CC daily 203 – 7.30-32 – The Lord’s seeming hard-heartedness is due to his soft-heartedness

Chaitanya Charita Amrit Madhya Leela chapter 7 text 30 text text text text text so here Krishna Das Kailash Goswami is helping us understand better the deep love that underlies the exchange that has just happened between Lord Chaitanya and his devotees. So, he said, चैतन्येर भक्तबात्सल्य अकत्यकथौन अकत्यकथौन, that means, it is actually not describable, but we are describing it.

So, it is so exalted, so intimate, that it is not really easily describable, but he tries to give us some understanding of it. Because at first glance, it may seem that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is pointing out false, and Krishna Das Kairaja Swami is saying that this is actually, he is relishing the qualities of his devotees. So, how can it be that the pointing out of false can be said to be the relishing of qualities? And that, he clarifies by stating that actually, such was the love of the devotees for the Lord that they did not want him to suffer even the slightest inconvenience or pain or problem.

In one sense, taking to the renounced order of life itself means facing problems. So, Lord Chaitanya is facing problems here in terms of accepting the austerities of the renounced order. Now, such an austerity is not a small thing.

Accepting any kind of austerity is, as the very word indicates, austere. Austerity is actually a soft, euphemistic kind of word for suffering, but the difference is that it is a self-accepted suffering. Nowadays, austerity measures is the term used by government to talk about situations when people face, when the government imposes extra taxes or cuts down on the benefits, social benefits or economic benefits, whatever might be there, subsidies and other things.

So, when people are expected to live with less salary, with less support, then that is called as austerity. And because most countries today are democratic, then there it is an austerity measure, the word is used, because people have to voluntarily accept it. The point is, in the renounced order, Lord Chaitanya was doing some austerity, natural austerity, like waking up in the morning, taking cold bath, sleeping in not a very comfortable bed.

While he was doing all this, the problem was that he had himself voluntarily accepted the renounced order and he knew that it entailed austerities and he was ready to go through the austerities. And he did not really perceive them as any kind of suffering, because he was so absorbed in Krishna, so absorbed in the purpose of sharing Krishna with the world, that for him, the austerities were just a part of life. They did not matter much to him.

In fact, apart from his absorption in Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, for him, especially as he will move further, we will see that, nothing else mattered to him. So, in such a situation, where the Lord is exhibiting such renunciation, where he is naturally ecstatic and therefore naturally indifferent to the body's needs, he doesn't feel any pain, but his devotees, his associates out of love for him, they feel pain when he is performing these austerities. And seeing their pain, the Lord feels pain.

When Lord Ram was exiled, he who was to be the king, had now to go to the forest and live in the forest like a mendicant. Now for him himself, it was a great reversal and he accepted it with dignity and grace. But beyond that, he had to also endure something more.

He had to endure a problem-filled life. Lord Ram had to endure the heartbreak that everyone around him was going through. He had to console even his mother who was disconsolate at her son's imminent departure and a subsequent long separation.

He had to study his wife Sita. He had to even calm down Lakshman who was strongly advocating a military coup. And then finally, he had to even pacify his own father.

So his father started telling him to stay at least for one day. First he said, come with me, we will go with you to the forest and we will take all the resources of a Yodhya with us. Then he said, at least stay for one more day, I will give you all the comforts that a king should give to his prince.

And Lord Ram had to not only endure his own pain, but he had to also pacify others. And he said, what is the use of prolonging the inevitable? After one day, still I will have to go to the forest. And what will enjoying things for one day do? Better let me go right away.

So Lord Chaitanya in a similar mood, he wanted to minimize the pain that his devotees would feel because of his performing austerity. And that is the reason why he wanted to go alone. Because if his associates would be there with him, then those associates would see what all austerities he is performing.

And they would feel great distress on seeing this. And on seeing such distress, on seeing their distress, Lord Chaitanya would feel distressed. And to avoid such spiraling distress among both of them, Lord Chaitanya had decided that he will go alone.

And in this way, he would be able to, both, right now he would have had to make a choice. Either he follow his sannyas duties, or he avoid distressing his devotees. But if he went alone, then he would be able to do both.

Because the devotees would not be there to see his distress. And therefore they would not feel so distressed. Of course there will be some anxiety that they are going alone, if the Lord is going alone.

But that is different from constantly on a daily basis, seeing the Lord perform so many austerities. Thus it was out of his concern for the devotees, that the Lord told them that I want to travel alone. And in this way, he exhibited how subtle and refined and enduring the reciprocations of love at spiritual level between the Lord and his associates are.