19850605 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 14.21-36

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.21

abe kata dine prabhura jānu-caṅkramaṇa
nānā camatkāra tathā karāila darśana

Translation: After some days the Lord began to crawl on His knees, and He caused various wonderful things to be seen.

Purport: The Caitanya-bhāgavata describes that one day while the Lord was crawling upon His knees, the bells on His waist ringing very sweetly, a snake came out to crawl in the yard of the Lord, who captured the snake like a curious child. Immediately the snake coiled over Him. The Lord as a child then rested on the snake, and after some time the snake went away, leaving the Lord aside.

Jayapatākā Swami: What Līlā does that sound like?

Devotee: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa lying on the bed of Ananta.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.22

krandanera chale balāila hari-nāma
nārī saba ‘hari’ bale, — hāse gaura-dhāma

Translation: The Lord caused all the ladies to chant the holy names of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra on the plea of His crying, and while they chanted the Lord would smile.

Purport: In the Caitanya-bhāgavata this pastime is described as follows: “The Lord, with His beautiful eyes, would cry, but He would stop immediately upon hearing the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. When the ladies, understanding the fun of the Lord, discovered that He would cry and then stop upon hearing the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they all took it as a clue to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa as soon as the Lord cried. Thus it became a regular function. The Lord would cry, and the ladies would begin chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, clapping their hands. In this way all the ladies of the neighboring houses would assemble in the home of Śacīmātā to join in the saṅkīrtana movement twenty-four hours a day. As long as the ladies continued to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the Lord would not cry but would very pleasingly smile upon them.”

Thus, end the purport of text 22.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the easiest way to have the Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu always smiling upon one – is to be constantly chanting the mahā-mantra:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.23

tabe kata dine kaila pada-cańkramaṇa
śiśu-gaṇe mili' kaila vividha khelana

Translation: After some days the Lord began to move His legs and walk. He mixed with other children and exhibited various sports.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.24

ekadina śacī kha-i-sandeśa āniyā
bāṭā bhari' diyā baila, — khāo ta' basiyā’

Translation: One day while the Lord was enjoying His playful sports with the other little children, mother Śacī brought a dish filled with fused rice and sweetmeats and asked the child to sit down and eat them.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.25

eta bali' gelā śacī gṛhe karma karite
lukāñā lāgilā śiśu mṛttikā khāite

Translation: But when she returned to her household duties, the child hid from His mother and began to eat dirt.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.26

dekhi' śacī dhāñā āilā kari' 'hāya, hāya'
māṭi kāḍi' lañā kahe 'māṭi kene khāya'

Translation: Seeing this, mother Śacī hastily returned and exclaimed, "What is this! What is this!" She snatched the dirt from the hands of the Lord and inquired why He was eating it.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.27

kāndiyā balena śiśu, — kene kara roṣa
tumi māṭi khāite dile, mora kibā doṣa

Translation: Crying, the child inquired from His mother, "Why are you angry? You have already given Me dirt to eat. What is My fault?

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.28

kha-i-sandeśa-anna yateka — māṭira vikāra
eho māṭi, seha māṭi, ki bheda-vicāra

Translation: "Fused rice, sweetmeats and all other eatables are but transformations of dirt. This is dirt, that is dirt. Please consider. What is the difference between them?

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.29

māṭi — deha, māṭi — bhakṣya, dekhaha vicāri'
avicāre deha doṣa, ki balite pāri

Translation: "This body is a transformation of dirt, and the eatables are also a transformation of dirt. Please reflect upon this. You are blaming Me without consideration. What can I say?

Purport: This is an explanation of the Māyāvāda philosophy, which takes everything to be one. The necessities of the body, namely eating, sleeping, mating and defending, are all unnecessary in spiritual life. When one is elevated to the spiritual platform, there are no more bodily necessities, and in activities pertaining to the bodily necessities there are no spiritual considerations. In other words, the more we eat, sleep, have sex and try to defend ourselves, the more we engage in material activities. Unfortunately, Māyāvādī philosophers consider devotional activities to be bodily activities. They cannot understand the simple explanation in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.26):

māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

“Anyone who engages in spiritual devotional service without motivation, rendering such service for the satisfaction of the Lord, is elevated immediately to the spiritual platform, and all his activities are spiritual.” Brahma-bhūyāyarefers to Brahman (spiritual) activities. Although Māyāvādī philosophers are very eager to merge into the Brahman effulgence, they have no Brahman activities. To a certain extent they recommend Brahman activities, which for them means engagement in studying the Vedānta and Sāṅkhya philosophies, but their interpretations are but dry speculation. Lacking the varieties of spiritual activity, they cannot stay for long on that platform of simply studying Vedānta or Sāṅkhya philosophy.

Life is meant for varieties of enjoyment. The living entity is by nature full of an enjoying spirit, as stated in the Vedānta-sūtra (1.1.12): ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt. In devotional service the activities are variegated and full of enjoyment. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.2), all devotional activities are easy to perform (su-sukhaṁ kartum) and are eternal and spiritual (avyayam). Since Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand this, they take it for granted that a devotee’s activities (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, etc.) are all material and are therefore māyā. They also consider Kṛṣṇa’s advent in this universe and His activities to be māyā. Therefore, because they consider everything māyā, they are known as Māyāvādīs.

Actually, any activities performed favorably for the satisfaction of the Lord, under the direction of the spiritual master, are spiritual. But for a person to disregard the order of the spiritual master and act by concoction, accepting his nonsensical activities to be spiritual, is māyā. One must achieve the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the mercy of the spiritual master. Therefore, one must first please the spiritual master, and if he is pleased, then we should understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also pleased. But if the spiritual master is displeased by our actions, they are not spiritual. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura confirms this: yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi. Activities that please the spiritual master must be considered spiritual, and they should be accepted as satisfying to the Lord.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as the supreme spiritual master, instructed His mother about the Māyāvāda philosophy. By saying that the body is dirt and eatables are also dirt, He implied that everything is māyā. This is Māyāvāda philosophy. The philosophy of the Māyāvādīs is defective because it maintains that everything is māyā but the nonsense they speak. While saying that everything is māyā, the Māyāvādī philosopher loses the opportunity of devotional service, and therefore his life is doomed. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (Cc. Madhya 6.169). If one accepts the Māyāvāda philosophy, his advancement is doomed forever.

Jayapatākā Swami: Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa So Lord Caitanya. He is preaching Māyā vadi philosophy at the age of 4 years old, testing His mother. Saying that cake, sweetmeats, dirt, it is all coming from dirt. It is all the different transformations of the same thing. So, what is the difference? So, this is the nature of impersonal philosophy that is they try to make everything the same.

Once there was a yogī in India who is insisting God is one. Everyone is God. So, when ISKCON preacher was preaching to that person, the person was wearing a big turban, he is just insisting – everything is God, God is one, everything is one. So, then the preacher took off his big expensive silk turban and threw it in a river.

He said, “What are you doing? Just threw my turban in the river.”

He said, “It’s all one. Whether it’s on your head or river, it’s all one.” (Devotees laughing.)

And then He didn’t accept that that was one. (Devotees laughing.) So, then he started to realize that everything was not one. So, in this way Māyā vadis, their philosophy is totally not practical. It’s totally impractical. Lord Caitanya’s philosophy is acintya bedhabeda tattva. What does that mean?

Devotee: Simultaneously one and different

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes (devotees laughing) Acintya bedhabedha – inconceivably simultaneously one and different. Difference and non-difference. So here mother Śacī, she was put in a big, difficult position. Her son is eating dirt and saying, “Well it’s all dirt. Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes. It’s all dirt. Came from the earth, and it’s going back. So, I am eating it, dirt What is the difference?” She had to come up with some quick answers to stop Lord Caitanya from eating dirt. What did she say?

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.30

antare vismita śacī balila tāhāre
"māṭi khāite jñāna-yoga ke śikhāla tore

Translation: Astonished that the child was speaking Māyāvāda philosophy, mother Śacī replied, "Who has taught You this philosophical speculation that justifies eating dirt?"

Purport: In the philosophical discourse between the mother and the son, when the son said that everything is one, as impersonalists say, the mother replied, “If everything is one, why do people in general not eat dirt but eat the food grains produced from the dirt?”

Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 14.31

māṭira vikāra anna khāile deha-puṣṭi haya
māṭi khāile roga haya, deha yāya kṣaya

Translation: Replying to the Māyāvāda idea of the child philosopher, mother Śacī said, "My dear boy, if we eat earth transformed into grain, our body is nourished, and it becomes strong. But if we eat dirt in its crude state, the body becomes diseased instead of nourished, and thus it is destroyed.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.32

māṭira vikāra ghaṭe pāni bhari' āni
māṭi-piṇḍe dhari yabe, śoṣi' yāya pāni"

Translation: "In a water pot, which is a transformation of dirt, I can bring water very easily. But if I poured water on a lump of dirt, the lump would soak up the water, and my labor would be useless."

Purport: This simple philosophy propounded by Śacīmātā, even though she is a woman, can defeat the Māyāvādī philosophers who speculate on oneness. The defect of Māyāvāda philosophy is that it does not accept the variety that is useful for practical purposes. Śacīmātā gave the example that although an earthen pot and a lump of dirt are basically one, for practical purposes the waterpot is useful whereas the lump of dirt is useless. Sometimes scientists argue that matter and spirit are one, with no difference between them. Factually, in a higher sense, there is no difference between matter and spirit, but one should have the practical knowledge that matter, being an inferior state of existence, is useless for our spiritual, blissful life, whereas spirit, being a finer state, is full of bliss. In this connection the Bhāgavatam gives the example that dirt and fire are practically one and the same. From the earth grow trees, and from their wood come fire and smoke. Nevertheless, for heat we can utilize the fire but not the earth, smoke or wood. Therefore, for the ultimate realization of the goal of life, we are concerned with the fire of the spirit, not the dull wood or earth of matter.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.33

ātma lukāite prabhu balilā tāńhāre
"āge kena ihā, mātā, nā śikhāle more

Translation: The Lord replied to His mother, "Why did you conceal self-realization by not teaching Me this practical philosophy in the beginning?

Purport: If from the beginning of life, one is taught the Vaiṣṇava philosophy of duality or variety, the monistic philosophy will not bother him very much. In reality, everything is an emanation from the supreme source (janmādy asya yataḥ).

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami (comments): Janmad yasya yathah – what does janmad yasya yathah mean?

Nandasuta?

Devotee: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Is that correct? Paramparā?

Devotees: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Who is correct? Nandasuta or Vedantasutra or Acaryaratna?

Devotees: Vedānta śūtra dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: All in favor of Vedantasutra? (devotees laughing) All in favour of Acryaratna?

Devotees: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Ah?

Devotees: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Acaryaratna?

Devotees: (inaudible) (devotees laughing)

Jayapatākā Swami: Janma means birth. JanMāyā s…Janma asya yathah means that from which everything is created or coming. The verse that you are indicating is athatha brahma jijnasa (phone ringing) Which is also from the Vedantasutra. Ah?

Devotees: (inaudible) (devotees laughing)

Jayapatākā Swami: Which answer you are going to give? (devotees laughing)

(continues reading the purport) The original energy is exhibited in varieties, exactly as the sunshine, the original energy emanating from the sun, exhibits itself in variety as light and heat. One cannot say that light is heat or that heat is light, yet one cannot separate one from the other. Therefore, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s philosophy is acintya-bhedābheda, inconceivable non separation and distinction. Although there is an affinity between the two physical manifestations light and heat, there is also a difference between them. Similarly, although the whole cosmic manifestation is the Lord’s energy, the energy is nevertheless exhibited in varieties of manifestations.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this is the acintya bedha bedha. The inconceivable non separation and distinction. That although everything is non-separated from Krsna, yet there is a distinction. It’s not that this material world is Krsna. Yet it’s not separates from Krsna. So, things are non-separated from Krsna; at the same time, they are distinct. How they remain in their distinctive nature is inconceivable. It’s to be understood because the Māyā vadis they say that everything is one. Everyone is god. And simply they’ve forgotten. And when they remember then they realize that everyone is God. The question is they’ve forgotten that means they’ve fallen in Māyā. So, if Māyā is so powerful that it can make you forget that you are God, that means Māyā is more powerful than God. Therefore, that means Māyā is God. Because God must be the most powerful. So therefore, they are called Māyā vadis, because what they are saying is that Māyā is even more powerful than God. If we accept that everyone is God that means we are in Māyā. That means Māyā is even greater than God. But if you accept that there is a difference between the minute particle and the Supreme entity. Then it is possible that the minute particles can be covered by Māyā while the Supreme entity is not in Māyā. Which is the actual philosophy. So, Lord Caitanya in conclusion says:

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.34

ebe se jānilāń, āra māṭi nā khāiba
kṣudhā lāge yabe, tabe tomāra stana piba"

Jayapatākā Swami: Actually, Lord Caitanya is about just 2 years when he is speaking this. He is just walking. Still taking His mother’s breast milk.

Translation: "Now that I can understand this philosophy, no more shall I eat dirt. Whenever I am hungry, I shall suck your breast and drink your breast milk."

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.34

eta bali' jananīra kolete caḍiyā
stana pāna kare prabhu īṣat hāsiyā

Translation: After saying this, the Lord, smiling slightly, climbed on the lap of His mother and sucked her breast.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 14.36

eimate nānā-chale aiśvarya dekhāya
bālya-bhāva prakaṭiyā paścāt lukāya

Translation: Thus, under various excuses the Lord exhibited His opulences as much as possible in His childhood, and later, after exhibiting such opulences, He hid Himself.

Jayapatākā Swami: One-minute Lord Caitanya would show inconceivable pastimes. Like laying on a, having a cobra coiled up and He laying on the cobra, eating dirt and then talking very high philosophy just as a small infant, and the next minute He is playing just as He is a little infant. And the parents will forget that.

Nitāi Gaura Premānande Hari Hari Bol!

Jai Śrī Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Vishvambharo ki!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Śrī Nityānanda Avadhūta Doyamoya ki!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Gaura Premānande! Show the deities

Devotees: Hari Haribol

Jayapatākā Swami (singing): Jaya Nitāi Gaurāṅga Nitāi

Devotees (Singing): Jaya Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami (Singing): Jaya Nitāi Gaurāṅga!

Devotees (Singing): Jaya Nitāi Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, in this way the Lord comes down out of His internal potency. But He is covered by the Yogamāyā so that the devotees cannot always recognize Him. But sometimes they can recognize Him. But the non-devotees, they cannot recognize Him at all because they are covered by Mahāmāyā. So those who are purified, they can see that these deity forms of the Lord are actually Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda Themselves - Supreme Personality of Godhead having come down to this material world to benedict the devotees, to benedict the fallen souls.

Jaya!