20231123 Chapter 6 Dainya-rūpa-sva-nindā (Part 1)

The following is a Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛtam class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja, on November 23rd,2023 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Dear Devotees! Today we will be continuing with comentation of the Śrī Caitanya Candrāmṛtam Chapter-6. Chapter entitled:

Dainya-rūpa-sva-nindā - Self-criticism by the Author in Humility

Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛtam Chapter 6.46

gaurapremarasikera dainya

Humility of the relisher of ecstatic love of Gaura

vañcito’smi vañcito’smi
vañcito’smi na saṁśayaḥ
viśvaṁ gaura-rase magnaṁ
sparśo’pi mama nābhavat

Vañcita! Vañcita!! niścayai āmi vañcita!!! Śrī-gaura-premarasārṇave akhila viśva magna haila, kintu hāya! Tāhāte āmāra sparśamātrao haila nā.

I have been cheated! I have been cheated! I have certainly been cheated!!!

The whole world merged in the ecstatic loving mellow of Gaura, but alas! I was not even touched by that.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya He is giving out love of Godhead and everyone is getting it freely, whether they ask or they don’t ask. But the author is saying that he has been cheated, because he hasn’t received the mercy of love of Godhead! So, he is feeling very frustrated and we should feel like this! That Lord Caitanya is giving out His mercy, and we are not getting it, then we should be very sad. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying if you are not crying for Kṛṣṇa, we should cry that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa and if we are not crying that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa, we should cry that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa and so on.

Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛtam Chapter 6.47

gaurāvatāre prema-rasa-gandhaleśa-vañcita vyaktira vidyā, āśrama o jīvane dhik

Condemnations of the person’s knowledge, āśrama and life of a person bereft of slight fragrance of the loving mellow of Gaura Avatāra

kair vā sarva-pumartha-maulir akṛtāyāsair ihāsādito
nāsīd gaura-padāravinda-rajasā spṛṣṭe mahī-maṇḍale
hā hā dhig mama jīvitaṁ dhig api me vidyāṁ dhig apy āśramaṁ
yad daurbhāgya-bharād aho mama na tat-sambandha-gandho’py abhūt

śrī-gaura-pādapadmaparāge mahīmaṇḍala spṛṣṭa haile kon vyaktii vā ‘asādhane’ (anāyāse) sarva-puruṣārtha-śiromaṇi-prema prāpta nā haiyāchena? Kintu hāya, hāya, atyanta durbhāgyavaśe āmi sei premera leśamātrao lābha karite pārilāma nā! Dhik āmāra jīvane, dhik āmāra pāṇḍitye, dhik āmāra turīya tridaṇḍa-sannyāsāśrame!

Who did not get love which is the crest jewel of all the goals of life when the earthly planet is touched by the pollen of the lotus feet of Gaura? Everyone obtained. But, alas! Because of my great misfortune, I did not get even little bit of that love. Condemnation to my life. Condemnation also to my knowledge of the scriptures. Fie unto my topmost tṛdaṇḍa sannyāsa āśrama.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the author, he is regretting that Lord Caitanya, He is giving out love for Kṛṣṇa and everybody is getting, but he didn’t get! So, he is feeling that all his achievements mundane scholarship and so on is to be condemned. Because the real goal of live is to get love of Kṛṣṇa and that is available by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. But he is not getting it, he didn’t get it, he is lamenting. So, we should be so fixed on getting the pure of Kṛṣṇa that we don’t care for anything else.

Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛtam Chapter 6.48

gaura-kṛpākaṭākṣa-vañcita vyakti nitānta bhāgyahīna

A person devoid of the merciful glance of Gaura is extremely unfortunate

utsasarpa jagad eva pūrayan
gauracandra-karuṇā-mahārṇavaḥ
bindu-mātram api nāpatan mahā-
durbhage mayi kim etad adbhutam

śrī-gauracandrera karuṇārūpa-mahāsamudra samagra jagatke plāvita kariyā ucchalita haila, kintu, hāya, ki āścarya, tāhāra ekaṭī binduo āmāra mata durbhāgya-jane patita haila nā!

The moon of Gaura’s great ocean in the form of mercy completely flooding the world overflowed. But, alas! What a wonder! Even a drop of that did not fall on an unfortunate person like me!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the author of this book, he feels deprived that he did not get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Even though that mercy flooded the world! So, he is amazed that he did not get a drop of that mercy! Actually, we can understand, he got a lot of mercy. But he is lamenting, saying that he did not get any mercy. We should want the mercy of Lord Caitanya and then we should lament that we are not getting it. So, this author, he is showing us how we should be so fixed on getting Lord Caitanya’s causeless mercy. We should want to get love of Kṛṣṇa, there is nothing more valuable than that!

Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛtam Chapter 6.49

kali-kāle gaura-kṛpā-vyatīta koṭī-kaṇṭakarudha bhaktimārge praveśa asambhava—

kālaḥ kalir balina indriya-vairi-vargāḥ
śrī-bhakti-mārga iha kaṇṭaka-koṭi-ruddhaḥ
hā hā kva yāmi vikalaḥ kim ahaṁ karomi
caitanya-candra yadi nādya kṛpāṁ karoṣi

Kāla kali. indriyarūpa śatrusakala atyanta balavān evaṃ paramojjvala bhaktimārga karmajñānādi koṭi-kaṇṭaka-jāle avaruddha. ataeva, he caitanyacandra, tumi yadi adya kṛpā nā kara, tāhā haile hāya! Ei avasthāya vihvala (arthāt kali-kāle bhaktipatha nānā manodharmera dvārā ācchanna haoyāya dharmādharma nirūpaṇe sammuḍhacitta) āmi ki kari, kothāya yāi?

This is the age of Kali. The enemies in the form of senses are very powerful and the very bright path of devotional service is covered with crores of thorns in the form of karma and jñāna. Oh! Caitanyacandra! If you do not show mercy now, then alas! I am overwhelmed in this condition since the path of devotional service is covered by various mental speculations. So, my intelligence is bewildered in finding out religion and irreligion. What shall I do? Where shall I go?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, when Rādhārāṇī, of course we know that She has the purest Prema. But She is always thinking, I don’t have the purest, I need to get the mercy! You see, if someone like this desires that they want the mercy, that is the best qualification. But you don’t find this in the pure devotees, ‘Oh I have received, I have Kṛṣṇa, I have pure love of Kṛṣṇa!’ They don’t say like that. They may have pure love, but they are saying, I don’t have a drop! I don’t have a drop! So, like that they are so much fixed on getting the mercy. And we understand that the greatest mercy can be achieved by Lord Caitanya. He gives out love of Kṛṣṇa which is otherwise very difficult to achieve. He gives it out freely.

Anyway, today we are observing the special auspicious Ekādaśī, the first day of Bhīṣma Pañcaka and the thing is that we want to achieve pure love for Kṛṣṇa. And the way to do that is by thinking, I need it, but I don’t have it. If we think we have it, then we will become lazy. If we think, I need it, then there is a chance to get mercy from Lord Caitanya. So, Bhīṣma Pañcaka, Bhīṣmadeva is the son of Mother Ganges. And he is a lifelong brahmacārī, he always told the truth. Arjuna went up to him and said you are invincible, how to defeat you? Whatever you ask him, he tells the truth! He said I cannot fight against a lady or someone who has a lady’s name. So then Arjuna put Śikhaṇḍī in front of him and Bhīṣmadeva, he couldn’t fight because he had a lady’s name. Śikhaṇḍī, in the previous birth he was a lady, he took birth as Śikhaṇḍī, to kill Bhīṣmadeva. So, Arjuna had Śikhaṇḍī before him, and he could pierce Bhīṣmadeva with so many arrows and he did not fight back. So, he didn’t have any children. He was a lifelong brahmacārī. So we do the Bhīṣma Pañcaka, we do tarpaṇa on behalf of Bhīṣmadeva. Normally, a father’s son would do the tarpaṇa but Bhismadeva had no son, he was a lifelong brahmacārī. So by doing this tarpaṇa for Bhīṣmadeva, it pleases Lord Kṛṣṇa very much. In the altar today we offered lotus to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, tomorrow we will offer bel-patra to the knees. So, five days we offer five things. I had some Ganges water brought up and so I did Ganges tarpaṇa here. Otherwise, people go to the Ganges. So, like that. It is said that the fruit of doing the Bhīṣma Pañcaka is so great that it is beyond calculation.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!