Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Narada Bhakti Sutra 54

guna-rahitam kamana-rahitam pratiksana-vardhamanam avicchinnam suksma-taram anubhava-rupam

SYNONYMS

guna -- material qualities; rahitam -- devoid of; kamana -- material desire; rahitam -- devoid of; prati-ksana -- at every moment; var -- dhamanam -- increasing; avicchinnam -- uninterrupted; suksma-taram -- most subtle; anubhava -- consciousness; rupam -- as its form.

TRANSLATION

Pure love of God manifests as the most subtle consciousness, devoid of material qualities and material desires, increasing at every moment, and never interrupted.

PURPORT

What passes for love in the material world often sounds and appears like bhakti, at least to those who are untrained in devotional service. But Narada Muni makes it clear in this sutra that bhakti is always different from material loving affairs.

The word guna-rahitam means "above the modes of nature." Narada has already mentioned this quality of bhakti in Sutra 47. Bhakti is not like any kind of behavior governed by the modes of ignorance, passion, or goodness. We should never think that Lord Krsna's pastimes with the gopis and cowherd boys are mundane. Krsna's pastimes are, in fact, the original activities of love, and whatever resembles love in any way within this material world comes originally from Krsna. As Srila Prabhupada explains in Krsna, p. 27:

If there is any opulence within this material world, the cause of the opulence is Krsna. If there is any reputation within this material world, the cause of the reputation is Krsna. If there is any strength within this material world, the cause of such strength is Krsna. If there is any wisdom and education within this material world, the cause of such wisdom and education is Krsna. Therefore Krsna is the source of all relative truths. [Krsna, p. 27]

The word kamana-rahitam means "without selfish desire." This quality, too, has appeared before -- in Sutra 27, where Narada said, "There is no question of lust in the execution of devotional service in pure love of God, because in it all material activities are renounced."

Unlike the pleasure that comes from exchanges of material so-called love, the pleasure of bhakti is pratiksana-vardhamanam (increasing at every moment) and avicchinnam (uninterrupted). This is the nature of the Lord's spiritual pleasure potency, known as hladini-sakti, which conducts the loving exchanges between Krsna and His devotees. In sex passion, satiation soon brings an end to the mounting feelings of pleasure, but in the loving exchanges between Krsna and His eternal associates there is an eternal competition, bringing ever-

increasing pleasure. Krsna is very pleased to see the beauty of His gopis, and when the gopis see that Krsna is pleased with them they become many times more happy, and this increases their beauty. In turn, this increases Krsna's beauty and pleasure. And so the devotee and the Lord enjoy loving exchanges, but without interruption.

Unlike mortal love affairs, in bhakti the love does not break by quarrel or death of one of the partners. Lord Caitanya describes the bliss of sankirtana as anandambudhi-vardhanam, "increasing the ocean of transcendental bliss." Because the Supreme Lord is Himself ever increasing and always fresh, the devotee is never bored or unfaithful and is never cheated.

Bhakti is also suksma-taram, subtler than the subtlest thing. As described in the Bhagavad-gita (3.42): "The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he (the soul) is even higher than the intelligence." So the subtle exchanges of loving emotion between the pure souls and their beloved Lord are completely unlike material love, which is really nothing but lust.

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Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari