The Concise Path of Manjari-bhava Sadhana

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

In Prema Bhakti Candrika, Narottama dasa Thakura presents five essential practices of raga-bhakti and manjari-bhava sadhana to attain erotic love (Vraja srnghara-prema) in the mood of the Vraja damsels (gopi-bhava). His program incorporates four of the nine limbs of bhakti-sadhana, namely 1) Sravanam, 2) Kirtanam; 3) Smaranam; and 4) Vandanam. He adds a special fifth practice he calls Darshana. This concise sadhana package describes five limbs of bhakti which include a total of nine individual daily practices. If one regularly pursues these nine practices he will quickly obtain the treasure of Radha-Krishna’s eternal prema seva in Sri Dhama Vrndavana in this life.

Now let’s examine Narottama dasa Thakura’s manjari-bhava sadhana program.

I. HEARING (sravanam)

1. Be attached to hearing the acharya’s descriptions of Radha-Krishna’s loving pastimes (rati prema maya parabandhe v 60).

2. Constantly hear devotees chanting Radha-Krishna’s names and qualities (dunhu nama shuni shuni, bhakta-mukhe punee punee v 76).

II. CHANTING (kirtanam)

3. Chant the rasa-filled names of Radha-Krishna (krishna nama radha nama, upasana rasa-dhama v 60).

4. Always sing about the rasa-filled lilas of Yugala Kishora (lila-rasa-sadaa gaana, jugala-kishora v 100) in a loving way (prema bhaave lila katha v 106); which means full of eagerness and yearning.

III. REMEMBERING (smaranam)

5. Seva smaranam—Fix your mind only the seva of Radha-Krishna (radha krishna sevana ekaanta koriyaa mana v 76; both externally in sadhaka-rupa, and mentally serving in your siddha-svarupa, ashta-kaliya-lila smaranam.

6. Kirtana smarana— Singing Radha-Krishna’s Holy Names is the topmost meditation (radha-krishna nama gaana parama dhyaana v 73).

7. Lila smarana—Remember the sweet daily vraja-lilas of Radha Govinda, the essence of all practices and goals (yugala vilasa smarana sadhya sadhana saara v 61).

IV. PRAYERS (vandanam)

8. Always pray that you can hear, read or speak Radha-Krishna prema-katha with a pure heart free from personal motives (praarthanaa kariba sadaa, shuddha-bhaave prema-katha v 75)

V. SEEING (darshanam)

9. Rupa-darshana— Always cry with intense desire to see the splendid golden body of Rai (Radharani) and the enchanting raincloud blue form of Ghanashyama (hema-gaura-tanu rai, ankhee darashana chai, rodana karaye abhilaashe, jaladhara dhaara dhaara, anga atee manohara v 77).

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!

Meeting Radha’s Family

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das  

One aspect of raganuga-sadhana is learn about the identities, relationships, feelings and moods of love of Radha and Krishna’s friends and family members. Why you may ask? Attaining the spiritual perfection of Krishna prema means to enter Goloka Vrindavana, and to lovingly serve Radha-Krishna alongside all of Their friends and family members. Therefore, here as part of our sadhana we must prepare ourselves to know where we are going, and with whom we will live and serve with upon getting there. 

To facilitate this “spiritual family familiarization sadhana”, our compassionate Gaudiya Vaisnava acharyas Srila Rupa Goswamipada and Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswamipada wrote two essential books for our study:

Radha-Krishna Ganoddesha Dipika and Vraja Vilasa Stava. Also Sri Kavi Karnapura wrote Gaura Ganoddesha Dipika to help us learn the dual identities of Krishna’s eternal associates in both Vraja-lila and Gaura-lila. 

To celebrate Radhastami, we are listing the key personalities in Srimati Radharani’s transcendental family of loving servitors. Wherever known, we’ll include their Gaura-lila names in brackets. 

But first however, we should warn everyone with a few words of caution. If you are at all attached to your relativities in the form of friends and family members, then definitely... 

DO NOT READ THIS description of the pure and loving, beautiful people in Radha’s realm of eternal transcendental bliss!  

Radha’s Elders

Paternal grandfather: Mahibhanu

Paternal grandmother: Sukhada

Father: Vrishabhanu (Pundarika Vidyanidhi)

Maternal grandfather: Indu

Maternal grandmother: Mukhara

Mother: Kirtida (Ratnavati)

Elder brother: Sridama (Abhirama Gopala)

Younger sister: Ananga-manjari (Jahnava-devi)

Paternal uncles: Bhanu, Ratna-bhanu, Subhanu.

So-called husband: Abhimanyu

Father-in-law: Vrka-gopa

Mother-in-law: Jatila (Ramachandra Puri)

Brother-in-law: Durmada

Sister-in-law: Kutila

Radha’s Ashta Sakhis:

Lalita (Svarupa Damodara Goswami)

Vishakha (Ramananda Raya)

Chitra (Govindananda Thakura)

Indulekha (Vasu Ramananda)

Champakalata (Shivananda Sena)

Tungavidya (Vakreshvara Pandita)

Ranga-devi (Govinda Ghosh)

Sudevi (Vasudeva Ghosh)

And: Vrinda-devi (Mukunda Dasa)

Dhanishta (Raghava Pandita)

Nandimukhi (Saranga Thakura)

Radha’s Ashta-Manjaris:

Sri Rupa-manjari: (Srila Rupa Goswamipada)

Rati-manjari: Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswamipada)

Lavanga-manjari (Srila Sanatana Goswamipada)

Raga-manjari (Srila Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami)

Guna-manjari: (Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami)

Manjulali-manjari: (Sri Lokanatha Goswami)

Vilasa-manjari (Sri Jiva Goswamipada)

Kasturi-manjari (Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja)

Radha’s Favorite Pets:

Calf: Tungi

Chakori bird: Charu-chandrika

Cows: Bahula, Sunada, Yamuna

Doe: Rangini

Elephant: Madhuri

Monkey: Kakkhati

Talking Parrots: Shubha, Sukshmadhi

Peahen: Tundika

Swan: Tundikeri 

Sri Radha’s premika nitya-parisads ki jai!

Jai Jai Sri Radhe! 

Jhulana Meditation part 6

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

As a practice of lila-smarana (meditating on Radha-Govinda’s pastimes), you can chant the maha-mantra while contemplating upon the following entry. Follow these steps and experience the result:

1) Before japa, first slowly read one bhajana translation. While reading, try to visualize the Divine Couple, the sakhis, the forest scene, and all the props. 

2) Slowly read again, increasing the visualization while trying to identify with the feelings and sevas of the sakhis attending to the Divine Couple.

3) Close your eyes, try to recapture the scene, sevas and feelings being exchanged between the sakhis, and the Divine Couple, Radha Govinda Yugala.

4) Open your eyes, read the entire piece again out loud.

5) Close your eyes, and begin chanting japa while trying to “mentally see and feel” and enter into and serve everything you read about.

Without a doubt, if you do this sincerely you will have an amazingly sublime and sweet experience during your jhulana japa.  

O Bihariji! You forever relish swing pastimes in Vrindavana. Just see how the pleasure groves of Vraja are covered with a blanket of green! Here stands Nanda Bihari and Bhanu Dulari. O how sweet the Divine Couple look in our eyes! You are standing so enchantingly on the banks of the Yamuna, wearing a beautiful colored dress. The kadamba trees are full of blossoming fragrant flowers. The shining black luster of Ghanashyama mixes with the resplendent golden complexion of Radha like a lightning flash in a raincloud. Seeing this fills our hearts with joy. Shyama’s eyes are like chakora birds drinking the sweet nectar of Radha’s moon-like face. And the sakhis are like a thread of love serving Their lotus feet.

Jai Jai Sri Radhe! 

HOLI PASTIMES OF GAURANGA

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

From the first day of spring, Vasanta Pancami (Visnupriya's appearance day) until Gaura Purnima, Lord Gauranga plays Holi for 40 days continuously. On each day of these 40 days, Sri Gaurasundara performs Holi lila in the homes of His various confidential devotees. First Holi is in Advaitacarya's house on Vasanta Pancami. Then on Trayodasi, He plays Holi in Nityananda's house. In this month on Sukla Sasthi (March 6), Gauranga plays Holi in Gauridasa Pandita's house. Then on astami, in Uddharana Datta's house. On Purnima, Mahaprabhu plays Holi in own home.

Holi Pastimes of Gauranga

 On the bank of the Ganga, Sri Gauranga divided His intimate devotees into two groups: One team with Gauranga, and one team with Gadadhara Pandita. In Gadadhara’s team, there were Svarupa Damodara, Mukunda, Vasu Ghosa and many others. Gauranga's side was led by Gauridasa Pandita. As previously in Krsna-lila, all the sakhis and manjaris sided with Radha and all the sakhas teamed up together with Krsna to attack the sakhis. And now in Nadiya, the same devotees sided with either Gaura or Gadadhara respectively. Picking up pichkaris (syringes), Gauranga's team squirted Sri Gadadhara and his team. Then in retaliation, Svarupa Damodara and others began to hurl coloured powders bombarding Gauranga and His party from all sides. As the fun pastimes of Holi progressed, Gauridasa started clapping his hands and shouting excitingly, "Gauranga has won, Gauranga has won!" Then Svarupa Damodara angrily replied, “No, Gauranga has lost. The winner is my Gadadhara!" At this instant, some devotees slapped their chests and others sang and danced raising their hands into the sky, “Haribol! Haribol! Gaura Haribol!” (Mohandasa, disciple of Srinivasa Acarya)

Bhootnatha—A Ghost Story

   Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

Every day when Govinda takes the cows out to pasture, all the Vrajavasis eagerly come out to marvel at Krishna’s incomparable beauty. Especially all the newlyweds stand in their doorways, on the rooftops or peer through the lattice windows to catch a glimpse of Shyama. And with love-thirsty eyes Manohara is also always searching for new hearts to steal. One particular newlywed gopi girl was very restless, hankering to have darshana of Krishna whom she had heard so much about. Her mother-in-law forbid her from going, however, and warned her that if she goes she would be bitten by a black snake whose poison  is impossible to remove. The mother-in-law and her daughter then went to see Krishna and she was left behind. Opening the front door a crack, that new gopi peeked out and saw Krishna in the distance playing His flute and filling the entire area with showers of pure nectar.

Sri Krishna knows the pure hankering of every devotees’  heart, so when the time is right He mercifully grants His sweet darshana. In order to see that newlywed gopi, Krishna played a trick by twisting the tail of a calf. Somehow or other …that calf ran straight  to her door. Following the calf, Shyama appeared directly before that new gopi, gave His beautiful darshana, stole her heart in an instant and slipped away.

Dumbstruck, the newlywed just stood there motionlessly for fifteen minutes or so. Upon returning and observing her condition, her envious sister-in-law said, “Just see, I warned you. That black snake Syamasundara has bitten you!” Shaking the girl out of her trance, she managed to bring her inside the house. To bring her back to consciousness, the sister-in-law engaged her in preparing butter. But she got the pots mixed up and started “churning” mustard seeds instead of yogurt. Seeing this, the sister-in-law shouted, “Hey! What are you doing you paagal? I’m going to tell my mother about you!”

 The mother in-law came and told her to take a water pot and fill it at the well, and also take her other son’s child with her. Arriving at the well, she tied the rope for lowering the water pot into the well around the neck of the child instead. Just as she was about to drop the kid down the well, someone shouted, “Wait, stop! What are you doing?” Running over there, he took the rope from her hands and saved the child. At that time, one gopi said, “It appears she’s possessed!” Another gopi who knew everything, said, “But it’s not just any ordinary ghost, it is the ghost of Nandanandana!”

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!

Astronomical and Sweet Numbers

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

Some numbers given in the Srimad Bhagavatam seem too high to believe. For example, (10.12.2): “In the morning when Sri Krishna went to the pasturing grounds, He was accompanied by hundreds and thousands of cowherd boys (prthukaah sahasrashah), and hundreds and thousands of groups of calves (sahasra-upari-sankhyayaa anvitaan).”

What to make of these astronomical numbers? In his tika to Srimad Bhagavatam (10.12.3): Srila Visvanatha Cakravartipada says, “One should not argue that such a large number of cows could not possibly fit into the thirty-two square mile area of Vrindavana, because the holy dhama is unlimited by the inconceivable energy, achintya-shakti of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. Even a small portion of the Vraja Dhama can accommodate billions of universes each measuring fifty million miles in diameter. Krishna showed this fact to Brahmaji in (SB 10 canto, chapter 13).

The Srimad Bhagavatam (10.33.38) states Krishna danced with the gopis for a night of Lord Brahma, brahma-ratra upaavrtte, which means several millions and MILLIONS OF YEARS!

In his Sarartha Darshini tika, Srila Visvanatha Cakravartipada compares this inconceivable expansion of time to the fact that many universes fit within the forty-mile range of earthly Vrindavana. In this regard, Srila Rupa Goswamipada says, “In Gokula, nothing is impossible for Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the devotees, the abode, and everything in the abode of Vrindavana, by the power of the Sri Krishna’s inconceivable energy.” (Laghu Bh. 1.5.51)

Scriptures state that when Sri Krishna leaves Nandgrama to go the Rasa Mandala, He arrives there in a few seconds? How can one walk 50 kilometers in a few seconds? Our acharyas state that Krishna’s eternal lila-sthalis, pastime places, are like a lotus flower which opens and closes. To facilitate the movement of Radha-Krishna and Their associates over the vast distances of Vraja Mandala, the lotus closes to shrink the distance between two points. Or it opens to create large distances between places to prevent unwanted persons from approaching and interrupting Their pastimes. Only by the blessings of yogamaya can one understand these transcendental topics.

 However, for worshipers of the sweetness within Sri Krishna appearing as His beautiful sweet form, flute playing, loving dealings and pastimes, astronomical numbers reduce the intimate, madhurya conception they hold so dear. Devotees of Radha-Krishna in Vraja only deal in reasonable, sweet numbers which perfectly relate to our human experience, and that of a lovable, cute teenage boy frolicking in the forest with His adorable friends. Here is a list of some sweet numbers and their meanings gleaned from Gaudiya granthas for us to consider:

SWEET NUMBERS:

1. Vrajendranandana Sri Krishna.

2. Radha-Krishna.

3. Ages of Krishna: kaumara, pauganda, kaishora.

Krishna’s: in Vraja, in Mathura and Dvaraka.

Types of prema: sadharani, samanjasa, samartha.

Indulekha-sakhi is 3 days younger than Radha.

4. Features of amorous Krishna hero: dhira…lalita; prasanta; oddhata, odatta.

5. Sthayi-ratis: permanent loving mellow with Krishna.

6. Features of Krishna’s love affairs: love journey, sitting together, support, picking a quarrel, peacemaking, and separation (abhisara, asana, ashraya, kalaha, sandhi, dvaidha)

8. Radhaji’s celebrated ashta-sakhis: Lalita, Vishakha, Citra, Champakalata, Tungavidya, Indulekha, Ranga, Sudevi.

Krishna’s sakha’s kunjas at Shyama-kunda: Arjuna, Gandharva, Kokila, Madhumangala, Sananda, Subala, Vidagdha.

Daily pastime periods: (ashta-kaliya-lila).

Krishna Janmastami: bhadra krishna-astami.

Radha Avirbhava: bhadra sukla-astami.

Heroine gopis: abhisarika, vasaka-sajja, utkanthita, khandita, svadhina-bhartrka, kalahantarita, vipralabdha, proshita-bhartrka.

Sattvika-bhavas: experienced in relation to Radha-Krishna.

10. Age of 10.7 months Krishna left Vrindavana.

11. Age of Vasanta-sakha.11.4 months Kokila-sakha.

12. Main forests of Vraja Mandala.

Age of Gandharva-sakha; 12.6 months, Subala.

Body ornaments of Radhaji.

13. Age Rupa-manjari 13.6 months.

14. Age of Vishakha and Sri Radhika (14.2 months15 days).

Older than Radha by 2 days Champakalata; Lalita 27 days; Younger by 3 days Indulekha; 5 days Tungavidya; 10 days Sudevi & Ranga; 26 days Citra;

Ujjvala, Vidagdha and Sananda-sakhas 14 years.

15. Age of Krishna (15.9 months 7 1/2days).

Groups of Krishna’s gopi lovers.

16. Age of Balarama and Sridhama.

Kunjas around Shyama and Radha-kunda.

Varieties Radha’s body and flower ornaments.

17. Sevas of sakhis and manjaris for Radha-Krishna joy.

19. Symbols on bottoms lotus feet of Radha-Krishna.

25. Qualities of Sri Radha; Rooms in Radha’s Varsana palace.

30. Rooms in Radha’s Yavata home.

33. Sanchari-bhavas experienced in Radha-Krishna prema.

50. Rooms in Nanda Baba’s palace, the home of Krishna.

60. Dandas: 24 minute pastime periods in Radha-Krishna’s blissful day.

64. Qualities of Sri Krishna.

Arts; perfectly and completely seen in Radha-Krishna.

Main sakhis and 64 main manjaris serving under Radha’s ashta-sakhis.

96. Total amorous features of hero Sri Krishna.

360. Varieties of gopi heroine lovers of Krishna.

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!

Our View of Vrinda- Devi

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

The Brahma Vaivarta Purana and other Puranas contain stories about Vrinda-devi and other transcendental associates of Sri Krishna being cursed and descending to the material world. Gaudiya Vaisnavas do not reject these stories because they are in the shastras. However, we do not preach or write about this because Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the six Gosvamis did not present these ideas. The six Gosvamis distilled all the shastras and presented the essential truth for all the Gaudiya Vaisnavas to understand and follow.

 According to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Rupa Gosvami and Raghunatha Das Gosvami, Vrinda-devi is a nitya sakhi of Shrimati Radharani engaged in the eternal loving service of Radha and Krishna in the spiritual world and in the material world when the Divine Couple descend. Vrinda devi exhibits two forms; one as a sakhi named Vrinda-devi and another form as a beautiful bush named Tulasi devi replete with beautiful leaves and fragrant flowers called manjaris. Any other conception about Vrinda-devi is not endorsed by Gaudiya Vaisnavas.