Śrī Śrī Prema-Bhakti-Candrikā 118 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

রামচন্দ্র কবিরাজ,        সেই সঙ্গে মোর কাজ,

তার সঙ্গ বিনা সব শূন্য ।

যদি জন্ম হয় পুনঃ,        তার সঙ্গ হয় যেন,

তবে হয় নরোত্তম ধন্য ॥ ১১৮ ॥

rāmacandra kabirāja,        sei saṅge mora kāja,

tāra saṅga binā saba śūnya |

yadi janma haya punaḥ,        tāra saṅga haya yena,

tabe haya narottama dhanya || 118 ||

I perform my service in the company of Rāmacandra Kavirāja; without his friendship, everything is empty. If birth comes again and through it his association, then Narottama will be blessed.

Separation from a Friend

Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: Devotees develop friendships with each other, keeping Śrī Bhagavān in the center. These relationships are not perishable or momentary like the relationships with friends in the material world; because they are spiritual, they are eternal and genuine. By the association of a spiritual friend, one’s relationship with Śrī Bhagavān is intimately felt, enjoyed and nourished. He is truly a best friend. Separation from such a friend is experienced as unbearable misery. There is no comparison in the material world to such sadness. Śrīman Mahāprabhu asked Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, “Among the different kinds of misery, is there one more difficult than the others?” Śrīla Rāmānanda Rāya replied, “There is nothing worse than separation from a bhakta.” We can see an example of separation from such a spiritual friend in Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda, who enjoyed a transcendental friendship with Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda. As a result of Śrī Rūpa’s association and kindness, Raghunātha became extraordinarily devoted to Śrī Vṛndāvaneśvarī Śrī Rādhārāṇī, which he speaks of in Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali 14:

yad-avadhi mama kācin mañjarī-rūpa-pūrvā

vraja-bhuvi bata netra-dvandva-dīptiṁ cakāra |

tad-avadhi tava vṛndāraṇya-rājñi prakāmaṁ

caraṇa-kamala-lākṣā saṁdidṛkṣā mamābhūt ||

“O Queen of Vṛndāvana! Since the day the indescribable Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī opened my eyes by telling me about you, I have developed a great desire to see the red dye on your lotus feet.” By the association of such a spiritual friend, an unprecedented taste of bhagavad-mādhurī and prema-rasa is obtained. In the same way, when his or her death comes, the pain of separation becomes unbearable. Distressed by his separation from Śrī Rūpa, Śrīpāda Dāsa Gosvāmī wrote the following in Stavāvalī 28.10 to express his own heartache:

apūrva-premābdheḥ parimala-payaḥ-phena-nivahaiḥ 

sadā yo jīvātur yam iha kṛpayā-siñcad atulam |

idānīṁ durdaivāt pratipada-vipad-dāva-valito

nirālambaḥ so’yaṁ kam iha tam ṛte yātu śaraṇam ||

“Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, the sustainer of my life, has always mercifully showered me with the foam from the fragrant water of the unprecedented ocean of prema. Now, because of my misfortune (Śrī Rūpa’s passing), I helplessly burn constantly in the forest fire of troubles. Without him, of whom shall I take shelter?”

After Śrī Gaurāṅga’s disappearance, Raghunātha was afflicted by viraha. He resolved to visit Vrajadhāma and then commit suicide by jumping off of Govardhana Hill. When he arrived in Vraja, Śrī Rūpa-Sanātana mercifully showed him Śrī Vrajadhāma, Girirāja Govardhana and Vraja’s crown-jewel, Śrī Rādhā-Kuṇḍa. By seeing them, his viraha for Śrī Gaurāṅga was somewhat allayed. He took shelter of Śrī Rādhā-Kuṇḍa and absorbed himself in bhajana. But when he could no longer see Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda, everything seemed to him to be upside down. Stavāvalī 28.11:

śūnyāyate mahāgoṣṭhaṁ girīndro’jagarāyate |

vyāghra-tuṇḍāyate kuṇḍaṁ jīvātu rahitasya me ||

“In the absence of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda, the support of my life, this great pasturing ground appears empty to me. Śrī Govardhana seems like a python and Śrī Rādhā-Kuṇḍa like the gaping mouth of a tiger.” Agitated by his powerful viraha and afflicted by grief, he said the following in the second half of Stavāvalī 28.4:

gaurāṅga-candram iha rūpa-yugaṁ na paśyan

hā vedanāḥ kati sahe sphuṭa re lalāṭa ||

“Alas! How much more sorrow must I bear from not seeing Śrī Gaurāṅgacandra and Śrī Rūpa-Sanātana? O forehead! You are splitting into a hundred pieces!”

It is known that Śrīla Narottama Ṭhākura Mahāśaya had a similar spiritual friendship with Śrīla Rāmacandra Kavirāja. In this verse, Ṭhākura Mahāśaya gives a hint of the intense fire of separation that has been burning in his heart since the loss of Śrī Rāmacandra Kavirāja. rāmacandra kabirāja, sei saṅge mora kāja, tāra saṅga binā saba śūnya. Rāmacandra Kavirāja was the son of Śrī Cirañjīva Sena, one of Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s companions. He was the older brother of the poet Śrī Govinda Dāsa and the disciple of Śrī Śrīnivāsācārya Prabhu. He was a great scholar, poet and bhakta. A characteristic of spiritual friendship is that when one relishes bhagavat-kathā with such a friend, Śrī Hari’s forms, qualities and sweet pastimes manifest before one’s eyes. By saying sei saṅge mora kāja, “I perform my service in his company,” Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya is alluding to such activities with Rāmacandra Kavirāja. Separation from a friend in the material world usually covers one’s heart with the darkness of lamentation and delusion, but separation from a spiritual friend illuminates one’s heart with the light of prema and pulls him toward the lotus feet of his cherished deity. There is nothing in this world that can comfort one who is suffering from separation. Therefore, he said, tāra saṅga binā saba śūnya. “Without his company, everything is empty.” Nothing in this world can fill such emptiness. It carries the person who feels separation directly to the kingdom of līlā, reunites him with his friend in his siddha-svarūpa and submerges him in the nectarous service of his deity.

Still, because of Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya’s extreme humility or because the nature of bhakti is that one feels one never has enough, he thought he might have to take birth again. If so, he hopes to get the association of a great premika or rasika-bhakta like Śrīla Rāmacandra Kavirāja: yadi janma haya punaḥ, tāra saṅga haya yena, tabe haya narottama dhanya.

Śrī Śrī Prema-Bhakti-Candrikā 117 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

স্ত্রী পুত্র বান্ধব যত,        মরি যায় কত শত,

আপনারে হও সাবধান ।

মুই সে বিষয় হত,        না ভজিনু হরিপদ,

মোর আর নাহি পরিত্রাণ ॥ ১১৭ ॥

strī putra bāndhaba yata,        mari yāya kata śata,

āpanāre hao sābadhāna |

mui se biṣaya hata,        nā bhajinu hari-pada,

mora āra nāhi paritrāṇa || 117 ||

     Countless spouses, children, relatives and friends have passed away. You must be careful. Ruined by sense-enjoyment, I have not worshiped Śrī Hari’s feet. I have no other refuge.

The Author’s Lamentation

     Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: For those humans who are too attached to sense-enjoyment, the revered author first warns about the extreme transience of their existence: strī putra bāndhaba yata, mari yāya kata śata, āpanāre hao sābadhāna. Even though obtaining this human body, which is the residence of knowledge and intellect, and which is most suitable for śrī-hari-bhajana, those who have fallen into illusion neglect the opportunity for bhajana and spend their rare human life like an animal attached to sense-enjoyment. The power of illusion is so great that the puppets of illusion—countless spouses, children, relatives, friends and so on—are constantly dying in front of them and though they see it, they do not see it. Attached to transitory, illusory things, they lose through neglect the precious opportunity for bhajana provided by a human life. Noting that enjoyable things like a spouse, children, possessions, wealth and so on are transitory and troublesome, Bhagavān Buddhadeva said the following to Chandaka:

     alaṁ chandaka, anityāḥ khalv ete kāmā adhruvā aśāśvatā vipariṇām adharmāṇaḥ pradrutāś capalā giri-nadī-vega-tulyāḥ; avasyāya-binduvad-acira-sthāyina ullāpanāḥ rikta-muṣṭivad asārāḥ kadali-skandhavad durbalā, āma-bhojanavad-vedanātmakaḥ śarad-abhra-nibhāḥ kṣanādbhutā na bhavanti; . . . sāgara iva duṣpurāḥ lavaṇodaka iva tṛṣṇākarāḥ; sarpa-śiro-vastuḥ sparśanīyā mahāprapātavat parivarjitāḥ paṇḍitaiḥ; sabhayāḥ saraṇāḥ sādinavāḥ sadoṣā iti jñātvā vivarjitāḥ prājnair vigarhitā vidvadbhiḥ jugupsitā āryaiḥ vivarjitā budhaiḥ parigṛhītā abudhaiḥ niṣevitāḥ bālaiḥ.

     “O Chandaka! All of these enjoyable sense-objects are transitory; their consequence is extreme misery. They last only for a moment, flowing swiftly by like the current of a mountain stream. They are impermanent like drops of dew and are the cause of intense sorrow. Someone may clinch his fist, pretending to hold something in it. If you see this, you may wonder whether anything is there, but when he opens his hand, you see it is empty. Similarly, these sense-objects are only a deception. They are weak like the trunk of a banana tree; unpleasant like the eating of raw ingredients; momentary like an autumn cloud; like an ocean, difficult to fill; like saltwater, they increase thirst, meaning the more one enjoys sensual pleasures, the more the desire for them increases. Like the heads of snakes, you should not touch them. They are avoided by the paṇḍitas as though terrifying waterfalls. They are rejected by the wise because they are accompanied by fear, grief, pride and sin. They are detested by the learned, scorned by the noble and abandoned by the intelligent. They are embraced by the fools and honored by the childish.”

     Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya then says, āpanāre hao sābadhāna. An intelligent person earnestly gives up attachment for spouse, children, possessions, wealth and so on. She adopts the path of bhajana, commits all her heart’s addictions to the lotus feet of her ever-beautiful, ever-sweet and everlasting lord Śrī Govinda and worships him with love.

     Though being an embodiment of prema, the revered author was then overcome with humility and felt himself to be devoid of bhajana and sādhana, ruined by sense-enjoyment and extremely unfortunate. He says, mui se biṣaya hata, nā bhajinu hari-pada, mora āra nāhi paritrāṇa. The sādhakas should learn from Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya’s humble words that there is some difference between ‘attached to sense-enjoyment’ and ‘ruined by sense-enjoyment.’ Those who are attached to sense-enjoyment pass their lives in a mundane state, drunk on earthly pleasures and devoid of bhajana. Still, if they associate with great souls and receive their mercy, they too can be blessed with the bhakti life. However, because of offenses, even those who have taken shelter on the path of bhajana remain attracted or attached to worldly forms, flavors and so on and are unable to maintain mental attachment to their cherished Śrī Kṛṣṇa. They are ‘ruined by sense-enjoyment’ and must understand that even though they are endowed with discernment and intellect, this attachment to sense-pleasures is complex, like a difficult-to-cure disease. They will not without difficulty find a path to their deliverance.