Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26
ISKCON Hyderabad
11-06-2023

So you can get the book in Hindi. It is not required, they have had already. So I was told to read from Srimad Bhagavatam canto four, chapter twenty four and text twenty six, is that right? Someone is getting Hindi Bhagavatam. Please repeat after me.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha
(Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26)

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord Siva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows

Maybe some of you could recite. Okay purport by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! I think something is missing here? Something is not on the screen.

Purport
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or Krsna, is known as bhakta vatsala, and herein we find Lord Siva described as dharma vatsala. Of course, the word dharma vatsala refers to a person who lives according to religious principles. That is understood. Nonetheless, these two words have additional significance. Sometimes Lord Siva has to deal with persons who are in the modes of passion and ignorance. Such persons are not always very much religious and pious in their activities, but since they worship Lord Siva for some material profit, they sometimes obey the religious principles. As soon as Lord Siva sees that his devotees are following religious principles, he blesses them. The Pracetas, sons of Pr?c?nabarhi, were naturally very pious and gentle, and consequently Lord Siva was immediately pleased with them. Lord Siva could understand that the princes were sons of Vaisnavas, and as such Lord Siva offered prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as follows.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha
(Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26)

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord Siva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows

When I read the Sloka only, I had not yet read the translation and I was thinking that the description was about and that it was speaking about Krishna. This is the first time i am reading the translation and purport to this verse so I found out just now that this is not a description of Krishna, but it is in fact a description of lord Siva. He is prapannarti haro, one who drives away all kinds of danger.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or Krsna, is known as bhakta vatsala, and herein we find Lord Siva described as dharma vatsala
(Purport)

We see here that the qualities of Visnu are seen also in the lord’s devotees and so what is the principle here? Achintya bhedabheda. Bhedabheda refers to the inconceivable oneness (bhed) and difference (abheda) of the Supreme Person and His energies. Therefore there are qualities of the lord that the devotees can attain and there are also qualities that the lord possesses which the devotees can never attain. If other devotees can gain these qualities, then what to speak of lord Siva? He is the topmost devotee and topmost Vaishnava. It is said vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh purananam idam tatha.

nimna ganam yatha ganga
devanam acyuto yatha
vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh
purananam idam tatha
(Srimad bhagavatam 12.13.16)

Translation
Just as the Ganga is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Sambhu [Siva] the greatest of Vai??avas, so Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas

Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas and nimna ganam yatha ganga, nimna ga, nimna means under and ga means to go so that which goes underneath. What goes under the Earth? Rivers go underground so nimna ganam, of all rivers the Ganga is the greatest so in the same way, devanam acyuto yatha. Of all the deities, demigods, Acyuta lord Krishna is the greatest. In this way of all rivers Ganga is the greatest, of all Puranas, Bhagavatam is the greatest and in the same way out of all Vaishnava’s, lord Siva is the greatest.

Lord Siva ki jai! It is also mentioned elsewhere Sambhutam gatah, lord Krishna himself becomes Sambhu, lord Siva and also lord Siva is one of the incarnations of the lord. He is a Guna Avatara, the incarnation of the Tama Guna, mode of ignorance. Who is the incarnation if the mode of goodness? It is Visnu and the incarnation of the mode of passion in Brahma. But although lord Siva is the incarnation of the mode of ignorance, he himself is not in the mode of ignorance.

He is in charge of the mode if ignorance, he is not in the mode of ignorance. There are some sinful people who are in the mode of ignorance, and the go to him to ask for material benediction. This is also the job of the demigods, to fulfil the desires if the materialists.

kamksantah karmanam siddhim
yajanta iha devatah
kaipram hi manuse loke
siddhir bhavati karma ja
(Bhagavad gita 4.12)

Translation
Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world

Krishna has spoken this in the Bhagavad gita and the lord says that those who want success in fruitful activities approach the demigods who quickly give them what they want and so lord Siva did the same for those in the mode of ignorance. Hari Hari. Lord Siva is one of the most misunderstood personalities and most people do not know or recognise him.

Okay so we know that he is in charge of the most of ignorance and so he is the one who destroys the whole cosmos which is his duty. This is called Pralaya, bhutva bhutva praliyate.

bhuta gramah sa evayam
bhutva bhutva praliyate
ratry agame ’vasah partha
prabhavaty ahar agame
(Bhagavad gita 8.19)

Translation
Again and again, when Brahma’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahma’s night they are helplessly annihilated

These materialists have so many different desires, who was it Vrkasura? There are so many like Vrkasura.

kamais tais tair hrta jnanah
prapadyante ’nya devatah
tam tan niyamam asthaya
prakrtya niyatah svaya
(Bhagavad gita 7.20)

Translation
Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures

Krishna says in the Bhagavad gita that those who are so materialistic, prapadyante ’nya devatah. They worship the demigods and take shelter of these demigods and whilst the lord is speaking this, he is most probably not happy with this fact. ‘What is this? They should not be doing this!’ But they still do this, why? Kamais tais tair hrta jnanah. Because their intelligence has been stolen by material desires. Their intelligence is stolen due to their vast material desires and then these materialistic persons go to the demigods to fulfil their material desires.

This is exactly what Vrkasura was like and to please lord Siva he held a fire sacrifice, ‘swaha swaha.’ We have heard that – actually Radha Govinda Maharaja was saying and it must be true that Vrkasura wanted Parvati but if course he could not get her till lord Siva was still there. That is why he had already devised the plan to kill lord Siva. So he was putting offerings into the fire sacrifice and this offering was none other than the flesh of his own body and he was chanting ‘swaha swaha.’

The whole point in all this was to kill lord Siva and so he wanted the benediction that ‘whoever’s head I put my hand upon, that person’s head will be cut there and then and he shall immediately die.’ Quite some time had passed while he chanted ‘swaha swaha’ but lord Siva was still not pleased with his efforts. But then at some point lord Siva became appeased and appeared on the scene. He asked ‘what do you want?’

‘I want that whoever’s head I touch, that head your break into pieces and he dies. Give me this benediction.’ There is also a problem with lord Siva which is that he is Ashutosh. He is satisfied very quickly and therefore he granted the wish of this demon. As soon as this Vrkasura gets this benediction, what will he do? He wants to trial his benediction, ‘is it actually true or not?’

He wants to test it out but there was nobody else there and so he was just about to test it out on lord Siva. ‘I wish ti touch your head sir,’ he said to lord Siva and lord Siva knew that he had actually granted the wish of the demon and so he knew that it would come to pass if the demon touched his head. ‘If he touches my head, then I will also die.’ So then lord Shiva started to run very fast and this Vrkasura was following him.

This is the character of the devotees of the demigods and lord Siva, just look. So lord Siva was running and Vrkasura was running after him and so lord Visnu or Krishna kahnaiyalal ki jai! The lord noted that lord Siva is in troubled, that there is a problem and lord Visnu also understood what the problem was. Lord Visnu then appeared on the scene and he stopped Vrkasura by saying ’hey what’s happening? Who are you running after.’

So the demon explained that he had gained a benediction from lord Siva and that he wanted to touch the head of lord Siva so that he would die and in this way he would get Parvati and he could become her husband. Then there is some discussion between the lord and Vrkasura and we know that the lord is the most intelligent and so the lord said, ‘lord Siva has given you a benediction? Dont take this benediction seriously because actually he has given no benediction.

This is because he does not have the power to give such a benediction. If you touch anybody’s head, I can assure you that their head will not break at all.’ But he was convinced, ‘no, no he has given me this benediction.’ Then lord Visnu said, ‘okay, if you really think you have got this benediction then try it. On who? Try it on yourself.’ Then this foolish demon did just this and as soon as he did so, his head exploded and he died.

In this way lord Siva’s life was safe and so he who saved lord Siva’s life, he who is lord Siva’s protector is none other than Krishna. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam.

ete camsa kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
indrari vyakulam lokam
mrdayanti yuge yuge
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.3.28)

Translation
All of the above mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists

If someone does recognise lord Siva then it is only the Vaishnava’s who can recognise him as to what his actual identity is and he is also Sadasiva. There is devi dham and then which is the other dham? Mahesh dham and then there is Hari dham. Devi dham is this material world where we are, where Devi is in charge and whoever holds material desires approaches the family of lord Siva for fulfilment of these desires.

Someone may approach Parvati, Durga and someone else may go to Ganesh to aak for a material benediction. In one place, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur writes about the Pancha Upasana, the five deities who are worshipped.

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam
ramya kacid upasana vrajavadhu vargena ya kalpita
srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pumartho mahan
sri caitanya mahaprabhur matam idam tatradaro nah parah
(Caitanya matta manjusa commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam by Srinath Chakravarti)

Translation
It is the conclusive opinion of Lord Chaitanya that the most worshipable form of the Lord is that of Sri Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja. Vrindavan-dhama is the topmost worshipable abode. The highest and most pleasing type of worship of Krishna is done by the Vraja gopis. Srimad bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything. And krsna prema is the fifth and highest goal of life

There is the mode of worship which follows the footsteps the gopi’s and then there is the other mode of worship which is the Pancha Upasana. There is worship of the sun, then there is worship of Ganesh and then Parvati, lord Siva and so now who is left? Ganesh, did i miss him? So these are three personalities from the same family, lord Siva, Ganesh and Parvati. Then there is the sun and finally? How can I miss lord Visnu?

But worship of lord Visnu is done by the non devotees with the feeling of material desires and to fulfil them and so this is Pancha Upasana, worship of five personalities. The family of lord Siva is a big part of this but these worshippers do not actually understand lord Siva. So there is one Sadasiva who’s abode is not Mahesh dham because half of lord Siva’s abode is in the material world and that is a part of Devi dham, the lower part, not this higher part.

The higher part if lord Siva’s abode is in Vaikuntha and it is just like Vaikuntha and it is indeed a part of Vaikuntha. There lord Siva is known as Sadasiva and the lower part called Mahesh dham is where is form of Kala Bhairava resides. There is Siva Sivani and Bhava Bhavani, the energy if lord Siva and so the lower part of lord Siva’s abode is where his form of Kala Bhairava resides in Mahesh dham.

He stays in contact with the material nature there but Sadasiva is the one who appeared and Advaita Acharya. Sri Advaita was Maha Visnu and also and Sadasiva because actually Sadasiva is an expansion of Maha Visnu also. We can say Advaita Acharya expanded from Sadasiva or we could say he expanded from Maha Visnu, it is the same thing. So lord Siva is Sadasiva and so Advaita Acharya has appeared do this means that Sadasiva has appeared.

His work was as an advanced party you could say, because he made his appearance before Gauranga Mahaprabhu who had sent him before he took his birth. This is so that Advaita Acharya could do some study of what the situation of the world had come to. Lord Siva studied this situation and what did he find?

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Translation
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself

There was such a great decline of religion practice and so Sadasiva as Advaita Acharya cried out to the lord to make his appearance and his cries reached Vaikuntha dham and so the lord appeared, hearing his cries. When someone calls out to the lord in this manner, the lord immediately appears in that place. So Gauranga Mahaprabhu made his appearance and in this way Advaita Acharya became the reason why the lord made his appearance.

So whoever takes shelter of the supreme lord in a distressed condition, lord Siva directly takes away all the distress of the devotee if he does it through Gauranga Mahaprabhu. So that is why the lord is called Hari, he who takes away. Gaurahari! Why is he called Hari? Harati means take away and so he takes away the distress of the devotee who approaches him.

I was listening to Srila Prabhupada and he was saying that the lord’s devotees do the work of the lord. The lord takes away people’s distress and is therefore called Hari and the same work is also done by the lord’s devotees, the Vaishnava’s. The lord’s devotees, the Vaishnava’s give the lord himself to the distressed people of the world and upon getting the lord from the Vaishnava’s, the lord then takes away their distress. Krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro, tomara sakati ache.

krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro,
tomara sakati ache
ami to’ Kamgala, ‘krsna’ ‘krsna’ boli’,?dhai tava pache pache
(Ohe vaishnava thakur 4)

Translation
Krsna is yours. You have the power to give Him to me. I am simply your servant running behind you shouting, “Krsna! Krsna!

‘I am running after you because I have hope that you will give me Krishna! I am penniless, I have nothing. We have empty pockets, we are corrupt, not corrupt, bankrupt. So you can give us the supreme lord.’ So when one is asking like this and then he attains the lord in this way, even if he is bankrupt, he becomes a rich man. What should we do?

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

In this way the Vaishnava’s give the supreme lord to others and then what does the lord do? He does his work of taking away all one’s past sins. And then what does Harinam do? Ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam

Ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam
shreyah kairava chandrika vitaranam vidya vadhu jivanam
anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamritaswadanam
sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam
(Siksastakam 1)

Glory to the Sri-Krsna-Sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious

What does the holy name do? Ceto darpana marjanam, marjan means to clean, so it cleans our heart of all the dirt in it and then what? Bhava maha davagni nirvapanam. Davagni is the fire of material existence which has spread in the whole world and this Harinam extinguishes this fire of material existence and gives cooling rays. Just like Harinam takes away this fire and gives everyone cooling rays and therefore takes away their distress, the Vaishnava’s act in the same way by taking away the distress of the conditioned soul.

The spiritual master acts in this way and that is why everyday in the morning what do we sing?

samsara davanala lidha loka
tranaya karunya ghanaghanatvam
praptasya kalyana gunarnavasya
vande guroh sri caranaravindam
(Guru astaka 1)

Translation
The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities

Just like it is mentioned in Siksastakam that the holy name extinguishes this fire of material existence and gives cooling rays, bhava maha davagni nirvapanam, in the same this dava, fire is mentioned in the forst verse of Guru astaka. Samsara dava nala means as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence.

The spiritual master does this by his merciful glance and this glance extinguishes the fire of our material existence which is burning us and killing us. By doing this, the spiritual master releases us from the net which has captured us in material existence. This is why the lords work is done by the lord’s devotees. And of all these devotees, the greatest is lord Siva, he is the number one Vaishnava. Lord Siva ki jai.

When the churning of the ocean was going on, before the jewels and other gifts came out, what came first? Poison came out and so now how to be saved from the effects of this poison? The demigods then went to lord Siva, ‘help help help!’ Lord Siva felt great compassion because the gods did not get the nectar they had gone to so much trouble for, instead they only got this poison. This poison would have to be taken away somehow and so what dis lord Siva do?

He drank up the poison and not just a bottle full of it, no. He drank a whole ocean full of poison because this poison had filled up the whole ocean and so he drank it all. Where did he keep this poison? In his neck and that is when he got the name ‘Nil kantha,’ the blue throated one. Lord Siva’s followers drink all sorts of nonsense forbidden drinks and drugs like Ganja but they do not keep this in their throats like lord Siva did.

It reaches their stomachs or hearts and then they die because they try to imitate. Okay then lord Siva became the resting place of the Ganges so that the demigods would then attain nectar at the end. There was a time when Ganga was staying in the heavenly realms only but she was called down by King Bhaghirath for the liberation of his ancestors by their bathing in her waters. Bhagirath tried so hard and nobody in this whole world had tried as hard.

When we mention the names in history of all those persons, who is remembered first? Bhagirath, and that is why Ganga has one more name and what is that? Bhagirathi, and why is that? Because of the efforts of Bhagirath, the Ganges was called and she came on this Earth. Finally Ganga was ready to come, ‘okay I’m coming down but I will come with such quick speed from the heavens that there must be someone who can stop me or slow me down.

Otherwise the Earthly planet could go out of orbit due to my force so please make some arrangement.’ So she was ready to come ‘but first make arrangements.’ Then King Bhagirath approached lord Siva, ‘could you help out?’ And for sure lord Siva was ready and what did he do? He put her on his head whilst she was coming with great force from the heavenly planets to Earth. From there she also flows in different directions and lord Siva then got the name Gangadhar, one who holds Ganga.

So if lord Siva had not agreed to hold her force by taking her upon his head, Ganga would not be able to come on this Earth. And as we know, her waters are in itself nectar and so we would not be able to purify ourselves and and become immortal by bathing in her waters. This is all possible now because of lord Siva. He is one of the factors for sure. Hari Hari.

In this way we see that lord Siva is also taking away the distress of people, Hari. He is the most misunderstood or you could say he is not understood and actually what kind of Vaishnava is lord Siva? He is a Vaishnava in Gopi bhava, the highest bhava. In Vrindavan his bhava is Gopi bhava and that is why in Rasa lila, only two types of personalities are allowed to enter. Two things are for sure.

Do you want to dance in the Rasa lila with Krishna? Okay, yes you could do so but what must there be? One is the bhava of the Gopi’s, their feelings of love for Krishna and secondly, one must have the form of a Gopi. Lakshmi does not like this because she is so attached to her own beauty and form that she has feelings of pride, ‘I am Lakshmi.’ That is why there is a forest in Vrindavan which is called Srivana and she is there since many years and she is performing austerities there but she still is not about to gain entrance in the Rasa lila.

This is because she does not want to take on the feelings of the Gopi’s and nor does she want to take a form like the Gopi’s. So like this at one time lord Siva also wanted to enter the Rasa lila to dance with Krishna and so he reached Vrindavan from his abode Kailash. He found out where the Rasa dance was about to take place soo he went there and he must have rung the bell. Some Gopi’s must have been there as gatekeepers at the door.

‘Hey where are you going? The Rasa lila, in this state? Look at your hair in locks and your drum! You have a trident with you and there are snakes hanging on your neck! Then you are wearing a garland of skulls and there are scorpions on your ears as earring’s. There are ashes all over your whole body.’ Lord Siva is a renunciant and therefore he does not look at his face in the mirror.

You want to go to join in the Rasa dance but you can’t just go there like that! No this is not possible.’ What to do then? Then he was told that there was a kunda, a lake nearby that was called Mansarovar. ‘If you take bath there, you will attain a form like the Gopi’s and the feelings of the Gopi’s and then only you may go to join the Rasa dance, you are welcome.’

Then lord Siva went to take part in the Rasa dance, this is the great position if lord Siva. Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro.

ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi
(Tulasi kirtan 4)

Translation
I beg you to make me a follower of the cowherd damsels of Vraja. Please give me the privilege of devotional service and make me your own maidservant

This is the feeling of anugata, privilege, which it certainly is to enter in the Rasa lila amongst the Gopi’s to be able to serve them. And another thing is to be a follower and that is what Lakshmi did not want to do, she did not want to follow anyone. That is why lord Siva has another name, Gopeshwar Mahadeva ki jai. He loves Krishna very much and there are many pastimes of his.

Just like when he goes to Nandagram to take darshan of Krishna’s baby form. He went to Nanda bhavan and probably he would have knocked on the door and Yashoda opened the door. Lord Siva was standing there, ‘hey, what are you doing here, what do you want?’ ‘Oh I want to take darshan of Kahnaiya.’ Yashoda answered, ‘if my Lala takes darshan of you he will become afraid. No, no! Go!’ So poor lord Siva has to leave that place and he goes to Nandagram in meditation.

So anyway there is this pastime. From the time mother Yashoda sent lord Siva away, since then lord Krishna started to cry and he is crying and crying, he is not looking to stop crying no matter what. ‘Here take this toy, how about a rasagulla? Have this, lets give you that.’ No, he kept crying and crying and so some older Gopi’s came from the neighbourhood and they are asking, ‘since when has he started to cry?’

‘Some baba came early, he had matted hair. I quickly sent him away but since then my Lala is crying on and on.’ So then they all started to think that there is a connection, ‘if you have sent lord Siva far away then now call him back and see if Lala stops crying, bring him back.’ When lord Siva was called back, Kahnaiya was bought outside to take darshan and immediately his crying stopped.

So we can see that lord Siva has a deep connection with lord Krishna, and not only with lord Krishna. He is a part of Krishna lila but also when lord Rama appeared, even there he is present. And when lord Krishna appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, lord Siva is present there also. In Mayapur lord Siva is everywhere, in Navadwipa and all the Dwipa’s are connected to lord Siva in some way.

There is one Dwipa, island, what is that, Godrumadwipa? There lord Siva is presiding even now. Godrumadwipa is famous for kirtan because in all nine Dwipa’s, there are none different forms of devotional service in each one. In one Dwipa there may be Sravanam, listening and so like this is Godrumadwipa there is kirtan. It is compared to Varanasi and Varanasi becomes Maha Varanasi and that is part of Godruma. Varanasi is in Godrumadwipa and what does lord Siva do there?

He is constantly performing kirtan and Panchananda Tala is there also. One form of lord Siva has five heads and that is why Pancha ananda. Just like there is Dashananda, do you know anyone like this, with ten heads? Ravan was called Dashananda. So lord Siva has five heads and how many eyes are there on each face? Three, that’s why he is called Trilochan. He has five faces and each face has three eyes each and from each eye he is taking darshan of lord Krishna and Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and from each mouth he is singing the glories of the lord.

brahma bole chatur mukhe krishna krishna hare hare
mahadeva pancha mukhe rama rama hare hare

Translation
Brahma sings “krishna krishna hare hare” with four mouths and Siva ecstatically sings “rama rama hare hare” with five mouths

The first Dwipa is which one? Seimantadwipa, this island was bought down by lord Siva. He was at one time performing a wonderful kirtan in Kailash and he was dancing in such a fascinating way ‘Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura!’ And lord Siva was dancing also which he is famous for. Krishna is of course famous for his dancing also and therefore he is called Natwara and lord Siva is called Nararaj. So both lords are Nata’s, which means Nata Nati, they are actors.

One is Natwara, the best and Nataraj is also the best. Lord Siva was dancing and then he bought Parvati from Kailash to Simantadwipa and there both of them performed austerities and worship. Then what happened was that Gauranga Mahaprabhu appeared there upon the scene and Parvati took the dust of the lord’s lotus feet upon her head.

That is why the parting of the lady’s hair is called simanta, where there is Kumkum. In this dwipa we have a Jagannath temple and recently Iskcon have installed a deity of mother Parvati. She is called Simantini because she is a resident of Simantadwipa, which is the name of the place. There is also a Rudradwipa, named after lord Siva and this is one of the nine dwipa’s and back to Godrumadwipa, there is a temple of Hara and Hari.

They are both there in one deity form, half in Hara and the other half is Hari, Hari Hara. Lord Siva holds a very high position and he is not an ordinary Jiva, he is Siva. He has own category, he is one of a kind and he is the only one is this category because there is nobody like him. We are all Jiva tattva, the marginal energy of the lord and Visnu tattva is the supreme lord. Included in the Visnu tattva are all the incarnations of the lord.

Lord Siva is not a Jiva so what is he? He is lord Siva, he is Siva tattva, he has his own tattva, principle. He is not full fledged Visnu but he is certainly not an ordinary Jiva also. Having said this, he is not supremely independent also and so to think that he is independent and a competitor of Visnu is a great offence. This is the second offence.

To consider the names of demigods like Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma to be equal to or independent of the name of the Lord Vishnu
(Offences of the holy name 2)

I think this has to be understood clearly by us all otherwise we will definitely commit this offence. Mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani gana iva

Translation
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

This is certainly true because could be on par with Krishna, on an equal level with him and so they can certainly be nobody who is higher than him. In our country there is always a competition between the followers of Siva and the followers of Krishna or Visnu. They try to prove ‘hey Siva hey Visnu!’ They try to compete and tussle and then there is friction, but this is all out of ignorance.

Visnu has his place but lord Siva is no less! He is somebody who is a very big personality. Lord Siva cannot be independent from the supreme lord. So he has become pleased, upon who has he become pleased? Upon the Praceta’s. Why has he become pleased upon them? Because the Praceta’s were the knowers of Dharma, religious principles.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord ?iva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows.

They were also silavan which means when a person is religious, he or she is a person of character and that is what sila sampannan means. A person is known as having his character when he reads Chaitanya Charitamrita or Ram Charita or Krishna Charita. Now times have changed better one time all mothers and fathers would recite the pastimes of the lord to their son and daughters or to their grandchildren.

Because these children were constantly listening to the pastimes, activities and the character of the Lord himself, they would also become people of good character. Then what? Pritah, the lord would become pleased with all these boys and girls who were of good character. This is what is being said here, that lord Siva was pleased with the Praceta’s and by meeting them. Do we also want the Lord become pleased with us? How many of you want this that the Lord becomes pleased by us?

So what will we have to do? We will have to become religious and knowers of true religion. This means we must discover ourselves and this is to know our selves and to understand ourselves and to understand the lord also. By doing this one automatically becomes a knower of the scriptures also, tasmac chastram pramanam te karyakarya vyavasthitau.

tasmac chastram pramanam te
karyakarya vyavasthitau
jnatva sastra vidhanoktam
karma kartum iharhasi

Translation
One should understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated

Bhagavatam and gita are scripures and one who knows these is called a knower of sastra. Normally material people think that one who knows, sastra knows Galileo or this one and that one, Darwin- actually not him (laughter). He’s not on that list. So one who knows sastra is a scientist, sastrajna. This is spiritual science because both are science but out of both sciences, of course the superior science is the spiritual science.

Both constitute knowledge, but one is higher knowledge and one is lower knowledge.

raja vidya raja guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su sukham kartum avyayam
(Bhagavad gita 9.2)

Translation
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed

Whoever has done the Bhakti Sastri course and has taken the knowledge of this course by understanding it has become a knower of the Bhakti Sastras, books of devotion. Our Acharya’s are all knowers of the Sastras, just like Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya. Then there is Srila Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai. What was Prabhupada? He was in knowledge of Sastra and if you read his books you can also become a knower of Sastra.

Murari Shyam Prabhu is a knower of Sastra also this can be said so easily. With ease one can say this, there are no if’s and but’s about this statement. And there are so many others, Anandamaya Prabhu is a Sastrajna as is Vedanta Chaitanya. He was here and he is Sastrajna. The Praceta’s were knowers of Sastra and knowers of Dharma. One is knowledhe of Sastra, Jnana and the other is Vijnana which is the practical application of that knowledge.

It is not enough just to be a knower of Sastra, one must be practically applying this spiritual science. First there is knowledge of dharma, religious principles and then one becomes sila sampannan, a person of good character. When we become of good character then Pritah, the lord becomes pleased or here lord Siva has become pleased. Here he is mentioned as the lord and this is a fact because he is also the lord.

He possesses all six opulences although lord possesses these opulences to the greatest degree. The six opulence are

aisvarasya samagrasya
viryasya yasasah sriyah
jnana vairagyayos caiva
sannam bhaga itingana
(Visnu purnana 6.5.47

Translation
Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is defined as one who is full of six opulence, ie, who has full strength, fame, wisdom, wealth, beauty and renunciation

These are the six opulences and Krishna has them to the greatest extent, samagrasya, total, complete. But others also have the six opulences but less is quantity to lord Krishna. Just like the lord’s incarnations have these six opulences because they are the supreme lord and so lord Siva has these sox opulences because he is known as the lord. Sukadeva Goswami is also known as the supreme lord as is Narada Muni.

Also all of you are also the lord to greater or lesser degrees, yes yes. You are the lord because having knowledge means to be the lord. Bhag, whoever has this bhag means he possesses this and that means Wan, to possess. So whoever has knowledge to whatever degree, he is a lord to that degree. If one is renounced he is the lord, if one has some strength he is a
Lord. Hari Hari. So now lord Siva has become pleased, pritah pritan uvaca ha.

Pritan, unto such personalities who were abiders of religion and who were therefore of good character, being pleased with the activities of these great souls, lord Siva was pleased and therefore started to speak as follows. Lord Siva said, what did he say? We will speak on that tomorrow so it is to be continued. Thank you very much.

So now there is one question, when will Prashad be served?

(Audio cut) Sacinanandan Maharaja or Bhurijan Prabhu, I don’t know. Usually on a regular basis we are observing this just like is Somanadwipa Iskcon have installed a deity of Parvati and everyday they perform arati to the deity and there is also a Sivalinga there and they perform arati to this also. The temple is Mayapura in a place called Rajapur and you can do this also, there is no objection.

So your question is that is it true that lord Siva is Hari’s ish, worshipable lord? This talk goes on in Rameswar, ‘who is the supreme lord, lord Rama or lord Siva? Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham

ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
(Bhagavad gita 4.11)

Translation
All of them- as they surrender unto Me, I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha

These words are very mysterious where the lord is herein saying, ‘ye yatha, whoever surrenders unto me accordingly, I also think of them to tie extent of their surrender to me.’ If you want to take it literally, then this is what the lord is saying. Ye means those people, yatha means accordingly, mam means me and prapadyante means to come to his shelter. ‘Tam bhajami aham, I worship them.’

The lord worships his devotees and of course the lord’s devotees are always worshipping him continuously. This is the relationship of the lord and his devotees, they both worship each other but in Vrindavan nobody worships him. Sadhavo hrdayam mahyam sadhunam hrdayam tv aham

sadhavo hrdayam mahyam
sadhunam hrdayam tv aham
mad anyat te na jananti
naham tebhyo manag api
(Srimad bhagavatam

Translation
The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart, and I am always in the heart of the pure devotee. My devotees do not know anything else but Me, and I do not know anyone else but them

Krishna says that the pure devotee is in his heart and ‘I am always in everyone’s heart.’ The lord is saying here ‘my devotees do not know anything else but me, and my state is the same because I do not think about anything apart from my devotees.’ Hari Hari. That is why we must respect the devotees and treat them with high esteem, even to the point of worshipping them. We must serve the devotees because even the lord worships his devotees.

That is why the lord came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to know his devotees and he became a devotee also for this same reason. Panca tattvatmakam krsnam
bhakta rupa svarupakam

panca tattvatmakam krsnam
bhakta rupa svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam
namami bhakta saktikam
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 7.6)

Translation
Let me offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krsna, who has manifested Himself in five as a devotee, expansion of a devotee, incarnation of a devotee, pure devotee and devotional energy

This is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who has taken the mood of Radharani, the devotees and the gopi’s and then the lord has himself become a devotee. We want to become the lord ourselves and in our country there are lords wondering about, this lord and that lord, here and there. He was a Swami yesterday and Narayana today, Swami Narayana. Then someone else becomes some other God and someone else another but Krishna wants to become a devotee and he does become a devotee.

You can call this the glory of a devotee but it is also a special position of the lord’s devotee, a status. The lord has also said, ‘whoever says that they are my devotee are not my devotee, no no. This must be another person, not my devotee. But one who says that he is a devotee of my devotee, aahh then you are my devotee.’ If one says like this that ‘I am a devotee of your devotee, oh lord’ ‘then you are my devotee’ the lord says.

Where is my lord Siva worships the supreme lord and in the same way, the supreme lord worships lord Siva. Okay what else is happening here?

Instructions for Youth Preaching
13 July 2022

Whatever problems can come in future we have to make a list of it previously in order to avoid the crisis, crisis management and this is called pro activity. We have to make a list previously of all problems that will come in future. And then third thing is note the vision, the obstacles and then strategies. What step we should take, which plan we should make so that we can realize our vision. So one, two, three and the 4th and 5th is.
4th is resources, resource I previously said resources are mainly of two types human resource and funds. This is our forth factor and fifth is our time line. This Vision we have to realize so it’s first phase we can achieve in one year and its second phase we can achieve in next two years and finally after 5 years also. I am just giving example of time line. In phase manner you achieve the goal of realized vision. This is 5 point planning.

One time Radhe Shyam Prabhu had invited me. There are lots of youths in Pune. On this topic I had said, explained the vision for ISKCON youth form preaching at that time we were talking about Pune. So I had talked about the vision making the list of obstacles and then strategies to overcome these obstacles and realise the vision.

Like that on this I gave seminars for some days. So also if you have not done then you can also do this or follow this more or less. There can be more sutra (formula). So this 5 point program. So yesterday we had seminar, today is also there. So I am sure that you are going to cover this, what vision is there? What problem is there?

How can we cooperate? How can we give cooperation for you preaching. Whatever is favorable for preaching should be done. Temple authorities they have to cooperate with ISKCON youth forum Preacher. And many types cooperation, either it may be transportation or funds or this that. Cooperation is the key factor for success.

These words are very famous in Maharashtra. The Ex chief minister of Maharashtra what is his name? Vasant Rao Dada Patil. He said one mantra,
“Bina sahakar nahi uddhar”
“Bina sahakarnahiuddhar”

Translation: Without cooperation there is no progress.

For us Srila Prabhupada ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada has said this to us, “That if you love me” Someone may say “Yes we love you, yes we love Prabhupada.” Prabhupad said “I want to see your love, I don’t just want to hear ‘I love you,. So how can we show our love for Prabhupada?

Prabhupada’s expectations was specially he said “How you co-operate with each other to protect this institution after I am gone.” Such a heart touching popular statement of Srila Prabhupada. Ofcourse this is not only limited to youth preaching but everyone needs this cooperation, taking and giving.

Co-operation. “Co” means together, two parties, “Co-operation”. So you all, specially managers or temple authorities make sure or any else party or youth forum preaching discussion is going on so, for the development and prakash ( advertisement) , vikas (development) , vistar (expansion) , uddhar (deliverance) , cooperation is essential or necessarily important.

So please co-operate, give your full hearted support by even participating. I think we all fulltime devotees of ISKCON have some role or should have a role in ISKCON youth forum or youth preaching , college preaching. Everyone has some role, so to play this role, to give your contribution, are you all ready? Hari bol .

Okay any questions, comments?
Devotee : Hare Krishna my question was that as you said in Iskcon those who are full time devotees there should be some role in youth preaching like their should some role but as a institute there are various services. So how to balance this? So I want to know that from you how should be balance this the organization and youth preaching?

Answer: So you Head pujari, is there any shortage of pujaris? If the youth will not join if they are not trained then they will not become Brahmin then how they will do deity worship? It will not work smoothly .That’s why we have to think and pray to Lord. Prayer is also a contribution . Or do nice shringar of Lord. When youth will come they will take darsana of Lord, nice beautiful Lord and if they experience that very neat and clean temple. Then this will be also contribution of the Head pujari for preaching.

Mataji devotee: Hare Krsna as we can see prabhujis can serve in this mission by doing full time joining as bramhachari and becoming pujaris so my question to you can we as mataji serve you in this mission?

Answer: “grihe thako, vane thako, sada ‘hari’ bole’ dako”
Bramhacharis or Grihastas everybody can serve Lord . Ultimately who is serving? Its soul. Body is only tool to serve but sadhaka who do sadhana who does bhakti? Its soul only. The devotional service of Lord is for everybody.

Devotee: Hare Krishna from yesterday Chaitanya Prabhu is taking this seminar for youth, this is for me those who are doing youth preaching. So some inspiration and your instructions. How should we take it and apply it?

Answer: “kelyane hot aahe, aadhi kelechi pahije “
First stop thinking , start acting. Do or Die. If this we will not do then . We will die or Hare Krishna movement will not be survive. There is such understanding, universal understanding , organisation which every time have to depend on new people. They came and they are gone. New batch they have trained and then out. Second batch when we trained they are also out. Are you getting it.

So this type of institution don’t have a bright future and also won’t last for long time . So, survival of the fittest. Survival is only of those who are fit. So we have to make our organisation fit, we have to be fit. So we need new devotees but we also should have old devotees and also trained devotees. Then together young and old, new and matured and they would be pillar of institution. So steadiness would then come so from womb to tomb program.

So from womb till the last ritual we have to survive. So that devotee would always survive in devotion. They maybe full time devotees, of course and also our congregation Grihasta and also Brahmacari. Grihasta have their role, brahmacaris have their role. Every varna every ashram has a role.

There are only Grihasta no sannyasis that is not good, or there are only sannaysis that is also incomplete. Often times I said this in connection of youth preaching , everyone has a role and everyone should have a role in making devotees. If you think you will understand the connection or you find some connection, break your brains. And if such big and successful program is happening then just add your name to it. Tagging along, tag along.

Oh! I was also there, I was there. Some devotees, aya ram gaya ram, coming and leaving. So new devotees also they are coming and they are leaving. So this also not a healthy situation. Likewise, our managers those were doing youth preaching in the past but aren’t doing it in present, this is also aya ram gaya ram.

So managers are also preachers they should preach steadily and enthusiastically . If you are managers and if you will not perform youth preaching then your management would be in difficulty. Without helping hand nothing is going to happen. Neither preaching would happen, nor fund raising would happen and nor you would be winner of book distribution marathon.

Srila Prabhupada wanted to see that how many temples you have opened? How many books your temple is distributing? How many devotees you have made?

phalena paric?yate

Translation: One’s success or defeat in any activity is understood by its result.

This type of results give self-introduction of your Krishna consciousness level. So from this seminar, those who were previously performing youth preaching, called youth preachers, their revival may happen and they may again perform youth preaching with all enthusiasm and more efficienctly. With this hope and desire these two days get together we had planned. Thought charning is happening now. So now get back into action. I think I would stop here.

Disappearance of Srila Gopala Bhatta Goswami
ISKCON NVCC Pune
7th July 2023

We should have sang first but now its a little late. However we can still ask, where is he? This is the beginning of the bhajan, je anilo. Whether it is a ‘Ye’ or ‘Ja’ at the beginning, it is an important meaning to the bhajan. The day itself is one of joyfulness or otherwise it is the disappearance day, which is one of mourning the great personality who left this world, Gaura parashad viraha.

There is agony and pain when thinking of the demise of that great Acharya. Narottama das Thakur has described this in this bhajan, Je anilo prema dhan and this is not always the case, as what is described in the bhajan but at least there should be thoughts of what is said in the bhajan. Narottama das Thakur is describing what he is going through when the Acharya’s disappear.

Je anilo prema dhana koruna pracur heno prabhu kotha gela Srila Gopal Bhatt Thakur.

je anilo prema dhana koruna pracur heno prabhu kotha gela acarya thakur

Translation
He, who brought the treasure of divine love and who was filled with compassion and mercy-where has such a personality as Advaita Acarya gone?

He who brought the treasure of divine love and distributed it also, he has today disappeared in 1531. Where has he gone? Is it Panchami today? Okay, what Maas is it now? Ashadh? There is one more in Uttar Pradesh.

Kaha mora swarup rupa kaha sanatan

Translation
Where are my Svarupa Damodara and Rupa Gosvami? Where is Sanatana?

These are the feelings of Narottam das Thakur as he finds out one by one that ‘this Acharya is now not here and that one has gone also.’ So where have they gone?

kaha dasa raghunatha patita pavan

Translation
Where is Raghunatha Dasa, the savior of the fallen?

kaha mora bhatta juga

Translation
Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopala Bhatta

this is Gopal Bhatta and Raghunatha Bhatta. Today we are observing the day of Gopal Bhatta and so there is one Gopal Bhatta and second one is Raghunatha Bhatta so yuga means two.

kaha mora bhatta juga kaha kaviraj eka kale kotha gela gora nata raj

Translation
Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopala Bhatta, and where is Krsnadasa Kaviraja? Where did Lord Gauranga, the great dancer, suddenly go?

Narottama das Thakur was a second generation Acharya and so he is remembering the Acharya’s of the first generation and feeling this pain and agony of separation. ‘Gora nata raj, Gauranga! Gauranga! Where has Gauranga gone?’ When Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left this world by entering the deity of Tota Gopinath, from that time the Gaudiya sampradaya Acharya’s also started to leave the world in great numbers. Why is this?

Pasane kutibo matha anale pasibo gauranga gunera nidhi kotha gele pabo

Translation
I will smash my head against the rock and enter into the fire. Where will I find Lord Gauranga, the reservoir of all wonderful qualities?

‘How will I attain the associates of Gauranga Mahaprabhu? I will not he able to get their association now.’

se saba sangira sange je koilo bilas se sanga na paiya kande narottama das

Translation
Being unable to obtain the association of Lord Gauranga accompanied by all of these devotees in whose association He performed His pastimes, Narottama Dasa simply weeps

‘I had association of so many of these great souls but now they are no more here. Se sanga na paiya kande narottama das, I am not getting this association anymore so now and so there is nothing else to do but weep now.’ When Gopal Bhatta Goswami was present in Vrindavan at the Radha Raman temple, he entered the lord’s eternal pastimes’s, his nitya lila. Jaya om nitya lila Gopala Bhatta Goswami Maharaja ki jai!

His Samadhi is just behind Raman Raman and his worshipable deity is Radha Raman. Radha Raman! Have you taken darshan? This is the only original deity in which is still in Vrindavan, otherwise all the original deities of Vrindavan have had to move to other places. Some are in Jaipur and where is Madan Mohan? In Karoli and Srinath Ji is in Nathdwara. Many other deities that were installed and worshipped by the sox Goswami’s are in many other places also, but this one deity, Radha Raman stayed.

Vrindavanam parityajya padam ekam na gacchati

Translation
It is said that Krsna never goes out of Vrindavana.

Ekam padam na gacchati. In this way Radha Raman didn’t take a step out of Vrindavan, he never left. He is there even today, jai Radha Raman ki! Actually only Raman is there (Krishna), and there is only one crown where Radharani should be, there is no deity of her. Gopal Bhatta Goswami had Saligram Sila’s which he was worshipping and from them, one Sila became Sri Raman. The Sila did not become Radha, only Raman.

He was born in North India and then he came to Vrindavan from Sri Rangam and he was the son of Venkatta Bhatta. Sri Rangam is where the river Kaveri flows. Kaveri Maiya ki jai! By remembering each item, each detail we become more purified. Gopal Bhatta Goswami was Ananga Manjari and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! I was supposed to stop with the name of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and continue the talk but I cannot stop myself from calling out ‘jai.’

When the lord departed from Jagannath Puri and started for his tour of South India, he met Sri Ramananada Raya at the banks of the river Godavari who was personally Vishaka Sakhi herself or himself. Now the lord has gone further and reached Sri Rangam and the banks of the river Kaveri. Over there, Venkata Bhatta who had two brothers, he requested the lord to stay at his home and actually the lord was going to stay there anyway.

Whether he had been invited or not, the lord was going to stay there and the invitation just became an excuse, a reason. You understand the Chatur Masa, the four months of the rainy season? The lord’s stay in Sri Rangam for four months and his meeting Gopal Bhatta Goswami happened at the time of Chatur Masa and Gopal Bhatta Goswami’s departure from this world was also during Chatur Masa.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was therefore anyway going to stay at the home of Venkatta Bhatta anyway and therefore this was not an accident but this was an arrangement. This is exactly what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted and his desire was fulfilled when Venkatta Bhatta invited Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to his home. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed there for four consecutive months and the lord’s travelling which is described in the Madhya lila – why are you sleeping?

I have said this to one person but it is an instruction to others also. Sit properly like a Yogi and how must you not sit? Like a Bhogi. I didnt want to say this but.. You can fill in the blanks. It will be disrespectful to the Acharya’s who we are speaking of and glorifying. We are trying to speak about them and remember them, but if you totally ignore these talks of glorification then it isn’t proper, right? It’s not proper etiquette.

At that time Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami was only seven years old, I am thinking of more to speak about. This is the second Goswami who Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is meeting and the first Goswami who he met was Raghunath das Goswami. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken Sannyasa and lord Nityananda and Advaita Achrya Prabhu had bought the lord to Shantipura by some tricks.

That is when Raghunath das Goswami came to meet the lord from his birthplace Saptagram. This meeting indeed took place but I wont speak more in this topic now, what happened when they met and their talks, what instructions the lord gave him. So this is two. Then Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went for his tour of the whole of South India including Maharashtra and returned to Jagannatha Puri. Then again the lord departs for a tour this time of East India, Bengal.

In Bengal the lord goes to Ramakeli, where the lord meets Rupa Sanatana and at that time Jiva Goswami was a small child of maybe two years old. It is hard to say whether the lord met the child or not but certainly the lord would have seen him, who was the son of Anupama, the brother of Rupa Sanatana. So when the lord met them at Ramakeli, Jiva Goswami was a small child. That’s four right? One, two three and four. No okay and five, Jiva Goswami is number five.

Then Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returns to Jagannatha Puri once again and then when the lord leaves Puri for Vrindavan for the third time, he goes to Varanasi where the lord meets Sanatana Goswami for the second time. He had already met Rupa Goswami at Prayagraj but over here he also meets Raghunath Bhatta at Varanasi. He is the son of Tapana Misra who was a resident of Bangladesh and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had told Raghunath Bhatta ‘go to Varanasi!’

At that time, he did not understand that he was thinking ‘why Varanasi?’ The lord then told ‘I will come there in the future and I will then meet you over there.’ Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at Varanasi for two months and also Raghunath Bhatta was a child just like Gopal Bhatta Goswami had been a child when Mahaprabhu first met him. Jiva Goswami was not even a child he was a very small child because Rupa and Samatana were very elderly.

But Raghunath das Goswami was a young man and that’s why he was told, ‘go and get married.’ He was not a boy and he was not elderly, but rather a young man and so this is how Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met the six Goswami’s at different times and in different places. The Lord then sent them individually to Vrindavan one by one and the first ones to be sent to Vrindavan was Lokanath Goswami and Bhugarbha Goswami and there is also the six Goswami’s, vande rupa sanatanau raghu yugau sri jiva gopalakau.

Although they are not counted amongst the team if these six Goswami’s, they are certainly very much connected with these Goswami’s. Lokanath Goswami and Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, not Bhugarbha Goswami, they also have a special team or connection. Okay so back to Sri Rangam where Gopal Bhatt Goswami was not happy about the fact that Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken Sannyasa.

In solitude Gopal Bhatt Goswami was lamenting ’why? Why has he taken Sannyasa?’ At that time the lord was also leaving the home of Gopal Bhatt Goswami after having stayed there for some time. The lord was leaving Sri Rangam and actually this is what occurs, after taking Sannyasa many people are left behind. Now Gopal Bhatt Goswami was being left behind by the lord and the lord is going on elsewhere. Gopal Bhatt Goswami was not happy about this and so through a dream – not Jagannatha lila darshan, no. That lila had not started yet because the lord had only stayed for two months and had then immediately left for his tour.

The lord came in his dream in Navadwipa lila and when Gopal Bhatt Goswami listened to those lila’s he became ecstatic and so thrilled that he began to cry. So like this in a dream Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lies Gopal Bhatt Goswami on his lap and the lord is also crying and he is bathing Gopal Bhatt who is lying on the lord’s lap, with those very tears. Hari Hari. Venkatta Bhatt was in Sri Rangam where Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was staying and Venkatta Bhatt had two brothers and one of those brothers was?

Prabodhananda SarasvatI Thakur. The whole family were worshippers of Sri Lakshmi Narayana and they were Pujaris of this form of the lord. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was seeing that they were a little proud of being Pujari’s if Lakshmi Narayana and the lord was also thinking that ‘Venkatta Bhatt believes that Narayana or Vishnu is the original supreme personality of Godhead and Krishna is and incarnation of Narayana.

They believed that all other incarnations were from Narayana, Vishnu. ‘Narayana is the original personality of Godhead!’ This misunderstanding many people have and so Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu must have had many discussions with Venkatta Bhatta and out of these, in one discussion Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed ‘oh why is this? Your Lakshmi is such a well known chaste wife of lord Vishnu. So why is that that she is always following Krishna and that she wants to be with him? She is in Sri Ban and Bela Ban and is performing many austerities to get association with Lord Krishna.’

Anyway it’s quite a long discussion and Venkatta Bhatta said’ it’s the same thing, it’s the same. Narayana and Krishna are the same personality.’ Then Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained in great detail that this was not the case. In Vrindavan the lord is known as Nanda Nandan.

Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam

Translation
the most worshipable form of the Lord is that of Sri Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja. Vrindavan dhama is the topmost worshipable abode

The most worshipable form of the lord is Vrajendra Nandan and how is the lord worshipped in Vrindavan?

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pum artho mahan sri caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah na parah

Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is worshipped along with His transcendental abode Vrndavana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopis of Vrndavana. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything and pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regard, are the opinion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Caitanya-matta-manjusa by Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The worship of the gopi’s, the Vraja Vadhu’s is performed with such devotion and it is the Gopi’s who are the performers of the topmost worship. If one wants to perform worship then they should follow the footsteps of the Gopi’s and Srimati Radharani. Worship should be performed in the bhava, the mood of Radharani and the Gopi’s. The lord continued ‘your Lakshmi, ours is Radharani and
Lakshmi is yours. Your Lakshmi wanted to remain in her position as the opulent goddess of fortune in Vaikuntha and at the same time enter into the pastimes of Krishna, where sweetness and beauty are superior to power and opulence, this is not possible.’ Seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi. What is before this part? Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro

Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi
(Tulasi Arati 4)

Translation
I beg you to make me a follower of the cowherd damsels of Vraja. Please give me the privilege of devotional service and make me your own maidservant

So what must one do? He must beg, nivedana, at the lotus feet of Tulasi Maharani, for what? May i become a maidservant, anugata of the Gopi’s. ‘Your Lakshmi indeed wants to enter the pastimes of the rasa lila of Radha and Krishna but whoever wants to do this must do two things. The first thing is that that personality must have a form like the Gopi’s, Gopi Rupa and secondly, one must have the feelings of the Gopi’s who are maidservants themselves of Lord Krishna.

‘But your Lakshmi wanted to remain in her opulent position with all her ornaments and wonderful dress.’ Whenever Krishna played his flute, the Gopi’s would run to him as soon as they heard the flute. One Gopi would only have an earring in one ear and wouldn’t have had a chance to put the other one on when suddenly the flute’s sound would be heard. The Gopi would then run towards the sound of the flute and leave all the dressing and adornment unfinished.

Whereas Lakshmi would hear the sound of the flute and say ‘oh okay, let it sound but I have not finished adorning myself yet. I am not ready, he has to wait for me.’ This is the difference in feelings and it shows that there is some difference in love for the lord. Also Krishna is known as Rasaraj Krishna and he is an ocean of Rasa’s, mellows of the sweet taste of Bhakti, devotion.

This is all described in the Gaudiya literatures and Sri Krishna who is the centre of the five main rasas or mellows of devotional service and seven indirect mellows, he tastes these mellows of devotion. This lord is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also and so how much is five and seven? Have a little think about it so that you don’t fall asleep because sleep comes when they’re thinking stops. That is why it’s better to have a little interaction and some exercise.

Narayana tastes two and a half rasa’s and Krishna how many? Twelve Rasa’s. It was a little surprising to hear that lord Narayana tastes two and a half mellows when I saw this reference and read it. For four months these conversations took place and there was also Kirtan

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This Harinama kevalam is sufficient on its own and many other residents of Sri Rangam in those days came in many crowds, well no crowds is not the what we should call it. Many people would come in large groups to take darshan of the lord and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was liberating many souls in this way. Having said this, his main focus was on this family and by the lord’s association and mercy the whole family became a family of Gaudiya Vaishnava’s!

They all became Pujari’s of Radha Krishna, so in this way one was Gopal Bhatta who later became a Goswami and then Venkatta Bhatta and Prabodhananda Saraswati Thakur both left Sri Rangam and went straight to Vrindavan to reside there. Vrindavan dham ki jai! There they will worship Vrindavan also

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pum-artho mahan sri-caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah na parah
(Caitanya-matta-manjusa by Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is worshipped along with His transcendental abode Vrndavana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopis of Vrndavana. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything and pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life for all men

They would all worship the lord in the mood of the Gopi’s, Gopi Bhava. Gopala Bhatta Goswami is Ananga Manjari anyway. In Kama Vana there is a Surabhi Kunda and there Prabodhananda Saraswati made his small cottage and started staying at the banks of this Kama Vana. He write many books there and remained one of the main associates or followers of lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

And Gopal Bhatta Goswami then became his disciple, his paternal uncle from whom he took initiation. Then Gopal Bhatta Goswami began to reside in Vrindavan and you can call it the order or desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that the six Goswami’s will recover the pastime places of the lord. I will not go into detail of what they would need to recover or found due to the attacks of the Muslims. There was a time when the deities of Vrindavan had to be moved or hidden and therefore nobody was coming to do Parikrama, Yatra to Vrindavan.

Parikrama’s were closed and therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again wanted to revive the glory of Vrindavan. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! People had forgotten which pastime had taken place where, where the pastime places were and so the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan would have to find these lost pastime places, that’s one thing. Then secondly the temples would have to be reestablished and deities would be once again installed and worshipped.

Then they would have to write many scriptures, that is three, then much preaching must happen, that is four. There must be preaching, hearing, chanting. And so Gopal Bhatta Goswami was engaged in all these activities and before he had even reached Vrindavan, Lokanath Goswami was already there and so were Rupa and Sanatana. When Gopal Bhatta Goswami reached Vrindavan, Rupa and Sanatana became so happy and they immediately send a message to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was at that time in Puri.

‘Gopal Bhatta Goswami is here!’ We don’t know how the messages were taken five hundred years ago, they may have had postmen who came and went from Vrindavan and Jagannatha Puri. Then lord then learnt that Gopal Bhatta had reached Vrindavan and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s joy knew no bounds, he was so joyful. It is written about Gopal Bhatta Goswami in his lifetime biography and there is a description in Bhakti Ratnakara taht Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had sent his own kaupin and outer garments of the babaji order, as symbols of renunciation to Vrindavan! Haribol!

Gopal Bhatta also wrote the great scripture Hari Bhakti Vilas and he also wrote a commentary on Bilvamangal Thakur’s famous writing Krishna Karnamrita. Jiva Goswami writes that he had a lot of help in writing the Sad Sandarbhas from Gopal Bhatta Goswami and ‘Only by taking his help was I able to write the six Sandarbhas.’

The other Goswami’s all had their own worshippable deities but Gopal Bhatta Goswami only had shalagram shilas. He had twelve shilas which he used to keep them in a cloth bag hung round his neck. He had gone to Nepal and got them from the Gandaki river and he actually got these Shila’s because even when he went once to out them back in the river, he tried to to put them back but just as soon as he put them back they jumped back again into his hands.

In this way the Shila’s were taking their rightful place and they did not want to leave Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Maya does not want to leave us but here we see that Krishna did not want to leave him. So the worship of the Shila’s was continuing but Gopal Bhatta Goswami had a great desire that ‘i may one day have a deity to worship then I will also put a flute on my deity as well as so many other ornaments which I would offer my lord.’

The lord understood this desire of his pure devotee and one day by the desire of the lord one rich merchant like Keshava Prabhu (laughter). These merchants always give something for the lord, some ornament like a crown for the deity, just like they give Gopal Krishna Maharaja for his worship of his deities. So one merchant came with wonderful ornaments and outfits of the deity and gifted them to Gopal Bhatta Goswami.

The Goswami accepted all these byt he was thinking ‘what will I do with all this? My deity is just a Shila. So that same night he put his Shila’s to rest and then he himself lay down to rest and the next day he woke up and saw

uttisthottistha govinda uttistha paramesvara uttistha kamala kanta trailokyam mangalam kuru

Translation
O Govinda, O Paramesvara, O beloved of Laksmi, please rise and bestow good fortune on all the three worlds

He must have prayed like this, ‘wake up oh lord, wake up.’ When he awakes the Shila’s he see’s that one Shila is not a Shila anymore but has instead become Sri Sri Raman. What an occurrence! Is there anything to question whether the lord exists or not? Is there such a thing as God? He became an enchanting three fold bending deity and this news reached everywhere very quickly. Rupa and Sanatana Goswami ran over to the place where the lord had manifested.

They ran to take darshan of Sri Raman and a great festival took place and since then every year on this day when the Shila became lord Raman, there is a great festival on this day in Vrindavan. It is the day after Nrsimha Chaturdasi and it is called Purnima day. That is the day when Gopal Bhatta Goswami’s Shila became a deity. There is also a story that one day Gopal Bhatta Goswami goes to a place in Uttar Pradesh called Saharan and he meets one Brahmana there. This Brahmana was a little distressed and the cause of his distress was that he had no son.

Gopal Bhatta Goswami understood the reason of his distress and so he blessed the brahman with a great benediction. So he didn’t bless him to have eight sons but he said ‘you will have a son.’ Then this Brahmana actually had a son and he had previously said to the Goswami that if I truly get a son then I will give him to you for your service.’ This Brahman’s son was called Gopinath and he became known as Gooinath Pujari. Today on the disappearance day of Gopal Bhatta Goswami, and after his disappearance this Gopinath Pujari took birth in Saharanpura.

He became the Pujari and actually he probably was even when Gopal Bhatta Goswami was here, but even after he continued the service to the deity of Sri Raman. He continued to serve Radha Raman and so in this way the associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the some Goswami’s stayed in Navadwipa. There was one team of them in Jagannatha Puri and the third group was where? Sri Vrindavan Dham ki jai!

The team of Vrindavan, especially the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan, they were given special power, intelligence and strength because through them the Gaudiya Vaishnava’s wanted to expand and spread the teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the disciplic succession. We have Madhavendra Puri and Iswara Puri in our succession and from Iswara Puri lord Chaitanya took initiation and after the lord it is the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan who carried on this disciplic succession.

When we think and we see who the Acharya’s of our Parampara are, there is lord Chaitanya himself and thereafter the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan. And what should we say of the six Goswami’s? They have done everything including re-establishing the principles of religion and in such a way as to ensure that preaching of Dharma continues for a long time. They have planted the seeds of the foundation of this preaching and of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

The most junior of the six Goswami’s was Srila Jiva Goswami and one by one all the Goswami’s leave this material world and nobody is left apart from Jiva Goswami. At one time he was in charge of the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage, he was the instructing spiritual master of many great stalwart Vaishnava’s. After the demise of the sox Goswami’s, three great Vaishnava’s came about who were known as the ‘three Acharya’s.’

They were Narottama das Thakur ki jai. Next, Shymananda Pandit ki jai! That’s two and then? Srinivas Acharya ki jai! Srinivas Acharya became the disciple of Gopal Bhatta Goswami and Narottama das Thakur becomes the disciple of Lokanath Goswami and Hridaya Chaitanya of the place called Ambila Kalna who is also known as Hridaya Ananda becomes the spiritual master of Shyamananda.

At one time all three of these personalities were in Vrindavan and Jova Goswami was their instructing spiritual master, Siksa Guru. At one time Jiva Goswami sent all three of them, ‘now if you go! Go and preach.’ The only means of preaching is books, books are the basis. So they filled a whole cart with Gaudiya literature and they were told by Srila Jiva Goswami, ‘go to Bengal and preach!’ So these three Goswami’s went to Orissa and Bengal and they preached extensively in this part.

After these three Acharya’s, we can say that the place for the next Acharya was empty for a while and for some time we dont hear of a great Acharya coming. Then Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur ki jai! After two hundred and fifty or three hundred years after this, Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur comes and his disciple is Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. So first there were six Goswami’s and after them there were three Acharya’s.

Then there was the team of these two great Acharya’s, Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. Baladeva Vidyabhusana gave many people faith in the Gaudiya Vaishnava movement when by the blessings and order of his spiritual master and Sri Govinda also, he went to Jaipur and wrote a commentary, Sri Govinda bhashya. Many books have been written by Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur and therefore he has contributed so much also to Gaudiya Vaishnava literature.

So in this way books are the basis and we can see that Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur has therefore written many books and commentaries and also after him we cam say a hundred and fifty years later, there is another team of three Acharya’s and they are Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Krishna consciousness had to be spread throughout the whole world and alongside this, there is the prediction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama: sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
(Chaitanya Bhagavad Antya khanda 4.126)

Translation
In every town and village throughout the world

This prediction had to be made true and that is why all the Acharya’s have given their own prediction and for four hundred years there were arrangements being made. Just like we often say that Srila Prabhupada started making arrangements in 1922 when order, ‘hey you! Go to the western countries and preach there! You!’ When someone soeaks like this we get a little scared, ‘is he talking to me?’ That’s what one started thinking.

So it is our understanding that to follow that order Srila Prabhupada spent a lifetime in separation because the order was given to him in 1922. Then eleven years later Srila Prabhupada took initiation in 1933 and in another eleven years in 1944 Prabhupada started distributing books and his back to godhead magazine. Then after another eleven years in 1954 Prabhupada took to Vanaprastha ashram and then we see that after around eleven years there is a new occurrence.

The Prabhupada went to the western countries in 1966 and found med Iskcon and then after another eleven years Srila Prabhupada entered into the eternal pastimes of the lord. So we call this a lifetime in preparation but even before Srila Prabhupada all these Acharya’s were preparing, getting ready. Then Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur made a master plan, he made a blue print in Godrumadwipa, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur’s Godruma Kalpatavi.

The Thakur writes a book about preaching at Nama Hatta and he writes the whole outline in a book. And also the very year Srila Prabhupada took his birth, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur sent his book overseas to the western world. His book distribution had started then and so Bhaktivinode Thakur had started distributing the message of the Gaudiya Vaishnava’s.

He had writing a book about Parikrama and was known as the seventh Goswami. There are the six Goswami of Vrindavan and then there was one more Goswami, Bhaktivinode Thakur who was known as the seventh Goswami of Navadwipa. Bhaktivinode Thakur was the one who had trained Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and that is the reason he had become Bhakti Siddhanta Dharine, possessor of all knowledge of the science of Bhakti, devotional service.

Bhaktivinode Thakur was like a social scientist, you can say and he knew all the different sects of Siddhanta, especially the bogus aula, baula, kartabhaja, Gauranga Nagari’s who were all Sahajiya’s. This was all pointed out by Bhaktivinode Thakur and so what did Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur do in his lifetime? He worked to get rid of and fight all these bogus sectionsof so called Vaishnava’s and Mayavadi’s also.

Paritranaya sadhunam, and what else? Vinasaya ca duskrtam, he annihilated the miscreants.

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad Gita 4.8)

Translation
In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium

The lord does this when he appears in this material world but when he is not present then his work is done through his Acharya’s who are his own. These are the Acharya’s who Sri Krishna himself speaks of, ‘acaryam mam vijaniyan, I am myself the Acharya.’

acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya buddhyasuyeta
sarva deva mayo guruh
(Srimad Bhagavatam 11.17.27)

Translation
One should know the acharya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods

The lord descends to the material world at intervals, sambhavami yuge yuge and then what does he do?

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad Gita 4.8)

Translation
In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium

The lord himself is doing this work but when he is not physically present to do it, the lord empowers the Acharya’s of the disciplic succession do this work. Bhaktivinode Thakur created a blue print, a plan of how to preach Krishna consciousness throughout the whole world and he had also made a prediction that a great soul, Mahapurush would appear soon and he would preach in every country of the world.

Also those who would hear this message throughout the world will take it up and would return back to India and they will all get together with the people of India and together what will they sing? Jaya Sacinandana Jaya Sacinandana Jaya Sacinandana Gaura Hari. So like this, Bhaktivinode Thakur was preparing so this Hare Krishna movement may reach the whole world.

Then Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur took this preaching to a greater extent and he even established the Gaudiya Maths which totalled sixty four and sixty of these were in India and four were established outside India. He was sending different disciples to other countries such as England and Germany and some other European countries but he they didn’t get any recognition there. Then finally Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai! He was the devotee military commander, Senapati Bhakta of lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

Lord Gauranga had given birth to many soldiers, some in America, South America, Africa, Australia but when we say the devotee military commander, Senapati Bhakta, there is an army and so Prabhupada went overseas to New York by sitting on a boat. If there is an army then a boat is needed, no? So sitting on the Jaladuta was a Deva duta, Srila Prabhuoada, a messenger of the God’s. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada deva duta ki jai! Senapati Bhakta ki jai!

And where was he going? New York and why New York? Some devotees say and I also keep saying that New York is the capital city of Kali Yuga, it is the base, the kingdom of Kali Yuga. That is why Srila Prabhupada made it the first place if his attack and he has reached this place. As soon ads he reached he has thrown time bombs in the form of his books and the holy names.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

Due to the effect of this bomb, many people got effected, they got hurt and actually the bad elements in these persons were killed due to these bombs. These people were protected and they became devotees. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had given birth to this army and therefore wherever Srila Prabhupada went, fourteen times around the world, his army met him and with the help of these army soldiers, this Hare Krishna movement was preached, spread and established far and wide.

The mrs were four principals in the preaching as well. No illicit sex life, no intoxication, no gambling, and no meat eating. Due to following these principles , we can easily say that the bad qualities if the candidates were destroyed. No more! The sinful activities which were being performed were stopped and they became pious souls

srnvatan sva kathah krsnah
punya sravana kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.2.17)

Translation
Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the paramatma (supersoul) in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted

In this way the mission to spread lord Chaitanya’s Sankirtan movement was established by Srila Prabhupada, and we do keep saying that Prabhupada is the founder but actually the original founding father of this movement are Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. Sankirtan eka pitarau.

ajanu lambita bhujau kanakavadhatau sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau visvambharau dvija varau yuga dharma palau vande jagat priyakaro karunavatarau
(Caitanya-bhagavata 1.1.1)

Translation
I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have golden yellow complexions, and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; They are the maintainers of all living entities; They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations

The founding fathers of this movement are indeed Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu who are krishna Balaram themselves, who are Rama and Lakshman. Prabhupada was made the instrument. Nimitta matram bhava savya sacin

tasmat tvam uttistha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunksva rajyam samrddham
mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva
nimitta-matram bhava savya sacin
(Bhagavad Gita 11.33)

Translation
Therefore get up and prepare to fight. After conquering your enemies you will enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasacin, can be but an instmment in the fight

The establishment of this Hare Krishna movement was done through Srila Prabhupada by the lords Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu’s. Prema Dharma was established through this movement and actually the holy name Hare Krishna Hare Krishna is what Dharma? Prema Dharma. You are all members of international society of Krishna consciousness and so continue to be a part of this society and performing these devotional activities. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat pranitam

dharmam tu saksad bhagavat pranitam
na vai vidur rsayo napi devah
na siddha mukhya asura manusyah
kuto nu vidyadhara caranadayah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.19)

Translation
Real religious principles are enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although fully situated in the mode of goodness, even the great rsis who occupy the topmost planets cannot ascertain the real religious principles, nor can the demigods or the leaders of Siddhaloka, to say nothing of the asuras, ordinary human beings, Vidyadharas and Caranas

golokera prema dhana hari nama sankirtana rati na janmila kene taya

Translation
The only remedy is hari nama sankirtana, the chanting of the Hare K???a maha mantra, which is imported from the spiritual world, Goloka Vrindavana. How unfortunate I am that I have no attraction for this

namo maha vadanyaya krishna prema pradaya te, da means dena, to give. And pradaya, pra means prakrishta rupena, or complete. So that personality who has given such wealth of love is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

namo maha vadanyaya krishna prema pradaya te
krishnaya krishna caitanya namne gaura tvishe namah

Translation
O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto you

So this wealth of live is the topmost because love of Godhead is the topmost and has been called the fifth and final dharma. Srila Vyasadeva had written many books but he was not satisfied by doing so, there was no job satisfaction. What was his job? To write all the books on transcendental subject matters which he did but he was not satisfied. When he heard Narada Muni ask him at Badrika Ashram, ‘what is the matter? You look very distressed.’

Not you all, no this is what Narada Muni asked Vyasadeva and it was morning time and they were sitting on the banks of the river Saraswati at Badrika Ashram. Vyasadeva’s face was looking distressed and therefore Narada Muni asked the reasons for this distress. Then Vyasadeva answered that ‘I have written so many books on spiritual knowledge but I am not satisfied. Maybe there are some shortcomings, some mistakes, faults or defects in the books I have written.’

Having said this, he gave all the books to Narada Muni who is also the spiritual master of Srila Vyasadeva. Both of them are also the supreme lord, Vyasadeva is the empowered incarnation of the supreme lord and Narada Muni also. But still one has become the disciple of the other so Vyasadeva requested, ‘please do a book review of all the books which I have written. You may make some corrections and I would like to hear some observations or comments.’ That is when Narada Muni has said vasudevasya mahima hy anuvarnitah

yatha dharmadayas cartha
muni varyanukirtitah
na tatha vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.9)

Translation
Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four principles beginning with religious performances, you have not described the glories of the Supreme Personality, Vasudeva

You have not emphasised the glories of Vasudeva and instead you have given importance to the four principles of religion namely religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. You have spoken so much on karma kanda, jnana kanda, kevala visera bhanda.

karma kanda, jnana kanda, kevala visera bhanda
(Narottama das Thakur)

Translation
the paths of karma kanda and jnana kanda are pots of poison

Then Srila Vyasadeva wrote one more scripture and that scripture is Srilmad bhagavatam, king of all scriptures ki jai. In this Srimad bhagavatam it is said harih sarvatra giyate

vede ramayane caiva purane bharate tatha
adav ante ca madhye ca harih sarvatra giyate

In the Vedic literature, including the Ramayana, Puranas and Mahabharata, from the very beginning (adau) to the end (ante ca), as well as within the middle (madhye ca), only Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is explained

Whether you call the lord by the name Vasudeva or Hari, vasudeva parah kriyah vasudeva para veda vasudeva param tapah vasudeva vasudeva

Vasudeva para veda
vasudeva para makhah
vasudeva para yoga
vasudeva parah kriyah
vasudeva param jnanam
vasudeva param tapah
vasudeva paro dharmo
vasudeva para gatih
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.2.28-28)

Translation
In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realizing Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion [dharma] is rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life

So by making this literature the instrument, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself was most attached to listening to Srimad bhagavatam instead of any other book. And that is why Sri Krishna has said

trai gunya visaya veda
nistrai gunyo bhavarjuna
nirdvandvo nitya sattva stho
niryoga ksema atmavan

Translation
The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self

The vedas deal with the subject if the three modes which are sattva guna (mode of goodness), raja guna (mode of passion), and tama guna (mode of ignorance). Even the different scriptures ate based on the different modes of nature and therefore some are in the modes of goodness, some are in the modes of passion and some in the modes of ignorance. ‘Become Nistrai gunyo, free from all the modes of material nature.’

So one scripture was written which was beyond the material modes and that was the topmost scripture srimad bhagavatam. So there are four principles of religion and above these is the fifth principle of the dharma of love, Prema. What does this movement of Sei Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do? It gives Prema, love in charity to one and all. Each living being is searching for this Prema and this love means the supreme lord himself.

He is the embodiment of Prema. You may call it love or joy but this is what every living entity is searching for and that is why one name of the lord is Ananda, joy. Sac cid ananda vigraha, he is full of joy and his name indicates joy. Nanda ghar ananda bhayo, what happened at the house of Nanda? There was joy in the house of Nanda which means his whole mansion was filled with joy and this means that Krishna was there.

Joy means Krishna so if there is joy in the home of Nanda it means that Krishna must be present there because he is the only one who is an embodiment of joy. Krishna is the embodiment of Prema also, and therefore krishna prema pradaya te means that when one is giving out Prema, love then this is the same as giving Krishna.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This religion has to be introduced and preached everywhere otherwise there are many other man made religions which are mano dharma, mental speculation. ‘I think..’ this is what is happening most of the time. This is also called a form of gambling because people are being cheated in the name of religion and they are being told something which is only partly true.

I shouldn’t say this but the religion who has the most followers, thirty three percent of the population of the world is Christianity. Then our Muslim friend’s constitute twenty five percent of the population and so we Hindu’s are only fourteen percent. These others have played such a trick and so their preachers and their scriptures will speak mostly of sarva dharman parityajya, abandoning all varieties of religion.

How can we compare the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan and Gopal Bhatta Goswami to some religion which was founded just some fifteen hundred years ago. Then two thousand years ago there was another religion which was founded then a few hundred years later another religion was founded. So these religions were founded only a short while ago and whatever is started must come to an end. In actuality there is only one dharma, religion of all living entities.

That religion is called Sanatana dharma or Bhagavad dhama. What has Prahlad Maharaja said? Kaumara acaret prajno
dharman bhagavatan iha

Sri prahrada uvaca
kaumara acaret prajna
dharman bhagavatan iha
durlabham manusam janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam
(Srimad bhagavatam 7.6.1)

Translation
PrahladA Maharaja said: One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life, in other words, from the tender age of childhood -to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection.

So which religion must we follow? Bhagavad dharma and that too in young age one must begin to take lessons in the path of bhakti. Each and every living entity has only one religion, Jaiva dharma. Having any other proper religion is just not possible although so many false religions continue to exist. This dharma and that dharma and then there are people who follow a certain so called religion for a short while and then they go elsewhere to follow something else.

Elo and gelo, they come and go. Who has said this? Lochan das Thakur. But Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the topmost dharma and this is the o e true religion that is for all living entities and it is the religion of love, Prema dharma. This is what the world is lacking and therefore it is our duty to bring to the world this which is lacking, what people are searching for.

Gopal Bhatta Goswami will be happy with us if we preach this Krishna consciousness and also if we follow the principles of Krishna consciousness also. Nitai gaura prem anande hari haribol.