19860623 Caitanya-Bhāgavatam

Caitanya Bhagavatam Childhood Pastimes of Lord Caitanya 

Type Of Talk:

Other

Book:

Caitanya Caritamrita (CC)

Date:

Monday, June 23, 1986

Collection:

Enlightenment 3

Audio player:

19860623 CAITANYA BHAGAVATAM, CHILDHOOD PASTIMES OF LORD CAITANYA, NEW PANIHATI DHAM, ATLANTA All Glories to the lotus eyed Gaurachandra, all Glories to Your loving devotees! Please have Your transcendental vision upon us and make us free from all maya. May our consciousness constantly be engaged in Your transcendental worship. In this way Lord Caitanya was increasing transcendental happiness in the house of Mother Sachi day by day. To see the lotus face of her son all the brahmanis and brahmanas or the wives of the brahmanas and the brahmanas were both floating in an ocean of transcendental nectar. Vishwarupa, the older brother of Lord Caitanya, he used to see his brother and he would laugh holding Him in his arms on his lap. Vishwarupa is also an incarnation of Godhead. In this way all of the relatives and friends, they are giving the Lord Gaurahari so much affection. They always were praying that Vishnu might protect Him, making different prayers, that the demigods protect Him. In this way all the different neighbors and relatives they were all praying that Lord Caitanya would be protected. Everyone was so attached to Him. Nobody could understand His transcendental position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Caitanya would cry with tears coming out of His lotus eyes but as soon as He would hear the Holy Name then He would stop. So in this way He would always cry until they started to chant the Hari Naam. So in that way everybody would always have to chant Hare Krishna. As soon as they would stop, He would start to cry. They would then again chant! In this way He kept everybody chanting. In this way even some of the demigods came down to see what was happening - they were coming in disguise as village folks to watch. Bhagavan Gaurahari was always surrounded by so many people. He never would like to stay alone. So although He was just a baby, He was always surrounded by many people. In this way He got them all to engage in the sacrifice of chanting the Holy Name through His crying. Although the Lord who can deliver one from all suffering and all fear and who is the ocean of nectar of eternal life, who is the destroyer of all kinds of obstacles in one’s life, who is God Himself, still even though He is present, all of His relatives and neighbors, they are always feeling afraid that in case something might happen to Him. So He took advantage of this. The demigods to enjoy this, some joking, they did different things to make the people more and more afraid of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s safety. Some demigod would come into the house to look and they wouldn’t see him but they would see his shadow and someone would say, hey, and they would all start running, Nrsingha, Nrsingha, Nrsingha! They would start crying out and chanting different stothras. They would look here and there but could not find anything. It says here, aparajitai stothra, one of the protecting mantras. Few of the people were, most of the people in Lord Caitanya’s time, they were all vaishnavas. A few would chant Nrsingha and a few would chant Devi as in those days Devi worship was very common. This way the people would start to chant all kinds of mantras and send mantras in ten different directions to protect Sachi suta. The Lord could see the demigods going outside. In this way the people were seeing some were coming and some going and they would say, hey, who is this coming and going? Go get that thief, Nrsingha! Grab him, grab him! Then some magician or some like, someone who knows the basic concept, he said, today, it is good that they ran away, they don’t know the effect of Nrsingha’s mantra, had they stayed they would have got, whoosh, punished very severely. In this way the demigods were laughing out of vision to see how everyone is trying to protect the Lord and so attached to Him and all these things are going on. For a whole month it was going on like this. Then it was time for Lord Caitanya’s nishkaaman ceremony. They took Nimai down to bathe in the Ganges. Here it says an ojha, an ojha is someone meaning upadaya, whose specialty is to protect someone from ghosts, snakes and he knows the mantras for snake bites and Nrsingha mantras were especially used at that time to get rid of boothas and prethas and other small demigods who mess around with human beings! That they couldn’t stand the Nrsingha mantras – these type of entities. When a child is just about to be able to stand up and walk that is balak utthana parba, there is a ceremony which is called nishkaaman. It says from ancient times babies, maybe a little earlier than that, about four months after birth they had to stay within the house practically four months and they could not go travelling. After that they take the child out into the sun. But nowadays what they do is after 21 days they do it and some after one month. So at the time of Lord Caitanya it was one month which was observed. The wife wouldn’t associate, apart from relatives, I mean wouldn’t go out or anything. So in this way, she is now going out and going with the other ladies to the Ganges take a bath, taking Lord Caitanya with her. So along with that they had a musical band to go with her, there was a huge band, procession, kirtan. They are going to take the Ganges water. Before that they did a worship of Mother Ganges, the river Ganges. After finishing their worship of the Ganges, then bathing in the river, then the ladies all came back. Then they prepared some special preparations for that festival, popped rice, not puffed rice, popped rice, you take rice and you pop it. I can teach that, you can make it, you don’t need any machines to do that. Yes, with hot sand. Then with bananas, oil, sindoor, we call kum kum, guva means betel nut, paan leaves, they gave to everybody. Actually they gave a Prasad of all these things to different people. So in this way all the women gave their blessings to the baby, then they went back home after offering respects to the mother. So in this way the Lord was enjoying His own pastimes which nobody can really understand unless He wants them to understand the spiritual nature of His pastimes. When they would chant the Lord would clap His own hands while they were singing kirtan and if they stopped He would start crying again. As many times as the women would stop chanting, again and again the Lord would start crying. They would try to make the baby stop saying koochi koochi koo and then it stops you know. Once it is quiet, Lord Caitanya once they chanted Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Hari bol, Hare Krishna. Then He would start smiling and they would think, alright now He is happy and they would stop chanting. Then He would go booo…..Then they would again go Hare Krishna Hare Krishna. So this unique pastime. They all chanted Hari Hari, then the Lord would smile with His beautiful face. So after a while they knew His mood so they just had someone chant with kartals. So in this way everyone in great transcendental happiness they engaged in Hari sankirtan and Hari naam was filled up in the house of Sachi. In this way staying in the house of Jagannath in a hidden way Gopal , He had in His secret way, He was having pastimes of play similar to Gopal, as Krishna, Gopal had. When they left the house, then He would take everything and just throw it apart and destroy everything. He would take all the oil, milk, ghee, the butter milk. When the mother would come she would say what is going on here? And see that the child is lying down crying. Hari Hari, then she would start to chant to make him stop crying. And would look around the room and see everything was completely destroyed. This little baby, few months old, but everything is completely torn apart! She was trying to see, hey, who threw all the stuff – all the rice, all the milk, who broke into the yogurt and the milk? How can a four month baby, only in the house, who has thrown all these things? Who has done this? Nobody could figure out who did it. So in this way all the local villagers came and looked but they could not find any sign of any person. They couldn’t understand how this was going on. They said a demon had come here into the room but because of our mantras protecting Him, he could not do anything to the child. Therefore he was angry and he has taken everything and broken and thrown apart. This is one person’s idea. Jagannath Misra looked and he was in duality. He said this is something divine, something extraordinary. So he didn’t say anything bad. So in this way they look at the child and they all are feeling very happy. As soon as they looked at the baby Nimai, they would be happy, they couldn’t stay in anxiety. Then it was time for the naamkaran, the time when one of the ten samskaras are performed. Ten purificatory rites are to be performed for children. Nilambar Chakravarty with his associates came. There they met with Jagannath Misra and Sachi mata. The ladies, the wives of Nilambar Chakravarty and the other brahmanas also came. They were almost like Lakshmis. So they were all trying to figure out what is the best name for this child. So the women said one name, and the men said another name. First the women said call Him Nimai because He doesn’t have many older brothers or sisters, so who is the last to be born, he should be called Nimai. But the men said there is only one name which is proper to give Him and that is Vishwambar. When this child was born at that time all over the land, all of the misfortunate and inauspicious things, they all disappeared and rain tried to fall giving good crops to the farmers. In this way it seems the whole universe has become very healthy just after His birth. Just as when Narayana comes to this world. In other words we should call him Sri Vishwambar or one who maintains the entire universe and he wrote that on a leaf. So Nimai was stated by the ladies, that was kept as the second name. Vishwambar, Nimai. The first name was kept as Vishwambar. So in this way at the very auspicious moment of giving the naamkaran or the giving of the name, there was chanting, reading of the Bhaagavat, the brahmanas were reading vedic mantras at that time and they were calling all of the different deities together, chanting Hari Hari, blowing of conches and bells. At that time rice paddy, books, puffed rice, coris, gold, silk and various other auspicious things were all kept there at that time. In this way Jagannath Misra gave the name Vishwambar. In this way everyone looked at Sri Sachinandan. The ceremony we do at Annapraashan, they did at this ceremony at that time. So here it says that, he was looking at Sachinandan and he took the Bhagavatam and grabbed it and started hugging it. He started to hug. All the ladies started to chant jai! Jai! He is going to become a great pandit! Someone said, no, this child is going to become a great vaishnava. He is very quickly going to know all the conclusions of the shaastras. And Nimai was smiling and looking at all directions. His body was filled with spiritual happiness. Whoever was taking Him in his lap, they were very fortunate; they could carry Lord Caitanya on their lap. Even the demigods, they were not so fortunate as these ladies who could take Caitanya Mahaprabhu on their lap. Whenever the Lord would cry at that time again the ladies would start clapping and doing Hari naam sankirtan. So in this way the Lord started to dance – a little child! So in that way then the ladies really started to chant loudly. So in this way everyone’s mouth was filled with the holy name. And the Lord is trying to imitate to chant, He is not speaking yet but trying to imitate you know. Without His mercy no activity can be made perfect. This is what all the Vedas, all the scriptures say. So in this way He does His own naam sankirtan and day by day He is growing. In this way as His body grows, He is becoming more and more beautiful, more than a million moons, brilliant! But He is completely fearless. And every form is beautiful, no afraid and goes to all places for playing. Not afraid of fire, not afraid of snakes, even grabs the snakes. One day there was a big snake that came into the house and the Lord grabbed the snake. The snake wrapped himself around in a coil; the Lord lay down on top as a little baby and was sleeping! When the women came into the house and they saw, ha, ha, they became all excited. There the Lord is sleeping and smiling on top of the snake. Garuda! Garuda! They all started to chant loud and the parents they were all crying with fear. Hearing their crying, Anantadev, He left. But again the Lord wanted to grab Him and not let Him go! In this regard purport is given that Lord Bhagavan Sri Sesha in the form of a snake had assumed the form of a snake, so that He could serve the Lord in His childhood pastimes. That is why He had come. But other people they thought this is an ordinary snake. So therefore they wanted to deliver Nimai so they called out to Garuda. By calling Garuda you get protected from attacks by snakes. So in this way Anantadev, He left. But the Lord, He grabbed him again and tried to bring Him back! When He grabbed Him and brought Him back everyone said that we pray that You may live forever. So in this way someone is giving raksha bandhi, that means they are giving some little amulets or something for protecting Him. Someone is reading from books various mantras and things for protection. And someone is touching the shoe of Vishnu on His body so that He will be protected. Ha! Someone is saying this child has taken a rebirth; He has come back from the dead! Ha! He got saved! Someone else is saying that sarpa raaj, one of the servants of the Lord who protects one from snakes, that he has destroyed the snake; he has saved Him in other words. The Lord saved him. Then the Lord smiles at him and again he runs out and again he grabs and tried to bring him back, don’t go out. The Lord is laughing looking at everyone and again and again He is trying to go out and they bring Him. In this way it says here that the devotees who hear these pastimes which are sacred even than the Vedas, a material form of a snake when you see that at that time the attachment for one’s material life goes more deep and the attached living entity becomes very active. But here the Supreme Truth, Sri Gaura Narayana, laying on the form of Lord Sesha, He who is filled with the six opulences Bhagavan, He should never be mistaken to be a conditioned soul under the influence of illusion. That Anantadev is an eternal servant of the Lord, in other words people became more detached by saying these things although they became more attached to Lord Caitanya, instead of becoming more attached to maya. So in this way every day in Sacinandan’s house the Lord, He was now able to walk around in the house. So He is walking a little bit. His form was more effulgent than millions of moons. His face was just beautiful like a moon. They tied His hair up on His head, His eyes were like lotuses and He was dressed like a little small Gopal, like a cowherd boy. His arms came down to His knees even when He was small of course. And His lips were pinkish or reddish in color, color of the sunrise. His body was filled with all transcendental signs and His form was golden color. His fingers were very beautiful, His hands, His lotus feet everything was perfect and beautiful to see. The mood of the Lord as a child when He would go, anyone would see Him immediately they would be liberated from their material attachment. In this way day by day, Sachi and Jagannath when they saw their child they became astonished. Although they did not have any wealth, both of them were completely just always in ecstasy, they were so happy! And then one time they sat together, the two of them and they were discussing, who has taken birth in our family? Is it some great Mahaprabhu, some great soul? One is saying our material suffering has been finished! Someone has taken birth in our family who has just an ocean of qualities. Who has ever seen such a child or anyone who acts in that way? I have never seen or I have never heard. He is always dancing, always laughing, whenever He hears the holy name. He will cry until we start chanting. Unless we chant Hari naam loudly, He won’t stop crying. From the time of sunrise the child makes everyone chant the whole day. So all the women are chanting Hari Hari, Haribol and chanting Hare Krishna with their kartals and the Lord is dancing while they are chanting, as a small child. And sometimes He rolls in the dust and He gets up smiling and He sits on His mother’s lap while the kirtan is going on. And when He dances He makes such forms that everyone who sees it they get unlimited happiness. How the Lord in His little child form is doing the Hari naam sankirtan no one is able to understand. I think they know but they don’t connect it exactly. He is always running, inside the house, outside and no one can grab Him, He just is always restless moving about. When He goes outside, then whatever He sees, He wants. He sees popped rice; He sees bananas, He sees sandesh, whatever He sees He wants it. Seeing the Lord is, who doesn’t know, His form is so attractive, the person doesn’t know Him, they see Him, immediately they get struck and they just have to stop and look at the Lord! So when He says give me the sandesh, no one can resist, they say take it. And then the Lord takes it and goes back home. So we know that sandesh is a favourite of Lord Caitanya. And all the ladies who chant Hari naam they also come and bring Him sandesh and other things, bananas and things. Seeing His little child intelligence all the people are laughing, oh how cute, very nice! And they are also clapping their hands and chanting Hare Krishna. Whether it is in the morning, when it is in the noon, whether it is at sunset or whether it is at night, constantly the Lord is going in and out of the house. Not too far away in the different house of friends, He would go to the other friends and do some theft. But He would take a little milk, little rice; break a little clay pot if He didn’t find anything in the house. So in this way the Lord, if a baby is in the house He would make the baby cry. If someone saw Him he would jump immediately and run. But somehow if somebody is able to catch Him by the will of providence then He would become very humble and touch their feet, please this time let me go, I won’t come back any more. They said if You come back again next time then I will beat You! But seeing the child’s intelligence everyone became astonished, nobody was actually angry. Everyone became more and more attached to Him. In fact they became more attached to Him, more affectionate to Him than their own children and simply by seeing Him they would lose their consciousness, He would just enchant them. In this way Vaikuntharai, Lord Caitanya the Lord of Vaikuntha, He was always moving constantly, here and there. One day seeing the Lord, two thieves spotted baby Nimai and they started to discuss whose child is this wandering about unprotected in the village. And seeing on His body various very opulent ornaments of gold and jewels they thought we should just relieve the child of these heavy ornaments and steal them. One said, hey, my dear boy, my dear boy, come here, come here and put Him on his lap. The other said, where have You been so long, we have been looking for You! Come to Your uncle’s house little child, come with me! Smiling the Lord says, alright let us go to your house. So in a big hurry the two thieves they ran with the child taking Him in their arms and the people are saying, hey, whose child are these people taking away with them? But in Navadweep there are so many people; thousands and thousands of people are there. Who knows anybody else? There are so many people. So the thieves they kept looking at His ornaments and they were very happy. They already started thinking these things are ours. So in this way they started to just imagine in their minds how they are going to be enjoying and how they are going to have all this wealth. In this way they became so filled with anxiousness and hope and joy. So in this way they just became overwhelmed with their desires and they thought they already had it and they were already spending the money! So the two thieves are running to what they know as their own place carrying the Lord on their shoulders. He is sitting on their shoulder, laughing, smiling, while they are running with Him! One person just stopped long enough to give the Lord a sandesh and the other said, hey, we reached our house. But in the meantime Nimai’s gone and the relatives and everyone is looking for Him. Where is Nimai? Where is Nimai? They are wandering here and there looking for Nimai. Someone is calling out, hey, come here, come here, Vishwambar. Some are crying out Nimai! Nimai! In this way they are crying out. And they became so anxious like fish out of water, they were just in complete anxiety trying to find Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So everyone is just remembering Krishna and chanting Govinda’s name and at that time the Lord brings back the thieves to His own house! By Krishna’s own maya, Vaishnavi, the illusory energy couldn’t recognize the path. They thought they came back to Jagannath Misra’s house thinking this is our own house. So they think that now we are back in our house and they became very eager to take His ornaments. One thief said, get down off me, we have come to the house. The Lord says, oh ho, let Me down, let Me down quickly. All the people who were looking around, where is Nimai, where is Nimai, they have come and were putting their hands on their heads. Then all of a sudden the two thieves were bewildered by Lord Caitanya’s maya, standing right in Jagannath Misra’s house thinking it was their own house! As soon as Lord Caitanya got off their shoulders, they let Nimai off their shoulders thinking this is their own house, as soon as they let Him off their shoulders, then immediately Nimai ran to His father’s lap and then everyone was very happy and crying Hari Hari! Everyone was so happy that they couldn’t even speak, they were speechlessly happy as if their life had been returned to their dead bodies. Then all of a sudden the two thieves looked, this is not our house! Where have we come to? They couldn’t figure out anything, they were just like totally bewildered. Then they looked around and they saw, my God and they ran as fast as they could as soon as they figured out what happened. Standing in the very house that they stole from, they ran! See how wonderful the two thieves are thinking, how amazing and the thieves said, how did this happen? Who has done this magic trick that they made us come back to the same place. The other one said this is simply the mercy of Chandi, of goddess Durga that somehow we were saved. How we got out of that place? Even after we took the child we came back to the same place. And we got out! Phew! And they embraced each other. We are saved by goddess Durga. These two thieves so greatly fortunate on whose shoulders they have carried Bhagavan, Sri Krishna. All the people thought who had brought Him back; let us give them a donation of cloth. Someone said I saw two people come and leave the child off and then they left. Who brought Him, nobody admitted although people were wondering who brought Him and who left Him. Then they asked Nimai, hey Nimai tell us who left You here? Where have they gone? The Lord said I just went walking by the side of the Ganges; I lost My way walking in the city. Then two men picked Me up taking Me on their shoulders and then I don’t know exactly which path they came but they came and dropped Me off here. One person said, the scriptures, the words of the scriptures are never false. The Lord protects children, the old and the orphans, Himself. In this way everybody is speculating, trying to figure out and by Vishnu’s illusory energy nobody can figure out what is the actual – what really happened. In this way the Lord is doing His transcendental pastimes – some they are able to understand, others they are not. When they hear these transcendental pastimes they get firm devotion at the lotus feet of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Vrndavandas Thakur the most insignificant servant sings at the lotus feet of Sri Krishna Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda who are more effulgent like the transcendental moons. Hare Krishna! End of Chapter4, Adi Lila, Caitanya Bhagavat. Any questions? Question: Inaudible. GM: They had mud houses, mud walls with thatched roofs. Very cool. Thick mud, 2 feet thick. Very cool with cow dung over it. Thick grass roof. Everyone’s house was like that except for the kings or the landlords. That is the why the masons in India are called Raj mistries. Mistry means a craftsman. So they were the king’s craftsmen. Raj, you know, maharaj, raj. Because only the kings would have brick houses made. Big people. All brahmanas would live in grass huts. Even if they had money they would live in grass huts because they would live very simply. In India there are people even today who have land but they chose to live in grass house. It is actually very cool. In Delhi the concrete houses are so hot in the summer season that the walls, it is very dry there, zero humidity practically, so dry that even the walls are hot. Went up on the roof to sleep but even the roof is hot. I threw water down on the roof at 10 o clock in the night and it was steaming. So when you go to get any cool under the fan, it is like a blast furnace! So you have to go to sleep on the grass! Because the whole steel concrete picks up the heat and retains it. But these grass houses are very cool. The grass does not retain any heat so it is very warm in the winter, inside it is warm, it is insulating. In the summer it is cool inside. Cool in the summer, warm in the winter. Question: Inaudible. GM: First two years I lived in a grass hut in Mayapur. For two years. Harikesh Swami’s disciples built him a brick house with a concrete roof. But I said, I would just take a grass hut. So everyone who goes there stays in a grass hut. Simantadweep. That is the island which is non different from Radharani’s gardens. Hare Krishna!

Jayaraseshwari devi dasi 6 June 2015