Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila.1.2. Most merciful avatar
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Бомбей · 2012
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Introduction and verse invocation
Since Gaura Purnima is approaching I will speak something about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his teachings.
And I was also asked to speak something about preaching in Russia, so I may speak something in this regard as well.
I will chant the second verse from Sri Chaitanya Chaitambita from Mangavacharan. It's a famous verse. It's verse number two.
Vandesh Sri Krishna Chaitanya Vandeshri Vityananda sahhodito, nityanda sahodito, Goradaya Pushpawanto, Goradaya Puspavanto, Sitrasandovamonod, Sitrasandow, Vandesri Krishna Chaitanya, Vesri Krishna Chaitanya, Nityananda Sahodito Sabhito Gaudaya Pushpa Vanto, Gordhaya Pushavanto, Sitrasandha Mono Dho, Sitrasanto One day I offer respectful obeisances.
Shri Krishna Chaitanya Chaitanya to Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya. Nityanandav Nityananda. And to Lord Nityananda. And to Lord Nityananda. Saha uditov. Simultaneously horizon. Simultaneously horizon.
Gaura Uday Uday. On the eastern horizon of Gaura. Pushpawantal the sun and moon together. The sun and moon together. Chitraw. Wonderful. Shhamdau.
Bestowing benediction, bestowing benediction, Tamahnodo, Tamahno, dissipating darkness, dissipating darkness. Translation.
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Krishna Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all.
So I'll speak on this verse. Namaha oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Prabhu-Nityānanda Śrī-Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Krishna Krishna, Bama Rama Rama, Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna,
Seeking mercy on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's path
Ram Ajanu Lambita Bujokanakavad, Sankiratanaika Bitaru Kamalaya Taksa, Vishwambaru dviavaru Yugadharma palo Vandej Jagat Priakaru Karunavataru Yandah Pravishya Mamavasima Prasuktam Sanji Vayatekila Shakti daraswanamna, anjam charana sravanat vagadim ranannamo bhagavatubim. Hare Krishna.
I am very honored to speak in front of all of you and I will try to say something to purify my heart and perhaps to help you in your spiritual journey. As you know, we are followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And as Srila Naratam Dastakur sings in this bhajan which we chanted together, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Dayakura Mori, Tomabi Nakeda Yalu Jagata Samsari. There is no one more merciful in this whole world than you.
And this is not just beautiful sentimental words.
To follow Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the path of pure devotion which he indicated and pointed out, we have to really understand how He is the most merciful and what He gives to us to bestow the benediction upon us all, as Srila Prabhupada translates this verse.
We are living in the land of India where there is no scarcity of gods. And uh and everyone has some claims to be the most merciful and to be the most easily approachable.
In fact, just across the street from our temple there is another temple and, I with some curiosity was studying, you know, the Devatas were there, you know, everyone is there. Satya Sai Baba, no, no, sorry, Shirdi Sai Baba is there and Shiva is there and and Siddharoodha, Lakshman, Hanuman is there and Parvati is there and Vishwarup is there and Navagraha is there.
Just in case to be nicely protected, everyone is there. You can worship any one of them, every one of them, none of them, it doesn't matter so much.
So in this land of India of Bharat, it's sometimes difficult and bewildering.
So many different spiritual paths, different spiritual practices are developed in this land, and there is a fierce competition between them sometimes.
Everyone is trying to claim that this is the best one. So So is it uh just another one exotic kind of path which was developed some hundred years ago in Bengal? Or is it something different?
So I will try to speak something about the uniqueness of this path and the uniqueness of the gift of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to all of us.
It is true that there are many paths. It is true that there are many saintly people. It is true that all of them speak something which is beneficial. There is no doubt about it.
Every one of them without any exception, I mean maybe some rare exceptions are there, but ultimately you can get something beneficial from them.
But here we are who are claiming that the most merciful manifestation of God has come five hundred years back in the land of Gauḍadeśa in Bengal as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And he showed the path of pure love, and as it is said here, that simultaneously Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and Prabhunityānanda have arisen on the eastern horizon of Gauḍadeśa.
Meaning of Caitanya and conscious life
Let's follow the indications of this verse, trying to understand what they have brought with them.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, as the very name of this particular great personality indicates is somebody who is full of consciousness. Caitanya means consciousness. Caitanya means life.
Caitanya from Sanskrit word caitanya, caitanya means our consciousness or our ability to interact with this world. And Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is somebody who is full of this consciousness.
If we study ourselves, we also have caitanya and we also have caitanya living force. Śrīla Prabhupāda translates this word Caitanya as living force or as the very lakṣaṇa or sign manifestation of life.
Whatever manifestation of life is there, life means consciousness. And this living force of consciousness within us is somewhat suppressed.
If we look around us, we will see different manifestations and different grades of consciousness. Little bugs, they have consciousness. If you try, little fly or mosquito have consciousness.
If you try to kill this mosquito, mosquito is really not a very significant creature. But he will run for his life. He's—he really feels that it's important for him to live. We don't feel the same way about him.
It means that he has consciousness. It means that some life is there and life means that there is some importance there. But his consciousness is really not manifested or developed in a very significant way.
And trees have consciousness and you know bugs and animals have consciousness. And ultimately, when it comes to human beings, the consciousness manifested in the most profound way in human beings.
But when we look at the human beings, we will also see that there are gradations of consciousness. And most of human beings, they again hardly manifest very developed consciousness. They sleep. They like to sleep.
Every one of us likes to sleep. Especially when the alarm clock goes off, we really can feel the very urgent need to sleep little more.
And we can see that you know sometimes people when they lose the meaning of their life, they just want to feel asleep.
Sometimes when people get depression, when they're depressed in this uh state of consciousness, they just don't want to live, they want to sleep. I know people, it's not really funny.
People who are in this heavy cases of depression, they get up in the morning and they just don't want to exist. Again, because their consciousness is somewhat depressed or suppressed.
In a normal state, in a pure state, in a real state, consciousness wants to live.
We know when our consciousness is elevated, we are full of energy and we want to do something, and we want to manifest our consciousness and our love and we want to do something with it.
Overcoming ignorance through spiritual devotion
But when it's suppressed, you know, we just want to sleep. And that's called ignorance. So Sri Krishna Caitanya, as the very name indicates, is the highest manifestation of consciousness.
It's a certain stage of consciousness when the living being is full of consciousness of God. Sri Krishna Caitanya, it's not only the name of Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's also indication of his mission. He came to wake us up.
If we look at us, you know, I know about myself, we are, and especially if we look back in our life, which was there before we met with the spiritual practice, we could see that it was the life in a half-dreaming state. We were half asleep.
We were doing something automatically. We were trying to enjoy, but more or less automatically, on the basis of our instincts. I like this, I don't like this. This is not real human consciousness.
So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he comes, he shows us what it means to be conscious, what it means to live, what it means to develop consciousness to the highest degree. If we look at him, he hardly slept.
We know when people practice some sadhana, some spiritual practice, one of the results, one of the side effects of spiritual practice is that they start sleeping less and less and less. Why?
Because consciousness starts blossoming. When there is a heavy influence of ignorance, then we want to sleep more and more and more. Twelve hours, sixteen hours. I know, I know people who really sleep for a long time.
And but one of the manifestations of spiritual practice, whatever tradition you take, we are not sectarian here.
So, whatever tradition you take, you will see that those people who really awaken their consciousness, they sleep less. And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he practically didn't sleep.
In the highest, you know, when he started this saṅkīrtana movement, they were doing, you know, once there is a story in Caitanya-bhāgavata, then once Caitanya Mahāprabhu they started these kīrtanas at night. Caitanya Mahāprabhu started his kīrtanas in Śiva’s Pandit's house and it was night kīrtanas so that no strangers would be part of these kīrtanas. And they were chanting the whole night. And the whole night their state of consciousness was so elevated that they didn't even think about sleep.
They were so happy and so ecstatic. They were chanting and chanting and chanting, and more they were chanting, more they were wanted to chant. And then of course, you know, when the sun would rise, they would go home.
But once somebody said, why should we go home? Why don't we continue? What is the use of going home? It's so nice. They were chanting this on. they were becoming more and more ecstatic.
And then once they decided not to go home, they say that for one year they didn't sleep. It may seem little exaggeration. Of course, in India everyone is more or less used to exaggerations.
But uh it's a fact when you achieve certain stage of spiritual development, then you don't feel like sleeping.
Like Arjuna in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, he is called Guḍākeśa. And Guḍākeśa means one who has conquered sleep. There is a story about this in Mahābhārata.
I will not go into this detail, but Arjuna was somebody who also practically didn't sleep, and Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that one who has conquered sleep means one who has conquered ignorance.
Avidya or ignorance is the disease of a living entity. And when by the means of spiritual practice we conquer this avidya, then the need to sleep naturally vanishes, becomes less and less and less.
So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, if we see at his life, he had hardly slept. And he was always conscious about Krishna.
And this consciousness was not a stale or static consciousness, this consciousness was completely new, nava-nava-rasa.
Continuous reciprocation and relationship with God
He was experiencing this newest and newest and newest emotions of very high caliber to show what it means to be conscious. Again, as I said, his very name indicates his mission.
His mission is to bring Krishna consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda called our movement Krishna consciousness because he wanted to indicate the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal is to develop such an elevated state of consciousness where we constantly feel presence of God in our life. And by feeling this presence of God in our life, we feel the constant reciprocation with God.
Ultimately, we all want what? We all want relationship. Just imagine that you're alone somewhere in a Nicobar Island. And nobody is there. What will you do? There's nothing to do there.
There may be some bananas there, you may. But ultimately you will be unhappy because there is a very deep need of a living entity, to have relationship, to have love, to associate with others, to do something for others.
We are not living for ourselves. If we try to live for ourselves, the life is totally meaningless. The meaning of life is to have love, is to feel love, is to feel needed, is to feel that you know we we are doing something good for others.
And ultimately this reciprocation which we are looking for culminates in our ability to reciprocate with God.
When people don't have anyone to reciprocate with, to relate with, to love, to serve, then they you know they get some
dog and they try to serve a dog and dog is not so bad, sometimes they're so lonely that even a dog, you know, they they they have some plants and they you know they water some plants of course nowadays in India it's a fashionable thing to have a dog, you know.
I see all these poor dogs exported from Europe, you know, and hot India. But uh it's really it only indicates one thing that we need relationship.
If you lack some human relationship, you will try to seek relationship with dogs, with plants, with anyone, there's practically anyone, to feel that you are you have some relationship.
But in the ultimate case, if we develop this need for relationship, we understand that the only one who can fulfill our need for relationship or for love is God.
So what the name Sri Krishna Chaitanya indicates it indicates the state of consciousness where the living entity feels reciprocation with God 24 hours a day. He feels this love which is coming from God.
Everyone, whatever religion you take, they will tell, God is love. But Krishna consciousness teaches you how to feel this love 24 hours a day. It's not just a nice saying in a book, God is love. Yes.
Jesus loves you, we all know this. But it's just a cheap saying if you don't really experience this love in reality. Really feel that God is there with you, that He is every moment of your life next to you.
He is within your heart, He is dealing with you, that you are needed by Him and He is needed by you. Unless you experience this, this is just cheap stuff.
Appearance of the five divine features
So, what Sri Krishna Chaitanya the very name indicates is this very state of consciousness where the living force is developed to this extent when it can reciprocate or to or relate with its own source, God, twenty-four hours a day and feel love and give love and experience this love all the time.
So he is this manifestation of God who brought this, and as explained in Chaitanya Charitamrita, When he came, because his mission was so profound, he didn't come alone.
There is one very interesting thing which I wanted to tell you, which perhaps you know or may not know or may not understand fully, that we always say God is one, right? God is one.
All religions say God is one or ultimate real ultimate reality is one. Ah anyone who is sane can understand this.
That the source should be one, you know, there cannot be two sources because otherwise there will be very difficult conflict situations between the two sources. You know, there should be only one cause of all causes.
It's God. He's one. It is said in Rigveda. And Rigveda, even though there are so many hymns to many different manifestations of God, it
is said that, "Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti," different brainy people speak about him in different ways. But ultimate reality is one.
But when we speak about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we say that, you know, here it is said
that Nityananda sahita to vande Sri Krishna. And then we know there is Advaita, and then we know there is Gadadhara, and then there we know Srivasa Pandit, and we say this is God. We say ultimate reality is one.
How is this one? It is five. So is it one or it is five? It is one. But this one reality manifested itself in five features. Why? Because of the urgency and the importance of the mission. You know, sometimes God comes as one.
We know that there are many avataras, many lila avataras who come, and for example, when he comes as matsya avatara, he's one. There is no Lakshmi with him, he's just one big fish. Maybe there is some sea fish near him.
I don't know what Lakshmi in the form of fish, I don't know.
But what I want to say is that here it is said, Vande Sri Krishna Chaitanya Nityananda sahita to ultimately it is explained by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami that this one reality comes in five features because Daskaviraj Gaswami that this one reality comes in five features because of this reason, because of the importance of the mission.
We know there is a very simple example to understand this, sometimes the president of a country goes to another country with a visit. And if the visit is not very important, he may go alone. But if there is a real important visit and he has to sign so many agreements with another country, does he come along?
No. He comes, the president comes with his vice president, with prime minister, with so many secretaries and with his wife, right?
So it's exactly what happened when Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world. He didn't come alone. He came with his prime minister, with his vice president. His vice president is Nityānanda Prabhu.
He is God and his second self is Nityānanda Prabhu. We know that there is Vilas Rupa, and Vilas Rupa basically means second self of God, alter ego in Latin.
It's basically like there is president and vice president, it's the same, the same function. But because it's so important, the message which he brings, the mission which he comes for is so important.
Therefore he comes with his vice president. And he comes with his minister. Prime minister. Prime minister means avatāra. Advaita Prabhu. Bhaktivatar.
He comes with his prime minister who deals with all these matters, and he comes with all his energies and personal secretaries, Shaktis, and he comes with his wife. You know, he came with all these manifestations. Why?
Because the mission which he brought is so important. It's not just a casual visit, it's not just a formal visit. He came to give something which nobody else has given for a long time.
It is the claim of Kṛṣṇa-dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī and our line of spiritual practice is that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he came, he came to give something which nobody has given for a long, long, long period of time.
Anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalau Is coming in this Kali Yuga.
Anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ. He is karuṇā- avatāra, he is the manifestation of mercy to give something which has not been given for a long time. Anarpita.
Distribution of pure and unmotivated love
Anarpita was not given before him for a long time. Cirāt. So, what is this which he comes to give, which nobody else before him was giving, that is something very unique: pure love.
As I said before, we all have this very important need, need for love. And everyone knows this. And when there is some spiritual practice, they all talk about love.
But nobody else, before or after Caitanya Mahāprabhu, gave love, which is so extremely unbelievably pure. And that we have to understand, that we really have to understand. Because so many saints are there.
You know, we are living in Maharashtra. You are living in Maharashtra. I'm living in Russia, I'm not living in Maharashtra. Maharashtra. I'm living in Ugrarashtra. And there are so many saints here, Tukaram is here, right?
He's a great saint, great bhakta, Jñāneśvara is here, so many Ekanātha is here. No, they all came. But how it is, is it a justified claim that Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to give something unique.
And I will try to say a few words because it is very important to understand. What he came to give, everyone else was trying to give. But nobody was able to give.
This fullest the this most important and urgent need which is there in human being. And that's that's a fact, that's a psychological fact. There is a very deep need for love, for appreciation.
Everyone is trying to get, everyone is trying to give. We in our own way we're trying to give it. You know, when we see some small children, we're trying to give them some little love or encouragement.
When the young boy meets with a young girl and he falls in love with her, you know he's trying to give her some love and get some love in return.
When you know when the children are there, little babies, sons and daughters, we're trying to give them love or get some love. And this this exchange or reciprocation is always there, but
Caitanya Mahāprabhu when he came he said that this is all ultimately cheating. It is said here that, uh, Caitanya first think about them. He said that's Nityānanda and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Nitānanda means the eternal bliss. He is the alter ego of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is God Himself with this highest manifestations of consciousness.
They together came in the eastern horizon of Gauda, and this name Gauda, Gauda Desh is very important.
All other great ācāryas, like Madhva ācārya, Nimbārka ācārya, even Śaṅkarācārya and Rāmānujācārya, they all were born in Draviḍadeśa. The only great ācārya who was born in Gauḍadeśa was Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And Gauḍa, the very name Gauḍa, means what? It's from the name guru, right?
Contrasting real love with selfish motives
You know what Guru is. Gura means sugar. Chagri, yes. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he was born in this land of sugar. Because ultimately he wanted to bring the ultimate sweetness in our life and when he came and
when he saw different spiritual practices which are there. He said this is all cheating. That all our attempts to give love and to get love based on a cheating propensity which is also very deep in our heart.
Because when we try to love somebody, we first and foremost think what we will get in return. And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came and said, this is not love, this is business. You may call it love. To sell it better.
It's just a nice package with a nice name on it love. Cost hundred rupees.
But Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, following Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the dictum of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he said that dharma, artha, kāma and even mokṣa is all kaitava. It's all cheating. He said it's all cheating.
It's all based on selfish desire. And ultimately there is selfishness which is not eradicated from the heart. He came and said, You will not be satisfied if you try to cheat.
Cheating and love is something completely contradictory. If you love somebody, you will not cheat.
And if you try to cheat somebody it means you don't love him. And when we try to establish our relationship with God on a cheating premises, on a cheating platform, it ultimately deprives us of the highest experience of love.
We may get something, but definitely get something. All these people who follow dharma they get something. All these people they get Artha in return and so many other things and moksha.
But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said it's all cheating, cheating, cheating. He said that the real love is the love which is not
really expecting anything, and he said this manifestation of this love, the highest manifestation of this love is explained in this tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And he quoted this second verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṃ satāṃ, Paramount Irmat Sarana Satam. And of course, we cannot get too much into it, but what
I want to say here is that Caitanya Mahāprabhu and this you will not find anywhere because uh you may go somewhere uh in any other you know past religion, religious organization, movement, but nowhere you will find such a minute analysis of different mixtures which ultimately deprive us the experience of pure love.
You know, if you go to Christianity, in Christianity they say, please pray to God and He will give you bread. And He will give you bread, no problem. He has a lot of bread there.
He has a big chapati machine in heaven to give to everyone.
But Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, na dhanam na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye, mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. Kamaya, Mama Janmani Janmanishware, Bhavatad Bhaktira Hay to Kitvai.
He said, uh, if you want to get anything else but pure love, you're trying to cheat God and in return God will cheat you because he is the greatest cheater. If you try to cheat him, you will be cheated.
Ultimately, that what will happen with you?
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, if you want to establish a relationship with God, this should be completely 100% pure. I want to do something for you because I am a part of you. The very destination of part is to serve the whole.
This is the definition of part, parārthatvāt saṁprayogaḥ. Jaimini and his Jaimini sūtras, karma sutras, he says, you know what is the definition of part? Part is only useful as long as it serves the whole.
And when the part is serving the whole, the part is happy, the whole is happy. When the part is trying to live independently, the part is unhappy and the whole is unhappy. You have your nice hairs.
And while they are in the head, they're very nice but if you take these hairs and put them aside you know they are nice while they're there outside of the head they look disgusting.
If the head is in the hair, everyone is, you know, liking the head and putting some poo and you know some. But if the same hair is there in a soup will you say such a nice hair?
No, it will be totally ridiculous place for the hair. You know, if the part is not serving the whole, it's useless. It's absolutely useless. It becomes useless. It loses its importance. It loses its its real meaning.
So, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he came, he said that everyone is trying to reconnect himself with God. Everyone is trying to somehow or other serve God. But somehow or rather, everyone is trying to cheat God.
Because it's a good deal, you know. We know dealing with God is good. You put some ha ha, you know, five rupees and you get five hundred in return.
Maybe not immediately, maybe not in this life, but they say that's a good investment. You give something little to him, after all God doesn't need anything, right?
He says, patrampus pampalampayav, give me one flower. Give me just one flower and I'll give you many flowers. But it's cheating. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came and he said it's all cheating.
You're all trying to cheat God and therefore ultimately you feel frustrated and cheated.
If we look around us, we will see that this frustration and depression and despondency, dejection is the feeling which everyone in the material world has. Everyone is more or less dejected.
Everyone is more or less depressed. And the more Kali Yuga progresses, the more everyone is depressed because of the progress of humanity. Why?
Symbolism of the sun and moon
Because the cheating propensities become stronger and stronger and stronger.
Therefore, what is said here, it is it is very interestingly said here, Vande Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Nityānanda Sahodito, Godadeśa, Puṣpāvanto, Citra, Sandha, Tamonod.
It is said here that these two sun and moon simultaneously have arisen on the eastern horizon of the land of Gauda, the land of sweetness, to bring this ultimate sweetness into our life, to bring the ultimate bliss or ultimate pleasure in our life.
And this is chitra. Chitra means it's a miracle. Chitra means chamatkar. They have a reason on this uh eastern horizon uh together because usually sun and moon don't arise together, right?
When the sun arises, the moon sets down. And when the moon arises, the sun sets down. This never happens.
But interestingly enough, in Sanskrit, there is a word uh puspavanto right it's here pushpavantho pushpavanto means sun and moon simultaneously it's because in
Sanskrit they know about Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda Prabhu. Otherwise, why would you use this word? You'll never see sun and moon together. When the sun is there, moon is not there.
When the moon is there, sun is not there. Only when Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda came, the sun and moon were together.
So it is said here that this chitra, this miracle happened, and this miracle happened because they came together to give this something very important.
And as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, they have arisen in the east and that indicates that they will travel to the west.
The most amazing miracle happened because even though they have arisen in the land of Gauda, now in America people worship Śrī Caitanya and Śrī Nityānanda. In Russia people worship Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda.
In the UK, people worship Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda together. Why? Because they brought something which nobody else brought.
Like there is great movement of Swami Narayan, they're building magnificent temples all over the world, 400 temples, beautiful temples.
I spoke with them, very nice people, very clean, very you know, great integrity. I spoke with them.
I asked them, do you have you know anyone who is not a Gujarati. And they said, yes, we have in all our movement we have two who are not Gujaratis. Or something like this. They said we have. In England, I was speaking.
They have beautiful temple in Ling in England, Nisdan, Swaminarayan temple. He said, yes, yes, yes, we have, we have, we have. He said he was he was trying to remember and he said, maybe two.
Universal impact of Hare Krishna literature
1|Somehow or other, what Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave, it's completely, totally non-sectarian and universal. It's amazing. When Śrīla Prabhupāda explained this in the teachings of Lord Chaitanya,
in Bhagavad-gītā and in other literatures, in other books, it's amazing what the effect his books had.
When we were distributing these books, sometimes I would get letters, and these letters, when I read these letters, my hairs would stand on end. I remember this letter very clearly.
Once I—it was long ago, some 15 years back or something, you know, that BBT, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust got a letter from one remote village in Siberia.
Like this Prabhu Mukandapad Prabhu introducing me, he said he's a GBC for Siberia to add glory to my title you know because everyone you know GBC for Siberia it must be something really really special.
Anyway, so from some remote village from Siberia there was a letter.
And people were writing, we read these books and there are 15 devotees in our small village and we all come together and we chant Hare Krishna together every evening.
And we just—we just don't know how to chant because there is no beads here. Can you send us beads?
You know, and some remote village, people who you, know, for 70 years, for 70 plus years, Soviet Union was a completely atheistic country. People didn't believe in God whatsoever.
From the young age they would be preached that there is no god, there is no god, there is no god and there was a very good proof for this.
Gagarin, the first spaceman would fly and he didn't see God there, so it's very scientifically proven. There is no God. So for seventy plus years these people were learned everywhere
You know, all of a sudden in some remote village there are 15 devotees who believe in Lord Chaitanya You know, all of a sudden in some remote village there are 15 devotees who believe in Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityānanda. Why?
Because what they brought is completely non-sectarian. It's not addressed, it's not whoever you are. You know what they speak, they speak the truth. You don't have to believe in anything which is exotic.
Whatever is there, you know whatever Śrīla Prabhupāda says, it's totally completely universal and it's applicable to any human being. Any human being can relate to it.
And any human being can understand that this is something which I was looking for my whole life.
I remember another letter which one lady wrote to me and this lady wrote to me I'm reading Bhagavad-gītā and he said, I'm reading it for the first for the fifth time in a row. I'm reading it again and again and again.
And she said, I am reading it and I am shedding my tears. At every page, when I read Bhagavad-Gītā, I cry and shed my tears. Why? Because I feel that every word in this book is true.
And when I received this letter, I thought, my goodness, I am reading Bhagavad-Gītā and I don't shed my tears. And this lady, you know, she reads this book and she has this feeling, I met with the truth.
I met with something which I was looking for for many many years and perhaps many many lifetimes. What is there in the teachings of Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda is something which is you know everyone is looking for.
And everyone, when he reads about this, he has this feeling. So many times people also write or tell, you know, I
know some they say when I read this Bhagavad-Gītā, they said, you know, I knew it all the time, but I couldn't express it so nicely. Somehow or rather, this author he just somehow read my thoughts. I knew it.
It's like this. It must be like this. It cannot be otherwise. It is like this. It is the truth.
So what is said here that, you know, first what is said that, they created this miracle, this miracle of changing the lives of so many people. They came and by the purity of this message, they changed the
Attaining complete peace through Krishna consciousness
lives of so many people, and then śānta. What they give, they give peace. It is said in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that that that everyone else they are sakale aśānta, they are aśānta.
Why? Because no matter which path you take, whether it's karma or yoga or jñāna, you will feel unfulfilled. Some desires will be there. Bhukti, mukti, uh, in
Caitanya-caritāmṛta it's very clearly said that all other people, whatever they pursue, they will not feel peace. Because the desires will be there and the desires will not be fulfilled ultimately.
As Saccidānanda Mahārāja very beautifully once said, when we lose God, when we turn away from God, His place in our heart, He's in our heart, He's in the heart of every living entity.
But when we say that God is not there when we more or less drive away God, it creates some emptiness in our heart. The place which should be occupied by God in our heart becomes empty. He's not there, right?
So there is some vacuum. And God is uh he is he is big right in fact he is unlimited. So the vacuum which is in our heart when God is not there is also unlimited.
We try to fill this vacuum, we try to fill this vacuum by all means, fulfill this desire and that desire. I want this and I want that and I want a car. I want, you know, a Mercedes car.
You know, some twenty years ago you could only have an Ambassador car, but now you may have a Mercedes car or a BMW car. And you think that by having a Mercedes car you fill up the vacuum in your heart.
You know, first of all, a Mercedes car will not drive into your heart; it will always, it will always remain outside of your heart. So it will not fulfill the need in the heart. No way. Vacuum will remain.
The desires will remain. People are trying to fill this vacuum by all these material things. It's useless. It's completely futile attempt. All these endless desires are only there because there is a vacuum.
And there is only one who can fill up this vacuum. And his name starts with K. Guess who it was? Krishna. It's Krishna. And therefore it is said that they are giving peace.
When the living entity encounters with these teachings or with this love of Lord Chaitanya, which love Lord Chaitanya gives, he experiences complete peace. He feels that, you know, I came home.
I came and I found something which I have been looking for a long time. I'll tell a little story. I I have to finish, right? Okay. I'll I'll finish this verse very soon and then I'll tell a little story.
It's a story from Prabhupada's life. As you know, Prabhupada came to America and he was preaching to hippies. And hippies were a special species of life, they were.
Very young, idealistic, and totally bewildered, completely misled and so but they were looking for some spirituality, for some high ideals, some love. And there is a nice story.
One young girl, she heard that one Indian Swami is preaching something very esoteric, some some, and she wanted to visit Śrīla Prabhupāda. And she came during daytime. It was in San Francisco.
She was a young idealistic girl, she was looking for love. And Śrīla Prabhupāda was sitting with his treasurer.
And at that time ISKCON was a very poor movement, hardly few you know dollars coming in and Prabhupāda was very, you know, he was very particular.
He would note down any expenses till the one, you know, paisa or even less. So he was going through the books with his treasurer and he was asking, you know, what is this expense?
You know, 50 cents, you know, why did you spend 50 cents, couldn't you could you spend 20 cents for this? And what is this one dollar expense?
And they were going through this and this girl and when she came, Prabhupāda said, just sit there, wait.
And she was sitting for a long time and she's listening, you know, they're going this twenty cents and thirty cents and one dollar and two dollars and five dollars and again you know and she was you know she's becoming more and more impatient more and more and she's just she's just now she feels really you know something something is wrong here you know I came to I came to find some love and they are you're not talking about thirty cents and money and
this and that you know what did you purchase? Why did you pay so much? So So ultimately she just exploded. She got up and she raised her hands high up and she started yelling. I came here to find love, to find God.
Prabhupāda looked at her very calmly and she said, sit down, you came to the right place. And she sat down. What I want to say, it's the right place. We came to the right place. And that's a miracle.
As it is said here that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu created this miracle by giving this complete peace to everyone. This understanding that this is something which I have been looking for all the time.
Experience of bliss before dispelling ignorance
And the most amazing thing, this is, and this is the last thing which I will tell to finish this. Chitra Sando Tamonodo.
And the last thing which is said there, and they dispel the ignorance in the hearts of living entities.
And the most amazing thing about this whole thing is that as you notice here, while describing this avatar, amazing avatar of Lord Chaitanya.
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī points out that they created miracle, they gave peace, complete satisfaction, and complete pleasure or ecstasy, feeling of ecstasy in the heart. And only after that, tamo-nudau.
So the most amazing thing which is there, because if you take any other spiritual path, whether it is yoga or jnana or something else, they will say you will not experience anything else before the ignorance within your heart is dissipated.
First you have to really undergo very rigorous discipline, try to clean up all this ignorance which is there, do this, do that. And only after that you will get someone above, some real experience.
But here it is very clearly said śama-do tamo-nudau. They first give you this ecstasy and then after that after some time they may dispel the ignorance of your heart.
They give it first, first the experience without asking anything.
And everyone can testify this, everyone can see that actually I didn't deserve anything but all of a sudden I felt something which I never felt before by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra by associating by listening.
You know, so what is said here is that in this path of bhakti, of pure bhakti, which is given by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, first you experience something, complete satisfaction, complete understanding that this is the real path.
And then later, after so many years of practice, you may experience the complete purification of the heart. So all these experiences are given to you as some down payment. Something without without anything from you.
And we all have this experience.
We all know that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives us something and then you know if we try and practice and then we will get much more, much deeper feeling and much deeper realizations, but first he gives, and then after some time the ignorance is being dispelled.
And of course, you can say so many things about this process of dispelling ignorance, but I over already overstepped my time. So thank you very much for your attention.
Understanding the term part and parcel
Thank you. Still any questions? Yes. Uh I just wanted to know why are we uh why the soul is called part and parcel. I understand part is parcel. Part and parcel is a set phrase in English which means inseparable part.
Part and parcel basically means that this part is always connected with the whole and is not capable of functioning outside of the whole. That's what part and parcel means. It means that it's not separable with the whole.
Like there are maybe some parts which can, you know, which are not you know which can exist uh uh without connection with the whole.
But Prabhupāda by using this phrase, he wants to stress this idea of eternal connection of the part with the whole. That's why living entity is called part and parcel.
If you look in any dictionary, phrase dictionary, you will see if it's a good dictionary you will see this. Part and parcel is a set phrase. Why are we soul is called conditioned soul?
The soul is called conditional soul because it being in this material world it adopts the condition of external environment and more or less it's like chameleon.
You know Chameleon if he crawls from you know he changes the color. Right? If he's in a tree, he's he will be green. And if he is in a bark and you know he will be brown.
He's in the you know he he just changes the color according to the environment. So the same exact same process is taking place with the soul. We can we can very much notice it ourselves.
We adjust to the environment, and this adjustment to the environment we are doing by forgetting our eternal unchangeable nature. We know that you know if you are in some environment like in India you behave in one way.
And I have seen how Indians when they move to Russia, like Indian students, they move to Russia and they immediately adopt some Russian habits. They start drinking vodka and stuff like this.
And you know so many things uh may change. So this conditioned soul means that we are conditioned, we are depending on the external conditions.
We are not really so to speak established in ourselves, in our unchangeable nature. And therefore, we feel constantly you know this flux. Deep down, deeply within our consciousness, we feel that we are not changing.
But at the same time, we are always a subject of all these external influences.
And these external influences or conditions influence our decisions, influence our way of thinking, influence our way of life, and so on so forth. So when somebody uh becomes free, jivan mukta.
Jivan-mukta basically means that he is within this frame, body and within this atmosphere, material atmosphere, but he is established in himself, in his own glory, then he will not be you know so changeable so to speak.
Like we may notice that sometimes we kind of, you know, trying to please others. This is another manifestation of our conditioned nature. We try to please others.
And you know, to please others we sometimes say something which is pleasing to them, which we don't necessarily believe in, but because we want to please him, we say something. And
we go to some other environment and we're completely different. We we start behaving in a different way because we want to please other people and they expect something else from us.
And if you do it too often, you ultimately become totally bewildered because you don't know what you are and what you believe in.
You know perfectly well what other people believe in, and how you have to adapt to please them and to cater to their needs and stuff like this, but sometimes we lose ourselves.
And therefore the soul is called conditioned. When the soul is established in its eternal real nature, then he will be the same. Like Prabhupāda, he came to America, he didn't change. Americans changed under his influence.
He didn't change. When Prabhupāda came to America, he first met with Swami Kripalvananda. And the Swami Kripalvananda, he wanted to teach him a lesson. He said, I I I have been preaching in this country for a long time.
And I know. He said, Swamiji, if you want to preach in this country, you have to learn how to eat with fork and knife.
And Prabhupada said, I came here not to learn how to eat with fork and knife, I came here to teach them how to eat with hand. So he didn't change.
He was so firmly established in his, so it you know it doesn't matter for him. He was he was perfectly all right.
He would you know no matter ladies and gentlemen whether he was eating with his hand which may be considered completely uncultured but he was so firm in his internal
beliefs that he was not the subject of all these influences. Did I understand this though? Can you explain? Huh? I just want to know who is reacting according to the environment.
Is it our soul or is it our— it's mind. It's mind. We act in this world through the media of medium of our mind. Because the mind is so flexible so to speak and so pliable, subject of all these influences.
And the soul is soul is unmovable. It is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. It is said that at what is this, acalaṁ, sanātanaṁ, what is this? It's immovable, it's unchangeable, it's not really subject of all these things.
But because in the material world the soul is very much dependent on the mind and more or less adopts the mind as its alter ego you and depends on the mind there, fore it is called conditioned soul.
The soul which is connected with the mind and dependent on the mind is called conditioned soul.
Yamaraja's punishment on the subtle body
The soul which is established in its own unchangeable nature, is called the Free Soul, jīvan-mukta. Krishna said no one can kill soul. No one? I mean nobody can kill soul. Yeah, nobody can kill soul. Okay, right?
So when a person died, can you go out? So how can Yamraj punish soul? So can't we give her any weapon? So how can Yamaraj punish? No, Yamaraj can punish soul.
Yamaraj can only punish what happens, the soul leaves this body, this gross body, with the subtle body, and the punishment in the kingdom of Yamaraj is through the medium of subtle body.
Because the soul is so much identify itself with the subtle body, then the sufferings of the subtle body it considers its own sufferings.
Now Yamarach is not punishing the soul but the soul experiences this punishment and it's not real.
It's like you know if you dream, you dream and you may see so many horrible things but you know ultimately nothing happens with you. You may cry in a dream and you may yell and you know, but nothing happens with you.
It's just some kind of experience on the level of your mind. So the same thing is happening during this uh punishment of Yamaraj. It's just experience on the level of the mind.
But it's, you know, it's good news, but at the same time it doesn't make it any easier unless you realise yourself as a soul.
Because you completely identify with this subtle matter, then all the sufferings which taking place in the subtle matter in the mind will be your sufferings.
But if you disidentify or kind of realize your separate existence, then it will not bother you so much. So one question is related to the Christian Jesus. Jesus was a vegetarian or not vegetarian. Oh, there is a big debate.
And some say when it is said that he was eating fish. So some people who are vegetarians, they say that it was not really fish, but I think he was eating fish.
According to the customs of the... but you know, there is a big debate.
Maybe he was, you know, some say that if you take it linguistically, the description which are there in the New Testament and the Bible, then it's not so clear and it's only translated as meat and fish,
because Western people, translators, they didn't have any, you know, other other words for food, they... Because they only eat meat, so they say he also ate meat. But the original word in Hebrew, which is there is, more generic,
like, you know, food or something, but they translate it as meat. There is for sure John the Baptist, he was vegetarian.
There is a very clear indication that he was in the desert and he was only eating some honey and some, some, some fruits which are there which were available there and
there is a movement there at that time during Jesus Christ's time of people who were following very strict discipline they were all vegetarians and some say
uh, they were called, uh, I don't know how it is in English, some certain sects, Essenis or something. So I'm not sure if I pronounced it properly because I only read about this in Russian.
So they were all vegetarians and they were all following very strict and pure life and discipline. And some say that Jesus belonged to this sect, to this particular branch of Judaism which was vegetarian. And there were some followers which were vegetarian.
But it's a debate, you know, because modern Christians are mostly meat eaters, they will vehemently fight for Jesus Christ eating meat, you know.
Identifying false teachers and second-class goals
Let them believe it. They are free to believe it. I'm not in a position to interpret his words. I don't know what he meant, but basically in
the light of our lecture or class, we said that people often come and they preach some sort of spirituality, but it's a mixed spirituality.
And Jesus Christ, He gave to give rather pure form of relationship of bhakti or surrender to God. So He may mean I'm not sure whether he meant this,
but he may mean some false teachers who come in a guise, and it's a very common phenomenon.
Spirituality is a very difficult subject. And so many people come in a guise and they teach something which is not completely pure. So perhaps he refers to these uh false gurus,
false teachers who, uh, in some guise give something which is not a false prophet. I mean, you know how you define false? False is something which is based on selfishness.
If there is any tinge of selfishness, including mokṣa, desire for mokṣa, for personal liberation. It's false.
And if there is no tinge of selfishness, at least in the goal, we may have some other motivations or desires, but at least we have to be completely clear that this is our main goal.
And this other subsidiary goal we may have, we may pursue them, but we have to understand that this will not make us happy and this is not the ultimate goal.
So the false means that you don't understand, you mix ultimate goal with something which is not ultimate, and you don't give people ultimate goal.
And in the guise of giving some spirituality, you give something which is second class. Do this, follow this rule, do this ritual, and you will become happy.
Do this Rādhā ceremonial, this and that. It's like this, it's very simple. If you read some health magazine.
You know, in health magazine there is an article about how lemons are good, and you read this article and you feel lemons are so good. I will eat lemons.
And then next day you read the same health magazine and there is an article about carrots. And it's glorified, carrots are so good and carrots is the real path.
There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way And you feel that's it, carrots.
And then next day you read something about apples and apples are so but you know and then then but ultimately it's not carrots and it's not apples and it's not lemons, it's pure love of God. Which can save you.
So there are so many people who will try to sell their goods by in the guise of spirituality or something ultimate, but there is only one ultimate thing. This is pure love of God and complete surrender to Him.
Distinguishing deity worship from idol worship
So one last question. The Bible says that we should not worship any idol. God hates idol worship. Because nobody has seen a god.
Yeah, once, once Prabhupada was somebody told him that this argument that nobody has seen God, Prabhupada was very surprised So many people have seen God. How they can say this?
If you didn't see God it doesn't mean that nobody has seen God. No, it's mentioned already. That we should not worship any idol worship. Idol means it's a complete misunderstanding.
Idol means if you worship something which is not God as God. If you worship some, you know, like for example, idol worship, we're all prone to idol worship.
People who worship like there is some people who worship Bollywood stars. What's this? Aishwarya Rai or something. Or whatever, I don't know them. Amitabh Bachchan, yes. Everyone knows him. So this is idol worship.
If you worship somebody who is not God as God and you put all your energy and there are so many people of this, you know, you go into their rooms and they have you know all their you know pictures and you know statues and they do puja and this and that. This is idol worship.
If you worship somebody who is you know separated of God as God, this is idol worship.
But uh you know if you understand that God is everywhere and if you worship manifestation of God, understanding His connection with God. Or either understanding that God can manifest Himself anywhere. Ultimately God is all pervading.
God is Vishnu, right? Vishnu means soul-pervading. Vishate. He entered. The very word Vishnu means that He's everywhere because He entered everything. He entered every atom everywhere. He is Vishnu.
So he can manifest himself anywhere. If you understand this, this ability of God to enter anywhere and manifest himself and you you worship God, ultimate reality.
And you understand that he can manifest himself anywhere and you worship this as God, you know, it's it's it's not idle. This is this is mmm this is total complete uh misunderstanding when people say that Vaishnavas worship idols, they don't understand what they worship.
They worship God. And they know God is in everyone's heart, but they also know God has form. And they also know that so many people have seen this form.
And they also know when you make this form of God and worship this form of God, understanding that God can manifest, God will take this form and use this form as the means of reciprocating with you.
And moreover, this form, because it is based on the authoritative scriptures, this form also has some meaning. Like there is a very interesting and it's real story.
I recently was on the altar of our Māyāpur temple. And as you know, in the altar of our Māyāpur temple there is a beautiful deity of Śrī Rādhā-Madhava. So, and there is a process of manifesting the deities from the stone.
What happened with Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Madhava when sthapati was manifesting the forms of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Madhava from the stone?
Śrīla Prabhupāda gave very specific you know how they should look like what is the size and everything so and devotee Prabhupāda's disciple who was in charge at that time he looked at the form of Madhava which was manifest by this by this sthapati and he looked at him and he said you please take off one more layer some fine fine think fine polishing of this statue you may say so he did it somehow or rather he had this revelation
in the heart or some vision or whatever and the sthapati did it. And what happened when he did this final last you know polishing of the form of Madhava?
Two tilakas manifested in the Madhava's Madhava's form. Madhava is black and the white tilak on his forehead. Sorry, one tilak on the forehead and another brāhmaṇa strand around his waist. And I saw it. It's very clear.
It's just according, exactly according to the form. The Brahmin strat is there. So what do you say about this? This is formed.
Krishna manifested himself completely through this, through the means of this tapasya, through the means of this devotee who was doing this. So it's not idol worship, it's it's worship of God. If we understand who is God.
But if you don't understand who is God, if you don't understand the connection with this and you try to worship this form, that may be idol worship. That will become idol worship.
Or if you are, uh, worship somebody who is not God as, as God, then it will be idol worship. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Hare Krishna. Krishna Krishna. I hope everyone had enjoyed.
Maharaj has enlightened every, uh, so much with, uh, everything and uh so we thank Maharaj by loudly chanting Hare Krishna Mahā-mantra. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma... One
more time, little louder.