20230603 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.12.1-6 (Pānihāṭi Festival Address)

The following is a morning class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 3rd,2023 in Dallas, Texas, USA. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.1-6.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.1

śrī-nārada uvāca

brahmacārī gurukule
vasan dānto guror hitam
ācaran dāsavan nīco
gurau sudṛḍha-sauhṛdaḥ

Translation: Nārada Muni said: A student should practice completely controlling his senses. He should be submissive and should have an attitude of firm friendship for the spiritual master. With a great vow, the brahmacārī should live at the gurukula, only for the benefit of the guru.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.2

sāyaṁ prātar upāsīta
gurv-agny-arka-surottamān
sandhye ubhe ca yata-vāg
japan brahma samāhitaḥ

Translation: At both junctions of day and night, namely, in the early morning and in the evening, he should be fully absorbed in thoughts of the spiritual master, fire, the sun-god and Lord Viṣṇu and by chanting the Gāyatrī mantra he should worship them.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.3

chandāṁsy adhīyīta guror
āhūtaś cet suyantritaḥ
upakrame ‘vasāne ca
caraṇau śirasā namet

Translation: Being called by the spiritual master, the student should study the Vedic mantras regularly. Every day, before beginning his studies and at the end of his studies, the disciple should respectfully offer obeisances unto the spiritual master.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.4

Translation: Carrying pure kuśa grass in his hand, the brahmacārī should dress regularly with a belt of straw and with deerskin garments. He should wear matted hair, carry a rod and waterpot and be decorated with a sacred thread, as recommended in the śāstras.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.5

Translation: The brahmacārī should go out morning and evening to collect alms, and he should offer all that he collects to the spiritual master. He should eat only if ordered to take food by the spiritual master; otherwise, if the spiritual master does not give this order, he may sometimes have to fast.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.6

Translation: A brahmacārī should be quite well-behaved and gentle and should not eat or collect more than necessary. He must always be active and expert, fully believing in the instructions of the spiritual master and the śāstra. Fully controlling his senses, he should associate only as much as necessary with women or those controlled by women.

Purport: A brahmacārī should be very careful in associating with men who are attached to women.

Jayapatākā Swami: So these verses are telling about brahmacārī life and this is a traditional system. Here, Śrīla Prabhupāda told us, they had a system that unless the spiritual master told you, you could not take prasāda. But since we started out in ISKCON we had 11 gurus and 108 temples, and now we have about 150 gurus and 800 temples! So, it is not possible under these circumstances to have this. But Śrīla Prabhupāda, he did say, in 1975 in ISKCON Māyāpur, that we should have ten thousand initiating gurus, and after ten thousand we should have a hundred thousand and after a hundred thousand, we should have a million and after a million we should have ten million. So, the GBC has recently figured out that we need to have a lot more gurus. And they passed a legislation saying that even disciples could initiate in the presence of their guru, if the guru orders them to go through the process of being recognized as an initiating guru. So, I personally like to see hundreds of my disciples become spiritual masters.

But we also saw that Śrīla Prabhupāda had said in 1969, that men or women to be a guru, they should have a Bhakti-vedānta degree. Since I have been stating that I would like to have many spiritual masters. This morning also, His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami had mentioned that three-year-old devotees were saying, I also want to give initiation too! Of course, the GBC says they should be second initiated for ten years and Śrīla Prabhupāda had said they should have the Bhakti-vedānta degree. That time there was no Caitanya-caritāmṛta. He said they could study the Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Afterwards, the Bhakti-Sārvabhauma was including the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I heard a rumor that maybe in Vṛndāvana, they are just starting it, at least Bhakti-vedānta for the new devotees. For the very old devotees and Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples, if they have been in Kṛṣṇa consciousness this long, at least have the Bhakti-vedānta degree, and they could go through of the process of being spiritual masters. Now, we are hearing that many devotees, they are saying, oh, no, it is not for me. You see, every devotee should want to take responsibility.

I remember that Lord Caitanya was telling Sāraṅga Ṭhākura that he should make at least one disciples. He told many times. Finally, Sāraṅga Ṭhākura decided, “Anyway, the first person I see tomorrow I will initiate Him.” He went to the Ganges and took his early morning bath. Just it so happened a dead body, drowned in the Ganges was floating down the Ganges, bit by a snake or something, anyway it touched him. This is the first person he saw, he gave the mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! And he came back to life! Then he became one of the dynamic preachers of Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement, and he was known as Murāri Caitanya and because he had already died, he was not afraid of death. He would ride on the back of tigers in the village and wow! and the tigers were like eight feet long and weighed over a ton! And usually, they eat people! But he was riding a tiger and saying, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! And they surrendered! He was kind of an active preacher. He wanted to chant japa silently, so he would go into the Ganges and chant for two or three days. I mean, he did amazing things. Anyway, he had thousands of disciples, and Sāraṅga Ṭhākura had one and that one had thousands. So, this way the saṅkīrtana movement expands.

Now here it tells brahmacārīs to be very careful talking to women and so on. In the Srimad-bhagavatam 9th canto, 14th chapter 36th verse, one of the apsaras says that she is not normally very good association. But in the purport Śrīla Prabhupāda says that in spiritual life men, women, śūdra, if they use the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are all equal. So, we want all the people to be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Lord Caitanya called Lord Nityānanda in Jagannātha Purī and told Him, We have descended to deliver four kinds of people who normally do not get delivered - the mūrkhas, the foolish who think they are the body, the nīcas, those who are low born, the patita the fallen, they have broken the regulative principles and those who are duḥkhīs, sad and distressed. So He told Lord Nityānanda to go back to Bengal and take it from where They left off. So Lord Nityānanda took about 50 devotees and went back to Bengal. The first place He reached in Bengal was Pānihāṭi. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave Atlanta, this temple, the name New Pānihāṭi – he came here and he sat on the vyāsāsana and chanting before Gaura-Nitāi and sang parama karuṇa for the first time. I heard that today we will hear from some of the Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples who are present.

So, this is a very special place. And here Lord Nityānanda, He had special pastimes in Pānihāṭi. So, Pānihāṭi was like His place and then He had a house in Khaḍadaha which is about 6 km away and He went preaching all over Bengal. He did kīrtana in Ādi-saptagrāma which was a place of gold merchants and jewelers. Normally, they were only busy making money, they were not known to be very spiritual. But He inspired all of them to become very Kṛṣṇa conscious. And He went house to house, shop to shop, with His kīrtana party and all the people who lived in Ādi-saptagrāma became devotees. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is the descendant of one of those brāhmaṇa associates. Like this, Lord Nityānanda went to various places and did His saṅkīrtana.

One day He was sitting under a banyan tree on the side of the Ganges. That tree is still there. I went with Śrīla Prabhupāda on at least two occasions and he said, we should have a temple here in Pānihāṭi, one of the places where Lord Caitanya Lord Nityānanda eternally reside. He said we should have a boat service going from Calcutta to Māyāpur and stop in Pānihāṭi, and take flat rice and yogurt breakfast and then go on to Māyāpur. So like that he gave some plans and there he received the śālagrāma-śilā which was the first śālagrāma-śilā in ISKCON, and many things happened.

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā there it tells about Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was the heir of a very rich family. His uncle and father, received about 12 million gold coins a year. Now, one ounce of gold is worth 1700 USD. I don’t know how much the gold coin weighed, it might be a tola, about 11 grams. Anyway, things then were very cheap. And one gold coin, could buy groceries for a whole year, or a fraction of that. So he was making 12 million gold coins! He was like a multi-billionaire. He was trying to join Lord Caitanya, but his father and uncle had their own army. They would catch him and bring him back. He even got to Lord Caitanya in Śāntipura. Lord Caitanya told him not be a monkey renunciant, and just renounce family life and imitate the monkey. Anyway, he went to Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya told him, keep your heart always on Kṛṣṇa and do your outwardly activities very responsibly to family. Like a married woman who has a lover other than her husband, she would do her household affairs very carefully, but her heart would always be with her lover. So like that, keep your heart with Kṛṣṇa but outwardly do your outwardly activities, responsibilities. So he did that for about a year and then problems had happened, but that year also is given.

He decided he would go and see Lord Nityānanda. And then he saw Nitāi was sitting under the tree, and he bowed down from a distance. One of the secretaries of Lord Nityānanda spotted him, “There is Raghunātha dāsa, he is bowing down.” Lord Nityānanda said, “Oh, he is like a thief! He always stays away! Come here I will punish you!” Normally, nobody wants to be punished. He stayed there paying his obeisances. Lord Nityānanda came up and put His lotus foot on his head and said, “I am punishing you today!” Lord Nityānanda is known to be very funny and His punishment is like a blessing in disguise. He said, “My punishment is that you have to feed all my associates ciḍā-dadhi, flat rice and yogurt, with fruits and flat rice with condensed milk with fruits and things.” And he was a billionaire, to feed a breakfast cereal is no big deal! But to get the mercy of Lord Nityānanda to feed Him all the associates, that was a real blessing! So then Raghunātha dāsa, he accepted the punishment very willingly, and he had his secretaries go out and buy clay pots, flat rice, yogurt and fruits. Naturally, the word came out mahotsava! Feast! Feast! Everybody suddenly became the associates of Lord Nityānanda! The whole field filled up with devotees. Meanwhile, Raghunātha, he was mixing in these big pots with ciḍā-dadhi. So, Lord Nityānanda, he gave Him seven pots and everyone who came, they got 2 pots, one yogurt and one condensed milk and flat rice and fruits. So, since Lord Nityānanda got seven. We thought, here in the USA in New Pānihāṭi dhāma, we should make as many preparations as we could. From tropical countries we have the tropical fruits like mango, litchis, bananas, here in the West we have peaches, plums, apples. There are various berries like black berries, blue berries, and Americans they like salads! So we thought, we would make some salads – Italian salads, Mexican salads, American salads, like that. South India hot, super-hot and North Indian, somewhat hot! So we had like six varieties of salty because salad preparations. So, like this we came up with 18. But doing things in the American way! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, you are Americans, Europeans, do things like that.

Since He had seven pots, Lord Nityānanda, He thought let us see what we can do. Anyway, Lord Nityānanda, He came in the mood of a cowherd boy. He brought Lord Caitanya from South India by meditation, although He was invisible to almost everyone. He, Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda walked through the crowd of people. They were seeing that the whole field was filled, the field was filled, then the people were also standing on the Ganges bank. And after they filled up the banks, they started standing in the Ganges, up to their knees and everyone was taking their two pots with ciḍā with yogurt and ciḍā with condensed milk. Lord Nityānanda, along with Lord Caitanya who was invisible, They walked together and Lord Nityānanda took some ciḍā from some others pots and fed into the mouth of Lord Caitanya. People could see Him take a morsel and put into the air and it shoo! disappeared. Lord Caitanya would take a morsel from another pot and put it in the mouth of Lord Nityānanda. Those who were very observant, they could see some ciḍā-dadhi rise into the air and disappear.

Rāghava Paṇḍita, he came and told Lord Nityānanda that I made lunch for you. But Lord Nitāi, He said, “I am a cowherd boy, I have been talking picnic with My cowherd friends, I will take lunch later in the evening.” He gave two pots to Rāghava Paṇḍita. Like Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in Vṛndāvana, with cowherd boys, they would take prasāda on the side of the Yamunā. And somehow Lord Caitanya, Lord Kṛṣṇa, He did a miracle that each boy thought that Kṛṣṇa was looking at him. How is it possible to be looking at everyone? For Kṛṣṇa, He can do anything, it is possible. So that is aa very special pastime Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma and B eating a picnic with the cowherd boys. So Gaura-Nitāi They were reliving that pastime. Meanwhile, Rāghava Paṇḍita was having the people cut the mangoes, cut the fruits and mixing, and giving out to all the people who came.

I attended a feast where, Haridāsa Ṭhākura in his śrīpāṭ, there I heard what they call, mānsa-bhoga which means clay pots which were offered to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. In a clay pot there is ciḍā-dadhi and fruits, on top they decorated various sweet meats and things. I knew how it was done, I mean I saw. When I came here to Atlanta, they were not observing Pānihāṭi festival. I said Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a name New Pānihāṭi, this is incredibly important! One place in the world apart from Navadvīpa, where Lord Caitanya said He would always be there and there they have this festival of ciḍā-dadhi, and every year on the anniversary of this festival, hundreds of thousands of people gather and they have the ciḍā and dadhi, condensed milk and ciḍā.

So since Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should have a center there, I went there many times. I was made the GBC here for 22 years here in Atlanta. Then I established this Pānihāṭi festival. In the original Pānihāṭi, His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja, he started to give out ciḍā-dadhi every day. So some of his disciples had got some land there in Pānihāṭi. Now it is a city, many people are there. But, every year hundreds of thousands of people come, there are no advertisements, no banners put up. The word is out on this tithi, everyone goes. On this day you go, you get some prasāda, you get some mercy.

So we are very happy that this festival is going on and all of you are participating. And we hope that it continues every year. Śrīla Prabhupāda, like LA, he called it New Dvārakā, they observe the appearance day of Rukmiṇī Devī. And he gave the name here New Pānihāṭi, so we should observe the Pānihāṭi. Of course, we do it the first week in June, on the weekend because people - in India Pānihāṭi, I don’t know how they do it, but everybody is there. Maybe they go sick at work ha! Oh I am sick! I took some flat rice and yogurt! I don’t know what the bosses think that every year, the same day, all of them get sick! Any way, we do this here over the weekend. So this is a special opportunity to assist Raghunātha dāsa. After this you get the blessing of Lord Nityānanda and you can easily reach Lord Caitanya! If you want to have the shelter of Lord Caitanya, then you need to have the mercy of Lord Nityānanda! Haribol!