19850508 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya-līlā 1.209-218

The following is a lecture given by HH Jayapataka Swami on May 8th 1985 at New Panihatti Dham, in Atlanta Georgia. The class begins with the reading from the  Chaitanya Caritamrita Madhya Lila Chapter 1 Text 209-218.

Madhya Lila Chapter 1 Text 209-218, Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta.

Text 209 Dainya-patri likhi more pathale bāra barā Sei patri-dvārā jani tomāra vyavahara

Translation “You have written several letters showing your humility. I can understand your behavior from those letters.” said Sri Caitanya mahaprabhu.

Text 210 Tomāra hrdaya āmi jāni patrī-dvāre Tomā śikhāite śloka pāthāila tomāre.

Translation “By your letters, I could understand your heart. Therefore, in order to teach you, I sent one verse, which reads as follows.

Text 211 Para-vyasaninī nārī Vyagrāpigŗha-karmasu Tad evāsvādayaty antar Nava-sanga-rasayanam

Translation “If a woman is attached to a man other than her husband, she will appear very busy in carrying out her household affairs, but within her heart she is always relishing feelings of association with her paramour.”

Text 212 Guada-nikata āsite nāhi mora prayojana Tomā-duńhādekhite mora ihan āgamana

Translation: I really had no business in coming to Bengal but I have come just to see you two brothers.”

Text 213 Ei mora manera kathā keha nāhi jāne Sabe bale, kene āilā rāma-keli-grāme

Translation: Everyone is asking why I have come to this village of Ramakeli. No one knows my intentions.

Tex 214 Bhāla haila, dui bhāi āilā mora sthāne Ghare yāha, Bhaya kichu nā kariha mane

Translation It is very good that you two brothers have come to see me. Now you can go home. Do not fear anything.

Text 215 Janme janme tumi dui –kińkara āmāra Acirāte Krsna tomāya karibe uddhara

Translation: Birth after birth you have been my eternal servants. I am sure that Krsna will deliver you very soon.

Text 216 Eta bali duńhāra sire dhariladuihāte Dui bhāi prabhu-pada bila nija māthe

Translation: The Lord then placed His two hands on the heads of both of them, and in return they immediately placed the lotus feet of the Lord on their heads.

Text 217 Donhā ālińgiypa prabhu balila bhakti-gane Sabe krpā kari vddharaha dui jane

Translation: After this, the Lord embraced both of them Rupa and Sanātana and requested all of the devotees present to be merciful upon them and deliver them.

Text 218 Dui jane prabhura krpā dekhi ‘bhakti-gane ‘hari hari’ bale sabe ānandita-mane

Translation: When all of the devotees saw the mercy of the Lord upon the two brothers, they were very gladdened, and they began to chant the holy name of the Lord “Hari, Hari!”

Purport by Sirla Prabhupada ‘Sirla Narottama dāsa Thakura says, chādiya vaisnava sevā nistara peche kebā: unless one serves a Vaisnava, he cannot be delivered. The spiritual master initiates the disciple to deliver him, and if the disciple executes the order of the spiritual master and does not offend other Vaisnavas, his path is clear.

Jayapataka Swami: It is very important here: (he repeats Prabhupada) The spiritual master initiates the disciple to deliver him, and if the disciple executes the order of the spiritual master and does not offend other Vaisnavas, his path is clear.

Jayapataka Swami: When one takes initiation if they simply stick religiously following the instructions of the spiritual master and if they religiously avoid offending other devotees then their success is assured. If they have a bonafide spiritual master of course. Consequently Prabhupada continues Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu requested all the Vaisnavas present to show toward the two brothers, Rupa and Sanātana, who had just been initiated by the Lord. Jayapataka Swami: Actually, Prabhupada would also, just like when someone takes Sannyas, all of the Sannyasis give a blessings to the new candidate for Sanyasi. They bless the cloth, then a person takes Sannyas. So when Sirla Prabhupada, sometimes when someone is going out on a preacher mission. He would tell all of the devotees that you bless them. The devotees would say who are we to bless. Your blessings is enough. He said no, Vaisnavas can bless and give Krishna conscious, good fortune, so you should give your blessings, you are all Vaisnavas. So here we see, when they already got the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself then one might think it’s redundant. What is the need for getting more mercy. But, Lord Caitanya gave this example how the devotees should be expected and how the devotees blessings are very powerful, they can cause Krsna to give his mercy out of turn. If you want to wait in line until your comes you can do that. But if you want to get special mercy early then you get somehow or other the blessings of the spiritual masters and the Vasinavas and you can get very quick mercy. Of course if someone gives up the service of the Vaisnavas then he never gets the mercy of the Lord, until such time as he gets the mercy of the Vaisnavas in the furture. Chadiya Vaisnava seva nistara peche keba. Who is God, the mercy, who got delivered. By giving up the mercy of the Vaisnava by not serving the Vaisnava. Prabhupada continues, when a Vaisnava sees that another Vaisnava is a recipient of the Lord's mercy he becomes very happy. Vaisnavas are not envious. If a Vaisnava, by the mercy of the Lord is empowered by Him to distribute the Lord's holy name all over the world, other Vaisnavas become very joyful, that is, if they are truly Vaisnavas. One who is envious of the success of a Vaisnava is certainly not a Vasinava himself, but an ordinary, mundane man. Envy and jealously are manifested by mundane people, not by Vaisnavas. Why should a Vasinava be envious of another Vaisnava who is successful in spreading the holy name of the Lord? An actual Vaisnava is very pleased to accept another Vaisnava who is bestowing the Lord's mercy. A mundane person in the dress of a Vaisnava should not be respected but rejected. This is enjoined in the satras (upeksa). The word Upeksa means neglect. One should neglect an envious person. a preacher's duty is to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, make friendships with Vaisnavas, show mercy to the innocent and reject or neglect those who are envious or jealous. There are many jealous people in the dress of a Vaisnavas in this Krsna consciousness movement, and they should be completely neglected. There is no need to serve a jealous person who is in the dress of a Vaisnava. When Narotama dasa Thakura says chadiya vaisnava seva nistara peche keba, he is indicating an actual Vaisnava, not an envious or jealous person in the dress of a Vaisnava. Thus ends the Bhaktivendanta purport.

I was looking for that verse for a long time. So an usual purport. But It is very common ( ?10:50) in the world today. Because you see here Lord Caitanya gave a special (here someone new people just came) who were dressed like Mohammedans, but they had a special relationship with Lord Caitanya that no one else knew knew about. And Lord Caitanya gave a special mercy to them more than what other devotees were getting apparently. Some very special mercy. But, none of the devotees present were inspired by any jealousy or enviousness. But oh, why are they getting the mercy, why not me, why are they being successful, they must have cheated, they must have some this or that you know, some backbiting or some kind of jealousy, nothing like that. Rather, oh look at how fortunate they are, look at how merciful Lord Caitanya is, they’ve got the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Haribol, Haribol. Their chanting, their bliss, they are in complete ecstasy, to see Krsna’s mercy acting, no one is thinking that oh how come I did not get embraced by Lord Caitanya. I’m going to get those guys. Who the heck they think they are, jumping over, I came here before they did, I have a monopoly of Lord Caitanya. None of them is thinking all these things. But, sometimes you find that, in the history, in the recent history of the Krsna conscious broader movement, you know, those who practice Krsna consciousness within or without ISCKON, that or claim that their practicing, that if there is some kind of success by the pure devotees which is simply a manifestation of Lord Caitanya’s mercy on them, there is always someone to criticize or be jealous or give some other type of false interpretation. So this is definitely not the symptom of a real devotee, a real Vaisnava. Even in tennis matches, cricket games, other type of sports, at the end of the match the two contestants who are competing, it’s almost like a battle, they are suppose to, they are boxing, they are supposed to shake each other’s hands, congratulating who ever won. We’re not competing with each other in Vaisnavaism, because there is no shortage. It is not that this one wins, the other one has to lose. In the long run everyone can win. There is no shortage of space, that you are vying for some kind of space. Like whose going to get the musical chairs or something. Krsna’s limited he can only accommodate so many, No.. He has got unlimited scope to engage conditioned souls (pure 14:40), bring them back back to their original position and engage them in pure devotional service. Just, how many get that mercy? Well, it’s a matter of rejoicing. It’s not a matter for being jealous, envious, or antagonist in anyway. It’s how someone shows that nature. It’s why they are not being delivered, because they got a materialistic vision, material life, grhamedi life. Even a Sannyasi or renounced person may have a type of grhamedi, jealous attitude. If someone else gets the mercy of the Lord, they become intolerant, but how, there must be (some) something wrong with that person, how can he have the mercy of the Lord. How can he be successful in preaching. We rather find out what’s wrong, rather it should be a source of inspiration. Well, if somebody is as fallen as that get the mercy then its hope for me. But, I tell people if you think that that if I got any kind of mercy, that I’m so fallen, then you should feel very hopeful because you’re all much greater than I am. The devotee of course he is always eager for mercy. So the appetite is insatiable to get more and more mercy. So the devotees never feeling that they achieved any kind of….They are always hunger for mercy, but of course the devotees are grateful for whatever Krishna has done is a fact. Certainly, Rupa and Sanatana were overwhelmed that Lord Caitanya initiated them, that He had blessed them and they were prepared, and they were certainly dedicated to carry out his order for their entire lives. The Vaisnava is very grateful to the Guru and to the other Vaisnavas. So although, the other Vaisnavas, they might consider that who are we to give blessings, but as a matter of duty. But, if I have any kind of blessings to give, then I hope that you may advance very quickly in Krsna Consciousness, you see (17:07). If by chance if I have anything then may that be bestowed upon you. My good wishes is that you may advance in Krsna Consciousness. Before a wedding, for instance, If you follow the ancient Vedic tradition, the day before, two days before there are many ceremonies. And some of those are that the bride or bride groom, they are supposed to go to the temple, take bath and then also they get the blessings of brahmanas, senior family members come, even sometimes they bathed them in (ehh), in some kind of special waters with (ehh) sands and holy waters and turmeric and different things in it. There are so many systems which are there. They have a brahmana who’s not even a Vaisnava can give a blessings, what to speak of a Vaisnava who is dearest to the Lord. Krishna said of all those, the one who is preaching to my devotees, he is the most dearest of all to me. The most dearest soul. So, certainly Vaisnava, has the capacity to appeal to Krishna to give His mercy to someone why Krsna would refuse. Generally speaking the brahmanas they will give blessings for material things. A Vaisnava generally not so much enlivened to curse (Maharaja laughs a little) anyone like that, you continue in your material life, they’re not to enthusiastic for those type of blessings, because they know that it’s not the real perfection of life. Rather they bless like to bless the person to end the cycle of birth and death. To develop your love for Krsna, to thus enjoy the highest perfection. Therefore the Vaisnavas blessings are even more valuable. Of course, the Vaisnava can also bless someone that their devotional service may be successful and do that with a full conviction. Even though devotional service may be some apparently material endeavor for which the fruit is intended to be offered to the Lord. You should be very careful, in case someone has achieved any kind of apparent mercy of the Lord and doing some devotional service, if someone is critical or envious of that without cause, you see, without just cause, without constructive effect. Then one should guard against hearing such things. Because that can only be a detriment to one’s own devotional creeper. Even to hear the offenses of the Vaisnavas is detrimental to one’s spiritual life. By hearing one becomes implicated and one loses the devotional enthusiasm. Thus the devotional creeper starts to wither. We’re discussing a few days ago about Raghunath das Goswami. How he would bow down everyday, a thousand times to the deity. And he would bow down to two thousand Vaisnavas everyday. He would seek out where is a devotee and bow down. Even though he was such a great acharya. And another quality of Raghunath Das, wherever there was Krsna Katha, just like a bee to honey he go to listen. But, if someone start to discuss anything true or false about misfortune or something critical or envious against some devotee, even in some cases if it was true, (inaudible 21:44) if he just heard anything derogatory about any Vaisnava he just immediately left that place. He did not want to hear anymore, it was his very strict principle. So, of course he was able to achieve the complete mercy of Srimati Radharani and Radha Kunda. With the special mercy of Lord Caitanya to serve Radha Kunda and Govardhan. So, Srinivas Acharya went to him and beg for blessings. Give me blessings that I can preach in Bengal. Raghunath Das Goswami blessed him, yes, that he will be empowered by the Lord to preach. So, Srinivas Archarya his success is unparalleled. He went with nothing, just into a place, and he practically unparalleled before Prabhupada. He went into a place and he actually initiated the King. And made the entire kingdom Krsna conscious. Actually, many beyond the kingdom. He got the King to organize for a broad preaching, publishing of books, so many things. So, he was the main organizer in the first Ratha Yatra festival. Of course it was the brainchild, oh excuse me, it was the first Gaura Purnima festival, it was the original desire of Narottama das Thakura but he called in Srinivas Acharya to organize it. He asked Srinivas Acharya, (that umm) I had this desire to call in all the Vaisnavas and to celebrate Lord Caitanya’s appearance day on Gaura Purnima. Could you please help me to do this. I’m in anxiety. I don’t know exactly how to pull it off (how to). Srinivas immediately wanted to comfort his Godbrother, his friend, spiritual Godbrother, God cousin brother. He said yes, there’s no anxiety. Certainly we will be able to do it. Don’t worry. Tomorrow will send out messengers. This way Narrotama was comfort, went off, and Srinivas was sitting down and he was thinking, my goodness how are we going to do it(laughing). He said all of the associates of Lord Caitanya, those that are still left on the planet, their totally out of commission, because Lord Caitanya has left the planet, (inaudible 25:04) they were all so close to him, that they nobody could hardly breathe. (They) Was totally crying , always chanting, and total separation. They don’t go anywhere. They don’t want to see anyone. They just like in a state of shock. How are we going to get them to come hundred kilometers from every different place and come here. He was, he start thinking about it and actually a momentous task. That it was a lot to ask, Lord Caitanya appeared to him in his dream, personally, and said do not fear, this is my desire, I want this festival. You see, so all the devotees may have a yearly reunion. You send out your messengers. Do not fear my devotees will come. And then he gave some inner technique how to do it. He said you invite Jahnavadevi, invite all these people, and then he disappeared. So, the same night Lord Caitanya appeared to Jahnavadevi. She is being a widowed, she wouldn’t go anywhere, Nityananda’s wife, Lord Caitanya told her, that I want you, you are going to be invited by Srinivas, when she got invited she came. He said I want you to go to this program, and you bring all the Vaishnavas with you. Because Jahnavadeva, she came, she brought, she went right up, she took everyone, Shantipor, Navadip, a whole lot, many came already, but she did the finals. Like at the end of the Ratha Yatra festival, you want to see if everybody come. Did I leave anybody? She came, and if there wasn’t anyone that wasn’t going, after seeing her they definitely came. So, certainly Srinivas Archaya he felt that any success he got was due to having the mercy of the Vaishnavas. So, we should always hanker for the mercy of the Vaishnavas. Whenever we want to do something, we should ask for the mercy of the Vaisnavas. And, if we find someone, who does not want someone who is successful, who have this other emotion (inaudible 27:39). We should avoid them, neglect them. What is this? Are there any questions (Mahajara coughs) Maharaja: Yes Question Inaudible Answer: Then He should neglect them. (inaudible 28:02) Then he should neglect them. He should know that this a symptom of non-vaisnavaism. It’s a symptom if materialistic consciousness. It’s the root offense, for which we have to come in the material world. This is karma, krodha, lobha, mada, moha, matsarua. (Maharaja repeats slowly) You see kama, krodha, lobha, mada, moha and matsura. Lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness and finally envy, these are the six vices. So the first five can all be engaged in Krsna Consciousness. You can engage lust by desiring some beautiful nice object to give to Krsna. Like someone sees a flower. I want that, said I want that for Krsna. You can engage anger, when you hear Krsna and some Vaisanava being offended you become anger, to defend them. To protect the deity or something like that. Anger can be dovetailed. Kama, krodha, lobha. Greed, to be greedy to get more and more for Krishna service, that can be dovetailed even though one becomes so ecstatic in chanting that they become particularly like intoxicated, so that, also gets dovetailed, mada moha. But in devotional service sometimes devotees became illusion in their ecstasies. But, enviousness it is like the original cause for our fall down. That there’s no apart from the Lord himself for the conditioned soul, there is no easy way to engage that envy. Specifically there is no way to engage being envious of another Vaisnava. So this enviousness of other Vaisnavas of the Lord this has to be eradicated, if you want to achieve pure love of Godhead. So when you see that it should be a cause of great sadness. One should be very ashamed that such a thought entered their mind and one should drive it out. So that’s why Bhaktisiddanti Sarasvati Thakur said we should beat the mind with a broom 100 times in the morning or is it the shoe 100 times in the morning, with a broom 100 times in the evening (Maharaja burps). Just like some marauding animal enter into the house or something, the wife may pick up a broom and chase it out, Get Out, Get out. Just like that we have to drive out these thoughts from the mind. And remember how real Vaisnavas think and act. Any other questions Kalaman das (31:38)

Maharaja, just think how lust, greed, and anger and madness, illusion, are these subtle elms that attack the mind in the form of volts (? 31:49) or just that because of our lack in Krsna consciousness (inaudible 31:54) personality, subtle forms of the mind actually how are they attacking us?

Answer Well it’s not, everything ultimately originates from person, but these things, once we accept material consciousness there resident and we have to clean house, we have to drive the things out, we have to purify them. Just as our spiritual body becomes dormant and it’s almost like transformed we get a material body. Similarly, our mental attitudes in the spiritual world those things which were glorious they become polluted, when they mix with the three modes, so then again if we can keep them on the stage of suda Sattve-sthah (? 32:51) pure goodness, then they are no longer a cause of our fall down. We should consider that those things are residence within us and they have to be dealt with. We are not going to stop anger some time or another, we’ll be angry. So, then we should limit that to be angry at for the right cause. Sometimes we’re going to be lusty (? 33:19). So we should reject those type of lusty feelings, which are going to degrade our consciousness and only accept those type of, rather change the mind to being lusty for auspicious things for the service of the Lord. To be very greedy, to get the mercy of the Vaisnavas, not to be envious against the Vasinava or someone is fortunate that (inaudible 33:53). That’s very good, all glories to him. That is very good. Since I’m more fallen I need the mercy more. Look how Rupa and Sanatana presented themselves. Made their case, that we’re most fallen we need your mercy most. And then not just once, but giving, practically like a lawyer, for this reason we’re the most, for that reason (? 34:15). In this way, this is the real fact, we are without doubt, and if someones says no your not no, but we are the most fallen (Maharaja is laughing) therefore can you please have your mercy upon us. In fact there’s no better recipient than us, if you consider whose the most fallen, and they presented all the reasons. In this way their mind, of course was totally became eradicated with any kind of false ego. As soon as we get to something little good happens. Someone says something, that sticks in our mind, we immediately become inflated. We are so prone to the slightest influence like that. So then just to keep the mind only purified, Rupa and Sanatana face they have perfected this science of remaining totally humble and dedicated to the Lord. Actually they were very glorified. That was the way they trained their minds for we should follow in their footsteps and also train our minds. Because a control mind is our best friend. An uncontrolled mind is our worst enemy. So soon as our mind starts to think that it doesn’t have to listen to our intelligence then we are in trouble, then it becomes uncontrolled, then we give the mind (? 35:48), no we always have to listen to the intelligence, what is the intelligence, words of the Guru and the Vaisnavas. That is our Krsna Conscious intelligence. So we have to arm the intelligence with their instructions and then guide the mind. So just keep the mind in place, we remind that how apart from their mercy, how utterly hopelessly lost in this material world we are. Hare Krsna (Inaudible) Maharaja speaks: I do not want to hold up the Sankirtan movement because tonight everyone has to come back early, right. Haribol