20230109 Jagannātha Gives Protection to Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka Because Lord Caitanya Wants to Give Protection

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 9th, 2023 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!

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Dear Devotees! Today we will continue with the compilation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book. Today's chapter is entitled as:

Jagannātha Gives Protection to Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka Because Lord Caitanya Wants to Give Protection
Under the section: The Deliverance of Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.59

kāśīmiśrera āgamana; tāṅhāke svīya ālālanātha-yātrā-jñāpana —

hena-kāle kāśī-miśra āilā prabhu-sthāne
prabhu tāṅre kahe kichu sodvega-vacane

Translation: At that time Kāśī Miśra came to the residence of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and the Lord talked with him with some agitation.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord was expressing His displeasure at being disturbed.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.60

“ihāṅ rahite nāri, yāmu ālālanātha
nānā upadrava ihāṅ, nā pāi soyātha”

Translation: “I cannot stay here any longer,” the Lord said. “I shall go to Ālālanātha. There are too many disturbances here, and I cannot get any rest.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.61

bhavānanda-rāyera vaṁśyagaṇera sambandhe abhiyoga :—

bhavānanda-rāyera goṣṭhī kare rāja-viṣaya
nānā-prakāre kare tārā rāja-dravya vyaya

Translation: “All the family members of Bhavānanda Rāya are engaged in government service, but they spend the government’s revenue in various ways.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya is complaining how Bhavānanda Rāya’s vaṃsaj, family members are spending the King’s revenue, and not giving that to the King when they should.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.62

rājāra ki doṣa? rājā nija-dravya cāya
dite nāre dravya, daṇḍa āmāre jānāya

Translation: “What is the fault on the part of the King? He wants the government’s money. However, when they are punished for failing to pay the government its due, they come to Me to release them.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya wanted to concentrate on Kṛṣṇa consciousness, these things are coming as a disturbance.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.63

rājā gopīnāthe yadi cāṅge caḍāila
cāri-bāre loke āsi’ more jānāila

Translation: “When the King put Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka on the cāṅga, messengers came four times to inform Me about the incident.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is complaining that He was being disturbed four times by this material incident.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.64

prabhura viṣaya-kathāya vītaspṛhā-jñāpana —

bhikṣuka sannyāsī āmi nirjana-vāsī
āmāya duḥkha deya, nija-duḥkha kahi’ āsi’

Translation: “As a beggar sannyāsī, a mendicant, I wish to live alone in a solitary place, but these people come to tell Me about their unhappiness and disturb Me.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya wants to think about Lord Kṛṣṇa, these people are disturbing Him with material news.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.65

āji tāre jagannātha karilā rakṣaṇa
kāli ke rākhibe, yadi nā dibe rāja-dhana?

Translation: “Jagannātha has saved him once from death today, but if tomorrow he again does not pay what he owes the treasury, who will give him protection?

Purport: The Supreme Personality of Godhead will certainly protect a devotee who does something sinful accidentally.

As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.30-31):

“Even if one commits the most abominable actions, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination. He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.” However, if a devotee or so-called devotee purposefully commits sinful activities continually in the hope that Kṛṣṇa will give him protection, Kṛṣṇa will not protect him. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, kāli ke rākhibe, yadi nā dibe rāja-dhana?: “Jagannātha has saved Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka from being killed by the King today, but if he commits the same offense again, who will give him protection?” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu thus warns all such foolish devotees that Jagannātha will not protect them if they continue to commit offenses.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, in other words Kṛṣṇa protected Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka one time. But Lord Caitanya is stating that if again and again he commits the same offense he cannot expect Lord Jagannātha to protect him.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.66

viṣayīra vārtā śuni’ kṣubdha haya mana
tāte ihāṅ rahi’ mora nāhi prayojana”

Translation: “If I hear about the activities of materialistic persons, My mind becomes agitated. There is no need for Me to stay here and be disturbed in that way.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya is stating that He will leave Jagannātha Purī if He is disturbed in this way.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.67

kāśīmiśrera prabhuke āśvāsana o stuti :—

kāśī-miśra kahe prabhura dhariyā caraṇe
“tumi kene ei bāte kṣobha kara mane?

Translation: Kāśī Miśra caught hold of the Lord’s lotus feet and said, “Why should You be agitated by these affairs?

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.68

viṣṇuprītikāmanā vyatīta svīya jaḍendriya-tarpaṇārtha viṣṇura nikaṭa phalakāmanā—mūrkhatā o vāṇijyamātra

sannyāsī virakta tomāra kā-sane sambandha?
vyavahāra lāgi’ tomā bhaje, sei jñāna-andha

Translation: “You are a renounced sannyāsī. What connections do You have? One who worships You for some material purpose is blind to all knowledge.”

Purport: Becoming a devotee of the Lord to serve material purposes is a great mistake. Many people become showbottle devotees for material profits. Indeed, materialistic persons sometimes take to professional devotional service and keep Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as a means of livelihood. None of this, however, is approved. In the book known as Sapta-śatī, as mentioned by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, one can discover how a person worshiping the goddess Durgā begs her for different varieties of material profit. Such activities are very popular among people in general, but they are the attempts of foolish, blind people (sei jñāna-andha).

A materialist does not actually know why one should become a devotee. A devotee’s only concern is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Pure devotional service is defined by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

One should be completely free from all material desires and should serve Kṛṣṇa simply to please Him. When people become interested in their own sense gratification (bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī), some of them desire to enjoy the material world to the fullest extent, some of them desire to be liberated and merge into the existence of Brahman, and others want to perform magic through mystic power and thus become incarnations of God. These are all against the principles of devotional service. One must be free from all material desires. The desire of the impersonalist to merge into the existence of Brahman is also material because such an impersonalist wants to gratify his senses by merging into the existence of Kṛṣṇa instead of serving His lotus feet. Even if such a person merges into the Brahman effulgence, he falls down again into material existence.

As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32):

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

Because Māyāvādī philosophers have no information regarding the transcendental service of the Lord, even after attaining liberation from material activities and merging into the Brahman effulgence, they must come down again to this material world.

Jayapatākā Swami: Since the impersonal brahman has no activities, eventually someone want to act, and they don’t know about spiritual activities of serving the Supreme Lord, they fall down into the material world and serve the material energy.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.69

tomāra bhajana-phale tomāte ‘prema-dhana’
viṣaya lāgi’ tomāya bhaje, sei mūrkha jana

Translation: Kāśī Miśra continued, “If one engages in devotional service for Your satisfaction, this will result in his increasingly awakening his dormant love for You. But if one engages in Your devotional service for material purposes, he should be considered a number-one fool.

Purport: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments that there are many materialistic persons who become preachers, gurus, religionists or philosophers only for the sake of maintaining a high standard of living and sense gratification for themselves and their families. Sometimes they adopt the dress of a sannyāsī or preacher. They train some of their family members as lawyers and continually seek help from a high court to acquire riches on the plea of maintaining temples. Although such persons may call themselves preachers, live in Vṛndāvana or Navadvīpa, and also print many religious books, it is all for the same purpose, namely to earn a living to maintain their wives and children. They may also professionally recite the Bhāgavatam or other scriptures, worship the Deity in the temple and initiate disciples. Making a show of devotional paraphernalia, they may also collect money from the public and use it to cure the disease of some family member or near relative. Sometimes they become bābājīs or collect money on the plea of worshiping the poor, whom they call daridra-nārāyaṇa, or for social and political upliftment. Thus they spread a network of business schemes to collect money for sense gratification by cheating people in general, who have no knowledge of pure devotional service. Such cheaters cannot understand that by offering devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can be elevated to a position of eternal servitude to the Lord, which is even greater than the position of Brahmā and other demigods. Unfortunately, fools have no understanding of the perpetual pleasure of devotional service.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is giving some practical examples how one can misuse devotional service. They say in the West, if the shoe fits, wear it. If these examples apply to anyone then it is appropriate to consider them as bogus, and not using the opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa for the right purpose or right reason. So, here His Divine Grace does not mention any names, but certainly if one introspects, he can find people who fit these descriptions.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.70

prabhuprītikāmī niṣkiñcana śuddha-bhaktagaṇa :—

tomā lāgi’ rāmānanda rājya tyāga kailā
tomā lāgi’ sanātana ‘viṣaya’ chāḍilā

Translation: “It is only for Your sake that Rāmānanda Rāya resigned from the governorship of South India and Sanātana Gosvāmī gave up his post as minister.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.71

tomā lāgi’ raghunātha sakala chāḍila
hethāya tāhāra pitā viṣaya pāṭhāila

Translation: “It is for Your sake that Raghunātha dāsa gave up all his family relationships. His father sent money and men here to serve him.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.72

tomāra caraṇa-kṛpā hañāche tāhāre
chatre māgi’ khāya, ‘viṣaya’ sparśa nāhi kare

Translation: “However, because he has received the mercy of Your lotus feet, he does not even accept his father’s money. Instead he eats by begging alms from centers for the distribution of food.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, here are different examples of devotees who had forsaken material in order to serve the Lord.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.73

rāmānandānuja gopīnātha sakāma vaṇik nahena

rāmānandera bhāi gopīnātha-mahāśaya
tomā haite viṣaya-vāñchā, tāra icchā naya

Translation: “Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka is a good gentleman. He does not desire material benefits from You.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.74

prabhura ekānta śaraṇāgata gopīnāthera nidhanodyoga-darśane tat hitaiṣigaṇera prabhukṛpā-yājñā —

tāra duḥkha dekhi’ tāra sevakādi-gaṇa
tomāre jānāila,—yāte ‘ananya-śaraṇa’

Translation: “It is not Gopīnātha who sent all those men so that You would release him from his plight. Rather, his friends and servants, seeing his distressed condition, informed You because they all knew that Gopīnātha is a soul surrendered unto You.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.75

śuddha-bhaktera saṁjñā —

sei ‘śuddha-bhakta’, ye tomā bhaje tomā lāgi’
āpanāra sukha-duḥkhe haya bhoga-bhogī’

Translation: “Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka is a pure devotee who worships You only for Your satisfaction. He does not care about his personal happiness or distress, for that is the business of a materialist.

Jayapatākā Swami: The glories of Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka are being mentioned here, that he is not a business man in his devotional activities, he did notsend the people and this is the instruction for everyone that how he did not send the people, but people were naturally inclined to help him.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.76

śuddha-bhaktera ācāra vyavahāra :—

tomāra anukampā cāhe, bhaje anukṣaṇa
acirāt mile tāṅre tomāra caraṇa

Translation: “One who engages in Your devotional service twenty-four hours a day, desiring only Your mercy, will very soon attain shelter at Your lotus feet.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this is the secret of success, simply engage in the service of Kṛṣṇa and you will very quickly achieve His shelter.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.77

śrīmad-bhāgavate (10.14.8)—

tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

Translation: “One who seeks Your compassion and thus tolerates all kinds of adverse conditions due to the karma of his past deeds, who engages always in Your devotional service with his mind, words and body, and who always offers obeisances unto You is certainly a bona fide candidate for becoming Your unalloyed devotee.’

Purport: This is a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.8).

Jayapatākā Swami: Here Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives us the instruction how to achieve the Lord’s mercy.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.78

nīlācale thākibāra janya prabhuke kāśīmiśrera prārthanā :—

ethā tumi vasi’ raha, kene yābe ālālanātha?
keha tomā nā śunābe viṣayīra bāt

Translation: “Kindly stay here at Jagannātha Purī. Why should You go to Ālālanātha? Henceforward, no one will approach You about material affairs.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Kāśīnātha Miśra is requesting Lord Caitanya to remain in Jagannātha Purī, that no one will tell Him material affairs in the future.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.79

prabhukṛpātei bhāvikāle gopīnāthera sva-rakṣāya niścayatā :—

yadi vā tomāra tāre rākhite haya mana
āji ye rākhila, sei karibe rakṣaṇa”

Translation: Finally Kāśī Miśra told the Lord, “If You want to give protection to Gopīnātha, then Lord Jagannātha, who protected him today, will also protect him in the future.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, if Lord Caitanya wants to help anybody Lord Jagannātha will always help them.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 9.80

pratāparudrera svīya guru miśra-gṛhe gamana —

eta bali’ kāśī-miśra gelā sva-mandire
madhyāhne pratāparudra āilā tāṅra ghare

Translation: After saying this, Kāśī Miśra left the abode of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and returned to his own temple. At noon King Pratāparudra came to Kāśī Miśra’s home.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, tomorrow we will find out for what things King Pratāparudra came to Kāśī Miśra’s house.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Jagannātha Gives Protection to Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka Because Lord Caitanya Wants to Give Protection
Under the section: The Deliverance of Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka