20200102 Evening Darśana

The following is an evening darśana by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 2, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: After Śrīla Prabhupāda visited Caracas, Venezuela and Mexico, he came to Atlanta, Georgia, and at that time I was in India. But I heard many times from different devotees who were here. At that time Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this place would be New Pānihāṭi-dhāma. Just as we have in America, New York, New Hampshire, similarly Śrīla Prabhupāda had a New Vṛndāvana and New Pānihāṭi, New Dvārakā, New Jagannātha Purī, etc. But here, nobody knew what New Pānihāṭi, what Pānihāṭi meant. At that time, even the Caitanya-caritāmṛta was not available. But I had the good fortune to visit Pānihāṭi at least on two occasions with His Divine Grace and other times I have also visited there. So I informed them that how this was one of the places that Lord Caitanya said He is always present in Pānihāṭi-dhāma! How there, Lord Nityānanda had the ciḍā-dadhi festival. So in the month of June, they have the ciḍā-dadhi festival here. But also, there are other pastimes that happened there.

Pānihāṭi was the first place actually in Bengal that Lord Nityānanda brought His saṅkīrtana party to, from Jagannātha Purī. And there Rāghava Paṇḍita and his sister Damayantī-devī, they saw Lord Nityānanda and they were in great bliss and they said, “How many mūrtis are you, how many people are you?” He said, “Oh, about 50.” They said, “Okay, take a bath in the Gaṅgā, we will cook a feast for You in one hour.” How many of you can cook a feast for 50 in one hour? I don’t see too many hands! But Rāghava Paṇḍita and Damayantī were expert cooks, and they could do such miracles. How many can understand what I am saying? How many need a repetition? So then Lord Nityānanda came back after taking His bath and they had some prasāda and then they took a little rest and they gathered again. There was a mālatī tree, a special creeper. Lord Nityānanda He sat down and watched His devotees doing kīrtana. Then He rose up and He started doing kīrtana and dancing. Lord Caitanya said that five things here will always be present. One of those things is the dancing of Lord Nityānanda. Apparently, the dancing of Lord Nityānanda is out of this world! Haribol! And so, even though Lord Caitanya was physically at that moment somewhere in South India, immediately He became present to watch, to witness the dancing of Lord Nityānanda. And none of the people there could see Him. But Lord Nityānanda could, and He told them that Lord Caitanya is here. He said, “You cannot see Him but you can smell Him, He is wearing a special South Indian scented,” jasmine or something, flower garland and you can smell it! Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh! They were in ecstasy smelling the garland of Lord Caitanya! And they danced more and the more and more they smelt they were ah! Ah! Ah! Gauuuurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! How many of you would like to smell the garland of Lord Caitanya? So this kind of pastime happened in Pānihāṭi-dhāma.

And to hear about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s visit, he sang the song parama karuṇā pahu dui jana, here, before the Deities. He told the Americans, that you are very unfortunate because you are living in a remote part of the world, probably from the holy dhāma. Americans think they are the center of the world, a superpower, he was telling that you are far away from the holy dhāma! So it was an interesting visit. Some devotees told me that when Śrīla Prabhupāda was here, devotees felt such ecstasy that they were dancing up in the air, and some people would jump like 3 or 4 feet in the air! So you should hear them tell the pastimes that Śrīla Prabhupāda had in New Pānihāṭi-dhāma. Very interesting!

So we would like to welcome all the devotees from outside to this New Pānihāṭi-dhāma. Somehow, I just visited a tour of South America. I went to Peru, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia. So and I came back here. Now it is the year 2020, so let me wish you all a happy Christābda 2020 and may you have a Kṛṣṇa conscious and a very spiritual New Year, not only for this year, but all the years to come! So I was fortunate here to be, I think a GBC for about 20-22 years. And so you must have a lot of experience of my harsh nature!! Then, other GBCs took over. I have some places in South America, but mostly I am in the Middle East and India – eastern and southern India and also Bangladesh. Bāṅglā jāne keo? Do anyone of you know Bengali? Thoḍā thoḍā hindī jantā hūn (I know a little Hindi). Jyādā nahī, kuch kuch – (Not much, but little, little). Mainly Bengali and I picked up Spanish being in South America. So we had a very nice time, there it is summer now, in the heat. Here now in the cold! And this is a warm place compared to Washington and Toronto and so on.

So we had a very nice time — there it is summer now, in the heat. Here it is cold! And this is still warmer compared to Washington or Toronto! So I had some health issues. I wasn’t able to travel. I had a liver and a kidney transplant, so they said I shouldn’t travel for one year far from India. Now the year is over, and I ventured here to America and to South America! It is very nice to see so many devotees here from Minnesota, from different places. I hear that more are coming tomorrow. So from New Jersey, Washington DC. While I am here, I hope to receive some reports from you, how you are doing service in devotional service. I try to give class every day even in India, I give in the evening, but probably here it comes in the morning. So people like Nandakumāra Kṛṣṇa dāsa and other viewers are top viewers, top fans in Facebook. I give a live class, maybe in the morning it is not convenient for you, you can watch it any time during the day. 

And I have been trying to make a book on Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, combining the different books of caitanya-līlā, not only Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but the Caitanya-bhāgavata, Caitanya-maṅgala, the Prema-vivarta and so many other books, the kaḍacā of Murāri Gupta. So we are trying to combine all these books, so that devotees will be able to hear more complete, although nothing is ever complete with the Lord, even Anantadeva, He has a thousand heads but He cannot reach the end of the glories of the Lord. But to make more of the pastimes available to devotees, we are trying to combine all these books. Like we have Kṛṣṇa Book, we will have Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book. 

So now we are up to, we finished Lord Caitanya’s childhood and His gṛhastha life, He started the saṅkīrtana movement, He took initiation from Īśvara Purī Mahārāja, and He turned back to Navadvīpa and He started the saṅkīrtana movement. So He then revealed to Advaita Gosāi that the person He was praying for, the person that He wanted to take appearance, because Advaita Gosāi, although He is an avatāra of Mahā-Viṣṇu and Sadāśiva, He was not able to give pure love to everyone of Kṛṣṇa. He is able to give liberation, but love — and people in Kali-yuga, they are far away from loving Kṛṣṇa. So He wanted Kṛṣṇa Himself to come. 

But Kṛṣṇa says in the Age of Kali, He does not come as Bhagavān. He comes as a devotee of the Lord, in some disguise. Like Lord Buddha, He is actually Kṛṣṇa but He did not preach like Kṛṣṇa, He did not preach about God. But He taught the atheists to worship Him. So how smart He is! They would all worship Lord Buddha, like we worship Kṛṣṇa! But they don’t believe in God! But He is God! And they worship Him! That is the wonderful thing! 

So Lord Caitanya, He is actually Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa combined. His external reason for coming is to establish the saṅkīrtana movement. Golokera prema-dhana harināma-saṅkīrtana. But His internal reason is that He wanted to experience what was the bliss that devotees experience, worshipping Him. And the only way He could do that was to accept the mood of Rādhārāṇī and become a devotee. So He was acting as a devotee of Himself. On a few occasions, He revealed that actually He was Kṛṣṇa, to a very few people. But generally, if anyone would tell Him, “You are Kṛṣṇa,” He would cover His ears, “No, no, no!” He would not accept. Because He was playing as His devotee. 

There are some very, very confidential reasons why He came. But you cannot hear it. So I won’t. So we are happy to present these different pastimes of the Lord. Right now He is in the saṅkīrtana pastimes. Later He will do some of His confidential pastimes in Jagannātha Purī. So are there any questions you have? Yes. Siddha Hari dāsa, Vedic chronology, the researcher.

Question: What is the internal reason for Lord Caitanya to come?

Jayapatākā Swami: I told the external and internal.

Question: Siddha Hari dāsa, can you explain how to understand the three confidential reasons?

Jayapatākā Swami: How to understand? Mercy. First reason is very easy. He came to spread the saṅkīrtana. The second reason is more confidential, His internal reason. He wanted to research what it is like to be a devotee. I mean, you have read this book Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Every man would want to know what makes the woman think! Anyway, Kṛṣṇa wanted to experience what it would be like to be His devotee! I cheated answering him. He asked for three reasons, I gave only two! Ha! Any other question?

Question: What is the third one!

Jayapatākā Swami: Who asked? All the way from Canada! Come here I will tell you! Others don’t want to hear from me! Do others want to hear? Are you sure? Very confidential! [Haribol!] You may not understand it. You see, in the material world, the Kāma-sūtra and other experts, they say the man and the woman enjoy equally. But in the spiritual world, Rādhārāṇī enjoys more, MUCH MORE THAN KṚṢṆA! So Kṛṣṇa wanted to find out why does She enjoy more than He? And that is the super confidential reason, I mean when anyone does a bit more than God, that is very esoteric. So Rādhārāṇī in Her version of Kṛṣṇa, She actually experiences more ecstasy than He does. So He wanted to research why is that? Why is that? So therefore, He revealed in the first chapter of the Madhya-līlā and the end of the Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, you find how Lord Caitanya He sometimes goes to extreme ecstasy in front of the, at midnight in front of the Jagannātha Purī temple, crying for Kṛṣṇa. He would be in the ecstasy of Rādhārāṇī, crying for Kṛṣṇa. Sometime, He ran into the ocean, thinking it was the Yamunā river. He performed some amazing pastimes. 

I have told this pastime when thousand years ago in Navadvīpa, Jayadeva Gosvāmī appeared, he was famous poet, he would sing every day, the Daśāvatāra-stotra to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva,

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam,
dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam,
keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa jaya jagadīśa hare!
jaya jagadīśa hare! jaya jagadīśa hare!

So he was writing a book which was a prayer about Kṛṣṇa, prayer about Jagannātha, called Gīta-govinda. We don’t read that much. We don’t have access, but Jayadeva was very – He was singing about Kṛṣṇa humbling Himself before Rādhārāṇī and he said, “How could I write like this? How can I say that the Supreme Personality of Godhead humbled Himself before Rādhārāṇī?” So he stopped there and he told his wife, I will go and take a bath in the Gaṅgā and then come back. Then I will eat my lunch. So he went out. After about 15 minutes, he came back, and he sat down at his table. Those days they didn’t use paper, they used palm leaves. He wrote something. He sat down and said I will take my lunch. The wife served him lunch, and she sat down. In those days the wife ate after the husband. So she was eating and he came and said, “You are eating?” She said, “You already came and you sat down, wrote and took your lunch and you left!” He said, “You are the most fortunate lady in the whole world! That was Kṛṣṇa Himself, He came in my form, and He wrote in the book, He wrote, He confirmed that He humbled Himself before Rādhārāṇī, then He sat down and with your hands you served Him prasāda! You are the most fortunate! You fed Kṛṣṇa Himself!” 

And I told this, there are many great Vaiṣṇavīs who have done miraculous things in caitanya-līlā and kṛṣṇa-līlā. Anyway, Jayadeva Gosvāmī he wrote the book Gīta-govinda, and there it is confirmed that Kṛṣṇa, He offered His apologies or humbled Himself before Rādhārāṇī! He was a naughty boy. Anyway, that is the third confidential reason. I don’t know if you understand, but anyway I told you! 

So thank you all very much! I will let you take rest.