19810830 Mahā-Prakaśa Līlā of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu with Translations

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on Aug 30th, 1981 in Florence, Italy.

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale 
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe 
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā vadānyāya kṛṣṇa prema pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa caitanya nāmne gaura tviṣe namaḥ 

pañca-tattvātmakaṁ kṛṣṇaṁ
bhakta-rūpa-svarūpakam
bhaktāvatāraṁ bhaktākhyaṁ
namāmi bhakta-śaktikam

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

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

Jayapatākā Swami: We are all here today due to the special causeless mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The greatest mysticism, ‘rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ pavitram idam uttamam – (Bg. 9.2)’, the greatest mystery is that connected with the Supreme Person, the Supreme Godhead. If one sees the sun, when the sun comes out…. let me put it this way, that, we are all sometimes in the dark of night, but when the sun comes out everything is illuminated. Similarly, when we are in the darkness of ignorance; when the sun of realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes, everything is illuminated.

What you can do and what I can do, this may all be limited by time, by space, by conditions. But what Kṛṣṇa can do is unlimited. So, sometimes people try to limit the Supreme Person by saying, “How can He come down to this earth?” But this is a great offense to God. We should never limit Him, to think that He cannot come down. He can do anything! Sometimes He personally comes, and sometimes He sends His representative - His son, His prophet, His representative, the Guru.

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge
(Bg. 4.8)

Kṛṣṇa said in Bhagavad-gītā in Sanskrit, that He is coming in every millennium to protect his devotees and to destroy the miscreants, to establish pure spiritual life.

The Vedas are covering a history of millions of years. Therefore, it discusses dozens of different avatāras or incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, over this period of millions of years. And it discusses several different paths for realizing that Supreme Person, by purifying one’s consciousness. So some great saints, they have analysed that, which form of the Lord; which time that He came down was He the most merciful? Every time the Lord comes; each of His comings has different special qualities. Sometimes He shows His extreme power. Just like one time, He came and He expanded bigger than the whole universe. Sometimes, He comes He and just shows His beauty, like Mohinī-mūrti - He attracted everyone. Sometimes He shows his vairāgya, His ability to do great penances, like Nara-Nārāyaṇa, who for thousands of years stayed in meditation and austerities. Sometimes He shows his great learning like Vyāsadeva, who wrote down all the Vedas. And sometimes He shows His great devotion, like Nārada Muni, who is the incarnation of a pure devotee. So, the source of all the different incarnations of the Lord is Kṛṣṇa, and He showed all the qualities in one. He showed that, in the kingdom of God one thing is the most prominent, that is pure love. He showed the most exquisite loving relations with His devotees, with His parent, with His so-called parents, with His lovers… perfect relations, incomparable in this world.

In fact, His pastimes were so wonderful. He realized that His devotees love Him so much that He decided to come down as a devotee Himself, just to experience that. Actually 500 and some years ago, there was a great priest. He was the topmost of all the priests in Bengal, India. His name was Advaita Gosāñī. And he saw that the people were becoming materialistic, that they were going away from the purpose of yoga. And he wanted that they should become purified, that they should come back on the path of perfection. But he felt himself incapable to personally cause the change. So He began to pray to Kṛṣṇa to personally come down and deliver all the people. And sitting by the side of the sacred Ganges river, He began to worship the Śālagrāma-śilā. Śālagrāma-śilā is a self-manifested deity, appears by His own potency. No one makes Him, He just comes. So that is worshiped as non-different from Kṛṣṇa. So He was worshiping by offering the tulasī leaves, tulasī-mañjarīs and Ganges water and loudly He was crying. He was shouting out, “Hare Kṛṣṇa!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

And He was just praying to the Lord, “Please come down and deliver these fallen souls.” And His shouting was so heart rendering that it reached right to the kingdom of God and it woke up, it just shook Kṛṣṇa, that He decided, “I will come down.”

So Kṛṣṇa came down in disguise as a devotee, 495 years ago. And, His name was Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Gaurāṅga - the Golden Avātara. When He came… the whole world was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa on the day of His appearance because it was a full moon eclipse. And everyone would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa on a full moon eclipse. And He performed so many different pastimes. Finally, He was heading up the saṅkīrtana movement with hundreds and hundreds of devotees in Navadvīpa, Māyāpur (in India), when He was about 15-16 years old. He is 7-feet tall, golden color like molten gold, long black hair and His arms would reach down to His knees. His chest was broad and His waist was thin like a lion’s waist. His eyes were in the shape of a lotus flower and they went down to His ears. They were so long and beautiful. He had the marks, sacred marks on his hand of lightning bolt, flag and so many other marks which ordinary human beings do not have. But even though He was leading this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa with so many hundreds and thousands of followers; but in the beginning no one thought that He was actually Kṛṣṇa Himself, they didn't know. One day, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He went to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita’s house and suddenly He just sat down on the siṁhāsana, the altar of the Lord. Normally no human being will ever sit on the Lord’s altar… this is a highly unusual thing to do. So Lord Caitanya, His mood was always of a devotee, but today His mood was different. Actually He was manifesting His original mood because He was Kṛṣṇa Himself. He was only playing as a devotee. ? So Śrīvāsa’s younger brother, Ramāi, he came there. And He called him, “Ramāi come here….come here! ? You go and immediately you see Advaita Gosāñī. You tell him that, ‘That person for whom He was shouting loudly… That person for whom He had desired that He come, That person for whom He was crying, crying…. you tell Advaita Gosāñī, the head of the priests, to come with his wife and bring all the paraphernalia for worshiping Viṣṇu. Now go immediately!”

So Ramāi Paṇḍita, he ran over to the house of Advaita Gosāñī, the head of the priests. And Advaita Gosāñī… he said, “Advaita! Advaita! There is an important message! You are being called with your wife.” But Advaita was a bit preoccupied, He was thinking “What is this all about, what are you calling Me for?” Then when he saw that Advaita had just settled His mind a bit, then Ramāi told him as follows: ‘That Person who You were desiring in the inner part of Your heart that He would come, that Person to whom You were shouting loudly to come, that Person whom You were crying profusely for, that Person has come and He is calling for You.”