19800908 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.20.14

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on September 8, 1980 in Denver, Colorado. The morning class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Fourth Canto, Chapter Twenty, Text Fourteen.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.20.14

śreyaḥ prajā-pālanam eva rājño
yat sāmparāye sukṛtāt ṣaṣṭham aṁśam
hartānyathā hṛta-puṇyaḥ prajānām
arakṣitā kara-hāro ’gham atti

Translation: To give protection to the general mass of people who are citizens of the state is the prescribed occupational duty for a king. By acting in that way, the king in his next life shares one sixth of the result of the pious activities of the citizens. But a king or executive head of state who simply collects taxes from the citizens but does not give them proper protection as human beings has the results of his own pious activities taken away by the citizens, and in exchange for his not giving protection he becomes liable to punishment for the impious activities of his subjects.

Purport: The question may be raised here that if everyone engaged in spiritual activities to attain salvation and became indifferent to the activities of the material world, then how could things as they are go on? And if things are to go on as they ought to, how can a head of state be indifferent to such activities? In answer to this question, the word śreyaḥ, “auspicious,” is used here. The division of activities in society as arranged by the Supreme Personality of Godhead was not blindly or accidentally created, as foolish people say. The brāhmaṇa must do his duty properly, and the kṣatriya, the vaiśya and even the śūdra must do the same. And every one of them can achieve the highest perfection of life — liberation from this material bondage. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (18.45). Sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ: “By executing one is prescribed duties, one can attain the highest perfection.”

Lord Viṣṇu advised Mahārāja Pṛthu that a king is not enjoined to give up his kingdom and the responsibility of protecting the prajās, or citizens, to instead go away to the Himālayas for liberation. He can attain liberation while executing his royal duties. The royal duty or the duty of the head of state is to see that the prajās, or the general mass of people, are doing their respective duties for spiritual salvation. A secular state does not necessitate a king or head of state who is indifferent to the activities of the prajās. In the modern state the government has many rules and regulations for conducting the duties of the prajās, but the government neglects to see that the citizens advance in spiritual knowledge. If the government is careless in this matter, the citizens will act whimsically, without any sense of God realization or spiritual life, and thus become entangled in sinful activities.

An executive head should not be callous to the welfare of the general mass of people while he simply goes on collecting taxes. The king is real duty is to see that the citizens gradually become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. Kṛṣṇa conscious means completely free from all sinful activities. As soon as there is complete eradication of sinful activities in the state, then there will be no more war, pestilence, famine or natural disturbances. This was actually prevailing during the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. If a king or head of the government is able to induce the citizens to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then he is worthy to rule over the mass of people; otherwise, he has no right to levy taxes. If the king looks after the spiritual interests of the citizens, he can levy taxes without difficulties. In this way both the subjects and the king will be happy during this life, and in the next life the king will be able to share one sixth of the pious activities of the citizens. Otherwise, by levying taxes on the sinful citizens, he will have to share the reactions of their sinful activities.

This same principle can be applied to parents and spiritual masters as well. If parents simply give birth to children like cats and dogs but cannot save their children from imminent death, they become responsible for the activities of their animalistic children. Lately, such children are turning into hippies. Similarly, if a spiritual master cannot direct his disciples to become free of sinful activities, he becomes responsible for their sinful acts. These subtle laws of nature are unknown to the present leaders of society. Since the leaders of society have a poor fund of knowledge and the citizens in general are rogues and thieves, there cannot be an auspicious situation for human society. At the present moment the whole world is full of such an incompatible combination of state and citizens, and therefore there is constant tension, war and anxiety as an inevitable result of such social conditions.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So here Lord Viṣṇu is advising Mahārāja Pṛthu how to be a successful ruler of his citizens. It is understood that if one performs his duty as given to him by higher authorities in disciplic succession, that by performing one’s service perfectly one is able to achieve the highest perfection of life. A king is duty is not only to levy taxes, punish miscreants, but it is also his primary duty to see that the citizens are Kṛṣṇa conscious, are God conscious. Without that then the kingdom becomes simply a trouble for the king and for the citizens.

It becomes a trouble for the citizens in this life and it becomes a trouble for the king in this life and the next. Because in this life there is all kinds of indiscipline. And in the next life he has to accept one sixth of the sinful reactions of his prajā, his citizens. The President of the United States, I do not know if this is any… but it always seems that they age so much immediately after being in office. I mean if there was a before and after picture, I am sure that anyone could see. I just, of course, I have not seen them in person but from their photographs it seems that they go through tremendous changes. The rulers of this world need to know Kṛṣṇa conscious principles.

They are being put on the frying pan. They are accepting one sixth of all the sinful activities of this nation and of the nation they rule. They do not know what they are getting in for and they do not because of sectarian state, so called sectarian state where there is nonsectarian meaning to say. They do not encourage the prajā, the citizens in any kind of religious activity. Therefore, everything is in a very critical state. You might be interested to know how Rūpa and Sanātana, when they were the Prime Ministers of the kingdom of the empire of the Hussain Shah, the Mohammedan Emperor of the United Kingdom of Bengal and Eastern India. That of course we know that how humble they are. And mainly in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we understand their humility describing themselves as so fallen to be employed in the service of a Mohammedan.

However, there was one devotee, Caitanya Dāsa, who went with his teacher when he was just a student, you see, and this Caitanya Dāsa, he is described, Caitanya Dāsa as the father of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. There is two Śrīnivāsa’s. One is Śrīvāsa Prabhu who is in the Pañca-tattva, and the other is Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, who is disciple of the six, of Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, student of Jīva Gosvāmī, who is a great preacher. So, this Caitanya Dāsa, he went with his teacher to see the Prime Minister. Why would teachers go to see these Prime Ministers? Because you see Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī, when they were ministers, they were running the whole government. Factually, the king, he did not have anything to do but to declare war, whatever, just have a good time. He did not have too many problems. He could spend his time in the conquest or whatever he wanted to do.

Because the actual whole government was being run by Rūpa and Sanātana. So, what did they do? They built their own court a bit away from the king’s court, just a few miles in a place called Rāmakeli. And there they reconstructed a Vṛndāvana situation. They dug a Rādhā-kuṇḍa and Śyāma-kuṇḍa, kuṇḍas for the sakhīs, the other sakhīs, Madhumaṅgala and all the eight main sakhīs – they dug the kuṇḍas and they had Rādhā Madana-mohana Deities which were regularly being worshipped. And every day countless scholars were coming, paṇḍitas, devotees. And they were always discussing the Bhāgavatam, hearing the lessons of Bhāgavatam, discussing kṛṣṇa-kathā and giving profuse charity to the brāhmaṇas for their Kṛṣṇa conscious and scholarly work. So as a result, factually, the whole culture, the whole Vedic culture was in that kingdom.

Why was Navadvīpa flourishing? Because of the… because of the just raincloud-like charity of Rūpa and Sanātana. This is the inner secret. Why one of the reasons why the culture was kept at such a high type because of their charity and when and they were so humble, although they were so powerful. Generally, people become very puffed up, proud. But they were so humble. Even when they were the Prime Ministers, they were so humble. They were very kind, they were very considerate, and they were very exacting in their judiciary skill. They took the advice of brāhmaṇas but they were very penetrating in their own expertise for managing. Therefore, they could finish their business very quickly and they could maintain the maximum time in kṛṣṇa-kathā, Kṛṣṇa worship. So, to see this court of Rūpa and Sanātana, when they were the ministers, this Caitanya Dāsa, for his whole life he could not forget that that what tremendous qualities they had.

It is the duty of a ruler, you see. Actually, of course their destiny was not to remain as Prime Ministers, but their duty was to become of course the greatest preachers for Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to discover all the hidden tīrthas of Vṛndāvana and to write the bhakti-śāstras, scriptures upon devotional principles. So, of course one time when Lord Caitanya was going to Vṛndāvana, He went through that Rāmakeli and at that time there were literally hundreds of thousands of people gathering around Lord Caitanya. He was dancing ecstatically and engaging everyone in saṅkīrtana. Hearing about the proximity of Lord Caitanya, Rūpa and Sanātana were very eager to go to Him.

Of course, the king, at some point in time he asked what about this Lord Caitanya, they said, “Oh he is just a sentimentalist, do not consider it very seriously.” Because they did not want him to become obsessed with Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He might create some obstacle. So, the two of them, they went to see Lord Caitanya and when they went to see Lord Caitanya, they put a straw in their teeth and from a great distance they fell down and they were offering stuti, prayers. When they got up, Lord Caitanya started to approach them and they said, “Please do not come near us. We are the most fallen. We are in the mleccha, meat-eating community. We are the most fallen people. We are to accept service in this community. Do not come near us, we are so sinful!”, and although they were always reading the Bhāgavatam, they were pure in every respect. They were daily worshiping Rādhā Madana-mohana just because they had accepted the task as politicians, as Prime Ministers for the Hussain Shah, they were taking such a humble position that Lord Caitanya said, “Stop! Stop! You are breaking My heart to hear this humility. You are great devotees.” And, of course, so he gave them instruction what they should do. And of course very soon they made their escape and went off to Vṛndāvana which of course you know that story.

So, we can see here of course that it is a duty of a ruler to first of all be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then everything goes well. The Hussain Shah might have wondered how things were going well. They are going well because of course, because things were Kṛṣṇa conscious. Of course, Lord Caitanya was present. Rūpa and Sanātana were also protecting by their Kṛṣṇa conscious ruling.

Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, when he was present, things were so well run that one brāhmaṇa, his son died before him. He could approach and say, “What is this? What kind of king are you? My son has died before I have. This means your kingdom is completely in disorder. This is against the natural order of nature. How can a son die before his father? You must be removed for this injustice.” And we hear this, you know, people have to laugh or scratch their head or complete bewilderment because we are in a world where people claim to be advanced, where yet everything is in such disorder in terms of natural harmony with nature, harmony with each other. That is inconceivable that someone could dare complain to anyone that his son is dead before he is.

Here we know where volcanoes blow their tops, where tidal waves, you know, and hurricanes are every other month’s coming, where genocide and wars, hot, cold, lukewarm, are the continuous situation, where suicides, what to speak of the suicides? In one part of... Where was I? I was just in one city in Chicago, within a few block radius, there is one of the most wealthiest suburbs in America. They have the record. They have achieved the highest record of suicides of teenagers in their block. Thirty suicides within not one block, but you know, like three, four blocks their neighborhood. Within one or two years, 30 suicides. They are dropping like flies, so to speak. So, this is the progress because people are told that if you are materially successful, that is your success. They are born successful. What are they going to do?

Those people are born, you know, with their car and with the money, with the bank balance and, you know, but they are completely frustrated because that is not the goal of life. But who is telling them you go to the church to play bingo and see the marriage of two priests who are homosexuals. So, what is the goal of life? Who can figure it out in the modern society? Therefore, people are completely bewildered. So, therefore we can see that Śrīla Prabhupāda said that in previous time he could go and convince the king. And when the king was convinced, then he would make his whole kingdom. Just like India, Mahārāja Aśoka, before he was converted to Buddhism. Buddhism could not make any progress. When he was converted, he could make the whole India Buddhists, later he was driven out.

So of course, after some time, Buddhism had to stay in the other nations nearby as Bhārata became smaller. So, but this is the situation. So today it is democracy for the people or by the people, whatever of the people. It is a question whether it is for the people. But anyway, it is supposed to be by the people. So, who can the people blame if they vote bogus people to rule them. So therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda said we have to educate the masses about what are the real values of life. You see, then they can demand we want honest, God conscious administrators, rulers in our government. Right now. the people do not have any real standard in such a big nation, big democracy, most powerful democracy in the world. United States of America and the presidential election.

They are fortunate if 50% of the people even bother to vote. People are apathetic. They know this one or that one, what is the difference? They are not interested. So basically, these systems are not successful because they are not inducing the people to become God conscious. Therefore, they do not care anymore. So many people do not care. Caring comes concern, responsibility. When we realize that I am eternal, that how I act will affect me not only in this life but in future lives. Sure. What is the world then he can understand. So, these things have not been taught. They do not realize their relationship with Kṛṣṇa. So therefore, we distribute books, we go preach them, we cultivate congregations to bring them to the platform of understanding. Actually, the devotees, their lives are completely different. Devotee is always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you see.

In fact, just like there is a prayer that says that the Gauḍīyas, the devotees of Lord Caitanya, their life and soul is Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Madana-mohana, Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govindadeva and Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Gopīnātha. So, the devotees of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they have accepted as their life and soul these three Deities. And these Deities, of course, their worship was first expanded by the Gosvāmīs in Vṛndāvana. The Deity of Govindajī, you see, when Rūpa and Sanātana went there were no deity that they could. I mean that they had to worship. And Rūpa was… somehow, Rūpa or Sanātana. I believe Sanātana’s is Rādhā-Govinda, isn’t it? Sanātana Gosvāmī? He was feeling very much... Rūpa Gosvāmī is Rādhā-Govinda. Right! Sanātana is sambandha. And his feeling, Rūpa Gosvāmī was feeling very dissatisfied because there was Vṛndāvana, there was his service. He was chanting everything. But where was Govinda? Where is Vṛndāvana without Kṛṣṇa? So, he was very eager to find Govinda.

So, one time he was absorbed in that kind of a separation from Lord Govinda. Suddenly, one elderly brāhmaṇa vraja-vāsī came up. I said, “Why are you looking so sad?” He said, “I want to find Govinda. What is Vṛndāvana without Govinda?” And he said, “Well, there is one place where a cow, every day, most beautiful, celestial looking cow, comes and just spontaneously waters the ground with her milk, with the milk from her milk bags and goes away every day. And I forget the name of that place, Gāvī or something. And you just meditate on that point and think what it means.” Then that brāhmaṇa disappeared, not in the ordinary way, but poof. And then Rūpa Gosvāmī took that this was something very special. So naturally, it did not take him too much to think on that subject. Immediately, he ran to that place. When he got there, no sooner did he get there, immediately he started to erupt in transcendental emotion, and he practically fell unconscious by the side of that place. And he knew that Govinda is here. So, he got all of the people from around that, “Come, Govinda is beneath this earth here.” So, everyone came, and they started to carefully excavate. And there they found Govinda and they had a huge festival, you see, for installation of Lord Govinda – abhiṣeka, cleaning Him, a wonderful ceremony. Everyone was rejoicing that Govinda is here. So of course, Rādhā Mādhava is non-different from Govinda. According to the...  Rādhā Mādhava is another name for Lord Govinda. Because there are three different moods of the Lord – Rādhā Madana-mohana.

Of course, each Deity is non-different because they are Kṛṣṇa, but each Deity is different in that they are līlā-viśeṣa. Every deity has got His own relationships and own pastimes with his devotees. You see, just like Kṛṣṇa would expand and He would be the husband of Rukmiṇī, husband of Satyabhāmā, husband of Kālindī, though His relationship with each queen was different. Similarly, we can understand from the śāstra that each Deity has a separate reciprocation or relationship with His own devotees.

Therefore, just like that young brāhmaṇa who went with the old brāhmaṇa to Vṛndāvana. And then the old brāhmaṇa was so pleased with his service that he said in front of Lord Gopāla that, “I am going to give you my wife, excuse me, my daughter, to be your wife.” And then they went back to Orissa. But then due to so many politics of the family members, they said, “Oh no, this is not possible.” He wanted to give his daughter, but his wife, the elder son, they are all against it because he is a poor brāhmaṇa, so they said, “You should give your daughter to a rich brāhmaṇa in marriage, not this insignificant poor brāhmaṇa.” So, in the face of all the pressure of his relatives, he could not. He prayed to Govinda, how to save me from this. But he could not face up to it. He said, “No, no, where is the proof that I said this or something?” Somehow, he avoided the issue. And so then brāhmaṇa said, “Well, if I go, I will... Gopāla is a witness. If He gives witness?” And then he said, “Oh yes”, because all the other relatives who are not so faithful.

“Yes, yes. If your Gopāla comes here and gives witness, then we will give the daughter.” So just see the affection of the Lord to His devotee. That the brāhmaṇa walked all the way back to Vṛndāvana and prayed to Gopāla that “You are the witness. You must please come and testify that what the old brāhmaṇa said. Otherwise, his religious principles are going to be ruined. He is a brāhmaṇa, he is lying.” “How can I go there? I am a Deity.” “How can a Deity talk? If You can talk, You can also walk. So, You should come.” “So, I will come, but I will walk behind you. But if you look, then I will stop there. You cannot look behind how I am walking. You will just hear that I am following you by My ankle-bells.”

So of course, the young brāhmaṇa began on his journey and Gopāla walked off with him all the way down to Orissa. You are probably knowing this. Then they got there, of course he became at the end, he could not bear to not look. So, he turned around and there immediately Gopāla outside the village, He stood in His mūrti form. And he testified on behalf of the young brāhmaṇa that, “Yes, this elderly brāhmaṇa has said this.” But of course, everyone could see that what a great devotee that the Lord has walked by foot all the way from Vṛndāvana just out of the affection of His devotee. And still today the Deity of course of Sākṣi-gopāla is being worshipped.

So, in a similar way, you see, Govinda did not have any Rādhārāṇī, do you know how Govinda was united with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī? You see, in a similar way, a long time ago, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī had separated from Govinda, you see, somehow. And she was in Orissa being worshiped by one devotee by the name of Bṛhadbhānu, who had a relationship with Rādhārāṇī, that She was his daughter and he would worship Her and take care of Her just as his daughter. This was that relationship. Like Vṛṣabhānu also of course has that relationship with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. There is nothing unusual about, these things exist in a spiritual world. But after he disappeared and gradually the sevā, pūjā, the Deity worship became deteriorated. And the local people, they no longer knew exactly the real nature of this Deity. They knew the Deity to be Lakṣmī. And so they were worshiping Rādhārāṇī as Lakṣmī.

So, what happened was the Gosvāmīs, they wanted to have Rādhārāṇī, but they were thinking how to do it. The eldest son of Mahārāja Pratāparudra, whose name is Jagannātha Jana. He had a dream where the Lord told him to provide deity for Govinda and said that Rādhārāṇī, actually Rādhārāṇī came to him, I believe, and told him that “I am in such and such a village and they know me as Lakṣmī, but actually I am Rādhārāṇī and I want you to send me back to Vṛndāvana to be with Lord Govinda.” So of course, Jagannātha Jana was very excited. He ran down to that place and saw that the Deity that the people worshiping as Mahā-Lakṣmī was actually two handed Rādhārāṇī. And so, he took the necessary steps in a big ceremony to transport Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī to Lord Govinda. And in Vṛndāvana, of course there again they were united and who can express the transcendental joy of that reunion.

And all the vraja-vāsīs were of course very ecstatic. So, this Rādhā-Govinda, as I was telling all about yesterday, that they are very dear to the Gauḍīyas, actually they gave the order to do book distribution to one of the great devotees of Lord Caitanya, this Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, he actually was sent. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has a prayer where he prays that Lord Caitanya, “You have so many energies who have come down to help You in Your pastimes. Just like Rūpa and Sanātana, they have been empowered by you to write transcendental literatures. And other devotees like Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, they have been empowered to distribute these literatures and to spread the knowledge of these literatures. So, I pray to simply always be engaged in the service of your servants like that.” There is one prayer Narottama dāsa has sung. Of course, Narottama himself is a great preacher.

So, after a tremendous ordeal where Śrīnivāsa Ācārya was actually very sad because he had never seen Lord Caitanya in person. And he was always just very unfortunate in the sense that whenever he would go to meet some personality like Lord Caitanya, just before he got there, he would disappear, you see. Of course, then he met Gadādhara. He went back to get something again. When he went to see Gadādhara, he had just disappeared. When he went to see Nitāi and Advaita, they had just disappeared. Of course, he would always go into tremendous spiritual separation at that point. Sometimes he did think that “I should just leave my body.” He did be rolling in the ground, smashing his head, thinking how useless his life was. But this was history.

Finally, when he got to Vṛndāvana, he wanted to meet Rūpa and Sanātana. He got there and as he was just bathing in a river, some brāhmaṇas came by and were lamenting the fact that now that Rūpa and Sanātana had left the world, everything was empty. And heard that and he just went mad. Just, you see. And he was practically. He was lying unconscious in the temple of Radha Govinda just thinking that he should take his life. What should he do? There is no one he could study the Bhāgavatam from. All the associates of Lord Caitanya had disappeared.

You see, at that time Lord Caitanya, Rūpa and Sanātana came in a dream both of Jīva Gosvāmī and Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī - told Jīva Gosvāmī, “You go to the temple, you will find him. You can recognize this young brāhmaṇa Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. And you make sure that he takes initiation from Gopāla Bhatta Gosvāmī and learns from you the science of the Bhāgavatam and take care of him. His duty is going to be to preach my saṅkīrtana movement all over.” And he told a similar dream to Gopāla Bhaṭṭa that, “This person will come and you should accept him as a disciple. He has suffered spiritual agony, you know, too much, so much.” So, Jīva Gosvāmī went to the temple and saw that while ārati are going on that Śrīnivāsa was off in one corner, just, just collapsed, crying. And he could understand, this is Śrīnivāsa. And he picked him up with his own hands and embraced him. And Śrīnivāsa, when heard that who this was, he fell down and grabbed his lotus feet. And then Jīva Gosvāmī took him to the, to his āśrama, to his little place where he stayed and took care of him. And eventually he took initiation from Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī.

So, making, you know, long story shorter. What happened was that, you see, all the Gosvāmīs, they had written so many literatures. Caitanya-caritāmṛta was being written at Rādhā-kuṇḍa by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. Different, you know, literatures, and ṭīkās, commentaries were all being written there. But these had not been transported from Vṛndāvana, to Bengal, to Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi. They were all practically, you know, drying up, waiting to get the nectar from Vṛndāvana and to preach it. So, this was the situation in time. One day everyone was present in the Rādhā-Govinda temple. When Govinda suddenly spoke. He said that told to Jīva Gosvāmī, that “You give the power to Śrīnivāsa to take the devotional literatures to Bengal and distribute them to My devotees.”

That is all He said. And He dropped His garland. Haribol! Haribol! Everyone just, just suddenly, the Deity starts speaking. Everyone went wild. And the pūjārī with tears in his eyes. He picked a garland up and he garlanded Śrīnivāsa Ācārya and he started to pay his obeisances, overwhelmed and crying. And so then immediately everyone got prepared. “All right, now we have to send the books” and they made the date and prepared the bullock cart and everything to carry all these literatures all the way to Bengal. You see, this was the situation. So actually, Rādhā-Govinda, we can see that they are very much behind book distribution. Actually, they initiated this because they were the first books that were really written by our Gauḍīya devotees. And He sent Śrīnivāsa to go and distribute them.

That Narottama described that some are empowered to write, some are empowered to distribute. These are both confidential services to the Lord to preach to other devotees. These are confidential services. So, of course, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, he was not alone – with him, his associates were like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Śyāmānanda Paṇḍita, so many other Rāmacandra. Rāmacandra Kavirāja was his disciple, actually. And of course, when they went to Bengal with these books, they went into a country of Baṅkurā, which is in Bengal. And there the king, in order to make his treasury full, he had a side business which was called dacoity, or armed robbery. He had a special team of trained troops who were actually nothing else but robbers. And he had an astrologer who would study astrologically that who is coming on the road.

So, the astrologers studied that the most valuable treasure is coming and it is being carried by simply some sādhus. They have a huge box and it is filled with some valuable treasure which I cannot understand, but I can from astrological. It is the most valuable thing. So the king, he said, “This is a very, you know, very good news.” So he sent out his robbers. And that night, of course, they are sleeping, you know, the… our great previous ācāryas and the robbers come and say, “Here is some sannyāsīs, some preachers and the big box on the... This is like taking, you know, candy from a baby.” They just came in, took the box and left. No one even knew what happened. They woke up in the morning, all the scriptures are gone, all the books are gone. Śrīnivāsa Ācārya is again, he is just smashing his head, pounding.

I mean, the others, they just went off in different directions because it was too much and began preaching with Śrīnivāsa. He said, “I have to find these books.” Practically, he almost left his body in the anxiety. So, then he finally went to here and there. He finally got to this king’s courtroom. And there he saw all the brāhmaṇas are sitting trying to figure out what is the meaning of these books. And they are giving this interpretation and that. And he comes in and says, “These people appear to be brāhmaṇas, but they do not know what they are saying.” So now a statement like that is a very big challenge. And so, the king immediately said, “So, you think that you can know what they are... What? You can say better than them? If you cannot, then it may cost your life to challenge all these exalted brāhmaṇas in this way.”

He said, “No, by the mercy of my spiritual master, I can try to explain to you what these mean.” You see? And what had happened was the Caitanya-caritāmṛta was on the bottom when they… when they were carrying the books. But it came to the top of the box because it is the most exalted literature in our sampradāya. Śrīla Prabhupāda has described it as the postgraduate study of devotional service. So, then he began to preach from these literatures. And everyone was amazed. They could not stop listening that how he was explaining Caitanya Mahāprabhu, how was he explaining Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, how he was explaining devotional service, this and everything. And so, the king came off his throne and then he fell down at his feet and begged, “You please accept me as your disciple. You must be the king’s guru for this whole kingdom and guide us how we can advance in our spiritual life.” So then at that point, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya became the rāja-guru.

And that whole kingdom, even today there are so many, we make many devotees from Bankurā district. There are ancient temples of Lord Caitanya there. That is where the wooden Deities, beautiful wooden Deities are all carved in Bankurā district. Many of the best beautiful Deities I have seen are carved there. So, by the preaching, you see, to the… of course to this ruler, converting him, the whole kingdom was immediately made by Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s saṅkīrtana movement into Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And of course, nowadays, who do you approach? Even if the democratic leader is convinced, he cannot say anything to his constituents because they will just knock him down, take him off the vote, you see. Therefore, we have to preach to the intelligent people, to the massive people, and convince them the leaders are separate situation, they should also be convinced or removed by the people for better leaders.