19831218 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 9.44

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swami on December 18th, 1983 in Atlanta, Georgia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter 9, Verse 44.

(His Holiness Jayapatāka Swami recites the verse, reads the translation and purport; devotees repeat the translation)

Cc. Ādi 9.44

mālī manuṣya āmāra nāhi rājya-dhana
phala-phula diyā kari’ puṇya upārjana

Translation: Caitanya Mahāprabhu speaks, “I am merely a gardener. I have neither a kingdom nor very great riches. I simply have some fruits and flowers that I wish to utilize to achieve piety in My life.”

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): In performing welfare activities for human society, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu presents Himself as being not very rich, thus indicating that a man need not be rich or opulent to act for the welfare of humanity. Sometimes rich men are very proud that they can perform beneficial activities for human society whereas others cannot. A practical example is that when there is a scarcity of food in India on account of meager rainfall, some members of the richer class very proudly distribute foodstuffs, making huge arrangements with the help of the government, as if merely by such activities people will be benefited. Suppose there were no food grain. How would the rich men distribute food? Production of grain is completely in the hands of God. If there were no rain, there would be no grain, and these so-called rich men would be unable to distribute grain to the people.

The real purpose of life, therefore, is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī describes in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu that devotional service is so exalted that it is beneficial and auspicious for every man. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also declared that to propagate the bhakti cult of devotional service in human society, one does not need to be very rich. Anyone who knows the art can do it and thus render the highest benefit to humanity. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu takes the part of a gardener because although a gardener is naturally not a very rich man, he has some fruits and flowers. Any man can collect some fruits and flowers and satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead in devotional service, as the Lord recommends in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.26):

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

One cannot satisfy the Supreme Lord by his riches, wealth or opulent position, but anyone can collect a little fruit or a flower and offer it to the Lord. The Lord says that if one brings such an offering in devotion, He will accept it and eat it. When Kṛṣṇa eats, the entire world becomes satisfied. There is a story in the Mahābhārata illustrating how by Kṛṣṇa’s eating, the sixty thousand disciples of Durvāsā Muni were all satisfied. Therefore it is a fact that if by our life (prāṇaiḥ), by our wealth (arthaiḥ), by our intelligence (dhiyā) or by our words (vācā) we can satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, naturally the entire world will become happy. Therefore our main duty is to satisfy the Supreme Godhead by our actions, our money and our words. This is very simple. Even if one does not have money, he can preach the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to everyone. One can go everywhere, to every home, and request everyone to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Thus the entire world situation will become very happy and peaceful.

Thus end the Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda of Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter 9, Text 44.

Oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is portraying Himself in a very insignificant position. A gardener is considered to be somewhat insignificant compared to say the owner of the house or the big business magnate. Relatively speaking gardeners are considered normally, with some exceptions, they are considered to be on a more menial platform.

But Lord Caitanya is taking that lowly position as a gardener so that He can distribute the fruits and the flowers that He has harvested from the tree of devotion. These fruits and flowers are not ordinary fruits and flowers, of course are the fruits of Kṛṣṇa-prema, the flower of Kṛṣṇa-bhāva, of ecstatic loving devotion and pure loving devotion.

Actually those fruits and flowers even the great demigods are always hankering for. Rarely do they get the opportunity. Basically we should all be single pointed on getting those fruits and flowers from Lord Caitanya. He is waiting to give them to us. He is here dedicated to just giving them, but we have to be prepared to accept them, accept that mercy of the Lord. Otherwise we will be lamenting in the future that “Why didn’t I take advantage? Why didn’t I get this special mercy of Lord Caitanya when it was being given freely?”

Actually the people that we meet, who are being preached to, this principle is also quite applicable to them. Simply by their rendering a little service in devotion or even just unenviously, they are getting unseen benefits. The other side of it, this discussion by Prabhupāda it seems so clear, so straight forward but in contrast the modern system is that very corrupt or bogged down. By taking the mercy of Lord Caitanya, it’s not very difficult.

We were just reading this morning from the Navadvīpa-Māhātmya, how Lord Nityānanda was taking Jīva Gosvāmī through Māyāpur-dhāma. Nityānanda Prabhu, He revealed that it was the Lord’s desire that the whole Māyāpur-dhāma would be submerged by the Ganges for almost several hundred years. And the sacred places of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes wouldn’t be revealed till after four hundred years from His appearance day.

Now we are going almost five hundred years. So there in the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa there are so many beautiful bathing places going right down into the Ganges. One of them is the Mahāprabhu-ghāṭa where Lord Caitanya Himself would personally play. Another was the ghāṭa of Mādhāi which he built because of the sinful reaction he had committed. Another bathing ghāṭa is the Bārakoṇā-ghāṭa. The Bārakoṇā-ghāṭa has five Śiva temples, each one with effulgent Śiva-liṅgams or Jyotir-liṅgam, five. Jyotir-liṅga is very rare, a type of deity of Lord Śiva.

In this way Lord Nityānanda He is showing everything to Śrī Jīva, telling that this is all going to be submerged in the Ganges in a very short time, and it won’t come out for a couple of hundred years. What you see here is all going to become open barren land but then again so many people will start to live and the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His glory will be broadcast from this place.

In fact Lord Nityānanda predicted that there would be many temples built by these devotees in Māyāpur. But there would be one temple: “eka adbhuta mandira ei haibe prakāśa, gaurāṅga nitya-sevā haibe vikāśa”, one grand temple will become manifested from which Lord Caitanya, the principle of Lord Caitanya’s eternal devotional service will be manifested.

This all fits in with the greater plan of Lord Caitanya. His fruits and flowers He is giving, He is thinking how to distribute them in a mass way. Just like here we saw in the kitchen there was a box of lettuce that was sent from California, a box of fruit that was sent from Oregon, another one came from Florida. Here people have fruit, they are thinking how to market it everywhere, right? But Lord Caitanya, so whatever we do that’s just a reflection of what Kṛṣṇa does, He also wants to market his fruit. The price is little bit different, right. The price is actually you give your devotion, you give your love and you can take the fruit.

So the holy dhāma, that is also there for disseminating the fruit in a bigger way. Prabhupāda he had the vision, he said there will be a spiritual city there. Now we see that Lord Nityānanda had predicted it. We are doing it because Prabhupāda had ordered us. But no doubt that Lord, that Prabhupāda is the pure representative of Lord Nityānanda, he is directly acting on behalf of Lord Nityānanda.

Prabhupāda, he wanted that in Pānihāṭi there should be a very nice temple just on the bank of the Ganges, and there would be a regular motorized launch service from Calcutta, Pānihāṭi to Māyāpur. In fact at one point he said, “Right now you buy two boats. I am just giving you the Lakṣmī right now. Buy it.” But there is one of our architects in the society, who every time Prabhupāda would say do something for Māyāpur he would always say, “I have got a plan, I have got to figure it out.” Now we are lamenting. We don’t have the plan yet for the things that he was going to do, but we do have separation of not getting the things Prabhupāda offered.

Only bringing the point up that when the mercy is there, when Lord Caitanya is giving His mercy or the guru is giving the mercy or any opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa comes up, śubhasya-śīghraṁ, there is an adage, do an auspicious thing today. If it comes up do it immediately. Take it. Don’t hesitate. They say in the West - hit the iron while its hot. He who hesitates is lost, right?

Actually, that is only applicable in taking the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. That whenever we get it at anytime, anyplace, any, we should grab it. We shouldn’t hesitate. Materially we may lose the opportunity, and we will also lose ourselves if we get the opportunity materially. When we take anything because material sense gratification is all preyas, which we have been discussing. Sweet in the beginning, bitter like poison in the end.

Normally sattva means it’s bitter in the beginning and nectar in the end. And Lord Caitanya He has even sugar coated the beginning. So it’s sweet right from the beginning to end. But we should take it when we get the chance. we shouldn’t hesitate at all.

So today Jīva Goswami he was, he was very curious that how when everything is hidden by the Ganges water that “How are we going to find out where the holy places are?” And then Lord Nityānanda told him that all the holy places are going to be re-excavated starting from the four hundredth anniversary of Lord Caitanya after that, and he gave the clues how it would be done.

Most of the places already have been excavated, few places are remaining for enthusiasts of gupta-tīrthas. So those devotees are kindly excavating the holy places of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Similarly there are so many lost souls in the material world waiting to be dug out of their material entanglement. Actually, everyone in the whole world is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa some have forgotten it, some are even inimical to Kṛṣṇa due to the false covering. But actually, everyone is a part of Kṛṣṇa. So they are all devotees of Kṛṣṇa, but they have forgotten it.

So those who are very inimical, very demoniac they are so covered, it is very difficult to try to wake them up. But those who are little bit innocent, little bit simple hearted we can try to awaken them to their real identity, their real relationship with Kṛṣṇa. If Lord Caitanya is giving out that fruit, He has the fruits and the flowers, not very expensive fruits and flowers. His fruit and flower you can get it just for a song. Just be chanting,

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

Actually where can someone get such a wonderful benediction. prāṇaiḥ, arthaiḥ, dhiyā, vācā, We should give our life, our wealth, our intelligence, and our words to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. prāṇaiḥ, arthaiḥ dhiyā, vācā. Śrīla Prabhupāda in his poem, he quoted the verse of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura that “prāṇa āche yāra sei hetu pracāra.” That the life, who has real life, they have real compassion, real spiritual life because their, because of that the devotees preach.

They give the life to Kṛṣṇa, in exchange Kṛṣṇa gives them eternal life. Because they have eternal life; therefore, they are compassionate to others. They also want to see others also to come out of this flickering material, miserable condition. But actually the devotees are doing the greatest welfare work for humanity, for all living entities not only humanity, just it is mentioned prāṇinām upakārāya, all the prāṇīs—all the living entities—not only humans, they are all benefited right down to the cockroaches. Everyone is getting the mercy somehow or another because the devotees are expanding the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Just as Lord Nityānanda showed Jīva Gosvāmī those bathing ghāṭas. Simply by bathing in the Bārakoṇā-ghāṭa in Māyāpur, one forgets all the material miseries of life,. They are all driven away, completely mitigated. So like that Prabhupāda has also brought this nectar of Caitanya Mahāprabhu that we can all submerse ourselves into. Emotion.  Submersion. Some people do baptism by emulsion, they call it? Emulsion? By immersion. Immersion. Baptism by immersion.

So we can simply immerse ourselves into this nectar, Prabhupāda’s transcendental books, the saṅkīrtana-yajña, the sacrifice of bringing people closer to Kṛṣṇa, of working as a team effort for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every town and village.

Actually there is many lifetimes of service awaiting there for all of us to do. Even to make one city Kṛṣṇa conscious or one neighborhood or one city, one county, one state, what to speak of a country or continent or the world. In every place how to by hook or by crook, somehow or another get the people to engage in God conscious activities so that they can be reawakened to their original transcendental, spiritual, all blissful consciousness.

People are so engrossed that you have to somehow or another, sometimes even you have to trick them to be happy. They are so addicted to being miserable. And their plans to be happy are more miserable than their present state.

So they’re showing Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu portraying Himself as a simple gardener with few fruits and flowers trying to entreat, trying to beg the people, come and take some fruits and flowers. Someone told me that in Hawaii, and i think also someone else said even in Florida, but especially they said, I remember someone told me Hawaii that the rich people they all have nice fruit trees in their yard. But they don’t eat the fruit from their fruit tree.

In fact, the devotees ask can we take, there would be mangoes and different fruits laying on the ground. “Okay take it, take if off the tree.” They all go to the supermarket and buy the fruits in plastic package with cellophane and everything. They think that maybe if off the tree it’s not pure. If you buy it in the supermarket it’s been washed and purified.

People in the west if anyone came and said, “Here take a mango, take an apple.” So many people they, “Why is he giving me something for free?” And people there are so envious they have reason to be afraid to some extent. A really good thing still they doubt it. If you wrap it in plastic, they might take it. But as it is they have been so conditioned that they are very doubtful about the natural things. Unnatural things they can accept pretty easily nowadays. But natural things they are very doubtful. Simple living high thinking due to so much propaganda. But on the other hand, as Prabhupāda said even if everybody says that… well so many people may say or criticize, we still have to, we can't compromise, we are not going to pollute the pure thing. We are going to give the pure thing and those who are intelligent they will be able to take it and to accept it and by association gradually more people.

But actually behind all the packaging what really is there that’s what counts. Actually the real substance is only this harināma. nāma vinā kichu nāhiko āra caudda-bhuvana-mājhe (Aruṇodaya-kīrtana, 8). In the whole fourteen worlds, in the entire universe, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is saying that there is nothing else, nothing, except for the holy name. That is the only substance, everything else is just a phantom vision, little agitation of the material energy and then again as it was in due course, vyaktāvyakta, it will become again unmanifest. All the souls will enter into the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu, everything will be as it was. The actual reality is:

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

Those devotees that are carrying Kṛṣṇa in their lips, in their hearts, chanting they’re the most fortunate people in the entire universe. They are the only living people. Prāṇa āche - they have life. Everyone else doesn’t even have life. They might have some living symptoms. Symptoms they might have, but they don’t have life. They just have higher purchase to debt, they are just paying off the time before they die, repeated birth and death. They don’t have understanding of who they are, therefore how can they be alive?

Like a person that’s in a coma. Doesn’t know who his friend is, who he is, where he is, his relatives, anything. Technically you might say that he is alive, but there is no brain function. So now doctors say that because they have so many machines, they can keep everything pumping and moving. But when the brain activity is not there they say that he is technically dead. No more brain activity, even though physically due to all electric shocks and pumping machines everything just kept animated to some extent, kept alive but as soon as you turn the machines off, so they say that’s a dead body.

But practically speaking just due to so many stimuli so many people are moving around but they have no life, they have no consciousness, they have no brain activity, who they are, where they are going, what is their relation with Kṛṣṇa, what is their… They are just in a dream, coma state, comatonic. Within that of course they are moving about and doing a few things, but actually speaking on the transcendental view point they are completely dead.

Prabhupāda was sitting in the Calcutta airport looking at all the people bustling here and there. He said from the viewpoint of a pure devotee these are so many walking corpses. They are all dead, even Calcuttans, which include all the people of India who go through Calcutta airport. So if there is no spiritual objective, if they are just moving here and there in their material consciousness, they are not even really alive.

Prāṇa āche, who has life? This is devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya He is giving this fruit, the fruit He is giving is He is giving people life. Eternal life means real life. Temporary life means what, lease on death. So time to go out and wake up people. They have life but it is dormant. People have life, but it is dormant and by the saṅkīrtana movement, by Lord Caitanya’s mercy they are able to be awakened, to be very grateful to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the previous ācāryas, Prabhupāda, present day ācāryas who have been bringing this message and this mercy.

Here Prabhupāda gives a very nice purport from Madhya-līlā. Here we are living in Pānihāṭi-dhāma, even we go out and preach it describes but still protect… " If one simply follows the instructions of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu under the guidance of His representative and chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, teaching everyone as far as possible the same principle, the contamination of the materialistic way of life will not even touch him. It does not matter whether one lives in a holy place like Vṛndāvana, Navadvīpa or Jagannātha Purī or in the midst of the European cities where the materialistic way of life is very prominent. If a devotee follows the instructions of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu he lives in the company of the Lord. Wherever he lives he converts that place into Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa. This means that materialism cannot touch him. This is the secret of success for one advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

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