Discourses on Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami's Sri Vilapa-Kusumanjali (A Bouquet of Woeful Entreaties)

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Do not expect honor, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the holy name of Sri Krsna, and within your mind serve Radha and Krsna in Vraja.

By sincerely chanting the holy names, while respecting all others according to their position, and not being eager for respect from others, the tendency to serve Radha-Krsna in Vraja shall arise. As a result of pure chanting the Lord's form shall appear in the heart, followed by His qualities and pastimes.

At that stage, absorption of the mind in Radha-Krsna pastimes will be natural, not artificial. Krsna and His names are non-different. When one purely chants these, He will come in the heart and perform His loving pastimes with all His associates. His Iila-Shakti, pastime potency, is always with Him. She gives the tendency and qualification to serve Krsna.

When greed comes to serve Krsna in one's eternal spiritual form, in time, that greed shall reveal one's eternal loving mood towards Krsna. Then one begins to serve Krsna under the guidance of His associates. This love matures sequentially through higher and higher degrees up to mahabhava, the highest state of ecstatic love. Nourished by transcendental nectar, or rasa, the soul develops its spiritual form and nature and becomes related to the loving reality, Sri Krsna. You are my nearest and dearest. Go to Vrndavana. Go to Rupa and Santana and stay there."

Then Raghunatha went to Vrndavana and wrote many prayers and instructions to the mind. In the third verse of Manah-siksa, he prays: yadiccher avasam vraja-bhuvi sa-ragam prati-janur yuva-dvandvam tac cet paricaritum arad abhilase svarupam sri-rupam sa-ganam iha tasyagrajam api sphutam penman nityam smara nama tada tvam srnu manah

O Mind, listen to me! If you wish to live in Vraja birth after birth, and if you wish to directly serve the eternally youthful Divine Couple there with great attachment, then with intense loving devotion always remember and bow down to Srila Svarupa Damodara, to Srila Rupa Gosvami and his elder brother, Srila Santana Gosvami, and to all their associates and followers.

If you desire residence in Vraja and the service of Sri Radha-Krsna, then continuously remember and stay under the guidance of Svarupa Damodara, Rupa Gosvami, and Santana Gosvami. They have this anuraga Follow their footsteps and stay in Vraja-dhama. Then Govardhana, Radha-kunda-everyone will accept you because you followed the footsteps of the anuragi devotees. Vrndavana-dhama will give you all facility and chance for entrance to the transcendental realm. In his Sva-niyama Dasakam (1), Dasa Gosvami wrote: gurau mantre namni prabhuvara-sacigarbhaja-pade svarupe sri-rupe gana-yuji tadiya-prathamaje girindre gandharva-sarasi madhya-puryam vraja-vane vraje bhakte gosthalayisu param astam mama ratih

May I always have loving attachment for my spiritual masters, the gayatri-mantra, the holy name, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's lotus feet, Srila Svarupa Damodara, Srila Rupa Gosvami, his associates, his elder brother Srila Santana Gosvami, Giriraja Govardhana, Radha-kunda, Mathura Purl, the land of Vraja, the devotees of Sri Krsna, and the residents of Vraja.

We come for bhajana, for making relation with Radha-Krsna, but gradually many other people come nearby and we make relation with them, talk sweetly, give something and take something .They Steal our heart and take us away from Vraja-mandala and the Vrajavasis. Therefore Dasa Gosvami made a strong promise, I will not meet with, talk to, look at, pray for, or accept a than devotees." This was his strong vairagya naturally springing forth from his anuraga. He was the personification of Vairagya and anuraga. First control your own senses. Your mind and then your soul. Carefully use everything for your Gurudeva ; otherwise , if you give a little share to others, they will steal you away. First they want you to be their friend, and then their slave.then you will go very far away from transcendental Iila . Mundane lila and nature will come, and you will run for mundane tastes.

My dear friend Rupa Manjari, you are renowned in Vraja for not even glancing at the face of any other man but your husband. Therefore it is astonishing that your lips, red like ripe bimba fruits, have been cut, even though your husband is not at home. Has this been done by the best of parrots?

On October 21st, 1992, Srila Gurudeva spoke on this first verse of Sri Vilapa-kusumanijali in a darsana with Tamala Krsna Maharaja and other ISKCON sannyasis. Srila Gurudeva said:

Was Raghunatha dasa Gosvami weeping or laughing? It may seem that he wrote this verse in a laughing, pleasant mood. Actually, however, he was remembering a previous pastime and weeping at the feet of Sri Rupa Manjari, "You have been so merciful to me. I remember seeing your mood after Krsna kissed you and left a mark on your lips. When will I see you in that condition again?"

In the second gloka, sthala-kamalini yuktam, he is again offering pranama and weeping, 'Will I see this again?" These first two verses are very important.

Raghunatha dasa Gosvami starts this Sri Vilapa-kusumanijali advising us to follow raga-marga, the path of spontaneous love. This prayer is helpful for everyone. One who does not want to cross over this material ocean should not read this book. On the other hand, one who desires to follow the process of raganuga-bhakti and achieve krsna-prema and radha-dasyam will regularly pray with these verses of Sri Vilapa-kusumanijali and will keep this book close to his heart like a cherished friend and guardian.

In this edition of sri Vilapa-kusumanijali, we have included portions of hari-katha that were spoken by Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja when he was giving darsanas, private discourses to members of the ISKCON GBC, in the early 1990's. They had approached him, requesting higher instruction in these esoteric truths. Srila Gurudeva accepted their request and spoke to them about these elevated topics, thinking that if he did not give this high-class hari-katha to them, then they would search for it amongst the sahajiyas or cheap imitationists, and by hearing it from unqualified sources, it would lead to their inauspiciousness.

**Contents and Sample Pages**