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Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

 

By Krishna's arrangement, Mahatma Vidura did not participate in the battle of Kurukshetra and instead he had the wonderful opportunity to travel to various pilgrim places during that time. So he was unaware of the annihiliation of the Kuru dynasty and subsequently about the departure of Lord to His abode along with most of the members of Yadu dynasty. So when Vidura met Uddhava, Krishna's dearmost devotee at the banks of Yamuna, he began to inquire Uddhava about well-being of Krishna and Yadus. Uddhava who was with Krishna right from His childhood and was also personally present when his dear Lord departed, became absorbed in the nectar of remembering the Lord's lotus feet in devotional ecstasy, and then began to share his grief of separation from his dear Lord. He says in verse 3.2.8 of Srimad Bhagavatam

 

 

"This universe with all its planets is most unfortunate. And even more unfortunate are the members of the Yadu dynasty because they could not identify Lord Hari as the Personality of Godhead, any more than the fish could identify the moon."

 

Uddhava is not an ordinary soul. He is infact a very fortunate and blessed soul. As Sukadeva Goswami mentions in SB verse 3.2.2 and 3, Uddhava was one who even in his childhood, at the age of five years, was so absorbed in the service of Lord Krishna that when he was called by his mother for morning breakfast, he did not wish to have it. He thus served the Lord continually from childhood, and in his old age that attitude of service never slackened. But as a true devotee here we find that Uddhava thought that he had not served the Lord enough when He was personally present with them. In his purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada mentions, "Uddhava lamented his own fortune also because although he knew Krishna to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he could not properly use the opportunity to render devotional service to the Lord. He regretted everyone's misfortune, including his own. The pure devotee of the Lord thinks himself most unfortunate. That is due to excessive love for the Lord and is one of the transcendental perceptions of viraha, the suffering of separation."

 

Uddhava by his pure devotion, could realise the greatness of Supreme Lord and His real identity. So he considers that he has not done any service for the Lord. In the above verse Uddhava makes the comparison of how the Yadu dynasty failed to recognise the identity of Supreme Lord, just like the fish failed to recognise the moon's identity. Srila Prabhupada explains very nicely in the purport about how moon is born from milk-ocean. But fish in milk-ocean considers the moon to be some illuminating substance like itself. It is not able to realise the greatness of the moon.

 

Similar manner many times, we also fail to recognise the greatness of Guru and Krishna. We take them for granted and consider them to be an ordinary people like us and fail to give Them the due respects. Our normal tendency is that when we do some little service itself, we think we have done so much for Them. This is because we fail to understand Their supreme postion as well our own insignificant position. They are not in need of any of our service. It is out of Their causeless mercy, we are bestowed with an opportunity to serve Them. So the service, opportunity to serve and the ability to serve is also coming from Them only. If not used in Their service we will be just rotting in this material world. So understanding our own precarious condition and Their causeless mercy, we should always recognise Their supremacy and kindness and pray at Their lotus feet, to always keep us in Their service.

 

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.