20230617 Address in the Jayapatākā Swami Retreat

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very happy to see all the devotees here. This is all Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, all the descendants of Śrīla Prabhupāda. As I explained, Lord Caitanya in Jagannātha Purī, He called Lord Nityānanda over. And He said that We promised when We came from the spiritual world, that we would deliver four kinds of people – people who are not normally delivered. The foolish, who think they are the body; the people who are not born in a spiritually oriented family. Those who are patita, who are fallen and those who are suffering some kind of distress. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda took this mercy and went around the world. There was one pickpocket who saw Śrīla Prabhupāda was wearing a very valuable watch and he thought I will try to steal his watch. But by serving him, he actually became purified, and he became a devotee. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave him a name appropriate to his interests.

So similarly, Lord Nityānanda He was ordered by Lord Caitanya to go back to Bengal and He went to Pānihāṭi, Khaḍadaha, Ādi-saptagrāma. Ādi-saptagrāma it says that He did kīrtana and created kind of a revolution like in Navadvīpa. Ādi-saptagrāma is a place of mainly vaiśyas – gold merchants and jewelers, they are mainly interested in making money but somehow Lord Nityānanda was able to inspire them to join the saṅkīrtana movement. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his family was a descendant of the main devotee in Ādi-saptagrāma. Anyway, Lord Nityānanda then went back to Navadvīpa and saw Mother Śacī, mother of Lord Caitanya. So she was very happy to see Lord Nityānanda. She requested Nityānanda Prabhu to remain in and around Navadvīpa, Māyāpur. So, Lord Nityānanda would take His saṅkīrtana party out and He was living in the house of one devotee who was alone. And Lord Caitanya had taken sannyāsa. He was very austere. But He told Lord Nityānanda that He should display opulence. So, Lord Nityānanda had diamond earrings, and pearl necklace and rings in each finger with jewels in it. And wore arm bands with jewels and ankle bells of silver. Then came a gang of dacoits – dacoits are some kind of armed robbers. The leader the dacoits, he was born in a brāhmaṇa family. But, he always associated with thieves and rogues. It is said, he was very cold hearted, he was what you call a serial killer. He could kill someone in cold blood and not think about it at all. Then he said to his gang of dacoits who came that, “Mother Caṇḍī, the goddess has sent us all the wealth in one place. This Nityānanda, He has diamond earrings, pearl necklace, jewels on His fingers. This is lacs and lacs of rupees, in one place, wow! So we will just get all the jewels and wealth from Him.” So this is a story, how Lord Nityānanda dealt with the armed robbers. And ultimately how He delivered them. Because they are tough guys! They were not gentle, they were thieves, rogues, killers. They decided that they would steal Lord Nityānanda’s wealth. So, that night they came and the dacoit commander, he sent one person to spy. And he saw all the devotees around Lord Nityānanda were chanting and dancing. And Lord Nityānanda was taking His rice prasāda. The thief came back and told Lord Nityānanda, “bhāth kācche” – it is a very crude way of talking. Instead of saying He is taking anna-prasāda, or something like that, these guys were crude people. He said there were a lot of devotees up chanting and dancing. So the thieves said, “Let us wait under a tree, they will eat and fall asleep. This way, when they sleep, we will steal the jewels from Lord Nityānanda.” One said, “I want His diamond earrings, wow! earrings, diamonds!” One said, “I want His pearl neck!” Another one said, “I want some of His jeweled rings.” [Audio break]

Then they decided, “We should hide, turn around. If they catch us or see us, we will be finished. We will come back in a week,” and they will be gone. So they ran away and a week or ten days later, this time they assembled to do their job, but suddenly there was a cloud that came over Navadvīpa and it became dark and black. They couldn’t see anything. Then some fell in a ditch. Some people fell in - there was a garbage pit where they put organic things. They were bitten by leeches and mosquitos sucking their blood. Some people fell in a canal, it started raining. Heavy rain, and heavy hail-storm. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, He gives knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. And then that brāhmaṇa dacoit commander, he was giving remembrance by Lord Nityānanda. He realized that every time they attempted to steal from Lord Nityānanda, it was worse. And Lord Nityānanda must be the Supreme Lord. And they were trying to harm Him and steal from Him. So, he came and begged Lord Nityānanda for mercy. But then others said You cannot believe him. There is a saying in Bengali ati bhakti corera lakṣaṇa. That if someone expresses pure bhakti very easily it may be a sign that they are actually a thief. Because bhakti is a gradual process. Anyway, the other devotees said, “We cannot believe him, he may be trying to enter into us and try to steal.” Lord Nityānanda asked him, “Tell us your realization.” He said, “Although I was born in a brāhmaṇa family, my whole life I was associated with thieves and rogues, and actually I wanted to harm You. I wanted to steal Your diamonds and pearls and everything. I am a very sinful person. And as an atonement I should drown myself in the Ganges.” Lord Nityānanda said, “Don’t do that, I will protect you and see that you are forgiven.” So then that person, the thief he said, “Even if you fall on the ground you have to use the same ground to get up. Actually, although we tried to steal from You, but I realized that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And I remembered how we fell asleep and how You were protected by soldiers. And at the end, how we fell in ditches and broke our bones. Actually, You are very merciful. You brought us to our senses. So we cannot harm You. Instead, we are suffering so much, so please have mercy on me so that I can chant the holy names and I can become a devotee and give up my sinful activities.” Lord Nityānanda, He told, “You bring the other thieves and dacoits, bring them to Me.”

Actually, this is what Śrīla Prabhupāda did. He took the mercy of Lord Nityānanda all over the world. And people who ordinarily would not get delivered, he delivered them. In Prayāga, Allahabad, at the Ardha Kumbha-melā, where 21 million people assembled to bathe in the Triveṇī. There he mentioned that by the mercy of the Lord one comes to devotional service, and he must have performed all kinds of yajñas, sacrifices, penance and pious activities. So one devotee, he asked a question, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said, that if we perform many pious activities, we can get devotional service. But I look back at my life, I don’t see I did anything pious! How did I get devotional service?” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “I have made your good fortune for you!” Haribol!

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he brought this mercy of Lord Nityānanda, Lord Caitanya, all over the world. And Lord Caitanya, He did saṅkīrtana. He got many people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and He started the saṅkīrtana movement. But as I mentioned that Rukmiṇī had told Lord Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā, “You know everything, You know what Brahmā is doing what Śiva in Kailāsa is doing. You know in the unlimited millions of universes, what everybody is doing. But there is one thing that You don’t know. I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know.” So He was shocked. No one told the Supreme Lord there was something He did not know. He asked Rukmiṇī Devī, “What is the thing I don’t know?” She said, “You don’t know how much Your devotees love You. And You don’t know in what way Your devotees love You.” And then Lord Kṛṣṇa, He said, “I will come back in Kali-yuga as My devotee,” three times. He said it and then He came back as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu! One thing He did was, He started the saṅkīrtana movement and had people chant and dance.

When the devotees went back from Jagannātha Purī to Bengal, then He also researched the love of the gopīs, of Rādhārāṇī for Him. In Jagannātha Purī, along the Grand (Trunk) Road where the ratha goes, there is a garden called the Vṛndāvana Gardens. Lord Caitanya in the mood of the gopīs went into that garden. And He talked to the trees, “Have you see Kṛṣṇa go by?” Normally, when people talk to trees, you don’t expect an answer and normally people don’t talk to trees! But in the mood of the gopīs, He was talking to the trees like the gopīs did after Kṛṣṇa left the rasa-līlā. He saw some trees with mangoes and things bending down. “Oh! Kṛṣṇa must have come by, they are still offering their obeisances. Have you seen Kṛṣṇa come by here?” None of the trees replied. Lord Caitanya, then in the mood of the gopīs, He said, “These trees are all males. They must be kind of friends of Kṛṣṇa, they are not telling us. You should ask the feminine plants, the creepers, they will tell us the truth.” So like this Lord Caitanya was experiencing this kind of mad ecstasy of Rādhārāṇī and the gopīs. This is given in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja said that actually it is beyond my ability to explain. Even Anantadeva with thousands of heads, he could not explain. I am just giving a hint so that you can all understand.

Lord Caitanya, He was actually, experiencing this kind of madness, this ecstasy. There are eight steps to get bhāva or ecstatic love, and then prema has another eight steps, pure love for Kṛṣṇa. So Rādhārāṇī, She had mahā-bhāva which is the highest level of kṛṣṇa-prema. So it is hard to explain all these ecstasies of Lord Caitanya. But Śrīla Prabhupāda brought us these transcendental literatures, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And we can gradually understand and realize these pure emotions. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, He brought this mercy of Nitāi Gaura around the world. And so I hope that all of you get a taste of this. We can never actually realize the full ecstasy of Lord Caitanya. But even if we get a little bit, it is so much more than anything else. I hope that you are all getting a taste in this special retreat.

By the way, the whole gang of dacoits, they surrendered to Lord Nityānanda. He was a little rough on them, but they were all thieves. And in the end they became a part of the saṅkīrtana movement. So he had a sense of humor and He knew how to preach to each person. Hare Kṛṣṇa!