Story 19 Illiterate brahmana
PRABHUPĀDA: I’ll recite one story in this connection,
that one brāhmaṇa in South India,
in Raṅganātha temple, he was reading Bhagavad-gītā.
And he was illiterate.
He did not know neither Sanskrit nor any letter—illiterate.
So, the people [in the] neighborhood, they knew that,
“This man is illiterate, and he is reading Bhagavad-gītā.”
He is opening the Bhagavad- gītā, “Uh, uh,” like that; yes.
So somebody was joking,
“Ah, well, brāhmaṇa, how you are reading Bhagavad-gītā?”
He could understand that “This man is joking because I am illiterate.”
So, in this way,
Caitanya Mahāprabhu also happened to be that day in the Raṅganātha temple,
and He could understand that “Here is a devotee.”
So, He approached him and He asked,
“My dear brāhmaṇa, what you are reading?”
So he could also understand that “This man is not joking.”
So he said, “Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gītā;
I am trying to read Bhagavad- gītā, but I am illiterate.
So, my Guru Mahārāja said that,
‘You must read eighteen chapters daily.’ So, I have no knowledge.
I cannot read.
Still, Guru Mahārāja said,
so I am just trying to carry out his order and opening the pages, and that’s all.
I do not know how to read it.”
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that “You are crying sometimes, I see.”
Then, “Yes, I am crying.”
“How you are crying if you cannot read?”
“No.
Because when I take this Bhagavad- gītā book, I see one picture,
that Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has taken the chariot driver, sārathi, of Arjuna.
He is His devotee.
So Śrī Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He can accept the position of a servant,
because Arjuna was ordering,
‘Keep my chariot here,’ and Kṛṣṇa was serving him.
So Kṛṣṇa is so kind.
So when I see this picture within my mind, I am crying.”
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him:
that “You are reading Bhagavad-gītā.
Without any an education, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā.”
He embraced him.
So this is… How he was seeing the picture?
Because he was a lover of Kṛṣṇa, it doesn’t matter, he could read these ślokas or not.
But he was absorbed in love of Kṛṣṇa,
and he was seeing, Kṛṣṇa was sitting there, and He was driving the chariot of Arjuna.
This is required…
Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, Causelessmercy.com