CC daily 3 – CCM 4.5-5-6 – In bhakti humility is the greatest ability

Thank you So here Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami is continuing his description of the glory of Vrindamdas Thakur's book Sahajay Vichitra Sahajay is easily naturally, Vichitra is wonderful Vichitra sometimes in vernacular means strange but in Bengali it means Vishisha Rupena Chitra something like that, it's special wonderful Madhur Chaitanya Vihar Madhur, Madhur means very sweet, so Chaitanya Vihar the past tense of lord Chaitanya are naturally and wonderfully sweet Vrindavan Das Mukhe and when they manifest from the mouth of Vrindavan Das they are Amruthera Dhar they are like a flow of nectar flow of nectar, Amruthera Dhar so actually it's interesting that twice he is using sweetness Madhur and Amruthera so what is originally sweet when it is spoken by a loving devotee, the sweetness becomes all the more just as it is said about the Bhagavatam that a sweet fruit when touched by an apple by a parrot's beak becomes even sweeter so the increased sweetness of the lord's past tense when spoken by the devotee is because the devotee is not only relishing the past tense at a very high level but also the devotee helps brings the past tense makes the past tense accessible to us and relishable to us by acting as a bridge between us and the exalted level at which the past tense is performed the devotee makes the sweetness accessible and relishable and also the devotees themselves manifest the bliss of remembering the lord and relishing his past tense and that also further makes that bliss accessible and relishable so what is sweet becomes by the explanations and by the living example of the devotee all the more accessible so Amruthera dhaar Krishna das ki rajo swami is saying so sixth verse so the words that he has described if i describe it again it will be repetition and it will be very proud of me arrogant of me is arrogance arrogance is universally despised varni yadi if i describe this again it will be arrogance what can i describe i do not have such powers so he does not say i am very humble he says i do not have such powers so i won't be repeating what he has described i am not thinking in terms of superseding what he has done not only would be arrogant but i am also incapable so its both ways he is humbling himself he is pointing out the defect in attempting to excel a previous great for him Vrindavan das Thakur for a earlier great devotee to try to excel that is arrogance and further he says if i did it even if i had the power to do it doing it would be arrogance and actually i don't even have the power to do it therefore i am not going to do it that is the implication over here and so in general sometimes for some specific services we may find that we may be more endowed than other devotees we may be able to sing better, we may be able to manage better, we may be able to even speak better distribute books better sometimes we may be able to do better not only than our equals but even better than our seniors now we should remember that we don't have to be that our betterness or our superiority in doing certain services doesn't necessarily mean superiority in our devotional consciousness it does not at all mean superiority in our spiritual advancement and often what we think as superiority may not be superiority also it may be our ego but even if somehow we have the capacity to do some service better now we should definitely not flaunt that superiority in the eyes of in front of others if a particular service calls upon us to do something then we can do it but we always need to stay humble knowing that our talents won't take us back to godhead it is our consciousness that will take us back to godhead and if we have been given some talents and if we can use them in Krishna's service that is wonderful we will use them in Krishna's service and by that we will grow in our spiritual life but we shouldn't exhibit those challenges in a way that makes other devotees feel inferior and certainly we shouldn't imagine ourselves to be superior because of our talents rather we need the blessings of others, we need the blessings of our seniors by which we will be able to advance in our spiritual life and if by their blessings and if by Krishna's endowment he has given us some talents which we can use in his service then we can do it as a service for a particular purpose so we when we do services it is not to usurp others, usurp our seniors but it is to assist our seniors and Krishna Askar Raj Goswami is going to assist Vrindam Das Thakur and I am going to assist Lord Chaitanya and the devotee community by his exposition in the Chaitanya Charita Amrita while describing his pastimes and he does a particular thing in his narration, he focuses not on the description of the pastimes although he does describe them and describe them sweetly but he focuses as we discussed in the previous talk on the Siddhanta and while focusing on the Siddhanta also he actually establishes the glory of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu more and more so the mood of service will protect us from the pitfall of pride and also the pitfall of hurting others so actually on the path of bhakti humility is the greatest ability because other abilities are also great and they may greatly attract others but they will not attract Krishna they may attract others to us and through us even to Krishna but what will attract Krishna to us, what will inspire Krishna to give us his mercy is not our ability but our humility to the extent we have a humble disposition knowing that we are fallen, knowing that we are sinful, knowing that it is only by the grace of Krishna and his devotees that we are able to practice bhakti otherwise we would fall deep down into sinful life and by remembering that it is their mercy that is enabling us to use whatever abilities we have in Krishna's service we can preserve our humility and that way just as if somebody had an ability to sing and that person will be so careful not to lose his singing ability, will not eat some oily food which will spoil the throat and will do some proper take medication or some exercise or whatever is required to protect the throat, so like that just as we protect our ability because it is essential for our service to Krishna similarly we need to protect our humility also because that is even more essential for our service to Krishna we may be able to continue serving Krishna without humility but the purpose of service that is proximity to Krishna will not be fulfilled without humility and that's why humility is foundational to bhakti and examples like those of Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami can be a great inspiration can be a compass can be a lighthouse for us in using our ability while preserving.