Jagannath Katha
Jagannath Katha
19th June 2022
Iskcon Thane
om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya ?caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
Translation
I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him
jayati jayati devo devaki nandano ‘sau
jayati jayati ko vrsni vamsa pradipah
jayati jayati megha syamalah komalango
jayati jayati prthvi bhara naso mukundah
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya Madhya 13.78)
Translation
All glories unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is known as the son of Devaki. All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is known as the light of the dynasty of Vrsni. All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead whose bodily luster is like that of a new cloud and whose body is as soft as a lotus flower. All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appeared on this planet to deliver the world from the burden of demons and who can offer liberation to everyone
sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita, gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hari Hari. The house is full here today in the Thane temple. What will you do in the future and where will you see them all? Maybe you’ll have to sit them on your lap or your shoulders. So we welcome you all here. Jagannatha Swami ki jai. I was about to say that I am very pleased but because Jagannatha Swami is present here, I will say that Jagannatha Swami is pleased by your presence here.
For your information I can tell you that this Jagannatha in this temple is not the Jagannatha of Iskcon Thane here, am I right? He is the lord of the universe but here he is the lord of Krishna Darshan Prabhu and he will stay seated here on top of the building. This is where he will continue to be worshiped and you can also go there, they can go there can’t they?
We must ask permission of the proprietor of lord Jagannatha. And yes, if you do go then they will give you Prashad also, so can they all come to your home to take darshan of Jagannatha, yes? Oh he is saying that you have already all been there to his home for darshan. Atvthe moment there are festivals being celebrated for lord Jagannatha throughout the whole country. Just a few days ago I was in Jagannatha Puri. Jagannatha Puri dham ki jai!
On that day it was occasion of snana yatra but on that day we just saw the snana yatra only, we did not bathe, well we did not bathe Jagannatha. We had had a bath ourselves but we did not bathe Jagannatha (laughter). When the priests were bathing lord Jagannatha, we were watching them and as we did so we were thinking in our minds, ‘how wonderful it would be if we could also bathe lord Jagannatha?’
So there is a possibility that lord Jagannatha has noted that this person wanted to do this. So I was thinking that the lord has now been fulfilled by the lord. What I just saw that day I was able to do today by bathing lord Jagannatha. I also did whatever I did on your behalf also and so what can we say about lord Jagannatha?
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has also said
jayati jayati devo devaki nandano ‘sau. What we see in the foreign countries is that some people upon looking at lord Jagannatha become scared, ‘how can he be God?! It is not possible!’ Not just this but You may know what happened with Indradyumna Swami Maharaja, not Swami but just Indradyumna Maharaja. This King Indradyumna was the one who arranged for the installation of these deities and the opening of the Jagannatha temple.
He gave one carpenter the job to carve the lord who was in the form of a log of wood, Daru Brahma. The carpenter’s tools were not working and they would break as soon as he would try to carve the form of the lord and his hands would be shaking to make the job even more difficult. Before him many others had come and had gone also and at the end one carpenter came who was Visvakarma himself.
He spoke and said, ‘I will carve the form of the lord from this log of wood, Daru Brahma.’ This Daru is not the alcohol which is drunk (laughter). Daru means a cast like a stick or log of Brahma which means Brahman, the supreme. He was the supreme lord who was initially in the form of Nila Madhava and so this is the very detailed and deep history of lord Jagannatha.
He himself became the log of wood for the deity and then he ordered that his deity be made from that log and then King Indradyumna will be able to worship that form of the lord. Then the job of sculpting the deity from the log of wood was given to who? It was Visvakarma and the deal was that until the deity is not completely made, he said ‘I will be the only one alone in the room. The doors and curtains must be closed and I will be by myself and if somebody intrudes or disturbs me during this time then I will not continue this work of sculpting that deity and the work will be left undone.
So for many day this work of sculpting the deity went on behind closed doors but this Visvakarma Ji was taking a long time, he is not just any ordinary carpenter. So King Indradyumna – I am calling him King Indradyumna but not to be confused with the disciple of Srila Prabhupada in Iskcon called Indradyumna Maharaja also.
So here, King Indradyumna was very anxious and he should be anxious for the darshan of the lord. He was very impatient you could say for taking darshan of the deities, to install them in the temple and also to open that temple. Therefore after some days he could not wait any longer and so he was knocking on the door, ‘may I come in sir?’ Somebody was also asking me like this today.
So at first he could hear some work happening, ‘khat khat khat’ and then the noise stopped and the King then opened the door hurriedly. When he looked inside he suddenly realised, ‘what have I done? The sculpting of the deities has not been completed. It is still incomplete because I have come in. This is not a beautiful form of the lord here in front of me, this is an incomplete form of the lord.
It is only half done and where are his hands and there is no clue to where the legs and feet are. The eyes are so big and look quite fearsome. How will I be able to worship this deity? Krishna does not look like this and Balaram? Forget it! This kind of Balaram? Krishna’s each limb is beautiful but this deity does not have all his limbs and there is no information about some limbs that are missing.
Being beautiful is a complete different matter!’ Then, ‘Narayan, Narayan.’ So who reached there? Narada Muni. How do you all know, were you there at the time? Laughter. Lord Narayana’s name is connected to Narada Muni. Just like immediately upon seeing the Hare Krishna devotees, what do you all say? ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna!’
So as soon as one hears the name of Narayana one knows, ‘Jai Narada!’ In this way Narada Muni is also remembered in connection to this chanting. So Narada Muni upon reaching the scene asked, ‘what is the problem, what has happened here? Why are you lamenting and looking so miserable and hopeless?’
King Indradyumna replied, ‘look for yourself! Is the lord’s form meant to look like this? I wanted to install the deities as quickly as possible and I gave this carpenter the job to do but he has left it incomplete and gone away. How will the installation take place now? At that time Narada Muni told the King, ‘these deities are not incomplete and in fact they are more than complete.’
Do you understand that which I am saying in English? More than complete which means that not only are they complete but they are more then complete. They are fully and wholly complete and how is this? Narada ji had previously spoken on this subject matter. This was on a certain occasion which had occurred at another time and I wont speak upon that right now.
The lord had manifested this form before and Narada Muni was witness to this. So he said ‘I have seen this form of the lord before! Just like when I had seen the forms of Krishna and Balaram along with Subhadra before, I remember this very well that this is that very same form and manifestation that I witnessed then. The same darshan I am having now of your deities, as I had seen them in person back then.
It was exactly the same form as how Jagannatha is now in this deity and Balaram is the exact same and so is Subhadra, just like when I saw them then. Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra- are you all listening, yes? When they had heard the story of Vrindavan and the residents of Vrindavan, and how the residents of Vrindavan were passing their days, because Krishna and Balaram who were originally from Vrindavan went and resided in Dwaraka thereafter.
They were originally in Vrindavan but after going to Dwaraka they never returned back to Vrindavan. When leaving Vrindavan to go to Mathura, they had told the residents that they would be returning very soon. He said ‘I am just now coming back’ but
Soduniya Gopinath Krsna Mathuresi Gela….akrurane raath sajavila …ratha
(Marathi abhang)
Translation
Listen oh gopi’s, Krishna is leaving to go to Mathura and Akrura is gettimg the chariot ready to take them..
There is this bhajan that Kamsa had sent Akrura, ‘go and immediately bring them!’ Who? ‘Krishna and Balaram and bring them to Mathura.’ So Akrura went and there is a marathi abhang, devotional song. So at that time all the residents of Vrindavan and especially the gopi’s were told this, that Krishna would come back soon. Then of course Krishna did not return after a few days and also for eighteen years he stayed in Mathura.
He did not return to Vrindavan and Krishna himself was not pleased about this fact but he was helpless in a sense as there were some important reasons for why Krishna had to stay behind in Mathura. Then Krishna tells Uddhava, ‘oh Uddhava come and sit down here with me and I will tell you something from my heart.’ Now it will be understood why Krishna continued to stay in Mathura and did not return back to Vrindavan.
In Mathura Krishna is saying to Uddhava ‘please take a seat Uddhava and I will tell you something which is in my mind and my heart.’ ‘Please speak oh lord,’ Uddhava said. Krishna then said
Udho Mohi Braj Bisrat Nahi
(Surdas bhajan)
Translation
Oh Uddhava, I am missing Braja very much
‘I just cannot forget Vrindavan.’ So Krishna says whilst remembering everything about Vrindavan, ‘I cannot forget Vrindavan.’ The he sent Uddhava with a message and this is called the message of Uddhava and in this way Krishna remained in Mathura for eighteen years and after that he went further on to Dwarka where he then started to live. After some time he also got married to how many queens? Sixteen thousand, one hundred and on top of that eight more who were the principal queens.
Rukmini Maiya ki jai! Rukmini is number one and she was from Maharashtra. You know that, right? No you didn’t know that. You are thinking‘it’s useless being Maharashtrian,’ (laughter). Rukmini was from Kaundinyapura, and where is this? In Amravati? So that Rukmini from Amravati is, well beginning with Rukmini Krishna married all these queens and then Krishna remained there and so did Balaram.
Also all the residents of Mathura became the residents of Dwarka, you know this. At one time there was nobody in Dwarka and Krishna didn’t have a living quarters or any place in Dwarka. There was no address of Krishna’s in Dwarka but then during one such night, all the residents of Mathura had to relocate within one night.
In that one night there were palaces made for each resident and the whole town was planned out and not only planning but the execution of the plan also. And this all took place within one night and Krishna Balaram made arrangements to send everyone to Dwarka and then they again came back alone to Mathura. This was to battle with Jarasandha and Kalayavana had also reached there who was called Adhama, a Yavana.
So Krishna was in this way residing in Dwarka but his heart was in Vrindavan. ‘I lost my heart in Hare Krishna Pandal, Hare Krishna festival.’ So Krishna also lost his heart in Vrindavan although he was residing in Dwarka as a duty. There is a duty that needs to be performed but if he had his own choice, then he would have chosen Vrindavan. So Krishna also was missing Vrindavan and not only the land of Vrindavan but the residents of Vrindavan, the Vrajavasi’s.
The Vrajavasi’s were missing Krishna and- do you understand Vrajavasi? Vraja you understand, Vrindavan dham ki jai!
Nilachala nivasaya nityaya paramatmane
balabhadra subhadrabhyam jagannathaya te namah
(Prayer of residents of Nilacala)
Translation
O Lord Jagannath, the controller and savior of the entire universe, kindly save the people of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh from the super cyclone Phailin.?May you kindly have your merciful glance upon us and save us from the impending danger and destruction by Phailin. Only you can protect us.
Right now the lord has become, or rather he is going to become- actually not yet but the lord is going to become Nilacala vasi, resident of Nilacala. So the Vrajavasi’s were missing Krishna, you do understand what I am saying when I say they were missing him, yes? I think this sort if language everyone understands.
Miss and miss, not miss. We are not missing the miss. Miss India and miss.. and the residents of Dwarka were missing the Vrajavasi’s and in this way they were missing each other but Krishna still was not able to go or you could say that the residents of Dwarka were not letting him go there. The Vrajavasi’s really wanted Krishna, ‘we want Krishna, we want Krishna!’ Can you say this, ‘we want Krishna?’
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
When we chant the holy name, what is it that we are saying? We want Krishna. To say Hare Krishna means ‘we want you.’ Anyway there were letter exchanges from Vrindavan there would be news and letters, where they would send letters and Krishna and others also would give their reply. The postman at one time walked from Dwarka to Vrindavan and the back from Vrindavan to Dwarka with the replies to the letter.
This is a Padayatra and it’s a very slow postal service, right? Then smart Krishna gave that postman a horse so now when the postman gets upon the horse what will happen? It will become a speed post. So the fast communication continued for a while but there was still no solution to the real problem. Krishna had already known and Rukmini had also said, ‘do you know? when Radharani feels separation from you, she feels so much unbearable pain no, you don’t know!’
Krishna said, ‘I don’t know? Have you not read the Bhagavad Gita? As you open the Bhagavatam, what is written? janmady asya yato ’nvayad itaratas carthe?v abhijnah svarat
om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
janmady asya yato ’nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat
tene brahma hrda ya adi kavaye muhyanti yat surayah
tejo vari mrdam yatha vinimayo yatra tri sargo ’mrsa
dhamna svena sada nirasta kuhakam satyam param dhimahi
(SB 1.1.1)
Translation
O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord ?r? K???a because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmaji, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krsna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.
‘What am I like? I am abhijnah. Jnah means full of knowledge and abhi means all, so I am all-knowing. I am like this and the Bhagavatam is also declaring this and you, Rukmini are saying that I dont know?!’ So Krishna was speaking like this but at the same time he did accept that ‘yes yes it could be that I do not actually know Radharani’s feelings of separation and the pain she is going through.
I really Do you not know her heart and her mind,’ and then you know what? Krishna took a vow that ‘next time I come as an incarnation, I will become Radha, in the form of Radharani I will appear.’ And so who did the lord become? Gauranga. Radha bhava dyuti suvalitam naumi krnsa-svarupam
radha krsna pranaya vikrtir hladini saktir asmad
ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha bhedam gatau tau
caitanyakhyam prakatam adhuna tad dvayam caikyam aptam
radha bhava dyuti suvalitam naumi krsna svarupam
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 4.55)
Translation
The loving affairs of Sri Radha and Krsna are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Radha and Krsna are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Sri Krsna Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Srimati Radharani although He is Krsna Himself
Krishna became Radharani’s feelings or her heart you could say. He became Radha conscious, conscious of Radha and he took her feelings, her emotions and her complexion. We call Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Gauranga and what do we call Radharani? Gaurangi. So Gaura-anga. Are you all listening? Gaura- anga , his limbs are white in complexion. Then Gaurangi, her limbs are similarly white in complexion.
Letter exchanges were happening but there was still no solution to the problem and that’s when Krishna had an idea. ‘I will go to Kuruksetra at the time of sunset and I will go on the pretext of bathing in some pure river at an auspicious time.’ In this way Krishna, Dwarkadhish made a plan to go to Kuruksetra to bathe in Surya Kunda. This Surya Kunda is a famous lake at Kuruksetra.
Then Krishna again wrote a letter to different devotees, ‘dear Radha, he gopi, he Lalite, he Vishake, he Nanda baba, he Yashoda Mayi, he Subal Sakha.’ He wrote a personal letter to each of these devotees. With great respect he signed it yours sincerely and then the postman bought the letter to Vrindavan by speed post. There was a home delivery and as the devotees open their letters and read them, this was the best news in their whole lives, you could says.
‘Now we will meet, now we will meet, we will meet.’ And it was written in the letter ’okay so Dwarka is a city very far from Vrindavan but Kuruksetra is not so far. So I am coming there, so you come too and we will meet.’ There is also something written here in Iskcon Thane about the meeting of the spiritual master and the disciple. The Vrajavasi’s got ready for this meeting whilst the residents of Dwarka had already reached Kuruksetra on their individual chariots.
The residents of Vrindavan then arrived in their individual carts and from the other side in Dwarka there were many chariots and in this way there was a great reunion at Kuruksetra. During this time, now you understanding this whole Mahabharata that I am reciting to you all. Its not exactly Mahabharata but what I mean is that I am extending the story so much and you will soon understand the reason behind this.
So please listen with attention. So all the residents of Dwarka were staying in their tents at Kuruksetra, Srimad Bhagavatam describes some of this but some other books describe this is more detail. The meeting of the residents of Vrindavan and the residents of Dwarka were meeting after one hundred years. They had not met for one hundred years and Radharani had also been cursed at one time before that ‘you will become separated from Krishna and you will have to stay far away from him.
You will not even have the opportunity to see Krishna’s face and you will be separated for one hundred years.’ So Radharani and the gopi’s also have now reached Kuruksetra and Krishna then
meets them all including the other residents of Vrindavan beginning with Yashoda. How must that meeting have been? Actually this is all so beyond our thinking and understanding, it is called achintya, beyond our comprehension.
We cannot even imagine what it must be like, we can lightly guess what that meeting may have been like between Krishna and Yashoda. Krishna also met his friends and do you understand when they used to wear underwear such as nappies together? That is how young they were when they were together and in this underwear they would go as cowherd boys to herd the cows.
Choti Choti Gaiya Chotay Chotay Gwaal Chotoso
(Krishna bhajan)
Translation
The little cows and little cowherds, there is also my little Krishna (madhan gopal) amongst them all
The friends are older now and Krishna is also older but now they are meeting after so long. That meeting bought so much joy to all parties and then there has been a special reunion with Radharani where they have met in solitude. All these meetings are happening in Kuruksetra and it is not at the time of war also. That will happen after this so this is Krishna’s first visit to Kuruksetra.
When they go to visit again the battlefield of Kuruksetra then what will happen? Mahabharata, the history of great India. It was a world war and you could say that was the first world war. The world did not note this down as the first world war in history. They missed out this war, they missed the world war which all the kings and great monarchs were present and the whole world was involved.
There were eighteen aksauhini divisions in the armies and six hundred and forty million soldiers gave their lives in this war. At that time there was a lot of population and nowadays they are saying that the population has increased and that it is increasing too much. No, this is not true and the world has seen more population than this in the past.
The so called historians say that the first world war occurred when, who knows? 1918, who will understand here nineteen hundred and eighteen (laughter)? So 1918 was the year of the first world war and the second world war was in 1945, so the first and the second but what about the Kuruksetra war? Have you ever thought about this? I am bringing to your notice so be thoughtful, start thinking.
This is why the history which is taught these days in school, this history has to be re-written. The Mahabharata war is also not exactly the first because this world has seen many wars prior to this also but in the more recent years there has been the Kuruksetra war which was certainly the first world war. Then you can say the 1918 war was the second world war and that the other one was the third one.
So you should also make some protest regarding this and I know that the governmental authorities are seriously thinking that the world history now needs to be re-written. When I used to go to school we were also taught like this. We were told that lord Buddha was the first incarnation of the lord one and a half thousand years ago. Then Chandragupta Maurya came under the leadership and then the country of Kalinga which was a war led by Ashoka of Odhisha.
Then there came Darwin’s theory of evolution and according to this theory he was saying ‘how could there have been a war five thousand years ago with humans and they are using weapons? Forget it, this is not at all possible. At that time the most evolved species were the monkeys and we are all the descendants and children of the monkeys.’ Through the evolution process beginning with amoebae.
Oh they have forgotten the actual Ba who is Vithoba and we are now speaking about this amoebae. So they are saying that the whole process of evolution started with this amoebae but we know that the first living entity created was Brahma. He was a completely advanced living entity and he didn’t just have one head but he had four heads. He is called the four headed Brahma and this is all described in bhagavatam and the puranas that he at once created the eight million four hundred thousand species of life.
jalaja nava lakshani sthavara laksha vimsati krimayo rudra sankhyakah, pakshinam dasa lakshanam, girimsa lakhani pasau manushyah catur-lakshani
There are 900,000 species of aquatic animals, 2,000,000 species of immovable beings like the trees and vegetation, 1,100,000 species of reptiles and insects, 1,000,000 species of birds , 3,000,000 species of four legged beasts and 400, 000 species of human beings.
So this has been said and in this way the grand total becomes 84 lakhs, eight million species. In this way Darwin has made the whole world into fools and also the English have done some great brainwashing to the people of Bharat, India. Whatever is described in our scriptures is the history of the world, just like Mahabharata is a historical event also. Iti-h-asa, means ‘like this it all happened.’ So it is all factual, they are all facts.
It is not mythology but fact. It is all described in the scriptures and the puranas and srimad bhagavatam as well as Mahabharata. So this theory of Darwin has destroyed the intelligence of the whole world and unfortunately the people of India, Bharat have also been effected in this way of thinking. Anyway Kuruksetra dham ki jai!
So I was saying that when Krishna reached Kuruksetra, it was not the time of the battle of Mahabharata. This was the first visit but the next time he goes he will go as Partha- Sarathi, the charioteer of Partha, Arjuna.
tatah shvetairhayairyukte mahati syandane sthitau madhavah pandavashchaiva divyau shankhau pradadhmatuh
(BG 1.14)
Translation
Then, from amidst the Pandava army, seated in a glorious chariot drawn by white horses, Madhav and Arjun blew their Divine conch shells
It is said in bhagavad gita that the chariot which Krishna was driving had horses which were white in colour. Details like this such as two personalities being present on this chariot, and who were they? Madhava was there and Pandava was there. Pandava here means just Arjuna, all the Pandavas were not sitting there, just Arjuna is there. And both then sounded their transcendental conches.
panchajanyam hrishikesho, the conch which hrishikesh sounded was called panchajanya.
panchajanyam hrishikesho devadattam dhananjayah paundram dadhmau maha shankham bhima karma vrikodarah
(BG 1.15)
Translation
Hrishikesh blew his conch shell, called Panchajanya, and Arjun blew the Devadutta. Bheem, the voracious eater and performer of herculean tasks, blew his mighty conch, called Paundra
So lord Hrishikesh’s conch was called Panchajanya and Devadutta was the name of dhananjayah’s conch shell. dhananjayah is the name of Arjuna. Then there are the other four Pandavas and when they blew their conches those conches have been named also. This is not imagination but it is all a fact and so going back to the meeting at Kuruksetra, the residents of Dwarka and Vrindavan stayed for many months there.
Yes I have to stop? Sure. How did I find out? Okay so in this one place all the residents of Dwarka got together okay? And where was this? Kuruksetra. And then Rohini Maiya ki jai. Rohini, the mother of Balaram knew what must have been happening to the devotees in Vrindavan. The residents of Marhura became residents of Dwarka and Krishna had also joined them and so he is also a resident of Dwarka.
But there was a time when Rohini was also in Vrindavan before going to Dwarka and she saw with her own eyes and experienced what would be the condition of the residents of Vrindavan at the moment. Due to Krishna not being present in Vrindavan, she could understand the condition of their minds and their situation in Vrindavan. These were not normal times for them and that is why Rohini wanted to address all the residents of Dwarka on behalf of the residents of Vrindavan.
Before starting her address to them all, Rohini told Subhadra what she should do. She said ‘there is a chance of Krishna and Balaram’s coming here but please do not let them come in because of what I am going to be speaking about.’ What is she going to speak about? The feelings of separation, whose separation? Mother Yashoda’s separation and the cows separation from Krishna and also the monkey’s separation.
Everyone there were feeling intense love for Krishna in separation, ‘what kind of life is this that we are without you?’ Here we are not talking about Krishna but we are saying ‘what kind of living is this without our husbands? What kind of life will that be.’ The only way one can say this is in regards to Krishna for it to fit, to make sense. You cannot even say this in regards to anything or anyone else, it shouldn’t be said.
It can only be said, ‘how can one live without Krishna?’ Nobody else can be spoken of in this way. Do you understand this? If you understand you will become Krishna conscious. In this way Rohini started her talks but just as Rohini had been thinking that Krishna and Balaram will certainly come, this is exactly what happened and they entered the scene.
Subhadra had been told that if they came they should be sent away a little fat from the place where the talks would be going on but they wanted to come in. Poor Subhadra, the poor younger sister had to agree to Krishna and Balaram’s wanting to go in and in this way Krishnaand Balaram along with Subhadra were listening at the door as Rohini was speaking.
The subject matter was the condition of the devotees of Vrindavan for the past one hundred years. All the Vrajavasi’s were thinking ’what kind of life is this without Krishna?’ In other words you can say ‘sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virahena me.’
Yugayitam nimesena caksusa pravrsayitam sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virahena me
(Siksastaka 7)
Translation
O Govinda! Feeling Your separation I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence
Without Govinda the whole world is vacant, zero. It should have a one in front and then one zero, then add another zero, another zero. If there is a one in front of the zeros then it has some value and it becomes a ten or hundred, a thousand and then a hundred thousand and like that. If there is not a one in the front then all these zeros together are just one big zero, sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virahena me. Nama bina kichu nahiko aro, caudda bhuvana majhe
krsna nama sudha koriya pan, jurau bhakativinoda pran, nama bina kichu nahiko aro, caudda bhuvana majhe
(Arunodaya Kirtana)
Translation
Drink the pure nectar of the holy name of Krsna. There is nothing but the name to be had in the fourteen worlds. It has filled the soul of Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura
Bhaktivinode Thakur says there is nothing but the holy name in these fourteen worlds. So as Rohini was speaking, they were listening and as they listened they were contemplating upon what was beings said. As this was happening you could say that a spiritual deformation began to occur with their bodily limbs. There was a lot of change in their bodies as if their limbs had melted and as they listened to each and every detail of what Rohini was saying, it was like an eye opener.
You know they say, ‘that was really an eye opener.’ Literally their eyes opened so wide and big and they were thinking ‘really? Wow! What, can this be true?’ So their eyes were opening wide, their eyes are big and open, right, Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra’s eyes? It was as if they had started to think ‘it’s better not to exist than hear this. Let us finish our existence.’
So their arms and legs started to melt as
they could not tolerate what they were hearing. ‘We cannot tolerate that because of us Yashoda and the other residents of Vrindavan, including the gopi’s and our boyfriends are so troubled.’
So at that moment Narada Muni had arrived there, ‘Narayana Narayana.’ Where had he come? Where? Yes, he had arrived in Nilacala and who did he meet? King Indradyumna who was at that time remorseful for what reason? ‘This is not the form of the lord. How will I be able to install these unfinished deities?’
At that time Narada Muni comes and says ‘no, no. These deities are all complete. When the lord displayed his love, it was not because someone may come and take a video of such a display or exhibition. This form if Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra gives us darshan in such a way that it reminds us that it is not only the devotees who love the lord, no.
What about the lord, does he love his devotees or not? This darshan of lord Jagannatha is the deity of love, love for his devotees. There is love for the lord and the other is love for the devotee that the lord has. When love for the lord arises in the heart of of the devotee, this is called asta vikara, the eight transcendental ecstasies. These are manifest in the devotees and the symptoms are state of being stunned, perspiration, standing of the bodily hairs on end, faltering of the voice, trembling, fading of the body’s color, tears and devastation.
These are all visible on the bodies and in the minds of the devotees so also when the lord manifested his love for his devotees, he showed that love by taking on this transcendental form of Jagannatha. Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra ki jai! So try and understand the lord in this way, Jagannatha Swami is coming and actually you are making arrangements and prayers for Jagannatha’s arrival, I can see preparations are going on and the alter is being made. So one day, well when will that day come? Kabe ha’be se dina amar.
kabe ha’be bolo se dina amar (amar) aparadha ghuci’, suddha name ruci, krpa bale ha’be hr?doye sancar
(kabe ha’be bolo 1)
Translation
When, O when, will that day be mine? When will you give me your blessings, erase all my offences and give my heart a taste [ruci] for chanting the Holy Name in purity?
Pray that this day comes quickly for us and then we will once again come together. This does not mean that Tulsi this day you will not come here to the temple because one has to wait patiently. So as you wait, continue to come here also but may that day come quickly as well when we will come together in Iskcon Thane to celebrate the festival of the installation of the deities (shouts of Haribol).
Nitai Gaura prem anande Hari Haribol