Spiritualিক ভােব বুঝােল তারা বুেঝ েসই রস এত কৃপা কর ϕভΦ কির িনজ-বশ (৫)
ki bhāve bujhāle tārā bujhe sei rasa eta kṛpā kara prabhu kari nija-vaśa ki bhāve—in what manner; bujhāle—causing to understand; tārā— them; bujhe—comprehending; sei rasa—the mellows of devotional service; eta—such as this; kṛpā—mercy; kara—please display; prabhu—O Lord; kari—I am making; nija-vaśa—under Your controlling power.
How will they understand the mellows of devotional service? O Lord, I am simply praying for Your mercy so that I will be able to convince them about Your message.
Commentary After expressing confidence in Kṛṣṇa’s mystic power, by which even the seemingly impossible can become possible, Śrīla Prabhupāda again expresses doubt about the capacity of people completely absorbed in tasting material pleasures to understand anything about the higher taste of spiritual life. This indicates that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not only about philosophical understanding or acquiring knowledge, but ultimately about experiencing a taste that is different from any taste available in the material world. In this connection, it should be noted that the term “Kṛṣṇa consciousness,” which Prabhupāda deliberately used when creating his international society, is his translation of Rūpa Gosvāmī’s phrase kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ. Here, in the fifth verse of his poem, Prabhupāda translates sei rasa as “the mellows of devotional service,” which is equivalent to kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa—Kṛṣṇa consciousness. His mission is to make his followers realize kṛṣṇabhakti-rasa, to guide them to the experience of the exquisite taste that arises from serving Kṛṣṇa, and by which all mundane tastes become insignificant. Taste is the driving force of all activities because it produces pleasure—the raison d’être of existence: ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt. The entire process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness consists of transforming the pursuit of trivial happiness into the pursuit of higher, spiritual happiness. This is an essential aspect of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but it is not “a cheap thing,” as Śrīla Prabhupāda often pointed out. Therefore, he voices here a deep concern: How can this task be accomplished in an atmosphere of blatant hedonism? People would challenge why the taste derived from devotional service is better than the taste derived from sense enjoyment. The Romans coined the maxim de gustibus non disputandum est—“In matters of taste, there can be no disputes”—a notion adopted by the young generation in America and expressed as: “If it feels good, do it!” Anticipating this difficulty, Śrīla Prabhupāda simply prays for the Lord’s mercy so that he may be able to convince even grossly materialistic people of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s transcendental message of love of God.