The Alvars

THE ALVARS

There were twelve Alvars who appeared in South India. Not all at the sametime, but over a period of several centuries. They established thebasis of the Krsna bhakti cult in the Kali-yuga. The appearance of suchgreat devotees in the Kali-yuga is predicted in the Srimad-Bhagavatam.Srimad-Bhagavatam was spoken at the beginning of the Kali-yuga, and whenKrsna left this planet then he took with Him dharma. The Vedic dharmaat that point disappeared, or became invalid, and spiritual knowledgewas also obscured. But it says in the same verse that Lord Krsna leftthe Srimad Bhagavatam for the people in Kali-yuga to get light out of.Now still, the book Bhagavata was there but they also needed the personBhagavata, or one who lives the Srimad-Bhagavatam. In other words, theyneeded the spiritual master. So in the initial stage of Kali-yuga, thefirst few c enturies, these twelve Alvars appeared in South India, andactually established the basis of what would later on become the fourVaisnava sampradayas. The four sampradayas all had their origin inSouth India, and the founders of these sampradayas each in their own waydrew, to a greater or lesser extent, from this tradition of the Alvars,especially in the Laksmi sampradaya, but it is also there in oursampradaya too, and in the others. The Radha Krsna cult is the furtherdevelopment of the de votional tendency of loving God in closefellowship and in the spirit and relation of a woman to her husband orlover. This tendency is striking in the Prabandham of the Alvars.Goda, the famous woman Alvar, is said to have been married to the DeityRanganath of the Sri Rangam temple. Tondaredipodi Alvar (BhaktanghriRenu in Sanskrit) expresses in his Tirup Palliyeducci (ParamatmarJagarana in Sanskrit) tat to serve and love God one's spiritual body isthe summom bonum of one's serv ice to God.

One of the Alvars was known as Bhaktisara. So he was living at SriRangam, and he was living very very simply, like a babaji. So he wouldsit at Sri Rangam. Around the temple are 7 walls, and between thewalls are some areas like streets where people would walk and live. SoBhaktisara would sit in that street area, or in the courtyard of thetemple, and he would sit in the sun and sew his cloth. He wore old oldcloth, and he would sew it and maintain it until practically speakingit was unwearable, and only then he would he go and find some new oldcloth. And because he was purposely kept himself impoverished, he usedto sew it with a broom-straw, this would be his needle. And on the endof it he would tie a thread. Then he would take his old torn garmentand sew it. So he used to be seen often, sitting somewhere in the SriRangam complex sewing his cloth. One day Lord Siva and Parvati wereflying over the sky just above the earth. By flying like this, theirshadow was cast upon the ground. So whe rever this shadow would fall,naturally people became very enlivened in their material desires. Butwhen the shadow fell on Bhaktisara, they stopped and observed him.Bhaktisara was sewing, and then he looked around and saw this shadow.

He could understand that this shadow is inspiring one to have materialdesires. So thinking, "This is inauspicious," he moved out of theshadow. Parvati turned to Lord Siva and said, "What is this? Everyoneelse is so eager tha t we may give benediction, that they rejoi ce ifthey catch sight of us or if our shadow falls on them. But this personis moving out of the shadow. What does this mean?" Lord Siva replied,"He is a great Visnu bhakta. We have no business with him. He doesn'tneed anything from us." Parvati said, "No no no. Everyone wantssomething from us. Everybody has material desires and wants themfulfilled. Let us go down there." So they went down there, Parvatiand Siva, and they appea red before Bhaktisara, who was just sewing hiscloth. So then Pa rvati, who was standing behind Lord Siva said,"Offer him heaven." Lord Siva said, "My dear devotee of the Lord, wehave come down before you to give you a benediction, so I am offeringyou the svarga, the heavenly world. You may go there." Bhaktisaradidn't even look up, he just kept on sewing and ignored them. So thenParvati said, "Offer him the post of Lord Brahma." Bhaktisara ignoredthis also, and continued sewing his cloth. Parvati was becoming moreand more agitated, so she said, "Offer him a form just like yourself."So Lord Siva said, "So will you take a form or a position just likemine?" Then Bhaktisara looked up and said, "You've already got enoughtrouble." He was referring to the fact that although he was the greatLord Siva, he was still being pushed around by Parvati. So thenParvati said, "He must ask something from us. So just tell him to askfor a benediction." Lord Siva said, "All right, if you don't want anyof these things I am o ffering, then you pick something, because youmust take a benediction from us." So then Bhaktisara said, "Well, yougive me liberation from material existence." Lord Siva said, "That'sone thing I can't give." Lord Siva himself says mukti pradata sarvesamvisnu eva na samsaya. One who wants mukti has to approach Lord Visnu.So he was caught in an embarrassing situation when Bhaktisara asked forthat, something he could not give. "I'm sorry, but this is somethingthat I cannot g ive." Bhaktisara said, "Then what is the use? What isthe use of you and your benedictions?" Lord Siva said, "You must takesomething from us, because we have come to offer you a benediction.""All right," Bhaktisara said. "While I sew, the thread is alwayscoming off the needle, because that is only a broomstraw. So youplease make some arrangement that this thread becomes attached to theback of the straw so I can finish sewing my cloth." At this, Parvatibecame enraged. "He's insulting you! You can give him the universe,and he's asking for such a minuscule thing. This is an insult. Youmust do something." So then Lord Siva opened his third eye, and atongue of flame came out towards Bhaktisara. Bhaktisara saw thistongue of flame coming, so he pressed his foot to the ground, and fromwhere he pressed his foot an even greater flame came out, devoured thatflame from Lord Siva's eye, and started to pursue Lord Siva. Lord Sivawas running around Sri Rangam temple with this fire following him. SOhe went before the dei ty of Ranganath and prayed, "My dear Lord, Ihave made a great mistake today by offending your devotee. Please helpme." So the Lord instantly conjured a Vaikuntha cloud, and this was

raining a kind of nectar. Because it was a Vaikuntha cloud, within avery short time the whole area of Sri Rangam was totally flooded. Inthis way the fire of Bhaktisara was extinguished, but the whole templewas covered, like a big lake. Then suddenly Bhaktisara appeared on topof the lake, like a cork. He was just sitting on top of the waterstill sewing his clot h. Very quickly the water subsided. Lord Sivaappeared before Bhaktisara and blessed him. He gave him this name.Bhakti means devotion, and sara means essence. So this name means,"the essence of devotion." Lord Siva said, "Your attitude and devotionto Lord Visnu is the essence of devotion, because even if Lord Sivacomes, you do not want anything from him, although all the materialistsare desiring." Another time there was a shuktihara, a magician flyingthrough the sky on hi s tiger. Bhaktisara wa s again sitting sewinghis cloth. And then when he flew over Bhaktisara, his tiger couldn'tstay in the sky, it fell to the ground. He came down to earth, and hewas wondering, "What is this? Why can't we fly here?" And then he sawBhaktisara, and he could understand, "Oh, it must be by the influenceof this saintly person that my magic is rendered is null and void."The magician became pleased, because he could understand "He is veryvery advanced. He is so pure that this kind of mystic jugglery I amdoing does not function in his presence." So being very pleased withhim, he wanted to reward him. He took from his shoulders a very veryexpensive ornamental cloth that he was wearing. You can just imagine,he's a wizard so he's got to be dressed really far out. It had goldsewn into it and diamonds and rubies and emeralds all over it. So hetook it off, and he presented it to Bhaktisara, "You please acceptthis." As soon as the c loth touched Bhaktisara's hand, it wastransformed into an old rag wit h holes, the type which Bhaktisara wasaccustomed to wear. Something fit for Bhaktisara to wear. And thenBhaktisara took his cloth that he had been wearing, and gave it to thisshuktihara, and as soon as the shuktihara took it, the cloth becamelike molten diamonds, like a diamond jelly. It was very valuable, andthe shuktihara was very pleased to receive this.

The fourth Alvar was called Goda. She was an incarnation of Bhu-Laksmi.One day when Visnucitta was doing his gardening, he heard the cry of ababy from his tulasi garden. He went in there and under the tulasiplant he found this baby. He took her and brought her to his home. Uptill now, Visnucitta was a naisthika brahmacari and a babaji. He had nofamily life. And now there was this small baby, and it was a girl. Sohe went around in the village and told the matajis, "Please come andtake care of this child." So they took care of the child. Since hisservice was gardening and he was collecting many flowers, her servicewas making flower garlands. She used to make a garland, give it to him,and he would take it to the deity. One day when he came back to thehouse, he arrived a little early. Usually the garland was ready and waskept in a basket and take, but today he came ten minutes earlier. Andwhile coming, he just peeped in through the window to see what washappening with the service, and he saw this young girl standing in frontof the mirror, and she was wearing the flower garland, and she was

smiling. So Visnucitta burst in the door. "What have you done?" heyelled. "Great offence! This flower is for the enjoyment of Visnu, andyou are a jiva, a living entity. You should not take anything which isnot enjoyed by him firsthand, and this has made a great offence. Nowyou have become disqualified to do this service any more. I won't takethese garlands f rom you." So then he ran out on to the street, and hewas begging so many other people, "It's time for darsana, and I have tooffer a flower garland. Can you make something?" So then all of themsat together and made a nice flower garland and he took it, and wentinto the temple. At the end of the puja he offered it to the deity butit broke and fell off. Then he had to arrange for another garland to bemade. That also broke. One more was made and that broke too. Then hegave up. H e laid down and he was crying, "What is happening? " Sothen the deity came in his dream and told him, "I will only accept thatgarland which has already been worn by your daughter, and other garlandsI will not accept." So he went to his daughter and said, "You pleasemake a flower garland, wear it and then give it to me." Then she said,"But it is bhoga! I am not supposed to wear it." Visnucitta said, "Iam so confused. I don't know. I have established Visnu as the SupremePerson, and n ow I don't know what this philosophy is." So then shesaid, "I was only wearing it to see in the mirror how it will look onthe deity, because I am of the same height as the deity. I am makingthis garland, it is thick in here, it is going thinner and thinner, andthen there are two lotus flowers at the end. So I wanted to see how itwould look on the Lord's body. That was what I was checking, but yousaid I have done offence. What can I do?" Then he said, "This is evenhigher philosophy. You please do like this, give it to me and I willoffer." This w as going on. And one day he called his daughter andsaid, "I was taking bath in the well, and I overheard a neighbour say,'This babaji has got a daughter from somewhere. She is already of ageand he is not thinking of her marriage.' So I have to get you marriedto someone." So she said, "Don't mention human beings! They're ugly,they're not beautiful people. Who will suit my beauty?" So then hesaid, "I will describe to you some beautiful people." Then he gave adescription of diffe rent deities. When he wa s describing the beautyof Ranganatha in Sri Rangam she said, "I would marry this person." Sothen he said, "Look my dear child, I was just joking. You cannot marryHim, He is a deity." So she said, "If I can give Him a flower garland,what is the difficulty for me in marrying Him?" He said, "That isbecause He is so merciful that somehow He is accepting your service,because you were only checking that it was all right. But don't havethis dream. This is against our philosophy, so don't think like th is."Then she said, "Well if I can't marry Him I won't marry anyone." So theproblem continued. And then one day the priests of the temple came toVisnucitta and said, "We had an instruction in our dream that from SriRangam the deity is sending His priest to carry your daughter from here,and we are supposed to go, and you should also come because there is amarriage and the muhurta is at such and such hour, on this day, in thiscity... " And then Visnucitta said, "What happened to all of you? Nowyou are having a dream that she is marrying the deity in Sri Rangam, and

she has been saying this already. Don't tell this to my daughter, sheis already confused. And go away from here." Then they said, "Well wecame here to give you the instruction from the Lord." And somehow hedrove them away. Then he saw there was a big procession coming from SriRangam. Palanquins, camaras, umbrellas, and they were all asking, "Whois Visnucitta? Where is he?" He went up and said, "I am Visnucitta."They aske d hi m, "Where is your daughter? She should sit in thispalanquin, and you should come. Marriage is coming close." "Marriage?With whom?" asked Visnucitta. "With Ranganath deity," the priestsanswered. "Deity getting married? Who ever heard of that? You're allpriests, have you ever heard of that?" They said, "We know thatRanganath is the Supreme Lord, and He is saying this, so who are we toargue with Him, "You are a deity so You cannot get married." We cannotdo that. You only just e stablished Him as the Absolute Truth, so howcan you make argument with Him?" "All right then," Visnucitta said. SoGoda was brought to Sri Rangam. On the way she dreamed the marriage,and she was composing these poems which describe the marriage, and whenshe was singing these songs Visnucitta was getting more and moreconfused. "She's seeing everything, how the marriage of the Lord willhappen." Finally when they arrived they went three times around thecompound wall of the temple, and as they entered she got down from thepalanquin, shook her cloth and cleaned herself. And they told her, "Yougo pay obeisances to the Lord." So she walked to pay obeisances, andshe kept on walking. So then Visnucitta started screaming, "Wait! Stopthere! You have to pay obeisances there! No closer!" She kept onwalking, and again he said, "Stop!" but still she kept going.Visnucitta was half-fainting. Then she went inside. There was thecoils of the snake on whic h the Lord was sleeping. She stepped on it,and Visnucitta fa inted. Someone was trying to wake him up, and when hewoke up again he saw that she had climbed on the snake coil, and wassitting on the snake. She had her hands on the feet of Visnu, and shewas giving massage. He fainted again. The next time he woke up therewas no Goda. She had gone back to Godhead.

Kalidvamsa, or Nila, was one of the Alvars. His story is particularlyrelevant to us, because his background was very, very fallen before hebecame a devotee of the Lord. How he became a devotee is also veryinteresting. Kalidvamsa means "destroyer of the influence of Kali." Hewas known by this name after he became a devotee. But previously he wasknown as Nila which referred to his very dark complexion. He was fifthclass, mleccha. He was of the Dravidan race, a South Indian race whichcan be extremely black-skinned and such persons who are very black areconsidered to be low-class. But he was also of very strong body, verytall and very muscular. He had learned in his youth all the arts offighting. Sword, spear, wrestling, boxing, he was extremely formidable.And he gat hered around him a crew of particularly dangerous persons,who became like his gang. In those days, at the beginning of theKali-yuga, mystical powers were a lot more prominent. One of his mateshad the ability to hide in his own shadow. Another one had the ability

to pick any kind of lock or defensive mechanism, and he could do thisvery quickly. He had the ability to understand, just by looking, howthe mechanism worked, and by a few deft movements of the hand it wouldcome apart. And he c ould enter that place, steal whatever he wanted,and upon leaving he could reassemble the lock so that no-one would knowthat someone had been there. The third friend had the ability tosilently kill anyone. By secret means, very silently, he could take aperson's life. So these were Nila's friends. They formed a veryfearsome crew, and people were very afraid of them. The king of thatregion decided that the best policy with Nila was to employ him. Sothey engaged him as being t he tax-collector for that distric t, and hewas very effective. No-one dared hold back when Nila and his boys cameto collect taxes for the government. Now, just outside that villagewhere Nila was staying, there was one bathing tank, one pond and thiswas a place that was very beautiful, very special. So special that fromtime to time damsels from heaven would come down and also bathe there.So one day one young girl, who had come down with some other ladies fromthe heavenl y planets, she was left there. One doctor from the villagewh o was walking by saw this very beautiful young girl. He couldimmediately understand, due to her exquisitely beautiful features, thatshe wasn't from the region, and he asked, "Who are you?" And sheanswered," I don't know." Apparently she had suffered some kind ofamnesia, and couldn't return to the heavenly planets. So the doctorasked the little girl to come with him, and he took her home, andintroduced her to his wife, who was automatically very much taken by thelittle girl. She said, "Let us rai se her as our daughter." So theykept her at home, and since she was a young lady, she did not go out ofthe house. If she wanted to go outside, she would just go up to theroof. That was the system in those days, because unmarried girls shouldnot mix with society. So one day she was up on the roof, and Nilahappened to come down the street, in front of the house, on his waysomewhere. One point about Nila was that he was very much engaged insense gratification, a very rowdy fellow, a boozer and a wo man hunter.He was carousing around on the street below, and when he happened tolook up he saw this very beautiful girl. Immediately he was smittenwith love for her, and he knocked on the door of the doctor's house.The doctor appeared at the door of the house and saw Nila standingthere. "Oh," he said, "what can I do for you?" Nila replied, "I havejust seen your beautiful daughter, and I want to ask her to be my wife."The doctor said, "W ell it's not really in my power to give her to youas wife." Normally it's the father turning over the daughter to thewould-be husband, but the doctor said, "It's not really up to me,because actually she's not my daughter. It appears to me that she'scome from heaven. But you could ask her yourself if she would like tobecome your wife." So he brought the girl down. Her name was Kemuda,which means, "lotus." Nila proposed to her, "Let me take you as wife."He began to describe some of his qualifications to the girl. "You seethis fist? This fist can punch and kill 500 people at once." Like thishe was praising himself, and she was giggling shyly to herself, and shesaid, "I'm not interested in such things. If you want to marry me, you

have to become a Vaisnava." Because Nila was so much taken by the girl,he said, "Yes yes, no problem. I will become a Vaisnava." He had noidea of what a Vaisnava was, he had no idea what the word meant, but hejust knew vaguely that a Vaisnava had something to do with the temple.He had never gone to the big temple tha t was in that area, he had neverhad any interest in it, but he'd heard this word Vaisnava used inconnection with the temple. Declaring he would immediately become aVaisnava, he ran off in the direction of the temple. He came in, andtold the priest, the head Brahmin, "I want to become a Vaisnava." TheBrahmin said, "Ok, so you know that a Vaisnava is completely surrenderedto Lord Visnu." "Yes yes yes," Nila said. "You know that a Vaisnava isonly engaged in s ervice to Visnu and other Vaisnavas?" " Yeah yeah, noproblem," Nila replied. "Well all right," said the Brahmin. "You'resure you want to be a Vaisnava?" "Of course," Nila said. So then thepriest took the garland from the deity and placed it around Nila's neck,and Nila came back very proudly to the doctor's house, and showed Kemudathat he wearing the garland from the deity. "Now I am a Vaisnava," hesaid. But she said, "It is not enough just to officially be a Vaisnava.You hav e to act like one. If you want to marry me, then for one y earyou have to feed 1000 Vaisnavas every day, wash their feet, and drinkthe water." "All right," he said. So then he went and got his mates."Got a job for you," he said. "Oh great! What is it?" they said,rubbing their hands in anticipation. And then he explained, "Each dayfor the next year I want you to go out and fetch 1000 Vaisnavas, bringthem here, and then we'll feed them. Then you should wash their feetand bring the water to me so I can drink it." His mates looked at himand said, "Are y ou feeling all right." Nila said, "Well look, if youdon't get into this right now then you're not going to be feeling allright." So then, just as they were accustomed to do any other job, theydid this job in the same fashion. They went running out onto the streetarmed with many weapons, and whenever they saw a Vaisnava they wouldimmediately grab him by the scruff of his neck, and herd him into Nila'splace, shouting, "Come on, let's go! Move it!" And these Vaisnavaswould be sayin g, "What's happen ing?" "Now sit down there in a line,"Nila's boys would say. And then they would come with the pots and slapthe prasadam down in front of them. "Eat!" The Vaisnavas wouldnervously take prasadam. "Eat more!" They would make sure all theVaisnavas were filled up. And then they would come with foot washingparaphernalia. "Stick out your foot!" And then they would bring a bigbarrel of caranamrta to Nila, and he would scull it like a tankard.Pour it down his throat, wipe his mouth with the back of his hand andthrow the barrel. So gradually by performing this service he began totransform. Actually, saintly qualities began to manifest in his person.And furthermore, he became very attached to this service to theVaisnavas. In the end he did marry Kemuda, but that was no longer hismotivation for doing the service, he just liked to do it. He found itvery sweet and enlivening. He became so enthusiastic fo makingarrangements for feeding 10 00 Vaisnavas every day. You can justimagine his service was naturally increasing. The feast was becomingmore and more opulent, the foot bathing ceremony became more and more

opulent. In this way he was liberally spending money, until eventuallyhe was out of cash, and he still hadn't completed his years service. Inany case, he had no intention to stop after a year now. He just wantedto go on and on. So what to do, he had no more money with which toarrange for the feasts. But he had recently gathered together taxrevenue to give to the king, and that w as still at his place, a hugesum of money. So he just started to spend that and continued on withhis service. Now, meanwhile the king was expecting the tax money to bebrought to his treasury house and it wasn't coming. So he was askinghis ministers, "What's going on? Why hasn't Nila brought the money?"And then one minister said, "Well we have heard that this Nila is dailyputting on huge feasts for the Vaisnavas, and it's becoming quite anopulent affair. M aybe that's where the money's going." T he king wasflabbergasted. "What?" And he immediately called for hiscommander-in-chief (senapati) the great general of his army, and withsome soldiers, the commander-in-chief went to Nila's village toinvestigate and if necessary arrest Nila, and recover whatever tax moneyhad not yet been wasted. So the commander-in-chief came and challengedNila, announcing the purpose of his arrival. "I have come toinvestigate your doings," and he started to become very official withhim. So one thing led to anot her, and there was a big fight, in whichNila soundly trounced the commander-in-chief and his soldiers. Becausehe was now, so to speak, a saintly person, he did not kill them but hegave them a severe beating. And he told the commander-in-chief as hewas running off, "You can tell your king to come here personally if helikes, and I'll pay him the same tax as I paid you.!" So thecommander-in-chief reported this to the king, and the king very angrilyamassed his whole army and marched on that village. Nila met them inbattle, and defeated the whole army. At the end of the battle Nila wasstanding on the king's chest, and the king was laying out on thebattlefield. Nila was on his chest looking down at him saying, "Thattax money I took, that was a loan, right?" And the king said, "Right!"But the king's ministers were there, his Brahmins, and they began toaddress Nila. "Certainly you are very powerful. you can defeat theking and his whole army. But that doesn't make what you are doing right.Yo u have taken funds that were meant for the king's use, and the king'sproperty is sacred. It is not to be violated by anyone for any purpose.So because you have done this you have broken the law and you must bepunished." So when the Brahmins were speaking to him in that way,because he had become purified he surrendered to them. "OK, if I havedone wrong then I must be punished. What sort of punishment should Ireceive?" The Brahmins said, "You should go in the jail." Nilasubmitted. Although b y f orce of arms he could not be captured, simplyby logical argument and sastric evidence he surrendered. So he enteredthe prison of the king, but there of course he could no longer performhis service, so he became very, very unhappy and he prayed to LordVisnu, "I just want to serve you. I don't see how I can do it here injail." So Visnu appeared to him and told him, "You meet with the kingand get him to transport you to Kancipuram, and at the direction ofVaradaraja you will find treasure, and this tr easure will be so much

that you will be able to pay the king what you owe him, and use the restfor your service." So then Nila spoke to the king, he got the king'saudience and explained the situation. The king sent him under guard toKancipuram, and somehow the deity guided him to a particular spot andwhen he dug he found a great mass of treasure. So he brought that backto the king and offered to give what he owed him, but the king was soamazed that Lor d Visnu Himself had shown Nila where the treasu re was,that he said, "Who am I to stand in your way? If Lord Visnu is talkingto you directly, then you must be a great soul." And then he let himgo. So then Nila embarked on a new scheme. "There are so many richvaisyas," he was saying to his mates, "They've got so much money. I seethem transporting their goods here and there in caravans. And actuallyit's their duty to give donations to the service of the Vaisnavas, butthey are not doing this. And here we are, we're having to worry abouthow to fund our project of serving the devotees, and these vaisyas arejust going here and there, using their wealth as the they like, so letus get it fro m th em. We will stop these caravans on lonely stretchesof highway in the forest. We'll be nice, we'll ask them first of all ifthey would like to give a donation, but if they don't then we'll simplytake everything." So they began this new scheme, and of course attachedvaisyas never give donations willingly, so they always ended up havingto tie them up and plunder the caravan, strip everything, and that theywere utilizing as their wealth for serving the vaisnavas. So one nightthey we re going to plunder , and down the road came a very big caravanf 30 bullock carts, and at the head of the caravan was a very wonderfullooking young merchant, and also his wife who was very beautiful, andthey were dressed in all kinds of opulent finery, jewellery and crowns.The bullock carts were also being driven by servants who were equallyopulent and wonderful in their appearance. So Nila stepped out on theroad and stopped the whole procession, and he saw the opulence fo themerchant and h is wife and their caravan, a nd he remarked, "Well mydear sir, you look to be very very wealthy." And the merchant smiledand said, "Yes, actually all wealth is mine." So Nila kind of laughedand turned to his mates, "Ha ha ha. We've really got a live tonight.!Well if all wealth is yours then you won't mind parting with some ofit." And the merchant smiled and said, "Yes, but my wealth is onlyengaged in Vaisnava-seva." So then they said, "Well that's very nicebecause I am a vaisnav a. So I'm sure you'll be happy to give me y ourwealth." The merchant smiled again and said` "Well, I won't give you.""So you want to fight?" Nila asked. "No, you just take, said themerchant. "You are free to take, but I am not going to give." "Allright," said Nila, "Let's go." So they tied them all up, as theynormally did, and they stripped the bullock carts, and not only that butthey also took all the finery from the merchant and his wife and theirservants, all the jewe ls, everything. And the wife's foot, on her toe,there was on ring with a valuable gem in it. So Nila was trying topersonally pull this ring off her toe, but it wouldn't come off.Finally he had to kneel down and bite the ring, to change it's shape alittle bit so it would slip off. And while he was doing that, hisconsciousness was flooding with all sorts of wonderful ecstatic

realizations. But he was so much absorbed and determined to get thisring off that he really didn't take much note of it. And then hefinally pulled the ring off, and all the wealth was piled together, andhe and his men were going to carry it off, but they couldn't lift it.It was so heavy. So then he turned to the merchant and said, "I thinkyou must have some mantra by which you move your wealth about, becauseobviously it is somehow charmed that it cannot be moved." And then themerchant said, "Yes, there is a secret mantra." ""You'd better tellme," Nila demanded. "All right, just come close," the merchant said.So then he whis pered in Nila's ear, "Om namo narayanayah." And whenNila heard this mantra he realized that this merchant and His wife werenone other that Laksmi and Narayana, and he saw them in their originalforms. So then he fell down at Their lotus feet, but because he was sofuriously engaged in his devotional service, Nila quickly sprang up andsaid, "All right, look, we've gotta go. We'll see you tomorrow, OK"And then They said, "All right, you come here tomorrow. We can talkfurther." So then Nila ran off with the wealth, and continued with hisservice. Th e nex t day he came back to that place in the forest, andLaksmi and Narayana were there, and he worshipped Them. They were verypleased with him for his service to the Vaisnavas, but he declared toThem, "I'm always having trouble getting money to do this service,therefore I'm always having to plunder merchants, and I don't know whereall this is going to lead. So do you have any suggestion where I canget wealth from?" And Lord Narayana said, "Well actually, there are somany Buddha templ es around, and Budd ha is My avatar, but He only cameto preach to the atheists. However, these Buddha temples have becomequite opulent. So I don't mind if you plunder these Buddhist temples."Nila was very happy. "Well actually I was thinking the same thingmyself. But if I get Your permission, then that's wonderful." "Yes,you have my permission," the Lord said. So then, when his wealth againran out, then Nila and his monks went one night to a huge Buddhistmonastery where 10,00 monks were living. And in that templ e there wasa huge reclining Buddha made out of solid gold. His men were usingtheir various mystic powers to get them into the temple. Nila wasstanding guard just outside the temple door, and his men were in thereat work, trying to dislodge the deity and bring it out. So, whiledoing this they set off an alarm, and then the Buddhists came tumblingout of their beds and rushing into the temple courtyard. They were allarmed, and all very exp ert at martial arts. So what ensued next waslike something from a kung-fu movie. All these Buddhist monks werejumping at Nila, and he was kicking them back and fighting them off.And he was calling into the temple, "Hey hurry up! Are you done inthere?" But meanwhile his men were having difficulty, because theyfound that the murti was charmed, so as soon as they touched it toremove it, it started to spin, faster and faster like a helicopterpropeller, from the middle point, and a huge heavy golden idol spinninglike that, they couldn't get cl ose to it. So then they were callingout to Nila, "We can't take this because it's spinning. It's charmed."So then Nila, while he was fighting off these men, he called out, "Well,just pass urine!" So they passed urine in there, and this broke the

spell. The murti stopped, and they could shoulder it. They wereobviously very strong persons, and they ran out with it. Nila wasfighting with the Buddhists, and then they went running through thenight with the Buddhists pursuing them. Nila and his men went to Sri Rangam, a great Visnu temple. There is a great wall around it like afortress, and they closed the door so the Buddhists couldn't enter. TheBuddhists then went to the king and complained. The king was again in adifficult situation having to deal with Nila, so he called Nila in andsaid, "Nila, we have a little problem here. These Buddhists haveaccused you of stealing their murti. I'm the king here, I have to keepeveryone happy. So I'd really appreciate it if you could return thismurti." Some of t he Buddhist leaders were also standing there, lookingat Nila rather intensely. So Nila said, "Don't worry, don't worry. Intwo weeks I'll return this murti to you, not less than a finger."Everyone was happy. "All right, we can wait two weeks." So then twoweeks came, and the Buddhists gathered at the meeting place where Nilawas to return the murti, but when they arrived they saw only Nila andhis men there, and no murti. They became a little nervous. "Well,where's our Buddha?" Nila reached into his pocket and pulled out afinger, a golden finger. "Here it is," he said, "not less than afinger." The Buddhists became very angry, and there was a big fight.Nila defeated them and forced them to become Vaisnavas, forciblyconverted them. And what he had done with that golden murti is that hehad melted it down and used it t o cover the dome above Lord Ranganatha.Nowadays you can go to Sri Rangaksetra, and if you talk to the rightpeople you can go up to a look-out place on top of the temple and seethis very ornate solid gold dome, very huge. This was melted down fromthe Buddha murti by Nila. In this way Nila became a very prominentVaisnava of his time, and by force of arms if necessary he drove out theinfluence of Kali-yuga in his area. Everyone had to become a Vaisnava,he converted everyone. As he used to collect taxes, so wherever hewould go everyone wo uld become a Vaisnav a immediately. And when therewas a festival at Sri Rangaksetra, they would take the deity inprocession, and Nila would march in front of the deity with his swordout, he would be looking from left to right at everyone. And when hewas asked, "What are you doing? You look so fearsome with your swordout, looking so scrutinizingly at everyone's face," and his answer wouldbe, "Yes. Any offender I see will be chopped." So it was a ratherintense mood in those fe stivals. He was the enforcer of Vaisnava-dharma. In spite of the influence of Kali-yuga which is so powerful tosweep away all proper religious principles, this devotee Nila, in SouthIndia, by the force of his devotion as well as the force of his strongarms and use of weapons, he instituted Vaisnavism. By pleasing theVaisnavas, he got the darsana of Laksmi-Narayana. Actually this pastimewhen he was plundering their caravan, and in particular taking the ringfrom the lotus t oe of Laksmi, this is actually where the Laksmisampradaya started. Ramanuja later established the Laksmi sampradayawith siddhanta, Vedantic conclusions, but the devotional line actuallystarts here with Nila taking the ring from Laksmi's toe.

There is one incident which happened in Benares about 300 years ago.There was one Brahmin who used to go take bath in Manikarnika-ghat, avery nice bathing place. So one day when he was taking bath he saw ayoung boy sitting on the steps crying. He felt very compassionate andhe went and took the young boy on his lap and asked, "You look sobeautiful, a nice attractive young boy. Why are you crying like this?""You look at my back," the boy replied. So when the Brahmin lifted upthe young boy's shirt and looked at his back, he saw so many cuts andblood was running. The man was very angry, and he asked, "Who did thisto you?" The boy said, "I will show you. Come with me." The man wasall wet, he was halfway through taking bath, but he caught hold of theboy's hand, and the boy was pulling him. They went through the streetsand into the village of Benares, through small alleys and lanes, andthey came in front of one small house. The boy said, "The man wholives in here, he' s the one who did it to me." And as the man looked,he realized that it was his own house. When he looked back, the boyhad gone. So the Brahmin went inside his house, sat down and began tocry. So his wife came and asked him, "What happened to you? Why areyou crying? You are all wet." And he said, "I saw this beautiful boy,he was so attractive, but he had cuts all over his back. And he saidthat someone from this house did it to him. I don't know who did this.Why did he sa y it was someone from this house?" His wife said,"Tomorrow you go to the same place and maybe he will come again. Thiscould be some god, some Devata." So the next day he went, and he sawthat the same boy was there, and he was still crying. He went to himand said, "My dear child, you said that the person who did this camefrom my house? What did you mean?" The boy replied, "You look in yourBhagavad-gita and you will find out." And while saying that hedisappeared. So the man retu rned to his house, took out hisBhagavad-gita and began to s tudy it. He had been learningBhagavad-gita a few months before, and he had thought some verses wereimportant, and he was thinking that this place was connected withanother place, so he was making markings on the Bhagavad-gita. Andwhile making the markings sometimes he would underline something. Sothen he went to his guru. He told the whole story, and then asked histeacher to explain what was happening. His guru told him, "My dearstudent, how many times have I told y ou that this Bhagavad-gita isKrsna Himself. It is His own energy. So why are you cutting anddrawing and doing all this on the Bhagavad-gita verses? In this wayyou have offended the Lord, and that is why He is teaching you thislesson." The Brahmin said, "Oh, I am feeling very bad. I will neverdo this again." and he begged for forgiveness. The next day when hecame to take bath he saw that the boy was again sitting there, but hewas smiling. He came to the bo y and fell at His feet, saying, "Oh, Iam very sorry I have done this . Although You are a small boy, youhave taught me a great lesson." So then the boy got up and said, "Yes,I am a very small boy, but you must know that I spoke Bhagavad-gita,and that Gita is mine." And then the boy disappeared. Soon the manleft his study and everything, and according to the people's conception

he became a madman. He was always calling, "Krsna!" and running hereand there, and in this way he ended his life. Nobody knew whathappened to him. The house is still there. You can still see thathouse, and the book is still there, and you can see the markings too.

In South-west India in the state known as Kerala, there is a famousVaisnava temple situated near the sea-coast. This Guru-vayur temple isvery ancient. It was founded by Lord Parasurama. There was one Brahminliving there, but he was not a Vaisnava. He was tantric, he had mysticpowers. But he was a good man, he used those powers for helping others.He was also known as a great poet. So one day a relative came to himwith a very terrible disease, and although he had been practicallyeverywhere, no-o ne could give him help to cure this disease. TheBhattahari tried to treat the disease in every way he knew, but nothingworked. So finally out of compassion, because he was a good man, hetook the disease upon himself, he transferred it. This much he coulddo. So in this way the relative was cured, but now he had the problem.And he was thinking, "By having this disease in myself I'll definitelybe forced to deal with it and I'll arrive at some kind of cure." Butwhatever he tried wo uld not work, so he was getting himself intoserious difficulty. He then went to one wise man, a great sage, andimplored him, "I have this disease. I have exhausted all meansavailable to my knowledge how to cure it. So what can I do?" This wiseman replied with a mysterious answer, which the Bhattahari did notunderstand. He said, "Start to enjoy from fish." The Bhattahari wentaway perplexed, and he was sitting at home thinking, "What does thismean, start to enjoy from fish?" So one of his friends came to visit."Have you been to see this wise man?" He asked. "Yes, have seen him,"the Bhattahari replied. "Well, what did he say?" "He said, 'start toenjoy from fish.' I don't know what this means. If this means that Ishould eat fish, that I will not do, because I am a Brahmin." Hisfriend thought about it and said, "No, I don't think he means that. Ithink he means that you should start to enjoy Krsna's pastimes, startingwith Matsya, th e fish incarnation." So the Bhattahari was thinking,"Yes, this must be the meaning, but I am not a Vaisnava. I have notaste for this. How will I do this?" In that state of mind he tookrest, and the Lord of Guru-vayur, the deity who is four-handed, appearedto him in a dream and told him, "I want you to write a nice poeticcomposition of 100 verse, and in these 100 verses you describe andglorify these 10 avatars." So he awoke from that dream feeling veryhappy and ecstatic. The Lord was personally giving him direction on howto 'start to enjoy from fi sh,' and his dou bts were cleared away. Sothen he began his composition, but because he did not have training as adevotee, he was still perplexed. He was referring to Srimad-Bhagavatam,but still perplexity would sometimes arise in his mind. So he would gobefore the deity in the temple and pray, "My dear Lord, I want to put inmy poem exactly how You were moving when You were fighting with thedemon Hiranyakasipu in Your Nrsimha form, and I cannot pick this up fromreading S rimad-Bhagavatam, so how can I describe this ?" The deitythen revealed that form to his eyes only, and the Lord was moving in

such a way. The Brahmin was describing as he was seeing. He alsowanted to know about Krsna's breaking the pot and stealing the butterand yoghurt of the older gopis. "With what were You breaking the pots?"the Bhattahari inquired. "Was it Your flute, or something else?" Sothen the Lord showed Himself as Krsna holding a butter-churning rod."With this I was breakin g the pot." So he put that all in his poem,all these specialized details. So the poem, which was called"Narayaniyam", was very beautiful, and he recited this poem after hefinished it before the deity in the temple. The result of thisrecitation was that his disease immediately disappeared. And not onlythat, but the poem was so pleasing that the temple Brahmins immediatelyrequested, "You please recite this poem daily, at the first darsana."So they gave him a place to sit, a special asana, and he would recitethere every morning. As a matter of fact, the poem was so muchappreciated that every morning before going to see the deity, the peoplewould gather in that place before his asana and listen to therecitation. It became the custom that you could not go to see the deityunless you heard this poem glorifying the pastimes of the Lord. Thenonly could one appreciate seeing the form of the Lord. This was theidea. And at that time in the area of Kerala, there were three kings.Kerala was divided into three kingdoms, and the Guru-vayur Mandir was the beloved Mandir of all three kings. So they would come together tohave darsana in the morning and they would also be there to hear theNarayaniyam from the Bhattahari. In this way he became very important,very much respected as a Vaisnava, and an authority on Krsna-lila.Unfortunately he also became a little bit proud by this attention thateveryone was paying. There was one farmer named Pundaram, a simplefarmer, but he was also a great devotee of the Lord. So he wrote onebook in glorification of the deity of the Guru-vayur Mandir, and thisbook was called, in the Malayan language, "A Pot of Knowledge." He wasthinking after he wrote that book, "Let this glorification of the Lordof Guru-vayur also become well-known. But since I am a simple farmer,not recognized by anyone as a great scholar, if the Bhattahari himselfwould write an int roduction to my book then it would be accepted." Sothinking like that, Pundaram came to the Bhattahari, and very humbly herespectfully approached the Bhattahari. "I very much appreciate yourNarayaniyam, you have very rightly become respected by everyone for youglorification of the Lord. Now I have also written one book, so willyou please read it? And could you please just write some smallintroduction?" So the Bhattahari, thinking himself most important,said, "What language hav e you written this book in?" because he noticedthat Pundaram was addressing him in Malayan, which is simply the localdialect of Kerala. But in those days, any kind of learned, literarywork would only be written in Sanskrit. All over India that was thestandard. Sanskrit was the language of literature, and educated personswould speak in Sanskrit, whereas farmers and simple people would speakin local dialects. This farmer Pundaram was speaking to Bhattahari inMalayan, so he wanted to know, "What language have you written this bookin?" A nd the farmer replied, "In Malayan." "I won't read any bookwritten in this language. You write it in Sanskrit if you want me to

read it. What are you asking?" Pundaram was crushed. He was thinking,"I am lucky to know Malayan, let alone Sanskrit. This much I canwrite," and he went away feeling very disheartened. "How will I everget this book rendered into Sanskrit? It won't be possible. No-onewill know it." So the next morning the Bhattahari was seated on hisasana, and the crowd was there, the kings were there. He was just readyto let fly with his Narayaniyam, when one young brahmacari came inthrough the entrance of the temple. The brahmacari just walked aroundthe crowd of exalted personalities, without even looking at theBhattahari. He walked right up to the deity at the front of the temple,paid his obeisances and then stood there and took darsana. He thenturned around and again wa lked past the c rowd towards the entrance tomake his way out. The Bhattahari was watching the whole thing, and thenas he saw that the brahmacari was just going to walk right out, he said,"Come here young man!" The people all insisted that the young man come,so he came and stood before the Bhattahari. The Bhattahari was givinghim advice. "My dear young man," he said. "You are simply a youngbrahmacari student. You should show respect for your elders, especiallythose who have knowledge to give, and yet I see that you are just comingin this temple, you are walking around such exalted personalities aseven the three Kerala kings, and you're going straight up to takedarsana of the deity, which none of these personalities will do withouthearing me recite my poem. So what kind of behaviour is this?" Thebrahmacari then said, "If I want to know about the pastimes of the Lord,I just go see Him, because He is displaying them eternally. Why shouldI hear your mista ke-ridden poetry?" The Bhattahari was shocked! "Howcan you say my poetry is mistake-ridden? Everyone here, there areexalted Brahmins, there are learned court panditas, there are the kingsthemselves here, and they're all praising my poetry as being the verycream of all poems. And you're saying it's filled with mistakes! You,little fellow? Not even come out of the Gurukula yet! So I imagine youare also competent to correct these mistakes, isn't it?" And thebrahmacari said, "Y es." "At least in this way, you will give my poetrya hearing. So I wi ll recite now. You listen, and if you find somemistake, you can say. Hm!" So the brahmacari said, "Yes, all right."The Bhattahari began. He recited the first verse, and everyone wascompletely silent. He was just ready to go on to the second verse whenthe brahmacari spoke up. He pointed out five faults in the first verse,and actually they were valid criticisms. Somehow or other no-one hadnoticed these five faults in the first verse, but he pointed them outwith such profound conclusive grammati cal analysis that no-one couldargue. "Well yes, actually he's right. Why didn't we see that?" Sothe Bhattahari cleared his throat and then he began to recite the secondverse. He was just about to go on to the third, but the brahmacaripointed out ten faults in the second verse. Everyone was starting tolook at each other doubtfully. The Bhattahari was becoming nervous,but he gritted his teeth and recited the third verse in which the boypointed out fifteen f aults. The fourth verse he pointed out twenty,the fifth verse twenty-five, and the Bhattahari did not try to recitethe sixth verse. He stopped there. The crowd was milling around and

talking to each other. "What is this? Every morning we're listening tothis poem, but it's so filled with mistakes. How can we be so foolish?"Then they just went to see the deity, and the Bhattahari was just leftthere. The brahmacari just walked off. As the Bhattahari was sittingthere, he wa s stunned. "What has happened?" And then he felt thedisease coming back. Then he was really disturbed. "What is happeningnow?" And then he went before the deity, and he was praying veryearnestly, "My dear Lord, how is this possible? My poem was praised byeveryone, and now one young boy has found faults. And this disease hascome back. What does all this mean?" So then the deity spoke to him."Whose poem did you say that was?" The Bhattahari answered, "I guess Isaid it was my poem." "This is your problem," said the Lord. "First ofall, I told you to w rite that poem, and secondly even when you couldnot do that, I had to show you Myself what to put in that poem. So if Ialso come personally in the form of a young brahmacari and criticize Myown poem, is there any harm in that?" The Bhattahari then realized whothe brahmacari was, and he felt very ashamed. "Yes, my Lord. If Youwant to criticize Your own poem, Your own poem, You can do that. It's afact." "Only I can criticize My own composition," the Lord said."No-one else can do that." But the Bhattahari was still confused. "Butnow this disease has come back. What is the cause of this?" The deityreplied, "Because you are an offender against Vaisnavas, My servants.""Who is that?" the Bhattahari asked. "The farmer Pundaram. You havedealt with him most arrogantly." The Bhattahari immediately felt verysorry, and the deity told him, "You go, and bring him to the temple andhave him read h is composition before Me. Just as you are doing everymorning, you have him do this. You arrange this." So the Bhattahariran like a flash, found Pundaram and fell at his feet. Pundaram wasvery surprised. "The Bhattahari is falling at my feet? What is this?""Please you come," said the Bhattahari. "Bring your book, and recite itfor the deity." So Pundaram was very happy. They came to the temple,and Pundaram was going to recite when the other Brahmins, who were alsoarrogant, th e pujaris who take care of the deity, they interfered."Wait a minute, wait a minute. We can't have some farmer coming in hereand just spouting something off in the presence if the deity." TheBhattahari said, "But the Lord Himself has told me that this must be.""Well," said the Brahmins, "we won't argue with that, we know you. Butthis person, what is his qualification? He must be trained. He cannotjust start spewing forth something. We must see that he is capable ofreciting nicely ." So then they decided to teach him the re citation ofVisnu-sahasra-nama. This they were reciting daily for the deity, thiswas the standard glorification for the deity in that temple. So theysay him down and began the recitation, and they were having him recitealong. They reached the word "Padmanabhamaram". Padmanabha means"lotus navel." And amaram means "deathless". So in other words theeternal form of the Lord who has a lotus-like navel is being praised bythis particular nam e. But when Pundaram pronounced that name, hemuddled it tog ether. "Padmanamomaram." So by pronouncing it likethat, other meanings come out, but not the ones that are traditionallyaccepted. The Brahmins immediately stopped the whole thing. "What are

you saying? Padmanamomaram! This is improper pronunciation. Do youknow what this means? You are saying that the Lord is the Lord of thedead, that He's the Lord of the trees or of the mortal human beings.This is offensive! He is the Lord of Vaikuntha, He has nothing to dowith the ignorant be ings of this wo rld. This is very degrading todescribe Krsna like this." In this way they were chastising him.Suddenly the deity spoke aloud, and everyone stopped. "If I am not theLord of the dead, If I am not the Lord of the trees, If I am not theLord of the mortal human beings, then who is?" The Brahmins had nothingto say. So to this day, when you visit the Guru-vayur Mandir, theBrahmins are still reciting Visnu-sahasra-nama. But when they come tothat name, they pronounce it as Pundaram pronounced it, because thatpleased the deity. This is an irregular pronunciation, but they alsosay "Padmanamomaram", and they all look at the deity just to see that Heis satisfied before they go on. So this Guru-vayur murti, and also SriRangam, they came later on to those places, although they wereworshipped from the beginning of creation by Lord Brahma. Lord Ramagave Bibishana the deity of Lord Ranganath, and he was taking it to SriLanka to install it there. This was after Ravana had been killed. Butthe deity, when it reached that place now known as Trishi where SriRangam temple now is, it wouldn't go any further. They had to set thedeity down and they coul dn't lift Him, so they had to bu ild a templeright there. And similarly, this land known as Kerala, the sea coastland where Guru-vayur Mandir is situated was all land that was recoveredfrom the ocean by Parasurama, after He killed all the ksatriyas. Hewanted to go to a peaceful place, and He wanted to give some land wherethe Brahmins could live and settle nicely without disturbance. So Hestood at the edge of the land, and He threw His axe Parasu across theocean, and as far as the axe went before it dropped into the ocean, thiswh ole region known as Kerala rose up. He established this deity, andHe brought Brahmins from other regions. Actually it is said that Hebrought the Brahmins from Bengal. Kerala is also a very great Vaisnavaplace. Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited these Visnu temples.

Once there was a devotee called Vipra Narayana. This incident happened190 years after the beginning of Kali-yuga. He was a gardener at SriRangam, and he was totally absorbed in gathering flowers and tulasi,making garlands for the deity. He was so absorbed that his mind wasfixed on seeing flowers and tulasi plants; he wouldn't see anythingelse. Scientists say there are some living entities who, while lookingfor food, tune out everything else apart from the particular thing thatthey feed. Similarl y Vipra Narayana had this quality. When he was outin the garden looking for tulasi manjaris or flowers, that was all hecould see. If there was a snake between one flower bush and anotherflower bush, he would simply go from one bush to the next, look at thesnake and say, "No flowers." He was only interested in flowers. He wasflowerive, not fruitive. In that garden one day, there came a verybeautiful prostitute named Devadevi, and her older sister. ThisDevadevi was so expert in displaying feminine charms that even kingswere waiting in line to see her with their crowns in their hands. That

was the rule she made, that when kings came they should have no crownson their head. She was so much in demand, and of course she was veryproud of her beauty and feminine qualities. She was very expert in allthe arts of singing and dancing and entertaining men. She was mosthighly developed in all these things. And of course, she was confidentthat she was the most beautiful woman in creation, and very proud of herability to charm men. Devadevi and her older sister were coming to meetthe king. And on the way they came through this Sri Rangam island, andthey saw this beautiful island which was made by Vipra Narayana. Theywanted to take some rest in there. Vipra Narayana came by, pickingflowers and tulasi as usual. He was looking through the bushesselecting, and as he was going through the bushes he came right up toDevadevi. He looked at her for an instant, but it didn't register inhis consciousness. The y were standing there with full ornaments andeverything on, and when Vipra Narayana saw them he simply said, "Noflowers." And then he just walked one and began to pick flowers fromanother bush. Devadevi was somewhat offended by this. "Who is thisman? What does he mean by saying 'no flowers?' He is blind. He has noconsciousness." Her sister, who was a little bit older and wiser, said,"No no, he is Krsna Conscious. That is why he doesn't look at you.This is Vipra Naraya na. He is a great devotee, and we have no business with him. Don't get involved with him." But Devadevi said, "No,no. I don't care. He may be devotee, he may be whatever, but I tellyou I will make him my slave in nine days." Her sister was shocked thatDevadevi would even think of pursuing such a saintly person, and shesaid, "Well, if you want to finish your existence, then you can do it.But it will be a great offence." Devadevi said, "You wait and see. Onthe ninth day fr om now, he will be at my feet. Instead of chanting thename of Rang anath, he will chant my name. And instead of crying forRanganath, he will cry for me. And instead of plucking flowers he willbe plucking his sikha." The other girl left the place, not wanting tohear these atrocities. So then Devadevi went up to Vipra Narayana, andshe began to manifest all different symptoms and postures of feminineattraction. But this had no effect on Vipra Narayana at all. Again, itwas like he just didn't see her or perceive her. She was tryingeverything in the b ook, all the glances, all the different smiles andposes, but it just didn't register in his consciousness.. "This is areal challenge," she thought, and just became more enthusiastic. So shewent away and dressed herself to look like a vairagini, a woman who hasrenounced the world for spiritual life. She tied her hair, and put onvery simple cloth, kanthimala, tilaka and all the symptoms of avaisnava. And then she came back to the garden with a vina. She alsolearned that Vipra N arayana had written some songs in praise of LordRanganath, so she learned these songs as she was very expert in singing.So she sat in the garden playing the vina, and she was singing VipraNarayana's songs to Lord Ranganath. And also because of being veryexpert in all the feminine arts she was also crying. She could makeherself cry and her voice was quivering in emotion. It was a veryattractive presentation. So this Vipra Narayana couldn't help noticing,because he was a dev otee. When he heard her singing his songs and when

he looked and saw her displaying symptoms of intense ecstasy anddevotion to the Lord, he became inclined to speak with her. He wentover and said, "You are obviously a very nice devotee of the Lord. Whatare you doing here?" And she said, "Oh, my position is veryunfortunate. You see, I am born in a family of prostitutes." In thosedays even the prostitution was a family business, just like everythingelse in varnasrama, handed down in the family. "I am born in a familyof prostitutes, and in nine da ys I will have reached the age where mymother will engage me in prostitution. But I have no interest in this.I want to become Lord Ranganatha's devotee. So I am heartbroken that innine days my mother is going to come and make me into a prostitute.This is such a horrible fate. I have come here just to take shelter ofthe devotees, maybe I will get the Lord's mercy somehow or other." SoVipra Narayana said, "Yes, all right. I don't see that there's anyproblem, you ca n stay here. You are a very nice singer, so go onsinging these songs in praise of Lord Ranganatha. When you're notsinging you can make some garlands. You can stay here as long as youlike." She was very happy, and in this way they were associating. Thenone day, by the arrangement of the Lord, there was an intense downpour,and she was just sitting in the garden singing. She used to just singall day. This was her service, and once in a while she used to makegarlands. When it star ted to rain, she just stayed in the garden andkep t singing. Vipra Narayana was sitting in his small kutir, out ofthe rain, but he began to feel guilty because there was this young girlsitting out in the rain still singing, and this moved his heart. "Sucha great devotee is she that even in the downpour she continues to sing.She is a woman, she is outside in the rain. What am I doing in myasrama?" So then, feeling guilty, he came out and invited her, "Youplease go into my little hut and I will remain outside." She wentinside the hut and ke pt s inging, and he was listening. And thensuddenly she stopped singing. Vipra Narayana was wondering, "What ishappening now?" And next moment she was crying. He thought, "Maybethere is a snake there! There may be some danger, so I will have togo." So he went in the little hut. He found her and she was crying,weeping, unhappy, putting on a good show. "What's wrong?" he asked."In just a couple of days," she said, "mother's going to come and takeme away. She's found out that I'm here. Oh, my lot is so unfortunate,I don't know what's going to happen." And then she began to cry again.This is the way a woman cracks a man's heart. Vipra Narayana wasfeeling very sorry for her, and then she was starting to shiver andsneeze to make out that she had caught a cold in the rain, and he wasfeeling even more sorry for her. So then he gave her a change ofclothing, she was wearing his own clothes. And then, after that, shestarted to turn it on. "Lo ok at our situation," she said. "Now we'retogether in your house, and I'm even wearing your clothes. We're soclose, we've become so intimate in our last few days together, that youmight as well take me as your wife. And if you do that, then my mothercan't take me away." Vipra Narayana thought a while, and then said,"Well, yes all right. As far as I'm concerned, you're a very nicedevotee and I like to be with you, and if this will stop you from crying

and feeling unhappy then we can get married." So then they got married,and then in those few days she just completely roped him down, took overhis heart with all of her charms, and then on the ninth day she left andreturned to her mother's place to continue on being a prostitute. WhenVipra Narayana found out that Devadevi had left, he went mad. He hadbecome her slave. He was beside himself with all kinds of grief, and hewas running around trying to find out where she lived, as he wanted tosee her. Now in the meantime, Lord Ranganatha seeing the condition ofhis devo tee and knowing that if Vip ra Narayana goes to Devadevi thatshe's simply going to reject him, and then who knows what will happen.There were five pots in front of Lord Ranganatha for the worship. Hetook one pot from the middle, a gold pot, and he took the form of aBrahmin and went t Devadevi's house. He said, "Vipra Narayana has sentme. My name is Sundaraja." Sundaraja means, "King of beauty." "Thisis his payment, so please accept him, and do him some service." So whenDevadevi's moth er saw this gold pot, her mouth opene d. And then sometime later Vipra Narayana arrived. "Is Devadevi here?" he asked. "Whoare you?" the mother asked. "She's my wife," Vipra Narayana said, andthen the mother invited him into the house. "Please come in and sitdown. Yes, we received your gold pot." Then she went to get Devadevi."There's a man, one of your customers here to see you, Vipra Narayana.""That guy?" said Devadevi. "He's just a sadhu. I only stayed with himto break h is renunciation, otherwise I have no interest in him." Themother got on her case. "What do you mean? He sent over this goldenpot. The guy's loaded! Get out there and take care of him." So shewent out, and just because her mother wanted her to, she was putting ona whole act. "Oh, you're here! Oh well I..." and he was happy. Now inthe meantime the priests found out that one of the pots was missing, anda big alarm was raised at Sri Rangam temple. The king was brought intothe myster y, and the king sent out his men, and just like nowadays whenthe police go out to investigate a crime, they always go to a certainsection of town where the criminal types dwell, and that's also theplace where the prostitutes are. They were doing a house to housesearch there, and when they came to Devadevi's house, they saw the pot."How did you get this pot?" And then Devadevi, because she just wantedto get rid of Vipra Narayana, said, "Oh, he stole it. This so-calledsadhu was enjoying with me, and to pay me off he stole this pot from thedeity and sent it o ver here. So you can see the character of this manwho you think is so saintly." So in this way she was really trying toget him in trouble, but Vipra Narayana was so respected that when theytook him to see the king, the king didn't believe it. Although theevidence was strong, they had found Vipra Narayana in the house (a veryembarrassing situation) and the pot of the deity was there, the kingdidn't believe that Vipra Narayana stole it. So the king went beforeLord Ranganatha and prayed. And Ranganath confirmed, "No, it wasn'tVipra Narayana. It was me. I sent the gold pot to the house of theprostitute, because my devotee was indebted to her, so I thought I'd payoff the debt and get him out of trouble. So if you want to punishsomeone, you punish me. But you can't punish me, because it is my pot."When all this was revealed to the king, he had a long talk with Vipra

Narayana and explained the real situation, what had been going on andwhat this woman had been doing to him. And then he banished th isprostitute Devadevi from his kingdom. However, somehow or other by thiswhole situation she had become reformed in her consciousness. As soonas the cat was out of the bag and everything was exposed, then shesuddenly had a complete change of heart. She thought, "Well if I'mgoing to be banished, then I might as well really take up the life of arenunciate devotee." So then she made her obeisances to Vipra Narayana,he gave her some inst ructions and then she went and never returned. Sothis is a sto ry that Srila Prabhupada mentions to illustrate that agreat devotee may have some accidental fall-down, but he should not becriticized, because as Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita that such a sadhuremains engaged in his devotional service, and he will very soon berectified. So we should know that things sometimes do happen, but notjump on it and wag out tongues, trying to create a big scandal, becausethat will be sadhu-ninda, and will be detrimental to our spiritual life.

There was one king who was so sinful that his body became black. Hedidn't know what to do. So he asked his pandita, "What should I do? Ihave become black. I don't llok good any more." "It is because you areso sinful," the pandita said. "You have committed so many sins." Theking said, "Yes, but there must be some puja or something that will makemy problem go." The pandita said, "You worship Krsna, depend upon Krsnaand pray to Him, and you will become all right." The king said, "That Iam doing , but could you do somthing else so that I can quickly get ridof this problem?" The pandita said, "Yes, we can do it no problem. Youmake a golden form of male and female, and I will do a yajna for 18days. And then I will transform the sinful reactions to those goldenforms. You should then invite a brahmana to take charity, and if youcna find a brahamana who will take the charity, then he will suffer fromthe sinful reactions and you will become pure. Because you are theadministrator of t he land, and you are ruler of the country, , so I cando this especially for you." The king said, "Yes yes, please do it."So they made these golden forms and yajna went on for 18 days. And whenhe was doing his purnahoti then he took a teaspoon and touched theking's body, and he touched the golden form with the teaspoon it becameblack. All the sinful reactions went in there. So then the king got upand said, "I will give half of my kingdom to any brahmana who willaccept the chari ty." And immediately all th e brahmanas got up andleft that place, because they saw in fromt of them that the gold hadbecome black, so who wants to take that? If golden colour becomes tarblack, then who will take that charity? This was not Kali-yuga so inthose days the brahmanas were still good. In Kali-yuga they will takeany charity. Then the king said, "Now what? The sinful reactions arein the golden forms but nobody will take it." The pandita said, "Wewill wait for one or t wo days. Somebody will take it." The news we ntaround the whole city. Then one brahmana came from another country."What will I do with your country? You are the king, and you aresupposed to protect your citizens. Because you are in a responsible

position, I will help you out and take it. I don't want anything fromyou." So theh he received the charity, and thet king poured water onhis hand and gave it to him. As soon as he touched those, two figurescame out of the golden forms, one male and one female, and they lookedso ugly. They had cu ts all over their bodies, and they looked likeghosts. Then they began to chase this brahmana. The brahmana wasrunning, and the king was following behind the whole scene on his horsejust to see what was happening. So as soon as the brahmana came to asmall lake, he just jumped in and stood waist-deep,. and he began tochant something. The king was watching, and he saw that from thesyllables that were pronounced in his mouth, four-handed Visnu murtiscame out. Not one or two, bu t they just kept comin g with conch, club,disc, and lotus and they filled up the whole area. They were guardingthe lake. And when the ghosts came, some of the Visnu-dutas looked atthem and they immediately got burnt. And then the Visnu-dutasdisappeared. So when the man came out, the king went and touched hisfeet. He said, "I won't tell anyone. You please give me this secretmantra that produces these four-handed forms." But the brahmana said,"I don't know what that mantra is." "You don't know?" the king said."No," replied the brahmana, "because when I went to the gurukula, I wasso stupid that my gurukula principal kicked me out. He said, 'You arenot fit to be in the gurukula.' I didn't know what to do at all, so inthis way I was just wandering and wandering. One day I came to a tree,and there was a scholar there. This scholar said, 'Why are you wastingyour life like this? Why don't you learn a verse?' So I said, 'I don'thave a brain. I have no masala, so how can I learn verses?' He said,'At leas t lear n half a verse.' But I said, 'I can't, Swamiji. I haveno intelligence.' 'Don't worry,' he said, "I will teach you half averse. I will see that a fool will learn a verse from me so myeducation is good. So you sit here and I will forcibly make you learnthis verse. Chant like this, like that, say like this..' He taught melike this, and I memorised half a verse. He then told me, 'You go onchanting this only. You don't need anything else.' So I kept onchanting, chanting, chanting . And one day w hile I was chanting, Ifound that there was a four-handed figure in front of me. I thought,'This is Bhagavan,' so I said, 'Oh Visnu, you have come so quickly.'And he said, 'Oh no, I am a Visnu-duta.' I asked him, 'Where did youcome from?' 'From the syllables of the verse you were chanting.' Isaid, 'You came from the syllables?' He said, 'Yes. If you look now,more are coming.' So I looked and I saw that these people are comingout, and I was so excit ed. So then I looked at them and asked, 'Whatshould I do? Now that I have this siddhi, what should I do?' Theyanswered, 'Use it for the welfare of people. Don't commercialize it.''Yes yes, I shall use it for the welfare of people. And I will go andteach everyone.' In this way I have been traveling around, and wheneverI saw anyone in difficulty I chanted this verse and then the Visnu-dutascame and solved all the problems." The king then asked, "What is thatverse? Can you please teach it to me?" The brahmana replied, "Yes, Ican teach you. Sit here, and exactly as I have learnt I will teach you.I was a fool and I learnt. You are intelligent, so why should there be

any difficulty for you to learn? So here is the verse: Man-mana bhavamad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru." "You don't know the whole verse?"the king asked. "No, that is the only part I know." So the king said,"If half a verse of Gita is so good that it c an remove all my sinfulreactions, what will happen if I learn the whole Bhagavad-gita?" So hecame back to his country, and when he got back he called his son andbrought him to the throne. "Now sit in this chair," he told his son.The boy sat on the throne, and the king took his crown and put it on theboy's head. "Bye bye," he said. "I'm going to learn Bhagavad-gita."So he went somewhere and found a Vaisnava and said, "Please teach meBhagavad-gita." "For what?" the guru asked. "Because half a v erse ofGita can produce Visnu-dutas and solve people's problems. If I know thewhole Bhagavad-gita, I want to know what would happen." So then theguru told him, "If you learn the whole Bhagavad-gita and it's purport,then there will be no problem at all. You will go to Vaikuntha. Youwill reach Krsna's place." So in this way the king learntBhagavad-gita. MORAL: These Bhagavad-gita verses are very powerful.If one knows the meaning, th at is more poweful. If one knows theconclusion, it is even mo re powerful. And if one knows the goal ofthat conclusion, which is devotional service, Bhakti, then how much morepowerful is that?

There is the history of a devotee, I think his name was Govinda dasa, adisciple of a great acarya who was living at Tirupati, Tirumala.Ramanujacarya went to see him and for one year he learbnt Ramayana froimthat acarya. One of his disciples was this very unusual disciple. Hewould always do things that all the other devotees would criticize.Whenever he made the bed of the guru, he would laydown on the bed first.In the shatsra it is said that one should never lie on the bed of theguru. So the oth ers would criticize him, "What kind of a disciple ishe, lying on his guru's bed?" Ramanuja heard about this and in ahuhmble way he went and asked, "Prabhu, people are saying you are lyingon the bed of the guru. I saw this myself. I just wondered. You knowthat it says in sastra you could go to hell fior ly9ing on the bed ofthe guru. Coul;d you explain to me why you are doig that?" And hesaid, "I want to give a nice soft bed to my guru. It should be ofproper firmness. How can I know it is prope r unless I try it out? IfI go to hell, and my guiru is comfortable, I do not miund going to hellbut let my guru be comfortable. That is my concern." Ramanuja wassurprised. "Oh! This is another level! He was not lying on the bedfor his own enjoyment, but he was thinking how the guru would becomfortable." Oncwe he found that the same devotee putting his fingerinto a snake's mouth. The snake was turning and making so manycontortions and seemed to be suffering. So Ramanuja wondered why he wastorturing the snake. Later he asked, "You were putting your finger inthe mouth of that cobra. Looked like you were causing suffering, whatwas the purpose?" He always asked as a questiuon. He did not chastise,he just asked. The devotee said, {"Oh, that poor snake swallowed somefruit, that stuck i n the throat. It was choking, so I put my finger in

to take out the fruit and clear the throat of the snake. I could notstand to see the poor animal's suffering." /Then Ramanuja said, "Whydid you risk yuou life? It could have bitten you!" He said, "I couldnot stand to see it suffering."

There was a disciple of Ramamnujacaray who was blinded by a Shaiviteking. The king wanted to kill Ramanujacarya, so he sent his soldiers tocapture Ramanuja, but this disciple came and warned him, "You take mygrhasta white clothes and I will take your clothes and will go torepresent you. If there is any harm, it will come to me, not you. Youare more important for preaching the movement of Vaishnavism." So theyexchanged clothes, and Ramanuja, dressed in white, was smuggled out ofthe country to the forest and mountains. Thje disciple was captured bythe king's men who thought that he was Ramanuja. They asked him topaccept that Siva was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate.But he said that Siva gets his powers from Visnu. They said, "For yourinxolence of not accepting that the supreme destroyer Lord Siva as thegreatest, we will blind you." So they blinded that devotee and laterthe king suffered from some disease and died. Within a short time,Ramanuija came bacj k and found that devotee iun the temple o f Visnukanchi (Varadaraja in Kancipuram). /He would regularly be chantingbefore Varadaraja Krsna deity. His bhajans were so sweet that the Deitywas pleased abnd asked himn, "Is there anything you want?" He said,"Myu Lord, please forgive all those people who have tortured me." Hekept doing his devotional service. Again the Deity asked him, "You canhave anything you want." He was such a great devotee that the Deitywould speak to him. Then he agfain asked for forgiveness for some otherdevotees w ho at one time had done somthing against him. Then he wentto see Ramanujacarya. Of course the word got around that the Deity keptoffering him to have whatever he wanted, but he always kept askingthings for other devotees, and he never wanted anything for himself.Then Ramanuja said, "It is very nice you are begging for everyopne'sforgiveness, but ytou have already given your body to the guiru in hisservice. Now your body is not complete, so it is not able to do themaximum service it cou ld., So if the Lord ever offers to give youanything you want again, you must say that some property that you havegiven to your guru is not able to do all it's services to the gurubecause it is incomplete. Therefore it could be completed again so thatit could do proper service. It will be useful in the service of theguru." Like this Rmamnuja gave some instructions. After that, thedevotee sang his bhajan and the Deity again asked, "You can haveanything you like." Then he s tood up and offered his prayers and said,"I have given some property to my guru. That propert is not complete.That is, my body which I have given to my guru has lost it's eyesightt.My guru's property may be restored to its full capability of doingservice for him.": After getting the advice from RAmanuja, he asked inthat mood. Otherwise he would never ask anything for himself. But nowhe understood, "Okay, my body is alsoa my guru's property." MORAL: Thisconscious ness is called nirmama, or "nothing is mine." (SeeBhagavad-gita 3 .30 purport mayi sarvani karmani)