CC daily 46 – M 4.181-184 – Be more Krishna-conscious than obstacle-conscious

Thank you.

Shri Shantanand Mahaprabhu is speaking the glories of Madhavendra Puri, and he says, bhokhe rahe, he would stay hungry, he would not maghe na kha, he would not even beg for food, only if food came of its own accord, he would eat that food, and yet that person, who was not ready to even expend such a little effort for one's own body, was ready to do so much for the Lord's sake. What was it? He went thousands of miles to procure and then to carry the load of chandan for the Lord. So one of the characteristics of love is the best for you.

We want to offer parents, sometimes when they want education for their child, they have very little money, they may even cut down on their necessities so that they can finance their children's education. So like that, that is love. We are ready to sacrifice even our own needs so that we can do what is needed for our beloved.

So Madhavendra Puri would not exert even a little bit for his own needs, but when the Lord expressed a need, I'm feeling hot, please get chandan to cool me, then he was ready to do a phenomenal amount of labor to get that chandan for the Lord. So, one mound of chandan, tola abhishek karpur, tola is another measure of weight, so 20 tolas of karpur, of camphor, gopal paraiva, which is a substantial amount of weight, and gopal paraiva, oh, Gopal will accept this, Gopal will be adorned by this, Gopal will be soothed and cooled by this, like ananda prachur, thinking like this, he experienced prachur, abundant happiness, profuse happiness. So now, when Madhavendra Puri had to, was told to get chandan, the Lord did not specify any quantity, how much chandan has to be got.

So, if he had wanted to cut corners and take the easy way out, he could have got a small quantity of chandan, he says, my dear Lord, you told me to get it, you did not tell how much to get. So I got whatever was possible for me to carry, and he could have carried a very small quantity. here, it described that he carried quite a substantial quantity, and now carrying that much quantity would have been a burden, but that burden was more than compensated for by the thought that the Lord will be pleased by this, Lord will be adorned by this, Lord will be cooled by this.

Normally, burden is quite often a matter of conception. So, what burdens one person may enliven another person. A coolie may carry a weight and the coolie thinks, oh, what a terrible thing, I have to carry this weight.

A mother may carry a child, and the mother says, oh, this child I love so much, I am so happy carrying this child, carrying my child, dear child. The point is that it all depends on conception or perception. How we look at things and how we look at things depends on how we think.

So, Madhahendra Puri saw, he did not see the trouble that he would face when carrying the Chandan. He saw only, the Lord will be pleased and the Lord will be served for many days. If I have more Chandan, we can apply more Chandan and we can apply it for more days.

So, let me take more and more Chandan for him. And rather than feeling that as a burden, it is Ananda Prachur, he felt that as great happiness, profuse happiness, because Gopal will be delighted. Gopal will be served.

That was his primary consideration. Utkalera dhani rakhi Chandan dekhiya, taha edaila Rajapatra dekhaya. So, Utkalera dhani, the toll collector Utkala, they impeded his progress.

They checked him. They got Chandan, Chandan is not allowed to be carried like this. They would even have confiscated it.

But, Rajapatra, he showed the letter of authorization that he had got from the king. So, now, that means, the point which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was emphasizing by informing us about this is that it was not that his love had blinded him to the practicalities. We could say that his love was so grand that he didn't feel the burden of carrying the weight and he was happy to carry.

But, that does not mean that that love was blind. He knew that obstacles would come and he had prepared for the obstacles. So, there were the toll collectors who would not have allowed Chandan to go through.

So, he had ensured, he had arranged that he would have the appropriate authorization letter. So, that means, love can blind us to our limitations and to our weaknesses so that by the mercy of Krishna, our limitations and weaknesses are transcended, our weaknesses are compensated. But, at the same time, there are obstacles which are real and they can often be so formidable that they may just lock us completely.

So, we have to take realistic, intelligent steps to deal with those obstacles. And Madhavendra Puri was not just transcendental, he was also practical. So, he arranged for, he was travelling with this Raj Patra, the author of authorization.

लिच्छ देश दूर पत जगातिय पार में ते चंदन नीबा नहीं विचार में ते चंदन नीबा नहीं विचार So, लिच्छ देश दूर पत So, there is, he had three obstacles. It was beyond that. लिच्छ देश It was a country where people would not have respected the fact that he was doing a service for the deity and that he was taking the Chandan for the deity, so Chandan should be considered sacred and not be confiscated.

People would not have, even the government would not have accepted लिच्छ देश दूर पत because it was ruled by Mohammedians and then if there is a hostile territory but it is only a short territory, one can just slip in, slip out and hope that one can do that discreetly. But दूर पत है, दूर पत है It's a long path through the military territory, not just Bengal but most of North India was actually ruled by Muslims. तो दूर पत है How will he How will he be able to reach there and then further it is said that there are many watchmen, there are many toll collectors, many guards, lot of security people who would not very easily have allowed him to go through but he did not bother about such things.

Sometimes we get into we worry and worry can sometimes get us into hyperactivity and sometimes it can get us into paralytic in activity where worry makes us feel, if I do this this will go wrong, if I do that, that will go wrong if I do that, then that will go wrong and that analysis ends in paralysis where we are not able to do it, but Madan Guru was not like that. He was relentlessly moving onward, confident that the Lord would arrange for whatever is required by the Lord's grace के मते चंदन नीबा How will I take this he was not worried, he was confident that if I just keep serving taking one step at a time the Lord will arrange so in general one definition of faith is that to take the onward step, even when take one step onwards on a bridge, even when we can't see the end of the bridge take one step up a ladder or staircase even when we can't see the end of the ladder or staircase that's how we put faith in one sense we know the full result, the full path but we take one step at a time and move onward and like that Madhavendra Puri exhibits extraordinary faith extraordinary faith, because he could have said that there are going to be so many obstacles obvious obstacles this instruction is impossible to fulfill, but he just kept doing what he could one step at a time, one step at a point and Krishna helped him to do what he couldn't have done getting through all the obstacles of the guards and Krishna arranged for that by his miraculous interventions so as devotees we should be Krishna conscious not obstacle conscious that is our faith and in that way by keeping our focus on Krishna, we will avoid unnecessary discouragement that comes when we give too much thought to obstacles and also we will be able to move onwards in our journey till we attain Krishna Krishna will act in wonderful ways and will guide us to overcome whatever obstacles we have to face although the interventions may not be as miraculous as happened in Madhavendra Puri's case but the results will be that we will be able to serve Krishna without unnecessary discouragement and we will be able to march through obstacles. Thank you.