19820506 Early Pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu

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The following is a lecture on the Early Pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 6, 1982 – in Washington D.C, USA.

Sa it sa ra sa. Recently we have been discussing Lord Caitanya Mah Prabhu early pastimes. When he was Nimaya pandit. That was before he manifested his preaching mood. And when he was as a scholar, he was going around Navadri with his followers, his students. Even when he was 12, 13 years old, he had thousands of students. And he would sit by the side of the Ganges with his hundreds and thousands of students. Every day, 10, 15 more would come and surrender. And sometimes he would challenge anyone to put forward any argument on the scriptures, on Sanskrit, that he could defeat any argument. So then sometimes someone would come forward and give the argument. And then he would, using Vedic scriptures, logic, everything, he would defeat that argument. And people were amazed at.

They never knew that when he studied so many scriptures, he seemed to know every scripture that was written by heart, not only the main focus, but almost as if he had written them himself. So they couldn’t understand how such a young person could know so much. So then after Lord Caitanya would establish one side, that means he would defeat the argument and establish the opposite argument. Then he would turn around. This is doing this by logic. Scripture was a different thing. This is a purely logic grammar. Then he would turn around and refute his own argument, reestablished the original argument of the person. To that person. He couldn’t prove Lord Caitanya’s point, nor dispute his original point. Then Lord Caitanya slay became very famous. He challenged anyone.

There’s no one who can come and give me any argument that I cannot refute and then again refute my own argument and establish again the others. Each time when I do it, they will be completely unable to refute whatever stand I take. There were no coming. There were a few counties they all lost. But then after that they didn’t come in. He was so I was telling that in Boston, interested intellectual pursuits there. But that was his early days, actually he was just passing his having his transcendental pastime. And then after that, of course, Lord Chaitanya, he went preaching Hare Lam Sankirtan in eastern Bengal, came back, started his whole. Once his Gaya was initiated by Ishwar Purī, he started his whole Sankirtan movement in a very big way.

And all of the great Vaishnavas that had been pleading with Lord Caitanya to give up his scholarship, not knowing who he was this past time they were pleading with him to just take up your devotional service. He would always tell them that pretty soon I will take up Your devotional service, this academic life, I am just enjoying for a short time. Then I will take up my pure devotional life. I am waiting till I find a bona fide spiritual master. And this way he would encourage somebody. This is Kṛṣṇa. When he was playing with the cows and cow herders, he was enjoying. So Lord Caitanya, he was enjoying in his early life with the different scholars and students. For those of you who are doing college preaching programs. He was enjoying the rasa of scholastic pursuits and great devotees.

They were able to come and associate with Lord Chaitanya in those pastimes when he would go around and conquer all the other scholars in Navadvip. And then he would enjoying those different intellectual nuances. So that was this short time. And then he went into his real purpose which was to spread the Holy name. And of course that went on till he was about 24. Then he decided to go to Jagannath Purī. He didn’t really decide to go to Jagannath Purī. He decided to take Sanya. But of course he was too tricked by Lord Nithyananda when he went to take Sannyas. I think I told you how he took Sannyas last time I was here. So then he went down to the house of Advaita. Actually, this house of Advaita has got many pastimes that have occurred there.

It is just about 15 miles or 12 miles from Māyāpur to the south. And recently it’s quite a good news was Santi Sakha Goswami, the hereditary 13th descendant from Lord Advaita. Prabhu has offered us some land there. Prabhupāda had written him many letters saying that we wanted to build an international guest house at the birth site of Lord at the house of Advaita Gosai. That was the place where he worshipped the Shaligram Sila, where he did the Tapasya to bring Caitanya Mahāprabhu down from the spiritual sky to come here. And that is the place where Madobinder Purī went and visited and initiated Advaita Gosai. That is where of course so many times have gone there. And where finally Nitāi and Gor went after Lord Caitanya took Sanyas where they met with Satchi Mata.

And at that place, Satchi Mata requested Lord Caitanya that he please not go and stay in Vrindavana. It would be too far away that he should go to Jagannath Purī. So the place called the Tindpistram were the three Prabhu Advaita, Nithyananda and Lord Caitanya. They sat and rested after Lord Caitanya came and took the prasad as their pastime. You may know where Lord Nithyananda threw some of his prashad from his plate known as Juta, threw it on Advaita. And Advaita, when he got that Uchista Mahaprashad remnant Zonana, which ordinarily he is such a strict Brāhmaṇa that would be considered that now he’s contaminated to jump in the river and take a bath or something. Someone put, you see the food from their mouth on my quad. I can’t do pūjā whatever. But with transcendental vision, because it was Lord Vityananda.

So he was in ecstasy, jumping up and down that now I am perfected because I got the remnants of Nityānanda were thrown on me. And of course, in this way they were having their trans at that place. So we have been given a place where Lord Caitanya’s boat landed when he took Sannyas. And it’s very near the place where the three Prabhu sat. And so I requested that we should be given the right to develop that into a temple and worship there. And he, just before I came, he came to see me Calcutta. And he agreed that there’s no pressure from other Brahmanas not to give out such an important hereditary thing. But he feels that it’s the best thing for the development of the place. And he said that he would give us the right to develop and worship that so.

And of course Lord Caitanya went down to Jagannath Purī originally. When he went, the first time he had with him Nithyananda Vidadhara, Mukunda Govindas, Jagannananda and Brahmanandapuri. And then they went down there to various villages, blessing the people along the way, preaching, visiting Remuna on the way, the place of Kirk Gopīna, where the Gopīnath Devī has taken the kir for Mauna Vendra Purī. And then gradually they went down until they finally reached. Of course, before they could get to Jagannath Purī, there was some disagreement and Lord Caitanya ran ahead. And in this way the pastimes unfolded. So some people, they couldn’t understand transcendental position of Lord Caitanya. One of those people was Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Tharabam Bhattacharya. When he first saw Lord Caitanya, it was in the Jagannath Purī’s temple. Lord Caitanya came to the temple, saw Jagannath, became so overwhelmed in ecstasy, Bam.

Just fell down, a complete trance. Breathing was stopped. He was completely entranced. The priest in the temple thought that he was some antisocial or some crazy man or something. And so they’re about to beat him up, kick him and beat him with this person, causing a disturbance in our temple. And then Tarbohadacharya saw young San Yasi to some extent extraordinary bodily symptom. He held him off and then tested and found that he was entranced. He took him to be a Mahabhavata. Mahabhgavata, or pure devotee of the Lord sometimes will fall into trance where it becomes completely stunned and all movement of the body is stopped. That time they are completely in samadhi.

You see that when Haridas Thakur was being beaten in 21 marketplaces or 22 marketplaces, that at the end of it, when they couldn’t kill him after all the whipping, then the two demons, whippers, torturers who were whipping him were very sad. Then Hari Das Thakur asked him, what would you like me to do? What’s the matter? He says, well, the thing is that we’re going to be punished severely by the king because you’re still alive. And Hari Das Taqwa said, oh, so if I would die then that would be welcomed by you? He said, oh, yes, please die. So he agreed, all right. And immediately on the spot he fell and apparently he was dead. What actually did is he simply absorbed himself so completely in meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his heart that he completely withdrew the consciousness from his body.

And this was fixed all of his consciousness on Kṛṣṇa. And by all symptoms he was completely dead. So the tortures, of course, they went on and grabbed the king and brought the big Kadakazi, the priest, and that’s a whole other story, of course, but not to just leave it hanging. Then they try, they tested. He was dead. No breath, felt cool. They thought, well, he’s a goner. So they are very happy that he was dead. And the king said, now we will bury him, the Muhammadan ruler. And then the priest said, no, you can’t bury him. That will give his soul rest. He has left his religion. He has left the Muhammad religion and he’s become a chanter. Hare Kṛṣṇa has become a Hindu. You have to throw it in the river so the crows will eat his body and his soul will not retreat.

I had experienced once india the Mohammedan and the Christian faith. For all the good points they have a basic. Sometimes some of them have some really very strong bodily identification, even in their idea of what happens to the body after death. I remember that india, there was one Sen Gupta who was converted to a Mohammedan, and he was going around and preaching to all the Mohammedans how great Mohammedanism was. Islam was over what his conception of what Hinduism was. Of course, he didn’t have any Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy, but he was just talking about the ordinary concept he had of Hinduism. So he was saying that, well, I used to be a Hindu. They take the body and they burn it. And you should see what they do to them. I mean, that is very ugly thing to see the body burn.

I mean, it’s terrible. Charring and turning into ash. Disgusting. But when I saw how they treat the body in Islam, then I could understand that this is the highest religion. After a person is dead, they dress it up in nice cloth, put it in a nice box with silken lining, very gently, and they place it in the earth. Sit it up a little bit from that is very beautiful and wonderful. Therefore, you can understand that this is the best religion. People said, yes, make sense. So the trouble, of course, in the world today is that the original propagators of the different religions, they meant that the soul is to ultimately achieve Godhead, but in the way that it is being presently propagated, of course, the idea of a spiritual entity, of a spirit soul, they didn’t have. They don’t understand that.

I saw in South America, in one of the temples in Quito, Ecuador, very huge painting of the Christian resurrection. It showed Gabriel blowing on the trumpet. And it showed all the bodies that were buried in the world crawling out of their graves. It showed the skeletons crawling out of the grave. And as the skeleton was coming out of the grave, it showed the head, the flesh was coming back. Like here you could see the face, and from here down, you would just see the muscles and then the vein system. And then gradually it was like anatomy picture. Then you would see the bones and the feet. And this way, the resurrection was. They’re all getting back their body and some were being sent to hell and purgatory, and then some were going back with the bishop to the kingdom of God.

So I was astonished at that. Their conception was that the bones was like the soul, and that when you blow the bugle, the bones crawl out and then the body starts. You know, they get their body back again like this was it one lifetime and finished. And then you wait there until your ashes and you’re Just bones and they blow the bugle and then the bones come out and then all the flesh comes back on. So naturally in the modern day this type of understanding won’t be very appealing or to scientific mind leaves a lot of questions unanswered. So in those days also they had the same misconception that if we throw the body in the river then because he was a Muhammadan priesthood, if he throws a body in the river he will be finished because his bones will be just lost.

So then he will never get the final call, he won’t hear it. So he’s just forever gone. He won’t have any peace. So they tried to pick up Hari Das Takar but they couldn’t pick him up. He wouldn’t move because he was meditating on Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa had entered into his heart and he became immovable. He was the whole weight of the universe. Kṛṣṇa is heavier than the whole universe. So he was in the heart. So he couldn’t move him at all, not even, just not even a millimeter. They’re pulling so many men. They just couldn’t move him. So finally Kṛṣṇa disallowed himself to become light. They picked up Haridas power and threw him in the river. And then he just floated and floated until he hit the other side of the Ganges.

And then he came out of his trance, jumped up on the side of the river. He was chanting and dancing. The Muhammad emperor was. What is that? Immediately he ran down to the river, hopped in the next boat to take me to the other side. He ran after Harida as Thakur fell at his feet and said, please forgive us. You are actually a great yogī. You are a great saint. We have mistaken you. Please forgive me. Somehow can I be absolved for my great offenses to you? I have committed so many mistakes. In the meantime, his head priest didn’t waste any time either. He also ran after him and he also was touching Haridas Aspirin. We didn’t understand who you were. We made so many offenses.

Haridas Thakur says that everything is all right, but you should not obstruct the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. If you allow in your kingdom Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting to go on unimpeded and the preaching of pure Bhagavad philosophy to go on unimpeded. And I will forgive you. Otherwise not they say yes, whatever you say, we will agree. So after that time then the preaching was going on unkind. So in this way I didn’t mean to actually render Any criticism to any other religion. I was just pointing out that through these ages incomplete understanding of religious texts due to bringing over one’s body consciousness has created this type of distortion.

Actually if you go deeply into the Bible or the Quran as what Chaitanya did with the Cham Kazi, you find that these type of things are contradicted within the scriptures themselves where they do say that various things to lead one to understand that there is life after that. Actually the scientific way of understanding the scripture is very difficult without the Guru Parampar, without the disciplic succession of spiritual master disciples. Spiritual master disciple handing down the spiritual knowledge very perfected, very carefully. So it is our great fortune that the original Vedic tradition text have been handed down and the teachings have been maintained intact so that we can have insight into these mysteries of life. The Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he at that time was completely stunned. In the Jagannath Purī Temple he was in the complete trance.

So everyone thought that either he was dead or he was past or something. But Sadhguru tried to understand that. Well, he thought he’s a great devotee who is in trance. So he took him to his house. But nothing he did would wake him out of the trance. He took tried the normal cool compresses and other things that they wouldn’t take him out of that until the other followers of War Chaitanya caught up. They saw his Vo Chaitani, his father in trance. Then they started to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma Rāma Hare. And Lord Caitanya came out of his trance. So Gopīnath Crya knew Lord Caitanya. He was convinced that Lord Caitanya was actually the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, the supreme personality of Godhead that was predicted for this age of Kali. So he tried to convince of Lord Caitanya’s position.

But Sarbana Bhattacharya he couldn’t be that easily. He said, well, how do I know that he’s actually the supreme personality of Godhead? He could just be a great devotee. He knew he was a great devotee. Mahabharata, he was a liberated soul because. Because when he was in trance, he tested the trance that was not an imitation. There was only the slightest movement of breath, just moving cotton threads just slightly, which no one can imitate stopping the breathing like that unless they’re actually in a very advanced stage. But he didn’t accept that alone to be enough. Convince him that Lord Caitanya was actually incarnation of God to be a Great devotee or a liberated Yogī is different than being actually the Supreme Person or his incarnation. So this way Gopīnatharya and Sarvana Baracarias they would have their discussion. But Tarbona Baracharya was a tough nut.

Actually Sarbuna Baracharya was the guru or teacher of all the Māyāvādī Sannyasis in Jagannath Purī. What’s amazing is that Tarbum Bhattacharya is actually Vrihaspati and he was born in Avadri. And the purpose he came down was he knew that Caitanya Mahbur’s pastimes are coming. I want to be part of them. So he prayed specifically took birth in Navadip to be part of the Lord Caitanya Pahsha. But this material world conditioning is so strong that when he came down in that time with all of those pandits he became confused by Māyāvādī philosophy and he himself became a Māyāvādī philosopher. So he forgot about his purpose and he went down to Jagannath Purī to teach the Sannyāsī Jamaivdhi philosophy.

Then Lord Caitanya he used to every day go to the house of Sarbamavarachari in Māyā Buddham where Gangadhar Pandit used to teach him when he was just a small boy. It just happened to be at the same where Saiwa Military was born and where he grew up. But he had already left. So that can illustrate to us we have to be very careful about hearing the philosophy from Sahajiyas from Māyāvādī or from Sahaji Māyāvādī. If you will listen to the arguments of Mayavali philosophers, then you will be finished. We will also be involved in the domestic policy and this becomes tremendously important in the whole scenario as we know it today.

At the same time that were working toward the end of war so called and nuclear disarmament were working in the United States to as the Atomic Energy Act 1945 or 46 AE stated to defend the United States to the army defense always means.

(Side B of the Cassette)

Spiritual bodies. I wanted to see a chapter and discuss with that on that topic. So I brought up the point that if we are. How you can say that? He would say, well, we are all gods. If I said you say you’re God, then why is it that you’re an illusion? He said, I am not in illusion. I said, well, here you’re worshiping Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. I said, you’re growing old. He said, I am not growing old. This is my relax, these are my pastime. Looks that way. Then I said, well, you hear your worship. I happen to be worshipping Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. Well, you’re worshiping Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. He said, no, I am worshiping myself. They’re non different. They were one and the same. So this way, finally you ask him a few things.

Well, if you’re the supreme personality of God Heaven to tell me right now that you know like what’s in my pocket, I do not do such. Don’t do that on Thursday, you know, I mean, you can’t get anywhere with the calm hardcore. They just have, you know, they just want to say. Well, they want to just say like I am Napoleon. You can tell Napoleon died 500 years. No, but I am Napoleon. Then you know, like that I am God. How your God is growing old. He can’t just say, you stop growing old. Dedicated Kṛṣṇa came, he didn’t grow. So the Māyāvādī, they’re very tricky. They just say everything everyone has done. But the actual fact is that they’re an illusion in the material world. They’re under the sixth control of the material laws. They may think that I am making the sun and the moon rise.

Now I am making it stay at moon day and now I am making it set. This is their meditation. But how is it that the sun and moon was rising and staying and setting before they meditated? They may say growing old is their pastime. Then why don’t they stop going over? Why don’t they just stop the sun at noon for one day and show their supreme power or something extraordinary. But some of these things are they able to do so they bewildered people though, because generally people are not very acute in spiritual knowledge. So they tell us so many things which bewilder if you don’t know the philosopher. They basically, they’re very envious of Kṛṣṇa. 1 Contemporary Māyāvādī philosophy india. He’s preaching that the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is not the real power.

It’s not the words Hare Kṛṣṇa and Ram, it’s the little void between the words that Is what is power. Power lies in the void. So they will go to any end to try to criticize and disintegrate and reduce the position of Kṛṣṇa. So the Vaishnavas, they accept that all right, impersonalist is a past meddler. That’s one part of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is personal, localized and he is impersonal. All three in one. Brahman, Brahmati, Brahmat, Methi, Bhagavān et Sabute, seen by different theories of the truth. So the personalists, they have a complete picture of the absolute truth. But the impersonalists, they can never understand the personality. So Sargon Bhattacharya, he was in that position. He just couldn’t understand about this personality of Godhead.

Even though he had so many misconceptions that they think in any case an incarnation of Godhead is in the mode of goodness or something like that. They don’t understand that he is the origin. He’s always Satchitananda, the transcendental situation. So they have all these misconceptions. And he was completely within it. So he told Lord Chaitanya, let me teach you the Vedānta Sutra. And for seven days he was lecturing to Lord Chaitanya. Finally he saw Lord just sitting there every day, listening, didn’t say a word. Just looking at him, probably like some of the people you meet in the airport becomes slow. So he thought that Lord Caitanya, what’s wrong? He’s just sitting there. He’s very bright faced, very intelligent looking. But he’s not saying anything. He’s just sitting there. It’s very unusual. So he asked, you don’t understand what I am speaking.

Lord Shaitan said, well, I can understand. Lord Shaitan was no fool. He was already the greatest scholar and whole of India. So he said very humbly, well, I can understand part of what you say. Part of what I say? What part? I can understand. Whenever you read the Sanskrit verses from the scripture, I understand them. But everything else you’re saying doesn’t make any sense to me. In other words, he says that I can understand the original scriptures. But your explanation don’t make any sense. So of course that put off Bhagavad Bhanacharya did he could get the point. The Lord Caitanya was saying that I don’t accept your explanation. So then he requested Lord Caitanya to give an explanation. And Lord Caitanya started to preach to him the Vaishnava philosophy. And he preached. Of course, Admiral Verse explained it in different ways later.

And this way, gradually he was able to convert Tarabharacharya from his impersonal concept of God realization to the personal concept. In the Vedic philosophy, there’s a very stigmatization. First you have the people who are basically body who are working just to get bodily happiness in this life. Even they, only atheists, even not even ordinary atheists believe in reincarnation. In India, in the Vedic tradition, even in the Buddhist tradition, they all believe in reincarnation. But they think that simply by your work as you. So, so you read and that which is a fact, that they don’t see any power beyond that. Not that God can intervene or Kṛṣṇa can intervene or that there is some intelligence behind how one reads.

You get back according to what you do, but how you get it and when you get it and to what extent and when it may be withheld or maybe extended that is ultimately controlled by higher authority. Well, they don’t like to accept that, but they still, they’re very attached to this bodily concept. It’s only the very grossest people that only think of the bodily conception. Without an understanding of reincarnation, then you get little higher concepts where they want to. They know that we’re not the body and they know we’re the. They see the soul or the ultimate to be impersonal, part of an impersonal truth, impersonal God. Then a little higher they understand that God is all pervasive and they want to get mystic powers and realize the all pervasive feature of Vishnu, the yogas.

Then there’s ultimately the devotees who actually realize the personality of Godhead plus his localized expansion, plus his effulgence, the impersonal aspect, all in one. So in the Vedic context it’s a very. You can see the different type of people and they fit very nicely in a gradated, in a graduated way. Some believe just a bodily concept. Some, some are impersonal, some are yogis, some are bakshas, some are personalists, some are impersonalists like that. In the Western philosophy it’s harder to differentiate because you have one side of body consciousness in say some of the Western religions. At the same time they believe, some Christianity believes in a personal God. Well, Islam believes in an impersonal God according to the modern theory. Although recently we have been doing some very big preaching around India. We have some a son of a mullah.

Mullah means like he’s the head priest and Muhammad in Islam and his father for 600 years they have been the hereditary Mullah in Lebanon, they’re very big mosque. And so he’s a Ravanati Das initiated by RLA Prabhupāda. So he came and was preaching india along with Atreides. Rishi also came earlier and recently came out in the ISKCON worldview, the aim of all faith. So in the preaching there, he quoted from the Quran where it says that Allah sits on a throne and has two arms. And Lord Shaitan, he quoted from the Quran to the Shamqasi that Allah is blue in color in the Quran. So generally these verses are not well understood. So they more or less ignored.

But they were used to prove that even the Quran is ultimately when it says God has no material quality, that does not mean that he does not have a sleep. He has spiritual quality. He sits on the throne, has his two arms, he judges mankind like that. It was described in the Quran. So in this way ultimately was able to even our modern day Ravanari dance was able to convince Mohammedans india that the Quran does accept the personality of Godhead in ultimate issue, but that he is of a different type of personality than personalities. He’s transcendental. And many people are chanting both from Hindu, Christian and Mohammedan faith. They’re all chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, seeing that this is the ultimate perfection, that this is not in contradiction with their faith, but this actually a fulfillment of it to chant the name of God.

So he was liberated in this way by Caitanya Mahabharata with mercy. And ultimately he was able to see Lord Caitanya in his transcendental form with six arms. So there’s so many pastimes that happened in a purity. Of course, the most ecstatic pastime. One of the most ecstatic pastimes is the Rathi Yātrā Leela. So when Lord Caitanya would take out Rathi Yātrā party, he would have all the devotees gathered together. And traditionally in Rath Yātrā the people fully. But Lord Caitanya’s devotees would add the sensitivity without the devotees of Lord Caitanya, this Hari Bol Jai Jagannath chanting, but the actual ecstatic Kirtans are missing. So when Lord Caitanya, when he took out his party, he divided into different groups where they would be chanting, led by one devotee, so many Vajrangas, so many Kartals.

And as the kīrtana was going and the different groups were chanting, then Lord Caitanya he became simultaneously visible by each group as if he was being in their group alone. So this was witnessed by Maharaj Patapa Rudra from the top of his royal palace where he could see that simultaneously Caitanya was chanting in the different St. Kīrtana party. But the party member, they only thought that well, Lord Caitan is today, right now in my party. And everyone was thinking this. This is when Lord Kṛṣṇa danced with the Gopīs. He simultaneously was by the side of each Gopī. And they all thought that Kṛṣṇa is by my side, no one else’s side. So I believe it was Śrīvas was so intent watching the pastime and dancing Lord Caitanya. The some devotee wanted to have him move so that the king could see and tap him.

And Sivas is so much absorbed in the trance that he just without taking his eye off, he just whacked clapped who was ever disturbing him so he wouldn’t be disturbed. It was the agent of the private aide de camp, more or less of the king. And the king called, Never mind, don’t bother. He’s absorbed. We should also become absorbed in our devotional service. So absorbed that we won’t like any Māyā to come any thought to come and disturb our concentration on serving Kṛṣṇa and serving the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. The spiritual masters preaching this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. If any Māyā thought comes whack so disturbing. I am thinking of Kṛṣṇa serving Kṛṣṇa. Come have some break this regulator principle. Do this mental speculation. Don’t disturb me, just whack it hit him back, stay fixed. That is our secret.

If we can achieve that type of concentration, then how may I can approach culture? Then we become immune. So of course Caitanya Mahāprabhu pastimes of Rath Yātrā are a permanent nature. I remember that one time in I heard that one of the first Rath Yattas in San Francisco, Rla Prabhupda was coming back from the Rafayatra and he started talking to the driver of his car. And he said, did you see how beautiful Caitanya Mahāprabhu looked? Did you see how Nanda was dancing amongst the devotees and the driver, you know, if I remember who he was talking to, that if the devotees are very sincere in performing their Jagannathrap Yātrā, then Lord Caitanya Vittananda, so many associates, they all come and they are there unseen except by some rare fortunate soul may be able to see them. But they’re there.

One can feel their presence in the Jagannath Rathayatra festival. So of course Jagannath himself, the Lord of the Universe is there. Naturally he will be accompanied by all of his associates. We can take advantage when we come into the temple of Jagannath, when we come to the temple of Christ shenanigans by circumambulating that temple. One time, Advaita Gosai he went to when he was there for the Jagannath Kori festival. Then it was before the festival, after it was when Jagannath was visible. So he went to the temple and circumambulated the temple. Went to see Lord Caitlin. And then Lord Caitanya said, what have you been doing? He said, well, I was circumambulating Jaganna. What have you seen? Well, I have seen Jagannath on all sides. Then Lord Caitanya started laughing. Hari O Hari Ocho. You have lost everything. How did I lose everything?

If you do not know? The circumambulating is a very important thing. In the different Purāṇas in the. In the Ananta. In the Ananta Saṁhitā as well as in the Brah Purāṇa, various other Purāṇas, it gives the description about doing the parikramā or the circumambulation of the deity that the different deities there are different times. Like to circumambulate Candi one time or Ganesh three times. Prabhakar seven times. Shiva is a half a time. You don’t do a full perikram of vocals. Do half and then command. If you do all the way, then you lose all the results. Instead there’s a negative result. So this is a very scientific system. So for Vishnu Keva, it’s four times. So if one only does it one time, then that’s considered to be bad. You have to do it four times. Then you get the full effect. With Vishnu.

Of course, one time with Vishnu is good. But I mean you get the full effect if you do four times. But other like Lord Shiva, they say where the drain is, where the water. They always pour water over Lord Shiva, there’s a drain. You can’t walk over that drain. If you walk over that drain, you put your foot over that sacred water. That’s an offense. So you can only go halfway up to the drain and back. So when one goes one time around Kṛṣṇa, then one can get the result according to different Purāṇas of unlimited punya. By giving away in charity the whole world. What result you’d get every step you’d get this unlimited pious result. Second time you go around while chanting kīrtana. This is while chanting kīrtana. The second time you go around by chanting kīrtana. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare.

The second time you go around that time, you. You are guaranteed not to have to suffer a repeated birth and death. Very soon. The repeated birth and death will come the third time. You can achieve the status like Indra and become purified from all sinful reactions by going around three times. And when you go around the fourth time, then you reach the top most time like this. So similarly. So in this way, Advaita is going around the deity. What was the problem? But then there was some instruction that you have to go around the deity. When you go around, you shouldn’t see the deity from the backside. You should go around chanting and just see the deity from the face. The Lord Caitanya said that I. When I go around, no matter where I am, I am always seeing the face of Lord Jagannath.

I don’t see his backside or side, I just see his loaded face. So therefore you have lost. When you go the wrong way, then you lose all your. You lost everything. So then there was some internal exchange between Advaita and Lord Caitanya that no one could really figure out. And Lord Advaita said, yes, I am always losing like that to you. And everyone was. And Lord Caitanya embraced him and everyone was chanting. But the relationship between Advaita and Lord Caitanya was so great, so intimate, filled with loving affection, that Adoita, he was always wanting to take the inferior position to Lord Caitanya. Although by aids and other aspects he was apparently in a superior position. So ultimately we understand that Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, he would have different relationships with different devotees.

With his devotees that were in one relationship, he would have discussion with them on equal level with others. He would protect them and engage them in service others. He would have intimate discussions about Kṛṣṇa’s pastime. He wouldn’t deal everyone in the same way. He wouldn’t, for instance, discuss Kṛṣṇa’s intimate pastimes with the Gopīs Rasila with just the general public. They wouldn’t understand it. But he would engage in Hari Namasankirta with the general public, with his own devotees, with everyone. That was alright for everyone. So similarly, in this Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement, we discuss certain topics in the class, certain things we do with everyone. So Jagannath Ratha Yātrā is such a festival that everyone can participate, doesn’t matter. Everyone has the opportunity of participating in Jagannath Rahtra chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa pulling on the ropes.

In Calcutta, when we have our Rathiatra festival throughout the whole town, we put a big bullboard Jagannath Rath Yātrā Last year there was over 1 million people attended that Rath Yātrā. And the people there every year becomes more and more exciting. I remember the first, the second year of the big car because in Calcutta they never had a big rafiatra because they have so many tram lines and electric lines. So we have this telescopic car that goes under the wire. So they always call it the American Rath Yātrā of Jagannatham. They give some, they call it the Rakyat Vista. Each paper has their own way of describing telescopic Rath, various names. So the people, they all come out to see Jagannath and to pull the Rath Yātrā cart.

So sometimes the people, they get so wild, pull the cart that the devotees, they never pull the cart, just token, just to yank on at once. They stand in front of the people to get them to slow down when they pull it too fast. So that because we’re in the city, there’s parked cars, there’s people. Sometimes people trip, you have to sometimes immediately stop. The people get so wild, they’re all playing the rope and immediately they say, jai chicken. They run with the car as fast as they can and the car just takes off. Actually, I understand that in the Rathacran Purī there’s four horses. And one devotee is kept on the horses and he takes a little whip and he just whips the horses.

And the whole time all he’s doing is saying four letter words or similar, like, you know, not, I mean, not exactly four letter words the way we know. But he’s just cursing the horses. God damn. Just, you know, it’s the Leela. Because apparently this is how the drivers of horses encourage their horses, by swearing at them. And this is like some pastime that they preserve all these little details in Jagannath Purī. So we try to maintain as many of them as possible. But that particular one, that one we don’t generally maintain, at least not premeditatedly. But one of the original programs, of course, is that all the people pulling the cart, they’re like Kṛṣṇa’s horses. They’re just in a menial position.

So they benefit by accepting that when we circumambulate the Lord, when we accept the menial position of his servant, when we bow down our head before him, then we put ourselves under his shelter. That gives us unlimited benefits more than anything else we can do. Because for Kṛṣṇa, even a slight favorable glance means more than our committing pious activities for ages and ages together. So there in Calcutta, where the people come out they know that if we pull the card, if we touch the card, if we see the Rath yatsa, we get all this pious activity, we get some benefit. So they all come out to get that little bit of mercy. That’s like in Calcutta. If you go to, if any devotee comes or even a Mayanpur, I am sure you have had experience. The Bengalis see devoted immediately.

They want to grab for their feet. And the big festival, practically it’s nonstop, just blocking. I think I have heard from many devotees that walking down the road is oh, devotees. Because they know if I touch the feet of a devotee, get the dust from a devotees feet, that will give me an opportunity to get easier love for God or to get free from sinful reactions. And so they don’t want to miss a chance. But of course for devotees it can drain him out. Generally, even the spiritual masters lotus feet are not to be detached except for by initiated disciples or by pure aspiring disciples. I remember that Brahmananda swami would sometimes be the blocker to try to get people from touching Śrīla Prabhupāda and speak. But sometimes it becomes so almost violent that Prabhupāda said no, I mean that’s all right.

Not to create a whole scene, but I remember one very big. He’s the editor of the big newspaper in Calcutta, big Vaishnava. He came in and he is demanding from Prabhupāda that you have to let me put my head on your feet. And he was on his knees begging for that. I want to put my this one have my head on your feet to get the mercy. And his servant was saying, no, that’s all right. So finally, you know, he was insisting so much that praying grab Prabhupāda all right, There was nothing. And it was probably just like, you know, but he’s always been favorable. And that Vaishnava family, although he’s not been very pure in his habits, but he’s always been quite favorable.

So the most unusual thing is that in the Rathiatra is that it was our first time out with the air brakes. We had to have big air brakes installed because whenever the Rathiatric car had to be stopped, we had to put the brakes on. So we had the big air brakes and the big eight foot wheels solid, not solid steel, but steel with spokes. And the air tank emptied out. When were at the six mile long route and were at the last mile and a half and it was just packed with people, just an ocean as far as you could see were just the heads of people. It was just like bobbing waves in the ocean. And it was just getting dark just before dark.

So it was a very dangerous time that in the dark, with so many people on the big wheels as before, we had. Now we take 200 volunteers that hold their hands around the cart to keep people away from the wheels so that people don’t have any accidents. This is before we had that system. It’s very dangerous. The people would pull the cart so fast, they’d just yank it. And the car would just take off, practically flying, even though it was weighing so heavy. And all of a sudden the air tank was empty. There was no way we could stop the car. So we had somehow or another had a devotee stop the people. And then the people would suddenly get excited and somebody would die. Jagannath.

There was someone under the car trying to say, so finally what we had to do was take back the rope. But one man, he had, somehow or another, he knew that if I could get the rope, then this is my great fortune. But somehow he just became very inimical. He wouldn’t give up the rope. We should, please, sir, just let us put it under the rock. We will fix it. We give it back to you. You don’t want them to pull it now. People have to work there and fix the. And he said, you know, then he just, you know, he. So the devotee had no recourse, but he yanked a rope from the person’s hand just, you know, to end the discussion. And the person became, you took my rope. You took the rope.

And he came there and he grabbed the devotee and he started shaking, became so excited. And it wasn’t warranted that he should grab a devotee like that. And all of a sudden there was this big bull on the side of the road in the park. Isn’t it in Kotela, the bulls and the cows are going to walk around the street. And there was a big bull there, big Brahma bull. And he started to kick. He started getting agītāted by the crowd. And so all of a sudden he bellowed out and just put his head down and just dive into the crowd. And you just saw from on top of the Roth cart, you just saw the people separate.

And he just headed right and he just hit the guy who would grab the devotee and poof, Tossed them right up in the air and charged right through the whole crowd and just went right through. And then they went down the street. But it was amazing how he just came and just that one person. Any questions? Huh? Ask my master. Aren’t you a devotee from before? Do I know you.

Under the law of karma or he’s away from the law of karma. Just like if a tiger turns around, then there’s no social reaction behind that.

Animals don’t create new karma.

Okay?

An animal doesn’t create new karma. Only human beings create karma. Whatever a human being does creates karma. Okay?

Now what I wanted to bring up was story of Bahuka.

Who’s Bhooka?

He was a black person born From a true text 45 he was black. So I was wondering, I decided I will ask you instead of one of the brothers around, so it would be more bona fide. Okay. I was wondering, okay, that V by nature by accepting the sins of King David. So if the hookah by nature was everything that he did was he had no choice, how is it that he could create K? And I also wanted to know if he was the father of the black race in general.

Because if that.

So then it would be a contradiction because also said in the first part that the Brahmin of his wife and as he went down, you got the idea. So if King Van was a king, then he had to be around my color complex. So I was wondering if he was the father of the black race or he was just the father or the progenitor of a particular race.

The point in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, of course, any human being, of course has to take on the reaction. But the more that one is responsible, the more that one has knowledge, the greater the reaction is. Just like a person who does premeditated murder has to take a greater reaction than a person who does what they call culpable homicide or something or manslaughter, who just get angry and hit again, didn’t plan it out so that according to a person’s knowledge, then the reaction will be greater. For a hunter who’s living by eating, the sin of killing would be less than for someone who didn’t have to kill. But still there’s a reaction. Still there’s a reaction to that. It’s just that the severity is more or less depending on how much one knows.

If you know what is right and what is wrong, and you do the wrong thing, then you’re held more guilty than if you didn’t know. But nonetheless, even if you don’t know and you do something which is wrong, which is against hurting someone else, still there is a reaction. As a human being. The point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that no matter what race one is, whether Yellow, brown, reddish, white, black. No matter what race, one may be that ultimately the spirit soul is transcendental to the body and to come above the law of karma and to come onto the all karma platform, which means no reaction for our activity. Yeah, but some civilizations are considered to be more elevated than others depending upon their spiritual knowledge.

So the point we’re trying to teach to human society is what is the transcendental science, which is the ultimate and highest realization that any human being can come to. It’s better for people who are addicted to eating meat. Just like Islam, there’s some rule for eating meat that before you kill the animal, you say bismillah. So at least there’s some recognition of God there. But it’s better, and it even describes that in the Quran, it’s better if one is a vegetarian. So similarly, when we’re getting to what is known as the Dharma without any compromise compromising that, all right, you are an uncivilized person. You have this attached, you have that. So that this is how you can do it and get less karma or get no karma, even though you do, because you’re doing it according to the direction of scripture.

We’re getting beyond all this type of karaoke compromises to allow people to act in the material world and not get karma to actually elevate them to the spiritual world. Just as I mentioned to you, the first stage, how to be happy in this body or how to get a better body. Then the next time we go around the world, then it’s how we can get into our spiritual identity so that we can gradually come to the point of ending repeated birth and death, that we start to become aware of our spiritual identity. And therefore the unlimited repetition of birth and death is stopped. The third stage is you’re free from sin.

So at that time, you can then either go into the Brahma Jyoti, or you can easily take up a position as a powerful controller in one of the superior planets of the universe. Then the fourth is to actually go back to God, has to go back to the spiritual sky.