A Bengali couple lost two sons straight after they were born. They named their third, surviving son, Dukhi. Dukhi was spontaneously attracted to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda. Whenever he would hear anything about the Lord or His associates, he would run to that place with great enthusiasm. When he grew up a little, his father and mother told that it was time for him to accept a spiritual master. The child told them that he wanted to accept Hridaya Chaitanya of Ambika Kalna, a disciple of Gauridas Pandit as his spiritual master.
So he was sent there and Hridayachaitanya accepted him as his disciple. He gave him the name Dukhi Krishna das and sent him to be trained under Srila Jiva Goswami. Dukhi Krishna Das, Narottam Das Thakur & Srinivas Acharya became most intimate loving friends. Narottam Das Thakur was the disciple of Loknath Goswami and Srinivas Acharya was the disciple of Gopal Bhatta Goswami. But because they were all serving their guru and were all united in the service of the six Goswamis and the Lord, there were no boundaries to the intimacies of their affection and respect for each other. This is a Vaisnava society.
Jiva Goswami gave Dukhi Krishna Das the service to sweep and clean the pathways of seva kunj. He would get on his hands and knees and sweep the pathways with a broom. He would be completely covered with dust but he felt very grateful and honored to do this menial service.
When Krishna sees that we are grateful for the service we have and that we do not take any aspect of the devotional service to be ordinary or for granted, then Krishna really accepts our devotion and that gives pleasure to Him.
Happiness in Krishna Consciousness is when we can deeply be grateful for whatever service we are allowed to do. If we are grateful for any opportunity to serve, that gratitude is an expression of our love for Krishna and that is what makes us happy. If we are not grateful, even if we have every type of material and spiritual facility and everything is just going the way we want it to go, there could be no happiness in our heart because Krishna is not pleased with us. Our happiness is when Krishna is pleased with us.
It was the order of Jiva Goswami, his siksha guru, and he took that service as his life and soul. He did it every day for 7 yrs. He never asked Jiva Goswami for something else to do. One day
as Dukhi Krishna was sweeping, he happened to see some light under a bush. There he found an incredible ankle bracelet made of gold. Just by touching it he became ecstatic. He could understand that this was Srimati Radharani’s bracelet. Lalita Sakhi disguised herself as a simple old woman and approached Dukhi Krishna Das and said, “Did you find an ankle bracelet.” And Dukhi Krishna Das said “Yes I did”. The old lady said, “That belongs to my daughter in law. Please give it to me.”
Dukhi Krishna Das said, “Bring me to your daughter in law, I wouldl like to deliver it to her myself.” Seeing the purity of his devotion, she brought Dukhi Krishna Das in Seva Kunj and dipped him in Lalita kund. He came out of the kund in his original spiritual form of a gopi named Kanaka Manjiri. Then Lalita Sakhi brought Kanak Manjiri before Srimati Radharani.
Radharani took the jewel and lovingly pressed it very firmly against his forehead and created a special tilak. Srimati Radharani said, “Because you have pleased me so much by your devotion, I want to give you that which is very dear to my heart.” Then from Srimati Radharani’s heart manifested a deity of Krishna named Shyamasundar.
Lalita Sakhi said, “Because you have given so much happiness to Srimati Radharani, Shyama, Your new name would be Shyamananda but you must not tell anyone about what happened here.” When he came back to the association of devotees, they were wondering about his new tilak and name. But he could not tell them anything. Srimati Radharani revealed the truth to Jiva Goswami but he could not tell it to anyone either. Gradually the news came to Hridayachaitanya and he was very much worried. He took many great souls and associates of Lord Nityananda and brought them to Vrindavan.
When he inquired about what had happened, neither Jiva Goswami nor Shyamananda could tell him. Hridayachaitanya was very much concerned “You are making aparadha. This is not right.” He said “If this is really meant to be the tilak for you, then it will not come off even when I rub it off.” Hridayachaitanya started rubbing the tilak from his forehead and also the name Shyamananda which was written on his chest. But the more he rubbed, the more it shone and eventually Lord Caitanya personally appeared to Hridayachaitanya and told him everything. In this way everything was resolved in the most historical and wonderful way.
In Radha Shyamasundar temple, the small deity on the right side of the large deity is the deity that was manifested by Srimati Radharani. The Maharaj of Bharatpur offered the self-manifested deity of Srimati Radharani to stand beside Shyamsundar.
– Radhanath Swami
Such pastimes of the Lord with His intimate devotees inspire one to seriously take to devotional service to Krishna. It was amazing to read this pastime of Shyamananda prabhu.
Thanks to Radhanath Swami for speaking such a wonderful pastime.
Yes indeed they are very inspiring.
Dukhi Krishna Das was the most Happy person as he served his Guru with only one desire i.e; to please him. It requires tremendous sincerity to reach this stage. These Yatras by HH Radhanath Swami are soul enriching and charges ones spiritual battery for a long time.
“Happiness in Krishna Consciousness is when we can deeply be grateful for whatever service we are allowed to do.”
Very profound and practical statement.
Thank you Radhanath Swami for the same.
Yes I do agree. Such deep statements are the gifts of the Radhanath Swami’s bhakti wisdom.
our happiness is when Krishna is pleased with us… so precisely defined by Radhanath Swami.
Another very sweet pastime of Lord with His devotees.
very wonderful incident… and amazing thing to learn is no service is bigger or smaller. each and every service done by great devotion is pleasing to krishna… hari bol!!!!
our happiness is hidden in the satisfaction of guru and krishna
Very inspiring pastime……………….We should also aspire to get such humble service attitude from ‘Dukhi’ to please Radharani and our supreme Lord……
Very inspiring pastime on Shyamanand prabhu by Radhanath Swami. Such pastimes are hope-giving to many devotees.
A very beautiful pastime described very enchantingly by Radhanath swami,
By explaining this pasttime of Shyamsundar Prabhu Radhanath Swami is increasing the love towards Radha-Krishna in the heart of readers.
Beautiful pastime. So we need to just carry on the devotional service and feel grateful. “Happiness in Krishna Consciousness is when we can deeply be grateful for whatever service we are allowed to do. If we are grateful for any opportunity to serve, that gratitude is an expression of our love for Krishna and that is what makes us happy.” Thank you very much.
Heart melting narration from Swamiji…….Service done with right attitude bring the best spiritual benefits…..
I remember the quote in Nectar of Devotion which states that “Devotional Service” is very rare to attain.
Only most fortunate souls get devotional service. Hence one has to be grateful to perform the same.
Thank you Maharaj for emphasizing this point.
Amazing story! The Lord reciprocates so mercifully and lovingly with his devotees who are filled with piety and pure devotional service.
An amazing pastime and even more relishable narration by Radhanath Swami – the entire pastime appears before you in real.
When Krishna sees that we are grateful for the service we have and that we do not take any aspect of the devotional service to be ordinary or for granted, then Krishna really accepts our devotion and that gives pleasure to Him…this quote has really increased my faith
When Krishna sees that we are grateful for the service we have and that we do not take any aspect of the devotional service to be ordinary or for granted, then Krishna really accepts our devotion and that gives pleasure to Him.Thanks Radhanath swami maharaj
There are so many gems one could learn from this pastime. What touched my heart is the importance of devotional service as practised by Shyamananda Prabhu. Only devotional service can attract Lord Krishna’s mercy. Thank You Maharaj
very touching, how lord reciprocates with pure devotees who serve lord & his devotees with unmotivated devotional service. Thanks to Radhanath swami for explaining this in such a detailed & easy way.
As explained by HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj,being grateful from the heart for what ever little service we get pleases Krishna and makes our life successful.
Such a sweet pastime described by HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj!
Such a sweet reciprocation of Lord with His pure devotee.
This is a very nice past time
Very touching pastime of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu