Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s Greatest Donation (Introduction)

Śrīla Gurudeva has explained that Mahāprabhu came to give us the mood of maid-servitorship to Śrīmatī Rādhikā.

In Kālī-yuga, a qualified sādhaka in the line of Mahāprabhu and Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī only needs to understand, by realization, that Gurudeva has an eternal form as a māñjarī in Vraja-līlā.

As revealed by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī in Śrī Caitanyacaritāmṛta, there are two processes by which one may execute this rāgānuga bhakti, externally and internally. The self-realized, advanced devotee externally remains just like a vaidhī-bhakta and executes all the scriptural, śāstric injunctions especially hearing and chanting. However, internally as an eternal associate of the Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, he always serves the Divine Couple in Vṛndāvana. In this way he serves Śrī Kṛṣṇa throughout the day and night.

In the physical and subtle body the jīvātmā is performing many activities (walking, talking, thinking, calculating, etc). These activities are only going on due to the presence of the soul. In the same way, the ‘soul’ of devotional service or bhajana is śrī kṛṣṇa nāmā-saṅkīrtana, the chanting of the holy names, without which the other limbs of bhakti cannot function.

Although in the practice of rāgānuga sādhana, smaraṇa or remembrance is prominent, it must be understood that this remembrance is a limb of bhajana or devotional service, as are the other practices of bhakti such as arcana, etc.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to give this extremely unique and astounding gift of maid-servitorship (māñjarī bhāva) to Śrī Rādhā through the glorious process of nāma-saṅkīrtana. This glorious appearance and matchless gift of Mahāprabhu is very exceptional as it happens only once in a day of Brahmā.

In answer to questions from Paṇḍita Śyāmasundara Cakravartī, a famous leader of the independence movement in India, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupādā said that others acts of kindness are defective because they are part of the māyika (illusory) energy. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Prabhupāda explained, “The kindness that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has shown to jīvas, absolves them eternally from all wants, from all inconveniences and from all the distresses known as tritāpa. That kindness does not produce any evil and the jīvas who have got it will not be victims of the evils of the world; they will rather be swimming in the nectarian sea of Love, eternally enjoying its sweetness… Unlike other forms of kindness, His Lordship’s Grace is unproductive of evils… Kavirāja Gosvāmī Prabhu (the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta) has asked us to make a comparative study between Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s Grace and all the so-called kindnesses that are incomplete and imperfect. Where there is not the gift of an eternal nature, there must be inadequacy, defect and deception…” (Quoted from Śrī Sajjana-toṣani–The Harmonist)