The Lord's devotees have a special qualification in that, as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.32): "ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo ’rjuna sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ." They're the parama yogīs because, He says, they have compassion. Atmaupamyena means they feel empathy towards others because they've been through it themselves, and they know what the material world's like. Although Kṛṣṇa oversees the material world and there's a sense of the suffering of the living entities, the ones who feel it most intensely are those who've been in it and then have been saved by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and are given the opportunity, then, as a lifetime occupation, to go out and give mercy to others. And He describes, as everyone knows, several ways in which this potency of Kṛṣṇa appears through the devotees in this world, through the seemingly incidental way in which someone may introduce somebody to Kṛṣṇa consciousness—the vartmana pradakṣaka guru, somebody who shows you the path. Kṛṣṇa works through that person. There's serendipity there.

Interestingly, that person who introduces one to the path may not even be fully aware that he or she is doing it. For instance, Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura is mentioned in the first chapter of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and his girlfriend is the one he accredits for introducing him to the path of pure bhakti. He was just going to hang out, and she said, "What are you doing with your life? Couldn't you, like, get it together? You'd actually be a great devotee if you just use some of this energy for God." And it woke him up. So he eternally gives her credit as Kṛṣṇa is speaking to him through an agent called the vartmana pradakṣaka guru—guru, one who opens one's eyes from darkness into light.

Then he describes how there are many instructors who speak on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, and then there's one who gives the mantra. And all of these, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī describes as manifestations of Kṛṣṇa. It's the way that He appears in this world. Uddhava mentions at the end of the Uddhava-gītā: "naivopayanty apacitiṁ kavayas taveśa brahmāyuṣāpi kṛtam ṛddha-mudaḥ smarantaḥ yo ’ntar bahis tanu-bhṛtām aśubhaṁ vidhunvann ācārya-caittya-vapuṣā sva-gatiṁ vyanakti (SB 11.29.6)." He says to Lord Kṛṣṇa, 'That I cannot offer enough gratitude. I cannot express enough gratitude to You, because You appear in this world as the ācārya to sva-gatiṁ vyanakti, to show the path to You. And You also appear as the antaryāmī, the Supersoul within the heart.' As we know, and Kavirāja Gosvāmī quotes this in the first chapter of the Ādi-līlā: "teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te" He uses the metaphor that 'I'm there ready to light a lamp and show you the direction if you become interested in Me.' He said, 'So You're there as the antarayāmī to show the path.' And then he said, 'You manifest externally as the different gurus who will show me the path. Externally walk me by the hand along the path of devotional service,' called anugraha. As graha means a grabber, and anu means follow.

So somebody who makes you follow, like, 'No, no, come here. Hold on there, little fella, come over here for a second. We have a little something for you,' and that the devotees who are representing the Lord in the material world, although The Lord doesn't get involved; the devotees do that. They're little grabbers. People feel a little bit roughed up for a minute or two, and then they realize later on, "Oh, saved me from falling on the railway track, pulled me up, grabbed me from falling off the roof." As Prahlāda Mahārāja says..

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