20181102 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

Mukham karoti vacalam..

(No transmission of the beginning)

.. ceremony of His father. His father recently passed away and this is about a year or so after his passing. 

So the Lord went to Gaya and there by divine arrangement He met again with Ishwara Puri, the favorite disciple of Madhavendra Puri. This temple in Gaya is specially dedicated to the oblations to the forefathers. This is called pindi daan. After a relative has deceased, especially one’s forefather or mother, they go to Gaya and offer oblations to the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. Hundreds of thousands of people go there every day to perform this shraadha. So Lord Caitanya also displayed this principle by going to Gaya and offering worship to Lord Vishnu’s lotus feet and thus He offered pindi to His deceased father. There by divine will and His good fortune He met Srila Ishwara Puri paad. 

Ishwara Puri used to visit Navadvip sometimes and he stayed at the house of Jagannath Mishra. As a child Lord Caitanya was able to meet and see Ishwara Puri maharaj. So seeing him again in Gaya He immediately felt ecstasy in His heart. And this continued. 

In Gaya He met a mahabhaagavat, sanyasi, a great devotee of the Lord who was a sanyasi named Ishwara Puri. 

So by the divine will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ishwara Puri arrived in Gaya at the same time that Lord Caitanya arrived there. So this is something of a miracle because it was by divine will, what we say coincidence that Ishwara Puri and Lord Caitanya met at the same time and the same place. So that created a very auspicious situation for them both. 

So when Lord Caitanya saw His footprint in that place in Gaya. Seeing His own lotus feet, His hair stood on end in ecstasy. He was in the mood of love of Godhead. So by His divine will Ishwara Puri arrived there. As the mahanta guru he came to assist the Lord and realized His pastimes. Ishwara Puri was a disciplic descendent of Madhavendra Puri and they came in the line of Purna Pragya Madhavacharya who is also known as Ananda Tirtha. So they are one of the four bona fide disciplic successions. So Ishwara Puri came being inspired by the Lord who is Himself the Supreme Lord of all acharyas and spiritual masters. 

When Lord Caitanya saw Ishwara Puri maharaj, He offered His obeisances and He paid great respect and affection to Ishwara Puri.

Lord Caitanya fell to the ground and offered His prostrate obeisances to Ishwara Puri and in His mind He was overwhelmed with great bliss. He spoke in a very deep voice with humility, with politeness. Using words pleasing, with respect and politeness. 

Vishwambhar the Lord offered His obeisances and spoke that I am very fortunate today seeing your two lotus feet. 

Ishwara Puri was also overjoyed to see Gaurachandra and he embraced the Lord with great happiness. 

Each one looked at the other with loving glances and tears of love flowed from their eyes. So both of them became wet with tears of love. They were happy in exchanging this bliss. 

Ishwara Puri being a confidential, unalloyed disciple of Madhavendra Puri, who is the original seedling of the desire tree of love of Godhead, Sri Ishwara Puri paad is attached to prema bhakti, loving devotional service. By seeing Gaurasundar’s display of a devotee’s characteristics the eternal perfect mood of the devotees was enhanced and manifested. Now for the benefit of everyone, the people in general, the Supreme Lord, the topmost devotee and the mahanta guru were able to blossom into a transformation of ecstatic love. To transform and destroy any contamination in the purer hearts of people who are averse to worshipping Lord Krishna.  Being filled with this wonderful ecstasy Sri Gaurasundar began to glorify the spiritual master’s lotus feet. The spiritual master wo is the bestower of spiritual knowledge and who is unlimitedly superior to Gaya thirtha. What makes holy places holy is the presence of  divine people there. So Lord Caitanya although being in ecstasy seeing the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu, He became really fulfilled when He met Ishwara Puri. 

Murari Gupta wrote his own notes of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes but he wrote in Sanskrit and that has been translated into Bengali and subsequently into English. So he is describing in his own way how Lord Caitanya met the exalted and virtuous sanyasi Ishwara Puri who is completely devoted to the lotus feet of Lord Hari. So Sachinandan, Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His pastime as a devotee of the Lord, He prostrated himself with rapt attention before Ishwara Puri maharaj and Ishwara Puri became very pleased with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Lord spoke to Ishwara Puri as follows. 

HEY BHAGAVAN! By the blessings of providence, Your divine will, I have seen the lotus feet of Ishwara Puri maharaj today. Oh My master, ocean of Mercy! Mercifully tell me how I am traverse this ocean of samsara and drink the immortal ambrosia of Krishna’s lotus feet. Who would like to taste the immortal ambrosia? Those on the internet raise your hands and say Gaurangaaaa!!

So the Lord Caitanya fell down and offered His obeisances before Ishwara Puri. Overwhelmed by emotion the Lord spoke these words. Tears streamed from His eyes, which had become reddish, filled with mercy!

The Lord said, My journey to Gaya has become successful the moment I was able to see your divine lotus feet! I am wandering in these fourteen planetary systems, under the shelter of my karma and my limited gyana, my good fortune and piety resulting from devotional service, the conditioned souls receive the opportunity to see the lotus feet of the spiritual master who is the reservoir of the seed of devotional service. One’s own authorized mundane sensual argument based knowledge is checked and the topmost shining glories of devotional service is manifest in the heart. Shriman Bhakti Vinod Thakur the crest jewel of the mahajanas has  written in his Kalyana Kalpataru as follows:

My dear mind you are always attached to different places of pilgrimage such  as Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Kaashi, Kanchi, Avanti and Dwaraka.

You always travel to these holy places of pilgrimage again and again for the sake of obtaining liberation but it is clear that your heart is not becoming resolutely fixed by going to all these places. So therefore all your wonderings are useless labour. 

The real benefit of visiting any holy place is to achieve the association of the pure hearted devotees of the Lord who live there. Establishing intimate and friendly relationship with such great souls, let your heart be captivated by performing worship of Lord Krishna in their association. Wherever the Lord’s devotees are living that place becomes a place of pilgrimage. Therefore you should become fixed by constantly remaining in the company of such devotees.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur said, that he never visits any holy place of pilgrimage that is devoid of the presence of unalloyed devotees. What benefit does one achieve by walking to such places of pilgrimage? However, wherever there are devotees that place is actually Vrindavan. Only there can one find unalloyed, unlimited spiritual pleasure. 

Liberation personified is herself a humble maidservant of places that are surcharged with devotion to Krishna. All the waters at such places is non-different from the celestial Ganga. All the hills are non-different from Govardhan and the earth is indeed  Vrindavan. Only such a place can manifest spiritual, eternaljoy which is revealed by the Lord’s  potency.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur asked, dear brother what benefit would I get by circumambulating all the holy places of pilgrimage? Personally my vow is to serve the vaishnavas with firm resolution and untiring endeavor. 

Lord Caitanya is offering His respect to Ishwara Puri, so we would not like to terminate in the middle. There are a few verses and we will complete the respectful offerings.

If someone goes to a holy place and offers oblations for specific forefathers, so they are delivered, the ones to whom the oblations results were offered.

However, by seeing you, millions of forefathers are immediately freed from material bondage. Here Lord Caitanya is appreciating how even more holy than the holy places are the pure devotees who  reside there. In the Bhagavatam there is a verse where Vidura is glorified that he purifies holy place. So this was the realization of Lord Caitanya that having association with a pure devotee is more important than just visiting a place of pilgrimage. 

Say that somebody goes to Gaya and offers pindi for his deceased forefather. Or mother. So they get the benefit but others they don’t get it. But when you see a pure devotee and hear from him about the glories of devotional service, you are so purified that that millions, unlimited forefathers  all get immediately delivered. So His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Bhakti Vedanta Prabhupad by his travels throughout the world, he was delivering so many souls and wherever he went became a places of pilgrimage. And for the others there is no need of offering separate oblations for them because they are automatically receive benefit because you are associating with a pure devotee of Krishna. So they get purified from the repetition of birth and death. In other words, they can achieve the spiritual world of Vaikuntha simply by your worship of the Lord. Hare Krishna!