Srila Gurudeva: Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in His life, we see that so many people wanted that Caitanya Mahaprabhu should give darsana to King Prataparudra. They said, “He is such a high-class bhakta and Vaisnava.” But Caitanya Mahaprabhu never allowed to give His darsana. Why? Even Nityananda Prabhu argued that, “He is a Vaisnava.” Raya Ramananda also said that, “The king is a Vaisnava, so no harm if You will give darsana to King Prataparudra.” But what did Caitanya Mahaprabhu reply?
He said that, “The king may internally be a Vaisnava, but his dress, his title as a king, his shape, it is opposite to bhakti. For example, it may be that there is any wooden statue of any naked woman. What will become of this? By seeing this statue, lust can come. It is bound to come. So the King may be good internally, but his dress, his moods, and other things are like a wooden statue.” Like a snake, if anyone will take the poison out of the snake, still if anyone will see him go to bite anyone, he will run away quickly. So, we should always be very careful. “His shape is like a visayi. If you will go to his house, then we will become very attached, ‘Oh, there is a very beautiful, cot, palanka, and so many very beautiful things.’ Thus our bhakti will be ruined.”
We should try to understand all these things. Chota Haridasa and Kala Krsnadasa were with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, serving Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Why did Kala Krsnadasa leave the association of Caitanya Mahaprabhu? Why? Because he was not listening thoroughly to the instructions of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and was not following them. He was only with Him. So those who will live with a qualified Guru but are not following their instructions, then they may also be separated from this sadhu or Guru. Any man desires so many enjoyments in this world and has so many requirements. He thinks that, “If I am taking red cloth, if I am taking the renounced order, if I am being a brahmacari, then I cannot enjoy all these things.”
But sastra has said that if a person dies and is born in the womb of a serpent, hog, or pig, will he enjoy in this species or not? Yes. Why? Because he will be able to enjoy very delicious foods and all the other things that we enjoy in this human body. All these things will also be enjoyed in the bodies of hogs, pigs, and dogs? Is there any difference? No. Actually there is more facility to taste all these things in that birth. So in this human life we should try only to develop our Krsna consciousness because in any birth, as hogs, pigs, dogs, or any birth we can taste all these things more than we could in a human body. So don’t go towards enjoying all these things. Try to enjoy krsna-bhakti and Krsna’s service. Our whole energy should be given to this.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on February 2nd, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]