20181223 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

Hari Haraya Naama Krishna Yadavaya Namaha Gopal Govinda Ram Sri Madhusudhan

Mukham karoti vaachalam…

So we are continuing with the compilation of the Sri Krishna Caitanya book. We are using 8 or 9 scriptures which are giving historical details of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Because each author respected all the other authors. If the other author had already writing about a particular pastime, then they would not repeat it. They would just refer to it but the details would be in the other scripture. That is why there is very little about the early life of Lord Caitanya in Caitanya Caritamrita, because that was covered in Caitanya Bhagavat and Caitanya Mangal etc. But since they did not go into the details about Lord Caitanya’s later life, His pastimes as a sanyasi, so that is why we have so much more detail in the Caitanya Caritamrita, of all His later pastimes. So this is a very interesting work. After He started the sankirtan yagna - we call that as the Adi Lila. There He was Nimai Pandit, He was a great scholar, the greatest scholar, He was having thousands of students, who were being trained by Him. So then He went to Gaya to perform the rites for His deceased father. He met Ishwara Puri maharaj and took initiation. After initiation, He began to manifest ecstatic symptoms. He had the darshan of Krishna at Kanainaathshaala but by the time He reached Navadvip, He was absorbed in the ecstatic separation of Lord Krishna. He was experiencing maha bhaava which only Radharani and Madhavendra Puri have shown. At first the students thought He was sick. But later on they realized that He was really great. And now He is teaching them to chant Hare Krishna. 

Today was Sunday, so I had my physiotherapist who normally does not come on Sunday and he was taking this week off, so that he could attend to his family in a village in South of Tamil Nadu. Similarly, I had a meeting with TOVPE, Temple of Vedic Planetarium Exhibits. We got 3-4 people from the USA, about 3-4 people from India, one from Australia, one from the UK and we were discussing Varadaraj prabhu’s artistic analysis of the exhibits. Throughout the day I was meeting devotees, performing physical therapy and chanting some rounds. That is basically how my day went so far. 

I can get pure devotion to Lord Krishna only by serving you, to all the assembled students saying this, Lord Vishwambhar grabbed someone’s feet. 

He carefully drunk out the water from someone’s wet dhoti and handed out someone else a dhoti in charity. So He was putting into practice His service to the vaishnavas. 

He collected khusha grass and clay from the Ganges river for someone. And He gave it to someone. He carried somebody’s basket of flowers to their home for them. 

All the vaishnavas expressed their reluctance to receive the service from Vishwambhar, expressing hai hai! What are You doing? What are You doing? But nevertheless Vishwambhar Prabhu, He continued to serve them. 

In this way, every day, Lord Vishwambhar served His own servants. Or, He became the servant of His own servants.

What service is there which the Lord would not perform for His servants or for His devotees?!! The Lord, gives up His position for the sake of His servitors. Lord Gaurasundar is directly the Lord of the innumerable universes, the spiritual sky, the Vaikuntha lokas, Goloka Vrndavan, and by personally acting as the servant of His servants, He began to teach non-duplicitous people who desire eternal benefit, to see the Lord’s ideal example to serve the vaishnavas. Lord Gauranga is worshipable by all persons. He gave up His absolute position of God ship and began to act for the pleasure and satisfaction of His own servants although it is not the duty of the Lord to serve His servants. There is no activity which He cannot perform for the pleasure of His devotees. In this case He also performed various services for His devotees. So in Bhagavatam 1.9.37 Bhishma speaks the following words. He speaks that how He forced Krishna to take up the weapon which He had promised not to pick up. Translation: 

“I also made the promise that I would make him pick up a weapon but He is so affectionate to His devotees that in order to keep my promise intact, He broke His own. He got down from the chariot, took His supremely powerful disc and rushed towards me just like a lion attacks an elephant. At that time, He was so angry that He forgot to act like an ordinary human being and as He approached, the earth shook from the burden of every step of He who holds all universes within His abdomen. His outer garment even fell on the way.”

So Krishna is so affectionate to His devotees that He even broke His own promise. So Durvasa muni he speaks the following in the Srimad Bhagavatam 9.5.15 and 16 shlokas:

“For those who have achieved the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of the pure devotees, what is impossible to do, and what is impossible to give up?

What is impossible for the servants of the Lord? By the very hearing of His holy name one is purified.”

HARIBOL! HARIBOL! HARIBOL!

Krishna is the friend of everyone. All the scriptures declare. That Krishna, He envies no one and no one is neglected by Him. So Krishna is the maintainer of the all the universes. He is the shelter and benefactor of all living entities. There is no one who is a proper candidate for Krishna’s hatred or negligence. Since all the living entities are constitutionally eternal servants of Krishna and all are recipients of His mercy and compassion. I was listening to a lecture by Srila Prabhupad, someone asked why there is so much suffering in the world? Why does God make someone suffer and someone enjoy? Prabhupad explained that it is not by Krishna’s doing, but by the doing of an individual. If someone is a murderer he is sentenced for capital punishment by the judge, it is not that the judge particularly hates that person. And if someone sues in a court and gets millions dollars awarded, it is not that the judge is being partial. He just follows the law, and accordingly how the facts show and the jury judges, he takes action. So like this Krishna allows the people in the material world to cause their own future. If they act violently and destructively then they are going to suffer. If they are a victim, then they may get awarded some payment by the judge. If one has performed some negative act previously in the past one hundred births, he may be forced to suffer. Similarly, if one has done many good works, he may get higher birth or born on a celestial planet or take up the service of Krishna. If one takes up the service of Krishna, then all their karma is transcended and that person is given the special mercy of Krishna. So even if one is killed by Krishna personally, someone who attacks Krishna or is very inimical, by being personally killed by Krishna, that inimical soul is granted salvation. So like this, Lord Caitanya’s activities are being explained and how He is now serving, all the vaishnavas. Are there are any questions?

Question: Rukmini: Why don’t we worship Caitanya Mahaprabhu on the altar in His sanyas form?

Guru maharaj: The devotees don’t like to see the Lord Gaurasundar performing austerities. Sanyas is an ashram people practice as an austerity, and not allowed to do many things as a sanyasi. So devotees know that Lord Caitanya doesn’t need to do any purification. Rather just by remembering His name, one is purified. So that is why they prefer to worship the Lord as a grihastha.