19950813 Caitanya-caritāmṛta.Ādi-līlā.1.63.64

The following is the class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on August 13 1995 in Soho street London, England. The class begins with a reading from Chaitanya Caritāmṛta Adi līlā chapter ,1 verse 63 and 64. 

 

vande 'haḿ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaḿ śrī-gurun vaiṣṇavāḿś ca

śrī-rūpaḿ sāgrajātaḿ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaḿ taḿ sa jīvam

sādvaitaḿ sāvadhūtaḿ parijana-sahitaḿ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaḿ

śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā- śrī-viśākhānvitāḿś ca

 

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā swami: So here we are discussing pure devotees’ exceptional pure devotees comes engage in loving service of the Lord, as identical with the lord who is always situated in his heart. So, Lord

 

sei bhakta-gaṇa haya dvi-vidha prakāra

pāriṣad-gaṇa eka, sādhaka-gaṇa āra

 

Such pure devotees are of two types: personal associates [pāriṣats] and neophyte devotees [sādhakas].

Purport:

Perfect servitors of the Lord are considered His personal associates, whereas devotees endeavoring to attain perfection are called neophytes. Among the associates, some are attracted by the opulence’s of the Personality of Godhead, and others are attracted by nuptial love of Godhead. The former devotees are placed in the realm of Vaikuṇṭha to render reverential devotional service, whereas the latter devotees are placed in Vṛndāvana for the direct service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā swami: Now this portion of the Chaitanya Caritāmṛta is covering many many tattvas, what is the position of a devotee?

What are the different kinds of incarnations?

What are the qualitative incarnations?

Different types of expansions of the Lord. Since the Chaitanya charitamrita is the post graduate study of the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy, so it is stating all the basic principles here this is kind of development of the philosophy that they are going to explain. So, there is the Lord and they are His devotees, we are not able to experience the Lord in the material world, in our conditioned state. So, He is represented by the guru, represented by pure devotees, who come and give association and give experience about the Lord.

yadyapi āmāra guru — caitanyera dāsa

tathāpi jāniye āmi tāṅhāra prakāśa

 

Translation:

Although I know that my spiritual master is a servitor of Śrī Caitanya, I know Him also as a plenary manifestation of the Lord.

Lord Nityānanda, who is Balarāma Himself, the first direct manifestation or expansion of Kṛṣṇa, is the original spiritual master. He helps Lord Kṛṣṇa in His pastimes, and He is a servant of the Lord.

Jayapatākā swami: The living entity as the servant of Kṛṣṇa, guru is also a servant of Kṛṣṇa at the same time the guru is the external manifestation, that’s why it says that guru is not different from Kṛṣṇa because he is a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.

Now of course there is somebody thinks that the guru is absolutely Kṛṣṇa, then that’s called māyāvād or impersonal philosophy. So, there is this distinction although the guru is a servitor, we also know that Kṛṣṇa is working through the guru.

So, therefore the guru is offered respect, like we would offer to Kṛṣṇa.

In the beginning of ISKCON, in New York we heard how different new devotees that were coming.

One day Prabhupāda said that you should accept a guru then and they said you know, asking what that means to accept a guru. He said you must accept a guru like you accept God, whatever the guru says you have to take it as it is the word of the God. God is speaking through the guru.

In other words, like we saw last night and the, uh they call the Vaikunta players, Bhakti Vedānta Manor even Bhagavad Gītā show, play premier showing at the Bhakti Vedānta Manor patrons and there they presented dramatically How Arjuna had to surrender to Kṛṣṇa as his guru?

Now no more friendly discussion, sishyateham now I am your disciple because as a friend someone might say something, he may take it, he may leave it.

Prabhupāda, he made a little Bengali drama called the advaitya ankha. The I don’t know it sounded like that the act without a second (laughing) something like that. It sounded Bengali; it has dual meaning. Advaitya ankha means it’s like you say advaitya meaning that this one doesn’t have any comparison and it also means the incomparable act, it also means there is no second there is no following act, this is first act there is no act following it. It’d mean both and the whole drama is like that everything that is said is to play on words in Bengali and it’s two friends talking in a tea store, two friends are having a chat kind of that, sit down comedy, standup comedy whatever they are having some kind of a discussion. This is very humorous. So, they both are standing, both are just talking and then you know one says I’ve been thinking about it,

“I thinking I want to join the chicken mission, I think that if I join the chicken mission that it’ll be good for me”.

Then this friend said “No no you don’t want to join the chicken mission. I mean what would you do there? why to become a sannyāsī? a sannyāsī in the chicken mission”.

He said “yes”, “but you are married, your wife and children, that’s a problem in chicken mission everything goes. You can have your wife in the house and then in mission you just dress like a sannyāsī, we can go and visit your wife”.

“Really!”,

“Yes, very liberally”.

And there’s no but I mean I know there is no dietary problem, we can eat chicken and fish and everything. We don’t have to follow any rules and regulations like that but I mean being a sannyāsī, sannyas is sannyas you know you have to follow regulations it’s a kind of religious vow.

No no but in a chicken mission it’s not like that you know you can do anything. It goes back and forth like that. Of course, you never say who chicken mission is but everybody can figure it out.

There is only one mission in Bengal, its chicken so, but I won’t mention the name if you don’t know them, those had you right, if you know you know.

So, then I then I, this friend but the point is that like this he is friend, so he’ll be may say something well but it’s just all kind of you know you take na! na! Don’t do that, this is friends you know casual talk. Then this friend said look at I think it’s better than join the chicken mission because no matter what this doesn’t feel right for me to be a sannyāsī and you know not follow.

But this another religious institution, this is called the bhojanananda akra, its everywhere like that its all like bhojanananda sorry bhajanānanda. Bhajan means to worship, but then it probably be bhojanananda, bhojan means to eat. So, (laughing) the bliss of eating temple (laughing) instead of the bliss of bhajan worshipping the Lord. So, this is the bhojanananda akra. It’s really it’s really a crack up satire the whole thing and then they said woah I never heard of that what’s a bhojanananda akra, bhojanananda akra na, no no there’s there they had a their asram is a bhojananandi swadu instead of saying sādhu. So, its swadu, swadu means swad means taste.

So, bhojanananda swadu is another play on words instead of saying sādhu someone who is really into his taste buds. So, how did you get a name like that, well you see he used to go around and hang it on the sweet shops in north Calcutta and look for one of the big rich north Indians who likes to feed the sādhus and then he just position himself in such a way that the person says okay feed the sādhu whatever he want.

So, one day he ate so many sweets that he went into sugar you know seizer and actually fell unconscious on the street, from overeating rasgullas and rabri and everything and after that he became known as bhojanananda swadu. So that sounds like a good temple to be part of. You don’t have to a sannyāsī, you can just wear white and you can get right into the mood. This was like the incomparable act you know it just goes on and (laughing) in other words this is what, this is the real, but there is actually what was going on, this is kind of the real picture of what some of the spiritual activities in India.

But here these two friends they are talking with each other, so friendly discussion you know, you can kind a just take it or leave it.

But when guru is speaking, you have to take it serious. Of course, if we don’t take what the guru says, then we are on our own. It’s our own karma we have to accept or some people they get very proud like that, they say like well I’m going do whatever I’m going do and that’s why Kṛṣṇa also that’s our free will, we have the free will to be able to do that. You can decide to do what you wanna do then you have to take the karma and no use of blaming Kṛṣṇa, why people are suffering? when they are doing what they want to do and they are getting the reaction.

But as devotees we feel compassion for them, so why should people have to suffer like this. If they would just follow Kṛṣṇa, they could be freed from suffering, freed from old age, freed from disease, freed from the problems. But instead, we use our free will, we disuse it.

I think I told you the story here about the pampered child, who misuse the free will, so you know that example.

There was a family, they had one child one boy. So, they tend to shower all the mercy, all the affection really spoiled boy, he want whatever he wants. So psychologically what happened was, the boy started to think that I’m the center of the universe, like I’m my parents are meant to serve me. Whatever I want they give me.

This is the danger when you have one child, because they may get spoiled this is danger of giving too much freedom to children, you know you can be too heavy or you can be also too liberal. You know, you start thinking that might actually prepare because in real life you have to face things you don’t want right.

People in the material world, they have all the time, bosses they don’t like, they have jobs they don’t like, they have different things that they don’t, circumstances that they don’t like and then they have to deal with that but if you are really protected and the parents give you whatever you want then you start to take that for granted, this is life I get whatever I want. So at some point of life you won’t get what you want and you have to, so anyways this just a 9 years old. He is just in this period where he is really spoiled.

So, one morning what happens, he closes the doors and windows, he did all his doors and windows of the houses were closed. He stays in bed just covers his head with a blanket, doesn’t open the doors or windows or anything. So, the light comes up by the time it’s about 9 in the morning. Then the parents they think what’s going on here. You know after that they thought, maybe it was a late night you know, it’s like last night we had a patron dinner went till like 1 in the morning. So, it been a little late took a while to get everyone.

So, the parents thought maybe the boy was up late studying or something or might have been some reason but 9 o’clock in the morning. It’s time to get up, have breakfast, you know even Sunday we can drive here like quickly because everybody sleeps more on Sunday’s right except for the devotees. For us every day is you know want to sleep is that we don’t want to sleep more than we have to. So, the parents said knocking on the door “oh little cream puff, little lotus bud time to get up”. The child you know yelled out “go away! You are dacoits, you robbers in the night coming here I know its midnight and you are coming here to rob me”.

“Midnight, robbers no little flower we are your parents”,

“you are very expert robbers imitating my parents but I will not be fooled by your impersonation, I know its midnight and you are robbers, go away! I won’t be cheated and robbed by you”.

“We are not robbers we are you’re real parents”.

“No. I don’t believe you look its light out, I don’t see any light in here its dark in here”. “Why don’t you open the window”,

“ahh trying to cheat me hahahaha oh no no no no no I’m not taking my head out from this blanket, I know you are robbers in the midnight.

So, how did I get in on this, so it was little thing well his parents. Look here the father said look just, its already light there’s no robbers just open the window, sun is there. If the sun is there why can’t I see it, it’s because the doors and windows shut that’s why you can’t see the sun. The sun is so powerful why can’t it shine in my room, if it doesn’t have enough power to shine in my room with the doors are windows shut then I don’t believe in a sun. there is no sun.

So, this is the kid you completely out of the hand you know (laughing). Just open the door and you will see the light and the story goes I don’t know if they ever got kid to get out of the bed but he’ll get hungry eventually. It’s obvious the kid is completely being mischievous, naughty, spoilt, its free will right. If he doesn’t want to open the doors and windows, he is misusing his free will.

So, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Thakur says just like the child misuses his free will we all have free will but somebody wants to be just stubborn, I don’t want to serve God, I don’t want to do, I want to do this I want to do what I want to do. You can do it, it’s a free will Kṛṣṇa has given all of us but then we have to take the reactions for that. So, a very stubborn person, I don’t care I’ll take the reaction.

That’s why, there is no use in preaching the atheistic people about chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa they get rid of sin or following regulative principles “awh I don’t care about all these things” [Not Clear – 00:16:49]. You have to first get them attached to Kṛṣṇa by very positive kind of cultivation, by being friends with them, by giving them prasādam, by then chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, by somehow gradually by good association they start to develop the attachment to Kṛṣṇa. Then they get some intelligence to really figure out that they should act in a way which is beneficial for them.

And so Rūpa Goswami that’s why he said first you by some means get them attached to Kṛṣṇa then you can introduce the rules and regulations. So, this is where devotees come in, devotees are needed to give that positive of association to the atheistic people. Here in the Chaitanya caritāmṛta, its glorifying that the devotees now even though he was sucha great devotee wherever he went it would become pure.

Prabhupāda was like that wherever he went, he bought Vrindavan with him. Gourkishore das bābājī ordered his disciple Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswati Thakur not to go to Calcutta because it was a kali yuga city, it was filled with māyā. He should stay in the holy dham.

So, then one lecture Prabhupāda explained how why does Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Thakur go to the big cities to preach, just because was going there or not to enjoy, not to be in a city for sense gratification, he was going to give Kṛṣṇa to people. So, because he was always engaged in devotional service and therefore, he was in Vṛndāvan.

Here in Soho street Rādhā londoneshwar temple, outside maybe kali yuga and māyāvād but inside this temple, its Vṛndāvan, it’s the spiritual world. And if we keep our consciousness on Kṛṣṇa then we will be in spiritual world and even when you go out in the street to give people books or to chant harinām or to preach about Kṛṣṇa to people you can also remain in the spiritual world by always remembering the lord. That’s why it’s really important that we have also the deities. The deities create that environment, technically speaking kali yuga possesses harinām. We don’t need temples or one sense but practically we do need its helpful for us to have the association of the deities so that for kali yuga the main process is chanting the holy names, but the supporting process is the deity worship and therefore the whole worship system has been simplified in a pancharatra before was very rigid type of rules, using Vedic mantras that one have to chant exactly in the proper intonation and meter, these are called the Veda agamans and st.

But Nārada muni gave a simplified process based on the purāṇas called pancharatra. We use the pancharatra. That’s also very pleasingly Kṛṣṇa, the pancharatra system. More than being ritualistic its ritual but its more based on devotion and purity of the consciousness and desire of the devotee. So, we do use the both the system, the pancharatra supports us, purifies us.

So, you can imagine if we didn’t have a place, even though people would be preaching Harinām in London but they didn’t to come to and to take the refugee it’d be much more difficult to maintain that conscious, after seeing so many sinful materialistic things to be able to see the Lord in his transcendental form to see the smiling face of Lord Jagannath and dancing forms of Gaur Nitāi. It has a very purifying effect, to be able to bow down before founder ācārya spiritual master Śrīla Prabhupāda, begging for his mercy and forgiving us for our offenses is very important.

We have the free will, we can use it or misuse it, generally people they just have followers, this is called gadakalika people they follow whatever the flow is, like a fish they swim in schools, in a fish there is not like anyone fish is the lead fish, like maybe birds may fly there’s like a particular bird that tends to be the leader, I guess I’m not 100 percent sure maybe the older one is something. I haven’t done the study but for sure the fish, they don’t tend to have any specific leader. It’s just kind of whoever so much close in this way they all go that way, there is someone they go that way. So, it’s kind a just going around and according to reacting to the particular whatever the mood is but they tend to all just move in a bunch.

So, in Bengal they have a particular kind of fish trap in the rivers, they stand studying fish psychology. This trap isn’t a simple thing, it’s a bamboo kind of a basket that has a funnel entrance. So, then they put it just on the side on the river where where the fish tend to swim in the schools. And if a fish enters into the into you know goes by the side of the funnel it is tend to follow the follow the route then they go right inside the, the funnel. So, it’s like a big basket like this then the funnel kind a goes in like that and then there’s all this space, so when your inside they always tend to go and they get stuck up and it’s very hard to find, you could find the hole and get out but that’s not their psychology, the psychology is the go along the sides and follow.

So, all they have to do is like one fish decides to go inside then they all go inside. Then even the ones that are caught inside

“hey! hey! Don’t come in here, you don’t want to get trapped, it’s a trap”.

Its they are all going.

Sometimes you tell people about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but there are so many people in the world that are not accepting Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Why why you know?

Just like that so many fish going in the trap why not me (laughing). But when you’re in a trap your gonna don’t come here you know, no but then they are all going you know. So, they are all going and all get stuck. So, they are called gadaka, just following just following the group. Maybe someone tell don’t do it and then they are all doing it. Its brainless just kind a just you know fish that unknowing to be you know PhDs or what you think this kind of lower down on the intellectual development level. So, they just follow it.

But that’s what’s happening in society today, where somebody wears one type of hair do you see thousands with the same hair do, somebody wears one type of dress everybody wear it. Then you know at one point something changes then everyone. At first they thought it was like a free thinking you know like independent really breaking feeling liberated mind but after a while you’ll figure out its just it’s just another kind of conformity, it’s just that you’ve chosen a conform with particular school of fish.

If you were in the punk school then somebody wears green and read here there but you know, before used to be you know 60’s was the hippies, so first they thought they were breaking into free from society but pretty soon it just creates another kind of society and there they have their own rules and they follow their thing and goes in there. That became one thing another. This people they tend to conform. So, the devotees they actually develop independent thinking, because everyone the whole process of devotional service is to actually exercise the intelligence and understand what are the laws of nature?

Who is, what is life?

what is the source of everything?

who is absolute truth?

what are the devotees?

who are liberated soul?

What’s condition?

And actually went through all this then decide what you wanna do, based on real knowledge. The devotees are actually the most independent thinking people. They are exercising their free will. If anybody wants to then anytime, they can always walk out of the door.

You know the karmīs they think that the or this is a kind of dangers cults, know them and people here are locked in, kept prisoner you know, they don’t understand the whole principle of devotional service is free will. It’s not all our principle to keep anybody tied in or anything that.

I remember one time there was a girl working in a ISKCON restaurant in temple in [Not Clear – 00:25:45] she had a restaurant one time and she was sister of one initiated devotee, so she was just trying get into devotional service maybe chanting four daily rounds, doing some volunteer service in the restaurant. She’s struggling with māyā, trying to become a devotee.

There was one customer in the restaurant, he knew this was a Hare Kṛṣṇa restaurant, so then he said okay your all alone now, now is your chance to escape (laughing). I will help you to escape, I know you have kept your captive you know by the Hare Kṛṣṇas and you can’t get out.

What are you taking about (laughing), though I can go out anytime I want, the doors wide open (laughing) I’m struggling to stay there is no problem leaving, it’s how to stay a devotee that’s why (laughing) you got it all wrong, the guy was so shocked you know (laughing) māyā is always there to take us away, we are trying to think how to cling on to lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.

So that’s why it’s important to appreciate Kṛṣṇa’s position, appreciate the position of a devotees and actually take good association, understand how Kṛṣṇa is transcendental.

Now this Chaitanya caritāmṛta is actually very deep philosophy, very deep philosophy covers a lot of ground very fast but of course in middle goes about  Lord Chaitanya’s past times and travels, which is easier to reading.

Transcribed By: Keya Rani

Transcribed On: 13-July-20

 

Proof Reading By: Amrita Padma Devi Dasi

On 26/09/2020