20160721 Śrī Nimāi Receiving Gifts from His Devotees

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.94

se śobhāra mahimā ta’ kahite nā pāri
upamā dibāṅa kibā, nā dekhi vicāri’

Jayapatākā Swami: Seeing Nimāi Paṇḍita with all His students was so wonderful, so beautiful. There is nothing to compare it with. It's incomparable. So, what I can say is that it was a wonderful scene.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.95

hena bujhi yena sanakādi-śiṣya-gaṇe
nārāyaṇe veḍi’ vase badarikāśrame

Jayapatākā Swami: Like in the Badarikāśrama in the Himalayan Mountains where the Alakanandā river flows through the East. There Nārāyaṇa would sit and give His exposition on the Vedic sanātana-dharma, and He would be surrounded by the disciples, headed by the great sage Sanaka, who has a having a child’s body.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.96

tāṅ’ sabāre laiyā yena prabhu se paḍāya
hena bujhi sei līlā kare gaura-rāya

Jayapatākā Swami: In the same way, the pastime was performed by Gaura Nārāyaṇa. He was seated and all of His students were seated around Him, and He taught the message of the Vedas, just like Lord Nārāyaṇa personally taught His disciples in Badarikāśrama.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.97

sei badarikāśrama-vāsī nārāyaṇa
niścaya jāniha ei śacīra nandana

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrī Śacīnandana without any doubt is certainly the same Lord Nārāyaṇa. He is eternally residing in Badarikāśrama.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.98

ataeva śiṣya-saṅge sei līlā kare
vidyā-rase vaikuṇṭhera nāyaka vihare

Jayapatākā Swami: Therefore, Lord Nimāi enjoyed the same pastimes as His form as Lord Nārāyaṇa – the master of Vaikuṇṭha. So, He was enjoying these scholastic pursuits with His students. That, we should understand that just as a cowherd boy enjoys his herding of the cows, or just as a kṣatriya enjoys his fighting, some great paṇḍita or brāhmaṇa enjoys the intellectual discussions. So, Lord Chaitanya in His form as Nimāi Paṇḍita, He was enjoying these scholastic pleasures.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.99

paḍāiyā prabhu dui prahara haile
tabe śiṣya-gaṇa laiyā gaṅgā-snāne cale

Jayapatākā Swami: So, it says that Prabhu Nimāi, He would teach his students for two praharas. One day or twenty-four hours has eight praharas. So, that means that a prahara is three hours. So, He would teach His students for six hours, in the morning. Then in the midday, they break to take a cooling bath in the Ganges water, and then they return home to have their lunch.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.100

gaṅgā-jale vihāra kariyā kata-kṣaṇa
gṛhe āsi’ kare prabhu śrī-viṣṇu-pūjana

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord, He would sport for some time in the Ganges water. Then He would return to His home, where He would do the worship of His śālagrāma, which is known as viṣṇu-pūja. In the house of Lord Nimāi, there was a temple of Lord Viṣṇu. There, thinking of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu śālagrāma-śilā form was worshipped by the Lord.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.101

tulasīre jala diyā pradakṣiṇa kari’
bhojane vasilā giyā bali’ ’hari-hari’

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord, He watered the tulasī plant and circumambulated the plant. Then to take His prasādam, He sat down, and He said “Hari Hari.” So, when He would sit down to eat, He chanted “Hari Hari.” So now you know what to say when you sit down to eat.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.102

lakṣmī dena anna, khā’na vaikuṇṭhera pati
nayana bhariyā dekhe āi puṇyavatī

Jayapatākā Swami: Lakṣmīpriyā gave Lord Nimāi Prabhu rice with her own hands, and the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, He accepted that rice and was eating it. When mother Śacī watched how the daughter-in-law was serving her son, she was fully satisfied. She was a very pious lady.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.103

bhojana-antare kari’ tāmbūla carvaṇa
śayana karena, lakṣmī sevena caraṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Gaurasundara, after finishing His meal, He chewed on some betel nuts. Then He lied down to rest. Lakṣmīpriyā was messaging His lotus feet.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.104

kata-kṣaṇa yoga-nidrā-prati dṛṣṭi diyā
punaù prabhu calilena pustaka laiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord, after taking some yoga-nidrā. This yoga-nidrā is understood to be described by different authorities, as the Lord hiding His pastimes, or as the Lord not revealing His identity, which is like sleep, in the sense that it covers the intelligence of the materially conditioned souls. So after the Lord rested, performing His pastime of yoga-nidrā, when He would wake up, take His book in His hand, and again He would go out, and wander about Navadvīpa.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.105

nagare āsiyā kare vividha vilāsa
sabāra sahita kare hāsiyā sambhāṣa

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord, in His wandering about the city, would enjoy different kinds of pastimes, He would have exchanges with all of the different people, and He would talk to them smilingly, and speak little sweet words.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.106

yadyapi prabhura keha tattva nāhi jāne
tathāpi sādhvasa kare dekhi’ sarva-jane

Jayapatākā Swami: The residents didn’t understand who the Lord really was. They didn’t know His real identity. Still, they felt a natural affection for Him, and offered Him respects, offered Him respects whenever He would see them.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.107

nagare bhramaṇa kare’ śrī-śacīnandana
devera durlabha vastu dekhe sarva-jana

Jayapatākā Swami: Even the demigods, the devas; the demigods or angels who reside in heaven – the best of the living entities. They don’t see the Lord Śacīnandana; very rarely. And although He kept Himself hidden from the vision even from the great entities in the heavenly planets. So, He is rarely seen. But He would walk around in Navadvīpa Dhāma, and He would be seen by all. But no one could understand His real identity. But they felt natural love for Him, natural respect. So this way the Lord, He was wandering around the streets, and meeting different people, and discussing with them. For those who didn’t see the Lord, who don’t see the Lord in His real spiritual position and think that, 'O He is just some great scholar, or some mundane idea'. They get some pious results, good karma, meritorious karma. But they don’t get the real spiritual benefit that the devotees get. The devotees seeing how the Lord was so approachable, their love for Him increases more and more.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.108

uṭhilena prabhu tantu-vāyera duyāre
dekhiyā sambhrame tantu-vāya namaskare

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord one day went to the house of the weaver, and the weaver respectfully offered Him his obeisances. There is a portion of the Vāmana-pukura village, which even today has the name of Tāṅtipāḍā, which means a village or neighbourhood of weavers. So, the Lord would walk sometimes in what is known today as Vāmana-pukura, it apparently has a neighbourhood called Tāṅtipāḍā. It may not have weavers today, but the part of the village is known like that. Even this part of the village that, this is used as a, one more evidence, that this side of the rivers was the ancient Navadvīpa, or Mayapur, and that here Lord Chaitanya usually walked, in Vāmana-pukura, in the Tāṅtipāḍā. Also, it is mentioned that different parts of the Vāmana-pukura, which are still there today. So, it would not be so easy for Him to walk over if He lived on the other side of the Ganges. So, there are some people that like to spread the idea that that is the ancient Māyāpura, not here. Some renegade disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he had tried to establish this as ancient Māyāpura. But here we say that it is not possible.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.109

“bhāla vastra āna”,—prabhu bolaye vacana
tantu-vāya vastra ānilena sei-kṣaṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: “Bring me one nice good cloth. Nimāi Paṇḍita,” He gave this order to the weaver. So, the weaver brought a beautiful piece of cloth at that time.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.110

prabhu bole,—“e vastrera ki mūlya lai?”
tantu-vāya bole,—“tumi āpane ye dibā”

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord asked that “this cloth, what price would you take?” And, the weaver said, “Whatever you will give is alright.”

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.111

mūlya kari’ bole prabhu,—“ebe kaḍi nāi”
tāṅti bole,—“daśe pakṣe dio ye gosāñi

Jayapatākā Swami: After the price was settled, the Lord said, “I don’t have any money now.” But the weaver said, “Okay, ten or fifteen days, you give whenever you can.”

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.112

vastra laiyā para’ tumi parama santoṣe
pāche tumi kaḍi more dio samāveśe”

Jayapatākā Swami: In other words, He told the Lord, “After arranging or accumulating or collecting, you can pay. Whenever you please.”

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Ādi 12.113

tantu-vāya-prati prabhu śubha-dṛṣṭi kari’
uṭhilena giyā prabhu goyālāra purī

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord glanced very mercifully and kindly at the weaver. Then He stood up and He began His walk around the city.