Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Second Meeting with the Lord

If one wants to benefit the entire world, he will certainly find persons like hogs and pigs who will put forward many impediments. That is natural. But if a devotee seeks shelter at the lotus feet of the six Gosvāmīs, the merciful Gosvāmīs will certainly give the Lord’s servitor all protection. It is not astonishing that impediments are placed before those who are spreading the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world. Nevertheless, if we adhere to the lotus feet of the six Gosvāmīs and pray for their mercy, all impediments will be annihilated, and the transcendental devotional desire to serve the Supreme Lord will be fulfilled.

Following in the footsteps of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, I am trying to translate Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as quickly as possible. However, knowing myself to be an old man and almost an invalid because of rheumatism, I have already translated the essence of all literatures, the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as a summary study in English. I started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement at the age of seventy. Now I am seventy-eight, and so my death is imminent. I am trying to finish the translation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as soon as possible, but before finishing it, I have given my readers the book Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so that if I die before finishing the whole task, they may enjoy this book, which is the essence of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

One paṇa is eighty kaḍis, or small conchshells. Formerly, even fifty or sixty years ago, there was no paper currency in India. Coins were generally made not of base metal but of gold, silver and copper. In other words, the medium of exchange was really something valuable. Four pieces of kaḍi made one gaṇḍā, and twenty such gaṇḍās equaled one paṇa. This kaḍi was also used as a medium of exchange; therefore Śivānanda Sena paid for the dog with daśa paṇa, or eighty times ten pieces of kaḍi. In those days one paisa was also subdivided into small conchshells, but at the present moment the prices for commodities have gone so high that there is nothing one can get in exchange for only one paisa. With one paisa in those days, however, one could purchase sufficient vegetables to provide for a whole family. Even thirty years ago, vegetables were occasionally so inexpensive that one paisa’s worth could provide for a whole family for a day.

Śivānanda Sena’s attachment to the dog was a great boon for that animal. The dog appears to have been a street dog. Since it naturally began to follow Śivānanda Sena while he was going to Jagannātha Purī with his party, he accepted it into his party and maintained it the same way he was maintaining the other devotees. It appears that although on one occasion the dog was not allowed aboard a boat, Śivānanda did not leave the dog behind but paid more money just to induce the boatman to take the dog across the river. Then when the servant forgot to feed the dog and the dog disappeared, Śivānanda, being very anxious, sent ten men to find it. When they could not find it, Śivānanda observed a fast. Thus it appears that somehow or other Śivānanda had become attached to the dog.

As will be evident from the following verses, the dog got the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and was immediately promoted to Vaikuṇṭha to become an eternal devotee. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has therefore sung, tumi ta’ ṭhākura, tomāra kukkura, baliyā jānaha more (Śaraṇāgati 19). He thus offers to become the dog of a Vaiṣṇava. There are many other instances in which the pet animal of a Vaiṣṇava was delivered back home to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, back to Godhead. Such is the benefit of somehow or other becoming the favorite of a Vaiṣṇava. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has also sung, kīṭa-janma ha-u yathā tuyā dāsa (Śaraṇāgati 11). There is no harm in taking birth again and again. Our only desire should be to take birth under the care of a Vaiṣṇava. Fortunately we had the opportunity to be born of a Vaiṣṇava father who took care of us very nicely. He prayed to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī that in the future we would become a servant of the eternal consort of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Thus somehow or other we are now engaged in that service. We may conclude that even as dogs we must take shelter of a Vaiṣṇava. The benefit will be the same as that which accrues to an advanced devotee under a Vaiṣṇava’s care.

This is the result of sādhu-saṅga — consequent association with Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and promotion back home, back to Godhead. This result is possible even for a dog, by the mercy of the Vaiṣṇava. Therefore, everyone in the human form of life should be induced to associate with devotees. By rendering a little service, even by eating prasādam, what to speak of chanting and dancing, everyone can be promoted to Vaikuṇṭhaloka. It is therefore requested that all our devotees in the ISKCON community become pure Vaiṣṇavas, so that by their mercy all the people of the world will be transferred to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, even without their knowledge. Everyone should be given a chance to take prasādam and thus be induced to chant the holy names Hare Kṛṣṇa and also dance in ecstasy. By these three processes, although performed without knowledge or education, even an animal went back to Godhead.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura quotes from the Nāṭaka-candrikā, wherein it is written:

Similarly, in the sixth chapter of the Sāhitya-darpaṇa, text 282, it is said:

The introductory portion of a drama, which is written to invoke good fortune, is called nāndī-śloka.

Formerly when a person died it was commonly said that he had attained the shelter of mother Ganges, even if he did not die on the bank of the Ganges. It is customary among Hindus to carry a dying person to a nearby bank of the Ganges, for if one dies on the bank of the Ganges, his soul is considered to reach the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu, wherefrom the Ganges flows.

There is a place known as Satyabhāmā-pura in the district of Kaṭaka (Cuttack), in Orissa. It is near the village known as Jānkādei-pura.

This verse is included in the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (1.5.461), by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.

The two works are the Vidagdha-mādhava and the Lalita-mādhava. The Vidagdha-mādhava describes pastimes in Vṛndāvana, and the Lalita-mādhava describes pastimes in Dvārakā and Mathurā.

This is the verse recited by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

This is the verse composed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. It is included in the Padyāvalī (386), an anthology of verses he compiled.

This verse is from the doctrines of Nyāya, or logic.

One’s bodily luster and beauty, one’s constitution, one’s activities and one’s qualities all depend on the law of cause and effect. There are three qualities in material nature, and as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (13.22), kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ’sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: one takes birth in a good or bad family according to his previous association with the qualities of material nature. Therefore one seriously eager to achieve transcendental perfection, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, must eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Such food is sāttvika, or in the material quality of goodness, but when offered to Kṛṣṇa it becomes transcendental. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement distributes kṛṣṇa-prasādam, and those who eat such transcendental food are sure to become devotees of the Lord. This is a very scientific method, as stated in this verse from Nala-naiṣadha (3.17): kāryaṁ nidānād dhi guṇān adhīte. If in all his activities a person strictly adheres to the mode of goodness, he will certainly develop his dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness and ultimately become a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Unfortunately, at the present moment the bodily constitutions of the leaders of society, especially the governmental leaders, are polluted. As described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.1.40):

Such leaders have no chance to purify their eating. Politicians meet together and exchange good wishes by drinking liquor, which is so polluted and sinful that naturally drunkards and meat-eaters develop a degraded mentality in the mode of ignorance. The processes of eating in different modes are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, wherein it is stated that those who eat rice, wheat, vegetables, milk products, fruit and sugar are situated in the elevated quality of goodness. Therefore if we want a happy and tranquil political situation, we must select leaders who eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Otherwise the leaders will eat meat and drink wine, and thus they will be asaṁskṛtāḥ, unreformed, and kriyā-hīnāḥ, devoid of spiritual behavior. In other words, they will be mlecchas and yavanas, or men who are unclean in their habits. Through taxation, such men exploit the citizens as much as possible, and in this way they devour the citizens of the state instead of benefiting them. We therefore cannot expect a government to be efficient if it is headed by such unclean mlecchas and yavanas.

This verse is included in the Vidagdha-mādhava (1.15), a seven-act play written by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī describing the pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana.

It is said in the Padma Purāṇa, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ. Chanting and hearing of the transcendental holy name of the Lord cannot be performed by the ordinary senses. The transcendental vibration of the Lord’s holy name is completely spiritual. Thus it must be received from spiritual sources and must be chanted after having been heard from a spiritual master. One who hears the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra must receive it from the spiritual master by aural reception. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has forbidden us to hear the holy name of Kṛṣṇa chanted by non-Vaiṣṇavas, such as professional actors and singers, for it will have no effect. It is like milk touched by the lips of a serpent, as stated in the Padma Purāṇa:

As far as possible, therefore, the devotees in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement gather to chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa in public so that both the chanters and the listeners may benefit.

The two verses referred to are those beginning with priyaḥ so ’yam (79) and tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī (99).

This verse is from the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (2.1.138), by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.