Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

SECTION XXII. BHAKTI YOGA.

Bhakti Yoga is concentration on the Deity through Devotion, the best and highest form of Yoga, higher than all the other forms, as Krishna Himself has said in the Bhagavat Gita Devotion is the full fruition of spiritual concentration. A true devotee is the highest Yogi, for he is filled with humility, and sincere, abject humility is the expression of the sublimest spiritual nature; it is "the softened shadow" as the Lord says, "that is cast by My Love." Sincere humility springs from the clear realization of the Presence of God in everything, that the whole universe is formed of the many forms of the One Form and its Radiance. And with that never fading vision before the mind's eye, the devote forgets himself and stoops low at the feet of every one and at everything he sees, for he sees in them all his Deity.

Bhakti is of two kinds, Gnān-Bhakti and Prem-Bhakti. Gnān-Bhakti is devotion aided by culture of wisdom, its Deity is some incarnation of Vishnoo and its goal is the Abode of Vishnoo or the Essence of Vishnoo. Prem Bhakti is devotion through Love—Causeless, Disinterested Love, love for love's sake, and its Deity and Goal is Krishna—Absolute Love. The Path of Prem Bhakti lies within the Path of Gnān Bhakti, but this Path within the Path is hedged in high to shut out the view and sound of the main path. The devotee of Prem Bhakti dedicates all his knowledge, wisdom and actions to Krishna, the spring of all Wisdom and Actions, and prays Krishna for His love, the luxury of loving Him for His dear sake.

The Prem Bhakta wants nothing from his Lord, no boon, no blessing, material or celestial, not even Salvation or Mukti, nothing, nothing, save—the blessing of being filled with love for Him. He prays to his Lord: "O my Krishna! It matters not what betides my body, my life or my earthly circumstances, or in what form of life I am reborn, even if it be that of a worm, let my faith and love be fixed in Thee, my Beloved. Whatever is there in all existence compared with the luxury of loving Thee? Thou art the sum-total of the realization of all desires, of all happiness, Thou, the Secret and Object of all our longings!"

Such, in truth, is Krishna's attraction and more. He is the embodiment of the concentrated Beauty and Sweetness of all the Universes, His Eyes and Face the focus of the Love that fills all that is. Hence this Prem Bhakti Path, which means the Path of Love's Devotion, is called the Path of Beauty and Sweetness. Beauty and Sweetness are Coexistent, are one and the same thing. Beauty is the expression of Sweetness, Sweetness is the Essence of Beauty, and Love is the Parent of both. Krishna's Form and Symmetry are all Ideals' unapproachable, inconceivable, unimaginable Ideal. The newest rain-cloud [1] color of His complexion is the color of the condensed Ether of Ether—Love. His crown and crest of peacock-feathers, His raiment of molten gold—the color of attraction—His long garland and ornaments of wild flowers, His jewel Kaustubha on His Breast and His bamboo flute were all proud contributions of Nature to Her Supreme Lord. If we can imagine the essence of the purest of pure love condensed into a substance as thick as flesh and moulded into form, we can then have some idea of the material of Krishna's Body, whether in Glory or on earth. It is a Form which, the moment you produce some likeness of it in imagination thrills you with ecstasy, for it is Ecstasy condensed.

[1]	The color of the newest rain-cloud of India, color of the sapphire or marine blue, are vain attempts to indicate Krishna's color and complexion.

Krishna is best worshipped with the heart. Prayers and incantations and offerings, without sincere feeling, do not reach Him. He responds to the call of love alone. Call Him from the innermost depth of your heart with pure love—love unmixed with motive—with sincere, artless love of a fond baby for its mother, and He will appear to you and do whatever you want Him to do. Krishna is your veriest own, nearer to you than your nearest relative, your only true friend in life and Eternity. He is dearer, more precious than your body or your life or your heart for He is your soul and soul is dearer and more precious than body, life or heart. It is Him you have been searching in all your searchings in life, in lives you have lived before, and Him will you search in lives that are to come after this life. He is ever with you. He is within you, but you are searching for Him outside of you—whence you miss Him, hence you run after all the will-o'-the-wisps of life, thinking these will give you the joy which your Only Beloved and Lover alone can give. No wonder you are deceived, depressed, unsatisfied—the reward of chasing the shadow of the substance that lies within you, the reward of chasing the rainbow which is but the reflection of the Sun of your soul's sky.

The devotee of Krishna meditates on Krishna regarding Him in one of the four human relationships, whichever suits his natural inclination best, viz., Dāsya or the relationship of a Servant to his Master, Sakhya or the relationship of the Friend to his Friend, Bātsalya or the relationship of a Son to his Parents or Parents to a Son, and Madhur or the relationship of a Wife to her Husband or of a loving Woman to her Lover. These four kinds of devotional feelings are natural in man. By "natural" I mean born from Nature of which man is the best earthly product. But wherefrom has Nature derived them? From her parent-source, Krishna, of course. So these feelings are present, in their absolute perfection, in Krishna, the source of all Life. Flowing from Krishna into His Creation, they constitute the cords of attachment between man and man, the natural bonds of union between soul and soul, the natural channels of communication between man and his Maker. They are the invisible wires of telegraphy between the Central Soul and its branch souls—between the Parent Soul and its offsprings. If the instruments of the branch offices are rusty and out of order they cannot transmit their messages to the main office or receive messages therefrom. The moment they are cleaned, repaired and put into working order, they are open to perfect communication once more.

The devotee of Krishna cleans the rusty and disordered instrument of his heart by cultivating one of these feelings of devotion for Krishna. And the moment this feeling attains its natural state, the moment it becomes absolutely sincere, than he absorbs and is filled with absolute Love from its Primeval Spring. Krishna is absolutely divine and absolutely human, for it is perfect humanity that is perfect divinity. Krishna is Love itself, the Love that destroys all distance. Love that draws the Lover and the Loved closest to each other. It knows no ceremony, knows no formal respect. It knows no motive. Love is its own cause, motive and satisfaction. Divinity demands our reverence and inspires us with awe. Despite its strong attraction we can but adore it from a distance, we cannot approach it too near. But Love draws us to its bosom and holds us close: Love is a Master and Love is a Slave. It knows no barrier, sees no faults, nay, sees virtues in faults. It responds to its own clear call or vibrates to the voice of its own inspiration and blesses its own creation with greater gifts of its own wealth.

Whichever of the four devotional feelings towards Krishna the Bhakta (devotee) cultivates, it must reach the stage of unalloyed sincerity to be rewarded by its blissful realization. The loving Servant of Krishna must love His service above all he loves and holds dear. The devotee who wants to be the Friend and Companion of Krishna must have his all-forgetting Love of Krishna pervaded by an uninterrupted sense of equality with Him. He may serve Him as a slave, but it is the service of a friend who is more than a slave to his friend. The devotee who wants to love Krishna as a Father or Mother must have unwavering sincerity of such paternal love and affection. He or she must always consider himself or herself superior to Krishna whom they must regard as a helpless child in their charge. This true parental feeling is pervaded by the unconscious spirit of spontaneous service and friendship, for no friendship and service can be compared with those of parents. The same rules apply to the cultivation of the filial feeling of devotion to Krishna. The fourth, the feeling of a loving wife to her lord sums up the essence of all the foregoing three feelings, It is the highest and tenderest feeling of devotion. The true wife is the servant, friend, mother and lover of her husband. She is his slave, equal and superior by virtue of her all-surrendering love. Every form of pure love is self-surrender. The love that knows no surrender or sacrifice is a mockery. It mocks itself more than its object, for sacrifice is its chief test and best expression. Love that only loves, if loved, is pure selfishness, it is self-deception. But the love that loves for its own sake and is the fullest satisfaction in itself, the love that loves whoever or whatever its object loves is the Love Absolute that Krishna is. The human soul that develops it, binds Krishna thereby and holds Him its prisoner for good. When that Love develops the tenderness of a loving wife, it captivates the Heart of hearts, and entrances the Soul of souls, Krishna.

These Vaishnav forms of devotion reached their highest degree of development and received their greatest impetus on the appearance of Sree Chaitanya, the Fullest Incarnation of Krishna, who was born in Nuddea, on the Ganges, Bengal, a little over four hundred years ago and flourished for nearly half a century. He was Krishna Himself incarnated in the form of His Greatest Devotee. Krishna is the Mystery and Chaitanya is its Explanation. Whenever Krishna comes to earth as the Mystery of Love in the Junction Period of Dwāpar and Kali, He comes again in the form, of Chaitanya as the Explanation of that Mystery, five thousand years after, to show to mankind the Way to Himself for examples.

Chaitanya's love, devotion and spirituality will ever remain unparalleled. He preached Krishna, the Seed and Soul of Love Absolute, and while preaching he would burst forth into song in praise of Krishna. Thus singing he would be filled with ecstasy and, in its fullness, he would be moved into the most graceful dance the world has ever seen, now shouting the Name of his Lord and anon weeping for his Lord's grace, his arms and whole body waving and quivering with the heaving billows of his heart's love-ocean, streams of which, like water from many fountains, would flow from his eyes in the shape of tears. And in those tears, streaming straight from his eyes to the ground, all those, who catching his spirit caught also his ecstatic motion, would be literally bathed. And all India was "flooded," as the authoritative records of his apostles tell us, with Chaitanya's Divine Love, and millions of sinners that felt it, were borne away by its tide.

Sree Chaitanya preached and proved the potency of Krishna's Name—that His Name is the Lord Himself. If anybody says "Krishna, Krishna" mentally or loudly and concentrates his mind on it, he is bound to absorb its Love-Nectar, be drunk with its ecstasy, see Krishna in Form and in everything, and finally go to Goloka after passing out of this life. Hari is the popular Name of Krishna. It means, He Who steals our sins. Chaitanya would shout "Hari, Hari!" or "Haribole!" (say, Hari) and vibrations of that Name would thrill through all hearers and change them into pious devotees. Millions upon millions were thus saved by him, millions of sinners turned into saints. The world has never seen such an Avatār, the Incarnation of All-Love Krishna. He lived the most blameless life from childhood to his disappearance at the age of forty-eight.

Like master, like servants. His Apostles were of such spiritual purity and sublimity that it would be hard to find one like them even in India of the past. Any of them was competent to save a whole world. They have left thousands of Books on Krishna and Chaitanya's Life and Teachings which are of the utmost value to the students and adherents of all religions of all climes, ages and denominations. Love is the theme of every book, and it is difficult to resist its essence pouring into you as you read them.

If my life is spared by the Lord, and if my Krishna wills it, I may present the Life-Story and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya and his apostles to the Western reader in a short time. In that book a detailed exposition of the Vaishnav religion will be given, an exposition which may interest Christians. The present book is but the preliminary part of the Chaitanya book I intend to write, for Chaitanya cannot be understood without first understanding Krishna and His Leelā on earth. Chaitanya may be called the Indian Christ, but a Christ the like of whom has never appeared on earth. Chaitanya did not even leave his Body behind when he left this earth. He entered one morning into the Temple of Juggernath and disappeared—nobody knows how or where.