Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Why pure devotees are seen to "suffer" ???

(1) First is because the Lord wants their glories to be known widely because when there is suffering in the lives of pure devotees, they become more attached to the Lord and their glory shines even more. Also, by their example during suffering, the conditioned souls can learn and understand from the example of the pure devotees, how to react to suffering in their lives by surrendering to the Lord even more during those times.

(2) Secondly, the Lord wants to stop unqualified, materialistic and egotistic people from approaching and disturbing the pure devotee. Thus He deliberately puts that pure devotee in some distress so that materialistic people think that this pure devotee is an ordinary person and they don't go and disturb his or her bhajana. And thus the pure devotee can relish the Holy Names peacefully in the association of other sincere devotees and disciples.

(3) The third reason is an internal reason. Feeling separation (which may look like suffering externally but actually is extremely blissful within) from the Lord increases and heightens the intensity of the pure devotee's love for the Lord and that makes the pure devotee even more quailified to directly participate in the Lord's pastimes. It also shows to the world the ultimate nature of pure love which is that a pure devotee cannot even live for a moment without the Lord.
For all these three reasons, pure devotees are sometimes seen to externally "suffer". But internally they are experiencing the highest bliss of pure love for Lord Gaura Krishna during these times.

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