19820429 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā.17 Pastimes of young Lord Caitanya

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 29th, 1982. The class begins with a reading from the Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter 16, Verse 1.

Text 1

kṛpā-sudhā-sarid yasya
viśvam āplāvayanty api
nīca-gaiva sadā bhāti
taṁ caitanya-prabhuṁ bhaje

Translation: I worship Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, whose nectarean mercy flows like a great river, inundating the entire universe. Just as a river flows downstream, Lord Caitanya especially extends Himself to the fallen.

Text 2

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda
jayādvaitacandra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Translation: All glories to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu! All glories to Lord Nityānanda! All glories to Advaitacandra! And all glories to all the devotees of the Lord!

Purport (to Text 1): Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu dayā kara more. He prays for Lord Caitanya's mercy because He is the mercy incarnation, having appeared especially to claim the fallen souls. The more fallen one is, the greater one's claim to the favor of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One must only be very sincere and serious. Despite being contaminated by all the bad qualities of this Kali-yuga, if one surrenders unto the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Lord will surely and certainly deliver him. The best example is Jagāi and Mādhāi. In this Age of Kali practically everyone is like Jagāi and Mādhāi, but the saṅkīrtana movement inaugurated by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is still flowing like a great river, inundating the entire world, and thus the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is successfully claiming all fallen souls to free them from contamination.

Jayapatākā Swami: So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the mercy incarnation, having appeared especially to deliver the fallen souls, and this International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness has been described as being the waters here of Lord Caitanya’s mercy flowing like a great river, for inundating the entire world.

That there are so many difficult and complicated practices for becoming self-realized, for becoming religiously perfected, or God-realized. But all of those different methods are beset with so many obstacles, with so many difficulties, that there is no guarantee of success in this short life. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is so merciful that He has given a process which is able to purify the material consciousness of anyone, even the most fallen. It mentions here Jagāi-Mādhāi. Jagāi-Mādhāi were two great ruffians of the middle age, when Lord Caitanya came, five hundred years ago. They were like the organized crime of that day. (laughter) They were the mafia leaders but Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered them.

In fact, by the mercy of Lord Nityānanda they became completely sanctified. Although initially they tried to kill Lord Nityānanda, but in the end His mercy prevailed. So it was such a feat that it was as if Baby Face Nelson and Al Capone had become Hare Kṛṣṇa (laughter) swamis, and in fact it had that effect because all the people came from literally hundreds and hundreds of miles to see how these great criminals had become great devotees. So there is no limit to the power of purification of this chanting of the great mantra for deliverance:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Here, we have another Sanskrit verse.

Text 3

jīyāt kaiśora-caitanyo
mūrti-matyā gṛhāśramāt
lakṣmyārcito 'tha vāg-devyā
diśāṁ jayi-jaya-cchalāt

Translation: Long live Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His kaiśora age! Both the goddess of fortune and the goddess of learning worship Him. The goddess of learning, Sarasvatī, worshiped Him in His victory over the scholar who had conquered all the world, and the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmīdevī, worshiped Him at home. Since He is therefore the husband or Lord of both goddesses, I offer my obeisances unto Him.

Jayapatākā Swami: It is very hard; you have the two… one is Sarasvatī and one is Lakṣmī. Sarasvatī is the goddess of learning and Lakṣmī is the goddess of wealth or fortune. Generally, someone has learning but then they are not so wealthy. Or someone has lots of wealth but they are not so learned or cultured, but here because Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself, He is the Lord of both.

So He has not only learning, culture but He has all opulence also. So similarly, the devotees like to see Lord Caitanya in His kaiśora age, kaiśora age means around 12-18 or you can say 14-16 – 18 like that, 16 something. Just in His youthful prime. So, when He was just a young man, just a teenager, He was already at the full opulence in so many different ways that He was considered to be the greatest scholar in Navadvīpa.

Actually, we should understand that just as we come here, in this way, the Lord can also come here. But we come here under very stringent laws. We come here under the law of karma and we are forced to transmigrate through various bodies according to our mentality, our desires and our activities. But when the Lord comes, He is independent. He is coming out of His own free will. That in human civilization there are periods when the human beings become more materialistic and they forget the real spiritual purpose of life. At that time the Lord sends some great devotees, some son of God, a prophet, a ācārya, spiritual master or He Himself comes to reestablish principles of self-realization or religion. Like Lord Buddha is a partial incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. We accept Lord Jesus as a śaktyāveśa or empowered living entity coming, empowered by Kṛṣṇa.

So, Caitanya Mahāprabhu though is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Kṛṣṇa came five thousand years ago and spoke the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Bhagavad-gītā he said ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (Bg. 10.8), “Everything is coming from Me.”, and mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (Bg. 7.7), that “There’s no higher truth than Me.” Arjuna saw Kṛṣṇa’s universal form, countless living entities saw Kṛṣṇa’s universal form, then Arjuna praised Kṛṣṇa that You are paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (Bg. 10.12), “You are the Supreme Absolute Truth, You are the shelter of everything, You are the unknowable, You are the transcendental Lord.” So Kṛṣṇa when He comes, He is considered svarāṭ, that means completely independent.

In this world we all want to be independent, everyone says they want to be independent, they want freedom, they want liberty to do everything and anything they want. But unfortunately we are not able to do so. We are actually forced to follow our senses. We are forced to suffer and enjoy due to stringent laws of material nature; we are not independent. But, when Kṛṣṇa comes, He is independent. Whatever He does there is no reaction; He is not suffering or enjoying the effects of karma.

Everyone sees how the successful man down the street has set up his business and he does only have to go to office two hours a day and he spends most of his time in southern California or Miami and just comes up and he is making so many millions of dollars, and somebody opens up a small business and wants to also become a multi-millionaire, but it doesn’t happen. Not everyone that opens up a business becomes rich. In fact, a lot of small businesses fail, but everyone has that hope.

So why someone succeeds and someone doesn’t? There’s five causes for every action,

• the doer,

• the thing to be done,

• the place

• the time and

• daiva, providence.

One’s karma, the will of the Supreme. So, someone succeeds, in his previous lives or in the prev… in this life he has performed such activities where he has good karma. Therefore he succeeds to enjoy to some extent the fruits of his work. Someone else comparatively enjoys less; these are not within the complete control of the individual. Even if we like to be free, our freedom is limited by so many stringent laws, some of which we are aware of and some of which we may not be aware of. If we know what are the laws, if we know how we are limited, if we know where we actually stand, then we can chalk out for ourselves what is the actual course we should take in this life. A person who knows where he stands is in a much better situation than a person who is in… completely in the dark. So, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is meant to distribute knowledge to people so that they can know what is their actual position in this material world, and so that they can achieve good fortune in this life.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He has made it very simple. When He came down, He came in disguise. He didn’t reveal Himself as God. In the Kali-yuga, this particular age of destruction, age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the original Personality of Godhead does not come in His original form. There’s four main ages: golden, silver, bronze and iron, this is the Iron Age. The Lord is known as tri-yuga because He comes in the golden, silver and bronze ages, He does not come in this iron age in His original form. But He comes in empowered forms or in covered forms. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa but He has come in a covered form. Covered from our vision. Not that He is covered but we are… we are not able to see Him as He has put a veil of māyā over Himself. He has come as a devotee. Something like a professor when he teaches his students, “You write like this.” Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-Gītā and in the Bhagavad-Gītā He said so many things that today, there are about 600 different translations of Bhagavad-Gītā, each with their own interpretation.

So it is very bewildering if you want to be a student of the Bhagavad-Gītā, which one to believe. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu could understand the same thing 500 years ago, Kṛṣṇa knew. He had spoken the Bhagavad-Gītā, and so many people were misinterpreting it, that He personally came to show this is how you practice it.

Just like when we buy an amateur radio set or some kind of, you know, do it yourself kit and if you can’t ultimately figure out the directions, then you can go to the manufacturer and then they’ll send for the man. He’ll say, “You do it like this.”, and he’ll show you how you do it. Then of course you feel like a fool because it was so simple. It was written right there! Similarly everything is there in the Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Lord Caitanya said, “I have not come to give anything new, I have come simply to speak Kṛṣṇa-katha.”, but He Himself is Kṛṣṇa. But He showed practically, how to practice. So in His early life He was in Navadvīpa, then He went to Jagannātha Purī, then He toured. He went to Benaras, to Jagannātha… to Vṛndāvana and through the whole South India He toured up to… practically up to Bombay. In this way He toured the whole India by foot preaching this Harināma-sankīrtana. Even today, in the farthest tip of Kerala, people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and there are some temples of Caitanya Mahāprabhu still there and His footprints are established in temples all around India. And of course, in Eastern India He is worshipped very emphatically, very enthusiastically. And now He is worshipped all over the world, thanks to His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, our Founder-Ācārya who brought this movement all over the world.

So Kṛṣṇa, when He was in Vṛndāvana, no one knew that He was God. He kept it a secret. He really only revealed it once He left Vṛndāvana. Of course, people could understand, but He kept Himself covered by yoga-māyā, just a cowherd boy. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He kept Himself covered by yoga-māyā and His pastime was He was a young scholar. He was a great Paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means someone who knows the scriptures inside and out. In the West a professor would be… also you consider a “pundit”, a PhD. So like that, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was a Paṇḍita. He was known as Nimāi-paṇḍita, a teacher. But He started early, as is said in this Text 4.

Text 4

ei ta' kaiśora-līlāra sūtra-anubandha
śiṣya-gaṇa paḍāite karilā ārambha

Translation: At the age of eleven Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu began to teach students. This marks the beginning of His kaiśora age.

Jayapatākā Swami: He started His kaiśora age at the age of 11. Normally people start at 16, but He started a little earlier.

Text 5

śata śata śiṣya saṅge sadā adhyāpana
vyākhyā śuni sarva-lokera camakita mana

Translation: As soon as the Lord became a teacher, many, many students came to Him, every one of them astonished to hear His mode of explanation.

Text 6

sarva-śāstre sarva paṇḍita pāya parājaya
vinaya-bhaṅgīte kāro duḥkha nāhi haya

Translation: The Lord defeated all kinds of scholars in discourses about all the scriptures, yet because of His gentle behavior, none of them were unhappy.

Text 7

vividha auddhatya kare śiṣya-gaṇa-saṅge
jahnavite jala-keli kare nana range

Translation: The Lord, as a teacher, performed various kinds of pranks in His sporting pastimes in the water of the Ganges.

Jayapatākā Swami: So I wanted to discuss today some of the pastimes. This is just in a very brief form they have described here. So, I thought I could explain some of the details of what Lord Caitanya did, when He was in His kaiśora age. After he went to Eastern Bengal and preached Harināma-saṅkīrtana and at the same time, after that, He got married to Lakṣmīpriyā. He met Tapana Miśrā. Tapana Miśrā wanted to go Navadvīpa but Lord Caitanya sent him to Benaras. He said they would meet there again, which happened.

In this way Lakṣmī Devī, she was very unhappy that Lord Caitanya had gone. So before He went to Eastern Bengal, where our Bhakti Dāsa was preaching for several years, taking up great personal risk and sacrifice. But in those days it was very opulent. Now it’s more difficult. So what happened was, Lord Caitanya, He gradually collected literally hundreds of students even though He was only 11 or 12 years old, because He was so expert. Actually He was about say… I’ll discuss about the period just before He left, when He was about 14 when He just had got married and, even then He was already, of course about… full grown. He’s 7 feet tall, and He was approaching that height already.

He’s is known as ājānu-lambita-bhujau, meaning that His arms reach down to His knees when He is standing up. They were so long. And He is very beautiful to look at. All good qualities. So, Lord Caitanya, He was so expert that He would explain all of the scriptural, all of the Sanskrit grammar everything in terms of syllable… different type of stories and syllables… similes using Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and uh, Kṛṣṇa’s names and it was very interesting. So, so many students liked to hear.

So in this way, Lord Caitanya, He would be with His students and say, He would study for about six hours a day. Then they would wander go… walk around the town and He would go surrounded by all of His students. Many of them were much older than He was, but because He was so brilliant… As mentioned here, He had actually defeated a great scholar who was 50 years old… great. The greatest scholar who had defeated everyone in the whole of India, when he met Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya defeated him. That is a whole other long story, where Lord Caitanya revealed to him that He was actually Kṛṣṇa. This great scholar worshipped the goddess of learning, Sarasvatī, his worshipable deity and she revealed to him that actually, “This is Kṛṣṇa. That’s why you were defeated.”, and then Lord Caitanya revealed Himself, that is a whole other story, happens a little later.

So Lord Caitanya’s going and He sees the different scholars. He’d meet a scholar and immediately He would say, oh, “My dear brāhmaṇa,”, “My dear Bhattacharji,”, “My dear Pandey,”, “My dear…” whatever, and then He’d say, “How are you today?” He said, “Please I want to learn something from you.” Then He would ask a question which would be so difficult, that the person couldn’t answer, or if he answered, then Lord Caitanya would say… would then say, “Oh, your answer is very wonderful.” He said, “It is so filled with good points and so filled with defects.” and then you know, “Could you point out the good points, and the defects?” and then then person may actually… wouldn’t see the defects in his own work. And then Lord Caitanya would take it apart and show these are the good points and these are the defects, in this way they would all accept defeat at Lord Caitanya, that actually He had perfect understanding of Sanskrit and of all the śāstras.

But basically Lord Caitanya was teaching His students Sanskrit grammar, the basics. So, He saw Mukunda and Mukunda was trying to avoid Lord Caitanya, but He called out, “Mukunda, Mukunda! Why are you avoiding Me?” He was caught. He thought I am going to teach this Lord Caitanya. I am going to teach this Nimāi-paṇḍita, now. He is just a grammarian. He doesn’t know the finer poetic things about Sanskrit, what’s the use of… He wants everyone to follow Him. I am going to deflate Him today.

This is… Mukunda was thinking. This was, you see… before. Later Mukunda became a very great devotee of Lord Caitanya, but this time, he came and he said, “Why should I follow You? You only know grammar. What do You know about alaṅkāra, about Sanskrit poetry?” So then Lord Caitanya said, “Well, you compose some poetry and then we’ll see if I know anything on that. And so then again the same thing happened where Mukunda got caught. He made a verse and Lord Caitanya completely dissected it, and pointed out its good and bad points, and Lord Caitanya started speaking so much other poetry, and then all of His students started laughing. Mukunda turned red and then Lord Caitanya said, “Well, you just consider this thing and we can again meet tomorrow and discuss some more poetry.”, and then Mukunda was thinking “If just He was a pure devotee, He wasn’t so much into these scholastic pursuits, then I would stay with Him all the time.”, that is what he was thinking.

Then Mukunda, he left. Then like this, Lord Caitanya would be walking, going through the town, then He saw Gadādhara. “Hey Gadādhara! it’s been so long! Why you are hiding?” He was caught. Everyone was very af… they knew that if he got caught by Lord Caitanya, that was it. He was going to… any brāhmaṇa, any other scholar, He would put them right against the wall.

So then Lord Caitanya asked him that, “Please, I just have one question. Could you tell Me what is the meaning of mukti? What is the meaning of liberation?” So then, you know, this is how Lord Caitanya very humbly, very nicely come up and just grab hold of some person. Seemingly very simple question, “What is liberation?”, but everyone knows that any question by Lord Caitanya is loaded (laughter). By Nimāi-paṇḍita. So in this way He had a very great sense of humor, but He was very sweet how He behaved with everyone and was in complete control of every situation.

Just like Kṛṣṇa was enjoying with the cowherd boys and with cow… Lord Caitanya, He was enjoying this type of, university-type rasa, you know, going with the students and… so, then Gadādhara, he quoted from Upaniṣads that liberation means the complete ending of all type of material misery. Then Lord Caitanya said, “This is not complete.” Then, Lord Caitanya started quoting from so many different scriptures. Gadādhara started thinking that, “He never studied all these scriptures. (devotees laughing) How does He know every scripture… every Vedic scripture… every Vedic literature, that even… even, we only know the name but we haven’t… we can’t even find, hardly, the manuscript! How He can pick out ślokas and verses just from every one of these? Without… I never remember that He ever studied these. How… how is it humanly possible?”, and He started to establish that the real liberation is not just negation of material misery, but it’s actually establishment of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the establishment of relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

The liberation which is simply a negation of material misery, that is not complete. Complete liberation means not only is material misery negated, but positive spiritual ānandam, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, the full, eternal knowledge is realized, the complete form of Kṛṣṇa is realized. That is complete liberation. So, Gadādhara, He had nothing… he didn’t know what to say. So Lord Caitanya said, “Well, You can think about it and tomorrow again, we will meet, and discuss some more.” In this way, it would go on and on. They’re going, and sometimes they would meet other scholars and they’d do the same. In this way, all the teachers and all the older, you see Navadvīpa at that time was the seat of Sanskrit learning in India.

Of course Benaras has always been a very big seat, and I would say that today, probably Benaras is more the center. But, what we can understand that, particularly in that period that, Navadvīpa was considered to be the center since the time of the Gauḍa kings, the king of Lakṣmaṇa and Ballālasena, Sena dynasty, before the Moghul rule, when they established their capital from Malda, and put it in Navadvīpa that became a great seat of scholars. Jayadeva, he was there before he went to Jagannātha Purī, he spoke the Jagannātha-stotram and the other great poetry that he wrote and many great scholars had all collected around Navadvīpa, even during that time when people were coming from all over India to go to Navadvīpa.

So there was no shortage of great scholars in the town. Even as a young boy, as a young man like that, He had defeated everyone, He would meet someone and He would ask these different kind of questions, and that person he would be stuck and he would say, “Long live Nimāi-paṇḍita, You are the greatest scholar.” So, in this way He had a chivalrous spirit but in a very mellow kind of nice mood. Not harsh at all.”

Then the older people, they were seeing that well, obviously He is a devotee but this is not pure devotional service. I mean, this is getting into vidyā, into simply knowledge and education and… although definitely it’s all philosophical and everything, but nonetheless it is not really a pure practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness or bhakti-yoga. So they would be praying that, “May Kṛṣṇa bless this Nimāi-paṇḍita to become a devotee. If He becomes a pure devotee then that will be very great for the whole humanity.” Sometimes old people they would meet Lord Caitanya in front of His students and chastise Him. They would say, “What is the use of all this materialistic learning and all this big show of scholastic feats without pure bhakti to Kṛṣṇa? You should simply surrender unto the spiritual master and You should simply preach pure God consciousness, this is the actual practice… God consciousness, practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, bhakti, there’s nothing else.” Lord Caitanya also… but He was very… He said, “Yes, I… I want to… just a little longer. Short time, I am just enjoying this scholastic pursuit, but as soon as I reach My spiritual master and get the mercy I will definitely take up pure devotional service.”

In this way He would… He would not argue with them, He would agree. He would then continue His rounds. So, in this way Nimāi-paṇḍita - the name of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in those days - became, of course known and loved by everyone. He would sometimes, what would happen though is that He would hear the name of Kṛṣṇa, or He would somehow become just ecstatic, and at that time, He would completely become absorbed in mahā-bhāva ecstasy, and tears coming from His eyes, and He would be shaking and crying. These are all type of spiritual ecstasies in Kṛṣṇa consciousness on a very advanced platform. So, while He was in that ecstatic trance, He would say so many things about Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes He would say what His own purpose was, that He was Kṛṣṇa, or various things and no one knew what to make of it, and then when He came down from His… from His ecstatic trance then He would be a little bit bashful. He would only come down… especially when people would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa that would bring Him down. So then He would just say, “Well, must be some disorder in My airs.” Sometimes, people, if their airs get disordered, their limbs start to move and various things happen… went out of their control.

So people we… were praying that, “Oh He must…”, and they used to… would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa so that, they thought that He was being attacked by some disorder of the airs in His body, so they would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and pray for His health, and when He heard the chanting that would bring Him back down from His ecstasy. But they thought that well, you know, that He was coming… He was being helped from this disease, and so then, He was uh, “Yes of course, what is this temporary body? It is not going to be here forever, you also… not going to be here forever in this body. It’s only the permanent soul that counts.” In this way, He would joke with them and they would think that “Yes, yes, He was just sick and now He’s alright.” In this way then Lord Caitanya, He would keep His identity a secret.

Then sometimes, He would take His followers like Mukunda and others, in a private place and sit and discuss with them, and then sometimes He would sit with all of His students on all sides. Just like the Lord when He previously came, Nara-Nārāyaṇa came in Badrikāśrama in the Himalayas. At that time He was teaching the four Kumāras and other such celestial great sages who even came from other planets, and He would teach them. And there were all these sages there, and Nārāyaṇa was teaching them. So again we see the same type of pastime that Lord Caitanya’s teaching all of His students, and the original Nārāyaṇa coming as Lord Caitanya and He’s teaching all of His students who are on all His sides. So in this way it was very beautiful to See Lord Caitanya with all of His students, and passersby would see that how beautiful Lord Caitanya was, how wonderful this was, they would become absorbed.

Lord Caitanya became practically the talk of the whole town. Then Lord Caitanya, He’d go home after finishing His class… first, He’d go to the Ganges and have sports, a little swimming in the Ganges. After taking His bath in the Ganges, then He’d go home. Immediately after going home after His bath, then He’d worship His Śālagrāma-śilā, self-manifested deity of Viṣṇu, but He would see it as Kṛṣṇa. After worshiping His Nārāyaṇa, then He would water the tulasī tree and circumambulate the tulasī. Then, He would sit down and, the wonderful prasādam which was cooked by mother Śacī and His wife Lakṣmīpriya; Lakṣmīpriya would bring that prasādam, big mound of rice with sukta… bitter, spinaches - śāka - different types of green leafy vegetables, different kinds of carcaris, burnt purposely charcoaled, boiled type of vegetables, and various kinds of vegetables and preparations. And this would be personally served by His wife, Lakṣmīpriya and His mother would just see how this was going. She would very, very, satisfied to see Lord Caitanya taking prasādam. She would be very satisfied by that.

So people, they didn’t know that Lord Caitanya was actually Kṛṣṇa. They took that He was of course leading a very holy life, very pure life, doing… as a pure brāhmaṇa, they had that respect. He was a great scholar, great paṇḍita, but He was keeping His actual identity hidden from them, and He was always joking with different people in various subtle ways. This was of course very humorous in a way. You see, Lord Caitanya would go around the town with His friends, with His students and… He would go like… He’d go into the handloomer house. He was equal with everyone. He would just go… and just you know, knock and go in someone’s house, and they would welcome Him. They give Him a nice seat. He’d go into the handloomer’s house, and the handloomer would pay his obeisances because He was the greatest scholar in the town. He’d just come and he’d say, you know, “What can we do for you?”, and He says, “What cloth do you have? Bring Me some cloth. What’s the… what’s the latest cloth?” (Devotees laughing) Then He’d look at the cloth, and say, “Alright. Give Me this one, and give me this dhoti.”, and about every ten days He’d get a whole new set. (Devotees laughing) Very, very, very good dresser. (Devotees laughing)

Sometimes the person would give it free. Sometime, “How much?”, they would say, “Well You know the price. What do You want to give?”, so He’d give some conch shells. In those days they didn’t use money so much, they used mainly conch shells. Of course, for big things they’d use money, but for little things like cloth and that, they just used some conch. So, He’d buy it, put on His new set, give the old set to the students, and then go off. Then uh, He went over to the cowherds… from the handloomers He’d go over to the cow herders. When He’d go to the cowherders, say “Hey Gopālas! Hey cowherders!” Then they… They’d say, “Oh! It’s Nimāi-paṇḍita!” and say, “Come on, come on!” They’d give Him a nice seat and they’d wash His feet and they’d bow down and they would say that, “Yes?”, and He would say, “Well, come on! Bring on the milk! Bring on the yogurt! Bring on the ghee! Bring on the cheese!” But then, “But I don’t have any money, so how will I…” They said, “That’s alright.” They brought, and then they… they got… they gave Him and His students, they gave them so many offerings of milk products. This way, they’d have various little exchanges. Sometimes Lord Caitanya would encourage them in various ways.

So then, Lord Caitanya, He’d go from the cowherder… like this He’d go in the whole town, make His little rounds. He’d go to the… to the scented oil merchant. Again, he’d give a nice seat, He says, “Well, what do you have today?” The scented oil, he (oil merchant) said, “Well, I have got such an oil that if You put on today, go to bed tonight, tomorrow morning if You still don’t have the scent, You can get Your money back.” (Devotees laughing) Lord Caitanya said, “Well, but I don’t have any money. I am just a poor brāhmaṇa, just a poor scholar, what do I have of money?” So, they would all melt when they’d see Lord Caitanya, these were all you see… after performing many, many austerities they were able to… to be in Navadvīpa and in the Lord’s… in this informal way, is going, visiting their house, visiting their establishment and talking with them. So then they gave some oil. Disciples, rubbed Lord Caitanya special oil for His head, oil on His uh… on His body. Then again, they left the oil man’s house, going down the street, all the other scholars would, “Here comes Nimāi-paṇḍita! swoosh and they would all run (Devotees laughing), kind of like the lion coming with the whole flock.

After that Lord Caitanya went to the florist, to the person who makes these malas, and all the malīs… with great respect offered a seat to Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya said, “Well, you have any malas for any humble brāhmaṇa?”, And then he (florist) gave a beautiful garland to Lord Caitanya and uh, He said “Well, I don’t have any money.”. He said, “Well, You give or not give that is not a problem, actually. This is all for Your worship.” So, in this way, Lord Caitanya gave His merciful glance on the… on the florists and again, He went on with His students. They were wandering around. And then He went to the house of the, pan, betel merchant. So, there He sat down; the betel merchant gave a nice seat, offered Him all respect. Then he offered Him, “Here have some nice pan.” Then he brought out different type of spices for Lord Caitanya. And He took his pan, gave His blessings, and then went on out through the town again.

In this way He was going with all of His followers and visiting everyone and everyone was reciprocating with Him. In this way, just like when Lord Kṛṣṇa, He went to Mathurā, He used through walk through the whole town and everyone would come out and see Him, from Kubja to this one and that one, and Lord Caitanya He was going. Just like Kṛṣṇa was going through Mathurā, He was going through the whole of Navadvīpa from house to house, person to person, and everyone was conscious of Lord Caitanya and actually, they were hoping that Lord Caitanya would again visit. It wasn’t every day that He would visit. He was going like this gradually, one to another. So then, Lord Caitanya went to the house of Śaṅkha-vaṇika, that means one who makes jewelry from conch shells. So he offered Lord Caitanya some conch shells for His wife. Lord Caitanya… and can’t remember there’s so many… every one, there’s little jokes that Lord Caitanya would play with them… can’t remember all the details, but … Then Lord Caitanya went out, then there was one astrologer, who had some special power to see the future. So, Lord Caitanya went there, and He… very respectfully He told him, “You are a great scholar, you know the past, present and the future by your astrological and your visionary ability, could you tell Me what was I in My previous birth… in My previous birth?” So the astrologer started to chant a Gopala-Kṛṣṇa mantra to give him the vision. Then he started looking at Lord Caitanya. He closed his eyes, meditating. All of a sudden, his vision, he saw śaṅkha, gadā, padma, cakra. He saw there lotus flower, he saw the conch shell, the club and the Sudarśana-cakra discus, and the form of Nārāyaṇa.

He was completely astounded and there he was seeing Nārāyaṇa. Then, gradually his vision was coming, and there, he saw that there was, inside of a prison house, and there was a baby, and then became… then the Nārāyaṇa became a baby in the hand of Vasudeva, and Devakī. Vasudeva took the baby over across the raging river, to the place of Nanda and Yaśoda in Gokula, and changed the babies and gave the baby boy - blue color - Kṛṣṇa, to mother Yaśoda, and saw the boy grow up, saw Him breast-feeding from mother Yaśoda, saw Him growing up and then saw Him playing on the flute, dancing in the rāsa-līlā, and tending the cows. And, like this he saw Kṛṣṇa… the whole Kṛṣṇa-lila went before him. He said, “Why am I seeing this?” Then he… then he looked and there he’d see Lord Caitanya, Śacīnandana, and then he couldn’t understand, “Why… why am I seeing?”, then again he closed his eyes and meditate, and then he saw… there, he saw Rāmacandra, green color, with His bow, and Hanumān, the great monkey, and he saw that, the form of Rāmacandra. Then he started seeing, “Here’s Matsya, swimming.”, the… the incarnation of God as a fish, swimming in the big ocean, saving the Vedas. Then, he saw, “Here’s Bali saved by Vāmanadeva.” Saw the form of the Lord as Vāmanadeva. Then he saw the form as Nṛsiṁhadeva, killing Hiraṇyakaśipu. Saw the form of the Lord as Varāha, lifting up the earth from the lower regions of the universe where it had become dislocated from orbit, and then again reestablished.

In this way he saw… and then again he looked at Lord Caitanya and he saw that He was just very powerful and effulgent and filled with spiritual potency, and he said that, “This is some great mystic yogī, or this is a great demigod, who has come, and somehow he is giving me all these visions, just to bewilder me.” This is somehow, some test or something; he’s not an ordinary person. But because of the illusion, you see, he couldn’t figure out that actually why he was seeing… whether this was Kṛṣṇa Himself. He was seeing what is His previous birth, and then he’s seeing that this is all Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras. Because see, the illusion is there, covering Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa doesn’t want someone to realize, even He’s standing in front of you, you won’t be able to actually have faith, or have understanding, that “This is actually Kṛṣṇa. This is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

So, that was what the… So then, he became completely just bewildered, and he offered his obeisances to Lord Caitanya, but he thought that He was some demigod or something that came down. He couldn’t understand who Lord Caitanya was, but he knew He was someone very powerful, but he didn’t tie the two things together although he had all these visions, which was the same thing that happened in Kṛṣṇa’s pastime when an astrologer went to see Kṛṣṇa, Gargamuni. Then Nanda asked Garga Muni to “Please, do the horoscope for Kṛṣṇa.”, then he saw that, “In the previous births Kṛṣṇa was green, He was yellow, He was red.” In this way He also had the vision of Kṛṣṇa, previous incarnations.

So then, Lord Caitanya, He went with His followers and He went over to see banana peddler Śrīdhara, a very poor man. (Devotees laughing) He used to sell bananas, banana flowers, banana thor… thor, what do you call it? Core of banana tree...

Devotee: Peel… Peel?

Jayapatākā Swami: The thor, the center part of the tree, the core of the banana tree. And also all types of see… vyañjana, or various types of vegetables, and… but he was very, very poor. So, Lord Caitanya would see him though, and he would give Lord Caitanya a very nice seat, and again, there was a nice reciprocation. So then Lord Caitanya asked, “How everything is going?”, and he said “Well… whatever I’m getting, am trying to offer 50% to the Ganges pūjā.”, and so then Lord Caitanya would say that, “But your cloth has got holes in it, (Devotees laughing), and your house is not… the roof is not repaired, there’s some holes in the roof, you see. Look at all…” He would joke you see in this way, He’d say “Look at all the materialists that are worshipping various demigods. They are so rich, and you are so poor. So why… you are a devotee of the Supreme Lord, who is the husband of the goddess of fortune. Why you are poor? And why these people who are worshipping demigods, who are doing other materialistic things, why they are rich?” So then, banana peddler Śrīdhara, he said that “My cloth may be short or maybe long, or may have one or two rips, or not, but after all I have a cloth. You see. I have some cloth, that’s enough. And the house is air conditioned. (Devotees laughing) The house is cool. It’s not too hot. It’s temperate. And he said that whether one is a big king and he’s got so many jewels, and so many servants and so much wealth, and opulence and eats off of golden plates, or whether on the one hand you see that there’s a bird in the tree and it doesn’t have any cloth, he doesn’t have any helper, he goes alone and picks up branches from here and there and builds his own house, with no helper, and he picks up some grains and he feeds his family and that’s about it, but whether one is a big king or whether one is a bird in the tree, the standard of happiness is there in both, and misery is there in both. I am simply concerned with serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, simply practicing my devotional service. I don’t care to try to imitate the materialists.

Actually, Kolāveca Śrīdhara, or banana-peddler Śrīdhara in English, he knew that in this material world, no matter what arrangement you make, there is always a mix of happiness and distress. You may be a President Reagan, but you have your headaches, you see, and you have got your… and you’ve got… he’s also got maybe, his joys but he doesn’t have pure joy, neither pure headache, it is mixed. But Kolaveca Śrīdhara, banana-peddler Śrīdhara, he is offering simply whatever he has; he is offering it to Kṛṣṇa. “If Kṛṣṇa wants to make me rich, He’ll make me rich; I am doing my honest living. I am selling my vegetables; I am doing what I can. I am not going to stop worshipping Kṛṣṇa, for some kind of material desire.” So, actually, he was always happy. He was happy because he wasn’t dependent on a material situation. Even he was in a poor situation, he was actually the richest person. So then Lord Caitanya told him “Actually you are a very, very rich person. I know that you have somewhere stashed, somewhere hidden, huge wealth. You have concealed your wealth and I am going to reveal it one day and then let everyone know that this is all a show. Actually you are the richest person, here in Navadvīpa.”

So it appeared to banana-salesman Śrīdhara, (Devotees laughing) a very simple devotee, that Lord Caitanya was threatening to cause him, you know… you know, and he was a little bit afraid of Lord Caitanya, because He was much bigger than him (Devotees laughing), and, “If He wanted to He could probably beat me up and being… He’s a brāhmaṇa and I am just a banana salesman and I couldn’t make any objection any way, I wouldn’t want to also offend Lord Caitanya, so I better just cooperate with Him.”

So then, Lord Caitanya said “You are very rich, so you should give me some bananas and some vegetables. But I don’t have any money.”

So, he was thinking, “Well, any way actually… it’s a great opportunity for me, He’s a pure brāhmaṇa… He’s… Alright, He’s a great brāhmaṇa, He’s a great master, He is coming.”, so, he said, “Alright.” But there was a little bit of intimidation, there. He was a little bit afraid, but actually Lord Caitanya was doing it in a very friendly way, and he was taking it like that. He didn’t… actually didn’t want Lord Caitanya to go anywhere else. So he gave Lord Caitanya some bananas and some other vegetables and things and Lord Caitanya would regularly eat only the vegetables from Śrīdhara. But then again, Lord Caitanya said that, “I am going to reveal your real hidden wealth one day.” 

But, actually Lord Caitanya was telling the truth, because banana salesman Śrīdhara was the richest person. He had actually pure devotion for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was keeping him in that poor condition just to show an example that a devotee, even in a poor condition, does not give up. It is not that just because it’s opulent a devotee is a devotee. That even if the going is rough, a devotee stays very dedicated in his service. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa takes a devotee and makes an example, puts him in a little difficulty just to show people that, “See, he is a pure devotee. This is the way a pure devotee should act even in difficulty.” So Kolāveca Śrīdhara, the banana-peddler Śrīdhara, Lord Caitanya eventually did reveal his actual glory. But, since He was not Himself revealing His position, He naturally also did not reveal Kolaveca Śrīdhara's.

So then, Lord Caitanya said, “What… what about the mother Ganges?”

He said “Well, the Mother Ganges is purifying the whole world. All the sacred rivers, Ganges, is coming from the lotus feet of Viṣṇu.”

He said, “Who do you think I am?”

“I think You are a part of Viṣṇu, You are a brāhmaṇa, You are viṣṇu-amśa, You are a part of Viṣṇu, therefore I respect You and worship You in this way.” 

And then Lord Caitanya said that, “You don’t know that I am the source of the mother Ganges?”

“Viṣṇu Viṣṇu Viṣṇu! Normally when boys grow up they get more serious but day by day You become more mischievous. How can You say such a thing?”

You see, in this way there was a… actually Lord Caitanya, if He doesn’t want to let someone know, then they can’t understand who He is. So, even though He was making all these different comments, of course, no one would take Him seriously until later when actually He finally fully manifested the saṅkīrtana movement, and then it was Advaita Gosāñī and Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura who actually could understand first who Caitanya Mahāprabhu was; and of course Nityānanda.

In this way Lord Caitanya, as He was playing the part of a devotee, He would not let people call Him as Kṛṣṇa. This was just a rare thing He was joking with… or He was playing some particular pastime with Kolāveca Śrīdhara. Otherwise ordinarily, especially when He started His preaching, He would not let anyone call Him as Kṛṣṇa. He’d cover His own ears and say it was a great offense. And then unless He was in some specific ecstatic mood; where He sometimes rarely came into that mood when He actually manifested His mood as Kṛṣṇa. Only that was only amongst His intimate associates. Like that there are so many very esoteric and very transcendental pastimes regarding Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

The most wonderful of course is the fact that He has engaged everyone in chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana. Actually this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is not new. It’s not that it was only in this Kali-yuga, in this particular age. In the Treta-yuga, the great sage Vālmīki, he was previously Dasyu Ratnākara. He was a ferocious dacoit, a armed robber and murderer. And he was approached by Nārada Muni (and after a great long story of course) but finally, he was told to chant the name of Rāma. He said “I cannot chant the name of Rāma, can’t chant the name.” Couldn’t say Rāma, said, “I can’t chant any of these types of holy names. I have been a murderer too long, it is not possible.” So then Nārada Muni thought, he told him you just chant marā, marā means to kill. He said, “That, I can chant, hundred times over. I am used to those things.” So then, he started chanting:

marā marā marā marā...
...rāma rāma rāma rāma
rāma rāma rāma rāma
rāma rāma rāma rāma
rāma rāma rāma rāma
rāma rāma rāma rāma
rāma rāma rāma...

and when he chanted together it comes out "Rāma Rāma Rāma..."

Transcribed by Jayarāseśvarī Devī Dāsī - 19 November 2014