Why did Lord Chaitanya first become a scholar and then a devotee?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s first being a scholar and then becoming a devotee is that a leela? Yes of course. He as I mentioned Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrated the contemporary definition of success. So see in any society people are attracted to those who are successful in that society.
So for example, say in India, engineers and doctors are considered to be like residents of demigod planets, especially people. And those who are from IIT, they are like the primal devtas, the topmost of the devtas. So now if an ordinary student becomes a devotee, that is okay.
But if a student from IIT becomes a devotee, then it becomes big news. So why? Because those people are, those students are demonstrating the contemporary definition of success. And people are attracted to that.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also said, So whatever great people do, common people do that. So now this is a universal principle. What great people do, common people will do that.
But what is considered great, that will vary in different cultures. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s time, Vedic scholarship, that was considered great. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by his pastime arranged that he became a scholar, not just as good as those scholars, but better than those scholars.
And then after that, after becoming a scholar of that caliber, then he became a devotee. So by that he demonstrated that actually, this, whatever you think is success, bhakti is greater than that. Bhakti is greater than that.
So of course, anybody can practice bhakti. But if people who are considered successful in society, they start practicing bhakti, then that can have a tremendous effect in attracting many, many people towards Krishna. And we see during Prabhupada’s time, when George Harrison became a devotee, thousands and thousands of people became attracted to Krishna bhakti because of him and through him.
So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrated that contemporary definition of success. Does that answer your question? Any other questions?