Nityananda Trayodashi. Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 5.1.7
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Prayagraj · 2025
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Jaya Śrī Caitanya Nityānanda, Jaya Śrī, Jitādvaita Candra Jaya Guru Bhakta Bṛnda, Jaya Śrī Caitanya Nityānanda, Jaya Śrī Caitanya, Jaya Nityānanda, Jaya Advaitacandra Jaya Gurubhakta Bṛnda, Jaya Advaita Candra Jaya Jaya Śrī Caitanya, Jaya Advaita Candra Jaya Gaura Bhakta Bṛnda.
Celebration of Nityananda Trayodashi
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So today is the Tryodushithi of the month of monk punarvasu nakshatra. This is the day of Nityānanda Prabhu's appearance. trayodaśī ki jaya, so Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, chapter five,
Glory of Nityānanda Balarāma, text number seven: saṅkarṣaṇaḥ kāraṇa-toya- śāyī garbhodaka-śāyī ca payobdhi-śāyī śeṣaś ca yasyāṁśa- kalāḥ sa nityānandākhyo rāmaḥ śaraṇaṁ mamāstu. Saṅkarṣaṇa
Kāraṇa-toya-śāyī, Garbhodaka-śāyī, ca payobdhi-śāyī, Garbhodaka-śāyī ca payobdhi-śāyī, Garbhodaka-śāyī ca payobdhi-śāyī, śeṣaś ca yasyāṁśa-kalāḥ, chapayobi shai, se shashayasyam shakala sanitya,
śeṣaś ca yasyāṁśa- kalāḥ sa nityānandākhyo rāmaḥ śaraṇaṁ mamāstu, nityānandākhyo śaraṇaṁ mamāstu.
Expansions of the supreme divine
Saṅkarṣaṇaḥ kāraṇa-toya-śāyī, garbhodaka-śāyī ca payobdhi-śāyī, śeṣaś ca yasyāṁśa- kalāḥ sa nityānandākhyo rāmaḥ śaraṇaṁ mamāstu, mamā śaraṇaṁ mamāstu. Saṅkarṣaṇaḥ Mahā-saṅkarṣaṇa in the spiritual sky.
Mahā-saṅkarṣaṇa in the spiritual sky, Kāraṇa-toya-śāyī, Kāraṇa- udaka-śāyī, Viṣṇu who lies in the causal ocean, Garbhodaka-śāyī, Garbhodaka Viṣṇu, Garbhodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu who lies in the Garbhodaka Ocean of the Universe.
Cha and Payah Abdhishai Abhishishai Ksirada Kashay Vishnu who lies in the ocean of milk.
Sesha Seshanaga the couch of Vishnu Cha Cha and Yasya Hus Amsha Plenary portions Kalaha and parts of the plenary portions Saha He Nityananda Akya Nityananda Aknown as Lord Nityananda Ramaha Lord Balaram Lord Balaram Sharanam Shelter Mama Mai A to let there be.
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace Asi Bhaktividanta Swami Sila Prabadaki May Srinityananda be the object of my constant remembrance, Sankarsana, Shesanaga and the Vishnu who lie in the Karana Ocean, Garbha Ocean, and the Ocean of Milk are his plenary portions and the portions of his plenary portions.
Siswarupada Madhar Gaswami has recorded this verse in his diary to offer his respectful obeisances to Lord Nityananda Prabhu.
This verse also appears in the seventh of the first fourteen verses of Sri Chaitanya Chaitamrita. Sri Prabhupada ki chamam visnupadya Krishna Prashtaya Butaleshri Mate Bhaktividanta Swaminamini,
Namaste Saraswati Devi Goravani Pracharine, Nirvisha Sunyavati Paschatesari Vanchakalpataru Bescha Kripasinduvacha Pattitanampavane
Bhyovaisnava Byonamona Chay Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunitananda Sri Dwai Tagadhara Siv Sadhguru Rhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama
Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Ram Ram Ajanu
Lan Bita Bujoka Nakavadu, Sankirtanaika Pita Roka Malaya Taksa. Vishwambarod Vijaaru, Yugodharma Palu, Bandi Jagat Priya Karo Karunavataru.
Yuntak pra visya mamavachamam prasubta Sandje Vaya te kila Shakti Darah Swadhamnanyam Schahastacharna, Sravanatva Gadim, Pranan Mau Bhagavathi Puru Shay Dubam, Swastuvisalah, Prasiddatam dhyantubani sivam mitodiya manaschabadramba jatata doksha jadeshyatam no matir atpiaituki.
So I will chant a few more verses from the same chapter of Sri Chaitanya Chaitamrita starting from the verse 201.
Jaya Jaya Nityananda Jaya kripa maia ja Yanhahoiti painarupa sanata shroy, jahoiti All glory, all glory to the merciful Lord Nityananda, by whose mercy I have attained shelter at the lotus feet of Shri Rupa and Sanatana.
Yanhahoitepainu Ragunatamahasay, Yanha Hojtipainu Shriswarupa Shrai, Yamavikai Sriswarupā By his mercy I have attained the shelter of the great personality Sri Ragunatada
Dasagaswami and by His mercy I have found the refuge in Sriris Swarupadama dar.
Sanatana Kripapa, Bhaktira Siddhanta, Sripa Kripapainu, Bhaktika Siddhanta, Sripa Kripaya Painum Bhakti Rasapranta Sri Rupakripaya Pātira Sapranta
by the mercy of Sanatna Gaswami I have learned the final conclusions of devotional service, and by the grace of Sri Rupa Gaswami, I have tasted the highest nectar of devotional service.
And then the verse two hundred and four Jaya nityananda charanaravinda janhahoypa no sri Rada Govinda.
Teachings on seeking Nityananda's mercy
All glory, all glory to the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda, by whose mercy I have attained Sri Radha Govinda.
Srila Naratam Das Thakur, who is famous for his poetic composition known as Pratana, has lamented in one of his prayers. When when Lord Nityananda be merciful upon me, so that I will forget all material desires.
Shilanarotam Dastakur confirms that unless one is freed from material desires to One cannot understand the transcendental abode of Lord Krishna, Vrindavana.
He also confirms that one cannot understand the loving affairs of Radha and Krishna without going through the direct direction of the six Goswamis.
In another verse, Narathamadas Thakur has stated that without the causeless word mercy of Nityananda Prabhu one cannot enter into the affairs of Radha and Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada Gija So it's my great fortune to be with all of you on this day of Nityananda Trayodeshi, which is a very important day for all of us.
As Srila Prabhupada explains in his purports and in many other places. We can only understand and get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by going through the root of Lord Nityananda. Lord Nityananda is the doorway.
He is the doorkeeper. He is the someone who gives us the access to the mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
Lord Chaitanya came to give mercy to everyone, but then he kind of had the second thought and he said, let him be the guardian let this madman be the guardian of my mercy he to distribute the mercy to everyone, but he needed Lord Nityānanda to accomplish this task to ultimately give his mercy to everyone.
So we'll talk about this during this lecture on Nityānanda Trayodaśī.
So Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, in the beginning of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he made 14 verses of Maṅgalācaraṇa to Caitanya-caritāmṛta to make us understand the siddhānta behind the appearance of Lord Chaitanya.
Lord Caitanya, as we know, appeared in 1486 in Navadvīpa, in the house of Jagannātha Miśra, in the house of a brāhmaṇa, quite famous in Navadvīpa, a poor brāhmaṇa in Navadvīpa.
And from the external point of view, he is just an ordinary living entity. But gradually, gradually, among his followers, he revealed his identity as the Supreme Lord.
And Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, while writing Caitanya-caritāmṛta, wants to underscore first and foremost his identity so that we could understand the inner purport of his līlās. To understand the meaning of his actions and his words and to understand the gravity of his message, we first have to understand his nature or his tattva.
Before understanding the tattva, we will never be able to understand the līlā. This is a very important principle.
Sometimes people like to hear līlās. And of course, it's always nice to hear lilas because it's fun and you don't have to be too serious about it.
But to understand the līlā, you have to understand tattva first. Then only the meaning of the līlā will be clear, otherwise it will be just stories, and there are so many stories, especially in India.
In India, you have Amar Chitra Katha. So so many stories are there. Endless ocean of stories.
Kathā-sarit-sāgara. So this famous story, It's just story after story after story, and of course you can engage your mind in listening stories endlessly, but the result will be very meager,
unless you understand the inner meaning behind the stories, and you can only understand the inner meaning if you understand the nature of the
heroes of the stories, in our case, of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu. And therefore, very painstakingly in the beginning, in the Ādi-līlā, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, after quoting these verses from Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, who was the first one who revealed the inner nature or inner tattva of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his associates, he explains in great detail who is who.
And of course, we have to accept it on the face value, otherwise uh we will not have access to the pastimes of uh Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. We will only be on the surface of these pastimes.
At best, we will think like so many other people think Caitanya Mahāprabhu is a great saint. He's not a great saint. He's God.
He's Krishna Himself. He revealed it to some of His followers. And if we know this, we can understand.
We can chant Hare Krishna Mahā-mantra. And we will get the result of chanting Hare Krishna mahā-mantra, which is premā. But if we don't know this, yeah, we will chant Hare Krishna mahā-mantra, but we will not get the result. He is God Himself who has come to give us this holy name which is non-different from Him and to reveal His innermost feelings of love because He invested these feelings in the uh sounds of Hare Krishna mahā-mantra.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. But He didn't come alone, He came with all His entourage from the spiritual world and His first and foremost helper in this pastime of spreading love of God was Nityānanda Prabhu whose appearance day we are celebrating today.
And it is said that among Pañca- tattva there is one Mahāprabhu. And there are two Prabhus. Advaita Prabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu. And one Mahāprabhu.
And Advaita Prabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu both are much older than Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Advaita Prabhu is 53 or 52 years older than Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Nityānanda Prabhu is 12 years older than Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but they all worship Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They all showed to the world that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Lord. He is God Himself, He is Krishna Himself.
And we are prabhus, yes. They also on the level of viṣṇu-tattva, they also came to help Him, but at the same time they are serving Him and that's their eternal position.
And it is revealed by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī where he says that only Kṛṣṇa is the Lord, everyone is His servant.
Categories of divine manifestations
So, in this verse which we read in the beginning, it is said that Nityananda Prabhu is uh, vibhava, uh, prakāśa of uh Lord Krishna himself.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained to Sanātana Gosvāmī this very technical science of incarnations. He says that Krishna Himself is svayaṁ-प्रकाश.
He manifests His innermost nature, but he also can expand himself in many, many different ways. He is the origin of all incarnations and all expansions, and even small tiny jivas are ultimately expansions of Lord Krishna.
He is avatārī, He is the source of all avatāras, and therefore He is called svayaṁ prakāśa, He is svayaṁ rūpa, He is manifesting himself and only he can manifest himself.
But then, when the need is there, He manifests so many different prakāśas, different manifestations of Himself, and they are called prabhava-prakāśa. That 10% identical with the Lord Himself
when Lord Krishna was dancing rāsa-līlā dance. He manifested Himself in many, many prakāśas, in many, many different expansions. And all these expansions were totally identical with Lord Krishna, so much so
that gopīs couldn't recognize that there are many Krishnas. They only saw the Krishna, who is next to her. But Krishna Himself, as svayaṁ-prakāśa, was... Vāsadr gopīs was prabhava-prakāśa of Krishna.
And this is a prabhava-prakāśa, which is totally identical with the original svayaṁ-prakāśa. But still there is a slight difference, totally unnoticeable to anyone,
but Krishna Himself knows, "I am Krishna and this is My prakāśa." It's very difficult to understand. But then when His mood slightly changes, the prakāśa or manifestation of Krishna... Prakāśa means manifestation.
It's called vaibhava-prakāśa. Bhāva means bhāva, mood, and vaibhava is a special mood.
So the first manifestation of Krishna in the form of vaibhava-prakāśa, with a special mood different from the mood of Lord Krishna Himself, is Lord Balarāma.
And there the difference is visible to everyone, because Krishna is śyāma, He is black, He is blackish, and Balarāma is white.
Krishna is born on aṣṭamī day and Balarāma is born on pūrṇimā day, and therefore He is so white, like milk, like the full moon.
And the same Balarāma, vaibhava-prakāśa, the first vaibhava-prakāśa of Lord Krishna, came to help Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His pastimes, says Nityānanda Prabhu.
Contrasting moods of Krishna and Balarama
And this is exactly what Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī is explaining here. He's explaining that in every pastime, what is the difference between Krishna and Balaram? The mood is different. The mood of Krishna, I'm the enjoyer.
I'm sevya Bhagavān. I'm the Bhagavān, I am God who is accepting service. That's why he is black. Black means black according to physical science black absorbs everything. So that's why Krishna is black, he absorbs everything.
Everyone else, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is she is golden. She is giving him love and he's accepting love. That's his mood. I am sevya Bhagavān, I am accepting buddhi, I am accepting love.
And here in this material world we're trying to imitate Krishna and we also want to accept love. But it's a mistake because we're not supposed to accept love, we're supposed to give love. We are expansions of Krishna.
And even Balaram, the very first expansion of Krishna, very first manifestation of Krishna, he manifests completely different mood, uh, which is that of sevaka Bhagavān.
He is Bhagavān himself, but at the mood of sevaka. He is the servant, he is giving love, and therefore he is white. Krishna is black, he is white. Krishna is taking and Balaram is giving. So that's the difference.
Of course when Krishna comes as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he is also given. Therefore, he is golden. He is also emanating this effulgence of love. But in the mood of Lord Nityānanda, he manifests
this same unreserved mood of service. Like Balaram Prabhu, he is serving Krishna in every capacity. In śānta-rasa, he is serving as his paraphernalia and his as a holy dhāma in dāsya-rasa
he is serving the Lord as his personal servant sometimes in uh or like Lakṣmaṇa he's serving the Lord as personal servant by arranging uh everything for his facilities and then uh in
Sakhya-rasa he's dancing with uh Krishna and playing flute sometimes, like in Nandagrām, uh there is this mūrti when Krishna and Balaram they are all black and they all play. And
then in vātsalya-rasa he's protecting Lord Krishna and in mādhurya-rasa he's making his special expansion not, to make rasābhāsa and as an Aṅga Mañjarī, he's serving the Lord.
In the same way, when Lord Chaitanya is coming, when the Supreme Lord Krishna is coming to this world to distribute love. Lord Nityānanda is coming to him together with him to help him to distribute this love.
And as I said, Lord Chaitanya gave this special privilege to Lord Nityananda. He said, You will become the holy guardian of my love, and only through
you people will get access to Krishna prema. And that's exactly what Srila Prabhupada explains in this purport.
Role of Nityananda as original guru
You can only know Radha Govinda if you get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And Lord Nityananda is of course akhanda guru-tattva, the original guru tattva. And as original Guru Tattva, he is the guardian.
And we first have to surrender to Lord Nityananda. And by surrendering to Lord Nityananda, to our spiritual master, through the surrender to spiritual master, we will get the mercy of Lord Nityananda.
And by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, quoting Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, our material desires will become tuccha, will become insignificant.
We will experience this nityananda, the eternal Ananda, which Lord Nityananda Himself experiences by surrendering to his representative spiritual master.
And then our desires will become insignificant, and our desires will not disturb us. And while chanting the holy name in an undisturbed mood with assimulated mind, very concentratedly.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare. We will get Krishna prema. Because now we're chanting and our mind is somewhere else, because our mind wants to enjoy.
Our mind is telling us, what are you doing here? You're wasting your time. Go enjoy somewhere. Why are you here? But by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, the peacefulness can come to our mind.
And Krishna Himself says, aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham. Where is the question of happiness without peace? So Lord Nityananda first gives you peace and after giving you peace, he gives you ananda bliss.
First peace, then bliss, and then Krishna prema. So this is how it goes. And this is why Lord Nityananda came together with Lord Chaitanya to help him.
And we will speak a little bit about his pastimes because uh his pastimes are unlimited. It uh it would be very difficult to explain all his pastimes.
But as I said, he was born uh twelve years before Lord Chaitanya in Radadesh, in the place where Ganga is not flowing, you're living next to Sangam, you're very happy you're living in the most holy place, Prayag Raj and Tirtaraj, the place of all the holy Tirtas where they reside.
But Lord Nityananda trying to explain his mission from the moment of his birth, he was born in Radadesh where Ganga does not flow, and therefore people are naturally not so pious.
The further away people live from Ganga, the less pious they are. That's the rule of this world. And of course the most impious people live in Russia, Europe and America because they're too far away from Ganga.
But Lord Nityananda is taking birth in Radadesh in the place where Ganga does not flow because he's coming to this world to give mercy of Lord Chaitanya to those who are not pious.
Or those who have no privilege of being pious by the deed of being close to Ganga or any holy river or the holy atmosphere which this holy river made.
So he was born and his name by birth was Kuvera. His father's name was Hadai Ojha, he was from Ojha caste, Jati. Ojhas they are actually astrologers and Ayurvedic doctors.
So, his father, by profession, was following this Vaidhya caste. And his mother was Padmawati Devi, and they were living peacefully in
Akachakra Gram and uh everything was peaceful in Akachakra Gram until the moment when Nityananda Prabhu took birth in Akachakra Gram. And everything immediately uh became blissful.
Before it was peaceful and then when he took birth everything became blissful. Actually that's a fact. This is what Vrindavan Das Thakur describes in Chaitanya Bhagavat.
When Lord Nityananda took birth on this day, this very day of Trayodushi, everyone felt causeless bliss. Immense bliss, immense happiness in this Ekachakra Gram.
And when Lord Nityananda was growing and growing and growing, the bliss of all the inhabitants of Ekachakra Gram was also growing and growing and growing.
And the amazing feature of Lord Nityananda was that he was always playing different pastimes, and all these pastimes were the pastimes of the Lord. And nobody could understand how He knows all the pastimes.
He knew perfectly well how to play all these pastimes of all different incarnations of the Lord, sometimes he with his friends would play Vamanalila. And somebody would be Balimaharaja.
Somebody, and Nityananda Prabhu was playing the role of Vamana, and he would come to this Bali Maharaj and this chubby boy would sit there, and this Vamanadev would say, please give me just 3 steps of land.
And Balimaraj would say, yes, take this 3 steps of land. You're a fool, you don't want to take more. And then Nityananda probably would make two steps and then third step on the head of this boy.
And this way they were playing, and sometimes once the father of Nityananda Prabhu asked, uh how do you know all these pastimes of all different incarnations? And Lord Nityananda said, uh I don't know it's my pastimes.
This is this is what it is, this is my pastimes. So he was playing and everyone was so happy and his friends were
So happy and of course once there was this līlā when uh they were playing Rāma līlā and Nityananda Prabhu was playing the role of Lakshman. And uh uh At one point when there
was fighting going on when this yuddha was going on with Rāvaṇa when a boy came to who was playing the role of Meghnād, the son of Ravana, with Lotus, and hit Nityananda Prabhu by this lotus.
And Nityananda Prabhu fell on the ground and he was totally unconscious and he was laying there and the boys uh came together and they saw that he's not breathing, he's just laying there and they started crying.
They forgot about this līlā and about the place, and they started crying and crying and saying, come back, come back, come back. And Nityananda Prabhu was laying there.
And uh because they were crying so loudly the parents of Nityananda Prabhu also came and they saw he's lying and they started crying, and because they started crying the whole village has come.
And the whole village started crying. And then ultimately one very wise old man uh he asked what did you play before? What happened? What did you play?
And they said we were playing Ram Lila and there was this battle and he was playing Lakshman and he said this old man said who was playing Hanuman and they showed and they said this boy was playing
Hanuman, he said, go quickly to Himālayas and bring the sañjīvanī. So and this boy he runs somewhere to some nearby hill and brought some rocks from this hill and some hörb and ultimately Nityānanda was revived.
So this is how perfectly he played the līlā.
Departure from home with a sannyasi
When he would enter into this mood he was uh not Nityananda, not little Kubera boy from Ekachakra village. He was this because it was his pastimes. And when he became 12 years old, he was growing and growing and growing
when he became 12 years old on Pūrṇimā day, which is coming soon, on Gorpurnima day, when Lord Chaitanya took birth
in Navadvip, all of a sudden all the inhabitants of Eka Chakra Gram heard some tumultuous sound and they didn't know who is making this sound. They heard this like it was a thunderbolt, you know, there was a thunderbolt.
Gaurāṅga! And nobody knew what's going on, who is who is making this sound. They they couldn't recognize this sound.
This is Nityānanda Prabhu was celebrating Gaura Pūrṇimā. Gaura! Gaurā! Gaura! So he was, he became ecstatic and he was chanting the name of Lord Gaurāṅga who took place, who took birth.
And at this moment he realized that it's time for him to start preparing for his mission in life to help Lord Chaitanya in his distribution.
And therefore he arranged that at one point a very effulgent sannyāsī came to Ekachakra and Hādāi Paṇḍit received him very nicely and they were talking the whole night about Krishna.
And at the end of the night, Hadai Pandit became so pleased with this sannyasi, and he said, Please ask me something, whatever you will ask me, I will give to you.
And then this elderly gentleman, Sannyasi said, Yes, I'm going to do Tirtayatra. I'm going to visit all the holy places. And I need an assistant.
And you have a nice boy in your house, please give me your son, I don't ask anything else.
And Hadaipandit, Nityananda Prabhu, of course, was his only son. And he was so much in love with Nityananda Prabhu, he couldn't uh leave him for a moment.
Whenever he would go to work, he would take little Nityananda with him on the field or when he was going to the market, little Nityananda was with him. Everywhere he was following him.
And sometimes when Nityananda Prabhu would go little away, he would become frantic, and he was looking for him. He was so much in love with him.
And here you are, this sannyasi is coming and he says, Please give me your boy. And he said, for a few days I will go through all the holy places and then I will come back and bring back this boy.
And, of course, Hadai Pandit knew it will never happen. So he became very grave. He actually wanted to faint, but he somehow rather composed himself and he said, I need to consult with my wife.
He went to Padmavati Devi, the mother of Lord Nityānanda, and he said, you know what, this sannyāsī came and he asked for our son. And I promise to him that I will fulfill his wish. I will fulfill his desire.
And Padmawati looked at him and she said, you please do whatever you feel necessary and whatever you will do, I will accept it. You are my Lord, and you are my master, and whatever you will do, I will accept it.
And in this moment, he started remembering Lord Rāma's pastime when Viśvāmitra Muni came to the house of Daśaratha Mahārāja and how Daśaratha Mahārāja was reluctant to give Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, how he didn't want, and how Viśvāmitra Muni became angry at him, and how ultimately Lord Rāma went to Mithilā, and how he came back with Sītā. And he became little pacified by remembering this pastime.
He thought that Daśaratha Mahārāja gave his son. Why can't I give my son? And he came back to the sannyāsī and he said, okay, take my son with you.
And very quickly, uh the sannyāsī uh took uh Nityānanda Prabhu by hand and started walking very very quickly and at this moment of time Hāḍāi Paṇḍit, uh he uh he realized what's happening, he saw that uh this boy is leaving and he fainted right there.
And, but the mother of Nityānanda Prabhu, she was following them and crying very loudly behind them. And this sannyāsī stopped hearing this pitiful cry of Padmāvatī Devi.
And he took his bag and he took out of his bag a beautiful mūrti of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
And he gave this mūrti of Lord Kṛṣṇa to Padmāvatī Devi and he said, here's Mūralīdhara. You look at his face. Whenever you will look at his face, you will see Nityananda in mūrti.
And she took this mūrti and she looked at the face of Mūralīdhara and she saw, oh this is my boy, this is my son. And she embraced this mūrti and went back.
And all the inhabitants of Ekacakrā Grām, when they heard about this, they were trying to return this sannyāsī. They were crying and they were running behind him and they
and they were saying, you know, this Nityānanda, he doesn't know anything, he doesn't know how to cook. Why do you need this useless assistant? Take my son.
Take all my sons, they will do better, help, but uh, they couldn't find this sannyāsī anywhere. He disappeared very quickly.
And uh when Nityānanda left, actually the whole Ekacakrā Gram became desolated, it was destroyed. It is said that uh for three months, Haḍāi Oja, Haḍāi Paṇḍit, father of Lord Nityānanda, he didn't eat anything.
And sometimes he was totally delirious, sometimes he was crying, sometimes
he would become very enthusiastic and would say, Padmāvatī, Padmāvatī, our son is coming, she is coming, he is coming, he is here, and he would run somewhere outside of the village and uh faint.
So he didn't do it and ultimately he died.
Pilgrimage across India to Vrindavan
He died in separation with Nityānanda Prabhu. And Nityānanda Prabhu, we all know, he went on pilgrimage and during his pilgrimage he took initiation from what's his name? Lakṣmīpati Tīrtha.
From Lakṣmīpati Tīrtha, the spiritual master of Mādhavendra Purī, and in his pilgrimage he met with Mādhavendra Purī. And ultimately he came to Vṛndāvana.
He went through the whole India within these 12 years uh of—oh no, a little less than—he was travelling for eight years all over India. And ultimately he came to Vṛndāvana.
And in Vṛndāvana he was sitting on the bank of Yamunā.
And—and he was totally in the mood of Lord Balarāma. He was playing in the sand of Yamunā, making some castles from the sand or whatever, and sometimes he was in this playful mood and he was throwing the sand to other people, or sometimes he would splash the water for them.
And at one point he started crying, Kanāi, Kanāi, Kanāi, where are you? Kanāi, Kanāi! I'm here. Come back, come back here. And at this moment of time he heard a voice from the sky.
Why are you calling Kanāi? He took birth in Navadvīpa. You go back to Navadvīpa. And very quickly he went back to Navadvīpa. Very briefly I will tell a few pastimes and let's see where this talk will bring us.
So we all know that Lord Caitanya already started saṅkīrtana movement in Navadvīpa.
And on one day, in the morning, uh He called all his associates and he said, I saw in the last portion of this night a very strange dream.
I saw that the big chariot has come to Navadvīpa, and in this big chariot, there was a big, big, big, big man, and he was dressed in blue doti and he had a broad chest and shoulders and he had a plough on his shoulder.
And he was driving this chariot through Navadvīpa and he is asking, where is Nimai Pandit? Where is Nimai Pandit? And I saw this chariot is going through our streets and ultimately it came to the door of my house.
And I came out from my house and I asked him and I told him, I'm Nimai Pandit. You're looking for Nimai Pandit, I'm Nimai Pandit. Who are you? And this, you know, big, big man looked at me and said, I am your brother.
And the dream finished. And uh, Nimai Pandit told this dream to all his associates and said what do you think what this dream is all about? Can you please give me the meaning of this dream?
It's a very strange and very vivid dream. And everyone started saying this or that or that. And then Nimai Pandit said, no, no, no. I think one very great personality has come to Navadvīpa today.
Please go and search for him. And he sent all his associates to search for some Mahatma who has come to Navadvip today and they started searching and searching, and they couldn't find anyone.
And they came back, Śrīvāsa Paṇḍit, it was in the house of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍit, Śrīvāsa Pandit came back and everyone else came back. And they reported to uh, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It seems like your dream is wrong.
Nobody has come to Navadvīpa. Nobody is here. And then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu looked at them and said, follow me.
And he went straight to the house of Nanda Ācārya and in the courtyard of the house of Nanda Ācārya, they saw an effulgent personality sitting there and in complete meditation and uh uh this effulgent meditation uh personality in meditation in complete samadhi was sitting there and
chanting uh, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and everyone was amazed to see Lord Nityananda there for the first time and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started approaching him.
And at the moment when the aroma of the body of Lord Chaitanya touched the nose of Lord Nityānanda, Lord Nityānanda opened his eyes wide open and he jumped very high in the air and he cried Gora Gora Gora Gora Gora Gora Gora Gora
So and then he started dancing and crashing on the ground and everyone seeing his ecstatic dance was very afraid that he will kill himself. And ultimately he became unconscious.
No, then Śrivāsa Paṇḍit started chanting the verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bibratna Randram Vina Dara Sudyan Purayan, Gopa Vrindari Vrindaranyam Swapadaram Pravisad
Gīta Kīrti he, started chanting this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Nityananda Prabhu he lost his consciousness, he fainted.
And everyone was trying to revive him and ultimately Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sat down and put Nityananda Prabhu's body on his lap and started patting him on the head.
And Gadādhara Paṇḍit looked at this scene when Chaitanya Prabhu is sitting and Nityananda Prabhu is laying on his lap and uh Gadādhara Paṇḍit started laughing. He said usually my Lord Krishna is
laying on the bed of Anantaśeṣa and here finally Anantaśeṣa is laying on the lap of my lord. This is total viparīta-līlā.
Observance of Vyasa Puja in Navadvipa
They exchange the roles. So this is what happened on this day. And the next day was Guru Pūrṇimā, which is very significant. And Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said,
everyone has to come to the house of Śrivāsa Paṇḍit and we will celebrate Guru Puja. Guru Pūrṇimā. Guru Pūrṇimā is a very important day for all the Vaiṣṇavas. We should celebrate the birthday of Vyāsadeva.
And they came all in the house of Śrivāsa Paṇḍit and they made the arrangement and there was a picture of Vyāsadeva. And then Śrivāsa Paṇḍit he gave the garland to Lord Nityananda.
And he said to Lord Nityananda, please put this garland on the picture of Vyāsadeva on this day, because you are very a saintly person, please do this. And Lord Nityānanda took the garland. And he started looking around.
Looking and looking and looking and everyone was looking at him what he's doing. And then ultimately he said, he took this garland and put it on the neck of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And said, he is real Vyāsadeva. And and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on the contrary he said no no you are representative of Vyāsadeva and he started washing his lotus feet and doing abhiṣeka and in this way they were expressing their mutual love.
Whenever we see Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya, they're always together and the very strong bond of love was there between them. And this is how they teach what love means. Love means attachment.
Love means very strong attachment when we really respect somebody and we want to do everything possible for him of whatever necessary for his service.
And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was always expressing his deep respect and appreciation to Nityananda Prabhu. And Nityananda Prabhu was always expressing his deep respect and appreciation to Nityananda to to Lord Chaitanya.
And of course Nityananda Prabhu he was a very unconventional person and he was doing many strange things. He was very strong. He was physical strong because he is Balarāma.
He has this bala, the physical strength, and sometimes he would see the bull, and the big bull would be running, and Lord Nityananda would become very ecstatic, and he would start chasing this bull.
And the bull would be become running away from Lord Nityananda. And ultimately, Lord Nityananda would jump on this bull and would and ride on these bulls through the whole Navadvīpa. Can you imagine this?
You know, somebody is riding on the big bull and the bull is running.
Or sometimes he would jump into Ganga and he would go to crocodiles and uh he would play with crocodiles, he would come to crocodiles and open their mouths and look in the mouth because
he was so playful and nobody could understand what's going on and sometimes he would uh he would run to some Muslim girl and he would ask her, would you marry me? Would you marry me?
He's a sannyāsī. He already took sannyāsa. At the time his name was, he maintained brahmacārī name, Nityānanda Svarūpa. Anyway, so he was very behaving very strangely. Sometimes he would go naked.
Once he came to Lord Chaitanya's house and he started knocking at the door of Nimai Pandit and Sachi Mata opened the door and he, she saw big big figure completely naked like these uh people in Kumbh Mela standing there and uh Sachimata became very embarrassed.
And uh Lord Chaitanya came out and uh he had a turban on his head and he took off the turban and, you know, put it around the waist of And then he thought, oh, maybe some people will not understand this.
And at one point, uh all his associates and followers of Lord Chaitanya came to his house and Lord Nityananda was there. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he asked Nityananda, do you have kaumpīna?
Because he was a sannyāsī and sannyāsī supposed to wear a kaumpīna. And uh somehow or other Lord Nityānanda gave him the kaumpīna and Lord Caitanya started shredding this kaumpīna onto uh little uh pieces of cloth
cloth and said, this is put it in yoga-vākya. This is something which will completely protect you from all lust. If you have lust, if you have material desires, please keep this piece of this
precious cloth of Lord Nityānanda, and this is the only protection from the māyā, from material illusion, which is so strong and so impetuous, and so easily we can become the victims of uh this uh of this māyā.
So this is how they lived in uh Navadvīpa and Lord Nityānanda was always there.
He was living in the house of Śiva Paṇḍit, and once Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to the house of Śiva Paṇḍit, and he saw how Śiva Paṇḍita and especially his wife Malini Devi, who were quite old by the time, they were taking care of Lord Nityānanda as if he was their son.
And uh Lord Chaitanya started, he wanted to test Śiva Paṇḍit.
And he started saying, you know, this Nityānanda, nobody knows which caste he is from, and he's always doing some strange things and he's always offering himself to become a husband of Muslim girls and he's always mingling with some drunkard people and why you're so why you're so attached to him and you're serving him so nicely?
Why don't you distance yourself from this Nityananda? Because he is very questionable character. He is not really satsaṅga. So Śiva Paṇḍit smiled and he said, My lord, don't test me so severely.
Even if Lord Nityananda will come with a bottle of wine and will go to a drinking place and will start drinking. He will still remain.
And after that, now he's only proposing the marriage to Muslim girl. Even if he marries five Muslim girls, he will remain my worshipable Lord. Because he's Nityānanda. He has love of God.
It doesn't matter for me what he is doing. I know what is there in his heart and I love him and I know that you love Lord Nityānanda.
And when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard this expression of love from Śrīvāsa Paṇḍit, he became so pleased and he said, Śrīvāsa Paṇḍit, ask me whatever benediction you like, I will give this immediately on the spot, because you like Lord Nityānanda.
So that's that's the teaching, that's the lesson which we have to understand very clearly.
We have to love first Lord Nityānanda with all his strange things because he's doing this uh only because he is completely driven by love.
Preaching to Jagai and Madhai
Anyway, so let me uh of course the main pastime which took
place at that time was Jagāi and Mādhāi's time when uh at one uh day uh Lord Caitanya said please Haridāsa and Nityānanda go uh and preach The glory of the holy name to all these atheists.
And Haridāsa said, I will not go with this madman. He will get me in trouble for sure. But Lord Caitanya said, no, this is my order, this is my ājñā. Go and preach everywhere and we know what happened.
Uh this uh Pagal Nityānanda he got in trouble and uh they were running away from this Jagāi and Mādhāi uh who were completely drunk and uh Haridāsa Ṭhākura at that time was 70 years old. He was very old person.
And he said from the very beginning, you know, if we had to run, you know, you will run, you're strong, and you're young, how will I run?
So he's running behind it, and he's, you know he's short of breath and he's saying, you're crazy, I will never go with you again. And the next day, of course, Lord Nityānanda is doing this. Why he's doing this?
Because he wants to glorify his Lord. He said: if these rascals, if these total
atheists, sinful people, Jagāi and Mādhāi would become the followers of my Lord if they will start Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, then only everyone will understand who is my Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga because at that time not many people in Navadvīpa appreciated Lord Gaurāṅga there were people who appreciating him and there were people who were completely neglectful of him.
So he wanted to glorify him, and that's that's his main mission in life: to glorify my Lord. So that's why he preached to Jagai and Madhai. But what I wanted to say, I wanted to tell a different pastime in this regard.
He was always with Lord Chaitanya. And when Lord Chaitanya took sannyāsa in 24 in Katva and went to Jagannātha Purī, Lord Nityānanda went with him and he was following him.
There were only five associates of Lord Chaitanya, and they came to Puri and they settled in Puri. And when Lord Chaitanya went away to his South Indian tour, Lord Nityananda remained in Puri.
Initially he wanted to go with Lord Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya didn't want to have anyone with him. So he told him, You stay here.
And for the whole 18 months, when Lord Chaitanya was traveling through South India, Lord Nityananda, he was going everywhere in Puri, in every house, he was only glorifying Lord Gauranga.
He was saying, He's the Lord Himself. Chant the name of Lord Gaurāṅga. Chant the name of Lord Gaurāṅga. Chant the name of Lord Gaurāṅga. He was free to say this because Lord Chaitanya was not there.
When Lord Chaitanya was there, he would not allow him to glorify him so openly. But he took advantage of Lord Chaitanya being away.
And he was saying to everyone in Puri, don't make the same mistake as these Navadvīpa vāsīs did. They didn't respect my Lord, and therefore my Lord left Navadvīpa.
Therefore, he came to Puri, but he was preparing the ground of Lord Chaitanya to come back to Jagannath Puri so that everyone would appreciate Lord Chaitanya when he comes back.
And when Lord Chaitanya came back, because he went to South India very quickly after coming to Puri, he only converted Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, nobody knew about him.
But by the time he returned back, the whole Puri was anticipating. The Lord Himself, Jagannath Himself, after traveling in South India, he is coming back.
And every inhabitant, every person who was living at that time in Puri was completely in love of Lord Chaitanya because of the preaching of Lord Nityananda. He was spreading the love of Lord Chaitanya everywhere.
Preaching mission assigned in Bengal
And when Lord Chaitanya finally came, Lord Nityānanda was so happy and there was Ratha-yātrā and they were for some time for a few days there.
And then, uh, Lord Chaitanya came to Lord Nityānanda and he said, What are you doing here? Why are you wasting your time here?
You go away from Puri and don't come back here. Lord Nityananda was so attached to him, he didn't want to leave him for a moment. Lord Chaitanya gave him this very strong order.
You go to Bengal and you preach the Holy Name and the glory of the Holy Name and Kṛṣṇa-premā and the glory of the love of God in Bengal. And Lord Nityananda, he said, Okay, you're my master.
And Lord Chaitanya said, Don't worry, whenever you preach the glory of the holy name, I will be with you. And this order stands. Actually, whenever we preach the glory of the holy name, Lord Chaitanya is with us.
We should not doubt about it. He gave this mission to Lord Nityānanda. And he said to Lord Nityānanda, when you preach I will be with you.
Whenever you will have kīrtana, I will be dancing in this kīrtana. Whenever you start dancing in this kīrtana of the Holy Name.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. I will dance with you.
So Lord Nityānanda, he took all his associates ḍhākāl-gopāla and they went to Bengal and of course it was a very long journey because they were completely drunken. They were totally drunk. They didn't know which way to go.
Sometimes they would go to the east, sometimes they would go to the west, sometimes they would go to the north. They totally lost their ways.
They somehow or other after three or four months or more they came to uh Bengal and they crossed Ganga in Panihati and in Panihati, Lord Nityānanda started his preaching.
In Panihati, he stayed for three months and he started kīrtana. You remember his father died because he didn't eat for three months when
Lord Nityānanda left Ekacakrā. But in memory of his father, Lord Nityānanda started kīrtana in Panihati, which lasted for three months. This kirtan didn't stop for one second. For three months, people were chanting.
Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma.
They chanted this: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, So he's Lord Balarama himself.
He invested so much power in this holy name that the more people would chant the more energy they would feel and very soon people started dancing and they were dancing non-stop you know day and night they were dancing and dancing and dancing, little children, old people, they were all dancing.
Ultimately, the little children became so enthusiastic they would come to a tree, to a palm tree, and they would just pluck this palm tree out of the ground like as if they were big big pehlevan or how you call them pehlevan, so uh they were dancing on the roofs, they were dancing on the trees, they were dancing with those palm trees, little children.
So much power was in this kid, and this is how Lord Nityānanda was preaching the holy name. So much power they would get, so much enthusiasm they would get from this chanting of the Holy Name.
And that's exactly what we're supposed to get from Lord Nityānanda. Lord Nityānanda gives us the power in our holy name.
If we are connected with this paramparā which is coming from him, he is a mūla guru-tattva, we will immediately get the mercy of the holy name and we will get the bliss.
Preaching successes across Bengal
First peace, and then bliss. And then prema. So this is how it is, this is how it was. And in Panihati, Lord Nityānanda, he started his preaching. And from Panihati, he went to Saptagram.
And in Saptagram, he started preaching. In Saptagram it is said that he converted 2,500 Buddhist monks and nuns into Lord Caitanya's movement. Can you imagine this kīrtana, 2,500 Buddhist monks chanting together?
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare? Try to go to Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama is there, and you may try to preach the glory of the holy name to Buddhists.
Anyway, so 2,500 monks became the followers of Lord Chaitanya. And then he started preaching to the Suvarna-vaniya caste, Suvarna-vaniya caste.
Saptagram at that time was the richest city in the whole of India. It was the harbor and all the ships would come to Saptagram and that was the initial point when all the people from India they would sell the spices and uh jewels and everything else to others. Anyway it was very rich city and in this very rich city there was one very rich caste Suvarnavanik. They were selling gold and they were uh you know the gold merchants.
And uh they all all Suvarnavaniks became the followers of Lord Nityananda and they gave to Lord Nityananda so much wealth he didn't know what to do with this wealth. He had big gold chains here, gold bracelets everywhere,
the big big nice rings in every of his fingers and he became so rich and he started preaching the glory of Lord Chaitanya all over Bengal and he would say if you want to become rich, follow Lord Chaitanya. Look at me.
So it was using this as a preaching technique. He said you'll become happy and you'll become rich and he was spreading all this happiness and bliss, eternal bliss all over Bengal.
And still to this day in every village in Bengal uh people they are uh getting up by chanting the names of Lord Nityananda.
Nityananda Nityananda Nityananda Nityananda nityananda nityananda nityananda nityananda nityananda and then they going back uh sleep uh to their beds and they again say nityananda nityananda nityananda nityananda so so much bliss was there when he was preaching the whole Bengal uh
became the field for Lord
Chaitanya and everyone was crying for Lord Chaitanya and the whole Navadvipa of course all the people in Navadvipa who didn't appreciate Lord Chaitanya so much they realized what they got through the mercy of Lord Nityananda.
Only by the mercy of Lord Nityananda they realized who Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was. And actually as we know Srila Prabhupada is from Suvarnavanik caste.
He is from this, Uddharana Datta was the leader of all these Suvarnavaniks and he became a very staunch follower of Lord Nityananda, Uddharana Datta, and Uddharana Datta is the ancestor of Srila Prabhupada.
So Srila Prabhupada came from this line, from this Saptagram, from this first preaching of Lord Nityananda. And he took from this first preaching of Lord Nityananda the spirit and
and this bliss of the holy name and uh he went to Tompkins Square Park and he started preaching there Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.
and then when few years later Lord Chaitanya came to Bengal, he had a completely different reception.
Attaining divine love through Nityananda
He was received, everyone was in complete ecstasy by receiving him, and everyone understood he is God Himself.
So the point which I am trying to make here is that only through the mercy of Lord Nityananda we can understand who Lord Chaitanya is. This is what he manifested.
In Bengal, everyone was familiar with Lord Chaitanya, nobody took him seriously. Very few people, Śrivāsa Paṇḍit, Advaita Ācārya, very few. When Lord Nityananda came and when he manifested the glory of the holy name, everyone understood who Lord Chaitanya is.
And because of the mercy of Lord Nityananda we can understand who is Lord Chaitanya, because of the mercy of Lord Chaitanya we can understand who is Radha and Krishna. And we can experience the love of Radha and Krishna.
Lord Chaitanya came to distribute this love, but he couldn't distribute it himself, he needed the help of Lord Nityananda.
And today we are celebrating him and of course his representative as Śaktyāveśa-avatāra, Lord Nityānanda, Nityānanda’s ākāra Śrīla Prabhupāda. Through him we can understand the glory of Lord Nityananda.
And through Lord Nityananda we can understand the glory of Lord Chaitanya through Lord Chaitanya we can understand who is Radha-veni Madhav who was there in our whole altar Radha Govinda.
Only through this we can pass this way. So Prabhupāda Sarasvatī, he says: yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde vindeta bhaktiṁ hṛdi puṇya-rāśim tathā tathā sarpati hṛdya kasmāt rādhā- padāmbhoja-sudhāmbudhāśi, sudhāmbudhāśi.
And Prabhupāda Sarasvatī opens to us this secret. He says: yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde vindeta bhaktim hṛdi puṇya-rāśim. If somebody, after accumulating a lot of punya in previous lives, starts
worshipping Lord Gaurāṅga, yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde starts considering himself as the servant of Lord Gauranga and worshipping the lotus feet of Lord Gaurāṅga in dāsya-rasa, tathā tathā sarpati hṛdya kasmāt, then all of sudden Akasmat in his heart the
ocean of rādhā-padāmbhoja-sudhā, the nectar of the lotus feet of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, in other words, the feelings of love, the sentiments of love, the bhāvas of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī will appear within his heart.
This is the way. Lord Chaitanya is coming to show us the way. And Lord Nityānanda is coming, he is coming before Lord Chaitanya to give us the idea that we can only understand Lord Chaitanya
And of course, uh, Śrīla Prabhupāda is coming uh after Lord Nityānanda to explain to us how we can uh understand the secrets which are brought by Lord Nityananda, Lord Chaitanya himself.
So therefore Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami after expressing who Lord Nityananda is. At the end he tells the story from his own life. And he says, Because of the mercy of Lord Nityananda, I came to Vrindavan.
Because of the mercy of Lord Nityānanda, I got the association of Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī and I could appreciate Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, I can I could hear how Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī is describing Lord Caitanya.
Because of the mercy of Lord Nityānanda, I could understand Rūpa and Sanātana.
Sanātana Gosvāmī opened to me the ocean of siddhānta, the philosophy of Lord Chaitanya, and I could understand how this philosophy is the correct philosophy.
And because of the mercy of Lord Nityānanda, I could understand the teachings of Rūpa Gosvāmī and I could understand the rasa the loving relationship which are there in Vrindavan and which are binding all the inhabitants of Vrindavan.
And it's all because of the mercy of Lord Nityananda. I came here and everything was open to me, uh, because of uh Lord Nityānanda's mercy; without his mercy I would not be able to understand anything.
And this remains true for us.
He said, only by the mercy of Lord Nityānanda I'm writing this book, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, because I'm writing this book, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, after hearing about the pastimes of Lord Caitanya from the mouths of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.
For four or five hours every day Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī in Rādhā-kuṇḍa was describing the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, and that's why Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī wrote Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But how did I get here?
By the mercy of Lord Nityānanda. He sent to me. He said, Be blessed, this is your blessing. And this is the opportunity which we have. Actually, the day of the appearance of a powerful personality is not different from him.
This is the day when his energy is available. The energy of Lord Nityānanda is available to us today on this day. And if we sincerely pray to Lord Nityānanda for His mercy, He will definitely give us His mercy.
He wants to give us this mercy. He came to this world to give us this mercy and he is waiting when we will ask this mercy.
And he will become ecstatic and start dancing, and he'll say, take it, take it, take it, take it, and then everything else will be open to us in the spiritual life.
So that's a very special day which we are celebrating today. And of course there will be a very special feast which we will eat with a lot of gratitude towards Lord Nityananda and His mercy. Thank you very much.
Nityānanda Trayodaśī ki jaya. Śrī Nityānanda Rāma ki jaya, Gaurāṅga-premanande hari haribol. Nitāī-gaura-premanande, Śrī Gandha-śyāma Mahārāja ki jaya! That's a beautiful, Varash Mahārāja.
Clarification on expansions and moods
If there is. Thank you, Mahārāja, for such a translation later. Mahārāja, is one clarification I think that, uh, you—if you start to say about, uh, svayaṁ-prakāśa and prābhava-prakāśa and vaibhava-prakāśa,
so vaibhava-prakāśa is a word, different, uh, little different mood, and uh, prābhava-prakāśa, same mood is there. So, uh, and svayaṁ-prakāśa is Kṛṣṇa himself in ordinary form.
So this Gaurāṅga Mahaprabhu, because complex—complexity is different, and mood is also little different. Like in Kṛṣṇa's form, you told everything is being absorbed, but in Gaurāṅga's form he's getting everything out.
So can you say that what, in which manifestation is he? Because he is Kṛṣṇa himself also. He is Kṛṣṇa himself who adopted the mood of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So his mood is different.
All these signs of manifestations is only applicable to aṁśas, to the manifestations of the Lord, to his expansions.
But his svayaṁ-rūpa, Kṛṣṇa, adopting the mood or stealing the mood of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, as sometimes we say. So it's not his mood, it's stolen mood.
Therefore, he is svayaṁ-rūpa himself with some stolen properties which he is manifesting externally. So he's, uh, he achieved perfection of the stealing pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
And Lord Kṛṣṇa was stealing—he was stealing little butter, little yogurt. Sometimes he would steal life force of some demons, but he couldn't still the most valuable thing, the mood of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, but the perfection in stealing pasttimes he achieved as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
So he's—you can say he's the best makhaṇ-cora. Thank you, Mahārāja. We see that great souls cheat for a great cause.
Like in the case, sannyāsī told, uh, that yes, we'll take him and then we'll come back. And then also we see in case of Lord Caitanya, where Advaita Ācārya, he directed Lord Caitanya towards the Gaṅgā instead of taking him towards Yamunā.
But it is very difficult for a normal person to understand. His understanding is that the great soul is—if the great soul is there, then the great soul must also follow whatever he has spoken, or like that.
And even in case of, like, devotees like us, we see sometimes that, uh, when, uh, when there is apparent, uh, cheating by great souls, uh, we have a tendency to get bewildered.
of all there is a rule and there is a very strong dictum of the Shastras that we should follow Lord Rāma because Lord Rāma didn't speak much. He was mostly showing the example how we should behave.
So it is said that we should follow Lord Rāma uh but we shouldn't follow Krishna. We should follow uh the devotees of Krishna. So it's the rule we should follow Lord Ram and we should follow the devotees of Krishna.
And of course, when Lord Chaitanya comes as a devotee of Krishna, he behaves himself in a very pakka way he behaves himself very properly and very strictly because again he
said before taking avatāra as Krishnadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī explains that I'm coming here to show by my own example how to practice bhakti. So he behaves very strictly.
And Lord Nityānanda, you know, he is a little drunk, so no problem. He is drunk with the love of God.
Therefore what we have to understand while following sometimes it may be bewildering to us how even devotees of Krishna behave.
But what we may question their behavior which may sometimes look little unconventional, but we should not question the integrity of their purpose. That's what it is.
And if we don't question the integrity of their purpose, that the purpose, the intention, the integrity of their intent, if we understand that their intention is good, then we can approach them humbly and ask, can you please explain to us why did you behave in such a way?
If if we have if we're a little bewildered.
But again, the general rule is that devotees usually they try to behave very properly and Krishna is a great personality and great personalities they don't have to follow the rules.
He is Līlā Puruṣottama. He's not Maryādā Puruṣottama.
He's coming as Lord Rāma, Maryādā Puruṣottama, to show us the example. Līlā Puruṣottama, when you enter his līlā, you can also follow his līlā. Before you enter his līlā, follow maryādā.
Qualifications of a spiritual master
Okay.
Thank you very much, Mahārāja, for the class. I have a question for us: since my beginning days in Krishna consciousness, we did that Nityānanda is the ādi-guru, the original spiritual master. So it is understandable to explain very beautifully that how this is the source of all spiritual
strength we explained. So but ideally we see that Guru is one who generally trains by his own example, who gives knowledge, who gives philosophy.
But quite often we don't see in the past time Southityaku, who is generally Amhuta, who cannot be followed, who cannot be indicated. Guru has two functions.
And uh it is very clearly explained in this verse tasmād gurum prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam, brahma-niṣṭham śrotriyam. So uh there are two main qualities of a guru.
The first quality of a guru is śabda-niṣṭha. He has to be expert in śabda-brahman. He has to be able to explain Shastra and to give to his disciples the understanding of the shastra, of the logic of the shastra.
So he has to be expert in this Shabda Brahman. And then the second qualification of a guru is parabrahma-niṣṭha. Parabrahma-niṣṭha means the direct experience of Parabrahman.
Not only Shabda Brahman, not only manifestation of the Lord in the sound form, in the form of the scriptures but also the direct manifestation of the Lord as Lord Krishna.
And the first qualification of a guru is so necessary because sometimes we have some logical doubts or scriptural doubts. We may not understand how logically it is.
Because we don't have the complete picture, we don't know shastras in entirety, we take something here, something there, and we see some contradictions.
So the Acharya or Guru has to explain how these contradictions are non-contradictory. But the second quality of acharya is even more important because
sometimes, despite having very clear logical structure and understanding logical philosophy logically understanding the philosophy we still don't have enthusiasm we
still have little you know moods which are little down and uh we become desperate and we think yeah it sounds sounds beautiful in theory but in practice I don't feel it.
So the practical experience and realization which Guru has to have is to take us out from this shock and moha, all these emotional states which are inevitable for conditioned souls.
And the Guru is doing this by sharing his own experience, experience of bliss. When we see in the personality of Guru this bliss, then it's very easy for us to come out from these conditions.
So Lord Nityānanda he is not stressing so much the logic, especially because he is the popular guru in a sense that he is preaching to everyone and not everyone is able to understand Shastra.
His special mission was to preach to everyone just by sharing his experience, the bliss which is there in his heart.
And that's even more powerful preaching because ultimately the shastra is only necessary to us, knowledge of the shastra is only necessary to us to stick to the sadhana and ultimately to get the personal realization of all these truths in in our life. So that's, you know, he is he is prema guru, he's not Shastra guru. That explains everything.
Remaining focused on spiritual practice
Thank you for the wonderful sharing.
My question was on special days like that we can easily remember the time, but throughout the year otherwise we feel that whatever we are doing, it is my own hard work and whatever maybe instructions or whatever we are trying to say.
But how throughout the how do we constantly? You cannot remember yourself, you have to be reminded. And that's why Srila Prabhupada had morning classes. Every class you will be reminded, don't worry about this.
We of course this conception of ahaṅkāra and mameti, mama, ahaṁ and mamatā, the ahaṅkāra is very deeply rooted within our heart. We always feel I'm the doer, everything depends on me.
Krishna is always trying to destroy this conception of yours by sending to you so many difficulties and so many problems. But still you think I am the doer, I am the doer, I am the doer.
But by the mercy of Guru uh you will be able to remember that I'm not the doer.
For that you need a guru and relationship of a guru or relationship with the guru is that you hear him and he reminds you all this truth and reminds it in a very powerful way so that your
conception, very strong conception is somewhat shaken. For the time you hear him, you still remember. So for us on our own, again when we think I can remember on my own it's same conception I can do it.
No, you cannot remember on your own. But you can remember about this is if you remember if if you listen or hear your guru. Then you will remember all the time. That's the only way. Okay, thank you very much.
Śrī Nītānanda Balarāma kī! And