CC daily 208 – 7.46-49 – To lose a treasure we have just appreciated is devastating

Thank you.

48. 49. So, here, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu informed Sarvabhauma that He is going to depart, that He is no longer going to be there because He is going to go to South India.
        And on hearing this, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, or rather Sarvabhauma gets very agitated and He feels that this is a disastrous thing. So, He says that, Bahujanma, actually, it is only after doing it is only after doing punya for many many lifetimes that He has been able to He has got the association of the Lord. And now, after having got the association now if He is saying that, if you, O Lord, if you, O Lord, now leave me, that will be my utter misfortune, it will be a disaster for me.
        Because it’s after so many bahujanma, after many many lifetimes, finally I have got your association and now if I lose it, I will be utterly bereaved. So, but still, tumhi satantraishwar, my dear Lord, you are the Supreme Ishwara. You are the Supreme Lord and still, and I know that if you have decided to go, no one can stop you.
        But still, I have one request, O Lord, that please stay on for a few days. And in that way, He says, O Lord, please allow me to serve you for some more time. To the point which Zahrao Bhaumai is making in a very humble and desperate way, He is saying, O Lord, please stay for a few days.
        And you will see here, Lord Caitanya exhibiting His great sensitivity by agreeing to stay there for some time. The whole idea is that in life, we all have decisions to make. We all have difficult choice.
        Now, the important thing to understand is that we as devotee sadhakas are in a situation where we shouldn’t impose our desire and at the same time we need to express our desire. Because after all, bhakti, the whole process of bhakti centers on intensification of our desire. What is our devotion if we do not have desire for the Lord? In fact, externally speaking, yes, in devotion there are certain activities that are involved and we certainly should do those activities.
        For example, the activity of chanting the holy names, of activities of devotional service, whatever the specific activities they may be, we certainly need to do those activities. But while doing those activities, it’s important to recognize that bhakti is not to be reduced to those activities alone. Bhakti is something much bigger.
        Bhakti is actually the intense emotion, the longing for the Lord that is to be awakened and stimulated and strengthened by the performance of such activities. So, unless we are ready to do this, unless we are actually ready to surrender to the Lord, to offer ourselves completely to Him, to become totally devoted to Him, unless that desire becomes stronger and stronger by our steady practice of bhakti, unless that happens, we are actually very much in illusion if we think that we have advanced in bhakti because we have actually not advanced in bhakti. Advancement of bhakti is not simply a matter of continuing to do any external rituals.
        And there can be people who have little or no affection for Lord Chaitanya and they may say that when Lord Chaitanya is departing from Puri, he came, he went, what is the big deal? And there are devotees whose hearts go through a tsunami of traumatic emotions when they hear that Lord Chaitanya is planning to leave Puri. What is the essential difference between the two? The essential difference is largely in terms of the practical application of what is being done or what is to be done. That means that Lord Chaitanya is essentially demonstrating here that while He is the Supreme Lord, He doesn’t rub it in.
        He doesn’t say, I am God, you are my servants, you have to obey me. He deals with them very respectfully, sensitively, appreciatively, and thereby He conveys to them the affection that He has for them. At the same time, He also does not let His own determination, His own intention of what He wants to do get thwarted because of them.
        Now Sarvabhauma, when he is looking back from his perspective, he had such a grievous, disastrous misconception about the nature of the absolute truth and that misconception would have kept him forever deprived of the sweetness of devotion. And it was by Lord Chaitanya’s mercy that he had come to, he had been rescued from that misconception and had come to relish the sweetness of devotion and based on that taste, he was now going to, he was relishing more and more of that taste by the association and the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And we see how intense, in the previous chapter it has been described, how intensely he was attracted to and devoted to Lord Chaitanya.
        And especially when we get some treasure new and we start valuing that treasure and then suddenly if we lose it, it is a devastating loss. And Sarvabhauma says over here, O Lord, if a thunderbolt falls on my face or if my son dies because of some reason, I might be able to tolerate it, but separation from you, O Lord, I will find intolerable. Now this indicates again the extent of the love that Sarvabhauma has for Lord Chaitanya.
        Normally one’s own thunderbolt falling is, now death can come in various ways, but thunderbolt falling is a particularly excruciatingly painful way of dying. And when somebody gets a sudden devastating painful news, it’s often said that it hit them like a thunderbolt. So here Sarvabhauma is saying that I could take the blow of a thunderbolt and for a person, the idea that I can continue living through my expansions, especially through my heir, which in traditional cultures was a male, so that is such a valuable feeling.
        That is one of the most sore, if a person loses one’s son, that is a very great attachment to the son that is there and it’s one of the worst pains that a person can go through. So Sarvabhauma through these three examples conveys how even the worst of the pains that one may go through materially because of adversities, they are nothing as compared to the pain that one may go through spiritually because of being separated from the Lord. So he begs the Lord, O Lord, please stay for a few days more.
        He says, I will serve you for those few days. Please O Lord, stay for a few days. And seeing his forward request, Lord Chaitanya cannot but agree and he agrees to stay for some more time.