20190808 Happiness During Vyāsa-pūjā Adhivāsa Kīrtana (Part 2)

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

Happiness During Vyāsa-pūjā Adhivāsa Kīrtana (Part 2)

So today we are continuing with the Caitanya Book on Lord Nityānanda’s Vyāsa-pūjā Adhivāsa Kīrtana.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.16

śrīvāsa vacane mahāprabhu o bhaktagaṇera prīti-

prīta hailā mahāprabhu śrīvāsera bole
‘hari hari’ dhvani kare vaiṣṇava-sakale

Jayapatākā Swami: Mahāprabhu Caitanya was greatly pleased to hear Śrīvāsa Thakur’s words. All the assembled Vaiṣṇavas chanted Hari Hari! Hari! Hari! Hari! Hari!

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.17

gaṇasaha mahāprabhura śrīvāsa gṛhe gamana

viśvambhara bale,—“śuna śrīpāda gosāi
śubha kara, sabe paṇḍitera ghara yāi”

Jayapatākā Swami: So Viśvambhara said, listen, Śrīpād Gosāñi, with Your blessings we will all go to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita’s house.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.18

ānandita nityānanda prabhura vacane
sei kṣaṇe ājñā lai’ karilā gamane

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda was very blissful to hear the Lord’s words. At that time, hearing the Lord’s instructions, they all immediately departed.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.19

sarva-gaṇe calilāṭhākura viśvambhara
rāma-kṛṣṇa veḍi’ yena gokula-kiṅkara

Jayapatākā Swami: All the associates went with Viśvambhara and Nityānanda, just like the associates in Gokula would surround Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.20

praviṣṭa hailā mātra śrīvāsa-mandire
baḍa kṛṣṇānanda haila sabāra śarīre

Jayapatākā Swami: As soon as they entered the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, they felt great ecstasy and devotion and ecstatic love for Lord Kṛṣṇa. Their body was filled with ecstatic symptoms, of love for Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.21

āptagaṇa vyatīta anyera praveśa-rodhāratha-ājñāẏa dbārarodha

kapāṭa paḍila tabe prabhura ājñāya
āpta-gaṇa vinā āra yāite nā pāya

Jayapatākā Swami: The main door was closed on the order of Lord Caitanya, so that except for the intimate associates, no one could enter into the house. So, all the functions of Lord Caitanya would start with kīrtana, so the door was closed so that those who were ineligible to participate in the kīrtana would not come, would not enter.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.22

vyāsa-pūjāya adhivāsa-kīrtanānanda-

kīrtana karite ājñā karilāṭhākura
uṭhila kīrtana-dhvani, bāhya gelā dūra

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya gave the order to start the kīrtana and as the sound of the kīrtana rose, everyone lost their external consciousness. So, prior to the Vyāsa-pūjā, only Lord Caitanya’s intimate associates were allowed to enter, and they all did kīrtana. So, as they loudly began to chant, they lost their external consciousness, external perception, and were absorbed in spiritual ecstasy.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.23

vyāsa-pūjā-adhivāsa-ullāsa-kīrtana
dui prabhu nāce, veḍi’ gāya bhakta-gaṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: So before the Vyāsa-pūjā, the ādhivāsa kīrtana was performed with great joy! The two Lords danced, and all the devotees were surrounding Them, they sang. So, anticipating the Vyāsa-pūjā ceremony, all the devotees were very jubilant. Śrī Gaura and Nityānanda were dancing in the kīrtana. The devotees surrounded the Lord’s and expressed their jubilation through their performance of kīrtana.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.24

cira divasera preme caitanya-nitāi
doṅhe doṅhā dhyāna kari’ nāce eka ṭhāñi

Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Caitanya and Nitāi are bound by spiritual love. They meditated on each other, as They danced together. In the spiritual world, everything is done on the level of love. In this material world, the tendency is to do things as a business deal, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. But in the spiritual world it is done with love. I want to scratch your back; you want to scratch mine - looks like the same thing but it is completely different consciousness. So Nitāi Gaura, They were bound together with love, and They madly danced in spiritual ecstasy. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, He meditates on His devotee and His devotee meditates on the Lord. So, the word, dance, is used and that doesn’t refer to materialistic thoughts of enjoying the material world, It’s filled with meditation on the spiritual ecstasies, spiritual appreciation and love for each other. It is devoid of gross materialistic thoughts. It is full of spiritual pleasure. So, there is a nice description, how we see some gross material object of pleasure and that the subtle image arrives, but the spiritual bliss, the happiness that enters in is devoid of these subtle and gross material sense pleasures. It is due to spiritual happiness and that is something that ascends from the spiritual world. And one of the ācaryas is saying, golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. The Love of Goloka Vṛndāvana has come down as the Harināma saṅkīrtana! Who wants spiritual bliss? Thank you!

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.25

huṅkāra karaye keha, keha vā garjana
keha mūrchā yāya, keha karaye krandana

Jayapatākā Swami: Someone roared loudly, someone cried out, someone fell unconscious to the ground, and someone else wept in spiritual bliss! You shouldn’t have this spiritual ecstasy while you are (inaudible), you have to control yourself. So, when spiritual consciousness awakens in the heart of a conditioned soul, the symptoms of ecstatic love, manifest in the body. He then loses his worldly conception of life, and manifests symptoms of spiritual ecstasy, variegated spiritual pleasure. So, Lord Caitanya in order to express this, He is the Lord of the 14-worlds, and He is beyond material conception. So, He danced with His associates, so that everyone could experience the transcendental bliss, spiritual pleasure, chanting the holy names. So to think that this material happiness is something like spiritual happiness, is totally unreasonable. The pastimes of Vrajendra Kumāra Kṛṣṇa, or the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, are all on the transcendental platform. It removes the darkness of ignorance from the consciousness of conditioned souls. So, when the conditioned souls are on the level of sādhana-bhakti, they cannot understand the glorious transcendental nature of the Lord’s pastimes.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.26

kampa, sveda, pulakāśru, ānanda-mūchā yata
īśvarera vikāra kahite jāni kata

Jayapatākā Swami: So unable to fully describe the Lord’s transcendental transformations of love such as, quivering, shivering, hairs standing on end, falling unconscious in spiritual bliss, it is beyond my ability to explain all the different symptoms.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.27

svānubhāvānande nāce prabhu dui-jana
kṣaṇe kolākuli kari’ karaye krandana

Jayapatākā Swami: So svānubhāva ānande, by Their own, in Their own ecstasy, the two danced. They sometimes embraced each other and cried in bliss!

Jayapatākā Swami: Each tried to touch and catch the lotus feet of the other. However, they both were so cleverly dancing that they avoided being caught! In the ordinary dealings if someone touches some other’s feet, the person whose feet are touched, becomes very proud, he thinks himself very great. But since such materialistic false ego is not found in transcendental dealings, the Vaiṣṇavas or Viṣṇu, they never hesitate to touch each other’s lotus feet. These transcendental activities of Vaiṣṇavas are simply not subject matters understandable by ordinary, proud persons.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.29

parama ānande doṅhe gaḍāgaḍi yāya
āpanā nā jāne doṅhe āpana līlāya

Jayapatākā Swami: (Does someone need repetition of what I say? Who needs repetition?) In transcendental supreme bliss, the two were rolling on the ground. They forgot themselves, and They were absorbed in their own pastimes.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.30

bāhya dūra haila, vasana nāhi rāya
dharaye vaiṣṇava-gaṇa, dharaṇa nā yāya

Jayapatākā Swami: Their external consciousness went far away, and Their cloth became scattered. Vaiṣṇavas tried to pacify Them, hold them, but They were unable to hold them.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.31

ye dharaye tribhuvana, ke dhariba tāre
mahā-matta dui prabhu kīrtane vihare

Jayapatākā Swami: Those that can hold the three worlds, who can hold Them?? When the two Lords became intoxicated in spiritual bliss, in the happiness of kīrtana, who can control Them?? So Gaura Nitāi are the sustainers of the whole world. How can a created living entity of this world, possibly hold the Lord?

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.32

‘bola, bola’ bali’ ḍāke śrī-gaurasundara
siñcita ānanda-jale sarva-kalevara

Jayapatākā Swami: When Lord Gaurasundara called out, chant, chant, His entire body became soaked with tears of ecstasy. Ānanda-jale sarva-kalevara. His entire body became soaked.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.33

cira-dine nityānanda pāi’ abhilāṣe
bāhya nāhi, ānanda-sāgara-mājhe bhāse

Jayapatākā Swami: After attaining the long-cherished moment to get the association of Lord Nityānanda, He did not have external consciousness. He forgot Himself. He was floating in the ocean of bliss. The three-fold miseries are present within the material world. In the kingdom of spiritual variegatedness, there is ever fresh, outburst of spiritual happiness.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.34

viśvambhara nṛtya kare ati manohara
nija śira lāge giyā caraṇa-upara

Jayapatākā Swami: Viśvambhara’s dancing was most charming and beautiful. Because His feet would also touch His own head sometimes.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.35

ṭalamala bhūmi nityānanda-pada-tale
bhūmi-kampa hena māne vaiṣṇava-sakale

Jayapatākā Swami: The earth trembled on the lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda. The devotees, the Vaiṣṇavas, thought that there was an earthquake.

Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 5.36

ei-mata ānande nācena dui nātha
se ullāsa kahibāre śakti āche kāta

Jayapatākā Swami: In this way, the two Lords danced in ecstasy. Who has the ability to describe the transcendental bliss of These two?

Thus ends the chapter, Happiness during Vyāsa-pūjā ādhivāsa kīrtana!

Haribol! Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: Ānandera sīmā nāi, ānandera sīmā nāi, ānandera sīmā nāi, nirānanda dūre jāy, nirānanda dūre jāy, nirānanda dūre jāy. No limit to the spiritual happiness. No limit to the spiritual bliss. And the unhappiness goes far away! So, we see that this ecstatic symptom was realized by Lord Gaura and Nitāi! Haribol!

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

Four minutes of questions. I have to go.

Question: In Tulasī prayers we sing that those who take her shelter, their desires are fulfilled. In the prayers we also ask her to make us followers of the gopīs in Vraja. So question first, what type of practical services can we do to please Tulasī Mahārāṇī and get her shelter?

Jayapatākā Swami: Tulasī Mahārāṇī, we can bow down, pay our prostrate obeisances, we can bow to her, we can perform ārati to her, we can chant kīrtana to her, we can chant japa to her and we can circumambulate her, what more do you want? You can offer her leaves and flowers to the lotus feet of the Lord. Next.

Question: By doing such services and getting her shelter, can one come eventually come to the stage of rāgānuga-bhakti, by her mercy? – Prema Gaurasundar dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Why not? Yes, you will come to rāgānuga-bhakti by her mercy.

Question: Why is kīrtana more important than śravaṇam? – Jagatpālikā Rādhārāṇī devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: Śravaṇam and kīrtana come together. We chant kīrtana and we hear the kīrtana. Kīrtana and śravaṇam, we hear someone else chant, we chant someone else hears, it comes together. If you chant, you don’t hear, that is not good. So, in the nine process of devotional service, first is śravaṇam, second is kīrtanam, you have to hear the chanting, and you have to chant and someone else hears, the two go together.

Alright? So thank you very much!