CC daily 173 – 6.257 – To appreciate a devotional rags-to-riches story, understand what the rags and riches are

Thank you Chittim Chitta Amrit Mathe Leela Chapter 6, Text 257 Sarvabhaumahila Prabhura Bhakta Ekataan Mahaprabhura Sevavina Nahi Jaaneyaan Sarvabhaumahila Sarvambhattacharya became Prabhura Bhakta Ekataan that he has become undeviated, one-pointed devotee of the Lord Mahaprabhura Sevavina apart from the service of Mahaprabhu Nahi Jaaneyaan, he did not know anything else nothing else was his concern and now this again is a kind of expression of Sarvabhaumahila’s single-pointed devotion that Krishna Sivaraj Goswami reminds us again and again because it is so dramatic within every culture there is a particular definition of success and whatever is achieved whenever somebody achieves spectacular success according to that definition it is especially glorified at least within that culture just like say if now India is a country which is infatuated with cricket so when see a student, say a young person who lived in great poverty who practiced cricket batting on the streets and who had no coaching facility such a person rises to become a star batsman in the Indian team then that becomes praised glamorized glorified repeatedly in some other country where cricket is not known cricket is not considered anything very special then such a person’s story may not have so much appeal why? because the rags may not really be seen as rags and the riches may not really be seen as riches so a person who knows nothing about cricket in his childhood and then suddenly maybe in the early teens comes to know about cricket like sometimes some sports players or sports people say some tennis player in the childhood wanted to be a football, soccer player and only in the early teens that person decides no, I won’t go to soccer, I’ll go to tennis after going to tennis that person soon becomes a in a short time becomes a tennis sensation then those who are caught in the caught in the those who are within the tennis world they will understand this person was really in a rag situation no early childhood practice no childhood passion also no even resolution that I will play tennis and then within just 7, 8, 10 years this person is on the way to becoming the next tennis champion how sensational that is so it’s an example of a rags to riches story and rags to riches stories they have appeal when the culture understands what the rags are and how a particular situation was very ragged very very destitute and how it must have required ragged determination very huge amount of will and also great amount of fortune to be able to rise from that situation and come to the situation of riches so that’s why in any field say if India was 1983 not at all considered even a mediocre cricket power so when India upstaged the ruling cricket kings at that time West Indian won the world cup it was a sensation and even now almost 40 years later that image is rehashed again and again because that was the image of say somebody who was underdog who who overcoming all odds and against any against all expectations upstaged the biggest powers in the cricketing scene and won the world cup so now we may wonder what is going on we are discussing Chetan Charita, Amrit Vyasa many sporting examples sporting examples being given the point here is that for for a transformation for an achievement to be appreciated for a rags or to riches story to be appreciated one needs to enter the specific world view which considers certain situation to be rags and certain situation to be riches so now applying this to Sarvambhutta Charya situation now again from one perspective he was definitely not in the rags he was not financially poor he was a Brahmana in a respectable situation he was intellectually also very learned and culturally he was intellectually actually phenomenally learned not just very but phenomenally learned one of the most outstanding and upstanding scholars of his times in the in that land and apart from that he was also a cultured person he worshipped the Gandhar he respected Sanyasis so in what way was he in a situation of rags he was devotionally in a situation of rags because he held on to a world view that ultimately minimized and rejected the conception the very foundation of devotion that is the eternal difference between the soul and the lord which used which created the necessary scope for possibility for the eternal relationship of devotion between the two so in that sense because of having a personal misconception he was devotionally bankrupt he was devotionally in a situation where it was like a situation of utter rags and unless we enter the world view which Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami was present in and through which he is writing even in the early chapters of Chaitanya Chaitanya Bhagwat when he described the kind of degradation that was there you will feel that this is not really degraded is it these people were worshipping but they were worshipping devtas and at least they were worshipping devtas they are not atheists so I call that degraded but the point is from the perspective of Krishna Bhakti for a person who is learned in the Vedas who is living in a Vedic culture Vedic cultural environment to dissipate once in a time an energy in the worship of devtas instead of the worship of Krishna it is a terrible loss Sarvabhauma like that was in a situation of rags because he had no faith and he had no devotion in the personal conception of the absolute truth and while he respected Lord Chaitanya as a jnasi he did not consider Lord Chaitanya as God but all of that was changed by the miraculous mercy of Lord Chaitanya now again the significant thing is normally when we talk about rags to riches stories they are more of one pulling oneself up by the strip of one’s by by bootstrap by the strap of one’s boots so now it’s very difficult almost impossible for us to pull ourselves up what are we holding ourselves against by which we can pull ourselves so atleast Sarvabhauma if we are vertically standing then pulling ourselves up is difficult but that point conveys that our emotions in this world tend to be disorderly and the codes of dharma when properly understood they create a framework within which our emotions can be expressed so that we don’t have to reject or oppress the emotions but at the same time we don’t have to be ruled by those emotions so here that great faith that lord Chaitanya exhibited in lord Chaitanya sorry yeah that great faith that Sarvabhauma exhibited in lord Chaitanya that is being underscored and thus the message is being conveyed that this was no accident that Sarvabhauma now could consider no one other than the lord that Sarvabhauma now was entirely devoted to the lord and all this was a miraculous mercy of lord Chaitanya and it is that which is demonstrated and repeated through the assertions by Krishnaswamy to help us gain an enhanced appreciation of lord Chaitanya and his potency