20150305 English Gaura Pūrṇimā Class

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 5th, 2015 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The morning class was given on Gaura Pūrṇimā day in English. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Anandamaya Śrī Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appearance day kī jaya!

I wish all of you very blissful Lord Caitanya, Gaura Pūrṇimā Festival. When Advaita Gosai, He was facing much difficulties to spread the sankīrtana. Because people were overtly religious, but they were worshiping different devas and devīs and all in Navadvīpa, nadia you would here the Dum! Dum! of drums. You would here the festivals going on; but they would not be to Viṣṇu. May be to different devīs and some they would install temporary deities, dolls and then after a some days of pūjā they would through them in the river. They didn't worship the eternal Lord. They were all into this temporary worship. And they wanted, their goal was to earn money, have a good house, have a nice children, be educated, you know all material sense gratification. They didn't think anything beyond this. They considered the name of Viṣṇu is very pure, so nobody can chant. The only time you are allowed to chant is when you are in the Ganges. Because they thought the Ganges is pure, so it purifies you, so you can chant the holy name of Viṣṇu.

Advaita Gosāñī, Śrīvas Ṭhākura, they were so against them. But, Advaita Gosāñī was the senior of the brāhmaṇa. So generally they wouldn't talk to Him face to face. But behind His back they criticize. But, Śrīvas Ṭhākura, he didn't have that protection. So at some point people said, "Throw him out! He will bring us misfortune. The mugul emperor will come down and burn our houses. Because of this person's offences. He is chanting the names of Viṣṇu, chanting kīrtana. Throw him out! Throw him out!" This was the situation then. So the devotees were going to Advaita, "What to do? What to do?" " My name is Advaita — it means non-different, if there is any meaning to My name, I will bring down this supreme personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa. He is the only one who could save these infidels. If I can't bring Him down, I will manifest four arms, I will chop these people down, I will chop them down, finished."

So He began to fast and worship the śālagrām-śilā with Ganges water and tulasī-mañjarīs and then He would loudly cry out,

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

He would go on with His loud chanting, tapasyā, worship. His loud chanting was cracking the universal shell. It was vibrating even in the spiritual world. So, Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, He agreed, "I will come down!" Somehow, Advaita, He got the message.

Then He told everyone, "The Lord is coming! The Lord is coming! He is coming!" (Haribol!!!) But no one knew when; no one knew where. But they knew that He was coming. So, at that time. Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra — who are non-different from Devakī and Vasudeva, who are non-different from Yaśodā and Nanda Maharaj. They had eight daughters, but each daughter died soon after birth. So, when Jagannātha Miśra and his wife did a special pūjā to Lord Viṣṇu to get a male child, who would survive. And then Viśvarūpa — the expansion of Sankaraṣaṇa, He came. Then in the month of māgha, Jagannātha Miśra, he had a dream, that there was a white light that came into his mind, went to his heart, transferred to the heart of Śacīmātā. And in this way she was expecting… They didn't have any physical connection as such. This was all done transcendentally. The Supreme Personality of Godhead was situated in her womb. So, while she was expecting the devas came from the celestial planets and they began to offer their prayers. "We are Your devotees from the celestial planets, but we don't need any material blessings, we have enough material sense gratification. We have only two problems. One is that, sometime we got attacked by demons. And we have to fight them off. They tried to take over celestial planet by force. And the other problem is that we have so much sense gratification that we forget to worship You. We heard that You are coming in this avatāra to give Your blessing of pure Kṛṣṇa bhakti freely. So we pray to You, please don't forget Your devotees from the celestial planets; please give us Your blessings."

And Lord Caitanya, He played games on these devotees from the heavenly planets. Although they were invisible to human beings, He would make their shadows visible to Śacīmātā. She started to seeing shadows going around in her room. And she started chanting Narasiṁha Mantras: ugraṁ vīram mahā-viṣṇum jvalantaṁ sarvato mukhaṁ nṛsimhaṁ bhiṣaṇaṁ bhadraṁ mrityur mrityuṁ namamy aham. So the devas went and hid. They said, "How could she see us?" Then they figured out, it was Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So on the Gaura Pūrṇimā — 529 years ago. At that time there was lunar eclipse is normally considered inauspicious, but what was the system in an eclipse — all the people would go waist deep into the Ganges. And being in the Ganges, they would chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!

Hari haraye namah kṛṣṇa yadavaya namah
gopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdana,

Haribol!

And Śrīvas Ṭhākura, he was thinking, what an auspicious day. Everybody is chanting the holy name, everybody. Even the muslims they were listening and they made fun, "See how the Hindus are chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Somehow or other everybody was chanting the holy names. So when Lord Caitanya came into this world, He didn't need the moon. He is the source of millions of moons. And the whole city was chanting the holy names. That was the situation when Lord Caitanya appeared.

When mother Śacī, she was in the little hut to give child birth. At that time all the neighborhood ladies, brāhmaṅas they came dressed up to see the new born baby. Taking that opportunity some of the ladies from heavenly planet came dressed up as brāhmaṇa ladies. And came to see the Lord. So Jagannātha Miśra, he was so happy that he gave a big feast, whatever he could in donation to the brahmaṅas, and to the different people.

While his wife was pregnant, she started to become brilliant and effulgent. People just came up to him and handed him money. So, all the he was a poor brāhmaṇa, somehow Lakṣmī was coming to his house. because of the coming of Lord Caitanya; Lakṣmī also wanted to serve Lord Caitanya. Like this the whole world was chanting. And then spontaneously Advaita Gosāñī and Haridasa Ṭhākura started dancing,

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

So, I tell these details every year. We are doing the "Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book" and like the Kṛṣṇa book. We take from six or seven or eight books. Whichever has a particular līlā and combine that and give the entire līlā. So in this appearance līlā, every book more or less give something. But each writer, doesn't want to offend any other writer. So, they don't write anything that’s in the other book. They just may be give a very slight mention. And so you won't get the whole pastime, unless you read all the books. So, that is not very practical for most people. So. we are trying to combine all those books to make a comprehensive Caitanya Līlā Book. And simple; less lengthy purports. Just like Kṛṣṇa book, more or less.

So, like right now, few weeks ago, we did the disappearance of Jagannātha Miśra. It may not be completing keeping, but it shows that how everything that Lord did was transcendental. And how His pastimes are like, live dramas. And how He connects the different that go on. So, He was only nine years old. He had taken His brāhmaṇa thread — upanayanam. His brother left home as a sannyāsī. And He was allowed to go to school. One day His father came home after studying in his own guru's āśrama. He came home, and he suddenly got very high fever. In those days, there were not so much medical recourse. So, his fever was so high that Śacīmātā became apprehensive. She started to cry. But Lord Caitanya, He said, "Why you crying mother? My dear mother, every in this world has to die. The Himalayan mountains, the oceans, Indra, Varuṇa, Agnidev, everyone leaves at some point. So there is no reason to lament. Even if he leaves. But, you should call his friends and relatives. They should sit around him and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra. Whatelse our friends for? Times like this to chant." She went around and quickly got the friends and relatives. And they went around Jagannātha Miśra and they were chanting. Couple of the elder, some of the wise, they could see that he was very serious. So they decided to take him by the side of the Ganges. Mother Śacī, she grabbed on his lotus feet and she was crying, "If you go, you should take us with you. I have always been serving at your side, in your eating, in your household, in your resting, at every time I was always serving you. So, if you go now, take me with you. I want to also go. Look at your son. He is the glory of the whole world. How can you leave Him." Then Viśvambara, He grabbed His father's feet also and He said, "If you go, who will I call daddy in My house? Who will take Me affectionately in his hand to study to take prasādam?" Then Jagannātha Miśra told his son, "I have to tell You this, without telling You, it is not right. I have prayed to Lord Rāmacandra, to take care of You. And You will under His protection." He was just in vātsalya-bhava, he didn't have any idea what his son is? He was absorbed in parental relationship. I have prayed he said, to Raghupati Rāma to protect You. So, You will have no problem, You will be under His protection. Then they picked His father up and put him waist deep into the Ganges. And around him all the men began chanting,

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

Jagannātha Miśra was also chanting. Now if he wanted, he could go directly back to the spiritual world, but he went through this death-līlā, just to teach others. So, he chanted the holy names and left his body and celestial airplane came down, took him and flew up to the spiritual world — to Goloka Vrindavan. And then they took his lifeless body and that time Visvambara was crying and He shed tears from His lotus eyes, tears came out like pearls like — gaja-maṅī special, big size, black-white pearls and they formed a necklace around His chest. Everyone was chanting the holy names. Then they put his body in the funeral fire and did the final rites. Now, Nimāi told the mother, "Nothing to worry about, I will be with you." And He did a fire yajña for His father, and gave out prasādam to everyone. So, it said, anyone who hears the pastime — their heart become freed from all the sufferings. And they awakened to the wonderful nature of Lord Caitanya. So all the different pastimes of Lord Caitanya, the once which are apparently heavy or the once in which are rejoicing that He came to this world. They all filled with transcendental bliss. And you will realize how wonderful it is to be in Lord Caitanya's moment 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare