Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




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(continues from the previous Monday)

 

“But then what happened to the fruit seller? She was sitting there and thinking. Her heart had been stolen by Krishna. And without her heart she could only be absorbed in remembering Him. After some time someone came and asked: “Why are you here? What are you doing here?” And then she came to her senses and remembered her duties. So she took her basket and started back home to Mathura. Midway, when close to the Yamuna, she began to wonder with the basket on her head: ‘Wait a minute; I have given all the fruits to this Krishna. Why this basket is so heavy?’ And when she removed the basket from her head she saw that it was full of diamonds and many other jewels. She became astonished. But again she put the basket back on her head and then threw it into the Yamuna. She had no need of the jewels at all. What became of her? Nobody knows. She became totally mad in the eyes of the world. Do you know what became of her? She became greater than Devahuti. She was not concerned whether her veil was on or off. In what condition she was, she was not concerned. She was always in trance and she entered a state even greater than trance. It may be that Krishna immediately took her bodily form, her outer shell, and quickly gave her a greater position than Putana, sending her at once to Goloka Vrindavana to serve Him there. Krishna is so kind. She had no special relationship with Krishna, her bhakti was passive, like shanta-rasa. Still, thinking her sometimes like a mother, Krishna had called her ‘mother’. Therefore Krishna gave her a very superior position. He is so merciful! So, try to quickly realize all these truths. If your bhakti is very high, then in one birth you can achieve destination like this. This fruit seller lady went to Vrindavana, which is superior to any other achievements.”

So, what is the essence of this story? The first is that we should have a desire. She had the desire to meet her beloved small baby-God, Krishna. Therefore she set the target and then she started to work very hard to achieve that target. So, she had this trick, that ‘by selling my fruits I will meet my Lord’. Any fruit sellers here? Maybe we are not fruit sellers, yet we have some means to meet Him. But you know, the intense desire for meeting God is very powerful. So, sometimes you just mix up things in these intensive feelings. And she did it; instead of ‘Take my fruits, take my fruits’, she started to say: ‘Take my Govinda! Take my Madhava!’ So, she forgot about her fruits, the means, but she did not forget about Krishna, the end. And, you know, if you are a businessman or a businesswoman, you must make reasonable businesses. What is business – you give less and you receive more. This is a reasonable business. If you always make business like this that you give more and you receive less, it’s not a business, it’s a failure. Very soon you will end up that enterprise. But when she finally came to Krishna, she made a very bad deal. For a few pieces of grains she gave all her fruits.

In India sometimes you see that the beggars are waiting in front of the temples and sometimes really it happens that people come and distribute for example rice. I mean, these are not only beggars, but sometimes they are like pilgrims, totally depending on divine providence. They take this dependence as a divine practice. And then people come and distribute few grains of rice to them – really very few sometimes.

But this little boy brought only one or two. And He desired more. “Which fruit do You like?” – the lady asked. How it happens with small children? First you think that they are satisfied with one, but then they will start to point to the next one: “Give me this one, give me that one…” – they collect. So, finally the lady had given all her fruits, receiving only few grains in exchange. Was it a bad bargain? I don’t think so. But she was not concerned with that, she did not calculate, she was ready to give. ‘If I receive something – nice; if I don’t receive – it does not matter, because my goal is fulfilled, I have met Him.’

And then Krishna took the fruits to His mother. You know, kids are very nice, they are ready to share. Yesterday I visited a family and the small boy there was picking one cracker… It was very sweet: first he was biting a little bit and then giving to me. I also had to bite a little bit and then he was again taking – this was our exchange. So sweet! He is ready to share. You see: ‘I take, it’s nice. You also take, because this is nice.’

So, Krishna took all the fruits to His mother. And then the miracle started to happen, because all the neighbors and all the friends came to the mother. And they started to distribute the fruits – never-ending! From our spiritual trainings we know that usually divine personalities multiply the food – like Jesus. So again this was an unlimited stock of fruits here. Symbolically fruits mean fruits of your actions. So if you are ready to dedicate the fruits of your actions to God, then finally you will meet Him.

 

(to be continued)

 

 



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