CC daily 37 – M 4.141-143 – Be afraid of fame, not desperate for it

Chaitanya Charita Amrit Dilla verse text 141 fourth chapter Thakura morek shira dila loka sab vashuni dine loka bheedaha bheemora pratishtha jani Thakura morek shira dila so now here Mother Indra Puri is contemplating that Thakur is Krishna, Krishna has given me kheer, loka sab vashuni, all the people have heard about it. First of all, when the pujari was coming, the pujari was himself calling out loudly Mother Indra Puri, oh Madhav Puri, where are you, where are you? For you, Gopinath has stolen kheer, that itself people must have heard and beyond that, that pujari was not going to stay quiet, he was going to tell others.

Naturally, devotees want to tell the glories of other devotees to each other and to people in general, so his glories would spread and dine loka bheedaha bheemora pratishtha jani dine loka bheedaha bheemora pratishtha jani. So in the morning, there will be a lot of crowd, he thought. So now, we know this pastime has more or less happened in the night.

It could be early, late evening or early night. Basically, the lord had been put to rest and the pujari had already gone to sleep, but then he woke up and dine loka bheedaha bheemora pratishtha jani. They will think that, oh, I am a very great devotee.

I am a celebrated devotee and they will want to come to meet me. And in that way, they will all become, they will crowd around me and now a devotee does not want fame and glory because that is a distraction from the process of devotion that a devotee wants to follow. A devotee wants to be absorbed in Krishna and in service to Krishna.

So Madhavendra Puri thought that if people just come to me and want to see me and offer their obeisances to me, praise me, it will all distract me. And he was not at all interested in his own glory and he decided to leave from there. So, at the end of the night, he left from there.

Saikhane Gopinath dandavat kari. Saikhane, at that very spot, he offered obeisances to Gopinath. Now, what is significant is that he did not even go, first of all, both the lines in this verse are stating astonishing points.

Who will be, normally from the materialistic point of view, who will be afraid of fame? Who will be afraid of praise? Who will be afraid of being considered glorious? Normally people hunger for this, hunger for fame, hunger for glory, hunger for praise. So, who will be afraid of it? There may be some people who are very introvert and shy and they are afraid of being around people and such people may, at one level, we may say that they may be so afraid of crowds that that may make them paranoid. But that is definitely not the kind of person that Madhavendra Puri was.

When Gopal had revealed himself to him in a dream, then he had actually led a crowd of people, first of all, to find Gopal in the forest and then he had managed them all for, managed a large number of people when they wanted to serve Gopal in different ways by cooking, by offering. So, he had coordinated, managed, oversaw the festival also. So, he was certainly not a, what is sometimes called in, especially this phrase is used for shy people, shy females especially, shrinking violet.

So, now the point is he was not just a shy person, he was capable of leading and managing right from the front when it was required. So, his fear was not because of some stage fright or some pathological shyness or anything like that. His fear was because of the potential of fame to distract him from Krishna.

This is the extraordinary nature of a devotee that the devotee, that which people crave for, a devotee is afraid of. So, by the time the night got over, Puri left from there. So, how often do we think that, we may do such a thing when there is some situation where we will be praised and glorified, we actually want to go there.

Now, in some situations, if we are praised, we can use that praise for the service of the Lord. We can use that praise for taking the Lord closer to, for whenever it is possible through that praise, through that appreciation. If we can get some service done for the Lord, we can use its service or sometimes praise may even encourage us in our devotional service.

But that is, we should not get infatuated in the ego, but we should feel heartened in our devotional service by that. So, that is a special situation. Here, what Madanjapuri is thinking about is that, although there are exceptions, general principle is, a devotee does not want distraction from, focus on Krishna, absorption in Krishna and he felt that the crowd and praise and glory will be a distraction from Krishna, even if that is coming because of a devotionally wonderful thing.

And it is significant, the second line is actually even more stunning that he did not even desire to go to Gopinath to take darshan. His heart must have longed, that Lord who has actually benedicted me in such a special way by providing me here, at least one last darshan I want to have that Lord before I leave. How can I not take darshan of the Lord? How can I not offer my obeisances? How can I not offer my respects and gratitude? But then, he thought if I go to the temple, that is where all the people who will want to mob me will be there and I just can't go there.

So, he thought Gopinath's eyes are everywhere and Gopinath can see me from where I am. So, right at that very place, he offered obeisances to Gopinath. So, Sai Khaane Gopinath Dandavata Kari, Sai Khaane, at that very place, he offered obeisances, Dandavata Kari.

So, the idea is that if because of circumstances, we are not able to physically go to the temple, then still we can still perform devotional activities in whatever way is appropriate according to our time, place, circumstance. So, Madhendrapuri, his heart longed to go to Gopinath, but he knew that it would not be practically possible. So, he decided instead to offer obeisances right from there and then he departed.

Chali Chali Aila Puri. So, moving on like this, Madhendrapuri came to Aila and Sri Neelachala. Sri Neelachala.

Achala is that which does not move, that refers to a mountain. Neelachala is a mountain atop which Jagannath is situated, is said to be a bluish colored mountain, Neelagiri or Neelachala. So, Aila Puri.

So, Puri came to Neelachala. When he came to Jagannath Puri, then what did he do? He immediately went to take darshan of Jagannath and when he beheld the beautiful form of Jagannath, So, he was always absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna, but when the special opportunity for remembrance came in terms of beholding directly the form of Jagannath, the intensity of remembrance and the intensity of devotion that came over him was overwhelming. And Pramete Vival, he became overwhelmed by devotion and in this way he relished the ecstasy of love.

So, now Madhavendra Puri who started from Vrindavan had stopped at Ramuna and have some extraordinary pastime happened to him has now more or less come towards the end of his destination, has reached Puri where he is now going to ask for Chandan to fulfill the desire of So, what happens next, we will discuss in our future talks. Thank you.