20210531 Question and Answer Session

So if anyone has any questions on this pastime of Lord Caitanya, I will give you ten minutes.

Question: Guru Mahārāja, yesterday you said that Gadādhara Paṇḍita lost his taste after he gave the mantra to somebody - how to understand this?

Jayapatākā Swami: He said that he gave intiation to a faithless person and therefore he lost his taste. Obviously, he was doing this to give us some instruction, that we should be careful about giving initiation. I remember that one police officer asked Śrīla Prabhupāda for initiation, and Śrīla Prabhupāda said you have to chant 16 rounds. So he was strict on that. So, like that, we have to be careful.

Jayapatākā Swami answering a question said: Not that he lost the mantra, he lost the taste.

Question: You said that Lord Caitanya did not know He fell in the well, but at the same time he knew that Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi was coming in ten days, how to understand these two contradictory incidents?

Jayapatākā Swami: That is why the author was saying that He covered His omniscience by this feigning, not knowing.

Question: Spanish question. How can I approach the spiritual master when the spiritual master is far and it is difficult to have association with his disciples? What can I do to serve the guru in this situation?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, 500 year ago, the disciples in Bengal had to walk and so that was a big problem. But today, just as I am giving class and you are listening, and the class is being broadcasted via internet, and so in that way I was thinking that we give darśana just for a few seconds to the different devotees. But I am thinking that I would like to get your opinion, that one day, we give all the Latin America devotees, we have more time. Another day, all the North American. Another day for Europe and the UK devotees. One day for the Russian speaking devotees. One day for North Indians, one day for South Indians. One day for the Middle East and one day for the Kashadeśa. Of course for the Eastern countries, morning would be better. Anyway, what do you think of this idea? If there is time, I will still give the short darśana. But if there is no time, just to that group.

Jayapatākā Swami answering a question: Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi was also called Premanidhi. Because Vidyānidhi means ocean of knowledge and Premanidhi means ocean of love. He was both! He was an ocean of know and ocean of love! Gauuuuuranga! Haribol!

Question: When Gadādhara Paṇḍita saw Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi for the first time, he was not happy to see his opulence. What do we learn from this?

Jayapatākā Swami: That we should not judge a guru by his external appearance. As soon as Mukunda Datta started to sing the glories of Kṛṣṇa, then Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi started to manifest such ecstatic loving symptoms that Gadādhara Paṇḍita realized he had made a great offence, he had judged him based on some external situation.

Question: We see that Caitanya Mahāprabhu had advised Gadādhara Paṇḍita to get the mantra from his dīkṣā-guru. Sometimes we see that some disciples lose their faith in their dīkṣā-guru, they have lost their taste and are attracted to other gurus other than their dīkṣā-gurus. What should they do in this situation?

Jayapatākā Swami: We get the instruction from Lord Caitanya that if we have to get the mantra again, we should get it from our dīkṣā-guru.

Pūjā, sheltered disciple, Ahmedabad, India: Can you please elaborate on what you said: simply remembering his transcendental qualities, the conditioned soul gets purified. Practically how to apply that in our day to day services?

Jayapatākā Swami: Just like there is the verse in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

‘sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’—sarva-śāstre kaya
lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

So, if we hear about Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi, by hearing about him we get purified. Just like when we hear about Lord Kṛṣṇa there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His pastime, Kṛṣṇa and His qualifies, Kṛṣṇa and His devotees.

Lakṣmī Rādhā devī dāsī and Nanda Kiśora dāsa, Kerala: We have heard that Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi was chastised by Lord Jagannātha for considering wrongly about Lord Jagannātha’s servants. In today’s chapter Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi is glorified that he doesn’t have a speck of false ego. How to understand this?

Jayapatākā Swami: It is not an ordinary thing, to be chastised by Lord Jagannātha. As Lord Jagannātha slapped him on his face and his face swelled up. Śo that was in a dream. So that is certainly something truly amazing. So we see Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, he knew all the normal procedures for worshiping the deities. Similarly, also Rāmānujācārya, he was also thinking of similar things. But Lord Jagannātha has His own process of worship and therefore it doesn’t actually match up with the standard procedures of deity worship. So they had put the new cloth with all the starch in in on Lord Jagannātha. Normally, we wash the cloth and then put on the Lord. So he was criticizing why you are putting unwashed cloth. But in Jagannātha Purī it is a different system. So, Lord Jagannātha said, you don’t criticize my devotees, they have their own system. So he was slapped by the Lord. And in his dream, when he woke up his cheeks were swollen. So obviously he had a very special relationship with Kṛṣṇa.