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| EDITORIAL December 3, 1998 VNN2609 From Reverence To Vrndavan BY GAURAHARI DAS EDITORIAL, Dec 3 (VNN) — Once there was a story I read in Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrita by Srila Sanatana Goswami about a devotee of Vrndavan called Gopa-kumara who got a chance to visit Vaikuntha and Dwarka Dhams . Gopakumara was well received, but the devotees of Vaikunthanath had a hard time relating to him. He seemed out of place because of his natural informality in regards to his dress and expression of his personal love for Lord Krishna. The devotees of Vaikuntha once unsuccessfully tried to get him to give up his simple forest dress and take up a four-handed form with opulent ornaments like them. Some residents of Vaikuntha even did not like his expression of simple sweet prayers about Lord Krishna's pastimes intimate pastimes in Vrndavan. They thought that he should sing more reverent prayers of glorification of the pastimes of Krishna's powerful Heroic activities of destroying the demons and protecting the devotees. Once Narada Muni had a discussion with Uddhava about the welfare of Gopakumara. He mentioned that of all of the residents in Dvaraka, Uddhava and his family were some of the few that were not opposed to the kind of special Vraja bhava or pure love that Gopakumara had for Krishna. From this statement it can be concluded that even in Dvaraka, many of the liberated residents cannot understand the sweet natural loving sentiments of the residents of Vrndavan. Once Srila Prabhupada once said even amongst liberated souls there can be misunderstandings sometimes. I have found this to be the case also here in this world. Many Sadhaka devotees are striving to attain the unique Prema that the residents of Vrndavan feel for Krishna , but if it were to be actually available they would not be able to accept it, or understand how to respond to such unique impulsive devotional service . This is because if one is too attached to the rules and regulations of the Vedic injuntions it can make one apposed to the special loving sentiments, of the residents of Vrndavan. These loving exchanges with Krishna are usually informal and devoid of a reverencial mood. If one is fortunate to see a devotee who has awakened pure unalloyed love of God, he will see some very unusual characteristics manifesting in that person. His behavior is extraordinary and uncommon. A regulative sadhaka devotee may naturally consider a Vrndavan devotee to be a neophyte, because of his or her simple unpretentious behavior. Such devotees do not care much for Vedic knowledge or study, because they have already attained the full result of traveling in the boat of transcendental knowledge and have arrived on the furthest shore of attraction to the name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When such a Rasika bhakta just thinks of his dear Lord Krishna, the awakening of his pure love is more powerful and purifying than the practice of intense rigid austerities and Vedic ritualistic sacrifices. Normally a true Rasika bhakta will reveal the immeasurable depth of his intense love for Krishna only to a qualified person who will not misunderstand his inconceivable activities. Krishna had to make separate dhams like Vaikuntha and Vrndavan, because even the liberated devotees from other places of Krishna's pastimes have a difficult time understanding the behavior and informal sublime qualities and characteristics of Krishna's Vrndavan associates. In the land of Vrndavan everyone's words is like a sweet melodious poetic songs, their walking is like the movements of a graceful attractive dance. Everyone spontaneously sports with Krishna in a very personal informal way, that could naturally seem offensive to the residents of other dhams. What would a sadhaka's reaction be if he saw a devotee rebuking Lord Krishna by chastising Him? A Vrndavan devotee is considered mad by the world's standards, because He literally sees Krishna everywhere. Everything in this universe reminds him of his dearmost Lord. On the practical level this means that if you would happen to cross his path he may react to you in a way that you have no possibility to understand. The devotee's relationship with Krishna in Vrndavan are generally very informal and do not necessarily follow the standard of regulative etiquette of the Veda's. What would regulative devotees do now if they saw some stranger impulsively climb up on the altar to lovingly embrace Krishna due to the madness of ecstatic love? Lord Caitanya once took a stick and ran after an impudent brahmana who disturbed His meditative absorption, by trying to instruct Him to chant the name of Krishna and not gopi, gopi. The neophyte brahmana was very proud of his superficial knowledge and caste, and he began criticizing Lord Caitanya. It is usually very difficult for regulative devotees to understand the uncommon mind, qualities, and characteristics of Krishna and His expressive associates in Vrndavan. Once Locana dasa said in Caitanya Mangala that many neophyte materialistic devotees thought that Advaita Acharya was in the mode of ignorance because of judging Him only by His external behavior. Advaita Acharya would sometimes throw seemingly condescending verbal abuses at the Lord of the Universe, Nityananda Prabhu. Some devotees who were not very spiritually advanced would obviously condemn him for this, because externally it appeared as if he was being offensive to God. A highly elevated devotee just experiences blissful ecstasy when he hears such pastimes of loving rebukes. Furthermore, an eternally liberated Acharya may sometimes rebuke the Supreme Lord by rebuking all the fools and rascals in this world, seeing them as manifestations of Lord Krishna. Such elevated devotees are beyond the scope of ordinary offenses. But the bewildered conditioned souls, many of whom are neophyte devotees, will feel offended by such radical behavior that transcends the moral constraints, and Vedic injunctions in the mode of goodness. There has been a lot of talk about the unique madhurya bhava, that normally only is found manifesting in Vrndavan, or in the behavior and mood of a devotee from Vrndavan. According to the viewpoint of those in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, such a personality, who is the real link, is empowered to transmit the sweet mellow love of madhurya rasa to the fallen souls of this world. But it is interesting for me to see, that although many devotees who are following in this line are not yet capable of accepting this special kind of devotion, even if it would show up on their doorstep. I wonder what would happen if a devotee who is attached to following the regulative path of devotional service were to meet a devotee from Vrndavan. Due to being an eternally liberated being, it might be his mission to manifest the qualities like being casual, easygoing, free spirited, spontaneous, sometimes exceptionally sweet, kind, dynamic, fearless, prone to spontaneous outbursts of anger, devoid of all respect or reverence for God and sometimes even the sacred regulative principals which may be a hindrance to his spontaneous performance of devotional service. Would the devotee from Vrndavan be misunderstood by the majority of reverent regulative devotees who mostly populate this planet? This is the kind of situation and atmosphere that was created when Lord Caitanya and His intimate associates created when They graced this planet, full of morose beings. Once Lord Caitanya told Nityananda, who was hiding His true wild, uncontrollable Vrndavana nature, acting like a quiet, grave, and peaceful sage, to manifest pure devotional service even to the lowest of men. Lord Caitanya said, If You do not act in a more wild way, then how can you fulfill Your mission of saving the conditioned souls? In other words, if Nityananda and His intimate associates did not manifest the symptoms, qualities, and nature of personalities who are from the impenetrable fortress of Vrndavan, then the people of this world would never understand or aspire for this exalted level of Loving God. One of the side effects of manifesting the manifold symptoms, moods, qualities, and characteristics of spontaneous love in the world of Maya, is that all people become purified either by being attracted or adversed to seeing such wonders manifested before their eyes. If one is not pure in heart, he will react to seeing a devotee expressing spiritual symptoms of Love of God, by being offensive, envious, proud, hurtful, or angry. If one is pure in heart, or for the most part pious, one will be attracted and appreciative if he is able to see a fresh display of liberality of an eternally liberated soul. He may not fully understand such things, but he will feel new life and increasing vigor. When such powerful devotees are in this world everyone benefits, whether they are pious or impious. The impious contribute by reacting negatively and making the lila colorful and instructive for the general population. For example, there were many impious villans in Caitanya lila who were invaluably instrumental in helping demonstrate and broadcast the glories of the pure devotees of the Lord. Haridas Thakur was beaten in twenty-two market places on the order of a sinful Kazi, and by this the world could actually see how glorious and powerful Haridas Thakur was. Jesus Christ was betrayed and crucified by impious men of this world and all it did was increase his eternal fame as a true Son of God. In this way everyone, whether pious or impious gets a chance to serve the purpose of the mission of Supreme Personality of Godhead. Once Krishna said in the Maha Bharata that he was going to accomplish much of His mission of purifying the planet through the tool of the sinful Duryodhana. Krishna and Narada Muni would many times go out of their way to agitate the demons like Pundraka and Kamsa, to speed up their attack against Krishna. This would give Krishna an opportunity to teach the world many lessons and to some extent show His glories and power in an artistic sporting manner. Krishna deliberately agitated puffed up Indra by stopping the offerings of his sacrifice. This kind of special lila can only take place when the Supreme Lord or His associates are manifest on this planet. Only the eternally liberated souls can act in such a artistic playful, and most of the time bewildering manner, that causes a quickening of spiritual consciousness in all the lives that they touch. Such eternally liberated souls are almost always misunderstood by the general population in this world. Their true value and import usually increases after they leave the planet. If Gopakumara was misunderstood by the residents of Vaikuntha and even Dvaraka, it would be difficult to accept a devotee related to God in the mood of free spirited spontaneous love in this world of Maya. When Lord Caitanya and His associates graced this planet there were many misunderstandings between them and the regulative devotees. Once when Lord Nityananda jumped on to the altar to embrace Lord Balarama, the temple pujaris tried to restrain him, because they did not understanding His mood. But they were convinced about His divine authority when they were thrown back like blades of straw. When their mood changed towards Nitanyanda from antagonism to loving acceptance, they were able to advance in understanding the deeper nature of God and His unique Vrndavan devotees. Conditioned souls and regulative sadhakas can advance spiritually very quickly when they are able to accept the association of a devotee who comes from Vrndavan and is related to the Supreme Lord in spontaneous love. It is usually very difficult for the regulative sadhaka to make the subtle distinction between a highly elevated loving devotee, who may appear to be childish, unregulated, and misbehaved, and a materialist who many times exhibits similar qualities. The difference is that contact with the material qualities and characteristics of the three modes of nature pollute the souls who associate with them and the spiritual qualities of advanced devotees, whether it be pride, anger, or humility purify anyone who is fortunate to appreciate them. Something extraordinary generally has to take place for faith in such advanced devotees to be born in people. Lord Caitanya appeared in this world with His associates and they made many arrangements and devised many tricks, so that their unique breed would be accepted and aspired for by the materialists, as well as by the neophyte devotees. Sometimes Lord Caitanya would induce acceptance of His unique spiritual family by exhibiting certain qualities that would inspire faith to associate more with them than to associate with the world. For example, He converted the proud crow Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya by shooting him first with the arrows of His uncommon spiritual humility, then devastating him with the bramastra of His incomparable divine intelligence, and finally toppled him by showing him His spiritual form. After all this, his material pride and arrogance was crushed into powder. There is another historical situation that most of us Westerners can relate to in regards to the mundane world's battle to reject Jesus Christ. He manifested the symptoms and rasa of being related to God in the mood of pure loving servitude. Jesus was one of these powerful informal devotees who did not care much for social customs and the Lord's regulative commandments whenever it interfered with his pulling sinners out of the deep well of material existence. Proof that he was part of this rare breed of unique devotees was that most of the materialists, as well as many of the righteous devotees in the temples had a very hard time accepting and understanding his spiritually impudent, proud and seemingly audacious mood of claiming that he was the Son of God, and that he had the power to forgive sins. Due to his immense courage and his special divine empowerment, he was able to convince many conditioned souls to take shelter of him right there, and many millions of people from that time on have forever given over their lives to his keeping. I am one of those millions myself and by his grace he led me onward to connect with Srila Prabhupada's spiritual family. 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