Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We will continue to meditate on the story of Mrgari and Narada muni further in today's offering.
We saw how Narada muni by his open-mindedness and far-sightedness was able to impress upon the hunter the concept of willful sins and its reactions. Slowly the hunter’s mind started thinking due to the pure association of Narada muni.
Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, text 252 says, “In this way, through the association of the great sage Nārada Muni, the hunter was a little convinced of his sinful activity. He therefore became somewhat afraid due to his offenses.”
5. Three Reasons for Narada muni’s Successful Preaching: Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport nicely, “A pure Vaiṣṇava is one who has no ulterior motive. He has totally dedicated himself to the service of the Lord. He does not have material desires, and he is not interested in so-called learning and philanthropic work.”
These are the 3 important qualities of Narada muni that makes him a powerful acarya and a successful preacher.
a) He had no ulterior motive for name & fame, wealth, followers of any sort.
b) He is 100% dedicated to the service of the Lord and daring to go to any extent be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
c) He has no material desires to be fulfilled by his service.
Even the most terrible living entity has a tinge of innocence in a corner of their heart and saintly devotees like Narada muni awaken that innocence to reveal a better heart of the living entities to themselves. Otherwise how is it possible that a most cruel hunter at whom every living entity including the fearsome animals were afraid of, suddenly became frightened of the reactions of his sins? By the purity of his association, Narada muni was gradually cleansing the hunter's heart.
Srila Prabhupada also advises later in the purport that we should all follow in the footsteps of Narada muni in the disciplic succession. The best way is to engage in the loving service of the Lord like Narada muni. He not only loved the Lord but he also loved all the living entities, irrespective of whether they respect him, ignore him, insult him or related to him because he saw all the living entities as part and parcel of the Lord – mamaivāḿśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ. He developed a sense of belonging with all the living entities. This is a very important point for us to ponder over. We are not able to forgive living entities when they commit any offense to us, because we don’t love them unconditionally or don’t feel connected with them. Suppose our child commits an offense, we are able to forgive them after a while because we naturally love them. Whereas if an outsider offends us, we are not able to forgive them easily because we are not loving them naturally or unconditionally. There is a lot of motives and expectations hidden in our relationships that stops the natural flow of love in us. We need to avoid this narrow-mindedness and become broad-hearted by learning from great saintly devotees like Narada muni.
We shall pray at the lotus feet of Narada muni to give us a drop of his mercy to follow in his footsteps and also give his sweet association through his instructions and character. This is the best way to develop natural simple unconditional love towards all living entities.
Krishna willing, we shall continue to meditate further on the story of Mrgari.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das
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