kim etad adbhutam iva
vāsudeve ‘khilātmani
vrajasya sātmanas tokeṣv
apūrvaḿ prema vardhate
(SB 10.13.36)
Translation
What is this wonderful phenomenon? The affection of all the inhabitants of Vraja, including Me, toward these boys and calves is increasing as never before, just like our affection for Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supersoul of all living entities.
Purport
This increase of affection was not māyā; rather, because Kṛṣṇa had expanded Himself as everything and because the whole life of everyone in Vṛndāvana was meant for Kṛṣṇa, the cows, because of affection for Kṛṣṇa, had more affection for the older calves than for the new calves, and the men increased in their affection for their sons. Balarāma was astonished to see all the residents of Vṛndāvana so affectionate toward their own children, exactly as they had been for Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the cows had grown affectionate toward their calves — as much as toward Kṛṣṇa. Balarāma was surprised to see the acts of yogamāyā. Therefore He inquired from Kṛṣṇa, “What is happening here? What is this mystery?”
Lord is everything and everything is Lord:
Here in, Srila Sukhdev Goswami is giving us an entrance in to the mind of Lord Balaramji. He is simply astonished to see this phenomenon. Not only in the lives of the Gopas, the cowherd boys and in the cows. But especially he is astonished to witness a phenomenon within himself because never he’s been attractive with so much affection toward these cows and boys. He is explaining here that, I am attracted with the same affection as I am for Lord Krishna, the super soul of all living entities. He is addressing Krishna here, as the Khilatmani; the super soul of all living entities. This means that Krishna is personally, divinely present within the heart of every living being and every living being is part and parcel of Sri Krishna. So really what is the eternal Lila of the Supreme personality of Godhead? Krishna is eternally enjoying Himself. Krishna eternally loves Himself because everything is Krishna. Every living entity is part of Krishna. When Krishna loves His part, He loves Himself although we are part of Krishna. When we love Krishna, we love the supreme essence and the Supreme source of our own selves. So really, in truth, the whole exchange of Bhakti is eternally simply Krishna having wonderful pastimes of love with Himself. And how His affection, His ecstasy is ever increasing toward Himself! In this way, every living entity is in truth, simply a part of the eternal ecstatic and mysterious Lila of Lord Krishna. That is why sometimes we hear that the Mahabhagvat see everything as perfect. Sometimes on the Uttam Adhikari platform, people just don’t see the reason to preach because everything is God’s Lila. Even the illusion and even the suffering of this material world is simply part of God’s Supreme Lila of enjoying his own energies. But part of that Lila is that Krishna, although He expands Himself in each of His parts and parcels and He creates that little part of Himself to be an individual with an individual state of consciousness, with freedom and independence to choose, to love Himself or rebel against Himself, He allows this facility so that without this realm of His infinite expansions there can’t be the Lila of personal, individual ecstatic love. But in substance Krishna is sat-cit-ananda vigraha and every part of Krishna is sat-cit-ananda vigraha and the Mahamaya potency and the Yogamaya potency; the material energy and the spiritual energy, they are both perfectly orchestrated by Lord Sri Krishna, in such a way that every part of himself is given the full freedom by which that ecstatic Lila can only increase in the spiritual world.
Naughtiness – thy name is Krishna:
Why did God create this material world? It’s a place where His parts and parcels appear to be suffering, appear to be working so hard in such a hard struggle for existence. Why does He create this? In the ultimate issue the only reason why He creates it is simply to increase the ecstasy and the love of the spiritual world. Without a place like this the sweetness of the spiritual world would not be to such an infinite degree. Love means free choice. Krishna according to the Bhagvatam is Abhigya svarat. Abhigya means he is all knowing and svarat means he has independence. He is free therefore every part of Him that expands for Him also is partially abhigya and svarat, independent and with some perception of knowledge. Just like it is said in the bible, that we are made in the image of God. He has independence. All the qualities of Krishna in its purest highest degree are infinitesimally manifested within the living entity. Not all but 78% of the qualities are within living entity. Krishna is the complete whole and everything He does is perfect and complete. Krishna’s lust is perfect and complete. Its pure, its unmotivated. Krishna’s stealing is perfect and complete. Krishna’s telling lies is perfect and complete and they are simply meant for one’s pleasure. I mean for one purpose to give pleasure to Himself through all of His expansions headed by Srimati Radharani. So we find in Vrindavan Krishna is stealing the butter from the Vraja Gopis and He is making so many clever arrangements. He goes in sometimes at night with his friends and he breaks the pots and steals the butter. Sometimes they put it, they hang it in the rafters and he comes in and climbs on his friend’s shoulders and somehow tries to reach up but if it is still high, he pokes it with stick and makes a hole for all the butter to fall to the ground, then they will eat it and enjoy it and lead a wonderful festival. Feed it to the monkeys. Whatever is left they throw it on the walls and on the floors and say this butter is so useless that monkeys do not even like it. Sometimes they go to the Gopi’s little baby children, they pinch them and make them cry when they are sleeping, they put water in their ears. Sometimes, when they cannot find the butter so easily, Krishna in anger passes urine on the floor of the Vraja Gopis.
And then when His mother asks, “Did you do these things?” He says, “No, How can you say I do these things?” When the Gopis accuse Him, “Why are you stealing?” He says, “No. Why would I steal? My father is Nanda Maharaj. He has 900,000 cows. You think I need butter from your house’s rear pots? I have not done it”. So in this little Lila we find Krishna is lying, Krishna is stealing, Krishna is becoming angry, Krishna is obviously lusty for butter and not only that He is performing little immoral activity of passing urine on the floor. He is old enough to know better yet when the Gopis were complaining like this to mother Yashoda, Mother Yashoda said, “Ok then. I will punish my Krishna”. And they said, “No no. Please understand that the only reason why we live, the only reason why we make out butter, the only reason why we clean our houses is just to prepare for Krishna to come in and start stealing all of our things and performing these most wonderful delightful pastimes which is our life and soul. It is our service to Krishna. To just prepare our lives in such a way, to prepare our homes in such a way that it will be pleasing for Him to come and enjoy is our life and soul. If Krishna doesn’t do it, in such a stealing prankish way and if the gopis don’t retaliate the ecstasy and the excitement of their love would not be to the same degree. It would actually be quite boring right for Krishna?”
Eternal reciprocation of love in Krishna’s world:
Just like little children today, I will frankly admit before the deities, that I use to do things to break the law when I was a little child. Just little things not big things because it was exciting. If you just follow all the laws, life is boring. Even if you do not want to hurt anybody, also not that you want to have some greedy ambition but just for excitement, you just do something that breaks the law. Just so you will be scared and you run away and just give some sort of vitality to your life out of the syndrome of just everybody is doing what they are supposed to do. Of course in Krishna consciousness anything you do according to the law of Krishna. We don’t have to break the laws. Life is exciting following all the laws of Krishna. You don’t have to worry about breaking anything. But if you are following all the laws of the state you are not leading a devotee’s life so it becomes boring. Why is that? It’s because Krishna, when He is a child, He does these things just to bring excitement to the life of all of His devotees, just to increase the ecstasy, the mystery of His Lila. But factually he does it simply to give pleasure to His devotees. And some devotees become angry with Him only to give pleasure to Him. Goloka Vrindavan simply is that place for Krishna, where He is giving pleasure to Himself; the supreme enjoyer, the Supreme enjoyer of everything. But we cannot understand this with our limited consciousness. How could Krishna give pleasure to Himself, be selfless? God is not selfish. God is completely selfless because in each of His expansions, even though they are of Him, still they have a unique individual personality and there is a unique loving relationship. There is nothing impersonal that exists in the spiritual world, everything is personal. Every speck of dust is Krishna in partial expansion that is simply expressing the full capacity of their love for Krishna; their complete whole. Krishna; the complete whole, is giving all of His love to each of His parts without discrimination. That is the spiritual world. How does Krishna reciprocate?
There is a story, I will give small example, consider a flower is growing in Vrindavan. So when Krishna sees the flower, the flower sees Krishna, the flower just with all of her might she just prepares herself to be just so beautiful for the sight of Krishna. Just like when a girl, when a young girl loves the young man she will go in front of the mirror and just every little part of her dying corpse, she will just try to make it so beautiful so that he will enjoy her right? Combing hairs and putting on mascaras and putting clothes and seeing which smile looks the most charming and I don’t know what else but they all do like this. Just for the pleasure of their beloved to attract his mind to attract his heart. So the flower when looking at Krishna just makes herself as beautiful as possible just for Krishna’s pleasure. And when Krishna sees the flower he thinks of beauty, love and devotion from the flower’s end. So Krishna makes himself more beautiful for the flower’s pleasure. And when the flower sees “Oh Krishna just see what he is doing for me. How much he loves me” She makes herself more beautiful for Krishna’s pleasure. And when Krishna sees oh the intensity of how she is reciprocating to my love, How much she loves me, Krishna makes himself more beautiful. Eternally they can stand there making each other more beautiful for each other. And the flower is thinking Krishna is only with me. How fortunate I am? In this way, in the spiritual world, everybody is eternally ever increasing in their loving reciprocation with Krishna. Krishna is ever increasing in his love for every living entity and it is expressed through every activity, through every word, through every glance in the spiritual world. Every living entity is eternally increasing the expression of their love and their innermost feelings of love for Krishna. Nothing is stagnant, nothing is impersonal. This is the divine Lila of the Lord. Another words Krishna is the Supreme atmaram.
The Love exchange – To enjoy and be enjoyed:
oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
He is perfect and he is complete. The essence and the Supreme manifestation of his perfect completeness is he is always eternally longing to enjoy more and more and more and more of his own expansions and energies. And here we find Lord Balaram He is purna avatar. Krishna and Balaram they are purna avatar. They are the full incarnations with all opulences. But yet Balaramji, He is simply enjoying, with ultimate affection, his relationship with Krishna. What a wonderful phenomenon! Balaramji says the affection of all the inhabitants of Vraja including me towards these boys and calves is increasing as never before. Just like our affection for Krishna, the super soul of all living entities. So here we find out what is the relationship between Krishna and Balaram. It is the relationship, Balaramji says, of ever increasing affection for one another. Although obviously Krishna knows He is Balaram and Balaram knows He is Krishna. The perfection of their relationship is that their understanding of their oneness is forgotten not because of illusion, Krishna never forgets anything. So really it is not forgotten but actually it is simply eclipsed by the intensity of their love for one another. How do we know? We cannot figure these things out but Balaram is telling us right here this is love. This is how God loves himself? And that is why every Jivatma a devotee sees as part of God. An expansion of Krishna in a minute infinitesimal form and Krishna has expanded into this form simply to enjoy and to be enjoyed. The only purpose of the Jiva is to be enjoyed by Krishna and to enjoy Krishna. So therefore a Vaishnava has respect for every jivatma. He has not only respect but has love for every Jivatma.
Vaishnava etiquette – the ornament for a devotee:
Just like there is that story of when Srila Rupa Goswami, he was compiling in Vrajabhumi, one of his most celebrated Vaishnava literatures. It is explained, Vallabhacharya at that time he was a very old man. Because Vallabhacharya was older even than Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu offered him respect out of etiquette as a very senior Vaishnava. So when Rupa and Sanatana were living in Vrindavan, Srila Vallabhacharya was considered a very senior Vaishnava. So Vaishnava etiquette is such an important thing amongst Vaishnavas and the more advanced we become the more we have heard about the principles of Vaishnava etiquette. The more we advance, the more we want to advance, the more we must very very carefully honor the principles of Vaishnava etiquette. Even Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, carefully He observed the etiquette amongst Vaishnavas. Even though He was the supreme Godhead still He honored those who were the God brothers of His Guru, who accepted Him as God and worshipped Him. He always gave them higher seat, always gave them special seva, service. So this is the part of duty of Vaishnava etiquette. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says the observance of Vaishnava etiquette is the ornament that gives beauty to a devotee. If you don’t observe Vaishnava etiquette, there is no beauty; there is no charm to our spirituality in the eyes of God or others. Rupa Goswami was writing and of course he is the incarnation of Rupa Manjari, therefore he knows intimately, the most confidential aspects of Sri Krishna’s Lila. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally certified to Swaroop Damodar and through him to the whole world in Chaitanya Charitamrita that “Rupa Goswami has understood the most intimate confidential aspects of the love of my heart through that famous verse that he wrote.” So he was writing and Sri Vallabhacharya came and Rupa Goswami out of humility he said, “I want you to read this and tell me what you think.” And Sri Vallabha Bhattji read it and he said this particular statement you have made is not really correct. Rupa Goswami enquired, “If it is not then how should it be? Why don’t you take my book and go over it and make all corrections you want and whatever corrections you make I will just leave it at that.” Rupa Goswami’s disciple and nephew Srila Jiva Goswami, he was sitting on the bank of Jamuna and Vallabha came and he had Rupa Goswami’s book. Jiva Goswami offered his respectful obeisances to such a senior Vaishnava. Sri Vallabhaji said well your Gurudev; Rupa Goswami, he has made certain mistakes and I am making correcting his writings. “What mistakes? I don’t believe my Guru can make mistakes like this, not in his writings.” So he explained and Jiva Goswami very politely, very politely with great humility he explained to Vallabhacharya the higher principle of what Rupa Goswami was trying to say. After Jiva Goswami explained Vallabha said, “Oh yes! I didn’t understand he is speaking on higher level than I was thinking. It wasn’t a mistake. Everything he is doing is perfect. Who am I to correct his writing? So Vallabhacharya went back to Rupa Goswami and he said you please take your book back.” “Why? Why are you giving me my book back? Correct it. Do all editions” requested Rupa Goswami. He said, “No Rupa Goswami, everything you are saying is absolutely perfect.” Rupa Goswami said, “But you pointed out some mistake? For which Vallabhji said, “That was my not understanding. When I met your Jiva Goswami he defeated my ideas.” Rupa Goswami enquired, “Jiva Goswami defeated your ideas?” He said yes. He said, “Whatever you write is absolute and perfect.” And then Vallabha with great joy in his heart went away.
Jiva Goswami’s repentance and the life he chose for absolution:
So then Jiva Goswami came back and Rupa Goswami chastised Jiva. He said, “Vallabha is a senior to you. He is a senior Vaishnava. With a loving heart he was trying to help me and you think you had a right to correct him. This is because you are proud. You are too proud of your vast learning and in Vrindavan no one with even one trace of pride is allowed to stay. Only those who are utterly humble and who have given up all ego can remain in Vrajabhumi. Therefore you have no right to stay here, leave!! You have transgressed the etiquette of a Vaishnava because of your pride. I was not proud. I was just trying to save his dignity. I was just fighting for him.” Jiva Goswami was humble. He wasn’t trying to defend himself. Jiva Goswami was thinking my Gurudev says I am proud, that means I am the most sinful of all wretches, I am too proud. My Gurudev says, I don’t deserve to be here in Vrindavan therefore I have to go. He felt that he had committed such an offense. He was considering himself so sinful and so egoistic, although there was not a trace within him. This was his sign of humility that he went to a place called Nanda Ghat which is in the outskirts of Vrajabhumi and there on the bank of Jamuna was a vacated Crocodile hole. Crocodiles dig a hole in the ground and they live in that hole. Sometimes they dig one under the ground too. Jiva Goswami was just living in this hole just weeping and crying “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” and repenting and trying to purify him for what he considered a great offense (pride) and he was there for a while. The people of the village would hear this person crying and chanting and they were thinking what kind of a saint is this living under the ground in a little hole, in a cave, not even suitable for crocodiles. When the villagers queried if they could give him something? He would only accept some roti flour, some wheat flour and then he would mix it with water from Jamuna and he would eat little just to subsist. Jiva Goswami was living in a Crocodile hole and subsisting in this way and he was diseased, he was getting ulcers in his stomach. All his skin and everything were just in a terribly unhealthy condition. No ventilation, no sunlight, no proper food he was really in a mess physically speaking. But he considered that this is the atonement that is necessary to neutralize the effects of his offenses and his sinfulness and his pride. Such a humble soul! And actually he did absolutely nothing wrong but because his Guru said he accepted it so seriously.
Srila Jiva Goswami reinstated by the compassion & mercy of Sanatana Goswami:
So one day Sanatana Goswami was doing Madhukari. He was walking through the villages. Sanatana Goswami was the object of everyone’s love in Vrindavan. It is explained that Sanatana Goswami was so transcendental and he considered these Vrajavasis so wonderful that he would sometimes just stay up all night with them asking how much milk their cows are giving and how their children are and all of these things. He was just so personal! He considered every discussion about the lives of the residents of Vrindavan as Krishna’s Lila. He would also tell Krishna’s pastimes. They would talk about the current events in Vrajabhumi, in this way Sanatana Goswami was just at the heart of everyone. Wherever he would go people would just welcome him with tears of love from their hearts. So when he came to this village, some of the villagers said, you are so austere but the baba that lives with us is something even more austere than we have ever seen. Who is this baba? He asked and he got information that the baba was living in a crocodile hole underground and eating just raw flour mixed with some Jamuna water and all day long crying and weeping “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.” “We don’t even know who he is, can’t even see him, he remains underground but whoever he is, he is very special soul, very advanced”, communicated the villagers. When Sanatana Goswami heard this, he thought, this is Jiva. This is Jiva Goswami, no else can do like this because nobody knew where he was? They were searching for him. So Sanatana asked Jiva Goswami to come out and Jiva Goswami said, “I can’t. I am too sick. I can’t even walk anymore”. So Sanatana Goswami had to go in to the hole, crawl down actually and he had to carry him out. He had to carry him all the way back to Vrindavan, this was Jiva’s state. Sanatana Goswami went to visit his dear brother, Srila Rupa Goswami. “Rupa Goswamiji, I must tell you that there is certain principle in the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that you have not understood correctly” said Sanatana Goswami. Rupa Goswami, with such humility said, “Oh! Please tell me what is it that I don’t understand?” For us someone will say what do you mean I don’t understand? He said, “Oh! Please tell me, help me, to improve my devotional service.” Sanatana said, “Narrate to me the basic principles of Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s teachings.” So Rupa Goswami went down the line in his books and came to Jiva daya. Jiva daya means mercy kindness, compassion to the Jiva’s. When he said Jiva daya, Sanatana said that’s the one. Immediately Rupa Goswami could understand that’s it’s because he was not showing kindness to Jiva Goswami. So he called Jiva Goswami back and with great affection embraced him, forgave him. Jiva Goswami fell at his feet and said, “Thank you for your kind mercy, I am your eternal servant.”
Jiva Daya:
So this is the idea of Jiva daya that a devotee sees every Jiva is part of Krishna, is a property of Krishna, as the energy meant to be enjoyed by Krishna. Due to the independence that Krishna gives the Jiva, the more sinful a person becomes, the more forgetful and fallen person becomes, the more the devotee becomes compassionate toward that Jiva. Every devotee simply wants every part of Krishna to again be reinstated in the natural constitutional position of being enjoyed by Krishna. A devotee’s vision is that everything is an expansion of Krishna, for Krishna’s enjoyment. But because of this independence, Krishna’s part of the Lila, is to give his devotees the wonderful expression of service to try to reinstate the consciousness in the Jiva of that of eternal loving relationship, reinstate that consciousness of being eternally enjoyed by the Lord. So yesterday someone was saying to me about one place where we are thinking of opening a preaching center. He was saying these people; they are so sinful, they are so fallen and I was thinking and said to him that is one more reason why we should be there. That is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Lila. When he comes to this earth, the more fallen – the more compassion, this is Nityananda Prabhu’s Lila. The more degraded, the more mercy they need. The more mercy they need the more service we can offer. The more service we can offer the more Krishna enjoys us. That is Krishna consciousness. “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”. Is there any question?
Question and Answer session:
Question: While approaching a Guru what must be ones attitude?
Answer: In principle we must see the Guru, as the transparent medium to Krishna. Krishna is speaking through him to purify your heart and bring you back to your original Krishna consciousness. If we try to calculate Guru’s instructions simply on managerial level or on the level of our social identities of what is right and what is wrong? What is best and what is not best? Then the opportunity to further try to purify ourselves is lost. Because such great souls, out of their humility, they don’t consider themselves pure. The purest of the pure don’t consider themselves pure, that is also what we have learned from this story. So essentially we have to take our spiritual life, above the mental platform and understand that the mercy of Guru and the mercy of Krishna are beyond the mental platform. As long as we are trying to evaluate everything on the mental platform, to that very extent we cannot truly receive and accept the mercy of Krishna. We don’t come to spiritual life to become efficient. We come to spiritual life to become purified right? That’s why Srila Prabhupada often says whether my Guru Maharaj is right or wrong he is right? What does that mean? Even if by all means, by material standards he is wrong, he is right because it is for my purification and that’s what is right about spiritual life. That’s why I have come to my Gurudev to get purified. It’s really the great mercy of the Lord, when our mind and our intelligence are bewildered and we surrender anyway because we have faith that it’s right and for my purification. Even though it makes a complete fool out of me in front of everybody else it’s right for my purification. That should be the attitude in which we approach the spiritual master, the transparent medium to Krishna and Parampara.
Question: Did Jiva Goswami do everything perfectly?
Answer: Yes. Jiva Goswami did everything perfectly. Just to show the world the humility of his disciple, to teach the rest of the world the extent of humility of the followers of Sri Chaitanya. Even though he acted perfectly when his Guru said, “You are a rascal”, he accepted from the core of his heart, “Yes! I am rascal”. In fact Rupa Goswami only chastised him to glorify him. That was his real motive. He knew that Jiva Goswami didn’t need any purification but he wanted to glorify him for the whole world to see the extent of the humility of a true follower Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Question: Should we defend the principles of our Gurudev? Did Rupa Goswami act perfectly?
Answer: In regard to the first question, Yes! We should defend the principles of our Gurudev. But at the same time within the realm of Vaishnava etiquette we must do it. You see the Siddhanta of Vallabha and Rupa were the same essentially. So Jiva Goswami did it with great respect and care. He would not stand; he could not tolerate the injustice of the minimization of his spiritual master. No disciple should tolerate that ever under any circumstances. We should ether leave or we should reinstate the true understanding of what our Guru is? And what he is saying? We should not be cowardly in this respect. So Jiva Goswami acted perfectly, appropriately. At the same time Rupa Goswami acted perfectly too because in his own writings when Vallabha found mistakes, out of etiquette, because he was a senior person, he humbled himself. So out of etiquette, we will humble ourselves before any senior Vaishnava but we will not tolerate anybody minimizing the position of our spiritual master, our Parampara. We cannot. If we do our spiritual life is finished. Do you understand? It’s a very deep pastime with many profound instructions.
Question: Lila of Mahamaya and Yogamaya, are both of them Krishna’s Lila?
Answer: What he is saying is everything is Krishna’s Lila but there is the Lila of Maha Maya and there is a Lila of Yoga Maya. The Lila of Mahamaya is the Lila of forgetfulness. Therefore we don’t really call it Lila so much although ultimately it is because it is Krishna’s pastimes. But we are in state of forgetfulness of the connection between what we are doing? What we are saying? What we are thinking and Krishna. Anything that we do which is not performed in surrendered devotion or service to Lord Krishna is Mahamaya. It is Krishna’s Lila to caste us in a suffering condition of bondage with the laws of karma and laws of nature. Therefore we cannot have the conscious understanding of the sweetness and the divinity of Krishna’s Lila although it is actually everywhere until we surrender to him. Understand? Everything is Krishna’s Lila but until we surrender to him we cannot enter in to the conscious understanding and experience the sweetness and love of his Lila. Therefore consciously we are not in Krishna’s Lila. We are forgetful. But in truth everything is within Krishna’s Lila but it is separated by our own ignorance, our own understanding, our own realization.
Question: Why did Rupa Goswami not defend Vallabhacharya’s criticisms of his Guru?
Answer: Who are we to judge Rupa Goswami? You see Vallabhacharya was very good friend of his Guru. They were intimate associates and the criticism he knew was not out of envy, was not out of a superiority complex but it was with the genuine feeling. Vallabhacharya did not criticize. He was just pointing out something according to his tremendous scholarship as a service, to try to improve on Rupa Goswami based on the same siddhanta, same conclusions do you understand? If Rupa Goswami felt he was criticizing his Guru’s teachings he would have defended. But he wasn’t, he was just trying to offer some humble service to Rupa Goswami. So Rupa Goswami humbled himself because he was a senior Vaishnava, in that spirit of service. He said yes. This is etiquette. You see they are both acharyas and they both recognize each other as that acharyas. There was no question of criticizing. It was only a question of service. Therefore we don’t show that type of etiquette necessarily to people who are envious even if they are Vaishnavas. But those who are genuinely sincere Vaishnavas, in the spirit of service according to their position or certain etiquette that must be followed very carefully and etiquette of respect etiquette of service. Do you understand?
Question: From whom do we enquire submissively?
Answer: We should simply ask those devotees that we trust. Ask a devotee that you personally trust as your well-wisher. And who has the authority of the Parampara. Somebody is entrusted with a particular position to guide other devotees and help other devotees and you have trust in that person and you really have faith that he is your well-wisher then you inquire submissively.
