VMA 1.46 :: Vrindavan: The ripe fulfillment of Krishna prema

viśvaiśvarya-mahā-camatkṛtir iyaṁ kiṁ bhāti sarveśitur

brahmānanda-sudhāmbudher anavadheḥ kiṁ vādbhuto’yaṁ rasaḥ |

kiṁ vā divya-sukalpa-pādapa-vana-śreṇī-subījaṁ paraṁ

kṛṣṇa-prema-nutādbhutā pariṇatir vṛndāṭavī kiṁ nv iyam ||

Is this Vrindavan
the great miracle of the Creator’s worldly opulence?
Or is it the wondrous flavor of the boundless
nectar ocean of the joy of Brahman?

Perhaps it is the supreme seed,
from which grow all the heavenly desire-tree forests?
Or is it the amazing transformation
to which Krishna prema itself gives praise? (1.46)

Commentary

Here Prabodhananda Saraswatipada responds to the challenges of various people who ask the question, “We see Vrindavan as just another place within the world, so something is making you see Vrindavan as a special place. Can you tell us what is your philosophical position here?”

To answer, Prabodhananda proposes four different positions, and though he frames the fourth as just one question among the others, in fact, this is his preferred answer. From another point of view, all of the above possibilities can be considered valid in progressively increasing degree.

Thus, when Prabodhananda describes the wonders of Vrindavan’s natural beauty, is it because he sees it as the “worldly opulence of the creator”? There are countless wondrous natural marvels in the world. In our day and age we have access to photos of many of these natural wonders, beautiful sites from far-flung corners of the globe that we will likely never visit. So is Vrindavan just another such place? After all, it is easy to appreciate the glory of God when we are struck by such majesties of the creation, and for many, the wonders of this world are rightly the point of entry or insight into the glory of God.

yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā

tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṁ mama tejo’ṁśa-saṁbhavam

Whatever great opulence that you see,
whatever glories or mighty wonders,
Know that they have all arisen in truth
from but a spark of my divine splendor. (Gītā 10.42)

But Vaishnavas are not satisfied with such explanations of Vrindavan. Braj-Vrindavan is not a part of the material world; it is the Dham of the Lord and a part of the spiritual energy. Though it appears to be a part of this world, it is in fact a portal to the transcendent reality. Thus, for the devotee, what comes to the material vision of a non-devotee is irrelevant to his understanding of the Dham. To the material eye it may have defects and its beauty is not always apparent. Indeed, a purely material concept of beauty may even be a distraction from the devotee’s purpose in being in the Dham.

The glories of this world give us a hint of the divine glories, but the two are nevertheless distinct. The glories of this world are merely a reflection of the glories of God. Vrindavan, when seen in its true form, is the effulgent state (viśuddha-sattva) in which the Lord is fully revealed.

So, the interlocutor asks the next question: Is it then the pantheistic vision that makes you glorify Vrindavan? Is it just the manifestation of the creative power or something more? After all, is not attaining direct perception of the transcendent Divine in all things the goal of spiritual practice? As Krishna says in the Gītā,

sarva-bhūtastham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani |

īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ ||

The one situated fully in yoga sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self. He sees all things everywhere equally. (6.29)

So one may see Vrindavan as glorious due to the all-pervading nature of the Supreme Self. This could be explored at length: Is Vrindavan simply a point of reference, an ālambana for meditation that is ultimately dropped when one realizes that God cannot be confined by the worldly sense of space and time? Or is it that the world as a whole is not different from Vrindavan, everything being co-terminus with Brahman?

The Advaitavadin speak of the Absolute Truth as eka-rasa, one homogeneous flavor. Is that the adbhuto’yaṁ rasaḥ that we speak of when we say, raso vai saḥ? The answer again has to be, “Don’t misunderstand the nature of rasa: It is personified in the Dham. It is full of variety and pastimes, for how can rasa exist without its ingredients, rasopakarana?”

The third instance sees Vrindavan as the archetypal realm of the transcendent God, the seed of all existence, but at the same time beyond it. By speaking of the bījaṁ paraṁ, Prabodhananda points to a Supreme Reality of which this world — even in its most opulent manifestations such as heaven — is but the reflection. This accepts the varieties of the Divine World, but still does not open our eyes to the extent of the Lord’s pastimes.

So, though all these different ways of looking at Vrindavan Dham may be true, in the ultimate analysis, Prabodhananda looks at it as the glorious and wondrous transformation of love for Krishna (kṛṣṇa-prema-nutādbhutā pariṇatiḥ). To explain this would take some time and this comment is already long. We will no doubt get the chance to develop this train of thought as we go along, but here let us just say that love of God is the very purpose of existence, and therefore Existence in its purest state is a manifestation or transformation of that love as expressed in its purest form.

The doubter may say that what is described here is the purest form as imagined by human beings in a particular historical time and place, but that would be wrong, for just as the flame burns on a wick, this pure love burns only in the conditions manifested in Vrindavan. Vrindavan is the Gestalt without which the flame of love for God cannot burn in its fullest brightness. Therefore, all other existences, all other concepts of reality, must bow down to Vrindavan, for it is the ripe fulfillment of prema.

Krishna prema itself (or both Krishna and prema) bows down to this manifestation of Vrindavan, for just as Krishna cannot exist without Radha, there is no possibility of Radha and Krishna without their Dham, therefore Krishna himself, and prema itself in the form taken by Radha and her sakhis, also bow down to Vrindavan.

śrī-rādhā-mādhavayor yathā kadācin na sambhavo virahaḥ |

tad-rasa-vṛndāvanayos tathaiva paramo’vinābhāvaḥ ||

Just as there is no possibility of Radha and Madhava ever being separated from one another, there is an absolute impossibility of their rasa existing separately from Vrindavan. (VMA 12.2)

VMA 1.45 :: Vrindavan, worshiped by munis, gods and divine beings
VMA 1.43 :: Those who die in Vrindavan are the greatest Vaishnavas
VMA 1.42 :: The Abode of the King of Rasa
VMA 1.41 :: The treasure house of the flavors of devotion
VMA 1.40 :: Only after lifetimes of piety can one live in Vrindavan
VMA 1.39 : May Vrindavan protect and transform me.
VMA 1.38 : Vrindavan can destroy the seed of sin.
VMA 1.37 : Vrindavan is the Light of the Self
VMA 1.36 : One speck of Braj dust has such glory