By Swami Tripurari

Gaura-lila is oceanic. Its sacred wonder is beyond comprehension. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says sri gauranga mahaprabhos caranayor ya kesa sesadibhi˙sevagamyataya—the gods, goddesses, and even Ananta Sesa cannot comprehend the wonder of Gaura-lila. As Sri Vyasaraya has written, this is true for Krishna-lila as well, muhyanti yat surayah. The many lilas of Radha-Krishna are comparable to rivers flowing in all directions, but the fountain from which they flow is the lila of Sri Gauranga. Sri Krishnadasa Kaviraja Mahasaya writes:

krsna-lila amrta-sara, tara sata sata dhara, dasa-dike vahe yaha haite
se caitanya-lila haya, sarovara aksaya, mano-hamsa caraha ’tahate¹

“Krisha-lila is the essence of eternal nectar flowing in hundreds of branches in all ten directions from the inexhaustible lake of Caitanya-lila. May the swan of my mind swim in that lake.

How can we approach that lake? It is the property of Gaura’s devotees and they can give it to us, sva-bhakta-vihita sanyair-yaya labhyate. Visvanstha Cakravarti Thakura has dug a channel from the bottomless lake of Gaura-lila to our ears in the form of his Gauranga-lila-smarana-stotra, and if we listen to this stotra with faith, it will enter our hearts through our ears and flood any prospect for material enjoyment, while drowning our souls in Gaura-lila.

Let us offer our obeisances to the daily lila and endearing character of the Lord who takes birth in Navadvipa Dhama, naumi pratyahikam tadiya-caritam sriman-navadvipa-jam.

In Nadiya, many perfect devotees reside in their fully spiritualized perfected sadhaka-dehas. Ever youthful, surrounded by their disciples, and under the shelter of their gurus they serve Sri Gauranga, Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Advaita Acarya, and their parsadas. There are innumerable ashrams dotting the landscape of Navadvipa Dhama and our guru’s ashram in this world is a particular manifestation of the magnanimous abode of Sri Gauranga. Thinking of himself as a servant of sri guru and a sevaka of his ashram, a sadhaka can perfect himself and enter the eternal lila of the moon of Gauda Mandala with one’s guru-given name in the form of brahmana-kisora. Meditating on the daily lila of Sri Gauracandra and engaging in nama-sankirtana one enters Gaura-lila, and as Nimai Pandita, in the course of his eightfold daily lila, enters the trance of Krishna-lila, one follows him in one’s self-realized form as a Vraja gopi or gopa.

Gaura-lila is always tempered by a degree of reverence. Even the most intimate devotees of Sri Krishna when appearing in Gaura-lila show reverence for Sri Caitanya-deva. However, for the sadhaka, reverence—dasya-bhakti—for Sri Gauranga leads naturally to love of God in intimacy—Vraja-bhakti.

1. Cc. Madhya 25.271 [↩]