20160802 Caitanya Book

20160802 Caitanya Book

Brothers and sisters! Listen with a single pointed mind, “Krishna in the form of a Brahmana and his pastimes are described.

(Original text)

In this way the Lord of Vaikuntha was always enjoying pastimes of scholarship and he takes with him his students or disciples.

(Original text)

In the whole of Nabadwip, the Lord went from town to town with his students along with him, he was enjoying pastimes of scholarship. The neighborhoods, villagers, islands of Nabadwip were known as Nagars such as Ganga Nagar, Kanjir Nagar, Kulia Nagar, Vidya Nagar and Jan Nagar.

(Original text)

Everyone throughout Nabadwip spoke with one voice, “Nimai Pandit is the teacher or professor, who is the crown jewel, who is the best of all.”

(Original text)

Big, Big, rich people would get down from their palanquins and they would offer their obeisances to Lord Nimai Pandit.

(Original text)

As soon as they would see the Lord, they would manifest respect and awe and reverence. There was no one in Nabadwip who is not under the control of Nimai Pandit.

(Original text)

Nabadwip all the pious people, who would do some sacrifice or do some pious activity they would send some food stuff or cloths, certainly to the Lord’s house. It was the custom that the ksatriyas, vaisyas, sudras and other people would send gifts to brahmanas and since Nimai Pandit was considered the best of the brahmanas, the best of the pandits, of the professors, therefore it was natural for people to want to send him gifts.

(Original text)

To see the Lord, he displayed when he was Brahmana grihastha the perfect example of what a grihastha should do. When he would meet a poor man he would give him some rewards, some charity. So he was as whatever he did he was the topmost. He would teach by his example. So he would also teach by his example how a grihastha should be.

(Original text)

When he would see some poor men, then the Lord would give him some mercy in the form of rice, cloth, money and other things Gaura Hari would give.

The Brahmanas by nature were very magnanimous while the non-brahmins tended to be misers… miserliness. So to exhibit the ideal pastime of a exemplary householder Nimai would give donations to the poor.

(Original text)

At the Lord’s house there were constantly guests. According to their situations and needs the Lord would give everyone.

(Original text)

On some days 10 or 20 sanyasis would come to his house as guests. He would invite everyone in great happiness. So this is the principle of Varnashrama Dharma. Many renounced sanyasis came to the noble householders of Nabadwip as their guests.

So one hand the Lord, He gave to the poor, to the distressed, and on the other hand he exhibited ideal householder pastimes by serving the ideal sanyasis or in other words the members of the fourth ashrams.

There are brahmacharis who are students, householders, who are married and then there is the retired, then the fourth order is the renounced.  So in the renounced order they didn’t touch fire. So they would go to the grihastha brahmanas who would touch fire and then would eat from that.

In those days the brahmanas were all vegetarians. Each Brahmana had a Visnu temple in their house.

So usually the renounced order of sanyasis would eat the Visnu prasadam from the brahmanas.

So the Lord also ask his guests if they needed a place to sleep and he had some guest facility, to provide not only food but also shelter. So in this way the sanyasis, they would travel all over the country to share their knowledge with the grihasthas who would come to his house and he would serve them with great happiness.

(Original text)

So he would send someone to mother Sachi. Please arrange for lunch for 20 sanyasis.

(Original text)

So mother Sachi thought, “there is nothing in the house, how am I going to feed 20 sanyasis?”, so she was thinking to herself. Then as soon as she was thinking she didn’t know who the person was but someone would come and drop off all the provisions she needed to cook for 20 people.

(Original text)

Lasmipriya Devi with great satisfaction she went and cooked special preparations. Then the Lord came, he sat down and he watched his spouse cooking.

(Original text)

So as the sanyasis came the Lord personally offered them a seat. He satisfied them with sweet talks, he served the meal to them.

(Original text)

In this way so many guests came and he would enquire from each one. At the end of feeding them, whether they had enough or their hunger was satisfied.

Srila Prabhupada, he showed us how the guests are served. On the back to the second floor he would set the chair and some big government officer was fed and he would supervise. Even when they didn’t need water, he would say, “Water, water.”, and he would talk with them light talks. He said that we should talk heavy things during Prasad. They were so grateful with the sanyasi, the guru was personally serving them and overseeing their need that the high governing officers asked, “Is there anything that we can do for you?”

Prabhupada would always have something for them to do. But whether they asked or didn’t ask Prabhupada would anyway serve and he was showing us how we should do the athithi seva, the service to our guests.

We can see that this is the culture of Lord Gauranga, that as a grihastha he would personally do that. He would serve the prasadam out, he would ask whether needed more to drink, more to eat.

(Original text)

So you can see that the grihastha ashram has many aspects to it. Mahaprabhu was an ideal grihastha and he was teaching others by his examples, what a grihastha should do and serving guests- athiti seva, that was one of the mul karmas, foremost duties of the gihasthas.

(Original text)

If a grihastha doesn’t serve his guests, doesn’t invite people over to take prasadam he is lower than a beast or a bird. He is considered adham, a fallen grihastha.

So there a griha-medhis and grihastas. The attached house holders who give up the service of cooking, feeding guests, who stay for one day – wondering sanyasis who are engaged in pleasing Lord Visnu and remain busy feeding their own bellies, they are lower than the birds and the beasts.

The birds fly in the sky looking for some grains and they wonder the earth in order to gather their food. So they don’t collect and since human beings are more elevated they have the principles of varnashrama. So these principles should be adhered to. If someone is adverse to this principles then they are considered fallen like an animal or like a bird, naked bird.

So the grihasthas would call out three times to see if anybody was hungry and Prabhupada told the story how one grihastha he called out and there was a fisherman who walked by, he said, “have you eaten yet?”

“No”

“You come here, I will feed you.”

So he had a stinky basked which would be used for the fish. He said, “Ask him to keep that outside.”

Then he fed him, then he said, “It’s late, why don’t you take rest here?”

So he gave him a grass mat. He slept outside.

In the middle of the night the grihastha got up to answer natures call and see his guests. He saw the guest was tossing and turning. He said what is wrong. He said, “I am used to smelling my basket. If I don’t smell my basket I can’t sleep.”

He said, “Ok, you bring it in.”

Srila Prabhupada said, “You westerners are like that. You have to smell some machine, refrigerator or something, otherwise you cannot sleep.”

You see that being a proper grihastha is a very great thing. They sanyasis they don’t cook for themselves. One time when Prabhupada got called to a house he told the householder that, “we sanyasis are just like your children and you are feeding us. So grihasthas, they have a big responsibilities.”

I could tell you more nectar but they told me that they are doing a yajna upstairs and that I have to go to do the purna-ahuti.

So stay tuned. This is the Lord Gaura Narayana acting as a householder with Laxmipriya, Laxmi herself.

So some people said, “Well, how do the ladies relate with Lord Caitanya?”

He was a rare example of a householder and between him and his wife, Laxmi and Narayana, Laxmipriya and Gauranarayana they fed the guests.

Wait and hear more nectar.

Hari bol.

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das

Mumbai.