19900908 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.41

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 8, 1990 in Sweden. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4th canto, Chapter 25, Verse 41.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

mukhaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramānanda mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya īśvaram

Purport: Every husband is certainly a great hero to his wife. In other words, if a woman loves a man, that man appears very beautiful and magnanimous. Unless one becomes beautiful in the eyes of another, one cannot dedicate his whole life to another. The husband is considered very magnanimous because he gives as many children to the wife as she likes. Every woman is fond of children; therefore, any husband who can please his wife by sex and give her children is considered very magnanimous. Not only does the husband become magnanimous by begetting children, but by giving his wife ornaments, nice food and dresses, he keeps her completely under submission. Such a satisfied wife will never give up the company of her husband. Manu-saṁhitā recommends that to keep a wife satisfied a husband should give her some ornaments because women are generally fond of home, ornaments, dresses, children, etc. In this way the woman is the center of all material enjoyment. In this regard, the word vikhyātam is very significant. A man is always famous for his aggression toward a beautiful woman, and such aggression is sometimes considered rape. Although rape is not legally allowed, it is a fact that a woman likes a man who is very expert at rape.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport text 41, chapter 25, canto 4 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the chapter entitled, the characteristics of king puranjana.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this story of King Puranjana told by Nārada Muni to King Prācīnabarhi is a unique way of preaching. Not frequently found in the Vedas, only found in one or two places. But, since Nārada Muni had to preach to Prācīnabarhi, he was not very well tuned or open to spiritual instruction. Not very well trained, in other words, in philosophical thought. So, he started telling this very interesting story, which was filled with all kinds of material details. So, it was very easy for the King to keep his attention. Once we start to speak, we are not the body and we start to speak all the philosophical points, people, generally people’s mind starts to wander a little bit, it’s difficult to keep the mind focused. But when you are discussing about some story. Here a great Hero meets a beautiful woman in the forest and their discussion, they get married. So, it’s very light discussion. It’s very easy to focus. Of course, after the whole discussion is over, then, king Prācīnabarhi wants to know what does it all mean and then Nārada Muni explains that what all the allegories actually mean and that’s given in later chapters. So, while the story is unfolding, it’s actually, they take one verse at a time. Each one is a part of a very long picture that the woman here, that the king is meeting and going to marry becomes his queen, is actually the intelligence. How the conditioned soul is united with the intelligence. Not to make the story possible. So, Nārada Muni is just presenting it, as the king meeting a young beautiful woman in the forest. So, Prabhupāda is explaining from the Vedic literature that human relations in material world are quite well documented. They are quite well, many instructions are given in the Manu-saṁhitā and other literatures, what the duty of a material husband and material wife are. So, one of the duties of the husband is to provide the wife all the necessities of life home, ornaments, dresses, children and this will keep the wife happy in material consciousness. Of course, nobody in the material world is ever happy, whether, man or woman, unless they are somewhat spiritually trained because material desire doesn’t know any end anantāś ca, unlimitedly branched in all different directions. So, these formulas, for satisfying one and other, of course are based on persons who have some mode of goodness or somewhat simple, who are also somewhat spiritually trained innocent. If a person is having very base nature, then no matter what you do, it’s not going to be equally satisfied. These are like, in a normal scenario. This is also not considering that, that is why Prabhupāda said here that normally this is what or generally this is what the, generally, in this way, the woman is the center of all material enjoyment that Śrīla Prabhupāda, one time, he was walking with us in Māyāpur and we saw that there was a pair of wolves going around and around maybe two or four bulls. I forget how many tied to a stick and they were, under their feet, they were turning around different bushes of dal, manda, manohar, earth and by the thrashing of their feet, the pots were broken from the dry plants and the seeds were being separated. This was a means of thrashing, I guess you’d call it, the grain from the plant. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he stood there for a while and watched the bulls going around around while the farmers were pushing them on and he said, you see that stick. He asked the farmer, what is that stick called? It’s called a me danda. me means woman and danda means stick. It’s the woman stick. He said, yes. This is material gṛhamedhī life. It’s that everything is centered around the woman. So, like that, just like the bulls are going around and around, in material life, person may be going here and there, everywhere. But everything is based on the wife, on the woman, sense gratification. So, this is the difference between gṛhamedhī life and gṛhastha life. But gṛhastha life, the husband and wife put Kṛṣṇa in the center. They are both walking around Kṛṣṇa. So, this is the the difference between the Manu-saṁhitā is just meant for general human society whereas Nectar of Devotion and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, other instructions are meant for those who are spiritually awakened or to awaken person spiritually. So, here he is teaching to the King Prācīnabarhi, this story later on he’ll explain what the story means. Just as a ordinary human life, man becomes very attached to his wife, simply follows whatever the wife does. Similarly, this King Puranjana is actually the soul and wife is the intelligence, then in material life we are wedded to the intelligence and if the intelligence is materialistic, the contaminated then the soul follows that materialistic way and if intelligence is spiritualized, then the soul will act in a spiritual way. So, we have the opportunity to spiritualize our intelligence. The material nature is automatically organized in such a way that it will materialize materialistic, make our mind or intelligence materialistic. We’ve been here for countless births but by the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we can spiritualize the intelligence. This is essential if we want to achieve the perfection in our life. The Vedas have karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa. They also have Upāsanā-kāṇḍa. They tell people how to live with their material life according to the laws of Karma. They tell people how to get liberation, jñāna-kāṇḍa and they also tell one how to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, this is actually the post-graduate study. Once one is situated in devotional service then one is transcendental to the three modes of nature.

mām ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

Bhagavad-gītā (14.26). Transcendental to the three modes of the material nature. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he is very knowledgeable about this material world and he was disgusted by the way that Western society had developed so much in technology, so much in different aspects but spiritually were so degraded that, degraded in the sense that that they were just taking sense gratification to be the goal of life. It’s not that spiritualist doesn’t know what is the basis of material life. It is from reading these purports, you can get a very good education about what material life is. Even, if someone doesn’t have any personal experience. Śrīla Prabhupāda is very generously given description about what is going on in the material world, what is the type of thought trained that the people have in the material world. But, it’s also necessary for us to transcend this ordinary type of general consciousness and come up to the higher level of consciousness, which also is given later on in the purports. Women should also know their weakness. They say that men have a certain nature, women have a certain nature and we always will tend to fall back to the lower nature unless we keep ourselves spiritualized. We have a need for dedicated devotees in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and in the age of Kali, it’s very difficult to be a sannyāsī. Practically speaking, one of the five things forbidden in the Kali-yuga is sannyāsa, especially, the Karma-sannyāsa, one gives up all activities. But, in general, we found that sannyāsa is very difficult. So, many young man will get married in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement and will be pursuing their devotional service. Now, when someone gets married to a Kṛṣṇa conscious wife, the wife also has a duty to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious and of course the husband will be providing so many things. But not to just come down to the level that, that is the only relationship that, I have to have a ornaments. I have to have this. I have to have that. Actually, that the one wife continues to be inspiration, a good intelligence to the husband, to be fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We follow, like Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākura, he would spend about two hours, one hour a day, generally, say, 2 hours a day, when he was out preaching in the Nāmhaṭṭa program. Going over his daily program, in the evening, he would spend about 2 hours a day with his family. The rest of the time, he was with office, working in the morning, in the afternoon, he was out preaching, in the evening, he would meet his family, then he would take rest. He would get up at midnight translating or writing different books and songs and then in the morning he would be chanting his Japa, meeting a few people, take breakfast and be off to work. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that the devotees would continue on with their service but, then, if, in the house, they demand a lot of time, then maybe it becomes an obstruction in the person’s service. You find this kind of pulling, sometime between different gṛhastha devotees. The wives come and complain, even to the guru, my husband’s not giving me enough time. I’m only seeing him one hour a day, this that and He’s a temple president or he’s a manager of some sort. He’s very busy. So, of course, in the Vedic society, the family also is a very social event. You have other family members and everyone together. We are in the West; families are very much separate. Like, we are staying in North Calcutta and one family and there was a very troublesome time. We didn’t have a place to stay. It was called the left front government of, no no, the United front, there was a Naxalite kind of, communists who were very violent. They were the followers of Mao Tse-tung. They said that, they had to get victory by the barrel of a gun, smoking barrel. So, there was a lot of terrorism. When we go to our temple, we have to raise our hands, by the police and they would be in the sand bags in the center with guns trained on us to make sure that we weren’t going to throw bombs at them. If you move quickly, you are finished. We would daily watch bomb fights beneath our window. There was one party on one side of the street, right, just on the corner. Then, other side of the street, was another party. So, sometimes, they would come over with shopping bags filled with homemade bombs. They throw them, like, here in Sweden, they throw snowballs, they would throw the bomb and then the person would roll off and there’s a boom. This was like daily where we’d sit there watching for breakfast. We’ll see them fighting. [laughter] Only thing was, it wasn’t snow balls and sometimes you would get injured. One day, the police came, right in front of us, they had captured a guy. Then, they just let him go. The guy looked back and he started to run off. They just shot him. cold blood. it was just an excuse to shoot him. So, he tried to run away. This was a very heavy time and so, we didn’t have a place to stay. One life member was there. He said, No, you can stay in our house and he had 2 apartments. He had 2 sons and one of the sons was married and had about 5 or 6 kids. So, there are about 8 or 10 family members. So, they all moved into a 3 room apartment and gave half of their floor to us, so, we could stay with our 5 brahmacārīs. And, they all, you know, 10 or 12 members, they are all staying in these 3 rooms and they are quite happy. Grandfather would sleep on front living room, in a big gaddi. All the grandchildren would be there sleeping with him. Husband and wife would have their rooms. Somehow, they adjusted everything. Just, they wanted to have the sādhu. They figured, it was so hellish out there that, If, they had the sādhu, maybe, they would be protected. I think Kṛṣṇa protected them. Somehow, they survived. We survived, somehow. I don’t know. [laughter] But, you can see, like, in India, there’s, many people can live together. They, just really coarse in a very, it’s like a joint family, kind of situation. But, here, you always find people complain that, all alone. Wife has a child. She stays home the whole day. Doesn’t do service sometimes. I know in Māyāpur, I don’t know how to adjust. Leaders in the West had to to figure that out. We’re figured out in America, somehow. In India, I know that. Prabhupāda, he didn’t want to deal with that. There was, although non-Māyāpur, I guess, we have international crowd, we have to start dealing with it again. He was very concerned. He wanted all the mātājīs to work, even, they had children. He wanted to do some service. To stay engaged. Otherwise, mind will get the better of them. So, in the beginning, you have all the Indian mātājīs, so, they had their, they do making cloth in the handloom or they would be cutting sabzi, so, they would be doing something. You can cut sabjis, even for the Deities, even though, your kids are crawling all over you, if you are not in the Deities, if you are not in the kitchen. What they do is, they do it outside. Then, they wash all the sabjis before they cook them, so, inside the kitchen. So, there are different things. So, everyone was busily engaged. That time, the only American mother came to Māyāpur with her two kids and then, Prabhupāda said what is she doing. Just, i can’t do anything. I have two children. Then, Prabhupāda called and said, this is going to spoil all the Indian mātājīs. You better send her back to Los Angeles. [laughter] If, she doesn’t do anything, produce. Nobody’s going to do anything here and then he personally called her and said, look, in India, everybody has to do some service. But I can’t. I have children. Okay, so, then, you better go back to America. There, you can do that but here there’s no way. So, Prabhupāda actually records, he wanted everybody to be engaged in devotional service all of the time. But, seems difficult for different people. So, all the members of the family, whether, later on Prabhupāda explains, how, even a husband would be satisfied in family life, he needs to be trained as a brahmacārī.Because, otherwise, he won’t be satisfied with any amount of sex life. So, both the husband needs to be a strong devotee, wife needs to be a strong devotee. Everyone has to be struggling with the senses. Senses are going to be pulling us in different ways. They all have to be engaged in devotional service. You see, the great pure devotee couples, in Caitanya-līlā and you can see how they are engaged constantly in Lord Caitanya’s service. Actually, in the end of Caitanya Bhāgavata, there’s a very short līlā but, it’s very interesting. It’s, when, all the devotees were coming from Māyāpur, Navadvīpa dhāma to Jagannātha Purī and that time the husbands and wives, they are all coming to see Lord Caitanya. Advaita was coming with Sītā Ṭhākurāṇī, different devotees were. So, many mātājīs were also there in the group. Many people would come home. The famous group would be coming from Bengal to Jagannātha Purī. So, that time, they are just reaching Jagannātha Purī, they are coming. I’m sure, many of you have gone to Jagannātha Purī. As you go into Jagannātha Purī, even today, the road goes near this Narendra sarovara lake one of the routes to go inside. So apparently those where the ancient routes. They were also going that way because, just that, they were entering into the outskirts of Jagannātha Purī. You can hear kīrtana. chink chink chink... like.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

the kīrtana is going, where’s the Kīrtana? Then all of a sudden right in front there they could see Lord Caitanya and all of His associates and they are coming behind with Jagannātha on a palanquin. They are taking Him to the Narendra sarovara to do His special worship. So, immediately, they, in the lake, like a type of yajña. I don’t know if it’s chandan yātrā, which yātrā but, they take Him in the middle of the lake and they do some special worship to Him. So, immediately all the Navadvīpa devotees Nītāi! Gaura-Nītāi! Gaura! Haribol! they started shouting Haribol and immediately they paid their obeisances and immediately, then, Lord Caitanya, He stopped, He saw there, all the devotees in Navadvīpa. So, then, He all of a sudden, He started to run to those devotees, paid obeisances and Lord Caitanya, He grabbed, there are different devotees and started to embrace them affectionately and while the different devotees were embracing Lord Caitanya, then, behind at a distance were their wives. They are watching and, in their heart, they were just touching the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya. They were also just overwhelmed with love of Kṛṣṇa and tears were coming down their eyes. Actually, all the devotees were greeting all the other devotees, from, in Jagannātha Purī. They were all crying in ecstasy, behind the wives were crying in ecstasy. Everyone was crying. The tears were just flowing everywhere. Because everyone was completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, absorbed in love of Kṛṣṇa, they all wanted to, they all extremely Kṛṣṇa conscious, completely Kṛṣṇa conscious in all their activities. So, then, they all went together and then Lord Caitanya and the other devotees, they proceeded with that special worship of Jagannātha. I think, Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains how that, time worship was done in the Narendra sarovara and then, they had, with Advaita, there was water sports and everything going on. So, this all, just happened, like spontaneously, when, they were arriving one time. So, everyone was Kṛṣṇa conscious, obviously and how that, although, the women kept their respectable distance, they observed the separation of men and women, the, I mean, when they are especially meeting Lord Caitanya and the other brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs and gṛhasthasover there in Jagannātha Purī but that they are also completely fixed in their love of Lord Caitanya. This kind of ideal situation, where everyone is encouraging the other to do the proper thing in devotional service and spontaneously attracted to serving. So, Lord Caitanya, also He gave special mercy to all the gṛhasthas. Because, He would accept invitations every day and go and eat at the different gṛhastha’s house. So, in the gṛhastha’s house, naturally the mātājī would be cooking the prasādam. Then, they will be offering to the Deities and then, Lord Caitanya would come and accept prasādam. So, it’s very, today, there was invitation, like this by Kāśī Miśra or by Advaita Gosāī or by Śrīvās Ṭhākura. So, the invitation meant, the whole family would be inviting and then all would be cooking for, especially, the wives would be cooking for Lord Caitanya and then be serving to Lord Caitanya, the prasādam. So, especially very well documented is how Sītā Ṭhākurāṇī would be preparing very elaborate prasādam for Kṛṣṇa and giving the prasādam to Lord Caitanya. Several places in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, those descriptions are given and Lord Caitanya would see the nice arrangement, they made for Kṛṣṇa and He said that this very devotional. See, how nice offering, they made to Kṛṣṇa. Because, all the offerings are made for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. So, that was very pleasing to Lord Caitanya. He’d only take the mahāprasādam offered to the Deity. So, that way also, Lord Caitanya was giving mercy to, although, He was a strict sannyāsī and no one could, no woman could go close or be alone with Him but to the families, He was giving them lot of mercy, giving them association, in that way, accepting their invitations, going to their house and they would come and ask Him, husband wife would come and ask Him question and He would also instruct them. One time, some mātājī wanted to speak to Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura alone. At that time, he said, no, that, here it is all confidential people. No problem. No, no. I just want to speak a few words alone. Then, again, Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī said, no. He said, you can trust, my trusted people. So, he wouldn’t accept that to speak with anybody, any mātājī alone. So, these are the, these examples which are given by the preachers in the renounced order that, on one hand, they give the mercy in the form of association. But, actually, for maintaining the proper standard, they have to be very conservative about anything beyond that. As far as gṛhasthas, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we can see that, how the preachers of Lord Caitanya’s movement in Bengal, most of them were gṛhasthas. Even, Lord Caitanya, sent back Nityānanda to Bengal and told Him to get married. He was a lifelong brahmacārī. So, He was already somewhat advanced in age. So, there was no need for Him to take, to get married or anything. But, actually, of course, from a material stand point, Lord Caitanya knew Nityānanda was Balarāma and Nityānanda knew that Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa. Nityānanda was very upset that Lord Caitanya had taken the renounced order of life. Because, He couldn’t tolerate to see the Lord undergoing some kind of austerity. What is the need? There is nothing that Lord Caitanya has to gain austerities. People take sannyāsa, in order to purify themselves, to engage man kāya vākya.. mind, words and deeds in devotional service. So, there’s no need for them to, for Lord Caitanya to do. He has nothing to achieve. So, this upset Nityānanda, He broke His danda, threw in the river. Didn’t appreciate Lord Caitanya’s taking sannyāsa, taking all these austerities. Naturally, devotees want to see the Lord, very well taken care of. So, later, Lord Caitanya requested Nityānanda to, if, We, are both here, then, whose, going to preach in Bengal? So, He asked. Anyway, You, should get married. So, Lord Caitanya, some commentators explain that, He was also showing how, gṛhasthas should be engaged in the preaching activities, showing how gṛhastha brāhmaṇa, Vaiṣṇavas should be practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, Lord Nityānanda went back and He was doing His preaching from Navadvīpa, from different places. He, one day, He was staying in the house of Śrīvās Ṭhākura and He just called over Śrīvās and He whispered in his ear that Lord Caitanya told Me, I should get married, so, you can make some arrangement. So, then, Śrīvās said, okay. Then, he started to called one Kṛṣṇa Hoda. He sent a word around different people to see whether there is somebody suitable. But, who’s suitable for Nityānanda. Ordinary woman would not be suitable because you have the qualities that would match up. So, practically, there was, there was nobody, that they could find was really suitable. Then, one day Kṛṣṇa Hoda, He came. Kṛṣṇa Hoda was the king. In Bengal history, there is a famous king called Hari Hoda. He is the father of Kṛṣṇa Hoda. He is not famous for devotional life but he was a king who went bankrupt. And it said, he was so bankrupt that although, the kingdom was running, personally, he had nothing. He was practically eating leaves. He didn’t know what to do. This is like really; it’s the king without Lakṣmī. But, then, somehow, he got out of that situation and he became very solvent again. So, he is a famous historical figure but his son, Kṛṣṇa Hoda, he was a famous devotee. Hari Hoda, also had some devotional quality but, he wasn’t in the history books. I just found it. He was famous for that, for going bankrupt and how he had a lot of austerity. Then, he did some worship of Kṛṣṇa, something. He got everything back. But Kṛṣṇa hoda, he was a famous Vaiṣṇava. Infact, later, Nityānanda, made him a guru and he just became a preacher. He was known as a mahant, Kṛṣṇa Hoda mahant. Lord Nityānanda made many people from different caste- Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, whatever, if, they appeared Vaiṣṇavas, he made them gurus, to preach the message of Lord Caitanya. So, this time, Kṛṣṇa Hoda, he was one of the associates, it’s mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇa, 60th or something branch. He went and told Śrīvās that Sūryakānta Sarakhela has 2 daughters. They seemed to be suitable for Nityānanda. Give me the green signal and I’ll make them approach. So, then, Śrīvās gave, told him to follow it up and so, he went and talked to Sūryakānta Sarakhela, who’s the elder brother, I believe. Elder brother, I think of Gaurīdās Paṇḍita, who was Subal sakhā in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. So, when Kṛṣṇa Hoda suggested to Sūryakānta that you should give your daughters in marriage to Nityānanda, he wasn’t devotee of Nityānanda that time. He said, Nityānanda! He is running around here and there. It’s like, doing his Harinām all over the place and running around and practically, you know, He is like avadhūta. Sometime, He is jumping and running. Sometime He is just how can I marry my daughters to Him. He is like, felt offended. No, my daughters, you know wonderful and Nityānanda is usual character, does strange things. Nityānanda’s ecstasy will sometimes do inexplicable things, for the common people. So, Kṛṣṇa Hoda got very angry. You don’t know who you are speaking about. You better, you consider what you are thinking. You are speaking very offensive. You don’t know who Nityānanda Prabhu is. It’s the greatest opportunity in your life. Like that, Kṛṣṇa Hoda got very offended by his statements. That night, Sūryakānta Sarakhela had a dream. In the dream, he saw Balarāma and he saw Revatī and Varuṇī, the 2 consorts of Balarāma. Saw that Revatī and Varuṇī were being given in marriage to Balarāma and then they transformed and he could see Revatī and Varuṇī were his 2 daughters and Balarāma was Nitāi. He woke up shocked. What was this that I was seeing? Hairs were standing on end and he realized that, actually this, I made a big mistake and he called, sent a message for Kṛṣṇa Hoda. Please forgive me. Committed offense against Nityānanda. So, I agree to give my daughters. I had this dream. I can realize that actually that is meant to be. So, Jahnavī and Vasudhā, the 2 daughters of Sūryakānta. So, then, Kṛṣṇa Hoda went over to see. That time, Nityānanda was, He was surrounded by His associates. They were discussing Kṛṣṇa pastimes and Nityānanda had tears of love in His eyes. Someone was discussing, how Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were playing in the forest of Vṛndāvana and with Śrīdāma and Sudāma, with different and then Nityānanda was ecstatically listening and then, everyone was, as a whole, this was wonderful. Like, all surrounding Nityānanda, discussing Kṛṣṇa Kathā. So, then, Kṛṣṇa Hoda wants to give them the message that, you know, what you call, successful negotiation but everyone is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa Kathā. So, somehow, he gets Śrīvās Ṭhākura to come over and then, he just informs him. So, then, Śrīvās Ṭhākura goes and just whispers in Nityānanda’s ears. Take His permission, he just, you know, like, for a second, just gives a little smile and then, go back to Kṛṣṇa-kathā [laughter]. So, that was it. Everything was, there was the green signal. So, then, Kṛṣṇa Hoda was told to make the arrangements. Nityānanda went to the place of Kṛṣṇa Hoda, which was in Muragachi and Sūryakānta Sarakhela’s house, was on Bāligrāma village. So, all the brāhmaṇas came and the day before the wedding. Then, they have a customary abhiṣekaa. Actually, this system observed today, that they do abhiṣeka, especially the, now, they sprinkle little bit water, not a full abhiṣeka. But, then, they did a whole abhiṣeka. But, defined in Saṅskar Dīpikā by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī that the day before the wedding, the wife takes the name of the bridegroom, the husband and writes on a piece of paper and then, some mantras are chanted in a pot and the paper is put in the pot of water, put some, turmeric or something, in the water, I forget and then, the mantras are chanted and the water is sprinkled on the head, over the body, 3 times, they sprinkle, on different parts of the body. That empowers, that has different effects blessing the bride and empowering her to keep the husband happy or something. Keep him under her control or whatever. [laughter] Keep them guided. So, but, before they did this, they had a whole abhiṣeka for Nityānanda. All the brāhmaṇas, they all came and they did a whole abhiṣeka, physically, all over, you know and the people got all excited and they started throwing yogurt on each other and everything. So, the whole thing, did a nice abhiṣeka with turmeric water and yogurt and everything, they did a big Abhiṣeka. Then, they went all over and went and did abhiṣeka to the 2 girls, Vasudhā and Jahnavī. They did the abhiṣeka for them and the name, the day of the wedding, Nityānanda Prabhu came and they had, it’s elaborately described in the Bhakti Ratnākar, very big wedding ceremony. All Vaiṣṇava style giving the daughters on behalf of Kṛṣṇa and after that, there was, you know, also, with kīrtanas and everything and then, they, Nityānanda took the 2 girls, went back to Muragachi where Kṛṣṇa Hoda’s palace, has a Deity of Nitāi Gaura. They are 450 years old, at Muragachi today and there’s ruins of the palace are still there. One day, we hope to fix that place up, like a pilgrimage place. Nityānanda Prabhu was personally there. Original Deities are there. There’s many far-out places, things in Muragachi. I forget. There’s, history is there. Some, 2 lakes are there. Nityānanda did some pastime with those lakes. So, then, after that, Nityānanda, He went back to Navadvīpa and He went to. He went on a little tour with His family. Went to Advaita’s house in Śāntipur. Then, He ended up in Khardaha, which is about 10kms or 7kms North of Paṇihāti and there’s near the bank of the Ganges, He set up His house and then, from there, that was pretty central because a lot of Vaiṣṇavas had left Navadvīpa when Lord Caitanya left and had moved near, closer to Paṇihāti. So, from there, He was doing His preaching a lot but, He was travelling all over. But, He was mainly travelling and then, He would go back to the house often. So, then He showed how to be a Vaiṣṇava preacher, as a gṛhastha. So, the brāhmaṇas, they would travel and preach lot of time during the year, in the rainy season. Like, Śrīvāsa. Śrīnivāsa not Śrīvāsa but Śrīnivāsa, later on after 50 years..30, 40, 50 years, he was of course, trained by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and Jīva Gosvāmī, in Vṛndāvana. He had no desire to get married. He came back to Bengal and Naraharī Ṭhākura ordered him that he should take the gṛhastha āśrama. So, because a great Vaiṣṇava told him, then, he accepted. But, otherwise, he didn’t really have any, he never thought, didn’t cross his mind actually. But, because Śrīnivāsa had delivered the king of Bankura Mona Vishnupur. Got the books back that he had stolen and the king was, wanted to take him as a guru. But, he was, you know, to be a king, his guru, that means, you have to be a gṛhastha and you have to sit in the king’s court and to do other things. So, he was hesitating. But, Naraharī told him to get married, become the king’s guru. In other words, and you preach in that way. So, as a Rāj guru, then, he made that whole kingdom Kṛṣṇa conscious and there are many Vaiṣṇava temples there and he used that facility to get all the books translated. Used the king’s assets, infrastructure, to get the books published. So, Śrīnivāsa was the first publisher of our literature, in our sampradāya. Those days, publishing was done by hand. They had to copy the books by hand. So, they had a whole group of brāhmaṇas, who sit and copying down all the books. Slower process then. Now, it is computer composing. That time, it was hand composing by pen, by some piece of bamboo or something in ink on the palm leaves. So, they had a whole group of brāhmaṇas copying all the books and then each preacher was sent with a whole set of books; to go somewhere and he would sit down with the books and it is called śrīpāṭ. He would sit there and start to preach from the books and people would come and listen. In this way, he would convince the people, how these literatures were there. Proper explanation of the Vedas and the proper understanding of the Absolute Truth and that’s where these śrīpāṭs, someone would go and sit somewhere with all the books and he would start to preach and people would surrender and accept. So, that became a śrīpāṭ. So, there’s Bhagwangola, one place in Bengal. It’s the śrīpāṭ of Rāmcandra Kavirāja. That’s not far from. it’s about half hour, I think. Maybe 50 miles or 60, 70km from Kheturi, where Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura was. He also headed for the books and he was preaching from there. Everyone had sat down. That was how the preaching was done then because, it was so difficult. He couldn’t, just like, distribute books. He had to distribute books just to a qualified preacher and he’d say that he would read it, the books to the people and then he had some disciples. They copied some more books. They take one set of books and they go somewhere, sit and then, they preach. So, now and now of course, it’s a whole different situation. But that was how the original book distribution and original book publishing was going on by Śrīnivāsa. So, he was, he also was a gṛhastha. He had, I think, atleast two children. But it is said that, mostly here, he’d be out preaching but during the rainy season, when in India, there’s no paved roads in the past. So, when there are heavy monsoon, all the road becomes just mud. I mean mud, not in mud, like, you see, like, a few centimeters. Mud meaning, up to your thigh, mud. Really thick. You are just like, quick. It’s really heavy. You can’t. Just a walk, you know, few 100 meters, it’s like, effort. You know, you can’t. you take a whole shower afterwards. You are completely up to here, you know, in mud. Because, they were all taking the rice and things from their fields with these bullock carts and they make these big wheels. Because, the bulls can pull. So, they chop the whole road up and it just becomes solid mud. So, you can’t hardly move anywhere in the rainy season. So, that was the cātur-māsya became, everyone, all the sādhus stopped travelling and preaching and just sat down at one place and preached from there. Did there, some austerities. That’s why, in the cātur-māsya, you see me travelling outside of India. Different here there’s paved roads. We can’t do Nāmhaṭṭa preaching. Even today, there’s no paved roads in the villages. Only the main national highways are paved roads. So, that time, during the 4 months, sometimes, we read, that Śrīnivāsa would spend with his family and do his writing. Do some work, done then. Then, he couldn’t go out and preach. Not that, every 4 months, every Cātur-māsya, it is. Atleast, one Cātur-māsya, he stayed. But, other time, he’d be out. He’d be in the king’s palace. He’d be out preaching. He’d be organizing Gaura-pūrṇimā with Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, Kheturi. So, it’s like, they are very active and the wives were seen very supportive, for the Kṛṣṇa conscious. They weren’t just pulling like, you know, I don’t have any association. I have to stay here all the time. They were very supportive. They had other Vaiṣṇavīs that they are associating with and they were just urging the husband and the husband was giving some association. At the same time, he was doing very active preaching and active service. So, that type of dedicated gṛhastha, brāhmaṇa, Vaiṣṇava preachers are also needed. So, we need dedicated brahmacārī preachers and sannyāsī preachers. We also need gṛhastha preachers and there is something which, you don’t find in the Gauḍīya Maṭh. Gauḍīya Maṭh is just brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs and widows. Maṭha means that only renounced people will stay there. Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura was active preacher. His whole Nāmhaṭṭa was gṛhasthas. From the house, they were preaching and then Bhaktisiddhānta is the other extreme kind of, where everyone was in, you know, monastery preaching maṭhasand Prabhupāda, he had both. He had mandirs, temples whether brahmacārīs and gṛhasthas and vānaprasthas and sannyāsīs and everyone is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and fulfilling their different duties, externally with the Varṇāśrama but doing their preaching. So, like Prabhupāda took all the different examples in the previous Ācārya’s, and then synthesized into one. That was, you know, very amazing and Prabhupāda, he had said that, I am taking whatever the previous ācāryas have instructed and I am just trying to do this to please Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, to please the previous ācāryas. You can see that everything that Śrīla Prabhupāda was doing, is inspired by the previous ācāryas. Even, his desire to build Māyāpur and have a spiritual city there, to build a big temple. It’s something actually predicted by Lord Nityānanda to Jīva Gosvāmī, when He was taking Jīva Gosvāmī on the Navadvīpa parikramā. In the last chapter, then He predicted, what would happen in the future or even in the beginning, He predicted, I think in the last half, He gave more instructions about the dhāma. He predicted " Ek Adhbut Mandir hoibe prakāś, Gaurāṅga nitya sevā hoibe vikāś." There’ll be one fabulous adhbut...adhbut means wonderful. adhbut is a difficult word to translate...adhbut.. wonderful.. fantastic.. astonishing. Ek adhbut mandir... extraordinary temple, hoibe prakāś... will become manifested here, Gaurāṅga nitya sevā... the eternal principle of Lord Caitanya or eternal service to Lord Caitanya, hoibe vikāś... will be spread. Vikāś means widely spread. Of course, Prabhupāda said that, Māyāpur is the center for the whole world preaching. Then Nityānanda also predicted that around the temple, there’d be, there’ll be 200 years or more will be all flooded and people will be shipped from here. The whole Navadvīpa will become shifted to this small village. But, then, again, this temple would come, then the city would go around the temple and all the city will be all devotees of Lord Caitanya. It will be a city of all devotees. So, we know, since the very beginning in 1960, Prabhupāda was saying, we should have a center in Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, we should do all the spiritual city. We should make the biggest temple there, in the world. So, all these were actually the desire of Lord Nityānanda’s prediction of desire of the previous ācāryas. Whatever prabhupāda was doing, he just wanted to fulfill all of their desires systematically one by one. Was the Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura predicted that Russians would come to Māyāpur. He said British, French, American, Germans, Russians. No, he said Germans or Russians, something. He said Russians also, especially those countries and other. So, they’ll be coming and they’ll be chanting Jaya Sācinandana! Jaya Sācinandana! in Navadvīpa, Māyāpur and then there will be coming and embracing with the devotees from Māyāpur, from India. Oh our brothers... Aryan brothers and they’ll be saying our Vaiṣṇava brothers and they’ll be embracing each other. No question of caste, nationality, other distinction. They’ll be chanting together. In their countries, they’ll be doing Harinām with khol and kartāls and plates [Not clear 47:38]. So, all these predictions, by Prabhupāda’s mercy, they all came true and he was planting the seeds of preaching in Soviet Union. Just now blooming. So, you can see that, how Prabhupāda’s, he used to say, my secret of success, I’m simply trying to satisfy the desires of my spiritual master and one time, at BhaktiSiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s disappearance festival, in Māyāpur, he explained, that the secret of success is to please the previous ācāryas. One’s guruas well as the previous ācāryas. So, in this way, we purify our intelligence by taking the instructions from sādhu, śāstraand guru. Not only our guru but the previous ācāryas, purify our intelligence and then, we dedicate our mind, surrender our mind to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, use the intelligence to engage ourselves in Kṛṣṇa’s service. This is the transcendental use of intelligence and here in the Puranjana story, we are just going to see the general scenario. the body is guided by the intelligence and the soul is just following after the intelligence. It’s like a henpecked husband follows after the wife. So, if we are going to follow the intelligence, we should have a Kṛṣṇa conscious intelligence. Then, the intelligence will be guiding us properly. So, proper guidance of the intelligence is to serve the previous ācāryas, to satisfy their desires, just take their wisdom, their vision and then, use that as our guiding principle. So, that was what Śrīla Prabhupāda was doing and that’s what we are dedicated to also do, is to please all these previous ācāryas, who have dedicated themselves in serving Lord Caitanya’s movement and how merciful, they have given us their mercy. By giving us their mercy today and this mercy will be spread to all of the people by following their formulas. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Any questions! Yes!

Question: [inaudible 49:33]

Jayapatākā Swami: Could you repeat again, I didn’t get you.

Question: [inaudible 49:47]

Jayapatākā Swami: That was explained by Nityānanda Prabhu to Jīva Gosvāmī that, by Kṛṣṇa’s yogamāyā, although the core predictions were there but people couldn’t understand the predictions. Because Kṛṣṇa, didn’t want him to understand the predictions before he came. Because, if they did, then His whole incarnation would be obstructed. He wanted it to be mysterious, so that, He could come as a devotee. If, it was very clear, then, everyone would be looking for, where is that devotee avatāra and He’d be, people would all be calling Him as Kṛṣṇa and then, He wouldn’t be a proper devotee. Some great scholars could pick it out. Some great devotee. Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, when he saw the symptoms of Lord Caitanya, he saw the quotes in the Bhāgavatam and the other Vedas, he could put it together finally. A few people, like there, it was revealed to, but, in general, it was kept hidden. Just like, if you say that, okay, if tomorrow, the king of Sweden is going to make a secret visit at this particular place, you know, then, everyone, you know, will be looking out for him. He’s going to come in wearing a, you know, black hair in a over coat, what is the secret? Then, everybody will be standing, you know, trying to pick him up. So, although, the symptoms were there, but, like, Kṛṣṇa kept His yogamāyā, so that, people didn’t, it still didn’t register. After Lord Caitanya left, then, Lord Nityānanda said, now, it doesn’t matter, now everyone can know. So, then, He was explaining all the truth about Lord Caitanya and all the Vaiṣṇava scholars, they, then, showed the followers of Lord Caitanya, who knew, they also didn’t tell anybody until after He left. Because, they also, didn’t want to disturb His pastimes. Afterwards, they told, everything is very well documented and cross reference, as far as why the western translators don’t know, this is a very big, there’s no doubt that the western translators, in any case, were not objective in their translation. They were translating for the purpose of trying to find loopholes, to defeat Vedic culture and establish Christianity in India. That’s their proclaim purpose. Now, the letters from Max Muller and other German translators have become published and they say that, this Hindu paṇḍits are very difficult, you know. We cannot convince the brāhmaṇa. They have explicit faith in the Vedas. So, what I’m going to do is learn the Sanskrit, I’m going to translate the Vedas. I’ll translate in such a way that the other people who don’t know the Vedas, only the brāhmins know the Vedas. The other people, they’ll read our translation, will translate in such a way, you undermine their faith and then, we’ll be able to give Christianity. They wrote a letter like that. It was published. this was his whole thing. So, all these translators, these famous translators, who were cheaters, they went there, just with the purpose of trying to. That’s why, they translated vigraha mūrti as idol, knowing that a Christian meant idol is like a false god or something or some. It’s a very bad context but vigraha, idol is not a proper translation of the word vigraha, it’s a deity, it’s a form. But they twisted things like that. So, now, these letters, we have the copies of the letters in Māyāpur, the photocopy. We could not exhibit [laughter] but, just for reference of some quotes. Of course, they, that was their purpose when they started. Some of them developed a healthy respect for Vedic culture because, so, that was their initial purpose. Whether later, they became converted or not, I don’t know. That’s why, it wasn’t known by everyone because of yogamāyā. But, now, you tell everyone, why should they stay in the dark? Any other question!

Question: [Inaudible 54:33]

Jayapatākā Swami: Of course, there are some people, they claim, they have original manuscripts. The tall palm leaf writings that, they are kept very dry, primarily lasts for quite a long time. Those manuscripts, some 500 years ago are written thousand years ago. imagine. you move them. You know, it’s like, they can crumble very easily. So, now, it’s been customary that those types of writings were kept in special, like, root cellar, type of arrangements in ancient temples. As for, Lord Caitanya found the Brahma-saṁhitā and the Kṛṣṇa Karṇāmṛta in Ādi Keśava temple in South India. Immediately, He made a hand copied right away. They don’t let this reference; they don’t let anyone take them out. I think, lot of those manuscripts have been kept in the archives of the ancient society, in India. I know, they have a lot of manuscripts. Some are kept in the national library. Some are kept down in the temple. Different temples, they have these ancient manuscripts. Apart from the ancient original manuscripts, the fact that, they would be kept active because people would always be copying and so, the people make copies of the copies of the copies and they would always, by, somehow because of the paramparā system, you don’t get different copies, everyone has, like, the same version of Bhagavad-gītā. Not that somebody said, "I found 25 new verses," trying to. apart from that from that everybody else has the same version. No more Bhāgavatam 10,000 verses. I think, there’s 2 ślokas… that is the difference and Prabhupāda puts that in a little foot note. So, there’s a tremendous note. There’s no contradiction, in that sense. They have kept, even, whether the original manuscript is original, by nature I don’t know how you find but pretty old manuscripts, they are available. But, even the contemporary ones, there’s no contradiction. People have continued the new sampradāyas by keeping the Bhāgavatam copies in print and this has kept it alive and they don’t have any contradiction about what the verses are but, I think, there was a special project, originally financed by the BBT and then Smithsonian Institute taken over that. Garuḍa dāsa and others were doing it. But they micro switched all the manuscripts in Vṛndāvana and a few places and those are in the Smithsonian Institute, in America. But, really, the BBT should have a copy of all of them. They originally financed it, then they got some more financing. I don’t think the BBT is even aware of it so much. So, it’ll be good to have all those copies. I gave the original idea that it should be done because, you know, things are really going out of print fast. Then They just started the, Rāmeśvara Prabhu has started the whole thing and then, they got financing from that Smithsonian Institute, continued and then they ended up with all of the features. I don’t know, maybe in LA, they have a copy too. I wanted to get a copy for the central, like Prabhupāda archives there. But each temple has different collections of manuscripts in the old temples. So, they just touched the surface. They were just looking for Gauḍīya literature in Vṛndāvana. They didn’t try all the other Vedas. It had to go to South India and do that. Any other question!

Question: [Inaudible 58:05]

Jayapatākā Swami: There is very little parallel between the Yadu dynasty and Lord Caitanya’ s associates. The Yadu dynasty was filled with a different devas who took birth in the Yadu dynasty from the upper planetary systems and who were Kṣatriyas and they were very intelligent, powerful warriors, generals and Kṛṣṇa, you know, didn’t want to have all these powerful soldiers on the earth to create a kind of imbalance. Just wanted all return back to wherever they came from. So, He arranged the pastime where they all left at the same time. Lord Caitanya’s senior associates didn’t leave but they died, they left out of separation of Lord Caitanya. Haridāsa Ṭhākura left before but the others, most of them left within a very short time. They didn’t, weren’t able to, the immediate associates of Lord Caitanya were not able to do much preaching. Once Lord Caitanya left, they were too shook up in His separation. They did some preaching but, they are mainly overwhelmed at just feeling separation from Lord Caitanya. The preaching really exploded afterwards, by the next generation like Bīra Chandra, the son of Nityānanda, Acyutānanda, son of Advaita.. Śrīnivāsa and the six Gosvāmīs, first went to Vṛndāvana where they wrote the books. Śrīnivāsa, Narottama and Śyāmānanda Paṇḍita and then their disciples, they were doing most of the preaching afterwards. The immediate associates who were the whole time with Lord Caitanya, when He left, they were very much absorbed in separation. So, Nityānanda, of course, He continued preaching for a while but, then He also left. He left after He met Jīva Gosvāmī. Jīva Gosvāmī had studied in Benares, was going to Vṛndāvana but first, he came to Navadvīpa, met Nityānanda and he went to Vṛndāvana and met Rūpa and Sanātana and then Jīva Gosvāmī, he became the main defender of the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. He remained present on the planet longer than others. He was younger also. He was like the śikṣā guru for the society at that time, like, society as a whole.

Question: [Inaudible 1:00:33]

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know if any books written by Nityānanda Prabhu, that I, something that had. I just don’t know. That doesn’t mean. I have researched and heard. As far as the Yadus, wherever they came from, that’s where they went back. As we know, different Yadus came from the spiritual world, they went back to the spiritual world. Other Yadus that came from other places, as far as they know, they went back there. Just a few million Yadus. About, maybe somebody’s life was already finished on the other planet and went back to the spiritual world. But some principal Yadus who were devas, as far as they know, they went back to being devas again but, they were purified. They were purified and fixed in devotional service. Any other question!! Pardon

Question: [Inaudible 1:01:37]

Jayapatākā Swami: How old was he?

Jayapatākā Swami: At the Ekacakrā village, where He took birth, they claim, there He entered into the deity room and entered into the Baṅke Bihārī, Baṅke Rāi Deity of Kṛṣṇa and they opened the door He was no longer there. That’s what one, they claim that. That’s the only thing that I have ever heard. But I haven’t seen it written anywhere actually. Ācāryasdon’t like to write all about the disappearance pastime. That’s what, they say. There are no remnants. No samādhi or anything to Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda. I don’t know if there’s a samādhi to Advaita. I never heard of it but they came as substantial part 450 years ago. Lord Caitanya’s direct pastimes, there was, they were reading the Bhāgavatam and they were chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa and having Bhāgavatam classes. This was the basic and then afterwards, there are many people, there were some Bhāgavatam purports. They would just read the Bhāgavatam. So, then, the Bhāgavatam purports was only by Śrīdhara Svāmī. So, people, then understand all other things in the Bhāgavatam so clearly. So, then, all the literatures by the six Gosvāmīs came out, Caitanya-caritāmṛta came out. This gave a very clear perspective to them. In Bhāgavatam and gave the inner secrets about Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and position. So, that, once those literatures came back from Vṛndāvana and they were the basis for all the preaching. Books were the basis. Books were the basis before, but it was just the Bhāgavatam. But Prabhupāda’s Bhāgavatam purports include a lot of commentary, lot of explanation which embodies the realizations if the six Gosvāmīs. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, he wrote a song, little poetry, which is published in the Bhakti Ratnākar. I can send it, verse… verses… it’s a small couple, a few verses. The gist of it is that, Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He has appeared in this world with His different energies, different śaktis and the different energies of Lord Caitanya are basically engaged in 2 kinds of transcendental activities. Some of them are engaged in writing transcendental literature and others are engaged in distributing those transcendental literatures. So, both are the confidential servitors or energies of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then, he said, the six Gosvāmīs were engaged in writing literature and Śrīnivāsa ācārya and others were engaged in distributing them, a little. You like that! We have a copy of Bhakti Ratnākar here, otherwise, they have in Atlanta. I’m coming right from India, after presenting, after a brief journey in Europe. Go to America, we are having some GBC meetings and ISKCON constitution things. So, there, as far as book distribution, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, gave this vision, that is a very confidential intimate service for Lord Caitanya, the book distribution as well the book writing, publishing. So, it’s not even something new, just from Bhaktisiddhānta source people, comes right from Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura and it’s the very roots of other sampradāya. Kṛṣṇa Himself is Vyāsa deva. Wrote down all the literatures and Gaṇeśa was helping. The instructions of the devotees to go out and send them out to the train stations, distribute the books. Anyway, every day, they come back to get the report, how many books were distributed, even if, they did one book, he was very happy. Just, all you need to go out and keep distributing it. He was the first to really, as such organize the distribution of literature before the cause it is all hand written. You know, the publishing only came in the past century, I think. Maybe, in China, it was a little longer but, we can’t just like, distribute books. What would happen, was that, somebody would hear the book, they’d want a copy. Then, they would pay. Have some brāhmaṇa write it. Then, he’d get his copy. So, it’s like, this book distribution, we really have to convince the person who want the book because, then, you’ll have to have a copy. [laughter] Just giving the book was much more involvement process but the person who got the book was very convinced. [laughter] That, after that, he just surrendered to the book and then, he really, in turn had others distribute. I guess, it’s hard for some of the book distribution, you know, trying to relate with it is, but, then, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura described it as book distribution. All of the process is much more different, much different.

Jaya! Book distribution ki Jaya!! Jaya Harinām sankīrtana mahā yajña ki jaya!! Jaya Pañca tattva ki jaya!! Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki jaya!! Gaura Premānande. Hari haribol!!