19970613 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.32.8

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami, on June 13th, 1997 in Los Angeles, California. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, Chapter 32, verse- 8.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

dvi-parārdhāvasāne yah

pralayo brahmanas tu te

tāvad adhyāsate lokam

parasya para-cintakāh

[Devotees repeats]

 

Translation:

Worshipers of the Hiraṇyagarbha expansion of the Personality of Godhead remain within this material world until the end of two parārdhas, when Lord Brahmā also dies.

Translation with repetition:

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

 

Worshipers of the Hiraṇyagarbha expansion

: of the Personality of Godhead

remain within this material world

until the end of two parārdhas

when Lord Brahmā also dies

 

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

One dissolution is at the end of Brahmā’s day, and one is at the end of Brahmā’s life. Brahmā dies at the end of two parārdhas, at which time the entire material universe is dissolved. Persons who are worshipers of Hiraṇyagarbha, the plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, do not directly approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Vaikuṇṭha. They remain within this universe on Satyaloka or other higher planets until the end of the life of Brahmā. Then, with Brahmā, they are elevated to the spiritual kingdom.

The words parasya para-cintakāḥ means “always thinking of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,” or being always Kṛṣṇa conscious. When we speak of Kṛṣṇa, this refers to the complete category of viṣṇu-tattva. Kṛṣṇa includes the three puruṣa avatara or incarnations, namely Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, as well as all the incarnations taken together. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan: Lord Kṛṣṇa is perpetually situated with His many expansions, such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Vāmana, Madhusūdana, Viṣṇu and Nārāyaṇa. He exists with all His plenary portions and the portions of His plenary portions, and each of them is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The words parasya para-cintakāḥ means those who are fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. Such persons enter directly into the kingdom of God, the Vaikuṇṭha planets, or, if they are worshipers of the plenary portion Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, they remain within this universe until its dissolution, and after that they enter.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

Thus, end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport to the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, 32nd Chapter, 8th verse.

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

So now it’s going to start describing about the final pralaya or dissolution of the universe. Every time, every day of Brahmā there is an annihilation of the planets… of the lower planets, and a recreation when Brahmā wakes up in the morning. However, at that time all living entities are brought into the body of the garbodhakshayi Viṣṇu, and then again they are brought out again when Brahmā recreates.

It mentions that when Nārada Muni became liberated but those within the universe, he also for the night of Brahmā was inside the Garbodakshayi Viṣṇu. When there is the final dissolution, at that time the living entities who are not liberated they enter into the Mahavisnu and wait for the next creation to again become active, whereas the liberated souls they go directly back at the end. Those who are devotees here, those who are fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, those who are worshipping the Garbodhakshayi Viṣṇu then they go back.

In the story in the fourth canto where Lord Śiva appeared to the Prachetas, and Lord Śiva is of course worshipped by many of his devotees, and they are all eager to get his darshan, but they couldn’t get his darshan. They don’t get very easy. But the Prachetas they never expected the darshan of Lord Śiva, neither did they ask for it, neither did they dream of it, in their wildest dream. But he is spontaneously appeared out of the Manas Sarovar water and blessed them, and he stated that the reason why is because he loves Kṛṣṇa devotees, and Kṛṣṇa devotees love him. Because he is Vaiṣṇava nam yathā śambhu, greatest of all the Vaiṣṇavas, and then he proceeded in giving his Kṛṣṇa mantra that he chants to the prachetas. And when he was explaining why Kṛṣṇa devotees are special, he mentions that if somebody performs their constitutional… their occupational duty according to the varṇāśrama perfectly for 100 births, then they can assume the position of a Lord Brahmā, you see. All you have to do is do varṇāśrama perfectly, 100 births in a row. You too can be a Brahmā. Better hope that Kali Yuga doesn’t fall in the middle of that, right? (Guru Mahārāja laughs)

So then he said that if someone is more pious than that, then they can approach me. But then he said that if somebody is fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa then at the end of this life, they can go back directly to the Vaikuṇṭha planets, to the spiritual worlds. So being a devotee of Kṛṣṇa is so special!

Prabhupāda said, “We are…. We can’t…shouldn’t think even that we are fully achieved the position of ‘devotee of Kṛṣṇa’ but we are aspiring to be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa or we are the devotee of the devotee of Kṛṣṇa.” In fact, in Adi Purāṇa, Kṛṣṇa says that,“Those who say that they are My devotees are not My real devotees, but those who consider themselves to be the devotee of My devotee.

When Durvāsā Muni went to Kṛṣṇa… in the 6th Canto… 6th it was… went to Kṛṣṇa. He went to Viṣṇu to ask him to free him from the curse of the… from the attack of the Sudarshan chakra. At that time, He –Visnu told him, “ahaṁ bhakta paradhino”, I am under the control of my devotees. Everybody thinks that Kṛṣṇa is totally independent, but he is saying, “ahaṁ bhakta paradhino – I am under the influence of My devotees, I am trying to please My devotees because My devotees are always trying to please Me”, you see.

So, if a devotee requests Kṛṣṇa, “Please deliver this fallen soul.”, then Kṛṣṇa can do that. Right?

I remember in 1970 at the Kumbha mela.. 70-71… was it?, and Prabhupāda told …11.08… Madhudviṣa, “I have made your good fortune.” Remember that? “I have made your good fortune.” So that was Prabhupāda’s mercy, actually. His desire is so great to deliver the fallen souls that you can get picked up.

In the Dhruva Maharaj pastimes, it explains how when Dhruva Maharaj closed the holes of his body in the meditation, when he was meditating on Viṣṇu, and his… his focus on Viṣṇu was so intense, so complete, he became so much in harmony with Viṣṇu, that when he closed the holes of his body and stopped breathing the whole universe got an asthma attack, you know. The whole universe couldn’t breathe, they felt suffocation, that’s how powerful Dhruva’s influence was.

In the purport then Prabhupāda said, “From this we can see how if one pure devotee desires to deliver all the conditioned souls in the universe, how Kṛṣṇa can easily do that to please His devotee.”

And Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was saying that if he… he could completely make the world Kṛṣṇa conscious in 18 days.

They said, “Why didn’t it happen?” Someone asked, “Why don’t we do it?”

He said, “Because you don’t follow my instructions.” Part of it would be that everyone had to follow his instructions, then he could do it. We didn’t follow.

So, if we very carefully follow Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions and if we develop following his footsteps. Like Prabhupāda…so many times he was asked, “What can we do for you Śrīla Prabhupāda?

How can we help you?”

He said, “Be Kṛṣṇa Conscious and help others to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy, make others happy.”

Everyone should take Kṛṣṇa consciousness, develop love for Kṛṣṇa, should give Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others. So if you want to repay the debt, that’s how you can repay it.

Of course he also said that, “If you want to show how much you love me, you can demonstrate that by how well you cooperate with each other.”

 One time in Māyāpur, we were surprised. Suddenly we got a letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda, where he said that he was happy at that time that in Māyāpur there was more cooperation amongst the devotees than other places in India… or in other places. Then he mentioned that Māyā has her idea and Kṛṣṇa has His idea. So the only way you can cooperate is when Māyā gives her idea, you don’t accept it. But when Kṛṣṇa gives His idea, you accept it. So, two people we are going to be talking in both ears, Māyā and Kṛṣṇa, so who do we want to listen to? That’s always up to us to choose. Different people have different opinions about things.

When Lord Caitanya came back after getting initiated, and He was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and dancing and crying for Kṛṣṇa, and most of the people couldn’t understand what has happened to Nimāi Pandit?

Hari Haraya Namo Kṛṣṇa… sometimes He is falling in the ground, He is saying, “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, I have gotten Kṛṣṇa and I lost Him. Where is Kṛṣṇa? What has happened to Him?”

So mother Sachi went out calling, “Nimāi! Nimāi!”, and everyone was looking, “Where is Nimāi?”, you know. She is looking, but everyone went with her, the whole… neighbours and said , “Look here, we want to give you some advice. Something has happened to your son. We think that His vāyu is dislocated… vāyu dosh…air in the body has somehow gone off. So therefore we should do something.” And one said, “Yes, we should feed Him some tender coconut water, ḍāb water.”

“That isn’t good enough. You got to put some ayurvedic oils, viṣṇu taila, dasamul taila, you rub it on His head, it will cool His brain down.”

“No, no, no, that won’t do. I tell you, it’s much more serious than that. You should tie Him up with ropes. Don’t let Him out of the house until He is fully cured. There is no hope for Him, you see. And mother Sachi wouldn’t listen to anybody. “What you are saying? Nothing wrong with my son.”

So like that people were criticizing. So then, one day Lord Caitanya went to see Śrīvas Pandit. He asked, “Can I just ask you a question, Śrīvas?”

“Sure, sure, come, sit down. What’s the matter?”

“Śrīvas, you are a senior Vaiṣṇava. You are very experienced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Kṛṣṇa bhakti. I just want to ask you one question, is it alright?”

“Oh, please, tell me.”

“My dear Śrīvas, after I got initiation, when I was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, something is happening to Me and I laugh and I cry and tears are coming in My eyes, feeling very different. And everybody is saying… so many people in the town are saying that I have a disease. I want to know if it is true that I have a disease?

Śrīvas thought and looked a little grave. He said, “Yes, you have a disease.”

Lord Caitanya was very, very serious, you know, like… He is waiting to hear more and then Śrīvas said, “Yes. You have a disease and I also want that disease!”

Then he could pick up, you know, “Why would anybody want a disease!? And so he is playing joke on me.”

“You have the disease of love of Godhead… Kṛṣṇa Prema.”, Śrīvas told Him, “Even Brahmā, Śiva, they want that disease. You are very fortunate.”

Lord Caitanya said, “Well when you told Me I had disease, I thought if all this ecstasy that I am feeling is simply an illusion then what is the use of living? I was thinking, I will just take My life in the Ganges. There is no use of continuing. If all these is not absolute truth. So you saved My life, I am so grateful.”

You see it just reminded me; I just got a letter from someone in South Africa. They were saying that our temple is so nice, so ecstatic. We had the kīrtan after the guru pūjā went on for two hours and I felt so happy! I was so happy, I wanted… because we know in Bhagavat Gītā, it says, “sitoshna sukha dukha da, we have to be very tolerant, am I committing any offence by being so happy?”

I said, “No, we want param dristva nivartante, we are supposed to get the higher taste. If you are happy chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa there’s no problem, that’s the happiness we want everyone to have. You should be so happy chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa that you won’t be worrying about the sitoshna sukha dukha da, all the happiness and suffering that is going on due to the contact with the senses.

So, it’s alright to be happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone should be happy. In fact, if you are not happy then something is wrong. We should be satisfied in our devotional service.

So anyway, then Śrīvas told Lord Caitanya that, “You see the general people they are not going to understand your happiness, because they only know happiness means you know, the senses, the skin rubbing against something, that is happiness. They don’t understand what is the happiness coming from the heart, coming from the spirit soul.” That’s what really is unfortunate, isn’t it?

So many people… Look at Los Angeles, so many nice people here, but they are all after the sense gratification on the level of the skin, they are not… they are being deprived from the mercy of Lord Caitanya, where they could be experiencing the real unadulterated pure, transcendental happiness coming from the spiritual platform.

In the Nabadwip Māhātmya, Lord Nitayananda, He says that, “I want to give the world pure, unadulterated happiness… nirit sukh, nirit ānanda, no mixing”, He said.

In the material world all happiness has got the mix, like Prabhupāda said “the sweet rice with the sand.” How many would like to have sweet rice with the sand prep, right? (Guru Mahārāja laughs) It’s not very… something we look forward to, but Prabhupāda said, “That what this material happiness is… something sweet… sand you know, how can you eat this, it’s got sand in it.”

Thus we are trying to figure out, how can we eat it, it’s got sand, because they don’t have anything else. If that’s all you have been given from your very birth- the sweet rice with sand, you may think, well this is sweet you know, this is the way it is then you finally get sweet rice without sand, “wow this is a really good preparation. I didn’t know that it was like this.”

 So until we can give people the taste for happiness, that is not dependent upon sense gratification, they really can’t figure out what we are talking about. It’s completely out of their dictionary, out of their paradigm.

So Lord Nitayananda… our process is give people spiritual bliss. Until we can get them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, or do some devotional service with enough absorption, that they can actually experience some spiritual happiness, then practically speaking it’s hardly any use of trying to use rules and regulations with it unless they are really scholarly and they have read the books and they have come to Kṛṣṇa because of jñāna. But if they are just the normal inquisitive lot, or people that are coming because they are in need of something… well, they really need to get the higher taste, and even the jñānīs need the higher taste to give up. Then according to Rūpa Goswami, yena tena prakāreṇa Kṛṣṇa mana nivosate, somehow or another get them attached to Kṛṣṇa, then gradually introduced the rules and regulations.

You can’t expect somebody to walk off the street first time they got the card from the book distributor and he comes in and the first thing you tell him is, “Shave up!” That happened in the French Quarter in New Orleans there was a magician there, with long hair and he plays… does magic and gets…So the devotees see him on some kirtans and they ask why don’t you come for the Sunday feast?

So, the very time, the only time in life he came. As soon as he walked in somebody… some immature devotee walked up to him and said, “You should shave up.” That was the first, that was the last.

You imagine going to the Catholic church and someone said, “You should become a priest right now. Take off this clothes, put on the frock, take a vow of celibacy for the whole life.” How many people would go to the Roman Catholic Church, right?

You have to preach according to time, place and circumstance. And according to Rūpa Goswami, who after… who is the person who has understood what Lord Caitanya wants, śrī caitanya manobristham stapitam yena bhūtale, svayam rūpam kadā mahyaṁ, dadāti sva padāntikam. First, we should get them attached to Kṛṣṇa, let them like Kṛṣṇa, love Kṛṣṇa. At least like Kṛṣṇa, get them to taste what Kṛṣṇa is like, get a little attached to Kṛṣṇa and according to their attachment, then you get them to surrender, more and more and more. This is very natural. That’s what the preachers has to… get them attached, tell them about Kṛṣṇa, let them chant, let them take prasādam, let them associate with the devotees, they finally see, “This is wonderful. This is a wonderful association. This is a wonderful process.”

They say, “Why I am not always happy?

Why I feel happy here, when I go outside, I don’t know fell happy.” Because it’s like elephant bath. You are coming here taking your bath; elephant takes a bath and when he goes out of the water, he takes the dirt and throws it on his back.

“Now you should maintain a pure standard of living, you will always be happy.” “Oh really!

“Ok, it makes sense.”

So, if we preach in a kind of a strategic manner as Rūpa Goswami has told us to do, and as Prabhupāda has given so many detailed instructions, then it’s quite easy for people to accept Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. We have the greatest philosophy, why isn’t everybody accepting? It’s obviously we have to perfect our marketing technique according to the market, because the product is there and the process is there, then why people aren’t taking?

So, what is Lord Nitayananda’s procedure?  “I want to make you happy, I will give you happiness, pure happiness without any suffering mixed with it. Who likes to be happy? Raise your hands here!”

Nityānanda! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Who will refuse that offer, right? This is Lord Nityānanda presenting. Who will refuse ? Only those who are really unfortunate. And Nityānanda would still get them too. Don’t worry.

So then you see, Śrīvas told Lord Caitanya that, “These people, they are not going to understand. So then You can come in my garden and You can chant with the devotees and they will appreciate.”

So that’s how the kīrtan began in Śrīvas Angan, in the garden of Śrīvas Thakur. So Lord Caitanya wanted to explain to the devotees first why these things were happening to Him.

So He told Suklambar Brahmachari, that please have everybody assembled at his house one morning, and Sukhlambar Brahmacārī, there was… he had a special tree that gave unlimited flowers. So every devotee would go there and get as many flowers as… As soon as they he took flowers … more would pop out. So it would.. so why go all over the city looking for flowers, when there is one tree that gives you everything that you need? Wouldn’t you like to have such a tree here in New Dwaraka?

Your flower suppliers would … protect it. they will try to cut it down or something, but… So Sukhlambar, he had this wonderful tree, everybody would go there to get the flowers and then, this morning Lord Caitanya He came there; Gaurāṅga came. And there was a Tamal tree there and He just started hugging the Tamal tree and then crying, “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, I got Kṛṣṇa but I lost Him.”

What does…when did Lord Caitanya get Kṛṣṇa? What does this mean? Everybody wanted to know. How many here want to know? Ok

So, Lord Caitanya revealed that when He came back from Gāya after getting initiation… He got initiation from Iswar Purī… He was feeling so much ecstasy. In fact, He did a huge kīrtan, He wasn’t feeling, He was first pouring the water on the Visnupad lotus feet of Viṣṇu that was there in Gāya. And when He started pouring the water during the worship of Kṛṣṇa then He started to feel really ecstatic, and He started doing kīrtan, He was jumping and dancing, and everyone was amazed because they never saw anybody doing kīrtan like that, and after… then He was just ran out of the… started running off to Vṛndāvan.

Vṛndāvan Bihārī lal Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa ki! Jaya! (everyone)

I am going to Vrindavan. Then there was a voice in the sky, “No! Now is not the time to go to Vṛndāvana. You have to go back to Nabadwip and start the sankirtan movement.”

So then Lord Caitanya, He had turned back, “Alright!” I’ll go to Vṛndāvan later.”

So He was reminded of His higher calling to go back to Māyāpur, Nabadwip Dham.

Maybe we can move this śloka board now and get the mercy of Lord Nitāi Gaura…

And then Lord Caitanya went back, he went…the path in those days was to go to Gāya. From Gāya to Patna which is known as Pataliputra. And He went to the Gajendra Moksha place, Sunpura. And then from there, he went alongside the Ganges to a place called Kanaya Natsala, which is also mentioned in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta because that’s the place where Narasingha Brahmacārī, when he was meditating, he took Lord Caitanya by meditation up to Kānāi Natsala. And after that he could make any more… the pathways that he was making by his meditation, he was meditation on Golden paths with trees and cool fountains and jewels on the road, and all kinds of things and he is going, he went to Ramkeli where he met Rūpa and Sanātana, he is meditating the whole thing, he wanted to build this beautiful road so Lord Caitanya could walk very nicely on the road he was making in his meditation. He couldn’t get beyond Kānāi Natsala. So he said, “He is not going any further than Kānāi Natsala” And sure enough, after meeting Rūpa and Sanātana, Lord Caitanya went to Kānāi Natsala and He decided not to go to so many people and He told everyone, “This is gupta Vṛndāvana. This is hidden Vṛndāvan, you have reached Vṛndāvan already. From here I am going back to Jagannath Purī.”

So that same Kānāi Natsala that you are also familiar with, which I mentioned little bit last night, that Kānāi Natsala was… which is right on the bank of the Ganges, and which is got ancient footprints of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in a gigantic stone which are like Saligram Silas. These stone…. footprints are worshipped by Lord Caitanya, and the footprints of Gaur… was given also there by Bhakti Siddhantha recently… Saraswati Thakur. That was the place that Lord Caitanya visited on His way back from Gāya. And when He was there worshipping Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, He saw a cowherd boy from a distance coming to Him. And as He is coming closer, he saw he is in yellow garments, and a peacock (feather) on His hair and long garland coming down, touching the lowest knees, almost touching His lotus feet. Bumble bees… the boy was playing on a flute, as He was getting closer He was blue in color. So being closer and closer, smiling and playing on His flute to Him... His lotus eyes, you could see the mark of the Kasturba… the… the Srivastha on His chest, the whirl of hair that Kṛṣṇa has on His chest, it goes in a… with a little white band of hair in it, and wearing the Kasturba Moni, the special effulgent jewel that Kṛṣṇa wears, and the shark earrings, shark like earrings. It was Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa. He was coming closer and closer.  Lord Caitanya, He was so overwhelmed and loved to see the object of His worship. Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu had come with the mood of Rādhārāṇī and just as Rādhārāṇī is eager to see Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya is so eager to see Kṛṣṇa, and there Kṛṣṇa had appeared before Him and Kṛṣṇa came closer and closer, smiling and came right up to Him and put His arms around Lord Caitanya and embraced Him. And then Lord Caitanya was just overwhelmed - being touched by Kṛṣṇa, smelling Kṛṣṇa, seeing Kṛṣṇa…

Lord Kṛṣṇa, He went off, He backed off smiling, backed up, backed up and sh… He ran off, disappeared from sight. And then Lord Caitanya became mad, “I’d got Kṛṣṇa and I lost Him, and there I got Kṛṣṇa, I lost Him, I lost Kṛṣṇa, where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where can I get Him again?” And He started rolling on the ground there in Sukhlambar Brahmachari garden, and he is pulling his hair – “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa!”

So this place of Kānāi Natsala is the place where Lord Caitanya first got vipralambha bhava, virohe, separation. Our whole movement is based on separation, we are serving Kṛṣṇa in separation, we are giving the books out in separation knowing that it is pleasing for Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya. We are chanting, we are always thinking, feeling separation for guru, for Kṛṣṇa, doesn’t mean… of course sometimes we are brought together with devotees, deities, we feel some happiness of reunion and then after some time we feel separation. That separation is not material suffering. It’s not that when we are happy chanting in ecstasy that’s happiness, and separation is suffering. It’s all happiness, it’s all transcendental bliss.

Because if you told Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu that, “Alright, why You are feeling so much separation?”

Just like Ramcandra Purī told Mādhavendra Purī, what is all this lamentation?, Mathuranath… You should just be you know one in the Brahmand, oṁ shanti, shanti, shantihi, hari oṁ.

Mādhavendra Purī couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and he was completely absorbed in feeling separation of Kṛṣṇa in the mood of Rādhā. It’s coming up….

Tell him, “You should be chanting Oṁ Shanti, we should be peaceful, unanimous…”

Sometimes people see the picture of Śrīla Prabhupāda and say, “he doesn’t look happy”, Some of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s most profoundly happy, ecstatic moments was when he looked the most unhappy, from some material external point of view, but you could tell it, he wasn’t unhappy. It’s a special mood which is inconceivable.

So those who were with Prabhupāda, they knew that how profoundly transcendentally ecstatic he was. At least they could sense that. But sometimes it is difficult for people who are used to normal expressions to understand what is that expression. This you maybe… I was experiencing like a drop when I was thinking how totally unqualified I am as a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. That after 30 years still there is so much to do to actually become a… try to become a worthy disciple of Prabhupāda and fulfill all the things that he wants Iskcon to do, and he wants… ordered me to do. Then I was thinking how wonderful all the devotees of Iskcon, still in spite of having absolutely no qualification… Prabhupāda, somehow allowed me to have your wonderful association, and the wonderful association of all the devotees that were there in the festival. And somehow my heart is very hard at this moment, but at that moment I had a very profound revelation like that. And I was feeling so much moved that how…. and I still can’t forget that, still feel like that. That how important all the devotees are to Kṛṣṇa, to Śrīla Prabhupāda. And how… how wonderful it is to serve the devotees. And I would hope that I would be able to serve the devotees  more and more, even though I am not able to do so, I would like to.

So, then I was feeling, I was really feeling… I was, it was for a moment I was feeling kind of really humble, overwhelmed, and someone came up to me and said, “you are looking very unhappy”, it was one of the most happiest moment of my life and I was feeling really appreciating the devotees and I was trying to look very unhappy. (inaudible) I wish I can be unhappy like that always…

So anyway this place, how many have visited Kānāi Natsala? Nobody?

 I don’t know, how much percentage of your life is…(Devotees laughing)  Can you … this place which is the place of Lord Caitanya’s separation manifesting in the world, Can you imagine that by Prabhupāda’s mercy, a year and a half ago that place is been given to Iskcon?

Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki

Jay (everyone)

Kānāi Natsala Ki

Jai (everyone)]

For hundreds of years the place has been worshipped by the Ramanujanandi Vaiṣṇavas, who is kind of an off shoot of Rāmānuja Sampraday, Ram Bhaktas, and somehow they were told that, “ok, you can worship the deities as long as you can protect them, but ever you can’t protect them you have to give them to the most prominent devotees of Lord Caitanya at that time.

So even when Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur went there and established the lotus foot print, they were doing the worship… in his purport he mentions this.

Three years ago, the deities were stolen. And then the head acharya… he was like… it was like a curse you know; it was like… “This means that we cannot continue the worship.” This was the… they knew, it was handed down for generations and centuries. They failed to protect the deity. “We have to give it now… the place back to Lord Caitanya’s followers, and then he said he was praying, and he came to Māyāpur, he said… he told that he had the order from the deity, he was praying and the deity came to them in the dream and said to give to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers, that he was the bonafide representative of Lord Caitanya… this time… and his followers were the most qualified to maintain this place.

It was really… because if I went out of my room in the long building in Māyāpur, there is long building that… those who have been there know… we have some offices at one end, and there I saw this sādhu, real old you know, long matted hair, big tilak, sitting there down and crunched over and Prabhupāda said, “We should serve the sādhus.” so I said, “Sādhu baba, can we offer you any prasādam or something?” He said, “I only take fruit.” “Can we offer you some fruit?”

He said, “I took my fruit today already.”

Ok then, is there any reason… what brings you here. I was very honored by your presence, I was speaking Hindi because he didn’t speak English, and then he showed me a slip and it said, “Dayaram, General Manager.”

“Ok this is his office. You want to wait inside?  Have your seat there.”

He said, “I am alright”

So finally, I told Dayaram, “There is some sādhu here.” It turned out that he was the guru, who came down there to offer us the place, and it took a year to figure out how to do it because it’s been in their name, there is no papers, nothing, it was like handed down generations after generation. That to find some record, that some king 300 years ago had signed some edict … at the time of the moghul rule before the British and it was the…  Anyway so, then we got, I had to become his… the next mahānta and then give it to Iskcon or something. Anyway, we did all the legalities and then… so this year at… after Gaura Pūrṇimā we had… we did a re… we did a… we got deities that were donated by Radhapad Das, and those deities were installed at the Kānāi Natsala temple. And that was a very wonderful occasion.

We didn’t do any big advertisements. 10,000 people came! With their wet clothes, then you’re also considered pure. So even non-brahmins can bring water and help with abhisekh. So, we are having men, woman coming and dipping in and coming up and did a 108. Plus, we did all the milk, panchamrita, panchagavya, everything. We did a full men’s kīrtan, women’s kīrtan…Because it says… Madhavendara Purī… so when he did a re…re-establishing of Gopal diety in Govardhan, they had women’s kīrtan and men’s kīrtan.

So whenever we have abhisekh, this is the opportunity of the ladies to do kīrtan. If… not that they can’t do other times. Especially this is supposed to be there … so we had, we did this Iṣṭha Goṣṭhī, and we gave out all the services. And afterwards people were saying that this time it was so wonderful. Everyone was just cooperating together, serving.  No politics, no doubts, no anything. Just serving, serving and serving, and it was so ecstatic, and then when these deities were installed, we were feeling so much happiness. It was like you know, we got Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa came and He was smiling so beautifully, very enchanting smile, beautiful deity of Rādhārāṇī, Lord Caitanya we also added. And it just so happened that… that night they had scheduled that my party had to leave. So I thought, “This is like… we just get Kṛṣṇa, pho.. we have to be losing Him.”

So, everybody wants to go back and spend a few days there. At least if you do have an opportunity, it’s only thirty kilometers from Kānāi Natsala. It’s in the very end of Gaura Maṇḍala bhūmi. It’s about… by train it is a couple of hours north of Nityānanda’s birth place. At that place, because now it’s north of the Faracca dam, the Barrage… the Ganges is six to eight kilometers wide there. So, you…it comes right up to this land. So, it’s like you are on the side of the ocean of the Ganges.

If you are a deep diver, you can dive in and there is no bottom… and it was like 100 feet deep or more, if you are not a good swimmer there is a shallow place you can take your bath. And there is always a breeze there on the top of the hill. But there is something special about that place. Everybody’s japa was very clear, it’s a very peaceful place. It’s very close to where Rupa and Sanatana lived in Rama Keli.

Anyway, I thought I would share with you this pastime of Lord Caitanya, and how we are so fortunate that somehow, we got this place in Iskcon.  It’s like a blessing that devotees are there praying for the… with all the devotees we can feel more separation for Krsna.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

So, if we can develop this mood of separation now, when we leave our body we want to be with Kṛṣṇa, we go right back to Kṛṣṇa. But if you want to worship the Hiraṇyagarbha form of the Lord according to the strict system, then you can take birth in Satyaloka eventually and wait till the end of the second half of Brahmā’s life.

How many would like to take Lord Caitanya’s short route?

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Any questions?

 

Thank you very much.

How many would like to visit Kānāi Natsala?

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Well, one way is you can get the direct train from Howrah to Tin Pahari. Tin Pahari, three mountain station. And then from there you can take either take a train to Tin Jāri and from there you can take a ṭhelā garis, one of those horse buggies, it’s two kilometers. Or you can tell us in advance and from Tin Pahari we have a Jip pick up and take you there 10 kilometers. Or you can go to Ram Keli and see even the Malda Town, and see Rūpa and Sanātana’s temples and līlā plac. And from there it is 30 kilometers to the other side of the Ganges. And there is a ferry that crosses the Ganges to Rajmahal, and from Rajmahal it’s six kilometers, or you can drive up straight from Māyāpur or you can take… see ekchakra and see Nityānanda dham, and from… 12 kilometers from Ekacakra there is a train station called Rampur Hat, and from there they have trains that go also to Tin Jāri. Or next year I was thinking to take a boat and go by launch from Māyāpur up there. Or maybe we will go there by train and take a lodge downstream… faster.

So, there are various ways you can go from Māyāpur.

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa.