Srimad Bhagvatam katha: Day One

Venue: Pune

Date: 25 December 2017

Topic: Greatness of Sri Krsna Caitanya

Gaur premanande! Hari Haribol

Sri Krsna Caitnaya Prabhu doya koro more…………….

This is a prayer at the Lotus Feet of Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya

sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu doya koro more
toma bina ke doyalu jagat-samsare ………………….

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare

Om namo Bhagvate Vasudevaya

Hare Krsna, I heartily welcome each one of you. You are the Lord’s and are all dear devotees of the Lord. You are not less than VIP’s, so again welcome. This is 16th Bhagvata katha organised by ISKCON Pune. Like we chant 16 rounds, this is the 16th round of katha.

Nityam bhagvat sevaya, every year we meet on 25 December in Pune. We started from Radha Kunjabihari temple. Once we held it at Golibar Maidan and now for the past ten years or so it is held here. How many of you have heard all the katha? I can see some hands, thank you.

Katha was mostly from Srimad-bhagvatam. We also had Caitanya katha, Ramayan katha, Narsimha katha, Vaman katha, Bal lila of Lord Krsna and other lilas. Then last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of ISKCON and we had Srila Prabhupada’s katha. We have Guru and Gauranga. Last year we heard about Guru, his achievements throughout the world. So this year we will have Gauranga katha.

Sri Krsna Caitanya is Lord Krsna. Not only Krsna but – “Sri Krsna Caitanya Radha Krsna nahi anya” – Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s katha is also Bhagavata katha.

7 days of katha will have 7 different topics.

Bhagavata of Sri Krsna Caitanya (Greatness of Sri Krsna Caitanya) (Tattva-vichar)
Establishment of the Bhagavata of Sri Krsna Caitanya (Lila-vichar)
Magnanimity of Sri Krsna Caitanya (Sri Krsna Caitanya ki audaryata)
Parikars of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Their introduction and what they were in Krsna lila. Yasoda becomes Sacimata in Caitanya lila. Gaurganodesh dipika states all this. (Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki bhaktamala).
Teachings of the associates of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Sri Caitanya parshad sikshamruta).
Vedic and nonvedic darsana (Vedic aur avedic darsana).
How the principles of Gaudiya Vaisnavism are the best (Gaudiya Vaisnavata ka Pratik)
sankirtanaika-pitarau – This Hare Krsna movement which keeps on moving. It is the revolutionary movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu making Caitanya Bhagavata as the basis. Prabhupada used to say, “Books are the Basis”. This movement is exceeding in preaching all over the world and realising Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction.

prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “My name will be heard all over the earth, in each village and town.”

We chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. His name includes the names of Lord Krsna and Radha, so that will be topic on the last day. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Radha Krsna, yugal jodi of Radha Krsna.

Today’s topic is Bhagavata of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Greatness of Caitanya Mahaprabhu)

Caitanya Mahaprabhu was amongst us just 500 years back. He had come to my village, of course I was not there at that time. Not only to my village, Aravade but He went to many villages and preached.

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadhatau
sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma palau
vande jagat-priyakaro karunavatarau

I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, His arms extend down to His knees, He has a golden yellow complexion, and inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. His eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; He is the protector of religious principles for this age, the benefactor of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations. (Caitanya-bhagavata 1.1.1)

He is doing kirtan in all ecstasy. Many saints do kirtana, but His kirtana was very special “na bhuto na bhavisyati.” But why did He do kirtana? Sambhavami yuge yuge, in every yuga there is process of Bhakti and in Kaliyuga, Kaliyuga keval naam adhara. Sri Krsna’s greatness is the greatness of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

ishvarah paramah Krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaha
anadir adir govindaha
sarva-karana-karanam

This is the first sloka of Brahma Samhita. There are many ishvaras, but Lord Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu are Paramishvara. Krsna who is known as Govinda, the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.

How is He?

sundar te dhyaan ubhe withhewari Kar kataawari thhewoniya, tulasi haar gala, kaanse pitaanbar Awade nirntar techi rup

His is Sacidananda. This is definition of the Lord.

aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate
I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. (BG 10.8)

Just few days back we celebrated Gita Jayanti.

“ya svayam padmanabhasya mukha-padmad vinihsrta” (Gita Mahatmya)

The words coming out of Lords lotus mouth is Gita. So who is father of Gita? Lord Krsna and where it was said? At Kuruksetra. I was at Damodhardesh on that day, Dubai is called Damodhardesh. So I celebrated Gita jayanti there. mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva

There is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. (BG 7..7)

He is the one who supports everything. He is the One who gave birth to Brahma and also gave him knowledge. Not only to him but to everyone in form of Vedas. We have no knowledge – ke ami

maya-mugdha jivera nahi svatah krsna-jnana
jivere krpaya kaila krsna veda-purana (CC Madhya 20.122)

The forgetful living entities or conditioned souls have forgotten their relationship with the Supreme Lord, and they are engrossed in thinking of material activities. Lord mercifully gave us sastra and puran, to understand this world and to deal with it.

ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya

yare yaiche nacaya, se taiche kare nrtya

Only Krsna is Lord and others are His servants and helpers. prakriti has to dance as He wants. They dance as He makes them.

“mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram”

In Gita the Lord tells Arjuna, This material nature is working under My direction.

“narayanad brahma jayate narayanad ruder jayate,narayanad indro jayate narayanad prajapatih prajayante

narayanad dvadasaditya rudra vasavah sarvani chandamsi, narayanad eva samut padyante” (Narayan Upanisad)

From Narayana came Brahma, Rudra, Indra, Prajapati. From Narayana came the twelve adityas, the twelve rudras, the twelve vasus, all the vedic meres and all the devatas. Everything came from Narayana in the beginning and everything enters into Narayana at the end. From the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu Brahma appears and then from Brahma creation takes place. Everything is also going on now. Even now Laxmi is also serving Lord Visnu’s lotus Feet.

ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
indrari-vyakulam lokammrdayanti yuge yuge  (SB 1.3.28)

This is the main sloka of Bhagavat. The whole Bhagavat is an expansion of this sloka. There is description of the 22 avatars of the Lord. There should be 24, but only 22 are described. At end of the description of the avatar this sloka comes.

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead So we pay obeisances to such Lord Krsna.

Krsna jinka naam hai, gokul jinka dham hai
Aise shri bhagawan ko, aise shri bhagawan ko…………………….

We said some things about Lord Krsna’s greatness. He is full of qualities, He is rasakhan. In Bhakti rasamrita sindhu, Rupa Goswami describes the 64 qualities of Lord. Lord is called nirguna which means He is beyond the three modes of material nature, not that He does not have any qualities. We are part and parcel of the Lord and to some extent we have 50 qualities. Like father, like son or daughter. Brahma, Siva and Demigods have about 5 more qualities, that’s 55. Other avatars of Lord Krsna has 60 qualities. 4 gunas that are only in Lord Krsna – Rupa madhurya, venu madhurya, His flute brings about lots of wonders in Vrndavana, guna madhurya and Lila madhurya.

Srila Rupa Goswami has enumerated the transcendental qualities of the Lord as follows:

1) beautiful features of the entire body; 2) marked with all auspicious characteristics; 3) extremely pleasing; 4) effulgent; 5) strong; 6) ever-youthful; 7) wonderful linguist; 8) truthful; 9) talks pleasingly; 10) can speak fluently in all languages; 11) highly learned; 12) highly intelligent; 13) a genius; 14) artistic; 15) extremely clever; 16) expert; 17) grateful; 18) firmly determined; 19) an expert judge of time and circumstances; 20) sees and speaks on the authority of Vedas, or scriptures; 21) pure; 22) self-controlled; 23) steadfast; 24) forbearing; 25) forgiving; 26) grave; 27) self-satisfied; 28) possessing equilibrium; 29) magnanimous; 30) religious; 31) heroic; 32) compassionate; 33) respectful; 34) gentle; 35) liberal; 36) shy; 37) the protector of surrendered souls; 38) happy; 39) the well-wisher of devotees; 40) controlled by love; 41) all-auspicious; 42) most powerful; 43) all-famous; 44) popular; 45) partial to devotees; 46) very attractive to all women; 47) all-worshipable; 48) all-opulent; 49) all-honorable; 50) the supreme controller. 51) changeless; 52) all-cognizant; 53) ever fresh; 54) sac-cid-ananda (possessing an eternal blissful body); 55) possessing all mystic perfection. 56) He has inconceivable potency. 57) Uncountable universes generate from His body. 58) He is the original source of all incarnations. 59) He is the giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills. 60) He is the attractor of liberated souls. All these transcendental qualities are manifest wonderfully in the personal feature of Lord Krsna. 61) He is the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes (especially His childhood pastimes). 62) He can attract all living entities all over the universes by playing on His flute. 63) He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Godhead. 64) He has a wonderful excellence of beauty which cannot be rivalled anywhere in the creation.

Lord Krsna is the source of all avatars.

ramadi-murtishu kala-niyamena tishthan
nanavataram akarod bhuvaneshu kintu
Krsnah svayam samabhavat paramaha puman yo
govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami

Lord, who manifested Himself personally as Krsna and the different avataras in the world in the forms of Rama, Nrisimha, Vamana, etc., as His subjective portions.

He is called as avatari and others are called avatar. From Lord Krsna comes Svayam Prakash ( Krsna, as He manifests Himself). Svayam Prakash is two-fold, Prabhav- Prakash and Vaibhav-Prakash. This is a little technical.

Some avatars of the Lord are called Lila avatar.

Guna avatar: Each Guna has one avatar. Shiva- avatar is the mode of ignorance. Brahma the mode of passion and Vishnu, mode of goodness. Saktyavesha avatar- Parasuram, Prithu maharaj.

Yuga avatar: There are 4 yugas and in each yuga the Lord takes an avatar. Manvantar avatar, in brahma’s one day there are 14 manvantars. Now Vaivasvat manu is going on and Krsna comes at end of 28th Dvapara yuga . After Dvapara comes Kaliyuga. In Kaliyuga Caitanya Mahaprabhu appears. Whenever Krsna comes Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu also comes. So there are many vaikunthas there also there are Narayans.

In Mahesh dham Lord Shiva is there, and in Golok dhama there is Navadvipa dhama and Lord Caitanya does His lila there. Now you wills see adbhut temple which is coming up in Mayapur. In that temple there will be darsana of all 14 bhuvan, darsana of Mahesh dhama, Golok dhama. A team of ISKCON is studying cosmology and accordingly that temple is being made. This was desire of Srila Prabhupada, we call that temple as TOVP- Temple of Vedic Planetarium.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed in Bengal for 24 years and in Jaganath Puri for 18 years. So the Vaisnavas there are called as Gaudiya Vaisnavas. We will see some praman/proof from sastra about the greatness of Lord Gauranga,

anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau
samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam
harih purata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah
sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah

“May that Lord who is known as the son of Srimati Sacidevi be transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has descended in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most elevated mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.”

No need to tell that He is Lord, just by darsana we can understand that He is Lord. Have you seen such beauty anywhere.?

radha-krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini-saktir asmad
ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha-bhedam gatau tau
chaitanyakhyam prakatam adhuna tad-dvayam chaikyam aptam
radha-bhava-dyuti-suvalitam naumi krsna-svarupam (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita: Adi-lila, 1.5)

Although Sri Radha and Sri Krsna are by nature one, through the hladini-sakti, a transformation of Their love, They exist eternally in separate forms. Now, They have manifested in one combined form as Sri Chaitanya. I bow to Him, Krsna Himself adorned with the heart and halo of Sri Radha.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate (SB 1.2.11)

We should know the Lord tatvatha. Learned transcendentalists call the Absolute Truth as Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan. Three svarupas of Lord Krsna. but those who are perfect seers of the Absolute Truth know well that the above three features.

sad-aisvaryaih purno ya iha bhagavan sa svayam ayam
na caitanyat krsnaj jagati para-tattvam param iha (CC Adi Lila 1.3)

Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna Himself, filled with six opulences. He is the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to Him.

When Gargamuni went to Gokul for the name giving ceremony of Krsna and Balaram, the ceremony took place in goshala.

asan varnas trayo hy asya grhnato ‘nuyugam tanuh
suklo raktas tatha pita idanim krsnatam gatah (SB 10.8.13) 

Gargamuni said to Nanda Maharaja that Krsna comes in different yugas and according to that He has different complexions. In the past, He assumed three different colours—white, red and yellow—and now He has appeared in a blackish colour. In Dvapara-yuga, He appeared as Lord R?macandra in the color of suka, a parrot. The pita varna mentioned in the sloka is of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

savara kevala nilacale sthiti apani acari’ jive sikhaila bhakti.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught bhakti to all, and we are learning from Him. Who can be the giver of bhakti?

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasa? (11.5.32) 

Krsna will appear and what He will do? Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna he…

Intelligent people will worship Krsna’s name, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Sankirtana is going on all over the world. It’s also said that Caitanya Mahaprabhu will appear in Mayapur.

suvarna-varno hemango varangas-candanangadi
sannyasa-krc chamah santo nistha-santi-parayanah

In the Lord’s early pastimes his complexion is golden (suvarna-varna), his limbs are the color of molten white gold (hemanga), his body is extremely beautiful (varangas), and he is decorated with sandalwood pulp (candanangadi). He accepts sannyasa (sannyasa-krt)

Which Lord took sannyasa? Sri Krsna Caitanya. He is also called chanaa avatar (covered avatar). He established bhakti by appearing in brahman family. Lord became a devotee so protect all of us and to teach us bhakti. he left his Golok for our protection

Mirabai says He was makhan chor, but now He has become a vairagi( a renunciate.)

kaha chadi vahu mohan murali?

kaha chadi saba gopi?
mora mundayi gora kati bandhi,
mane na mani gopi!

mata yasomati makhan choran
bandhi jaki baha,
syama kisor bhaye nava gora,
caitanya jako nam!

pitambar ko bhava dikhavai,
kati kaupina base

O my dearest Mohan (Krsna)! Why have You discarded Your intimate companion, (Priya-Sakhi)- the Divine Flute? And why have You renounced all Your eternal Sweethearts, Gopis? You appear now with shaven head and ochre cloth at Your waist! But this clever Gopi uncovers Your disguise and doesn’t care to reveal it! Now it seems like Mother Yasoda has tied up both the arms of the Butter Thief! Alas, no more mischievous tricks! My Dark Beloved has now reappeared as the newly fresh Golden Lord Whose blessed Name is ‘Caitanya’! And has clad Himself in skimpy rags and His Pitambara (Yellow Divine Attire.)

Ramananda Raya was a governor and he was given special darsana by Lord Caitanya. Like we have Visnusahastra nama, there is also caitanya sahastra nama

Recite this prayer after me.

namo maha-vadanyaya Krsna-prema-pradaya te
Krsnaya Krsna-chaitanya-namne gaura-tvishe namah

O most munificent incarnation! You are Krsna Himself appearing as Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krsna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.

Nama, guna, rupa, lila is explained in this sloka.

Tomorrow we will come to know more about Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya.