His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Srila Rupa Goswami is not teaching in the beginning the loving affairs of Radha- Krishna. No. He’s first of all training the reader, the devotee, how to become a pure devotee.
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service. (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11)
First of all, he’s trying to bring the devotee to the standard devotional service, vidhi-mārga. Then gradually, when he becomes accustomed, rāga-mārga will be revealed. Rāga-mārga is not artificial.
You cannot establish a devotional relationship with Krishna artificially. Everyone has got a particular relationship with Krishna in his original, constitutional position. That will be revealed gradually as you advance in devotional service in the prescribed rules and regulation, as they are directed in the śāstras and by the spiritual master. When you are trained up properly, you come to the platform of rāga-mārga, then you realize your relationship. That is called svarūpa-siddhi.
Svarūpa-siddhi is attained at a certain stage. Just like the desire for sex life is there in every human being, but when the boy and the girl come to the mature stage, it naturally becomes manifest. It is not learned artificially.
Similarly, rāga-mārga, svarūpa-siddhi, becomes revealed, or manifest.
Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya — “When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.” [Cc. madhya 22.107].
This very word, udaya, is used. Just like sun automatically becomes visible when it rises. You cannot force the sun to rise in the dead of night. That is not possible. You just wait. When the time is right, morning, six o’clock, you’ll find the sun.
— From a lecture on Nectar of Devotion. Vrindavan. 20 October 1972.
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