Thank you! And next life’s Guru

Saying “Thank you” is not Vedic. There is no real word for it in Sanskrit. The word ‘dhanyavāda’ being used in modern India for ‘thank you’ is introduced to facilitate westerners only, but can’t be found used in śāstra. People who are related in love or friendship do not say ‘thank you’ to each other. It is showing a distant relationship only. Of course, we do express gratitude, as Uddhava Mahāśaya did in Śrīmad Bhāgavata (11.29.6) after Śrī Kṛṣṇa spoke the Uddhava-gīta to him –

naivopayanty apacitiṁ kavayas taveśa

brahmāyuṣāpi kṛtam ṛddha-mudaḥ smarantaḥ

yo ’ntar bahis tanu-bhṛtām aśubhaṁ vidhunvann

ācārya-caittya-vapuṣā sva-gatiṁ vyanakti

“O my Lord! Intelligent persons can not fully express their indebtedness to you, even if they were endowed with the lifetime of Brahmā, because on remembering what you have done for them, their joy increases even more: appearing externally as Guru and internally as Paramātma, you reveal the supreme destination to them.”

Bhakta – „Some say this verse and the song „Caksu dān dilo ye, janme janme prabhu se‘ means that guru-tattva appears in another form in the next life to a śiṣya who did not attain perfection yet.“

Advaitadas – „The words ‚ye‘ and ‚se‘ refer to an individual person, not that anyone else becomes the Guru in the next life. That happens to casual śiṣyas, not to loving śiṣyas. For loving śiṣyas Śrī Gurudeva will re-appear as exactly the same person. How can it be otherwise? Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (8.6) – yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvan tyajantyante kalevaram. „Whatever bhāva you contemplate, when you leave your body....“ You meditated on a Guru with a certain form, features and characteristics your whole life and as a result you will get another Guru in the next life? Sadā tad-bhāva bhāvita. „Due to always contemplating that sentiment“, tam tam evaiti, „You will surely attain that‘. For a devotee who abandoned bhakti-mārga there will be no bhakti-guru next life, for a casual śiṣya it may be anyone, for a loving śiṣya Gurudeva will reappear in his selfsame form and for a siddha śiṣya Gurudeva appears as guru-rūpa sakhī only. Nikuñja yūnoḥ rati-keli-siddhyaiḥ yā yālibhir yuktir apekṣanīya.

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Ashamed of never having seen anything yet? These are words of hope (āśā-vāṇī) -

asphūrtitaḥ kathāto'pi śrīmad-vṛndāvane vasa

“Even if one has no divine revelations, one should still engage in Kṛṣṇa-kathā, living in Śrī Vṛndāvana." (Vṛndāvana Mahimāmṛta 8.42)

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Lamenting about one's tapasya

Bragging about one's tapasya

Both will dim Hari's satisfaction with them.

bhāvollāsa, dakṣa, gītā bhūṣaṇa and dhoṭis

THE BHĀVOLLĀSA-ISSUE –

Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 2.5.128 -

api ca –

sañcārī syāt samona vā kṛṣṇa-ratyāḥ suhṛd-ratiḥ

adhikā puṣyamāṇā ced bhāvollāsā itīryate

Translation: Addenda: If the rati of the associates of Kṛṣṇa’s beloved directed to that beloved is equal or less than their rati directed to Kṛṣṇa, the rati directed to that beloved is called sañcāri, nourishing the rati towards Kṛṣṇa.  If the rati of the beloved’s associates directed to that beloved is greater than that directed to Kṛṣṇa, and is constantly increasing, though it is still a sañcāri-bhāva, it is called bhāvollāsa-rati.

bhāvollāsa is only about madhura rati, evaṁ madhurākhye rase tu (Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī’s ṭīkās, Bhānu Swami forgot to translate that in the purport to Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 2.5.128). It is exceptional, so if there is greater love for the suhṛd (sakhī) than for Kṛṣṇa that is at least rādhā snehādhikā sakhi prema or mañjari prema. It can be seen as a sthāyibhāva because it appears in the sthāyibhāva-chapter of Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu. Viśvanātha Cakravartī’s comment on Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 13.104, na tasyāḥ sañcāritvaṁ nāpi tasyāḥ sthāyitvam iti bhāvaḥ, “It is neither a sancāri-bhāva nor a sthāyibhāva“, means it is exceptional. Ānanda Gopāl Goswāmī ascribing it to manjarī bhāva alone is a matter of subjective loving vision.

WHO IS DAKṢA?

In no way the word dakṣa, or expert, which is one quality ascribed to the priya-bhakta by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-Gītā (12.16), means ‚a devotee is expert in everything‘, in the sense of expertise in cooking or playing musical instruments. How can any external skill make one dear to Kṛṣṇa? It would mean that any great secular musician or cook would then be dear to Kṛṣṇa too? Let us look at the ācāryas‘ commentaries - Śrīdhar Swāmī comments on this word that it means analasaḥ, he/she is not lazy, Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa says it means sva-śāstrārtha vimarśa samarthaḥ, expert in discussing and understanding śāstra, while Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī does not comment at all on this word.

SĀDHANA OUTSIDE THE DHĀMA -

Doing sādhana outside the dhāma is like swimming against the current – it is not impossible, but it is very hard. Doing sādhana in the dhāma is like sitting on a raft, putting it in the current and happily floating along with it.

GĪTĀ BHŪṢAṆA REVISITED -

In January, 2008 I blogged twice on Gītā-bhūṣaṇa, Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana’s commentary on Bhagavad-Gītā. I overlooked some nice comments at that time, which I am adding here. 

In verse 11.8 Kṛṣṇa gives Arjuna divya-cakṣu, divine eyes, to see His universal form, though rasikas consider that form inferior to Kṛṣṇa’s human form. Baladeva offers this comment – “You cannot see Me with a thousand heads, a form shining like a thousand suns at once, by your eyes which are accustomed only to My sweetness. Therefore, I give you celestial, heavenly eyes.  As I would put oil on My body in entering a swiftly moving stream, so I anoint your eyes suitably. See My majestic form (yogam aiśvaram) with those eyes. Yoga means “that which makes the mind concentrate (yujyate).” It should be understood, however, that though Kṛṣṇa gave celestial eyes to Arjuna, He did not give him a celestial mind. If He gave that type of mind to Arjuna, Arjuna would take pleasure in that celestial form.”

11.33 – Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna that all warriors he faces have already been killed by Him in advance – “Warriors such as Bhīṣma who cannot be conquered by the devas, have been defeated by Arjuna with ease! Such will be your fame. They have already been killed by Me, at the time of their offending Draupadī.” Later Baladeva comments that this includes Bhīṣma because he did not protest against the assault on Draupadī after the dice-game in Hastināpura.

DHOTI IN ŚĀSTRA -

I have something to add also to my first blog on Vaiṣṇava-dress, of March 16, 2012, where someone supposed the word dhoti is not in any śāstra. The word appears in Govinda Līlāmṛta 14.37 – vibhrac chrī dhaṭikāñcalaṁ ca “During Holi, Kṛṣṇa carried a lump of fragrant powder in the hem of His dhoṭī.” The word used in the verse is dhaṭi, but is pronounced nowadays as dhoti.