Approaching Radha-Krishna through Gaura-Nitai
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2021
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Introduction and status of Russian ISKCON
I'm in Govardhan in the best place of the universe. Halibal. The most wonderful place. But your audio is coming through nice and strong, so that's good. So thank you so much for joining us.
Uh I think you're directly aware of our celebrating Sri Chaitanya Char Namrita. Yes. Uh we we have had this big celebration where we've had the 73 devotees speak on this most wonderful book.
And today is the last day of this celebration that we're having and we're very honored to have you uh bring in the end of this saga. It started on February 19th with Radhanath Maharaj.
Earlier today, we spent time with Bhakti Chaitanya Maharaj, and now we're finishing up with you. So thank you so very much. Thank you very much for inviting me. I'm honored by being with you.
You are uh of course a very famous uh devotee, you're sannyāsī and a a initiating spiritual master, and uh uh uh you've done tremendous service uh largely in Russia. You're a pillar of the Russian community.
I think most people know, but just if they don't, the Russian uh Yatra is uh actually the second largest Yatra in the world, uh, and you've been uh uh a very strong preacher and uh uh a person who's cared for the devotees there.
Just tell us something briefly about Russia so that we know something a little bit more. It's a very large and vibrant devotional community, is it not? Yes. There are thousands of devotees.
When we have big festivals for all Russia, six thousand devotees come for this It's a difficult place to preach, but it's at the same time very nice place to preach because people are very receptive.
There are difficulties there as well. Wonderful. So today we're talking about approaching Radha and Krishna to do that one must approach Lord Chaitanya and and uh Prabhu Nityānanda and that's our general topic um and uh I
I think maybe we could just start with, you know, we have our ISKCON, and we are uh, you know, a branch of the Chaitanya tree, and
and then of course Śrīla Prabhupāda is this pre-eminent person who has brought Krishna consciousness to the world. Yet there's other groups and sects in India, etc. etc.
And you know, we belong to the same category yet at the same time I think we're uniquely different. So maybe you could just describe the situation that we have uh uh in ISCON as it relates to other sects and other uh
organizations that uh portray Caitanya Mahāprabhu? Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a unique figure among all the numerous saints and acharyas in India.
There are so many different sects, so many different lines of discipline succession. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is truly, objectively speaking, is very very unique.
And uh we considering the extent and the influence of his personality and the really I mean significant input of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and so many other angles.
Considering all this, we following the footsteps of our ācāryas declare very boldly that Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu is not just an ordinary saint, not even a very unique saint. He is God Himself.
But of course, we have so many other different sects and lines in India who also declare their founder as God, or as an avatāra of God, or you know there is Swaminarayan, there is so many different different sects.
So, what is the difference between us and other people who also declare the founder of their faith as God? The difference is that Lord Chaitanya did come, but he didn't come to establish himself as God.
He gave us the true object of worship, Krishna. We are chanting Krishna's name and the direct followers of Lord Chaitanya, Six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, they didn't emphasize Caitanya's divinity.
Of course, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī very clearly delineated it in Caitanya Caritāmṛta, giving the key to all the writings of Gosvāmīs. But what is unique about Lord Caitanya is that he doesn't promote himself. He gives us worship of Krishna and Krishna is universally accepted as the supreme personality of Godhead.
But of course Lord Caitanya, besides promoting Kṛṣṇa as the supreme object of worship, also gives a very unique tweak or a very unique angle of vision to Kṛṣṇa, which we will probably talk a little later.
So our uniqueness is that Lord Caitanya is God, and we can speak about this for a long time. But being God Himself, being the supreme personality of God Himself, He doesn't promote Himself.
He promotes worship of Krishna and chanting of Krishna's name.
Approaching Krishna through Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
In this way we are different from other people who are just declaring their founders as God and basically worship this founder with some Māyāvāda Māyāvāda accent.
So uh even though Lord Chaitanya did not declare himself his god, and I think maybe even refused anybody who would say such a thing,
uh and he's putting forth Radha and Krishna as the object of our worship still we need Lord Chaitanya uh in a sense that we we have to approach him so how does that work i mean why why
is that, what is behind approaching Lord Chaitanya and Prabhupāda and Jananda to be able to worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa? See, Lord Krishna came 5,000 years ago and he basically showed the amazing picture of the spiritual world.
He revealed very amazing relationships which are there, which are based on spontaneous love.
But even though he revealed this and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Śrīla Vyāsadeva depicted all this in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a very comprehensive and a very elaborate way, nevertheless, this thing remained a secret.
It's really amazing. For us, we are more or less taking it for granted because Lord Chaitanya is there and he revealed all these secrets.
But before Lord Chaitanya, even though Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was there, even though people worshiped Krishna, but their worship of Krishna
was either mixed with worship of Lord Nārāyaṇa, like in Śrī Sampradāya, they worship Kṛṣṇa. They respect Kṛṣṇa very much, but they think he is just an avatāra of Lord Nārāyaṇa.
And in Madhva line they also worship Kṛṣṇa, but the mood of worship is definitely not exactly the same as the mood depicted by Śukadeva Gosvāmī in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
It's amazing how Caitanya Mahāprabhu he came and he revealed all this truth in a very simple way, and for us it's so obvious.
For us, it's almost almost unbelievable that other people couldn't understand this, even though it's so clearly described.
It was Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself, and only Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who said that God is rasa, even though it's there in Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Rasa vai saḥ, very clearly said.
In the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the third verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said, Pibata Bhāgavatam rasa-ālayam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the manifestation of rasa, it's the highest extent of rasa.
But nobody before Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu uh even thought about this. Nobody explains Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from this point of view.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave us the most wonderful understanding of the most wonderful scripture which is there, which was somehow rather hidden.
That's why we can only really understand everything which is there through Lord Chaitanya. Without Lord Chaitanya, we are helpless. Either we will go roundabout or we will have very mixed conception of Krishna.
Only through Lord Chaitanya we can have conception of Lord Krishna, which is truly the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And this is very clearly established by Kṛṣṇa Dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
He said if you want to know the secrets of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you should go to the follower of Lord Chaitanya, sit with him at his feet and listen how he explains Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
There is no other way to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So and there is no other way to understand Krishna so uh Lord Chaitanya essentially revealed the Bhagavatam, I think, is what you're saying. Yeah.
Lord Chaitanya revealed the rasas of Bhāgavatam. The tattva of Bhāgavatam, many people, philosophy of Bhāgavatam, many people understood.
But rasas of Bhāgavatam, how Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about rasa, is about this nectar taste of relationship between the Supreme Lord and the souls in Vrindavan in the highest realm of the spiritual world. That was not known.
Revealing the devotional rasas of Bhagavatam
That was really hidden secret. So uh maybe you could elaborate uh what are the uh primary elements of the Bhāgavatam that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revealed and and brought forth to us?
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu basically in his explanations especially to Rūpa Gosvāmī he explained the development of Rasa which is described especially in the 10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. How the 10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gradually describes this development of dormant love in the soul,
starting with pūrva-rāga. And of course, before that he explained vātsalya-rasa, then he explained sakhya-rasa, and then ultimately he explained mādhurya-rasa, and before the dāsya-rasa to a certain extent.
So you know it was Lord Chaitanya himself who, for the first time in the history of spiritual history of the world, who said that Bhakti is Rasa. There was people who were propounding philosophy through Vedas
and through Srimad Bhagavatam and through Mahabharata, explaining Dharma and everything else.
And there were people who were explaining rasa, but Śrī Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he for the first time came and he said that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about rasa and explained Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, especially the 10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from this vantage point, from the point of view of rasa, of relationship, or of love. And in this way he revealed to the world that the highest message of the Vedas is love, is personal love to Krishna.
So that's unique, that's nowhere. And he himself was experiencing it, and by experiencing it, he gave this experience to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, who revealed it in
his books, like Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and then sequel of Bhakti rasāmṛta-sindhu, Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. So that's the unique contribution.
Now uh maybe you could elaborate on a few of these uh unique elements uh that have been then portrayed. Uh we have mādhurya-rasa, we have Rādhārāṇī who is the highest, different examples.
Give us drill drill down a bit into this uniqueness. Okay. So it's it's very interesting because in Vrindavan also many people they worship Radha and Krishna. You know, in other places of India, let's
say in Udupi, people they're not so much even familiar with Radharani. They don't know her. In Vrindavan many people worship Radha and Krishna, but their worship is still different.
It would not be improper to say that their conception of Rādhā and Krishna is to a greater extent borrowed from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's understanding.
But even though they borrowed this conception, still Caitanya Mahāprabhu's concept of Rādhā and Krishna is absolutely unique. First of all, he said that the supreme divinity is not Krishna.
The Supreme Divinity is Rādhā and Krishna. Moreover, he said that the Supreme Divinity is not even Rādhā and Krishna, the Supreme Divinity is the love which bounds Rādhā and Krishna.
Because he is the combined incarnation of Rādhā and Krishna. And then he said that Vrindavan is the supreme abode of the of Krishna. The Vraja is the supreme abode of Krishna. And mādhurya-rasa is the highest of all rasas.
It is very clear for us it's very clear for us it's almost uh you know common sense to say this but a it's not so common for other people. For other people it's still something completely new.
And then he said even more amazing thing. Because many people, like even now in Vṛndāvana, they worship Rādhā and Krishna. But they worship Rādhā and Krishna as a married couple.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came and very boldly in conservative India of medieval India 500 years ago, India was quite conservative. He very boldly said that the highest relationship with the absolute truth
is of relationship of paramour, this quote unquote illicit relationship.
So this parakīyā-rasa he explained that the highest highest spiritual essence, the spiritual message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is parakīyā-rasa, which is going on eternally in the spiritual realm.
And then, moreover, not only this, he said that it's not only Rādhā and Krishna he said that there are so many other companions of Rādhā who also engaged and participating in this līlā and this is also unique for Lord Chaitanya, his concept,
that this love between Rādhā and Krishna cannot achieve its pinnacle point if there is no other participants in this relationship, therefore, we all have place in this relationship.
We all can contribute to this relationship, and that's ujjvala-rasa, which Lord Chaitanya came to give. And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī very boldly says that for a long time nobody has given this.
It's only Lord Chaitanya who gave this. And still, even today, only Lord Chaitanya gives this. Nobody else reveals all these secrets.
Understanding Madhurya and Parakiya rasas
Nobody else even comes close to revealing this highest secrets of spiritual world. So so just just for me to be clear and maybe for some of our audience, could you just define mādhurya-rasa? Could you define parakīyā-rasa?
Are these different words or the same word for the same thing? It tried to define that better for us. Okay. Okay. No, it's not the same word, it's different word.
You know, we know that there are uh five primary rasas or rather four primary rasas.
Lord Chaitanya specifically in Caitanya-caritāmṛta Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami says that he's coming to this world to propagate these four primary rasas which are most prominent in Vrindavan.
Dāsya-rasa, the relationship of servant, which is actually not so prominent in Vrindavan because in Vrindavan there is no servants of Krishna.
In Vrindavan, there are servants of Nanda Mahārāja. And they also serve Krishna, but by the way. So, because in Vrindavan the sweetness rules
supreme, then of course there is vātsalya-rasa or sakhya-rasa, the relationship of friendship, this is the second rasa, which is very prominent in Vrindavan, and nowhere to be found in such a pure and intimate form as in Vrindavan when the Cowhead boys there riding on Krishna's shoulders. You know, who can imagine this?
This is complete sacrilege for any other religion to say that my goal in life is to write on God's shoulders and to defeat him in in fight. This is what his friends are doing.
And then of course vātsalya rasa when his mother is punishing him and binding him and chasing after him with the stick in her hand. This is also quite unique.
You know, if you take the moods of our religion, of other religions, how they cultivate the mood, it's quite I mean quite unusual to say that this is this is what you're supposed to do.
And this is all these three rasas which we described so far. They all call mādhurya because mādhurya's sweetness eclipses the majesty of the Lord.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said Vṛndāvana is the highest abode of the Lord because here the sweetness of the Lord is so strong that
it completely eclipses His highest majesty and therefore it allows the most intimate relationship between the Lord and living entities.
And the closest possible relationship is śṛṅgāra rasa or mādhurya rasa. The relationship like husband and wife, not exactly husband and wife, like young boy and like and young girl.
And when this relationship are outside of wedding, it's called parakīya-rasa. Parakīya-rasa means relationship of paramour between young girl and young boy.
So this all completely unique concepts which are there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but even in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he kind of you know he's not very explicit about them. He is hinting, of course, about this.
He doesn't even name Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī because her name is so sacred. But Lord Caitanya he said no, nobody is qualified to understand this, therefore I will reveal it to everyone. That was his logic.
That's how he came to reveal all these highest impossible
Attaining high devotion through divine mercy
secrets so vraja uh maybe we take a person like me uh it not not really the most fallen from the point of view that i'm just common.
And uh, you know, maybe only the the advanced devotees can say that they're most fallen because they have realization. I I'm just common.
And in the meantime, somehow or other, uh at a young age, I'm I'm brought into this understanding, and little by little I still try to become a devotee. And over here is something so high. So high.
The complete surrender and the complete devotion and the uh the you it gets so high that you you you even forget that krishna is even God. Uh how does this work?
How does such a fallen person such as I have any hope or any chance to attain this uh this this level of devotion well uh sometimes I also have I mean oftentimes I have these doubts. How is that possible?
But uh that's called mercy. Mercy means that uh you give something to those who don't deserve it. So it is possible by Lord Chaitanya's mercy, but there is a trick.
You know, Lord Chaitanya came and he gives this to those people who develop the service mood to him. And service mood in one sense is simple.
To enter into service relationship, dāsya-rasa is very straightforward and very simple. And anyone, even you know, the most fallen people, they understand what service mood means.
So and Lord Chaitanya is doing this, but when
we serve Lord Chaitanya in this quote-unquote simple rasa, relatively speaking, then as Prabodhananda Saraswati Prabhupada said, all of a sudden the ocean of the highest and most subtle rasas of Vrindavan will be revealed within your heart.
There is a very important verse in his Chaitanya Chandramrita where he explains this mechanism. He says, Yathayatha Gaura Padara Vinde Vindeta Bhaktim Krita Punya Rashim.
He said, if you start serving Lord Gauranga, Gaura, the lotus feet of Lord Gaura. in this movement, Yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde vindēta bhaktiṁ kṛta-puṇya-rāśim, after you know amassing Rashim, after you know amassing
a lot of pious credits, Tathā tathā tat-sāṁpad-evaiḥ akasmād rādhā-pādaṁ bhajasu sukhāmbu-rāśim.
He said, all of a sudden you will find out that within your heart the ocean of Vrindavana Rasa or Radha and Krishna will open. All of a sudden, Akasmat. Akasmat means unexpectedly. So that's the beauty.
You know, to enter into very complex relationship you have to be very pure. You know, uh we don't definitely don't have qualification to enter into this, you know we if we start chasing Krishna with stick in our hand I'm not sure if he will like it.
Most probably not. If we'll try to to climb over the shoulders of a deity, it will be a big aparadha. So, what to speak about intimate relationship of paramour, you know, we are too gross to enter this.
Therefore, Lord Chaitanya comes and he says: just serve me, just develop this dāsya rasa to this saṅkīrtana movement, which is my movement. Just become the servant of this movement, and by serving this movement, you will purify your heart and you will prepare your heart.
And then ultimately, when your heart is ready, when it becomes the proper receptacle for all these rasas, I will reveal these rasas to you. That's the mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
Cultivating service mood and avoiding cheating
This is how we should go about it. So then to develop this service mood to Lord Chaitanya, what do we do then? Well, basically it's simple.
Śrīla Prabhupāda came and he said that you know this is the movement of Lord Chaitanya. You preach, you try to spread this movement, you chant the Holy Name.
The Holy Name, actually, chanting of the Holy Name is the basis, the foundation of our service to Lord Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya came to teach us this simple process.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. And if we understand the inner meaning of this process, what we ultimately have to achieve.
And if we give this to other people, if we spread the Sankirtana movement by distributing Prabhupada's books, by participating in Harinams, by taking part in other elements of Prabhupada's mission, which is the replica of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mission in today's modern world.
If we do this, or now if we preach in the internet, that's all service.
And if we do it in a service mood, of course, it may be externally a service, and we use it for our aggrandizement, for our you know, whatever, for our selfish motives. But if we do it with a sincere heart, if we preach
Lord Chaitanya's mission as it is, if we serve Śrīla Prabhupāda how he wanted us to serve,
if we develop this service mood instead of mood of enjoyment, then definitely we will get mercy. There is no doubt about it. This is again and again and again stressed by Krishna Daskaviraj Gaswami in Chaitanya Cheritamita.
Sometimes it's difficult to keep up this process
sometimes we get stuck we get into a complacency of okay I've chanted my rounds okay I've done some service now we go to the next day, then we go to the next day, and before you know it, you you you know uh together ten years and you say uh what what progress have I made?
How how do we stay on this progressive every day should be a dynamic day of making more progress what what do we do to do
It's interesting, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in his elaborate commentary to this Anarpita-carīc-carita verse, he says a very interesting thing.
He said that everyone is eligible to get mercy of Lord Chaitanya, except for three types of people who have cheating propensities.
He says that there are three kinds of cheaters and they are deprived of Lord Chaitanya's mercy. He said the first type of cheaters is Dhanakapati.
Dhanakapati is those people who who re really you know who who are in the position to help preaching movement, who are in the position to contribute something to the preaching movement, but they're very stingy, they're cripponous, and they don't give uh support.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, he oftentimes stressed this point. He said that we are a movement and we require. We require financial support, we require organizational support, we require all kinds of supports to exist in this world.
And if people they are lazy or slow in this regard or stingy, and they think, you know, yes, I'm changing my rounds and that's it, you know, they they heard about Lord Chaitanya, they even maybe develop some faith in Lord Chaitanya.
But if they're not really sincerely participating in this movement by supporting this movement, they will be cheated and they will not ultimately get Brahman. He said: second kind of cheaters is Bala Kapati.
Bala Kapati means those people who have strengths, Bala means strength, but they are not really using full strength which they have in again participating in this movement. They are not using the physical strength.
And they say, you know, it's like, you know, I have my minimum. Four rounds. Okay, five rounds. Not more. Okay, 16 rounds, but not more.
You know, some kīrtana movement is going on and they do have capacity to take part in kīrtana, but they are somehow or other lazy, they don't want to use their strength.
This is the second kind of cheaters who are not really wholeheartedly participating in this movement by trying to help this movement by you know by their physical strength.
But the most important, the third kind of cheaters, Srila Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī calls them pramāpatī. Pramāpatī means they don't have prema, but they think that they have prema. And they're not really striving to get prema.
They're looking in their heart and they know that the heart is empty. But at the same time they go around, pose around and say, you know, I am the great devotee, I'm Maharaj, I am preacher, I'm this, I'm that.
So if they don't have this desperate desire, I want to get this mercy of Lord Chaitanya, then the mercy will not come. So basically, if uh answering your question, what do we do every day of our life?
First of all, we have to really by introspection, understand that these cheating propensities are there within our heart. And by associating with those people who are free from these cheating propensities,
who really fully participating in this movement like your good self. I know how much time your okay, I will not embarrass you,
but I really know I really know how much you know of your time, of your energy, of your whatever, you know, I I will not say more.
You know, so many wonderful examples we have of people who are really sincerely investing their heart into this movement. And if associating with them, then gradually, gradually we will get the same taste.
We will see how they're doing this and how they are happy by doing this and how they develop amazing qualities because they're doing this.
Receiving mercy through Lord Nityananda
So basically to do it we have to associate with those people who are free from these propensities, cheating propensities.
And and on this path, there's so many opportunities positively, but then there's so many opportunities to just make mistakes and create an offense or just
you know just the how what what do we do if we're making mistakes and and half the time we don't even know if we're making mistakes.
It's it's almost like puzzling with you know what to do but then don't do don't make a mistake but you don't even know if you're making a mistake. How does the Lord treat us when we Well,
the līlā of Caitanya Mahāprabhu is called audārya-līlā. Audārya-līlā means very magnanimous līlā. He is not really taking seriously our mistakes as long as we have some sincerity.
If he would start, you know, really judging us according to our capacities, we wouldn't have any hope.
And of course, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself, sometimes he was quite strict and he was correcting mistakes, or sometimes he was not even forgiving mistakes, like in the case of Choṭa Haridāsa. He was very strict in this sense.
But uh you know, luckily for us he also delegated a lot of power to Lord Nityananda. And he said, Okay, you know uh I'm a sannyāsī, I will be strict, you go to these people and you give them everything, you know, without considering their faults.
Like Gaurāṅga-līlā in one of his lectures, he said that Lord Caitanya he is distributing love of God, but with one hand. And Lord Nityananda with two hands is doing it.
So Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya is still somewhat restricted.
And yes, sometimes it's when we read about these līlās like with Choṭa Haridāsa or līlā with Mukunda, how he was punishing Mukunda for his being not so chaste and so on so forth. We may become a little afraid.
But Śrīla Prabhupāda said, you know, there is Lord Nityānanda, just follow Lord Nityananda, and basically it means preach. Preach unrestrictedly. And then you will get mercy of Lord Chaitanya. That's how it works.
Through Lord Nityananda, who is very approachable, we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya, like Jagāi and Mādhāi. Jagāi and Mādhāi, because they somehow or other came in contact with Lord Nityānanda.
Ultimately they got the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, not without a drama in between, but nevertheless. And then when we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya, we get the mercy of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. That's how it works.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda himself, you know, there was there was a story when one of his disciples, one of his disciples, was doing one mistake after another after another, gross mistakes. And Prabhupada was forgiving and forgiving and forgiving. Really serious gross, mistakes.
And then ultimately Tamal Krishna Goswami came to him and he said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's too much. You cannot do this. You cannot forgive him.
And Prabhupāda looked at him and said to him, You don't know the extent of the mercy of Lord Nityananda.
So basically Śrīla Prabhupāda came as the representative of Lord Nityānanda, and therefore he established in all of our temples Gaura-Nitāi. And we can come and sometimes you know I'm speaking about myself.
Sometimes when I come to Gaura-Nitāi, uh I'm little ashamed to look at the face of Lord Caitanya, but I'm looking at Lord Nityānanda and and he's smiling.
So and I know I still have some hope despite of all my deficiencies. So specifically, why did Śrīla Prabhupāda establish Gaura-Nitāi worship? Basically, to stress this point that we are preaching movement and by serving
this preaching movement we are pleasing Lord Nityānanda because Lord Nityānanda was delegated by Lord Caitanya to preach.
And if we you know preaching the glory of Lord Caitanya like Lord Nityānanda did, what was Lord Nityānanda's preaching? His preaching was to preach the glory of Lord Caitanya.
And you know, by serving Lord Nityānanda it means preaching the glory of Lord Caitanya, distributing Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, taking part in hari-nāmas and everything else.
You know, we are getting the mercy of Lord Caitanya.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda established these two transcendental brothers, to us to remind in every temple, to remind that we are preaching movement. We don't have any other hope.
You know, if we sit down and try to chant three lakhs of holy names, or if we try to do some bhajana or if we try to do something else, it probably will not work. But if we have It definitely changes our consciousness.
I mean in one sense we're saying uh we are preaching to please the Lord, but we are also preaching to change ourselves. Of course. By preaching, by preaching others we we also understand something and
imperceptibly this preaching, you know, any saṅkīrtana devotees, I heard so many stories when they develop this mood, serving mood, immediately they feel amazing results and
how Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda reciprocates with them. So we changing our consciousness, that's for sure, that's for sure.
And uh we are getting the mercy of Lord Nityānanda and we are getting mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda. He is even more merciful.
He he said it uh in a number of occasions. He said that you know Lord Caitanya he could he could be strict. I cannot be strict. So he is very merciful.
If we help, if it the main thing is to develop the service mood because our main problem in this material world is this enjoyment, the mood of enjoyment. If we change this through the serving of this saṅkīrtana mission or ISKCON mission, you know, we develop service mood and everything else is based.
This is the foundation for everything else. All other very subtle and elevated subject matters they will be revealed just by this service mode.
Spiritual impact of spreading Krishna consciousness
Okay, Maharash. We're just about getting to the end of our time. I guess I'd maybe just have one more question. It might be a difficult question uh for me to form in my mind.
Uh but I'm thinking that this business of going out and spreading Krishna consciousness, going out and preaching, we are essentially going to a person who doesn't know anything about Krishna and introducing that person to Krishna and participating in reuniting the Lord with his part and parcels.
And that that act, what spiritually is being represented by that action. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, Spiritual Master of Śrīla Prabhupāda. He once said a very beautiful thing.
He said that the last verse of Bhagavad-gītā, Sarva-dharmān parityajya, Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ, He said that the last verse of Bhagavad-gītā is actually the sound of Krishna's flute who is calling souls to
participate in his rasa dance. It's a very beautiful comparison or very beautiful statement and very deep philosophical statement. Krishna wants the conditioned soul to come to them, to him.
And therefore, that's the last verse of Bhagavad-gītā, his song, you know, he's singing this, and the very last note, which is the most important, he says, Come to me, come to me, surrender unto me.
So, and then after that, Sañjaya who is speaking Bhagavad-gītā, Gita, he said, no, or sorry, Krishna himself he says that the one who preaches this message to other people.
He is the most intimate and most close servant of mine. There is nobody who is more dear to me than somebody who is proclaiming this message to other people. So Krishna himself is very clear about this.
He said this is the most intimate service which can be ever done.
And if we do it in a proper mood, of course everything boils down to the proper mood which we develop through our association and through reading Prabhupada's books and through so many other things.
But if we are doing in a proper mood, in a proper service mood, there is nothing more elevated than this. So, and even Bhagavad-gītā is the proof of this. What to speak about other— thank you so much, Mahārāja.
Are you staying safe in India? I hear that things are starting to get flamed up again on COVID. Are you staying safe? Uh yes. We're staying here in— in, uh, Govardhana. It's a very safe place. Uh yes.
We're trying to to be careful, but you know it's India. It's a place of spontaneity. Well please do remain safe, Maharaj. We want to thank you so much.
Really appreciate your valuable time and your wonderful insight into this Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Hare Kṛṣṇa and all glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Thank you very much, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Prabhu. Thank you very much to everyone.
Thank you. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. How are you guys now?