20220110 The Leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, Implores Lord Caitanya, Part 1

The following is a Caitanya lila Compilation given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 10th, 2022 in Sri Dhama Mayapur, 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

Toady we are continuing reading for the compilation of Caitanya līlā book, The Leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, Implores Lord Caitanya, Part 1

Under the section: How All the Residents of Vārāṇasī Became Vaiṣṇavas

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 45.58

? ? Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted his invitation, and the next day, after finishing His noontime activities, He went to the brāhmaṇa’s house.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.58

āra dine gelā prabhu se vipra-bhavane 
dekhilena, vasiyāchena sannyāsīra gaṇe

Translation: The next day, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu went to the house of that brāhmaṇa, He saw all the sannyāsīs of Benares sitting there.

 Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.59

sabā namaskari’ gelā pāda-prakṣālane 
pāda prakṣālana kari vasilā sei sthāne

Translation: As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw the sannyāsīs He immediately offered obeisances, and then He went to wash His feet. After washing His feet, He sat down by the place where He had done so.

Purport: By offering His obeisances to the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very clearly exhibited His humbleness to everyone. Vaiṣṇavas must not be disrespectful to anyone, to say nothing of a sannyāsī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches, amāninā māna-dena: one should always be respectful to others but should not demand respect for himself. A sannyāsī should always walk barefoot, and therefore when he enters a temple or a society of devotees he should first wash his feet and then sit down in a proper place. In India it is still the prevalent custom that one put his shoes in a specified place and then enter the temple barefoot after washing his feet. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is an ideal ācārya, and those who follow in His footsteps should practice the methods of devotional life that He teaches us.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya He was walking barefoot and naturally after paying His obeisances to the sannyāsīs He washed His feet and in this way, He was practicing the third verse of Śikṣāṣṭaka, to be humble, offer respects to others and not expect any respect for oneself.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.60

vasiyā karilā kichu aiśvarya prakāśa 
mahātejomaya vapu koṭi-sūryābhāsa

Translation: After sitting on the ground, Caitanya Mahāprabhu exhibited His mystic power by manifesting an effulgence as brilliant as the illumination of millions of suns.

Purport: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, is full of all potencies. Therefore it is not remarkable for Him to manifest the illumination of millions of suns. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is known as Yogeśvara, the master of all mystic powers. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself; therefore He can exhibit any mystic power.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are very attracted to the impersonal brahma-jyoti, the light of the brahman, so Lord Caitanya by displaying His effulgence naturally could be attractive to all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.61

prabhāve ākarṣila saba sannyāsīra mana 
uṭhila sannyāsī saba chāḍiyā āsana

Translation: When the sannyāsīs saw the brilliant illumination of the body of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, their minds were attracted, and they all immediately gave up their sitting places and stood in respect.

Purport: To draw the attention of common men, sometimes saintly persons, ācāryas and teachers exhibit extraordinary opulences. This is necessary to attract the attention of fools, but a saintly person should not misuse such power for personal sense gratification like false saints who declare themselves to be God. Even a magician can exhibit extraordinary feats that are not understandable to common men, but this does not mean that the magician is God. It is a most sinful activity to attract attention by exhibiting mystic powers and then to utilize this opportunity to declare oneself to be God. A real saintly person never declares himself to be God but always places himself in the position of a servant of God. For a servant of God there is no need to exhibit mystic powers, and he does not like to do so, but on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead a humble servant of God performs his activities in such a wonderful way that no common man can dare try to act like him. Yet a saintly person never takes credit for such actions because he knows very well that when wonderful things are done on his behalf by the grace of the Supreme Lord, all credit goes to the master and not to the servant.

Jayapatākā Swami: In 1969, Śrīla Prabhupāda was received at the Boston Airport, devotees had come from Canada, New York and various cities, when he came, they all paid their obeisances, gave him garlands up to his head. He would unload the garlands then more garlands would come and after that he said, “guru is respected like God, but if he thinks that he is God, he is the opposite, he is not G O D, he is D O G, dog.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.62

prakāśānanda-nāme sarva sannyāsi-pradhāna 
prabhuke kahila kichu kariyā sammāna

Translation: The leader of all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs present was named Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, and after standing up he addressed Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu as follows with great respect.

Purport: As Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu showed respect to all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, similarly the leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, Prakāśānanda, also showed his respects to the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: While Lord Caitanya offered His respects to all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, the leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs offered his respects to Lord Caitanya.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.63

ihāṅ āisa, ihāṅ āisa, śunaha śrīpāda 
apavitra sthāne vaisa, kibā avasāda

Translation: “Please come here. Please come here, Your Holiness. Why do You sit in that unclean place? What has caused Your lamentation?”

Purport: Here is the distinction between Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī. In the material world everyone wants to introduce himself as very important and great, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu introduced Himself very humbly and meekly. The Māyāvādīs were sitting in an exalted position, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu sat in a place that was not even clean. Therefore, the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs thought that He must have been aggrieved for some reason, and Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī inquired about the cause for His lamentation.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, all the sannyāsīs were sitting in a raised area but Lord Caitanya sat down in an area that was not even clean. So, the leader of the sannyāsīs asked to come in their midst and Lord Caitanya’s strategy was most appropriate.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.64

prabhu kahe,—āmi ha-i hīna-sampradāya 
tomā-sabāra sabhāya vasite nā yuyāya

Translation: The Lord replied, “I belong to a lower order of sannyāsīs. Therefore I do not deserve to sit with you.”

Purport: Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are always very puffed up because of their knowledge of Sanskrit and because they belong to the Śaṅkara-sampradāya. They are always under the impression that unless one is a brāhmaṇa and a very good Sanskrit scholar, especially in grammar, one cannot accept the renounced order of life or become a preacher. Māyāvādī sannyāsīs always misinterpret all the śāstras with their word jugglery and grammatical compositions, yet Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya himself condemned such jugglery of words in the verse prāpte sannihite kāle na hi na hi rakṣati ḍukṛñ karaṇe. Ḍukṛñ refers to suffixes and prefixes in Sanskrit grammar. Śaṅkarācārya warned his disciples that if they concerned themselves only with the principles of grammar, not worshiping Govinda, they were fools who would never be saved. Yet in spite of Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya’s instructions, foolish Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are always busy juggling words on the basis of strict Sanskrit grammar.

Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are very puffed up if they hold the elevated sannyāsa title Tīrtha, Āśrama or Sarasvatī. Even among Māyāvādīs, those who belong to other sampradāyas and hold other titles, such as Vana, Araṇya or Bhāratī, are considered to be lower-grade sannyāsīs. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted sannyāsa from the Bhāratī-sampradāya, and thus He considered Himself a lower sannyāsī than Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī. To remain distinct from Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs, the sannyāsīs of the Māyāvādi-sampradāya always think themselves to be situated in a very much elevated spiritual order, but Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in order to teach them how to become humble and meek, accepted Himself as belonging to a lower sampradāya of sannyāsīs. Thus He wanted to point out clearly that a sannyāsī is one who is advanced in spiritual knowledge. One who is advanced in spiritual knowledge should be accepted as occupying a better position than those who lack such knowledge.

The Māyāvādi-sampradāya sannyāsīs are generally known as Vedāntīs, as if Vedānta were their monopoly. Actually, however, Vedāntī refers to a person who perfectly knows Kṛṣṇa. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ: By all the Vedas it is Kṛṣṇa who is to be known. The so-called Māyāvādī Vedāntīs do not know who Kṛṣṇa is; therefore their title of Vedāntī, or “knower of Vedānta philosophy,” is simply a pretension. Māyāvādī sannyāsīs always think of themselves as real sannyāsīs and consider sannyāsīs of the Vaiṣṇava order to be brahmacārīs. A brahmacārī is supposed to engage in the service of a sannyāsī and accept him as his guru. Māyāvādī sannyāsīs therefore declare themselves to be not only gurus but jagad-gurus, or the spiritual masters of the entire world, although, of course, they cannot see the entire world. Sometimes they dress gorgeously and travel on the backs of elephants in processions, and thus they are always puffed up, accepting themselves as jagad-gurus. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, however, has explained that jagad-guru properly refers to one who is the controller of his tongue, mind, words, belly, genitals and anger. Pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt (Upadeśāmṛta 1): such a jagad-guru is completely fit to make disciples all over the world. Due to false prestige, Māyāvādī sannyāsīs who do not have these qualifications sometimes harass and blaspheme a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī who humbly engages in the service of the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya as a perfect ācārya and teacher was teaching all the puffed up Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, how to be humble. Śrīla Prabhupāda he didn’t like to be called as jagat-guru, because the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs had made this title very cheap but actually Śrīla Prabhupāda was the real spiritual master of the whole world. He travelled all over the world and he had disciples from all the different continents. So, he was the real jagat-guru but he didn’t like this term as they made it very cheap.

This is a very important chapter, actually it was placed earlier in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, because the teachings of Lord Caitanya to the Māyāvādīs was so important, we tend to be very influenced by the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, how Caitanya Mahāprabhu very humble came in the midst of all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs and they all stood up and respected Him.

Thus Ends the Chapter Entitled, The Leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, Implores Lord Caitanya, Part 1

Under the section: How All the Residents of Vārāṇasī Became Vaiṣṇavas