20161225 Evening Lecture

20161225 Evening Lecture

Gurumaharaj:

Mukam Karoti Vacalam

Pangum Langhayate Girim

Yat Kripa Tamaham Vande

Sri Gurum Dina Tarinam

Paramananda Madhavam

Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Hari Om Tatsat

So today I will speak for a short time, and then we will have some more questions and answers. Do you all have papers. Who has a question, you can write them up in a paper and then hand them out.

Is there prasadam?

So Lord Caitanya went to Jagannath Puri, and then He thought that the work was not finished in Bengal. So He talked to Lord Nityananda and then He said that Lord Nityananda had to go back Bengal. He didn’t have to come every year to Jagannath Puri, but it was important to see if the work was done in Bengal.

So Lord Nityananda went with about 45 devotees. Normally it takes about one month to go from Jagannath Puri to Bengal, but since the devotees were in such ecstasy they were acting Krishna all the time, and they lost the road many times. So it took them around three months or so. Finally they reached Panihati, and Lord Nityananda went into the kitchen where Raghava Pandit and Damayanti were cooking. They immediately paid their obeisances, then they said, “Oh, how many are you. We will cook for you. Just give us an hour or so. Just bathe in the Ganges and I will prepare for you.”

So he told them that he had 45 men, and so they prepared a feast in one hour. Meanwhile, Lord Nityananda took His bath in the Ganges and He went back to Raghav Pandit and took His prasadam. There after the prasadam and a little rest, they started a kirtan. Lord Nityananda was sitting, watching the kirtan, and they all were doing kirtan, and then Lord Nityananda stood up and He danced, and wherever Lord Nityananda danced, Lord Caitanya said He will be there. His dancing was so beautiful. So Lord Nityananda stopped the dancing and said that Lord Caitanya is amongst you, I can see Him but you can’t, but He is wearing a garland from south India. So He has special scented flowers. So they were all smelling to see if they could find out Lord Caitanya.

When one smelled Lord Caitanya, Oh… Oh.. Oh..Oh… and he fell on the ground and fainted, and then He fainted. So it was like a love gas. Whoever smelled Lord Caitanya became overwhelmed with Krishna Prema, and started to fall in the ground and felt great ecstasy.

So after Lord Nityananda danced, He sat down and the devotees bathed Him with Ganges water. He wore a dried dhoti, and then He called Raghava Pandita, “I am a cowherd boy, I want a Kadamba flower.” , said, “Well, it’s not the season of Kadamba flower, I don’t have any Kadamba flower, I can’t seem to find any. You look in your garden and see if you can find any.”, so Raghava Pandit went back to his garden, on a lemon tree, bhoom bhoom bhoom bhoom, out sprouted Kadamba flowers. The tree became converted into a Kalpa Vriksha and provided whatever the Lord wanted.

So Raghava Pandit made a gardald of Kadamba flower, and then they started the kirtan. The kirtan went on like three months. It went on day and night. Somehow they kept the kirtan always going, and some devotees were there for 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, and people became so ecstatic that they forgot themselves, and after two, three days they realized that they have to go back to their families. So they were headed back home. Someone said, “What did you see?”, they couldn’t speak, ….

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Like that the kirtan grew from 1000, 2000, upto 10,000 people, and people were joining the kirtan and becoming ecstatic. The word got out that Lord Nityananda is doing this amazing kirtan, at Panihati, and people came and joined the kirtan, devotees got mystical powers, they pulled out big mango trees from the ground and started dancing with them. They took a 60 foot bamboo and played it like a flute. Someone was dancing at the tops of the trees, haribol, haribol, haribol, jumping from one tree to the next, flying in the air. Raghava Pandit came to Nityananda, “this devotees will destroy my house, destroy my garden, they are going wild. So Lord Nitaynanda, His kirtan moved from place to place, and He was doing this kirtan wherever He went, and the people were swept away by the kirtan.

So in this way you are also doing kirtan, and Lord Nityananda spread His Harinam sankirtan movement by chanting the Harinam. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna

Question: Can you share how you are able to travel and preach so enthusiastically even though your health is not cooperating?

Gurumaharaj: The Lord and some devotees help. I don’t want to talk about myself.

Question: When in doubt how do you know what the Lord wants. How was Bhismadev sure what was pleasing to Krishna?

Gurumaharaj: There are two kinds of pastimes, prakrat and aprakrat. Manifested pastimes and unmanifested pastimes. So when the Lord is present one can ask Him, and when He is not present visibly, then if one is very advance they can still communicate with the Lord in the heart, otherwise normally one will approach the guru. The guru will tell what is pleasing to him. The guru is our via-media to Krishna.

Q: How to develop love and feeling for Lord Krishna?

Gurumaharaj: who normally translates in Telugu.

Bhakti yoga isa  gradual process, and one gains love and affection for Krishan gradually. Of course one may get it quicker, but usually it’s a gradual process. The nectar of devotion tells us how one can progress in devotional service. As you do your devotional service, it is natural to love and gain more and more affection for Lord Krishna. He describes that He reciprocates with His devotees.

ye yathä mäà prapadyante

täàs tathaiva bhajämy aham

So by serving the Lord, He will reciprocate with you, and when you read about how some devotees serve the Lord in the Srimad Bhagavatam, it’s very inspirational.

Q: How to express my gratitude to Srila Prabhupada who gave me holy names and my eternal Lord, whom I forget and suffered a lot?

Gurumaharaj: Many devotees asked Prabhupada how to pay back my debts to you. At different times he answered differently. Sometimes he said, “You can show me how much you love me by how well you cooperate. Other times he said, “If you are happy in Krishna in Krishna consciousness, I will be happy.”, sometimes he said, “If you develop your affection for Krishna, I will be happy.”

Q: Sometime when we get closer to devotees, we tend to develop familiarity with them. So how to eliminate that familiarity while still staying close to devotees?

Gurumaharaj: Offer them all respect, and do not expect any respect for yourself. Sikshaktaka 3

Q: I find it very difficult to control my mind during chanting, reading or doing services. Please suggest how can I engage my mind in whatever devotional activities I am doing?

Gurumaharaj: You have to bring back the mind again and again. This way the mind becomes under our control.

Q:  Please guide me how to overcome hypocritical nature. When I am with devotee, I am on track, whenever I am out with material people, I behave same like them. Please guide me, Maharaj.

Gurumaharaj: So this devotee, you are a little weak. So you tend to act according to the association you are in. So in this regard, you should try to associate more with devotees, and avoid associations with the non-devotees, and in your work place if you have to associate with non-devotees don’t open up to them, just be formal. Formal, friendly, but not like opening your mind.

Q: Could you please, let me know the specific quality that pleases Hari, guru and vaisnavas the most and how to cultivate it?

Gurumaharaj: In the twelfth chapter of Bhagavat Gita, it gives the qualities that pleases the Lord, and the last quality is the most pleasing, but generally we try to do aspects which are recommended by Rupa Goswami – Enthusiasm, Patience, Being Convinced, Practicing devotaional service, like that we do the things which are favorable and avoid the things which are un-favorable. That will help us advance.

Q: Why are we not able to be fixed in bhakti and not able to read Srila Prabhupada’s books regularly?

Gurumaharaj: good question. Why? (laughter)

Not serious. That’s why one needs to chant more rounds, avoid offenses and read the books. As you chant Hare Krishna, your mind gets purified, and it’s easier to practice devotional service.

Q: How to progress in bhakti, even when conditions are not favourable?

Gurumaharaj: Krishna reciprocates. If the conditions are not favorable, Krishna gives you more blessings. So we don’t just wait for favorable conditions, we try to chant in all conditions, favorable and unfavorable.

Q: How to realize that every living being is a part and parcel of Krishna, and how to give respect to every living being without expecting anything from them?

Gurumaharaj: Yes. One should do that. They say practice makes perfect. Try practicing this.

Q: What punishment one gets when one offends any living entity with mind, word or deed, and how to get out of this offensive mentality?

Gurumaharaj: There is a place in Nabadwip called the aparadh bhanjan Kuliapath, where one can get rid of all the offences. So one way is to go there and ask for forgiveness, otherwise if you know who you offended you can ask them for forgiveness. If they don’t give it, somehow get the dust of their feet and then you will be forgiven.

Q: The anartha nivritti is a long stage and it affects our bhakti even after doing years of practice, and also spoils our enthusiasm to serve.  How to go through this phase before the heart is completely purified?

Gurumaharaj: Prabhupada said, it took him 20 years to achieve perfection, how many years will it take you? So four years to go step by step is not too much. You can go faster with extreme greed to attain a higher stage.

Q: In the Bhagavat Gita, Krishna says, “do your duty even faultily than do others duties perfectly.” With whom Krishna is comparing that is difference between your’s and others. What are those duties?

Gurumaharaj: You see Arjuna was a general. He was a prince. He was a ksatriya. So he had his duties, and most of all he was a devotee. So he had to do what Krishna wanted. But leave that aside. But he may perform the activities of a brahman, become a mendicant, but the point was that even if he did it perfectly it’s not his duties. So he shouldn’t do that, and he should do his own natural duties.

Q: It’s said that we should not do punyas karmas. Can  we do anna dana?

Gurumaharaj: We give out prasadam. That’s not ordinary food. That’s not punya karma. That’s sukriti, transcendental activities.

Q: What is the qualification for second initiation? Who can take second initiation?

Gurumaharaj: The second initiation is not essential, but it helps one to advance, and one can go on the fast track in spiritual life. So one who is serious, who is philosophical, the can take second initiation, and that qualifies them to do deity worship, the fire sacrifices, to cook for the deities, and such services, and it also brings one closer to the guru.

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Transcribed by : Sadananda Krisnhnaprem Das.

26.02.2017, Mayapur.