Verse 1.16.167

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.16.167:

ভাল হৈল, ইথে বড পাইলুঙ্ সন্তোষ অল্প শাস্তি করি’ ক্ষমিলেন বড-দোষ ॥ ১৬৭ ॥

भाल हैल, इथे बड पाइलुङ् सन्तोष अल्प शास्ति करि’ क्षमिलेन बड-दोष ॥ १६७ ॥

bhāla haila, ithe baḍa pāiluṅ santoṣa alpa śāsti kari’ kṣamilena baḍa-doṣa || 167 ||

bhala haila, ithe bada pailun santosa alpa sasti kari’ ksamilena bada-dosa (167)

English translation:

(167) “I’m satisfied, for whatever happened to me was for my benefit. The Lord has relieved me of my great offense by awarding me a token punishment.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Those who even after hearing the blasphemy of Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas display their ‘cleverness’ by posing as advanced and liberal (?) on the pretext of artificial gentleness or tolerance without understanding the real purport of taror api sahiṣṇu—“more tolerant than a tree” are understood to be enjoying the results of their grave offenses. One should not consider such grave offenses as trivial and advertise sense gratification aimed at accumulating mundane fame as worship of Hari. For this reason, in order to instruct the people of the world, jagad-guru Ṭhākura Haridāsa pointed out the great faults of the foolish prākṛta-sahajiyās, who display artificial humility, by humbly saying: “I have heard blasphemy of Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava without hesitation; therefore I am a great offender. Since I did not protest, it would have been proper if Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava had awarded me more severe punishment; but the Lord is most merciful. He awarded me only the token punishment of being inhumanly tortured by the servants of the king and thus freed me from the offenses born from blasphemy of Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas. In this way He has proved Himself as causelessly merciful, by which my happiness and satisfaction is increased. In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.14.8) Lord Brahmā prays to the Lord as follows:

tat te ‘nukampāṃ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṃ vipākam

hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

“‘My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his

heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.’ In order to distort and change the meaning and purport of this Bhāgavatam verse, I failed to protest; that was my greatest mistake.”