The sun sets only to rise at another place. The setting of the sun doesn’t mean death of the sun. It is just that the sun has disappeared from our vision. When asked about his welfare, Uddhava, in feelings of deep separation from Krishna, lamented about what welfare could remain for them after Krishna’s sun had set in their lives. (SB 3.2.7) Actually, Krishna’s sun can never set in a devotee’s life. Uddhava’s sorrow was an outpour of his deep separation of Krishna’s manifest presence.
Today is the day when the sun of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura set, plunging the whole of Gaudiya Matha in darkness. Yet, the same sun arose at another place, in the form of his illustrious Abhay Caranaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who made the glories of Srila Saraswati Thakura known to the whole world. Of all the festival lectures that Shrila Prabhupada gave, the maximum (6 lectures each) were given on the appearance and the disappearance days of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura.
Here are a handful of jewels that we can reflect, relish and make an attempt to apply from treasure house of the life of Srila Saraswati Thakura.
1] Our Greatest Fortune: Receiving Mahaprabhu’s Gift
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura eulogized Mahaprabhu as the greatest benefactor who delivered the greatest gift in the age of quarrel. The gift of Krishna prema that Mahaprabhu gave was not for any one sect, creed, color, nationality or race. He gave this gift to the entire humanity.
Srila Saraswati Thakura writes, “The kinds of gifts with which we are familiar in this world are temporary and inadequate. Moreover, the number of givers in this world is very small. If the receivers of gifts have high expectations, then the givers cannot meet those expectations. The learned cannot give to the uneducated, the rich cannot give to the poor, the healthy cannot give to the diseased and the intelligent cannot give to the foolish as much as they expect. But humankind could not even expect or pray for such a gift as Sri Gaurasundara has given. They could not hope or expect that such a great gift could come to this world. The gift that Sri Gaurasundara has given to humankind is pure love of God.”
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Caitanya, took sannyasa simply to deliver love of God to the most unworthy of all people. Srila Saraswati Thakura realized this, etched it in the core of his heart, and gave his life for sharing this gift with the whole of mankind.
2] Our Greatest Service: Spreading Mahaprabhu’s Gift
Srila Saraswati Thakura wasn’t concerned about what it took to spread Mahaprabhu’s mission. When someone objected for plans of meat being served to the Britishers near Gaudiya Matha fearing it would bring criticism, he wasn’t the least fazed.
He said, “I decided all these things thousands of births ago. We have to do anything and everything for the service of Mahaprabhu. The grace of Mahaprabhu should be distributed throughout the length and breadth of the whole world. And to that end, anything should be done. No stone unturned. Physical connection is no connection. We care about our internal purity, that is all.”
In the same manner, Srila Prabhupada also faced great criticism for his out-of-the-box methods of preaching to the Westerners. But Prabhupada was fixed, just like his Guru Maharaja, in reaching out the message of Mahaprabhu to the Western world.
Srila Saraswati Thakura was fully convinced that devotional service is the only means of making suffering souls happy. In a time of great political turmoil and the struggle for independence, he repeatedly urged the importance of taking shelter of Lord Krishna. And this presentation convinced Srila Prabhupada. The seed of Prabhupada’s transformation from being a Gandhian to a Gaudiya happened when he first met Srila Saraswati Thakura at the Ultadingi Junction Road.
Our greatest offering to Srila Saraswati Thakura is to take his teachings to our heart. We must try to absorb ourselves in receiving Mahaprabhu’s teachings, and with the same absorption, in giving out his teachings. We must not get distracted, deluded and diverted by the innumerable waves of economic, political, social, ecological crises that may come on the surface of the world.
Our goal, our aspiration must always remain to be the servant of the servant of our acaryas, especially Srila Prabhupada and Srila Rupa Goswami, who gave us the golden path for taking shelter of the golden incarnation who has bestowed on us the golden gift of love of God.
