Radharani and Forgiveness
Lord Indra was worried Maharaja Prthu might steal away some of his power and prestige, so he stole one of the horses for the sacrifice that Prthu was doing, and when he realized he had done wrong, he took shelter of Lord Visnu who then told Prthu to forgive Indra, which he did.
So even the Lord wants us to be forgiving to an errant devotee. It is actually the will of the Lord that we be forgiving, so if I claim to love the Lord, I must be forgiving so that He may be pleased with me, otherwise what is my claim to be His devotee?
After a heavy pastime where Prabhupada shows his transcendental anger at Guru das for forgetting to state on the new letterhead of ISKCON incorporation that the “Founder – Acarya has complete veto power”
Srila Prabhupada said,
“If you do something that I don’t forgive, Krishna will forgive you, and if He doesn’t forgive you, Radharani will ”
(My comments: As you probably are well aware, there is a huge community of people that are into goddesses these days, but few are aware that Srimati Radharani is the goddess of all goddesses.)
I don’t think that we should be apprehensive that to speak on Srimati Radharani is sahajiya and is too esoteric.
I think that the forgiving side of Srimati Radharani needs to be explored in much greater depth, and will further help to shed a lot of light to personify the quality of forgiveness, and will give people more transcendental insight into how this quality of forgiveness is found in the highest embodiment of unconditional love, Srimati Radharani.
We could really take this topic of forgiveness to a level that NOBODY out there is popularizing.
Lord Caitanya, in the mood of Srimati Radharani also has this quality of a forgiving nature (ksama-silata).
If this was included in the talk, then it would REALLY please the devotees who are nectar seeking, as well as giving everyday practical tips on our level. The two “extremes” could be there, with everything in the middle.
We could sing the song that you have so nicely arranged from Our Only Shelter at a point in the program that you would consider appropriate, maybe at the beginning for devotees, or do an English translation version of it with the traditional melody for the western folks.
Sri Krsna-Caitanya prabhu doya koro more
tom bina ke doyalu jagat-samsare
O Prabhu Sri Krsna Caitanya, please be forgiving towards me, as there is no one more forgiving than You in this universe.
Generally, worship is established for Gaura-Nitai Deities before it is offered to Lord Jagannath Deities. The reason for this is that there is less reaction for making any kind of offenses or mistakes when worshipping Gaura-Nitai than with Lord Jagannath Deities. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very forgiving, more so than Lord Jagannath. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada is more forgiving of the neophyte’s offenses than Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, which is why we must always begin with the Spiritual Master. Of course, there’s a certain quality of mercy one can obtain by getting the benediction of any of these Deities.
We should have Guru-Gauranga photos or murtis at the front of the presentation room, the embodiments of forgiveness.
Nectar of Devotion states this. You have probably already researched this, but here it is again:
A person who can tolerate all kinds of offenses from the opposite party is known to be forgiving. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s forgiving quality is described in the Śiśupāla-vadha in connection with His forbidding the killing of Śiśupāla. King Śiśupāla was the monarch of the Cedi kingdom, and although he happened to be a cousin of Kṛṣṇa’s, he was always envious of Him. Whenever they would meet, Śiśupāla would try to insult Kṛṣṇa and call Him ill names as much as possible. In the arena of the Rājasūya sacrifice of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, when Śiśupāla began to call Lord Kṛṣṇa ill names, Kṛṣṇa did not care and remained silent. Some of the people at the arena were prepared to kill Śiśupāla, but Kṛṣṇa restricted them. He was so forgiving. It is said that when there is a thundering sound in the clouds, the mighty lion immediately replies with his thundering roar. But the lion doesn’t care when all the foolish jackals begin to make their less important sounds.
Śrī Yāmunācārya praises Kṛṣṇa’s power of forgiveness with the following statement: “My dear Lord Rāmacandra, You are so merciful to have excused the crow’s clawing on the nipples of Jānakī simply because of his bowing down before You.” Once Indra, the King of heaven, assumed the form of a crow and attacked Sītā (Jānakī), Lord Rāmacandra’s wife, by striking her on the breast. This was certainly an insult to the universal mother, Sītā, and Lord Rāmacandra was immediately prepared to kill the crow. But because later on, the crow bowed down before the Lord, the Lord excused his offense. Śrī Yāmunācārya further says in his prayer that the forgiving power of Lord Kṛṣṇa is even greater than that of Lord Rāmacandra, because Śiśupāla was always in the habit of insulting Kṛṣṇa — not only in one lifetime but continually throughout three lives. Still, Kṛṣṇa was so kind that He gave Śiśupāla the salvation of merging into His existence. From this, we can understand that the goal of the monist to merge into the effulgence of the Supreme is not a very difficult problem. Persons like Śiśupāla who are consistently inimical to Kṛṣṇa can also get this liberation.