Inquire from the Spiritual Master

For those who are serious about attaining perfection on the self-realization path there is no greater teaching than the Srimad Bhagavad-gita. In this greatest of all guidebooks Lord Sri Krishna gives all the information necessary for one to quickly and easily attain the topmost platform of expanded consciousness, pure love of God. One of the Gita's most important principles is described in Chapter Four:

tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth."
Bhagavad-gita 4.34

Because of the importance of being able to inquire from the spiritual master and receive answers, the spiritual master works very hard to answer thoroughly and lovingly all sincere inquiries that are put forward to him. If the disciples take full advantage of this mercy of the spiritual master, they will quickly gain a clear understanding of the Bhagavad-gita and be able to properly follow its sublime guidelines.

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Bhava and Prema...

In the Bhagavad-gita Chapter 4, Text 10 Srila Prabhupada says:

"The last stage of devotional life is called bhava, or transcendental love of Godhead".

In the same purport, according with the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu(1.4.15-16) bhava is defined as the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for for God is called prema, the highest perfectional stage of life.

Could you explain why in the same purport we call bhava both the preliminary stage and the last stage of devotion in the same purport?

What is the difference between bhava and prema?
Is it enough to reach bhava to love God?

Thank you kindly for your every day e-mails, best way for me to have Krishna katha (topics of Krishna).

Respectfully your humble servitor.

J. Raul Cardenas

Answer: Nectar and Highly Condensed Nectar...

Bhava and prema are both considered to be on the final stage. Bhava is the beginning of that final stage, when ecstatic emotion fully awakens within the heart.

In this regard Srila Prabhupada explains bhava as follows:

"The bhava stage is manifested by eight transcendental symptoms, namely inertness, perspiration, standing of hairs on end, failing in the voice, trembling, paleness of the body, tears in the eyes and finally trance. "
purport to SB 2.3.24

The difference between bhava and prema is described as follows in the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita:

samyan-masrnita-svanto
mamatvatisayankitah
bhavah sa eva sandratma
budhaih prema nigadyate

"When that bhava softens the heart completely, becomes endowed with a great feeling of possessiveness in relation to the Lord and becomes very much condensed and intensified, it is called prema [love of Godhead] by learned scholars."--Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya 23.7

Since bhava is love of God in its preliminary stage, once one attains bhava he should continue advancing to prema, the perfection of bhava.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t...
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But ...
Read more

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for ...
Read more