20170506 A Talk about Gaura-līlā

20170506 His. Holiness. Jayapatākā Swami gave a talk about Gaura Līlā In Los Angeles.

We are glad to be here in ISKCON, Laguna Beach. We have in Māyāpur the panchatattva deities, and here in ISKCON Laguna Beach they also have the panchattava. There are a few temples in the world which have panchatattava deity. 

When Lord Kṛṣṇa was leaving this material world to go back to His spiritual world, he thought how people of Kaliyugā will experience the bliss of the Vraja pastimes. Kṛṣṇa was in Mathurā, Dwaraka and Vṛndāvana, and the pastimes were exceedingly sweet. Although Kṛṣṇa is the supreme personality of Godhead, the people of Vṛndāvana didn’t know that he was that. Just like in Māyāpur his father Jagannath Miśra did not know that Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa. 

In a dream one brahman came and told him, “What will you teach your son. Your son knows everything. He is the supreme person.” Jagannath Miśra said, “No, my son is my son, and I have to teach him “ 

“But what will you teach Him? He already knows everything. No matter how many times he was told it didn’t make any sense. “He is my son. I will teach my son.”

“But what will you teach Him? He knows everything.”

“I only think that He is my son and I am His father I have the duty to teach Him “

Finally it started to sink in and he woke up from the dream. “What a crazy dream!” 

So He is an incarnation of Vāsudeva, the father of Lord Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa came in Mathurā and he defeated the demon Kaṁsa, so His mother and father remembered that He is Kṛṣṇa. So they were offering Him respect, but Lord Caitanya did not want this. Lord Kṛṣṇa didn’t want. So He has His līlā shakti, his pastime dust sprinkle over them, and they immediately related with Him as father, mother and son, and they forgot the respect, and they just loved Him as a son. 

So Kṛṣṇa wants our love. As the supreme personality of Godhead everyone gives Him respect, but actually to give love – that’s what he really likes. So He can do that, He can have people forget His position. It’s the love that has to come actually. Each avatar of Kṛṣṇa has different qualities but Nrsimhadev is very angry, He is so angry even Laxmī was afraid of Him. Lord Brahmā had never seen a form of the Lord so angry. He told Prahlāda Mahārāja, “It’s all your fault. He came to save you. So you have to cool him down.” So because Prahlāda was a six years old child, so he accepted. He bowed down and offered a garland, and offered prayers to Lord Nrsimhadev. So Lord Nrsimhadev was so happy to see Prahlāda Mahārāja, to receive the prayers offered by Prahlāda Mahārāja, that immediately His mood changed.

Every form of the Lord has got some particular mood, and that’s important to relate with the Lord according to His particular mood. Nrsimhadev is angry. Angry because His devotee is being persecuted for no reason just because He is a devotee. 

The demons took all the combustibles from under the earth’s surface and the caused the earth to fall from its orbit. So it fell to the bottom of the universe. So as Varāhadeva, he came and lifted up the earth, put it back into orbit. So the demon Hiranyaksha, he fought with Varadeva. Varāhadeva, he put his foot on the earth, and with the other foot he kicked Hiranyakshya, and immediately Hiranyaksha was defeated. 

So where was that place on the earth that Varāhadeva kicked? (laugh)

You are 18 years old. You haven’t been to college? (laughter) 

He touched Koladwipa, one of the nine islands of Nabadwipa Dham. So thats what – Kola is another name of Varāha. Koladwipa means Vahadwipa. In that place you are forgiven for all kind of offences. Aparadh Vyañjan Kuliapakh. 

So Lord Ramchandra, He came as a human being, but He is another form of the supreme personality of Godhead and He had been exiled by some royal politics – his step-mother. That’s a long story. So He was with His wife and His younger brother in the forest, and Rāvaṇa – King of the demons who had defeated Indra, he was the greatest military power in the universe. Think of a headline in the paper – “Greatest military power –Super power 1 – challenged by an army of monkeys & two worldly princesses” and He defeated them. He defeated them Ah Ah... He likes to do things in zero odds. Just do things in a super way. 

In  Vrindavana He would dance with zillions of gopī’s, in Dwaraka He married 16,0108 queens. Normally you think, “Oh you will never get seen by your husband.” But he divided Himself into 160108 Krishna’s. When He would come home from office He would step off His chariot and 160108 Krishna’s would go one in each house. 

So Lord Caitanya, He spent half His life as a grihastha, of what 2/3rd as a brahman grihastha, 1/3rd as a devotee grihastha, the other half He was a sanyasi. So He was the ideal grihastha, the ideal Nimāi Pandit. When He would walk all other pundits would run because He would speak so eloquently on all the śāstras that any other brahama would get defeated. So rather than suffer defeat they ran. 

So He would say, “Why is that pundit running. Oh maybe he has some work. Just to avoid Me.” (laughter)

Although as a brahama He would not accept any salary. Whatever people gave as donation He accepted. He would invite 10,15, 20 sanyasi’s and poor people everyday for prasādam, and His mother and His wife would say, “We don’t have enough food to feed 25 people.” He would say, “Well, do whatever you can.” And after giving morning class – He was a teacher. He would come home and feed His guests, and it would just happen that everyday someone would deliver rice, dāl, sabzi, vegetables, just what they needed to cook, and He would personally serve out. 

So in the Vedic times grihastha’s would feed anyone who is hungry. They didn’t need big taxes if you were hungry the whole public would feed you. Now welfare and appointment and taxes. There was Japanese student in New Orleans. He was walking down the side walk. Somebody yelled from the house, “Freeze!” He was paranoid. Japanese student – he didn’t know what freeze means. The guy shoot’s him and kills him. 

In the Vedic culture we would feed people. So Lord Caitanya being a pundit, If anyone did some auspicious work they would want to give charity to the pundits. So He would always get a lot of help, He had thousands of students, but as Nimāi Pundit He would require that everyone would have to wear tilak and come to class after having done their morning pūjā. He was known as Vācaspati – the husband of the goddess of fortune and speech. One student didn’t weak that tilak. He had him stand up. “Looks like you didn’t do your morning pūjā. You have no tilak. So how will you study Vedas if you didn’t do your morning pūjā. So go home, do your pūjā, wear your tilak and come back.”  The 8 year old child who stood up – it was very crushing. He never forgot the tilak from that day. 

When He was a sanyasi, He was the most gentle, renounced. When He was a devotee He was the most merciful. So every avatar has a particular mood, and Lord Caitanya’s mood is mercy. Who needs mercy? [Haribol]  

When I was travelling here, the airlines said, “Thank you for choosing us, making us airline of your choice.” So I thought what if you have two airlines? One is a karma airline. You get whatever karma you do, whatever your good and bad activities, suffering and enjoyment, you get that, no more no less. Then there is Lord Caitnya’s mercy airlines. He gives unlimited mercy, mercy more than you deserve. So which one would you chose. All those who want the karma Airlines raise your hands. (laughter) How many of you want Lord Caitanya’s mercy airlines? [Haribol] Look’s like everybody wants mercy. 

So Lord Caitanya is Lord Kṛṣṇa who came to give out freely love of Kṛṣṇa. He doesn’t think who is qualified, who is not qualified, he gives everybody mercy. 

Pāpī tāpī jata chila Hari Name Udharilo

Tahar sakhi Jagā Mādhāi re.

All the sinful people were delivered by the mercy of Lord Caitanya.  The proof of that is Jagāi and Mādhāi. That reminds me in Māyāpur they want me to decide whether we should go upto Rukumpur or not. Rukumpur is the extreme northern side of Nabadwip Dham There Lord Ram had His pastimes, and it’s said that if one bathes in the Ganges it is worth many more times than anywhere else, and there is also the deities of Jahanavadevi, Nityānanda and Vir Chandra to mention a few. Normally we don’t go there. This year we went, but on that particular day it is a long walk, but I think that the next day it is a short walk. So they are figuring out how to balance each day. What should we do? So should we go to Rukumpur or not? These are the kind of management problems I have. 

I said, “Let’s try one year and see how the devotees find it?” 

But they said If we try it one year then they will raise the land price, because they will say, “Oh, ISKCON wants to buy the land.” We got more money. 

Kṛṣṇa is in Mādhurya rasa but Lord Caitanya is in separation. He is in the mood of Radarani. So He is always feeling separation He wants to be with Kṛṣṇa He is Kṛṣṇa in the mood of Rādhā who wants to be with Kṛṣṇa because thinking about the supreme spirit by any means gives one spiritual bliss . 

After Lord Caitanya saw Kṛṣṇa in Kānāi Natsala, Kṛṣṇa came and embraced Him, and then He lost Kṛṣṇa. He was feeling a strong desire to be with Kṛṣṇa. So people were saying that He has gone crazy, but He said in a nice way. “He has disordered airs.” So three neighbours approached mother Sachi. Your son seems to have some disturbed air. One said, “I think give him a tender coconut” The other said, “Oh that’s not strong enough. Put dasamul tel on his head. The oil of temroots.” The other said, “None of these things will work. Tie Him up with ropes. He is very bad” (laughter) Mother Sachi said, “There is nothing wrong with my son” So Lord Caitanya went to see the elder Vaiṣṇava – Śrīvāsa Thakur. He said, “Can I ask you a question?”  He said, “Sure why not?” 

“Am I sick? Do I have a disease?”

“What are your symptoms?”

“Whenever I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, tears come to my eyes, my hairs stand on end, my throat gets choked up, sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry, sometimes I faint.” Śrīvas Thakur said, “ Yes, you have a disease.” (laughter) “I also want to have a disease.” It is known as love of Kṛṣṇa. 

So Brahmā, Śiva, they also want that disease. Lord Caitanya said, “Since many people have been saying that I have a disease, I thought that if it is such a disease, something so sweet, something so nice, then what is the use of living?” So you saved my life. So Śrīvas, he said, “You know your chanting will not be understood by the ordinary people. I will invite people will appreciate your chanting, and you can come to my garden and chant at night.” So that’s how the nocturnal kirtans in Śrīvas’s garden started. So here the devotees are chanting nice kirtans. Lord Caitanya got people all over Nabadwip to chant the names of Kṛṣṇa. This is the recommended means in the age of Kali. 

In the age of Kali, the Lord comes as a covered avatar called as a Channa Avatar He doesn’t tell that He is Kṛṣṇa in the age of Kali because so many bogus imposters say that they are avatars of Kali. 

In Andhra Pradesh there was a husband and wife. They claimed to be avatar. They claimed to be Kalki. So one of the devotees said, “Kalki is not predicted until 427,000  years. Aren’t you early?” (laughter) So he said, “Well, I may not be Kalki, but I am an avatar. Give me money.” This avatars are expensive. (laughter) 

So there are so many avatars. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that He comes in every yuga. Sam bhavāmi yuge yuge, but in Kali Yuga which comes every century, every decade, every year, every hour – bogus avatars.  So Lord Caitanya doesn’t proclaim to be Kṛṣṇa, but He proclaims to be a devotee, but He has predicted that He would come as a devotee.  

On the way here from Malaysia they raised about 2 million U.S dollars pledgers for the Vedic Planetorium. (applause) 

One couple surprised everyone with 1.8 million Malaysian dollars. One person really surprised everyone. He ticked the wrong box. (laughter) He meant 4000 ringet, he ticket 1 million dollars, but later he clarified. At first he was enjoying the bet (laughter) Giving Kṛṣṇa service is a special pleasure. So that is something especially the grihasta’s can do. We sanyasis, we don’t have anything, plus whatever we have we have to give everything. While a grihastha, they have something. So they can give to the temple. It said that, “Whenever one goes to the temple they should give something – flowers, grains, fruits, ghee, honey, something, money.” 

Any questions?

Question : You were mentioning that lot of pastimes happened in Nabadwip dham, and it was actually created from the inner emotion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. It was mentioned in Nabadwip dham Mahatya, but even that – you see that before the appearance of Lord Caitnya the condition of the Nabadwip dhambasis – they were not taking pure devotional service, they were more inclined to practice of jñāna, yoga, and Advaita Acharya, He himself was very disappointed to see their condition. So even though it was a very pious life, it was meant to be for the pure love of Godhead. Why before Lord Caitanya’s appearance it didn’t happen? 

Gurumaharaja:  Advaita prayed for the coming of Lord Kṛṣṇa because to give out love of Kṛṣṇa, it’s not possible for anyone but Kṛṣṇa. So Advaita is the Mahavishnu Avatar. He can give liberation, but He is not able give love of Kṛṣṇa. Only Kṛṣṇa can do that. So by His prayer Kṛṣṇa came down, and gave out love of Kṛṣṇa. 

So 500 years ago, there was a flood of love or Kṛṣṇa, but a flood that lasted for 200 years, but by 300 years got covered again. Then Bhakti Vinod Thakur and Bhakti Siddhantha Thakur revived Lord Caitanya’s movement. 

In the Brahman Vaivarta Puran, in the Caitanya Mangal, Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Bhakti Siddhatha - they all predicted that someone would come and distribute the holy names all over the world, and we see that that person was Śrīla Prabhupāda. [Haribol]

So everyone you meet, you should tell them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy and follow Prabhupāda. Now we have so many people in Bengal and Bangladesh who are chanting. Of course some people live on the surface on the crust of the Nabadwip Dham They don’t actually live in the dham So they don’t experience this love of Kṛṣṇa. We had some Islamic preacher coming and preached to the Muslim. He drew a picture of Lord Caitanya, put Him on the side and wrote a few lines, it became Allah in Arabic. He said, “Allah O Akbar. See. Allah is everywhere.” Big philosophy. So they appreciated how much people were touched by Lord Caitanya because we asked our Muslim friends – they took some prasādam. In Islam they usually don’t take food of idols. We don’t consider the deities idols, but they do. One said, “Food is food. You are my friend I will take your food.” 

So most of the Land was given by local farmers. I was saying Lord Caitanya gave His mercy to Kolavecha Śrīdhar. He was a farmer He grew bananas He was in the market place – like a free market selling his bananas. Lord Caitanya gave him the highest blessing. So Lord Caitanya gave His mercy even to the cultivators, even to the flee market sellers.

Ladies any questions?

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Gurumaharaja. Thank you for the wonderful class. My question is – we sought after the disease of love of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but no matter how many years we chant always remains difficult, difficult task and we don’t feel even a muster seed level of that taste. So how is that there are so many years we should chant and then you will feel like that or how can we experience a bit of that in our own lives?

We chant for so many years but we don’t experience even a mustard seed level of taste. So you are explaining the disease of love. So is it that we have to chant a certain numbers of years to experience that or how do we experience that in our lives?

Gurumaharaja: Prabhupāda said, it took him 20 years How long will it take you? (laughter) Prabhupāda also said that we should cry for Kṛṣṇa, but maybe we don’t have so much sincerety. Then Prabhupāda said, “We should cry that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa.” (laughter) And if find that you are not crying for Kṛṣṇa, then you should cry that you are not crying, you are not crying for Kṛṣṇa, and if you are not able to do that then you should cry that you are not crying, that you are not crying, that you are not crying. 

I was thinking that Parikshit Mahraja was cursed to die in 7 days, and in the last part of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, it must have been like the 5th or the 6th day. He had no sleep, no water, no food. What would be our reaction? Food, water, sleep! But what was his reaction? He told Sukhadev Goswami, “What more did the Lord do, tell me more, tell me more, what more wonderful did my Lord do?” We may read the book, but how much love is there we may not see it maybe. 

When Srinivas Acharya went to see Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya had left but he saw Gadādhara Prabhu. So he aksed Gadādhara Prabhu to please teach him about the Bhāgavatam. He said, “I would like to.” And he said, “In my Bhāgavatam all the pages are wiped out from tears. How much love they have?”

The Nectar of Devotion tells us how we can go by three levels Vidhi Marg, Bhava Marg and Prema. So the first one maybe somewhat mechanical, then we take up some service, although it is still on the Vidhi Marg, we really try to be good at it. So that is called Rāgānugā Vidhi Mārga. Then that awakens our ecstatic love. That is called the Bhava Marg. 

So if we follow all these things systematically you can get a drop or more. The secrets are there. Vaiseshika Prabhu distributes a lot of books. Preaching its a good leg [1.00.56] In the Māyāpur Parikrama Lokenath Mahārāja is the co-chairman. So he helps out a lot 

Just think for a minute how wonderful is Lord Caitanya, how wonderful is the spiritual world, everything is based on love. Here (laughter) very little love.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. (applause)