Author: Purushottam Nitai Das

Srimad Bhagavatam (S.B) 3.25.21 explains, “The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.”

A sadhu is a dedicated devotee of the Lord, he spends all his time and energy in continuously chanting Lord’s holy names, extolling his activities and sharing his message to all without any discrimination and without compromising with the principles. He speaks about God fearlessly, tolerates insults without any complain and is ready to take any difficulties to make the world God conscious. The ruffians caned Haridas Thakura at 22 marketplaces, Lord Nityananda was violently attacked by Jagai and Madhai but they not just continued preaching them about God but also prayed to the Supreme Lord to forgive them for their nefarious acts. A sadhu does not hate anyone because he knows that all living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord. “The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].” (Bhagavad Gita 5.18)

A sadhu engages everyone in the service of the Lord. He never says to people, “serve me” but instead asks everyone to “serve Krishna”. Being very compassionate towards all living beings, he is not satisfied by his own liberation but works hard to liberate all.

SB 3.25.22 explains, “.. a sādhu engages in staunch devotional service to the Lord without deviation. For the sake of the Lord he renounces all other connections, such as family relationships and friendly acquaintances within the world.” Without any ulterior motives, any material attachments, any desire for name, fame, money he distributes love of God to all. “O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want your causeless devotional service birth after birth.” Siksastakam 4.

A sadhu never identifies himself with any material designation; he just desires to serve the Lord. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu succinctly sums up the characteristics of a sadhu, He says, “I am not a bahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari or whatever. I am simply the servant of the servant of Krishna.” “Teachings of Lord Kapila, Ch 11, ‘The Symptoms of a Sadhu.’”

Saturday (25th April, 2015) was any other day and being a weekend people were either relaxing in their homes or had frequented to malls, restaurants, theatres and other places of enjoyment. Little did they know that within few minutes their lives will change for worse? A strong earthquake just before noon ruined people’s lives in Nepal and India. Panic striken people ran frantically for their lives – crying and screaming. Buildings were falling apart like pack of cards devouring people in scores. Many got buried under the debris, many escaped but were seriously injured and many succeeded in escaping unhurt physically but emotionally were devastated. People are still afraid to go inside their homes for fear of aftershocks. They spent their nights in the open under make shift tents struggling for food and water. Their sufferings got compounded when along with quake they also had to brave heavy rain and cold weather in the night. The disaster was massive in Nepal killing around 4000 people as per the current available reports, the numbers are surely going to swell. In India around 72 people lost their lives as per the available reports.

While praying for the departed souls and for those who are injured and who lost their near and dear ones, it is also time to ask a pertinent question -Is life so uncertain that within a moment pleasure can turn into pain, happiness into sorrow and life into death? Death comes always uninvited and in different forms – as natural calamities, as disease, as old age, as accidents, as plane crash and in so many different ways. So, when people find death knocking at their doors they panic and asks him to come later but the pleas are never entertained and the person is forcibly dragged out of their body. The inescapability of death is widely known, all of us have to die a day, but none of us are ready to accept this truth. While seeing others making their final journey to the graveyard we assume that it will never happen to us and so we continue with our day to day life thinking and believing that we are here to live for eternity and we continue with our mission for material possessions and positions.

The devastating earthquake did not differentiate among the palatial bungalows, the humble houses and the iconic buildings – all were razed to dust. In life too death does not differentiate between rich and poor, men and women, young and old and famous and ordinary people. Death takes away everything from us. We are not allowed to take even a farthing of this world. This is why the books of wisdom constantly remind us not to waste our time and life running after the material mirage. The temporary pleasures of this world are never going to solve the most important problem of our life – the problem of birth and death. Vedas inform us that as souls we are eternal, we never die (Bhagavad Gita 2.20). At the time of death we just change our body and based on our accumulated karma we are given a new body. And the new body can be of any species – of animals, plants, reptiles, insects, cockroaches and also of humans. In the non-human form of life we are bound to suffer terribly. As humans too we are subjected to trials and tribulations of life. The three forms of sufferings which constantly punish us are:

• Adhibhautika klesha: Miseries caused by people who are inimical to us. They can be our foes or even our family members and relatives.
• Adhidaivika klesha: Miseries caused due to natural calamities like earthquake, tsunami, floods, heavy rain, famine etc.
• Adhyatmika klesha: Miseries caused by our own mind, senses and body. Mind and senses can ruin our life if they are not properly controlled.

However the silver lining is that as humans we have been gifted with the ability and opportunity to not just get rid of all types of sufferings but also have the chance to put an end to the cycle of birth and death forever. And the process to do this has been explained in Vedic books. In Gita 8.15 & 8.16 Krishna says that this world is full of sufferings so he asks us to return back to him to the spiritual abode from where we will never return again to this mortal world.

This mammoth natural calamity which underlined the uncertainty of life should be a wake up call for us. We have no other choice but to become serious and sincere in our practice of devotion to Krishna so that when death knocks at our door we don’t panic but in fact use it as an opportunity to enter to the spiritual world where life is eternal and every moment is full of bliss and not of uncertainty and fear.

(http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17037)

Then the whole society was mired in materialism. Confused about their goal of life almost all of them had either engrossed themselves in materialistic life forgetting religious principles or were using religion as a means to further their materialistic motives. That the purpose of life is to develop love of God they had almost forgotten. But soon the scene changed with the advent of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. People started giving up their materialistic desires and were just driven with a desire to develop pure love of God.

Life is preparation and death is final examination and we all have to compulsorily give that exam. All of us are aware about the inevitable death but many of us do not know the ultimate goal of human life and how to attain that goal. To remove the ignorance of all spiritually illiterate examinees he gave us the list of questions for which we should be bothered: Who am I?  Who is God? What is my relationship with God? What is my ultimate destination? He informed us that we are deathless spirit souls, parts and parcel of Supreme God, Krishna, currently confined in a temporary material body and the only purpose of our life is to revive our relationship with Krishna and return back to his abode where there is no death and no suffering.

He not just educated us about the final destination but he freely distributed to all the elixir of Hare Krishna Mahamantra – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare – which is the best medicine for entire humanity in this age of Kali Yuga, the age of downfall. “…..although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha – mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.” Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51. Scripture explains that people in Kali yuga are slow – minded, dull – witted, do not have inclination for spiritual life and so they suffer a lot. To salvage such forlorn souls Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who according to the Vedic literatures is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, came. “The Supreme Personality, Janardana, who is the object of the yogis’ meditation, who saves the devotees from various sufferings & who is the master of all yogic practices, who is always full of divine transcendental ecstasy & bliss, will advent in His own divine form of Sri Caitanya”-Padma_Purana.

In spite of being the Supreme God, he played the role of a devotee teaching all with his personal example to chant with reverence, with deep love and without any ulterior motive.

Lord Caitanya, the supreme examiner, the supreme saviour, came here to jog our conscience reminding us that being humans we should live like humans and should not lead a whimsical life like an animal who just bother about sleep, sex, security and sustenance.  Providing solutions to all our problems he gave us a simple solution for salvation i.e. to chant the names of Krishna with sincerity and assured us of a ticket to return back to the spiritual world. Why to chant? Because chanting cleanses the heart of all material impurities and liberates us from the vicious cycle of birth and death. Just like a father who holds the finger of his child teaching him how to walk he too chanted, sang and danced with the devotees showcasing how to practically perform devotion. He told all to chant sincerely, sing melodiously, dance rhythmically and take prasad (sanctified vegetarian food) profusely.

For material success one needs to put in hard labour. And hard work accompanied with uncertainty always breeds insecurity. However the process of devotion taught to us by Lord Caitanya is so simple, so sublime, so sweet and so joyful that while treading the path of devotion there is no negative emotion. When we chant the holy names of Krishna on beads then each bead becomes a stepping stone to reach Krishna. In fact it is the rarest and an extremely extraordinary and unparalleled gift given to us by Lord Caitanya.

Let us abide by his guidelines and get out of this world to be with him. In that spiritual world we will not be bound by our mortal covering. There death does not exist and bliss never ceases to exist.

Today is Gaura Purnima, appearance day of Lord Caitanya.

                                                             (Pic source: wikipedia)