20181102 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book compilation class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 2, 2018, in Chennai, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

(No transmission of the beginning)

[…] ceremony of His father. His father recently passed away and this is about a year or so after his passing.

So the Lord went to Gayā and there by divine arrangement He met again with Īśvara Purī, the favorite disciple of Madhavendra Purī. This temple in Gayā is specially dedicated to the oblations to the forefathers. This is called pindi daan. After a relative has deceased, especially one’s forefather or mother, they go to Gayā and offer oblations to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. Hundreds of thousands of people go there every day to perform this śrāddhā. So Lord Caitanya also displayed this principle by going to Gayā and offering worship to Lord Viṣṇu’s lotus feet and thus He offered pindi to His deceased father. There by divine will and His good fortune He met Śrīla Īśvara Purīpāda.

Īśvara Purī used to visit Navadvīpa sometimes and he stayed at the house of Jagannātha Miśra. As a child Lord Caitanya was able to meet and see Īśvara Purī Mahārāja. So seeing him again in Gayā, He immediately felt ecstasy in His heart. And this continued.

In Gayā He met a mahā-bhāgavata, sannyāsī, a great devotee of the Lord who was a sannyāsī named Īśvara Purī.

So by the divine will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Īśvara Purī arrived in Gayā at the same time that Lord Caitanya arrived there. So this is something of a miracle because it was by divine will, what we say coincidence that Īśvara Purī and Lord Caitanya met at the same time and the same place. So that created a very auspicious situation for them both.

So when Lord Caitanya saw His footprint in that place in Gayā. Seeing His own lotus feet, His hair stood on end in ecstasy. He was in the mood of love of Godhead. So by His divine will Īśvara Purī arrived there. As the mahānta-guru, he came to assist the Lord and realized His pastimes. Īśvara Purī was a disciplic descendent of Mādhavendra Purī and they came in the line of Purṇa-praña Mādhavācārya, who is also known as Ānanda Tīrtha. So they are one of the four bona fide disciplic successions. So Īśvara Purī came being inspired by the Lord who is Himself the Supreme Lord of all ācāryas and spiritual masters.

When Lord Caitanya saw Īśvara Purī Mahārāja, He offered His obeisances and He paid great respect and affection to Īśvara Purī.

Lord Caitanya fell to the ground and offered His prostrate obeisances to Īśvara Purī and in His mind He was overwhelmed with great bliss. He spoke in a very deep voice with humility, with politeness. Using words pleasing, with respect and politeness.

Viśvambhara the Lord offered His obeisances and spoke that I am very fortunate today seeing your two lotus feet.

Īśvara Purī was also overjoyed to see Gauracandra and he embraced the Lord with great happiness.

Each one looked at the other with loving glances and tears of love flowed from their eyes. So both of them became wet with tears of love. They were happy in exchanging this bliss.

Īśvara Purī being a confidential, unalloyed disciple of Mādhavendra Purī, who is the original seedling of the desire tree of love of Godhead, Śrī Īśvara Purīpāda is attached to prema-bhakti, loving devotional service. By seeing Gaurasundara’s display of a devotee’s characteristics the eternal perfect mood of the devotees was enhanced and manifested. Now for the benefit of everyone, the people in general, the Supreme Lord, the topmost devotee and the mahānta-guru were able to blossom into a transformation of ecstatic love. To transform and destroy any contamination in the purer hearts of people who are averse to worshipping Lord Kṛṣṇa. Being filled with this wonderful ecstasy Śrī Gaurasundara began to glorify the spiritual master’s lotus feet. The spiritual master wo is the bestower of spiritual knowledge and who is unlimitedly superior to Gayā tīrtha. What makes holy places holy is the presence of divine people there. So Lord Caitanya although being in ecstasy seeing the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu, He became really fulfilled when He met Īśvara Purī.

Murāri Gupta wrote his own notes of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, but he wrote in Sanskrit and that has been translated into Bengali and subsequently into English. So he is describing in his own way how Lord Caitanya met the exalted and virtuous sannyāsī Īśvara Purī who is completely devoted to the lotus feet of Lord Hari. So Śacīnandana, Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His pastime as a devotee of the Lord, He prostrated himself with rapt attention before Īśvara Purī Mahārāja and Īśvara Purī became very pleased with Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Lord spoke to Īśvara Purī as follows.

“Hey Bhagavān! By the blessings of providence, Your divine will, I have seen the lotus feet of Īśvara Purī Mahārāja today. Oh My master, ocean of Mercy! Mercifully tell me how I am traverse this ocean of saṁsāra and drink the immortal ambrosia of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.” Who would like to taste the immortal ambrosia? Those on the internet raise your hands and say Gaurāṅga!!

So the Lord Caitanya fell down and offered His obeisances before Īśvara Purī. Overwhelmed by emotion the Lord spoke these words. Tears streamed from His eyes, which had become reddish, filled with mercy!

The Lord said, “My journey to Gayā has become successful the moment I was able to see your divine lotus feet! I am wandering in these fourteen planetary systems, under the shelter of my karma and my limited jñāna, my good fortune and piety resulting from devotional service, the conditioned souls receive the opportunity to see the lotus feet of the spiritual master who is the reservoir of the seed of devotional service. One’s own authorized mundane sensual argument based knowledge is checked and the topmost shining glories of devotional service is manifest in the heart. Śrīman Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura the crest jewel of the mahājanas has written in his Kalyāṇa-kalpataru as follows:

My dear mind you are always attached to different places of pilgrimage such as Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Haridvāra, Kāśī, Kāñcī, Avanti and Dvārakā.

You always travel to these holy places of pilgrimage again and again for the sake of obtaining liberation but it is clear that your heart is not becoming resolutely fixed by going to all these places. So therefore, all your wonderings are useless labor.

The real benefit of visiting any holy place is to achieve the association of the pure hearted devotees of the Lord who live there. Establishing intimate and friendly relationship with such great souls, let your heart be captivated by performing worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa in their association. Wherever the Lord’s devotees are living that place becomes a place of pilgrimage. Therefore, you should become fixed by constantly remaining in the company of such devotees.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that he never visits any holy place of pilgrimage that is devoid of the presence of unalloyed devotees. What benefit does one achieve by walking to such places of pilgrimage? However, wherever there are devotees that place is actually Vṛndāvana. Only there can one find unalloyed, unlimited spiritual pleasure.

Liberation personified is herself a humble maidservant of places that are surcharged with devotion to Kṛṣṇa. All the waters at such places is non-different from the celestial Gaṅgā. All the hills are non-different from Govardhana and the earth is indeed Vṛndāvana. Only such a place can manifest spiritual, eternaljoy which is revealed by the Lord’s potency.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura asked, dear brother what benefit would I get by circumambulating all the holy places of pilgrimage? Personally, my vow is to serve the Vaiṣṇavas with firm resolution and untiring endeavor.

Lord Caitanya is offering His respect to Īśvara Purī, so we would not like to terminate in the middle. There are a few verses, and we will complete the respectful offerings.

If someone goes to a holy place and offers oblations for specific forefathers, so they are delivered, the ones to whom the oblations results were offered.

However, by seeing you, millions of forefathers are immediately freed from material bondage. Here Lord Caitanya is appreciating how even more holy than the holy places are the pure devotees who reside there. In the Bhāgavatam there is a verse where Vidura is glorified that he purifies holy place. So this was the realization of Lord Caitanya that having association with a pure devotee is more important than just visiting a place of pilgrimage.

Say that somebody goes to Gayā and offers piṇḍi for his deceased forefather. Or mother. So they get the benefit but others, they don’t get it. But when you see a pure devotee and hear from him about the glories of devotional service, you are so purified that that millions, unlimited forefathers all get immediately delivered. So His Divine Grace Abhayacharaṇa Bhaktivedānta Prabhupāda by his travels throughout the world, he was delivering so many souls and wherever he went became a places of pilgrimage. And for the others there is no need of offering separate oblations for them because they are automatically receive benefit because you are associating with a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So they get purified from the repetition of birth and death. In other words, they can achieve the spiritual world of Vaikuṇṭha simply by your worship of the Lord. Hare Kṛṣṇa!