20030308 Addressing Bhakti-vṛkṣa Devotees

[…] So he sent a message that, “My daughter won’t marry a sweeper.” So then Indradyumna Mahārāja took it that this is an insult against Jagannātha. He is just sweeping the road, municipal sweeper, he’s humbling himself before the Lord. And they went on a big… actually, declared a war against that king. To defend the honor of Jagannātha. So their whole army was marching against the other army and they’re going to meet in someplace for a fighting.

On the way, there was a lady selling yogurt, an old lady, village lady selling yogurt. And she saw two young generals, princes riding on horses came by and they said, “How much for the yogurt? We want some yogurt.” She said, “Well, You had to pay me so much.” “We don’t have any money; give us yogurt, King Indradyumna is coming, you can give him this ring and then he will reimburse you for the yogurt.” She said, “Okay!” People are so honest. If somebody get a gold ring, who is going to get it to get a few paisa for that… Nowadays… happy, live! [laughter] But she was such a honest lady that she was supposed to give the ring to the king and then get what she was due. She didn’t want to take more than what she was due. She was trying to see the king. But people said, “We can’t see the king. Who are you just sell this… “No, I have to give the king this ring. I have to get my money.” The King, “What is going on? Bring her over.” And she said, “Two of your princes came and they gave a… They took my yogurt and They gave me this ring and said that if I give you, you pay me for the yogurt.” “Let me see that ring!” When he got the ring, he almost fell off his chariot. “This is Jagannātha’s ring! What did these two princes look like?” “One was very dark color, kind of bluish tint riding on a white horse. The other one was white color riding on a gray horse. The one with the dark color had a peacock feather in His hair and the other one had a white feather.” “Sshh!” So then the news came to all the army that, “Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma had come and given Their blessings.” So then they knew they are going to be victorious because more you never know what is going to happen.

So then after this the whole thing was worked out finally, they didn’t have to fight when they were facing each other. And then somehow they… the thing was negotiated. Such a big issue. So this tradition was being followed by Pratāparudra before Kṛṣṇa sweep. And here somehow Lord Mayor got inspired by sweeping. Actually, the king even then I saw in Purī does it for about five minutes maximum. But what he did was because he humbled himself before Kṛṣṇa that impressed Lord Caitanya. Then Lord Caitanya was inclined to give him mercy. So by doing sevā we can get more mercy and then we can see how Prabhupāda, he was very happy about the London Ratha-yātrā. And we used to go to Trafalgar Square… for many years we were going to Battersea Park. Now, since past few years they are going back again to Trafalgar Square. And Prabhupāda liked that. We are comparing here that from the ground it looked like a rathas were like compared to mount Sumeru. In London, they compared to the Nelson Monument. So here our ratha was towering because Mr. [inaudible] somehow that ratha could squeeze through the narrow streets and not smash any car. [laughter] So like this, if we want to please the Lord, it is not so difficult. We should do something… we can get Lord Caitanya’s mercy, if we do something to serve Kṛṣṇa, we should think what in our life we can do something for Kṛṣṇa or how we can regularly do some service to Kṛṣṇa. Without difficulty we can get Lord Caitanya’s mercy. Lord Caitanya gives His mercy very freely. At the same time, if one really wants some higher blessings, we shouldn’t expect just a total freebie. We should be willing to do something for the Lord. We got the opportunity of devotional service, but what are we going to do with it? Somebody gives you money, say your father gives you some money. He must see how you are going to use it. How do you invest it? How to use it wisely? Sometimes in a rich family you see how the children are being responsible to see that they won’t squander all the hard-earned wealth of the parents when they inherit. So we are all children of Kṛṣṇa, so we all inherit mercy. But before we can cash in on it, the Lord wants to us, He gives us some mercy and sees how we use it. Gives us a devotional service, now how do we use that freedom to do that service? So doing devotional service is the greatest mercy. Because when we do this service to Kṛṣṇa that is an opportunity to become really, intimately, united with Him, connected to Him. And then through that connection we can transcend all kinds of obstacles and we can achieve the highest perfection.

I will leave some extra time for question answers today.

Devotee: Hare Kṛṣṇa!