Devadas, Chapter 20

BY: SUN STAFF - 7.1 2025

Devadas returned to Calcutta. He met with his friends and relatives and began to decide about his duties. On receiving the news of his grandmothers and maternal grandfather's death Devadas's elder son Gurudasa applied for a leave. His health was not very well on account of staying out of station and working in various places. Therefore he applied for six months leave. Soon his leave was granted and he came to Calcutta with his wife and children.

Devadas's mother lived at Kashi and left her body there. She had attained immortality. So she does not possess a ghost body therefore there is no need to perform sraddha meant for that purpose. But in order to please his mother and the Supreme Lord, Devadas decided to give in charity etc. The venue for these activities were Ramakrishnapur. He arranged residences for the brahmanas, friends and relatives from other places. Various ingredients for food were being accumulated on the day before the prescribed day Devadas prayed for the blessings of all the villagers and duly invited everyone including the poor, fallen and rich people. He hired a famous singers from Calcutta in order to chant during this ceremony. The voice of this chanter was sweet and he was very fond of the devotees.

On the prescribed day of charity the whole arena was filled with charitable ingredients brahmanas learned scholars and many invited and uninvited guests. On one side the learned brahmanas began to debate through their arguments and counter arguments. On the other hand the chanter began to perform kirtana. The whole place was filled with various noises. There was a separate place fixed for Suhasini to give in charity. The priest had Devadas, Gurudasa, and Jivadasa chant mantras separately and completed the acts of charity. The invited teachers and brahmanas from other places were duly satisfied with monetary donation and were bade farewell. The local brahmanas were also given sufficient money. The Kayasthas and members of the other caste in the village were sumptuously fed. The poor fallen and destitutes were given clothes, money and were fed sufficiently. Everyone including invited and uninvited people were fed to their full satisfaction. It was decided that the kirtana will be performed on the next day. Everyone was eager to hear the kirtana. Soon the entire place was filled with the people. Many loving devotees were gathered together on that day. Devadas had these loving devotees sit in front of the chanter and personally sat down at a separate place. The songs of the mahajanas were the hearts object of the loving devotees. In order to properly relish them one should realize some truths about Radha and Krishna. For this reason Devadas revealed herein some of his internal mood.

Priti, pranaya and prema are all born from bhalabasa. When one comes to know someone else's good quality and all his activities appears to be faultless and pleasing but he has not associated with that person as yet. He then develops faith for that person. From this faith borns the priti. But when the minds of both of them becomes one, begin to love each other, desire each others happiness and prosperity and mixes with each other then it is called pranaya. The state of prema is independent. It is the highest platform of love. Prema is manifested from the sweet sentiments. Within this sweet sentiments five other moods are present. They are santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and Madhura. Until all these moods are combined together the sweet sentiment does not becomes complete. In the dasya rasa there are mood of santa and dasya, in sakhya rasa there are mood of santa, dasya and sakhya, in vatsalya rasa there are moods of santa, dasya, sakhya and vatsalya and in madhura rasa all the moods are present. All these five moods are great. Sukadeva and Narada loved the Supreme Lord in the mood of santa. As a result they obtained great happiness in their hearts. Hanuman loved the Lord in the mood of dasya and the result was attainment of happiness. The function of this mood is to serve. The cowherd boys and Arjuna loved the Lord in the form of sakhya. The result is attainment of happiness and the funtion are to serve and act as a friend. Nanda and Yasoda loved the Lord in the mood of vatsalya the result is attainment of happiness. The functions of this mood are serving like a servant, acting like a friend and showing affection like a father or mother. The gopis loved the Lord in the mood of Madhura. The result is the attainment of happiness. The functions of this mood are to serve, to act like a friend, to show affection like a father and the mother and to converse etc like a wife.

By worshiping the Lord in any one of the five rasas one can attain the Supreme Lord. But there are differences among these five rasas. Dasya is superior then santa, sakya is superior then dasya, vatsalya is superior then sakya and madhurya is superior then vatsalya. All the previously mentioned devotees had obtained the darshana of the Lord. Therefore they received ample opportunities to please the Lord by their service. Now what is the alternative for the living entities? Where will they find the Supreme Lord? Where will they serve him?

The spiritual master initiates his disciple with the mantra in order to love the Supreme Lord through one of those five rasas as well as teaches his disciple the processes of sadhana by which he can achieve his desired goal of life. Due to constant sadhana and remembrance the mind automatically becomes fully absorbed. By the mercy of the Lord one can realize or even see that form of the Lord in such a heart. Then the living entities serve the Lord according to their respective mood. The heart also feels great ecstasy by executing such services. When one's heart is absorbed in a particular mood then by the strength of his sadhana all his senses also becomes absorbed in that mood. Then one can realize the presence of the Lord both within and without. The more a person will perform sadhana the more his minds restlessness will be vanquished. Then they can attain the mercy of the Lord. Such is the great potency of the perfected guru. Only the spiritual master knows how to study the minds of the living entities and how to attain the mercy of the Lord easily. [ ]

Devadas was a high-class practitioner of devotional service. The chanter that he hired on the occasion of his mother's sraddha ceremony was also a loving devotee. The kirtana started. Realizing that there were people who can understand his internal mood, the loving chanter began to sing melodiously with devotion. Enchanting phrases came out from his heart through his mouth. The current of emotion began to flow like forceful waves. He was singing about Shri Radha's unconquerable anger. Devadas and other devotees could not remain steady. Sometimes tears of love and sometimes tears of lamentation began to flow from their eyes. Sometimes they lost their external consciousness. Their hearts were filled with the sentiments of Radha Krishna's loving pastimes. A wave of love entered their heart and then another wave came and defeated the previous waves. In this way a forceful attack and counterattack took place in their heart. Sometimes the voice of the chanter was choking, sometimes his emotion was manifesting through soft voice, sometimes tears of love and sometimes tears of lamentation flowed from his eyes. Such a kirtana is wonderful and very sweet. On hearing these songs about the Lord's pastime other audiences became speechless and kept on hearing them without any movement. Their hearts became melted. O glorious kirtana! Today you have uplifted the minds of the people to the spiritual word. Soon the kirtana came to an end but a wonderful peace and emotion remained manifest in the hearts of the devotee.

The sraddha ceremony of Devadas's mother was completed properly. Gradually all the invited guests and relatives left. Devadas and Jivadasa returned to Calcutta and concentrated on their respective work. Only Gurudasa, his wife, and his mother stayed back at Ramakrishnapur. Since Gurudasa's son was studying in Calcutta he too returned to Calcutta with his grandfather.