(Click to enlarge photo of Ksira-Cora Gopinatha, Remuna)
"Perhaps you do not know the story of Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī was a great devotee in this Gauḍīya-sampradāya, and in this Govardhana there was Gopāla, I mean to say, covered by dirty and jungles and trees. So the Gopāla... When Mādhavendra Purī was in Vṛndāvana, the Gopāla in dream expressed Himself, 'Mādhavendra Purī, I am very much suffocated. I am covered by this dirt and jungles. Please re-excavate Me from this condition and install Me in the temple.'
So Mādhavendra Purī, with the help of villagers, he excavated the earth and found this Gopāla mūrti. And this Gopāla mūrti was installed by the help of the villagers very luxuriantly. For so many days there was festival. That is the way of installing Deity. At least for seven days there must be festival.
So after some days, Mādhavendra Purī was informed in dream that 'Since I was long within the earth, My body is very much heated. So you kindly bring some sandalwood from Jagannātha Purī and smear all over the body the pulp of sandalwood, then I shall be happy.'
So Mādhavendra Purī was very old man at that time, and it is order of Gopālajī, so he started for Jagannātha Purī. On the way there is a Gopīnātha temple in Orissa, on the border of Orissa and Bengal... So he stayed there overnight and he saw that the Gopāla..., Gopīnāthajī was offered kṣīra, seven pots of kṣīra (condensed milk). So Mādhavendra Purī thought within himself, 'If I could taste little kṣīra, then I would also make such kṣīra to offer my Gopāla in Vṛndāvana.'
Then again he thought that 'Oh, I am so stupid that before offering to the Deity I am thinking of eating it.' He thought himself to be very much culprit, and he immediately left the temple, 'No, I shall not. I am committing offense.' It is an offense. Therefore, when you bring bhoga for the Deity, it should be covered so that we greedy men may not see it and try to taste it. You see? Kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs (neophyte devotees) they sometimes do that. Sometimes they take away something before offering to the Deity. These are great offenses.
So Mādhavendra Purī thought it that he was a great offender; he should not live in this temple, he should go outside. So he went outside, and underneath a tree he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, just to pass over the night, then proceed toward Jagannātha Purī. So at night the Deity, Gopīnātha, was asking the pūjārī, the priest, that 'I have kept one pot of kṣīra behind My back garment... so you take this pot of kṣīra, condensed milk, to Mādhavendra Purī—he is sitting underneath a tree—and offer him.'
So the pūjārī wake up, and actually when he opened the door of the Deity room, he found that pot of kṣīra. So he could understand that 'This Mādhavendra Purī is not an ordinary devotee, he is a great devotee; otherwise how the Lord has stolen this pot for him?' (laughter) Since then, that Gopīnātha is famous as Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha: Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha, the Gopīnātha who stole the kṣīra for His devotee. So He is known as thief, Kṣīra-corā. He is famous as a great thief. Still people go to see Him, how nice this thief is.
That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself. When we are thief, we are beaten by shoes. And when Kṛṣṇa is thief, He is worshiped by devotees. Just like Kṛṣṇa is worshiped as Raṇacora, who left the war field. When a man leaves the war field, he is called coward. But Kṛṣṇa, everyone knows for pastimes He left the war field. It was in the Gujarat province. Kṛṣṇa as the Raṇacora who left the war field. That is cowardice; still He is worshiped. That is absolutism.
Kṛṣṇa in any condition, He is Kṛṣṇa. Either as Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha, or as a taunter to the gopīs, or any way in the material world which is abominable, but when Kṛṣṇa does it, because He is absolute, it is good. That is absolutism. You cannot accuse Kṛṣṇa that 'Oh, You have done like this.' Whatever He has done, it is right."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Delhi, November 16, 1971)
.
.
