20151121 A Class from the Caitanya Book.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim  

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam  

paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram 

Hari Om Tat Sat

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Caitanya Mangal

Guru Mahārāja: When Lord Caitanya came with his newly married wife, he came at a very auspicious moment and he was greeted by Saci Maata and various Brahmaniṣ. And they offered him ghee lamps, now it is customary to greet someone at your house with a variety of ghee lamps which may be offered say 9 lamps, 7 lamps, 5 lamps, 4 lamps, 3 lamps, 2 lamps, 1 lamp. Different ladies come-up holding out the lamps which have some auspicious liquid like saffron. And they offer the lamp in front of the person they are greeting. So these take away all the inauspiciousness. So here it just says they offered a variety of lamps, exactly how many lamps we don’t know. But it is a ceremony that the ladies perform.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali.

Guru Mahārāja: So there was singing, dancing and a great tumultuous sound of Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!!.Not tumultuous, jorse boliye [Guru Mahārāja speaks in Hindi to say Jaya loudly] Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!! Jaya!!  Ulu dhwani!! Hari Dhwani!!

Guru Mahārāja raises both his hands!!

There were various instrument which were played mridanga, kartals and other instruments, bugles and there was a tumultuous sound. There was happiness a-par, unlimited, unlimited. All were immersed in the great ocean of bliss, sarva sukha maya. Saci’s house was an ocean of transcendental bliss with no shore. Hari Bol!!  HariBol!! Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Ulu Dhwani !! Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!! Hari Hari Bol!! Hari Bol!! Hari Bol!!

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

So Lakshmipriya, she entered her house with a folded hands and along-with her entrance into the house she was greeted by a mangaladwani, a auspicious tumultuous sound which had a special bliss. Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!!  Hari Bol!! special bliss and a-par bliss. Lord Gauranga held the hand of Laxmipriya while he entered the house.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

So she placed her son and daughter-in-law on her lap and Saci gave them auspicious Dhruva grass and rice paddy and offered them the blessing may you live for a long time.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

Mother Saci kissed the face of her son looking at the face of her daughter in law and then she kissed the face of her daughter in law, while looking at the face of her son.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Caitanya Bhagavata.

So the other ladies wives of the brahamanas who have helped Saci maata to bring back her son and his bride into the house. They were very happy and very blissful. 

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

So those who had accompanied the wedding procession the brahmanas, the dancers, the musicians etc etc everyone was satisfied by mother Saci. She appropriately gave everybody money, clothes and sweet words. 

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Murari Guptaś Kadachha

The brahmanas were given grains, scented oils and flower garlands. To the heads of the various groups of craftsmen, dancers, musicians and others, she gave some remuneration.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

So what a great personality does is never fruitless. So in her attempts to satisfy everyone mother Sachi was successful. And everybody was pleased with their remuneration and she was also happy with their performance of the ceremony of taking and bringing back her son.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Caitanya Bhagavata

Hari Bol!! Hari Bol!! Hari Bol!!  [Guru Mahārāja raises both his hands and all cheer together]

You know why you are all cheering, it says that whoever hears Lord Caitanya’s auspicious wedding descriptions, that they are free from the bondage of the material world forever. 

Hari Bol!! 

So the commentary of Om Vishnupada Srila Bhakti Sidhanta Sarswati Thakur.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali

In the material world, people become very joyful when they hear about the marriage of a young boy and a young girl because they think that this is the epitome of material enjoyment. But actually anything to do with the Lord is not material, his enjoyment is on the level of pure love, not just mundane connection with the senses, what we know as love in this material world is actually lust. Some great wise people they say that after analyzing that family, friendship and love of this material world have some happiness. That happiness is like someone who is lost in the desert, a few drops, they needs litres of water and if someone comes and gives a few drops what is that, it does not quench one’s thirst. So this material enjoyment is like that. The Lord is the Lord of all the energies, he is also the Lord of the material energy and Lord of the spiritual energy. But he does not want to engage in any enjoyment on the material platform rather his enjoyment is completely transcendental. And so if we hear his happiness or happiness which is centered around him, it is so sweet so wonderful that one becomes immunized from the material happiness of the senses. By the mercy of Lord Caitanya, we can get some insight into this spiritual bliss of the spiritual world. And his past times are on that level, so that’s why when we hear about his past times about his enjoyment then we become satisfied. Because his level of enjoyment is completely spiritual and the quote is given from the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu:  

īhā yasya harer dāsye

karmaṇā manasā girā

nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu

jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

That a person acting in the service of the Lord Kṛṣṇa with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person, even within the material world although he may engage in many apparently material activities.

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Caitanya Bhagavata

So with Laxmipriya by the side of Lord Caitanya, the house of mother Saci appeared like Vaikunta, the most effulgent abode.  Parama jyotir dhama The transcendentally supreme effulgent abode. 

Devotee: Reads in Bengali from Murari Guptaś Kadachha

Lord Caitanya resided in that house with Laxmipriya and his mother and all the family relatives were nearby. So in this way the Lord was extremely blissful. The house reminded, one of the full moon surrounded by different nakshatras, planets, luminaries in a clear night. 

Who wants to be there at one of the wedding of Lord Caitanya. What would you want to do? Read some shloka’s or dance? Play musical instruments, drums? Someone may like to take Prasad.

So no questions?

What the ladies say, did you like the class? Hari Bol!! 

You have ever heard these past times before? Today the different books repeated themselves. 32:10   that’s why in the beginning I said that, the ladies are wives of different brahamanas. 32:15   sometimes the details are different and that takes a bit more time to combine all the different details. Like here some said Saci maata gave money, clothes, and scented oils etc etc to the brahmanas and only money to others. So like that some differences more or less similar. That was some people’s way of maintaining themselves, dancing at weddings or playing music at weddings. When there was no wedding period, they must have gone hungry.

Mataji: Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, I have a question normally when we read Prabhupada books then Bhagvadgita, Bhagavatam and then go to Caitanya Charanaamrutha. And we don’t usually go to read the books by previous Acharya’s so this like Caitanya   Mangal, Caitanya Bhagavat so when we hear these classes from you we are automatically inclined to read these is it okay? I still did not finish Bhagavatam nor Caitanya Caritamrita either, so is it okay to read these books now?

In the Caitanya Caritamrita, Krishnadas Kaviraj glorified Vrindavana Das Thakur, he is described as the Vyasya Deva of the Caitanya Lila. And he does not want to duplicate what he wrote. Krishnadas Kaviraj expects that everybody has read it and that’s why he says I am not repeating. So when Prabhupāda’s books glorify these previous Acharya’s who have written these past time books, then it is authorized. Of course the Caitanya Caritamrita is the most authoritative as far as the philosophy is concerned and is also the most authoritative as far as the chronology and history. So in our Kṛṣṇa Caitanya book, we follow the prophetism and chronological order given by the Caitanya Caritamrita and we use the Caitanya Caritamrita’s philosophy. And you won’t find any contradiction there. Okay.

Hari Bol!