19820305 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.16.24

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 5, 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto 1, Chapter 16, Text 24.

idaṁ mamācakṣva tavādhi-mūlaṁ
vasundhare yena vikarśitāsi
kālena vā te balināṁ balīyasā
surārcitaṁ kiṁ hṛtam amba saubhagam

mama — unto me; ācakṣva — kindly inform; tava — your; ādhimūlam — the root cause of your tribulations; vasundhare — O reservoir of all riches; yena — by which; vikarśitā asi — reduced to much weakness; kālena — by the influence of time; vā — or; te — your; balinām — very powerful; balīyasā — more powerful; sura-arcitam — adored by the demigods; kim — whether; hṛtam — taken away; amba — mother; saubhagam — fortune.

Translation by His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda: Mother, you are the reservoir of all riches. Please inform me of the root cause of your tribulations by which you have been reduced to such a weak state. I think that the powerful influence of time, which conquers the most powerful, might have forcibly taken away all your fortune, which was adored even by the demigods.

*Translation with repetition*

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: By the grace of the Lord, each and every planet is created fully equipped. So not only is this earth fully equipped with all the riches for the maintenance of its inhabitants, but also, when the Lord descends to the earth the whole earth becomes so enriched with all kinds of opulences that even the denizens of heaven worship it with all affection. But by the will of the Lord, the whole earth can at once be changed. He can do and undo a thing by His sweet will. Therefore no one should consider himself to be self-sufficient or independent of the Lord.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purport Text 24.

Jayapatākā Swami: No one should consider himself to be self-sufficient or independent of the Lord. This is very important to understand. The Lord is always independent, and in His independent position, He decides and sanctions what will happen to every individual soul through His Paramātmā feature. Sometimes allowing the laws of karma to take place, allowing a person’s desires to be fulfilled, and sometimes not. Therefore, only Kṛṣṇa is independent; everyone else is dependent.

Even a relative independence that people seek in this world is in itself not the real independence. Therefore, there is never any satisfaction, except for a moment. Everyone wants to get further independence; they vote the government, “Let’s…” federal structure, this, that, but everyone is bound by so many limitations that no one can ultimately free one, except for some marginal, relative, more or less, but it is actually all completely dependent.

Even a devotee cannot take the mercy of the Lord for granted. A devotee cannot compel Kṛṣṇa that, “He must deliver me!” or that “He must associate!” or must anything.

tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

One is recommended to always remain in a humble state of mind with prayer to the Lord. Even if one is offensive to the Lord, He will forgive the offences; the holy name will forgive the offences if we continue to chant and request the holy name to forgive us for making the offences to Him. But it’s not a mechanical process that He is obligated.

You put in 25 cents and you get out your bar of candy. You put in 25,000 Hare Kṛṣṇa mantras and you get out your bhakti! No! If you don’t want, and if you don’t have the knowledge, and you don’t have the desire, and if Kṛṣṇa doesn’t give His mercy, then there is nothing that can change it; nothing that can force it.

Of course, the Lord can change His mind any moment and He is the most merciful. Nonetheless, it is not something mechanical process. Ultimately, it is His compassion that delivers. He may deliver sooner than we deserve. Or He may decide to keep the devotee wait in intense, enthusiastic desire, relishing the devotee’s intense desire to serve His lotus feet. That is Kṛṣṇa’s own independent sweet will that He can do accordingly.

The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful. We discussed last night, how one has to avoid the offences to the holy name. Just like, when someone commits an offence to a devotee, then touching the lotus feet of the devotee, requesting the devotee’s forgiveness, he gets absolved by asking the devotee. Just as Durvāsā, he had to come all the way back to see Ambarīṣa Mahārāja to get forgiven for his offences. 

Similarly, if we commit offences to the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, the only way to get absolved of those offences is by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and requesting the holy name to forgive us for the offences, in this way one becomes purified. But with offences, one will not be able to feel transcendental ecstasy. Offences obstruct one’s natural feelings of attachment, taste, ecstasy for chanting the holy name.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was having His very ecstatic kīrtanas, He would only have the devotees present. In front of non-devotees, because they would tend to consider Him in some other way, He would not initially manifest those private kīrtana.

So, one time, there was an intruder, Śrīvāsa’s mother-in-law. In India, mothers-in-law are very respected people – just like one’s mother practically or may be different; in some cases, may be more, especially if it is the boy’s mother-in-law, depending on the family relationships. But it is a very respectable relationship actually. So Śrīvāsa’s mother-in-law, without telling anyone, she hid in a basket. She thought, “I am going to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s ecstatic kīrtana.”

So, Lord Caitanya came, everyone assembled, they started chanting, Lord Caitanya was chanting. Suddenly He turned, He stopped the kīrtana. He said, “I am not feeling any ecstasy. Who is the cause?” Immediately, all the devotees there, they felt completely petrified. They started thinking that “Maybe I committed some offence, maybe I am the cause.” They started looking at each other, feeling a bit nervous. And then Lord Caitanya said that “There must be some outsider here creating a type of non-devotional mood which is obstructing our natural ecstasy.”

Actually, the ecstasy is not something that is forced; we are servants of the holy name; we are not master of the name. Alright, if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, the Hare Kṛṣṇa machine and then we will immediately force the ecstasies to come – it is not like that. We are the servants of the holy name.

Lord Caitanya, when He was telling other people how about His chanting, He would say, “My chanting, I cannot help Myself; the chanting makes Me laugh, makes Me dance, makes Me cry. This is simply the holy name’s effect, this has nothing to do with Me”. So, we are the servants of the holy name, we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and then the holy name makes us feel like dancing, this is all the hlādinī-śakti or the spiritual potency, pleasure potency coming from the spiritual platform, the spiritual world that gives us the enthusiasm.

So, Lord Caitanya was chanting, and He wasn’t getting any ecstasy. The holy name wasn’t giving any ecstasy, because there was a materialist intruder. So Śrīvāsa and everybody else started searching the place, and they were all looking, they couldn’t find anything. They did not see anyone. So then again, they started the kīrtana,

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

The kīrtana was going on, but Lord Caitanya wasn’t looking very blissful. He stopped the kīrtana. Still no ecstasy is coming. “Why is this? Who is at fault?” Then immediately the devotees they became again very anxious, and they started thinking that “Maybe I have committed some offence to Lord Caitanya”. Then Śrīvāsa became very determined, “I am going to search very thoroughly that there is no intruder”. There must be some intruder here. So, he searched and searched and there under the bamboo basket, was his mother-in-law! [laughter] But at that time, he was so anxious to please Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that he didn’t consider any material, any material consideration at all. Although he knew that this was his mother-in-law. How could he not know? He knew. Immediately seeing her but he treated her just like a stranger and he said, “What are you doing here?”

He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out, and threw her out of the front door, and locked the door behind her. Even though he knew there would be deep repercussions in the future, of one sort or another, but anyway he did not think of anything else. Come what may, he wanted to simply please Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Here was an intruder and he was very angry that this was an offensive thing, trying to be sneaking on the Lord’s private saṅkīrtana party. He threw her right out. No one else recognized the lady that he threw out, but Lord Caitanya, being sarvajña, being the knower of everyone and everything, He knew. He wasn’t let this one pass. After the door was shut, Śrīvāsa said, “Alright! Now the intruder has gone.” Lord Caitanya could not resist telling everyone, “You know who he just threw out?” That was his mother-in-law! [laughter]

Then he embraced Śrīvāsa and said, “You are in fact a real, true devotee!” [laugher]

So, the holy name is a great benediction for us. Because Lord Caitanya is so kind, He is allowing us to take part in saṅkīrtana. We have to keep faith in the words of the spiritual master. Without the spiritual master then a person is just like a ship lost at sea without a captain, without a rudder. Then one is in a very dangerous position.

tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
(Bg 4.34)

One has to approach the spiritual master, inquire from him submissively, serve the spiritual master and take up the instructions that he gives. In this way, Kṛṣṇa Himself showed the example. He did whatever His spiritual master asked. Lord Kṛṣṇa accepted Sāndīpani Muni as His spiritual master, even though Kṛṣṇa Himself is the spiritual master of the whole world. Because Kṛṣṇa explains:

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ
yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate
(Bg 3.21)

That whatever great men do, common men follow. When Kṛṣṇa, whatever He does, everyone try to follow. So, if He accepts a spiritual master, others will follow. If He does not, then people will say, if Kṛṣṇa didn’t do why should we? Although Kṛṣṇa Himself is not to be imitated; He did so many things that no one else can do like lifting the Govardhana hill at the age of seven, expanding Himself into sixteen thousand forms in Dvārakā, millions of forms in Vṛndāvana; so many other inconceivable activities like leaving the material world and going to the planet of Mahā-Viṣṇu with Arjuna, and so many.

Obviously, no one can imitate; yet still Kṛṣṇa, generally, He tries to lead His activities in such a way that the people in general may benefit from them. So, one of His pastimes was accepting a spiritual master. He did even menial service like carrying the firewood or collecting the firewood from the forest and other services.

Similarly, it is essential that we have a spiritual master. When one finds a spiritual master, bona fide, following in the footsteps of the previous spiritual masters, then one carries out the instructions of the spiritual master, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And when one puts faith in this way, one makes rapid advancement in spiritual life.

So, one chants the holy name, this is a special mercy. By chanting the holy name, by avoiding offences to the holy name, then one naturally develops spontaneous love, spontaneous devotion, spontaneously achieves the highest liberation from all kinds of material illusions and material conditions.

So, sometimes people think that because of their austerities, they are very advanced. They think that just by being very austere, or by being very learned, that is enough. But devotion is a very subtle, very specific, at the same time things which we must assimilate to actually achieve the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. No other extraneous qualification – be it learning, or be it austerity, or being very active alone will not help; will not ultimately itself be enough. One has to have devotion.

There was once a very austere brahmacārī, he would live with only eat leaves. He was so austere. He knew the scriptures quite well, but he wasn’t a devotee. He was very proud of his learning, of his austerity. But he was well known in Navadvīpa. He also, one day approached Śrīvāsa, “I can just sit in the house and watch this saṅkīrtana of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.” Śrīvāsa agreed thinking, “Well! He is a brahmacārī.”

So, he was sitting in the house; again, Lord Caitanya came. This is sometime later pastime in Śrīvāsa’s home. This would be another situation. So, Lord Caitanya started the saṅkīrtana, they all started, the drums are beating, and the karatālas playing, the conch shells and bugles blowing, and different jass, whoompers and other instruments. Lord Caitanya’s ankle bells jingling, His garland moving from one side to the next, His arms raised up, but again He said, “I am not getting any ecstasy. Why is there no ecstasy in this chanting today? Every day we are chanting we are getting ecstasy, today why is there no ecstasy? What is the cause? Who is the reason for this?”

Of course, everyone immediately felt petrified in fear. But Śrīvāsa, this time, immediately owned up to Lord Caitanya, “I must admit that I brought one very austere brahmacārī, very learned in scriptures, I brought him here and he wanted to see the saṅkīrtana, so I thought it was all right. He is in my house.”

Lord Caitanya said, “Who is this brahmacārī?” Looked at him. They brought him out. Lord Caitanya said, “He is not a devotee!” And He started chastising him, “You are so proud of your austerity, of your learning, what is the use of simply austerity and learning, if you do not have pure devotion for Kṛṣṇa? It is simply false pride. We are not impressed by these things we want to see surrender unto the Lord. Take him out, he cannot be part of the saṅkīrtana.”

So, [the devotee] the brahmacārī was taken out, and he felt greatly humbled by Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s instruction, and he was thinking, “Somehow or other even though for a few moments, I was able to see Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana. I was able to see that pastime, that I am so fortunate. I am not a devotee, but somehow I was allowed that opportunity to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s saṅkīrtana with all of His associates and pastimes even for a few moments.” In this way, he was so absorbed thinking, “Although I am so unqualified, somehow I got this special mercy.”

Then Lord Caitanya, being in everyone’s heart, He could recognize the sincere sentiment of the brahmacārī. He sent someone out to bring him back in. Then Lord Caitanya gave His special mercy to the brahmacārī, and he was made into a pure devotee, and he was admitted into the saṅkīrtana party.

Nitāi-Gaura premānande! Hari bol!

So, all the great devotees of Lord Caitanya, they prayed to Lord Caitanya that, [There are certain class of preaching devotees or special devotees of Lord Caitanya, they pray.] “Wherever You go Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda and have Your transcendental saṅkīrtana pastimes, in whatever universe, in whatever place, that we always be able to go and be associated with Your transcendental devotees and Your transcendental pastimes.” They don’t care for liberation into the spiritual world, they are satisfied going wherever Lord Caitanya’s pastimes are, even there in the material world. If they can assist in those transcendental pastimes, that is fully satisfying for those devotees.

So, actually this planet, ordinarily is not as opulent as the spiritual sky, as the heavenly planets, the upper planetary systems. But, when Lord Kṛṣṇa came, then of course the planet became so opulent that even the denizens of the heavenly planets were interested in coming.

Similarly, when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came, the denizens from the heavenly planets wanted to come, because they could recognize that in a short lifetime, if we can simply participate in the pastimes of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we can completely achieve the highest perfection of life in just 50-60 short years. How long the human being is living in this material world and the Kali-yuga? Not very long. Even 29-year-old people, 18-year-old people, so many they are just dying in their sleep, cardiac arrest. Yamarāja has made his arrest. [laughter]

When the time is up, then they come and make their arrest, the Yamadūtas. No one can live even one breath longer than the time allotted. So, we shouldn’t waste any breaths. So many breaths are wasted, in so many material pursuits. We shouldn’t waste any breath. Every breath should be used to glorify Kṛṣṇa, in the service of Kṛṣṇa. This is our real shelter.

Following in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in this short lifetime, we can fulfill that which even the demigods cannot achieve in their lifetime of thousands and thousands of years. We should take special consideration of the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura; They are coming down and giving us the understanding and the pure devotion to Śrī Śrī Rādhā Gopī Vallabhā, so that, we can perfect ourselves even though we are otherwise unqualified. This is called ahaitukī-kṛpā – causeless mercy because there is no cause.

There is no way that you can force Lord Caitanya and there is no reason that I should get that special mercy because of this or that reason. The only reason, ultimately is, the causeless mercy. There is no compellation– He may give or not, no matter what you do, He can withhold it if He wants. That means, He is the ultimate authority. Just like a policeman arrests you, like you got certain rights under the fifth amendment, if he doesn’t do that, according to the law he doesn’t arrest you properly, then you can always be take some other records, you can force to hand or whatever.

You can’t force yourself free to get the love of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to get the love of Kṛṣṇa, there is nothing that can be forced. You can’t change the fifth amendment or any other amendment. All you can plead is for mercy. But one can put himself in a very capable position to get that mercy by constantly chanting, by constantly showing the desire for Lord Caitanya to reciprocate–there is no doubt about it.

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

Is there a question?

Question: Yes, why is it that Lord Caitanya said that He couldn’t feel ecstasy in the presence of non-devotees, when we say, many instruct us to chant louder and louder could be when thousands and thousands of people present?

Jayapatākā Swami: When Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was having the pastimes, He did not want any non-devotees to be present. We cannot forget that Lord Caitanya is not feeling in ecstasy was just a manifestation. He knew the person was there. He is the Paramātmā, He knows everything that is going on. So, He knew the person who was trying to do a sneaky peak, what you call it? Window-peaker? Peeping Tom act? And just to teach the devotees a lesson, not to show ecstatic symptoms before non-devotees, Lord Caitanya gave these instructions as well as what was the position of a devotee when He made the particular rule that non- devotees at that particular time wouldn’t come inside the compound.

Lord Caitanya, He can feel ecstasy, anytime anywhere. But He chose to show His pastime in that way knowing that there were intruders there. Later, when He was in His Jagannātha Purī or other pastimes, sometimes He went into what is known as antara-bhāva, when He became fixed in an internal consciousness, when He became completely became unaware of what was going outside, He became completely absorbed in the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa; that was his very special pastime that was described by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta; that as Lord Caitanya’s pastimes progressed the latter part of His life, then He was absorbed not so much in teaching His followers at spreading the saṅkīrtana movement then.

But at that time, He was engaged in relishing the inner purpose of His pastime, relishing the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in association with some very intimate devotees. So, there are different periods of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes when He performed different types of activities. We can only say this activity was performed to give us some specific teaching.

Just like Kṛṣṇa, He may have accepted a guru, Sāndīpani Muni, yet He is the guru of everyone, and He admitted that when He spoke to Arjuna. So sometimes Kṛṣṇa, He may do one thing to give an example, then someone will say that since He had a guru, then why should we accept Him to be the Supreme Person? That type of logic will not be appropriate. There are so many other proofs that He is the Supreme Person, and He is accepting guru, or He is following different behavior or norm just to show us what is the standard since He is playing as an actor basically in some pastimes, like human being. So simultaneously, within the pastimes, you will find this variegatedness, and one has to understand it from the vision of the realized devotees.

Jayapatākā Swami: Any other questions?

Question: When we read the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Lord Caitanya had hundreds and thousands, maybe millions of followers following Him. So, this is like… quoted in... like Roman history or …

Jayapatākā Swami: Sure. 

(Question continued): (Inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Since lots of people we don’t hear about in western, in the history books of Indian history, we hear about it. In America they do not know anything outside of America. Maybe only a few people. In America, they let you know Thomas Jefferson and this one and that one, but whoever hears of a… try to keep you get on your dollar bills.

So, Lord Caitanya, because He was preaching within India at that time and until now His preaching, His message did not go outside, naturally Indian people will be more acquainted with Him than the people outside. Now people know Lord Caitanya all over the world. It was until four hundred years after Jesus Christ that Christianity became established. The time of Constantinople that he became a Christian and after that time Christianity actually gained a foothold in the world. Historically it is not unusual that a spiritual movement takes an international foothold even hundreds of years after the person performed his own pastimes and left his own teachings.

Knowing the difference of course is that the scriptures left by Lord Caitanya are still intact, but even though Constantinople convention where they been edited or cut down. In India, the materialists, they called Lord Caitanya the first civil disobedient practitioner, a great social reformer, they have all the materialist vision that He overcome the caste system, He accepted people from all different parts of the society, they had the vision like that, in the history books of the materialists.

Even the communists’ history books have to include Lord Caitanya. But they won’t accept Him as the Personality of Godhead, although initially they make reference to that He accepted as an incarnation of God. Naturally, the materialists, they do not even know what is God so how can they understand what is an incarnation? Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Thank you! 

Devotees: Jaya! 

Devotees: Jayapatākā Swami Ācāryapāda kī! Jaya!