Power of Association - Part 25

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

In our last offering on the story of Mrgari, we saw how the hunter became attached to chanting the holy names and also the potency of pure chanting. Let us continue to meditate on further lessons from the story today.

25. A Pure Devotee is a Sparsha-Mani: The hunter devotee exhibited all the ecstatic symptoms while chanting the holy names to his spiritual master. 

"When Parvata Muni saw the ecstatic loving symptoms of the hunter, he told Nārada, 'Certainly you are a touchstone.' "

Parvata Muni addresses his friend Narada muni as a touchstone. A touchstone's purity is determined by its power to turn even an iron into gold - phalena pariciyate. The hunter was like the rusted iron and just by the touch of Srila Narada muni he got transformed into pure gold standard Vaishnava. We do not judge the result in terms of the numbers but in the quality of the numbers. The no. of people we bring into Krishna consciousness is not as important as how sincere and advanced they turn into in their spiritual life. Every single personality that we see in the scriptures who were touched by Narada muni were transformed into a pure devotee. This is his glory. 

Nārada Muni asked the hunter, 'My dear Vaiṣṇava, do you have some income for your maintenance?'

The hunter replied, ‘My dear spiritual master, whoever you send gives me something when he comes to see me. Please do not send so much grain. Only send what is sufficient for two people, no more.’

Nārada Muni approved his not wanting more than a daily supply of food, and he blessed him, saying, ‘You are fortunate.’ Nārada Muni and Parvata Muni then disappeared from that place.

There are some significant lessons we can learn here.

a) Narada muni remembered the hunter's original concern in their first meeting when he asked him to break his bow and arrow. The hunter was worried about his income for his maintenance. But Narada muni assured him at that time that it will be taken care as long as he follows his instruction to do sincere devotional service. Miraculously, (as the hunter devotee confirms) he was not only getting sufficient food for him and his wife, but he was getting so much more that he was worried not to waste the extra prasadam. By Narada muni's mercy, not only that the hunter got his maintenance taken care of but in the process of doing bhakti, he acquired the transcendental quality of being 'self-content' (being satisfied with minimum needs and whatever comes of its own accord) which is one of the most important outcome of bhakti. 

b) In the first meeting, we do not see that Narada muni went to each house in the village to canvas for the hunter and request them to assist in his maintenance. He simply assured the hunter that his maintenance will be taken care of and left for his next destination because he was cent-percent sure of Krishna's reciprocation upon His devotees. And as Krishna says in the Gita, "kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati - Declare to the world that My devotees are never lost", Krishna had to make sure Narada muni's promise to the hunter should not go wrong, because Narada muni is a pure devotee spiritual master and the hunter obeyed the orders of his Guru cent-percent. Hence Krishna was obliged to shower His causeless mercy upon the hunter. 

c) Narada muni was glorified by his friend Parvata muni as 'touchstone'. And the hunter was also profusely thanking him for sending the required needs for his maintenance. But most importantly, Narada muni did not take any credit at all  even though he was the sutra-dhari for the entire sequence of miraculous events. He simply blessed the hunter, "You are fortunate", indicating that even though he was a low-born cruel hunter not too long ago but was able to extract the causeless mercy of the Lord by his obedient devotional service and reached the highest position of pure devotion. As spiritual master, Narada muni played the the most important role of a sparsha-mani, but he simply gave credit only to the hunter's sincerity, extra-ordinary potency of bhakti and the Supreme Lord's unlimited compassion. This is the ultimate greatness of a saintly acarya like Srila Narada muni that we have to imbibe.

We had a similar experience when we started the Granthraj forum. In the beginning we were pretty raw, sporadic and unorganized in our postings. Our Guru Maharaj, H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj, instructed this low-born and uncivilized living entity to keep posting one offering every day. He insisted, "Kalacakra, this is my order to you son. Ensure that one offering is published every day without fail. And they should be original realizations out of your serious study of Prabhupada's books." And then sometimes later when he saw other devotees were not writing their offerings, he encouraged, "You don't worry about the lack of offerings coming in. You keep writing and I will do the canvasing wherever I go and request devotees to write." Then as days went by, he found that many devotees were not reading the offerings even. Then wherever he went, he would request devotees, "Please, please, please, I request you to at least read the Granthraj offerings, if you don't have time to write." Being at such an exalted position of a spiritual master and with so many important commitments, he need not have extended himself to such an extent. But he did so out of love towards us and his determination to spread the glories of Srila Prabhupada & Srimad Bhagavatam all over the world. He is the source of inspiration for this forum and without his mercy we cannot write even a single word. But after doing all the hard work, just like Narada muni he did not take any credit whatsoever and gave all credits to the authors. We are eternally thankful to our glorious spiritual master for turning this raw & crude Granthraj forum into a respectable group where devotees offer everyday their deep realizations from their serious study of Srila Prabhupada's books. 

We conclude the series "Power of Association" on the story of Mrgari. By the causeless mercy of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Neelmadhav, Guru and Gauranga we were able to meditate on this story like a neophyte licking the outer part of the honey bottle. If we had made any erroneous points inadvertently, we offer our humble apologies for our incompetency.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

Moderator's Note: We understand that since the last 3 weeks when we started Granthraj from the new mail server, the mail delivery was sporadic and devotees were not getting the mails regularly. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. While we are working on this problem to be resolved soon, you can read the offerings by going directly to the website - http://www.mahavishnugoswami.com/#granthraj.