20181210 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

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

Jayapatākā Swami: So today we are very late for the class, so we can have a question answer session for half an hour. Today I went to the hospital for an ultrasound and the radiologist said that everything looks alright. The liver and the kidney seem to be ok. So that is good news!! But it put us behind one hour today! So tonight, I had a meeting from 6 to 7 but unfortunately the meeting extended up to 8. So after I took my dinner it became 9 o clock. So that is why we will have a short class, just questions and answers. I had physiotherapy in the morning. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, I have sweet breakfast. (What is with the voice therapist!!) But we had to cancel the voice therapist because it was at the same time as ultrasound. Are there any questions?

Question, Mahāpremadā devī dāsī: We know Mahāprabhu’s purpose of performing the saṅkīrtana-līlā and other very intimate pastimes. Could you please explain what was His purpose for His scholastic pastimes?

Jayapatākā Swami: Since He was coming as a covered incarnation, He was coming as a devotee although He was the Supreme Lord. So in His childhood He acted like a child. As a young man, he married and taught Sanskrit. So He was enjoying scholastic pursuits. The Lord comes sometimes as a brāhmaṇa, sometimes as a kṣatriya, sometimes as a vaiśya. In Navadvīpa He came as a brāhmaṇa and He was studying as the brāhmaṇas do. Until He went to Gayā, where He met Ishwara Purī again, and took initiation, He was not acting like a bhakta. He was acting as an orthodox brāhmaṇa, as an ideal householder, so He was showing by His example how to be an ideal householder. He would invite people over and give them prasāda, He would give charity and He would teach the younger students Sanskrit grammar, He would argue with the other paṇḍitas and defeat them. So like this it seemed that He was an exceptional brāhmaṇa. When He came back as a devotee, it was a surprise to everyone. His students taught that maybe He got affected by some disturbed air in His journey. And that this would pass and He would become a normal pandit. So that is the part we were reading now. Lord Caitanya never came back to be a mundane arguer. He remained a devotee until His last breath, last vision.

Question, Śānta Gopī devī dāsī: In Navadvīpa parikramā we hear Lord Caitanya appeared for many ācāryas before His manifested appearance. Similarly, after His disappearance did He appear to anyone?

Jayapatākā Swami: It is hard to say because Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wrote what He saw and what he acquired in the śāstra in the 1800s. So since then there are some pastimes of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and also Śrīla Prabhupāda, in 1969 when he attended the San Francisco Ratha-yātrā, through the Golden Gate Park to the beach. Then when he entered the car which was taking him to his residence, he asked the driver with tears in his eyes, “Did you see Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda? Dancing amongst the devotees? Did you see Them, how beautiful They were?” The driver, what can he say? (Jayapatākā Swami: Shrugged his shoulders the way the driver would have reacted) He did not see anybody; he saw Prabhupāda! So there have been many sightings of Lord Caitanya but who is there to report them? Prabhupāda, He said that He saw Nitāi Gaura dancing with the devotees in San Francisco.

Question, Rumkiṇī: Bhakti or devotion can it surpass karma-kāṇḍā or vaidhi-bhakti rules?

Jayapatākā Swami: Of course. Karma-kāṇḍā as Lord Caitanya said, karma-kāṇḍā is a pot of poison. It is our doing good karma for good sense gratification, whereas bhakti-yoga is just the opposite. We want to please Kṛṣṇa, we want to serve His senses with our senses. hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. So bhakti is much, much, higher that karma-kāṇḍā. Haribol! Gaurāṅga!

Question, Gaurāṅga Karuṇā-sindhu dāsa: Is the systematic teaching of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books to devotees after one has carefully studied them under a bona fide teacher, is as pleasing to Lord Caitanya as preaching to new people?

Jayapatākā Swami: We don’t want to just accumulate knowledge, just to know more. We learn and then we go out and distribute, what we have learnt. This way we can remember for a long time and we put our knowledge to use.

Question, Sevā Padmā devī dāsī: So bhakti reduces karma also?

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa says in 18^th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

So by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa He says that He will protect us from all the karmas. So why just some, bhakti will eradicate all the karmas. Unfortunately, in order to expand the preaching, we also need to initiate candidates and they promise to chant 16 rounds and follow the four regulative principles but some of them don’t follow the four principles. And the guru has to suffer because of that. Some brahmacārī said that he fell down multiple times with married ladies and he said he doesn’t know what āśrama he should be in. So there are some people that are very fallen, and I am just giving one example, I can give dozens. And we don’t expect this from devotees. Unfortunately, some devotees take their vows very lightly. So if you see some godbrother or godsister who is not doing well in devotional service, please request them chant and do devotional service and follow the principles. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

The names of the devotees attending online today: The repeater read out quite a few names of the 134 numbers.

One last question from the internet and one last question live.

Live question, Tapta Kāñcana Nimāi dāsa: Why do we chant Pañca-tattva mantra before chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra?

Jayapatākā Swami: Chanting Pañca-tattva mantra is one thousand times more powerful than chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa but you get that result when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So therefore, we chant Pañca-tattva mantra first to say that we are chanting under the order of Lord Caitanya and then we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

One last question from internet: Rukmiṇī: If we don’t chant śuddha-nāma can we still make it back to Godhead?

Jayapatākā Swami: Even by chanting offensively the holy name, one gets spiritual benefits. By continuing chanting even with offenses, one gradually can reach the clearing stage which gets rid of the offenses. And then one can chant śuddha-nāma or offenseless chanting. So when one chants offenselessly, obviously one goes back to Godhead. Other types of chanting, we read in the Caitanya-bhāgavata that if one chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, they go back to Godhead, even though they have so many faults. Haribol! But we should try to get rid of our offenses. Hare Kṛṣṇa!