19850217 Śrī Navadvīpa Maṇḍala Parikramā

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swāmi on February 17, 1985 in Mamagachi, Śrī Navadvīpa, India. The lecture was given during the Śrī Navadvīpa Maṇḍala parikrama.

GuruMahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa

Crowd: Hare Kṛṣṇa

GuruMahārāja: Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

Crowd: Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

GuruMahārāja: Hare Hare

Crowd: Hare Hare

GuruMahārāja: Hare Rāma

Crowd: Hare Rāma

GuruMahārāja: Hare Rāma

Crowd: Hare Rāma

GuruMahārāja: Rāma Rāma

Crowd: Rāma Rāma

GuruMahārāja: Hare Hare

Crowd: Hare Hare

GuruMahārāja: If there is, any, like Spanish or Japanese, or any other language groups, you want to get together and you should move together so that one of you can translate. Espanol? Japanese is here. They are all together already. Alright, so today the second day of the Navadvīpa parikrama, we have passed through three islands of Navadvīpa dhāma, four actually, Madhyadvīpa, Rtudvīpa, Jāhnudvīpa, Koladvīpa and now in Modadrumadvīpa. Each of the nine islands of Navadvīpa dhāma correspond with one of the nine practices of devotional service. And, of course this year, because we are also having the opening of the Jagannātha temple in Simantadvīpa island and because they will be having a special procession with the deities at 4.30 this afternoon, so we are shortening the length of the parikrama and just visiting a few places on this side of the river. So this is the eighth island of Navadvīpa dhāma which corresponds with servitude. Therefore this island is considered to be non-different from Vaikuṇṭha. You know, that in Vaikuṇṭha, service to Kṛṣṇa is performed in the mood of dāsya rasa, or service in awe and veneration and friendship with respect by some devotees like Yudhiśṭhira. In Goloka Vrindāvana, service is performed in the mood of pure love – pure love or prema. In the rasas of sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya or friendship, parental love and conjugal love. So here we are in the eighth island. This is island to fix ourselves in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes prematurely people want to rise to some higher relationship with the Lord artificially. That is known as sahajīya, trying to jump over or make things very cheap. The previous ācāryas like Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmi have recommended that we should approach the Lord by looking at His lotus feet in an attitude of humility, of service. It is the Lord Himself would grab us by the chin and bring our face up. We do not have to look higher. In other words, we should approach with service and simply be concerned how to offer service. In that worry about rising to the relationships of friendship, parental or conjugal love, that happens naturally when you reach your perfectional stage. But the great ācāryas have given this example, we should just humbly concentrate in service.

So here in this place, one of the great servitors of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu or rather more than one, several of the great servitors of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they have been worshipping Lord Caitanya here for many many years. Therefore this place is considered to be very sacred. The large tree which you see, in which shade you were all taking shelter, was struck by lightning and died and then Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He saw that the devotees who are feeling bad because the tree had passed away, He embraced the tree and brought it back to life. Therefore this tree is considered to be siddha or perfect. Siddha bakula. Because it was embraced by Caitanya Mahāprabhu and thus it came back to life. Actually even I have seen that this tree is totally hollow but over the – ten years ago one could see right inside the tree that it is totally hollow inside, but gradually it is closing up again. I don’t know if it is still possible to see the hollowness anymore. You can see?

Devotee: We saw this.

GuruMahārāja: Before you saw. I don’t know now. So, here, Sāranga Thākura had his Śripād. Sāranga Thākura was a very simple devotee who was always engaged in serving Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He was very knowledgeable in the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy. He was a pure devotee. So Lord Caitanya had requested him to take disciples. But he, as all of you devotees know, very humble. Therefore he considered himself to be unqualified. At the same time he had to do it because it was the order of Lord Caitanya. So he kept putting it off. And then again Lord Citanya would tell him you must take disciples. Because in the scriptures it declares that one must be ordered in order to take disciples. Lord Caitanya said, “amar ājna guru hai. On My order you become a guru”. This is the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy. So Sāranga Thākura got the order again and again from Lord Caitanya. But still he was hesitating. Then he realised that he had to do it because the order of Lord Caitanya,  understanding that he had to do it. In fact if he didn't do it, he was disobeying Lord Caitanya and therefore his devotional service would be obstructed. So he decided that the next person I see tomorrow morning when I wake up, the first person I see, I will initiate that person or preach to him or whatever. I will initiate that person, so I can follow the order of Lord Caitanya. So early in the morning at 3.30 before mangala ārati, Sāranga Thākura went to the Ganges to take his bath. Ganges is very close by, about, it is about fifteen ten minutes’ walk. Last year we were bathing there, this year we forgot to announce, so don't think it would be appropriate. When Sāranga Thākura went there and he was bathing and somebody bumped into him. And he knew well, he didn’t expect this, suddenly, this is the first person I met, I’ll take him and all, before the deity I have to do it. So he grabbed the person by the ear and he said in his ear,

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

and the person jumped up and started chanting, “Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!”

So Sāranga Thākura said, “You are my first disciple.” And that person said, “But I am a dead man.” “

“Now you are dead? You are speaking.”

So he was part of the marriage party, in the nearby town, it is about twenty thirty miles north of here. He went to bathe in the Ganges and he drowned. And it was actually his corpse was floating on the water. That corpse, when Sāranga Thākura spoke in the ear came back to life. So he said, ”Now I owe my life to you. Therefore I belong to you, so whatever you want, I will do.” It is a perfect relationship between disciple and guru. So he gave him the name Murāri Thākura. And the - Murāri Thākura’s deities are here. Actually Murāri Thākura was worshipping Sāranga Thākura’s deities and that is why this is known as Murāri Thākura’s Śripād. Actually he was brought back to life from death by the power of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahāmantra. Hare Kṛṣṇa mahāmantra ki..

Crowd: Jai!

GuruMahārāja: Sāranga Thākura ki..

Crowd: Jai!

GuruMahārāja: So we remembered how Śrīla Prabhupāda described that the people in  material life are practically like walking dead. Because they are living only to die. But we can see that Murāri Thākura, he died only to live. Because he was given the real life of spiritual life which gave him immortality and eternity. And any vaiṣṇava when he leaves the body, the purpose is to go back to Godhead, to continue his devotional service. So the devotees are the real alive people. The people who have got the real life in this world. And by giving them the harināma or the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, that gives them real life. So like to ask Jai Advaita Mahārāja if he can tell us how we can bring real life into the people who lost  their  life in this world, the fallen souls. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jai Advaita Maharaja:

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe

nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

So, if we want to give real life, first thing is that we have to have real life. Śrīla Bhakti Siddhāntha Sarasvatī Thākura, he used to say, that one who has life, he can preach. One who has life he can preach. One gets life jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu, Kṛṣṇa says I am your life. One wants to give life, one has to be in touch with Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise he is a dead man and then in the Bhāgavatam also anyone who doesn’t regularly hear he doesn’t know .Kṛṣṇa. He is a dead man. This breathing is like the breathing of the [13:33 not clear] So one  comes in touch with Kṛṣṇa by the grace of the spiritual master.

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

CC Madhya 9.98

One who gets in touch with Kṛṣṇa, by faith in Kṛṣṇa and faith in the spiritual master. Faith means not just theoretical faith, faith means follow, actually the more we follow the instructions of the spiritual master, the more we get faith in the spiritual master. Because this process works. Therefore we try it. Because if someone just gives us direction, you go this way, you go that way, you will get this way, and then you will see this, you will see that and when you will come to this. So we follow directions and we see all the things that are happening. And then you say, yes this is the man to give me instructions. Everything is happening. Or some doctor prescribes medicine and says that this will happen and that will happen and then you see that happening. So if we follow the instruction of the spiritual master, actually your process will take a step. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ, our consciousness will be cleansed. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaḿ we will be released form this entanglement of material existence. And then our life will become blissful.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

We get Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s blessing. And the blessing cleanses the heart and we like to [15:15 not clear] In the heart. But practically we are like that, because that life is [15:19 not clear] By chanting and hearing, then vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam, then real knowledge follows, real existence, then real life comes out. And real life means preaching. As real life comes out then we want to preach. Therefore we have to pass bhāgavata vidhi, pancarātriki vidhi. Bhāgavata vidhi means preaching the supreme secret - preach the glories of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, form of Kṛṣṇa, qualities, pastimes, everything of Kṛṣṇa. Pancarātriki vidhi means rules and regulations, deity worship and so on. So four things are required, four things are required,  if we keep ourselves very strong by pancarātriki vidhi, following regulative principles, rising early in the morning, worshipping the deity, hearing and chanting, everything we keep ourselves [16:29 not clear] that way. Then that goes into the bhāgavata vidhi - preaching. Of the two, bhāgavata vidhi is more important. Even if we have to sacrifice something of the pancaratriki vidhi, that is alright, we can do that. Because the real thing  is bhāgavata vidhi. To preach the glories of Kṛṣṇa and by actually preaching you get strength. Then  you can simply preach and preach and preach. The more we preach the more we become strong. Materially the more we give something away, the less you have. But spiritually the more you give away, the more you have. As Lord Caitanya said it will increase, not decrease. The more you preach the glories of Kṛṣṇa , the more you preach this real life of devotional service [17:15 not clear] at the same time we keep ourselvesl very strong by following the regulative principles, by keeping very strict sādhana bhakti, chanting our rounds regularly, following the standards as expected in devotion. You can go on being strong on and on and on and on. This movement will be unlimitedly expanding. We don't have to invent anything, nothing to do, nothing concocted, nothing innovative. None of these things are required. If we simply - as they say - stick to our guns. If we stick to our principles as given by our parampara ācārya, Śrīla Prabhupāda and we simply stick to these principles, that will certainly be effective. That will certainly be effective. Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive. The holy name is all-purifying. The vedic literature gives all knowledge. Everything is there. Everything is there. We don't have to add anything. We don't  have to subtract anything. If we simply give this process as it is, follow it as it is, preach it as it is, continue it as it is, then [18:33 not clear] predicted by Lord Caitanya will certainly come about. All over the world, people would take to this chanting

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

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

GuruMahārāja:

So this is also the place – where - very near to here Lord Caitanya was taking His sankīrtan party. He rested at the house of Vāsudeva Dutta. Vāsudeva Dutta is one of the main branches of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s tree. He appeared in Chaṭṭagrām which is now in Bangladesh, and he lived by the side of the house of Pundarika Vidhy ānidhi, who is one of the – is the third branch of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s tree. Pundarika Vidhyānidhi’s birthplace is managed by ISKCON devotees or recognised devotees - disciples and grand disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And by the mercy of Vāsudeva Dutta, he has also given us his residential house there in Chaṭṭagrām. We would like to take you all there to show you that beautiful place, but that might not be possible today. And he has also resided here, just nearby after we give breakfast we want to go and visit the house of Vrindāvan Dās Thākura who wrote the Caitanya Bhāgavata. If possible we will go by the house of Vāsudeva Dutta that has been re-excavated. It was totally lost and by using archaeological systems, we were able to re-excavate and find  the original foundation of the house and temple. And we have uncovered there, some ancient conch shells and copper pūja articles which appear to be from the time of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

At that place, Lord Caitanya was approached by Vāsudeva Dutta. That Vāsudeva Dutta expressed his heart's desire that he wanted to give himself in sacrifice. He wanted to offer himself in a complete surrender. He begged Caitanya Mahāprabhu that since he has tasted the nectar of devotional service and since he could see that how the people in this world were suffering in ignorance due to their karmas and how they were suffering due to forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa, he thought that why should one person alone have this nectar. So he begged Caitanya Mahāprabhu  to give all of their sinful reactions to him, so that he could suffer on their behalf and they could all go back to Godhead and engage in pure devotional service. Even though it would mean he would have to stay perpetually in this material world in order to suffer their karma, he was not fearful. Rather he was perfectly eager to take on that huge responsibility, in order that everyone could be returned back to home back to Godhead. Lord Caitanya was so moved that He embraced Vāsudeva Dutta and was crying. But of course He explained that just by your desire, the whole universe is already delivered. But why Kṛṣṇa would keep His pure devotee in some suffering condition? So actually we see that by the desire of Śrīla Prabhupāda that the devotees - the people, the fallen souls all over the world, like Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire, and the desire of the previous ācāryas like Vāsudeva Dutta, they all are already delivered. And it is – all of you preachers’ duty to come out and to give them that mercy which is already waiting for them. So, like to request Loka swāmi (??) to speak for a few moments about this transcendental mercy and compassion of the preachers.

Mahārāja:

nama om viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāyabhūtale

śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe

nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

Actually a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he is very compassionate to all living beings, because - he is compassionate because he has control. Yoga yuktam viśuddhātma, when one is engaged in devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, yoga yukta- yukta means engaged and he is always constantly  engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa. vijitātma jitendriya - vijitātma jitendriya, he has full control over the mind and the senses, sarva bhūtātma bhūtātmā – he has full control over the mind and the senses, therefore he becomes very compassionate to all living beings.

sarva-bhūtātma-bhūtātmā

kurvann api na lipyate

And while doing so - kurvann means to do something – to do some action, then the result of that activity - na lipyate – he never becomes entangled in the material world. So a devotee is such a class of a person –  that he is very compassionate because he has the key to success which is being engaged twenty four hours in the service of the Lord.

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-

sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

So this is the key to success for all living beings, whether one is a man, child, grown up, elderly or whatever, this is the genuine spiritual process to get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa and to distribute that mercy is by engaging in this scientific process and by which Prabhupāda has described to all living beings. It is very nice - His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda has written a very very nice series - The Yoga system and if we go through them very very very seriously while engaging in the service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we can perfect our lives. So the key to perfection - that is to simply try simply to always be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa under the instructions of our ācāryas of our sampradāya. So actually I have nothing much to say but it is very very nice to be here in this very auspicious place. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

GuruMahārāja:

That is the [27:38 not clear] they don't have that intimate relationship in many countries but in this case, they are all living together -the four brothers, they were five brothers and before Lord Caitanya appeared, all these brothers Śrīnivāsa had already left the world and his daughter was Nārāyaṇi. Nārāyaṇi was being brought up practically by Śrīvāsa and Mālini. When Lord Caitanya  appeared, she was five years old. At the age of five, whenever she would hear the harināma she would faint in ecstasy. She was obviously a pure devotee – nitya siddha from her very birth. So the -  she  - of course  knew everything about – she was there doing the whole kīrtans and everything and her son wrote the whole history of Caitanya Mahāprabhu at that time. He is also directly initiated in the line of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He accepts Lord Nityānanda as his spiritual master. So Vrindāvan Dās Thākura was born here as the son of Nārāyaṇi and his father - Vaikuṇṭhanātha. The father of Vrindāvan dāsa Thākura left the world before he was born. So he never saw his father. He only saw his mother. He wrote the Caitanya Bhāgavata in a place nearby here, in the same district about twenty thirty miles from here. We also have done some work there. This temple is being maintained by the Gaudiya maṭh – the Caitanya maṭh since the time of Bhakti Siddhāntha Sarasvatī Thākura. So Vrindāvan Dās Thākura is considered like Vyāsadeva of our sampradāya of Caitanya’s pastimes – he wrote down the whole history of Caitanya Mahāprabhu when he was alive and  he revealed how Lord Nityānanda is actually Balarāma and that Lord Caitanya is Himself Rādha and Kṛṣṇa combined. So in this place if we remember that Rūpa Gosvāmi –  Srīnivās Ācārya, he once wrote a small poem – actually – excuse me, it was Narottam dāsa Thākura where he said that some people, I have empowered to write transcendental literatures for Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and they are empowered to distribute those literatures. Like Rūpa Gosvāmi wrote the literatures and Srīnivāsa Ācārya distributed them and then both the - we can see both the book writers and the book distributors as the personal energies of Śri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Sankīrtan yajna ki...

Crowd: Jai!

GuruMahārāja: Transcendental book distribution ki….

Crowd: Jai!

GuruMahārāja: Transcendental book writing ki

Crowd: Jai!

Of course Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote the books and arranged for their distribution and personally distributed as well. We saw in India Śrīla Prabhupāda was sitting on the paṇḍal programs and He would hand over – distribute His autographed books and hundreds of people would line up to get them. In this way He is showing us all how to distribute – the necessity of distributing transcendental literature. So here in the sacred birth place of Vrindāvan Dās Thākura we can dedicate ourselves to the transcendental sacrifice of writing and distributing – of course, mainly now we are distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s [31:58 not clear] So our duty is to distribute primarily these transcendental literatures handed down by  Śrīla Prabhupāda in all the languages of the world. Of course printing them also and translating them into different languages is equally important. So Subhāg Mahārāja, who joined this movement in England was - body was born here in Bengal. Now he has been preaching all over Asia – especially in Bengal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand for the past so many years - is a dear disciple to Śrila Prabhupāda. He is also engaged in helping in translating Śrīla Prabhupāda’s  literatures in English back again into Bengali. Just as it was predicted by Bhakti Siddhāntha, the people would learn Bengali to be able to read the sweet words of the Caitanya Caritāmrita and Caitanya Bhāgavata. Even nowadays people are learning English to be able to read also Prabhupāda’s sweet purports.

Crowd: Jai!!

GuruMahārāja: For those who have not yet learned, of course, we also translate into different languages. So Mahārāja, can you tell us something about the importance of understanding the knowledge in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.

Subhāg Mahārāja: So today we are very fortunate that by the mercy of Prabhupāda, we are in this movement and it is just like instead of seeing God  - Kṛṣṇa, we can see through His pure devotee by reading His book and then also we are fortunate that, Prabhupāda, you can see Prabhupāda who haven’t seen through his disciples, those who have had intimate association of Prabhupāda. I know Prabhupāda though wrote many books and talked about Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. Especially one thing among  Prabhupāda’s disciples, especially those who are -  he gave them - made them leaders and gave them intimate association. Among all of them, Ācāryapāda has fine especially has started this dhāma parikrama and making the devotees so much blissful taking them different parts for many years, since I came from the West. It is very blissful. Each and every devotee who come here, I don't think, there are so many other devotees have so many other programs, but this dhāma parikrama, I don't know if Prabhupāda,  during Prabhupada's time we didn’t have that as far as I remember. We had?

But only after that I see from my experience that Ācāryapāda has actually - takes special care of them. He actually, most of the things is done by him. After Prabhupāda  and the pastimes of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which is, may be depending on the presentation, all the details, which we could never – even in Prabhupāda’s book not may be detailed there, by the mercy of Prabhupāda and Prabhupāda’s servants. Especially Ācāryapāda is giving that in detail wherever you go, even in class lecture also. From here we can understand that we can relish the pastimes of Caitanya Mahāprabhu by His pure devotee. Once also we have heard that our Prabhupāda’s  disciples, many of them, pastimes may be, they have Caitanya Mahāprabhu or some or other connected. In this connection we have heard two of Prabhupāda’s disciples who are directly heard somehow or other - Lord Caitanya Nityānanda. And they are also among them, one of them Ācāryapāda , Prabhupāda mentioned in [36:05 not clear] So we can see, we can know about Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His pastimes and His pure devotees. But it helped they are disciples those who are coming in disciplic succession . So Prabhupāda gave in Bhagavad gīta As it is how the disciplic succession is coming. So if we strictly stick to it then - and carry out the orders just like our present those who are GBC they are instead of deviating, they strictly follow little bit, before our Jaya Thīrtha Swāmi said - he also mentioned yasya deve parā bhaktir  - it is a very important śloka . One who has unflinching, implicit faith and devotion in the words of the guru and also Kṛṣṇa,The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, everything will be revealed to him. And Rūpa Gosvāmi also said that sevonmukhe hi jihvādau  - if we are always engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of the guru parampara. Here now we have got GBC, Prabhupāda’s representative. So if we strictly follow that sādhu, śāstra and guru, then everything will be revealed within us. Kṛṣṇa says,

Evam -  in Bhagavad gīta there is one śloka - teśām evānukampārtam, then when Kṛṣṇa sees that devotees are maccittha mad gata prāṇa  - not only his chittha - heart, even his soul - everything sacrificed in the service of Kṛṣṇa, or Mahāprabhu under the guidance of the representative, then Kṛṣṇa out of compassion, He reveals everything. He gives guidance, he gives intelligence. Buddhi yogam dadāmi tvam. And it is said that Brahmā of the world is greatest, is always increasing unlimitedly. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu also says, ‘This sankīrtan movement is ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ’- the spiritual thing is always increasing. So by actually what Prabhupāda, what He showed and taught us, if we carry out, our bliss will always increase. So exactly like that those who are His representative, we follow them, and carry out, then our bliss also will increase unlimitedly like that. And after  it is said that nityo [38:44 not cl devotional service is always nitya -nitya means eternal. Eternal is [38:50 not clear] always is changing and always new, we find. Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is also like that, one of the characteristics is like that. So devotional service is non-different form Kṛṣṇa. So all life, our devotional service, we always engage like that.

Transcribed by Sudhamayi Chitra dd

Completed on 01/01/2021

Proofread by: Srivani Mataji

Date:7/1/2021