Obstacles In the Path Of Devotion

The Lord taught the Gosvami about devotional service, comparing it to a creeper, and He advised him to protect the bhakti creeper most carefully against the mad elephant offense against the pure devotees. In adition, the creeper has to be protected from the desires of sense enjoyment, monistic liberation and perfection of the hatha-yoga system. They are all detrimental on the path of devotional service. Similarly, violence against living beings, desire for worldly gain, worldly reception and worldly fame are all detrimental to the progress of bhakti or Bhagavata-dharma.

Pure devotional service must be freed from all desires for sense gratification, fruitive aspirations and culture of monistic knowledge. One must be freed from all kinds of designations, and when one is thus converted into transcendental purity, one can then serve the Lord by purified senses.

As long as there is the desire to enjoy sensually or to become one with the Supreme or to possess the mystic powers, there is no question of attaining the stage of pure devotional service.

Devotional service is conducted under two categories, namely primary practice and spontaneous emotion. When one can rise up to the platform of spontaneous emotion, he can make further progress by spiritual attachment, feeling, love, and many higher stages of devotional life for which there are no English words. We have tried to explain the science of devotional service in own books. "The Nectar of Devotion" based on the authority of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu by Srila Rupa Gosvami.

Transcendental devotional service has five stages of reciprocation.

1. The self-realization stage just after liberation from the material bondage is called the santa or neutral stage.

2. After that, when there is developemnt of transcendental knowledge of the Lord's internal opulences, the devotee engages himself in the dasya stage.

3. By further development of the dasya stage, a respectful fraternity with the Lord develops, and above that a feeling of friendship on equal terms becomes manifest. Both these stages are called sakhya stage, or devotional service in friendship.

4. Above this there is the stage of paternal affection towards the Lord and this is called the vatsalya stage.

5. And above this stage these is the stage of conjugal love, and this stage is called the highest stage of love of God, although there is no difference in quality in any of the above stages. The last stage of conjugal love of God is called the madhurya stage.

Thus He instructed Rupa Gosvami in devotional science and deputed him to Vrndavana to excavate the lost sites of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. After this, the Lord returned to Varanasi and delivered the sannyasis and instructed the elder brother of Rupa Gosvami. We have already discusses this.

The Lord left only eight slokas of His instructions in writing, and they are known as the Siksastakam. All other literatures of His divine cult were extensively written by the Lord's principal followers, the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana, and their followers. The cult of Caitanya philosophy is richer than any other, and it is admitted to be the living religion of the day with the potency for spreading as Visva-dharma or universal religion. We are glad that the matter has been taken up by some enthusiastic sages like Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja and his disciples. We shall eagerly wait for the happy daus of Bhagavata-dharma or prema-dharma inaugrated by the Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

The eight slokas completed by the Lord are:

Glory to the Sri Krsna sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.

O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Krsna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting the names. Oh my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by chanting Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attaction for them.

One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.

O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only wnat Your causeless devotional service birth after birth.

O son of Maharaja Nanda [Krsna], I am Your eternal servitor, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms of Your Lotus feet.

O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing constantly when I chant your holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation of Your name?

O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.

I know no one but Krsna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly in His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything. He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.