20230511 Evening Address

The following is an evening address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 11th,2023 in Houston, Texas, USA.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Should I tell the pastimes of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda? Are you sure? Short one or long one? (Long one!) You see, I had a stroke in 2008 so half my … face is paralyzed. So in case someone had difficulty in understanding what I say, he will be repeating me. So Lord Caitanya, He pulled Lord Nityānanda Prabhu over and He said, it is not good that both of us are here in Jagannātha Purī. You should go back to Bengal and continue what I started. We promised, when We came down from the spiritual world that We would deliver four kinds of people who would normally do not get delivered – the nīca, the lowborn, the mūrkha, foolish, who think they are the body, they don’t realize they are eternal spirit soul, the patīta, the fallen, those who are breaking the regulative principles and the duḥkhī, those who are suffering some kind of material pangs. Is there anyone like that? So, of course, you are all very elevated souls, but living in the material world, there is definitely some kind of suffering. So Lord Nityānanda, He told Lord Caitanya that I need some manpower. So, Lord Caitanya sent about 40 or 50 devotees with Him. Normally, it takes two or three weeks to walk from Jagannātha Purī to Bengal, it took them about 3 months, because the whole way they were playing out Kṛṣṇa-līlā and they lost track where the road was! They were in such ecstasy that they were completely lost , where are we? Where is the road to Bengal? Someone said 10 miles that way. They headed that way, they were in such ecstasy they crossed over the road, then they got lost again!Where are we? Someone said 10 miles that way is the road to Bengal. They were going like this instead, finally they reached Pāṇihāti. Rāghava Paṇḍita said how many people are you? 40 or 50, ok you go take a bath in the Ganges, come back after an hour, I will keep a feast ready for you. Are any of you cooks? Can you cook a feast for 50 people in an hour? It is tough. But Rāghava Paṇḍita and his sister Damayanti were super expert. So they prepared a big feast for the devotees, for Lord Nityānanda and His associates, and then they rested a little bit and then they started kīrtana. They went on to Koradaha, Ādi Saptagrāma and finally ended up in Navadvīpa. There they saw Mother Śacī and Lord Nityānanda told her something about Nimāi, Her child. She requested to please stay for a while in Navadvīpa, so I will see You and get some information.

Lord Caitanya He took sannyāsa, He had a very austere life. But, He told Lord Nityānanda that You should be like a prince. So then, Lord Nityānanda had a pearl necklace, diamond earrings, rings on each finger with jewels, ankle bells of silver, all kinds of arm bands. He was really opulent. He would go with His associates and they would do kīrtana. He was very attractive. But then a gang of dacoits thought this person has lakhs and lakhs and lakhs of rupees! Caṇḍī, she has given us mercy! All the wealth in one place, let us just take it! So, the leader of the dacoits was a sinful brāhmaṇa. Although born as a brāhmaṇa, he kept bad association. He was the commander, the leader of the thieves. So, they then planned and he said, today we will go and rob Lord Nityānanda. So they first sent a spy to see what was happening. Lord Nityānanda was taking prasāda and around them they saw a whole bunch of devotees chanting and dancing: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! So he went back and said, bhāta khācche – that is a very crude way of speaking, we don’t usually say that. Anyway they were dacoits – it means, He is eating His rice. Many other people are awake, they are singing something I don’t know. The brāhmaṇa said, it is alright, they will fall asleep after they eat, let us wait. They sat under a tree waiting. They were waiting and waiting, just to rob Lord Nityānanda. One was saying I want to take His earrings, another one was saying diamonds wow! another said I want to take his pearl necklace. Indirectly they were meditating on Lord Nityānanda. Another said I want to take His ankle bells. Pretty soon, snore! Snore! they all fell asleep. So Lord Nityānanda He is the expansion of Kṛṣṇa, He is Balarāma and Yogamāyā is serving Him. So He put all of them asleep. Even though the sun rose, they were snoring! They only woke up when the crows started cawing, caw! Caw! One of them said, Hey, you are asleep. The other said what about you! Ha! So they had all their weapons there, they had brought their swords and tridents and things, they could not go, they had to quickly hide them. Otherwise people would find them out. So they hid them and one of them said this is because we did not worship Goddess Caṇḍī, we did not worship her so we should offer tonight win, meat. They were dacoits, they are very sinful people. They did a big pūjā that evening. Then they went back to rob Nitāi. But wow! They saw these soldiers all around the house. Strong guys, heavy, tulasī beads around their necks, with weapons and tilaka, they were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Each one of them looked like they had come from some other planet, they were such strong guys. They could easily take up a hundred people, each one! Then they had to hurry and quick. They might see us. We will be in big trouble! We will go back, there must be some king or somebody seeing the avadhūta, and he had all his soldiers around. We will come back after a week or two. Then they came back but then a storm cloud came over and it became very dark, they could not see anything, they were like blinded by darkness and it started to rain and hailstorms coming down, and some fell in a canal, some fell in a pit where they throw the organic things, their blood was being sucked by leaches, ow! Some even broke their bones, around the house there was a trench, someone fell in the trench! So much suffering. Hailstorms, Indradeva sending down hailstorms!

Finally, the brāhmaṇa, the sinful brāhmaṇa, he came to his senses. It is not an accident this is all happening, He is actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is Bhagavān! That is why all these things are happening to us. Actually, Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, He gives us memory, and forgetfulness. Lord Nityānanda we know that He is very humorous and so here is a gang of dacoits, they wanted to rob Lord Nityānanda, so that is ok, He would play with them. Finally, He played tough. They also played, they came with their swords and tridents, and then they realized we are messing with the wrong guy. And the brāhmaṇa came and he started crying and he said when we trip and fall, you have to take shelter of the same earth to stand up. So we have offended you but we have to take Your shelter. But all the devotees they said, You cannot trust these thieves. Maybe he is just saying this but he wants to take advantage. There is a saying in Bengali ati bhakti chorer lakṣaṇa. Too much bhakti is a sign of a thief. It takes a while to become a pure devotee. How is this thief overnight he is like surrendering, he is crying. Lord Nityānanda told him tell Me your realizations. He said, You see, I came to harm You, I came to steal from You. I am a very sinful person. My whole life I have only done evil things. But by Your mercy I could realize that You are unlimitedly merciful! So like that he explained the whole thing, I mean thieves don’t usually explain. They never say I came to steal from You. But he was revealing what their plan was, how they fell asleep, how these soldiers were around, how they fell in the ditches, the hailstorms. I should go to the Ganges and take my life, I am such a sinful person. Lord Nityānanda, He said, I will forgive you for all your sins, but you have to promise not to do any of these sinful activities. You bring your other gang of thieves and have them also surrender. So like this He had them all started chanting the holy name: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gauuuuurāṅga! Nityānanda! Nityānanda! Nityānanda! The whole gang of thieves became part of the saṅkīrtana movement, that is just because of the mercy of Lord Nityānanda. You are all very fortunate that you have Gaura-Nitāi, Nitāi-Gauracandra and Nitāi Caitanyacandra, and by Their mercy you have Rādhā-Nīlamādhava and Rādha-Giridhāri. So, normally people think they are the body. They simply pray. I gifted my doctor in Hopkins, I gave her the Science of Self Realization book, and she said normally I pray to God to give me things. Now I realize that I am already receiving so many things, I should pray to God to serve Him. That is what the whole secret of bhakti-yoga is. That we should serve Kṛṣṇa, that is the real happiness. Material happiness is very superficial and the things that give us happiness also give us sadness. They don’t actually touch the soul. But if we serve Kṛṣṇa, then we get spiritual bliss, we get ecstasy. We were recently reading. I am trying to combine all the books, tithis, that I can find, on Lord Caitanya in one, and now I am at the end of the book now. So there, Lord Caitanya We know that Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī combined, that Kṛṣṇa took the heart of Rādhārāṇī, and Her color and became Gaurāṅga. So at the end of that pastime He was trying to research the mood of Radharani. HH Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he had us reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta and all these pastimes. He had made this great contribution to the leaders in ISKCON.

Lord Caitanya He would see this sand dune on the beach in Purī and He would think it was the Cātaka parvata in Govardhana. He would run to it, He would get stunned. Usually one experiences ecstasies one after another. Crying, voice choking up, laughing, perspiring, stunned like that. Hairs standing on end. But Lord Caitanya was experiencing all the eight simultaneously! Unbelievable! I mean, He would perspire to the extent blood would be coming out. He would be crying. Unbelievable! People would be seeing this and think He is suffering or something! Then He fell unconscious on the ground. Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, he started kīrtana and everyone doing kīrtana loudly. Then Lord Caitanya would come back to His external consciousness. He looked around, why am I here? I was in Govardhana, I was with Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and the gopīs told me to pick some flowers for Kṛṣṇa. Why did you call me back here? I was so happy there! And I am here again at Purī beach! So Lord Caitanya was experiencing these great ecstasies, and it is said that if we hear that, we naturally develop love of Kṛṣṇa, we want to take the shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Because Lord Caitanya is revealing how Rādhārāṇī feels for Kṛṣṇa. I will end up here.

Rukmiṇī, She told Kṛṣṇa, You know everything. You know what Brahmā is doing in Satya-loka. You know what Lord Siva is doing in Kailāsa, You know what is going on in the ananta koṭi brahmāṇḍas, the millions of unlimited universes, but there is one thing You don’t know, I know, Rādhārāṇi knows, but You don’t know. YOU DON’T KNOW. No one told that to Kṛṣṇa that there was that there is something He did not know. What is that? You know everything but no one is above You. But there is one thing I know, Rādhārāṇi knows but you don’t know! What is that? How much Your devotees love You, in what way we love You, You don’t know! Then He said, I will come in Kali-yuga as My own devotee. I WILL COME IN KALI-YUGA AS MY DEVOTEE, I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE! That is what Lord Caitanya is. He came as His devotee, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He came as a devotee for three reasons – one is to start the saṅkīrtana move. One is to experience the love, the happiness of the devotee, and there is one very secret reason, you know that? Maybe I should not tell! Do you know? The secret reason why He comes, the most confidential reason? Do you know? He comes to research why Rādhārāṇī experiences greater happiness than He does. That is why at the end of Caitanya-caritāmṛta the pastimes of Lord Caitanya where He is practically mad after Kṛṣṇa, He is revealing what Rādhārāṇī feels for Kṛṣṇa. So, all these things are very confidential things. And what you get, this is available to you. I mean, out of millions of pious people, one realizes that he wants to have spiritual knowledge. Out of millions of jñānīs, who want spiritual knowledge, one is a mukta, a liberated soul, he actually achieves liberation. Out of millions of muktas, one is a bhakta, one is a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. That Lord Caitanya is a priceless jewel, He is not considering who is qualified, who is not qualified. If you want it, He gives it to you. He even gave it to some people who did not want it. Nitāi, He gave it to the thieves! They wanted His pearl necklace, they wanted His diamond earrings, but they got love of Godhead! So who was the winner? They got something much more valuable!

Anyway, I am very happy to be here. I was told I was supposed to give you blessings. I have Lord Jagannātha’s toothbrush. Normally we think, "Oh! Toothbrush? But Bhagavān’s toothbrush is very pure! So I can give that.