Accept Sannyāsa
Rāmānanda suggested that we give up practicing the rules of varṇāśrama-dharma and take sannyāsa. Acceptance of sannyāsa means to renounce materialistic life, and in doing so one has to engage fully in the devotional service of Godhead. In support of this idea, Rāmānanda quoted the above śloka from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He also supported his suggestion with another śloka from the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66):
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
Here, the Personality of Godhead desires that everyone give up all other religious considerations and engage wholly and solely in following Him exclusively. “I will protect you from all difficulties arising out of renouncing all other engagements. You have nothing to fear.”
Go Higher
An improved consciousness for the materialists is a desire to either retire from material activities or stay at a place that is undisturbed by the uproar of the modes of nature. The river Virajā is outside the boundary of the material world where there is no disturbance from the three modes of nature. The material world is the creation of the external energy of Godhead, and Vaikuṇṭha, the spiritual world, is the creation of the internal energy of Godhead. Virajā is situated between the material world and the spiritual world. It is outside the boundary of both the material and the spiritual world. However, renunciation without any positive engagement is imperfect and cannot give the candidate the desired result of love of God.
The aim of Lord Caitanya is to bring people to the spiritual world. Therefore, this suggestion of Rāmānanda, which does not take one within the boundary of Vaikuṇṭha, was also rejected by the Lord. Negating the material activities or becoming disinterested in material activities does not suggest accepting positive spiritual activities. Spiritual activities completely depend on spiritual understanding. People having no realization of the spiritual world cannot sustain themselves by giving up all other activities. One must have a positive transcendental engagement. Otherwise, simply negating the material activities of religiosity will not help one the slightest bit in spiritual realization. By such renunciation, one will simply feed a void in his life and will again be attracted by the material activities for want of actual spiritual engagements. This sort of spiritual realization is another type of impersonal conception and is therefore not ultimately suitable for the prospective devotee.
Mixed Devotion
Rāmānanda, having realized the desire of Lord Caitanya, then suggested an improved process, called calculated devotion (jñāna-miśra-bhakti). Driven by a false sense of oneness with the Absolute Truth, the empiric philosopher tries to make an analytical study of the cosmic situation to find out the Absolute Truth. When he has done so, he becomes cheerful on account of his self-realization.
The symptoms of perfect realization of the Absolute Truth, which promote one to the stage of pure devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, are described in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.54). This was quoted by Rāmānanda as a further improvement on the suggestion of renunciation of karma:
brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṇkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
“The practitioner who has realized the Absolute Truth as the nondifferentiated impersonal Brahman does not lament over any material loss, neither does he desire any material gain. He is equipoised towards all objects of the material world, and these conditions make him fit to be promoted to the pure devotional service of Godhead.”
However, the brahma-bhūtaḥ state of consciousness is also not a fully transcendental state of spiritual existence. The supramental consciousness, as exists in the spiritual kingdom of Vaikuṇṭha, is a further development. The brahma-bhūtaḥ state of consciousness is undoubtedly free from gross material consciousness, and although touching the Absolute Truth indicates a transcendental feeling, it is not the actual transcendental position for realizing the activities of Vaikuṇṭha. As such, it is also external.
Lord Caitanya wants the living entity to be free from every type of material consciousness, including becoming unconcerned with empiric knowledge and fruitive activities. One should stay in pure consciousness, as even a slight tinge of material consciousness causes an impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth. In all these different stages of material consciousness, only imaginary arguments predominate over the Absolute Personality of Godhead. Imaginary argumentative endeavors are detrimental to the pure devotional service of Godhead, and, as such, even the liberated state as above mentioned is external. This liberated state is something like the convalescent stage after relief from a disease. If a convalescent person is not properly taken care of, a relapse of the disease may mar the whole attempt at recovery.
In the brahma-bhūta liberated stage, one has not yet obtained a resting place at the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead. As such, one is still unsupported and thus runs the chance of falling down again into material activities. It is therefore also external and thus the fourth suggestion of Rāmānanda was rejected by Lord Caitanya.
Knowledge-free Devotion
Rāmānanda then suggested the beginning of pure devotional service unconcerned with empiric knowledge or fruitive activity. To support this suggestion, Rāmānanda quoted a statement of Brahmā during his prayer of regret before Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead:
jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jivanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadiya-vārtām
stāne stitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo ‘jita jito ‘py asi tais tri-lokyām
“O my Lord, those devotees who completely give up the attempt to become one with You by the culture of empiric knowledge and simply try to hear about Your glories from the mouths of self-realized saints, and who live a virtuous life, can easily achieve Your favor although You are unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.”(Bhāg. 10.14.3)
This stage of culturing devotional service directly was accepted by Lord Caitanya. All the previously described stages of the culture of spiritual realization were rejected by Lord Caitanya most logically. The Lord, however, accepted the universal method of hearing the glories of the Personality of Godhead in all circumstances from the mouths of self-realized souls and giving up the attempt to become one with Godhead.
The poison of attempting to become one with Godhead kills the nucleus of devotional service. Anyone actually desiring to be engaged in the transcendental loving service of Godhead must definitely give up this idea for good. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, it is said that the idea of being one with Godhead is the topmost type of pretension, and even a slight development of this idea will completely eliminate the prospect for devotional service. This is the most dangerous misconception in spiritual life and one should at once give up the idea.
Hear From Self-realized Souls
A pure living entity, being always subservient to the Almighty Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, should reverentially give an aural reception to the transcendental sound emanating from the mouth of a self-realized soul describing the glories of the Personality of Godhead. Only a self-realized soul can produce the powerful effect of transcendental sound. Devotees must live thoroughly honest lives in all respects by their body, mind, and words. These are the simple methods of culturing spiritual realization to its zenith.
Lord Caitanya approved of this simple method for all classes of people without any distinction of caste, creed, color, or education. The only qualification of the practitioners that is essential for this spiritual culture is that they at once give up the idea of becoming one with Godhead. This idea of becoming one with Godhead is generally only acquired by the empiric philosopher, but otherwise every human being naturally feels that God is greater than himself and that he is always subservient to all His wishes. Even a great personality like Mahātmā Gandhi always spoke in terms of “God is great.” Gandhi often said, “Not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God.”
Therefore, the imaginary idea of becoming one with Godhead is a mental creation of the empiric philosopher as a result of his material vanity. Otherwise, the idea has no substance. The idea of becoming one with Godhead is artificial and a simple-hearted person is always against such an idea. Rejecting the idea of becoming one with Godhead is always natural for everyone and nobody has to make any special attempt to dismiss this foolishness.
The next qualification is to become gentle and humble when hearing from a self-realized soul. The Bhagavad-gītā is the direct transcendental message of Godhead, and the prospective devotee must receive this message with all gentleness and humility from a self-realized soul.
The method of receiving the message of Godhead, as mentioned in the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, is to hear from the chain of disciplic succession. It is said there that the system of spiritual realization was first disclosed to Vivasvān, the sun-god, who transmitted the message to Manu, the father of mankind. Manu then transmitted the subject to his son Ikṣvāku. By the transcendental method of disciplic succession, the system was realized by all the rājarṣis, saintly kings. Unfortunately, the chain was broken and the message had to again be revived beginning with Arjuna, the friend and devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
The prospective devotee’s qualification of hearing the transcendental message will not depend on birth, heritage, education, caste, creed, color, or nationality, but will depend on humility and finding the proper source for receiving the transcendental message. The mystery of the message as mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā must therefore be understood in terms of the realization of Arjuna and nobody else. The realization of Arjuna is also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, and whoever speaks in the line of that realization is to be considered a self-realized soul. The message of Bhagavad-gītā is to be heard from a self-realized soul and not from anyone speculating on dry subjects with imaginary meanings. The un-bona-fide attempt at hearing will simply be a waste of time. The devotee must always be careful that the speaker is in the transcendental line of disciplic succession called the paramparā. The qualification of the prospective devotee should be that he must live an honest life by his body, mind, and words, which will all depend on the mercy of Godhead.
Spontaneous Love of Godhead
Thus the preliminary stage of culturing devotional service without any touch of speculative knowledge was accepted by Lord Caitanya who then asked Rāmānanda Rāya to proceed further in developing the service sentiment to higher and higher stages of love of Godhead until the highest stage was reached. To this Rāmānanda answered that the progress in this line will end in the loving service of Godhead. Every living entity has within his heart a dormant and eternal love of Godhead. Spiritual culture is the attempt to revive that eternal love of Godhead to its spontan- ous stage, and the beginning of that attempt is receiving the transcendental message of Godhead from the right source— a self-realized soul. After receiving the transcendental message, this conception has to be developed to the spontaneous stage of love of Godhead. Rāmānanda describes the process in the following words:
nānopacāra-kṛta-pūjanam ārta-bandhoḥ
premṇaiva bhakta-hṛdayaṁ sukha-vidrutaṁ syāt
yāvat kṣud asti jaṭhare jaraṭhā pipāsā
tāvat sukhāya bhavato nanu bhakṣya-peye
"As long as there is acute hunger in the stomach, there is pleasure in eating and drinking. Similarly, as long as ecstatic spontaneous love of God is aroused in the mind of a devotee, the worship of Godhead with all kinds of paraphernalia becomes the real cause of happiness.” (Padyāvalī 13)
The purport of this statement is that hunger is the cause of pleasure in taking foodstuffs. Similarly, spontaneous love of Godhead is the cause of all pleasure in spiritual culture.
Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya quoted another śloka as follows:
kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ
kriyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate
tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ
janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate
"The intelligence for achieving the loving service of Godhead may be purchased from anywhere it is available. The price for such a purchase is a strong desire for achieving such a stage of life. Such a strong desire for rendering loving service unto the Personality of Godhead is very, very rare because it is developed by accumulating the results of many virtuous purifying acts in thousands and thousands of lives.” (Padyāvalī 14)
The desire for rendering loving service unto the Personality of Godhead is an invaluable desire and it brings the highest spiritual perfection. It is very rarely seen in the ordinary course of life. Lord Caitanya, being the most magnanimous incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, out of His kindness and causeless mercy upon the fallen souls of this age of Kali, is prepared to bestow the highest benefit of life by the simple method of hearing and chanting the glories of the Personality of Godhead. This is the beginning of the transcendental method, gradually reaching to the stage of spontaneous love of Godhead.
Dāsya-Premā
To develop the conception, Lord Caitanya asked Rāmānanda to go further. As such, Rāmānanda first suggested the devotional service called dāsya-premā or the mellow of transcendental servitude. He quoted a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that was uttered by Durvāsā Muni. Durvāsā Muni, with the pride of a caste brāh- maṇa, envied the pure devotee Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, who happened to be a householder king and by caste a kṣatriya. Durvāsā Muni wanted to put Mahārāja Ambarīṣa in trouble by the strength of his mystic prowess.
When Ambarīṣa Mahārāja was put into trouble, the disc weapon of Lord Viṣṇu, sudarśana cakra, appeared to rescue Mahārāja Ambarīṣa and attack Durvāsā for his nefarious deed of troubling a pure Vaiṣṇava devotee. As Durvāsā was being harassed by the sudarśana cakra of Lord Viṣṇu, he came to his senses and understood that he was mistaken in considering a pure devotee to be less qualified than a mystic like himself. In the end, Durvāsā was excused by Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, who was naturally always forgiving to everyone. Durvāsā Muni, being relieved from his misconception of caste predominance, praised the Personality of Godhead and His sweet relationship with His pure devotee. He said, “Nothing is impossible for a pure devotee of the Personality of Godhead because simply by hearing His transcendental name, a person becomes purified of all vices.” The purport is that if a person can become purified of all sins simply by hearing the Holy Name of Godhead, what is impossible for His servant who is constantly engaged in His service? Durvāsā Muni acknowledged the supremacy of a servant of Godhead over any kind of yogi, what to speak of a jñānī or karmī (empiric philosopher or fruitive worker).
The transcendental bliss that is enjoyed by a servant of the Personality of Godhead has been described by Śrī Yāmunācārya. He said, “O my Lord, when shall I feel myself to be Your absolutely faithful, bona fide servant, and live in transcendental cheerfulness by constantly obeying Your orders after being completely freed from all mental speculative desires?”
Sakhya-Premā
Lord Caitanya was satisfied by Rāmānanda’s explanation of transcendental servitude to the Personality of Godhead, and He asked Rāmānanda to go still further. Rāmānanda then explained spontaneous loving service rendered by a friend of the Personality of Godhead. This is called sakhya-premā or the transcendental rasa of friendship with the Personality of Godhead.
rāya kahe—"sakhya-prema—sarva-sādhya-sāra"
Sakhya-premā is superior to dāsya-premā in the following respect: Although in dāsya-premā there is a transcendental relationship with Godhead as master and servant, it includes the sense that “God is my maker.” Thus in dāsya-premā there is an awareness of the greatness of the Personality of Godhead, and as such dāsya-premā is mixed with a sense of fear and reverence for Him.
In sakhya-premā, the sense of fear and reverence is completely absent. On the contrary, a sense of equality prevails in the sakhya-premā. This sense of equality is an advance over the dāsya-premā. Here is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.12.11) on the subject of sakhya-premā:
itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā
dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena
māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa
sārdhaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ
"The Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is experienced by the empiric philosophers as an impersonal feeling of transcendental bliss, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the devotees related with Him as master and servant, and who is an ordinary human child to the people under the illusion of the external energy, was playing in the rasa of friendship with the cowherd boys of Vraja who obtained that stage of life after many, many virtuous acts accumulated in many, many lives.”
Vātsalya-Premā
Lord Caitanya approved of this advance and asked Rāmān- anda to go still further in the development of transcendental relationships. Sakhya-premā is an advance in transcendental mellowness over dāsya-premā, but vātsalya-premā, parental affection, is still more advanced than sakhya-premā.
Rāmānanda Rāya thus described a stanza from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wherein the excellence of vātsalya-premā is described.
nandaḥ kim akarod brahman
śreya evaṁ mahodayam
yaśodā vā mahā-bhāgā
papau yasyāḥ stanaṁ hariḥ
"O brāhmaṇa, it is puzzling to try to understand what virtuous acts Nanda Mahārāja performed that he could have Hari (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) as his son. It is also puzzling to try to understand about Yaśodādevī, who was addressed by the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa as ‘Mother’ and whose breast He sucked in filial affection.” Here is another quote from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.9.20):
nemaṁ viriñco na bhavo
na śrīr-apy aṅga-saṁśrayā
prasādaṁ lebhire gopī
yat tat prāpa vimuktidāt
"Thus the blessing of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which was gained by the cowherd lady Yaśodādevī, was never expected by the demigods like Brahmā or Śiva or even by Lakṣmīdevī, who is the constant consort of the Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa.”
This means that Śrīmatī Yaśodādevī and Nanda Mahārāja worshiped the Personality of Godhead with the conception of the ‘sonhood of Godhead.’ In Christianity the ‘fatherhood of Godhead’ is accepted, and in Hinduism there is worship of Śakti, the external energy of Godhead, the ‘motherhood of Godhead.’ Both of these shadows of vātsalya-premā are material or a product of the external energy. They are a sort of perverted representation of the real vātsalya-premā, because by such a material conception of ‘fatherhood’ or ‘motherhood’ of Godhead, the worshiper’s aim is to extract service from the Almighty.
The spirit of enjoyment and the spirit of renunciation are the predominant factors of material existence. The enjoying spirit is cultivated by the karmīs, people engaged in fruitive activities, and the spirit of renunciation is cultivated by the jñānīs, empiric philosophers, who have become baffled by their engagement in fruitive activities. Both the karmīs and jñānīs are therefore materialists because both of them maintain the spirit of being served by the Absolute Truth. To satisfy their own conceptions, both of them demand something from the Absolute Truth.
The Absolute Truth is meant to be served by all living entities. He is not meant to serve the living entities. The living entities are mentioned in the Bhāgavad-gītā as the parts and parcels of the Absolute Truth. The parts and parcels are meant to render service to the whole. It is absurd for the parts and parcels to think of becoming one with the whole or to extract service from the whole. The part and parcel living entity, when unfit to render service, is detached from the whole. Therefore, the spirit of demanding service from the Absolute Whole is a symptom of being detached from the Absolute Whole, or, in other words, of being in the domain of the external energy of Godhead. Such a demanding policy of the materialists, through the conception of the ‘fatherhood’ or ‘motherhood’ of Godhead, is a slight attempt to revive their eternal relationships with Godhead; however, these conceptions are far from the conception of the ‘sonhood of Godhead’ as shown by Nanda and Yaśodā.
The conception of the ‘sonhood of Godhead’ is a cent percent spiritually pure transcendental rasa. There was no demand made by Nanda and Yaśodā on the Personality of Godhead. They offered pure and simple service to the Personality of Godhead by nursing Him as a baby. Under the influence of yogamāyā, the internal energy of Godhead, they thought of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as nothing more or less than their affectionate and dependent son. The service of parents for a dependent son is always spontaneous and unalloyed.