KB—chastisement of Romarharsana suta.…..-After seeing the deficiency of realization in Romaharṣaṇa Sūta, Lord Balarāma decided to chastise him for being puffed up. Lord Balarāma therefore said, “This man is liable to be awarded the death punishment because, although he has the good qualification of being a disciple of Lord Vyāsadeva and although he has studied all the Vedic literature from this exalted personality, he was not submissive in the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, a person who is actually a brāhmaṇa and is very learned must automatically become very gentle also. In the case of Romaharṣaṇa Sūta, although he was very learned and had been given the chance to become a brāhmaṇa, he had not become gentle. From this we can understand that when one is puffed up by material acquisition, he cannot acquire the gentle behavior befitting a brāhmaṇa. The learning of such a person is as good as a valuable jewel decorating the hood of a serpent. Despite the valuable jewel on the hood, a serpent is still a serpent and is as fearful as an ordinary serpent. If a person does not become meek and humble, all his studies of the Vedas and Purāṇas and his vast knowledge in the śāstras become simply outward dress, like the costume of a theatrical artist dancing on the stage. Lord Balarāma began to consider thus: “I have appeared in order to chastise false persons who are internally impure but externally pose themselves to be very learned and religious. My killing of such persons is proper to check them from further sinful activity.
(Note-It is generally seen that when a person becomes very advanced by learning and austerity, he becomes a little or a lot puffed up or arrogant. Here in this pastime Romarharsana suta being a direct disciple of Vyasadeva, never learned to become “gentle” as a true brahmana should be. And Lord Balarama killed him, saying that His appearance along with Krsna’s was to chastise or kill those persons who pose externally as spiritualists, yet internally are filled with material desires for profit, adoration and distinction-subtle aspects of gross sex life. )
KB meeting of Krsna and Sudama brahmana..…The brāhmaṇa, being very poor, was not dressed nicely; his clothing was torn and dirty, and his body was also very lean and thin. He appeared not to be very clean, and because of his weak body, his bones were distinctly visible. The goddess of fortune, Rukmiṇīdevī personally began to fan him with the cāmara fan, but the other women in the palace became astonished at Lord Kṛṣṇa’s behavior in receiving the brāhmaṇa in that way. They were surprised to see how eager Lord Kṛṣṇa was to welcome this particular brāhmaṇa. They began to wonder how Lord Kṛṣṇa could personally receive a brāhmaṇa who was poor, not very neat or clean, and poorly dressed; but at the same time they could realize that the brāhmaṇa was not an ordinary living being. They knew that he must have performed great pious activities; otherwise why was Lord Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, taking so much care for him? They were still more surprised to see that the brāhmaṇa was seated on the bedstead of Lord Kṛṣṇa. They were especially surprised to see that Lord Kṛṣṇa had embraced him exactly as He embraced His elder brother, Balarāmajī, because Lord Kṛṣṇa used to embrace only Rukmiṇī or Balarāma, and no one else.
After receiving the brāhmaṇa nicely, and seating him on His own cushioned bed, Lord Kṛṣṇa said, “My dear brāhmaṇa friend, you are a most intelligent personality, and you know very well the principles of religious life. I believe that after you finished your education at the house of our teacher and after you sufficiently remunerated him, you must have gone back to your home and accepted a suitable wife. I know very well that from the beginning you were not at all attached to the materialistic way of life, nor did you desire to be very opulent materially, and therefore you are in need of money. In this material world, persons who are not attached to material opulence are very rarely found. Such unattached persons haven’t the least desire to accumulate wealth and prosperity for sense gratification, but sometimes they are found to collect money just to exhibit the exemplary life of a householder. They show how by proper distribution of wealth one can become an ideal householder and at the same time become a great devotee. Such ideal householders are to be considered followers of My footsteps. I hope, My dear brāhmaṇa friend, you remember all those days of our school life when both you and I were living together at the boarding house. Actually, whatever knowledge both you and I received in our life was accumulated in our student life.
(Note-Now in this pastime a total opposite effect is seen due to Sudama brahmana actually being a meek and humble brahmana and getting the blessings and love from Krsna and His queen Rukmini, the goddess of fortune. A final point that Krsna makes is that He felt that whatever knowledge they both received in their lives, came in their student life as bramacaris.)
KB -the brahmana Sudama benedicted by Lord Krsna…..
Lord Kṛṣṇa assured Sudāmā Vipra that He would be very glad to accept the chipped rice which he had brought from home, yet out of great shyness, Sudāmā Vipra hesitated to present it to the Lord. He was thinking, “How can I offer such insignificant things to Kṛṣṇa?” and he simply bowed his head.
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supersoul, knows everything in everyone’s heart. He knows everyone’s determination and everyone’s want. He knew, therefore, the reason for Sudāmā Vipra’s coming to Him. He knew that, driven by extreme poverty, he had come there at the request of his wife. Thinking of Sudāmā as His very dear class friend, He knew that Sudāmā’s love for Him as a friend was never tainted by any desire for material benefit. Kṛṣṇa thought, “Sudāmā has not come asking anything from Me, but being obliged by the request of his wife, he has come to see Me just to please her.” Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore decided that He would give more material opulence to Sudāmā Vipra than could be imagined even by the King of heaven.
He then snatched the bundle of chipped rice which was hanging on the shoulder of the poor brāhmaṇa, packed in one corner of his wrapper, and said, “What is this? My dear friend, you have brought Me nice, palatable chipped rice!” He encouraged Sudāmā Vipra, saying, “I consider that this quantity of chipped rice will not only satisfy Me, but will satisfy the whole creation.” It is understood from this statement that Kṛṣṇa, being the original source of everything, is the root of the entire creation. As watering the root of a tree immediately distributes water to every part of the tree, so an offering made to Kṛṣṇa, or any action done for Kṛṣṇa, is to be considered the highest welfare work for everyone, because the benefit of such an offering is distributed throughout the creation. Love for Kṛṣṇa becomes distributed to all living entities.
While Lord Kṛṣṇa was speaking to Sudāmā Vipra, He ate one morsel of chipped rice from his bundle, and when He attempted to eat a second morsel, Rukmiṇīdevī, who is the goddess of fortune herself, checked the Lord by catching hold of His hand. After touching the hand of Kṛṣṇa, Rukmiṇī said, “My dear Lord, this one morsel of chipped rice is sufficient to cause him who offered it to become very opulent in this life and to continue his opulence in the next life. My Lord, You are so kind to Your devotee that even this one morsel of chipped rice pleases You very greatly, and Your pleasure assures the devotee opulence both in this life and in the next.” This indicates that when food is offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa with love and devotion and He is pleased and accepts it from the devotee, Rukmiṇīdevī, the goddess of fortune, becomes so greatly obliged to the devotee that she has to personally go to the devotee’s home to turn it into the most opulent home in the world. If one feeds Nārāyaṇa sumptuously, the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, automatically becomes a guest in one’s house, which means that one’s home becomes opulent. The learned brāhmaṇa Sudāmā passed that night at the house of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and while he was there he felt as if he were living in a Vaikuṇṭha planet. Actually he was living in Vaikuṇṭha, because wherever Lord Kṛṣṇa, the original Nārāyaṇa, and Rukmiṇīdevī, the goddess of fortune, live is not different from the spiritual planet, Vaikuṇṭhaloka.
(Note-Two points come to me in this pastime.
The first one is that when we offer with love and devotion some foodstuffs to the Lord, He not only becomes pleased, but the entire creation becomes benefitted….”because the benefit of such an offering is distributed throughout the creation. Love for Kṛṣṇa becomes distributed to all living entities.”
The last point-if one feeds Narayana nice foodstuffs, then Laksmi the goddess of fortune becomes a resident in your home. And it is not just the food we offer but the love with which we offer it)
KB 2-33 deliverance of Lord Siva
Lord Kṛṣṇa answered the question of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira as follows: “If I especially favor a devotee and especially wish to care for him, the first thing I do is take away his riches.” When the devotee becomes a penniless pauper or is put into a comparatively poverty-stricken position, his relatives and family members no longer take interest in him, and in most cases they give up their connection with him. The devotee then becomes doubly unhappy. First of all he becomes unhappy because his riches have been taken away by Kṛṣṇa, and he is made even more unhappy when his relatives desert him because of his poverty-stricken condition. We should note, however, that when a devotee falls into a miserable condition in this way, it is not due to past impious activities, known as karma-phala; the poverty-stricken position of the devotee is a creation of the Personality of Godhead. Similarly, when a devotee becomes materially opulent, that is also not due to his pious activities. In either case, whether the devotee becomes poorer or richer, the arrangement is made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.This arrangement is especially made by Kṛṣṇa for His devotee just to make him completely dependent upon Him and to free him from all material obligations. He can then concentrate his energies, mind and body–everything–for the service of the Lord, and that is pure devotional service. In the Nārada-pañcarātra it is therefore explained, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam, which means “being freed from all designations.” Works performed for family, society, community, nation, or humanity are all designated: “I belong to this society,” “I belong to this community,” “I belong to this nation,” “I belong to this species of life.” Such identities are all merely designations. When, by the grace of the Lord, a devotee becomes freed from all designations, his devotional service is actually naiṣkarma. Jñānīs are very much attracted by the position of naiṣkarma, in which one’s actions no longer have material effect. When the devotee’s actions are freed from effects, they are no longer in the category of karma-phalam, or fruitive activities. As explained before by the personified Vedas, the happiness and distress of a devotee are produced by the Personality of Godhead for the devotee, and the devotee therefore does not care whether he is in happiness or in distress. He goes on with his duties in executing devotional service. Although his behavior seems to be subject to the action and reaction of fruitive activities, he is actually freed from the results of action.
It may be questioned why a devotee is put into such tribulation by the Personality of Godhead. The answer is that this kind of arrangement by the Lord is just like a father’s sometimes becoming unkind to his sons. Because the devotee is a surrendered soul and is taken charge of by the Supreme Lord, whenever the Lord puts him into any condition of life–either in distress or happiness–it is to be understood that behind this arrangement there is a large plan designed by the Personality of Godhead. For example, Lord Kṛṣṇa put the Pāṇḍavas into a distressed condition so acute that even grandfather Bhīṣma could not comprehend how such distress could occur. He lamented that although the whole Pāṇḍava family was headed by King Yudhiṣṭhira, the most pious king, and protected by the two great warriors Bhīma and Arjuna, and although, above all, the Pāṇḍavas were all intimate friends and relatives of Lord Kṛṣṇa, they still had to undergo such tribulations. Later on, however, it was proved that this was planned by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa as part of His great mission to annihilate the miscreants and protect the devotees.
Another question may be raised: Since a devotee is put into different kinds of happy and distressful conditions by the arrangement of the Personality of Godhead, and a common man is put into such conditions as a result of his past deeds, then what is the difference? How is the devotee any better than the ordinary karmī ? The answer is that the karmīs and the devotees are not on the same level. In whatever condition of life the karmī may be, he continues in the cycle of birth and death because the seed of karma, or fruitive activity, is there, and it fructifies whenever there is an opportunity. By the law of karma a common man is perpetually entangled in repeated birth and death, whereas a devotee’s distress and happiness, not being under the laws of karma, are part of a temporary arrangement by the Supreme Lord which does not entangle the devotee. Such an arrangement is made by the Lord only to serve a temporary purpose. If a karmī performs auspicious acts, he is elevated to the heavenly planets, and if he acts impiously, he is put into a hellish condition of life. But whether a devotee acts in a so-called pious or in an impious manner, he is neither elevated nor degraded, but is transferred to the spiritual kingdom. Therefore a devotee’s happiness and distress and a karmī’s happiness and distress are not on the same level. This fact is corroborated by a speech by Yamarāja to his servants in connection with the liberation of Ajāmila. Yamarāja advised his followers that persons who have never uttered the holy name of the Lord nor remembered the form, quality and pastimes of the Lord should be approached by his watchguards. Yamarāja also advised his servants never to approach the devotees. On the contrary, he instructed his messengers that if they meet a devotee they should offer their respectful obeisances. So there is no question of a devotee’s being promoted or degraded within this material world. As there is a gulf of difference between the punishment awarded by the mother and the punishment awarded by an enemy, so a devotee’s distressed condition is not the same as the distressed condition of a common karmī.
note-First point, I think Srila Prabhupada is talking about his own personal experiences when Krsna ruined his pharmaceutical business in Allahabad, then his wife sold his SB books for tea. That did it for him, despite how hard he tried to do things “right”, Krsna made it all null and void so that he could take sannyasa and then start the Hare Krsna Movement.
Prabhupada also makes the point that when a devotee falls on hard times or is made rich, both conditions are due not to karma, but to arrangements by the Supreme Lord to disentangle him or make his life more comfortable for serving Him. Therefore…” a devotee’s happiness and distress and a karmī’s happiness and distress are not on the same level.“
I had something happen to me a couple days ago when I was dressing the deities. This may not seem like something great but to me it made me feel the Lord’s presence, which is what I want.
I was cleaning off the altar flowers and tossing them into the fireplace box below and then discovered one the Lords tiny sterling silver shoes got thrown out also- by mistake. I was really not happy this happened because there is so much wood ash and other debris in that fire box. So I went and got a large pan to start pulling all the ash/debris etc out and hope I would find that silver shoe. The first pile I pulled out was huge and just looking at it … I immediately thought to myself and the Lord in the heart-“Krsna without your help I will never find that silver shoe”. Within one minute my eyes passed over the pile of ashes and other junk in there and saw just the tip of that slipper! This may not seem like a big deal to others but to me it is little things like this that really connect me to the Lord where I can see that He is actually helping me serve Him. When Arjuna looked over the opposing army of the Kurus, he was overwhelmed. I felt the same way, insignificant as I am, by not wanting to lose the Lords silver slipper.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
