"Prem Ras Madira"
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Kripaluji Maharaj is best known for the Prem Ras Madira. Written in the best literary style, there are 1008 songs (pad) of Radha Krishn leelas, devotional philosophy and humbleness. They are like the Divine manifestation of the leela Bliss of Radha Krishn on the earth planet. Thus, the deeper is the dedication of a devotee, the richer is the experience of Their love in the devotee’s heart.
The steps of God realization from “Prem Ras Madira”
(1) Understanding the importance of human life and the futility of the world; (2) desiring to become a true devotee and receive Krishn love; (3) longing to find a true Divine Saint who could guide you to receive Krishn love; (4) surrendering to the rasik Saint; (5) finding the path and wholeheartedly doing devotion under his guidance; (6) complete purification of the heart; and then (7) receiving the Divine vision and love of Radha Krishn with the Grace of the rasik Saint, are the seven steps of God realization. All of these steps are elegantly described here in the form of the actual devotional material with which an aspirant of God’s love may proceed on the path to God by lovingly singing these Divine songs with a yearning heart.
(1) Understanding
A devotee says to himself: O my mind! Submit yourself to the lotus feet of Krishn. Your mother, father, sons, brothers and others, no one will help you at the time of death. You cannot achieve anything by indulging into the fields of lust, anger, greed, attachment and the egoistic activities of your willful likings. The happiness of this world is purely illusive. You cannot receive even a drop of true happiness in this world. The wealth and your youthful beauty (which you may be proud of) is transitory. It will disappear like camphor. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says, “ You will not receive this precious human life again and again, so surrender to Krishn immediately and restore your lost fortune.”
O my mind! Listen! This world is futile. Son, spouse, friends and all the worldly relatives are tied to each other in only self-interest. You are under the impression that your son, spouse, sister etc. really love you, and, in the same way, they all believe that you really love them. But your conscience very well knows that you like them for your own personal happiness, and thus (quite often) your behavior bears craftiness from inside. O my mind! Then why don’t you understand that they are also like you. Knowing this please turn to Radha Krishn Who are your true Divine Beloved.
(2) Desiring
(The deep desire of a devotee) O my Krishn! When will that day come that: while remembering Your name and virtues, my eyes will be constantly flooded with the tears of Your love; while meditating on Your sweet Divine form day and night, my whole being will become the embodiment of Your love; while impatiently looking to the path of Your arrival, a moment of delay will seem to extend to eons in Your separation; and, saying ‘Ha Krishn!’ ‘Ha Krishn!’ in love-stricken grief, and running and wandering here and there in Braj, I will lose my body consciousness. I fully believe that one day my Krishn will surely come to me and make me His own, forever.
O my beloved Krishn! When will that day come that I will be living in Braj forever? When will my eyes be overflowing with the tears of love while singing the glory of the name and virtues of Shyama Shyam? When will I be wandering on the paths of Gahvarban, crying, and singing, ‘Radhey, Radhey, Radhey’? When will that day come that, tipsied in Your love and thrilled with Your affection, I will be wandering in the various kunj of Vrindaban? Embracing the plants and the vines of Govardhan and drowned in the lovingness of Your love, believing that Krishn has played in these places, when will that day come that, swooning with the intense separation, I will say, “O! My Beloved! Please come soon.” And also, when will that day come that while rolling in the soils of Braj and closely experiencing Your presence I will become mad in Your love?
(3) Longing to find a true Divine Saint.
O Krishn, my Lord! Please make me a true devotee of one of Your rasik Saints so that I can have his darshan, association and affection all the time; and also, with my body, mind and money, I may delightfully serve him forever. Constantly doing his satsang and listening to his teachings, I may detach myself from worldly attractions, and, protected from the evils of maya with his Grace, I may receive the ultimate Bliss of Divine love. O my beloved Krishn! I am begging for Your Grace to please fulfill my desire to wholeheartedly serve one of Your loving Saints.
(4) Surrendering to a true rasik Saint.
I adore and surrender to the Divine lotus feet of my beloved Master. The refuge of whose lotus feet reveals the Divine leelas of Radha Krishn. The remembrance of whose lotus feet defeats the darkness of ignorance and the worldly attachments. The Grace of whose lotus feet cancels the effects of maya and the attractions of the world do not affect the devotee while living in the world, and the Divine dust of whose lotus feet, when applied to the eyes, gives the Divine vision to perceive the omnipresence of Nandkumar Krishn (and Radha).
(5) Finding the path and doing devotions under
the guidance of a (rasik) Saint by lovingly singing and remembering
the names, virtues and the leelas of Radha Krishn.
(This pad is the translation of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji’s verse, Ashlishya va...) The devotee says: O my Kunj Bihari (Krishn)! You are the life and treasure of my soul. You were mine since eternity and I was also Yours but I had forgotten this relationship. Now I realize it. Please come to me. Hug me and embrace me, and fulfill my wish, or give me the pang of Your separation by turning Your face away from me, or You may neglect me. O my sweet Beloved! Whatever makes You feel good, please do it without any hesitation, because my happiness lies in Your happiness. So, if You are happy, I am always happy. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that this is the style of true love. Desiring for personal happiness from the Beloved is not true love, it is a business-like selfish love.
Humble longing rises in the heart of a devotee and he says: O my Kishori Radhey! You are my only hope and You are my only refuge. Only You know how fallen I am. O Kishori Radhey! No one else knows the wickedness of my heart except You. I do not desire for worldly happiness or liberation, O my Kishori Radhey! I only want You to look at me as if I am Yours and I belong to You. Knowing this, that You have accepted me as Yours, O my Kishori Radhey! I will be madly thrilled and drowned in Your love. Then there will be no place for material desires and anxieties in my mind, and, O my Kishori Radhey! The four great things of life (dharm, arth, kam, mokch) will lose attraction and will become tasteless for me. O my Radhey, You are the only Beloved of my heart and soul. You may love me or hit me, O my sweet Radhey! Do whatever You like, but, please come to me.
The devotee remembers the virtues of Radha Rani and says: The Divine personality of our Radhey Rani is the ultimate excellence of the absolute magnificence of the intimate loving marvel of Divine love. ‘Divine love’ is the essence of ahladini power (the power of Divine Bliss) that governs and holds within itself all other powers of God (brahm) and makes them Blissful. So, you can say that Radha Rani is the all-absoluteness of the Divine love power or She is the absoluteness of the absolute supreme brahm. My loving and delicate Radhey is beyond the reach of the Vedas and the scriptures. But, at the same time, She is very easy to reach by the humble souls. What to talk about Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv, when even brahm Shyam Sundar could never completely conceive the greatness and the depth of Her virtues. Because, whenever He tries to go deeper to taste more of the sweetness of Her love, beauty and kindness, a point comes when His consciousness is absolutely drowned in the absolute intimacy of Radha’s love.
When a soul desperately cries for Her, She runs to him without even caring for Herself. When a soul lovingly calls ‘Radhey!’ ‘Radhey!’ Radha Rani also sheds tears of love for him. The devotee further says, “When Radha Rani Herself is my Divine guardian, why should I be afraid of anything in the world.”
The devotee remembers the greatness of ‘Radhey’name and says: The sole treasure of my soul is the ‘name’ of Shree Radhey. It was the Grace of Radhey name that made Shyam Sundar Krishn famous among all the rasik Saints. It was the charm of Radhey name that Krishn imbued in His flute and fascinated all the Gopis with its sound; and it was with the Grace of Radhey name that Krishn could do maharas in Braj in dwapar yug. The name of Radha Rani is so precious for Krishn that whenever He hears someone say ‘Radhey’, He impatiently runs to that place to hear more of Her name. One more thing: If you take out the letter ‘R’ from Radhey name, ‘Radhey-Shyam’ word becomes ‘adhey-Shyam’, which means Krishn remains only half. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says, “Such is the greatness of Radha’s name. So, O souls! Sing ‘Radhey’ name twenty-four hours in your heart without a break.”
(6) Complete purification of the heart
When a dedicated and determined devotee keeps on doing his devotions his heart is gradually purified. His confidence grows, he begins to feel the closeness of Radha Krishn, and his longing for Their Divine vision increases. A time comes when all the worldly attractions cease to exist in his mind and there stays only the humble, loving and intense selfless longing for Their vision all the time. This is the state of heart purification.
(7) Receiving the Divine love of Radha Krishn with the Grace of a rasik Saint
A devotee, having received the Divine love of Radha Rani, is joyfully singing in excitement and says: O! I have found the supreme Divine wealth without any effort. The Divine wealth which I was searching through the practices of gyan, yog, worship, renunciation, rituals, devoutness, meditation,andausterity etc., for yugas and yugas and was never seen anywhere; when I gave up all the intellectual efforts and subdued the ego of my doings, the rasik Saints, seeing me really humble and destitute, showed me the sure and simple path how to find it. And now, like a poor man who loses his sanity in the over-excitement of finding the most precious (paras) jewel, I have become Divinely mad in the love of Radha Rani. Prided with the intoxicating thrill of the Divine love in my whole being, I move around day and night and do whatever I want to do. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that that priceless Divine wealth is always received with the Grace of ‘Radhey’ name without any price. (There cannot be any amount of doing that could become the cause or price for receiving an unlimited priceless thing. So humbly asking with 100% faith in Radha Rani is not a price, it is only the fullness of dedication. You just ask Her and She will give it to you.)
Describing the Divine elegance of Vrindaban.
Look to the loving beauty of Divine Vrindaban where the sweet daughter of Vrishbhanu, Radha Rani, and all-beautiful Nandkumar, Krishn, always play. Where all the static and nonstatic beings, trees and birds etc., are Divine, and where the supreme Goddess Radha is the Queen. Where the beautiful spring weather always remains and the bumblebees, contented with the abundance of perfumed flowers, make a happy buzzing sound. Where the flowers of all the seasons like kund, kevda, and kachnar etc. (the local native flowers), are always blossoming and spreading their mild, strong, deep and desirable perfumes all over. Where parrots and cuckoo birds etc., sing ‘Radhey! Radhey!’ in their sweet tones. Where Maha Lakchmi cannot enter and which is beyond the reach of the Vedas. That is Vrindaban. O souls of the world, desire for that Vrindaban.