19811017 Arrival Lecture - Caitanya-līlā

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 17th, 1981 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Jayapatākā Swami: …Advaita Gosāñī… said that “I belong to You, whoever You want to sell me to, You can just sell me. I give myself completely to you, Advaita.” That means, just like we say, jaya jaya sītāpati, advaita-gosāñī, tava kṛpā bale pāi, caitanya-nitāi. Because Lord Caitanya has given Himself to Advaita, whoever Advaita says, “Oh, give mercy to this person.” Immediately Lord Caitanya gives him mercy. He is already sold out to Advaita because of that pure devotion.

So Lord Caitanya is the fountainhead of all the personality expansions. He is the original Personality of Godhead, come as the devotee, as a devotee of Himself. So Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda, They would wander around together through the village, through Navadvīpa… Navadvīpa: the nine islands, and They would just see different devotees. One time Lord Caitanya, I just was reviewing this story, pastime, and I was reminded that… sometimes there are some places like this also in Hawaii… of course, maybe less in Hawaii than in other places, but nonetheless, this was present in Navadvīpa, what to speak of Hawaii.

Lord Caitanya went to the edge of Navadvīpa and He was walking along and there walked by… there on the edge there were some bootleggers, they had made some home brew. They had some wine. They had just made from uh, palm tree… palm tree drink, and different type of beverage and He could smell the scent of the wine or alcohol, and suddenly, He became absorbed in the mood of Balarāma, and He thought “Balarāma...” Balarāma, you know became very attraced to Vāruṇī, a type of honey that was coming from the trees in Vrṇdāvana. Of course, this temple is famous for honey. But uh, Balarāma, He likes honey very much, so Lord Balarāma took that honey, you know and became little bit intoxicated. Then He called for the Yamunā to come but then Yamuna hesitated. So then He said, “Alright, you don’t come here, I am going to divide you into thousands of pieces.” and He started to bring the Ganges… the Yamunā with His plough. Then personified then, Yamunā came and realizing the position of Balarāma, being the Lord of everyone, the expansion of Kṛṣṇa, she fell at His lotus feet and begged for forgiveness and immediately came there.

So Lord Caitanya, being the fountainhead of all incarnations, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so the personalities of Rāma, Balarāma, His Svarūpa expansions, Svarūpa-prakāśa, They are all within Him. So, suddenly He became absorbed and He thought in that mood as Balarāma, so He told Śrīvāsa, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s get up. Let’s go out and go over to the.. to the wine house.”

and Śrīvāsa says, “No, no, You can’t go. You can’t go.”

And Lord Caitanya’s, “No, what do you mean? I am on a transcendental platform. Nothing can contaminate Me.”

And Śrīvāsa, he again said, “No, no, You can’t go.” He refused.

And Lord Caitanya, He was saying, “Why you are… This is not your position to forbid Me to go anywhere.”

And Śrīvāsa said, “Alright You can go anywhere, but if You go there, I am going to take my life in the Ganges because who will understand this pastime if You do it? Instead people will use it as a bad example and they’ll themselves criticize and they’ll go to hell. So if You decide to do this, I am committing suicide. I am jumping into the Ganges and taking my life. You can do whatever You like, of course.”

So, said, “Alright.” He didn’t go, because His devotee did not want Him to go. Then He… by that… all this is happening then He out of the mood of Balarāma. And, so They were walking and… the devotees. So then when they got up… by the time… that time, they’d already got up to the… to that area, and there were a bunch of drunks there who were wearing their… their towels, just kind of laying around there. And then, “Hey! Hari bol! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hari bol! Look at this! Gaurahari! Ha ha ha ha!”

Then one guy started jumping up, “Jaya Gaurahari! Hari bol! Hari bol! Jaya Nārāyaṇa! Jaya Nārāyaṇa!” And he was jumping up and down and dancing, right behind Lord Caitanya – completely drunk but he was chanting

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

“And saying glories Nārāyaṇa, glories… This Gaura Hari is a real good singer. You should see His group. They play the drum and cymbal.” “Yeah! Gaurahari! Gaurahari!” Right? So, of course, other people, they were very put off, “Oh, this is very offensive. They don’t know who Caitanya Mahāprabhu… Their treating Him is so…” But Lord Caitanya started laughing, Śrīvāsa started laughing, because they were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa! They’re still chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

But some other sannyāsīs, they, “Why Lord Caitanya is uh, laughing when these people are doing… This is not appropriate, these people are all drunk. But they are sinful people, they shouldn’t be chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Neither should anyone be happy for this.”

But those who are seeing in this critical way, austerity, this that, they are actually wrong. Because… alright those people were intoxicated. They were engaged in sinful activity, so still because of material association they had a covering of sinful activity. But then, within covering, but inspite of that, everyone was happy to see Lord Caitanya. Everyone was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and glorifying Him in a favorable way even though they were intoxicated. So they were getting so much sukṛti, so much good fortune, because of… even in intoxicated way, they were offering, somehow some service to Lord Caitanya. They were getting so much spiritual auspiciousity, spiritual benefit, inspite of the fact that they were covered with some sinful reactions that that was unlimitedly to their benefit.

That is why Lord Caitanya didn’t take any offence that, “Alright, they’re chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.” In this way, their good fortune had begun, even though they were all mad, drunk, nuts, pe… still they got good fortune. So even if somebody jokes some time or chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, that’s still very good for that person. That makes a devotee inside, happy.

Sometimes Haridāsa Ṭhākura’d be walking down the street and the kids would be… would be mimicking, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare.” Different ways, you know, and tried to agitate him. So he looked very stern like he was very angry. Then they would get more excited that they were being successful. “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa!” But inside he was feeling very happy that “Oh, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Even there’s some offence there, or some not pure motive, still they’re chanting. That is to their benefit.” In this way Haridāsa Ṭhākura would somehow or another get everyone to chant, even the naughty boys, you see.

Sometimes in Calcutta… In Calcutta, they don’t seem to have any insane asylums, they just let everybody wander on the streets. They have a low budget. So when you do saṅkīrtana, it is always ve… usual that one or two completely crazy people in the harinam, they come out and start dancing with the devotees, falling on the ground and just crazy dancing and everything. Somehow they’re… still they’re benefitting. Of course with a disturbance to the Harināma, but they’re benefitting as long as they don’t get violent or interfere too much then, they’re benefitting. Even though, it’s covered up, still whatever service one does for Kṛṣṇa, that is never lost.

So Navadvīpa-dhāma is such a place that if one commits an offence, Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya, Nitāi, Pañca-tattva, They very easily forgive. They don’t take offence easily. Only when one of their dear devotees is offended then it hurts, otherwise, to Themselves, or ordinary offense, They are very easy to forgive. In fact, even offence to the Vaiṣṇavas is forgiven in Navadvīpa-dhāma.

So here, keeping that same mood, by the mercy of the Pañca-tattva, the people have chanted the Holy name of the Pañca-tattva and engaged in assisting the saṅkīrtana movement, the Vedas say that after death, a person who does spiritual activity, and a person to whom… who is supporting it, as well as the person who is uh, receiving the benefit of that, who is accepting that… that spiritual… those spiritual activities… Just like someone who is preaching, someone who is being preached to and someone who is supporting the activities of preaching — everyone is benefitted.

In this way, someone is contributing for a book, someone is giving… Śrīla Rameśvara Swami, we had a joint darśana in Los Angeles, and this point was covered in Caitanya-caritāmṛta and he pointed out that this how by ajñāta-sukṛti or by jñāta-sukṛti, by unknowing good fortune or by knowingly, calculatingly, the people are getting benefit because they are supporting the saṅkīrtana movement, they’re… they’re supporting the devotees. The thing is that everything has to be used in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Everything has to be used in the service of Kṛṣṇa. We shouldn’t allow any time to go wasted from the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Of course, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, every day, He would go down in Jagannātha Purī to the ocean and take the… take His bath with the devotees, on the way, see Haridāsa Ṭhākura, come back, take Jagannātha prasādam, take out the saṅkīrtana party, hear Kṛṣṇa… everything is there, but one shouldn’t lose sight, what is the actual goal of human life.

So many little crabs are on the beach, running around trying to avoid the waves. No one should become one of those little crabs in the next life. That was not be… that is not the purpose of human life. Purpose is to actually to cross over birth, death, old age, disease, to actually achieve our eternal realization and to… actually, the real goal is to have the pure devotional service of the Lord. So, that is very difficult to achieve, but by Lord Caitnaya, by Pañca-tattva’s mercy, it is very easy to achieve, because They are giving it out freely.

So to come here in the holy dhāma where Pañca-tattva are eternally manifesting Their mercy to the assembled devotees, is of course our great fortune. So, thank you very much for this opportunity.

jaya śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura bhakta vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Devotee: Śrīla Ācāryapāda kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Prasādam kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!