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Although
He is full in all respects, still the Lord feels pangs of separation
for every one of us, and He appears again and again to reclaim us
-- to take us back home, back to Godhead. As we are engaged in the
Search for Sri Krishna, He is also engaged in an urgent campaign:
a Loving Search for His Lost Servants. Reprinted on this page is the
Introduction to The Loving
Search For The Lost Servant, the follow-up to His Divine Grace
Srila Sridhar Maharaj's first book,
The Search For Sri Krishna
- Reality The Beautiful. |
| Introduction |
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Great
intensity is expressed here in a simple way. It is a mad search --
an urgent campaign. With great earnestness Krishna comes to deliver
His lost servants; Krishna comes to take us home. In Brhad
Bhagavatamrta, it is written that once, as Krishna and the
cows were returning from the Vrindavan forest at the end of the day,
a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vrindavan
as a cowherd boy [sakhya rasa]. Seeing
His long lost servant, Krishna embraced him and both of them fainted
in ecstasy.
All
of Krishna's other cowherd friends were astounded, thinking, "What
is this? Krishna has lost His senses by embracing this newcomer!
How is it possible?" Then, as all of the cowherd boys looked on
astonished, Balaram came to Krishna's relief and somehow managed
to rouse Him.
Then
Krishna addressed His friend with great affection: "Why did you
stay away? Why have you been living away from home for so long?
How was it possible for you? How could you bear My separation? You
left Me, and you have been passing lives after lives without Me?
Still, I know what trouble you took to return to Me. You searched
for Me everywhere, and went to beg from house to house, and you
were chastised by many, ridiculed by many, and you shed tears for
Me. I know all these things. I was with you. And now, after great
trouble, you have again come back to Me." Krishna addressed His
long lost servant and welcomed him thus. And when Krishna returned
home, He took the newcomer by His side to take Prasadam. In this
way, a new recruit is earnestly welcomed by Krishna Himself.
So
the Lord's search for His lost servants is a loving search; it is
not ordinary, but from the heart. And the Lord's heart is not an
ordinary heart. Who can estimate what type of search He is engaged
in? Although He is full in all respects, still He feels pangs of
separation for every one of us, however small we may be. In spite
of His supreme position, He has room for us in a corner of His loving
heart. This is the nature of the infinite. Such an absolute autocrat,
absolute good, is Krishna. An autocrat is not under law. It is not
that if Krishna gives Himself to one, another will be lacking. The
infinite is not like that; rather there is an infinite supply at
His command. So He is the Emporium of Rasa [akhila-rasamrta
murtih]. And He is searching for His lost servants, to bring
them home.
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| Krishna
Is Our Friend |
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Otherwise
we have no hope. Our solace, our consolation in life, is that ultimately
we are under the care of such a loving Lord. Krishna's friends think,
"What do we care for others? We have our Krishna, our friend. "That
sort of inner encouragement, that desperate encouragement, comes from
within. "Krishna is there, He is our friend. What do we care about
anything? We can take poison, we can jump on the head of that big
serpent Kaliya, we can do anything. With Krishna behind us, what do
we care? This sentiment is expressed by Bhaktivinoda
Thakura in his Saranagati:
raksa koribo tuhun niscaya jani
pana korobun hama yamuna pani
"Fearless
and confident of Your protection, I shall drink the waters of the
Yamuna, whether they are poisoned or not. I am Your property. You
must take care of me; You can't leave me."
kaliya-dokha korobi binasa
sodhobi nadi-jala badobi asa
bhakativinoda tuwa gokula-dhana
rakhobi kesava! korato jatana
"Although
the Kaliya serpent's venom has poisoned the Yamuna's waters, I know
that poison will not act. Your presence will cleanse the waters and
so increase our confidence in Your protection. Bhaktivinoda is now
the property of Gokula, Your holy abode, O Kesava. Kindly protect
him with care."
How
are we to enter into such a loving relationship with the Lord? Through
the grace of Sri Gauranga. One devotee has said, "If Gauranga had
not come, how could we live? And who would inform us about our ultimate
prospect in life?" We have such a great prospect. And yet, without
Gauranga, who would have come to inform us that we have so much
wealth within?
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| Remember
Your Merciful Guardian |
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And
Sri Gauranga says, "You do not know, but you have such a great magnitude
of wealth." His coming to inform us of our prospect is like the
astrologer who reads a poor man's horoscope and tells him, "Why
are you living a poor life? You have immense wealth buried underground.
Try to recover it. You are so great and your guardian is so loving
and so high, and yet you are wandering like a poor fellow in the
street? What is this! You are not helpless; it is not that you have
no guardian. You have only to remember your merciful guardian."
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam [11.5.32],
where the Kali Yuga Avatar is mentioned, we find evidence of the
advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
There it is said:
krsna-varnam tvisa 'krsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah
"In
the age of Kali, persons of great piety and intelligence will worship
the Lord as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He will appear in a golden form
chanting Krishna's name, accompanied by His associates and entourage."
After that, there are two other verses about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:
dhyeyam sada paribhava-ghnam abhista-doham
tirthaspadam siva-virinci-nutam saranyam
bhrtyarti-ham pranata-pala bhavabdhi-potam
vande maha-purusa te caranaravindam
Srimad
Bhagavatam [11.5.33] explains here, "That same personality
who came as Ramacandra and Krishna has again appeared. He has come
to direct us to the real fulfillment of life. He is drawing the sweetest
nectar from above for the sake of everyone. Meditate only on Him and
all your troubles will be finished. He purifies all holy places of
pilgrimage and great saintly persons by His touch and by His Sankirtan.
He draws the highest things down from the highest plane. And even
Brahma and Siva, puzzled by His noble gift, will begin to praise Him.
They will eagerly aspire to take shelter under His lotus feet in surrender.
The
pains of all who come to serve Him will be removed, and their inner
necessities will be fulfilled. And He will take care of those who
take shelter of Him; they will be given protection as well as everything
they may need. In this world where mortality rules, where we are
continually experiencing the undesirable changes of repeated birth
and death, in this area where no one wants to live, a great ship
will come for us and take us within, and carry us away from this
unpleasant position. Let us fall at the feet of that great personality
who comes to give us the highest nectar."
tyaktva sudustyaja-surepsita-rajya-laksmim
dharmistha arya-vacasa yad agad aranyam
maya-mrgam dayitayepsitam anvadhavad
vande maha-purusa te caranaravindam
"O
Supreme Lord, You gave up the goddess of fortune and her great opulence,
which is most difficult to abandon and is sought after even by the
gods. In order to perfectly establish the principles of religion,
You left for the forest to honor a brahmana's
curse. To deliver the sinful souls who chase illusory pleasures, You
search after them and award them Your devotional service. At the same
time, You are engaged in a search for Yourself, in a search for Sri
Krishna, Reality the Beautiful."
This
verse generally applies to Lord Ramacandra, who left His kingdom,
and after going with Sitadevi to the forest to discharge the duties
designed by His father, chased after the maya-mrgam,
the golden deer. Srila Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur, however, shows
how this verse also applies to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He says
that the word maya-mrgam means that
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ran after the souls that are enveloped
by maya, or misconception. The word
maya-mrgam, when applied to Ramacandra,
means that He ran after Marici, who had taken the form of a golden
deer. When applied in the case of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the
words maya-mrgam anvadhavat mean "He
chased after those souls who are in illusion in order to deliver
them. He ran in pursuit of the fallen souls as a savior, to deliver
them from maya, or illusion."
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| The
Chaitanya Avatar |
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Srila
Vivanath Cakravarti Thakur has also given another interpretation:
he says that dayitaya ipsitam means "it
is desired by the beloved," that is, the search for Krishna. In this
way, He identifies two qualities in the Chaitanya Avatar: He relieves
the fallen souls, and He searches out Krishna in the mood of His beloved
[dayitayepsitam anvadhavat]. Inspired
by the mood of dayita, His beloved, Srimati
Radharani, He ran after the souls in bondage to deliver them. Here
we find the scriptural reference, the seed of this conception. He
is in quest of the lost souls, absorbed in a loving search for His
lost servants.
And
throughout the whole life of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His other
self, Nityananda, it is very clear that They, being the Supreme
Entity Themselves, are hunting after the fallen souls to deliver
them. This will be the backbone of our conception of the Lord's
loving search for His lost servants. And it is also said:
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyuthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamyaham
paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samtsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
"Whenever
and wherever religion declines and irreligion becomes prevalent, I
advent Myself. In order to protect the saintly and punish the wicked,
as well as to reestablish religious principles, I appear millenium
after millenium." Here, Krishna says, "I come here now and then to
help reestablish the scriptural injunctions, as well as to do away
with the demoniac." These are the references from the scriptures describing
how Krishna comes in search of His servants. By accepting these statements
as our starting point, we can see that He is always coming to this
world to help the fallen souls, His own servants. |
| Eternal
Servants Of Krishna |
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What
is the position of the fallen souls? In Sri
Chaitanya Charitamrta, Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj records Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructing Sanatana Goswami:
jivera 'svarupa' haya -- krnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' bhedabheda-prakasa
krsna bhuli sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara dukha
"The
constitutional nature of the jiva soul is that of an eternal servant
of Krishna; the jiva soul is a manifestation of divinity which is
one with Krishna and different from Him. The jiva souls are the marginal
potency of the Lord. Though in reality they are servants of Krishna,
from time immemorial, they have been engaged in misconception, as
exploiting agents." In order to deliver His lost servants, the Lord
comes now and then to take them up to His own home. In other religions
we find many messiahs coming to help us to retrace our path from worldly
consciousness back to God consciousness. Yet although we see this
conception in other countries and other religious traditions, in India
it is found in a most profuse and systematic way. In Srimad
Bhagavatam [11.14.3] Krishna says:
kalena nasta pralaye
vaniyam veda-samjnita
mayadau brahmane prokta
dharmo yasyam mad-atmakah
"By
the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge
was lost at the time of annihilation. Again, at the time of creation,
I first inspired Brahma the creator from within his heart. And then,
through Brahma, so many disciples were enlightened. They in turn enlightened
their disciples. And in this way, the line of revealed truth descends
from Me." And in Bhagavad Gita Krishna
says:
imam vivasvate yogam / proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan manave praha / manur iksvakave' bravit
evam parampara-praptam / imam rajarsayo viduh
sa kaleneha mahata / yogo nastah parantapa
"First
I instructed the Sun God, Surya, in this knowledge, and from Surya
it passed to Manu, and from Manu to Iksvaku; so from the beginning
of time, I am giving My tidings to others, transmitting the truth
that I am the goal through this system of disciplic
succession, generation after generation." |
| Krishna
As The Acharya |
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In
this way, Krishna appears again and again to reclaim His long lost
servants. And, as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna is also tasting
His own sweetness. When He wants to distribute it to the devotees,
the cause is His ecstatic potency [hladini-sakti].
When Krishna combines with His potency as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu,
He becomes the Acarya. So Krishna says, acaryam
mam vijaniyan, "Know that I am the Acarya." His Acarya Lila
is His self-distribution, and thereby He is taking His lost servants
home. His recruitment is to distribute knowledge about Himself and
devotion for Himself, and then to take them home.
In
Vrindavan, Krishna is tasting rasa within His own circle, and in
Navadvip, as Sri Gauranga with His group, He is tasting Himself
and distributing that taste to others. His distribution and recruitment
are one and the same. By distributing Himself He is drawing our
hearts to Him, taking us home. The self-distribution of the Absolute
is meant to draw us back home, back to Godhead, and in this way,
the Lord is eternally engaged in His loving search for His lost
servants.
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Math, Nabadwip.
Founder-Acharyya: Srila B. R. Sridhar Maharaj
President-Acharyya: Srila B. S. Govinda Maharaj
www.scsmath.com - online since 1995. Updated
regularly. |
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