20220223 Īśvara Purī Instructs His Disciple Nimāi Paṇḍita to Chant and Preach Kṛṣṇa-Nāma, Part 2

Continuing the Caitanya-līlā:

Part 2: Īśvara Purī Instructs His Disciple Nimāi Paṇḍita to Chant and Preach Kṛṣṇa-Nāma,
Under the section: How All the Residents of Vārāṇasī Became Vaiṣṇavas

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.93

eta bali’ eka śloka śikhāila more
bhāgavatera sāra ei—bale vāre vāre

Translation: “Saying this, My spiritual master taught Me a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is the essence of all the Bhāgavatam’s instructions; therefore he recited this verse again and again.

Purport: This verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.40) was spoken by Śrī Nārada Muni to Vasudeva to teach him about bhāgavata-dharma. Vasudeva had already achieved the result of bhāgavata-dharma because Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in his house as his son, yet in order to teach others, he desired to hear from Śrī Nārada Muni to be enlightened in the process of bhāgavata-dharma. This is the humbleness of a great devotee.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, although Vyāsadevā has achieved perfection, he took a humble position and asked Nārada Muni to explain to him. We find that in a similar way, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura had prayed to Lord Caitanya, he said, “You have come to deliver all the fallen souls, so You will not find anyone as fallen as me, therefore I should be delivered on a priority basis.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.94

mahā-bhāgavatera avasthā :—
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.40)—

Translation: “When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the holy name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the holy name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders.’

Jayapatākā Swami: So, although the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs had criticized Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya was explaining why everything He did, was on the order of His spiritual master. So, the Māyāvādī sannyāsī had never heard this before and Lord Caitanya, He was explaining everything according to the Vedas, which Māyāvādīs are very proud of doing.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.95-96

gurura ājñāya bhajane dṛḍha ceṣṭā 
ei tāṅra vākye āmi dṛḍha viśvāsa dhari’
nirantara kṛṣṇa-nāma saṅkīrtana kari

bhajanaphale svataḥkarttṛtvamaya śrī-nāma-prabhura kṛpā
sei kṛṣṇa-nāma kabhu gāoyāya, nācāya 
gāhi, nāci nāhi āmi āpana-icchāya

Translation: “I firmly believe in these words of My spiritual master, and therefore I always chant the holy name of the Lord, alone and in the association of devotees. That holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa sometimes causes Me to chant and dance, and therefore I chant and dance. Please do not think that I intentionally do it. I do it automatically.

Purport: A person who cannot keep his faith in the words of his spiritual master but acts independently never receives the authority to chant the holy name of the Lord.

It is said in the Vedas (Śvetāśvatara Up. 6.23):

“Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.” This Vedic injunction is very important, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu supported it by His personal behavior. Believing in the words of His spiritual master, He introduced the saṅkīrtana movement, just as the present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement was started with belief in the words of our spiritual master. He wanted to preach, we believed in his words and tried somehow or other to fulfill them, and now this movement has become successful all over the world. Therefore faith in the words of the spiritual master and in the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the secret of success. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu never disobeyed the orders of His spiritual master and stopped propagating the saṅkīrtana movement. Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, at the time of his passing away, ordered all his disciples to work conjointly to preach the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu all over the world. Later, however, some self-interested, foolish disciples disobeyed his orders. Each one of them wanted to become head of the mission, and they fought in the courts, neglecting the order of the spiritual master, and the entire mission was defeated. We are not proud of this; however, the truth must be explained. We believed in the words of our spiritual master and started in a humble way — in a helpless way — but due to the spiritual force of the order of the supreme authority, this movement has become successful.

It is to be understood that when Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chanted and danced, He did so by the influence of the pleasure potency of the spiritual world. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu never considered the holy name of the Lord to be a material vibration, nor does any pure devotee mistake the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to be a material musical manifestation. Lord Caitanya never tried to be the master of the holy name; rather He taught us how to be servants of the holy name. If one chants the holy name of the Lord just to make a show, not knowing the secret of success, he may increase his bile secretion, but he will never attain perfection in chanting the holy name. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu presented himself in this way: “I am a great fool and do not have knowledge of right and wrong. In order to understand the real meaning of the Vedānta-sūtra, I never followed the explanation of the Śaṅkara-sampradāya or Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. I’m very much afraid of the illogical arguments of the Māyāvādī philosophers. Therefore I think I have no authority regarding their explanations of the Vedānta-sūtra. I firmly believe that simply chanting the holy name of the Lord can remove all misconceptions of the material world. I believe that simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can attain the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. In this age of quarrel and disagreement, the chanting of the holy names is the only way to liberation from the material clutches.

“By chanting the holy name,” Lord Caitanya continued, “I became almost mad. However, after inquiring from My spiritual master I have come to the conclusion that instead of striving for achievement in the four principles of religiosity (dharma), economic development (artha), sense gratification (kāma) and liberation (mokṣa), it is better if somehow or other one develops transcendental love of Godhead. That is the greatest success in life. One who has attained love of Godhead chants and dances by his nature, not caring for the public.” This stage of life is known as bhāgavata-jīvana, or the life of a devotee.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, “I never chanted and danced to make an artificial show. I dance and chant because I firmly believe in the words of My spiritual master. Although the Māyāvādī philosophers do not like this chanting and dancing, I nevertheless perform it on the strength of his words. Therefore it is to be concluded that I deserve very little credit for these activities of chanting and dancing, for they are being done automatically by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Just as Lord Caitanya was following the order of His spiritual master and chanting the holy name similarly His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, simply followed the instructions of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and if he achieved any success, it is due to the mercy of His spiritual master. So, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the words of Lord Caitanya and our parama-guru has spread all over the world.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.97

brahmānanda o kṛṣṇa-premānandera pārthakya 
kṛṣṇa-nāme ye ānanda-sindhu-āsvādana 
brahmānanda tāra āge khātodaka-sama

Translation: “Compared to the ocean of transcendental bliss that one tastes by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the pleasure derived from impersonal Brahman realization (brahmānanda) is like the shallow water in a canal.

Purport: In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.38) it is stated:“If brahmānanda, the transcendental bliss derived from understanding impersonal Brahman, were multiplied a million times, such a quantity of brahmānanda could not compare with even an atomic portion of the pleasure relished in pure devotional service.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the chanting of the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa gives such unlimited transcendental pleasure that is incomparable with the brahmānanda. We see people all over the world are dancing and chanting because of this great spiritual bliss. So, Lord Caitanya was revealing this to the impersonalist sannyāsīs.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.98

Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya (14.36)

tvat-sākṣāt-karaṇāhlāda 
viśuddhābdhi-sthitasya me 
sukhāni goṣpadāyante 
brāhmāṇy api jagad-guro

Translation: “My dear Lord, O master of the universe, since I have directly seen You, my transcendental bliss has taken the shape of a great ocean. Being situated in that ocean, I now realize all other so-called happiness to be like the water contained in the hoofprint of a calf.’ ”

Purport: The transcendental bliss enjoyed in pure devotional service is like an ocean, whereas material happiness and even the happiness to be derived from the realization of impersonal Brahman are just like the water in the hoofprint of a calf. This is a verse from the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya (14.36).

Jayapatākā Swami: In other words, the happiness in the material world or in the brahmānanda is insignificant compared to the happiness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, this is a verse quoted from the bhakti-sudhodaya and like that if you compare an ocean with the water in a calf’s hoof print, you will see that the ocean is unlimited and the hoof print is very unlimited.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Īśvara Purī Instructs His Disciple Nimāi Paṇḍita to Chant and Preach Kṛṣṇa-Nāma, Part 2
Under the section: How All the Residents of Vārāṇasī Became Vaiṣṇavas