Every jīva is floating and drifting about in the ocean of material existence and in this very terrible river or ocean of nescience, the devotee or sādhu is a shelter for a living entity. He is like a ship and the living entities, in order to cross this ocean, must take shelter of the pure devotee, this is the only way. This is a poem by Kabir Das that explains that saintly people have crossed this ocean of material darkness. The same thing is spoken in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, that without taking shelter of the devotees, no one, no living entity, has ever crossed the material ocean.
When it was time for Krsna to descend and manifest, all the demigods went into the prison house in order to worship and offer prayers to the Lord. This is mentioned in the 10th canto, 7th chapter of the Garbastuti; Nārada, Lord Śiva and all the demigods came to offer wonderful prayers. This is a śloka from the Bhāgavatam, in their own words they started to glorify and offer prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is one point that is mentioned in their prayers to the Lord, that in this very small prison house, not only all the demigods fitted in, but also all their associates, 330 million demigods and their dependents, they all came.
This is the śloka that mentions that the demigods and their entourage, and ṛṣis, all came into the prison house. One should not be surprised at how this is possible in such a small area. There is a difference between humans and demigods. As we sit in a small car, it will fill up and there won’t be any room, but the demigods are different, they can assume any kind of body, any size, being subtle, so there they prayed unto the Supreme Lord and the prayer is very significant. And in that prayer, some wonderful siddhantas have been explained. There is also one śloka that explains and glorifies the devotees and saintly people.
The main reason for Krsna’s avatar is the devotees; this sloka explains this {bhajan}. Tenth canto, 14th chapter, sloka 2:
asyāpi deva vapuṣo mad-anugrahasya svecchā-mayasya na tu bhūta-mayasya
My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. (Lord Brahmā)
The devotees themselves cross the nescience of the material world and what is the nature of this material world? It is very difficult to cross. In the Bhāgavatam the demigods pray “My dear Paramātmā, You are very effulgent by nature, Your devotees themselves cross the material nescience. What is it that they cross? A very fearful material ocean is what they cross. How is it that they cross? By yoga, by jnana? No no, you can not cross by these methods! How is it that they cross this material ocean? They have an enormous amount of prema in their heart”. They have prema for the Lord and they have compassion for the jīvas in this material world. For every living entity in this material world they maintain a prema, they have a love in their heart. And that is the qualification by which they cross over the material worlds. In the 10th canto, 2nd chapter 31st sloka this is stated;
vayaṁ samuttīrya sudustaraṁ dyuman
bhavārṇavaṁ bhīmam adabhra-sauhṛdāḥ
bhavat-padāmbhoruha-nāvam atra te
nidhāya yātāḥ sad-anugraho bhavān
O Lord, who resemble the shining sun, You are always ready to fulfill the desire of Your devotee, and therefore You are known as a desire tree [vāñchā-kalpataru]. When ācāryas completely take shelter under Your lotus feet in order to cross the fierce ocean of nescience, they leave behind on earth the method by which they cross, and because You are very merciful to Your other devotees, You accept this method to help them(Prayers by the demigods for Lord Krsna in the womb).
So the method is prema, which is the ingredient by which one can cross the material ocean, love for God, love for the living entities, love for everybody, is what qualifies a person to cross this material world. How do you recognise this love? Just like we are very qualified in filling our own bellies, but the devotees are not like this, they are thinking about the dangers of such a big ocean as this material world. They turn around and see how “I have crossed this ocean, but unlimited jīvas are drowning in it.” They cross the ocean and they stand on the banks of the ocean on the other side and they look at the drowning jīvas. Try to understand, it is a very important sloka.
How do you recognize the prema in the hearts of these devotees, not that they cross over the ocean and that they go to the other side and walk to Krsna. They stand there on the banks and think and contemplate “What about those living entities that are drowning in this ocean, how to save them?” Immediately they create a boat and they untie the boat on the bank and they float the boat into the ocean and they declare “I am going but here is the boat that I’m leaving for you. You all climb on this boat and you can also come on the other side.” This is the symptom of a devotee who has great love in his heart.
What is this boat?
[begins to sing] Taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, that is the boat. This boat they leave behind for other living entities and then they go ahead to Kṛṣṇa’s dhāma. Such mercy and compassion is in the hearts of these devotees and you have descended my dear Lord to give pleasure to these saints, who have such compassion in their hearts; Kṛṣṇa descends to give pleasure to those devotees. Kṛṣṇa reciprocates with only those devotees who have compassion and mercy in their hearts.
This is an extremely significant śloka. This is why Kṛṣṇa has mentioned that the top most devotees, they always act for the benefit of the world. In the 3rd chapter, 20th sloka of the Bhagavad-gītā, and in the 18th chapter of the Gita in the 68th sloka, the same thing is mentioned:
ya idaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati
bhaktiṁ mayi parāṁ kṛtvā mām evaiṣyaty asaṁśayaḥ
For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me.
(singing) ya idaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati
“That devotee that explains the secret of my bhakti yoga to other living entities, not in order to make money or to make disciples, but just out of compassion, he will come back to Me.
mām evaiṣyaty asaṁśayaḥ
“He will definately most certainly will receive me and come to me.” Once you understand this concept, this śloka, then compassion automatically manifests in your heart. ‘No body is more dear to me than a devotee who maintains compassion for other living entities’. Never in the past or in the future will there be a devotee more dear to me than one who maintains this mood and preaches my glories to them.’ So the devotees and saintly people, they contemplate these ślokas and instructions of Kṛṣṇa and they preach the glories of Kṛṣṇa, they tolerate so many difficulties in the path of preaching.
They tolerate so many insults when they are out in the world trying to preach, but such devotees that have such compassion and are preachers, if they are criticized, then Kṛṣṇa becomes extremely offended. He says in one śloka; “That even if My four arms make an offense to such a devotee, I will take my own chakra and I will cut off My four arms, My own arms, if they make an offense to such a person. This is how much I love my devotees”. Therefore one should always understand that one should save oneself from devotee offenses. Otherwise he will completely destroy himself.
Therefore please, no one should make devotee offenses. All other fall downs Kṛṣṇa forgives, but this He can never forgive. To maintain animosity against devotees is a very wrong thing. When devotees insult one, you should consider that to be nectar, therefore Nabaji, the author of the book, is mentioning these points. The character of the devotees mentioned in this book help the sādhaka cross over the ocean of material nescience and whatever Nabaji has mentioned, I have supported by quoting other ślokas from other śastras like the Gita and the Bhagavat.
Priyadasji was a commentator on this book, Bhakta Mal written by Nabaji. There is the life story of a devotee whose name was Sādhan Kosai; Kosai means ‘a devotee who sells meat’, but he was a great devotee. He was so elevated that he is mentioned amongst all the other great devotees of the book, but by profession, he was a butcher; this is a very wonderful story.
Kosai in Hindi means ‘butcher’, one who kills animals and sells their flesh, an extremely lowborn person that engages in a most degraded profession. They kill cows and other animals. He was born in such a low caste family; there cannot be a more low class family than this. Those who kill cows and other animals, the śūdras, caṇḍālas, are the most fallen, but a devotee can be born any where in any situation or in any family and such is the story of Sādhana Kosai. There is so much ‘śakti in bhakti’ that you can be born in any condition, with any family or background, but still achieve Kṛṣṇa; such is the śakti and strength of bhakti. So he was born in a butcher family, just like gold is pure in any condition, so even though he took birth in such a low class household, he maintained complete purity in his life style. One should never hate another or think lowly of a devotee because of their past family orientations.
This is bhakta aparādha. In the Rāmāyaṇa in the chapter of Sabari, Sabari was a low class woman, but was a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa, a great devotee of Lord Rāma and Rāma actually went to see her and ate the fruit from her hands that she had already placed in her mouth. She was offering those fruits to Lord Rāma and He was gladly eating them, that which was actually bitten and tasted by the mouth of a sudra woman. Lord Rāma said “Only bhakti is the only consideration for Me, only bhakti is important to Me”.
Any other consideration is simply zero, whether it is family background, what status you are born in, what education you may have received or what kind of dharma your family has followed. “None of these things are any consideration for me, but only bhakti in the persons heart is what really matters”
In the 35th sloka of the Rāmāyaṇa in Aranga chapter “Without bhakti the human being is absolutely useless and does not have any beauty,” “Even if you have a very wondrous cloud, so beautifully dark, and it may be very attractive, but if it has no rain, no water, it is useless. Where in the same way one may have a beautiful house, family, and lots of festive activities. The brothers may be very rich and the people have great opulence, are very influential in society, but if there is no bhakti, all is useless. This is what Lord Rāma is saying “My relationship with my devotee is only on one point, only bhakti, I consider nothing except ‘bhakti’ in order to establish my sanga with the devotee”. Prahlāda Mahārāja in his prayers to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva mentions in the 7th canto , 9th chapter, 10th śloka:
manye tad arpita mano vacanehitartha, pranam punati sa kulam na tu bhurimanah
[With regard to the twelve qualifications] The devotee is better than a brāhmaṇa because he can purify his whole family, whereas the so called brāhmaṇa in a position of false prestige can not purify even himself.
These are the siddhantas of bhakti that are established by different devotees in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. One who has money has influence, one who has a very big family back ground, one who has beauty or if one has performed lots of austerities, these twelve items bring opulence to a person, but these 12 things without bhakti are zero.
As stated in the śastra, even if one has lots of Vedic knowledge or powerful senses, that the 12 opulences are nullified if there is lack of bhakti. I have mentioned six qualities, ‘tejah’ is seven, some one may be tejasi(an effulgent person), and the 8th, to have great bodily strength. Then there is intelligence and yoga, these are the twelve items that make a person extremely powerful, but these things do not help a living entity in progressive ‘arādhāna’ for Kṛṣṇa, rather they can become obstacles in devotional service, so how does Kṛṣṇa become pleased? Prahlāda Mahārāja mentions, “Money and all these material boons are doorways to hell”. Nothing has to be there, only bhakti must be there.
The example is given of Gajaraja(Gajendra), he was an elephant, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, who had no money or family background and was born in a low class body. He had no beauty, as a human might have, and as an elephant, he could not do tapasya, he was a bhogi, and he had no knowledge of the Vedas. His senses were not as powerful as the lion. He didn’t have any of the three primary qualities, no effulgence, influence, or bodily strength, which was weakened by fighting with the crocodile. None of these merits were there in Grajaraja, but Kṛṣṇa came to him. Why? Because he had bhakti, he had devotion to Kṛṣṇa. For one thousand years he fought the crocodile and became completely exhausted.
All his friends were there, the she elephants, the boys, the girls, the elephant friends; they all left him and went away. He saw that “I have no help, hundreds of elephants have left me and gone away an I am fighting here alone for 1000 years”. He was completely tired, for he was pulled into the water. The crocodile was not ordinary, he was a Gandarva named Huhu, who was cursed to take this form. He was joking around with a ṛṣi, named Devala Ṛṣi and this sādhu gave him a ‘shrapa’, and cursed him to become a crocodile. So the Gandarva prayed to the ṛṣi, that “I was only teasing you” And the ṛṣis said “One should never joke around with devotees, my shrap(curse) can never be taken back, so you will have to become a crocodile, but I bless you that Kṛṣṇa will come and liberate you from this body. He will cut your neck with his chakra and you will become liberated; this is my blessing”.
This is the śakti of bhakti, that a devotee’s anger and curse turn into a blessing. The elephant became tired after a thousand years of fighting. The elephant was also cursed to be an elephant; he was Indradumnya (not King Indradumnya) who was cursed by Agusta ṛṣis. Indradumnya was doing tapasya and when the ṛṣi came, he did not get up to offer his obeisance’s. It is said that if one does not rise and respect a devotee when he comes to your doorstep, then this is what will happen to you, you will become an elephant. At that time in such a condition of life, he had no strength, then he finally called for Lord Kṛṣṇa.
And so Prahlāda Mahārāja says “Kṛṣṇa came immediately on the call of Gajaraja because material identifications increase the false ego in a living entity, even in a devotee, but when they are eradicated and the living entity calls on Kṛṣṇa without ahaṅkāra then Kṛṣṇa comes to him” {break …kirtan}
[Rādhā Jīvan: His lectures are like that, he inspires bhakti in the heart of the listeners. You know when he speaks if you understand the language, all his lectures are like that. He is like an army soldier, ‘you have to inspire them to go to war’, that’s the way he speaks to uplift the soul. And that is why he cannot cover too many topics. One little topic and he gets stuck on it and he just elaborates on it more and more. I think he speaks not only for only us, but in humility for himself. He becomes very involved in what he says. More importantly the real missionary spirit, is to simply become a devotee, not to just spread your ashram or make it big. His mission is to become a devotee, a good devotee.]
Sādhana Kosai used to sell meat. Someone can say that selling meat is not a good thing for a devotee, so why was he selling meat? Kṛṣṇa has mentioned this in the Bhagavad-gītā that whatever activity has been ordained to you through your family traditions, in order for you to maintain your body and soul; that activity should not be given up. That external activity should be maintained, because that is the parampara coming in your family. Even though there is ‘dosha’ in it, there is fault in it, don’t give that up because whatever new work you do there is always be dosha or fault, in everything that you do. You can become a teacher, you’ll be scolding your disciples and your students, or maybe even beating them, so there is dosha, but all karma when offered to Kṛṣṇa, that becomes bhakti.
Just like for Arjuna, he was killing people and was in a war, but that became bhakti for Arjuna. Karma is not bad, the intention behind the karma, that is good or bad. If you are doing whatever karma with the intention of doing for Kṛṣṇa, then that is very great. If you are doing it for yourself, for your own sense gratification then that is binding. Now he used to remember Kṛṣṇa in all his activities.
When Kṛṣṇa came to him in the form of a shaligram sila, he was very attached to this sila and would even use the shaligram as a weight. This shaligram weighed one quarter of a kilo. He would place the shaligram on one side and the ¼ kilo of meat on the other. If somebody said they wanted one kilo of meat, then the saligram would weigh a kilo and if someone wanted a half-kilo then the shaligram would counter by weighing a half-kilo. Here the shaligram is just reciprocating with his devotee.
You can see that Kṛṣṇa is not looking for etiquette because this was the perfection of this sādhu’s spiritual life, to take his shaligram from the altar and to use Him as a weight. Any devotee can say that you are making a great offense, that you are taking Him and using Him as a weight to measure meat, but Kṛṣṇa does not follow any rules and regulations of any sort. From this woman’s mouth, this pera(fruit), she was feeding Lord Rāma and He was eating. Even amongst Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, in the Vaiṣṇava acaran, Kṛṣṇa doesn’t care as long as the heart is pure.
Those who follow too many rules and regulations very strictly, sometimes they commit offenses to other devotees in the binding profile of their being very strict Vaiṣṇavas. So one time another Vaiṣṇava came to Sādhana Kosai and this sādhu saw on one side of the weighing scale was the shaligram and on the other side was meat. That sādhu started to cry. “My dear shaligram how is it that this low class man is keeping you as a weighing machine in a meat shop?” He couldn’t tolerate seeing this and he ran to Sādhana Kosai and he said “My dear friend, what is it that you are doing? Hey, this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, on this side is meat and on that side is shaligram, how can you be so low class? How can you be such a sinful person”. Then Sādhana Kosai asked “So what should I do Maharaja?” The sādhu then said “You give me the shaligram, you are not fit to worship this deity, this Lord should not stay with you. I will take him. You are giving so much trouble to the Lord.
I will give you money and you buy some weights”. Sādhana Kosai gave the shaligram to the sādhu and he was crying and he said “Here you take the Lord”.
The sādhu later began to speak to the shaligram “My dear Lord, when we bathe, we will put some beautiful oils on You and this man is just keeping You in meat shop”. The sādhu bathed the shaligram, welcoming the Lord, putting some nice oils on Him, and offered some nice bhoga and said “I have delivered you from a very sinful man, a butcher”, and he put Him on a bed of flowers to sleep on and he was very happy that “I have taken the Supreme Lord out of hell”. When the sādhu went to sleep, the shaligram came to him in his dreams and said [kirtan] “Hey sadhu take away all this nonsense worship of yours and take me back to my devotee, Sādhana Kosai”.
The sādhu then said “What are you saying, I should take you back to that hell?”. The Lord said “Yes take me back there!”. Then he said, “My Lord that place is not fit for you. Why is it that you want to go back there?” Thakurji replied “I don’t need your flowers and your beautiful scents and all the foods you offer to me.” “Then what is it that you want?” “I want that devotee who is always chanting my names and who sings beautiful prayers to me, that you don’t have, you do not have that love and devotion that he has, all you have is pancamrita and some flowers for me. I do not stay in Vaikuṇṭha”.
As is stated in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam “I do not stay in the hearts of yogis. When my devotees are chanting my names and dancing, that is where I stay. I do not live in Vaikuṇṭha, I do not live in the hearts of the yogis” Then the sādhu inquired “Then where do you live then?” “Where my devotees are singing, dancing and enjoying, there is where I stay”.
The Lord used to dance with Mira Bai, he used to walk and dance with her. Mira Bai has written in her poetry that she used to only dance and swagger, never walk strait. Here we never have any time for this. [bhajan] “You do not have any of these songs that Sādhana Kosai has. All the time he used to do Kṛṣṇa kirtan. Right now you take me, I do not want to wait till the morning. Those songs that Sādhana Kosai sings for Me, that kirtan that he does for me, that is what I love, that is what I enjoy, that is my ‘arādhāna’. SO YOU TAKE ME BACK RIGHT NOW TONIGHT, I don’t want to wait till the morning. I don’t want your pancamrita and flowers, I want Sādhana Kosai”. Tomorrow we will not wait to go, ‘chalo’, lets go now”.
Summary
1. Krsna says “That one who offends my devotees, this is the punishment that I give to such a person who does that. One should not speak to them in a rough manner or even look at them in a rough manner. What is the punishment that I give to such a person? My devotees, cows or helpless people, if a person even looks at them badly or speaks to them roughly, looking at them in a very angry way, then this is the punishment that I give to such people”.
2. To be like this with devotees, not to speak to devotees, speak roughly to devotees…this is the result, most certainly that person or devotee has to suffer. Save yourself from devotee offenses…be with devotees nicely, speak to them nicely, look at them nicely tolerate any offenses they may make to you…tolerate it.
3. In the 10th canto, 7th chapter of the Garbastuti; Narada, Lord Siva and all the demigods came to offer wonderful prayers. There is one point that is mentioned in their prayers to the Lord, that in this very small prison house, not only all
the demigods fitted in, but also all their associates, 330 million demigods and their dependents, they all came.
4. The main reason for Krsna’s avatar is the devotees; SB 10.14.2; Your devotees, they themselves cross the material nescience. What is it that they cross? A very fearful material ocean is what they cross. How is it that they cross? By yoga, by jnana?…No no, you can not cross by these methods! How is it that they cross this material ocean? They have an enormous amount of prema in their heart”.
5. How do you recognize the prema in the hearts of these devotees, not that they cross over the ocean and that they go to the other side and walk to Krsna. They stand there on the banks and think and contemplate “What about those living entities that are drowning in this ocean, how to save them?” So immediately they create a boat and they untie the boat on the bank and they float the boat into the ocean and they declare “I am going but here is the boat that I’m leaving for you”.
6. Once you understand this concept, this sloka, then compassion automatically manifests in your heart. ‘No body is more dear to me than a devotee who maintains compassion for other living entities’. Never in the past or in the future will there be a devotee more dear to me than one who maintains this mood and preaches my glories to them.
7. If they are criticized, then Krsna becomes extremely offended. He says in one sloka; “That even if My four arms make an offense to such a devotee, I will take my own chakra and I will cut off My four arms, My own arms, if they make an offense to such a person. This is how much I love my devotees”. Therefore one should always understand that one should save oneself from devotee offenses. Otherwise he will completely destroy himself. All other fall downs Krsna forgives, but this He can never forgive. To maintain animosity against devotees is a very wrong thing. When devotees insult you should consider that to be nectar.
8. Sadhan Kosai, Kosai means ‘a devotee who sells meat’, but he is a devotee.
9. Sabari: Krsna does not follow any rules and regulations of any sort. From this woman’s mouth, this pera(fruit), she was feeding Lord Rama and He was eating. Even amongst Vaisnava acaryas, in the Vaisanava acaran, Krsna doesn’t care as long as the heart is pure. Those who follow too many rules and regulations very strictly, sometimes they commit offenses to other devotees in the binding profile of their being very strict Vaisnavas.