LettersCalendar Confusion 1 (11/07/10)
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The Call of Rūpa Gosvāmī (11/11/10)

Daṇḍavats K______Das,

All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Nice to hear from you.

Regarding your question – Rūpa Gosvāmī is a nitya-siddha devotee of the highest type and his call to live at Rādhā-kuṇḍa is the pouring out of his heart from the liberated platform to all liberated souls who have attained pure love of Kṛṣṇa (prema-bhakti). This ‘call’ comes at the end of his writing and not at the beginning. The beginning of his book is the call to the conditioned souls and the sādhana-bhaktas. Without acquiring the necessary qualifications in the beginning, one cannot follow the instructions given in the end. First deserve, then desire! That has been the opinion of all ācāryas in the line of Rūpa Gosvāmī since the beginning.

I have attached the URL where you can download Śrī Upadeśāmṛta with extensive commentary by Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja and an Appendix written earlier by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. You may find this very interesting and helpful in deepening your understanding of proper Gauḍīya conception.

https://www.rupanugabhajanashram.com/writings/books-pdfs/upadesamrta/

It is known that Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī was a follower of Śrī Rūpa and he lived at Rādhā-kuṇḍa for many years and performed his bhajana-sevā. But it must be noted that Dāsa Gosvāmī was not a sādhana-bhakta… he was also a nitya-siddha. And his bhajana-sevā was non-different than being present in the līlā of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Still, he took the most humble position and always prayed for the simplest of service, namely dāsya-rasa.

The most important thing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a proper mood of performing kīrtana, bhajana and sevā, along with the proper conception — something that I have to say is very difficult to find these days in the contemporary Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava world. But make no mistake about it, our ācāryas never advised the neophytes to stay at Rādhā-kuṇḍa or to bath in Rādhā-kuṇḍa. In fact in 1976, Śrīla Prabhupāda announced that his disciples had offended Rādhārāṇī by bathing in Rādhā-kuṇḍa (‘kicking Rādhārāṇī in the head’ were his exact words].

So read the Upadeśāmṛta mentioned above and let me know if you have any further questions.

Gaura Haribol,

Swami Narasingha

LettersCalendar Confusion 1 (11/07/10)
LettersMy Little Service at Rādhā-Dāmodara (11/23/10)