20200624 Remembrance of the Lord is Actual Wealth, And Forgetfulness of Him is Actual Calamity

The following is the reading from the new Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 24th 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 yesterday we had the virtual Ratha-yātrā. I hope you all enjoyed it, Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā had given Their mercy all around the world. Please send in your realizations at www.mercyonwheel.com We also remind everyone, and encourage everyone, to please pray to their Deities that if Kṛṣṇa so pleases, He may give back His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja’s health. 

Today we are reading how,

Remembrance of the Lord is Actual Wealth,
Forgetfulness of Him is Actual Calamity.

Caitanya-bhāgavata Madhya-khaṇḍa 25.77

prabhu-vākye bhaktagaṇera jayadhvani—
śrī-mukhera parama kāruṇya-vākya śuni'
caturdige bhakta-gaṇa kare jaya-dhvani

Jayapatākā Swami: Hearing the merciful, compassionate words from the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s lotus mouth, the devotees in all directions, started to chant the glories of Lord Hari, Chanting “Jaya!Jaya! Haribol!” and various sounds of Jaya!

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura

śrīvāsera prati, caitanya-prasāda,
dekhiyā sakala jana
jaya śrī-caitanya, jaya nityānanda,
bali' nāce ghana ghana

Translation: Seeing Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu shows such favorable grace to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, all the devotees present there began to dance ecstatically, and they repeatedly shouted, “Jaya Śrī Caitanya! Jaya Nityānanda!” With resounding voices.

Jayapatākā Swami: The devotees of Nitāi-Gaura are very responsive, and as soon as they saw how the Lord was giving such mercy, such compassion, to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, they became very joyful and they chanted, “Haribol!” and “Jaya Śrī Caitanya! Jaya Nityānanda!” and they were dancing in ecstasy. Actually, in this material world, one doesn’t see such expression of grace. But here Lord Caitanya, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is coming and showing His grace and compassion to His devotees, especially to Śrīvāsa Prabhu, He has shown today His mercy. You see, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is a combination of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So sometimes He is in the mood of Rādhārāṇī and crying for Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes He is in the mood of Kṛṣṇa, and He is very grateful for the devotion that devotees show Him, for the love that they show Him. So, understanding Lord Caitanya, one has to see things from a double vision. Sometimes He is two personalities in one, and so we should see what mood He is in at a particular time. 

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief

śrīvāsa-mandire, ki bhāva uṭhila,
tāhā ki varṇana haya
bhāva-yuddha sane, ānanda-krandana,
uṭhe kṛṣṇa-prema-maya

Translation: It is simply not possible to describe the ecstatic mood that arose in Śrīvāsa’s house at that time, indeed, it was just like a great war of transcendental emotions was taking place within the battlefield of tears of joy, all arising due to ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya was expressing that He and Lord Nityānanda are the sons of Śrīvāsa, and how He brought Śrīvāsa’s dead son back to life, and the dead son spoke from the Absolute platform. All these things and more were witnessed by the devotees, and they became filled with ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa. Their crying tears of joy, it was overwhelming, everyone was filled with love of Kṛṣṇa.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief

cāri bhāi paḍi’, prabhura caraṇe,
preme gadagada svare
kāṅdiyā kāṅdiyā, kākuti kariyā,
gaḍi’ jāya prema-bhare

Translation: Then the four brothers of the dead boy came over and fell down at Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet and began weeping and wailing with piteous voices choked with ecstatic love. Then they began rolling on the ground, overflowing with pure love while humbly petitioning the Lord as follows.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief

ohe prāṇeśvara, e hena vipada,
prati-dina yena haya
yāhāte tomāra, caraṇa-yugale,
āsakti bāḍhite raya

Translation: They said, “Oh Lord of our lives.If calamities like this would happen every day, then that would only increase our deep loving attachment to Your lotus feet.” 

Jayapatākā Swami: The devotees should see, everything that happens as the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, and we are getting that realization, by the ecstatic loving situation of Lord Caitanya. Although there was a calamity in the house, somehow as a result, they were having deep remembrance of Kṛṣṇa, and that was expressed as more and more love for Kṛṣṇa. Being in this material world, one is forced to go through different changes of birth, death, old age and disease. These are the real problems of life, but by remembering Kṛṣṇa, one is freed from these problems, and one can go to the spiritual world, and one can appreciate the great mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Although we have turned our face away from Kṛṣṇa, in the material world we are not very God conscious. But if we actually remember the Lord, then that is the greatest treasure.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief

vipada-sampade, sei dina bhala,
ye dina tomāre smari
tomāra smaraṇa, rahita ye dina,
se dina vipada hari

Translation: “The calamity of losing our brother today is actually our great fortune, for on this day we are remember Your Lordship. If, on some other day, we are bereft of Your remembrance, then that day is actually the real calamity for us, oh Lord.” 

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this verse explains how remembrance of the Lord is the greatest good fortune, and how, forgetfulness of the Lord is the greatest calamity.

Śokaśātana, The Dispelling of Grief

śrīvāsa-goṣṭhira, caraṇe paḍiyā,
bhakativinoda bhaṇe
tomādera gorā, kṛpā vitariyā,
dekhāo durgata jane

Translation: Falling down at the feet of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita’s entire family, Bhaktivinoda thus narrates how their Lord Gaurasundara is bestowing His causeless mercy upon all distressed souls.

Jayapatākā Swami: Not only Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, but his entire family, are filled with loving devotion for Kṛṣṇa. So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura falls at their lotus feet, as he is narrating how Lord Gaurāṅga is giving His special mercy to all the fallen souls.

Thus ends the chapter, Remembrance of the Lord is Actual Wealth, And Forgetfulness of Him is Actual Calamity.

In this material world, we calculate what’s our great good fortune, and what’s calamity based on sense gratification, what will make us happy sensually, what will make us distressed. Sometimes devotees, during this pandemic, they are losing their near and dear ones, and then they feel very distressed. But actually, they should feel distressed if they forget Kṛṣṇa, and they should somehow think, how they can help their near and dear ones to remember Kṛṣṇa, at the time of leaving their body. Since we have to leave our body, we should leave it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should leave in the remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. I heard some devotees lost their near and dear one, and they put Ganges water on their head, so in this way, they gave a special blessing. 

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa dear Guru Mahārāja, please accept my respectful obeisances. Could you please explain why the soul need to take a new body in the spiritual world? Whether the soul himself is sat-cit-ānandamaya?

—Your servant,
Suvra Dev Babu.

Jayapatākā Swami: In the material world our spiritual body is dormant, and the soul is just a small cid particle, one ten thousandth of the tip of the hair. But in the spiritual world, our soul expands into a spiritual body, which is not different from ourselves, and that is sat-cit-ānanda. So, we don’t actually have to take a new body, we regain our original form. But since the normal situation in the material world, is that when we leave the body, we take a new body, that is the general principle. When we go back to the spiritual world, we manifest our original body, our original form, which is sat-cit-ānanda. 

Question: Dear most Guru Mahārāja, please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! Guru Mahārāja, it is due to the sukṛti that me and my husband cannot live with the devotees and be happy advancing in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Is Kṛṣṇa who decided that? What can we do? Thank you for your mercy and care. On behalf of Iśvara Parameśvara and Medhīnī devī dāsi.

—Medīnī devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know why you and your husband cannot live with devotees happily. Is that because of you being positive with COVID-19, therefore you are self-quarantined to cure the disease?

Unfortunately, this pandemic is going around the world, and if one proves positive, then he may spread it others. So, they keep such people separated, quarantined, until they are cured. Then they cannot associate with devotees. So, we have some alternative treatments which helped some devotees, who had early symptoms. But if you have become very advanced, it is quite difficult to cure. Now there is no treatment, but they try different things. We hope that you will be recovered and can associate with devotees. If there is some other reason why you cannot associate with devotees, I don’t know, you can write me a letter to my email, and I will consider your situation. It is not a philosophical issue, that’s it’s a personal issue. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa dear Guru Mahārāja, please accept my daṇḍavat praṇāmas! (Jayapatākā Swami: Accepted!) I have heard that it is not good to offer praṇāma to anyone, taking japa beads in hand. But in chanting time when Vaiṣṇavas come there and then what can we do? If we stop chanting to do praṇāma to the Vaiṣṇavas then it will be tough to complete 16 rounds. Again, if I do not show respect to Vaiṣṇavas for chanting, then it will be a vaiṣṇava-aparādhā. 

—Your insignificant disciple,
Mitra Puṇḍarīka dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see at the end, after tulasī-pūjā, we offer our praṇāma to all the Vaiṣṇavas, vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Unless a guru or some sannyāsī comes in, we don’t have to offer obeisances again, you offer to everyone at that time. And the point is that your beads and your bag should not touch the ground, or if you offer obeisances with your beads on your head, that shouldn’t be a problem. The point is that as far as I understand, we should not touch the beads or the bag on the ground. Śrīla Prabhupāda was also criticizing that people put their bags on the āsana, because our feet go on the āsana. It is a very simple principle that, we don’t put our beads where our feet are, since we consider the beads to be very sacred, tulasī. Thank you very much!