20030302 Śrī Caitanya-līlā

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 2^nd, 2003 in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma, India.

Jayapatākā Swami: (audio begins abruptly) Kṛṣṇa is wondering, “Why are You crying? I just came here, now that I am here, why are You crying? What is the cause? Has someone mistreated You? Have the children been disobedient?” It  seemed that they had the same troubles even then. But, uh, Rukmiṇī, she was a bit astonished that Kṛṣṇa does not know why she is crying. Looking at His lotus face, she said, “My dear Lord, my heart is very, very hard. I do not have any good qualities. But somehow, by my very great good fortune, I have achieved You as the Lord of my life. But even more than You, Your lotus feet are glorified. You are the omniscient one, You know everything. You know whether Śiva is dancing in Kailāsa. You know what is going on in all the planets of the universe, of the creation. You know what Lord Brahmā is doing in Satya-loka. You know everything that is going on. How is it You do not know what is going on in my heart? You do not know how much those who love You, love Your lotus feet.

If You once accepted the mood of Rādhārāṇī in Your heart, then certainly You would understand the symptoms of Your devotee’s pure love.” When Kṛṣṇa heard these words, He was stunned. He asked her, “Will you kindly explain to Me what are you saying? What is it that I do not understand or do not know? This I have never heard before. This is a rare thing.” Actually, Kṛṣṇa likes rare things, I think. He was astonished to consider there was something He did not know within the three worlds. So, this was giving Kṛṣṇa some happiness. So, He requested Rukmiṇī, “Reveal your mind further.”

So, Rukmiṇī said, “Please listen, my dear Lord. You are the jewel of all good qualities. You know everything that is going on but You do not know what is the nectar that exists in Your lotus feet, what ecstasy Your devotees feel by serving Your lotus feet, You do not understand, my Lord. Now You have come to my home, and I have Your lotus feet. But one day these lotus feet will leave my home. Although I am happy in Your presence, considering that one day You will leave, I cannot help but cry. Can You not understand, my Lord, how dear You are to me? Can You not understand the glories of these lotus feet? Your lotus feet are producing a fragrance which spreads in all directions. And simply by smelling this transcendental fragrance, these persons are free from all the ecstasies. By seeing these divine lotus feet of Yours, persons are delivered to eternal life. Those who can hold on to Your lotus feet with devotion, such persons’ feet are worshipable for the entire world.”

So, like this Rukmiṇī was expressing her heart. How many would like to have the darśana of these lotus feet? Haribol! How many would like to smell the fragrance of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet? Haribol! How our life is worthless without having this mercy but somehow we have so much mercy, we can serve the servants of the lotus feet like Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, like this they were discussing. I mean Rukmiṇī’s love for Kṛṣṇa is so great, see Kṛṣṇa is there and she is already thinking, “He is going to leave me one month, two months, one year.” And she is already feeling separation. So, Rukmiṇī is very, very great. Her love is something really amazing. That is why she is considered best  of all the queens.

She is thinking how Rādhārāṇī is crying, “Let us see the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Let us go and see His lotus feet.” Rādhārāṇī is mad in separation to see the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. While these discussions are going on, Nārada Muni flew in through the window and that saved Kṛṣṇa from a very embarrassing situation, pretty tense there, and actually Kṛṣṇa was moved by these words. It was something very special, very interesting. To take on the mood of His devotees, to understand what they feel for Him. This is one of the internal reasons for Kṛṣṇa to come in this world, to experience what it is like to be a devotee of Himself, to experience the love of Kṛṣṇa from the viewpoint of a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. [Aside: You need more room? Should I move back? How many people are sitting up here? You need more room? Okay.]

So, Nārada Muni came and immediately Kṛṣṇa got up with His queen and since He is playing the līlā like a kṣatriya, He sat Nārada Muni on a nice guru’s seat. And He bathed His feet. It is allowed to bathe the feet of the guru in Dvārakā, Vṛndāvana, Mathurā. Only not in ISKCON you see. So, Kṛṣṇa bathed the lotus feet of Nārada Muni and they were amazed because Nārada Muni is the most peaceful person, dhīra, śānta and now he was also crying. [Kṛṣṇa thought] “What a day, My queen is crying, My guru is crying? What is wrong with you, Nārada Muni? Why are you agitated? What is there in your mind? You are dearer to Me than My life, so I cannot stand to see you preoccupied like this. So, it is intolerable for Me to see you sad.”

So, Nārada Muni said, “What can I say, You are the Supersoul of all living entities. You know everything that is going on. You are the Lord of all that exists. And I live on the foodstuff of seeing the glories of Your holy name and Your wonderful qualities but when I travel to the universe, I cannot hear Your holy name being chanted anymore. I see the people engaged in materialistic activities, forgetful of You. When I see these conditioned souls devoid of Your consciousness, then I feel very, very sad.” And he requested Kṛṣṇa, “Please make an arrangement so that these conditioned souls will be uplifted when You leave.”

So, the Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke, “My dear Nārada, My dear devotee, it is My desire to distribute My mercy to everyone in the material world, fulfilling your desire. Therefore, today I make this promise that in order to experience the happiness of pure love of Godhead, I shall become a devotee Myself in the association of devotees. Nitāi Gaura Premānande! Hari Haribol! I will become a devotee Myself. HARIBOL! And I shall engage in relishing this pure love in the Age of Kali. I will manifest a form filled with humility and I shall give out pure loving devotional service for Myself to everyone and although I am the Lord of all the worlds, I shall appear as My own devotee and engage in singing the glories of My qualities by performing harināma-saṅkīrtana. I shall appear in the sacred abode of Navadvīpa, Māyāpura dhāma, in the home of Mother Śacī.”

So, like this, Kṛṣṇa explained how He will become golden-colored. Gaurāṅga! He will have long arms. He will have so wonderful beauty to attract all the conditioned souls. Being absorbed in ecstasy, Kṛṣṇa showed to Nārada Muni His form as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Nitāi Gaura Premānande! Hari Haribol!  When Nārada Muni saw the transcendental form of Lord Gaurāṅga, he became overwhelmed with ecstasy and love. Tears were flowing from his eyes. He never saw such a beautiful form, more brilliant than millions of suns. He could hardly tolerate looking at the form so beautiful. Tears were flowing from Nārada Muni’s eyes like rivers.

It seemed like a mountain, and Lord Caitanya was a mountain made of molten gold. Our Deity of Lord Caitanya is going to be molten, which we are making out of metal, molten gold. We need to just touch it with a touchstone and it becomes solid gold. (laughter) So, then Nārada Muni, he felt so much ecstasy. The Lord told him, “Go and tell everyone that I am coming in Kali-yuga.” And they should also come and assist Me to spread the yuga-dharma of harināma-saṅkīrtana.

So, in this way, Nārada Muni was ordered to tell the devas to appear in Navadvīpa, in Bengal, different parts of India, Odisha, different devotees to appear. Which extraterrestrial appeared in Navadvīpa for Lord Caitanya’s pastimes? Which demigods? Brahmā as Haridāsa Ṭhākura, Mahā-Viṣṇu and Śiva as Advaita Ācārya. Who else? Nārada Muni himself came as Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. Different demigods. Celestial residents, anyone else? Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who is he? Bṛhaspati, the guru of the devas, like that.

So, so many were coming. It is a great… that is probably the best perk that being a deva has, right? You can come down and help the Lord in His pastimes. Being in the heavenly planet seems like a little trade. If there is anything that God is going for them, it is being able to appear when the Lord appears and assist Him in His pastimes. That, that is really nice. So, so like this Nārada Muni went and told Brahmā, told different devas to come down. Brahmā said, “I have already got it worked out. I am already going.” He had already come and got Lord Caitanya’s order after the stealing of the cowherd boys. Indra, Moon-god, Yogendra, so many were informed by Nārada Muni.

When Nārada Muni came back to the earth, he saw it things had changed and he realized Kṛṣṇa had already left and now people were completely in Māyā. They had given up their practices of charity, penances and austerities. People became very attracted, very absorbed in the attractive features of the opposite sex, especially the women. Men became over-infatuated with their wives and this way their physical attractions became very strong and people forgot about self-realization. So, then he could immediately understand this, Kṛṣṇa is gone, Kali-yuga has begun.

So, then he got a message that he should go to see Dāru-brahma, Jagannātha,

jaya jagannātha! jaya jagannātha! jaya baladeva! jaya subhadrā!
jaya jagannātha! jaya jagannātha! jaya baladeva! jaya subhadrā!

jagannātha svāmī nayana-patha-gāmī
nayana-patha-gāmī bhava tume!

So, now Jagannātha said, “I am Lord of the universe and I have appeared here in a wooden form by the side of the salt ocean in Nīlācala. And I am residing here to distribute the mahā-prasāda.” mahā-prasāda kī Jaya! Because He had promised Kātyāyanī Devī to distribute the prasāda.

So, Nārada Muni went to see Jagannātha. When he was in the temple he saw the large, beautiful lotus face of Lord Jagannātha with the big eyes, beautiful, more brilliant than millions of moons. You see, we see the Deities because they are covered. Our vision is covered. We are not able to see all the beautiful features of the Lord. Little bit we can see maybe but Nārada Muni, when he saw Jagannātha, he saw a brilliant effulgent form like millions of moons, cooling and soothing and beautiful. Immediately he fell on the ground offering his obeisances.

After getting control of himself, he rose and with folded hands he prayed, “Lord, please have mercy now the Kali-yuga has begun. People of this world are falling into illusion, the darkest region of sinful activities. They have become slaves to their senses. So, please have Your mercy upon them, they are  suffering, lamentation, fear and tinkering and anxiety.” So, Jagannātha said, “I will reveal everything to you in private but now you have to go to Goloka, the supreme spiritual planet. There in a place in Goloka called Śvetadvīpa, you will find Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have to tell Lord Caitanya it is time for Him to come down.”

So, in this way, you know, there are different dhāmas. The material world is known as Devī-dhāma. This area is ruled over by Durgā. Then above this is Maheśa-dhāma, where Lord Śiva is supreme. Then above Maheśa-dhāma is Hari-dhāma. Hari! You know this word HA-RI? Two syllables. HA-RI! Hari! Hari! Hari! Hari! Gaurahari! You know that the Skanda Purāṇa says that if you chant these two syllables, Hari, and Kṛṣṇa in His form as Hari, He will steal from you. He will steal away all your misfortune, all your suffering, all your contamination, all your dirt. Anybody minds? (laughter) If you mind, then do not say ‘Hari’. He will steal away all your suffering and leave you happy.

So, that Hari-dhāma is known as Vaikuṇṭha. Beyond Vaikuṇṭha is what dhāma? Goloka. In Goloka there is Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, Dvārakā and Śvetadvīpa, and Śvetadvīpa is where Lord Caitanya is residing. So, He is Kṛṣṇa in the form of a devotee. So, in this way, Nārada Muni went to the Brahmajyoti, went to the fourteen planetary systems, through the Virajā River, through the brahma-jyoti, beyond the Vaikuṇṭhaloka and up to Goloka, where the Lord simultaneously exists as Śyāmasundara, the darkish blue color, as well as Gaurāṅga, golden color. So, Jagannātha revealed to Nārada Muni before he left, “Lord Caitanya is going to come down and distribute the love of Godhead everywhere and help Me distribute all this prasāda.”

How many of you have Jagannātha prasāda here in Māyāpur? We also have Jagannātha. Actually, you know that all the devotees, whatever prasāda you take is offered to Jagannātha, I mean from this big kitchen. They have a little Jagannātha temple there. We have our own, a special five hundred-year-old Jagannātha temple which is like two kilometres from here and that is said to be non-different from Jagannātha Purī.

We go there on the parikramā and stay one day and we all have Jagannātha prasāda. But if you cannot wait, you can book prasāda from there. Jagannātha has a special līlā. He wants everyone to take His prasāda. There is a tree there. It is very interesting, that temple of Jagannātha, because that temple of Jagannātha is in the garden of Sīmantinī. There is a form of Durgā called Sīmantinī. Because, I will tell the story when we go there, but she took the dust of Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet and put on her forehead, on the parting of the hair, that place is known as sīmanta. So, Jagannātha is in her garden distributing prasāda. So, we are also very fortunate how Jagannātha came to us.

Some Western devotees, we are not allowed to go into the Jagannātha temple in Purī. Indian and Indian-looking devotees can go, but somehow, by the mercy of Jagannātha, we have His service here and all over the world. Śrīla Prabhupāda was upset. He wanted the devotees to go into the temple because he said it is an insult to Lord Caitanya that His followers are not allowed to go. When he is in Jagannātha Purī, he predicted that in the whole world the saṅkīrtana movement will spread and everyone will become a devotee. So, if they respect Lord Caitanya, then we should accept His prediction since they are devotees; they should be allowed to go. That was Prabhupāda’s point.

So, anyway, Nārada Muni went into the Goloka Vṛndāvana, and there he saw the golden form of Kṛṣṇa – Gaurāṅga! His form was so beautiful and sweet. It was like the nectar of honey, transcendental honey. In other words, we taste honey, it is sweet, but when we see something, it does not look good. But Lord Caitanya is so sweet that if you just see Him, it is to the eyes what honey is to the tongue. Seeing Him is like that to the eyes. You feel so sweet. And everyone there was performing abhiṣeka with spiritual Gaṅgā water, soaked with jewels.

When we do the mahābhiṣeka here for Lord Caitanya, there may be, I do not know, maybe hundreds or more different items that are used to bathe the Lord. One of the items is navaratna. We put navaratna in the water, and with that we bathe the Lord – jewel water. There is flower water, fruit water, sandalwood water, so many kinds. And one of them is jewel water. So with the jewel water also, in that spiritual world, they are also bathing the Lord with jewel water, and they are chanting, “Jaya, Jaya, Jaya!” Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

Nārāyaṇa has four arms. Lord Caitanya has two arms. Nārada Muni, he saw again Lord Caitanya’s form. He fell on the ground and offered obeisances. The Lord, after finishing His bath, he said, “Bring him. Bring him.” He picked up Nārada Muni and put him on His lap. All the anxiety in Nārada Muni was feeling, immediately gone, relieved. Then he revealed his mind to Lord Caitanya: “Today my life is successful as I can see Your transcendental form. Even Brahmā and other demigods do not know Your glory. You are inconceivable to the conditioned souls.” So, like this he offered many, many prayers. “Anantadeva, the incarnation of the serpent, He is glorifying You with His unlimited mouths, and He cannot find any end.” So, he was glorifying Lord Caitanya.

Then Lord Caitanya spoke to Nārada: “You see, it is My desire. I want to give the mercy of My lotus feet to the conditioned souls. My heart is crying out for them. I am going to leave this spiritual world, and I am going to enter into the material world to create a world centred around Kṛṣṇa.” Haribol! How many like a world centred around Kṛṣṇa? Spasíbo, dhanyavāda, thank you very much, gracias and everything else.

This is what we want. We want to fulfil Lord Caitanya’s desire for a world centred around Kṛṣṇa. It is not that Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, the Supreme Lord if he wants… he can... It is like He told Arjuna: “You fight or do not fight; I have already killed everybody.” But if you fight, then you get the glory and you will please Me.” But anyway, somehow, if Arjuna had refused to fight, still Kṛṣṇa would have finished them off some other way. But Arjuna did not refuse; he surrendered. He was very intelligent. We may not be so intelligent. We see, sometimes devotees do not want to surrender and serve Kṛṣṇa. I mean, some devotees leave the service. It is very disheartening, very saddening. We see devotees leaving the service of Kṛṣṇa. So, they were not so intelligent like Arjuna. They left somehow or another. Usually, many times they come back again, missing the nectar of the association of the devotees.

One godbrother who had left for many years—he came back and he said, “I have realised that there is nothing, nothing, nothing so dear as the association of the devotees. Whatever false ego, whatever false pride, whatever, I just swallow it and come back and beg forgiveness for all my offences. Because I just realised there is nothing as wonderful as the association of the devotees.” Of course, he hoped that nobody has to leave to realise that. (laughter) We  should realise it without leaving. We can learn from others’ mistakes. [Aside: What do you think, Vijay? (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa.] May Prabhupāda’s blessings be on all of us. May we always stay in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So now the Lord, He had this desire that He wants to propagate in the material world and deliver the people of Kali-yuga by preaching the glories of the saṅkīrtana movement, preaching the glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa, of Himself and with Him, Balarāma would come, Anantadeva would come, the eleven Rudras would come, His consorts would come, His cowherd boyfriends would come, many would come. “So now I reveal to you, Nārada Muni, My plan. I am going to come.”

Then Nārada Muni left and went to tell Balarāma that He had to come also and then Lord Caitanya called all the śaktis. Rādhārāṇī was on one side, on the right side and on the left side was Rukmiṇī and all the queens and assistants. They were all looking at the beautiful face of Lord Caitanya. So then He revealed His purpose, that “Every age I come in the material world to deliver the glories and preserve the principles of religion.

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge
[Bg. 4.8]

So, people are suffering more in Kali-yuga because it is so materialistic, that people suffer more. It is as dark as midnight on a moonless night, no trace of pure religious principles. So, seeing the suffering of the people of Kali-yuga, My mercy has increased. I descend into the material world to destroy irreligion. Whenever irreligion increases, I descend to establish dharma. So I am going to appear and give out My own pure love for Myself. I am going to give freely this rarest of all spiritual benedictions. I am going to personally teach the people of the material world how to understand what is real religion and what is irreligion.

I am going to appear in Navadvīpa, in the womb of Śacī-devī, in the house of Jagannātha Miśra, by the side of the Ganges River. Gaṅgā! Gaṅgā! Gaṅgā! Gaṅgā! So, Gaṅgā is a very important part of Lord Caitanya’s līlā. Lord Caitanya said, “I descend in My own spiritual body.” He is not coming as a conditioned soul. He is not coming because of some karma. He is coming because of His own free will. He comes into the material world just to deliver all of us conditioned souls in the Age of Kali.

And it explains how in this incarnation, He is different. Every incarnation He comes and kills the demons and establishes Himself as the victor over the demons. You saw how that drama was going on, the snake and the mouse. You saw how the Lord blessed the demigods, the devas. But He said that in this incarnation, since every conditioned soul has in their heart some demonic nature, we are all contaminated, we have this, in the Age of Kali, deva and asuric thoughts coming into the mind. Probably you do not, but most conditioned souls, mostly all conditioned souls. Have you ever had a demonic thought come into your mind? (laughter) So therefore, He said, “This time I am not going to bring any weapons of violence. I am going to bring the weapon of My holy name,

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
[Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa 38.126]

Also saṅkīrtana, and the potency of great pure loving devotees. I am going to bring My love, pure love.” So, Lord Caitanya is going to bring this transcendental weapon. “So, let us all go. Come on, let us go. Come on Rādhā! Come on Rukmiṇī! Everybody, let us go. Some go ahead, some go with Me, some go a little after. Let us all go. And let us spread the harināma-saṅkīrtana, flood the world with the love of Kṛṣṇa. HARIBOL! HARIBOL! HARIBOL!”

“I will inundate the entire universe. I will not allow any suffering to remain, not even a little degradation or anxiety. All movable, movable living entities, all the devas, everyone.” We have to help the Lord finish what He started. We do not have to, but we should. It is just a great opportunity. So, the Lord predicted how it is all, how they are all going to stand with His eternal associates and assistants to distribute the love of Godhead to the conditioned souls in the Kali-yuga.

And He said, “I am going to manifest My pastimes in the land of Bhārata-varṣa. But if sinful practices and irreligion are going on in distant lands, there are some religions that allow sinful activities to go on in the name of religion.” Do you know any? Religious people are doing all kinds of sinful activities and thinking this is very religious. So, Lord Caitanya predicted all these things. This was written, oh, five hundred years ago. He said then, “I will not firstly be present in those distant lands. I will send My senāpati-bhakta, My great spiritual general, and inundate the whole universe with pure love. I will not allow any suffering to remain.” That is really so wonderful mercy of the Lord.

So, senāpati-bhakta, it is hard to translate. When I translated that, I did not know whether it is singular or plural. We know that Śrīla Prabhupāda is definitely a senāpati-bhakta. He brought Kṛṣṇa consciousness to all these distant places. Some of us are born in these sinful, distant places far away from Bhārata-varṣa. I remember when Mahārāja, he was revealing how he was sitting in a class in Gainesville, and then Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “You are seated thousands and thousands of miles away in a remote corner of the world, far, far away from Māyāpura Navadvīpa-dhāma” and he was thinking, you know, Americans think, “We are in the centre of the world, right?” And Prabhupāda said, “No, you are in a very distant place, in some insignificant corner, far away from Māyāpur.” Telling them the Absolute Truth and humbling them a little bit. But right now, we are right in the very centre. We are right in the spiritual world. This is an extension of the spiritual world. This abode is manifested by Yogamāyā. We are not able to see it. We do not have the proper vision, unfortunately. Maybe some of you do. I do not know, but I do not have it yet. I am very fallen.

But one day, when Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, he had gone and visited parikramā with Īśāna, he took rest in the house of Jagannātha Miśra, laying on a grass mat in the courtyard. Sometimes it is cooler to sleep outside when it gets really hot, because inside, it is hot, outside there is a cool breeze. He was sleeping outside, and he was just like overwhelmed. “Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was born in a grass hut? He lives in a grass hut. He lived in a simple way?” You know, it was kind of like, how can the Lord live in such a simple way. Kind of mind-boggling, mind-bewildering. He was just thinking of what an amazing pastime it is, how the Lord, with unlimited potency, the husband of the goddess of fortune, He is living in such a simple way, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa with bare feet.

Then, at midnight, something in the middle of the night, he dozed off and Lord Caitanya appeared in a vision and picked him up, and flew him into the sky. He was given a divine vision where he could see Māyāpur dhāma, Navadvīpa dhāma. It was huge. And in the centre there was a walled city. The walls were golden, and the houses were all very beautiful, like temples. And in the centre of that, there was a domed building, like a canopy temple, a very big temple where many people could congregate inside.

Then Lord Caitanya took him inside, and there he saw, in the centre of the temple – Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrivāsa, and many devotees and then he saw a huge crowd of devotees in front of the stage, like the stage area where the Lord was sitting with His associates. He saw devotees from different countries, races of people he had never seen before, different colours, different complexions and features. And it was so shocking for him that he woke up and he was back again in the courtyard. Like this, he had seven visions. Every time he dozed back again, Lord Caitanya took him and brought him into a different part of the temple, where there was Viṣṇupriyā and Lakṣmīpriyā, where he could see Goloka Vṛndāvana, where he could see Vaikuṇṭha, where he could see so many different parts of the universe manifested there. He had seven different visions like that.

Actually, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also said that our vision is covered because of this skin, muscle eyes that we have. They do not have proper spiritual vision. Otherwise, you could see the most effulgent dhāma, cintāmaṇi-dhāma. So, it is very unfortunate. How many would like spiritual vision to see Māyāpur dhāma in the full vision?

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Advaita! Gadādhara! Śrīvāsa Prabhu!
Kṛpā-karo! Kṛpā-karo āmāre! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

So, we all are praying, when we go to the birthplace, there is a Vṛddha Śiva there; there is a deity of Śiva who is protecting the dhāma. When we go on Navadvīpa-dhāma parikramā, we see Prauḍhā Māyā, one devī temple who is protecting the dhāma. They give us a blessing to lift this mist. You know, like this morning, there is a mist. You can see very… we are just seeing something external. Even then, Māyāpur is so beautiful—the Gaṅgā, the trees. But we want to see the transcendental vision of Māyāpur, like Śrīnivāsa Ācārya did, the full glory, at least to enter into the dhāma and experience, to feel the presence of Lord Caitanya here in His sacred abode. So, this abode is very, very, very, very, very special.

As we go in Navadvīpa, we see so many glories about Navadvīpa-dhāma. So, I got enough to speak for an hour-and-a-half seminar or something. We go for seven days and nights and just nonstop hear the glories of Navadvīpa. Step by step, inch by inch, you are getting a little closer, and you can feel more and more the presence of Lord Caitanya.

So, Prabhupāda once said that one of the special glories of Māyāpur, Navadvīpa-dhāma is that when you are here, you have a desire to be with Lord Caitanya, the desire to know Him. It reminds me of that song, My Sweet Lord, right? “I want to know You, I want to be with You.” That desire increases more and more here. Actually, if we just had a strong enough desire to be with Kṛṣṇa, to serve Kṛṣṇa, to see Kṛṣṇa, to know Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, He could reveal Himself to us. He is free to do anything He wants. Obviously, our desire is not so focused yet. We are not so humble.

We hear how Rukmiṇī is praying, “My heart is so hard, I have no good qualities.” If Rukmiṇī can say that – “My heart is hard”—she is crying, holding Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet to her heart, “As You can tell, my heart is so hard, I have no qualification.” These devotees of the Lord, they are so humble, right? If we finish our rounds, we think, “I am a great devotee” or something. If we make it in time for maṅgala-ārati and somebody is five minutes late, we think we are better than everybody else. Here she is holding Kṛṣṇa’s feet to her heart and saying, “My heart is so hard, I have no qualification.” Who can imagine what it is to be really situated in pure love of Kṛṣṇa.

So, we really need to learn all these things by associating with these devotees and hearing about them. Maybe a little bit of their wonderful qualities will rub off on us just by hearing. Hearing is also one way of associating. We can hear about their glories, and we can also get some of their good qualities and get some of their mercy.

We heard Lord Caitanya said to Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura that, “I have given Myself to you. You bought Me. I am sold. You can do with Me whatever you like. You can give Me away in charity. You can sell Me in the market. You can auction Me off.” That means that we can somehow even get the mercy of Śrīvāsa. Śrīvāsa says, “Lord Caitanya, just have mercy on this person who is suffering so much, who has no love for You.” If Śrīvāsa just put one word, then Lord Caitanya would never say no to Śrīvāsa.

So, all these great devotees that we are reading about, that we are hearing about, all our ācāryas, if somehow we can just attract the mercy of any one of them to plead on our behalf, “Have mercy on this devotee,” surely Lord Caitanya would give us His mercy, despite our being totally unqualified.

I am just hoping for that, I am trying to serve Prabhupāda and hoping for his mercy. One day, if ever I am able to please Prabhupāda, he will just say, “Lord Caitanya, have the mercy on him.” Otherwise, I do not see any hope for myself. So, this is where we are today, here in Māyāpur, the place where Lord Caitanya appeared, the place where His work is still going on. Still a few people are suffering in this material world. The world is still to become… India was Kṛṣṇa-centred when Lord Caitanya was here, but now so many have fallen back in Māyā to some extent. So, we have to reawaken that all over the world.

And that is why what we are doing is also part of Lord Caitanya’s līlā. If we do something like that, and Lord Caitanya sees that we are trying so hard to please Him, then He may also, at any time, want to give us His pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We should try to be very humble. We do not have any qualification for it. We do not deserve it. But being very fallen and having no qualities, that is  how we are supposed to plead to the Lord for His mercy.

That is how we see all these great ācāryas and great devotees, dear devotees are praying to the Lord. We can learn from them.

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

Any questions? On this class, not anything else. So, yes?

Question: Who is Rādhārāṇī? Is it Satyabhāmā? Is it Rukmiṇī?

Jayapatākā Swami: Who is?

Devotee: Rādhārāṇī?

Jayapatākā Swami: Rādhārāṇī is Rādhārāṇī.

Devotee: Are they Dvārakā queens or?

Jayapatākā Swami: No. The queens of Dvārakā are expansions of Rādhārāṇī. Yes. All the queens are expansions; rāṇīs are expansions of all the gopīs and the primary first expansion is Rukmiṇī. That is Satyabhāmā.”

Question: Mahārāja, the story of Rukmiṇī and Kṛṣṇa, Rukmiṇī is crying with Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, the story is not there in the Kṛṣṇa Book. Can you tell them where it is from?

Jayapatākā Swami: Caitanya Maṅgala

Devotee: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: It is not part of the lecture. Well, it is possible. In the material world, you get split personalities. Why not in the spiritual world, you cannot have joint personalities? Like sometimes, like anyway, Mahā-Viṣṇu and Śiva, the husband of Pārvatī, Śiva can anyway be part of Mahā-Viṣṇu. And then sometimes He would manifest one part or the other. I may not be giving a good example, just a material example. Saying, “We cannot do it.” It is very crude and not related. This is how, we should not limit it. What can be done? How it works? Obviously, we do not have that technology at our disposal. That kind of, but since the scriptures are saying that in some personality, like say Jahnāvā Devī, she was Revati. Revati, the consort of Balarāma. But sometimes she was also having characteristics of Ananga Manjarī. So, when she was with Lord Nityānanda, she was acting as Revati. And when she was alone preaching, she was acting as Ananga Manjarī. But do not ask me how these things are possible. I mean, they are possible, if I knew that, I would not be sitting here in a material body right now. That kind of, we cannot understand how, we do not know what a spiritual form is. How they can share these kinds of līlās. But that is quite rare. Not everybody is like that. There is one or two. It may be that the one person, I could speculate something.

But I do not think that would be very appropriate. We do not want to speculate. The logical thing is that if one person could, one personality could not perform, did not fit in with all the līlās, then another person would do the other līlās that that particular person had to do. But we cannot limit this to logic. It is beyond our ability to understand. I have not come across any kind of purport saying, but it is said like that happens sometimes, that they can combine together, but how they do that, because in our bodies, we do not know how to do that. That does not mean they do not have the ability to do that.

Last question? So, every night, well, tomorrow night again at four twenty. Was it too hot for you? Do you want to put a curtain in the back? Now it is not too hot. Just when the sun is setting, it was a bit hot. Okay, we will try to put something there. Anybody needs chairs? Any people with bad backs? Do you need some chairs or anything? How many need?

And day after tomorrow, I am not sure what will happen, because that is the, Tāmāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja’s day. We will probably be focusing on him that day more than other things. I mean, exclusively. And after this, I will give you a puffie ball. This prasāda is said to be a favorite of Lord Nityānanda. HARIBOL!

And I will be out here. Today, there are some devotees who have taken interviews to see me. So, I will see them. But starting tomorrow, I will just sit up here, and there will be a free-for-whoever-wants private darśana. I have got everybody gets prasāda and whoever wants, for one hour, from six to seven, a private darśana. It will not be fully private. I will just be here, and everybody else will be there. And one at a time, they will come and speak a few words or two, because it takes too long to get into the, it is like first aid.

“We can need a more lengthy interview after that, and we will fix another time. But for immediate first aid darśanas, then we will do that from tomorrow night, between this afternoon. But then, from seven on, I will be at the main stage, usually. I do not know. Tomorrow night is here, so definitely I think you want me to be there.”

So, then tomorrow night, after seven, I will be at the main stage. From six to seven, there will be a little window for interviews. And on the spot, the other Prabhus will be coordinating. It will not be too much to coordinate. It will just be an open darśana. Yeah, but one by one. I do not know. They say there is enough here for everybody.”