Rasikananda Thakura – The power of devotion makes even animals dance

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
On the sacred occasion associated with the Sikhan and the Thakur, let us contemplate on his benchmark, landmark contribution to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. After Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the next generation of devotees were the Goswamis and among the Goswamis, we can say there are two generations.
Rupa and Sanatana were older and Jiva Goswami was almost like a next generation. He was a nephew of Rupa and Sanatana. Even if you consider both, all the Goswamis to be one generation, after that among Jiva Goswamis, Shiksha disciples were three great souls.
Narottam Das Thakur, Shyamanand Pandit and Srinivasa Acharya. And a generation after that, Shyamanand Pandit’s most illustrious disciple was Rasikanand Thakur or his another name was Rasik Murari. Now Rasikanand Thakur was the son of a king as was Narottam Das Thakur.
And yet, renouncing the world, he came to Vrindavan and offered his life to his spiritual master, Shyamanand Pandit. And he served him so devotedly, so faithfully that Shyamanand Pandit actually entrusted his own deity, Gobindji’s deity to him for service. And in this way, by serving his spiritual master and serving his spiritual master’s deity, serving the Lord, he pleased both of them.
And seeing his devotional disposition and his diligence, then he was given the momentous instruction to preach, to leave Vrindavan and travel all over and preach. And he came back and Rasikanand Thakur was an extremely powerful preacher, you know, by his eloquent talks and his effulgent personality and his elegant carriage, he was able to attract so many people, people from all walks of life, not just people who were traditionally within the Vedic culture, Brahmins, but even not even just the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, but even Lichas, Yavanas, even Atheists, and not just human beings, he was even transformed non-human beings. At one time, his preaching became so vigorous that even at that time Bengal was ruled by the Mlechas.
The Mlechas became disturbed to see this upsurge of religious sentiment and religious activity among the, what they considered the infidel Hindus. So he was summoned to the court. And in those days, the kings would test the power of holy people by their capacity to do miracles.
And they declared that, so the Muslim ruler said that a wild rampaging elephant would be released and sent charging towards Rasikanand Thakur. And if he could control it, then he would be considered to be a true holy person. Otherwise, he would be considered to be a fake and he would be trampled to death by that elephant.
So Rasikanand Thakur was completely fearless. And this elephant was so deadly that even fully armed people would be afraid of confronting him. And he was released in the arena where Rasikanand Thakur was at.
Everybody became, all the Vaishnavas, his followers, his admirers, his disciples, they became aghast. Rasikanand Thakur was chanting the holy names, praying to the lord. And the same super soul who is present in the heart of Rasikanand Thakur was also present in the heart of that elephant.
And as he came close, charging, it was appearing as if it would gore Rasikanand Thakur with his trunks and trample him with his giant feet. But just when he came close, he suddenly stopped and stopped and put himself, lowered himself and practically offered obeisances to Rasikanand Thakur. What did Rasikanand Thakur do? He did not triumphantly say to the king, yes, see, I have control this elephant.
He was not at all concerned about what the world was thinking. Rasikanand Thakur’s concern was for the soul who was there in that elephant’s body. And he said, why are you wasting your life, rampaging and destroying? You are a soul, you are a part of God.
And you are meant to serve God, chant the holy names. And in the ear of this elephant, he chanted the holy names of the lord. And actually, tears came from the eyes of that elephant.
And he, in this way, by chanting the names in the ears, initiated the elephant. And actually, the elephant was given the name Gopal Das. And what did the elephant do thereafter? Complete nature was changed and that elephant became softer and gentler than any domestic animal.
And instead of plundering people and destroying them, the elephant would go and beg charity from people. He would just go and knock in front of people’s houses gently. And then just as a mendicant asks for charity, he would ask for charity.
And even after getting charity, he would not take it himself. He would go and give it to his god family. And then whatever he was offered as remnants, he would take that.
So we may wonder how is this kind of thing possible? But actually, by the power of the lord, who is present in the heart of everyone’s soul, he can do everything. So just as Shri Yantra Mahaprabhu made the animals in Jhari Kunj dance, similarly, he empowered subsequent generations of devotees, specifically of Shri Yantra, to also make elephants dance. And Shri Prabhupada would say that similarly, people who were like animals, people who had no knowledge of spiritual life, people whose only regularity principle was to break all the regularity principles, the hippies of America, Shri Prabhupada, by the mercy of the same lord, made them also dance.
So we also, within us, have an animal-like mind, which doesn’t understand or perceive or relish anything higher. But by the mercy of the lord and his devotees, even that mind can be made to dance. So we can pray to Hrishikant Thakur that he bless us with his mercy and that our animalistic mind may also dance by his grace, coming through Shri Prabhupada and the Gaudiya Sampradaya, and that we may also play our small part in receiving and distributing the mercy of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.