20181204 The Lord's Pastimes with Students after His Gayā Yātrā

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book work 4^th December 2018 in Chennai, India by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Guru Mahārāja. Reading from Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.227-235.

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

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Jayapatākā Swami: So today we will continue with the compilation of the Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book. Yesterday we had Ekādaśī and today I broke fast, had khicuḍī and pāpaḍ and yogurt in the morning. So today there is rain in Chennai. So my physiotherapist couldn’t make it, but we did our own physiotherapy. They were saying I get tired very quick so I am trying to go early to bed. I was trying to go to bed last night at 10, it became 10.45, and then the nurse was giving some injection, closed my left eye, which since the stroke does not properly close. So like this, things delay. I hope if I get enough rest then I hope I would be able to walk and dance in kīrtana. But this Kṛṣṇa Caitanya book is so much sweet nectar that my godbrothers were encouraging me also. So now we will ask Deva Gaurāṅga dāsa Brahmacārī to read the Bengali and I will translate.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.227

hena kara’ kṛṣṇa, ebe dāsya-yoga
diyācaraṇe rākhaha dāsī-nandana kariyā

Translation: “O Kṛṣṇa, please favor me with Your service and keep me at Your lotus feet as the son of Your maidservant.

Commentary: “Just as the son of a gṛhastha devotee’s maidservant does not know anything from the time of his birth other than the service of the Lord, You should similarly always engage me in Your unalloyed service, accepting me as the son of Your dependent maidservant. Then I may remain constantly engaged in Your nonduplicitous service and never on the pretext of service become a master by forgetting You.”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Please Kṛṣṇa in this way favor me that I can be in Your service, that I can serve Your lotus feet. Keep me as your maidservant’s son.”

So, he was praying just as a son of a devotee’s maidservant, did not know anything from the time of His birth except devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. “So You should similarly bless me, always engage me in Your unalloyed devotional service accepting me as a son of Your dependent maidservant. So that I may remain constantly engaged in your non-duplicitous service and never on the pretext of service, become a master by forgetting You.” So living entity is praying like this to the Lord to always remember and serve the lotus feet of the Lord.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.228

bāreka karaha yadi e duḥkhera pāra
tomā bai tabe prabhu, nā cāhimu āra’

Translation: “If You once deliver me from this miserable condition of life, then I will not desire anything other than You.’

Jayapatākā Swami: “If You deliver me now from this miserable condition, then Prabhu, I will not have anything but to remember You.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.229

ei-mata garbha-vāse poḍe anukṣaṇa
tāho bhālavāse kṛṣṇa-smṛtira kāraṇa

Translation: “In this way the child constantly burns within the womb of his mother, yet he nevertheless likes that situation because he can think of Kṛṣṇa.

Commentary: The word tāho means “in spite of being burned by the miseries of residing in the womb.”

Although the intense pangs of distress resulting from living in the womb are certainly intolerable, since that situation is endowed with the happiness of Kṛṣṇa’s service, the child accepts suffering in that condition as relishable and desirable.

Jayapatākā Swami: In this way while the child stays in the womb of the mother, he is constantly burnt yet he likes his situation because he is able to remember Kṛṣṇa. Although the child is suffering a lot in the womb, by remembering Kṛṣṇa’s service and praying to Kṛṣṇa, he gets happiness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He accepts the suffering in that condition as relishable and desirable.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.230

garbhaniṣkrānta bahirmukha jīvera duḥkha-varṇana—

stavera prabhāve garbhe duḥkha nāhi pāya
kāle paḍe bhumite āpana-anicchāya

Translation: “By the influence of his prayer, the child does not feel distress in the womb, and in due course of time he reluctantly comes out.

Jayapatākā Swami: “So under the influence of prayer, he doesn’t feel suffering in the womb. In due course of time, he comes out from the womb although he is not particularly desiring it.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.231

śuna śuna mātā, jīva-tattvera saṁsthāna
bhumite paḍile mātra haya āgeyāna

Translation: “O mother, please hear attentively about the living entity’s condition. He loses consciousness on touching the ground.

Commentary: The phrase jīva-tattvera saṁsthāna refers to the state or situation of the materialistic conditioned soul who has forgotten Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Oh mother,” said Caitanya Mahāprabhu to mother Śacī, “please hear attentively about the living entity’s condition. He loses consciousness as soon as he touches the ground. This is in regard to a living entity who is materialistic and has forgotten Lord Kṛṣṇa.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.232

mūrchāgata haya kṣaṇe, kṣaṇe kānde śvāse
kahite nā pāre, duḥkha-sāgarete bhāse

Translation: “Sometimes he loses his consciousness, sometimes he cries, and sometimes he sighs. Unable to say anything, he floats in an ocean of misery.

Commentary: The word śvāse means “he inhales and exhales.”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Sometimes he is unconscious, sometimes he cries, or takes a sigh. He is not able to say anything, he is floating in an ocean of miseries. Sometimes he cries, sometimes he breathes deeply in and out.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.233

kṛṣṇera sevaka jīva kṛṣṇera māyāya
kṛṣṇa nā bhajile ei-mata duḥkha pāya

Translation: “By the illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa, the servant of Kṛṣṇa suffers in this way if he does not worship Kṛṣṇa.

Commentary: Every living entity is constitutionally a Vaiṣṇava, or an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. As soon as he turns from the service of Viṣṇu, he comes under the control of the covering and throwing potencies of Kṛṣṇa’s deluding illusory external energy. The mentality of measuring every object under the shelter of the illusory energy through one’s sensory knowledge is certainly deluding and born of the desire for material enjoyment, therefore it is the source of unlimited miseries.

In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 20.117-118, 120) it is stated: “Forgetting Kṛṣṇa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence. In the material condition, the living entity is sometimes raised to higher planetary systems and material prosperity and sometimes drowned in a hellish situation. His state is exactly like that of a criminal whom a king punishes by submerging him in water and then raising him again from the water. If the conditioned soul becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of māyā, who gives him up.” It is further stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.12-15, 24-25, 33, 35, 37, 41): “Apart from the ever-liberated devotees, there are the conditioned souls who always turn away from the service of the Lord. They are perpetually conditioned in this material world and are subjected to the material tribulations brought about by different bodily forms in hellish conditions. Due to his being opposed to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the conditioned soul is punished by the witch of the external energy, māyā. He is thus ready to suffer the threefold miseries—miseries brought about by the body and mind, the inimical behavior of other living entities and natural disturbances caused by the demigods. In this way the conditioned soul becomes the servant of lusty desires, and when these are not fulfilled, he becomes a servant of anger and continues to be kicked by the external energy, māyā. Wandering and wandering throughout the universe, he may by chance get the association of a devotee physician, whose instructions and hymns make the witch of the external energy flee. The conditioned soul thus gets into touch with the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and in this way he can approach nearer and nearer to the Lord. The living entity is bound around the neck by the chain of māyā because he has forgotten that he is eternally a servant of Kṛṣṇa. If the conditioned soul engages in the service of the Lord and simultaneously carries out the orders of his spiritual master and serves him, he can get out of the clutches of māyā and become eligible for shelter at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. One is immediately freed from the clutches of māyā if he seriously and sincerely says, ’My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, although I have forgotten You for so many long years in the material world, today I am surrendering unto You. I am Your sincere and serious servant. Please engage me in Your service.’ Due to bad association, the living entity desires material happiness, liberation or merging into the impersonal aspect of the Lord, or he engages in mystic yoga for material power. If such a person actually becomes intelligent, he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness by engaging himself in intense devotional service to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. If those who desire material enjoyment or merging into the existence of the Absolute Truth engage in the Lord’s transcendental loving service, they will immediately attain shelter at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, although they did not ask for it. Kṛṣṇa is therefore very merciful. When someone engages in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service for the satisfaction of the senses and instead acquires a taste to serve Kṛṣṇa, he gives up his material desires and willingly offers himself as an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa.”

Jayapatākā Swami: “By the illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa, the individual soul, servitor of Kṛṣṇa, suffers in this way if he does not worship Kṛṣṇa.”

“kṛṣṇa nā bhajile ei mata dukha pāya - so even if you are devotee of Kṛṣṇa if you forget to worship Kṛṣṇa you will suffer in the same way.”

Every living entity is constitutionally a devotee, a Vaiṣṇava or an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. But as soon as he turns away from that devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, he comes under the control of the illusory energy and then he becomes born out of the desires of material energy. Therefore, he is the source of unlimited miseries. So, the living entity is constitutionally an eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa but if he forgets Kṛṣṇa then he is put under the control of māyā, Kṛṣṇa’s illusory energy and he is given all kinds of miseries. Sometimes he is elevated to higher planetary system and he gets material prosperity and sometimes he is drowned in a hellish condition.

Previously we gave an example like someone who is dunked in water by the king and then taken out for a breath of fresh and then dunked again. So, like this one is revolving around the universes until they meet some saintly persons or some guru who gives them instruction to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Due to his worship of Kṛṣṇa, he is delivered from this material condition. So those who are nitya mukta jīvas or eternally liberated souls or the baddha-jīva or eternally conditioned souls. We want to take from the nitya-baddha and make them nitya-siddhas. So, this is the job of the goṣṭhy-ānandī Vaiṣṇavas. The bhajana-ānandī are those devotees who want their own liberation, and they don’t care about the others.

So, one is put under the control of the witch māyā, the illusory energy of the Lord but if somehow one can get close to Kṛṣṇa and then he carries out the orders of the spiritual master and does service to spiritual master, he can get out of the clutches of māyā and become eligible for Kṛṣṇa’s service or for shelter at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. One is immediately freed from the clutches of māyā.

Someone may get misdirected and develop their desires for enjoying their senses. And then if they are fortunate, they start to render devotional service and they give up all material desires and willfully offer themselves as an eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.234

kṛṣṇa-bhajanakārīrai saubhāgya—
katho-dine kāla-vaśe haya buddhi-jñāna
ithe ye bhajaye kṛṣṇa, se-i bhāgyavān

Translation: “In due course of time the child develops intelligence and knowledge, and if he worships Kṛṣṇa he is surely fortunate.

Jayapatākā Swami: “So, after some time the child develops the knowledge and intelligence. If in that state he worships Kṛṣṇa, he is certainly fortunate.”

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.235

kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha asatsaṅgīra naraka-lābha

anyathā nā bhaje kṛṣṇa, duṣṭa-saṅga kare
punaḥ sei-mata māyā-pāpe ḍubi’ mare

Translation: “But if he does not worship Kṛṣṇa and takes to bad association, then he again sinks into the depths of sinful activities and delusion.

Commentary: The word anyathā means “on the other hand,” “apart from this,” or “on the contrary.”

The phrase māyā-pāpe refers to either forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa due to the influence of māyā or the ocean of sin accumulated through aversion to Kṛṣṇa.

The wicked propensity of dishonest nondevotees is to give up the service of Kṛṣṇa and endeavor for extraneous desires, karma, or jñāna. They consider spiritual objects to be limited and insignificant, and while measuring them with their sensual knowledge they become materialistic. Those living entities who are extremely unfortunate and devoid of taste for the service of Kṛṣṇa meet death by drowning in the ocean of material existence created by māyā. The attempt to measure everything through material senses is simply aversion to and forgetfulness of the Lord. Material knowledge carries away such conditioned souls in the waves of piety and impiety and ultimately compels them to suffer the pangs of birth and death by drowning them in the deep waters of material existence.

In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.26.3) Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks to Uddhava as follows:

saṅgaṁ na kuryād asatāṁ
śiśnodara-tṛpāṁ kvacit
tasyānugas tamasy andhe
pataty andhānugāndha-vat

 bellies. By following them one falls into the deepest pit of darkness, just like a blind man who follows another blind man.”

Jayapatākā Swami: If on the other hand, if he doesn’t worship Kṛṣṇa, if he takes association of… bad association, again he is submerged in the oceans… depths of the sinful activities and illusion.

So, two living entities are described – one is fortunate, he worships Kṛṣṇa and one is unfortunate, he is averse to worshipping Kṛṣṇa. So, the dishonest action of the non-devotee is to give up the service of Kṛṣṇa. And they develop extraneous desires either the karma or jñāna, fruitive enjoyment or speculative knowledge. They consider spiritual objects to be limited and insignificant and they try to understand it thru their sensual knowledge, and they become materialistic and so these living entities are extremely unfortunate and devoid of the taste for service of Kṛṣṇa. They tend to measure everything thru their material senses. Their forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa allows them to be carried away by material knowledge and such conditioned souls are carried away by the waves of piety and impiety. And that compels them to suffer the pains of birth and death. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11th canto 26th chapter 3rd verse, Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks to Uddhava as follows: By following the materialist, one falls into the deepest pit of darkness just like a blind man who follows another blind man.

That’s the end of this section. Are there are questions?

Question: What becomes if a bhajana-ānandī does not preach? Does he fall down?

Jayapatākā Swami: Bhajana-ānandī may go back to Godhead. It depends if he is fortunate, but he goes alone. The goṣṭhy-ānandī wants to take as many people as possible with him.