20240305 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.1. The beginning

The following is a Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja, on March 5^th, 2024 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

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

Śrī Caitanya-Śikṣāmṛta

The Nectar of the teachings of Śrī Caitanya

Today’s chapter is: First Shower — General description of determining the religion of highest goal.

First Stream — the beginning.

Respectful obeisances unto Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

The materialistic rules are the principles —

Unfortunately, those who do not accept the Supreme Lord also make certain rules for the conduct of life. All those rules can be called principles. A principle which does not have the thought system of the Supreme Lord, that principle, however beautiful in other ways, is not capable of accomplishing the purpose of human life. That principle is completely materialistic principle.

The principle with faith in God is the actual rule —

If faith in God and duty towards God are arranged, then that principle is honored as the rule of human life. Rules are of two types, primary and secondary.

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Jayapatākā Swami: The purpose of human life is to develop love of Kṛṣṇa. So the paṇḍitas make some rules and abide that to Kṛṣṇa but they do not exactly know what Kṛṣṇa’s thought process is and they speculate. Therefore, it does not actually serve the purpose. It may sound very nice, but it does not fulfill the purpose.

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Primary and secondary rules —

When pleasing the Lord is the only purpose of life, then the rule which directly aims at that purpose is called primary rule. A rule which aims at that purpose with some separation is a secondary rule. An example will make this clear. Taking bath in the morning is a rule. After taking bath in the morning, if the body becomes gentle and disease-free, the mind becomes steady. The Lord can be worshiped when the mind is steady. Herein, the purpose of life, worshiping the Lord is after an interval (not separation-free), since the immediate (separation-free) result of bathing is the softness of the body. If the result of bodily is softness and so on is accepted as the ultimate result of that rule, then the ‘purpose of worshiping the Lord’ is no longer achieved. As there are other purposes between the purpose of worshiping the Lord and the rule of bathing, all those other purposes remained in the form of separation. Where there is a separation, there is also a possibility of disruption.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is very interesting. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Cleanliness is close to Godliness.” But if people take a bath for some mundane reason, that is not devotional service, it is a secondary rule as Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says. I was telling the gṛhasthas, if they want to have a nice child, do not pray to the Lord just for a nice child. Pray for a Kṛṣṇa conscious child, for a healthy, long lived, suputra. And train your child to be a nice devotee. So Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that he wanted his gṛhasthas to have children as ācāryas. Because he said, we need a lot of ācāryas. Only the gṛhasthas can produce children. So that means that the gṛhasthas have to think of Kṛṣṇa and pray to Kṛṣṇa, like Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura did. And he got Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as a child and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was an ācārya. Husband and wife, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and his wife, they prayed to Lord Jagannātha, and Lord Jagannātha’s ratha stopped in front of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s house. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and his wife offered at the lotus feet of Lord Jagannātha, the baby, and Lord Jagannātha’s garland fell over the baby. So, it is not an accident. It is actually a very purposeful attempt and so in the book by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Sat-kriyā-sāra-dīpikā, he is one of the Six Gosvāmīs, he wrote the garbhādāna-saṁskāra. I did not memorize it, I would tell you, being a sannyāsī did not have a need. But every gṛhastha should know, memorize, be completely committed to memorize, every time they have a connection with the husband, they should do the garbhādāna-saṁskāra. But I was also realizing that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said if every child we had was a pure devotee, then he would get married and have a hundred children! There is no guarantee, even the devotees, they did not have every child as a devotee. Like Advaita Ācārya, He had six sons, three of them were pure devotees, three of them were smārtas.

Lord Nityānanda, He had seven children, but this devotee, Abhirāma Ṭhākura, when he bowed down to them, they died because they were not worthy of being Lord Nityānanda’s child. And then Lord Nityānanda had a boy who was Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu’s avatāra and his name is Vīracandra. So he tolerated the praṇāma of Abhirāma Ṭhākura. And Lord Nityānanda had a daughter by Vasudhā who was actually the Ganges and she survived the praṇāma of Abhirāma Ṭhākura. But she was not drinking any milk from her mother, and she was fasting. Then Lord Nityānanda told Jāhnavā Devī to give her initiation. And then she gave her initiation and then she took milk from her mother.

One thing is that, it is not guaranteed that every child will be a pure devotee. But if you pray for a pure devotee, if you do the garbhādāna-saṁskāra then some of the children maybe pure devotees. Like, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he had, one ācārya – Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda and the brother of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was Lalitā Prasāda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Prabhupāda went to see him twice, I was with him. Śrīla Prabhupāda considered that since he is the brother of my guru, I have to be very respectful. But when he was alive, he had the possession of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s birthplace. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that birthplace to be nicely developed because Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura whose book we are reading because he was a very, very, very, great personality. Haribol!

I was thinking that here Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Mahā-Viṣṇu, They had descended into Navadvīpa dhāma, into this world, as devotees! The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa said, “I enjoyed so much in Dvāpara-yuga, I would like the people of Kali-yuga to also enjoy nicely!” His mercy on you, the Kali-yuga residents is to give you love, give you happiness. And how the Lord, although He has all money, all wealth, all beauty, etc. He comes down as Caitanya Mahāprabhu to want to discover what is the love, what is the happiness that the devotees realize. I mean, this is so amazing! Most religions do not even understand that God is a person. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He comes down for different reasons. And how He comes down as a devotee. So why do we want to be anything else, other than being a devotee? And we can actually enjoy, we can have all happiness, if we simply involve ourselves as a devotee. Try to do all our activities as devotional service. What do you think? Lord Caitanya established the saṅkīrtana movement. And He made people immediately by His glance, to experience love of Kṛṣṇa. So, Lord Caitanya was the most merciful avatāra. But then He came as a devotee! He met the challenge of Rukmiṇī, “You know everything but one thing, You do not know how much Your devotees love You!” So, He said, “Alright, in Kali-yuga I will come as My devotee,” He said that three times. He came as Lord Caitanya, Nitāi, Advaita. Actually, some of the kīrtana dancers they were actually viṣṇu-tattvas. Some of the associates of Lord Caitanya, they came from the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, they came from the spiritual world. So we heard in the last few days about separation and Lord Caitanya was feeling separation of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. We can feel separation from Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya. We got both! Actually, somehow Lord Caitanya is saying that if you feel separation that is a more intense form of love. So, everyone should try to do everything in devotional service – that is the secret.

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Thank you. Question is when will the class end!

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the worst days in my astrological chart. Different disciples have chanted ten lakhs of Dhanvantri mantras. These South Indian pūjārīs, they are going to chant two lakhs more and pray to Dhanvantari to heal me, let us see what happens! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Kṛṣṇa matir astu!