Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj illuminates the paramount position of Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī and his followers.
We are told that Jayadev Gowāmī’s standard is higher than that of Bilvamaṅgal Ṭhākur because his attention was more towards Rādhārāṇī.
dehi pada-pallavam udāram
(Śrī Gītā-Govinda: 10:8)
This famous line came from him. He was not venturing to write it, not bold enough to write it. “How can I write this?” But ultimately, he had to submit to the inner flow of his heart. What came into his heart was accepted by Kṛṣṇa, and that is a higher type of truth. He could not write it down with his own hand, but Kṛṣṇa came in the form of Jayadev and wrote: “Yes, I am such. Jayadev, you hesitate to write it, but the victory of love is so great.”
ahaṁ bhakta-parādhīno hy asvatantra iva dvija
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 9.4.63)
“I go to serve the ordinary devotees also, so what about Rādhārāṇī? I think it My fortune if I get such confidential service.”
So, Śrīla Prabhupād said, “We are śuddha-śāktas [pure worshippers of the feminine]. We are śāktas, not Vaiṣṇavas, but not vidhā-śāktas [ordinary śāktas]. We are śuddha-śāktas. We are concerned with Kṛṣṇa because our mistress Rādhārāṇī has connection with Him. This is why we want Him, and not otherwise.” This is a clear statement.
Once in Rādhā Kuṇḍa, the Bharatpur Diwan came with his family and circumambulated Rādhā Kuṇḍa by repeatedly lying down, setting a mark, arising, and lying down again. Paramānanda Prabhu, an old disciple of Prabhupād, came to intimate this to Prabhupād, “They also have great respect for Rādhārāṇī. They are circumambulating Rādhā Kuṇḍa in such a way.” Prabhupād said, “Yes, but their angle of vision and our angle of vision about Rādhā Kuṇḍa and Rādhārāṇī is different. They have recognition for Kṛṣṇa, they revere Kṛṣṇa, and because Rādhārāṇī is the favourite of Kṛṣṇa, they also have reverence for Rādhā Kuṇḍa. Our angle of vision is the opposite. Our concern is with Rādhārāṇī, and because She wants Kṛṣṇa, we have to connect with Him, and not otherwise.”
There are Rādhārāṇī’s aṅga-jyoti-gata jīvas. Rādhārāṇī has Her figure and lustre, and there are atomic jīvas that come out of this lustre of Rādhārāṇī. The nature of those who have the possibility of getting the fortune of those whose origin is from that unit of the lustre emanating from Rādhārāṇī should be like that. They know only Her: only Her and Her concern, Her duty, Her necessity. All these they are ready to serve, never eliminating Her. That is the highest achievement of the Gauḍīyas, Mahāprabhu’s party, as announced by Śrīla Dās Goswāmī:
āśā-bharair amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit
kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi
tvañ chet kṛpāṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me
prāṇair vrajena cha varoru bakāriṇāpi
(Vilāpa-kusumāñjali: 102)
When our Prabhupād would begin to explain this verse, his figure would become something else; he would become full of emotion, and his face would turn red. It is an extreme risk: “If I do not get Your favour, then I don’t want all these things. I want You, and only You, along with Your paraphernalia. To eliminate You and get an independent relationship with any other thing is impossible in my life. You must be first and then others. What to speak of any other thing, even Kṛṣṇa: without You, I can never aspire, even think to aspire, for a separate connection with Kṛṣṇa. First You, and then any other.
nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ
rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭha-vāṭīm
rādha-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ
prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi
(Śrī Muktā-charitam: 2)
I have been given all these things from a particular source. My whole obeisance is there from where I have got these hopes, this prospect.
The prospect, the ideal, is the man. A man should be valued by his ideal, and not by other paraphernalia. The ideal, the purity of the ideal, is what is most necessary for us. Where should we go? What will be the candle that will attract me towards the road? The ideal, the conception. One who has the highest ideal is the richest man, and the poorest man is he who in spite of all this desires ordinary things. He is poor in ideal, without any conception of his own goal and destination.
Student: Mahārāj, Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī also has an effulgence from his body.
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes.
Student: So, the living entity can be from the rays of that effulgence also?
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: They may be specially.
Student: And the ones who are of this effulgence of Rūpa Goswāmī will know only Rūpa Goswāmī?
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: They will be classed as Rūpānuga. They will have earnestness to look after the order of Rūpa Goswāmī, and he is towards Lalitā. In this way, it is going up. Our highest gain is only there: not by our connection with Rādhārāṇī or Lalitā Devī, but in the Rūpānuga sampradāya. That means that our highest attainment is in his connection. Whoever has his connection is the highest leader.
Śrī Rādhā-dāsya has been said to be the highest attainment. Why? The quality and quantity of rasa that Rādhārāṇī can draw from Kṛṣṇa can never be found anywhere else. So, if you array just behind Rādhārāṇī, you’ll be able to taste not only the highest quantity, but also the highest quality of rasa. No other person can draw such high rasa from Kṛṣṇa, rasa of the fullest, highest type. Kṛṣṇa gives Himself there fully, wholly, and deeply. So, if you are in Her group, then you can have a taste of that sort of rasa. Similarly, in Rādhārāṇī’s camp, when Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are engaged in very secluded Pastimes, the grown-up sakhīs can’t venture to enter the room and help in the Pastimes. Rather, the younger mañjarīs are sent there. So, the leader of that younger group that can enter where both are very closely connected—where the sakhīs also do not venture to go because there will be interruption—there Śrī Rūpa and the mañjarīs can go due to their young age. So, this highest of all types of rasa, which we cannot get even through the sakhīs, can be had only through the mañjarīs.
jayatāṁ suratau paṅgor mama manda-mater gatī
mat-sarvasva-padāmbhojau rādhā-madana-mohanau
When Rādhā and Madana Mohan alone and none of the sakhīs are present, the mañjarīs are allowed to enter into such private meetings. So, the sakhīs cannot expect to have a taste of the sort of rasa that the mañjarīs can come in touch with. So, to serve through the mañjarīs will be very, very profitable. That quality rasa is never found anywhere else. It is present only in the close, very private, intimate Pastimes. So, Rūpānuga. We are to become Rūpānuga. Even Sanātan Goswāmī, who is Guru of Rūpa Goswāmī from a formal consideration, has also written somewhere that he wants to appreciate Rūpānuga-vichāra [the position of Śrī Rūpa].
Also, our Guru Mahārāj was always Rūpānuga, Rūpānuga, Rūpānuga, Rūpānuga. Also, rāgānuga and then Rūpānuga in particular. Generally, rāgānuga, and then particularly Rūpānuga. That is our parichaya, our identity, our nature.
In his Rūpānuga-bhajana-darpaṇa, Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur says, “Rūpānuga haite sei dhāya: he runs to get admission under the administration of Rūpa Goswāmī.” Who? Who runs? Those who have such aspiration, who seek such prospect, run to become enlisted in the group of Rūpa.
Source
14 May 1982.
References
smara-garala-khaṇḍanam mama śirasi maṇḍanam
dehi pada-pallavam udāram
(Śrī Gītā-Govinda: 10.8)
[Kṛṣṇa says to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī:] “Please place Your tender, gracious feet, the antidote for Cupid’s poison, atop My head like an ornament.”
ahaṁ bhakta-parādhīno hy asvatantra iva dvija
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 9.4.63)
“I am controlled by My devotees. It is as though I have no independence, O brāhmaṇ.”
āśā-bharair amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit
kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi
tvañ chet kṛpāṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me
prāṇair vrajena cha varoru bakāriṇāpi
(Vilāpa-kusumāñjali: 102)
“Filled with an abundance of hope, an ocean of nectar, somehow or other I have passed the time. If You do not bestow Your mercy upon me now, O Rādhā, then what is the use of my life, or Vraja, or even that demon killer?”
nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ
rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭha-vāṭīm
rādha-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ
prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi
(Śrī Muktā-charitam: 2)
“I offer my obeisance unto Śrī Gurudev, by whose celebrated mercy I have received the best of the Lord’s Names, the mantra, Śrīman Mahāprabhu, Śrī Svarūp Dāmodar, Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu, Śrīla Sanātan Goswāmī Prabhu, the supreme abode of Mathurā, Vṛndāvan, Rādhā Kuṇḍa, Giri Govardhan, and the aspiration to serve Rādhikā and Mādhava.”
jayatāṁ suratau paṅgor mama manda-mater gatī
mat-sarvasva-padāmbhojau rādhā-madana-mohanau
“All glory to the most merciful Śrī Śrī Rādhā–Madan Mohan! Although I am lame and wicked, They are my sole shelter, and Their lotus feet are everything to me.”