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Rowing
Along
the Wind
A landlord
once had a sycophantic servant, who was only interested in grabbing
something for his own sense gratification by flattering his master.
One day the
landlord asked the sycophant, Could you tell me what kind of vegetable
is the potato?
The sycophant
replied with an uneasy gesture and folded hands before the landlord, O
Lord! I pray that your honour may please narrate the nature of potato.
Please let us hear your wise words on this matter.
Then the
landlord said, Potato is the most delicious of all vegetables in this
present age.
Even before
the landlord could finish his statement, the sycophant butted in, Yes,
my Lord! Really delicious! Excellently delicious, pleasantly delicious,
highly tasteful and dainty! It is said that this round potato - boiled
in rice, boiled in water, fried, mixed up in a subji, put in a soup or
dahl, either in pickle condiment, or in rich gravy, or kofta -
everywhere in every recipe, this round potato is omnipresent! Is there
any other vegetable comparable to it? It is simply second to none, -
unparalleled!!
Then the
landlord rejoindered, Whatever you say, I should like to assert that
potato is very agitating and very dull, in spite of the fact that it is
tasteful.
Immediately
the sycophant blustered, O yes lord, for sure. It is a really
agitatingly agitating vegetable, very hot, excessively passionate, very
difficult to cool down. My lord! We are being plagued by a new wave of
unknown diseases nowadays! These are all due to this round potato. All
sorts of flatulence, cholera, diarrhoea, diabetes, phthisis are
resulting form this round potato - do you know, my lord? Potato is
certainly the root cause of all these troubles.
The landlord
then asked his fawning servant, Well what is your opinion of eggplant?
The sycophant
replied, O lord, let us first hear you, please. What is eggplant like?
The landlord
began, There is nothing bad about an eggplant! As far as I know,
eggplant is a nice vegetable.
Again the
servant spoke, Yes lord! Let us look at it; there is hardly another
beautiful vegetable like it. What else is required when we get two
pieces of fried eggplant? Then even butter is not comparable to it!
When one has nothing else in the house, only one piece of eggplant
could serve the purpose of maintaining prestige of a householder - you
can roast it, fry it, cook it in a subji, prepare a chutney - any way
you like - that eggplant proves itself somewhat extraordinary among all
vegetables. Still among all varieties of eggplant, take lapha eggplant
- an excellent creation of the Supreme Godhead indeed!
After hearing
all this, the landlord replied, Anyhow, there is no nutritious value in
an eggplant.
The sycophant
said, O my lord, of course! That's why it is called be-gun which means
no value or potential value, but began, the eggplant is much more
inferior to that. An eggplant gives more itching trouble in the mouth
than any wild turnip or kocu root! Eggplant is the root cause of so
many troubles. Eggplant carries eternal bad luck. That's why it is
often roasted before serving!
The landlord
then retorted saying, You're a very strange fellow! When I say 'Potato
is good' you also repeat, 'Yes, potato is very good', and when I say
'it is bad', then you also start pleading that it is very, very bad.
When I said, 'Eggplant is good', then your appreciation for eggplant
knew no bounds. When I said, 'Eggplant is bad' you are deprecating it
as if it should never be considered as a vegetable. Don't you possess
any personal integrity?'
With folded
hands and faltering voice the sycophant explained, O my lord! Please
have mercy, please forgive my offences. But, to be truthful, I am not a
servant of a potato, nor of an eggplant - I am simply your servant, my
lord! Whatever you say, my lord, I must say likewise. Potato will not
provide me with a wage packet every month, and eggplant is not going to
give me a job for my livelihood. I am your servant, so my lord's voice
should be my voice.
PURPORT
Some people always row with the wind for their own advantage, and
express their concocted opinions only motivated by their own selfish
desires for gaining reputation. Sometimes they pretend to be devotees
of Lord Sri Chaitanya, or patriots, social leaders, or simply unmindful
lovers, or many other disguises. Basically they are impersonalists, or
in other words, they do not believe in the eternal holy name, form,
qualities, associates and pastimes of the Supreme Lord.
Any
appreciation or eulogising of Lord Sri Chaitanya expressed by such
persons is simply their verbal expression, as they are anxious to pose
themselves as devotees before the common people.
Many
such
persons eulogise Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva with an ulterior motive of
attracting some sort of honour and respect from a large community of
Vaishnavas. But they are not at all interested in relishing the nectar
of true instructions bestowed by Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva who deprecated
such renowned ideologies as Buddhism, Shankaracharya philosophy, and
the doctrines of fruitive work, mundane knowledge and meditational
yogic philosophy. Those motivated persons do not accept Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu's advice to worship Lord Vishnu only and to consider all
other forms of demigods and goddesses as subordinate to Lord Vishnu.
Nor can they endorse wholeheartedly the devotional practices of
religion, wealth, lust, and liberation.
This
only
happens because as there are many followers of Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva,
similarly there exist a number of fanatics in the line of Sri
Shankaracharya, Buddha, Madhvira Jina, Kumarila Bhatta, Kapila the
atheist and the like, who preached non-devotional doctrines among the
people.
In
this
event, all motivated persons consider it beneficial to their
self-interest of earning name, fame and reputation to preach the
doctrines of other communities than those of Sri Chaitanyadeva, since
these non-devotional communities command a wide populace.
Those
who are
devoid of the real urge for inquiring into the realm of eternal and
absolute truth will always hush up the basic doctrines as propagated by
Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva. These people are neither sincere followers of
Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva, nor of Sri Shankaracharya. In fact they are
basically opportunists trying to gratify their senses.
These
opportunists are of the opinion that all doctrines are good, but their
real nature is exposed whenever it is clearly proved that the love for
Lord Sri Krishna can never be equated with the non-devotional practices
for gaining positions in the fields of religion, mundane wealth,
material enjoyment, and liberation from the cycle of birth, death, old
age and disease.
Any
attempt
in synthesizing all doctrines irrespective of their intrinsic merit is
a hypocrisy. This was very boldly expressed by Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva,
with reference to His reflections on one of His own devotees, Sri
Mukunda Datta Thakura, thus,
prabhu bale, o beta
jakhan yetha jaye
sei moto katha kohi tathayi misaye
vasistha padaye jave advaiter sange
bhakti-yoge nace gaye trna kori dante
anya sampradaye giya yakhan sambhaye
nahi mane bhakti, jathi maraye sadaye
bhakti haite bada ache-ye iha vakhane
nirantar jathi more mare sei jane
Lord
Chaitanya said: "Whenever that rascal (Mukunda) goes to the Mayavadis,
he becomes like them, talking according to their theory. Whenever he
studies the yoga-vasistha with Advaita Acarya, he dances in
ecstasy holding straw in his teeth.
And
going to
other Sampradayas (Mayavadis), when he speaks, not only does he neglect
bhakti, he always attacks
bhakti. One who says there is something better than bhakti,
is beating Me." (Chaitanya Bhagavata Madhva 10.188-191)
The
person
has made offences to devotional service and due to this he will never
attain Krishna.
Most
of the
professional narrators of scriptural and mythological stories,
speakers, writers, authors etc try to entertain common people through
their deliberations and performances only to attract some sort of
material gains and fortunes. In fact, their expositions of devotional
scriptures are not truly expressive of their real love and devotion for
the Supreme Lord. End
Kite-playing
on an Unwalled Roof
A dull-headed
boy was once happily flying a kite from an unwalled rooftop. He became
so engrossed in playing that he lost his awareness. His playmates were
also encouraging him very much. The boy got so carried away that he
failed to notice that one of his legs was hanging over the edge of the
roof. None of the other boys alerted him to this peril; rather they
simply continued to encourage him to fly the kite.
At that
critical moment, a wise man happened to pass by. He saw that the boy
was in imminent danger of falling from the roof. He immediately rushed
up to save the boy although the others saw no danger. He pulled the boy
away from the edge, tore off the thread of the kite and took away the
spool of thread.
But the
foolish boy and his friends, rather than feeling thankful, began to
curse the well-meaning gentleman. They called him a thief, rascal,
trespasser, gunda, hooligan, ruffian and other such names. They
even threatened to take the gentleman to court after complaining to
their over-indulgent parents. Some even tried to physically assault
him. Bearing all this, the kind-hearted gentleman saved the boy from
imminent death.
PURPORT
Materialistic persons embrace their certain death by accepting whatever
is apparently palatable to them. By no means are they prepared to
accept anything which is apparently bitter but ultimately pleasant.
Many of our so-called friends in this material world also encourage us
in sense gratificatory activities that lead us to certain death and
destruction.
By
chance if
one comes across a benevolent saintly person, he preaches to us out of
his sheer mercy some real truths although in an unpleasantly stern
exposition (like a dose of strong medicine) in spite of our
unwillingness to accept it. Therefore we should accept all good sermons
from saintly persons delivered in the cause of our eternal welfare,
even if those words appear utterly bitter and heart rending. End
The
Physician's Knife
Amar was a
village boy who had been suffering so much from a boil on his back that
he attempted suicide. His mother and close relatives were all trying to
alleviate his pain by using hand-fans or even by orally blowing on the
swelling boil.
One of his
neighbours advised that the boy should be given some anaesthetic drug
to save him from such unbearable physical agony. Still another person
recommended that it was better to relieve him eternally from such a
painful experience. His argument was that the boy has been suffering
terribly because was alive, so, if he were dead he wouldn't be in pain
anymore. The result would be complete solace to both the disease and
patient.
Unnerved by
such advice, the wise father of the boy immediately sent for an
experienced physician, disregarding his son's so called well-wishers.
When the physician advised that a minor surgery be formed on the boy,
the relatives including the boy's mother, grandmother and others
started weeping all in a row. The ignorant boy also started abusing the
physician in the most vulgar words, saying, "You have come to kill me.
Leave me alone right now, or I must send for the police to arrest you!
Why don't you strike the knife on your own body? Would you go and lynch
your own son? I would rather take a dose of poison before I surrender
myself to your hands for certain death."
Turning a
deaf ear to the boy's delirious outburst, the physician held him
tightly while he pressed and executed the surgical operation on the
boil. After a while, the boy was completely relieved of all agony and
gradually became well within a few days.
PURPORT
Just like a real physician, quite often the real spiritual masters and
saintly persons also dissect some of the knots in the obstinate mind of
living entities by way of apparently distasteful injunctions and
instructions varying on the degrees of entanglement. But the suffering
entity is hardly inclined to agree with such injunctions and instead,
misapply a lot of harsh words to those saintly persons blaspheming them
as their enemies and extremely merciless executioners.
So-called
relatives and friends of such suffering entities strongly advocate
against such a surgical operation to avoid the apparent pain and
uneasiness. Some such pseudo-friends even in the name of impersonalism
advise one to commit suicide to get rid of the rut.
In
fact, none
of these ways can be fruitfully undertaken for eternal welfare of an
entity. The constitutional position of a living entity is only realized
after disentanglement from all unworthy mundane attachments with the
help of saintly injunctions sincerely followed. This enables one to
enter into the province of devotional service, which is the only way to
eternal bliss and peace of mind. End
