By Kadamba Kanana Swami
Another point that I find is very nice in the purport of Gajendra, the elephant, is how Srila Prabhupada speaks of when Gajendra assumed a spiritual body when his body was touched by the Lord. We see how Srila Prabhupada’s mind works as he describes, “Gajendra assumed a spiritual body when his body was touched by the Lord,” and immediately he writes, “Similarly, Dhruva Maharaj assumed his spiritual body in this way,” and then goes to the arcana-paddhati, the process of deity worship. He is thinking of the deity and we can see that he is so much appreciating that the deity is the Supreme Personality of Godhead that he immediately makes the association that in deity worship, we are allowed to touch the lotus feet of the Lord. For example, when waking up the deity, one can touch the lotus feet of the Lord and thus attain a spiritual body. Prabhupada is consistent. When one touches the deity, one touches the Lord; the deity is non-different from Krsna – there is no hesitance in Srila Prabhupada on this matter.
Whereas in our case, although we know that the deity is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we are not fainting! Maybe we would faint if Krsna personally would step in front of us. We are just taking darshan in this kind of casual way. Do we really believe that the deity is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Yes and no, if we really think about it. But for Srila Prabhupada, there is absolutely no question, there is no hesitance in Gajendra being touched by the Lord is similar to arcana-paddhati – touching the deity’s feet in devotion. I thought it was nice to see here how Srila Prabhupada’s mind worked and how the purity is just coming through; these things have just struck me in that way. Then Prabhupada expands on it and says, “Not only by touching the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but also hearing his pastimes, chanting his glories, offering worship and any other type of devotional service is sufficient to purify us from material contamination. And we might again attract the mercy of the Lord.” So, this is wonderful!
Comments
Srila Prabhupada said they never met Radha and Krsna. That must have been their mood because we also hear this story by Srila Prabhupada, although this one is related by H H RDS.
Srila Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami were prominent amongst the famous six Goswamis of Vrindavan. They were disciples of Lord Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and under His direction they excavated many of the lost places of Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan.
Once they were living in Kamyavan and continuously discussing the divine subject matters of the pastimes of Lord Krishna, sometimes throughout the day and sometimes throughout the night. One time as they were speaking they became so much immersed that they completely forgot about eating or sleeping. That time, a beautiful young girl came and said that “I have heard that you are so engrossed in Hari Katha that you have not eaten for a long time. I have brought some milk, rice and sugar. You can make nice Kheer, Sweet Rice.” But they just continued speaking the glories of Vrindavan. So, this girl personally collected the ingredients for making a fire. She put all the ingredients in a pot and cooked it and gave it to Rupa Goswami. Rupa Goswami immediately offered it to his spiritual master, Srila Sanatana Goswami. On tasting this most nectarine Prasad, Sanatana Goswami entered into a state of ecstacy: tears started flowing from his eyes, his hairs started standing on end, and his limbs started trembling.
He asked Rupa Goswami, “Please tell me where you got this?” Rupa Goswami answered, “A little girl had come, She has given this to me, and I am offering it to you.” As Rupa Goswami was explaining the qualities of this girl and how She looked, it dawned upon them that She was none other than Shrimati Radharani. Sanatana Goswami became very much sad in his heart on realizing that they had engaged Shrimati Radharani in their service. So, he started lamenting, “We have come to this land of Braja to serve Shrimati Radharani. It is the aspiration of our life to be the servant of the servant of Her servants, and yet She is collecting wood, She is lighting fires and She is preparing this Kheer just for us. This is very bad, we should never want to take anything from Shrimati Radharani, we should only want to serve Her.” So as they were thinking like this they began to both weep in a sense of regret, but at the same time the taste of that sweet rice was so nice that they kept drinking. They would take a sip and they would weep and cry, fall to the ground, and regret “How have we accepted this service from Shrimati Radharani?” Then they would take another sip, and they did this throughout the day. Such was the loving devotion of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami for the Divine Couple.
CC Madhya 6.4
TEXT 4
jagannātha āliṅgite calilā dhāñā mandire paḍilā preme āviṣṭa hañā
SYNONYMS
jagannātha—Lord Jagannātha; āliṅgite—to embrace; calilā—went; dhāñā—very swiftly; mandire—in the temple; paḍilā—fell down; preme—in ecstasy; āviṣṭa—overwhelmed; hañā—becoming.
TRANSLATION
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu went swiftly to embrace Lord Jagannātha, but when He entered the temple, He was so overwhelmed with love of Godhead that He fainted to the floor.
It says He was overwhelmed with love of Godhead. I don't know what that means.
Actually I don't know whether Lord Caitanya or H H Gour Govinda Maharaja were in Union or Separation when they both fainted before the Lord in the temple. I can only remember devotees fainting in separation from the Lord, not in Union. Let me try to search for a concrete example of fainting when one sees the Lord.
The gopis would sometimes faint in separation but not all of them necessarily all the time. For example, Srila Prabhupada writes in Krsna Book: When the gopīs saw that Akrūra had come to take Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma away to Mathurā, they became overwhelmed with anxiety. Some of them became so aggrieved that their faces turned black, and they began to breathe warmly and had palpitations of the heart. They discovered that their hair and dress immediately loosened. Hearing the news that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were leaving for Mathurā, others who were engaged in household duties stopped working as if they had forgotten everything, like a person who is called forth to die and leave this world at once. Others immediately fainted due to separation from Kṛṣṇa. Remembering His attractive smile and His talks with them, the gopīs became overwhelmed with grief. They all remembered the characteristics of the Personality of Godhead, how He moved within the area of Vṛndāvana and how, with joking words, He attracted all their hearts. Thinking of Kṛṣṇa and of their imminent separation from Him, the gopīs assembled together with heavy beating hearts. Completely absorbed in thought of Kṛṣṇa, tears fell from their eyes.
Why are we not fainting when we see the Lord? Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was so overwhelmed with love for Lord Jagannatha that He fainted when He saw the Lord. His Holiness Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja also fainted when he entered the temple at Mayapura. Not only did he faint, but he entered into and remained in samadhi for a period of four months. Finally he then came back to external consciousness. But he did not faint every time he saw the Lord.
When two Godsisters of Gour Govinda Swami asked him at Mayapur about why Lord Caitanya stayed at Jagannath Puri he started relating the pastime and got to the point where he was talking about the pain of separation between Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. He said, "Then the eyes of Radharani fell upon the eyes of Krishna. It was eye to eye union.". It was at that time Gour Govinda Maharaja chose to leave this place. He had predicted he would ahead of time.
Union and separation are impetuses for fainting and other ecstasies experienced by the Lord and His devotees. The reason why we are not yet exhibiting such symptoms could be that we might not have reached such a level of Krishna Consciousness.