Chapter 4

The third reason that Lord Caitanya appeared was to enjoy the bliss tasted by Radharani. The Lord thought that undoubtedly Radharani enjoyed His company and He enjoyed the company of Radharani, but the exchange of transcendental mellow between the spiritual couple was more pleasing to Srimati Radharani than to Sri Krsna. Radharani felt more transcendental pleasure in the company of Krsna than He could understand without taking Her position, but for Sri Krsna to enjoy in the position of Srimati Radharani was impossible because that position was completely foreign to Him. Krsna is the transcendental male, and Radharani is the transcendental female. Therefore, to know the transcendental pleasure of loving Krsna, Lord Krsna Himself appeared as Lord Caitanya, accepting the emotions and bodily luster of Srimati Radharani.

Lord Caitanya appeared to fulfill these confidential desires and also to preach the special significance of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and to answer the call of Advaita Prabhu. These were secondary reasons.

Sri Svarupa Damodara Gosvami was the principal figure among Lord Caitanya's confidential devotees. The records of his diary have revealed these confidential purposes of the Lord. These revelations have been confirmed by the statements of Srila Rupa Gosvami in his various prayers and poems.

This chapter also specifically describes the difference between lust and love. The transactions of Krsna and Radha are completely different from material lust. Therefore the author has very clearly distinguished between them.

However, the time for administrative rectification and the time for Lord Sri Krsna's appearance coincided at the end of the last Dvapara-yuga. Therefore when Sri Krsna appeared, Visnu, the Lord of maintenance, also merged in Him because all the plenary portions and parts of the absolute Personality of Godhead merge in Him during His appearance.

When devotional service is executed with some material purpose, involving fruitive activities, mental speculations or mystic yoga, it is called mixed or adulterated devotional service. Besides bhakti-yoga, the Bhagavad-gita also describes karma-yoga, jnana-yoga and dhyana-yoga. Yoga means linking with the Supreme Lord, which is possible only through devotion. Fruitive activities ending in devotional service, philosophical speculation ending in devotional service, and the practice of mysticism ending in devotional service are known respectively as karma-yoga, jnana-yoga and dhyana-yoga. But such devotional service is adulterated by the three kinds of material activities.

For those grossly engaged in identifying the body as the self, pious activity, or karma-yoga, is recommended. For those who identify the mind with the self, philosophical speculation, or jnana-yoga, is recommended. But devotees standing on the spiritual platform have no need of such material conceptions of adulterated devotion. Adulterated devotional service does not directly aim for love of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore service performed strictly in conformity with the revealed scriptures is better than such viddha-bhakti because it is free from all kinds of material contamination. It is executed in Krsna consciousness, solely to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Those who are spontaneously devoted to the Lord and have no aims for material gain are called attracted devotees. They are spontaneously attracted to the service of the Lord, and they follow in the footsteps of self-realized souls. Their pure devotion (suddha-bhakti), manifested from pure love of Godhead, surpasses the regulative principles of the authoritative scriptures. Sometimes loving ecstasy transcends regulative principles; such ecstasy, however, is completely on the spiritual platform and cannot be imitated. The regulative principles help ordinary devotees rise to the stage of perfect love of Godhead. Pure love for Krsna is the perfection of pure devotion, and pure devotional service is identical with spontaneous devotional service.

Flawless execution of regulative principles is exhibited in the Vaikuntha planets. By strictly executing these principles one can be elevated to the Vaikuntha planets. But spontaneous pure loving service is found in Krsnaloka alone.

But in the course of exchanging transcendental love of the highest purity, sometimes the subordinate devotee tries to predominate over the predominator. One who lovingly engages with the Supreme Lord as if His mother or father sometimes supersedes the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, His fianci or lover sometimes supersedes the position of the Lord. But such attempts are exhibitions of the highest love. Only out of pure love does the subordinate lover of the Supreme Personality of Godhead chide Him. The Lord, enjoying this chiding, takes it very nicely. The exhibition of natural love makes such activities very enjoyable. In worship of the Supreme Lord with veneration there is no manifestation of such natural love because the devotee considers the Lord his superior.

Regulative principles in devotional service are meant for those who have not invoked their natural love of Godhead. When natural love arises, all regulative methods are surpassed, and pure love is exhibited between the Lord and the devotee. Although on such a platform of love the devotee sometimes appears to predominate over the Lord or transgress regulative principles, such dealings are far more advanced than ordinary dealings through regulative principles with awe and veneration. A devotee who is actually free from all designations due to complete attachment in love for the Supreme exhibits spontaneous love for Godhead, which is always superior to the devotion of regulative principles.

The informal language used between lover and beloved is significant of pure affection. When devotees worship their beloved as the most venerable object, spontaneous loving sentiments are observed to be lacking. A neophyte devotee who follows the Vedic instructions that regulate those who lack pure love of Godhead may superficially seem more exalted than a devotee in spontaneous love of Godhead. But in fact such spontaneous pure love is far superior to regulated devotional service. Such pure love of Godhead is always glorious in all respects, more so than reverential devotional service rendered by a less affectionate devotee.

There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets in the spiritual sky, and in all of them the Lord accepts the service rendered by His eternal devotees in a reverential mood. Therefore Lord Sri Krsna presents His most confidential pastimes as He enjoys them in His transcendental realm. Such pastimes are so attractive that they attract even the Lord, and thus He relishes them in the form of Lord Caitanya.

In Goloka Vrndavana there is an exchange of love known as parakiya-rasa. It is something like the attraction of a married woman for a man other than her husband. In the material world this sort of relationship is most abominable because it is a perverted reflection of the parakiya-rasa in the spiritual world, where it is the highest kind of loving affair. Such feelings between the devotee and the Lord are presented by the influence of yogamaya. The Bhagavad-gita states that devotees of the highest grade are under the care of daiva-maya, or yogamaya: mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah (Bg. 9.13). Those who are actually great souls (mahatmas) are fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness, always engaged in the service of the Lord. They are under the care of daivi-prakrti, or yogamaya. Yogamaya creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Krsna. A devotee naturally does not like to transgress the laws of reverence for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but by the influence of yogamaya he is prepared to do anything to love the Supreme Lord better.

Those under the spell of the material energy cannot at all appreciate the activities of yogamaya, for a conditioned soul can hardly understand the pure reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee. But by executing devotional service under the regulative principles, one can become very highly elevated and then begin to appreciate the dealings of pure love under the management of yogamaya.

In the spiritual loving sentiment induced by the yogamaya potency, both Lord Sri Krsna and the damsels of Vraja forget themselves in spiritual rapture. By the influence of such forgetfulness, the attractive beauty of the gopis plays a prominent part in the transcendental satisfaction of the Lord, who has nothing to do with mundane sex. Because spiritual love of Godhead is above everything mundane, the gopis superficially seem to transgress the codes of mundane morality. This perpetually puzzles mundane moralists. Therefore yogamaya acts to cover the Lord and His pastimes from the eyes of mundaners, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (7.25), where the Lord says that He reserves the right of not being exposed to everyone.

The acts of yogamaya make it possible for the Lord and the gopis, in loving ecstasy, to sometimes meet and sometimes separate. These transcendental loving affairs of the Lord are unimaginable to empiricists involved in the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore the Lord Himself appears before the mundaners to bestow upon them the highest form of spiritual realization and also personally relish its essence. The Lord is so merciful that He Himself descends to take the fallen souls back home to the kingdom of Godhead, where the erotic principles of Godhead are eternally relished in their real form, distinct from the perverted sexual love so much adored and indulged in by the fallen souls in their diseased condition. The reason the Lord displays the rasa-lila is essentially to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity, and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy the reality. A person who actually understands what the rasa-lila is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life. For the realized soul, hearing the Lord's rasa-lila through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.

By leaving home in that way, the gopis transgressed the Vedic regulations of household life. This indicates that when natural feelings of love for Krsna become fully manifest, a devotee can neglect conventional social rules and regulations. In the material world we are situated in designative positions only, but pure devotional service begins when one is freed from all designations. When love for Krsna is awakened, the designative positions are overcome.

The spontaneous attraction of Sri Krsna for His dearest parts and parcels generates an enthusiasm that obliges Sri Krsna and the gopis to meet together. To celebrate this transcendental enthusiasm, there is need of a sentiment of separation between the lover and beloved. In the condition of material tribulation, no one wants the pangs of separation. But in the transcendental form, the very same separation, being absolute in its nature, strengthens the ties of love and enhances the desire of the lover and beloved to meet. The period of separation, evaluated transcendentally, is more relishable than the actual meeting, which lacks the feelings of increasing anticipation because the lover and beloved are both present.

King Kulasekhara has written similarly, in his book Mukunda-mala-stotra (5):

nastha dharme na vasu-nicaye naiva kamopabhoge
yad bhavyam tad bhavatu bhagavan purva-karmanurupam
etat prarthyam mama bahu-matam janma-janmantare 'pi
tvat-padambho-ruha-yuga-gata niscala bhaktir astu

The saying that the human form of life is the best position for devotional service has its special significance because only in this form can a living entity revive his eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The human form is considered the highest state in the cycle of the species of life in the material world. If one takes advantage of this highest kind of material form, one can regain his position of devotional service to the Lord.

Incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead appear in all the species of life, although this is inconceivable to the human brain. The Lord's pastimes are differentiated according to the appreciating capacity of the different types of bodies of the living entities. The Supreme Lord bestows the most merciful benediction upon human society when He appears in His human form. It is then that humanity gets the opportunity to engage in different kinds of eternal service to the Lord.

Special natural appreciation of the descriptions of a particular pastime of Godhead indicates the constitutional position of a living entity. Adoration, servitorship, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love are the five primary relationships with Krsna. The highest perfectional stage of the conjugal relationship, enriched by many sentiments, gives the maximum relishable mellow to the devotee. The Lord appears in different incarnations--as a fish, tortoise and boar, as Parasurama, Lord Rama, Buddha and so on--to reciprocate the different appreciations of living entities in different stages of evolution. The conjugal relationship of amorous love called parakiya-rasa is the unparalleled perfection of love exhibited by Lord Krsna and His devotees.

A class of so-called devotees known as sahajiyas try to imitate the Lord's pastimes, although they have no understanding of the amorous love in His expansions of pleasure potency. Their superficial imitation can create havoc on the path for the advancement of one's spiritual relationship with the Lord. Material sexual indulgence can never be equated with spiritual love, which is in unadulterated goodness. The activities of the sahajiyas simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind. Krsna's transcendental pastimes display eternal servitorship to Adhoksaja, the Supreme Lord, who is beyond all conception through material senses. Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service. The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Radha and Krsna to be ordinary affairs. The rasa dance is arranged by Krsna's internal potency yogamaya, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person. Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyas misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tadrsih kridah, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Krsna. But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvamis. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, in his prayers to the Gosvamis, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs.

rupa-raghunatha-pade ha-ibe akuti kabe hama bujhaba se yugala-piriti

As long as one is in material, conditioned life, strict discipline is required in the matter of moral and immoral activities. The absolute world is transcendental and free from such distinctions because there inebriety is not possible. But in this material world a sexual appetite necessitates distinction between moral and immoral conduct. There are no sexual activities in the spiritual world. The transactions between lover and beloved in the spiritual world are pure transcendental love and unadulterated bliss.

One who has not been attracted by the transcendental beauty of rasa will certainly be dragged down into material attraction, thus to act in material contamination and progress to the darkest region of hellish life. But by understanding the conjugal love of Radha and Krsna one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman. Similarly, one who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yasoda for Krsna will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection. If one accepts Krsna as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers. If he is attracted by servitorship to Krsna, he will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future. Similarly, one who sees the greatness of Krsna in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy. If one is not attracted by the transcendental nature of Krsna, one is sure to be attracted to material enjoyment, thus to become implicated in the clinging network of virtuous and sinful activities and continue material existence by transmigrating from one material body to another. Only in Krsna consciousness can one achieve the highest perfection of life.

In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna has taught the philosophy of surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who has surrendered to the Supreme can make further progress by learning to love Him. Therefore the Krsna consciousness movement propagated by Lord Caitanya is especially meant for those who are cognizant of the presence of the Supreme Godhead, the ultimate controller of everything. His mission is to teach people how to dovetail themselves into engagements of transcendental loving service. He is Krsna teaching His own service from the position of a devotee. The Lord's acceptance of the role of a devotee in the eternal form of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is another of the Lord's wonderful features. A conditioned soul cannot reach the absolute Personality of Godhead by his imperfect endeavor, and therefore it is wonderful that Lord Sri Krsna, in the form of Lord Gauranga, has made it easy for everyone to approach Him.

Svarupa Damodara Gosvami has described Lord Caitanya as Krsna Himself with the attitude of Radharani, or a combination of Radha and Krsna. The intention of Lord Caitanya is to taste Krsna's sweetness in transcendental love. He does not care to think of Himself as Krsna, because He wants the position of Radharani. We should remember this. A class of so-called devotees called the nadiya-nagaris or gaura-nagaris pretend that they have the sentiment of gopis toward Lord Caitanya, but they do not realize that He placed Himself not as the enjoyer, Krsna, but as the enjoyed, the devotee of Krsna. The concoctions of unauthorized persons pretending to be bona fide have not been accepted by Lord Caitanya. Presentations such as those of the gaura-nagaris are only disturbances to the sincere execution of the mission of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya is undoubtedly Krsna Himself, and He is always nondifferent from Srimati Radharani. But the emotion technically called vipralambha-bhava, which the Lord adopted for confidential reasons, should not be disturbed in the name of service. A mundaner should not unnecessarily intrude into affairs of transcendence and thereby displease the Lord. One must always be on guard against this sort of devotional anomaly. A devotee is not meant to create disturbances to Krsna. As Srila Rupa Gosvami has explained, devotional service is anukulyena, or favorable to Krsna. Acting unfavorably toward Krsna is not devotion. Kamsa was the enemy of Krsna. He always thought of Krsna, but he thought of Him as an enemy. One should always avoid such unfavorable so-called service.

Lord Caitanya has accepted the role of Radharani, and we should support that position, as Svarupa Damodara did in the Gambhira (the room where Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed in Puri). He always reminded Lord Caitanya of Radha's feelings of separation as they are described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Lord Caitanya appreciated his assistance. But the gaura-nagaris, who place Lord Caitanya in the position of enjoyer and themselves as His enjoyed, are not approved by Lord Caitanya or by Lord Caitanya's followers. Instead of being blessed, the foolish imitators are left completely apart. Their concoctions are against the principles of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The doctrine of transcendental enjoyment by Krsna cannot be mixed up with the doctrine of transcendental feeling of separation from Krsna in the role of Radharani.

Some devotees think that Krsna is eternally the enjoyer in Goloka Vrndavana but only sometimes comes to the platform of Vraja to enjoy parakiya-rasa. The six Gosvamis of Vrndavana, however, have explained that Krsna's pastimes in Vraja are eternal, like His other activities in Goloka Vrndavana. Vraja is a confidential part of Goloka Vrndavana. Krsna exhibited His Vraja pastimes on the surface of this world, and similar pastimes are eternally exhibited in Vraja in Goloka Vrndavana, where parakiya-rasa is ever existent.

In the Third Chapter of this epic, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami has explicitly accepted the fact that Krsna appears in this material world at the end of the Dvapara age of the twenty-eighth catur-yuga of Vaivasvata Manu and brings with Him His Vrajadhama, which is the eternal abode of His highest pastimes. As the Lord appears by His own internal potency, so He also brings all His paraphernalia by the same internal potency, without extraneous help. It is further stated here in Caitanya-caritamrta that the parakiya sentiment exists only in that transcendental realm and nowhere else. This highest form of ecstasy can exist only in the most confidential part of the transcendental world, but by the causeless mercy of the Lord we can have a peep into that invisible Vraja.

The transcendental mellow relished by the gopis in Vraja is superexcellently featured in Srimati Radharani. Mature assimilation of the transcendental humor of conjugal love is represented by Srimati Radharani, whose feelings are incomprehensible even to the Lord Himself. The intensity of Her loving service is the highest form of ecstasy. No one can surpass Srimati Radharani in relishing the transcendental mellow qualities of the Lord. Therefore the Lord Himself agreed to assume the position of Radharani in the form of Lord Sri Gauranga. He then relished the highest position of parakiya-rasa, as exhibited in the transcendental abode of Vraja.

Everything in the Absolute is inconceivable in relative existence. Therefore in relative cognizance it is very difficult to assimilate this truth of the oneness between the potent and the potency. The philosophy of inconceivable oneness and difference propounded by Lord Caitanya is the only source of understanding for such intricacies of transcendence.

In fact, Radharani is the internal potency of Sri Krsna, and She eternally intensifies the pleasure of Sri Krsna. Impersonalists cannot understand this without the help of a maha-bhagavata devotee. The very name Radha suggests that She is eternally the topmost mistress of the comforts of Sri Krsna. As such, She is the medium transmitting the living entities' service to Sri Krsna. Devotees in Vrndavana therefore seek the mercy of Srimati Radharani in order to be recognized as loving servitors of Sri Krsna.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally approaches the fallen conditioned souls of the iron age to deliver the highest principle of transcendental relationships with the Lord. The activities of Lord Caitanya are primarily in the role of the pleasure-giving portion of His internal potency.

The absolute Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, is the omnipotent form of transcendental existence, knowledge and bliss in full. His internal potency is exhibited first as sat, or existence--or, in other words, as the portion that expands the existence function of the Lord. The same potency while displaying full knowledge is called cit, or samvit, which expands the transcendental forms of the Lord. Finally, the same potency while playing as a pleasure-giving medium is known as hladini, or the transcendental blissful potency. Thus the Lord manifests His internal potency in three transcendental divisions.

sei dui eka ebe caitanya gosani
rasa asvadite donhe haila eka-thani

What is the particular attraction that makes the Supreme Lord enthusiastic to accept devotional service, and what is the nature of such service? The Vedic scriptures inform us that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is self sufficient, and that maya, nescience, can never influence Him at all. As such, the potency that overcomes the Supreme must be purely spiritual. Such a potency cannot be anything of the material manifestation. The bliss enjoyed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be of material composition like the impersonalist conception of the bliss of Brahman. Devotional service is reciprocation between two, and therefore it cannot be located simply within one's self. Therefore the bliss of self-realization, brahmananda, cannot be equated with devotional service.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has three kinds of internal potency, namely, the hladini-sakti, or pleasure potency, the sandhini-sakti, or existential potency, and the samvit-sakti, or cognitive potency. In the Visnu Purana (1.12.69) the Lord is addressed as follows: "O Lord, You are the support of everything. The three attributes hladini, sandhini and samvit exist in You as one spiritual energy. But the material modes, which cause happiness, misery and mixtures of the two, do not exist in You, for You have no material qualities."

Hladini is the personal manifestation of the blissfulness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by which He enjoys pleasure. Because the pleasure potency is perpetually present in the Supreme Lord, the theory of the impersonalist that the Lord appears in the material mode of goodness cannot be accepted. The impersonalist conclusion is against the Vedic version that the Lord possesses a transcendental pleasure potency. When the pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is exhibited by His grace in the person of a devotee, that manifestation is called love of God. "Love of God" is an epithet for the pleasure potency of the Lord. Therefore devotional service reciprocated between the Lord and His devotee is an exhibition of the transcendental pleasure potency of the Lord.

The potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that always enriches Him with transcendental bliss is not material, but the Sankarites have accepted it as such because they are ignorant of the identity of the Supreme Lord and His pleasure potency. Those ignorant persons cannot understand the distinction between impersonal spiritual bliss and the variegatedness of the spiritual pleasure potency. The hladini potency gives the Lord all transcendental pleasure, and the Lord bestows such a potency upon His pure devotee.

anandamse hladini, sad-amse sandhini cid-amse samvit----yare jnana kari' mani

The total exhibition of these potencies is called visuddha-sattva, and this platform of spiritual variegatedness is displayed even in the material world, when the Lord appears here. The pastimes and manifestations of the Lord in the material world are therefore not at all material: they belong to the pure transcendental state. The Bhagavad-gita confirms that anyone who understands the transcendental nature of the Lord's appearance, activities and disappearance becomes eligible for freedom from material bondage upon quitting the present material tabernacle. He can enter the spiritual kingdom to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and reciprocate the hladini potency in transactions between him and the Lord. In the mundane mode of goodness there are tinges of passion and ignorance. Therefore mundane goodness, being mixed, is called misra-sattva. But the transcendental variegatedness of visuddha-sattva is completely free from all mundane qualities. Visuddha-sattva is therefore the proper atmosphere in which to experience the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental pastimes. Spiritual variegatedness is eternally independent of all material conditions and is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both being absolute. The Lord and His devotees simultaneously perceive the hladini potency directly by the power of the samvit potency.

The material modes of nature control the conditioned souls, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is never influenced by these modes, as all Vedic literature directly and indirectly corroborates. Lord Krsna Himself says in the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.25.12), sattvam rajas tama iti guna jivasya naiva me: "The material modes of goodness, passion and ignorance are connected with the conditioned souls, but never with Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." The Visnu Purana confirms this as follows:

sattvadayo na santise yatra na prakrta gunah sa suddhah sarva-suddhebhyah puman adyah prasidatu

In the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.27.4), Indra praised Krsna as follows:

visuddha-sattvam tava dhama santam tapo-mayam dhvasta-rajas-tamaskam maya-mayo 'yam guna-sampravaho na vidyate te 'grahananubandhah

When not manifested, the modes of material nature are said to be in goodness. When they are externally manifested and active in producing the varieties of material existence, they are said to be in passion. And when there is a lack of activity and variegatedness, they are said to be in ignorance. In other words, the pensive mood is goodness, activity is passion, and inactivity is ignorance. Above all these mundane qualitative manifestations is visuddha-sattva. When it is predominated by the sandhini potency, it is perceivable as the existence of all that be. When predominated by the samvit potency, it is perceived as knowledge in transcendence. And when predominated by the hladini potency, it is perceived as the most confidential love of Godhead. Visuddha-sattva, the simultaneous manifestation of these three in one, is the main feature of the kingdom of God.

The Absolute Truth is therefore the substance of reality, eternally manifest in three energies. The manifestation of the internal energy of the Lord is the inconceivably variegated spiritual world, the manifestation of the marginal energy comprises the living entities, and the manifestation of the external energy is the material cosmos. Therefore the Absolute Truth includes these four principles--the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, His internal energy, His marginal energy and His external energy. The form of the Lord and the expansions of His form as svayam-rupa and vaibhava-prakasa are directly the enjoyers of the internal energy, which is the eternal exhibitor of the spiritual world, the most confidential of the manifestations of energy. The external manifestation, the material energy, provides the covering bodies of the conditioned living entities, from Brahma down to the insignificant ant. This covering energy is manifested under the three modes of material nature and appreciated in various ways by living entities in both the higher and lower forms of life.

Each of the three divisions of the internal potency--the sandhini, samvit and hladini energies--influences one of the external potencies by which the conditioned souls are conducted. Such influence manifests the three qualitative modes of material nature, proving definitely that the living entities, the marginal potency, are eternally servitors of the Lord and are therefore controlled by either the internal or the external potency.

Krsna is always all-spiritual. Aside from the parents of the Personality of Godhead, all the other paraphernalia of His existence is also essentially a manifestation of sandhini-sakti, or a transformation of visuddha-sattva. To make this more clear, it may be said that this sandhini-sakti of the internal potency maintains and manifests all the variegatedness of the spiritual world. In the kingdom of God, the Lord's servants and maidservants, His consorts, His father and mother and everything else are all transformations of the spiritual existence of sandhini-sakti. The existential sandhini-sakti in the external potency similarly expands all the variegatedness of the material cosmos, from which we can have a glimpse of the spiritual field.

Sri Krsna cannot enjoy anything that is internally different from Him. Therefore Radha and Sri Krsna are identical. The sandhini portion of Sri Krsna's internal potency has manifested the all-attractive form of Sri Krsna, and the same internal potency, in the hladini feature, has presented Srimati Radharani, who is the attraction for the ail-attractive. No one can match Srimati Radharani in the transcendental pastimes of Sri Krsna.

The plenary expansions of Krsna's personality are called vaibhava-vilasa and vaibhava-prakasa, and Radha's expansions are similarly described. The goddesses of fortune are Her vaibhava-vilasa forms, and the queens are her vaibhava-prakasa forms. The personal associates of Radharani, the damsels of Vraja, are direct expansions of Her body. As expansions of Her personal form and transcendental disposition, they are agents of different reciprocations of love in the pastimes of Lord Krsna, under the supreme direction of Srimati Radharani. In the transcendental realm, enjoyment is fully relished in variety. The exuberance of transcendental mellow is increased by the association of a large number of personalities similar to Radharani, who are also known as gopis or sakhis. The variety of innumerable mistresses is a source of relish for Sri Krsna, and therefore these expansions from Srimati Radharani are necessary for enhancing the pleasure potency of Sri Krsna. Their transcendental exchanges of love are the superexcellent affairs of the pastimes in Vrndavana. By these expansions of Srimati Radharani's personal body, She helps Lord Krsna taste the rasa dance and similar other activities. Srimati Radharani, being the central petal of the rasa-lila flower, is also known by the names found in the following verses.

govindanandini radha, govinda-mohini
govinda-sarvasva, sarva-kanta-siromani

Svarupa Damodara has been identified as Lalita-devi, the second expansion of Radharani. However, the authoritative Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika of Kavi-karnapura describes Svarupa Damodara as the same Visakha-devi who serves the Lord in Goloka Vrndavana. Therefore it is to be understood that Sri Svarupa Damodara is a direct expansion of Radharani who helps the Lord experience the attitude of Radharani.

These transcendental affairs can be understood on two platforms. One is called elevated, and the other is called superelevated. The loving affairs exhibited in Dvaraka are the elevated form. The superelevated position is reached in the manifestations of the pastimes of Vrndavana. The attitude of Lord Caitanya is certainly superelevated.

From the life of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, an intelligent person engaged in pure devotional service can understand that He always felt separation from Krsna within Himself. In that separation He sometimes felt that He had found Krsna and was enjoying the meeting. The significance of this separation and meeting is very specific. If someone tries to understand the exalted position of Lord Caitanya without knowing this, he is sure to misunderstand it. One must first become fully self-realized. Otherwise one may misidentify the Lord as nagara, or the enjoyer of the damsels of Vraja, thus committing the mistake of rasabhasa, or overlapping understanding.

ei prema-dvare nitya radhika ekali
amara madhuryamrta asvade sakali

amara madhurya nahi badhite avakase
e-darpanera age nava nava rupe bhase

sarvatha dhvamsa-rahitam
saty api dhvamsa-karane
yad bhava-bandhanam yunoh
sa prema parikirtitah

The predominated gopis were bound to Krsna in such pure love. For them there was no question of sexual love based on sense gratification. Their only engagement in life was to see Krsna happy in all respects, regardless of their own personal interests. They dedicated their souls only for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. There was not the slightest tinge of sexual love between the gopis and Krsna.

The author of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta asserts with authority that sexual love is a matter of personal sense enjoyment. All the regulative principles in the Vedas pertaining to desires for popularity, fatherhood, wealth and so on are different phases of sense gratification. Acts of sense gratification may be performed under the cover of public welfare, nationalism, religion, altruism, ethical codes, Biblical codes, health directives, fruitive action, bashfulness, tolerance, personal comfort, liberation from material bondage, progress, family affection or fear of social ostracism or legal punishment, but all these categories are different subdivisions of one substance--sense gratification. All such good acts are performed basically for one's own sense gratification, for no one can sacrifice his personal interest while discharging these much-advertised moral and religious principles. But above all this is a transcendental stage in which one feels himself to be only an eternal servitor of Krsna, the absolute Personality of Godhead. All acts performed in this sense of servitude are called pure love of God because they are performed for the absolute sense gratification of Sri Krsna. However, any act performed for the purpose of enjoying its fruits or results is an act of sense gratification. Such actions are visible sometimes in gross and sometimes in subtle forms.

ara suddha-bhakta krsna-prema-seva vine
sva-sukhartha salokyadi na kare grahane

laksanam bhakti-yogasya
nirgunasya hy udahrtam
ahaituky avyavahita
ya bhaktih purusottame

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Fourth Chapter, describing the confidential reasons for the appearance of Lord Caitanya.