19870518 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.40

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on May 18, 1987 in Almvik, Sweden. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3rd Canto, Chapter 26, Text 40.

Jayapatākā Swami (Reads Verse, Translation and Purport with devotees repeat):

 dyotanaṁ pacanaṁ pānam
adanaṁ hima-mardanam
tejaso vṛttayas tv etāḥ
śoṣaṇaṁ kṣut tṛḍ eva ca

(ŚB 3.26.40)

 

Translation: Fire is appreciated by its light and by its ability to cook, to digest, to destroy cold, to evaporate, and to give rise to hunger, thirst, eating and drinking.

Purport: The first symptoms of fire are distribution of light and heat, and the existence of fire is also perceived in the stomach. Without fire we cannot digest what we eat. Without digestion there is no hunger and thirst or power to eat and drink. When there is insufficient hunger and thirst, it is understood that there is a shortage of fire within the stomach, and the Āyurvedic treatment is performed in connection with the fire element, agni-māndyam. Since fire is increased by the secretion of bile, the treatment is to increase bile secretion. The Āyurvedic treatment thus corroborates the statements in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The characteristic of fire in subduing the influence of cold is known to everyone. Severe cold can always be counteracted by fire.

Thus end the Bhaktivedānta Swami Translation and Purport to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto 3, Chapter 26 entitled, “Fundamental Principles of Material Nature”, Text 40.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, it just reminds me, that in Vṛndāvana, one time they prepared for Śrīla Prabhupāda, a preparation called butter carcari, which is a preparation where the vegetable is slightly burnt, not to a black crisp, but to a brown flavor. And that is containing much ghee, heavy ghee. But because Prabhupāda was sick, he wanted that preparation. But because he was sick, they didn’t put any chilli in the butter carcari. When he tasted it, he asked, “why there’s no chilli?” “Prabhupāda because you’re sick”. “In fact, if I eat this much ghee, then you’ll kill me. Because it needs the sufficient fire to be able to digest it. So as much ghee is there, there should be also that much chilli, to add the sufficient fire to digest the ghee.” So, he was very angry, because he said that, “in order to digest ghee or rich food you need more chilli, you need more heat.” So that’s why we take chilli. Chilli, in other words chilli is not taken just for the sake of taste, but it’s a necessary for vegetarians to take chilli sometimes when there’s a lot of ghee to add a little extra fire to the digestion.

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that, “I am the fire of digestion.” So, in the teachings here of Kapila Muni, to His mother Devahūti, He’s giving an analytical study of material nature. And in this analytical study, some of the things may seem very profound, some may seem very obvious. But in an analysis, you have to give definitions so that it’s very clear what is being discussed. So here, in the Bhāgavatam, in the 3rd Canto, when He discusses form, excuse me, of fire, or air, or other various aspects of sensual perception, coming from ether to air, to fire, to water, down to earth. Everything is explained and defined in a very practical and realized sense. The nature of fire is described in different aspects. Some aspects, we may think about, other aspects we may not have considered. Naturally, we know fire by its heat and its light. Possibly we didn’t think about fire in terms of being present in the stomach in the form of fire of digestion. But Kapila Muni giving the Sāṅkhya, He doesn’t take anything for granted. Sāṅkhya means to give a very analytical study of different aspects of material and spiritual science, and thus to make it very clear in the mind exactly what everything is. Ultimately then one comes to the conclusion of what is the Absolute Truth, what is the material world, who are we, what is our relationship with the Absolute Truth, how do we act in that relationship, how do we achieve the final perfection.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this. Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains this in the terms of sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana. Basically, to understand the sambandha we have to know what, it helps to know what are the various forms and the ingredients that are around us. Then we can understand, this is the material world.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

That everything is being done by this material nature through the interaction of the three modes. How that is being performed is mentioned here in the Bhāgavatam.

Modern scientists, they spend a lot of time trying to analyze, what is the nature of fire, what is the nature of sound, vibration, form, various material elements. They spend their whole life in investigating. But the Vedic scientists, they can simply take the instructions of Kapiladeva, who has already done an analytical study of the material world, and they don’t have to waste so much time in studying again various details of the material nature. They can go directly to the parā-prakrti, or the higher energy, the spiritual nature. The example is given also in describing what is the nature of material or spiritual nature compared with Kṛṣṇa. Or what is our nature in comparison to Kṛṣṇa. These have… Many times, the example of fire is given. The gist is fire contains heat and light, so similarly, you can say that, well, you can say that is the dharma of fire. What is the meaning of fire if it has no heat and no light?

In this way, Prabhupāda said that “the dharma of the chilli is to be hot. If you bite into a chilli and it was sweet, what is the use of that?” The dharma of the salt is to be salty. If you put salt on your vegetable and it tastes sweet, it won’t satisfy its purpose. Similarly, sugar is supposed to be sweet. So, these are like the dharmas of these various objects. So then what is our eternal dharma, our eternal nature which is inseparable from us? This was asked by Sanātana Goswāmī to Lord Caitanya. Sanātana Goswāmī said that “People call me a paṇḍita. They’re saying I’m very learned. I was a minister, Prime minister in the government. But actually, I’m a fool, because I don’t know who I am. So please tell me who am I?” So then Lord Caitanya said, “jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — nitya kṛṣṇera dāsa - that the nature of the individual soul is to be eternally the servant of Kṛṣṇa.” This is our sanātana-dharma. This is actually our nature, is to always serve Kṛṣṇa. So, in all the various paths of self-realization, that path which is considered the most perfect, most complete is the one which is based upon service to Kṛṣṇa. Actually, because that’s our eternal dharma, that’s our eternal constitution.

Counteracting the material nature and becoming one with the Absolute, merging into the effulgence - the Māyāvādi liberation or sāyujya-mukti, that is considered to be the lowest form of liberation. And that is despised, it is hated, or it is just feared even by devotees. They don’t want that form of liberation at all. In fact, some great ācārya has sung, “such form of Māyāvādi liberation, he considers worse than hell – Kaivalyaṁ narakāyate”. So, this is the mood. Next higher stage of self-realization Paramātmā realization, where one can become a devotee after realizing the Paramātmā. Within the Paramātmā realization there is some appreciation of the form of God, as the Supersoul in the heart. So it’s a little closer to actual devotional service, although it is not devotional service yet. Acting in one’s constitutional position as the servitor of the Lord, that means that one is already in the liberated platform, because one is acting according to one’s nitya-dharma or eternal constitution.

īhā yasya harer dāsye
karmaṇā manasā girā
nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

“īhā yasya harer dāsye”- when someone is acting in the consciousness that I am the servant of Hari, “karmaṇā manasā girā” - with his activities, with his thoughts and with his words, “nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate” - at that time he has already transcended the material situation and even while living in the material world, in the material body that person is to be considered as liberated. That means the various aspects of material suffering or enjoyment don’t touch such a devotee, who is fixed thought, word and deed in serving the Lord.

So Lord Caitanya, He was teaching pure devotional service as he taught to Rūpa Gosvāmī,

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

‘Tama’ means ignorance, ‘ut’ means above. Uttama means that which is above all ignorance. So uttama-bhakti or transcendental devotional service, devotional service without any material tinge, that is one in pure service, without any condition. Lord Caitanya was teaching this to His followers, how to be situated in pure devotion without any material desire for sense gratification, without any desire for liberation, or unrelated knowledge, to be favorably always engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So, when Lord Caitanya was training His followers in Śrīvāsa Āṅgan, and He was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa with them, He was in this way preparing them to be fixed in that selfless devotional service.

One time, there was… You might have heard of this before. There was one brahmacārī, who was practicing aṣṭāṅga-yoga, and he went to Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura and he asked him for permission to watch the saṅkīrtana from his house. Śrīvāsa thought this is a very austere brahmacārī. He is eating leaves and bark in the tree in the forest. He is wearing bark and skins for clothing, very austere. So there’s probably no harm if he watches the kīrtana. He is not a gross materialist and somebody who is a renounced person. So then he let him stay in his house and look through the window, at the kīrtana. When Lord Caitanya came in the evening with all the devotees, and they started to chant. The kīrtana was going on, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare  Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare”. Different kīrtana, different… Suddenly Lord Caitanya stopped the kīrtana. “What is this? Why am I not feeling any ecstasy? Who is the cause of this? Why I’m not feeling any ecstasy tonight? Every night we are coming, while chanting I’m feeling ecstasy in the Holy name. Why tonight I’m not feeling any ecstasy? Who is responsible for this?”

So all the devotees, they hung their head down, they were thinking, “what did I do wrong today? Which offense have I committed? What aparādha have I performed? Why am I messing? Why am I obstructing Lord Caitanya from having His ecstasy?”. Actually the devotees, when there is an accusation, they immediately look to themself for the fault. So the nature of the devotee is to always introspect and look “what are the defects in myself? How can I purify myself? How can I become closer to Kṛṣṇa?”. Materialistic nature is somebody says who is at fault, that must be you, must be the other one, must be everyone but me, I can never be wrong. This is the material response. Where in the devotional response, first naturally the devotee is humble, he always looks first to himself, “Maybe I am done something wrong. What it could it be?”

But actually, the fault was this brahmacārī was looking at Lord Caitanya’s kīrtana. Lord Caitanya, He didn’t manifest any ecstasy in front of outside people. At least at that time He didn’t. Later He became, sometimes so ecstatic that, that He forgot there was outside people. But consciously, He didn’t manifest before outside people, and that time somehow He sensed actually, being the Supersoul He knows everything. But actually He was playing like that that He didn’t know, but He was sensing someone was watching.

So Śrīvāsa conferred Him once before, had a problem like this where his mother-in-law had hid under a basket, and was watching Lord Caitanya’s kīrtana, and Lord Caitanya didn’t feel ecstasy then. So immediately he thought, “uh oh! I made a mistake. I brought this brahmacārī, and he must be the cause for Lord Caitanya’s not feeling ecstasy.” So he said, “Lord Caitanya, whether just one person here in my house, some guest, a very renounced sage - brahmacārī and he is a ...” “What? Bring him here”. Lord Caitanya said, “bring him out. May I see who is this brahmacārī?”

So they bring out the brahmacārī, and he is wearing you know the bark, and the you know, all this long hair knotted up everything, you know kamaṇḍalu and a stick, in a real classic profile. So he comes out, you know kind of chest open, head up, comes out, Lord Caitanya takes a look at him and said, “What do you do?”  He says, you know, “I do yoga. I eat leaves, berries in the tree, I do tapasyā”. “What is your goal?” “By tapasyā I’ll achieve liberation”. Then Lord Caitanya dissuaded him. “You are so proud, doing your austerity and you simply want to achieve this liberation. You are far far far away from devotional service. Actually you are doing all these because simply you are trying to attract the cheap fame and reputation of the innocent public. They’ll see you like this and they’ll say ‘Oh, he is very renounced person’. But you have not understood what is devotional service? You are doing all this in an enjoying attitude, trying to achieve liberation. These are all forms of different material desire.

bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī, sakali 'aśānta'
kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, ata eva 'śānta'

You should simply be situated in pure devotional service. That is the only perfection. But you are far far away from that. Therefore, you are not qualified. You are not qualified in your false ego and in your proud practice of austerities and penances to be present during this association of devotees and their intimate private ecstatic kīrtana.”

“Show him the door.” Boom... He was out. Then Lord Caitanya again started the kīrtana. This time everyone was feeling very ecstatic. Caitanya was feeling very ecstatic, jumping up and down in ecstasy. So outside that brahmacārī, he was meditating, sitting there at the doorstep, and he was thinking of what Lord Caitanya said. And he thought “Yes, everything that Lord Caitanya said is correct. Gaurahari, Mahāprabhu has told me, I’m simply out for cheap name and fame. It’s a fact. When someone sees me with my bark on, I think this person must be thinking how austere I am, how great a tapasvī I am. Certainly my mind is very gross in this way. And I could see that in all my years of practice of tapasyā and austerity, doing meditation and yoga practice, haṭha-yoga, various things, prāṇāyama, I couldn’t taste even a fraction of ecstasy of the spiritual force that I saw in that short kīrtana that they were performing. Actually, they have the real spiritual force that I’ve all along been hankering for. I have no qualification. Simply I am going around, very proud, everything He said was exactly true. In spite of being so fallen and unqualified, but I don’t understand this. How was I allowed even for a few moments to see the kīrtana of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu with His associates? How beautiful, the way they were chanting, with their arms raised in the air, and how Nityānanda Prabhu and Advaita, Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa and all the devotees they were there. I’ve never seen something like that. So beautiful! So wonderful! So pure! I being so wretched as a person, so how was I able even for a moment to experience that sankīrtana of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu?” And thinking this, he was actually started to cry feeling himself very fortunate and feeling himself very fallen.

Inside, the kīrtana was going on “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare”. Everyone was dancing and chanting and whole kīrtana was going. Suddenly Lord Caitanya again stopped the kīrtana. Everyone became “Oh no ! what happened again?  It’s pretty ecstatic, then now its”. So then Lord Caitanya said, “where is that brahmacārī?” Śrīvās said, “No no. Mahāprabhu he’s outside. He’s outside. We let him outside”. “Yes, now you can bring him back in. Now he’s ready to join the kīrtana”. So then they went out to where he was sitting, they said Lord Caitanya’s calling. He said, “Oh ! what? Calling me?”  “Yes, come.” They brought him in, cleaned him up, made him a Vaiṣṇava. Then he was admitted in the sankīrtana of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. “Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol !!!”

So in this way our eternal dharma, just like the fire’s dharma is heat and light, is actually to serve Kṛṣṇa. The other perversions of that in the material world are where we are serving the senses, or where we are trying to achieve heavenly planets to have greater sense gratification, or where we want to become one with God, or where we want to control the material energy by mystic powers. All these are various aspects of expansions of material consciousness of an enjoying mood. But devotional service is where we cultivate a serving mood, sevā-bhāva, “Kṛṣṇa bhāvanāmṛta”. Prabhupāda translated Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Sanskrit as Kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta. Bhāvanā - the ecstasy, the thought, the attitude of serving, the nectar of the attitude of ecstatic service to Kṛṣṇa - Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So, in this way, fire has been used in many ways as an examples of our developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Persistently the Vedas it says that actually the conditioned soul is like a piece of wood. Within wood there is fire. Because the tree has taken to the leaves, and the chlorophyll has taken energy from the sun, has grown up to become a large tree. Somehow that energy of the sun is within the wood. That wood you can see can be transformed into coal, coal is transformed into petroleum. Oil.

In this way, all of this substance that we burn, originally that energy you can trace it back to the sun, which is the source of fire in this universe, in its natural fire state. So just as wood has fire within it, the living entity in material consciousness like wood. Within that wood like living entity, there is spiritual fire or potential. But to get that potential out, the wood has to be ignited by fire. When it’s ignited, then it also burns in the fire which comes out. So like that the conditioned soul, the conditioned soul is ignited by coming in contact with the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees, with the Kṛṣṇa conscious spiritual master. And this causes the wood like living entity to ignite, to become spiritually ignited, to become to say fired up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So sometimes austerity is also described as a fire, the fire of austerity because of the tremendous determination. And by performing austerity, actually one generates heat within the body. Just as when Hiranyakaśipu was doing his austerity, he is producing such a heat that all the demi-gods were feeling that heat, even in the higher planets, all the residents in the universe. Within even austerity there is a certain fire that is created. Sometimes the brahmacārīs have been just compared to fire. No, they are compared to butter, women to fire. That the brahmacārīs and women, if they associate intimately, not on a service basis, not with proper formality, that then the brahmacārīs can melt, and lose the determination to maintain their brahmacārī.

So like this fire is used in many different ways as the examples in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in an allegorical sense as well as in a practical sense. The sun is described as, compared sometimes to the Absolute Truth, where the sunlight is described as the impersonal Brahman, the sun and the sunlight as the Paramātmā realization. And the sunlight and the sun and Vivasvān - the sun God as the complete Bhagavān realization. In this way there are three realizations of the Absolute truth - brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. So in this way there are so many examples where by the fire in its different forms of the sun is used to give us a clear example.

Here this verse, it actually goes deep into what is fire. We appreciate it by its light, by its heat, by its abilities. You can cook with fire, you can digest with fire and you can destroy cold with fire, you can evaporate. It makes one hungry, thirsty, and thus one can eat and drink. All these things are coming from fire. A fire also has a form, it has a type of effulgence, and interaction of fire later on in the verses produce many other things. So in this way from one form, we have air, and from air certain things come, with air then fire also can be produced. And from fire then there is water, then there is finally earth.

In this way Kṛṣṇa explains in the Gītā that,

bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

These are the eight separated energies starting from earth, water, fire, air and ether and then coming to mind, intelligence and false ego. But above this apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām” - there is the superior energy, that is the living force.

I remember how Prabhupāda, once my previous āśrama mother, (sannyāsīs say that previous āśrama or pūrvāśrama referring to their other life, previous birth) she came to see Śrīla Prabhupāda in Māyāpur. And Prabhupāda was trying to explain to her, just a western woman without much spiritual, Vedic, philosophical background, what was the basic point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So he was explaining to her, “within the body there is this living force, there’s a living energy that’s permeated throughout the body as intelligence.” Just by explaining it in this way as the living force, somehow my previous āśrama mother was able to understand everything very easily. So we may have different ideas about soul, the body has a soul, but we understand from the Vedic point that we are living force, and because of the presence of living force, all the other things are manifesting, it is very easy to understand. So, because of the presence of the sun in the universe, then there is light all over the universe. Because of the presence of living force in the heart, there is consciousness all over the body.

So Advaita Gosañī he knew that where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no nescience. Because Kṛṣṇa is just like the sun.

kṛṣṇa — sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra
yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra

Wherever Kṛṣṇa is, māyā - nescience goes far away. So when he was in Navadvīpa-dhāma, he could see that the people were just so much engrossed in materialistic thoughts. But they are very expert, in making everything appear very religious. Everything they did had a religious cover. That was the unique thing of the Vedic culture that had degenerated in Navadvīpa. It’s said everyone was very religious, but very materialistic. In other words, their religion was more or less superficial show to substantiate their sense gratification.

For instance, people were religious but they were worshipping the demigods. “Please, dhanam deha, pratiṣṭhā deha, śriyam deha, kāmam deha, - give me wealth, give me power, give me fame, give me, give me, give me, give me more”, this is the way they prayed. Dhanam dehi - give me wealth, dehi means give me. Then we hear from the Purāṇas where it has the Markaṇḍeya Purāṇa, or the Caṇḍī-pāṭha, that the mahālaya and mahālaya via they in every radio, in every house, everywhere in Bengal they play the different prayers, the prayers of the demigods to the Devī, prayers of the human beings and prayers of the demons. The demons say, “give me wine, give me meat, give me…,” that’s how the demons pray. The human beings pray, “give me fame, give me power, give me a good wife, give me a good life, give me a good house, give me a good, good, happiness.” You know then they go on like that. Then there’s the demigods, they ask for other things, they ask for mystic power, for other forms of higher happiness which human beings don’t even think about. So we can ask the Devi for these different things. But this is like so...

There are many demigod worshippers and they were doing their worship very religiously, but was all for material benefit. Then there were those who were doing a different type of yoga for achieving liberation. Then there were people who were, they were just really into enjoying, but they were also the part of the whole cultural situation. So they were, they were into having festivals, so called religious festivals to show off their wealth and their... to show off to everybody that I’m more religious than you are. So when they marry their daughters, they spend so much money you know, they deck her up with gold, on the ear, ear to the nose, and then you know and the chest, hair, everywhere, just completely you know, real fancy cloth and gold ornaments everything, and then big feast, and feed all the people, and bands and processions and then give their daughter away in marriage like this. So, it was like, actually it was just showing off, look at I’m so wealthy and powerful and religious and I’m giving my daughter in marriage to this boy – Kanyādāna - this is one of the daśa karmas, one of the ten ritualistic Vedic sacrifices, so now I’m doing this so properly you know, I’m such a religious person.

And in this way and then what happened is, people run out of daughters, no one else to give in marriage. So what to do? Then there was like, it was lot of fun, having marriages - big feast and everything. And there was, those who had the money for, they liked to show, so they got, someone got the idea that, “We haven’t had a marriage for a long time. Let me marry Lord Śiva and Pārvatī. Get two Deities and have big marriage ceremony for them, big feast everything.” So that was the next.

Advaita Gosañī said, “What’s going on? Everything, but Kṛṣṇa consciousness?! Then someone else thought, “Well, so they married Śiva and Pārvatī, let’s do something new.” Then they married two dogs together, female and male dog - married them together. (Devotees laugh) Then someone else married two trees together. Neem, well they marry a, marry a neem tree with, what is that, aśvattha tree with, with a banyan tree. They marry the two trees together. Then someone else, you know like a female cat and a male cat, they married them together, bedeck them all out with little hair and little (laughter), anyhow in this way but anything regarded. Then they had some paṇḍitas, they started, heard the devotees chanting and said, “No, no, chanting is not allowed. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, this is very very pious. Because the Holy name is so pure, you can’t chant them out loud. You see, you are too impure, and if you chant it out loud, this will decrease the potency of the Holy name”. So nobody could chant. The only time they could chant was on the lunar eclipse, when everybody was in the Ganges up to their neck. That time they thought the Ganges purify them, and then they could chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That was the only time. Here few paṇḍitas when they go into Ganges say Vāsudeva, Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa. Apart from that only on the time of lunar or solar eclipse was their chanting, that was inside the Ganges water. Then they chant Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

So Advaita Gosvāmī, and a few group of Vaiṣṇavas, they kept going to him and saying, “You must do something to stop this. In the name of religion, these people are becoming more and more and more materialistic and not at all getting closer to serving Kṛṣṇa. Whatever religion they are doing, they are doing for some material purpose. This culture degenerated to such an extent. Everyone was very learned, like for instance all the brāhmaṇas, they were expert studying the śāstras from various angles, studying the grammar in Sanskrit. And then being able to challenge another person. “Verse 17, Chapter 13 says, it says this, I know more than you do”, you know and they were just fighting with each other in this way. One, and then the other one says, “No, in this Veda it says this” and another. So that’s when Lord Caitanya came, He said, “tarka bahudhā - you can never understand spiritual knowledge by trying to defeat the other person by just fighting and arguing.” But that’s what it was. Everyone was trying to show that, “I know more Sanskrit, I know more grammar, I know more, more śāstra than you do”.

What was the conclusion of śāstra? What should we do? What was the actual way of fulfilling the śāstra, that people didn’t understand. Simply, you know, this verse against that verse, and knowing and memorizing and just the very academic, superficial understanding of the Vedas. So there were literally thousands and thousands, millions of students running but they were all simply thinking, “how I can become more famous as a great scholar, more established as a great paṇḍita, more followers who are going to come to me and accept that I am the greatest learned person. I’ll become rich and famous, people will become my disciples, give me many donations and in this way I will become great Sanskrit scholar, or become even recognized may be as the paṇḍita of the king, in this way I’ll have so much name and glory and all.” So I mean everything was, even their learning, even the brāhmaṇas were polluted in this way, and they were just after some kind of brāhminical pratiṣṭhā, some fame and position and distinction in society.

So the pure Vaiṣṇavas, they were considered like the outcaste of the society, what is wrong with these people? They didn’t fit in at all, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and their japa going around, reading the Bhāgavatam, I mean they were like underground practically. Even the people thought, these people are really, they are you know, they are against our whole society. They were considered..., they were not at all accepted, the Vaiṣṇavas in Navadvīpa. There gradually the people became so materialistic that they didn’t…, they criticized the Vaiṣṇavas, and ridiculed them and, “so why aren’t you worshipping and getting more wealth, and more power and more material facilities? What are you doing this chanting these names of Hari wasting your time like this? You should get into the karma-kāṇḍa, the real purpose of life, building up more puṇya, more pious activity and going to heaven? What are you doing, wasting your time here?”

So naturally, they didn’t have the…, at that time somehow they didn’t have the strength to counteract this ocean of materialistic religion. So they go to Advaita Gosvāmī and Advaita Gosvāmī, he surveyed the whole situation. He saw that this is just hopeless, hopeless. How we’re going to establish pure religious principle? He decided, the only way is Kṛṣṇa Himself has to come. Kṛṣṇa must come here. So then Advaita Gosvāmī, Advaita Ācārya, he started praying to the Lord, “That as a, as a spiritual master in the Upaniṣads You say that ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyām - that a spiritual master or ācārya is not different from the Lord, He is His external manifestation. So in this way, as Your devotee, if I have any oneness with You, if I have any connection with You that I implore, I intrigue, You must come down. I beg You, You must come down and now establish proper religious principle.” Of course Advaita Gosvāmī is not only an ordinary ācārya, he is Mahā-Viṣṇu Himself. So he’s calling to Kṛṣṇa, come down into the material world. There he established a śālagrāma-śilā, he took Ganges water and he started to offer the mañjarī - flowers with two leaves and Ganges water to the śālagrāma-śilā, crying loudly to Kṛṣṇa, worshipping with mantras and prayers and the Holy name, crying out to Kṛṣṇa and crying, fasting, offering worship to the śālagrāma-śilā. In this way the message reached to Kṛṣṇa and He agreed, “alright, I’ll come down”.

So in this way, by the loud prayers of Advaita Goswāmī, Lord Caitanya descended into the material world. At the same time actually Haridāsa Ṭhākura was also praying to Kṛṣṇa to come down. So when Lord Caitanya came, at that time, it was a solar, lunar eclipse. As everyone knows, Gaura Pūrṇimā, 1486, 501 years ago was the lunar eclipse. So that was the one day where everybody chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is not just like when everyone goes every day and chants, and that day they also chant. No, nobody would chant then, because of this very kind of distorted type of philosophy that has gone around by the various, some caste brāhmaṇas. In the Vedas it says that in the Kali-yuga, many of the demons who were not killed by Kṛṣṇa, the demons who were not killed by Kṛṣṇa would given the benediction that they could take birth in the family of brāhmaṇas in Kali-yuga. Not that every brāhmaṇa is a demon, but there are many demons, almost demons took birth as brāhmaṇas. So some of these demoniac type brāhmaṇas, they were actually preaching against Kṛṣṇa consciousness, against the Vedic principle. Missing the real opportunity of taking birth as a brāhmaṇa in India, they could have achieved all perfection, instead they still continued in their offensive mentality. So Lord Caitanya came down to deliver all of these materialistic brāhmaṇas, appearing as a brāhmaṇa, becoming the best of all the paṇḍitas, then He became the greatest of all the devotees in His pastimes.

So when Lord Caitanya became inspired by pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, officially, I mean He started to manifest His real pastime of harināma-saṅkīrtana, in His, in a teenager, at that time He was already a great master and He had hundreds and hundreds of the best students in Navadvīpa. And they were all you know learning like this, “Now we have Nimāi Paṇḍita our master, and we are going to become like the most famous, the best, the best Sanskrit scholars, who’ll be able to, just like He is able to do defeat even Keśava Kashmiri, everyone, we’ll be able to become the greatest paṇḍitas like Nimāi Paṇḍita, the greatest master and will be able to defeat everyone. We’ll be so expert.”

Nimāi Paṇḍita, He was expert like that. He would just challenge anyone. “Come here, please come my dear sir. Kindly tell me something about… tell me something about Sūrya, Sūrya Nārāyaṇa”. Anything he’d asked a person and that person would say, you know, so well, everyone being paṇḍita or proud, say something. I know Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, say some mantra and then say well what’s your actual question and then he’d try to establish some point, Lord Caitanya would smash him, defeat him saying your point is totally nonsense. And the person would admit defeat, then He would say no actually it is right if you look from this point of view. Then he would establish yes I was right, then He would defeat him again and establish and defeat just like that. Just showing that by logic and by vast learning Lord Caitanya could practically establish anything on that type of basis. So He was just admired as at that time He wasn’t Lord Caitanya, He was known as Nimāi Paṇḍita. So all these students, they just admired this ability of Lord Caitanya to be such a great brāhmaṇa paṇḍita.

From here when Lord Caitanya came back from Gaya, and then He was in change, He was a devotee, He was chanting, He was... He was talking about Kṛṣṇa, when He was giving classes He was…, everything He said, whether an alphabet, He was always bringing it back to Kṛṣṇa. And they thought what’s gone wrong with Nimāi Paṇḍita? What happened to Him? That fire of learning seems to been put out by this devotion. So then they went to His teacher Gaṇgādāsa Paṇḍita and they asked him that, “Dear Gaṇgādāsa Paṇḍita can you see what happened to Nimāi? He just seems to given up the brāhminical nature of arguing and challenging others, and being proud and He is become like humble and devotional, and is chanting, and He is always talking about Kṛṣṇa and He is not the same person.” He has practically left the brāhminical culture, as they knew it.

So, Gaṇgādāsa Paṇḍita, he went to see Lord Caitanya and said, “Listen, the duty of the brāhmaṇas is to teach, to establish the truth, if we don’t know the logic and argument, how can we prove what is the truth? How can we esta…, how will the brāhminical nature be kept? What is this I hear that you are giving up your natural occupation as a brāhmana?” Nimāi Paṇḍita said, “Who said? I challenge anyone. I don’t…, let anyone come, make any point, I’ll defeat it and then again I’ll defeat the very point that I established, and again I’ll defeat that and show that I’m the same Nimāi Paṇḍita. What do you mean?” Then he went out, they were all usssh, clap clap great you know the same Nimāi Paṇḍita, everything is alright. He is as religious as ever.

So then He went out to the road and challenged who is there? Meanwhile, one uncle of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākur came by. He was just walking by the street. And he happened to be just meditating on Kṛṣṇa and he was singing a song about…, he saw Lord Caitanya, he got more inspired. Oh! Lord Caitanya, he started singing the song louder. A song about how Kṛṣṇa was so merciful that He suck, He was offered the poison by Putanā by putting poison on her breast, and He suck her breast. That only could give her liberation but He was so merciful, He elevated Pūtanā to become His mother in the spiritual world. Even though she was coming to Him with poison, but because she offered her breast as a mother, even that was covered with poison, Kṛṣṇa accepted that. Within that offering there was something good. She was coming as a mother, even it was a poison mother, but He only took the good part, and He liberated her and gave her a position as mother in the spiritual world. So like this there is a whole song glorifying the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, how He delivered this witch.

 

So therefore we can also get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa by approaching Him very humbly as, as a servant, praying that He also deliver us coming to Him in that serving attitude. So when Nimāi Paṇḍita heard this chant, all of a sudden Kṛṣṇa became fixed in His heart and He just, He just became just completely absorbed in samādhi, in pure ecstasy in love for Kṛṣṇa, and He just started to cry, He just chanted, “Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa! I’m so fallen, I’ve neglected You for so many years. You are so merciful even You delivered Pūtanā.” Like this He just became filled with separation from Kṛṣṇa, pulling His hair, falling on the ground and He was just rolling. All the students watched, “Oh no! Nimāi Paṇḍita will never be the same again. What’s happened to our master?”

So then Nimāi, after He came back to some calmness, He took all His students, He called them by the Ganges side. They are all sitting there with their books and they are writing implements and He had a heart-to-heart talk with them. He said that, “I have to tell you all very sincerely, I’ve taken initiation from Īśvara Purī. Now I’ve got the great inspiration for serving Kṛṣṇa in My heart. I realize that Kṛṣṇa is the summum bonum, after studying all the Vedas, everything. You know, I’ve always tried to give you the best that I could give. I’ve given you the best in Sanskrit, the best in culture, the best in everything I’ve taught you. But now I have come to the realization that nothing is higher than Kṛṣṇa. I’m overwhelmed with this experience. I have to admit to you I won’t be able to concentrate anymore on the pedantic of Sanskrit teachings. I’m too…, I’m too I simply want to talk about Kṛṣṇa and to teach because this is the highest thing that I could give anyone. So, I have to excuse Myself and apologize that I won’t be able to fulfill possibly the desire that you wanted, that simply giving you this type of brāhminical superficial knowledge. So you are all free to go and take some other master. I will release you from whatever obligation you have as My students, as My Sanskrit disciples. You can go and take some other master because now I’m going to be teaching about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, about the Absolute Truth. I’m not going to be able to get into this other type of academics.”

So then, there was a big silence, amongst all the students, the best students, the sharpest brāhmaṇa sons in the whole Navadvīpa.. is a silence. Then one stood up and said, “Nimāi Paṇḍita! You have always given us the best teaching and we have grown to respect and love You for everything You’ve done for us. So now, that You have come to this conclusion that there is nothing more beyond Kṛṣṇa, so we don’t want to leave you. Then why don’t you teach us this? Why haven’t You taught us this before? You tell us about harināma saṅkīrtana, but You never taught us to do harināma-saṅkīrtana before. So if You want us the best which you are going to do, then why don’t You teach us? We can also join You and we’ll continue to follow You as our master.”

So then everyone surrendered to Lord Caitanya immediately after the best of all the students, best of all the brāhmaṇas also. They are really hard people to get. You know how hard it is to get the very qualified students, they are very proud of their little bit of learning. But somehow Kṛṣṇa Caitanya arranged to have all of them as His students and then they all became devotees at one time.

So He called Śrīvāsa and the other devotees, and they taught them how to do harināma-saṅkīrtana right on that spot, and then they were all chanting together and then the other brāhmaṇas were walking by said, “What is this Nimāi Paṇḍita and His students Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,…,” .They couldn’t believe it. So in this way Lord Caitanya began this harināma-saṅkīrtana, and He is training all these students and all the devotees in the harināma-saṅkīrtana. In this way, the fire of the saṅkīrtana movement was ignited. And that of course was brought by Śrīla Prabhupāda all over the world and now he wanted all of his followers to continue to ignite so many fires everywhere until the whole world is actually.., But this fire is described as the fire you know, like the light of the moon, like millions of moons, suśītala - very cooling and soothing for the living entity. It’s not a burning fire, it’s a soothing, cooling like, like a moonlight, very soothing and calming to the heart. So, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu ki

Devotees: Jaya !!

Jayapatākā Swami: Pañca-tattva ki

Devotees: Jaya !!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jai Śrīla Prabhupāda ki

Devotees: Jaya !!

Jayapatākā Swami: So we can pray to the Pañca-tattva, by Their mercy we can have a, by the fire of Their mercy we can have the various material desires and obstacles in the heart be burned away leaving us with the pure consciousness that was originally there when we were with Kṛṣṇa, when we were in the spiritual world before we came into material contamination.   

Hare Kṛṣṇa !

Are there any questions? Yes.

Devotee: (asks question - Not audible)

Jayapatākā Swami : Of course, there were millions of students in Navadvīpa. That place was student loka, otherwise a place where every brāhmaṇas I mean it was like, the whole town was brāhmaṇas and the people running here and there and going to different classes and was like one huge university, practically. Everyone was either a student or a teacher or somehow just fulfilling the infrastructure. The whole town of Navadvīpa city was basically based on this type of academic brāhminical pursuit. A very unique place. People from all over the subcontinent of India would come there for uhh…, this type of learning process. So who were the exact students that I mean apart from those direct students that were Nimāi Paṇḍita’s disciples and who became integrated in the saṅkīrtana movement... some of them fully had surrendered, may be all of them. But there were many other students that were naturally affected by this. When Lord Caitanya, went to the Chand Kazi, already His movement was so expanded that hundreds and thousands of people were with Him to protest against the stopping of Harināma-saṅkīrtana. So like that of those hundreds and thousands of people so many were students who may have participated in the mass movement and so on. But that doesn’t mean that all of them were equally realized in actually the process. Actually their complaint to Lord Caitanya was why not You chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, why are You chanting the names of the gopīs?

What happens is that when someone is a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, they become very fixed in the ritualistic practice of devotional service, and they naturally get some energy from that. But then if someone there is more advanced, and they are performing some other type of devotional service on the rāgānugā platform, they are immediately criticized and said that this person is in complete māyā, he’s puffed up and he doesn’t know what he is doing. It is natural maybe someone is like that, imitating sometimes rāgānugā and they justify that and criticize it.

They didn’t realize that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself. And that He wasn’t an imitator trying to just put Himself on some rāgānugā platform. He was really on the rāgānugā platform, and therefore He was quite justified if in meditating on the names of the gopīs if He wanted to, and experiencing that spiritual, that Kṛṣṇa conscious ecstasy. But they were approaching Him that He’s just another Vaiṣṇava like everyone else. He’s just like another, or He is little bit better than we are, but He’s not. Obviously these were not people that were in the mahā-prakāśa, they weren’t in the inner circle of Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement, otherwise they would have already known who Lord Caitanya was.

These were some of the hundreds and thousands and millions of devotees that were there, that were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and accepted the over.., the basic process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa in sankīrtana, but they were a little bit out of the inner circle. They didn’t really understand who really Lord Caitanya was. So they thought that, well like any devotee He should be chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and why isn’t He chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. They just told Him that You should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, don’t chant these names.

Lord Caitanya at that time was in an ecstasy where suddenly His, He was like in a deep meditation actually. Possibly He was even having darśana of the gopīs of Kṛṣṇa or some very type of profound experience. I don’t know for exactly to explain, but He was having some very deep experience at that time. He was totally oblivious to the outside world. All of a sudden these people are talking to Him like, kind of like Mucukunda when he came out of his sleep, he was just so angry, Lord Caitanya when He suddenly broken from His ecstasy, He just became so impatient that what’s going on here. You know He realized that the people are so impudent uhh… He just chased them away and then after that they started to criticize, why He is chasing us away?  What did we do? He told us to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we didn’t do anything wrong, you know, that type of thing.

So in this way, Lord Caitanya realized that as long as I am a gṛhasta devotee, they are just going to consider me to be on the same level and it is..., and if I want to do a little bit of any kind, if I am to fulfill my mission, I have different internal, external purposes, one of them is to experience certain higher ecstasies of Kṛṣṇa-prema. So then no one is going to be able to understand that and they are going to criticize. So if I am a sannyāsī, at least they will keep a respectful distance away.

And in those days, they would keep a respectful distance away that the system was that no gṛhasta, or non-sannyāsī would ever criticize, or and even try to analyze the devotional practices of a sannyāsī. That they were considered to be at another level. Amongst sannyāsīs they would discuss about, or they would analyze. At least the gṛhastas and the brahmacārīs, they would never consider themselves qualified to start judging a sannyāsī. A sannyāsī may judge a sannyāsīs, that’s another thing, but others wouldn’t.

So in this way at least Lord Caitanya would generally be respected by the vast majority of the population. Once He was criticized even then by the sannyāsīs. But that is by Prakāśānanda and others. But that’s another thing. Sannyāsīs have a right to go at other sannyāsīs’ affairs. But the general public, they would actually offer respects to Him. In this way, He would save them from making any offence. That was… then He could go on with His other purposes of preaching as well as realizing the higher mellows of Kṛṣṇa-prema without being criticized by neophyte students and so on.

You alright?

Devotee: …. (Not audible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes

Devotee: (asks question-Not audible)

Jayapatākā Swami: …. is not so little. Of course, because Lord Caitanya has come down, Kṛṣṇa has come down in the mood of Rādhārāṇī. And Gadādhara is Rādhārāṇī. So She takes a kind of, He’s taking a more of supportive role. Actually Lord Caitanya is taking the main role. There’s only room for one Rādhārāṇī in the…, So Gadādhara is coming mainly in a supportive role but there in spite of few things in the Caitanya Bhāgavat as well as in the Caitanya-Caritāmṛta there is a few things. Like when Lord Caitanya was going to Vṛndāvana and Gadādhara went with Him. There is a whole pastime how Gadādhara was going to break his vow to leave kṣetra. He was a kṣetra-sannyāsī to stay in the dhāma, but he was going to break that vow to go with Lord Caitanya. So then Lord Caitanya interlude there and He stopped him from going. Gadādhara fainted and then Lord Caitanya just left.

So there are like this quite a few interludes like that and then in the Bhakti-ratnākara it mentions how Śrīnivāsa Ācārya approached Gadādhara prabhu in ecstasy, the deep separation he was in after he, after Lord Caitanya left. In the Caitanya Bhāgavata, it mentions quite a bit about how Gadādhara prabhu would attend the kīrtanas of Lord Caitanya, and how he was very supportive and then how Gadādhara met Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, how he took initiation from Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, and Lord Caitanya personally conducted that. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi is Vṛṣabhānu rājā, the father of Rādhārāṇī in Kṛṣṇa līlā, he became the guru of Gadādhara in Caitanya līlā.

There are mentions of sometimes whenever Gadādhara would make green tamarind chutney, we don’t get green tamarind, we can’t get in west. We get the ripe tamarind, that is already like preserved. So that’s considered if you take too much of you know, you are considered a bit passionate or tāmasic or something. But the green straight of the tree, the tamarind when it is still green, like the green apple - unripe apple, then it’s a bit its more sattvic. It is very sour but it has a kind of aromatic sour taste so somehow Gadādhara Paṇḍita would make a type of chutney. You can offer that to Kṛṣṇa and that chutney was such a combination of sweet, sour, various type of mellows that anyone who took it would certainly feel separation for Kṛṣṇa. So whenever Gadādhara would make it somehow Lord Caitanya immediately would be there. It didn’t matter where He was, He could be in Jagannātha Puri, if he made that chutney you know, somehow mystically He would be there you know. He went on to say, “Whenever you make this I’ll be there.” (laughter)

There are five things, when Nityananda would dance Lord Caitanya will be there, no matter where He was. If Nityananda prabhu is dancing in kīrtana, Lord Caitanya would be there.

If Gadādhara made this tamarind chutney, then Lord Caitanya would be there. Like that there are few other. Then He is always there in the house of Rāghava Paṇḍita. So I forgot the other two. Then,  there is quite a bit, but Prabhupāda explained because he was kind of assisting Lord Caitanya, therefore Lord Caitanya has taken more prominence in this pastime.

*indistinct conversation*

So the individuality is there always. Because we are individuals. So we never lose our individuality. It’s like if you put one drop of water in the ocean, it doesn’t mean that the whole…, drop becomes the ocean, it still remains a drop. In the terms of quantity part it is kind of good example. Usually the drop disperses, but in the sense of quantity it doesn’t become the whole ocean. You put a molecule of H2O in the ocean, it doesn’t become the whole ocean even though it mixes up with the rest of the ocean water.

So like that when the individual soul goes into the Brahma-jyoti which has got so many individual souls together that’s like an ocean of light, or effulgent, all just emitting effulgence. At that time the individual soul remains individual, but loses the ability to distinguish itself from the other souls. That gets lost in the crowd kind of situation, where it’s just considered, just identifies that I’m the whole, maybe I am this, whatever, I am this, I am the.. this is what I am , “so ’ham - I am it”. So because of that their devotional service at that point ceases.

And although they are individual, they don’t really lose the, they don’t really lose the individuality, but they lose the ability, the cognizance, or the ability to see their individuality. That's why it’s considered like a spiritual suicide. It’s not a complete suicide because eventually they can fall down from there, come back into the material world, from the material world they can be liberated and can go back to the spiritual world to one of the planets of Viṣṇu. But they do, it said that you do stop your devotional service when you are in that state.

Devotee: Not audible

Jayapatākā Swami: Pardon

Devotee: Not audible

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami : Oh! What a sad story! You talk about how they come.

Devotee: Not audible

Jayapatākā Swami : Not bad. How does the sun set? Where does the sun go when it’s set? Sometimes people say that the…, the aborigines would say in the island in the Hawaii, in fact that every night the ocean, it’s dying in the ocean and is born in the morning from the other side. So like that Kṛṣṇa appears and He disappears. Actually that’s just the way of winding up His pastime and going off to some other place as the sunset. But for the materialists that want to believe there’s no God or that Lord Kṛṣṇa wasn’t really God, He leaves in some mysterious way that they can’t really figure out. Did He die? Or He left? So the…, but He does that completely destroys their bubble, He makes them think, oh may be He seem like He died.

For instance, Kṛṣṇa, He was shot in the ankle, on the ankle, or the foot. May be that was accurate you think so. He was shot in the foot by a hunter, and there’s a story that the hunter was actually a reincarnation of Bali. That Bali was killed by Rāmacandra from a hidden place. Vāli although he was the brother or something of Sugrīva in Rāma lila, so then He said alright you can shoot Me in My…, you can kill Me on My next life. Something like that, you can shoot Me you know. So then they say this hunter was actually Vālī, he is just getting revenge and so he shot Kṛṣṇa on His foot. Then it looked like Kṛṣṇa was deceased or something for a second and ever looked Kṛṣṇa was gone. There’s no body, there’s no…So, but the demons said, “See Kṛṣṇa He was killed”. Or they have some other theories like that. Kṛṣṇa, of course never dies and there was no body found but there was some pastime that it was called mauṣala-līlā- He was shot in the foot.

But the devotees they can’t even, we can discuss it because we are in a very low-level of devotion. What I mean, that the gopīs or anyone, if they were to think of Kṛṣṇa getting shot on the foot is too much and they would you know, they couldn’t discuss it. And the devotees in general do not like to discuss Kṛṣṇa when He’s leaving, because the heart of Kṛṣṇa, that the feeling that Kṛṣṇa is not here is too much. That’s how when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa we can always have Kṛṣṇa’s presence. We don’t really feel that Kṛṣṇa is not here because He is present in His Holy-name. As far as Lord Caitanya’s disappearance, He simultaneously was seen disappearing in three different places.

(Aside: Excuse me. It’s about 32 degrees centigrade in India, so it’s a big change. Plus six, plus five in the middle of the day.)

He was seen entering into the Jagannātha temple, close the door, went on into the Jagannātha deity, didn’t come out. He was seen going into the temple of Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha, closed the door, and they say that they show a mark in Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha’s leg, they say He entered into Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha at His knee. And some devotees say they saw Him chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, going into the ocean, never came back. So there is three stories.

Since Lord Caitanya can take unlimited forms, probably all three are true. But He said, “He is still present when His holy name is chanted by the devotees, He is present in the saṅkīrtana movement.” So even when we chant Lord Caitanya’s name now, we can still feel His presence. Isn’t it?

He has also come before you all, very fortunate to worship Him in His Pañca-tattva form. śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Out of Their causeless mercy They come here to give the people of Sweden, the devotees in Almvik, Their mercy.

So it’s late. I think this other questions that people have will be, services that people have to do, and if there’s other questions, I’ll be here till lunch time. And after breakfast, someone wants to ask a question to me, they can probably speak to the authority, and come over and see me, otherwise it will be too long now.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!