Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the entire series here.
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When Radha asserts herself, establishing her superiority and relishing Krishna’s embrace, some might conclude that her attitude is something other than that of a mere maidservant. Mahaprabhu, absorbed in her mood, responds to this charge: mora sukha—sevane, krsnera sukha—sangame, ataeva deha dena dana, “My happiness is service. Krishna’s happiness is union with me. Therefore, I give my body to him in charity.”¹ It should be understood that Radha acts assertively because she knows that in certain instances only she can satisfy Krishna. Radha’s delight in Krishna’s embrace is derived solely from the pleasure he draws from it. For Radha, union with Krishna is not about her pleasure. Pleasure is merely a by-product of her service that she accepts only because doing so pleases Krishna. For Radha, seva is sweeter than sambhoga. Mahaprabhu therefore says, kanta-seva-sukha-püra, sangama haite sumadhura: “Service to Krishna is the home of happiness. It is sweeter than union.”² Thus despite Radha’s outward forwardness, internally she maintains the mood of a maidservant, exemplifying selflessness to the extreme.

This selflessness is the ground on which mahabhava dances, ground that even beginners can identify with as they set their sights on the towering ideal of the highest love. It is for this reason that Mahaprabhu emphasized Radha’s selflessness in his final verse and subsequent elucidation. Radha’s extreme selfless serving disposition establishes her as Krishna’s personal Deity, for in Mahaprabhu’s ideal, love holds a position higher than God. Krishna is God conquered by love, and Radha’s love reigns supreme, such that Krishna himself becomes her student. Radha’s love is Krishna’s guru, radhikara prema—guru, ami—sisya nata.³ This is the purport of Siksastakam revealed in its final sloka, echoing the essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam’s rasa-pancadhyaya: love is its own reward.⁴

The love that Radha experiences, the madanakhya-mahabhava that she alone tastes, is such that Krishna himself yearns to taste it. One may, however, justifiably question how Krishna can lack anything. How can the Absolute be incomplete? The answer to this question can be found in the philosophy that underlies Krishna lila. Krishna is full in himself, yet he is full of love, and love is never satisfied with itself. To taste himself more fully he manifests as two—Radha and Krishna. As the sruti proclaims, ekaki na ramate: “Alone one finds no pleasure.”⁵ That which resides within Krishna in an abstract sense as his inherent hladini-sakti manifests externally in a concrete form as Radha. These two, rasa and prema, are in essence one. Krishna is rasa and Radha is prema. One has little meaning without the other. Rasa is the highest taste and prema is the means of tasting it.

Because the two, rasa and prema, are essentially one, Krishna naturally desires to express this. He desires to be one with Radha, for as much as love requires two, it is all about two becoming one. However, he must do this in a dynamic sense to preserve his original purpose of fully tasting himself. He must become one with Radha while preserving both of their identities. This dynamic unity gives rise to Sri Krishna Caitanya, the combined form of Radha and Krishna. He is both rasaraja and mahabhava, ‘rasa-raja’, ‘mahabhava’—dui eka rupa.⁶ Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami describes this phenomenon:

Radha and Krishna’s love is a transformation of hladini-sakti. On earth, the one, Krishna, has become two, Radha and Krishna, eternally. Then, as Gaurasundara, these two formed a dynamic unity. Pranama to Gaura, who is endowed with Radha’s countenance and personality.⁷

Although Krishna is complete in himself, he is best equipped to taste love when he expands into two, Radha and Krishna. Philosophically speaking, he does not lack anything; however, at that timeless moment when Krishna becomes Radha and Krishna, lila is born and Krishna loses himself in the drama of divine love. As Krishna becomes absorbed in exchanges of love with his counterwhole, Srimati Radharani, he realizes that tasting love from her vantage point is more desirable than relishing it from his own. Consumed by his own play, he begins to ponder perhaps the greatest theological question: “How can I taste Radha’s prema?”

Contrary to what one might expect, Radha is not inclined to give her prema to Krishna, for she knows its power and how it will drive him mad. Furthermore, in her mind it would be improper to take a superior position to his, and in her supreme humility, she recoils at the thought that her superiority—the power of her love—might be broadcast all over the world. She knows that such a campaign would be a natural result of Krishna becoming mad with her prema and losing his composure. Radha understands the far-reaching consequences of this. After all, while the secret of secrets is that Krishna is her pupil in the school of love, outside of this private tutoring everyone else knows him as the Supreme Brahman, sought after by the most sober sages. He is God, to whom no one is superior.

Thus the necessity of stealing arises in Krishna’s mind. There is no other option. Krishna concludes that he must steal Radha’s prema if he is to taste it, and taste it he must, because he knows that it is superior to anything he has tasted. Whatever embarrassment stealing her love may bring as a consequence, Krishna knows that true supremacy lies in tasting love—love is supreme. Furthermore, just as Radha wants to see him glorified, he wants to see her glorified. Despite his being a thief, he is the Supreme Truth. Truth be told, while most teach that God is the most worshipable object, Radha is the worshipable object of God. Thus Krishna tries to steal Radha’s prema to tell the world the truth. Although he is purnananda-maya, completely filled with joy, and cin-maya purva-tattva, the complete spiritual truth, the fact is that her love drives him mad.⁸ Jaya Radhe! Jaya Gaurahari!

Krishna’s madness, induced by Radha’s prema, gives birth to Gaura lila and Gaurahari’s prema-sankirtana, which in turn offers the world a golden opportunity. As we have learned, exactly what that opportunity is and the means to take advantage of it are explained in Siksastakam. After considering its significance, it is fair to ask if anything else remains significant in comparison. Sri Siksastakam turns the religious world on its head. This poem has the power to awaken yogis from trance and make them dance. As for jnanis who have thought so much that their minds have stopped, Siksastakam tells them to think again, deeply.

Devotees, rejoice! Gaura composed the eight verses of Siksastakam for the purpose of advertising the purest love, and after composing them, Gaura tasted that love in Siksastakam’s final stanza and invited the entire world to do the same. Sri Siksastakam should be recited daily and its deep meaning should be contemplated over and over again. These eight verses of Gaura Krishna awaken sraddha in the sadhana of nama-sankirtana and give bhakti in sequential steps culminating in Vraja prema. Blessed are those who take advantage of it. May they bless me by allowing me to follow in their footsteps.

1. Cc. 3.20.59.
2. Cc. 3.20.60.
3. Cc. 1.4.124.
4. At the conclusion of these five chapters of the Bhagavata, which represent its heart, Krishna tells the gopis that their love for him is its own reward. By their love they have completely purchased him and exhausted his capacity to reciprocate. Thus their love becomes the object of his veneration.
5. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1.4.3.
6. 17 cc. 2.8.282.
7. radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmadekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha-bhedam gatau tau

   caitanyakhyam prakatam adhuna tad-dvayam caikyam aptam

   radha-bhava-dyuti-suvalitam naumi krsna-svarupam (Cc. 1.1.5)

8. Cc. 1.4.122.

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the entire series here.
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In the previous verse of Siksastakam, Mahaprabhu tasted the ocean of Radha’s mahabhava in waves of separation from Krishna. In this verse he tastes the high tide of Radha’s mahabhava in union with Krishna. Love in separation (vipralambha) begets love in union (sambhoga). While separation is central to entering prema, its value is often considered to be the role it plays in enhancing loving union. Without separation, union cannot be fully experienced. As Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes, “The pleasure felt in union cannot be properly appreciated without the experience of suffering in separation. That is the function of vipralambha.”¹Thus separation, while granting entry into Krishna’s lila, also remains a permanent aspect of the drama of divine play, serving to enhance the desired union with Krishna. Accordingly, even after embracing Radha, Krishna may disappear and break her heart, only to reappear and embrace her once again.

Although separation and union complement one another, the highest reach of Radha’s mahabhava is experienced in union. Sri Rupa Goswami calls this madanakhya-mahabhava. It is characterized by the ability to simultaneously taste many contradictory spiritual emotions in relation to Krishna. Madanakhya-mahabhava is the exclusive experience of Radha, who as mahabhava-svarupini, the personification of the highest love, experiences every facet of the brilliant blue sapphire-like Krishna.² Indeed, she tastes love in ways that even he is unfamiliar with. The final verse of Siksastakam illustrates this love. Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja Mahasaya writes that it was originally spoken by Srimati Radharani.³ As Gaura repeated Radha’s verse, he tasted her mahabhava and elaborated on it as if in conversation with his associates Rama Raya and Svarupa Damodara in their Vraja lila identities as Visakha and Lalita.

Sri Gaurahari’s elucidation on his final verse of Siksastakam consists of thirteen simple tripadi Bengali verses. Both Gaura’s verse and elaboration stress the underlying spirit of mahabhava and only touch on the complexity of mahabhava’s nuanced spiritual emotion. Thus, for the most part, Gaura spoke of the highest ideal in a way that the least qualified could take advantage of it. Let us try to do so.

Mahaprabhu’s Bengali verses begin with the words ami—krsna-pada-dasi, “I am a maidservant at the feet of Krishna.”⁴ This statement is central to Mahaprabhu’s entire elucidation because it reveals that Mahaprabhu has completed his sadhana of identifying with Radha’s prema: he now completely identifies himself as a maidservant of Krishna. This identification began in the fifth stanza of his Siksastakam, in which Mahaprabhu humbly prayed for divine service. On attaining his ideal, his humility has only increased. Such humility is one of the characteristics of Radha’s prema, for although Radha is the Supreme Goddess, she conceives of herself as a mere maidservant. Although there is nothing greater than her love, it is nonetheless devoid of pride.⁵

Mahaprabhu’s opening words also highlight the essential nature of Radha’s love and that of love in general. Love is about service, about giving without concern for getting. The mystery of life is that while love involves selfless giving, it makes one whole. Sri Radha is the best example of this in religious history. Her love is selfless to the extreme, yet it makes her so whole, so complete, that God feels incomplete without her.

Mahaprabhu next says that he is a maidservant at the feet of one who “is the embodiment of transcendental joy and rasa,” tenho—rasa-sukha-rasi.⁶ When we can identify the supreme enjoyer, we have the potential to give without reservation. Unconditional love requires that one condition be met: we identify the perfect object of love, the one who can absorb and reciprocate with our love unlimitedly, undeterred even by time. When we try to give selflessly to an imperfect object of love, we can only give so much, because an imperfect object of love is limited in its capacity to receive and reciprocate with our love. Although we do grow through such imperfect giving, the sense of wholeness we derive comes not as much from the imperfect object but from the perfect object of love, to whom we come closer through any act of giving and selflessness. As we know from the Bhagavad-gita, it is the Absolute who is situated in sacrifice and thus realized through sacrificial acts.⁷

While sacrifice in any form brings us closer to the Absolute, sacrifice of one’s own self endears us to God more than sacrifice of one’s possessions. Above dutiful self-sacrifice lies complete self-forgetfulness in love. Such love is synonymous with the highest wisdom, on attaining which the absolute truth appears, revealing himself to be a lover. This is Radha’s Krishna, the perfect object of love, knowing whom nothing remains to be known.

When Mahaprabhu said that Krishna is the personification of joy and rasa, he implied that any connection with him, either in divine union or separation, is joyful. However, Mahaprabhu goes on to explain another reason why Radha feels joy even in her separation from Krishna: sabe vanchi tanra sukha, tanra sukha—amara tatparya, “I only desire Krishna’s happiness. His happiness is the aim of my life.”⁸ Krishna’s happiness is what Radha lives for, thus if it makes Krishna happy to ignore her, she is happy because she lives only for his pleasure. Her attitude pleases Krishna so much that she realizes that he neglects her only to experience newer and newer nuances of her love for him.

If Radha is happy when Krishna is happy, one may ask why Radha sometimes becomes jealous when Krishna meets with another gopi. To answer this question, Gaurahari next explains the inner secret of Radha’s outer display of jealousy (mana): kanta krsne kare rosa, krsna paya santosa, “When a beloved gopi shows symptoms of anger toward Krishna, Krishna is very satisfied.”⁹ Although Radha sometimes appears jealous, her jealousy brings pleasure to Krishna, who likes to taste her jealous love. She knows that he takes great pleasure in this mana, or apparent displeasure with him, but she also knows when to give in and accept his loving embrace once again. Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja explains Radha’s jealous love by saying that although her love is pure, it appears crooked.¹⁰ He draws on Sri Rupa’s explanation of mana: “love like a snake moves in a crooked way.”¹¹ Sometimes Radha’s mana is for apparent good reason (sahetu) and sometimes it is without cause (nirhetu). If it is without cause, it disappears of its own accord. If her mana is for good reason, Radha’s hero must adopt appropriate means to pacify her, offering consoling words, gifts, and so on, all of which he delights in.

1. vina vipralambhasraya, sambhogera pusti naya, tai vipralambhera vidhana (Gita-mala 4.25.1)
2. Radha’s handmaidens experience her love as well by way of complete identification with her bhava in radha-dasyam. Sri Rupa Goswami calls this identification tad-bhavecchamayi. Mahaprabhu gave people of the world the opportunity to taste this through his dispensation of Sri Krishna sankirtana.
3. Cc. 3.20.33–36.
4. Cc. 3.20.48.
5. Cc. 1.4.129.
6. Cc. 3.20.48.
7. Bg. 3.15.
8. Cc. 3.20.52.
9. Cc. 3.20.54.
10. Cc. 1.4.130.
11. aher iva gatih premnah svabhava-kutila bhavetato hetor ahetos ca yunor mana udancati (Ujjvala-nilamani 15.102)

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the entire series here.
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Mahaprabhu’s humility arises amid unbearable feelings of separation from Krishna, as he begins to taste Radha’s prema. This verse of Siksastakam represents Mahaprabhu’s actual condition in Puri-dhama during his antya-lila, whereas all the previous verses are spoken in the mood of a sadhaka or bhava-bhakta for the sake of teaching others. In his antya-lila in Jagannatha Puri, Gaura Raya has been called vipralambha-murti, “the form of love in separation,” because he suffered so much in separation from Krishna and thus taught the world about the inner life of bhajana. The merciful Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura writes in his Vivrtti commentary on Siksastakam that the confidential secret of Gauranga’s lila is that when Krishna adopts the sentiment of a devotee as Gaurahari, he is situated in feelings of separation, vipralambha. Union (sambhoga) is achieved by first passing through separation. To demonstrate this, Sri Krishna manifests his eternal Gaura svarupa, which is the incarnation of vipralambha.

Vipralambha is the love in separation that is exclusive to madhurya-rasa. It expresses itself in four varieties: purva-raga, mana, prema-vaicittya, and pravasa. Purva-raga is the separation lovers feel before they actually meet and formally acknowledge their love for one another. Mana is the separation that occurs when lovers quarrel with one another. Prema-vaicittya is the feeling of separation that occurs when lovers are in the presence of one another yet fear impending separation. Pravasa is the separation that occurs when lovers are separated by distance and time. Commenting on the seventh verse of Siksastakam in his Bhajana-rahasya, Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes that the sign of one’s having attained the sadhya of nama-sankirtana is that one worships in the mood of separation. Similarly, Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta states that the real sign of prema is that one performs sankirtana in the agony of separation.¹

Thakura Bhaktivinoda emphasizes meditating on lilas involving purva-raga or pravasa in the cultivation of prema, as Mahaprabhu does in this verse of Siksastakam. However, he also points out that devotees who have attained prema but have not yet left this world and taken birth in Krishna’s prakata-lila are only capable of fully experiencing purva-raga.² The reason for this is that while purva-raga can be experienced by hearing about Krishna, seeing his picture, or visualizing him in meditation, the other three types of separation fully manifest only after having met Krishna personally and having experienced the intensification of one’s sthayi-bhava that takes place in Krishna’s prakata-lila.

Suffering from the pain of separation, Mahaprabhu assumed the mood of Radha and shared his feelings with Rama Raya and Svarupa Damodara:

In my suffering, the days seem to never pass. Each moment is as long as an age. Tears pour out of my eyes as though they were monsoon clouds. The three worlds have become void in Govinda’s absence. I burn in the fire of separation, yet I cannot die.³

Although Radha’s life in separation from Krishna is unbearable, she cannot die because she knows that if she were to do so, it would cause Krishna pain. Thus even though he has caused her the unbearable pain of separation, she remains selfless in her love for him. This is the secret of prema. Although Radha’s love for Krishna appears like the lust of a young girl for a young boy, the two are worlds apart. The basic difference between the two is that lust involves the desire to satisfy one’s own senses, whereas prema involves the desire to satisfy Krishna’s senses.

In his Gitavali, Thakura Bhaktivinoda beautifully expresses the spirit of Mahaprabhu’s separation as experienced by one attaining prema through nama-sankirtana:

As I sang the names of the Lord, different bhavas began to awaken within me. I saw Krishna standing on the bank of the Yamuna, accompanied by the daughter of King Vrsabhanu. There he stood playing his flute under a kadamba tree, looking like a dancer about to go on stage. When I saw this divine couple, my mind became unsteady and I lost consciousness. I don’t know how long it was, but when I came back to consciousness, I could not see them anymore. O sakhi! How can I go on living? A moment has become a millennium for me.

My eyes are streaming with tears like a downpour in the rainy season and the world has become a void. In Govinda’s absence, my life airs no longer stay within me. Tell me how I can go on living. I have become so anxious. Still, taking shelter of harinama once again, Bhaktivinoda calls out to Radha’s Lord: “Please show yourself to me. Please save me, or I will surely die.”

Although the divine ocean of prema vacillates between the low tide of separation and the high tide of union, entrance into prema is only possible through love in separation. It is love in separation that enriches one’s sthayi-bhava and thus makes one competent to fully participate in all aspects of Krishna’s Vraja lila.⁴

This enrichment takes place after the prema-bhakta leaves this world and takes birth in Sri Krishna’s prakata-lila in the association of the nitya-siddha parikaras of Radha and Krishna. For both Radha’s handmaidens and Krishna’s intimate friends who are involved in his romantic life, this development reaches the exalted state of mahabhava. In this verse the words yugayitam nimesena indicate mahabhava. Because the exalted state of mahabhava is the highest degree of intensification one’s sthayi-bhava can reach, all that comes before it—sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga, and bhava—is also implied in this verse. Mahabhava is characterized, among other things, by its effect of making one feel a moment (nimesa) in separation to be like a millennium (yuga) and a millennium in union to be like a moment. Srimad-Bhagavatam describes mahabhava thus:

No male or female in Vrindavana who tasted the festival of the eyes in the form of Krishna’s beautiful face, with its playful smile and cheeks adorned with dolphin-shaped earrings, was satisfied. Although they all felt happiness, it was mixed with frustration due to the momentary blinking of their eyes.⁵

Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura comments:

This verse shows how, among the Vrajavasis, the gopis and Krishna’s priya-narma-sakhas experience Krishna’s beauty most intensely.…Unable to tolerate even the interruption that comes from blinking, they become angry. This is one of the signs of the highest love—mahabhava—which is found only in the gopis and nowhere else except perhaps in Krishna’s most intimate companions like Subala.⁶

In Gaura’s separation, one moment—the blink of an eye—felt like a millennium. Such is the nature of distress. While joy passes all too soon, distress drags on as if forever. The word yuga means a millennium. In the grief of separation from Govinda (govinda-viraha), one moment turns into a millennium. However, yuga is also sometimes defined as “twelve years.” Mahaprabhu spent the last twelve years of his acarya-lila in Jagannatha Puri experiencing Radha’s love for Krishna, her unbearable pain of separation, and in doing so he taught his followers how to taste this same love. The only hope for one whose heart is heavy in separation’s grip is to pour forth a torrent of tears. Here Mahaprabhu compares his tears, which were comparatively slight in bhava-bhakti, to a torrential downpour, caksusa pravrsayitam. In this condition he saw the world as vacant. Without Govinda the world held no charm for him.

What then is the value of Mahaprabhu’s pain of separation? While on the outside the effects of prema appear like poison, on the inside they are filled with ananda.⁷ Although the ocean of Gaura’s love caused him suffering in its low tide of separation, his love in separation on the shores of Jagannatha Puri made the ocean of love for Krishna accessible to all. As he entered that ocean in low tide, so shall we—following his example through love in separation—and in so doing taste, as he did, the high tide of union discussed in the final stanza of Siksastakam.

1. See Brhad-bhagavatamrta 2.166–167.
2. Those cultivating sakhya-rasa, which is also prominent in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, experience the separation known as ayoga and the union known as yoga. Utkantha is sakhya-rasa’s equivalent of purva-raga. It means eagerness to meet Krishna for the first time after having heard about him.
3. udvege divasa na yaya, ‘ksana’ haila ‘yuga’-sama varsara megha-praya asru varise nayana
   govinda-virahe sunya ha-ila tribhuvana tusanale pode, yena na yaya jivana (Cc. 3.20.40 –41)
4. The stages of enrichment are sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga, bhava, and mahabhava. The stage of bhava here is different from the stage of bhava preceding prema-bhakti. Furthermore, this stage of bhava within prema is sometimes considered one with mahabhava and thus is not mentioned. All of the basic sthayi-bhavas are enriched in raganuga-bhakti, but not all of them are enriched up to the stage of mahabhava.
5. yasyananam makara-kundala-caru-karna-bhrajat-kapola-subhagam savilasa-hasam

   nityotsavam na tatrpur drsibhih pibantyo

   naryo naras ca muditah kupita nimes ca (SB. 9.24.65)

6. Caitanya-caritamrta 2.23.55 also confirms that Krishna’s most intimate friends experience mahabhava, although not to the same extent that the handmaidens of Radha do. In this verse of Caitanya-caritamrta, the word bhava means mahabhava.
7. Cc. 2.2.50

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the full series here.
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As Mahaprabhu was absorbed in rasa, feelings of separation from Krishna erupted and he raved like a madman in anxiety, remorse, and humility.¹ His love intensified such that his sthayi-bhava reigned like an emperor over all other attendant bhavas, tasting them, nourishing itself, and immersing him in an ocean of bhakti-rasa. Sri Kaviraja Krishnadasa uses the word rasantaravese to describe Mahaprabhu’s condition—internally absorbed in aesthetic rapture. In doing so he highlights how this verse signals the onset of Mahaprabhu’s prema, for internal absorption in rasa indicates that one has attained prema. As we shall see, prema makes its initial appearance in the dark night of the soul’s unbearable pain of love in separation.

It is difficult to describe the depth of the emotive experience of prema. In Brhad-bhagavatamrta, Narada, while attempting to explain the nature of Radha’s love for Krishna, concludes that prema cannot be fully described. However, if we look to Radha’s dearmost, Sri Rupa, we find a wealth of words on this most esoteric subject. In the beginning of his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Sri Caitanya’s chosen spokesperson defines prema thus: “The wise say that prema is bhava intensified. It softens the heart completely and fosters a sense of possessiveness.”² Prema’s svarupa-laksana is intensification of bhava, which as we learned from the previous Siksastakam verse is but a ray of the sun of prema. The complete softening of the heart and awakening of the sense that “Krishna is mine” are prema’s tatastha-laksana.

Intensification of bhava transports the devotee from being influenced by Krishna’s svarupa-sakti to being entirely situated within it. This is known as svarupavesa, full absorption in one’s inner spiritual identity, or svarupa-siddhi, the perfection of identifying with one’s svarupa, wherein one experiences the highest happiness. Rupa Goswami writes that this happiness exceeds the happiness of Brahman realization just as an ocean exceeds a mere drop of water.³ Higher than the eternal peace and quietude of brahmananda is the svarupananda of Bhagavan, in which he takes pleasure in his own eternal perfection. Higher still is svarupa-saktyananda, in which Bhagavan’s devotees take pleasure in him. It is this happiness, brought about by the intensification of bhava, that prema-bhaktas taste. Thus Sri Rupa refers to the happiness prema affords as sandrananda-visesatma, a condensation of happiness (sandrananda) experienced by one who is completely enveloped in Sri Krishna’s svarupa-sakti (visesatma).⁴

This extraordinary spiritual happiness is strengthened by prema’s power to completely charm Sri Krishna, sri-krishnakarsini.⁵ Only prema has this power to bring Krishna under one’s control. Prema is directed not to Krishna alone but to Krishna along with his entourage. According to Sri Jiva Goswami , this is the significance of the word sri in the phrase sri-krishnakarsini. It refers to his entourage, which is constituted of his svarupa-sakti. As prema captivates Krishna, so too does it captivate his merciful associates. As it does so, it secures the prema-bhaktas’ happiness in svarupa-saktyananda or sandrananda-visesatma.

Thus with the intensification of bhava, the nama-sankirtana that was previously a form of sadhana becomes the sadhya, as bhava becomes prema—prema-sankirtana. Prema-sankirtana is not static but a dynamic, ongoing experience of ever-escalating love that flows like an ocean of nectar, sometimes retreating as the low tide of separation, causing waves of anxiety, and sometimes returning as the high tide of union, causing waves of jubilation.

Although love in separation is a theme that runs throughout Krishna’s Vraja lila, it is highlighted in the case of Radha.⁶ In his Padyavali compilation of verses, Sri Rupa has placed this seventh stanza of Siksastakam in the context of illustrating Radha’s love in separation from Krishna. In doing so Sri Rupa tells us that from this verse of Siksastakam we can understand that Gaura’s sthayi-bhava is that of a lover—Radha’s love for Krishna. Thus after a six-verse preface, it is here in this verse that Krishna as Gaura begins to actually confess his act of thievery. He tried to steal Radha’s bhava, and just see what difficulty it caused him!

Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami describes Gaura’s prema in separation as being filled with anxiety (udvega), remorse (visada), and humility (dainya). Anxiety is the second of ten conditions of separation experienced by all the inhabitants of Vraja. Thus it is not exclusive to romantic love, or madhurya-rasa, although it is certainly heightened therein. Remorse is a vyabhicari-bhava that serves to augment one’s sthayi-bhava. Humility can also be experienced as a vyabhicari-bhava, but to limit our discussion of it to this particular manifestation of humility will not do justice to its overall importance in relation to prema-bhakti. Sri Sanatana Goswami writes about the relationship between humility and prema in his Brhad-bhagavatamrta:

Wise men define dainya as the state in which one always thinks oneself exceptionally incapable and low, even when endowed with all excellences. An intelligent person should carefully cultivate speech, behavior, and thinking that fix him in utter humility, and anything that stands in the way of it he should avoid. Dainya at its most exalted comes forth when prema, pure love of God, reaches full maturity, as it did in the women of Gokula when they were separated from Krishna. When dainya fully matures, prema unfolds without limit. And so we see dainya and prema acting in a relationship in which each is both cause and effect.⁷

True spiritual humility is found in those well endowed with spiritual excellences, for the poor are humble only out of circumstance. There is no wealth greater than prema, and when we see humility in those who have it, we witness humility’s full face. Mundane humility can be developed by human effort, but spiritual humility results only from receiving God’s blessing. The gopis exhibited this kind of humility in viraha-bhava, or the ecstasy of love in separation. It is through feelings of love augmented by separation that this intense humility is experienced. Such humility is an integral component of prema, for just as humility fosters prema, prema in turn fosters humility.

1. Cc. 3.20.38.
2. 2 samya-masrnita-svantomamatvatisayankitah

   bhavah sa eva sandratma

   budhaih prema nigadyate (Brs. 3.4.1)

3. Brs. 1.1.38.
4. Brs. 1.1.38.
5. Brs. 1.1.41.
6. All of the Vrajavasis experience love in union (yoga) and separation (ayoga). Ayoga is divided into utkantha (anxiety) and viyoga (estrangement). Viyoga is further divided tenfold.
7. Sanatana Goswami, Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta, trans. Gopiparanadhana Dasa (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 2005), 2.5.222–25.

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the full series here.
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Although Sri Gaurasundara mentions only sattvika-bhavas in this verse, all of the ingredients of rasa are implied. A brief discussion of these ingredients will be helpful in understanding the inner life of a bhava-bhakta. The ingredients of rasa are fivefold: sthayi-bhava, vibhava, anubhava, sattvika-bhava, and vyabhicari-bhava. They are best understood in the context of viewing and participating in a drama, in this case the drama of Krishna lila.

One’s sthayi-bhava is the dominant spiritual sentiment through which one desires to serve Krishna in his eternal lila. It is the basis of one’s spiritual identity that has dawned through the sadhana of nama-sankirtana and Krishna mantra-dhyana. In bhava one views the drama of Krishna lila through the lens of one’s developing sthayi-bhava, identifying with a particular sentiment expressed by one of Krishna’s eternal associates who has become one’s role model.¹

Vibhavas, which arouse and intensify one’s sthayi-bhava, appear in two varieties: alambana-vibhava and uddipana-vibhava. There are two alambana-vibhavas: the object of love and the embodiment of love. In the lila the object of love is Krishna and the embodiment of that love is one of his eternal associates who relishes a particular sentiment, such as romantic love. The uddipana-vibhavas are the personal qualities and attributes of the object of love. Uddipana-vibhavas are such only because the bhava-bhakta has already begun to awaken the sthayi-bhava that causes them to be experienced in this light. One who already has love for something will experience things in relation to it as further stimulus for that love.

While vibhavas stimulate one’s sthayi-bhava, anubhavas and sattvika-bhavas are responses to this stimulation. Anubhavas are deliberate bodily movements, such as coy smiling, singing, and dancing, and sattvika-bhavas are involuntary bodily movements, such as tears or fainting. The final ingredient of rasa is vyabhicari-bhava, a transitory expression of love such as anxiety, humility, or jubilation. Vyabhicari-bhavas, although similar to sthayi-bhavas, are not powerful enough to be dominant emotions.

An illustration of how rasa expresses itself in lila-smaranam should help the reader to grasp this difficult subject. If the sthayi-bhava being cultivated is romantic love, the bhava-bhakta sees Radha as the perfect role model. She is the embodiment of the love that the devotee aspires to experience, and Krishna is the object of that love.²

While meditating on the lila, the vibhavas, such as the sound of Krishna’s flute and the coming of spring, will excite Radha’s love, her sthayi-bhava. Thus the bhava-bhakta who is identifying with that love in meditation is similarly stimulated. If the bhava-bhakta’s sthayi-bhava is deeply felt, then it will result in a physical indication of the sentiment of romantic love that Radha experiences, such as a coy smile or sidelong glance. Such a physical indicator is an anubhava. Involuntary responses also manifest in the form of tears and other sattvika-bhavas in Radha’s person. As they appear in Radha, they also appear in the devotee cultivating romantic love for Krishna. Finally, as vyabhicari-bhavas (transitory emotions), such as despondency and jubilation, appear in Radha, they also appear in the meditative bhava-bhakta envisioning the lila. All of these bhavas occurring together heighten one’s sthayi-bhava such that it ascends to the point of rasa, the zenith of spiritual emotion in aesthetic rapture.

Srila Rupa Goswami has compared sthayi-bhava’s ascent to rasa to the rising of the ocean in a monsoon. Just as the ocean is the source of clouds, which then shower rain on it and increase its tide, similarly the awakening of one’s sthayi-bhava gives rise to the other emotional ingredients that shower down on the ocean of one’s sthayi-bhava, increasing its depth and issuing forth a tidal wave of rasananda. When the bhava-bhakta tastes rasa, his or her bhava-sadhana is mature.

The bhava-bhakta directly experiences Krishna in the world of spiritual emotion, and thus the Deity, who for the most part in sadhana-bhakti was theoretical, appears bigger than life. Having left the world where feeling and emotion are generated by the mind and have no potential to acquaint one with rasa, the bhava-bhakta is now absorbed in the world of actual emotions in close pursuit of prema-rasa. Sri Rupa writes that the bliss of bhava knows no bounds, ratir ananda-rupaiva. Mahaprabhu has said as much in the first verse of Siksastakam when he spoke of how Sri Krishna nama-sankirtana drowns one in an ever-increasing ocean of ecstasy—anandambudhi-vardhanam. Experiencing this in the company of Ramananda and Svarupa, Sri Gaura-kisora prayed to Krishna after uttering his sixth verse of Siksastakam. With his heart melting in bhava he cried out to Krishna in the mood of Radha, “Make me your maidservant, my wage the wealth of prema.” (‘dasa’ kari’ vetana more deha prema-dhana (Cc. 3.20.37) ))

1. In bhava-bhakti one’s sthayi-bhava requires cultivation to be fully experienced as one’s eternal identity in Krishna lila. Jiva Goswami has differentiated the sthayi-bhava that has not fully developed in bhava from the fully developed sthayi-bhava of prema-bhakti. This development of one’s sthayi-bhava involves the stages of sneha (affection), mana (jealous love), pranaya (possessiveness), raga (attachment), anuraga (subsequent attachment), bhava (ecstasy), and mahabhava (highest ecstasy) relative to the sthayi-bhavas of dasya (servitude), sakhya (fraternal love), vatsalya (parental love), and madhurya (romantic love). See Ujjvala-nilamani, “Sthayi-bhava-prakarana” and also Cc. 2.19.178 for details.
2. Typically in Gaudiya Vaishnavism devotees desire to become handmaidens of Radha and thereby experience her bhava to an extent that would not be possible otherwise. In this case, Radha and Krishna together become the object of love and Radha’s handmaiden, Rupa Manjari (Rupa Goswami), becomes the embodiment of love, the aspirant’s role model. This is called bhavollasa-rati or manjari-bhava.

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

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Bhava-bhakti is principally characterized by the ingress of Sri Krishna’s svarupa-sakti into the heart of a sadhaka. While the ingress of svarupa-sakti is slight in the stages of ruci and asakti, when asakti is mature, this ingress is substantial and specific in nature, turning the spiritual attachment of asakti into the spiritual emotion of bhava. This ingress situates the bhava-bhakta beyond the influence of material nature on the ground of pure existence, suddha-sattva. This firm, pure ground of being is also known as sandhini-sakti, one of the three components of Krishna’s svarupa-sakti. One’s spiritual identity emerges from this ground of pure existence and is shaped by the other two components of the svarupa-sakti, the samvit (cognitive) and hladini (ecstasy) saktis. Sri Rupa refers to this influence with the words suddha-sattva-visesatma, which indicate a special liberated status within spiritual existence in which one is fully competent to cultivate spiritual emotion. In this pure condition, arrived at by the grace and power of Krishna’s holy name, his mantra, and the able guidance of Sri Guru, one is qualified to taste the pure name of Krishna, in which his form, qualities, and lilas are all contained.

The marginal characteristic of bhava-bhakti is the effect it has on the devotee’s mind and body, making them one with itself in the way that an iron rod becomes one with fire when placed within it. While in the paths of yoga and jnana one’s mind ceases to function because of being in static trance, when one’s mind becomes one with bhava it retains the ability to experience variety, giving rise to meditation on the dynamic nature of Krishna lila.¹ When the practitioner’s body becomes one with bhava, it moves completely under the influence of Krishna’s svarupa-sakti. The sadhaka-deha is a spiritualized material body, and although it may appear to undergo material transformation, it is spiritual in that it is filled with svarupa-sakti. In this regard, Mahaprabhu told Sanatana Goswami that Sri Sanatana’s body was filled with samvit and hladini-sakti—cid-anandamaya.²

Srila Rupa Goswami explains the difference between bhava-bhakti and prema-bhakti with the analogy of the sun and its rays. Prema is the sun of love of God, and bhava is one of its rays, prema-suryamsu-samya-bhak. Bhava-bhakti is distinct from sadhana-bhakti and prema-bhakti, but it contains elements of both.³ It is constituted of prema, but being only a partial manifestation of prema, it must be cultivated through a particular sadhana to bear fruit. The internal sadhana of bhava-bhakti is a spiritual practice (abhidheya-tattva) that is fully informed because it arises out of a mature conceptual orientation (sambandha-tattva), arrived at through the completion of sadhana-bhakti. Thus it is competent to enable one to realize the ideal (prayojana-tattva) of prema-bhakti. This bhava-sadhana involves cultivating the various ingredients of aesthetic rapture by identifying with a particular role model in Krishna lila with a view to taste rasa and experience prema. One does so by meditating on the eternal drama of Krishna lila from the vantage point of one’s inner spiritual identity.⁴ Initially this participation is vicarious and eventually firsthand.

This internal sadhana is energized by nama-sankirtana. Indeed, nama-sankirtana begets meditation on Krishna lila. In the words of the most merciful Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, “By the power of kirtana, meditation on one’s svarupa arises.”⁵Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta says as much when it tells us that real meditation is “the fruit of nama-sankirtana.”⁶ Meditation is only superior to nama-sankirtana when one’s meditation is so deep that it turns into internal nama-sankirtana.⁷ Furthermore, Kaviraja Krsnadasa writes that love of Krishna is eternally existing and manifests itself in the course of hearing and chanting in nama-sankirtana as one’s consciousness becomes purified.15 After all, Krishna nama is nondifferent from Krishna himself, and thus all of his lilas are present within his name. When one is established in saranagati through nama-sankirtana with the help of the conceptual orientation to Krishna lila found within the Krishna mantra, one’s heart is pure and thus a suitable place for the pure name of Krishna to begin to manifest. At that time, Krishna lila springs forth spontaneously from Krishna nama, enabling one to fully identify with the lila in pursuit of rasananda.

1. Brs. 1.3.10.
2. Cc. 3.4.192. Notably, Sanatana Goswami’s body was infected with open sores and thus appeared to be subject to material conditions even though it was filled with bhava.
3. Brs. 1.2.1. Bhava is the goal of sadhana.
4. A semblance of this fully developed bhava-sadhana is often performed prior to attaining bhava, especially in the stages of ruci and asakti. Indeed, Sri Rupa Goswami mentions this sadhana involving an internal spiritual identity in his chapter on sadhana-bhakti in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu.
5. kirtana-prabhave smarana svabhave se kale bhajana-nirjana sambhava (Vaishnava Ke 19)
6. Brhad-bhagavatamrta 2.3.165. Also see Sanatana Goswami’s commentary on Brhad-bhagavatamrta 2.3.150, where he differentiates actual meditation from mere remembrance and states that true meditation on Bhagavan occurs in a mature stage of devotional development, wherein the soul (and not only the mind) comes in touch with God.
7. Brhad-bhagavatamrta 2.3.151.

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the full series here.
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In this verse Sri Gaurasundara speaks to Ramananda and Svarupa with deep spiritual emotion, longing for prema. Krishna does not grant prema to a devotee until his or her longing to attain it becomes very intense. This intense longing typically arises in bhava-bhakti, which is difficult to achieve. Sri Rupa has explained that bhava cannot be realized even by long periods of intense practice devoid of taste and attachment, and thus one must first pass step-by-step through all the lower stages of sadhana-bhakti. Furthermore, it cannot be attained by any other form of spiritual practice, such as jnana or yoga. Bhava is also dependent on Krishna’s mercy, and even after one comes to the stages of ruci and asakti, Krishna does not grant it easily, certainly not as easily as he grants mukti to practitioners of other spiritual disciplines. Indeed, mukti, which is the goal of yoga and jnana, is insignificant in comparison to bhava.¹

In this verse Sri Gaurasundara prays for the ecstatic transformations known as sattvika-bhavas, which are characteristic of bhava-bhakti. Sattvika-bhavas are involuntary bodily transformations resulting from spiritual emotion, and they are eight in number: paralysis, tears, perspiration, change of color, fainting, horripilation, trembling, and stammering. These involuntary symptoms are common when they manifest as a result of material emotions, such as fear or sadness, but uncommon when they manifest as a result of singing the name of Krishna in sankirtana. Such an occurrence signals the beginning of a life of eternal spiritual emotion in which one’s mind is saturated with bhava.

When bhava arrests the mind, the mind becomes illumined and spiritual emotion moves throughout the body on the vehicle of the life air (prana). As the life air is transformed under bhava’s influence, bhava in turn excites the body and affects its elemental constituents: earth, water, fire, and air. Paralysis manifests from bhava’s influence on the earth element, tears and perspiration from its influence on water, change of color from its influence on fire, and fainting from its influence on air. Bhava also affects one’s body independently of its elemental constituents, causing horripilation, trembling, and stammering. Following the lead of the tantra-sastra, Thakura Bhaktivinoda comments that three of these eight transformations—tears, horripilation, and stammering—along with the anubhavas (deliberate bodily movements) of singing and dancing are particularly symptomatic of bhava-bhakti.² Mahaprabhu prays for the day that these three will decorate his body as he sings and dances in nama-sankirtana.

Although these external symptoms signal bhava, because they also sometimes appear in material circumstances, they are not clear indicators of the presence of bhava, and their absence does not necessarily mean that one has not attained bhava. Bhava-bhaktas often keep such symptoms in check and experience them within.((See Visvanatha Cakravartî Thakura’s commentary on SB. 2.2.2.)) Furthermore, bhava is sometimes imitated, causing these symptoms to manifest artificially. About such imitation Sri Rupa remarks, “Sometimes tears and other sattvika-bhavas appear in someone who does not possess the prerequisite spiritual qualifications, in someone whose heart is by nature slippery and who has simply practiced making a show of these external manifestations.”³ There is also the possibility that these symptoms will appear from time to time in sincere devotees who have not yet attained bhava. Such instances are examples of Harinama Prabhu’s encouragement, as the holy name sometimes chooses to draw sadhakas into a semblance of bhava. Thus we are faced with the problem of how to distinguish a genuine bhava-bhakta from a common person, an imitator, or a fortunate sadhaka experiencing a temporary reflection of bhava and, furthermore, how to identify a bhava-bhakta when he or she is keeping ecstatic symptoms in check.

The solution to this problem lies in the fact that bhava is a deep spiritual realization that brings about not only bodily transformations but a change of heart. This change of heart is permanent, difficult to imitate, and exclusive to those who have attained bhava. It is observable in the form of nine character traits: forbearance, concern that time should not be wasted, detachment, absence of false prestige, hope, eagerness, taste for chanting the holy name, attachment to descriptions of the transcendental qualities of Bhagavan, and affection for those places where he resides.⁴ Thus while the external symptoms of ecstasy that Mahaprabhu speaks of in this verse indicate the attainment of bhava, they must be corroborated by the appearance of these nine character traits. Furthermore, if we observe a devotee who possesses these character traits but not the sattvika-bhavas, such a devotee should be considered to have attained bhava-bhakti while keeping the overt manifestation of sattvika-bhavas in check and experiencing them internally.

Needless to say, Mahaprabhu’s own display of sattvika-bhavas arose from a very tender heart softened by bhava and so saturated with prema that the sattvika-bhavas could not be checked. No one could possibly imitate the external signs of ecstasy exhibited by Sri Krishna Caitanya. Although in this verse Mahaprabhu prays for the three sattvika-bhavas that are prominent in bhava-bhakti, he does so to teach us about bhava. He himself simultaneously exhibited extreme forms of all eight sattvika-bhavas along with anubhavas that are so rare that Sri Rupa has not commented on them.⁵

Sri Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami’s description of Gaurasundara’s dancing in sankirtana—dancing that made Jagannatha’s eyes open wide and stare in disbelief—is perhaps the best illustration of this extreme ecstasy.

When Prabhu jumped and danced he was wonderfully transformed, as all eight sattvika-bhavas simultaneously erupted in him. The hair on his body stood on end and his body appeared like a smooth silk çimuli tree with thorns. Seeing his teeth chattering, people feared his teeth would fall from his mouth. Blood poured like perspiration from his pores. Stammering, he called to Jagannatha, “jaja gaga jaja gaga.” His eyes poured forth water like a fountain, drenching everyone on all sides. In view of everyone, his hue changed from golden to reddish brown to the color of a jasmine. Sometimes he was stunned, and sometimes he rolled on the ground. His limbs became hard like sticks of dry wood and did not move. Losing his breath, he fell to the ground, and seeing this the devotees lost their own life breath. Tears poured from his eyes, mucus ran from his nose, and foam poured from his mouth like streams of nectar falling from the moon.⁶

Such descriptions of Gaura’s ecstasy are compelling. They are filled with spiritual power and promise that bhava-bhakti, although rare, is nonetheless within reach by the virtue of nama-sankirtana.

Thus far we have discussed the rarity of bhava-bhakti and the appearance of sattvika-bhavas. We have not discussed, however, exactly what bhava-bhakti is. Nor have we discussed what the life of a bhava-bhakta consists of, as we have done for the sadhana-bhakta, whose life we detailed through the various stages of sadhana-bhakti in our discussion of the previous verses of Siksastakam. Therefore, let us turn our attention to the nature of bhava itself and the inner life that it gives rise to.

1. For more on bhava’s rarity (su-durlabha) and how it belittles mukti (moksa-laghutakrt), see Brs. 1.1.33–37.
2. The anubhavas of singing and dancing differ in bhava-bhakti from the singing and dancing of sadhana-bhakti in that even though they are deliberate they are aroused by the ingress of bhava.
3. See Brs. 2.3.89. Here “slippery” refers to the veneer covering the heart of pseudo-devotees.
4. See Brs. 1.3.25–26
5. In Brs. 2.2.12, Sri Rupa mentions swelling of the body and bleeding but does not discuss them because they are so rare.
6. uddanda nrtye prabhura adbhuta vikara
   asta sattvika bhava udaya haya sama-kala
   mamsa-vrana sama roma-vrnda pulakita
   simulira vrksa yena kantaka-vestita
   eka eka dantera kampa dekhite lage bhaya
   loke jane, danta saba khasiya padaya
   sarvange prasveda chute tate raktodgama
   ‘jaja gaga’ ‘jaja gaga’—gadgada-vacana
   jalayantra-dhara yaiche vahe asru-jala
   asa-pase loka yata bhijila sakala
   deha-kanti gaura-varna dekhiye aruna
   kabhu kanti dekhi yena mallika-puspa-sama
   kabhu stambha, kabhu prabhu bhumite lotaya
   suska-kastha-sama pada-hasta na calaya
   kabhu bhume pade, kabhu svasa haya hina
   yaha dekhi’ bhakta-ganera prana haya ksiva
   kabhu netre nasaya jala, mukhe pade phena
   amrtera dhara candra-bimbe vahe yena
   sei phena lana subhananda kaila pana
   krsna-prema-rasika tenho maha-bhagyavan (Cc. 2.13.101–110)

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

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Speaking of the serving ego that forms the basis of one’s spiritual identity, Mahaprabhu told Sanatana Goswami, jivera ‘svarupa’ haya—krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’: “The eternal svarupa of the jiva is Krishna dasa, a servant of Krishna.”¹ A serving ego is the basis of all expressions of bhakti-rasa. Whether one experiences oneself as a servant, friend, elder, or lover of Krishna, all of these experiences of sacred aesthetic rapture are expressions of service intensified to different degrees. This serving ego is the antithesis of the enjoying ego, an identity based on material attachment in a self-centered world of “I” and “my.” Any position in the world of divine service—even that of a dust particle at Sri Krishna’s lotus feet—is desirable in comparison to the highest position in material life, pada-pankaja-sthita-dhuli-sadrsam vicintaya. Unfortunately, most would prefer to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.

In this fifth verse, Mahaprabhu does not aspire for a specific position of eternal service—as a servant, friend, parent, or lover—but appropriately conceals his budding life of internal bhajana. As Narottama Thakura Mahasaya sings, apana bhajana-katha na kahiba jatha tatha: “One should not reveal one’s bhajana to others,”² and rakha prema hrdaye bhariya, “Keep your love hidden in your heart.”³ By keeping one’s love within, the fire of love compresses and becomes more and more powerful, propelling one onward to prema.

It is clear, however, that Mahaprabhu desires one of the eternal sentiments of Vraja prema from the fact that he refers to his Pranesvara as Vraja’s Nanda-tanuja. In asakti Mahaprabhu’s object of love and attachment is the cowherd son of Nanda. Nonetheless, the way in which Mahaprabhu would like to serve his object of love—what specific sentiment of love he has become attached to—remains hidden.

Asakti literally means attachment. In the stage of ruci, a sadhaka is more attached to bhakti itself than to the object of bhakti. In asakti this balance shifts, as the object of the sadhaka’s bhajana takes his seat in the heart and the sadhaka thus becomes attached to him personally. Just as our material sense of identity is based on attachment to sense objects, in the stage of asakti, as spiritual attachment for Sri Krishnaa awakens through nama-sankirtana, a sadhaka’s attachment forms the basis of his or her budding sense of identity as an eternal servitor in one of four loving sentiments.

Spiritual attachment arising out of nama-sankirtana gives rise to spontaneous meditation on Sri Krishna in the same way that a materially attached person spontaneously thinks of the object of his or her attachment. One’s mind goes effortlessly to that which one is attached to. As a less advanced sadhaka’s mind is prone to spontaneously wander from a deliberate effort to think of Krishna, similarly in asakti a sadhaka’s mind wanders spontaneously to thoughts of Krishna when discussing mundane topics. Such is the powerful effect of nama-sankirtana. It fosters a meditative state in which the sadhaka participates internally in lila-seva from the vantage point of his or her siddha-deha.

As we have seen, the spirit of one’s svarupa, regardless of the particular form it takes, is selfless service. In this verse of Siksastakam, Mahaprabhu identifies himself as a kinkara, a servant. The word kinkara is derived from the two words kim (what) and karomi (I do), and thus implies, “How can I serve you?” This is the only question one needs to ask of God and guru. When asked in earnest with a pure heart, the subsequent answer gradually manifests as one attains the stage of asakti and glimpses one’s eternal serving nature.

1. Cc. 2.20.108.
2. Prema Bhakti-candrika 3.11.
3. Prema Bhakti-candrika 9.19.

Lesson one in the Harmonist classroom series discussing chapter five of Swami Tripurari’s Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya. San Rafael: Mandala, 2005. Swami will be responding to comments and questions while guiding readers through the text. Reader participation is encouraged.

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the full series here.
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Once again Gaura Krishna begs in great humility, this time requesting the gift of eternal service, praying for a spiritual identity. In doing so he simultaneously speaks about the nature of one’s material identity, a sense of existence determined by material conditions.¹ In this way he teaches us how the sadhaka at the stage of asakti yearns to be established in his or her eternal identity, retiring the fleeting sense of identity—the material ego—derived from the influence of material nature.

Material nature is constantly in flux, such that it is practically impossible for one under her influence to catch one’s balance. As we toss and turn on the waves of material existence, material conditions change and so too does our sense of identity. A daughter becomes a wife, then a mother, then a grandmother, and then in the next life perhaps a son, and so on. Our desires and attachments determine our sense of self. Indeed, we are our attachments—a father based on attachment to sons and daughters, a husband based on attachment to a wife. Our sense of “I” is derived from our sense of “my.”

The ground beneath our feet is moving. Although it looks solid, it is liquid. Speaking to Rama Raya and Svarupa Damodara, Mahaprabhu compares material life to being lost at sea in a storm, patitam mam visame bhavambudhau. This is practically a hopeless condition, and one can only be saved by help beyond one’s own effort. Thus Sri Krishna Caitanya appealed to Nanda-tanuja for mercy, krpaya. Advanced sadhakas pray like this.

Reflecting on this verse of Siksastakam, Thakura Bhaktivinoda sings, anadi karama-phale, padi bhavarnava jale: “Due to the results of beginningless karma, I have fallen into the material ocean.”² Fortunately, as unimaginably long as it may take, beginningless karma can come to an end. In the stage of asakti, the lingering smoke of the fire of samsara is dissipated once and for all. This is the final end of karma’s influence, which began to disappear in the stage of nistha.

Proportionate to the demise of one’s illusory karmic identity under the jurisdiction of Krishna’s maya-sakti, one is able to establish a spiritual identity in relation to Krishna under the jurisdiction of his svarupa-sakti. This spiritual identity surfaces in the stage of asakti. The surfacing of one’s spiritual identity is the realized fruit of sambandha-jnana, which is received in seed at the time of diksa through the transmission of the Krishna mantra from guru to disciple. This mantra assists the sadhaka in the sadhana of nama-sankirtana.

When the sadhaka realizes the import of diksa and his or her sambandha-jnana is thus complete, two results follow. One’s external practitioner’s body, or sadhaka-deha, becomes spiritualized, and the sadhaka, having completed the course of sadhana-bhakti, becomes eligible to engage in lila-seva to Krishna in an internal spiritual body. In other words, as asakti matures, nama-sankirtana brings “the bride named knowledge,” Krishna’s svarupa-sakti, to life in the sadhaka’s heart—vidya-vadhu-jivanam. This awakening heralds the appearance of the sadhaka’s siddha-deha.

Regarding the sadhaka-deha, Sriman Mahaprabhu told Sanatana Goswami that a Vaishnava’s body should never be considered material but rather transcendental and full of spiritual bliss.³ He explained that this spiritualization begins with diksa, and that when the sadhaka realizes the import of diksa, his or her sadhaka-deha is so spiritualized that it becomes worshipable by even Krishna himself!

At the time of diksa, Krishna makes one equal to himself.
He makes one’s body full of consciousness and joy
and worships the feet of that spiritual body.⁴

These words of Mahaprabhu can be rendered into English with two slightly different meanings, the first of which, as we have seen, finds one’s sadhaka-deha worshipable by Krishna.⁵ The second possible rendering is similar but not quite as emphatic in its glorification of the sadhaka-deha. This reading merely tells us that Krishna makes the devotee’s body spiritual like his own so that the devotee can engage in the service of his lotus feet, for Krishna cannot be served with material senses.⁶ Thus the sadhaka realizes a spiritualized sadhaka-deha on attaining the stage of asakti.⁷

Regarding the internal siddha-deha that is glimpsed asakti and further cultivated in bhava-bhakti, Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes in his Bhajana-rahasya, “At this stage (asakti) of cultivating nama-sadhana, the aspirant prays for knowledge of his eternal spiritual identity and for service to Krishna (in that identity).”⁸ In the same book, the Thakura writes about how the gradual development that leads to the awakening of one’s siddha-deha is outlined in Siksastakam:

One should next become mature in one’s worship on the basis of the first four verses, before accepting one’s spiritual body with the fifth verse. With this verse, one begins to take shelter of Srimati Radharani’s lotus feet in the siddha-deha and then make gradual progress. By the time one has reached the sixth verse, one’s contaminations have pretty much disappeared and one therefore has the right to worship in one’s siddha-deha. If anyone tries to meditate on his spiritual body without having this qualification, his intelligence will be turned upside down due to his lack of strength.⁹

Further evidence that the sadhaka’s siddha-deha is glimpsed and ultimately realized as a result of nama-sankirtana is given by Sri Krishna in his speech to Uddhava:

Just as a diseased eye treated with medicinal ointment will gradually see more clearly, similarly a conscious living entity—the seer—when purified by hearing and chanting about my virtues, will gradually be able to see more clearly the underlying reality.¹⁰

Commenting on this verse in his Raga-vartma-candrika (1.9), Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura writes that when sacred greed for Vraja bhakti awakens within the sadhaka’s heart, the sadhaka’s path is illumined both externally by Sri Guru and internally by the indwelling oversoul, the antaryami. The Thakura explains that a sadhaka may receive instructions about cultivating an inner spiritual identity in one of three ways. The sadhaka may hear directly from the mouth of Sri Guru, from a qualified sadhu, or from within, as the instructions manifest of their own accord in the heart that has been purified by practices such as nama-sankirtana. At the stage of asakti, the sadhaka attains this purity, evidenced by his or her being freed from the enjoying spirit and established in a spirit of service.

1. ati-dainye punah mage dasya-bhakti-dana apanare kare samsari jiva-abhimana (CC. 3.20.31)
2. Gitavali, Siksastakam 5.
3. prabhu kahe,—vaisnava-deha ‘prakrta’ kabhu naya‘aprakrta’ deha bhaktera ‘cid-ananda-maya’ (CC. 3.4.191)
4. diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
   sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama
   sei deha kare tara cid-ananda-maya
   aprakrta-dehe tanra carana bhajaya (CC. 3.4.192–193)
5. See E. C. Dimock’s edition of Caitanya-caritamrta.
6. Brs. 1.2.234.
7. In his commentary on SB. 10.29.10, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura writes that one’s sadhaka-deha is completely spiritualized on attaining prema.
8. Bhajana-rahasya 5.
9. cari sloke kramasah bhajana pakva kara pañcama slokete nija-siddha-deha varaei sloke siddha-dehe radha-padasraya arambha kariya krame unnati udaya
   chaya sloka bhajite anartha dure gela tabe jnana siddha-dehe adhikara haila
   adhikara na labhiya siddha-deha bhave viparyaya buddhi janme saktira abhave (Bhajana-rahasya 1)
10. yatha yathatma parimrjyate ’saumat-punya-gatha-sravanabhidhanai˙
    tatha tatha pasyati vastu suksman
    caksur yathaivanjana-samprayuktam (SB. 11.4.26)

Siksastakam of Sri Caitanya is available here.

Read the full series here.
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The beauty of sraddha’s blossom shines brightly, enchanted by the soothing moon of Sri Krishnacandra. This blossom of ruci enchants the entire world and also charms the sadhaka’s heart. In its shadow stands material desire and the darkness it represents. As inauspiciousness is removed (klesaghni), the sadhaka’s life becomes truly auspicious (subhada). This auspiciousness begins at nistha and fully manifests in ruci. In his first stanza of Siksastakam, Mahaprabhu has referred to it and other effects of ruci with the words sreyah-kairava candrika-vitaranam. This phrase offers us further insight into the nature of the ruci that Mahaprabhu is describing here in verse four.

The word sreyah means most auspicious, and here it refers to the fourfold auspiciousness that characterizes suddha-bhakti in the stage of ruci. Sri Rupa describes this fourfold auspiciousness in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu:

The wise say that from bhakti
fourfold auspiciousness arises:
natural ability to please all people
and attract everyone’s affection,
possession of all good qualities,
and a condition of happiness.¹

The sadhaka who has attained ruci is thus pleasing, popular, qualified, and happy. His or her happiness is neither material happiness nor the bliss of brahmananda. It is the happiness of the prospect of suddha-bhakti, which will grow within the sadhaka from this point to perfection.

Along with auspiciousness, three spiritual desires are experienced by the sadhaka at the stage of ruci. They manifest in the practitioner’s intellect and are thus intentionally cultivated. These aspirations are the desire to serve Krishna favorably (anukulya-abhilasa), the desire to attain a specific service to Krishna (prapty-abhilasa), and the desire to establish an affectionate relationship with Krishna (sauharda-abhilasa). They appear with greater intensity in the stage of asakti and are fully established in the stage of bhava.²

Thus ruci is the stage in which the sadhaka experiences tangible positive attainment. It is the beginning of actual love of God. The sadhaka has lost interest in material desire, and concern for liberation is obscured by the special taste for hearing and chanting that has awakened.³ Such a sadhaka’s life is filled with auspiciousness and spiritual desire. The sadhaka starts to bid farewell to the world and its God (Paramatma) from whom the baddha-jiva originates, as taste for Krishna lila begins to take precedence over Paramatma’s play of creation (srsti-lila) and all that it involves.

As Mahaprabhu turns from the world of material desire toward his inner ideal, he bows one last time to the manifestation of Krishna that rules the world, referring to him in this verse by the name Jagadisa. This name of God refers to the Paramatma feature of God, the overseer of the world, and to the aisvarya aspect of Mahaprabhu’s Deity, Krishna. Although it is not until the stage of asakti that the Deity comes to sit in the sadhaka’s heart and fully displaces the Paramatma, in the stage of ruci this displacement begins to manifest. Therefore, after addressing his Deity as Jagadisa in the first half of this verse, Mahaprabhu then refers to him as Isvara. By this name he refers not to Paramatma but rather to his Pranesvara, the Lord (isvara) of his life (prana), Sri Krishna. Thus he prays for unalloyed devotion to Krishna, his Pranesvara, life after life and not to the Paramatma to whom he is bidding farewell.

Although the baddha-jivas are originally manifest from the Paramatma, if they are pursuing Vraja prema, they are focused on Krishna, Radha-Krishna.⁴ However, Sri Krishna is lost in his Vraja lila and forgetful of his Godhood. He is simultaneously God and forgetful of his Godhood, forgetful by the force of his devotees’ love, which causes him to appear as an intimate friend or lover. Although it is true that despite Krishna’s being primarily lost in love he nonetheless retains his Godhood and can thus hear the prayers of his sadhakas, one can legitimately ask at what stage of spiritual practice a sadhaka’s prayers are capable of attracting Krishna’s personal attention and, furthermore, at what stage a sadhaka’s seva becomes lila-seva, internal seva that reaches Krishna in his nitya-lila.⁵ While some may insist that Krishna personally listens to the prayers of his sadhakas at any stage of sadhana, Thakura Bhaktivinoda says, “The prayers of one who is a saranagata are heard by Sri Nanda-kumara.”⁶

As we have already learned, saranagati is complete in the stage of ruci. By invoking the name Isvara/Pranesvara in his fourth stanza in contrast to the name Jagadisa, Mahaprabhu implies that the sadhaka’s shift toward actual lila-seva has its earliest beginning in ruci, as one moves from the jurisdiction of the Paramatma to the jurisdiction of one’s personal Deity situated in his eternal lila. The deepest import of the word candrika, moonbeams, found in the first verse of Siksastakam, is that the influence of the svarupa-sakti begins to show itself ever so slightly at the stage of ruci, as Sri Krishnacandra benedicts his devotee. The influence of the svarupa-sakti develops further as ruci matures and turns into asakti, and it is complete in bhava.⁷

Should any sadhaka who has not yet attained ruci or asakti despair at this conclusion that in the early stages of sadhana the Paramatma is involved in one’s life more than one’s personal Deity, he or she can take solace in Mahaprabhu Visvambhara himself, as well as in the most merciful Nityananda. Although Mahaprabhu prays to Jagadisa and his Pranesvara in this verse, his followers should pray to him. He is Visvambhara, the maintainer of the universe, and he is Krishna himself, the source of all avataras.⁸ He is the yugavatara and he is lost in mahabhava. Thus he is both our Jagadisa and our Pranesvara. With one hand he reaches out to the baddha-jiva with the yuga-dharma and with the other he reaches up to the highest point of Vraja prema, as he dances in nama-sankirtana. He is Krishna himself yet present in the world for sadhakas in his acarya-lila, and as his other self, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, he is present that much more, with both hands stretched out to all materially conditioned souls. Thakura Bhaktivinoda has emphasized that worship of Gaura-Nityananda in dasya-bhakti begets Vraja prema. Worship in Nadiya, live in Vrindavana. Gaura-Nityånanda hear the prayers of their sadhakas, even those who have no ruci, and as their sadhakas attain ruci, Gaura-Nityånanda begin to crack open the door to service in Krishna’s eternal lila.
With a view to better understand ruci and the raganuga-bhakti that Mahaprabhu points to in his Siksastakam, it will be useful to conclude the commentary on this verse with a brief discussion of the two kinds of sadhakas pursuing the ideal of raganuga-bhakti—Vraja prema. Sri Jiva Goswami divides sadhakas who are cultivating raganuga-bhakti into two categories, ajata-ruci sadhakas (those who have not attained ruci) and jata-ruci sadhakas (those who have attained ruci). Ajata-ruci raganuga-sadhakas are inspired to cultivate raganuga-bhakti by the association of those who already have a taste for raga-bhakti. Sri Jiva describes the ajata-ruci sadhakas thus:

Those who have not achieved ruci may still engage in raganuga-bhakti simply due to association with a devotee who has this kind of attraction, but they should engage in such practice combined with vaidhi-bhakti.…The meaning of mixed raganuga and vaidhi is that one externally practices vaidhi-bhakti by making it one with raganuga to the extent that one is able to do so.⁹

What does it mean to externally practice vaidhi-bhakti while making it one with raganuga-bhakti according to one’s ability? It means to engage in the practices of vaidhi-bhakti, such as hearing and chanting in nama-sankirtana, with a view to attain a specific taste for bhakti that follows in the wake of the divine love exhibited by Sri Krishna’s eternal associates in Vraja and, as one’s internal life begins to manifest, to engage in Krishna lila smaranam.

According to Sri Jiva Goswami, both ajata-ruci sadhakas and jata-ruci sadhakas engage in lila smaranam. Ajata-ruci sadhakas, though meditating on Vrindavana lila through their guru-given Krishna mantra, lack three things: a sense of identity in Krishna lila, a specific intention or goal concerning participation in the lila, and the sense that their practice is being accepted as lila-seva. Jata-ruci sadhakas are more advanced, and due to having attained maturity in ruci, they have a budding sense of their spiritual identity, a service ideal, and the sense that their practice is approaching lila-seva.

Those with and without ruci are also described by Srila Rupa Goswami in his Upadesamrta, verses 7 and 8.¹⁰ In verse 7 Sri Rupa explains that just as one afflicted by jaundice cannot taste the sweetness of sugarcane, similarly one afflicted by ignorance cannot taste the sweetness of Krishna nama. However, sugarcane is the natural cure for jaundice, and thus when one is cured from jaundice by eating sugarcane, one can taste its inherent sweetness. Similarly, one cured of ignorance by chanting Krishna nama can taste the sweetness inherent in Krishna’s holy name. In verse 8 Sri Rupa prescribes the devotional activities suitable for those who have cured themselves of ignorance by following his advice in verse 7, those who are tasting the sweetness of Krishna nama. These devotees are sadhakas who have attained maturity in ruci. Sri Rupa writes:

While living in Vraja and following its inhabitants, one who possesses inherent, spontaneous love should utilize all one’s time in attentively exercising the tongue in chanting and the mind in remembering Krishna’s name, form, qualities, and pastimes, in this order. This is the essence of all advice.¹¹

As Mahaprabhu has made clear in this fourth verse of Siksastakam, one burdened by desires for wealth, women/men, and even wisdom lacks qualification to actually live in Vraja and follow its inhabitants in every sense. We should desire to become residents of Vraja, but as this verse of Siksastakam instructs us, we should be clear on what it means to deserve such a blessing, such that our desire is realistic and thus inspires us to attend to the work at hand. Only when material desires are checked by spiritual intelligence is steady sadhana possible. This steady sadhana floods material desires such that they no longer have any possibility of fructifying, and thus one gradually develops a taste for sadhana. As this taste intensifies, it turns into spiritual attachment for the object of one’s devotion. This is the stage of asakti, to which Mahaprabhu next turns his attention in all humility.

1. subhani priyanam sarva-jagatam anuraktatasad-gunah sukham ity adiny akhyatani manisibhih (Brs. 1.1.27)
2. See Sri Jiva Goswamî’s commentary on Brs. 1.3.1 and 1.4.15–16.
3. There are two levels of taste in ruci, one dependent on certain conditions being in place (vastu-vaisistyapeksini) and one that is not dependent on any conditions (vastu-vaisistyanapeksini). For more on this, see Madhurya-Kadambini.
4. “Paramatma” can refer to any of the three purusavataras. In this instance it refers to Maha-Visnu.
5. In Raga-vartma-candrika, Visvanatha Cakravarti writes that Krishna hears the prayers of his raganuga-sadhakas despite being lost in love, because although he becomes forgetful of his Godhood, he is still God. While his omniscience is suppressed by love, sometimes it surfaces.
6. sad-anga saranagati hoibe jahara, tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara (Sad-anga Saranagati 5)
7. Only as much as one is influenced by Krishna’s svarupa-sakti is nitya-lila-seva possible. Krishnaa takes pleasure only in himself. He is atmarama, or self-satisfied. His svarupa-sakti manifests from within himself for the purpose of allowing him to taste himself. Thus his interaction with his svarupa-sakti does not contradict his being atmarama.
8. The name Visvambhara means “he who maintains the universe.” Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja explains that Gaura was named Visvambhara at birth, but in his case the name refers to his nourishing the world through the gift of prema.
9. Bhakti-sandarbha 312.
10. Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has echoed Sri Rupa’s seventh verse in his own discussion of ruci in Madhurya-Kadambini.
11. tan-nama-rupa-caritadi-sukirtananu-smrtyoh
    kramena rasana-manasi niyojya
    tisthan vraje tad-anuragi jananugami
    kalam nayed akhilam ity upadesa-saram (Upadesamrta 8