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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 03:36:18 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Story of Maharaja Ambarisa
To: indian civilization , agathiyar group
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From: Balakrishnan M
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Story of Maharaja Ambarisa (ISKCON)

Maharaja Ambarisa engaged all his senses in the
service of Krsna. First he engaged his mind and then
he engaged the rest of his senses. One gives an order
to his subordinates, "Do this and that," and if they
don't properly follow, he gives them punishment.
Similarly, Maharaja Ambarisa threatened his mind and
made it afraid to disobey him. The demigods serve
Krsna in fear. Without fear, or without vaidhi-bhakti,
prema will never come. If one gives a gentle request
to someone else, that person may not listen to him.
If he puts fear in the other's mind, however, that
other person may follow his instruction.

Ambarisa Maharaja is the ideal of all Vaisnavas, and
in this regard Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura
continues to explain the deep meaning behind the
conversation between Bhagavan and Durvasa Muni.
Bhagavan is telling Durvasa, "How can I give up My
devotee who has left his family, children, wife and
sense gratification, and who has taken exclusive
shelter of Me? I can never give him up."

ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah

"As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly.
Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of
Prtha. As they surrender I reward them accordingly."
(Bg. 4.11)

"My nature is that I reciprocate with My surrendered
soul. How is it possible for me to save you from My
Sudarsana cakra? What have you left for Me?"

Durvasa says, "O Brahmanyadeva! You are fond of, and
have great respect for the brahmanas, and I'm not a
simple brahmana. I'm a very high-class brahmana. Why
are you neglecting me?"

Krsna replies, "Yes, I'm neglecting you. Do you think
that I should give up My devotee for you? I should
save you? I will not save the enemy of My devotee. I
won't do so even if you request this of Me again and
again. O brahmana, My devotee has left everything for
Me and he has taken shelter of Me. Have you left a
farthing, or done any service for Me?"

Durvasa Muni replies, "What has Maharaja Ambarisa left
for you?"

Bhagavan says, "Oh, you don't know? He is a
saranagata-bhakta. Devotees don't make any attempt to
save themselves. When you created Krtya, the fire
demoness, and she went to destroy Ambarisa Maharaja,
he didn’t make any attempt to save himself. You are an
atmarama-muni. You are supposed to be self-satisfied,
and yet you became afraid when My Sudarsana cakra came
towards you. On the other hand, Ambarisa Maharaja
didn’t become fearful at all. Therefore he is
saranagati. Why should I worry about you? If you’ve
surrendered to guru and Krsna, why are you running
here and there to save yourself? My devotees are like
purchased animals;
they are never concerned for their own maintenance. On
the other hand, as soon as you saw the Sudarsana
cakra, you ran here, there, and everywhere, to caves,
mountains and oceans. You went to take shelter of
Brahma and Siva. You call yourself atmarama, but
actually you are a foolish person. Why did you pray to
the demigods?

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sings:

manasa, deho, geho, jo kichu mora
arpilun tuwa pade, nanda-kisora!

"Mind, body, and family, whatever may be mine, I have
surrendered at Your lotus feet, O youthful son of
Nanda!"

Bhagavan continues, "What is your value? You have no
saranagati. You are a foolish person. How can I
convince you?" A guru can't convince a foolish
disciple. Such a disciple thinks that he knows
everything, but actually he knows nothing.

"You are a brahmavada-rsi. I can't be controlled by
a yogi such as yourself. There is no example anywhere
in sastra that I am controlled by a yogi. Just as a
chaste wife is controlled by her husband, I am
controlled by the service of My bhaktas who have so
much bhakti that they control Me. I am not known as
yogi-vatsalya-bhagavan. I am known as
bhakta-vatsalya-bhagavan. My bhakta does not want any
of the five types of liberation, even if I want to
give it to him. By the influence of his bhajana, mukti
automatically comes to him although he has no desire
for it. When the
sun rises, both light and heat are manifest. This is
not actually a proper example, however, because
devotees don’t want heat and light. Other than bhakti
itself, My devotees are udasina, indifferent, to all
benefits given by bhakti. These devotees have given Me
their heart and I also have given them mine in
exchange. They are samadarsi; they have equal vision
to all. They do not consider, 'Oh, this is my special
sister,' or 'This is my special mother.' "

Ambarisa Maharaja is niskama-parikasta, the topmost
example of niskama.

sadhavo hrdayam mahyam
sadhunam hrdayam tv aham
mad-anyat te na jananti
naham tebhyo manag api

"The devotees are always in My heart, and I am always
in the hearts of the devotees. The devotee does not
know anything beyond Me, and I also cannot forget the
devotee. There is a very intimate relationship between
Me and the pure devotees. Pure devotees in full
knowledge are never out of spiritual touch, and
therefore they are very much dear to Me."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.4.68)

Bhagavan continues, "Durvasa, you wanted to burn
Ambarisa Maharaja, and that means that you wanted to
burn Me. Do you understand? You have given pain to
My heart. My heart is in the bhakta, and therefore you
gave Me pain when you wanted to give him pain. If you
make a bhakta suffer, it means that you are giving
pain to Me. I feel pain when the sadhu feels pain
because My heart and the heart of the sadhu is the
same. Conversely, if a sadhu is happy, it means that I
am also happy." When a bhakta like Ambarisa Maharaja
is pleased then I am pleased. However, my bhakta never
desires his personal pleasure. He always thinks, 'How
can I please Bhagavan?'

"You sent the Krtya demoness to kill Ambarisa
Maharaja. He has so much power that he could have
protected himself and punished you also. But he is
surrendered to Me and therefore he did not do so. I
also could have easily and immediately punished you,
but Maharaja Ambarisa would have been sorry and
thought, 'A brahmana was killed only because of me.'
This is the example of My honor for brahmanas. I
wanted to give you appropriate and immediate
punishment, but I could not. I was bound by Ambarisa
Maharaja. His desire was that you should not be
killed, and it is only by his desire that you are
alive."

Durvasa replies, "You should not simply see my faults.
I'm a very high-class brahmana. You should also see
Maharaja Ambarisa's fault. I never accept invitations,
but because he respected me I accepted his invitation.
But then he insulted me by eating before me. Why do
You only see my fault? His drinking water before he
fed me was his 'cleverness.' He thinks he is very
clever. He invited me and then he drank water before
feeding me."

Bhagavan is now very angry and says, "Go and ask this
question to Maharaja Ambarisa. He was simply following
the srutis, the Vedas, and the Upanisads, which state
that in order to break ekadasi on the dvadasi, paran
[prasada taken after a fast] must be honored at a
specific time. Otherwise, if this is not observed, the
bhakti that would have been gained by following
ekadasi
disappears. Water is neither considered eating nor not
eating, and therefore Maharaja Ambarisa cannot be
criticized. Maharaja Ambarisa believes the injunctions
of sastra, but you don’t. It's much better to observe
ekadasi and dvadasi than to respect a proud brahmana.
He took dvadasi paran because he didn't want to lose
his bhakti. Whatever he did was for My pleasure.

When Durvasa Muni asks, "What is more important:
dvadasi paran or respecting brahmanas?" Bhagavan's
anger increases and He replies, "I have no time to
answer you. Go to Ambarisa Maharaja. He knows more
than I do."

Durvasa persists, "He couldn't wait for a few minutes
until I got there and ate first?"

Bhagavan now becomes very angry and says, "I have no
time for these nonsense questions. You're so stupid.
He only took Deity water, caranamrta. That means he
was eating and not eating. One cannot blame him for
doing either."

Durvasa Muni then thought seriously and considered,
"Yes, I'm a brahmana, but the Sudarsana cakra made me
fearfully flee everywhere. I couldn't save myself and
I couldn't find any shelter. There must be some power
in ekadasi-vrata."

Bhagavan then tells Durvasa Rsi, "I'll let you know
how you can be saved. Listen to Me. You should go and
take shelter of Maharaja Ambarisa."

Durvasa replies, "How can I go to him? He'll be
angry."

Bhagavan tells him, "No; he's samadarsi. He sees
everyone, enemies and friends, with equal vision. Just
go and see. One of the symptoms of high-class
vaisnavas is that they'll forget whatever harm another
person does to them, but they’ll never forget whatever
good one does to them. Don’t see Maharaja Ambarisa as
the creator of your suffering. You are the cause of
your suffering .You brought him suffering, but still
he prayed to the Sudarsana cakra to save you. It was
only because of his prayers that the cakra did not
destroy you."

Nanda Baba told Vasudeva Maharaja, "My son Krsna did
not kill Kamsa. Kamsa was killed by his own actions."
In a similar way, Bhagavan is telling Durvasa Muni,
"Your own actions are the cause of your suffering."

In the meantime Ambarisa Maharaja has been praying,
"O Sudarsana, don't burn Durvasa Rsi." The bhakta
knows that suffering is coming to him from a past
life, so he never takes revenge, nor does he blame
anyone else.

Bhagavan continues, "You are not qualified. Your
so-called knowledge is actually avidya, ignorance. You
think that you are intelligent and learned, but
tapasya and vidya never stay with proud persons. They
stay only with those who are humble."

Visvamitra Muni and Vasista Muni once had an argument
about which was more powerful and important: tapasya
or bhakti. They asked Anantadeva, and Anantadeva
replied to Visvamitra, "Take the burden of one of my
hoods. Take one universe on your head." Visvamitra
gave fifty thousand years worth of the results of his
tapasya. Anantadeva then placed the universal planets
on his head, and the planets immediately pushed his
head down. Vasista then gave one minute's result of
his sadhu-sanga, and he was immediately able to hold
the universe on his head.

Durvasa now says "O Prabhuji, how can I go to him? He
is a Ksatriya. He is of a lower caste, whereas I am a
brahamana."

Bhagavan again says, "Tapasya cannot stay with a proud
person. You're not qualified, and therefore tapasya
and vidya cannot stay with you. If you want your
welfare, go to Ambarisa Maharaja. A thorn in the foot
cannot come out from the head. Go to Ambarisa
maharaja. A person who is proud, who is puffed up with
false ego, cannot have real tapasya or
vidya(learning)." It is not possible without faith in
a self-realized guru. In fact, tapasya and vidya
become like death for such a person. Even if one can
give good lectures due to his learning, if he is not
surrendered, his tapasya and vidya will become
like death for him, and this was the case with Durvasa
Muni. One should be humble and practice the principles
of Sri Siksastakam.
Trnad api sunicena
taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih.

Durvasa tells Bhagavan, "Tapasya and vidya are not in
me? I'm a brahma-vidya. I know everything. I'm also a
tapasvi, whereas Ambarisa is only a ksatriya."

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sings in his song Bimala
Vaisnava, "If I think I'm a Vaisnava, I'll want
respect from others." If you want to become a pure
Vaisnava, then don’t think that you are a Vaisnava.
You should think, "Why is everyone giving honor to me?
I'm not qualified." A real devotee will weep when he
considers this.

Once we went with our Guru Maharaja to Asana. There
were more than twenty five devotees there, and one of
those devotees was Bhagavan dasa Brahmacari. He was
very learned and was always serving, but he made a
statement that grhasthas are rotten and degraded.
Hearing this, I became upset and told Guru Maharaja.
Guru Maharaja called him and told him to twist his own
ears and bob up and down as a punishment. He said,
"All
grhastha bhaktas are better than you. We do not see
one's designation, but how much attachment one has for
guru and Krsna." He then told Bhagavan dasa about his
disciple Madhusudana prabhu, who at that time was a
grhastha. He was so qualified that Gurudeva made him
the editor of the Gaudiya Patrika magazine. He also
had vast wealth and spent all of it for Gurudeva.

Finally convinced, Durvasa Rsi left Vaikuntha. In the
meantime, Sukadeva Gosvami explains, Ambarisa Maharaja
felt ashamed and thought, "A brahmarsi like Durvasa is
suffering on my behalf." He therefore prayed to
Sudarsana cakra. "O Sudarsana, you destroy demons and
maintain bhaktas." Still Sudarsana was emitting
tremendous heat. Ambarisa then prayed, "If in my life
I have given donations to devotees and sadhus, and
if I have done any service to Bhagavan, then please
cool down Your heat." Sudarsana was still not
pacified, and therefore Ambarisa continued, "If God is
pleased with me, and if I have seen others with equal
vision, then please cool down." By this time Sudarsana
became cool like the moon. When Durvasa saw that
Sudarsana's heat had gone down, he began to understand
the glory of Ambarisa Maharaja. He said, "O king. Now
I have seen the glory of the bhaktas." We have seen
guru and bhaktas so many times, but we have never
really seen them.

Ambarisa said to him, "O, brahmana, I have been
waiting for you for one year. I am so worried because
you have been going here and there without food, just
because of me. Please take prasadam."

In this way Durvasa Muni saw that the mahatma of the
bhakta was more than that of any brahmana. If a
brahmana does not give honor to a Vaisnava, he is
not a brahmana.

Once, when I was in Madras with Guru Maharaja and
some of his other disciples, a god-brother named
Ananga-mohana had tuberculosis. No one wanted to take
him to the hospital and take care of him, but I saw
how Gurudeva loved him, and so I decided to take care
of him. I told Gurudeva, "You can go and preach, and I
will take care of him." On his last day, the doctors
said he had no pulse and that he was very soon going
to die. Even without a pulse, however, he was calling
out to Gurudeva, "O Baba! O Baba, Baba! Krsna is
calling me, and Srimati Radhika is calling me. I'm
going. O Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, O Nityananda
Prabhu." I placed a photo of Gurudeva for him to
see, and then I prayed to him, "O prabhu, please be
merciful." I saw how Ananga-mohana heard Them calling,
and I heard him speaking even without any pulse. I saw
the glory of a Vaisnava and therefore I realized
further the glory of my Gurudeva. This is just one
example. If one is surrendered, he can see the glory
of his Gurudeva.

My Gurudeva dragged me to the lotus feet of Krsna and
made me desire only to be a Radha-palya-dasi. If Krsna
Himself offers me another service, I will not be
interested. Sri rupa-manjari pada sei mora sampada. My
only wealth is the lotus feet of Sri Rupa Manjari. I
realize my Gurudeva's arati song. I am realizing
something, and I'm trying to give something to you.

Maharaja Ambarisa served guru and Krsna with all his
senses. Although he was a grhastha, all his senses
were engaged. If one is a householder there is no
harm. If he is renounced, there is no harm. In
whatever situation one finds himself, if he engages
all his senses in service, he is a devotee.

If a devotee is not in bhava-bhakti, Krsna will not
send His Sudarsana cakra. This is our problem.
Although we try to engage our senses, we can't. On the
contrary, Maharaja Ambarisa engaged all his senses and
moods. We should do the same, either in vaidhi-bhakti
or raganuga-bhakti, either in Vrndavana or anywhere
else.


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