20250608 Pānihāṭi Special Bhāgavatam Class

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.16.19

taranti hy añjasā mṛtyuṁ
nivṛttā yad-anugrahāt
yoginaḥ sa bhavān kiṁ svid
anugṛhyeta yat paraiḥ

Translation: Mystics and transcendentalists, by the mercy of the Lord, cross beyond nescience by ceasing all material desires. It is not possible, therefore, that the Supreme Lord can be favored by others.

Purport: Unless one is favored by the Supreme Lord, one cannot cross over the ocean of the nescience of repeated birth and death. Here it is stated that yogīs or mystics cross beyond nescience by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are many kinds of mystics, such as the karma-yogī, jñāna-yogī, dhyāna-yogī and bhakti-yogī. The karmīs particularly search after the favor of the demigods, the jñānīs want to become one with the Supreme Absolute Truth, and the yogīs are satisfied simply by partial vision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, and ultimately by oneness with Him. But the bhaktas, the devotees, want to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead eternally and serve Him. It has already been admitted that the Lord is eternal, and those who want the favor of the Supreme Lord perpetually are also eternal. Therefore yogīs here means devotees. By the mercy of the Lord, devotees can easily pass beyond the nescience of birth and death and attain the eternal abode of the Lord. The Lord is therefore not in need of another’s favor because no one is equal to or greater than Him. Actually, everyone needs the favor of the Lord for successful understanding of his human mission.

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Jayapatākā Swami: Those who do not want to cross the ocean of material birth and death are foolish. So in order to get liberation from birth and death, ultimately, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gives you that. So this verse tells how the Supreme Lord favors others, but no one can favor Him.

Now Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Nityānanda, Advaita Ācārya, have descended from the spiritual world. They are viṣṇu-tattva. Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa are different kinds of śaktis.

Tomorrow we are going to observe the Pānihāṭi Ciḍā-dadhi Mahotsava! I was here during the lockdown due to COVID. At that time, we did a Pānihāṭi festival. So I requested the co-directors, let us have that every year in Māyāpur and they agreed. So Śrīla Prabhupāda took me there two times and he wanted to have a temple at Pānihāṭi. His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja got some land there. I went there a long time ago for the Pānihāṭi festival. It is an amazing thing! People attend just by seeing the pañjikā! What I want to say is that there is no advertisement or anything but every year thousands and thousands of people go there. So, the year I went, I went by the boat, and we took Nitāi-Gaura. Everything there is very spontaneous. So, when we took Nitāi-Gaura up, someone started singing, “nitāi-gaura eseche, nitāi-gaura eseche, pānihāṭi eseche!” Nitāi-Gaura have come, They have come to Pānihāṭi! All around the tree, there were Bengali priests. And so they made some room for Nitāi-Gaura. I went up the road to see where our truck was. Now they had blocked the road and not allowing the truck to go because there were a lot of people. I was thinking, how we were going to transfer the pots of dadhi and other ingredients to the tree. Suddenly, there was rain. All the people went off the road! So we took some plates of ciḍā, pots of dadhi and other ingredients and went down the roads. And when we got to the tree the rain stopped. So, we had some devotees mix the ciḍā and prepare the pots there. Then we went back to the truck. And just when we needed it, it started raining again! All the roads cleared off! We took the rest of the ciḍā and dadhi and other ingredients and ran down the road. Then we started to mix the ciḍā-dadhi ingredients and offered it to Nitāi-Gaura. We wanted to distribute the prasāda but we did not know how to do that. One devotee took a pot of the ciḍā-dadhi and went into the crowd and disappeared there! He was there and so many hands went to catch the ciḍā and he disappeared! So that won’t be the way we realized! So then another bhakta tried by climbing up the tree with the ciḍā and started distributing it like feeding the birds. So then next year we made a barricade and had people line up and take the ciḍā-dadhi. And this system goes on till date. His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja personally saw every year that the Pānihāṭi Festival would be observed in a big way.

Lord Nityānanda, He was sitting with some of His associates under the tree. Under the tree They were discussing about Lord Kṛṣṇa. That tree, it is still there. One of the associates of Lord Nityānanda told Him, there is Raghunātha dāsa! Then Lord Nityānanda called out, oh, He is just like a thief! Come here! I will punish you today! But Raghunātha dāsa, he did not move. Nitāi-Gaura, They are very humorous. And They are very merciful! So Lord Nityānanda, He went over to Raghunātha dāsa. You went to Lord Caitanya directly, you did not come to Me first! My punishment to you is that you will feed breakfast prasāda of ciḍā-dadhi to everyone! So Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was very happy! And Lord Nityānanda put His lotus feet on the head of Raghunātha dāsa. Haribol! Nitāi-Gaura! So Raghunātha dāsa, he quickly went and arranged the ingredients from the nearby villages. And he got seven big pots. He used I think four pots for Lord Nityānanda and three pots for everyone else. When he came back with the ingredients, then he mixed them and gave two pots to each of them and told his servants to mix the ciḍā-dadhi and other ingredients.

Raghunātha dāsa had directly approached Lord Caitanya in Advaita’s house in Śāntipura. And there Raghunātha dāsa pleaded to Lord Caitanya that he wanted to take His shelter. And then Lord Caitanya said, don’t be like a markaṭa-vairāgī. Act like an ordinary family man! But always keep your mind on Lord Kṛṣṇa. So, like this, Raghunātha dāsa had gone back to his house and acted like a regular family man and pleased his parents very much. There is a long history about this. But I will not speak on this particular subject in more detail. If you read the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, you can find out.

When Lord Nityānanda told Raghunātha dāsa to feed all His associates, then the whole field got filled up with people! When some of the very distinguished guests came, He made them sit on the raised platform with Him. So then, Lord Nityānanda Prabhu by His meditation, He brought Lord Caitanya there! Nitāi and Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, They were present surrounded by all the devotees. They were all sitting down like this. And everybody had two pots. One pot of cida dahi and one pot of hot milk with ciḍā and fruits. So Lord Nityānanda took some ciḍā from the pot of a devotee and fed it to Lord Caitanya! But Lord Caitanya wasn’t visible. Except to someone very fortunate. So, when Lord Nityānanda would put some ciḍā in Lord Caitanya’s mouth, the people would see that the ciḍā-dadhi just disappeared! Then Lord Caitanya would take some ciḍā and feed Lord Nityānanda! So like this, They were having Their pastime! Rāghava Paṇḍita, he came there. He told Lord Nityānanda that Your lunch is offered to the Deity and we are waiting for you. And Lord Nityānanda said, you see, I am a cowherd boy, and I would like to eat with My friends, here by the side of the Ganges! I will have a picnic here with My friends and will take the prasāda at your home for dinner. So like this, Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya would have different pastimes every day. So what do you think?

Bhakti-yogīs, they can associate with the Lord in His different pastimes. How many devotees would like to associate with the Lord in His pastimes? So, when I went to Atlanta, they told me that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave the name New Pānihāṭi dhāma. But nobody there then knew what Pānihāṭi was! So we started a festival with 18 varieties of ciḍā, dadhi, sweet and salt. So six varieties of ciḍā-dadhi were sweet and six varieties with condensed milk sweet and six varieties were salty salad. We did it because in Atlanta they had a few Indian fruits which were imported. So they had more Western fruits. Here in Bengal, they have various Indian fruits. And I hope you all have broken your fast. I took two or three grains to break the Ekādaśī fast. So you are going to take your prasāda or should I give details of what are the 18 varieties! So each pot has a code. The Pañca-tattva pot, East, West, all the fruits mixed. They have another pot which is just Western fruits. Then we have all the Indian fruits, that is the traditional ones. There are some fruits they don’t have in the West like jackfruit. Then we have dry fruits with ciḍā. Then we have dry fruits with ciḍā-dadhi. In the West they have many dry fruits from the Middle East. We have a code ‘YE’ and ‘YS’. All the pots together have ‘Y’, salad seven pots ‘S’ and all the condensed milk with ‘M’. So the last one is ‘YP’. I forget ‘M’ or ‘K’. ‘Y’ with the fruits that Śrīla Prabhupāda likes. The salads, they were a bit different in each place. So, apparently, here in the temple, one team is making Pañca-tattva courtyard, Koladvīpa Prabhu and his team. So, tomorrow is ciḍā-dadhi festival! Prema Caitanya Prabhu and his team will come from the Gaṅgā temple and celebrate the festival here. And Rāseśvarī devī dāsī, she is coordinating one group.

Alright, I usually take my dialysis on Monday, but I am taking it today, so that Monday is free!