(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 23 March 2016, New Jagannath Puri, Durban, South Africa, Gaura Purnima Evening Lecture)
Devotees are looking for mercy. There are devotees who are quite amazing. I remember in Vrndavana, Bhurijana Prabhu who was always eager for mercy. Somehow, he heard devotees talking that in one temple of the Gaudiya Math there was a harinama chaddar which had been used by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura personally. So when Bhurijana heard that, he thought, “I must have that chaddar.” So he made a connection with that temple and he cultivated them over a period of time and gave them different gifts. Then one day when the relationship was really warm, then he said, “You know, I have one desire. I have this desire to have this harinama chaddar.” And he got it.
So he had this harinama chaddar that was originally worn by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and then you know what he did? You will not believe this. What he did is he cut it into many pieces. Just started cutting it! “Oh my God! You get the original harinama chaddar of Bhaktisiddhanta and you cut it in many pieces! Aaaaah!” No, he cut it in many pieces and then with each piece, he made a nice little frame. Then he had like hundreds of these pieces and then he very humbly went to all kinds of senior vaisnavas and he each gave them a piece. He said, “Here is a piece from the original chaddar of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta.” And his mercy just multiplied so many times! He got that chaddar and he got that mercy undoubtedly. But then as he very carefully and very thoughtfully cut up that chaddar into so many pieces and went everywhere, the mercy increased many times because he got not only the mercy now of Mahaprabhu and Bhaktisiddhanta but he got the mercy of all those vaisnavas who he pleased, who were very pleased, “Oh, such a gift. You’re giving me? Wow. Really. That is amazing.” I used to have a piece also, he gave it to me. I gave it away. I cannot remember to who. I gave it to someone and in that way, that mercy is finding its way and in this way, we can think about mercy. The mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
When we are reading Caitanya Caritamrta, then Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami says, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra, vicāra karite citte pābe camatkāra (Caitanya Caritamrta Adi 8.15) . He says that if you are interested in logic then apply it to the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and try to understand that mercy Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. If you do, you will find that it is amazing. So now we are seeing that the nature of this mercy is that you get a little bit of it and then you think of ways of how to share it. The more we do so, the more we will penetrate deeper into that mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu because there are these two aspects. One is the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu goes deep into our heart and it goes deeper and deeper and deeper as we engage in devotional service as we get more and more attached to Krsna. But it goes deepest when we give that mercy to others and bring others something, then our heart becomes addicted to this giving out of mercy and we become more and more close to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We become more and more an instrument of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is the only way.