Volume 7 - Prabhupada

338 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta [Madhya-lila, Ch. 19PURPORTIn Goloka Vrndavana the devotees have very intimate relationships with theSupreme Personality of Godhead. The devotee engages in the Lord's service ingreat ecstatic love. Such love was exhibited personally by Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu in His teachings to the people of the material world. The fruit of thedevotional creeper is pure desire to serve and please the senses of the SupremePersonality of Godhead. KrQendriya-priti-iccha dhare 'prema' nama. (Cc.Adi. 4.165) In the spiritual world one has no desire other than to please thesenses of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The conditioned soul within thematerial world can neither understand nor appreciate how the devotee in the materialworld can render confidential service to the Lord out of feelings of ecstaticlove and always engage in pleasing the Supreme Lord's senses. Although seenwithin this material world, the pure devotee always engages in the confidentialservice of the Lord. An ordinary neophyte devotee cannot realize this; therefore itis said, vaiQavera kriya-mudra vijnaneha na bujhaya. The activities of a pureVait:Java cannot be understood even by a learned scholar in the material world.Every living entity is wandering within this universe in different species and ondifferent planetary systems according to his fruitive activities. Out of manymillions of living entities, one may be fortunate enough to receive the seed ofbhakti-lata, the creeper of devotional service. By the grace of the spiritual masterand Krt:Ja, one nourishes the bhakti-lata by regularly sprinkling it with the waterof sraval)a-kirtana, hearing and chanting. In this way the seed of bhakti-latasprouts and grows up and up through the whole universe until it penetrates thecovering of the material universe and reaches the spiritual world. The bhakti-latacontinues to grow until it reaches the topmost planetary system, GolokaVrndavana, where Krt:Ja lives. There the creeper takes shelter at the lotus feet ofthe Lord, and that is its final destination. At that time the creeper begins to growthe fruits of ecstatic love of God. It is the duty of the devotee who nourishes thecreeper to be very careful. It is said that the watering of the creeper must continue:ihan mali sece nitya sravaQadi jala. It is not that at a certain stage one canstop chanting and hearing and become a mature devotee. If one stops, one certainlyfalls down from devotional service. Although one may be very exalted indevotional service, he should not give up the watering process of sraval)a-kirtana.If one gives up that process, it is due to an offense. This is described in the followingverse.TEXT 156flf -'fll1tt'f ti 1 I ftiro, nr f' i!'iu uyadi vaiQava-aparadha uthe hati mataupage va chil)ge, tara sukhi' yaya pata