The Abandoned Dog
by Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta
Narayana Maharaja
[This is the first
publication of the transcription below. Although it is five years old, it is
timely. As Srila Narayana Maharaja told the story herein, he was unsuccessfully
trying to hold back his tears. In order to wipe his eyes as he was reaching the
story’s end, he opened his arms to take hold of his upper sannyasa cloth and
slip it under his eyeglasses. He was wearing a very thin garland of tiny
lavender flowers at that time. As he was opening his arms, his arms came from
between the two insides of the garland. The garland broke, and the lavender
flowers softly flew out in all directions. That, combined with the fact that
Srila Maharaja was wiping his tears, brought his audience to tears:]
At the festival in
April, 1999
Today I went to the seashore for a walk. I was chanting and
remembering some pastimes of Sri Krsna, and I was especially chanting this
verse:
evam-vratah sva-priya-nama-kirtya
jatanurago druta-citta uccaih
hasaty atho roditi rauti gayati
unmada-van nrtyati loka-bahyah
[“By chanting the holy name of the Supreme Lord, one comes
to the stage of love of Godhead. Then the devotee is fixed in his vow as an
eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much attached to a
particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heart
melts with ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly or cries or shouts. Sometimes
he sings and dances like a madman, for he is indifferent to public opinion.”
(Srimad-bhagavatam 11.2.40)]
I was also thinking about the meaning of this verse, which
applies to devotees who have developed their Krsna consciousness up to rati,
(bhava). Rati is the first glimpse of prema; it is a semblance of prema. Those
who have rati sing the name of their beloved: Govinda, Damodara, Madhaveti,
Radha-Govinda, Radha-natha and all the other sweet holy names of Lord Krsna.
They give up their shyness and become as though mad. With tears in their eyes,
they fall down and roll on the earth, sometimes laughing without any reason and
sometimes weeping bitterly.
Common devotees will generally think that such a devotee has
become mad. They consider that for no reason he is laughing, for no reason he
is weeping and for no reason he is rolling on the earth. They can not
understand, and even Lord Brahma and other demigods cannot understand, why
devotees even from the preliminary stage of love of God are behaving like this.
Those who do not have very much attraction for Krsna and
have not served Him, those who have no love and affection like gopis, cannot be
like this. These are the symptoms of a most high class devotee.
So while I was walking on the seashore, I was chanting and
remembering the meaning of this verse. Just then I saw a very pathetic scene,
which touched my heart. There was a dog on the road at the seashore. He looked
like he was waiting for someone, and he had tears in his eyes and mud all
around his eyes. He was a German Shepherd dog. When he
was young he had been very beautiful and strong, but now he was old and
neglected.
He was searching for someone. He would look at all the cars
passing by. He would run towards the people who passed by, looking at them with
eyes full of expectation. Then again, he would run away in the direction of the sea, or sit down
with very sad eyes.
I asked Brajanatha and Lila-purusottama prabhus,
“Is this dog waiting for his master, who is perhaps walking here and there?”
They replied, “No, no. Perhaps some cruel master saw that his dog was becoming
old, or he thought, ‘I don’t want any dogs now.’ He left him in this area,
during summer, when thousands of persons were at the seashore.”
That master left his very dear dog, and now the dog is
remembering, “Where is my master? He loved me so much. He used to wash me daily
with soap – with his own hands – and he loved me so affectionately. But where
is my master now? Perhaps he has lost me, so one day he will come and again
take me in his car.
Remembering the past love and affection of his master and
thinking, “How sweet it was”, he is sitting and weeping.
Why did the gopis lament for Krsna? Why did Sridama weep so
bitterly? Why did Srila Rupa Gosvami and the other Gosvamis weep?.
he radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno
kutah
sri-govardhana-kalpa-padapa-tale kalindi-vane kutah
ghosantav iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair
maha-vihvalau
vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri
jiva-gopalakau
[“I offer my respectful obeisances to the six Gosvamis,
namely Srila Rupa Gosvami, Srila Sanatana Govami, Srila Raghunatha Bhatta
Gosvami, Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami, Srila Jiva Gosvami and Sri Gopala
Bhatta Gosvami, who were chanting very loudly everywhere in Vrndavana,
shouting, ‘O Queen of Vrndavana, Radharani! O Lalite! O son of Nanda Maharaja!
Where are you all now? Are you just on the hill of Govardhana, or are you under
the trees on the bank of the Yamuna? Where are you?’ These were their moods in
executing Krsna consciousness.” (Sad-Gosvami-astaka 8)]
If a dog can weep, why can the associates of the Supreme
Lord not weep?
Sometimes that dog thinks, “I should die.” He walks towards
the sea and weeps. He is about to enter, but then he returns thinking, “My
master may come. That is why I don’t want to die.”
The gopis are like this. They want to die, but at the next
moment they remember Krsna’s words: “I will come back.”
The gopis, or any devotees who weep bitterly for the Lord,
also laugh sometimes that their Lord has come. But this cruel master will never
come, because his love and affection has stopped. The love of the cruel master
is mundane, but the love and affection of Lord Krsna is transcendental. Krsna
may come and satisfy His devotees, saying, “I have come”; but the cruel masters
of this world will not come.
That dog has been waiting for years. No one gives him bath
now, and no one takes him into their car. So he weeps. If he sees anyone, he
thinks, “My master has come.” Then he looks more closely, and then again weeps.
This world is meant for our learning; it is like a school or
college. We can learn many things from this world – by examples such as this
one about the abandoned dog. Today I was realizing why the gopis lament and
weep so much – and why they sing. We should realize these topics, but we cannot
do so by speculation of the mind. Such realization is possible only by the
association of high class of devotees of the Lord.
That dog will die one day, and his cruel master will not
return. But Lord Krsna is always controlled by the love of His devotees, and
they cannot die. When they weep like this they become mad: and from time to
time Lord Krsna comes and pacifies them. But they will say they have seen Him
only in a dream. They will consider, “Perhaps I was mad, and that is why I
thought I saw Him; but I have not really seen Him.” Actually they have seen
Him. Thus, the devotee increases his love for Krsna.
Lord Krsna’s cowherd-friend Madhumangala wept bitterly, as
did Madhavendra Puripada. He prayed, “O Lord of
Srimati Radhika, the crest-jewel of the gopis, prays,
ha natha ramana prestha
kvasi kvasi maha-bhuja
dasyas te krpanaya me
sakhe darsaya sannidhim
[“O master, O My lover! O dearmost,
where are You? Where are You?
Please, O mighty-armed one, O friend, show Yourself to
Me, Your poor servant!” (SB 10.30.39)]
The gopis all weep in this way. They will never die, but
that dog will die. The cruel master will also die, but Krsna and His devotees
will never die. One day Krsna is bound to give His darsana and service.
We should be like those gopis and the other associates of
Lord Krsna.
Editorial advisors: Sripad
Madhava Maharaja and Sripad Brajanatha dasa
Transcriber: Krsna-vallabha dasi
Typist: Anita dasi
Editor: Syamarani dasi
Proofreader: Vasanti dasi
HTML: Bhutabhavana dasa
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