19920314 Caitanya līlā Day 3

The following is the part of the seminar given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on March 14th 1992 in Sridham Māyāpur the seminar was on the Caitanya Līlā.

To deliver these fallen souls so thinking in this way the Lord told Haridas “Haridas you see those two misdirected souls being born in  Brahman family they are acting in such a nāsty way these two are going to go to the house of Yamaraj there’s no deliverance for them at the end of their lives they are going to suffer so much, so many reaction now you just consider you try to find a way, is there any way for these two sinful persons to be delivered, you have promised the lord you have yourself told this truth. Let the people of the world see Lord Caitanya’s effects, his mercy, how Lord Caitanya will deliver these two fallen souls.

Just like the purāṇas sing the glories of Ajāmila’s deliverance let them see in their very eyes the people of these three worlds the deliverance of these two sinful persons”.

So, in this way Nityānanda and Haridas they were filled with compassion and they thought in their minds. Haridas told the Lord listen my dear sir whatever is your desire that is certainly the desire of the Lord you just tie me the way you are tying the animal and whatever you want you do with me you just teach me.

So Nityānanda he gave him a good embrace very softly he told him the Lord has told us we have to go to everyone and tell the people his order, so let’s tell these two the order of Lord Caitanya so what if they are drunkards, we have to tell everyone to worship Kṛṣṇa it is the Lord’s order even if they are the most sinful people so what it’s only our duty to tell everyone to take up this order of Lord Caitanya and just it is our duty to go to everyone and tell them.

So then to tell the Lord’s order to these two Nityānanda and Haridas they went over to teach Jagāi and Mādhāi. Hari all the respectful people there please don’t go near them, don’t go near them they are very dangerous they don’t respect sanyasis’s they don’t know, they can kill a brahman, they can kill a cow, they can do anything don’t go to them, they won’t respect you. Still Lord Nityānanda and Haridas they went chanting Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! They were chanting Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa and went on, so then some people wanted to hear what is going to happen so they went along side and their Lord Nityānanda was calling out

“bolo Kṛṣṇa bhajo Kṛṣṇa bolo Kṛṣṇa naam Kṛṣṇa mata Kṛṣṇa pitā Kṛṣṇa dhana prāṅ tumāra svabhagya Kṛṣṇa avatar hare Kṛṣṇa bhajo sabo anachar”

so this means chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, worship Kṛṣṇa take the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is your mother, Kṛṣṇa is your father, Kṛṣṇa is your life and soul, Kṛṣṇa has come he has taken his appearance in this world for your deliverance chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, worship Kṛṣṇa give up all your sinful acts hearing this call of Nityānanda the two guys the two drunkards Jagāi Mādhāi lifted their heads, they became very angry their eyes became red with anger seeing the two like Sanyasis they raised their heads and they started to cry out thor thor catch them, catch them and they ran to catch the two, so Nityānanda and Haridas they ran very quickly roho roho stop stop the two thieves yelled running after them, so they were running after Nityānanda and Haridas, running away very quickly, running here and there, the two prabhus were running in apparently great fear trying to escape being caught the people were crying out

“I told them not to tell them, I told them not to go to these two, these sanyasis today are really in danger”

so some people are against the devotees and they  always think that the devotees are cheaters they have because  they don’t believe in bhakti so they always think that the devotees they must be having some ulterior motives, so they never accept devotees at the face value that they are actually devotees so there are many people of these kind, they thought but now these two are getting what they deserve because actually they are going around telling everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa who do they think they are know they are anyway now Nārāyaṇa is giving them what they really deserve.

But the real Brāhmaṇa they are praying Kṛṣṇa protect them rākho Kṛṣṇa rākho Kṛṣṇa protect them so when this happened this was kind of an acid test the real Brahmans, the real pious people they were very much afraid for Haridas Thakur and Nityānanda and those who were really envious they thought haha.

Now Nityānanda is going to get it for waking us up and getting us to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa so there are two kinds of people they got revealed by this celebrated chapter from the straw , so the two thieves are running and the two lords are fleeing I caught him I caught him they are crying out but actually they couldn’t catch them, Nityānanda was saying that today, today Is only by the mercy of the Lord that we were able to save our lives.

Haridas Thakur said my Lord why do you say more because of your plan that buttoday practically speaking we were at the point of death that telling the drunkards the teachings of Kṛṣṇa certainly it is proper for us to have to be killed for our offense Normally Kṛṣṇa says don’t preach to the envious in Bhagavad Gītā 18th chapter he mentions this so here they have preached to the envious.

So Haridas Thakur is saying anyway if we get killed, we deserved it. So, the two are laughing they are saying in a laughing mood and running and the two Jagāi and Mādhāi really running after them.

Actually, the two of them were very tired still they had to run to escape from the two drunkards, the two Jagāi, Mādhāi brothers yelled out where are you going to escape how are you going to get away from Jagāi, Mādhāi today they are calling out you don’t know Jagāi, Mādhāi are here if you stay for a minute turn around look behind you but the two Lords are running without a stick to their words

rākho Kṛṣṇa rākho Kṛṣṇa Govinda bholiya,

they said Kṛṣṇa protect us, Kṛṣṇa protect us oh Govinda.

Haridas Thakur said aree I can’t go further I am very old all this time Kṛṣṇa has saved me from the lap of death but today due to our restless intelligence I am going to have to give up my life. Nityānanda said I am not that restless you just feel how your Lord is anxious just like on the Lords order he told us to go from house to house and ask everyone where did he say to leave someone out of his order don’t say to the thieves, don’t say to this one, don’t say to that one he didn’t tell us not to tell anybody he told us to tell everyone, so if we didn’t follow his order we will be destroyed anyway so if we follow his order then there is no, by following his order we got this fruit if we didn’t follow we can consider what fruit we would have got. Don’t ever think any, don’t give any fault to the Lord, both of them did not give any fault to the Lord but took the fault on themselves.

So in this way the two are running and the two thieves are running after them they got to their owns Lords house and the two drunkards they are running very quickly after them, they ran into one house and then  the two were looking at them but could not find them so they started shouting out but they couldn’t locate them anymore where did they go how did they hide the two were looking here and there they couldn’t find where they went then the thieves ran off so then the two brothers embraced each other they went over to Viswambhar there the Lord was sitting just like his lotus eyes his whole body beautiful, his whole form completely attractive Lord was seated like this so much detail was given. How Nityānanda how Haridas Thakur how merciful they were of course you know how they were delivered, they delivered Jagāi Mādhāi eventually, so this was their mood they go to everyone.

So, when Nityānanda saw anyone fallen he would say let me deliver. Lord Caitanya when his servant got misdirected in South India he went and grabbed him by his śikhā Kṛṣṇa Das saved him and brought him back Lord Caitanya wanted to deliver everyone especially the most fallen you will find all of the acharyas are praying to Lord Caitanya to please give me your mercy because there is no one more fallen then I am, so if we want to get the mercy of the Lord we need to present our self in a very humble way.

So, the supreme mercy of Lord Caitanya is explained here in the Caitanya Charnamrita, Caitanya Bhagavat and even though you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa so many times if you commit offenses you don’t get love of Kṛṣṇa but Caitanya, Nityānanda don’t have this consideration as soon as you chant there name you will get love of Kṛṣṇa “Caitanya Nityānanda nahin yeḥ sab char naam leta prema dhana bahe ashurdhat “

so then now it is the time for the procession times goes so fast and there is going to be a special slide show of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā about Lord Caitanya’s holy places tonight and then Manipur dancing. Is there any question, yes (audience questions) Lord Caitanya eternally stays in  Nawadweep Māyāpur dham manifest or un-manifest he goes out he does not stay there eternally but he goes simultaneously he is outside manifesting some other pastime I didn’t see anywhere  written in about Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya does stay here, even though he leaves  he is also staying here but I didn’t see anywhere specifically mentioned that he is different form of Lord Caitanya but I am not Lord Caitanya’s knowledge is unlimited so I didn’t see that i don’t speculate you don’t see something specifically mentioned just our logic does not reveal the things just they are. Yes (audience questions) the Lord hears

“ye yataḥ mām prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy ahaṁ”

according to how we pray that is how he hears if you offer in full surrender he will hear in that way even if you show little bit of inclination the Lord will is very merciful. Kṛṣṇa is, if you don’t offer Kṛṣṇa sharangati then he won’t reciprocate on the level of pure love but Lord Caitanya is so merciful that is his special quality if you chant the name of Lord Caitanya then immediately you can get the feeling of devotion you can get the love of Kṛṣṇa that is his supreme mercy yes. (audience question)

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: No. Jagāi Mādhāi went to beat them you can’t just stand there and get killed it’s not our philosophy that if somebody goes to kill you, you should just stand there and get killed must run for your life, they tried to give them mercy but response was Jagāi Mādhāi wanted to grab them beat them and kill them so the two ran, to save those para dukhī dhuki they saved those two brothers from committing any more serious offense it’s enough that they are yelling abuses to them and if they catch and beat them it will be a greater offense for them so they are saving them from committing that offense and at the same time.

Prabhupāda explains that the devotee’s body is given to Kṛṣṇa for his service so you should protect the body from being destroyed untimely so that we can continue using it in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

Thank you. It is the time for the procession know.

Rādhā Mādhava ki jai,

Nitāi Gaur ki Jai,

Nityānanda, Gaurāṅga.

When Lord Caitanya lived in Māyāpur and he often on during the san kīrtan pastimes he would go to Shantipur and Śrī Advaita Goswami’s house there the Lord he took sannyas then before going to Jagannath Purī he was taken to Santipur for some times the pastimes mentioned in Advaitas house were pastimes that happened in Nawadweep like one time mother Śacī had committed an offense at the lotus feet of Advaita that is explained in a very short form in Adi līlā chapter 17 verse 10

“śacīke prema-dāna, tabe advaita-milana advaita pāila viśvarūpa-daraśana”

Thereafter the Lord delivered love of Kṛṣṇa to His mother, Śacīdevī, nullifying her offense at the feet of Advaita Ācārya. Thus, there was a meeting with Advaita Ācārya, who later had a vision of the Lord’s universal form.

So what happened was when the Lord had this Mahā Prakash and all the devotees had asked please you have given the love of God head to Kolavecha Śrīdhar to so many people, you give the love of God head to your mother Sachi but then Lord Caitanya sitting on the throne of Viṣṇu in the house of Śrīvas Prabhu said my mother has offended the lotus feet of Advaita Acharya unless she nullifies this offense at the lotus feet of the Vaiṣṇava it would not be possible for her to achieve the love of Kṛṣṇa hearing this all the devotees went to bring Advaita Ācārya there, while coming to see the Lord.

Advaita Ācārya was glorifying the characteristics of mother Śacī Devī actually what happened is Advaita was before Lord Caitanya then everyone requested Adviata you please forgive mother Śacī for her offense then Advaita said how can I do that how can she offend me; she is the greatest of all the devotees, she is such a wonderful devotee he started glorifying mother Śacī all her qualities, all her devotion until finally he fainted in ecstasy himself.

Advaita Ācārya was glorifying the characteristics of mother Śacī Devī that is why he fell on the ground in ecstasy on the instructions of Lord Caitanya Śacī Devī took advantage of the situation to touch Advaita Ācāryas lotus feet that is the secret how you get forgiven for your offenses, if you touch someone’s feet, of course some people say you must touch both I don’t know this shastras say you must touch one or both but people say you must both.

Anyways here it mentions she touches Advaita Ācārya’s feet Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very much pleased by her mother’s action he said now my mother’s offenses at the lotus feet of Advaita Ācāryas feet has been rectified and she may have love of Kṛṣṇa without difficulty so by this example Lord Caitanya taught everyone although one may be very much advanced in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

But an offense at the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava his advance will not bear fruit after that Advaita Ācārya requested Lord Caitanya to show his universal form so many of these pastimes they actually happened in Nawadweep at Advaitas Nawadweep house but we also have this house in Shantipur where we are going to go tomorrow and many of the pastimes occurred there one of the logistic point, Shantipur and the house of Advaita in one corner they had excavated and they found a whole mud of Lord Caitanya’s and Advaita’s covered cooking vessels one or two they keep on this I don’t know what they did with the rest of them they will show you the place where they found them one or two they still have.

So, this is very old plates no one questions are these the plates of Advaita Acharya everyone accepts there is some controversy with other places of different, sometimes but with that there is no controversy everyone of whatever group they all accept that is the place of Advaita and that used to be where the Ganges was flowing where the ……. Started a little house which has a little temple where there are three seats, three asans and picture of Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda, and Advaita Ācārya there, when Lord Caitanya came back from Katwa after taking sanyas it is quite well recorded in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, after taking sanyas Nityānanda had told the Brahman boys some cowherd boy’s Lord Caitanya ask you where Vrindavan is in which direction you point in some other direction you point South of course North of here 45km North, Shantipur is 29km South.

So, they pointed to Lord Caitanya the wrong way and then he went South alongside the Ganges until he reached Shantipur and Advaita and Nityānanda Prabhu got into a boat and crossed the river from Advaita’s house.

But Lord Caitanya’s saw Advaita what Advaita and Nityānanda are doing in Vrindavan of all places then he found hey wait a minute they couldn’t be in Vrindavan they must not be in Vrindavan they looked around he came out of his ecstasy and then he realized he was in Shantipur how did this happen then he was taken over the river and they sat down and had prasādam which was very well documented in Caitanya Caritāmṛta, it was a time when Nityānanda threw prasad on Advaita and Advaita started dancing in ecstasy and chastising Nityānanda, Nityānanda come here you are a biggest smartha here so many intimate different pastimes are there that took place in Shantipur, so right besides Nityanandas house, Śrī Advaitas house you will see all Ganges, the three prabhus are Vishramsthan there is a very small ……  there used to be a river bed.

The pastimes that happened in Shantipur when he worshiped the saligram śilā and he worshipped the Ganges water with Tulasī Mañjarī’s with loud prayers fasting, at Shantipur he was praying just there by the side of the Ganges for the coming of Lord Caitanya nearby Shantipur there is a place called Puliya that is where Haridas Thakur lived in a cave ghufa he was also praying for the advent of the Lord, so Santipur that pastime also occurred Advaita was loudly crying for Kṛṣṇa to come he said that my name is Advaita non different from the Lord acharya is to be a representative or non- different, so what is the use if I can’t bring the Lord down, tell him to come here, it is beyond my capacity to save these fallen souls the Lord himself has to come.

So that is another pastime that happened in Shantipur another pastime was that Advaita whenever he would have a festival of the disappearance of his father which was called the shradh ceremony and as is customary in those days to cook a very big feast and offer to Viṣṇu, so he invited so many brahmans of Shantipur and he also invited Haridas Thakur, so the remnants of the Viṣṇu prasad is given to brāhmaṇas and this benefit of feeding the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas would go to his father.

So the first prasad who to give it to, so he said I proposed to give it to Haridas Thakur the other brāhmaṇas they felt offended they thought that Haridas Thakur is born in a Mohammedi an family how could he get the first prasad of the shrad this should go to a Brāhmaṇa not to Haridas Thakur but Advaita said he is the greatest Brāhmaṇa he is the pure Vaiṣṇava, the Vaiṣṇava has all the qualities of a Brāhmaṇa and more he is a real Brāhmaṇa he should get but the others are not accepting Advaita Ācāryas proposal willingly.

So then Advaita said alright a real Brāhmaṇa is able to ignite fire by the force of his mantras so he took some water and gave to each of the brāhmaṇas you ignite this by your mantras no matches no flaming cotton just by mantra you ignite it your breath, we will see how powerful brahman you are so he took to each of them they were blowing and saying mantras there was no spark, there was no smoke nothing happened then finally when he came around to Haridas Thakur after going to each and every one of the brāhmaṇas then presented before Haridas Thakur by his brahmā they chanted the holy name of Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa the fire wood caught on fire and all the brāhmaṇas they had nothing to say after that, so then the first offering was given to Haridas Thakur at Shantipur.

So like this Lord Caitanya dealing with mother Śacī happened in Shantipur after taking sanyas and then Madavendra Purī when he was travelling to whole of India he was going actually he was going from Vṛndāvan dham to Purī to get sandal wood chandan for his Gopal deities that, the deity of Kṛṣṇa that was actually Nandanathji now known as nathji because he was shifted to nath dwara and recently he was found in Vrindavan he was in the bushes for a very long time he was very hot so he told Madavendra Purī that I need sandal wood to cool me down and Vṛndāvan was very far away from any source of sandal wood so he was going near the way to South India in Karnataka, Tamil Nāḍu they have sandal wood forest but that sandal wood is brought up to Jagannath Purī, so he was going down to the Ganges.

So Madavendra Purī on his way he found that he would go on the main path all the common people will come and touch his feet and ask him for material blessing so there was nobody who was asking anything about devotional service and if he goes with the sanyasis then the sanyasis are all māyāvādī’s at that time so they would only be taking about brahmā gyan so that was very dry no other Vaiṣṇava sannyas he was going with Tridaṇḍī, Vaiṣṇava Tilak and so was going on the beaten path he was just going by the side of the Ganges of Advaita Ācāryas house which is right on the Ganges side which you will see tomorrow, so when he went into he had almost as by Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement just Advaita he went into the asram of Advaita, Advaita was seated there in his ashram and he had a Viṣṇu tilak, he is a Vaiṣṇava he is doing his worship and chanting and here comes a sanyasi Vaiṣṇava tidandi Vaiṣṇava tilak and Advaita is like shocked he has not seen a Vaiṣṇava sanyasi just kind of a in those days they were only a very rare not seen much of them.

They were mainly in South India Udipi in a few places in Śrīraṅgam very rare to find Vaiṣṇava sanyasi in North India that time all places were swarmed with Sankracarya sanyasis somehow Madavendra Purī came right into the house of Advaita and Advaita stood up and gave his obeisance’s you know he knew he was a Vaiṣṇava and gave him his seat worshipped him and offered him to please take some prasādam, saligram deity.

Madavendra Purī he had come so far he couldn’t find a single Vaiṣṇava everyone was smartha or māyāvādī here he found Advaita Ācārya greatest Vaiṣṇava pandit brahman.

So they got into discussing Kṛṣṇa kathā and he became very ecstatic, Advaita Ācārya served Madavendra Purī and he had tremendous faith and he did not recognize that Madavendra Purī was completely a self-realized soul he was Mahā Bhagavat of course Advaita Ācārya he had a vision and he know being a Mahā Viṣṇu incarnation he knows who is who he may not be a  one day he would recognize who is a pure devotee or not but Advaita Ācārya he could in the very first day he could immediately recognize the glories of Madavendra Purī.

So although he had been following the Vaiṣṇava tradition he needed to take diksha there were so few Vaiṣṇava guru’s and he did not have a Sat Guru he did not take a initiating guru up to that point, he had taken mantra and brahminical mantra he was a practicing Vaiṣṇava dharma he did not take full panchratri initiation.

So he requested Madavendra Purī to give him initiation, Madavendra Purī being very satisfied with Advaita Gosāi gave him initiation so that is how Advaita became initiated by Madavendra Purī.

Then Madavendra Purī continued on South wards and eventually went to Jagannath Purī of course on the way the pastimes of Yamunā with ….. Gopīnāth and so on the Lord Caitanya went to Jagannath Purī from Shantipur then after 10 years he came back to Bengal remember he was going to Vṛndāvan and the first time he went to Bay of Bengal and he got up to Kani natashala…….. seeing Rūpa and Sanātana in Ramkeli on the way he stopped in Shantipur and met Advaita Gosāi so this happened that the day he went there was the day of Madavendra Purī’s disappearance and he saw the entire festival being arranged by Advaita Gosāi that festival where Lord Caitanya was so impressed by the arrangements of Advaita Goswami he gave a special blessings to that festival on this thithi, on this dwadasi thithi the 12th day of month of Govinda the and the Kṛṣṇa and the suklapaksha gaur panchak that the rising dwadasi after the new moon, anyone who comes here and takes prasad in Advaita’s house at Advaitas asram this pace in Shantipur they will get the love for Govinda.

So I don’t know whether I should tell all the pastimes today or tomorrow, tomorrow any way we will be meeting but all the restrictions, the idea is that Advaita Goswami he had made such a wonderful arrangement this disappearance festival  for Madavendra Purī this was an amazing arrangement so many devotees were engaged in the festival that it was occupying everyone.

So Lord Caitanya he gave that special blessing there are very few places in the world that you just go and take prasādam and you get a blessing like that so when the head priest from the temple the sevaites one who is in charge of, the system in India is that deities when they are established they have a sevait that means a trustee who is responsible for the service of the deity that is called devatar or deity estate  like a minor child has an adult who manages the as the child happens to have a trustee or a trust against their name and then there are some adults who manage that trust on behalf of the child until he becomes a major, so legally in India it is set up like that deity can act on their own behalf they normally don’t.

So there are devotees who act on their behalf and protect the interest of the deities, so sometimes that is done by a trustee board or society or sometimes it is done by a hereditary family or sometimes it is done by hereditary family line so in this case Advaita śrīpād, Advaita’s deities were handed down through a line of herditary line and 13th generation of Lord Advaita is Shanti sakhā goswami so he expressed to Isckon that every years ago some groups used to come here and distribute prasāda on this day but know this has stopped …… Iskcon is now the leading organization in the world and this type of special occasion where you could get the love of God head just by taking prasādam, Lord Caitanya wanted Prasad to be distributed on this occasion of this when he said that so why don’t you take it up, actually originally he told that for one day why don’t you be the sevait I will give you the key it is your temple for the whole day but then the matter didn’t came out like that because other groups, I don’t know he couldn’t arrange it like that neither our devotees went to get the key in the morning nor do they hand it maybe the devotees wanted to stay there for the whole day all the pūjās, but when they do let us offer the bhoga to Advaita and distribute the prasādam and now the whole municipal government has taken up the program and they are inviting us to build an ashram in Shantipur they want to show land that they are willing to give us for this purpose and the mayor and a local legislative assembly member he is also going to be coming  tomorrow he feels that Isckon should do something in Shantipur.

Shanti Sakhā Goswami showed me letters many years ago from Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda wrote hand written letters to him, at that time Prabhupāda he couldn’t initially get any land in Māyāpur, he didn’t get land until 1971 so there were his God brothers were not helping Prabhupāda to get the land in Māyāpur.

So one point Prabhupāda thought let me move my main headquarters to Shantipur which is like Mathurā of Kṛṣṇa pastime, of Caitanya pastime so he actually wrote letter to Shanti Sakhā Goswami I saw two three letters I forget, if it is possible to have an international guest house in the temple there and Shanti Sakhā Goswami is coming in line of Vaiṣṇavas who is a very great preachers who was a mystic yogi, he was in the line of Advaita for a while he practiced mystic yogi and he came back again into Vaishnavism, so he predicted that one day the world will become mridanga muni that was his prediction the whole world will be so filled with  mridangas that everyone we would look will to be mridangas like mridanga munis there would be so many mridangas playing in the whole parts of the world so on that basis this particular line accepts that there should be word wide Vaiṣṇavas.

Some of the smarthas who are very strict brāhmaṇas they had hesitation to non-brahmanas to do pūjā even if they were Vaiṣṇavas but Shanti Sakhā and his line they did not accept the Vaiṣṇava Brāhmaṇa but he is a Brāhmaṇa and that the world will become preached by will be covered and filled by Caitanya’s message. He has a very severe rheumatism and cancer he is crippled up but he has a nice heart and he always welcomes the devotees whole heartedly and we are abided by the fact when we go there by this program.

So Shantipur has a very great history there are many different pastimes that went on there and as I mentioned Shantipur is also famous for two things very fine cloth and for offending Vaiṣṇavas one of the best cloth some of the best cloth, clothes of India are made in Shantipur there are very fine handlooms in fact during the British time they made such fine handloom cloth.

Prabhupāda explained that you could spread over on the grass in the night in the morning when the dew would fall you couldn’t see where the cloth was it looked just like dew on top of the grass so you could put a whole cloth through a ring, you take a little ring this is Prabhupāda ring you put the whole cloth through the ring and it would come out as dhotī it is a very fine cloth very fine weed finally those days the British tried to introduce there mill cloth they wanted India to buy there industrial products in Shantipur the cloth was so fine that people would prefer the Shantipur cloth over the British.

So apparently one of the British lords he went and cut off the thumbs of the weavers of Shantipur so that they couldn’t make the fine cloth it requires you thumb without thumbs you can’t do much so there some atrocities that went on but in the British time they are still making fine cloth but not like that heritage of this type of dew cloth is maybe lost but they still make very good cloth, some reason or the other there are some people in Shantipur who tend to offend the Vaiṣṇavas it is from the time immemorial it is  like there was Kaṁsa of Mathurā like there are few offenders in Shantipur but there are many, many  very nice devotees also.  It’s not that everybody is an offender but you might find few nāsty people you may find by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy maybe they don’t  come tomorrow but that type of tradition was there.

So Advaita was very merciful he went there and actually he established vaishnavism and he preached to these people so although they were a little offensive by nature, he preached to them and brought them around so we are all going to Shantipur people are inviting us with open arms and he preached to these people to bring them closer to Lord Caitanya actually they very much identify with Lord Caitanya because Advaita was there. But in Kaliyuga everything is covered up.

The actual Saligram that advitya worshipped is in another temple in the town, where we are going tomorrow is the house of advitya besides the old Ganges, which today is in a village just on the outskirts of the town, the old Ganges of course on the other side which used to be the Ganges in the end of the municipal limits, where this temple is just on the other side of the river. So that’s just a kind of overview of Shantipur pastimes, so you can know something about the glories of Shantipur.

So, I am going there tomorrow.

Any questions?

(Devotee questions)

Govinda, yes.

That’s where we are going there tomorrow you can have a look at that but devotees you see what happens for those who were here previously especially like Kavichandra Maharaj & number of the devotees you see is relaxing now but actually tomorrow you will see he will be there with buckets in his hand and khichdi up to his knees and one of these devotees and they really get into the mood of giving out their mercy, you will look and if you come there, you see few hundreds of people and you see the main door and you want to know where are the people.

Will sit down and start talking about the glories of Shantipur, past times, Advaita Gosāi and then you go and you look around, you will see these people, where have they come from, and they start pulling out the buckets and it’s like bucket brigade they are putting out the fire They are putting out the fire of digestion by filling up with khichdi  and all the people start sitting down in lines in the orchid and it becomes & these people they start streaming in from all over from the  foyers and from the, they keep coming in and you know you have probably fed about 25000 people, so the devotees one after the other they are showing up to get a better chance of distributing and a spoon but……( Devotee speaks) bucket and a spoon (Devotee speaks) spoons and buckets (Devotee speaks)…..

Am I explain something about the festival tomorrow - practical experience?

How many people are here from Māyāpur, that haven’t gone to the Shantipur festival …… (Devotee speaks)

any other question

(Devotee speaks)

this is the first time that I am hearing, have you heard that before

(Devotee speaks)

only that one particular deity

(Devotee speaks)

Caitanya Mādhava temple (Audience continues)

this maybe an internal thing that they are doing there and we never heard before, that only the people born in the brahman family can worship the deity, but rest of the temples they don’t follow this.

(Devotee speaks).

You don’t know whether but did Bhakti Vinod Thakur put that in writing somewhere

(Devotee speaks).

I will just regulate something I thought, of course I think I mean as I said I don’t know whether it is true or not but we do that sometimes in Vṛndāvan when we were establishing our deities there, we could have done our own installation ceremony like here in Māyāpur we do our installation ceremony like the day we install Ashta Sakhi’s, but everyone will accept that, no one is going to say that they installed deities therefore it’s not acceptable.

But in Vṛndāvan when the Kṛṣṇa Balarām temple first started, then if we were to install the deities people may say that deity is a side deity or American or British deity or something they may not accept.

So Prabhupāda brought Brahmans from South India Bhaktas from the Rāmānuja’s sampradāya and they did a very big Pooja 3 days with all the aagamans and all that you know all that formal Pooja’s to install Kṛṣṇa Balarām & Nitāi Gaur, Rādhe Shyam …….. That way all the pundit’s ……. installed by the brahmans and it is paka so that way they won’t criticize, so sometimes you have to do because of the people, what they are thinking. what kind of prejudice they might have to establish their faith in their mind for that as rightly sound, it is a true story what you are saying maybe something like that.

Lord Bhakti Sidhantha Thakur, Bhakti Vinoda Thakur wanted to establish the birth place of Lord Caitanya. They didn’t want people to find any fault maybe something like that I don’t know but I am just guessing. I can’t say this as I don’t know the actual reality I just know that the Vaiṣṇava ācārya’s sometimes had to do different things in order to establish a particular faith to get the faith of the people. Yes

(Devotee speaks) but we haven’t been able to see the tilak of Madavendra Purī, we see some artist interpretations, but actual I don’t if any of the artist

(Devotee speaks)

Mādhava Ācārya the tilak that we are wearing is being handed down by the six Goswami’s and to Narottam Das Thakur & Narottam Das Thakur is specially this tilak with the kundra the śāstra’s says that the tilak has to go up. The south Indians, they tried over the tilak In the Sree sampradāya that whether the tilak should go round curve or whether it’s a square curve, or square angle at the bottom, and the 2 sampradāyas,  the elephants when they go in procession in the one sect of the Śrī Sampradāya they wear the round tilak and the other one they wear the square so the 2 elephants have different tilaks and that’s the big thing about the tilak, so then they tried to make some kind of compromise so that they have the elephants have the 2 flaps 2 different tilaks on the different flaps different things like that. In our Sampradāya you will also find there are lot of different kinds of tilaks going around, In the Shyamananda sampradāya.

In Orissa they put a little dot because Shyamananda himself got a blessing from Rādhā Rāṇī that put a dot on his forehead, so all the followers of Shyamananda put dot tilak, I don’t wheather that its bona-fide, but it was bona-fide for Shyamananda because his dot was given by Rādhā Rāṇī but whether it is bona-fide for others to do that or he told them to do it I don’t know. Could find a slight variations on the tilak but the particular tradition that we follow is from Narottam Das Thakur as is told that he said that this bottom part should be more or less in the shape of a tulasī leaf and the upper part should be, of course the upper part is 2 straight lines more or less the width of your finger, so I don’t know about the width exactly but this is what Prabhupāda taught us this is what we have heard this is the Narotama das Ṭhākura line, because the bottom part is the shape of a Tulasī leaf so we are following in that particular tradition but here we discussed all the South Indian pandits and the Śrī sampradāya and Mādhava they all say that the actual shastra says Puratva Pudra as compared to the Shivaits have this

 horizontal three lines the Vaiṣṇavas wear the rising lines so we are following what is being handed down in our disciplic succession from the six Goswami, Narottama Das Ṭhākura so this is the tilak that we know that Kṛṣṇa wears in Vrindavan, this is the Vrindavan kind of tilak that has been handed out by the Acharyas that is accepted by all the pandits that as long as the 2 lines are going up and there is a little thing on your nose this is the tilak, whether its round, square this or that we follow the particular line from Narotama das.

How it came from Mādhava to Madavendra Purī and Lord Chaitnaya?

That’s is the whole history of tilak this is the detailed kind of thing that some pandits research and really enjoy that kind of a detailed investigation, we have more kind of important tattvas to deal with rather than the history of tilak but it is something in future that someone will get into the whole history of tilaka probably somebody gets a PHD this is a kind of thing in the modern universities you get a PHD and religious studies for the whole historical amorphology and what they call it the whole history of tilak this is the kind of thing you get PHD for.

(Devotee speak)

There we can find out all about how the tilak came to be I have go ahead and look at this so that I can answer these questions. It is the kind of thing that I was saying these PHD we stick to some particular details we can write a whole thesis on this and get a doctorate but they miss the whole point of surrendering to Kṛṣṇa actually spreading the san kīrtan movement or developing devotion for Kṛṣṇa they say they can become experts and can tell you 18.46, 1023, tilak, chant this way and that way but they can’t actually believe in serving the Lord Caitanya taking out his mission, in Vaiṣṇava philosophy well I am just a pandit or a scholar and so you don’t want to get into gyana for gyana sake  we want gyana or Vedānta for the sake of devotion to Kṛṣṇa gyana end should be for knowing Kṛṣṇa to serve him better, so these are interesting points but as long as we don’t lose the perspective and actually really make sure that you achieve the goal of life which is pure love for Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa

(Devotee speaks)

What does it mean that Lord Caitanya united the four sampradāyas and the rumour is do you read Bengali script Nawadweep Mahatyama, Nawadweep Mahatyama it’s a white book it’s written in English……. there it is mentions in the last part of the book where Lord Nityānanda is taking srejith well he went in the last part of the parikrama to rtvadweep and samantadweep Lord Chaitaya revealed himself to Sankra Ācārya, to Viṣṇu Swami, to Ramunaja Swami, to Madhva Ācārya, to Nimbārka Ācārya in different ways.

Like when Rāmānuja Ācārya was in Jagannath Purī it was famous that he wanted to change the whole deity worship they have a special tantrik, Vaiṣṇava tantrik type of special deity worship and he wanted to change their system and make it a more like a formal Narayan type pūjā and then it is known that Jagannath had thrown Rāmānuja from Jagannath Purī to Kurmadesh there he found the Kūrma deity which was being worshipped as it was actually Shiva Liṅga was actual an additional deity and he started a Kūrma temple so Kūrma worship as Kūrma dev Vishnu deity.

So, Bhakti Vinoda Thakur said when Jagannath threw him actually first he threw him to Nawadweep.

So here in Nawadweep he met Lord Caitanya got some special instruction and then he was transferred over to Kurmadesh like that somehow or other different Acharyas came they came here to Nawadweep dham and they got special mercy.

So, the pastime with Nimbārka Ācārya when Lord Caitanya revealed himself to Nimbārka Ācārya he said you are going to come as I am going to take your sampradāya all the sampradāyas I am going to unite them, by taking essence from each so here he explains

“Jabho awhe sankirtan hamora kare bol tumhara mantra sāra nija prachare bol”

when I am going to start my Sankirtan movement I am going to take the essence of your teachings and preach them myself. From Mādhava Ācārya I am going to take two essences one is I am going to take keval advaita nirasha smashing the philosophy of monisim the first point hey māyāvād has to go, where māyāvād is there bhakti doesn’t come.

So first thing he is saying Mādhava, Mādhava is very active in smashing the impersonalist, so first thing is to destroy this monostic māyāvād philosophy the second thing Mādhava Acharya established the deity of worship of deity of Kṛṣṇa which is still going on,  in Uḍupī they say the deity is eternal it is not material and the deity has to be worshiped so this is second point he is taking from Mādhava Kṛṣṇa, deity of Kṛṣṇa is transcendental reality that should be worshipped, so this worship of the deities is non- different from Kṛṣṇa , is the presence of Kṛṣṇa that’s the other thing he is taking from Madhva Ācārya. From Rāmānuja, he is also gonna to take 2 points.

Rāmānuja preach that one should have unadulterated devotion, that’s called annanya bhakti simply serving Vishnu. While in India you’ll find in a pooja room, sometimes they got - Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Śiva, Durgā, Lakṣmī, Kali, Ganesha they got like the whole line up and then they say how come you keep everyone and they say, well we don’t know who is the supreme so we put everyone and in whatever way.

It’s kind of like Sankya philosophy that Sankya that sprays out of the mouth get the target with one of the shot, so they put everyone there because they don’t know who is the supreme so they figure that they well they are all equal or one of them would be the right one. But Rāmānuja he was very strict that Vishnu is the supreme others are the servitors of Kṛṣṇa or Vishnu, so this singular devotion to Vishnu that was preached by Rāmānuja, that’s very prominent in Lord Caitanyas philosophy.

He said ….. Ishwara Kṛṣṇa Arsalobhitou Kṛṣṇa is only Lord everyone else is his servant. This pure unadulterated devotion is very obvious of Lord Caitanyas teachings. So, this was previously taught by Rāmānuja, so Lord Caitanya is giving credit for that to Rāmānuja. Another thing that Rāmānuja taught was to serve the devotees, so that’s also very prominent Lord Caitanyas teachings. He said to take the dust from the devotees’ feet, take the reminisce of their prasādam.

In Caitanya Caritāmṛta it mentions there are 3 things that can help devotion, bhakta balaraj, bhakta balajao, bhakta prasādo shishta. Take the dust from the feet of devotees, the water that washes their feet and the reminisce of their prasādam. These 3 things are very prominent for I mean very helpful for the advancement of the devotees.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta the whole Past times of Kalidas who used to go and collect reminisce of the different devotees prasādam. This shows that how Lord Caitanya honored the service of devotees.

Jīva Goswami’s vishwa vaishya rājā sabhā, one of the main mandals of the 6 mandals that he set up the first one was to properly see that all the Vaiṣṇavas are worshiped that they are respected according to how much responsibility they have for the spiritual lives for other Vaiṣṇavas.

So, this is all part of Lord Caitanya’s culture this was previously established by Rāmānuja that the devotees should be served so this is another essence taken. So those two essences are taken from Rāmānuja.  From Viṣṇu swami, Sarvasva Bhav and Rag Marg are the two taken. Sarvasva means the complete surrender, where the lord is everything either Lord or Lord is mine Rag Marg means spontaneous devotion, to serve the Lord spontaneously & the pushti marg by Viṣṇu swami said they spontaneously served the deities of Kṛṣṇa as his one of the family members gives you some spontaneous affection like your own child.

So that is rāga marg – spontaneously serving the deities, that was taught by Viṣṇu swami, so of course Lord Caitanya developed these things, they gave the principle. Lord Caitanya takes the principle and expands it to the maximum. You will find that if you take the principal rāga marg upto vātsalya bava in Viṣṇu swami sampradāya & Lord Caitanya sampradāya and it goes on to Madurya rasa or Gopī bhav so then from Nimbārka Ācārya – he took the 2 essences. Pradik āśraya, we follow in the footsteps of Rādhā Rāṇī. Rādhā Rāṇī is our supreme shelter. We see the Guru as a confidential servitor of Rādhā Rāṇī & Gopī bhav.

Lord Caitanya said, like the Gopīs in Vṛndāvan their method of complete spontaneous devotion to Kṛṣṇa was so super excellent that even Kṛṣṇa said that there is no way I can repay it. So that type of complete spontaneous surrender that will do everything to please Kṛṣṇa.

The Tridaṇḍī Sanyas Initiation the secret Mantra which is given, one of the meditation is to follow in the footsteps of the Gopīs in terms of the surrender and devotion. So this is one of the higher principles of Lord Caitanya he took this from Nimbārka Acharya taking shelter of Rādhā Rāṇī as the supreme shelter as the top most sevak, Bhagwan and following in the footsteps of the Gopīs in terms of complete we do whatever is pleasing to Kṛṣṇa and having Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure as the topmost priority. We can see practically the four sampradāyas essence was taken from each of them by Lord Caitanya and includes all of them and therefore practically speaking Lord Caitanyas philosophy has united all the essence of all the different Vaiṣṇavas classes. Is that clear?

Thank you very much.

Śrīla Prabhupad ki

Devotees: Jai

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu ki

Devotees: Jai

Nityānanda ki

Devotees: Jai

Shantipur ki

Devotees: Jai

Jai Śrī śrī Harinām Sankirtan Mahā Yagya ki

Devotees: Jai

Śrī Rādhā Ashtasaki ki

Devotees:Jai.

Nitāi Gaura Premānande

Devotees: Hari bol.