20160618 A Talk at the Snāna Yātrā.

20160618 Snana Yatra Fest Birmingham

Mukam karoti vacalam 

Pangum langhyate girim 

Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda madhavan

Sri Chaitanya ishvaram

Thank you for being here at the snana yatra bathing ceremony festival, and we are happy to see that many of you have participated in this bathing ceremony. 

The deities are considered as incarnated. One of their names is archa avatar, the worshippable form of the Lord who has descendent from the spiritual world and his deity has got some unique pastimes. That’s why they are known as Lila Vaicitra or having variegated pastimes. So here we see how the deities were bathed by the members of the congregation and visitors. This is one of the nine processes of devotional service or bhakti yoga. 

The first is hearing, then chanting, then remembering, worshipping the lotus feet, paying obeisance’s and offering prayers, worshipping the deities, considering one the servant of the Lord, considering oneself the friend of the Lord and offering everything in the service of the Lord. So these nine processes of devotional service or bhakti yoga are means for advancing in Bhakti Yoga and they establish our intimate relationship, our personal relationship with Krishna. We saw how the deities were bathed with oils, how they were bathed by panchamrita, milk, yogurt, ghee, honey and condensed sugar. So this is known as the panchamrita, the five nectars. 

Sometimes the Lord is bathed in panchagavya which are the five products of the cow- milk, yogurt, ghee, cow-urine and cow dung. Even the dung and the urine of the cow are very useful. The urine cures many diseases and the dung is antiseptic. They also saw how they bathed the deities in a variety of objects including fruit juices and spices and then they offered a little bit of everything. So this ability to  serve the Lord is a great opportunity for all of us and Krishna has given this blessing to all of us that we can serve, that we can remember him, we can chant the holy names and hear the glories of the Lord. 

Normally the brahmanas and the ksatriyas have access to the intimate service of the Lord. They also have the ability to understand the philosophy behind the supreme personality of Godhead. But Krishan said that not only them, stiya (ladies), vaisyas (businessman) and sudras (workers), even ete papa-yonayah, those who are in sinful births, they can all get the mercy of Krishna. 

So when Krishna was here some people didn’t take advantage of his presence and not everyone could reach the spiritual world. Then Lord Krishna thought, “I will come back as a devotee and thus make it very accessible, teach by example.”

Prabhupada gives the example that a teacher sometimes writes with on a chalk board, in this way teaches the people, in the same way Krishna came as a devotee to teach how to worship Krishna by his own example, Krishna worshipping Krishna, that is the great descent of Lord Caitanya. 

One year when the Lord was bathed, he caught a cold and for 15 days his door was shut, you couldn’t see him and Lord Caitanya was so frustrated, he was feeling such a separation that he ran eleven kilometres to the nearest Visnu temple known as Alarnath. So there he paid his obeisances in the temple on the rock. When he was so much intensely feeling the absence of Krishna, feeling separation that his body melted into stone, melted the granite, that body print of Lord Caitanya has been taken out and put in the temple on it’s own. There one can see Lord Caitanya’s body print melted in the stone. Such is the mercy of love of Caitanya that he could even melt stones. We may have a stone like heart. Thus we are not able to feel the love of Krishna, we don’t have the taste to chant the holy names, we are not very interested in serving the Lord, we are thinking how we can enjoy the material world, and we are thinking that the real happiness is to serve Krishna. So Lord Caitanya can even melt stone. So our heart can even be melted by Lord Caitanya. That through the process of Bhakti Yoga even people can get easy access to Krishna. 

So even, whether one is a grishastha or one is a married person or a celibate (vairagi), both can achieve Krishna. In fact in this modern age, most people can get married and they need a process that will give them spiritual peace and perfection. 

So that’s why we are trying to encourage all the grihastas, all the married people, they should all work as a team and serve the Lord. Try to other people to take advantage of this human form of life. Today they also told me that they are also celebrating the yogurt and chipped rice festival and in Panihati the original place, Raghunath Das who was the son of a multi-millionaire, he tried many times to run away from the home to join Lord Caitanya but each time he was apprehended and brought back by his father who had his own army.

So the mother said, “tie the boy up, he keeps running away from home.”, father said, “what can we do, it’ karma, our boy has love for Lord Caitanya and he is mad after attaining Lord Caitanya. So what will ropes do? He has wealth, unlimited wealth. His wife is beautiful like a heavenly angels, he has all facilities to enjoy but none of this can tie his mind down. What will ropes do? 

So then he got an idea and he went to see Lord Nityananda in Panihati and he saw Nityananda sitting under a banyan tree surrounded by scholars and pandits and great devotees. He was just like the moon surrounded by the stars. So then he bowed down at a distance and one secretary told Nityananda, “Just see, there is Raghunath Das, bowing down to you.”, and Lord Nitai said, “Oh, you are just like a thief, stay away, now I am going to punish you, I am going to punish you, I am going to give you danda, come here” He didn’t get up, he stayed down. He didn’t know what Lord Nitaynanda was going to do. Nityananda went over and put his lotus feet on the head of Raghunath Das. He said, “You are like a thief. So I have to punish you. Your punishment is you have to feed all of my associates yogurt, flat rice and fruits. So that’s the punishment. So one of the names of the Panihati festival is the danda mahotsav, the festival of punishment. (laughter)

But who would like such a punishment, to be able to serve Nityananda and his associates?

So then being a millionaire son, flat rice and yogurt was no big deal but he was so pleased to be able to serve Lord Nityananda. He immediately sent out his servants to buy yogurt, flat rice, fruits and the work was spread that Lord Nityananda was having a feast, yogurt, fruits, flat rice. So thousands of people started coming there. In fact the whole field got filled up with over 100,000 people. And then there was nowhere to stand. So some people were standing in the Ganges up to their ankles, still then there was some more people coming. So they stood in the Ganges upto their knees. 

Everybody was given two pots, one pot with yogurt, fruits and flat rice and one with condensed milk, fruits and yogurt and flat rice. And Nityannda had seven flavours. I don’t know what they were but I heard they are making five flavours. So one flavour is the special Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra ecstatic bathing ratha yatra Burgimham maha bhoga. One is the pancha-tattva, combination of the east and West flooding the whole world with chanting and dancing. But we will soon see what they have. 

Why this was called the festival of punishment? Because Raghunath tried to reach Lord Caitanya directly. To get the mercy of Lord Caitanya you have to go through Lord Nityananda. If you want Lord Nityananda’s mercy you have to go through the guru, so he tried to short circuit fast track and as a result he was getting punished by Lord Nityananda. The part of the punishment was after feeding Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya, in all the associates and all the friends he got the special mercy of Lord Nityananda who said that very soon he will reach Lord Caitanya and get his lotus feet’s shelter. 

Still every year, they have panihati festival where hundreds and thousands of people attend. ISKCON is committed this year on the 50th anniversary of ISKCON to feed a minimum of 50,000 people. (applause)

I went there 20 years ago and was surprised there were hundreds and thousands of people there. There is no advertisement, not in papers, no anywhere, but still people show up. They know that this day is the day of panihati festival.

There is no more Raghunath Das. So people come with the chira-doi and distribute to all the others. Some give to five people, some give to 10, we give to 50,000. Of course we weren’t there that people were just giving out whatever they could but it was wonderful to see such a festival, such a giving and loving mood. 

So I just mentioned that because I heard today that they were giving you a sample of the chira-doi, you already heard that Lord Jagannath was giving me special darshan, a lot of special mercy is flowing.

So in your house you can also have the deities of the Lord. The grihasthas have got more licence to enjoy. They have a house, they have a family, they have money but with that come’s lots of responsibility. Responsibility for the family, wife for the husband, husband for the wife, both for their children, for their parents, for the in laws, for the relatives, for the neighbours, political party (laughter), taxman, finance, so many things. Along with that why human being is special than an animal? Because they also have spiritual life. That meas spiritual duties, serving the guru, distributing prasadam to the hungry people. 

Here someone said, “It’s a hot day, 16 degrees but in India it is the hottest month. So we get 38, 48, 42. So in this month Krishna said, if we just give out water you get special blessings. Because it is so hot people appreciate just getting a glass of water. So all these things are done specially by the grihathas. And performing Visnu sacrifice, is receommended by Lord Siva, by Lord Brahma, by everybody.

Parvati asked Siva, “What’s the best worship?”, and Siva replied, “Aradhana sarvesam, Vishnur aradham param, tasmat parataram devi, tadaya nam samarchanam”, that of all the worship, Visnu worship is the supreme. There is one exception there in. Those people connected with the Lord, worshiping them is even more special. 

So we did a special Visnu Puja, Jagannath, Baladev, Subahdra puja. So all of you got special blessings. So I will also like to give chance to all of you to hear from Jananivas Prabhu.

In the beginning of Mayapur, in the 1970’s he was also there and we have been friends since then. (applause)

So he has a special relationship with the deities and for many, many years he never left Mayapur or left the deities. He told me he is here because of his Visa. Every five years you have to leave once to extend your Visa. Anyway he is a great devotee, very dear to Srila Prabhupada, very dear to the deities and on this occasion of snana yatra when he usually in Mayapur we would like to hear from him. 

The deities in Maypur are very special. The deities are manifested in the same place where the deities of Jagannath Puri came thousands of years ago.

So with no further ado, here is jananivas Prabhu. (applause)