Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj describes the bold spirit of the gracious dispensation of Nityānanda Prabhu.
Nityānanda Prabhu’s mercy sometimes exceeds that of Śrī Chaitanyadev. Chaitanyadev sometimes cannot accept the fallen by accepting whom some bad precedent will be created. So, He has to consider their status, position, and other things. But Nityānanda Prabhu’s mercy does not care for any unfavourable circumstance. It is so lavish and almost blind. It is as if His grace is blind as it does not differentiate much between sinners of different degrees. It is all‑embracing, and Mahāprabhu cannot dismiss His recommendation. That is the connection we are given to understand. Nityānanda Prabhu gave mercy to those whom Mahāprabhu rejected, and gradually Mahāprabhu had to accept them. So, the magnitude, the circumference, of the grace of Nityānanda is the highest. That is the solace for us, the most fallen souls.
ye yathā patita haya tava dayā tathodaya
His great plan is something peculiar: He hits those who are the most fallen. It is like the strategy of Napoleon, who attacked the strongest portion of the opposite party.
I heard that once France, Austria, and Hungary were in a long continuous war. Austria was gaining ground, and France had to retreat. Then, France appointed Napoleon, a new, young general, and sent him to the Austrian front. Soon, the Austrian soldiers had to retreat. The king of Austria called for his general: “You were gaining ground, but now you are losing ground. What is the cause?”
The old, experienced general answered, “A new general has come on the French side, and he does not know the war policy. So, we had to retreat.”
“What? He does not know the laws of war, and that is why he is gaining? And you who do know them have had to retreat?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
“Our war policy was that one must attack the weakest part of the opponent, and so we arrange our army in such a way, that when he attacks the weak part, from our strong part we can come and capture him. That was the general law of our war. But this man is so rash. In the beginning, he attacked the strongest portion of our army, and everyone was perplexed. So, we had to retreat. He does not know the old tactics.”
Nityānanda Prabhu, similarly, wants to capture the most sinful.
Once, I went to Krishnanagar court for some cause in the missionary affairs. A few of the big pleaders were there, and one of them said to me, “Swāmījī, we feel ashamed that you are coming to the court. You are holy persons, but you are coming to the court because of fighting amongst you. Do you not feel shy? We are ashamed that our sādhus are coming, but you don’t feel any shyness?”
I answered, “We are sādhus of a different type. Generally, we have the understanding that a sādhu will fly away from this world of māyā, go to some solitary place, enter into some cave, and there he will engage himself in meditation or something like that. Generally, Indian sādhus, they preach like that. They give up everything, come to a solitary place, to the jungle, a forest, or a cave, and engage themselves fully to realise Godhead or something like that. But our Guru Mahārāj is of another type, like that of Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu. He wants to attack māyā in a totalitarian war like Hitler. He wants to crush the whole of māyā. Why is there this misunderstanding, this misconception? Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Īśāvasyam: it is a simple, plain, and a straight thing, but we shall think, “No, this is for me, and this is for him”? Why should such misconception stand here at all? Crush the whole thing. Attack and crush the whole thing. That is kīrtan. Kīrtan means to preach, to preach against misconception, wholesale misconception. He ordered us like soldiers, “You go door to door and tell everyone everything is for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for Kṛṣṇa’s interest. It is all for Him. Understand this plain and simple truth, and you will be saved.” Why should they not understand this? We must try to capture them, to release them from this misconception. They are suffering only from the reactions of this misunderstanding. So, we do not care for anything. If everywhere, then in the court also, this conception from the scriptures must come. You are dealing with ordinary laws in the courts, but we say let Kṛṣṇa consciousness come here also as your fodder, and gradually it will capture you. In this way, we are not afraid of anything.”
Once a solitude-loving Vaiṣṇava asked our Guru Mahārāj, “Why do you remain in Kolkata? That is the place of Kali, kalaha, where fighting for self‑interest is so acute. Leave this place and come to the Dhām.” Our Guru Mahārāj, however, preferred the place of Kali, the place of quarrel with self-interest. He selected that place: “I want to represent Mahāprabhu’s creed in an extremely contaminated place. I prefer that. I want to capture them.”
Similarly also, our Guru Mahārāj wanted to send men towards the West: “The Easterners are now captured by the glamour of Western civilisation, so Western civilisation must be crushed first. Then, that glamour will vanish for the Eastern people, and they will come to join the Lord’s divine love campaign.”
Source
Spoken 13 January 1984