VMA 1.79 Break the unbreakable shackles

Rules for Govardhan Parikrama.
śuddhām ādya-ratiṁ samasta-bhagavad-raty-ucchrita-śrīmatīṁ
tvaṁ cet kāṅkṣasi mādhurī-bhara-dhurīṇānanda-sandohinīm|
dharma-jñāna-virakti-bhakti-padavīṁ tat-sādhyam apy aspṛśan
durbhedaṁ sahasā vibhidya nigaḍaṁ saṁnyasya vṛndāvane ||
If you desire to attain the pure form of romantic love,
the most elevated and delightful of all moods of love of God,
which brings forth joys that are of the greatest sweetness --
then, without touching the paths of bhakti,
religious duty, gnosis, and renunciation, or their fruits,
quickly break the unbreakable shackles
and live a life of renunciation in Vrindavan. (1.79)
Commentary

After once again starting with the basics of spiritual instruction: Death is inevitable and therefore one should not indulge in the trivial vanities of the passing show, Prabodhananda returns to the purpose of renunciation and living in Vrindavan, which is to attain the highest result of spiritual life.

We have already pointed out how Rupa Goswami and the Vaishnava theologians are very hierarchically oriented. In particular, texts like Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta and Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta are explicit in their organization, but so it is also for all the other texts like Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. The same goes for the teachings of Ramananda Ray in Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 8, where Mahaprabhu begins by rejecting Ramananda's answers to the question "What is the ultimate goal of life and how does one attain it?" by saying, "That is external, find something better."

In this verse, Prabodhananda rejects not only the four goals of human life, but just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with Ramananda Ray, he even rejects bhakti, by which he means vidhi-bhakti or devotion performed in reverence or out of duty to God. He does this elsewhere also:

dharmādy-artha-catuṣṭayaṁ vijayatāṁ kiṁ tad vṛthā-vārtayā
saikānteśvara-bhakti-yoga-padavī tv āropitā mūrdhani |
yā vṛndāvana-sīmni kācana ghanāścaryā kiśorī-maṇis
tat-kaiṅkarya-rasāmṛtād iha paraṁ citte na me rocate ||
May the four goals of human life, dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa be ever glorified, but what need do I have to hear about them? I respectfully take the status of single-pointed devotional yoga to the Supreme Lord and venerate it by placing it on my head [but that is not where my heart lies]. There is within the boundaries of this land of Vrindavan a profoundly amazing jewel of youthful beauty, and other than the nectar of service to her nothing appeals to my heart. (RRSN 78)
When Ramananda came to the subject of Radha-prema and Radha's service, then Mahaprabhu said, eho uttama, "This is the top. There is nothing beyond this." Prabodhananda understood this well, and everything he wrote supports the conclusions of Ramananda Ray both in terms of the sādhya and the sādhana. So when Mahaprabhu asks

sarva tyaji jīvera kartavya kāhāṅ vāsa?

"Where is it a person's duty to live, after renouncing everything?"

Rāmānanda Rāya replies,

vraja-bhūmi vṛndāvana yāhāṅ līlā-rāsa

"The land of Vrindavan or Vrajabhūmi, where the Rāsa dance took place."

The highest realms of prema are only open to those who renounce everything else but the desire for prema. It is not that vairagya is a necessary prequalification, as such, but in the end, the desire for Krishna's lotus feet, for service in eternity, must overshadow everything, even the desire to please God and serve him in this world through performing duties and so on. It must completely erase the desire for freedom from suffering, and replace it with the willingness to suffer if that is the price to pay for proving the absolute totality of one's desire for Krishna's lotus feet and the desire to serve in the nitya-vihāra. 

See Previous 1.78. Also see 1.67 for a compatible verse and relevant commentary.



Comments

The Siddha Tradition of India (Part II) said…

वैराग्य vairāgya [vairAgya]:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=1025.gif

वैर vaíra [vaira] from वीर vīrá [vIra]:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=1005.gif

+

अग् ag, see अङ्ग् aṅg [aGg]:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=7.gif

see also अङ्क् aṅk [aGk]:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=7.gif

connected with अञ्च् añc:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=10.gif

connected with √ अच् ac:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=8.gif

+

य ya from √ यभ् yabh [yabh]:

http://www.sanskrita.org/scans/visor.html?scan=845.gif
Sunday, 16 September, 2018
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