8 Steps to Pure Love
Blessing the land of India in the 16th Century, the Golden Avatar, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was a powerful force in the blossoming of the Krishna Bhakti movement during that time.
He left behind 8 teachings known as the Siksastakam. These verses are celebrated as an essential guide to uncovering our love for Krishna. Each verse could have its own book, so filled they are with deep and wide truths. The following overview gives us a glimpse of the teachings.
Come clean
Anytime anywhere
Like a blade of grass
Release desires
Request a rescue
Express longing
Feel separation
Love, no matter what
1. Come clean
The first teaching celebrates the power of chanting the maha mantra, and the changes it can bring to our lives. It reminds us that pure love is clean love - love that is free from material desires. Such desires are compared to dust covering our hearts that has 'accumulated for years'. When we take up the chanting of Krishna's sacred name, our dusty hearts will never be the same.
2. Anytime anywhere
Here's the good news - it's an easy process. You can chant anywhere! No hard and fast rules! Chant and get that dust moving so you can begin to feel some love for Krishna. It’s also a blessing that Krishna has many names so we can lean in to those we find the sweetest.
3. Like a blade of grass
Considered one of the most important verses, here we are given key ingredients to bump up our daily practice. The invitation is to come to our chanting in a mood of humility, tolerance, and really, really, really not seeking respect, praise, or honor from others. Ouch. But if we truly seek pure love, otherworldly love, we have to withdraw ourselves from the center stage of this life and see ourselves from a whole different perspective.
4. Release desires
What do we want in life? From life? Peace, love, money, happiness, our own island? What do we want? Lord Caitanya says nothing compares to having loving feelings for Krishna. Desire only that.
5. Request a rescue
We know we are making progress when we accept we can’t do it on our own, and even more progress when we ask for help. Please pick me up from this ocean of birth and death is the ardent request in the fifth verse.
6. Express longing
The desire to feel pure love is the focus here. When, O when, will that day be mine when I will feel some emotion while chanting? Nurture this longing. It will keep us going with our practice and also soothe our hearts, parched by the troubles and sadness of the world around us.
7. Feel separation
As we come to the end of the verses we glimpse mature stages of devotion. Even as we move closer to Krishna we ironically feel the spiritual ‘pain’ of separation. It’s a heightened sense of longing that brings a deeper love.
8. Love, no matter what
When pure love for God is fully developed, we step into the safe space of vulnerability - our love and trust are so deep and so wide that we have no fear, no matter what happens. All is well because the bonds of such pure love are unconditional.
We all have the capacity to experience the love outlined above. It is the inherent nature of the soul. The goal of life is to uncover it. What a wonderful goal to have - the pursuit of the purest love of all. May these 8 verses bless our journey and guide us home.
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