19840421 Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya-līlā 12.69-135

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 21^st 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter 12, verse 69 to 135.

 

Cc. Madhya 12.69
ei-mata mahāprabhu bhakta-gaṇa-saṅge
nirantara krīḍā kare saṅkīrtana-raṅge

Translation: Thus Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu acted in the society of His pure devotees, performing His pastimes and spreading the saṅkīrtana movement.

Cc. Madhya 12.70

Translation: Some of the prominent devotees like Advaita Ācārya used to invite Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to take His meals at their homes. The Lord accepted such invitations accompanied by His devotees.

Cc. Madhya 12.71

Translation: In this way, the Lord passed some days in great jubilation. Then the car festival of Lord Jagannātha approached.

Cc. Madhya 12.72

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu first of all called for Kāśī Miśra, then for the superintendent of the temple, then for Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya.

Cc. Madhya 12.73

Translation: When these three people came before the Lord, He begged them for permission to wash the temple known as Guṇḍicā.

Purport: The Guṇḍicā temple is situated two miles northeast of the Jagannātha temple. At the time of the Ratha-yātrā festival, Lord Jagannātha goes to the Guṇḍicā temple from His original temple and stays there for one week. After one week, He returns to His original temple. It is understood by hearsay that the wife of Indradyumna, the king who established the Jagannātha temple, was known as Guṇḍicā. There is also mention of the name of the Guṇḍicā temple in authoritative scripture. The area of the Guṇḍicā temple is estimated to be 288 cubits by 215 cubits (a cubit is about a foot and a half). The main temple inside is about 36 cubits by 30 cubits, and the kīrtana hall is 32 cubits by 30 cubits.

Cc. Madhya 12.74
paḍichā kahe,—āmi-saba sevaka tomāra
ye tomāra icchā sei kartavya āmāra

Translation: Upon hearing the Lord’s request for permission to wash the Guṇḍicā temple, the paḍichā, the superintendent of the temple, said, “My dear Sir, we are all Your servants. Whatever You desire is our duty to perform.

Cc. Madhya 12.75

Translation: “The king gave a special order for me to do without delay whatever Your Lordship orders.

Cc. Madhya 12.76

Translation: “My dear Lord, washing the temple is not service befitting You. Nonetheless, if You wish to do so, it is to be accepted as one of Your pastimes.

Cc. Madhya 12.77

Translation: “To wash the temple, You need many waterpots and brooms. Therefore order me. I can immediately bring all these things to You.”

Cc. Madhya 12.78

Translation: As soon as the superintendent understood the desire of the Lord, he immediately delivered a hundred new waterpots and a hundred brooms for sweeping the temple.

Cc. Madhya 12.79
āra dine prabhāte lañā nija-gaṇa
śrī-haste sabāra aṅge lepilā candana

Translation: The next day, early in the morning, the Lord took His personal associates with Him and, with His own hand, smeared sandalwood pulp on their bodies.

Cc. Madhya 12.80

śrī-haste dila sabāre eka eka mārjanī
saba-gaṇa lañā prabhu calilā āpani

Translation: He then gave each devotee a broom with His own hand, and taking all of them personally with Him, the Lord went to Guṇḍicā.

Cc. Madhya 12.81

guṇḍicā-mandire gelā karite mārjana
prathame mārjanī lañā karila śodhana

Translation: In this way the Lord and His associates went to cleanse the Guṇḍicā temple. At first they cleansed the temple with the brooms. 

Cc. Madhya 12.82

bhitara mandira upara,—sakala mājila
siṁhāsana māji’ punaḥ sthāpana karila

Translation: The Lord cleansed everything inside the temple very nicely, including the ceiling. He then took up the sitting place [siṁhāsana], cleansed it and again put it in its original place.

Cc. Madhya 12.83

choṭa-baḍa-mandira kaila mārjana-śodhana
pāche taiche śodhila śrī-jagamohana

Translation: Thus the Lord and His companions cleansed and swept all the temple’s buildings, big and small, and finally cleansed the area between the temple and the kīrtana hall.

Cc. Madhya 12.84

Translation: Indeed, hundreds of devotees were engaged in cleansing all around the temple, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was personally carrying out the operation just to instruct others.

Cc. Madhya 12.85

premollāse śodhena, layena kṛṣṇa-nāma
bhakta-gaṇa ’kṛṣṇa’ kahe, kare nija-kāma

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu washed and cleansed the temple in great jubilation, chanting the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa all the time. Similarly, all the devotees were also chanting and at the same time performing their respective duties. 

Cc. Madhya 12.86

dhūli-dhūsara tanu dekhite śobhana
kāhāṅ kāhāṅ aśru-jale kare sammārjana

Translation: The entire beautiful body of the Lord was covered with dust and dirt. In this way it became transcendentally beautiful. At times, when cleansing the temple, the Lord shed tears, and in some places, He even cleansed with those tears.

Cc. Madhya 12.87

Translation: After this, the place where the Deity’s food was kept [bhoga-mandira] was cleansed. Then the yard was cleansed, and then all the residential quarters, one after the other.

Cc. Madhya 12.88

Translation: After Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu collected all the straw, dust and grains of sand in one place, He gathered it all in His cloth and threw it outside.

Cc. Madhya 12.89

ei-mata bhakta-gaṇa kari’ nija-vāse
tṛṇa, dhūli bāhire phelāya parama hariṣe

Translation: Following the example of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the devotees, in great jubilation, began to gather straws and dust with their own cloths and throw them outside the temple.  

Cc. Madhya 12.90

prabhu kahe,—ke kata kariyācha sammārjana
tṛṇa, dhūli dekhilei jāniba pariśrama

Translation: The Lord then told the devotees, “I can tell how much you have labored and how well you have cleansed the temple simply by seeing all the straw and dust you have collected outside.”

Cc. Madhya 12.91

Translation: Even though all the devotees collected dirt in one pile, the dirt collected by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was much greater.

Cc. Madhya 12.92

ei-mata abhyantara karila mārjana
punaḥ sabākāre dila kariyā vaṇṭana

Translation: After the inside of the temple was cleansed, the Lord again allotted areas for the devotees to cleanse.

Cc. Madhya 12.93

Translation: The Lord then ordered everyone to cleanse the inside of the temple very perfectly by taking finer dust, straws and grains of sand and throwing them outside.

Cc. Madhya 12.94

saba vaiṣṇava lañā yabe dui-bāra śodhila
dekhi’ mahāprabhura mane santoṣa ha-ila

Translation: After Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and all the Vaiṣṇavas cleansed the temple for the second time, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very happy to see the cleansing work.

Cc. Madhya 12.95

āra śata jana śata ghaṭe jala bhari’
prathamei lañā āche kāla apekṣā kari’

Translation: While the temple was being swept, about a hundred men stood ready with filled waterpots, and they simply awaited the Lord’s order to throw the water from them.

Cc. Madhya 12.96

’jala āna’ bali’ yabe mahāprabhu kahili
tabe śata ghaṭa āni’ prabhu-āge dila

Translation: As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu called for water, all the men immediately brought the hundred waterpots, which were completely filled, and delivered them before the Lord.

Cc. Madhya 12.97

Translation: In this way, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu first washed the main temple and then thoroughly washed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the sitting place [siṁhāsana] and everything else within the room.

Cc. Madhya 12.98

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself and His devotees began to throw water onto the ceiling. When this water fell, it washed the walls and floor.

Cc. Madhya 12.99

śrī-haste karena siṁhāsanera mārjana
prabhu āge jala āni’ deya bhakta-gaṇa

Translation: Then Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu began to wash the sitting place of Lord Jagannātha with His own hands, and all the devotees began to bring water to the Lord.

Cc. Madhya 12.100

bhakta-gaṇa kare gṛha-madhya prakṣālana
nija nija haste kare mandira mārjana

Translation: All the devotees within the temple began to wash. Each one had a broom in his hand, and in this way they cleansed the temple of the Lord.

Cc. Madhya 12.101

keha jala āni’ deya mahāprabhura kare
keha jala deya tāṅra caraṇa-upare

Translation: Someone brought water to pour into the hands of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and someone poured water on His lotus feet.

Cc. Madhya 12.102

keha lukāñā kare sei jala pāna
keha māgi’ laya, keha anye kare dāna

Translation: The water that fell from the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was drunk by someone who hid himself. Someone else begged for that water, and another person was giving that water in charity.

Cc. Madhya 12.103

Translation: After the room was washed, the water was let out through an outlet, and it then flowed and filled the yard outside.

Cc. Madhya 12.104

nija-vastre kaila prabhu gṛha sammārjana
mahāprabhu nija-vastre mājila siṁhāsana

Translation: The Lord mopped the rooms with His own clothes, and He polished the throne with them also.

Cc. Madhya 12.105

Translation: In this way all the rooms were cleansed with a hundred waterpots. After the rooms had been cleansed, the minds of the devotees were as clean as the rooms.

Cc. Madhya 12.106

nirmala, śītala, snigdha karila mandire
āpana-hṛdaya yena dharila bāhire

Translation: When the temple was cleansed, it was purified, cool and pleasing, just as if the Lord’s own pure mind had appeared.

Cc. Madhya 12.107

Translation: Since hundreds of men were engaged in bringing water from the lake, there was no place to stand on the banks. Consequently someone began to draw water from a well.

Cc. Madhya 12.108

Translation: Hundreds of devotees brought water in the pots, and hundreds took the empty pots away to fill them up again.

Cc. Madhya 12.109

nityānanda, advaita, svarūpa, bhāratī, purī
iṅhā vinu āra saba āne jala bhari’

Translation: With the exception of Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Ācārya, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Brahmānanda Bhāratī and Paramānanda Purī, everyone was engaged in filling the waterpots and bringing them there.

Cc. Madhya 12.110

ghaṭe ghaṭe ṭheki’ kata ghaṭa bhāṅgi’ gela
śata śata ghaṭa loka tāhāṅ lañā āila

Translation: Many of the waterpots were broken when people collided with one another, and hundreds of men had to bring new waterpots to fill.

Cc. Madhya 12.111

jala bhare, ghara dhoya, kare hari-dhvani
‘kṛṣṇa’ ’hari’ dhvani vinā āra nāhi śuni

Translation: Some people were filling the pots, and others were washing the rooms, but everyone was engaged in chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and Hari.

Jayapatākā Swami: Chanting the holy name of Hari and Kṛṣṇa is known as hari-dhvani.

Cc. Madhya 12.112

‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ kahi’ kare ghaṭera prārthana
‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ kahi’ kare ghaṭa samarpaṇa

Translation: One person begged for a waterpot by chanting the holy names “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa,” and another delivered a pot while chanting “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.” 

Cc. Madhya 12.113

‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ kahi’ kare ghaṭera prārthana
‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ kahi’ kare ghaṭa samarpaṇa

Translation: Whenever anyone had to speak, he did so by uttering the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. Consequently, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa became an indication for everyone who wanted something.

Jayapatākā Swami: It was the password to get anything done, you see. ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa!’

Cc. Madhya 12.114

premāveśe prabhu kahe ‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’-nāma
ekale premāveśe kare śata-janera kāma

Jayapatākā Swami: The word for ‘name’ in Sanskrit is nāma. So Kṛṣṇa’s name means kṛṣṇa-nāma.

Translation: As Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was vibrating the holy name of Kṛṣṇa in ecstatic love, He Himself was performing the work of hundreds of men.

Cc. Madhya 12.115

śata-haste karena yena kṣālana-mārjana
pratijana-pāśe yāi’ karāna śikṣaṇa

Translation: It appeared as though Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu were cleansing and washing with a hundred hands. He approached every devotee just to teach him how to work. 

Cc. Madhya 12.116

bhāla karma dekhi’ tāre kare prasaṁśana
mane nā milile kare pavitra bhartsana

Translation: When He saw someone doing nicely, the Lord praised him, but if He saw that someone was not working to His satisfaction, He immediately chastised that person, not bearing him any grudge.

Cc. Madhya 12.117

tumi bhāla kariyācha, śikhāha anyere
ei-mata bhāla karma seho yena kare

Translation: The Lord would say, “You have done well. Please teach this to others so that they may act in the same way.”

Cc. Madhya 12.118

Translation: As soon as they heard Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu say this, everyone became ashamed. Thus the devotees began to work with great attention.

Cc. Madhya 12.119

tabe prakṣālana kaila śrī-jagamohana
bhoga-mandira-ādi tabe kaila prakṣālana

Translation: They washed the Jagamohana area and then the place where food was kept. All other places were also washed.

Cc. Madhya 12.120

Translation: In this way the meeting place was washed, the entire yard, the raised sitting places, the kitchen and every other room.

Cc. Madhya 12.121

Translation: Thus all places around the temple were thoroughly washed within and without.

Cc. Madhya 12.122

Translation: After everything was thoroughly washed, a Vaiṣṇava from Bengal, who was very intelligent and simple, came and poured water on the lotus feet of the Lord.

Cc. Madhya 12.123

sei jala lañā āpane pāna kaila
tāhā dekhi’ prabhura mane duḥkha roṣa haila

Translation: The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava then took that water and drank it himself. Seeing that, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu felt a little unhappy and was also outwardly angry.

Cc. Madhya 12.124

yadyapi gosāñi tāre hañāche santoṣa
dharma-saṁsthāpana lāgi’ bāhire mahā-roṣa

Translation: Although the Lord was certainly satisfied with him, He became angry externally in order to establish the etiquette of religious principles.

            Cc. Madhya 12.125

Translation: The Lord then called for Svarūpa Dāmodara and told him, “Just see the behavior of your Bengali Vaiṣṇava!

Cc. Madhya 12.126

īśvara-mandire mora pada dhoyāila
sei jala āpani lañā pāna kaila

Translation: “This person from Bengal has washed My feet within the temple of the Personality of Godhead. Not only that, but he has drunk the water himself.

Cc. Madhya 12.127

Translation: “I now do not know what My destination is because of this offense. Indeed, your Bengali Vaiṣṇava has greatly implicated Me.”

Cc. Madhya 12.128

tabe svarūpa gosāñi tāra ghāḍe hāta diyā
ḍhekā māri’ purīra bāhira rākhilena lañā

Translation: At this point Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī caught the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava by the neck and, giving him a little push, ejected him from the Guṇḍicā Purī temple and made him stay outside.

Cc. Madhya 12.129

Translation: After Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī returned within the temple, he requested Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to excuse that innocent person. 

Cc. Madhya 12.130

tabe mahāprabhura mane santoṣa ha-ila
sāri kari’ dui pāśe sabāre vasāilā

Translation: After this incident, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very satisfied. He then asked all of the devotees to sit down in two lines on both sides.

Cc. Madhya 12.131

āpane vasiyā mājhe, āpanāra hate
tṛṇa, kāṅkara, kuṭā lāgilā kuḍāite

Translation: The Lord then personally sat down in the middle and picked up all kinds of straw, grains of sand and dirty things.

Cc. Madhya 12.132

Translation: While Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was picking up the straws and grains of sand, He said, “I shall gather everyone’s collection, and I shall ask whoever has collected less than all the others to pay a fine of sweet cakes and sweet rice.”

Cc. Madhya 12.133

Translation: In this way all the quarters of the Guṇḍicā temple were completely cleansed and cleared. All quarters were cool and spotless, like one’s cleansed and pacified mind.

Cc. Madhya 12.134

Translation: When the water from the different rooms was finally let out through the halls, it appeared as if new rivers were rushing out to meet the waters of the ocean.

Cc. Madhya 12.135

ei-mata puradvāra-āge patha yata
sakala śodhila, tāhā ke varṇibe kata

Translation: Outside the gateway of the temple, all the roads were also cleansed, and no one could tell exactly how this was done.

Purport: In commenting on the cleansing of the Guṇḍicā temple, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as the world teacher, was personally giving instructions on how one should receive Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, within one’s cleansed and pacified heart. If one wants to see Kṛṣṇa seated in his heart, he must first cleanse the heart, as prescribed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His Śikṣāṣṭaka: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (Cc. Antya 20.12). In this age, everyone’s heart is especially unclean, as confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi. To wash away all dirty things accumulated within the heart, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised everyone to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. The first result will be that the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]). Similarly, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.17) confirms this statement:

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām

“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”

Jayapatākā Swami: In other words, here, Prabhupāda is explaining Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākuras explanation. How we receive Kṛṣṇa with a pure and pacified heart and how the heart is cleansed. Now this is also being explained. By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, by hearing and relishing His messages. He goes on:

Purport (cont.): If a devotee at all wants to cleanse his heart, he must chant and hear the glories of the Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa (śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ [ŚB. 1.2.17]). This is a simple process. Kṛṣṇa Himself will help cleanse the heart because He is already seated there. Kṛṣṇa wants to continue living within the heart, and the Lord wants to give directions, but one has to keep his heart as clean as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu kept the Guṇḍicā temple. The devotee therefore has to cleanse his heart just as the Lord cleansed the Guṇḍicā temple. In this way one can be pacified and enriched in devotional service. If the heart is filled with straw, grains of sand, weeds or dust (in other words, anyābhilāṣa-pūrṇa), one cannot enthrone the Supreme Personality of Godhead there. The heart must be cleansed of all material motives brought about through fruitive work, speculative knowledge, the mystic yoga system and so many other forms of so-called meditation. The heart must be cleansed without ulterior motive. As Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11]. In other words, there should not be any external motive. One should not attempt material upliftment, understanding the Supreme by speculative knowledge, fruitive activity, severe austerity and penance, and so on. All these activities are against the natural growth of spontaneous love of Godhead. As soon as these are present within the heart, the heart should be understood to be unclean and therefore unfit to serve as Kṛṣṇa’s sitting place. We cannot perceive the Lord’s presence in our hearts unless our hearts are cleansed.

Jayapatākā Swami: Just like in the temple, before we install the deity, we put the throne, we cleanse it. Then, after everything is clean, then we invite the Lord to sit there. Similarly, we can expect Kṛṣṇa to sit in our heart to give us advice, to be our constant companion in the highest spiritual sense, when we’re keeping our heart filled with other motives than trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. As long as the other motives are there, the heart is unclean. As long as the heart is unclean, we won’t be able to perceive Kṛṣṇa sitting there. As long as we’re not able to perceive Kṛṣṇa sitting in our heart, we won’t feet satisfied and happy to the maximum through devotional service. So the most important thing is to keep the heart clean and bring Kṛṣṇa into the heart. And from there, everything progresses. So the purport continues…

… Just like a fog, even though Kṛṣṇa may be in the heart; even though He is in the heart like the Sun, but due to the presence of fog sometimes you can’t see the sun. Even though Kṛṣṇa is there, there is a fog. And we have to cleanse that fog away, blow it away. Just like Lord Caitanya gives example. Kṛṣṇa is there but you can’t see Him in the mirror of consciousness unless the consciousness is cleansed, like dust being wiped off the mirror. Then the mirror will not act properly. Won’t be able to see things, see Kṛṣṇa as He is.

Purport (cont.): A material desire is explained as a desire to enjoy the material world to its fullest extent. In modern language, this is called economic development. An inordinate desire for economic development is considered to be like straws and grains of sand within the heart. If one is overly engaged in material activity, the heart will always remain disturbed. As stated by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura:

saṁsāra viṣānale,     divā-niśi hiyā jvale,
juḍāite nā kainu upāya

In other words, endeavor for material opulence is against the principle of devotional service. Material enjoyment includes activities such as great sacrifices for auspicious activity, charity, austerity, elevation to the higher planetary system, and even living happily within the material world.

Jayapatākā Swami: These are all endeavor for material opulence against the principles of devotional service. Some of them, people might think, are actually spiritual. Giving charity, elevation to higher planetary systems, austerity. In themselves, even great sacrifices for auspicious activity or just living happily in the material world. Someone who wants to live happily in this material world or someone who wants to do great sacrifices for their religious upliftment; this is all desire to enjoy the material world, which is an obstacle to our advancement in devotional service. Actually, to advance in devotional service, we shouldn’t be concerned with living happily in the material world or not. We should be concerned with advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, with pleasing Kṛṣṇa.

Just like Sudāmā Vipra; his wife used to always encourage him that, “Why don’t you go to Kṛṣṇa? He is so rich! We are living here in (?) poverty. You could go to Kṛṣṇa and get some money from Him and we could we rich and wealthy and we wouldn’t have any problem. He is your school friend, your dear friend. You always tell me how friendly you are with Kṛṣṇa. You were schoolmates together. Here we’re suffering. I don’t have a new saree. I don’t have proper bangles. We don’t go out anywhere. Nothing. Practically you just go out as a brāhmaṇa and get few alms and we’re hardly able to pull on. Just like making everday….”

Finally, he said, “Alright, I’ll go! I’ll go!” He surrendered to his wife. He had nothing. He had nothing. He had to bring something to Kṛṣṇa. They had nothing, they were so poor. So then he went to the neighbors and he begged some chipped rice, some ciḍā. Like we have here our ciḍā-dahi festival. Then he went to see Kṛṣṇa, his Friend. But then he thought, “I can’t ask Kṛṣṇa for anything. But anyway, I can’t stay in my house. My wife wont let me live without going to see Kṛṣṇa. So let me go and see Kṛṣṇa and I won’t ask Him for anything. At least I get the opportunity of seeing Him.”

So then he went and of course many of you probably know the story how when he came, immediately all the gate-guards, everyone, they sent a message. And Kṛṣṇa immediately had him brought in. Sat him down on His own elevated seat and personally, because Kṛṣṇa was playing the role as a kṣatriya and Sudāmā Vipra was of course as a brāhmaṇa. So the kṣatriya worships the brāhmaṇas as the spiritual masters of society. Traditionally the brāhmaṇas, they live very simply. Very plainly. Being independent of so many material entanglements. So that it’s very easy for them for going back to Godhead. They don’t have all the material attachments.

That is why Lord Caitanya, He refused to see King Pratāparudra. He said, “He is a king! He is a materialist. He has so much wealth, power, politics, women. I won’t see him. He is a materialist.” Although he was actually a devotee but just to set a certain standard. He was very much against seeing these worldy people. Of course later He did see King Pratāparudra, when he had to go and disguise as a devotee to see Lord Caitanya. He wouldn’t see him as a opulent materialist. Had to come as a humble Vaiṣṇava. Many cases like that. Maybe that’s another area.

So of course, here Vipra Sudāmā is going to see Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, while He was here on the Earth playing a pastime as a King. So that time Lord Kṛṣṇa personally bathed the feet of Vipra Sudāmā and the goddess of fortune, Rukmiṇī, with her own hand she was fanning him with a cāmara fan. This way, they were greeting him with sweet words, they were washing his feet. He was overwhelmed. He sat him down on their own couch, their resting place. And he just couldn’t believe it. 

And then Kṛṣṇa said, “What’s this?” He saw he had a little package. He said, “You brought something for me?”

He (Sudāma said), “No! No!” He thought, “How can I offer this?”

He (Kṛṣṇa) said, “No! No! I know you brought this for me! What is it!?” By force he took it. “My dear friend, what you have brought me?” Then He opened it up and saw, ‘Oh here is some ciḍā!’. He said, “Oh! For me? So kind of you!” and He took one bite.

“No don’t take it! It’s not suitable for you.”

“No! No! It’s wonderful!”, then He took another bite.

And He was going to take the third bite when *gestures Rukmiṇī stopping Kṛṣṇa* Rukmiṇī put her hand on His hand and said that, “My Lord, if you take three bites, I’ll be in great trouble!” She explained that, “This is not his own. He had to go out and beg it from someone. So the goddess of fortune, she always reciprocates with anyone who gives anything to the Lord. So by You taking the offering once, I have to give him all the opulence. By taking it twice, I have to give him equal to Yourself. But third, if You take it a third time, then since he took it from someone else, then I have to give him more opulence than You have and that is not possible. So twice is enough.”

So of course when Vipra Sudāmā game back to his house, it was transofmed into a big palace and everything. His wife was very happy. She had all the facility. But he used it all for Kṛṣṇa’s service. So sometimes Kṛṣṇa gives opulence to his devotee and sometimes He keeps the devotee in a difficult situation. That’s also purification. Sometimes that difficult situation may be just what the devotee needs to go back to Godhead. There are so many devotees who don’t go back to Godhead. Who only get up to the heavenly planets because they were hankering for comfortable material life. And when they die, that’s just what they get. They go to Indraloka, Satyaloka, Gandharvaloka. And they stay there and again they come back down. Or if they’re lucky, they can from there gradually go up. But it’s a long…. They may miss the movement of Lord Caitanya. Once you take birth in heavenly planets, you’re missing Lord Caitanya’s movement unless it goes up there. Because the lifetime there is thousands and thousands of years and this movement is here only for a short time, 10000 years.

So in this lifetime, if we can focus our attention on giving the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his associates, we can actually finish up all of our business of this material world and go back home, back to Godhead. We can get pure devotional service. Just like trying to do whatever is going to be more pleasing to Nitāi-Gaura. So Śrīla Prabhupāda continues to quote Bhaktisiddhānta:

Purport (cont.): Modernized material benefits are like the dust of material contamination. When this dust is agitated by the whirlwind of fruitive activity, it overcomes the heart. Thus the mirror of the heart is covered with dust. There are many desires to perform auspicious and inauspicious activities, but people do not know how life after life they are keeping their hearts unclean. One who cannot give up the desire for fruitive activity is understood to be covered by the dust of material contamination. Karmīs generally think that the interaction of fruitive activities can be counteracted by another karma, or fruitive activity. This is certainly a mistaken conception. If one is deluded by such a conception, he is cheated by his own activity. Such activities have been compared to an elephant’s bathing. An elephant may bathe very thoroughly, but as soon as it comes out of the river, it immediately takes some sand from the land and throws it all over its body. If one suffers due to his past fruitive activities, he cannot counteract his suffering by performing auspicious activities. The sufferings of human society cannot be counteracted by material plans. The only way suffering can be mitigated is by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord—beginning with chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord—the cleansing of the heart begins.

Jayapatākā Swami: It’s a very wonderful purport. You see there are many desires to perform auspicious and inauspicious activities. I guess in the West, we all focus more on the inauspicious activities because they are so prominent. Although certainly there are… but in India, it’s actually… it’s a māyā that like it’s an auspicious activity to serve your mother and father. I guess that’s here also, but not so much. Or it’s an auspicious activity to do certain type of fruitive type sacrifices and things like that. In India you find many people, they think, ‘Well I cant render devotional service because I have to do this type of auspicious activity. It’ll be offensive for me not to do it.’ They don’t realize that more important than their ritualistic auspicious activity is directly to engage in devotional service. And of course all over the world, the inauspicious activities, those also pull people. Eating meat-fish-eggs, intoxication, illicit sex, gambling, so on.

So these are of course distractions. And they keep our hearts unclean. Just like in India, the people, some of the big businessmen, they’ll… they I mean... the level of cheating there… Of course here it’s the same except… I haven’t been here so I don’t know all the examples. But here it’s more subtle. It’s like I was in Chicago at night and I heard all these pumps running and I said, “What’s that?”

And they said, “Well its against the law to dump the waste in Lake Michigan.” but they do it and bribe the inspectors and that way save more money than by the normal legal way of filtering it and so on.

Or like in India, you buy a… they found that the ghee company and the soap company were right next door to each other. So what they were doing is, to make soap you need tallow. You know what tallow is? It’s animal fat; cow, pig and so on. Of course, ghee is the bona fide animal fat. But somehow when they tested the samples of ghee in the market, they found, everyone of them had animal fat in it. Even the vegetable ghee, the vanaspatī. It’s not under ghee but imitation ghee called vanaspatī made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, that they make it to be similar to ghee and they call it ‘Dalda’. And it all had animal fat, but it was supposed to be vegetable. And they found that they were taking from soap factory the tallow, the fat because that’s very cheap in India. And they were cutting that into their soap. Even in Māyāpur, when he heard this, we had to test every sample that we were buying in the market. One two samples we found, before we used them, that they had animal fat. The sweet shop, sometimes they use the vegetable oil for the public. For the deities they just use Australian ghee.

So that time, so what these rich men do is after they do things like that which is completely sinful, cheating; then they think ‘I’ll open up a hospital. I’ll open up a school and this is going to counteract it.’ But it doesn’t work that way. If you get a pious activity, you get the pious result. You do a sinful act, you get the sinful… they don’t negate each other. It’s just you have to get that many hits and you get that many bonus. But they don’t counteract each other. The only way of counteracting sinful reactions is by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You accrue more karma, you’re just adding to the wheel of karma. Plus or minus but the wheel is still spinning. You don’t actually reduce. All you’re doing is borrowing this something, you added a plus. You get to suffer your sinful reactions after enjoying your good reaction. That’s the one benefit you’re given. But sooner or later you’re gonna have to suffer those. But only by devotional service is this material suffering counteracted or mitigated. Of course most people they don’t understand the difference between ordinary fruitive charity or auspicious activity compared to devotional service. That actually awakening someone yp spiritually, serving the deity of Kṛṣṇa, then that’s on a different category. That’s on a transcendental level. But just material auspicious activity, that, being material, it only has a limited effect. So it doesn’t actually negate one’s sinful activities. It’s a very long purport, let me just pick out some of the essential points here. I mean this is one of the most…

Well it goes here into impersonal speculations. Compares impersonal speculation, mystic yoga and meditation to grains of sand that irritate the heart. So that makes also difficult to Kṛṣṇa to sit in the heart. Even sometimes some yogīs and some jñānīs take to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, but because they think they’ve already got liberated or something, they stop chanting. They don’t understand that the ultimate goal is to realize Kṛṣṇa. The Gītā says:

tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān saṁsāreṣu narāDhāmān
kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu

“Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.” (Bg. 16.19)

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has shown us that all the grains of sand must be picked up thoroughly and thrown outside. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also cleansed the outside of the temple, fearing that the grains of sand would again come within. Not only cleaning the consciousness but cleaning the environment around, that we’re living in. So that the association otherwise is good, pure, Kṛṣṇa conscious so that again those dirts don’t come in. Someone may oneself be cleansing the heart and advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness but again if you intimately associate with people who are not cleansed or not interested in being cleansed, then the danger is that you can also become... that dirt can again come back inside. So we have to be careful to not to associate with non-devotees.

That means not just to intimately chit-chat with non-devotees because they can’t help but just talk a bunch of nonsense that can disturb the mind. We can keep our talks to devotional preaching, discussion or practical services. And all the gossiping, what-not, just useless discussion of the material world and useless association which are tending to just rather bring again dirt back into the mind, we avoid those as far as possible. So then….

Purport (contd.): Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains that even though one may become free from the desire for fruitive activity, sometimes the subtle desire for fruitive activity again comes into being within the heart. One often thinks of conducting business to improve devotional activity. But the contamination is so strong that it may later develop into misunderstanding, described as kuṭi-nāṭi (faultfinding) and pratiṣṭhāśā (the desire for name and fame and for high position), jīva-hiṁsā (envy of other living entities), niṣiddhācāra (accepting things forbidden in the śāstra), kāma (desire for material gain) and pūjā (hankering for popularity). The word kuṭi-nāṭi means ”duplicity.” As an example of pratiṣṭhāśā, one may attempt to imitate Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura by living in a solitary place. One’s real desire may be for name and fame—in other words, one thinks that fools will accept one to be as good as Haridāsa Ṭhākura just because one lives in a solitary place. These are all material desires. A neophyte devotee is certain to be attacked by other material desires as well, namely desires for women and money. In this way the heart is again filled with dirty things and becomes harder and harder, like that of a materialist. Gradually one desires to become a reputed devotee or an avatāra (incarnation).

Jayapatākā Swami: I think we’ve seen this many times that even someone gave up the desire for fruitive activity, was a devotee, but then somehow just due to the habit of acting fruitively, seeing some direct profit for what you’re doing, that’s a very strong attachment. Especially in the West, everyone wants to do the result of what they’re doing. Just doing devotional service for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa and not often seeing immediate result is just against the nature of the Westerners. They just want to see results. But of course, Kṛṣṇa sometimes doesn’t give immediate results. Sometimes the results are long and coming. And sometimes Kṛṣṇa gives immediate results. It’s not always…. it’s upto Kṛṣṇa ultimately. But it’s our duty to serve Kṛṣṇa and it is His duty to give us the results. We have to just continuously try. But that desire of working in seeing a result for work, that’s a very subtle fruitive desire. And of course, in devotional service, when the spiritual master or the devotees give us a certain goal to achieve through our service, a certain result as a goal; of course, we try to achieve that, depending upon Kṛṣṇa. But when sometimes when someone wants to leave devotional service and engage in some kind of a business or something with the idea that, “Well I’ll do the business for x amount of time and when I amass my fortune, then I’ll give the money to Kṛṣṇa, then what happens is of course that this can develop into misunderstanding. One starts to act in a fruitive way and then they become critical of the devotees who are rendering steady devotional service or they fall down in one way or another, any of these things that Prabhupāda explained here: accepting things forbidden in the śāstra, desire for material gain, hankering for popularity and so on. So it’s a very delicate… delicate line. That someone wants to engage in some service, some activity which is ultimately to promote devotional service. But if that activity itself is not devotional service, if it’s a post-dated check, the danger is that the contamination can set in. Very practical. And we’ve seen it. People some of them practice outside, they do something and their devotional service goes way down, very hard for them to maintain outside the association. When they go outside, especially it's difficult. And there are many other circumstances and occasions.

So… of course Prabhupāda explains jīva-hiṁsā: that if you don’t preach, if we just sit down, that’s also violence. So he says…

Purport (cont.): To give us practical instructions, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu cleansed the temple twice. His second cleansing was more thorough. The idea was to throw away all the stumbling blocks on the path of devotional service. He cleansed the temple with firm conviction, as is evident from His using His own personal garments for cleaning. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to see personally that the temple was thoroughly cleansed to the standard of clean marble. Clean marble gives a cooling effect. Devotional service means attaining peace from all disturbances caused by material contamination. In other words, it is the process by which the mind is cooled. The mind can be peaceful and thoroughly cleansed when one no longer desires anything but devotional service.

Even though all dirty things may be cleansed away, sometimes subtle desires remain in the mind for impersonalism, monism, success and the four principles of religious activity (dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa). All these are like spots on clean cloth. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also wanted to cleanse all these away.

Jayapatākā Swami: In other words, the entire cleansing of the Gundica temple is a practical example of cleansing our heart, to prepare for Kṛṣṇa’s coming. First Lord Caitanya took big branches and you know it’s (the Guṇḍicā temple) just only used for 7 days a year so for one year, it just became overgrown. So many leaves and branches and twigs blown in from the… because it’s a beautiful garden. And then there’s a temple in the garden so naturally things will blow inside. So first is, they clean up all the rubbish and things that are in there. Just like we have the gross desires: breaking regulative principles, gross fruitive desire. It’s just like… very obvious. So first thing is to cleanse those things out. But that’s just the beginning.

Then you come back… then they swept. Just like before you can sweep, you gotta pick out the branches, the twigs, the pieces of stone. You can’t sweep with all these big things there. You clip that out, pick it up, throw it out… then you can swep all the dust, small little pieces of sand, light leaves things like that. The second cleansing is there. So that means that after you get the principal material desires out, then you have to… little stumbling blocks. Then after that, then again Lord Caitanya took water and thoroughly washed everything a third time. And it was very clean. Completely cleaning up even these very fine desires. And then after that, they cleaned with his nails. They picked out the cracks. That if there’s any hint, any hidden in the crevices, any little subtle… hasn’t even shown its face yet but still might be ready to come up, he cleaned that out and washed it. So Prabhupāda says…

Purport (contd.): By His practical activity, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu informed us how to cleanse our hearts. Once the heart is cleansed, we should invite Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to sit down, and we should observe the festival by distributing prasādam and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

Jayapatākā Swami: So how do you distribute prasāda when Kṛṣṇa is sitting in your heart? You have to distribute it internally. (laughter) Only eat prasāda and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you see. Don’t bring in non prasāda because Kṛṣṇa is in the heart. 

Purport (contd.): Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to teach every devotee by His personal behavior. Everyone who spreads the cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepts a similar responsibility.

Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda used the word ‘cult’. In India, ‘cult’’s not considered a bad word. In dictionary it’s not a bad word. Here it just means…. a religious movement.

Purport (contd.): The Lord was personally chastising and praising individuals in the course of the cleaning, and those who are engaged as ācāryas must learn from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu how to train devotees by personal example.

Jayapatākā Swami: Actually, you can see that praise and some criticism is given. This is of course, as it is said, without any grudge. Without any… without bearing a grudge, right.  In other words, it’s not personal. Like something you say against someone personally and you make a criticism, that’s like…. it’s different you know. It’s like a personal vendetta or something. It’s not like that. Just for the sake of doing the service, sometimes somebody wants to encourage, they say you did a good job. And if someone could do better, you say, “Well, you’re not doing as good as you could.” It’s not a personal thing. It’s a duty of the ācārya and of anyone representing the ācārya.

In Prabhupāda’s presence, he would have the GBCs and temple presidents praise and chastise the people in their zones and temples. This was their duty and in fact Prabhupāda used to come by and when he was in Māyāpur in two months for every fall, he would inspect and he would personally praise and chastise everybody. He would take over as the temple president and show us how to do it for two months, practically. He’d say, “Who is incharge of the garden? Why is this one foot-square unplanted? Why you’re wasting Krsnas land?” He’d be walking and the water would be dripping and he’d say, “Who left the tap on? Who is that nonsense!?” He’d go and with his cane kick open the bathroom door and someone didn’t flush the toilet. And there was just one visiting ācārya there. Of course he wasn’t ācārya then but later was. But he was visiting GBC. He (Prabhupāda) turned to him and said, “How can you tolerate this?” He was completely dumbfounded. He said, “Look at it. How are you allowing this?”

You know it’s not his zone, he’s just visiting.

“And you call yourself a brāhmaṇa? Brāhmaṇa means that wherever he is, around it must be clean. So if you’re a brāhmaṇa, you will not be able to tolerate any uncleanliness wherever you are.”

I think he got him because we were getting a little bit of the mercy and he was grinning, so he got it. (laughter) You have to be in the proper mood of receiving the mercy when it is given by the guru or the ācārya. It is very important to take it in a humble. And when someone else happens to be in the mercy, you shouldn’t think that it is not meant for you also. It is meant for everyone to take a lesson. So that was Prabhupāda also. But also he would praise. If someone did good he would say, “Oh this is very nice. Kṛṣṇa has inspired.” If it was very well cooked prasāda he’d say, “I think Rādhārani has cooked through the devotee.” So many wonderful praises would be given. So here the last few sentences…

Purport (contd.): The Lord was very pleased with those who could cleanse the temple by taking out undesirable things accumulated within. This is called anartha-nivṛtti, cleansing the heart of all unwanted things. Thus the cleansing of the Guṇḍicā-mandira was conducted by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to let us know how the heart should be cleansed and soothed to receive Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and enable Him to sit within the heart without disturbance.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the actual secret to having our heart soothed. To have the heart pacified. The heart means the mind. It’s connected to the heart of course. To have our heart completely soothed, pacified, satisfied, we have to have Kṛṣṇa sitting there. That is the only ultimate solution. Otherwise we can wander throughout the three worlds. Even Brahmā is not satisfied unless he has Kṛṣṇa sitting in his heart. Our Brahmā is fortunate to have Kṛṣṇa sitting in his heart most of the time. At least now he definitely does. After a certain point he did. 

Even to be a very powerful person or whatever, even a demigod, without being a devotee, without having Kṛṣṇa in your heart, my heart won’t be peaceful. So how you can bring Kṛṣṇa? Then you have to cleans the heart and bring in Kṛṣṇa and then you become pacified. That’s the only solution. There’s no other solution which is permanent, which is complete.

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

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

Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda ki…!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jaya Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Ṭhākura ki…!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jaya Guṇḍicā-mārjana ki…!

Devotees: Jaya!

Any questions before the slideshow? Bhakta Jan, what do you think? Some idea how to cleanse the heart?

Actually in Māyāpur Prabhupāda would tell the devotees that cleansing the temple is just like cleansing your heart. Cleaning the temple doesn’t mean just the temple room but the ground, the toilets… everything that is property of Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: (inaudible) (laughter)

Question: Sometimes my heart cleaning up, I feel like it’s material energy too. Is it always devotional service?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well the service is spiritual but you should see it that way. Kṛṣṇa is known as Bhāva-grāhi Janardana. He accepts the mood of the devotee. If you thinking that “Ah im cleaning some dirt…” then your…

Kṛṣṇa is accepting your mood of service. If you take the humble mood that I’m serving as a very menial maidservant of Lord Kṛṣṇa, cleaning his temple and for His pleasure and this is cleaning my heart. You should think like that. Actually the fact is it’s cleaning your heart. But if you also think that way, that will make your service more effective. Chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa doesn’t require any mental adjustment. You just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and think of the vibration. But service is more effective if you have a mental adjustment. That shouldn’t be artificial but based on knowledge and realization. That while serving if one is serving, his service can also be in an offensive way, in a clearing way and an offense less way. If a person says, “I’m doing this for Kṛṣṇa but I hate it…”, well that might be a little offensive but still it’s going to the service. Still it’s cleansing no doubt. But if one does it, “Alright I would never do this ordinarily but I’m doing it because it’s only for you Kṛṣṇa and for your pleasure and I hope….”, you know. Then it’s a clearing stage. And then when you’re seeing… you’re already on the offense less stage.

So like this, we try in every activity of course, we should… if we can’t frame our mind, if it’s not framed in the right attitude, then we should chant like they did. Through all the work they just chanted, so they didn’t have to worry. “Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!” Is that alright?

Devotee: Yes, thank you.

Question: Generally speaking in the ISKCON temples we worship Lord Caitanya very very opulently, sometimes in a similar way as Kṛṣṇa. Different types of dress and jewelry. So is it improper to think of Lord Caitanya in the worship in his activities as sannyāsa, renounced aspect?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, it is not improper to think of Lord Caitanya as his pastime as a sannyāsi. But in the worship, you see, that sannyāsī pastime is very painful for the devotee, you see. I mean, there is a difference of course in the sentiment of the Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇavas or the pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa, that they are very expert in rasa, in the mellows of devotion. And their complete attitude is to give pleasure to the Lord. That’s called love. To want to serve the person you love. Offering voluntary service, and opening your mind and offering foodstuff and so on.

Wanting to please the other person, that’s love. Wanting to please yourself, that’s called selfishness. So when you’re trying to see the object of your love pleased, happy or comfortable and so on; so then the idea of Lord Caitanya shaving His head and just wearing one cloth and just doing all this austerity is unbearable for his devotees. That He is taking up an austerity. It is kind of… they compare that with what we were discussing something that day about ‘bathing in the blood’ (laughter) and ‘we can never be pure’, ‘Jesus died for our sins’ and everything’ and just meditating on that, I mean…. you know… it’s inconceivable.

The gopīs, when they thought Kṛṣṇa walking barefoot in the forest, that maybe the little pebbles are hurting His feet, they’re crying and weeping. They just couldn’t… any kind of inconvenience to Kṛṣṇa was unbearable for them. And for a true… I mean that’s why Śrīla Prabhupāda said why not stress Lord Jesus’s childhood. His so many compassionate pastimes. He’s a great preacher. I mean how can you meditate… if someone you love, you know just like your father or somebody was killed in Nuremburg… would you remember the picture of him you know like… just before the gas chamber or something? You’d just go crazy. I mean... if you actually loved him, you’d want to remember him, you know, how he was your father. Just you know, it’s practically… it’s like an unusual situation. It’s very… rasābhāsa. A strange mixture of sentiments. It’s a little awful for tuning, by the standard of loving devotional service as expressed by the Brahma-Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava tradition.

So for that reason, although… I mean although there is a real and factual pastime we had and naturally we do meditate on that and it does make us feel certainly obliged to Him. Just as naturally we also see that how Lord Jesus, he also went through great austerity to deliver his followers and Haridasa Ṭhākura went through great austerity of being beaten in 21 marketplaces to preach the Holy Name and there are are so many examples like that. Devotees who are going out preaching now, they get arrested sometimes, tortured, insulted. They’re just pushing on the missionary work.

We discussed those things but normally we don’t reproduce the visuals so much because it’s just very upsetting. I mean we do that if you want to rouse somebody up for something but it gets them very upset. Devotees are very soft-hearted so they don’t normally worship the Lord in that kind of austere mood. They want to see the Lord in his Navadvīpa pastime, when He was like a prince and He'd go and He was the leader of the saṅkīrtana movement and He was very… hundreds and thousands of people following Him. It’s just more natural mood.

He artificially took on this… I mean it seems almost artificial when He took on this austerity for the purpose of preaching Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. It is hard for the devotees to see that, to meditate on that. It just brings their heart into a type of melancholy. A feeling which is of course, in some sects, they like to produce that kind of a mood. But Lord Caitanya recommended that we should rather come in the mood of daily festival. Be in a more positive mood. We should see the Lord in His transcendental position as the Enjoyer, as the All Blissful. That’s why we worship Lord Caitanya in his Navadvīpa form. We worship Him just in the mood that Advaita Ācārya and others worshipped Him in the mahā-prakāśa, when He was Lord Caitanya and He revealed Himself that He was actually Kṛṣṇa come as Lord Caitanya. For 21 hours, they worshipped him in that mood.

Otherwise you couldn’t put tulasī on Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet. He wouldn’t allow it. He’s in the mood of devotee. But that’s when we sing ‘kiba jaya jaya gauracāṅdera āratika śobhā’ and Brahmā and all the demigods are doing ārati. That time, on the plea of Advaita and other devotees, they more or less are able to induce Him to offer His causeless mercy to reveal His full glory, His actual position, for 21 hours. Then after that it was….

It’s a very high, subtle… Ultimately one has to understand the mellows and flavors of devotional service, to get to the higher realms. To be able to distinguish between the compatible devotional relationship and incompatible. Like conjugal love and parental love are incompatible. Conjugal and friendship are sometimes compatible.  There are certain compatibilities, certain incompatibilities.

Any other questions? On with the show? Saturday night movie? Late night show!

*Gurudeva begins a slideshow presentation here*

…and went to New York, and I flew to London, reached here the 10^th morning, caught the flight on the 10^th nighṭ. I reached the 12^th morning in Bombay and I couldn’t get a flight out. Somehow, I missed the flight. Had to pull every string in the book and without any reservation, flied to 3 different cities. Somehow or other given on the connecting flight by dropping these 20 people on the waiting list in each place, we just got the duty off. So they got the boarding pass ahead of everybody. They can do things like these in India, Kṛṣṇa mechanized it.

And we got just that morning to Madras, for the Ratha-yātrā. The 13^th of January, this is in Madras. The second annual Ratha-yātrā festival during the occasion of Pongal which is the Christmas, I guess the biggest celebration in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India and the Bay of Bengal. Lord Caitanya visited Madras. There’s an ancient temple of Kṛṣṇa there dating back thousands of years but they never had Jagannātha Ratha-yātrā there, which is normally a North Indian festival. So actually they came out, pretty good crowd. Many thousands of people were following along. It was advertised well in advance. Everyone lined up along the street to see and many people came along. For them, the Madrasis, it was a new… they have lot of caste conscious rivalry between brāhmaṇas and śūdras. You hear stories… one time the politicians forced the brāhmaṇas to leave one temple and all the sweepers to go in the temple to do the pūjā. After the sweepers were doing the pūjā for two days, “Who can stay in these hot deity rooms, no ventilation, just sitting here with the smell of camphor and incense. We can’t take it. We want to go out.” (laughter)

They brought the brāhmaṇas back in. So here, this festival is something were brāhmaṇas, śūdras, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, they can all come along and pull the ratha cart. Communists, capitalists, anyone. So it’s very popular. Since Calcutta had that mad fancy because everyone knows Ratha-yātrā and they’re killing each other trying to pull the cart. Here they had Ratha-yatra in a different form. But this Jagannātha Ratha-yātrā, they’re not fully used to yet. So they do come up and pull the cart. 

This is the sheriff of Madras. She is bigger than the mayor. It’s like the sheriff of the county of Madras. So what happened that the mayor… there’s no mayor. The municipality was provoked or whatever they call it. It was squashed by the government so. She is acting mayor plus bigger than the mayor, both. So she came and she gave a very nice talk, saying how we’re very appreciative of ISKCON for bringing the culture of Jagannātha which very few Madrasis could go upto Purī and see. Bring it down to Kṛṣṇa consciousness culture. Bring it down to South India. And she also praised Śrīla Prabhupāda for taking the Sanātana-dharma all over the world and said that everyone should feel very much indebted to Śrīla Prabhupāda for his contribution to Indian culture all around the world.

If you haven’t noticed, Madras is like the movie capital of South India. (laughter) But no one’s watching the movie posters. Their eyes are fixed on Jagannātha.

Devotees: jaya!

People are… so many paṇḍitas, it’s very common for someone to quote five or six verses from the Bhagavad-Gītā and actually give interpretation and class. You better know Sanskrit. It is quoted in Sanskrt.

People looking from buildings, throwing flowers sometimes. No one was offensive. Everyone was in a favorable, festive mood. Everyone was very appreciative.

Devotee: (some inaudible comment followed by laughter)

Dena Bank. Dena is a name of Lakṣmī. Lakṣmī’s bank. (laughter)

She’s the sheriff of the county of Madras. She’s bigger than they mayor. There is no mayor so she’s the acting mayor. She said she’s very fortunate that there’s no mayor so she got called. I don’t know if the picture came up but she was sweeping the road. She said, “I heard the mayor of San Francisco, the mayor of Vancouver, the chief Justice of Calcutta, they sweep the road just like the king of Purī does. So I feel very honored that I get this opportunity as the sheriff of Madras to sweep the road in front of Lord Jagannātha.

(comments on the broom) Gold-colored brass, special alloy.

That’s Lokanātha Swami. Different Swamijis came from different parts of India. 

At night, when the Ratha-yātrā was going on, Jagannātha was lit up by a generator. It was very beautiful. Quite festive at night.

Śrīdhara Svāmī came with me. 

Devotee: From Bombay.

Yes, Śrīdhara Svāmī from Bombay. He is a Canadian svāmī. 

Then the ratha went through an incredibly long route. It went on from 1’o clock to 8 – 9’o clock at night. It was ecstatic the whole way. You didn’t actually realize it was so long till we arrived there. You feel like so many hours were gone by. Much like Calcutta. Even though so many hours, you don’t have time to think about how the time is going by.

So here Prabhupāda was seated on the dais of the hall, the big pavilion where we’re going to be having our evening programs.

These are some of the VIPs, he spoke. Minister of health. He said that he felt that by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, this created mental and spiritual purity which was also important for good health. (laughter) He is speaking now. There were few doctors that came to hear him. I think Lokanātha Swami put him on the spot.

It’s the most famous… called the Mangala… it’s like a pavilion. It’s the most famous pavilion in Madras. For this type of function, we rented it. It’s got air conditioned hall upstairs, there’s a kitchen. Opposite from this, the Jagannātha deity; then it’s got a stage where we do dramas and cultural shows.

That lady speaking, she’s again sheriff. She came again. She liked it so much that she said, “I’d like to come again and speak at your program.” She’s actually a devotee, it’s very wonderful. She’s also the same level.

Here we switched over to Māyāpur. This is outside my bhajana-kuṭīra. (laughter) On the penthouse. (laughter)

(devotees conversing and laughing)

[finish]