A nice offering for Guru Purnima from Krishnaa Kinkari. The Pushti Marg saints: Chapter 2: Krishna Bhat — Parts 8.
Once all the Vaishnavas from Ujjain came to Krishna Bhat’s home. Krishna Bhat greeted them all with the Lord’s name and offered them a seat. The gathered Vaishnavas requested Krishna Bhat to tell them about the Lord’s Rasa Lila [his Great Circle Dance]. Krishna Bhat replied, “The Rasa Lila happens in Vraja. So go to Vraja and have the Holy Sight of it there. The Rasa Lila only happens in Vraja.”
The Vaishnavas heard this and said, “Our hearts desire is to see the Rasa Lila now and Vraja is far away. With your permission, why don’t we make all the necessary arrangements here itself?”
Krishna Bhat saw how insistent they were. He said, “On your insistence we all celebrate the Rasa Lila here itself on the Full Moon Night.”
On the following full moon all the Vaishnavas gathered together and Krishna Bhata facilitated their wish to watch the Rasa Lila play. Krishna Bhat helped to dress and adorn all the Rasa Lila Svarupas [players] and then he adorned the Rasa Lila Svarupa whose role was Sri Thakurji, and placed the mukut crown upon his head.
All the Svarupas were ready. Then Krishna Bhat asked the extremely beautiful daughter of one of the Vaishnavas to apply collyrium to all of their eyes,and she did. Krishna Bhat then welcomed the Svarupas onto the Rasa Mandal, took the opportunity to have the Holy Sight of each of them very carefully and bowed to each of them in turn. Those players were then all filled with the Divine Spirit of the Supreme Lord and all the Vaishnavas bowed to them.
Bhavaprakasha
The principle of the Path of Grace is that Sri Krishna manifests through the intense divine loving sentiment of the devotee. In the Vedic lawful path (maryada marg) the manifestation of the Lord depends on mantras, whereas in the Path of Grace it is effected by the Divine Love of the accomplished Vaishnava.
Sri Acharyaji has written in his Sannyasa-nirnaya treatise [“Conclusions on renunciation,” verse 8]:-
kauṇḍinyo gopikāḥ proktā guravaḥ sādhanaṁ ca tat |
bhāvo bhāvanayā siddhaḥ sādhanaṁ nānyad iṣyate ||8||
Kaundinya Rishi and the gopis are said to be gurus, because they showed by example rather than precept. There is no other method to effect the mood of Divine Love other than emulating it within one’s heart.
On this path reward is perfected by heartfelt love alone. Krishna Bhat’s heart is replete with such love for Sri Krishna and all his pastimes and thus he is situated there. Therefore, through Krishna Bhat’s heartfelt divine mood the Supreme Lord and all his lilas manifested right there.
After this all the mandali svarupas started to dance. Their dance was divine as were their musical accompaniments. This vision was perfectly divine. All the Vaishnavas were very, very happy as they experienced this other-worldly joy. Only Krishna Bhat felt distressed, thinking, “O no! I have caused so much trouble to the Lord.” He felt so bad, burning with worry about this. He began to cry profusely. But the Lord is merciful. He heard Krishna Bhat’s plea. All the Vaishnavas had a divine experience. The Lord is most kind to his devotees.
The boy who had played Sri Thakurji became so absorbed in the lila that he did not return to his senses for three whole days afterwards and did so only on the fourth day. One year later the leader of that same troupe of players, the Rasadhari, came there and Krishna Bhat told the Vaishnavas, saying that if they wanted to organize the Rasa Lila performance again then they could but that he would not be involved.
The Vaishnavas organised the performance. However they did not get that same joy as before. They said amongst themselves that only Krishna Bhat was able to generate such love in the Rasa play. This was the conclusion to which they came. Krishna Bhat was indeed such an accomplished Vaishnava.
PART 9
Once on the occasion of Vasanta Panchami [the start of the Spring Season and festival], part of the fourth day of the calendar was still current. Krishna Bhat was unaware of this. On that day in Ujjain Krishna Bhat made arrangements in his house for playing Holi.
After he had accepted back the Rajbhog offerings as Prasad Krishna Bhat began to play Holi with his Sri Thakurji. At that very time Sri Gusainji in Sri Nathdwar on Sri Giriraji was offering paan to Sri Govardhananathaji after having accepted back the offerings as Prasad. At that time Sri Nathaji gave the priest Ramdasji a vision of the Holi Play.
Ramdasji approached Sri Gusainji and said, “O Maharaj! In whose house did Sri Nathaji play Holi today?”
Sri Gusainji replied, “Today Sri Nathaji has played Holi with Krishna Bhat in Ujjain.”
Some days later Krishna Bhat came to Gokul and after bowing to Sri Gusainji sat down. Sri Gusainji asked him on which day had he played Holi with the Lord. Krishna Bhat told him the day. Sri Gusainji stated that that date had been a mix of the 4th and 5th days of the lunar month and that it had been that day when he had played Vasanta with his Sri Thakurji. “Sri Nathaji Himself actually came to your house to play Holi! On that day in the Rajbhog Seva Sri Nathaji told this to myself and revealed this to Ramdasji the priest of the Inner Sanctum. Sri Nathaji told Ramdasji that it had been in your house that Holi was played. Today I am finding this out! From now on be more careful with your interpretation of the festival dates.”
Bhavaprakasha
Why? Sri Acharyaji made strict rules about the Seva of the Lord. Festivals should be celebrated on good and pure days after consulting the astrology of the planets. This is because only the best and most pure can be offered to Sri Nathaji.
The Lord can’t wait to play Holi, and he runs to wherever it is being played in the way prescribed in Sri Acharyaji’s Path. Sri Gusainji showed Krishna Bhat that Sri Nathaji had had to go all the way to Ujjain on that wrong day, and his botheration should be considered!
The other principle revealed here is that Sri Nathaji himself goes to those places where his pastimes are being celebrated with love.
Krishna Bhat piped up. “O Maharaj! I did it unknowingly! I will not do it again.From now on I will be very careful about the dates of festivals etc.” After this Sri Gusainji used to send the proper and complete calendar of the year’s festivals to Krishna Bhat, who followed it in his home in Ujjain.
Krishna Bhat returned home to Ujjain after spending quite some time with Sri Gusainji. Sri Gusainji was always blessing Krishna Bhat with such advice and understanding. While Krishna Bhat was staying with Sri Gusainji, his daily routine was to have the Holy Sight of the early morning Mangala Arati and then to cross to the far bank of the Sri Yamunaji River. He would go to the Vada Lake and perform his ablutions and bath, etc., and then return to Sri Gusainji by the time of the Rajbhog period of Seva. He would come to Gokul to have the sight of Sri Gusainji in this way on a regular basis.
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