20170924 Gaura Kathā

The following is a tall given by His Holiness Jayapātākā Swami Mahārāja on September 24th, 2017 in London, New York. The Gaura-kathā was given at a retreat program.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda

śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ

yādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥ

gopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdana

Jaya Kṛṣṇa Balarāma Kṛṣṇa Balarāma Kṛṣṇa Balarāma jaya Kṛṣṇa Balarāma Jaya Rādhā Gokulānanda Rādhā Gokulānanda Rādhā Gokulānanda Rādhe

Jaya Sītā Rāma Lakṣmaṇa Hanumān

Nitai Gaura Hari bol Hari bol Haribol Nitai Gaura Haribol

Mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

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

paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī-caitanya-īśvaram

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: The brāhmaṇas were respected by Lord Kṛṣṇa, and He always encouraged brāhminical culture, because the brāhmaṇas were always working to help others. 

I thank His Holiness Rādhā Rāman Swami Mahārāja. He reminded me of the villages I visited in Bihar, and so many devotees have come from those villages. Not only Rādhā Rāman but Rādhā Govinda, Devakī-nandana, Narahari and many others.

So, that time I was young. I could take many of these austerities, and the villagers were very enthusiastic. So, they needed Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Prabhupāda, he saw that the whole world was in need of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so he went to carry out the order of his Guru Mahārāja. And then when he saw Boston, he said, “These people are in the mood of passion and ignorance, but they are proud of it, and they don’t know how they are suffering. So, like this he had his idea that he will help all these people by giving them Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he went around the world twelve or fourteen times, and visited various countries in each continent, and he established Kṛṣṇa consciousness as a household word in many different countries. So, we are all very much grateful to Śrīla Prabhupāda. 

As His Holiness Rādhā Rāman Swami Mahārāja said, he was in Vrindāvana, he could get his liberation, he didn’t have to go anywhere, but he took great trouble, great austerities, to bring Kṛṣṇa consciousness all around the world. So, he gave some instructions to different devotees, and so we try to carry those instructions out. So, I am very grateful to all the devotees who are helping Prabhupāda to fulfil his mission. 

Lord Caitanya, He kept the devotees very much enlivened. At first He was a channa-avatāra. He hid Himself as the Supreme Person. And in the Kali-yuga, He doesn’t display to the public that He is an avatāra, because there are so many bogus avatāras. So, He doesn’t want to encourage these bogus avatāras, but He would reveal to some devotees His actual position.

Murāri Gupta was teaching prāṇāyāma. So he made fun. He mimicked him, “Do prāṇāyāma, hold your nose.” [laughter] So all the people in the class of Murāri Gupta started to laugh. Murāri Gupta said, “Oh, whose son is this? He is just criticizing his mother and father.” Lord Caitanya said, “Just as you have broken your bhakti-yoga, I will disrupt your lunch.”

So Lord Caitanya went back, class was disturbed. So Murāri Gupta gave all the students chutti (holiday in hindi) and he went to his house. Meanwhile Lord Caitanya, He dressed up just like Kṛṣṇa. He had ankle bells, He had peacock feathers on His head, He wore a sash just like Kṛṣṇa. Only He was golden in colour.

So then Murāri Gupta was sitting down taking his lunch. Lord Caitanya called out in a deep, loud voice, “Murāri Gupta.” He wondered who was calling his name. So he went to the doorway, and Lord Caitanya said, “You have interrupted your bhakti-yoga. So I have interrupted your lunch. Just preach pure bhakti, nothing else.” And then He walked away.

Murāri Gupta thought, “How does a little three-year boy know about bhakti-yoga?” Advaita Ācārya had prayed for the coming of Lord Kṛṣṇa. “Is this Lord Kṛṣṇa? I think so. He looks just like Him.”

So He went to the house of Jagannātha Miśra to check. There Jagannātha Miśra was embracing Nimāi, smelling His head, kissing His face. Mother Śacī took the child and she was giving her affection. Then Jagannātha Miśra took Him back. He gave Him more affection. Then Mother Śacī took. She gave more affection. Murāri Gupta was watching. Then he became convinced, “This is Kṛṣṇa.” He offered his obeisances.

namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ

“Oh, Murāri Gupta, the most famous physician of Navadvīpa. What are you doing here? Why are you visiting the poor house of a poor brāhmaṇa?” So, Murāri Gupta was walking around the two. He said, “What are you doing? What are you doing?” Then he grabbed his hand. He said, “Jagannātha Miśra, You are the most fortunate person in the whole world. Your son is…” –  “Ah Mother I am hungry ah” So Kṛṣṇa never allowed what he was about to say to be spoken. Lord Caitanya censored it.

One day Lord Caitanya was. One brāhmaṇa was saying his Gāyatrī in the Gaṅgā. Saw the water rising up, coming down, rising up, coming down. He said, “What is happening?” then he looked, and he saw a golden boy walking by the side of the Gaṅgā. Sometimes He walks very close, sometimes a little further. So Gaṅgā water would go touching His lotus feet. Then he climbed up on the banks of the Gaṅgā, and the personality of the Gaṅgā, the deity she walked out and offered her obeisances to this golden boy. This brāhmaṇa, he bathed in the Gaṅgā every day, but he had never seen the deity of the Gaṅgā. He was so enlivened, he came up and he saw that the deity of the Gaṅgā was offering prayers to the golden boy, and she went back to the Gaṅgā river and merged.

So the brāhmaṇa paid his obeisances to the golden boy and he asked, “Who are you? The Gaṅgā was offering obeisances to you. You must be some Viṣṇu.” And then Lord Caitanya said, “I will show you who I am, but you can’t tell anyone as long as I am manifesting My pastimes.” So, then He showed the form of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and He told the brāhmaṇa that he can stay and watch the pastimes, but he cannot tell anyone.

So before Lord Caitanya took initiation, He was teaching as Nimāi Paṇḍita, and people had loving relationships with Him, but they didn’t know that He was Kṛṣṇa. So, He went to East Bengal. He bathed in the Padmā river and left love of Godhead there which was received by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. He began to teach. People had heard of Nimāi Paṇḍita, but they never thought that He would come to their states, to their place and teach them. So many students came. He taught them the glories of the holy name and a version of Nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa. He got many donations. Then He went back to Navadvīpa. In the meantime Lakṣmīpriyā was feeling so much separation that she went back to Godhead, where she could associate with the Lord constantly.

So when He came back Mother Śacī was devastated. She didn’t know what to say. His wife had left Him, gone back to Godhead. So, anyway many things happened, and finally Mother Śacī convinced Him that He should marry again, and it was arranged that He would marry Viṣṇupriyā.

So one brāhmaṇa, he was joking on Lord Caitanya. He told Him, “Oh, are you getting ready for the wedding?” Lord is nobody to be out-spoofed. He said, “What wedding is that? Is there a wedding? Do I know about it?” So that brāhmaṇawent to Sanātana, the father of Viṣṇupriyā, and told him everything.

“He is denying to marry your daughter.” So they were suffering like anything.

Since Lord Caitanya is the Supersoul, He is the akhilātmā, He didn’t want to be spoofed by the brāhmaṇa, but He didn’t want to cause Viṣṇupriyā, and her father, mother and relatives to suffer. So then He sent another brāhmaṇa to go there, and tell them that it is all a lie, that He was going to marry, and just that this other brāhmaṇa was trying to play a joke on Him, so He joked back. So they were in great relief. So all these many things would happen.

Lord Caitanya as Nimāi Paṇḍita, during that time the Digvijaya Keśava Kāśmīrī had come to Navadvīpa. He came with elephants, horses, followers, palanquin, and he had his book, his jayapatra, that the paṇḍitas would sign saying that I have been defeated. So, Nimāi Paṇḍita told the students that the Supreme Lord doesn’t like people to be too falsely proud, and that such people get their prides crushed. But He was thinking that if I publicly debate him and defeat him, then they will take his cows, his elephants, they may insult him, he may feel so depressed. So He was taking it that I don’t want to cause him suffering. So how can I defeat him in such a way that he won’t suffer?

You see, Lord Caitanya is para-duḥkha-dukhī. He thinks that how even if He wants to humble someone, how to do it in such a way that the person is not crushed. So that’s why through an informal discussion He defeated him. Keśava Kāśmīrī, who was favoured by Sarasvatī, he prayed to Sarasvatī, “Why did you fail me?” She said, “He is my husband. I can’t support you against my husband.”

So he then went and surrendered to Nimāi Paṇḍita. Later it is said that he was one of the ācāryas in the Nimbārka-sampradāya. He became a pure Vaiṣṇava, gave up his argumentation, his false superficial scholarship.

Lord Caitanya, He would always be very compassionate.

So those were some of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya before He took initiation. After initiation He was changed, and He tried to give love of Kṛṣṇa to everyone. So this is an important point that in the process of Vidhi-mārga, there are two steps – one is following all the rules very strictly, like attending maṅgala-ārati, chanting your japa, doing your service. But when you have to do something more spontaneous that’s called rāgānugā. Then, one has not achieved ecstasy yet, but they are still on the rules and regulations. But being a Bhakti-vṛkṣa leader, being a book distributor, somehow trying to do your service with more excellence, with more perfection. 

When you are not just doing it mechanically but you are really putting your heart into it, that’s rāgānugā. Every devotee, Prabhupāda would engage his devotees in services that encourage rāgānugā. By doing that, then one also awakens the dormant love and affection for Kṛṣṇa. 

Hare Kṛṣṇa. [Applause]