20181127 The Lord's Pastimes with Students after His Gayā Yātrā

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book work 27^th November 2018 in Chennai, India by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Guru Mahārāja. Reading from Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.159-170.

Under the section: The Lord's Pastimes with Students after His Gayā Yātrā

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So today we will continue with the compilation of the Kṛṣṇa Caitanya book and we are glad that so many devotees have come here in person, and we are also glad that so many are on the internet and there will be others who will come later and see the text as per their convenient time. So in this way we are trying to reach all the devotees that want to be reached. Actually, on my Facebook page there is like 116,000 likes but everyone is not sent posting through the Facebook. Facebook may send that to 20,000 people. So if you want to see what is on Facebook you should look every day. Someone just told me that today is ‘Giving Tuesday’. And of course, here in India, Tuesday has only got 3 or 4 hours left but in the USA, Canada and other western countries, like it is morning now in the States. So giving Tuesday means that anyone who donates to a Facebook page, Facebook will match up to 2500 dollars. So even if someone has pledged, if they pay today, then Facebook will match it. That means husband, wife, daughters, everyone gives 2500 dollars each and Facebook will match it. Apparently, Facebook matched 17 million dollars. So today is a good day to pay your TOVP pledges or if want to donate then donate it through Facebook, today you get a matching grant. I don’t know how exactly it works. I have a Facebook page after I give my class, we will check how exactly it works. And TOVP hopefully they have a page and if not, they should have one up in a few minutes.

So as far as my health update, today my physiotherapist came back and did the physio exercise and also walked a little steps, previously 8 steps now 11 steps. So first comes walking and eventually I hope to dance. Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Nitāi! If we have a necktie and don’t know where to put it, put it on your knee! Someone says, why are you wearing your tie on your knee? We say my knee-tie, Nitāi! Ha! Ha! Ha! Say it Nitāi, Nitāi, Niiiiitāi! Start a new fad! Everybody wear knee-tie! Somehow if they chant the names of Nitai or Gaura it may awaken their dormant love for Godhead! Haribol!

So now we will continue with the reading, Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-līlā 1.159. I am trying to avoid using the Bengali and Sanskrit ślokas so that makes easy reading for the westerners.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.159

paḍiñā-śuniñā loka gela chāre-khāre
kṛṣṇa mahā-mahotsave vañcilā tāhāre

Translation: “People obtain death and destruction through such study of the Vedas, and as a result they are deprived of the festivals of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: By reading or listening these mundane interpretations of the scriptures they attain death and destruction.

They are deprived of Kṛṣṇa’s great festivals. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness has many festivals. We have Govardhana pūjā, Gopāṣtamī, Janmāṣtamī, Gaura Purṇimā, Radhāṣtamī, Nṛsiṁha Caturdaśī, wedding of Śāligrāma and Tulaśī, so many festivals. Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say in 12 months there are 13 festivals! Actually, there are more festivals. Throughout the year there are festivals. So the devotees of Kṛṣṇa they get to enjoy all these festivals. They dance and chant and dance, and they feast on kṛṣṇa-prasāda. They understand that Kṛṣṇa is a person, He is the Supreme Person and He is the maintainer of everyone else. So these people that don’t accept Kṛṣṇa, they are deprived of this ecstasy.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.160

kṛṣṇera nāma o guṇa-varṇana—

pūtanāre yei prabhu kailā mukti-dāna
hena kṛṣṇa chāḍi’ loke kare anya dhyāna

Translation: “The Lord awarded liberation to Pūtanā, yet people still leave aside Kṛṣṇa to meditate on others.

Commentary: In spite of the hellish mentality of Pūtanā, who was the personification of deceit and who desired to kill Kṛṣṇa, the Lord delivered her from that mentality, which was born of enmity to Kṛṣṇa, and awarded her the rarely attained spiritual abode. Only those who are fortunate enough to consider the glories of the matchless and causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa can understand that no comparison or limit to that mercy may be found in either the material worlds or the transcendental spiritual worlds. Therefore no one other than the most unfortunate, unintelligent, foolish, hellish person gives up service to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, which is the topmost occupational duty, and contemplates or endeavors for anything else.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.2.23) Śrī Uddhava speaks to Vidura as follows:

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ
jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī
lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato 'nyaṁ
kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

“Alas, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He who granted the position of mother to a she-demon [Pūtanā] although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast?”

Uddhava offers the following prayer to Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.48.26):

kaḥ paṇḍitas tvad aparaṁ śaraṇaṁ samīyād
bhakta-priyād ṛta-giraḥ suhṛdaḥ kṛta-jñāt
sarvān dadāti suhṛdo bhajato 'bhikāmān
ātmānam apy upacayāpacayau na yasya

“What learned person would approach anyone but You for shelter, when You are the affectionate, grateful and truthful well-wisher of Your devotees? To those who worship You in sincere friendship You reward everything they desire, even Your own self, yet You never increase or diminish.”

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.95 and 97) it is stated:

bhakta-vatsala, kṛtajña, samartha, vadānya
hena kṛṣṇa chāḍi’ paṇḍita nāhi bhaje anya

vijña-janera haya yadi kṛṣṇa-guṇa-jñāna
anya tyaji’, bhaje, tāte uddhava——pramāṇa

“Lord Kṛṣṇa is very kind to His devotees. He is always very grateful and magnanimous, and He possesses all abilities. A learned man does not give up Kṛṣṇa to worship anyone else. Whenever an experienced person develops real knowledge of Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental qualities, he naturally gives up all other engagements and renders service to the Lord. Uddhava gives evidence concerning this.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Pūtanā the witch was given liberation by the Lord. Still foolish people leave aside Kṛṣṇa and they meditate in other ways. So Pūtanā not only was she liberated but because she put poison on her breasts to kill Kṛṣṇa, she killed so many babies, she was a serial killer. But because she wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa reciprocated, and He killed her because God cannot be killed. But because He somehow or another sucked her breast, therefore He thought, since I have taken milk from her breasts, she is My mother. So He gave her position as one of His mothers in the spiritual world.

See how merciful Kṛṣṇa is. A serial killer, a witch who wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa, took a beautiful form, came in and picked up the baby, “Oh, what a beautiful baby! I feel so much motherly affection. Can I feed Him my breast milk?” She thought, “If I had a baby, I would like one like this. Too bad I have to kill Him. Kaṁsa asked me to kill all the babies.” So she put her breast in Kṛṣṇa’s mouth, thinking she would kill Kṛṣṇa. But He sucked out her life air and she shouted, “Leave me, leave me! Aaoooo!” She fell over dead!

So in spite of her having this hellish, HELLISH, demoniac mentality, for the personification of death and deceit who desired to kill Kṛṣṇa, the Lord delivered her from that mentality which was born of enmity to Kṛṣṇa and awarded her a rarely achieved spiritual abode.

Only those who are fortunate enough to consider the glorious or matchless and causeless mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, can understand that no comparison or limit to that mercy may be found either in the material world or the transcendental spiritual world.

Therefore, only the most unfortunate, unintelligent, foolish, hellish persons give up the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which is the topmost occupational duty and contemplates for other endeavors for something else. How is anyone more merciful than He who granted the position of His mother to a she demon Pūtanā? Although she was unfavorable and prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast, Kṛṣṇa is so merciful! How will you give up the service to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and where will you find anyone else so merciful?

Uddhava is the friend of Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā and Mathurā. He prayed to Kṛṣṇa in a later pastime. “What learned person would approach anyone but You my Lord for shelter. And You are the most affectionate, grateful and truthful well-wisher of Your devotees. To those who worship You in sincere friendship, You award everything they desire, even Your own Self yet You never increase or diminish.”

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.95., it says that “Lord Kṛṣṇa is very kind to His devotees. He is always very grateful and magnanimous, and He possess all abilities. A learned man dares not give up Kṛṣṇa to worship anyone else. Whenever an experienced person develops real love for Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental qualities, he naturally gives up all other engagements and renders service to the Lord.” Uddhava gives evidence concerning this.

So every religion tells us we should love God. But what are His qualities are, what is His nature, what are the things He likes? That remains a mystery. But in the Vedas and Purāṇas, this truth about Kṛṣṇa is revealed. Whether you know Him as Kṛṣṇa, Allah or God, it is all the same person. He has unlimited names and we are meant to serve Him. By serving Him we actually achieve the real goal of human life.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.161

aghāsura-hena pāpī ye kailā mocana
kon sukhe chāḍe loka tāṅhāra kīrtana?

Translation: “For what happiness will someone give up the glorification of He who delivered the most sinful Aghāsura?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Kṛṣṇa delivered the Aghāsura demon who was most sinful and granted Aghāsura the spiritual liberation. What happiness will someone give up by glorifying the Lord in kīrtana? It means that if someone as sinful as Aghāsura, he got delivered by Kṛṣṇa, then why won’t someone want to serve Kṛṣṇa? If he doesn’t serve he must be thinking that “oh, I have to give up some happiness to serve Kṛṣṇa.” So what happiness is there that you have to give up to glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who delivered the most sinful Aghāsura. If you analyze in this way, you see that you don’t have to give up anything, any happiness viable… any viable happiness.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.162

ye kṛṣṇera nāme haya jagat pavitra
nā bale duḥkhita jīva tāṅhāra caritra

Translation: “The entire world is purified by the name of Kṛṣṇa, yet wretched living entities abstain from chanting His glories.

Jayapatākā Swami: The holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa purifies the entire universe. Yet wretched conditioned souls restrain from chanting His glories.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.163

ye-kṛṣṇera mahotsave brahmādi vihvala
tāhā chāḍi nṛtya-gīte kare amaṅgala

Translation: “Even the demigods headed by Brahmā are overwhelmed by Kṛṣṇa’s festivals, yet people give up such festivals and take pleasure in inauspicious dancing and singing.

Jayapatākā Swami: Those festivals are towards Kṛṣṇa but even Lord Brahmā and the other devas are overwhelmed in happiness. But they are given up by foolish people who take pleasure in inauspicious dancing and chanting or singing.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.164

ajāmile nistārilā ye-kṛṣṇera nāme
dhana-kula-vidyā-made tāhā nāhi jāne

Translation: “The holy names of Kṛṣṇa delivered Ajāmila, yet those who are intoxicated by wealth, good birth, and education do not know Him.

Commentary: One should refer to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sixth Canto, Chapter One, verses 21-68 and Chapter Two for a description of Ajāmila’s deliverance through kṛṣṇa-nāmābhāsa, a glimpse of offenseless chanting of Kṛṣṇa’s name.

The second line of this verse is confirmed in Kuntīs prayer to Kṛṣṇa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.8.26):

janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhir
edhamāna-madaḥ pumān
naivārhaty abhidhātuṁ vai
tvām akiñcana-gocaram

“My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling.”

Jayapatākā Swami: The holy names of Kṛṣṇa delivered Ajāmila and those who are intoxicated by their wealth, their birth, their education… wealth, family, education… they don’t know Kṛṣṇa. So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it mentions how Ajāmila was delivered by chanting the name of his son who is named after Kṛṣṇa. So, this is kṛṣṇa-nāmābhāsa, accidental chanting of Kṛṣṇa’s name. So this delivered Ajāmila.

In the second line this verse is also confirmed in Queen Kunti’s prayer to Kṛṣṇa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam first canto 8th chapter, 26^th verse: “My Lord, your Lordship can easily be approached but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of material progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty cannot approach You with sincere feeling.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.165

kṛṣṇa-pādapadma māhātmya varṇana—

śuna bhāi-saba, satya āmāra vacana
bhajaha amūlya kṛṣṇa-pāda-padma-dhana

Translation: “O brothers, please hear My truthful statement. Worship the invaluable wealth of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.

Commentary: Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has written in his Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛta (90): “O devotees, give up all unfavorable bodily and mental activities that are contrary to the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa’s senses and become attached to the lotus feet of Gaurāṅga-candra.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Oh brothers, please hear my truthful statement. Worship the priceless wealth of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has written in his Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛta, “Oh devotees give up all unfavorable bodily and mental activities that are contrary to the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s senses. And become attached to the lotus feet of Gaurāṅgacandra, Gaurāṅga! Garāṇgacandra! Gaurāṇgacandra!

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya 1.166-167

ye-caraṇa sevite lakṣmīra abhilāṣa
ye-caraṇa-seviñāśaṅkara śuddha-dāsa

ye-caraṇa haite jāhnavī-parakāśa
hena pāda-padma, bhāi, sabe kara āśa

Translation: “O brothers, may you all desire to attain the same lotus feet that Lakṣmī desires to serve, the same lotus feet by whose worship Lord Śiva has became known as a pure servant, and the same lotus feet from which the Ganges emanated.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Those lotus feet which Lakṣmī Devī has a desire to worship… serve, Those lotus feet which are served by Lord Śaṅkara or Śiva, who is His pure devotee, Those lotus feet which the Ganges manifested from, Those lotus feet brothers, everyone should desire.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya 1.168

prabhura svakṛta o avisamvādita-vyākhyāya ātmaślāghā—

dekhi,—kār śakti āche ei navadvīpe
khaṇḍuka āmāra vyākhyā āmāra samīpe?”

Translation: “Who in Navadvīpa has the power to refute My explanations before Me?”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Who has the power in the whole of Navadvīpa, who can refute My explanation before Me?” Lord Caitanya, He is showing His students that He is the same Nimāi Paṇḍit, He is undefeatable. Just that He has added Kṛṣṇa by His realization that Kṛṣṇa is the source of everything.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.169

mūrta śabda-vigraha viśvambharera satya vyākhyāya—

paraṁ-brahma viśvambhara śabda-mūrti-māyā
ye-śabde ye vākhānena se-i satya haya

Translation: Viśvambhara is the Supreme Brahman and the personification of transcendental sound, therefore whatever He explains is the supreme truth.

Commentary: Śrī Viśvambhara, the Lord of the spiritual world and the maintainer and nourisher of the animate and inanimate worlds, is directly the Supreme Brahman and personification of transcendental sound. Therefore He is the husband of Sarasvatī, the goddess of transcendental knowledge. Any word that Lord Viśvambhara explains through the eternal, pure, complete, eternally liberated, spiritual, and most important vidvad-rūḍhi as related to Kṛṣṇa is reality and the Supreme Truth.

Jayapatākā Swami: The Absolute Truth is Viśvambhara and He is the personification of transcendental sound. Whatever explanation He gives, that is the Supreme Truth.

So Viśvambhara, the Lord of the spiritual world, the maintainer and nourisher of the animate and inanimate worlds, He is the Supreme Brahman and the personification of transcendental sound. He is the husband of Sarasvatī devī the goddess of learning, the goddess of transcendental knowledge. Any word that Lord Viśvambhara says or explains through the eternal, pure, complete, eternally liberated, spiritual and the most important vidvad-rūḍhi as related to Kṛṣṇa in reality and the Supreme Truth.

Remember, there are three ways of understanding the absolute truth. vidvad-rūḍhi, means that which is the authoritative version handed down by great seers of the truth. The second one, I forget the name its something that by the common understanding of the learned people and the ajña-rūḍhi is the misunderstanding of the foolish people. Most people think about the Lord in ajña-rūḍhi, they speculate and come up with some wrong ideas.

Just like [Not Clear 50:00] someone said, “Oh, don’t worry, we only live once and we die and it is all over.” They don’t know about reincarnation. They don’t know that we never die. They just speculate. So like that it is all kinds of misunderstanding, why does God make good people suffer? What is good and what is not good, what is the absolute, understanding of good that they don’t know. Also that karma comes from last 100 births. So 79 births before you may have killed your neighbor, so in this life you wonder why you are suddenly attacked. So the law of karma is very difficult to ascertain. That is why surrender to Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya is our best option. Because They will protect us from all the previous bad karma and we can return back to Kṛṣṇa by chanting His holy names and serving His lotus feet.

So we will end here and continue tomorrow. 1.171.