Mercy and Justice

Here's another excerpt from the book

"Sri Guru and His Grace," 

by

Srila Bhakti Rakshak Shridhara deva Goswami Maharaj

 

 compiled, edited and published by 

His Holiness Bhakti Sudhir Goswami 

and B. V.  Mahayogi, Editor-in-Chief at Guardian of Devotion Press, 1984.

Mercy is above Justice

We, the finite, should approach the infinite with this spirit: “If justice is applied, I have no hope. I omit that department. I have come only to seek my fortune in the department of mercy, where there is no calculation of right or wrong, of merit or demerit. 

I have come to that department, my Lord, because I do not know what is within me. When I analyse and study my own heart, I find that I am unknown to my own self. I am so helpless and wretched that I don’t even know my self. How then should I venture to appeal to a department where something will be granted only after a calculation of my merits and demerits? I don’t want that. I don’t want any decision based on justice.

“I surrender. You may do whatever you like with me. I am the worst of sinners. What to do with me now is in your hands. You, Saviour, I have come to You. If there is any possibility—save me. This is my open appeal, my one-sided appeal.” 

Surrender

This sort of self-abnegation will automatically cleanse our hearts. By this attitude of śaraṇāgati, or surrender, we invite the greatest attention from above. Śaraṇāgati, surrender, is the only way to be reinstated in our lost prospect.

At present, we are disconnected from the prospect of divine love which we cherish in the innermost quarter of our hearts. If we want to have that privilege very easily and very quickly, we must approach the Lord with plain speaking, and with a naked body and mind, with everything exposed. Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.152) has written:

mat-tulyo nāsti pāpātmā nāparādhī cha kaśchana
parihāre ’pi lajjā me kiṁ bruve puruṣottama

“My Lord, I feel ashamed. How shall I offer You so many pure things like flowers? Generally, pure things are offered to You, but what about me? I have come with the most filthy thing to offer to You. I feel ashamed. I have come to You, with only my shame, to beg for Your mercy. There is no parallel to my sinful life, criminal life. Everything that can be conceived of as bad is found in me. It is very difficult even to speak about the characteristics of my heinous sins and crimes. Still, Your nature, existence, fame, and benevolence cannot but attract me. You can save me. You can purify me. Hoping against hope, I have come to You. And I have only one solace, that I am the real object of Your mercy. Your tendency is to purify the meanest. Those who are the most needy have some claim to Your mercy. I am the worst of the needy and the meanest of the mean. This is my only qualification, my only hope to attract Your attention and appeal to Your magnanimity."

Six Goswamis of Vrindavan

...Dās Goswāmī lived for sixteen years continuously in the association of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and Svarūp Dāmodar. After they disappeared from this world, Raghunāth Dās, disgusted with his future prospect, went to Vṛndāvan to finish his life. But when he met Rūpa and Sanātan there, he saw another vision, a dream of a new life. Then he found, “Although Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and Svarūp Dāmodar have disappeared from my physical eyes, they are living here in Rūpa and Sanātan, within their activities, in their preaching tendency. Mahāprabhu is here, as living as anything.” He had to reject the idea of finishing his life, and with new vigour he began to serve in Vṛndāvan.