20200301 Mahāprabhu’s Ecstasy in Kīrtana and Śacīmātā's Condition

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

Chapter entitled as Mahāprabhu’s Ecstasy in Kīrtana and Śacīmātā’s Condition

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.123

kīrtana śravaṇamātra mahāprabhura bhāvāveśe bhūmite patana evaṃ taddarśane śacīra duḥkha—

śunile kīrtana-mātra prabhura śarīre
bāhya nāhi thāke, paḍe pṛthivī-upare

Translation: As soon as the Lord heard the sound of kīrtana, He lost external consciousness and fell to the ground.

Jayapatākā Swami: As soon as Śacīnandana heard the kīrtana, immediately the Lord lost His external consciousness of the body. And then He fell on the earth.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.124

hena se āchāḍa prabhu paḍe nirantara
pṛthvī haya khaṇḍa khaṇḍa, sabe pāya ḍara

Translation: The Lord repeatedly fell to the ground with such force that the earth broke into pieces and everyone became frightened.

When the Lord fell to the ground without support, the ground cracked apart. On seeing this, everyone became filled with anxiety.

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord, Viśvambhara fell to the earth, again and again, with such force, that the earth seemed to be broken into small pieces, and everyone became frightened. So, when the Lord fell to the ground, the ground became cracked and seeing this, all those present, became filled with anxiety. So, Lord Caitanya when He heard the kīrtana, He became filled with ecstasy. He was no longer conscious of His external body. He would faint and crash to the ground! So, He hit the ground with such force that the devotees were feeling anxiety and they thought maybe He would hurt Himself!

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.125

se komala-śarīre āchāḍa baḍa dekhi'
`govinda' smaraye āi mudi' dui āṅkhi

Translation: When Mother Śacī saw the Lord's soft body falling forcefully to the ground, she closed her eyes and remembered Govinda.

Jayapatākā Swami: Thus, when mother Śacī saw the soft body of her son falling to the ground, forcefully, she closed her eyes and remembered Gooooovinda. So, she was very afraid and she reacted by remembering Govinda.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.126

prabhu se āchāḍa khāya vaiṣṇava-āveśe
tathāpiha āi duḥkha pāya sneha-vaśe

Translation: Although the Lord fell with great force due to being absorbed in the mood of a Vaiṣṇava, Mother Śacī felt unhappy out of affection.

Jayapatākā Swami: Although Lord Caitanya fell with great force, being in the mood of a Vaiṣṇava, mother Śacī felt unhappy out of motherly affection.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.127

āchāḍera āi nā jānena pratikāra
ei bola bale kāku kariyā apāra

Translation: Mother Śacī did not know how to prevent this. She repeatedly pleaded in the following words.

Jayapatākā Swami: Mother Śacī did not know how to prevent this from happening. So she pleaded repeatedly in the following words:

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.128-129

“kṛpā kari' kṛṣṇa, more deha' ei vara
ye samaye āchāḍa khāyena viśvambhara

muñi yena tāhā nāhi jānoṅ se samaya
hena kṛpā kara more kṛṣṇa mahāśaya

Translation: “O Kṛṣṇa, please give me this benediction. When Viśvambhara falls forcefully to the ground, may I not know anything about it. O Kṛṣṇa, please show me this mercy.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Kṛṣṇa show this mercy to me, give me this benediction. When Viśvambhara falls forcefully to the ground, that I don’t know about it! At that time, I am unaware of it. Please, have this mercy on me, oh Kṛṣṇa. You are most merciful.”

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.130

yadyapiha parānande tāṅra nāhi duḥkha
tathāpiha nā jānile mora baḍa sukha”

Translation: “Although due to spiritual ecstasy, He does not feel any distress, I would be happy to remain unaware of this.”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Although due to spiritual ecstasy He doesn’t feel any pain, I would be happy if I remained unaware of this. Very happy.”

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.131-132

ananīra hṛdgata icchā jāniyā jananīke gaurasundarera paramānanda dāna—

āira cittera icchā jāni' gauracandra
sei-mata tāṅhāre dilena parānanda

yata-kṣaṇa prabhu kare hari-saṅkīrtana
āira nā thāke kichu bāhya tata-kṣaṇa

Translation: Realizing the inner desire of Mother Śacī, Gauracandra awarded her appropriate spiritual happiness.

As long as the Lord was engaged in congregational chanting of the names of Hari, Mother Śacī remained devoid of external consciousness.

Since Mother Śacī was distressed when the Lord fell to the ground, Gaurasundara had her become absorbed in ecstasy during hari-saṅkīrtana and stole away her external consciousness. Then Śacī felt happiness devoid of all distress.

Jayapatākā Swami: Gauracandra understood the inner desire of mother Śacī. So therefore, He gave her the transcendental bliss. As long as the Lord was engaged in harināma-saṅkīrtana, His mother was not aware, she didn’t have any external consciousness for that time. Because as a mother she felt distressed to see her son craaaash to the ground. She got the benediction that whenever the Lord chanted, she went into ecstasy, she wasn’t aware of anything happening. Ignorance is bliss. Ha! Ha! She was in transcendental bliss. Ha! Ha! She wasn’t aware of what’s going on.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.133

prabhura ānande nṛtye nāhi avasara
rātri-dine beḍi' gāya saba anucara

Translation: There was no break in the Lord's ecstatic dancing. All of His associates chanted around Him day and night.

Jayapatākā Swami: There was no break in the blissful dancing of the Lord, night and day, His associates were surrounding Him.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.134

kona-dina prabhura mandire bhakta-gaṇa
sabei gāyena, nāce śrī-śacīnandana

Translation: Sometimes the devotees chanted at the Lord's house while Śrī Śacīnandana danced.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes, some days the Lord with His devotees, went to the temple, or in His house. Everybody was chanting and Śrī Śacīnandana was dancing.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.135

kakhana īśvara-bhāve prabhura prakāśa
kakhana rodana kare, bale, `muñi dāsa'

Translation: Sometimes the Lord manifested His mood as the supreme controller, and sometimes He cried while saying, “I am the servant.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes the Lord manifested His mood of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes He would cry and say, “I am the servant of the Lord.”

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.130

citta diyāśuna bhāi prabhura vikāra
ananta brahmāṇḍe sama nāhika yāhāra

Translation: O brothers, hear attentively about the Lord's transformations of ecstatic love, which are unique throughout the innumerable universes.

Purport: The transformations of Mahāprabhu's ecstatic love can never be compared with the transformations of any devotees' ecstatic love within the fourteen worlds. It is to be understood that cheaters who imitate the Lord's exhibition of transformations of ecstatic love in order to deceive people are devoid of love of God.

Jayapatākā Swami: Listen brothers, here attentively, about the Lord’s transcendental manifestations of ecstatic love, of which there is no comparison in the unlimited millions of universes. Lord Caitanya’s ecstatic symptom were so special, so unique that throughout all the universes, no one manifested such special, transcendental ecstasies. So, His associates got to chant with the Lord, and see His ecstatic symptoms. When I first came to India, we were invited to one house and one of the hosts or the host, he suddenly began to pretend that he was seeing Kṛṣṇa in his house – oh Kṛṣṇa, You have come! You are here! ohhhhh! But the devotees were thinking, this guy is weird you know! It was not impressing anyone and one by one, the devotees left. Finally, when everyone had left, he lost his impetus! Ha! Ha! If Kṛṣṇa was really there, he wouldn’t care if people were watching him. But he was doing a show, trying to impress everyone. Actually, people try to imitate the ecstasy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but you cannot imitate it. His ecstasy was something unique, real! And just hearing about it you could understand.

Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he was walking through a village chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and one snake charmer, he started playing on his flute..la la la la la, ah ah ah, and he started singing about Kāliyā and Kṛṣṇa. And then Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he came in ecstasy and started dancing in ecstasy.  And then he liked the kīrtana about Kāliyā Kṛṣṇa so much that he fainted on the ground. Then the people started to pay their obeisances to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. There was one astrologer who had tarot type cards and a parrot, and he was a brāhmaṇa. And he got envious, this Haridāsa Ṭhākura he is being respected by everyone, I want to be respected too! So, he started to dance and he tried to imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura. But the snake charmer could understand that this was just an imitation, not the real thing. Then the astrologer fell to the ground and he wanted to have people pay their obeisances to him. Then the snake charmer said this guy is a bogus! He is cheating! He doesn’t have real ecstasy. If he had real ecstasy, I will kick him and he won’t feel anything and he kicked him. Aw! He got up and he started running. Aw! And all the villagers were chasing after him, you cheater! So, people like to get some cheap respect. They try to imitate these ecstasies. That is why Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he advised his disciples, keep your ecstasies internalized. Because, if we show them then the bogus people will also imitate us.

So then sometimes the spiritual masters like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and Śrīla Prabhupāda, they felt some ecstasy and they couldn’t control it. And so that was very embarrassing - if Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura started manifesting some ecstasy, he would run away and hide in the room. Śrīla Prabhupāda sometimes, he would get choked up and would have some ecstatic symptoms. In Mayapur he had, in Gorakhpur, some places. In Gorakhpur he was talking how Sanātana Gosvāmī met with Lord Caitanya and how Lord Caitanya embraced Sanātana Gosvāmī, and he said that this is like the gopīs meeting Kṛṣṇa. And he got choked up and he couldn’t speak anymore. Tears started flowing down his eyes. Then he just told the devotees, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! So, the real ecstasies are very rare but the pure devotees can understand, when they are real and when they are imitation. But general people cannot understand, because they don’t have any experience of what real ecstasy is like.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 8.137

ye-mate karena nṛtya prabhu gauracandra
te-mate se mahānande gāya bhakta-vṛnda

Translation: As Lord Gauracandra danced in ecstasy, the devotees sang in ecstasy.

Jayapatākā Swami: So as Lord Gauracandra danced, with ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa, in that way the devotees chanted in ecstasy.

Thus ends the chapter “Mahāprabhu’s Ecstasy in Kīrtana and Śacīmātā's Condition”

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Haribol!

So, there is a book table for those who want to get it signed.

Candra-sundarī! Yamunāpriyā devī dāsī. (Chinese devotees online)

Question: Dear Guru Mahārāja, PAMHO! Who specifically composed Śrīla Prabhupāda’s praṇati mantra and when was it composed? —Your insignificant servant, Prema Gaurasundara dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: I think that it was composed before I came. But in any case, I wasn’t involved! Maybe Mukunda Svāmī knows. Or Śyāmasundara, he is here. They were initiated before I was. I noticed that Śyāmasundara prabhu flew to India in Brothers’ Airway. That is the same airline I flew on! But he said he paid 50 pounds and I paid 111 pounds! And he said he flew from Brussels to Cairo, to Aden, to Bombay. And I flew from Brussels, Rome, Cairo, Aden, Karachi and Bombay. That was all the further they could fly! They could fly only so many hours because it was a propeller plane. Three brothers – Ali, Mohammad and Yahya.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa dear Guru Mahārāja, PAMRO. While Lord Caitanya fell to the ground, the devotees were in anxiety. Similarly, when we perform devotional service like book distribution, cooking, etc. we have anxieties. Does anxieties in such service purify us or help us in reviving our lost relationship. –Your disciple, Sucāru Padmā devī dāsī, New Remuṇā-dhāma.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes anxiety helps. Mother Śacī, she would feel anxiety that her son was walking on the hard rocks. In Vṛndāvana. Similarly, mother Śacī was feeling some anxiety, out of motherly affection. It depends on what your anxiety is for? If one is feeling anxiety cooking for the deity, I could be taking some ice cream! Then that may not help them get their internal relationship. But if they are in anxiety because of their devotion to Kṛṣṇa, that may be helpful.

Chinese devotees: Nārāyaṇī dd and Caitya Guru dd, Zow Zi Yu, Tuṅgabhadra dd, Prahlāda Kṛṣṇa dāsa. Nārāyaṇī dd and Prahlāda Kṛṣṇa dāsa have sponsored 71 Bhagavad-gītās on behalf of Guru Mahārāja. Prahlāda Kṛṣṇa dāsa, Tuṅgabhadra Devī Dāsī and Zow Zi Yu have sponsored 123 Bhagavad-gītās on behalf of Guru Mahārāja.

Sahaśrama Gaurāṅga dāsa has sponsored 5 Bhagavad-gītās.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Acyutānanda Gaura Hari dāsa from Mathurādeśa, he was in the parikramā party that went to Sīmantadvīpa. He suddenly had a heart attack and left his body. His wife is here? Lakṣmī. Let us all chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, for his well-being and smooth transition to the spiritual world!

Chinese devotees: Candra Sundarī, Yadurāṇī Devī Dāsī, Sucitrā Devī Dāsī, Cāru Mādhavī Devī Dāsī, Tuṅgabhadra Devī Dāsī, Haripriyā Gaṅgā Devī Dāsī, Mādhavī Priyā Devī Dāsī, Navīna Viśakhā Devī Dāsī, Olivia, Kṛṣṇa Dharma Dāsa, Caitya Guru dāsī, Yamunā Priyā Devī Dāsī, Śītalā Devī Dāsī. All online!

Announcement: Guru Mahārāja was allergic to roses but now he is not supposed to use any flowers. He is not allergic anymore but not allowed to use any flowers because he can get infection. So, they make imitation garlands.

Your grand disciples from Russia getting married tomorrow, Līlā Madhurī Devī Dāsī and Jaya Jagannātha dāsa. Seeking blessings!