Krishna SamhitaŚrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā - Introduction Part 3
Krishna SamhitaŚrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā - Chapter 2 - Descriptions of the Lord's Energies

Śrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā

Descriptions of Vaikuṇṭha

TEXT 1
śrī kṛṣṇa-tattva-nirdeśe kpā yasya prayojanam
vande ta
ānada kṛṣṇa caitanya rasa-vigraham

I offer my respectful obeisances unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, who is full of transcendental mellows and the giver of spiritual knowledge. Without His mercy, no one can ascertain the truth about Kṛṣṇa.

TEXT 2
samudra-śoaa reor yathā na ghaate kvacit
tathā me tattva-nirdeśo mūhasya kudra-cetasa

Just as it is not possible for a particle of dust to absorb the ocean, it is extremely difficult for a foolish, less-intelligent person like me to ascertain the truth.

TEXT 3
kintu me hdaye ko ‘pi purua śyāmasundara
sphuran samādiśat kāryam etat tattva-nirūpaam

Although a living entity is never able to ascertain the truth with his small intelligence, a blackish personality with a form of pure consciousness has appeared in my heart and engaged me in the work of ascertaining the truth. For this reason, I have boldly taken up this work.

TEXT 4
āsīd eka para kṛṣṇo nitya-līlā-parāyaa
cic-chaktyāvikte dhāmni nitya-siddha-gaṇāśrite

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is beyond spirit and matter and has no origin. The name of His abode is Vaikuṇṭha, and it was created by His cit-śakti, or internal potency. Vaikuṇṭha is beyond material time and space, and it is the residence of the eternally liberated souls. All the eternally liberated living entities, who are fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord, emanate from the Lord’s jīva-śakti, or marginal potency, to assist the Lord in His pastimes. Vaikuṇṭha is the abode of eternally liberated souls and the home of Kṛṣṇacandra’s eternal pastimes. That realm is beyond material time, and therefore past, present, and future do not exist there. In this material creation, however, we must consider past, present, and future, for the living entities here are conditioned by time and space.

TEXT 5
cid-vilāsa-rase mattaś cid-gaair anvita sadā
cid-viśeṣānvite bhāve prasakta priya-darśana

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is always absorbed in transcendental rasas and surrounded by liberated souls. He is always addicted to the emotions arising from varieties of spiritual activities. He is the cynosure of all eyes.

TEXT 6
jīvānāṁ nitya-siddhānāṁ svādhīna-prema-lālasa
prādātebhya svatantratva kāryākārya-vicārae

A great, wonderful spiritual relationship is found between the spiritually perfect living entities and Kṛṣṇacandra, who is the source of spiritual knowledge. This relationship is called prīti, or love. This love is concomitant with the creation of the living entities, so it is the living entities’ inherent nature. If there is no independence in this relationship, however, there is no possibility of the living entities attaining higher rasas. Therefore, Śrī Kṛṣṇa gives the living entities the power to independently discriminate between proper and improper action, and He awards them the fruits of their independent activities.

TEXT 7
yeṣāṁ tu bhagavad-dāsye rucir āsīd balīyasī
svādhīna-bhāva-sampannās te dāsā nitya-dhāmani

Among the minutely independent living entities, those who have a strong taste for serving the Lord attain servitorship in the eternal abode.

TEXT 8
aiśvarya-karitā eke nārāyaa-parāyaṇāḥ
mādhurya-mohitāś cānye kṛṣṇa-dāsāḥ sunirmalāḥ

Among them, those who desire to serve the Lord with opulence see their worshipable Lord as Nārāyaṇa and those who desire to serve the Lord with sweetness see their worshipable Lord as Kṛṣṇa.

TEXT 9
sambhrāmād dāsya bodhe hi prītis tu prema-rūpiī
na tatra praaya kaścit viśrambhe rahite sati

Those who serve the Lord with opulence have a natural mood of awe and reverence. Therefore, their affection ends with prema, or love, for due to insufficient faith there is no praaya, or intimacy.

TEXT 10
mādhurya-bhāva-sampattau viśrambho balavān sadā
mahā-bhāvāvadhi prīter bhaktānāṁ hdaye dhruvam

The faith of those who serve the Lord in the conjugal rasa is extremely strong. Therefore, their affection advances up to mahā-bhāva.

TEXT 11
jīvasya nitya-siddhasya sarvam etad anāmayam
vikārāś cid-gatāḥ śaśvat kadāpi no jaḍānvitāḥ

Some people say that unless there is oneness between the ātmā and the Paramātmā, there will be a lack of praaya in spiritual affairs. They further say the concept of mahā-bhāva is the false acceptance of material thoughts as spiritual. Regarding these impure opinions, we say that the living entities’ different emotions arising from praaya are not transformations of material nescience, they are spiritual emotions.

TEXT 12
vaikuṇṭhe śuddha-cid-dhāmni vilāsā nirvikārakāḥ
ānandābdhi-taraṅgās te sadā doa-vivarjitāḥ

The pastimes in the pure spiritual abode of Vaikuṇṭha are all faultless and like waves in the ocean of bliss. The word vikāra, or transformation, cannot be applied in those pastimes.

TEXT 13
yamaiśvarya-parā jīvā nārāyaa vadanti hi
mādhurya-rasa-sampannāḥ kṛṣṇam eva bhajanti tam

There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and Nārāyaṇa. He appears as Nārāyaṇa to eyes absorbed in opulence, and He appears as Kṛṣṇa to eyes absorbed in sweetness. Actually there is no difference in the Absolute Truth. A difference is considered only among people who discuss the Absolute Truth and in the discussions of the Absolute Truth.

TEXT 14
rasa-bheda-vaśad-eko dvidhā bhāti svarūpata
advaya
sa para kṛṣṇo vilāsānanda-candramāḥ

Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth without a second. He is the moonlike Lord who is always absorbed in the ecstasy of His pastimes, and He manifests different forms due to the variety of rasas.

TEXT 15
ādheyādhāra-bhedaś ca deha-dehi-vibhinnatā
dharma-dharmi pthag bhāvā na santi nitya-vastuni

Actually there is no difference between His various forms, because in the Absolute Truth there is no difference between the container and its contents, the body and its owner, or the occupation and its performer. In the conditioned state, these differences are found in the human body due to the misconception of identifying the body as the self. These differences are natural for material objects.

TEXT 16
viśea eva dharmo ‘sau yato bheda pravartate
tad bheda-vaśata prītis taraṅga-rūpiī sadā

The Vaiśeikas say that the quality by which one object is differentiated from another is called variety. Due to variety we find a difference between atoms of water and atoms of air and between atoms of air and atoms of fire. But the Vaiśeikas have detected the variegatedness of only the material world; they have no information of the variegatedness of the spiritual world. Nor is there information about this in the scriptures of the ānīs. That is why most ānīs consider liberation to be brahma-nirvāṇa, absorption or merging in the Supreme. According to the Vaiṣṇavas the quality of variegatedness not only exists in the material world, but it eternally exists in the spiritual world. That is why the Supersoul is different from the soul, the soul is different from the material world, and all souls are different from one another. From the quality of variegatedness, love of God takes the form of waves and appears with various emotions.

TEXT 17
prapañca-malato ‘smāka buddhir duṣṭāsti kevalam
viśeo nirmalastamān na ceha bhāsate ‘dhunā

Due to material conditioning our intelligence has become polluted by the dirt of this world. Therefore, realising spiritual variegatedness is extremely difficult.

TEXT 18
bhagavaj-jīvayos tatra sambandho vidyate ‘mala
sa tu pañca-vidha prokto yathātra sastau svata

Due to the quality of variegatedness there is not only an eternal difference between the Lord and the pure living entities, there is also an eternal pure relationship between them. Just as conditioned living entities have five types of relationships in the material world, there are also five types of relationships between Kṛṣṇa and the living entities.

TEXT 19
śānta-bhāvas tathā dāsya sakhya vātsalyam eva ca
kānta-bhāva iti jñeyāḥ sambandhāḥ kṛṣṇa-jīvayo

The names of these five types of relationships are śānta (neutrality), dāsya (servitude), sakhya (friendship), vātsalya (paternal affection), and mādhurya (conjugal love).

TEXT 20
bhāvākāra gatā prīti sambandhe vartate ‘malā
aṣṭa-rūpā kriyāsārā jīvānām adhikārata

In the Lord’s association, the ecstatic love of the pure living entities manifests according to their qualification and relationship in eight different emotions. All those emotions are symptoms of love. They are known as pulaka (standing of hairs on end), aśru (weeping), kampa (trembling), sveda (perspiring), vaivarya (fading away of colour), stambha (being stunned), svara-bheda (choking), and pralaya (devastation). These symptoms manifest in a pure form in pure living entities, but they are materially contaminated in conditioned living entities.

TEXT 21
śānte tu rati-rūpā sā cittollāsa-vidhāyinī
rati premā dvidhā dāsye mamatā bhāva-saṅgatā

The affection of those devotees who are situated in śānta-rasa remains in the form of rati, or attraction, which gives mental happiness. When affection is mixed with attachment in dāsya-rasa, then it is called attraction in pure love.

TEXT 22
sakhye ratis tathā premā praayo ‘pi vicāryate
viśvāso balavān tatra na bhaya vartate kvacit

In sakhya-rasa, this attraction in pure love turns into praaya, intimacy, which is strengthened by faith and attachment and which destroys fear.

TEXT 23
vātsalye sneha-paryantā prītir drava-mayī satī
kānta-bhāve ca tat sarva milita vartate kila
m
āna-rāgānurāgaiś ca mahātāvair viśeata

In vātsalya-rasa, this affection flows up to sneha-bhāva, affection with ecstatic sentiments. But when kānta-bhāva, or conjugal rasa, appears, then all the above-mentioned emotions mix with māna (jealous anger), rāga (attachment), anurāga (further attachment), and mahā-bhāva (great ecstasy).

TEXT 24
vaikuṇṭhe bhagavān śyāma ghastha kula-pālaka
yathātra lakyate jīva svagaai pariveṣṭita

Just as the living entities are surrounded by relatives and engaged in household activities in the material world, Lord Kṛṣṇa is engaged in the same way in Vaikuṇṭha.

TEXT 25
śāntā dāsāḥ sakhāś caiva pitaro yoitas tathā
sarve te sevakā jñeyāḥ sevya kṛṣṇa priya satām

All the associates in śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, and mādhurya are servants of the Lord. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the beloved Lord and object of worship of those devotees.

TEXT 26
sārvajñya-dhti-sāmarthya vicāra-pautā-kamāḥ
prītāvekātmatāṁ prāptā vaikuṇṭhe ‘dvaya vastuni

In the affection of the absolute realm of Vaikuṇṭha, all qualities like omniscience, forbearance, ability, consideration, expertness, and forgiveness are in complete harmony. Due to an absence of affection in the material world, those qualities appear distinct.

TEXT 27
cid-dravātmā sadā tatra kālindī virajā nadī
cid-ādhāra svarūpā sā bhūmis tatra virājate

The Virajā River eternally flows through the outer circle of Vaikuṇṭha. The Kālindī River eternally flows through the inner circle. Both rivers are transcendental to the mode of passion. The indescribable land there is the resting place of all pure souls.

TEXT 28
latā-kuñja-gha-dvāra- prāsāda toraṇāni ca
sarvāṇi cid-viśiṣṭāni vaikuṇṭhe doa-varjite

All the creepers, palaces, houses, and gateways are fully spiritual and free of all fault. The influence of time and place cannot pollute those things.

TEXT 29
cic-chakti-nirmita sarva yad vaikuṇṭhe sanātanam
pratibhāta prapañce ‘smin jaa-rūpa malānvitam

Some people try to impose their material conceptions on the nature of Vaikuṇṭha and thus become overwhelmed by prejudices. Later they try to establish these prejudices by their shrewd arguments. Such descriptions of Vaikuṇṭha and the pastimes of the Lord, however, are actually all material. These types of conclusions arise only due to improper knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Only those who have not deeply discussed spiritual topics will have the propensity to rationalise in this way. The doubtful hearts of the madhyama-adhikās are always swinging between the material and the spiritual due to their being unable to cross into the realm of the Absolute Truth. Actually the variegatedness seen in the material world is only a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. The difference between the material and spiritual worlds is this: In the spiritual world everything is blissful and faultless, whereas in the material world everything is a temporary mixture of happiness and distress, full of impurities arising from time and place. Therefore, the descriptions of the spiritual world are not imitations of those of the material world, rather they are most coveted ideals.

TEXT 30

sad bhāve ‘pi viśeasya sarva tan nitya-dhāmani
akhaṇḍa-sac-cid-ānanda- svarūpa prakte param

The splendour of the spiritual abode is established by the quality of variegatedness. Although that splendour is eternal, Vaikuṇṭha is nevertheless non-dual and constitutionally eternal, full of knowledge, and bliss. The material world consists of dualities arising from time, place, and circumstances, yet because Vaikuṇṭha is transcendental to the material creation it is devoid of duality and fault.

TEXT 31
jīvānāṁ siddha-satvānāṁ nitya-siddhimatām api
etan nitya-sukha śaśvat kṛṣṇa-dāsye niyojitam

Eternal servitude of Lord Kṛṣṇa is the eternal happiness of those who are eternally perfect and those who have achieved perfection.

TEXT 32
vākyānāṁ jaa-janyatvān na śaktā me sarasvatī
varane vimalānanda vilasasya cid-ātmana

It is beyond my power of speech to describe the pure ecstatic pastimes of the living entities, because the words I would use in such descriptions are products of the material world.

TEXT 33
tathāpi sārajua vtyā samādhim avalambya vai
varitā bhagavad vārtā mayā bodhyā samādhinā

Although I am unable to clearly describe this topic by words, by samādhi and the process of sāraju I have described the topics of the Lord to the best of my ability. If one simply takes the insignificant literal meanings of these words, then one will not properly realise the described subject. I therefore request the reader to try and realise these truths through samādhi. One should try to understand subtle points from gross statements, as in Arundhatī-nyāya [when one points out a faint star with the help of a bright star]. The process of argument is useless, because it cannot lead one to the Absolute Truth. The subtle process of directly perceiving the soul is called samādhi. I have given these descriptions based on this process. The reader should also follow this process to realise the truth.

TEXT 34
yasyeha vartate prīti kṛṣṇe vraja-vilasini
tasyaivātma samādhau tu vaikuṇṭho lakyate svata

Vaikuṇṭha can be naturally perceived through the samādhi of those uttama-adhikārīs who have attained love for Kṛṣṇa, who performs pastimes in Vraja. The kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs and the madhyama-adhikārīs are not yet qualified in this regard, because such truths cannot be realised by reading or argument. Kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs who consider the scriptures as the only authority and logicians who consider themselves liberated are both unable to advance.

Thus ends the First Chapter of Śrī Kṛṣṇa-sahitā, entitled

“Descriptions of Vaikuṇṭha.”

Krishna SamhitaŚrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā - Introduction Part 3
Krishna SamhitaŚrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā - Chapter 2 - Descriptions of the Lord's Energies

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