19850604 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 14.5-20

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.5

vande caitanya-kṛṣṇasya
bālya-līlāṁ mano-harām
laukikīm api tām īśa-
ceṣṭayā valitāntarām

Translation: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the childhood pastimes of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. Although such pastimes appear exactly like those of an ordinary child, they should be understood as various pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Purport: In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.11) this statement is confirmed as follows:

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram

“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.” To execute His pastimes, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears on this planet or within this universe like an ordinary human being or human child, yet He maintains His superiority as the Supreme Lord. Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared as a human child, but His uncommon activities, even in His childhood — like the killing of the demon Pūtanā or the lifting of Govardhana Hill — were not the engagements of an ordinary child. Similarly, although the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, as they will be described in this chapter, appear like the activities of a small boy, they are uncommon pastimes impossible for an ordinary human child to execute.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.6

bālya-līlāya āge prabhura uttāna śayana

pitā-mātāya dekhāila cihna caraṇa

Translation: In His first childhood pastimes the Lord turned upside down while lying on His bed, and thus He showed His parents the marks of His lotus feet.

Purport: The word uttāna is also used to mean “lying down on the bed face upwards” or “lying down flat on the bed.” In some readings the word is utthāna, which means “standing up.” In His childhood pastimes the Lord tried to catch the wall and stand up, but as an ordinary child falls down, so the Lord also fell down and again took to lying on His bed.

*****

So when the Lord appears as a small child or appears as a baby he plays the part perfectly thus giving His devotees who are acting as mother and father the pleasure of being able to serve Him in His baby form it’s said that the Supreme Lord has these marks on His lotus feet conch shell, lotus different different marks Visnu has got certain marks Krishna has certain marks while Caitanya has certain marks which normal people I mean which conditioned human beings do not have those type of specific marks on their lotus feet on their feet as the Lord has on His lotus feet

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.7

gṛhe dui jana dekhi laghupada-cihna

tāhe śobhe dhvaja, vajra, śaṅkha, cakra, mīna

Translation: When the Lord tried to walk, in His small footprints the specific marks of Lord Viṣṇu were visible, namely the flag, thunderbolt, conchshell, disc and fish.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.8

dekhiyā doṅhāra citte janmila vismaya

kāra pada-cihna ghare, nā pāya niścaya

Translation: Seeing all these marks, neither His father nor His mother could understand whose footprints they were. Thus struck with wonder, they could not understand how those marks could be possible in their home.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.9

miśra kahe, — bālagopāla āche śilā-saṅge

teṅho mūrti hañā ghare khele, jāni, raṅge

Translation: Jagannātha Miśra said, “Certainly child Kṛṣṇa is with the śālagrāma-śilā. Taking His childhood form, He is playing within the room.”

Purport: When the form of the Lord is carved from wood, stone or any other element, it is to be understood that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there. Even logically we can understand that all material elements are expansions of the energy of the Lord. Since the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is nondifferent from His personal body, the Lord is always present in His energy, and He manifests Himself on account of the ardent desire of a devotee. Since the Lord is supremely powerful, it is logical that He can manifest Himself in His energy. Deity worship or worship of the śālagrāma-śilā is not idol worship. The Deity of the Lord in the house of a pure devotee can act exactly as He can in His original transcendental personality.

*****

So Saci and Jagannatha Misra very strict devotees they wouldn’t eat anything without worshipping first their Narayana salagrama sila so they had their deities in the house so they didn’t know where these footprints were coming from they thought the deity was playing around at times when they weren’t looking and therefore these footprints were coming visible somehow they could not see the footprints on Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet very clearly when He walked and the impression was left in the dust those marks became visible that means that these markings on the feet are actually transcendental

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.10

sei kṣaṇe jāgi’ nimāi karaye krandana

aṅke lañā śacī tāṅre piyāila stana

Translation: While mother Śacī and Jagannātha Miśra were talking, child Nimāi woke up and began to cry, and mother Śacī took Him on her lap and allowed Him to suck her breast.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.11

stana piyāite putrera caraṇa dekhila

sei cihna pāye dekhi’ miśre bolāila

Translation: While mother Śacī was feeding the child from her breast, she saw on His lotus feet all the marks that were visible on the floor of the room, and she called for Jagannātha Miśra.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.12

dekhiyā miśrera ha-ila ānandita mati

gupte bolāila nīlāmbara cakravartī

Translation: When Jagannātha Miśra saw the wonderful marks on the sole of his son, he became very joyful and privately called for Nīlāmbara Cakravartī.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.13

cihna dekhi’ cakravartī balena hāsiyā

lagna gaṇi’ pūrve āmi rākhiyāchi likhiyā

Translation: When Nīlāmbara Cakravartī saw those marks, he smilingly said, “Formerly I ascertained all this by astrological calculation and noted it in writing.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.14

batriśa lakṣaṇa — mahāpuruṣa-bhūṣaṇa

ei śiśu aṅge dekhi se saba lakṣaṇa

Translation: “There are thirty-two bodily marks that symptomize a great personality, and I see all those marks on the body of this child.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.15

pañca-dīrghaḥ pañca-sūkṣmaḥ

sapta-raktaḥ ṣaḍ-unnataḥ

tri-hrasva-pṛthu-gambhīro

dvātriṁśal-lakṣaṇo mahān

Translation: “ ‘There are thirty-two bodily symptoms of a great personality: five of his bodily parts are large, five fine, seven reddish, six raised, three small, three broad and three grave.’

Purport: The five large parts are the nose, arms, chin, eyes and knees. The five fine parts are the skin, fingertips, teeth, hair on the body and hair on the head. The seven reddish parts are the eyes, soles, palms, palate, nails and upper and lower lips. The six raised parts are the chest, shoulders, nails, nose, waist and mouth. The three small parts are the neck, thighs and male organ. The three broad parts are the waist, forehead and chest. The three grave parts are the navel, voice and existence. Altogether these are the thirty-two symptoms of a great personality. This is a quotation from the Sāmudrika.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.16

nārāyaṇera cihna-yukta śrī-hasta caraṇa

ei śiśu sarva loke karibe tāraṇa

Translation: “This baby has all the symptoms of Lord Nārāyaṇa on His palms and soles. He will be able to deliver all the three worlds.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.17

ei ta’ karibe vaiṣṇava-dharmera pracāra

ihā haite habe dui kulera nistāra

Translation: “This child will preach the Vaiṣṇava cult and deliver both His maternal and paternal families.

Purport: Only Nārāyaṇa Himself or His bona fide representative can preach the cult of Vaiṣṇavism, or devotional service. When a Vaiṣṇava is born, he delivers both his maternal and paternal families simultaneously.

*****

This is important that some people understand that when they become devotees simply by being situated in pure devotional service they deliver their mothers and their father’s dynasties simultaneously so the greatest opportunity for a mother and father is to have a son or daughter who is a pure devotee of the Lord thus they can easily be delivered

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.18

mahotsava kara, saba bolāha brāhmaṇa

āji dina bhāla, — kariba nāma-karaṇa

Translation: “I propose to perform a name-giving ceremony. We should observe a festival and call for the brāhmaṇas because today is very auspicious.

Purport: It is a Vedic principle to observe a festival in connection with Nārāyaṇa and brāhmaṇas. Giving a child a particular name is among the purificatory processes known as daśa-vidha-saṁskāra, and on the day of such a ceremony one should observe a festival by worshiping Nārāyaṇa and distributing prasādam, chiefly among the brāhmaṇas.

When Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra understood from the marks on the Lord’s lotus feet that child Nimāi was not an ordinary child but an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, they decided that on that very same day, which was very auspicious, they should observe a festival for His name-giving ceremony. In this connection we can particularly see how an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is ascertained by His bodily symptoms, His activities and the prediction of the śāstras. By factual evidence a person can be accepted as an incarnation of God, not whimsically or by the votes of rascals and fools. There have been many imitation incarnations in Bengal since the appearance of Lord Caitanya, but any impartial devotee or learned man can understand that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was accepted as an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa not on the basis of popular votes but by evidence from the śāstras and bona fide scholars. It was not ordinary men who accepted Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the beginning His identity was ascertained by learned scholars like Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, and later all His activities were confirmed by the six Gosvāmīs, especially Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, and many other learned scholars, with evidence from the śāstra. An incarnation of God is such from the very beginning of His life. It is not that by performing meditation one can become an incarnation of God all of a sudden. Such false incarnations are meant for fools and rascals, not sane men.

*****

In India it’s very common that anyone who has a little sakthi of any kind immediately people start saying that person is an avatar so in some places there is an avatar in every village sometimes they have avatars of demigods sometimes avatars of Visnu but this avatar business has become a real farce that so many people are claiming to be avatars just performing some magical tricks just being able to do something that the people in general become very confused so avatar has become very cheap sometimes due to impersonalist philosophy the men will say my little child he’s my little Krishna he’s my little avatar so in this way people become very confused and they don’t know anymore what is a real avatar remember[?] one time one lecturer from Vrindavan was giving a lecture on the Bhagavad-gita and He said that in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna predicts:

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyuddanam adharmasya tadathmanam srjamyaham paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca dushkritam dharma samsthapanarthaya sambavami yuge yuge

That every yuga I come so this lecturer was saying that Krishna says He comes every yuga yuge yuge but now in kali-yuga we have become more advanced therefore instead of having avatar every yuge or every age every millenium we are having not only every millenium not only every decade every year every month every day every hour we’re having every minute a new avatar [laughter] every second [laughter] so he in this way made a joke he said who is the avatar of the hour (laughter) so it’s not like queen for a day that everyone and anyone is an avatara, avatara actually is understood by bodily symptoms by activities and by the scriptures these three things are always to be ascertained when some avatar makes a promise that I’ll give you whatever you want immediately people rush to worship that person even in the orient many of the oriental people Chinese and other they’re worshipping certain so called incarnations of Godhead because they heard that if you worship them you can get anything you want because they are very materialistic some of those people who are worshipping these false incarnations so they’re rushing after this false promise of giving anything they want later on they become frustrated because they don’t get satisfied so like this it’s become a real business in fact in India there is a book published “Gurus holymen and avatars” when they say avatar they mean all the so called bhagavans bhabas and other so called avatars this is the problem in the modern day is that people don’t know they get cheated they think this is my faith this is my religion he’s an avatar this is not the Vedic culture these are all aberrations because the Vedas are very vast so normally people they don’t read the Vedas much I was giving an interview in India in Bhubaneshwar with the Press and one of the young Pressman he was very challenging why you are coming to our country and teaching us why you’re doing this why you are doing that so they were giving this one Pressman was very challenging but I very patiently answered his question so afterwards he was taking prasada and I went there because there was a movie showing for the other Pressman he had to [indistinct] and I started to talk with him so then he realized that I was he may be thought I was very proud or something but because I was just very personal with him he started to open up and he said actually although I am born in this country all though I am educated he said I have never read the Bhagavad-gita once in my life so the point was that he was so challenging because he was feeling guilty he hadn’t even ever touched the Bhagavad-gita practically [laughter] never read it cover to cover and here’s some one who he from his material vision he was seeing Oh here is someone come from a foreign land settled here in India and he is telling us what to do who does he think he is we don't know? Like but actually he didn’t know this is not something you are going to learn just because you are born in a place there is a better facility to know about Krishna in India but you have to take that opportunity you have to accept a bona fide spiritual master and you have to study the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic literature under their guidance so these are vast literatures at least you can get the essence from a spiritual master but because people are not having bona fide spiritual masters they don’t also study without a spiritual master even reading the books is very difficult so as a result they they are cheated they’re taken advantage of by unscrupulous so called yogis and bhabas and bhagavans and guru maharajis and so on who are all claiming to be Krishna yet they’re all getting sick they’re all growing old they’re all showing the symptoms of material life yet they claim that they are bhagavan when Krishna was present we don’t find that he had to endure any kind of material aging process even when he was speaking the Bhagavad-gita at the age of hundred and twenty he still retained His youthful form not even growing a mustache [laughter] so I was one time preaching to a or visiting a so called sankaracarya when I asked the sankaracarya some questions he that said well he was actually Krishna so I said how can you say that you are Krishna you are growing old this is my lila [laughter] and I said well if you are Krishna then why are you worshipping Radha and Krishna because he had deities Prabhupada once told that these mayavadis they get so dry to just always think you’re God and be talking impersonal philosophy and that to get little juice they worship Radha and Krishna that one time one mayavadi personally revealed to him that actually I get my real happiness in life from worshipping Radha and Krishna he said then why don’t you preach vaisnavism he said because I have come in this line and now this is my business to be a impersonal guru if I change now all my followers may leave me so I have to go on preaching the same impersonal but personally I love to worship Radha and Krishna people become so attached to pratistha, puja and puja pratistha [indistinct] nissiddhacara kuti-nati jiva-himsana labha puja pratistha adhi catur upasakha gane labha profit adoration and position material kind of position these things are very strong for even the renounced order of life after they give up everything then it says that just have to like Prabhupada said that actually when you take sannyasa renounced order of life half of your battle is finished means half of the battle in the material world is just trying to conquer sex desire and the gross material activities of sense gratification that’s half somehow they think that’s all that’s not all that’s just half the big half is the first half but then taking sannyasa is also a type of birth then one has to work at the other half desire for profit everything I do I have to get something for what’s in it for me materially will I get the just reward if the slightest bit of material profit motive is existing in our devotional service we will not get pure bhakti so for a Vaisnava taking sannyasa simply means that they’re endeavoring to maintain at least fifty percent of their maya off and then from there are supposed to come up to the level of paramahamsa which is a pure devotee so any type of profit motive doing my devotional service for some type of reward whether gross subtle or it’s even spiritual like liberation mystic powers all those things have to be eradicated puja the desire to one being worshipped and respected it’s like that there is a comment saying don’t demand respect command it a person if they actually feel incomplete without being worshipped that’s subtle sex desire because what does the woman offer a man is offers praise support some worship so in that way the desire for being adored or being worshipped or being respected those are all subtle material contaminations so even a sannyasi or anyone they have to gradually become to achieve pure devotional service they have to become free from feeling incomplete whether someone if someone does not offer respect or sometime the spiritual master when he sees that the disciple is not bowing down or offering respect he corrects the disciple because it is a it is a lack of consciousness on the part of the disciple it’s not auspicious for the disciple to neglect offering a respect to the spiritual master it’s not that the spiritual master particularly wants to be worshipped but it’s the duty of the disciple and if repeatedly a disciple shows some deficiency in offering respect to the spiritual master then the disciple’s spiritual progress can be hampered therefore the spiritual master may point out we found like Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Takur Srila Prabhupada when some one would bow down they were returned with folded hand with respect offering them obeisances because Krishna is in the heart of every living entity so for a Vaisnava even a spiritual master offers respect even to his disciple because in the heart of the disciple Krishna is present it’s actually offering respect to Krishna in the heart so this puja that’s the next thing is that people sometimes even say the President or someone doesn’t praise a devotee doesn’t pat him on the back doesn’t say that Oh you’ve done very nice the person no one appreciates me no one respects me why I am working so of course we offer praise as an encouragement some chastisement as a correction but as one advances one does not become attached to receiving praise or become detached or from being chastised doesn’t become affected in a negative way but takes it in a very positive way as indications what should be improved and then pratistha pratistha means to desire some kind of a material or spiritual position for the sake of just having a position or be feeling incomplete for not having them those are the three things that Lord Caitanya said that even after taking that one should avoid so Prabhupada said that when a person takes sannyasa fifty percent of the work is over that means the other fifty percent they have to also take just like the Gundica-marjana and cleanse from the heart all the subtle dirts desire for profit desire for worship desire for position [Text missing] then one could hope gradually to come up to the position of being a parama hamsa whether one is a grhastha whether one is a sannyasi whatever one may be our goal is to be a parama hamsa not to be a sannyasi sannyasi is one of the avenues for refining or becoming fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness but even sannyasi just a step one still has to even if one were able to totally be a perfect sannyasi in terms of avoiding material sense gratification that does not mean that one has refined oneself from the other subtle desires Prabhupada said that for a sannyasi it is a falldown if they again get into political activity if they again get into diplomacy and such type of activities so here we are seeing that as we were discussing all of these what is the real incarnation of Godhead and what is a false incarnation of Godhead so we say that in India there are so many incarnations of Godhead who are not incarnations of Godhead they’re just they don’t have even the qualities of a parama hamsa what to speak of the qualities of a maha purusha but when Lord Caitanya appeared even as a small baby in the cradle of his mother he had all the symptoms of a maha purusha all of the thirty-four symptoms and Nilambara Cakravarti Thakura he saw these symptoms and he also confirmed that according to the astrological calculations he had predicted that the Lord was actually going to establish pure devotional service the worship of Krishna in the world so for this reason we’ll just read this next verse that Nilambara Cakravarti is giving the name to Lord Caitanya

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.19

sarva-lokera karibe ihaṅ dhāraṇa, poṣaṇa

‘viśvambhara’ nāma ihāra, — ei ta’ kāraṇa

Translation: “In the future this child will protect and maintain all the world. For this reason He is to be called Viśvambhara.”

Purport: The Caitanya-bhāgavata confirms that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by His birth, has made the whole world peaceful, as in the past Nārāyaṇa protected this earth in His incarnation as Varāha. Because of His protecting and maintaining this world in the present Kali-yuga, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is known as Viśvambhara, which refers to one who feeds the entire world. The movement inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He was present five hundred years ago is again being propagated all over the world, and factually we are seeing its practical results. People are being saved, protected and maintained by this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Thousands of followers, especially Western youths, are taking part in this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, and how safe and happy they feel can be understood from the expressions of gratitude in their hundreds and thousands of letters. The name Viśvambhara is also mentioned in the Atharva-veda-saṁhitā (3.3.16.5): viśvambhara viśvena mā bharasā pāhi svāhā.

*****

Actually Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu he saved protected maintained the people through the Hare Krishna movement when I was just in Ecuador the first lady of the country that means the wife of the President elected democratic President she chanted Hare Krishna briefly with us and she mentioned that one thing she noticed that whenever she saw the Hare Krishna devotees they were always their faces were always very happy and effulgent and this is what and Prabhupada he commented this many Christian priests commented that why is it that what is it that makes your devotees so effulgent this is Prabhupada’s special mercy that he brought Lord Caitanya’s mercy and thus built the house which can give shelter for the entire world that house is the house of Visvambhara Viswa means the universe and bhara means one who can hold so Lord Caitanya’s movement is meant to hold the entire universe to sustain protect and make everyone happy this is actually the next verse goes with this I’ll just read this in conclusion.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.20

śuni’ śacī-miśrera mane ānanda bāḍila

brāhmaṇa-brāhmaṇī āni’ mahotsava kaila

Translation: After hearing Nīlāmbara Cakravartī’s prediction, Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra observed the name-giving festival in great joy, inviting all the brāhmaṇas and their wives.

Purport: It is the Vedic system to observe all kinds of festivals, including birthday festivals, marriage festivals, name-giving festivals and festivals marking the beginning of education, by especially inviting brāhmaṇas. In every festival the brāhmaṇas are to be fed first, and when the brāhmaṇas are pleased they bless the festival by chanting Vedic mantras or the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

*****

This is customary in India they invite the brahmanas and Vaisnavas I was invited on some occasion when a one rich life member he had invited all the Vaisnavas of an area and hundreds of Vaisnavas would be fed prasada which was cooked by brahmanas and offered to the deities and they’d all sit down together at one time then while they were serving the prasadam no one would take and wait till it is served and while it was being served out they would sing prayers like sarira abhidhya jal…Hare Krishna … different prayers and then it was all just ready then nitai gaura premanande… Hari Haribol and there’ll be shoo! [indicates a perfect silence] and then everyone was served prasada and throughout while they were serving prasada sometimes someone would just suddenly say Radha Madhav premanande … then everyone would just stop and start yelling Hari Bol and then again afterward they’ll take prasada and then throughout the thing people would be chanting Hare Krishna Hari Bol all the brahmanas and then after that it was over then everyone would say a prayer and get up then after that he cleaned and then he would serve all the relatives after the brahmanas were served and this is the custom even to this day in fact Prabhupada said that when he left the planet he asked that he wanted all the Vaisnavas in Vrndavana to be fed prasada so they were all invited in Mayapur as well as in Vrndavan all the Vaisnavas and we fed them on Prabhupada’s name prasada and they all in respect of Prabhupada they came and accepted prasada and they all were very respectful to Srila Prabhupada that was Prabhupada once said that we feed so many poor people prasada but if any Vaisnava comes to our temple you should see that he gets prasada any sadhu any Vaisnava so we try to follow that in the holy dhams there is not too many wandering Vaisnavas that come around in Atlanta or other temples [laughs] but at least in India sometimes they come by so we try to observe that ceremony that at least see that they get prasadam we’re not always able to offer them a permanent residence unless they are free of any such tendencies or something but at least even anyone who wears tilak we offer them prasadam take an opportunity to serve the Vaisnavas that’s part of our Vaisnava culture that Prabhupada has taught us that we should respect the Vaisnavas and especially we should serve the pure devotees and we should spread this movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu everywhere Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Rupanuga Mahashay is present he’d like to give us some instruction on these topics.