20240814 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.6. Determining the Sādhana

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 hope you can hear me now. Someone wrote to me last night that they did not hear me. Śrīvatsa Śyāmasundara dāsa said he had put the laptop on mute. If you cannot hear me, give me some signal! He is supposed to test everything before I come. Haṁsa Vāhana is coming tomorrow. So everybody can offer him abhiṣeka, even with Ganges water, milk, something like that. So we can start reading.

First Shower — Sixth Stream

(31) One should perform all endeavors for Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: We should keep Lord Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction as the goal of our endeavor.

(32) One should look forward to His mercy.

Jayapatākā Swami: We should be always hoping to receive the Lord’s mercy. Since we are offering the activity to Kṛṣṇa, then we are also looking forward to His mercy!

(33) One should partake of various ceremonies with devotees — ceremonies like Lord Kṛṣṇa’s birthday or Rāmacandra’s birthday.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, in the evening we do abhiṣeka of Rādhā Mādhava on Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī. And some of us may do the special offering like reading the Kṛṣṇa Book. If you want to read it, you can complete it by the end of the day. We may take turns that different people read for half hour or one hour. Or you may just do some drama of Kṛṣṇa. All these things may be done with many devotees. So we try to observe Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī as a joint process.

(34) One should surrender to Kṛṣṇa in all respects.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sincerely we want to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. And we would like to have His mercy.

(35) One should observe particular vows like kārtika-vrata.

Note:

* Kārtika 1, Māgha-snāna 2, Vaiśākha-kṛtya.

Jayapatākā Swami: These are sacred months in the śāstra. So in Kārtika month people are supposed to be vegetarian, if they are not otherwise. We, who are vegetarians, we don’t eat urad dal as a token. There are other vratas one may do in the Kārtika month. At the end of the Kārtika month from Ekādaśī to Pūrṇimā is the Bhīṣma-Pañcaka.

TEXT: These are some of the sixty-four important items of devotional service. One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, reside at Mathurā and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.

Jayapatākā Swami: So it says we should reside in Mathurā, here we are residing in Navadvīpa. People around the world, they may go to a temple or remain close to a temple and then on the sacred be in the temple. So in this way they observe this holy place. And the holy process. So, this can be as far as possible, but we try to take this to heart, and we would like to assemble with devotees and observe the holy days. I remember, I wanted to attend the Janmāṣṭamī in Montreal in 1968. But my boss, he would not let me go. But I went anyway! I lost the job! [My eyes are blurry; my ears don’t hear. This machine is barely working – the machine of this body!]

TEXT: These five limbs of devotional service are the best of all.

Jayapatākā Swami: Why not? We can work on these special days of Kṛṣṇa’s observance and we should naturally awaken our love for Kṛṣṇa – actually, Lord Rāma came in the Sūrya dynasty. And Kṛṣṇa came in the Candra dynasty. So They tried to give Their mercy to everybody.

TEXT: Even a slight performance of these five awakens love for Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: If we perform even a little holy day in service, our for Kṛṣṇa will be awakened.

Classification of the limbs

Amongst the sixty-four limbs of devotional service, the nine processes beginning with hearing are the main, and all others are their assistants. The first ten limbs are similar to the entrance door. After that, the ten limbs are rejection of unfavorable to bhakti and acceptance of favorable to bhakti. Among them, acts related to the dhātrī tree, αśvattha tree, the cow, and brāhmaṇa are special social duty. They too are favorable to bhakti at first. As sādhαnα matures only the last five limbs out of the sixty-four limbs are to be specially observed.

Jayapatākā Swami: So initially one follows some of the rules and regulations. But as one gets more spontaneous, then the last five become more prominent.

The secret of sādhana

Jayapatākā Swami: Secret! Wow! Don’t tell anybody! You have to read it quietly. A little louder!

TEXT: There is a secret to the observance of sādhana. Transcendental knowledge, devotion and detachment in other things, these three increase equally. Where there is an exception to it, it must be known that there is a fault in the root of the practice. As we are doing these practices of devotional service.

Jayapatākā Swami: As one of the secrets is that as you are doing devotional service, like you are doing chanting, three things (transcendental knowledge, devotion and detachment in other things, theses three increase equally) – detachment means not detached from Kṛṣṇa, but detachment from other material things. So we read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Bhagavad-gītā, etc., as we want to get knowledge. We are not just sentimentalists, we back everything up with knowledge. As we are doing these practices of devotional service, our devotion to Kṛṣṇa increases, it increases more and more, so one gets this devotion naturally.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.42

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir
anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus
tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo ’nu-ghāsam

Translation: Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things — these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.

Jayapatākā Swami: When eat there is something you can relate with! So, as we eat we get relief from our hunger, we get nourishment, and if the cook is good, we get pleasure! The first time when we gave bitter melon in the kitchen in Gaura-Pūrṇimā, they said, “Oh, what is this, this is bitter!” They thought the cook must be in māyā! But actually, it is one of the tastes of cooking and bitter is – if you know it, it is a very nice thing. We don’t take bitter at night.

TEXT: So if these three things are not increasing then there must be a fault in the root of our devotional service.

Tomorrow is the appearance day of Śrīmatī Lalitā Devī Sakhi. She is older than Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī by a few weeks.

Jaya Rādhe!