20130322 Talk about Gaura-līlā

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja talks on the 22^nd, March 2013 in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma, India on the Gaura-kathā Seminar - Day 1, on the Lotus Building Rooftop.

Jayapatākā Swami: “How many went on parikramā? And how many liked it? How many had special experience? Did you share last night? Who got a chance to share their realisations last night? Who didn’t?”

Lord Nityānanda, he would do parikramā many times in a year. He could walk all the nine islands in one day or nine days or any number in between. And he liked to do the parikramā. So he is our inspiration. Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he started us on this parikramā. And he told us how to do it. And we see that our previous ācāryas, like Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and previous ācāryas they would do this Navadvīpa parikramā in a very big way.

Now we have Māyāpur.tv, we have mobile phones, walkie-talkies. Before, they had elephants, horses, boats, large boats. The sannyāsa guru of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to ride the horse. So they had 10,000 disciples in one group. They would have a camp with the Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in the center out with the parikramā members. And so they would set up the camp, cook and stay there. When they would move, they have horse riders they would gallop from back of parikramā to front and they would make sure everybody stayed in line. I do not know what they did for loudspeakers, because 100 years ago I don’t think there were loudspeakers. But somehow, they heard the class.

And when Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura entered the Navadvīpa dhāma, one time the caste Goswamis attacked him and threw bricks from the roofs. They wanted to kill him. As they thought he is an offender against caste Goswamis. And his Keśava Mahārāja, he or some sect there gave his white cloth to Bhaktisiddhānta and snowed him of into took the red cloth and he ran as a decoy. So like that they tried to throw bricks on him, meanwhile, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura escaped. So this was the parikramā then. Our parikramā is peaceful, because our previous acharyas have fought all his battles. Because Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had said, the Vaiṣṇava is automatically a brāhmaṇa. And all the caste brāhmaṇas didn’t like that. And they tried to attack him. Once the Police Chief came and said that they offered him money to assassinate Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. He admitted that, sometimes he takes money to do such things. But I told them, not sādhus, we don’t do that to sādhus. But he told him please watch out. So since then there are some enemies to Lord Caitanya's movement, caste brāhmaṇas, smārthas, some types of bogus bābājīs, like this we have to watch out. So, all these things are history. Now we get along pretty well. But we should be sensitive that there are historically some people would be against Lord Caitanya's universal teachings.

So now, on this parikramā we can really feel that we are one spiritual family, united under Śrīla Prabhupāda. And it is also nice to see next few days, various parikramā parties go along the road and they go in-front of us on the road. And that is something that is very exciting. Of course, we have our festival. And tomorrow is Ekādaśī. And everyday there is some program. Actually, today there is a boat festival. So once fast is over, we should go to the Prabhupāda Samādhi ghāṭa. And the Rādhā Mādhava they would go in the boat and they will serve ārati. Like this all the highlights of the year’s festivals they do, in this 5-days - 6 days.

So Lord Caitanya was doing kīrtana in the house of Śrīvāsa, there were some caste brāhmaṇas, others outside listening. Someone would come up, “What do you think they are doing there? All are shouting Haribol, Haribol. (All chant Haribol) What is this? What is this? They must doing some whack rites.” Some were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. It sounds that they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. “Are you Hare Kṛṣṇa?” So these envious people although there was nothing wrong in what Lord Caitanya was doing, will always find fault. So one worshipper of Kali called Cāpāla Gopāla, who actually did whack rites, he drinks he would… I can’t even mention the horrible things he would do. He did some what they called tāntrik, whack rites. And so he said, “Today I gonna teach Śrīvāsa a lesson.” And he went around, and he took a slaughtered (sacrificed) goat, he painted the door with blood and kept a plate in-front of the door with the goat’s decapitated head, goat’s intestines, and some other organs. So in the morning when Śrīvāsa opened the door, he smelled obnoxious. “What is this smell?” And he saw all over the door blood painted on, he saw the plate with goat’s head, intestines, organs and some pooja articles of Kali. Some brāhmaṇas came by, “What is this?” “Oh!! don’t you just know, I was worshipping Kālī all night.” And you know he was a pure Vaiṣṇava. “Who has done such a horrible things?” No one for a second was impressed. No one doubted Śrīvāsa. So Śrīvāsa asked some cleaners to clean the door. He had some garbage man take away the goat and the parts. And he went on with his pūjās and likes.

Meanwhile, after three days Cāpāla Gopāla had developed leprosy. And although he was very good looking, once you have leprosy, you start rotting alive. So parts of his body started to rot. So the system then was that, lepers had to stay outside the city. So he had a place by the Ganges outside the city. And for years he lived there, as his leprosy slowly advanced.

Meanwhile, the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya was spreading, and after a while all the envious people were either converted or they shut up. And they moved out of the way, because there was no one to stop. Once Lord Caitanya and his followers, they went by the place of Cāpāla Gopāla. And Cāpāla Gopāla fell down at the feet of Lord Caitanya. He had heard how Lord Caitanya had saved Jagāi and Mādhāi. He had heard all the glories of Lord Caitanya. And he was truly repentant, and he said, “You are Patita-pāvana and deliverer of most fallen, I am most fallen. I have done terrible things, please have your mercy on me.” Lord Caitanya said, “No, I will not. If you offend me, I can forgive you. But you have offended my pure devotee, Śrīvāsa, unless he forgives you, I cannot. You have to burn in hell.” Lord Gaurāṅga, he walked out. We never saw Lord Caitanya so heavy and all his followers were shocked.

So some devotees approached Śrīvas and asked him, he should forgive this Chapal Gopal. “Me, forgiving? I am not a devotee. I am a fallen soul. No one can offend me, I am lower than the lowest. So there is no question of me forgiving anyone because I am too fallen, I am too low to be offended.” “Listen Śrīvas, it is nice you are humble but the fact is Lord Chaitanya sees you as his pure devotee. Unless, you forgive Chapal Gopal he is not going to deliver him. Do you want to be responsible for someone to burn in hell? Do you want to cause Chapal Gopal to suffer? “ “No, No, No I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me. I don’t want him to suffer because of me. Then you have to go and forgive him, otherwise you are causing him to suffer.” “Okay, okay I will go, I will go.” Then he went to the Ganges side. Chapal Gopal paid his obeisances, said,” Please forgive me for my offences. I was foolish I didn’t know your actual position.” And Śrīvas said he be forgiven. As soon as he said those words, Lord Gaurāṅga appeared and he picked up Chapal Gopal. He embraced him. He got cured of his leprosy. And from that point he was part of sankirtan movement. Haribol!! Haribol!! Haribol!! (All chant together)

(Gurumaharaj tells, Can you send someone to see what is happening with the deities at Prabhupad samādhi)

At mean time last night ,at the International parikramā party there were lots of questions at different parties so I thought give you some time if you have a questions over the Navadwip dham ,Navadwip parikramā so this is your chance.

And one question Guru Maharaj

Who’s that?

Anantha Śrī das

Okay, yes

I heard some years ago that If you make parikram with shoes you lose like I think it was around 30% of benefits of doing the parikramā but at that point I try to do it but I was thinking all the day of my feet so at the end I came to the conclusion that it was better to make parikramā with shoes and think of Kṛṣṇa then to do parikramā without shoes thinking of my feet .Can you explain something about that?

This year it was very late so in the late years the days are hotter, roads are hotter and the head is hotter so I saw a lady once she had two ghamchaas and she was throwing one out and stepping on it and picks another throws that ,step on it so like that she was moving. So of course our Lokanath Maharaj , he does the Vraja Mandala parikramā for 30 days and he tells everybody we should try to go barefoot but once Kavi Chandra swami he said he read in the śātra that going barefoot you get double the results so you have a choice to wear your shoes you still would get the ordinary unlimited mercy and if you go barefoot you get double that (Gurumaharaj laughs) so I would go barefoot as much as possible but I carry my shoes and when the road is melting tar or if its too difficult then I wear my shoes as soon as we get back to the dirt road I take them off. In the time of Lord Nityānanda it didn’t have any pitch roads ,no gravel so I take that now its Kaliyuga has advanced, sometimes the roads are not possible even if you have to wear the shoes all the time it is better to be on parikramā than not. If you can do it barefoot ,nice but that is not the most important thing .so that is the standard I personally preach and practice.

Did I answer your question?

Yes

There is another question.

Is Nabadwip mandala parikramā equivalent to doing Vraja mandala parikramā?

At least maybe I haven’t seen any specific quotes, I haven’t compared what the glories are for the Vraja mandala and glories of the Navadwip mandala but Lokanath Maharaj, who is expert he says that the Navadwip mandala is equal to Vraja mandala and Bhakti Purushottam Maharaj he says that one day Jagannath Purī parikramā is equivalent to the Navadwip and also to Vraja mandala so Lokanath Maharaj goes every year (Gurumaharaj laughs ) He goes all three. Vrija mandala is very spread out and we have to be very careful .Many of our devotees go sick and we have to be very careful not to offend ,because the thousand times the benefits but if you do offences the thousand times of the offence .So this is the Audarya Dham, thousand times benefits but then if you really go out of way ,it is offence .Generally it is non offensive, very minimal . I guess that is what happened with Chapal Gopal, at the end he got mercy of Lord Chaitanya.

Question

Devotee : Guru maharaj, during the parikramā I was trying to distribute some Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. So I guess it’s a common situation I just wanted to know for clarification . To one lady I was distributing books and she suddenly got very angry and she was telling me,” Why are you trying to do business here .Get out from here ,so you know this is spiritual knowledge ,shouldn’t be sold. So could you just clarify why is spiritual knowledge given free? How would you respond to this lady?

Gurumaharaj replies : I understand that you approached a lady and she scolded you saying that why are you trying to do business??

Devotee: Yes, that’s right.

Gurumaharaj: That’s the question

Devotee: Yes

Gurumaharaj;

I would have variety of books and to a person like that I might say, okay or hand a Gītā and take the gītā back and give a newspaper and say Kṛṣṇa Conscious newspaper, Back to Godhead ,”If you want to donate something for the printing you can. Otherwise you want to read it is free. No one is doing business here, just trying to get the printing cost back. If you still feel that way take it sure.”

Devotee: Thank you.

(All clap and do ululation)

(Offering garland to Guru Maharaj) (Translator says, today is the Vyāsa pūjā of H.G .Chaitanya Chandra Charan prabhu who is the disciple of Guru Maharaj so he has sent a cake and a garland as an reciprocation for cake and garland which Guru Maharaj sent this afternoon )

Gurumaharaj speaks,.

I ordered him that he should take disciples and he went through the iskcon process and he is authorized to accept disciples. So these are my spiritual grandchildren and I pray for them everyday.

Devotee:

Dear, our grandfather, this is heart, it's specially for you, this is heart how you like Mātājī Iswari made for you , this heart you can enjoy, you can eat, this is a cake for other devotees with sugar this is how you like, this is heart for you from your grandchildren ( Devotee: heart without sugar how you like maharaj .Gurumaharaj: so big, Devotee: usually two heart ,we can give you more ,our love from heart, Gurumaharaj: keeps his hand on his chest then on his head then again on his chest then raises his hands and moves it with joy.

Devotees: haribol haribol

So I want to thank all of you. I need your help to eat the rest of the cake (devotees: haribol). Are there any volunteers.

Chaitanya Chandra Charan , I’m very proud of him .I was invited to attend this Vyāsa pūjā but I didn't know really what to do. But I hope that all the blessing of the previous acharyas be on him and his disciples, my grandchildren my spiritual children that they are very strong in their Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Let's all chant haribol three times for the blessings (Haribol haribol haribol)(bless you all)

( Translator:So today is also the birthday of another mātājī)

Gurumaharaj:I also say Russian cake is the best .

Devotee: Gurumaharaj, today is also the birthday of Rādhā Padmini mātājī ,who is sitting in the first row there.

Gurumaharaj tells, Get one garland.

(GM puts garland for her and sings hare kṛṣṇa to you….)

Last question please .Now ladies, ask some question.

Devotee: Hare Kṛṣṇa GuruMaharaj

In South India, people are more attached to worship of devas and we preach to them and tell Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and further to accept Lord Chaitanya. I want to know what we should do that they can accept Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa.

This seems two questions in one. How you preach to worshipers of the devas? Generally ,I have them established Kṛṣṇa in the altar in the upper part put all the Vishnu tattvas in theupper part and then on the lower sides or in the side put the devas. So tell them, devas are the great devotees they are powerful Ishwaras, assisting Kṛṣṇa so you first offer Kṛṣṇa the worship then the other devas his prasad. This is done in Jagannath Purī. Then all the prasad of the Vishnu ,of Lord Jagannath is offered to Pārvatī in the form of Bimla devī .Similarly the prasadam of Narasiṁha it is offered to Shiva Lingaraj.Like in South India in various Vishnu temples like in Mahabalipuram all the Vishnu Prasad is offered to Shiva, Durgā, Ganesh, Kartikeya. So they can make slight adjustment .So plenty of quotes that says, devas are subordinates to Kṛṣṇa or Vishnu. So as far as accepting Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa there are various quotes from the Vedas given in the Caitanya Charitamrita Ādi līlā so you can show those and also Lord Caitanya went to all the temples Pārvatī temple, Shiva temple, Amman, Ganesh, Skanda , he went to all and he would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare; Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare.