Story of Sādhana Kosai
There was a great pure devotee named Sādhana Kosai, he was a butcher. Lord Krsna has said; naham vasami vaikunthe yoginam hridayena ca mad bhakta gayanti tata distamina nārada.
Neither I live in Vaikuṇṭha, nor do I live in the heart of the yogis, but where my devotees sing my glories, where they do harinama sankirtan, there I come and take my seat.
In the story of this pure devotee, Sādhana Kosai, even though he was cutting the meat, he was always engaged in singing the glories of the Lord. He would not directly harm the animal, he would only cut the meat that was brought from the outside and he would sell it. This profession came to him through his family line, from generation to generation, so he inherited this work. He was not interested in this style of living. When he was doing this, he had a shaligram, his black idol, which he had received, from somewhere. He did not know that this was God, he used to take it and weight the meat. If someone wanted one kilo of meat then the shaligram would weigh one kilo, and when some would say “Give me two kilos of meat”, it would become a two kilo shaligramji. He was thinking that this was a very good arrangement for weighing the meat.
One day a saint, a Vaiṣṇava, came and saw him and thought “Oh he is using the shaligram as a weight, how could he be so mean, doing like this?” He scolded and chastised him he said “Give me this sila, this is God” He took from Sādhana and then began his own puja to the sila and remarked “God this person is a madman, he was using You to weigh meat”. He then began to purify and clean the shaligram with ‘pancamrita’, honey, milk, yogurt, ghee, and water. He offered fragrant oils to the shaligram. However, when he slept Lord Kṛṣṇa came to him in a dream and said “Oh I am not pleased with this service, you should give Me back to my devotee Sādhana Kosai. When he uses Me as a weight for the meat, he sings My glories. He does harinama sankirtana, and you, you do not do any harinama sankirtan or sing My glories. I am very pleased with him, for he always is absorbed in the kirtan sevas. Therefore take Me away and give Me back to Sādhana”. The saint asked “Where do you generally reside then?” The Lord then said “I do not live in Vaikuṇṭha, nor do I live in the hearts of yogis, only I am where my devotees sing my glories and chant harinama sankirtan, there is where I am seated.”
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the glories of the gopis are described, how they were such pure devotees, even in their outward life they used to wander in the forest, they did not have ‘civilized behaviour’, nor knowledge of the scriptures, but their emotional feeling, their heart was filled with love, and because of that they had purchased the Lord. It is said that any foolish man if he does not do the bhajan of God, if he prays to God, even though his Kṛṣṇa consciousness has limited realization, that within his heart if there is some emotional feeling, then that gives him complete benefit. ‘Bhava shakti’, only his pure devotion, the pure feelings of his heart, takes him up to the highest position. If somebody drinks nectar in anger, even though in the wrong consciousness, it still makes him immortal, he benefits, in the same way if any foolish person does bhajan of God, he becomes purified and will reach the supreme destination.
Kṛṣṇa wants only pure emotion. He does not want anything that is empty, like money or anything material. He just wants pure love. [This bhajan that baba is singing, the great saint Surya das has sung. Here he says that in this world the highest thing is the love of God, love of Krsna. In Hindi it is said ‘savyaseya uchi prema gaya’, love of God is the highest thing in this world, in the universe, love of Krsna]. Love of Kṛṣṇa is the highest thing; it is the relationship between God and His devotee.
Suryaji gives the example that during the Mahabharata time, Dhritarastra was a great king, the Kauravas, and the sons of Dhritarastra, headed by Duryodhana invited Sri Kṛṣṇa for a feast. Duryodhana implored, “Please come”, but Kṛṣṇa did not accept this invitation, but He went to Vidura. Vidura was the brother of Dhritarastra, and he belonged to a lower caste, but Kṛṣṇa went to his place with out any invitation. By this Kṛṣṇa showed that “I am only attracted by the love of heart. I don’t like such great things as feasts and mundane opulences”. Duryodhana had arranged for so many delicious preparations, 56 kinds of eatables, ButKṛṣṇa did not accept the invitation and Viduraji had not even planned for the Lord to come to his house, but the Lord came because he had so much love for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa went there and He ate a very common type of vegetable, so simple, but He accepted it because it was offered in great love.
In the same way, in the time of Lord Rāma, there was a great devotee whose name was Śabari. When Lord Rāma went into the forest, there were so many great rishis, they were all doing tapasya for millions of years, not eating anything, and Lord Rama did not go to them, but He went to Śabari’s kuti because she had such love for Him. The pure devotee does not go to rich persons, loves poor persons, and does not mix with the wealthy persons. He likes poor persons who have no money. The pure devotee loves them. If a sadhu has the pressure of material wealth, he thinks “Oh this man has such wealth, I should go to him, I should do something for him”, if he has favour for any wealthy person, he is not a pure devotee, he is not a true sadhu. If he has some interest, because somebody has some wealth like money, then he is not a bonefide sadhu, not a pure devotee, Śabari on the other hand was such a pure devotee. The ṛṣis munis had boycotted her because she had belonged to the lowest caste. Her spiritual master Mattan, a great ṛṣi, had accepted her, and they had also rejected him because he had allowed her to stay in his ashram, they said “This ṛṣi has accepted such a low class woman in his ashram”, the women also avoided Mattan ṛṣi, but Mattan ṛṣi did not care for those persons. Because Śabari was a pure devotee, he accepted and gave her shelter in his ashram.
When Lord Rāma came to the forest where Śabari used to live, He did not go to these ṛṣis but went directly to the kuti ofŚabari. When He arrived Śabari, in her love, saw that Lord Rāma had come; she then provided so many plums, ‘bera’. She was so absorbed in her Lord Rāma, she just tasted the plum to find out whether it is presentable to Lord Rāma, then she said “Yes this is very sweet”, and just gave it to the Lord saying “Please eat this it is very sweet”. She had no knowledge that we should not offer something that has been eaten by us, but she had such love for Lord Rāma and was not aware of any etiquette how to properly feed Him. She was just thinking “Such a sweet fruit should be given to Lord Rāma”, so she tasted, and then she exclaimed “Oh Lord Rāma you should eat this”. Lord Rāma was filled with so much love for her and He said “Oh give Me, give Me; hmmnn this is very sweet, very sweet”.
There was a pure devotee name Sena, he was a barber of the king, and one day he was supposed to go to massage the king, but that day so many saints came to his house and he forgot about his service to the king. Kṛṣṇa then took the form of Sena and He went to the king and Kṛṣṇa Himself massaged the king. Then Sena remembered his duty and thought “Alas what will the king think, what will he say to me?” He went to the king, and the raja said “Sena you have already come here, why have you come again?” and Sena exclaimed “No I did not come here” The king replied “No you were just here”. Then he understood; Lord Kṛṣṇahad come disguised to serve the king.
In the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira arranged a very great yajña, the rājasūya yajna. In that year there were so many ṛṣi munis, and many great kings had come that year. There was so many services for everybody and Lord Kṛṣṇa took the service of cleaning and collecting many bad things, when people used to eat their food, they used to throw the plates about and Sri Kṛṣṇa used to collect that refuse in a basket and throw outside. Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa took up this humble service.
Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa took the service of driving the chariot of Arjuna. In a chariot the driver sits in the lower part and the warrior sits on the upper side. Arjuna was above Lord Kṛṣṇa, as He drove, doing the lowest kind of service for His devotee. Why? It was because Arjuna had full devotion for Kṛṣṇa. This is why Kṛṣṇa had accepted this seva. Now Surya das says in this bhajan “Because of the love of Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa drove his chariot” Kṛṣṇa forgot that “I am the Lord and master of this universe, and that I am all powerful”. It was this Supreme Lord, Who drove the chariot of Arjuna in the Mahabharata. This is why Suryadasji said, “That love of Sri Kṛṣṇa is the greatest thing of this world. Because of this love Kṛṣṇa forgets all of His superiority”.
Suryadasji says that when Kṛṣṇa was in Brajabhumi, that because of the love of the gopis, Kṛṣṇa reciprocated and teased the gopis all the time. Kṛṣṇa was dancing before the gopis like a toy puppet. Whatever the gopis would ask of Him, Kṛṣṇa would just do. The gopis were making Kṛṣṇa dance and dance. When Kṛṣṇa was very little, He would say “Give Me butter” and the gopis would respond “No no we will only give you some chach(buttermilk) after you come dance for us”. So Kṛṣṇa would dance and the gopis would give Him this chach. Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful and his true greatness is shown, when the pure love of His devotee defeats Him, all His powers are defeated by this loving power. Great ṛṣis and yogis meditate on Kṛṣṇa for millions of years, but they could not see Kṛṣṇa. But the gopi girls of Brajabhumi made Kṛṣṇa dance before them. They were saying “Kṛṣṇa you should dance then we will give you some chach” and He would dance for them for just a little amount of chach, just a small handful. They were saying in a greedy way “Dear Kṛṣṇa you dance and then we will give you chach” Part of a bhajan by the Brajabāsīs, the gopis say to Him “We will give you a toy, but you should sing Radhe Radhe in your flute”. In this bhajan it is said; kṛṣṇa khilauna de doongi muraliya me Radhe Radhe gaana the gopis say, “Krsna we will give a very good toy but you should sing Rādhe Rādhe in your flute”.
In Braja the Brajabāsīs used to address Kṛṣṇa by His fathers name ‘Nandaki’, “Oh son of Nanda”. Outside of Brajabhumi, they would address Kṛṣṇa as “Oh God, oh my master, oh Lord”, but in Braja they would simply address Krsna as “Oh Nandaki, oh son of Nanda do this, oh son of Nanda do that”. In the love of the Brajabāsīs, there was no out ward formalities. In the outer world when someone shows love that is full of formalities, but in natural, pure love there are no formalities. The Brajabāsīs addressed Kṛṣṇa in a very simple way, as a simple boy, this is pure love. Gopis were also saying “We will give you some butter and sugarcane candy, but you should sing Rādhe Rādhe on your flute. We will give you butter and candy, but you should take us in your dance and you should join with us in your dance. We will also dance with you”.
In Śrī Ji temple, there was a Gosvāmī who used to sing this bhajan “We will give you some butter and sugar candy, but first you should dance in my house. Please come dance with us in my house” The gopis say this to Kṛṣṇa. “Oh son of Nanda we will give you some toy but first say Rādhe Rādhe on your flute” I have learned this bhajan from that Gosvāmī at Śrī Ji temple, a very oldGosvāmī, a long time ago. A gopi said that “I am going to sell my cart in Vrindaban and we should meet there by the passage along the road near the kadamba tree, we should meet under that kadamba tree there and then I will go sell my cart in Vrindaban”(refrain).
A great pure devotee composed this bhajan, his name was Jati Sakhī , he was in sakhī bhāva. He said “I am surrendered to you Krsna and will give you some toy but first you should sing Rādhe Rādhe on your flute”.
This is the power of emotion that makes Kṛṣṇa dance like a toy, therefore in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sukadeva Gosvāmī uses very harsh words, the gopis were living in the forest and there their out ward actions were not very civilized. They were not taking bath all the time, they had no etiquette of spiritual things. As this bhajan describes the gopis as such, even today such things are taking place in the Braja villages, as we go on yatra, one can see how the gopis are very uncivilized(laughter), when we would enter a village from the outside we can see stool here and there, where the gopis would pass stool on the road(laughter). It was said by Sukadeva Gosvāmī that the gopis did not have any etiquette behavior. They had no sense of keeping the body clean, but their heart was filled with love of Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa became their servant.
I used to go for madhukari biksa getting roti in a Braja house, there was this one gopi, she was with her baby and she was cleaning herself after passing stool. When I went I said “ Meya Radhey Syama give me some rhoti” She said “Take baba, take baba, take this roti” and immediately she gave without cleaning her hand. The gopis do not know that monthly blood falls from their body, but they do not know that this is bad, they continue to do things not caring for any bodily purification.
There were these great pure devotee ṛṣi munis, so many of them, they were doing a big fire sacrifice and they were glorifying and appreciating Kṛṣṇa, quoting from the Vedas and they were saying “Come Kṛṣṇa come”, quoting so many sanskrit verses and they had a pot of sacrifice made of gold and they are calling Kṛṣṇa “Please come”. But Kṛṣṇa did not go there to such a sacrifice. He will not go to the great ṛṣi munis, but would go to the gopis and say ”Give me some butter” when the gopis say to Kṛṣṇa “You just wander here and there, stay here and do some work and then we will give you some butter”. And then they would not talk with him, so Kṛṣṇa would go to the cows and then talk with the calves and say “Oh calf your mother feeds you milk?” Then the calf says “Ooah yes”...
There are so many great ṛṣis calling Kṛṣṇa saying “That you should come to the fire sacrifice yajña”, but He did not go there. There are so many wise and intelligent persons but Kṛṣṇa did not go, He does not even become their master. But before the gopis in Braja, he became their servant. He rendered basic services to them. They say, “Do this” and He engaged in such low services, but he would not even become the master of the great ṛṣis munis.
(bhajan)…This is a bhajan of the Brajabāsīs and here the gopis were working, there was the stool of cow, that is called ‘govar’ so when they were collecting in a very big pot and one gopi said “Oh Kṛṣṇa you should place this pot on my head” Kṛṣṇa used to come and place the pot on the head of the gopi. Because this pot was very heavy she kept asking “You should place it on my head”. So Kṛṣṇa was doing this service.
This is pure love and emotion, pure bhāva, that the Lord of the universe was doing such a menial service in Braja. Surya dasji says “The love of the gopis increased so much that they made Kṛṣṇa dance in this Brajabhumi, He would just dance before them. The biggest concern in this world is love of Kṛṣṇa”. In the last stanza he says “In my heart there is no love for Kṛṣṇa, oh I am very cruel, my heart is not full of love for Kṛṣṇa, my heart is full of cruelty. How can I glorify the beauty of this pure love, the topmost thing in this universe is love of Kṛṣṇa”.
[Now baba is refering to the story of the pure devotee Sādhana Kosai]
So God said to that sadhu “You should take me to Sādhana Kosai, you should give Me to him” The Lord was in the form of the idol of shaligram and came in a dream and said “You should bring Me back there”. The sadhu said “Oh what happiness do you have in such a bad place, he is using you to sell meat, what delight do you get there.” The Lord said “His heart is filled with love, he is singing My glories so I take pleasure there”. The sadhu replied “But there are so very bad things there because he is selling meat, it is a very mean place” But despite the external situation, his heart was filled with love for Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa was very pleased there.
Uddhavaji says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the gopis have no civilized or great expressionistic qualities in them but they had acquired pure love for Kṛṣṇa, which is called ‘adhirudha bhava’. Their situation was of pure ‘raganuga bhakti’, pure love for Kṛṣṇathen they had achieved this position of adhirudha bhava, the purest experience of prema. This position even great ṛṣi munis, great saints cannot acquire. If in your heart there is no emotion, no pure emotion for Kṛṣṇa, then all your bhajan is futile and useless. When Lord Kṛṣṇa said to that sadhu “You should return Me to Sādhana Kosai”, the sadhu then went to Sādhana and gave the shaligram to him and said “Please forgive me”. Sādhana said “Why have you come to me?” The sadhu said” This Lord is pleased with you, He wants to live with you, He does not want to live with me. Kṛṣṇa does not like, my Vaiṣṇava qualities, your behavior is greater than my Vaiṣṇava acara.”
There is a similar story in Jagannath Puri, there was an old women named Karmabai who used to feed Lord Jagannath kitcharīwithout taking bath. In the early morning when she used to get up, first she would cook kitcharī for the Lord without taking bath and Lord Jagannath used to go there and eat. He would just run away from the temple and eat her kitcharī. A sadhu, a priest of Lord Jaganatha came and saw this and said “Oh what are you doing, you do not clean your body and you are cooking for Lord Jagannath? This is very bad, you should clean your body you should take bath. You should clean your house and your pots, then you should prepare for Jagannathji”. But when she did this then she became very late in preparing the kitcharī for the Lord. Lord Jagannath came time after time and saw that “Oh she was only cleaning her body, she was scrubbing the pots and she was very late” The Lord would then take His kitcharī at a late time. The Lord then said to His priest, “Tell Karmabai, that she should cook as she had done previously. Explain to her that you should prepare the kitcharī before taking bath and continue as you had done before. There is no need to take bath and to clean the pots and the house. Without cleanliness you should prepare your kitchari!”.
This Sādhana was a very great devotee. He worshipped the same idol of Śrī Shaligram in a previous birth. In this second birth the shaligram came again to him, but in this life he was very simple, but a butcher. Being simple he did not know the importance of the shaligram. In his previous life he was also a great devotee, he would only speak the truth. One time there was a cow that was running away from a butcher who was trying to kill the cow. He asked Sādhana at that time, “Have you seen a cow running by here?” In this life Sādhana had read the books of God regarding truthfulness, so he did not speak but he indicated which direction the cow had gone. The butcher went, caught and killed the cow. Because of this aparādhe, he had to become a butcher in his present life. At that time he should have told a lie, he should have said “ I don’t know where the cow went”, but he spoke the truth and the cow was killed and because of this he himself became a butcher, cutting meat, but even despite this he was filled with devotion towards the Lord, his heart was pure. In the Bhāgavatam it is stated that in some circumstances you should not speak the truth. Even for women also one can tell a lie if there is some calamity, somebody is going to die and for the safety of the cow or devotees and if someone wants to do violence, then in such conditions you should not speak the truth, but should tell a lie. Even if one lies in this situation, there is no sin. Even in joking you can also speak a lie.
While laughing, Lord Rāma even told a lie. When Lord Rāma was in the forest, the sister of Ravana, her name was Suparnaka, she went to Rāma, though a demon, as a very beautiful woman. She said to Rāma “Oh in this world no man is as handsome as you and no women is as beautiful as I am. Lord Brahmā has made such a beautiful couple in this universe, a most handsome man like you and a beautiful woman like me. I could not find a suitable husband for me but when I saw you I thought oh you can be my husband”. She said this as though she was bestowing mercy upon Lord Rāma, saying, “That you can be my husband”. Then LordRāma jokingly replied, “I am married and how can you marry me and live with my wife Sita? But my brother Laxmana, he is unmarried, you should marry him!”. So here Lord Rāma spoke a lie because Laxmana was married, but the Lord said, “He is unmarried then you should marry him”. Lord Rāma did not speak the truth in this situation. Suparnaka thought “This is true, this is good because Rāma is married and his wife is with him, I can not live with him, but Laxmana is not married so I should go to him”. Then she went to Laxmana.(class ends).
Sadhana Kosai Part 2
Priyadasji was a commentator on this book written by Nabaji. [And Now baba is starting to mention the life story of a devotee whose name was Sādhana Kosai, Kosai means ‘a devotee who sells meat’, but he is a devotee. He is so elevated that he is mentioned amongst all the other great devotees of the book, but by profession, he was a butcher. [Sādhana Kosai, this is a very wonderful story] Kosai in Hindi means ‘butcher’, one who kills animals and sells their flesh, extremely lowborn person. They cut cows and other animals. It is a very low class family in a very low class profession. He was born in such a family; there cannot be a more low class family than this. Those who kill cows and other animals, śūdras, caṇḍālas, it is even more fallen than them, but a devotee can be born any where in any situation in any family and such is the story of Sādhana Kosai. There is so much ‘shakti in bhakti’ that you can be born in any condition in any family in any background, but you can actually achieve Kṛṣṇa, such is the shakti and strength of bhakti. So he was born in a butcher family, just like gold is pure in any condition, so even though he took birth in such a low class family, he maintained complete purity in his life style. One should never hate one or think lowly of a devotee because of their past family orientations. This is bhakta aparādhe.
In the Ramayana in the chapter of Śabari, Śabari was a low class woman, but was a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa, a great devotee of Lord Rāma and Rāma actually went to see her and ate the fruit from her hands that she had already placed in her mouth. She was offering those fruits to Lord Rāma and He was gladly eating them, that which was actually bitten and tasted by the mouth of a sudra woman. Lord Rāma said “Only bhakti is the only consideration for Me, only bhakti is important to Me”. Any other consideration is simply zero, whether it is family background, what status you are born in, what education you may have received or what kind of dharma your family has followed. None of these things are any consideration for me, but only bhakti in the persons heart is what really matters.” In the 35th sloka of the Rāmayana in Aranga chapter “Without bhakti the human being is absolutely useless and does not have any beauty”.
Even if you have a very wondrous cloud, so beautifully dark, and it may be very attractive, but if it has no rain, no water, it is useless. Where in the same way one may have a beautiful house, family, and lots of festive activities. The brothers may be very rich and the people have great opulence, and are very influential in society, but if there is no bhakti, then all is useless. This is what Lord Rāma is saying “My relationship with my devotee is only on one point, only bhakti, I consider nothing except ‘bhakti’ in order to establish my sanga with the devotee”. Prahladha Mahārāja in his prayers to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva mentions in the 7thcanto , 9th chapter, 10th sloka;
manye tad arpita mano vacanehitartha, pranam punati sa kulam na tu bhurimanah
[With regard to the twelve qulaifications] The devotee is better than a brahmana because he can purify his whole family, whereas the so called brāhmaṇa in a position of false prestige can not purify even himself.
These are the siddhāntas of bhakti that are established by different devotees in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. One who has money has influence, one who has a very big family back ground, one who has beauty or if one has performed lots of austerities, these twelve items bring opulence to a person, but these 12 things without bhakti are zero. As stated in the sastra, even if one has lots of Vedic knowledge or powerful senses, that the 12 opulences are nullified if there is lack of bhakti. I have mentioned six qualities, ‘tejāḥ’ is seven, some one may be tejāsi(an effulgent person), and the 8th, to have great bodily strength. Then there is intelligence and yoga, these are the twelve items that makes a person extremely powerful, but these things do not help a living entity in progressive ‘ārādhana’ for Kṛṣṇa, rather they can become obstacles in devotional service, so how does Kṛṣṇa become pleased? Prahladha Maharaja mentions, “Money and all these material boons are doorways to hell”. Nothing has to be there, only bhakti must be there.
The example is given of Gajarāja (Gajendra), he was the elephant, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, who had no money or family background and was born in a low class body. He had no beauty, as a human might have, and as an elephant, he could not do tapasya , he was a bhogi, and he had no knowledge of the Vedas. His senses were not as powerful as the lion. He didn’t have any of the three primary qualities, no effulgence, influence, or bodily strength, which was weakened by fighting with the crocodile. None of these things were there in Grajaraja, but Kṛṣṇa came to him…why? Because he had bhakti, he had devotion to Kṛṣṇa. For one thousand years he fought the crocodile and became completely exhausted. All his friends were there, the she elephants, the boys, the girls, the elephant friends; they all left him and went away. He saw that “I have no help, hundreds of elephants have left me and gone away an I am fighting here alone for 1000 years”. He was completely tired, for he was pulled into the water. The crocodile was not ordinary, he was a gandarva named Huhu, who was cursed to take this form. He was fooling around with a rishi, called Devala rishi and this sadhu gave him a ‘sharpa’, he cursed him to become a crocodile. So the gandarva , he prayed to the rishi, that “I was only joking around with you” And the rishi said “One should never joke around with devotees, my sharpa, my curse can never be taken back, so you will have to become a crocodile, but I bless you that Krsna will come and liberate you from this body. He will cut your neck with his chakra and you will become liberated; this is my blessing”.
This is the shakti of bhakti, that a devotee’s anger and curse turn into a blessing. The elephant became tired after a thousand years of fighting. The elephant was also cursed to be an elephant; he was Indradumnya (not King Indradumnya) who was cursed by Agusta rishi. Indradumnya was doing tapasya and when the rishi came, he did not get up to offer his obeisance’s. It is said that if one does not rise and respect a devotee when he comes to your doorstep, then this is what will happen to you, you will become an elephant. So at that time in such a condition of life, he had no strength, then he finally called for Lord Kṛṣṇa. And so PrahladaMahārāja says “Kṛṣṇa came immediately on the call of Gajarāja because all these qualities in the living entity, they increase the false ego in a devotee, in a living entity but these things when they go away and the living entity calls on Kṛṣṇa without any false ego and then Kṛṣṇa comes to him”…{break …kirtan}
[Rādhā Jivan: His lectures are like that, he inspires bhakti in the heart of the listeners. You know when he speaks if you understand the language, all his lectures are like that. He is like an army soldier, ‘you have to inspire them to go to war’, that’s the way he speaks to uplift the soul. And that is why he cannot cover too many topics. One little topic and he gets stuck on it and he just elaborates on it more and more. I think he speaks for not only us, but for himself a lot. He becomes very involved in what he says. More importantly the real missionary spirit, is to simply become a devotee, not to just spread your ashram or make it big. His mission is to become a devotee, a good devotee.]
Sādhana Kosai used to sell meat. Someone can say that selling meat is not a good thing for a devotee, so why was he selling meat? Kṛṣṇa has mentioned this in the Bhagavad-gītā that whatever activity has been ordained to you through your family traditions, in order for you to maintain your body and soul, then that activity should not be given up. That external activity should be maintained, because that is the parampara coming in your family, not to give that up. Even though there is ‘dosha’ in it, there is fault in it, don’t give that up because whatever new work you will do there is always be dosha or fault, in everything that you do. You can become a teacher, you’ll be scolding your disciples and your students, or maybe even beating them, so there is dosha, but all karma when offered to Kṛṣṇa, that becomes bhakti. Just like for Arjuna, he was killing people in a war, but that became bhakti for Arjuna. Karma is not bad, the intention behind the karma, that is good or bad. If you are doing whatever karma with the intention of doing for Kṛṣṇa, then that is very great. If you are doing it for yourself, for your own sense gratification then that is low class. Now all the time while doing his work he used to remember Kṛṣṇa. And when Kṛṣṇa came to him in the form of a shaligram sila, he was very attached to his sila and he would even use the shaligram as a weight. This shaligram weighed one quarter of a kilo. He would place the shaligram on one side and the ¼ kilo of meat on the other. If somebody said they wanted one kilo of meat, then the saligram would weigh a kilo and if someone wanted a half-kilo then the shaligram would counter by weighing a half-kilo. Here the shaligram is just reciprocating with his devotee.
You can see that Kṛṣṇa is not looking for etiquette because this was the perfection of this sadhu’s spiritual life, to take his shaligram from the altar and to use Him as a weight. Any devotee can say that you are making a great offense, that you are taking Him and using Him as a weight to measure meat, but Kṛṣṇa does not follow any rules and regulations of any sort. From this woman’s mouth, this pera(fruit), she was feeding Lord Rama and He was eating. Even amongst Vaisnava acaryas, in the Vaisanava acaran, Kṛṣṇa doesn’t care as long as the heart is pure. Those who follow too many rules and regulations very strictly, sometimes they commit offenses to other devotees in the binding profile of their being very strict Vaisnavas. So one time another Vaisnava came to Sādhana Kosai and this sadhu saw on one side of the weighing scale was the shaligram and on the other side was meat. That sadhu started to cry. “My dear shaligram how is it that this low class man is keeping you as a weighing machine in a meat shop?” He couldn’t tolerate seeing this and he ran to Sādhana Kosai and he said “My dear friend, what is it that you are doing? Hey, this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, on this side is meat and on that side is shaligram, how can you be so low class? How can you be such a sinful person”. Then Sādhana Kosai asked “So what should I do Maharaja?” The sadhu then said “You give me the shaligram, you are not fit to worship this deity, this Lord should not stay with you. I will take him. You are giving so much trouble to the Lord. I will give you money and you buy some weights”. Sadhan Kosai gave the shaligram to the sadhu and he was crying and he said “Here you take the Lord”.
The sadhu later began to speak to the shaligram “My dear Lord, when we bathe, we will put some beautiful oils on You and this man is just keeping You in meat shop”. The sadhu bathed the shaligram, welcoming the Lord, putting some nice oils on Him, and offered some nice bhoga and said “I have delivered you from a very sinful man, a butcher”, and he put Him in a bed of flowers for the shaligram to sleep in and he was very happy that “I have taken the Supreme Lord out of hell”. When the sadhu went to sleep, the shaligram came to him in his dreams and said [kirtan] “Hey sadhu take away all this nonsense worship of yours and take me back to my devotee, Sādhana Kosai”. The sadhu then said “What are you saying, I should take you back to that hell?”. The Lord said “Yes take me back there!”. Then he said “My Lord that place is not fit for you. Why is it that you want to go back there?” Thakurji replied “I don’t need your flowers and your beautiful scents and all the foods you offer to me.” “Then what is it that you want?” “I want that devotee who is always chanting my names and who sings beautiful prayers to me, that you don’t have, you do not have that love and devotion that he has, all you have is pancamrita and some flowers for me. I do not stay in Vaikuntha”. As is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, “I do not stay in the hearts of yogis. When my devotees are chanting my names and dancing, that is where I stay. I do not live in Vaikuntha, I do not live in the hearts of the yogis” Then the sadhu inquired “Then where do you live then?” “Where my devotees are singing, dancing and enjoying, there is where I stay”.
The Lord used to dance with Mirabai, he used to walk and dance with her. Mirabai has written in her poetry that she used to only dance and walk, never walk strait. Here we never have any time for this. [bhajan]
“You do not have any of these songs that Sādhana Kosai has. All the time he used to do Kṛṣṇa kirtan. Right now you take me, I do not want to wait till the morning. Those songs that Sādhana Kosai sings for Me, that kirtan that he does for me, that is what I love, that is what I enjoy, that is my ‘aradhana’. SO YOU TAKE ME RIGHT NOW TONIGHT, I don’t want to wait till the morning. I don’t want your pancamrita and flowers, I want Sādhana Kosai”. Tomorrow we will not wait to go, ‘chalo’, lets go now”.
Adapted from: Bhaktamal: The Garland of Devotees
Courtesy: Ramesh Baba, Barsana, http://www.brajdhamsewa.org/
