Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj describes the highest impetus for action.
Love does not mean whim. Love, anurāga, is the purest and most eliminative thing. Even vidhi-bhakti is eliminated by it. Only love and beauty, and nothing else, is tasteful to the Autocrat. He is not under law, and He is to be satisfied. This is the standard of what we call love divine. Autocrat means He who does not care for anything and is to be satisfied. So, how much attention and absorption towards that is necessary? We must be all-eliminative, all-exclusive.
Student: Mahārāj, did you say love and duty?
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Duty is far below a devotee. In the conception of duty, there is room for law: “I am duty-bound.” Four tendencies excite us to action. The first is fear. In the lower creation, the animals and others act only out of fear. Then, in a higher section, people act with hope, expectation, prospect: “If I do, then I shall get something.” The third level is a sense of duty, and the fourth is love, anurāga, in which there is no question of duty. The third stage is activated by the motive of discharging duty: “I have obligations, and if I do not meet them, I will be blamed.” In the fourth stage, there is no consciousness of even duty; one acts only out of love: “I cannot but do this. I am helpless.”
This fourth stage which excites us to action is the purest. The sense of duty is below this, then down from there is a prospect for which we act, and lastly there is fear: “We had to do it.” Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur has given this light in Chaitanya-śikṣāmṛta: bhaya, āśa, kartavya-buddhi, and rāga are the four stages of action, of all movement.
“I cannot but do this.” That is the position of those in the highest stage. They can’t withdraw. They are helpless. The heart is wholesale captured by Kṛṣṇa. The attraction of Kṛṣṇa has captured their heart wholesale. There is no way out. God’s grace is of such a charming nature and is so intense that there is no way out but to serve Him. He is so sweet. Neither by fear, nor by hope, nor with a sense of duty, but helplessly one comes to serve Him. One cannot do without that. One can’t do. One must serve Him to feel satisfaction.
He has a monopoly. There is no possibility of anyone else marketing there. No capitalist can enter and open up shop in front of Him. Lakṣmī Devī herself wanted to participate but that was impossible even for her. So, how tight is the market? All are swallowed by Kṛṣṇa conception, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is only one thing in the market, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that rules everything there. Everything is controlled by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is harmony, and it is not only harmony made by patch-up work. It is a natural and most intense harmony. It is not a patch-up work or laboured harmony but a living harmony.
Brahmā and Śiva agree: “We have never had such experience previously.” The servitors of Kṛṣṇa not only feel attracted to Kṛṣṇa’s service, but they feel that they cannot continue their life, they cannot live, without that service. Service is their food and their dress. It is everything.
Now Mahāprabhu says: “My friends, show Me Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, I cannot live, I cannot stand. I cannot remain. I cannot maintain My existence without seeing Him. What I saw of Him, it was like lightning, and without further seeing Him, I cannot tolerate the separation. Save Me by showing Me where He is. Where is He whom I saw? That beauty, like lightning, touched My heart and then withdrew Himself. I cannot stand.”
Mahāprabhu expresses the unit of measurement: in a second, how many times can one die to earn that fortune? This is the unit of measurement: to get a second’s perception, I am ready to die one crore of times. By that unit, it is to be measured.
rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharma-bindu-
nirmañchanopakaraṇī-kṛta-deha-lakṣām
(Śrī Lalitāṣṭakam: 1)
Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī says that Lalitā Devī’s attraction towards Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is of what type? If a drop of sweat is found on the foot of Rādhārāṇī or Kṛṣṇa, she wants to efface that drop of sweat with lakhs of lives: either she wants to at once get one lakh of bodies to busily engage in removing that drop of sweat from the feet of Rādhā-Govinda or she is ready to sacrifice one lakh of bodies one by one to remove that drop of sweat on Their feet. That sort of unit is the measurement of how much love one feels for the object of love. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means love of this type.
Mahāprabhu says, “My heart has burst without having a second view of that wonderful thing which I had experience with a little before. I cannot remain.” Beauty and sweetness can be so cruel? It is an oxymoron. Generally, beauty and sweetness are not thought to be cruel, but here they are so cruel that if they are once seen and then one does not get a glimpse of them again, one will have to die. How cruel can beauty be? What sort of power is this? One with this feeling can neglect thousands of cannon shots and atom bombs. An atom bomb will have no effect on them. That is all in the physical plane, and they do not care at all for that. They are in another plane.
e dehera kare sarva-nāśa
(Śaraṇāgati: Śrī Nāma-māhātmya, 7)
A new body emerges from within and wants to cut off all connection with this body of the physical senses which can lead one to some direction other than Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One wants to bid goodbye to this body with all the senses which draw one toward external appearances, the apparent world.
tuṇḍe tāṇḍavini ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvali-labdhaye
karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambini ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Antya-līlā, 1.99)
What will one tongue do? Innumerable tongues are necessary to chant the Name of Kṛṣṇa. What will only two ears do? Crores of ears are necessary to hear the sweet Name of Kṛṣṇa. These are the feelings of the devotees. “You, Creator, you do not know how to create properly. You have given us only two eyes. Who will have the chance to have the darśan of Kṛṣṇa with only two eyes? You have given us only two eyes to see the face of Kṛṣṇa, and again you have put covers on these eyes. You do not know how to create properly.” This is the inner feeling. Waves from inside come of such nature within those who come in connection really with Vṛndāvan proper.
barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa‑vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ
bibhrad vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīñ cha mālām
randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayāpūrayan gopa-vṛndair
vṛndāraṇyaṁ svapada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.21.5)
Oh! How sweet a personality! Śukadev says that Kṛṣṇa is walking through Vṛndāvan, and step by step the earth of Vṛndāvan feels with the touch of His divine feet the charming sensation of union with Kṛṣṇa (rati-sukha). With the divine touch of the dust of His feet, the whole, sweet fulfilment of such sense pleasure is had. Such charm. And the birds, the insects—everything—is singing in praise of Him.
Source
26 January 1983
References
rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharma-bindu-
nirmañchanopakaraṇī-kṛta-deha-lakṣām
uttuṅga-sauhṛda-viśeṣa-vaśāt pragalbhāṁ
devīṁ guṇaiḥ sulalitāṁ lalitāṁ namāmi
(Śrī Lalitāṣṭakam: 1)
“I offer my obeisance to Śrī Lalitlā Devī, who engages herself as though with a hundred thousand bodies in removing a drop of sweat that has arisen on the feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Mukunda. She is bold only out of deep affection and is replete with the qualities of beauty, gravity, and so on.”
pūrṇa vikaśita hañā vraje more yāya lañā
dekhāya more svarūpa-vilāsa
more siddha-deha diyā kṛṣṇa-pāśe rākhe giyā
e dehera kare sarva-nāśa
(Śaraṇāgati: Śrī Nāma-māhātmya, 7)
“Upon fully blossoming, the Name takes me to Vraja and shows me His divine Pastimes. He gives me an eternal body, keeps me by Kṛṣṇa’s side, and completely destroys this material body.”
tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī-labdhaye
karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām
chetaḥ-prāṅgaṇa-saṅginī vijayate sarvendriyāṇāṁ kṛtiṁ
no jāne janitā kiyadbhir amṛtaiḥ kṛṣṇeti varṇa-dvayī
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Antya-līlā, 1.99)
“When they dance in my mouth, they create the desire to obtain innumerable mouths. When They enter my ears, they produce the desire for millions of ears. When dance in the courtyard of my heart, they conquer the functioning of all my senses. I do not know with how much nectar the two syllable ‘Kṛṣ’-‘ṇa’ have manifest.”
gopyaś cha kṛṣṇam upalabhya chirād abhīṣţaṁ
yat-prekṣaṇe dṛśiṣu pakṣma-kṛtaṁ śapanti
dṛgbhir hṛdi kṛtam alaṁ parirabhya sarvās
tad-bhāvam āpur api nitya-yujāṁ durāpam
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.82.39)
“Meeting Kṛṣṇa after yearning for Him for a long time, the gopīs chastised the creator of the eyelids on the eyes with which they viewed Him. Through their eyes, they brought Kṛṣṇa into their hearts, fully embraced Him, and felt love for Him that is unattainable even for unwavering yogīs.”
aţati yad bhavān ahni kānanaṁ
truţir yugāyate tvām apaśyatām
kuţila-kuntalaṁ śrī-mukhañ cha te
jaḍa udīkṣatāṁ pakṣma-kṛd dṛśām
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.31.15)
“When you go to the forest during the day and we do not see You, a moment feels like an age to us. We consider the creator of the eyelids on the eyes with which we see Your curly hair and beautiful face to be a fool.”
barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa‑vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ
bibhrad vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīñ cha mālām
randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayāpūrayan gopa-vṛndair
vṛndāraṇyaṁ svapada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.21.5)
“Wearing a peacock-feather crown, blue flowers in His ears, golden-yellow garments, and a victory garland, Kṛṣṇa, the best of dancers, filled the holes of the flute with the nectar of His lips and entered the forest of Vraja, whose delight is His feet, as the cowherd boys sung His glories.”