20181110 Śrī Gaurāṅga's display of devotion to Śrī Īśvara Purī

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book compilation class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 10, 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

Jayapatākā Swami: In this way Īśvara Purī was given causeless mercy by Gaurasundara. For somedays Gaurahari remained in Gayā.

So inexperienced material enjoyers, fruitive workers, celibates, yogīs, mental speculators, and ascetics, all are busy fulfilling their material desires, which are not in relation to Lord Kṛṣṇa. They wrongly think Gaurasundara is like them, and a mortal being who are subjected to suffering or enjoying his fruit of his karma. Therefore, he was obliged to accept someone as his spiritual master, in order to achieve the freedom, or the mokṣa. Because of this offensive mentality they show superficial respect to mundane non-devotees, so called gurus, and that accumulates offenses at the feet of real guru-tattva, the bona fide guru. But in this case, even though Lord Caitanya, He is the supreme object of worship in order to show His spiritual respect for His own devotees, He establish them as the spiritual masters. And thus exhibit His real mercy. Lord Caitanya, He is subject to karma, He is not subject to any false pride. He allows His devotee, so He wants His devotees to show honor and respect. So He established His devotee as His spiritual master. This is due His causeless mercy.

In the Kurukṣetra before they all went for the solar eclipse, it says that He bathed the feet of all those who came. The Lord doesn’t have to bathe anyone’s feet but because He takes the role of a kṣatriya and also loves His devotees, so He bathed their feet. So to understand the Personality of Godhead, we need to use a different yardstick, we cannot compare Him to a mundane materialistic.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata Ādi 17.113

kramaśaḥ svīya avataraṇera gūḍha-rahasya-prakāśa-sambhāvanā; āśrayā bhimāni prabhura hṛdaye kṛṣṇa-viraha-premera udaya o vṛddhi—

ātma-prakāśera āsi’ haila samaya
dine-dine bāḍe prema-bhaktira vijaya

Jayapatākā Swami: So after taking His initiation, time became ripe for the Lord to reveal Himself, His prema-bhakti or love for Kṛṣṇa increased day by day. Normally these purports are read to me before but today they weren’t read to me so, this purport is by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda. I don’t think I will say the whole purport, but I will just say the gist. So the devotees can read the original text to get all purport and all the lessons. This is from the Caitanya-Bhāgavata. We are combining all the texts together to get an overview of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes.

Since Lord Caitanya is playing the role of an ideal devotee, He displayed the mentality of a self-realized, surrendered devotee. So personally, He is the Supreme Lord and had Supreme bhakti in the mood of servant, friend, parent and lover. So the mentality of Kṛṣṇa as a beloved increased in His heart. The constitutional form of a conditioned soul is to have the mentality of a pure lover in the mood of a servant. So we know from Bhagavad-gītā that the eternal soul is covered by the five elements and three subtle elements – mind, intelligence and false ego. So within these two gross and subtle bodies the eternal spirit soul is situated. So when the spirit soul is awakened, then He can control these two bodies. But someone who is not awakened to his eternal existence, he is controlled by the two bodies and does not show any propensity for serving the Supreme Lord. The realized soul is eternally perfected and this propensity to serve the Lord is found in him. Whether one is a gṛhastha, brahmacārī, vānaprastha or a sannyāsī, they should the activities to please guru and Kṛṣṇa. And thus, they are awakened to their spiritual perfection stage. At this stage Lord Caitanya is a gṛhastha, He has His wife, He has His mother but He has love of Kṛṣṇa, He has guru. But He has shown everyone in this material world can become perfect if they follow this process of bhakti-yoga. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata Ādi 17.114

mantra-daivata-vigraha prabhura sevākābhimāne ekadā nija-iṣṭa-daśākṣara-mantra dhyāna—

eka-dina mahāprabhu vasiyā nibhṛte
nija-iṣṭa-mantra dhyāna lāgilā karite

Jayapatākā Swami: One day Lord Gaurasundara sat down alone in a solitary place, and He became meditating on His ten-syllable mantra.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.64

gopīnātha mahā-mantra pāyā viśvambhara
pulakita saba aṅga-hariṣa antara

Jayapatākā Swami: Thus, He attained Lord Kṛṣṇa’s mahā-mantra. Lord Viśvambhara, He felt bliss in His heart. All the hairs on His body stood on end. So the mahā-mantra is Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.65

nayane galaye nīra-pulakita aṅga
rādhā rādhā bali sukha bāḍhila taraṅga

Jayapatākā Swami: His eyes poured tears and the all hairs on His body stood on end. He called out with great happiness, “Rādhā! Rādhā!” Actually, in this bliss He was tossed around by the waves of ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.66

vrajera yateka—saba mane haila
viśeṣe mādhurya-rase mana ḍubāila

Jayapatākā Swami: His mind became absorbed in thinking of Vraja. His mind soaked in the special mādhurya-rasa nectar. Or we can say He was plunged in the sweet nectar of mādhurya-rasa. It is said that mādhurya-rasa is special and He dived deep in that. His mind and heart dived deep in that rasa.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.67

rādhā-bhāve avaśa haiyā kalevara
kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa bali ḍāke ati uccaiḥsvara

Jayapatākā Swami: So He became absorbed in the mood of Rādhārāṇī, what She felt for Kṛṣṇa and in this way His body became fully absorbed in this mood. He called, “Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!” Very loudly.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.68

vṛndāvana govardhana bali ḍāke hāse
kālindī yamunā bali garaje ullāse

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Gaurasundara cried out, “Vṛndāvana! Govardhana!” He was smiling and laughing and with great joy He called out, “Kālindī! Yamunā”, with great transcendental bliss.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.69

kṣaṇe ḍāke balarāma śrīdāma sudāma
kṣaṇe nanda yaśodā baliyā kare nāma

Jayapatākā Swami: So He was absorbed in spiritual ecstasy. Sometimes, He called out, “Balarāma!” And other cowherd friends, “Śrīdhāma! Sudāma!” And next moment he called out for His parents, “Nanda, Yaśodā”. In this way He was absorbed in vraja-prema.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.70

dhavali sāṅali bali garaje gambhīra
kṣaṇe sakhī bali prabhu paḍaye asthira

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord with a deep voice roared out and called the white and black Surabhi cows. Then the Lord called out for His gopī friends. The Lord in this way became ecstatic and became almost wild in His behavior.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.71

kṣaṇe dāsabhāve tṛṇa daśane dhariyā
kṣaṇe ahaṅkāra kare āmi se baliyā

Jayapatākā Swami: One moment He was in the mood of a servitor, He took a straw in His teeth and then humbly offered His service. Then the next moment He was filled with pride, and He said that, “I am He,” He declared.

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.72

dhariluṅ parvata āmi māriluṅ aghāsura
māriluṅ putanā-ādi yateka asura

Jayapatākā Swami: Then He in His ecstasy declared, “I lifted the Govardhana Hill, I killed the Aghāsura, I killed Pūtanā and a host of other demons!”

Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala Ādi 7.73

kṣaṇe ye tribhaṅga hañā vaṁśīmukhe rahe
kṣaṇe camakita hañā caudige ta cāhe

Jayapatākā Swami: Next moment He manifested the three-fold bending form with a flute at His mouth. The next moment all the sides were filled with wonder, watching Him. The next moment He is looking at all directions and He is filled with wonder.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata Ādi 17.115

kṛṣṇa-viraha-samādhite āśraya-bhāvānvita prabhura harike citra-harajñāne sambodhana o ākula krandana—

dhyānānande mahāprabhu bāhya prakāśiyā
karite lāgilā prabhu rodana ḍākiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: After some time, when the Lord regained His external consciousness, He began to shed tears and call for Kṛṣṇa.

So in these pastimes the Lord was absorbed in internal consciousness and when He regained His external consciousness, He began to shed tears, and He called for Kṛṣṇa! So then it is described that He started meditation on the form, names, qualities, and pastimes of the Lord. No one should think that dhyāna means to think about the enjoyable objects of this material world. If one puts a false Deity or something as object of their worship, their artificial meditation will not produce any transcendental result. So this meditation on material objects and trying to connect them with the Absolute Truth is another branch of the prākṛta-sahajiyā, mundane deviant disciplic succession. Dhyāna means to be meditating on the transcendental devotional service. Since Lord Gaurasundara exhibited that He was meditating on the Lord’s mantra, He experienced that He was with Kṛṣṇa. He felt He had not achieved Him at some time and then He would cry in separation. So He would sometimes think that He was uniting with Kṛṣṇa and coming in direct contact with the Lord. So Lord Caitanya, He descended Himself from Goloka Vṛndāvana to preach the glories in this world of the spiritual world and He preached, how feeling separation from the Lord is so glorious. So these mysteries are not understood by the prākṛta-sahajiyās. In this way they imitate devotional service, but they are actually another community of mundane enjoyers. And Gaurasundara is considering Himself a surrendered servant, afflicted with separation from Lord Kṛṣṇa. He began crying and loudly addressed Kṛṣṇa in a devotional voice.

Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata Ādi 17.116

“kṛṣṇa re! bāpa re! mora jīvana śrī-hari!
kon dike gelā mora prāṇa kari’ curi?

Jayapatākā Swami: “O My dear Kṛṣṇa! O father! O Hari, My life and soul! Where did You go after stealing My heart?”

Commentary: Being situated in the mood of pure dāsya-rasa as a servant of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord considered Kṛṣṇa as His father and Himself as the son and began to speak as follows: “Oh Father, Kṛṣṇa, You are My life and soul. Where did You go after stealing My heart? I have become overwhelmed by not finding the object stolen by You. But I have certainly understood that the same thief, who has stolen My heart is My maintainer and protector.”

Jayapatākā Swami: As devotees, Kṛṣṇa may tell us we could have a boon. He called Kholavecā Śrīdhara and said, “I would like to give you something. What would you like? I can make you a king,” He said, “I don’t want that. I can give you mystic power.” Recently in the movies, they are showing all these superheroes and each of them have some, so called power. One is very strong, one is very fast, one is very beautiful, so they have different qualities. Kṛṣṇa has all the qualities. So there are some qualities that the yogīs have. They can become smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest. They can reach out and take out some watch from Hong Kong. That is prāpti-siddhi, there are aṣṭa-siddhis. Lord Caitanya told Kholavecā Śrīdhara I will give you eight mystic powers. He said, “I don’t want that.” He said, “You can merge in the brahma-jyoti and achieve eternal existence.” “No, no, I don’t want that!” “What do you want? What do you want? I can give you anything. What do you want?” “I want, if I can provide vegetables and fruits to that smiling brāhmaṇa boy in every incarnation. If I am not qualified for that, then please allow me to be born in the family of devotees because devotees they want kṛṣṇa-prema.” They want anything else. I don’t think they want material sense gratification. They want pure love of Kṛṣṇa. The only thing Kṛṣṇa naturally provides for His devotees.

So it is late and in this chapter there are 30 more ślokas. So I may take one or two days more. Tomorrow is the disappearance day of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and he left this world about 7.30 or so in the evening. So tomorrow maybe we will dedicate our class to Prabhupāda and we can offer lamps to Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Deities at that time. So Prabhupāda, he came to this material world to give us this priceless gift of pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness or kṛṣṇa-prema or love of Kṛṣṇa. All the great masters, great teachers, sons of God they say that we should love God. Prabhupāda showed us that how by practicing bhakti-yoga, we can awaken this dormant love for Kṛṣṇa. He not only told us, he showed us. So many people will say so many things but actually to show it, for someone to experience it is a different thing. We can say Tirupati laḍḍus are nice but when we eat one, oh! Ha! So there is a difference! So by this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one is actually able to experience what devotion to Kṛṣṇa is, what love for Kṛṣṇa is. So are there any questions today?

Is there any prasāda?