Vraja-maṇḍala Parikramā, Tapovana: The Place of the Sādhana-siddha Gopīs’ Austerities — Uddīpana and Ālambana, Yogamāyā Arranging Every Pastime, Bhāva-mātra, Śrī Guñjā-bihārī, and the Svarūpa as a Seed
•Uddīpana and Ālambana: Speaking at Tapovana on the parikramā, Gurudeva points to the trees, the cuckoo and the peacocks by the Yamunā’s old course. All of this is uddīpana, what stimulates the heart; without it prema will not manifest. Ālambana is twofold: the āśraya, Śrīmatī and the gopīs, and the viṣaya, Kṛṣṇa.
•The Place of Austerities: Here the gopīs bathed in winter, made a sand mūrti of the Devī and performed their vow to attain Kṛṣṇa; the Kātyāyanī temple stands nearby at Cīra-ghāṭa. Three hundred crore gopīs, aged two to six, rose early for this vow; Kṛṣṇa, who stole their clothes, was six. Gurudeva says one should rather tell Kṛṣṇa that He is subservient to one’s Svāminī.
•Nitya-siddhas and Sādhana-siddhas: The nitya-siddha gopīs, Rādhā, Lalitā and others, need no austerity; they came only to inspire the sādhana-siddhas. Pointing to a sādhu with matted hair practising there today, he says that by visiting a place where bhajana was done, the heart is purified even without chanting, because the dust carries the potency of that bhajana.
•Everything in Vraja Serves the Līlā: Quoting Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī (Stavāvalī, Vraja-vilāsa-stava 102), he says every grass, shrub and insect of Vraja is full of bliss, dear to Mukunda and favourable to the pastimes. Everything Bhagavān creates has a purpose: without poison the snake would be used as a rope. Scorpions, snakes, tigers and mosquitoes on Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s abhisāra are manifested by Yogamāyā. They serve the parakīya-bhāva and its vāmyatā, one of its four “weapons”, and Rādhikā’s māna.
•Yogamāyā Plays the Opposing Roles: As in a drama no one wants to play Jaṭilā and Kuṭilā, so Yogamāyā, the līlā-śakti, takes these roles, and herself becomes Pūtanā, since there is no Pūtanā in the spiritual world.
•Nitya-līlā, Naimittika-līlā and Bhāva-mātra: The occasional pastimes, even Kṛṣṇa’s birth, exist in the spiritual world only as bhāva-mātra; Yogamāyā creates the mood in the Vrajavāsīs’ minds. He illustrates bhāva-mātra with someone who, after a ghost story, takes a moving leaf at midnight for a ghost, and adds that a ghost coming to a saint is delivered.
•Seeing Vraja with Divine Vision: Brahmā and others perform austerities to touch the dust of this place. Those who truly live in Vraja absorbed in bhāva are not ordinary people; a person doing bhajana there should be seen as transcendental.
•Śrī Guñjā-bihārī: The Deity here is named after the red-and-black guñjā berries that grow at Tapovana and decorate Him. Mahāprabhu gave Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī a Govardhana-śilā and a guñjā-mālā; he saw the śilā as Kṛṣṇa and the mālā as Rādhārāṇī.
•Stages of Siddhi: Answering a question whether these gopīs had svarūpa-siddhi or vastu-siddhi, he gives five stages: mantra-siddhi first, then svarūpa-siddhi, then vastu-siddhi, then the stage with the nitya-parikaras. At āsakti the sādhaka has an ābhāsa of his svarūpa; it is realized at bhāva and prema. Strong bhajana with intense eagerness, utkaṇṭhā-mayī bhajana, brings the gopīs’ utkaṇṭhā-mayī prema.
•The Svarūpa as a Seed: Citing Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Jaiva-dharma, he says every jīva has a svarūpa in the form of potency, like the whole plant hidden in a mustard seed that sprouts with soil and water. As a tendency latent in a child manifests with age, what is within blossoms gradually by sādhu-saṅga. This svarūpānubandhī-vṛtti has been present since the jīva manifested from the taṭasthā-śakti, and cannot be changed.
Verses quoted
•00:05:08: yat kiñcit tṛṇa-gulma-kīkaṭa-mukhaṁ goṣṭhe samastaṁ hi tat… [Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Stavāvalī, Vraja-vilāsa-stava 102; recited loosely]
