20220227 Lord Caitanya Explains that Vedānta-sūtra

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

The Lord hears the sound of the flute and enters the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 17.34

tabe prabhu śrīvāsera gṛhe nirantara
rātre saṅkīrtana kaila eka saṁvatsara

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu regularly led congregational chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra in the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura every night for one full year.

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 2.2.1

śrīvāsa-paṇḍitaiḥ sārdhaṁ tad-bhrātṛbhir alaṅkṛtaiḥ
gacchan pathi harir vaṁśī-nāda-śravaṇa-vihvalaḥ

Translation: Once while Śrī Gaurahari was walking on a path ornamentally accompanied by Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and his brothers, He heard the sound of a flute and became entranced.

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol!

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.65-66

tabe sei viśvambhara āra eka dine
śrīvāsapaṇḍita āra tāra bhrātṛgaṇe

e-saba-sahite prabhu pathe cali yāya
śunaye vaṃśīra dhvani-nā jāni ke gāya

Jayapatākā Swami: I think my voice is a bit low as I am a bit sick, do I need repetition? One day, Viśvambhara, walked with Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and his brothers. They were all walking with the Lord together on a path. Then they heard someone playing a flute. They did not know who was playing it!

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 2.2.2

papāta daṇḍavad bhūmau
mohito’bhūt kṣaṇaṁ punaḥ
rauti nānā-vidhaṁ
devas tv acireṇa vibudhyate

Translation: “Enraptured, the Lord swooned, falling like a stick to the ground. After a while, He awoke crying profusely and calling out for Kṛṣṇa!”

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.67

gāndharvāra bhāve vaṃśīdhvani ye śuniñā
kāndiyā kāndiyā bule ḍākiyā ḍākiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa in the mood of Rādhārāṇī. So when He heard the sound of the flute, He became overwhelmed in love of Kṛṣṇa! He was crying again and again and then He called out, again and again for Kṛṣṇa!

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.68

bibhora haiyā bhūme daṇḍavat kare
rodana karaye nānāvidha premabhare

Jayapatākā Swami: So He was overcome in pure love of Kṛṣṇa and He fell to the ground like a stick, offering His obeisances! He wept and manifested many symptoms of ecstatic love.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 2.2.3

āśīr yuṣjan dvijāgreṣu prahasan rucirānanaḥ
śiṣṭair upeto mumude kadācil laukikīṁ kriyām

Translation: “After offering blessings to the best of the brāhmaṇas, Lord Gaura, with His lustrous face, laughed, enjoying the company of the gentlemen.”

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.69

abaśa haila prabhu nirbhara-āveśe
nijajane āśīrvāda kare-aṭṭa hāse

Jayapatākā Swami: So the Lord was manifested a profound ecstasy of pure love and He offered His associates blessings! And He laughed very loudly!

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 2.2.4

karoti kamalādhyakṣo deha-yātrā-prasiddhaye
navadvīpa-vilāsaṁ ca darśayan jagatī-patiḥ

Translation: “While at times the Lord of the universe and the husband of Lakṣmī displayed the activities of the common men and occasionally displayed His pastimes in Navadvīpa, on the pretext of carrying out His bodily affairs.”

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.70

śiṣyagaṇa-sane kṣaṇe alaukika kahe
kṣaṇe unamāda kṣaṇe niḥśabade rahe

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes, He spoke on transcendental subject matter beyond the universe. Sometimes He became mad in ecstasy. Sometimes He became completely silent!

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 2.2.5-6

śrīvāsa-paṇḍitaiḥ sārddhaṁ
śrirāmeṇa mahātmanā
tayoḥ puryāṁ mukundena
vaidyenānyena sa prabhuḥ

 nanartta ca jagau kṛṣṇa-gītaṁ hari-parāyaṇaiḥ
rātrau rātrau divā premnā pulakāṣcita-vigrahaḥ

Translation: “In the house of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita night after night and also at times throughout the day, the Lord Viśvambhara, with hairs standing on end, would continuously dance and lovingly sing songs of Kṛṣṇa together with Śrīvāsa, the great soul Śrīrāma, and another physician named Mukunda, all of whom were exclusively devoted to Śrī Hari.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So we see how the kīrtana in Śrīvāsa’s garden was so ecstatic and how they were performed by the Lord, dancing and chanting His love of Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.71

śrīvāsapaṇḍita āra rāma nārāyaṇa
mukunda-sahita gelā śrīvāsa bhavana

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and his brothers Rāma and Nārāyaṇa, and Mukunda, accompanying the Lord and went to house of Śrīvāsa.

Thus ends the chapter, the Lord hears the flute and enters the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura.

So on the parikramā party various devotees are circumambulating the holy dhāma and this is a special sevā. They are doing the service of circumambulating the dhāma, visiting all the nine sacred islands – Sīmantadvīpa, Godrumadvīpa, Madhyadvīpa, Koladvīpa, Ṛtudvīpa, Jahnudvīpa, Modudramadvīpa and Rudradvīpa, coming back to the central island of Antardvīpa. In this way, they go a full circle. And not everybody starts at the same island. That is why we have the adhivāsa the day before. They visit Antardvīpa and they start the parikramā. After finishing the parikramā they come back to Antardvīpa. There we have the mahā-milana, it is also considered as Antardvīpa. We start at the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. I saw Ahlāndinī Rādhā devī dāsī interviewing the devotees in the International party. There was one lady from Brazil, and a father and daughter from Australia. So, the daughter was coming for the first time and the father had been a few times. So, Navadvīpa dhāma parikramā is being shown on YouTube, worldwide! Are there any questions?

Question: Respected Guru Mahārāja, Please accept my respectful obeisances. I live in Māyāpur and sometime in Vṛndāvana, here and there because my son, daughter in law and husband, all are non-devotees and not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Recently I got a sevā in Māyāpur where I do pūjā for Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Deities, cook for them, in a devotee family. But yesterday, my daughter in law gave birth to a baby girl in my native village near Bengal. My question is, do I, should I follow contamination period for any number of days? As I am second initiated, do I observe aśauca because I am touching Deities and cooking. Please guide me.

Your insignificant daughter,
Rādhāsevini devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: I am not clear on the relationship. You said step-daughter, I don’t know what that means? Daughter-in-law? Married to your son? This is not a devotional principle. But it is more or less varṇāśrama-saṁskāra, I am not an expert on this. I would have to refer to some local authorities. Do you mean that your son, obviously, your daughter in law gave birth to a child. That means your daughter in law and son, gave birth to a child. Whether the mother has to follow aśuci. That is something that nobody has asked me before. I can ask around, it is not a devotional principle. What have people told you? There can be two ways to have a daughter-in-law – one she married your son. And another is that she married the father of the you’re your husband already had a daughter. Which one is it? Her son. Which Purāṇa is this found in?

Question: My name is Carolina, I have come for the first time to Māyāpur. I would like to know what is the difference between Buddhism and Kṛṣṇa’s philosophy?

Jayapatākā Swami: Of course, I don’t have much time to answer this question. But a large amount of time could be spent to answer this question! There is a lot of difference. In the philosophy of Buddhism, they don’t talk about God. They don’t talk about the Supreme Person. They don’t talk about anything spiritual. They say that when you can cease to exist, then there is a supreme peace. But in the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy, we believe there is a Supreme Person and that He has His own spiritual world, which is three-fourths of the total energy. One part is the material, unlimited millions of universes. So He also creates, maintains and destroys the material world. So our philosophy is different that we believe that there is a Supreme Person. Buddha never said, there was never a God. He just said, that something we should realize when we get there. We feel, we have prediction in the śāstra that Buddha was actually an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. And that He came to stop the people from misusing the sacrifice of animals. That, there is some process mentioned in the Vedas for sacrificing animals. That is how we restricted and then only for certain times, certain places. So the people were misusing those injunctions and doing every time, every place. So He came to teach ahimsa. So, He said, not to follow the Vedas because they were misusing the Vedas. So we see in the Buddhist temples they worship Lord Buddha and they accept them, but they don’t believe in God! But He is God! See how clever He is!! So in a nutshell, that is the difference. Someone can give more details. I was, for some time, practicing Buddhism and I saw how a person went from monk to sense enjoyer, to monk to sense enjoyer and then he achieved nirvana and became a star in the sky. And then they said, at the end of the story, the star disappears and he PEACE! So basically, they are voidists. They think they cease to exist, that is the highest goal! Actually, we say that living for serving Kṛṣṇa is the highest goal!

Question: Guru Mahārāja! Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! How are you Guru Mahārāja today? How was your day? Praying to the Deities and Śrīla Prabhupāda for your health, so you can do what you enjoy doing during this period!

Your servant,
Sujitendriya dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, physically I am not so well. I prayed to the deities for the parikramā parties, prayed for the devotees in different parts of the world, prayed for the Chinese devotees and some confidential prayers for the disciples and aspirants. So, I have various medical officers who are checking on me. Last questions.

Question: Guru Mahārāja: What did Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī felt when Lord Caitanya asked him to cook the rice? Was he afraid that he might go to hell? Why? He was scared that he would not be able to cook a really good feast for the Lord? Lord Caitanya’s spiritual practice would be spoiled if He eats his food?

Jayapatākā Swami: He thought that his food was not standard. That Lord Caitanya should be offered first class rice and his rice gotten by begging was not so first class. People would give away their bad rice. There is a saying in Bengal, udai koya govindaya namaḥ. That means there is a person, Gopāla Bārn, he was carrying a basket of puffed rice on his head. And then a gust of wind came and blew the puffed rice in the air. So he said, puffed rice flying in the air, I offer you to Govinda!! What is this? Once it hits the ground, it won’t be offered to Govinda! And he cannot eat it either. Because who is going to pick up all the individual puffed rice? So, if people are going to lose something, then they think I will just offer it to Govinda! At least, I will get some spiritual benefit!

Are there any books? Book table there? Does Seva Svarūpa have any announcement?

Announcement: The Congregational Development Ministry just came out with this children’s book. It is an activity book. There are eight chapters, every chapter has art and crafts, they have scripts for drama, they have quizzes, games, ślokas, also cooking recipes. So the children, they can do without the parents! The parent who will buy this, will buy one year of freedom!! Because the children can do it alone, they don’t need the parents.!! This material for one year, we are selling here. One who buys this, Guru Mahārāja is going to sign.

I will only sign three, said Guru Mahārāja!

Seva Svarūpa can have it shipped to your yātrā, country if you order. For the youth of our society.

Śacīnandana Karuṇa and daughter leaving for UK. Guru Mahārāja blessed them.