GURU (Teacher of Men)

HOW SRI CHAITANYA ATTRACTED THE WORLDLY

WORLDLY people will never listen to you if you ask them to renounce everything and devote themselves wholeheartedly to God. Therefore Chaitanya and Nitai, after some deliberation, made an arrangement to attract the worldly. They would say to such persons, "Come, repeat the name of Hari, and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish and the embrace of a young woman." Many people, attracted by the fish and woman, would chant the name of God. After tasting a little of the nectar of God's hallowed name, they would soon realize that the 'fish soup' really meant the tears they shed for love of God, while the 'young woman' signified the earth. The embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture of divine love. (168)