Heeding the Cautionary Words of the Acaryas.

Great questions Niscala prabhu. There are a number of considerations that come to mind. The first is one's level of anartha-nivritti. If one has not progressed to the point where one's anarthas have been sufficiently reduced, and those anarthas are a constant source of distraction and cause of problems, it would be very difficult for one to focus on the sadhana and bhajana of raganuga-bhakti in a meaningful way, if at all.

Most admonitions by wary devotees/gurus are concerned with this point. Even if genuine lobha has begun to manifest, if one has not established nistha in one's practice, it's not likely that significant progress can be made. In that case, the manifestation of lobha should provide an incentive to establish nistha in one's practices, along with further anartha-nivritti required to maintain that position.

Honesty about one's actual status on the path is paramount at all times. Honesty in that sense also includes humility and constant introspection to make sure you aren't fooling yourself. Constant communication with Krsna and one's guru are required to keep that level of vigilance. Good association is also a big blessing because it gives us alternate perspectives, guidance and confirmation.

Sunanda's recommendation regarding offenseless chanting is always a given and very important as well. Most devotees who are learning about the path of raganuga are not in a realistic position, either materially or spiritually, to chant 64 rounds every day, so a more balanced approach is to focus on regular hearing/sravanam to nourish one's chanting, both of which directly stimulate one's smaranam, qualitatively and quantitatively. I mentioned 64 rounds because many devotees are under the impression that raganuga-bhakti requires that daily quota, which is not true.

When you combine all of the above considerations you have a realistic and practical program that covers the most important aspects per your queries. By bringing these elements together in your life in this way, along with Krsna's constant internal guidance and the mercy of one's guru, you are acting with the necessary prudence recommended by our acaryas.

Thanks for the additional thoughts, Uttamasloka. To personalize it in a way that may also be helpful for others, I am not at the point where I can immerse myself in any kind of deep raganuga bajan, but I have come to a point where I see clearly what this stage is and that it is highly desirable to achieve it, and I should aspire to increase that desire and really eliminate those anarthas, etc. which hold me back. In Srila Prabhupada's time I remember hearing the example given that if you don't have the desire to serve Krishna, then desire to desire to serve Krishna. And if you don't even have the desire to desire, then desire to desire to desire, etc., etc. That much sincerity we need to get. So at this point I'm still looking at raganuga from the outside of the bottle and desiring to taste it, and offenseless chanting is my way of crying out to Krishna to help me get there. Below is a lecture by Srila Prabhupada about this eagerness:


"…Visnujana: How do we render perfect service to Krsna?


Prabhupada: By your anxiety.


If you are anxious to serve Krsna, that is the real asset.


Krsna is unlimited. What service we can offer to Him?


And He has got unlimited servants also.


What service He requires from you and me?


He's perfect in Himself.


He doesn't require any service also.


But if you are anxious to serve Him, then He does not refuse.


That is His mercy; that is His magnanimity.


So the more you increase your anxiety to serve Krsna, the more it becomes perfect.


He's unlimited.


Your anxiety, you become unlimited.


So there is competition.


The more you serve Krsna, the more He accepts you and the more He gives you intelligence.


You see?


So the spiritual world is unlimited.


There is no end of service, and there is no end of accepting the service.


It is not that.


So eagerness. Tatra laulyam eka mulyam.


I am not manufacturing the answer, but I am giving you evidence from Rupa Gosvami, our acarya.


He says, krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita matih kriyatam yadi kuto 'pi labhyate:


"My dear gentlemen, my dear boys and girls, if you can purchase a..., your sense of loving Krsna -- 'How I can love Krsna more and more' -- this, this much, this anxiety, if you can purchase this matih," -- means intelligence; it is very nice intelligence -- " 'How I shall serve Krsna...' " Krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita matih. Matih means intelligence or status of mind, that "I'll serve Krsna." "If you can purchase this status of mind anywhere, please immediately purchase."


Then next question will be, "All right, I shall purchase. What is the price, do you know?"


"Yes, I know what is the price."


"What is that price?"


"Laulyam, simply your eagerness, that's all." Laulyam ekam mulyam.


"Ah, that I can have."


No.


Na janma kotibhis sukrtibhir labhyate.


This eagerness, how to love Krsna, this is not available even after many, many births.


So if you have a pinch of that anxiety, "How I can serve Krsna?" you must know you are the most fortunate man.


A pinch only, laulya, this anxiety, "How I can serve Krsna?" it is very nice.


Then Krsna will give you intelligence.


tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
buddhi-yogam dadami tam...


"Anyone who is engaged with love and affection in My service, without any hypocrisy," then Krsna can understand everything.


He is within me, within you.


Then He will give you intelligence:


"My dear boy, you do like this."


And by doing that, what he will achieve?


Yena mam upayanti te: "He'll come back to Me."


And what profit he will get by going there?


Ah, yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama .


Mam hi partha vyapasritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah .


Duhkhalayam asasvatam .


There are so many.


Please read Bhagavad-gita As It Is.


You'll get perfect knowledge, the science of God.


That is the only study for human being.


So simply your eagerness is the perfection for serving Krsna.


Increase that eagerness.


And eagerness means if you love Krsna, that eagerness will increase with your increase of love: "How I shall serve Krsna?"


Because you are voluntary servant, nobody is forcing.


That means unless you love Krsna, how that eagerness will increase?


So there are so many things to love Krsna.


Beginning is this sravanam kirtanam.


This sravanam, hearing, and chanting.


Hearing, you are hearing Hare Krsna, you are hearing Bhagavad-gita, you are hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam about Krsna, and chanting.


This is the beginning. Then, naturally,


sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma-nivedanam
[SB 7.5.23]


These nine kinds of different varieties of service to Krsna will enlighten you, will advance you in Krsna consciousness, and your life will be successful. . ."


(Lecture - Seattle, October 4, 1968)

Sunanda: Thanks for that quote from Prabhupada. He was telling us all along. I also mentioned in my book in chapter 3 on Lobha, that, 'we have to want to be greedy'. Materialists will think we're nuts for thinking like that! ;D

The key to raganuga is the awakening of one's desired rasa/relationship with Krsna. Without that, raganuga cannot begin. So the very first stage is to contemplate and pray to Prabhupada for his blessings and pray to Krsna to awaken that understanding. It doesn't even have to be a big revelation with full details either, as explained by Jiva Gosvami.


Jiva Gosvami also confirms the qualifications for the awakening of one’s rasa in his Bhaktisandarbha:

For this reason we will now discuss raganuga-bhakti, the practice of devotion following in the wake of the moods of natural affection. When a person develops a taste for the aforesaid specific raga [i.e., any of the four major rasas], even though that raga itself has not arisen in her or him, the heart becomes like a crystal, shining as it reflects the rays of the moon of that raga.

By hearing about this raga from scripture or from one’s teacher, one develops a taste for the actions of the ragatmika associates also, that are expressions of this ragatmika-bhakti. Then by adhering to the raga of a particular associate of the Lord, according to one’s taste, one executes devotion, which is called raganuga. BS, Anuccheda 310


Once that awakening has begun, one's desires will increase accordingly. This is especially true when you have a clear understanding of the details of raganuga-bhakti and its processes, which is one of the main purposes for my writing this book - learning the facts about the path of raga. That is what Niscala is describing and it is wonderful for me to hear her confirmation of that. This knowledge is very inspiring and it should give one great hope.

Even for those beginning raganuga-bhakti, focused meditation is not possible right away. It is a gradual development, learning how to internalize your sadhana into bhajan. Here's an excerpt from my book from chapter 5, regarding the stage of Smarana-dasa, the stage of remembering. These stages also correspond to the final stages of progress on the path of bhakti, ie: nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava/prema.

Jiva Gosvami describes these five stages of remembering in Bhakti-sandarbha, but first, just to make it even more complex and interesting, he describes four progressive steps specific to contemplating Krsna:

Just as we have discussed that hearing and singing generally proceed in a certain order – from the Lord’s names, to His forms, attributes and finally His pastimes – remembrance of the Lord should also be taken up in order, which facilitates each successive stage in the progression. Thus, after remembrance of the Lord’s name and form, one should remember His attributes, associates, service and pastimes.

There are five stages in the evolution of remembrance:

1) To think of the Lord in whatever manner and to whatever extent is known as smaranam, or remembrance.

2) To withdraw the mind from all external objects and fix it in a general way on the Lord is called dharana, or concentration.

3) To specifically contemplate the Lord’s name, form and other attributes is called dhyana, or meditation.

4) When remembrance proceeds without interruption like a continuous flow of nectar, it is called dhruvanusmrti, or constant remembrance.

5) When the object of one’s meditation alone is manifest, without awareness even of one’s own (physical) self, it is called samadhi, or trance. BS, Anuccheda 278

Bhaktivinoda Thakura gives his explanation of these five stages specifically in conjunction with meditating on one’s siddha-deha, in his notes on 15.93 in Harinama-cintamani:

Simple remembering is the stage where one recalls his spiritual identity and its eleven aspects in relationship to one’s service in the circadian pastimes (asta-kaliya-lila) of the Divine Couple. At this point, there is still no constancy in one’s meditation, as one sometimes remembers, and at other times is distracted.

As one progresses, one comes to the stage of self-reminding, dharana, in which one attempts to gain steadiness in remembering.

When one concentrates on all aspects of the object of meditation, that is called dhyana or meditation.

When one meditates at every moment, the state is called “constant recollection” or anusmrti.

When one’s meditation is perfect and uninterrupted, and one thinks only of Lord Krsna’s pastimes and nothing else, that state is called samadhi. HC, 15.93

Niscala: You made some very good points about the practical issues related to raganuga-sadhana and bhajan. Association is very important as everyone knows and it's one of the main angas of bhakti that is pretty much mandatory for most of us.

My feeling is that ISKCON is great for neophytes as an introduction to vaidhi-bhakti if one is inclined to live and work within an institution. That is of course very limiting for most people and not very practical. Still it serves a great purpose because of its missionary ideals and goals. Some people are able to spend their whole life there and it works for them as they progress from the neophyte stages to more advanced levels. But it doesn't accommodate the majority of devotees, especially now as bhakti is expanding all over the world.

Those who don't fit into that model must maintain themselves in society as all others do and therein lies the challenge, especially these days with economies all over the world faltering and the middle and lower classes so oppressed in many ways. And now things are about to get even worse.

The bottom line re association is the principle of "birds of a feather flock together". In an institution that principle is overridden to a great extent by the organization's mandates and thus people must compromise and align with the group and its managerial hierarchy or leave. That's as it should be. Outside of the institution the onus is on each devotee to do the best they can to find like-minded association and that really comes down to Krsna's mercy on us according to our desires for advancement.

Luckily, in this modern age, we have online communities and tools like Skype to help compensate for the lack of direct physical association. Unfortunately, that doesn't facilitate kirtans and prasadam gatherings, but at least it provides personal sanga which I've found to be very effective.

When one awakens to raganuga-bhakti, association becomes even more critical, so it behoves one to reassess one's situation and do whatever is realistically possible to adjust one's life to facilitate the new priorities of raganuga-sadhana-bhajan. That's not always an easy thing to accomplish, so one must take shelter of Krsna and beg for His assistance to bring about the required changes. It may take time - even a year or two - so patience is required.

In the meantime, you have to do the best you can until ideal arrangements come into place by your personal endeavors and by Krsna's mercy. Your sadhana and bhajan may not be ideal, but Krsna understands your intent and sincerity. You have to be determined to make it happen because it is the absolute most important phase of your devotional journey. Everything else is secondary and possibly even irrelevant. When Krsna sees such focus and determination, surely He will do what He thinks is best for one's progress. We have to have that faith and the surrender it implies.

Imagine yourself beeing 14 years old again and back to school. One boy is the most popular boy in school. Every girl in school is in love with him. You too. One day just by chance you bump into him. You drop your books, where you have proclaimed your love for him, written hearts and stuff in the margins, how much you love him. He bends down to take up the dropped books for you. One book is open, and he sees what you have written, all the hearts, and his name and all that. You blush something incredible, but the boy just smiles, and you find that he has the most captivating smile, and blush even more. Then you look him in the face and find that he look bluish.

How hard can it be? Once we find affection for Krishna, and start to do our foolish things. Instead of listening to the teachers, we fantisize what we would do if we meet that boy by chance. We write his name, we wish that he somehow would recognize us. Our desire carries us away, and we don't hear what is impossible, that we are not qualified, that it is improper and so on. Our thoughts are private. Once we get captivated, nothing can stop our thoughts to fly towards the one we have affection for.
We don't care so much for the real meaning of sanskrit words in theory. We are deeply attached beyond that.

Or another story:
You are a 14 year old girl again, you are carrying water from Yamuna to your mother. You feel the weight of th heavy urn of whater on your head, and is threading carefully on the forest path. Every girl in the village is secreatly in love with the same boy, and you too. You are thinking about that boy, which have to remain your secret, since you are already engaged to another boy. That boy is also nice, but still you cannot keep your thoughts from drifting towards THAT boy.
In a moment of unconcentration, you trip on the forest path, and you drop your urn of water. A moment of fear and embarrasment. Maybe you will crash the urn, and if not you have to go back and fill it again, since surely all water will pour out.
Bur from nowhere HE comes out of the forest, and very expertly catches your urn of water without spilling a drop. Now he stands there with his smile, holding out the urn for you to take it from him. Embarassed you approach him, stretch out your hands to take the urn. But while you do that, his hand is touching yours and you look into his face and drown in it for a moment. Did he do that purposefully? You blush even more, and you think you will faint, you swoon, but you manages to get a grip of yourself and the urn, put it back on your head. Say a thanks, blushing even more, and the moment is over.

Sorry, I am not a good storyteller, and for sure do not follow the proper mood and meter. But I don't care what the scriptures say about that. I do it anyway, since just thinking like that brings me feelings of .... pleasure? My thoughts stay for a moment, lingering, and at least I don't care for what is right or wrong, proper and improper, at this moment. Everything is so serious, but simple affection or love cuts all barriers of what is possible and what is impossible. The gopis go out in the night of the rasa dance, not caring for any social rules of what can be done and what can not be done, what is proper and what is improper, they drop whatever they are doing, to go out into the night in the forest, since they heard the flute of Krishna. They are beyond everything, beyond thinking, they just know what they have to do, since that is what their heart is telling them.
If we can capture just a little bit of that mood, and then just want more of it, like an obsession.

Desire does not come from carefully thinking out what is most proper. It comes from somewhere else. Actually deep desire comes from our heart, from the soul, and not from the mental body or from thoughts and intelligence. They are there to guide us doing the right thing. But desire is something different.

We can use some trickery, since while the mind gets filled with our desires, it also works backwards if we identify with our mind, like we do. If we fill the mind with - Syama - we also start to desire Syama. And that the intelligence can do. Sadhana, to fill our mind always, somewhat artificially, and desire will wake up. And when desire fills the soul, our inner core, our true us, it gets very strong, and can break all barriers of rules and regulations. When desire starts it gets easier to make the desire stronger, to desire to desire more deeply. And we just dive into that, dropping everything else as less important.
While vaidhi bhakti means to do sadhana without desire, only following rules, and what the guru tells us, raganuga bhakti means to only follow desire, taste, and make it grow in a calculated way.

I realize that I was off topic.I am not as serious like you others, and cannot keep a serious topic.
Afterwards I was thinking I should write and explain myself, but then I thought I had made enough of a fool of myself.

I sometimes wonder about fake lobha, fake emotions, fake ecstacy and so on. But then I think that this fake taste for Krishna's name, this fake desire and fake ecstacy is so nice so I don't care.

It appears like, today, that unless you have a guru teaching you raganuga, you are pretty much on your own. Meaning you have to be able to sustain your sadhana on your own.
Also meaning you have to be clear with what is materialistic contamination and what is not, and enough taste to go on without someone forcing you.

I often envision a group of devotees getting together in a small asrama do serious bhakti sadhana including raganuga, discussing with each other and supporting each other in a loving way. But I find it hard to find any takers with the same idea. I appear not to be on the same page as anyone else.

When it comes to reach samadhi, if we all the time say - I am not qualified even to start trying, we will never reach it. If we envision a palace to be built, we have to start with first putting the spade in the ground and dig the first hole. Without the first shovel of earth dug it will never happen. So if we want to reach samadhi in this life, we have to start endevouring for it now. And if our bhakti is childish and naïve, at least we have started, and by Krishna's encouragement it will one day reach maturity.
So desire is all we need to start. Everything else comes in due cause of time.
Desire has to be there already in the chanting, since if we chant without desire for bhava we will never reach it, it is described.

If we are so afraid of making a wrong step, we will never be on our way. But if we walk anyway, and correct wrong steps on the way, we will reach our goal.