Syamarani dasi: I haven't connected with it, but I have heard the name.
Srila Gurudeva: Candravali offers a grhta-sneha pradipa, and the sakhis of Srimati Radhika offer a madhu-sneha pradipa. Madhu-sneha is situated in their eyes, like a pradipa. They are actually performing arati with their eyes.
Syamarani dasi: What about their karatalas and mrdangas? What are they made of?
Srila Gurudeva: This is a karatala.
Syamarani dasi: And mrdangas?
Srila Gurudeva: They also play on actual mrdangas, karatalas and other instruments, like vina, vasuri, venu, and so many others. The gopis especially play on vinas, and pakowaj, which is like a very sweet-sounding mrdanga. The sound of their mrdanga calls out, "Dhik (played with the left hand) tan! Dhik-tan! Dhik to those (fie on those) who are not doing bhajana of Krsna."
Syamarani dasi: Also, regarding Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's guru-parampara song, is it true that Madhavendra Puri is in madhurya-bhava, and previous to him, our acaryas were not?
Srila Gurudeva: Madhurya-bhava was present in Srila Jayadeva Gosvami's Gita-govinda, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is full of madhurya-bhava; why not? But there was no one to research all these things and to adopt this line. Up to Dvapara-yuga, everyone wanted to serve Krsna in dasya-bhava, and in Satya-yuga in brahma-bhava. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu came with the mood of Srimati Radhika, He taught all these topics to Srila Rupa Gosvami, who then wrote so many books; and then the world learned these facts.
Syamarani dasi: The acaryas who came before Madhavendra Puri were not in madhurya-bhava, though. Is that correct? They were in other rasas, like dasya-rasa?
Srila Gurudeva: In Treta Yuga, at the time of Lord Ramacandra, the sages at Dandakaranya were in the mood of gopis. Before that, in Satya-yuga, the personified Vedic mantras and Upanisads worshiped Krsna and Radhika with the kama-gayatri, and they were also in the mood of gopis. But these persons were very, very rare. You can see that since I am telling something about raganuga-bhakti and the gopis, all of ISKCON is against me. Are you seeing this?
At the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Prakasananda Sarasvati, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, and so many other persons, rejected Him. They rejected krsna-kirtana, what to speak of rasa. With the appearance of Raya Ramananda and his discussions with Mahaprabhu, everyone began to know something of Mahaprabhu's ideas. You are all so lucky that you are now hearing something about this sublime topic.
Vrndavana: November, 1994