19831031 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.44

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on October 31, 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, Chapter 9, Verse 43-44.

sarva-veda-mayenedam
ātmanātmātma-yoninā
prajāḥ sṛja yathā-pūrvaṁ
yāś ca mayy anuśerate
(ŚB 3.9.43)

Translation (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): By following My instructions you can now generate the living entities as before, by dint of your complete Vedic wisdom and the body you have directly received from Me, the supreme cause of everything.

*Translation with repetition*

maitreya uvāca—
tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre
pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ
vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa
kañja-nābhas tirodadhe
(ŚB 3.9.44)

*verse repeat*

Translation: The sage Maitreya said: After instructing Brahmā, the creator of the universe, to expand, the primeval Lord, the Personality of Godhead in His personal form as Nārāyaṇa, disappeared.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): Before his activity in creating the universe, Brahmā saw the Lord. That is the explanation of the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam. When the creation awaited Brahmā’s activity, Brahmā saw the Lord, and therefore the Lord existed in His personal form before the creation. His eternal form is not created by the attempt of Brahmā, as imagined by less intelligent men. The Personality of Godhead appeared as He is before Brahmā, and He disappeared from him in the same form, which is not materially tinged.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the 3rd Canto, 9th Chapter of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, entitled “Brahmā’s Prayers for Creative Energy”.

Jayapatākā Swami: This clears up one doubt that sometimes Māyāvādīs raise. The Māyāvādīs, simply think that the personality of Godhead is a creation of the material world. They want to say everything is impersonal. So for those students of the Vedic literatures, in this chapter it has been irrevocably established that before Brahmā could create, that he was able to have the audience with Lord Nārāyaṇa, the expansion of Kṛṣṇa, and it is only by Nārāyaṇa’s mercy that he was able to create. What to speak of creating Nārāyaṇa, only Brahmā could create by getting the mercy of Nārāyaṇa.

Nārāyaṇa exists before the creation, during the creation, and after the dissolution of this material world. So, those philosophers should have no doubt that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond this material creation. Even Śaṅkarācārya, who is their founder so that they stake, he has clearly said, nārāyaṇaḥ paro 'vyaktāt, that Nārāyaṇa is beyond the material, unmanifested state. That means that Nārāyaṇa is in the spiritual state, beyond the material world.

Of course the Bhāgavatam explains, that there are the three features of Godhead:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate
(ŚB 1.2.11)

That is Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. So,the personalists, the devotees of the Lord, they understand the personality of Godhead, and automatically they also know the Paramātmā feature and the Brahman feature or the impersonal feature. There is no difficulty for them to understand all the features. But for the impersonalists, they are not able to understand the Personality of Godhead.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He appeared in this uh, material world also on His own free will. He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, and He came into the material world for His own purpose, you see. The difference that when Kṛṣṇa in His expansion or directly, as Lord Krsna or as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, come into the material world They are not coming like an ordinary living entity who comes under the dictations of karma.

A normal conditioned soul doesn’t have any freedom to choose, who will be their mother and father. They are forced by the laws of nature to take a birth, and they are put into a particular situation, and they’re under the uh, dictation of the laws of karma, doing their uh, activities in their lifetime. But Kṛṣṇa when He personally comes, Lord Caitanya when He personally comes, they are beyond the jurisdiction of the material world. Rather the material world, it’s simply acting on behalf of the Lord.

We have seen in India, where many uh, ministers and Vice Presidents so on, they sometime visit our temple…the President of India, different people like… sometime visit our temple, and they tell their secretaries, uh, “You make arrangement, I am going to the Hare Kṛṣṇa center.” And about a week ahead, the policeman come and say that, “So and so is coming here.” Everything is ready, they check it out, where they are going to stay, the second day, the day before again some other officer comes and checks it out, then the day they come that morning, the police comes, stand in front of the main gate, in front of the temple, all around, and uh, then when they finally come, then they come with the pilot car in front, then they come, and then behind they got more police, you know, it’s like a whole thing. Then when they come in, we have to feed them, five secretaries and their family and their attendants, and then all the six drivers for all the cars, and then another place they have to feed all the policemen. So big operation.

We can see that how they simply tell their secretary, “Alright I want to go to this place, we will go and invite them” He tells the secretary, from then on, the police, and the district administration, and the state administration. One time the deputy… the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, was coming to Māyāpur, as an official State… Guest of the State. He was the head of the Union Territory, and he was coming as an official state guest, attending a function in Māyāpur. So, for 1 month before his arrival, they paint, they had repaired the road, and all… and there is a little demarcation alongside where… which, what is the roa…government road property and what is the public property, they have little white stones that sit in the side of the road. About 30-40 feet from the road. So those they painted white, put those numbers on, and showing how many miles to Māyāpur, things like that. They did so many things to prepare for this dignitary’s arrival.

So similarly, Kṛṣṇa, He just tells His uh, His internal energy, “I am going to appear in the material world.” She or tells the material energy, everything is automatically arranged. They don’t have to, Kṛṣṇa doesn’t have to do anymore. The thing that Kṛṣṇa is coming like an ordinary living entity you see, forced by the laws of material nature, this is very big misunderstanding, which these ślokas tend to educate us in, by saying that even Lord Brahmā is completely underneath the, domain of, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu.

So, when Lord Caitanya appears also, the place that he appears is something very special. It’s not an ordinary place. That place is part of the spiritual world, it’s underneath the uh, protection of the internal energy. Just like when the Governor is coming, at that time he is not leaving his security up to us. He has got his own policeman, the government, even if he doesn’t care, but the government doesn’t leave it up to us. They bring their people. They don’t want anything to happen, while he is there in their state. So, the uh, spiritual energy, the place where Lord Caitanya is, although there is not a question of any danger, but nonetheless, the spiritual energy expands in that particular area just to accommodate the Lord’s pastimes. That, that area is permanently part of the internal energies’ activities or jurisdiction. Just like the government have got their embassies all over the world and those embassies fly the flag of that country under international law. For the holy dhāma, the abodes of the Lord, in any part of the universe, wherever He appears, they are in their own ways, flying the flag of the internal energy. They are not under the domain of the material energy, you see.

Superficially it may appear that way on the crux of things, the material energy is maintaining. It’s like the road in front of the embassy might be maintained by the, municipality or they might be giving water, but technically, legally speaking, the actual embassy is underneath the jurisdiction of that specific government. So, since the material energy is the expansion of the spiritual energy, there is not any conflict there, but superficially things on the dhāma appear to be going on as usual in the material world, but actually the area of the holy dhāma is under the spiritual potency’s jurisdiction and ultimately, she reigns supreme there.

And for those who have the eyes to see the spiritual vision, they can see the activities of the spiritual nature at work, they can see the pastimes of the Lord. So, this is very important for us here in Hawaii, because we are living in New Navadvīpa, which is uh, named after the original Navadvīpa. So, the Navadvīpa, we should understand, what is the nature of the holy dhāma. Actually, Navadvīpa is considered to be gupta Vṛndāvana, or the hidden Vṛndāvana. It is the most uh, guarded secret in the Vedic literature, because Lord Caitanya was appearing in a disguise.

He was coming in a, you can say a clandestine role. He was coming as a devotee. He wasn’t coming as a proclaimed way as the Supreme Lord. This is predicted in practically every Vedic literature, that in the Kali-yuga, there is a dozen places where it predicts, the Supreme Lord comes as the devotee, not as a supreme. He comes in this Kali-yuga after Kṛṣṇa, in this specific covered role, where He covers His glory as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and comes in the role as a devotee.

If President Reagan was going to already you know… I don’t do it nowadays, but say, in the previous time the Kings, they do make spot checks amongst the citizens. You find in the Kṛṣṇa book, that Kṛṣṇa sometimes would dress Himself up as an ordinary citizen and go out amongst His people to hear what they are speaking about the government, about the things, and really find out where things are at, you see. Of course, now you have the newspapers doing it for you. But, in those times they wouldn’t, actually very intelligent not to have these kinds of newspapers, so they would just have to know what the people were talking about. But if, in the corner they have the people with their bugles proclaiming that thatah that thatah (imitates trumpeting sound), “Here the King is coming in secret incognito at 5’ o clock today.” then everyone would be standing and waiting to look. That would be completely ridiculous. So obviously, they don’t come proclaimed.

So here, the Supreme Personality of Godhead… it’s given in the Vedas, that He is coming in the Kali-yuga, so how is it that… how would it be a secret, everyone’s going to know, “Oh, here is the predicted Supreme Personality of Godhead avatāra.” it would lose uh, its complete significance, if everybody knew that He was coming, He wouldn’t be able to act as a devotee, everyone would be calling Him out as the Supreme Lord.

So, this secret was revealed, when Jīva Gosvāmī met Lord Nityānanda. Jīva Gosvāmī has… he is of course the nephew of Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī and, he was living in Rāmakeli where he met Lord Caitanya as an infant, and when he grew up, he decided that he would also go to Vṛndāvana, you see, where Rūpa and Sanātana are… were. He was going to join them. But on the way, he wanted to meet Lord… he wanted to see Navadvīpa-dhāma, and he was hoping to see Lord Nityānanda.

So, as he was going towards Navadvīpa Dhāma, walking from Rāmakeli, about say roughly 200 kilometers, say 150 miles, not such a long walk, for those days, considering they had walk 1,000 miles to Vṛndāvana. It was a fairly straight walk, takes a few days. He walks from Rāmakeli to Navadvīpa, and as he was approaching Navadvīpa, he started to uh, just be overwhelmed with transcendental ecstasy, thinking that I am going to the holy dhāma, going to Navadvīpa, then as he entered the area of Navadvīpa, he was feeling transcendental ecstasy, he just fell down on the ground and started paying his obeisances. Then as he went into uh, towards the Māyāpur area, he was very fortunate enough to meet Lord Nityānanda. There he fell down from a distance when he could see Lord Nityānanda. He couldn’t believe it that he was seeing Lord Nityānanda, fell down offering his obeisances, and Lord Nityānanda came over and in His unique transcendental jovial mood, He put His lotus feet right on the head of Jīva Gosvāmī. Blessed him. “I was waiting for you.”

Jīva Gosvāmī and… after so many discussions, he requested that he was very eager to know what was the significance of the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa? If He could have just revealed to him, then he would be very satisfied. So, Lord Nityānanda agreed to take him on a parikramā. Parikramā means a tour of the nine islands of Navadvīpa, starting from central island, Sīmanta… excuse me, Antardvīpa, and going through the other nine islands, Sīmantadvīpa, Godrumadvīpa, Madhyadvīpa, Koladvīpa, Ṛtudvīpa, Jahnudvīpa, Modadruma-dvīpa, Rudradvīpa. These nine islands comprise the total Navadvīpa dhāma.

So, Lord Nityānanda agreed to take him. And first they went to the house of mother Śacī. And mother Śacī prepared prasāda for both Lord Nityānanda prabhu and Jīva Gosvāmī was able to take the prasāda from mother Śacī, a very great honor. He was overwhelmed, he fell down on the ground, offering them all obeisances. He couldn’t believe his great fortune. So, this type of… there are many pastimes like that.

Anyway, Jīva Gosvāmī was able to see the… at least able to go to the birth site there. Nityānanda Prabhu explained what is happening, how,what are the different places, where the Śrīvāsa-āṅgana was, Śrīvāsa ’s house, all the different places in the Antardvīpa. The five ghāṭas were still there of course where the Jagāi Mādhāi ghāṭa - one that was built by Mādhāi, Mādhāi’s ghāṭa. The uh, Barokana ghāṭa, all the various ghāṭas twine the bathing fareways going into the Ganges which were… are considered to be very sacred.

Like this Lord Nityānanda was explaining. So basically it is explained that Navadvīpa-dhāma is uh, twenty-one yojanas, the total Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi is twenty-one yojanas in circumference, and Navadvīpa is uh, uh, sixteen krośas, or 4 yojanas in circumference, in perimeter. So that comes to about ten miles in diameter for Navadvīpa Dhāma, and for the Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi it’s a 168, 21 yojanas, if I… my mathematics is correct, it’s approximately 168 miles, 8 miles per yojana, and the diameter comes into uh, I forget explicit quite a significant of 84 mile or something. [Aside: 2πr. Isn’t that diameter 2πr? So,I forgot. It works out to about, they call Vṛndāvana eighty-two krośa, that means twenty-one yojanas, I forget what the diameter is.] Anyway, that is the total area of Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi where Lord Caitanya has a transcendental pastime. So at this time, Jīva Gosvāmī was being taken simply around the nine islands of Navadvīpa.

The central island is island of ātma-nivedanam, self-surrender. Each island is connected with one of the nine practices of devotional service. The first island Sīmantadvīpa is the island of self-surrender… excuse me, of hearing. The next island Godrumadvīpa is the island of chanting. Śravaṇaṁ, kīrtanaṁ, smaraṇaṁ. Madhyadvīpa is remembering. Madhyadvīpa the remembering deity is [Prahlāda] Narasiṁhadeva. In the border of Madhyadvīpa, Narasiṁhadeva’s temple is there, where Lord Narasiṁhadeva visited in the Satya-yuga. It’s very near Madhyadvīpa. So all these islands, originally were divided by various river, which are offshoots from the Ganges, in each there were twenty-one going in one direction and fourteen going in another direction, and in each of these are spiritually related to one of the sacred rivers like the Tāmraparṇī, the Brahmaputra, the uh, Kāverī, the Sindhu like so on. All the various rivers have got their representation in the original holy dhāma. And this divided up the total land mass to make it appear as if they are nine islands.

So last night we discussed about Lord Jagannātha. Lord Jagannātha, where His temple is situated is in the island called Sīmantadvīpa. In Sīmantadvīpa there is an extension of Jagannātha Purī. Its described it in the, previous, period there was a time when there was a demon called Raktabāhu, who used to like to cannibalize brāhmaṇas. Especially he liked to rip their arms off or kill them. And then because he was bloody from the blood of so many brāhmaṇas he got the name Raktabahu which means kind of like bloody hand. So, the pūjārīs and then the brāhmaṇas who cared Lord Jagannātha thought about it would be dangerous for Lord Jagannātha to remain in that area considering the presence of this demon. So, they took Lord Jagannātha away, and brought Him to Navadvīpa, where He remained in seclusion for a period of time, while until the king of the area was able to exterminate this demon. Then they brought Lord Jagannātha back.

So, the inner reason for this pastime is given by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that basically as explained by Lord Nityānanda to Jīva Gosvāmī, it’s that Lord Jagannātha wanted to visit Navadvīpa. Sometimes uh, just like you see the President likes to visit his allies. In the previous times in the British Empire, they have their territories all over the world. The… the King of England, visited uh… and the Queen, they visited India sometime, even though it took them a long time by ship, they wanted to see their territory, their dominion. For one reason or another, it’s Kṛṣṇa’s… these are all perverted reflections of Kṛṣṇa’s own desire. He likes to visit His holy places where His abodes are. So Jagannātha came up and visited Navadvīpa-dhāma for some time and then He went back. The place where He visited is the same place where this Jagannātha Deities are established in Sīmantadvīpa.

The Sīmantadvīpa… Each of these islands has got their own history of various activities and things happening. And as we go around the nine islands, we take devotees on this parikramā, which are retracing the route that Lord Nityānanda took Jīva Gosvāmī. Nityānanda explained that you can do one day per island, nine days, which normally we don’t have, or we can do five days, or you can do 3 days. So, we normally do the five-day tour. Of course, the thing with Nityānanda, they did it simply by walking. We take elephants, and buses, and boats, and so many things. Because coming from the West most of the devotees couldn’t walk, you know the 32 miles, around the Navadvīpa-dhāma in the heat of the sun and everything. And being in good health, plus there so many programs we do like morning classes and different things. But basically uh, we are following uh, part of the route, it is not the total route of Lord Nityānanda’s taking Jīva Gosvāmī.

He was able to go to some very remote places where there are no roads, and there are many places which are explained by Lord Nityānanda to Jīva Gosvāmī for which the exact location is lost or hidden. So, at that time, Nityānanda prabhu explained to Jīva Gosvāmī that Lord Caitanya kept through His internal potency those ślokas in the Vedas, which describes His appearance, He just kept them more or less undiscernible to all the paṇḍitas. As just like if you have a computer and then you sum up things like these military computers are written classified. So, unless you have the classified clearance, you can’t get into that, because nowadays all these kids are trying to break through those things, so they are trying to remove their computers from the public telephone system.

Well, we know that every time we read the Bhagavad-gītā we get something new out of it. Every time we read the Bhāgavatam we get some new inspiration. According to our purity, just like a kind of an automatic clearance, how much we can get out of it, and every time we read, we get a little more purified, we read more we get something more, it goes on like this, in its own sublime way, kind of a crude example. But somehow by Kṛṣṇa’s mystic potency, by His internal energy, the sages when they would read that there is going to be a channa-avatāra, somehow it just wouldn’t register, they would just go on. That aspect of their intelligence was just covered by māyā. So, they… no one would… if they thought about it, they would just you know… couldn’t figure it out, kind of just go on, it wouldn’t register, Kṛṣṇa covered their, you see, thought process in that way.

After Lord Caitanya appeared, and after He disappeared from the planet, at that time uh, He allowed, He gave… told Nityānanda, that now My glories they can be revealed after… because it is not going to interfere with His pastimes then. So that time the glories of the holy dhāma, the glories of Lord Caitanya, they had the full sanction to be revealed because they are not going to interfere with His pastimes anymore. Now people can know who He is, and what was His actual purpose, you see. But He was able to perform His pastimes, as a devotee without any hindrance. Only a few people could recognize Him as the Supreme Lord, at different periods, and He kept that normally uh, very, how would you say? Sublimated or very concealed and hidden from the general populace.

If somebody would say, “You are Viṣṇu.” He would cover His ears and say, “Viṣṇu, Viṣṇu, Viṣṇu! What a great offence! How can a living entity be called God?” He would never allow anyone, even uh, Advaita Gosāñi, when he would address Him as Kṛṣṇa or something, He would be very offended and run off. It’s only one time that uh, He did a mahā-prakāśa twenty-one-hour ārati and worship that they performed when actually, out of His causeless mercy, He agreed to reveal His uh, Īśvara nature. After that He wouldn’t. He didn’t reveal it again, you know except for like momentary things with Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya and so on.

So now it’s our… we have the complete uh, authority to inform everyone, of the actual position of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the nature of His holy abode, Navadvīpa Dhāma, Vṛndāvana Dhāma- the abode of Kṛṣṇa, these things. Of course, there is no problem ever for the abode of Kṛṣṇa. But even Lord Caintanya and His abode, His name, these things can now be revealed. So, in this… for this reason Lord Nityānanda was taking Jīva Goswami and showing him. This tour of Nityānanda with Jīva Gosvāmī, was recorded in several books, one is the Navadvīpa-Māhātmya, other one is the Bhakti Ratnakara, and in other places also there is mention of it.

So the… as I mentioned, each of the islands has got, you might even consider, which islands corresponds, but in any case, each of the islands has got their history, their spiritual history. Just like in the same island where Lord Jagannātha is, in the Dvāpara-yuga, Lord Balarāma visited that island and there, there was a demon called Māyāsura. This Māyāsura demon was harassing the sages, and they requested Lord Balarāma to protect them, which is the duty of the government, to protect the brāhmaṇas. So there, he had a battle with this Māyāsura, and, liberated him. And the field, now this… the exact location of this was lost. So we… I have been looking for about 5-6 years now, trying to find the exact loca… location. Maybe, Satyanarayan came. Maybe he told something about it? He is not good at this research work. He is good at repair work. I sent him here on this job and think about him and burned them up.

So hard to find any clue, we went to the village, and there was one old man, like he… half blind, had to be held up by two people, and he said, “I know where the māyā, ma, I know the place.” So then one day made an appointment and, he was taken out there, and he showed the one field on the side of the Jalañgī river, said, “This is the place.” Later we found out that, “Oh man, we also confirmed that was the same place.” So I wanted to get at these places which are completely lost to practically everyone… they’re just like hidden but are recorded in the śāstras. To you have little pillars erected there, just to you know giving the details, the quotes from the scriptures, the ślokas and the place in English and Bengali and Hindi, so that people can know that this the actual place, and then get a little area, because, as it is now, there are many places like that which are recorded in the śāstra for which you know, like Bhaktisiddhānta, found about more than half of them, and erected temples there, but there are another say fifty, another… another, he called number which have not had any kind of, shrine or… or you know, what you call, memorial anything built there. And with time… although now people, in some of them it’s well known this is the place.

Where this particular activity took place, where Lord Śiva, came, he was so eager to go to Navadvīpa-dhāma, and his bull is very slow, on the way he was going…”, and he, “I am going to Navadvīpa, I am going to Navadvīpa.” and on the way he met Lord Brahmā, and he said, “Your… your swan is so much faster than my… than my bull. Now let me borrow your swan, so that I can go to Navadvīpa-dhāma.” and he hopped on to the swan, and he went down to Navadvīpa-dhāma by a swan. So they called that Haṁsa Vāhana or the place where Lord Śiva came to Navadvīpa-dhāma on the swan of Lord Brahmā.

Like this there are many unique pastimes which are mentioned in Purāṇas, which are mentioned in different places, for which that Deity is kept under water, the whole year and just take it out of the water, it’s in a river and they worshiped it under the water. That’s unique. I don’t know exactly why they do that, what’s the reason, but they keep the deity under water, and then once a year they take the deity out of the water and then they do a public worship outside the water, and they set him back down into the water.

Like this there is so many things to research. Prabhupāda in 1977, formed the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity trust to do this type of research, as well as to do other programs, to try to unite the Gauḍīya sampradāya. And some of his Godbrothers were appointed on the committee as well as five of his disciples on that committee also. The uh, so mainly they give me the responsibility doing the research work, and then I have like Satyanarayana and other people assisting. Right now, Nitai Chand Mahārāja is assisting for the, actual construction of it. So like this in each island of Navadvīpa, you find that there is like a dozen things, or sometimes even more that have happened, through the ages, that all the incarnations, when they go on their tour, they stop in Navadvīpa dhāma at different times, and they have certain pastimes.

There was a time, when, Lord Śiva, sometimes he just spontaneously, anyway I don’t know, maybe we don’t have time… [Aside: We go about more things right now? … Prabhu? (Not audible discussion)] Lord Śiva, he suddenly became overwhelmed with ecstasy just thinking about Lord Caitanya’s pastimes in the Kali-yuga. And he said, jumping up and saying, “Gaurāṇga, Gaurāṇga, Gaurāṇga, Gaurāṇga” He just became completely overwhelmed, just uh, in the mood of Lord Caitanya, giving out love for Kṛṣṇa, and His whole ecstatic pastimes, he could see in the future, He is coming there in Kailāsa, he became completely ecstatic, chanting Gauranga. Mother Pārvati was completely uh, shocked, she didn’t know what was going on. She said, “Who is Gaurāṇga? Just by hearing the name, my hairs are standing on end.”

And he explained that… who Gaurāṇga was, and how in Kali-yuga Kṛṣṇa comes. Not as the supreme person, but He comes just as a devotee, and He is giving anyone who comes in contact… gets this ecstatic love for Godhead, the… in the… and then mother Pārvati, she said that, “I want to meet Lord Gaurāṇga. I want to get His mercy. How can I do it?”

Lord Śiva said, “He keeps coming in the Kali-yuga.”

She said, “No, but I want to somehow see him now.”

So then Śiva said, “Well, if you go to the holy dhāma, Navadvīpa where he appeared, that’s underneath his, transcendental potency, and there He can be seen in any age, at any time, to those who He gives that blessing, but He is there, and if you go there, there is more chance that you could meet Him.”

So, then she came down and she also did her worship in the same island of Sīmantadvīpa where those Lord Jagannātha deities are. In fact, I’ll explain how that island was named after this particular pastime. So there, mother Pārvati, she started doing her, yoga meditation, chanting the name of Gaurāṇga. Gaurāṇga… by using that simple mantra, “Gaurāṇga, Gaurāṇga, Gaurāṇga” she was, meditating on Lord Caitanya, and worshiping Him in various ways.

So finally, after some time, Lord Caitanya appeared to mother Pārvati. And mother Pārvati at that time was overwhelmed to see the beautiful form of Lord Caitanya. His lotus feet which are always dancing in ecstasy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, His… His lotus, eyes which are going back almost to His ears. His beautiful long flowing hair, His, garland with bumblebees, everything flying around, His broad chest just like a doorway, His narrow waist just like a lion’s waist, and then His, yellow garment, and, she was completely overwhelmed to see Lord Caitanya, and she fell at His feet and she started to appeal to Him that, “You are the most merciful incarnation, You give Your mercy to everyone, all the fallen souls get Your benediction. Without considering who is qualified, who is unqualified, You deliver everyone, so Your followers they are always criticizing me. They are delivering everyone, and Māyādevī, myself, I am the… so to speak, I am always the bad person. So that’s alright, but one thing is that, can’t… won’t I get the opportunity to be delivered? Can’t I be delivered? You are going to deliver everyone, and not me? I am not going to get the mercy, and am I so unfortunate that I won’t get the mercy? You are delivering everyone, and I have to remain without love for Kṛṣṇa, and everyone else is getting love for Kṛṣṇa, except for me. Please have Your mercy upon me, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Gaurāṇga Mahāprabhu!” and like this she was pleading and begging.

So then Lord Caitanya revealed to her at that time, you see, although she is the expansion of the expansion of Rādhārāṇī, you see, but at all time she might not be aware of it in a direct way, of been aware that she is an expansion, but not her intimate connection with Rādhārāṇī. Somehow by His divine mercy, He revealed to her, how she was the expansion of Rādhārāṇī, and that in the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa that she was non-different, and there she was able to perceive her connection with Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī, and experience love for Kṛṣṇa, in a very sublime way. So, she resides there in a specific form known as Prauḍha-māyā.

So in the holy dhāma, Māyādevī doesn’t act in the same way, especially Navadvīpa dhāma, she resides as Prauḍha-māyā, and she helps people to become Kṛṣṇa Conscious. So like this, at that time, she took the dust from the Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet. She was pacified, and she put that dust on her forehead just like the married woman put the mark in their part of their hair, she put the dust there like that, and anointed her head, and this part of the hair is called Sīmanta, so that island is named because she took the dust of that island, put it on her hair part, the Sīmanta part of her lotus head. That island is known as Sīmantadvīpa, or the island of Sīmanta, the island where the dust was placed on the Sīmanta location, on the forehead of Māyādevī, Mother Pārvati.

So, like this each, every island has their specific pastimes, and histories. And then Lord Nityānanda after showing these to Jīva Gosvāmī, then again, He go to the next island, and continue with the various description. This is just sampling of some of the activities which happened in one of the nine islands in Navadvīpa dhāma. So you are very, very fortunate to be living in New Navadvīpa, here with the Pañca-tattva, expanding their pastimes, and the more that the Harinama-saṅkīrtana yajña is expanded throughout New Navadvīpa. Certainly the presence of Lord Caitanya will have a purifying effect on all the residents.

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

Any questions?

Yes?

Question: I was just wondering, is there any researchers I mean researchers of these technologically… (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: [Aside: Yes, go ahead. We have]

There is a yearly magazine called the Māyāpur magazine. Once a year they give some of the highlights but as far as something more frequent, I don’t think we really did at the more frequent than that.

Question: So, is there any specific reason behind the name New Navadvīpa, since there is nine islands in Hawaii?

Jayapatākā Swami: You are supposed to manifest the mood of Navadvīpa.

Question: So, the nine processes involving hearing, chanting… what was the special feature of Navadvīpa? Is that the island of hearing, chanting…?

Jayapatākā Swami: Navadvīpa means nine islands. Within the nine islands, it is described that there's one island, the Antardvīpa island is like a center, and the other nine islands come off it like eight petals in the whorl. Each of…

Question: What is Antardvīpa?

Jayapatākā Swami: Antardvīpa is where Lord Caitanya appeared. That is for the…

Devotee: What is the process?

Jayapatākā Swami: Ātma-nivedanam. That means self-surrender, full surrender, Total surrender. Here Lord Caitanya has appeared here, so then it’s like this would be the place of total surrender

Devotee: Where is Māyāpur?

Jayapatākā Swami: That is Antardvīpa. Māyāpur means Antardvīpa. Māyāpur is the you know that’s like, it’s also mentioned in the Purāṇas, but it’s also the legal name of the place. Antardvīpa is the spiritual, spiritual name of the place.

Question: So do those nine islands have specific locations also here in New Navadvīpa?

Devotee: We’ll think about it. (Laughter)

Jayapatākā Swami: You found it in the cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Any other questions?

Question: You were saying that… that when the Lord appeared in a disguised incarnation, so He could go into difficult places and have His different pastimes?

Jayapatākā Swami: Hmm. Lord Caitanya visited all the holy places in South India. Lord Nityānanda visited all the holy palaces, Lord Balarāma visited the holy places. Different incar… even Lord Narasiṁhadeva after His pastimes, He stopped in Navadvīpa, especially Navadvīpa, they’ve all visited. But, even in Vṛndāvana, you’ll find that different incarnations have visited Vṛndāvana over the ages, and there are many, although I am not well studied in the Nava… in the Vṛndāvana parikramā, but there, I just generally know that in each island there are many pastimes when different incarnations went there.

Lord Rāmacandra visited, Navadvīpa-dhāma. Lord Kṛṣṇa had to personally save Bhīma in Navadvīpa-dhāma, when Bhīma was doing the…. call it the rājasūya or agnihotra, you have to go on tour to all countries and defeat them. So that time there was a King in Navadvīpa called Samudrasena, and he decided that if he could give a stiff fight to Bhīma, so stiffly that he would be about to kill him, but then Kṛṣṇa would come and save him because he is a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That would give him the opportunity to have a darśana of Kṛṣṇa. So, then he attacked Bhīma. It was a heavy fight and he was about to defeat him, and then Lord Kṛṣṇa came and saved him. And Samudrasena, like, became like Bhīṣma, he surrendered to Him. He just wanted to have His darśana. (laughter) So Kṛṣṇa also visited Navadvīpa in that way. But Lord Balarāma of course visited two times when a… And Śiva visited there. Brahmā did his tapasyā there. The Surabhi cow. In this way, so many avatāras... Varāha touched Navadvīpa-dhāma.

Question: When did devotees found Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself?

Jayapatākā Swami: Advaita Gosāñi was the first to figure it out. After some time of this, joined the saṅkīrtana movement. First Advaita then Śrīvāsa, then after that everyone. Apart from some rare instances with different people, different devotees realized.

Question: How does Haridāsa Ṭhākura... did he… How did he find out? (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know the exact first point when Haridāsa Ṭhākura found out. He was a devotee. He was one of the ones who prayed for Kṛṣṇa to come. Exactly, at which point did he join Lord Caitanya in Navadvīpa, I can’t (inaudible) He was always visiting Advaita Gosāñi. Exactly at which exact point did Haridāsa Ṭhākura join… definitely I… definitely he knew at the time when everyone else knew. I don’t have any specific, I can’t remember any specific evidence. But I won’t say that I’ve studied all the things.