254 Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta

TRANSLATION

| offer my obeisances unto them as a token of respect. | request them not to con-
sider my offenses.

TEXT 7

acm Aswevway-coatawecar: fara
ATR SSAct SCOPE MAIMTA H 4 H

vande srikrsnacaitanya-premamarataroh priyan
sakha-rupan bhakta-ganan krsna-prema-phala-pradan

SYNONYMS

vande—| offer my obeisances; sr#krsna-caitanya—to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu;
prema-amara-taroh—of the eternal tree full of love of Godhead; priy@n—those who
are devotees; sakha-rupan—represented as branches; bhakta-ganan—all the devotees;
krsna-prema—of love of Krsna; pha/a—of the fruit; pradan—the givers.

TRANSLATION

| offer my obeisances to all the dear devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the
eternal tree of love of Godhead. | offer my respects to all the branches of the tree,
the devotees of the Lord who distribute the fruit of love of Krsna.

PURPORT

Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami sets the example of offering obeisances to all the
preacher devotees of Lord Caitanya, without distinction as to higher and lower. Un-
fortunately, at present there are many foolish so-called devotees of Lord Caitanya
who make such distinctions. For example, the title “Prabhupdda”’ is offered to a
spiritual master, especially to a distinguished spiritual master such as Srila-‘Ripa
Gosvami Prabhupada, Srila JivaiGosvami Prabhupada or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada. When our disciples similarly wanted to address their
spiritual master as Prabhupada, some foolish people became envious. Not consider-
ing the propaganda work of the Hare Krsna movement,, simply because these.
disciples addressed their spiritual master as Prabhupada they became so envious that
they formed a faction along with other such envious persons just to minimize the
value of the Krsna consciousness movement. To chastise such fools, Krsnadasa
Kaviraja Gosvami very frankly says, keha karibare nare jyestha-laghu-krama. Any-
one who is a bona fide preacher of the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu must be
respectful to the real devotees of Lord Caitanya; one should not be envious, con-
sidering one preacher to be very great and another to be very lowly. This is a
material distinction and has no place on the platform of spiritual activities.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami therefore offers equal respect to all the preachers of
the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who are compared to the branches of the tree.
ISKCON is one of these branches, and it should therefore be respected by all sin-
cere devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
