20180723 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…  Mukha…

So we continue the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. He has defeated Keshav Kashmiri in a very mild way so that the Digvijay has completely surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So in this way all over Navadvip all the people glorified the Lord and it was spread throughout Navadvip dham. Sat kirti, the pure glories!

Obeisances are being offered to the residents of Navadvip who were so fortunate that they could see all these pastimes. So the author of the biography of Lord Caitanya also offered his obeisances to the residents of Navadvip who are so fortunate that they could see and witness these pastimes. It is not an ordinary thing to see the confidential pastimes of the Lord, although they may not have recognized that Lord Caitanya is Krishna Himself, they were so fortunate that they could see these pastimes and so therefore the author of the biography is offering his obeisances to them. 

By hearing the pastimes of Lord Caitanya defeating the Digvijay, that person will not suffer defeat anywhere. That is the mercy of Lord Caitanya. 

So Lord Caitanya was observing the Vidya rasa or the scholastic pursuits which were most enchanting. Whoever hears these pastimes, he certainly becomes a servitor of the Lord. 

This is from CC, so Prabhupad did the translation, we will read it out:

CC Adi lila Ch. 16 Verse 109: Srila Vishwanath Thakur has described all these incidents elaborately. I have only presented the specific incidents he has not described.

110: The nectarean drops of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes can satisfy the senses of everyone who hears them. 

111: Praying at the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, always desiring their mercy, I, Krishnadas, narrate Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, following in their footsteps. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi lila, Sixteenth Chapter, describing the pastimes of the Lord in His childhood and youth.

So this is the pastime of Lord Caitanya defeating Keshav Bhatta and engaging him in devotional service. So hearing about these histories is attractive to the mind and senses, and by hearing these pastimes one will never suffer defeat. So this is explained both in Caitanya Bhagavat and Caitanya Caritamrita about Lord Caitanya’s childhood and youth. So we will end here on the Caitanya Book and if you have some questions you can ask. 

Question: Keshav Kashmiri’s pastimes happened in Mayapur. Do we have any particular place or memorial of these pastimes in Antardvip or Simantadwip? 

Guru maharaj: Keshav Kashmiri met Mahaprabhu on the bank of the Ganges and later he prayed to Saraswati devi and she revealed who Lord Caitanya was. So then he met Lord Caitanya at the Yoga pith at His residence. So the Ganges and the Yoga pith, His residence were the main places of His pastime. Is that what you wanted to know?

Question: Do we have to keep some monument in any of these places?

Guru Maharaj: If possible, it could be where Lord Caitanya sat by the side of the Ganges and Keshav Bhatta was very critical of Lord Caitanya. He said he was a great scholar and Nimai Pandit was just teaching grammar to the kiddies. So Nimai Pandit, He did not get affected by these harsh words. Rather He said, you are such a great scholar, if you can compose some verses glorifying the Ganges, we will all be very indebted. So Keshav Kashmiri rattled of like thunder about a hundred verses in less than an hour’s time and all of Nimai Pandit’s students were amazed how he could compose poetry so quickly. But then Nimai Pandit asked, can you tell us, because I think your poetry no one else can explain other than you. Tell us what are the good and bad aspects of your poetry and Keshav Bhatta said there is nothing wrong with my poetry. Lord Caitanya glorified him and said there are some good points and some negative points. So then Keshav Kashmiri asked what is this? Then Nimai Pandit said verse 57, He had memorized and analyzed, He told what were the auspicious things and what were the defects. This is how Keshav Kashmiri got defeated. He was amazed how could Nimai Pandit memorize his verses and analyze them. Nimai said, well, some people have a blessing to write poetry, similarly other people have a memory to memorize what is being said. Shrutidhara. Mother Saraswati told them that I couldn’t help you to defeat him because He is my husband. So all those things happened at the Ganges. Then after that he came to see Nimai Pandit, apparently in Nimai Pandit’s house. Nimai Pandit told him that as long as I am in this world, you should not reveal who I am. 

Question: If we are given an opportunity to do some service by authorities and it is not sanctioned by your parents, how do we go about that?

Guru maharaj: This is a personal question. What the parents would accept or not, and each parent is different. So sometimes we present to the parents that we have a job, there are different ways to approach them. So each parent is different. It is difficult for me to answer this question publicly.

Question: Can you please explain Krishna’s inconceivable sweetness and at the same time how such inconceivably sweet person can award or design systems like what is spoken in Garuda purana or Bhagavat purana which is even beyond highest, highest level of cruelty? Meaning would a father ever, ever award such punishment irrespective of what his children might do?

Guru maharaj: That is why we read the Srimad Bhagavatam. There are 18 puranas. 6 in the mode of goodness, 6 in passion and 6 in ignorance. So the purest purana is Bhagavat purana. So we try to follow that and we avoid sinful actions. So Krishna has His expansions and expansions of the expansions. So as Narayana or different Vishnu tattva avatars are not different from Krishna but at the same time they may react differently to the conditioned souls. Hiranyakashipu was evil and torturing his son and Krishna came as Nrsimhadev and protected His devotee. So this is the way Krishna reciprocates according to His nature. So as Krishna, He is very sweet and Narayana He is also sweet but He may give out punishment. So each avatar has his own nature and He needs to be approached according to His nature. Nrsimhadev is very angry and we approach Him in that mood.