19820827 Caitanya-caritāmṛta 14.24

The following is a class given by H.H. Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 27th, 1982 in Los Angeles, California. The class begins with a reading from the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter 14, Text 24.

Text 24 

sārvabhauma-rāmānanda-vāṇīnāthe diyā 
prasāda pāṭhā’la rājā bahuta kariyā 
sārvabhauma-rāmānanda-vāṇīnāthe diyā 
prasāda pāṭhā’la rājā bahuta kariyā

Translation: The King also sent a large quantity of prasādam through Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, Rāmānanda Rāya and Vāṇīnātha Rāya.

Jayapatākā Swami: I would just like to remind everyone at this point that before we get into the discussion of all the types of prasāda, that this offering of prasādam is not an ordinary thing; that Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Upadeśāmṛta, which is one of our most valuable books, has described how devotees have loving exchanges with each other. That the whole purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us some purports (where he says) that the purpose of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness or the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement is to give the facility for the devotees to come together and exchange these loving relationships. The society is there, so that we can exchange loving relationships with each other.

What are those six types of loving relationships that were mentioned in the Upadeśāmṛta? Giving of food stuff, of prasādam, and accepting prasāda. Giving some gift to a devotee and accepting whatever that devotee may offer. And also, to open one’s mind to a devotee and to accept the mind of a devotee, when they open their mind to you. So, these six types of exchanges are loving exchanges. So here is one of them: giving prasāda to the Lord. Of course Lord Caitanya also leaves some mahā-prasāda, which they will take. In this way, loving exchanges are going on.

Actually, when the devotees come down from Bengal, you can imagine they are eagerly walking 500 kilometers to meet the Lord! When they meet, the display of affection and love is so great, that practically speaking, it can melt a stone. When they come down and, the very first time, when the account is given that they are coming down to Nilācala, the devotees are coming and they see the saṅkīrtana party of Lord Caitanya, just as he is going to the Narendra lake. And then from a distance, Advaita, Nityānanda and other devotees, they offer their obeisances, Śrīvāsa. And then Lord Caitanya sees them and He being so overwhelmed, even though He is the Lord Himself, He also offers His obeisances and all His devotees follow. And then they come and they just grab the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and they pray, “Oh Lord, give us this boon that we can have your eternal association, life after life, that we can always see Your divine lotus feet, Your divine lotus face, that we can always be engaged in Your devotional service in the association of Your devotees eternally, we do not want anything else.” And then Jagannātha-prasāda, garlands and candana had come from the temple, just sent by Jagannātha’s servants. But Lord Caitanya knew that these were sent by Jagannātha, who is the Supersoul of everyone, just to greet His devotees who had come.

So that way, then Lord Caitanya with His own hands, started to garland the different devotees and His senior associates were garlanding those devotees who had come. Every devotee received garland. And then personally Lord Caitanya took sandalwood pulp and He was putting sandalwood pulp on the forehead of all the devotees, and He was embracing them… embracing them, greeting His loving devotees. And they were just crying in ecstasy, they couldn’t expect this type of greeting from the Lord Himself. And their good wives, who were standing at a distance, just seeing Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His devotees, they were just standing there in tears, tears were pouring from their eyes. They were just as good as their husbands in pure devotion. They were just standing there and crying. You see, touching the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya in their heart. In this way, everyone was merged in the ocean of transcendental ecstasy and then they started to chant in saṅkīrtana, and even all of Jagannātha’s pujārīs and devotees, they also engaged in saṅkīrtana. Like this, this was the type of greeting that happened when Lord Caitanya’s devotees came to Jagannātha Purī, you see.

So, of course now, we are going in to the… more details, exchanges. And now the prasāda is being sent by King Pratāparudra to Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, Rāmānanda Rāya and Vāṇīnātha Rāya. So we can continue relishing these pastimes, worshiping them.

Text 25

balagaṇḍi bhoge’ra prasāda-uttama, ananta
‘ni-sakaḍi’ prasāda āila, yāra nāhi anta

Translation: The prasādam sent by the King had been offered to the Balagaṇḍi festival and included uncooked milk products and fruits. It was all of the finest quality, and there was no end to the variety.

Text 26

chānā, pānā, paiḍa, āmra, nārikela, kāṅṭhāla 
nānā-vidha kadalaka, āra bīja-tāla

Translation: There were curd, fruit juice, coconut, mango, dried coconut, jackfruit, various kinds of bananas and palm-fruit seeds.

Purport: This is the first list of prasādam offered to Lord Jagannātha.

Jayapatākā Swami: These tāla fruit… you know the tālavana (grove of palm trees). Some of the palm trees in LA look like tāla fruit, but they are not. Tāla fruits are what they have those little hand fans in India, that's from the leaf of that tree. So that fruit is two types, here it says. tāla-bīja, or bīja-tāla. You eat that seed when it is green. When it is not ripe then it is like a green coconut, and you cut that open and inside you will find three seeds, and those seeds at that time are just like Jell-O. They are very soft and inside there is a sweet juice. If you bite into it, the juice will drip down here on your chin (laughter). And sometimes it squirts out, very juicy, and mildly sweet but very, very, very refreshing; very soft, just like a little Jell-O pack. And then a ripe tāla fruit, that time those seeds have just become hard seeds, and you can't eat them, as far as I know. I don't know if you eat them or not. You don't eat them fresh, that's for sure. And then the whole rest of the fruit, which is fibrous like a coconut, that gets filled with a yellow type of intensely aromatic nectar. You can smell that from half a mile. That is why when Kṛṣṇa smelt that scent from the tāla fruit, then all His cowherd boys, they all wanted to go into that forest.

They take that in a big bamboo basket, rub it and get all the nectar out. Then that becomes just like yellow nectar. Now, they can make that as a nectar drink or they mix it in pakora batter and make pakoras, or rice batter and they make rice cakes. All that is highly scented. That is called tāla-pīṭhā, tāla-cakes. So these things… they are sending now, the green tāla fruit. Some of the prasādas they are sending now are being listed here. This is all prasāda. So it is all right; you do not have to feel bashful if you start to drool (laughter).

Text 27

nāraṅga, cholaṅga, ṭābā, kamalā, bīja-pūra 
bādāma, chohārā, drākṣā, piṇḍa-kharjura

Translation: There were also oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, almonds, dried fruit, raisins and dates.

Text 28

manoharā-lāḍu ādi śateka prakāra 
amṛta-guṭikā-ādi, kṣīrasā apāra

Translation: There were hundreds of different types of sweetmeats like manoharā-lāḍu, sweets like amṛta-guṭikā and various types of condensed milk.

Text 29

amṛta-maṇḍā, saravatī, āra kumḍā-kurī
sarāmṛta, sarabhājā, āra sarapurī

Translation: There were also papayas and saravatī, a type of orange, and also crushed squash. There were also regular cream, fried cream and a type of purī made with cream.

Jayapatākā Swami: This sarapurī, they made a variety of it; it is considered to be the top most sweet of Kṛṣṇanagar, near Māyāpur. Each city in Bengal - you know Bengal is famous for milk sweets - each city has one to three varieties of sweets, which is their particular... they are famous for that.

Navadvīpa is famous for its miṣṭī-doi, the sweet red yoghurt, cooked down condensed yoghurt. The Kṛṣṇanagar is famous for sarapurī, and another cream roll. Like that then Chandannagar is famous for tāla-sandeśa. They make a sandeśa just in the shape of the tāla fruit, tāla seed, and they somehow make the sandeśa very hard, but in the middle of it they put sweet juice. So when you bite into it, just like a tāla fruit, it drips down your chin. (laughter) It's crazy! If you go anywhere, they say, “You have to try!” This is the pride of their town. Just like people are proud of the Eiffel tower, and proud of other... In Bengal, they are proud of the particular sweet that they make in that city. So they are offering all these very very wonderful type of offerings to Lord Jagannātha.

Text 30

hari-vallabha, seṅoti, karpūra, mālatī 
ḍālimā marica-lāḍu, navāta, amṛti

Translation: There were also the sweets like hari-vallabha and sweets made of seṅoti flowers, karpūra flowers and mālatī flowers. There were pomegranates, sweets made with black pepper, sweets made with fused sugar, and amṛti-jilipi.

Jayapatākā Swami: Amṛti-jilipi made with rice powder and chickpea flour mixed with yoghurt fried in ghee and immersed in sugar water.

Text 31

padmacini, candrakānti, khājā, khaṇḍasāra 
viyari, kadmā, tilākhājāra prakāra

Translation: There were lotus-flower sugar (sugar made from lotus flower), a kind of bread made from urad dhal, crispy sweetmeats, sugar candy, fried-rice sweets, sesame-seed sweets and cookies made from sesame seeds.

Text 32

nāraṅga-cholaṅga-āmra-vṛkṣera ākāra 
phula-phala-patra-yukta khaṇḍera vikāra

Translation: There were sugar-candy sweetmeats formed into the shape of orange, lemon and mango trees and arranged with fruits, flowers and leaves.

Text 33

dadhi, dugdha, nanī, takra, rasālā, śikhariṇī 
sa-lavaṇa mudgāṅkura, ādā khāni khāni

Translation: There were yogurt, milk, butter, buttermilk, fruit juice, a prepāration made of fried yogurt and sugar candy, and salty mung-dhal sprouts with shredded ginger.

Text 34

lembu-kula-ādi nānā-prakāra ācāra 
likhite nā pāri prasāda kateka prakāra

Translation: There were also various types of pickles—lemon pickle, berry pickle and so on and so on. Indeed, I am not able to describe the variety of food offered to Lord Jagannātha.

Purport: In verses 26–34, the author describes the various foods offered to Lord Jagannātha. He has described them as far as possible, but he finally admits his inability to describe them completely.

Jayapatākā Swami: We can just see that how the… of course some of these things are probably just the opposite of what our health fanatics, macrobiotics, brown-rice chewers, are attached to. They cannot understand you see, why such unhealthy things. Of course, because they think that you have to chew your rice 40 times before it will break up. Actually, rice like that is also available; we also have a type of rice, sometimes we serve in Māyāpur, known as the Red Rice - again some type of fame. Well, of course, most of the devotees that go there, unfortunately from the West are macrobiotic fans, otherwise they would like that rice. But the real point is that we are dealing with higher type of society – intellectual, brahminical society. Naturally, they are doing more the type of services which are for the society - learning, and teaching and devotional services. So they don’t generally need so much physical labor.

Those who are laborers, who work in the fields, who do heavy physical labor, who are not capātī eaters, who eat rice; they need this type of heavy rice for giving them strength. But if you are not, if you are doing a desk job or doing some kind of brahminical work, you don’t need this pile of lead in your stomach... you see. Kṛṣṇa of course is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He doesn't have to do any work, so he is always enjoying; He is offered the finest things in the mode of goodness.

And similarly, all these health food fans, they should realize that the healthiest thing for them is to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. And that means to offer the most luxurious, wonderful foods in the mode of goodness - ‘bhogas’ - to Lord Jagannātha and then to accept that prasāda with faith, and not be attached to all types of calorie calculations and bi-carbonate... you know whatever bi-carbohydrate calculations and everything, trying to figure out how to keep their machine running. That will also automatically be run in the different modes. They are calculating in some mode of passion or ignorance, rather than in the mode of goodness. So these calculations don't have to be done. These are all transcendental foods in the mode of goodness and one who takes these... rather more than goodness, these are prasāda; they will become purified not only from their hunger, but they will become purified from the attachment to this material world and to birth and death. In fact, so many types of wonderful prasādam are offered to Kṛṣṇa, Lord Jagannātha, that even the author, after so many descriptions, he feels completely inadequate to actually describe them completely.

Text 35

prasāde pūrita ha-ila ardha upavana
dekhiyā santoṣa haila mahāprabhura mana

Translation: When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw half the garden filled with a variety of prasādam, He was very satisfied.

Text 36

ei-mata jagannātha karena bhojana 
ei sukhe mahāprabhura juḍāya nayana

Translation: Indeed, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was fully satisfied just to see how Lord Jagannātha accepted all the food.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): Following in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, a Vaiṣṇava should be fully satisfied simply to see a variety of food offered to the Deity of Jagannātha or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. A Vaiṣṇava should not hunger for a variety of food for his own sake; rather, his satisfaction is in seeing various foods being offered to the Deity. In his Gurv-aṣṭaka, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura writes:

catur-vidha-śrī-bhagavat-prasāda-
svādv-anna-tṛptān hari-bhakta-saṅghān
kṛtvaiva tṛptiṁ bhajataḥ sadaiva
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

“The spiritual master is always offering Kṛṣṇa four kinds of delicious food [analyzed as that which is licked, chewed, drunk and sucked]. When the spiritual master sees that the devotees are satisfied by eating bhagavat-prasādam, he is satisfied. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master.”

The spiritual master’s duty is to engage his disciples in preparing varieties of nice foods to offer the Deity. After being offered, this food is distributed as prasādam to the devotees. These activities satisfy the spiritual master, although he himself does not eat or require such a variety of prasādam. By seeing to the offering and distribution of prasādam, he himself is encouraged in devotional service.

Jayapatākā Swami: We see that many places Lord Caitanya, he becomes very satisfied to see nice arrangement of worshiping Kṛṣṇa. Similarly the spiritual master, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, also feels satisfied to see a very nice arrangement for worshiping Kṛṣṇa and to see the mercy of Kṛṣṇa distributed to the devotees. This gives, as Prabhupāda said here, the spiritual master himself is encouraged in devotional service. So the devotees, to please the spiritual master and Lord Caitanya, can simply make a wonderful arrangement for the worship of Jagannātha, and that will be the source of greatest happiness to the spiritual master and Lord Caitanya. More satisfying than even when an arrangement is made directly to give to the spiritual master. He is more happy to see the Lord get all types of varieties of offering.

Text 37

keyā-patra-droṇī āila bojhā pāṅca-sāta 
eka eka jane daśa donā dila, — eta pāta

Translation: There then arrived five or seven loads of plates made of the leaves of the ketakī tree. Each man was supplied ten of these plates, and in this way the leaf dishes were distributed.

Text 38

kīrtanīyāra pariśrama jāni’ gaurarāya 
tāṅ-sabāre khāoyāite prabhura mana dhāya

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu understood the labor of all the kīrtana chanters; therefore He was very eager to feed them sumptuously.

Text 39

pāṅti pāṅti kari’ bhakta-gaṇe vasāilā 
pariveśana karibāre āpane lāgilā

Translation: All the devotees sat down in lines, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally began to distribute the prasādam.

Text 40

prabhu nā khāile, keha nā kare bhojana 
svarūpa-gosāñi tabe kaila nivedana

Translation: However the devotees would not accept the prasādam until Caitanya Mahāprabhu took it. It was Svarūpa Gosvāmī informed the Lord of this.

(darśana opens) Jaya Jagannātha Swami kī…!

Text 41

āpane vaisa, prabhu, bhojana karite 
tumi nā khāile, keha nā pāre khāite

Translation: Svarūpa Dāmodara said, “My Lord, would you please sit down? No one will eat until You do.”

Text 42

tabe mahāprabhu vaise nija-gaṇa lañā 
bhojana karāila sabāke ākaṇṭha pūriyā

Translation: At that time, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu sat down with His personal associates and fed every one of them very sumptuously until they were filled to the necks.

Jayapatākā Swami: ‘ākaṇṭha-bhojana’ sabāke ākaṇṭha, Kaṇṭha is… the kaṇṭhī- mālā. Ākaṇṭha – up to the neck. You should take Jagannātha-prasāda up to the neck (laughter). If you took more than up to the neck you would not be able to chant. So the neck is kept. (laughter).

Text 43

bhojana kari’ vasilā prabhu kari’ ācamana 
prasāda ubarila, khāya sahasreka jana

Translation: After finishing, the Lord washed His mouth and sat down. There was so much extra prasādam that it was distributed to thousands.

Jayapatākā Swami: One point, just see that first the devotees are given the prasāda, and then it is distributed to the thousands. Lord Caitanya would first see that all of his devotees were filled up to the neck with prasāda - charity begins at home first (laughter). And then, give it to the thousands. Then those devotees would give, or the assistants of the King.

Text 44

prabhura ājñāya govinda dīna-hīna jane 
duḥkhī kāṅgāla āni’ karāya bhojane

Translation: Following the orders of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Govinda, His personal servant, called for all the poor beggars, who were unhappy due to their poverty, and fed them sumptuously.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes, they call the beggars also ‘duḥkhīs’ ‘duḥkhī people’ and all the unhappies. So that way, many demigods and great souls were also trying to get that prasāda. They were unhappy not to be in Lord Caitanya’s association.

Text 45

kāṅgālera bhojana-raṅga dekhe gaurahari 
‘hari-bola’ bali’ tāre upadeśa kari

Translation: Observing the beggars eating prasādam, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chanted, “Haribol!” and instructed them to chant the holy name.

Purport: (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): In a song, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura chants:

miche māyāra vaśe, yāccha bhese’,
khāccha hābuḍubu, bhāi

jīva kṛṣṇa-dāsa, e viśvāsa,
ka’rle ta’ āra duḥkha nāi

“O people! Why are you being captivated by the waves of the ocean of nescience? If you would immediately accept Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as your eternal master, there would be no chance of being carried away by the waves of illusion. Then all your sufferings would stop.” Kṛṣṇa conducts the material world under the three modes of material nature, and consequently there are three platforms of life — higher, middle and lower. On whatever platform one may be situated, one is tossed by the waves of material nature. Someone may be rich, someone may be middle class, and someone may be a poor beggar — it doesn’t matter. As long as one is under the spell of the three modes of material nature, he must continue to experience these divisions.

(Jayapatākā Swami: This shows the futility of the world’s economic program. It is already fixed, you are always going to have these three divisions.)

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised the beggars to chant “Haribol!” while taking prasādam. Chanting means accepting one’s self as the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is the only solution, regardless of social position. Everyone is suffering under the spell of māyā; therefore the best course is to learn how to get out of the clutches of māyā, that is the verdict of Bhagavad-gītā (14.26):

māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa 
bhakti-yogena sevate 
sa guṇān samatītyaitān 
brahmā-bhūyāya kalpate

“One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall in any circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.”

One can overcome the spell of māyā and attain the transcendental platform by agreeing to engage in the devotional service of the Lord. Devotional service begins with śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam; (ŚB. 7.5.23) therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised the beggars to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra for elevation to the transcendental position. On the transcendental platform, there is no distinction between the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Text 46

‘hari-bola’ bali’ kāṅgāla preme bhāsi’ yāya 
aichana adbhuta līlā kare gaurarāya

Translation: As soon as the beggars chanted the holy name, “Haribol,” they were immediately absorbed in ecstatic love of Godhead. In this way Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu performed wonderful pastimes.

Purport (by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda): To feel the emotion of ecstatic love of God is to be on the transcendental platform. If one can keep himself in that transcendental position, he will surely return home, back to Godhead. In the spiritual world there are no higher, middle or lower classes. This is confirmed by the Īśopaniṣad (7)

yasmin sarvāṇi bhūtāny 
ātmaivābhūd vijānataḥ 
tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka 
ekatvam anupaśyataḥ

“One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?”

Jayapatākā Swami: So by keeping everyone on the transcendental platform, by chanting ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’, by pulling the Jagannātha cart, by taking prasādam, you see, then all these differences – higher, middle, lower class – they will be removed. People will become transcendentally blissful.

As long as people are dependent upon the economy for their happiness, there are always going to be people who have got more economy, more money, therefore there will be people who will envy them for they are happier than I am. And when people are relying on Kṛṣṇa consciousness to be happy, then no one will be envious of others for their economic advancement, because everyone will be achieving the highest ecstasy of life regardless of how much money they have in their pocket.

Therefore, recently at a communist world congress, the communists had a meeting. And they said that… one person stood up and said that, “Right now there is a great danger for our world movement. This is the gravest danger that has ever come up in our history, and that is this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

These people, are they are preaching that everyone should accept just what they are getting from God. And they are preaching that regardless of all religion, political affiliation, being rich, poor, everything, you can all obtain happiness simply in God. If this spreads, our movement will be held up. Therefore, they are number one enemy. They must be stopped.”

In the world communist congress, they announced that ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was more dangerous than Capitalism, more dangerous than anything. This is the number one enemy.’ You see, because this is perfect. You see, therefore once one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, they become immune to all this bogus garbage. So, you can just understand that in the spiritual world there is no higher, middle or lower class. I wouldn't be surprised if even the capitalists have a meeting and say the same thing and ruin our market! You see. I would not at all be surprised. Just out of some, you know, bashfulness, they cannot say directly so clearly, because they can't proclaim atheism. They are trying to keep a show of some type of religious thing. Otherwise they would also say the same thing. I wouldn't be at all surprised. Putting our liquor houses and gambling casinos, and everything out of business... to some extent. So, this is the solution for the world's problems: simply to become God-conscious. That we can see as we read on these pages, more and more. Prabhupāda's given the greatest gift to us.

Text 47

ihāṅ jagannāthera ratha-calana-samaya 
gauḍa saba ratha ṭāne, āge nāhi yāya

Translation: Outside the garden, when it was time to pull Jagannātha’s car, all the workers called gauḍas tried to pull it, but it would not move forward. 

Text 48

ṭānite nā pāre gauḍa, ratha chāḍi’ dila
pātra-mitra lañā rājā vyagra hañā āila

Translation: When the gauḍas saw that they could not budge the car, they abandoned the attempt. Then the King arrived in great anxiety, and he was accompanied by his officers and friends.

Text 49

mahā-malla-gaṇe dila ratha cālāite
āpane lāgilā ratha, nā pāre ṭānite

Translation: The King then arranged for big wrestlers to try to pull the car, and even the King himself joined in, but the car could not be moved.

Text 50

vyagra hañā āne rājā matta-hātī-gaṇa 
ratha cālāite rathe karila yojana

Translation: Becoming even more anxious to move the car, the King had very strong elephants brought forth and harnessed to it.

Text 51

matta-hasti-gaṇa ṭāne yāra yata bala 
eka pada nā cale ratha, ha-ila acala

Translation: The strong elephants pulled with all their strength, but still the car remained at a standstill, not budging an inch.

Text 52

śuni’ mahāprabhu āilā nija-gaṇa lañā 
matta-hastī ratha ṭāne, — dekhe dāṇḍāñā

Translation: As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard this news, He went there with all His personal associates. They then stood there and watched the elephants try to pull the car.

Jayapatākā Swami: Mad elephants you know pulling, *ughhhhh* with their nose, you can see that straining... how they pull.

Text 53

aṅkuśera ghāya hastī karaye citkāra 
ratha nāhi cale, loke kare hāhākāra

Translation: The elephants, being beaten by the elephant-goad, were crying, but still the car would not move. The assembled people cried out, “Alas!”

Text 54

tabe mahāprabhu saba hasté ghucāila 
nija-gaṇe ratha-kāchi ṭānibāre dila

Translation: At that time, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu let all the elephants go free and placed the car’s ropes in the hands of His own men.

Text 55

āpane rathera pāche ṭhele māthā diyā
haḍ haḍ kari, ratha calila dhāiyā

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu then went to the back of the car and began to push with His head. It was then that the car began to move and roll along, making a rattling sound.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Haḍ Haḍ,” you know, the car “Haḍ Haḍ” like this, making this sound and just rattled forward that meant it was going forward so fast that the wheels and axles were going “haḍahaḍahaḍahaḍahaḍa.”

Text 56

bhakta-gaṇa kāchi hāte kari’ mātra dhāya
āpane calila ratha, ṭānite nā pāya 

Translation: Indeed, the car began to move automatically, and the devotees simply carried the ropes in their hands. Since it was moving effortlessly, they did not need to pull it.

Text 57

ānande karaye loka ‘jaya’ ‘jaya’-dhvani
‘jaya jagannātha’ ba-i āra nāhi śuni 

Translation: When the car moved forward, everyone began to chant with great pleasure, “All glories! All glories!” and “All glories to Lord Jagannātha!” No one could hear anything else.

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Jagannātha! Jaya Jagannātha! Everyone, Jaya Jagannātha!

Devotees: Jaya Jagannātha! 

Jaya Jagannātha!

Devotees: Jaya Jagannātha! 

Jaya Jagannātha!

Devotees: Jaya Jagannātha! 

Jaya Gaura Hari!

Devotees: Jaya Gaura Hari! 

Text 58

nimeṣe ta’ gela ratha guṇḍicāra dvāra
caitanya-pratāpa dekhi’ loke camatkāra 

Translation: In a moment the car reached the door of the Guṇḍicā temple. Upon seeing the uncommon strength of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the people were struck with wonder.

Text 59

‘jaya gauracandra’, ‘jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya’
ei-mata kolāhala loke dhanya dhanya

Translation: The crowd made a tumultuous vibration, chanting “Jaya Gauracandra! Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya!” Then the people began to chant, “Wonderful! Wonderful!”

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Gauracandra!

Devotees: Jaya Gauracandra! 

Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya!

Devotees: Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya! 

Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya!

Devotees: Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya! 

Dhanya, Dhanya!

Text 60

dekhiyā pratāparudra pātra-mitra-saṅge
prabhura mahimā dekhi’ preme phule aṅge 

Translation: Seeing the greatness of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Pratāparudra Mahārāja and his ministers and friends were so moved by ecstatic love that the hair on their bodies stood on end.

Text 61

pāṇḍu-vijaya tabe kare sevaka-gaṇe
jagannātha vasilā giyā nija-siṁhāsane 

Translation: All the servants of Lord Jagannātha then took Him down from the car, and the Lord went to sit on His throne.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the pāṇḍu-vijaya - the victory of the pāṇḍūs. That Lord Jagannātha has come to them.

Text 62

subhadrā-balarāma nija-siṁhāsane āilā
jagannāthera snāna-bhoga ha-ite lāgilā 

Translation: Subhadrā and Balarāma also sat on their respective thrones. There followed the bathing of Lord Jagannātha and finally the offering of food.

Text 63

āṅgināte mahāprabhu lañā bhakta-gaṇa
ānande ārambha kaila nartana-kīrtana 

Translation: While Lord Jagannātha, Lord Balarāma and Subhadrā sat on their respective thrones, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His devotees began to perform saṅkīrtana with great pleasure, chanting and dancing in the yard of the temple.

Text 64

ānande mahāprabhura prema uthalila
dekhi’ saba loka prema-sāgare bhāsila 

Translation: While Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was chanting and dancing, He was overwhelmed with ecstatic love, and all the people who saw Him were also flooded in the ocean of love of Godhead.

Text 65

nṛtya kari’ sandhyā-kāle ārati dekhila
āiṭoṭā āsi’ prabhu viśrāma karila

Translation: In the evening, after finishing His dancing in the yard of the Guṇḍicā temple, the Lord observed the ārati ceremony. Thereafter He went to a place called Āiṭoṭā and took rest for the night.

Text 66

advaitādi bhakta-gaṇa nimantraṇa kaila
mukhya mukhya nava jana nava dina pāila

Translation: For nine days, nine chief devotees, headed by Advaita Ācārya, got an opportunity to invite the Lord to their homes.

Text 67

āra bhakta-gaṇa cāturmāsye yata dina
eka eka dina kari’ karila baṇṭana

Translation: During the four months of the rainy season, the remaining devotees extended invitations to the Lord for one day each. In this way they shared invitations.

Text 68

cāri māsera dina mukhya-bhakta bāṅṭi’
nila āra bhakta-gaṇa avasara nā pāila 

Translation: For the four-month period, all the daily invitations were shared among the important devotees. The rest of the devotees did not get an opportunity to extend an invitation to the Lord.

Text 69

eka dina nimantraṇa kare dui-tine mili’
ei-mata mahāprabhura nimantraṇa-keli

Translation: Since they could not get one day each, two or three devotees combined to extend an invitation. These are the pastimes of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s acceptance of invitations.

Text 70

prātaḥ-kāle snāna kari’ dekhi’ jagannātha
saṅkīrtane nṛtya kare bhakta-gaṇa sātha

Translation: After taking His bath early in the morning, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu would go see Lord Jagannātha in the temple. Then He would perform saṅkīrtana with His devotees.

Text 71

kabhu advaite nācāya, kabhu nityānande
kabhu haridāse nācāya, kabhu acyutānande 

Translation: By chanting and dancing, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu induced Advaita Ācārya to dance. Sometimes He induced Nityānanda Prabhu, Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Acyutānanda to dance.

Text 72

kabhu vakreśvare, kabhu āra bhakta-gaṇe
trisandhyā kīrtana kare guṇḍicā-prāṅgaṇe

Translation: Sometimes Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu engaged Vakreśvara and other devotees in chanting and dancing. Three times daily — morning, noon and evening — He would perform saṅkīrtana in the yard of the Guṇḍicā temple.

Text 73

vṛndāvane āilā kṛṣṇa — ei prabhura jñāna
kṛṣṇera viraha-sphūrti haila avasāna

Translation: At this time Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu felt that Lord Kṛṣṇa had returned to Vṛndāvana. Thinking this, His feelings of sepāration from Kṛṣṇa subsided.

Text 74

rādhā-saṅge kṛṣṇa-līlā — ei haila jñāne
ei rase magna prabhu ha-ilā āpane

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was always thinking of the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and He remained personally merged in this consciousness.

Jayapatākā Swami: So that was 50 verses, 51 verses. And now Śrīla Rāmeśvara wants me to read another 60 verses. (laughter) I think it's... not possible. 104 to 164 might be here till Ratha-yātrā. I don't know whether just to get to the end of it or whether to leave it for someone to read tomorrow. Tonight? I think it would be too late. Any advice? Basically, this is the pastime of Herā-pañcami. Got to really read all the details to get this fully. You know how Lakṣmī Devī came and arrested all of Lord Jagannātha’s servants; that she became very angry that Jagannātha was gone, He said He would be back and still He had not come back. Like a henpecked husband, she thought that.. Of course…. continued from the purport of Text 161, the verse describes Rādhārāṇī’s nature

Purport (midway through): Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī describes the right-wing gopīs in this way:

asahyā māna-nirbandhe 
nāyake yukta-vādinī 
sāmabhis tena bhedyā ca 
dakṣiṇā parikīrtitā

“A gopī who cannot tolerate womanly anger, who speaks suitable words to the hero, and who is satisfied by His sweet words is called a dakṣiṇā, or a right-wing gopī.”

Text 162

vāmya-svabhāve māna uṭhe nirantara
tāra madhye uṭhe kṛṣṇera ānanda-sāgara 

Translation: Because She is a left-wing gopī, Her womanly anger is always awakening, but Kṛṣṇa derives transcendental bliss from Her activities.

Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda explained that actually everything that's in the material world is only coming from God, it's only coming from Kṛṣṇa. So, that in the material world, we see that well, there is so-called romance, so-called loving affairs, which are actually of course we know after understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are actually lusty affairs and they are simply a perverted reflection or an imperfect reflection of the original affairs in the spiritual sky.

The difference is that in the spiritual world, there is no material body, there is no need of any material mechanisms; that everything is on the transcendental platform, and on the platform of pure love. But because it is there in its pure form in the spiritual world, so somehow or other, it's filtered down, and all these relationships of conjugal love, parental love, friendship, servitude or even neutral appreciation, are in the material world only because they're existing originally in the spiritual sky. So therefore, this is ultimately the highest understanding of God realization.

No one can hold a candle to this understanding. So many people are praying to God, ‘The Father, Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, give us our daily bread.’ They cannot get beyond the bread status, you see. Here, we are seeing Lord Caitanya... He is not asking for the bread; rather He is offering bread, purīs (laughter), fruit everything to Jagannātha, you see. Not thinking, “Will Jagannātha give me... but how can I offer so many nice things to Jagannātha, and then knowing how holy is His name, how holy are His activities, simply relishing how the Lord is enjoying different transcendental pastimes, and seeing them on the transcendental platform. So these pastimes are very confidential. Generally, people won't understand. I was giving a class, just a few days ago on Rādhāṣṭamī. Just we have to say something about Rādhā. So someone was saying, “Well these things sound an awful lot like romance in the material world. How can we get out of this?” So immediately we felt, “Well, this is a dangerous position, if we say anything about Rādhārāṇī and people think that this is Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, Kṛṣṇa and the cowherd girls, these are material activities, they will be complicated by offences. So I explained that just understand this one thing - that in the material life the highest happiness is when the man and woman have their union. But in the spiritual world - we have to take it from the authorities - that there's nothing like this material affair. This material thing is just a gross type of shadow. So there, it was confirmed by Kṛṣṇa, by Lord Caitanya, and all the great souls that the highest level of love is experienced when the two are separated. ‘Virahe’ or ‘vipralambha’ is considered to be the mahābhāva; it is only experienced in separation.

Then that person said, “This is opposite.” He is a simple person; nice devotee, but very simple. So he said that this is completely opposite. So, that we can just understand that this is completely opposite - these affairs. But those who are very advanced, who realize that they are not the body, who realize Kṛṣṇa does not have a material body, that the gopīs don't have material bodies, that Rādhārāṇī doesn't have a material body, that Jagannātha doesn't have a material body. And that these are all transcendental affairs. As they get the taste, even one taste of ecstasy from that ocean of bliss, they can understand there is a whole realm of happiness, not dependent on the body. And therefore, they can start to understand that the happiness that is experienced by Kṛṣṇa and by Lord Caitanya, and by great devotees like the gopīs, and other great devotees like the gosvāmīs, are not on the material platform at all. They are not dependent on any material sense organs, but they are completely on the transcendental level of pure premānanda, transcendental ecstatic bliss.

Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda kī...!

Devotees: Jaya! 

Jagannātha Swami kī…!

Devotees: Jaya!

Caitanya Mahāprabhu kī...! 

Devotees: Jaya! 

Śrī Rāmeśvara Swami Mahārāja kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!

Devotee: Śrīla Ācāryapāda kī...!

Devotees: Jaya! 

Devotee: Śrīla Ācāryapāda kī...!!

Devotees: Jaya! 

Devotee: Gaura premānande…!

Devotees: Hari Hari bol!

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