sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!
Year 4, Issue 10, Amāvasyā Special Edition
Posted: 21 January 2022
Dedicated to and Inspired by
nitya-lila pravista om visnupada
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Wait for His Mercy to Manifest
A letter written by
Appearing in English for the first time
Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅgau Jayataḥ
Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha
Kaṁsa-ṭīlā
P.O. Mathurā (U.P)
07.02.91
Object of affection, daughter Madhu,
I was supposed to go to Mumbai on 3 Feburary, but it seems the [court] date has been changed. It is for this reason that the ISKCON people have not yet informed me [when I should come].* When they inform me and make arrangements for me to go to Mumbai, I will go there and let you know prior to my travel.
___
* Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda’s son was asserting that his father never took sannyāsa and that ISKCON properties were therefore rightfully his. He thus took ISKCON to court. Since Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja was present at that sannyāsa ceremony, he was requested by ISKCON leaders to legally bear witness to that event.
When I read in your letters your heartly moods of separation, my heart also melted. To experience separation from Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa as a result of Their adarśana (not seeing Them) is truly the secret of bhajana (bhajana-rahasya). The word viraha (separation) can also be used in relation to śrī guru and the Vaiṣṇavas. When the sādhaka’s mood of separation becomes tādātmya (one in nature) with the moods of the topmost abode of love, Śrīmatī Rādhikā, who is maddened in separation, that is actual viraha.
What then is the responsibility of one who is the bestower of that viraha or who has caused that viraha? That supremely clever (vidagdha-śiromaṇi) Śrī Kṛṣṇa is well aware of that responsibility. At times His cleverness is not comprehended even by those who are rasika. You should therefore wait for the proper time to comprehend it and for His mercy to manifest. There may be some delay in His bestowing mercy, but there will be no denial of it. How is it possible for Śrī Kṛṣṇa to ignore that person who has surrendered his everything at His lotus feet?
Śrī Kṛṣṇa has one very extraordinary quality. A gardener makes a garden of mango trees by [first] sowing the seeds. Gradually the leaves appear, then a stem grows, and then twigs appear on the stem. When the mañjarīs (buds) appear, the gardener’s hair stands on end [in happiness]. Again, when fruit manifests on those trees, he becomes overwhelmed with delight, but he does not pick or taste the fruit. With great patience, he gives time for the fruit to ripen. It may take a while, and he may even intensely long to taste the fruit, but still, he waits with great eagerness for the fruit to be fully mature [ripe]. Similarly, Śrī Kṛṣṇa waits for the prema of the sādhaka-jīvas to become mature [and only then does the He taste prema-rasa].
This is a profound secret, one I should not have revealed, but because in your letter you have indirectly expressed your feelings, I, thus absorbed [in this quality of Kṛṣṇa’s], have advised you to wait for the right time. I trust that along with your chanting harināma, you are surely reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam too. For the sādhakas feeling pangs of separation, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam alone is the most effective great medicine (mahā-auṣadhi).
All is well here. Convey my affectionate blessings to daughter Sapna and also to Cāru, Sveta and your other family members. I was concerned about Cāru. I hope she is going to school now. I met your father and elder brother. They are all well. Again accept my affectionate blessings.
Thus, I conclude.
Your ever well-wisher,
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa
