Who is Rūpa Goswāmī? What is the Rūpanuga line?

Question: So, she is apologizing if this question is just out of curiosity, but she says that she thinks that Mahaprabhu had more disciple than just Rupa and Sanatan.

Goswami Maharaj: Well, first of all, actually, from one point of view, who is not Mahaprabhu’s disciple? So, it depends on who do we define disciple? It reminds me of the incident where the son of Advaita Acharya, Achyutananda, he overhears someone asked Advaita Acharya, who is Mahaprabhu’s Guru. And I forget he ether said, Isvara Puri or Kesava Bharati, cause the take (?) Isavara Puri in one context, Kesava Bharati in another, and we hear Achyutananda, who is, Advaita Acharya had six sons, and this Achyutananda, Gopal, and there were like three in the right line and three in a wrong line, three in a right way, three in a wrong way. so, Achutananda at that time he is around five years old or something like that, but an advanced devotee even in a five year old body. So, when he heard Advaita Acharya mention someone as Mahaprabhu’s Guru, he burst in and became very upset, and he was chastising his father, Advaita Acharya, we know sometimes as Maha Visnu Avatar, he is chastising Mahavisnu, sometimes he’s referred to a Sada Siva, he is chastising Sada Siva, he’s saying, “Father, what nonsense are you telling that someone’s Mahaprabhu’s Guru?!”

And the point he’s making is, and it almost seems philosophically humorous, kalaviseso yasya praba prabhavada…prabhavato jagadanda koti, and Brahma Samhita talks abot the millions of Universes emanating from His outward going breath, visnur mahan kala, He is a part (?), Balaram is the first other than Krsna, Vasudev, Sankarsan, Pradyuman, Aniruddha. He’s making the point that and it’s delineated in the beginning of Chaitanya-charitamrta, who we think of as the Paramatma, that’s Mahaprabhu, trace Paramatma within this world you will find Mahaprabhu. Who is Visnu, the jagadanda-karsi, creating so many Universes, Mahavisnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu, Ksirodakasayi Visnu, trace, go tho the central conception of the infinite, not only Krsna, you’ll find Mahaprabhu.

But sometimes Srila Guru Maharaj will say and as it’s recorded in his own sloka, guru rupa harim gauram radha ruche ruchavrtam, says ostentatiously he’s Guru aracharja, Guru aharim gauram, we’re saying, Guru Rupa of Hari is Gaura. The Guru from, when Krsna takes the Guru form He’s Gauranga. Sva bhaktebya suddham nija bhaganam udra upadisan, with his own devotees he’s showing devotion, the path of devotion. And an interesting sidebar to this, cause we hear in the Bhagavatam, chana kao, in the teachings of Prahlad Maharaj, this is where we take it at the perhaps the first indication, I mean, the first we can trace go back to the very first sloka through exoteric interpretation and find something. But here, saying, in Kali yuga, appears in a hidden position. That Chana-avatar.

Hidden by what? We can hidden in different ways. Meaning not averred, not obvious, not apparent. Or Radha ruche ruchavrta, covered by the heart and halo of Srimati Radhaarani, therefore he said, that’s what he said, why he is hidden. He’s hidden beneath the heart and halo of Radharani. That’s a very beautiful concept of the hidden avatar, radha bhava dyuti subalitam radha krsna svarupam. Or as Jiva Goswami put the anta krsna bahir gauram darsitanga gadi bhai bhavam kalo sankirttana adye sma sri krsna chaitanya samyakam, anta, internally Krsna, bahir gauram, and externally Gauranga, and why Gauranga? Radha bhava dyuti, due to Krsna’s being conceled by the heart and halo of Srimati Radharani. 

So, really everyone is his disciple. But we hear from Srila Guru iMaharaj, in terms what we generally conceive of as initiation, like an initiated disciple, and it’s somewhat of a technicality. But we’re told, or it’s sometimes said, that Vakresvara Pandit was the only initiated disciple. Again, it’s some sort of a technicality. And the light of Guru Maharaja’s siksa-guru parampara explanation, always pointing toward the substance of the current as an indicative of parampara or sampradaya. As Guru Maharaj himself was indicated as Rupanuga Dhara, dhara means one who is carrying something, it also means current, if you put them together, ut mean, one who is carrying the current of Sri Rupa. So, the reason Rupa Goswami is eponymously synonymous with the name of the line, the Rupanuga-sampradaya, the followers of Sri Rupa, it’s not in the conventional sense some sort of succession or inheritance, or indication, but and that is there, we know, Srila Gurudev liked to tell us many times that, it’s a section of Chaitanya-charitamrtam, in the Antya-lila, where Mahaprabhu is introducing Srila Rupa Goswami to his devotees, and that’s taken to be as some indication of his extraordinary qualities, capacity,  it was alluded to in the Madhya-lila, that we hear when Mahaprabhu would dance before the Ratha-yatra, and sometimes sing, or sometimes Swarup Damordar would sing to augment his mood and sing certain songs, supply certain slokas, this is the seva of Svarup damodar, Ramananda Ray, and other times Mahaprabhu was singing himself, and sometimes when he is singing, he is singing the song that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted  from a superficial point of view.

Cause in this song, the way Srila Guru Maharaj described it, he even said, “Singing a nasty song.” It’s a song, it’s some poetry that’s used in the study of Sanskrit poetry, alankar, how to ornament, alliterate, etc. That this poem is used to teach that, because it’s full of different types of alankar, ornamentation. But the subject matter of this sloka is some girl loosing her virginity in her teenage years on the bank of a river, with her first lover etc. That’s a subject matter apparently. So, Mahaprabhu singing ecstatically singing before Jagannath, singing this song. It was a mystery. Why is he singing a song like that? This is not a devotional song. Now it’s somewhat difficult for us to project what are the hearts and minds of those devotees surrounding him. So we have to look very carefully, consciously within the pages of Charitamrtam, we can understand, these are all Mahabhagavatas of the highest order.

We hear from books like Gaura-ganadesa-dipika, they have, what their identity is in Krsna-lila. So, when it says, dva bhaaktye vya suddham nija bhajanam mudram upadisan, by Rupa Goswami, this group of his own devotees, they’ve descended from Goloka Vrndavan, so we’ll hear, if look carefully in the purports, the quotations from the Gaura-ganadesa dipika, such and such devotee was a certain gopi in Vrndavan, repeatedly this type of revelation is there. So, who is this group, they are comprised of such extraordinary individuals. They are all Mahabhagavatas of the highest order. Still we take so many things for granted that are extremely confidential. The real substance of what is esoteric. 

So, some of those devotees, jnana-sunya-bhaktas, theirs is not the reason why, theirs is but to do or die, that’s the way the poem goes. If Mahaprabhu is singing some particular song, that’s a wonderful thing. They are not sitting there analyzing that, in the first verse said this, and then that. That’s not their concern, whatever he may say, and many times he may say something inexplicable for most. He may sometimes reveal Himself, in some situation, where not everyone can see him. Like we hear at Panihati. The Raghunath das Goswami, the Raghunath das Goswami Chiradoy Festival. That Nityananda Prabhu, he can see that Mahaprabhu’s come, some other devotees can see that Mahaprabhu’s come, but some others see as that they’ve made a place from him to sit and a plate and they’re offering something there. But others conceived that he’s actually appeared. This would happen in the Rathayatra, sometimes there was seven groups. That Achutananda is one of the dancers in a group, each group has a main dancer, a main singer, two mrdanga players, responders, seven groups surrounding the Ratha-yatra chariot, the Rath. Sometimes what did they see? Mahaprabhu appears in each group, and he is dancing intimately with that group, and they think, “Oh, he’s in our group!” They feel extraordinary, and see he’s not in any other group, he’s dancing in our group. But some can see he is in all seven groups. 

So, such gradation of seeing is there even in the highest, and it’s similar to Krsna-lila, rasa-lila, the gopis, they’re thinking, “He is dancing with me. I am so fortunate.” Each one thinks He’s dancing with her and her alone. That’s one level of fortune. We hear what is the response of Srimati Radharani? She thinks, “Oh, I am treated like everyone, no special treatment.” And She displays superior singing and dancing and leaves which pulls Krsna away from the rasa-lila in full swing with billions of gopis. Thus underscoring Her extraordinary qualities, qualifications, that for, the pool of the devotion of one cancels all others.

Anyway, Mahaprabhu is singing this, practically no one can understand why, his heart intention. But one year we hear when Rupa Goswami, who would stay with Rupa and Sanatan, did not enter into the Jagannath Temple, cause they were socially unacceptable, technically speaking at that time, so, they would stay with Haridas Thakur, who was also forbidden entrance in the Temple, at the siddha-bakul. And Rupa Goswami taking that song, that poetry that Mahaprabhu was singing, he wrote a parallel sloka, priyasoyam, first one begins, yat kumara hara, he begins, priya soyam krsna sahachari. In his sloka he’s identifying that boy is Krsna, that girl is Radharani, that river, it’s not the Revati, it’s actually the Jamuna. He’s giving a parallel, explaining really what it means. And he wrote that sloka, it’s also confidential, in the palm leaf and stuck it in the fetch roof, the fetched hut roof. And went to bathe in the sea. And we’re told at that time, when Mahaprabhu came and noticed that and pulled it down and read it and thought, “No one supposed to know this.” So, (?) Svarup Damodar, I don’t understand, he said, “Rupa Goswami wrote this.” He said, “How does Rupa know this?” And Swarup Damodar’s answer is, “you must have revealed it to him in his heart, because if you didn’t want him to know, it’s not possible to know.” But what we’re learning as this on faults (?), is that Mahaprabhu knows, Swarup damodar knows, and now they both acknowledging that Rupa knows, what they know, Rupa knows. And is fully qualified to express, sri gaura naumatam svarupa viditam rupa grjena vrtam…, and Guru Maharaj in his Bhaktivinod-viraha-dasakam, he said, sri gaura naumatam svarupa viditam, why Mahaprabhu descended in this world? The full internal secret of that is known fully only to Svarup Damodar, but here we see by extension Rupa Goswami and Rupa Goswami is capable to expressing this very nicely. Swarup Damodar had his own slokas, his own notes, we’re told, Chaitanya-charitamrta is based on the notes of Swarup Damodar, so, we can attribute authorship to Swarup Damodar, to Raghunath das Goswami, to Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami. And it’s full of slokas from Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami, there are many things there. That are unifying connecting all of them. Thematically and spiritual threads that are connecting. So, Swarup Damodar is radha-krsna pranaya vikrti hladini shaktir asmad, he says, radhabhava dyuti suvalita, enveloped by the heart and halo of Radharani, nuami krsna svarupam, that Swarup, that Krsna. 

So, and when Rupa Goswami comes back from bathing and Mahaprabhu see him, we’re told, Mahaprabhu slaps Rupa Goswami. But in English we call it a love tap. He just says, “What are you doing? Why are you writing these things? Revealing everuthing.” But he is noting, and this is divine plane, it’s lila, we can say, he’s recognizing the qualities of Rupa Goswami, but who is Rupa Goswami? Mahaprabhu he is in one sense becoming newly acquainted from a different perspective with these personalities. Because Krsna as the enjoyer that’s another context, another prospective. And He’s candidly revealing in the beginning of Chaitanya-charitamrtam, that His curiosity has been awakened to experience the position of Srimati Radharani and not in a mere intellectual way, or by conjecture. But  substantially, and the only way he can experience that substantially is to become enveloped and under the influence of Her heart and halo, and the only way He can get Her heart from Her is to steal it. So, Rupa Goswami says, aparam kasyapi pranayi jana-vrnda suskutuki rasotstama bhrtva madhuram upabhoktam kamapitya ruchamsva ava vredyutim ihattadiyam sacchaitanya devaskrti krpaya, it’s in, there is three Chaitanyastakams, and this particular one is saying, “Surveying all of them, these superservitors, they are on the ananda chinmaya rasa pratibhavita stabhiriya nija rupa taya kalavi goloka eva niva satya kelavabhuta, they’re all extensions of Radharani, but Her extensions have unique personalities. In one sense they are all from Her, but they are not expansions in the sense of one identity. So, that’s inconceivable but true. Achintya-bhed-abheda. So, they are expansions of Her, but they have individual unique personalities. 

Surveying all of them, Krsna sees Her way of dealing, Her degree and magnitude of dedication, exceeds that of all others. In Radhastakam Rupa Goswami says, hari padanaka koti prstha prajanta simha tata palayi kalayantam pramuditam…guru kirtim radhika archayami, this is the opening sloka and he wants to give some indication of some unparalleled magnitude, so he’s giving a system of measurement, system of devotional measurement. How to measure devotional magnitude. So, he said, the least aspect of Krsna is the feet, the lotus feet, although someone could say, angamiyasyi sakalendriya vrttti manti, that the angas are interchangeable and … yes, yes, yes. But for the sake of analysis we could say, the least aspect are the lotus feet. So, generally we start at the fet and go higher. But if you wanted to analyze it further, then we would say, “Well, that would be the nails on the lotus feet.” So, the nails on the lotus feet, that would be the least aspect. Hari pada naka, means the nails on the lotus feet of Krsna, the back.

So, what Rupa Goswami is saying here, Radharani consideres the least aspect of Krsna to be millions of times greater than the highest aspect of Herself, praner vista, pran. So, what we consider to be ourselves, our life, the most important things, She is saying, the least aspect of Krsna is greater than my highest aspect magnified millions of times. So, Rupa Goswami is  offering this as a system of measurement of devotional magnitude and why Her position is so extraordinary. And he’s saying, “If you can adopt this kind of sweet vision and see things this way, than really you can be initiated into Krsna Consciousness understanding. This is the secret, this is the thred that’s going through na-prema gandasti dharapi me haro. So, Prabhodananda Saraswati, who is Prabhodananda Saraswati Thakur? Tunga-vidya, one of the asta-sakhis, the eight principal gopi associates of Srimati Radharani. How exalted are these personalities if you think about that?

There is Radha and Krsna at the center of everything, and then next to them are Lalita and Visakha, and these other sakhis, the asta-sakhis, of all the possible personalities they are. How exalted they are? What does that Prabhodananda Saraswati? Tunga-vidya as Prabhodananda in Gaura-lila express? In the, he says, I have to think about it,

yasya kadapi vasanajalakevanota danyati danya pavani krtartartamani, yogindram durgamagati madhusudanopi tasya namasta vrsabanu vibhoti sepi bhuvo

He’s saying that Krsna, if He has the good fortune that in the divine pastimes of Radha and Krsna, if under some circumstances, the wind from Her cloth comes upon Him, if the breeze from He cloth comes upon Krsna, He thinks that he’s achieved the greatest fortune. There are many different ways that people can measure wealth. How does the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Reality measure value? So, if He  gets to the breeze from the garment of Radharani upon Him, He considers that to be the most valuable treasure. That Krsna, yogindram durgam agate madhusudanopi suresanam durga, well, that’s Mahaprabhu, same thing, but sursanam durgam gati ati sayeno panisadam, who the great yogis, they are trying to get a glimpse of, the Upanisads, the gods. 

When Krsna is a baby and Trnavarta, he went into the sky, part of the pastime, they say, one of the reasons, he went into the sky is to let the gods and goddesses to have a look. So, who is durgam, very difficult to have a glimpse of. Brahma, trying to get an audience with Krsna, mukhyanti yatsuraya. That Krsna considers Himself so fortunate to be blessed by the breeze from the garment of Srimati Radharani. So, the conclusion of Prabhodananda Saraswati Thakur is special note. Therefore, She is so great, She is so exalted, so extraordinary, so exceptional, that I consider the direction in which She appeared to be worshipable. While those, s sadhakas, in the lowest position, they voyeuristically envisioning themselves as servitors in the divine domain, in the upper world, in the most confidential region of the spiritual existence. You have those who are newly recruited and acquainted with Krsna Consciousness, projecting themselves into those situations. Someone who are actually there, asta-sakhi, Tunga-vidya, Prabhodananda Saraswati in Gaura-lila says, “The direction in which She appeared is worshipable to me. That’s close enough for me.” That’s what is said by someone who is actually there and eye witnessed to all of these things. And eye witnessed to how Krsna feels when He is blessed with a breeze with the garment of Srimati Radharani. He says, “The direction in which She appears is worshipable to me.” So, the system for measuring devotional magnitude is always in the inverse. 

So, that what I mean to say also is that, the perspective of that group, represented by Prabhodananda Saraswati Thakur, asta-sakhis, means the eight principle. Obviously unique and uniquely qualified. And in the word of Srila Guru Maharaj he would say, “Sri Rupa is the leader of the juniors. Of their assistants.” So, once, when I came to offer myself to the lotus feet of Srila Guru Maharaj, it was like August of 1981, we were having this one conversation, and I, there was so much discussion about jiva, sakti and jiva tattva. But hopefully if that is grasped and understood, then can a little further in a particular direction. So, one day, I was thinking on the basis of what he’d expressed as being the potential, the constitutional capacity of jiva souls, how far they can go. So, I was sort of thinking out loud, and I said, “The third position,” I didn’t say any, there wasn’t a big explanation, and Guru Maharaj said, “Fifth.” And I went, “Oh.” Because I wasn’t counting the first two. I didn’t count Radha and Krsna. [laughs]. And what he meant to say, was that and without going into the details this is something very high, but we’re to know at least in principle what it is. What’s objectionable is trying cultivate the details of that. But the general understanding should be there.

And Guru Maharaj expressed this, that Radha-Krsna, in their private union, those sakhis, the she-friends of Radharani, who are equal to Her, they cannot enter at that time because it will cause some shyness for Srimati Radharani in their presence. But the juniors can go and render some assistance, because they are younger, they are very young girls. The leader of the juniors is Sri Rupa. And that is why this is the Rupanuga line. So, according to a constitutional capacity of jiva-souls, they can enter into a position of assistance in that plane of seva. So, on the one hand it sounds like you’re going further away, fifth position, but because the elders cannot enter at that time actually what is not available to them is extended by the grace of Rupa Goswami and their followers to those who are in their line. So, it’s Mahaprabhu is recognizing with Swarup Damodar, who is Lalita sakhi, Radha, Krsna, Lalita, Visakha, Mahaprabhu, Ramananda Swarup. So, they are in the position to recognize who is the most superior of the next level, rang, group, and that is Rupa. 

So, Kaviraj Goswami ending every chapter, rupa ragunatha pade hoibe jera as chaitanya charitamrtam kohe krsna das. And Sanatan Goswami who is elder in this pastimes, Rupa is revering his Guru. But it’s Rupa-Sanatan, because Rupa technically came first and there is some esoteric meaning behind that. In Brhad-bhagavatamrtam, that massive revelation, that take shape in the form of Brhad-bhagavatamrtam, Sanatan Goswami says, “By the mercy of Rupa this is all revealed to me.” So, Guru Maharaj would say sometimes, “Somewhere Sanatan Goswami described himself as a Rupanuga.” And of course, Raghunath Das Goswami, the prayojan-tattva Acharya, also considers himself a follower of Sri Rupa. 

So, later in an Antya-lila, Mahaprabhu is at this point shining a special spotlight on Rupa Goswami and in this sense introducing him to all eh senior servitors there to have them understand what is the capacity of Rupa Goswami. Starts asking him, “These books you’re righting, Vidagda Madhava, Lalita Madhava,” each book has a system, they have some beginning sloka, and some other slokas, and Mahaprabhu’s, “You can tell those slokas, so everyone can hear that,” because they are all kanasuras, when they hear this, they will be able to recognize this type of spiritual substance. So, when the Mahaprabhu says, because it’s appropriate in the beginning to identify your Ista-devata, means your worshipable Deity. Rupa Goswami is shy in the background and hesitating to come forward. And Gurudev has drawn the parallel, that Guru Maharaj will shy and hesitating in the background, when Saraswati Tahkur asked him to come forward to sing Sri Rupa Manjari Pada, which is the anthem of Gaudia-vaisnavas, written by Narottam Thakur. And so when Mahaprabhu is insisting, then Rupa Gowami, it says, anarpita charim chirat kora naevati na kalo sam arpayatam una tojvala rasam svabhakti sriyam hari puruta sundar dyuti kadamba sandipita…. He identifies Mahaprabhu as his worshipable Deity, and Mahaprabhu said, “I think there is some exaggeration in this particular sloka.” He didn’t expect that, thought he was gonna sing something else. Of course, all the devotees thought, that just was so perfect and so beautiful. That’s why Rupa Goswami is unparalleled in this sense. 

In one place Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, “One meaning of Rupa is beauty.” That if you could separate the beauty of Srimati Radharani and personity it as one that is Sri Rupa. So, in consideration that Srimati Radharani is the most beautiful woman of all time and all existence, to say, if you could extract Her beauty from Her and personify it in one, that would be Sri Rupa. So, it’s beyond, defies mundane description. 

And Rupa Goswami wrote the book of devotion, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. But Sanatan Goswami is the sambanda-jnan acharya, and all the sambandha-jnan within the pages of the Brhad-bhagavatamrtam, the gradation is all presented in a very perfectly, systematically in great detail. And if you look in Chaitanya-charitamrta, the so-called Sanatan-siksa and see what Mahaprabhu expressed to Sanatan Goswami it’s inconceivably wonderful, even if there are so many philosophical points that are covered, but at one point we see, Mahaprabhu in a mood of a devotee, he’s relishing this devotional position. Cause we’re told recently with the Khir-chor Gopinath, its’ mentioned when Mahaprabhu is telling the story of Madhavendra Puti there, and the pujati brings the khir to Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu and his group. It’s mentioned there, that Mahaprabhu tasted this before as Gopinath, he’s also Krsna, so is this redundant? No. Because now he’s going to taste prasadam, that’s what he wants to do. And he is telling us by this pastimes, that the position of a devotee, that’s a greater taste, that’s a greater position to be in than Krsna, and only he can say that, because he is Krsna. If he wasn’t Krsna we’ve might doubt it, you could say, “Well…” But he’s Krsna, and he’s saying, “Take it from me, Krsna, the supreme enjoyer, that the position of the devotee, particularly the highest devotee, Srimati Radharani, is greater. It’s a more wonderful thing.”

So, Guru Maharaj is saying out of gratitude when we hear this sequence, sraddha ado sraddha tata sadhusanga bhajana kriya anartha nivritti nistha ruchi bhav, then comes prem, then after prem, bhav, blossom, what was a bij, seed in the beginning has blossomed as bhava-bhakti, and the fruit Krsna-prem is produced, and then from there it goes further, what is that? Sneho-man pranayi rag anurag bhav mahabhav, so, when you get up to that bhav, the second one after Krsna-prem we’re told the beyond that exceeds the constitutional capacity of the jive-soul. And that bhav which is only experienced generally by Braja-gopis, we’re told that Subal was the leader of the highest rank of cowherd boys, he can experience that. But this mahabhav is beyond the gopi, they’re not experiencing, others are not experiencing. So, we’re told, mahabhav is reserved for Radharani, Mahaprabhu. This is what expressed.

But Srila Guru Maharaj is pointing out that Srimati Radharani out of gratitude to Her serving group, seva according to the intensity of tis necessity draws remuneration, so, at the greatest, when separation is reached its greatest depth and magnitude those who will serve at that time, Bhaktivinod identified it as Kuruksetra. What is the theme of Ratha-yatra? Kuruksetra, these two points are significant, Kuruksetra, Rathayatra is one. And Uddhav-kyadi, the Brahmar-gita is the other. Whereas separation has reached its greatest intensity and necessity. Bhaktivinod Thakur says, “If you serve at that time, what will come in its remuneration?” Srila Guru Maharaj says, “Mahabhav,” which can only be experienced by Radharani and Mahaprabhu, he said, “Radharani’s saying, ‘Here have a taste of what we are enjoying on our plate.” She is distributing Mahabhav out of gratitude to the servitors. So, what exceeds the constitutional capacity of the jiva-soul, they’ve been given a taste of that, and in the words of Srila Guru Maharaj, “Once one has tasted that divine substance, not only all other tastes, but all other rasas become tasteless.” That is the Rupanuga line. That’s why they are happily in this line promoting Radharani. Because what will come in the retinue of the service of Radharani will far exceed the constitutional capacities of jiva, what they could get in a direct relationship, association with Krsna. That’s why it’s so extraordinary. 

anarpita charim chirat korunayavatirna kalo namo maha vadanyaya krsna prema pradaya te,

What’s Mahaprabhu distributing Rupa Goswami has indentied (?), unatojvala rasam so bhakti sriyam, it’s saying, devotion to Himself or the kind of devotion that He Himself has embraced, Radhabhav. So, these are very high, very extraordinary things, but Krsna Consciousness is a very high, the most high, most extraordinary thing. So, we can’t spend, we’ll faint to think about these things extensively and it’s not appropriate, but at least we need to know in a general sense, without going into the details what the prospect is. It’s something extraordinary. We think that we know what Krsna Consciousness is. That is our problem, that we have. “We’ve heard this said so many times.” Yes, because we have a superficial idea of what it is. But sometimes by the grace of the Guru-varga, a little glimpse, coruscating flashes of brilliants, Bhaktivinod tahkur says like lightening, like when it’s pitch black and lightening comes it illuminates everything, for a moment you will see everything. And then it vanishes, but that glimpse leaves in its retinue a type of increased hankering to pursue. 

So, it’s all grace, how can we sit and even vibrate the name of Rupa Goswami and others, we don’t know anything about any of these things. It’s a gift from our Guru-varga, they somehow brought us in connection with this, and gifted us the capacity to appreciate it on some level. That’s also a gift, if we can appreciate this on any level that’s a gift. 

So, we think, “I have five hundred friends on facebook.” You have five trillion friends in the spiritual world, who are trying to help us. They are trying to friend us, and we’re riveted to the persons, places, things of this world. Sudurlabha bhagavata he loke, a real devotee in this world is very rare to find. But Guru Maharaj said, “In this world, but there is another world, where everyone is a pure devotee.” And that’s the greater world, if you compare the two worlds from spiritual analysis that world is vast, this world has been referred to variously as a clouded portion in the spiritual sky. When Goloka Vrndavan is been sixteen kroshas (?) or thirty two square miles mystically, we’re told, “Well, that sounds like small.” Yes, and within an atom of the dust there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets. Means we gonna have to readjust ourselves to properly conceive these things, that can only be conceived of through grace. As the Sun’s illumination, as the Sun allows an eye to see, what did Guru Maharaj say? Faith is the halo of Radharani. She is revealing Krsna, but out of service necessity, not out of curiosity. Someone has a genuine service necessity, they will journey to the center of the Infinite, they’ll be fully endowed beyond their (?) the serving capacity, if that’s what it really is. 

And otherwise Guru Maharaj laughed and said, “You mean that image?” When we say Krsna or we saw in the book, we have this image of Krsna in our mind, he said, “That’s Krsna?” You really think that is Krsna? Because we saw a poster. “No, that was a really good one.” We heard a description. Vyam syamasundaram achintyam guna swarupam, (?) saying, inconceivably beautiful, and has inconceivably beautiful form, color, movement, all of these things. Then someone will say, “Well, that means we’re totally dependent upon our Guru-varga.” Yes, that’s correct. “And we’ll only know as much as they reveal to us.” Yes, that’s correct. It won’t be a mental or intellectual exercise, it won’t be the transfer of information. It won’t be data-mining,

madhuraksi vrnda vaidagya dikha, the extention of a particular sweet type of seeing, or we can say, seeing sweetness personified, madhura, madhuraksi, madhuram madhuram madhurasya vibho, vadanam, vadanam, madhugandi mrdu smrta me tara ho, madhuram, mahuram, madhuram, madhuram, Bilvamangal Thakur, he could only be saying this word so many times. It implies the certain mood of ecstatic expression. Saying, Krsna is so sweet, how sweet? His form is sweet, visve samaranjanena janayama anandam indivara sreni syamala kamalaye anangotsavam, He looks like a festival. All the beauty of Krsna. So sweet, and he’s saying, “His face is even sweeter than even the rest of Him, but if that face has a smile on it, that is even sweeter, sweet, sweet, sweet.”

Jausturi tilakam lalate palace bhaksas la kausto vam nasa gre namo mokti kam karatale venom kare kankanam sarvanga harichananam chakalayan kante cha mukta valim gopa stri paravestito vijayate gopala chudhamani 

Gurudev liked that sloka very much and as a escription of how beautiful Krsna looks, especially when He is surrounded by the Vraja-gopis. 

So, Rupa Goswami is the leader of everything we could hope to aspire to. Sri rahika mahavasam nityam rupanuga sri kritimati guru gauranga rahajitasa, Guru Maharaj sai, “That is Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.” Rupanuga sri kritimati guru gauranga radhajitasa. The members of this Math maintain this aspiration, service of those holy lotus feet. Sri rupa manjari pada sei mora ampaa, sei mora bhajana pujan sei mora rata tapa mantra japa, Guru Maharaj said what is means is that not the aspiration, “Why I am taking the mantram an japa an doing all these things with this aspiration.” He’s saying, “No, actually the service of the lotus feet of Rupa Goswami is our mantra, the service of the lotus feet of Rupa Goswami is our japa, our everything. That’s what it means to say. An Guru gauranga rahajitasa or gauragata grananti, Guru Maharaj identifying the primary activity of the members of Chaitanya Saraswat Math are to spread the glories of Mahaprabhu, which is Krsna celebrating the devotion of Srimati Radharani. Otherwise know as the Krsna Consciousness movement.