20140316 Gaura Pūrṇimā

Gaura Pūrṇimā

Type Of Talk:

Pandal Address

Event:

Gaura Purnima Festival

Location:

Sridhama Mayapur

West Bengal.

Date:

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Collection:

Inspiration series - 2014

Audio player:

140316 - Gaura Purnima @ Sri Mayapur Dham- Adi Lila 1.5

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim yat-kripa tam aham vande shri-gurum dina-taranam Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Iswaram This pastime has many facets. Once Krsna in Dwaraka He came home to the palace of Rukmini. But instead of greeting Him very happily she was crying. So He was wondering why she was sad. And to make a long story short she concluded after sometime and she told Him that “you know everything going on in the universes. And for that matter in the material and spiritual world, you know what Brahma is doing and you know what Lord Shiva is doing but there is one thing it seems you don’t know. Radharani knows, I know, but you don’t know”. So Krsna was amazed, why someone is accusing him of not knowing something. So He asked “what is this?” She said “you don’t know how much we devotees love you and in what way we love you. You are the Lord. So you can’t see things from our perspective”. Then Narada Muni came after a while and he was concerned what will happen to the conditioned souls after Krsna leaves which seems to be eminent. So then Krsna said “I will come back, I will come back in Kali Yuga but I won’t come as the Lord, I will come as my devotee and I will understand what Rukmini was talking about. At the same time I will distribute the Harinam sankirtan which will deliver all the fallen souls and this will satisfy Narada Muni’s concerns”. Then Narada Muni mentions in the end not in the Caitanya Bhagavat, mentions that he went to Golok Vrindavan. And there, there is the quarter of the world called Svetadvip, I heard many Russian ladies are called Svetlana and I tell them that their name is spiritual, Svetadvip. “No No No, No spiritual name”. So there again Narada Muni he was concerned how the souls would be delivered. So there Lord Caitanya He asked for volunteers those who would like to go with Him to the material world to spread the Harinam sankirtan and deliver the fallen souls. So Radharani and some sakhis and gopis volunteered, some queens in Dwaraka volunteered and then Lord Caitanya said “I will preach in India Bharat varsha and that the, those who skip and go to the western countries, I will send one senapati Bhakta, commanding devotee and he will spread the Harinam sankirtan all over the world”. When everything was ready then Advaita Acharya he fasted and he cried out and he worshipped the Saligram sila with Tulsi and Ganges water and he fasted. Fasting, crying, worshiping, loud calling out. When Mahavishnu calls loudly, it must be heard all the ananta koti brahmanda. Gauranga!!!!!!!!!! Gauranga!!!!!!!! Gauranga!!!!!!!!! So there are many different angles bringing Lord Caitanya down. He is Krsna Himself and as it mentions in this verse Radha and Krsna are eternally separate, they are re combined as Gauranga Mahaprabhu. So here Jagannath Mishra, he had a light come in his mind, go to his heart, and there it was very brilliant and then it went from his heart to Saci mata’s heart. Like this there was an Immaculate Conception. Of course Lord Caitanya was not transferred by ordinary means but He came by divine transfer. And Saci Mata before had Visvarupa as her son. Visvarupa was Sankarshan avatar. He was an expansion of Lord Balaram. So Balaram had two parts in Caitanya Lila. His expansion in part as Visvarupa and He directly as Nityananda. Sri-krishna-caitanya, radha-krishna nahe anya, Balaram hoilo Nitai. So Lord Caitanya He is coming to this universe is something so wonderful, so special. Krsna comes once in a day of Brahma, 125 years out of eight what is it? Eight billion? Out of 1000 yugas, He comes in one Yuga out of thousand cycles and stays 125 years. Sometimes after Krsna comes Lord Caitanya. He comes 48 years, 24 as a Grhasta, 24 as a Sanyasi. So while He is going in His internal research at the end of His pastimes, the public aspect His is disseminating the Harinam and all His associates except five or six they are engaged in the Harinam sankirtan preaching. So the great souls who are in other lilas like Prahlad, Dhruva, Hanuman they took part with Lord Caitanya. To take part with Lord Caitanya is a very big opportunity and how many times can you take part with someone mentioned in the shastra.

Lord Caitanya He said in the Caitanya Mangal Lord krsna said in the Brahma Vaivarta purana, Bhakti Vinod Thakur predicted, also Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur he predicted, we found that prediction just recently. He was on a parikrama and he said that the next disciple who would cross over the ocean, he will bring devotees from all over the world who will participate in the Navadvip parikrama. I will not see it, it will not happen in my life, it will not happen soon, but it will happen. So here Bhakti Vinod Thakur said there will be someone he can easily move from one country to next and he will spread the Harinam. Now his prediction was in eighteen hundreds, there were no airplanes so moving from one country to next easily, quickly, that was just unheard of but he was predicting. If you put all these together every time that comes up Bhaktivedanta Swami, Bhaktivedanta Swami, Bhaktivedanta Swami. I am just overwhelmed what great fortune we have to assist Srila Prabhupad in his service to Lord Caitanya, serving the previous Acharyas, serving Lord Caitanya, we get this special opportunity. It’s unfathomable but we squandered away. Some of us have missed the chance almost throwing away when we have this great opportunity to help Srila Prabhupad to spread this Harinam sankirtan. When Lord Caitanya came there was a lunar eclipse. Then at that time people didn’t chant the holy names out loud because the Brahmanas said if you chant the name of God loud, you chant in vain. That would be an offense but they said if you are in the Ganges, since the Ganges water is pure, there you can chant. So because of the lunar eclipse everybody was in the Ganges. They were all chanting Govinda! Haribol! Haribol! Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Normally people do religious activities just to get some material benefit. That’s why the Bhagavatam is special. Because it shows great devotees who did spiritual activities for spiritual reasons or who started out with material reasons but later got purified. Like Dhruva, he wanted various material benedictions but when he saw Narayana he said “I wanted broken glass, I got diamond, I got a diamond” so this Bhagavatam opens our eyes to a whole new aspect of religious life, spiritual life. It’s filled with spiritual happiness. Everybody thinks we do religion to get nice sense gratification. Well, I listened to some Christian preacher and he was giving lecture, you pray to God to get a raise, Hahaha, a higher salary. Hahaha. They missed the whole point. But by actually doing the nine processes of Bhakti of course praying is one, you can actually get Bhakti, you get love of Krsna. Like Lord Jesus he said you should love God. All other religion, Prabhupad was saying if you develop love of God we are happy with that. Prabhupad said if you develop love of God by other religion, then it is alright. We know that Krsna Consciousness worked. In other words our objective is that we want people to love Krsna. We want them to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whatever reason. He is the most powerful, He is the most beautiful, He is the most knowledgeable, He is the most renounced, He is the most famous, He is the richest. So there are plenty of reasons to love Him although some of His pastimes show whole aspect is so sweet, as they say now awesome. So Lord Caitanya He brought all this home because as a devotee He could show how Krsna was so lovable. It is hard for Krsna to market Himself but the devotees have to market Krsna. He is the greatest and it is quite natural for us to love Him but in this Kali Yuga we are all mixed and bewildered by some demoniac natures. So this we get purified but following Lord Caitanya’s process. So He appeared on that Phalgun Purnima night when everyone was chanting, He appeared. At that time He didn’t need the full moon. So therefore it was eclipsed. He was more beautiful than millions of moons. He used His personal beauty and His knowledge, renunciation as His potencies in this pastime. When Bhagirath Maharaj was taking the Ganges down suddenly she stopped at Mayapur. And he said there is another 200 kms to go. She stopped. So he asked her”why aren’t you continuing”? He had to meditate and she revealed that is almost Gaura Purnima. And on Gaura Purnima whoever is in Mayapur they get special blessings. So I don’t want to miss that. So she was waiting. Also says those who during the Gaura Purnima bath in the Ganges easily they can awaken their love for Krsna. But if you go before noon (haha) you get coloured everywhere. You can see people walking around with shirts they particularly wear white shirts a kind of like prestige I was in Holi, but after 12 you can go to the Ganges, but be very careful. Better if you go in groups I don’t know I think we now have life guard I am not sure. So be careful. Just go for a dip and come back. I pulled out 10 people drowning. And I don’t think I can do it now. When I gave initiation and then he went to take the bath and I saw he was drowning. All around people were there he was crying out Haribol then I jumped in and I pulled him out. He said “you saved my life twice the day”. So Prabhupad has saved us all. I wrote a song what if Prabhupad had not come, what if Prabhupad was not there, what it would be. It’s shocking. Our lives would be completely wasted. Prabhupad gave us purpose in life and we can give purpose in so many people’s lives.

So Lord Caitanya He came in this world just to give out mercy. And even He knew that there would be people around the world who also need the mercy. So He already declared how they would get also the mercy. So when the news came out that Mother Saci had a child all the village ladies came to see her. Some of the wives of great devas they also came at that time. The wife of Indra, the wife of the Vayudev, Agnidev they came down and mingled with the other Brahmin ladies to see the incarnation of the descent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Spontaneously Haridas Thakur, Advaita Gosai they felt happy. They started dancing. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! So my time is up.

So on this sacred day this is a good day to observe the abhishek, participate in the abhishek and also to chant Hare Krsna there would be a nonstop Kirtan. I was thinking how just around thirty eight forty some years ago all there was in Mayapur was the grass hut, that’s all. Grass hut. No shops (hahaha!) in or out. No rickshaws, no buses. Once in the morning people would bicycle by and in the afternoon they come back. They would work somewhere across the river. Prabhupad was sitting he was predicting at here there would be a spiritual city. I have been telling people that we are in the embryonic stage. But now it is gradually taking more and more shape. I don’t know it’s been born yet or but it is growing. Or is the birth is the opening of the TOVP or is it born. But now thanks to many devotees who are working hard the community is growing more and more. Now we have about four five thousand devotees. Bhakti Purusottama Swami he is a big pillar in this development. You will hear from him now. Gauranga!