20181113 Śrī Gaurāṅga hears a divine voice when He is about to go to Mathurā-maṇḍala

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book compilation class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 13, 2018, in Chennai, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: So today we are continuing with the Caitanya Book. Today in India it is a special day. It is a holiday. It is a holiday which is observed specially observed in North India and Bihar, Chhaṭh-pūjā. I asked a few devotees what the pūjā means and they couldn’t answer. So this is a festival that the Biharis and North Indians observe. Maybe Google will be able to say. Any way some people are busy doing that chhaṭh-pūjā and we will continue the class. We had a surprise visit by His Holiness Bhakti Svarūpa Caitanya Swami, who preaches in Russia and here travels around South India and other places in my zone and he will go back to Russia. If you are fortunate to have his association, he was the first temple president in the Soviet Union and he came in 1998 with all devotees to Māyāpur. In Russia they have mainly cabbage and potatoes. So he went to Māyāpur and saw ten fifteen sabjis, rice, was amazing for him. And then he had fruits and in his life, he had not had fruits, and they were tasting mangoes, bananas, papayas and different fruit salads. They were given fruit salads. So it was very wonderful. So how much austerity they were performing to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we should be very thankful to the Russian devotees, CIS devotees for their determination in practicing and propagating Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

* * *

Lord Caitanya is in Gayā and He just got initiation from Iśvara Purī. So now we are describing the symptoms of love of Godhead that He manifested. In the beginning of the manifestation of the loving ecstasy His body was quivering, His hairs stood on end, and He manifested various ecstasies of kṛṣṇa-prema. His eyes were filled with tears and sometimes He would be stunned and unable to move.

Śrī Gaurāṅga's display of prema-bhakti

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.91

vibhola hailā prabhu pādābja dekhiyā
preme mahā-mahotsave balaye nāciyā

Jayapatākā Swami: He was overwhelmed with loving ecstasy of ecstatic love seeing Lord Viṣṇu’s lotus footprints and manifested pure love Kṛṣṇa. He declared, a great festival. And He danced. Lord Caitanya was observing a great festival by ecstatic love seeing Lord Gadādhara’s footprints and danced in ecstasy. These are the natural effects of chanting the holy name, crying, hairs standing on end, becoming stunned, trembling of the body, dancing without caring what others were saying. He was sometimes laughing, sometimes crying. So this is the ecstasy of love of Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.92

gayā-śire piṇḍadāna pādābja upara
ānande nācaye saṅge brāhmaṇa sakala

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord, He offered the piṇḍa at Gayā and He offered that over the lotus footprints of Lord Viṣṇu and with great bliss He danced with all the brāhmaṇas.

Śrī Gaurāṅga hears a divine voice when He is about to go to Mathurā-maṇḍala

Caitanya-carita Mahā-kāvya 4.65: pare tini mane 2 eirūpa kahilena hāya! āmi gadādharera pādapadma darśana karilāma tathāpi āmāra hṛdaya kena komala haila nā? ei baliyā cintā karite 2 tatkālīna tāṅhāra cakṣu aśrujala paripūrṇa evaṁ śarīra pulake ākula haila.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the Lord was thinking how on seeing the Lord’s lotus footprints, My heart did not melt? Soon after that His hairs stood on end and tears came to His eyes and He manifested the pure love for Kṛṣṇa spontaneously. So this is the goal of all human beings, to develop their ecstatic pure love for Kṛṣṇa. In the material world our body needs food and many things, but we are not the bodies, we are spirit souls, we are part of Kṛṣṇa, we need spiritual food and spiritual happiness to be satisfied. This happiness comes from serving the Lord, by seeing the Lord, by hearing about the great devotees, hearing the glories of the Lord, these ecstatic symptoms are awakened. They don’t have to be learnt to be practiced, this is something natural to us and it is awakened simply by good association, by the process of bhakti-yoga the symptoms are awakened.

Caitanya-carita Mahā-kāvya 4.66: tatpare mahāprabhu ai prakāra kona iṣṭa sādhana mānase tatkṣaṇāt samudāya parivāra varga parityāga kariyā kampita kalevare madhuvane praveśa karilena.

Jayapatākā Swami: With such ecstatic symptoms He then gave up association of everyone. With a trembling ecstatic body, He began eager to go to Madhuvana of Mathurā.

Murāri-gupta Kaḍacā 1.16.8: kṛṣṇapāda-padmera premotsave tini śrīghrai vihvala haiyā niḥsaṅga hailena evaṁ sādhu-niṣevita ramaṇīya sei gayādhāma tyāga kariyā vṛndāvana yāite icchā karilena.

Jayapatākā Swami: Murāri Gupta’s Kaḍacā is in Sanskrit and they have translated in Bengali and it has again been translated in English, and we will read that English translation:

Translation: Because of His ecstatic love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet He at once became oblivious to the externals. He wished to leave the charming city of Gayā frequented by holy men behind Him and depart for Madhuvana, the eternal abode of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.127

ekadina rātriśeṣe gabhīra kṛṣṇa-viraha-premāveśe prabhura mathurā-yātrā —

kāhāre nā bali’ prabhu kata-rātri-śeṣe
mathurāke calilena premera āveśe

Jayapatākā Swami: So without telling anyone the Lord after some days He went at the end of the night, meaning just before sunrise. He went to Mathurā overwhelmed with the mood of pure love of Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Caitanya being absorbed in the mood of the gopīs, who were afflicted by separation when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā. So Gaurasundara became overwhelmed and early one morning He left without informing anyone. He left for Mathurā to search for Kṛṣṇa.

Murāri-gupta Kaḍacā 1.16.9: takhana navameghavat dhvani kariyā daivavāṇī haila—‘he deva! ekṣaṇe tumi nijagṛhe pratyāvarttana kara, pare kālakrame vṛndāvana o anyatra ceṣṭāya gamana karibe.

Jayapatākā Swami: Then a celestial being, without manifesting any form, spoke the following message from the sky. It sounded like the thunder of a newly arrived monsoon cloud. “Dear Lord, please return to Your home. Later You will certainly go to Madhuvana and there perform many other pastimes in accordance with Your unique character.”

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.93

āra dine manaḥ kathā daḍhāila cite
madhupurī yātrā prabhu kaila ācambite

Jayapatākā Swami: Many scriptures are saying the same thing. They are saying that in His heart He firmly decided to go on a journey to Mathurā.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.94

saṅgera brāhmaṇagaṇe kahila vacana
vṛndāvana daraśane karaha gamana

Jayapatākā Swami: Here in Caitanya-Maṅgala, it says that He talked to His brāhmaṇa companions and said that they all should go to see Vṛndāvana.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.95

śuniyā saṅgatigaṇa kuṣṭhita hailā
yāite nāriba vyaya alpa hailā

Jayapatākā Swami: Hearing this His brāhmaṇa companions were stunned as they had little money to make this journey.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.96

prabhu kahe bhakṣa-saṅge manuṣyera janma
nā bujhi vikala hañā kare kata karma

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya said to His students, “A human being, who tries to enjoy material pleasures, must again be born in the material world. Not knowing this truth, the materialists are very eager to act for their material benefit.”

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.97

sārthaka manuṣya-janma kṛṣṇa yadi bhaje
nā bhajile kṛṣṇa, duḥkha-sāgarete maje

Jayapatākā Swami: Human life is a success if one worships Lord Kṛṣṇa. If one doesn’t worship Kṛṣṇa, then he is immersed in an ocean of suffering.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.98

eimata bujhāiyā prabhu gaurahari
gayā haite vṛndāvana prabhu yātrā kari

Jayapatākā Swami: So the Lord gave these instructions. Gaurahari left Gayā and went towards Vṛndāvana. So He began His journey to Vṛndāvana.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.128

kṛṣṇa-virahe premāratibhare o kātarasvare kṛṣṇa-virahatapta āśraya-bhāvamaya prabhura kṛṣṇake āhvāna—

“kṛṣṇa re! bāpa re mora! pāimu kothāya?”
ei-mata baliyā yāyena gaura-rāya

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord as He walked, chanted Kṛṣṇa, “Oh Kṛṣṇa, My dear child, where will I find You?” In this way the Lord called out as He travelled. At that time Lord Caitanya was absorbed in the parental rasa and He loudly addressed Kṛṣṇa in a tone displaying the pastime of searching for His child Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya-carita Mahā-kāvya 4.67: anantara navīna nīradera nyāya manohara rūpa darśana evaṁ haṭhāt eirūpa daivavāṇī haila ye, ahe gaurahari! punarāya gṛhe gamana kariyā sāṁsārika sukhera āsvādana karage.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the Murāri Gupta Kaḍacā also describes how a voice came from the sky and addressed Lord Gaurasundara, Mahāprabhu You go home and experience happiness in Your house.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.129

pathimadhye nijatattva o bhāvī-līlā-jñāpaka ākāśa-vākye mathurā-gamane niṣedha-śravaṇa—

kata dūra yāite śunena divya-vāṇī
“ekhane mathurā nā yāibā, dvijamaṇi!

Jayapatākā Swami: After He was travelling for a while, the Lord heard a voice from the sky say, “Oh crest jewel of the brāhmaṇas, don’t go to Mathurā now.”

So you can see that 3–4 references tell this pastime. Each one is a little different but more or less the same. So Lord Caitanya was heading towards Vṛndāvana and there was an ākaśa-vāṇī, voice from the sky and a deep monsoon cloud thundering telling Him that He should not go to Mathurā Vṛndāvana now and He can go later, and You will have many pastimes then. You should now go to Navadvīpa and start the saṅkīrtana movement there. Haribol! Gaurāṅga! GAURĀṄGA!

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.100

nūtana meghera yena gabhīra garjjana
viśvambhara samdhodhiyā kahila vacana

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala, Ādi 7.102

sannyāsa kariyā tīrtha karibe paryaṭana
samayera vaśa haiñā yābe vṛndāvana

Jayapatākā Swami: So when You accept sannyāsa You will travel to many holy places. At that time, You will also go to Vṛndāvana.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.130

navadvīpe pratyāvartanārtha ākāśa-vāṇīra prārthanā—

yāibāra kāla āche, yāibā takhane
navadvīpe nija gṛhe calaha ekhane

Jayapatākā Swami: So Caitanya-Bhāgavata said, this voice says, “You will go when the time is appropriate. Now return to Your house in Navadvīpa.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.131

prabhu-tattva o avataraṇa-kāraṇa-nirdeśikā vāṇī—

tumi śrī-vaikuṇṭha-nātha loka nistārite
avatīrṇa haiyācha sabāra sahite

Jayapatākā Swami: You are the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, the spiritual world, and You have come to deliver all the people of the world. So You will come with Your associates to help everyone get back to Godhead.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.132

prabhura bhaviṣyat-līlā-prakāra-varṇana—

ananta-brahmāṇḍa-maya kariyā kīrtana
jagatere bilāibā prema-bhakti-dhana

Jayapatākā Swami: The unlimited brahmāṇḍa will be filled with Your kīrtana, with Your chanting of the holy names and by this chanting You will deliver pure ecstatic love to innumerable universes.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi 17.133-134

prabhura avataraṇa-kāraṇa-nirdeśa; śiva-viriñci-sevita kṛṣṇa-premadhana-vitaraṇai gaura-līlā—

brahmā-śiva-sanakādi ye-rase vihvala
mahāprabhu ’anaa’ gāyena ye maṅgala

tāhā tumi jagatere dibāra kāraṇe
avatīrṇa haiyācha,—jānaha āpane

Jayapatākā Swami: Brahmā, Śiva, Sanakādi, etc. who are overwhelmed with that loving sentiment, Lord Caitanya Your chanting is unlimitedly auspicious, and You have come to give this gift of pure love and that is why You have descended from the spiritual world, and You know this for Yourself.

So we will end here. So the Lord was heading toward Vṛndāvana but He stopped by the voice from the sky. Haribol!