‘The inaugurator of the swan-like Vaiñëava faith, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, has said, “Since people are all conditioned, we are compelled to consider their eternal duties in three different categories—sambandha, the soul’s relationship with the Lord; abhidheya, the regulated activities for reviving that relationship; and prayojana, the ultimate goal of life.” According to the Lord’s instructions, we will now separately discuss these three subjects.
Sambandha
‘First we will discuss sambandha. One who is thoughtful should first examine oneself. From the existence of one’s own self, the existence of other objects is ascertained. A thoughtful person may say, “If I do not exist, then nothing else exists; because without me, how is it possible to realize other things?” By the tendency to believe in one’s self, a thoughtful person establishes his own existence and then observes the insignificance and dependence of the soul. As soon as one sees one’s own self, one immediately observes the support of the Supersoul. Feeling the existence of the ätmä and Paramätmä should be the first step in belief of one’s self. When a thoughtful person looks at the material world, he can easily see three things—the ätmä, the Paramätmä, and the material world…
Abhidheya
‘In the consideration of abhidheya, devotional service is accepted as the main practice. Çäëòilya Åñi has stated in his book named “Bhakti- mémäàsä”, bhaktiù paränuraktir éçvare—“Pure attachment to the Supreme Lord is called bhakti.” Bhakti, or devotional service, is defined as the activities a conditioned soul performs out of attachment for the Supersoul. Some of these activities resemble karma and some resemble jïäna. The gross bodily activities are called karma, and the subtle bodily activities are called jïäna. Devotional service is the practice meant for conditioned souls, so it cannot be called préti, or love. When préti is awakened it should be understood that devotional service has reached its full maturity. It is not possible to elaborately describe each of the stages of devotional service, so we will describe only the main stages…
Prayojana
‘At the time of realizing an object and its characteristics, an extraordinary feeling of rasa between the subject and object is experienced. This is called préti….When préti attains its highest platform, the original feelings of the soul are not lost, rather they become alive in the subjects of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana and they then expand the rasa of love.’
Therefore expanding love is the only prayojana for a living entity. How these Three principles are inseparably connected is further clarified by the uncompromising, practical words of Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Gosvämé Öhäkura:
‘26. Without knowledge of transcendental truth (siddhänta), no one’s heart can ever be spiritually attuned with Lord Kåñëa. If one lacks knowledge of his relationship with Kåñëa, sambandha, then the proper execution of devotional service in relationship to Him, abhidheya, is impossible.
27. One who lacks knowledge of sambandha, the relationship between Kåñëa and the living entities, can never attain prayojana, the supreme goal of life [namely pure love of Godhead, Kåñëa-prema.] One who is distracted by bogus philosophical conclusions about devotional service (ku-siddhänta) is not performing actual devotional service to Çré Kåñëa.
28. One who is lazy in properly understanding the Vaiñëava philosophical conclusions can never become free from anarthas, the unwanted bad habits and philosophical misconceptions that impede devotional service. One who mistakes Kåñëa as belonging to the material plane can never render actual service to the Lord.’
Präkåta-rasa Çata-düñiëé
‘1. All efforts of our wisdom and consciousness to discover and attain our eternal relationship with The Supreme Reality and consequently to know our properly adjusted, harmonized relationship with all animation, through that central relationship to the Truth is sambandha-jïäna.
Following the regulative principles for attainment of the highest 100 goal of life – the purely blissful devotional service to Supreme Lord Çré Kåñëa is known as abhidheya.
3. And tasting the supremely blissful nectarine fruits (prema-bhakti) of one’s genuine devotional practice is known as prayojana.’
Caianya Caritamrita, Madhya 25.147, Anubhasya
