Tridandiswami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja
What is rasabdim?
Devotee : Next, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that Krsna is also referred as rasabdim, which means He is the ocean of rasa, He from whom all rasas or mellows are emanating. Krsna is also referred to raso vai saha in the Vedas. He is the original fountainhead of all the rasas, and He Himself is the embodiment of rasa. What does this mean? We have just heard that Krsna is all-powerful, and He is endowed with a completely transcendental potency. That potency manifests in so many innumerable ways and fulfills Krsna's desires. Three main aspects of His internal potency are also known as samvit, hladini and sandini, and these three aspects affect all the activities of the internal potency, marginal potency, and external potency.
In this material world, due to the influence of the external potency, all jivas experience jadananda, material pleasure. That material pleasure is actually a perverted reflection of the internal potency of hladini-sakti. Those who cross this level and are able to come to the platform of bramha bhuta prasanatma (experiencing brahman) are also experiencing a reflection of that internal potency of the Lord. In its purest stage, in Goloka Vrndavana and all the spiritual worlds, hladini-sakti provides all the Lord's pleasure. For this reason, it is said that He is fountainhead of all rasas experienced by everyone, anywhere.
Srila Narayana Maharaja: Two kinds of jivas come from Krsna. What is the meaning of bhedabheda?
Devotee : In this same sloka, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, bhedabheda-prakasam. The Absolute Truth is simultaneously one and different from everything. In other words, God is everywhere, but everything is not God. This is the difference between Sankara's monist philosophy and the various schools of Vaisnava thought, like Madhva, Ramanuja, Visnusvami and Nimbaditya.
Srila Narayana Maharaja: In one sense we can see that the jivas are not different from Krsna, but at the same time they are different. The jivas have come from sakti, they are a transformation of sakti; they are not full manifestations like svamsa. There is some difference and some non-difference. The jivas have some qualities of parambrahma, but not all. They cannot create. They cannot be like the svamsa, plenary (Visnu) expansions of Krsna. They can be covered at any time. This difference and non-difference is not conceivable by conditioned souls. Only by the gurus words, that is, by amnaya, understanding through Veda-sastra, can they know this.
Murwillumbah, Australia; Feb. 18, 2002