CC daily 160 – M 6.236 – Minimization or rejection of devotion represents the ultimate pride

Shri Nithyanand Chaitanya Mata Leela text 6.236 eta kahi mahaprabhu aila nijasthane se haite mahabhattacharya khandila abhimane so having spoken this that Chaitanya came to nijasthane his own abode so the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit has told us that his nijasthane was gambhira but it doesn't repeatedly refer to gambhira because often the requirement of poetic meter and rhyme is more easily fulfilled by using the word nijasthane so gambhira will also be used elsewhere but in this chapter repeatedly whenever it is referred to it is referred usually by nijasthane so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came back to his home and now it is said that khandila abhimane is that Sarovar's pride ended thus so it is pride that keeps us away from Krishna it is pride that keeps us trapped in material existence it is pride that is the cause of our bondage yes at one level we can say it is illusion we can call it all of us may be infatuated with lust with greed with anger whatever yes that is all true but then abhiman abhiman basically means the idea that we deserve honor and not just that we deserve the idea that we are honorable and we are glorious independent of Krishna it is not that our need for self-esteem is to be crushed in bhakti it is not that we can't do glorious things but the fact is we need to do it all in relationship with Krishna not in disconnection from Krishna so khandila abhimane it is said Sarovar's pride ended now if we look at the whole past time Sarovar has acted as a really proud person now if you see overall he has been very cultured he protected Lord Chaitanya when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had fainted and then he invited Lord Chaitanya to his house and as a Sanyasi Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a Sanyasi he serves Lord Chaitanya by giving him food so he arranged for a home for Lord Chaitanya for a place for residence for Lord Chaitanya he treated him almost in a paternal way so where exactly was the pride and how exactly has the pride ended so there are different kinds of prides also there is a pride which is right in your face you know people walk with their nose high in the sky they look down at others through their nose they keep their chin high up and they often don't pay attention when others are speaking they are so filled with themselves that is that is the gross kind of pride where people they want everyone to praise them and they don't care for anyone else Sarvabhauma did not have that kind of pride definitely not he was far too cultured for that his kind of pride was different the pride that he had was the pride of considering that he knew the truth so he for example he thought that he knew the scripture he knew the conclusion of Vedanta firstly he thought that he was so learned that is that I can teach Lord Chaitanya then further when he was told that Lord Chaitanya is God he did not accept that he debated that further he thought that he knew the conclusion of scripture in terms of that the absolute truth is impersonal Chaitanya Mahaprabhu corrected that and the ultimate expression of pride is the minimization or rejection of devotion atheists they are proud in the sense that they reject devotion entirely not only they reject God himself whereas impersonalists they are proud in the sense that they minimize devotion they may not reject bhakti entirely but they say oh this whole idea of worshipping a form this is for less intelligent people you know once one becomes more spiritually evolved then one goes beyond the formless to the form beyond the form to the formless so they call themselves not theistic but transtheistic they think that the ultimate perfection of religion is to go beyond God to realize that we ourselves are God this is a deep deep misunderstanding it's a deep misunderstanding and we need to gradually but surely overcome this misunderstanding so how do we overcome it by by giving up the idea that we know better so Sarvabhauma he not only accepted that but I don't know you know better my lord that he accepted when he accepted Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's conclusion about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's explanation of the conclusion of scripture that the absolute truth has a form and that form is manifested in the sweetest manifestation as Krishna so he accepted that and beyond that further he here it was not just acceptance with the level of the head it was acceptance at the level of the heart and not only had he accepted Krishna but Krishna had also accepted him in the sense that he had great faith in Krishna and Krishna had reinforced the faith within him as was manifested in his strong spontaneous sublime faith in the potency of Krishna prasad so now generally love leaves no room for pride of course in love one is proud of one's beloved but generally when we say somebody loves someone then we fall down in love we fall in love not fall down fall in love fall in love right the idea is that one is no longer obsessed with one's own greatness but one is captivated by another's greatness and one feels conquered by the other person's greatness now in material life when people say that they are falling in love often it is just infatuation and what they consider as the other person's greatness that may well just be something superficial oh I mean a man is attracted to a woman's beauty a woman is attracted to man's wealth and there's nothing much more than that but with respect to Krishna he's truly all attractive supremely all attractive supremely and eternally all attractive and when we become attracted to him that is our greatest fortune it is this fortune that we have the opportunity to relish when we take shelter of him and we absorb ourselves in him so it is our pride that prevents us from taking shelter of Krishna and when we give up pride and take shelter of Krishna we attain the greatest fortune so here it is said Khandile the fact that Sarvabhauma had taken such unduplicitous unreserved shelter of Krishna indicated that now he had no pride remaining his pride had been destroyed and his pure devotion had not only awakened but had fulfilled and flooded his heart thereby making him an exalted devotee who henceforward will be an intimate associate of Lord Chaitanya.