19870315 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.5.32

Following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on March 15,1987 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Canto 11, Chapter 5, Text 32.

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

(ŚB 11.5.32 & Cc.  Ādi-līlā, Chapter 3, Verse 52)

Translation: In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta translation and purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Charana Bhakti Vedānta Swami Prabhupāda.

Jayapataka Swami: So, today, this most auspicious day of the appearance of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we gathered together in the very sacred, most sacred place in the whole world.

Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura explained how in this entire universe, this planet is considered to be blessed, most important. Because here, Kṛṣṇa appeared and performed His personal pastimes. And in this planet, because those pastimes are performed in India, they are considered to be the... India is considered to be the most important. In India, the most beautiful and auspicious of all the states is the land of Bengal where the Ganges is flowing through, and in Bengal the most auspicious place is Gaura Maṇḍala bhūmi and Nadia, the place where Lord Caitanya has performed His pastimes. And within the Gaura Maṇḍala bhūmi, Nadia, the holy abode of Navadvīpa Māyāpur Dhāma is considered to be the most auspicious, because here the Lord Himself has appeared and performed His childhood pastimes. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, "Within Māyāpur, Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir is the most auspicious place, because here the work of Caitanya Mahāprabhu is being performed."

Devotees: Jai

Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir ki Jai!

Śrī Māyāpur Navadvīpa dhāma ki Jai!

So, here we are in the most auspicious place in the entire universe, and the most auspicious day of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s appearance. So, certainly all of you are very fortunate to be here in this time, and what could be a better activity to perform than to hear, chant the glories, the pastimes and the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu? 

Lord Caitanya appeared as explained in this verse, He is although Kṛṣṇa Himself, He came in disguise, He came in another color, He came in the golden color, and more unusual He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, but He is chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa, He is chanting His own name. So, all these are unusual circumstances, but Vyāsadeva has very clearly explained that, one should not be confused that, "Who is this personality chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa with golden color with so many associates? Who is this person? Is He some great sage? Is He a great prophet? Is He a sannyāsī or a devotee, who is this person? Some of may wonder."  But Vyāsadeva has very clearly explained that, "When you see such a person who is joined by many intelligent persons then you can know without a doubt that He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, and His purpose is to spread the saṅkīrtana movement, His purpose is to spread His own devotional service."

We are reading, how Advaita Gosvāmi who is incarnation of devotee, He was seeing how the people are become materialistic in this world, and therefore He prayed that, “Since I am an ācārya, since I devotee, and devotee is qualitatively one or advaita with the Lord, therefore if I sincerely request Kṛṣṇa to come, how can He refuse me, since I am a soul dedicated to His service?” So, in this way, He made a firm determination, and vow that He was going to pray to Kṛṣṇa in all devotion and humility to come down, and to show Himself to the world.  And with a loud cry, He called out to Kṛṣṇa, those cries were so loud that they penetrated the boundary of this universe, and it went on beyond to Goloka Vṛndāvana, where Kṛṣṇa could hear the loud cries of Advaita Gosvāmi. So, Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself came on this sacred day, five hundred and one years ago, and appears in this sacred land to give the world that opportunity which otherwise in Kali-yuga we would be deprived of.

To give us the opportunity to come back to Him, to bring us back to Him, to His own devotional service, to chanting His holy name. Actually, Prabhupāda explained here that, Lord Caitanya’s weapon is His personal beauty and attractiveness. Actually, in this material world, we find ourselves easily distracted. Māyā has possessive so much māyā sukha, different type of illusory happiness to bewilder the mind of the conditioned soul and they mad/ran after the different features in 3D colors and  varieties presented by Kali-yuga, whether illicit sex,  or gambling, or intoxication, eating of meat, fish and egg so on. People are very attracted by these different varieties of sense gratification which are very nicely packaged, very attractively packaged. So, with all these material allurements how it is possible that the people can come out of illusion?

But Lord Caitanya is so merciful that He being the all attractive Lord, He expands His all attractive features of Sri Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu to attract the mind of the conditional soul. This inconceivable mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu is something which those who chant His holy names, those who engage in saṅkīrtana, they  can experience. Even those who are idle watchers, who are curious people, who just stop to see what’s going on, they also get attracted. 

Just like the Mohammedans here in Māyāpur five hundred years ago, they use to joke with Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s saṅkīrtana party, they use to ridicule them by mimicking them, saying Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa different things, saying Gaura Hari Gaura Hari, but they went to Chand Kazi to complain and he ask them why you are all chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa?  Why you are chanting the name of Śrī Caitanya? And they admitted that since we taken this chanting, since we whole day were joking with Lord Caitanya's saṅkīrtana party, we were not been able to stop chanting. The chanting is going on in our mind, eating, sleeping, we are not able to stop chanting. These people are some form of magic. This magic or this special quality is revealed here.

It is Lord Caitanya’s all attractive feature. If  you try to create doubt what is so attractive about Lord Caitanya, what it is that attracts the people to give up all of their material attachment, to give up their country, to give up their family, to give up anything and everything, which is an obstacle for rendering devotional service to Lord Caitanya, what is that specific attractive feature, if you ask someone to explain to you, to give us a designation, and they word which will sāvadhāna or some form of the descriptions which can convey it to another, you will find that is inexplicable. If something which is wonderful, but the only way to understand it is to experience it oneself, and having experience of it, then you are finished. Then you can’t stop. And of course there is some way to stop it.  Just like there is no break, when you are in Airplane, when you are flying to the air, it doesn't want to put your break on. You see, there is no break as such, it just suddenly stops, of course there is techniques for stopping.  But one way of stopping is to somehow or another to turn off the gas, then it starts to go down. There may be other techniques. If you are a tree, well you just go on growing until an elephant comes along and stomps at you and tears you apart.

Like that Lord Caitanya said, there is nothing which can stop that nectar that a devotee experiences except two things. The primary danger is a certain greed of elephant known as mad elephant

yadi vaiṣṇava-aparādha uṭhe hātī mātā

upāḍe vā chiṇḍe, tāra śukhi' yāya pātā

[CC Madhya 19.156]

The first one is mad elephant, which is a mad elephant offence, or offending a Vaiṣṇava. If you offend a Vaiṣṇava, then Lord Caitanya said this is good as elephant coming and pulling out your devotional creeper from the root. Pull it out from the root, jab it on the ground. Here in Māyāpur we grow jute sometimes. Jute is made into carton package, barrel of socks and even rugs. Well the technique for making the jute is, you have to pull it out off the ground or cut it, and piled it up, and let it wait for a week or so, so all the leaves dry out or fall off. This is the nature, you can pull out the tree, the leaves don’t immediately fall off, it takes a little time, a week, two weeks. If you go and offend the Vaiṣṇava it is not that like some lightning bolts going to come from the sky and jab us, and suddenly we were dead. But what happens is that, the devotional creeper starts to whither because it cropped at the root. And what happens when that happens is, we lose our attraction for Lord Caitanya and His holy names, when that happens, then maya starts to look very attractive. When maya looks attractive, then we fall down.  So, we have to be careful.

Just that there is a story they say, there is a toll in Jagannātha Purī there once Lord Caitanya was rescued from the net of the fisherman. The devotees were looking all over for Lord Caitanya, they couldn’t find Him. So, finally when they came across the fisherman, they saw that he was chanting,

"Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa…Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho, oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho !!!!! Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa..."

He is completely afraid, shivering but he is chanting. So, Svarūpa Dāmodara asked, "What’s the matter?"

"Oh ho! It's a ghost, it’s a ghost, horrible demon, oh ho ho ho... Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa…"

"Where is the demon, where is the ghost?"

"Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho...."

So, then the Svarūpa Dāmodara said, "I will save you from the ghost. I know a secret. You just come here." Then he slapped him, bhat bhat. "Now you ok." So that sound is so much that he is totally quiet and down.  He still chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa...

"Just tell me, where is the ghost? Is there any ghost? Someone see that they don't chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Was there Lord Caitanya?"

When He got in His ecstasy expanded so large, His arms go 18 inches just disjoint it. He is already golden in color, He became pale.  His big goose bump was all over His body. He look very freighting. I mean when you saw, you couldn’t recognize Him at all, when He was in His mahā-bhāva ecstasy. So, Svarūpa Dāmodara immediately figured out that this fisherman he must have touched Caitanya Mahāprabhu somehow. So, then he indicated that there, hey look at that horrible thing. And there they saw, "No! That’s Lord Caitanya." "No no no… It is too horrible, look at nine feet tall."  Because Lord Caitanya is seven feet, when He expands like that, He becomes almost nine feet.

So, then Svarūpa Dāmodara and all the devotees they went, they bathed Lord Caitanya, took all the sand which caked on His body off, and then they chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa.  He came back together, and came back gradually to His external consciousness.  So, after that, that fisherman, the story goes, he was always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So it is very hard in his family because he was the earning one with so many difficulties. So, he asked, "Is there anyway I can stop chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? I mean it, very difficult."

So then he was told, "Yes, you can stop chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa if you just offend the Vaiṣṇava. This is the way to stop chanting."

All our senior ācāryas they tell us that, the reason for fall down for an advanced Vaiṣṇava is due to offences to the holy name. And the way to preserve oneself from fall down is to try as much as possible to preserve oneself from offenses. Of course, weeds are also danger, but they are gradual danger which built up over a period of time. Offenses are the most dangerous thing. Because the offences are also allows weed to easily take root. 

So, in this way, we all are have to become very expert gardeners and protect our creeper. Then we can always be of that spontaneous attachment to Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement, to Lord Caitanya’s holy name. Actually, Prabhupāda was asked by the Indians, "Why is that your group is spread so quickly in the West? People there are very materialistic." Of course, he knows that even by chanting one holy name of Kṛṣṇa one can get rid of unlimited sinful reaction. So, getting rid of sinful reactions that isn't a big problem for Lord Caitanya’s movement. But people wanted to know.  Why was that... At that time, in the beginning it seem that fewer Indians were joining and  many more western devotees were joining. Although that was increased here in India as well.  Very much.

Prabhupāda explained that, "There in the west, because there was no devotees, there was no Kṛṣṇa, no Vaiṣṇavas, so there was nobody to offend.  So, although there were many materialistic people, because there were no Vaiṣṇavas, so there no offences. So, it is very fertile ground, easy to plant the seed of devotional service, simply by hearing about Lord Caitanya they could become attracted. Of course, the more the offences are committed against the Vaiṣṇavas, then it very difficult to be attracted. But by constant chanting of the holy name of Lord Caitanya’s name even one can overcome the reactions of offences. But it delays them, that’s all."

So Lord Caitanya He saw... first of all He came down to attract everyone. The more we can present Lord Caitanya to the people through Prabhupāda's transcendental literatures, through the harināma-saṅkīrtana, the more Kṛṣṇa Caitanya will attract the people to His lotus feet.

How Lord Caitanya came after Advaita Gosvāmi called Him to this world then He appeared, first He send His immediate expansion Balarāma to take birth, to take shelter in the ocean of the womb of Padmāvatī devī, the wife of Haḍai Ojha in the village or Ekacakra grāma, in His mood. There Lord Nityānanda, He appeared almost one month on the śukla-trayodaśī of the Māgha māsa, one month and one day or two days before Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Lord Caitanya Himself Śrī Kṛṣṇa as devotee He appeared in the womb of Śacī devī. Śacī is not different from Devakī, the same transcendental absolute personality who appeared as Lord’s mother and father in different incarnations. Like Devakī-Vasudeva or Nanda-Yaśodā, Śacī and Jagannātha Miśrā on that the same transcendental absolute level. Lord Caitanya took shelter in the womb of mother Śacī then the Anantadeva Śeṣanāga incarnation as a snake with thousands and thousands head He started to do the Jai dhvanī, seeing the glories of Lord Caitanya. In their sleeps, in their dreams mother Śacī and Jagannātha Miśrā could hear the glories of Lord Caitanya being sung. And they can feel something different in the house.

Different demigods like Brahmā and Śivā they came in their home, and they glorified the Lord with transcendental prayers. The Lord while appeared in all different incarnations to the ages, He came with the appearing on this world to expand His pastimes to attract the conditioned souls. Jagannātha Miśra, Śacī they had have eight girls who were still born, before having the Viśvarūpa, the elder brother of Lord Caitanya. Then Lord Caitanya appeared. 

As I explained before, Navadvīpa-dhāma, in the time of Lord Caitanya's appearence, was that seed of culture but Vedic culture although this was the seed. Vaiṣṇava culture was considered by all of the Vedic paṇḍitas is to be something despicable and they used to criticize it in so many ways. So, when Lord Caitanya appeared, people they had the philosophy that He couldn’t chant the name of God. If you would do so, you will reduce its potency. So, no one will chant the name of Lord, because they considered themselves too impure, they were afraid of offences.  Only when they were bath in the Ganges, then they will chant, and on full moon eclipses they will chant. So, because Lord Caitanya appeared when the full moon was having its eclipse, all of the people went to the Ganges, and they all were chanting Hari Bol! Hari Bol!

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare

(Devotees chants together)

Which is not a normal circumstance every day. Only on eclipse days. But just to  welcome the Lord coming, all the devotees were chanting. Because the Lord brought in eclipse at the same time. So, we also chant all day long during the Gaura Pūṛnimā day, and every day to welcome Lord Caitanya. When Lord Caitanya appeared at that time the demigods' wives appeared as brāhmaṇīs, as the wives of the brahmaṇas in the disguise they came and offered presents, and offered various worship to Lord Caitanya in the crowded people. Actually, everyone at the time of Lord Caitanya's appearance suddenly things became very auspicious, and everyone became very happy and peaceful, there are various auspicious signs. So, these things are recorded. They were experienced and they can still be experienced even to this date, Lord Caitanya He still present with us, we can experience it by chanting His holy names.

So, Prabhupāda he summarized that, Lord Caitanya was always glorifying and chanting name of Kṛṣṇa.  Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja he explained this verse sums up the avatāra of Lord Caitanya. He says, "My dear brothers, please hear all these glories of Lord Caitanya. This verse clearly summarizes His activities and characteristics; the two syllables Kṛṣṇa are always in His mouth or He constantly describes Kṛṣṇa with great pleasure." In other words, Kṛṣṇa-varṇam means that Kṛṣṇa is simply coming from His mouth. Lord Caitanya He constantly chanted the holy name to show there was no means to go back to Kṛṣṇa other than chanting the holy name.

Prabhupāda very clearly explained in the purport that, "it is not possible to propagate the worship in churches, temples or mosques, is not possible, because people have lost their interest in that.  But anywhere and everywhere people can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, thus worshiping Lord Caitanya they can perform the highest activity, and fulfill the higher religious purpose of satisfying the Supreme Lord."

In 1970, when Prabhupāda was in Los Angeles, he had his secretary phone me and calling to him, to send me to India. So, I flew from Canada to Los Angeles, and there Prabhupāda briefed me for sending me to India. At that time, he kept me there for couple of months by his causeless mercy. And his custom was to take devotees on morning walks. So there I get the opportunity to going with him on morning walks. One day he was walking by, maybe there was a church or something, I don’t remember, but suddenly he turned around and he said, and that I very clearly remember. He embargoed, "Don’t think that everyone is going to be the devotee in our temple.  Our temple will be something like the Christian churches, which have very large congregation. People will practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness in their homes, and they all visit the temple."

So, that was in 1970, that time we were simply madly trying to open temples. At least wanted to have one hundred and eight temples before I leave. So, all the devotees still remember that, everyone like madman in going and opening the temples. I remember myself; I must have opened at least five temples. Like a mad, everyone was getting married and opening temples, and just staying brahmacārī and opening temples. But there was a big drive, people went to London, people went to the different parts of the world, trying to open up centers as quickly as possible.

After some time Prabhupāda said, "Enough, now we just consolidate what we have." Suddenly becoming there was a big drive to open temple. At that time, suddenly there was no preliminary reason why there suddenly bring up congregation. But Prabhupāda suddenly said, "No, we are going to have big congregations."

In 1977 Prabhupāda said that in Vṛndāvana, "He had open up big centers all over India." He said, "Now we had establish centers in city, but now I want to bring this to the people in the country where they still have more Vedic culture. They are less westernized, less polluted than the people living in the city." As soon as he told that, he wanted to go on the route of Lord Caitanya and visit all the people in the village and to encourage them to take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course, very soon after that although many plans were made to take him with buses, matadors and everything, he has suddenly manifested severe symptoms and he wound up his pastimes, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So, with that inspiration, we took the, ISKCON took the padayātrā to Dvārakā, to Kanyakumārī, to Māyāpur now fulfilling the circuit by going to Vṛndāvana. Padayātrā purpose was not only to visit the route of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But Prabhupāda wanted to take the movement to the common people, to spread the movement to every man, woman, child and all the rural areas, all of the small towns as well. He already registered into have centers in Kolkata, Delhi and Bombay so on.

Actually this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is never going to have everybody live in the temple. Because Prabhupāda is already predicted that, "We can’t congregate entire people simply to go to churches, mosques and temples. Those are simply training centers to train people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa all of the time, everyday Kirtanīya sadā Hari Our mission is to get everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

So, because of all these instructions that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave, so we trying to do some different preaching in this regard, that's why the Nāmahaṭṭa movement has been reinitiated, the movement that Nityānanda started on the order of Lord Caitanya, that Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura reinitiated. Actually, this type of preaching is the biggest hope for standing book distribution in the world.

One Nāmahaṭṭa group, last year distributed sixteen thousand Lakṣmī points of books here in Bengal alone.  And if you consider then you can have millions of congregational members, and each one distribute five or ten books in a month, then you can distribute literally millions and millions and millions of books. I have sometimes surprised to go to maha large temples with hundred fifty devotees, when I gave the saṅkīrtana class just twenty devotees is there, thirty devotees is there. Only a small percentage of devotees go on saṅkīrtana. And often because of our big temples we have to do so many other programs ... yourselves and so on, just to keep the, just keep in the blog in.  May be the matter usually in the wedding, a yajña.

So, sometimes people misunderstand that congregational preaching is not in a proper saṅkīrtana mood of book distribution. Unfortunate I feel that, we should reevaluate this consideration if anyone has. What is the actual future of book distribution with millions of books distributors or just twenty per temple?

I think the preachers they can evaluate, whether Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura when he said that Nāmahaṭṭa preaching will exist with so other forms of preaching, and he considered the most important aspect of preaching. And when Prabhupāda said that, "half of the work is finished, I done the half the work, but the next half is to make the whole world varṇāśrama." How did I? How will you make varṇāśrama unless supposed to make the people devoted? Unless they accept Vedic culture? And how do you make all the people into suddenly accept the Vedic culture, and if they are not reached the congregational member or preach to by congregational members? Is that practical question?

And the practical answer is very clear to those who want to see, going to our previous ācāryas, there is three important things in preaching: first is printing books - Bhakti Siddhānta gave the formula, print books, distribute books; and then Nāmahaṭṭa; then make congregation from the book propagation. When I asked Prabhupāda about this, he told me, "our temples are to training the people, you bring the people here to the temple, let them stay for a week or two, get trained up, send them back to their home to preach to their family members and neighbors."

He envisioned that, these temples are training centers. And let the brāhmaṇas who are dedicated life and soul to preaching full time Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they can take shelter in this āśrama. And others some brāhmaṇas, and many kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras there we have in society practicing their occupation and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, this is the broader vision of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that the previous ācāryas have handed down. Prabhupāda envisioned the whole world to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.

And the same purpose is revealed in this verse, everyone has to be exposed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, because He is the all attractive Lord, the more we become attracted to Lord Caitanya, how are we attracted?  We can be attracted by chanting His holy name.  There is a verse… whoever chants the holy name of Lord Caitanya even today, I can’t remember the full verse, pulaha aśru, prema - the tears of love and ecstasy rise in your heart. While travel over the world preaching to this members in the public to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya, at the end I ask, "How many feel happier than when you started?" And everybody raised their hands.  I said, "You want to prove that efficacy of the mantra. In the Vedic time, we had go-medha, aśvamedha, they take a old cow or horse, sacrifice it by mantra, bringing back to life, showing the efficacy or the effectiveness of the mantra. So, how we know whether this holy name is effective, you chant it, and if you feel better then you know it’s working."

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, there is cure for our difficulties is simply chanting and hearing. The more that we can come together to chant and hear, then other problems can be easily solved. If we all lock ourselves out at in different rooms, and talk about one another and don’t come together and chant and hear, then one is never going to find the solution. But the more that we come together, and chant and hear and associate then we automatically start to feel attraction for Lord Caitanya, we feel natural affection for one another. And then all problems are very easily solved.

And of course, nobody can be self-righteous in this regard, because all of us including myself certainly we are not able to say that we do kirtanīya sadā hari. We are not always chanting the holy name. I don’t consider that myself, I myself in a perfect example of this. But I know that, even today when I came, being in front of so many exalted devotees, and running around trying to get things prepared for this special events today, I was feeling little nervous. When we chanted Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Hare Kṛṣṇa for ten fifteen minutes, afterwards I felt very happy by the mercy of the Lord. So, even if someone is fallen like myself can chant Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Hare Kṛṣṇa and feel happiness, what to speak of all the advance Vaiṣṇavas? They are already in bliss.

So, somehow or another we have to be so blissful by being so attracted to Lord Caitanya that we will attract other people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that is why thousands and millions of people are coming here to this Mayapur Candrodaya temple, because they feel attracted by all of you. Because you all but so blissful chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, they said we don’t find anyone in the world like this Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees.  They are very wonderful to look at. And so they are coming here by the millions, especially to see the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees.

Otherwise there are so many buildings in Bengal, they can go and see big buildings. There is a bigger building right now in Calcutta is Victoria Memorial. Of course, we are building temple much bigger than the Victoria Memorial.  I think the samādhi is rivaling that when we finish. But that’s not why people are coming, they are coming because they want to associate with the devotees. Their chanting is nice, the holy name is going on, it is a beautiful environment, and the jewels are Lord Caitanya’s devotees. So, the more that we can spread this saṅkīrtana movement, the more that we become to attracted to Lord Caitanya,  the more people will be attracted to us, and the more they become attracted to devotees, they also become a attracted to Lord Caitanya, in this way the movement spread like wildfire.

Because Śrīla Prabhupāda was cent percent attracted to Lord Caitanya, he didn’t have any distraction, therefore like a magnet he attracted the whole world,  and although we may not be cent percent attracted to Lord Caitanya, there may be some percentage, to whatever percent we attracted, we also can attract others spontaneously. This is the mercy of Lord Caitanya, it is a kind of automatic magnetic electrical conductivity which go magically all over the world. So, recently we heard so many… that some religious leaders they said somehow and another we have to stop this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, because it is spreading so quickly, people are becoming so attracted. But nothing can stop the saṅkīrtana movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu from outside, nothing, no external affair. But Śrīla Prabhupāda warned us that, "we should not allow in generally offences and other forms of dissension to predominate, because that is a singular danger."

In fact, when we reorganize the Māyāpur administration, we studied the Mahābhārata Śānti Parva, where Bhīṣmadeva gave instructions to Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, and he told Yudhiṣṭhira how to run Kṛṣṇa conscious government in the world. And he said that, "Over everything the king has to have its council and this council works as the brain of the king." So, he said that, if the council is united, he can deal with any problem. But if the council has external problems that come, this is not very difficult, this is not very serious. This can be sorted out. When there is dissentions and disunity in the council that is a symptom of the pending disaster, dissolution of the kingdom. He said that primary important is to maintain unity in the council of the government. Therefore, Bhīṣmadeva is our mahājano yena gatā sa panthā, he gave us that advice. So, these are all the advices by great mahājanas, certainly we can all have unity when we all attracted and taste Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His pure devotee, and eternal representative Śrīla Prabhupāda.

And I don’t have any doubt that ISKCON is simply going forward to spread the movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu more and more, and going to keep Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīla Prabhupāda attraction in the proper.  So, today on this auspicious day Lord Caitanya appeared, Prabhupāda explained, He distributed love of Kṛṣṇa, everyone should be attracted more and more to His lotus feet as humming bees attracted to a lotus flower. We should just meditate on the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya, those lotus feet are dripping with nectar with honey, if we allow our mind to be like bumble bees, bumble bees going to the honey, actually we are coming to the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement because we are greedy, we want to taste nectar. So there is nothing wrong with being greedy and lusty to taste the nectar love for Kṛṣṇa.

Actually, the devotees join the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, because they are attracted to tasting that happiness of love for Lord Kṛṣṇa. There is nothing wrong with that desire. That is natural and that is authorized by Kṛṣṇa, it all right to be blissful. Not like some people they beat themselves with the whips and stuffs, punishment and so on. This is not our process. Our process is to be always blissful and ecstatic.

But we, as Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura says to Nityānanda that ha ha prabhu nityānanda premānanda sukhī  - You are always filled with spiritual bliss. krpāvalokana koro āmi baro duḥkhī - please by Your causeless mercy give that drop of that bliss to me now because I am going miserable. In this way, if we are lacking any happiness, we should be very eager to get the nectar, we should just allow our minds to take the form of bumble bees and thereafter the nectar dripping from Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet.

Even mother Ganges she was anxious and conclusion on this like to say, Mother Ganges she was coming down for the first time from the spiritual world, as she was coming down Bhāgiratha maharaja was carving the way that’s why Ganges known as Bhāgirathi. You see after praying to her, he convinces her to come down to the material world, to this planet from the Mandākini, she was in heavenly planet, she didn’t come down here, because she was afraid. She said, "there is too many sinful people there, they all come and bath in me, dump their sinful reactions in me, in this way I will be overloaded. Why will I come to that place where people do so much sinful acts?" Then Bhāgiratha prayed that, "but if you come, there also be pure devotees who are coming to preach the world the glories of Lord, they will come and bathe in your waters." So that attracts her, to get the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa mother Ganges agreed to come to this world.

But when she was coming down, she said, "Well, I come I'll be splattered all over the earth, I'll just disintegrated."  He said, "No I'll carve the way, I'll carve the river bed for you to come in." So this way he was such a powerful mahārathī, and he was blessed by so many great souls, he was able to carve this route for mother Ganges. So Ganges coming down behind *sssssssssh* (sounding Ganges flow) just unlimited hushes of water. Tons and tons, how many you measure that much of water, whole Ganges coming down. And he is just going one way another carving the main path for the Ganges, finally he comes to the Māyāpur dhāma. And he keeps cutting, cutting and looked back the Ganges just stopped, didn't go with him.

He came back and prayed to the Ganges, "What happened now? You please, why don't you come? We are not yet to the ashes of my forefathers. You know, we have to save my forefathers who were burned to ashes by the vision of Kapila Muni who was meditating at the confluence of other side of the ocean." It is presently known as Sagar Island. So finally meditating, Ganges revealed to, spoke to Maharaj Bhāgi that, "It is almost time for Gaura Pūrṇimā. For the appearance, well in the future yuga, my Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa Caitanya will appear on this day. I am waiting for His birthday, then I go forward."

So this day, those who bathe in the Ganges on the Gaura Pūṛnimā day, especially in the area between here and the birth place. This area from the Jalaṅgī up. That's considered to be Ganga Nagara. It is said, by bathing one can get love for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Prema, that blessing. So all the devotees try to go and bathe. This of course usually in the morning until 12 noon, they threw colors. So, you have to wait till after 12 noon. Escape any wild people, wear old clothes. But even the Ganges she was attracted by Lord's Caitanya's appearance day. She came to Māyāpur, waited until Gaura Pūrṇimā, and then she went up. So we want to come here for Gaura Pūrṇimā. Let us chant and hear the name of Kṛṣṇa all day and become more and more attracted to Lord's lotus feet. When think about Lord Caitanya, that attraction may stay with us the entire year and our entire eternal life. Get the blessing of Lord Caitanya somehow or another, avoid offending Vaiṣṇavas and allowing weeds to grow in your heart.

Someone mentioned that, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, what is the problem with our four devotees is that they are not afraid of māyā. I know that was mentioned at that time. We are not afraid of māyā. We should be afraid of nothing but māyā. We should be fixed at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya. Prabhupāda said, "Simply cling to the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Prabhu Nityānanda, cling to Their lotus feet. We don't have any other shelter. But they are all very merciful. So let me cling to their lotus feet. We can cross over any difficulty and we can reach the supreme destination Goloka Vṛndāvana, spontaneous love for Kṛṣṇa.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Haribol !

Are there any questions? Yes.

Question: Not audible

It is 24 hours, any time is all auspicious. Technical question for practical reasons. It is better not to go in the morning and it is not so good to go after dark. So many people, Ganges curls difficult, in this bank is difficult to... there is a nice place to bathe after you walk down the river, I mean down towards Jalaṅgī and there is a nicer place to bathe. Easier to ... Nice beach

Question: One more stroy about Lord Caitanya's pastime.

Well, here we have in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta that, Lord Caitanya didn't appear on ninth or tenth month. He appeared in the thirteenth month. In fact the thirteenth month came, still there was no sign of deliver of the child. Of course if it could have happened West, they would always said you have to have a cesarean, you can't wait you know. But that's why in Kali-yuga gets very dangerous. People say it is all mercy, all desire of Kṛṣṇa, but they take everything in their own hands. But at that time Jagannātha Miśra and Mother Śacī they were waiting patiently, when is the child is going to be born? The thirteenth month had come, there is no sign of delivery. So then Jagannātha Misra he became very frightened. So he went to Nilāmbara Chakravarthy, who did astrological calculations, he said that in that month taking advantage of  a very auspicious moment, the child will take birth. So then that's why in the year 1407 in the Śakābda era, on the full moon evening that auspicious moment appeared. 

So Prabhupāda gives in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, the Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura in the Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya, presented the horoscope of Lord Caitanya, and gave the explanation of the horoscope to show that everything was situated in the most auspicious, possible constellations. Which is explained that according to Jyotir medha, Vedic astronomy, when the figure of lion appears in the both zodiac and in the time of birth yantra, this indicates very high pre junction of planets. Area under the influence of ṣat-varga and aṣṭa-varga, which are all auspicious moments. So the day were simha-lagna and the moon type of siṁha-lagna for Lord Caitanya. So when the auspicious moon of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came visible, what is the need of moon full of black marks on its body? Considering this value the dark planet covered the full moon and immediately vibrations of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Hari inundated the three worlds. All the people chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra doing lunar eclipse and their minds were stuck with wonder, when the whole world was thus chanting the holy names of Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa in the form of Gaura Hari advented Himself on the earth. The whole world was pleased while the Hindus chanted the holy names of the Lord, the non-Hindus especially Mohammedens jokingly imitated the words. Even the non-Hindus were joking they were also chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, imitating. So this way everyone was chanting.

Haribolo thari gane deha hula huli ...deva kuthukali -  all the ladies vibrating holy name of Hari on the earth, in the heavenly planets dancing and music were going on, so the demigods became very curious. It is said here the demigoddess were doing hula huli. Hula huli is that when the women wave their tongue back and forth do the hulu hulu. And everyone was chanting.

Praying the demigods, "By Your causeless mercy only to get out this pure love for Kṛṣṇa. In Your holy name all sacrifices are complete. You are appearing here in Navadvīpa. Give us this mercy Oh Lord! Have Your mercy upon us. Then we in higher realm may be able to see Your transcendental pastimes. Kindly after so many days You will satisfy the mind of the mother Ganges You'll be bathing in her, in this way giving her unlimited transcendental bliss. You are the Lord of mystic powers. And You are visible through meditation. The same transcendental Person is going to be visible here in Navadvīpa village. Navadvīpa we offer our obeisances. Śacī devī and Jagannātha's house are situated here. And there the Lord has descended."

In this way all the demigods they were offering invisibly their prayers to the Lord in the womb of Mother Devakī and Mother Śacī, in the womb of Mother Śacī. In all the 14 planetary systems there are unlimited universes are situated. On the full moon day of Phālguna, You will come and manifest Yourself. All the unlimited universes on that day, they will all come together in one time by chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa in saṅkīrtana, loud chanting the Lord appeared on this excuse of this lunar eclipse.

Śrīla Prabhupāda to the expo exhibit which was prepared for him with kīrtana, the exhibit is not fully finished in its final form. But it is the aim to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda wanted that in the main temple, there will be thousands of exhibits on the preaching news. So these exhibits are especially try to use different art forms for giving the world the message of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And it is just the beginning. In the end, we have to add more and more elaborate exhibits to give out the training and preparation for the main temple which Prabhupāda had laid foundation stone on in 1977. This temple is supposed to, will spread the saṅkīrtana movement further all over the world.

So later first show going on the expo officially opened by him, and then other devotees are invited to accompany and you can see at your leisure. At present, in the future we want to have large figures inside all of the exhibits with little headphones and speakers which will speak the message of each exhibit. At the present time, the matter which will be broadcast is there in different form and parts in English. In future it will be in English, Bengali and Hindi for multi-lingual audience. In future they can also have international languages as well for foreign guests.