20210521 Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya And His Wife, Ṣāṭhīra Mātā, Prepare A Gorgeous Arrangement of Great Varieties of Food

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 21nd,2021 in Śrī Dhāma 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!

Continuation of the compilation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya book,

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya And His Wife, Ṣāṭhīra Mātā, Prepare A Gorgeous Arrangement of Great Varieties of Food Part-2

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.235

kṛṣṇa-bhukta anna o āsana, ubhayai prasāda

bhaṭṭa kahe,—anna, pīṭha,—samāna prasāda
anna khābe, pīṭhe vasite kāhāṅ aparādha?

Translation: The Bhaṭṭācārya said, “Both the food and the sitting place are the Lord’s mercy. If You can eat the remnants of the food, what is the offense in Your sitting in this place?”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.236

prabhukartṛka bhaṭṭera satsiddhānta praśaṁsā o aṅgīkāra

prabhu kahe,—bhāla kaile, śāstra-ājñā haya
kṛṣṇera sakala śeṣa bhṛtya āsvādaya

Translation: Caitanya Mahāprabhu then said, “Yes, you have spoken correctly. The śāstras enjoin that the devotee can partake of everything left by Kṛṣṇa.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.237

bhagavadbhukta-prasāda-svīkārei duṣpārā māyāra jaya – Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.4.46)

tvayopayukta-srag-gandha-
vāso ’laṅkāra-carcitāḥ
ucchiṣṭa-bhojino dāsās
tava māyāṁ jayema hi

Translation: “‘My dear Lord, the garlands, scented substances, garments, ornaments and other such things that have been offered to You may later be used by Your servants. By partaking of these things and eating the remnants of food You have left, we will be able to conquer the illusory energy.’”

Purport: This is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.6.46). In the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the dancing in ecstasy and the eating of the remnants of food offered to the Lord are very, very important. One may be illiterate or incapable of understanding the philosophy, but if he partakes of these three items, he will certainly be liberated without delay.

This verse was spoken by Uddhava to Lord Kṛṣṇa. This was during the time when the Uddhava-gītā was spoken. At that time there was some disturbance in Dvārakā, and Lord Kṛṣṇa decided to leave the material world and enter the spiritual world. Uddhava could understand the situation, and he talked with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The verse quoted above is an excerpt from their conversation. Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in this material world are called prakaṭa-līlā (manifested pastimes), and His pastimes in the spiritual world are called aprakaṭa-līlā (unmanifested pastimes). By “unmanifested” we mean that they are not present before our eyes. It is not that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are nonexistent. They are going on exactly as the sun is shining perpetually, but when the sun is present before our eyes, we call it daytime (manifest), and when it is not present, we call it night (unmanifest). Those who are above the jurisdiction of night are always in the spiritual world, where the Lord’s pastimes are constantly manifest to them. As the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37-38) confirms:

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

premānjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who resides in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, who resembles His own spiritual figure and who embodies the ecstatic potency [hlādinī]. Their companions are Her confidantes, who embody extensions of Her bodily form and who are imbued and permeated with ever-blissful spiritual rasa. I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself, with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.238

prabhura pracura annagrahaṇe āpatti; bhaṭṭera tāhāte anuyoga–

tathāpi eteka anna khāona nā yāya
bhaṭṭa kahe,—jāni, khāo yateka yuyāya

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu then said, “There is so much food here that it is impossible to eat it all.”

Purport: The Bhaṭṭācārya replied, “I know how much You can eat.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.239

nīlācale bhojana tumi kara bāyānna bāra
eka eka bhogera anna śata śata bhāra

Translation: “After all, at Jagannātha Purī You eat fifty-two times a day, and each time You eat hundreds of buckets filled with prasādam.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.240

prabhura dvārakā, mathurā o vrajalīlāya bhojana-prakāra

dvārakāte ṣola-sahasra mahiṣī-mandire
aṣṭādaśa mātā, āra yādavera ghare

Translation: “At Dvārakā, You keep sixteen thousand queens in sixteen thousand palaces. Also, there are eighteen mothers and numerous friends and relatives of the Yadu dynasty.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.241

vraje jyeṭhā, khuḍā, māmā, pisādi gopa-gaṇa
sakhā-vṛnda sabāra ghare dvisandhyā-bhojana

Translation: “In Vṛndāvana You also have Your father’s elder brothers, Your father’s younger brothers, maternal uncles, husbands of Your father’s sisters and many cowherd men. There are also cowherd boyfriends, and You eat twice a day, morning and evening, in the house of each and every one.”

Purport: In Dvārakā, Lord Kṛṣṇa had eighteen mothers — Devakī, Rohiṇī and others. Besides these was His foster mother, Yaśodā, in Vṛndāvana. Lord Kṛṣṇa also had many uncles. As stated by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Bṛhat Śrī Śrī Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (32), upanando ’bhinandaś ca pitṛvyau pūrva-jau pituḥ: “The elder brothers of Nanda Mahārāja were Upananda and Abhinanda.” Similarly, in the same verse the names of the younger brothers of Nanda Mahārāja are given: pitṛvyau tu kanīyāṁsau syātāṁ sannanda-nandanau. “Sannanda and Nandana [also known as Sunanda and Pāṇḍava] were the younger brothers of Kṛṣṇa’s father, Nanda Mahārāja.” Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s maternal uncles are also described in this book (in verse 46): yaśodhara-yaśodeva-sudevādyās tu mātulāḥ. “Yaśodhara, Yaśodeva and Sudeva were the maternal uncles of Kṛṣṇa.” Also mentioned in the Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (38) are Kṛṣṇa’s uncles who were the husbands of Nanda Mahārāja’s sisters: mahānīlaḥ sunīlaś ca ramaṇāv etayoḥ kramāt. “Mahānīla and Sunīla are the husbands of Kṛṣṇa’s aunts.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.242

tatparimāṇa-tulanāya bhaṭṭārpita anna–sāmānya

govardhana-yajñe anna khāilā rāśi rāśi
tāra lekhāya ei anna nahe eka grāsī

Translation: “Indeed,” Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya continued, “at the Govardhana-pūjā ceremony You ate stacks of rice. In comparison to that, this small quantity is not even a morsel for You.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 15.243

bhaṭṭera dainya:—

tumi ta’ īśvara, muñi—kṣudra jīva chāra
eka-grāsa mādhukarī karaha aṅgīkāra

Translation: “You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whereas I am a most insignificant living being. Therefore please accept a little quantity of food from my house.”

Purport: A sannyāsī is expected to collect a little food from each and every householder. That is to say, he should take whatever he requires to eat. This system is called mādhukarī. The word mādhukarī comes from the word madhukara and means “honey-collecting bees.” Bees collect a little honey from each flower, but all these small quantities of honey accumulate to become a beehive. Sannyāsīs should collect a little from each and every householder and should eat simply what is necessary to maintain the body. Being a sannyāsī, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu could collect a little food from the house of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, and this was the Bhaṭṭācārya’s request. Compared to the food eaten by the Lord on other occasions, the Bhaṭṭācārya’s feast was not even a morsel. This is what the Bhaṭṭācārya is pointing out to the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was pointing out the Lord’s pastimes in Dvārakā,in Vṛndāvana, and how many uncles and aunts He has, how many friends He would spend time with taking so much prasāda. In Govardhana, He eats huge quantities of rice. Therefore Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya is requesting the Lord that this a very small quantity, please take this. So, Lord Caitanya is playing the role of sannyāsī. And although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is not playing that part so, mainly we will see what He will do with all elaborate feast prepared by Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya And His Wife, Ṣāṭhīra Mātā, Prepare A Gorgeous Arrangement of Great Varieties of Food.
Under the Section: The Lord Accepts Prasādam at the House of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya.

Also we can see how Lord Caitanya would give great mercy to the wives of the associates, the wives were also dedicated servants of the Lord. So, He would engage the gṛhastha and their wives and even the maid-servants. In Navadvīpa He engaged Dukhī, the maid-servant of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. So, that’s why the Lord is considered so merciful. He would give His mercy to everyone.