sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!
Year 3, Issue 10, Amāvasyā Special Edition
Posted: 4 November 2021
Dedicated to and Inspired by
nitya-lila pravista om visnupada
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Yaśodānandana and Devakīnandana
A Written By
Appearing in English for the first time
Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅgau Jayataḥ
Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha
Kaṁsa-ṭīlā P.O. Mathurā
11.01.92
Dear Viṣṇu,
Accept my affectionate blessings. I received your letter dated 12.12.91 from Houston on 09.01.92. I was glad to read it. The language of your letter, as well as your writing, was beautiful, sweet, and full of elegance and emotion. I prefer the soulful language expressed from the heart and which is imbued with some tears. Only if a person’s qualities are mixed with bhakti are they actually qualities; otherwise they are shortcomings. Only bhakti makes one great.
Bhakti-devī is somewhat entering your heart; therefore, now you are understanding the glories of sādhu-saṅga. This is your great fortune. Your parents and sister are also very fortunate. They deliberated thoroughly [on initiation] and then personally informed me of their decision. I tried to avoid it for some time but couldn’t avoid it for long. May Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govindajī bestow auspiciousness upon them. I accept your requests. When you return to India, you will definitely get an opportunity to serve according to your desire.
You should read Jaiva-dharma aloud. By merely reading Jaiva-dharma one becomes familiar with all the book’s topics, from the primary stage of sādhana-bhajana till the perfected stage of prema, and all one’s doubts about spiritual life can be dispelled.
My health is poor from time to time, so I don’t desire to go anywhere. I always wish to live in Vraja. These days many ISKCON devotees are coming to hear hari-kathā from me.
Your parents were expected to come here in the first week of January. Maybe they couldn’t come because of their busy engagements.
In response to your question, I am saying that Yaśodānandana and Devakīnandana are one from the perspective of tattva, but from the perspective of rasa, each has a speciality (vaiśiṣṭya). Devakīnandana may not wear peacock feather or carry a vaṁśī and a stick (for cow grazing), and He may not be adorned in the attire and mood (abhimāna) of a gopa, but He can at least experience separation (viraha). Whenever topics of Vraja are discussed in Mathurā and Dvārakā, then, through the medium of those narrations, Yaśodānanadana Gopī-vallabha Kṛṣṇa appears within in Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa [Devakīnandana]. At that time His mood of Vasudeva-Kṛṣṇa becomes covered and He begins to experience pangs of separation from Vraja. This takes place through the inconceivable potency of Bhagavān that can make impossible possible [and possible impossible]. This indeed is the opinion of our previous ācāryas. When you come to India, I will discuss this with you in detail in person.
The rest is all fine here. Keep writing to me from time to time. It is very cold here these days. I was quite happy to talk to you from a long distance through ISD for the first time.
Thus I conclude.
Your ever well-wisher,
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa
