Satyavrata Muni has indeed written a masterpiece in the form of Damodarashtakam. In the series of beautiful verses that follow, Satyvrata Muni considers himself as very fallen saying that he has fallen into an ocean of suffering. And he requests the Lord to shower rains of His glances on him to uplift him and enthuse him with life.
kṛpā-dṛṣṭi-vṛṣṭyāti-dīnaṁ batānu-
gṛhāṇeśa mām ajñam edhy akṣi-dṛśyaḥ
Satyavrata Muni says this out of his own humility. For us, this proves to be a very valuable instruction as well as lesson.
How much mercy do we really need?
Satyavrata Muni mentions here that he needs continuous showers of mercy of the Lord upon him.
Brahmaji, on the other hand in his prayers describes the glory of even having received a drop of a particle of Lord’s mercy.
Shrila Prabhupada quotes the below verse multiple times in his purports of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Brahmaji says,
athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-
prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi
jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno
na cānya eko ‘pi ciraṁ vicinvan
My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years. SB 10.14.29
Actually, both Satyavrata Muni and Brahmaji are mentioning the same thing. Brahmaji’s focus is on the glory of one particle of mercy, and Satyavrata Muni’s focus is on his fallen condition thereby beseeching the Lord to grant him tons of mercy.
Rupa and Sanatana Goswami also prayed in a similar way to Lord Caitanya when they first met at Ramkeli. They even challenge the Lord saying that Your real success is when You will be able to deliver us.
āmā uddhāriyā yadi dekhāo nija-bala
‘patita-pāvana’ nāma tabe se saphala
“If You simply deliver us by Your transcendental strength, then certainly Your name will be known as Patita-pāvana, the savior of the fallen souls. CC Madhya 1.200
To the degree we consider and understand our fallen position, to that degree we will want and pray for the Lord’s mercy. And Krishna just wants to bring out that earnestness, that yearning, that longing of our heart. When we chant in that mood, when we do services in that mood, when we hear in that mood, with great eagerness and earnestness, to that degree we can advance in our Krishna Consciousness.
If we are hearing Srimad Bhagavatam, we should think as if we are going to live eternally. If we are chanting the Holy Names of the Lord, we should think this is the last round I am getting to chant. Both times, intensity has to be there in our life.
Again, coming back to the question – How much mercy we actually need? Definitely, Lord’s potency is such that even a drop of that mercy can drown us into unlimited bliss, but we should consider ourselves so unqualified that we beg for mercy from everyone – from the Lord, from his devotees, from everyone.
When Uddhava is returning back to Mathura after his stay in Vrindavan, Nanda Maharaja prays to Uddhava,
manaso vṛttayo naḥ syuḥ
kṛṣṇa pādāmbujāśrayāḥ
vāco ‘bhidhāyinīr nāmnāṁ
kāyas tat-prahvaṇādiṣu
[Nanda and the other cowherds said:] May our mental functions always take shelter of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, may our words always chant His names, and may our bodies always bow down to Him and serve Him. SB 10.47.66
Prabhupada writes in Krishna book, “This prayer of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana is the superexcellent type of self-realization. The method is very simple: to fix the mind always on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, to talk always of Kṛṣṇa without passing on to any other subject matter, and to engage the body in Kṛṣṇa’s service constantly. “
We are all beggars of mercy. The more a devotee gets, the more he or she feels the need for it. And the more he or she gets, the more a devotee wants to distribute.
