বিষয় গরলময়, তাতে মান সুখচয়,
সেই সুখ দুঃখ করি মান ।
গোবিন্দ-বিষয়-রস, সঙ্গ কর তার দাস,
প্রেমভক্তি সত্য করি জান ॥ ৮২ ॥
biṣaya garalamaya, tāte māna sukhacaya,
sei sukha duḥkha kari māna |
gobinda-biṣaya-rasa, saṅga kara tāra dāsa,
prema-bhakti satya kari jāna || 82 ||
Sense objects are filled with poison, which you consider to be pleasure. That pleasure is misery. Just meditate on the rasa of things related to Govinda, associate with his servants and know that prema-bhakti is real.
The Rasa of Things Related to Govinda
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has described the nature of prema-bhakti. Now he is informing those people whose hearts and minds are devoted to sense enjoyment of the way to obtain bhakti. biṣaya garalamaya, tāte māna sukhacaya, sei sukha duḥkha kari māna. The five kinds of objects to be enjoyed by the senses, namely sound, touch, form, taste and smell, along with money, property, amorous partners, gold and so on are made of poison, meaning they are filled with unbearable pain and are immediately life-destroying. Because people blinded by illusion cannot understand the burning poison of sense objects, they continue to enjoy them, regarding them as pleasure-giving nectar. From the Śānti-Śataka of Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura:
ajānan dāhārtiṁ viśati śalabho dīpa-dahanaṁ
na mīno’pi jñātvā vṛta-baḍiśam aśnāti piśitam |
vijānanto’py etān vayam iha vipaj-jāla-jaṭilān
na muñcāmaḥ kāmān ahaha gahano moha-mahimā ||
“A moth knows nothing of the pain of burning to death, so he enters the flame of a lamp. A fish also is unaware that his death waits inside the piece of meat he is eating, so he swallows the hook. But we know that the objects of our enjoyment are filled with great troubles. If we engage in sense enjoyment, we must wander for countless births through the miserable wombs of sub-human creatures and suffer the torments of hell. Still, we don’t give them up. Alas, how frightening is the power of illusion!” An ignorant jīva destroys his life by indulging in merely one sense object. Is there any doubt that those intelligent and educated humans who enjoy five sense objects at once will be caught in the snare of great misfortune? Garuḍa-Purāṇa says the following:
kuraṅga-mātaṅga-pataṅga-bhṛṅga-
mīnāḥ hatāḥ pañcabhir eva pañca |
ekaṁ pramādī sa kathaṁ na hanyate
yaḥ sevate pañcabhir eva pañca ||
“Life is destroyed for the deer, elephant, moth, bee and fish by their enjoyment of one sense object each. If this happens as the result of enjoying only one sense object, why will the life of a foolish person enjoying all five at once not be destroyed?” When a deer hears the sound of a hunter’s flute, he becomes fascinated by it and is eager to hear more. Being ignorant, he runs toward the hunter and falls to his death in the hunter’s trap. Those who catch elephants take one of their domesticated elephants to the forest. When a forest elephant desires to touch the domesticated one, he goes close to her and is captured, which is like being dead. When a moth sees the beauty of a flame, she gets excited and flies into it. Enticed by the fragrance of a lotus, the bee plunges inside the lotus bud. At sunset, the petals close. When the lotus blooms the next morning the bee is seen to be dead. Allured by the flavor of a piece of food on a fish-hook, the fish swallows it and falls immediately into the mouth of death. Each of these creatures destroys its life by indulging in one particular sense object. On the other hand, humans simultaneously enjoy all five sense objects to the fullest extent. Is there any doubt they will die from such poison?
Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, biṣaya garalamaya, tāte māna sukhacaya. Even though sense enjoyment is painful to a sādhaka, it is actually thought to be pleasurable by a person attached to sense objects. Poison is present within poisonous serpents, but they feel no distress from it. Rather, the poison is a source of pleasure and nourishment; if it were not present, they would be powerless and would suffer. But when they bite other creatures, the creatures experience the burning pain of the serpents’ venom. In the same way, people attached to sense enjoyment experience no suffering from their poison; rather, they would be miserable without it. Like a person bitten by a snake, a sādhaka bitten by sense enjoyment experiences its burning poison. After death, the searing pain of poison is allayed, but the pain brought by the poison of sense enjoyment oppresses the body and mind for lives to come. As a result of indulging in sense enjoyment, humans acquire in their hearts a saṁskāra or impression of the desire for sense enjoyment. They then rotate through the wombs of various miserable and tormented jīvas and suffer dreadful hells. The sādhakas have realized this, but those attached to sense enjoyment feel happiness through such indulgence. Due to illusion, they forget the poisonous consequences of enjoying sense objects. Because they experience happiness in this, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, biṣaya garalamaya, tāte māna sukhacaya, sei sukha duḥkha kari māna. The illusory happiness derived from sense objects is the only cause of the endless journey through various miserable wombs and the suffering of terrible hells. Can that be called happiness? Therefore, every intelligent person should consider sensual pleasure as misery. Through the enjoyment of worldly sense objects since beginningless time, the jīva’s senses have become greedy for pleasure. The bhaktas are very intelligent: yei jana kṛṣṇa bhaje, se baḍa catura. “Whoever worships Śrī Kṛṣṇa is very intelligent.” Therefore, unlike the jñānīs and yogīs, they do not endeavor to conquer the senses through flavorless, difficult and dry jñāna, vairāgya and so on. The bhaktas try to engage their senses in relishing the very pleasant and superior rasa of things related to Śrī Govinda rather than in detestable or inferior enjoyment. If the senses get to taste just one drop of the billowy ocean of rasa comprised of the delightful sound, touch, form, flavor and aroma of Śrī Govinda, they will perceive ordinary sense enjoyment as extremely repulsive. In fact, the love in a person’s heart, the mind and intellect, as well as the eyes, ears and other outer senses all desire rasa related to Śrī Govinda. If they are unable to obtain this rasa, they become depraved and eager for repugnant sense enjoyment, which, like a thief, steals the good propensities from a person’s heart. The following is found in Brahmā’s prayer in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.36: tāvad rāgādayaḥ stenās tāvat kārā-gṛhaṁ gṛham, tāvan moho’ṅghri-nigaḍo yāvat kṛṣṇa na te janāḥ. Brahmā said, “O Śrī Kṛṣṇa! As long as the attachment and so on in a person’s heart are not surrendered to you, that attachment is a thief, the home is a prison and infatuation is like shackles on the feet.” In his Laghu-Toṣaṇī commentary on this verse, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda has written the following: tatra nirupādhi-premāspadasyātmano’py ātmatvena tvam eva rāgasya svābhāvika-parama-yogyāśrayaḥ, atas tal-lakṣaṇa-nija-svāminam anupalabhyaiva bhramann asau janānāṁ śubha-vāsanā-rūpāṁ tvad-bhajana-sāmagrīṁ haraṁś caura eva, tata tad-anuvartino’pi tādrśāḥ. “You are the abode of perfect love and are a million times dearer to the jīvas than even their own souls. You are the most suitable recipient of their love. Therefore, if the attachment in the heart does not attain you, its master, it steals the person’s auspicious desires, which are his implements for worshiping you. Then the senses and so on, which follow the heart’s inclinations, also become corrupt.”
If the senses get even a little taste of the sweetness of the sound, touch, form, flavor and aroma of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, they will be forever blessed with immersion in the unequalled ocean of rasa. Because he attracts everyone’s heart and mind with the sweetness of his form, flavor and so on, his name is Kṛṣṇa. We are informed of the astonishing power of attraction of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s form, flavor and so on by Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s lamentation in Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Antya 15.15-23:
kṛṣṇa-rūpa-śabda-sparśa, saurabhya adhara-rasa, yāra mādhurya kahana nā yāya |
dekhi lobhi pañca-jana, eka aśva mora mana, caḍi pañca pāñca-dige dhāya ||
sakhi he! śuna mora duḥkhera kāraṇa |
mora pañcendriya-gaṇa, mahālampaṭa dasyu-gaṇa, sabhe kare hare para-dhana ||
eka aśva eka-kṣaṇe, pāñca pāñca-dike ṭāne, eka mana kon dige yāya |
eka-kāle sabhe ṭāne, gela ghoḍāra parāṇe, ei duḥkha sahana nā yāya ||
indriye nā kari roṣa, ihā sabhāra kāñhā doṣa, kṛṣṇa-rūpādi mahā ākarṣaṇa |
rūpādi pāñca pāñce ṭāne, gela pāñcera parāṇe, mora dehe nā rahe jībana ||
kṛṣṇa-rūpāmṛta-sindhu, tāhāra taraṅga-bindu, eka-bindu jagata ḍubāya |
tri-jagate yata nārī, tāra citta ucca-giri, tāhā ḍubāya āge uṭhi dhāya ||
kṛṣṇera bacana-mādhurī, nānā-rasa-narma-dhārī, tāra anyāya kahana nā yāya |
jagatera nārīra kāṇe, mādhurī-guṇe bāndhi ṭāne, ṭānāṭāni kāṇera prāṇa yāya ||
kṛṣṇa aṅga suśītala, ki kahiba tāra bala, chaṭāya jine koṭīndu candana |
saśaila nārīra bakṣa, tāhā ākarṣite dakṣa, ākarṣaye nārī-gaṇa mana ||
kṛṣṇāṅga-saurabhya-bhara, mṛga-mada-mada-hara, nīlotpalera hare garba-dhana |
jagata-nārīra nāsā, tāra bhitara kare bāsā, nārī-gaṇera kare ākarṣaṇa ||
kṛṣṇera adharāmṛta, tāte karpūra manda-smita, svamādhurye hare nārī-mana |
chāḍāya anyatra lobha, nā pāile mane kṣobha, braja-nārī-gaṇera mūla-dhana ||
“The sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s form, sound, touch, aroma and the flavor of his lips is indescribable. After experiencing this sweetness and being greedy for more, five riders mount the horse of my mind and speed off in five directions. O friend! Listen to the cause of my suffering. My five senses are greedy thieves; all they do is steal from others. Five riders pull one horse in five directions at once. In which direction will the mind go? If all pull at once, the horse will die! Such misery is intolerable. I am not angry at my senses; it is not their fault. Kṛṣṇa’s form and so on are very attractive. They pull on the five senses. If the senses perish, the life will not remain in my body. Kṛṣṇa’s beauty is an ocean of nectar; one drop from its waves drowns the entire universe. The hearts of all women in the three worlds are like high mountains engulfed by this ocean. Kṛṣṇa’s sweet words are filled with humor and play, and their impropriety is beyond description. When the ears of a woman of the world are bound by the rope of the sweetness of his words, a tug of war begins and the vitality of her ears departs. Kṛṣṇa’s body is very pleasant and cooling. How shall I describe its power? Its luster is more cooling than the finest sandal-paste or even millions of moons. His body is adept at attracting women’s mountain-like breasts as well as their minds. Kṛṣṇa’s fragrance steals the pride of both musk and the blue lotus. It makes its home within the noses of the women of the world and pulls them to him. The sweet nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s lips mixed with the camphor of his gentle smile allures their minds. It makes them abandon their desires for anything else. Without it, their minds are distressed. His body is the foremost treasure of the women of Vraja.”
Or, Śrī Govinda is the object of enjoyment for all rasika-bhaktas, who are skilled in contemplating rasa, because he is himself rasa or the embodiment of rasa. The statements raso vai saḥ, rasānāṁ rasatamaḥ, ānandaṁ brahma and so on from the śruti proclaim him to be the rasa-svarūpa. Having experienced Govinda, a jīva can be truly joyful: rasaṁ hy evāyaṁ labdhānandī bhavati (śruti).
A question may arise here. If a person obtains with her internal and external senses even a slight experience of the sweetness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s form, taste and so on, the experience of worldly sense enjoyment will no doubt be perceived as detestable. But how is it possible for a jīva to taste Govinda’s transcendental sweetness when she is attached to worldly sense objects? Anticipating such a question, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya describes a sādhana or method for tasting Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurī: saṅga kara tāra dāsa, prema-bhakti satya kari jāna. As a result of the association of great souls and the receipt of their mercy, a taste of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurya can be experienced even in the hearts and minds of ordinary people and they will lose interest in anything other than Kṛṣṇa. The purifying power that comes from tasting Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurya is present in the bodies and minds of the high-souled śrī-kṛṣṇa-bhaktas who are joyfully engaged in bhajana. To the extent of its presence, this power spreads from their bodies in all directions and infuses the people around them with the ability to taste Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness. Just as dirty iron is at once converted into gold by the touch of a philosopher’s stone, a person’s materially contaminated citta shines like gold when he longs for bhakti as a result of the association of great Vaiṣṇavas. Therefore, associating with the servants of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the best means to become free from the desire for mundane sense objects and to taste the transcendent rasa of Govinda’s form, taste and other things related to him. For the jīva, who is Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servant, there is no other truly worthy object than the attainment of prema-bhakti. Thus, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has said, prema-bhakti satya kari jāna. “Realize that prema-bhakti is genuine.”
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