Mapping the unlimited, and nitya nikunja-vādīs

Vaisnava - "Radhe Shyam dadaji dandavat pranam. Can you please tell me the below with some references if possible. It is not related only to Gaudiya Siddhanta. 

 -1' difference between sakhi bhava and Gopi bhava as accepted across all sampradayas."

Advaitadās – “There's no consensus about this, otherwise why there are different sampradāyas? There's not even consensus about manjari bhāva. Some say the manjarīs enjoy vilāsa with Kṛṣṇa, others say they don't. It's according to the dṛṣṭikoṇa (angle of vision) of one's own guru varga.

Vaiṣṇava – 2. Many Sampradayas accept the concept of no swakiya (wedding) no parakiya. Just two lovers always in love play with sakhis.

Advaitadās – “Yes, the Nimbārkis and Hita Harivaṁsa devotees have that conception. nitya bihār (Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa non-stop making love). It then makes no difference any more, whether Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa are married or not. They never even dress Themselves. The services required then are just fanning, singing, and water sevā.  Their point is - one should concentrate like a yogi on one single līlā. To some extent Sādhu Bābā agreed with that, be it not to such an extreme extent. He said eto porbār poriśrom - “All this studying!’ (‘Don’t study too many books, it will scatter the mind. Concentrate - keep it simple!”). Nevertheless, he did give me a shortlist of līlā-granthas to concentrate on, not just one single līlā. Manjarī sevā is focused on a single service (siddha praṇāli). They (the Nimbārkis and Hita Harivaṁśa-devotees) say separation is not needed to create excitement of union because the ānanda of their līlā is independent and does not depend on stimuli like separation. It is acceptable logic but it is not Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s siddhānta. He said: Na vinā vipralambhena sambhoga puṣṭim aśnute. [Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi 15.3, quoting Bharata Muni] “Without separation the taste of union cannot be nourished.”

Parakīya bhāva ati rasera ullāsa [Caitanya-Caritāmṛta Adi 4.47] “There is greater joy of rasa in parakīya bhāva, extramarital love of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.” parakīya bhāva is not only nourishing our relish but also Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s relish.

Vaiṣṇava – “3. They say the sakhīs have no mothers or fathers, no friends or buddies, nor husbands, nor children.”

Advaitadās – “We Gauḍīyas agree that gopīs have no children - our ācāryas commented like that on the Rāsa-līlā chapters of the Śrīmad Bhāgavat. Mothers, fathers and husbands are given in some siddha-praṇālī systems but not in ours (Advaita vaṁśa) – there is no time for them, and also in Gauḍīya līlā granthas they rarely show up (except in places like Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vidagdha Mādhava’ drama, or verses 87-88 of Vilāpa Kusumānjali), but they do exist. No Vṛṣabhānu bābā, no Kīrtidā māiyā, no Barsānā, no Śrīdām dādā, no Ananga manjari at all? Awful!”

Vaiṣṇava – “Then there is swakiya (wedded love). Not sure if any paramparā follows that. As far I have understood no paramparā follows swakiya bhav. Then there is parakiya bhava followed only by Gaudiyas. In Goloka Vrindavan I heard parakiya bhav are in petals and swakiya or no parakiya swakiya bhav is in the center. Is it true?"

Advaitadās – “These Goloka-diagrams are not the way it looks when you are there, in Goloka. Look at the map of England. Does it really look like that when you walk around there? The rolling hills, the sweet houses, the cows? Similarly, these maps and diagrams are useless for smaranam. A bird’s eye view is not an on-the-ground experience. And there is also not a single Goloka where we all live together, in separate sectors or so. There are as many Golokas as there are jīvas.”

Vaisnava – “But what about the statement of Goloka of a shape of thousand petalled lotus? I understood what you said. I thought on each petal a different bhav is going on. Though 1000 seems to limit the endless Goloka.”

Advaitadās - "Stop seeing Goloka as an object. It is a world that pervades all. loka means 'world'. These maps facilitate the simple minded. We call it dik darśan – a hint. There is not one Goloka, but innumerable Golokas -

yathā hi bhagavān ekaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇo bahu-mūrtibhiḥ |

bahu-sthāneṣu varteta tathā tat-sevakā vayam ||52||

Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.5.52

“Just as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is one but appears in many forms in many places, so do we, His servants.”

Vaiṣṇava - Say by Gurumaharaj’s mercy we follow guru Manjari in Goloka. Who will we see? Only our guruvarga where we are doing most seva?

Advaitadās – “You attain what you contemplate only. See Bhagavad-gītā 8.6 –

yam yam vāpi smaran bhāvan tyajantyante kalevaram

tam tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad bhāva bhāvitaḥ

“Whatever you remember when you leave the body is what you attain in the afterlife, by constantly thinking of it.”

Vaiṣṇava - "Yes but as per gaur Govinda lilamrita gutika there will all 8 sakhis, Ananga manjari, manjaris, cowherds etc. So we will see everyone."

Advaitadās – “Yes of course but if you are at home you're surrounded by what? First your family, then your street, then your neighborhood, then your town etc. There's a focus within the whole picture, in the center. In this we (Advaita-vaṁsa-Gauḍīyas) agree with the nitya-nikunja-vādīs – there must be focus.”

Vaiṣṇava -  “In a specific planet there might be common jivas like in guruvarga?” 

Advaitadās - "Naturally you will all serve together. You should share the same consciousness-space. The Harivaṁśa says -

tasyopari gavāṁ lokaḥ sādhyās taṁ pālayanti hi

sa hi sarva-gataḥ kṛṣṇa mahākāśa-gato mahān

“Kṛṣṇa! Above this lies the cow-world, protected by the sādhyas [siddhas]. It is all-pervading (sarva-gataḥ) and boundless (mahān), and it exists in the great sky (mahākāśa).”

(Quoted in Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s ‘Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha’, anuccheda 106)

Note here the words sarva-gataḥ and mahān - it is a boundless, all-pervading world. Not subject to material limitations."

(another) Vaiṣṇava – “I heard, as per Hit Harivansh philosophy, Radha is vishaya tattva and Krishna is ashraya tattva.  This seems to be a bit unusual, what do you think in the light of gaudiya siddhanta? Kindly answer.”

Advaitadās – “In our līlā-, bhava- and sevā-conception we also think like that, and there are heaps of verses to that extent in Rādhā-rasa-sudhānidhi and Gīta-govinda too, that Kṛṣṇa serves Rādhā, being subdued by Her śuddha prema, and we manjarī bhāva sādhakas also worship Rādhā above Kṛṣṇa, but purely ontologically speaking, jīvera svarūpa hoy kṛṣṇer nitya-dās (C.C.) – The jīva’s svarūpa is Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servant.”

(Same, other) Vaiṣṇava – “Also, I heard Hit Harivansh followers won't do Ekadashi, is it true? Kindly  answer. Hit Harivansh followers justify his eating pan on Ekadashi as he was  completely immersed in Radha so he wasn't worried about external things?  But as per our gaudiya siddhanta Ekadashi is not just external right?  Kindly explain.”

Advaitadās – “Their idea is that one can eat grains on Ekādaśī to avoid offending the Lord’s mahā-prasāda grains offered that day. Obviously these ideas floated around in the 16^th century already, for Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda refuted it then in his Bhakti Sandarbha (299) - atra vaiṣṇavānāṁ nirāhāratvaṁ nāma mahā-prasādānna-parityāga eva – “The statements in this section regarding the Vaiṣṇavas’ fasting on the day of  Ekādaśī specifically refer to abstinence from food grains offered to Lord Viṣṇu. There is no need to mention abstinence from food not offered to Viṣṇu because the Vaiṣṇavas are ever-forbidden to partake of such food, as stated in the Nārada-pancarātra:

prasādānnaṁ sadā grāhyam ekādaśyāṁ na nārada;

ramādi-sarva-bhaktānām itareṣāṁ ca kā kathā

“O Nārada, food grains offered to Lord Viṣṇu are always forbidden on Ekādaśī for all devotees, headed by the Goddess Laksmī, so what to speak of others."