Dec 8 1973 LA lecture-
Everyone can attain that bhāva stage. There is process. This process is described by Rūpa Gosvāmī how to come to the bhāva stage. Bhāva stage means just prior to perfection. One must come to the bhāva stage, next stage is perfection. Next stage is full perfection. So how to come to this bhāva stage, that is Rūpa Gosvāmī has described, ādau śraddhā. First of all little faith. Just like many outsider also come here, "What these people are doing, these Kṛṣṇa consciousness men? So let us see." So śraddhā. That is called śraddhā. Śraddhā, real śraddhā means complete faith....That is beginning of śraddhā. If you have got still doubt, then you have not come to the stage of śraddhā even. Superfluous. You may come, but when you actually believe that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and if I engage myself in Kṛṣṇa's service, I am perfect"—two things—that is śraddhā. And the more you increase this śraddhā you become advanced. The beginning is this śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā.
So how this śraddhā, this faith can be increased? Sādhu-saṅga . If you keep yourself associated with the devotees, then this śraddhā can be increased. If you simply believe, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is Supreme Personality," but you do not live with the sādhus or devotee, then it will drop. It will finish. So just to keep the standard, the temperature right, you must keep always yourself warm. If you go away, then your (indistinct) is gone. Again you become cold. You see. This is the process. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ [Cc. Madhya 23.14-15]. Everything is perfect. The first thing is that you must believe that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yes. And to keep this faith strong and going on, you must keep association with devotees. Otherwise whatever little faith you got, it will be lost. It become again under the clutches of māyā. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ [Cc. Madhya 23.14-15]. And if you actually associate with sādhu, then the next stage is bhajana-kriyā, initiation, how to worship Kṛṣṇa. Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. If you are actually engaged in devotional service, anartha, which are not required, things will vanish. Just like we ask our students, "No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating." Simply by hearing it you cannot follow it. It is not possible. If you make bhajana-kriyā, if you're actually following—chanting sixteen rounds—then you can follow the others. Otherwise, if you are spiritually weak, you cannot. The government is spending so much money to stop this intoxication, LSD, in your country. They're all failure. But here, with our pure association, a person can give up immediately. Just see how much the association is strong. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu..., bhajana-kriyā [Cc. Madhya 23.14-15]. Anartha.
Then after one is free from these sinful activities, then he comes to the understanding stage. So long one is sinful, he has no possibility of understanding. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam. One who is completely free from all sinful activities, anta-gatam, finished, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām. And how you can become free from sinful activities unless you act piously? Because we must have some engagement. If you have no pious engagement, then you cannot become free from sinful activities. You must act. If you do not act piously, then you must act viciously. This is the way. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they simply wants to stop impious activities. But they do not engage themselves in pious activities. Therefore they fail. They fail. You must have side by side. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate [Bg. 9.59]. If you get something better, then you can give up inferior. But if you do not get better, you cannot give up the inferior. That is not possible.
So you can give up this impious activities provided you are engaged fully in devotional service. Otherwise it is not possible. Simply by moral instruction, that "Stealing is very bad. Don't steal," nobody likes it. Nobody likes it. It is practical. One man has stolen, and he's arrested and he's going to the police custody. So everyone has seen, and he has heard also that the government says that if you steal, you'll be punished. In the Bible or in any other religious scripture it is said that stealing is not good. So he has heard it, and he has seen it that a man who has stolen, he is going to jail. So these two things are experienced: hearing and seeing. In spite of all his experience, why does he steal? Because he has no good association. He knows that stealing is bad; otherwise why he steals at night? Nobody can see. He knows he is doing some bad thing. But why he cannot give up that bad thing? Because he's not associating with good person. That is it.
So association is so... Therefore we have named this Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society. Not Kṛṣṇa consciousness only. Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society. A society's so beneficial we should understand. So, in this way, atha bhajana-kriyā anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. If we prosecute our devotional activities and keep our association with the devotees, then we can be free from sinful activities. And when you are completely free from sinful activities, then we get niṣṭhā. Yes, it is full faith. Niṣṭhā means full faith. Tato niṣṭhā. Tato ruciḥ. Ruci means taste. Why you are hearing about Kṛṣṇa daily, the same thing? We are speaking nothing new. "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and you have to surrender." This is our daily business. But why you are coming to see..., hear the same hackneyed words? Because it is very pleasing. This is called ruci, taste, "Yes, I want to hear this repeatedly. Yes. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, I am the eternal servant." You have got a taste. Unless one gets the taste, then you'll say, "What is this hackneyed word?" Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, twenty-four hours you can chant because you have got the taste. Others cannot do. This is called ruci. And ruci means āsakti, attraction: "I must go. I must chant. I must do." Tato niṣṭhā, tato ruciḥ, atha āsaktiḥ. Tato bhāvaḥ. Then bhāva: "Ah, Kṛṣṇa. I will associate with Kṛṣṇa. Then Kṛṣṇa's love, that is perfection."
So what is this Bhava stage? And do you really want to know?
SB 1.9.19 purport-Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, one of the great ācāryas in the modern age, explains that anubhāva, or the glory of the Lord, is first appreciated by the devotee in ecstasy manifesting the symptoms of perspiring, trembling, weeping, bodily eruptions, etc., which are further enhanced by steady understanding of the glories of the Lord.
SB 2.3.24 purport-We must always remember that hearing and chanting are the basic principles of discharging devotional duties, and if they are properly performed there will follow the reactional ecstasy with signs of tears in the eyes and standing of the hairs on the body. These are natural consequences and are the preliminary symptoms of the bhāva stage, which occurs before one reaches the perfectional stage of prema, love of Godhead.
If the reaction does not take place, even after continuous hearing and chanting of the holy name of the Lord, it may be considered to be due to offenses only. That is the opinion of the Sandarbha. In the beginning of chanting of the holy name of the Lord, if the devotee has not been very careful about evading the ten kinds of offenses at the feet of the holy name, certainly the reaction of feelings of separation will not be visible by tears in the eyes and standing of the hair on end.
Madhya 2.35--PURPORT-
In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the word dainya (humility) is explained as follows: "When unhappiness, fearfulness and the sense of having offended combine, one feels condemned. This sense of condemnation is described as dīnatā, humility. When one is subjected to such humility, he feels physically inactive, he apologizes, and his consciousness is disturbed. His mind is also restless, and many other symptoms are visible." The word nirveda is also explained in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: "One may feel unhappiness and separation, as well as jealousy and lamentation, due to not discharging one's duties. The despondency that results is called nirveda. When one is captured by this despondency, thoughts, tears, loss of bodily luster, humility and heavy breathing result." Viṣāda is also explained in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: "When one fails to achieve his desired goal of life and repents for all his offenses, there is a state of regret called viṣāda." The symptoms of avasāda are also explained: "One hankers to revive his original condition and inquires how to do so. There are also deep thought, heavy breathing, crying and lamentation, as well as a changing of the bodily color and drying up of the tongue."
MADHYA 6.13-PURPORT-
Adhirūḍha-bhāva, or adhirūḍha-mahābhāva, is explained in the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura quotes Rūpa Gosvāmī as follows: "The loving propensity of the āśraya (devotee) toward the viṣaya (Lord) becomes so ecstatic that even after enjoying the company of the beloved the devotee feels that his enjoyment is insufficient. At such a time, the lover sees the beloved in different ways. Such a development of ecstasy is called anurāga. When anurāga reaches its highest limit and becomes perceivable in the body, it is called bhāva. When the bodily symptoms are not very distinct, however, the emotional state is still called anurāga, not bhāva. When bhāva ecstasy is intensified, it is called mahā-bhāva. The symptoms of mahā-bhāva are visible only in the bodies of eternal associates like the gopīs."
TLC 14--
Characteristic symptoms exhibited by a pure devotee are generally laughing and crying; when emotions are favorable, a pure devotee laughs, and when emotions are not favorable, he cries.
Situated above these two emotions is permanent love, which is called sthāyibhāva. In other words, attachment to Kṛṣṇa is permanent. That permanent loving attitude is sometimes mixed with different kinds of taste, called vibhāva, anubhāva and vyabhicārī. Vibhāva is a particular taste for attachment to Kṛṣṇa, and it can be divided into two further categories-ālambana and uddīpana.
NOD 17--
To clarify, in the previous chapters, the symptoms of devotional service were explained along with instructions as to how they can be executed with our present senses, gradually rising to the platform of ecstasy of spontaneous love. And the two kinds of devotional service-namely devotional service through regulative principles and through spontaneous love-were discussed. Within the stage of the regulative principles of devotional service there are two divisions-namely executive and effective. This effective portion of devotional service is called bhāva, or ecstasy. In this connection, there is a statement in the Tantras that ecstasy is the first symptom of pure love for the Personality of Godhead, and in that stage one is sometimes found shedding tears or shivering. Not always are these symptoms manifest, but occasionally. When King Ambarīṣa was put into difficulty by Durvāsā, he began to think of the lotus feet of the Lord, and thus there were some changes in his body, and tears were falling from his eyes. These symptoms are activities of ecstasy. They are visible in the shivering of the body and the shedding of tears. After the outward appearance of these ecstatic symptoms, they stay within the mind, and continuation of the ecstasy is called samādhi. This stage of appreciation becomes the cause of future exchanges of loving affairs with Kṛṣṇa.
Elevation to this stage of ecstasy can be possible in two ways. One way is constant association with pure devotees. The other way is by the special mercy of Kṛṣṇa, or by the mercy of a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Elevation to the ecstatic stage of life is generally attained through association with pure devotees, while elevation to that stage by the special mercy of Kṛṣṇa or His devotee is very rare. The purport is that one should execute devotional service rigidly in the association of devotees so that there will be certainty in raising oneself to that ecstatic position.
Madhya 14.167
"The transcendental ornaments of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī's body include the eight sāttvikas, or transcendental symptoms, the thirty-three vyabhicārībhāvas, beginning with harṣa, or jubilation in natural love, and the twenty bhāvas, or ecstatic emotional ornaments.
PURPORT
The thirty-three vyabhicārī-bhāvas, bodily symptoms manifest in ecstatic love, are as follows: (1) nirveda, indifference; (2) viṣāda, moroseness; (3) dainya, meekness; (4) glāni, a feeling that one is in a faulty position; (5) śrama, fatigue; (6) mada, madness; (7) garva, pride; (8) śaṅkā, doubt; (9) trāsa, shock; (10) āvega, intense emotion; (11) unmāda, craziness; (12) apasmāra, forgetfulness; (13) vyādhi, disease; (14) moha, bewilderment; (15) mṛti, death; (16) ālasya, laziness; (17) jāḍya, invalidity; (18) vrīḍā, shame; (19) avahitthā, concealment; (20) smṛti, remembrance; (21) vitarka, argument; (22) cintā, contemplation; (23) mati, attention; (24) dhṛti, forbearance; (25) harṣa, jubilation; (26) autsukya, eagerness; (27) augrya, violence; (28) amarṣa, anger; (29) asūyā, jealousy; (30) cāpalya, impudence; (31) nidrā, sleep; (32) supti, deep sleep and (33) prabodha, awakening.
Some Conclusions--
So in the above statements by Srila Prabhupada we have first of all given the process of sadhana bhakti beginning with shraddha, or faith, going all the way up to Bhava or ecstasy in the association of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. It is important to know the goal of our activity, otherwise we are just "spinning our wheels" , so I have included a fairly descriptive picture of what is that goal of Bhava.. Krsna Prema was not explained here-except for the last verse which explains the stage of full maha bhava exhibited by Srimati Radharani herself..
It is a process, Srila Prabhupada tells us, which he says, if followed properly will cause the reactional signs of bhava or ecstasy in any devotee. If these symptoms (shedding of tears, hairs standing on end, etc) do not take place , then he says it is due to offenses only.
Hare Krsna
Damaghosa das