Re: Gaudiya Vaishnava Dharma - The goal of life
Originally Posted by
uttam
Then Ramananda says ‘Jnyan sunya bhakti’. Here for the first time Mahaprabhu says ‘ eho haya’ i.e. accepts.Jnyan sunya bhakti means pure bhakti. If you don’t mind, I am not using devotional service in place of bhakti because being vaishnab we all familiar with the word bhakti. We all know that prema is developed out of suddha bhakti ( pure bhakti ) only.
Dear utttamji,
Maybe is not so important, but suddha bhakti comes out of prema and prema comes out of sadhana bhakti
which is not truly suddha bhakti (although included under the generic term of suddha bhakti, sadhana bhakti is not suddha bhakti).
The matter of fact, only after one attains prema, one is able to dive in suddha bhakti - pure service, or serving out of love.
You may remember the definition of sadhana bhakti given by Rupa Gosvami, where he states,
tatra sadhana-bhaktih –
krti sadhya bhavet sadhya bhava sa sadhanabhidha |
nitya siddhasya bhavasya prakatyam hrdi sadhyata ||2.2||
The activities of the senses have a goal - krti sadhya bhavet
(When) this goal is bhava (the sprout of prema) - sadhya bhava
(Then) they (these activities) are called sadhana (bhakti) (practice to attain bhakti) - sa sadhanabhidha
(and this) eternal perfection of bhava - nitya siddhasya bhavasya
Is manifested in the heart as the goal - prakatyam hrdi sadhyata
You may also remember the famous verse from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
satāḿ prasańgān mama vīrya-saḿvido
bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ
taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani
śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati 3.25.25
In the association of the realized persons there are discussions about My enchanting deeds.
Stories which are pleasing to the ear and the heart.
By this activity (hearing or discussing stories about the Lord) one attains quickly one after another - anukramiṣyati
Liberation, faith, love and (at the end) bhakti - apavarga-vartmani śraddhā ratir bhaktir
So the order of perfectional stages are - Liberation, faith, love and (at the end) bhakti
In this connection one may understand also that only a liberated person has truly faith (in the existence of the Absolute).
And only when one attains the stage of (pure) love one may trully perform bhakti, which technically is called the stage of Uttama Bhakti or pure bhakti - bhakti out of love.
The first accepted activity by Sri Caitanya was this hearing or discussing stories about the Lord.
Maybe you knew all these, but I think many out there do not know them.
gaura premanande
Last edited by anadi; 15 March 2012 at 03:07 PM.
tadetadAtAravilochanasri / sambhAvitASeza vinamragarvam
muhur murArer madhurAdharoztham / mukhAmbujam chumbati mAnasam me
kRSNa karNamRtam 85
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