It was late evening as I was reading Chaitanya Caritamrita, the chapter about Mādhavendra Purī and the sacrifice he made to please his beloved Deity, Sri Gopal. I was absorbed in reading when suddenly, I heard the crying outside my room. I stopped reading. Was someone injured?
I gently opened the door to look for the person who was crying. On the chair in the corridor, I saw a devotee who recently joined the temple. Noticing my presence, he wiped tears from his eyes and straightened his sitting posture, trying to hide his tearful eyes by not looking at me.
“Are you alright? Can I help you in any way?” I asked.
“I’m missing my friends,” the devotee responded.
Still avoiding looking at me he repeated: “I’m homesick. I miss my friends who live in another country.”
“Until you return home, we will try our best to support you and be your friends,” I replied.
I spent some time with him until he calmed down.
The next day in the morning, after my service I saw another devotee crying, and this time it was a lady. During the morning prayers, she was sobbing in front of her mentor, feeling sad that she could not spend time with her spiritual master. Her mentor tried to soothe her but without much result. She kept crying.
Later that day as I was entering the temple to hear the class from a visiting sadhu, I saw another devotee crying, this time tears of happiness, because of finally meeting his spiritual master after years of being separated from him.
So much crying I witnessed over the last two days!
I reflected on the Chaitanya Caritamrita book I read the night before.
Mādhavendra Purī was a great devotee. He was constantly crying in separation from Krishna. The author of the Chaitanya Caritamrita, Krishna das Kaviraj Goswami, was regularly in tears whilst writing about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself was shedding gallons of tears during his earthly pastimes.
Chaitanya Caritamrita teaches us the art of crying for Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada, who translated Chaitanya Caritamrita into the English language, would generally not publicly exhibit ecstatic symptoms. Sometimes, he would enter into a trance and cry in separation from his spiritual master.
Right from the beginning of our disciplic succession, and till the present day, great saints and their followers have been crying for the mercy of the Lord.
Vrindavan Dham is the crying school. It is the best place to learn how to cry for Krishna because it is inhabited by saintly devotees who are constantly crying for their Lord’s mercy.
I rarely cry, and even when I do it is usually owing to some material suffering.
Perhaps it is time for me to visit Vrindavan, the crying school, and be around the sadhus who can teach me how to cry for Krishna.
Ananta Gopal das
2 October 2022
Bhakti Wisdom 