Aṣṭamy Amṛta Vṛṣṭiḥ
Prema – Pure Love of God
Verse 1
From the creeper of bhakti, which first sprouted two leaves during sādhana bhakti, many smooth petals now suddenly appear in the form of anubhāvas (the symptoms of ecstasy) attached to the flower of bhāva.
These anubhāvas are filled with the devotional processes, such as hearing and chanting, and shine brilliantly at every moment.
First forming the flower called bhāva, they finally bring forth the fruit called prema.
But what is most astonishing about the creeper of bhakti is, though its leaves, buds, flowers and fruits mature into the succeeding form, they do not give up their original forms.
Together they shine in newer and newer ways.
Verse 1
The devotee's innumerable citta vṛtti (thoughts) were previously bound tightly by the ropes of attachment to family, relatives, house and properties.
However when prema appears, it easily frees the thoughts from all those attachments.
By its inherent power, prema transforms those material emotions into spiritually blissful elements, as if submerging them all in a deep well of transforming nectar.
Similarly, all the attachments become spiritualized.
Then, with those ropes of spiritual attachment, prema binds the spiritualized emotions to the sweetness of the Lord's name, form and qualities.
Prema manifests its brilliance in this way and immediately puts all material ideals (puruṣārtha) to shame as the sun puts to shame all the constellations in the sky.
Verses 2-3
The nectar which comes from the fruit of prema has the essential quality of concentrated bliss (sāndrānanda), and its outstanding nourishing property is its power to attract Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī).
When the devotee begins to taste that nectar, he does not take heed of any obstacles.
Like a miser feverish for treasure, like a thief who has lost all sense of discretion out of absorption in his job, the devotee loses all sense of self-consciousness.
Sometimes, there is an impatience for obtaining the Lord, like a hunger which cannot be satisfied even by eating the most tasty foods day and night.
The devotee burns like the sun by that anxiety.
He is soothed only by tasting the form, qualities and sweetness of the Lord, which make a momentary appearance, like the coolness of a thousand moons.
The prema which exists in the devotee, the receptacle of prema, is very astonishing in that simultaneously even its slightest increase pierces the devotee like a shaft in the form of anxiety by which the devotee at every moment longs for the direct darśana of the Lord, and at the same time, by the intense manifestation of that prema, that shaft is burned by the realization (sphūrti) of the form, pastimes and sweetness of the Lord.
Still he remains unsatisfied.
Simultaneously, this prema, arising from its own reservoir, increases slightly, and the devotee longs for direct contact with the Lord at every moment.
This hankering burns like a conflagration and tears his body like a sharp arrow.
By the intensity of his longing for the Lord he remains unsatisfied with the momentary vision of the Lord's form, qualities and sweetness.
Verse 4
Then prema, assuming the form of a magnet, attracts black Kṛṣṇa and makes Him appear to the devotee for a moment.
At that time, all the senses of the devotee (eyes, nose, ears, tongue, sense of touch) become the receptacles of all the auspicious qualities of Kṛṣṇa.
His supreme beauty, fragrance, melody, youthfulness, tastiness, audārya and kāruṇya.
From tasting the extreme sweetness and ever-freshness of these qualities of the Lord, a greater longing, which at every moment increases, is born in the devotee because of his prema.
Poetic words are not adequate to describe the ocean of transcendental bliss which appears at this time.
A traveller on a desert path, burned by the sun's rays during the hot season, finds shelter in a cool place supplied with a hundred vessels of ice-water from a divine pool under the shade of a vast banyan tree densely tangled with branches.
An elephant caught in a forest fire without escape is finally bathed by unlimited water from a bank of rain clouds.
A person afflicted by mortal disease and craving satisfaction, drinks the nectar, tastes its exquisite sweetness, and experiences unbounded bliss.
This cannot be compared...
Verses 5-6
Then Lord reveals first His beauty (saundarya) to the eyes of the devotee in this remarkable condition.
On account of the sweetness of that beauty, all the senses and the mind take on the quality of eyes, and obstacles, such as paralysis, shaking and tears, are generated.
From this the devotee swoons in bliss.
To console the devotee, the Lord next reveals His fragrance to the nostrils of the devotee, and all the devotee's senses take on the quality of the nose to smell.
Again the devotee swoons in bliss.
The Lord then reveals His sonorous voice to the devotee's ears: "Oh My devotee, I am under your control."
"Don't be overwhelmed, but fully satisfy your desire by relishing Me."
All the senses become like ears to hear and, for the third time, the devotee faints.
At the beginning of the swoon, the Lord then mercifully gives the touch of His lotus feet, His hands and His breast to the devotee, and reveals His fresh youthfulness (saukaumarya) to the devotee.
To those in the mood of servitude, He bestows His lotus feet on their heads, to those in the mood of friendship, He grasps their hands with His.
For those in the mood of parental affection, He wipes away their tears with His own hand.
For those in conjugal mood, He rewards them with His embrace, touching them with His hands and chest.
Then the devotee's senses all take on the sense of touch and the devotee faints for a fourth time in a deep swoon.
At the start of the swoon, the Lord then restores him by giving the taste (saurasya) from His own lips.
This, however, is revealed only to those in the conjugal mood.
The devotee's senses take on the sense of taste and he faints for a fifth time.
This blissful swoon is so deep that the Lord must revive him by bestowing His audārya (generosity).
Audārya refers to the state in which simultaneously all of the Lord's qualities (His beauty, fragrance, sound, touch and taste) suddenly manifest themselves to the devotee's various senses.
Verse 6
At that time, prema, which understands the will of the Lord, increases to the extreme and there is a corresponding extreme increase in the craving.
That prema presides as a moon over the ocean of bliss and simultaneously it increases hundreds and hundreds of waves and it agitates and creates an almost destructive friction in the devotee's heart.
It then becomes the beautiful ruling deity of his mind in that condition.
This increased prema, which usually controls everything as the moon presides over the ocean, then seems to withdraw its powers.
It creates in the devotee's heart an almost destructive friction and tearing amongst the simultaneous tastes, a conflict of a hundred waves in the ocean of bliss.
Then again, prema assumes the role of ruler, the presiding deity, and manifests its specific power which allows the devotee to experience the different tastes simultaneously and without conflict.
One should not think that the devotee will not be able to experience with fullness of all the tastes because of their multitude which may cause dilution of the very tastes.
Rather, all the senses attain the inconceivable, astonishing, extraordinary quality to perform the functions of the other senses to appreciate the Lord's various qualities. In this way, they can experience more intensely the taste.
In these matters, one cannot use material arguments evolved from material experiences. The inconceivable conditions of Prema are not subject to mundane logic (acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet).
Verse 7
Even if the devotee wishes to relish all types of sweetness, of saundarya, etc., all at once, but like a cātaka bird wants to drink all raindrops by his beak which is impossible.
The devotee tries to experience the sweet tastes of the Lord's beauty, fragrance, sound, touch, taste and audārya all at once like the cātaka bird who tries to catch all the raindrops in his beak.
Then the Lord, seeing that all cannot find room in His devotee, considers, "Why am I holding so many wonderful qualities within My self."
To let the devotee also partake of them all, the Lord manifests His kṛpā śakti (also called anugraha), the superintendent of all the śaktis, by which the devotee becomes attractive even to the Lord.
This śakti is situated like an empress the middle of a lotus whose eight petals are the eight śaktis (vimalā, utkarṣiṇī, jñāna, kriyā, yoga, prahvī, satyā, and īśānī).
This anugraha decorates itself in the eyes of the Lord and it appears in different forms as vātsalya (affection) in relation to His devotees in the mood of servant, etc. (dāsa, sakhā, etc.).
In some cases it appears as kāruṇya (compassion).
When it appears to in relation to the devotees in conjugal mood it is known as citta-viddrāviṇī ākarṣiṇī śakti (which melts the heart of Kṛṣṇa and attracts Him).
Sometimes according to the different moods of the different devotees it is known by other names also.
By this kṛpā-śakti, the all-pervading element of the Lord's free will influences the heart and causes great astonishment even in those realized souls who are fully self-satisfied ātmārāmas.
By this energy, the one quality called bhakta vātsalya (affection for His devotees), like an emperor, rules over all auspicious, spiritual qualities such as satya, śauca, dayā and tapas mentioned in the First Canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
Verses 8-10
The eighteen condemned qualities of illusion, laziness, error, intense lust, fickleness, arrogance, envy, violence, exertion, lamentation, dishonesty, anger, longing, fear, partiality, and dependency on others are not present in the body of the Lord.
By the agency of this bhakta vatsalya, however, even these qualities become present at times in various avatāras, such as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, and are appreciated by the devotees.
But now these faults become excellent qualities.
Attaining the power to taste completely the beauty, fragrance, etc. of the Lord, and tasting each one, the devotee ascends to higher and higher peaks of astonishing experience.
His heart melts on incessant realization of the Lord's unheard of bhakta vatsalya.
The Lord, displaying His wonderful nature, says, "Oh best of devotees, many births you have given up wife, house and wealth for the sake of My service.
You endured the miseries of cold, wind, hunger, thirst and pain, tolerated the contempt of other men, taking to a life of begging.
In payment for all your sacrifice, I cannot given you anything. I have become your debtor.
Since lordship over the whole earth in the post of demigod and mystic powers are unsuitable for you, how can I give them to you?
One cannot give grass and straw, the enjoyment of cows, to a spiritual personality such as you.
Though I am unconquerable, today I have been conquered by you. I am taking shelter of the creeper of your gentleness."
"Oh my Lord, my master, oh ocean of unfathomable mercy!
You glanced upon me while I was being bitten by an array of crocodiles, the infinite miseries of endless births and deaths amidst the terrifying current of material existence.
Oh Lord, transcendental to all the material planets, Your butter-like heart melts as it is filled with mercy.
In the form of spiritual master, You destroy ignorance and lust!
By manifesting the Sudarśana Chakra of Your wonderful form, You have pierced those crocodiles and freed me from the clutches of their teeth.
To fulfil my desire to serve Your lotus feet as a maidservant (dāsī), You placed the syllables of Your mantra in my ears.
You destroyed my suffering, You purified me by the process of constant hearing, chanting, and remembering Your qualities and name.
You made me understand how to perform service to Yourself through the association of Your devotees.
I am unintelligent, the lowest of the low, and even one day have not done You service. Such a miserly selfish person deserves to be punished.
Contrary to this however, showing Your very self to me, You have made me drink nectar."
"You have mortified me by saying that You have become my debtor. Now I am thinking what to do."
"Would I be presumptuous to ask You to pardon all my offenses five, seven, eight, a thousand or a million? I can definitely say it must be more than a trillion."
"Just let all the reactions to my past activities, intense and long-standing, suffered and to be suffered in the future, remain."
"Previously, I compared Your dark limbs to the monsoon cloud, to the blue water lily and to the sapphire; I compared Your effulgent face to the moon, and Your tender feet, to newly sprouted leaves. Now these analogies seem like a pile of burned mustard seeds compared to a golden mountain..."
"I am like an unsettled cow threatened by the sudden appearance of Your form. But I cannot defile the desire tree of Your beauty even with my destructive comparisons."
In this way, the devotee praises the Lord, and the Lord becomes more pleased with the devotee.
Then He reveals all the favorable accoutrements necessary for the devotee's particular relation to the Lord, imbued with excellent rasa: Śrī Vṛndāvana, the desire tree, the mahā yoga pīṭha, the most dear daughter of Vṛṣabhānu, Her associates such as Lalitā and her mañjarīs, His own friends such as Subala, the cows maintained by Him, the Yamunā River, Govardhana, forests such as Bhāṇḍīra, Nandīśvara Hill, all the mothers, fathers, brothers, friends and servants there, and the other vrajavāsīs.
The Lord submerges the devotee in the enchanting tidal wave of bliss and then disappears with His entourage.
Verse 11
Recovering consciousness after some moments, the devotee, anxious to see the Lord again, opens his eyes, and not seeing the Lord, he begins crying.
"Was I merely dreaming? No, no, I was not dreaming, because I have neither drowsiness, nor any contamination in my eyes from sleep."
"Was it some hallucination? No, for a hallucination could never give real bliss."
"Or was it from some defect in the mind? No, because all the symptoms of unsteady mind are absent."
"Was it the fulfillment of some material desire? No, no material fancy could ever approach what I have seen."
"Was it a momentary meeting with the Lord? No, because it is completely different from all previous visions of the Lord that I remember."
In this way, the devotee remains in uncertainty. Lying upon the dusty earth, he prays constantly for the same experience.
Not obtaining it, he laments, weeps, rolls on the grounds, wounds his own body, faints, recovers, stands, sits, runs about, and wails like a madman.
Sometimes he remains silent like a sage and sometimes like a social misfit, he fails to perform his daily obligatory duties.
Like a person possessed of spirits, he talks incoherently.
Unto a devotee friend who comes asking privately what is the matter, he explains what he has experienced.
He recovers for a moment, and the friend explains, "That was, by good fortune, a direct meeting with the Lord." Satisfied with that explanation, he becomes happy.
Then again he laments, "No longer do I have that association."
"Was it a shower of mercy from some great devotee of the Lord upon this unlucky soul? Or was it by mere chance, or was it the result of some past honest endeavor? Or perhaps it was simply the causeless mercy of the Lord."
"By some indescribable fortune I have attained the Lord, but then, because of a grave offense, I have lost Him again."
"Without life, without intelligence, I cannot ascertain the truth."
"Where shall I go? What shall I do and how? Whom to ask? I am completely vacant, without soul, without shelter, scorched by a conflagration."
"The three worlds seem to be devouring me. Giving up this worldly association, I will live in solitude for sometime."
Doing this, he laments further. "Oh lotus-faced Lord, You are possessed of streams of nectar, bedecked with fragrant garlands which scent all the forests, attracting swarms of vibrating bees! Just for a moment may I serve Your Lordship again? Having once tasted Your sweetness, I cannot aspire for anything else.”
He begins to roll on the ground, breathe heavily, faint, and lose his mind.
Suddenly seeing the Lord everywhere, he rejoices, embraces, laughs, dances and sings, and when the Lord disappears again, he becomes killed with remorse, and weeps.
Behaving in this way, he withdraws his very life symptoms and he loses awareness of whether he has a body or not.
Then, not aware that his material body has passed to the elements, he understands only that his desired Lord, the ocean of mercy, has manifested Himself.
Engaging him in service, He is leading him to His own house. Thus the devotee reaches the final goal.
Verse 12
ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā |
tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ ||
tathāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati |
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāvaḥ bhavet kramaḥ ||
First, there is association with devotees, by which one gains faith (ādau śraddhā).
Then, one associates with the devotees (tataḥ sādhu saṅgaḥ) to learn the scriptures, and then practices bhakti (atha bhajana-kriyā).
The anarthas are then destroyed (tato anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt).
Steady bhakti without confusion follows (tato niṣṭhā).
Desire for the Lord (ruci) appears (rucis tataḥ).
This is followed by spontaneous desire for the Lord (āsakti) (tathā āsaktiḥ).
This becomes bhāva (tato bhāvaḥ) and then prema (tataḥ prema abhyudañcati).
This is the progression (ayaṁ kramaḥ bhavet) for manifesting prema (premṇaḥ prādurbhāvaḥ) for those performing sādhana-bhakti (sādhakānām). (BRS)
The stages of devotion mentioned in this verse have been described as they are.
Sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, and mahābhāva, successively specialized tastes, are progressively higher fruits on the creeper of bhakti.
Because the material body of the devotee cannot tolerate the friction of extremes of all those tastes, they are not manifested in his body.
Verses 13-14
Ahantā (consciousness of I) and mamatā (consciousness of mine).
By jñāna these two are destroyed and liberation is attained.
By directing these two towards body (I am this body), house (this is my house), etc. bondage results.
"I am the follower of the Lord. I am the servant of the Lord."
"The Lord with His associates, an ocean of sweetness with His form, qualities and pastimes is to be served by me."
If one thinks in this way, identifying oneself as the Lord's servant and making the Lord along with His associates are the object of one's possession, it is called prema.
Prema is in this way distinct from both bondage and liberation, and is properly called the crown jewel of all human goals. There is a sequence in this.
| Stage | Spiritual 'I' & 'Mine' | Material 'I' & 'Mine' |
|---|---|---|
| Material Life | - | Extremely Deep |
| Start of Bhakti | Slight (Gandha) | Slightly Spiritualized |
| Sādhu Saṅga | Condensed | Atyantikī (Thorough) |
| Aniṣṭhitā Bhajana | Specific (Localized) | Pūrṇa (Full Force) |
| Niṣṭhā | Detectable | Prāyiki (Prominent) |
| Ruci | Dominant (Prāyiki) | Localized |
| Āsakti | Complete (Pūrṇa) | Trace (Gandha) |
| Bhāva | Thorough (Atyantikī) | Empty Shadow |
| Prema | Intense (Paramātyantikī) | Completely Absent |
At the stage of bhajana kriya, meditation on the Lord is momentary with a tinge of material topics.
At the stage of niṣṭhā meditation, there is a trace (ābhās) of other topics.
At the stage of ruci, other topics are absent and the meditation is longlasting.
At the stage of āsakti, meditation becomes very deep.
During bhāva, meditation is marked with the Lord.
At the stage of prema, in contrast to simply seeing the Lord, there is direct association with the Lord.
Verse 14
mādhurya-vāridheḥ kṛṣṇa-
caitanyād uddhṛtaiḥ rasaiḥ |
iyaṃ dhinotu mādhurya
mayī kādambinī jagat ||
The cloud bank has lifted the rasa (uddhṛtaiḥ rasaiḥ) from the ocean of sweetness personified, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (kṛṣṇa-caitanyād mādhurya-vāridheḥ). May the sweet bank of clouds (iyaṃ mādhurya mayī kādambinī) satisfy the thirsty world by distributing that rasa (jagat dhinotu).