INNERMOST CORE OF THE HEART

CHAITANYA CHARITAMRTA

ADI LILA CHAPTER 3

TEXT 4

     May that Lord who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacīdevī be transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has descended in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most elevated mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.     

CHAITANYA CHARITAMRTA ADI LILA CHAPTER 3 TEXT 4 (LINK)

DISCUSSION

Mahavirya: I have a question. This verse has always aroused this question in me. Actually this is a verse from Rupa Goswami's Vidagda Madhava. Why is he saying, "May that Lord who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacīdevī be transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart?" Why not just say in your heart? Why in the innermost core?

Gaurahari: So what do you think?

Mahavirya: It's really a question I'm still answering. I have my own understanding of it. But it probably means something deeper. My understanding is that like, you know, the watering a tree example. To water the leaves, to nourish the leaves and the fruits and the tree and all this, you have to water the roots. Then the whole tree gets fed like that.

But there's no harm also in putting a bit of water on the leaves also. You can spray the leaves to remove the dust and all this. So it's kind of okay also to do that. To trim it and all this, but you nourish it really by pouring water on the roots. So our heart is the abode of love. Loving the Lord also means loving the devotees and loving all His parts and parcels.

But if this love becomes more important than the love for the Lord, I'm not talking about the devotees, but in general, because of bodily identification. If we become too concentrated or attached to spraying the leaves and neglect watering the roots that will not be good for the tree.

So Rupa Goswami is saying…in the innermost chamber of your heart, means it's very, very deep and that's like the root because He is the root of existence. Prabhupada says, by Sankhya yoga you discover the root of the cosmic manifestation which is Krishna and then you water it by bhakti. So like that. Our relationship with God is the most essential root that needs to be watered. But there's also room for this extended love that comes automatically for all living entities. But the Lord has to be in the innermost chamber.

Just like Marysachi, you're going to work and you need to show some attention and you need to show some compassion and there's nothing wrong with that, but if Lord Chaitanya is not, how do I say here, transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart and you lose this connection then you'll be in dualities in the process of doing that, sometimes happy sometimes sad and you become overwhelmed at one point. So it may not show when you're working, and this and that but internally it is something you never lose…his bhakti inside and you’re always very eager to comeback in the association where this tree can be nourished. That’s my limited understanding of this.

Marysachi: I'd like to share what I understand about it. I've been known to say my heart's confused. I think that’s probably the outermost. Because I think we use our heart with other people. We use our outer heart and it gets used a lot. And so we've got to have something tucked away real far in there in the innermost area. You mentioned about my work and Lord Chaitanya, I don’t think it’s my work where I lose my connection with lord Chaitanya. I just think it has to do with something my soul has to go through. I don't think it's easy to get Lord Chaitanya.

Mahavirya: Well, I could have cited myself as an example and not chose you, but it's the same thing with me. I have to be considerate with persons when I’m interacting out there but if Lord Chaitanya is established, is transcendentally situated in the innermost core of our heart we may not be like "preaching" as such, we may not be giving a Bhagavatam class but because this is going on people feel it. There's something with this person...I don’t know what it is...They see the fruits of that on the tree. He's very calm, he's listening.

There was a book by Dale Carnegie it's called, How to Win Friends...something like that…very popular book. Actually he said, I wrote this book because I've been looking for it for forty years and never found it, so I wrote it… (laughter)… He says in there, genuinely listen and care for people and you’re sure to succeed in life because you'll have no competition… (laughter)… and this is so true. Of course it's like a mundane aspect of that, but it's very true.

But if you have Lord Chaitanya transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart then you're genuinely listening to people and caring for people because you're connecting through this root in your heart with their roots in their heart that is only sleeping there and when you see in this vision even though you’re not giving a straight Bhagavatam class and the philosophy…what you should what you should not do… because this love is there then their love will be awakened.

Gaurahari: Lord Chaitanya, in my realization, He's situated in the innermost core of the heart, but we're not going that deep usually. Not able to. Like peeling an onion, the Lord is in the center, the innermost core of the heart. When a devotee gives a blessing, May the Lord be situated... He's already situated there, He's just has to arise…make it known to the living entity. And that comes in the association of devotees…taking shelter of the shade of their Lotus Feet….hearing glorification of Lord Chaitanya from them or chanting the verses out loud like this or meditating on them. All this gets us closer to that awakening. The Lord is there. He's just needs to be awakened. In this process He awakens with His devotees.