20100417 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.17.14

mūkaṁkarotivācālaṁ
paṅguṁlaṅghayategirim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁvande
paramānanda-mādhavam
śrīcaitanyaīśvaram

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.17.14

navasvapivarṣeṣubhagavānnārāyaṇomahā-puruṣaḥpuruṣāṇāṁ tad-anugrahāyātma-tattva-vyūhenātmanādyāpisannidhīyate.

navasu—in the nine; api—certainly; varṣeṣu—tracts of land known as varṣas; bhagavān—the Supreme Personality of Godhead; nārāyaṇaḥ—Lord Viṣṇu; mahā-puruṣaḥ—the Supreme Person; puruṣāṇām—unto His various devotees; tat-anugrahāya—to show His mercy; ātma-tattva-vyūhena—by expansions of Himself in the quadruple forms Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha; ātmanā—personally; adyaapi—until now; sannidhīyate—is near the devotees for accepting their services.

TRANSLATION

To show mercy to His devotees in each of these nine tracts of land, the Supreme Personality of Godhead known as Nārāyaṇa expands Himself in His quadruple principles of Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. In this way He remains near His devotees to accept their service.

PURPORT

In this connection, ViśvanāthaCakravartīṬhākura informs us that the demigods worship the Supreme Lord in His various Deity forms (arcā-vigraha) because except in the spiritual world the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be directly worshiped in person. In the material world, the Lord is always worshiped as the arcā-vigraha, or Deity in the temple. There is no difference between the arcā-vigraha and the original person, and therefore those who are engaged in worshiping the Deity in the temple in full opulence, even on this planet, should be understood to be directly in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead without a doubt. As enjoined in the śāstras, arcyeviṣṇauśilā-dhīrguruṣunara-matiḥ: "No one should treat the Deity in the temple as stone or metal, nor should one think that the spiritual master is an ordinary human being." One should strictly follow this śāstric injunction and worship the Deity, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without offenses. The spiritual master is the direct representative of the Lord, and no one should consider him an ordinary human being. By avoiding offenses against the Deity and the spiritual master, one can advance in spiritual life, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In this regard, the following quotation appears in the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta:

pādmetuparama-vyomnaḥ
pūrvādyedik-catuṣṭaye
vāsudevādayovyūhaś
catvāraḥkathitāḥkramāt

tathāpāda-vibhūtau ca
nivasantikramādi me
jalāvṛti-stha-vaikuṇṭha-
sthitavedavatī-pure

satyordhvevaiṣṇaveloke
nityākhyedvārakā-pure
śuddhodāduttareśveta-
dvīpecairāvatī-pure

kṣīrāmbudhi-sthitānte
kroḍa-paryaṅka-dhāmani
sātvatīyekvacittantre
navavyūhāḥprakīrtitāḥ
catvārovāsudevādyā
nārāyaṇa-nṛsiṁhakau

hayagrīvomahā-kroḍo
brahmācetinavoditāḥ
tatrabrahmātuvijñeyaḥ
pūrvokta-vidhayāhariḥ

"In the Padma Purāṇa it is said that in the spiritual world the Lord personally expands in all directions and is worshiped as Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The same God is represented by the Deity in this material world, which is only one quarter of His creation. Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are also present in the four directions of this material world. There is a Vaikuṇṭhaloka covered with water in this material world, and on that planet is a place called Vedavatī, where Vāsudeva is located. Another planet known as Viṣṇuloka is situated above Satyaloka, and there Saṅkarṣaṇa is present. Similarly, in Dvārakā-purī, Pradyumna is the predominator. On the island known as Śvetadvīpa, there is an ocean of milk, and in the midst of that ocean is a place called Airāvatī-pura, where Aniruddha lies on Ananta. In some of the sātvata-tantras, there is a description of the nine varṣas and the predominating Deity worshiped in each: (1) Vāsudeva, (2) Saṅkarṣaṇa, (3) Pradyumna, (4) Aniruddha, (5) Nārāyaṇa, (6) Nṛsiṁha, (7) Hayagrīva, (8) Mahāvarāha, and (9) Brahmā." The Lord Brahmā mentioned in this connection is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When there is no fit human being to empower as Lord Brahmā, the Lord Himself takes the position of Lord Brahmā. Tatra brahmātuvijñeyaḥpūrvokta-vidhayāhariḥ. That Brahmā mentioned here is Hari Himself.

End of the purport.

TRANSLATION

To show mercy to His devotees in each of these nine tracts of land, the Supreme Personality of Godhead known as Nārāyaṇa expands Himself in His quadruple principles of Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. In this way He remains near His devotees to accept their service.

Guru Maharaja: So, this… Am I heard… Haribol. Now?

This verse is glorifying the Archa Vigraha or the Archa Avatara. The deity of the Lord, which descends in this material world.

A lot of these are from deity installation. So, as you can see, I have been involved in a lot of deity installations in… recently in Rajamanjari we installed the Gaura-Nitai deity, before there was the Jagannatha-Baladeva-Subhadra and the RadhaGopinath. So, similarly, different… couple of years ago we had a very big installation of the Astasakhis, and we moved the Radha-Govinda to their new place in Tirupati. Of course, before that we had the Panchatattva deity installed in Mayapur, and around the world different deities. Here we have RukminDwarakdish, RukminiDwarakanath, GauraNitai, Jagannatha-Baladeva-Subhadra.

Prabhupada mentions in the purport that the Pujaris in touch with the Lord accept the deity. I wish… I think it is here in Los Angeles, also heard Prabhupada turn to the Pujari. There was a lady here who was a pujari, and he asked her, Is the Lord happy? She looked a little bewildered, and Prabhupada, he said, Well, you are pujari, you should know, you are in touch with the Lord, you should know how he feels, is he happy? So, she was … but I remember that, and that actually the pujaris in touch with the deities, there are some deities which are more like active. They call in Bengali Jagrata, that the deity installed by Nityananda, what is that place called… Panihati… Kordhaha there is a RadhaShyamsundar. They say that if the pujari is very neglectful, the deity gets angry and starts to sweat. If the deity sweats the pujari dies. So, a few pujaris left their bodies. Generally pujrai should be attentive. Otherwise, the get an immediate reaction.

We had situations… we had our deities in Mayapur of Jagannatha. They were Jagrata. Since five hundred years ago like spontaneous they call Swayam prakash. I think almost. So, one time the pujari was, he didn’t know, but he had put salt instead of sugar in the charanamrita. You don’t do that. Especially you don’t do that with any deity, especially you don’t do that with Jagannatha. So, he was riding his bicycle back to Mayapur, and there was some crazy guy lying down on the road. Also the crazy guy jumped up, Ha… pushed him off the cycle, and he was there lying in the ground. Maybe I made some mistake today. He went back to the deities and found he had put salt in the charanamrita. So, there was someone who stole the cement from the deity. That day someone got a knife from the nearby village. So, the police were doing a door to door search for the attacker, and they came across one house, had fifty bags of cement which he could really explain how he got the cement. And we had given a diary that Jagannath’s cement fifty bags were stolen.

Well, in India, the police used their own method of persuasion, which I don’t know. It doesn’t exactly follow the Geneva code of conduct but... They kind of hanged the guy upside down, gave him a message with their stick. He confessed everything. He went back to Jaganatha. I will never steal from you again, please. So, Jaganatha, he is very fast acting. Now I asked here all the devotees… to tell me some lila of the deity here. I got a few devotees told me some pastime, but …18.00…anytime I will give you, it is not my fault, I …and he was very busy, but I am sure … deity pastimes here.

So, unfortunately the American people, lot of them, they think that the deities are idols, they are very offensive. So, these deities are not idols, they are actually requested to come by Prabhupada or by one of his representatives, and therefore they are actually Archa Avatara. They are one of the incarnations of the Lord. In visible form we can see. So, we can worship them, we can… and we have this great opportunity to worship the Lord, and to take his blessings.

Every day when I go for my therapy, I always try to come here and offer my prayers to the deities. We then train them that this deities are Krsna Himself.

Now, like we… for years I was going to the Srirangam, the Ranganath deity. But I didn’t know exactly how they were, I know that they came from … they are worshipped by Lord Ram, and they are brought by British you know to the Srirangam. And then, all the Rishis prayed that this deity should be in India. So, Ganesh came as a young boy, and the demigods made the… urgent call of nature. So, he asked the Brahman boy, would you hold deity? The deity said, Well, wherever you put me down, that’s where I will stay. So, the brahmana boy said, Oh sure, I will take care of the deity, but how long I will have to hold them?

I will be right back, I will just pass water and come back.

Well, I will call out three times, if you don’t come back, then I can’t hold for ever, I will put down. So, all the devas gave this … unlimited urine… so, Ganesh, hello, first call, second call, third call, ok,…. And he ran off. So, this… you rascal,,, he chased after him, Ganesh had his temple on the top of the rock. So, he chased right after the rock, and just before Ganesh took his form back as a deity, … Rishi punched on the back of the head, you rascal, and to this day, I didn’t have the … inspiration to climb up the whole hill to see the deity… from the head of Vsnu.

So, anyway, when the Rishi came down, he couldn’t hold the deity. So, the deities are all…you can turn me, I will face Sri Lanka but I will stay here. So, from there he blesses Bibhisana, he is facing to the South. So, wherever South East. Then I found out that Lord Brahma, he had worshipped the Ksriodakshayi Vsnu, for a long time he had the worship, that I want the deity of Krsna. So, after a long time of worship and austerity, out came this deity from the ocean of milk, and this deity was worshipped by brahma himself. It is a self-manifested deity, and Brahma gave it to some of his Satya Loka residents to worship, and then somehow was given to the Sungod, and from the Sun God came the dynasty of the ksatriyas on the earth, Ikswavaku and others, and then it came like that to Ram.

So, I know from Ram on but I don’t know actually was worshipped by Lord Brahma. So, we have very special deities on this planet, deities who are worshipped by Brahma, and then we went to the South India, and someone saw the deities of different deities there, very amazing… they call them the divya deshas. So, there is one… there is in Andhra Pradesh, there is the deity of Varaha, Narasimha. That Prahlada, he requested Narasimha Deva that I will like to see the form of you that liberated my uncle, Hiranyaksha. So, the Lord manifested his Varaha form. So, he was Varaha… Narasimhadeva with the head of Varaha. So, it is Varaha-Narasimha human form. That is very unusual. Now this form is covered only along with Sandalwood. Every three months they have forty-five kilos of Sandalwood, paste for twelve hours a year the deity is uncovered. So, you can imagine what the rush is like to see the deities, for twelve hours, a whole year the deities are uncovered. And then he covers again. And that’s a big egg. So, I have seen the egg, I never saw the deity form twelve hours a year.

Well, the temple President, he knew how to attract me. He said, ok, you come for the ground breaking of the temple, on this particular day we will arrange for you the darshan of the deity.

Ok, ok.

And he said, it is all arranged, you don’t have to wait, the normal eight hours queue. You can come right up. So, he took me up through all the exit gates. I had a special… it is really krsna’s mercy, it is easy. I got up to the last gate, and there the police officer looked at. I don’t care for this. And there I was stuck, the last gate. Krsna never makes it easy. So, I was, Oh no.

Krsna please, I want your darshan. So, then the temple President climbed over the barricade that was erected, and he saw the exactly the officer, the E.O. now he said, now today, we hand over to police but I will try to… so, somehow he got the door open, and I was let in the last gate. So, they let me go behind the all the people. They could only go like a twenty people… and it came, take the darshan and went. Somehow I was allowed to go behind, and I was allowed to enter into the deity room. And I could see from four feet away, the Varaha-Narasimha murti which was millions of years old. And I was there for a long time, I was there for fifty minutes, and … hey what you are doing there? Come on. And then I was taken out.

So, like that we had some very nice blessings from different deities. One day I was at the Balaji deity for like the whole morning, for like four hours. Because I was taken through the safari. So, we started from the … they have like four brahmanas, they chant. The same mantras we chant to wake the deities plus others, but they start with Uttistha vardhram de, like this they will also say this mantras. Please wake up O Lord, and then they chant their divya, their special Balaji mantras. And then that is over the loud speaker system on the whole mountain top. So, starting from that they let certain number of people come in to see the deity worshipped, the bathing of the deity. So, I could stay, each function they let like… ten, twenty devotees come in. So, I was there official guide to each group. So, I was there for like four hours. After … I came out, and then I came in, and so I saw the deities and came out.

So, then we offered a hundred and eight tulasis to the lotus feet. Om Govindaya Namaha, Om Visnave Namaha, Om… like that…

And there is a few brahmanas chanting, and they offer tulasi to the lotus feet, that is called …tamala puja puja, tulasi, flowers and the… and then they have the purva darshan. All the rest of the devotees. The first darshan of the Lord, after that, it is like two seconds darshan, real fast… like go slow.

So, somehow I was allowed to stay, and one of the times the chief minister of Gujarat, he had come because his party was in great trouble in Gujarat. So, he was praying to Balaji, I don’t know what to he prayed, but you can imagine, he was … went down to Balaji and prayed. So, somehow his party survived the, there was no confidence motion in the state parliament. So, he was sitting next to me, I was sitting in front. So, like this we had some special mercy. 31.23

In a place called Kanakola, Krsna Nagara… it is a Krsna Nagara by the side of Kananagara, there is the Radha … there is the Gopinath deity which was worshipped by Ram Abirama Dasa. He is a cowherd boy. Sudama I think… Sridam or Sudama. I forget. And…so, this day, they worshipped the deity with the door open, and they show how they decorate the deity, how they bathe. So, that tradition was started by Ram-Abiram Das. So, Ram-Abiram Das, he directly was I think Sridama. So, he was shrunk by Lord Nityananda, and he was brought to join the Sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya. So, he stayed with Lord Nityananda, when he went back to Bengal he had accompanied the Lord. So, there he was worshipping this deity, and it says how he was like assigned in certain area by Lord Nityananda, and he preached there, he made the people his disciples, he empowered some disciples, …33.15… deity, and the deity was too close to those… interesting pastimes with Ram Abiram. Now one day, one tantric came, and he said, “What are this bhakti yogis? I don’t care for them. I will show them my shakti.” And there was a favorite tree of Lord Nityananda. He would always sit under this Bokula tree. This tantric he burned to ashes. See my power, to ashes… ha, ha, ha… and someone told Abiram. They burned Nityananda’s fovourite tree to ashes, a crazy tantric. What… Abiram saw, where is Nityananda going to sit? This is intolerable. He pulled… said, punar bhava vrksha, the tree was back. Burning a tree to ashes is one thing but making it come back, the tantric, Oh, Oh, I have messed with the wrong guy. Then he turned around to the tantric. So, what to do with you? No, no, I surrender, I surrender.

So, it is an interesting place. So, there… like that interesting deities. Now this deity, this places have become places of pilgrimage in the West. There is one of our devotees here who is taking a tour around. Its it a bit tough, everybody starts taking tours, and people are complaining, they are complaining, they are ripped off, some people put their money and take their tours. So, Iskcon has officially no tour anymore, from India to here. But, he told me that, they like so much to visit Alley and visit different temples, see deities that many people start to chant sixteen round and become devotees. After seeing all this deities in the Western countries. So, it’s a… this are actually our places of pilgrimage. Prabhupada visited here. He worshipped these deities. You go to this different temples, and they are worshipped by some pure devotees. Some associate of Lord Caitanya. So, they are considered to be very holy place. These temples were personally worshipped by Prabhupada. I saw Prabhupada coming here. They do that at the end of festival. But I saw in real life. He would come by some limousine or car, and then the devotees would line up on both sides, and through their flowers at his lotus feet. And he would come and see the temple, and see the deities. So, he was doing this pastime when he was here. So, this is a place of pilgrimage, and similarly the… especially those temples that he visited, those deities are very special. Of course all the temples are special. But those that worshipped by Prabhupada and some pure devotees, they are … according to our tradition we consider them to be even more special. In any case, these Archa Avatars are Krsna Himself, and we can pray to them, we can surrender to them. Now if we have faith, they will reciprocate with our faith.

Once they start reciprocating, the flow goes… so, like there is a deity of gopal Krsna, small Gopal, Laddu Gopal you call. This is in Srikhanda. So, there little child of Mukunda Nanda, I forget his wifes name, but they are the most Vaisnava, Vaisnavi. Their son was … Ranganatha.. Ranga something….

So, the father, he had to go to see some disciple who was like on death bed. Then he quickly gave his six years son upanayanam, the fresh mantra of the Gayatri. So, you can worship the deity, your mother will tell you what to do. I have to run, I have to go to see this disciple, to help him to remember Krsna at the time of death. So, he went off. So, mother said, you just go, you ask the deity to accept the laddus, and then you will come back with the plate. So, he went to the deity, he put the laddus, please accept these laddus. The deity wasn’t accepting. He didn’t see. He started crying…. So, the deity said, why are you crying? You are not taking the laddus.

You want me to eat?

Oh yeas, my mother said you will eat. S

Ok, so the deity became a little boy and started eating laddus. So, he came back with emply plate to his mother. Mother looked at the plate, where is the laddus?

Oh the deity ate.

Oh yea…

So, she was like wondering if the boy was eating or what is happening.

So, this was going on every day. And the deity was taking everyday.

So, when Mukunda Nanda came back, then the deity, the mother told him, this thing is happening.

So, he said, I will hide in the temple and watch what is happening.

So, then he came behind the deity, and he was watching. He was listening. He heard the boy say, please accept these ladddus, eat them…

He was hearing him. He looked out, he saw the deities was eating the laddus. The deity had become like a little body, and it was eating the laddus.

Oh… he gasped, because he didn’t expect the deity to eat laddus, like he was shocked… when he heard the gasping the deity… became 41.10… but then he had in his hand a half eaten laddu. … since then, they offer the deity half laddu. So, the boy became very famous. The deity had eaten from his hand. And Abiram, Ram Abiram, he wanted to meet this boy.

What’s his name…. Ranga something. So, but you see Abiram he bowed down to the children of Nityananda, and several children died, because his dandavat was so powerful, the weren’t worthy to be Nityananda’s children, they died. Only Bir Chandra and Ganga Mata, who was the incarnation of Ksirodakshayi Vsnu and Ganga Devi, they survived his pranam. So, I don’t exactly what time, this… but his parents were a bit apprehensive. Maybe … you know, I mean, I guess any parent would be a bit apprehensive that Abiram, if he bows down to my child, the child may die. So, they …they hid their child, they send him off, but he… the child heard that Ram Abiram had come. So, when Ram Abiram came, he was, Oh you came. What a surprise. Of course, everyone knew he was coming because he was waking and news … but they, Oh we sent him out, he is visiting his uncle. We are sorry.

So, he went he went to some nearby orchard, and he was… he was a bit frustrated because he had walked ten days or something, long time just to see this child. When the boy heard that Ram Abiram had… was there in the orchard, he ran to see him, and he had paid his obeisances, and then … immediately the Ram Abiram, he paid his obeisances, and they hugged each other, and they danced so ecstatically that the boys nupur, his ankle bell flew up in the air and landed a couple of kilometers away. The people who got the nupura, they kept that, and they still with their hand to get a darshan of the ankle bell of Rangananda, Ranga. So, all this pastimes was … Gopal deity is still there. And the deity at the … this child Ranga Nanda, Ranga, he wanted to go out, he had established the Lord Caitanya dancing deity in Katwa, at the place where Lord Caitanya took sanyasa. So, that deity was worshipped there, and like that there are so many deities, so many pastimes.

There is the deity in Bankura, in Vsnupura, which was established by Srinivisa Acharya, he is different than Srivasa Thakura. He is like … after Jiva Goswami, he was the next to protect this sampradya. So, about three hundred years after Lord Caitanya, there was one atheistic so called Pandita. He was called Bhaskar Pandita. Now he… that time the Mughal rule was a bit weaker. So, he had amassed his army, and he was attacking different villages, and he had taken control of a large part of Bengal. So, on many occasions he attacked Bankura kingdom. But he was not successful. This time he had amassed ten thousand soldiers, and he was going to lay seize. Well, the king who was in the line of … disciples of Srinivisa Acharya, he said, let us…everyone chant hare Krsna for one day, we will get the blessings for going out and fighting this huge hord that this bandit had made. Well, this Bhaskar Pandita, he used to rob the Brahmanas and devotees, and loot the temples, he was worshipped by the Muslims.

At that time at least the Muslims, apart than Auranzeba, they were quite respectful to the … to deities generally speaking. So, but he wasn’t… so, when he heard that the king has ordered, no one raise any weapons for one day, do kirtan, he said, ha ha, ha, I will attack them now, they wouldn’t even resist. I will kill them all. Ha… ha… ha.. This Bhaskar Pandita would be the ruler. So, he went, but the king heard, bhow… bhow… heard firing of canons, who is… going out one after another like machine gun. He came out. The whole ten thousand army of Bhaskar Pandita was killed, and these canons were like hot, smoking. So, who did it? I gave the order no one should fight.

Well, no one of his kingdom did it. One old man was there, he said, well, the deity came out and the deity did it. Deity took one canon, with each arm bhow, bhow… He shot…

The deity?

Yea, He took the big …. So, they went into the deity room, and there was something like gun shot powder. I think that the deity is named Radha madan Mohan….

Jaya Radha Madan Mohan ki…

So, interesting, all the pastimes of the deities.

So, that canon is still there, the deity is still there.

So, interesting pastime of different deities.

So, we are very fortunate that we have the service to the deities. We shouldn’t take them to be ordinary statues of stone, metal, or wood, we should take them that they are actually krsna. He has come in a form that we can see. This is like, in the Bible Moses… he came down there worshipping some golden calf, he called this …50.30 that’s… we also… we don’t accept, like in India they have… some people they worship the deity that is called Bharat Mata. There is no such deity. Some deity they sell somewhere in Madhya Pradesh that you can offer chickens to it. There is no such deity.

You can offer goats to Kali under dark moon day of the year of the month. But there is no chicken goddess. So, this is idology. They imagine some deity that eat chicken. No deity will accept. All this … all this type of things are bogus.

Once they took me, they wanted to show me in Haridwar or somewhere, the Bharat Mata deity. You know, I didn’t offer pranam, I just went to see, but.. I was there already, but Prabhupada told us that this deity… there is no such deity, Bharat Mata. It is … India is called Bharat after the king Bharat Maharaja, but there is no deity of Bharat Mata. So, like that they create bogus deities. These are ideology. We also don’t accept, but to have a bonafide deity which is installed according to the Vedic system, this deity is not an idol. It is Krsna Himself, it is the Archa Avatara, and we should offer our respects.

So, recently, when I was here a few months ago, someone brought their baby, the first time the baby leaves the house in the Vedic tradition, they present before the deity. So, they presented before Rukmini-Dwarakadish. RukminiDwaraka, she carried a bouquet in her hand. She dropped. So, this is a blessing. So, all this things… the devotees they consider very seriously.

I went to once to the Minakshi temple in Minakshipuram in Madurai, and I was praying to Minakshi Devi that I can have devotion to Krsna, and Krsna conscious things. Because I consider this Minakshi or Siva to be great devotees. So, I pray for Krsna conscious things, and she drops her garland. So, the pujari, he gives me a garland and he said, This is very rare. So, like this there is krsna Dasa Kaviraja, he prayed to deities in Vrndavana for blessing to write the Chaitanay Charitamrita. I think he also prayed to Radha Madanmohan there, and the deity drafte d a… so, he took that as the sign that he should write the Chaitany Charitamrita. So, like that we… we little signs from the deities. We take it to be their way of communicating. Of course, I don’t have… I don’t think…. overtime. There is some deities which actually talk, like in the Arghadwip, this Gopinath deity accepted to be the son of Govinda Ghosh, and he said that he would offer the sradha on the anniversary of his death. So, he had all his village leaders call, and then he came, and he spoke to them on the death anniversary of this devotee Govinda Ghosh, I will go to his tomb, and perform the Sraddha ceremony. So, they noted it down.

Now it is quite rare to have deities speak, but in this case he spoke to so many and we have like in Orissa, they have the Sakshi Gopala, who walked all the way from Vrndavana to give his witness. So, like that, there is different devotees, different deities which have performed the lila. Some of those.. like I would like to get the nectar of the what the pastimes of these deities are. So, I am still waiting here, because I firmly believe that this are Krsna, and Krsna is giving his mercy to different devotees. Those devotees they can tell Subash prabhu, they can help the pujaris, they can reveal, and make this… we don’t have to tell their the name, because some devotees will say, Well, I got something, if I tell my name, people will think that I am just after my name and fame. So, I won’t tell, if you don’t tell my name, I will kill you.

So, I am still waiting. Then they checked … like I told this pastime.

It is recently it has happened, just before I had the stroke. In the Jaganatha deity of Mayapur, one Hindu, Muslim, Christians, everyone comes, because the deity gives blessings. So, some of the muslims were saying that they couldn’t have a child, they came praying to Jagannatha and they had a child. So, they come and give their first 57.38… so, it is not uncommon that some Muslims come.

So, some Muslim guy with a big beard, he came looking around. Now of course, in Jagannatha Puri only the Hindus are allowed. They don’t let devotees, which Prabhupada said, there was a … on you cart. But they don’t let also… they didn’t allow Indira Gandhi and they didn’t let… because she is married to a non-Hindu. So, like that, but in this temple they allow everyone to come. So, this Muslim came and the pujari offered him Prasad. Jagannatha… he took it. I don’t take the food offered to idols.

The pujari was, listen if you don’t like it, don’t come, why do you come and you commit aparadh? So, he he took up the Prasad the pujari, the guy left. Next day the guy came back, he paid his obeisance’s to the Jagannatha diety and he …. Pujari, can I please have the Prasad? Yesterday you threw it, and now you are begging. What happened?

Well, the last night you see this guy with the white face, he came and he started chugging me. He s aid, you threw my brothers Prasad, I am going to kill you, I am going to leave you. And then one with the yellow face, the lady, she said, “give him, give him, I was shaking, I was shaking. Then one with the black face, he said, no, no, he didn’t commit a big offence, let him go this time.

I believe, I believe, I truly believe. I will take Prasad, I will never throw again. I promise.

So, he gave him Prasad, he had right there.

Jaya Jagannatha ki..

Baladeva ki..

Subhadra Maharani ki…

So, like that these deities, I am sure that since Prabhupada installed, they have all kinds of pastimes, we tell our siddhanthi, he heard Prabhupada lila, next thing is deities lila.

Haribol… I will end here.

Raghunandana Thakura, the boys name…. not Ranganandana…

So, he established the deity in Katwa, and he was the one that… when he was a boy, the deity was eating from his hands.

So, jaya Raghunandana Thakura ki…

So, this Srikhanda, many devotees came from Srikhanda….

Nara Hari Thakura, Chirajeev, Raghunandana Thakura, Mukundanandana.

Narahari Thakura was the last major associate who was living. We chant when we sing the evening kirtan, kiba narahari adi kari chamara dulaya. So, he wrote some book also. We should use in our B.B.T… the Krsna Bhajanamrita. About gurus who feel, he said, this did happen sometimes in Lord Chaitanya’s movement. So, he went to his departure. What was interesting was, because the year it was very hard to travel. So, few … one year anniversary of his disappearance. All the Vaisnavas came and he manifested, he re-manifested on his… over his Samadhi, on his sit he was there. So, like twelve hours and … offer the Rajabhoga. … offering the lunch… when you are open, he was gone… I was thinking how nice if Prabhupada came somewhere. In any case, Narahari Thakura, he came, and he spoke to the devotees, and he was there for the six hours, half a day. And then he answered their questions, when they offer the lunch Prasad, the raj bhoga. They opened the door, he was gone. But all this things happen in Srikhanda. So, like that there is many deities which were established by Lord Chaitanya and his associates, this deities are very special, so similarly the deities are very satisfied, worshipped by Prabhupada, they are very special.

And like that, I used to travel a number of times around the world, so I don’t know much, only airport and the deities, the temple. In between what you see when you drive by. I wouldn’t know much. Now that I have been here, one time when I was there, one time I saw what is it called, the Griffith observatory, that is the only I know in L.A. I never been to Hollywood except for Harinam.

So, the deities all over the world, they are places of pilgrimage. They are special, so, we should be very careful when we worship deities; they are the Avatara of the Lord. Avatar is … word, but they are misrepresenting what actually Avataras. Apparently some talk to the producer. He said, he impressed by Krsna, that is why he… the residents of this planet… all blue, with tilak. I don’t know, but actually I heard. Any case, I end the class here.

Any comments or question from … or Prabhupada disciples

Devotee: I got a comment I guess. We are very fortunate here because Srila Prabhupasda personally touched the body of Rukmini Dwarkanath and installed the deity personally. And also directed the worship of the deity here in New Dwaraka. So, in this verse it is described that we should not see the deity or the spiritual master as being ordinary, like the deity not being stone, or that the spiritual master is not ordinary man. So, I would say that whatever opulence’s or success the New Dwaraka temple is having this years is due to the fact that Prabhupada personally had a hand in directing this particular temple that we actually love very much. So, hearing your class reminded me, refreshed my memory how important it is to realize or at least remember what this temple actually represents, what it actually is.

So, thank you very much for the memory.

Haribol. New Dwaraka dham ki…

Srila Prabhupada ki..

Jaya New Rukmini Dwarakadish ki…

Rukmini Dwarakanath ki…

Jaya Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra ki…

Jaya Gaura Nitai ki…

Maharaja, I came late, but I don’t… did you to describe the story that you told couple of years ago in Bombay that Brahmanda told you about Prabhupada, how he was instructed by the deities here to go back to India and establish Krsna consciousness again in India. You remember that story?

not in great detail. Now that you say I remember but I have to think.

The story was that Srila Prabhupada was instructed by his spiritual master Bhakti Siddhantha Saraswati Thakura. But little is known why Prabhupada had a great desire to open the temple in Bombay and KrsnaBalaram temple and all the different temples in India, that was a big push for him, people wonder why because people from India, we know Krsna, but actually Brahmananda describes this story that when Prabhupada was here in LA, that the deities here personally instructed Prabhupada to go back to India and establish centers there.

Haribol.

So, all the temples should be very grateful to deities here.

We heard Prabhupada say that he was ordered to preach in the Western countries, but he went back to India, because he said, how can I stand by what … India go to hell, I bring people from all over to India to show that he holy land, and the people there a… if they are like materialistic, then its not going to be very good preaching to them. But he didn’t say too much.

So, the … at that time I wasn’t the personal secretary. So, Brahmananda and Dhirannada Pandita and others were serving Prabhupada. So, they would know… you said it came from Bhavananda. Right?

Correct you can hear the story on memories of SP, part 49.

If you want to hear from the horse’s mouth, or devotees mouth …

Where can you get this tape from?

Prabhupada memories. com

Order now. Hare Krsna.

And there is one in your room, you are on it, you just see it.

I am just getting you some free advertisement.

Thank you very much…