Vishnupriya Devi – The pinnacle of selfless devotion
Transcript
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Hare Krishna On this sacred occasion associated with Srimati Vishnupriya Devi let us contemplate on the extraordinary nature of her devotion. Whenever the Lord manifests in this world, he brings his associates and his intimate associate, most intimate associate is his consort. So for Lord Ram it is Sita, for Lord Krishna it is Radharani.
When the Lord comes as Shichaitanya Mahaprabhu he is going to demonstrate the opulence of renunciation a devotion of course, he is going to teach the path of Bhakti Yoga, but Bhakti Yoga how it also manifests supreme renunciation is going to be demonstrated by him and when that is what is to be manifested then the Lord desires that all his associates and devotees participate accordingly and contribute. So Srimati Vishnupriya Devi had the most difficult service in one sense in the whole gaur lila among all the associates of Shichaitanya Mahaprabhu, in this particular incarnation she had the most difficult service. All the other devotees could have the association of the Lord they could render service to the Lord but she could not do that so she had the association of the Lord for a very brief time so Lord Chaitanya he was married to Lakshmi Devi then Lakshmi Devi passed away because of a snake bite some say it was a snake bite of separation from the Lord then he decided to satisfy Mother Shachi to marry again and he married Vishnupriya Devi and they lived together just for a few years and Vishnupriya Devi was very young at that time and then the Lord took sanyas.
Now a sanyasi is not supposed to meet his wife ever again so Shichaitanya Mahaprabhu was able to meet his mother Shachi Devi she could embrace him, she could cook for him but Vishnupriya Devi could never even associate with him, she could render no service to him, she could not talk with him so the Lord cannot give such a difficult service to any ordinary devotee it is said that separation is like a flame or a fire when the fire is small the emotional attraction is like a flame and the separation is like the wind when the fire is small the separation the wind of separation extinguishes the fire of affection that’s why it will say out of sight, out of mind but when the fire is large then the wind of separation causes the fire to blaze all the more so now here for the Lord this particular separation that he put on Srimati Vishnupriya Devi was unparalleled no other devotee had to do something like this never again association of the Lord not even because if the Lord comes back to Mayapur can she have a word with him again and what did she do did her devotion shrivel and get extinguished not at all she maintained resolute devotion whatever memories she had of the Lord’s association when he was there with her even then the Lord would mostly be associating with other devotees chanting, dancing, singing but at the very least she could cook for him she could massage his feet she could serve him, she cherished those memories in her heart and she would chant the names of the Lord, Gauranga, Gauranga and she performed immense austerities, Vaishnava Acharya described that she would just take as many grains of food as many names of Gauranga she would chant so and that many grains of food she would cook and one meal she would take and like that she lived for year after year after year Shri Devi was separated from her beloved son at least she could meet him occasionally but Srimati Vishnupriya Devi could never meet him but still her devotion remained totally resolute in fact the greater the separation greater was the intensification of her devotion and she demonstrates the utter selflessness of pure love that my dear Lord whatever way you want me to contribute to your pastimes, to serve you I am ready to do that if that means that I will never get your association that means if for your demonstrating the example of supreme renunciation I have to play the role of never being able to associate with you never get an opportunity to serve you directly, I’ll accept that my Lord such is the example of extraordinary devotion that Vishnupriya Devi offers to us and we can pray to her lotus feet that she can also give us a drop of the selflessness and the dedication that manifested through her devotion. Srimati Vishnupriya Devi ki Jai Thank you. Hare Krishna