Text 295] Lord Caitanya Meets Raghunatha dasa Gosvami 337
TRANSLATION

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed Raghunatha dasa, ‘This stone is the

transcendental form of Lord Krsna. Worship the stone with great eagerness.”
PURPORT

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes in his Anubhasya that in the opin-
ion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the govardhana-sild, the stone from Govardhana
Hill, was directly the form of Krsna, the son of Maharaja Nanda. The Lord used the
stone for three years, and then in the heart of Raghunatha dasa the Lord
awakened devotional service to the stone. The Lord then gave the stone to
Raghunatha dasa, accepting him as one of His most confidential servants.
However, some envious people conclude that because Raghunatha dasa had not
taken birth in the family of a brahmana, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not give him
the right to worship the Deity directly, but instead gave him a stone from
Govardhana. This kind of thought is naraki, or hellish. As stated in the Padma
Purana, arcye visnau siladhir gurusu nara-matir vaisnave jati-buddhih...yasya va
naraki sah: “One who considers the arcd-marti (the worshipable Deity of Lord
Visnu) to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, or a
Vaisnava to belong to a particular creed is possessed of hellish intelligence.” If one
thinks that the worshipable sdalagrama-sila is a mere stone, that the spirituai
master is an ordinary human being or that a pure Vaisnava preaching the bhakti
cult all over the world is a member of a particular caste or material division of
society, he is considered a ndaraki, a candidate for hellish life. When Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu instructed that the govardhana-sila, the stone taken from
Govardhana, is nondifferent from the body of Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, He indirectly advised such foolish persons that one should not be
envious of a Vaisnava who belongs to a different caste or sect. One should accept
a Vaisnava as transcendental. In this way one can be saved; otherwise, one is
surely awaiting a hellish life.

TEXT 295
ae fara sa Gh mies aterm |
afoate Aiea Sf] SHcelas |i 2d¢ I
ei silara kara tumi sattvika pdjana
acirat pabe tumi krsna-prema-dhana
SYNONYMS

ei silara—of this stone; kara—do; tumi—you; sattvika pUjana—worshiping like
a perfect brahmana, or in the mode of goodness; aciraét—very soon; pabe tumi—
you will get; krsna-prema—ecstatic love of Krsna; dhana—wealth.
