In the Tenth Canto of Srimad Bhagavtam, we were reading the nice pastime of Lord Krishna swallowing the forest fire. Sukadev Gosvami explains that while the cowherd boys including Lord Krishna and Lord Balaram were playing with full absorption, the cows out of greed for more grass strayed away from them and entered in the deep forest independently.

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.19.1

shri-suka uvaaca
kreedaasakteshu gopeshu / tad-gaavo dura-caarineeh
svairam carantyo vivishus / trna-lobhena gahvaram

Sukadeva Goswami said: "While the cowherd boys were completely absorbed in playing, their cows wandered far away. They hungered for more grass, and with no one to watch them they entered a dense forest."

When They could not find the cows, Lords and cowherd boys became very anxious and repentant for neglecting them.

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.19.3

te ‘pashyantah pashun gopaa / krsna-raamaadayas tadaa
jaataanutaapaa na vidur / vicinvanto gavaam gatim

"Not seeing the cows before them, Krishna, Rama and Their cowherd friends suddenly felt repentant for having neglected them. The boys searched all around, but could not discover where they had gone."

In the first verse it is very clear that the cows wandered because of lobhena – hungered for more grass. This greed impelled them to duracaarinih - wander away and that too independently (svairam).

Our Passion : Just like the cows our intense greed has impelled us to stray away from the Lord and act independently. We have never realized this fact because we want to continue our miserable material existence somehow or other and therefore we are very careless in our sadhana, our behavior with other living entities and so on. This is the direct result of practising Krishna conscious pretentiously for many years. So we are unable to give up natural propensity to be greedy for sense gratification and as a result devotional service becomes completely artificial and superficial, without any impact. There is not taste for chanting, studying the scriptures and no iota of inclination to apply what we read and hear from the scriptures. This is our position. We passionately stray away from Him.

Lord’s Compassion: Lord is extremely merciful. jaataanutaapa - feeling remorse or repentant. Eventhough we stray away out of greed and independence, He is feeling repentant for the little neglect. Lord never neglects any living entity (accompanies as a Supersoul in all species of life) being unlimited merciful and always attentive for our liberation( alayaaya). I came to Abu Dhabi from India to make money (simply out of greediness) but the Lord is unimaginably merciful that he has sent our beloved spiritual master His Divine Grace Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj without being asked for. Maharaj came to Abu Dhabi on his own accord to put us back on the path of devotional service. Every word in Srimad Bhagavatam is so true and we don’t realize or understand it. What a pity on us calling our selves initiated devotees without understanding the causeless mercy extended on us ? Instead of being grateful to the Lord and Guru and achieve perfection in devotional service, we simply ignore this precious transcendental opulence of devotional service and still continue to be greedy and stray away. How the Lord and Guru can tolerate us ? Srila Prabhupad, in his transcendental purport of Srimad Bhagavatam 5.18.4 sternly warns us "The Lord is always prepared to excuse His devotee, but if a devotee takes advantage of the Lord’s leniency and purposefully commits mistakes again and again, the Lord will certainly punish him by letting him fall down into the clutches of the illusory energy. "

The word jaataanutaapa is very important for us to imbibe also. Sometimes when some devotees stray away from devotional service, we should feel repentant and try to see their difficulties and encourage them in devotional service. Our tendency is that if some devotee does not come for programs we simply conclude that devotee is not interested in devotional service and is in maya. Our tendency is to put them down. Already they are in threshold of leaving the devotee association and by our behaviour we worsen the situation. Our Gurudev says that, "How can we conclude that the devotee is in maya? We do not know. May be he is performing devotional service at home. We should be encouraging and guiding all the souls coming to devotional service, by not only ensuring their spiritual well being but their material well being also. Unless they are materially placed nicely they, would not be consistent in spiritual upliftment. "

Srila Prabhupada’s repentance for some of his disciples straying away from Krishna consciousness is wonderfully described by this pastime. Srila Prabhupada wrote: "I was practically in tears for their attitude of separation on such flimsy grounds. In other words it is my incapability that I could not save these two souls. But we should not be angry with these poor souls. Try to convince them by argument and reason but do not become angry with them."

1. We should realize very seriously on the unlimited mercy showered on us in the form of devotional service and dovetail our greediness to devotional service. Always be on guard in executing our devotional service.
2. We should feel repentant for neglecting any devotee ( we do often) and try to persuade them to continue devotional service by enquiring compassionately both about their material and spiritual well being. We should not be whimsical or sarcastic and worsen the situation. Mental concoction on anybody’s devotional service should be stopped immediately. Living entities especially in Kali-yuga require encouragement and encouragement is Krishna consciousness.

Thank you very much,
Your humble servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Sajjanapriya Krishna das
Abu Dhabi.