Pleasing Krishna, Mangal Arati and Rasa shastra

Bhakta: "You said one can only please Krishna through Radha, but this seems to be only in the sringara rasa. But the other rasas serve Krishna independently."

Advaitadas: "No that is not true. Mother Yashoda is feeding Krishna so He has strength to love Radhika, the servants dress Him so He looks nice for Radhika, the cows want Him to herd them in the pastures so He has an excuse to go out to meet Radhika at Radhakund. Same for the cowherd boys. Even the bees, the sun and the moon serve Radha and Krishna by creating a romantic atmosphere. The cows of Abhimanyu serve Radha-Krishna by keeping Abhimanyu so engaged with them that he does not have any time for his so-called wife. They do not serve independently at all, though they may not be aware of it, except for the sakhis and manjaris. Padakarta Jnanadas sings: "tomAri lAgiyA beDAi bhramiyA giri-nadI vane vane: (Krishna sings:) "For Your (Radha's) sake I wander through the forest, past the rivers and over the mountains!"

Bhakta: "I heard that in some temples in Vrindavan they do not do mangal arati because they say that Krishna is still sleeping then."

Advaitadas: 'That would depend on the sampradAya. The temples who hold such philosophies are not Gaudiya. In Krishna Bhavanamrita there is a description of mangal arati offered by the manjaris in the kunja at daybreak [nishAnta], and Radha-Krishna are wide awake then. Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe Radha and Krishna are so absorbed in Their loving pastimes that They hardly sleep at any time, perhaps from 1-3 a.m. only."

Bhakta: "Scholars say that the Gaudiya Vaishnava acaryas have gleaned rasa tattva from earlier, mundane rasik authors. If this is true then how can rasa be called eternal?"

Advaitadas: "It is true that Rupa Goswami was inspired to write his Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu and Ujjavala Nilamani by, among others, a book named Rasarnava Sudhakar, which was written by one of his ancestors, named Simha Bhupal. But that does not mean there was an historical sequence or a discovery or so. Just see, before Mahaprabhu's advent, the rasika secrets all existed in the 5000-year old Bhagavatam, but they were not understood and revealed until the Goswamis wrote down their books. But that does not mean that the rasik truths did not exist, right?"

Bhakta: "Rupa Goswami taking over the whole rasa-science from previous, mundane writers, does make him seem like an ordinary mundane scholar."

Advaitadas: "Who else is Rupa Manjari? How else is Gaura-lila meditation transcendental and eternal if Rupa Goswami was not? Look, the fact that Rama and Krishna took diksa and went to Gurukula (school) does not mean they are not the omniscient Bhagavan, Param Atma, right? Similarly, Rupa Goswami taking lessons from previous teachers does not make him a conditioned soul. Lord Vishnu got the Kaustubha gem when the milk-ocean was churned, or did He? It is eternally His, and in a pastime He got it again. Similarly the Goswamis knowledge is eternally with them but sometimes they play as if they are learning this."