20200717 The Purpose of The Lord's Role as Ādyāśakti

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 17^th July 2020 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India

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

Introduction: We are continuing with the reading of the drama of Lord Caitanya combining various books about Lord Caitanya pastimes. This is a unique drama, because Lord Caitanya, He takes up different roles, and His associates take up different roles, and they actually assume that identity. That means, one is playing as a gopī, she looks like a gopī. You can’t tell she is not a woman. Someone takes up the role of Kṛṣṇa. He looks like Kṛṣṇa, directly, Mother Śacī when she saw Śrīvāsa playing the part of Nārada, she asked Mālinī, the wife of Śrīvāsa, is that Śrīvāsa? She said, yes. Mother Śacī fainted, He looked like that, she could not recognize her own son, who was playing the part of Lakṣmī, “Has Lakṣmī come here on the stage?” So anyway, this is a unique drama and today the chapter is:

The Purpose of The Lord's Role as Ādyāśakti

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 17.242

kabhu durgā, lakṣmī haya, kabhu vā cic-chakti
khāṭe vasi’ bhakta-gaṇe dilā prema-bhakti

Translation: The Lord sometimes took the part of goddess Durgā, Lakṣmī (the goddess of fortune) or the chief potency, Yogamāyā. Sitting on a cot, He delivered love of Godhead to all the devotees present.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.139

prabhura bhāva-bodhe sakalera asāmarthya o vibhinna dhāraṇā—

hena daḍhāite keha nāre kona jana
kon prakṛtira bhāve nāce nārāyaṇa?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, no one was certain which potency Lord Gaurāṅga or Gaura-Nārāyaṇa was dancing as, no one could tell with conviction, who the Lord was playing.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.140

kakhanao balaye “dvija, kṛṣṇa ki āilā?”
takhana bujhiye yena vidarbhera bālā

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes He would say, “Dear brāhmaṇa, has Kṛṣṇa come?” and then everyone understood that He was taking the role as Rukmiṇī, the young lady of Vidarbha.

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: The phrase vidarbhera bālā refers to Rukmiṇī, the daughter of the King of Vidarbha. As Rukmiṇī inquired from the brāhmaṇa after his return from delivering her letter to Kṛṣṇa, Mahāprabhu, being absorbed in the mood of Rukmiṇī, made a similar inquiry.

Jayapatākā Swami: Since all the audience was very well-versed in the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, when Lord Gaurāṅga would play a certain part, and speak in a certain way, then they understood that He was playing this role.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.141

nayane ānanda-dhārā dekhiye yakhana
mūrtimatī gaṅgā yena bujhiye takhana

Jayapatākā Swami: When the audience saw tears of loving ecstasy flowing from His eyes, they understood that He was the beautiful form of the Ganges personified.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.142

bhāvāveśe yakhana vā aṭṭa aṭṭa hāse
mahācaṇḍī-hena sabe bujhena prakāśe

Jayapatākā Swami: Being absorbed in His love of Kṛṣṇa, when He laughed very loudly, the audience then could understand that He was manifesting the mood of Mahācaṇḍī.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.143

ḍhaliyāḍhaliyā prabhu nācaye yakhane
sākṣāt revatī yena kādambarī-pāne

Jayapatākā Swami: When the Lord Gaurāṅga staggered around while acting and dancing, He appeared just like Revatī after she had drunk some kādambarī intoxicating beverage.

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: “The word Revatī refers to the consort of Śrī Baladeva.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Baladeva is famous for taking Varunī or the honey beverage.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.144

kṣaṇe bale,—“cala baḍāi, yāi vṛndāvane”
gokula-sundarī-bhāva bujhiye takhane

Jayapatākā Swami: When He would say to the old lady, dear lady, let us go! Let us go to Vṛndāvana, they understood at that time, that He was acting as a young, beautiful maiden of Gokula.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.145

vīrāsane kṣaṇe prabhu vase dhyāna kari'
sabe dekhe yena mahākoṭi-yogeśvarī

Jayapatākā Swami: When Lord Gaurāṅga sat down in vīrāsana posture, in meditation, everyone saw Him as the goddess of millions of mystic perfections, yogeśvarī.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.146

ananta-brahmāṇḍe yata nija-śakti āche
sakala prakāśe prabhu rukmiṇīra kāce

Jayapatākā Swami: When the Lord acted in the role of Rukmiṇī, then He manifested His divine potencies from the unlimited universes. He manifested the role of His various consorts from innumerable universes, unlimited universes.

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: Since Rukmiṇī is the fountainhead of all energies, she is the origin of all manifested consorts. All the direct expansions and expansions of the expansions of that fountainhead manifest within the fourteen worlds in female forms to enact the pastimes of serving Kṛṣṇa's various manifestations (His personal expansions and separated expansions).

Jayapatākā Swami: There are unlimited millions of universes – ananta koṭi brahmāṇdas. In each universe there is a Viṣṇu and He has His consort. So that all those consorts are coming from Rukmiṇī, who comes from Rādhārāṇī, so, Rukmiṇī is the fountainhead of all the consorts.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.147

prabhura ādyāśakti-veṣera udeśya—

vyapādeśa mahāprabhu śikhāya sabāre
pāche mora śakti kona jane nindā kare

Jayapatākā Swami: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He taught and instructed everyone, on the pretext of accepting the form of Ādyāśakti, in the future no one should criticize any of His potencies.

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: The Māyāvāda philosophy, which denies the potency of the Absolute Truth, is based on mundane conceptions. By accepting the potencies of Lord Viṣṇu as equal to the potencies of Rudra, the impersonalists reject the concept of potency. Persons who follow the philosophy of material variegatedness recognize the mother of all universes and living entities and the enchantress of Maheśa as the predominating deity of material happiness and distress and attribute faults on her. So that no one would blaspheme the internal potency by considering her nondifferent from the external potency, Śrī Gaurasundara enacted the pastimes of Rukmiṇī to reveal to all living entities that the energy and the energetic are nondifferent.

Jayapatākā Swami: Since the Lord manifests His energies, just like the sun manifests light and heat, so the sun is the energetic, and the light and the heat are the energy. We cannot separate the light and the heat from the sun. So in the same way Kṛṣṇa and His energy are nondifferent.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.148

laukika vaidika yata kichu kṛṣṇa-śakti
sabāra sammāne haya kṛṣṇe dṛḍha-bhakti

Jayapatākā Swami: All the potencies of Kṛṣṇa whether they are mentioned in the Vedas or by common understanding, by respecting them, one gets firm devotional service for Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: By respecting Kṛṣṇa's energies that are present within the fourteen worlds and His transcendental energies that are described in the Vedas, one's devotion to Kṛṣṇa becomes fixed. Rather than considering the universal energies of Kṛṣṇa as mundane, one should consider them transcendental and pray to them for devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Rather than seeing the energies of Kṛṣṇa mentioned in the Vedas as mundane, if one respects them as maidservants of the gopīs, then one's devotion to Kṛṣṇa becomes strengthened.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, if we see Rādhārāṇī and the gopīs, and the different energies, the queens of Dvārakā and the Lakṣmīs in Vaikuṇṭha, we see them all very respectfully, pray to them for pure devotion, that our devotion to Kṛṣṇa becomes strengthened.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.149

deva-droha karile kṛṣṇera baḍa duḥkha
gaṇa-saha kṛṣṇa-pūjā karile se sukha

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Kṛṣṇa is very unhappy, when one offends the devas, the demigods. Rather Kṛṣṇa is happy, if one worships Kṛṣṇa along with the demigods, then Kṛṣṇa is pleased.

Purport: If one thinks the devas as separate from Kṛṣṇa, rather than respecting them, as the servitors of Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa is not pleased. Kṛṣṇa is known as deva-deva, or the Lord of the devas. So, if one worships Kṛṣṇa along with the devas, then Kṛṣṇa is happy. The reason why, because the devas or demigods they worship Lord Kṛṣṇa, they worship Lord Viṣṇu. A pure devotee gives up material sense enjoyment and prays to everyone, including the demigods for devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. So naturally, such prayers are devoid of material urges, for material enjoyment. If everyone follows the example of the Lord’s associates, they thus become liberated from material concepts. If one worships the demigods in order to gain some material sense gratification, Kṛṣṇa is not pleased. People who are intoxicated by material enjoyment, they try to enjoy through worshipping the demigods or different human beings. Since this is against devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa becomes greatly unhappy. In this way, they are actually cheating the demigods. They worship them not because they really respect the demigods, they worship to get some material benefit. So therefore, Kṛṣṇa cannot be pleased by this cheating. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it glorifies the mahā-bhāgavatas, the pure devotees, because they are freed from the fault-finding tendencies and petty things, in the śāstra there is no allowance for blasphemy. So, in seeing the demigods as the Lord’s associates, one should not blaspheme them. In Jīva Gosvāmī’s Bhakti-sandarbha it is stated:

Purport by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: The different demigods like Ganeśa and Durgā that are mentioned in reference to worship of the Lord’s abode and associates are eternal associates of the Lord in Vaikuṇṭha like Viṣvaksena and others. Therefore, they are not like the Ganeśa and Durgā of the material world. Demigods like Ganeśa and Durgā born of the material energy are different from them. It is stated (Bhāgavatam 2.9.10): na yatra maya kim utapare – ‘The illusory, external energy has no jurisdiction in Vaikuṇṭha, so what can be said of qualities like lost and greed?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the mundane Durga is under the potency of Yogamāyā. Under the control of the potency of Yogamāyā. So Yogamāyā entrusts Durgā with the hiding of mantras, Kṛṣṇa mantra, received by people who don’t chant them, after receiving initiation, those people don’t chant the mantra, don’t worship the predominating deity of the mantra, or don’t respect the mantra. So, the different demigods should face the Lord, and in this way, people will not be confused, that the demigods are worshipers of the Lord. So many people ask, what to do if we have deities of the demigods and Kṛṣṇa? So, we offer our worship first to Kṛṣṇa, and then we offer the kṛṣṇa-prasāda to the devas.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 18.150

ye śikhāya kṛṣṇacandra, sei satya haya
abhāgya pāpiṣṭha-mati tāhā nāhi laya

Jayapatākā Swami: Whatever Lord Kṛṣṇacandra teaches, that is the truth, the unfortunate sinful persons, do not accept that.

Any questions?

Question: Normally we see that our ācāryas have said that we celebrate Śiva Rātri, seeing Lord Śiva as a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. But sometimes we hear that we cannot celebrate such festivals. What is the actual thing we should do, Guru Mahārāja? - Gopati Kṛṣṇa dāsa

Jayapatākā Swami: We are allowed to worship Śiva and the different demigods, in the proper positon. They should be respected as the associates of the Lord, as the devotees of the Lord, not as independent, or equal or greater to the Lord.

Question: Dear Gurudeva, please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. AGTSP! Thank you very much for narrating these nectarean pastimes of Lord Gaurāṅga. I feel myself very fortunate to be a part of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s family. Thank you for blessing us all with your divine association. But Gurudeva, I am unable to follow one very important instruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda, which is to wake up early in the morning for attending maṅgala-ārati. I try for few days and then I lose my enthusiasm. Gurudeva, could you kindly elaborate on the importance of maṅgala-ārati and waking up the brāhma-muhūrta? And please bless me so I can follow this instruction.

Your eternally insignificant aspiring servant,
Nanditā Chāwla.

Jayapatākā Swami: Thank you Nanditā. Sometimes devotees would ask Śrīla Prabhupāda this question. He would advise them to take rest early, to not eat heavy prasāda late at night. He would take puffed rice or some light meal. So, like this, he was instructing people, not to eat too heavy at night so they could wake up early. The early morning is considered in the mode of goodness. That time is very good for our spiritual life. As the day goes on, the mode of passion comes into play and then in the evening, the mode of ignorance. So, if we don’t chant or attend the maṅgala-ārati, in the brāhma-muhūrta, you are missing the best time of the day, for your spiritual life.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my respectful obeisances. Kindly explain how to apply the third verse of the Sīkṣāṣṭakam in practical life? - Dhruva Gupta.

Jayapatākā Swami: There is a book by the famous author, Dale Carnegie, How to Make Friends and Influence People. Basically, the whole book is on the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. Be humble, praise other people, don’t expect any praise for yourself. You will influence people, you will make friends, that will influence people to make friends. How to practically apply? What is the difficulty? Be humble, be tolerant, offer respect to others, don’t expect respect for yourself. Not so difficult.

So, Dhruva Gupta please accept my blessings! krsnera matir astu.

Question: Just as kṛṣṇa-prasāda is offered to the demigods, can the same be offered to our loved ones who have left their body, regularly or should this only be done on their disappearance tithi? Thank you. – Śaśimukhi Rādhā devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: Usually we offer it on the disappearance anniversary. And I never heard of offering it every day. But I don’t know if there is any restriction against that. We go to Gayā, to offering worship to Gadādhara lotus footprints, that may be on any day, and we offer to the forefathers. I don’t think there is any restrictions, but at least one should offer every disappearance anniversary.

Last question from Umā Rāṇī Naṭarājan.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my respectful obeisances (Jayapatākā Swami: Accepted). What mood one should have when we meet demigod worshippers? - Umā Rāṇī Naṭarājan.

Jayapatākā Swami: Merciful mood! We respect the demigods as servants of Kṛṣṇa. I am assuming that you are speaking about the demigod worshipper, who thinks that the demigods are equal to Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa is not pleased with that, neither is the demigod. Since the demigods are devotees of the Lord. So, depending on how much you can tell the devotee of the demigods, the Bhagavad-gītā tells us that Kṛṣṇa is ultimately the one who gives benediction through the demigods, because He is in the heart of the demigods. So, the ideal way is to worship Kṛṣṇa and offer the prasāda to the demigods. But whether you are able to convince the worshipper of the demigods, I don’t know.

Thank you and I would like to hand over now to Māha Varāha dāsa.