20200910 Keśava Bhāratī “Initiates” Viśvambharadeva into Sannyāsa Āśrama.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 10th September 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: So, shall continue our compilation on the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book.

Today’s chapter is entitled:

Keśava Bhāratī “Initiates” Viśvambharadeva into Sannyāsa Āśrama.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.1: After hearing the wonderful narrative of these transcendental pastimes of Śrī Hari, Dāmodara requested further Murāri Gupta, “Please narrate how our all-opulent Lord accepted the renounced order of life, and how He travelled to other lands as well as the city of Puruṣottama-deva.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.2: There are many tīrthas frequented and rendered service by sages. After that primeval Personality, whose mercy enchants my mind, saw the city of Puruṣottama, which of them did He visit?” Hearing these requests from that best of the twice-born, the physician replied, “Listen to me attentively as I narrate to you that history which is enlivening to the heart.”
Jayapatākā Swami: This is from the Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca, which is from the notes of Murāri Gupta, who is one of the personal associates of Lord Caitanya. He was the physician; he is said to be the avatāra of Hanumān, and while Lord Caitanya was in Navadvīpa, he was present in most of the pastimes. So, his kaḍaca, notes, are written in Sanskrit and so since I do not know Sanskrit, we will just read the translation. 

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.3: May Bhagavān now endow me with unparalleled ability so that my words delineating His glories may be very suitable and pleasing. May He give such sublime words that award nectar to the tongues of those who recite and astound the ears of those who hear. Words about Him are fully enriched by His names, and he who remembers and relishes their sublime meaning automatically receives total freedom from material bondage. 
Jayapatākā Swami: So, hearing the pastimes of the Lord relieves one from the bondage of material existence. Since the Lord is Absolute, His name, His form, His pastimes are also Absolute. And therefore, listening to the activities of the Lord is transcendental meditation. And listening to the pastimes of Lord Caitanya is also transcendental service. Whether one listens or one narrates, it is all absolute. 

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.14: I adore that unborn, eternal form of radiant pure golden hue, the faultless personality of Śrī Caitanya-deva. Those souls whose hearts are cleansed of material desire and thus come to know that Supreme Truth at once are delighted within their minds by the lustrous nails of His lotus feet.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.5: The Lord’s feet are by nature transcendental and imbued with the immortal nectar of His devotional service. I offer my prayers unto those feet, which are offered elaborate worship by the host of devas. Even Bhagavān Śrī Śaṅkara incessantly sips that flower-honey of His lotus feet and thus becomes ever more complete in affectionate attachment for Śrī Hari's service.
Jayapatākā Swami: So here the glories of the lotus feet of the Lord are being given. And as the lotus is a flower and the flowers are visited by honeybees, they take honey and bring back to the hive. So they are comparing the lotus feet of the Lord as sources of honey and the great souls like Lord Śiva and others, who meditate and serve the lotus feet of the Lord like honeybees, and relish the honey like nectar, and their attachment increases for Śrī Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s service.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.6: After the tranquil Lord Gauracandra, the emperor of rasikas, had instructed the physician whom he should accept as shelter, He returned to His home accompanied by His potencies, who had accepted the form of His devoted servitors. Then after passing that night in bemusement He rose up and departed.
Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Gaurāṅga gave some instructions to Murāri Gupta, and went home, and that night before sunrise, He woke up and He left, to take sannyāsa.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.7: The illustrious Lord crossed the banks of the divine river and set forth. When the chiefs of the twice-born heard this, their hearts sank as they felt unlimited perplexity. Their minds became bereft of sense, and agitated by a burning sorrow, they wept. 

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.8: After a week had passed, Śrī Candra Śekharācārya-Ratna, whose luster was like the hue of molten gold, returned to Navadvīpa. There he met the devotees, whose luster had wholly dissipated. By his effulgence, he appeared to cast even the beautiful full moon into oblivion.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.9: All the bhaktas requested him to tell the nectar-topics of the lotus-eyed Lord. Śrī Candraśekhara replied, "Yes, I shall tell you all about Him." Then that best of the immortals addressed those illustrious heads of the brāhmaṇa community with a choked voice.
Jayapatākā Swami: So Candraśekhara Ācārya was performing the service of arranging everything for Lord Caitanya’s taking sannyāsa. So, he is describing to the assembled devotees of Navadvīpa, what happened. 

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.10: As the great and sense-controlled Lord walked the path, all of the people glanced upon His countenance and through their eyes drank the beauty of His body, which is the ornament of all male forms. When they learned that He was on His way to accept the sannyāsa order, they joyously offered their obeisances unto His lotus feet.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.11: Then while the great souls led by Ācārya Ratna sang songs of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, Gaura Mukunda began to dance. His chest became wet with tears of prema and His hairs thrilled out of rapture.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.12: Meanwhile, in the town of Kaṇṭaka, many exalted saintly transcendentalists and brāhmaṇas were assembled, as also were women, boys, very joyful elders, as well as the deaf, the blind, and the hunch-backed, who arrived while holding the hands of others.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.13: Some women held full water-pots on their heads, some held ingredients for worship on the side of their hips, others who were fully pregnant walked swiftly arm-in-arm with their companions.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.14: All of them drank the elixir of Janārdana's lotus face with melting hearts. They gazed with full absorption and great astonishment at that brāhmaṇa who resembled the newly rising sun, as if He were some mystic golden lotus. 
Jayapatākā Swami: So Ācāryaratna is describing how all the people in Katwa were completely raptured by Lord Gaurāṅga’s mercy and His beauty and activities

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.15: Talking among themselves, the people said, “O, whose son is He, whom we have never seen before, the luster of whose face resembles the rising full moon? In order that He might take birth and benefit souls entangled in the cycle of birth and death. Surely a saintly mother must have carried him within her womb.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.16: By His beauty this virtuous and heroic boy has defeated Kāmadeva, and by His speech even the eloquent Bṛhaspati lies vanquished. By some devout deed a woman became His wife, but now by some ill-fated deed she is agitated by His separation!” 
Jayapatākā Swami: He was glorifying mother Śacī and Viṣṇu-priyā devī, but then also expressing their concern for Viṣṇu-priyā’s separation.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.17: Not seeing any more the face of her son, His mother must live as if in death, burned by many sorrows, like the residents of Vraja who felt pain, when Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed from Vṛndāvana, desiring to see Mathurā.”

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.18: Certain intelligent women said, “It is clear that He is experiencing the ecstatic moods experienced by the vraja-gopīs. Undoubtedly, He is Nanda's son, who has appeared to execute His mission in the garb of a sannyāsī.”
Jayapatākā Swami: So, some intelligent ladies realized that He was actually Kṛṣṇa Himself. 

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.1.19: Many other sweet words of this nature were spoken amongst those groups of women, and as they drank the nectar of Viśvambhara's lotus face, they became entirely forgetful of their own bodies.
Jayapatākā Swami: This is the great benefit of hearing the descriptions of the Lord, His pastimes, one completely forgets the material situation, and they are transported to the transcendental realm.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.1: At the culmination of His dancing the splendid Lord wept, His composure shattered by love for Śrī Hari. And all those who gathered there to observe the scene also imperceptibly shed tears of love.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.2: Then standing up, in a faltering voice Gaura Hari spoke to the assembled people, “Dear fathers and mothers, now kindly give Me your auspicious blessings, so that I have remembrance of Śrī Hari.”

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.3: When the people heard these words, they sensed that their hearts had been stripped naked and thus feeling ashamed and confounded, they wept profusely. Then their bodies became filled with śrī-kṛṣṇa-prema and they were fulfilled with ṣaḍ-bhakti-rasa.
Jayapatākā Swami: So, by the mercy of Lord Gaurāṅga, He would speak so humbly, that it actually touched the hearts of all the people that listened, and they were completely exposed to the mercy of the Lord. And they started to feel great kṛṣṇa-prema or pure love for Kṛṣṇa, just by the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.4: After pacifying their hearts with the nectarean vision of His Person, the munificent Lord, Bhagavān Śrī Gauracandra accompanied by the foremost Vaiṣṇavas, proceeded onwards to the residence of His guru, the great soul, Śrī Keśava.
Jayapatākā Swami: So, we heard the description mentioned about Lord Caitanya’s taking sannyāsa from the Caitanya-bhāgavata and different scriptures. Now we are hearing it from Ācāryaratna, what he told to the residents of Navadvīpa. How Lord Caitanya went to see Keśava Bhāratī to beg for sannyāsa.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.5: Arriving there, the ocean of mercy bowed down to the feet of His guru. Then He took up His residence in that place, and so doing, He continuously sang auspicious songs of the names and qualities of Śrī Rāma, Nārāyaṇa, until He became unsteady due to prema.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.6: In the afternoon the great personality Ācāryaratna, who was learned in Vedic vidhi, in a purified state worshipped Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and performed the ceremony for the consecration of sannyāsa.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 28.153

tabe sarva-loka-nātha kari’ gaṅgā-snāna
āsiyā vasilā yathā sannyāsera sthāna

Jayapatākā Swami: Then the Lord of all the worlds took His Ganges bath, He came to the arena of His taking sannyāsa and He sat there, for the ceremony.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 28.154

prabhura chalapūrvaka bhāratīra karṇe mantra pradāna o lokaśikṣārtha tāṁ hā haite mantra-grahaṇābhinaya—
‘sarva-śikṣā-guru gauracandra’ vede bale
keśava-bhāratī-sthāne tāhā kahe chale

Jayapatākā Swami: All the Vedic literatures say that Lord Śrī Gauracandra is the instructing guru or spiritual master of everyone. The Lord, on some pretext spoke the mantra to Keśava Bhāratī. He asked Keśava Bhāratī, is this the mantra you are going to give Me? and then He spoke the mantra, the Vaiṣṇava sannyāsa-mantra in the ears of Keśava Bhāratī. So actually, He initiated Keśava Bhāratī and He received the same mantra back! 

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.52: After his polite speaking to them, he went to Keśava Bhāratī’s house and offered profuse respects, absorbed in the proper conduct of a disciple, acting according to the rules. He then called his guru near and spoke in his ear with delight the auspicious mahāvākya which he had heard in a dream.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya apparently, He said that He heard this mantra in a dream, and He wanted to know from Keśava Bhāratī if this is the mantra which he was going to give Him. In actuality, He gave the mantra to Keśava Bhāratī and received the same mantra from him.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 28.155

prabhu kahe,—“svapne more kona-mahājana
karṇe sannyāsera mantra karila kathana

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Gaurāṅga said, in a dream some great soul, mahājanās, appeared to Me and spoke some sannyāsa-mantra in My ear.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.2.7: Then desiring His guru's welfare, Śrī Viśvambhara approached him and murmured in his ear, “Within a dream I received an excellent mantra. Please hear it from Me and tell Me if you approve.”

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa, 13.89

ekadina rātriśeṣe dekhiluṁ svapana
sannyāsera mantra more kahila brāhmaṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: One day, at the end of night, I saw a dream. A brāhmaṇa told Me the sannyāsa-mantra. 

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa, 13.90

dekha dekhi ei baṭe haya kibā nahe
ihā bali’ bhāratīra karṇe mantra kahe

Jayapatākā Swami: Look and see, is this the mantra or not? Saying this, the Lord recited the mantra in Keśava Bhāratī Mahārāja’s ear.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 28.156

bujha dekhi tāhā tumi kibā haya nahe”
eta bali' prabhu tāṅ'ra karṇe mantra kahe

Jayapatākā Swami: Please examine and see whether it is correct or not. Saying this, Lord Gaurāṅga spoke the mantra in the ear of Keśava Bhāratī Mahārāja.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa, 13.91

ihā bali sannyāsīra karṇe kahe mantra
prakāre hailā guru āpani svatantra

Jayapatākā Swami: Saying this, He spoke the mantra in the ear of the sannyāsī, Keśava Bhāratī. Lord Gaurāṅga being the independent, Supreme Personality of Godhead, initiated Keśava Bhāratī, and became His spiritual master or guru.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 28.157

chale prabhu kṛpā kari’ tāṅre śiṣya kaila
bhāratīra citte mahā-vismaya janmila

Jayapatākā Swami: Thus, Lord Caitanya by trickery, He gave His mercy to Keśava Bhāratī, and made Him His disciple. Keśava Bhāratī’s consciousness was struck with wonder.

Purport (by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura): Lord Śrī Gaurasundara is the covered fountainhead of all incarnations. He does not reveal Himself to ordinary people. He first initiated Keśava Bhāratī with the sannyāsa-mantra, and then to teach people He accepted the same mantra from him as a disciple. 

Jayapatākā Swami: Since the śāstra proclaims that everyone should accept initiation from a bona fide spiritual master, someone who comes from one of the four Vaiṣṇava disciplic successions, and therefore Lord Caitanya is accepting sannyāsa initiation from Keśava Bhāratī, but He actually gave the mantra to Keśava Bhāratī first. This is a unique situation and Keśava Bhāratī, he was amazed by this circumstance. So, we should understand that

Lord Gaurāṅga was taking sannyāsa to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world, all over India. We should not follow His example exactly. He did this to manifest His pastimes, not to be imitated. But as He wanted to give out love for Kṛṣṇa, He did all these pastimes. So, He charmed the hearts of everyone in Katwa who saw the pastimes in Katwa. Since this is a very long chapter, we will continue tomorrow.