20160530 Evening Class at Kamlesh Patel house

20160530 Evening Class at Kamlesh Patel house Irvine, CA

 

Mukam karoti vacalam

Pangum langhyate girim

Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda madhavan

Sri Chaitanya ishvaram

Hari Om Tat Sat

Hare Krishna

Hare Krishna (devotees)

My respects to the three god-brothers who are here, and to all the assembled devotees. Special thanks to Kamlesh Patel and Minakshi Braja Rani Devi Dasi who have invited me here today, and my respects to all the assembled devotees.

We saw here how Radha Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and in the back Sri Radhe are very prominent and certainly most of the devotees would like to get the mercy of Radha and Krishna. But that mercy is easily obtained by the blessings of Lord Nityananda. Lord Nityananda gives his blessings by which Lord Caitanya gives his blessings and easily one can get the blessings of Radha and Krishna. So this is a secret that most people don’t know. In our Bombay Rasabihari temple there are lot of people crowding in front the Radha Rasbihari and Lalita, Visakha, also many people in front of the Ram Darbar, Sita Ram, Laxman and Hanuman, not so many people buy Nitai Gaur, but in this Kali Yuga we are not very qualified to approach Radha and Krishna.

But by the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda, we can achieve the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. This is the secret which is known to the devotees of Lord Caitanya. So if you want to get the mercy of Radha and Krishna we should get the mercy of Nitai. In fact some of our acharyas are saying that if you don’t get the mercy of Nitai Gaur, if you don’t appreciate Lord Nityananda, you are an animal, “se pasu bara durachari”, so Lord Nityananda has come with Lord Caitanya to give us all this rare blessings. Even we wouldn’t have the shelter of Lord Nityananda if it wasn’t for Srila Prabhupada. He brought Nitai-Gaur, Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra and Radha and Krishna to the West and in some places it’s also Sita Ram, Laxman and Hanuman. While I washed it I saw, in Delhi and Bombay they have, UK in the Manor.

So few places and all these of these forms Narayan Visnu, Sita Ram people offer the Lord respect, even in the different religions they offer God, Allah respect but in the Vraja Lila they don’t know the Lord is God, they just love him and Krishna likes that spontaneous love.

He said that the Vraavasis have the best way of worshipping him. So Radharani, She created the Nabadwip Dham and there she played on a flute. So Krishna wondered who is playing on the flute, so sweet and he gave there and he saw Radharani, then he appeared in this dham with the colour and mood of Radharani. So when he came, as Lord Caitanya he was golden in colour and there he manifested the devotional aspect, because when Krishna went to the palace of Rukmini, Queen Rukmini she prepared the palace very nicely with all the maids, personally cleaning up and put auspicious items on the doorway, with banana tree and sugar cane stocks, full water pots, all the auspicious items, she had some brahmanas reciting mantras, and a band playing some music, all to make a festive mood to receiver Lord Krishna to his palace, and when Krishna came she pushed all the children forward to hug their father. He greeted them, he smelled their heads after all the formal reception went to his private quarters where Rukmini was bathing his feet, and he noticed that she was crying.

“Why you are crying? This is supposed to be a happy moment. I am coming to your palace and you are crying, why?”

Has some child not listened to you today or some maid was negligent in her duty but she shook her head.

“You are Bhagavan, you know what Brahma is doing in Satya loka, you know what Lord Siva is doing in Kailash, but it seems there is one thing that you don’t know. I know, Radharani knows, but you don’t know”

“Now someone says that we don’t know, big deal, there is a lot of things we don’t know.” (laughter)

But to tell Krishna that he don’t know something, that …(laughter)

Krishna sort of wandering what is that I don’t know. And so as Krishna enquired, Rukmini Rani said, “you don’t know how much we devotees love you and in what way you love your.”

So he brought her up, wiping the tears from her eyes, telling her nice things. Just then Narada Muni came through the window. “O Gurudev”, so he gave his guru’s seat.

As he was playing the role of a ksatriya so he received her guru, he bathed his feet and Rukmini Rani poured the water and he rubbed it in. Although he is the supreme Lord, he likes to take his subordinate position.

But he does that with only special devotees llike Partha, Arjuna. He was the Partha Sarathi of Nanda and Yasoda. He carried the shoes of his father Nanda on his head. So although Narad Muni knew he is the Lord, he knew that he was playing this part. He was bathing Naradmuni’s feet, he noticed that Narad Muni was agitated. What a day! I come to my rani’s palace, she is crying and I greet my guru and he is disturbed, he is always peaceful, he is always collected (dhira), but now why is he agitated. So he asked him, he said, “Gurudev, we are always very peaceful, why today you seem disturbed?”

So Narad Muni told him, “You see, by the symptoms of the universe we can tell that Your pastimes will soon come to an end just like the sun sets the heat of the sun decreases, we see that your presence is not so strong in the air, strongly there, therefore people are becoming more attached to the material things. So how will the people when you leave, how will they get delivered, how will they overcome this horrible yuga of Kali Yuga, I am worried about them.”

So then He said, “Okay, I will come back in Kali Yuga, but I will be a devotee and I will experiment what my queens say, that I don’t know what my devotees feel for me and at the same time I will distribute the Harinam sankirtan by which the people of Kali Yuga can easily get delivered.”

So this is one of the backgrounds for Krishna coming and this Kali yuga as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Here in Laguna beach they have the panchatattva deities. You are all very fortunate.

Lord Caitanya is Krishna Himself. Nityananda is the first expansion. Advaita Gosai is Mahavishnu but Sadasiva. Gadadhara is Radha Rani, Shakti and Srivas and all the other devotees are jiva tattvas, pure devotees.

Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Prabhu Nityananda SriAdvaita Gadadhara Srivasadi Gaur Bhakta Vrinda.

So by worshipping the pancha tattva one can easily awaken the love of Krishna.

Bhakit Vinod is saying in his Jiv jago, jiv jago song, we were singing that in North Kolkata. Prabhupada had us sing it at 5 A.M, people would open their windows at 5 p.m, “who are these crazy people singing at 5 in the morning, O sadhus!”, so in India they appreciate sadhus and in the last lines Bhakti Vinod Thakur is saying, “This is Lord Caitanya speaking, aneshi aushadi maya nashibaro lagi, harinam mahamantra lao tumi magi.”, Lord Caitanya is saying, “I brought the medicine to destroy this repetition of birth and death, to destroy the illusion of material energy, so this Hari nam mahamantra, do  you want it, ask for it, beg it, look at it.”

So then Bhakti Vinod Thakur, he said, “Bhati Vinod Prabhu carane pariya sei Harinam mantra loila magiya.” Basically he was saying, “I fell at the feet of the Lord, I beg for the hari nam, I got it, I got it, I got it, Hari Bol”

I met people who had cancer and so many other diseases. Some get cured and some don’t get cured. Some would travel to Mexico, this place, that place, all over the world, and I thank Krishna, I am not having cancer yet. But so many medics have said that, “15 days I will cure you, the you will walk.”

I took 15, 20 different cures, some were better than others but I am still not walking. So think if you could have the medicine that could cure all incurable  diseases, the medicine that could cure death and someone got it, how happy he would feel but there is no such medicine except the Hare Krishna mahmantra (applause), and Lord Caitanya is freely giving that out, Nitai Gaur.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur said, “I fell at the Lord’s feet, I got, I got the holy name.”

Such a wonderful thing. If you had to buy it, “My God!”

Sometimes a new medicine comes out, they charge a fortune, 50,000; 60,000 for one month but here you just ask for it, “Nitai Gaur, Please give it to me, pure love of Krishna, please give me the medicine, and they give it, take it, even Jagai Madhai who were Ruffians and Mafia type, even they got. Even after Madhair beat Nityananda and caused him to bleed, Nityananda said that, “Just because you caused me to bleed does that mean that I won’t give you pure love of Krishna.”

His brother said, “You just beat the guy, he is bleeding, he is still talking love, he is still love, he is not an ordinary person, bow down Madhai, bow down.”

Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga

Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga

Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga

Nitai-Gauranga Jaya Nitai-Gauranga Nitai-Gauranga Jaya Nitai-Gauranga

Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga Nitai-Gauranga, Nitai-Gauranga

So I am combining whatever authoritative books I could get on Lord Caitany’s life, about 8-9  and translating into English the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. Like the Krishna book, the Caitanya book.

In the prema-vivarta by Jagananda Pandit, he gives about 10 pastimes and Swarup Damodar told him that this are very confidential pastimes, you shouldn’t  didn’t tell them, but he didn’t care. I will tell whatever I will tell, If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

So after school when he was the school mate of Lord Caitanya, may be eight years old or seven years old, he was running in the forest with Lord Caitanya and Gadadhara and Lord Caitanya came across a parrot. This was near the alakananada river by the Harihara temple, the temple is still there, Hari and Hara, Hari and Siva, that’s another story. So Lord Caitanya when he picked up the parrot, he said, “You! You are not different from Sukhdev Goswami, so please tell me the pastimes of Radha and Krishna.”, but the parrot began chanting, “Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura”

How many here can be good parrots?

We got three Prabhupada disciples that can be the judges. See who is the  best parrot here, ladies and men, “Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura”

He said, “No, No, No, No, I don’t want to hear that name, I want to hear the glories of Radha and Krishna, I am a devotee of Radha and Krishna”, but the parrot replied, “since time immemorial I have doing this worship and I chant this names, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura, Gaura Gaura Gaura”

Some people seem too proud, they are not acting like parrots.

So then Lord Caitanya said, “I told you I am a devotee of Radha and Krishna, this place is not different from Vrindavan, so why don’t you chant the names of Radha and Krishna?”, and the parrot replied, “you see, yes this place is not different from Vrindavan and I see you as Lord Krishna and Gadadhara as Radha, so I will chant Radha and Krishna in my way, you chant your way (laughter), Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura ! Gaura Gaura !”, Lord Caitanya covered his ears and ran off (laugter). So this is one of the pastimes mentioned by Jagadananda Pandit and after Viswarup  left Nabadwip to take sanyas, he was the older brother of Lord Caitanya, so there was a big sadness in the heart of Sachi mata and Jagannath Mishra.

Some of the pandits explained that by him taking sanyas the whole family gets delivered. Not only you, but your predecessors, your descendants, everybody, your whole kul. So they appreciated it.

Then Jagannath Mishra, he thought, “Although Nimai told that I won’t take sanyas, I will stay and serve my and father, but then Jagannath Mishra thought that if Lord Caitanya leaves, I can’t leave, I can’t leave without him, so better you don’t study, I will somehow maintain him. So he told Nimai that from today no more study.”

So Nimai also wanted to follow the parents but Lord Ram, He wasn’t happy about it. So as a young boy, he started playing mischief putting drops of water in the ears of babies, they started crying, called the doctor, there is nothing wrong.

By the way who was the parrot? Which man and which woman? (applause)

So Lord Caitanya would hang around with other mischievous boys, and at night they would cover themselves with the cloth, and make the sound of a bull and tear up the persons garden. They come out and say, “Boar, Boar, wild boar”, and Lord Caitanya and this other child would run off.

Then sometimes in those days people didn’t have attached baths. They would go out to the outhouse. Lord Caitanya would lock the house from outside. So the husband would wake up to answer natures call and find the door locked.

“help me, help me, help me, the door is locked.” (laughed)

People think, “Oh, 500 years ago people were primitive, but they had used-once throw away cooking pots. You don’t need to wash it, that doesn’t sound primitive. So they dig a hole in the back of the house and the pots were thrown there, and they are bio-degradable, …

So the pots at the bottom had soot, inside there would some rice or something and some flies or worms would be eating that but Lord Caitanya sat on the pile of pots and his golden body was looking beautiful with the black suit markings.

His mother would say, “you are a Brahmin boy, what are you doing in a dirty place?”

“What do I know about dirty or suchi or asuchi, I don’t go to school, I am ignorant.”

Mother Sachi said, “no, you know that place is dirty, call my father and tell him. Anyway this pots are used to offer the bhoga to our adhoksaja Visnu deities, so how they can be impure?”

This is like a seven years old boy, may be six years. So mother sachi being a pandits wife she had to really  think what to say, but she also extended her hand and told Nimai, “come we will take a bath together in the Ganges.”

So she pulled him off the pots and took him by hands to Ganges, and when she was cleaning him in Ganges, Jagannath Mishra came. So all the men present said, “Why don’t you let your son go to school, our children wants to play, your son wants to study, it’s a rare thing, you should let him study.”, and every grihastha husband also said the same thing. Then Jagannath Mishra said that since you all are my well-wishers, you are all saying like this then I will let him go to school …48.12-04…

So there are so many nice pastimes. Of course some of the pastimes were in the Caitanya Caritamrita and some are in other books and some part are in this book and some in that book. So it’s quite interesting. One day when the boy was playing outside, not studying Advaita Acharya was giving a class on the Bhagavatam. He made some points, every chanted, “Hari bol… Hari bol”. Lord Caitanya immediately ran in, said, “boy, what do you want? You called me?”

“No, No, we didn’t call you.” He didn’t know who he is. “Okay, …49.37…”

His childhood pastimes were like Vrindavan pastimes, except he acted as a Brahmana and Lord Krishna acted as a Vaisya but he did some mischievous things, like in the Ganges he mixed the men’s clothes with the ladies and ladies clothes with the men. When they come out then it will be embarrassing.

Some Brahmana would be saying his gayatri, he will come out of the water and spit on the Brahmana. “What are you doing? I was saying my gayatri in the Ganges”, “I am the father of Ganges”, “what is this, child say such nonsense things.”, but actually it’s true, how many of you would like to be spit on by Lord Caitanya?

Hari Bol (everyone)

Once a Brahmana was saying his gayatri and the Ganges was coming up, up, up and then down, down, down. Up, up, up, up and then down, down, down, down. He was wondering what’s this?, why the Ganges is going up and down, up and down, then he saw a young golden boy walking by the side of Ganges and he would walk his feet into the Ganges the Ganges would go down, when he walked up the bank the Ganges would rise trying to touch his feet and then he saw the personality of the Ganga leave the water and pay her obeisance’s to that Golden boy, immediately he ran out the Ganges because all his life he wanted to see the deity of the Ganges and he saw that the beautiful celestial lady she was offering prayers to the Lord, the Golden boy, and then she went back to the Ganges and she disappeared. So he also bowed down and he asked him, “Who are you?”, then he showed that he was Radha and Krishna, I come down to have my pastimes but you can’t tell anybody as long as I am in the world. If you do I have to remove you.

If you want to watch our pastime you can as long as you don’t tell anyone.

Gauranga !

Gauranga ! (everyone)

So like this there are so many wonderful pastimes. Lord Caitanya took initiation from Ishwar Puri in Bihar, Gaya. He saw Krishna in Kanai Natsala. Krishna came and hugged him. He became mad after Krishna, then he went back to Nabadwip dham and he saw that Nimai Pandit had changed. Now he was always talking about Krishna and so people were saying that he had some mental disease.

So he went to see Srivas Thakur and he asked Srivas, “can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, why not.”

He said that, “people say I have a disease, is it true? What are your symptoms?”, whenever I hear the Hare Krishna mantra my hairs stand on end, my voice choked, tears come to my eye, sometimes I laugh, and sometimes I faint, like this do I have a disease?”

Srivas said, “Yes, you have a disease.”

Lord Caitanya looked down. Srivas said, “But I also want that disease.” (laughter).”You have the rare disease of love of Krishna, even Brahma and Siva want.”

So that Nimai said that, “you saved my life. Because if thought that all these was false, then what’s the use of living, I would have taken my life in the Ganges for you are giving me reassurance because normal people wouldn’t understand your ecstasies. You come to my house, I will invite devotees who can appreciate your ecstasies, come at night and then we will have a sankirtan in my garden with some advanced devotees.” This is how the nocturnal kirtan in Srivas Angan began. So Lord Caitanya he also visited the vraja dham and he asked the six goswamis to find the holy places of Krishna and to preserve and build some temples there.”

So he went to Gujrat, Maharastra, went all around South India. For six years he was travelling everyday, would stay in a different house except for the rainy seasons. So that means one day he would go to a house, the householder would bathe his feet, the wife would cook for him and the house will serve him Prasad, and the whole family and the neighbours would sit down and he would give a lecture and he would tell them, they should chant Hare Krishna and spread the Hare Krishna chanting, “Jare Dekho tare kaho Krishna upadesh, amar ajnay guru hoy taro ei desh.”

So like this we find in Krishna Lila, we visited the house of Bahulaswa and the house of the poor brahman Suta Dev. Lord Caitanya for six years visited different grihasta’s houses. How enthusiastic the grihastha’s are here just to have us in their house. How many of you would like to have Lord Caitanya in your house. So this is the great opportunity that he gave everyone. That’s why he is known as the supremely merciful. So are there any questions?

Question:  In what mood do Rukmini and Radha serve Krisna?

JPS: I asked Prabhupada a similar question. He raised his voice and said, “who are you to ask about Radha Rani?” (laughter) He has got the answer. What can we say. Read the Bhagavtam. See how Radharani was mad after Krishna, how she talked to a bumble bee, thinking that this was a messenger of Krishna. Rukmini is considered the top of all the queens, so what can we say. She had so much devotion that in the presence of Krishna she was feeling separation, who can understand that?

So their standard of bhakti is far beyond describing. A little bit is revealed, that’s why I also was wondering that to preserve Vraja Dham and Mathura but to Dwaraka Dham which has gone under the see and by satellite pictures they see that the docs there are bigger than the modern ports like in Hanover. I wondered why they weren’t developed at all.

You know that Vraja Dham is Madhuram, Madhuram, Madhuram, and Mathura is madhuram, madhuram and Dwaraka is madhura, but I can understand that the British didn’t do anything. After 50 years or so or how many  years of independence why nothing has been done with Dwaraka? Just a wonder I have.

Question: What’s the most important thing you learned from Prabhupada?

JPS: There was unlimited to learn. Every time I was with him I learned something new and learning keeps on going. So to say what was the most important thing I learned, there was Prabhupada’s own spirit vibration, his desired to serve his spiritual master, Nitai-Gaur, Radha-Krishna, as they say sadhu sanga, sadhu sanga sarva sastre koi, labha mate sadhu sange sarva siddhi hoi that even a fraction of a second in the association of a pure devotee can give all perfections.

So considering I had around two months a year, he would come twice to Mayapur, once in the fall and about five, six weeks, and once in the Gaura Purnima during two, three, four weeks and so many things he thought. So sort out and figure out what’s the most, I think that the most important is just how transcendental Prabhupada was.

Hare Krishna.

Are you guys as hungry as I am?

There are some cookies that you can give out.

 

Transcribed by:

Sadananda Krishnaprem Das.

Mayapur.