Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s travel from Navadvipa to Jagganath Puri
Day 7
Venue: Theur, Pune
08 04 2020

jai jai sri caitanya jai Nityanandaa jai advaitcandra jai gaura-bhakta-vrnda

Welcome yet again, this is our seventh and final of the series of talks of katha of karuna avatar Gaura Bhagawan katha. We end here with this seventh and final presentation. We will tell you at the end how we wish to continue this at least for another week in lockdown period. So,

anarpita-carim cirat karunay avatirnah kalua
samarpayi tum unnatojjvala-rasamsva-bhakti-sriyam
harihpurata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah
sadahrdaya-kandaresphura tu vah sacinandanah

This invocation mangalacaran at the very beginning of Caitanya Caritamrita, Krisnadasa Kaviraja Goswami is talking of the karunya, magnanimity of Gauranga. ‘karunaya avtirna kalau’, at the beginning of this age of kali, Gauranga appeared and he says, He is appearing after long time. ‘carim cirat avatirnah’ that meant, I think we mentioned one day, that after one kalpa, one day of Brahma which is a long time, Gauranga has appeared again and what does He do as He appears, ‘samarpayitum unnatojjaval rasam’ and He distributes, in fact He relishes madhurya rasa, sweetest of the mellows and that’s called brilliant rasa the topmost rasa.

So as we hear the pastimes of Lord Gauranga, they are full of madhurya, they are full of sweetness. The sweetest thing in the existence is Mahaprabhu’s madhuryalila,

Gauranger madhurlila jara karne pravesila hrdaynirmal bhelo tara

So that is Gauranger madhurlila. It cleanses the heart, the consiouness and there is the cooling effect of that lila, cooling effect on the mind and the heart. In fact the soul, ultimately the soul is in the heart. So as the soul hears, who hears? Whatever you are hearing, you are doing some kirtan, you are doing sravanam, you are hearing. So who is the hearer, not the ears, they are just a medium. They are in between you, the soul and the speaker. So soul or atma is the actual hearer of this katha. As one hears katha of Gauranga Mahaprabhu,

Sadahrdaya-kandaresphura tu vah sacinandanah

And that Sachinandana, within the heart and heart is described here as hrdaya-kandara. Hrdaya is heart and kandara is a cave. So, we reside, the soul resides in the cave called heart. So Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami this is his, he is wishing mangalya, all auspiciousness for the listeners.
So, Gauranga Mahaprabhu He is only solace and shelter specially difficult trouble time like this. It’s time to take shelter of Gauranga. So, we also pray on behalf of Krsnadasa Kaviraja. Let that effect, desirable effect of katha, this Gaur Bhagavan katha Gauranga Nityanandaa katha may sphuratu vah sachinandanah.That Gauranga inspire you, delight you, make you happy, full of bliss, the ananda that we are looking for.

So as Lord is non different from His pastimes. So as we recite His pastimes, as we speak His pastimes, as we hear His pastimes then as we remember the pastimes, Lord is even appearing in that particular lila that is being spoken and is being heard. So, it is expected that we feel the presence of Gauranga Mahaprabhu as we hear about Him or hear His pastimes. And as, as we hear with attention, with devotion, with faith, and Lord makes His appearance, He appears to us in our hearts or He appears on something called smriti patala. There is screen in our, in our heart or soul’s consciousness, there is a screen smriti patala and on the screen we begin visualizing Lord’s pastimes. And ultimately in most purified state, we see them literally, scene darsana of lilas which we talk and hear. I was going to say that, that is yoga, we relink, we reestablish our lost relationship with the Lord and there is yoga bhakti yoga. The soul and Supreme soul are connected, they are united, what unites is, the bhakti unites. We say soul is a bhakta and Lord is Bhagavana and the bhakti, the devotional service is sravanam kirtanam connects soul with the Supreme soul atma with paramatma bhagavana. It’s perfection as that union reunion takes place that yoga the link takes place.

So today we, we are thought of talking to you like yesterday we talked about Mahaprabhu, His visit of Vrndavana and H is tour of Vrajamandal Vrndavana. Today we thought of talking about Lord’s travel from one dhama that is Navadvipa to another dhama Jagganath Puri and this takes place as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu takes sanyasa. He is now twenty-four years old and He is in Navadvipa. So in middle of the night, one night Mahaprabhu and of course He had informed selected five persons about his plans. No one knew only Sachimata knew, Nityananada Prabhu knew and like that.

So middle of the night Gauranga Mahaprabhu gets up and He leaves home for his destination which is Katwa which is some 27 kilometers or so, away on the banks of Ganga. So as Sun rises in the east and normally devotees would come to Nimai’s home to meet Him, to greet Him and later on to go on sankirtan prabhat-pheri, as we, we go on to take darsana of the Lord in the temple. We take darsana of the deity arcavigraha. For the residents of Navadvipa, their murti their vigraha was Gauranga. They didn’t have to go to some other temple other than Yogapitha, the home of Jagganatha Misra and Sachimata and their son Nimai. Of course, Hare Krisna I just want to say that Jagganath Misra wasn’t there as Lord has taken sanyasa and He also had a brother called Visvarupa, He also had taken sanyasa. This was a second person of the family taking sanyasa, second son of Sachimata.
Next morning everyone arrives to meet and greet Gauranga but He is nowhere to be found. They saw Sachimata just sitting very morose and shading tears and saying nothing. After a while all those who had come to visit Nimai, they realized what have transpired during middle of the night that Nimai had left home for good to take sanyasa.

So as they realized they were all broken hearted and Hari Hari, they all start crying and calling out, Gauranga!!Gauranga!!Nimai!! where are you? They also crying and falling on the ground and rolling and tears and what not. Whole scene was there. They were also saying, “yes, let’s go to home, our respective homes, let’s put our homes on fire and let’s go. Why should we stay here in this village or town, Mayapur, where there is no Gauranga here.”Such was the affection of all residents of Navadvipa, of Mayapur.

When Sachimata, she had some clue in which direction He hadgone. So she begins running in that direction. Soon she comes on the bank of Ganga. There was a small small village. And she was inquiring from the residents, “Have you seen my Nimai?” They did not know what to say. They were just speechless, clueless. So she was approaching this person, that person, “Have you seen my Nimai? Have you seen my Nimai?”As there was no response from nobody there, Sachimata declared, ”You all residents of this village, you are heartless, you are nirdaya, you have no daya.”Even these days, even to this day you could visit that village not far from Navadvipa, not far from Mayapur and it is called Niday in Bengali, Bengalis say niday, it’s nirday, niday. So that village was named after, named Nirday because Sachimata thought that these are heartless people.

So disappointed as she was she returns from. So by this time CaitanyaMahaprabhu had reached Katwa and those who are, they were informed by Mahaprabhu about His plan for taking sanyasa they also had arrived. Nityanandaa and three others, Candrasekhara, Mukunda. So as Nimai or Visvambhara, Sachinandan approached the acarya and begged from him, “Please”, Keshav Bharti was, Kesavabharti was his name, “Please make me free, please liberate me. I want to take sanyasa.” So initially he was not ready. Finally, “Ok, I will give you sanyasa.” And so by this time lots of people had gathered in Katwa, huge crowd and this is observed in Caitanya Mahaparabhu’s pastimes that you know people from nowhere villages gathered in big, big numbers. So as He is to be given sanyasa, so first the shaving has to happen. So many barbers have been asked to come and shave.

They were coming and they were trying but they do not wish to shave Mahaprabhu’s golden hair. So they come and go. Finally one barber agreed to finish the task of shave Him up but as he was also attempting his hands were trembling and all those who were in the assembly there, they, “No, no, no,no sanyasa, why take sanyasa? Who has come up with this sanyasa business or this process or vidhi of taking sanyasa? And this person’s mother, old mother at home and young wife, oh, what would happen to them? How would they survive? And also what about the residents of Navadvipa Mayapur.”
And some of them are also residents of Navadvipa or Gaur mandal. There is Navadvipa mandal Gaura mandal, bigger mandal, bigger circle. So somehow barber manage to shave up Gauranga Mahaprabhu. And He goes to Ganga take holy dip, back on the scene with sanyasa robes put tilaka, all that.
Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami and Vrndavandas Thakur, they described how Mahaprabhu looked extraordinarily beautiful that day as He was taking sanyasa, shaved up and saffron robes and soon he was going to be holding dand and kamandalu in his hand. That was the beauty to be hold.So just before giving, receiving sanyasa mantra, there is sanyasa mantra.

Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, whispers a mantra right into the ear of Keshav Bharati Maharaja (mantra) and He asks, “Is this mantra ok?” Yes, yes this is perfect mantra. “Ok, now you give this mantra to me”. So, Lord has tricked Keshav Bharti. He belongs to impersonal advait school of thought. So Mahaprabhu gave him, Keshav Bharti the mantra, kind of initiated him, made him into vaisnava and said, “Ok, ok, ok, if this ok, mantra, please give me this mantra. So that’s what the Keshav Bharti did said, “Your name is Sri Krisna Caitanya.” Hari Haribol! Haribol! Everyone shouted Haribol! Mahaprabhu,Vishvambhara, Nimai received sanyasa diksa name Sri KrisnaCaitanya.

Now He was going to even exhibit, display more of Caitanya. This is jada and cetana. Jada means dead and cetana means living or lively. So He has received name Sri Krisna Caitanya. That Krsna who is lively Krsna, very ecstatic, very dynamic, enthusiastic, enthusiastic Krsna. So He is Sri Krsna Caitanya. So now as soon as he has taken sanyasa he is free, mukta and immediately He thought of going to Vrndavan. And after this ceremony is over now Caitanya Mahaprabhu along with very selected handful associates, Nityanandaa Prabhu and others they, they departed. Mahaprabhu wants to go Vrndavan but in His ecstasy He has lost the sense of direction. He has to go to the west worldly direction, Katwa or Navadvipa, this is in Bengal, in east India and He has to go to Vrndavan which is to the west.

But He is going round and round not making much progress, He is trying to ask, which way and they are giving some replies. Also, Nityanandaa Prabhu and he has a strategy. Of course, he doesn’t want Mahaprabhu immediately, atleast, not immediately go to Vrndavana. He should meet those broken hearted residents of Navadvipa especially mother Sachi must meet otherwise how could she survive? So, this was the plan of Nityananada Prabhu. So as Mahaprabhu was proceeding and there were some cowherd boys, boys taking care of the cows from nearby village, villager’s boys. So Niytananda Prabhu assured that Mahaprabhu would ask these, these boys which way is Vrndavana? So Nityanandaa Prabhu goes ahead of them. Tells these boys, “You know boys, this mendicant just now coming if he asks you which way to Vrndavana, tell Him this way.” And that way met to the banks of Ganga Yamuna and Shantipur. So that is what happened Mahaprabhu for sure he asks these boys, “Will you please show me the way to Vrndavana?” And boys exactly did as Nityanandaa Prabhu had prompted them.

And then now Gauranga, Sri Krisna Caitanya now and Nityanandaa they arrived to the bank of Ganga and Nityanandaa Prabhu is asking Caitanya Mahaprabhu, “Where do you want to go?” and Mahaprabhu says, to Vrndavana” and Nityanandaa Prabhu says, “You have reached Vrndavana, see this is Jamuna.” When Caitanya Mahaprabhu looked at the bluish waters of the river He thought, “Yes, yes, yes, this is Jamuna. And He jumped into Jamuna, Jamuna maiya ki, He wanted to take holy dip inJamuna and as He was bathing, enjoying swimming in Jamuna. In fact, it was Jamuna also it is explained because in as the river flows through Navadvipa it turns into two rivers again.

The confluence has taken place sangam, at Prayag, Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati, also here in Navadvipa they again become two rivers, the eastern bank is Ganga and western bank is Jamuna. So the side Nityananda Prabhu and CaitanyaMahaprabhu were on the western bank of the river, so that was Jamuna.So soon,as Mahaprabhu was still taking his Jamuna maiyaki, taking his holy dipin Jamuna He saw Advaitacaryain a boat and He was wondering,“Aye!Advaitacarya and inVrndavanaa?”He was wonderingand then soon Mahaprabhu, Sri KrsinaCaitanyaMahaprabhu realizedthat He was not far from Shantipurand Advaitacarya had come with the boat.

Andthis wasagain strategy made between Advaitacarya and Nityananda Prabhu. Idea was to bring Mahaprabhu to Shantipur and as they arrived with the boat to the other side of the Ganga, arrived in Shantipur, by that time it was also planned. The whole strategy was there. Thousands of, hundreds and thousands of residents of Vrindavana had reached and so was Sachimata brought there to Shantipur. And the great reunion takes place. The separation has taken place. There is viyoga as He had left for.

He left Navadvipa for Katwa to take sanyasa. Now yoga the reunion was happening here. They had gone through vipralamba experience and now it was sambhoga, meeting with the Lord. Sothe meeting between Lord and his dear devotees, dearest of all the devotees, Navadvipa devotees, Sachimata and his very close associates of Navadvipa, Mayapur. We cannot even imagine the happiness they all must have experienced as they united. They got united again, that milanmilanotsav and Mahaprabhu had to, had to stay. They would not going to be happy just meeting for few minutes or just for a day. So Mahaprabhu stayed in Shantipur for several days and they were always extending His stay appealing to Him, “please stay longer, please stay longer in Shantipur.”

So Sachimata as usual as she used to cook for her Nimai in Mayapur she immediately take charge of the kitchen. She has become a head cook of the deity, deity kitchen head cook. Who is deity? Her Nimai is her deity and she wants to cook and she is cooking for Nimai and feeding Him. ForSachimata He is not Sri Krsna Caitanya, He is just Nimai for Sachimata.“Nimai!Nimai!”

And, and those days during the stay of Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Shantipur there were performances of great kirtans. Kirtan,“mahaprabhau kirtan nrtya-gitavaditra-madyanmanso-rasen”. It’s Mahaprabhu’s kirtan and nrtya and udandanrtya.

He would jump high.

ajanu lambit bhujo kanakavdatau sankirtanai kapitarau kamalayatakso

Just Lord golden bodied Lord long arms, kasturitilakam, nice tilak and He has also brahmin thread around arunvasana, His sanyasa robes and He is dancing, He dancing up high and falling, crashing down to landing to the ground and when that landing, crashing would happen for Sachimata, it was heartbreaking experience.“No!No!”She would think, “my Nimai must be getting hurt so much.” So Sachimata has prayed those days or maybe she prayed once and for all the time to mother earth, “My dear mother earth, whenever whenever and wherever my Nimai falls, comes down heavily and gets dropped please make sure He is not hurt. Take him in your lap.”So these are the feeling emotion bhava, vatsalya rasa of Sachimata and then finally.
So there is, one day Sachimata and Nimai are meeting and as Sachimata, she has found out that Nimai is planning to go to Vrndavana and she doesn’t want this to happen. So she sat down with Nimai and make a very special appeal, “Why Vrndavana? It’s very far.”Of course she also says, “The best thing would be that you come back home to Mayapur.” But then Sachimata is thinking and also said, “But then people also would criticize you, you are sanyasi and you have come back to your family and that criticism would hurt me.

So, you can’t come. I know you can’t come and you should not come to home. But why not at least stay nearby dham Jagannath Puri and if you stay there, I will get some news about you. Devotees coming going to Puri, returning would get the news.”So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, “Tathastu mother! Your wish is my command. Yes, I will stay in Jagannath Puri.”

And then Mahaprabhu He prepares to leave for Jagannath Puri. Initially everyone, everyone wants to go right behind, right with him to Jagannath Puri. But Mahaprabhu, He fixed up few handful of His associates, Nityananda Prabhu Mukund, Jagadanand Pandit and Damodara Pandit. So Mahaprabhu plus four others were selected allowed to go with Him. So journey now from Shantipur to Jagannath Puri. So they are travelling. This is not air, air travel or rail travel or, they are walking bare feet and throughout the journey Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is nonstop, as we say akhanda akhanda kirtan, nonstop kirtan, that was Mahaprabhu’s lifestyle. kirtaniyasada Hari, that is what He did. He always chanted and danced. Not walked, or even some kind of walking also was like a dance.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

He is going from village to village to town to village to town on the way to Jagannath Puri.Those passersby people encountered with Mahaprabhu on the way, Niyananda Prabhu and these party and they are they would get immediately enchanted and attracted and drowned to Mahaprabhu like a magnet. Mahaprabhu was a powerful magnet and they were some kind of iron particles. So people from some distance away as soon as they noticed Mahaprabhu chanting and dancing and His effulgence and His influence, like a magnet has afield, magnetic field depending on the size or the power of the magnet, each magnet has it’s field smaller or bigger field, magnet has a field. So magnet has a influence, surrounding iron particles they get drowned to the magnet. So Mahaprabhu also like a huge big magnet, moving magnet, so all people were getting drowned to him as they came closer and then they would want to go with Him.

But Mahaprabhu not want them to accompany Him. He would appeal to them, “Please stay wherever you are and chant Hare Krisna.

yare dekha, tare kahakrsna-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hanatara’eidesa

Some instructions like that, “Bolo krsna bhajo krsna karo krsna siksa” and He would give them deep embrace and appeal them to stay behind.
And travelling and travelling the party arrived at Tota Gopinath. They have now crossed the border Bengal border. They have entered Orissa. There is town called Baleswara and near Baleswara is Remuna very famous holyplace. Ksircora Gopinath temple. They have, they were staying overnight there. Of course they had darsana of Gopinath and sure they enjoyed, relished ksira, ksira of Gopinath, Ksirchora Gopinath. So that night as the team was gathered, Caitanya Mahaprabhu recited the pastimes or glories of Madhavendra Puri for whom Gopinath had stolen the ksira and hence He gets the name Ksircora Gopinatha. Before He was only Gopinatha, because He stole the ksira, it’s condensed milk preparation, for His dear devotee Madhavendra Puri, He became known as Ksircora Gopinatha. And Madhavendra Puri was a very great, greatest of all the Gaudiya vaisnavas, in fact he was, he is origin of Gaudiya vaisnavism. He is the first one, Gaudiya vaisnavisam kind of was born, sprouted within, manifested within, his heart.And then he had initiated Isvarapuri and then Isvarapuri had initiated Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Hari Hari!!And this Madhavendra Puri.

Mahaprabhu personally glorified Madhavendra Puri, Madhavendra Puri’s samadhi is also there in Remuna. Then Mahaprabhu and party proceeds. They are heading toward Jagannath Puri. On the way there is big town called Kataka and there is famous temple of Saksi Gopal. So party has stayed there, spent overnight and Nityananda Prabhu was the one to narrate the story of Saksi Gopal, the deity of Gopal that was once upon a time was in Vrndavana. How and why He walked, a deity walked to Kataka to become witness, saksi, the pastime, and Nityananda Prabhu that night he, he took the microphone, he became narrator of glories of Saksi Gopal.

Now they are, party next morning they, they get up and proceed. They passed through Bhuvanesvara Lingaraja. They take darsana the pastimes in Bhuvanesvara also and now Jagannath Puri is some sixty kilometers away and they are hurrying towards Jagannath Puri. On the way as they were taking bath or Caithanya Mahaprabhu was taking bath in one river, Nityananda Prabhu there is inconceivable pastime that’s what happened, Nityananda Prabhu broke danda of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, sanyasa danda and threw in the river. As Mahaprabhu had returned and asked, “Where is my danda? And hearing what had happened Mahaprabhu was very upset and He said, “I cannot travel with you anymore. Either you go first or you stay behind and let me go first ahead of you.”And they said, “Ok you first.”

Mahaprabhu was heading towards, running towards Jagannath Puri temple. There comes a place called Atharanala, one bridge and those days kind of buildings and some skyscrapers we see in Jagannath Puri around Jagannath Puri temple that wasn’t there. So from Atharanala the Jagannath Puri temple, the dome and the chakra and everything would distinctly visible and by seeing that Mahaprabhu became very, very excited and He speeds up and literally runs to Jagannath Puri temple. And finally as He enters in temple, He is in darsana mandapa as He saw Jagganatha and He wanted to say Jagganatha but He couldn’t say. Only He could say was Jag, Jag, Jag and He falls on the temple floor and He lost, gone inside, no external consciousness and this is, luckily that time there was Sarvabhauma Bhattcarya was present. So he arranges Mahaprabhu to be brought to his home and then he does little, not little much of a pariksa, testing and comes to conclusion that this ecstasy, this is genuine, This is not just some Bhava but this is Mahabhava. Hari Hari.

And His pastimes are unlimited and then rest of the party soon comes and they also arrived at Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s place and they trying to chant holy name out loud and finally Mahaprabhu gets up and then He stayed there for two months during this visit. And, and then Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya had strongly recommended that whenever He goes for darsana in Jagannath Puri temple He should be all the way behind where these Garuda stambha pillar,Garuda pillar is there in the back. So that is where Mahaprabhu used to stand and take darsana of Jagganatha.
One of my last visit to Jagannath Puri temple as we had gone for darsana of Jagganatha and we had a panda, local panda guide, guiding us.

So he made me also stand next to the Garuda stambha. He held my hand and ask me, “Here do you see some hole marking here? I felt, “Yes, yes.”And he said, “Where you are standing Mahaprabhu used to stand right here and He used to hold pillar with His hands and by the touch of His hand the fingers, the pillar melted and that is, left the marks on the pillar.” When I heard that and when I was taking darsana of Jagganath, oh that was something happened inside.

I was following the footsteps of Caitanya Mahaprabhu taking darsana from the same spot taking darsana of Jagganath swami ki jay!

Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jay!
Jagannath Puri dhama ki jay!
Gaur premanande hari haribol!!

Bal Krishna gives liberation to Putana

Krishna Lila Vrndavana Part 5

15 07 2007

Venue: Durban, South Africa

I suppose we are getting there, we started in Ayodhya then we switched over to Vrndavana. Our goal is Gokul dham ki jai! Go for Gokul, go for cows. At night time Krishna would drink milk with some stories then he would go to sleep. This was in Nanda Bhavan. The next morning he had to be woken up. ‘We are leaving here’ they were leaving with Krishna. They were leaving with Krishna in Gokul, baby Krishna – babies have to be woken up or when they are hungry they wake up. Yashoda wakes up Krishna every morning, very gentle. (Sings Bhajan Uthi Uthi Gopala). We have heard this before, it is a long song but we are just..This is the beginning part. ‘Hye lal’ Yashoda is addressing Nanda ke lala [Nand’s Lala, son]. So children, they call them ‘lal, lal, hey lal nanda lal’. So little darling, small, He was a sweet boy, son of Nanda Maharaja, Nanda lal.

They call Krishna ‘lal’ and they call Radharani ‘Ladali, Ladali Lal. If you go to Varsana in Vrndavana you go to the main temple and go to the top there, the deities are called ‘Ladali Lal.’ Ladali Radharani and Lal Sri Krishna, Ladali Lal ki jai! So Nanda Lal., Yashoda dulal, He is also Dulal. Uthi Uthi Gopala, please wake up please wake up. She has to give some reason why he needs to wake up, ‘why should I get up?!’ Then Yashoda says ‘the reason for you to get up is that the sun has already risen in the east – time to get up.’ Arunodaya, Arun the sun, Udaya, ‘the sun is rising in the east it is about to rise O Lal. Please wake up.’

Gopal Krishna Lal ki jai.
‘Krishna Kanaiya Lal ki jai.
Yashoda Maiya ki jai.
Nanda ke Lal ki jai.
Gokul dham ki jai.

We also have to follow the footsteps of Yashoda Maiya.
Yashoda ca maha bhaga, Yashoda is very, very fortunate [SB 10.8.46]

So she could directly wake Krishna up and she continues to do so and this is how we should be thinking. Not that this was five thousand years ago, she used to get up Krishna by singing songs like this one. Krishna’s pastimes are eternal, Vrndavana is not dead, it’s alive, eternal. Everything else in this existence goes back to the dust. It comes from the dust and goes back to the dust, but Vrndavana is not dust.

vrndavanae prakara sadmasu kalpa vriksha
laksavriteshu surabhir abhipalayantam
lakshmi sahasra-shata sambhrama sevyamanam
govindam adi purusham tam aham bhajami [Brahma Samhita 5.29]

Vrndavana is made of Chintamani, different elements and it eternally exists. To this day Krishna’s pastimes are on and to this day every day, every morning Yashoda wakes up Krishna. Certainly Yashoda ca maha bhaga, but we could certainly wake up Krishna, you’d like to wake up Krishna? Yes? Then we have to wake up first. Who would wake you up? Nobody’s going to sing a song for you. In our Brahmachari asram, if you don’t get up they have a bucket of water, from sleeping bag you can go straight to the temple. They would bathe you right there. We have seen this.

Anyway these are some inside stories but I thought you were our own people. So we have to wake up Krishna, Krishna in the temple of our home. Our home is a temple and Krishna is there. You wake Him up, just see how Yashoda is waking Krishna up, she is the best example.

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas
tad dhama vrndavanam

Krishna is worshipped as the son of Nanda Maharaja, aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas. And Vrndavana is also worshipped, Vrndavana is worshipable.
So we could make our homes little Vrndavana dhams and we could have our worship at home, take a little photograph of Radha Radhanath or Nrishma, Gaura Nitai, Pancha Tattva or Sita Ram! Or Vitthala, Panduranga. Wake up the Lord,
Uthishtothishta Govinda trailokyam mangalam kuru [Lord Sri Venkatesa Suprabhatam]

In Balaji and some other temples they would pray to the Lord ‘Uthishta Uthishta – Please wake up please wake up.’

uthishtothishta govinda trailokyam mangalam kuru

‘And you become cause of auspiciousness for the entire universe O Lord, please wake up.’ And there are some prayers are offered in praise of the Lord, or we could simply chant sing

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

If you do not know any other mantra, then just chant this mantra, mantra for all seasons. Makes your life easy.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

yatha dharmadayas cartha
muni-varyanukirtitah
na tatha vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah [SB 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.

In all the scriptures Vyasdev wrote until now he had described ‘dharma, artha, kama and moksha’ but Narada Muni said, vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah. Where are the glories of Vasudev in all these Vedas, Itihasas and Puranas that you have complied? Then Srila Vyasadeva compiled yet another scripture that is Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai. It becomes topmost of all the scriptures including Puranas.

purananam idam tatha nimna ganam yatha ganga [S.B 12.13.16]

Of all the rivers Ganga is the topmost.

Vaishnavanaam yatha shambhu. Of all the Vaishnavas, Shambhu Shankar is the topmost Vaishnav.

devanam achyuto yatha and achyuta, Sri Krishna is the topmost among all the God, He is the top.

purananam idam tatha, likewise amongst all the Puranas Srimad Bhagavad is the top. Srimad Bhagavatam is the best Puran

Sri caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam

And this is also the opinion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srimad-bhagavatam puranam amalam [S.B 12.13.18]

Srimad Bhagavatam is Praman, authority, why? Amalam. Because Amal Puran. There is no mal, there is no dirt, no contamination of any kind.

dharma? projjhita kaitavo ‘tra paramo nirmatsara?am satam [S.B 1.1.2]

The kaitava dharma, lower forms of dharma,
karma ka??a, jnana ka??a, kevala vi?era bhanda

This jnana kanda, karma kanda is out, kicked out of Bhagavatam! There is no place in the Bhagavatam and that makes Bhagavatam the topmost Puran, scripture in existence and it helps one achieve pancham purusartha.

prema pum artho mahan srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam

When one studies Srimad Bhagavatam, Nityam Bhagavata Sevaya, you do seva, service unto Bhagavan and Bhagavatam, Prabhupada translates that as two Bhagavatams. One book Bhagavat and one person Bhagavat, you serve Bhagavatam, hear Bhagavatam, you share or distribute Bhagavatam. If you wish to establish Bhagavata dharma that’s possible, the basis -books are the basis. Which book is the basis of Bhagavad Dharma? Srimad Bhagavatam is the basis of Bhagavad Dharma. We are laying a foundation here of Bhagavad Dharma while getting more seriously study of Bhagavatam. Scrutinizingly as much as possible study Bhagavat, become students of Bhagavat.

Nityam Bhagavata Sevaya, by doing so one achieves prema pumartho mahan. So normally there is talk of only four purusharthas culminating in moksha but here Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is adding a dimension. Pancham Purushartha and what is that? prema pumartho mahan, prema. Love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nothing in return – na dhanam na janam. What about a little moksha? No.

mama janmani janmanisvare, I don’t mind another birth but one condition I have. In every birth I wish to get ahaituki tvayi, bhakti tvayi unto your lotus feet. I have rendered pure devotional service O Lord. And pure devotion, Srila Prabhupada always, always translates Bhakti as service, not just sitting idle and ‘oh I have a lot of devotion and lots of devotion. I have lots of devotion.’

Show your devotion, translate your devotion in action. That’s Bhakti Yoga and that’s devotional service, not just lip service. Service with our hands, service with our feet, service with all the parts of your body.

hrsikena hrsikesa sevanam bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170).

Bhakti is defined as when we are engaged as ourselves – our whole existence.
Hrsikena hrsikesa sevanam bhaktir ucyate – our senses are used in service of the proprietor of the senses. So Lord is not only proprietor of his own senses, the senses which we have, the proprietor of those senses is the Lord, hence He is known as Hrsikesa, Hrishika-Isha. He is the master of our senses so our senses should be serving His senses and that is yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Lord is satisfied and soul would certainly be more than happy, pleased in rendering that kind of service.

That is vyavasthiti that is the best situation, that is the ultimate constitutional position of all the living entities. Grantha Raj Srimad Bhagavatam ki Jai. We will talk something little about Bhagavatam and glories of Bhagavatam. You should all have Bhagavatam, not just big pile of newspapers and all horror stories and crime what-not. You should immediately discard such best thing is to not let them come in your way and make your mind dirty. You just finished cleaning your body and you just had a shower and next thing is you want to dirty your mind, make your mind dirty.

By taking all that garbage in to the mind the mind becomes like a dustbin. All the dirt from all over the planet, as it is shrinking now and becoming a global village and then that Gram Katha of that village, it is all right there on fingertips. You watch, see, smell, touch all those. Nectar is available, Srimad Bhagavad purifies mind, satisfies the soul and that’s the goal. So His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada ki jai! He has kindly shared Bhagavatam with the rest of the world. The only thing Srila Prabhupada carried with him physically is Bhagavatam. There was him, his bead bag and he had a few trunks filled with Bhagavatam, he travelled like that with his Bhagavatam. That was the wealth of Bharat Vasrha he was carrying. He was travelling and his destination was New York which is the capital of this age of Kali Yuga. Capital of Kali Yuga is New York. Prabhupada, his destination was the capital of Kali. And he was travelling with his Bhagavatam, later on they became known as his time bomb- Bhagavatams. They exploded in due course of time they would be exploding.

Why have you come to our country?’ This question was asked to Srila Prabhupada.

It was way back in ‘70’s one reporter asked ‘Why have you come?’ Prabhupada said ‘You also came to our country. And whatever valuables you thought all those items you bought to New York, you looted them. You exploited even the diamond called Kohinoor.’ You heard of that one? ‘Kohinoor ka hira’ [Kohinoor diamond] it’s there on display in the London museum, so many other things. Prabhupada said ‘You know they forgot the most valuable gift of India!’ When Prabhupada said that they immediately said ‘Oh what is that? Which one is that which we left behind?’ He said ‘our ancient India’s culture that you left behind. The treasure in the form of Gita and Bhagavatam you left behind and the gift of the holy name.’

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
‘
These are export quality items, this is India’s treasure. So you ask me why I have come. I have come to deliver these goods to you.’ Free home delivery, so in that gift he not only delivered to Englishmen, but to all the men in this planet. Fourteen times around the world, sharing Bhagavatam, he was a mahabhagavat himself and sharing Srimad Bhagavad as it is, Srimad Bhagavatam ,the holy name. Go Mata ki jai!

The cows and Krishna conscious culture, the beautiful deities, Radha Radhanath is a gift of Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada gave us the Lord. Some people they left Krishna behind when they came to the west they left Krishna behind but then Krishna caught up with them. Prabhupada bought Krishna with him and then Krishna was available, Radha Govind in New York, Radha Londonisvara in London and Radha Parisisvara in Paris. Rukmini Dwarkadesh in Los Angeles, Sri Pancha Tattva in Hawai, wherever he went he installed beautiful deities of the Lord. Then the beautiful festivals of the Lord, Janmasthami, Ram Navami, Ratha Yatra festival and Tulsi Maharani ki jai!

tulasi krishna preyasi namo namah, so very dear. So Gita, Ganga, Tulsi, Bhagavad.

You may be pleased to hear that forty two years now, ’ISKCON was founded in ’66 so we celebrated forty two years of ISKCON. Forty two years of ISKCON and it has spread in a hundred and sixty countries [Shouts of Haribol!]

Janmasthami was celebrated, Krishna Janmasthami, Krishna’s birth. In a country in which they did not even know who Krsna is. Did you say that this is Krishna? What is that girl doing there?’ They didn’t even know. A little child knows in India that is Krishna so that must be? Next to Krishna who is that? Radha! If that is Rama that must be? Sita. And if that is Narayan then? Lakshmi! From birth they know.

They didn’t know Krishna to begin with. So they’re Krishna’s, they don’t have another God. Everybody’s Krishna’s part and parcel, this is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s programme. He was Himself a lover of Bhagavatam, talking about Bhagavatam again. He is the Lord but ‘Bhakta avatar’ appeared as a devotee and spread the message of Love and affection in the form of Bhagavatam, not just giving discourses and praising Bhagavatam but hearing Bhagavatam every night. He would spend nights hearing Bhagavatam with Gadadhar Pandit and with other Vaishnavas and associates, He would share Bhagavatam with them, Radha Madhava topics with them. So we are very, very unlimitedly and eternally grateful to Srila Prabhupada for giving us the gift. So many gifts and to begin with the gift of the holy name. ‘Krishna, here’s Krishna, you take Krishna, take Krishna.’

nanda? pathi vaca? saurer na m??eti vicintayan [S.B 10.6.1]

Nanda Maharaja returning from Mathura, he has paid all his taxes and he has met with Vasudeva. Vasudeva has given some hints ‘there could be some troubles in Gokul. You better return, rush back.’And Nanda Maharaja and other residents of Gokul are returning. Nanda? pathi, on the way back home he is thinking ‘the words of Vasudeva can’t go wrong. There could be some difficulties.’ And thinking like this ‘okay difficulties and what to do?’

Harim jagama sara?am, he took shelter of Hari, he started thinking of Hari, praying to Hari. Namaste Narasinmhaya. We pray to Lord Narasimha, pray to a worshipable deity. Well if we do not do so we should, that’s what we should be doing! In need of difficulty don’t call police. You will be in more difficulty, so stop calling police and it is said that you call out,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

That is his phone number, Krishna’s phone number. It’s the only phone number you need to know. So we take shelter of the Lord.

kamsena prahita ghora putana bala ghatini [S.B 10.6.2]

Sukadeva Goswami continues the narration, Putana, what a horrible person, terrible, causing terror in the hearts and especially making bala ghatini. Killing children was her target, she was specialized in killing children.

na yatra srava?adini rak?o ghnani sva karmasu

Sukadeva Goswami says ‘Wherever Lord is not remembered, Lord’s is not remembered and Lord’s glories are not chanted, there will be trouble all the time.’ In other words to get out of the trouble the solution is

srava?am kirtanam vi??o? smara?am pada sevanam

Think of the Lord, pray to the Lord
Man mana bhava mad-bhakto [B.G 18.65]

We can pray to the Lord and become His devotee, offer Him your obeisance’s and worship Him. Where that is done, then you will stay out of trouble. The ghosts will not come and if you want to get rid of the ghosts then big kirtan in each room. Kirtan should be first done in the mind, not outside, in the mind. Fill up the mind with the glories of the Lord. Nanda-g?he, as she entered Nanda Bhavan, she goes all the way into the interior chambers and there is Krishna on the lap of Yashoda and immediately they mention here how Krishna was like a fire but covered with ashes. She couldn’t see that underneath all what I am seeing here [there is] a fire that could burn and could cause my end.

vibudhya tam balaka marika graham
Lord as He looked He immediately understood who she was and what was her intention. No one informed and no-one else, he knew the one person that was..

He was little Lord, He is the knower of everything; He doesn’t depend on His size. The Lord’s strength, the Lord’s knowledge doesn’t depend on how small. He constantly the same, the Lord, in his Lila. Caracaratma, He describes that He is the soul of cara and acara the moving and non-moving, he is the sole cause of all that.

nimiliteksanah, immediately the Lord closed His eyes. He saw Putana arriving then Yashoda handing him to Putana and then He looks at her and then immediately He closes His eyes. We will be talking in a minute about,

anantam aropayad ankam antakam [SB 10.6.8]

Beautiful, wonderful sweet poetic selection of words here by Sukadeva Goswami. He says ‘Anantam, Sri Krishna is unlimited and she keeps Krishna in her Ankam, lap.’ Lap is called ‘Ankah’ but she doesn’t know that this Ananta is Antakam, who would become the cause of the end of Putana. Antakam – end, death. So Ananta is in Ankah, in the lap of Putana and she is not aware that this person will get her.

Yathoragam, just like a snake, suptam abuddhi rajju dhih. But a less intelligent person may think ‘oh this is just a rope!’ Less intelligent person would think ‘this is just a rope’ and would try to pick up that rope and what would be the outcome of that? So this is what is going to happen to Putana which she is not aware of. She thinks she is very smart but now soon it will be proven who is smarter. So Putana has also closed her eyes.

Srila prabhupada in Krishna book also mentions reasons, there are some additional reasons, Putana, because she is in the dress of a lady but Lord knows she is a Raksasi, she is a demoness. And she is not very straight forward – she is a tricky person and especially a killer of children so that, such kind of Lady’s face he doesn’t want to see so then He closes His eyes.

And then He thinks that ‘soon she will be wanting to feed me, feed me her breast milk and she has also applied poison on her breast. I came to Vrndavana bhumi to eat some butter mixed with some sugar candy and some camphor but now all this poisonous stuff is here.’ This reminds me that when they were churning up the ocean the first thing that emerged was halahal, poison and then Shiva helped out the whole world in drinking poison. He has in his neck place of drinking poison and holding it, Nilakantha blue throat. So Lord closes His eyes and is remembering Lord Shiva ‘please come and clear up this poison and then I will go for the milk [laughter].’

So He has His eyes closed and He thinks ‘I don’t know what kind of milk is raksasi’s milk. Is it regular milk?’ So then you have to drink some bitter medicine or something? What do you do? Medicine is there so you want to close your eyes to drink and then throw a tablet [in your mouth]. ‘So if it is that kind of milk I will have to close my eyes’ so Krishna has another reason for Him to close His eyes. Then He is also thinking ‘If I look at Putana in a merciful way, a merciful glance then she will be cured. If I glance upon her mercifully then she will not die.’ But then He thinks ‘if I open my eyes and show her angry eyes, she will be burnt right away and how could this lila continue?’ So He didn’t want a merciful glance and angry glance so he has closed His eyes.

He also thinks ‘but she has come all this way, maybe some pious credits, maybe some ajnana sukriti.’ If we want to remember something what do we do? Close again our eyes, try to remember. So Krishna wants to go through the history of charts and computer or whatever. The information is stored of all previous activities ‘she has never done anything nice and so she deserves to be here.’ So He is closing His eyes and He is just taking the stock of all her history, all her acts before action. So like that, these are more reasons for Sri Krishna to have his eyes closed.

vara striyam tat prabhaya ca dhar?ite

When Putana was taking care of Krishna, putting on the lap and now she wants to feed the baby, Yashoda and Rohini are watching from a distance and they’re kind of impressed with how they are getting along. Krishna is just lying on her lap and she is fully in her service attitude, so they are just watching from a distance and then finally she tries to feed the poison to Sri Krishna. Krishna has been, He is holding her breast with both of His hands and is trying to drink but ,

pra?ai? samam ga?ham karabhyam bhagavan prapi?ya

He is holding one breast so tightly and trying to take not just the milk out with her poison but the whole life of Putana! Then she really woke up, she gets up and she is two miles tall and Krishna is also up there. ‘Vancha vancha Leave me, leave me!’ She cried ‘give it up, give it up’ then she is trying to throw Krishna away. But He is clinging so tightly there is no way she can get rid of Him and He is drinking and drinking and drinking her life. She is not able to stand, she falls down crushing a big chunk of the forest trees and then,

Viv?tya netre cara?au bhujau muhu?

So now her eyes are now like big eyes and throwing her kicking the hands and feet and struggling with her life and finally she is no more. Haribol!! Everybody said Haribol? Haribol! So you could imagine, you could only have a little imagination of what next? The twelve miles long person fell raising all the dust and all the sounds and especially Krishna was with her and ‘where is Krishna? Where is Krishna? Where is Krishna?’
And everybody’s running around the dust and not being able to see, they must have walked by her body ‘okay your ankles, okay the knees are here, okay your thin waist over here and her breasts’ running twelve mile marathon.

balam ca tasya urasi kri?antam akutobhayam

And finally when they reached where the breasts were, they were surprisingly pleased to see Krishna there. And what does he do? Kri?antam, He was playing.
Akutobhayam, no fear of any kind, fearlessly He was playing there.

gopyas turnam samabhyetya jag?hur jata sambhramah

Radha Radhanath ki jai!
They picked up Krishna from the body, chest, breast from there and immediately they want to make sure there is no influence of any sort of baby Krishna. Bathing Him in

go-mutrena snapayitva, in cow urine, sacred item, purifying and pleasing for the Lord is being used for bathing little baby Krishna. Go rajasarbhakam, when the cows walk so much dust is raised and when that dust is you catch the dust before it settles on the ground. So that dust is what they are using. They are also bathing Krishna with that kind of dust and smearing that all over His body. And they have cow dung, all cow products. Go Mata ki jai! Dear to Krishna so this is their wealth, this is their culture. With the cow dung they are putting different marks like we do with the tilak marks.
Dvadasangesu namabhih – dvadas
Twelve names they are chanting one after another applying the cow dung tilak.

om narayanaya namah, madhavaya namah, govindaya namah, madhusudanaya namah, trivrikramaya, vamanaya, srhidharaya, hrishikaya, padmanabhaya, damodaraya, vasudevaya namah.

Twelve names, twelve places with the tilak. The prayers are going on, the other day we heard Purusha Sukta,

indriya?i hrsikesa?
pra?an naraya?o vatu
svetadvipa-patia cittam
mano yogesvaro vatu [SB 10.6.24]

Translation: May Hrsikesa protect Your senses, and Narayana Your life air. May the master of Svetadvipa protect the core of Your heart, and may Lord Yogesvara protect Your mind.

prsnigarbhas tu te buddhim
atmanam bhagavan parah
kri?antam patu govinda?
sayanam patu mahava? [SB 10.6.25]

Translation: May Lord Prsnigarbha protect Your intelligence, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Your soul. While You are playing, may Govinda protect You, and while You are sleeping may Madhava protect You.

bhunjanam yajnabhuk patu
sarva-graha-bhaya?karah [SB 10.6.26]

So there were lots of prayers for Krishna to be protected. The concern for Krishna and the protection of Krishna is their prime duty. Soon we will be hearing that Garga Muni, he instructed them that ‘take care of this child, be cautious be careful in looking after Sri Krishna.’ So while they were purifying the body, chanting their mantras and praying to the Lord, there comes Nanda Maharaja ki jai! Nanda Maharaja is entering, so many other residents in Gokula also -they have been to Mathura paying taxes, they are all returning.

So they are all returning. Vilokya putana deham, when they saw Putana’s body there and then they heard all the explanations they said ‘yes, yes. Whatever Vasudeva had said, see? It has all come true.’

He is not ordinary person, He must be some kind of Rishi, this Vasudeva.’ They are saying ‘how did he know?! Whatever he said, exactly you see?’ Kalevaram and so her body was long and they wanted to burn the body so they came with different instruments to cut the body. They bought some axe to cut her body into pieces or where they would get such a big piece of wood to burn? So they are making body into smaller pieces and it’s all piled up on top of each other and the final rights are performed.

And when the body was burning, dhumas caguru saurabha?. There was a nice fragrance everywhere, as if Chandan were being burnt, sandal. Her body was, all the smoke or Aguru, there’s a scent ? Special, we also use in worshipping the deities. But the fragrance is like that but this is all because Krishna blessed this Putana. He killed her and that was a blessing in disguise.

Krishna drank the milk of Putana, Krishna treated Putana as mother, so her whole existence was spiritualized and her purified body as it was being burnt, there was a fragrance all around and with that there are few comments that Sukadeva Goswami..

putana loka bala ghniraksasi rudhirasana
jighamsayapi harayestanam dattvapa sad gatim [S.B 10.6.35]

‘Just see, just see Sri Krishna’s glories that Putana who normally drank blood especially of little children and she also had intention of killing Krishna, but because she treated Krishna as a child and had intention to feed not right thing – poison; but she had this thing of rendering some service, tattva – Lord gave her Sadgati. The Supreme destination was given to this Putana. And the question has been raised

kim puna? sraddhaya bhaktya krsnaya paramatmane [SB 10.6.36]

And her attitude was not even favourable but she rendered some kind of service- or made some kind of presentation that she wanted to serve. When someone- raktas tan mataro yatha someone in proper consciousness following in the footsteps of the ladies in Vrndavana or Yashoda Maiya of Gokula, If Lord is worshipped following in the great footsteps of his devotees then what kind of responses, benedictions you could expect from the Supreme personality of godhead? Something to think about.

And phala stuti, towards the end of many chapters you- what is the benefit?

ya etat putana moksam krsnasyarbhakam adbhutam
srnuyac chraddhaya martyo govinde labhate ratim [S.B 10.6.44]

He does what? Govinde labhate ratim- he hears this chapter is known as ‘Putana Moksam’ Putana was liberated so this pastime of Krishna killing Putana, those who hear this with the shraddhaya (faith), the benefit is labhate rati. You will develop attachment. And attraction for Govinda – Haribol!

It is most purifying although you have to deal with bloody scenes. You’ve heard of ‘five days of nectar’ and thinking ‘this is not nectar!’ But the result is nectarian.

So Putana- So Krishna is six days old that day, the special festival, they took opportunity to take part and everyone is in festive mood and the first demon Krishna has killed is demoness, woman so I was just remembering that Sri Ram also killed demon. First demon He killed was Tadaka, yes Tadaka.

Also it all started with a woman killing demoness inauguration. So there’s so many demons – this is Svahah, Putana Svahah. Then another one, Shaktasura Svahah and whirlwind demon Svahah, they are coming one after the other and each one taking different different forms. They are all sent, dispatched, assigned all these duties by Kamsa. Dhenukasura would be coming in the form of Ass then there would be Baksura coming as a big duck, crane and Vatsasura would come, a demon would take form of a calf and mix with other calves and Krishna catches hold of his hind legs and whirls and throws him.

And each time there’s a –Pralambasura would be coming, Pralambasura, lamba means long demon, he was killed – Balaram killed him. Dhenukasura and Pralambasura they were killed by Balaram. Then one would come as Vrashabhasu, one demon would come and take a form of a bull, Kesi would come and he would take a form as a horse.
There would be Vyomasura, always residing in the sky, he lands and he tries to steal Krishna’s friends. There were all these personalities who were making some kind of offering unto the Lord and they are sent getting one way tickets, huh? One way traffic, they only go they don’t come back.

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

So Kamsa in fact he had travelled all over the planet and all over the world and he was very powerful and he had defeated all these demons in different countries and planets and that is mother earth, we heard other day – first day. She was feeling burdened because of the presence of these demoniac kings and rulers and demons. So Kamsa had kind of gone all around picking up all these demons. He would defeat them and make them his associates, some kind of his colleagues and servants.

So when would return and go and bring with him, then he would go another time so he had a big stock of demons making Krishna’s job much easier, right? So he would make Krishna’s job much easier. He doesn’t have to go door to door every town and every village looking for demons. They all have been gathered and they have been sent ‘okay you go and now it’s your turn today.’ And Krishna’s purpose, he has appeared to – and he likes to give good fight also, likes to fight. Not only play flute, he likes fighting as well.

He has a wrestling spirit and he does most of it, in Vrndavana He does killing by Himself, all the cowherd boys are scared and they climb up the trees and they watch the scene from there. And when everything is over they say ‘O Haribol Haribol!’ Of course demigods come every time because they knew all these demons are harassing and so they would come showering flowers, playing their instruments and singing and dancing, every time this kind of gets repeated.

Sukadeva Goswami talks of Devatas coming and this putana and other demons their previous lives have been recorded, who they were in their previous lives. Very interesting study, so Putana was Bali Maharaja’s sister, or daughter – both references they find. Although Bali Maharaj is one of the Dvadas Bhagavatas [twelve Mahajanas] -Balir vaiyasakir vayam. So he was performing big sacrifice and Vamandeva, Lord Vaman arrives at the scene. Vaman dwarf in the dress of a Brahmacari holding Kamandalu and umbrella, ornaments and beautiful features.

As he was arriving, Ratnamala the daughter or sister of Bali Maharaj, she was captivated by the beauty of this child. So charming, she was thinking ‘I wish I could have a son like this boy, I wish I could have a son like you.’ So Lord had taken note of this, this lady has expressed an intense desire to have a son like me.

‘There is no-one like me, there’s just me [laughter] so I have to appear. I have to give her an opportunity to be my mother.’

So that desire was fulfilled, Krishna here came as son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Prishnigarbha first time and then Vaman second time and Krishna third so three times Vasudeva and Devaki had Lord as their son and when the Lord appeared as Vamandeva, this lady had a desire and she had to wait for Krishna to appear as Sri Krishna and then here she goes.

For a few moments at least she made that role of Krishna being her child but later on in that pastime as Vamandev arrives and Bali Maharaj is so charitable, wants to give charity, ‘yes Brahmacari what could we give you?’

‘Oh just three steps of land.’ ‘Oh that’s all? You are insulting me, I am proprietor of the whole universe! Just three steps of land? No no no.’ So we don’t need to go through the whole pastime and story, so ‘okay go ahead, three step.’ And then Vaman becomes Trivrikram, this short person he grows up and up and up. He was so tall now – he had asked for three steps.

So he is going to take the three steps, He took one step and half of the universe was covered. Then one more and okay one more, another step – narakam (the lower planets).

There’s no more property anywhere is left. ‘You promised me three steps! Third step please- where should we keep the it?’ And Bali Maharaj said ‘now I have only my head at my disposal, you may put your foot on my head.’

And with that he surrendered everything and he took everything from Bali Maharaj and Bali Maharaj also was tied up and here Ratnamala, the sister or daughter of Bali Maharaja also was watching this scene. ‘Oh I thought he was such a nice, sweet boy. He looked sweet but look how he behaved, how he has treated Bali Maharaj. I would like to give him poison- kill him and finish him.’

That was the second thought she had and the first one ‘could I have him as a child?’ And then Krishna becomes her child and then the second thought ‘oh i would kill him!’

And also she had that opportunity to try to kill Krishna. So by hearing killing pastimes- Krishna killing this demon and that demon- the tendency a lot of times is to go for nectar and avoid all those bloody scenes, go for nectar. And of course some of them skip everything and go all the way to rasa lila nectar. His killing pastimes have been so interspersed throughout Bhagvatam, they have purpose why they are there. These pastimes should not be skipped or jumped or – one should read those pastimes, purifying. What happens is the – each demon has a special identity – in a bad way, a bad quality.

Each represents one or few of the anarthas- someone lusty or some angry, some greedy or this or that. And by hearing those pastimes we also become free from that bad quality which that demon represented.

Sri Narasimha Caturdasi

Please pray to Lord Narasimhadev that He may destroy the demoniac propensities within us which are there to a small or large degree. Lust is our enemy. We are our own enemies. This is an important day. The day will be 12 hours long only. But its greatness is important. We are observing various festivals in the last few days such as Sita Navami and Rukmini Dvadasi. So today we have one more important day of Caturdasi.

A long, long time ago it was Caturdasi. We offer our obeisances to Lord Narasimha. Lord became Narahari. We daily offer this prayer where Prabhupada was making all Deity standards. Srila Prabhupada introduced this arati and Narasimha Pranam. No one was singing arati of Lord Narasimhadev. Srila Prabhupada inspired all of us to pray.

We should say completely prahalada alhada dayine. How else is He? hiranyakasipur vakshah – He tore the chest and stomach of Hiranyakasipu. These things are not new, but we don’t sing understanding its meaning. Alaya means collection. Dukhalaya Sukhalaya Devalaya. Nakhalaya – means nails are prominent in it.

ito narasimha parato narasimha – I’m not giving an Uccharan seminar. Lord is here and Lord is there. We should take care of the rules of grammar. Wherever I go may Lord Narasimha be there! This is the same as a prayer in which we say jagannatha swami nayana pathagami bhavatu me. Hiranyakasipu asked, “Where is your Lord? In this pillar?” Prahlada Maharaja replied, “Yes, my Lord is in this pillar.” We should get up with conviction on such a day. If we don’t get up on days like this then when will we get up? Such Narasimhadev who is adipurusa, whose nails are very sharp. They are just like the peak of a mountain. There are various kinds of bees. Few bite and a few are poisonous. You have killed wicked Hiranyakasipu just like that. Our dealing with a mosquito is just like that.

See one fly came over there. Hiranyakasipu has been compared to a fly and the Lord is very great. He was not supposed to use weapons. Narasimhadev is famous for his teeth and nails. Sukadev Goswami is telling us that the form of the Lord frightened everyone. We have more fear of a lion than any other animal. Lions are the most fearsome. Narasimhadev became very ferocious.

matta? paratara? n?nyat kiñchid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam ida? prota? s?tre ma?i-ga?? iva

Translation
There is nothing higher than Myself, Oh Arjun. Everything rests in Me, as beads strung on a thread. [BG7.7]

When the Lord becomes ferocious then no one can be more terrifying than Him. The Lord becomes a lion. ‘When someone makes an offence at the feet of any of My devotees then I become Narasimha and teach that offender a lesson.’ Seeing this Hiranyakasipu’s dhoti would have turned yellow. When does a dhoti become yellow? When one urinates.There is one Purana named Narasimha Purana. In Srimad-Bhagvatam 7th canto the Lord’s pastimes have been explained.

There are three kinds of offences – body, words, mind. One can slap someone with the help of the body. What to say of mental offences? munijana manasa hansa Sukadev Goswami says this. First we think then we say and then we act. This is not a sleeping session. Haribol! Offenders beware!

Narasimhadev took that action of destroying demons. The place of pride is always at the bottom.Those who feel pride end up at the bottom. The Lord doesn’t tolerate pride. What do you think? The Lord was not tolerating it in those days and He is tolerating it these days. No, the Lord has His own ways to deal with offenders.

satyam vidhatum nija bhritya bhashitam

To reveal that form of Himself the Lord appeared. Sridhar Swami has given his commentary on this verse. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very pleased with this commentary. Prahlada Maharaja had said that My Lord is everywhere. To make the statement made by Prahlada Maharaja true the Lord appeared over there. Is there any proof that the Lord is everywhere? Is He in the pillar? He is within you also. The Lord appeared from that pillar. The Lord thought, “Let Me appear from that pillar.” Isn’t this a wonderful appearance? Has anyone taken birth from a pillar?

janma karma cha me divyam eva? yo vetti tattvata?
tyaktv? deha? punar janma naiti m?m eti so ’rjuna

Translation
Those who understand the divine nature of my birth and activities, O Arjun, upon leaving the body, do not have to take birth again, but come to my eternal abode. [BG 4.9]

The Lord’s birth is transcendental. He took birth from Lord Brahma’s sneeze. He doesn’t have to take birth like ordinary living entities.

This is one thing. Hiranyakasipu had asked to be immortal for all the time. Lord Brahma had said that he was not immortal even though he have a long life. Then Hiranyakasipu asked, “May I never be killed by any astra sastra during the night or day.” May I not die by a virus? He thought of all the ways by which people have died. May I not die inside or outside? To make all these benedictions true, the Lord appeared. He said he shouldn’t die during the day or night. He hadn’t said that may he never get killed in between the day and night. The Lord said, “I have nails.” He made him lie on His lap. Then the Lord tore the belly of wicked Hiranyakasipu. Why was the Lord angry? Remember this reason. It was against the person who offended His devotee. Hiranyakasipu also looked like a demon. Nowadays gentleman wear suits and ties. They might be dressed like gentleman, but might not be gentlemen from within.

Taking into consideration all the benedictions of Lord Brahma, the Lord killed Hiranyakasipu.

I was saying that all incidents which are there such as Sita Navami, Rukmini Dvadasi are all an Itihaas. All these pastimes took place. The Lord appeared on day of Caturdasi at Ahobilam in Andhra Pradesh. What’s there in an Itihaas or History? Place and time have been mentioned. In grammar it’s called saptami.

Which place, at what time and which person did what? This is called an Itihaas.

dh?itar??htra uv?cha
dharma-k?hetre kuru-k?hetre samavet? yuyutsava?
m?mak?? p???av??hchaiva kimakurvata sañjaya

Translation
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjay, after gathering on the holy field of Kurukshetra, and desiring to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?[BG 1.1]

Mahabharata is an Itihaas. These are all facts. Mythology is one thing and Itihaas is another thing. We devotees should understand that whatever is written in Srimad Bhagvatam is an Itihaas. So many personalities were there in Mahabharata and everyone has their own attributes. Can anyone think and write this? Everyone has their own attributes. In Caitanya-caritamrta also there are millions of characters. Everyone’s details such as birth, parents can be explained. Then there is the description of Vaikuntha also. What happened in Vaikuntha? The four Kumaras are there who are the sons of Lord Brahma. They went to Vaikuntha and were stopped by the gatekeepers. Then they became angry and cursed them. It’s been described that the Lord came walking along with Garuda. Lord said that these gatekeepers couldn’t understand who the visitors were. He said to the gatekeepers, “You may become demons for three births or you may take birth 7 times in the association of devotees.” In Satya-yuga Jaya Vijaya became Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu. It was a condition that the Lord will liberate them by killing them. This was also nija bhrtya bhashitum. The Lord is showing that He is killing Hiranyakasipu and at the same time also liberating Hiranyakasipu.

Lord had said in Bhagavad-Gita that na me bhakta pranashyati- “Kaunteya I take a vow that My devotee will never perish.”

To protect this vow the Lord has appeared. The Lord proved this by appearing in the form of Narasimhadev. This has been explained by Sridhar Swami in his commentary.

Today’s Narasimha Caturdasi celebrations carry a special meaning. Coronavirus has created situations and the whole mankind has become afflicted because of it. Today is the appearance day of Narasimhadev and we offer prayers at the feet of Lord Narasimha. Worshipping Lord Narasimhadev is important.

What does the Lord do by appearing as Narasimha? Sometimes we have to offer prayers at the feet of Narasimha for the good of health of Srila Prabhupada, for protection of the movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Lord is protecting and reaching everyone through prasada. We are locked down. We can’t get out. Few people were passing by Pandharpur and they contacted ISKCON Pandharpur as diseased persons are hungry. Then Mohan Rupa Prabhu and one more devotee delivered the prasada. So much kirtana is going on. This has not taken place. Everywhere kirtana melas are going on. 5 pm kirtana is there. So the Lord’s mercy is reaching all through prasada, books and kirtana.

anya dharman tiraskrtya mahotsavan puraskrtya By means of festivals bhakti is being spread. This is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. I started to say in the morning that Narasimhadev who is appearing today is Ugra-Narasimha. Take darsana of Ugra-Narasimha. We have Hiranyakasipu within us. For those who like sona there are 2 kinds of sona – one is gold and another is sleeping. Let that Hiranyakasipu within us get frightened and be killed. One time HH Radhanath Maharaja was saying that the Lord becomes the enemy of the devotee’s enemy. He takes a ferocious form when He becomes the enemy of our enemy. He becomes the death of death which kills us.

Narsimhadev Caturdasi Mahotsav ki Jai!
Gaur Premanande!
Haribol!