{"id":437,"date":"2008-08-28T17:14:07","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T11:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/?p=437"},"modified":"2008-08-29T10:40:19","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T05:10:19","slug":"chapter-3-who-is-qualified-to-relish-devotional-ras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/sweet_books\/how-to-realize-ras\/chapter-3-who-is-qualified-to-relish-devotional-ras\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 3- Who is qualified to relish devotional ras?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Those who have past and present desire for devotional ras<\/em>, they alone can relish bhakti-ras<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 ( B.R.S. 2.1.6.)<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

What is \u2018past\u2019 and \u2018present\u2019 desire?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Srimat Jiva Gosw\u00e2mip\u00e2d has explained the above verse \u2013 <\/span><\/p>\n

“Past desire refers to the yearning for bhakti<\/em> in the past life, <\/span>while present desire means the desire for bhakti<\/em> in this life. When a devotee has a passion for Sri Krishna in this life, it is clear that he has present desire; however to realize ras,<\/em> he also has to have past desire. Both are necessary to relish ras.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Srila Vishwan\u00e2th Chakravartip\u00e2d has clarified further \u2013 <\/span><\/p>\n

“When we are offense less and if we practice bhajan <\/em>under the shelter of Sri Gurudev\u2019s lotus feet, we can reach the state of passion; even then, we will relish ras <\/em>only in the next birth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we have to see what we mean by \u2018the desire for ras<\/em>\u2019<\/span>1<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> ? How does it arise in the heart? When? In whose heart does it arise? When we delve deep into tattva,<\/em> we learn that Sri Krishna is rasa-swarup <\/em>(ras <\/em>personified). He and the living being are related to each other since infinity and the living being longs for rasa-swarup<\/em> Sri Krishna since then \u2013 and not for anybody else. However the living being has turned away from Sri Krishna and so he does not understand this. The longing drives him to enjoy Krishnetar<\/em> objects (things other than Sri Krishna). Of course, he does not really enjoy. The innate desire of his original self is to relish rasa-swarup<\/em> Sri Krishna. In stead of doing this, he simply wallows in sense-gratification. However, the soul is transcendental. He is against material pleasure. He is not happy to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. After all, the soul has only one goal \u2013 to relish sev\u00e2-ras <\/em>of the rasa-swarup<\/em> Sri Krishna. This means, the soul enjoys when he serves Rasar\u00e2j. This is why, in spite of rolling in material enjoyments since infinity, the living being remains ever dissatisfied. He can gain satisfaction and become blessed only by relishing divine ras.<\/em> The Shrutis are very merciful. They clearly tell the living being, who has floundered from his goal (ras<\/em>-relish) that Sri Krishna is ras <\/em>personified. <\/span>They proclaim \u2013 <\/span><\/p>\n

“raso vai sah<\/em>\u201d \u2013 He alone<\/strong> is ras<\/em>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“rasam hyev\u00e2yam labdh\u00e2nandi bhavati<\/em>\u201d \u2013 Sri Bhagav\u00e2n<\/em> is ras<\/em> personified and only<\/strong> by obtaining Him the ras<\/em>-thirsty living being can gain bliss.<\/span><\/p>\n

The words \u2018alone\u2019 and \u2018only\u2019 indicate that we can never gain happiness from anything (or anyone) other than Sri Bhagav\u00e2n<\/em>. Thus when we search for our root desire, we discover that it is the \u2018desire to serve Sri Krishna\u2019 or simply put, \u2018bhakti<\/em>-desire\u2019. When we have faith and reverence, we should take the shelter of the saints and Spiritual Master. We should associate with them and gain their krip\u00e2<\/em>. By their mercy, the desire for bhakti<\/em> arises in our heart. It is the same as the desire to perform bhajan<\/em>. After this we embark on the path of bhajan.<\/em> When we perform bhajan<\/em> enthusiastically, gradually we are rid of anarthas<\/em>. Then we gain nishth\u00e2<\/em>, interest, \u00e2sakti<\/em> and finally we are promoted to the stage of rati. Rati<\/em> (passion) is a devotee\u2019s permanent bh\u00e2v<\/em>. This \u2018permanent bh\u00e2v\u2019<\/em> mingles with vibh\u00e2v<\/em>, anubh\u00e2v<\/em><\/span><\/span>2<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> etc. and gets converted into bhakti-ras<\/em>. Thus we see that a passionate devotee is one worthy of relishing bhakti-ras<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

1<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> as mentioned in the verse in B.R.S. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Please see glossary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Those who have past and present desire for devotional ras, they alone can relish bhakti-ras.\u201d \u2013 ( B.R.S. 2.1.6.) What is \u2018past\u2019 and \u2018present\u2019 desire? \u00a0 Srimat Jiva Gosw\u00e2mip\u00e2d has explained the above verse \u2013 “Past desire refers to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[390,49],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-realize-ras","tag-how-to-realize-ras","tag-ras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kunjeshwari.com\/sweetblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}