Lecture

Lecture after Manipur Dancing

Prabhupāda: [chants maṅgalācaraṅa prayers]

...-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur-unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano 'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam

he kṛṣṅa karuṅā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate gopeśa gopīkā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te

Kṛṣṅa is gopīka-kānta, rādhā-kānta. That is Kṛṣṅa's real identification. He is gopīka-kānta, and He is rādhā-kānta. This relationship with Kṛṣṅa and gopīs, that is the highest perfectional realization of the Absolute Truth.

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.37]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

Kṛṣṅa's real identification means ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ. He is ānanda, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs 5.1], and His expansion of ānanda are these gopīs, ānanda-cinmaya.

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

But that is not this material thing. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, that mellow, that taste, that humor, that is completely spiritual. We should not misunderstand this līlā, or pastimes of Kṛṣṅa with the gopīs, that material lusty affairs. Then we'll be misled. It is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṅoḥ. The activities of the Vraja-vadhu, the damsels of Vṛndāvana, vikrīḍitam, activities, vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṅoḥ śraddhānvito 'nuśṛṅuyād atha varṅayed yaḥ, bhaktiṁ parāṁ pratilabhya hṛd-roga-kāma apahinoti [SB 10.33.39].

Our material existence is due to our lusty desires in the heart. That is hṛd-rogam. That is our heart disease. And we are suffering in this material world for this heart disease life after life. People have lost their intelligence that they cannot understand that there is life after death. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

They have become so fools and rascals that they do not understand this simple truth as it is said in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. We are seeking after this pleasure of Kṛṣṅa with the gopīs or with the cowherds boys. Kṛṣṅa has got many associates, and the topmost associates are the gopīs. So we are seeking after that happiness, but we are being misled by the lusty desires. So I am very glad to see the dance, Manipuri dance, but it should be properly utilized. It should not be utilized as lusty dance. It is ānanda-cinmaya, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1], His expansion.

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

So people are hankering after happiness because he's part and parcel of sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, Kṛṣṅa. So naturally, we are seeking the same spiritual happiness, but we are being misled by māyā. That we should be very much cautious under the guidance of proper spiritual master. This morning we're discussing this verse from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, rādhā kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir ahladini-śaktir asmat [Cc Ādi 1.5]. This rādhā kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ, loving affairs between Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa, and the gopīs are expansion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṅī. That is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. That is not material thing. It is a transformation of the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṅa. Rādhā kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir ahlādinī-śaktir asmāt. So this Kṛṣṅa conscious movement is meant for taking these misguided living beings to the topmost perfection of life in the rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛti. This is the aim of the Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, and in India still, in Manipur, the idea is being cultivated, and I shall be very glad that you Europeans and Americans who are present here may catch up this idea and introduce in your country. And actually they'll be happy if they follow the principles that vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṅoḥ.

These activities between the gopīs and Viṣṅu... Kṛṣṅa is the origin of Viṣṅu. So, anuśṛṅuyāt, if we repeatedly... Anu means constantly, and anu means following. The process is to follow or to chant about Kṛṣṅa's activities. Follow means in the paramparā system to understand Kṛṣṅa, what He is. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam [Bg 4.2].

[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.]

Do not understand..., or misunderstand Kṛṣṅa as ordinary human being like one of us. No. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam [Bg 9.11].

[Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.]

Kṛṣṅa comes to attract you, that "You are seeking after happiness. Here is the happiness. Come to Me. Dance with Me." But we are misled. There is life like this, that you can dance with Kṛṣṅa, you can play with Kṛṣṅa, you can enjoy with Kṛṣṅa.

So that requires training. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13].

Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya [Bg 4.9].

[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]

These things are there. If you become trained up, then exactly after giving up this life, you can go to dance with Kṛṣṅa. That is possible. It is not a myth, mythology, as rascals think. No. You can have this life, dance with Kṛṣṅa, play with Kṛṣṅa. Simply you have to become trained up. Then, as Kṛṣṅa says,

janma karma ca divyam me yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya [Bg 4.9]

You can go. But don't misunderstand. Kṛṣṅa and His pastimes with the gopīs, you should understand it properly—tattvam. That is called tattvam.

manuṣyāṅāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg 7.3]

[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]

You must understand Kṛṣṅa in truth, in fact. So Kṛṣṅa comes Himself to teach you, to show you what does He do in His Goloka Vṛndāvana. And if we are fortunate enough, be attracted with the Kṛṣṅa's pastimes, and if we constantly think of it, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ [Bg 9.14],

[Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.]

then your life will be perfect. That is the aim and purpose of Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. We want to give to the human society the highest blessings, the most perfectional platform of life.

So my request is that those who are becoming interested in Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa consciousness, they may not be misled. Kṛṣṅa's activities with Rādhārāṅī and the gopīs, they are completely spiritual, ahlādinī-śaktiḥ. And if we understand properly about Kṛṣṅa's activities, then ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ [Bs 5.37]—we reach to the platform of ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. Because we are seeking after ānanda, bliss. That is the information from the Vedānta-sūtra. Ānandamaya abhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12].

[By nature, the Supreme Lord is blissful.]

We living entities, we are by nature blissful, seeking after happiness. But this happiness is not possible if you become compact in material activities. If you seek the happiness in the material platform, you'll be frustrated. It is to be sought after in the spiritual platform.

So actually it is forbidden, that sannyāsīs should not see any dancing by woman or any singing by woman. But we are not violating these rules. Just to remember that here is an hint how Kṛṣṅa is spiritually enjoying. If we see and hear on that spirit, then it is very good; otherwise it is not good. So if he is actually guided by these verses in the Vedic literature...

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.37]

vikrīḍitaṁ vrana-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṅoḥ śraddhānvito 'nuśṛṅuyād atha varṅayed yaḥ bhaktiṁ parāṁ pratilabhya hṛd-roga- kāmān apahinoty āśu dhīraḥ [SB 10.33.39]

So we should always remember this rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir ahlādinī-śaktir asmāt. Then it will be very much beneficial. So this kind of dancing is very welcome all over the world if we do not misunderstand Kṛṣṅa. That should be the precaution. Otherwise it is very, very good. And our purpose is to introduce these Kṛṣṅa pastimes all over the world so that they may take lesson that they are seeking after happiness—the happiness is with Kṛṣṅa, not in the material world. Then you'll be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]