Jiva Goswami
The subject of Jiva Goswami is so high, it is difficult for people to understand, but I am willing to tell a little because you will understand something. Jiva was one of the six Goswamis, and he had written many books, like Tattva Sandarbha.
In this world we can't trust anyone. We wonder whom we can trust in heaven or the transcendental world. Unfortunately, we cannot touch that transcendental world by any of our senses, so how can we touch that world, and how can we decide who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? How can we trust that there is a God from whom this creation has come and how is He controlling whole world? We cannot control the world, and we cannot see our atma. God is even here in this world, in his param-atma form (in our hearts), but we are not seeing him.
Jiva Goswami has explained it: all our senses are imperfect, so anything we are seeing before us or realizing with our minds, we cannot put faith in. Our own eyes cannot see what is inside our body. Our eyes cannot see what is soul here, so these senses are limited abilities, and we cannot trust them, especially for relating to transcendental subject matters.
Perhaps we understand this about God: He is generator, operator and destroyer. There are so many souls. We see, so many people are taking birth and thousands are dying. New days come regularly. The sun is coming up on time, and everything is controlled, but it is beyond our control.
Jiva Goswami is telling, only transcendental words can speak the truth. Our seeing and touching is defective. What is told transcendentally can give us information about God. It has been given in the Vedas, Upanisads, and especially, Srimad Bhagavatam. Transcendental knowledge is there, so we can put our faith in that. Krsna gave the scriptures to us for this reason.
A man may tell that we can trust what we can see. There are so many things we are trusting like this. Once my Guruji was riding with me on a train, and at once, an officer came and asked him, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“How? I don't believe in any God because I don't see.”
“No, this is nothing. You believe so many things that you have not seen. Can you say who is your father?”
“Yes,” and the man mentioned his fathers name.
“How do you know that he is your father? Any proof?'
The officer began to look around, thinking. He had no proof. At that time, he had not taken birth. His mother had told him who his father was, but he could only trust his mother, could not actually see for himself.
In this way, the words of the sacred texts are more trustful than mother or father or anyone. Spiritual world cannot tell lies. Everything has been told here, and it is the most supreme evidence. Sometimes what the eyes are seeing, we can only speculate about. From a distant place, we might see someone coming and think it is our father, but then as he comes closer, we may see that it is not actually our father. This is not evidence. Evidence is the Srimad Bhagavatam.
“Who is God?” asked the officer on the train. “God has no shape and no qualities.”
“No, it is not like this.” This entire world of form has come from Him, so how can he not have form? From nothing, how can this world come? He has form, and His form is the most beautiful form. He has all kinds of good qualities. He is so merciful. If God were not merciful, how could He know our sufferings and help us? God is the embodiment of love, and if he were not so, then what is the use of God? If he cannot help us... if he cannot love us? Nothing. We should know that God can create all these things in a second and also destroy everything in a moment. God must be so powerful. We cannot do like that.
The Goswamis break it down for us: we are not this body. We are captured in a jail, in a cage. Although we don't want to become old and die, we are bound to become old. Our hair will be white, eyesight weak, and the day will come when we cannot walk without a stick. Someday we will die.
There is one who is never born or becomes old, never dies. He never changes His position. He is all mighty, knows past, present and future, is omniscient. He can do anything He likes, and He is also so causelessly merciful.
Jiva Goswami is telling, that God is Sarva-saktiman, omnipotent. All powers are invested in Him always. Krsna with his svarupa-sakti means his power always lives with Him. If there is some expansion, it is called his plenary expansion, like Rama. When Brahma is jiva-sakti, He is our own soul. Such is the power of God.
But now we are forgetting Him, and that is why His Maya, one of his potencies, has taken us to this world and covered our soul. We have forgotten, who am I and who is God? We are in an endless chain of sorrow and sufferings, and no one here is happy. We are not serving or wanting God's mercy, not coming out of Maya. Therefore, we're always suffering.
Here we can see that even emperors, chief ministers and presidents are all suffering. Even if you have some happiness in young age, there are still so many problems. One day we will have to give up this body surely. We cannot say whether God is true or not, but very easily we can see that death is true. No one can deny this, even people who do not believe in God. All sufferings are true, but we don't know why we are suffering. We are like animals, always quarreling, mating and defending. Though we think that we will be happy by this, we cannot be.
Jiva gives it to us. All the souls in different species, such as humans, demigods, animals, birds, fishes, creepers, those who have sense and feel sorrow and happiness, all are souls. Among all these species, a human body has special qualities. Someone calls, and you hear them and come. You can see your future.
Cows cannot see their very near future. If there are so many cows, and if they are taken to a slaughter house, when they are nearing the moment of death, if you give grasses, they will quarrel over it. But in a human body, we can think about these things, about the future.
Some humans are thinking about the future, and that is why they are making so many bombs, so they can control others, and then be happy. Others are thinking, no, this will not make me happy. How can we become happy? If we realize, what is soul, from where we have come.
We can wonder why a person takes birth as a daughter or son of the prime minister of Australia, and in the next moment, another is taking birth in a very poor family. Why? One is born very beautiful and another is born lame. A wise, intelligent man contemplates these things.
Human form is most supreme amongst all species. In this shape, it is time to consider such things: why am I suffering, why am I moving toward death, who am I, and who is God? If we're not thinking about these things, we is no better than a two-legged animal.
Jiva has told that all the humans, trees and creepers have some sense of gratification, and they all have love and affection. If there is a dog, and you call him, he will come wagging his tail. If there is love in you, even if a tiger or a lion comes, he will not be ferocious.
Our religion is love and affection. God is the embodiment of love and affection. We are part and parcel. If you are able to realize this fact, surely if will pull you out of the chain of sorrow and suffering. This is called bhakti-yoga. Taking shelter of this bhakti-yoga, maintenance of our life and family will automatically come. If you are sitting in your room, chanting, “... hare krsna, hare krsna, krsna krsna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare...” even for a couple of months, you will see that everything is coming, though you are not doing anything to maintain it. Even after a hundred years, all will come. We should trust in these things. While we are in this human shape, we should try to know who we really are.
If in this world, there are some persons who know these things, are qualified, have a realization of soul and God, have some link with God, they can show this path. By way of practice, we can also have some realization. He's called acarya or Guru, spiritual master. And he will never fall. We should try to go and associate with him. Jiva Goswami has written that we can do up to this in human body.
What is sraddha? There is a God. We must serve the supreme personality of God, which comes by the association of any pure devotee. If we desire to serve Godhead, but after that we have no association, then the desire will dry up, for lack of association. We see so many devotees have had sraddha, and after that came to bhajana-kriya, and they began to do bhajana-sadhana. But sometimes if there was no good association, this sraddha began to dry up. So, although some persons were coming in the madhyama-adhikara, and they even became brahmacarya, from there they began to fall. It had been like a tree or creeper, after their spouts came and then some leaves, had not gotten water and withered to die. We should try always to be in good association. Society cannot give this, but if there are some good preachers like Swamiji or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabupada., we can be associated with them.
If after they are gone, the disciplic line is there but followers are not true, hankering after wealth, women, and wine, then they will fall down surely. We should try to know all these things and to practice bhakti-yoga. If we are not practicing bhakt-yoga, we are like hogs or asses. And we see that the whole lot are quarelling like animals, fighting with nails, making so much big and powerful atom bombs and they are destroying so many lives. They are very cruel-hearted, and they cannot control their senses, but they want to control the whole world.
In the transcendental world, everything is transcendental. There are two kinds of souls, and those who are liberated, serve God there. All are happy.
The souls enjoying the material senses are called conditioned souls. Our souls are covered with worldly elements like earth, water, fire, ether, air. Our bodies consist of these five elements. When one dies, the soul never dies or takes birth. These souls are in some ways the same and in some ways different from God. As God has a beautiful shape, souls also have beautiful bodies. God has so many qualities, and we see that souls also have many qualities. But the difference between God and souls is that God is full, all is contained within him, and jivas are infinitesmal. Jivas cannot create worlds, they cannot control that way, but God can control everything. He is the master of Maya. Jivas go through so many changes, but supreme God is out of Maya. Krssna and His associates cannot come under control of illussory Maya., cannot be unhappy.
Jivas, in some cases, will forget the Supreme Persnality of Godhead, and they will misuse their independence. They will come to this world thinking I am this body, I am the doer, I am the controller, I am the taster, but this is the symptom of conditioned souls. So we are conditioned. All souls have come from Krsna, and this world has come from Him too.
There are two kinds of powers: Yogamaya and Mahamaya. They can create worlds, but they cannot create souls. Souls are eternal, same in quality to God, who is eternal. Jivas are eternal, but when they forget theSupreme Personality of Godhead, and they think they can do this and that alone, not able to admit they need God, then Maya takes them.
Jiva Goswami has explained these things for us. Any pure acarya, even Ramanuja Acarya, cannot tell all these things. How did Jiva Goswami realize these high topics? He did so by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He came as the shape of a Guru in this world. Jiva knew all these things and complied Sarva-Sandarbha..
He has also told that by knowledge, astanga yoga or any austerities or donations, we cannot know the Supreme Lord or realize our soul either. Only by the practice of pure bhakti-yoga, we can we understand loving devotional service to God. We can realize the truth about God and the jivas. If this world had no shape, souls could not come. It is told in the Bible that God created this world in His own image. We can recognizethis simple truth, not only in Indian culture and the Bible, but also in the Q'aran, that God has created human bodies after his own shape.
We can become attached to God through bhakti-yoga, whereas we cannot by knowledge. By drinking water, we can quench our thirst. If we are hungry, by taking chapatis, rice, butter and some sweets, our hunger will go away. I'm telling you, but this knowledge will not give you Krsna It is exclusively by bhakti-yoga, our practical activity of sadhana, that we will realize.
What is bhakti? First it is called sadhana-bhakti, then bhava-bhakti, and then when it becomes purest in it's own constitutional form it is called prema-bhakti. We all have some affection and love in us. If a beautiful young man and girl see each other, they would like to love each other. After that, they are bound by marriage. If after some time in marriage, they are quarrelling for themselves, they shall become divorced. We try to fulfill ourselves again by taking another marriage partner. If we are not happy in our householder life, we can have a dog. Wives and husbands can divorce, but a dog you don't divorce. Still after some time, we see that dog is dead, and we get new dog. So there is nothing in this world that we can love. The only true love is love of God, who is the abode of that love.
Now we see that our love is impure, it is selfish. We love our very beautiful wife if she is serving and obeying. If she has a bank account in her own name, is always quarreling and then she is also loving another person, we will be upset.
Nowadays in this body, our love and affection is not pure. By chanting the name of Godhead, gradually hearing, and coming in the association of realized vaisnavas, those who know what this world is, have no attachment to this world, only anyhow maintaning their life by always chanting and remembering God, meditating. They are really happy. If we, in turn, associate with them, they will tell about the process of bhakti-yoga and how you can develop this love and affection to Godhead.
When we are practicing bhakti-yoga, it is called sadhana. And when some transcdental love and affection comes but in a crude form, covered with the intelligence, then it is called bhava-bhakti. In bhava-bhakti, a soul can realize Krsna prema, how he can serve him. After some time, practicing... practicing... suddha-bhakti will come into our heart, and prema will be there.
Prema is one, but it is divided in five sections. Santa means the love and affection toward God, but not with any speciality. He is so great, of course we want to worship him. No worldly desires are there after liberation. Santa-rasa is free of material contamination. Next we see that a relationship with God in the mood of dasya-rasa is serving God like a master, root of whole universe, whom we pray to. Hanuman prayed in this way. There's sakhya-rasa, serving Krsna like a friend. God is my friend. If you think like this, then you can have God as a friend. Laksmana was in sakhya-rasa. We see this mood also in Goloka Vrndavana.. We see Krsna's friends feeding him. It is a very sweet thing. The vatsalya mood is even more superior than this, serving God as a son or daughter. If we see God as a father, that would be different because it is the father who serves the son. If we want to serve God in a parental mood, we can serve him as his own parent. Madhuraya-rasa is divided into two separate moods. Those who are married to a partner by Vedic mantra or by courts are together in svakiya-bhava. The other mood, which has no cause other than love and affection is called parakiya-bhava. Many scholars don't accept the love of Vraja prema, only the love of those who have married Krsna, like Rukmini or Satyabauma. In this upapati-bhava, they are always thinking how they love Krsna in their parakiya mood, even though they may even be married to someone else. Gopis are always thinking of Krsna, thinking he is their beloved in supreme states of bliss. Only Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Madhavendra Puri, Isvapuripad brought knowledge of parakiya-rasa from Goloka Vrndavana..
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna himself, has come to this world, and he has taken the beauty and intrinsic mood of the gopi, Srimati Radhika, and has preached in this world through kirtana.
After Jiva Goswami, there was some dispute amongst his disciples as to whether or not svakiya-bhava or parakiya-bhava was okay or better. Jiva Goswami had two types of followers. Some thought all should be svakiya or some thought all should be parakiya. Jiva has written two types of literatures for these two groups. Both are right, and Jiva Goswami has told it.
What know that everywhere in Srimad Bhagavatam, the conceptual mood of parakiya is very distinct and prominent. In the land of the gopis in Goloka Vrindavana, it must be parakiya.
I think we should adopt bhaki-yoga; it is very easy. You can chant God's name in day, in night, whether you are Muslim or Hindu, Christian, anything.. If there are animals, they can hear when you chant loudly and be liberated. If you are poor you can take the name, even if you are rich. With or without meals, sitting or standing, in any position, we can chant. There is no need of wealth or anything. It is the essence of whole epics, the scriptures. God is one without second, so God is One, and we can chant to him, pray to him. He should be merciful to us. This chanting of sankirtana is the surpreme process. We should try to do like this.
tribes.tribe.net/gurudeva/
The subject of Jiva Goswami is so high, it is difficult for people to understand, but I am willing to tell a little because you will understand something. Jiva was one of the six Goswamis, and he had written many books, like Tattva Sandarbha.
In this world we can't trust anyone. We wonder whom we can trust in heaven or the transcendental world. Unfortunately, we cannot touch that transcendental world by any of our senses, so how can we touch that world, and how can we decide who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? How can we trust that there is a God from whom this creation has come and how is He controlling whole world? We cannot control the world, and we cannot see our atma. God is even here in this world, in his param-atma form (in our hearts), but we are not seeing him.
Jiva Goswami has explained it: all our senses are imperfect, so anything we are seeing before us or realizing with our minds, we cannot put faith in. Our own eyes cannot see what is inside our body. Our eyes cannot see what is soul here, so these senses are limited abilities, and we cannot trust them, especially for relating to transcendental subject matters.
Perhaps we understand this about God: He is generator, operator and destroyer. There are so many souls. We see, so many people are taking birth and thousands are dying. New days come regularly. The sun is coming up on time, and everything is controlled, but it is beyond our control.
Jiva Goswami is telling, only transcendental words can speak the truth. Our seeing and touching is defective. What is told transcendentally can give us information about God. It has been given in the Vedas, Upanisads, and especially, Srimad Bhagavatam. Transcendental knowledge is there, so we can put our faith in that. Krsna gave the scriptures to us for this reason.
A man may tell that we can trust what we can see. There are so many things we are trusting like this. Once my Guruji was riding with me on a train, and at once, an officer came and asked him, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“How? I don't believe in any God because I don't see.”
“No, this is nothing. You believe so many things that you have not seen. Can you say who is your father?”
“Yes,” and the man mentioned his fathers name.
“How do you know that he is your father? Any proof?'
The officer began to look around, thinking. He had no proof. At that time, he had not taken birth. His mother had told him who his father was, but he could only trust his mother, could not actually see for himself.
In this way, the words of the sacred texts are more trustful than mother or father or anyone. Spiritual world cannot tell lies. Everything has been told here, and it is the most supreme evidence. Sometimes what the eyes are seeing, we can only speculate about. From a distant place, we might see someone coming and think it is our father, but then as he comes closer, we may see that it is not actually our father. This is not evidence. Evidence is the Srimad Bhagavatam.
“Who is God?” asked the officer on the train. “God has no shape and no qualities.”
“No, it is not like this.” This entire world of form has come from Him, so how can he not have form? From nothing, how can this world come? He has form, and His form is the most beautiful form. He has all kinds of good qualities. He is so merciful. If God were not merciful, how could He know our sufferings and help us? God is the embodiment of love, and if he were not so, then what is the use of God? If he cannot help us... if he cannot love us? Nothing. We should know that God can create all these things in a second and also destroy everything in a moment. God must be so powerful. We cannot do like that.
The Goswamis break it down for us: we are not this body. We are captured in a jail, in a cage. Although we don't want to become old and die, we are bound to become old. Our hair will be white, eyesight weak, and the day will come when we cannot walk without a stick. Someday we will die.
There is one who is never born or becomes old, never dies. He never changes His position. He is all mighty, knows past, present and future, is omniscient. He can do anything He likes, and He is also so causelessly merciful.
Jiva Goswami is telling, that God is Sarva-saktiman, omnipotent. All powers are invested in Him always. Krsna with his svarupa-sakti means his power always lives with Him. If there is some expansion, it is called his plenary expansion, like Rama. When Brahma is jiva-sakti, He is our own soul. Such is the power of God.
But now we are forgetting Him, and that is why His Maya, one of his potencies, has taken us to this world and covered our soul. We have forgotten, who am I and who is God? We are in an endless chain of sorrow and sufferings, and no one here is happy. We are not serving or wanting God's mercy, not coming out of Maya. Therefore, we're always suffering.
Here we can see that even emperors, chief ministers and presidents are all suffering. Even if you have some happiness in young age, there are still so many problems. One day we will have to give up this body surely. We cannot say whether God is true or not, but very easily we can see that death is true. No one can deny this, even people who do not believe in God. All sufferings are true, but we don't know why we are suffering. We are like animals, always quarreling, mating and defending. Though we think that we will be happy by this, we cannot be.
Jiva gives it to us. All the souls in different species, such as humans, demigods, animals, birds, fishes, creepers, those who have sense and feel sorrow and happiness, all are souls. Among all these species, a human body has special qualities. Someone calls, and you hear them and come. You can see your future.
Cows cannot see their very near future. If there are so many cows, and if they are taken to a slaughter house, when they are nearing the moment of death, if you give grasses, they will quarrel over it. But in a human body, we can think about these things, about the future.
Some humans are thinking about the future, and that is why they are making so many bombs, so they can control others, and then be happy. Others are thinking, no, this will not make me happy. How can we become happy? If we realize, what is soul, from where we have come.
We can wonder why a person takes birth as a daughter or son of the prime minister of Australia, and in the next moment, another is taking birth in a very poor family. Why? One is born very beautiful and another is born lame. A wise, intelligent man contemplates these things.
Human form is most supreme amongst all species. In this shape, it is time to consider such things: why am I suffering, why am I moving toward death, who am I, and who is God? If we're not thinking about these things, we is no better than a two-legged animal.
Jiva has told that all the humans, trees and creepers have some sense of gratification, and they all have love and affection. If there is a dog, and you call him, he will come wagging his tail. If there is love in you, even if a tiger or a lion comes, he will not be ferocious.
Our religion is love and affection. God is the embodiment of love and affection. We are part and parcel. If you are able to realize this fact, surely if will pull you out of the chain of sorrow and suffering. This is called bhakti-yoga. Taking shelter of this bhakti-yoga, maintenance of our life and family will automatically come. If you are sitting in your room, chanting, “... hare krsna, hare krsna, krsna krsna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare...” even for a couple of months, you will see that everything is coming, though you are not doing anything to maintain it. Even after a hundred years, all will come. We should trust in these things. While we are in this human shape, we should try to know who we really are.
If in this world, there are some persons who know these things, are qualified, have a realization of soul and God, have some link with God, they can show this path. By way of practice, we can also have some realization. He's called acarya or Guru, spiritual master. And he will never fall. We should try to go and associate with him. Jiva Goswami has written that we can do up to this in human body.
What is sraddha? There is a God. We must serve the supreme personality of God, which comes by the association of any pure devotee. If we desire to serve Godhead, but after that we have no association, then the desire will dry up, for lack of association. We see so many devotees have had sraddha, and after that came to bhajana-kriya, and they began to do bhajana-sadhana. But sometimes if there was no good association, this sraddha began to dry up. So, although some persons were coming in the madhyama-adhikara, and they even became brahmacarya, from there they began to fall. It had been like a tree or creeper, after their spouts came and then some leaves, had not gotten water and withered to die. We should try always to be in good association. Society cannot give this, but if there are some good preachers like Swamiji or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabupada., we can be associated with them.
If after they are gone, the disciplic line is there but followers are not true, hankering after wealth, women, and wine, then they will fall down surely. We should try to know all these things and to practice bhakti-yoga. If we are not practicing bhakt-yoga, we are like hogs or asses. And we see that the whole lot are quarelling like animals, fighting with nails, making so much big and powerful atom bombs and they are destroying so many lives. They are very cruel-hearted, and they cannot control their senses, but they want to control the whole world.
In the transcendental world, everything is transcendental. There are two kinds of souls, and those who are liberated, serve God there. All are happy.
The souls enjoying the material senses are called conditioned souls. Our souls are covered with worldly elements like earth, water, fire, ether, air. Our bodies consist of these five elements. When one dies, the soul never dies or takes birth. These souls are in some ways the same and in some ways different from God. As God has a beautiful shape, souls also have beautiful bodies. God has so many qualities, and we see that souls also have many qualities. But the difference between God and souls is that God is full, all is contained within him, and jivas are infinitesmal. Jivas cannot create worlds, they cannot control that way, but God can control everything. He is the master of Maya. Jivas go through so many changes, but supreme God is out of Maya. Krssna and His associates cannot come under control of illussory Maya., cannot be unhappy.
Jivas, in some cases, will forget the Supreme Persnality of Godhead, and they will misuse their independence. They will come to this world thinking I am this body, I am the doer, I am the controller, I am the taster, but this is the symptom of conditioned souls. So we are conditioned. All souls have come from Krsna, and this world has come from Him too.
There are two kinds of powers: Yogamaya and Mahamaya. They can create worlds, but they cannot create souls. Souls are eternal, same in quality to God, who is eternal. Jivas are eternal, but when they forget theSupreme Personality of Godhead, and they think they can do this and that alone, not able to admit they need God, then Maya takes them.
Jiva Goswami has explained these things for us. Any pure acarya, even Ramanuja Acarya, cannot tell all these things. How did Jiva Goswami realize these high topics? He did so by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He came as the shape of a Guru in this world. Jiva knew all these things and complied Sarva-Sandarbha..
He has also told that by knowledge, astanga yoga or any austerities or donations, we cannot know the Supreme Lord or realize our soul either. Only by the practice of pure bhakti-yoga, we can we understand loving devotional service to God. We can realize the truth about God and the jivas. If this world had no shape, souls could not come. It is told in the Bible that God created this world in His own image. We can recognizethis simple truth, not only in Indian culture and the Bible, but also in the Q'aran, that God has created human bodies after his own shape.
We can become attached to God through bhakti-yoga, whereas we cannot by knowledge. By drinking water, we can quench our thirst. If we are hungry, by taking chapatis, rice, butter and some sweets, our hunger will go away. I'm telling you, but this knowledge will not give you Krsna It is exclusively by bhakti-yoga, our practical activity of sadhana, that we will realize.
What is bhakti? First it is called sadhana-bhakti, then bhava-bhakti, and then when it becomes purest in it's own constitutional form it is called prema-bhakti. We all have some affection and love in us. If a beautiful young man and girl see each other, they would like to love each other. After that, they are bound by marriage. If after some time in marriage, they are quarrelling for themselves, they shall become divorced. We try to fulfill ourselves again by taking another marriage partner. If we are not happy in our householder life, we can have a dog. Wives and husbands can divorce, but a dog you don't divorce. Still after some time, we see that dog is dead, and we get new dog. So there is nothing in this world that we can love. The only true love is love of God, who is the abode of that love.
Now we see that our love is impure, it is selfish. We love our very beautiful wife if she is serving and obeying. If she has a bank account in her own name, is always quarreling and then she is also loving another person, we will be upset.
Nowadays in this body, our love and affection is not pure. By chanting the name of Godhead, gradually hearing, and coming in the association of realized vaisnavas, those who know what this world is, have no attachment to this world, only anyhow maintaning their life by always chanting and remembering God, meditating. They are really happy. If we, in turn, associate with them, they will tell about the process of bhakti-yoga and how you can develop this love and affection to Godhead.
When we are practicing bhakti-yoga, it is called sadhana. And when some transcdental love and affection comes but in a crude form, covered with the intelligence, then it is called bhava-bhakti. In bhava-bhakti, a soul can realize Krsna prema, how he can serve him. After some time, practicing... practicing... suddha-bhakti will come into our heart, and prema will be there.
Prema is one, but it is divided in five sections. Santa means the love and affection toward God, but not with any speciality. He is so great, of course we want to worship him. No worldly desires are there after liberation. Santa-rasa is free of material contamination. Next we see that a relationship with God in the mood of dasya-rasa is serving God like a master, root of whole universe, whom we pray to. Hanuman prayed in this way. There's sakhya-rasa, serving Krsna like a friend. God is my friend. If you think like this, then you can have God as a friend. Laksmana was in sakhya-rasa. We see this mood also in Goloka Vrndavana.. We see Krsna's friends feeding him. It is a very sweet thing. The vatsalya mood is even more superior than this, serving God as a son or daughter. If we see God as a father, that would be different because it is the father who serves the son. If we want to serve God in a parental mood, we can serve him as his own parent. Madhuraya-rasa is divided into two separate moods. Those who are married to a partner by Vedic mantra or by courts are together in svakiya-bhava. The other mood, which has no cause other than love and affection is called parakiya-bhava. Many scholars don't accept the love of Vraja prema, only the love of those who have married Krsna, like Rukmini or Satyabauma. In this upapati-bhava, they are always thinking how they love Krsna in their parakiya mood, even though they may even be married to someone else. Gopis are always thinking of Krsna, thinking he is their beloved in supreme states of bliss. Only Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Madhavendra Puri, Isvapuripad brought knowledge of parakiya-rasa from Goloka Vrndavana..
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna himself, has come to this world, and he has taken the beauty and intrinsic mood of the gopi, Srimati Radhika, and has preached in this world through kirtana.
After Jiva Goswami, there was some dispute amongst his disciples as to whether or not svakiya-bhava or parakiya-bhava was okay or better. Jiva Goswami had two types of followers. Some thought all should be svakiya or some thought all should be parakiya. Jiva has written two types of literatures for these two groups. Both are right, and Jiva Goswami has told it.
What know that everywhere in Srimad Bhagavatam, the conceptual mood of parakiya is very distinct and prominent. In the land of the gopis in Goloka Vrindavana, it must be parakiya.
I think we should adopt bhaki-yoga; it is very easy. You can chant God's name in day, in night, whether you are Muslim or Hindu, Christian, anything.. If there are animals, they can hear when you chant loudly and be liberated. If you are poor you can take the name, even if you are rich. With or without meals, sitting or standing, in any position, we can chant. There is no need of wealth or anything. It is the essence of whole epics, the scriptures. God is one without second, so God is One, and we can chant to him, pray to him. He should be merciful to us. This chanting of sankirtana is the surpreme process. We should try to do like this.
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