20210925 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.11.21

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharaja on September 25th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.11.21.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Translation: Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, approached them and offered due honor and respect to each and every one of the friends, relatives, citizens and all others who came to receive and welcome Him.

Jayapatākā Swami: So we can see how personal Lord Kṛṣṇa was. He greeted each of the citizens appropriately. The youth of today, at least the Western youth, they say that we should have a dialogue. They say speaking from the Vyāsāsana is not so useful. Preaching to them is a bad word because it means preaching down to people. So we can see here that although Kṛṣṇa is the head of Dvārakā, He is the King, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but we see Him greeting all the citizens and reciprocated appropriately. Śrīla Prabhupāda said if we take one step towards Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will come forward ten steps towards us. He is more eager for us to return home back home back to Godhead. We are stamping our feet. The material world is a place of misery but still we are very attached. We think that gratifying our senses is the purpose of life. Now there is some protest going on in Melbourne, Australia. They don’t want lockdown. But despite that there was an earthquake, the magnitude of the earthquake was 5.9. This material world is a place of suffering. If there is no pandemic, there will be earthquake, there will be cyclone, different types of problems. That is why Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted to take all the souls back home back to Godhead. Now Lord Kṛṣṇa has reached Dvārakā and it is so wonderful for the devotees there. So this description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that as such we should develop natural love for Kṛṣṇa. He is a Guṇa-maṇi – Kṛṣṇa is the jewel of good qualities. Maṇi means jewel or pearl. Guṇa is good qualities. The jewel of all good qualities. What we hear about Kṛṣṇa is that He is a perfect person. So when Kṛṣṇa left Hastināpura, they cried. They thought that Dvārakāvāsīs are so fortunate. Now we are reading how Kṛṣṇa was received in Dvārakā. How people were not eating, not sleeping, they left everything to come to see Kṛṣṇa.

I remember how Lord Caitanya was going to Vṛndāvana, He had gone and stayed at Vidyānagara. He said that please don’t tell anyone, just bring Śacīmātā over. But He was like trying to keep the sun hidden. The word leaked out – Lord Gaurāṅga has come! Haribol! The ladies were cooking, feeding the babies, men were doing different activites When they heard Gaurāṇga came, they dropped everything and started running. The boatmen said don’t overcrowd, don’t overcrowd the boat! Ahhh! The boat sank! So many people, nobody could stop the boat from sinking. So they jumped into the river and started swimming. Normally the Gaṅgā is like saffron color. But at this time, Gaṅgā turned black because of all the heads of the people. They were so eager to see Lord Caitanya. They dropped everything and came running. This mood was seen in Dvārakā. Everyone was somehow passing the time. And they were all in a mood of great loving separation that Kṛṣṇa was not here. When they heard that Kṛṣṇa has come, they dropped everything and came running. So much bhakti was there for Lord Kṛṣṇa. We cannot imagine what the ecstasy would be in Vṛndāvana.

Lord Caitanya visited Vṛndāvana, we are reading that part now. It said that just even when He would hear about Vṛndāvana, His ecstasy would increase a hundred times. When He went to Mathura, His ecstasy increased a thousand times. When He went to Vṛndāvana, it increased ten thousand times! Kṛṣṇadāsa, the Sanoḍiyā brāhmaṇa was taking Lord Caitanya on this Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā. And when we saw Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu exhibiting those ecstatic symptoms, he was completely astonished because he had never seen and could not imagine that anybody could have such feelings in the three worlds. Lord Caitanya just looked at the forests in Vṛndāvana and the trees started to flower! Even though it was not the season. So Lord Caitanya was exhibiting many miracles. When the Sanoḍiyā brāhmaṇa was telling things that happened before the rāsa-līlā, Lord Caitanya was in such ecstasy that His body liquefied! Somebody was asking me, was this an exaggeration or did this really happen? I have no reason to think that it was an exaggeration. Lord Caitanya, He got liquefied and then got solidified. So, we cannot get to understand the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya. He would hold out His hands and the birds would land on His hands. The deer would come and lick His lotus feet. When He went to the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest the deer and the tigers became friends, they chanted and kissed each other! So it seemed as if the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest turned as if it was Vṛndāvana.

Kṛṣṇa appreciated that Rādhārāṇī had made this Navadvīpa-dhāma for Him. We only hear about one dhāma which Rādhārāṇī made. That is Navadvīpa-dhāma. Here, Kṛṣṇa combined with Rādhārāṇī. And that was the form of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is with Rādhārāṇī’s heart and color. So Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. In Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa are both simultaneously present. He was in ecstasy in Vṛndāvana, that He wanted to embrace Himself! It was not explained how Kṛṣṇa wanted to embrace Rādhārāṇī and Rādhārāṇī wanted to embrace Kṛṣṇa. But He was trying to embrace Himself.

So we are seeing the pastimes in Dvārakā, and we are reminded of the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in Navadvīpa where He came in the form of Gaurāṅga. So, we should develop our natural love for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, He is very tough, He tests His devotees. But Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is extremely compassionate. He gave out love of Kṛṣṇa freely to everyone. So, that should be the purpose of our lives. How we can develop our love for Kṛṣṇa. How can we develop our love for Gaurāṅga! So, we have our choice – to stay in the material world or live-in spiritual bliss. It is like they say, you cut down a tree with an axe. But the axe head is attached to a piece of wood. Like that if we use the material energy, use it in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then we can go back to Godhead. We can always be fixed in the Lord’s service. So, we will be getting the bliss of Kṛṣṇa’s sevā.