Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 03.10.2017 evening, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

“The Lord is an autocrat, but He is not heartless. So the devotee who is the lowest – he is the richest. The smallest one, the poorest one is the richest. This is krishna-bhakti! Service is necessary, nothing else. We must find out how to develop that innate tendency, so that our body is made of that stuff and nothing else.”[1]

Hm! A transformation of DNA? This is very popular these days. You can have it.

You remember the different layers of the body structure. First is annamaya-kosha, then pranamaya-kosha, manomaya-kosha, vigyanamaya-kosha and finally anandamaya-kosha. Kosha means “cover, layer’. This is the outer, the farthest layer – we all need to eat and we like to feed the body, right; this is annamaya-kosha. Sometimes we think that this anna-maya is like the maya that we generally know. But this maya and that maya are different. Because the illusion is called maayaa, while this is in short maya; and as a grammatical expansion to the previous part of the word it means ‘to be made of something”. So annamaya means ‘made of food’. This layer over the soul is made of food. Anna is ‘food’. So, how do we start our career in a new life? Search for food: ‘Where is my mother?’ Sweet times – you have no other job, just eating and sleeping. And everybody is happy about that.

Next one is when the life symptoms start to manifest – prana; the senses, sense organs start to function: you open up your eyes, you start to listen, etc. Prana is not only the breath, but also the bodily sensory functions. If we add to eating and seeing some mind – this is manomaya-kosha. In the mind accepting-rejecting will also start. When the baby starts to like something and dislike something. Then the next layer is vigyanamaya-kosha, when the intellect starts to manifest. If you are on the intellect layer, maybe you can control your eating habits, or you can control the sense organs, sensory functions. But what is the closest shield to the soul, almost the selfsame identity – this is anandamaya-kosha. This is made of ananda. So ultimately, we are not made of food, we are not made of some sensory factors, we are not the mind, we are not the intellect; ultimately, we are bliss.

So what was the suggestion here? “Develop this kind of service mood, so that your body is made up of that stuff, nothing else.” We can say that this is the sevamaya-kosha – my life, my existence, my everything is made of this service mood. This is good for the devotee: ‘I’m made of service! Made of and made for service.’ It’s a gift of God – if you are made of and made for service.

All right, but this is about us; and what about Krishna? What substance is He made of? Now we are at the source. There is one beautiful bhajan: Krishna prema mayi radha[2]… The ultimate constitution of the Divine Couple is this. In general we can say Krishna is sat-chid-ananda, yes. That is true: He is eternal, He is fully conscious, and He is practically made of ananda. But if we want to scrutinize what kind of ananda is the composition of Krishna, then we come to this point. Krishna prema mayi radha/ radha prema mayo hari.

So Radhika… No, let’s start with Krishna. Krishna is not made of simple divine bliss, but He is radha maya, He is made of Radha – that means He is made of affection. This is the composition of God’s nature, radha maya. But as we know that He is never alone, then what is the composition of His partner? She is krishna mayi. Radhika is made of Krishna. She is made of beauty. Usually it is very difficult to understand why Krishna is considered to be the topmost beauty and why Radhika is considered to be the topmost love. We can say in one sense that they are made of each other. But if you don’t agree on this point due to some theological considerations, I’m sure you will definitely agree on the point that they are made for each other.

We know from the notebook of Swarupa Damodar Goswami, the personal secretary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that Radha and Govinda have separate identities forever. But in order to improve the need for Their meeting, They search for each other. And when this search is intensive enough, They embrace so close that They appear as Chaitanya. So although they are eternally separate, They are also eternally united. We cannot really understand this, this is achintya – union and separation at the same time. And we need not scrutinize this and try to analyze it. Better we admire this divine truth, this divine mystery.

So, faith is the ever-growing happiness, derived from the admiration of the union of Radha and Govinda. If we admire divine beauty and divine love together, this is real faith; and the result of this real faith will be spiritual contentment. Therefore, we are ready to change our bodily constitution – from human DNA to divine DNA. So that we are made of and made for seva. Sevamayu bhakta.

[1] Shridhara Maharaj, Centenary Anthology

[2] Yugalashtakam by Jiva Goswami



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