Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 05.01.2017 morning, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Question of Pavitra: Gurudev, when I asked what the first step in spiritual life is, you said that this is the taste. Where is this initial taste coming from? Do we have it when we come here? Or we somehow develop it? Who is the owner of this taste?

Swami Tirtha: Mahaprabhu. And He is madly distributing this taste! He doesn’t consider: ‘Whether I will run out of the stock or not’. Really! Because the ecstatic love mystery was not revealed in that intensity before Him. So we can say that His contribution to the religious concept in general is extraordinary.

This original taste is of course there in the spiritual realm. It’s made of rasa. It is the realm of ananda. And that ananda is drop by drop penetrating into the heart of the devotee. How is that? Golokera prema-dhana harinama-sankirtana[1] – the prema, the divine love of Goloka is included in harinam. So this is the way to connect back to this beautiful stage of reality.

Ultimately we should think: who possesses the initial rasa, the adi-rasa? To put it simpler: who is the most happy in this whole existence?

Hayagriva: Shrimati Radharani?

Swami Tirtha: Heeeey!!! You come too fast. We might think that God is most happy. Because He is the most-most-most – so He must be the most happy. But actually from Him somebody should extract this nectar and enjoy it – and this is, as you said, His loving potency, Love personified.

But from devotional service that ‘I act under instruction and I try to do the best’ I think we came too far.

(to be continued)

[1] A verse from a song of Narottam das Thakur