Blog

The Ultimate World View of a Loving Devotee

Mahanidhi Swami (lecture excerpt in Kartika at Radha-kunda)

We have titled this story from Caitanya-caritamrta - ‘The Dog Gets A Siddha Deha.’ It’s about how Sivananda Sena, Lord Gauranga’s eternal associate, personally cared for and loved a stray dog traveling with him on a yatra to Jagannatha Puri.

Today, unfortunately, most people don’t even care for the guy next door. They think “you live or die, let me live.” It’s a sad state of affairs but it’s a fact. This chapter contains so many verses and pages just to describe Śivānanda Sena’s lila with a lowly dirty dog. It’s all about love pure love of dog. In America they have an interesting phrase which Srila Prabhupada liked, “Love me, love my dog.” This phrase means, if I love my friend, then I should love his brother, all his relatives, and everyone connected to him, even his pet dog. Here Śivānanda Sena is practically showing that if you love Bhagavan, you love Bhagavan’s dog also!

That’s why Srila Prabhupada said Krsna consciousness is a perfect paradigm, the perfect world view. One who lives in the Krsna conception, a devotee, is truly an all embracing, all encompassing, holistic individual. Of course, the Krsna Consciousness world view includes the happiness and welfare of all human beings on the planet. But unlike other world views or religious perspectives, Krsna Consciousness also includes the happiness and welfare of dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, ants, whales, deer, trees, plants, and every living entity, along with the earth, air, water, ether and hearts of all humans.

The Krsna conscious person cares about their happiness, their welfare, their comfort, their peace of mind, and also the purity, harmony, balance, preservation and future of one and all and everything! Isn’t this the most all embracing, all-inclusive, love based, God centered, holistic, and unified field world view conceivable? Certainly it is. We say, “Let everyone and everything be happy,” Not only that but visvam purna-sukhayate…Let the whole universe be happy.

The whole universe means the universe and everything in it. Let brother sky move purely. Let mother earth be happy. Don’t pollute mother earth. Let the scared rivers and waters be happy, pure and flow freely. Don’t put dams up on the rivers. It’s a great offense to the rivers. Rivers are meant to flow to their husband. The rivers are the wives of the ocean. The ocean is their husband. So you should never stop the flow of a woman’s love to her husband or prevent a woman from meeting her husband. As it is a pious activity to bring separated people together, it is a grave sinful activity to prevent people from meeting each other that are meant to meet.

So when one is Krsna conscious then everything is perfectly adjusted. The earth is happy, the air is happy, and the water and oceans are happy thriving in the love light of the pure devotee’s heart. When devotees walk on the earth she becomes thrilled. And if it is a devotee like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, or the epitome of devotion Sri Radha walk along her surface, then mother earth feels so thrilled that her grass stands on end in ecstatic rapture. The grass that we are sitting on is the hair on the body of mother earth. When Krsna walks on the earth, not only does the grass stand straight in jubilation or exaltation but flowers bloom instantly. Lotus flowers! When Krsna walks, mother earth says, “Oh Krsna’s feet are so soft and tender with many beautiful marks, carana cinha. Such a loving touch and such a loving caress of Krsna’s feet, and the radiance of Krsna’s toe nails.” She feels so thrilled from the core of her heart and responds by blossoming forth flowers at every step that Krsna takes.

If there is a loving Krsna devotee in charge of the government, then guaranteed there will be pure air, pure water, pure land, pure food, pure behavior, pure environment, and most importantly ceto darpana marjanam, pure minds, hearts and dealings. All will experience peace, happiness and fulfillment in loving and realizing God. Pure dealings means love, appreciation, generosity, peace, harmony, health and joy. All will live happily. All will eat sufficiently. All will prosper. All will be fulfilled Thy kingdom come, Thy will shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven. There will truly be the kingdom of God on earth. Sometimes we see phrases like ‘Heaven on earth,’ but it is only a phrase, a reality no one has ever seen.

This story of Śivānanda Sena illustrates the Krsna conception and its practical application. It really happened and can happen today. He really loved the dog so much that he spent his own hard earned money on a simple stray street dog. He even paid the tax for the dog to cross the river. Because he knew that if the dog associates with Vaisnavas, he will greatly benefit. If the dog moves with the devotees, he will hear sankirtana and wag his tail and dance along in his own way. Unknowingly just by hearing his mind will become purified. He will get the remnants from the Vaisnavas. And just by that the dog will become a human being in his next life. Just see the incredible power of Krsna’s love.

A loving devotee wants to help, give, and love everyone and everything he contacts. Let everyone be benefited. Let everyone improve. Let everyone rise. Let everyone grow. No stifling. No suffocation. No destruction. No degradation. No diminishing. Let everyone expand. Let everyone grow, love freely, be happy and fulfilled. Let everyone thrive and prosper. This is the beautiful heart and the vision of a devotee who loves and lives in the Krsna conscious world view.

Śivānanda Sena is opening our tightly close-fisted hearts, and opening our very stiff brains so that we can understand what is the Krsna conception. Because without hearing about behavior and without seeing it or hearing examples of Krsna conscious behavior, we will never know what the thing is. We say ‘Krsna Consciousness’! Ok what it is? Is it a phrase? It's a product or a jargon? What is Krsna Consciousness? What is it? Where is it found or seen? How is it applied? What does it mean? How is it expressed? How is it felt? How does it interface with the world? And how does it impact on others, as they say? So this story is marvelous and it has a miraculous ending.

This loved and cared for dog ran to Puri and met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu even before Śivānanda Sena. Mahaprabhu also extended His love and care to that dog by hand-feeding it coconut pulp. The dog ate, chanted, danced, and then the next day went home to the spiritual world. Krsna dasa Kaviraja said by receiving the love and care of a Vaisnava and Lord Gauranga that dog got his siddha-deha, spiritual body, and attained the perfection of life. This is the result of a devotee’s true love.

Jai Jai Sri Radheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

More articles, books, and lectures by H.H.Mahanidhi Swami are available on www.mnsbooks.com. Log on for Purusottama masa LIVE internet lecture broadcast (Aug 18 - Sep16). Follow www.mnsbooks.com/live for updates and details.