Appearance day Anniversary of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura.
HH Bhakti Caitanya Swami.
There is a very nice little incident in Mahabharata, some of you may have seen it or read of it. Bhima was waiting in the palace outside of one of the rooms, outside of the main throne room of Maharaja Yudhisthira. Maharaja Yudhisthira was on the throne. It was the hour of the day when anyone could come to the king and present anything and the king would deal with it. So Maharaja Yudhisthira was waiting for people and Bhima was outside in the next entrance way, in the next room.
One man came and said to Bhima, “I have to see Yudhisthira. I have got a big problem. I can’t figure it out.” Bhima said, “Oh. What is the problem?” The man said, “I have got a vegetable garden and for security purposes I built a wall around it but now the wall is moving – coming in on the vegetable garden. And the wall is taking the vegetables. I can’t figure it out. How can a wall do that?” Bhima said, “Shew! I don’t know. Go ask Yudhisthira.” So the man went in to see Yudhisthira.
Then just like that another man came and said, “Oh big problem! I took some water out – a bucket of water and I poured the water into five smaller containers but then for some reason i poured the water back from the five containers into the bucket. There was less water in the bucket. I poured all the water into the five containers and all the water out back into the bucket. There is less water. What is going on?” Bhima said, “Shew! I don’t know. Go ask Yudhisthira.”
Then another man came and said, “I have got a problem. What a problem! I have an elephant and we were walking along. We walked through a wall – the elephant also. There is a hole in the wall. We walked through the wall but the tail of the elephant got stuck in the hole. [Laughter] I can’t understand it. What is going on?” Bhima said, “Shew! I don’t know. Go ask Yudhisthira. He is good with these types of problems.”
Then a fourth man came and said, “You won’t believe what happened. I just can’t understand it. There was a mountain over there, just a little way away
– a big pile of rocks, these like boulders and rocks all piled up a mountain and no vegetation, just one little vine – small vine sticking out. I pulled the vine. The whole mountain collapsed. The whole thing collapsed! Finished! No mountain left. What is going on?” Bhima said, “Shew! You beat me. I can’t figure it out. Go ask Yudhisthira.” So that fourth man went.
Bhima was waiting to hear from the men when they came out what solutions v had given but none of them came out. Then he thought, “I am curious here. I am going to go in and find out for myself.” So he went in. Yudhisthira was just sitting there on his own. And Bhima said, “So what happened with those four men? What did you tell them?” Yudhisthira said, “Four men? What four men? Nobody came to see me so far. I am just sitting here on my own. Tell me about these four men.”
So Bhima said, “First man: vegetable garden with wall about it but wall is moving in and eating the vegetables.” Yudhisthira sat up. He said, “Really? Tell me more.” “Second man: He had this bucket of water. Poured it into five cups and poured it back. There was less water.” Yudhisthira sat up even more, “Really? Tell me more.” “Third: he has go an elephant, went through the hole in the wall with the elephant. The elephant’s tail got stuck in the hole.” Yudhisthira sat up even more and said, “Get those men. Find them. Catch them. Lock them up.”
Bhima was totally bewildered and he said, “What? What is going on here? Please tell me.” And Yudhisthira said, “They are personifications of Kali-yuga. But it is not Kali-yuga yet. It is still Dvarpara-yuga. So catch them. Lock them up. Don’t let them loose now.” So then he explained, “The man with the encroaching wall represents the leaders, the governments. They are meant to protect the people from the thieves but they become the biggest thieves. And then the bucket of water poured into the five cups but then you get less back. That is like children in Kali-yuga. The parents put so much effort into them and then when the children grow up they just go their own ways and they don’t reciprocate and give some proper reciprocation to their parents. Then the third man – the elephant goes through the hole in the wall. It has to be a big hole, but his tail gets caught.” Yudhisthira said, “In Kali-yuga all the big government people, business people, all these people are big crooks but because they are so powerful they can get away with it. And some little man does some little crime, some little fraud or something, he gets caught and then there is a big story in the news paper, ‘Fraudster is caught'” Then Bhima said, “What about the fourth man who pulled the creeper?” And Yudhisthira said, “Yes that is very good. He is showing that in Kali-yuga even though it is a mountain of faults just with one little thing – just chanting the hare Krishna maha mantra the whole mountain of fault just collapses.” [Haribol! Applause.]
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