20190212 Prayers by Devotees

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: Today is the auspicious appearance day of Advaita Prabhu, Advaita Saptamī. By the mercy of Advaita Ācārya and Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have the birthplace temple of Advaita Gosvāmī. It is in the north-east of Bangladesh. We can see Meghalaya, India from that place, there is a holy river there, where Advaita Gosvāmī, He called all the holy rivers on a particular tithi. So tens of thousands of devotees come on that tithi and bathe in that river. I went there by helicopter. That is another story. But we installed the Deity of Advaita Gosvāmī and we have a temple and a Nāṭ-mandir there. So like this we have several important places in Bangladesh. The birthplace of Rūpa and Sanātana is worshipped by someone else, but we are 3 km from there where Rūpa and Sanātana grew up. We call that the Rūpa-Sanātana smṛti-tīrtha. We also have Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, the third branch of Lord Caitanya’s tree, we have his birthplace. We have Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura’s birthplace, and we have also recently regained Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura’s place, and some other places as well. The birthplace of Śacīmātā, we have a temple nearby. So like that so many temples in Bangladesh. We are fortunate to get the birthplaces and līlā places of these great associates of Lord Caitanya.

Today, I had my physical therapy in the morning and now I am on a marathon to read the GBC proposals and comment on the ones that I want. The 14^th of February is the deadline. So we have two more days. Considering that, this day is almost over.

So now we will start reading Lord Caitanya’s next chapter, Prayers by the devotees.

Prayers by Devotees

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.52-53

prema-nadī vahe, sarva-gaṇera nayane
stuti kare sabe, prabhu amāyāya śune
“jaya jaya jaya sarva-jagatera nātha
tapta jagatere kara śubha dṛṣṭipāta

Jayapatākā Swami: Glories, glories, glories! To the Lord of all the universes! Please give Your auspicious glance over the conditioned souls who are resident in these universes, who are afflicted by the three-fold material miseries. Haribol!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.54

jaya ādi-hetu, jaya janaka sabāra
jaya jaya saṅkīrtanārambha avatāra

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to the original cause of everything! All glories to everyone’s Father! All glories, all glories to the incarnation who has come to start the saṅkīrtana-yajña, to inaugurate the saṅkīrtana movement! We see, the process of saṅkīrtana is mentioned in various scriptures, but people are inclined to more solitary japa and meditations. To award the highest benediction in this Kali-yuga, Sri Gaurasundara revealed the necessity of saṅkīrtana sacrifice, the congregational, loud chanting of the holy names! Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.55

jaya jaya veda-dharma sādhu-jana-trāṇa
jaya jaya ābrahma-stambera mūla-prāṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories, all glories to the protector of the Vedic dharma and principles. All glories to the protector and deliverer of the saintly persons! All glories, all glories to one who has given life to everyone from Brahmā down to the nonmoving living entities. Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā that He delivers the saintly persons and He chastises or annihilates the atheists, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁvināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. So, every yuga, the Lord comes and inaugurates the particular sacrifice for that yuga and the Vedic sacrifice recommended for this Kali-yuga is chanting the holy names of the Lord. So non-devotees, they follow various godless religious principles, things which are contrary to Vedic principles. So they are praying that let Śrī Gaurasundara, Gaurahari, let Him be profusely glorified! He is the care-giver, the life-giver for all the living entities, from Brahmā down to the inanimate living entities like plants and jewels.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.56

jaya jaya patita-pāvana guṇa-sindhu
jaya jaya parama śaraṇa dīna-bandhu

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories, all glories to the deliverer of the fallen souls who is a reservoir of transcendental qualities! An ocean of transcendental qualities! All glories, all glories to the Supreme shelter of the poor, and who is the friend of the poor!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.57

jaya jaya kṣīra-sindhu-madhye gopavāsī
jaya jaya bhakta-hetu prakaṭa vilāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories, all glories to the cowherd boy who lives in the middle of the milk ocean! All glories all glories to Him who manifests His pastimes for the sake of His devotees, Vrajendra-nandana, He is the original source of everything. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it says He is the cause of all causes, and He is without any cause Himself. He is the original person, and He is also present in the heart of every living entity as the Paramātmā or Supersoul. He shows His pastimes as a cowherd boy in Vṛndāvana, and He has certainly appeared as Gaurahari. So with a desire to manifest His own service, He manifested His Gaura pastimes, to satisfy the devotees. In the Bengali it says gopavāsī which could be He who resides in secret, guptavāsī.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.58

jaya jaya acintya-agamya-ādi-tattva
jaya jaya parama komala śuddha-sattva

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories all glories to the Lord, the Supreme Lord, who is inconceivable, unfathomable and the original truth! All glories all glories to the supremely gentle form of pure goodness, śuddha-sattva! Here in Chennai we have a restaurant called śuddha-sattva. Lord Caitanya is the most gentle form of śuddha-sattva. Anything you can order in Chennai on Zomato and Swiggy, you can order preparations from śuddha-sattva and they will deliver it to your house!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.59

jaya jaya vipra-kula-pāvana-bhuṣaṇa
jaya veda-dharma-ādi sabāra jīvana

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories all glories, to the deliverer and the ornament of the brāhmaṇa community!  All glories all glories to the Supreme Lord who is the deliverer of the brāhmaṇa community and the deliverer and ornament of the brāhmaṇa community! All glories to the original giver of the Vedic principles and the life of all the living entities! So Gaurahari is the personification of the Vedic religious principles. The life and soul of all living entities and the most pure ornament and deliverer of the brāhmaṇa community.  Devotees are offering all these prayers to Lord Caitanya.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.60

jaya jaya ajāmila-patita-pāvana
jaya jaya pūtanā-duṣkṛti-vimocana

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories all glories to the deliverer of the fallen Ajāmila. All glories all glories to the Lord who has delivered Pūtanā, who is the performer of sinful deeds! He delivered her from all her sins, and gave her liberation as one of His mothers, in the spiritual world.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 9.61

jaya jaya adoṣa-daraśi ramākānta”
ei-mata stuti kare sakala mahānta

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories all glories, who is the beloved Lord of Lakṣmī devī who does not see the faults of others. In this way the great souls, the great devotees offered their prayers to the Lord.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, “Prayers by devotees” under the second 21-hour ecstasy.

Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Nitāi Gaurāṅga! Nitāi Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, we read earlier how Lord Caitanya said to Advaita that because of You, I have come to this world and brought My associates with Me. So today Lord Advaita appeared and therefore we observed half day fast, today is a sacred day. Advaita is non-different from Mahā-Viṣṇu and Sadaśīva. So, He came down and He brought the Lord, Caitanya. So, we are very grateful to Him. Every year we observe the Govinda Dvādasī, the day He celebrates the disappearance of Mādhavendra Purī. We go to Śāntipur and distribute prasāda to about 30-40 thousand people. There Lord Caitanya said whoever takes prasāda at this place on this tithi, they get pure devotion for Govinda! Some years ago, they asked me if ISKCON would do this pūjā, so we took it as a special mercy, and we have been doing it ever since. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he had written many letters to this temple of Advaita. If he didn’t get a place in Māyāpur, he was thinking about making his world headquarters in Śāntipur. So he had discussed that with Śānti Sakhā Goswami and I saw the letters that he sent to him. This place has a temple where the three Prabhus had taken prasāda Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda, Advaita. Lord Caitanya said that I am not a sannyāsī, give Me a little prasāda, little bit! and Lord Nityānanda said, “I am hungry, I AM HUNGRY! I want you feed Me properly. I have been fasting for several days now! I want good prasāda.” So there is a contrast - Lord Caitanya says give me little bit and Lord Nityānanda says give me a lot! At one-point Nityānanda threw some rice on Advaita and Advaita started jumping in joy ha! Although he was a very strict brāhmaṇa and was having some jhuṭā, some contaminated prasāda thrown on Him, He took it as a blessing because it was the prasāda of Lord Nityānanda prabhu, so he was dancing!! Then He said to Lord Nityānanda, because of You my principles of brāhmaṇa is spoiled! Like this they were having nice pastimes with each other. We cannot understand what They are doing, but They were enjoying this transcendental relationship. So today is the day that Śrī Advaita appeared in this world. All glories to Śrī Advaita! Are there any questions? If there were any words that you had difficulty in understanding what I said, then please send me them up on the comments of this live Facebook class or give them to Ekarāṇī devī dāsī here, she is lifting her beautiful hand up!

Question: Dear most Guru Mahārāja, when bhakti-yoga is the ultimate and topmost process, why is it kept rare/confidential? And why Lord Gauranga is gupta-avatāra if He is known in all the universes? Then all conditioned souls can easily be delivered but why He is rare? – Śānta Gopī devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Kṛṣṇa goes to every universe. Sometimes after Kṛṣṇa Lord Caitanya comes. So I would assume that He visits every universe, since Kṛṣṇa does. But He doesn’t visit every day of Brahmā. Sometimes. You see, most people they pray to God to give them material benediction. Some people, they want liberation, salvation. Those who want it, some get it. But that is rare! Because wanting is not enough, you have to work for it also. So there are different kinds of salvation, and the impersonal salvation is achieved or desired by most, and those that want to achieve the Lord’s service, they are more rare, and those who actually achieve it are still more rare! And those who get the service of Kṛṣṇa, the supreme form of the Personality of Godhead, is most rare! So part of the fault is ourselves. We are not glorifying Kṛṣṇa enough, people do not know that He is the summum bonum, He is the original cause, and therefore they want other things. So we try to tell people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And we should take up Lord Caitanya’s mission, everyone we meet we should tell them about the teachings of Kṛṣṇa. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] whomsoever you meet you should tell them about the principles taught by Lord Kṛṣṇa and by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, one can achieve Kṛṣṇa’s mercy very easily. How we get the mercy, that is unfathomable. Prabhupāda has made our good fortune for us. Haribol! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Last question.

Question: Only Pūtanā was sent to the spiritual world, what about other demons killed by Kṛṣṇa? – Hemāṅgī Viśāka devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: Hemāṅgī Viśākhā devī dāsī, most demons killed by Kṛṣṇa go to the impersonal Brahman, which is also for them a blessing. Because Pūtanā gave her breast to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and He sucked, her breast, and sucked out her life air, because she wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa, she had put poison on her breast. And also, she thought that if I had a baby I would like one like this, too bad I have to kill Him! So Kṛṣṇa reciprocated with her and killed her, but also because He sucked her breast milk like a mother, like a baby sucks mothers breast, and because she desired for a baby like this, so He elevate her to the spiritual world as one of His mothers. So not every demon is so fortunate. She desired it and she acted like a mother.

Question: Dearest Guru Mahārāja, what should be our prayer to Sri Advaita Ācārya be on this auspicious day of His appearance?

Jayapatākā Swami: Good question. One is of course, if we have made any conscious or unconscious offence, that we can be forgiven. Just as He brought Lord Caitanya into this world, can He bring us to the service of the Lord, would he be so kind to bring us to Lord Caitanya’s service?!