20181219 The beginning of Mahāprabhu’s manifestations

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book work 19^th December 2018 in Chennai

By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Guru Mahārāja

Reading from Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.408

Under the section: The beginning of Mahāprabhu’s manifestations

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Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.408

diśā dekhāiyā prabhu hāte tāli
diyā āpane kīrtana kare śiṣya-gaṇa laiyā

Translation: The Lord then demonstrated for His students the process of kīrtana by clapping His hands while chanting.

Commentary: The phrase diśā dekhāiyā means “showed the direction,” “the process,” “the tradition,” “the method,” or “ascertaining the way.”

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.409

āpane kīrtana-nātha karena kīrtana
caudike beḍiyā gāya saba-śiṣya-gaṇa

Translation: The Lord of kīrtana personally chanted His glories as His students surrounded Him and all chanted together.

Commentary: The phrase kīrtana-nātha means “the father of saṅkīrtana,” “the inaugurator of saṅkīrtana,” or “the personification of saṅkīrtana.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord of kīrtana Himself showed how to do Harināma, demonstrated doing kīrtana, chanting His glories. His students surrounded Him, and all chanted together. So, the Lord is described as kīrtana-nātha which means a father of saṅkīrtana or the inaugurater of saṅkīrtana or the personification of saṅkīrtana.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.410

āviṣṭa haiyā prabhu nija-nāma-rase
gaḍāgaḍi yāya prabhu dhulāya āveśe

Translation: Absorbed in the sweet taste of His own name, the Lord rolled in the dust under its overpowering influence.

Commentary: The phrase nija-nāma-rase in this verse indicates that He who is engaged in kīrtana is the object of the kīrtana. The holy names of the Lord and the Lord Himself are nondifferent, and Gaura and Kṛṣṇa are nondifferent. Therefore when Mahāprabhu sings His own glories, the mādhurya-rasa of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of Goloka, and the aiśvarya-rasa of Nārāyaṇa, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, are manifested. Mahāprabhu displayed the pastime of becoming absorbed in Kṛṣṇa by relishing these transcendental mellows of the holy names and by giving up absorption in māyā, which is subordinate to Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa, Śacīnandan Mahāprabhu, absorbed in the nectar of chanting His Holy names, became… the Lord rolled in the dust… in an ecstasy of His holy names, He was overpowered. He say, He is chanting kṛṣṇa-kīrtana but He is Himself Kṛṣṇa, so He is the object of the kīrtana. The Holy names of Kṛṣṇa and Lord Kṛṣṇa himself are non-different. The Gaura and Kṛṣṇa are non-different.

So, when the Lord sings his own glories the mādhurya-rasa of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of Goloka and the aśvarya-rasa of Nārāyaṇa, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha manifested. So Kṛṣṇa Caitanya became absorbed in the nectar of mellow of chanting his Holy names and gave up the absorption in māyā which is subordinate to Kṛṣṇa. So, by chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, the jīva or the conditioned soul can also free himself from the absorption in the illusory energy of māyā, therefore it is recommended to everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in this age of Kali or any bona fide name of the Lord.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.411

‘bala bala’ bali’ prabhu catur-dike paḍe
pṛthivī vidīrṇa haya āchāḍe-āchāḍe

Translation: The Lord repeatedly fell down here and there while crying out, “Chant! Chant!” The earth cracked under His repeated falls.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the Lord Viśvambhara, He was moving throughout the crowd, and He was saying “chant, chant” and then He would become overwhelmed with ecstasy and cries down to the ground. The earth trembled over His repeated falls.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.412

gaṇḍagola śuni’ sarva nadīyā-nagara
dhāiyā āilā sabe ṭhākurera ghara

Translation: On hearing the sound of the uproar, all the inhabitants of Nadia came running to the Lord’s residence.

Commentary: The phrase nadīyā-nagara refers to all the inhabitants of Nadia.

Jayapatākā Swami: Hearing the sound of a great uproar of all the students and Lord chanting together, all the residents of Nadia City came running, they came to the Lord’s house. This also means all the residents all the inhabitants of Nadia came running.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.413

nikaṭe vasaye yata vaiṣṇāvera ghara
kīrtana śuniyā sabe āilā satvara

Translation: All the Vaiṣṇavas who lived nearby immediately came there when they heard the sound of the kīrtana.

Jayapatākā Swami: All the Vaiṣṇavas who live nearby immediately came running when they heard the sound of the kīrtana.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.414-418

prabhura āveśe dekhi’ sarva-bhakta-gaṇa
parama-apūrva sabe bhāve mane-mana

parama-santoṣa sabe hailā antare
“ebe se kīrtana haila nadīyā-nagare

emana durlabha bhakti āchaye jagate?
nayana saphala haya e bhakti dekhite!

yata auddhatyera sīmāei viśvambhara
prema dekhilāṅa nāradādiro duṣkara

hena uddhatera yadi hena bhakti haya
nā bujhi kṛṣṇera icchā,—e vā kibā haya”

Translation: When the devotees saw the Lord overwhelmed with ecstasy, they thought they had never experienced anything so wonderful. They became fully satisfied at heart, thinking, “Now kīrtana has been inaugurated in the town of Nadia. Is there such rare devotion in the world? The purpose of the eyes is fulfilled by the sight of such devotion. This Viśvambhara was the ultimate limit of all arrogance, yet now we have seen in Him love of God that is rare for even persons like Nārada. If such an arrogant person can attain such devotion, then we cannot understand the will of Kṛṣṇa or what this person will become.

Commentary: In verse 417, the word sīmā means “ultimate” or “supreme,” and the word duṣkara means “rare,” “difficult to obtain,” or “uncommon.”

The incarnation of Gaura and the glories of kīrtana are elaborately described by Tridaṇḍi Gosvāmī Śrīpāda Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī in his Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛta (111-121, 124, 126-128, 133, 134) as follows:

“When the most merciful Śrī Caitanyadeva suddenly appeared in this world, then there was no longer need for yoga, meditation, chanting of mantras, undergoing austerities, renunciation, following strict vows, studying the Vedas, or strict principles of behavior. What to speak of these, even those who were reluctant to give up their sinful activities happily plundered the topmost love, which is the crest jewel of all goals of life.

“When the most wonderful and opulent Śrī Caitanyadeva appeared in this world, even the fruitive workers’ minds, which were merged in the currents of formidable fruitive activities, became pacified by attaining love of God and, though such minds were harder than the hardest stone, they melted by the transcendental mellows of devotional service. Even the hearts of persons engaged in the performance of intense yoga practice retired from such temporary practice and began to dance. In other words, they relished love of God in the spiritual kingdom of Adhokṣaja.

“Now that Lord Caitanyacandra has revealed the path of pure devotional service, the materialists have given up talking about their wives, children, and material affairs; the scholars have given up debating the scriptures; the yogis have given up the trouble to control their breath; the ascetics have given up their austerities; and the impersonalists have given up studying Vedānta. No one is attracted to anything other than the sweet taste of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.

“In every home there is a tumult of hari-saṅkīrtana. In everyone’s body the symptoms of ecstasy like shedding tears and hairs standing on end are seen. In every heart is the most exalted and sweet spiritual path that leads far from the path of the four Vedas. All this has appeared now that Lord Gaura has descended to this world.

“When the most attractive and enchanting Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa appeared in this world with a golden complexion, the whole world was suddenly flooded with the nectarean ocean of pure love for Kṛṣṇa and struck with wonder by seeing extraordinary transformations of ecstatic love that were never seen or heard of before.

“In the past many scholars became extremely proud, thinking themselves the omniscient masters of all scriptures, and many others thought they had become perfect through the performance of austerities or the constitutional and conditional duties mentioned in the smṛtis. Some persons situated on the preliminary or advanced stages of sāṅkhya-yoga chanted the holy names of Lord Hari two or three times. Yet the hearts of all such persons were full of the cheating propensity. That was in the past. But now that Lord Gauracandra has appeared, love for Lord Kṛṣṇa has become common. In other words, it has become available to all, including the most sinful.

“Now the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Caitanyadeva, who is the enjoyer of transcendental pastimes and whose lotus feet the demigods aspire to serve, has descended to this world and totally flooded it with the sweet nectarean waves of pure love for Kṛṣṇa. Now who is a child? Who is an old man? Who is a fool? Who is a woman? Who is fallen, and who is unfortunate? Everyone of this world is now qualified to attain devotional service, and the wonderful unalloyed mellows of love for the lotus feet of Śrī Hari has manifested in their hearts.

“Now that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Gauracandra, the crest jewel of those who relish the mellows of love of God, has descended to this earth, the demigods headed by Śiva and Nārada (as the devotees headed by Advaita and Śrīvāsa) appeared with Him. Goddess Lakṣmīdevī, herself (as Śrī Lakṣmīpriyā and Śrī Viṣṇupriyā) also appeared with Him. Lord Baladeva, who is nondifferent from svayam-bhagavān and who is the plenary manifestation of the Lord (as Nityānanda Prabhu, who smashed the atheists), was also present. The Yādavas (Śacī and Jagannātha) also manifested. What more can I say? The Vrajavāsīs headed by Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd boys headed by Subala, the Lord’s śaktis headed by the gopīs, the Lord’s servants headed by Raktaka and Citraka—in other words, all the eternally perfect associates from Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes—appeared in the pastimes of Gaura.

“Now that the golden-complexioned Lord is distributing pure extraordinary love of Kṛṣṇa in this world, His servants, friends, and eternally perfect maidservants situated in mādhurya-rasa devoid of conceptions of opulence have all come to His lotus feet to relish the invaluable wealth of pure love for Kṛṣṇa, which is more palatable than anything they had relished before (in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes).

“When the most glorious and extraordinary Śrī Caitanya appeared in this world, married women laughed loudly (after giving up their shyness due to love of Kṛṣṇa), the stonelike hearts of materialists attached to sense gratification completely melted, and those devoid of spiritual knowledge ridiculed the society of learned scholars (after receiving spiritual knowledge through the mercy of Śrī Caitanya, in other words, they ridiculed the scriptural knowledge of the so-called learned persons who claimed to be expert scholars).

“Before the advent of Śrī Caitanya in this world, the constitutional propensities, in the form of service to Kṛṣṇa, of scholars proud of knowing all scriptures were practically covered. They did not endeavor to achieve love of Kṛṣṇa, which is the crest jewel of life’s objectives, because their intelligence was ordinary and irresolute. But since Gauracandra has mercifully appeared in this world, who has not merged into the most incomprehensible and wonderful loving devotional service that is full of the most elevated radiant mellow of conjugal love and nourished by ingredients like vibhāva and anubhāva?

“Although the great omniscient sages established their respective doctrines on the basis of reason and argument, no one was firmly convinced by their prejudiced philosophy. But since Śrī Gauracandra, whose glories are inexhaustible, has appeared in this world, who has not confidently accepted that devotional service to Hari is the only spiritual activity and purpose of the Vedas?

“Some persons have become successful in achieving the abode of Vaikuṇṭha with the support of some most pious ancient great personalities, but no one has ever before immersed the entire world in the ocean of love of God like Śrī Caitanyacandra has.

“Even after maintaining incomparable attachment for religiosity and properly taking shelter of pure devotional service people live in this world with hearts as hard as iron; but how wonderful (through the mercy of Śrī Gaurahari), sinful persons who are lower than the cow-killers (after becoming totally freed from sinful propensities) have flooded the entire world with their flowing tears of love.

“How wonderful! Who can understand the incomprehensible pastimes of the golden-complexioned Śrī Gaurāṅga-sundara? He has amazed the entire world with His unfathomable glories. Absorbed in the mood of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes He crawled like child Kṛṣṇa, sometimes He manifested the characteristics of the cowherd boys, sometimes He made various gestures as He danced, and sometimes He pathetically cried in separation while chanting ‘Hari! Hari! Hari!’ in the mood of Rādhārāṇī.

“When Śrī Gaurasundara was intoxicated with love for Himself and began to dance and jump high in this world, the demigods played drums, the principal Gandharvas congregationally chanted the Lord’s names, and the Siddhas constantly showered flowers that covered the entire earth. At that time great sages who were expert in reciting selected verses offered Him their prayers with love.

“Being absorbed in the nectarean mellows of mahā-bhāva, Śrī Gaurahari sometimes laughed, sometimes cried, sometimes fell unconscious, sometimes rolled on the ground, sometimes walked swiftly, sometimes sighed deeply, and sometimes loudly exclaimed, ‘Ha! Ha!’ In this way He enjoyed His pastimes in this world.”

Jayapatākā Swami: When all the Vaiṣṇavas, the devotees, saw the Lord overwhelmed in ecstasy, they had never seen before, never seen or experienced anything so wonderful, how [24.00, not clear] great wonderful, a great astonishing thing.

Jayapatākā Swami: The supremely satisfied inside, themself they thought, now the kīrtana, the congregational chanting of the Holy names has been inaugurated in Nadīyā or in the town of Nadīyā, or which means in Navadvīpa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Such a rare devotion in the universe, my eyes are perfected by seeing this devotion.

Jayapatākā Swami: We have seen in this, Viśvambhara was the limit of arrogance, all arrogance, and now we have seen in Him a pure love of Godhead and even Nārada, even for person like Nārada, it is rare for even persons like Nārada Muni and others. So, Nimāi Paṇḍita, He was solastically the greatest, and therefore He was ultimate despite arrogance or supremely arrogance of His learning, but now He is manifesting pure love of Kṛṣṇa, which means it is very rare or difficult to obtain or uncommon. Haribol!!

Jayapatākā Swami: If such an arrogant person, has rare, uncommon devotion like this, we don’t understand what Kṛṣṇa wants and what this person will ultimately become.

So, Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has described how Caitanya Mahāprabhu certainly appeared in this world, so there was no longer any need for yoga meditation, chanting the mantras, undergoing austerity, renunciation, following strict vows, studying the Vedas, or strict principles of behavior, even those who are reluctant to give up the sinful activities, happily surrendered to the topmost love which is the crest jewel of all the goals of life.

So how wonderful and opulent is Śrī Caitanyadeva? That even the fruitive workers’ minds which are observed and engaged in a trance of formidable fruitive activities, became pacified by attaining love of Godhead, although their minds are hard like stones, they melted by the transcendental mellows of the devotional service. Even the hearts of the persons engaged in the intense practice of yoga are tired of such practices, began to dance. In other words, they relish the love of Godhead in the [35.31 (ecstatic?) not clear] kingdom of Adhokṣaja.

So, now the Lord Caitanyadeva has revealed the path of devotional service, materialists have given up talking about mundane things and they have given Vedic scriptures. The yogīs have given up the troubles to control the breath through prāṇāyāma, the ascetics have given up the austerity and the impersonalists have given up studying Vedānta. No one is attracted other than the sweet taste of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. In every home there is Harināma-saṅkīrtana and in everybody’s bodies there are symptoms of ecstasy, like shedding tears and hairs standings on end and every heart is the most exalted [37.40 (straight path) not clear] at least far from the path four Vedas. All there is to hear now that Lord Gaura has descended to this world.

So, I had personal experience of one person who for several years had practiced yoga in South India and that yogī visited Māyāpur. So, we suggested that the yogī chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and then the yogī came back after few days and said, I feel more ecstasy than I did few years. How can this be? Something wrong in there. So, unfortunately the person was so attached to the yoga process that even though he had admitted he felt more bliss, more ecstasy, he couldn’t understand why? Actually, it’s the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Kṛṣṇa came as Caitanya to give out His pure devotion so the persons who are filled with materialism, they began to chant from their home and taste the transcendental ecstasy. This was available to everyone, even the most sinful.

Sometimes in Māyāpur we have a flood and then Prabhupāda said this indicates the birthplace of Lord Caitanya flooded, therefore the whole world should be flooded with His mercy. So, the Lord came down to give this pure love of Kṛṣṇa freely. Who is a child, who is an old man, who is a fool, who is a woman, who is fallen, who is unfortunate, everyone, everyone in the world no matter who, is now qualified to attain the devotional service. The unalloyed mellows of the love for the Lotus feet of Lord Hari, has manifested in the hearts of all people who got the mercy of Lord Caitanya. So, who wants the mercy of Lord Caitanya? On the internet? You write comments or raise your hand. I want the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

So, this way Lord Caitanya He gave out this love to His students and those who came and saw, they were amazed, how all these students were chanting, how Lord Caitanya is in such ecstasy. Many also began to chant and this way the saṅkīrtana movement began in Navadvīpa… in Nadīyā Nagar. So, there is much more but you have to read the original Caitanya-bhāgavata.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya 1.419

kṣaṇeke hailā bāhya viśvambhara-rāya
sabe prabhu ‘kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa’ balaye sadāya

Translation: After a while Lord Viśvambhara regained His external consciousness, but He continually chanted the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: After a while Lord Viśvambhara, regained his external consciousness but He, the Lord, continuously chanted “Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa” to everyone with great mercy.

So, we stop here in the middle of the kīrtana and we can take over the kīrtana tomorrow.