20231230 Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛtam | First Stream — the beginning

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

Today we will continue reading from the Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta by Śrīla Saccidānanda Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. It is translated as the Nectar of the Teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta

The Nectar of the teachings of Śrī Caitanya:

Respectful obeisances unto Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

First Shower — determining the religion of highest goal

First Stream — the beginning

Chapter 1, subtitle: Worship of the Lord is essential at an early age and four reasons for endeavor in Bhajana.

Right from the beginning years, when knowledge arises, worship of the Supreme Lord is essential

From the time when the knowledge of man arises, from that very time onwards, it is auspicious to be engaged in pleasing the Supreme Lord.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.1 and 5

kaumāra ācaret prājño
dharmān bhāgavatān iha
durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam

tato yateta kuśalaḥ
kṣemāya bhavam āśritaḥ
śarīraṁ pauruṣaṁ yāvan
na vipadyeta puṣkalam

“One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life--in other words, from the tender age of childhood to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection. Therefore, while in material existence, a person fully competent to distinguish wrong from right must endeavor to achieve the highest goal of life as long as the body is stout and strong and is not embarrassed by dwindling.”

For now, we enjoy the pleasures of the world, later in old age we will please the Lord, — if we think like this, nothing will happen. Time is scarce. From the day, the knowledge of the duty is known, from that day onwards, it is necessary to take to the practice (of pleasing the Lord). Especially since human life is very rare and unstable.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.29

labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte
mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ
tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvan
niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt

“After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober human being should quickly endeavor for the ultimate perfection of life as long as his body, which is always subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most abominable species of life, whereas Kṛṣṇa consciousness is possible only for a human being.”

It is impossible to tell when death will happen. It is wrong to think that the practice of pleasing the Supreme Lord cannot be done during childhood. We see in history that Dhruva and Prahlāda received the grace of the Supreme Lord at a very young age. If a human being is able to do any work, then if the humans endeavor, they can do that work; is there any doubt in this? Especially, what can be practiced from an early age, gradually becomes natural behavior.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: Prahlāda he was put in the school by his father, the school of materialistic teachers. But whenever possible he was preaching to the other students, even though their parents were demons, he taught them that they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is not that one cannot preach until you are old. As soon as you understand, you can preach. Acintya Caitanya’s son Mādhava is only 12 years old but he distributes books every day. Normally, one is encouraged to take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness even at a young age. So the human birth maybe demoniac or godly but it is very common to understand between right and wrong. You can start to do things with your own free will. Animals, they follow their instincts. You cannot tell a lion not to be a lion. You can tell a human being all kinds of things and they can adjust. So it is rare to receive a human birth and human birth gives us the opportunity to render devotional service. And sooner or later we are going to leave the body and go through death. We just heard that a devotee got some Kṛṣṇa conscious books and started to preach. His whole vision of life changed because he was reading the Bhagavad-gītā. So he asked for initiation from me. He was on the death row. So, since he was following all the principles, I said I could initiate him but one thing he should do. He should fight for pardon. And he was on the death row. There was a system that if you apply for pardon and the jail keepers approve it you have it converted to life imprisonment. So he was preaching, he was going to die, he was preaching out of his free will. He preached to the prisoners, to the jail keepers, to everybody and the jail keepers appreciated him. They gave him a positive recommendation, and he got a pardon from death penalty to life imprisonment. So now he is preaching to all the prisoners and the jail keepers. So we want to preach as the human form of life gives us the opportunity to render devotional service. Haribol! Gaurāṅga!

Four Reasons for Endeavor in Bhajana—

In order to please the Lord,

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.25-26

tuṣṭe ca tatra kim alabhyam ananta ādye
kiṁ tair guṇa-vyatikarād iha ye sva-siddhāḥ
dharmādayaḥ kim aguṇena ca kāṅkṣitena
sāraṁ juṣāṁ caraṇayor upagāyatāṁ naḥ

dharmārtha-kāma iti yo ’bhihitas tri-varga
īkṣā trayī naya-damau vividhā ca vārtā
manye tad etad akhilaṁ nigamasya satyaṁ
svātmārpaṇaṁ sva-suhṛdaḥ paramasya puṁsaḥ

“Nothing is unobtainable for devotees who have satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all causes, the original source of everything. The Lord is the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities. For devotees, therefore, who are transcendental to the modes of material nature, what is the use of following the principles of religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation, which are all automatically obtainable under the influence of the modes of nature? We devotees always glorify the lotus feet of the Lord, and therefore we need not ask for anything in terms of dharma, kāma, artha and mokṣa. Religion, economic development and sense gratification — these are described in the Vedas as tri-varga, or three ways to salvation. Within these three categories are education and self-realization; ritualistic ceremonies performed according to Vedic injunction; logic; the science of law and order; and the various means of earning one’s livelihood. These are the external subject matters of study in the Vedas, and therefore I consider them material. However, I consider surrender to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu to be transcendental.”

There are four reasons seen as to why people endeavor according to various situation:- fear, expectation, sense of duty and attraction. Those who worship the Supreme Lord fearing hell, lack of wealth, suffering and death, are excited by fear and worship the Lord. It should be said that those who, for the sake of prosperity in the world, praying for material pleasure, worship Hari, are driven by expectation or hope of material enjoyment to worship the Lord. But there is such a pure happiness in the worship of the Lord that at first, they engage in it out of fear or expectation, and finally many people abandon fear and hope and become attached to pure worship. Those who worship the Creator with gratitude, are driven by the sense of duty and engage in such action. Those who, even though not motivated by fear, expectation, or sense of duty, naturally love to worship the Lord, are moved to do so by attraction. The instinct by which, the mind rushes towards any object as soon as seeing it, before any reasoning is called rāga or attraction. Those who, as soon as they think of the Supreme Lord, the instinct (of attraction) arises in their heart, they worship the Lord according to rāga (attraction).

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So, different motivations for worshiping the Lord is given here. One motivation is fear. One is afraid of hell, or one may have sense gratification. They have some desire for material things. Here someone may feel attraction to worship the Lord which is called raga. So different people are motivated by different things, and Kṛṣṇa He engages the people in His devotional service and thus they become close to Him. So, we have different people attracted for different reasons, but actually if one is attracted out of spontaneity to serve the Lord, that is most auspicious. In Prahlāda’s case they thought there must a Vaiṣṇava who is teaching him. Prahlāda’s father gave the order that any Vaiṣṇava is found near the school, shoot him at sight! Kill him! Hiraṇyakaśipu gave the order. But because Prahlāda had this knowledge before, so nobody was coming by speaking to him. So the demons are against anybody who preaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But in this situation where you do your duty, tell people about Kṛṣṇa, people are objecting, then you have to be clever in how to present it. So these are different reasons why someone may be attracted to preach about Kṛṣṇa.

We were told there was another person in Singapore who had death penalty, but he got permission to attend the Bhagavad-gītā class. And by attending the class his whole vison changed, he was no longer afraid of death. He realized that he will die, he will leave the body and he would continue living. He asked the jail keepers, “When you kill me, can I have the Bhagavad-gītā on my chest?” They agreed, “Why not?” So he left holding the Bhagavad-gītā to his chest.

So His Holiness Candramouli Swami was telling me about his jail preaching nectar. Now we have many devotees, we want to use our human life to please the Lord. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he is going through these methods of devotional service very methodically. Some people, they are motivated by fear. Someone came and said, “I did some mistake, I am very afraid. I will go to hell. The Yamadūtas will torture me. Help me! Help me!” Some people may be motivated by this fear. Some people they are attracted to Kṛṣṇa has given me so much so I owe Him, someone may be spontaneously attracted to serving the Lord. So whatever our particular motivation, is we should understand that, how serving the Lord is the real purpose of human life. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!