When I was in 4th Standard, our teacher once asked all the students about their ambitions in life. That was not the age of smartphones, where children are smarter than their age! As all the students were sharing their goals one by one, one of the students said, “I want to be a beggar!”

The whole class burst into laughter. I laughed along with everyone else. I thought, “How can this person desire to be a beggar? Either he is stupid and ignorant, or he is insane and crazy!”

Today, after 22 years, if someone asks me what I wish to become, I will say—I want to become a beggar! Over the years, I have realized that desiring to become a beggar of mercy is the greatest achievement one can attain in life.

Perpetual BEGGARS

We are perpetual beggars. It is not that one day we beg for mercy, and the next day we don’t. A beggar, understanding his predicament, never leaves even a single day of begging. He knows he will not be able to eat the particular day he doesn’t go to beg. Similarly, a devotee must understand that we need to daily beg Krishna, with a humble and sincere heart, to allow us to serve Him. Without Krishna’s grace, we have no hope. Even at the level of perfection, a devotee continues to beg.

”prema-dhana vinā vyartha daridra jīvana
’dāsa’ kari’ vetana more deha prema-dhana”
”Without love of Godhead, My life is useless. Therefore I pray that You accept Me as Your servant and give Me the salary of ecstatic love of God.”

Does a Beggar ask something from another Beggar?

Recently, while I was traveling, I sat in the side-lower seat of a sleeper-class coach. I noticed four or five beggars coming in, but none of them asked me for anything! I was surprised. Perhaps they thought of me as a beggar (in my shabby saffron robes) and, therefore, didn’t ask for anything. When four or five beggars sit together in a line to beg, we never see one beggar asking another for alms.

As devotees, we must go even a level above beggars. We beg Krishna, Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda, our acharyas, and we also beg from devotees, who themselves are beggars of love. Devotees may act as beggars of love, but they possess within them a great treasure of divine love!

āmi ta’ kāṅgāla, ‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ boli’,
dhāi tava pāche pāche
I am simply a beggar. Saying “Krishna”, “Krishna”, I run behind you so that you can grant me mercy.

This is what Bhaktivinode Thakura prays to the devotee! He knows what wealth a devotee is hiding from others. Mahaprabhu told Sridhar Kholavecha, “One day, I will expose you, and reveal to the whole world what extra-ordinary wealth you have.”

When we chant the Holy Names of the Lord, it is the best time to beg to Krishna, with great humility and earnestness. And yes, our chanting cannot happen the best possible way unless we seek blessings from the devotees. So, we beg the devotees, we beg the acaryas, and we beg everyone. A beggar doesn’t consider anyone unworthy for begging.

This attitude of being a perpetual beggar is the best attitude by which Krishna’ glance and Krishna’s grace can descend unto our lives.