(4/5) Purged Perpetrator

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching in Basirhat, evening programme,
13 December 2020, part 4

You have heard about the two disciples of Madhavendra Puripad. Do you remember their names? Ishwar Puri and Ramachandra Puri. Ramachandra Puri only looked at others' faults and only gossiped about others' faults, and his fault-finding eventually reached the Lord. First, he made offence to Vaishnavs, then his guru and in the end to the Lord's holy feet.

So, first, an offence is made to Vaishnavs; when that offence grows, it becomes an offence to the holy feet of the guru; and when it grows even more, it becomes an offence to the holy feet of the Lord. The example of this is Ramachandra Puri.

When Mahaprabhu came to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's wife cooked very nice preparations, perhaps, ten or twenty different preparations, for Mahaprabhu. Sometimes, Ramachandra Puri came and peeped inside the room, 'My, my! A sannyasi gets such nice meals!' Mahaprabhu did not eat all of it – He could just dip His finger and lick it to taste the preparation.

It reminds me of a recent programme we attended in Kolkata. The devotees there made, perhaps, forty dishes for me! If somebody took a picture of it and showed it to others, people would also say, 'Wow, Maharaj eats so much!' People would make offences... They made forty preparations and set everything on a big table for me. They had cooked all sorts of things! I think they must have cooked everything one can ever find in a whole forest! It is like they were walking down the street, saw some kochu sak (কচু শাক; leaves of taro root), and taking it with them, cooked it! They even cooked seed stems of pui sak (পুঁইশাকের বিচি; malabar spinach)! I was amazed to see what they cooked. I had never tried such things in my life.

So, when Ramachandra Puri started passing such comments about Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu was eventually informed about it. Mahaprabhu said, 'Yes, he is right. What is his fault? He is telling the truth. From today, I will not accept anybody's invitation, and if anybody wants to invite Me, they must cook not more than two items.' All the devotees were disheartened.

Another day, Ramachandra Puri came to Mahaprabhu and told Him to His face, 'O new sannyasi! How come there are so many ants in Your room? You must be eating a lot of sweets!' Mahaprabhu replied, 'Yes, brother. What am I to say? My tongue is so greedy, that is why I eat a lot of sweets.' In fact, Mahaprabhu did not eat, or every touch, any sweets. But what was He to say?

And what offence did he make to his guru? Madhavendra Puri always thought about Krishna, always meditated on Krishna, overwhelmed with separation from Him. He always thought, 'Where am I to go to find Krishna?' He would lament and cry, 'When will Radharani bestow Her mercy on me?' What did Ramachandra Puri say then? He came to Madhavendra Puri and said, 'O Gurudev! Why are you crying? You are Brahma!' You know that people often say, 'Guru brahma guru vishnu guru devo mahesvara (guru is Brahma the Creator, guru is Vishnu the Maintainer, guru is Siva the Destroyer).' So, he said, 'Gurudev, you are nirguna brahman, why are you crying then?' Angry, Madhavendra Puri cried, 'Get away from me, sinner! I do not want to see your face ever again!' His guru rejected him. 'I am burning in the agony of separation from Krishna, and he is coming to give me more pain!' Ramachandra Puri tried to instruct his guru. That was his offence.

In this way, he first made offence to Vaishnavs, then to his guru's lotus feet, and then the Lord's lotus feet. In the end, he left Jagannath Puri and vanished into thin air.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Uncling from Maya
2) Surrender or Lose
3) Control Yourself
4) Purged Perpetrator
5) Disciples' Pitfalls