Reading from Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, we are continuing the story of Lord Caitanya praising Madhavendra Puri. If we were reading this book on our own we would read this story in ten minutes, but then having it in class may be takes ten days. Actually there is so much to here for us to consider.
This is verse 179 from chapter 4 of Madhya lila. To create the atmosphere, if we can be a little imaginative, we can think now that we have all left, of course we don’t want to think like that, we have left Radha Kunda and we have gone to Remuna. Remuna is also a holy dhama. Sometimes Remuna is refered to as Vrndavana also. If you have been to Remuna, Orissa, it’s a pastoral area, it’s out in the country, lots of green fields everywhere, lots of rivers and lakes its very green. Of course you cant compare it to Vrndavana. And Gopinatha is staying there and wherever Gopinatha is, Radharani is there and Tulasi is there. And wherever Tulasi is there, that’s Vrndavana. So in one sense it is also Vrndavana in Remuna. And now Radha and Krsna are there as Mahaprabhu. And Advaitacarya says mora mana Vrndavana habe – wherever You are, Your mind is always in Vrndavana.
So now we are in Remuna, we are sitting with Lord Caitanya and Nityananda is there and some other devotees. And Lord Caitanya is very happily, very blissfully narrating the glories of his param guru Madhavendra Puri, who is the guru of Iswara Puri. We are in the middle of the story..
TEXT 179
parama virakta, mauné, sarvatra udäséna
grämya-värtä-bhaye dvitéya-saìga-héna
SP: Caitanya Mahäprabhu continued, “Çré Mädhavendra Puré used to remain alone. He was completely renounced and always very silent. He was uninterested in everything material, and for fear of talking about mundane things, he always lived without a companion.
MS: Mahaprabhu continued, Sri Madhavendra Puri always used to live alone. He was completely renounced and always very silent. parama virakta, he was totally renounced or unattached moni. He was silent. He was not interested in anything material, and for fear of talking about mundane things, he always lived without a companion. grämya-värtä-bhaye dvitéya-saìga-héna.
So he was afraid of grämya-värtä, grämya-katha, village talks, he was afraid of that so he lived alone – nirjana, nirjana Bhajan. Thats what happens as soon as two people come together, if they are not usually Krsna conscious then they usually talk about the conscious world. If they are Krsna conscious then they talk about Krsna. But in the absence of Krsna, then your conscious…you talk about the conscious world, the grama, the village, family, friends, weather, health, body, work, school. All irrelevant useless topics that do not promote the cause of the soul. So he was careful about that. So he lived alone. Lord Caitanya is glorifying his behavior.
TEXT 180
hena-jana gopälera äjïämåta päïä
sahasra kroça äsi’ bule candana mägiïä
SP: “After receiving the transcendental orders of Gopäla, this great personality traveled thousands of miles just to collect sandalwood by begging.
MS: After receiving the transcendental orders of Gopäla, this great personality Madhavendra Puri traveled thousands of miles just to collect sandalwood by begging. sahasra kroça, kroça means two miles and sahasra means thousands of miles, he walked. Äjïämåta, the nectarean order. gopälera äjïämåta.
It is a very interesting term, äjïämåta, the order was nectarean. Usually we think when someone tells us sit, eat chappan bhoga, you sit down, eat these fifty six preparations.
“Eat all this mahaprasadam, this is for all”
Then we will think “Yes, this is a very nectarean order”.
If we get an order to do some difficult service and we think, “O, this order is like poison. This is agyavisha. Very poisonous order”. Go and distribute books here, go and collect money here, go do this, go do that. We may think this is very poisonous.
But this is a very hard thing that Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Go collect sandalwood”. And the nearest place where he could collect sandalwood is Jagannatha Puri which is thousands of miles away from Vrndavana. It is not an easy order.
But Lord Caitanya is describing that when he received that order it was…Sri gopalnathji, on top of Govardhana, He gave this order and it was considered to be nectarean, nectar. O wonderful! You gave me this order! I am just bathing in nectar to receive this order.
TEXT 181
bhoke rahe, tabu anna mägiïä nä khäya
hena-jana candana-bhära vahi’ laïä yäya
SP: “Although Mädhavendra Puré was hungry, he would not beg food to eat. This renounced person carried a load of sandalwood for the sake of Çré Gopäla.
MS: Although Mädhavendra Puré was hungry, he would not beg food to eat. This renounced person carried a load of sandalwood for the sake of Çré Gopäla. So even though he was hungry, he would not beg any food. Just depended on the Lord.
TEXT 182
‘maëeka candana, tolä-viçeka karpüra
gopäle paräiba’——ei änanda pracura
SP: “Without considering his personal comforts, Mädhavendra Puré carried one maund [about eighty-two pounds] of sandalwood and twenty toläs [about eight ounces] of camphor to smear over the body of Gopäla. This transcendental pleasure was sufficient for him.
MS: “Without considering his personal comforts, Mädhavendra Puré carried one maund [about eighty-two pounds] forty kilos of sandalwood and twenty toläs [about eight ounces] of camphor to smear over the body of Gopälanathji. This transcendental pleasure was sufficient for him.
That’s all he wanted. He was happy to carry forty kilos of sandalwood which is quite a heavy load. And not just carry it five feet. He was going to carry it few thousand miles back to Vrndavana. No coolie, no porter, no luggage rack, no luggage carrier, no train, no bus, no car, no bicycle. He carried it on his back. Labor of love. Spiritual love. Krsna prema.
TEXT 183
utkalera däné räkhe candana dekhiïä
tähäì eòäila räja-patra dekhäïä
SP: “Since there were restrictions against taking the sandalwood out of the Orissa province, the toll official confiscated the stock, but Mädhavendra Puré showed him the release papers given by the government and consequently escaped difficulties.
MS: Since there were restrictions against taking the sandalwood out of the Orissa, the toll official confiscated the stock, but Mädhavendra Puré showed him the release papers given by the government and consequently escaped difficulties.
Because all the chandan that was grown in Orissa was meant for Jagannatha. It was grown there for the service of Jagannatha’s chandan yatra. Every year for twenty one days in summer time, they apply so much chandan to Jagannatha so no one can take that chandan out of Orissa because its Lord’s chandan. Unless you get special permission from the king who is also in-charge of the deity supplies, so he gave a letter, alright you can take.
TEXT 184
mleccha-deça düra patha, jagäti apära
ke-mate candana niba——nähi e vicära
SP: “Mädhavendra Puré was not at all anxious during the long journey to Våndävana through the provinces governed by the Muslims and filled with unlimited numbers of watchmen.
MS: Mädhavendra Puré was not at all anxious during the long journey to Våndävana through the provinces governed by the Muslims and filled with unlimited numbers of watchmen.
So he wasn’t anxious. He had this gopälera äjïämåta, he had this nectarean order of Gopal on his head and he wasn’t really worried about the watchmen, he was simply executing the order of the Lord and carrying that order he felt fearless, he felt protected, he felt encouraged, he felt enthused. He got encouragement, determination, enthusiasm and fearlessness. All of them came from the order that Gopal gave him. So remembering that order and surrendering to that order, he dutifully carried it out without any fear or hesitation.
TEXT 185
saìge eka vaöa nähi ghäöé-däna dite
tathäpi utsäha baòa candana laïä yäite
SP: “Although Mädhavendra Puré did not have a farthing with him, he was not afraid to pass by the toll officers. His only enjoyment was in carrying the load of sandalwood to Våndävana for Gopäla.
MS: Although Mädhavendra Puré did not have a penny with him, he was not afraid to pass by the toll officers. His only enjoyment was in carrying the load of sandalwood to Våndävana for Gopäla.
Then next verse..
TEXT 186
pragäòha-premera ei svabhäva-äcära
nija-duùkha-vighnädira nä kare vicära
SP: “This is the natural result of intense love of Godhead. The devotee does not consider personal inconveniences or impediments. In all circumstances he wants to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
MS: nija-duùkha-vighnädira. Vighnä means impediments, setbacks, obstacles. Duùkha means unhappiness, sadness, inconvenience. This is the svabhäva-äcära. pragäòha-premera, this very concentrated, deep, intense prema of a devotee, devotee having this prema exhibits a particular nature svabhäva-äcära, because of his personal mentality and nature. Then he considers things in a different way. He considers everything in a transcendental way, he looks at everything spiritually. This is my service, this is my joy. My joy is in doing this service, my happiness is in doing this service.
nija-duùkha-vighnädira, whatever inconvenience, whatever unhappiness, if I become unhappy or its inconvenient or it is difficult, I don’t care, let it come. Let all these things come to me, it doesn’t matter to me. This is my service to Gopal. And this is the primary purpose of my life is to carry out this service. And in carrying out this I will find my pleasure. I will fin my happiness here. Prabhupada has rather long purport, I can read it little bit.
It is natural for those who have developed intense love for Kåñëa not to care for personal inconvenience and impediments. Such devotees are simply determined to execute the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His representative, the spiritual master. In all circumstances, even amidst the greatest dangers, they undeviatingly carry on with the greatest determination.
So Prabhupada is an example of this in his own life. No matter how many obstacles he kept pushing on, pushing on, pushing on. DND – undeviating and determination. Unswerving action, unswerving service, no break, no stop. “O, I am sick, I have to stop. O, I have a headache, I have to stop.
And look at Prabhupada, he had heart attacks and he didn’t stop. Two heart attacks on a ship. Sometimes people who come to this asram, in the middle of the night they throw up and they say, “O Maharaj, I am sick, I am sick, immediately call the taxi and take me to Apollo hospital. This is one O clock in the morning, banging on the door.
“O, Maharaja wake up.”
“What happened”
“O, my stomach hurts, I have so much pain, I threw up”
“Just relax I will make some lemon water with black salt and just take that you will be alright”
So I heated up some water, some lemon juice and some little black salt and a little camphor to cool the stomach and he took that and he said –
“O, I feel better”
“Ok, go to sleep”
First he went kind of crazy, “Get me out of here, I cant take it, I am dying, this that, call the taxi”
“this is one O clock in the morning, everyone is sleeping here, this is not New York city. ”
This is nor Times Square, I mean there is only one taxi in whole of Radha Kunda and the guy is sleeping.
So he was in little bit of difficulty and he became so disturbed, he wants to run away. But the devotee doesn’t run away, no matter what keeps happening to him, he keeps on pushing on with his service. Because he accepts any obstacles, any vighna, any duukha, any unhappiness simply as, “O, Krsna this is your test. You are just testing me. You are testing my sincerity of my purpose.” You are testing my mettle as they say. Mettle. How much I am determined.
O, these things come and we say, “ Krsna you are testing my love. You don’t think I have love? You don’t think I have enough love in me to have the stamina to carry out the order you have given me? You think I am going to quite? You think I am going to give up? You watch me now, just watch me Krsna. You were testing me, ahhh? You think I am going to be a quitter? No. No. You watch!
They say in business – when the going gets tough, the tough get going. They have all these little phrases. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Actually opposition increases your strength. Opposition increases determination.
For example, you are distributing books, because we had some experience, six years we were doing that. We are distributing books and many unfavorable elements appear. The weather may be bad. It is cold, snowing, whatever, rain. And you are outside and you would like to be inside. And then the people are also in opposition. Nastiks and pasandis and the police and then so many threats, so many dangers, so many impediments. And then you may sit down sometimes and say, “hsssssssssssh, this is really too much. This is really difficult”. And then you just chant a round or two of japa and read little nectar of devotion. You say, alright Krsna, I know you are testing me. You want to test me? Ok. I am not going to quite. I am going to get out there and distribute Prabhupada’s books. I am going do this, no matter what anybody says. You can count on me, I am not going to run away with my tail between my legs. And you get of there and you say Krsna Krsna, then you just get renewed energy and you go out with second wind and all of a sudden for the first three or four hours when you are distributing books everyone if like – you get out of here!
You can’t meet one person! You cant sell one book! You cant meet one person, you cant stop one person. No one wants to talk to you, everyone is in a hurry. They push you out of the way –
“Gget lost, I will call the police, I will have you arrested, this, that, so mnay things!”
And then all of a sudden after when you break through that three hours then you meet this nice guy and that guy and this guy and this guy and pretty soon at the end of the day – O Krsna very good!
So Prabhupada used to say, “What’s a glorious victory without a glorious fight?”, so glorious victory is to attain the lotus feet of Radha and Krsna. This is the victory that awaits the fighter, the devotional fighter, the devotional boxer. That we have to fight many rounds. We have to go out in the ring and box many rounds with maya. Sometimes you get knocked out and then you come back. Sometimes you are the heavy weight champion, then you get knocked out and someone else becomes a champion. And then you have to go and practice. Then you go and do training – thoonk thhooonk…
And you build up your muscules and you increase your speed and ability then there is a rematch. Next year there is a rematch. And then you come again against, you were the former champ and now you are facing the champ, then you knock him down and you become the champ. So maya is our enemy, she is always trying to knock us of. So we have to stay in shape. Always keep training and stay in shape so that we can fight vigorously against maya. And the depth of our love for Krsna will be seen in trying times. When the trying times come, then we can measure and weigh the depth of our love.
We may be fly by night bhaktas or we can say fair-weather devotees. The sun is shining, its nice, ok, Hare Krsna. But when it starts raining and the wind is blowing, snow falling – O forget about Krsna. Fair-weather friends. So Krsna wants to see because ultimately Krsna wants to give himself completely to the devotee. He doesn’t give himself easily or cheaply. You cant even get into good school without passing so many tests. And even once you get into a good school, if you pass the entrance examinations and gain admission to a very good school then you have to keep performing in to stay there. You don’t keep performing then you cant stay there. If you fail a few tests then you are out. Even though you worked so hard and pass so many examinations and overcame the hurdles to get admitted.
And now you are admitted to Oxford or Harward and you are so happy, you made it. And now the test again start – mid terms, finals, mid terms, finals, papers and if you fail in any of those, again you are back to square one because you are kicked out. You are no more admitted, you are not admitted, you are not even in the school! The fruit of passing all your examinations is that you get the Ph.D. you get your diploma and degree. There is also a fruit waiting for us if we get admitted.
Admission to the college of bhakti means diksa. So Diksa is our admission. It is called initiation, the beginging. Admittance into the school of bhakti is diksa. So now we are admitted into the school of bhakti. Intiation, we have begun, we have begun our education, we have begun our service. Still more tests will come. It is not over. Testing and testing and testing. Even there are summer schools also. The school goes on twelve months a year.
So in all circumstance, even in the greatest dangers, the devotees undeviating carry on with the greatest determination. This definitely proves the intense love of the servitor. So our steadfastness, our staunchness, our determination proves the depth of our love which I was saying. This definitely proves the intense love of the devotee of the servitor. It is stated in 10.14.8. Srimad Bhagavatam – Brahma Vandanam. tat te ’nukampäà su-samékñamäëaù, a verse by Brahma, that all difficulties krtam vipakam due to our bad actions in this and previous lives we have to suffer mentally. You have mental disturbance and physical infirmity and physical problems. We have to tolerate all that and go on serving Krsna, hrdva vapubir. Vapu our body, hrd our heart and namaste our prayers. And words are always…we should continuously offer to Krsna and tolerate all the inconveniences caused by our own karmas. And what happens then jivetayo muktipade sadaya bak, dayabak means inheritance, treasure wealth. Payola you get this inheritance. Dayabak means, you get muktipada. You go to muktipada, the place where Mukunda’s feet are walking. The place where Mukunda’s feet are walking is Vaikuntha. You can find the pada, the feet of Mukunda Krsna in the spiritual world. jivetayo muktipade sadaya bak, you will attain the pada, that place where Mukunda lives. You will attain liberation.
Simply by tolerating the inconveniences of our bad karmas and continuing to serve Krsna without break and without deviation and without cessation. Steady as she goes. Slow and steady wins the race. So this is the adage for bhakti sadhana also. Nistha, nisthita bhakti. Nistha becomes ruci, ruci becomes asakti, asakti becomes bhava, bhava. Bhava mellows and matures in the depths of prema, the richness of prema. The sweetness of love for Krsna.
Those who seriously desire to get free from the clutches of material existence, who have developed intense love for Kåñëa, are worthy candidates for going back home, back to Godhead. An intense lover of Kåñëa does not care for any number of material discomforts, scarcity, impediments or unhappiness.
It is quite a lot, there are four negative things here. If one has intense love for Krsna there are four things he doesn’t care about. He doesn’t care about material discomforts – food or lack of food, a place to sleep or live or clothing. Scarcity – scarcity of money, food, friends, support. Impediments or unhappiness.
It is said that when one sees apparent unhappiness or distress in a perfect Vaiñëava, it is not at all unhappiness for him; rather, it is transcendental bliss.
In this regard, in 1965, some people from the newspaper of East Village, very popular newspaper called EVV – East Village Voice. And they came and interviewed Prabhupada and they took his picture and they put it in the newspaper. And Prabhupada had a very sober visage, countenance. His face was very sober and he looked very sad. Externally Prabhupada’s face looked, what a materialist would say, very sad faced. Very serious, may be downcast, very grave. And that gravity was being interpreted as being sadness or unhappiness. So people would see that picture and come to the temple at second avenue, they said, “We saw your Swamiji’s picture”. And there was some title under the article as – Swami leads the flock. Flock means like a group of birds I think. Flying birds, flock of birds. Swami leads the flock in the chant or something. And Prabhupada was walking through the park and chanting and people were following. So the people would come and see the picture and they would say, “Your Swamiji, I saw his picture in the East Village Other. O that was called EVO – East Village Other or Village Voice, may be, I don’t know. I think there were two things, there was Village Voice and East Village Other.
And we saw his picture and he looked so sad, so unhappy. Why is that? And then someone asked Prabhupada. This is the same thing he is saying in the purport. He said, you may see that I am looking…I think they actually asked Prabhupada –
“O, Swamiji, you look so sad?”
“You see I am looking so sad, externally. But actually I am relishing transcendental bliss within my heart”
I am not going around showing a plastic smile. Showing a Barbie doll smile to everyone. Barbie doll and ken. Some kind of children’s doll with molded smile on the plastic face of the doll. And eyelids would go up and down a hundred times a second. And big baby blue eyes, We have seen these Indian people come here with their children on the weekends on Sunday and all the children are brown and black color and all these white dolls! Barbie Dolls! So I suppose that in next life they will be born in Barbie land. “O, Look at this little white girl with Blue eyes”. Our eyes are black and brown and our skin is black and brown.
And anyway, so this is Prabhupada is looking so unhappy, inside he is relishing transcendental bliss. In the siksastakam Caitanya Mahaprabhu has also instructed aslisava pada ratam pinustu mam…the intense lover of Krsna is never deviated from his service despite all difficulties and impediments brought before him. So Prabhupada has said about the same things about five times in this paragraph. So its an important point so he is repeating it. He is basically very much concerned with presenting this two words of this Bengali verse of Lord Caitanya – pragäòha-premera. Intense prema, and Prabhupada uses this phrase, the intense lover of God. Intense lover of God, he has this staunchness and steadfastness because of the depth of his love. He uses the phrase many times. If you have developed intense love for Krsna, your intense lover of Krsna. Intense, intense, intense…so that’s kamah sarva kamova moksha tivrena bhakti yogena..yajetas purusam param.
In the 2nd canto of the Bhagavatam, there is a verse, tivrena bhakti yogena…tivrena. Like our God brother, he has his flash light. And you hit one button and it comes white flashlight, torch. And you hit another button, there comes red laser beam. It is very concentrated, laser beam. Very concentrated beam of red light, may be some other different colors also, blue or whatever. It is very concentrated laser. And that is just a kid’s child type thing laymen use. But they also have laser saws which can saw through steel. Very fastily. They concentrate the light so much, they can cut still with laser. So this is the word tivrena – it means like this. tivrena bhakti yogena, tivra means concentrated like a laser beam, not going to the right or to the left. Not becoming weak or dim. Just steady constant beam of light. Constant practice of devotion, this is intensity.
So we are meant to ultimately become intense lovers of God. We too should become intense lovers of God. And we become intense lovers of God there are four things we don’t care about – material discomforts, scarcity, impediments and unhappiness. But now we are very much worried about these things. Hey! I don’t have any money. I have a scarcity of funds here. I don’t have any money. I am pretty uncomfortable, my situation. These people I am with are making me uncomfortable. Or this wife is making me uncomfortable or this husband or whatever. So I am feeling material discomfort. And I feel so many impediments, I try to do things and I get frustrated and I get defeated and I become unsuccessful in my attempt. So, so many impediments, and all these things combined together, they make me very unhappy. So I am facing this four material problems – material discomforts, scarcity, impediments and unhappiness.
So this is what everyone is facing materially and they deal with it in different ways by trying to overcome these problems. If they are passionate, they try to overcome them. And if they are tamasic, they try to wash them away or forget about them by intoxication. But a devotee tries to transcend them. Someone who is sattvic, he tries to transcend all of it. He tries to transcend by…She just said, be in the world but not of the world. So he is in the world but he is immersing…his body is in this world but he has immersed his heart and his mind and his interest in the interest of the Lord – Krsna artha. Its called Krsna artha, the interest of Krsna. So he is so much busy with serving Krsna and caring for the needs of Krsna and attending to the desires and fulfilling the desires of Krsna which Krsna has for Him.
He doesn’t really care. He is not really so much concerned caring about these four material things – material discomforts, scarcity, impediments and unhappiness. Let them come, ok!
Today is scarcity, tomorrow is excess. Today comfortable, tomorrow uncomfortable. Today smooth sailing, tomorrow bumpy road. Today happy, tomorrow unhappy. Matras sparastu kaunteya….titiksva karunika….tolerance, tolerance. Ok.
Tolerate and go on, serve, serve, serve. Try to love Krsna more and more. Be so much concern about Krsna that we do not have time to be concerned about ourselves. If we are worried about someone else then we have no time to worry about ourselves. If all or our time is spent worrying about someone else or caring for someone else then there is no time to worry about ourselves or care for ourselves. And somehow we will go on. We will be cared for by our destiny, by the arrangement of the devas – kamano deva netrena jantor deva pataye..the arrangement of our karmas and demigods, everything will go on. Whatever food we are meant to get, we will get. Whatever happiness will come our way, it will come. No one prays for distress, but distress comes. No one says at the end of the day, O God please have someone rip off my car. Please have someone banging into my car. Please make sure when I wake up tomorrow, they is no rear view mirrors on my car. Tonight let somebody rip them off. And Lord please may someone break into my apartment tonight and rob me.
No one prays for distress. Everyone is praying, O God make me happy, give me daily bread, give me good this that. But somehow or the other, distress comes. So whether you pray or don’t pray, you are going to get happiness or distress. Better we act in such a way to improve the situation by engaging in bhakti.
TEXT 187
ei tära gäòha premä loke dekhäite
gopäla täìre äjïä dila candana änite
SP: “Çré Gopäla wanted to show how intensely Mädhavendra Puré loved Kåñëa; therefore He asked him to go to Néläcala to fetch sandalwood and camphor.
MS: Lord Caitanya is going on to glorify his param guru Madhavendra Puri in Remuna. And Lord Caitanya, He said, Sri Gopalnathji wanted to show the world how intensely Madhavendra Puri loved Krsna, therefore He asked him to go to Nilacala to fetch sandalwood and camphor.
TEXT 188
bahu pariçrame candana remuëä änila
änanda bäòila mane, duùkha nä gaëila
SP: “With great trouble and after much labor, Mädhavendra Puré brought the load of sandalwood to Remuëä. However, he was still very pleased; he discounted all the difficulties.
MS: With great trouble and after much labor, Mädhavendra Puré brought the load of sandalwood to Remuëä. However, he was still very pleased; he discounted all the difficulties.
TEXT 189
parékñä karite gopäla kaila äjïä däna
parékñä kariyä çeñe haila dayävän
SP: “To test the intense love of Mädhavendra Puré, Gopäla, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, ordered him to bring sandalwood from Néläcala, and when Mädhavendra Puré passed this examination, the Lord became very merciful to him.
MS: dayävän, one who possess mercy. Dayävän. “To test the intense love of Mädhavendra Puré, Sri Gopäla nathji, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, ordered him to bring sandalwood from Néläcala to Govardhana. and when Mädhavendra Puré passed this examination, the Lord became very merciful to him.
So he was supposed to bring this sandalwood all the way from thousands – sahasra krosa, thousands of kilometers from puri to Govardhana. That was the order of the Lord – gopal agyamrta. The nectarean order of the Lord. So Lord was assessing, will you carry out the order? Will you give up half way? Will you quit without trying? Usually we defeat ourselves before we try. We get an order to do something from Guru or Krsna or from supersoul inspired in heart. By reading sastras we get inspired to carry out some service or order or externally from guru. And then we say, O it is so difficult, I cant do that. It’s too hard, O this that. So we defeat ourselves before we even try. We don’t even try.
But he tried and he was very successful and he was tested, the Lord was testing. So then he was happy, he said alright. You only carried it one-fifth of the way. You only carried it hardly one-fifth of the way. You haven’t even gone down to Orissa yet. You have to cross over through Orissa which is quite big, then you have to cross Bihar, then you have to cross UP, then western UP to where I am standing on top of Govardhana and give Me this chandan. Gopal is asking. But you have only walked a few kilometers north of Puri where you have procured this sandalwood and I am saying, Ok, fine, you pass the test.
This is how clever, this is vidagda Krsna – how witty and clever and intelligent He is. The play of love is very clever. The play of love moves like a snake, they say the loving dealings…the snake doesn’t go straight. He contracts his body and moves in a zig zag way. So the love and the loving dealings of the Lord and His devotees, they move in the zig zag way, they don’t move straight. Specially Krsna.
So, often times we are given a very big order. We think, O this is a big order, how will I carry it out? The guru is just trying to test your response to that big order. Will you buckle under the order and say, forget it I can’t do it. Or will you say, yes yes, I will try, I will try my best, I will do it, by your mercy and by my prayers and by the mercy of Krsna it will be done. By mercy of Guru and Gauranga. Let me try with all my enthusiasm, all my sincerity, all my determination, endeavor and hard work, let me try to carry out this order. And then you are trying also and then Krsna says –
“Ok, that’s good. Thank you.”
“O, but I didn’t finish”
“O, that’s Ok. I am happy”
We have often seen this in the course of our own lives in devotional Service. You have to take on some seemingly very burdensome service and you don’t know when the end will be. You think I will go on forever. We were given service one time by GBC and when I got this service I said –
“How long will I have to do this service?”
“Lets see, I cant say, may be one year, ten years, five years.”
“I was thinking Hare Krsna, it is a difficult service, anyway, alright”
So then I tried, I surrender at least at one level. Surrendered to try to do the service. And I was thinking, this is going to be really hard. But anyways Hare Krsna, I will try. So when my mind finally submitted to the idea that we may in fact have to do this service for a long time. May be ten years or whole life or whatever; when I finally got over the mental block and the emotional upheavals of embracing and accepting this service, then it became a little easy. I said, Ok Krsna, I am all right, I give up, I am not going to fight anymore. Somehow You have put me in this position where I have to render this service and this is what You want, this is what Prabhupada wants. Ok. dasosmi. Dasa dasanu dasa. I won’t resist anymore. I was physically here, but mentally not here And I was mentally here but heartly not here. And I am physically here for you to do this service. I am mentally here for you to do this service and I am heartly here to do this service. So now you have everything – lock, stock and barrel. You have everything. You got me. Head to tail. I am not holding back anything. I gave you my body but I held back my mind. And I gave you mind but I held back my heart. Krsna, now I am giving you my mind, heart, body and everything. Manasa deho yo kichi mora.. nandakisora…so that’s called surrender. So then we surrendered in the service after sometime, then we were told by our authority.
“Ok, that’s good. That’s nice. Now that you have done this service, now you can go to India.”
I said, Hare Krsna! Jai Ho! Liberation.
So Krsna is testing. He often tests us in different ways and He wants to bring us to a certain point of realization in our relationship with Him. At certain point to deepen the relationship, to deepen our dependence on Krsna, deepen our love for Krsna and deepen our attachment to Krsna. He maneuvers us like a piece on a chess board, like a pawn on a chess board. He moves us right, left, forward, back and sometimes he checkmates us and restricts our movement. We are stuck, we cant move one way or the other. It’s His game. Bhakti is His game and we are the pawns in His games. He is the player and we are the played. He is the predominator and we are the predominated. He is the purusa and we are the prakriti. Ei kale Krsna ara sab vritya…there is one iswara, Krsna; and everyone else is His servant. Someday, somehow, somewhere we have to realize that and once we realize that we are nothing but jivera svarupa haya krsnera nitya dasa..Actually we say all this jivera svraupa….every bhakta learns this verse within five days jivera svarupa haya krsnera nitya dasa, but when we realize that my svarupa, my eternal form, my eternal svabhava, my eternal nature, I am nothing more, I am nothing less, nothing big, nothing small, nothing great and nothing less than Krsna’s servant.
And the only thing I have to do is serve Krsna. And when we realize that then we are out of here, we are liberated, the door is open, the cell is broken, the coverings are cut and the bondage is removed. But that may take a few lifetimes. Easier said than done. I am simply speaking dry philosophy here, no realization. I am just reminding us all, including myself of the ultimate principles we should try for.
Lord Caitanya goes on glorifying and praising Madhavendra Puri in verse 190
TEXT 190
ei bhakti, bhakta-priya-kåñëa-vyavahära
bujhiteo ämä-sabära nähi adhikära
SP: “Such behavior exhibited in loving service between the devotee and the devotee’s lovable object, Çré Kåñëa, is transcendental. It is not possible for a common man to understand. Common men do not even have the capacity.”
MS: “Such behavior exhibited in loving service between the devotee and the devotee’s lovable object, Çré Kåñëa, is transcendental. bhakta-priya-kåñëa. Ei bhakti, bhakta-priya-kåñëa. It is not possible for a common man to understand. Common men do not even have the capacity.”
As they say, it takes one to know one.
TEXT 191
eta bali’ paòe prabhu täìra kåta çloka
yei çloka-candre jagat karyäche äloka
SP: After saying this, Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu read the famous verse of Mädhavendra Puré. That verse is just like the moon. It has spread illumination all over the world.
MS: After saying this, Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu read the famous verse of Mädhavendra Puré. That verse is just like the moon. It has spread illumination all over the world.
Because in this verse, he is showing that how he is the kalpa vrksa, this is described in the biography of Madhavendra Puri, where they described his life, I think else it may have been in this book, it is described that way. He is a kalpa vrksa of the visuddha braja prema that Lord Caitanya came to distribute. That kalpa vrksa tree of prema is Madhavendra Puri and he produced so many fruits, the fruits on his tree of vraja prema. One fruit was Isvara puri. And Lord Caitanya of course has also received that fruit and planted the tree of vraja prema and so many hundreds of fruits manifested on the tree and Lord Caitanya proclaimed, O My tree has so many fruits but I alone cannot, I am incapable of distributing all these fruits. So I order you’ll to help Me. Initially order the six goswamis, please take these fruits from My tree. (The Caitanya tree of Krsna prema 45.06)