Friday, June 23, 2006

Boring or inexhaustibly delicious?

Subal says in Jyotidham, 22 june 2006:

"Is the nitya leela an eternal repitition of the same day described in asta kala leela smarana books like the movie Groundhog Day? Sounds like it would get boring. I think an eternal leela would be eternally evolving."

Rev. Subal Das has been a devotee for about 14,000 days, so he must have chanted the maha-mantra some 14.000 x 1728 = 24,192,000 times, that is about 387 million names of Kṛṣṇa, yet he continues to chant hare kṛṣṇa and could continue to chant it trillions of times over. This is called transcendence or timelessness, as opposed to mundane ideas of evolution, exhaustion, time and space. The rūpa guṇa līlā of Śrī-Śrī-Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa (embodied by that hare kṛṣṇa mantra) is similarly inexhaustible, as we can find in Śrīmad Bhāgavat 1.1.19 -

vayaṁ tu na vitṛpyāma uttamaśloka vikrame
yacchṛṅvataṁ rasa-jñānam svādu svādu pade pade


"We for our part are never sated with the hearing of the pastimes of the Lord, who is praised with the best verses. They are delicious to hear at every step for the knowers of rasa."

Indeed, the fifth verse of that very Govinda Līlāmṛta reads:

"All glories to Śrī Govinda Līlāmṛta  the immortal nectar pastimes of Śrī Govinda, that defeats the nectar of the demigods, or the desire for liberation, constantly bestows a wonderful thirst to the ears, words and mind whenever it is drunk, that cures the disease of material life, yet produces delusions and blindness of loving intoxication, and gives inexhaustible relish, even if it is consumed again and again, nourishing even the body."

When Sādhu Bābā first gave me "Vilāpa Kusumāñjali" to read (a mere 104 verses, without purports) he told me each single verse could keep me mesmerized for eternity - "Dive deep into the ocean", he said, "you will find jewels on the bottom."

That is not to say that the Lila in the spiritual sky is necessarily static, indeed Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa can do as They please but even if They would always do the same thing, it will always be exciting, blissful and full of love.

Regrettably the link to Jyotidham is lost and no backup can be found of the original text by Subal there.

4 comments:

  1. That is not the point. I spoke here of the intrinsic nature of the lila. If there is no thirst, water will not be relishable of course, but that does not mean that water doesnt have the intrinsic quality to quench thirst. So also with harinama. If people get bored with astakaliya lila, better they get some ruci by living a purer life and developing a submissive attitude than by rewriting it according to their mundane fancy.

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  2. And if your comment was meant to draw a link between chanting 64 rounds and remembering astakaliya lila - lila smarana does not have restraints like japa. One can wash the pots, cook, wash one's clothes, do shopping, clean the house, drive a car etc. while remembering the lila, while none of these things can be combined with japa (although you never know, nowadays people may even chant japa while cooking or washing the pots). In other words, for japa one needs to reserve special time for an exclusive sadhana, while lila smarana does not require a time set apart exclusively. It is an inclusive practise, that can be combined with all kinds of external practises. "svapne radha krishna dekhe" Indeed, Rupa and Sanatan could even see Radha Krishna in dreams. Smart pramada-japa-person who can combine japa with sleeping!!!

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  3. ""Please wake me up when I finish my rounds."

    He'd better not do that behind the wheel!

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  4. I don't even see what Subal's issue here is. All of us basically do the same routine every day of our lives with minor changes. We all get up in the morning, brush our teeth, comb our hair, go to work, do our japa, sing bhajans, read shastra and so on, every day.

    So what's his point? If people don't get bored of their own routines (generally speaking) then what reason is there to become "bored" of Yugal-Kishore's?

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