CC daily 201 – 7.25-27 – Neglect of etiquette can be due to disrespect – and due to love too

Jaitanya Jaitanya Amrit Madhya Lila text 7.25 Amit Sanyasi Damodar Brahmachari Sada Rahe Amar Upar Shiksha Danda Dhari Ihara Aage Aami Na Jaani Vyavahar Ihare Na Bhai Swatantra Charitra Amar Jaitanya Mahaprabhu speaks here he is speaking about how what his associates have provided him that is he appreciates the affection of his associates but at the same time he also says that why he cannot take any of them with him till now he has given reasons why Nityanand Prabhu Jagadanand Pandit and Mukunda cannot come with him now finally he has given a reason about why Damodar Pandit cannot come with him so he says I am a sanyasi and he is a brahmachari and yet he thinks that he thinks that I am a child, I do not know how to behave and so he holds a stick over me to correct my behavior Shiksha Danda Dhari so Shaitanya Mahaprabhu here has very special relationship special individual relationship with all his devotees specialness and uniqueness of his relationship is seen in the fact that he does not often in the Judaeo-Christian tradition God is thought of as a great being whom we all are meant to bow down and worship and he is the receiver of worship we are the giver of worship and in this way we are meant to live eternally that is the traditional conventional conception but here Lord Chaitanya is pointing out that such a conception is not Lord Chaitanya is demonstrating through his relationship with his devotees that here is a very different conception of God a God who is a God of love a God who is a person who is all attractive all loving all merciful and a person who is not at all the the dominator the authority the just the everybody comes down and bows to him there have been different conceptions of divinity throughout history and a conception of God's conception that is centered primarily on God's greatness does not hold much sustainable attraction because that conception yes we do not need to know God's greatness but the idea of God's greatness should not lead to the notion that there is no chance for sweetness in the relationship there is no chance for intimacy in the relationship again the whole point of the relationship of Lord Chaitanya with his devotees is to demonstrate how devotees can have intimate relationship with the Lord that intimate relationship is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrates so that each of his associates if we see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is offering some personal individual reason it's not saying that I am God this is my will and this is what I want to do and this is what you should obey he is not at all arguing in that way instead he is giving specific reasons based on the mood in each relationship and with respect to Damodar there is again a very special flavor that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was motivated primarily by love and it was this love which underlay and unified all his actions so sometimes out of great love he chose to neglect social convention normally Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was quite careful about even the matter of perception normally we would think that a person who has taught person who has taught that one should not worry about honor about receiving honor and one should just give honor to others such a person would not be very concerned about reputation but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was cautious usually because he knew that for a person who is preaching for a person who is setting an example for society reputation is as important as is the reality certainly we need to be pure hearted but being pure hearted alone is not enough because even when we are pure hearted still we may fall for sin we may not be able to share God's message effectively share the principle of Dharma effectively if there is no proper reputation if people suspect the character of a person then that person no matter what such a person does will not be able to actually sustain the necessary requirements for sharing the message of God ultimately sharing the message of God is not just an activity that is based on just knowing the principles, knowing the philosophy and sharing the philosophy it is also based on understanding that we are at various levels meant to not just be educators but transformers and people will be transformed when they feel convinced at least reasonably assured that the person who is instructing them is also transformed unless they see if they have doubts is the person whom we are talking about devoted to God or not if they feel that maybe the person whom we are whom VA is instructing us, that person is not really all that devoted to God then they will feel what is the authority of such a person who is instructing us and why should we follow such a person so the reason why we are discussing this is, there is an incident which will be described later in Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, there was a young boy who would come and meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu regularly and he was the son of a widow and when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would speak with him naturally he was a young boy who was coming Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was naturally affectionate to him but people might misunderstand that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was showing affection to that boy because he had some relationship with the he wanted to have or had some relationship with the boy's mother, the widow and thus his impeccable character as a sanyasi would be brought into question and fearing this, Damodar Pandit Damodar, as he is being talked about over here, would tell Lord Chaitanya don't don't you should not spend time with this boy what will people think about you Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that I know he said I know how to behave and Damodar thinks that he has to instruct me about how to behave and so he chastises me as if I am an ignorant child and this way he says that I am actually not allowed to behave freely by him, so I will not take him also essentially, the whole point of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's discussion is that I will be going alone I won't take anyone with you with me, thank you.