Verse 2.9.240

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.9.240:

যত দেখ বৈষ্ণবের ব্যবহার-দুঃখ নিশ্চয জানিহ সেই পরানন্দ-সুখ ॥ ২৪০ ॥

यत देख वैष्णवेर व्यवहार-दुःख निश्चय जानिह सेइ परानन्द-सुख ॥ २४० ॥

yata dekha vaiṣṇavera vyavahāra-duḥkha niścaya jāniha sei parānanda-sukha || 240 ||

yata dekha vaisnavera vyavahara-duhkha niscaya janiha sei parananda-sukha (240)

English translation:

(240) Know for certain that whatever worldly distress is seen in a Vaiṣṇava

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

is actually spiritual happiness.

By seeing a fully engaged devotee’s scarcity rather than external opulence, sickness rather than good health, poverty rather than wealth, and ignorance rather than scholarship, those who consider such a Vaiṣṇava is also afflicted by various deficiencies and is hankering after gold, women, and fame, like the karmis, and thus consider him “distressed” should be understood to have lost their intelligence.

Although known as the sunlike personality of a kāyastha family, Śrī Dāsa Gosvāmī Prabhu also never felt any worldly distress and gave up etiquette by disregarding learned brāhmaṇas. Although materialists considered Dabira Khāsa and Sākara Mallika were afflicted by worldly distress because of acting as servants under the rule of a Yavana king, they were never afflicted by worldly distress, rather they were absorbed in the service of Śrī Caitanya’s lotus feet.

Although Ṭhākura Haridāsa was born in a Yavana family and Ṭhākura Uddhāraṇa Datta was born in a suvarṇa-vaṇik family, they never felt any worldly distress. Since they were constantly engaged in the ecstatic service of Hari, they did not get any opportunity to feel the burden of or become overwhelmed with distress like ordinary people.

If one understands the relationship between Kṛṣṇa’s desire and that which karmis and jñānīs consider distressful, then that understanding becomes the source of spiritual happiness. That is why Śrī Gaurasundara has manifested the verse nāhaṃ vipro na ca narapatiḥand forbidden one to think in terms of “I” and “mine” on the platform of mixed happiness and distress. For a self-realized soul, there is no possibility of invoking distress born of anything that has no relationship with the self.