çré-bhagavän uväca
açocyän anvaçocas tvaà
prajïä-vädäàç ca bhäñase
gatäsün agatäsüàç ca
nänuçocanti paëòitäù
Translation:
The blessed lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for that which is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead.
Purport:
The Lord at once took the position of a teacher and chastised the student, calling him indirectly a fool. The Lord said, “You are talking like a learned man but you do not know that one who is learned—one, who knows what is body and what is soul—does not lament for any stage of the body neither in the living nor in the dead condition.” As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that the knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formulas. And because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something that was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this, is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.
çré-bhagavän uväca
açocyän anvaçocas tvaà
prajïä-vädäàç ca bhäñase
gatäsün agatäsüàç ca
nänuçocanti paëòitäù
Translation:
The blessed lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead.
Lord Krishna explains Arjuna:
This afternoon we are reading from Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Text 11. Herein, Lord Shri Krishna begins His instructions to Arjuna. Previously we read that Arjuna is presenting many instructions to Shri Krishna he is explaining so many very skillful arguments why he should not perform his duty and fight this great battle in the holy land of Kurukshetra. Krishna patiently stood watching, listening, and speaking nothing.
Krishna explains in Gita –
“Éçvaraù sarva-bhütänäà håd-deçe arjuna tiñöhati, bhrämayan sarva-bhütäni yanträrüòhäni mäyayä,
“sarvasya cähaà hådi sanniviñöo mattaù småtir jïänam apohanaà ca, vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva cäham
Krishna is seated within the heart of every living being. This body is considered to be a Chariot. The human form of life we are given this body, which is considered to be a chariot which is meant to cross us over the battlefield of this material world. For there are so many disappointments, for there are so many reversals potentially before us at any moment. It is a place of birth and death, and no one can win this battle. In this battlefield of material life, ultimately, however wealthy we are, however successful we are, however skillful, learned and prestigious we may become within this world, ultimately we are all defeated by death. And all that is left of our body is the dead corpse laying on this great battlefield. But this human form of life is a chariot, which is meant to cross us beyond this battlefield, of birth and death, material life, and bring us to the kingdom of God, to the self-realized place, our eternal home, the abode of Shri Krishna where the nature of everything is Sachidanand – eternal -full of knowledge and full of bliss. All the great religions speak of this kingdom of God or Vaikuntha as the supreme goal, the supreme destination of all living beings. And the soul is like the passenger within this chariot, and the horses are our senses and the reins of the mind which is meant to control the senses. But the most important factor is the driver. The driver is our intelligence and according to Shastras intelligence doesn’t come from our own speculative process of reasoning, the intelligence is coming from God. All intelligence is coming from Bhagavan and that intelligence is descending through disciplic succession, through the bonafide spiritual master into our lives. But as long as we think that we know, we are like Arjuna. The Lord who is within our Heart, the driver of our chariot who is within our heart simply remains silent, watching and waiting. Until finally we come to the platform of Arjuna who finally accepted
“çiñyas te ‘haà çädhi mäà tväà prapannam”,
that, “Krishna, I do not know, please instruct me,”. And Krishna begins His instruction, in such a wonderful way. Krishna is taking the position of Guru. Krishna is Jagadguru. In a similar way, the representative of Krishna, the spiritual master never speaks what he thinks, or what he feels. He speaks the word of God, he repeats the message of Godhead. This is Guru and actually, it is the super-soul, the Parmatma within your heart that speaks through the great sadhus to your ears. Because factually we have lost our connection to the Parmatma within. Because we have been wandering around through birth and birth and birth trying to fulfill our own speculative ideas, our own concoctions of what is happiness, what is truth, what is the goal of life. In this way our consciousness has been callous to hearing the sweet whisper of God’s voice within. Because our senses are so externally situated, and our consciousness is so much just running through the senses looking for pleasure and purpose in our life. Therefore Krishna is so merciful; He is so kind that from within the heart, he speaks from without so that we can hear Him.
Krishna’s teachings:
So Krishna hear begins His teachings “Arjuna, you are speaking learned words but you are a fool! You are lamenting for that which is not worthy of a sane man’s proper understanding of life. Now, this may appear to be a very humiliating experience for Arjuna. After-all he was a very advanced learned person and he was very spiritually evolved, extremely. Can you imagine how spiritually evolved Arjuna was? That he was the personal friend and associate of Krishna, he was the cousin of Krishna. They would eat together, joke together, they would lay together, they would travel together. This is evidence, that whoever we are, whatever our position is, it is always accepted gratefully, when someone in a superior position chastises us, corrects us, to help us come to a higher standard on Krishna consciousness.
Chastisement by the spiritual master:
And we find in our lives even if the great acharyas that at some times, they are chastised by the Lord or chastised by their spiritual master. That chastisement is very sweet, very humbling. Even in our own Gurudev’s life, Srila Prabhupada, if you hear how he tells about his life story. What is the most relishable part that he loves to tell us. About his first meeting with his Guru Maharaj and his Guru Maharaj called him a fool, chastised him. At that time Srila Prabhupada was following the nationalistic movement for trying to drive the British out of India and certainly was a very noble philanthropic cause and he was very devoured in this way of thinking. And Srila BhaktiSiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told him when they first met, that you should take this message of Sri Chaitanya and you should spread it all over the world in English language. That is the greatest need! Srila Prabhupada said, (he was speaking learned words like Arjuna), He said “ Maharajji, now is not the time for these spiritual discourses and spiritual training, now is the time to fight for freedom. We are on the march, Gandhi is leading us on. Besides that the English speaking language is the prime language of the world and so many distinguished countries such as England and America, how will they listen? how will they take seriously the philosophy and religion of a country that is slaved by other powers? First we must establish the dignity of the whole nationalistic cause and stand up in this world as an independant free nation. Then whatever we have to speak, people will hear with integrity. Prabhupada was speaking like Arjuna and Bhaktisiddhanta said in so many words this is all nonsense there is only one need in this world and that is Krishna Consciousness, God consciousness. Political parties throughout history have always been changing, and through the rest of history, political parties will be changing. We can see this in our modern life. Eastern Europe, this Russia, one time it was a monarchy, there was the czar, is what we are talking about the largest country in the entire world. First the czar was in control, it was a monarchy, and then the communist just kicked them out and took over. It became communist and now the communist have been kicked out and its become, nobody really knows what its become. Something like a democracy. So in this way politics are always changing and will always change because what is politics? The outs want to get in and the ins want to stay in and keep the outs out. And no matter how noble our cause may be if we still have and exploitative way of thinking, if we still have material desires in our hearts then even if we conquer an opposing party with so many noble causes we become what they were. We try to manipulate and exploit the innocent people and this is how the world turns throughout history. The strong and the powerful leaders suppress the innocent, the weak, the weak revolt, they take over and it’s wonderful for a while! But then the weak, now they are strong, so then they exploit, manipulate and suppress the weak. And after sometime, the weak rise and they turn over and they become strong, and then they become just as bad or worse! This is politics, this is nationalism, therefore spiritual consciousness is the most important and greatest need within this world. Krishna consciousness! This means to revive our original, pure spiritual state of mind by which we understand that we are eternally the servant of the servant of the servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And cleanse from the heart this all of these manipulative desires to Lord over material nature. We are motivated by love, by devotion, by pure thought. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati explained that this is the great need of this world and this cannot wait for this political change or that political change, it must be now! And Srila Prabhupada would tell us with tears of love in his eyes as he would be smiling “My Guru Maharaj defeated me, and I was so happy to be defeated by my Gurudev!” This is Krishna consciousness, simply being and willing to be the humble servant of Guru Maharaj.
And here we find Arjuna being chastised by Krishna as a fool, “You are wrong!” Arjuna said, “Very nice, thank you so much” And not only is Krishna chastising Arjuna but is publicly chastising Arjuna! There were so many millions of soldiers on the Kuru dynasty watching on one side, there were the Pandavas watching on the other side, and all the demigods watching from above there were all of the lower things watching from below. It was a 360 degrees ampitheatre and Arjuna was right in the middle with Krishna. Everyone was listening, not only that, but certainly Arjuna knew whatever Krishna speaks will be put in the shastras therefore for thousands and millions of years to come everybody is going to read about Krishna chastising me, calling me a fool. But Arjuna was grateful, he was happy! We want to be the servant of God.
Shri Advaita acharya:
There’s a story of Shri Advaitacharya who is an incarnation of God himself. He so much wanted to be chastised by Lord Chaitanya, so much wanted, but somehow or other Shri Advaitacharya was at an advanced position because he was Lord Chaitanya’s Guru’s God-brother. He was initiated by Srila Madhavendra Puri. Also he was a very olderer man. Far older than Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So Lord Chaitanya always gave him the utmost respect. He always treated him as an elder, and a senior. But Advaita Acharya was thinking that I want to be understood by the whole world and by the Lord himself that I am the servant. I am not anything but the servant of Mahaprabhu. So he would in so many ways try to incite Lord Chaitanya to chastise him because when you are chastised by the master then the relationship is understood. So what happened is this. He began to give lectures, and he was such a powerful and great speaker that people from all around would come to hear him and he was interpreting the absolute truth through the impersonalistic conception. He was explaining that the supreme God ultimately is impersonal formless, without eyes, without hands, without ears, without legs, without mouth. And we can all become God, we are as good as God in the ultimate state. Because he knew that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was Krishna himself was teaching the supreme path of devotion to God, eternal devotion, eternal servitude. That is the highest principle of Vedanta. So people were coming to Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saying “Do you know that Shri Advaitacharya, is speaking monist philosophy, that we are all God, that there is no distinction, that God is formless. Shri Gaursundar said “No no ! not possible. My devotee, Shri Advaita, would never speak like that, he is a disciple of a Madhvendra Puri, he has served the truth.
No bhakta could possibly be interested in this philosophy of oneness. We want to be one in love, we want to be one in spirit of devotion. We want our will to be one with God’s will.
‘ mamaivamso jiv loke jiv bhutah sanatanah’
that we are eternally the separated parts of Krishna, therefore we are
‘ jivera svarupa hoye nitya krishna das’
we are eternally Krishna’s servants. Shri Advaita has heard from the bonafide parampara. He is as good as my Guru, he would not say like this! No no. Shriman Mahaprabhu is getting these complaints. Please come here for yourself!”
So Lord Chaitanya went to attend Shri Advaita’s lecture and when Advaita saw Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sitting in his class. With so much enthusiasm he began to preach, “You are God, I am God, we all are God. Bhakti is good only. Bhakti is a nice thing, you chant the holy name, you become purified then no need for service, you become the supreme controller, the Absolute. When Lord Chaitanya heard this, he became so angry, transcendentally angry. The Lord’s anger is not like our anger. Why do we become angry? We become angry because our senses are unfulfilled. Someone gets in our way of sense gratification and that person deserves the wrath of God. Therefore we become very angry. Our anger is based on false ego but whatever qualities we have are in their perfect state situated in God and in His pure devotees. Therefore when God or his pure devotees become angry, their anger is simply an intense method to teaching us a lesson.
Just like sometimes the baby child is doing all nonsense and the mother is not really angry but she scolds the child, she pretends to be angry for the child’s sake! Not because of her own frustrations. So Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu upon hearing Shri Advaita speaking this mis-information, ran up to the stage and began to beat Advaita with his own hands, slapping him, punching him and Advaita was in ecstasy! He just started laughing and crying in divine love and Lord Chaitanya said, “Why you are in such ecstasy? He said because today you have accepted me as your servant, thank you very much! I am eternally your servant.” And then Lord Chaitanya became embarrassed. He said, “You have tricked me!” He said, “No no no! It is by your mercy that I have received this wonderful chastisement.” So these are great personalities.
Sanatan Goswami:
There’s another story about Sanatan Goswami. He is a nitya siddha, of the highest order. Chaitanya Charitamrita describes how Srila Sanatan Goswami, was travelling by the instructions of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He came to Vrindavan and Mathura. He was supposed to meet Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at that place. But because by the inconceivable will of the Lord, he was put in prison. So many great souls have been put in prison. He was put in prison and therefore he was late and by the time he reached Mathura, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had already left for Jaggannath Puri. So he began to travel by foot to Jaggannath Puri where Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was residing and as he was travelling he was walking through the Jharikhanda forest. In the forest there was not much for him to eat and nothing to drink. So one day to quench his thirst, he drank some water but that water was highly polluted, something like the water in Bombay, but even worse! So because he drank this polluted water, he became very much inflicted with the disease. And this disease caused a covering to his whole body with terrible, terrible itching sensation and it created a condition where there were horrible smelling liquids oozing from his sores that were present all over his whole body. He smelled horrible, he felt horrible, he was in utterly painful condition of suffering and he considered himself to be in such an offensive position that If I am going to Jagannath Puri, first of all I am from a lower caste, although he was a Saraswat brahman, because he had served those from the lower order of life according to true Vedic culture, in the orthodox system of the caste system, for your information, if one of the higher caste in any way becomes the servant of some one in lower caste, he loses his caste. So actually in India today everyone is casteless. If you want to speak from the orthodox point of view so we should not be so proud! So he was considering, I was serving a melechha king and therefore I have no caste, I am casteless. Therefore I am low and I am so abominable and so contaminating due to this disease that if the pujaris of Lord Jaggannath in any way come near me or touch me, it will be a great offense to the Lord. And how can I come before Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in this state? Therefore I am the lowest creature in all of existence, I am sinful, I am suffering and there is no reason for me to continue living! While I go to Jagannath Puri in that very, very holy place, I will devise this plan- During the Rathyatra, when Shri Jagannathdev ,Balaramji and Subhadra are being carried in their chariots from Jagannath mandir to Gundicha mandir, at that time Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will be dancing and chanting the holy names Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare and all of those great paramhansa vaishnav devotees of the lord will all be gathered around tumultuously calling out Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare . In that most auspicious circumstance I will throw this wretched body under the chariot of Jagannath, under the wheel of Jagannath’s chariot and I will die in the presence of the holynames and the Vaishnavas and then perhaps I will get a higher birth in my next life.
This was his humility and this was his resolution. So he was meditating in this way as he approached Jagannath Puri dham and when he arrived, he inquired from people as to where is the residence of Srila Haridas Thakur. And he went to the home of Haridas Thakur and Haridas was so pleased to meet him. Haridas is known as the Naamacharya. He was constantly glorifying the holy names of Krishna, and he was one of the most intimate associates of the Lord. But because he was born from a Muslim family, the preist in the Jaggannath temple would not allow him in. So therefore he never even attempted to go in. And Lord Chaitanya personally gave him his residence very close to Jaggannath temple. And all of the true vaishnavas worshipped his lotus feet and accepted him as a Paramhansa, a devotee who can deliver the whole world by his mercy.
So what happened is this- They greeted each other and Sanatan asked Haridas, “Where is Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?” And Haridasa Thakur said that, He will be coming in any minute now. And just at that moment Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and Sanatan Goswami and Haridas Thakur both offered the dandavats, the prostrated obeisances. And Haridas Thakur said, that this is Sanatan Goswami, he has come all the way from Mathura to see you. And Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to embrace him and Sanatan goswami said, “No! My Lord, please do not come near me, do not touch me, please see I have all these oozing terrible disease sores all over my body and I am such a sinful person, you should not touch me. But Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu forcibly embraced him with great love and affection. Then he said, “My dear Sanatan, I am embracing you for my own purification,
‘bhavavida bhaktas sthitabhut’,
he quoted Maharaj Yudhisthira when he was speaking to Vidura that a pure devotee of the lord, a great vaishnava, all the holy places reside in his body. He explained because you are always remembering Vishnu in your heart, you are like a walking temple. Because you are always glorifying the Lord, you are a holy place and he began to explain that even if a person is born in a brahmana family and has all the twelve qualifications of a brahmana, and is a great learned scholar in the Vedas, unless he is a humble devotee of the lord, he cannot deliver anyone, even himself! But even if a person is born in the family of a chandala, of the lowest untouchable dog eater, if he is a humble, sincere devotee of the Lord, he can be the Guru for all the Universe and deliver all. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began to quote so many wonderful slokas proving this point from the scriptures and he began to glorify Sanatan in such a way, “I am touching you, I am embracing you for my own purification and anyone who even sees a vaishnava like you will become purified. And we can see, how Krishna is so merciful to you, that He has delivered you from all material attachments and He has brought you here. Then Sanatan Goswami replied, “My Lord, I do not know what is Krishna’s mercy? I only know by your mercy Guru Maharaj, I have been delivered from the clutches of birth and death. I am like a wooden doll and you are like the magician, please, make me what you want me to be.” In these ways Mahaprabhu inquired from Sanatan about, how all of the devotees in Vrindavan were, he inquired how is their health, how is their Krishna Consciousness and Sanatan informed him that all the devotees are in very good health and they are all doing very well and explained the various projects.
Every day Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come to that bhajan-kutir which was named Sidhaba-kula of Haridas Thakur. Every day he would come to meet Haridas and Sanatan. Because, since they were not allowed in to see Jagannath, Jagannath would come out every day in his form of Shri Chaitanya to meet with them, to give them personal darshan and every day Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would get the finest forms of Mahaprasad from Jagannath and personally with his own hands would deliver to Haridas and Sanatan. This is His love for His devotee.
So as time was going on, one day, Sanatan and Haridas, they offered their obeisances as Lord Chaitanyya came and Lord Chaitanya began to speak. He said, “If one could attain Krishna by committing suicide, I personally would commit suicides millions and millions and millions of times. But the fact is, this is a nonsense mental concoction. One can only attain Krishna by pure devotional service and there is no other way! There are nine processes of devotional service;
śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, vandana,
pāda-sevana, dāsya re
pūjana, sakhī-jana, ātma-nivedana
By executing these nine processes of devotional service one can purify one’s heart. And by becoming such a humble servant of the servant of the servant and by properly chanting the holy name which is the most important process within the path of Bhakti, only through this way can we attain Krishna. Therefore your idea to destroy your own body is all nonsense and you are a fool! And then he turned to Haridas Thakur and said, “See this man, what is his consciousness, he has already surrendered himself to me therefore his body is my property, what right does he have to destroy another man’s property? This is sinful and you cannot attain Krishna by any sinful means. Only by humble devotional service and chanting His name.
So here we find Lord Chaitanya chastising this great paramhansa vaishnava Sri Sanatan Goswami and how did Sanatan accept this? With great humility. “Oh! My Lord”, he was thinking in his mind, “You are not very appreciative of my plans, therefore I am your servant”. “Whatever you desire” Lord Chaitanya told Sanatan, that I have many great plans that I want to fulfill through your body and this is the way great devotees think. That we are not the doer! At the most the greatest thing in our life is that we can become simply the instrument in the hands of the great souls.
And when Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left, after chastising his devotee in this way, Haridas Thakur began to explain to Sanatan, “You are so fortunate, you are so fortunate, that the Lord wants to do so many wonderful things through you.” He explained that we are not the doer. It is the greatest misconception, it is the root of all false pride to think that we are the doer and to think that we deserve credit for anything we do. A devotee understands,
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
The bewildered soul thinks himself the doer of activities. For a materialist all his activities are just being performed, a materialist is just a puppet in the hands of the three modes of material nature, of maya, rajoguna, tamoguna, sattva guna. The modes of material nature are simply changing in such a way to manipulate our consciousness, to manipulate all of our activities and desires and we are just puppets in the hands of maya. And the strings that keep us connected to Maya are our own material attachments.
And in the spiritual sense for those who are liberated souls or aspiring for liberation, they simply want to be the puppets in the hands of Krishna and His eternal servants. Therefore they take credit for nothing that they do. We give all glory, all credit to our spiritual master, who in turn is giving all of that credit to Krishna. That is parampara. The spiritual master is the Viceroy, he is the representative of God on this earth. But how does he represent God? Not by becoming God, by becoming the transparent media, the servant of God. Delivering the mercy of God and receiving our humble offerings and offering it to the Lord’s lotus feet with love. Therefore it is said,
‘Säksäd-dharitvena samasta-sästrair’,
that one should respect Guru the way one respects God. Knowing that whatever respect we offer is going to Krishna. But the Guru, the disciple, no body should dare think that they are the doer of their activity. We are all instruments, we are all aspiring to be the puppets in the hands of God.
That greatest of all the acharyas His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who took the true essence of Vedic teachings and spread it throughout the world and transformed millions of peoples lives like never before done in our history. In his writings we were reading yesterday, he was simply considering himself to be the puppet in the hands of Radha and Krishna, the puppet in the hands of his spiritual master, ‘Nachau Nachau” , “My dear Lord, I am a puppet in your hands, make me dance as you like me to dance, make me dance! My dear Guru Maharaj, my dear Krishna, please let me not speak a word for myself, speak through me, let me only repeat your divine instructions. For then I can do real service to humanity.”
Whatever wealth we have, whatever intelligence we have, whatever expertise we may have, whatever prestige we may have, as soon as we think it is ours to give, we will be overcome by Maya but if we understand Krishna, it is yours! Just like we go to the river Ganges and we take the water from the Ganges and we offer it back to the Ganges. If we offer it with love, we attain the perfection of life, but if we think, “Oh! Mother Ganges, see what a wonderful soul I am, see how I am helping you by giving you extra water, without me how will you survive?” The Ganges does not need our water but she appears to need our water, because by taking from her and offering it back to her, in humble expression of service and devotion, we become purified and she becomes satisfied by that offering. So everything belongs to Krishna,
‘sarva-loka maheshvaram’
All planets and everything within our planets are the property of God. Therefore really what is devotional service? Devotional service simply means a change of consciousness that we take from Krishna to give to Krishna. And whatever apparatus we have to give with, it is all coming from Krishna. Its just surrendering to be a part of his lila of love. And to give all credit to Krishna, that is the perfection of life!
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya:
One time Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was coming to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s house. He said, “Sarvabhauma, it is morning now, I will come to accept prasadam from you this afternoon. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and his wife began to cook and when Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, there were just hundreds of preparations. They all had such aroma and such flavour and such beauty and color. This offering was prepared in such a wonderful way. Lord Chaitanya was struck with wonder. He said, “My dear Sarvabhauma, how is it possible? It would have taken ten brahmans, ten days to cook this much prasad, how have you done it with your wife in just a few hours? And what was Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s reply? He said “My Lord, we have not cooked it. He, for whom it was meant for, has prepared it all, we only carry the ingredients. In another words my Lord, You cooked it all but you are so merciful and kind to us that you allowed us to be carrying these ingredients. This is the consciousness of the true devotees of the Lord.
So we find, Haridasa Thakur explaining this principle to Sanatan Goswami and Haridasa Thakur, such an exalted vaishnava, he is saying “Sanatan, you are so fortunate, you are so lucky that by the causeless mercy of the lord, you have been chastised by Him, you have been corrected by Him!” This is the reciprocation of love. So if in this most exalted lila of the highest saints, we learn this- We should be very grateful, that when any senior vaishnava decides to correct us or chastise us, we should be so honored and grateful that this attention is being shown to me. We find that first Lord Chaitanya praised Sanatan by saying that, “I am touching you just for my own purification and after setting him up with such an incredible glorification, then he said you are a nonsense sinful man. It is said that Krishna and Guru, at times, they can be more soft than a rose with sweet encouraging words, but at another time according to what is needed by the disciple, they become hard like a thunderbolt. That thunderbolt crashes through the mountain of our false ego.
So in this way, a devotee accepts whatever comes from senior vaishnavas as the mercy of Krishna and is grateful and acts accordingly. And by this humble disposition of mind we can become like Sanatan, we can become like Arjuna, we can become like Srila Prabhupada, and we can see the highest truth and we can receive the divine blessing of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and become his perfect instruments in this world.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
