Ecstatic love (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"ecstasy of love" |"ecstatic conjugal love" |"ecstatic devotional love" |"ecstatic emotional love" |"ecstatic expressions of love" |"ecstatic feelings of love" |"ecstatic for love" |"ecstatic in love" |"ecstatic love" |"ecstatic manifestation of love" |"ecstatic ocean of love" |"ecstatic pure love" |"ecstatic stage of love" |"ecstatic with love"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So next scene is rāsa dance. Rāsa dance means Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī in the center, and the gopīs, they are surrounding. You have seen that surrounding scene they were dancing the other day in the park, hand to hand.

Hayagrīva: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: So one Kṛṣṇa and one gopī, they are dancing. That should be, scene should be... Then the rāsa dance should be stopped and Kṛṣṇa will talk with the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa will say to the gopīs that "My dear friends, you have come to Me in this dead of night. It is not very good because it is the duty of every woman to please her husband. So what your husband will think that you have come in such dead of night? A woman's duty is not to give up her husband even he is not of good character or if he is unfortunate, if he is old, or if he is diseased. Still, husband is worshiped by the wife. So you have come here, it is very sinful. So you... People will decry it. Please go back. Now we have finished." So in this way the gopīs will reply that, "You cannot request us to go back because with great difficulty and with great, I mean to say, ecstatic desire we have come to You, and it is not Your duty to ask us to go back." In this way you arrange some talking that Kṛṣṇa is asking them to go back, but they are insisting, "No, let us continue our rāsa dance." Then when the rāsa dance is finished, the gopīs will go, then Kṛṣṇa in His halilak(?), He says that "They are My heart and soul, these gopīs. They are so sincere devotees that they do not care for family encumbrances and all, any bad name. They come to Me. So how shall I repay them?" He was thinking. "How shall I repay their so ecstatic love?" So He thought that "I cannot repay them unless and until I take up their situation to understand Me. Because I Myself cannot understand Me. I have to take the position of the gopīs, how they are loving Me." So with that consideration He took the form of Lord Caitanya. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is blackish, Lord Caitanya is of the color of the gopīs. The whole life of Lord Caitanya is representation of gopīs' love towards Kṛṣṇa. That should be painted in that picture. You have got to ask anything?

Hayagrīva: This is His determination to incarnate as Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Lord Caitanya, yes.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Questions and Answers -- September 6, 1968, New York:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is so nice. Kṛṣṇa is so great." That is their idea. So (indistinct) that is not miracle. That is ordinary thing for Him. Just like Yaśodā. Kṛṣṇa's friends complained, "Mother Yaśodā, Kṛṣṇa has eaten earth. You gave Him sweetmeat, but He was not eating sweetmeat." You know. The boys, they complain each other and again make friends. So Yaśodā was..., "Oh, Kṛṣṇa, I gave You sweetmeats. You are eating earth?" "No, mother. I have not eaten. They are telling false." And they were still, "Yes. We have seen, mother, He has eaten." Then mother asked Him, "Oh, show Your face. Open Your mouth. I want to see." So He opened His mouth, and she saw all the universe within His mouth, not only earth, the whole planets, sun and moon, and everything, within His mouth. Then she thought, "Oh, what I have seen? All right. Don't do it." That's all. (laughter) She is not at all surprised. She thought that "I saw something. Maybe I wrong or right. All right. Don't do it." That's all. So they were so much affectionate to Kṛṣṇa that Kṛṣṇa's this jugglery could not enchant them. (chuckles) You see? Therefore Kṛṣṇa said to the gopīs that "Your love is so pure that it is not possible for Me to repay." Kṛṣṇa is declaring insolvent to pay their debt. "You be satisfied with your love only. I cannot repay." That is the position of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa and the residents of Vṛndāvana so affectionately connected, that there is no such conception that "Kṛṣṇa is God, Kṛṣṇa can play wonderful things." They simply love Kṛṣṇa. And out of love they forget everything. "All right. That's all right. That's all right." So that ecstasy of love is only possible in Vṛndāvana.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Give me water. (Prabhupāda sings Hari hari bifale,) You can replay this. (break)

Professor: Who has written this?

Prabhupāda: Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura.

narottama-dāsa koy, nā ṭheliho rāṅgā pāy,

tomā bine ke āche āmāra

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's singing, hari hari bifale janama goṅāinu: "My dear Lord, I have simply wasted my time. Bifale, without any profit. Because I got this human form of life, but I missed the opportunity for worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa." Manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā." And by doing this, I have taken poison knowingly." Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Then golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana." This nāma-saṅkīrtana is not any material thing. It is the ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa in the Goloka Vṛndāvana."

golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana,

rati nā janmilo kene tāy

"But I have no attachment for this hari-kīrtana." Saṁsāra-biṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jwale: "My heart is always burning in material existence." Juḍāite nā koinu upāy: "But I did not make any means by which I can get out of it." Brajendra-nandana jei, śacī-suta hoilo sei: "Formerly the same Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who was, who appeared as the son of Nanda Mahārāja, He has again appeared as the son of Śacīdevī." And balarāma hoilo nitāi: "And Balarāma has appeared as Nityānanda Prabhu." So their business is: dīna-hīna jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo, all sorts of sinful men, and materially suffering men, all of them have been delivered by these two brothers, Gaura-Nitāi, by preaching the saṅkīrtana movement.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: Another thing we were discussing yesterday is that in Goloka there are no demons.

Prabhupāda: No. There cannot be any demons. Then how it is Vaikuṇṭha? Vaikuṇṭha means without any anxiety. So the situation of anxiety is created by the demons. Therefore, when Kṛṣṇa wants to fight, He has to come down here because there is no question of fighting. There is no chance of fighting. Everyone is devotee. A devotee will never agree. But they will agree Kṛṣṇa's fight, but here, in this field.

Girirāja: But the sentiment of anxiety or fear for Kṛṣṇa, is that sentiment in Goloka?

Prabhupāda: No. There is no such thing. That is separation. Just like gopīs, they are full of anxiety: "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has gone to the pasturing ground." Their anxiety is there. Just like Rukmiṇī, she was thinking, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa may not give me up. He is talking in this way." She fainted. So anxiety is there. So the anxiety is that one may not be separated from Kṛṣṇa. That is the anxiety. And actually there is no separation, but the feeling of separation out of ecstatic love. Just like one who has got love for the other person, beloved, he always thinks like that, "My beloved may not be separated from me." This is ecstasy of love. Just like a miser man who has got much wealth, he always thinks, "My money may not be lost. My money may not be lost." Out of his too much attachment for the money, he thinks like that. Is it not? "How shall I protect this money? How shall I protect this?" To earn money is also troublesome. To keep money also troublesome. And when it is lost, that is also troublesome. This is the position. But there is no such thing, loss, but the anxiety is there. We shall return from here? (break) ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. So both the sādhu and the duṣkṛtina, by Kṛṣṇa's two activities, act differently to the devotees and to the demons. They realize. That is their achievement. By punishment, this Kāliya realized, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord." And devotees, by out of love, they realize. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. In either process He is realized. Mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ. If one is sincere, then they gradually make progress. Yes. (break) ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like your grandfather has seen your father, or your father has seen your grandfather. You may not have seen, but your father can describe about your grandfather, "My father was like this, like this, like this." What is the difficulty?

Satsvarūpa: He asked if anyone now has seen Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: How now one can see? He has to see through the paramparā, succession. You have not seen your great-grandfather. How do you know that he was? How do you know? Great-grandfather or his father, you have not seen. How do you believe?

Guest (2): By your parents telling you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore you have to receive the knowledge from the authorities, paramparā.

Guest (2): But supposedly, Kṛṣṇa is eternal or, that is, indestructible. So surely He must be existing today.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is existing. Just like at night the sun is existing, but you have no eyes to see him. That does not mean sun does not exist. It is your deficiency. You cannot see.

Guest (2): So we need divine sight.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you require qualification. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always existing. You require the qualification. That is described in the... Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti: (Bs. 5.38) "Those who are saintly persons and in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing twenty-four hours Kṛṣṇa." That is not very difficult to understand. If you love somebody, you are seeing him or her always. Is it not?

Guest (2): That's so.

Prabhupāda: That's it. It requires the qualification of love. Then Kṛṣṇa will be visible twenty-four hours. He'll talk with you. These things are described. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam (BG 10.10). That means talks. "I give him intelligence." That means unless He talks, how He can give intelligence. "You do this?" So you have to qualify yourself to hear Kṛṣṇa, to see Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is always present.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Carol: You think you can know the nature of God?

Amogha: She says do you think you can know the nature of God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can know also.

Carol: In an intellectual way?

Prabhupāda: You can know also.

Carol: You might know something in your heart but not be able to express it.

Prabhupāda: Why not express it? You can express it. If whatever is within your heart, if you cannot express, then you are not perfect. You must express what is within your heart very clearly. Not that I have got something within my heart and I cannot express. That means my knowledge is imperfect.

Carol: So often our understanding moves sort of separately the emotional, the heart.

Prabhupāda: Emotion is not required for scientific knowledge. Emotion is not. Useless. It must be factual. Emotion is no use. Emotion is useful in high, ecstatic love. Not for scientific study of something you require emotion. No.

Carol: In the bhakti way of doing things, this emotion and love are very closely entwined, aren't they?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is higher stage. Not in the beginning. In the beginning devotion means I should be devoted to you. Why should I be devoted to you unless you are worthy? Just like Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." So unless I understand that Kṛṣṇa is worth for my surrendering, He is worthy, why shall I surrender to Kṛṣṇa? If I demand, immediately you have come, that you surrender. Would you like to do that?

Carol: To surrender?

Prabhupāda: If I ask you that you surrender. I am meeting you for the first time. Would you like to surrender?

Carol: Yes.