Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 14.08.2018, Ludasto)

(continues from the previous Friday)

“Eventually two brahmanas in the renounced order arrived from Bengal, and Madhavendra Puri, who liked them very much, kept them in Vrindavana and gave them all kinds of comforts. These two were then initiated by Madhavendra Puri, and he entrusted them with the daily service of the Lord. This service was performed continuously, and the worship of the Deity became very gorgeous. Thus Madhavendra Puri was very pleased. In this way the Deity worship in the temple was very gorgeously performed for two years. Then one day Madhavendra Puri had a dream. In his dream, Madhavendra Puri saw Gopala, who said, “My bodily temperature still has not decreased. Please bring sandalwood from the Malaya province and smear the pulp over My body to cool Me.“Bring sandalwood pulp from Jagannatha Puri. Kindly go quickly. Since no one else can do it, you must.” After having this dream, Madhavendra Puri Gosvami became very glad due to ecstasy of love of Godhead, and in order to execute the command of the Lord, he started east toward Bengal. Before leaving, Madhavendra Puri made all arrangements for regular Deity worship, and he engaged different people in various duties. Then, taking up the order of Gopala, he started for Bengal. When Madhavendra Puri arrived at the house of Advaita Acharya in Shantipura, the Acharya became very pleased upon seeing the ecstatic love of Godhead manifest in Madhavendra Puri. Advaita Acharya begged to be initiated by Madhavendra Puri. After initiating Him, Madhavendra Puri started for South India.[1]

So, here you can see a business model. You start as a penniless mendicant; you have a dream; then you start to establish a big mission, a big temple, big worship; then you have another dream – and again you are a beggar. Whether we have or we don’t have, one thing should be a fully fixed focus in our life – the service and the dear company of God. A grand temple or one dream under a tree – it doesn’t matter. Be connected. So, this business model we should follow. Maybe today you are in the mood for bringing your foodstuff and grain to the Annakuta ceremony. But when you have a dream and Krishna calls you for other services, be ready to jump.

These were the nectarean drops for today. May I add some bitter drops as well? Don’t think that such cases exist only in vaishnava history, in legendary times. I feel that we should live in such a manner to recreate these ideals, these pure conditions. Please help me in that. I want to do this. I like it and I want to see and offer such conditions. There are so many stupidities around. Why behave like that? Why not in a spiritual way? The ultimate things are very simple: you come from the Supreme, you belong to Him, you are a spirit soul and you have a living and loving connection. Why any other complications? What else is necessary?

Today we all agree and we smile, and we say: “Yes.” And tomorrow? Tomorrow we are back to the original condition. Better we improve the overall condition of our consciousness so that we can live in a miracle. Please help me in this respect.

All the limitations and all the shortcomings that we perceive are on a lower platform.   The sufferings that are due to material existence are on a lower platform. You don’t suffer due to higher entities. You don’t suffer heavy disease or… well, sometimes we do, but we do our best. You don’t die of hunger. Mostly your sufferings are on the mental platform. People don’t suffer due to the external conditions, they suffer due to how they perceive that. Many times we perceive our life like so: ‘Oh, this is so difficult’. I was complaining that I don’t have shoes until I met a person who doesn’t have feet. So, raise the level of your consciousness. Don’t be stuck into the mud of your mind. And please, differentiate between all these levels of realities of sufferings – bodily, mental. All the mental trouble that we have is not spiritual. It is not! Once we can reach the spiritual platform, we have to re-evaluate our conditions.

Madhavendra Puri was happy, coming as a poor penniless mendicant. No money, no social security, no pension system, no relatives, no companions, no food. Still, he was able to dream. Then he started to serve in the temple. All day being engaged in different services, cooking a lot, offering a lot. But actually, he was way too conditioned with this beggar’s life. Still he didn’t eat anything. Only some milk products at evening times. So, you might say that we are similar to Madhavendra Puri. We are also bringing our previous conditioning to the spiritual life. Before we were complaining; now we are also complaining. But remember Gurudev’s words: “What is your kirtan?”

(to be continued)

[1] Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya, 4.103-111