20200416 Mahāprabhu's Statement Upon Hearing Advaita Ācārya's Speech (Part 1)

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

So, every night we are reading something about Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. But now since we are having the COVID-19, corona virus lockdown in India, we are sending out parties every day to distribute prasāda. But this is not the normal prasāda distribution. This is supposed to be for the day workers, for the very hungry people. They don’t have any resource. No land, no stockpile of food. Śrīla Prabhupāda was crying when he saw some poor village boys fighting of the dogs with their sticks, to eat the remnants of the plates which people threw away. Śrīla Prabhupāda saw that and said how hungry they must be! This is the house of Kṛṣṇa, and He is everyone’s father. Nobody should go hungry within a 10 mile or km radius. So, the point is that, most people that don’t have any land, any saving, who are really hungry, we want to feed them It is not that we just go and serve prasāda, from ISKCON Food Relief. We want to relieve the suffering of the people who are really hungry. Other people maybe can take a small donā or something. As Lord Śiva said, kṛṣṇa prasādam kaṇika mātraṁ, little bit will do. Those who are really hungry, we want to give them a full plate! That is our program. We want to see that nobody goes hungry within a 10-mile radius, basically the whole Navadvīpa dhāma. There are lakhs of people we cannot feed everyone. Those who are hungry, we try to feed them. I hope that this point is understood.

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Chapter entitled as Mahāprabhu's Statement Upon Hearing Advaita Ācārya's Speech

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.206

advaitera vākye mahāprabhura ukti—

mahātattva advaitera śuniyā vacana
huṅkāra kariyā bale śrī-śacīnandana

Translation: When Śrī Śacīnandana heard Advaita's explanation of the Absolute Truth, He roared loudly and spoke.

Jayapatākā Swami: When Śrī Śacīnandana heard Advaita’s explanation of the Absolute Truth, He roared loudly, “HARIBOL!” And then He spoke.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.207-208

kṛṣṇabhaktake laṅghanapūrvaka viṣṇupūjā-viṣṇu-aṅge āghāta karā mātra

“mora ei satya sabe śuna mana diyāye
āmāre pūje mora sevaka laṅghiyā

se adhama jane more khaṇḍa khaṇḍa kare
tāra pūjā mora gāye agni-hena poḍe

Translation: “Everyone listen to My words. Any fallen soul who disrespects My servant and worships Me cuts Me into pieces. His worship feels like fire to My body.

After hearing Advaita's explanation of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, Śrī Gaurasundara instructed all of His followers to discuss it with attention. Approving Advaita's statement and establishing Himself as the object of worship, Gaurasundara said, “There is an inseparable relationship between the servant and the object of service. Therefore, it is stated in the scriptures:

arcayitvā tu govindaṁ  
tadīyān nārcayet tu
yaḥna sa bhāgavato jñeyaḥ  
kevalaṁ dāmbhikaḥ smṛtaḥ

`One who worships Lord Govinda but fails to worship His devotees should be understood to be not a devotee of the Lord but simply a victim of false pride.' Considering the Absolute Truth as a product of matter amounts to cutting the body of the Supreme Lord to pieces. In the name of such religions based on envy various religious systems are created that distract people from the actual truth. I am Puruṣottama and I am the object of service. If I am disconnected from My devotees, if I am deprived of variegated pastimes, if I am placed in the prison of impersonalism, and if My limbs are separated from Myself, the mockery of perfection in religiosity and useless flowery preaching found in this world by such worship and cultivation of religious principles are simply attempts at setting fire to My Puruṣottama body and burning Me.” The envy and violence of people devoid of devotional service to Viṣṇu are simply attempts at creating duality by attributing the Absolute Truth, Viṣṇu, with mundane abomination. Otherwise, disregarding the eternal variegated pastimes of the Lord by considering them comparable to material enjoyment simply denies complete enjoyment. Persons who are conversant with the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda do not hesitate to point out the disparity in the twelve types of temporary mellows called rasas that are found in mundane relationships. Spiritual realization devoid of material conceptions amounts to inclination for the service of Viṣṇu.

Jayapatākā Swami: Listen to My words, they are the truth. Concentrate and hear what I have to say. If someone offers worship to Me, but disrespects my servant, that fallen soul cuts Me into pieces. His worship to Me burns Me like fire. So, after hearing Advaita Ācārya’s explanation of the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, Sri Gaurasundara requested everyone to hear and discuss it with great attention. Lord Gaurasundara was mentioning that the relationship between Himself and His devotees is inseparable. Therefore, the scriptures state: `One who worships Lord Govinda but fails to worship His devotees should be understood to be not a devotee of the Lord but simply a victim of false pride.'

If we think that the Lord is a product of material energy, it is like cutting the Supreme Lord into pieces. Impersonalists think that Kṛṣṇa is a product of the sattva-guṇa. But Lord Kṛṣṇa is beyond the three modes. He is sac-cid-ānanda vigraha. He is the Supreme controller. He is the Puruṣottama, and if people worship Him and disconnect His devotees from Him, then they are depriving Kṛṣṇa of His variegated pastimes, they are imprisoning Him in the prison of impersonalism. We saw that some people told Śrīla Prabhupāda, we accept you but we don’t like your devotees. But Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that the devotees are inseparable from me. That same principle exists between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. We cannot separate His devotees from Kṛṣṇa. To do so is like setting fire on the body of Puruṣottama, burning Kṛṣṇa! So, if we try to separate the pure devotees from Kṛṣṇa, it is a kind of mundane concept. Kṛṣṇa has His transcendental pastimes with His pure devotees. Somehow, if they separate them and think that these pastimes are mundane enjoyment, that is a great offence to Lord Kṛṣṇa. So, the spiritual realization is devoid of any mundane considerations, and that amounts to the inclination to serve Lord Viṣṇu. It is very important that we avoid disrespecting devotees of the Lord. The devotees are very dear to the Lord, we cannot disrespect them, and then offer worship to Kṛṣṇa and expect that He will accept it.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.209

ādhyākṣika jñāne bhaktanindā dvārā bhagavat kartṛka saṃhāra-prāpti

ye āmāra dāsera sakṛt nindā kare
mora nāma kalpa-taru saṁhāre tāhāre

Translation: “My wish-fulfilling holy names destroy one who blasphemes My servant.

By the will of the Lord, the illusory energy of Viṣṇu stimulates ignorant people's conceptions of “I am the doer” and “I am the enjoyer,” and thus deceives them. Greedy living entities by misuse of their independence sometimes consider themselves “Māyāvādīs” and sometimes out of false ego consider themselves, who are tortured by the three modes of nature, as “demigods.” The endeavors of the attracted to become distracted from the attraction of Kṛṣṇa are called bhoga, or material enjoyment, and the endeavors to become inclined towards the service of Kṛṣṇa are called bhakti, or devotional service. Those foolish two-legged animals who attribute on the living entities the concept of doership within the tribulation of the three modes of nature by considering them independent even though they are parts and parcels of the supreme shelter simply engage in enjoying the external world and do not respect Kṛṣṇa or His devotees. When they engage in the service of the Supreme Lord with a desire to diminish their conception of doership, in the form of animalistic propensities, and yet become cheated from achieving the service of the devotees, then they develop a desire to portray envy of devotees as devotional service to the Lord. That is why Gaurasundara is saying, “I set an example of My compassion by killing those who pretended to worship Me while discriminating between Me and the incarnations of My prakāśa-vigraha, My confidential associates, and the spiritual master, who is the āśraya-vigraha, or shelter, of those who have taken shelter of Me.” All transcendental qualities are present in the devotees of the Lord. Liberation is their maidservant and material enjoyment is their order carrier. So, if gross materialists engage with pride in activities like censuring, blaspheming, and abusing the devotees from the material point of view and through mundane considerations, then the Supreme Lord destroys them.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, His holy name is like the desire tree. But if one blasphemes and criticizes His pure devotee, then those names actually destroy that person. So, the illusory energy of the Lord bewilders people, and they think that they are the doer, they are the enjoyer. So māyā deceives them. We are meant to serve the Lord; He is the real enjoyer. So, someone who is deceived by the material energy, they may think that they are Māyāvādīs, or they may think that they are devas or demigods. So, such conditioned souls think that the service to Kṛṣṇa, is some form of material enjoyment. But in actual, who is attracted to serving Kṛṣṇa, they are called bhaktas or devotional servers. So those who don’t understand this are like two-legged animals. By criticizing the devotees and awarding pure service to Kṛṣṇa, they are illusioned by the material energy, and they simply engage in external worldly activities. They don’t really respect Kṛṣṇa or His pure devotees. They are involved in animalistic propensities, and they are cheated in this way from the actual service to Kṛṣṇa. So that is why Gaurasundara has unequivocally stated, without any duality, stated, I show My compassion, but those who pretend to worship Me, they try to present the difference in Me and My expansions, My confidential associates. All the transcendental qualities are present in the pure devotees of the Lord. So, if the materialists engage in such activities as, censoring, blaspheming, abusing devotees of the Lord from some material point of view, to their mundane considerations, the Supreme Lord destroys them. So again and again, the scriptures tell us, we should be very careful not to offend any devotee. The ten offences of the holy name, the first offence is not to commit any offence to a pure devotee, who glorifies the holy name. In the ten offence to the holy dhāma, the first offence is to blaspheme a devotee who present the glories of the holy dhāma. Again, and again, we are told to be very careful not to offend or blaspheme, criticize any devotee of the Lord.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.210

matsara vyaktira bhakta-hiṁsā-prabṛtti amaṅgalera janaka o ātmavināśaka—

ananta brahmāṇḍe yata, saba mora dāsa
eteke ye para hiṁse sei yāya nāśa

Translation: “All living entities in the innumerable universes are My servants, so anyone who blasphemes any living entity is ruined.

Because of aversion to Hari, materialistic people accept the service of the six enemies headed by lust and anger as their only shelter. All living entities of the visible and invisible worlds are established as servants of the Supreme Lord. If a person exhibits envy of another person, then that envious person confirms that he is malicious of those who are inclined to the Lord's service rather than confirming himself as a Vaiṣṇava. Whatever envy is exhibited in such considerations is more or less envy of the Supreme Lord. Moreover, since the devotees' propensity for performing service or welfare activities is so strong, those who are envious consider that the endeavors of such servants of Śrī Caitanya to increase ignorant people's inclination towards Kṛṣṇa are similar to their own variegated pastimes of envy; this guarantees their inauspiciousness. People become envious of objects that are not related to the Absolute Truth because of their propensity for enjoyment. Pure devotees are never driven by the three modes of nature to merge in the waters of goodness, passion, and ignorance. Therefore, without taking shelter of nonenvious devotees, the envious materialistic enjoyers of the temporary material world fall into inconvenience as a result of their karma by accepting philosophies like Māyāvāda and thus bring about their own ruination. One can never realize one's self by unconstitutional propensities. Aspiring mankind has no alternative to realization of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, those who are inimical to the spiritual master accept enmity of the spiritual master, pride, and other worthless objects as wealth; they merge into the darkness of ignorance; and they give importance to impersonalism (kevalādvaita-vāda), which denies svajātīya-vijātīya bheda, the distinctions among both similar and dissimilar objects. This is their downfall. Unalloyed service to the sac-cid-ānanda Supreme Lord is the opportunity to become self-realized, otherwise one certainly falls down.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya, He states that in the unlimited millions of universes, all the living entities are His servants. So, one should avoid blaspheming or criticizing anyone. Because that may cause their ruination. There are six vices headed by lust, anger, greed, and the materialistic people take shelter of these vices. And here Lord Caitanya is saying that all living entitites are actually servitors of the Supreme Lord. Living entities includes not only humans, but also the animals, the fish. So, killing animals and fish is also something negative. We are presently experiencing the pandemic of the corona virus. This has come from animals to the human beings. Therefore, we have no antibodies, there is no treatment, no vaccine, and they are telling the people to stay in their homes, to avoid getting infected. Wash your hands, keep social distancing. So basically, we are envious against the animals, we think they have no soul. Because of that offense we are also causing our own death, our own destruction. We should be inclined to serving Viṣṇu and see all living entities as His part and parcels. And especially the devotees of Viṣṇu. So, showing envy to the living entities is more or less its envy showing to the Supreme Lord. So, the devotees of Lord Caitanya try to increase the inclination of these fallen souls towards service of Kṛṣṇa. But the materialists think these are mundane activities. In this way they are envious against Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. So, this causes various types of inauspiciousness to come on human beings. So, the devotees of the Lord are actually non-envious. Rather envying them causes various kinds of inauspicious to the materialists. So, our constitutional propensity is to serve the Lord, but if we don’t serve the Lord, we will never realize our selves. To actually achieve satisfaction in this life, there is no alternative to realization of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, those who are inimical to the spiritual master, they become envious of the devotees, and merge into the darkness of ignorance. They give importance to the impersonalism. So unalloyed service to the sat-cit-ānanda Lord is the opportunity to become self-realized, otherwise one certainly falls down.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.211

tumi ta' āmāra nija-deha haite baḍa
tomāre laṅghile daive nā sahaye daḍha

Translation: “You are more important than My own body, so if anyone transgresses You, he will be unable to tolerate his fate.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya was appreciating what Advaita Gosāñi said. He said, “You are more important to Me, than My own body. If someone offends You, disrespects You, he will not be able to tolerate his fate, that means he will have so much of suffering that it will be intolerable.” So, we should be very careful to respect all the devotees of the Lord. It is very important. Even if someone maybe a sannyāsī or a highly placed person, he has no right to blaspheme someone. So, we should be very careful to avoid this envious nature. These are very important instructions from Lord Caitanya to His devotee. Here we understand that how dear the devotees are to the Lord, and we should be very careful not be envious.

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We will end here!

My pūrvāśrama sister Leslie says Hello Brother! Hello Leslie! My dear pūrvāsrama sister!

At 8 pm we have the ZOOOOOM session! Who are we meeting? Youth group Manipal college and few other colleges in India.

Announcements for Food for Life and Māyāpur Devotee care donations were made by His Grace Mahā Varāha dāsa.

Also, sponsorships for Bhagavad-gītā were announced by Vrajeśvara Gaura dāsa.