pratiṣṭhÄra bhaye purÄ« gelÄ palÄñÄ
kṛṣṇa-preme pratiṣṭhÄ cale saá¹…ge gaá¸ÄñÄ

 pratiṣṭhÄra bhaye - in fear of reputation; purÄ« - MÄdhavendra PurÄ«; gelÄ - went away; palÄÃ±Ä - fleeing; kṛṣṇa-preme - in love of Kṛṣṇa; pratiṣṭhÄ - reputation; cale - goes; saá¹…ge - simultaneously; gaá¸ÄÃ±Ä - gliding down.


Text

Being afraid of his reputation [pratiṣṭhÄ], MÄdhavendra PurÄ« fled from RemuṇÄ. But the reputation brought by love of Godhead is so sublime that it goes along with the devotee, as if following him.

Purport

Almost all the conditioned souls within the material world are envious. Jealous people generally turn against one who automatically attains some reputation. This is natural for jealous people. Consequently, when a devotee is fit to receive worldly reputation, he is envied by many people. This is quite natural. When a person, out of humility, does not desire fame, people generally think him quite humble and consequently give him all kinds of fame. Actually a Vaiṣṇava does not hanker after fame or a great reputation. MÄdhavendra PurÄ«, the king of Vaiṣṇavas, bore his reputation, but he wanted to keep himself outside of the vision of the general populace. He wanted to cover his real identity as a great devotee of the Lord, but when people saw him overwhelmed in the ecstasy of love of Godhead, they naturally gave credit to him. Actually a first-class reputation is due MÄdhavendra PurÄ« because he was a most confidential devotee of the Lord. Sometimes a sahajiyÄ presents himself as being void of desires for reputation (pratiṣṭhÄ) in order to become famous as a humble man. Such people cannot actually attain the platform of celebrated Vaiṣṇavas.