20170220 A Talk at the Śravaṇa Utsava Festival

20170220_Shravana_Utsava_@_Namahatta_Hall_Sri_Mayapur_Dham_India

Gurumaharaj: 

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhutale

srimate bhaktivedanta-swamin iti namine………..nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhutale

srimate bhaktivedanta-swamin iti namine (repeated by everyone)

namas te saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracharine

nirvishesha shunyavadi pashchatya desha tarine….namas te saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracharine

nirvishesha shunyavadi pashchatya desha tarine (repeated by everyone)

Jay sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda 

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda………. Jay sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda 

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda (repeated by everyone)

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare… Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare (repeated by devotees)

hari haraye namah krsna yadavaya namah 

yadavaya madhavaya kesavaya namah………. hari haraye namah krsna yadavaya namah 

yadavaya madhavaya kesavaya namah (repeated by devotees)

gopala govinda rama sri-madhusudana 

giridhari gopinatha madana-mohana…. gopala govinda rama sri-madhusudana 

giridhari gopinatha madana-mohana (repeated by devotees)

Nitai Gaura Hari Bol….. Nitai Gaura Hari Bol (repeated by devotees)

 Mukam Karoti Vacalam 

Pangum Langhayate Girim

Yat Kripa Tamaham Vande 

Sri Gurum Dina Tarinam

Paramananda Madhavam

Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Hari Om Tatsat

I will just speak some things from Caitanya Lila, whatever comes to my mind. 

When Lord Caitanya appeared, He came as Sachi Dula, son of mother Sachi, and His older brother was Biswarup. Biswarup was an incarnation of Sankarshan. So He stayed with Lord Caitanya for some years. Later Nitai came. He is the source of Sankarsana. He is Balaram Himself. 

Shri Krishna Chaitanya Radha Krishna Nahe Anya Balaram Haila Nitai

So when Biswarup would listening to the class in Advaita Acharyas house. That time mother Sachi sent her son Biswambhar to get Viswarup. So as a small boy he came dragging his blanket, and he would pull the cloth of his dada, “Mother Sachi is calling you for lunch.” In this way everyone was looking at Lord Caitanya. Why was everybody looking at a small boy, because this small boy is the soul of all souls. 

So just like one is attracted to the living force in the body, and when the living force leaves the body one puts the body outside the house. So somehow every one of us is attracted to Lord Caitanya, and Lord Caitanya like that would get His brother to come. So gradually His brother got older. Viswambhar was a young man, and Jagannath Mishra, he thought it’s time for me to get Viswarup married. So he looked at Biswarup with that look… oh..oh… Viswarup was not ready to get married. Viswarup was thoroughly convinced by Advaita Gosais lectures that he wanted to be fully dedicated to the service of Krishna. He did not want to enter into samsara life. So he sensed that his father wanted him to get married, he decided that he  would take sanyas, and the next day he swam-ed across the Ganges, and on the other side he went somewhere and took sanyas. 

So hearing that he took sanyas, Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Mata were very sad. How do we live without Biswarup. What did we do wrong? Why did he live us? They were like this lamenting. But some elder in their family told them, that because he took sanyas, their whole family is uplifted, and he has delivered umpteen number of your vamsa. 

Really? 

He has done that for us?

Yes. 

They became very grateful, and Lord Caitanya said that His brother came in His dream and told Him, “come on take sanyas.” 

I am a young man, I am a boy, what do I know about sanyas? I will get married and I will please my mother. So he told this to mother Sachi and Jagannath Mishra, but Jagannath Mishra thought that if he takes sanyas and then leaves the house I cannot live. Better he not be educated. If he is educated, He may take sanyas. 

So he called him and said, “From today on your studies are over. I will maintain you somehow. You don’t have to study anymore.” 

So Lord Caitanya was committed to following His father, but He didn’t like it. He wanted to study. So He would hang around with the naughty boys, and He would do mischief. Put water in the ears of the babies….the mothers would come running, “What’s wrong with our babies?” The doctor says, “There is nothing there, there is nothing wrong”

“No, he is crying.”

“Everything is healthy.”

So one night He was playing with the… one day He was playing with the boys and they heard from Advaitya’s house, “Hari bol, Hari bol!” 

So Biswambhar came running, and all the people in the house of Advaita looked at Him. He asked, “boy, what do you want, you called me.”

“No, No, No, I thought you called me.”… because they were calling Hari bol, so Hari came. ….. Hari bol (everyone)

So like that in some evenings, He and a little boy would dress up like a bull, and they put a cloth over themselves, made sounds like a bull and would destroy the house garden, and the house owner would come, “Oh, bull, bull, bull, bull!”, and they would run away. 

Some nights Lord Caitanya would lock the door from outside. Now all the people have out houses. Their sauchalaya or bathrooms were outside. So in the middle of the night the grihastha would get up to answer the call of the nature. What happened, help, help, my door is locked, help, help, help. Lord Caitanya would laught, Ha, Ha, Ha. 

But Jagannath Mishra was determined, “My son would not study. I cannot live without Him. If He studies, He might take sanyas.”

So one day Lord Caitanya sat on the clay pots that were thrown away, and now the modern scientists think that in the old days they were primitive, but they had pots that they would throw away. Use once and throw. No washing. Very advanced, but Nimai was sitting on the used clay pots, and mother Sachi said, “Why are you sitting on those clay pots? It’s asuchi.”

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

“You are brahman boy, you should know this things.”

“Tell my father, he doesn’t want me to study.”

Lord Nimai is gold in color. So some of the soon from the pots were on His arms, feet and legs and face. So He looked very beautiful, but mother Sachi said, “come with me to the Ganges, I will give you a bath.” So she took Nimai by the hand, took Him down to the Ganges, and then bathed Him.

In the meantime Jagannath Mishra came, and all the men said, “Your son, He wants to study, why don’t you let Him study?” 

One said, “My son, he wants to play, but your son wants to study.”

But another said, “yea this is very rare.”

“My son is not serious about studying, but your son wants to study. So you should give Him a chance to study.”

So Jagannath Mishra said, “Ok, you are all my well-wishers. If you all say that I should let my son study, then I should do it. So I will follow your advice.”

Lord Caitanya was very happy.

Hari bol………… Hari Bol (everyone) 36.37

So Lord Caitnya would study under thee pandits – Sudarshan Pandit, Visnu Pandit and Gangadas Pandit. So these three were teaching Lord Caitanya. What would take kids to one year to learn, He would learn in one day, He would learn the whole alphabet one day, He would learn the joint letter, jukta akhar in two days. Like this He learned so fast, that the padit said that, in the future we will be probably be studying under him. 

So one day He had an argument with Jagadananda Pandit. Jagananda was another student, and he was so upset that he went to the Ganges and sat there all day and all night. At the early morning before sunrise, Lord Caitanya and Gadadhara went out looking for Jagananda. “Jagananda…. Jagananda… where are you?. So then they saw Jagananda by the Ganges. 

Jagananda said, “Why you are coming here in the dark?” The path has small stones and it is hard. You may hurt your feet, but Lord Caitanya said, “I could not sleep the whole night because I knew you were out. Come, come home.” 

So Gadadhara went by the side of Jagananda, and Jagadananda holding on to the hand and the leg of Jagadananda stood up. Three of them returned to the house of Jagannath Mishra. Lord Caitanya said, “I could not sleep the whole night. I was worried about you.”, but Jagadananda said, “You shouldn’t worry about me.”, Lord Caitanya said, “We are friends. Sometimes we have some disagreement, and later we make up, but somehow between us all these things happened, but as a result our love for each other increases.” 

So when they got home, Jagadananda took some Muri, and then he fell asleep, but then Jagannath Mishra came with a plate of rice and milk. So Jagadananda ate the rice and the milk, and then he fell asleep again. After sometime Jagannath Mishra woke up the two of them, and said, “Quickly take showers, it’s time to go to the class.”

So like this, everyday Lord Caitanya was having different pastimes, and as a child He was the dearmost child to Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Mata. When He became the pandit, Nimai Pandit, then He was the greatest pandit. When He became a devotee He was greatest devotee. When He took sanyas, He was the most renounced and peaceful sanyasi. AS a devotee He was the most merciful, and as the taster of mellows He became ecstatic all the time. On of names was rasasehkar because He was tasting all the rasas. 

One Murari Gupta was saying the Visnu Sahashranam, and he got to the name of Narasinghdev. Lord Caitanya became ecstatic, and he took on the mood of Narasinghadev, just like our Narasinghdev is sthanu Narasimha, He looks for the demons, who dared to torture Prahlada.

Like that Lord Caitana came out, “Where are the demons, where are the demons?” All the people began running, and then He became merciful again. 

“Oh, I scared all the people”

Murari said, “they are all liberated by seeing you in that mood.”

When He was Nimai Pandit one of His name was Vachaspati. Vachaspati, who was the Lord of the goddess of speech, and he bowed down to Srivas Thakur. He would offer respect to the elder brahmans, and Srivas blessed Him, “may you become a devotee. What is the use of all these learnings if you are not a devotee.” 

Lord Caitanya said, “Well, when I meet my guru, then I will become a devotee.” So when He went to Gaya, to offer pindi for His father, at that time He met Ishwar Puri Maharaj. Ishwar Puri Maharaj had come to the house sometimes, but then His father was there to receive him, but this time His father had gone back to Godheard, and Nimai Pandit felt that He should take initiation from Iswar Puri. So He asked for ignition. At first Iswar Puri said, “Oh, you are a learned brahman, who am I, I am just a simple Brahman.” 

Lord Caitanya said, “If you don’t give Me initiation what is the use of My life.”, so He convinced Iswar Puri to initiate Him. Once He was initiated, He was changed person, He became a lover of Krishna, and then started to chant the holy name, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

So he went to Gaya, to the Visnupada temple chanting the holy names. He was in Gaya, so that chanting, rotating around, he was ecstatic in devotional service. So His first ecstasy as a devotee happened in Gaya, that’s in Bihar, and His first darshan of Krishna was in Kanai Natsala. So then He came back to Nabadwip, and He was a changed person. So He started the sankirtan yajna.

Here we are having a sravan utsav and a kirtan mela. So this sravan, kirtan was the process that Lord Caitanya gave, and this process is fully transcendental. 

So by chanting the holy names, one can awaken the dormant love for Krishna. So today we did the ashthi visarjan of my God brother, Jagatjivan Das. And as a result I didn’t have darshan of the deities. So I am going to go before they close, but I can answer two questions.

Any questions?

Question: How can we develop humility to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya?

Gurumaharaj: What are you proud about? You can think, if you have any good quality it’s because of the mercy of Guru and Gauranga…… Haribol (followed by applause by all). No reason to be proud. 

Question: What prayers can we do before we chant in order to get some taste?

Gurumaharaj: Devotional service is a gradual process. Some people, they develop the taste very quick. For some it takes longer. We should try to avoid the offences. If the offences are there, it takes takes more time. If we chant offenselessly  the Harinam, we can develop the taste very quick, but if we chant the panchatattva mantra first, then we can also develop a  taste by their mercy, for some it takes longer.  

Prabhupada was once saying that, “we should be crying for Krishna. If we are not crying for Krishna, we should cry that we are not crying for Krishna, and then if we are not crying that you are not crying for Krishna, you should cry that you are not crying, that you are not crying for Krishna. But if you are not crying, that you are not crying, that you not crying , that you are not crying for Krishna, then you should cry that you are not crying, that you are not crying, that you are not crying for Krishna… (laughter)

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