Caitanya-caritamrita Madhya-lila 21.16-18
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2016
Chapters
Reading Chaitanya Charitamrita text and purport
Jaya jaya srichaitana, ja nitananda, srichaitanya channanda, jayadvaita chandra jaya guru bhakta vrindam, jayadva chandaya Vindam, Jaya Jaya Sri Chaitana, Jayanitananda, Jaya Jaya Sri Chaitanya Jaya Nichamanda, Jaya dwaitachandra jaya guru bhakta vrinda, jaya dwa chanda ja gora bhaktrinda, jaya ja srichaitana, jayanitannanda, jaya Jaya dwaitachandraja guru bhapta vrinda.
So we're reading Sri Chaitanya Shaitamita, Madheleva chapter 21, the opulence and sweetness of Lord Krishna text sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.
Saharahu Rajayabe Krishna Vatar Sebamura Krishna, Siharahu Vrajaya B Krishnavatar, Sikahuva Krishna Vata, Tandracharitravicha Tandra Cari Travichari Manapaya Napaya Parita Seharahurajayavekar, Seharavjayavek Krishnavatar, Dandracharitravicharite Mananapai Parita Cari Manav Seharahu Rajayavi Krishnava Seharahuraja Krishna Bha, Tanachari Charihite Manapaya Mannapayara. Something like this.
Siharahu, Seharahu. Leave aside such negative arguments. Vraja in Vrindavan Yabai whenhen Krishna Krishna Lord Krishna Avatar Incarnation Tandra His Charitra Charitra Character Vicharit to deliberate Not
I gets par the limit translation apart from all argument, logic, and negative or positive processes.
When Lord Shri Krishna was present as the supreme personality of Godhead in Vrindavan, no one could find a limit to his potencies bying study his characteristics and activities.
Prakrita prakrita sristi kawaia kakshani asesavaikunta jandam Swaswanat Hasani. At Vrindavana the Lord immediately created all material and spiritual planets in one moment.
Indeed, all of them were created with the predominating deities. We do not hear of such wonderful things anywhere else. Simply by one's hearing all those incidents, one's consciousness is agitated and cleansed.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. When Lord Krishna was present in the earthly Vrindavan, Lord Brahma, taking him to be an ordinary cowhead boy, wanted to test his potency.
Therefore, Lord Brahma stole all the cows and coverhead boys from Krishna and hid them by his illusory energy.
When Krishna saw that Brahmā had stolen his cows and cowherd boys, he immediately created many material and spiritual planets in Lord Brahma's presence.
Within a moment, cowherd boys caused all unlimited Vaikuṇṭhas, all expenses of the Lord's spiritual energy were manifested. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, ānanda-cin-maya-rasa- pratibhāvitābhiḥ.
Not only did Krishna create all the paraphernalia of his spiritual energy, but he also created unlimited material universes with unlimited Brahmās.
All these pastimes, which are described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, will cleanse one's consciousness. In this way, one can actually understand the absolute truth.
The spiritual planets in the spiritual sky are called Vaikuṇṭhas, and each of them has predominating deity Nārāyaṇa with a specific name.
Similarly, in the material sky, there are innumerable planets and universes and each is dominated by a specific deity, Brahmā.
Krishna simultaneously created all this Vaikuṇṭha planets and universes within a moment after Brahmā's return. The word avadhūta means rambling, agitating, moving, absorbed, defeated.
In some readings of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said, yam-hara-śravaṇād cittaṁ mala-hoya-dhuta. Instead of the word avadhūta, the word hayadhūta, meaning that the heart or consciousness is cleansed, are used.
When the consciousness is cleansed, one can understand what and who Krishna is. This is confirmed by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Yeṣāṁ tv antagataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām te dvandva-moha- nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ.
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated, are free from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in my service with determination.
Unless one is free from the reactions of sinful activities, one cannot understand Krishna or engage in his transcendental loving service.
We do not hear of such wonderful things anywhere else, simply by hearing of those incidents one's consciousness is agitated and cleansed.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- pracārine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-
tāriṇe. Kṛpā-sindhubhyaś ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo
namo namaḥ. Jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu- nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta- Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Foundations of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy
Hajanu Lambita Bajokanakava dhatu sankirtanaika Vishwam Bharat Vijayaru Yu Gudharma Palu Vandai Jagat Priya Karu Karu Navataru, Santah Pradishi Mamavachimam Prasuta, Sandi Vayata Kila Shakti So
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is explaining to Srila Sanatana Goswami a very important foundations of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy.
Every school of Vedanta philosophy, which are main five, is distinct in its own way, trying to prove or to explain the absolute truth in a special way.
We have five schools of theistic Vedanta, and each school has its own approach towards reality. Vedanta ultimately is explaining reality in completeness. That's the claim.
Any other philosophy is trying to explain reality, but Vedantic view is the most complete and the most comprehensive description of reality.
And among those schools, again, one can boldly claim that different degrees of completeness of reality or description of reality is manifested. And that truly depends on the approach.
And what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is explaining here to Sanatana Goswami is basically the foundation of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, which according to our opinion, and we can soundly prove this opinion, is the most comprehensive and most complete description of reality.
Because in any other philosophy some parts of the reality and corresponding parts of the scriptures are omitted. They don't find a very comprehensive and very logical explanation.
So basically, if we take Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy as a unique school, philosophical school. There are two main verses of pramanas from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which are foundational for our philosophy.
And we all have to be very clear what is the specialty of our philosophy.
The specialty of our philosophy lays basically in the explanation of two verses from the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. One is Vadanti Tatt Tatvam Vidas Tattvam Yajgyana Madvayam Brahmeti Paramatmati Brahmanam Bhagavaniti Shabdhyate.
That's the famous verse from the second chapter of the first canto, 11th verse, where it is said that one absolute truth is seen from different angles.
The absolute truth is one, but the perception of this absolute truth is threefold. And because of the perception, because of the angle of vision, we have the variety of statements in the Vedas.
The variety of statements in the Vedas should be explained in this way, that this is the description of one reality, one absolute truth from different angles of vision. Brahmeti Paramatmeti Bhagavaniti shabdyate.
That's one very important verse of our philosophy, and definitely the second one is Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.
And no other school of Vedanta philosophy really gives the comprehensive explanation of this verse, Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, even though the verse is so simple.
All other manifestations of God, they are colours and aṁśas. They are parts and parts of the parts and parts of the parts of the parts. But no, Krishna is svayaṁ bhagavān. And everyone is puzzled.
Nobody else dared to explain that Krishna is the original avatari, the most complete manifestation of God.
Because everyone else will try to explain that this is this and this way and that way, twist the very clear statement by Śūta Gosvāmī Goswami himself and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Krishna is also avatāra.
According to everyone, common understanding, whoever you will ask, you will say who is Krishna? Krishna is avatāra. Who's avatar? Vishnu is avatāra.
And only Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he was the first one who said, no, no, he's not avatāra. He's the source of all avatāras. How? Why? Because nobody else manifested the potencies to that extent. Vishnu—forget it.
Vishnu cannot play flute even. Want to speak about anything else? Even this much you can do.
And that's a very peculiar point of our philosophy, which not many people can really understand, because according to everyone, God is Vishnu. And they can make a good case out of it and prove it soundly from different pramanas of different scriptures.
But here in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, in his explanation, in Caitanya Mahāprabhu's explanation to Sanatana Goswami, he is actually, making this point very clear why Krishna is the
Supreme and why he is the real object of worship and why it's only for him we should have our exclusive devotion, not plenty other avatāras, with all due respect.
Ultimately, you know, we have to emulate the mood of gopīs when they saw Nārāyaṇa. They said, Oh dear Nara well, they didn't see Nārāyaṇa, they saw Krishna who pretended to be Nārāyaṇa.
So their reaction was so uh my dear Supreme lord Nārāyaṇa very nice that you are here have you seen Krishna somewhere basically we don't care about you we are looking for Krishna.
So but in order to have this exclusive devotion,
which is not so easy, which is not such a common thing, which should not be taken for granted, we have to be very clear, extremely clear, and completely convinced that that's the way to go.
And that only Krishna is the source of all avatāras and ultimately he should be worshipped, uh not anyone else, nobody else. And when we chant Hare Krishna, we are calling for him.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. And uh the the case which Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is explaining or making while proving
Combining supreme opulence and ultimate sweetness
this point is that nobody else in no any other form of God manifested opulence to this extent. Aiśvarya, his lordliness, because aiśvarya means from the word Ishvara. Ishvara means the power, the controlling power.
No any other manifestation, manifested controlling power or aiśvarya to that extent. But at the same time no other manifestation would manifest the different aspect of Godheads, his sweetness to the same extent.
Nobody else. You take any other stories about anyone else, nowhere you will see uh that limit, that practically unlimited limit. You know it's it's not possible.
Basically Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that here the word Avaduta is explain i is used and the word Avaduta means that you become totally bewildered when you even try to imagine what really Krishna could do.
In one split second, he can manifest unlimited spiritual universes and material universes with all the heads and all the population
of it, in one split second, in Vṛndāvana he's doing this. You know, not possible to imagine. Don't even try. You know, that in one split second he can manifest just one universe with all the with all the living beings, with all their particular individualities and biographies and the you know, and all now of a sudden it's boom there.
Not possible to imagine.
And he is doing it uh uh unlimitedly and you know and therefore uh it is said here then when you think about this, cīta avadhūta. Avadhūta Śrīla Prabhupāda says that your mind becomes agitated. Your head starts reeling, you know, what's really going on.
And not only your head, two, no, sorry, four big heads of Lord Brahma were also reeling, you
You know, our small head, it's not really difficult to make it real, you know. Our mind is quite bewildered anyway, it's always reeling. Whether you try to imagine what Krishna manifested or not.
But he says here that when Lord Brahma has seen the glimpse of Krishna's potency, he became totally, completely bewildered. And at the same time totally, completely purified.
Lord Brahma's bewilderment and prayers
Because Prabhupāda is explaining that this avadhūta or hyadhūta, and that the Chitta and the consciousness was purified when we try to imagine the extent, unimaginable extent of Krishna's glories of, Krishna's opulence.
But at the same time, this is this in itself would be very wonderful. But the most peculiar thing that by being so glorious and so powerful and so I don't know what, so uh unbelievable, he's at the same time so sweet.
And he's totally innocent. He explains this episode, when Lord Brahmā realized the potency of Krishna and started offering his prayers to Krishna.
And really Really in a very enthusiastic way, full of enthusiasm, he was bubbling these Sanskrit verses glorifying Krishna.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that Krishna was standing there as a simple cowherd boy, and he was looking at him and he couldn't understand anything because he doesn't know Sanskrit. He's just a Brajavasī boy.
And uh and he was smiling and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, why he was smiling? Because he was wondering, you know, this four-headed creature is offering prayers from one mouth, but from another mouth some other sound is going on. And Krishna is smiling and he's trying to figure out what's going on.
You can imagine you know somebody is speaking to you and the four mouths are there and you know because Because Brahmāji has four mouths and four heads, because he has to recite four Vedas at the same time. So he can really do this. He can recite different things with different heads. And he was doing this in front of Krishna.
Kristin was wondering, yeah, far out. Very interesting. So uh and that's that's the definition of sweetness.
Uh Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he gave a very interesting definition of mādhurya and aiśvarya, which we have to know and to understand, to understand, to really have the key, to understand Krishna's pastimes.
Because ultimately, if we have the key, if we have the this passport to these pastimes then by reading about these pastimes we can we
can be more or less transported into these pastimes and by being there and you know witnessing these pastimes, our consciousness will be completely cleansed, totally cleansed.
So Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he explains that the mood of aiśvarya, the difference between the mood of aiśvarya and the mood of mādhurya. He says that aiśvarya is this mood of God when he only manifests his lordliness, his power, his heroic or whatever his unbelievable nature. And when he's in this mood, then you
can only relate to him in a very reverential mood. He just more or less instills this mood in you. When he shows His unbelievable power, then you will have no choice but tremble in fear.
And there is no any other way to relate to him in this particular mood when he is manifesting his aiśvarya. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that that's exactly what he did when he was manifesting his universal
form, virāṭ-rūpa, to Arjuna. And you know, when he just just in one point he He uh unpacked his universal form. He kind of made it visible to Arjuna in one point, you know, Arjuna,
in one point Arjuna saw everything and he started trembling. And then he said in the same way, he manifested his power to also to Brahma. In this particular pastime he all of a sudden manifested
all these powers because actually that was the act of his mercy because he knew that the cause of bewilderment of Brahma was that Brahma couldn't really relate to him.
He's so used to relate to him and this Sahastra Shirsa Purushaha, Sahasra Kshah, Sahasra Pat, all this you know Purusha Sukta mood. Lord Brahma he always recites this uh hymn from Rigveda,
Sahastra Shir Sha Purushaha, he has thousands and thousands and thousands of heads
and thousands of eyes and thousands of legs and thousands of everything else, you know, Sahasra Shirsa Purusha. And Krishna, a little innocent boy, he says, you want to see me in this mood? Yeah, no problem. See it.
Because he wants relationship and Brahma cannot relate to him in this form. So he manifested this opulence, this Aishwarya. But at the same time, what for a second, for a split second, Brahma has seen this amazing
display of his opulences, but in the next second he
has he again sees Krishna, very innocent small boy, standing there, you know looking, having uh very I mean that's actually what really turned off Brahma's head because he had this yogurt trice in his left hand.
And he had some pickle which is between the fingers of the left hand and he was taking by his right hand something from the left hand and was eating, which is, I mean, Lord Brahma can't, he just can't see it because it's so uncultured.
It's the limit of unculturedness. Krishna not only manifested the limit of his opulence and mādhurya,
but the limit of his unculturedness because according to Vedic culture this Abhiras and Krishna was from this tribe, this is a tribal uh abhiras they are very low ruler low class people.
And Krishna Nanda Mahārāja is from this Abhiras. And uh the in Vedic culture, Abhiras they are called not śūdras, they are called Mahashudras. Because they're so dull.
You know, they're always with the animals, and because when you're always with the animals, you also become like, you know, very dull.
Krishna is there having this rice and you know eating from his left and you know it's just Lord Brahmā looks at this and he just he can't understand anything.
So again, Srila Jivagaswami says that when he realized when Krishna displayed for a split second complete unlimited opulences which he had, and at the same time all of a sudden became again just normal little boy, Lord Brahma wanted to offer obeisances to him.
It is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that he fell like a like a golden rod in front of Krishna.
Explains a very peculiar difficulty which Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains a very peculiar difficulty which Lord Brahma had at that moment.
He wanted to make complete obeisances to Krishna because that's the only thing which we can do. Tatenu Kampam Susa Mikshamanam Bhujane Vatmak Kritam Vipakam Khrid Vagva Pudr Vidadana Namaste Budjaya Bajataya Mukti Pada Sadaya Bhak.
So he wanted to have this, you know, complete obeisances. Obeisances with his speech, obeisances with his body, obeisances with his mind, everything. You know, he had big problem because he has four heads.
So while one head is on the ground, another head is looking up. And he is trying to put this head also down, but you know when he puts the other head down, another one is still up.
So Shiva Jivigaswami says that he had a very awkward sort of situation while trying to, you know, pay obeisances with all the foreheads because it's kind of from the geometrical point of view not possible. So you can't really put all the heads at the same time on the ground.
So he was not satisfied with his obeisances. He was not satisfied with the level of his surrender. He wanted to surrender completely but could not.
But still he was somewhat happy that at least he is there on the ground in front of Krishna. And Kṛṣṇa was looking at it was really, it was really funny for him. He was far out. What's going on here?
So that's that's the situation.
So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he explains that aiśvarya mood is then the mood when God only manifests his power as much as he manifested to Vāsudeva and Devakī while he was speaking to them with four hands and explaining their past lives and explaining and basically saying that I am fulfilling your promise.
But then he says, what is mādhurya? Mādhurya means whether he manifests power or not manifests power. It's not sometimes he manifests power, sometimes he does not manifest power.
Humanlike innocence during supernatural pastimes
But uh either manifesting power or not manifesting power, he is at the same time undisturbed in his Naravat mood, in his human-like mood, he may manifest unlimited power, but still his mood as being a human-like creature, child, is undisturbed.
He's still child. You know, his power is manifested, his yoga-māyā manifesting his power, but he's still he himself feels that he is the child. Like when he was killing
Putana, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives this example. He says, when Pūtanā, you know, he started sucking her breast. Little baby, you know, he kind of clung to her breast and started sucking, and Pūtanā anticipating, was anticipating that now he will be dead and he will just kind of uh fall off my breast. But instead he was just clinging there and started sucking her breast and she started started yelling at him, muncha, muncha, leave me alone, leave me alone. And then, you know, she because of pain, she started flying.
And you know, you can imagine probably with all this movie and everything, you know, it's a very interesting picture, every scene, you know, huge witch is flying.
And you know, according to the uh scenario, Krishna at that moment could have manifested his power. He was disguising like a small child, now she's totally completely bewildered
and he would probably, you know, if the if it was a bad movie, he would probably start laughing at this point. He would probably no he didn't. He was he he couldn't understand what's going on, why his nurse is so nervous.
He couldn't understand what's really going on. He's just a small child. He is manifesting this unlimited powers, unbelievable powers, but at the same time his Naravat mood is not disturbed at all.
And you know, she when she was dead, he's just crawling, you know, totally, completely bewildered, not understanding. And the point is that he's not pretending to be bewildered. He is bewildered.
That's exactly what that's how Bhīṣma Cakravarṭī Ṭhākura explains this. He says that if he was not bewildered Queen Kunti would not be bewildered. She was bewildered because he was bewildered.
In her prayers, she gives this verse, he says uh what's this verse? Copiada de I I don't remember now.
But anyway, uh he he says that uh I can't understand because I've seen at that moment Samacharyas explained that Queen Kunti at that day when Dhamma Darlila took place that Queen Kunti came to visit Yaśodā in Vṛndāvana. She wanted to see Krishna.
She was a witness of this līlā. She was probably among those ladies who were there with the ropes trying to help you so to to bind Krishna.
So Queen Kunti says I can't I can't really understand that I know you're God. I have no doubt that you're God.
But at the same time, I see that you're crying and your eyes are really frightened, and you're looking here and there. And I know for sure that you're not pretending to be frightened. You are frightened.
The one whom the death personified is being afraid of is frightened because some cowhead lady has a stick in her hands and running behind him.
And Queen Kuntī says, this is what completely bewildering me. I can't, you know, I I I could understand if you would pretend, if you would just play a role. That would be understandable. What I can't understand is that you're not pretending, you're frightened. You're really frightened.
And that's exactly what constitutes mādhurya. Mādhurya means when the Naravat mood is not disturbed, no matter what. And then Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, okay, when he displays the power and his mood is not disturbed, you can understand that this is sweet. This is really sweet.
He says it's really sweet when somebody who is so opulent at the same time is so loving, is so innocent, is so I mean this is really sweet.
Analogy of power tempered by affection
There is actually an interesting story from Akbar's time. Once Akbar Akbar had a peculiar habit.
He would call all his courtiers and he would ask them some bewildering questions, checking their intelligence or their way to do this.
So once he was in the court, in his courtroom, and he asked his courtiers what punishment will we make, will we inflict upon a person who would pull my moustache?
Can you imagine, you know, big, big, big, big king of, you know, Mughal Empire, you know, very powerful person with big moustache. What kind of punishment will we do if somebody will pull my moustache?
And all the courtiers started saying, you know, we will decapitate him, we will just cut off his head, we will hang him, we will do this, we will torture him, this and that.
And then he asked Birbal, Birbal, what would you say? Birbal said, I would probably give him some sweets.
He says, Birbal, what are you talking about? You know, I'm asking what punishment would you inflict or somebody who is pulling my moustache. He says, yes, of course.
The only punishment which you can do to him is to give him some sweets. He says, how come? He says, because the only one who can do it is your little grandson.
And if your little grandson will pull your moustache you will not decapitate him, will you? You can only give him some sweets.
So basically the point is that if somebody is so powerful, but at the same time is so human-like, he's so like like in this uh relating in this way, like this big Akbar, you know. He's very powerful.
But you know, when he's dealing with the with his little child, with his little grandson, he's dealing in a very sweet way. You know, he's pulling his moustache and he's saying, yeah, right, take little sweet.
So that's uh he says when the uh when there is this uh when the aiśvarya and mādhurya come together and manifest together, then it's sweet, it's very interesting.
But then Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, what about the pastimes where Krishna didn't manifest any aiśvarya. Like while he was stealing the
He didn't manifest any aiśvarya there. He was just stealing the butter like a little child. So what is so sweet about this?
It's sweet when there is huge power, but at the same time, despite of having this huge power, you're not manifesting the power, you're manifesting your human nature, your sweet loving nature.
That's that's very sweet, that's mādhurya. But if you're only manifesting this sweet loving nature, what's so sweet about it? It's not so sweet. It may be sweet, but not that sweet.
So Viśvanātha Cakravartī says, why Krishna manifests these pastimes? It's understandable when He manifests the past times where two are together and that's really interesting.
But when He is just like a human being, like in this, in rāsa-līlā. What's so sweet about this? You know, he's just a young boy and you know what's so sweet. It sounds like very ordinary.
But then Viśvanātha Cakravartī says, no, it's still very sweet. Why is it sweet? Because the power is implied.
We all know that the power is there, that he can manifest the power, he doesn't manifest this power, and it doesn't matter. The main point of sweetness is that he is the most powerful. He is unlimitedly powerful.
But at the same time, sometimes he manifests the power, sometimes he doesn't manifest the power, but he behaves in a very normal way, either manifesting or not manifesting the power.
And that's exactly the point which Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is explaining in this chapter to Sanatan Goswami.
Purifying consciousness by hearing pastimes
How this aiśvarya and mādhurya together. And how this aiśvarya and mādhurya are together to such an extent in Kṛṣṇa, which makes Him Bhagavān svayam. Basically, that's the philosophically, he is trying to explain why only Krishna. Why Krishna is the ultimate object of worship and nobody else.
No any other avatāra, no any not Rāma even. What to speak about Nṛsiṁha and everyone, anyone else. Only because of this, because it's all all together and we really have to understand this.
And when we understand this, as Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining, when we understand this, then our chitta, our heart will automatically be cleansed.
When we really understand the nature of God, then the attraction towards God will manifest in a natural way because now due to the covering of the contamination, the attraction does not manifest.
It's like if you take a rusty uh iron, then the rusty iron, because of this rust on the surface, is not really attracted to the magnet.
This covering of rust is the hindrance, the impediment for the iron which is naturally attracted to magnet, but it's an impediment for the iron to be attracted to magnet.
In the same way, because of our material contamination which is there in our consciousness, the thick covering of this material contamination, because it's there, we don't feel attraction towards Kṛṣṇa. Don't feel.
We chant his holy name, no attraction.
Like one devotee he was joking, there is this famous verse of Rūpa Gosvāmī which is there in Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya. Naṭana-janita-guṇa-stuty-aiḥ, what is this kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ? He says in this verse, while explaining the attractive power of the Holy Name, of the name of Krishna.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, when I chant the holy name, I feel like I have I want to have thousands of mouths, and when I hear the sound of the Holy Name, I want to have thousands of ears, and when the Holy Name comes into the courtyard of my heart, all the senses become very still and you know don't move and I only want to hear this holy name. And I don't know, you know, how much nectar is there in these two syllables, Krishna.
I don't know how much nectar is there. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says. And one devotee he very aptly says, yeah, he's right. I I also don't know how much nectar is in these two syllables. I absolutely don't know.
Because there is no nectar for us. We don't have because the heart is not attracted. Why is not attracted? Because it's covered.
And therefore, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī being the sambandhācārya, the ācārya whose actually real mission to explain to us the attractive power of Krishna. That's what Sambandha means.
Sambandha means that we have to understand our connection with Krishna, our relations with Krishna. And for that we need to clean our heart.
So therefore, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he's explaining this to him so that he would explain it to us.
And as Prabhupāda says, or, uh, as it is indicated in this verse if we hear this and try to understand what's going on, try to really understand, not just mechanically read and you know, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. No, but really understand who is Krishna, how much power he has, and he did manifest.
And at the same time, how sweet he was during all this unimaginable display of power, then our heart will be cleansed and the attraction will be felt very naturally.
We will really, you know, if we really understand who is Krishna, you know, the the desire to be with him will be very natural. Yeah, right. Far out. I want to be there.
I want also to be in the dust of Vṛndāvana with one of my heads, you know, down, paying obeisances to him and laughing and smiling with him and everything.
So that's the that's basically the meaning of this whole chapter where Śrīla Caitanya Mahāprabhu is explaining to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī and the amazing power of Krishna and his amazing sweetness.
And the first verse of, uh, Brahmā's prayers, uh, is actually explaining this.
Uh, the first verse from the fourteenth chapter, namas te 'stu bhagavan vīryāya dharaṇī-dharāya guṇāvatāya te. He says, Oh my dear Lord, I know you're God. But at the same time, you're so sweet.
Lakṣmī-śrīyam mṛdu-pade su-paṅkajai, he says Lakṣmī-śrī mṛdu-pade. You have such a small feet. You know, Brahma is there in front of Krishna's feet and he says really tiny small feet of Krishna.
And Mridu Mridupadam Ridupada means very soft. Lakṣmī-śrīyam mṛdu-pade, paśu-paṅkajai.
Paśu-paṅkajai basically says you are you are of this, you know, you were born among these cowherd people. Pashu means animals. People who are dealing with animals in your Pashupangajai, you're there.
And oh my lord, I I will never be able to figure out who you are because you're so sweet. And that's what he he says, explaining that he's baffled by Krishna's sweetness and surrendering completely.
Therefore, then he says, let's give up all our intellectual efforts to understand God. Yane prayasam Udapasyanamanteva and just surrender to Him.
Not intellectually, just being conquered by his unlimited sweetness and at the same time Ashwari which is covered by this sweetness. Thank you very much.
Spiritual purification versus modern psychology
Maybe there's yes, Shakti. Thank you, Maharaj.
Um these days there are so many um techniques available amongst the community for different ways of purifying by self and self-development psychology and somehow into this until this to the ground one can feel oh this is what needs to do to it is a this not uh oh this memory or this thing that happened to me about. So how to develop faith that actually these past times which singingly have nothing to do with my uh well externally with with my things but still
purifying the development things All these psychological techniques they
may be useful to a certain extent, but we really have to understand the limits of this psychological techniques because you're basically not adding any new quality to your psyche.
Uh you're just more or less exchanging the energies or whatever, you know, trying to free this and that. And ultimately it's very it's very limited. And not only limited, but it's also materialistic.
What is dangerous about borrowing all these techniques from the different traditions and trying to apply it. Sometimes we we may recommend even this, but we have to be really careful by mixing different methods.
Because every method which is developed on this path or that path for purification of the heart, and you know there are so many methods are there. Psychology is not the only one.
But there is some philosophical basis behind this. And while using or applying this method, you also more or less subscribing to the philosophy upon which it is founded.
Like basically the psychology, I mean there are probably different branches and different schools of psychology, but if we take the original psychology developed by Freud, then it's very materialistic.
It's extremely materialistic. It's actually one of the pillars of materialism.
You're nothing but your mind and your mind is sick and your mind is ultimately lusty and you know and the lust, the fulfillment of the lust is more or less the meaning of your life and this and that.
So while using all these techniques you are also being contaminated by the philosophy which is behind this. The method uh may be working to a certain extent, but you don't really know uh what's going on.
Therefore mm you know while trying to mm get help from different sources, and there is nothing wrong with it. We have to be at the same time very much conscious of what exactly is going on on a subtle level.
And our way of purifying consciousness and the heart is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇu-smaraṇaṁ, and we all know that it works.
It's just sometimes we are little uh forgetful or negligent because we are too familiar with all these things. And we think we need something little more sophisticated. You know what is this?
I'm just listening about past times of the Lord and you know and uh everyone, every devotee has this experience. He goes to a class, and if the class is really good, he goes out of the class, he's relieved.
There is not so much burden and he's happy, the heart is clean and you know you want to love everyone, you want to embrace everyone, the the heart is full and you know. after some time.
It's no problem, but but still this purification you can feel. You really can feel. You go out on the street with Harinam, you you come back home and you know you feel some something happened.
But because we are it's a human psychology, we always we always think that the grass is greener on the other side, that the other methods are better. But look what other people are doing, you know.
I was just recently speaking with one professional psychology student of professional psychology. He said, every psychologist, that's the rule, that's a governmental rule.
According to the governmental regulation, every psychologist who is helping other people, he has to take psychological help himself at least one and a half hour every month. So much for this method, so to speak, you know, because he he becomes overburdened by this and he he develops some problems. And he has to go to a psychologist and you know have a psychoanalysis session and try to get rid of this.
There is no such regulation for of course when I heard this I thought probably we should do something similar to the gurus, you know, that every guru has to have one and a half hour of psychoanalysis session. But
but if seriously speaking uh just by listening or speaking about Krishna's pastimes you become purified. I just wonder purified for from what? Purified? Purified from from what? Purified? What is the dust?
What is the contamination which is there in our heart? All kinds of foreign desires. The innate desire of the soul is to be with Krishna, to love Krishna, to serve. The contamination is I want to be served.
I want to enjoy myself. This is the contamination. So when we speak about Krishna we really feel very light and we don't we don't really need anything. But when we are contaminated we always think you
know what is you know I need to get this and I need this and somebody should appreciate me and somebody should do this to me. So this is what we should be purified of selfish nature, egocentric nature. Yeah.
So we have also like bodily needs, emotional needs in this thing as long as we are like attached in material body and mind.
Prioritizing spiritual needs over material desires
So is that the kind of education or see, uh, the the idea and the very foundation of Vedic culture is that when you are when you satisfy your higher needs.
The lower needs, first of all, they become less demanding and they diminish. You know, if you are really fulfilled in your heart, then naturally that's
that's proven many times phenomenon, that people who satisfy their heart, their soul, their material demands are less. They are not so choosy and demandy. They can be very happy with little rice or whatever.
So the idea is that and then uh on
the contrary, when you just try to satisfy your bodily demand and preoccupied with this futile attempts to satisfy all the bodily demands, your demands become bigger and bigger and bigger, and ultimately you remain unsatisfied.
So the idea is that if you satisfy your soul, then emotionally you will be very balanced and satisfied because of this feeling which is there in the soul.
And your bodily demands will be less and it will be very easy for you to satisfy your bodily demands as well. We are not neglecting or denying this emotional need or physical needs.
It's obviously there, but we are trying to satisfy both physical and emotional needs through the media of the soul. And if the soul is satisfied, then it's easy to solve other problems.
Whereas if we go from down up, soul will never be satisfied. By fulfilling physical demands, we will never be emotionally happy. It's not automatic.
Whereas if you go from up uh down, then you know by by fulfilling the needs of the soul you will automatically satisfy both physical and emotional demands if it's really so. If you really said it so. Okay.
I I I'm told that I should finish. It's already late. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī-jaya!