CC daily 149 – M 6.213 – Don’t mistake heartfelt erudite appreciation with self gratification

Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Chapter 6, Madhya Leela, Chapter and Title, Deliberation of Sarvabhattacharya, Text 213.

Sarvabhattacharya is praising Lord Chaitanya and the Sarvabhauma Shatak, which he composes for glorifying Lord Chaitanya, is in Sanskrit. He is from Bengal, although he is currently residing in Puri and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is also in Puri, but they are from the North-Deep area, Bengal. And so, the Bengali is what is their natural tongue.

And so, the normal conversation between them is in Bengali. And of course, the book that is Chaitanya Charita Amrit is in Bengali. So, the normal depiction of the conversation is in Bengali.

जगत निस्तारी ले तुम्ही So, he is saying, O Lord Chaitanya, you have delivered the whole world. सेह अल्पकार्य That is not a very great thing. सेह अल्पकार्य It is not a very great thing.

It is actually a small thing. अमा उद्धारी ले तुम्ही एशक्ती आश्चर्य But you have delivered me. अमा उद्धारी ले तुम्ही This is शक्ती आश्चर्य.

This is far, far greater. This is far more astonishing. At one level, this may seem like a very egoistic statement.

But somebody is stating that delivering the world is not a great thing. Delivering me is a great thing. Does that person have such an ego to think that I am greater than the world? And that delivering me is so difficult? It's not a matter of ego.

It's a matter of the heart. So the point of the statement is not I-centric. It is the Lord-centric.

It is Lord Chaitanya Krishna-centric. So what is the point that there is difficulty? There are different levels of difficulties. So just like say there is a cricket world cup.

And in cricket, certain countries are not very strong. So they are often called as minnows. Minnows means birds.

Basically, it means if there is a fight, a bird is not a very serious challenger in the fight. So some countries are called as minnows. And if say there are a dozen minnow countries, and then there are say a dozen or whatever, eight or ten or whatever major countries who are quality cricket playing countries.

And among them, one is the champion country. So in such a situation, a team may travel all over the world and defeat many minnow countries. And there is nothing much great about that because those countries are anyway minnow.

But if there is one country which is a champion country, say, which has been the continuous champion for many years, even decades, and nobody has defeated them in that, then that country is defeated. Then that is extraordinary. That is remarkable.

And it is that which is far greater than defeating the other countries. So defeating everyone in the world is not as important as defeating the world champion. Everyone else, they are all subordinate to the world champion.

And if they are just ordinary contenders, then defeating them is nothing great. Defeating the world champion is far greater. So similarly here, so when it is said in this context, oh, say, a particular team, India defeated various countries in cricket.

Okay, that is good. But if India defeated Australia, and Australia would have been the defeated defending champions in Cricket World Cup, One Day World Cup, and for many times. So then that defeat is far more laudable.

That victory is far more laudable. So similarly here, this is, of course, a mundane example. But the point remains the same.

And that actually, the people in general are not very intellectual. Nor are they very strongly rooted in their own beliefs. So most people live a materialistic life.

If the society is overall pious, then they will live a pious materialistic life. But if the society is moving towards impiety, towards sin, then they will also live an impious, sinful life. And either way, the point is that they are trying to, their primary purpose is to get on with life.

And they don't want to swim against the tide. You just go along with the tide. And if within the tide, a particularly forceful wave comes along, then they will be moved along by that wave.

So they are neither generators of any wave, nor are they resistors of any waves. They are simply floaters. So influencing such people is not very difficult.

And that's why even now we have many charismatic gurus who have hundreds, thousands and millions of followers. And while they have such followers, at that time, they often recognize that getting the masters is good, getting any follower is good, but getting the classes is very difficult. So people who are in every society, there are majority of people who are followers.

And there is a minority, a creative minority that are the leaders, the transformers, the direction providers, the path breakers, the trendsetters. And transforming them is a major challenge. So if one, if a particular teacher can transform such people, then that is remarkably potent, that is extraordinary.

And what Saroham Bhattacharya is stating over here is at one level and statement of objective fact that he was a phenomenal scholar and so his conviction, so transforming him was not easy. So here he had his conviction based on his own interpretation of scripture, which followed the interpretation of Shankara. And it was not just an intellectual conception, but also he was rooted in that kind of life based on the impersonal conception.

And so he was an opinion leader. And we will see later that it was he who significantly shapes Pratap Rudra's perception and understanding of Lord Chaitanya thereby. And so we see his influence there also.

The point of this verse is that Saroham is saying that because I was so deeply rooted in my misconceptions, I was actually not just an illusion, but I was in a intellectually rationalized illusion. And to get me out of such an illusion was no easy task. And that's why he said that delivering people in general, delivering the world, that was Alpakaarya.

That was a small task. But Ashcharekar, that it was amazing demonstration of your potencies that you have delivered me also. So what initially may seem like a statement of the ego is when we look deeply, seem to be a statement of heartfelt appreciation.