Post by niscala on Apr 5, 2014 13:11:11 GMT -5
I came across this on a FB post, written by Mahavirya prabhu, and thought it relevant enough to paste it here. It completely disposes of the idea that you go to raganuga by giving up, or neglecting to cultivate, logic and reason used in the sastra, which are the foundations of strong faith. Instead, the faith must evolve naturally through experience, so that it no longer depends on reason.
"Only sadhakas who have 100% belief in Krishna can be pure raganuga bhaktas. You cannot be a pure raganuga bhakta if you have any doubts about Krishna. That faith is not gained by any practice, it is given to the sadhaka through direct revelation. This is why the path of raganuga is also called the pushti-marg, the path of grace. It is based on personal revelation of Krishna directly to you so that you know the truth, rather than basing your sadhana on faith alone.
I've seen many devotees who lacked that level of belief take up raganuga bhakti, but later lose their faith in Krishna, Vaishnavism, and even the concept of God. That is not uncommon from my experience. What they all seemed to have in common was an arrogance in the belief of their own superiority to others, which led them to believe they were ready for the higher levels of bhakti when they were not.
When they didn't get the results they hoped for based on the promises of past acharyas and shastra, they lost what little faith they had. They all had more or less stopped studying shastra for philosophical education, and instead turned their focus to rasa-lila. Due to a lack of a strong philosophical foundation which shores up belief, they eventually lost faith when their focus on rasa didn't lead anywhere.
So it's best to make sure you are ready for raganuga; that you have real belief rather than some faith. For those lacking real belief, it's best they keep to more basic forms of sadhana rather than focusing on rasa-lila as your main form of sadhana - which is often mistaken as raganuga-sadhana. Raganuga sadhana is about the internal development of your own rasa with Krishna via paramatma, it's not about reading about lila to learn stories, or learning technical details, or fantasizing about being in lila. It's about facing Krishna within, in an intimate mood, based on the mood seen in rasa lila."
There is no doubt that this is well thought out, but how does it fit in with the idea that one does not have to go through vaidhi (use of logic and reason) to raganuga? Wouldn't that be slipping into the same pitfall the devotees he refers to did?
I've seen many devotees who lacked that level of belief take up raganuga bhakti, but later lose their faith in Krishna, Vaishnavism, and even the concept of God. That is not uncommon from my experience. What they all seemed to have in common was an arrogance in the belief of their own superiority to others, which led them to believe they were ready for the higher levels of bhakti when they were not.
When they didn't get the results they hoped for based on the promises of past acharyas and shastra, they lost what little faith they had. They all had more or less stopped studying shastra for philosophical education, and instead turned their focus to rasa-lila. Due to a lack of a strong philosophical foundation which shores up belief, they eventually lost faith when their focus on rasa didn't lead anywhere.
So it's best to make sure you are ready for raganuga; that you have real belief rather than some faith. For those lacking real belief, it's best they keep to more basic forms of sadhana rather than focusing on rasa-lila as your main form of sadhana - which is often mistaken as raganuga-sadhana. Raganuga sadhana is about the internal development of your own rasa with Krishna via paramatma, it's not about reading about lila to learn stories, or learning technical details, or fantasizing about being in lila. It's about facing Krishna within, in an intimate mood, based on the mood seen in rasa lila."
There is no doubt that this is well thought out, but how does it fit in with the idea that one does not have to go through vaidhi (use of logic and reason) to raganuga? Wouldn't that be slipping into the same pitfall the devotees he refers to did?