Carried Away

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
14 February 2016

Once you suffer in the family life, you will understand what it is like. When you start a family, get children, they grow up, etc. it becomes impossible to give up maya... This is not a new thing. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told a story called "Gitar samsar" ("A Family of Gita").

Once a man thought, "I do not want to stay at my Guru's temple, I will go away, stay somewhere in Haridwar and read Gita there." He went away. One day when he was reading Gita, he felt tired and fell asleep. While he was asleep, a mouse came and tore his book. The man suddenly woke up and saw that his Gita had been bitten by a mouse. He thought, "I have to finish this mouse off!" To catch a mouse, you need a cat, so he brought home a cat. The cat caught the mouse, but soon it started meowing. What do cats eat? To feed a cat, you need a cow. He got a cow. Soon the cow started mooing. What do cows eat? Who will take care of the cow? So, next he brought home a girl. By and by, he started mixing with the girl and they soon got married and had so many children. He ended up with a huge family.

In the meantime, his Gurudev thought, "How is my disciple doing? I will go and see how his Gita reading is going on. He must have become a big pandit!..." He came and saw that his disciple lived in a big family. He was surprised, "Bah-bah, you have come to Haridwar to read Gita but ended up with a huge family!" One of his children was saying, "Father, I want a car!", another was saying, "I want a house!", and another child was asking him to buy him something else...

Such is our life in this world...

If you have some desire and you do not get free from it, it will grow and become like a poisonous tree... Offences to Vaishnavs are very heavy.

One time Jiva Goswami made an offence to Rupa Goswami Prabhu. What offence did he make? Rupa Goswami Prabhu was writing a book and a senior Vaishnav (Vallabha Acharya) came to him and thought that one of the slokas was written with a mistake, he said, "What you have written is not correct. You have made a mistake." Hearing this, Jiva Goswami thought, "No, my Guru is right!"

When the Vaishnav went to the Yamuna to take bath, Jiva Goswami came there and explained to him that he was wrong and what Rupa Goswami Prabhu had written was correct. The Vaishnav was convinced and came back to Rupa Goswami. He apologised and asked, "Who is this boy? That boy is so clever, he has taught me something!" Rupa Goswami understood what had happened and chastised Jiva Goswami, "You have no qualification to stay in Vrindavan! He is my Guru and you are teaching him?! Go away! Get out of this temple."

Jiva Goswami went away—he thought, "OK, I will follow the order of my Guru. I have made an offence to a Vaishnav... But Gurudev also told me to stay in Vrindavan and finish writing the Gopal Champu drama that he had started." So, he decided, "I will stay under some tree, and, without any food, fasting, I shall finish composing Gopal Champu."

When Sanatan Goswami saw Jiva Goswami after a while, he saw he looked like dead—not completely dead, but almost senseless. He was so tired because he had not eaten anything, but he would still carry on writing, hardly conscious. Sanatan Goswami picked him up in his arms and carried him to the Radha-Damodar temple to Rupa Goswami, "What have you done, Rupa?! Why are you showing so much anger to him? He made some little offence, but why are you giving him such a big punishment?" Rupa Goswami had to admit, "Yes, it was my mistake..."

If you make an offence to the Lord, Vaishnavs will remove your offence, but who will remove your offence if you offend Vaishnavs? Who?...

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