VMA 1.26 : May Vrindavan be like a nourishing mother


śaṁ sarveṣām aprayāsena dātrī
dvitraikānti-prema-mātraika-pātrī |
ānandātmāśeṣa-sattvā nidhātrī
śrī-vṛndāṭavy astu me’ndhasya dhātrī |
The Vrindavan forest easily gives joy to everyone
she is the sole object of love for just a few exclusive devotees;
she is the soul of joy and the resting place for all living beings.
May she be like a nourishing mother to me, a blind child. (1.26)
Commentary

One of the themes that is recurring in the VMA is Prabodhananda’s insistence that the joys of devotion to the Divine Couple are easily obtained in Vrindavan, even effortlessly. Rupa Goswami in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.60-64) clearly states that every human being is eligible (adhikārin) for bhakti. This is doubly true in Vrindavan, for there is spiritual benefit for every living being there, even without making any supplementary effort. Bhakti enters by osmosis, as it were.

And yet, at the same the Dham, like bhakti itself, is very demanding, for only by exclusive devotion can she be truly known. She is like a mother both nurturing the devotee and pushing him onward to realize the fullness of his potential in devotion to the Lord.

Indeed, it is the work of the mother to educate the small child and sometimes punish him, like Mother Yashoda and the naughty baby Krishna. But like Yashoda, Vrindavan has the purest motivation. She wants her children to taste the sweetness of prema bhakti and pushes them to purity in whatever way she must.

Faith is also sometimes compared to a mother who protects the sadhana of the aspiring yogi. The devotional environment that envelopes the devotee in the Dham and seeps up to him from the ground and enters his lungs through the particles of dust in the air is recognizable by the strength of one's faith. The pain of the educative process is to give up offenses. Offenses result when one has the wrong, i.e., mundane understanding of the bhauma Vrindavan and its inhabitants. This is an important topic of the Mahimāmṛta that we must take pains to understand if we do not wish to alienate our long-suffering mother and lose our faith.

As with many of the principles of devotion to Vrindavan enunciated in the Mahimāmṛta, they are parallel to the general principles of bhakti as given in the scriptures. Rupa Goswami delineates six characteristics of devotion in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:

kleśaghnī śubhadā mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt sudurlabhā |
sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā ||
Bhakti destroys the miseries of life, the kleśas, it brings auspiciousness. It makes liberation seeminsignificant and it is extremely rare. It is of the nature of an altogether unique quality of concentrated bliss and it has the power to attract Krishna. (BRS 1.1.17) 
sādhanaughair anāsaṅghair alabhyā sucirād api
hariṇā cāśv adeyeti dvidhā sā syāt sudurlabhā
Bhakti is very hard to attain in two ways: it is not attainable even after great amounts of practice performed for a long time without internal attachment, and it is not quickly bestowed by Hari. (BRS 1.1.28)


Ten Previous posts

VMA 1.25 : What business do we have with kings or gods?
VMA 1.24 : Take pleasure in the eternal joys within Vrindavan
VMA 1.23 : When will I roam in Vrindavan?
VMA 1.22 : The Upanishads do not reveal Vrindavan
VMA 1.21 : Vrindavan enchants everyone
VMA 1.20 : The gold and black jewel light
VMA 1.19 : Who's mind will not be stolen?
VMA 1.18 : How to meditate on Vrindavan
VMA 1.17 : Grant me residence here until the end of life
VMA 1.16 : A prayer for the siddha Vrindavan to manifest
VMA 1.15 : Rolling in the dust of Vrindavan


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