Draupadi called out to the Lord for protection whereas Prahlad just remembered the Lord with faith in his protection. Which attitude is higher?
Hare Krishna question from Draupadi is calling the lord for protection Prahlad Maharaj is not calling but completely depending on the lord whether he protects or kills which is the highest standard calling the lord for protection or having complete faith that he will protect us always concern in general we shouldn't compare devotees unless there is something specific that is being highlighted by the acharyas so for example in the when wants to glorify the exalted love of the gopis he talks about the various devotees in a hierarchical sense and there in he actually puts the Pandavas above Prahlad Maharaj and there in he says that ok the lord appeared only once to me Prahlad says but the lord lived with the Pandavas and then of course there are various issues there in the hierarchy Prahlad Maharaj says I didn't serve the lord I only called out for the lord Hanumanji served the lord so Prahlad Maharaj thinks subjectively that I am a lower devotee and the Pandavas are higher other devotees are higher but the important point is when there is this feeling subjectively of some devotees of humility we shouldn't make that into a generic statement about transcendental reality because different devotees have different rasas and the lord especially for these exalted devotees the lord wants them to act in a particular way and through their acting in a particular way the lord feels joy so for example we talk about Bhaktivinoda Thakur was the weakest preacher and Babaji was a Babaji who did not preach much Jagannath was a Babaji who didn't preach much Bhaktivinoda Thakur was a preacher so is it that Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Bhaktivinoda Thakur were more spiritually advanced than their spiritual preceptors it would be entirely wrong to think like this the lord inspires different devotees to act in different ways and the activities of exalted devotees are primarily reciprocations between them and the lord and secondarily there may be some lessons that we can learn from those reciprocations but it's not necessary that every single pastime and every single aspect of a particular pastime there has to be something to be learned so in the Draupadi pastime the emphasis is on how when we call out to Krishna then Krishna reciprocates so through that the emphasis it is a graphic demonstration of the potency of kirtanam now call out to Krishna utter his holy name and he responds on the other hand Prahlad Maharaj demonstrates smaranam so of course kirtanam is also demonstrated by Shukadeva Swami and the different processes are demonstrated by different devotees but the emphasis in Draupadi's case is that she calls out the holy name and the lord responds in the case of Prahlad Maharaj he is largely representing the process of smaranam and that's why he focuses on doing nothing but remembrance and the lord reciprocates so even when he is not calling out the holy name directly he is actually internally focused on the lord and that focused attention is also a form of a call it's a most intense call sometimes you may call out externally but you may not be calling out internally so Prahlad Maharaj's heart was calling out to Krishna not just calling out to Krishna it was reaching out to Krishna Krishna was present in Prahlad Maharaj's heart all the time so another point is from the another perspective is that for a woman chastity is very important and a woman should do anything and everything as possible to protect chastity even from a legal point of view if a woman is being violated she can kill her abductor kill her the perpetrator of that act and she will not be considered culpable for self defense so Draupadi had to protect her chastity and for her to just be silent at that time would be as if she would be condoning the adharma that was happening so that is also another perspective to take into consideration in the case of Prahlad he was a devotee he is ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of the lord and Prahlad is demonstrating that by the diligence of his devotion so essentially relationships between the lord and devotees are matters of rasa and whatever the great devotees do they are pleasing the lord by that and certain principles are being taught so we shouldn't compare those principles unless the acharyas have done that in our practical situation what should we do we should do what is according to our nature and according to our circumstance best for our service to Krishna one senior scorned devotee one time he was in safran and then the religious riots broke out in Mumbai and at that time he was on the streets and there was a rioting mob from some other religious community who came saw him in safran and started chasing after him and he had to run for his life and he ran and ran and ran and somehow he managed to escape and then he went to his spiritual master and asked him Maharaj you know I had just gone for a program where I told that I am not the body and the soul and then when I came here I when I saw this I just ran for my life so was I not practicing the philosophy that I am not the body and the soul no spiritual master said that no actually we are not the body we are the soul but our body is meant for service to guru service to Vaishnava, service to the world and also our body is needed for our purification so protecting our body is something that is also within the jurisdiction of devotional service so some devotees may have the attitude that ok if it is Krishna's will then I am to die let me die if Krishna wants to protect me protect me other times some other devotees may feel that no if there is a danger let me do all that I can to protect myself so is it that a devotee who doesn't run away it's a situation more exalted than one who runs away no it's not like that depending on our nature our circumstance we may feel inspired to serve Krishna in a particular way and accordingly we serve Krishna and there is nothing right or wrong about it it's a matter of one's attitude internally and that cannot be known by anyone except the lord and that person so that's why we should not judge the devotees in the situations.