20200620 The Manifestation of Various Absolute Truths from the Mouth of the Dead Boy

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 20^th June 2020 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Introduction: So few announcements, first we would like to offer our sincere prayer to Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, the Pañca-tattva, Rādhā Mādhava Aṣṭa-sakhī, Rādhā Mādhava Māyāpur-candra, Prahlāda Narasiṁhadeva, Śrīla Prabhupāda and the guru-paramparā, that if it so pleases You, please have His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja regain his health, oṁ tat sat.

Then we would like to remind everyone to register for the virtual worldwide Ratha-yātrā, on www.mercyonwheel.com, and tomorrow night at night, at 5 pm we are having a special SGVA, Sārasvata Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Association meeting, on the tirobhāva tithi of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Most of the speakers would be in Bengali, so, we can see how that can translated into other languages. Each speaker will speak for about 10 minutes, and various Gauḍīya Maṭha swamis will attend, after that, about 6.30, I hope to have my regular Caitanya-līlā class, so today’s chapter is,

The Manifestation of Various Absolute Truths from the Mouth of the Dead Boy

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 25.056

mṛtera satkārārtha sakalera ceṣṭā—

sthira hailena yadi ṭhākura dekhiyā
satkāra karite śiśu yāyena laiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: When the Lord Gaurāṅga saw the dead child, He became somewhat pacified, and He prepared, to take the child for performing the last rites.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 25.057

mṛta śiśura prati prabhura praśna o mṛtera uttara—

mṛta-śiśu-prati prabhu balena vacana
“śrīvāsera ghara chāḍi' yāo ki kāraṇa?”

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Gaurāṅga asked the dead child the following words – “What is the reason, why have you left Śrīvāsa’s house?”

Śokaśātana
The Dispelling of Grief – 7

śiśu bale, — “prabhu, yena nirbandha tomāra
anyathā karaye śakti āchaye kāhāra?”

Translation: Then the merciful Lord Gaura, who removes the gloomy, dirty influence of the Age of Kali, began to question the body by saying, “Please tell Me, my dear boy, whatever prompted you to leave here so suddenly, thus giving up your loving father Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita?”

Jayapatākā Swami: So normally one does not talk to a dead body. But Lord Caitanya was talking to the dead body, and he, the body began to speak. So, this shows the unlimited power of Lord Gaurāṅga, that He could bring a dead body back to life.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 25.058

mṛta-śiśu uttara karaye prabhu-sane
parama adbhuta śune sarva-bhakta-gaṇe

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the dead child replied, “Oh Lord, this is the arrangement ordained by You, who else has the power to change it?”

Translation by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: It is most reasonable to accept the way in which the Lord controls one, otherwise what can one gain by whimsically displaying one’s independent will and disregarding the fate ordained by the Lord? Besides, no one has the ability to act against the will of the Supreme Lord.”

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 25.059

śiśu bale, — “e dehete yateka divasa
nirbandha āchila bhuñjilāṅa sei rasa

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the dead child replied, and talked with the Lord, this supremely wonderful act, was heard by all the devotees who were present. Normally a dead child cannot answer questions, but when Lord Caitanya asked a question, the child replied. So, the child knew the actual position of Lord Caitanya, that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that whatever He ordains for the living entity, they have no choice but to follow. So, he was saying that it is Your desire that I should leave.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

nirbandha ghucila, āra rahite nā pāri
ebe calilāṅa anya nirbandhita-puri

Translation: The living entity offered prayers, “Oh Lord, you conduct your transcendental activities in such a way as to instruct the conditioned living entities.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So here Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining the discussion between the dead body brought back to life and Lord Gaurāṅga.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

tumi ta’ parama-tattva ananta advaya
parāśakti tomāra abhinna tattva haya

Translation: The living entity continued, “My dear Lord, You are without a doubt the Supreme Absolute Truth, unlimited and one without a second. Since You are the Supremely energetic, all of Your transcendental energies are certainly non-different from You.”

Jayapatākā Swami: The child is revealing, that Lord Gaurāṅga is the Supreme Absolute Truth, He is one whom He has no equal, and no greater, He is unlimited and He is the Supreme Energetic, and He has various energies, which are not different from Him. So, in this way, He is running the whole material manifestation, and the spiritual world.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

sei parāśakti tridhā haiyā prakāśa
tava icchā-mata karāya tomāra vilāsa

Translation: This transcendental potency of Yours manifests itself in three different ways, and it assists in the performance of Your eternal pastimes in different ways according to Your own sweet will.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

cic-chakti-svarūpe nitya-līlā prakāśiyā
tomāre ānanda dena hlādinī haiyā

Translation: The original form of the cognizant potency (cit-śakti) is manifesting Your eternal pastimes in the spiritual world, and just to give You pleasure it becomes the pleasure giving potency known as Hlādinī.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So here the different potencies of the Lord are mentioned, sat-cit-ānandā, the eternity, the cit or the cognizance potency, and anandā or the hlādinī pleasure potency. So, these are the broad categories of the energies.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

jīva-śakti hañā tava cit-kiraṇa-caye
taṭastha-svabhāve jīva-gaṇe prakaṭaye

Translation: Secondly becoming the jīva-śakti, the potency produces the multitudes of fine, conscious particles which make up the glowing effulgence of Your transcendental body. All of these souls are thus manifest with a natural marginal characteristic of minute independence.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, it would be difficult for a child to speak such philosophical words. But this child is speaking from the Absolute platform, and therefore he is propounding this philosophy of the Absolute Truth, that there is the jīva-śakti or minute particles of conscious entities, and they form the glowing effulgence of the Lord’s body, and each one is having minute independence. So, the jīva-śakti can choose, either to serve the Lord, or to not. Those who are against serving the Lord, they have ended up in this material world and those who want to serve the Lord, they are in the spiritual world. So, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to help these souls who have entered into the human form of life, to go back to Godhead, to leave this material world, and to engage in the eternal service of the Lord. So, bhakti-yoga means, to render that selfless service to the Lord, and that prepares one to go back to home, back to Godhead.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

māyā-śakti hañā kare prapañca-sṛjana
bahirmukha jīve tāhe karaya bandhana

Translation: Thirdly, becoming the māyā-śakti, the potency creates the innumerable material universes, and within them she captures and binds all the souls who choose to remain averse to You, dear Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: Every living entity has the minute independence, to choose to serve the Lord in love, or to want to be independent. Actually, we can never be totally independent, but in the material world, we are in the illusion that the independence is there. So, the love has to be voluntary and therefore those devotees who cultivate a loving attitude with Kṛṣṇa, they can go back to the spiritual world, and those who are averse to the Lord, want to be independent, they stay here in the material world, they are bound by the laws of karma.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief – 7

bhakativinoda bale aparādha-phale
bahirmukha ha'ye āchi prapañca-kabale

Translation: Hearing these prayers offered to Lord Caitanya by the living entity, Bhaktivinoda says that he himself has become averse to the Lord due to his offense and has become swallowed up by māyā in the material world.

Jayapatākā Swami: So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is giving his realization, after hearing this living entity, offering prayers to Lord Caitanya, that Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura feels himself averse to the Lord, due to his various offences, and therefore, he has been swallowed up, by the māyā of the material world. So, he is actually teaching us, how we should consider our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and how we should beg for the Lord’s forgiveness. We have somehow made various offences, and therefore we have fallen into this material world, and now, to go back to the spiritual world, we should surrender to the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He is our true Master; He is our Best Friend and Well-Wisher.

Thus, ends the chapter, The Manifestation of Various Absolute Truths from the Mouth of the Dead Boy

Any questions?

The associates of Lord Caitanya, must have seen many dead bodies. But having one stand up and starting to talk, answering questions of Lord Caitanya, was truly something wonderful, something astonishing. So, all these pastimes were occurring with Lord Gaurāṅga!

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my respectful obeisances. How can we also develop the surrender and love, what Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura had?

Vipinavihāri Vrajeśa dāsa,
Bengaluru

Jayapatākā Swami: We can understand that we are like an insect, compared to Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. He is so transcendental! He had such a loving attitude for Lord Kṛṣṇa. We can only pray to his lotus feet, that he gives us the blessing, that we can also develop love for Kṛṣṇa, and surrender to the Lord.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my respectful obeisances at your divine lotus feet. Many girls in our group are changing 16 rounds and reading Bhagavad-gītā, vegetarians and attending regular classes, and are aspiring to take initiation from you, Gurudeva! But when it comes to śikṣā papers, they get stuck in the 8 rounds paper, because it has no onion and garlic. Most of the girls want to leave onion and garlic because of staying with parents and pressure that they get from them; they are not able to leave. Gurudeva, what can we do under such situations?

Thank you so much Guru Mahārāja, and we love you a lot!

Your insignificant daughter,

Madhusmitā Indulekā devī dāsī,
Śrī Narsiṁha Giridhārī Mandir, Bengaluru.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is a big problem in India that although people are vegetarian, they eat onion and garlic. Actually, the onion and garlic, we can’t offer to any - what to speak of Viṣṇu - even Śiva or Durgā, anyone. Because, the śāstra says that onion and garlic came from the dead body of a cow. A king killed a cow with his chariot, and from the dead body of the cow, came garlic and onion. So that, by eating onion and garlic, one gets the karma of killing a cow. As many hairs on a cow’s body, is how may thousands of years you have to spend in hell. So naturally, one should not take onion and garlic. But somehow people are very addicted to taking. You can take hing or asafetida, that gives a taste similar to onion, but it’s considered in the mode of goodness. You can offer that to Kṛṣṇa. There are also on the internet, scientific research on onion and garlic. There are people who say, how it is detrimental to the health. Whether one wants science or scripture, in both cases one should not eat onion or garlic. So somehow, if the girls can convince their parents, not to eat onion and garlic, at least not to force them to eat it, that’s the solution.

Last question.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my humble obeisances. Why Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is thinking that he is fallen in this material world?

Your servant,

Subāhu Madanamohana dāsa,
Hyderabad, ABIDS.

Jayapatākā Swami: He is saying this to instruct us. We know that he is a transcendental personality. But he is saying like this, that’s how we should be thinking that, “We have fallen in this material world, we have committed so may offences to Kṛṣṇa”, so he is telling us how to think, by using himself as an example.

Hare Kṛṣṇa! So, thank you very much. Please remember pray for Bhakti Cāru Swami.

Register for the www.mercyonwheel.com and tomorrow, we will have the disappearance festival’s meeting of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, starting at 5 pm, Indian time. Hare Kṛṣṇa!