20210924 Question and Answers

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

Jayapatākā Swami: So I said that I will answer three questions – two from the Facebook English and one from Facebook Bengali.

Question: Is it figurative or real – Lord Caitanya’s body liquefied.

Jayapatākā Swami: As we said to His Holiness Jayādvaita Mahārāja, that He can do anything. He can liquefy, then He can solidify. We cannot put anything beyond Him. He can do everything! Just like He glanced at the trees, and it produced flowers, even in the wrong season. So like that sometimes He was so ecstatic, He would be laughing, dancing, and before it was said, when He heard Vṛndāvana, His ecstasy increased a hundred times. When He was in Mathurā, His ecstasy increased a 1000-times, and when He was in Vṛndāvana, His ecstasy increased ten thousand times! It is unimaginable! His normal ecstasy is so great, and how it multiplied by ten thousand times, is inconceivable! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Are the pastimes of Gaura-maṇḍala and Vraja-maṇḍala equivalent?

Jayapataka Swami: Rādhārāṇī played the flute and attracted Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa said You made this beautiful dhāma for Me, Navadvīpa dhāma. This place is non-different from Vṛndāvana. And so then Kṛṣṇa merged with Rādhārāṇī. They were one, They became two and then became one again. And then He was Lord Caitanya. He had the color and heart of Rādhārāṇī but He was Kṛṣṇa. So, Kṛṣṇa said that Navadvīpa was non-different from Vṛndāvana. And Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sang that gaura-maṇḍala-bhīmi, jeba jāne cintāmaṇi, tāra haya vraja-bhūmi vāsa - of course, we think this place is sacred because Lord Caitanya was here. But Lord Caitanya, He was enjoying Vṛndāvana. So here we go on Navadvīpa parikramā and remember the pastimes of Lord Caitanya.

Ikṣvāku dāsa: I recently heard from a reputed ISKCON sannyāsī that Hari-bhakti-vilāsa is not a śāstra because it falls rather in the category of sādhu and guru and therefore its statements cannot be taken in the absolute sense. What is the criteria of what is considered or accepted as śāstra, since many of the statements from the recognized śāstras come from sādhus and gurus, not exclusively from the Lord for example Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā etc.?

Jayapatākā Swami: The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa is a collection of quotes from different śāstras, which was presented by Sanātana Gosvāmī. So these quotes were presented like, what is the way to observe Bhiṣma-Pañcaka. So he quotes different Vedas, different śāstras, Purāṇas. So the person who has told you this, he doesn’t understand what Sanātana Gosvāmī was doing. He did not write his own opinion, he quoted different śāstras. Hare Kṛṣṇa!