Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj
The great Vaiṣṇava saint, Vaṁśī Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, was no ordinary sādhu. Outwardly, he had his advent in what is now known as Bangladesh, in Majidpur Village, Maimansingh district, near Jamalpur. But later, he came to Navadvīpa-dhāma, accepted the bābājī order and performed his bhajana under a tree. The order of sannyāsa is given for preaching, but a bābājī will perform bhajana in a holy, secluded place. A bābājī will not go outside for pracāra (preaching). Many people would come to Bābājī Mahārāja and offer to build him a cottage, but he chose to remain always beneath a banyan tree. He would not move from there. He was surcharged with Kṛṣṇa-prema. He was a very tall figure. He never shaved, but remained like a madman. Many people would offer him various things, but he would pay them no attention. Whatever he might receive, he would distribute to others. He was an anchorite. Nobody could understand his behavior. He had only two big cloth bags—he had no temple. In one cloth bag was Gaura-Nitāi and, in the other, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes, he would take the Deities out and perform pūjā. So, is his bhakti less because he had just small Deities, and ours greater because we have a big temple? Gaura-Nityānanda were most satisfied by his service. Our Paramapūjyapāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupada used to bow down to him from a distance. He prohibited his disciples from visiting Bābājī Mahārāja. His disciples asked, “Shall we not have darśana of the sādhus?” But Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura replied, “You will not be able to understand his behavior and you will commit offenses. He is not within this world, but is moving in the transcendental realm. If I commit an offense, it will be anti-devotional. For this reason, I am bowing down to him from a distance. Only a śuddha-bhakta can understand his wonderful behavior. An ordinary novice of bhajana will be unable to understand, so he should not go there. Bābājī Mahārāja is always surcharged with Kṛṣṇa-prema!”
There was a person from Navadvīpa-dhāma who used to come to Bābājī Mahārāja. One day, he thought, “I have the desire to obtain the Supreme Lord. How can I get Bhagavān?” He was only murmuring, speaking to himself, so Bābājī Mahārāja did not reply. This person came back repeatedly to see Bābājī Mahārāja. Finally, one day, he approached Mahārāja directly.
“What do you want?” Bābājī Mahārāja asked him.
“I want to see Bhagavān,” the man said.
Bābājī Mahārāja replied with only one word: “Weep!”
We might supply so much scriptural evidence to try to explain, in so many ways, how to obtain the Supreme Lord, but what did Vaṁśī Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja say? “Weep for Him!” If you can weep for Him, then you can get Him. If there is want for Him, then He will come. We are uttering His Names, but we do not want Him. So, we are uttering the Names of Kṛṣṇa—“Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Kṛṣṇa Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare”—and Kṛṣṇa appears before us. He says to us, “Come along!”
We say to Him, “No, I cannot go now. Right now I require a million dollars to save my business. I have my children. I have just bought a building. I cannot go now.”
“So, why have you called Me?” Kṛṣṇa asks.
“I have called You to give me a million dollars,” we reply. “Remove my difficulties. I do not have time to go now.”
From where are we uttering the Name? Not from the heart! We are chanting, “Hare Kṛṣṇa,” but, if Kṛṣṇa were to come, we would be unable to go.
A certain Svāmījī gave an illustration. It is an illustration involving the ordinary day-to-day life of a householder but, nonetheless, there is something very impressive about this illustration. In a town in Bengal, there was a man who worked in an office. He lived with his wife and two children. One of the children was only three or four months old and the other was seven years old. One day, the man told his wife, “You will have to prepare breakfast early today because I have to go into the office early. After I eat, I shall leave right away.” When the wife went to cook, she first put the baby on the bed and then went into the kitchen. But, whenever she would enter the kitchen, the child would cry. She thought, “With the child in my lap, how will I be able to cook? It is very difficult.” She was thinking what she should do. Then she thought of a way she could manage. She called the seven-year-old child.
“Darling, come here!” she called. “Do you know that red toy in the shop?”
“Yes, I know it,” the child answered.
“Go and buy that toy, but be sure that it makes a nice jingling sound.”
The child took some money and went off to buy the toy. He brought it home and gave it to the mother. The mother laid the baby down on the bed and hung the red-colored toy with the jingling sound above him, at the end of a rope. The baby saw the toy and immediately started to play with it, hitting it from side to side. The child was most delighted as he continued to slap the toy and hear the jingling sound. For one hour he played like that, and the mother went to do her cooking.
After that, the child started to feel hungry. For the entire time that the child was playing, he did not remember his mother. But, now that he felt hungry, he thought, “Oh, where is my mother?” But his mother did not come. Then, he started crying, signifying, “I am hungry! Come!” He could not speak, so he beckoned his mother by crying. “Come to me and suckle me! I am hungry!”
His mother, however, was busy cooking. “No,” she thought, “let the child cry.”
After some time, the child stopped crying and went back to playing with the toy—jingle, jingle, jingle. After playing like that for a while, the pangs of hunger returned. His hunger increased and increased and he became more and more unhappy. He began to cry for his mother even more loudly than before.
His mother heard the crying of the baby, but thought that she should first finish her cooking.
Finally, the hunger became unbearable for the child. The child thought, “I don’t want toys!” All he could think about was his mother. His crying became louder and louder until he was screaming. He started to throw his arms about and kick his legs, in a tantrum.
Then the mother thought, “Oh, I cannot stay away any longer!” The mother ran toward the child, embraced him and suckled him.
Like this, the Supreme Lord has given us toys—the toy of a wife or husband, toys of children, toys of buildings, toys of radios, toys of videos, toys of computers. Seeing this, Kṛṣṇa thinks, “They are absorbed in their toys! I have no worries. I am engaged in My pastimes in the transcendental realm. They do not want this. They want those things instead. Here, take this computer! Take that video! Take this! Take that!”
Upon the awakening of his real self (ātmā), a man feels the want of the sweetest affection of the Supreme Lord. He cries, “Oh Supreme Lord! In this world, nothing gives me happiness. Everything is temporary. Everyone is selfish. You are my most beloved! Where are You? I have forgotten You! Come! Come! I am in a furnace! Come! Come!” Weeping, he calls, but Kṛṣṇa does not come. “I am engaged in My pastimes,” Kṛṣṇa says.
For some time, the man then becomes absorbed in the affairs of his family and relatives, and forgets Kṛṣṇa. Time passes and he cries again, “Where is My beloved Supreme Lord? Where is He?” Crying, crying. But, the Supreme Lord still does not come.
Ultimately, he shouts, “I do not want a house! I do not want anything! Nobody is mine—You are mine! Oh beloved Supreme Lord! Come! Come! Come!” He cries and weeps, tossing his arms and legs about. Then Kṛṣṇa cries, “Oh!” and comes to him. This sort of perturbation of the heart, extreme eagerness for getting Bhagavān, must be there.
Vaṁśī Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja said only one word: “Weep!” But that single word has great significance. When we associate with the śuddha-bhakta who is crying for Kṛṣṇa, then the eternal nature of ātmā will be awakened. You have love for God. Love is there in your soul. It exists, but it is presently enveloped by the external potency of the Supreme Lord and you have become averse to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Passing through different species, our minds have become enveloped by so many evil desires.
(Excerpt from the book ‘A taste of Transcendence’ by Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj)
Gaura Hari Hari Bol