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Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 11.11.

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Chapter-11.The Sport of the Infinite-11.   ( Rasa-Lila message given on the 22nd of October, 1972.) Such is the magnitude of the meaning contained in the Rasa-Sport of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the irresistible surge of the soul for its Maker, that it is not comparable even with the running of the iron filings to the magnet or the movement of rivers towards the ocean. These comparisons are inadequate in this respect. It is the irresistible surge and urge of the soul. 'Irresistible' is, of course, a poor word that we use for want of a better term. It is humanly impossible of description, because it was not the human power that was working. God's call is not like man calling. It is not like a boss calling a subordinate or the mother calling the child. It is not even the lover calling the beloved. Much more than all the illustrations we can think of, is the meaning, significance, import and the stringency of the call of God to the soul of man. Swami Krishnananda   To be

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 11.10.

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Chapter-11.The Sport of the Infinite-10.   ( Rasa-Lila message given on the 22nd of October, 1972.) Pain is not the truth of existence. So it is the Ananda, the Supernal Beatitude, Beauty, magnificence and the lustre of God that has revealed itself in this historical epic movement of the Supreme into the temporal realms as Bhagavan Sri Krishna. Impossible it is for the human mind to understand what the Rasa means, because it is not meant for man to understand. It was God dancing to His own tune. This is the eternal Tandava or cosmic dance which is connotative of all the manifestations – personal, social, political and spiritual. It is the remedy that is administered to the soul of man to cure him of the illness of Samsara. As Sage Suka puts it towards the end of the description of the Rasa Panchadhyayi, "This is the remedy prescribed for the 'illnesses of the heart'." 'Hridroga' is the word used, which means illness of the heart, which has only one re

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 11.9.

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Chapter-11.The Sport of the Infinite-9.   ( Rasa-Lila message given on the 22nd of October, 1972.) So, in this wondrous phenomenon called the Rasa dance, the Spirit is dancing with its own manifestations. The Srimad Bhagavata beautifully and significantly puts it, "Reme rameso vrajasundaribhih yatharbhakah svapratibimba-vibhramah": As a child plays with its own reflection seen in a mirror, so did the Lord play with the eternal devotees of Vrindavana. He did not play with personalities, even as a child does not play with anybody when it looks at its own self through the mirror. This is the interpretation given in the Srimad Bhagavata itself in the Dasama Skandha. So it is God playing with God, like a child playing with itself or the Original dancing with its own reflections, connoting the spiritual dance of the cosmos, the attraction of the part towards the Whole, man's inseparability from God, and the soul's agony on account of its bereavement from the Suprem