VASANTA  RASA LILA

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta  Saraswati Prabhupada

Once one individual the late Madhava Datta from Chunchadar began organizing a  yearly festival in that town of Kuliya or at present Nawadwipa which has become a tradition. The main theme is that at many such places there will be players enacting the esoteric love pastimes of the Supreme Lord ,Krishna with depiction of such dramas with singing accompanied by musical instruments. Usually, this attracts many interested onlookers to be the audience of such a program. However, the pure Vaishnava devotees never recommend people to attend such a program. Their solid advice is  that only by chanting the holy name in the association of devotees will material contamination be slowly dwindle. In turn after being freed from the gross and subtle bodies ,only then will one attain the qualification to hear such pastimes .Then gradually  with the attachment to hear this esoteric pastimes from the mouth of elevated devotees, one will come the  mature stage of  relishing  such transcendental pastimes .Nevertheless in the stage of material contamination there is no question of relishing such transcendental pastimes. Superficially by hearing these divine pastimes may adversely invoke our latent material desires in the heart with increasing our material bondage. There is a funny story to illustrate this point. One old lady was  listening to a discourse on the pastimes of Ramachandra. The old lady on the point of Rama being banished to the forest burst into tears which awoke the curiosity of the others in the audience .They were thinking that being a devotee she was crying for the injustice done to Rama. But she suddenly interjected with,' where  is that poor goat kid of mine?' This made the curious speaker question her on which she replied that a goat kid which she had owned had wandered away from her three days ago which made her very distressed. She had come to the lecture to get some peace but that banishment talk again revived  memories of her lost goat kid which led her to cry. So here is an example  how although we may be hearing the divine pastimes of the Lord but due to our inclination for sense enjoyment brings about simply  memories of our material lamentation ,happiness, prestige to even lower derogatory moods. How does this then actually help us in understanding and remembering the divine pastimes of the Lord? In hearing of the transcendental love meeting of Radha and Krishna will one be able to relish that highest nectarine love or instead by the weaknesses of one's heart  be condemned to indulge illegally due to our strong material attraction whilst pretending to adhere to the tenets of the scriptures. There is the possibility to be without restlessness of the mind if one has cured his material contamination by chanting the holy name in the association of the devotees. Nevertheless, the fact remains that for those not able to give up material sense enjoyment completely being attached to his wife, children or similarly those who have not come to the point of absolute surrender to serve  Lord Krishna but are  under the grip of binding material attachments ,my humble plea is for them to honestly evaluate  themselves as to how  much their devotion to Krishna has been enhanced by hearing such divine pastimes. In the reverse, could they be as unfortunate as my good self as my spiritual endeavors have become hurdled with many obstacles due to this. For those whose devotional trend is far from the mark or not at all ,the best practice is the  sincere chanting of the Holy name in the association of the devotees. Slowly this chanting can develop into hearing of the divine form ,qualities and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. By this practice of  Nama bhajan  only when  our  internal material contamination has been purified (antahkaran suddhata)can we achieve that qualification to properly hear these divine love pastimes .This has been explained by SriJiva Goswami in Bhakti Sandharbha with mention in Krama Sandharbha. In fact this is the  advice  in toto by all the great elevated souls. to the sincere aspirants To go against their lofty instruction will just ensure our disqualification .It is our misfortune that such instruction has been neglected or spurned time and again.