Mahaprabhu's Humility, Tolerance,
and Honour to Others

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
30 April 2013

Question: Which dealings or pastimes of Mahaprabhu are particularly instructive for the general people?

Mahaprabhu's Pastimes... In His youth, He rescued two drunkards, two bad people whose names were Jagai and Madhai. Mahaprabhu came as a Guru, so He sent His associates, Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur, to preach Krishna consciousness and rescue these two offenders because actually He wanted to show, "My devotee is more powerful than Me." Krishna, as well as Mahaprabhu, always told, "If somebody says, 'I am Krishna's devotee', they are not a devotee. Those who are devotees of My devotees are the real devotees." There are so many pastimes, so many teachings that Mahaprabhu, the Lord Himself, showed...

When somebody criticised Him, for example Ramachandra Puri, Mahaprabhu did not show any prati-himsa (প্রতিহিংসা, revenge: "He is doing bad to Me, I will do bad to him too"), He showed that He gave honour to everybody. This is the lesson He taught us.

There are so many Pastimes in His youth, and later also—He showed that He left everything and accepted the sannyas dharma, the renounced life, in Puri. In this way, in this age of Kali, He rescued the whole universe through the chanting of the Holy Name.

His life and pastimes are very important. He is Krishna Himself who comes as a teacher to rescue all of us, and this is the main thing. For our benefit, Krishna taught Arjuna many things in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, but then the Lord Himself comes as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and shows Himself how to practise that. This is the main attraction for us. If you say something, but do not practise it yourself, others will not learn from you, but Mahaprabhu practised everything Himself.

There are so many Pastimes from His very birth... One time, Keshav Kashmiri, Digvijayi Pandit, came with so much name and fame, he had some ego he was a big scholar, but Mahaprabhu broke his ego.

Another time, Chand Kazi broke Mahaprabhu's mridanga (clay drum), but Mahaprabhu showed tolerance and patience—He went to his house and rescued him. Chand Kazi was a Muslim, but still the Lord rescued him and removed his offence.

Also, there was Chapal Gopal who made an offence to Srivas Pandit. When Chapal Gopal came to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu gave him some good advice, "Go to Srivas Pandit, then all kinds of offences will be removed from you." This is what Mahaprabhu taught us.

When Nimai Pandit (childhood name of Mahaprabhu) was three and a half years old, one brahman came to His house, and when he was offering some bhog to a salagram-sila, Narayan Deity, Nimai came and ate the offering. The brahman did not recognise that the boy was the Lord Himself, but later Mahaprabhu showed him His form, showed him that He was the Lord Himself.

When Mahaprabhu went to Puri and saw Jagannath, He felt so much excitement, but Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya (who was in charge of the Jagannath temple) did not believe He was the Lord. Later, Mahaprabhu gave him His mercy and as soon as Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya got Mahaprabhu's mercy, he was rescued and in the end became a great devotee of Mahaprabhu.

Also, Mahaprabhu showed us what a great devotee Ramananda Ray was. Ramananda Ray did not come from the highest caste, in fact he belonged to a lowest caste, but Mahaprabhu wanted to show that His devotee was higher than Him. When Pradyumna Misra wanted to hear some Hari-katha (hear something about Krishna) from Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu sent him to Ramananda Ray. At first, seeing his activities, Pradyumna Misra did not believe that Ramananda Ray was a great devotee and he came back, but Mahaprabhu sent him there again. When Pradyumna Misra finally heard some Krishna-katha from Ramananda Ray, he understood it. Mahaprabhu showed in this way that Ramananda Ray knew Krishna-katha better than He Himself.

He showed so many things to the devotees, but He never told anyone, "I am the Lord." Even when Ramananda Ray, or Sanatan Goswami, said, "I heard something in the scriptures, and I think that the Kali-yuga avatar, the incarnation of the Lord in Kali-yuga, has already come and is in front of us..." Mahaprabhu closed His ears and checked their mouths. He said, "Do not see such things! Do not think I am the Lord! No one can say this." Mahaprabhu is the Lord Himself, but He never told that; still, through His activities, through His pastimes, and through the sastra (scriptures) and through the judgement of the devotees, we can see that He is the Lord Himself who comes in this age of Kali...

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