(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 April 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Evening program lecture)
Jagadananda was a great devotee and he had a very strong individualistic mind. He also had a temper and he had his own ideas of what service he wanted to render. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in this world, the Supreme Lord was playing the part of a devotee, now in the dress of a sannyasi, but he was the Supreme Lord without a doubt.
Jagadananda was not going to be bothered with this temporary external feature. He was more interested in the eternal, true nature of the Lord and not what he showed to people here on earth, who are all entangled in their own network of karmic activities.
Although externally Lord Caitanya was acting as a sannyasi, Jagadananda understood the real truth. Therefore he did not follow the principles of sannyasa but offered the Lord a big clay jar with scented oil. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu refused to accept it. He said, “You give this oil to the deities, not to me. What will I do with it?”
Jagadananda became so angry that he took the oil, went to the courtyard of the house and smashed the jar with great force on the ground. It made a loud crash and everyone exclaimed, “What happened? What happened?”
Even Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to see what happened. Jagadananda said, “Nothing happened! Nothing!” and then he went home and started fasting.
He refused to eat, so after some days Caitanya Mahaprabhu sent his servant to Jagadananda and asked him to come and cook. That he did. He cooked and Caitanya Mahaprabhu took some of it and asked Jagadananda to take the remnants. That he did.
So in this way, the devotees of Caitanya Mahaprabhu had transcendental vision. They could see his transcendental nature. It is always like that – that there is a minority that can see. A few can recognize the Supreme Lord. Others do not.
2 Comments
The message in this article promotes “serving according to ones own ideas” whereas in spiritual life, we are taught to serve in order to please the object of our service! Kadamba Kanana Swami himself has said many times that our ideas should be secondary to the higher purpose.
Thank you for your comment, mataji, And yes, I can see how one might get this message. The reason I chose to post this was that I liked the theme which is that the Lord is captured by the love of the devotee who can really see Him, and who is not limited to an ‘awe and reverence’ relationship with Him. Although we are not such transcendental personalities, this gives me hope that someday we also will have transcendental vision and ‘capture’ the Lord.