Offences to the Vaishnavas

             All  Glories to Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

         All Glories to Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami  Prabhupada

In the purified scriptures the first offence is the blasphemy of the pure devotees. satam ninda namnah param aparadha vitanute yatah khyatim yatam katham utsehata tadvigarham meaning those who criticize the unalloyed  devotees who are preaching the glories of the name all around the world  became liable to suffer as the holy name will never tolerate such blasphemy of the pure servants of the Lord. The seriousness of this offence to the pure Vaishnava has been illustrated as in the story of king Ambirish and Durvasa Muni from the Srimad Bhagavatam ,the essence of the Vedas. The Geeta has the verse  :api cet sudurcharao bhaje mam ananya bhak that  those who who are unalloyed in their devotion to Lord Krishna by chance becomes implicated in some sinful behavior still because of his unalloyed cultivation of devotion to Krishna  can be still regarded as saintly. But on the  other hand , a person who makes a show of being a great devotee but heart of hearts is interested in only in  fame ,adoration and material gain while  not attempting  to rectify himself, such is nature of a  duplicitous devotee . Gradually, one will become influenced by such bad behavior in such association and indirectly this will tantamount to bad association. If the actual sign of the Vaishnava is the rejection of all kinds of bad association therefore here it also implies that one must be very determined to reject all such  type of bad association. Criticism may be considered blasphemy  when conducted against the saintly but when one tries to rectify a person for the sake of his spiritual welfare then that is not considered blasphemy at all. The instructor of the world Sriman Mahaprabhu and his confidential devotees  was fiery in their dealings with the non devotees ,the demoniac  and all duplicitous devotees. This is also exemplified in the pastimes where Chota Haridas was rejected by Mahaprabhu and where Advaita Prabhu rejected his own son. Sriman Mahaprabhu in order to teach the masses the gravity of offence to the Vaishnavas even withheld bestowing  pure devotion to his mother because of her mental offence to His confidential associate ,Sri Advaita Prabhu. At that juncture, when Srivasa Prahu and other stalwart devotees prayed to Mahaprabhu to again bestow this pure devotion to his mother, Mahaprabhu simply replied that He was not able to neutralize this grievous offence and only the devotee to who the offence had been directed had the power to forgive that offence .Once  Mother Sachi 'seldest son Visvarupa  on gaining the association of Advaita Prabhu began to understand the futility of material life and therefore later accepted the renounced order, Similarly Mahaprabhu in the association of Advaita Prabhu began to adopt detachment from material life whilst in the household life .Perceiving all this ,mother Sachi began to nurture some mental offence internally towards Advaita Prabhu deeming him responsible for the separation from her beloved sons. However later, when Mother Sachi fell down to take the dust of the feet of Advaita Prabhu in great repentance  because of her offence ,Mahaprabhu  did bestow  pure devotion to the Lord to her. Although  mother Sachi 's so called offence was relatively small, Mahaprabhu in order to demonstrate the effects of offences to Vaishnavas conducted this pastime with his mother. Devanada Pandit was a scholar ,of good moral behavior and a celibate from birth and known to have knowledge about the scriptures. Unfortunately he made an offence at the lotus feet of Srivasa Pandit. For that reason one time , Mahaprabhu went to his house to tear his copy of the Bhagavat remarking that for one who is a offender there is no way he can utter the holy name nor recite the Bhagavatam as only offences would simply be the result of such attempts. There is nothing serious more than offences to the Vaishnavas. By offences to the Vaishnavas, all one's previous pious activities become  completely nullified. One grievous offence to the Vaishnavas leads one  further to commit hundreds of offences to the Vaishnavas. Sriman Mahaprabhu has compared the offence  to the Vaishnavas as the mad elephant offence. This is compared to a  rampaging mad elephant trampling the newly grown shoots in a garden uprooting the same. This mad elephant offence is even more serious than simply being duplicitous devotee. Sriman Mahaprabhu has given mercy to all except those who indulge in offences to the Vaishnavas. Jagai and Madhai were reputed to have performed all sorts of sinful activities irrespective yet because they did not make blasphemy  at the lotus feet of  pure Vaishnavas they were eligible to be delivered. It is not that after such discussion that one thinks it is  absolutely wrong to criticize the actions of one who is an offender to the name or the Vaishnavas or one who is duplicitous. Actually this is not the case .The great souls are always exhibit anger and are indifferent to such  offenders . Krodhe bhaktadveshijane as spoken by Narottama Das Thakur. As the great Vaishnavas show fitting anger to such people , actually ,in an indirect way they are giving great mercy to these people in spite of their  misdeeds while saving those innocent people about  to be lured by their  false schemes. The meaning of  ninda implies antagonism and  calumny. If  by chance this type of offence occurs then if one is able to think that a lowly person like I has done an offence to a great saintly person  then just as a person burnt by fire has to take recourse to ashes to mitigate his pain, similarly one who has offended a Vaishnava should take shelter of the same Vaishnava in a mood of repentance. In such repentance, he should placate the Vaishnava by obeisance, eulogies and proper respect. On the contrary if he thinks that the chanting of the holy name has enough power to mitigate  all his offences and that  repeatedly following on the feet of a person in trying to exhibit one's lowliness is not  at all necessary. In that case ,he may revert to making offences at the feet of the great devotees. If one analyses that the saintly person has  all the qualities of tolerance ,compassion  with not harming others then an offence to such a  saintly person is grave . In one sense ,they can be offenders too as any person who always  engaged in the service of the Lord but manifests some ungainly behavioral characteristics is considered saintly by the logic of kaimuti. Nevertheless, if one commits severe offences at the lotus feet of the devotee who because of his benign nature does not become angry  ,still the offender should take the lotus dust of such a devotee and strive to please him again .Only the pure devotees can recognize a another Vaishnava. Many a time we persist in calling the non devotees as Vaishnavas while neglecting those very high caliber devotees because of ignorance. In such a fearful situation the best recourse is to take shelter of a great devotee by which we can be able to escape from offences to Vaishnavas. In conclusion we take the shelter of the pure devotees in supplication as by the song of Thakur Mahasaya. Ei adhama daya koro nija das boli.