20230517 Question and Answer Session

The following is Q&A session answered by His Holiness.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: In the class you were saying the Lord Caitanya experienced the jubilation and lamenting at the same time. Is there an example in this world which can give us an idea what it is like?

Jayapatākā Swami: Rukmiṇī told Kṛṣṇa, "You know what is going in Brahmaloka, You know what is going on in Kailasa, you know what is going on in the ananta-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa, unlimited millions of universes, but there is one thing You don’t know, I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, You don’t know." No one ever said that to Him, there was something He did not know. Incredible! So He asked what is that. And Rukmiṇī said, You don’t know what the devotees feel for You, and how much we feel for You. Then Kṛṣṇa thought I will come as My devotee, I will come as My devotee. I will come as My devotee. He said that three times. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Such things that Lord Caitanya exhibited. In India once in Māyāpur, I had very high fever in 1972 or ‘73 I was feeling pain in my body. I was listening to Śrīla Prabhupāda lecture in Vṛndāvana on the Nectar of Devotion, and I was feeling happiness. So physically I was feeling pain but my consciousness was very happy. That may be an example of how Lord Caitanya was feeling lamentation and jubilation. Of course I was very happy to hear Śrīla Prabhupāda lecture. So the consciousness, the living force was very happy. But I realized that my consciousness was not the same as my body. But most people do not have any consciousness of Krsna. I don’t know, I don’t think does anyone know? All of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, the author is saying I cannot write properly. I think there is no example in the material world where someone is experiencing lamentation and jubilation at the same time. Actually to be satisfied even in lamentation. You are lamenting, let me give you an ice cream, or something. 

Question: My question is from yesterday's class. You mentioned that the gopis and creepers of Vrndavana are always in the fire of separation, they always feel that separation from Krsna. Although, they are always associating with Krsna because they are always remembering Him, still they feel that separation. But we are in reality, in actuality, we are the ones who are separated from Krsna, but we never realize that separation. So how do we realize this at every moment that we are separated from Krsna?

Jayapatākā Swami: The they thing is that Lord Caitanya is teaching us how we can love Krsna in separation, and if we develop the desire, I asked how we want to develop love of Krsna, everybody raised their hand. But if you desire very intensely, we want it strongly, we could achieve that. But we have to do everything. And gradually we will awaken that spontaneous love. In the beginning of the Nectar of Devotion, the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, it explains how we start devotional service following certain rules. And gradually practicing devotional service becomes like a spontaneous, like a ritual thing. From there one actually starts to develop a taste and becomes very attached and becomes every ecstatic, and then they start to manifest ecstatic symptoms and then that becomes pure and they start to achieve Kṛṣṇa-prema. So, these are the steps, it is a gradual process. Eight steps to the bhāva and prema and then eight steps of prema. We may not get all the way to the top of prema, but anywhere in prema, even bhāva is very nice.

Alright! I always want to end early but it always ends up late!