5th July 2019

Jagannath is in Gundicha temple which is Vrindavan

Yesterday was Jagannath Rath Yatra mahotsav ki jay! Haribol.

I am sure many of you took part in Rath Yatra wherever you were. I was at least able to watch Rath Yatra procession in Jagannath Puri yesterday. I had darsana of Jagannath with the crown. That is a beautiful city. I’m not sure how far the procession reached, sometime they stopped in the middle. Hopefully Jagannath has reached Gundicha temple, on the altar of Gundicha mandir by now. And Gundicha mandir is Vrindavan dhama- Vrindavan of Jagannath Puri. Lord will reside there for 8 to 9 days. Lord is very happy to be back in Vrindavan surrounded by his loving most loving devotees of Vrindavan dhama. This gives us topic to think about Lord, Hare Krishna, think of Radha and Krishna, think of Jagannath. We had been thinking. Now two weeks ago there was a snana yatra festival and then Lord took bed rest and getting recuperated. So we had been reminding you or we should be remembering like that my Lord Jagannath, Sri Krishna is not well. Ok we got the news that He is getting better and better. And then Gundicha marjana took place. That also was the day of Netra utsav. First time after long time devotees took darsana of Jagannath and yesterday was the Rath Yatra festival. Lord riding on the chariot and very anxiously eagerly traveling to Vrindavan to meet His devotees. Those who are pulling chariot they are His devotees and they are bringing Him back to Vrindavan.

And now He is in Vrindavan He is in Gundicha temple. All these past times of Jagannath in Jagannath Puri are lot for us to think about and meditate upon and digest, assimilate, make part of our system, consciousness and become Krishna conscious while chanting

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

This gives topic for us to think about. We could very easily say that we are doing dhyana, we are remembering even these pastimes of Lord Jagannath and if we are remembering, chanting and remembering pastimes of Jagannath, but pastimes of Vitthal are going on here. Same Lord in Ayodhya, He has some pastimes happening and in Dwarka dhama it would be Sri Krishna and ‘Dakor ma kon che? Raja Ranchoda Che’ and like that Mayapur dhama ki jay! Gauranga Mahaprabhu is having His pastimes there. Vigraha, the deities are participating in different occasions and festivals you know. The tons of topic you could think about as Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur used to say or used to propose, we should have a daily newspaper, ‘Hare Krishna’ daily newspaper. Some of his disciples said “Guru maharaja, how is that possible? How could we have so much news to print every day, Hare Krishna newspaper? Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said and you could see, the world has hundreds and thousands of newspapers. There are so much news, breaking news, printing the news daily. But there are so many news from the spiritual sky, spiritual world, what to speak of printing the news daily in newspaper. There is enough news to print every minute. Every moment paper could be printed with so much news from all around, from all abodes, all personalities of Godhead and Their pastimes, Their festivals, this and that.

So if you could remember those activities and pastimes and lilas and festivals and get rid of these mundane news of this world, keep that out and substitute that with spiritual news, spiritual activities, pastimes of Jagannath and other deities are performing also and of course nitya lilas, pastimes are taking place all the time at every step. Now Caitanya Mahaprabhu is spending His time in Gundicha. I mean He is ‘jei gaur sei krishna sei jagannath.’ Jagannath is residing there and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is also residing in Gundicha and spending lot of time in Gundicha temple and how are they spending time, how is Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu spending His time?

Water sports and different things going on in Narendra Sarovar and lakes around. Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to enter different lakes and with His associates, He is playing water sports and splashing, so activities like that like Lord’s activities in Vrindavan with gopis, jalkeli water sport or with the cowherd boys He is also swimming and playing in water of Yamuna.

So Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu He is in mood of Sri Krishna, back in Vrindavan and He is performing various pastimes. They are hearing about Radha and Krishna, lot of time is spent in hearing and chanting at Gundicha temple. Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Gauranga surrounded by His associates specially very close confidential associates like Rai Ramananda, Svarupa Damodar, Govind and others Jagadanand Pandit and they were all doing,

‘bodhayantaha parasparam
kathayantasch mam nityam
tushyanti ch ramanti cha
(BG 10.9)

They are all talking about Krishna. Radha Krishna ki jai! Specially Svarupa Damodar he recites pastimes. He doesn’t speak pastimes; he sings pastimes of the Lord. Specially poems and songs devotional songs of Vidyapati and Chandidas. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu took great pleasure as Svarupa Damodar would recites those devotional songs. Jaidev Goswami’s ‘Geet Govind’, Krishna Karnamrita of Bilvamangal Thakur, and Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam . That is another topic of discussion. Mostly this is going on there. Hearing and chanting and there is shravan utsav, you would like to call it and this is how they are happily absorbed in the pastimes of Radha Krishna in Vrindavan, from Vrindavan, now they are relishing these pastimes at Gundicha temple. As one listens to these pastimes, that pastimes are realized, that listener could began witnessing those pastimes. He becomes attracted to the pastimes and of course the personality of Radha Krishna those who are center of these pastimes and attempts to join this pastime, they could become very much nityalila pravishta. They could enter those pastimes and as they listen to these pastimes with rapt attention and this how they could become the jivan mukta while they are still in the present body. They are liberated.

So this is what is going on at Gundicha temple in association of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and then all His associates and as we get to hear about this from Caitanya Caritamrita, we are repeating this. So we get hooked or connected to that happened at Gundicha temple 500 years ago and is going on eternally right now.

Svarupa Damodar was Lalita sakhi from Krishna’s pastime. Now he has appeared as Svarupa Damodar and he understands Lord’s mind Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mind very well or some of the thoughts in the mind, in the heart of Gauranga. Svarupa Damodar was blessed and competent to grasp what Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was thinking about and what is on His mind or even some mantras or statements Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to utter and others could not understand what is He talking or singing about that also was happening during Jagannath ratha yatra 500 years ago.

Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was saying something very very confidential and of course those were thoughts of, He was talking in a mood of Radharani. So what Radha has to say is not ordinary, superficial statement. It is very deep, very confidential. So Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was uttering those statements. And Caitanya Caritamrita says Svarupa Damodar was only one who was understanding what Mahaprabhu was talking about. So Svarupa Damodar was exalted. We already said he is Lalita, if we could understand Lalita then that’s enough to understand Savarupa Damodar Goswami’s position.

So yesterday was also Svarupa Damodar Goswami’s disappearance day. So we thought to bring him into the picture, remembering him. Also I remember another special lila, Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu had given one special assignment to Svarupa Damodar. Always there were lot of devotees and visitors. They had a habit of writing some statement addressed to Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they would write it down and Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu would read what they had written. Svarupa Damodar would process them before passing to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He would pass whatever was perfect to Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and anything that was imperfect or defective, siddhanta wise or otherwise Svarupa Damadar would reject that or throw that into dustbin. It is described that Svarupa Damodar was a secretary that one title also he had. So he was doing his secretarial services.

So one day one person he wrote his statement glorifying Jagannath and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu as well. So what basically he had written was Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is soul of Jagannath. He is atma of Jagannath. He was thinking, i am glorifying Gauranga but by mentioning Him to be the atma, the spirit of Jagannath. Svarupa Damodhar when he read this he dumped it into the dustbin.

Even when I read Caitanya Caritamrita initially, I thought this is great. I also was thinking like that, mind blowing Caitanya Mahaprabhu is soul of Jagannath. But Svarupa Damodar Goswami Maharaja, he took no extra time realizing the defect in that statement and he dumped it. So the defect was that if Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is atma of Jagannath, Jagannath is bodily form and Caitanya Mahaprabhu is soul. One is body and one is soul. Distinction Is there, so this is trouble, defect, flaw in this so called glory of Gauranga and Jagannath. Jagannath doesn’t have a body. Jagannath only has a soul or Jagannath is a soul supreme soul and Gauranga Mahaprabhu is Jagannath. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is equal to Jagannath not that He is part of Jagannath or He is soul of Jagannath.

‘jei Gour sei Krishna sei Jagannath’ He is Gauranga. He is also Jagannath, so they are both purna Purushottam, not that one is soul of another body or another personality. So Svarupa Damodar Goswami detected this defect and he rejected this statement which helped us to understand the tattva, Gaura tattva or Jagannath tattva.

We have to understand Lord tattvataha in order to become Krishna conscious in order to chant with faith in the holy name.

So we stop here, you continue, yesterday also was disappearance day of Shivananda Sen. I wanted to say yesterday also was appearance day or avirbhava tithi mahotsav of Radha Govind Swami Maharaja. I understood that some of you were able to participate in Vyaspuja festivals in Pune and some other places. So Radha Govind Goswami Maharaja is a very dear Godbrother of mine and his recitation of Srimad Bhagavatam is excellent. And he has been gifted by the Lord and he is very realized soul rather, realized statements of Bhagavatam and I always take great pleasure in listening Radha Govind Goswami Maharaja’s katha. Lord’s pastimes and hundreds of recording available, strongly recommend you all also hear them,of course, his kathas are in Hindi. There are hundreds of kathas recordings available in Hindi. I have been listening and I will keep listening to his kathas. I would like you take advantage of the treasure that Radha Govinda Goswami Maharaja’s left, he is still with us but his treasure is available. Take full advantage, become enriched.

Radha Govind Goswami Maharaja avirbhava tithi maha mahotsav ki jay!

Gaur Premanande hari hari bol!

4th July 2019

Ratha Yatra Mahotsva

Today is a great day, Ratha Yatra day. In 1977, when we were in Jagannath Puri we could not have darshan on Netra utsava day but next day on ratha yatra day as we were performing Hare Krishna kirtan we were appreciated by the local devotees and called for darshan. We were feeling as if Lord Jagannath is appreciating us and our kirtan. On ratha yatra day Jagannath is going to Vrindavan in the chariot. The mood of ratha yatra is, how Lord’s love for His devotees moves towards Vrindavan. Ratha yatra is full display of perfection of our chanting if we could realize what ratha yatra is, what is Lord thinking, what is Lord feeling, love of the Lord for His Vrajavasi devotees, Radharani, Nandababa, Yasoda. They are trying to pull Lord to Vrindavan.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is representing Himself as Radharani and Her Lord is in the chariot and She is dancing, chanting and there is reciprocation between Them.

King Pratap Rudra also comes and seeing how humble King Pratap Rudra is, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says he is an example of,

trinad api sunicena, taror api sahishnuna
(Siksastaka Sholka 03)

There is nothing wrong in giving darshan to such person. And as Lord had this thought and there was whole arrangement by His ‘ischasakti’ and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu meets King Pratap Rudra.

So, chanting and dancing is going on, Odiyas and Gaudiyas had come in large numbers. Mahaprabhu had divided devotees into 7 dancing party. Special mercy on King Pratap Rudra, he is getting darshan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in all 7 kirtan parties. This is similar to the rasa dance in Vrindavan as Krishna is dancing with each and every gopi, like that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is dancing in each kirtan party. King Pratap Rudra is qualified to have such darshan. Lord is giving him such darshan.

That’s the goal of chanting and of participating in ratha yatra, getting darshan as King Pratap Rudra had. What darshan he is getting we should also get that darshan. That is the goal of participating in ratha yatra. There are so many eternal things happening there, the crowd and mridanga players but we should be striving to experience the darshan as King Pratap Rudra and that could be experienced by chanting. And by the mood of,

trinad api sunicena. taror api sahishnuna.
Then person can chant continuously.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.

Ratha yatra is the time, place and day of reunion of Lord and His devotees, they are reuniting and their hearts are meeting and there is festival. So Vrajavasis meet Lord, Lord of their heart during ratha yatra. Time for reunion, time for meeting Krishna, getting back to Krishna. Perfection of Bhakti yoga.

As we know from Chaitanya Charitamrta that particular year, King Pratap Rudra was blessed by close association of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was the center of attraction. The whole chapter describes the mood of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that mood represents the mood of Radharani. He is talking, acting and dancing like Radharani. And He is tired and also its time for upala bhoga of Lord Jagannath. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is resting in Jagannath Vallabha garden and King was inspired by ‘ichasakti’ to go and have darshan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he goes and he recites gopi geet which is also Radha geet. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is in mood of Gopi. So it was a day and great fortune for King Pratap Rudra he was able to touch the transcendental form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he was chanting beginning from

“jayati te ‘dhikam janmana vrajah” [1st Verse Gopi geet]

And he reached,

tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmasapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grnanti ye bhuri-da janah [9th verse Gopi geet]

And last part of that stanza and as King Pratap Rudra recited bhurida janah.

gopis had said ‘Those persons who share Krishna katha with others are bhurida janah.’ As Mahaprabhu heard this he said bhurida bhurida I have not seen you who are you. But that does not matter you are bhurida janah you have given Krishna to Me. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was thinking this bhurida is charitable he has given Me katha amrita in form of gopi geet, I should give him something, but what could I give? I am sanyasi. He got up with His arms extended, you could accept My embrace if you don’t mind.

King Pratap Rudra also moved forward and they were embracing each other. There was great union between one soul and Supreme soul. So such great union took place during ratha yatra festival.

As we participate in ratha yatra we should remember the example of King Prataprudra, remember his qualities, his humility and his chanting,

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

Of course, he was chanting without offences and serving devotees offencelessly. He was attentive and he was thinking of nothing else but of Jagannath and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees. You should remember how King Pratap Rudra achieved perfection in his life and try to attain such perfection. Ratha yatra day is a very special day to achieve such perfection.

King Pratap Rudra ki jai!

He was a great King. So following the example of King Pratap Rudra we should achieve perfection and goal of our life in this very life.

‘Jagannath swami nayana patha gami bhava tume’

Jagannatha ratha yatra ki jai!

Jagannath Swami ki jai!

King Pratap Rudra ki jai!

3rd July 2019

Cleansing of temple is cleansing hearts, minds and the consciousness

We all have the blessings of the holy name; the holy name is Lord! So, blessings of the holy name, is the Lord Himself. We should thank the Lord officially Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given this name to the world. We should be thanking Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for giving us this benediction and the acaryas in the disciplic succession officially give us the holy name. In that way the acaryas and spiritual masters are also blessing us with the holy name.

Holy name ki jai!

Harinama prabhu ki jai!

This is not a small benediction; it is a complete benediction. We cannot ask for anything better than the holy name. We have been blessed, the Lord has kindly chosen us we are selected few, a handful in fact in this world that have seen and that has been touched by the holy name of the Lord. The Lord is touching us! The soul is being touched by the name of the Lord!

ceto darpana marjanam

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said ‘When one chants his consciousness is purified.’

“bhava maha davagni nirvarpanam”

davagni is the fire of material existence. The senses have been extinguished by the holy name of the Lord.

“Shreya kairava candrika vitaranam” and then there’s shreya, ultimate benediction we receive the rays of that benediction, shower of that benediction. Shreya kairava candrika! Like that the glories of the holy name; “anandam bhudi vardanam” we derive ananda – an ocean full of ananda this is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself has given us, this is Harinaam mahatmya! This is the benediction of the holy name! This is shrutiphal, the benefit of hearing the holy name and we have just mentioned a few items.

Talking of marjanam, cleansing! Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to engage Himself along with His so many associates in the Gundica marjanam on this day, today (03 July). It is the actual day of Gundica Marjan in Jagannath Puri it’s cleansing of Gundica temple!

Tomorrow is Jagannath rathayatra day so the Lord will ride on His chariot and start the journey from Jagannath temple to Nilachal and then He goes to Sundaracal in Jagannath Puri that is where Gundica temple is. The Gundica temple is not used by the Lord for 51 weeks. He uses the Gundica bhavan residence for one week so the place that has not been used has to be cleansed, thoroughly cleansed to prepare for the Lord’s at Gundica temple. So, Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did this. This is of course eternal service activity that takes place in Jagannath Puri on the day before ratha yatra. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to personally participate in the cleansing of Gundica temple.

What a sweet pastime Gundica marjan is! It is described in the Chaitanya Caritamrita, you should not try to say a few things you should study yourself in depth in this pastime.

King Prataprudra used to provide all the brooms and buckets and water, towels for mopping. Upon the arrival of the devotees, they were received with garlands and chandan and then again there was the cleansing of Gundica Mandir. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally used to do the cleansing of the altar where Lord Jagannath would stand or sit and other devotees cleaning the rest of the temple, floor, wall everything.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was kind of overseeing the cleansing, He was coordinating, He was a temple commander and was busy and absorbed and collecting a lot of dust and those who collected a lot of dust or dirt, the Lord used to praise them. Shabash!! Well done! Then to others He would say, hey look you haven’t collected anything. Work hard! Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was inspiring the devotees, else you would be punished you would have to feed everyone ladoos and khaja because you are not collecting enough dust. You will be punished. You will have to feed khaja to the entire cleansing team. So, the cleansing of the temple was also cleansing the hearts, minds and the consciousness of the cleaning team or the cleansers. This is the ultimate benefit of cleansing the Gundica temple.

Ceto darpana marjanam was also happening by this amazing service, wonderful service of cleansing the temple. Of course, and I am sure that’s what they were doing. They were chanting also:

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

Atme kam mukme Ram, they were chanting and cleansing at the same time so there’s a double benefit. Cleansing by chanting which is cleansing ceto darpana, cleansing the consciousness by chanting, cleansing the consciousness by devotional service and here the service was cleansing the temple. So, you can all take part in Gundica marjan today. You might say oh! We are not in Jagannath Puri today! But wherever you are you could do some marjan today. They have invited devotees from all over Pandharpur and temple devotees would be joining and there is going to be maha Gundica Marjan in Pandharpur today. Otherwise, your home is also temple! Make your home your temple clean there.

sri vigrahadhan nana nityanana srngaratan mandir marjanado (gurvastakam verse 3)

We are meant to do this every day, you can make your home into a temple and that becomes Gundica marjan or mandir marjan and that will do ceto darpana marjan. That swacha bharat mission is also going on; clean India and part of that includes cleaning your house, angan (courtyard), this could be mundane material activity of cleaning. You are cleaning your clothes; your body is cleaning your house this that will bind you further to this world and become further conditioned. So, what is the benefit of this kind of cleaning and sweeping and swacha bharat business when you could derive the spiritual benefit of the swachata or cleansing of the Gundica marjan? This benefit is there if you transform your place into a spiritual place, or Vaikuntha by having altar at home and like that you could make your home a temple.

Many devotees stay at ISKCON temples brahmacaris and sanyasis. The grihastas could also stay in the temple and make your house into a temple and do the cleaning of that temple. You could do this Gundica marjan service everyday and everyday there will be ceto darpana marjanam; cleansing of the consciousness and the heart. That will revive your love for the Lord. So be smart like that Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, “Krsna yei bhaje se bade catura.” So do not follow the example of so-called mundane leaders follow the example of the supreme leader Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the acaryas in the line of Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and derive the spiritual benefit of the cleansing you have to do, spiritual activity.

While the cleansing was on and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was cleaning the altar one catur, one smart devotee started pouring water on the Lotus feet of Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was pouring water with one hand and collecting the water from Mahaprabhu’s feet with the other hand. He began to drink the caranamrta from Mahaprabhu’s Lotus feet while hiding and then others found out. Please, please give us caranamrta also. So, when Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed what was going on, instead of washing the feet of Sri Jagannath they are washing My feet; this is an offense how can you do this? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Swarup Damodhar to chastise that person who is doing this offensive activity here. Although Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was happy within, He was externally displaying anger and making a point that I am just a devotee. You cannot wash a devotee’s feet on Lord’s altar like that, that pastime also took place.

Today is also the day in Jagannath Puri called netra utsav which means feast for the eyes for almost two weeks the Lord was not well and was taking bed rest and all the doors were closed. No visitors! They all were deprived of Lord Jagannath’s darshan for such a long, long time. So, they were all eager and anxious to have darshan of Jagannath again. They were counting days and hours as to when would that moment come, we could see Jagannath again. So that day is today, Lord Jagannath is ready for darshan now and has recovered. Devotees then come in big numbers to take darshan of Lord Jagannath and drink the beauty of Lord Jagannath’s form to their hearts content.

I also had gone to Jagannath Puri on this day in 1977. I was there for the first time ever. I had arrived at Jagannath Puri to take His darsana. But what resulted on that day was that I ended up not getting darshan of Lord Jagannath. I was a sanyasi and travelling with several devotees and we had entered Singha dwara and then the pandas had come to stop me and others as they knew we were ISKCON people and they didn’t like ISKCON in those days. When they stopped me, I asked why can I not have darshan of Lord Jagannath? I must take, I want to take, I have to take darshan. But they said no, no you can’t take darshan! Why not? You are not born Hindu; you are born Christian and this American ISKCON has converted you. So now you have become Hindu but you are born Christian. So, like that they were arguing and not listening and that was, going on in the courtyard of Jagannath temple on this day in 1977.

So, there was a big tug of war going on and pushing and pulling. The pandas were determined and they were not going to let us go inside to have darshan of Lord Jagannath unfortunately that was their stand. Finally, the well-built pandas picked us up and we thin lean swamis and brahmacaris from ISKCON were lifted us and put outside Singha Dwara. Haribol! So, what to do? There we were!

So, then we were making sure that everyone was there in our group. We were doing a head count to see if everyone was present. We took note that we did lose someone, one devotee my god brother and of course in those days we only had god brothers and god sisters. So, one god brother from New York, Riksharaj was also part of our party, when we looked around, he was nowhere to be found! So, we were wondering where is Riksharaj? After a few minutes we saw Riksharaj coming from the temple. He was a born Christian and he had enjoyed Netra Utsava, he had a feast for his eyes and he came running to us saying Maharaj carana Tulasi for you. [Laughs]

I had darshan and the pujaris gave us tulasi from the Lotus feet and we were amazed by this kind of lila with Jagannath. He gave darshan to a born Christian but did not give darshan to a born Hindu.

We were battling with the pandas and Riksharaj, my god brother from New York had a complexion not like a western American but that of an Indian kind of complexion. So, when we were fighting or battling, he decided not to take part in the battle and took a diversion and he went inside the temple. Knowing that there was no one guarding the other gates and all were battling with us he went into the temple and had a nice darshan. But then we took his darshan. He had taken darshan of Jagannath and we took his darshan and tulasi from the Lord’s lotus feet.

jai Jagannath swami ki jai!

‘’jagannatha swami nayana patha gami bhavatume’’

[Jagannathastakam]

When would that day come in which ever direction we see, we see Jagannath. We take darshan of Jagannath everywhere.

So, let’s keep chanting and hearing as this the outcome of that activity. Hearing and chanting is also smaranam and darsanam of Jagannath.

Hare Krsna

2nd July 2019

We should take inspiration from our acarya’s

I am in Pandharpur chanting for you and with you. Today is a big day, very very auspicious day. Today is a disappearance day of Gadadhara Pandit and today is also disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. So I would like to say few words to remember these great personalities in our parampara. Gadadhara Pandit is the member of pancha tattva.

sri krishna caitanya prabhu nityananda sri advait
gadadhar srivasadi gaur bhaktavrinda

So that Sri Advait Gadadhara, Gadadhara Pandit. Today we are observing Gadadhara Pandit’s disappearance day, the member of the panchtattva, you could understand, you should understand the status of Gadadhara Pandit, one of the panchtattva.

panca-tattvatmakam krsnam bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam namami bhakta-saktikam (CC Ādi 7.6)

He is listed as bhakta sakti. He appeared as a bhakta but he is a sakti, he is energy, very special energy, ahladini sakti, pleasure potency of Lord. Gadadhara Pandit is Radharani, partial Radharani. Radharani is within Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

sri krishna caitanya radha krishna nahe anya,

Radha and Krishna are together in Caitanya. However Radharani also appeared in another form in a partial way and that is Gadadhara Pandit. There are many temples of Gaura Nityananda, Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu but there are also several temples of Gaura Gadadhara, Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Gadadhara Pandit, deity of Gaura Gadadhara.

At Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s residence, in samadhi there is Gaura Gadadhara deity. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura worshipped Gaura and Gadadhara.

There are lots of restrictions in Lord’s eternal lila in Golok and Vrindavan for Radha and Krishna to associate. They cannot be together in public. They have to keep distance from each other and like that. But Radharani always loves and likes, She prefers to be with Krishna. Why to be away from Krishna? She wants to be next to Krishna. So that desire of Radharani is fulfilled as Radharani appeared as Gadadhara Pandit. And Gadadhara Pandit was able to associate with Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krishna. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna, Gadadhara Pandit is partially Radharani and they are always together. They are next to each other and associating with each other.

So what they couldn’t do in Goloka or Vrindavan, they were able to do that association with each other in Navadvipa as well as in Jagannath Puri later on. Even during childhood days Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gadadhara Pandit were always together and they were studying together also. Like they were in Mayapur the other members of the pancha tattva, they had appeared in other parts of Bengal, east Bengal or here there. Gadadhara Pandit was one who appeared in Mayapur So,as a result Nimai and Gadadhar, they were always together, they were friends. Gadadhar Pandit took initiation from Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi in Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s lila is King Vrishabhanu of Barsana. He appeared in Navadvipa Mayapur as Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi and Gadadhar Pandit took initiation from Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi.

Later on when Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu travelled to Jagannath Puri, Gadadhar Pandit also joined Him in Jagannath Puri and he was worshipping Tota Gopinath deity and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to visit Gadadhar Pandit in Tota Gopinath temple and listened to Bhagavatam katha recited by Gadadhar Pandit. As if Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu or Krishna is listening from Radharani.

So Radharani here in the form of Gadadhar Pandit is reciting Bhagavatam and with great ecstasy Gadadhar Pandit recites different pastimes of the Lord. His body trembling and tears gliding down his chest. And those tears would fall on the Grantha Bhagavatam, it would become all wet and they try another recitation, again it would become wet and Bhagavatam was getting spoiled by the tears of Gadadhar Pandit. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu would relish the recitation of Gadadhar Pandit at Tota Gopinath temple very much.

So like Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gadadhar Pandit who is Radharani they were associating with each other at Tota Gopinath temple in Jagannath Puri and eventually Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered the deity of Tota Gopinath and wind up His pastimes. Gadadhar Pandit also left this world on this day from Tota Gopinath temple.

Gadadhar Pandit tirobhav tithi mahotsav ki jai!

Then there is also the disappearance day of Bhaktivinoda Thakura. He was also initially in Jagannath Puri as district magistrate in British rule. He fixed up all the administration of Jagannath Puri temple, so that the worship and services of Jagannath Baladev Subhadra would go on properly.

He prayed for son, who would be empowered to propagate, spread Krishna consciousness all over the world. So Jagannath heard the prayer of Bhaktivinoda Thakura and he was gifted with a son Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, who was born in Jagannath Puri. Later on Bhaktivinoda Thakura moved to Navadvipa Mayapur and all he did service of Mayapur Navadvipa dhama by discovering different pastimes of Gauranga including the birthplace Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He wrote so many,100 books he wrote including the ‘Navadvipa dhama mahatmya’ the guide book of performance of Navadvipa mandal parikrama and instructed his son Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur to establish Navadvipa mandal Parikrama. That is why Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is also known as seventh Goswami.

Six Goswamis of Vrindavan were famous and Navadvipa had one goswami, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura became known as seventh goswami. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a great personality. We are indebted for what he has done for us. We pray at his feet on this occasion for blessing us further, empowering us further. That empower could come to us through Srila Prabhupada so that we could continue the mission of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. This Hare Krishna Movement is Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’mission, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s mission.

Amongst the one hundred books that he wrote, his ‘Harinama Chintamani’ is very essential scripture for us to study and practice. In this book Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has presented dialogue between Gauranga, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur and they are both talking about the ten offences against the holy name in great detail, explaining and making us understand each offense and how to avoid those offenses. So this is a contribution, this Harinama Chintamani is a gift for all of us chanters of holy name.

In conference we are chanting Hare Krishna and we try to provide some guidelines, we try to say something but a lot has been said in Harinama Chintamani.

I strongly recommend you to catch hold of Harinama Chintamani. It is available in English, Bangla and Hindi translation. You should get this scripture Harinama Chintamani and study how to improve your chanting and to chant attentively this book is great help.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a great chanter. He used to chant 64 minimum rounds of holy name every day, while he was in Jagannath Puri. He was householder, a district magistrate and father of ten children. And inspite of all these responsibilities he was still chanting 64 rounds and writing so many books. So you are householders, so Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is a living example, he is hero of all of you, all of us, following his footsteps, specially chanting Hare Krishna, the way Bhaktivinoda Thakura chanted Hare Krishna. We cannot imitate Bhaktivinoda Thakura, at least chant your minimum 16 rounds daily and do that attentively and offenselessly. How to avoid offenses you could learn from Bhaktivinoda Thakura book Harinama Chintamani. I wish you all success in your endeavor of chanting. Hare Krishna !

Gauranga!

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura ki jai!!

Gadadhar Pandit ki jai!!

Gaur Premanande Haribol!!!

1st July 2019

Listening to Harikatha will help us in chanting

One thing that we talked yesterday was that we should listen to Harikatha and that will help in chanting Harinama. If we have heard Harikatha, Harikatha means lot of things, Hari’s katha. Hari is unlimited and so many things we get to hear about our Hari. Then as we chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna we are reminded of all that we have heard about Hari, Krishna. We have heard about Radha Krishna we have heard about Sita and Rama, we have heard about Gauranga, there is no limit how many things we could hear about Krsna or Hari.

So that becomes the topic as we chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna we are reminded of what we have heard about. In words of Saint Tukaram,

gita bhagavat kariti shravan, akhanda chintan vithoba che’

Very famous statement of Sant Tukaram says, if you hear or study or discuss Bhagavad gita or Srimad Bhagavatam then you will begin doing chintan you will be reminded of Vitthala, Panduranga, Sri Krishna. So that is what we wish to do, while chanting Hare Krishna is time for chintan, meditation so as we say Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, then immediately we are reminded of what we have heard read from Bhagwad Gita, from Bhagavatam. Of course there are other scriptures Caitanya Caritamrita, Ramayana, Mahabharata. And then we are saying as we chant Hare Krishna then that chintan continues or the chintan of the topic, contemplation is there and that faciliates your chanting, perfection of chanting, we chant Hare Krishna we are reminded of what we have heard.

What we have already read and heard during chanting Hare Krishna that triggers Hare Krishna. We have what we have read heard and we further contemplate on subject matters and then that chanting is also called manan. You contemplate and you assimilate, you digest and you become Krishna conscious as you chant Hare Krishna.

Yesterday we talked on Muchukunda and I was thinking more about that episode. How Kalyavan he was some sort of big demon and he wanted to fight, battle with someone very powerful and defeat him forcibly and then he was thinking now I will have big name “Oh! Kalyawan, he killed or defeated such and such powerful person.” So he wanted to know from Narada muni who is such powerful most powerful person that you know that I could fight with and then Narada muni gave the address of Lord Sri Krishna. Ok this is ID of that that person. He gave a photograph and gave all description how He looks like and where he could find Him and what time he should go to find Him and meet Him.

So he came to Mathura, this Kalyavan and there is a description and spread over many many verses. Kalyavan has come and Krishna is just outside Mathura by Himself and He is walking and Kalyavan is seeing Krishna. So what did he see? He saw Lord from toe nails to His shikha, His crown and there is beautiful description of the beauty of Krishna as Kalyavan able to visualize.

tam vilokya viniskrantam ujjihanam ivodupam darsaniyatamam syamam pita kauseya vasasam [SB 10.51.1]

Sukadev Goswami describes, tam that tam is Krishnam he saw Krishna,

Darsaniyatamam, he saw Krishna and what kind Krishna was? darsaniyatamam. Worth seeing, the best amongst the person to see darsaniya tama. He begins, Sukadev Goswami begins the description of Sri Krishna saying, darsaniyatamam. Darsaniya means, dekhaneyogya, worth seeing. Krishna is described as darsaniya tamam, the best, the topmost among all those who are worth seeing worth looking at.

Syamam, he must have seen first syamam, He has beautiful complexion resembling monsoon clouds monsoon is here in India in Mumbai. Look at the clouds and that color of the complexion of the clouds resembles to Krishna’s complexion. So Sukadev Goswami is describing Kalyavan saw Krishna and what kind of Krishna he was Syama, Syamsundar. He was Ghanshyam,

Ghan iva syama, beautiful like, beauty of the monsoon cloud. Of course, Srila Prabhupada always describes monsoon cloud like. The description of Krishna, Krishna that Kalyavan saw and there is detailed description of Lord’s form and the beauty.

pita kauseya vasasam

He is wearing yellow garments pitambar. He has ‘Srivatsa’ on his chest, ‘Srivatsa’. He has ‘kaustubha’ hanging from his neck. And He has long arms and lotus like eyes.

srimat su-kapolam suci-smitam

Lord has a broad forehead, mukharavindam – He has beautiful lotus like face. ‘nava–kanjaruneksanam’ and His eyes are beautiful and with the reddish complexion and His face is smiling face- ‘suci-smitam’ smitahasya.

There are more descriptions of Krishna’s form are listed here. So as we hear, read and then we chant, we could go back to what we had heard, we are talking about the beauty of Krishna and meditate, chanting of Hare Krishna is meditation, mantra meditation.

And when we talk of meditation, we talk meditating upon the Lord and what about the Lord? The form of Lord we meditate upon, beauty of the Lord amongst other things that we could meditate upon. Then as we keep hearing Sukadev Goswami he describes that Krishna took note of Kalyavan’s presence and he realized what his intention was, that he wanted to fight with Him. Lord did not show any interest in facing him or battling with him or fighting with him. He thought this is third class low class and that is what he was.

So Lord started running and Kalyavan started running right behind thinking, oh I am going to catch Him may be this minute or next few steps if I go forward I will be able to catch Krishna, who is afraid of me doesn’t want to figth with me. But Krishna was maintaining the safer distance and like that they were both running Kalyavan running right after Krishna. You could meditate upon this scene. That could be nice scene you could think about. There are millions and billions and trillions of scenes that you could think about. Right now we are talking about this scene one of the unlimited scenes.

Then Lord knows everything and He has a plan what to do next with this Kalyavan, He wants to kill him. He doesn’t want to kill Himself, He wants Kalyavan killed by someone else. So Lord has long walkathon walking and running. He has entered one cave Lord knows Muchukunda is resting in that cave. So Lord entered right behind comes kalyavan. Anyway, there is no time for detail. That is where Kalyavan was burnt to ashes by Muchukunda. Muchukunda’s sleep was disturbed by this person. Muchukunda had the benediction from the demigods that anyone whoever disturbed your sleep you could burn him to the ashes, kill him. So Kalyavan he met his death by the hands of Muchukunda. By the time, Lord was hiding in the cave and He was watching scene of cremation of Kalyavan as fire was created by Muchukunda to burn Kalyavan. Lord is there, we have to remember, Lord is there, so its Krishna conscious meditation, Lord is watching. Lord is hiding and watching. Kalyavan was no more.

Haribol! Good news.

Demigods were showering flowers. They were doing lots of things to express their happiness as this demon was killed in the cave by Muchukunda devotee of Lord.

Not only devi devata, Gods and Goddesses also became happy. Those who listen to this pastime as you are listening to this pastime. Yes, are you? Then you also become happy, when you get to know the new demon is killed Haribol!

Good thing, spread the news and you are expressing your joy. So that is Krishna conscious joy also.

Yes, Hardik Patel are you joyful? Demon is killed. Jai! And if you do not become happy by hearing this news, then we suspect that may be you have some connection with Kalyavan. You are sad (laughs) by hearing, oh my Kalyavan my friend, dear one he is killed, I will take revenge, I will kill that Krishna who killed Kalyavan. So this if there are such thoughts then we know we have relationship with Kalyavan.

So like this as we chant Hare Krishna, we are free to remember this pastimes and you are in business, you are chanting and your mantra meditation is on . And then we know once Kalyavan was killed then Muchukunda and Sri Krishna, they met and they had a dialogue. They were introducing each other who are you? How are you? Krishna enquires and Muchukunda also enquires. Then Krishna has spoken to great extent, how He appeared as Brahma had prayed on behalf of demigods and I appeared and like killed this demon and recently I killed Kansa and just now right in front of your eyes I did not kill but I made you kill this Kalyavan.

So like that Krishna is narrating His life story, different events sharing with Muchukunda. And they give some hints to you about this episode or pastime and then as you hear you should be becoming more curious to know more about this pastime. Then you will read Bhagavatam. Open 10th canto of Bhagavatam chapter 51 and read more. We were just talking or jumping from one point to another leaving so many details leaving them aside. So read them and this reading is, studying, is preparation for your chanting. As we always have been talking that ‘prepare to chant’ something you have to do before you chant. So you read, study more, in depth study and then chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna and you remember and meditate on what you have read, heard about Krishna, while you are chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.

So like that Harikatha compliments chanting and chanting compliments Harikatha and of course they are one and the same. Sravanam, kirtanam and smaranam is there by hearing and chanting. Whether you are hearing Bhagavatam or you are hearing Hare Krishna Hare Krishna chanting, that both will result in remembering and meditating upon Lord. So keep chanting.

See you later in Pandharpur very soon. Pandharpur Dham ki jai! When you come to Pandharpur come prepared by chanting, hearing, doing more Harikatha Hari kirtana or Harijapa.

Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!

30th June 2019

Hari Katha and Hari Nama go hand in hand

Srila Prabhupada always said, chant Hare Krsna and be happy. The very name Krsna the two syllables Krs-meaning the Lord attracts us closer to Him and na- means He gives ananda, happiness to us.

ya karsati sa krsna

He attracts us closer and closer and gives us joy. He is source of happiness. As we chant more and more, we go more closer to Krsna and we get more and more pleasure of association of Krsna. So keep chanting and keep getting closer and closer to Krsna and distant yourself more and more from worldly things and establish spiritual relations with others around you. Relationship with Krsna is developed and you are getting closer and closer to Krsna. You are a jiva, your vision of looking at others changes. You began to see others and even your family members as spirit souls. Try to develop spiritual relations with others as spirit souls. Then over time, as we grow, we get closer to Krsna. We get closer to souls around us, be friendly with them. Try to bring them closer to Krsna.

Lord Krsna gave darshan to Muchukunda Maharaja in the cave. Muchukunda Maharaja asked, “Who are you?”. Lord Krsna responded, “I am Vasudev and I stay in nearby town Mathura or Vrindavan and I have so many names. Lord introduced Himself to Muchukunda Maharaja. Lord is unlimited. He has so many names, so many pastimes, so many abodes, this Vaikuntha, that Vaikuntha, Golok. Like that Lord is unlimited with so many names and so many pastimes and so many qualities and so many abodes. Krsna is Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is a person, He has His own abode. This is a Gaudiya Vaisnava siddhanta or understanding. Impersonalist do not believe in form they do we believe in the form. His form exists and it is eternal. Today morning I heard Allah ho akbar was going nearby. They go to the mosque and there is no form there is just a wall. They try to pay obeisances but they do not believe in the form. We believe in the form as Lord has eternal form, eternal names. .

So there is lots of propagation, preaching and talks against the Lord. The very existence of Lord is challenged. Lord has no form, He has no name, no abode, no pastimes that’s impersonalism. Then there is voidism and like that there are so many isms. They are kind of against what we do. We chant and we worship Krsna in the temple,

sri-vigraharadhana-nitya-nanashringara- tan-mandira
(Sri Gurvashtakam)

We go to Jagannath Puri, we go to Vrindavan, we go to Pandharpur. These are abodes of the Lord, they are eternal. But there is so much propagation against the name of Krsna, form of Krsna, abode of Krsna unfortunately. Such propaganda goes on and we are influenced by such propaganda. For many births we were hearing such philosophy or isms or philosophy. As a result we have become faithless. We have little faith in form, little faith in abode then we end up offending the holy dhama. There are 10 offences against the holy dhama. In order to defeat our faithlessness we have to hear.

nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā
bhagavaty uttama-śloke
bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī
[SB 1.2.18]

We have to keep regularly hearing Bhavagatam, Bhagavad Gita, Chaitanya Charitamrita. We should read Srila Prabhupada’s books for proper understanding, proper knowledge. We could get out of this faithlessness. We could increase faith more and more in the holy name, more faith in the form of the Lord, more faith in the abode of the Lord and more faith in devotees. So we have to keep chanting hare Krsna hare Krsna.

And at other times we have to do nityam bhagavata sevaya. It is strongly recommended in Bhagavatam itself and by Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada stressed Harinama and Hari katha go hand in hand.

gita bhagavat karati sravan akhanda chintan vithobache

When Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu arrived first time in Jagannath Puri and he was staying at Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s residence. He was a staunch impersonalist. He was leader of mayavadis. He was rajaguru also. He was strongly recommending Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, “You are young sannyasi, and not learned you should read Vedanta” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “ok but who will teach Me?” Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya said, “I will teach You” and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu agreed. For seven days in Jagannath Puri there was Vedantasutra katha, Vedantasutra saptaha. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very humbly sitting at the feet of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and listening to Vedantasutra katha or interpretations from Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya.

Towards the end of 7 days Sarvabhauma Bhattacaya said, “Are You understanding what I am talking about? You are only listening silently You are not saying anything You are not commenting anything, please comment something after hearing Vedantasutra commentary from myself.” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “When you were reciting Vedantasutra, I was understanding Vedantasutra. There is knowledge and the light of knowledge that we derive from Vedantasutra was brilliant. I was grasping Vedantasutra, I was understanding Vedantasutra in its original form. But when you were making commentary, that was like you were creating illusion. You were blocking the rays of knowledge coming from Vedantasutra. You are covering knowledge in other words you were covering the face of the Lord. You were covering the pastimes of the Lord with false interpretation that you were delivering unto me.

mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva-nasa

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was talking to Sanatana Goswami. He cautioned, don’t listen to these Mayavadis. Everything will be destroyed; your devotion for the Lord will be destroyed. Because they try to destroy the form of Lord, destroyer of the name of the Lord.

mayavadi krsna aparadhi

Mayavadis are Krishna aparadhi. Mayavadis are offenders against Krsna, at the lotus feet of Krsna. So don’t listen to their interpretations.

Srimad Bhagavatam is natural commentary on Vedantasutra. The same author of Vedanta sutra is Srila Vyasa Dev. Vedantasutra means they are codified or very condensed hence they can be difficult to understand. Hence Srila Vyasadev compiler of Vedantasutra, he wrote a commentary, and that commentary is Bhagavatam. That’s we should be hearing, studying, reading to understand Vedantasutra. So mayavadis they are aparadhis. They are against the name and form of Krsna.

Most of the discussion that goes in India is mayavada interpretation of Hinduism like karmakanda and jnanakannd. Karmakanda is rituals and jnanakanda is for impersonalist, they have becomes followers of Shankaracharya. They preach impersonalism and that is what is practiced all over India. These arya samjis they have become against the form of the Lord. So be aware.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya had further dialogue. One should study that dialogue in depth and get convinced how personalism is real and the topmost. We get lots of tips and hints, ideas of how to defeat this impersonalism that is hiding within us to defeat ourselves also. Then once there is personal private victory then we could become victorious by presenting the same personalist philosophy. And establish Krsna consciousness, establish name of the Lord, pastimes of Krsna, to establish dharma.

From Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya lila the beginning chapter- Liberation of Bhattacarya. This is the first task or lila of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as He arrived Jagannath Puri, He defeated Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. Defeated impersonalism and Bhattacarya became topmost personalist to such an extent that there is slok in Bhagavatam in 10th canto 14th chapter Stuti of Brahma, say mukti pade. But Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya had become such a great personalist that he said, no it should be bhakti pade and not mukti pade. He was proving now he had become staunch follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and a staunch personalist.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had dialogues with Sanatan Goswami, there also He was giving tips, how to defeat Mayavadi. Specailly when He was talking to Sanatana Goswami in Varanasi , Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said Lord Krsna’s form is Nara-vapu. He has a form and that form is like a Nara. He is not Nirakar but he Narakar. That is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was talking to Sanatana Goswami.

Keep reading, studying Bhagawad Gita, Bhagavamt and Chaitanya Charitamrita, Srila Prabhupada books and chant Hare Krsna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself regularly heard and discussed Bhagavatam with Svarupa Damodar whole night long. Also commentary on Sikshastakam or Jaidev Goswami’s Govind Bhasya and Krsna Karnamrita of Bilvamangal Thakur like that other scriptures, glorified pastimes, form, abode of the Lord and same time He was well known for sankirtana, chanting, dancing, propagating holy name and relishing the holy name also. Hari Katha and Hari Nama go hand in hand. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is siksastakam, He appeared to set example for all of us. So Lord’s own example is for all of us to practice.

Hare Krsna

29th June 2019

Ekadasi is review day for devotees

More than 1000 devotees form different places are chanting. We have people chanting from Canada, Australia, Russia etc. Seems like whole world is chanting with us, which is very inspirational. We can say confidently that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction has come true, the holy name has reached so many towns and villages, all over the world.

As I said today is a very special day, today is Yogini ekadasi.

Every ekadasi has a name and there is a pastime related to it. So today is Yogini ekadasi, last one was Nirjala ekadasi and next one would be Sayani Ekadasi like that very ekadasi has its own mahatmya and significance.

Bhakti janani, this ekadasi is described as mother of devotion or the giver of the devotion. Also called

madhava-tithi, bhakti-janani, prema-latikara mula

Bhakti Vinoda Thakur has sung the glories of ekadasi like this. Ekadasi is mother of devotion and gives a bhakti lata or mula, source the seed of bhakti. So vaisnavas celebrate this ekadasi always and everywhere. Especially here in Pandharpur, ekadasi is celebrated. So, like that every ekadasi is a festival or utsava. It is a special occasion. It is not only for devotees of Vithhal, Panduranga, but for everyone. Not only devotees fast on ekadasi but they do a lot of chanting and hearing all day and all night.

I remember when I was just young boy, we use to have bhajan kirtana all night long, every ekadasi and till this date this goes on. Lot of singing chanting, reading, recitation of scriptures is done on this day, satsanga etc goes on this special day.

Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu also encouraged His mother to follow the ekadasi fasting and celebrations. I forgot every saturday we have devotees from Australia chant with us, at Prabhupada Quarters in Melbourne Australia. We also have been reminding you about what Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur has recommended on what to do on ekadasi. That is to review the performance of your sadhana bhakti, review from past two weeks, how did I perform? How was my chanting? How was my reading? How, were my other devotional services? So, this is time to review and make resolutions, in this area I am going to improve, this area I am going to do better. So ekadasi is that day and Bhakti Vinod Thakur wanted us to review our performance.

Avalokan and Simhavalokan, Simha means lion, the way lion reviews his performance, lion the king of the forest is going somewhere, he has some target some vision, he stops from time to time and looks around and see how far I have come and where I am right now and where I have to go. So Simha, the lion king of the forest is known for that whereas monkeys and jackals and other creatures don’t do such a thing, they go round and round up and down and here and there, they just keep wandering and jumping but the king of the forest the lion is known for his sinhavalokan. He reviews his performance so likewise we should also be following in the footsteps of the king of the forest.

So, I had been receiving communication and I know some of you are doing some sort of sinhavalokan and making decisions to improve your chanting and devotional service, which I appreciate very much. One chanter said or wrote to me, while chanting in past he use to have his mobile phone next to him and phone rang he rushed quickly to attend to that calls but now he has made up his mind not to do so anymore, not to answer the phone or may be lock it away somewhere during chanting and just concentrate on calling Krishna, this chanting of Hare Krishna is also calling Krishna, and not to interrupt this call by receiving some other calls on your mobile. So, this kind of review and decision is much appreciated.

I was in Vrindavan and I know some of you have joined Bhakti Sastri course with VIHE in Vrindavan, you should study sastra and you are taking this study of Srila Prabhupada’s books seriously. You have to improve your study of sastra, so this is also a very welcoming step. Of course, everyone may not be able to go to Vrindavan or Mayapur and do Bhakti Sastri but you could always study wherever you are, hearing and chanting has to be increased.

Two weeks from today, we will begin the Caturmasya so you can take some resolution or sankalpa to do some extra study of sastra during Caturmasya. One devotee mataji Lalita Madhava form Mayapur, she wrote to me that during chanting she use to mix her chanting with sleeping but now that is not happening more as she has taken a resolution of not sleeping while chanting. Or be attentive while chanting, so many of you or some of you can take some resolution if that applies to you, if you are too sleepy during your japa time.

Yet another devotee, Keshav prabhu’s son. He has sometime in the morning for spiritual sadhana, so he was utilising that time for deity worship or puja in his shop or his home but he has no time for chanting and he was chanting at night after closing his shop. So 9 pm he was beginning his chanting, we advised him and he has taken resolution to chant in the morning. We also told him that you don’t have to spend so much time in deity worship, this is not Dvapara yuga this is Kali yuga. In Dvapara yuga was the time for worshiping,

kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt

In Kali yuga you have to chant Hare Krishna. So, we asked him to minimise or cut worshipping deity worship time into half and chant for the rest of the half time in the morning itself and not leave all the chanting to be done in the evening. So, some improvements like that or settling the priorities.

So, like that I am just sharing some examples of reviews and improvement that devotees are undertaking to improve their sadhana, their services and chanting. So, each one of you on the day like this ekadasi review or have istagosthi with family and devotees at temple can have istagosthi and look over your activities in past few weeks. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and make changes accordingly for betterment of your Krishna consciousness.

So, review the past and improve in the future as it is already mentioned two weeks from today it will be Sayani ekadasi and Lord Vitthal gave me birth on this day or Ekadasi so there is a festival celebration planned at Pandharpur and I am looking forward to see many of you there. Those who have not made up their mind can consider and see if they can manage to join us of Sayani ekadasi festival and also inauguration of Srila Prabhupada ghat.

Ok so see you there. We will stop here and hopefully see you all soon in person.

Gaura Premanande hari haribol.

Lord is waiting in Pandharpur, the special feature the mood of Lord of Pandharpur Lord Panduranga Vitthal is He is waiting there to see the devotees, this is meeting with His devotees, that is all of us He is eagerly waiting for us with hands on His hips.

“kara kata vari theuniya”

He is eagerly awaiting arrival of His devotees. I just wanted to let you know that Pandharpur is such a place where Lord is waiting to take darsana of His devotees. So, we are inviting you to such a place, don’t keep the Lord waiting and let us full fill His wish to see His devotees.

See you there

Hare Krishna!

27th June 2019

Avoid ten offenses against the holy name

Radha Kunjabihari ki jai!
smartavyah satatam visnur vismartavyo na jatucit
sarve vidhi-nisedhah syur etayor eva kinkarah
[Bhakti Rasamrit Sindhu 1.2.8]

This statement, which is about gopis, gopis always remember Krishna, they never ever forget Krishna. There are two things. One is to always remember Sri Krishna, that is one item and another is never forget Krishna, vidhi and nishedha.

vidhi nisedhah syur etayor eva kinkarah

Vidhi and nisedhah are servants of the siddhanta- ‘martavyah satatam visnur vismartavyo na jatucit’- always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna.

As we chant,

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

That is sravanam and kirtanam, we also say Hare Krishna. We say so that we could hear or we say so that others could also hear. During chanting japa and during kirtan, during dindi we do kirtan, so as we chant, then we also hear and then we remember the Lord. We chant, so that we could remember the Lord or as we chant and we remember the Lord.

So, in case of chanting there is vidhi and nishedha. There are do’s and dont’s. The process and prohibition. So,what is that process and what is that prohibition? What is do and what is don’t? What is vidhi and what is nishedha?

Vidhi is chant,

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

This is the process, vidhi. Harer namaiva kevalam, there is no other way no other way, this is the only process. Then what is nishedha? In case of chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra what is nishedha? What is prohibition? And there are ten offenses against the holy name of the Lord. You are not supposed to do. Do chanting, but don’t do these other things. So chanting lot of people do. We have to understand vidhi and nishedha both. In case of chanting, chant Hare Krishna, that is vidhi and then avoid 10 offenses against the holy names, this is nishedha, this is prohibition.

That is why in Hare Krishna temple only, in the whole world, there is reminder of ten offenses of the holy name. These ten offenses are mentioned in Padma purana. These are eternal principles. So, from the beginning of creation they have existed and learned chanter, they have always taken note of these prohibitions, ten offenses and then had also tried to avoid these ten offenses.

They chant Hare Krishna and they try to avoid ten offenses. This is the specialty of Hare Krishna movement or this is the specialty of Gaudiya Vaisnavism that we follow the process completely. We pay attention to the process, we pay attention to the prohibitions also.

So, like that we are trained by the founder Acarya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

Chanting lot of people do, but they do not pay attention to this other part. This is very important.

Today is the beginning of our dindi procession. From Pune it has already started.

So those ten offenses, I am reminding to those who are going on the dindi today. Many of you are doing this. So, we should be practicing, make sure that you are avoiding these ten offenses and you could kindly remind others also.

yare dekho tare kaho Krishna upadesha
(CC Madhya-lila 07.128)

We are on the preaching mission also, different kinds of pilgrims. We are on preaching mission, so you should remind these ten offenses and encourage everyone to avoid these offenses. Follow chanting and avoid offenses. To all those you ask to chant Hare Krishna, you could also tell them to avoid ten offenses. The ten offenses, we could see how we could apply, preach, remind these prohibitions, ten offenses. Then only you can derive full benefit of chanting.

So, the first offense is to avoid committing offense at the feet of the vaisnavas. They also had dedicated their lives in the propagation of the holy name of the Lord. Each one of us, may be some are dedicating their lives, some dedicating part of their lives. Some are fully and some are partially, but everyone is dedicating. So do not offend vaisnavas, sadhus, do not offend anybody in fact; that we have learned from the Mrigari the hunter. He did not want to hurt even an ant. So that’s the standard, not that I will not offend vaisnavas but I will offend others. That’s also not fair.

name ruchi, jiver daya, vaisnava sevan

Serve vaishnavas, that is positive here, do not offend vaisnavas, we even don’t have to say this, we could only serve vaisnavas, then not offending is taken care of.

Second offense is to consider the names of God, so many of them are there 33 crore to be equal to or independent to the name of the Lord Krishna, Rama, Vitthal. To explain this to those who are in America, Europe, in western countries is not difficult. This offense, they even don’t know the demigods and how many they are and how to offend, but here in India this is difficult. While trying to avoid this offense, we may end up doing offense at the feet of demigods also. So, we have to be very careful, while trying to avoid second offense we may end up committing offenses.

Third offense is gurur avagya, disobeying spiritual master. The offenders at the feet of spiritual master, so many ways that one could offend spiritual master. One may think that, ‘I better not accept anyone as my spiritual master, it is better than accepting spiritual master and disobeying. I don’t want to disobey. My policy is not to accept spiritual master.’ Is that right thing to do? Sastras say tasmat gurum prapadyeta, you must accept the spiritual master. If you become guru sevi then everything else is taken care of, otherwise some practitioners, some followers may be, they are guru bhogi, guru tyagi, guru drohi. And the best thing only or only thing is become guru sevi. This is not time to elaborate or comment on this point. There is way out, you will not listen, you will sleep and snore during the time spiritual master is giving instructions, you could fall asleep. Then you can say I have not heard instructions so I am not disobeying.

The 4th offenses is , blaspheming the vedic literatures. So best thing is to read Srila Prabhupada’s books and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. Sruti sasra nindanam, then there will not be blaspheming. To give interpretation is mayavad bhasya.

The 5th one, harinam vikalpanam. To consider glories of the holy name exaggeration. Just like nama abhasa kind of chanting, you could attain moksa. Gopal Chakravarti in Satyagram, Bengal, ‘no, I don’t accept this.’ And by not accepting, he offended Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur and he also committed fifth offense. As a result, he got into big trouble. He had leprosy and his nose melted. He lost his nose. In comparison with getting bhakti, getting devotional service unto the Lord and to become competent, eligible to go back to Krishnaloka, Goloka, this attaining moksa is nothing.

Next one misinterpretation of the holy name. There are so many ways people do interpretation to the Holy name. Someone was chanting Coca Cola and someone soham soham hare hare. I was in Vrindavan few days ago and they were chanting Hare soham hare soham soham soham hare hare. So mayavadis also chant. They also chant, but what are they chanting, Hare is Radha and at place of Krishna, sah aham, sah, that one, that Krishna is myself. That is me. Or aham brahmasmi, same thing. So Hare and myself, Hare myself, myself myself Hare Hare. Anyways, this is mayavada. So mayavadis also, everyone has their interpretation of chanting of the Holy name, which is misleading. So, there are so many ways to misinterpret, to mislead and this is offense. Gaudiya Vaishnavas have also given interpretation; Jiva Gosvami has given interpretation on the holy name of the Lord.

Gopal guru Gosvami and other acaryas 500 years ago also have given their interpretations. That is right, correct interpretation. So we should be studying there interpretations. So interpretation is okay, but wrong interpretation is misleading interpretation.

7th is on the strength of holy name of the Lord one commit sins. Whole world is taking advantage of power of holy name, strength of the holy name. I am going now on dindi and finally on Dashami, day before Ekadashi, I am going to take bath in Chandrabhaga. Chandrabhaga maiya ki Jai!

I will become free from all the sins. I can commit some sins. This is all arranged, all part of the strategy. When I will reach Pandharpur, I am going to take holy deep, and then I am free, free from all the sins committed on the way during dindi. So that is okay, either river is powerful or holy name is powerful. So, take advantage of the power of the Holy name, power of the river Chandrabhaga, Ganges or power of what, power of association, power of sadhusang; we also understand that way, not just Holy name. This will not work, trying to be smart, trying to take advantage of the power of this process of Krishna consciousness which is of course,

Krishna sakti bina nahi tara pravartana

8th offense is to consider karma kanda section and those activities to be equal to as a process of chanting or devotional service. This is one and same thing. This is again interpretation or misunderstanding. So, this is also not right. So punya karma is punya karma and bhakti karma is bhakti karma. Going to heaven is not the goal. Going to God, Krishna, why should we go to heaven, because we can’t meet Krishna or Rama or Pandurang is not there. Why should I go anywhere any place if I am not going to find or meet the Lord of my heart? I am going to Pandharpur because I am going to meet my Lord there. So I will not go to Ahamadnagar. I will go to Pandharpur.

yato yato yami tato narasimho, yato yato yami tato

wherever I go I want to meet my Lord Narasimha, my Sri Krishna, Panduranga, Panduranga, Panduranga!

So, we don’t perform this karmakanda business section or the vidhi vidhan and they will not give the same result as performance of sankirtan, chanting of Hare Krishna gives, which is attainment of Vaikuntha, Goloka.

You are all right, I am all right. Prabhupada said, no, you are wrong. I am all right. You are representing Maya, letting Maya to speak, then how that could be right? I am letting Krishna to speak to me. So I am right.

So, the 9th offense is to preach the faithless. There is like sowing the seed in the field that has not been cultivated by the farmer and it has also not rained. So, that land is not ready, is not favorable if you sow some seeds, they will not grow, could turn into popcorn.

And 10th offense is not to have faith in chanting the Holy name of the Lord and maintaining attachment after hearing so many instructions on this subject matter. So not to have faith in chanting, you will not derive benefit from chanting if you have no faith in chanting. So we have to hear the glories of the Holy name more and more and more. We should read and study the Ajamila episode of Bhagavatam to increase our faith in the Holy name of the Lord. Do something. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has done so many many things, so that people’s faith will increase.

So avoid all these offenses against the Holy name of the Lord.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare!

vancha kalpa tarubhyasccha kripasindhubhya evacha
patitanam pavanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namah!

Hare Krsna

26th June 2019

ADDICTED TO THE HOLY NAME

Hare Krishna!

Some of you are unstoppable you don’t want to stop chanting, you are going on and on. Sorry for the interruption! Hari Hari! We wish you become addicted to the chanting and that you would not like to stop chanting. Like drug addicts or the drunkard, they cannot stop. Some devotee said ‘My mother she has given up lot of things but she is unable to give up tea.’ So when we have developed similar kind of attraction, addiction, affection, attachment, sambandha, relationship with the holy name we would not like to stop it or interrupt it.

One time someone asked Srila Prabhupada how to become addicted to the holy names of the Lord. They were talking of the addiction, so how to become addicted?

Pratiksana svadhana lolupasya!

Have to become lolupasya or addicted to chanting the holy name. So Srila Prabhupada asked a kind of counter question, how does one become addicted? He doesn’t become addicted or develop addiction overnight! He drinks a little bit sometime in the beginning, then he drinks it again and then he likes it and he drink more and he drinks more often, and he drinks more frequently and he also drinks in the company of others or he gets in touch with those who are drunkards and as soon as he joins them the drinking begins.

So, in this way one becomes a drunkard or whether that’s tea or wine or whatever kind of addiction or smoking, so many bad habits or addictions. So Srila Prabhupada was making this point by drinking and drinking from time to time more often. By smoking and smoking one eventually becomes addicted so similarly by chanting and chanting and chanting and chanting everyday day after day, day after day, you are expected to become addicted to chanting the holy names of the Lord. How to become addicted to chanting is to keep chanting everyday, whenever or everywhere.

Same rule, same law the way you become addicted, well not you! others, those who have become addicted to drinking, or smoking or whatever. So in the same way, one can become addicted to the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, doing more frequently then you’ll become addicted.

We just opened a museum in Noida and one of the scenes or diorama is Hanuman opening his chest and when you look inside, you see Sita Ram inside the heart of Hanuman. So what happened? Why did he break open his chest and show someone Sita Ram in his heart is an interesting episode?

One time there was one jeweller, like we have Keshav Prabhu who is a jeweller who deals with not only gold and some silver but diamonds also. One beautiful diamond pearl necklace which was offered to Sri Ram by the jeweller which was offered to Hanuman by Sri Ram. When Hanuman had this necklace, he did not get ready for selfie photograph but what he started doing was biting each diamond pearl on the necklace and he was kind of chew one and the next one spoiling that beautiful necklace. So, the jeweller who had donated this was not very happy. He asked why did I give this necklace? I made a mistake by giving this necklace.

He started asking hanuman the question, why are you doing this? Spoiling, breaking this pearl necklace? I am making sure whether Sri Ram is in these pearls, in this necklace. If He is there then I have interest in these pearls otherwise I don’t care for the pearls so I am just testing these diamonds or pearls.

So the jeweller he asked, “Hanuman now you are trying to check each pearl each diamond whether Sri Ram is there then only you will wear this otherwise you will reject this or throw it away or crush this into pieces? If this is your philosophy you have this giant size body, Is Ram in your body, inside your body? Prove it?”

So when Hanuman was challenged like that of course by this time he had thrown away and rejected this pearl garland and then he opened his chest. When the jeweller looked inside, Hey! Sita Ram Laxman ki jai! When the jeweller, looked inside he began offering obeisances to Sita Ram and Laxman in the heart of Hanuman. He was convinced and realized yes! yes! there is Lord in the heart of Hanuman.

Hanuman realised the Lord is with me, within my heart and that he is in the heart of Lord Ram. The Lord is in everybody’s heart but we hear that is jnana, knowledge part. But everyone does not have the realisation that the Lord is in our heart. That is the speciality of Hanuman. He realised that Ram was with him and that he was with Ram.

Hari Hari!

So, I was thinking that we are also given the garland of tulsi beads. But don’t call it garland call it mala, japa mala, mala for, garland for chanting and you should also be checking out extra chanting that we are doing.

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

It’s Krishna in here, the mantra that I was chanting is Krishna Radha. Lots of things also, other things also. In this name that I’m chanting is a form of Krishna included. His form, His qualities of the Lord in this holy name and the pastimes. My chanting leading me to the pastimes of the Lord and I’m also going to see and realise the greatness of the devotees of the Lord and this chanting, within this maha mantra is the abode of the Lord or will this name bring me to the Lord from Nama se Dhama -from the name to the abode of the Lord. So, while chanting, like Hanuman, you’re checking out whether my Ram is here. Is my Sita Ram inside this? So likewise, we should be, while chanting Hare Krishna we should be steady trying to understand and realise is my Krishna here? Is my Radha Krishna here?

So that pearls, diamonds, Ram wasn’t in there. Mundane object made up of matter. Hanuman was not finding Ram in that pearl necklace but certainly the necklace we’re given, the mala we’re given at the time of initiation, we’re given mala for chanting and we’re chanting on each bead. We should be taking out and for sure this name,

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

Not that Krishna is inside this mantra but, this mantra is Krishna. The mantra is the form, the mantra is the pastime, the mantra is the qualities, the mantra is equal to the abode of Krishna. This is Svarup of the Lord.

We’ve to realise this.

“nama cintamani krsna caitanya rasa vigraha purna shudo nityamukta abhindnata naamina”( Padmapurana)

So that’s the glories of the holy name. That is the identity of the holy name. That is- nama cintamani. Cintamani, it’s not ordinary. This is nama cintamani caitanya, this is full of caitanya. The pearls were mundane, the garland hanuman had was mundane but the holy name is full of juice, full of nectar. It is purna. It is complete, it is nitya, it is eternal, it is shudda- meaning it is pure and mukta is all liberated. The holy name is like that. The holy name is purna, nitya, shudda and mukta. The final part of the statement is abhindanat namino. Nama and nami, name and Krishna, person and abinha is not different. The nama is Nami, Nami is Nam! The Hare Krishna nama is Krishna. So we’ve to accept the Lord and Lord’s name by rejecting whatever is jada or mundane we reject as Hanuman was rejecting and we accept what is Chetana, full of chetana full of consciousness that we accept.

Jada we reject, chetana we accept.

In other words, maya we reject and Krishna we embrace. That is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said.

na dhanam na janam sundarim kavitam va jagad isa kamaye mama janmani janmanisvre bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi (siksastakam sholka 4)

He is rejecting mundane wealth or wealth for My own sense gratification. I will not earn the wealth which will be used for gratification that My mind, or the senses of My body. This kind of dhanam I do not want. Na janam, the followers, associates, colleagues, na dhanam na janam na sundarim or the beautiful women! I’m not interested to enjoy or exploit women and kavitam, name, fame and glory same old story!

So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says I’m not interested in all of these things. I reject this. This way one develops vairagya detachment from worldly things.

mama janmani janmani isvare,
name fame glory same old story

O I’m not interested in mukti that is what Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is talking about this in this Siksastakam. na dhanam na janam na sundarim, this is mukti mundane gratification and neither am I interested in mukti-; mama janmani janmani. I do not mind taking birth after birth You don’t have to give me liberation either, what I’m interested in is bhaktir ahaituki tvayin

no bhukti no mukti I want bhakti i want devotional service of Your Lotus feet O’ Lord.

So that is what we ask for as we chant the holy name of the Lord, we are begging for bhakti, begging for devotional service. Of course, we are begging for the Lord, we want the Lord! And that Lord is attained by bhakt, the chanter, by chanting. That the bhakti, the devotional service that’s how we attain the Lord Bhagavan.

So, we should have faith in holy name. Not having faith in the holy name of the Lord is one of the offenses. So, we should have faith that by chanting the holy name of the Lord one will attain Krishna. Or in this chanting this is full of Krishna, this name is Krishna mai or Radha Krishna mai is full of Radha and Krishna mai. That faith we must have. With that kind of faith, we should chant the holy name and with attention and a bit of detachment or attention will have potential in the spirit of detachment.

So keep chanting in fact first comes asakti in the holy name and the result of that is the when you have asakti in the Lord’s holy name then you can develop asakti in whatever is worldly it’s not that you become detached first and then you become attached to Krishna, it is the other way around. Only when you’re attached to Krishna or when we’re performing bhakti, I should say vairagya and attachment is developed.

So this is homework for you all. We are getting ready for Dindi festival in Maharashtra which is famous in Pandharpur. 5000 pilgrims will be here and they’ll be leaving for Pandharpur and the Dindi is reaching Pune today and they’ll proceed towards Pandharpur tomorrow morning. We’re doing the inauguration of the Dindi. We’re participating in this big grand harinam procession. This is the biggest grand walk of dancing and chanting in procession. We’re preparing for the inauguration function tomorrow and we’ll be talking about the Dindi padayatra , that Hare Krishna devotees also take part and go to Pandharpur for the big festival. You’re welcome to join the procession.

Hare Krishna!

25th June 2019

Raghunath Das Gosvami & his renunciation

I am here in Pune today. We were talking yesterday about Raghunath Das Gosvami, Namacarya Haridas Thakur and offenses against holy name. So that was topic yesterday and everyday we have a new topic, but today I wish to remember Raghunath Das Gosvami and talk more about Raghunath Das Gosvami. He is our acarya. So, remembering our acaryas like six Gosvamis is very auspicious. So, Raghunath Das Gosvami, he had a darshan of Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Shantipur, when Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu had come there after sanyaas. So that’s another thing. So there, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised Raghunath – he was not Gosvami that time. He was just Raghunath. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said “You go return to family and lead a family life and Krishna will make arrangement for you to relieve and you could be able to break all the bonds and join Me at some stage.”

So by now he was married and his father was trying to bind him to the worldly life or keep him at home. So, he thought the wealth is there, he was trying to bind him with the wealth and then another bond is okay here you go. We will bind you further. He was married to young beautiful girl. So, his father was doing his best to keep Raghunath Das Gosvami at home.

He was attempting to break the bonds, go away from the family, go to join with Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannath Puri. But he was not becoming successful. He thought I don’t have blessings of my guru and that is Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu is the spiritual master of the whole world. So, then he had gone to meet Nityananda Prabhu. That meeting took place at Panihati at the banks of Ganges. I think I am going too slow. I need to go fast to cover kind of entire life of Raghunath Gosvami. I will not contemplate or dwell on each episode but I will just make a mention and proceed.

So here at Panihati,he was blessed by Nityananda Prabhu and then he returned to Saptagrama, his home town and then finally after many many attempts, he succeeded breaking all the bonds and reach Jagannath Puri and be in association of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates. So, while he was in Jagannath Puri, Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked Svarupa Damodar to take care or look after, advice Raghunath Das. So Svarupa Damodar Gosvami became kind of counselor and Raghunath Das was counselee and this was nice team and Raghunath Das became known as ‘Svarupera Raghu’, he was Raghu of Svarupa Damodar.

So then as you know he was in his previous ashram, at home he was a big landlord and all opulences was at his disposal and all the dishes were cooked for him, but now here at Jagannath Puri he started begging alms. He would stand at the entrance of the Simha dvara with the begging bowl and whatever alms would be offered he would just survive with those alms. He also at one point, he was thinking, this is not good that I am begging here and some people offer me something, some alms, something to eat or give paisa and I think ‘oh this is a nice person. Thank you!’ and so many others give me nothing and I think, ‘oh these are not good people. They have not given me some little bit.’ So, he was thinking, ‘I am thinking these are good people, these are bad people and I am doing this kind of discrimination and I am caught in the dvandva, dual nature, dvidha and this is not proper on my part to think of good and bad.
ei bhāla, ei manda,’— ei saba bhrama (CC Antya 4.176)

This is good, this is bad, this is good person, this is bad person. I should give it up. So, he gave up this begging activity.

So, he started to go behind the temple. He used to stand in front, so he decided to go behind the temple. This where they used to throw extra prasad and the leftovers and which was eaten up by dogs or cows or crows. So, Raghunath Das Gosvami was collecting that prasad. Sometimes it’s rotten, it was mixed with mud. He used to take that and wash it, little cleaning and then he used to eat that prasad. He used to enjoy that prasad, relish that prasad.

Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu noticed, ‘Oh! How come he is not begging at the entrance. Where is he? Where does he go and what does he do at the back of the temple?’ So, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu had found out that Raghunath Das Gosvami was collecting some remnants, rotten prasad cleaning and eating. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu one time, He watched Raghunath Das Gosvami and he even went forward, closer to him and He started begging ‘Me too. Me too! Give some of that Prasad to Me. Why are you eating by yourself? Greedy! Share it with Me.’ And then Raghunath Das Gosvami was thinking, ‘no, no! This kind of prasad for you my Lord? No, no! You should not eat this.’ So, Raghunath Das Gosvami got up and he was running away, escape kind. So that Lord does not eat that kind of rotten or old or smelly or mixed with mud kind of food, Prasad. But Raghunath Das Gosvami was not successful. Caitanya Mahaprabhu caught him from behind and took some morsels from ‘Jagannather bhat jagat pasare hat’ and Caitanya Mahaprabhu started enjoying that Jagannath mahaprasad. Of course, this is greatness of, mahatmya of Jagannath prasad also as we hear this pastime.

So, Raghunath Das had an opportunity to associate with Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates for many many years in Jagannath Puri. So, one thing that Raghunath Das Gosvami did and not many did this what Raghunath Das Gosvami did and that was he was keeping a diary. He was writing journal kind of, when he used to be with Caitanya Mahaprabhu or witnessing different pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Raghunath Das Gosvami used to be himself part of those pastimes. So, at the end of the day or middle of the day he used to write it down what he had seen, what he had experienced. So, he was keeping notes, diary of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s different activities, different pastimes, different lilas.

So unfortunately and eventually Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu wind up His pastimes in Jagannath Puri by entering into the vigraha of Tota Gopinath and everyone there was devastated as Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s darshaa was no more available. So, at that point Raghunath Das Gosvami, he left Jagannath Puri. He went to Vrindavan and was planning to give up his life as he thought, ‘what good is this life without Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu?’ So Narottam Das Thakur has also expressed his sentiments, ‘ye anilo prema dhan’, that song. So, like that Narottam Das Thakur was also thinking that ‘how could I survive now in His absence? Look this devotee has left, that devotee has left, that devotee, of course Gauranga eka kale, Caitanya Mahaprabhu also has left. So, I could only break my head against the rock that I don’t have association of this and that and all those vaisnavas who have departed. Or I should enter the fire and finish my existence. Narottam Das Thakur sings that song, has expressed his emotions. So, Raghunath Das Gosvami also was feeling like that, that Narottam Das Thakur’s feelings.

As also we know, Namacarya Sri Haridas Thakur when he found out or realized that Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is preparing to depart, preparing to wind up His pastimes, then he also said, ‘no, no Lord, I want to go first because I will not be able to manage, tolerate my existence that You have gone first and I am behind. I won’t be able to handle those kinds of circumstances that you have departed and I have stayed behind. So please arrange that I go first while You are still with me or in front of my eyes.’ And of course, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu kindly granted that benediction to Namacarya Sri Haridas Thakur and one day Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu came with big number of devotees, performing kirtan at Siddha Bakul. At one-point Namacarya Sri Haridas Thakur, he held the lotus feet of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Namacarya Haridas Thakur’s eyes were drinking the beauty of lotus like face of Gauranga and he uttered ‘Sri Krishna Caitanya!’ and this was last thing he uttered and with that he departed. This way Lord fulfilled the wish, desire of Namacarya Sri Haridas Thakur.

Raghunath Das Gosvami had arrived in Vrindavan and he used to be contemplating on giving up his, ending up his life and he was thinking, ‘how and where I could give up my life. He was thinking I should climb up Govardhan hill and from top of the hill I will jump in the valley. And this is how I will end up my life.’ Rupa, Raghunath, other Gosvamis, other devotees of Gauranga those who were residing in Vrindavan- there was one team in Jagannath Puri, but there was another team in Vrindavan. So, some of them found out, Rupa Gosvami we could say found out what Raghunath Das Gosvami was contemplating on. So, they sat with him and told him, ‘no, no you can’t do this. This is not your body. This body is property of Mahaprabhu. And you should continue to live in this body and use this body in service of Gauranga.’ So, they were talking to him and dispreading him and they finally succeeded and Raghunath Das Gosvami- now he has become Raghunath Das Gosvami here- he stayed on here in Vrindavan for another 40 years or so.

So, residents of Vrindavan, especially residents of Radhakunda or the senior associates, followers of Gauranga Mahaprabhu were greatly benefited by association of Raghunath Das Gosvami, because Raghunath Das Gosvami had witnessed all the pastimes of Gauranga in Jagannath Puri and he also had taken the notes. So now regularly on the banks of Radhakunda, Shyamakunda, Raghunath Das Gosvami was sharing all the pastimes of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannath Puri with residents of Vrindavan and Radhakunda residents who were deprived of all those pastimes. They had no idea what different pastimes Lord had performed. Now Raghunath Das Gosvami was sharing all those pastimes day after day after day.

Amongst the listeners in the audience there was one very special person, so many were very special, but one was very very special and that was Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami Maharaj. Krishnadas Kaviraj in fact he became a neighbor, staying next door to Raghunath Das Gosvami and he was listening and he was the one, Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami, he compiled Caitanya Caritamrita. He had never ever met or seen Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but vaisnavas had asked him, Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami, to compile Caitanya Caritamrita. So, he was able to do so with the help of Raghunath Das Gosvami as he was listening to the pastimes of Gauranga Mahaprabhu in Jagannath Puri and Raghunath Das Gosvami was also sharing his notes, his diary with Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami. With the help of these talks of Raghunath Das Gosvami and his Caitanya diary, Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami was able to compile, especially the antya lila part of Caitanya Caritamrita.

So, Raghunath Das Gosvami amongst the other Gosvamis, he was known for his renunciation, his vairagya. So now here in Vrindavan at the banks of Radhakunda where he was residing, he hardly ate anything. He used to just take one cupful of buttermilk. That is what all that he was eating and of course hardly he was sleeping, one two hours and hardly eating. So, all the Gosvamis especially Raghunath Das Gosvami is known for his renunciation, vairagya vidya nija bhakti yoga.

Time is up. Then Raghunath Das Gosvami attained Samadhi in Vrindavan at the banks of the Radhakunda. Right at the banks of Radhakunda in fact there is Samadhi of Raghunath Das Gosvami. We could also think that way that acharyas are also accessible, they reside in there samadhis, so whenever next time you go to Radhakunda, don’t miss the Samadhi mandir darsana and offer your prayers to Raghunath Das Gosvami on the banks of Radhakunda.

May Raghunath Das Gosvami bless you, but blessing is ‘Krishner mati astu’. Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to bless like that. All the acaryas used to bless like that. I am also blessing like that. That’s nice blessing. ‘Krishner mati astu’, let your mati reside in Sri Krishna and may you all become fully Krishna conscious. Gauranga! Raghunath Das Gosvami ki jai!

Hare Krsna!