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.
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