Lord treated equally the poorest Kolavecha Sridhara and the richest King Prataprudra

04 04 2020 [1:02:09]

Katha Day 4

Venue: Theur, Pune

Hare Krishna!

We could sing that prayer again. Every time we recite Gauranga, Gauranga’s pastimes or karuna avatar, Gaura Bhagavan’s pastimes, or whatever qualities pastimes in the beginning we do sing this prayer. You could sing with me or after me.

jaya jaya sri caitanya jay nityananda 
jay advaita-candra jaya gaura bhakta vrnda

“All glories to Sri Caitanya, Nityananda, Advaita as well as the Gaura bhaktas, devotees of Gauranga!”

So, I think this is our fourth talk in this series. Gauranga is kind, karuna avatar and He’s equally kind to all His devotees. Maybe He’s more kinder towards His devotees than the non-devotees, special mercy towards the devotees. But, even amongst the devotees, some devotees are poor; some devotees are rich in worldly sense. In fact, poor devotees or rich devotee, they’re equally enriched with love of Godhead.

I thought I would talk to you about one devotee, Kolavecha Sridhara and then King Prataparudra. One is from Navadvipa Mayapur – Kolavecha Sridhara and King Prataprudra is a king of Orissa, king of  Puri. Of course, we’re talking about both of these devotees 500 years ago, at the time of Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or they were devotees of Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, Lord was equally kind, magnanimous, merciful towards both of these devotees.

samo ‘ham sarva-bhutesu
na me dvesyo ‘sti na priyah  [BG 9.29]

Translation: I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all.

Lord has declared in Bhagavad Gita, samo aham, “I am equal to all.” So, that is exhibited here  by the Lord in this case of these two prabhus, two devotees,  Kolavecha Sridhara and King Prataprudra.

Kolavecha Sridhara. “Kola” is banana. The inside, inner stuff of the trunk of the banana tree. “vecha” means one who sells kola. Of course, he was also specialist in selling banana products. Also bananas or banana flowers, banana leaves, banana cups. He was making some money and maintaining his household affairs with that income but he was a great devotee of Gauranga.

He always chanted, “Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!” Or, he chanted day and night,

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna krsna Krsna Hare Hare

 Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Even all night long he would chant out loud. Neighbors would feel troubled and would complained and they would say, “Look at this poor Kolavecha! He must be hungry that’s why he’s crying.” His chanting, singing was like crying. He was crying for the Lord. So, they considered that was a crying and they thought that the crying was because he’s hungry. They were angry because of his singing in the middle of the night also.

Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to visit Kolavecha Sridhara. There’s a sridhara angan for those of you who wish to know the whereabouts of Kolavecha Sridhara. In Mayapur, there’s Rajapur, where ISKCON has Jagannatha mandir. Not far from ISKCON Jagannatha mandir, there is Sridhara angan. He had a little farm and he stayed there. That’s where he came from.

Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, without fail every day, He visited the shop of Kolavecha Sridhara. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had a very special relationship with him. The humorous dealings of Gauranga or even teasing Kolavecha Sridhara are very famous or very palatable to hear. Sri Krsna Chaitanya, Gauranga, Nimai, Vishvambhar, so many names, He would go there to do shopping and He would ask,”What is the cost of this banana? What is the cost of this kola? What is the cost of this banana flowers?” And Sridhara would quote a price and Gaura, “No, no, no, you said this is 80 paisa. I will give you 40 paisa!”

Sridhar was very honest. A small businessman, shopkeeper, but very honest. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would just argue with him and try to get a discount, as bigger discount as possible and Gauranga would say, “I’ll just give you this much, take this!” He would take the products He had selected and try to leave and Kolavecha Sridhara would try to catch up with Him and take that products back. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would say, “You must be making a lot of money! You have been selling these  banana products for a very long time. You must have a lot of wealth. Why don’t you give a little discount?” And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also would say, “You worship Ganga with 50% of your income.” Yes, Sridhara was also known for spending 50% of his income for Krsna consciousness, for God consciousness, worshipping Ganga, Har Har Gange! “You are spending 50% of your income for worshipping Ganga. I am the father of Ganga!” And hearing this, Kolavecha Sridhara would be like, “What? Vishnu! Vishnu! How could you make such a claim, that you are the father of Ganga?” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would say, “Please, give Me this product charge with less money.” Sridhar would say, “You could check the next door, shop if it’s cheaper there, please purchase from there. Why are you insisting getting products from me if you think they’re costlier?”

Like this, Mahaprabhu and Kolavecha Sridhara, would be arguing and go on for hours, striking the deal. Finally, Sridhar would let Mahaprabhu take anything and everything from his shop for whatever price that He would want to pay. So, this is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His loving dealings with Kolavecha Sridhara, who was kind of poorest of the poor. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very kind, very affectionate towards Kolavecha Sridhara and He was so much pleased with Kolavecha Sridhara .

Hari Hari! I was just thinking that it is not that how much wealth you have, what quantity of whatever, the goods or what big offerings you are making to the Lord or big funds you are giving. That is not what really counts, the quantity doesn’t count. What counts is love, devotion, dedication, surrender, whole hearted surrender unto the Lord. The Lord is pleased.

I was just thinking, in pastimes of Lord Sri Rama, when that bridge was being built from Rameshwar to Sri Lanka and Hanuman and company, construction  company, were building, some monkeys were building, some bears also, they were throwing big big boulders and trees and hills and what not. So, while Hanuman and his company’s associates were doing a big job of throwing big, big objects, rocks into the ocean, there was a squirrel, gilahari, she was also doing her part. What was she doing? She would go to the beach, roll in the sand, pick up some sand in her hairy body, and gently walk onto those rocks and then she would shake her body and all the sand particles would get downloaded or dropped in between the rocks. The sand was working like a  cement so that the bridge would be strong.

So, Hanuman was watching the act of squirrel. He said, “Come on! What good is your few grams of sand? Get out! You may get crushed under the feet of my associates. Big, big monkeys here are doing big, big jobs. You are just little and these few grains of sand. Please, go, save yourself.” Rama was overhearing this. That wasn’t so much of a conversation. It was a  one way traffic only. Hanuman was talking or threatening or warning that squirrel, “Go away!” And Rama noticed that. He called Hanuman over, “Come here! I say, Come Here!”  And as Hanuman was close to Rama, He rebuked Hanuman saying, who do you think you are? Whatever the strength I have invested in you, you are offering all of that in My service. Whatever energy or strength I have invested in the body of the squirrel, the squirrel is giving 100% back to Me in my service!”

She was building the bridges in service of Sri Rama. So, like this Sri Rama pointed out the faulty thought and his pride was crushed. So, the point is atmanivedanam.

manasa deha geha jo kichu mora arpilu tuwa pade,nanda kisor

Whatever we have, offer that manasa, your mind. Better offer your mind. Deha-your body. Geha- your home, and jo kichu, whatever you have, dedicate that in service of the Lord, is advice of the sages and the sastras, scriptures. Although we described Kolavecha Sridhara as a pauper or the poorest of the poor, no, he was the richest. He had all the wealth. he was the wealthiest person around. What was the wealth? Well, he was satisfied, he had peace of mind. He wasn’t greedy trying to grab more and more. He never thought, “I lack something, there’s some shortage in my life and I must run around and make more and more money and buy this and shop that.” He was self satisfied. This self satisfaction, satisfaction of the self and that meant satisfaction of the soul. That is the goal, to satisfy the soul. Not just to satisfy the senses or to gratify the senses, to satisfy them or to try to satisfy the mind by entertainment and satisfy the body. No, go deeper. Within the body is our real self seated in the heart, along with self is super soul. So satisfying the soul is the goal.

So, this Kolavecha Sridhara was fully satisfied.  He was atmarama. So, he was happy, more than happy. Lord Gauranga was making him happy. Giving him all the ananda, all the joy and he was enjoying his life. And of course, he was chanting the holy names of the Lord and that was satisfying the soul. This is the gift of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, that karuna avatar. We are talking about karuna avatar, Gauranga. So, kindly, He has given the holy name to Sridhara. Kolavecha Sridhara had that wealth, wealth of the holy name.

golokera premadhana harinama sankirtana

This harinama sankirtana is the wealth. So, Sridhara was wealthy. Hence, he was happy. In order to be happy, he had to be wealthy. But the trouble is we do not understand what’s the real wealth and who do we have to really make happy. Not the senses, not the mind, not the body. We have to try to make ourselves, real self happy. Those who have received this gift of the holy name, as Gauranga Mahaprabhu is handing out this gift, then their souls are satisfied.

So, we could also be happy like Kolavecha Sridhara was happy. Okay, he was poor but he was happy and so was king Prataprudra. He was a king and he was also happy. Not because of all the luxuries he had at his disposal. Or, the palace or the chariot or whatever the costly clothes or the big position post. That was not the cause of his happiness. Whatever was the cause of happiness of Kolavecha Sridhara,  same thing. Why I say same thing? Same  one, Gauranga, Sri Krsna Chaitanya was the cause of happiness of Kolavecha Sridhara and so was Gauranga, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the cause of happiness of king Prataprudra. Lord is sarva karana karanama, He is the cause of all causes. Especially, cause of happiness, joy. Lord is the cause.

King Prataprudra ruled the Kingdom of Orissa. Jagannatha Puri was his capital. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we were talking yesterday, after 24 years in Navadvipa, He took sannyasa and His mother, Sacimata, appealed to her son, “Why don’t You stay in Jagannatha Puri? Mahaprabhu wanted to go to Vrndavana. “Oh, Vrndavana is very far. I will never ever get to see You. Jagannatha Puri is closer from Navadwipa, Bengal. So, please stay in Jagannatha Puri.” “Tathastu mother. So be it!” And then Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, after of course, travelling, there is Madhya Lila, for six years, Mahaprabhu made Jagannatha Puri as His home base and He spent next 18 years in Jagannatha Puri. Every day, He was performing pastimes. Or, His whole life is full of pastimes. Not every act of Mahaprabhu, every minute, all that He does is lilas, His pastimes. Unlimited pastimes He performed.

Amongst those was Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s  participation in Jagannatha ratha yatra festival. Lord was there and He performed His pastimes in Puri for 18 years and, for sure, all those eighteen ratha yatras, one per year, He attended. Not only attended, He was the very center of that festival. Well, Him and Jagannatha were the center. Because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Jagannatha.

sei gaura, sei krsna, sei jagannatha. One who is Gauranga, He is Krsna, He is Jagannatha.

As Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would participate in ratha yatra festival, He would be in front of the chariot. As He would come, although He is Jagannatha himself, He is playing the role of a devotee. He is in the mood of Radharani. As Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come on the site or in front of the chariot of Jagannatha, He would offer His full dandavats, prostrated. Then, He would stand in front of Jagannatha with folded hands in awe and reverence; He would offer prayers unto Jagannatha.

jayati jayati devo devakinandano sau
jayati jayati vrsni vamsa pradipaha
jayati jayati meghashyamala komalango
jayati jayati prithvi bhara nasho mukundah

Like this He would pray. He was saying the prayer with full understanding. What is He saying? jayati jayati devo. “All glories to You, Jagannatha! All glories to You.” Who are You, Jagannatha? Who are You? Devakinandanaso. “You are Devakinandana. Krsna, you are Devakinandana!” Lots of times, when people see the form of Jagannatha, they are kind of bewildered. They do not know what to make out of that darsana. “Who’s this?” They do not know lot of times, that He is Krsna in that form, Jagannatha form, He Krsna Himself.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is praying, devakinandanaso vrsni vamsa pradipa. “You are the lamp, deepak of vrsni vamsha, vrsni dynasty.” jayati jayati meghashyamala komalango. “You are shyamala, bluish-blackish complexion. When I’m looking at You, You are shyamala. If  I was to touch You, then you are komala. Your form is very, very soft. So, shyamala komalango. Your anga, your form is shymala and komala.” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is praying like that.

jayati jayati prithvi bhara nasho mukunda

“You are minimizing the burden of the earth.” By doing what? Vinasaya ca duskrtam By killing, destroying the miscreants, the demons. That is why mother earth is feeling burdened. Anyway that’s another story. Earth had approached the demigods, “Could you please help? There are so many demons around, demoniac nature around and miscreants around. I’m feeling burdened. They are harassing and what not.”

So then, the demigods, by hearing there is a corona virus around. “Please, do something” and then the demigods said, “no, no! This is not our cup of tea. Sorry, we cannot help you.” They said that to mother earth, who had gone there in the form of a cow, shape of a cow. Then the demigods decided to approach the Lord and, on behalf of all the demigods, Brahma did wireless communication with the Lord. Now this was happening in the milk ocean, Kshirsagar. Lord was reported of what is happening on the planet earth. Dharmasya glanira bhavati. There’s so much decline in the religious principle. Abhyutanam adharmasya, irreligious is spreading like a wildfire everywhere. No one is there to check religiosity.

When Brahma communicated, reported what is happening on the earth. Lord said, “OK, I understand. So, if you, demigods, cannot handle them, then I’m the next, I’m the one. So, I will appear. I will make my appearance, sambhavami yuge yuge. Then Lord had appeared as Sri Krsna, this is 5000 years ago. Then He had done what? paritranaya sadhunam, protecting the devotees, vinasaya ca duskritam, annihilation of miscreants, demons, demonic nature and dharma samsthapanarthaya the Lord was establishing dharma.

Here Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, while praying to Jagannatha, He is taking note. Prithvi bhara nasho mukunda. “Oh Mukunda.” He has also addressed Jagannatha as Mukunda. Mukunda means one who gives liberation. Earth was kind of relieved or liberated from this burden. Prithvi – planet bhara – the burden  of the earth. “You relieved earth.”

Hari Hari! So, after the prayer, it was time to begin the ratha yatra procession of pulling the cart. That time, Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed that there was King Prataprudra. Although he had the attire of a King, had a sword there and a crown there, but he was holding a broom and he was sweeping the street in front of Jagannatha’s cart. By seeing this act of humility, Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was impressed, He was pleased. His thought was, there is nothing wrong in meeting this devotee, this King Prataprudra. Anyway this is a long pastime. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was avoiding meeting, having an audience, with King Prataprudra thinking he is a King and Kings are attached to their powers,  attached to their wealth. They have isvara bhava, means controller.

Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu being sannyasi, in the renounced order of life, “I have nothing to do with the King. No, no! I won’t see him.” Devotees were appealing, “Please, meet or give audience to or interview to King Prataprudra.”

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had been avoiding for a long time. Finally, that ratha yatra day, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed King Prataprudra with a broom sweeping, that was it.  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to meet him. Well, that is enough, as soon as He wanted. He wished and His yogamaya, His spiritual potencies and energies, lila shaktis, they make all the arrangements. So, that day, there is going to be a meeting with King Prataprudra.

As the procession, “jai jagannatha! jai jagannatha! jai jagannatha!”, the cart is rolling down on the road to Gundica Temple. During Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s times, He used to divide all the devotees into 7 different kirtana  mandalis, 7 different groups, I think, 4 in the front, 2 on either side, something like that and one behind also.

Then as kirtana started,  chanting and dancing started, it was noticed while those kirtaniyas were performing kirtana all around the chariot that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was dancing, “Oh you know what, chanting with our group only.” They were thinking like this. Each group was thinking. “Look! Look! We must be very special group! Just see, Mahaprabhu is chanting and dancing with our group!” But the mystery that He was chanting with all the 7 groups, simultaneously, was revealed by Gauranga. He was concealing that from all the groups, keeping it hidden, but He was revealing it only unto King Prataprudra. Very special blessing, benediction upon King Prataprudra. King Prataprudra was the only one to take note that Mahaprabhu was dancing with all the 7 groups, simultaneously.

By this act, by this lila, Gauranga Mahaprabhu is also proving, He does not have to really prove, but we understand that He is Krsna Himself.  Sri Krsna Chaitanya is Krsna Himself. Krsna has now become Sri Krsna Chaitanya. Sri Krsna, who is known for His rasa dance and while dancing in the rasa and expanding, becoming as many gopis are there, those many Krsnas.Here, as many groups are chanting, those many Gauranga Mahaprabhus. Krsna there in Vrndavana dancing in rasa dance and here chanting in sankirtana, also by expanding simultaneously with different groups.

So, the chariots rolled down, they are making progress. Half way through, the chariot stops, time for making offering to Jagannatha. Time for His meals. The chariot stopped, offering is being made, offering is being offered. Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu enters into the garden and He is lying down. He had been chanting and chanting and chanting, He is a little fatigued, tired. He is lying down, trying to relax.

So, this is the time, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and some other devotees inspired, encouraged King Prataprudra, “go and massage the lotus feet and full body massage of Gauranga. And he was asked to put on vaisnava clothes instead of his kingly robes or attire. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu is lying down with His eyes closed King Prataprudra approaches Mahaprabhu,  offers his obeisance’s and begins massaging the body, transcendental form of Gauranga He was also told, “While massaging, you should sing gopi geet . This will nourish Mahaprabhu’s emotions. The gopi bhava, Radha bhava.” Mahaprabhu, during ratha yatra, is exhibiting his Radha bhava. He is Radha,  radha krsna nahi anya. “If you recite gopigeet, Mahaprabhu would be relaxed, relieved and very, very happy. So King Prataprudra started reciting gopi geet. While singing he reached that very famous stanza:

tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmasapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grnanti ye bhuri-da-janah

The last, end part attracted Mahaprabhu’s attention. Bhuvi grnanti ye bhuri-da-janah. The meaning of that particular stanza is, those who recite kathamrita, propagate kathamrita or Krsna kathamrita, Gauranga kathamrita, Rama kathamrita, share that with others, broadcast it far and wide, those personalities are bhuri da janah, they are charitable. They’re magnanimous people, bhuri da janah. Of course, gopis have spoken this, this is gopi geet, that those who recite, kathamrita, Krsna kathamrita and share that with others, they are bhuri da, they are magnanimous persons.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as He had heard this word bhuri da janah, Mahaprabhu started calling, “you are that bhuri da! You are that bhuri da.” He did not even know who that person was, who was massaging and who was singing that Gopi geet because, He was lying with His eyes closed.

He said, “You are reciting, you are feeding Me this kathamrita, so, you’re  bhurida. You have done great service to Me. You have given great charity to Me. So, I consider you to be very, very magnanimous. And I am very grateful for this gift , for this kathamrita. You have done so much for Me. I wish to do something in return for you.”

Saying so, Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “What could I give you? I am just a mendicant in renounced order. I do not own anything. Oh, what could I offer you?” Mahaprabhu was saying this and then He was kind of getting up and then saying, “But, could I offer you My embrace?” He said this and then He gave a deep embrace to King Prataprudra. “This is all that I could do!” Well, Lord gave Himself to King Prataprudra . What more, there’s nothing more to give. Nothing remains, He’s purnam. Lord Himself gave to King Prataprudra in exchange of what? This tava kathamritam. King Prataprudra gave kathamrita, he recited kathamrita and that was karnamrita for Gauranga Mahaprabhu. In return, Mahaprabhu gave Himself to King Prataprudra.

So, we see how Lord treated equally the poorest of the poor, Kolavecha Sridhara of Navadvipa and the richest, wealthiest King Prataprudra of Jagannatha Puri, Orissa. This kathamrita is glorified.

I was just thinking, that the founder acarya of International Society of Krsna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada has given so much kathamrita to the whole world. He has given some 70 books packed with kathamrita. He gave Hare Krishna mantra kathamrita, namamrita, to the whole world. He gave so many, so many talks globally as he travelled. He sang himself also, bhajans and Hare Krishna kirtans. He wrote so many letters with nectarian instructions, sikshamrita, and he gave ocean of amrita to the whole world.

So, the Lord was pleased with King Prataprudra as King Prataprudra gave kathamrita to the Lord or he recited kathamrita. And our Srila Prabhupada was confident that Mahaprabhu must be giving His deep embrace to our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada also. So please accept this kathamrita on behalf of Srila Prabhupada that we’re trying to share with all those who are willing to listen and take advantage.

Of course, I am not the only one, there are so many around the world. Especially, these days, trouble times, to give the relief to the suffering humanity. We are sharing this nectar of the holy name, namamrita, sharing the nectar of kathamrita or Bhagvatamrita or Ramayana amrita. There are many forums where this amrita being made available. Just look around, explore, and search, you will find more and more kathamrita by very many devotees, leaders of this Hare Krsna movement.  Okay, we thank all our listeners for joining us. Of course, this stays on, I think, on Facebook, YouTube. Those who could not listen while we were talking, they can listen to this whenever it is convenient for you. Anyway, very thankful for your attention, Hare Krishna!

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gauranger madhurlila jara karne pravesila hrdaynirmal bhelo tara

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

Sadahrdaya-kandaresphura tu vah sacinandanah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He would jump high.

ajanu lambit bhujo kanakavdatau sankirtanai kapitarau kamalayatakso

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bal Krishna gives liberation to Putana

Krishna Lila Vrndavana Part 5

15 07 2007

Venue: Durban, South Africa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas
tad dhama vrndavanam

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

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

uthishtothishta govinda trailokyam mangalam kuru

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

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

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

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

yatha dharmadayas cartha
muni-varyanukirtitah
na tatha vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah [SB 1.5.9]

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

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

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

Of all the rivers Ganga is the topmost.

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

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

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

Sri caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam

And this is also the opinion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srimad-bhagavatam puranam amalam [S.B 12.13.18]

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

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

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

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

prema pum artho mahan srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam

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

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

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

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

hrsikena hrsikesa sevanam bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

na yatra srava?adini rak?o ghnani sva karmasu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

anantam aropayad ankam antakam [SB 10.6.8]

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

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

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

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

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

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

vara striyam tat prabhaya ca dhar?ite

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

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

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

Viv?tya netre cara?au bhujau muhu?

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

balam ca tasya urasi kri?antam akutobhayam

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

gopyas turnam samabhyetya jag?hur jata sambhramah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

kim puna? sraddhaya bhaktya krsnaya paramatmane [SB 10.6.36]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sri Narasimha Caturdasi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

satyam vidhatum nija bhritya bhashitam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Narsimhadev Caturdasi Mahotsav ki Jai!
Gaur Premanande!
Haribol!

04 May 2020

Bhu-vaikuntha Pandharpur!

We will sing one of the abhangas of Tukarama Maharaja. It is a famous abhanga and is especially sung on every Ekadasi all over Maharashtra. It is not an exaggeration that it is the most favourite of all. In this abhanga Panduranga, who has many names is described. There is Vitthala Sahasranama like Visnu SahasranamaIt can also be called a Pandurangastakam. I have mentioned all these things in my book Bhu-vaikuntha Pandharpur, which I have written many years back. This is like an advertisement. The first chapter is about the glories of Pandharpur dhama. This book has become very popular. It has been reprinted eight times already, 5000 copies each time. It has been translated now in Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English. Whichever language you know you can read it in. In this also Vitthala Sahasranama has been mentioned. Tukarama Maharaja mentions the sweetness and beauty of the transcendental form of Lord Vitthala.

sundar the dhyana ubhe vitevari

Translation
The Lord is very beautiful, and He is standing on a veet ( brick) . Because He stands on a veet, He is named Vitthala.

There is a history of this also as to why He stands on a brick and how He stands?

Kar katavari thevoniya

Translation
He has kept His hands on His waist.

This signifies that He is waiting for somebody. That somebody can be you also.

Tulasi har gala kase pitambar

Translation
He is wearing a garland of fresh Tulasi and pitambar, bright yellow ( dhoti).

The Lord wears a garland of Tulsi and manjaris around his neck. There are a lot of glories of Tulasi offerings in Pandharpur. So many Tulasi leaves and garlands and manjaris are offered to Lord Vitthala over here. Hardly anywhere else so much Tulasi gets offered to the Lord. Tulasi Krsna preyasi namo namaha. Lord likes Tulasi so much that He wears her around His neck and also on His lotus feet. The devotees over there dress Him in pitambar when they decorate the Lord.

makar kundale talapati sravani kanthi kaustubh mani virajit

He wears fish shaped earrings – makar. When the Lord moves around, the shine of these effulgent kundal spreads on His face and enhances the beauty of His face.

kanthi kaustubh mani virajit

Lord wears a Kaustubh Mani around His neck.

In 1984 while on Padayatra we came from Dvaraka to Pandharpur. I have started a story again. Do you all like stories? Lord Vitthala also came from Dvaraka in His chariot. We arrived here walking, doing padayatra. When we reached here, we were a group of around 200 – 300 devotees, including many foreign devotees. At that time the pujari welcomed all of us in Pandharpur Dhama and we were blessed to do not only pad-praksalan, but sarvanga maha-abhishek of Vitthala, All of us participated, including some African Negros. Here nobody is differentiated on the basis of country – foreigner, black or white. Here everyone is allowed in the temple, unlike temples of South India, where only Hindus are allowed. Everyone is welcomed here. All of us did maha abhishek.

That time the head priest gave us darsana of all the details on the sarvanga vigraha of the Lord. They showed us the sign of Bhrugu Muni’s feet on the Lord’s chest. Once Bhrugu Muni was testing Brahma, Shiva and Visnu to see who was the most tolerant and forgiving as that would mean that one would be supreme. He came and kicked the Lord on His chest. Lord Visnu or Krsna passed the examination and Shiva and Brahma failed. Then he broadcasted the result of his examination to the other sages on earth. Lord Visnu had passed the test. Devotees of the Lord kick the Lord with their feet on His chest, not on His back. The Lord’s chest gets imprinted with the sign of Bhrugu Muni’s feet. The Lord preserved it, as He thought that His form was purified due to the touch of the feet of His devotee. The Lord could have removed the sign of that kick by doing some plastic surgery. It was easy fro Him to remove it, but He preserved it forever, till today. We viewed that on the Vitthala Deity that time.

tuka mhane maze hechi sarva sukha
pahina sri mukha aavadine

Sant Siromani Tukarama Maharaja ki Jay! Tukarama Maharaja explained that his happiness lies only in one thing. pahin sri mukh aavadine, Pahin – I will see the face and nabhi and chest and lotus feet of the Lord. I want to keep seeing this. All my happiness lies in this. He mentions that he desires to keep taking darsana forever. Such teachings have been given to us by our acaryas. All glories to Sant Tukarama! He has composed 4000 abhangas. When he was filled with bhava for Lord Vitthala, these abhangas used to sprout in his heart, and someone else wrote them after listening to them. While moving around, he composed Abhangas spontaneously.

cak?u-d?n dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei,
divya jñ?n h?de prok??ito
prema-bhakti j?h? hoite, avidy? vin??a j?te,
vede g?y j?h?ra carito

Translation
He opens my darkened eyes and fills my heart with transcendental knowledge. He is my Lord birth after birth. From him ecstatic prema emanates; by him ignorance is destroyed. The Vedic scriptures sing of his character. (Guru-Vandana , verse 3 , from Prem-Bhakti Chandrika by Narottam Das Thakur)

This famous abhanga is specially sung on Ekadasi. Tukarama Maharaj’s abhangas have reached all over. Sarvatra prachar hoibe more nama. During my childhood. they would sing the abhangas of Tukarama Maharaja whole night long in all the villages. I attended such kirtanas. Someone played the harmonium which I liked. From that time I started liking the harmonium and then slowly became addicted to it. We have a Vitthala Deity over here. Tukarama Maharaja writes,

Govind Govind Mana lagaluya Chand
Govind the Kaya Bhed nahi Deva taya

For Tukarama Maharaja and for everyone, Vitthala is Govind or Krsna. He is Dvarakadhish over here in one sense as He arrived here from Dwaraka. He is Dvarakadhish as well as Govinda, Kanhaiya Lal ki Jaya! Pandharpur is here and Gopalpur is also there. Lord of Pandharpur is Dvarakadish Vitthala, Krsna, Govind! He is makhanchor also. Abhishek is offered to Him. You did kirtan and now are doing sravana. You can’t do kirtana if you haven’t done sravana. For doing kirtana, first you need to do sravana.

Vitthala Deity is the Lord. That way all Deities are the Lord appearing in the form of the Deity. Radha-Pandharinath ki Jaya! Radha-Pandharinath appeared, This Deity was carved in Jaipur and then installation Pran-prathistha was done. So many great devotees had arrived. In presence of all pran-prathistha was done. Radhanath Maharaja, Deena-Bandu Prabhu, Radharaman Maharaja, Yasodadulal Prabhu from New Zealand had come. Pran-prathistha mahotsav was celebrated in the presence of all these Vaisnavas. When Pran-prathistha is done ‘prana’ appears in the vigraha. The Lord enters in the Deity. Acaryas request the Lord to kindly appear in that Deity. After that is done worship starts. But such a thing didn’t happen in the case of the Vitthala Deity. There was no Pran-prathistha needed. When the Lord’s manifest pastimes were taking place in Dvaraka He had to come to Pandharpur. The Lord came to Dindirvan on the banks of River Chandrabhaga. Manini Rukmini maiya had reached there. Radharani is also famous for her Maan-Lila. Rukmini can also exhibit maan. Sita or Kaikeyi would also get angry. When queens got angry , they went into in krodhbhavan. That was the indication that there is some problem.

Rukmini also got angry. Radharani and the Gopis had reached Dvaraka. The Lord had said that He would come soon, but He didn’t return. Instead of returning to Vrindavan from Mathura He went ahead to Dvaraka. Nearly 80 years had passed by but He didn’t return. He had said He will return soon. Anyway, I have started with other story.

Here there is Gopi-talav where the Lord enjoyed His pastime with the Gopis like in Vrindavan. He didn’t remain Dvarakadhish but became Vrindavan Krsna. Purna Purushottam! Dvaraka Krsna is Purna, in Mathura He is Purnatara and in Vrindavan purnatam. It’s a matter of good, better, best. Dvaraka Krsna becoming Purnatam with the Gopis, in Rasa Lila etc.

Parakiya bhave jaha vrajete prachar

He exhibited parakiya bhava. Rukmini and the others queens saw such deep loving exchanges between the Gopis and Krsna. Which wife can tolerate this? “Look at my husband! How He is exchanging love with them. Who knows from where these ladies have come. He never showed this kind of love to us, never have been so close to us. Never lets us sleep in His lap. But with these ladies He is having all such exchanges.” Rukmini got very angry and without going to krodhbhavan she came to her Father’s house. Dvaraka is sasural of Rukmini. If there is some spouse abuse or strain in the relation with husbands, wives go to their fathers’ house. For Rukmini Maharashtra is her father’s place. Rukmini came to Pandharpur. She should have gone to Kaundinyapur in between Amravati and Vardha, where she was born. The Lord came in search of her the way Rama was searching for Sita. Rukmini! Rukmini! Then He came to Pandharpur and Dindirvan on the banks of Chandrabhaga. Chandrabhaga is non different from Ganga. This is also the glory of this place.

bhima aani chandrabhaga tyzya charanichya ganga

This river is also known as Bhima. On the top of Sahyandri at a place called Bhimashankar is the origin of Chandrabhaga. In Himalaya, Shiva held Ganga in his matted hair. That same pastime took place here also. From the matted hair of Shiva Chandrabhaga appeared here again.

mahayog pithe tate bhim rathya

When Sankaracarya arrived here he composed the Pandurangastakam. In the first line he called this Dhama Yoga-pith. In Mayapur also there is one Yoga-pith . In Vrindavan also there is a Yoga-pith Radha-Govind temple is Yoga-pith of Vrindavan. Vitthala-Rukmini temple is Yoga-pith of Pandharpur. Sankaracarya wrote, mahayoga pihe tate bhimrathya

One more name of River Chandrabhaga is mentioned here as Bhimarathi. At many places in the Bhagavatam pious rivers are mentioned, in which Bhimarathi is mentioned. Godavari is also mentioned.

Rukmini met Dvarakadhish over here. He tried to console her. In the first round of talks some things were resolved.Then He left from there.

Then He went to give darsana to Pundalik. He had promised Pundarik in his previous birth to give him darsana. The Lord went to give him darsana. Pundalik said that he was busy serving his parents and threw a veet ( brick) towards the Lord to stand on it. This was not an ordinary brick from a factory. Once Indra was cursed to be a brick. Indra keeps getting such curses in the same way Ahalya had become a stone as we heard yesterday. When the Lord stood on this veet, Indra was delivered. Pundalik met Vitthala and then offered prayers and his special request was, ‘I am blessed to have Your darsana.’ aham anugrahitosmi.’ as is expressed in Sanskrit. Pundalik said, “You have given me darsana, but in future many devotees will come here.” As this Dhama is not new. It was not created, it is Bhu-vaikuntha. I have named my book also Bhu-vaikuntha – Vaikuntha on the Earth. Is Vaikuntha created anytime? Is there any time when Vaikuntha doesn’t exist? It is eternal. When the earth was not existing, Maharashtra was also not existing and Sangli district was also not existing. Jevaha navate charachar (when nothing moving or non moving was existing) When the whole of this world was not there, at that time Pandharpur was there and it will remain even after the annihilation of the universe.

Pandharpur is an eternal dhama, beyond creation and annihilation of these material universes. “If you stay here, then in future devotees who will come here will be benefited. You have showered your mercy on me, but there will be devotees, varkaris, pilgrims coming from all over world.. From Uttar Pradesh, from which place are you? Chattisgad, Karnatak.Haryana, etc. Hari came there and so we get the name Harayana. The Lord gave a benediction Tathastu! Tatha astu. ‘Let that happen which is your desire’. And it happened also. What happened? The Lord who had come from Dvaraka stayed here only.

Kar katavari thevoniya

Earlier He was waiting for Pundalik to become free. “When he will come to greet Me? When will he come and touch My feet?” Here devotees were not satisfied by only touching the feet of the Lord. 150 years back when pilgrims came, He gave darsana to each person one at a time. Not that 1000 people at a time and then the next batch. One at a time , face to face. He is so personal. They would embrace the Deity of Vitthala.

Tuka mhane aali na urechi vegali

Tukarama Maharaja has experienced this and then expressed it in his abhangas –
“When will You embrace Your devotee deeply” then, na urechi vegali – “What more does that devotee need?” Embrace means you have given yourself to the Lord. Darsana can be done from a distance also. Oh! Keep your distance. Even the Lord doesn’t like to give darsana from a distance. No! Let them come! Other places you may get to touch the feet of the Lord. Other places there is only darsana of the feet of the Lord once a year. Last week on the day of Akshay-Tritiya we got Caran darsana of Banke-bihari which happens once a year. But here , you not only get darsana of the feet, or touch the feet, but one gets to embrace and touch the whole body of the Lord. This was a custom at one time over here. But times have changed. Kaliyuga has arrived. Now people have changed. One can’t say who will come with what intensions. There was some such experience, and so they stopped this embracing of the Deity by pilgrims. Now no one can do that. Point to note is that the Vitthala Deity was not carved by someone in Jaipur or by local artists of Pandharpur who carved deities. Vitthala Deity was never carved by someone. There was no Pran-prathistha. He came from Dvaraka and stayed here in this form. In one form He returned to Dvaraka. But in another form He appeared here.

That is what Tukarama Maharaja says in many of his abhangas. If someone even thinks that someone carved this Deity with carving instruments ( chinni and hathoda) and then did pran-prathistha, beware! One who holds such an understanding, his mouth will get filled not with Rasgulla but with worms from the gutter. It is a big offence at the feet of Vitthala Bhagavan. Such are the special glories and fame of Pandharinatha, Vitthala Bhagavan.This is advitiya glories! The one and only like it. No one else could have that.

What can I say about the glories of this Dhama in a few minutes. There are innumerable glories of this Dhama. I have mentioned all the glories of this Dhama in my book. Do read it sometime.

In this dhama Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu came and stayed here for long. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Vitthala. 5000 years back, His form as Panduranga is described. Why was He called Panduranga? You must have heard. He went herding the cows as Gopala. When the cows moved around, the soft, light dust of Vrindavan spread in the atmosphere and after sometime it fell on the trees, stones and even on Krsna’s face, head and cloths. If you look at Kanhaiya, then you will have to say what? Panduranga! Pandu means light or yellow. The Colour of the dust of Vrindavan is yellowish whitish. Kanhaiya is dark or blue like Ujjwal nilamani. But that Ghanasyama form gets covered with the whitish dust of Vrindavan and then He doesn’t remain Ghanasyama, but becomes Panduranga. Then have you understood how not only Dvarakadhish, but Vrindavan Krsna is Panduranga. In the morning after Abhishek He is offered arati. Then the Lord is reminded of the butter stealing pastime in the morning. In the middle of the arati He needs butter. Maiya mohe makhan bhave. O mother! Feed me butter. zunaka bhakar or puranpoli. Mohe makhan bhave. What all things you keep feeding me! I like butter. Everyday during the arati He is given a big ball of butter. Who is the Lord who eats butter? Dvarakadhish doesn’t eat ? He does eat, but not that much. May be little bit on the chapati. Dvarakadhish also eats butter. Rama must also be eating, but not like Kanhaiya, who steals and eats it. Lord Panduranga who eats butter is Krsna. There is also Rukmini and Radha along with Him. Then He becomes Radha-Syamasundara and also Rukmini-Dvarakadhish.

That same Panduranga becomes Gaura. During the South India yatra Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to Pandharpur. Devotees of Jagannatha Puri were not allowing Him to leave from there. He said, “I must go. I have to search for my elder brother Vishwarupa.” Vishwarupa was the elder brother of Mahaprabhu who had taken sannyasa at a very young age. Have you ever thought of taking renunciation? Oh! We can think about it in old age. ( laughs) When the fruit is fresh, then it should be offered to the Lord. When the body starts rotting and dwindling, then what will you offer? When you are fresh, young, you should offer yourself to the Lord.

Kaumaram aacharo pradnye In young age we should do such work.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said that He wanted to search for Vishwarupa. But Krsna Das Kaviraj Goswami had mentioned in his book, before starting from Jagannatha Puri Mahaprabhu knew that Vishwarupa has left his body and has left this world, but He wanted to have a reason to leave Jagannatha Puri.

When Caitanya Mahaprabhu reached Pandharpur, His search ended as He received confirmation from Sriranga Puri. You, all those of you who are sitting here and listening from all over read Caitanya-caritamrta chapter 9 from 281 sloka onwards about Mahaprabhu’s pilgrimage. In many slokas Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Pandharpur yatra has been described. Before coming to Pandharpur He went to Kolhapur and then He must have gone to Aravade where Radha-Gopal temple has been established.

tath? haite p???arapure ?il? gauracandra
vi?h?hala-?h?kura dekhi’ p?il? ?nanda

Translation
From there Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Pandarapura, where He happily saw the temple of Viththala Thakura. (CC Madhya 9.282)

Tatha means from there, Kolhapur and other towns villages around, passing from there He, p???arapure ?il? gauracandra. It must be the name of Pandharpur at that time. There are many names of Pandharpur. People from Karnataka utter the name in their way and from Andhra Pradesh they utter it is their own way. As time passes there could be some changes and vikruti in the name. He took darsana and embraced Lord Vitthala and was immersed in bliss. He wanted to do the same in Jagannatha Puri, but it was not possible there so He did it here. He embraced Vitthala. They are both the Lord. One form of the Lord is embracing the other form. Gaur Bhagavan’ is in the role of a devotee. Pandharpur is on the banks of River Bhima. It is said that He initiated Tukarama Maharaja in Pandharpur. Not at that time as at that time Tukarama was not there. Tukarama appeared later. But when he appeared and wherever he was Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave him initiation. Tukarama has said , “Raghav-Caitanya, Keshav -Caitanya gave me initiation.” Who is Raghav Caitanya or Keshav Caitanya?

Krsna Kesava Krsna Kesava pahi mam
Rama Raghava rama Raghava rama Raghava raksha mam.

This way Tukarama acarya became the disciple of Mahaprabhu and became famous in Maharashtra. He spread the Sankirtana movement in all the places around.

Today also Tukarama Kirtana groups are famous in Mumbai. His abhanga book is famous. Their Sankirtana party is like the Gaudiya Vaisnava kirtana parties. They also do kirtana with Karatala and Mridanga.

prem?ve?e kaila bahuta k?rtana-nartana
t?h?? eka vipra t??re kaila nimantra?a

Translation
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted and danced in various ways as usual. A brahmana, seeing Him in ecstatic love, was very pleased and invited the Lord to his home for lunch. ( CC , Madhya 9.283)

In those days the appearance of Pandharpur was different and the houses were also different, unlike the jungle of concrete houses today. That time ISKCON was non-existent. Caitanya Mahaprabhu came here so ISKCON was established. While taking bath Caitanya Mahaprabhu may have glanced at this land thinking in future, there will be Hare Krishna dhama of Gaudiya Vaisnava over here. The Lord is Trikalagyana ( knower of past present and future). He is sarvagya. The Lord doesn’t see things after they are constructed. He views it even before construction. There was a lot of ecstatic kirtana and dancing by Mahaprabhu.

One of the Brahmins called him for Bhiksha one day where He received the good news that Sriranga Puri had also arrived in Pandharpur. Sriranga Puri was the direct disciple of Madhavendra Puri from whom our Gaudiya Sampradaya begins. He is the pratham acarya of our sampradaya. This way there is a Gaudiya connection of Pandharpur. Isvara Puri was a disciple of Madhavendra Puri and Caitanya Mahaprabhu was a disciple of Isvara Puri.

Sriranga Puri was the god-brother of Isvara Puri. In ISKCON also we talk that way. Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sriranga Puri did a 7 day Katha over here. In the whole of the South Indian yatra Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed for this long only in three places. One is at Kovur on the bank of River Godavari where there was a dialogue with Ramananda Roy which continued for many days. I think 10 days. Then when he reached Srirangam He stayed there for 4 months in Caturmasa. Pandharpur is the third place where He stayed for 7 days. At other places He just stayed for a night. Sometimes He never even stayed for the whole night. At midnight He would start for the next destination. This is also the glory of this Dhama. Caitanya Mahaprabhu increased the glory of this Dhama by His auspicious stay over here.

Then when he met Sriranga Puri who informed him that Shankar Aranya Swami had come here and left this mortal world. Mahaprabhu explained, “He was my brother.” This that was a big event. Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed here for so long. He did kirtana and katha for so many days over here. His brother Vishwarupa who was a partial expansion of Balarama left his body in Pandharpur. Nityananda Prabhu also came here and was initiated in Pandharpur. All glories to Nityananda Prabhu. The way so many devotees get initiation here in Pandharpur. The initiation of Nityananda Prabhu in Pandharpur is not a small event. Nityananda Prabhu who is Adi guru accepted a guru over here. He took initiation from Laxmipati Titrtha, who is from Madhvacarya sampradaya . This way so many acaryas came here, even from Ramanuja Sampradaya, Nimbarka and Visnu Swami. Nityananda Prabhu took initiation from Laxmipati Titrtha. Some also understand that Nityananda Prabhu took initiation from Madhavendra Puri. In Bhakti Ratnakar, it is mentioned clearly that He displayed His pastimes over here.

Vitthala Bhagavan ki Jay!
Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jay!
Pandharpur dhama ki Jay! Radha-Pandharinatha ki jay!
Ekadasi mahotsava ki Jay!
Gaur Premanande Hari Haribol!

3 May 2020

Day 3

Sita Rama Katha

Hare Krishna. Welcome all. Here devotees of ISKCON Pandharpur are participating in Katha. Katha is being telecasted from Pandharpur and hence it is obvious that Pandharpur devotees are taking part in this Katha. Devotees from different parts of the world are doing sravanam. Devotees from 862 locations are taking part in the Katha which has been organized on the occasion of Sita Navami.

Today is the third day of the Katha. Tomorrow is Mohini Ekadasi. The subject remains the same, whether you do Katha of Rama or Syama. Sometimes stupid people sing ” Kabhi Rama banke, kabhi syama banke ” or they sing ” Kabhi Sai Baba banke” If this is the case then you have not understood Siddhanta. So there will be no change in the topic. Krsna is Rama. As Kunti Maharani says…..

maya-javanikacchannam
ajñadhoksajam avyayam
na laksyase mudha-drsa
nato natyadharo yatha

Translation:
Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, You are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized. [SB 1.8.19]

…that in each drama the actor remains the same, but his dress keeps on changing. He looks different. His name also changes. His costumes are also different. The actor remains the same. Kunti Maharani is informing us of this .

kesava dhrita-rama-sarira jaya jagadisa hare
kesava dhrita-narahari-rupa jaya jagadisa hare

How many times does this have to be said?

advaitam acyutam an?dim ananta-r?pam
?dya? pur??a-puru?a? nava-yauvana? ca
vede?u durlabham adurlabham ?tma-bhaktau
govindam ?di-puru?a? tam aha? bhaj?mi

Translation:
“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda (K???a), who is the original person—absolute, infallible, without beginning. Although expanded into unlimited forms, He is still the same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth. Such eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord are usually not understood by even the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees.”[ Brahma-sa?hit? (5.33)]

anadi rupam. All expansions are one. These incarnations are eternal. Then there is Mina sarira (Fish incarnation). There are Varaha Rupa and Kalki incarnation also. All these are stories of the same subject only. Govindam adi purusam.

r?m?di-m?rti?u kal?-niyamena ti??han
n?n?vat?ram akarod bhuvane?u kintu
k???a? svaya? samabhavat parama? pum?n yo
govindam ?di-puru?a? tam aha? bhaj?mi

Translation:
The Lord is situated as Himself, Lord K???a, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He is accompanied by His expansions like Lord R?ma, Baladeva, Sa?kar?a?a, N?r?ya?a, Mah?-vi??u and so forth. The devotees worship all these forms according to their liking, and the Lord, out of His affection, presents Himself as arc?-vigraha.[Brahma-sa?hit? (5.39)]

There are many forms, but the cause of all incarnations is only one – Krsna. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu showed His six hands Shad-bhuja-darsana to Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya in Jagannatha Puri. In two hands there was a bow and arrow. The colour of His hands was the same as yesterday when Radha Pandharinatha appeared as Sita Rama. In the other 2 hands, there was a flute with the colour like that of Ghanshyama. And in the other two hands was a danda and kamandalu having a golden complexion. At different times the Lord appears.

sambhavami yuge yuge

In Treta-yuga the Lord appears before ten lakh years. Very few people know this or have faith in this. Ramayana is an Itihaas, a History. But today’s historians begin their history from Lord Buddha, 2500 years ago. There was Lord Buddha and King Ashoka. They say there were no human beings before that, only monkeys. Darwin’s theory is there which is just speculation. They don’t know that the Mahabharata war happened 5000 years ago. They say all these are fictitious stories. 9 – 10 lakh years ago there was Ayodhya which was the best city. They say this is not possible and people were living in caves and were using stones to fight. This is the belief of most people today. It is also important for listeners to have faith that Lord Rama was there. He came to Pacavati and Ramtek, in Nagpur in Maharashtra. Lord Rama was there in Dandakaranya meaning Dandak Aranya just like Vrinda’s forests or Vrindavan.

I was in Los Angeles and they were celebrating the foundation day of Los Angeles. I asked them how old is your Los Angeles? They replied that Los Angeles is a very old city, 200 years old. Srila Prabhupada would say this is Kupamanduk philosophy or Dr. Frog’s philosophy. This is the understanding of people. They are our brothers and sisters. They think that if it is 200 years old means it is very old. How old is Ayodhya? Just saying 9 to 10 lakh years old is also an offence against the dhama.

The Dhama is eternal. This understanding is transcendental. We are trying to understand this Katha with the right understanding. Valmiki Muni had seen this dhama and he was shown all the pastimes by Lord Brahma and Narada Muni. All these pastimes can be understood by the soul, not by our mind or intelligence. These pastimes are inconceivable, hence they should be accepted as it is. This is called Avaroha Pantha.

eva? parampar?-pr?ptam
ima? r?jar?ayo vidu?
sa k?leneha mahat?
yogo na??a? paran-tapa

Translation:
This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time, the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it appears to be lost. [BG 4.2]

These pastimes are being explained since that time. Luv and Kush began it and then it continues by disciplic succession. We need to hear it with humility.

vidy?-vinaya-sampanne
br?hma?e gavi hastini
?uni caiva ?va-p?ke ca
pa??it?? sama-dar?ina?

Translation:
The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle br?hma?a, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].[ BG 5.18]

Brahman is humble.The more one gets knowledge, the more one becomes humble. Knowledge makes one humble. The hope and prayer is that by hearing Katha we will become humble and qualified to understand this Katha and become patra. Do you understand Patra or vessel? There is a patra and there is a chalani or a vessel with holes. If you keep something in a vessel with holes then it may get lost and you won’t find it next time. It is necessary so that we become qualified.

When Lord Rama was young Vishwamitra Muni came from Siddha Ashram. He was welcomed in the Assembly of King Dasaratha. Then King Dasaratha asked Vishwamitra Muni what they could do so that all his requests could be fulfilled. He said, “Just give me your Rama.” In English we say, your wish is my command. When King Dasaratha heard this then his vatsalya bhava was awakened. King Dasaratha asked Vishwamitra Muni, “Where you are going to take Them?” Then Vishwamitra Muni said,”I will take Rama and Laksmana to the forest where we do yajna. They will protect us as. There are so many demons”. When Dasaratha heard this then he fell unconscious. When he came back to consciousness then King Dasaratha said, “My son is too young. He is just 15 years old. My son is a rajeeva locana.” How is he? He has eyes like lotus petals. He was not meant to say that his son is beautiful, but as He is rajeeva locana He feels sleepy at night. Then how will He protect the yajnas during the night? Then Vishwamitra Muni got angry. He knew who Lord Rama was. He knew Lord Rama is Purushottama. He knew that He can kill all the demons who are creating so many obstacles. King Dasaratha was not aware of this because of Yogamaya due to his fatherly affection. Both had different feelings. Vishwamitra Muni wanted to glorify Lord Rama and Laksmana as They would go to Siddha Ashram. Once Radha Govinda Maharaja was saying that when King Dasaratha heard all this he said: “He is my son and how is it that you can know more about Him?” Vatsalya Bhava hides the “bhagawatta” of the Lord. Then Rama and Laksmana went to Siddha Ashram, where Sri Rama kills Tadaka.

He starts the killing of the demons. In Krsna’s pastimes Putana was the first demoness to be killed by Him. Then Subahu was killed. Marici was wounded and was taken to Lanka as he was going to be useful in future pastimes. At the time of the kidnapping of Mother Sita, all things were explained to him by Ravana. Ravana had told him to become a deer and run. Rama would follow him and kill him. Then Marici replied, “ We should not go to Rama. I’ve experienced it and I know.” He was asking Ravana, “Do you want to die?” He said that he was just about to die, but was saved. Then Ravana said, ‘Do you want me to kill you?’ Then Marici agreed to die by Lord Rama’s hands.

Janakpuri or Mithila was not far from Siddha Ashram. Vishwamitra Muni along with Rama and Laksmana proceeded towards Mithila. On the way Ahilya Uddhar took place. They were welcomed in Janakpuri. At that time Sita’s Swayamvar was going on. Sita was about to garland Her husband. Who was to be selected as Her husband? One who can lift and string Lord Siva’s bow. No king was able to lift the bow and if someone was able to lift it, he was unable to string it. Ravana had also tried. Everyone wanted Mother Sita as their wife. King Janaka asked Vishwamitra Muni whether Rama could try.

They were taken to the king’s assembly by 5000 soldiers. I heard that Sita played with the bow as one plays with a toy horse. She is Rama’s Sita. She is not ordinary. Then Lord Rama came. Sita was also there. The groom was there and the bride was also there. Everyone wanted Rama to be successful. King Janaka started to think, “It would have been better if hadn’t kept this condition of lifting the bow”. He wanted Lord Rama as Sita’s husband. He was thinking what will happen if He could not lift it . Then Lord Rama took Vishwamitra Muni’s blessings and circumambulated the bow.

He lifted the bow with His left hand and put pratyancha on it and the bow broke into pieces. There was a tumultuous sound and only five personalities remained standing. The five personalities were Rama, Laksmana, Vishwamitra, Janaka, and Sita.

Everyone congratulated Rama as they got up. Mother Sita was ready with a garland and She made Her way to Lord Rama. But She was stopped by Lord Rama saying that He needed to take into consideration the opinion of His father. A message was sent to Ayodhya and all Ayodhyavasis came in 6 days. King Dasaratha agreed, but also said that his remaining sons should also get married. Then discussions started. King Janaka had two daughters Sita and Urmila. King Janaka’s name was Siradwaja. His other brother was there named Kushadhwaja who had two daughters named Mandavi and Srutakirti. Mandavi got married to Bharat and Srutakirti married Satraguna. Then the mass marriage took place as it is said today. They returned to Ayodhya.

Lord Rama had to go to exile. Mother Sita insisted that She will also follow Lord Rama. Laksmana also followed. They reached Ramtek and He took the vow to free the earth from demons. They stayed at Pancavati. The 5 trees are still there. Ravana abducted Mother Sita from there. Lord Rama was calling ‘Site Site’ but only the trees were responding. These lilas are taking place in Aranyakand. Then They meet Sugriva and Hanuman in Kishkindha kand. In Sunderkand Hanuman is successful in finding Mother Sita. As he shared this with Lord Rama, the Lord embraced him. Then they constructed a bridge over the ocean, fought the war, and emerged victorious on the day of Dasami. Sukadev Goswami has described the qualities of Mother Sita when he was describing Ramayana in Srimad Bhagavatam.

prem??nuv?tty? ??lena
pra?ray?vanat? sat?
bhiy? hriy? ca bh?va-jñ?
bhartu? s?t?haran mana?

Translation:
Mother S?t? was very submissive, faithful, shy, and chaste, always understanding the attitude of her husband. Thus by her character and her love and service she completely attracted the mind of the Lord.[SB 9.10.55]

At the end of the war, Lord Rama went to Ashoka Vatika and saw Mother Sita. They saw and met each other. Then they flew back to Ayodhya where Bharat was waiting for Them. They were welcomed by all. And then Rama became Raja Rama.

Sita Rama Laksmana Hanuman Ji ki jay
Gaur Premanande

2 May 2020

Day 2
Sita Rama Katha
Appearance Day of Mother Sita

Jai Sri Rama hor gaya Kama. All endeavours become successful with Rama Nama. Katha commenced yesterday. Today is Day 2.

We were remembering Balakanda, the first sarga of Ramayana which was spoken by Narada Muni. He can also be called Ramada as he gives Rama. He can also be called Krshnada as he gives Krsna. He is the acarya of our Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Sampradaya. Narada Muni gives us Rama, Krsna, and Narayana. He tells us Their Katha and for that purpose he travels throughout the universe. He goes out of the universe also. He even goes to Vaikuntha Goloka. Yesterday we heard Sankshipta Ramayana from Narada Muni. Valmiki Muni tells the latter pastimes. Valmiki Muni reached the banks of River Tamasa with Bharadwaja Muni. The water of that river was very clean, free from garbage. It’s said that this river was as clean as the mind of the sages. Valmiki Muni wanted to take rest on the banks of River Tamasa before taking a bath. At that time he saw two Krauncha birds – a male and a female. In English they are called cranes. One hunter came and killed the male bird. We heard about the state of the female bird. Seeing the condition of the female bird Valmiki Muni felt compassion and cursed the hunter. In his lamentation a verse came from his mouth.

maa nishada pratistham tvamagamahs?svati samaa
yat kraunchamithunaadekam avadhi kaamamohitam

Translation:
“Oh! violent Hunter, by which reason you have killed one bird of the couple, when it was infatuated by passion, for that reason you will never get a state of rest for everlasting years to come…” [1-2-15]

He was surprised as he hadn’t composed a single verse till then. It was in anushtup chandaha or meter. Most of the verses of Bhagavad-Gita are in anushtup chandaha (metres with 8 syllables in a quarter). So the verse being uttered by Valmiki Muni was in anushtup chandaha.

Then while bathing he was thinking whether he had done anything wrong by cursing the hunter? When he was returning from the bath he witnessed one more surprise as four-headed Brahma had appeared there.

aajagaama tatah brahmo lokakartaa svayam prabhuh |
chatur mukho mahaatejaa drastum tam munipungavam ||

Translation:
Then, the great resplendent four-faced creator of fourteen worlds, almighty Brahma, arrived there on his own, to see that eminent saint Valmiki. [1-2-23]

He did padaprakshalan and offered him a seat. While doing everything he was wondering how this verse was spoken by him. Then he asked Brahma who had made him say this verse? Lord Brahma replied, “Everything happened with my blessing. Mother Saraswati made you recite this verse. You composed one verse, but I want you to compose such many verses.”

raamasya charitam kritsnam kuru tvam rishhisattama

Translation:
You shall render the legend of Rama, in its entirety.

In this way, Lord Brahma instructed Valmiki Muni to compose Ramayana describing the life of Lord Rama. How long will this Ramayana remain popular?

yaavat sthaasyanti girayah saritah cha mahiitale |
taavat raamaayana kathaa lokesu pracharisyati ||

Translation:
“As long as the mountains and even rivers flourish on the surface of the earth, so long the legend of Ramayana will flourish in this world… [1-2-36]

Till the time there will be mountains and flowing rivers this Ramayana Katha will keep on spreading. It will be there till there is no annihilation. One person named Sanjay passed away in Delhi. People said that his name will br remembered till the sun and moon exist. The sun and moon are still there, but the name of that person is forgotten. People try to imitate the same things which happened with Rama. People make a big donkey a leader of the assembly of all donkeys. This takes place in the assembly of demons. Valmiki Muni said, “I haven’t seen or listened to this Katha and you are saying I should compose the whole Ramayana.” Lord Brahma replied, “Do not worry. The Katha will be revealed in your heart and you will be able to see all the pastimes.”

Ramayana was already composed when Rama appeared in this world. Only a few pastimes had happened and it was composed. He was 16 years old, He got married, stayed in Ayodhya for some time, went to the forest for 14 years. Yesterday we explained that one washerman was blaming his wife for something and chasing her out of his house and saying that he was not Lord Rama who took Sia back. Seeing this, Lord Rama sent Sita Devi to the forest. She stayed in Valmiki Muni’s asrama. Luv and Kusha were born there. Only 40 years of the 11,000 years had passed. At that time Ramayana was composed.

In one sense all the Lord’s pastimes take place in the present. Pastimes never get destroyed. Hence we call the Lord sat-cit-ananda. We should understand the pastimes of Lord in truth.

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

Translation:
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.[ BG 4.9]

We should understand kathas with siddhanta or philosophy. We shouldn’t be lazy in understanding the siddhant. Srila Prabhupada also repeatedly spoke about siddhanta. We should hear and repeat katha while understanding the siddhanta. There is the Sandhini potency of the Lord which maintains everything. Sandhini comes from sat, Samvit from cit and Hladini from ananda.
Sandhini potency keeps everything fresh. What is the Hladini potency of the Lord? Lord Rama’s Hladini potency is Sita. This potency gets personified. She appeared today in this universe in Lord Rama’s pastimes. She appeared in the Prakat Lila. When there is a situation Lord Rama appears. Whenever there is a decline in religious principles the Lord has to descend. Hence such pastimes are called prasangika lila, Lilas which have a reason behind it. Lord Brahma is telling Valmiki Muni that he will witness all these pastimes.

iti uktvaa bhagavaan brahmaa tatra eva antaradhiiyata |
tatah sa shishhyo bhagavaan munih vismayam aayayau ||

Translation:
On saying thus that Divinity Brahma vanished then and there only, and then that godly sage Valmiki came by astonishment, along with his disciples. [1-2-38b-c]

By saying this Lord Brahma went back to Brahmaloka or Satyaloka on his hamsa. Then Valmiki Muni composed Ramayana.
Earlier Valmiki Muni was a dacoit named Ratnakar. He would rob many people. Then Narada Muni reached there. What can be stolen from him? He just has the pearls of the holy names of Lord Rama. He asked Ratnakar to chant the names of Lord Rama. He was chanting mra mra mra and then it became ram ram ram. Earlier he was doing offensive chanting and then ceto darpana marjanam happened. There is one verse in Ramayana about the glories of chanting the Lord’s name.

Rama Nama Rama Nama Ram namaiva kevalam

By chanting the holy name, he became Valmiki. Valmik or an anthill grew where Valmiki Muni was chanting the Lord’s name. All ants ate his flesh and just his bones and the Lord’s name was there. Hence Lord Brahma said to Valmiki that he was great amongst the sages. He composed the Ramayana and then he was thinking who will spread this Ramayana. He had accomplished his task. It was not only writing of the books, but distribution was also necessary. While Valmiki Muni was thinking like this Luv and Kusha came and sat in front of him. They were the sons of Mother Sita. They were reflections of Lord Rama. Seeing them Valmiki Muni thought that they will spread Ramayana. Valmiki Muni trained and taught them Ramayana. They were srutidhar hence they understood as they heard. They started to speak the Ramayana in song form. Similarly, Sukadeva Goswami became a preacher of Bhagavad Katha as he heard it. Both of them were practicing in describing the pastimes of Lord Rama which has all the mellows – virya, raudra, madhurya, hasya. This Katha is full of the different mellows and hence Ramayana is called Mahakavya or great epic.

Luv and Kusha spread this Katha at various places and Munis who were hearing this Katha were developing all the ecstatic symptoms. The audio would turn into a video and they would witness all the pastimes of the Lord. Then some of the Risis would come forward and embrace them, touch their feet, smell their head, and give them various gifts. In this way one day they reached Ayodhya and started Rama Katha. This became the talk of the town. As they were describing this Katha, people would sit and hear. If they started to walk people would follow them. This news reached Lord Rama. Lord Rama wanted to hear this Katha. Luv and Kusha were called into the assembly where all the personalities were present. Then the Katha started.

In this way, we come to the 4th sarga. As the Katha started Lord Rama was sitting on His throne. He thought, “I shouldn’t sit on a high throne,” Considering this as inappropriate from the point of view of the listeners, He stood up and sat at the feet of Luv and Kusha. And He started to hear the Katha from them.

Today is the appearance day of Mother Sita. Lord Rama appeared on Navami and Mother Sita also appeared on Navami. This is not a coincidence, but this is an arrangement of the Lord. Sita Mata appeared in Janakpuri or Mithila. Hence She is called Maithili. One of my god sisters was named Maithili Devi Dasi by Srila Prabhupada. She displayed her courage as the municipal officials came to destroy the altar of Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari at Juhu, Mumbai. She told them, “You have to cross over my dead body to get to the altar.” I’ve described the incident in Bombay Is My Office. Her name is Janaki also. There is Sita Sahasranam like Radha Sahasranam. Janaka Maharaja wanted to perform a sacrifice at that time and they were preparing the place for the sacrifice by ploughing the land. Janaka Maharaja was plowing it with the help of bulls, but the plough got stuck. There he found Mother Sita. In the same way, King Vrishabhanu also found Radha on the lotus. They didn’t appear in maternity homes. With this we can understand that the Lord’s birth is transcendental.

Sita Mata’s mother Sunaina was somewhere else and Sita Mata is appearing at another place. Who can give birth to a personality like Sita? She is sakti tatva. All such personalities are eternal and ever-existing. All incarnations appear from their respective abodes and like that only Sita appeared today. There is a place known as Sitamadhi where Sita Mata disappeared. She appeared from the earth and again disappeared into the earth. There is no doubt that by the mercy of Sita we get Rama. satyam satyam punaha punaha Without the mercy of Radha no one can get Krsna. In the same way, to get darsana and the service of Lord Rama we need to go through Sita. We get the mercy of Mother Sita through Guru parampara.

Soon we will get darsana of Radha Pandharinatha. Radha expands as Sita when Krsna expands as Rama. Krsna is theprimeval Lord and Radharani is adi prakrti. Krsna’s expansion is Rama and Radha’s expansion is Sita.

Thank you
Hare Krishna

1 May 2020

Sita Rama Katha

Ramayana – The Divine History!

Hare Krishna!

Welcome to all of you. It has been announced that there are many festivals and Vai?nava tithis in the upcoming 7 days till 7 May. There is Sita Navami, Rukmini Dvadasi, Narasimha Caturdasi and on 7 May there is thea appearance day of Madhavendra Puri and Radha Raman Deity of Vrindavan. The Sila became Radha Raman. There will be katha for 7 days. I was thinking whether we should do katha from 6.30 to 7.30 am or 8 to 9 am?

Let’s discuss this. We don’t have much time. Temple brahmacaris are also sitting here. What do you think?I think it’s good if everything gets done in one sitting. Otherwise you will also need to come back – first for chanting and then for katha. It’s better to have the chanting and katha in one go. Many devotees are in favour of 6.30 to 7.30 am. Katha will end at 7.30 am. I am of the opinion that the katha should be conducted between 6.30 to 7.30 am. Let’s do it then. We will not do kirtana as japa is kirtana itself. You have to stop chanting by 6.30 am. This class will be released in the evening on YouTube as well. This will be broadcasted later.

This can be called a katha mahotsava or ?ravanotsava sapta. There is netrotsava also – festival for the eyes. Darsana of Lord Jagannatha opens in Jagannatha Puri one day before Ratha-yatra. Jagannatha temple remains closed for some days and when it opens again, devotees eagerly gather to receive darsana of their Lord, thinking that for so many days they didn’t have darsana and that day they will have darsana. It is a feast for the eyes. Prasada is a feast for the tongue, darsana a feast for the eyes and katha a feast or festival for the ears.

Srila Gopal Guru Goswami has written a commentary on the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

sva-presthena saha svabhista-lilam sravaya

Translation:
O Radha! O Hari! O Ram! O Sita! Please let me hear about your pastimes that you performed with your beloved. (9th Hare, of maha-mantra. Radha Krishna Smaran Paddhati, Gopal Guru Goswami)

This is ?ravanotsava. Then later he has said, sva-presthena saha svabhista-lilam darsaya

Translation:
O Radhe! O Hari! Please show me your pastimes that you performed with your beloved. Let me have darsana!(11th Hare, Radha Krishna Smaran Paddhati, Gopal Guru Goswami)

jagann?tha? sv?m? nayana-patha-g?m? bhavatu me

Translation:
May that Jagannatha Svami be the object of my vision

In this katha, there will be hearing and then darsana also. There can’t be darsana without ?ravana. Of the nine forms of devotional service sravana is the first. This will be a ?ravanotsava for the ears, then netrotsava for the eyes.

prem?ñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santa? sadaiva h?daye?u vilokayanti
ya? ?y?masundaram acintya-gu?a-svar?pa?
govindam ?di-puru?a? tam aha? bhaj?mi

Translation:
I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of ?y?masundara, situated within the heart of the devotee. (Brahma-samhit? 5.38)

By hearing about the Lord, when will streams of tears glide down from our eyes? When this happens, we will have darsana of the Lord. As Rama Katha takes place, we will be taken to Treta-yuga. When there is Rukmini Katha, we will be taken to Dvapara-yuga and when Narasimha Katha takes place, we will be taken to Satya-yuga. This katha will allow us to have darsana of all these three yugas.

There will be katha of Sita Rama for the first 3 days. Then katha of Rukmini Dvadasi for the next 2 days which will include Rukmini Dvarakadish, Rukmini Haran. On Mohini Ekadasi, we will hear about the glories of Vitthala Rukmini and Pandharpur Dhama. Then there will be katha on the Appearance of Narasimha dev and on the last day on the appearance of Madhavendra Puri and Radha Raman.

Katha of Rama Sita is not just a story of a King and Queen. The story could be fiction also. But this is not a story, it is a history. There was a time in Treta-yuga when Lord Rama was there. Lord Rama and Mother Sita appeared from Saket dhama. Ayodhya dhama is in between Vaikuntha and Goloka. Lord Rama appeared from there. Lord Rama was on this planet for 11000 years.

dasa sahasra dasa shatani ca

Dasa sahasra means 10000 and dasa satani means 1000. For 11000 years, Lord Rama, Sita and Their associates lived in Ayodhya. They went to Lanka and returned to Ayodhya by Pushpak plane. Lord Rama became the King of Ayodhya. If rule or governance has to be there, then it should be like that of Lord Rama. Ramayana and Mahabharata are histories and the one who has written this Ramayana history is Valmiki Muni. He did not witness it, He was given special ability by Lord Brahma.

Ramayana was written by Valmiki Muni on the banks of Ganga in his asrama while Lord Rama was performing His pastimes. Only a few years had passed of the 11000 years and Bala-kanda was completed. There are 7 Kandas (cantos), 500 sargas (chapters) and 24000 verses in Ramayana. There is Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkindha Kanda, Sundara Kanda, Yuddha Kanda and Uttara Kanda. Rama Vijay mahotsava had happened. Lord Rama killed Ravana, returned to Ayodhya and became king.

One time Lord Rama was roaming in His kingdom to get to know what the people of His kingdom think about Him. He heard one washerman chastising his wife. ‘Lord Rama might have accepted Sita Devi, but I won’t accept you.’ He was blaming Lord Rama. When Lord Rama heard this blasphemy, He ordered Laksmana to send Sita Devi away. Lord Rama was strict. Laksmana didn’t want to send Sita into the forest again, but Lord Rama was Agraj (elder) and Laksmana was Anuj (younger) even though They had appeared on the same day. Everyone respected Lord Rama. It was an order from Sri Rama and Laksmana fulfilled His order. Laksmana thought, ‘When We appear the next time, I won’t appear as a younger brother but as an elder brother and Lord Rama will appear as a younger brother.’ Hence in Dvapara-yuga, Laksmana appeared as Balarama and Lord Rama appeared as Sri Krsna. He didn’t leave Mother Sita just anywhere, but near the asrama of Valmiki Muni. Valmiki Muni gave shelter to Mother Sita. At that time Mother Sita was pregnant. When Prahlada Maharaja’s mother was pregnant, she was also given shelter by Narada Muni. Sita started to stay in Valmiki Muni’s asrama when she was pregnant. Luv and Kush were born and grew up within his asarama.

This is now the 7th and last Uttara Kanda taking place. Lord Rama had just returned to Ayodhya after exile. He went to exile once and sent Mother Sita to exile twice. At this time, Valmiki Muni had compiled Ramayana. The 1st sarga of Bala kanda is also known as ‘Sankshipta Ramayana’ or ‘Mool Ramayana’. It comprises of 100 verses. This sarga is compiled by Narada Muni.

One time Narada Muni came to Valmiki Muni’s asrama. He keeps on chanting the names of Radhika Raman and Sita Rama. Valmiki Muni asked Narada Muni,

ka? nu asmin s??pratam loke gu?av?n ka? ca v?ryav?n |
dharmajña? ca k?tajña? ca satya v?kyo dh??ha vrata? ||

Translation:
Who really is that person in this present world, who is principled and also a potential one, a conscientious one, a redeemer, and also a truth-teller and self-determined in his deed… (1-1-2, 2 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

“At this point of time on Earth who is great in strength, truth personified and maintainer of the welfare of all living entities. I want to hear about such a personality.” This is an inquiry about absolute truth.

Narada Muni answered,

ik?v?ku va??a prabhavo r?mo n?ma janai? ?ruta? |
niyata ?tm? mah?v?ryo dyutim?n dh?tim?n va?? ||

Translation:
One emerged from the Ikshvaku dynasty and known to people as Rama by his name, and he is conscientious, highly valorous, resplendent, steadfast and a controller of vice and vile.and his own senses, as well.(1-1-8- verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

Sit like a yogi when you are hearing or chanting. When you sit like a bhakti yogi then there will be Sravanotsava or Karnotsava.

Narada Muni said, “That personality is Lord Rama.” Narada Muni described the whole Ramayana in one sarga or chapter of Bala Kanda. At the end of the 1st sarga, he described Treta-yuga and also described the miserable situation in the age of Kali. There was a different situation in Treta-yuga.

prah???o mudito loka? tu??a? pu??a? sudh?rmika? |
nir?mayo hi aroga? ca durbhik?a bhaya varjita? ||

Translation:
When Rama is enthroned then the world will be highly regaled and rejoiced, exuberant and abundant, also rightly righteous, trouble-free, disease-free, and free from fear of famine.Thus Narada is foreseeing the future and telling Valmiki.(1-1-90 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

How were the people at that time? All the people in Treta-yuga were blissful, but now the people are unhappy. All of them were satisfied which means that at that time their nourishment was available. They were righteous, free from adhi and vyadhi. They were not diseased or ill in mind and body. Mental illness is more dangerous than physical illness. It is said that 20% of the population of America is fit to be sent to the mental hospital. Prabhupada would say that the people of Kali-yuga won’t give charity. There will be no sign of atithi devo bavah. Instead there will be a sign ‘Beware of the dog’ at the entrance. Since there will be no prosperity people will not be in a position to give charity. But at that time, people donated freely.

na putra mara?am kecit drak?yanti puru??? kvacit |
n?rya? ca avidhav? nityam bhavi?yanti pati vrat?? ||

Translation:
While Rama is on the throne men will not see the deaths of their children anywhere in their lifetime, and the ladies will remain husband-devout and unwidowed during their lifetime.(1-1-91 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

At that time sons never died while their fathers were still alive. Seniors died first. Women were pati vrata (husband-devout). The women lived for lesser years than their husbands and hence there were no widows.

na ca agnijam bhayam kincit na apsu majjanti jantava? |
na v?tajam bhayam kincit na api jvara k?tam tath? ||

Translation:
In the kingdom of Rama there is no fear for subjects from wildfires, gale-storms or from diseases. (1-1-92 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

One of thhe symptoms of Coronavirus is a fever. But in Treta-yuga, no one suffered from a fever.

na ca api k?ut bhayam tatra na taskara bhayam tath? |
nagar??i ca r???r??i dhana dh?nya yut?ni ca ||

Translation:
There is no fear from hunger or thieves, nor the cattle is drowned in floodwaters. May it be a township or a remote province, it will be replete with coin and grain. (1-1-93 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

There was no hunger or thirst at that time. Today many people are dying because of starvation. At that time there was no stealing. Today security businesses has risen. There was no need for any protection or guarding anything at that time. This all happened at that time. This is history. Narada Muni is saying this. This is a 9 hundred thousand year old history, but still it’s very fresh. It remains fresh news. In Kali-yuga yesterday’s news becomes old today and we put the newspaper in the garbage. But scriptural news is always fresh. We should hear scriptures with faith.

idam pavitram p?paghnam pu?yam vedai? ca sa?mitam |
ya? pa?het r?ma caritam sarva p?pai? pramucyate ||

Translation:
This Ramayana is holy, sin-eradicating, merit-endowing, and conformable with the teachings of all Vedas… and whoever reads this Legend of Rama, he will be verily liberated of all his sins…(1-1-98 verse, 1 sarga, Bala Kanda)

Narada Muni said, “Whosoever will read or hear this Ramayana with attention will result in getting rid of their sins. This is a punya (holy) katha and one who will hear this, will become a pious soul.”

hari mukhe mahna hari mukhe mahna
punyachi ganana kon kari

Jai Jai Rama Jai Jai Rama Jai Jai Rama
Jai Jai Rama Jai Jai Rama Krishna Hari

Translation:
Oh Seeker, Chant Hari! Chant Hari all the time. Don’t worry about counting how much Punya gets accumulated. (Hari Path, – Hari Mukhe Mahna, Abhanga 1, Sant Jnaneshwar Maharaja)

By hearing Ramayana katha, one will become a pious soul.

mhanun mazi vitthala awadi

Then one can awake one’s love for Vitthala or Sita Rama and become free from all sins.

After describing this Sankshipta Ramayana Valmiki Muni and his disciples performed Guru Puja, A?arya Upasana, Malyarpana, Pushpanjali, Padaprakshalan of Narada Muni. After this Narada Muni left. Narada Muni is parivrajakacarya. He preaches everywhere. Therefore he has disciples everywhere. Valmiki Muni is a disciple of Narada Muni. Srila Vyasa deva is also a disciple of Narada Muni. Before the compilation of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Vyasa deva was guided by Narada Muni. Then Srila Vyasa deva compiled Srimad-Bhagavatam. In the same way, Valmiki Muni was guided by Narada Muni for the compilation of Ramayana.

Earlier Valmiki Muni had not compiled any verse on his own. But one day he witnessed a scene in which there were 2 birds. The male bird was killed by a hunter and then the female bird started to lament. Seeing this Valmiki Muni also started to lament and cursed the hunter. Within that lamentation, a verse was uttered spontaneously from his mouth,

maa nishada pratistham tvamagamahs?svati samaa
yat kraunchamithunaadekam avadhi kaamamohitam

Translation:
Not only human beings, but even animal couples should not be hurt/disturbed when they are romancing being Kamamohitam. You have done a sin by doing it.

Valmiki Muni cursed the hunter that he will never be peaceful for the rest of his life as he had killed one bird while it was romancing and had separated those birds. This ?loka is his first composition. A?aryas relate this incident with the story of Lord Rama and Mother Sita. The hunter in this story is Ravana who took Mother Sita which distressed Lord Rama in Her separation. This ?loka is the base in the composition of Ramayana.

We will take the same scene ahead tomorrow in which Valmiki Muni meets Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma instructs him to compile the Ramayana.

Tomorrow we will have japa from 5.30 to 6.30 am and then 6.30 to 8 am IST, we will have katha.

Jai Ramayana!

Rama Katha Mahotsava ki jai!
Sita Navami Mahotsava ki jai!

Haribol!

Guru Disciples Relationship is all Lord Krsna’s Arrangements.

08 07 2017 [28:06]

Occasion: Vyasa Puja class, online class for Durban devotees.
Pune

You are seeing me? Yes? And I am seeing the Lord. Radha Radhanatha ki jai! You are seeing me, I am seeing Radha Radhanatha. Are you there, also? Okay. Hari Hari. There is some reporting? I see many faces there and the temple that is out of this world. Is there a temple that is out of this world? Radha Radhanatha temple. Yes, that was my experience, out of this world experience in this temple.

So, today is not my birthday. This year it was on the fourth of this month and then I was born on the 5th July 1949. Today is what date? 8th.You are just few days behind me.

On the July 4th in Pandharpur and passed many years, I have been standing the Vyasa puja day in Pandharpur because the day I was born or I was given birth by the Lord Vitthala Panduranga that is also, that same day is the biggest day for Pandharpur or in Pandharpur. Millions of pilgrims come on the occasion of the Shayani Ekadasi and the Caturmasya, commencement of Caturmasya is on that day.

So, Lord was very kind to bring me into this world on that day, very big and auspicious day. I’ve been spending my days in Pandharpur, the Vyasa Puja day. This year was a little special, in the sense that Lord Nityananda appeared on my vyasa puja day. There’s a little suspense, probably a surprise. What does that mean Lord Nityananda appeared on my vyasa puja day?

Well the footprints, footprints of Lord Niyananda from Mayapur, they arrived on my vyasa puja day. They also have come to Durban last year or a few times. They did the TOVP Fund Raising. Maybe some of you have done contribution for the TOVP project in Mayapur. Jananivasa Prabhu, from Mayapur, he came with the padukas, Nityananda padukas to Pandharpur. So, I was feeling very thrilled to have the presence of the padukas, the footprints, the shoes of Lord Nityananda. The shoes or the padugas of Lord Nityananda are non – different from Nityananda Rama’s padukas. When Bharat had come, he wanted to bring Rama back to Ayodhya but Rama would not move an inch.

He said, “Okay, here are my padukas, here are my shoes.” Bharat keeps them on his head and he returned happily to Ayodhya, thinking, “Oh, this footprints this is my sweet Rama. Jai Sri Rama! Jai Sri Rama!” These footprints are Rama Himself.

So, like I mentioned, that became the highlight of the vyasa puja day in Pandharpur and I also felt like Nityananda came back to Pandharpur after 500 years. 500 years ago, Lord Nityananda was in Pandharpur as one of His travels. He came to Pandharpur and guess what happened to Him? He took initiation. Nityananda Prabhu’s diksha samaroha happened in Pandharpur. And the day before yesterday, I was in my birth place. I went where I was born, not far from Pandharpur there is two hours drive to a place called Aravade. Probably, you have heard that name by now and lots of devotees, 200 – 300 devotees also had been coming, visiting my birth place. Then, I have been to Kolahpur where Mahalakshmi is worshipped. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu also visited that money dham. This morning, I was there with the devotees of ISKCON in Kolahpur and right now, I am in Pune.

In three days, I have gone to three different places and I am here, not far from the exact location where aircraft from Vaikuntha had landed, some 350 years ago, and then the great sage, devotee, Tukaram had boarded that plane. Where I am sitting and talking to you, that place is just few miles from here. When there was no airports, no airplanes, no South African airways, no Garud Airlines, or no airlines. That time when an aircraft landed there and Tukaram boarded the plane and he took off and thousands witnessing. And, of course, for some days Tukaram has been chanting, “jai jai rama krsna Hari, jai jai rama krsna hari.”

So he was chanting,
hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

And that chanting was very special. While chanting, he was only crying and praying to the Lord, “Oh Lord, please, please, bring me back home! I want to see you! Bring me home, back to you!” This was his prayerful mood. Then Lord took note and responded appropriately by sending a Vaikuntha vimana to Dehu Dhama, not far from Pune and he sat on and went back home.

Vaikuntha Dhama ki, jai!
Goloka Dhama ki, jai!

Tukarama has reminded, he reminds all of us and inspires us also, to prepare to return to Lord’s abode, while it is not only Lord’s abode but that is also our abode. Your father land is what, South Africa? You think so your father land is South Africa. When you think of a father who gave you birth or a mother who gave you birth or gave birth to your body then you think, “Yes, this is my mother, this is my father. So, this is my father land, mother land.” But we are not this body. This is the very foundational teaching of Sri Krsna. You are spirit souls. You are devotees of Krsna. Is that good news? Yes, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says so,

ei jiva krsna dasa ei visvasa
karle ta ara duhkha nai [Gitavali]

If you realize e jiva, the soul is krsna dasa, servant of Krsna. By knowing this, a person becomes joyful.

ei jiva krsna dasa ei visvasa
karle ta ara duhkha nai

So, you are all spirit souls and the spirit souls’ father is Lord Sri Krsna. This Sri Krsna is yours and mine and everybody’s father, everybody’s mother. So, that Lord’s land is our father land. That Vaikuntha, that Goloka, that land is our father land, our mother land. Do not forget this. I thought I would just remind you.

You know, this disciples – guru relationship are the whole guru tattva and the whole guru business, guru arrangement. This is Lord’s arrangement. It’s not the guru’s idea of taking up that position or the gurus in this world have got together and there are some union and then they make some declaration and then they started making false propaganda, “guru is this, guru is that. Jai gurudev, gurudev.” I was just talking to the devotees in Pune that this guru tattva, guru concept, guru personality, is all God’s arrangements. Since the beginning of the creation, the gurus have existed. When the universe were just now created, or just have come into existence, there was a Brahma, the only and the first living entity. So, Lord became Brahma’s guru. God became, Himself, the guru. And that disciple, Brahma, later on became the guru. Then Brahma, Madhva, Gaudiya, parampara, sampradhayas come down from Brahma all the way – Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Gaura Kishore Das Babaji and Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki, jai!

So, there was no time when guru did not exist or guru did not play his role in the human society. This way, these two, guru and Gauranga, become two prominent personalities in our lives. Krsna is Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is Lord’s representative – spiritual master, guru – Krsna arranges that. This is Krsna’s arrangement so that those who have forgotten the Lord, who have forgotten who they are, to remind them, to enlighten them, to wake them up and shake them up and bring them back or pull them in the path back home. With that purpose in mind, Lord has made this arrangement.

So, behind all these arrangements, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is right behind this foundation of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness. Caitanya Mahaprabhu made Srila Prabhupada a big instrument,

nimitta-matram bhava savya-sacin

And Srila Prabhupada founded International Society for Krsna Consciousness. Although, Caitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that His name will spread to every town, every village, all over the planet, Srila Prabhupada has made that prediction come true. As a result, the holy name is right there, right in Durban, the holy name has reached. You have the holy name. When the spiritual master – disciples relationship is formulized and some kind of contract is signed, then the guru gives the disciple Krsna in the form of the holy name.

Svarupa Damodar Prabhu, last time I was here he said that some of my disciples are very special and they kind of like me or they love me. If he says it must be true. That makes me happy you all are sincere, serious souls. Last time, while I was in Durban, we went to the goshala, there also we had a get-together and I think many of you spoke on that occasion and I have a fond memories of what you had to say that day.

All right. So, I will leave you alone with your cake. I am still there. I am still on the jet lag from the last visit. I kind of lost my heart in Durban. So, I’ll have to come back to get my heart back.

Ok. Hare Krsna. Time to go.
Srila Prabhupada ki, jai!
Radha Radhanatha ki, jai!
All glories to the assembled devotees. Hare Krsna.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu visits Vrndavan dhama
07 04 2020 [1:00:33]
Katha:Day 6
Venue: Theur, Pune

Jaya jaya sri krsna caitanya jay nityananda jay advaita-candrajayagaura bhakta vrnda

Everybody,
jayajaya sri krsna caitanya jay nityananda
jay advaita-candrajayagaura bhakta vrnda.
jayaadvaita-candrajayagaura bhakta vrinda.

Jaya Sri Krishna CaitanyaMahaprabhu, Nityananda prabhu, Advaitaacarya and gaura bhakti vrinda ki jaya. All glories to them all. Here we are continuing with our Karuna avatar Gaura Bhagavan katha. This is our sixth session. So, of course the topic is Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we talked about Nityananda Prabhu also yesterday and we could be talking about a lot of things related with Gauranga. There are unlimited things to talk. There is Caitanya Caritamrita full of glories of Gauranga and Caitanya Bhagavad, Caitanya Mangal, Caitanya Carita, so many scriptures and so many acaryas have sung the glories of Gauranga, Nityananda, Advaita, Gadhadara, Srivasaadi Gaura bhakta vrinda. We are just taking a drop from that ocean of the glories of Gauranga, there’s an ocean, there’s a sindhu, we just take one bindhu and we are able to offer that or say that each day like today.

And there is one statement that talks about what is Gauranga known for or what is His philosophy. Caitanya Mahaprabhu mattaidam, this is the opinion of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and what is it?

Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhamavrindavanam

That Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends and He Himself follows that recommendation or reacts as per recommendation and what is that? Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas. He is worshipper of Sri Krishna. Again, He is Krishna Himself.However, He is taking role of worshipper of Krishna and not only He worships Krishna; tad-dharma vrindavanam as well as He loves Vrindavan, He worships Vrindavan. Ramya kacid upasenavraja-vadhu-vargenava kalpita. And this opinion, statement, philosophy continues and says if you wish to serve the Lord, serve the Lord the way gopis served or Radharani served. That is the best mode of worship, mode or mood of worship, Gopi-bhava. Srimad Bhagavatam pramanam amalam and the scripture for recitation for steadying, hearing Srimad Bhagavata. Why? It’s amalam purana, spotless purana and then at the end He says what is the prayojana, what is the goal of life? Premapum-arthomahan. We normally say purusharta. His statement says pum-artho, same thing. Purusharta, pum-artho, prema pumartho mahan. Attaining love of Godhead. Achieve love of Godhead is the goal of life. Did you get that?

And Caitanya Mahaprabhu mattaidam is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s opinion tatra darah naparah. There’s nothing superior, this is it. Somehow there’s different items that we mentioned. Vrindavan dham ki jaya. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited, demonstrated love for Vrndavan dham. As soon as He was initiated by Isvara Puri in Gaya. While He was chanting, His love revived, His love for chanting also revived, manifested and He wanted to run to Vrndavan. Somehow, His associates managed to stop Him and bring Him back to Navadwip from Gaya and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu undergoes another initiation, sannyasi initiation. Now your name is, sannyasi name is Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and this is sannyasa mantra that you chant and as sannyasi He was initiated into sannyasi order of life. Immediately, He wanted to run to Vrndavan, He thought He was free now, liberated, no strings attached, He was ready to fly to Vrindavan.

However, He was stopped by Sacimata and as they met, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu met Saci Mata in Shantipur. She says, no no no, not Vrndavan, it’s very far, stay in Jagannatha Puri. Ok, so Caitanya mahaprabhu made Jagannatha Puri as His base and He was travelling out of Jagannatha Puri, travelling out and returning. But the place He wanted to travel to was Vrindavan. He was proposing to His devotees, associates, His travels to Vrndavan but they would not let Him go. They did not want to miss Him, they were not sure how they would survive in separation from the Lord. So, they were postponing Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s departure for Vrndavan when finally, nothing doing. “I have to go, I must go, I want to go to Vrindavan” and everybody wanted to go. Okay, if You are going, we also want to go. But he said no, only one person goes with me. Balabhadra Bhattacharya was chosen and just two of them travelled to Mathura Vrindavan, on the way, they passed through Jharikhanda forest. Now there’s a state of Jharikhanda and it was forest then, thick forest, still there’s a kind of forest there now.

So that is where Caitanya Mahaprabhu had performed His sankirtana with the jungle animals and the birds in the sky and revived their love for the lord also. Lord invested Krishna prema in them and they had forgotten their animalistic dealings and life-style and they’re acting like pure devotees although in the body of an elephant or tiger or deer or monkey whatever or the birds but they were pure devotees. Thoroughly purified in association of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and He felt of this is Vrndavan. There’s no envy, there’s no hatred, only love for each other, only friendly dealings amongst each other. Even animals were dealing like that so this is Vrndavan, Vrndavan dham ki jaya jaya, Vrndavan. He thought He was in Vrndavan. Although He was only half-way through to Vrndavan. So, then he proceeds towards Mathura and as he saw Mathura from distance, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu He immediately offered His sastanga dandavat pranam to Mathura dham. He gets up and continues to travel and He enters Mathura and His at Vishramghat on the banks of Jamuna. Jamuna maiya ki. And His at Vishram ghat in fact and Mathura. Lord takes holy dip in Jamuna. Although He is Krishna Himself. His here on pilgrimage as a devotee. So, He’s taking holy dip. Hari hari.

He continues His journey towards Krishna janmastami, the birthplace of Sri Krishna. Through the town and of course from the time He had left Jagannath Puri, He had never ever stopped chanting and dancing so from Vishram ghat to birthplace of Sri Krishna, He has chanted and danced through the town of Mathura and finally arrives at a famous temple called Kesava dev. And as He takes darsaan, drinks the beauty of Kesava deva. He becomes more excited and ecstatic and He begins dancing like a mad-man although He is not a mad-man and now He is doing His udanda kirtaan, jumping high, golden form with the long arms. His clothes have a saffron ting and prakanda deha. His body was huge. Bigger than a normal human sized, even those days. That golden form was dancing and by this time, a lot of residents of Mathura had arrived.

His arrival had become talk of the town and as they had finally come to Kesava dev temple and seeing Gauranga and His beauty and His ecstatic dance, they not seen anything like this ever in their lives. They were enchanted, captivated and one brahmin called Sanodiya brahminin fact was dancing also in front of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So finally, and slowly kirtana and dancing is concluded, the brahmin Sanodiya brahmin was initiated by Madhavendra Puri previously. He invited Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu to his home for diksha, prasad, lunch prasad. Lord was now the guest of this Sanodiya brahmin. So, practically all the residents of Mathura are gathered there surrounding the little dwelling of Sanodiya brahmin and they all want darsan of Gauranga. “We want Gauranga, we want darsana.” They are all around, some are even climbing up and through the windows they are trying to get a little glimpse. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu had no choice but to come out and give them darsan saying hariiiiiibooool! And they were also shouting out loud, hariiiboool.

So, everyone was joyful to see and hear Gauranga Mahaprabhu then later on this Sanodiya brahmin he took Sri Krishna Mahaprabhu on a parikrama of Mathura. Mathura parikrama, Krishna Janmastami of course the birthplace of Sri Krishna and there is Rangeshwar Mahadev, Pipaleshwar Mahadev, Bhuteshwar Mahadev, Gokarneshwar Mahadev, there are four Mahadevas Siva temples in four directions of Mathura playing a role of dikpal, protectors of the four directions Shiva in four directions . and like that many, where Kamsa was killed, Kamsa Tila it is known as Kamsa Tila and like that. Then as He was taking darsana of Mathura. Spots, holy spots. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu had desire to go on an entire Vraja mandala parikrama of all the twelve forests of Vrndavan He wanted to visit. And this Sanodiya brahmin of course Balabhadra Bhattacharya is with Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he had travelled with Mahaprabhu, he is there.

This Sanodiya brahmin was local so he wanted to come along and be a guide of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu so there they go, they started parikrama with Madhuvan and Talavan and Kumudvan and Bahulavan and then comes Vrndavan and there is a Kamavan and there’s Khadiravan and crossing of Jamuna is there and there is a Bhadravan and there is a Srivan. I skipped one Bhandirvan and then Belavan which is also Srivan and Lohavan, eleventh one and the twelfth one is Mahavan, Gokula. So, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was on the tour of these twelve forests of Vrndavan.

So, as they had come to Bahulavan one time there was a cow called Bahula. Some special pastime had taken place with a cow called Bahula and in that forest Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu as He is travelling and chanting and dancing,

Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna he!
Krishna Kesava Krishna Kesava Krishna Kesava pahi mam!

As he was chanting and dancing through Bahulavan, there is some distance cows were grazing and the cows also noticed Mahaprabhu, His presence and all the cows, they stopped grazing and they all ran towards Mahaprabhu and they all surrounded Mahaprabhu. And they all started licking the body of Mahaprabhu and Mahaprabhu started touching and caressing them, there in between the horns and “me too, me too.” Each cow wanted that she is touched by Gauranga and they all standing in a queue, they’re all around and Mahaprabhu is standing making like this arm long to reach cows all the way in the back or He is sahastra and has a thousand arms and He is dealing with thousands of cows simultaneously. Vatsalya, relationship between Lord and the cows of Vrndavan is that of the parenthood. The cows are the mother and Lord is the calf, vatsa, vatsalya. And that’s how they were dealing and enjoying that affectionate dealing. Vatsalya rasa was very juicy and as Mahaprabhu now wants to continue his tour, parikrama of Vrndavan. all the cows want to go right behind him so the cow herd men now they are struggling to keep the cows behind.

So Mahaprabhu proceeds and then there are the turn of the birds now. So many peacocks are now laded on the footpath and they are all facing Gauranga and as Gauranga proceeds, they are going in a reverse manner while dancing and the birds in the sky are chanting in a high pitch panchama in the fifth note. Very high pitched, chirping, singing they are doing. Hari hari. Then Mahaprabhu he came across a deer. Mahaprabhu is embracing him shedding tears and so is the deer shedding tears. By that touch of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Then there were trees all around. Caitanya Mahaprabhu thought of and He did. He proceeded forward and embraced one tree. In fact before that happened. Mahaprabhu was experiencing how trees were greeting Him. They are shaking their branches and flower bearing trees were shaking branches and showering flowers mogra and champas and this and that variety of flower the whole pushpaabhishek of Sri Krishna Mahaprabhu was happening as He was proceeding and then there were fruit trees. They also start shaking their branches and they are all vaireties of fruit. Caitanya Caritamrit talks. This is all described in this Caitanya Caritamrit pastimes of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Vrndavan or Caitanya personally performning Vrajamandala parikrama. As every year we do this parikrama during kartik, we do recite and remember this Caitanya Mahaprabhu pastimes through the twelve forests of Vrndavan. So, the trees were thinking “oh, friend is here so we have to greet Him.

Give Him some patram, puspam, phalam, toyam”. Some fruit, some flowers. So that is what they were doing. And Mahaprabhu feeling grateful, He starts embracing some of those tree and the tree next door says “me too”. And Mahaprabhu runs to that tree and embraces that tree and the next one, “me too”. And like that Mahaprabhu is running from tree to tree, embracing those tree and the tree are great devotees and certainly these cows are devotees, the birds are devotees, the trees are devotees and Vrndavan and Lord is reciprocating with all of them. I should have mentioned, all the residents of Vrndavan and Mathura, they thought of Syamasunda is back. He was Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar was in town. Mathura or now in Vrndavan parikrama but residents were thinking our Syamasundar is here, our Syamasundar is here and they were greeting, dealing with Him accordingly.

So, after more travel of Bahulavan Mahaprabhu saw in the distance on a branch in a tree. There were two bird. Suka and Sarika, male and female parrot. And Mahaprabhu could see that they were having some conversation, some talk, some matha. Now Mahaprabhu had a desire. Is it possible for me to hear what they are talking about? And as soon as Mahaprabhu thought of or desired hearing their dialogue. Immediately those two birds flew in the direction of Mahaprabhu and they were now right in front of Mahaprabhu. So Mahaprabhu extended His both arms and one parrot, male parrot sat on the right hand and the other one of the left and the dialogue continued. Of course they were talking about Radha and Krishna. The male parrot was glorifying Sri Krishna, advocate of Krishna trying to prove the supremacy of Sri Krishna while the female parrot was a Radha bhakta and she was trying to prove, “My Radha is superior to your Krishna”. It was a very nice dialogue; it is compiled in Caitanya Caritamrit by Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami very beautiful.

So, male parrot says, “My Krishna is Madanamohana, He is the captivator of Madana the cupid, He is so beautiful.” kandarpa-koti-kamaniya-visesa-sobham. Sobham, the beauty of my Lord Sri Krishna is so much beauty that kandarpa-koti, koti, koti. Millions of kandarpa’s, kamadeva’s, kamadevatars are attracted to my Krishna’s beauty. So, he is known as Madanamohana but then the other, the female parrot, the Sarika says, “but do you not know that my Radhika is known as Madanamohana Mohini! Your Krishna may be attracting the cupids but your Krishna is attracted by my Radhika so she is madanamohana Mohini.” So after some sampling dialogue that Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was able to hear or as they presented this little dialogue for information and pleasure of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, both the birds took off and back to the tree in the branch in the tree and they continued their dialogue and Mahaprabhu continued His parikrama tour of Vrndavan.

Then, He looked at peacock very closely, especially He was looking at the neck of the peacock and that complexion resembles Krishna’s complexion so by seeing the peacock’s colour complexion, all the devotion and emotion that aroused in Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and He lost the external consciousness and He is on the ground, rolling very fast. He goes in this direction. Comes back in that direction. And this is happening in the forest, there were no bed of roses, there were ditches and the thorns and rocks and body of Lord was getting bruised and wounded and scratches. But of course He is not aware and now there is two prabhus Balabhadra Bhattacharya and Sanodiya brahmin from Mathura.

There are running right behind as Mahaprabhu is rolling. They both are trying to catch but His movements are like electric, so very f.ast, they are struggling, not able to catch. So, after a long, long time, they manage to catch hold of Gauranga and held Him tight Probably on the lap of one of them and the other one went to get some water and he dipped his outer garment in the water body and then squeezed and cooled the body of and cleaned the body of Gauranga but he still was unconscious and they started shouting, calling out the names of the Lord:

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

Or maybe they are saying: Jaya Radhe or Jaya Sri Krishna. They are chanting. So, finally they succeeded bringing Lord to external consciousness and as soon as He wascame to external consciousness immediately jumped and “haribol, haribol!” or “Krishna Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna he!” and parikrama continues and then travelling and travelling they come to the forest called Vrndavan. Sometimes confusing. All the forests put together, all the twelve forests put together is also called Vrndavan but amongst those twelve forests, there is also one forest that gets the name Vrndavan and so Mahaprabhu has travelled through four forests so far and has entered the fifth forest which is called Vrndavan. and as He arrives in this Vrndavan forest, He is making an inquiry, “Oh, is anyone around here knows whereabout Radhakunda. Has anyone seen Radhakunda. I am looking for Radhakunda.” And, no one has a clue what is He talking Radhakunda, no we are sorry, we haven’t heard of Radhakund, no no Radhakunda. But they said there are fields here or they also said, “oh we know Aristasuragram”.

This gram or village where Aristasura was killed, and he was killed on the banks of Radhakunda or even when Radhakunda came into being or existence he was killed and that region had become known as or was named after Aristasura as Aristasuragram. But we also know that there are two fields, one is called Gauri Badi one is called Kali Badi means one is blackish field, one is whitish or golden kind of field. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu proceeds towards this Kali Badi, Gori Bali and of the two, He goes to Gori Badi. So, this Gori Badi refers to Syamakunda. Syama has Krishna, Syama complexion, ghanaevasyama. And Gori refers to Radha-Gauri. Radha is Gauri, Radha is tapta kanchana gaurangi. So, people had named or those places had become known as Kali Badi, Gori Badi no one knew Syamakunda, Radhakunda or one time Syamkunda and Radhakunda were there but they were filled with the earth and there were no traces of kundas as such.

And Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu found little puddle, little small pond. Little body of water and reaching there Mahaprabhu starts,

Jaya Radhe Jaya RadheRadhe Jaya Radhe Jaya Sri Radhe.

He is taking bath, taking a holy, not so much of a dip but taking bath as if He is taking bath in some holy kund or holy river and others who were watching are wondering, “This is our field, this is our farm, why is this man, this person taking his holy dip or snana as if this is some holy place”. Of course for Mahaprabhu that was the holiest of the holy place,that was Radhakunda and this was Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu discovered Radhakunda ki! And the next door was Syamakunda. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is also discovering and letting the whole world know what are the different various pastime places of Krishna in Vrndavan. Those days Vrndavan was neglected because of the Muslim rule and Vrndavan was abandoned. The deities were moved to Rajasthan Jaipur here, there and there are thrown deities in different kunds. And, the people have forgotten. Different locations in Vrndavan, different pastime places. So, here Gauranga Mahaprabhu is reviving the glory of Vrndavan, discovering the places of Krishna’s pastimes. Soon he is going to send His batch of followers. They will become known as six goswami’s of Vrndavan or even before that Lokanatha Goswami and Bhugarbha Goswami were also sent there to revive the glories or re-establish the glories of Vrndavan. So, if Mahaprabhu did that discovery kind of inauguration of the discovery by discovering Vrndavan, by discovering Radhakund and then Mahaprabhu now wants to perform parikrama of Govardhan.
Jaya Govardhan dhariki!

One is Govardhan, one thing is a Govardhan and there is a Govardhan dhari. Govardhan is a hill and Govardhan dhari is a person who held the hill on his little finger for seven days. So, Mahaprabhu begins His Govardhan parikrama. He comes up to place called Kusum Sarovar and He passes that Kusum Sarovar and is beyond and there He gets His first glimpse of Govardhan sila or Govardhan and immediately Lord starts running like a lightening and He is touching and embracing one rock. Holding tight. He is thinking He is embracing Govardhan dhri, the holder of the best of the mountains. Giriraj. And He is, with His tears, He is doing abishek of that Govardhan sila that He has held and then He rolls on the dust of, on the parikrama path and then He gets up and continues Govardhan parikrama and while performing Govardhan parikrama. He is chanting one mantra, mantra that was chanted or recited by the gopis or taught by the gopis. This is part of venugeet in the tenth canto of Bhagavatam and gopis had uttered hantay amadrir abala hari-dasa-varyo. The gopis are said “look, look, I am this one, in front of them”. Who is this, hari-dasa-varyo is the best of the devotees of Hari hari-dasa-varyo. Govardhan is hari, Govardhan is haridasa as well. He is Lord and He is devotee as well. There is two identities. So, gopis say “oh look at thosharidasaoh best of the devotees of the Lord. Jaya Giriraj hari-dasa-varyo”.

yad rama-krsna-carana-sparasa-pramodah

When Krishna and Balaram walk on the rocks of Govardhan, these rocks melt or they find a great pleasure as lotus feet of Krishna and Balaram touch the rock of this Govardhan Giriraj.

manamtanotisaha-go-ganayostayoryat

And this, Govardhan gopis are talking, He honours, Govardhan respects or does he respect go-ganayo. The cows and cowherd men or cowherd boys, tayor, Krishna and Balaram are honoured, respected served by this Giriraj. How does he serve?

Paniya-suryavasa-kandara-kandamulaih

He supplies water, he supplies the grass, the lots of caves for Krishan and Balaram boys to enjoy. kandara-kandamulaih and this Govardhan supplies lots of fruits and roots and leaves.

So, this is how the gopis had glorified Giriraj so Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu doing parikrama of giriraj govardhana, He is reciting this gopi geet or this recitation done by the gopis over and over again and again and again. And, traditionally they also try to do abhishek of Giriraj and other times they carry a pot filled with milk and there is a hole at the bottom, small hole and as they go around, they sprinkle that milk, pour that milk. They do pour on the path but that is considered they are pouring that on the top of Govardhan hill. In case of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu He did not have to carry a water pot. There was a lot of water oozing out of His lotus eyes. He was shedding tears profusely and that is how He was doing abhishek of Giriraj all around.

Giriraj Govardhan ki!

So like that Mahaprabhu has travelled, toured, through Vrndavan, all the forests, forest after forest after forest and there is more description in Caitanya Caritamrita of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s tour of Vrndavan and then finally He returns to Mathura and He decides to spend time at Akrura ghat which is between the pretend Vrndavan dham and Mathura town. In between is Akrura ghat. There is a less public, He wanted to settle in a place for his bhajana or chanting so He was stationed there and from there He would go to Imli Tala. There is a famous tamarind tree from Krishna’s time. So, one time he was sitting underneath that tamarind tree, it was just under the bank of Jamuna and He was chanting,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna KrishnaKrishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

And, He becomes Krishna conscious and not only his consciousness is Krishna Conscious but He started looking like Krishna. He is Gauranga with the golden complexion but while chanting there that day, He changes complexion and He was Syamasundar looking bluish with bluish complexion. So Mahaprabhu spent some more time at Akura ghat but there were difficulties and while sitting on the bank of Jamuna and chanting and remembering His Lord, He would go in trance and few times He fell into the river and He was going down the stream and again Balabhadra Bhattacharyahad a hard time catching Him and dragging Him on the banks. So, this was happening every now and then so this was very risky so then there was a decision made that time has come for Mahaprabhu to leave Vrndavan and around that time also was maghamela in Prayag. The conference of Ganga, Jamuna Saravati at Prayag Allahabad. It is no more Allahabad, it is only Prayag, name of the town is Prayag… every year there is a special festival. So, it was decided that Mahaprabhu would of course He has to return to Jagannatha puri, that is His base but on the way they would stop at Prayag and so like that. Mahaprabhu having completed His Vraja mandala darsana Vraja mandala parikrama, He left for Jagannatha puri via Prayagraj and then also Varanasi and back to Jagannatha Puri dhama ki!
Gaura premanande hari haribol. Thank-you.