Embora possamos tratar de Rasa Tattva, devemos ser muito cautelosos.
Dina Bandhu Prabhu(discípulo de Srila Prabhupada muito estimado),traduziu o Madhurya Kadambini de Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur. Este livro trata de tópicos muito profundos na ciência de Rasa.
Na introdução ele diz:
"Este livro da instruções pertinentes aos devotos avançados nos estágios elevados de Bhajana e na ciência de Rasa e encoraja os neófitos e dá-lhes um vislumbre do néctar que esta para vir."
Como um encorajamento, não há problema.
No entanto, enfatizar demasiadamente este humor no início da vida devocional não é recomendado pelos Acaryas Vaisnavas.
"Regarding the songs by Jayadeva, 'Srita Kamala' is not approved. Sometimes our Krishnadas Babaji sings, but it is not approved by Prabhupad. Those songs are for siddha-bhaktas, not for us who are sadha-bhaktas or learning bhaktas. Lord Caitanya never divulged in public, he enjoyed them in the company of his selected three or four devotees. There is one song by Jayadeva, 'Worshipping the Ten Incarnations' , that song is all right." (Letter of 15 July 1972)
"So far your question about the gopis, in the beginning there is no such question. In the beginning we have to follow the principles of devotional service rigidly, like chanting 16 rounds, regularly following the instructions of the Spiritual Master, which includes study, temple worship, sankirtan, like that. ...Going to girls and making them pregnant, then talking of gopis, that is going on, that is nonsense. Without coming to the perfectional stage, if anyone tries to understand the gopis he becomes a sahajiya." (Letter of 14 December 1972)
Do livro "Apasampradayas" de HG Suhotra Prabhu:
The challenge of vaidhi-sadhana bhakti
About the theory that a grhastha may engage in a kind of "karma-yoga" that has a different spiritual standard than that of the temple devotees, Srila Prabhupada wrote, "this is all nonsense." He expected his householder disciples to "remain fully engaged in the temple activities" and to "assist the other devotees there as much as possible and cooperate very closely for helping me." This does not preclude their working outside; in one conversation, Srila Prabhupada cited his own purva-ashrama as an example: he lived and worked outside, but contributed to his spiritual master's mission in ways that were much appreciated by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and the Gaudiya Matha devotees.
Both classes -- deviated leaders and deviated followers -- are sahajiyas. They seem quite sure that their mental concoctions are lofty realizations and their emotional turmoils are states of ecstasy. So sure are they of themselves that any sudden inspiration is accepted as divine, even if it means that Srila Prabhupada's clear instructions are ignored or violated. A clear example of this is seen in modern trends of syncretism: just as the sahajiyas of old tried to blend mayavada, Islam and Buddhism with Mahaprabhu's teachings, so today Christianity is the foreign element of choice; one person formerly associated with ISKCON even claims he is reviving the lost parampara that descended from Jesus Christ.
We shall surely be confronted with newer and newer permutations of the apasampradaya phenomena as time goes on, but the pattern of deviation seen in the original thirteen remain the frame of reference for all latter-day perversions of krishna-bhakti. That people continue to fall victim to this pattern of deviation despite the explicit warnings of the acaryas shows the tenacity of Maya-devi in her service of weeding out the insincere from the community of devotees. The lesson is obvious -- we must become more tenacious than she in our service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master, the vaishnavas, and Lord Krishna. "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
It is said that the list of thirteen apasampradayas -- aula, baula, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, sain, sahajiya, sakhi-bekhi, smarta, jati-gosani, ativadi, cudadhari and gauranga-nagari -- was first spoken by a great devotee named Tota Ram das Babaji, who lived before the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He predicted that these groups would arise like weeds from the same earth from which grows the plant of pure devotion (that is, Lord Caitanya's movement). In Sri Harinama Cintamani, Lord Caitanya Himself declared to Haridas Thakur that in the future many pretenders would darken the world by perverting the pure teachings of the holy name. Bhaktivinoda Thakur comments that the Lord foresaw the rise of these apasampradayas when he made this statement.
Mantra modernizers and the mother-in-law guru
The apasampradayas have steadily multiplied down to the present day. More than a hundred years ago, a researcher named Akoyakumar Datta compiled a list of fifty-six deviant Gaudiya Vaishnava sects. Among them are: guru-prasadi (gurus who are offered the brides of their disciples for sex enjoyment, and who return them to the disciples as guru-prasada), sisya-vilasi (gurus who keep female disciples for sex life), and even a group that believes one must accept one's mother-in-law as guru. Akoyakumar Datta admitted that his list of fifty-six was far from complete. A widespread fashion among the apasampradayas is the introduction of new "maha-mantras" to fit modern times. Caran Das Babaji lived at the same time as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur; he popularized the chanting of bhaja nitai-gaura radhe-syama, japa hare krsna hare rama. Bhaktivinoda Thakur had a lenghty debate with him and forced Caran Das to admit that his mantra was a concoction and he had been wrong to preach it. Six months after this discussion Caran Das died, having lost his mind. His chief follower, Ram Das Babaji, continued to spread this bogus maha-mantra all over Orissa, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Vrindavan. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati called this group's chanting 'chuh-chuh kirtan,' after a kind of rodent that emits a bad smell when disturbed. In Puri, whenever a nagara-kirtan party of these people came down the road, he had his disciples stand at the gate of the Gaudiya Matha temple and beat gongs to drown it out so that he would not have to hear it. Such bogus mantras continue to be popular because the common people are uneducated and easily mislead, and because the propagators of the nonsense are often so enthusiastic and well organized. Both Caran Das and Ram Das travelled widely, preached, got land donated at holy places, built new temples, fixed up broken old temples, standardized Deity worship, established vegetarianism and organized nice festivals.
But their mantra is rasabhasa, for it equates Nityananda and Caitanya with Radha and Krishna. By preaching this concoction, they committed a great offense to the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and His followers by telling people that Lord Caitanya didn't give the world the real maha-mantra for the deliverance of the fallen souls of Kali-yuga.
One very active sahajiya preacher holds a Ph.D. from an American university; he is therefore considered a great sage by the simple people of Bengal. He makes publicity for one Jagatbandhu Shorkar, now dead, whom he claims to be the reincarnation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabu. This "avatar" used to walk naked and practice mauna (the vow of not speaking). His representative, the sahajiya preacher, claims Jagatbandhu was on the highest platform of God consciousness, higher than that of Lord Caitanya. He has invented a name for this exalted state: sisubhava (child-like ecstasy). He has also introduced a new maha-mantra: hari-purusa jagatbandhu maha-uddharana. When challenged by an ISKCON devotee to explain how he could advertise Jagatbandhu Shorkar as an incarnation of God, the preacher replied, "The name jagatbandhu is listed as one of the thousand names of Lord Vishnu." By this logic, any person in India who happen to be named Gopal or Ram could claim to be an incarnation.
The Haribol movement was started about one hundred years ago in the jungles of East Bengal by a person called Haricand. His followers are known by their keeping of very long hair, hookah smoking, and their shouting of haribol over and over while beating on big drums. They hope to attain a state they call matual, or "drunken madness." Then there is the sect of Kaivalyanath Ram Thakur, who told his followers to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and nothing else. He never discussed philosophy -- his reply to questions was inevitably, "Just chant Hare Krishna." While he certainly cannot be accused of having invented a new mantra, Kaivalyanath Ram promoted a very wrong understanding of the genuine mantra. His followers chant to him in their kirtan, not to Krishna, because they think he is God.
When the general population is constantly exposed to such nonsense, they gradually become twisted. They come to expect that a popular, successful preacher will one fine day declare himself to be God. In Bangladesh, there is a traveling preacher named Vivekananda Brahmacari whose followers have recently informed him, "It's time for you to become an incarnation. " Because such a preacher completely depends upon the material support of such followers, he must be obliging. And so in the world of cheaters and cheated, ordinary men become God overnight. Among sahajiyas, everyone styles himself an uttama-adhikari or first-class devotee. There is no concern for the indications given in the sastra of higher and lower ranks of devotees; in sahajiya eyes, making such differentiations is offensive. Now, it only stands to reason that if such first-class devotees are moved to flock around a guru, that guru must be an avatar of God himself. The sahajiya community is thus dedicated to a program of collective reinforcement of each member's self-delusions: the guru is proclaimed to be God and is given money and women by his followers, and the followers get the satisfaction of belonging to some select group of exalted souls -- which in rural Bengali society is usually the only claim to fame one gets a chance at.
Vosso servo
Prahladesh Dasa
