19850429 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 8.21

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 29, 1985, at New Orleans, Louisiana. The class begins with a reading from this Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter 8, Chapter 21.

Jaya Jaya Śrī Caitanya Jaya Nityānanda,

Jayādvaita Candra Jaya Gaura Bhakta Vṛnda

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpāṁ tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī-caitanya-īśvaram

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Ājānulambita-bhujo kanakāvadātaḥ

saṅkīrtanaika-pitaro kamalāyatākṣaḥ

viśvambharo dvija-varo yuga-dharma-pālo

vande jagat-priya-karo karuṇāvatāro

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā Chapter-8, text- 21

svatantra īśvara prema-nigūḍha-bhāṇḍāra

bilāila yāre tāre, nā kaila vicāra

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, is fully independent. Therefore, although it is the most confidentially stored benediction, He can distribute love of Godhead to anyone and everyone without consideration.

Translation with repetition.

Purport: This is the benefit of Lord Caitanya’s movement. If one somehow or other comes in contact with the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, without consideration of his being a śūdra, vaiśya, Jagāi, Mādhāi or even lower, he becomes advanced in spiritual consciousness and immediately develops love of Godhead. We now have actual experience that throughout the entire world this movement is making many such persons lovers of God simply by the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Actually, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has appeared as the spiritual master of the entire world. He does not discriminate between offenders and the innocent. Kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te: He liberal liberally gives love of Godhead to anyone and everyone. This can be actually experienced, as stated in the next verse.

adyāpiha dekha caitanya-nāma yei laya

kṛṣṇa-preme pulakāśru-vihvala se haya

Translation: Whether he is offensive or inoffensive, anyone even now chants who chants anyone who even now chants śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda is immediately overwhelmed with ecstasy, and tears fill his eyes.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda,

Jayapatākā Swami: Brahmānanda… Prabhupāda had told him that in Africa some of those, Prabhupāda told just to train people to chant

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda

Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi Gaura Bhakta Vṛnda

Because, I don’t know if this because ah there is one of the places where the only way they take cow’s milk is they cut the jugular vein of the cow and take a little blood and put it in I don’t know that was why, that is the reason why whatever it might be, that even if a person is offensive or inoffensive that if they chant the name “Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda”, they can get ah spiritual benefit you see. Generally speaking, any practice of religion, the first thing is that the person has to be inoffensive because unless of course even in Kṛṣṇa consciousness it is certainly recommended people should become free of offenses. However, just that we can understand the depth of the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, that it is not a prerequisite for him to give his mercy. If someone chants the name, they can immediately get the mercy of the Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Of course, once one takes that mercy and advances to a certain stage, then Lord Caitanya expects that the person would once they make a commitment not to commit sinful activities again, and Lord Caitanya expects of course they would maintain that, but the initial state practically speaking there is no disqualification. Lord Caitanya is so merciful that even if someone is an offender one can get the mercy. So, someone can say that, “Well, what is the rational for that?” It’s not logical or it’s not following any established system. Well, it’s because as Lord Caitanya is the supreme personality of godhead, He doesn’t have to follow any established system, he is independent, he can do whatever He likes. He makes the ground rules. In this particular avatāra, In, this particular descent, His mood is just to give out the mercy. You start to go through the credentials, then so many people may not get the mercy. Move it just to give it out. It’s like sometimes we have house clearance, everything must go, you see the advertise, that time everything you get flat discount. So here Lord Caitanya, He is in the mood, let everyone go, let them all go back to Godhead. Of course, there are so many stubborn, mūḍhas that even though this great opportunity is there, they don’t take it up. Who could be more of a mūḍha, than someone who has this opportunity and he doesn’t takes it up.

Prabhupāda once told story about lazy men, the some people are so lazy when it comes to their spiritual life, they don’t want to lift a finger. So, sometimes we should avoid being lazy in this time because we have to just take a little effort and we can get mercy. Prabhupāda told the story of a lazy man. One king wanted to feed all the lazy men in his kingdom free. So, he advertised, there was a big hall, but so many people came that there was more than he could feed. It had become a big burden on the exchequer. So, he asked his ministers what is to be done? So, the minister said, “you light the whole hall on fire, the people inside.” So, then he lit the hall on fire. Naturally everybody started running and screaming and running out of the burning building, then they went inside and they found that there were two people laying down there, and one was telling the other one, “that it seems a little bit ah, seems a little bit hot in here, feeling the heat on my back, what should I do?” The other one said, “ah roll over to your other side.” “Don’t you feel hot?” They are so lazy that aheven if the house is burning down, they would run out. And the king saw those two these are real lazy guys; these guys are really lazy. So, he agreed to feed them. So, for most people they are not really lazy but they are ah just say, they are awake pretending they are asleep, just like when it is time to get up for maṅgala-ārati, somebody is asleep you can wake him up but if he is awake, he doesn’t want to go for maṅgala-ārati, he is pretending to be asleep it is very hard to wake such a person up. Even if you shake him, he will be having the cover over his head or her head or whatever. So, a person if they are asleep naturally, they can be woken up, but if they are being a bit devious, pretending they are asleep when they are awake then what can you do? So, there are people, that they know that what they are doing isn’t rightly situated, but they pretend as if they don’t know, that type of situation is of course very unfortunate. So, nobody gets cheated but the person himself. It’s said that in the material world, whatever you want you can you get it but whatever is your do rather by the law of karma that would come of its own accord, you may not get everything exactly the way you want it. Eventually you get the opportunity to get everything which is available in the material world if you have sufficient karma, that’s another thing. The point is that whatever your karmas are, you will get some results or you won’t get any results according to what the karma’s are.

Something will happen automatically, positive or negative, but being Kṛṣṇa conscious doesn’t happen automatically. It’s not that if you are here 10 billion births, you will go back to Godhead. Just like somebody gets a sentence, you have to spend 10 years and few five years of good behavior, you get off. Everyone in this material world is a nitya-baddha. They are here eternally, until they want to get out. If they are one of those lazy fellows, they just want to roll over to avoid the heat on this side or that side, they are going to be here. But if they actually want to get out of material suffering or they want to achieve Kṛṣṇa’s service or they want to achieve eternal love of Godhead or whatever it may be their desire if they want anything transcendental, you may have to try for that specifically. Doesn’t happen automatically.

Unless of course some just like Śivānanda Sena, he somehow took a fancy to some dog, was taking the dog with the saṅkīrtana party that was going down from Bengal to Jagannātha Purī, and somehow or another he would feed the dog, pay for its ah ferry charges, take it across the river, but it get lost, send people out, bring it back, he gave some special mercy out of his own accord, out of his own initiative. Finally, that dog disappeared right when they were outside of Jagannātha Purī. When they came into Jagannātha Purī, Śivānanda Sena went to see Lord Caitanya, there he saw that the dog was sitting there. Lord Caitanya was taking some coconut prasāda, just throwing the dog little pieces, the dog was just catching it with his mouth, this way the dog went back to Godhead because of the mercy of Śivānanda Sena. So, whether one’s own initiative or in some cases someone like Lord Nityānanda had to take initiative with Jagāi-Mādhāi or Śivānanda Sena took initiative with this dog, that’s like special causeless mercy Generally speaking, in any case it requires some initiative, doesn’t happen on its own, it’s not just automatic thing. Automatically, according to the karmajust the reactions in the three modes are happening. This is totally beyond the modes of nature, so therefore it doesn’t happen according to karma, can’t! karma is only the three modes- nistraiguṇya, this is beyond the three modes, guṇātīta. So, if you want to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya, whether you are qualified of unqualified, whether you are good or bad or whether you are whatever you may be, but if you just take little step forward, just go there, just ask Lord Caitanya for the mercy, just chant the names He has given just for the asking you can have it. Of course, people are so unfortunate that they don’t take it. They don’t even know it in some cases, that is their misfortune. So, the devotees, by hook or by crook they try to get the people to chant knowing that’s their If somehow or other they chant, then Kṛṣṇa then he will tell, “alright, they have taken an initiative”, he will give his mercy.

Just like Buddhimanta Khān one devotee of Lord Caitanya, he went to the Chand Kazi, he will always say, “why don’t you chant hare Kṛṣṇa? you should chant hare Kṛṣṇa.” So finally, the Chand Kazi said, “well I will chant hare Kṛṣṇa tomorrow.” “haribol, haribol, haribol, he was jumping up and down, haribol, haribol, you already chanted, you just said hare Kṛṣṇa today. Your already good fortune has begun, haribol, haribol, Chand Kazi has begun chanting hare Kṛṣṇa.” So this way the devotee, somehow or another they get the people to chant, that even Haridāsa Ṭhākura when he walked down the road, sometimes the kids would say, “look at that, there comes that Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he is always chanting hare Kṛṣṇa, “let’s get him angry, let’s make fun”, hare Kṛṣṇa, hare Kṛṣṇa, make some kind of mimicking, Haridāsa Ṭhākura would look very offended knowing that they may get more inspired to chant louder. Inside he was very happy that somehow or another they are chanting, outwardly looked very formal, very offended but so, then they chanted louder so the devotees somehow or another they get people to chant, that’s their mission. Rūpa Gosvāmī said, “yena tena prakāreṇa kṛṣṇa mana nivosite” [Brs. 1.2.4] By any means you get people to become to accept Kṛṣṇa by any means.

Once they have accepted Kṛṣṇa, once they become attached to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and you can introduce rules and other ways that they can maintain purity, because without purity how they will get a higher taste, they may get a flash, they may get a glimpse, but they wouldn’t be able to maintain it because it will be like a hāti snāna, bathing of the elephant. Elephant goes in, bathes, scrubs, we have a swimming pool in Māyāpur, not for not for people. I mean for people but not for humans for elephant people. So, swimming pool only for the elephants. And they go in there and they go and take their bath, specially now in the hot weather, twice a day, they go in the swimming pool, Kandra Prabhu knows. But they like to come out, they like to take the dust and throw it on their back. We don’t keep much dust around us, I don’t know if you give a chance, but if they do they pick it up. So, what’s the use, you just scrub yourself clean, then you come out and you start rubbing yourself with dirt again, what’s the use. That’s elephant, somehow that’s their mentality, they like to have the dust on them. So that type of bath, where the person is chanting, he is getting purified and then they go out and they commit offenses just like the elephant bath. So naturally, that’s not going to give one a very continuous feeling for transcendental ecstasy, for spiritual realization. So, when they come to point of little bit of purification, then of course it’s necessary to introduce what are the basic, minimum standards of purity that they should maintain so that they can continuously taste nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that their devotional service would be inoffensive. ahaitukī apratihatā, or anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam, [Brs. 1.1.11] it should be favorable following Kṛṣṇa. So, once they get a little bit ah purified that you can introduce So that’s the basic program, but what Lord Caitanya, His special nature for Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda is that without even though one hasn’t achieved that type of purity even though they might be unqualified. Still Lord Caitanya, he gives that causeless mercy. The devotee tries to induce people to, after they get a little bit advanced, they become pure. But Lord Caitanya is so liberal that he is giving his initial mercy without considering anything. “pāpī tāpī jata chila hari-nāme uddhārilo, tāra sākṣī jagāi-mādhāi”. Adyāpiha means even up to date. He is saying “adyāpiha dekha, caitanya-nāma yei laya”. Even see up to this date whoever takes Lord Caitanya’s name, “kṛṣṇa-preme pulakāśru-vihvala se haya”. He immediately becomes overwhelmed with ecstasy; tears fill his eyes. The example Prabhupāda gives his purport. Aprākṛta-sahajiyā, who chant “nitāi-gaura rādhe-śyāma”, have a very little knowledge of the Bhāgavata conclusion and they hardly know the Vaiṣṇava rules and regulations, and yet because they chant, “bhaja nitāi gaura rādhe śyāma”, their chanting immediately invokes tears and other signs of ecstasy although they do not know the principles of Vaiṣṇava philosophy and are not very advanced in education, by this symptoms they attract many men to become their followers. Their ecstatic tears of course help them in the long run, but as soon as they come in contact with a pure devotee their lives will become successful. Even in the beginning however because they are chanting the holy names of Nitāi-Gaura, their swift advancement on the path of Godhead is very prominently visible. Every day behind our temple in Vṛndāvana you can hear, depending on which room you get, the back of the guesthouse there the group has a branch there. they are chanting always “nitāi gaur rādhe śyām hare Kṛṣṇa hare rām” and that goes on day and night, you hear them chanting and they don’t accept all of the six Gosvāmīs, they are not very strict but some of them they say they manifest in chanting this mantra nitāi gaur, nitāi gaur rādhe śyām, they start to manifest some ecstatic symptoms. This attracts the people; this seems pretty easy. Prabhupāda of course he did want us to, wanted us to wanted us to purify the chant, one time he said that we should chant nitāi gaur rādhe śyām, jaya kṛṣṇa bālarāma. In New Vṛndāvana we have our Nitāi-Gaura Deities, Rādhe-Śyāma and Kṛṣṇa Balarāma “nitāi gaur rādhe śyām jaya kṛṣṇa bālarāma”- names of the Deities. But he told us that he was very much against this kind of breaking up, that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura also said that this breaking up of the Pañca-tattva name, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, this is not bona fide. We should take mantras and start cutting them up, and then re-mixing them around, you don’t have the authority to that. It is given in the scripture the Vedas has given the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. The Pañca-tattva mantra is given by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, other great ācāryas, so just taking a little bit here, little bit there. Once I got in a discussion with another group who had a similar mantra and then I challenged them on this point that why you are giving khaṇḍa nāma, khaṇḍa nāma means you are taking the name and you are breaking it up into bit by bit, that is called khaṇḍas, broken mantras, bits and pieces of mantras. So, discussion went on, he was a great scholar, he knew Caitanya-caritāmṛta by heart, he could say whole chapters. He didn’t have any answer for that basic question and finally using Prabhupāda’s technique of just fighting the weak point, coming back again and again, then finally he had to surrender after trying every means to duck out of the argument. There are techniques you see what we discussed with this paṇḍits, when you get a square on your corner, then they return with a question to distract you, a high question, just like hit him with that, then he said, “well, you said ah all that Hare Kṛṣṇa is the greatest mantra, then why did ah Haridāsa Ṭhākura the last breath of life, why did he say, when I leave, I take my last breath I want to say Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, he is the Nāmācārya, he chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra his whole life, why was the last desire he wanted to say Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, when he took his last breath?” Of course he had nothing to do with our point, but he just told like that. So of course, at that time Prabhupāda is very merciful and he gave us some intelligence to be able to discuss, even though we are not such a great scholar like we haven’t had the time to memorize verbatim chapters of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, although by Prabhupāda’s mercy, with his purports, and with his instructions, we are able to understand something of this great literature. Without his mercy nothing is possible. Of course, that type of logic that Haridāsa Ṭhākura, his whole life he chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and we are not to imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura, when he is leaving his body and he is putting his just like Bhīṣma, he is leaving and he concentrated on Kṛṣṇa and he left his body. So Haridāsa Ṭhākura just concentration his consciousness on the lotus face of Lord Caitanya and leaving, it’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t in any way reduce the value of chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, but in any case, we have to follow the order of Haridāsa Ṭhākura, not to imitate. He, his whole life his example was he chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and he also instructed us to do the same. But at first, we chant Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and then Hare Kṛṣṇa. So then again, we asked that why you are breaking the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then again, he threw out a bunch of Sanskrit verses instead and then finally he said, “alright! In our spiritual, when a pūjārī is doing worship, he is within the material she is within the material body. At that time on the altar, you have simultaneously Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, you also have Caitanya, Nityānanda, they have Lord Caitanya. Rādhā Kṛṣṇa in mādhurya-rasa and Lord Caitanya is in audārya-rasa, Rādhā Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is in Navadvīpa, in the spiritual reality of the altar, you are worshipping them in your meditation, they are in their respective abodes, so the devotees of Lord Caitanya are supposed to take a have the siddha-svarūpa, the male form, the devotees of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in their siddha-svarūpa have their female form, so how do you simultaneously worship both of them when you sitting in your one material form? That was his next question? There is nothing at all do, but why cannot be the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and the Pañca-tattva mantra, and nothing whatsoever to do with that topic. This is their technique to come up with some normally ah blows away people once you are asking for that. Fortunately, Śrīla Prabhupāda personally discussed this point with us in some private meetings in Māyāpur, that in the spiritual world that the devotees of Lord Caitanya simultaneously appear in both the places. So, we brought that point out so he said “alright, tuṣṭe knew that one”, but you are not, but then when you are in your… you are doing your pūjā, you are not able to simultaneously do the worship, you have to one after the other, so which one will you do first? We have to do Lord Caitanya first, and the Rādhā Kṛṣṇa because that’s the way the paramparā goes.

So finally, when he couldn’t get any, any again he said, “listen we have to break it up, the mantra because it is more of a public appeal, people like it, Rādhe-Śyām, Rādhā-Govinda, Nitāi people don’t know Lord Caitanya, they know Rādhe-Śyām, they know Rādhā-Govinda, so we break up the mantra and we put it together, it is more attractive, everybody you know, it has got little bit of everything, a little bit for the Rajasthani’s and the North Indians, for the eastern Indians, it’s it’s very tropical, it’s very” I said, “what does that have to do with transcendental knowledge, you just break up the mantras given in the scripture just because it is for popularity context, where does the scripture allow us that the license to take the mantras and divide them up?” Then he said, “You know well actually we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa too once a year, Gaura-pūrṇimā for one day, you people are doing a good work”, and then he answered. So even though they have a lot of academic knowledge, somehow Māyā steals it from them. They have so much little technical knowledge, that’s what the danger, you see some of the devotees they read some of the books, get all these details and they lose sight of just the basics, lose sight of what is the purpose of what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like you get some of these paṇḍits, they know so much they miss the whole point, they just start to speculate, you don’t know how to bring it all together because not following the strict paramparā, that’s why they are called sahajiyā. They may know this or that, some technical points, but then they make a whole mess of it. Still somehow or another by chanting Caitanya’s name they they get some vibration going there. Gradually many of them surrender to Śrīla Prabhupāda and take shelter of ISKCON. Lot Of people, more and more as time goes on taking shelter in Kṛṣṇa conscious movement because they see that we are following strictly the principles of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, strictly the principles of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is no short cut. Shorter than the direct root, any other detour, offences, some other speculation is a detour, is a delay, it’s not a short cut, short cut is this way, the way approved by the ācāryas by the six Gosvāmīs, by Jīva Gosvāmī, by Rūpa Gosvāmī, by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, Prabhupāda. So Prabhupāda, he told us that don’t break up mantras, don’t make up any mantras, don’t chant any bogus mantras, just keep it simple, chant

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita Gadādhara, Gaura Bhakta Vṛnda,

chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

and he also would sometimes in Māyāpur he said that we could chant

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ,

gopāla govinda rām śrī-madhusūdana

Even sometimes in kīrtana. One time I was trying to get devotees to chant, so I was leading Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, people were chanting, so I just threw in there, “Bolo”, that means chant, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Prabhupāda called me over, he said what is this bolo? I wasn’t you know, I was just trying to get the people to chant, Prabhupāda was very sensitive, he didn’t want any more bhajo’ or bolo’s or anything stuck inside the mantra, it was the straight authorized mahā-mantra, Pañca-tattva mantra, sometimes hari haraye, saṅkīrtana mantra, or saṅkīrtana chant but apart from that there was another form of mahā-mantra. Apart from those authorized mantras, no additions, no subtractions, sub ah tractions, as it is.

nityānanda bolite haya kṛṣṇa-prema udaya

āulāya sakala aśru gaṅgā baya

āulāya sakala aśru gaṅgā baya

Translation: Simply by talking of Nityānanda Prabhu one awakens his love for Kṛṣṇa. Thus, all his bodily limbs are agitated by ecstasy, and tears flow from his eyes like the waters of the Ganges.

Translation with repletion.

Jayapatākā Swami: One time we read the glories of Miniketan Rāmadāsa. He will just go and touch people with his flute and they will become ecstatic. You find that Lord Nityānanda is very popular, in Bengal and Orissa, this even to this date. His personality is very blissful, and as Lord Nityānanda Prabhu was always manifesting Lord Caitanya would consider who is watching, or sometimes try to maintain a certain gravity. Nityānanda Prabhu a lot of times he didn’t bother for anything, he just he was feeling very ecstatic enough for Kṛṣṇa, he wouldn’t he wouldn’t limit that, whether one is watching or not. Sometimes Lord Caitanya would chastise him, you have to be real conservative, people don’t understand your transcendental activities always, you don’t want them to commit offences. The main thing is Lord Nityānanda of course, he would give his benediction pretty liberally even when Junior Haridāsa was banned by Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda tried also to reinstate him Lord Nityānanda is very kind, very forgiving and we are very fortunate here in saṅkīrtanapura that we have Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya personally present and somehow or another if we get the mercy of Lord Nityānanda. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura is saying, “hā hā Prabhu Nityānanda Premānanda Sukhī”, that O my dear Lord Nityānanda, you are always filled with transcendental love, bliss of transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa, that ecstasy you are always filled with. “Kṛpā bolo ekhono karo āmi boro duḥkhī”, so please have your mercy upon me because I am very, I am most miserable, therefore I need the your mercy. Lord Nityānanda is very liberal, he is always very ecstatic, his devotees are always very ecstatic. So, if we worship Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda because they are very merciful. So, we are very fortunate that they have appeared here. We should try to give them what they like most, lot of spontaneous devotional service and ecstatic kīrtanas. By their presence naturally one can experience the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just as last night we heard some of our guest or some of the devotees, the folk members express some amazing experiences they had, I don’t know if you all were here then they might have been busy, some of them were saying some amazing things about the waves of ecstasy they were experiencing in some of the kīrtanas. So even though certainly they also admitted that they had a lot of problems in following some of the principles, still by the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura in spite of their not being always very pure, they are able to experience some very sublime experiences in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, it’s all by the mercy of Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya, they are personally present here.

‘kṛṣṇa-nāma’ kare aparādhera vicāra

kṛṣṇa nāma balile aparādhīra nā haya vikāra’ [CC Ādi 8.24].

There are offenses to be considered while chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Therefore, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one does not become ecstatic. Here they give the whole description of the ten offences. In this regard Prabhupāda said, “it is very beneficial to chant the name “Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda” before chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantrabecause by chanting these two holy names, “Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda” one immediately becomes ecstatic and if he then chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, he becomes free of offences.

Text-25

tad aśma-sāraṁ hṛdayaṁ batedaṁ

yad gṛhyamāṇair hari-nāma-dheyaiḥ

na vikriyetatha yadā vikāro

netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ

Translation: “If one’s heart does not change, tears do not flow from his eyes, his body does not shiver, nor his hairs stands on end as he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, it should be understood that his heart is as hard as iron. This is due to his offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord’s holy name.”

Translation with repetition.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, commenting on this verse, which is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.24), remarks that sometimes a mahā-bhāgavata, or very advanced devotee, does not manifest such transcendental symptoms as tears in the eyes, although sometimes a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, a neophyte devotee, displays them artificially. This does not mean, however that the neophyte is more advanced than the mahā-bhāgavatadevotee. The test of the real change of heart that takes place when one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is that one becomes detached from material enjoyment. This is the real change. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca (Bhāg. 11.2.42). If one is actually advancing in spiritual life, he must become very much detached from material enjoyment. If it is sometimes found that a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī (neophyte devotee) shows artificial tears in his eyes while chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra but is still completely attached to material things, his heart has not really changed. The change must be manifested in terms of one’s real activities.

Oṁ tat sat.

So, any questions? Vana Rūpa dāsī?

You should always be friendly. The problem is not discussing with such people, they are willing to hear, it’s not a problem discussed within, the problem is that there may be other sincere people who are walking by they were missing. When we are in saṅkīrtana, sometimes people are going by, so if we occupy the time with someone who is not very sincere, then we may miss ah… the opportunity of preaching to many sincere people, otherwise ah… Prabhupāda said, “the standard for discussing with someone in general apart from the saṅkīrtana environment is that if the person is actually ready to listen, if when you are speaking… before you are even finishing they are already coming with some other arguments, they are just trying to push their point, they are not actually listening to what you are saying and there is no use in wasting time with him but right firmly, impolitely, invite them to come by to discuss in the temple where there is more time and explain it. You just have to try to meet as many people as possible that… you don’t have to give him a small book and say, “you have to pay for it.” They like it if they sell something in, sometimes. Generally don’t like to give too much time unless the person is little bit sincere. On the street I mean if the person wants to come by the temple we don’t mind because that’s what really, that’s what it is for. But if you take a lot of time in saṅkīrtana and that can have those negative effects. Sure, the most devotees they like to play little bit by ear. Sometimes they take the risk, but such people many times they would get burned. Sometimes it pays off, it’s hard to just make a blanket rule but in generally we just avoid spending too much time with anyone. We are out in saṅkīrtana because we are like bumble bees, we have visit a lot of flowers, each flower only gives one drop of honey, one particle of pollens, we have to collect so many to create one drop of honey, what to speak if there is no… if you go to a flower and it has no honey and no pollen. Then nothing the bee will spend too much time. If you see a little spark, you fan it, try to get the person engaged, if they are not interested politely bow out. In this regard, how we get advice from the other saṅkīrtana devotees who are more experienced. They have… they give some practical realization in this regard, which kind of people potentially, cultivatable under those circumstances. Any other question?

Even though there is this mercy of Lord Caitanya, we shouldn’t…. even though one may get the… some feeling, some symptoms for love for Godhead while chanting, Lord Caitanya’s name, to be a true follower of Lord Caitanya we should also try to avoid committing offences. As per the sahajiyās, they… sahajiyās are…. They consider that well because you chant Lord Caitanya’s name and he is so merciful and you get ecstasies, so why bother trying to stop committing offences? Thinking that sounds great, there is a certain brand of religion that’s like that also. Since someone’s died for this… since, don’t try to stop committing sinful activity. So also seems to be a sahajiyā tendency in the Christianity. Although Lord Caitanya gives his mercy but alright, so by chanting if you get some ecstasy, if we get some inspiration, if we feel some half-transcendental happiness, then we should try to understand what is the way of solidifying it, our position of actually, if we feel any gratitude for what Lord Caitanya has given, any experience or any kind of realization, then we should try to do what he has instructed, not just exploit his generosity and ah… not reciprocate with that. We won’t be able to maintain the love of Godhead, those type of devotees who even though they get some feeling temporarily but they don’t go back to Godhead very… don’t get pure love of Godhead on a permanent basis. They are not considered to be confidential devotees of Lord Caitanya because they are deviating from his true teachings, they are taking advantage of his special generosity. Even Jagāi, Mādhāi they were real rascals but once they took the mercy of Lord Caitanya they corrected themselves. And once they took initiation, they didn’t fall down anymore, they stopped their rascaldom. Any more questions? If someone is having trouble, they one should chant a lot of Lord Caitanya’s names, so that get a special mercy, some special benediction, he is the most merciful. Hare Kṛṣṇa!