turn back from afar - what else can he do, when there is simply no space?

Constant Remembrance of the Beloved

Once one has recognized Paramatma as the Beloved, not a single moment can truly pass without remembrance of Him. We forget only because we do not regard Him as our Beloved. The women of Vraja did regard Him so, and could not remove Syamasundara from the temple of their hearts even for half a moment. Syamasundara was compelled to dance forever before their eyes. This truth underlies the statement, "Having left Vrindavana, He does not go even a single step away." Syamasundara may appear to go, and may have gone, but in the gopis' vision He has never departed. Their Syamasundara remains forever beside them, their companion all twenty-four hours of the day.

Why was this so? Because the gopis had accepted Him as their supreme Beloved. For Him they had abandoned every bond of this world and the next and forever offered even their dearest possessions at Sri Krishna's feet. How then could they forget Him? Beloved - ah, what a precious word! The Beloved can never be banished from the heart. It is a settled principle that those dear ones who regard the Lord as their Beloved cannot forget His lotus feet even for half a blink, though tempted with the splendor of all three worlds.

The Beloved's dear ones see His image everywhere, hear His words, speak only with Him, and contemplate Him alone. In His presence they never, even by accident, remember the world or any worldly object.

One need only make Bhagavan the Beloved; then the world retains no value. Kingdom and authority, riches, spouse and children, honor and reputation, life and death, this world and the next, heaven and liberation - everything is swept away in the current of love for that Beloved. Then the lover sings in Sri Chaitanya's words:

"O Lord of the universe, I desire neither wealth, followers, beautiful women, nor poetic fame. Birth after birth, O Lord, may I have causeless devotion to You."

The one who is loved may possess not a single virtue and may even be a mine of faults, yet the lover's heart does not weigh his qualities. There is no measuring or calculation there; the heart has been offered forever. If a true lover's love remains unbroken and ever increasing even toward one devoid of virtue and full of faults, how could one make Bhagavan the object of love - Bhagavan, the foundation of every virtue and the inexhaustible mine of majesty, beauty, sweetness, love, and all excellence - and fail to contemplate Him continually?

Even when a man and woman develop an improper attraction to one another, which is not truly love, their remembrance of one another does not cease. Sitting and rising, sleeping and waking, the memory persists. A greedy man may sit in Bhagavan's temple listening to the Gita while inwardly searching for wealth. How then, after making the supremely desirable Bhagavan, the infinite ocean of love, one's Beloved, could one ever forget Him?

To ensure that the thread of Bhagavan's remembrance never breaks, we must make Him our Beloved. So long as worldly things seem dear and we forget Bhagavan for their sake, Bhagavan is not yet the Beloved of our heart. The means of making Him so are these: hearing and understanding His glory; constantly hearing, reflecting upon, and singing His divinely sweet lilas; repeating His supremely sacred Name; repeatedly contemplating His supreme, all-sustaining divine form, virtues, abode, majesty, sweetness, beauty, compassion, friendship, parental tenderness, lordship, love, and other great qualities; and maintaining supreme, unwavering faith in His grace.

Divine Love Is Attained Only Through Bhagavan's Grace

Loving remembrance of Hari. I received your gracious letter. Thank you. It is not possible for another person to make anyone attain Bhagavan or His love. Bhagavan is neither under anyone's control nor obtainable at any price. Awaken exclusive longing for His vision within your heart and become intensely eager; or, holding that single longing in the heart, abandon yourself to His grace. Whenever He considers the time right, He will of His own accord give you Himself or the gift of His love. There is no other means.

From my heart I desire that everyone should become Bhagavan's own and that His grace should rest upon all. His grace is already present; may it only be recognized. To behold Bhagavan's grace is even more important than beholding Bhagavan. Trust His grace and become His without condition. Then your desire, if it is sincere, exclusive, and intense, may be fulfilled more swiftly than by any other means. It will happen neither through a discipline nor through the action of any human being; it will happen only through Bhagavan's grace. And His grace is recognized only through exclusive trust and refuge at His feet. The rest rests in Bhagavan's grace.

The supreme nectar of the Lord's love is solely the gift of His gracious glance. Only the supremely fortunate soul in whom His grace becomes manifest receives this nectar. His grace depends upon Him alone and cannot be obtained through any practice. Indeed, so long as a soul relies upon its own disciplines, it generally remains unhappy. If there is any means of attaining grace, it is for the soul to become utterly helpless: to abandon reliance upon every means, worship grace alone, and wait only for grace. Abandoning reliance on disciplines does not mean leaving the good path to walk an evil one. It means only this:

do not hope to purchase the Lord's grace with your virtuous deeds. Let good deeds arise naturally, not as a means of bargaining for grace. Let the one discipline be following the Lord's will. Remain content however He keeps you and continue increasing only your thirst for His love. The more painful this thirst becomes, the more accessible His grace grows. Thus love for the Lord is the sole means of attaining Him.

The Lord adopts a soul only through His own grace. By His will that grace sometimes comes in the form of one of His devotees. Yet the devotee is merely the instrument-like occasion for its manifestation; in reality it is Bhagavan Himself who, through that devotee, melts with compassion for the one who has taken refuge in Him.

The Necessity of Detachment from Sense Objects in Love

As I understand it, dispassion arises spontaneously in both knowledge and love. In knowledge the world ceases to exist as an independent world, so what is left to become attached to? In love nothing but the Beloved is seen or even imagined, so how could attachment to another remain?

Whether man or woman, if a person's love for another is true and utterly free from even the faintest scent of lust; if there is no desire to gain personal pleasure from the beloved, and instead, without the least concern for one's own great suffering, there is an anguished effort to secure the beloved's happiness - that alone is a pure life. Pure feeling, pure thought, pure speech, and a pure body are those in which desire for one's own happiness has been wholly transformed into desire for the Beloved's happiness, and feeling, thought, speech, and body all naturally sacrifice personal pleasure to engage without interruption in making the Beloved happy. Only a lover endowed with such pure feeling, thought, speech, and body is a true lover.

In such love there is natural detachment from the enjoyments of the world, because not even the scent of lust remains. Love is so pure that for the one who receives it, the entire universe becomes the Beloved. The universe no longer remains; only the Beloved remains.

He alone can say, "Wherever I look, all is pervaded by Syama." Images of the universe do not enter his eyes; no picture of the world is impressed upon the canvas of his mind. If another person prompts him to remember the universe, in the very next instant he sees that the universe itself is appearing within his Beloved. This is the profound secret of Bhagavan's words:

"One who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me." (Bhagavad Gita 6.30)

This love of the lovers, this attachment to the Beloved, devours and digests every attachment to worldly objects until not even its seed remains in their hearts. People call them mad. These supremely passionate and supremely dispassionate souls are extraordinary. The final years of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's manifested life directly revealed this astonishing passion filled with renunciation. Blessed are those who can even imagine such love.

The Beloved Is Attained Only by a Thorn-Strewn Path

Divine love is exceedingly rare. To attain it, one must sacrifice everything. Devotees must pass through severe trials; even gold does not shine until it has been refined in fire. What sufferings did Prahlada, the gopis, Mira, and other devotees not endure? The Beloved is attained by a path thickly strewn with thorns. Yoga and enjoyment cannot remain in the same place. True lovers therefore pay no heed to such adversities. Where would they find the power to turn their gaze from the Beloved? They belong to Him in every way. Therefore, whatever relatives and elders

may do or say, they do not care. They gladly endure everything and regard adversity and calamity as the Beloved's playful teasing, never becoming irritated with Him because of them.

That is the principle. A true lover has only two paths: either endure everything or leave everyone behind. If one lacks the strength to do either, one should act tactfully. The means are repetition of the divine Name, holy company, loving service to every living being in the spirit of serving Bhagavan, and hearing and reading lila narratives inspired by Bhagavan's mercy and compassion. If outward worship and recitation displease one's family, let them be omitted. Who can steal the love for Bhagavan that lives within your heart? Contemplate Him inwardly and, whenever you find leisure, pray in a voice choked with longing.

Few Can Walk the Path of Love

Attaining Bhagavan's love is not easy. Love is not a matter of words. Many can be found who speak eloquently about love, but only a rare hero can walk its path. So long as attachment to worldly pleasures remains, so long as one worries about bodily comfort and is deluded by fame and reputation, one is forbidden even to look toward the path of love. Only that hero can walk the path who has forever burned attachment to sense objects in the wildfire of dispassion. Mira, the lover, says:

"I tore my fine veil to pieces and wrapped myself in coarse wool; I removed pearls and coral and strung a garland of forest flowers."

Only one who regards the thorns of love's road as a bed of flowers, rejection by the Beloved as a reward, great calamity as delightful wealth, humiliation as honor, and disgrace as fame can set foot upon this path. His road runs opposite to the world's. He never commits a contemptible act to invite humiliation, rejection, or misfortune; nevertheless, when they come, he welcomes them as the road to union with the Beloved

and clings to them. Those who travel love's path should remember these words of lovers:

"Narayana says: difficult is the pass where love makes its home; Restlessness, fainting, and sobbing are the resting places along that road.

"Cut off your head, set it upon the earth, and place your foot upon it; Only if you can do this may you enter the garden of love.

"Cut off my head, pierce my heart, and tear me into pieces; In return for this, receive my smiling acclaim: wonderful, wonderful!

"You may seek the Beloved's love, or you may preserve your honor; Two swords in one sheath have never been seen or heard of.

"The path of love is exceedingly hard and cannot be fulfilled by everyone; It is like mounting a horse of wax and riding into fire.

"Only that person reaches the Beloved who makes a ball of his head And plays with it in the middle of the marketplace.

"The enjoyments of Brahma and the gods taste like poison To the one who has fallen in love with the Moon of Vraja."

Such loving devotees do not die after removing their heads. They wander headless, yet preserve their lives for the Beloved. If they died, the Beloved would grieve; therefore they die while living, or remain alive even after death. Blessed are those who attain such a state. Blessed are their mothers and fathers; blessed is their land. Their birth alone is fruitful. When, after all this, they attain the Beloved and dissolve into Him, losing themselves completely, they become the very form of the Beloved:

"Repeating 'You, You,' I became You, and no 'I' remained within me. When 'I' was, Hari was not; now Hari is, and I am not. The lane of love is exceedingly narrow; two cannot enter it together."

Love and Scriptural Injunctions and Prohibitions

In prema-bhakti, ritual action falls away of itself. Intoxicated with love, the devotee knows nothing but the beloved Bhagavan. His mind remains forever shaped in the form of beloved Sri Krishna, and everywhere his eyes behold only the image of the beloved Lord. His mind simply does not turn toward anything else. The gopis told Bhagavan:

"Beloved, You have joyfully stolen the minds that were absorbed in our homes; Our hands no longer engage in household work. Our feet will not move one step from the root of Your lotus feet; How can we return to Vraja, and what would we do there?" (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.34)

Because the picture of the world has been erased from his heart, such a loving devotee is no longer capable of performing worldly rites sanctioned by smriti or Vedic rites enjoined by shruti.

Upon attaining love, worldly and Vedic duties fall away; one need not deliberately abandon them outwardly. Surrender means first offering them inwardly. When the higher state of love is attained, one passes beyond injunction and prohibition, and all such duties free the lover from their binding authority and depart of themselves. This is the rule of that state. But one who deliberately rejects scriptural injunctions in the name of love does not easily attain perfection in devotion.

Upon reaching the high plane beyond injunction and prohibition, one becomes so deeply absorbed in Paramatma's true nature that the bonds of every rule break of themselves. Natural spontaneity is the very rule there. But before attaining that state, one who deliberately breaks the necessary bounds of scripture and virtuous conduct resembles a traveler who sees someone step onto the far bank of a river and therefore abandons his own boat in midstream.

Regarding the love-filled gopis, crown jewels among saints, Uddhavaji says:

"Ah, may I become any shrub, vine, or herb of Vrindavana that is touched by the dust of these gopis' feet. They abandoned relatives so difficult to relinquish and the path of respectable conduct, and took the path to Mukunda which the Vedas themselves eternally seek." (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.47.61)

Such abandonment of the conventional path was possible only for those gopis wholly filled with Krishna. They had completely left behind the nearly unbreakable possessiveness of home and family, torn through every veil of delusion, and exclusively delighted in flute-enchanting Sri Krishna in every way, at every time, and in every place. Every moment of their lives was reserved for delighting in Bhagavan, and they remained uninterruptedly established in eternal union with Paramatma. Worldly people who imitate their divine lilas inevitably fall into the deep ocean of degradation and drown.

Scattered Blossoms

1. Love is directed toward One alone, and it is possible only in relation to Bhagavan. The true meaning of love is love for Bhagavan.

2. The word love becomes meaningful only when directed toward Sri Bhagavan.

3. Pure, selfless, radiant love can exist only in Bhagavan. When it arises, all possessiveness withdraws from everywhere else and becomes centered in Bhagavan alone.

4. When love for Bhagavan begins, love withdraws from every other object. This is the rule. Once love has fully arisen, the lover forgets awareness of everything else. He speaks love, hears love, sees love, and experiences nothing but love on every side.

5. Love never reaches completion. A lover never feels, "I have attained perfect love."

6. The lover always experiences deficiency in his own love.

7. Love has no boundary.

8. Love grows at every moment; ceaseless growth is its nature.

9. Love never stops anywhere.

10. In love everything is offered, until the lover himself is offered to the Beloved. Complete renunciation, or complete surrender, is the nature of love.

11. Love divided among various objects is not truly love at all.

12. Love is not an object of speech.

13. Love lives in the mind, but the mind no longer remains under its own control; it rests under the control of the Beloved. This is love's general rule.

14. The lover retains no authority over his own mind. The beloved Sri Bhagavan gains authority over mind, understanding, life-breath, and self.

15. Once love arises, mind and understanding need not be deliberately offered; they offer themselves.

16. Love is exceedingly rare and not easily obtained. No one is as fortunate as the person who receives it.

17. In love, separation from Bhagavan never truly occurs. Sri Krishna does not take even one step outside Vrindavana and never leaves the gopis at any time or place. The gopis showed Uddhava that Sri Krishna remains continually beside them, because He Himself becomes a lover and regards the gopis as His beloveds.

18. The Beloved becomes the lover's own. Sri Krishna became wholly the gopis' own. He said, "O gopis, even if I possessed the lifespan of the gods, I could not repay this debt of your love."

19. Bhagavan has nothing with which to repay love's debt, yet the lover never makes Him a debtor. A lover never regards Him as indebted and asks something in return.

20. Wherever any personal desire remains, love is absent.

21. The lover's happiness lies in the Beloved's happiness - this is tat-sukha-sukhitvam.

22. If our suffering makes the Beloved happy, that suffering is happiness for us. This is the lover's heartfelt disposition. He regards such suffering and calamity as supreme happiness and supreme wealth; more than regarding them so, he directly experiences them as such.

23. Love's nature is extraordinary: it consists only of renunciation, only of giving.

24. The lover longs to see the Beloved forever happy and is happy only upon seeing the Beloved happy. The foundation of the lover's happiness is the Beloved's

happiness. Wherever and to whatever degree this disposition develops in the world, to that degree the feeling there is pure.

25. From the person to whom Bhagavan gives His love, He takes everything away. Possessiveness toward every object vanishes and becomes centered wholly in Bhagavan. The lover then desires only one thing: how may my Beloved be happy?

26. Bhagavan gives His love only when He has agreed to sell Himself into someone's hands.

27. Together with love, Bhagavan gives Himself. This bargain is not expensive but astonishingly cheap. We lose everything and receive Bhagavan in return. No gain equals this; it is the supreme gain.

28. For love, the wise offer even liberation at Bhagavan's feet.

29. Bhagavan wishes to give liberation, but lovers refuse to accept it.

30. One who attains love remains under no other bond; only love's bond remains. Could a lover ever wish to escape that bond? It is the foundation of his supreme happiness. One who wishes to be freed from it is no lover at all.

31. The bliss within love's bond cannot be compared even to millions of liberations. The bliss of love is utterly extraordinary. A person becomes fulfilled upon receiving even one particle of it.

32. The growth of love and the destruction of petty selfishness occur together.

33. So long as selfishness has not been renounced, there is no love for Bhagavan.

34. Love for Bhagavan arises through renunciation, and purity comes through renunciation.

35. As love withdraws from enjoyments, purity increases.

36. When divine love manifests, its external condition assumes one of two forms: either complete withdrawal from the world or active engagement within it. In the first, the lover appears mad. In the second, seeing the entire world as Bhagavan, he serves and worships everyone. In both states he has withdrawn from the world's former appearance and forgotten it entirely.

37. In one state, wherever he looks he sees Syama. In the other, nothing but Syama pleases him. Both states are supremely pure, though their outward lila differs.

38. In one state Syamasundara is nowhere visible and the lover journeys out to meet Him; in another, the feeling is, "He is here, He is there; wherever I look, all is Syama." These are not truly two feelings but two states of the same divine love.

39. One thing is certain in divine love: no one else can find room between the beloved Bhagavan and the lover.

40. Love is not directed toward two. It rests in One alone, and the one Beloved completely covers the lover's vision. The one Beloved spreads everywhere.

41. As love develops, Bhagavan is seen everywhere.

42. Because the beloved Bhagavan's form is infinite, the lover's love-filled states are infinite. Who can know all the states lovers undergo?

43. Love is unbroken.

44. Bhagavan is love, and love itself is Bhagavan.

45. Love is Bhagavan's own nature and not an object of mind or speech. It cannot be explained; it must be experienced.

46. Divine love begins where selfishness is renounced. Self-interest and love cannot coexist.

47. Even in worldly love it is certain that where there is no renunciation, there is no love. Wherever love exists, renunciation must exist.

48. As love for Bhagavan increases, selfishness is progressively renounced.

49. Where personal desire and self-concern remain, and there is no readiness to renounce, where is love?

50. Love even an ordinary human being, and renunciation will still be necessary.

51. A mother loves her child; see how much she sacrifices for the child. Likewise, wherever there is a loving relationship - guru and disciple, husband and wife - renunciation is present.

52. Without love there is no real renunciation, and without renunciation there is no love.

53. Every kind of patient endurance arises in love. Begin to love, and forbearance will come by itself. A mother may be ill, but if her child returns from abroad, she rises and begins preparing food despite her illness. Such endurance is born of love.

54. It is true that love develops fully and authentically only as divine love. Yet wherever even a partial development appears, renunciation accompanies it. Guru Govind Singh's children loved their dharma and smilingly sacrificed their lives for it. Out of love for chastity, many noble women offered their lives.

55. When love exists, renunciation need not be forced. It happens naturally and becomes a source of joy.

56. Purity also comes naturally in love, because deception, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and the like exist only within selfishness, and selfishness does not remain in love.

57. Wherever pure love exists, the mind is necessarily pure.

58. Increase your love for Bhagavan, and the inner being will purify itself.

59. Sin cannot remain in true love. Sins arise from desire, and desire does not remain in love. When there is no desire, how can sin remain?

60. Love is the highest austerity.

61. One who cannot give is not a lover. Self-offering inheres naturally in love.

62. Divine love is the final, ultimate, and supreme aim of human life.

63. Love of sense objects is not love.

64. Both the seeker of sense pleasures and the lover of Bhagavan abandon liberation, but their renunciations differ profoundly.

65. The pleasure-seeker does not attain liberation; but even after relinquishing it, the divine lover possesses liberation eternally and remains forever free of worldly bondage.

66. Though divine love is exceedingly rare, it can be attained naturally if one depends upon Bhagavan for it with exclusive longing.

67. Renunciation is necessary to attain love. Love is not obtained without it.

68. If we truly desire it, Bhagavan graciously brings about renunciation Himself. The truth, however, is that we do not wish to relinquish love for worldly objects.

69. We want love but do not want to leave sense objects, because we mistakenly imagine happiness within them.

70. Attachment to sense objects is a great obstacle to love.

71. Seen truly, everything belongs to Bhagavan and He alone possesses authority over it. We need only abandon false possessiveness. Things will remain with us while belonging to Him.

72. The same objects that now burn us will give happiness once they have been made Bhagavan's and attachment has been removed from them. Possessiveness and attachment alone make them burn us.

73. Upon attaining divine love, a person remains happy wherever he lives.

74. Nothing remains the lover's own; everything becomes Bhagavan's. Children, wealth, and status remain just as they were and go nowhere, but the seat of possessiveness changes. It withdraws from the whole world and comes to rest in one place, in Bhagavan alone.

75. In the lover's vision everything becomes the Beloved. Wherever his gaze falls, he sees only the Beloved.

76. For the lover, everywhere and always there is nothing but bliss.

77. The moment the self merges into Bhagavan, one becomes a lover.

78. This is the rule: where love abides, happiness necessarily abides; where hatred exists, sorrow necessarily remains.

79. For the lover no place or object of enmity remains.

"With whom should I now be at enmity? The Lord calls out with His own mouth: I dwell within every heart."

Such becomes the state of the lover's mind.

80. The progressive development of love is humanity's true advancement.

81. Today the meaning of self has grown so narrow that family often means merely oneself and one's wife. Directly opposed to this, the sages of India proclaim the vast principle, "The whole earth is one family." Bhagavan Himself inspires the realization, "See the Self dwelling in all beings and all beings dwelling in the Self."

82. One should undertake spiritual practice for divine love and attain it by whatever means possible.

83. On the day a person sees Bhagavan in all beings and all beings established in Bhagavan, every fear and hesitation vanishes. For him only bliss remains.

84. The glory of love is wondrous. The infinitely great Bhagavan becomes so small that He enters among children, becomes a child, and plays. Once they played a game whose rule was that whoever lost must become a horse. Bhagavan lost and became the horse:

"Defeated, Bhagavan Krishna carried Sridama; Vrsabha carried Bhadrasena, and Pralamba carried Rohini's son." (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.18.24)

85. What will Bhagavan not do when overcome by love? He does everything.

86. Though He sustains the universe, Bhagavan tells His mother, "I am hungry; give Me milk!" Such is love's glory.

87. What value can liberation possess beside the love in which Bhagavan plays as friend, son, and husband?

88. Divine love is an exalted attainment, but at the very least one should desire it. Where desire exists, effort will follow.

89. Hearing about divine love, a person grows afraid that everything may be taken away. This is indeed what happens: before giving His love, Bhagavan wishes to withdraw the person's love from everything else. Therefore people become frightened. A Gujarati poet says:

"The path of love is a blazing flame; merely seeing it, people turn and flee. Those who leap within savor the supreme rasa, while the onlookers are scorched."

90. Love based upon an object of any sense is not love.

91. The effortless, spontaneous breaking of every rule's bond is love's one rule.

92. So long as rules are deliberately broken, love has not arisen; some attachment is making us act that way. In love rules need not be broken, but their bonds fall away of themselves.

93. Love possesses an extraordinary intoxication that does not know how to look toward rules.

94. Love also seeks happiness, but its distinction is that the Beloved's happiness alone is regarded as one's own.

95. If the lover must undergo terrible torment in hell for the Beloved's happiness, he finds happiness even there, for he has dissolved his own existence into the Beloved's existence.

96. A prostitute seeks her own pleasure, and her so-called love has no value. A devoted wife gives everything and finds happiness solely in her husband's happiness, because she truly recognizes nothing as her own except her husband.

97. If the Beloved completely ignores the lover before his eyes and exchanges words of love with a newcomer, the lover feels no agitation but only joy, because the Beloved is happy at that moment.

98. Only one who can remain happy while enduring the pain of separation, humiliation, oppression, threats, rebuke, and all else is qualified to learn love's lesson.

99. Love is not a subject of speech. It can be seen only where one is ready to offer this world and the next.

100. A vision of love is exceedingly rare. Even if one's whole life must pass in waiting, one has no right to become agitated.

101. Love is not a toy but a blazing fire. Only one who forgets everything and leaps into it attains it and becomes fulfilled.

102. Love is boundless in form. Where restriction or limit exists, love has no place.

103. Love is practiced for love alone, and in its discipline fresh enthusiasm increases daily without pause.

104. Love is indescribable. Its true form remains hidden only within the caves of lovers' hearts. What comes outward is merely its artificial appearance.

105. Love can never be pure if it contains desire for sensual happiness, lacks restraint, turns away from duty merely to remain near or keep looking at the other, contains even slight mental impurity, seeks selfish gain, or pursues opportunities for sense gratification instead of increasing mutual purity.

Love's principal nature is complete renunciation of the desire for personal happiness. Seeking animal-like sensual pleasure centered on enjoyment is a sin that stains the name of sacred love. Love always gives and asks not the slightest return. In truth, love not founded upon Bhagavan is not real love. Love is always selfless, pure and free of sensual disturbance, and contains no room for desire for enjoyment. Modern humanity has named infatuation itself love, and the result is immense mental unrest and terrible suffering.

106. So long as outward awareness remains, the loving devotee maintains exclusive feeling toward the Beloved and remains completely indifferent to actions contrary to Him. Every action of the loving devotee accords with the Beloved and is performed exclusively for His service. Contrary action cannot arise from him, just as darkness cannot be produced by the sun and death cannot be produced by nectar.

107. The path of love does not oppose action; rather, action is performed even more beautifully there. The feeling that our action gives happiness to the Beloved increases its rasa, sweetness, beauty, enthusiasm, and devotional feeling.

108. We love many people with differing feelings and for different purposes. But in the love we bear toward ourselves there is no difference of purpose or feeling. Sri Krishna is the Self of the self. Therefore love for Him has neither an independent feeling nor an independent purpose.

109. For those who love Sri Krishna, whatever love they bear toward the world includes Sri Krishna within it. This is the rule: love devoid of relationship to the Self

does not occur anywhere. Sri Krishna is the Self of the self. Therefore, when those who love Sri Krishna love others, they do so only by including Sri Krishna within that love.

110. The love found in this world is neither everlasting, constant, nor centered in one alone. Bhagavan's love, however, is everlasting, constant, and centered in the One. Once a person comes to love Sri Krishna, his love becomes one-pointed, enduring, and unchanging. Thereafter he loves no one apart from Sri Krishna or for any purpose separate from Him.

111. The simplest means of attaining Bhagavan is intense anguish of longing. The more our very life-breath cries out piteously for Him, the nearer He comes to us.

112. Our work, our one duty, is to remember Him daily with an anguished heart and to call out to Him.

113. Those whose minds truly grow restless to attain Sri Krishna, who become mad to find Him and run toward Him, in whom the longing for His attainment awakens in its most extreme form - do they distinguish path from no path? When do they ever calculate how much hardship lies upon the way? Who can stop them? Who can obstruct their irresistible momentum? No sorrow can halt them. Sorrow does not even enter their awareness; desire for spouse and children, wealth and honor, fame, and the like cannot delude them. Even hundreds of thousands of afflictions do not appear to them as affliction.

114. There must be love. In serving what one loves, sleep does not overtake one and the heart never tires. When the hour for Bhagavan's service arrives, every obstacle before the lover falls away of itself.

115. Through different spiritual disciplines Bhagavan is attained in different forms, but through love He is attained as the Beloved. This love is the final, the fifth and supreme aim of human life, in which even liberation is renounced. It is the highest fruit of life.

116. A worshiper in the madhurya-bhava should become utterly detached from worldly sense pleasures and comforts and supremely attached to the feet of the Divine Beloveds. To weep in separation from Them and call out to Them in anguish is the finest means of attaining Them. One should lay down one's life and everything one possesses for Them, belong to Them alone, and continue living solely for Their sake.

The Elevenfold Nature of Love

Supremely stainless, exceedingly sweet, the abode of divine nectarean rasa, It is lovely, free from desire for pleasure, craving, and attachment.

Free from longing for one's own happiness, detached from worldly enjoyment, Every commerce of the mind and senses with objects of pleasure comes to an end.

The mind is deeply dispassionate toward enjoyment and free even from desire for liberation; Heart and understanding remain wholly absorbed in love for the Beloved.

Not the slightest thought of sinful action remains there; Where sacred love appears, it is supremely pure and changeless.

Free from anxiety, fear, and delusion, joined with peaceful renunciation, Pure attachment pervades it forever, particle by particle.

All feelings and virtuous actions are sacred, free from attachment born of desire; The stainless joy of the Beloved alone is the one law of love.

Knowing truly the Lord's greatness, His service, and the wish within His heart, The lover remains engaged day and night in the Beloved's service.

Where love for the beloved Lord itself becomes the form of life, There the Beloved's stainless and incomparable virtues shine manifest.

The world increases, diminishes, changes without cease, and finally ends; But self-renouncing love keeps growing, infinite at every moment.

Free from stain, radiant, indivisible, incomparable, and utterly free of pride, Hari Himself is the form of love; love itself is Bhagavan.

That very love eternally assumed embodied form and became Radhika; It sports forever with Syama, revealing incomparable nectar.

Love's One Rule

Love has this one sweet rule: Whatever pleases the Beloved's heart is dharma, yoga, and well-being.

One who is ever filled with the nectar-rasa of love forgets the whole world; Through self-forgetfulness even prescribed duties are forgotten, and nothing else retains importance.

How can dharma stand separately, maintaining its own support, without the one who practices it? The lover has dissolved and blended forever into oneness with the Beloved's mind.

There is no desire, thirst, or expectation, no sense of self and other; To be merely a doll in the Beloved's hand is the lover's natural disposition.

There is not the least awareness of one's own pain or pleasure, neither attachment nor anger; No concern for harm or benefit, nor fault-finding born of aversion.

The renunciation of everything is utterly natural; no pride, possessiveness, or self-importance remains; Body, mind, life-breath, and understanding all belong to the Beloved, and life and death are alike.

There is no calculation of injunction and prohibition, no awareness of customary conduct; The lover does whatever the Beloved causes him to do and entertains no other thought.