0:01Raja Janamana Sathikadi, you mentioned the name of the Raga, the name of that meter, oh the meter, yes, yes, it's also Puriya Dhanashri, Puriya Dhanashri, yeah, Dhanashri, they're a different type, but Dhanashri Raga is one of Radhika's two favorite Ragas, so what is your first favorite? She doesn't say which one it is, it depends what the mood is or the situation, but she has two favorite Ragas, Dhanashri and the other one is Malhar Raga.
1:15So, I make a point of trying to sing, from time to time, in Radharani's favorite ragas.
1:23Yes, yes, Prabhu.
1:28Quick question, because you talked about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. We see, like, it's, uh, there's a spotlight on it in Tom Gurudev's biography that it was followed, and you see Gurudev followed it when he came to the West. Sometimes devotees make a point that, well, the seasons are different around the world, for example, Australia, New Zealand, it's like winter when it's summer here.
1:51But it's like here in Vrindavan, like in the garden, in the spinach month, that's when all, the green month, that's when all the lettuce grows, and the tomato, they're like, this is so impractical, how is this? Yeah, in India at that time, because it's just after the rainy season, then all the green plants become infested with different types of insects, and it's just bad for the health to take the green things at that time, so definitely in India.
2:18Chaitanya, but, you know, I'm not going to like go down on record, don't follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, right? Follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, everyone. All the viewers on YouTube, follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, it's best, but one thing you have to know, what do sannyasis do during Chaturmasya? They stay in a place? Yes, they stop traveling. There may be parivrajaka, there may be traveling preachers, but during Chaturmasya,
3:16Just like I remember once, it was during Chaturmasya, and we, Gurudev, went to Russia for a festival, and it was the month, no green leaves, but in Russia at that time, and no tomato, in Russia at that time, all they had was basically cabbage and tomatoes, that was like practically all they had, and the festival organized it, well, what do we do, because this is the main crop at this time of the year, and it's, oh yeah, Gurudev, okay, you can, you can take it.
3:51like that. So Gurudev, he encouraged everyone to follow Chaturmasya. Everyone must follow Karthik very strictly. And he encouraged everyone to follow Chaturmasya. But there were certain occasions, times when he allowed some leniency or some concession, let's say. Now, you have to understand this. The reason we follow Chaturmasya, it's not that these particular things, as we mentioned before in regard to sesame seeds. It's not some special biological formula that at that time it will help with your bhakti. But the thing is this, that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did it, our Paramgurudev did it, our Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati did it. And so because they did it, when we follow them, we accept their anugatya, it increases our mamata for them. It increases our possessiveness for them. This is what my Gurudev did.
4:54this is what my parampara does, this is what my Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has done, just like in the middle of Chaturmasya, in the full moon, in the middle, it's Viracandra Mahotsava, so it's not the day that Virabhadra took sannyas, it's not even the day that he passed away, but it's the day that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he was on tour and he was in Pandharpur, he heard the news that his brother Virabhadra had passed away in Pandharpur, he actually entered into the deity of Vitthal there, but because Mahaprabhu heard that his brother passed away at that time, then he shaved his head, right, because if a family member passes away, then you shave your head, so we also, even though you're not supposed to shave for the whole Chaturmasya, but we shave our heads on the full moon in the middle of Chaturmasya, what, because Mahaprabhu did, to have that mamatā that we're in the family of Mahaprabhu, and his elder brother who's so dear to him passed away, so it's not the regulation itself,
5:59that has the potency, but it's obeying the regulation that nourishes our possessiveness, our mamatā, mamatā, and that's the most important thing because that's the svarūpa of love—ananta, mamatā-yukta, laukika-sad-bandhu, sambandha. The svarūpa of love is a natural family-type relationship with your object of love, which is characterized by excessively condensed feelings of possessiveness, possessiveness. So the more our feelings of possessiveness become condensed, then our devotion and our love is also nourished, is favourable for the development of bhakti. So best thing, try to follow Chaturmasya. If you're living in what's just here and there's nothing else, then I have seen Gurudev has on occasion given concession. If a person's travelling, then they don't have to
7:05to always follow everything. And that is why all of our Acharyas and Mahaprabhu and sannyasis, it's the tradition, they just stop traveling for the whole Chaturmasya so that they can observe it properly.
7:23Okay, one more question, because it's the last day. Yes.
7:33So, Chaturmasya? They're from the beginning of the rainy season and then from that until the next month and four months up to the end of Kartik. So, it's usually, like, October, November, and the three months before that is the four months of Chaturmasya, yes. I was, it might be a little long question, and it's late, so maybe I can ask some other time.
8:07Okay, you can ask the question, and we'll see to what degree it's appropriate to ask them. Yesterday you were mentioning about how in that verse that Uddhava, Krishna replies to Uddhava, how he, the gopis are not, how do you say, they're at ease, like they're not that There was suffering, but the suffering has ended Yeah, it's ended, and then you were describing how the sadhaka, he sees the pastime also, like, right, like, live, right?
8:37So my question is, is that what a sphūrti is, or is sphūrti is different than watching the live pastimes? And if that is the case, the sphūrti comes also on the ruci and āsakti, and then you only get that once you pass bhāva, or when you get the words? Sphūrti is not one thing, sphūrti means a vision, we know that, but what kind of sphūrti is there depends on the stage of the devotee, so there are many, many different kinds.
9:36But then in prema, then the sphūrti, it can even be a bāhya-sphūrti, that means it's not even a sphūrti in the heart, when you get prema, you can look, and yet the sphūrti is in front of you, even, see, and then when it goes higher, if you get into the stage of anurāga, you can have vipralambha-bhāva-sphūrti, and that's so intense, it's completely indistinguishable from actually Krishna's direct presence, and then when you get to rūḍha-bhāva, then you have what is called vipralambha-kṛta prādurbhāva, which again has other characteristics. For example, the vipralambha-kṛta prādurbhāva that comes in anurāga, it's so real, you don't know that it's not real. You don't even know it's a sphūrti. But then when it disappears, the separation becomes double. But in the vipralambha-kṛta prādurbhāva that comes in rūḍha-bhāva, then the sphūrti is so intense. And then when it disappears, you still feel bliss.
10:38And in fact, it might be so, let's say if Radhika, she has this vipralambha-kṛta prādurbhāva, and when Krishna disappears, even though it was only a sphūrti, but her necklaces are broken, her hair is disheveled, the kajjal on her eyes has been removed by Krishna's kisses, and it's like all the signs of Krishna's, some scratches on her body, it's like, you see, so the sphūrtis are at a different degree, and it depends on the level of the sthāyī-bhāva at the time.
11:10Ja, gore prema, natte, ya irgo
