19900908 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.41

The following is a lecture given by HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj on September 8th 1990 in Sweden. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam 4th canto chapter 25 verse 41

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya ( devotees repeat after Guru Maharaj 2times
mukam karoti vachalam
pangum langhayate girim
yat-kripa tam aham vande
shri-gurum dina-taranam
paramānanda madhavam
sri caitanya isvaram

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 Srimad Bhagavatam in the chapter entitled, the characteristics of king puranjana.

So this story of King Puranjana told by Narada Muni to King Prachinabarhi is a unique way of preaching. Not frequently found in the Vedas, only found in one or two places. But, since Narad Muni had to preach to Prachinabarhi, he was not very well tuned or open to spiritual instruction. Not very well trained, in other words, in philosophical 3:36. 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. Ofcourse, after the whole discussion is over, then, king Prachinabarhi wants to know what does it all mean and then Narad 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 condition soul is united with the intelligence. Not to make the story possible. So, Narada Muni is just presenting it, as the king meeting a young beautiful woman in the forest. So, Prabhupad 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 samhita 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. Ofcourse, 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 anantasca, 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 someone 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 Prabhupad said here that normally this is what or generally this is what the, generally, in this way, the woman is the centre of all material enjoyment that Srila Prabhupad, one time, he was walking with us in Mayapur 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 seperated. This was a means of thrashing, I guess you'd call it, the grain from the plant. So, Srila Prabhupada, 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 grihamedhi life. It's that everything is centred 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 grihamedhi life and grihastha life. But grihastha life, the husband and wife put Krishna in the centre . They are both walking around Krishna. So, this is the the difference between the Manu samhita is just meant for general human society whereas Nectar of Devotion and Srimad Bhagavatam, other instructions are meant for those who are spiritually awakened or to awaken person spiritually. So, here he is teaching to the King Prachinabarhi, 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 organised 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 Krishna consciousness, we can spiritualize the intelligence. This is essential if we want to achieve the perfection in our life. The Vedas have Karma Kanda, Jnana Kanda. They also have Upasana Kanda. They tell people how to live with their material life according to the laws of Karma. They tell people how to get liberation, Jnana Kanda 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.

mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate
sa gunan samatityaitan

transcendental to the three modes of the material nature. Srila Prabhupad, 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 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 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. Srila Prabhupad 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 Krishna consciousness movement and in the age of Kali, it's very difficult to be a sanyasi. Practically speaking, one of the five things forbidden in the Kali Yuga is sanyas, especially, the Karma sanyas, one gives up all activities. But, in general, we found that sanyas is very difficult. So, many young man will get married in the Krishna conscious movement and will be pursuing their devotional service. Now, when someone gets married to a Krishna conscious wife, the wife also has a duty to remain Krishna 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 Krishna consciousness. We follow, like Bhakti Vinod Thakur, he would spend about two hours, one hour a day, generally, say, 2 hours a day, when he was out preaching in the Namhatta 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 chatting his Japa, meeting a few people, take breakfast and be off to work. So, Srila Prabhupad wanted that the devotees would continue on with their service but, then, if, in the house, they demand a lot of time, then it becomes an obstruction in the person's 13:21. You find this kind of pulling ,sometime between different grihastha 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, ofcourse, 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 any place to stay. It was called the left front government of, no no, the United front, there was a naxalite kind of, communists were very violent. They were the followers of 14:12 Chetan. 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 centre 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 home made bombs. They told 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 is like, daily 14:59. They are watching now, for breakfast. We'll see them fighting.( devotees laughing) 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 brahmacharis. 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 16:00. 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 sadhu. They figured, it was so hellish out there that,if, they had the sadhus, maybe, they would be protected. I think Krishna protected them. Somehow, they survived. We survived, somehow. I don't know. (Guru Maharaj laughing) 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 sometime. I know in Mayapur, 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. Prabhupad, he didn't want to deal with that. There was, although non-Mayapur, I guess, we have international crowd, we have to start dealing with it again. He was very concerned. He wanted all the Maharajs 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 Maharajs, 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 sabzis, even for the dieties, even though, your kids are crawling all over you, if you are not in the dieties, if you are not in the kitchen. What they do is, they do it outside. Then, they wash all the sabzis 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 Mayapur with her two kids and then, Prabhupad said what is she doing. Just, i can't do anything. I have two children. Then, Prabhupad called and said, this is going to spoil all the Indian Maharajs. You better send her back to Los Angeles. (devotees laughing) 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, Prabhupad 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 Prabhupad explains, how, even a husband would be satisfied of family life, he needs to be trained as a brahmachari. 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 Chaitanya Lila and you can see how they are engaged constantly in Lord Chaitanya's service. Actually in the end of Chaitanya Bhagavat, theres a very short lila but, it's very interesting. It's, when, all the devotees were coming from Mayapur, Navadwip dham to Jagannath Puri and that time the husbands and wives, they are all coming to see Lord Chaitanya. Advaita was coming with Sita Thakurani ,different devotees were.. So, many matajis were also there in the group. Many people would come home. The famous group would be coming from Bengal to Jagannath Puri. So, that time, they are just reaching Jagannath Puri, they are coming. I'm sure, many of you have gone to Jagannath Puri. As you go into Jagannath Puri, even today, the road goes near this Narendra sarovar lake one of the 19:48 divine sight. So, apparently, that's whatever the ancient route. They were also going that way because, just that, they were entering into the outskirts of Jagannath Puri. You can hear kirtan..chink chink chink...like Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, the kirtan is going 20:20 Then, all stood right in front. There, they could see Lord Chaitanya and all of His associates and they are coming behind with Jagannath on a palanquin. They are taking Him to the Narendra sarovar to do His special worship. So, immediately, they, in the lake, like a type of yajna. I don't know if it's chandan yatra, which tatra but, they take Him in the middle of the lake and they do some special worship to Him. So, immediately all the Navadvip devotees Nitai! Gaur Nitai !! Gaur! Hari bol!! they started shouting Hari bol and immediately they paid their obesceinces and immediately, then, Lord Chaitanya, He stopped, He saw there, all the devotees in Navadvip. So, then, He all 21:04 started to run to those devotees, paid obesceinces and Lord Chaitanya, He grabbed, there are different devotees and started to embrace them affectionately and while the different devotees were embracing Lord Chaitanya, then, behind at a distance were their wives. They are watching and in their heart, they were just touching the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya. They were also just overwhelmed with love of Krishna and tears were coming down their eyes 21:36 All the devotees were greeting all the other devotees, from, in Jagannath Puri. They were all crying in ecstasy, behind the wives were crying in ecstacy. Everyone was crying. The tears were flowing everywhere. Because everyone was completely absorbed in Krishna consciousness, absorbed in love of Krishna, they all wanted to, they all extremely Krishna conscious, completely Krishna conscious in all their activities. So, then, they all went together and then Lord Chaitanya and the other devotees, they proceeded with that special worship of Jagannath. I think, Chaitanya Charitamrita explains how that, dime worship was done in the Narendra sarovar 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 Krishna conscious, obviously and how that, although, the women kept their respectable distance, they observed the seperation of men and women, the, I mean, when they are especially meeting Lord Chaitanya and the other brahmacharis, sannyasis and grihasthas over there in Jagannath Puri but that they are also completely fixed in their love of Lord Chaitanya. 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 Chaitanya, also He gave special mercy to all the grihasthas. Because, He would accept invitations everyday and go and eat at the different grihastha's house. So, in the grihastha' s house, naturally the mataji would be cooking the prasadam. Then, they will be offering to the dieties and then, Lord Chaitanya would come and accept prasad. So, it's very, today, there was invitation, like this by Kasi Mishra or by Advaita Gosai or by Srivas Thakur. 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 Chaitanya and then be serving to Lord Chaitanya, the prasadam. So, especially very well documented is how Sita Thakurani would be preparing very elaborate prasad for Krishna and giving the prasadam to Lord Chaitanya. Several places in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, those descriptions are given and Lord Chaitanya would see the nice arrangement, they made for Krishna and He said that this very devotional. See, how nice offering, they made to Krishna. Because, all the offerings are made for the pleasure of Krishna. So, that was very pleasing to Lord Chaitanya. He'd only take the mahaprasadam offered to the diety. So, that way also, Lord Chaitanya was giving mercy to, although, He was a strict sanyasi 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 mataji wanted to speak to Bhakti Saraswati Thakur 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 Siddhanta Saraswati said, no. He said, you can trust, my trusted people. So, he wouldn't accept that to speak with anybody, mataji 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 grihasthas, in Krishna consciousness, we can see that, how the preachers of Lord Chaitanya's movement in Bengal, most of them were grihasthas. Even, Lord Chaitanya, sent back Nityananda to Bengal and told Him to get married. He was a life long brahmachari. So, He was already some what advanced in age. So, there was no need for Him to take , to get married or anything. But, actually, ofcourse, from a material stand point, Lord Chaitanya knew Nityananda was Balaram and Nityananda knew that Lord Chaitanya was Krishna. Nityananda was very upset that Lord Chaitanya had taken the renounced order of life. Because, He couldn't tolerate to seethe Lord undergoing some kind of austerity. What is the need? There is nothing that Lord Chaitanya has to gain austerities. People take sanyas, 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 Chaitanya to do. He has nothing to acheive. So, this upset Nityananda, He broke His danda, threw in the river. Didn't appreciate Lord Chaitanya's taking sanyas, taking all these austerities. Naturally, devotees want to see the Lord, very well taken care of. So, later, Lord Chaitanya requested Nityananda to, if , We are both here, then, whose going to preach in Bengal? So, He asked. Anyway, You should get married. So, Lord Chaitanya, some commentators explain that, He was also showing how, grihasthas should be engaged in the preaching activities, showing how grihastha brahmana, Vaishnavas should be practising Krishna consciousness. So, Lord Nityananda went back and He was doing His preaching from Navadvip, from different places. He, one day, He was staying in the house of Srivas Thakur and He just called over Srivas and He whispered in his ear that Lord Chaitanya told Me, I should get married, so, you can make some arrangement. So, then, Srivas said, okay. Then, he started to call one Krishna 27:45. He sent a word around different people to see whether there is somebody suitable. But, who's suitable for Nityananda. 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 Krishna Hoda, He came. Krishna Hoda was the king.In Bengal history, there is a famous king called Hari Hoda. He is the father of Krishna 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 Lakshmi. (devotees laughing) But, then, somehow, he got out of that situation and he became very 28:42 again. So, he is a famous historical figure but his son, Krishna 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 bankrupt and how he had a lot of austerity. Then, he did some worship of Krishna, something. He got everything back. But Krishna, he was a famous Vaishnava Infact, later, Nityananda, made him a guru and he just became a preacher. He was known as a mahant, Krishna Hoda mahant. Lord Nityananda made many people from different caste- Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, whatever, if , they appered Vaishnavas, he made them gurus, to preach the message of Lord Chaitanya. So, this time, Krishna Hoda, he was one of the asssociates, it's mentioned in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Krishna, 60th or something branch. He went and told Srivas that Suryakanta Sarakhela has 2 daughters. They seemed to be suitable for Nityananda. Give me the green signal and I'll make them approach. So, then, Srivas gave, told him to follow it up and so, he went and talked to Suryakanta Sarakhela, whose the elder brother, I believe. Elder brother, I think of Gauridas Pandit, who was Subal sakha in Krishna's pastimes. So, when Krishna Hoda suggested to Suryakanta that you should give your daughters in marriage to Nityananda, he wasn't devotee of Nityananda that time. He said, Nityananda! He is running around here and there. It's like, doing Harinam all over the place and running around and practically, you know, He is like avaduth. Sometime, He is jumping and running. Sometime He is...how can I marry my daughters to Him. He is like, felt offended. No, my daughters, you know wonderful and Nityananda is usual character, does strange things. Nityananda's ecstacy will sometimes do inexplicable things, for the common people. So, Krishna 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 Nityananda Prabhu is. It's the greatest opportunity in your life..Like that, Krishna Hoda got very offended by his statements. That night, Suryakanta Sarakhela had a dream. In the dream, he saw Balaram and he saw Revati and Varuni, the 2 consorts of Balaram. Saw that Revati and Varuni were being given in marriage to Balaram and then they transformed and he could see Revati and Varuni were his 2 daughters and Balaram was Nitai. He woke up shocked. What was this that I was seeing? Hairs were standing on end and he realised that, actually this, I made a big mistake and he called, sent a message for Krishna Hoda... Please forgive me. Committed offense against Nityananda. So, I agree to give my daughters. I had this dream. I can realise that actually that is meant to be. So, Jahnavi and Vasudha, the 2 daughters of Suryakant. So, then, Krishna Hoda went over to see. That time, Nityananda was, He was surrounded by His associates. They were discussing Krishna pastimes and Nityananda had tears of love in His eyes. Someone was discussing, how Krishna and Balaram were playing in the forest of Vrindavan and with Sridam and Sudam, with different and then Nityananda was ecstatically listening and then, everyone was, as a whole, this was wonderful. Like, all surrounding Nityananda, discussing Krishna Katha. So, then, Krishna Hoda wants to give them the message that, you know, what you call, successful negotiation but everyone is absorbed in Krishna Katha. So, somehow, he gets Srivas Thakur to come over and then, he just informs him. So, then, Srivas Thakur goes and just whispers in Nityananda's ears. Take His permission, he just, you know, like, for a second, just gives a little smile and then, go back to Krishna Katha ( Guru Maharaj laughs) . So, that was it. Everything was, there was the green signal. So, then, Krishna Hoda was told to make the arrangements. Nityananda went to the place of Krishna Hoda, which was in Muragachi and Suryakanta Sarakhela's house, was on Śāligrāma village. So, all the brahmanas came and the day before the wedding. Then, they have a customary abhishek. Actually, this system observed today, that they do abhishek, especially the, now, they sprinkle little bit water, not a full abhishek. But, then, they did a whole abhishek. But, defined in Sanskar Deepika by Gopala Bhatta Goswami 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 sprinled 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. ( Guru Maharaj laughs) Keep them guided. So, but, before they did this, they had a whole abhishek for Nityananda. All the brahmans, they all came and they did a whole abhishek, 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 abhishek with turmeric water and yogurt and everything, they did the 35:12. Then, they went all over and went and did abhishek to the 2 girls, Vasudha and Jahnavi. They did the abhishek for them and the name, the day of the wedding, Nityananda Prabhu came and they had, it's elaborately described in the Bhakti Ratnakar, very big wedding ceremony. All Vaishnavas 35:40 giving the daughters on behalf of Krishna and after that, there was, you know, also, with kirtans and everything and then, they, Nityananda took the 2 girls, went back to Muragachi where Krishna Hoda's palace, has a diety of Nitai Gaur. 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. Nityananda Prabhu was personally there. Original dieties are there. There's many 36:16 places, things in Muragachi. I forget. There's, history is there. Some, 2 lakes are there. Nityananda did some pastime with those lakes. So, then, after that, Nityananda, He went back to Navadwip and He went to..He went on a little tour with His family. Went to Advaita's house in Shantipur. Then, He ended up in Khardaha, which is about 10kms or 7kms North of Panihati and there's bear the bank of the Ganges, He set up His house and then, from there, that was pretty central because a lot of Vaishnavas had left Navadvip when Lord Chaitanya left and had moved near, closer to Panihati. 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 of 37:13. So, then He showed how to be a Vaishnava preacher, as a grihastha. So, the brahmanas, they would travel and preach lot of time during the year, in the rainy season. Like, Srivas... Srinivas not Srivas but Srinivas, later on after 50 years..30, 40, 50 years, he was of course, trained by Gopala Bhatta and Jiva Goswami, in Vrindavan. He had no desire to get married. He came back to Bengal and Narahari Thakur ordered him that he should take the grihastha ashram. So, because a great Vaishnava told him, then, he accepted. But, otherwise, he didn't really have any, he never thought, didn't cross his mind actually. But, because Srinivas had delivered the king of Bankura 38:06 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 grihastha and you have to sit in the king's court and to do other things. So, he was hesitating. But, Narahari told him to get married, become the king's guru. In other words and you preach in that way. So, as a raj guru, then, he made that whole kingdom Krishna conscious and there are many Vaishnava 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, Srinivas was the first publisher of our literature, in our sampradaya. Those days, publishing was done by hand. They had to copy the books by hand. So, they had a whole group of brahmins, who sit and copy 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 brahmins 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 Sripat. 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 Sripats, 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 Sripat. So, there's Bhagwangola, one place in Bengal. It's the Sripat of Ramchandra Kaviraj. That's not far from.. it's about half hour, I think. Maybe 50 miles or 60, 70km from Kheturi, where Narottam Das Thakur 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 ofcourse, it's a whole different situation. But, that was how the original book distribution and original book publishing was going on by Srinivas. So, he was, he also was a grihastha. 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 centimetres. Mud meaning, upto your thigh, mud. Really thick. You are just like, quick. It's really heavy. You can't. Just a walk, you know, few 100 metres, it's like, effort. You know, you can't.. you take a whole shower afterwards. You are completely upto 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 chatur masya became, everyone, all the sadhus stopped travelling and preaching and just sat down at one place and preached from there. Did there, some austerities. That's why, in the chatur masya, you see me travelling outside of India. Different 41:59 these paved roads. We can't do Namhatta preaching. Even today, there's no paved roads in the villages. Only the main national highways are paved. So, that time, during the 4 months, sometimes, we read, that Srinivas 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 Chaturmasya, it is. Atleast, one Chaturmasya, 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 Gaur Purnima with Narottam Das Thakur, Kheturi. So, it's like, they are very active and the wives were seen very supportive, for the Krishna 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 Vaishnavis 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 grihastha, brahmana, Vaishnava preachers are also needed. So, we need dedicated brahmachari preachers and sanyasi lreachers. We also need grihastha preachers and there is something which, you don't find in the Gaudiya Math. Gaudiya Math is just brahmacharis and sanyasis and widows. Matha means that only renounced people will stay there. Bhakti Vinod Thakur was active preacher. His whole Namhatta was grihasthas. From the house, they were preaching and then Bhakti Siddhanta is the other extreme kind of, where everyone was in, you know, monastery preaching mathas and Prabhupad, he had both. He had mandirs, temples whether brahmacharis and grihasthas and vanaprasthas and sannyasis and everyone is engaged in Krishna consciousness and fulfilling their different duties, externally with the Varnashram but doing their preaching. So, like Prabhupad took all the different examples in the previous Acharya's, synthesized into one. That was, you know, very amazing and Prabhupad, he had said that, I am taking whatever the previous acharyas have instructed and I am just trying to do this to please Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, to please the previous acharyas. You can see that everything that Srila Prabhupad is doing, is inspired by the previous acharyas. Even, his desire to build Mayapur and have a spiritual city there, to build a big temple. It's something actually predicted by Lord Nityananda to Jiva Goswami, when He was taking Jiva Goswami on the Navadvip parikrama. 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 44:58. He predicted " Ek Adhbut Mandir hoibe prakash, Gauranga Nitya seva hoibe vikas"...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 prakash... will become manifested here, Gauranga nitya seva... the eternal principle of Lord Chaitanya or eternal service to Lord Chaitanya, hoibe vikas... will be spread. Vikas means widely spread. Ofcourse, Prabhupad said that, Mayapur is the centre for the whole world preaching. Then Nityananda 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 Navadvip 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 Chaitanya. It will be a city of all devotees. So, we know, since the very beginning in 1960, Prabhupad was saying, we should have a centre in Mayapur, Vrindavan and Mayapur, 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 Nityananda's prediction of desire of the previous acharyas. Whatever prabhupad was doing, he just wanted to fulfill all of their desires systematically one by one. Was the Bhakti Vinod Thakur predicted that Russians would come to Mayapur. 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 Sacinandan! Jaya Sacinandan! in Navadvip, Mayapur and then there will be coming and embracing with the devotees from Mayapur, from India. 47:04 Arya brothers... Aryan brothers and they'll be saying our Vaishnava 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 Harinam with 47:21, kartals and 47:24. So, all these predictions, by Prabhupad'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 Prabhupad'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 Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's disappearance festival, in Mayapur, he explained, that the secret of success is to please the previous acharyas. One's guru as well as the previous acharyas. So, in this way, we purify our intelligence by taking the instructions from sadhu, sastra and guru. Not only our guru but the previous acharyas, purify our intelligence and then, we dedicate our mind, surrender our mind to the lotus feet of Krishna, use the intelligence to engage ourselves in Krishna'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 Krishna conscious intelligence. Then, the intelligence will be guiding us properly. So, proper guidance of the intelligence is to serve the previous acharyas, to satisfy their desires, just take their wisdom, their vision and then, use that as our guiding principle. So, that was what Srila Prabhupad was doing and that's what we are dedicated to also do, is to please all these previous acharyas, who have dedicated themselves in serving Lord Chaitanya'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 Krishna! Any questions!

Yes!

Question: 49:33

Guru Maharaj: Could you repeat again, I didn't get you.

Question: 49:47

Guru Maharaj: That was explained by Nityananda Prabhu to Jiva Goswami that, by Krishna's yogamaya, although the core predictions were there but people couldn't understand the predictions. It's Krishna, didn't want him to understand the predictions before he came. Because, if they did, then His whole incarnation would be obstructed. 50:16 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 avatar and He'd be, people would all be calling Him as Krishna and then, He wouldn't be a proper devotee. Some great scholars could pick it out. So e great devotee... Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, when he saw the symptoms of Lord Chaitanya, he saw the quotes in the Bhagavatam 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, Krishna kept His yogamaya, so that, people didn't, it still didn't register. After Lord Chaitanya left, then, Lord Nityananda said, now, it doesn't matter, now everyone can know. So, then, He was explaining all the truth about Lord Chaitanya and all the Vaishnava scholars, they, then, showed the followers of Lord Chaitanya, 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 business. Now, the letters from Max Muller and other German translators have become published and they say that, Hindu pandits are very difficult, you know. We cannot convince the brahmana. 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 brahmins know the Vedas. The other people, they'll read our translation, in such a way, you undermine their faith and then, we'll be able to give Christianity. They would 52:57 publish like that. So, you got... 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 murthi as idol, knowing that in Christian 53:14 here idol. It's like, in the false guard 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 dirty, it's a form. But, they twisted things like that. So, now, these letters, we have the copies of the letters in Mayapur, the photocopy. We could not exhibit (Devotees laughing) but, just for reference of some quotes. Ofcourse, 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 yogamaya. But, now, you tell everyone, why should they stay in the dark?

Any other question!

Question: 54:13

Guru Maharaj: Ofcourse, there are some people, they claim, they have original manuscripts. The 54:26 palm leaf writings that, they are kept very dry, primarily lasts for a long time. Those manuscripts, some 500 years ago are written thousand years ago.. imagine.. he moved them. You know, it's like, they can crumble very easily. So, now, it's been customary that those type of writings were kept in special, like, root seller, type of arrangements in ancient temples. As for, Lord Chaitanya found the Brahma Samhita and the Krishna Karnamrita in Adi Keshava temple in South India. Immediately, He 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 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 farm brass 55:48 system, you don't get different copies, everyone has, like, the same version of the Bhagavad-Gita. Now, there's, somebody said iPhone 25 55:56 is trying to..Apart from that everybody else has the same version. No more Bhagavatam 10,000 verses. I think, there's 2 slokas.. that is the difference and Prabhupad 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 56:23i 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 sampradayas by keeping the Bhagavatam 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 56:51 taken over that...Garuda Das and others were doing it. But they micro switched all the manuscripts in Vrindavan and a few places and those are in the Sonia Institute, in America. But, really, the BBT should have a copy of all of them. They recently financed. 57:11 They got small 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. They just started the, Rameshwar Prabhu has started the whole thing and then, they got financing from that Smith Tony Institute, continued 57:35 I don't know, maybe in LA, they have a copy too. I was, wanted to get a copy from 57:43 through the central like Prabhupad 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 Gaudiya literature in Vrindavan. They didn't try all the other Vedas. It had to go to South India and do that.

Any other question!

Question: 58:05

Guru Maharaj: There is very little parallel between the Yadu dynasty and Lord Chaitanya' 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 Kshatriyas and they were very intelligent, powerful warriors, generals and Krishna, 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 Chaitanya's senior associates didn't leave but they died, they left out of seperation of Lord Chaitanya. Haridas Thakur left before but the others, most of them left within a short time. They didn't, weren't able to 59:02 immediate associates of Lord Chaitanya were not able to do much preaching. Once Lord Chaitanya left, they were too shook up in His seperation. They did some preaching but, they are mainly overwhelmed at just feeling seperation from Lord Chaitanya. The preaching really exploded afterwards, by the next generation like Vir Chandra, the son of Nityananda...Acyutananda, son of Advaita.. Srinivas and the 6 Goswami's, first went to Vrindavan where they wrote the books. Srinivas, Narottam and Shyamananda Pandit and then their disciples, they were doing most of the preaching afterwards. The immediate associates who were the whole time with Lord Chaitanya, when He left, they were very much absorbed in seperation. So, Nityananda, ofcourse, He continued preaching for a while but, then He also left. He left after He met Jiva Goswami. Jiva Goswami had studied in Benares, was going to Vrindavan but first, he came to Navadwip, met Nityananda and he went to Vrindavan amet Rupa and Sanatan and then Jiva Goswami, he became the main defender of the philosophy of Lord Chaitanya. He remained present on the planet longer than others. He was younger also. He was like the siksha guru for the society at that time, like, society as a whole.

Question: 1:00:33

Guru Maharaj: I don't know if any books written by Nityananda 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:1:01:37

Guru Maharaj: How old was he?

Question: No, No. 1:01:40

Guru Maharaj: At the Ekachakra village, where He took birth, they claim, there He entered into the diety room and entered into the Banke Bihari, Banke Rai diety of Krishna 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. Acharyas don't like to write all about the disappearance pastime. That's what, they say. There are no remnants. No samadhi or anything to Lord Chaitanya, Nityananda. I don't know if there's a samadhi to Advaita. I never heard of it but they came as substantial part 450 years ago. Lord Chaitanya's direct pastimes, there was, they were reading the Bhagavatam and they were chanting the Hare Krishna and having Bhagavatam classes. This was the basic and then afterwards , there are many people, the 1:02:57 Bhagavatam purports. They would just read the Bhagavatam. So, then, the Bhagavatam purports was only by Sridhar Swami. So, people, then understand all other things in the Bhagavatam so clearly. So, then, all the literatures by the 6 Goswamis came out, Chaitanya Charitamrita came out. This gave a very clear perspective to them. In Bhagavatam and gave the inner secrets about Krishna's pastimes and position. So, that, once those literatures came back from Vrindavan and they were the basis for all the preaching. Books were the basis. Books were the basis before, but, it was just the Bhagavatam. But Prabhupad's Bhagavatam purports include a lot of commentary, lot of explanation which embodies the realisations if the 6 Goswamis. Narottam Das Thakur, he wrote a song, little poetry, which is published in the Bhakti Ratnakar. I can send it, verse.. verses..it's a small 1:03:58..few verses. The jist of it is that, Lord Chaitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He has appeared in this world with His different energies, different shaktis and the different energies of Lord Chaitanya 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 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Then, he said, the 6 Goswamis were engaged in writing literature and Srinivas acharya and others were engaged in distributing them, a little. You like that! We had a copy of Bhakti Ratnakar 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, Narottam Das Thakur, gave this vision, that is a very confidential intimate service for Lord Chaitanya, the book distribution is always the 1:05:16, publishing. So, it's not even something new, just from Bhakti Siddhanta source people, comes right from Narottam Das Thakur and it's the very roots of other sampradaya. Krishna Himself is Vyasa dev. Wrote down all the literatures and Ganesha was helping. The instructions of the devotees to go out and send them out to the train stations, distribute the books. Anyway, everyday, 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 brahmin 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. (Guru Maharaj laughing) Just giving the book was much more involvement process but the person who got the book was very convinced. ( Guru Maharaj laughing) 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, Narottam Das Thakur described it as book distribution. All of the process is much more different, much different. Jaya! Book distribution ki Jaya!! Jaya Harinam sankirtan maha yajna ki jaya!! Jaya Pacha tattva ki jaya!! Srila Prabhupad Ki jaya!! Gaur Premanande. Hari haribol!!