Mercifully, He Left That Abode

Srila Gurudeva: Krsna was playing there in Goloka Vrndavana and He had forgotten everything, playing with Radhika, Lalita, Visakha, or with His mother. This is called mugdha, bewildered. At the same time, He is all knowing. Why? If anyone anywhere is unhappy, He will know. So He knew that we, the part and parcel and eternal servant of Krsna, we have forgotten Him and we are drinking and making merry and eating flesh, blood and everything. He knew that we are always wasting our time and that we will be unhappy for lakhs and lakhs births like this. He knew this, even being in Goloka Vrndavana. So mercifully He left that abode, that eternal place.

A king, when anyone is quarreling, if He will know of this, he will send his police who will beat them bitterly and will take them to jail and thus they will be arrested. But this Mahaprabhu, He is so merciful that He Himself gave up that abode and took all His associates and He descended to this world. Why?
Because He is so merciful. He is unparalleled in His mercy. He did not come alone. When Gajendra and the crocodile were quarreling and fighting with each other, Gajendra was calling out to Krsna and Krsna came alone. But everyone here in this world was quarreling and they were very nonsense. They were not even calling out Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but how merciful is He that He gave up His abode, all His playing and everything, and He came here with all His associates. Why did He come?

He wanted to bring everyone from this planet to His abode. He wanted that, “They should not fight with each other and they should be with Me, always drinking the nectar of love and affection. They should never have any more birth and death and sufferings and sorrows.” So how merciful is He? Even a very ordinary rich person cannot do this, he cannot come to help anyone. If any people are quarreling and anyone will be lying on the road, that person will not help them. He will not do anything. But this Caitanya Mahaprabhu, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not only Krsna, but the combined form of Radha and Krsna, this Caitanya Mahaprabhu is more merciful.

He came here with all His associates. Why did He come? He knew that they had no love and affection at all. That they were like zero. “They have no knowledge of Krsna, nothing. They don’t know about bhakti, prema-bhakti, or what is Goloka Vrndavana. They don’t know anything.” So Bhaktivinoda Thakura is saying that, “How merciful is He that giving up that very pleasant abode, His playing there, everything, He took all His associates and came here.” Why? For us. Caitanya Mahaprabhu knew that, “These people have nothing. They have no prema. But yet, they are My eternal servants, so I must be merciful to them. I should give them a sprinkle of My mercy, this prema which cannot be attained by even Brahma and Sankara.”

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 21st, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]