20181123 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

Mukham karoti vaachalam…

So today is the Raasa Purnima. Today we celebrate the raasa dance of Lord Krishna. When He was in Vrndavan He engaged all the Vrajwasis in different rasas. The tree, the cows in shanta rasa, the servants, the leaders in daasya rasa, Krishna’s cowherd friends in sakhya rasa, the mother and father of Krishna were in vaatsalya rasa and the gopis were in the conjugal rasa. So each rasa contains all those before. The friends of Krishna who are in sakhya rasa they also serve Krishna which is in daasya rasa and they also admire the Lord which is shanta rasa. So each rasa contains the other rasas of the Lord. The vaatsalya rasa, the rasa of parenthood contains the rasa of service, friendship, and admiration. The conjugal rasa contains all the other rasas. So Krishna, appreciates the gopis’ love for Him. He tells them that He cannot actually reciprocate with their devotion. The Lord says that according to how He is approached, He reciprocates. If you approach Krishna to kill Him, He kills you. If you approach Krishna to love Him, He loves you. But the gopis love is so great that He says that I am not able to fully reciprocate with your love. So that is how great the love of gopis for Krishna is. They want to see Krishna pleased. And they will go through any sacrifice to do that. One time Krishna told Narada muni that I have a headache, I need the dust of the feet of My devotee, so please bring Me some dust. Narada muni said, oh that would be easy!  So He went to the queens of Dwaraka and asked them for their feet dust to put on Krishna’s head. They said, how can we do that? How can we put the dust on our husband’s head? No, it is not possible. So he went to various devotees and everyone said, no, no, it is not possible.  And then he went to Vrndavan to the gopis. He said, I need the dust of the feet of the devotees to cure the headache of Lord Krishna. The gopis said, please, please, take, take. He said, you will go to hell! They said that is ok but let Krishna’s headache be cured. So they have so much concern to see Krishna happy. That is why their service is considered prema or pure love. So in this Purnima called the Raasa Purnima, Krishna plays on His flute in the night time. So the fathers and husbands would stand at the doorway and would not let the gopis out. So the gopis would lie on the bed, and their body would stay there and their atma, the living force would leave the body and go to meet Krishna. Like this the relationship was completely spiritual because each husband and father in law thought our gopi is sleeping in the bed but they didn’t know that she had left the body and she was with Krishna. All the gopis gathered around Krishna and He would be playing on His flute. His flute playing was so unique, to give an example - a yogi was meditating, and suddenly the melody of Krishna’s flute entered his ears and he became so restless. He hit his head against the rock and he was crying literally. So Krishna’s flute playing is out of this world. The flute is anyway a beautiful instrument. But when Krishna plays it, it is nothing to compare with. So all the gopis were standing in front of Krishna and Krishna asked them what are you doing here in the night? It is dangerous, there may be a tiger, so you should all go home. It is very dangerous here. Then the gopis looked down and drew circles with their toes, and one spoke up. It is not fair of You, we all came at the call of Your flute because we want to serve You. So sending us home is not proper. So Krishna is unlimited in whatever He does. So if He dances with the gopis, He could have a zillion gopis and He will be a zillion Krishnas and dance with each gopi. So some of the sages had approached Lord Rama and they said we know that You have taken a vrata, vow of eka patni vrata. But in the next yuga You will be appearing as Krishna and You will be having many wives without any such limitations. So we want your blessings so that we can enter into your service in conjugal rasa. So Lord Rama blessed them and they also came in Vrndavan and joined the other gopis. They took their birth as gopis in Vrindavan. So some people were joining the conjugal rasa with Krishna for the first time. Some were, like Radharani with Krishna was in every avatar of Krishna. Like this, Krishna to make a long story short, He was staying with each gopi and they were dancing. So from the heavenly planets they saw down, Krishna with millions of gopis, He was dancing. So this is the raasa dance and at one point Krishna disappeared and it turned out that He had gone with Radharani deep in the forest but they traced out the foot prints and they found Radharani, She was crying and She said that Krishna had left. Because Radharani had more devotion, Krishna stayed with Her but She had asked Krishna to carry Her because She was tired. He lifted Her up but then He let Her down and He disappeared. So all the gopis went back to Jamuna and they were happy that one of the gopis had conquered Krishna but they also felt sympathy that He left Her. They went back to Jamuna and started chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare. This chanting exists in Goloka Vrndavan. There is one verse by a follower of Lord Caitanya, 

Goloker prema dhana Harinaama sankirtan

This Hare Krishna sankirtan has come down from Goloka Vrndavan. So the name of Krishna and Krishna are non-different. The Absolute Truth, body of Krishna and Krishna are non-different. His name and His person are no different. Similarly, His pastimes and He are non-different. The gopis started chanting and Krishna came back. So that night was like a day of Brahma, very ecstatic and they were all the time chanting and dancing with Krishna. Then Krishna took everyone to the Jamuna and they all had a bath with Him. So the residents of the heavenly planets seeing Krishna dance in the raasa dance, they had never seen something so beautiful. So they also wished to be in the dance. The dance was so beautiful that Lakshmi also wanted to be a part. She did tapasya to be allowed to enter the raasa lila but she was not allowed because the gopis are very humble but Lakshmi, she has an attitude, the attitude did not fit in Vrndavan. So she was not allowed to enter into the raasa leela. Shiva wanted to enter but He was allowed to take form of a gopi and stand at the doorway. So that is why He got the name of Gopishwara. Narada muni also wanted to experience what it is like to be a gopi in the raasa dance but Radharani said no men allowed except Krishna. So then he took bath in the Kusum Sarovar and became a gopi and then he could enter. So this raasa dance is a most attractive thing and it is completely spiritual. People dance in the material world using their lust but in the spiritual world everything is on the level of love. So today is the sacred day of the raasa dance. There are two dances – one dance is only with the 108 gopis and the other dance is with all the gopis. In Mayapur we get hundreds of thousands of lakhs of visitors on Raasa Purnima. Are there any questions? Shubha Raasa Purnima! Happy Raasa Purnima! Felis Raasa Purnima! 

Today we ended the five day Bhishma Panchaka. After the moon rose we broke our fast. Maybe I ate something that I should not have, I am coughing! Ha! I had dahi vada in the evening. I should not take dahi. 

Today is also the appearance of Nimbarka acharya and also for those who did Damodar month, today is the last day. So today is a very auspicious day. We start the haathi procession in Mayapur. And after this every Saturday, we do the haathi procession. Any question?

Question: Devamadhava das prabhu:  Did the idea to dance originate with the gopis or with Krishna?

Guru maharaj: Krishna is the origin of everything. So how do we say that it did not originate from Him? But to enjoy we need two people. One person cannot enjoy. So He expanded into Radharani and Radharani expanded into gopis, queens in Dwaraka, Lakshmis of Vaikuntha, like this. She is the original energy and He is the original Person. I am trying to get in touch with your wife but I am not able to. Mahavaraha says he knows. Ok. Any question?

So now we are back to our normal diet.  I did not see anybody asking for lots of fruits. I think everybody had the fills of fruits for a while! We will resume the readings of Lord Caitanya book. He returned from Gaya where he got initiation from Ishwara Puri and He is telling the devotees what happened to Him. So He met with six or so confidential devotees in the house of Shuklambhar Brahmachari and He mentioned how He was initiated and How the love of Krishna started to manifest in Him when He saw the lotus foot print of Lord Gadaadhar. When He went back to Navadvip He saw Krishna at Kanainaathshaala. He asked who is in the house? Someone said Gadaadhar, Your Gadaadhar. Then Gadaadhar came out and paid obeisance. He said, you are very fortunate. Since childhood you have fixed your mind on Krishna and you are always Krishna conscious. My life has been wasted. I spent up to now all my time in studying shaastras and arguing with people using logic. So I was not interested in Krishna bhakti. But now I see that there is nothing important without Krishna. Then he caught up the column of Shuklambhar Brahmachari’s house and He so tightly hugged it that it broke and fell down. Sometimes He was crying, falling down, hair standing on end, He said I had Krishna but I lost Him, I lost Him. He would embrace devotees around the neck and ask where is Krishna? Where is Krishna? Krishna! Krishna! Tears were flowing from His eyes and it seemed like the Ganges had filled up the house of Shuklambhar Brahmachari. All the devotees present also could not resist crying. When He fell down, they also fell down and this went on for 12 hours, from morning to night. All they were saying was Krishna KRISHNA KRISHNA! WHERE IS KRISHNA! WHERE IS KRISHNA? WHERE? WHERE? So finally He bid farewell to them and went out. The devotees looked at each other and they could not speak anything. They were just crying. So they went and told all the vaishnavas that Nimai Pandit has become a Maha Bhaagavat, He has become the greatest devotee of Krishna. Some people said oh, this is wonderful news. Someone said that maybe the Lord has come to create this.  Different devotees said different things. One devotee said that now Nimai Pandit will silence any atheist. The greatest logician has become the greatest devotee. So all those atheists they have nowhere to stand. Like that they were all laughing, crying, this is a miracle, this is a miracle. So that is what we are reading now. 

Thank you all! Happy Raasa Purnima, Shubha Raasa Purnima, Felis Raasa Purnima!

Haribol!