Common Misconceptions about lila-smarana - The qualifications to begin the practice

Certain misinterpretations have been propagated regading the teachings of Rupa and later acaryas on this topic.  There is one school of thought that believes that one must achieve the state of anartha nivrtti (or when there are no longer any material hankerings) before engaging in the meditative visualization of nitya lila.  Not only is that a position not supported by any writings of the acaryas coming in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but it is also nonsensical.  Since when does sadhana that is as a process to achieve a perfected state require first becoming perfected?  What would be the point of it as sadhana?  The Bhaktirasamrta Sindhu specifically cites lila smarana as one of the sixty four branches of bhakti.  Indeed, since it involves total mental immersion, it could be considered to be more powerful and superior to all other practices.  

There are also those who claim that the institution of siddha pranali and astakaliya lila smarana (remembrance of eternal pastimes of the Radha and Govinda and the Gopis at the eight times of the day) is unauthorized and that those who adhere to the time honored tradtion (which is followed in all of the lineages from Sri Nityananda, Sri Advaitacarya, Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Sri Gadhara Pandit and Sri Narottama Das) are taking up a process of merely imagining oneself to be advanced prematurely and that gurus have cheapened the sadhana by handing it out indiscriminately.  In fact, that whimisical approach was only really done in one of the institutions that makes such claims, resulting in the founder of that organization reprimanding the disciples for their so called 'Gopi-bhava club'.  That was clearly a case of the students starting their own pranali without any nod from the guru or with any knowledge of a guru pranali.  The siddha pranali practice involves a full knowledge of the manjari identities of all of the gurus in one's line, along with the details of name, complexion, age, dress, service, etc.  Without that major component of guru pranali, the approach is just an invented one and totally unauthorized.

Also there is a misconception that the practice of harinama japa is being somehow sublimated and lessened in importance by raganuga practitioners engaged in lila smarana.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Those practitioners fully engage in japa as well as congregational kirtana and processionals.

The institution of Bhagavata Saptaha has also been grievously and unjustly maligned by some.  This is the seven day reading of the text of Bhagavata Purana to commemorate the original recitation by Sukadev over seven days.  This is also a time honored institution practiced by all of the recognized lines from Mahaprabhu.  Some have alleged that it has degraded into a money making commercial enterprise for the profit of unscrupulous professional readers.  If there have been cases of abuse, they would have to be few and far between, since it is by and large done properly and for the spiritual benefit of the participants in mind.  To condemn the tradition on account of some isolated incidents is just plain aparadha in the extreme.


I feel the need to spell this out for those visiting this site.  I hope no one is offended.

I'd be curious to see a compilation of references in Gaudiya Granthas about the practice of giving siddha pranali and the qualification for lila-smarana. Anyone?
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For references on eligibility:
http://www.bhajankutir.net/nitai-zine-vol-7/node6.html

Sukavak Das published something on the history of siddha pranali a while back, but I have not seen it, and I don't know if it is still in print.

Something of interest there in regards to pranali --

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divyam jñanam hyatra srimati mantre bhagavatsvarupajñanam tena bhagavata sambandhavisesa-jñanam ca
"Initiation bestows on the disciple not only the mantra, that is God's very form, but also knowledge about his specific relation with Him."

(Bhakti-sandarbha, Anuccheda 283)

saksadvrajajana-visesayaiva mahyam srigurucaranair madabhista-visesa-siddhyartham upadistam bhavayami
"I meditate on the specific form of one of Krsna's associates in Vraja, which my Sri Guru-carana has instructed me in, so that I can attain my specifically desired siddhi."

(Bhakti-sandarbha, Anuccheda 321)

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I found the later verse to be of particular interest in this regard. Nevertheless, it is still not very specific -- "siddha-pranali", "ekadasa-bhava" etc. Where is the first appearance of these concepts?

The question is, based on Dr. Kapoor's biography of Sri Krishnadas Babaji  (who was personally instructed by Lalita Herself to introduce the new practice of astakaliya lila smarana) whether there was any predecent prior to him.  Hopefully Jagadananda has some more information.  I recall seeing him posting some details on another website I couple of years ago, but I do not have those handy right now.

With respect to my earlier post, it seems that institutions (those that model themselves after hierarchical organizations such as the Catholic Church or Maharshi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation society - I will not mention the two well known Gaudiya Vaishnava groups whose members wear light orange robes) have failed to cultivate the practice of raganuga bhakti, nor have they produced any significant number of advanced rasika siddhas, even though they have been successful at establishing temples with pancaratrika worship and organizing various religious festivals.   Is it that the raga marga does not lend itself to institutionalization (whereas vaidhi marga seems to lend itself quite well), or that those who have decided to found hierarchical organizations have deliberately avoided fostering such practices.  Some organizations clearly frown on members spending much time doing meditation or bhajan and emphasize support activities such as fund raising, etc. over those practices.

At any rate, we find the raganuga bhakti practices primarily among ascetics (the babajis) out in the remote rural areas, and a strong infrastructure that supports the practitioners financially.  It is going to be far easier for a babaji to do madhukari in Braj Mandal or in Nabadwip than on the streets of Calcutta or Bombay.

Perhaps in the near (or distant) future a truly raganuga oriented institution will be established either in India or the West.  I am speaking about a larger type organization than the various smaller ones that do exist around India, since those are much simpler and not at all hierarchical.

Though it is said that Siddha Krishnadasa introduced "the new practice of astakaliya lila smarana", still we find more or less the same framework for smarana from the writings of Gopal Guru and Dhyanacandra.


I would very much tend to think that raga marga does not lend itself to institutionalization, as you propose. Institutions tend to include unnecessarily large and occupying managerial structures and the politics that go along with the show, given that there are people inside the institution who have other goals (like labha, puja, pratistha for instance) besides the sole aim of absorption in raganuga sadhana. And institutions tend to attract such people. Having closely observed the dynamics within two devotional institutions, a natural desire to stay afar from large establishments has arisen within my heart.


In my opinion, let all the flowers bloom.    For all I have seen, many people need something of the kind you hint towards in this post as well as the previous one. Many are looking for depth for their religious practice and their relationship with God, but manjari-bhava and related practices is simply way out of their grasp, in the sense of their being too mind-blowing, so to say.  I've seen people being picked out of "preliminary institutions" and being shoveled manjari-bhava down the throat, and really, nothing good comes out of it. Nothing good comes out of it. People are ruined by premature introduction of raganuga-bhakti. "Premature" not in the sense of "one who is free from anartha", but "premature" in the sense of one who has no desire for it or faith in it.

There are some distinct characteristics of the vaidhi margis that distinguishes them from the raga margis.  Social organization is very a significant one.  We see institutions built up by the vaidhi margis, but no substantial underlying community as an infrastructure.  In fact the institutions undermine any community, on account of espousing an extreme level of detachment from household life and isolating members from their families and neighborhoods.  This of course is advantageous to the institutions, as it funnels funds more successfully into their coffers and finances the preaching campagins.  (In biographies of Gaudiya Vaishnava saints we find many instances of babajis that tell their householder disciples that want to renounce the world to stay with their families until they are ready for that big step.)

In the raga margi world, we do find strong communities, with householders that support the ascetics (babajis and vairagis) via the madhukari system.  For those here not familiar with madhukari, it is the practice of collecting alms (food and supplies) daily from a few houses.  The word is derived from the word madhu, which means honey.  The analogy is to a bee going from flower to flower to collect a little nectar from each.

The vaidhi institutions can certainly boast about their large numbers of members and hundreds of temples built, and they have the bank accounts and deeds to real estate to back it up.  The big question is whether or not they can survive in the long run.  The raganuga community has very ancient roots and has a track record, but its existence could be threatened by the overall loss of culture as India becomes more and more Westernized and hooked up to the internet.  There could well be more of a preservation effort required (just to ensure its survival) than actual expansion.  Let us hope that the situation never gets that desperate.  What is discouraging are reports related to me over ten years ago that the ladies in Vrindavan that used to gather in the evenings for kirton are now glued to their TV sets watching soap operas and sitcoms.  I doubt that there is much nitya lila (if any) on those shows, despite being in broadcast in India.  What might be the silver lining is the current trend since 9/11 of people returning to a keen interest in religion, now that they have been slapped in the face with the reality of their own imminent mortality.

Based on the statistics for April for raganuga.org, it looks like hits and visits are steadily on the rise.  If that trend can be sustained and accelerated over time, who knows what might come out of it?

I haven't reflected much on the social structure of the vaidhi-margis outside the Gaudiya Sampradaya. I wonder if this is an universal phenomena, or something born out of certain reforms in the recent history? I believe traditionally the emphasis on vaidhi has not been in the Gaudiya tradition to such an extent as we see nowadays in certain institutions. To crystallize my point: Are the social surroundings of certain institutions a by-product of emphasizing vaidhi-bhakti, or rather a direct product of a social reform which tends to focus everything around the monasteries and consequently present the monastics' life as the ideal to be longed for?


I wonder if anyone has made any statistics on the annual initiates into the tradition of raganuga over the years? For what I've understood, the number of Western initiates is on the rise over the last five years or so. Any idea about the numbers of Indian initiates?


It appears to be like waves. It went high mid-February, breaking the limit of 200 visitors per day, did a lower zig-zag course over the later March, and is now on the rise again. You can see the overall statistics here.

I believe more and more people will come as we add content in the future. There are several lectures of Pandit Sri Ananta Das Baba coming out soon (with the translations of Advaitadas), as well as a good number of kirtans, as I find the time to edit them. Oh, and a good set of pictures from Braj of course, from our recent trip. (All of you out there who asked how was the journey and got no reply -- I am working on it, I am working on it... "ek minit".)

Other forums set up by various Gaudiya Vaishnavas have become cluttered up with all kinds of strange and weird topics (and rather quickly).  Here we have managed to keep everything focused and on the up and up.  There's nothing like quality control.

That's what we have the board rules and "delete" for. It has been peaceful, though, amazingly peaceful. Up to date I've had to delete and ban only one person, and I recall you deleted one message. That's not too bad for a board that has been up for three months now. Thanks to our well-behaving, mature members. Keep up the good standard, everyone.