Sukadeva Gosvami concludes this episode of the rasa-lila by pointing out that if a person hears from the right source about the pastimes of Krishna who is Visnu Himself, and the gopis, who are expansions of His energy, then he will be relieved of the most dangerous type of disease, namely lust.
In other words, one who actually hears the rasa-lila will become completely freed from the lusty desire of sex life and elevated to the highest level of spiritual understanding. Generally, because they hear the rasa-lila from Mayavadis and they themselves are Mayavadis, people become more and more implicated in sex life.
The conditioned soul should hear the rasa-lila dance from an authorized spiritual master and be trained by him so that he can understand the whole situation; thus one can be elevated to the highest standard of spiritual life; otherwise one will be implicated.
Material lust is a kind of heart disease, and to cure the material heart disease of the conditioned soul, it is recommended that one should hear, but not from the impersonalist rascals. If one hears from the right sources with right understanding, then his situation will be different.
Sukadeva Gosvami has used the word sraddhanvita, for one who is trained in spiritual life. Sraddha, or faith, is the beginning. One who has developed his faith in Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Spirit Soul, can both describe and hear the rasa-lila.
Sukadeva also uses the word anusrnuyat. One must hear from the disciplic succession. Anu means “following,” and anu also means “always.” So one must always follow the disciplic succession and not hear from any stray professional reciter, whether a Mayavadi or an ordinary man. Anusrnuyat means that one must hear from an authorized person who is in the disciplic succession and is always engaged in Krishna consciousness. When a person hears the rasa-lila in this way, the effect will be sure: he will be elevated to the highest position of spiritual life. (Srila Prabhupada says 3 times, ”highest spiritual perfection”).
Sukadeva Gosvami uses two specific words, bhaktim and param. Bhaktim param means execution of devotional service above the neophyte stage. Those who are simply attracted to temple worship but do not know the philosophy of bhakti are in the neophyte stage. That sort of bhakti is not the perfectional stage. The perfectional stage of bhakti, or devotional service, is completely free from material contamination. The most dangerous aspect of contamination is lust, or sex life. Bhaktim param devotional service is so potent that the more one advances in this line, the more he loses his all attraction for material life. One who is actually deriving benefit from hearing the rasa-lila dance surely achieves the transcendental position. He surely loses all traces of lust in his heart.”
(Description of Rasa Lila Ch. 33)
There is no reason to be afraid to advance to pure devotional service as long as we stay under the shelter of our Guru Parampara, we can feel as secure as a kitten in the mouth of the mother cat! Remember, it is For Their Pleasure!
This is a section of the book “For Their Pleasure”.
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