A Suggested Letter for the Vaiṣṇava Relations Committee (01/14/06)Film of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura (01/28/06)The Topmost Rasa (01/16/06)
Daṇḍavats G_____ Mahārāja,
I have emailed T___ Mahārāja and asked him for his opinion on the story also. In the meantime I will give you my own brief comment.
First of all, the story is told by B_____ who has similar stories to tell about G_____ Mahārāja and how he was sometimes with Kṛṣṇa in a state of ecstasy. B_____ has a tendency to read into these situations more than is actually there, or to read into it what he wants to believe.
The question posed is, “I ask you in all humility and folded hands who else could have known exactly where Srīla Prabhupāda had been? ”
The answer is that high comments and observations surrounding the disappearance of a great Vaiṣṇava are more or less common in Gauḍīya Maṭha. Everyone knows that the advanced Vaiṣṇava experiences samādhi with his Lord before he leaves this world (probably everyone except Iskcon devotees). This was also pointed out by Kṛṣṇa Dāsa Bābājī when he came to visit Prabhupāda just before his disappearance. So these observances are nothing out of the ordinary or so rare as the story wishes to infer.
However, the sahajiyā section has their own way of relating these things and coming from _____ Mahārāja it is little wonder that he has added his own little ‘rasika’ revelation that Prabhupāda is not only with Kṛṣṇa, but he
“was dancing with Kṛṣṇa and in the circle of topmost rasa.” This is so typical of ______ Mahārāja.
Everything ______ Mahārāja does and says always has to be about the “topmost rasa”, thus we are supposed to be impressed that he is himself in the “topmost rasa.”
Had we not gotten direct information from both Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja and Śrīla Purī Mahārāja and other senior Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas that ______ Mahārāja was basically an interpolator and was not to be taken seriously – well, we might have been impressed with his “topmost interpolations.”
As concerns Prabhupāda’s rasa, Śrīdhara Mahārāja and other highly qualified Vaiṣṇavas have given indication that Śrīla Prabhupāda had an affinity for sakhya-rasa. Being that Prabhupāda departed in Vṛndāvana in Ramaṇa-reti and at the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Temple, one could also say that Prabhupāda was dancing with Kṛṣṇa and the cowherd boys – but as always ______ Mahārāja has to show us that he (______ Mahārāja) knows better than everyone else and that he (______ Mahārāja) is himself in the “topmost rasa.”
The story that B_____ has told only serves to prove who is an advanced devotee in the assembly of sahajiyās. It would not be given credence in the association of the strict followers of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and his disciples.
That’s my comment, Mahārāja.
