20160605 A Class about Pānihāṭi Pastimes.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram 

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

ei-mata raghunāthera vatsareka gelā

dvitīya vatsare palāite mana kaila

In this way Raghunātha dāsa passed one year exactly like a first-class business manager, but the next year he again decided to leave home.

He got up alone one night and left, but his father caught him in a distant place and brought him back.

This became almost a daily affair. Raghunātha would run away from home, and his father would again bring him back. Then Raghunātha dāsa’s mother spoke to his father as follows.

“Our son has become mad,” she said. “Just keep him by binding him with ropes.” His father, being very unhappy, replied to her as follows.

“Raghunātha dāsa, our son, has opulence’s like Indra, the heavenly king, and his wife is as beautiful as an angel. Yet all this could not tie down his mind.

“How then could we keep this boy home by binding him with ropes? It is not possible even for one’s father to nullify the reactions of one’s past activities.

“Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has fully bestowed His mercy on him. Who can keep home such a madman of Caitanyacandra?”

Then Raghunātha dāsa considered something in his mind, and the next day he went to Nityānanda Gosāñi.

In the village of Pānihāṭi, Raghunātha dāsa obtained an interview with Nityānanda Prabhu, who was accompanied by many kīrtana performers, servants and others.

Sitting on a rock under a tree on the bank of the Ganges, Lord Nityānanda seemed as effulgent as hundreds of thousands of rising suns.

Many devotees sat on the ground surrounding Him. Seeing the influence of Nityānanda Prabhu, Raghunātha dāsa was astonished.

Raghunātha dāsa offered his obeisances by falling prostrate at a distant place, and the servant of Nityānanda Prabhu pointed out, “There is Raghunātha dāsa, offering You obeisances.”

Hearing this, Lord Nityānanda Prabhu said, “You are a thief. Now you have come to see Me. Come here, come here. Today I shall punish you!”

śuni’ prabhu kahe, — “corā dili daraśana

āya, āya, āji tora karimu daṇḍana”

Gurumahārāja: 

So, Raghunāth Das, he.. had he attained the interview with Lord Caitanya, but Lord Caitaya told him, “Don’t be a markaṭa Vairagyi. Don’t try to renounce everything suddenly. Stay in your family, act as a palm showing pamsman, but keep your heart always on Lord Caitanya and Lord Kṛṣṇa. This way do your duties. Just like say a wife had another lover than the husband, she would be very careful not to be discovered. Like that you should keep your mind on Kṛṣṇa, but everyone will think that you are very much absorbed in material activities.” 

Like this Lord Caitanya sent him back. So, for one year he acted like that. And what happened in that one year is given in the Caitanya Caritamritā. And then he started to run away again, and then he came to see Lord Nityānanda, and Nityānanda said, “You are a thief, you are a thief. Today I am going to punish you.” And his punishment was putting his lotus feet on his head, and he gave him the punishment, “You have to feed me and my associate’s chira, doi” that’s flat rice and yoghurt and fruits and condensed milk and flat rice and fruits. So, Raghunāth Das’s father, he had to pay like twelve million gold coins a year... tax, and he managed to cheat out of the tax, and make three hundred thousand gold coins extra, but if you pay that much tax you can imagine how much money you have in the first place. So, he was fabulously rich, and for him to give a breakfast of flat rice and yoghurt is no issue. He was very happy to receive this punishment. 

So, this pastime is... one can wonder why does Lord Nityānanda call this a punishment, Why does He say you are a thief? 

Raghunāth Das, he tried to achieve Lord Caitanya. Even he went personally and saw Lord Caitanya, but he was sent back, because if you want to go the Lord Caitanya you have to go through Lord Nityānandā, and now the way to reach Lord Nityānandā is through the dear representative of the Guru paramparā. 

So, this pastime is famous because Raghunāth Dāsa sent his servants to the neighbouring villages, and to get all the fruits and flat rice and yoghurt available. So, the news is going out. So, merchants were coming with their bullock carts, their Ox carts, filled with clay pots, yoghurts, fruits and flat rice, and then the word came out that Raghunāth Dāsa is giving this breakfast feast. At that time it was already approaching late morning noon. People started running, not because they are hungry, because Brāhmaṇās, Vaiṣṇavās, they love feast, they love parties, and this is that kind of a spiritual party. So, everybody showed up, and then even the merchants who were coming to sell their things, they were given two pots, one yoghurt and one condensed milk. Told to sit down and feast. 

So, Lord Nityānanda, He put a plate down for Lord Caitanya in āsana, and using his mystic power he brought Lord Caitanya there, but no one could see him except Lord Nityanda and a few very elevated associates. And so, very big clay pots; I mean big, like six feet. They use this to store rice in those days, because the rats and other rodents could not enter. So, they had mixed and they used those huge pots to mix. So, they had different flavours. To Lord Nityānandā, they offered seven flavours, and for general people they offered two flavours, one with yoghurt and one with condensed milk. 

This year we are offering fifty flavours [Haribol] for the 50th anniversary of ISKCON. We made out the menus yesterday and the day before. But last time I had a doubt that maybe the quantities were too much for each flavour. So, I had them make a prototype, and I found that the quantities for each flavour was more. Total the same, but since there are more pots, each flavour was more. Anyway this is the ecstasy of making the pots. 

So, Raghunāth Das while he was having his service of mixing and offering the prasādam, his service. People started to gather, and the whole field got filled up. Infact there was no more room. So, people started to stand on the muddy banks of the Gangs. Infact even that became filled, then they began to stand in the Ganges itself, and the water was coming up to their ankles, but then there was no room. So, then people started standing in the Ganges upto their knees. The place became packed with people. Then Lord Nityānanda said, “I am cowherd boy and this are my cowherd friends, and we are all taking their midday snacks here in the forest.” Bonbazār, it is a picnic, as we say in the West. Then He walked through the crowd with Lord Caitanya. Everybody was chanting, Hari bol ..... Hari bol (repeated by devotees)

Hari bol ..... Hari bol (repeated by devotees)

Hari bol ..... Hari bol (repeated by devotees)

You wanted more, you would say Haribol, if you had enough, you would say Haribol. Everybody was saying, Haribol. Lord Nityānanda took from one pot and fed to Lord Caitanya. People would see the chipped rice rise in the air, and then disappear, and Lord Caitanya would take from someone else’s pot, and put it in Lord Nitayananda’s pot. Just like kids they would share each other’s lunch. They wouldn’t care about Suchi (cleanliness), just share with each other. Like that all of them were accepted as cowherd friends of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda. How would you like to be present during that special occasion? [Haribol] (everyone) 

So, in fact Rāghava Paṇḍitā came out. He looked around and said, “Oh, what is happening here?” He said, “Your lunch is ready. Rice, dāl, sabzi.”, but Nityananda said, “I am taking a picnic here. And just sit down, I will take dinner today, I won’t take lunch. And sit down and have chira and yoghurt.” 

So, like this there was unlimited happiness, and in the song which was sung in the Adhivās of the festival. I don’t think that there is time to explain what the song meant. There are two lines. When this two lines are chanted in Bengal, because everyone knows what it means, all the ladies do the uludhwani, and the men go, Haribol! Haribol! 

Anander sīmā nai, there is no limit to the bliss, there is no limit.

Anander sīmā nai ................. Anander sīmā nai

Anander sīmā nai ................. Anander sīmā nai

Nirānanda dūre jai.... Nirānanda means unhappiness. It goes far away. 

Nirānanda dūre jai. So, anander sīmā nai means no limit, no limit, no boundary. 

So, someone was walking by last night. He had been practicing yoga for some years, and he said, “Wow this people are really happy”, and he came in, and he came in to my residence also, didn’t know where I was staying. And he kind of got a  cookie with everybody, then he got a Bhagavad-gītā. Apparently his sister in some other city got a science of self-realization the same day. 

So, in this Adhivās kīrtan, there are two lines, Anander sīmā nai, there is no limit to the spiritual bliss, Nirānanda dūre jai, unhappiness goes far away. So, everybody is forbidden to be unhappy. [Haribol] You have to be happy. 

Anyway, that festival we read about it in Caitanya Caritamrita. In the 70’s sometimes Prabhupāda came here, and he called this place as New Panihāti Dham, and around the same time, I don’t know I didn’t analyze the dates, maybe there is a connection. Prabhupāda, he was offered the Panihāti tree where Lord Nityānanda sat under by one member of the legislative assembly of the state. At that time the congress party was in charge of the state. So, Prabhupāda went there and inspected it. Told us, we should build the temple with the columns, so that the temple would be up off the ground. People could access freely the tree of the Lord Nityānanda. It is Banyan tree that’s there since over five hundred years. Then he went to see Rāghava Paṇḍita’s house. It was old and dilapidated, but he said that if they build a new one. They should take a picture of this to show that this is original and ancient place, and someone was walking around, one brāhmaṇā came out and offered Prabhupāda his Śāligrāma Shila, and that was the first Shaligrama of Māyāpura, and the first of ISKCON. So, at Panihāti. So, then he showed the Pūjārī how to decorate the Shaligram, how to draw face on him, and since then now Shāligrām Shila’s are used in different temples around the world. 

In Māyāpur we have around two hundred. Lord Nṛṣṇghadeva has a necklace of one hundred and eight, and there are other various Shāligrams in the different temples. 

So, Prabhupāda said that we should also have a boat service, from Calcutta to Māyāpur, and stop in Panihāti for Chira-doi breakfast, that is flat rice-yoghurt- fruits breakfast. So, finally after so many years we have already paid the downpayment and getting the boat built. It is being built. So, we will have such a service. And you can also avail of it once it is ready. 

I have gone many times with the Ganges up and down the Ganges. It’s very beautiful. Those who visit India on the road sides see the tea stalls and tyre repairing shops, it’s not so attractive. (laughter) But this Ganges path is incredible. It’s like time hasn’t changed. Trees, orchards, temples, palatial buildings. In Murshidābād there is a palace with thousand doors all the same. Anyway, so this Panihāti is a Dhām. When Lord Nityānanda came here, sent by Lord Caitanya to go back from Jagannāth Purī to preach in Bengal. Then the first stop was Panihāti, and then they had a big kīrtan, and that kīrtan went on for three months non-stop. There was such an ecstatic kīrtan, that tens and thousands just came and got lost in the kīrtan. After three days they realized they had a house, (laughter) they had to go home, and the devotees were doing kīrtan. They started displaying superhuman mystical powers. Some started floating in the air, jumping from one tree to the next. Some people lifted up trees from the roots, started dancing with them. One picked up a sixty foot long bamboo from one end and plaid it like a flute. To lift up one bamboo by the end, the weight becomes so great. Usually you would have two people carrying, but he was dancing with one. Then Rāghava Paṇḍitā told Lord Nityānanda, They are tearing up my garden, they are tearing up my house. There will be nothing left. I think that the kīrtan has become a little bit too wild. 

So, then Lord Nityānandā started going all over Bengal. Wherever He went, people became just overwhelmed by the kīrtan. So, like this He flooded the whole Bengal with kīrtan which started at Panihāti. So, this is a place of kīrtan also. Kīrtan and picnics and festivals. So, after Prabhupāda visited the place we wanted to observe the Panihāti festival. So, we had our boat –Nitai Pada Kamala which Prabhupāda had personally stood on and did ārati to the Nitāi-Gaura deities. So, then we came with a boat on the day of Panihāti Festival. Here in America they have in the first week of June. There it is by Lunar Calendar, so shifts a little bit, but it is more less in June. This year it will probably be later in June, the exact date. 

So, when I came with the Nitāi-Gaura Deities, and there were already thousands of people gathered there, and by the tree of Nityānanda there were all Brāhmaṇas sitting. They were offering people flat rice and yoghurt, and getting some dakshinā. So, they weren’t too happy with us appearing there with Nitāi-Gaura, but the general people were very happy, and one started singing a ballad, “Nitāi-Gaura Panihāti eseche eseche, Nitāi-Gaura Panihāti eseche eseche.” Nitāi Gaura have come to Panihāti again. Nitāi-Gaura Panihāti eseche eseche, Nitāi-Gaura Panihati eseche eseche. Nitāi Guara have come again. And so he was dancing and his group was dancing, and then they came to Māyāpur with a truck, filled with Chipped rice, mangoes, and they wanted to drive right into the tree, but the police stopped them half a kilometre away, “Are we crazy? Look at the crowd. You can’t go in there with the truck. So, then how do we get all the chira to Nitāi-Gaura, all these ingredients? Then a black cloud came over, and started raining, and all the people went off the road to seek shelter from the rain. So, we loaded up on our backs, bags of chipped rice and yoghurt, bags of mangoes, and half the truck we took by running, and we got to the tree, and so then it stopped raining, all the people back on the road. So, then we went back to the truck, and we went to unload the rest of the truck, and then the black clouds came again, started raining, people went off the road, we ran with the chira-doi, and mangoes, yoghurt, got to tree, by this time it got muddy. The same ball started singing and started rolling in the mud. It’s not like anyone ever advertises this festival. It is there on the calendar, that this day is the Panihāti day, but there is no other advertisement. 

Now ISKCON goes there and distribute, but before no organization was doing it, but hundreds and thousands of people gathered, and whoever would offer chira-doi to Lord Nityānanda, He would also give out to some people. So, like a spontaneous distribution of prasādam. So, we do that and some people have booked a big pot, and it is not possible to eat a big pot. So, they distribute and thus the Panihāti tradition is to go around and distribute also. So, we get some from the temple and then the devotees go around and distribute. 

This year because we are having fifty flavours, we asked Jayagovardhana to give us some of his muslin, specifically unoffered, which will mix in ten of the fifty preparations. It will be a surprise. So, well this is going on, and we started getting organized. So, the first year we offered this, I went out to make chira-doi pots, clay pots... I learned before at Haridaspur how to make clay pots. So, then we made those and offered the Lord at His Banyan tree, but how to distribute? One clay pot, and hundreds and thousands of people. I don’t know if you have ever seen a hundred thousands of people. I mean you have seen in football stadium, like that many people packed, all coming on the ground. So, this one devotee who was going out in the crowd with a little container, and he disappeared. (laughter) Everybody dived down in, and he disappeared. He crawled down beneath someone’s leg, and he came out with an empty cloth. So, this is not the way to do it. Anyway that thing is going on. Meanwhile Prabhupāda came here. He sang the parama karuṇā song, and you will hear in the Līlā Smaran some of the amazing pastimes Prabhupāda had when he was here. He actually was crying for the Gaura-Nitāi Deities, and he called this place as New Panihāti Dham. 

So, I came here after Prabhupāda left, and I became an Indian Citizen. So, then someone sponsored my around the world ticket, and now they have introduced all kind of rules, sixteen segments, but at that time they had no rules. I would have thirty, forty segments, big tickets. I would walk in to change the ticket at some place, and the ticket agent started crying, “Please don’t come here. You are not of the world.” That’s another story. 

But I came here, and this place is New Panihāti Dham. I had been with Prabhupāda twice to Panihāti. I had been there six, seven times for the festival. So, then I said, “Well, do you observe a Chirā-Doi festival here?” 

“No, we don’t know about that.” 

And then I said, I explained how it is observed in India, and since they offered seven varieties to Lord Nityānanda, and we were in America, we have fruits from all over the world. So, we offered eighteen. So, the six yoghurt, six condensed milk and six salads. Since the Western devotees like salads so much. So, this were our standard flavours, and we gave spiritual names to each one. The salad flavours – we had different devotees make different salads. The Mexican salad was made by some Mexican devotee, the Murāri Sevak salad was made by one of our devotee here, and the New Orleans Casion was made by mother Padma. Like that Govardhan Līlā makes the Italian Salad. We have North Indian and South Indian. This year we added four more. So, we have ten salads, twenty condensed milk and twenty yoghurt, fifty for the fiftieth anniversary. [Haribol] I hope everybody helps with cutting the fruits and things. 

So, Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda have been expanding their pastimes here. We see now Ratha Yātrā’s, Līlā Smaran and so many things. Now we have the Adhivas on Friday night. So, yesterday Balabhadra was supposed to come and give the class. I think... he is here today, right? 

Anyway back to the Caitanya Caritamrita. 

After this feast Raghunāth Das asked Lord Nityānanda for His mercy, that I want to join Lord Caitanya, I want to be part of His pastimes. So, without your mercy it is not possible. So, please give me your mercy that I can achieve His lotus feet. So, Lord Nityānanda told Him to go back, and said that it will happen, and so like that... Raghunāth Das, he went back home, and then after some days his guru took him out, then gave him some instructions to go back his house, but then he realized that there are no guards, no assistants, he was free, he could go. So, he went running home to Jagannāth Purī. 

He would always be caught because he was on the main path, but this time he went on a circular route, and he stayed in different people’s cowsheds, and finally he got to Jagannāth Purī without eating, and then he surrendered unto the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya. So, we can talk a lot about Raghunāth Dās, who is one of the six goswāmis. Although he was from a super-rich family, he lived most simply, and in the end he was... first he took money from his father and feeding people. Then he realized that it is not good. So, he then he would just beg and get his meals, but then he thought, that’s not good either. So, then the rice that was thrown in the drain, that had rotten on the outside, usually the animals wouldn’t eat it. He would break it open, take the good part in the centre and eat that. He was so austere, beyond anybody’s ability to copy, and Lord Caitanya became very affectionate towards him. 

Anyway he was later sent to Vṛndāvana, and he joined with the other five goswamis to be one of the sixth goswāmis. So, we are observing the festival when  he is sill rich, and we hope that all devotees will assist Raghunāth Das in his punishment, and the result of the punishment – you get the mercy of Nitāi and Gari [Haribol]

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Any questions?

Question: Mahārāja, would you want to speak little something about the fiftieth anniversary?

Gurumahārāja: Prabhupāda was very concerned that after he left that ISKCON would stay together, and in his presence he formed the G.B.C, and he was the first Chairman of the G.B.C. 

Then about three or four years the G.B.C would meet him and present him the result; then he would sign it. Like this he was training the G.B.C, but he said, “After Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswati Ṭhākura left his disciples fought. They had a G.B.C for about eight years, and then they gave it up. So, some disciples said, It’s more dynamic to have one acharya, and he orders everybody to do this, do that, like when Bhaktisiddhāntha was present. But you can’t just rubber stamp somebody to be an Achārya. So, they appointed a senior devotee to be the Achārya. Later on he ... to make a long story short, he had his some problems with his regulative principles, and as a result the whole Guria Math split up, and Prabbhupāda was worried that this does not happen in ISKCON. 

In the Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi Līlā, Chapter – 12, he touches on this topic. Many times I have been approached that we should edit out this twelfth chapter, by members of the Guadia Math. But how can we do that? Prabhupāda wrote it very extensively because he didn’t want us to do the same thing. The Gaudia Math was selling off land. When I reached Māyāpur they were selling their pond’s rights to fish. Pond’s rights – that means that the fisherman would pay them the rent, and they could take all the fish. And that is against our principles. They had fallen so low. I don’t think that they are doing that any more. So, Prabhupāda said that, if you could atleast maintain whatever I have done. He had made a hundred and eight temples, but if you can expand it, very nice, but at least maintain. Don’t sell off the properties, because this is what happens when some charismatic leader comes and distributes the spiritual process. He has many followers. Then after he leaves, the institute falls apart. People start to sell the properties. So, by Prabhupāda’s mercy, by Krishna’s mercy, we have followed Prabhupāda’s mandate that we work under the G.B.C. Sometimes it is austere. Maybe we have a different idea, but Prabhupāda said that he was confident that the G.B.C’s collectively would not decide something off. I usually think that they are pretty right on.  Sometimes they are a bit slow conservative, but that’s alright. This is what Prabhupāda asked us to.

 To achieving fifty years is a significant milestone. [applause]

But now we are concerned with the succession. As Prabhupāda disciples we don’t know how long we will be on the planet. So, we look to you. The next generation, second, third, fourth, to keep up the institution, to keep up the instructions that Prabhupāda gave us, and Kali would try to create some diversion. This was predicted in Purāṇa’s, in ancient books of Lord Caitanya, that someone would come and distribute Krishna consciousness and Harinām all over the world, and usher in a golden age of ten thousand years, when the whole world will start chanting the holy names, at least in every part of the world they will chant, and it will be very easy to go back to Godhead. 

But after this ten thousand years are over, it becomes very hellish Kali Yuga. So, we are still in the beginning of the Golden age. We have just got a foothold. Now there is need to spread the message very efficiently to stay united, and that’s upto all of you. So, while we are here, we are trying to let you understand how much Prabhupāda loved everybody, he took so much austerity to give this message all over the world. He had heart attacks, strokes, he was paralysed from the neck down, but still his head worked and he was instructing how to practice, how to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, so much austerity he took to give us the mercy of Lord Catanya and Lord Nityānanda. So, we have been trying to keep that alive. For the most part it seems that ISKCON has been multiplying. Now we have six hundred plus branches, thousands and thousands of small groups, Namahattās, Bhakti Vrkshās, counsellor groups. So, ISKCON has been expanding. We hope that the next generation will also keep up this enthusiasm. Maybe even expand on it, and finish the work of establishing the golden age. So, this is very important, and still you can get association with so many Prabhupāda disciples. Right now in Māyāpur, there are no more disciples of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarawati Thākur alive. Maybe some old man in some village, I don’t know, but all the sansyāsis, they are all gone. 

When we tried to establish the Saraswat Gaurdia Vaiṣṇava association, Prabhupāda told us to unite the Saraswati family. Some of the few existing disciples of Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswati Ṭhākura, they came and they blessed us, they said, “Please do this.” So, a few of us have this experience. So, many godbrother’s in their sixties, so young relatively, but every year like I was at the Prabhupāda’s festival in Los Angeles, and what’s his name? 

Audience : Siddhantha Prabhu

Gurumaharaja: Siddhānta!

He showed a video of all the godbrothers and godsisters who left this year. Then some of the one’s from the previous years, like Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. We can get their association until we get back to Prabhupāda. So, take advantage. Today we will have the Līlā Smaraṇa, how great Prabhupāda is and how you should keep the heritage. G.B.C is very concerned that how you should have a succession, you should have... that’s why they started this G.B.C college. They are having zonal supervisors. So that under the G.B.C there will be hundred something Zonal Supervisor’s. So, then some of them will be elevated to be G.B.C men. So, in this way train up the younger people to be Zonal supervisor, get some experience, man, woman, and also keep up the Harinām, keep up the practice of spreading. So, fifty years doesn’t seem like that. Went very fast. So, the next fifty from now, you will be all old people. (laughter) You will preaching like this to the young I hope.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. (applause)