Skip to main content

MAY YOU ALWAYS REMAIN IN LOCKDOWN...

There is a wonderful, simple and instructive anecdote from the life of Namacharya Haridas Thakur. Haridas Thakur was staying in a small village called Phuliya in Bengal and chanting the Holy Names of Krishna, throughout the day and night. Chanting the Holy Names was his food, his sustenance, his everything. The local magistrate of that place (Kazi) knowing that Haridas had been born in a Muslim household, and now was showing such a taste for chanting the Holy Names of Krishna, began to fear that he might convert others to Vaishnavism. He took his complaint to the governor (Nawab), suggesting that Haridas be punished as soon as possible. The governor ordered his officers to place Haridas under arrest. The other prisoners already knew Haridas’s glories and thought that the sight and blessings of such a great spiritual personality would surely bring them merit to insure their early release from jail. But, when Haridas saw them, he blessed them saying, "May you always remain like this." In other words, he blessed them with the blessing, "May you always remain in lockdown". The prisoners were naturally unhappy to hear such a statement, but then Haridas explained his strange blessing (paraphrased):

"I don’t mean to say that you should remain prisoners. Very soon, by the mercy of Lord Krishna you all will be freed from this jail but, my worry is that as soon you are free, you may not chant Hare Krishna in a desperate mood like you are chanting now and you may forget to take seek shelter of devotees and beg for their mercy in a desperate and humble mood like you are seeking now. While in jail, you could forget the entanglements of material life and simply concentrate on chanting the Holy Name but once you are out, you may captivated by the temptations of Maya. My blessing is that, the intensity with which you are performing Bhakti now in lockdown may continue always."

During this lockdown phase due to the Corona virus, devotees all over the world have intensified their devotional practices. Those who couldn't chant 16 rounds are now able to chant 16 rounds. Many devotees are chanting 24 or 32 rounds. Many devotees have increased their quota of reading Bhagvat-gita or Srimad-bhagvatam and have taken a vow to complete a fixed number of pages per day. Most importantly, this situation of crisis is making everyone take shelter of Krishna, His devotees and the process of Bhakti with a lot of desperation and helplessness. This situation is making us all humble and realize that we are endlessly lost and hopeless without the grace factor. But the worry is that, once this phase is over, we may once again become relaxed and laxed in our practices of Bhakti; we may once again become arrogant and boastful that we are great and that we are not dependent on the grace of the devotees. That is the worry. That is the reason why Kunti Maharani very intelligently prays to the Lord in the pages of Srimad-bhagvatam for more and more miseries so that, her desperation for Krishna doesn't reduce an inch. 

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat
tatra tatra jagad-guro
bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād
apunar bhava-darśanam

"I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths." - Srimad-bhagvatam 1.8.25

We may not have the courage to pray like Kunti Maharani but we can do well if we remember that being in this world is being in a lockdown and being encaged in this material body is another lockdown. The lockdown due to the Corona pandemic is a lockdown within a lockdown, within a lockdown. Thus, let this blessing of Haridas Thakur be always upon us and thus let us chant the Holy Names of Krishna and beg for the mercy of His devotees in a desperate mood for, only the mercy of the Lord and His devotees can free us from all our lockdowns, once in for all.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE SPEAKING RIVER

Rivers are considered lifelines of humanity. They not only nourish us physically but also emotionally and spiritually. No wonder, our culture has rightly given them status as mother's. Imagine, if rivers could speak, what message they would like to give us. Here are few lessons that we can learn from them. In fact if we remain in the mood of submissive students of life, there is so much we can learn even from "so called" inanimate objects. Many of these lessons are from Radhanath Maharaj's memoir - 'The Journey Home'. Lesson 1 - MAGIC OF SETTING GOALS The river is so desperate, so determined, so focused to reach the sea that nothing can stop it. It goes over, under or around all impediments. It never gives up. It has learnt the art of overcoming all obstacles. In fact it is said that, obstacles are those things that you see when you loose focus of your goals . The river teaches us that the first and most important key to overcome obstacles in lif...
Post a Comment
Read more

BORN INTELLIGENT

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” - Albert Einstein One time a young man approached a psychologist and told him that he considers himself unintelligent and foolish. The psychologist asked him the reason for him feeling so. He replied "It's because I don't have anything to say when my colleagues in office discuss sports. I feel like a total fool in front of them." The psychologist smiled and asked him, "Do you care about sports? Is it your area of interest?" The man said, "No, not at all." That's exactly what the psychologist wanted to hear. He told him, "You see, it's not that you are not intelligent - it's only that you are not good in the knowledge of sports because it's not your area of interest. And, when you are around your colleagues who have a lot to say on sports, you feel like you are unintelligent. The only ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FINDING RELEVANCE IN TIMES OF IRRELEVANCE

"The world will value us as long as we are valid. As soon as we become invalid, the world stops valuing us."  In the epic of Mahabharata, one of the most important and powerful leaders was Bhismadev. As long as he was active, fit and fine, everyone came to him for consultation and dependent on his performance, skill and valour but as soon as he became incapacitated and incapable of performing and delivering results being fatally wounded by the arrows of Arjuna, he sort of became irrelevant. No one depended on him, no one came to him for consultation. One who was visited by everyone and was the center of attraction, now hardly got visitors and became sidelined. The most crucial war of Kurukshetra continued on without Bhismadev, the most critical person. Life is such that everyone has to become outdated and irrelevant at some point or the other. No one, however powerful he or she may be can be in the limelight forever. History ultimately shows that how ever...
Post a Comment
Read more