Extract from a Katha by Srila Bhakti Nandan Swami Maharaj in August 2015 given in Dijon, France
Bhakti Nandan Swami Maharaj: Beyond formalities, what I recommend to devotees is to feel comfortable in being absorbed in the discussion of Hari-Katha. If the body is not comfortable then the mind is not comfortable either and finally all the attention will go more on the problems of the body than on the Hari-Katha. Do any of your kind hearts have a specific question or topic they would like to talk about? The world of our spiritual experience has many different aspects, there is endless experimentation in this spiritual realm, i could start with where in this realm but there would be more benefit if someone had a question to ask.
A devotee: I had a dream some time ago, three years ago. I saw the name of “Purusa”, but I don’t know who Purusa is. I got up and wondered who that Purusa was and what it meant. I looked on the internet, I was not satisfied.
Bhakti Nandan Swami Maharaj: Of course! How can you be satisfied with teaching the internet? Because internet knowledge does not deal with these subjects. You cannot be satisfied with this teaching.
Uddhava addresses Gurudeva: He told me when he woke up in the morning he felt very happy, just he saw this word “Purusa” and that he had never seen Him before.
Gurudeva: You mean you saw this word, the vision of the name “Purusa”, seeing it written? Sometimes He also manifests in internal voice, in the form of sounds, but you visualized it. It is the same Reality that can manifest through sound, through vision as simply by a feeling of immeasurable joy. This Purusa of which you had darshanin your dream is none other than Purusottama Krsna, this Person whose all cosmic energy, Cosmic superpower takes its source, it is called the Original Purusa.
The Supreme Lord in His masculine aspect, he is called Purusottama, ”Uttama” means ”the best” and ”Purusa” means ”the male side” therefore Purusottama means ”the highest male principle”. And Srimati Radharani is known as The Highest Manifestation of Femininity, the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Goddess. These two aspects are so intimately connected that one cannot really imagine Purusa, Purusottama without Her adored Goddess Srimati Radharani.
In other words, one cannot realistically conceive of the existence of one without the other. Basically, They are One, one and the same Truth; He, the Lord (in His masculine aspect) and She, the Goddess (His feminine aspect). They parted, They became two so that they could taste Their pastimes and Their feelings of love They have for each other. Through the explanation of what the Supreme Purusa male principle is, Purusottama Krsna, naturally I feel inspired to describe His other aspect which is His Supremely feminine aspect, Srimati Radharani. If I sing, if I describe, if I speak of the glories of the Supreme Purusa, it will be incomplete if I do not speak of The Supreme Goddess Srimati Radharani. Because this quality that in Krsna of being the Supreme masculine principle can only be realized according to His Supreme feminine aspect which is Radharani.
Man cannot psychologically feel his full masculinity in relation to another man but in relation to a feminine aspect, all his masculine qualities are fully developed and experienced, and vice versa, in the same way Krsna experiences all the feminine qualities through Srimati Radharani, The best of women, the term ”Purusa” is ”the male, the most fundamental, the Principal”, in this way, in the grammatical sense of Purusa, ”the male, the principle.” Purusa means Pradhana (the substance of matter) the greatest principle of power, potency, ”Purusa”, an aspect of meaning in other words, the most prominent, the Principal.
Like the Sun, the Sun is the emblem of Purusa, the masculine principle and the beautiful Moon is the emblem of the sea, of femininity. The Sun is the most prominent male principle and the Moon the most prominent female principle in the universe. The Moon, which is in the sky of the spiritual world is as powerful and as beautiful as the Sun but with different qualities which are more beautiful, more charming, attractive, feminine. The reason why I speak of the Moon in the spiritual world is because the experience that we have in the material world of the Moon is that she is much less, much weaker than the Sun ultimately, she illuminates much less and is less radiant, whereas in the spiritual world, she is as radiant, as powerful as the Sun, full of energy with different aspects, simply she is different in terms of the qualities she emanates. Purusa, essentially means something main that dominates, which is above everything.
We can also see in our world that men and women are as equal and as powerful as each other you could say, but they will have different qualities that will differentiate them. The Vedas, Vedantas, Upanisads, such Holy Scriptures glorify Lord Visnu, ultimately Lord Krsna as Purusottama. Uttama means ”the best”, ”the best of all”, and Purusa means ”the Supreme Male God”, “The best of all male gods, Krsna” and Visnu is ultimately Krsna. In other words, this Krsna, is the source, the best of all male Gods full of male nature of power, beauty, energy and very prominent, dominant, attractive, controlling the hearts of all devotees, Purusottama. He is so beautiful as a male God, that no female ego, no matter how size, no matter how big, that no female ego can stand before the power, beauty and dominant attraction of the greatest of Male gods Krsna, so powerful!
By His infinite power, His attraction of divine love, His attractive and characteristic beauty, people cannot resist Him. None of the women even the most beautiful can challenge, resist the charms of the attractive power of Lord Krsna. The highest and most exalted woman that Radharani feels that the more She devotes Herself to Purusottama Krsna, the more She feels the desire to give Herself infinitely more. These two aspects that are Krsna and Radharani evolve in parallel because the more Radharani devotes Herself to Krsna, the more She receives in an exchange of relationship of natural love, the blissful taste for this pure Krsna-Prema love of Krsna, the most Radharani wants to give love to Krsna and so on, this has no end. I have to describe the wonderful qualities of Srimati Radharani in order to be able to describe the qualities of Krsna, because the glories of Krsna as the best Supreme Male Purusottama cannot be fully understood unless we understand the glories of Srimati Radharani, we compare them that way. So, you are really very fortunate that Krsna manifested a glimpse of His transcendental nature in your dream like Purusa. He sent you a great message for you through this dream. ”Come to me! The time has come, without any delay, the time has come when you will come close to Me, to have a relationship with Me! I am Purusa, the best among the male gods, of all the male gods. ” It is a very sweet dream, a beautiful dream with a lot of meaning.
Transcribed in French and translated in English by Rasalila Devi Dasi