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A Devotee is Bhagavan

The Transcendental Relation

One who is surrendered unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called as a devotee. The position of a devotee is eternal servant of the Lord. But this is not the same servitoship as we witness in this material world. In this world every person is working under someone else, or we say it like, is servant of someone else. The servants of this world are exploited by their masters. The poor are exploited by the rich, the week are exploited by the strong. Whereas in the spiritual world, there is no exploitation. The dealings between the Supreme Master Lord Hari and His servants are simple and sweet exchange of love between them. Here, people want to enjoy each other, in spiritual world, they want to give enjoyment to the Lord. In the field of Kurukshetra, the Lord was acting in a position of a servant – as a chariot driver of Arjuna, whereas from the perspective of scriptures, the Lord is the master of Arjuna. This is because in the transcendental dealings between the Lord and His servants, both are on the same level. The Lord is ready to become the servant of His servant for the Love that the servant is holding for the Lord inside his hearts. Similar instance is found when Sudama, the friend of Lord comes to meet the Lord. He was a very poor brahmana, and yet the Lord who is the proprietor of everything existing was washing the feet of His beloved friend. He made Sudama sit on the same throne He used to sit. Therefore, in the loving exchanges between the Lord and the devotee, both are on the same level.

The Glorious Renunciation of Glory

The word ‘Bhagavan’ means “he one who possess the six opulence in full.” This six opulence are riches, fame, power, intelligence, beauty and renunciation. This six opulence are in full capacity with the Supreme Lord Krishna, He is most beautiful, most famous, most powerful, most intelligent, most rich and most renounced. He was so renounced that at once on the request of His beloved devotee Arjuna, He became the driver of his chariot, leaving all the glories and opulence behind. A devotee is also called Bhagavan sometimes, like Bhagavad Narada, Bhagavan Vyasa etc. because a devotee is one the same level as the Lord. Outwardly they might look like they are servant and master, but due to the extensive love of the devotee for the Lord and Lord’s reciprocation to the loving service of the devotee, the Lord wants the devotee to become even greater than Him. Therefore, to glorify His devotee, the Lord serves the devotee physically then what to say of leaving a mere title of Bhagavan. Just like a son of a rich man is also rich if he is loyal to the father. If he follows the orders of the father, he can also have all the riches his father possess. Similarly, a devotee is complete follower of the instruction of the Lord as described in the scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, therefore he has almost all the rights and access to the opulence of his master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The One with the Six Opulence

A devotee also possesses the same opulence as the Lord. Just like if there is a glass full of water is kept and someone asks you, “What is this?”, the answer will be – “Its water.” We neglect the glass for the thing filled inside it. Similarly, when we are talking about the devotee being called as “Bhagavan”, we neglect the outer body of the devotee and see the Lord inside of him or the devotion for the Lord filled inside the heart of the devotee.

Most Intelligent

A devotee is most intelligent, because he works for his ultimate and permanent benefit. People who are unaware of the nature of this material world are only working for the temporary pleasure and saving of this world, whereas the devotee understanding the temporary and unpredictable nature of this world, is always working to shift him from this painful world to a place of no miseries. In one kingdom there was a rule, that once the king reached fifty years of age, he will be deported to the jungle and a new king will be reinstated for the upcoming years, until the new king is now fifty. Once a new king was installed after sending the previous to the jungle. The new king sent one of his ministers every day to the same jungle where he will be sent after his reign. When the king’s term finished, he was sent to the jungle according to the ritual. The king, was very intelligent, he was already prepared for this time. By sending one of his ministers to the jungle he was building a beautiful and secure place to live, that was even beautiful than the king’s old palace, whereas the previous kings were only busy in enjoying the life as a king, this king was thinking of the future also because his life as a king was temporary. Similarly, a devotee is also most intelligent, because he aims and works for the spiritual planets, which are full of bliss without any tinge of any problem.

Most Powerful

A devotee is also very powerful, he is directly protected by the Lord Himself. Like the people who are provided security, do not have to fight themselves, but are powerful to destroy any threat because of the security they are having on their side, a devotee is also the most powerful person being completely protected by the Lord. We see this practically in the life of king Ambarisha. He was punished by sage Durvasa, even when he did not do anything wrong. He was a perfect devotee of the Lord and therefore, he accepted the punishment as the wish of the Lord. But the Lord cannot see His devotees in pain. He immediately sent the Sudarshana-Chakra to protect the king. The Chakra went after the sage who offended the devotee of the Lord, Durvasa muni went to every personality like demigods, Brahma and Lord Siva for the shelter but they completely rejected. He even went to the Lord to protect him but the Lord said, it is not in his power to control the chakra. As it was protecting the king, only the king can stop it. Then the sage flew back to the king and requested the king to forgive him. The king humbly respected the sage and prayed to the Sudarshana-Chakra to forgive the sage. Finally, the sage was saved by the prayers of the king. We see that, though a devotee is acting powerless, even for defending himself, he is supremely powerful as the Lord is always standing behind to protect his devotee.

Most Beautiful

A devotee is also very attractive and beautiful. The beauty is measured by the extent of one is able to attract others. A devotee can attract everyone. When Srila Prabhupada was trying to preach in the west, he sat on the ground in a park and started to chant the Hare-Krishna Mahamantra. By the devotion of Srila Prabhupada, the hippies who were completely indulged in sex life, or to say, their mission of life was to break the four regulative principles as much as they can, were attracted by an old man. Actually, it is not the look which attracted the people, it is the Lord who is all attractive sitting inside the heart of Srila Prabhupada and who is coming out as the Holy-Name. The personality of Srila Prabhupada who was living example of a pure devotee attracted so much that the result is what we see as International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Another example we see in the case of Prahalada Maharaja, who was a demon by birth and Mahabhagavad devotee of the Lord. He was determined to preach the holy name of the Lord, he out of his worry for the fallen souls, preached the holy name to his demoniac friends and soon, they were also attracted to the teaching of a great devotee – Prahalad Maharaja. The beauty of any human of this world may only attract another human being but the beauty of the pure devotee of the Lord attracts the whole world, not matter human or animals, the all-attractive Lord is also attracted by the beauty of His devotees. A pure devotee is totally dependent on the Lord, this is the quality which attracts the heart of the Lord towards this devotee. The yogis may try to attract the Lord to come in their hearts but it is very difficult to do so whereas one can easily attract the Lord to extent of making the lord sit on your lap and eat just by simple prema-bhakti. Vidura is the perfect example of this. The Lord rejected all the temptating food cuisine prepared by Duryodhana and was attracted by simple saag-roti cooked on the flames of devotion by Vidura and his wife.

Most Rich

The Lord is called Laxmi-Kanta, which means He is the beloved of the goddess of fortune. A devotee being completely dependent on Him is never worried about the financial dealing of his life. The Lord always provides sufficient to His devotees. One may think still the devotee does not have all riches. The point to notice is, a devotee never lacks the money he needs. When Srila Prabhupada went to America, he was having around fifty rupees in total and in twelve years he travelled fourteen times all over the globe establishing one hundred and eight temples. He stood up a great movement all over the world, and it surely needed money. Where it all came from? From the Lord. A devotee is therefore all rich, he is never in a condition where he lack enough money for his sustenance. He is completely satisfied with whatever he gets by the providence. One is not rich because of having loads and loads of money, but by being satisfied with whatever one has. A devotee is satisfied with whatever he has and is rich spiritually. A devotee is all rich in terms of devotion for the Lord, the rarest type of richness in this material world. A devotee is so rich that he can neglect the lower things easily. Just like a person with million of dollars will not care for a one dollar note, a person with spiritual wealth will never care for material opulence. When Parikshit Maharaja got the curse to die in seven days, he left the kingdom and all the possessions like the straw in the street. He had no value for them because he was a great devotee of God. Even after leaving everything, he had something sufficient due to which he was not feeling that he is lacking anything. No rich person of this world is so sufficient or rich. Therefore, a devotee is very rich.

Most Attractive

No matter how much a flower tries to hide in the bushes, its fragrance attracts everyone and people come, pick it and put it on their heads. The fame and the devotee have similar dealings. A devotee always tries to hide from the fame and glory, but the devotion and love for Krishna is not fragrant that it is seen by everyone and the fame of the devotee is everywhere. The fame is always a unmarried girl because those who wants to marry her, she rejects them but the person she wants to marry, rejects her. The non-devotee and sense-enjoying creeps always wants to have fame but they are again and again are rejected by her, whereas, fame runs after the devotee and the devotee again and again rejects her because he is running after the boy who is blue in color. Madhvendra Puri, a very great devotee of the Lord and spiritual master of the spiritual master of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprahu was very immersed in bhajan. Once the Lord performed the pastimes of Khira-Chor-Gopinath with him. Where the Lord attempted a theft of sweet rice prepared and offered by Sripad Madhvendra Puri to the Lord by utmost love and devotion. Everybody was talking about this in the whole village. Sripad Madhvendra Puri did not want any fame as a “great devotee of the Lord.” Therefore, he ran to Jagannath-Puri in order to go away from the fame. But the glories of Sripad Madhvendra Puri reached there before him and everybody was waiting for him to come. Therefore, to avoid any fame the devotees of the Lord sometimes live like a penny less beggar. It is sometimes difficult to understand that the person is a devotee or an actual beggar. This is all because of the mercy of Supreme Lord, He wants to see His devotees to be glorified even more than Him. That’s why He is always ready to serve His devotees.

Most Renounced

A devotee is all renounced. They do not want anything for themselves. As I have mentioned about the king Parikshit, he never understood the kingdom as his own. It is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam that he was taking care of the kingdom thinking it as a property of God and that he is just a caretaker. Actually, it was in his bloodline, King Yudhishthira was same. When the king came to know about the return of Lord Krishna to the spiritual world, at once the king renounced his family, kingdom and everything and started to go towards the north. Actually, renunciation does not mean they don’t want anything, but it means that they want only Krishna, and everything else if it could be helpful in serving Krishna, otherwise it is as good as dust on the road for them. Arjuna, who was very attached to his family and relations, killed everyone of them just for the wish of Krishna. They were ready to leave all kingdom if Krishna wanted them to. Such renunciation of devotees is liked by Krishna. Once the Lord went to King Bali, to take back the three worlds for the demigods. The Lord asked the king for just three steps of land, the king agreed easily. But the Lord, in three steps covered the whole universe. Bali Maharaja was a great devotee of the Lord and did not object the Lord of cheating. Bali Maharaja was pure devotee of the Lord and was ready to give up everything, even himself if the Lord asked it, he even renounced his guru. Such examples proves that the devotee is all renounced.

So far, we are clear that the devotee also possesses all the opulence in full, just as the Lord. And therefore, is sometimes called as ‘Bhagavan’. The six opulence are in control of a pure devotee because the Lord who is the proprietor of everything is under the bondage of the pure devotee. A pure devotee can control the Lord. Therefore, there is nothing which he cannot have, but still what he wants to have is, bhavatad-bhakti-ahaituki-tvai.

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