20201016 Haridāsa and the Devotees Question Lord Caitanya's Departure (Part 2)

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 16th October 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

govardhanadharam vandegopālam goparūpiṇam
gokulotsavam īśānam govindam gopikāpriyam

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Introduction: So today we continue reading from the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. He is in Śāntipura and He wants to leave for Jagannātha Purī. Haridāsa Ṭhākura fell at His lotus feet and prayed to Him. The chapter today is entitled:

(Part 2) Haridāsa and the Devotees Question Lord Caitanya's Departure

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.72: Seeing Haridāsa in this condition, the Lord said, “I will constantly speak on your behalf to Jagannātha in all humility. Rise up and be peaceful.” Embracing him, he then left. Advaita then spoke as he was leaving.

Jayapatākā Swami: So we can see how merciful Lord Caitanya is. He embraced each of the devotees. As a loving Master, Mahāprabhu. Naturally, everyone’s heart melted by His affectionate behaviour.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.73: “When you leave, what will happen to us? Please tell us, O Lord! How will we continue to live? How will we overcome our pain of separation?” After he spoke, the Lord said, “If you act like this, how can I go?” He then left.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.74: Because of the affection of Advaita and the joy of humble Haridāsa, the Lord, though desiring to go to Purī, controlled by his devotees, ate the incomparable food cooked by Śacī with the devotees and left after several days.

Jayapatākā Swami: So just as some of the devotees prayed to Kṛṣṇa when He was in Hastinapur but he was still intending to go back to Dvārakā. But then Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja with tears in his eyes requested Kṛṣṇa to stay for a few days, and Kṛṣṇa could not refuse the loving devotion of His devotees. So, He stayed for some days.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.75: As he was leaving, one brāhmaṇa said, “I see your very sweet body, O best person!” He pulled the cloth from the Lord’s limb. The merciful pure Lord shone like the moon uncovered by clouds.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.16

e bola balite cāripāśe bhaktagaṇa
bhūmite paḍiyā sabhe karaye rodana

Jayapatākā Swami: When Lord Caitanya spoke these words, the devotees on all sides of Him, fell on the ground and wept.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.17

cetana harila śacī kāndite nā pāya
dharibāre cāhe nija putrera galāya

Jayapatākā Swami: Mother Śacī fell unconscious and thus she was not able to cry. She yearned to embrace her son’s neck.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.18

keho pāye dhari’ kānde āudaḍa-culi
aneka yatane tabe āpanā sambari

Jayapatākā Swami: One devotee his hair in disarray, grabbed Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet and wept. With great effort, he struggled to control his emotions.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.19

śrīnivāsa, haridāsa, murāri, mukunda
prabhure kahite kichu kare anubandha

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrivasa Ṭhākura, Haridāsa Ṭhākura, Murāri Gupta, and Mukunda Dutta spoke some appeal to the Lord Gaurāṅga

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.20

svatantra ṭhākura tumi–mo saba adhīna
dīna durācāra pāpī–tāhe bhaktihīna

Jayapatākā Swami: You are the independent Lord. We are all under Your dominion. We are poor, ill-behaved and sinful, and devoid of devotion. So they are making a humble prayer to Lord Caitanya.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.21

ki balite pāri prabhu karilā sannyāsa
ekhana chāḍiyā yāha nija saba dāsa

Jayapatākā Swami: What can we say O Lord, Caitanya? You have accepted sannyāsa. Now You desire to leave all Your servants and go away.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.22

ekeśvara kemane hāṭiyā yābe pathe
kṣudhāya-tṛṣṇāya anna cāhibe kāhāte

Jayapatākā Swami: O Lord being all alone, how will You walk on the pathways? If You get hungry or thirsty, from whom will You get food?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.23

śacīra dulāla tumi dullila-carita
du’khāni caraṇa viṣṇupriyāra sevita

Jayapatākā Swami: You are mother Śacī's darling son. Your character is endearing. Your two lotus feet are served by Viṣṇu-priyā devī.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.24

bhakta-jana-nayana amiyā diṭhipāte
e deha premāra taru bāḍe hāthe hāthe

Jayapatākā Swami: The eyes of the devotees obtain nectar by seeing You. With Your own hands, You planted the tree of spiritual love, and made it grow.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.25

aneka āchila premaphala prati āśe
sannyāsa kariyā śūnya karāila āśe

Jayapatākā Swami: Many had the desire that the tree would bear many fruits of ecstatic, spiritual love. By accepting sannyāsa, You have made the hopes of the tree bear fruits, barren.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.26

pāpiṣṭha-śarīre prāṇa nā yāya chāḍiyā
ghare cali’ yāba tore vidāya kariyā

Jayapatākā Swami: The life breath does not leave our sinful bodies. We will go to our house and bid You farewell.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.27

ekhane caliyā yāba mo saba adhama
tora dharma nahe–tumi patita-pāvana

Jayapatākā Swami: Now we, the most fallen, will return to our homes. All this is not Your true nature, for You are the deliverer of the fallen. (patita-pāvana).

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.28

karuṇā-kardame tanu gaḍiyāche vidhi
vinoda-vilāsa-līlā diyā nānā nidhi

Jayapatākā Swami: Destiny has fashioned Your transcendental form with the nature of mercy, and You are the ocean of various treasures of playful, glorious and graceful pastimes.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.29

kevala parama premā–tāhe jīvanyāsa
trailokya-adbhuta rūpa kariyā prakāśa

Jayapatākā Swami: You awaken only the supreme love, spiritual love, by manifesting Your wonderful form which is astounding in the three worlds.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.30

upamā divāra nāhi trailokya-bhitara
tomāra niṣṭhura vāṇī–jagata kātara

Jayapatākā Swami: There is nothing compared to Your transcendental nature in the three worlds. By Your cruel words, the universe has become distressed.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.31

emata karite prabhu nā juyāya tore
āpane ruiyā vṛkṣa–kāṭa’ kene mūle

Jayapatākā Swami: You should not do in this way, O Lord Gaurāṅga! Why will You cut the roots of the tree, You Yourself planted?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.32

ye yāya–tāhāre laha saṁhati kariyā
nahe vā mariba sabhe āgune puḍiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: Whoever wants, please take them with You, wherever You go. If You do not, we will die and fall into the flames and burn.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.33

hera dekha tora mātā śacī anāthinī
sahite nā pāri’ uhāra vināniyā-vāṇī

Jayapatākā Swami: Just look at Your mother Śacī, the orphaned, the orphaned, widowed mother Śacī. We cannot bear to hear her lament.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.34

viṣṇu-priyāra kāndanāte pṛthivī vidare
śūnya haila navadvīpa nagara bājāre

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīmatī Viṣṇu-priyā’s crying makes the earth crack. The busy marketplaces of Navadvīpa have become like a barren desert.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.35

śūnya yena lāge sarva vaiṣṇavera ghara
sabhāre sabhāra bāḍī yojana-antara

Jayapatākā Swami: All the Vaiṣṇavas’ homes feel like they have become barren deserts. It seems that everyone’s homes have become eight miles from each other.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.36

yekhāne basiyā prabhu kahile nijakathā
dekhile mariba–āra nāhi yāba tathā

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Gaurāṅga, wherever You sat and spoke, about Your transcendental glories, we will die if we see those places, because of Your absence. We can never go again to those places.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.37

rahasya-vinoda kathā nā śuniba āra
nā dekhiba nṛtyāveśa–premāra pracāra

Jayapatākā Swami: Never again will we hear Your confidential loving playful pastimes We will not be able to see You dancing in ecstasy or Your giving out everyone ecstatic spiritual love.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.38

nācibāra vele āra nā kariba kole
nā dekhiba aruṇa-nayane prema-jale

Jayapatākā Swami: Never again will we see You dancing or embracing everyone. We will not see Your reddish eyes filled with tears of spiritual love.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.39

huhuṅkāra-śabdāmṛta nā śuniba āra
ke mora rodhila karṇa-nayāna-duyāra

Jayapatākā Swami: The nectar of Your loud shouting, we will never hear again. Who blocks our eyes and ears, at the present time?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.40

kemane nā dekhi’ jīva’ tora mukhacandra
nayāna thākite kebā karāila andha

Jayapatākā Swami: If we don’t see the moon of Your lotus face, how will we remain alive? Although we have eyes, but then, now who has made us blind?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.41

nā diha vidāya prabhu–yāba tora saṅge
tomāra niṭhura vāṇī poḍe saba aṅge

Jayapatākā Swami: Don’t bid us farewell, Lord Gaurāṅga! We will go with You. Your cruel words make our bodies burst into flames.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.42

āhiḍī ghaṇṭāra raba yemana kariyā
kāche mṛgī āise–tāre māraye dhariyā

Jayapatākā Swami: The hunter rings his bell, and the doe approaches. Then the hunter kills the deer and grabs her.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.43

temati tomāra prema bujhila ekhana
lobha dekhāiyā pāche māra’ ki-kāraṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: In the same way, from You we have learned about ecstatic spiritual love. You made us greedy to attain that love. Why do You later kill us?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.44

tomāra bicchede bhakta sabhāi maribe
bhakata-vatsala nāma kemane dharibe

Jayapatākā Swami: In Your separation, devotees will all die. How can You be called Bhakta-vatsala, merciful to the devotees, in these circumstances?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.45

śacīre vidāya dibe ki kari’ kon yukti
tāhāra samīpe ihā kahe kon vyakti

Jayapatākā Swami: How will You bid farewell to mother Śacī? By using what logic? Who will give her this news?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.46

viṣṇupriyā mariba śabdamātra śuni’
e kathāra samvidhāna karaha āpani

Jayapatākā Swami: Simply by hearing this news, Viṣṇupriyā devī will die. We ask that You Yourself should consider all of our questions and give us a solution to these questions. So, Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, He is complete in six features. One of those features is all-renunciant. So, for Him it is easy to walk away, but the devotees, they are feeling the pain of impending separation, and they are asking Lord Caitanya to please give the solution to their suffering. That is why in the relationship with Kṛṣṇa, the sambhoga which is the meeting of Kṛṣṇa, and vipralamba, separation from Kṛṣṇa. These two aspects are there in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. The devotees of Vraja, they feel great separation when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā. The devotees in Dvārakā were feeling great separation when Kṛṣṇa went to Kurukṣetra and Hastināpura. Now Lord Caitanya has taken sannyāsa and left Navadvīpa and intends to go to Jagannātha Purī. But the devotees, cannot bear being separated from the Lord, and they are begging the Lord, please give some solution for their impending separation.

Thus Ends the Chapter, Haridāsa and the Devotees Question Lord Caitanya's Departure