CC.Adi 3.52
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Israel · 2006
Chapters
Recitation of Caitanya Caritamrita verse
Jaya srichaitanya, jai nitananda, ja dwai te chandra ja gora bhakta vrinda, So we will read from the third chapter of Hadilila of Sri Chaitanya Chaitanya, the external reasons for Lord Chaitanya's appearance.
Text number 52. This is the famous verse from Srimad Bhala. Which predicts Lord Chaitanya.
Krishna Varnam, Krishna, Dvisam, Pakrisnam, Sangam, Upanga, Astras, Varsadam Yagy Sankirtana Prayai, Kirtana Praya, Yajanti, Yajanti,
Sumeda Sha, Krishna Varna, Twishha Krishna, Krishna, Sangopangastrapar Shadam, Yagyai Sankirtana Praya Yajantihi Sumeda Sah Krishna Varnam Twishakrishna,
Vishavaram Vishakrishna, Sangha Pangastrapar Shadam, Sanghapamastra Pashadam, Yagyai Sankirtana Prayai, Yagama Sankirtana Praya, Yajantihi Sumedesaha Sumadesha Krishna Dharana Krishna Krishna Uh, Krishna Krishna Krishna
Gopana Snapharsadam Sun Psana prayer jumpy summade asnavanam Krishna. Repeating the syllables, Krishna. Repeating the syllables, Krishna. Krishna. Krishna. Vasilastra. A Krishna.
Not black, golden saanga along with associates, Upanga Servitors, Astra Weapons Parshadam Confidential Companions Yagy by Sacrifice. By sacrifice.
Sankirtana Prayirtana Pray. Consisting chiefly of congregational chanting. Consisting chiefly of congregational chanting. Yajanti they worship. He certainly Sumeda Sah intelligent persons.
Purport on Lord Caitanya's golden appearance
Translation. In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the name of Krishna. Although his complexion is not blackish, he is Krishna himself. He is accompanied by his associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.
Purport. This text is from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.5.32. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has explained this verse in his commentary on Bhāgavatam, known as Krama Sandarbha, wherein he says that Lord Krishna also appears with a golden complexion.
That golden Lord Krishna is Lord Chaitanya who is worshipped by intelligent men of this age.
That is confirmed in Shrimad Bhagavatam by Garga Muni, who said that although the child Krishna was blackish, he also appeared in three other colors: red, white, and yellow.
He exhibited his white and red complexions in the Sati and Treta ages respectively. He did not exhibit the remaining color yellow gold until he appeared as Lord Chaitanya, who is known as Gaura Hari.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that Krishna Varna means Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Krishna Varna and Krishna Chaitanya are equivalent. The name Krishna appears with both Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya Krishna.
Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but he always engages in describing Krishna and thus enjoys transcendental bliss by chanting and remembering his name and form.
For Krishna himself appears as Lord Chaitanya to preach the highest gospel.
Lord Chaitanya always chants the holy name of Krishna and describes it also. And because he is Krishna himself, whoever meets him, automatically chants the holy name of Krishna. And later described it to others.
He injects one with this transcendental Krishna consciousness which merges the chanter in transcendental bliss. In all respects, therefore, he appears before everyone as Krishna, either by personality or by sound.
Simply by seeing Lord Chaitanya, one at once remembers Lord Krishna. One may therefore accept him as Vishnu Tattva. In other words, Lord Chaitanya is Lord Krishna himself.
Sangopangastra Parsadam further indicates that Lord Chaitanya is Lord Krishna.
His body is always decorated with ornaments of sandalwood and with sandalwood paste. By his super excellent beauty, he subdues all the people of the age.
In other sense, the Lord sometimes used weapons to defeat the demoniac. But in this age, the Lord subdued them with his all-attractive figure as Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that his beauty is his astra, a weapon, to subdue the demons. Because he is all attractive, he is to be understood that all the demigods lived with him as companions.
His acts were uncommon and his associates wonderful. When he propagated the Sankirtana movement he attracted many great scholars and Acharyas, especially in Bengal and Orissa.
Lord Chaitanya is always accompanied by his best associates like Lord Nityananda, Advaita, Gadadhara, and Śrīvāsa. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī cites a verse from the Vedic literature which says that there is no necessity of performing sacrificial demonstrations or ceremonial functions. He commands that instead of engaging in such ceremonial functions, external pompous exhibitions, all people regardless of caste, colour and creed can assemble together and chant Hare Krishna to worship Lord Chaitanya.
Krishna Varnam Twisha Krishna indicates that prominence should be given to the name of Krishna.
Lord Chaitanya taught Krishna consciousness and chanted the name of Krishna. Therefore to worship Lord Chaitanya, everyone should together chant the Mahamantra.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare. To propagate worship in churches, temples or mosques is not possible because people have lost interest in that.
But anywhere and everywhere people can chant Hare Krishna. Thus, worshipping Lord Chaitanya, they can perform the highest activity and fulfill the highest religious purpose of satisfying the Supreme Lord.
Sri Lasarvabhama Bhtachari, a famous disciple of Lord Chaitanya, said the principle of transcendental devotional service having been lost. Sri Krishna Chaitanya has appeared in order to deliver again the process of devotion.
He is so kind that he is distributing love of Krishna. Everyone should be attracted more and more to his lotus feet, as humming bees are attracted to the Lotus flower.
Krishna Bharnam Twishha Krishna Sangopangastra Parsadam Yagyai Sankirtana Prayariajantihi Sumeda Saha.
In the age of Kali, intelligent people perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead, who constantly sings the name of Krishna. Although his complexion is not blackish, he is Krishna himself. He is accompanied by his associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.
Connection between Krishna and Caitanya lila
Among Krishna Padaya Krishna Krishtaya Bhutales Rimati Bhaktividanta Swami, Namaste Sara swati devi Gurovani Pracharini, Nirvisce, Shawnavari, Paschetti Shatari. Vancha Alpatar, Bischar, Pashindhur, devacha, Patianam Pavan Byu Vishna Byonaw Namaw Mahabadanya Krishna Prema Pradhy Krishna Krishna Chaitanya Namni Gaurat Vishnu Maha, Jaishri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Sriadvaita Badatara Sivasa de Gaura Bhakta Brinda Ajanu Lambita Bujokanaka Vadata Sankirtanaika Pitaro Kamalaya Taksa Vishwambarod Vijaavaryo Yugadharma Palo Vandi Jagat Priya Karo Karunavadara Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ramari.
Very happy to be here with you today. We are very happy that after more than a year it's really I'm sorry that it took me so long, but we know that our process is love in separation, so we're practicing this for one year.
So I'll try to speak a little bit about this famous verse which is very significant for us to understand. This third chapter of Sri Chaitanya Chaitanya Krishna Das Piraji Goswami describes that Lord Chaitanya's appearance in one sense is very logical after the appearance of Lord Krishna.
Sometimes Lord Chaitanya's līlā is called pariśiṣṭa līlā. And pariśiṣṭa means appendix. And you have a book.
Sometimes when the author still wants to say something, but the whole plot is already finished. He puts an appendix where he explains some additional information.
Which is important, but still somewhat separate from the general plot of the book. So in the same way, Lord Chaitanya Lila is very important uh, explanation of Lord Krishna's līlā.
But in the same way, it's somewhat separate from Lord Krishna's līlā. And in this third chapter of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇa dāsa Kavirāja explains the connection between the two.
He explains how Lord Krishna, when he left this planet, was thinking that his mission is still not fulfilled. Because even though he came to propagate bhakti, people couldn't understand it.
And moreover, people couldn't understand what it means to practice bhakti. And indeed it's so, because if we even read the Bhagavad-gītā, bhakti is not that prominent in the Bhagavad-gītā.
There are so many other topics in the Bhagavad-gītā, and sometimes people become totally confused. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna wants to make a survey of all different paths of spirituality.
And explaining these surveys: karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, this yoga, that yoga. He actually bewilders people, especially people of Kali-yuga who do not have a very clear brain substance.
So people don't understand really what he means. You know, he says here something, here do this, and somewhere else do this, and
this and this, and ultimately, ultimately, bhakti, it's not that prominent, and there is a lot of mixture going on. Bhakti mixed with karma, bhakti mixed with jñāna, bhakti mixed with this and with that.
And ultimately, some people, you know, they don't really know how to follow this. The basic message of Lord Krishna is of course very clear.
Lord Krishna from the very beginning said there is no death; he came to claim that every one of us is immortal
and just by mistake just by some misunderstanding just by some crazy misconception, we think that we are mortal. By some crazy idea we live in this world where we have to die and be born again, again and again and again.
And this is indeed a cause of the greatest pain.
In Yoga-sūtra Patañjali Muni explains that one of the kleśas, the most horrible kleśa, and kleśa means the cause of suffering, the cause of affliction, the cause of misery in this world.
And everyone is born with these five kleśas which is listed there in Yoga Sūtra, but one of them, the most horrible and the most persistent, which is actually universal in the sense that nobody is free from it.
It's called Abiniversa, which means fear of death. Everyone is so irrationally fearing the experience of death.
And Vyāsadeva who is commenting on the sūtras of Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, he explains that this is the proof that we have experienced death.
Because as soon as somebody is born, no matter who he is, he may be a little warm too. He's fearing that. How you can fear something which you didn't experience before?
In order to acquire some fear, you have to have some conception of what it means and the miseries or sufferings which is more or less connected with this.
So Yasudev says this is a clear, very clear evidence that every one of us who is born in this world has already experienced death and knows what it means.
Knows what horrible experience it is, you know, how painful it is, how difficult it is.
And uh therefore this Abhinivesha or uh the attachment to life and the fear of our personal existence of of our personal death is there in everyone's consciousness, in everyone's psyche.
And Lord Krishna comes to relieve us from this fear. He comes and his first introductory statement in Bhagavad-gītā is this: there is no death. Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin. He said there is no death for the soul.
It's just misconception because you identify with this body which anyway is going to die. And because you are so miserably entangled with this misconception, uh you have all the problems which are there.
And to resolve all the problems, you have to get rid of this misconception. That's it. You are eternal. So he gives this very clear statement, and this is basically the message. You're not this body.
We heard it so many times. Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West. And that was also his message. He said, be happy. There is no death. Death is illusion. There is no death, you are eternal. There is no death for the soul.
You're not this body. Don't fear death.
Teaching how to live as the soul
But actually, this is a very significant step and significant statement. But what Lord Krishna didn't teach very clearly what it means not to be the body. We can understand it theoretically, yes I'm not this body.
After all, who wants to be a body?
You know somebody told me a story that in America, in America there's a lot of fat people, you know, there's because they're eating all this junk food, all this McDonald's, all this you know, French fries and this price and that price, you know, they become fat.
It's practically the disease number one. So a couple of these fat ladies came to Hare Krishna temple for a Sunday feast class.
And it's usually in Hare Krishna temple during the Sunday feast or you know, Saturday feast or whatever feast class.
The main message is that you're not this body. And somebody on a Vyasa San was raging and raving, you're not this body, you're not this body.
So one lady, you know, one fat lady told uh to another fat lady, did you hear this? Isn't it nice? Such a relief. Because it's a relief. There is no doubt about it. You have this, you know, body, which is a burden.
You know, so much burden is there connected with the body. Body has to fall sick. Body has so many inherent problems. So Lord Krishna says, you know this body. He starts with this. Don't mix it.
Don't be in this misconception because this is the beginning of all your problems in life. But at the same time, what he doesn't explain very clearly what it means not to be the body.
And it's easy to say you're not the body. It's difficult to leave this philosophy. You know, it's easy to say I'm not this body, but what I am? And if even if I am the soul, Lord Krishna doesn't explain what soul is.
He only says that soul is not that and not this. He says, na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ.
He says that you know, you cannot cut the soul, you cannot moisten the soul, you cannot kill the soul, you cannot do this, you cannot do that.
Because and ultimately he says nobody understands what the soul is. He says nobody can understand. This this is some speak about it as amazing, some talk about it, some you
know philosophize about it, some see it and you know think about it, but nobody can understand what it is. Because indeed we cannot understand what it is.
It's a totally, like Prabhupada says, it's an anti-material particle. Something which is totally completely opposite to all our experiences.
And to force us not to mix it with our experience, Lord Krishna only gives the negative definition of it. It's not that and not this.
Because ultimately, this is a completely something, the substance from a different dimension. It's a totally different existential unity which we cannot understand.
And naturally it's very difficult for us to understand what it means to live as a soul. So the reason, external reason for Lord Chaitanya's appearance is to teach us what it means to be the soul.
Because, again, it's easy to say you're not this body, but it's difficult to be not the body. Because we're so used to it, we are so programmed. You know what it means I'm not this body.
When I look in the mirror you know who is that that's me you know isn't it you know look nice so people don't really understand what it means not to be the body what it means to be the soul.
So the Lord comes again, Lord Himself comes again to teach because it's not enough to understand that I'm not this body. The most important thing is to understand I'm the soul and to live accordingly.
And he says what it means to live as a soul, because our material existence is very dull.
Because we are connected with this body, and the body is connected with the modes of material nature, we become very dull, you know, we become influenced with this bodily condition of life.
The tamas comes, especially during Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. It's a normal pastime of all the devotees of Hare Krishna movement. They they have very peaceful time and they fall asleep during the Bhagavad-gītā class.
Because of the dullness.
Material nature and mental dullness
Because of general kind of uh the The soul being placed in this material atmosphere acquires the qualities of this material atmosphere more or less.
What happens, and Prabhupada very beautifully explains it in the introduction to Bhagavad-gītā. He says, the existence of the soul is conducted in the atmosphere of non-existence.
The eternal soul is placed in this world which is martya-loka, which is the place of death. And therefore, we acquire or borrow the qualities of matter within our consciousness. The consciousness is coming from the soul.
The soul is exuding this consciousness, the energy of consciousness.
But in the conduct of matter, we become dull. And the whole business, the whole, you know, the whole direction of material existence is to become more and more dull.
If we examine how people live, their main purpose in life is to become duller and duller and duller, and the more dull they are, especially in Russia.
I heard that because of the glorious Russian influence in Israel, people also become more and more into it. But you know, this is all just to become dull and dull and dull, to more or less switch off the consciousness.
And even if they don't become dull because of this, they find so many other ways to become dull. Even if you don't take drugs or even if you don't take alcohol, then you can just sit and watch the TV.
And then you become dull very quickly. For hours and hours and hours watching can damage it. And that's that's another way to become dull. That's again this is the main, the general evolution course of the humanity.
To become duller and to become less and less conscious. People don't want to become conscious, to be conscious, because they don't even know what it means.
So Lord Chaitanya comes and the reason for his coming and his example, which is better than precept, is to show what it means to be conscious. What it takes to be conscious.
What it really means within the heart to be human being. He exhibits all these uncommon wonderful emotions. And these emotions are the most amazing thing.
And he comes to teach us that what it means to be a human being and what it means to be the soul who is eternally in connection with Krishna.
Because again, it's not that uh obvious, it's not that natural, so to speak, to understand this. And, uh, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī explains this, that, uh, this is the logical consequence of Lord Krishna's descent.
And Lord Krishna descends to the earth, then he comes again to teach this for us to practice it. Of course, we cannot expect that all of a sudden we become, you know, pure lovers of God. It doesn't work like this.
I may say that yes I have only love of God in my heart but this is uh very easily can be disproved because so many other things are there in my heart. But Lord Caitanya, he explains how to progress in this direction.
What it means he shows the ideal. He shows the ideal when somebody is totally mad. And so much so that you know the materialistic doctors or historians who describe Lord Caitanya, they say he had some mental disease.
And because he had some mental disease, everything else is, you know, flowing from this. This is I'm I'm really sorry for repeating this blasphemy.
But because they don't understand this, Lord Caitanya gave the systematic way for us how to become mad. Love of God. Which is the highest pinnacle of human consciousness, of development of human consciousness.
Don't worry, you don't become so quickly mad. So you will still have some time before it happens. But this is indeed the most blissful state of consciousness. When within your heart there is nothing else, there is no envy.
Because envy or karma, lust, or anger is the manifestation of our disease. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains this: that this is bhavaroga.
Bhavaroga, the inherited disease which we all have, is this kāma, or lust, which ultimately deteriorates and becomes envy. And envy means that I am happy when somebody is suffering.
This is the definition of mātsarya, envy. If I, you know, if somebody is, you know, has some difficulties, I have little like nice feelings within my heart. It doesn't happen with me, it happened with him.
So that's an and that's disease.
Systematic path of pure love
That's the dirt within our heart. Basically, when we have all these things, kāma, krodha, moha, māda, mātsarya, lobha, all these six things is the impediment, is the wall between us and God.
And we have this wall and our little soul is nicely placed within this wall.
And we cannot feel God, we cannot know God, we cannot see God, and we are you know nourishing our diseased emotions within this wall, within this fort.
So, so Lord Caitanya comes and he gives us this systematic way how to develop this highest stage of consciousness. And he makes it very simple. Sometimes it even may feel like very simplistic.
But there is a very deep reason behind this, and Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this reason and the purpose of this verse. Because sometimes people cannot understand this. Being very complicated in mind.
The Kali Yuga means the age of degradation, but degradation does not necessarily mean simplification.
What we can see the way how the Kali Yuga takes grip of human consciousness is that it becomes everything becomes very complicated. Everything becomes very kind of very painful.
You know, it's so the life is so complicated. Computers are there.
Like my father, he used to say to me that you are just you know you you are just a primitive person he says this is this is such a nice age, so many nice things are being invented every day this is the proof of the evolution of human beings, you know, this is the real truth that is worse.
Look, this is the tape recorder. Rejoice. This is so ridiculous. This notion is so ridiculous. Because it doesn't make you more human, it doesn't make you more civilized, it doesn't make you more even more sophisticated.
You become more and more engrossed in all these complications of the modern life. And all these things, mechanical things, actually make your heart mechanical. There was this nice story.
From Chinese tradition, which is quite appropriate for this topic. Famous philosopher.
And he was once coming passing by a garden, and in this garden he saw some uh some peasant there and this peasant gardener he was taking the water putting it in some pot and you know watering the the um plants there.
So this philosopher he said, well why are you working so hard? You're going far away, you're putting filling up this pot and bringing the water there in the garden.
And it's so easy, you know, you make little mechanism and little pump is there and then the water will come itself. You know, well why don't you do this? You know you you're taking such a hard labor to do. And
he said, because I don't want to use these mechanisms. Because as soon as you start using the mechanism, the effect of this, your heart becomes mechanical. And heart means the seat of consciousness.
Your consciousness becomes mechanical. And then you become mechanism yourself. You don't even notice how it happens. So it's better I take this hard labor to bring this water instead of becoming a robot you know.
Degradation and mechanical life in Kali-yuga
So that's exactly what is happening here in this age of Kali. In the Vedic literature, the age of Kali sometimes is called Yantra Yug. And Yantra Yug means the yug of the age of machines.
Everything is being done by machine, you know, this machine and that machine. But the point is that people think I will become more happy if there will be more machines around me.
All the machines will do the work and I will enjoy. Forget it. You will work more to invent more machines. You will work so hard. And besides that, the side effect of this, you become like a machine.
Your heart becomes very mechanistic. And people they lose more and more this ability to love. They don't know what it means to love. They don't know what it means to relate to other human beings.
They don't know what it means to serve the other human being. They don't know what it means to feel the emotions here to the point.
So this is the age of Kali Yuga and therefore Lord Chaitanya comes and he brings a very simple message. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport to this verse, he says that religion doesn't work in the age of Kali.
Nobody is interested in religion. You know, there are some crazy fanatical people who are so fanatical that you don't even want to approach them, to come near to them, so fanatical they are. This is what religion is.
Religion in this age is just, you know, either it's disgusting fanaticism, totally brainless fanaticism, or it's kind of sentimentalism or it's basically some kind of empty show.
And he says you cannot attract people by all these empty shows. Lord Chaitanya comes and he gives this simple method. And this simple method, the idea, the the very heart of the simple method is to reach the heart of people.
Like Prabhupāda he writes in the purport that uh that you know the Lord Chaitanya's message is very simple. You just forget about churches and forget about temples. You don't need it.
Who wants to go to these empty, you know, ugly buildings? Who wants to stay there? Just come together. And by coming together and chanting the names of God become happy. Be simple.
Simple in your mind, simple in your approach to religion. And this is the only dharma which works in this age. So many dharmas are there, you know, this dharma and that dharma and this dharma.
But it doesn't work in this age. You know, so many different commandments are there, this religion, that religion, you know, ten commandments, eleven commandments, so many commandments are there.
Nobody follows them, nobody cares about them. Even so. And therefore Lord Chaitanya comes to clarify this confusion. The age of Kali is the age of total, absolute confusion of people. There is no notion of pure religion.
Nobody knows what pure religion is. Nobody knows. I mean we are not here to say that we are the only one we are the chosen people who only know what the real religion is.
But if we look around, we see that so many different misconceptions are passing around as being a religion.
Like somebody told me a story, one one sannyasi of our movement was traveling in a business class in a plane and next to him was sitting his holiness Dalai Lama and he was watching Dalai Lama from a respectful distance looking at him.
And Dalai Lama he's a famous religious leader of this world. He got the Nobel Prize of Peace and this and that.
So when the um how you say it the stewardess or to how you call it the the the attending lady came and she said what would you like to have for lunch? Vegetarian or not vegetarian? Dalai Lama said, non-vegetarian, please.
So this sannyasi, he was wondering, you know, how is it possible? And it's a known fact.
Dalai Lama, even though the main message of Lord Buddha is a himsa, non-violence, Dalai Lama doesn't care less about this. He's eating meat. So he was watching him, and Dalai Lama was eating meat very happily.
So when he stopped eating meat, sannyāsī said, Your Holiness, can I ask you one question? He said, Yes please. Because everyone likes to answer questions you know it's it's it feels nice when somebody asks you questions.
So he said, Your Holiness, can you please explain to me what is the basic teaching of Lord Buddha. And he said, Yeah, the the basic teaching of Lord Buddha is Ahimsa. It's a known fact.
Well, Buddha came and he said, Ahimsa, non-violence. Don't kill others, don't create, don't inflict pain to any other creatures.
He said, Uh, if his basic teaching is ahimsa, how is that possible that you eat non-vegetarian food? Because ahimsa means you become vegetarian. And Dalai Lama he made a very grave face and he said, I'm a monk.
And for us monks, it's more important to be humble. We are supposed to be humble. And humble means whatever somebody offers us we eat. We don't we don't really choose whether it's meat or not meat.
Now if somebody offers us something we eat, whatever he offers, because we're so humble. Then the whole thing is it's very nice to hear this. Thank you very much for your nice teaching. But can you answer one more question?
It's not that this lady offered you meat. She offered you the choice whether you want meat or not meat. Why did you choose not meat? How is that possible? How did you do this? Why?
And his holiness became so offended and he turned away his face and he didn't speak for the rest of the flight.
Need for pure religion in Kali-yuga
So, but this is this is just little illustration to show that there is no religion in this age. There is no religion left in this age because people again are confused.
People don't know uh what it means to even follow very basic religion. And therefore Lord Chaitanya comes, and Lord Chaitanya when he comes, he brings this prema-dharma, which is simple religion.
But at the same time this is the only religion which works. Sometimes people ask how is that possible that this is such a degraded age?
And in this such a degraded age, such a highest possible teaching is being propagated and spread. But the answer to this question is exactly this. Because it's such a degraded age, nothing else works.
Nothing less powerful works in this age. Everything else, if you take this dharma or that dharma, uh you ultimately will become very frustrated.
And even if you take Hare Krishna movement, you also there is quite a possibility that you become frustrated. Because even this powerful method doesn't work.
Even this method sometimes oftentimes doesn't work because of the pollution of the age, because of the pollution of our heart, pollution of our consciousness.
But still, Lord Chaitanya comes and he comes to show this highest possible way of being human being. You know, this is this is what it means to be the human being. To be the human being means you have to love God.
And not just love in a very theoretical way. Love means there is nothing else within your heart, there is only love there. So that's the basically the external reason and Lord Chaitanya himself he
says in this chapter that I will come because the external pump doesn't work.
That's again the same point which Prabhupada explains in the purport. In one of the verses of this chapter, Lord Chaitanya says that the cause of
this external awe and veneration, because of this Aishwarya mood, the love becomes subjugated. The love becomes weakened. Love is in the heart. So Lord Chaitanya comes just for this particular purpose.
He comes to free us from all the problems within our heart. He comes to say that be yourself. And be yourself means to be the soul.
And to be the soul means to be free from all the complications of this material life, from all these external problems, from all these even mental problems. Just be alone with God. Connect with God as directly as possible.
Of course, Guru is there and everyone else is there to help you in this mission.
But ultimately, this simple teaching is to teach us how to become most natural being, how to get rid of all this extraneous external complications of our life, how to become ourselves.
And this is the most most Most exalted teaching. Ultimately, and it's difficult, it's not easy because we prefer to be uh complicated in our minds. You know.
Krishna explains this, and Lord Chaitanya not explains this, but he shows it personally how to become totally free. You know, how to become completely totally free from all this you know external things in this world.
Like recently I heard one lecture, very nice lecture about Lord Krishna. And Bhagavad Gita and the lecturer he gave a very nice example. He said, look how free Lord Krishna is!
He is driving the chariot of Arjuna in front of all the kshatrias.
He said, you know, nobody, nobody among all these kings would dare to do this because everyone would, you know, point fingers at him and say, you know, look at this Krishna, you know, he's just a driver, you know. Driver is a very low-class position.
And especially, you know, if you have wife. The wife, you know, you can do it yourself, but then the wife will ask you, what did you do during this war?
And you will have to tell I was a driver, you know and the wife will make your life into hell you know. How dare you?
What what what what did I tell my neighbors you know my my husband was a driver you know he was not a heroic warrior there But it only shows how free Krishna is.
And basically when Lord Chaitanya comes, he is even more free. He's totally free. He doesn't care. He couldn't care less about anyone. He is so free internally.
And when he comes, that's the teaching which he brings, you know, he says, you become as much free as I show you.
To become a soul, to be the soul means to be totally, completely, absolutely free from all this complexes of life, from all these complications, from all this external you know conceptions which we have and just be what we are, eternal soul. And it's simple.
It just means that we have to chant Hare Krishna and serve because this is our natural position, Prabhupāda explained that this is our dharma. And you know, be prasadam and be happy basically living this life.
So this is the external reason of Lord Chaitanya appearance. And it's very much connected with internal reasons of his appearance, but there is no time to speak about this.
But basically, he is being glorified by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, Rasika-śikhara and Parama-kāruṇika. Parama-kāruṇika means he is the most merciful. He brought this message for us because of his mercy.
He wanted everyone to be happy. He wanted the whole world to be happy.
He wanted the whole world to join together, to put aside the enmity, to put aside the envy, to put aside lust and all these unwanted things within the heart. And to be what we are.
And what we are is actually very nice and very highly elevated position. We are the spirit soul which is filled with love, which is full of love. So he said just do it.
And this is his parama-kāruṇya, his external appearance as somebody who is most merciful. Just be who you are, be completely free and live in love of God.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. But he can do it.
He can give something because he is Rasika-śikhara, because within himself he constantly experiences this highest pleasure of love of Godhead.
And therefore we being somewhat connected with Him, connected through the connection of the Parampara of this chain of spiritual masters and so on and so forth we have the chance to get this current of pure love which is coming from Caitanya to
get short-circuited by this current of love to get this connection with him and uh ultimately uh to become very happy, being connected with this Paramātmā.
Because again, there's no other way, there's no other way, there's no other way. There is no other dharma, there's no other religion. But this simple religion of love.
Everything that doesn't work. No rules, no regulations, nothing. Just doesn't work in this age. Just follow the simple rules and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and ultimately become what you are.
This is his message and his magnanimous nature.
Role of temples in spreading awareness
Thank you very much. Uh toward the end of the practice. Um, to propagate worship in churches, temples or anywhere and everywhere mosque is not possible because people have no have lost interest in that.
But your main activity now is uh to establish uh maybe the main activity is to establish the temple because uh the The purpose why we are doing this is to uh to bring about awareness and respect in the hearts of people.
Like also Lord Caitanya, he took sannyās not because he internally was in need of sannyās, but because of his compassionate nature, he wanted people to respect him.
So, in the same way, sometimes a simple message of Lord Chaitanya is not being respected by people in general because they think it's something too simple or too simplistic or strange.
Therefore the temples are necessary and Prabhupada explained this. He said that I I can worship Lord Chaitanya under a tree. But who will come to me under the tree? Only a few people.
But if I uh build a very nice temple, so many people will come just to look at the temple.
And maybe when they come to look at the temple, if it's a nice magnificent temple, then they will hear the you know the sound of holy name. And uh this uh nice temple will also bring about some respect within their heart.
Like recently Śivarāma Mahārāja opened the amazing temple in Budapest. I haven't seen it, but people who have seen it said that this is something really mind-blowing. It's a palace.
Śivarāma Mahārāja himself told me that the altar alone in this temple, new temple, made from semi-precious you know stones, uh cost two hundred thousand dollars. You know, just just the altar room, just you you have little you know what? And they have something which is two hundred thousand dollars. Well, it doesn't matter, logic time is the same, whether he's in the box or
he's under this you know semi precious uh stones made temple or you know altar.
But uh basically that's needed uh for people to feel some initial respect, to remove this misconception that this is something you know low class.
Because sometimes people you know look and they say this is this is this is not so serious. Here they're respectable. So that's that's basically the reason and that's exactly what Prabhupada stated.
He said, if I'm sitting under the tree, who will come to me?
But people, you know, because they still have some kind of but even in in this temple which I tried to build in hospital, we understand very clearly that uh the main purpose is to establish a very close and warm personal relationship and for that you don't need a temple.
Moreover, the temple may be impediment in this regard.
So my main emphasis, even though externally it may appear that I'm you know running like mad, trying to get some money to build a temple and trying to overcome all this uh impediments.
Actually my main emphasis and uh the main work which I spent m more energy than anything else is just to establish a nice community spirit there.
And then the temple is is more or less you know a side kind of task, even though it it is a very difficult task. So that's that's the explanation for this.
We are not we're not trying to substitute the real spirit of love and service by building this big temple.
Balancing hard work and devotional happiness
We are not trying to kind of exchange something one with another. So as long as you you struggle with with the authorities yield softer heart, that's it's difficult to struggle having
a soft heart. But ultimately we have to maintain the level or the standard of Krishna consciousness which is which is not external.
Well you too much externalize your activities and your consciousness. It's ultimately counterproductive for the preaching in the case.
Even though because again these two things are connected very tightly in Bhaktivinoda Chaitanya himself. He can be Paramakaruna only because he is Rasika Shikar.
You cannot take this Rasi Kashikhar aspect of his personality and say, you know, he's Parma Karuna only.
No, he is Parma Karuna because he is like he is doing this external work because his heart is overflowing with love and because the excess of love is overflowing through the brink of the of his heart.
So when we want to follow this, uh we have to follow this example. We can spread only when our heart is full. When our heart is empty, what we can spread, you know. What what we are spreading?
We are spreading Krishna consciousness. What can I spread if my heart is empty? If my heart is dry, if I dried up of all this stuff. You know, I I have to have something within the heart. And that's the main thing.
Prabhupāda had many times said just just chant and be happy. And also many times he said, "Work hard." So what shall we do? So what what is that it's it's it seems to me that it's not just uh
to uh we cannot be happy just by chanting. We have to work hard and then chanting will be will making us happy. Yeah, you're right. There is one very nice letter of Prabhupāda. He writes.
Actually, somebody recently sent me this letter.
Uh, you know, knowing how we struggled to establish the temple in Moscow, Prabhupāda in this letter says that all this, you0, you know, building the temples and this and this and it's just only to somehow rather to engage people.
Ultimately our work is chanting and everyone has to be happy.
He says in this letter, if your external work, because there should be a balance, balance between chanting and being happy and working and being miserable. So that's pretty nice. Nice balance between the two.
So Prabhupāda says if you work too hard, He knew that if he only would tell us just to meditate and chant the holy
name because of our rajasic nature, very passionate nature. And people in Kali Yuga are very, very passionate.
So we would not be able to do it and we would ultimately, you know, either become very lazy and tamasic or you know or just leave the movement because we want to spend the excess of our passion for this.
Therefore he said, you work, you work hard, because this is how you can dovetail your energy with the service of Krishna. But ultimately Krishna doesn't need this service in in the real sense.
So the tendency is that when we work hard, hard hard hard and when we only have this motto, work hard now somebody later, then what happens? We become unhappy because we lose this spiritual dimension of our life.
And Prabhupāda in this particular letter which I mentioned, he says that that if you work hard it's nice but if as a result of this work you become unhappy, this is not nice. Then you should stop working hard.
Perhaps you're working too hard. Perhaps you are too passionate. And you are mixing the devotional service. Because service is the attitude within the heart. Service is not the amount of external work which you do.
It's the motivation that's on your heart. And if the motivation is right, then no matter how much you work, you remain happy.
And if the motivation is wrong, if you still are hankering over the fruits of your action, you want to become big. You wanted to become big in the material world, it didn't work.
Now you came to Krishna Consciousness Movement and you want to become big in the Krishna consciousness movement by working hard and enjoying the fruits of your labor. So that's why you become unhealthy.
So yes, we have to, uh, keep this balance of, uh, doing our internal bhajan of reading and chanting and you know preaching to others.
But at the same time, we have to work hard, uh, as much as it is necessary to keep us happy, but when we work too hard and become unhappy because of this, this is not very healthy. This is not a good sign.
So that's how you can basically determine the balance, whether you are keeping the balance or you are off balance. The main point is that you become happy.
This movement is only—this is the only reason, the only reason why Lord Caitanya came, why Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī started, why Śrīla Prabhupāda came, the only reason is to make you happy.
This whole, you know, if you imagine this, the whole development of the history of five hundred years of great Acharyas, the brilliant work is just for this particular purpose: to make you happy.
Challenges of the Moscow temple project
Well, it would be terrible, of course, but ultimately it's going to make you and me and everyone else happy.
Yes, I, I, I seen in, uh, the internet some news about, uh, the Mayapur temple and seemed like so many impediments.
So can you, can you, like, uh, just, uh, tell us some pastime— what's that? It's not a very pleasurable pastime. It's quite a ghastly pastime. The very word pastime means that you just enjoy.
So I don't know if you can call it pastime in the true sense of the word. Maybe you know sometime later we will call it pastimes. Now it's just a heavy struggle. Yeah, then it becomes time.
And uh now it's just it's it's it's a struggle, you know. We were kicked out from a building and the building was demolished and we were promised to another plot of land, we moved to this land.
We struggled for you know almost three years in this land where there's no sewage, uh no water supply. You know, this is it's horrible. People live there, there's no sewage and there's no water supply.
The water the it's it's like living in a desert, you know. It's Moscow where there's a lot of water but still there's no water connected to this building. We're living in this horrible situation.
We're trying at the same time trying to maintain the spirits and the preaching and everything else. We spent a lot of money just just to be there in these temporary conditions.
And then all this just to find out after a couple of years that the Moscow authority wants to take back this land and kick us out. So that's the pastime number one. And the pastime number two. So
then then we go we go here and there we meet with the Prime Minister of India and the Prime Minister of India is trying to speak with this and that and they promise again and promise again and then break the promises.
And then ultimately, this is the pastime number last, in this long row of pastimes, the Moscow authorities come to us and say, we found a very nice land for you. Very nice land.
Just move from this land, we'll give you another land.
So this land is, you know, in the farthest possible corner of the city near the huge heating plant in Moscow there's you know this heating the the the whole you know huge area is being heated centrally and there is a huge tube, you know, fuming the whole year long, and next to it, this is a very nice plot of land is next to this heating plant and so this is anyway, this is so ridiculous.
And then we go to court and then we try to defend. And our lawyer was actually amazed. He said that, how can they do this? This is impossible. This is this is such an obvious violation of all the human laws which is there.
So we go to court and the judge listens the powerful side and that side. And the judge is very sympathetic and she understands this. And then she says, let me think for a couple of days.
And in Russia it means that I have to call somebody and find out what judgment I have to make. So so for a couple of days she's making, you know, phone calls and then she says, No, you lost. This is another pastime, and
um and um just before coming to israel in the morning uh my flight was at eleven o'clock, at seven o'clock, I was in a radio station, in a BBC radio station. And they made an uh interview with me and with one of our opponents from Duma, uh from Member of the Parliament of Russian Parliament. So they put us together in the air and uh they
asked first the opponent, please tell us uh why you are against this Hare Kṛṣṇa temple in Moscow. And he said, yeah, there are formal reasons, but the real reason is that because it is sect.
So and the commentator he asked, can you please give us definition what the sect means? No, no, he said also Muslims are not sect and Jewish are not sect but everything else is sect so and then you know then then
then the uh and the then the again the uh leader the the the one who is making the interview he asked uh uh what about Russian constitution?
According to Russian constitution there is no sects in her the this is same the we have exactly the same status uh as far as the religion uh or religiosity is concerned as Russian Orthodox Church.
Where religious organization Russian Orthodox Church is the religious organization.
So So can you please tell us in the in the in the in the constitution it is said that everyone is equal, all the religions are equal and the state is not being is he not trying to you know manipulate uh saying this or this he
said yes this is there in constitution but you have to know how to interpret the constitution and this is the member of the parliament. You have to know how to explain the constitution in a proper way.
And I said and I said to him, uh you know, my dear sir, and this is very nice, but we have thousands of people in Moscow alone.
Last year we had Janmashtami and we had seven thousand people coming within one day for Janmashtami. So they are Russian citizens. Who they are? Who do you think they are? They are second-class citizens or what?
You know, why why we cannot have temple? Why they cannot have temple? Just because they believe in Kṛṣṇa and not believe in uh Russian Orthodox Church?
And he said, yeah, maybe they are. It was uneasy for him to say that they're second-class citizens. He said but but but but you have to have your temple somewhere far away from every normal human being living.
So this is so so ridiculous. So this is a nice pastimes with you Who is helping the media? Supporting the supporting who? Media. Media uh in in this particular case, yes, it's BBC what do you expect from BBC it's
a BBC world news but uh there is different media in uh Russia some media are very sympathetic yes some media but some media are also quite individual and they're publishing all kinds of strange articles and that they're very consciously trying to demonize us.
There was one crazy man—another pastime, I will tell you, if you're in the pastime— I will tell you another pastime.
Four or five years back, one crazy man who deserted from Russian army and who s at one point of his life entered Hare Krishna temple. He is a certified schizophrenic.
He read Bhagavad-gītā once, or maybe didn't read, I don't know. He had nothing to do with us, nothing to do whatsoever. Nothing.
He was living in a forest because he deserted from the army and he was hiding away in the forest. And in the forest he was killing the animals and you know eating their flesh.
So that's so much this is to show how closely he is connected to the Hare Krishna movement. So this crazy man, because of his crazy idea, goes to some village in Siberia and he kills the priest.
And then when he's arrested, because he's a he's a total complete schizophrenic. When he's arrested, he says, I killed him because Krishna told me to kill him. So you know crazy, totally crazy,
he's put in a psychiatric hospital, you know, and but Russian Orthodox Church ever since for five years say Hare Krishna are killing Russian Orthodox priests. They're so unscrupulous.
They they you know they make demonstrations uh you know in memory of this priest and say, you know, the Hari Krishna devotees, they have this agenda to kill all the priests just just to just to you know to demonize us and to spoil our public image.
For for those stupid people who will hear it and believe it, you know. This is this is the reality where we live.
Spiritual purpose of external obstacles
This is a country where we live. Why do you think Krishna is not with us? Well, because Krishna wants us to become serious. That's the only reason.
Krishna... ultimately, everything will be resolved one way or another, but this is helpful in one sense because all the external impediments and trials are helpful. Uh they make us internally stronger.
Because I've seen it also when people become too complacent and everything is too nice and too good. Then, you know, we're lazy.
And therefore there are some demons in this material world too. They're also playing a very important role, you know, to push.
Even in Vṛndāvana, demons—Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains—increase the the increasing attachment of the devotees to Kṛṣṇa. When the demons come and you know Keśī demon comes and the earth is trembling.
You know, and he's he's making these loud sounds and you know his his tail is up there in the air. So everyone is so afraid and everyone is running towards Krishna saying, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna save us. So why?
Because why it's happening? It's in Vṛndāvana. It's not in Moscow dhāma. At least in Vṛndāvana the Keśī demon has to come from somewhere else. In Moscow they don't have to come from somewhere else. They they just live there.
But uh the purpose is to increase the attachment to Krishna to kind of make us more and give us some also nice understanding and realization about the nature of this world. That's also very important.
Because sometimes we have some illusions, sometimes we say this existence is too negative. This water is actually nice. There's some bad things, but actually it's not so bad.
So but when you see the real nature of this world when this illusion is there, the attachment is still there. But when you encounter all this kind of stuff then you really lose the last traces of attachment. Okay.
Thank you very much for that. Thank you very much. Sorry for the wrong talk. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!