The Mercy of the Lord

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta  Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada

The are various meanings allotted for the word Prasada. Out of them are the common meanings as mercy  in our discussion referring to the holy remnants of the Supreme Lord. In the proper conclusion we usually refer these two as the primary meanings. The Lord in gives mercy to the living entity in the form of the guru, the spiritual master, the holy name ,the revealed scriptures and lastly in the form of His holy remnants. Just as one who chants the Holy name repeatedly  then the holy name Sri Krishna  manifests to the chanter with His divine form. In the same way, one who is fixed in relishing only the  holy remnants of the Lord without fail will undoubtedly get the mercy of the Lord in the form of His divine manifestation. One who is really determined to get the mercy of the Lord is not dependent on any other means. One who tastes Mahaprasad will get all the perfections. The easy means is to to service in the form of honoring the remnants of the Lord. The remnants of the Lord is here is defined as mahaprasad while the remnants of the devotees is mahamahaprasad. Many would not believe that just by eating the remnants of the Lord, one will be able to attain the Lord's mercy but this is in accordance with the words of the devotee and the scriptures. I have complete faith that those who doubt this fact should  actuallystrive to eat the holy remnants for some days and then the spiritual  value of this holy remnants will surely dawn on one. Until and unless one eats the rasagolla and the vegetarian foods in the modes of goodness, how will one fathom the relish and the advantages of these succulent foodstuffs. The uncle of Raghunath Das Goswami ,Kali Das just by taking the remnants of the Vaishnavas was able to get the mercy of Lord Gauranga who is non different from SriKrishna Himself. Kalidas would not hesitate to eat the remnants of any remnants whether it was by a Brahmin person or a Sudra as long as the person was decreed a Vaishnava. In his estimation one  for who is a Vaishnava there is no consideration of any  caste or creed involved. For he understood that he who is engaged in unalloyed devotional service having given up all pride of caste is  considerd the topmost of all brahmanas. Actually those who  are not devotees of Krishna are worse than Sudras or even lower than them.Chaitanya Charitramrta has this verse: ye bhaje sei bado abhakta hin char krishna bhajane nahi jati kula vichara.

Once Kali Das  understood that a great Vaishnava named Jhada Thakur had come to reside in that very place. Kali Das felt that since he had not taken the remnants of this great Vaishnava ,he went to meet him carrying with Him some ripe mangoes as a gift to him. This Jada Thakur was from a low caste but that did not distract Kali das from striving to take his remnants .He paid obeisance to both Jada Thakur and his wife .Jhada Thakur and and his wife too offered great respect to Kali Das in reciprocation and for some time engaged in spiritual discussion with him. Kali das then informed him of his desire to eat at his place on that day but Jhada Thakur was not very keen as he declared himself humbly  as being of low caste order and suggested that he go and arrange the same  with any of the neighboring brahmana householders .The nature of the  Vaishnava is that he always respects all others without expecting any respect for himself always thinking himself as lowly before others. Kali Das then insisted that he wanted that the lotus feet of Jhada Thakur be placed on his head at least one time so that he  may be able to get your dust of your Lotus feet. In consternation Jhada Thakur replied,' I am a person born from a low caste by birth while you are an aristocratic gentleman in society for that reason your request does not seem right' !Kali das then replied with a fitting verse from HariBhakti Villasa which says :  name bhaktas caturvedi  mad bhakta svapachah priya  meaning  it is not that a chaturvedi Brahmana is definitely a devotee ,on the contrary a devotee even if he is from the lowest class is very dear to the Lord and worshippable and can be the proper recipient for all types of gifts. After hearing the verse ,Thakur retorted saying its true that the statements of the scriptures are never wrong and a devotee of Krishna is never lowly but the truth is I have no devotion .Kali das then offered  prostrated obeisance to  him and for some time Jhada Thakur followed him for a distance  and then returned back .Kali  das then went a certain distance and hid himself from view .At that  time Jhada Thakur accompanied by his wife came into view and offering the mangoes to the Lord with great bliss began chewing and relishing the  offered mangoes with great bliss with his wife ,after  having eaten the succulent mangoes, they threw the core and the skins into a nearby ditch and left. Later Kali das secured that same spot by the foot imprints of Jhada thakur .He first took the dust of that very place and smeared  his body completely with it exhibiting great  devotional fervour. He then proceeded to chew away the  thrown away mango seeds and skin relishing the same remnants. with great bliss and began to dance, being overwhelmed with devotion. After that the chewed on remnants was flung into the same ditch  as before. In this way Kali Das partook of all the remnants of all the Vaishnavas in the vicinity. At the time when Kali Das went to Nilachala because of such  pure actions, he managed to get the mercy of Mahaprabhu in having been able to drink His foot water. To be able to cross over the material energy it is important that one honors the holy remnants of the Lord. The devotee   after offering fruit ,seeds, roots and with various preparations including sweet rice honors the same remnants of the Lord and in this way able to cross over the material energy. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur has mentioned this same fact in his essay  depicted in the prayer called Sarangati  prasad seva korite hay sarva prapancha jaya. In this way, all those who do not have the same faith in the holy remnants of the Lord are very unfortunate. All thier disbelief in the glories of Mahaprasadam means they will be beset by many obstacles in their devotional practice and will never be able to advance . For those endowed with very little pious activities will never have sufficient faith in the holy mahaprasada ,the holy name, the Supreme Lord Govinda and the established devotees of the Lord .If by great fortune we are able to receive some mahaprasad then we should immediately honor it without any hesitation by partaking the same .Mahaprabhu once arrived with His associates at the bedstead of Sarvabhauma in the early morning and Sarvabhauma was at the time chanting Krishna! Krishna! in the state of awakening from slumber  .He handed Sarva bhauma some dry mahaprasad at which Sarva bhauma immediately partook of uttering some verses which meant that whether the mahaprasad is dry or from a far away land or even in the state of decay, one should honor it immediately without any consideration of time and place. The established devotees will therefore do the same without considering any other regulations regarding time and place .This is actually the order of the Lord. In having taken the holy remnants of the Lord ,Mahaprabhu in joy  immediately embraced him with great affection. In offering any article to the Lord it is transformed with the material being replaced with transcendence and hence  have become nectar. The remnant's of such offering is able to properly bestow health to the recipient and also award him devotion to the Lord. Prahlad Maharaj was given poison to eat by his father but by the mercy of the Lord ,this turned into nectar. This goes to show the great extraordinary power of the Lord and his affection for His devotees. All this is not understood by those who are non devotees. In the Geeta, Krishna tells Arjuna  that those who offer me a flower ,leaf ,fruit or water with devotion ,I will willingly accept it. Hence while the Lord accepts the offerings of His loving devotees, the articles which are offered by the demigods with great pomp  with their show of  temporary faith is not accepted by the Lord. The reason is they have the desire to solicit something in return from the Lord in exchange. In that respect, it goes to say that generally one should offer the best articles in his possession to offer the Lord. The Lord only sees the devotional attitude in His devotee and does not care for which caste he is in or whether he has scholarship or wealth .Even if an outwardly simple devotee saying Vishnave namah were to offer Him with devotion some plain foodstuffs He would accept it but those proud scholars ,aristocratic people and rich people were to offer Him opulent foodstuffs  with great pride  with the utterance of Vishnave Namah ,the Lord will not accept it. The Lord sees the heart of the individual and checks to see if it is crooked or simple and  therefore for a simple ,sincere  devotee He is ready to accept  even a morsel of rice .Ignorant devotee utter vishnaya namah while the scholars utter Visnave namah but both receive the same mercy as the Lord Janardhan only reciprocates by the devotional attitude. Mahaprasad is very available in variety at Jaganath Puri where Lord Jaganath is present. But it is not that the holy remnants of the Lord is only available in Jagganath Puri. Whatever is offered to the Lord at any place can  also the mercy of the Lord. Everything which is eaten by us has first to be offered to the Lord and then only later one should honor the remnants. If one can offer articles in the mode of goodness to the Lord in a mood of prayer as the verses below with devotion then the Lord will certainly accept the offering and those remnants will be the mercy of the Lord. Ya pritir arpita vidura madhuripo kunti arpita sa drshi ya goverdhanmurdhi ya sa cha prthuke stanya yasodarrpite ye vai muni  bhavini  vinihita sneha atrapi  tamrpayi Oh Lord enemy of the demon Madhu ,just as you relished the foodstuffs offered by Vidura, the foodstuffs by Vidura, the rice flakes of Sudama, the breast milk of Yasodha, the rice offered by Bharadvaj, the rice of Savarikadatta, the lips of the damsels of Vrndavana and the rice offered by the wives of the great Munis in that same way, please accept my offered foodstuffs. One of the greatest preachers of Mahaprabhu ,SriRupa Goswami has written in his Upedeshamrta that the urges of the mind ,anger, tongue ,belly and genitals are very unfavourable for  devotional service. Honoring the holy remnants of the Lord is one way in which one can control all these the urges especially that of the tongue. That is why the devotees give warning to all the devotees before partaking of the holy remnants by the prayer sarira avidya jal.

Note the offerings to Lord Jagganath and then to Sri Kamala devi is termed as Mahaprasad in the Jagganath temple .In our Gaudiya temple the prasad offered to the Lord is offered to Gurudeva and hence also teh term Mahaprasad