Deliverance of Rupa Sanatana - 3

Kalpatararu Co-operative Housing Society

Community Hall

CBD Belapur Navi Mumbai

Sector 8-B

July 24, 2010

The above incident is indicative of the undesirable human attribute of over

confidence. On the same lines Maya makes us feel confident about our
interactions with her. As time goes by, we become adequately convinced about
our skill to deal with Maya. Maya, interestingly allows us to define our own rules
and play with her, as if teasing us repeatedly to indulge in her. Once we are
sufficiently off guard, Maya presents her real form, that of an insurmountable
ogress to us. When we wonder…”Where is the beautiful damsel who made me feel
so good some time back? The ogress would reply “That was actually me, Maya
…and …now you are just ready to be devoured by me “That’s what is Maya, “That
which is not!”.Thus one should learn not to indulge in Maya more than knee level
else one would be in real trouble.

Rupa and Sanatana opened their hearts to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They tell
the Lord that they had been cheating the world and also themselves all this while.
Although they would render services of the Srimad Bhagavatham by inviting high
class Brahmanas and give away huge donations, they were however employed
with Nawab Hussein Shah who was a repository of all the demoniac qualities.
Their mundane dealings included causing harm to people, forcefully collecting
taxes and a host of unpardonable sins, which they had committed knowingly and
unknowingly. They felt that the magnitude of their sins was so high that they did
not deserve pardon. Their spiritual life and their mundane dealings did not
reconcile and this was their dilemma. Be it the ocean or be it Maya , if one gets
engulfed in one of them , no amount of personal expertise or wit can save the
individual ; help needs to reach him from the outside to salvage him. Rupa and
Sanatana believed that to elevate them from their fallen condition, there was none
other than Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who could do it. They requested the Lord to
uplift them and thereby establish His supremacy in the three worlds. Looking at
the example of Rupa and Sanatana, one can gauge the extent of their humility.

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Rupa and Sanatana cite the example of the dwarf who tried to set his foot on the
moon. Although possibility of this desire being fulfilled is an impossibility, it is very
much possible that the moon can bathe the dwarf with its moonlight. This happens
with the mercy of the moon only. On similar grounds although Rupa and Sanatana
were analogous to that dwarf who tried to scale the moon , Lord Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu who was analogous to the moon could still shower His causeless
mercy analogous to the moonlight on the two brothers and thus save them from
perennial doom.

Hearing the extremely humble prayers of the two brothers, Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu proclaimed that He would initiate the two brothers on that very day.
After initiating the two brothers, Rupa and Sanatana, as his maiden sermon to
them, the Lord asked the two brothers to relinquish their over laden humility. It is
often seen that in our own spiritual lives we have been warned against false pride
and in spite of our efforts, false pride raises its ugly head. In this case the Lord
advices the two brothers on just the reverse that is to give up humility. One can
thus estimate the level of humility of the two royal brothers. The Lord exclaimed
that seeing the humble nature of Rupa and Sanatana, His heart melted and
emotions of ecstasy emerged on His divine form. The Lord said “I have come to
Ramkeli especially to see you both and to salvage you. You both have been my
eternal servants and it is only now that we have met in this particular arrangement.
You would be elevated and uplifted by Lord Krishna and there is no doubt about
this.”In this way Rupa and Sanatana were blessed by the Supreme Lord Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. After their deliverance by the Lord, Rupa and Sanatana
went back to the court of the Nawab much relieved.Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
decided to proceed towards Vrindavana from Kanae Natashala.

When the Lord resumed his onward journey from Kanae Natashala, He realized
that he was being copiously followed by a sea of humanity. On their meeting ,
Sanatana had warned the Lord to go to Vrindavana alone because , the holy land
of Vrindavana should be entered by people who are deserving and taking many
people to the place is not only good for Vrindavana but also was not good for
people who were not the right candidates to enter Vrindavana. Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu concluded that it would not be appropriate for him to enter
Vrindavana from Kanae Natashala because He was being followed by a real
throng. Entering into Vrindavana with so many people could spell doom. Hence Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called off his tour to Vrindavana and returned to Puri from
Kanae Natashala. Rupa and Sanatana, after resuming their positions in the court
of the Nawab were busier in conducting “Yagyas” and sacrifices and were hardly
seen in the court attending to their mundane duties. The way the two brothers
conducted the sacrifice was markedly notable. They had appointed two
Brahmanas to perform these sacrifices. The Brahmanas were instructed thus that

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the sacrifices should be conducted so lavishly that all their accumulated wealth got
consumed in the course of the whole process. Who could actually depute
somebody to bring about one’s own devastation by way of squandering their
wealth in this way?

Once Srila Prabhupada was travelling to Hyderabad by train in the 1st Class
compartment. He was accompanied by his closest disciples Sri Tamaal Krishna
Maharaj and Sri Giri Raj Maharaj, both who were already initiated into the
renounced order of life by Srila Prabhupada. As they were traveling, two
passengers happened to peep into the cabin of Srila Prabhupada. These
passengers immediately took the liberty to enter the cabin and prostrate Srila
Prabhupada. As they bent over to receive the blessings of Srila Prabhupada, they
exclaimed “Swamiji, please bless us”. As is well known, Srila Prabhupada was
prompt in his reply. He quipped “If I bless you, you would become like these two
persons sitting by my side”. The two shocked passengers raised their eyes in
anticipation, only to find their gaze falling at Sri Giri Raj Maharaj and Sri Tamaal
Krishna Maharaj who were dressed in saffron robes, with their heads shaved, with
tilak extending way beyond their foreheads and both of them holding the staff
usually adorned by saints of the renounced order. The two passengers soon got
back to their erect positions and smiled back at Srila Prabhupada with a
thoroughly confounded countenance and with no further desires promptly
disappeared. This left the three saints in splits. However Srila Prabhupada had a
great teaching delivered to us through this wit. The blessing of a true Sanyaasi is
actually supposed to introduce one to Sri Krishna and thereby the blessing
transforms the Maya infected individual into a God realized Individual who’s only
business is to serve Krishna,

Sanatana Goswami spent all his time in sacrificial occupations and had stopped
attending the court altogether although he was still employed as the minister in the
Nawab’s court. Nawab Hussein Shah had no clue about the whereabouts of
Sanatana Goswami. The Nawab soon found out that Sanatana Goswami was
busy in rendering service to Srimad Bhagavatham. One day as Sanatana and
Rupa Goswami were busy with the functions at their homes, the Nawab
unceremoniously barged into the house which startled the assembly of the
Brahmanas and the other learned guests. The Nawab demanded an explanation
from the two brothers for having so conspicuously absent from the court.
Sanatana Goswami replied promptly that he was serving sick!! This puzzled the
Nawab no end. This further infuriated the Nawab. However he valued the services
of Rupa and Sanatana and was patiently awaiting an appropriate explanation from
the two brothers. However both the brothers were not in a mindset to respond to
the Nawab’s implied retributions.

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