THE STORY OF MAHAPURI

    

     Once there was a devotee of the Lord whose name was Mahapuri. He studied for many years under the direction of a great spiritual master. Mahapuri learned so many slokas, and so many scriptures, chanted mantras very faithfully every day. He was very careful about eating only food offered in sacrifice and avoided frivolous activities. He was very talented musically and used his musical abilities to sing devotional songs. All in all he was a good person. He didn't steal, or lie or cheat. He was faithful and responsible to his family. He was a good person.

     But inside he was feeling unsatisfied in-spite of all his goodness and dutiful carrying out of responsibilities. He had a hankering for a kind of love he just couldn't seem to find anywhere. A love he had heard about and read about. A spiritual love, an ecstatic love, a blissful joyful eternal love. He knew it was somewhere. But where? By all social standards he had reached perfection...and yet....

     One day he heard a man speaking. There was no one that he could see listening to the man. There was definitely someone there listening to the man speak but Mahapuri couldn't see anyone. The man speaking wasn't crazy. On the contrary, he made so much sense, more sense than anyone Mahapuri had heard in a long time. The man's speaking reminded Mahapuri of his spiritual master who had passed away several years ago. Mahapuri stopped and listened attentively.

     The man's name was Nitai gaura. Nitai gaura had received mystically within the heart instructions from a great devotee of Lord Chaitanya to give up everything and to wander freely and speak about God's incarnation 500 years ago in Bengal as Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya and about the devotees who accompanied Him for pastimes and to give instructions.

     Mahapuri became stunned to hear the ecstatic descriptions of Lord Chaitanya's pastimes with His devotees. What was amazing was that Mahapuri was well acquainted with the pastimes. He had read them and reread them many times before. He loved to read them and think of Lord Chaitanya. But this was different. Hearing Nitai gaura speak was like being transported directly into the pastimes. Mahapuri felt he was there in the presence of Lord Chaitanya himself when Nitai gaura spoke. Mahapuri's heart leaped for joy. He felt wonderful. The life energy flowing through his body made him feel he was becoming alive after a long sleep. All his senses felt activated. Smell, touch, taste, hearing, sight. All seemed to be heightened making a very pleasant sensation. He couldn't stop smiling.

     So every day Mahapuri would come to hear Nitai gaura speak. Mahapuri was very well acquainted with the scriptures and sometimes things Nitai gaura would say would remind Mahapuri of something he had read, so he would chime in with a verse, or a pastime he had read. Mahapuri really like doing that. So he started doing it all the time. Every chance he got.

     Nitai gaura was a very saintly devotee of the Lord. He always tried to encourage everyone to glorify and remember God. He tolerated a lot from many different devotees who very often disrespected him. You see, Nitai gaura couldn't quote verses in Sanskrit and often mispronounced the Sanskrit when he was reading out loud. His spelling was pretty bad and musically he wasn't very talented. So devotees who were more proficient in Sanskrit didn't give him much respect and devotees who were well acquainted with the scriptures found it difficult to accept him as an authority on anything.

     Mahapuri was different. He loved Nitai gaura because he saw in him a devotee who had genuine love of  Godhead. What Mahapuri didn't see was that Nitai gaura had been given a specific mandate directly from a pure devotee of Lord Chaitanya to manifest and display the actual symptoms of love of Godhead as seen at the time of the incarnation of the Lord. Mahapuri hadn't grasped the significance of that and thought himself on the same level or even more elevated than Nitai gaura. So when Mahapuri quoted verses his mood was very different from Nitai gaura's. Mahapuri's quoting was rough, as if he had just won an argument with someone. While Nitai gaura's verses were simply sweet outpourings of love.

     Mahapuri liked to sing and play on musical instruments to glorify God. But his singing and playing were something like a dog howling and scratching flees. Nitai gaura's singing was slightly off-key and his music was very unconventional but it was saturated with love of God in separation and so was very soothing and pleasing to the heart. Mahapuri's efforts to befriend Nitai gaura always had a little discord in them.

      Pretty soon Mahapuri was singing and speaking more than Nitai gaura. Mahapuri's speaking was brash, loud and forceful, like he was shouting. While Nitai gaura spoke so sweetly it put the birds to shame. When Nitai gaura spoke it was like liquid honey to the ears. When Mahapuri spoke it was like an army sergeant shouting orders. There was a discord because Mahapuri did not recognize the extraordinary mandate that Nitai gaura was serving and thought himself as good as or better, although Mahapuri did not have such a specific mandate...only general instructions.

     As a result of the discord, the atmosphere became disturbed. Like a clear lake disturbed by a herd of elephants. The beautiful spirit of love of God that Nitai gaura manifested when he spoke could not be heard above the din created by Mahapuri. It was like a loud speaker drowning out a sweet melody. It was bewildering to others who were listening. Since both Nitai gaura and Mahapuri were both speaking about Lord Chaitanya and His devotees. Both were glorifying the path of devotional service. So where was the discord coming from?

     One had a mandate and the other did not. One was speaking with empowerment and the other was not. It was as if Mahapuri had to make up with volume and force what he lacked in empowerment.

     There is an Aesop's fable:

     Once the sun and the wind had a contest to see who could make a man take his coat off. The wind huffed and puffed but the more the he huffed and puffed the more the man hung on tightly to his coat. 
     The sun came out and made everything warm. The man took his coat off.

      Nitai gaura is like the warm sun. Mahapuri is like the huffing puffing wind.