Fourth Period of Devotional Practice (4th Yāma Sādhana)

[The true worshipper of Harinām has got no other desire except causeless devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa]

4th Verse of Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka

O Supreme Lord! I have got no desire for wealth, manpower or erudition (desire for deceitful Trivarga— worldly piety, money and lust or even to merge myself with the Impersonal Formless Brahma, i.e. ‘Mukti’— salvation, which is more deceitful). My only prayer is to get causeless one-pointed devotion to You.

Srila Bhaktivinode Thākur has elaborated each desire specifically in detail. Desire for wealth— desire for a good house, property or non-eternal things of the world, desire for making disciples with worldly motive, desire for domestic animals, desire for paddy— crops etc. Desire for manpower— desire for wife, children, servants, maid servants and other relatives. Desire for erudition— Kāvya—book of verse relating to poetic drama, rhetoric art, poetical talent. All these relate to worldly matters, as such I do not want assurance to get these. O Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa! Kindly bestow me pure devotion. Here it is necessary to understand the significance of pure love and it’s relation. When there will be actual pure love, the votary will have the feeling of humbleness within his heart and he will admit that he has got not even a tinge of devotion. For evidence, reference of Mahāprabhu’s own saying in Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya 2/45,—

Mahāprabhu speaks to Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāi Rāmānanda, “I have got not even an iota of love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa.” Then if it is questioned, why Mahāprabhu is crying so much for Kṛṣṇa? Mahāprabhu’s reply, “I am crying only to show others my reputation that I am graced by Kṛṣṇa to get such prema. Ample proof of my devoidness of actual love for Kṛṣṇa is that without seeing the sweet face of Kṛṣṇa with flute, I am still living.”

Śikṣāṣṭaka song four

Indication of Midday Pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa

[According to Gaudiya Vaiṣṇava school of thought, midday pastime of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa at Rādhā-kuṇḍa is the highest. Devotees of Nimbārka sampradāya also worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa but they think Rāsa-līlā with gopīs at Vṛndāvana under Vaṁsivaṭa is the highest. The speciality of the transcendental love of the gopīs is, they do not want direct contact with Kṛṣṇa, but they want to make union of Srīmati Rādhā with Kṛṣṇa because Rādhā’s prema is more than the prema of hundred crores of gopīs. By getting contact with Rādhārāni, Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental sweetness is increased so much, that by seeing that gopīs become more happy than by their direct contact with Kṛṣṇa.]

All the ecstatic feelings of highest order including Asṭasāttvik-vikār— eight principal ecstatic feelings, thirty three kinds of other subordinate ecstatic feelings—sanchāri— all kinds of highest sweet inciting transcendental ecstatic feelings are manifested in Rādhā-kuṇḍa. In no other pastimes such excellent charmness of sweet ecstatic feelings can be found. Some extraordinary ecstatic feelings have been mentioned here. ‘Vāmya’— crookedness of prema, external expression of rudeness, harshness is there but inside actually just the reverse— which is inexplicable. ‘Utkaṇṭhā’— supreme eagerness to get contact with the object of love, which removes all kinds of restlessness but in this ecstatic feeling they have become externally too much restless. By hearing jokes of the gopīs Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa get happiness. In addition to these, there are innumerable pastimes, viz. swinging ceremony of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, pleasant strolling in the forest, water sports in ponds and rivers, stealing of flute and other transcendental amorous pastimes, drinking of sweet honey, worship of Sun-God etc. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa while engrossed in these transcendental pastimes are served by gopīs. I remember such pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Lila kirtan four