20181217 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

Mukham karoti vaachalam…

So today we will continue with the compilation of the Krishna Caitanya book. Lord Caitanya has returned from Gaya where He was initiated by Ishwara Puri maharaj. Then He became totally absorbed in Krishna consciousness. He was constantly chanting the names of Krishna and He was in great ecstasy of separation. So He had informed the vaishnavas about His state of mind. He had informed His mother and instructed her. Now He is telling the students His situation. He told them that He will not teach them anymore because all He can think of is Krishna. They also said we cannot go anywhere else, if You have taken the decision to not study, then we also take the same decision of not studying. So that is where we are now. 

So then today is Monday. We had the physical therapy in the morning and voice therapy and then some exercises in the afternoon. And also answered some emails. That’s about how the whole day went. The cyclone that was in the Chennai and Andhra coast has moved to the north. Today we got sun. So we will continue now. 

Constantly hear the names of Krishna. May Krishna be all of your life and wealth. Lord Nimai Pandit is giving His blessings to His students. He had embraced them and He was crying and the students were crying hearing that they will be separated from their guru, from their teacher. So then Lord Nimai Pandit is giving them blessings.

Whatever you have studied and learnt, that is good, that is good enough. There is no more need for further studies. Everyone now let us come together and chant the names of Krishna, in unison. 

By the mercy of Lord Krishna may the purport of the scriptures manifest in everyone’s consciousness. All of you are My friends, birth after birth. Vrndavandas Thakur had said that these students were certainly Krishna’s eternal associates. That is confirmed in this verse where Lord Nimai Pandit says, you are My friends, birth after birth. 

On hearing the nectarean words of the Lord, the students became filled with transcendental ecstasy, at that time.  

So Vrndavandas Thakur he offers his humble obeisances at the feet of those who are the students of Lord Caitanya. They were sufficiently fortunate to become Lord Caitanya’s students. So Vrndavandas Thakur offers his humble obeisances at the feet of the most fortunate students, who as a result of incalculable pious activities, accumulated for many births, achieved the rare incomparable fortune of becoming Sri Vishwambhar’s students. This is the ultimate goal of human life - to be part of the Lord’s transcendental pastimes. The ecstasy, the bliss, that they have achieved by association of Lord Caitanya is not of this material world and the fortune that they had, to be the students of Lord Caitanya, Shri Vishwambhar is incomparable. 

All these students are certainly the eternal servants of Lord Krishna. You should know this for certain. Krishna, whoever is taught personally by Lord Krishna, can they be anyone else? They are the eternal servants of the Lord. 

Those who saw the transcendental pastimes of the Lord in His scholastic pastime, those people, in fact even those who saw those people, they all were freed from material bondage. 

I was such a sinner; I did not take birth at that time. I was deprived from seeing those blissful pastimes. So not only those who participated in those scholastic pastimes of the Lord, not only those pure devotees who witnessed those scholastic pastimes of Gaurasundar, but those who saw, those who were fortunate enough to see, those fortunate devotees were also liberated, that Gaurasundar is the life of all transcendental knowledge, the husband of the goddess of learning and the personification of the transcendental sound. So to see the Lord or His pastimes frees one from the propensity of materialism or trying to enjoy the mundane senses which is born of ignorance. Rather being inspired to serve the Lord in transcendental senses. Narottamadas Thakur wrote in his Prarthana how those persons who associate with the Lord and participate in His pastimes, do not get their association, Narottamadas Thakur cries. Here is also the translation of one more song of Narottamadas Thakur:

“I did not take birth at that time when Gaura, Nityananda, Advaita and other devotees appeared in Nadia. What is the use of my birth now? I am uselessly carrying the burden of this body.”

So now we are more than 500 years from the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. But by the mercy of His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupad, we can realize the transcendental nature of the Lord’s pastimes. By feeling separation from those pastimes and separation from the Lord, we can also experience a drop of their ecstasy.

Still Oh Lord, give me this mercy that those scholastic pastimes of Your Lordship always remain in my heart. 

Evidence of the scholastic pastimes of the Lord of Vaikuntha in Navadvip, the signs of those, can still be seen throughout Nadia district. 

So chinha means that the places where Lord Caitanya, Lord Vishwambhar, taught the students, can still be seen throughout Nadia. 

Although the Vedas talk about the appearance and disappearance of the Lord, Lord Caitanya’s pastimes have no beginning and no end. So this was a very touching scene when Lord Caitanya said that He would not be teaching any more and His students could go anywhere to continue their education but they said that we don’t want to go anywhere else. What we learned from You, that is enough. What will anyone else tell us? As they were crying and weeping that they wouldn’t have the benefit of Lord Caitanya, Lord Nimai’s association. Then Lord Nimai, Lord Vishwambhar embraced each of the students, He was weeping, they were weeping and the whole scene of Him embracing all the students and everyone crying – so, my heart is like a steel frame but seeing this pastime or hearing about it, is something that is overwhelming. Even it melts the steel frame, so this is the nature of Krishna consciousness!! While in the spiritual world there is actual love, in the material world many times all that is there is lust. It is said that a mother’s affection for the child is the closest thing that you have to love. We read how one Chinese parents, they were lamenting that their son died in an airplane crash and they were saying that we had spent so much money sending our son to university, and we thought he will work and maintain us in our old age but now he is dead and we are most misfortunate. Instead of lamenting that their son died, they are lamenting for who will maintain us? Not every parent is like that but that gives an example of the material world. So Lord Caitanya, Lord Gauranga, He blessed all His students with the shaastric knowledge and told them that they were His friends birth after birth. So someone was asking why does Lord Caitanya have these scholastic pastimes? I can’t say that I know all of the reasons because the Lord has unlimited facets. But you can see that He gave blessings to many students, He delivered Keshav Kashmiri, also the students became His ardent followers in the sankirtan movement. So He got the cream of the youth. So there are many reasons we can see, Lord Narayana, He is the source of all knowledge, Lord Krishna. So the Lord He shows His unlimited scholastic abilities, why not? He is the best! And anything He does, So why should there be a subject that He does not do? Which is a positive thing. So knowing all the shaastras and being able to explain them unlimitedly,  in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedya - that I am the knower of the Vedas, I am the writer of the Vedas and Nimai Pandit showed that practically that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, He came as a devotee, He showed His ability as a scholar. 

Hare Krishna! Any questions?

So one could say that Lord Caitanya started youth preaching!! He was thinking about Keshav Kashmiri. He would like to defeat him publicly but that would crush his ego Then people would criticize him and steal his properties, so I should humble him but in a very discrete way. So this He did by the side of the Ganges. And then Keshav Kashmiri prayed to his goddess Saraswati, why is that you let me down? This young teacher of grammar defeated me. Saraswati said, He is my husband, I cannot defend you against Him!! So then he went to the house of Vishwambhar and paid his obeisances. Then Lord Vishwambhar revealed who He was. After that Keshav Kashmiri became an acharya in the Nimbarka sampradaya and he became fully Krishna conscious. 

(Names of devotees who are listening online were read by the repeater

Question: Shanti V Sharma: Guru maharaj once you said Lord Caitanya’s beauty is a weapon. How can beauty be a weapon?

Guru maharaj: Some people are attracted by physical beauty and personal beauty. So Lord Caitanya’s chanting, dancing, knowledge and His personal beauty, different people were defeated by different aspects. Someone may be very proud of their beauty but when they saw Lord Caitanya they were defeated. So in that sense it could be a weapon.

Question: Lalitha Karthikeyan: How a sadhana bhakta, one who has not developed love for the Lord understand these pastimes of separation and tears? How is His incarnation kevala ananda kanda?

Guru maharaj: Well, if they hear the pastimes enough, eventually it touches your heart. Krishna consciousness is a gradual process. So some people awaken earlier and some people take more time. Prabhupad said that it took him 20years. So it may take some people 50 years or several births. It depends how much you want. It is like baby crying for his mother. If the baby is halfheartedly crying aaaa then mother knows nothing important but if the baby really cries. AAAAAAAHHH MUMMYYYYY, mother drops everything and runs. Ha! So how much do you want to have love for Krishna? You see the process that Lord Caitanya gave, singing the names of Krishna, dancing, feasting on Krishna prasadam, listening to amazing, wonderful stories of the Lord. Someone came back from vacation and a friend asked what did you do on your vacation? Oh I sang, I dance, I feasted, I heard amazing wonderful things! Oh, wow what a wonderful vacation you had, awesome! Awesome! That is our process of self-realization. In the Satya yuga you had to meditation for 10 thousand years. To get a good wife Garga muni meditated for 10 thousand years. All the other processes in the other yugas were very tough. But this process which was given by Lord Caitanya is simply blissful. If you don’t sign the names of Krishna, if you don’t dance in Krishna kirtan, if you don’t feast on prasadam, if you don’t listen to Bhagavatam, then what is the value of your life? So this is the process that Lord Caitanya gave us is not difficult to perform, and if you perform it, you will feel trans bliss.

Alright. So thank you very much. Hare Krishna!