The Sadhu's Glories

Srila Prabhupada wonderfully describes the glories of a sadhu:

"A sadhu..is a devotee of the Lord. His concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service; that is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching, 'Be Krishna conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Krishna. Don't spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Krishna consciousness.' These are the preachings of a sadhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality toward all fallen souls. One of his qualifications, therefore, is karunika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work, he has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sadhu has to be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They don't like it; that is their disease. The sadhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridasa Thakura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya's principal assistant, Nityananda, was violently attacked by Jagai and Madhai. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver fallen souls. A sadhu is merciful because he is the well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well. The word sarva-dehinam refers to all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Not only does the human being have a material body, but other living entities as well. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone -- cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Sivananda Sena, one of the disciples of Lord Caitanya, gave liberation to a dog by treating the dog transcendentally. There are many instances where a dog got salvation by association with a sadhu, because a sadhu engages in the highest philanthropic activities for the benediction of all living entities. Yet although a sadhu is not inimical toward anyone, the world is so ungrateful that even a sadhu has many enemies."

Any person who becomes a sadhu is very much appreciated by Lord Sri Krishna. One becomes a sadhu by taking shelter of a sadhu.

Srila Prabhupada--the Greatest of Sadhus

Srila Prabhupada--the Greatest of Sadhus

Video For the Day: When You Do Bhakti, You Must Be Happy

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Why God Carries Weapons?

I don't understand why Vishnu or Krishna carry weapons when as the Supreme Personality of Godhead He owns everything and has no competitors.

Your servant,

Devamrita das

Answer: To Enjoy Fighting

Because God is the source of everything, all propensities including the fighting propensity exist in Him. Since there are no demons in the spiritual world, when the Lord has the desire to fight He has one of His dear devotees appear in the material world in the form of the demon so that He can satisfy His desire to fight by fighting with His devotee in the form of a demon.

Srila Prabhupada compares this aspect of Krishna with a king and his court wrestler. A king has no enemies in his kingdom because everyone is his loyal subject. Therefore the king keeps a court wrestler so that when he has a desire to fight, he can fight with his court wrestler for fun.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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