20200218 Śravaṇa Utsava

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on February 18th, 2020 in Sri Dhama Mayapur,India. The talk was given at the Sravana Utsava event.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Acintya can sit next to Sujitendriya in case he has any difficulty understanding me. Can you understand what I say in English, or do you need repetition?

Okay.

If I start to fade off or something, tell me!

So, I am supposed to speak on the saṅkīrtana movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

But I would like to speak, how Lord Caitanya and His associates did devotee care in the saṅkīrtana movement.

Just like in the song of the Nāmahaṭṭa: 

nadīyā-godrume nityānanda mahājana
patiyāche nām-haṭṭa jīvera kāraṇa

Lord Nityānanda, He gave the Nāmahaṭṭa to help the fallen souls.

The fallen jīvas, they have to suffer birth, death, old age, disease.

They are suffering so much!

So, Lord Nityānanda, He set a process of Nāmahaṭṭa or saṅkīrtana in order to help the jīvas to go back to Godhead.

And, just like Atula Kṛṣṇa Prabhu mentioned Jagāi Mādhāi, Mādhāi, hit Nityānanda Prabhu with a broken wine bottle.

And, Lord Nityānanda, He was bleeding!

But He said, “Just because you caused Me to bleed, does that mean I won’t give you love of Godhead?” So Jagāi he told Mādhāi, He is not an ordinary soul, you just hit Him and He is bleeding, but He is talking about love!!

So, Jagāi influenced Mādhāi to bow down.

And then, Lord Caitanya, He promised He would not use any weapon of violence.

But His long standing promise was that His devotees will not perish.

So He called His Sudarśana cakra.

But Lord Nityānanda said, “I beg You please! Give Me these two in charity!”

And Lord Caitanya said that, “If they promise not to do these misdeeds anymore, I will forgive them!” Jagāi Mādhāi lived by the side of the Ganges.

But they never bathed in the Ganges!

So Lord Caitanya said, they should bathe in the Ganges and come back and then they can be initiated.

Now, when Lord Caitanya was acting as Nimāi Paṇḍita, He knew all the śāstra, He could defeat anyone.

In fact, He could prove a person wrong, then prove Him right, then prove him wrong!

ABAAR!! (Again) But when the Digvijaya Keśava Kāśmīrī came to Navadvīpa and with great arrogance challenged that who are you?  Come on and debate, otherwise sign my jaya-patākā that you lost.

(Jayapatākā Swami asked Sujitendriya Prabhu: You speak English or Bengali? [laughter]).

So it says that Lord Caitanya actually thought that if I defeat him publicly, he will suffer embarrassment, people will loot his belongings!

But he is too proud, I need to humble him.

So how Lord Caitanya as Nimāi Paṇḍita, He was thinking about Keśava Kāśmīrī.

He was manifesting devotee care! He wanted to humble him, at the same time, He didn’t want to destroy him.

He wanted to help him. So He defeated him in a very, what to say, very gentlemanly manner!

And He memorized all the verses that were composed by Keśava Kāśmīrī and He asked him what are the good and bad points of your poetry?

He asked Keśava Kāśmīrī in all your verses, say what is the good and bad quality?

Keśava Kāśmīrī said, my poetry has no faults! So Lord Caitanya gave verbatim, the verse 57!

Keśava Kāśmīrī was bewildered, how did you memorize all the verses?

He said, Kṛṣṇa has blessed you with a good learning, so I have been blessed with a good memory!

Then Lord Caitanya said what were the good and bad aspects of the poetry.

Lord Caitanya described the verse , I remember one defect was that he said, bhavānī-bhartuḥ – the husband of the wife of Lord Śiva.

So, it is confusing! Does Durgā have two husbands?

Bhavānī already means the wife of Bhava, or Śiva.

So saying bhavānī-bhartuḥ, her husband.

So, like that, He pointed out some defects.

So Keśava Kāśmīrī, he was speechless, his mind went blank!

And he was a great devotee of Sarasvatī.

And so he prayed to Sarasvatī, why did you allow me to be defeated by this youngster?

She said, “You see, He is My Husband!

So I cannot help you against Him!” So the next day, Keśava Kāśmīrī went to the house of Nimāi Paṇḍita.

And he bowed down and said, “Please reveal to me, who You are?” So He revealed His actual identity as Kṛṣṇa!

So Keśava Kāśmīrī, he gave up being a Digvijaya and debater, and became an ācārya in the Nimbārka sampradāya.

There are four bona fide sampradāyas – Brahmā, Rudra, Lakṣmī and four Kumāras.

So, Nimbārka is a guru in the four Kumāras sampradāya.

That reminds me that Jagāi Mādhāi, they went also to Lord Caitanya’s house, the next day.

And Lord Caitanya brought both of them to the Ganges side.

He said, “Put a tulasī in My hand, give Me all your sins, ALL YOUR SINS!” “My Lord, as many hairs as I have on my head, I have done more sins! So I feel very embarrassed to give all my sins to You!” So what devotee care, Bhakata-vatsala, Lord Śrī Caitanyadeva was giving!!

“Put the tulasī in My hand! I WILL TAKE ALL YOUR SINS!” Then they put tulasī in His hand.

For a minute, Gaurāṅga became Śyāmāṅga! One second! Then, Jagāi Mādhāi, all their bad karma, vikarma, was destroyed by Lord Caitanya.

They saw this in the Patālaloka, there was a big commotion amongst all the accountants.

Yamarāja’s principle bookkeepers were talking amongst themselves.

Yamarāja came out and saw the commotion.

Lord Gaurāṅga has wiped out the karma of Jagāi and Mādhāi!

“How much bad karma did they have?” If you were to put it down in writing, it would take go-downs after go-downs! We had a special architect design for them a custom-made hell!

Hearing this Yamarāja, he fainted!

So they were trying to revive Yamarāja!

Around that time, Lord Śiva came.

He said, “Oh, what happened to Yamarāja?” They told Him what happened.

He said, “He is not unconscious by being shocked.

HE IS IN ECSTASY!

He has become ecstatic thinking of the mercy of Lord Gaurāṅga and then fell unconscious!” Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga!

If you want to revive him, you have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Everybody in Yamaloka started dancing and singing in kīrtana.

Not only that, even in the Devaloka everyone was chanting.

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

The saṅkīrtana movement can liberate the whole universe!

The Navadvīpa parikramā that you do, there are different parties, that has a tremendous effect on the whole universe!

Haribol!

So, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he said while on the parikramā, he said, my next disciple who crosses over the ocean, he will bring people from all over the world.

I will not live to see it, but it will happen! IT WILL HAPPEN! Haribol!

So he predicted coming of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

And Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that people would come from all over the world and do this Navadvīpa parikramā.

They would tell their Indian brothers, that we have accepted the shelter of the lotus feet of Śacīnandana! Please embrace us and don’t think of any prejudice or caste, color, creed or anything.

And then they embrace each other!

Men embrace the men and women the women!

So we were doing that for a number of years.

That is the mercy and predictions of our previous ācāryas.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda, took his first parikramā out, and he was the one who has established that we do Navadvīpa parikramā.

So, like this, Lord Caitanya has shown His extreme care for all His devotees.

I forget who, there was one devotee in Vṛndāvana, when any of the Bengali devotees would come, he would give them mustard oil.

Because it is very dry in Vṛndāvana and here in Bengal, it is very humid.

So therefore, the Bengalis needed the mustard oil to adapt to the dry climate!

Just like this year we have the South Indian parikramā party added!

And they like sour things like yogurt, tamarind.

So, apparently, they are bringing their equipment up.

I heard that one machine has been purchased in Coimbatore which would cook 1000 iḍlis at a time.

The International party may want to try it out one day!! And one day the South Indian party should have poṅgal, which is like South Indian khicuḍi. 

That way the International Party can get iḍli.

Anyway, we are very grateful to Śrīla Prabhupāda – he could have stayed in Vṛndāvana, and easily he could have gone back to the spiritual world.

But he was thinking about the people in the western world, that they are suffering in ignorance.

So, he took great difficulty to cross the ocean by cargo ship!

He only had seven dollars!

And only one box of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

He had heart-attack, he wasn’t used to the rough seas.

And he had a dream where Kṛṣṇa came and said, I am taking you across the ocean!

After that the Atlantic Ocean became very peaceful like the Pacific Ocean.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he crossed the ocean, and he brought the saṅkīrtana-āndolana, the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya to the western countries.

Haribol!

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Lord Caitanya had said that in every town and village of the world, His name would be sung.

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda had that vision.

He was telling that to his fellow residents of Vraja.

But they said, no, no, that means civilized world, India!

But Śrīla Prabhupāda said, no, pṛthivīte means the whole world! The others, they couldn’t believe it.

But Śrīla Prabhupāda had faith, and he carried out the order of his guru, and therefore today we have the International Society for Krishna Consciousness!

The disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, men and women, we have some limited time we can be here.

You have to carry on this movement, after we go!

You have to continue carrying on the great thing that Śrīla Prabhupāda established.

So, everyone should take to the occupation of preaching! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, books are the basis, preaching is the essence.

So, we need to understand Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mood and keep the saṅkīrtana-āndolana spreading and growing.

(Jayapatākā Swami said: I said āndolana, he said movement of the repeater!) Sometimes, I think in English, sometime in Bengali, sometime in Spanish!!

So, anyway, caring for the other devotees is very important.

Lord Caitanya said in His third verse of the Śīkṣāṣṭakam, amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Give respect to all others, and don’t expect any respect for yourself.

In this way, you can constantly chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa!

Someone asked me, what to do if someone treats you bad or enviously, what should you do? Do you take vengeance?

What did Nityānanda Prabhu do? When He was hit by Mādhāi? He said, “Just because you hit Me, does that mean I will not give you love of Godhead?” So we should not seek vengeance.

We want to help everyone.

Lord Caitanya, He was in this mood of helping everyone.

But sometimes, He would test devotees!

Kholāvecā Śrīdhara, He went and tested him many times.

When He was doing the 21-hour mahāprakaśa-līlā.

And everyone could see, He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

He called for Kholāvecā Śrīdhara, bring him here.

And when some devotees went to Śrīdhara and told him that Nimāi Paṇḍita wants to see you, he was so humble, he fainted!! So what could the devotees do?

They picked him and carried him.

Then, they put him in front of Lord Caitanya.

At that time, Lord Gaurāṅga was manifesting brahma-jyoti.

Lord Nityānanda was holding an umbrella over His head.

One devotee was fanning Him.

So, when Kholāvecā Śrīdhara regained consciousness, Lord Caitanya said, “I want to give you a boon, what do you want?

I will make you a king and you will have a big kingdom with many ministers and horses and things.” “I don’t want that! I don’t want!” “I will give you mystic power! Aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti etc. siddhis.” “No, no, I don’t want.” “I can give you the liberation you can merge in the nirākāra.” “No, no, I don’t want that, no, no!” “WHAT DO YOU WANT? TELL ME WHAT DO YOU WANT?” “I want, if I have to ask for something, if I am qualified, in all your incarnations, if I can provide your vegetables and fruits’ requirement and if I can see that smiling face of that brāhmaṇa boy, that is what I want! But if I am not qualified for that, please allow me to take birth in the family of your devotees.” Then Lord Caitanya said, “I give you the blessing of pure kṛṣṇa-prema!” So when the devotees heard how a hawker in the street, who sells bananas and thors (banana stem), he got kṛṣṇa-prema! Lord Caitanya! They were overwhelmed, they pulled their hair and fell to the ground!

Haribol! Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

Talk about devotee care! What Lord Caitanya gave is incomparable! 

Locana dāsa Ṭhākura, he is saying, and Śrīla Prabhupāda sang this in New Pānihāṭi dhāma, Atlanta. 

parama karuṇa, pahuṅ dui jana, nitāi-gauracandra
saba avatāra-, sāra-śiromaṇi, kevala ānanda-kāṇḍa

Amongst all the avatāras, Lord Nitāi and Gauracandra are the crown jewels!

Narasiṁhadeva taught Prahlāda how He could meditate, and thus we have Yoga-Narasiṁha Deity.

But Lord Caitanya, His process is singing Hare Kṛṣṇa, dancing, reading Bhāgavatam and Gītā and taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda.

And we take this austerity of kṛṣṇa-prasāda!

How Lord Caitanya, He gave out His mercy, without considering who is qualified and who is unqualified, is truly amazing!

How the devotees, I remember one pastime, Govinda Ghoṣa was travelling with Lord Caitanya as His brahmacārī assistant.

And, Lord Caitanya said, “I have some indigestion, give Me some harītakī.” So he went into the village and he got Lord Gaurāṅga, Lord Caitanya some harītakī.

The next day they were in Agradvīpa and Lord Caitanya said, “I need a harītakī again!” Within a few minutes, Govinda Ghoṣa offered harītakī.

So Lord Caitanya said, “How were you so fast?

I kept a few extra, in case You needed it.” “Oh, then you have a gṛhastha mentality, saving for a rainy day!

So you have to get married!” He had no parents but it was the order of Lord Caitanya, so he took gṛhastha life.

He had a wife, he was serving the Gopīnātha Deity.

He had a male santāna, child.

But then his wife she died somehow, snakebite or something.

And then, the boy was also killed!

So he became, Govinda Ghoṣa became very disturbed.

So the Deity Gopīnātha complained that, “You are not serving Me properly!” “I was a brahmacārī, I was ordered by Lord Caitanya to take gṛhastha-āśrama.

Obviously, I wasn’t qualified to be a brahmacārī.

So I had a son, after I die he will perform my śrāddha ceremony.

But my wife, my son, all died!” The Deity said, “I am your son!” “But you are not that kind of son, you are not going to perform my final rites.” “So if I promise to do that you will serve Me properly,” the Deity asked.

“Alright, I will call the village leaders.” Then he announced and, the Deity spoke to them, “On the day of the death anniversary, material world anniversary, of Govinda Ghoṣa, I should be taken to perform piṇḍī and śrāddha for him.” So, how Lord Gopīnātha, He was also caring for His devotee.

One year we went there with the Safari.

It was that day.

And the Gopīnātha Deity was taken to the samādhi of Govinda Ghoṣa.

I mean, I think there are three brothers – Vāsu Ghoṣa, Govinda Ghoṣa and Mādhava Ghoṣa.

Between Govinda and Mādhava, I think it was Govinda Ghoṣa.

Anyway, the pūjārī dragged me into the samādhi and Gaṅgā dāsa, he was at the doorway.

And then they dropped the rice piṇḍī from the hand of the Deity.

And they said that the black stone Deity changed during this ceremony.

I felt like something different was happening.

People were, one side were the ladies, other side were the men.

One lady, she was trying to get in and see what is happening.

From behind her, another lady pulled her by her hair and a big fight was going on.

How to see what was going on inside?

Somehow, I was in the middle of this storm!

So, poor Gaṅgā dāsa, with his watch, he had so much skin off his scalp!

Any way that is Bengal enthusiasm!

But inside how the Deity was satisfying the wish of his devotee even after 500 years! So that festival is still going on, you can see it after Gaura Pūrṇimā, on Ekādaśī or after.

Similarly, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that no one in a ten-mile radius should go hungry.

Kṛṣṇa is everyone’s father.

And in the presence of the parents, the child never goes hungry.

So, since this is a temple of Kṛṣṇa, we should see that everyone is fed Kṛṣṇa prasāda.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s devotee care was manifested throughout His saṅkīrtana movement.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda, he brought that same attitude of Lord Caitanya around the world.

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Haribol!

8.27 pm Any questions? 

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. (Jayapatākā Swami said: Hare Kṛṣṇa) I wanted to ask that you mentioned that Keśava Kāśmīrī when he realized that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, later on he became an ācārya in the Nimbārka sampradāya.

So when he realized the position of the Supreme Lord, Lord Caitanya, why did not become a direct disciple or follower of the Gauḍīya sampradāya?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see when Keśava Kāśmīrī met Nimāi Paṇḍita, that was still many years before He started the saṅkīrtana-āndolana.

Many years He was acting as Nimāi Paṇḍita, when He went to Gayā and He was initiated by Īśvara Purī, then He started to manifest love of Kṛṣṇa.

And in Kānāi-Nāṭaśālā He had a darśana of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa embraced Him.

And when He returned to Navadvīpa, He was changed!He was Gaura Hari! We are reading that part on the Lotus building top now.

Other question?

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. You said that Jagāi Mādhāi are just offering the tulasī to Lord Caitanya. They have cleared all sins. They not only did the sins, they offended the Vaisnavas also. So how we can understand this Mahārāja?

Jayapatākā Swami: Mādhāi built a Mādhāi ghāṭa.

And then the Navadvīpa-vāsīs, Māyāpur-vāsīs used Mādhāi ghāṭa.

And that forgave him of the offences he committed on the residents of Navadvīpa.

That means by helping people in their spiritual life, we get forgiven for our offences.

That is why we chant the name of the Lord! Gaurāṅga!

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja (Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa!) Like you said, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, nobody in a ten-mile radius of our place should go hungry without prasāda.

So, some of our affluent temples, the security and some staff employed that carry bags for sannyāsīs and devotees, they are not given any prasāda. And the temples receive so much Lakṣmī day after day for free prasāda and these poor security and other devotees who are serving there in the heat and cold, they are serving us. And it gives great pain to me that they are not given prasāda. And for two years I tried to speak to the management and the senior leaders of Śrī Śrī Rādhā Pārtha-sārathi Temple in Delhi, that please give them prasāda, from so many years they are serving. And for two years I tried but you know. I am an insignificant person, but it gives great pain to my heart and my humble request and prayer at your lotus feet, Guru Mahārāja, if you could take this up in the GBC that these people who are serving us with their heart and soul, they don’t get prasāda and they feel so bad.

I had so much, tears in my heart you know, please Guru Mahārāja, please take this up at the GBC, my humble prayer at your lotus feet!

Jayapatākā Swami: Write me an email and I will forward it to the management, whichever temple you are talking about.

Thank you. Alright!

Thank you all!