20181129 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

Mukham karoti vaachalam…

So today we will continue with the compilation of the Krishna Caitanya book. Lord Caitanya returned after being initiated by Ishwara Puri. So He left as Nimai Pandit, the greatest scholar and argumentarian and came back as a maha Bhaagavat and greatest Vaishnava. All the things He would describe to His students was how the shaastras led one to Krishna and He was speaking the glories of Krishna bhakti. So He asked His students how they appreciated His lecture. And His students replied that You connected everything with Krishna but we couldn’t understand anything because this was a completely different character side of Nimai Pandit. Then He said, oh, well, pack up your books and we will go to the Ganges. So now He is in the Ganges and the leela there is being explained. 

I thank whoever brought the Jagannath prasadam, that is always appreciated and some of the other gifts that were brought, olive oil, different herbal teas, so we thank you. I am past three months since my liver and kidney transplant but that was the most difficult period. But they say that I have to be careful for the first 6 months for the first year, because I am taking many immune suppressant drugs so that my body doesn’t reject the liver and kidney. So if in case I get infection because I don’t have the normal immunity, if I get infection it could be very dangerous. So that is why they are taking all these extra precautions. So yesterday I walked 16 and today 18 steps. I used to walk 1000 steps since my stroke but  since the transplant operation I have not been able to walk much So doing all the physical therapy I walked 18 steps. Maybe I could have walked more but just going ahead little by little. So actually the verse 1.182 revealed the poetic genius of the author. 

I don’t know if you will understand but the way the metaphor is used is poetic and those who know Bengali, it is very touching and very beautiful. I said last night that how Srila Prabhupad predicted that how some people will learn Bengali to be just able to read these books, read the original books on Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. So today we will start from 185.

The purport of these pastimes are only known to the Vedas but eventually later some of these things will be revealed by the puranas. 

So after completing His Ganges bath, Vishwambhar went to His house and all the students also went to their respective homes.  

Changing His clothes and washing His lotus feet, putting water on the Tulasi plant, according to the rules and regulations, He worshipped the form of Govinda and He came and sat down in His house to take His meal. So normally a second initiated vaishnava will offer His worship to the Tulasi plant because Tulasi is one of the pure devotees of Lord Krishna who has incarnated as a plant, so the Lord is very pleased to have her leaves and flowers or manjaris, flowers are also known as manjaris. Unless Tulasi is offered to the Lord on each offering, He does not accept. Offering Tulasi manjaris and the leaves to the deity form of Lord Vishnu is recommended and confirmed by all transcendental vaishnava smritis. So after worshiping the sacred Tulasi in her manifested form, as one connected to Lord Krishna by sprinkling water on her, Gaurasundar worshipped His family deity, Sri Govinda. In other words, He offered pure worship to the deity form of Vishnu. By doing this He gave the ideal example of mandatory daily duties for God conscious householder. So every vaishnava householder should follow this example of Lord Caitanya by engaging in the worship of the deity form of Lord Vishnu and accepting with full faith and humility, remnants of foodstuffs offered to Vishnu. Who is ready to accept Krishna prasad, the supreme sacrifice? You will be surprised how many people do not make this simple sacrifice and how they agree to be deprived of K’s mercy by not taking Krishna prasadam. Lord Caitanya showed as a householder how one should accept Krishna prasadam. Hare Krishna!

Along with the Tulasi manjari mother Sachi brought a fine cooked rice and placed it before Lord Gaurasundar. 

So the Lord first offered foodstuffs to Vishwaksena, the Lord of the unlimited universes, then He began to eat. 

So this is a detail given in the Haribhakti Vilas where it is stated that a sober vaishnava should offer one hundredth of his prasad to Vishwaksena. In the Srimad Bhagavatam 11.27.29 it is stated that “with offerings such as prokshana one should worship Durga, Vinayaka, Vyasa, Vishwaksena, the spiritual masters and the various demigods. All these personalities should be in their proper places facing the deity of the Lord.” 

So after offering prasadam it is considered that the Lord has eaten the prasad, so He is offered aachaman to wash His mouth. This is confirmed by Sridhar Swami. He says that one should meditate that the Lord has finished eating and offer Him water to wash His mouth and hands. Thereafter one should offer the remnants of the Lord’s foodstuffs to Vishwaksena and eat after taking his permission, this is the scriptural injunction. We heard that Vishwaksena was the spiritual form of the Lord with four hands, holding the Lord’s garlands, sometimes leading the battles, and that He was the origin of Vinayaka or Ganesh. So it is said one should mentally offer prasadam to Vishwaksena and the gurus and then take.

So Sachi devi, the mother of the universe, sat down before the Lord and the most chaste Vishnupriya watched from the next room, Her husband taking prasad. 

Mother Sachi asked today, my dear Son, what books did You study? Did you engage in any arguments with anyone? Lord Vishwambhar was famous for His asking anyone some question and then whatever they replied He would smash that and give the correct understanding. So Mother Sachi was asking whether He had done any of this today?

So the Lord replied, today I read the glories of Krishna naam, the holy name of Lord Krishna, how Krishna’s lotus feet are true and how Krishna is the reservoir of all good qualities. Truth of Krishna’s holy name and qualities, listening to Their glories, Krishna Chandra’s servitors whoever they may be they have achieved the Absolute Truth. 

So in answer to Sachi devi’s inquiry what the Lord said was that the lotus feet alone was the original shelter and source of all transcendental qualities. They are eternal and they are pure and primeval objects.  The eternal occupational duty of all the living entities is to hear and chant about the Lord’s transcendental names, form, qualities, associates and pastimes which are completely non-different from the person indicated by the names, possessing those forms, exhibiting those qualities, accompanied by those associates, and performing those pastimes. Those devotees who hear and chant about Krishna’s names, forms, qualities, associates and pastimes are the eternal truth. 

Those scriptures are the truth that glorify Krishna’s devotional service. Other scriptures are almost atheistic in nature. The scriptures that glorify Krishna’s devotional service can dissipate the ignorance and darkness and establish supreme religious principles. If any scripture does not glorify topics relating to Krishna’s names, forms, qualities, associates and pastimes, does not describe the topmost process for attaining the goal of life, instead of calling it a scripture it should be known as a useless babbling of the atheists. One should never study such scriptures understanding them as bad association. In his commentary Madhvacharya quotes the Skanda Purana “The Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas, as well as the Mahabharata, the Narada Pancharaatra and the Ramayana are certainly known as shaastra. Those books that favorably follow in the footsteps of these authorized scriptures are also counted among the shaastras. All other literatures simply lead one down the wrong path and can never be known as scriptures.”

The following verses from Matsya purana are quoted in the Tattva Sandarbha of Jiva Goswami:

“The puranas in the mode of goodness glorify the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, those in the mode of passion promote the glories of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe and those in the mode of ignorance celebrate the greatness of Agni, Shiva and Durga. In addition, many other scriptures consisting of various mixtures of goodness, passion and ignorance glorify the ancestors, the demigods and demigoddesses like Saraswati.”

So Lord Caitanya started instructing His mother about the glories of Krishna bhakti and scriptures that describe the devotional service to Krishna. He is actually trying to deliver the foolish people who are avoiding devotional service because they are very attached to materialistic enjoyment, which are temporary in nature and cause of suffering. So one has to be careful because some books are written from the impersonal point of view, some are written ignoring Krishna. I was giving a lecture in Sri Lanka and someone said that you are always quoting the Bhagavat purana and then he showed some other purana and said why don’t you speak from this? Then we did research on the Veda base and found that there are many quotes from these other puranas which also glorify Krishna bhakti but some of the quotes were so heavy that it couldn’t be said in the class. Like it is said that to take shelter of the devas rather than Krishna, it is liking taking shelter of a witch rather than your mother. So things like this and there were heavy quotes from the various scriptures that they were saying to read. So one has to be ready to explain things according to the ability of people to understand.

So in Damodardesh we are having a two day kirtan mela. I am supposed to give a two-minute video message. I had yesterday or day before read the quotes that by chanting the holy names even if we have so many faults, even then the Lord will forgive all your faults and take you to the spiritual world, if you chant the holy names. Can you find that please?

In the meantime, any questions?

Question: Gauranga Karunasindhu das:  We have heard of the wonderful pastimes of Lord Caitanya and His dearmost associates delivering whole villages giving Krishna prema freely even to the most sinful people.  Why doesn’t He then appear in this most magnanimous golden form in the other yugas as well, but only in Kali yuga?

Guru maharaj: Shaastra says that Lord Caitanya sometimes appears after Krishna and not in every appearance of Krishna does Lord Caitanya come. But Lord Caitanya is very special and rare. Like in the song by Lochanadas Thakur, he says parama karuna bahu dui jana, Nitai Gaura Chandra, Soba avatar, saro shiromani, kevala ananda kandha. Among all the avatars, He is the crown jewel because He gives the process which is simply blissful, chanting, singing and dancing, feasting on Krishna prasadam, hearing the Bhagavatam, it is all nectar. If someone came back from vacation and said what were you doing? I was singing, dancing, feasting, so he said oh you had a good time. That is the process of self-realization that Lord Caitanya gave us. Krishna is thinking that I am having such a blissful time in My pastime in Vraja but so many people do not understand that and they don’t take advantage, so He comes as Krishna Caitanya and delivers all the fallen souls. That is His external reason. He has some internal reasons. So only thing I can say that after Krishna comes, Krishna comes again as Lord Caitanya. In this universe Krishna comes at the end of Dvapara yuga. So naturally Lord Caitanya comes at the beginning of kali yuga. In the kali yuga the recommended yagna is chanting the holy names of Krishna. I don’t know what happens in the other universes. There are unlimited millions of universes . and Krishna appears in each universe, once in the day of Brahma. I can only say what happens in this universe, I don’t know what happens in other universes.