Uddharana D T – Bhakti can deliver anyone and even use anyone for delivering bhakti to others

Transcript

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Hare Krishna on this sacred occasion associated with Uddhara and that Thakur let us contemplate on his glories as are revealed in the Gaudiya literature especially the biographies of lord Chaitanya and lord Ityananda whenever the lord descends to this world he doesn’t come alone he has associates in the spiritual world and many of them he brings with him here so when Krishna comes he brings his Gopis, his mother, father, his Sakhas so this is Krishna has Ashtasakhas similarly the primary Ashtashakhis there are Ashtasakhas also so the Gauda Gauravesh Deepika describes the correlation between lord Krishna’s associates in Vraja Leela and lord Chaitanya’s associates in Krishna Leela who was who from Krishna Leela and who that person became in Vraja Leela, in Gaura Leela so it is described that lord Chaitanya that Uddhara and that Thakur was one of the Ashtasakhas named Subahu so he became Uddhara and that Thakur now one of the defining characteristics of Bhakti has been that it’s transcendence to social norms that means that within the conventional social order in Vedic society there was a particular hierarchy in which things were people were looked at so for example Brahmanas are considered the highest than Kshatriyas and Vaishyas and Shudras are considered to be among the lower caste Krishna also has three Vaishya Shudras he talks about them as Papayoni so this is not a casteist discrimination but this is just an assertion of objective fact that people who are born with a mercantile or materialistic mentality, materialistic means just dealing with matter as Shudras do that mentality is a result of past deeds of particular kind so those who are business people are often not considered to be having a very suitable inclination for practicing spiritual life and especially among these at those times the Suvarnavanic community, those who were gold merchants, gold traders or jewel traders, gold traders primarily they were considered to be very unsuitable because gold is so infatuating and intoxicating just it’s sight, it’s possession and it’s sale and so much money people hope to earn through it, gold itself is a form of treasure and people hope to earn lot of money through it, it completely intoxicates a person so therefore one has to be careful and yet Nityananda Prabhu was actually careful in giving Lord Chaitanya’s mercy to everyone even those who were not normally considered qualified, so one example is of course how we went to Jagai and Madai they were Brahmins who had become very degraded Brahma Bandhus but then he also went to the Vanic community so he, after staying in Karnataka for some time, he went to Saptagram Saptagram is in many ways the predecessor of modern day Calcutta and Saptagram, there were many flourishing many wealthy people living there, it was a big town see Saptagram is little seven towns and there Uddharanda Thakur was the manager of a big estate and his father was Shrikardatta and his mother was Bhadravati so there Nityananda Prabhu went and danced in ecstasy and seeing this Uddharanda Thakur found his heart completely falling in love and gratitude and service and surrender to Uddharanda Thakur and, sorry, Uddharanda Thakur to the Lord Nityananda he fell at the feet of Lord Nityananda, offered his life to him, begged him to come and grace his house, Nityananda Prabhu came and stayed for several days in the house of Uddharanda Thakur how fortunate it is that sometimes even when some senior devotees come and grace our house, we feel fortunate what to speak of the Supreme Lord comes and graces and through Uddharanda Thakur eventually the whole Vanik community took the shelter, Subhadra Vanik community took the shelter of Nityananda Prabhu and this became one of the great conquests of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, not conquest in egoistic sense, but conquest in the sense of bringing glory to Lord Chaitanya that is, even those people who are so infatuated with wealth, Krishna says that those who are it is difficult for them to practice spiritual life actually that sort of buddhi doesn’t come up in those people, but this is Chaitanya’s mercy manifesting to Lord Nityananda that even the Subhadra Vanik community was delivered and Uddharanda Thakur was among the first persons to surrender to him, so he became the means through which the whole community was delivered and then thereafter he personally started worshipping Shadbhuj Gauranga Deity and next to the Shadbhuj Gauranga Deity there is the deity of Lord Nityananda who was his deliverer and then there is also the deity of Gadadhar so this is how Uddharanda Thakur led an exemplary life of totally surrendered devotion and in this way he demonstrated the principle that devotion can elevate anyone and everyone, he is such a great devotee that actually later on when after Shaitan Mahaprabhu had departed, Nityananda Prabhu had departed, even Uddharanda Thakur had departed, that Janma Mata when she was going around various places she came to Saptagram and she came to have darshan of the deities that were worshipped, of the Shadbhuj Gauranga Deity that were worshipped by Uddharanda Thakur so such an important associate who played such an important role in Nityananda Prabhu’s merciful pastimes we can pray to him that whatever be our material condition, whether favourable or unfavourable for spiritual life, that we may also be delivered by Lord Chaitanya’s mercy and then we may also become deliverers or delivery individuals for delivering Lord Chaitanya’s mercy to many others Shuddharanda Thakur ki Jai Thank you Hare Krishna