Devotion for Krishna is the Only Necessity
By Śrīla B.R. Śrīdhara Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāja, excerpted from Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion Vol. I, Chapter Six.
Srila Sanatan Goswami contracted sores all over his body due to the contact of bad water in the jungle when he was returning from Vrindavan to Puri. Mahaprabhu used to welcome him by embracing him, but Sanatan would try to withdraw. He objected, “Don’t touch me! This is the body of a sinful man.” The sores were oozing and emitting a bad odor, but Mahaprabhu embraced him forcibly. Sanatan had decided, “I shall either leave this place or I shall invite death by falling under the wheel of the cart of Lord Jagannath.” But as the Lord in the heart of all, Mahaprabhu knew Sanatan’s mind. He chastised him, and embraced him, forcibly. All the sores disappeared, and Sanatan’s body immediately became like gold.
Mahaprabhu said, “Sanatan, you are a Vaisnav. Your body is not defective. Aprakrta-deha tomara ‘prakrta’ kabhu naya. Krishna is testing Me. I am a sannyasi, and He is examining whether there is any partiality in My dealings with a Vaisnav simply because of his externally having so many sores. He is examining whether I will shrink from the association of such a Vaisnav and cast him aside. But your body is already pure, and only for the purpose of testing the public, Krishna has created this; and if I cannot see this, I will have failed His test and will have been deceived by Krishna. It is a mere show, it is nothing; your body is pure because you are a Vaisnav, a devotee of Krishna. This impurity is only an appearance in order to serve Krishna’s divine purpose. Wherever there is Vaisnavata, true saintly devotedness, there can never be any contamination. Only to test my devotion has Krishna sent you to Me in this condition.” So Mahaprabhu embraced him and demonstrated that he was absolutely pure.
Whether externally pure or impure, the whole principle is that our exclusive devotion for Krishna is the only necessity. In the ordinary sense, the gopis are also sinners. They crossed the laws of society and the sastras, so they are ‘sinners’. But they hold the highest position of purity by their exclusive devotedness to Krishna and no other. They cannot help but to serve Krishna cent-per-cent, even at the risk of crossing the entire code of morality. They are considered to be the highest devotional ideal.
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