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.