Āpani Acari ‘prabhu’ Jīvere Śikhaya

The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa has personally descended from the spiritual world in His form as a devotee, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to teach the conditioned souls by His personal example how they should perform pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. He has also instructed that one should teach by one’s personal example. It is only the deluded persons who want to cheat themselves who do not faithfully follow the instructions of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and leave His saṅkīrtan preaching movement to engage in solitary or secluded worship of the Lord known as “nirjana-bhajana”.

At the time of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu there was one Jagāi and Madhāi, but now the whole world has become filled with degraded, misdirected persons of the caliber of Jagāi and Madhāi. But instead of following the footsteps of Lord Nītyānanda and delivering these degraded souls, those who claim to be in the Nītyānanda-vaṁsa, or a familial succession from Lord Nītyānanda’s disciples, simply try to increase their own succession of disciples.

They visit their disciples, get well fed and taken care of, and thus enjoy a comfortable life without any thought or anxiety. But it is not proper that a vaiṣṇava devotee of the Lord should be without mercy for the fallen conditioned souls. This is not a standard of advanced devotional service to the Lord.

In this regard, one should see what is the judgement given by the great vaiṣṇava spiritual master and ācārya Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his book Mādhurya Kādambinī as to the real standard of performing devotional service to the Lord, and study his philosophical conclusions.