20190211 Ṣoḍaśopacāra Worship of the Lord [Part – 2]

mūkhaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī gurum dina tarinam
paramānanda mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya īśvaram
hari oṁ tat sat

Introduction: So today is the 11th of February, Monday. Yesterday was Vasanta-Pañcamī and the appearance day of Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, Sarasvatī-Puja and many other great souls appeared and disappeared on that day. So today I had my physical therapy in the morning and voice therapy. If anyone finds it difficult to understand the words what I say, please give those words. Those who are physically here, can give the words to Ekarāṇī devī dasī. Those who are on internet and have smart phone can send their words under the comments of the live page. So we are blessed today by the presence of His Holiness Rādhānātha Swami and he has an early morning flight, so he left. Otherwise, we would have loved to have had him on this class. I went for cycling, because for two days I hadn’t been cycling. So class is a bit late. I had to do at least 450 cycles.

Ṣoḍaśopacāra Worship of the Lord [Part – 2]

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 5.50

(Guru maharaj said: Oh boy! Haribol! Caitanya-carita Mahā-kāvya, the great poetry)

prāpyāvisaram amuṣya veśma-madhye
tejobhir bahir api sandhibhir vyabhedi
tat-kāle jana-nicayasya harṣa-rāśiḥ
sāntāntaḥ pulaka-bharair bahir babhūva

anantara yakhana gṛhābhyantare mahāprabhura teja samūha avasara prāpta nā haiyā sandhi sakalera dbārā bahirbhāge nirgata haite lāgila, takhana jana samūhera antarbartti harṣarāśi yena pulaka bhare bahirbhāge prakāśa pāite lāgila.

Jayapatākā Swami: When there was not space in the room, sufficient space to hold more people, the effulgence of the Lord somehow came through the spaces in the walls became visible to the people outside. The people inside were so happy, so joyful that somehow their joy radiated from inside the room! Just like a devotee feeling great joy in serving the Lord in pure, ecstatic love. It is shown in his outside body by the hairs standing on end. Similarly, the room was radiating this ecstasy outside. Haribol!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.44

viṣṇu-khaṭṭā pātilena upaskāra kari’
vasilena prabhu nija khaṭṭāra upari

Jayapatākā Swami: The devotees cleaned Viṣṇu’s throne and the Lord Vishwambhar sat down on His own throne.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.45

chatra dharilena śire nityānanda rāya
kona bhāgyavanta rahi’ cāmara ḍhulāya

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityananda Rāya, held an umbrella over the head of the Lord. Some fortunate devotee fanned the Lord with a cāmara. Cāmara is a fan made from the yak tail from the Himalayas.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.46

pūjāra sāmagrī lai’ sarva-bhakta-gaṇa
pūjite lāgilā nija prabhura caraṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: All the devotees, they took the articles for pūjā worship to the Lord, and they began to worship their own Lord at His lotus feet.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.47

pādya, arghya, ācamanī, gandha, puṣpa, dhūpa
pradīpa, naivedya, vastra, yathā anurūpa

Jayapatākā Swami: They offered various articles of worship and various ceremonies. These have names in Sanskrit and I will try to give the translation by a brief description of the ceremony.

pādya – this is offering water at the lotus feet of the Lord and washing His lotus feet.

arghya – this is water and aus items to the hand of the Lord.

ācamanī – This is water for washing the mouth

gandha – this is sandalwood paste

puṣpa – this is flowers offered to the Lord

dhūpa – this is incense offered to the Lord

pradīpa – these are lamps offered to the Lord, there are single lamp of camphor or multiple lamps either five, seven or different lamps.

naivedya – these are foodstuffs offered to the Lord.

vastra – pure cloth offered to the Lord.

So everything was offered in this order.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.48

yajña-sūtra yathā-śakti vastra-alaṅkāra
pūjilena kariyāṣoḍaśa upacāra

Jayapatākā Swami: According to their capacity, they offered brāhmaṇa thread, cloth and ornaments and they worshipped the Lord with the 16 ingredients mentioned in the Vedas. According to Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 11.46.49, the 16 ingredients of ṣoḍaśa upacāra pūjā are mentioned.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.49

candane kariyā lipta tulasī-mañjarī
punaḥ punaḥ dena sabe caraṇa-upari

Jayapatākā Swami: So the devotees dipped tulasī mañjarī or flowers into sandalwood paste and then offered again and again, repeatedly at the lotus feet of the Lord. Tulasī mañjarī is only offered to Viṣṇu’s lotus feet. It was offered to Lord Caitanya because He had revealed to the devotees that He was actually Lord Viṣṇu. He was Kṛṣṇa, the original Viṣṇu, come as a devotee. So at this time, He revealed His actual identity to Lord Advaita. It was one of the rare occasions. Usually the Lord kept Himself secret.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.50

daśākṣara gopāla-mantrera vidhi-mate
pūjā-kari’ sabe stava lāgilā paḍite

Jayapatākā Swami: The devotees worshipped the Lord following all the rules and regulations, by chanting the ten syllable Gopāla-mantra. After offering this Gopāla-mantra to the Lord, they all began to offer different prayers and mantras to the Lord. The Gopāla-mantra is described in the Gautamīya-tantra and in the Nārada-pañcarātra.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.51

advaitādi kari’ yata pārṣada-pradhāna
paḍilā caraṇe kari’ daṇḍa-paraṇāma

Jayapatākā Swami: All the principle associates of the Lord, headed by Advaita Gosañi, fell down and offered their prostrate obeisances at the lotus feet of the Lord.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.52

prema-nadī vahe, sarva-gaṇera nayane
stuti kare sabe, prabhu amāyāya śune

Jayapatākā Swami: Rivers of love flowed as tears from the eyes of the devotees. As the devotees offered their prayers to the Lord, the Lord listened with rapt attention, the following prayers.

Since the Lord is transcendental to everything, He is not subject to the same defects that the conditioned souls have, and He listened without duplicity, with total sincerity and attention to the prayers of the devotees. He was showing His transcendental position as the avatar of Nārāyaṇa.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 5.51

sarve tya-samayam avāpya harṣa-magnā
gaurāṅgaḥ parivividus trilokanātham
śrī-vaṁśī-dhvanim atha śuśrubuś ca sarve
ramyaṁ tan-mukha-kamalodgataṁ cirāya

tadanantara janasakala harṣe nimagna haiyā gaurāṅgadebake trilokanātha baliyā abagata haila ebaṁ kakhana mahāprabhura mukha kamalotpanna sumadhura baṁśīraba ai sakala mānabagaṇa śrabaṇa karite lāgila.

Jayapatākā Swami: All the devotees present became very joyful and absorbed in bliss, they understood that Gaurāṅgadeva was the Lord of the three worlds, and having this realization, they also heard coming from the mouth of Śrī Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, a special very sweet and blissful sound of the flute, and all the people could hear this emanating from His lotus mouth! Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 5.52

tat tāpe sukham atulaṁ samasta-lokair
āsede pulaka-kulair athoñcad-aṅgam
sambheje nayana-jalaiḥ sa romaharṣaḥ
śrī-gaure jayati tathā-bidhe tadānīm

tāhāte ai sakala vyaktira abhula harṣodagama haoyāte aṅga pulake paripūrṇa haila evaṁ tatkālīna sajala nayane atiśaya harṣita haiyā śrī-gaurāṅgera prati jaya-dhvani vidhāna karite lāgila.

Jayapatākā Swami: At that time, all the devotees present felt unparalleled happiness! and their bodies had their hairs standing on end and at that time, their eyes were filled with loving tears!! It felt such unparalleled bliss. They offered Śrī Gaurāṅga special jaya-dhvani Saying Haribol! Jaya-dhvani and the ladies were chanting ulu-dhvani! All directed to Gauracandra!! Jaya Gauracandra! Jaya Gauracandra! Jaya Gauracandra! Jaya Gauracandra!

Thus ends the chapter entitled, “16 articles of worship of the Lord” under the section of the 21-hour ecstasy.

So if you can get the questions, I will just be back!

Question: Dear Guru Mahārāja, what pleases you the most? – Guṇagrāhi Gaurāṅga dāsa

Jayapatākā Swami: It depends. If devotees do service up to their best capacity, that is very pleasing to me. Hanumān was throwing mountain tops in the water, and a squirrel, he was throwing only small pebbles. Hanumān told the squirrel, move aside, but Lord Rāma said no, he is serving up to his capacity. So, whatever your capacity, you serve up to capacity or more, I will be very happy. Of course we would like to see the message of Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇa spread. We would like to see the conditioned souls liberated from this material bondage and they are engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Haribol!

Question: Daṇḍavat praṇāms Guru Mahārāja! Can you tell us what are the main offences to the home deities that gṛhasthas must avoid? How to rise to the platform of offenseless worship? - Your servant, Lalītāṅgī Rādhā devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: Lalitāṅgī Rādhā devī dāsī, read the Nectar of Devotion. There are 64 sevā aparādhās to avoid, and for me to explain all the 64, I think would be too late! Well, whatever is applicable to the temple Deities, the home deity is the practice Deity, so you try to avoid all the things that are mentioned for the main deities. Like it says, don’t sit with your feet out to the Deities. So how we can say we could do that for the home Deity but not temple Deity? So you know some of the things may not be applicable. but off hand I cannot say what are not applicable.

Question: Dear most Guru Mahārāja! Gaurāṅga is non-different from Kṛṣṇa and if we feel more attached to Gaurāṅga Can our constitutional position of a jīva be preaching in Gauranga’s service?

Jayapatākā Swami: Those who are Gaurāṅga’s devotee, they simultaneously get a position in kṛṣṇa-līlā and gaurāṅga-līlā. Bonus! So in gaurāṅga-līlā some of the gopīs or devotees with female bodies may have male bodies in gaurāṅga-līlā, maybe. Those who have male bodies in gaurāṅga-līlā may have female bodies in kṛṣṇa-līlā. Like Satyabhāmā in kṛṣṇa-līlā is Jagadānanda Paṇḍita in gaurāṅga-līlā. And Viśākhā is Rāmānanda Rāya and Lalitā is Svarūpa Dāmodara. Of course, Rādhārāṇī is Gadādhara. But Nārada Muni is Śrīvāsa. So he is male in both.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: we would like to understand if a person who worked for Indian Army and now working as a security head in a mall, is he eligible for initiation? During the initiation interview this time, he was told to quit his job.

Jayapatākā Swami: Why?

Question: Is it mandatory? Vaiṣṇavānanda Nitāi dāsa from Bengaluru.

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t understand why some devotee was being told to quit his job.  Some devotee may be cooking meat in a restaurant. So that is not allowed to take initiation, if you are dealing with meat. Some people they are selling fish, there is a lot of karma in selling fish. They may not eat the fish but they sell it. So those kinds of jobs are better to change. But being a guard, I don’t see why you have to change. Is he guarding the meat? Even then I don’t think that is one of these six karmas mentioned by Manu, storing the animal, transporting the animal, killing the animal, cooking the animal, eating the meat, so

Devotee says because he is guarding in a mall where there are restaurants which sell liquor and other meat eating restaurants. After initiation he quit his job because he was told to quit.

Jayapatākā Swami: I do not think that it is required. The guard’s job is basically to keep away thieves. They don’t deal with the liquor or meat as such. I had someone in a shoe factory, there he was the accountant. They don’t deal with the leather, they just show the income and expense. So for that, how strict you want to become if not directly dealing with meat or leather, but he is accounting. So anyone working as a Chartered Accountant he has a job that he may have to do some job for a corporation and the corporation, one of the things they do is maybe breaking the regulative principles. This world is as Prabhupāda said, utility is the principle It is not a perfect world. I take it literally what the codes of Manu say, how to distinguish who gets the karma for the killing of the cow. I was working in a rest. My job was to sweep the floor and clean the tables. My father and grandfather were multi-millionaires. But they, the devotees, said they needed some money for paying for Prabhupad’s flat rent. So all the brahmacārīs and bhaktas had to go out and do a job. So this is the job I got. I was working at A&W Root beer restaurant, which was serving meat as one of its items. So some devotees asked Prabhupāda that he is working in a meat restaurant. Prabhupāda asked what does he do? They said he cleans up. So he read thru the six karmas – the last karma is one who eats the meat. So he said cleaning up is not part of it. Ha!  So I held the job. Ha!a But Janmāṣṭamī came and I asked for leave for and the manager said no. I said it is a very important day for us. He said, no. I left any way and went to Janmāṣṭamī! and I was fired! That was a blessing in disguise. Then I worked in a printing press. I worked for two weeks and the guy promised he will pay me. After two weeks I asked him where is my money? He laughed. He said I am not going to pay you. Thank you for the work! So then I went to a printing place looking for a job and the guy asked you know printing? I said sure. How long do you know? So I had to tell a fib. I had to tell a lie. I said six months. In two weeks what I learnt, I could run the machine and so I got the job! So I got three times more salary as a printer.  Now our devotees don’t have to do this. They worship deities, they sell books and they go out and propagate. So now we get donations and we maintain the devotees. But I know what it is like working outside. That is why I appreciate the congregation so much, they are working and they are also practicing Krishna consciousness. HARIBOL!

Today I got a gift from Madana Mohinī and of course, the details you can read on my Facebook page. I thank Madana Mohinī for this kind gift. But I think that she really deserves it. Any way. (Guru mahārāja showed a trophy cup).