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SRI RADHAKUND´S 108 SRI KRISHNADAS BABA
(Madrasi Baba)
by
Karunamayidas
Many westerners know 108 Sri Krishna das
Babaji (Madrasi Baba), as he selflessly guided
thousands of them to the main shrines around
Srimati Radharani´s sacred pond, Sri
Radhakund. My first encounter with him
occurred in November of 1978, and by his
kindness I was able to remain for 5 months at
Radhakund. He lived there for 36 years,
from the time he received the:
diksa-mantra (This is an initiation rite in
which a disciple receives the set of mantra that
form the basis of meditation on and worship of Sri
Caitanya, Radha-Krsna, and their
main associates.)
and siddha-pranali (The eternal names and identities of the
members of one’s initiation
lineage. These are the names they have in the
eternal sport of Radha and Krsna).
initiation from Siddha Sri Sakhicharan das
Babaji who was a parivara
[a member of
the
lineage] of Sri Narottama.
His most memorable trait was his attitude of
service which was expressed by a constant
disposition to render any type of service, in
particular toward the residents of
Radhakund, but also toward anyone else he
met. He was cestotkuntha
— always alert
to
serve just for the sake of serving. Of course
there are many persons endowed with such a
spirit of disinterested service in so many
different fields, but Baba’s spirit of service was
prompted by an uncommon loving force which
didn’t belong to this world. Although it
was evident that his entire being was
floating in this magic bliss-giving love divine, I
wasn’t yet ready at that time to accept him
as a guide. I was entrapped, sentimentally,
intellectually, mentally and physically, in
the strong grip of numerous erroneous
conceptions about the nature of Gaudiya
Vaisnavism (and Vaisnavism in general),
especially concerning its practice and the
system of parampara
or disciplic
succession.
Unfortunately, I refused to recognize two
correlative points: the uninterrupted succession
of masters and disciples and the
transcendental revelation of Bhaktidevi through that
system and the idea that the internal
practice of Gaudiya Vaisnavism (lilasmarana and
manasi seva) applied not only to the jivanmukta level (the soul’s state of
spiritual
emancipation), but also to the conditioned
one before that. Although aware of my
misconceptions, Baba still gave me shelter,
located a place for me to stay, fed me, and
even nursed me during a period of sickness.
I remember that once we stood on the road
just near Sri Radharamana Mandir, and
though I was harshly opposing him in some
matter, a strong outburst of his
transcendental emotions hit my inner being.
At that moment, much to my surprise, I
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spontaneously told myself: ”He is my guru.”
This thought rejoiced my heart, but just for a
moment, because my invasive, stained reason
refused to accept it. Despite such a
handicap, a transcendental loving
relationship ran between us, and I was always very
happy to be in his company. He was like the
good father and I was like the bad son, but
we were still linked to each other by bonds
of affection. By his mercy, Sri Radhakund,
and all the different, lovely places
surrounding it, always remained deeply impressed in
my heart, even after I had left it.
Nine years later I came back motivated by an
eager desire to render service to Baba and
learn something more about manjari-bhava-sadhana. Kartik month was in full
swing,
hundreds of pilgrims had arrived from Bengal
to celebrate it and the main program was
to go and listen to the 3 daily lectures of
Pandit Sri Ananta das Babaji which Baba always
recorded and translated for us in the
evening. It was very hot as usual during this period
of the year, and most of the devotees in the
audience including myself didn’t wear shirts.
After a few days, during one patha [reading/lecture] I suddenly
noticed that I was the
only one wearing a brahmin thread among all
those swanlike, saintly devotees, and this
made me feel very embarrassed. Over the
following days my uneasiness increased to such
an extent that my reason dictated to me that
I should give up that brahmin thread. I
thought to myself: ”After all, I wasn’t born
in a Brahmin family; so why should I wear its
insignia?”
One morning, after having passed through the sanga, I halted in front of Sri
Bankebihariji Mandir, bowed down to Sri
Radhakund, sprinkled the usual 3 drops of
water in my mouth, and then deposited my
brahmin thread as a offering to Sri
Radhakund. After that I felt the heavy load
of my false pride related to that thread stop
haunting me like a ghost. The power of Sri
Radhakund, Baba, and the assembled
Vaisnava saints had exorcised from me an
infernal “spirit.” The next day Baba conveyed
to me Pandit Sri Anantadas Babaji’s
congratulations for my act. As I used to sit not far
from him during his patha, he noticed that my “false
brahmin’s pride” was absent from
my chest.
I didn’t have any intention of receiving diksa-mantra initiation from Baba,
because I still
mistakenly thought of myself as already
initiated by another guru. Nevertheless I felt like
surrendering to him, serving him closely, and
learning from him the things related to
manjari-bhava-sadhana. Though I didn’t tell him
anything of my intentions, somehow he
understood them, and one day to my surprise
and great satisfaction, he asked me to assist
him in accompanying him to the toilet during
the night and in drawing water from the
well for his wash afterwards. To my even
greater satisfaction he told me that I could sleep
on the floor in his room.
Although I came now so close to Baba, I was
feeling somehow disconnected with him.
Despite our mutual affection and the
compatibility of our characters, I sensed that
something was missing, something necessary
for there to be a real, complete relationship
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with him. Although his two other disciples
were not as intimate with him, I noticed the
presence of a very special, supernaturally
personal link between them and Baba, which I
didn’t have and which intrigued me.
At one point, feeling more and more the
presence of this inexplicable gulf that separated
us, I approached Baba and asked him if he
would give me a new japa-mala
after first
blessing it by chanting Harinama on it. His
reply was a categorical no. He pointed out
that as I already had received Harinama from
another guru, it wasn’t necessary that he
should also give it to me. Although I
insisted, Baba didn’t change his mind, leaving me
without words and in complete despair.
Few days later, Pandit Sri Anantadas Babaji
was about to start his usual reading in the Sri
Radharaman. temple. Before sitting down in
the midst of the audience, I hung my rosary
bag on the washing line above my head, after
completing the round I was chanting. When
the patha was over, I stood up to take my rosary bag, but to
my great surprise it was
empty; my rosary had disappeared. Puzzled, I
searched everywhere in the courtyard, but
without success. I immediately excluded the
possibility that someone from the assembly
had taken it, because, firstly, I didn’t
believe that a devotee would be interested in
stealing the mala of an other devotee and, secondly, I had been
sitting under it. If
someone had taken it I would have noticed.
Rather than upsetting me, however, this
incident pleased me, because now I had a good
reason to ask Baba for a new mala.
So I
told him what had happened and said: ”You see
Baba! Now you should give me a new
mala and bless it by chanting on it. Otherwise how can I
continue my Harinama?” In this
way Baba gave me a new mala. His mercy didn’t stop
there, however. Some time later,
during a morning parikrama [circumambulation] of Sri
Radhakund, he stopped and told
me, with tears of transcendental ecstasy in
the eyes: ”I was looking for a name for you,
and the name ’karunyaghanavigraha’ came to my mind. It is a
name of Srimati Radharani
which means that she is the personification
of condensed mercy. She is so merciful! In his
Astottara-satanamastotra, Sri Raghunathadasa
Gosvamin has named Her
’Karunavidravaddeha’ or one whose body melts out of compassion.
So henceforth you
can have the name Karunyaghanavigraha Dasa.”
Due to the length of this name Baba
later changed it to Karunamayiyasa which
basically means the same thing. Baba’s mercy
didn’t end there either, and towards the end
of Niyamaseva (Kartik-vrata), he announced
to my great surprise that if I consented he
would give me diksa-mantra
initiation. I
was
moved, although I still thought of myself as
a disciple of another who was both my
vartma-pradar´saka and Harin¯ama guru. I still
also wrongly believed him to be my diksa
guru. My opposition to the idea was only
fleeting, because after seeing that Baba was so
enthusiastic to give me initiation, I readily
agreed, not wanting to hurt his feelings by
refusing. So at a moment chosen as
auspicious, the morning of the 5th of November,
Baba gave me the krsna-diksa-mantra together with the other diksa mantra. He also
explained to me their different meanings and
how to conduct worship of Sriman
Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri Radha and Krsna.
Obviously, he also revealed to me the names
of the uninterrupted line of gurus going back
to Sri Narottama, together with their
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spiritual identities, both in the world of
Gaura and in the world of Sri Sri Radha and
Krsna. I was then officially and spiritually
affiliated with that great lineage.
I have to confess that only after initiation
by Baba, did I begin to understand that proper
initiation into a bona fide line of diksa-mantra transmission was not just a
formality. It is
God’s created system, widely prevalent in
India, through which Sadhana-bhaktidevi
[bhakti as cultivation] makes Her appearance in a candidate
for prema-bhakti
[divine
love].
Later Baba’s mercy extended to the point of
revealing to me the details of my own
siddha-svarupa (the manjari-ekadasa-bhava or the eleven details of the manjari identity).
He also taught me his gurudeva’s gutika or manual for the practice
of remembering Sri
Sri Gaura-govinda’s transcendental pastimes
and the nature of my own service to them in
a mentally conceived siddha-deha [eternal body/identity]. The
next step is to advance
through the different stages of this practice
and ultimately to transcend this mundane
world through the blessing of manjari-bhava-prema-bhakti (the Love Divine of a gopimanjari).
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