Pundarika Vidyanidhi – Go beyond appearance to appreciate the substance of devotion in Vaishnavas

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. So on this sacred day associated with Shri Pundarik Vidyanidhi, let us meditate on how he demonstrates how pure devotion transcends all externals.
Pundarik Vidyanidhi was a disciple of Shri Madhavendra Puri, in the same generation of Vaishnavas as Ishwara Puri, Advaita Acharya, who were actually the generation of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s spiritual masters. Now, Pundarik Vidyanidhi was very close to Sarva Damodar Goswami. They had many intimate pastimes.
We will focus on one particular pastime of Pundarik Vidyanidhi, not while he was in Puri, where he would often meet Sarva Damodar Goswami, but while he was in Navadvip, he disguised himself as a worldly sense enjoyer. No one except Mukunda knew about the great devotion of Pundarik Vidyanidhi. And Kunda told Gadadhar Pandit, today I will take you to meet a great Vaishnava.
I took him to the presence of Pundarik Vidyanidhi. At that time, Pundarik Vidyanidhi was lying on a soft silk bed with opulent clothes all around him. And there was paan box, pearls around it, and the stain of paan in his mouth.
And on the mirror in front of him, where he was looking, there was some paan liquid there also. And there were spittoons on both his sides, which had acted like his guardians. And seeing him living in such luxury, Gadadhar Pandit got the doubt, is this really, is this a devotee? Or is this a prince, a materialistic prince, wallowing in luxury? Mukunda was very sharp, and seeing the expression on Gadadhar Pandit’s face, he recognized what the thoughts were in his mind.
And he decided to demonstrate to Mukunda, to Gadadhar Pandit and to him, to the whole world, the ecstasies that were hidden in the heart of Pundarik Vidyanidhi. So he recited a verse glorifying the great greatness of Lord Krishna, that although Putana had killed so many children, although she had come with the intention of killing Krishna, but because she offered him a little breast milk, she had the slight service disposition of a nurse, of a mother. Krishna just saw that positive service attitude, put aside all the negativity and bestowed such mercy on her, that he gave her the position of a nurse in the spiritual world, of his own intimacy, of his own associate as a nurse.
So when this verse fell into the ears of Pundarik Vidyanidhi, everything about him changed. He started going into uncontrollable ecstasy. He says, the Lord has bestowed mercy on everyone, even on Putana, but he has kept me bereaved of his mercy, how unfortunate I am.
And being absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna, in separation from Krishna, he started tossing things around, left to the right, the spittoon, the utensils, the various ornaments, everything that was so precious and so opulent around, it just started scattering far away here and there. And he became restless, wild with ecstasy. Ten servants came from different directions and they tried to restrain Pundarik Vidyanidhi, but still he could not be restrained.
He was desperate for the mercy of the Lord. Alas, I have not got the mercy, alas, alas. And finally, as the intense ecstasy of separation reached a climax, his physical body could take it no more and he fell into unconsciousness.
And that witness experience of the extraordinarily intense devotion of Pundarik Vidyanidhi jolted Gadadhar Pandit out and he realised, I was about to commit a great offence to a great Vaishnava. And when Pundarik Vidyanidhi came back to consciousness, Gadadhar Pandit fell at his feet and he said, such devotion you have. I would like to become your disciple.
Please, grant me initiation. Pundarik Vidyanidhi was such a great devotee that even before he came, Vijayathana Mahaprabhu would call out and say, a great associate of mine will come in the future and he would use the name Pundarik. That was actually Pundarik Vidyanidhi he was calling out.
And he is, in Krishna’s pastimes, the father of Srimati Radharani and Gadadhar Pandit took initiation from him and Pundarik Vidyanidhi demonstrated through this pastime that we should not let appearances distract us from the substance. What is there in the heart of a devotee, we cannot know very easily. Therefore, we cannot just rely on our own perceptions in determining the calibre of a devotee.
If the Vaishnava community respects a devotee, if especially senior Vaishnavas consider a person to be a great soul, then we should not think that because to our appearance this person seems ordinary or this person seems materialistic, this person doesn’t behave like a Vaishnava, therefore this person is not a Vaishnava. No. Maybe you commit a great offence by remembering that the essence of devotion is not an external appearance but an inner substance.
And by meditating on this, we can go beyond the externals, go beyond the jijik mentality, appreciate the essence of devotion in the heart of others and cultivate that essence in our own hearts. We can pray to Pundarik Vidyanidhi for the blessing of devotion as well as the blessing of going beyond appearance to substance in seeing devotion in the heart of others. Shri Pundarik Vidyanidhi ki Jai.
Thank you very much. Purification means that sensual