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COMING OF AGE #17 – Reflections on Spiritual Arrogance
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It has been said many times that ISKCON is among the most sectarian-appearing faith or religious paths in this world. The paradox is that faithful followers believe that ISKCON is based in disciplic succession upon the principles of Sanatan Dharma, or the science of the soul, as compared to any single religious path, such as […]

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4 GEV Course Chps 7 9 Bhakti Yoga, The Best Way To Spiritual Growth
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From Snana-yatra to Ratha-yatra
Giriraj Swami

It is a great honor, privilege, and pleasure to be here in New Jagannath Puri. The first deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra in ISKCON were discovered in San Francisco in 1967. One of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples, Malati dasi, saw a small figure in an import store, Cost Plus, and brought it to him. When Prabhupada saw the figure, his eyes opened wide. He folded his palms and bowed his head in respect. Then he said, “You have brought Lord Jagannatha, the Lord of the universe. He is Krishna.” He said that Lord Jagannatha was worshipped with two other deities: His brother, Balarama, and His sister, Subhadra. Malati confirmed that there were other, similar figures at the store, and Prabhupada asked her to go and buy them. So she and her husband, Shyamasundar, immediately went and brought the other two figures. Srila Prabhupada placed them with Lord Jagannatha on his desk and told the devotees about Jagannatha’s appearance in India thousands of years ago, and how He was still worshipped in a great temple in Puri and taken on an annual procession with His brother and sister, each in a huge chariot, in the Ratha-yatra festival. Prabhupada chanted, jagannatha-svami nayana-patha-gami bhavatu me: “O Lord of the universe, kindly be visible unto me.” And he said that henceforth San Francisco should be called New Jagannatha Puri.

Srila Prabhupada asked if any of the devotees knew how to carve, and Shyamasundar said that he did. So Prabhupada requested him to carve three-foot-high replicas of the small Jagannatha, Balarama, and Subhadra. Shyamasundar got three large blocks of wood and, following sketches and directions that Prabhupada gave him, carved the first large deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra in the West.

Then Prabhupada said that the devotees should hold a Ratha-yatra festival. So, following Prabhupada’s instructions, Shyamasundar and the others arranged a flatbed truck on which they erected five tall columns and covered them with cloth to serve as a canopy over the deities. And then they decorated the “chariot” with flowers. The devotees didn’t have many vehicles then, and those they did have were pretty old and dilapidated—unpredictable in their performance.

At the time, Srila Prabhupada was unwell, and the devotees had rented a place for him to recuperate in nearby Stinson Beach. Although he was unable to attend the festival, the devotees—along with the Ratha-yatra truck, the deities, and some hippies—came to visit him the next day. They were excited and eager to report. Shyamasundar explained that while he had been driving the truck up a steep hill, the truck had stalled and that although he had tried to start the engine, he hadn’t been able to. Then the brakes had failed, and the truck had begun to roll backwards down the hill. Finally he had been able to stop it, but when he had tried to move forward, again the engine had stalled and the truck had rolled backwards. Again and again he would get it started, the truck would go forward, the engine would stall, and the truck would roll backwards. The situation had seemed hopeless, and the devotees had wondered if they would be able to finish the parade.

But somehow they had, and they had come to give the report. Srila Prabhupada told them the story of how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had celebrated the Ratha-yatra in Puri. He said that in Puri too the chariot would stop, even with thousands of people pulling the ropes. The king would order powerful wrestlers and elephants to push the chariot, but still it wouldn’t move. Finally, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would put His head on the back of the chariot and push, and only then would the chariot move. “Now that Ratha-yatra has come to the West,” Srila Prabhupada said, “this pastime has come too.” And from that first Ratha-yatra, the festival has been celebrated yearly, not only in San Francisco but also in many other major cities throughout the world.

According to the Skanda Purana, the history of the installation of the Jagannatha deities in Puri goes back about a hundred and fifty-three million years. Although there is a history of how the deities came to be carved in the shapes in which they now appear, actually Lord Jagannatha and His associates are eternal. His being carved is just a pastime to facilitate His manifestation on earth. As Srila Prabhupada explains, “Fire is already present in wood, but by a certain process, fire is kindled. Similarly, God is all-pervading. He is everywhere, and since He may come out from everything, He appeared . . . Lord Nrsimha appeared from the pillar of Hiranyakasipu’s palace, Lord Varaha appeared from the nostril of Brahma, and Lord Kapila appeared from the semen of Kardama, but this does not mean that the nostril of Brahma or the pillar of Hiranyakasipu’s palace or the semen of Kardama Muni is the source of the appearance of the Lord. The Lord is always the Lord.” (SB 3.24.6 purport)

So, Lord Jagannatha is eternal, just as Krishna is eternal. Although Krishna had His appearance pastime in the prison house of Kamsa, He resides eternally on His spiritual planet, Goloka Vrindavan, and He eternally manifests His pastimes within the material world. Lord Jagannatha also has an eternal planet in the spiritual sky. He is the source of all incarnations, and He appears in whatever form His devotee wants to see Him. Sometimes in Puri the pujaris dress Him as a demigod—such as Ganesh, with an elephant’s trunk. That is also to confirm the philosophical principle that by worshipping Lord Jagannatha—Krishna—one worships all the demigods automatically. All the demigods are included in Jagannatha, and all the expansions of Godhead are included. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, see Lord Jagannatha as Krishna. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw Jagannatha in Puri, He would see Krishna, Syamasundara.

The appearance of Lord Jagannatha is also mentioned in the Skanda Purana. As recounted there, Lord Jagannatha tells King Indradyumna, who had the first Jagannatha deities carved and who built the first, great temple for Lord Jagannatha in Puri, that He appeared on the full-moon day of the month of Jyestha, being pleased with the king’s devotion and sacrifices. It is on this date every year that Snana-yatra, the public bathing of Lord Jagannatha, is held.

For the Snana-yatra in Puri, Lord Jagannatha is brought into public view on a rooftop, or terrace, of the great temple and bathed. Then, as it is said, the Lord catches a cold and is removed to His private quarters—the quarters of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, who for two weeks serves Him hand and foot.

Of course, that is another question, about His hands and feet. A disciple once asked Srila Prabhupada, “We are told to meditate on the Deity beginning with the lotus feet, but how do we begin our meditation on Lord Jagannatha? He doesn’t have feet.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You can meditate on whatever you can see.” (Advanced devotees can see Lord Jagannatha’s lotus feet.) There are philosophical principles and specific pastimes that account for why He has no feet or hands—or why they are not visible. The Upanishads say that the Lord has no legs but that He can overcome all others running. “No hands or feet” really means that He has no material hands or feet. He has spiritual hands and feet. Still, in ecstasy, He sometimes withdraws His limbs and widens His eyes.

Krishna had so much love for the residents of Vrindavan that even in Dvaraka, in the middle of the night, He would sometimes call the names of the cowherd boys and cows, or of Srimati Radharani and the gopis, or of His mother and father, Nanda and Yasoda. Sometimes He would be so overwhelmed with ecstatic love for the residents of Vrindavan that He would not eat or sleep. It was a mystery to the residents of Dvaraka: “Who are these special people? And what is this special place, Vrindavan? What happened when Krishna was there in His childhood that makes Him so attached to them and Vrindavan?”

One person in Dvaraka had been present in Vrindavan for Krishna’s childhood pastimes—Rohini-devi, the mother of Balarama. Like Devaki, she was a wife of Vasudeva, but with all the atrocities being committed by King Kamsa, Vasudeva had arranged for her to stay in Vraja with Nanda and Yasoda, who were relatives and family friends. By the arrangement of Yogamaya, Balarama had been transferred from the womb of Devaki in Mathura to the womb of Rohini in Vrindavan, and Rohini had been present for all of Balarama and Krishna’s childhood pastimes there. Wanting to hear about Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan, the residents of Dvaraka asked her, “Who are these special people? What is this special place?” She said, “I will tell you, but no one should disturb me while I am speaking.”

So, they all assembled in a large hall in Dvaraka, and Subhadra was posted at the door to make sure that no one entered. But she too wanted to hear about Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan, so she put her ear to the door. Hearing the pastimes, she became ecstatic, and in her ecstasy her eyes opened wide, her mouth smiled broadly, and her limbs withdrew into her body. She assumed the features that we see today in the deity of Subhadra.

Then Krishna and Balarama came and saw Subhadra with her ear to the door and with those ecstatic features. And They thought, “Let Us also hear what is being said inside.” So They put Their ears to the door, and when They heard the pastimes, They too became ecstatic and assumed Their own particular features, with Their limbs withdrawn and Their eyes open wide and Their mouths in broad smiles. So, that is how Their Lordships came to assume these special forms.

After the Snana-yatra, Lord Jagannatha retires for fifteen days, during which time Lakshmi serves Him day and night. In particular, she prepares various medicinal beverages, represented by fruit juices, to help Him recover from His illness. After two weeks, Lord Jagannatha feels better, and He feels separation from His other devotees. And so, taking permission from the goddess of fortune, He embarks on a journey (yatra) in a chariot (ratha) to see them. When He doesn’t come back after three or four days—especially since He had indicated that He would be gone for only one—she becomes restless and impatient. Just imagine: Lakshmi serves Him hand and foot for two weeks, He says that He wants to go out for the afternoon to see His other devotees, and days pass and He doesn’t come home. So, she exhibits an extraordinary type of transcendental jealous pride and anger (mana), and with all opulence she proceeds with her maidservants in a procession to Sundarachala to bring back Lord Jagannatha.

The Ratha-yatra begins at the Jagannatha temple in Nilachala and proceeds to the Gundica temple in Sundaracala. Nilacala represents Dvaraka, where Krishna lives as a king and is worshipped in opulence, and Sundaracala represents Vrindavan, where Krishna is loved simply as a cowherd boy, the son of Nanda and Yasoda.

During the year, the Gundica temple (named after the wife of King Indradyumna) is empty, and naturally dust and dirt accumulate. (In India most temples have an open style of architecture.) The day before Ratha-yatra is Gundica-marjana, and on that day Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates would thoroughly clean the Gundica temple. As described in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Mahaprabhu would gather thousands of men, and together they would clean the temple. First, with thousands of brooms, they would sweep it—twice—and then they would wash it with thousands of pots of water. They didn’t have hoses then—only pots. They would fill thousands of pots with water and wash the temple inside and out, just to make the temple fit for the Lord.

Metaphorically, the cleansing of the Gundica temple is the cleansing of the heart to make it a fit place for the Lord. Such cleansing is effected by hearing and chanting about Krishna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah).

srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
(SB 1.2.17)

When a sincere devotee (satam) hears the messages of Krishna, his or her heart (hrdyantah) is cleansed (vidhunoti) of all dirty, inauspicious things (abhadrani). Similarly, by attentive chanting and hearing of the holy names of the Lord—sankirtana—one’s consciousness is also purified (ceto-darpana-marjanam). Thus Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers cleaned the Gundica temple to make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. And, as Srila Prabhupada often said, “When you clean the temple, you clean your heart.”

Five days after the Ratha-yatra, when Lord Jagannatha does not return, the goddess of fortune comes out in full force and, with her maidservants, marches on the Gundica temple. Her maidservants arrest the servants of Lord Jagannatha and bring them before her. They beat the Ratha car with sticks and treat the servants like thieves, ridiculing and abusing them. They say, “What is wrong with your master? He abandoned the opulence of the goddess of fortune for the sake of a flower garden—a few leaves and fruits and flowers. What is wrong with Him? Now bring Him before the goddess of fortune.” “Okay, okay,” they reply. “Whatever you say. Tomorrow we shall bring Him.”

Thus pacified, Lakshmi returns to her abode. And Lord Jagannatha eventually comes—not the next day, but four days later, in the return Ratha-yatra. All this is very nice, but for Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was in the mood of Srimati Radharani in separation from Krishna—the highest level of ecstatic love in separation—to not see Lord Jagannatha for two weeks was unbearable, and He almost went mad. When He had first arrived in Puri and entered the temple and seen the Deity of Jagannatha, He had thought, “Here is My Lord, for whom I’ve been searching.” He had run to embrace Jagannatha—Krishna—and fainted in the ecstasy of pure love. So for Him to have achieved the Lord of His life and then lost Him (when Jagannatha went into seclusion) was intolerable. He could not remain in Puri. And so He walked fourteen miles west by foot to Alalanatha (Alarnath), in an area called Brahmagiri, which is named after Lord Brahma because Brahma is said to have come to earth and installed the Deity of Lord Narayana worshipped there.

But how could Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was in the mood of Radharani—who knows no one other than Krishna—find solace by going to Alarnath to see a four-handed Deity of Lord Narayana? Further, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first saw the Deity and offered prostrated obeisances, the stone slab on the temple floor beneath Him melted. In the Jagannatha temple there is a pillar called the Garuda-stambha, where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to stand to have darshan of Jagannatha. There are imprints of His fingers on the pillar and of His lotus feet on the floor where, in great ecstasy, He would behold Lord Jagannatha. But in Alarnath we find the unique impression of His entire body, which melted the stone when He prostrated Himself in extreme ecstasy. This is all very mysterious.

Once, during His springtime rasa-lila at Govardhana Hill, Sri Krishna disappeared from the scene, suggesting that He wanted to be alone with Sri Radha. He hid in a secluded bush, waiting for Her to pass by, but in the meantime the other gopis came looking for Him. They all were in the mood of separation—mad in separation from Krishna, mad in love for Krishna—having been attracted by His transcendental beauty, His charming gestures, and His loving words. They were searching all over Govardhana for Him, and finally they sighted Him in the bush. When He saw them, Krishna became struck with emotion. He could not hide Himself, and so He assumed His four-armed Narayana form. When the gopis saw Lord Narayana, they said, “Oh, He is not Krishna; He is Lord Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” They had no interest in Lord Narayana; they were interested only in Krishna. So they offered Him respects and prayed, “Please bless us with Krishna’s association.” Otherwise, they had no use for Him. They went on searching for Krishna. Then, when Srimati Radharani came, Krishna wanted to maintain His four-armed form to joke with Her, but although He tried His best, He was unable to do so. The influence of Her ecstatic love forced Him to return to His original two-armed form. He couldn’t maintain His feature as Lord Narayana. He was conquered by Srimati Radharani’s love, and so He revealed His original form as Krishna.

rasarambha-vidhau niliya vasata kunje mrgaksi-ganair
drstam gopayitum svam uddhura-dhiya ya susthu sandarsita
radhayah pranayasya hanta mahima yasya sriya raksitum
sa sakya prabhavisnunapi harina nasic catur-bahuta

“Prior to the rasa dance, Lord Krsna hid Himself in a grove just to have fun. When the gopis came, their eyes resembling those of deer, by His sharp intelligence He exhibited His beautiful four-armed form to hide Himself. But when Srimati Radharani came there, Krsna could not maintain His four arms in Her presence. This is the wonderful glory of Her love.” (Ujjvala-nilamani, Nayika-bheda 7)

Transcendentally, Alarnath in Lord Chaitanya’s lila in Puri is compared to Paitha at Govardhana. It is a place of intense separation. The gopis, in separation from Krishna, roamed the forest there, looking for Him. And Paitha is the place where Lord Narayana wasn’t really Lord Narayana. He was actually Krishna assuming the form of Narayana to play a joke on the gopis—and to bring out their exclusive love for Him. Thus, although the external form of the Deity of Lord Alarnath is that of four-armed Narayana, internally He is Krishna. And the pujaris of Alarnath admit that in their worship they recite very confidential mantras to Krishna, the lover of Srimati Radharani.

During those fourteen days, called anavasara, when Lord Jagannatha retires to His private quarters and receives service from Lakshmi, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in separation, stays in Alarnath.

So, there are many deep feelings connected to Ratha-yatra. This whole pastime—like all the pastimes of Jagannatha in Puri—is very deep and full of separation. Jagannatha Puri is vipralambha-dhama. Vipralambha means “separation.” Lord Jagannatha, in His opulent temple, feels separation from Srimati Radharani and His other pure devotees in Vrindavan. And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the mood of Srimati Radharani after Krishna left Vrindavan for Mathura and Dvaraka, also feels separation. So, Jagannatha Puri is a place of crying. But that crying is ecstasy. That separation is ecstasy. It is not what we experience in the material world.

After this period of separation, when Lord Jagannatha finally leaves His private quarters, He emerges from the temple and mounts His chariot; and for the first time in two weeks Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the other devotees are able to see Him. So they become ecstatic. And in the Ratha-yatra, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is in the mood of Radharani bringing Krishna back to Vrindavan.

As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, after Krishna had been living as a king in Dvaraka for many years, He was informed that there was going to be a solar eclipse. To observe the eclipse, Krishna announced that He would go to Kurukshetra, a holy place (dharma-ksetra kuru-ksetra) in North India. The Vedas recommend that one go to Kurukshetra to perform the various rituals associated with eclipses—to bathe in the sacred waters, perform sacrifices, give charity, and so on. When the news reached the residents of Vrindavan that Krishna was going to Kurukshetra, they thought, “Let us go, too.” They weren’t interested in the ritual baths or ceremonies. They were interested in Krishna. Since He had left Vrindavan, they had been feeling intense separation. Their only business had been crying for Krishna. So, they decided, “We shall also go.” And they went.

It was a very touching scene when Krishna met the residents of Vrindavan—heart rending. Although He first met the elders, beginning with Nanda and Yasoda and their associates, within His heart He was thinking of Radharani and the gopis. So He took an opportunity to steal away from the others to meet them. Yet although Radha was seeing Krishna, it wasn’t the same. She said, “You’re the same Krishna, and I am the same Radha, but it’s not the same here. Please come back to Vrindavan. Here there are crowds of people, elephants, and horses, and the rattling of chariots. In Vrindavan there are flower gardens and the chirping of birds and the humming of bees. Here You are dressed like a royal prince with all sorts of opulent paraphernalia, accompanied by great warriors. In Vrindavan You appeared just like a cowherd boy, dressed in Your yellow dhoti (pitambara) and decorated with a peacock feather, accompanied only by Your flute. Here in Kurukshetra there is not even a drop of the ocean of transcendental happiness that I enjoyed with You in Vrindavan. So please come back to Vrindavan and let Us relish pastimes as We did in Our youth.”

In that mood of Srimati Radharani, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, dancing in front of Lord Jagannatha in the Ratha-yatra, would recite a verse from a romantic poem:

yah kaumara-harah sa eva hi varas ta eva caitra-ksapas
te conmilita-malati-surabhayah praudhah kadambanilah
sa caivasmi tathapi tatra surata-vyapara-lila-vidhau
reva-rodhasi vetasi-taru-tale cetah samutkanthate

“That very personality who stole away my heart during my youth is now again my master. These are the same moonlit nights of the month of Caitra. The same fragrance of malati flowers is there, and the same sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same lover, yet still my mind is not happy here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Reva under the Vetasi tree. That is my desire.” (Padyavali 386; Cc Madhya 1.58, 13.121)

That emotional pulling of Krishna from Kurukshetra to Vrindavan is the mood of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the Ratha-yatra. There is so much reciprocation between Lord Chaitanya and Lord Jagannatha based on Srimati Radharani and the gopis pulling Krishna back to Vrindavan. Sometimes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would go ahead and Lord Jagannatha, astonished by the dancing of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, would stop His chariot to watch. Sometimes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would stay behind the chariot and eventually Lord Jagannatha would stop. Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come forward, and then Lord Jagannatha would move forward, too.

ei-mata gaura-syame, donhe thelatheli
svarathe syamere rakhe gaura maha-bali

“Thus there was a sort of competition between Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Jagannatha in seeing who would lead, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu was so strong that He made Lord Jagannatha wait in His car.” (Cc Madhya 13.119)

Srila Prabhupada, citing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s commentary, explains that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s leading Lord Jagannatha toward the Gundica temple corresponded to Srimati Radharani’s leading Krishna toward Vrindavan. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s following at the rear of the chariot indicated that Lord Jagannatha, Krishna, was forgetting the inhabitants of Vrindavan. In the role of Srimati Radharani, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was examining whether the Lord still remembered the inhabitants of Vrindavan. “When Caitanya Mahaprabhu fell behind the Ratha car, Jagannatha-deva, Krsna Himself, understood the mind of Srimati Radharani. Therefore, Jagannatha sometimes fell behind the dancing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to indicate to Srimati Radharani that He had not forgotten. Thus Lord Jagannatha would stop the forward march of the ratha and wait at a standstill. . . . While Jagannatha was thus waiting, Gaurasundara, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in His ecstasy of Srimati Radharani, immediately came forward to Krsna. At such times, Lord Jagannatha would proceed ahead very slowly. These competitive exchanges were all part of the love affair between Krsna and Srimati Radharani.” (Cc Madhya 13.119 purport)

Ultimately Jagannatha reaches Vrindavan, the Gundica temple. There is so much feeling in these festivals.

Now we shall read about Snana-yatra from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, both to hear directly from Srila Prabhupada about Snana-yatra, and also to realize what an unlimited wealth of knowledge—of nectar—exists in Prabhupada’s books. I am going to read four or five verses—out of hundreds and thousands—and yet in just these few verses there is so much nectar.

jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda

We shall read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter One: “The Later Pastimes of Lord Caitanya.” In verse 121, the author, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, mentions that Lord Chaitanya witnessed the Snana-yatra festival. He then continues:

TEXT 122

anavasare jagannathera na pana darasana
virahe alalanatha karila gamana

TRANSLATION

When Jagannatha was absent from the temple, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who could not see Him, felt separation and left Jagannatha Puri to go to a place known as Alalanatha.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Alalanatha is also known as Brahmagiri. This place is about fourteen miles from Jagannatha Puri and is also on the beach. There is a temple of Jagannatha there. At the present moment a police station and post office are situated there because so many people come to see the temple.

The word anavasara is used when Sri Jagannathaji cannot be seen in the temple. After the bathing ceremony (snana-yatra), Lord Jagannatha apparently becomes sick. He is therefore removed to His private apartment, where no one can see Him. Actually, during this period renovations are made on the body of the Jagannatha Deity. This is called nava-yauvana.

COMMENT

Nava-yauvana means “ever fresh,” or “always youthful.” At this time the Jagannatha Deity is fully restored to youth.

PURPORT (concluded)

During the Ratha-yatra ceremony, Lord Jagannatha once again comes before the public. Thus for fifteen days after the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannatha is not visible to any visitors.

TEXT 123

bhakta-sane dina kata tahani rahila
gaudera bhakta aise, samacara paila

TRANSLATION

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained for some days at Alalanatha. In the meantime, He received news that all the devotees from Bengal were coming to Jagannatha Puri.

COMMENT

Every year, the devotees from Bengal would travel by foot to Jagannatha Puri for the Ratha-yatra and the four months of the rainy season called Caturmasya.

TEXTS 124–125

When the devotees from Bengal arrived at Jagannatha Puri, both Nityananda Prabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya greatly endeavored to take Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu back to Jagannatha Puri.

When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu finally left Alalanatha to return to Jagannatha Puri, He was overwhelmed both day and night due to separation from Jagannatha. His lamentation knew no bounds. During this time, all the devotees from different parts of Bengal, and especially from Navadvipa, arrived in Jagannatha Puri.

TEXT 126

sabe mili’ yukti kari’ kirtana arambhila
kirtana-avese prabhura mana sthira haila

TRANSLATION

After due consideration, all the devotees began chanting the holy name congregationally. Lord Caitanya’s mind was thus pacified by the ecstasy of the chanting.

PURPORT

Being absolute in all circumstances, Lord Jagannatha’s person, form, picture, and kirtana are all identical. Therefore when Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, He was pacified. Previously, He had been feeling very morose due to separation from Jagannatha. The conclusion is that whenever a kirtana of pure devotees takes place, the Lord is immediately present. By chanting the holy names of the Lord, we associate with the Lord personally.

COMMENT

This is a very important lesson. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in such deep separation from Lord Jagannatha that He could not do anything or think of anything else. Finally, the devotees decided to perform kirtan. By chanting the holy names of Krishna, who is Lord Jagannatha, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu felt pacified, because He was experiencing the association of Jagannatha through the holy name.

As Prabhupada mentions here in the purport, the holy name of Krishna—the holy name of Jagannatha—is the same as Krishna. Seeing the form of Lord Jagannatha and hearing the name of Lord Krishna—the name of Lord Jagannatha—are the same. In one sense, all service is absolute; there is no difference between worshipping the form of the Lord and chanting the name of the Lord. But to engage in Deity worship, there are so many requirements. You need deities, you must be clean, you must be initiated, you must know the mantras, you must have the paraphernalia, the sixteen different types of items to offer—you require so many things. But with chanting you don’t require anything. As Srila Prabhupada said, all you require is your tongue and your ears. You don’t even need your mind. In fact, it is better to leave your mind out of it. Once, a disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “What do I do with my mind when I chant?” And Prabhupada said, “Your mind? What is the question of mind? With your tongue you chant and with your ears you hear.” With our tongue we chant, with our ears we hear, and with our intelligence we remain fixed.

By kirtan, by chanting and hearing, we associate with Krishna. And all of our feelings of separation can be mitigated. The holy names of Krishna include everything. His names, His forms, His qualities, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, His entourage—all are included. Srila Prabhupada and his parampara are also included. The whole spiritual world is included. Everything is revealed when we chant and hear with attention, chant and hear with love.

Now the devotees here will be suffering in separation from Lord Jagannatha for fifteen days. But we can take shelter of the holy names of Lord Jagannatha and read the pastimes of Lord Jagannatha and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. And we can read about Srila Prabhupada and Ratha-yatra in Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. We should read these books; they are important. Prabhupada stayed up all night to write his books. He would take rest at ten o’clock and get up at twelve to write these books, not just for us to sell—of course, it is good that we sell them—but for us to read; we should also read them. As Prabhupada said, “Distributing my books will keep them [devotees] happy, and reading my books will keep them.” Reading will keep us fixed. So we need to do all these things. We can’t afford to waste a moment. As Prabhupada said, “Don’t talk nonsense. Don’t waste time. If you’ve got time, chant Hare Krishna.”

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on July 13, 2008, Berkeley, California]

From Snana-yatra to Ratha-yatra
Giriraj Swami

srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
(SB 1.2.17)

During those fourteen days, called anavasara, when Lord Jagannatha retires to His private quarters and receives service from Lakshmi, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in separation, stays in Alarnath.

In that mood of Srimati Radharani, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, dancing in front of Lord Jagannatha in the Ratha-yatra, would recite a verse from a romantic poem:

ei-mata gaura-syame, donhe thelatheli
svarathe syamere rakhe gaura maha-bali

Ultimately Jagannatha reaches Vrindavan, the Gundica temple. There is so much feeling in these festivals.

jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda

TEXT 122

anavasare jagannathera na pana darasana
virahe alalanatha karila gamana

TRANSLATION

When Jagannatha was absent from the temple, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who could not see Him, felt separation and left Jagannatha Puri to go to a place known as Alalanatha.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

COMMENT

Nava-yauvana means “ever fresh,” or “always youthful.” At this time the Jagannatha Deity is fully restored to youth.

PURPORT (concluded)

During the Ratha-yatra ceremony, Lord Jagannatha once again comes before the public. Thus for fifteen days after the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannatha is not visible to any visitors.

TEXT 123

bhakta-sane dina kata tahani rahila
gaudera bhakta aise, samacara paila

TRANSLATION

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained for some days at Alalanatha. In the meantime, He received news that all the devotees from Bengal were coming to Jagannatha Puri.

COMMENT

Every year, the devotees from Bengal would travel by foot to Jagannatha Puri for the Ratha-yatra and the four months of the rainy season called Caturmasya.

TEXTS 124–125

When the devotees from Bengal arrived at Jagannatha Puri, both Nityananda Prabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya greatly endeavored to take Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu back to Jagannatha Puri.

TEXT 126

sabe mili’ yukti kari’ kirtana arambhila
kirtana-avese prabhura mana sthira haila

TRANSLATION

After due consideration, all the devotees began chanting the holy name congregationally. Lord Caitanya’s mind was thus pacified by the ecstasy of the chanting.

PURPORT

COMMENT

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on July 13, 2008, Berkeley, California]

From Prison Bars to Spiritual Beats: The Inspiring Journey of Krsna-Dasa
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Krsna-Dasa Perez, also known as “Slot One The Servant,” has an inspiring story of resilience and transformation that weaves together spirituality and hip-hop. His journey is particularly remarkable because it includes a significant period of incarceration, during which he underwent a metamorphosis, ultimately emerging as a symbol of hope and inspiration within the Krishna-conscious community. […]

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Sri Gundica-marjana
Giriraj Swami

The observance of Gundica-marjana, the washing and cleansing of the Gundica temple, takes place on the day before Ratha-yatra, in preparation for the arrival of the Lord.

The history of Ratha-yatra goes back thousands of years, to a previous age, but for us, the specific significance of the Ratha-yatra and the cleaning of the Gundica temple was shown by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when He was residing in Jagannatha Puri five hundred years ago. In His transcendental mind, the temple of Lord Jagannatha in Nilachala represented Dvakara, or sometimes Kurukshetra, and the Gundica temple in Sundarachala represented Vrindavan. And for Him, the Ratha-yatra was the process of the residents of Vrindavan meeting Krishna at Kurukshetra and bringing Him back to Vrindavan after a long separation.

Gundica is the name of the wife of King Indradyumna, the great devotee who wanted to have darshan of Nila-Madhava and who, in separation from Nila-Madhava, arranged to have a deity carved—ultimately resulting in the appearance of Lord Jagannatha, along with Baladeva and Subhadra. Marjana means “cleaning,” as we sing daily in the Gurvastakam: mandira-marjanadau. The spiritual master engages the disciples in cleaning the Lord’s temple (tan-mandira-marjanadau yuktasya bhaktams ca niyunjato ’pi).

In Jagannatha Puri, eight days after the Ratha-yatra is the return Ratha-yatra. Thus, for eight days Lord Jagannatha (Krishna), along with His brother, Baladeva, and sister, Subhadra, stay in the Gundica temple.

Four days after the first journey (yatra), Laksmi, the goddess of fortune, the eternal consort of Lord Jagannatha, comes to see the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explains, “Lord Jagannatha has left His wife, the goddess of fortune, and gone to Vrindavan, which is the Gundica temple. Due to separation from the Lord, the goddess of fortune decides to come to see the Lord at Gundica. The coming of the goddess of fortune to Gundica is celebrated as Hera-pancami.” (Cc Madhya 14.107 purport) Hera means “to see” and refers to the goddess of fortune going to see Lord Jagannatha. Pancami means “the fifth day,” referring to this pastime taking place on the fifth day of the lunar cycle.

The goddess of fortune, jealous and angry because her husband has been away for so long and thus has neglected her, comes with her maidservants to the Gundica temple to force the servants of Lord Jagannatha to bring Him back to Nilachala. “When Lord Jagannatha starts His car festival, He gives assurance to the goddess of fortune that He will return the next day. When He does not return, the goddess of fortune, after waiting two or three days, begins to feel that her husband has neglected her. She naturally becomes quite angry. Gorgeously decorating herself and her associates, she comes out of the temple and stands before the main gate. All the principal servants of Lord Jagannatha are then arrested by her maidservants, brought before her, and forced to fall down at her lotus feet.” (Cc Madhya 14.133 purport) Finally, they promise to bring their master, Lord Jagannatha, back to Nilachala.

Once, on the day of the Hera-pancami festival, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, and Srivasa Thakura had a deep and intricate discussion about different types of mana—transcendental egoistic pride and jealous anger manifested in different consorts of the Lord—because the mana exhibited by the goddess of fortune in bringing her maidservants to subjugate her husband’s servants and oblige them to bring Him back was unprecedented.

Other than the eight days between the first procession and the return procession, the Gundica temple remains empty, and as you can imagine, during the rest of the year it accumulates all sorts of dust and dirt. Especially with the open style of architecture in India, in which the temples are exposed to the outdoors, they can become very dusty and dirty. So in preparation for the Lord’s arrival at the Gundica temple, Lord Chaitanya asked permission from the authorities for Him and His devotees to clean the temple. The authorities were most respectful to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers, most obedient, and they replied, “Yes, whatever You like we will arrange. Cleaning the temple is not a fit service for You, but if it is Your desire, we shall supply whatever You require—waterpots and brooms.”

The superintendent of the temple delivered a hundred waterpots and a hundred brooms, and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu engaged hundreds of devotees in cleaning, and He personally took part Himself. He swept straw, dust, and grains of sand into one place, gathered it all in His cloth, and threw it outside the temple. Following His example, all the devotees also gathered piles of dust and straw and sand and threw them outside. Thus He and His associates removed all the debris that had accumulated in the temple complex over the previous year.

During the process, Lord Chaitanya would observe each devotee—how well each was cleaning—and if someone was cleaning well, He would praise him, and if someone wasn’t cleaning so well, He would correct him. Srila Prabhupada remarks that Lord Chaitanya was showing how an acharya must train devotees, correcting and encouraging them as appropriate. Mahaprabhu also instructed the devotees by example. He collected so much debris from the temple that His pile was larger than all of theirs put together.

After throwing out all the debris, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates cleaned the temple a second time, looking for finer grains of sand and dust that they might have missed. Then they thoroughly washed the temple. With hundreds of devotees throwing hundreds of pots of water, they cleansed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and everything else. Sri Chaitanya Himself personally washed the sitting place of Lord Jagannatha with His own two hands.

Even then, Lord Chaitanya was concerned that dust would again come into the temple, and so He had His devotees clean the area outside the temple as well—throw water outside the temple so that no new dust would come in.

In the course of the cleaning, Lord Chaitanya took off His own garment, the top piece of His sannyasa dress, to clean the temple. Srila Prabhupada remarks that this shows how serious He was to clean, that He even used His own cloth to mop the rooms and polish the Lord’s throne. And Sri Caitanya-caritamrta says that in the end the temple was so clean and pure and cool and pleasing that it was just like the pure mind of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself—and the minds of the devotees were similarly purified.

Srila Prabhupada has commented that if you clean the temple, you clean your heart; if you polish the deity’s paraphernalia, you polish your heart. And the activity of cleansing the Gundica temple is taken as not only a process for cleaning a temple complex, but also as a metaphor for how we should go about cleaning our hearts. The temple was cleansed to make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. Similarly, each of us has to clean his or her own heart to make it a fit place for the Lord. Of course, the Lord always resides in the hearts of the living entities (isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ’rjuna tisthati), but we want our hearts to be worthy places for Him to stay and enjoy His pastimes.

Srila Prabhupada has discussed elaborately, with reference to his own spiritual master’s comments, how the cleansing of the Gundica temple is a metaphor for cleaning the heart. We read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Twelve, “The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple”:

TEXT 135

ei-mata puradvara-age patha yata
sakala sodhila, taha ke varnibe kata

TRANSLATION

Outside the gateway of the temple, all the roads were also cleansed, and no one could tell exactly how this was done.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In commenting on the cleansing of the Gundica temple, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as the world leader, was personally giving instructions on how one should receive Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, within one’s cleansed and pacified heart. If one wants to see Krishna seated in his heart, he must first cleanse the heart, as prescribed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Siksastaka: ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc Antya 20.12]. In this age, everyone’s heart is especially unclean, as confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam: hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani. To wash away all dirty things accumulated within the heart, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised everyone to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. The first result will be that the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam). Similarly, Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.17) confirms this statement:

srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam

“Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”

If a devotee at all wants to cleanse his heart, he must chant and hear the glories of the Lord, Sri Krsna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah). This is a simple process. Krsna Himself will help cleanse the heart because He is already seated there. Krsna wants to continue living within the heart, and the Lord wants to give directions, but one has to keep his heart as clean as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept the Gundica temple. The devotee therefore has to cleanse his heart just as the Lord cleansed the Gundica temple. In this way one can be pacified and enriched in devotional service. If the heart is filled with straw, grains of sand, weeds, or dust (in other words, anyabhilasa-purna), one cannot enthrone the Supreme Personality of Godhead there. The heart must be cleansed of all material motives brought about through fruitive work, speculative knowledge, the mystic yoga system, and so many other forms of so-called meditation. The heart must be cleansed without ulterior motive. As Srila Rupa Gosvami says, anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]. In other words, there should not be any external motive. One should not attempt material upliftment, understanding the Supreme by speculative knowledge, fruitive activity, severe austerity and penance, and so on. All these activities are against the natural growth of spontaneous love of Godhead. As soon as these are present within the heart, the heart should be understood to be unclean and therefore unfit to serve as Krsna’s sitting place. We cannot perceive the Lord’s presence in our hearts unless our hearts are cleansed.

COMMENT by Giriraj Swami

We have just read the general part of the purport; the rest contains a detailed analysis of the specific types of dirt that may sully the heart and which we must detect and remove. But the main process, by which the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam) is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord (sri-krsna-sankirtanam). And the chanting should be done in a proper mood, in the mood to cleanse the heart and purify it of material desires. A material desire is a desire for anything other than to serve and please Krishna. Any other desire should be thrown out. But to throw out these other desires, we require a process, and the process is hearing and chanting about Krishna. Although material desires are there, we should have the intention to remove them. In other words, it is not an offense to have material attachments; it is an offense to maintain them. Although attachments are there, as devotees we have the intent to free ourselves from them, and we adopt the method by which we can be freed: hearing and chanting about Krishna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah).

If we are sincere in our intention, the Lord within the heart will help us. He is suhrt satam, the well-wishing friend of what Srila Prabhupada calls “the truthful devotee.” Sat means “truth,” and the truthful devotee is without duplicity. He chants and hears with a sincere intention to cleanse the heart and make it fit for the Lord. He has no duplicity. He does not make a show of being a devotee in order to achieve some selfish purpose—to get money or followers or adoration or anything else for himself—but he sincerely tries to cleanse the heart, and he works hard at it. We read in the description of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees just how hard they worked. They did a lot of cleaning—sweeping out dust and dirt and sand and straw—and a lot of carrying and throwing water.

When we first come to associate with devotees and hear their instructions and read Srila Prabhupada’s books and develop faith in the process of pure devotional service to Krishna (uttama-bhakti), we may have bad habits. Nowadays almost everyone has bad habits—even in India. And the main sinful activities, the pillars of sinful life, are eating meat, fish, and eggs; taking intoxicants; engaging in illicit sex; and gambling. So we have to give those up. And we do.

But even after following the standard practices of devotional service, there may be subtle contaminations in the heart that we also have to cleanse. And so in the pastime of cleaning the Gundica temple, Lord Chaitanya cleaned a second time, so that the finer pieces of dust and sand missed the first time were finally removed. In the same way, we may have bad habits, attachments to gross sinful activities, that we have to work hard to overcome, and we may actually become free from them. But even then, there may be more subtle bad habits with which we must contend.

Let us take the case of a new person who first begins to engage in temple activities. He will come to the Sunday feast, to various festivals, and take prasada, hear, chant, and start to work on his bad habits. He will want to become like the other devotees, a serious practitioner. He will work on his gross bad habits, and he will give up smoking, drinking, eating meat, and associating with women in an irreligious way. Eventually he will be ready to move into the temple and live with the devotees, chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulative principles, and attending the temple programs. But then his authority will say, “It is very nice that you are staying with us and engaging in the practices of Krishna consciousness, but you should also develop a healthy service attitude. I notice that at the Sunday feast you are very eager to sit and take prasada but that after the feast, when it is time to clean up, you are nowhere to be found. You must also develop a proper service attitude.” The devotee will take the instructions to heart, and then after the Sunday feasts he will always be there, ready to clean. And he will be very energetic and enthusiastic in his work.

But then his authority may notice something else—that the person is cleaning but making a big show of it. He wants others to see him so that he will get recognition and honor and praise. So, the authority will say, “Prabhuji, it is very good that now you are staying after the feast to clean up, but we see that you do it in such a way as to call attention to yourself, so that people will see that you are working hard and give you recognition and praise for being such a good devotee. You should work on that.”

As we progress in devotional service, we find more and more subtle contamination, and we have to keep cleaning. Lord Chaitanya, after that tremendous effort in cleaning the temple the first time, cleaned the temple a second time, to take out the finer dirt. So, we have to constantly be cleaning, because until we are completely liberated, there is always some contamination. We progress through the different stages—sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya—but there are taints that remain all the way up to the stage of bhava. Of course, the disturbance is much less after anartha-nivrtti—much less—but still it is there, and we have to keep chanting and hearing.

In His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami, Lord Chaitanya used the metaphor of the seed of devotional service, the bhakti-lata-bija. He said that after you receive the seed you must become a gardener and plant the seed and water it by hearing and chanting, and you have to make sure that no weeds grow alongside the creeper, because if weeds come they will drink the water meant for the plant, and they may become so strong that they can actually choke the creeper of devotion. Sri Chaitanya further instructed that you have to surround the creeper with a fence so that no mad elephant can enter. If a maddened elephant enters a garden, it can trample and uproot all the plants, and then all the effort put into carefully cultivating the garden will be lost.

The weeds are the material desires in the heart. We have to remove the weeds so that the creeper of devotion can flourish—and ultimately attain shelter under the lotus feet of the Lord. The mad elephant is vaisnava-aparadha, offenses against devotees, which destroy everything, all of our spiritual progress. And the fence that we construct around the creeper to protect it is the circle of pure devotees. We have to stay within the circle of pure devotees.

We find the same process in the cleansing of the Gundica temple. Not only did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu clean the temple twice, but He cleaned the roads outside the temple, so that no new dust would enter. In other words, we must act to keep maya—bad association—at a distance. Otherwise, even though we have received the bhakti-lata-bhija, the seed of pure devotion, and planted it and watered it by hearing and chanting, there is still a chance that weeds will come and grow and make the creeper weak. Then, in a weakened state, if we commit vaisnava-aparadha, through bad association, everything will be spoiled.

The weeds are material desires, and there are many varieties. Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta discusses some of the different kinds of weeds, and we have to be able to identify them. Lord Chaitanya states that the weeds may look just like the creeper, and we must recognize them and keep them apart from the creeper. Thus the discussion of the different types of weeds—the different types of dirt—is important. We must be able to distinguish pure devotional service from mixed service and from other processes altogether. And because we are conditioned and our consciousness is not completely cleansed, we may not be able to see things clearly, and we may make mistakes—we may take a weed for the creeper. But actually, the weed is unwanted; we want only pure devotion. Artha means some desirable gain, and anartha means the opposite: something that is undesirable, or unwanted.

Under all circumstances, we must continue the process of hearing and chanting—the process of cleansing the heart—which in Lord Chaitanya’s discussion with Rupa Gosvami is compared to the watering. Lord Chaitanya informs us that if we water the seed, it will sprout and become a creeper that grows stronger and stronger and taller and taller, until it pierces the coverings of the universe, penetrates the impersonal Brahman effulgence, and ultimately attains the shelter of the desire tree of the lotus feet of Krishna—because every creeper needs shelter, and the shelter for the creeper of pure devotion is the lotus feet of Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructs that even after the creeper attains ultimate shelter in the spiritual world, Goloka Vrindavan, still one must continue the process of watering, the process of hearing and chanting. Thus we learn that even while living in the material world, by one’s consciousness, by one’s devotion, one can be in the spiritual world. That is a very advanced stage, but it is possible that even while living in the material world, one can reach the lotus feet of Krishna in Vrindavan. And we further learn that even after attaining that exalted position, one continues the process of hearing and chanting. One never stops. Therefore Srila Prabhupada often said that in Krishna consciousness the means and the end are the same. The means is hearing and chanting about Krishna (sravanam kirtanam visnoh) and serving Him, and the end is also hearing and chanting about Krishna—and serving Him with love. It is not that we adopt the means of hearing and chanting to achieve some end and then when the goal is reached we abandon the process. The whole process is eternal.

The service of the spiritual master is also eternal. It continues even after liberation, even in the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada was once walking with some disciples in Mayapur, and they came to an embankment. One of the disciples climbed up on the embankment and then reached out his hand to help Srila Prabhupada climb up and walk over it. But when Srila Prabhupada got to the top he abruptly withdrew his hand from the disciple’s hand and walked ahead, completely ignoring the disciple. Then Srila Prabhupada said, “That is what the Mayavadis do. They take help from the spiritual master to become liberated, and then when they think they are liberated, they think they don’t need the guru anymore.” Someone may think that he needs to hear and chant to attain liberation—which is true—and that he needs to serve the instructions of the guru to become liberated—which is also true—but that when he is liberated he will stop hearing and chanting and the entire process of devotional service. But it doesn’t work like that. In fact, the process is such that the devotee wants to hear and chant more and more—and all the more after liberation.

Srila Prabhupada remarked, “When you are completely liberated (paramahamsa), you can do anything and you won’t be affected by it.” So a disciple said to Srila Prabhupada, “Well, then when we are liberated we can have sex and it won’t affect us.” Then Prabhupada told a story. A king liked to ride in a boat along the bank of a river. He liked to stay near the riverbank, and he engaged a servant on the bank who would pull the boat, sometimes dragging it through the reeds and other plants and things that might come in the way. The king became so pleased with this humble, attentive service that he offered, “Now you can ask from me whatever you want.” The servant replied, “I would like to have cushions along the riverbank, so when I pull the boat I will have a soft surface under my feet.” This, of course, was a foolish request, because the man didn’t have to pull the boat anymore. He could have had anything, but he was so used to thinking in terms of pulling the boat that he asked for a facility to pull the boat. So, the disciple who said, “Wow, when we are liberated we can have sex,” had such a limited (and base) conception of happiness that he could think of nothing beyond material sense-gratification—like the boatman could think of nothing beyond pulling the boat. That disciple hadn’t realized that there is another, higher standard of pleasure in Krishna consciousness. Thus Srila Prabhupada concluded, “When you are liberated, you will relish a spiritual pleasure that far exceeds any pleasure of this material world, and you will no longer care to experience sex life.” In other words, when we are liberated we will relish that pleasure of hearing and chanting about Krishna and remembering and serving Him even more.

Bhaktya sanjataya bhaktya: bhakti comes from bhakti. The means and the end are the same. The means is chanting and the end is chanting. The means is bhakti, sadhana-bhakti, and the end is bhakti, prema-bhakti. It is not that we adopt the means to achieve some end and then when we reach the goal we abandon the means. Bhakti means to serve Krishna, and the whole process of devotional service, the whole process of sadhana-bhakti, is meant to purify the service. We do not want to give up the service. We want to please Krishna, and we want to purify our service so we can please Krishna more. We want to purify it more and more so we can please Krishna more and more, and the desire to serve and please Krishna never ends. It just increases. And so, our effort to serve Krishna better ever increases, and it continues even in the spiritual world. There are no anarthas then—only pure bhakti—and pure pleasure.

As the acharya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showed us through the example of cleaning the Gundica temple how to clean the heart and make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. The Lord is already there, but because of the material contamination, we cannot fully appreciate His presence. We can’t see Him, and we have difficulty hearing Him. But He is there, and He wants to reciprocate with us. He wants to give us direction from within. But to be able to receive His direction, we have to cleanse the heart (ceto-darpana-marjanam), to remove the contamination. Then we will see that He is there—and He will speak with us.

Once, a devotee told Srila Prabhupada that some people were saying that God instructed them from within and that therefore they didn’t need a guru. Srila Prabhupada replied, “God will talk with him? What is the condition? That is stated:

tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

‘To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.’ [Gita 10.10] So first of all see whether he’s twenty-four hours engaged in God’s service with love and faith. Then you can understand, ‘Yes, God is talking with him.’ But if he has no preliminary qualification and if he says, ‘I can talk with God,’ he is a nonsense. God talks with devotees, sincere devotees who are engaged in God’s service.”

Srila Prabhupada continued, “And the person who is constantly engaged in God’s service, unless he’s trained up by a spiritual master, how can he be engaged? Without a spiritual master, one cannot be engaged in devotional service, and without devotional service, nobody is eligible to talk with God.”

So, Krishna can talk to us—and He wants to talk to us—but we have to be qualified. We have to cleanse the heart so that He will talk to us, to give us direction and guidance. And so we have to be constantly engaged in His service, beginning with chanting and hearing and remembering. That process will cleanse the heart and make it a fit place for the Lord to reside, and create the condition in which the Lord can guide us—back home, back to Godhead—to the ultimate shelter of His lotus feet in Vrindavan.

Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments?

Dharma dasa: When I first started to try to perform devotional service, it seemed easier, and things came easier. It seemed to feel better, or the atmosphere seemed better. Then it seemed that as time went on, it got harder. You would think it would get easier, but instead it seems to have gotten more difficult. The level of feeling I had before doesn’t seem to be there. Is that because the anarthas are coming out? Is it because weeds are growing and we are watering the weeds and that is inhibiting our receptiveness or our feeling?

Giriraj Swami: Dharma Prabhu has asked a very good question, that in the beginning, when we first come to the association of devotees, we seem to relish Krishna consciousness more, and it seems so easy and natural, and then later we don’t relish as much, and the process seems more difficult. Is it because of anarthas that were there that are coming to light, or is it because we have cultivated weeds along with the creeper?

The answer could be either—or both. But one thing is that when we first come to the association of devotees, we tend to have great respect for them. When I first joined I thought all the devotees in the temple were very advanced. I took them as pure devotees. That attitude of respect and appreciation for devotees is very congenial for spiritual advancement. But then familiarity breeds contempt.” You get to know them better, and you see things in them that you didn’t see before. And you see the things as faults, and you get disturbed. Eventually, you may even think, “If this is what being a devotee means, I don’t know if I want to be a devotee.” Of course, that is common to all traditions and groups. Christians have told me that they say the same thing: “If this is what being a Christian means, I don’t want to be a Christian.”

The process of finding faults in devotees and becoming absorbed in the faults—whether they are real or not—is very harmful for spiritual life. It creates a serious disturbance in the heart. And when we are disturbed, we can’t chant and hear and remember properly—so we don’t relish.

But the other is also possible, that there are anarthas of which we are unaware and that through the process of purification we become conscious of them. His Holiness Sacinandana Swami discussed with me once that we tend to have a linear conception of progress in Krishna consciousness. We think that we start here and go straight there and end up at the lotus feet of Krishna in Vrindavan. He told me that he has a dear friend who is a Christian priest or monk, who said that within their tradition they see progress not as a straight line but as a spiral. You are going forward, but in the process there are ups and downs. And it is not as easy as we might have imagined.

Maharaja gave the example that you are walking on the path back to Godhead, chanting your rounds and enjoying the journey, and suddenly you come to a fork in the road. Now, you didn’t know there would be a fork, and you don’t which way to go. You have to consider, “Should I go to the left or to the right?” Anyway, you make a decision, and you go on chanting, and then suddenly there is a landslide. Boulders and rocks cascade down the mountain, and suddenly you find yourself buried. “Oh my God! How did I get into this position?” With great diligence and effort and care you have to remove all those rocks and stones, and you have to get out from under them. “Thank God!” You walk a little further, and you are chanting, and then suddenly the natives who had been hiding in the bushes come out to attack with and arrows and spears. “Oh my God. I didn’t know they were going to be here.” And then you have to retreat. You have to find some shelter. You have to get some weapon. You have to defend yourself from the attacks. So you are making progress, but things happen along the way that you didn’t expect.

In the early days, devotees would chant down the street and call out, “We’re going back home, back to Godhead! Going back home, back to Godhead!” The idea was “Just join us, chant with us, be happy—and you will go back to Godhead.” And that is true. But there may be obstacles along the way. And depending on our purity, depending on our diligence and vigilance in our practice, it may be more or less difficult to overcome them. But there will be ups and downs, and in the end we will be successful—as long as we remain faithful in our practice of pure devotional service. It is like climbing a mountain: Your goal is to reach the top of Mount Everest, but there are so many peaks and valleys along the way. So, you go up, and you come down, and you go up . . . but the general trend is you are going up, and finally you will reach the top—you will reach the goal.

So, under all circumstances, we have to keep association with pure devotees. The association of pure devotees will help us in any condition. There is a verse in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta that states that the association of devotees is the root cause of devotional service (mula haya) and that even after one develops love for Krishna, the association of devotees is still essential.

krsna-bhakti-janma-mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’
krsna-prema janme, tenho punah mukhya anga

“The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krsna is association with advanced devotees. Even when one’s dormant love for Krsna awakens, association with devotees is still most essential.” (Cc Madhya 22.83)

The association of pure devotees is a constant factor. If we stay in the association of more advanced devotees, we will continue to be associated with the process of hearing and chanting, the process of devotional service, and that will see us through whatever may happen, and we will reach the final goal. And even in the spiritual world, in Goloka Vrindavan, we will be in the association of pure devotees. And we will be hearing and chanting about Krishna.

Hare Krishna.

Nityananda dasa: One thing that I personally feel encouraged by . . . I feel the way Dharma felt, that there are times when you feel discouraged in your Krishna consciousness. In my case, I found that when I preach and reach out to people and see the excitement in them . . . because when I first joined there was real excitement. There is no doubt about it. I was ecstatic. My hairs were standing on end. I didn’t know anything about the process, but it excited me because I saw an opportunity, a great opportunity that was well beyond me, something that I was going to get that I didn’t deserve. It was going to be really great, and I was looking forward to it.

And then engaging in it, you find the difficulties that you have to cross over. They can become distractions, but then when we preach we find that others are getting so much excitement and we realize that it is simply because we are losing sight of the opportunity that we lose our enthusiasm. But when we see the opportunity clearly in front of our eyes every day as we walk . . . Like it is said, the process is ever fresh; every time you should see something new. If I walk into this temple, it is not like I should see the same things I saw the last time I came. I notice something new whenever I see the deities. I feel they look more beautiful than ever. I have never seen them so beautiful. Whoever dressed them this morning must have love, and they are so loving in showing us such wonderful forms. Like that, we feel this ever-freshness in what we are doing. And in my case it is the preaching that helps me keep that. It is like Srila Prabhupada said, “Preaching is life.” If you feel alive, then you preach. And if you preach, you feel alive. That is our process.

Giriraj Swami: Excellent. Nityananda Prabhu says that when he joined he had the same experience as Dharma Prabhu: everything was so full of life; everything was fresh and exciting. As Srila Prabhupada says in a purport to the Bhagavad-gita, “One enjoys life with a thrill at every moment.” And then after a while one has difficulties, and you don’t feel the same. But the one thing Nityananda Prabhu does that really keeps him enlivened and enthusiastic is preach, because when you meet people in the world and you see how they are suffering, how they are looking for something, and then you give them Krishna consciousness and you see how they respond—that they feel they are getting what they were looking for—in that dynamic there is great encouragement, great enlivenment, and then everything is fresh.

The experience of preaching is always fresh, because there is no stereotypical way to preach. You can’t do it mechanically, because you are dealing with another person, an individual. You might think you know what to say, but the person may respond in an unexpected way, and then you have to respond. So, you have to be alive and alert and conscious; it can’t be scripted. There can be some basic idea of how to introduce the topic, but once you start to interact with people, you have to be prepared for any reaction, and then you have to respond. So, you have to be alive. You have to be alert. You have to be conscious—Krishna conscious.

Srila Prabhupada once said in a lecture, “Preaching is the best way to be Krishna conscious, because when you preach, people will ask questions, and to answer, you will have to think of Krishna.” So, you have to be Krishna conscious. Nityananda Prabhu has given the best answer: one who has life will preach, and conversely, one who preaches will have life. Thank you, Nityananda Prabhu, for that answer, and thank you, Dharma Prabhu, for your question—perfect question, perfect answer.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Sri Gundica-marjana in Dallas, April 28, 2007]

Travel Journal#20.12: Paris
→ Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 20, No. 12
By Krishna Kripa Das
(June 2024, part two)
Paris
(Sent from Sarcelles, France, on July 6, 2024)

Where I Went and What I Did

I spent the last two weeks of June chanting Hare Krishna in Paris three hours a day and advertising the Paris Ratha-yatra which was held on June 30. It was great to see old friends and chant in places I did formerly. I had many encouraging experiences which I tell about. There are more devotees in the Paris temple these days, so it is more lively, however, this year I do not have a dedicated harinama partner, like Tulasi Prabhu or Gaura Nataraja Prabhu, as in previous years, so that is a bit austere. Prasadam is improved as the temple management eliminated the use of red pepper. Harinama Ruci came for the Ratha-yatra, and I have some videos of their ecstatic harinamas after the procession.

The Gaura-Nitai deities in Paris, named Nitai-Sacisuta, are strikingly beautiful, though not as well known as Radha-Parisisvara.

I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, and also from one of his Bhagavad-gita classes. I share quotes from Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s A Writer of Pieces 2024 and Dvija Govinda Prabhu’s The Nature of Time. I share notes on classes in Paris by Janananda Goswami, Rasa Parayana Prabhu, Dayal-Nitai Prabhu, Jiva Prana Prabhu, and Vasumati Manjari Devi Dasi. I share an interesting quote by physicist Stephen Hawking.

Many, many thanks to Janananda Goswami for his very generous donation of U.S. currency. Thanks to Sara Owen of the North of England for her kind donation of British pounds.

Itinerary

June 17–August 16: Paris harinamas
– July 12: Amsterdam harinama
– July 13: Amsterdam Ratha-yatra
– July 26: Milan and Bratislava harinamas
– July 27: first ever Bratislava Ratha-yatra
– July 28: Bratislava or Vienna harinama
August 16–19: Balarama Festival (New Mayapur France)
August 22–25: Trutnov (Czech Woodstock)
August 29–30: Liverpool harinamas
August 31: Liverpool Ratha-yatra
September 8: Great North Run harinama (Newcastle, UK)
September 9–11: Dublin harinama
September 12: NYC Harinam

Chanting Hare Krishna in Paris

I was so happy that Janananda Goswami, the authority I work under in Paris, was personally present for many days during the beginning of my visit.

Here Janananda Goswami chants Hare Krishna on Rue de Caumartin in Paris (https://youtu.be/VMOHOtJgJls):

Later his disciple, Vishnu Janananda Prabhu, chanted Hare Krishna there, and a couple, sitting on the steps of a church, played shakers and learned the mantra (https://youtu.be/FTUJMjkeR3c):

After harinama, Janananda Goswami chanted Hare Krishna at the Yoga Lyrique Tuesday evening program (https://youtu.be/Y5t5JZ4nFAU):

This young lady from Tunisia, who met us on harinama for the first time, came with the devotees to the Yoga Lyrique program afterward, staying to the end, and receiving Maharaja’s garland.

Dayal-Nitai Prabhu, the lead book distributor here, goes to places I had never been to before, some of which turned out to be good for harinama.

In the first 1½ hours I chanted Hare Krishna by myself at Chateau de Vincennes, near where two devotees distributed books, five people gave donations, two Christian missionaries from Boston and three kids. Two kids returned the literature I gave them because their teacher said religious books are not allowed in schools in France. Apparently you cannot talk about religion in school here either. The parent of the other kid did not make her return the pamphlet I gave her.

At another venue, Montparnasse train station, one woman who liked our music wanted to know the location of our daily harinamas.

Patita Pavana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Arc de Triomphe in Paris on June 21, the Music Festival Day, a national holiday when many people sing in public (https://youtu.be/K6r0RzgmFUU):

Rohininandana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Arc de Triomphe, and several passersby dance (https://youtu.be/1xQ-G9qC594):

Rasa Parayana Prabhu chanted Hare Krishna there too (https://youtu.be/lBpT1UnsSc8):

Lauren, touring Europe, greeted me while on harinama at Hotel de Ville, “Are you from Tallahassee?”

She graduated from FSU this year, where she was friends with Calla, one of our most enthusiastic servers at Krishna Lunch. She had eaten at Krishna Lunch both there and at UF. She promised to remind her younger sister, still at FSU, to attend our Krishna Lunch.

The young woman on the right, from the north of Belgium, was very enthusiastic to encounter the Hare Krishnas again because she once went on the tour of the Radhadesh castle which she found simply enchanting.

Patita Pavana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Hotel de Ville in Paris (https://youtu.be/khWJOhLOsGA):

Sudevi Manjari Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at Hotel de Ville (https://youtu.be/jIWg8hfLkQQ):

While Sudevi Manjari Devi Dasi chanted Hare Krishna there, many passersby danced with the devotee women (https://youtu.be/rgSoOV2buIY):

The Sunday before the Ratha-yatra I chanted Hare Krishna by the Indian shops, and I set up this book table.

Unfortunately no one came to join me in the chanting, but two new devotees, both from Muslim backgrounds, one on each side of the street, very enthusiastically distributed Ratha-yatra flyers. I had to relocate the table when one lady complained that the sound of the chanting completely disturbed her mind and made her unable to work. I suggested she shut her window. She said she could still hear it. I felt sorry for her unfortunate condition and was annoyed at having to move. Persons purchased an English, a French, and a Hindi Bhagavad-gita from my table.

One Muslim woman passing by the Paris temple, stood smiling at the courtyard entrance, observing the Jagannath Snana Yatra and hearing the lively Hare Krishna kirtan of Ramanaji Prabhu (https://youtu.be/2fZltgoa5EE):

She told a devotee that the scene was very moving, and she felt like she wanted to cry.

Later Patita Pavana Prabhu chanted Hare Krishna at ISKCON Paris Snana Yatra (https://youtu.be/eANVi1oR6N4):

Patita Pavana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna on Rue de Caumartin in Paris, which is nearby his office, so that he could join us after work (https://youtu.be/PG9q8_-Uh1k):

Rohininandana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Les Halles in Paris (https://youtu.be/XOYJr9i2Q_s):

Rasa Parayana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Hotel de Ville in Paris, and many women enjoyed dancing with the devotee women (https://youtu.be/W73tPSgQDWk):

Priyarani chants Hare Krishna at Les Halles in Paris (https://youtu.be/8k198Z8fasg):

Two girls play shakers, chant Hare Krishna, and take prasadam as Adi-Guru Prabhu chants at Hotel de Ville in Paris (https://youtube.com/shorts/Yhol7FAJfHw?feature=share):

Adi-Guru Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in the streets of Les Halles in Paris (https://youtu.be/Krq93FTOaw4):

Adi-Guru Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in a restaurant in Les Halles (https://youtu.be/TMET6mNfzk4):

Here is the end of his restaurant kirtan (https://youtube.com/shorts/G_qeu_PuQiI):

Gopaswami Prabhu chants Hare Krishna as Lord Jagannath prepares to go to the Paris Ratha-yatra site (https://youtu.be/CJCxFU94xKk):

The Paris Ratha-yatra went down the street next to the main train station, Gare du Nord.

Sometimes many people watched it from their apartments.

Sometimes even whole families.

Both workers and diners in cafes took photos.

Two men balanced on the same ladder also took photos.

Many devotees, like Madhavendra Puri Prabhu, distributed books.

All together 1,240 pieces of literature were distributed in the procession.

Here Harinamananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at the beginning of the Paris Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/OPbkil0u1Fw):

Chandrashekhara Acharya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna and “Govinda Jaya Jaya” in the Paris Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/_EeRYEZYBa8):

Dayal Mora Prabhu chants Jaya Jagannath in Paris Ratha-yatra, and Indian ladies dance with a devotee lady (https://youtu.be/0ldORdvtsKU):

Young women at a cafe play shakers during Paris Ratha-yatra (https://youtube.com/shorts/NnPLTtGMxTI?feature=share):

Rohininandana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in the Paris Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/pvl7nG8sYjY):

Nitai Pada Kamala Prabhu chants Hare Krishna after the Paris Ratha-yatra procession ended at Les Halles (https://youtu.be/C4m9GYw9XOE):

I felt victorious because I passed out “On Chanting Hare Krishna” and invitations to the Yoga Lyrique programs to people who were obviously attracted by Nitai’s kirtana.

After taking the free prasadam and some prasadam from generous devotee vendors, we did harinama with Harinama Ruci in the nearby streets of Les Halles, chanting in the same restaurant that Adi-Guru chanted in the previous day. We began at Fontaine Des Innocents (Fountain of the Innocents) (https://youtu.be/TLoRBM_jqgA):

Harinamananda Prabhu chanted Hare Krishna as we were leaving Fontaine Des InnagDIuzZlrXYocents, and passersby tried chanting the mantra (https://youtu.be/agDIuzZlrXY):

Harinamananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna with Harinama Ruci in a restaurant in Les Halles and then outside of it in the street (https://youtu.be/QRHeGPYMiuo):

Harinamananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Les Halles past an outside cafe, and diners dance with devotees (https://youtu.be/BxWKHBGk0B0):

Harinamananda Prabhu ended the evening and the month by chanting Hare Krishna with Harinama Ruci after the Paris Ratha-yatra stage show finished in Les Halles (https://youtu.be/mLnKnSQ94cw):

Photos

Are they always running out of mango pickle at your temple? Maybe you just need a larger bottle!

Insights

Srila Prabhupada:

From Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.6.26, purport:

“Such a devotee, after his initiation by the Lord or His bona fide representative, takes very seriously chanting of the glories of the Lord and traveling all over the world so that others may also hear the glories of the Lord. Such devotees have no desire for material gain. They are conducted by one single desire: to go back to Godhead. This awaits them in due course on quitting the material body. Because they have the highest aim of life, going back to Godhead, they are never envious of anyone, nor are they proud of being eligible to go back to Godhead. Their only business is to chant and remember the holy name, fame and pastimes of the Lord and, according to personal capacity, to distribute the message for others’ welfare without motive of material gain.”

From Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.8, purport:

“One has to receive the transcendental sound from the right source, accept it as a reality and prosecute the direction without hesitation. The secret of success is to receive the sound from the right source, a bona fide spiritual master.”

“One should be qualified enough to discern such transcendental potency, and either by discriminating or by fortunate chance if one is able to receive the transcendental sound from the bona fide spiritual master, his path of liberation is guaranteed.”

From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 16.281, purport:

“Because we live in the temples of Radha-Krishna and continuously hold hari-nama-sankirtana – the chanting of Hare Krishna – we consequently live in Vrindavana and nowhere else.”

From a Bhagavad-gita class on June 25, 1974, in Melbourne, Australia:

“And as soon as you offer yourself to be enjoyed by Krishna as servant – according to His order you serve – then immediately you are in the spiritual world. So you can become in the material world or spiritual world, as you desire. As you desire. If you want to remain in the spiritual world, this temple is the spiritual world. We are not living in Melbourne. This temple is not Melbourne. It is Vaikuntha … It is Vrindavana.”

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:

From A Writer of Pieces 2024:

“If one chants even for one week, he will make solid progress in spiritual life.”

“Hare Krishna comes straight from krishna-loka,
but with chanting I have no connection;
day and night I am burning in this dark world.
I never met true happiness
until I served the lotus feet
of the bona fide Vaishnava guru.

“Bhavausadhi—bhavausadhi.
You can’t buy it in a drugstore.
Bhavausadhi—bhavausadhi.
It is only found by serving Gurudeva.”

“When Rama Raya went to India to explore the holy places, he left his comrade Mathuraprana in charge. Such is the trust of one man in another. And they all trusted Krishna, and Krishna trusted them. So much trust, and the trust was in Krishna to protect them all.”

“I pray to return to normal sadhana.
But it does not return easily.
The Lord may make you wait a long time.
You may have to suffer not chanting your rounds,
He may keep you in bodily pain.
But you never complain. You are always patient
until He comes again.”

“We Meet Again: Reconnection with the Eternal Master

“I found the perfect guru.
He had just come from India.

“He was penniless
and had no support from an institution or rich patron.
But he was a pure devotee of Krishna.
I was penniless too,
|lost on the street.

“I had no teacher,
I had no lover, no dear friend.
I had no knowledge of God.
I had rejected God.
I was addicted to drugs like marijuana and LSD.

“Somehow, I met the Swami,
and he picked me out of the street.
I began to attend his classes in the storefront ‘temple,’
and he was kind to me.
About ten boys gathered around him,
and they began to chant Hare Krishna with him.
He taught about Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
and he told us Krishna was God.

“He pulled me out of the gutter.
He became my best friend, my mentor.
He was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
We soon learned to call him Swamiji.
It was a love adventure.
He wore the saffron robes of a mendicant,
poor cloth, khadi.
How quickly we took to him.

“He taught us how to love vegetarian Indian food.
He taught us everything!
The best thing was chanting
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
By attending only one class in his storefront,
and singing Hare Krishna with him
and a motley group,
I learned to give up all my sinful activities—
the habits that everyone took up on the Lower East Side—
meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication and gambling.

“I gave him all my money, $400, discharge from the U.S. Navy.
I went out and begged money to give to his cause.

“I took to his teachings,
believed that we are not these bodies but spirit souls.”

“Baladeva and I have been best friends for about forty years, friends in every way. Nalini-kantha, the ISKCON astrologer, has repeatedly done our charts and said that we are 90% compatible and alike in almost all ways. Of course, we have other friends, but Bala and I are the closest.”

“Be kind to all your friends,
and don’t forget to forgive your enemies.”

“Take a tip from me.
Stay close to your spiritual master,
and never leave his lotus feet.”

“I joined in the kirtana, changed my life,
gave up all vices,
took up the chanting of Hare Krishna,
became dedicated to Swami, never left him, never turned back. Fifty years later, I still worship his lotus feet.”

“There are people in worse condition than I am, and there are saints who take their pains without regrets.”

“Let me go on with the ‘pieces’ and live in peace.”

“O, how I would love to be a mahatma, or at least a madhyama-adhikari, but not an utter novice with no real love for Krishna.”

Janananda Goswami:

In many ways, the Ratha-yatra day is the most important day. For one, it is the day the Lord comes out of the temple to give his audience to everyone.

The residents of Vrindavan seeing Krishna at Kuruksetra is like seeing your beloved in court as the high court judge. You cannot really run up to him.

We are inviting Lord Jagannath to come back to Vrindavan, and we are inviting everyone to also come to Vrindavan.

Radharani wants everyone to please Krishna. Why should Krishna’s energy not be engaged in Krishna’s service?

We see Vrindavan as the holy dhama. Others see it as a damn hole. You have to see behind the facade.

Vrindavan is the place where everything is for Krishna’s pleasure.

Radharani is pining for Lord Krishna, and Lord Caitanya is pining for Lord Jagannath.

Real innocence is unknown in this world. It is to be without material desire, to only desire to serve Krishna.

About 10 years ago in Den Haag we had Ratha-yatra without Lord Jagannath. He got held up in a traffic jam between Radhadesh and Den Haag. After an hour, the authorities told us that we had to start immediately or the whole event was off. We chanted and danced and distributed books. The onlookers did not know anything was wrong because they did not know what the festival was about anyway. When the procession reached the festival site, Lord Jagannath showed up, like devotees who show up just in time for prasadam.

Srila Prabhupada liked shenai bands playing. During his time, they would play in Mayapur.

King Prataparudra became a menial servant of Lord Jagannath, sweeping the floor before His chariot, and thus He attained the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Lord Caitanya chose the dancers in each party. One was Advaita Acharya who was about 80 years old, and another was Haridas Thakura who was about 70 years old.

Srila Prabhupada said that Ratha-yatra and mass book distribution will conquer the world.

No one will forget a Ratha-yatra festival.

Hiranyakasipu was sense gratification personified and ahankara [false ego] personified.

Hiranyakasipu was determined to get rid of Vishnu by all means, and nowadays there are also people who want to eliminate God by all means.

Even Bali Maharaja was glorified by Vamana as king of the demons. However, just because he was king of the demons doesn’t mean he was a demon.

Devotional service has no material motivation. It is our constitution.

When Bali Maharaja had given everything to Lord Vamanadeva, his wife chastised him for thinking that everything had belonged to him.

About 55 years ago the Archbishop of Argentina led his congregation in prayer to God that his team win the world cup. They did win, but that is not perfect God consciousness.

Acts facilitate the proper consciousness, but they are not a substitute for the proper consciousness.

We are not performing enough sankirtana. That is the root problem because that is the only thing that can destroy the false ego.

We have to absorb our minds in acts of devotion that are favorable.

External clutter means internal clutter.

Without repentance there will not be a change in behavior.

We have to find out what is our part to play in relationship with Krishna. Then we will be naturally peaceful.

About 98 or 99% of the people are in an artificial situation in some way or another.

If we are genuine devotees we will welcome Krishna’s chastisement.

If you are working in a incompatible situation, such as where you have to work with meat, if you take shelter of Krishna, He will make an adjustment in due course.

A prabhu whose name I neglected to ask:

We are helping Lord Caitanya distribute these fruits of love of Godhead.

We can have everything in this world, but if no one loves us and we love no one, then we cannot be happy. Thus it is loving relationships that are the cause of happiness.

If our devotional service is interrupted for 10 minutes, we cannot be happy for those 10 minutes.

Going deeper in our japa helps us go deeper in our sankirtana, and going deeper in our sankirtana helps us go deeper in our japa.

Only by being tolerant and humble can we go deeper in devotional service, and come to the stage of unmotivated and uninterrupted devotional service, that will bring complete satisfaction.

Dvija Govinda Prabhu:

From his soon-to-be-published The Nature of Time:

“People in the mode of goodness, however, have the ability to gradually ‘expand’ the present, and this ability is proportional to the strength of the influence of the mode of goodness. The mode of goodness (sattva-guna) slows down time. Yogis deliberately slow down their breathing in order to stop the endless rushing of the mind. In this stream of thoughts, flowing endlessly from the past to the future, we do not notice the present. But when the mind slows down, the passage of time slows down along with it, and this is one of the reasons why yogis live longer. All physiological processes in the body of a yogi are also changed qualitatively. When a yogi reaches a state of samadhi, the boundaries of the present expand to hours, days, weeks, months, and even years. His consciousness passes into a different realm, and when sattva-guna becomes pure, completely free from the influence of rajo-guna (passion) and tamo-guna (ignorance), the present becomes eternity.”

“The tri-kala-jña concept is similar to the phenomenon known today as ‘precognitive remote viewing.’ The essence of this concept is as follows: During the experiment, one test person remains in a room with the experimenters and tries to describe what another test person sees at a great distance from him. Thousands of such experiments have been successfully carried out at Princeton University. A surprising feature of the results was that observers could receive information equally well from the past, present, or future.Although the modern, mainstream scientific community is generally not open to evidence supporting instances of individuals receiving accurate glimpses of the past or the future, remote viewing research in the United States, which began with the government-funded Stargate Project in 1978, continues to this day.”

Rasa Parayana Prabhu:

It is His specialty that Lord Caitanya made bhakti very easy. Everyone likes to dance. Everyone likes to sing.

One Prabhupada disciple was saying that we worship the dancing God, Lord Caitanya, and Lord Jagannatha, the eating God.

We will have the Olympics this year here in Paris, and so many athletes will come, but when it is over, how many will be happy? Only very few. But at a Hare Krishna festival, at the end everyone is happy. Everyone got to sing. Everyone got to eat Krishna prasadam.

At one Ratha-yatra Srila Prabhupada said anyone who saw Lord Jagannatha on His chariot will go back to Godhead.

Dayal-Nitai Prabhu:

If we tell new people about inconceivable ideas like souls having two eternal forms one in Lord Krishna’s and another in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, it will weaken their faith.

Janananda Goswami says, “If you are happy in the brahmacari ashram, you will not be happier in the grhastha ashram.”

If the administrative class does not give charity to the brahmanas they will not be able to do their service.

If you give charity to a sinful person who uses it to perform sinful activity, you get implicated in the sinful reaction.

We give the holy name and Krishna prasadam because even if you give them to sinful people they cannot use them for sinful purposes.

Bali Maharaja teaches by his example who to give charity to.

If we give transcendental knowledge to people, that attracts Krishna’s mercy. For those not ready to accept transcendental knowledge, we give the holy name or prasadam.

Even Krishna rejects some of the sastra in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 2.42–23).

I know some devotees who always bring prasadam with them when they go out to do book distribution to give to beggars.

Jiva Prana Prabhu:

Vamana glorifies the demoniac dynasty of Bali Maharaja, and we as book distributors can glorify the people we distribute books to, who are also of a demoniac background.

Demigods seek solutions to problems by approaching the Supreme Lord unlike the demons.

Vamana describes the battles with Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu which were actually for the pleasure of the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada describes that the Lord plays with the demons before killing them as a cat might play with some mice before killing them because killing them is not difficult for Him.

Vamana glories the dynasty of Bali to get his confidence so he can ask him for charity.

The devotee always considers what the Lord is teaching him through the different incidents in his life.

The Lord was considering how to act to benefit Hiranyakasipu, and similarly we should consider how to act so that those we meet will be benefited, by giving them Krishna consciousness in a form they will be able to accept.

Engaging all our possessions in the service of the Lord is the best thing we can do. We should meditate on how we can do this.

Charity helps us detach ourselves from material opulence.

If we become rich, we can get entangled in worrying too much about our possessions or expanding our possessions.

Comment by Dayal Nitai Prabhu: When we are illusion, we do not see that we are in illusion, and thus we continue going in the wrong way.

Comment by Vasumati Manjari Devi Dasi: If we have a little taste of spiritual pleasure, we can compare our different material experiences with that and see them as inferior.

Comment by Aristanasana Prabhu: Srila Prabhupada advised spending by the end of the day what one collects for the temple during that day, so one will have to go out and collect the next day.

Vasumati Manjari Devi Dasi:

This is my favorite part of the Vamana pastime, where the Lord teaches by His example to accept in charity only what one actually needs.

Sometimes the Puranas teach people through stories in an indirect way so it is easier for people for accept the knowledge.

It is so difficult to get rid of things that if a woman wants to clean out her wardrobe she needs the emotional support of her girlfriends even to give up things she is not wearing any more.

Can you use it? If not, it is just a source of anxiety.

Krishna gives wealth when He knows it will not affect your bhakti.

No only our wealth, but our talents we have to use in the service of the Lord.

Begging is hard for people who have pride.

Comment by me:

Regarding your point that lust is never satisfied, here is a relevant verse from Bhagavad-gita: “Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.” (Bg. 3.39)

Stephen Hawking:

From A Brief History of Time:

“Even the equations describing the motion of an electron around a hydrogen atom are too complicated for their direct solution. What can we say then about the prediction in all the details of the fate of the universe?”

-----

The popular strategy of attaining happiness through fulfilling sensual desires actually does not work as Krishna mentions in this verse in Bhagavad-gita 3.39 and thus we should abandon it before wasting any more time in this way.

avritam jñanam etena
jñanino nitya-vairina
kama-rupena kaunteya
duspurenanalena ca

“Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.” (Bg. 3.39)

Don’t lament, however, the real path to happiness is also mentioned in the Gita:

“Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.” (Bg. 5.21)

Sri Gadadhara Pandita Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

Gadadhara Pandit was a childhood friend of Nimai and both were students in the same ‘Tola’ or school. Gadadhara’s parents Madhav Mishra and Ratnawati were natives of Chattagram district but later on moved to Navadwipa. Gadadhara Pandit was born in Navadwipa.

In the Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, verses 147 through 153, it is stated: “The pleasure potency of Sri Krishna formerly known as Vrindavaneshvari, Srimati Radharani is now personified in the form of Sri Gadadhara Pandit in the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

After some time, Gadadhara accompanied some devotees from Navadwip to visit Mahaprabhu in Puri. He stayed on in Puri, not returning to Navadwip. Gadadhara started living in Jameshwar’s Tota (garden). Everyday, Gadadhara would read out aloud from the Srimad Bhagavatam for the pleasure of Mahaprabhu.

Once while sitting on the beach, discussing some topics on Krishna, Nimai decided to bestow his special grace on Gadadhara. He told Gadadhara to dig in a particular spot. After digging for sometime, Gadadhara discovered the beautiful deity of Sri Gopinath. The deity was established in a temple in the garden and came to be known as Tota Gopinath.

Soon after, Gadadhara took a vow of “Kshetra Sanyas” (limiting oneself to one particular place only), so as to do uninterrupted seva of Lord Sri Gopinatha.

There’s a story in connection with Sri Gadadhara Pandit that when He was very old and trying to render service to Tota-Gopinath that He couldn’t any more reach to put the garland around the neck of the Deity. To reciprocate with His loving service the Deity knelt down to accept the flower garlands of His beloved Gadadhara, Who is none other than His beloved Srimati Radharani incarnate as mentioned previously.

Sri Gadadhara pandit appears on the new moon and leaves the world on the same day. New moon means no moon – dark moon or Amavasya tithi. He also appeared in a land that is desert-like, dry and vacant in contrast to the lush Ganga basin of Navadwipa.

Inside the Brahmachari Ashram Experience at ISKCON New Raman Reti
→ ISKCON News

Some of the brahmacharis serving in the kitchen with New Raman Reti community members. In response to increasing interest in Krishna consciousness and the challenges of accommodating newcomers, ISKCON’s New Raman Reti Temple in Alachua has established a dedicated residential program for men. The new eight-bedroom facility offers structured guidance, education, and a nurturing environment […]

The post Inside the Brahmachari Ashram Experience at ISKCON New Raman Reti appeared first on ISKCON News.

Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra are Coming to Harrisburg, PA
→ ISKCON News

ISKCON of Harrisburg is gearing up to celebrate its 14th Annual Hare Krishna Festival of India on Saturday, July 20, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Island in Harrisburg. Harrisburg is only a short drive from most major cities on the East Coast – 3 hours from New York City and 2 […]

The post Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra are Coming to Harrisburg, PA appeared first on ISKCON News.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Disappearance Day
Giriraj Swami

Today we are observing the disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sri Gadadhara Pandita. I first learned of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura when I visited the Boston temple. At that time there were only two published books in ISKCON: the abridged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, published by Macmillan, and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, published by ISKCON. And at the front of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya was a series of very dignified black-and-white photographs of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Under the photograph of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a caption: “The pioneer of the program for benedicting the entire world with Krishna consciousness by the instructions of Lord Chaitanya.” I understood from the caption that Srila Prabhupada was continuing the work of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and that we were able to come in touch with Krishna consciousness in part because of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

As the years passed and I came to learn more about Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, I began to see more and more how the Krishna consciousness movement brought by Srila Prabhupada to the West and expanded throughout the world was a continuation of the work of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and the result of his desire. We are all indebted to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and we are intimately connected with him through parampara.

Lord Chaitanya predicted, prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama/ sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama: “In every town and village of every country of the world, My name [Krishna’s name] will be preached.” Although Lord Chaitanya made this prediction more than five hundred years ago, even His followers have sometimes been bewildered about how it would be fulfilled. Some of them have even thought the prediction was metaphorical or abstract. But Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had faith in the order and in the desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and through his books he began the work of spreading Krishna consciousness and the holy name of Krishna throughout the world. In particular, in 1896, the year of Srila Prabhupada’s birth, he wrote a book called Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Precepts and distributed it to libraries worldwide.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura passed on his desire, which was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s desire, to his son Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, though he never left India, passed on the same desire to his disciples. In particular, he gave Srila Prabhupada the order to preach Krishna consciousness in the English language, which even then was the universal language in the Western world, and in the whole world.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura predicted, “Very soon the unparalleled path of hari-nama-sankirtana will be propagated all over the world.” He foresaw the day when Vaishnavas from all over the world would come to Mayapur and chant, “Jaya Sacinandana” together with the Bengali Vaishnavas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas. And Srila Prabhupada was the one who acted to fulfill the desire and prediction of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura:

“Oh, for that day when the fortunate English, French, Russian, German, and American people will take up banners, mridangas, and karatalas and raise kirtan through their streets and towns. When will that day come? Oh, for the day when the fair-skinned men from their side, chanting, ‘Jaya Sacinandana ki jaya,’ will extend their arms and, embracing devotees of our country coming from our side, treat us with brotherly feelings. When will that day be?” (Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in Sajjana-tosani)

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had a house in Godrumadvipa, across the Jalangi River from Mayapur, and he used to chant on his balcony there. One day he looked across the river and had a vision of an effulgent city with a wonderful temple, an adbhuta mandira, at its center. He desired that this wonderful temple and splendorous city should come into existence, and here too Srila Prabhupada has engaged his followers to fulfill the prediction and desire of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sri Nityananda Prabhu:

eka adbhuta mandira ei haibe prakasa
gaurangera nitya-seva haibe vikasa

“An astounding temple will appear and will engage the entire world in the eternal service of Lord Chaitanya.” (Sri Navadvipa-Mahatmya, Parikrama Khanda, Ch. 4)

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also discovered the actual birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapur. Over centuries of the Ganges flooding and changing course, the location of Mayapur, the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, was lost. Bhaktivinoda Thakura studied old maps and consulted different local people, and ultimately he determined the actual location.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura carried forward the idea of the Vedic city in Mayapur, and he had some of his householder disciples build small houses there. But again, it was really Srila Prabhupada who carried the desire of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura forward to the point where there is now a budding metropolis in Mayapur. He was very enthusiastic about the project, and now his disciples are working to make this magnificent vision a physical reality.

Srila Prabhupada had to struggle to get some land in Mayapur. Eventually it was Tamal Krishna Goswami who was able to secure the purchase of the land. Then Srila Prabhupada designed, or gave the basic idea for, the first building to be constructed and brought the drawings with him from London to Calcutta.

But there had been flooding in Mayapur, and sometimes the flooding there is very severe. Therefore, although Srila Prabhupada was so enthusiastic about the project and had struggled so hard to get the land in Mayapur and had personally brought the plans for the first building there, still, right when we were at the peak of our enthusiasm, he raised the question: “What will happen if the Ganges floods? What will happen to the temple, to the project?”

He suggested that we not build the temple in Mayapur and discussed different arguments for and against his suggestion. Then he presented the idea that we should build the temple at Birnagar, the birthplace of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. We were completely bewildered, and when Srila Prabhupada argued so strongly that we should build the temple at Birnagar because it would be safe from the floods there, we were swayed by His Divine Grace’s argument. But in the end he brought us back to the conclusion that we should go ahead with the project in Mayapur. “If you all build this temple,” he said, “Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura will personally come and take you all back to Godhead.”

So, that is both Srila Prabhupada’s and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s desire—that we build a wonderful temple and go back to Godhead. And by following in Srila Prabhupada’s footsteps, we are also following in the footsteps of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

Another important program of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was nama-hatta. In fact, before Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura built his house in Godrumadvipa, he built a bhajana-kutira near the site of the house, in Surabhi-kunja, which is the original place where the nama-hatta was started by Nityananda Prabhu. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura got his inspiration for the nama-hatta there.

The basic idea of the nama-hatta is that grihastha Vaishnavas, householder devotees, preach. By definition, householders will usually have a spouse, children, work, and a home. But they should still preach; they should use all of their spare time to preach. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura himself was a householder for many years, and he would lead his householder devotees through the streets, performing sankirtana, and then they would hold festivals, large gatherings where Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura would preach bhagavata-dharma and the glories of the holy name. He published a book, Sri Godruma Kalpatavi, about his nama-hatta program, which included reports of some of his preaching events. The harinama-sankirtana and bhagavata-dharma discourses were ecstatic, and the nama-hatta was spreading very nicely. During Srila Prabhupada’s presence His Holiness Jayapataka Swami and other ISKCON devotees revived the nama-hatta in Bengal and Orissa, and now it has spread all over the world.

So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura set a great example for us all. Although he had so many responsibilities—as a magistrate, as the superintendent of the Jagannatha temple, as a husband, as the father of ten children—still he did so much service. He was expert at utilizing his time so that he could serve Krishna more. He would generally take rest at eight o’clock at night and get up at midnight to write. He wrote approximately one hundred books. He was expert in many things, including fulfilling his duties as magistrate. He would dispose of his cases very quickly. Judges are also judged—by how quickly they dispose of their cases and by how many of their judgments are appealed and overturned. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura disposed of his cases quickly and expertly.

Somehow, with so many duties and responsibilities and so many children, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was able to write many, many books and spread Krishna consciousness widely. We can take inspiration from him and keep in our minds and hearts his glorious example: that even in our various, demanding positions, we can do more and more for Krishna and for the disciplic succession, for Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and for our spiritual master.

One of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s books, Sri Harinama-cintamani, has as its subject, as the title suggests, the touchstone of the holy name. The book is a dialogue between Lord Chaitanya and Haridasa Thakura. They begin by discussing the holy name in general. Then they consider the ten offenses against the holy name, because the efficacy of the name depends on the quality of the chanting. In her prayers to Lord Krishna, Queen Kunti says:

janmaisvarya-sruta-sribhir
edhamana-madah puman
naivarhaty abhidhatum vai
tvam akincana-gocaram

“My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling.” (SB 1.8.26) In the purport, Srila Prabhupada remarks that the scriptures state that “by once uttering the holy name of the Lord, the sinner gets rid of a quantity of sins that he is unable to commit. Such is the power of uttering the holy name of the Lord. There is not the least exaggeration in this statement. . . . But there is a quality to such utterances also. It depends on the quality of feeling. A helpless man can feelingly utter the holy name of the Lord.”

Ordinary devotees like us have to practice to come to the stage of such chanting, and in particular we must be aware of the ten offenses and try to avoid them. In Harinama-cintamani Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses each of the ten offenses one by one in depth and in detail. First he defines and describes what constitutes each offense; then he explains how to avoid each offense; and then, in case somehow we have fallen into the offense, he discusses how to become free from it and from its damaging effects.

The first offense is sadhu-ninda: blaspheming the devotees who have dedicated their lives to the propagation of the holy name. Ninda means to criticize or to blaspheme. But what is the meaning of sadhu? How do we recognize a sadhu? Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that in essence a sadhu is one who has taken shelter of Krishna, or of the holy name of Krishna, which is non-different from Krishna. He lists twenty-six qualities of a sadhu, as stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Then he says that of all the qualities, one is the primary characteristic (svarupa-laksana) and the others are marginal (tatastha). The essential quality of the devotee is that he or she has taken shelter of Krishna (mat-sarana), or the holy name of Krishna. Even if a devotee is lacking in the other qualifications, if he or she has the single qualification of having taken exclusive shelter of Krishna, then that devotee is considered a sadhu. On the other hand, if someone has the other qualifications but lacks the one qualification of complete surrender to Krishna, then the other qualities have no particular value.

Now that we know who a sadhu is, we can avoid criticizing or blaspheming him or her. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses different grounds that people may think are justification for criticizing a sadhu. One is the sadhu’s caste or low birth, but Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that this is not ground for criticizing a sadhu. If one criticizes a sadhu because of his or her low birth or caste, then that critic is involved in sadhu-ninda. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also mentions past sinful activities. If one criticizes a sadhu for past sinful activities, one is involved in sadhu-ninda. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also mentions present traces of sinful activities. In other words, a sadhu may have engaged in sinful activities before he or she got the association of devotees but even after coming to the association of devotees may maintain some last traces of previous bad habits or by accident may fall down. Even then we do not have grounds to criticize. If we criticize a sadhu for an accidental falldown or for traces of past sinful activities, we are involved in sadhu-ninda.

Then he discusses different categories of asadhus, or nondevotees, so that we can clearly identify them too. In other words, as preachers, do we hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil? Do we not speak the truth if we see something is wrong and we want to correct it or protect others from it? No—as preachers we must be able to recognize nondevotees, especially if they are posing as devotees, and help neophyte devotees avoid them. Thus, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura lists three categories of persons who are not sadhus but who may be mistaken for sadhus. One is the Mayavadi impersonalist, who thinks that Krishna’s eternal form and holy name are illusory, or maya. Another is the pretender, or dharma-dhvaji, who waves the flag of religion; he is not actually a devotee, but he makes a show of being a sadhu for materialistic ends. And one is the atheist. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that when one preaches, one has to criticize nondevotees and advise innocent devotees to avoid their association and influence. Such criticism does not constitute sadhu-ninda. If ignorant or envious people argue that such criticism is sadhu-ninda, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, we should avoid their association. Because they are wrongly accusing or criticizing the preacher, they themselves are implicated in sadhu-ninda.

I will give an example. When I was in Madras on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf, I preached more or less the way I had heard him preach, criticizing demigod worshippers and impersonalists. In Madras there were a lot of impersonalists and demigod worshippers, and when I repeated what the Bhagavad-gita said about them, some people began to criticize me for criticizing others. Some said, “You shouldn’t criticize others; you should just state positively what you want to say about your philosophy and activities, but you shouldn’t criticize others.” The criticism of my criticism reached such a point that I actually began to have doubts. I thought, “So many people are saying the same thing; maybe I am doing something wrong.” They even gave the example of the Gaudiya Matha: “They don’t criticize others like you do; they have a nice temple, and every year they have a big celebration of Janmashtami and thousands of people come. Why can’t you be like them?”

So, I thought about what they said. I wasn’t really convinced that Srila Prabhupada would want us to be like the Gaudiya Matha, but then again, even people who were our friends, who were sympathetic to us, were saying the same thing: “Don’t criticize others. Just say what you want in a positive way about your own philosophy and activities.” So I wrote to Srila Prabhupada, and he wrote back, “The fact is that I am the only one in India who is openly criticizing not only demigod worship and impersonalism, but everything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna.” And he continued, “My guru maharaja never compromised in his preaching, nor will I, nor should any of my students. We are firmly convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that all others are His part-and-parcel servants. This we must declare boldly to the whole world, that they should not foolishly dream of world peace unless they are prepared to surrender fully to Krishna as Supreme Lord.”

So, that is the mood of the preacher: he or she has to criticize the nondevotees. In the course of criticizing the nondevotees, a preacher may offend people who have sentiments for such nondevotees because they think that such nondevotees are devotees. But what else can we do? This, as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses, is not sadhu-ninda; it is in the category of those things that might appear to be offenses but really are not.

There was a vivid example of this once, when Srila Prabhupada was walking one morning with Dr. Patel on Juhu Beach. Dr. Patel was praising someone who was definitely not a devotee but who was revered in India as a spiritual leader and teacher, and Srila Prabhupada began to criticize the person and point out the defects in his philosophy and his procedures. Dr. Patel became very offended and agitated—incensed. He began to argue with Srila Prabhupada and was practically shouting at him. And Srila Prabhupada was shouting at Dr. Patel. Srila Prabhupada roared, “I am not saying; Krishna is saying, na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah: anyone who does not surrender to Krishna is a mudha [fool], naradhama [lowest of mankind].” It became a fierce argument, and Dr. Patel’s friends tried to restrain him. “Swamiji is an old man,” they said. “He has a heart condition; you shouldn’t excite him.” It was like an explosion. Finally, Dr. Patel’s friends pulled him away and we reached the spot where we would leave the beach for the temple, and the argument ended.

After that, Srila Prabhupada said, “All right—no more discussion. We will just read from the Krsna book on the morning walks.” So we started to read from the Krsna book. Before this, Dr. Patel would come faithfully every morning and walk with Srila Prabhupada. Often, he would drive Srila Prabhupada to the beach in his car and then they would walk and talk on the beach, or they would walk from the temple to the beach and talk. Now, for the first time, Dr. Patel avoided the morning walks with Srila Prabhupada—because of that big argument. But some days later, he was drawn back to Srila Prabhupada. He said to Srila Prabhupada, “We are trained to respect all the accredited saints of India.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Our business is to point out who is not a saint.”

So, that is the mood of a preacher. If a preacher criticizes nondevotees who may be revered as saints by many people, he or she is not involved in sadhu-ninda. But if people criticize the preacher for criticizing such nondevotees, those critics may be involved in sadhu-ninda and we should avoid their association—unless we can change them or engage them, like Srila Prabhupada did with Dr. Patel.

Next Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, “All right, if one has committed the offense, what does one do then? What is the remedy?” The specific way to counteract the offense of sadhu-ninda, or vaisnava-aparadha, is to go to the person we have offended and beg the person to forgive us. Generally, the Vaishnava is softhearted and will forgive the offender if he has realized his mistake and is sincerely repenting and earnestly trying to improve.

One may also commit an offense that is not directly against another person. To counteract such an offense, one may confess to other Vaishnavas. There is value to opening one’s heart to other Vaishnavas and admitting one’s offenses.

What Srila Prabhupada criticized about the Christians’ practice of confession was that after they had sinned and confessed, they would often go and commit the same sin again. In other words, the process of confession alone was not sufficient to remove the heart’s desire to sin. But here, if a devotee sincerely repents his or her mistake and confesses and begs for the mercy of the Vaishnavas and then really tries his or her best not to commit the offense again—and continues with the real process of purification, hearing and chanting the holy name—then such confession or admission becomes a part of the process of purification and rectification.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructs us that the best way to avoid offense, which is negative, is to go to the other side and be positive. The best way to protect ourselves from sadhu-ninda, for example—from blaspheming or criticizing devotees—is to glorify the devotees, to appreciate and praise them.

So, we can benefit greatly from reading Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s books. Once, a disciple asked Srila Prabhupada about reading books of the previous acharyas: “Srila Prabhupada, I remember once I heard a tape where you told us that we should not try to read . . . Bhaktivinoda’s books or earlier books of other, all acharyas.” Srila Prabhupada clarified, “No, you should read. . . . We are following previous acharyas.”

Of course, for ISKCON devotees, Srila Prabhupada’s books are the basis. And if we are well versed in Srila Prabhupada’s books and faithful to Srila Prabhupada, then when we read the previous acharyas we will see how Srila Prabhupada is representing them, as we do with Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta. So much of what Brhad-bhagavatamrta says about the holy name is exactly what Srila Prabhupada taught us. Thus, reading the book strengthens our faith in Srila Prabhupada. It also clarifies for us the philosophy and principles of devotional service so that we can practice better in the line of Srila Prabhupada. At the same time, the reading makes us more knowledgeable in the scriptures so that we are better equipped to preach.

So, we’re gathered here at the feet of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. I believe he is pleased with our efforts to serve him through his representatives, and we can pray to him to bless us with a drop of faith in the holy name and with a fraction of a drop of his enthusiasm for preaching, so that even amidst our heavy duties and responsibilities we can also find time, as he did, to chant the holy name in the association of other devotees and to spread the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Nitai-Gaura premanande hari-haribol!

I have only touched a few drops of the nectarean ocean of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Would any other devotee like to speak something in his glorification?

Kesava Bharati Dasa: One of the prominent characteristics of Bhaktivinoda Thakura was that throughout his life he had recurring diseases. He suffered from rheumatic fever, and he was born in a town that was wiped out by a plague—his whole family. Over time, he underwent many traumas, and so one of the important aspects of his life was how he dealt with difficulties. His life wasn’t laid out on a silver platter. He was born in a very exalted family—descendants of kings, devotional kings—but at the same time, he had to face so many obstacles and difficulties, and in an exemplary way he showed how to take shelter in devotional service, in the holy name, in the lotus feet of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Sri Sri Gaura-Gadadhara, and guru. He confronted and overcame many obstacles. For instance, there was a yogi in Jagannatha Puri who was doing all kinds of nonsense and had the power to make people sick and cause problems for their family members—so many things. Bhaktivinoda Thakura confronted him and put him in jail. He himself went and physically arrested the yogi. Then the yogi cursed him, and in fact Bhaktivinoda Thakura and his family members did become sick. In jail the yogi was saying all sorts of blasphemous things—“Everyone’s going to die; you’re going to die; your family is going to die!” At one point, as he was fighting the yogi within the court, the Thakura realized that the man was carrying his power in his hair—he had all these matted locks. As the judge, Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructed the constables to cut the yogi’s hair, so they cut his hair and the yogi lost his power, and soon thereafter he died in jail. And Bhaktivinoda Thakura, along with everyone in his family, got well.

Also, at that time there was a powerful dacoit movement in Vrindavan—there is always a dacoit movement there—and Bhaktivinoda Thakura went there, and just by his tremendous spiritual power and strength, he cleaned up those dacoits. Anybody who has ever been in Vrindavan knows what that means. Cleaning up the dacoits there is practically impossible. His spiritual strength was just extraordinary.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura attained a prominent position under the British rule when the British were systematically and powerfully convincing people in India that their culture and philosophy were inferior to Western culture and philosophies. Indians weren’t appointed to key positions very often, but Bhaktivinoda Thakura was so good—so pious and so popular wherever he went—that they wouldn’t dare pass him over. And they trusted him. He was so honest, so forthright, and such a wonderful servant, that they put him in important positions of authority, and wherever he was posted they wanted him to stay. Throughout, he kept wanting to go to Navadvipa, but his administrative authorities always tried to get him to stay. Even at a time when the ruling government did not favor people like him, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was granted high material status, placed in very responsible positions.

So, we can be in any ashrama—grihastha or any other—any position in life, and still develop devotional qualities if we follow the instructions that Bhaktivinoda Thakura gave in Harinama-cintamani—to stop criticizing one another, playing politics with one another, and backbiting one another, and instead to glorify one another, even if the other person is not present. Then we will get the power to serve the cause of Krishna consciousness to our full capacity.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura gave us all these different standards and all these priceless examples. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Jaya! Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura ki jaya!

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s disappearance day, June 29, 2003, Dallas, Texas]

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

Sri Sacidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura appeared in 1838 in a wealthy family in the Nadia district, West Bengal. He revealed that he is an eternal associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by his extraordinary preaching activities and prolific writing.

Living as a maha-bhagavata Vaisnava, he stayed in the grhastha ashram until the last few years of his life. Then he renounced everything, accepted babaji, and entered samadhi, totally absorbed in the loving service of Gaura-Gadadhara and Radha-Madhava.

He had a responsible government position as the District Magistrate (high court judge), maintained a Krishna conscious family, and wrote almost one hundred books on Krishna consciousness. At the same time, he served the Supreme Lord in so many ways.

Biographers list three major preaching achievements of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura:

(1) Wrote 100 authorized spiritual books.

(2) Discovered appearance place of Lord Caitanya.

(3) Introduced preaching innovations.

Besides books (in Bengali, Oriya, English) reviving and explaining Mahaprabhu’s message, he wrote hundreds of poems and songs full of spiritual sentiments and sastric siddhanta (philosophical conclusions).

In 1914, on the tirobhava tithi (disappearance day) of Sri Gadadhara Pandit (the incarnation of Sri Radha), Thakura Bhaktivinoda entered the eternal pastimes of Gaura-Gadadhara and Radha-Madhava.

Myanmar Facing Violence, Displacement, and Flooding; FFL is Offering Life-Saving Support
→ ISKCON News

Priya Gopinath Das, General Secretary for ISKCON Mayapur, has released the following urgent request to devotees: “I am writing to seek prayers from around the world for Myanmar. The country has been facing a severe crisis due to political and armed conflicts for over two years. This turmoil has displaced millions and has now been […]

The post Myanmar Facing Violence, Displacement, and Flooding; FFL is Offering Life-Saving Support appeared first on ISKCON News.

Seventh Annual MAN-tra Retreat at New Vrindaban Opens Early Registration
→ ISKCON News

Mark your calendar, tell your friends, and prepare for a memorable weekend this September 20-22, 2024, for the Annual MAN-tra Men’s Retreat in New Vrindaban, West Virginia. The popular annual event promises to be a spiritually uplifting gathering for all devotee men. But don’t wait too long, as early bird registration ends on July 31st. […]

The post Seventh Annual MAN-tra Retreat at New Vrindaban Opens Early Registration appeared first on ISKCON News.

“Bhagavad-gita As It Is” Gifted to Parliament for Oath Ceremonies
→ ISKCON News

(L-to-R) Rt. Hon. Shailesh Vara MP, Nila Madhava Das presenting “Bhagavad Gita As It Is,” Speaker of the House of Commons Rt. Hon. Sir Linsey Hoyle MP. On behalf of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Nila Madhava Das officially presented “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” to the Speaker of the House of Commons Rt. […]

The post “Bhagavad-gita As It Is” Gifted to Parliament for Oath Ceremonies appeared first on ISKCON News.

3 GEV Gita Course Chp 6 Mind Control & Krishna’s Teaching Expertise
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Click here to download notes:

3 GEV Gita Course Chp 6 Mind Control & Krishna’s Teaching Expertise

Reflections on Independence Day
Giriraj Swami

One year, when I was leaving the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on July 4, a large American flag flying in the wind caught my eye, and I was surprised by how happy I felt. I reflected on how fortunate we were to live in a country where we have freedom of religion, and how Srila Prabhupada said, “America has been so good to me to give me money, men—everything. I have no designation that ‘this is my country,’ but because they have given me so much facility, I cannot forget my obligation to them. I want to make them happy and through them the whole world.”

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

“Taking Care of Krishna’s Cows” Course Open for Registration
→ ISKCON News

ISKCON’s Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture will be holding its next “Taking Care of Krishna’s Cows” course beginning July 15th, 2024. Kalakantha Das, its global minister, emphasized the importance of this course, stating, “The goal is to standardize cow protection practices in ISKCON and provide guidance to our goshalas. This training will also serve […]

The post “Taking Care of Krishna’s Cows” Course Open for Registration appeared first on ISKCON News.

Honoring the Departure of Rupa Raghunath Swami
→ ISKCON News

On June 26, 2024, ISKCON community members from all over the world gathered in Ujjain to honor the departure of His Holiness Rupa Raghunath Swami Maharaj, a revered ISKCON sannyasi who passed away on June 22, 2024, in Bhopal, India. The ceremony was filled with devotion and deep respect, reflecting Maharaj’s profound impact on his […]

The post Honoring the Departure of Rupa Raghunath Swami appeared first on ISKCON News.

15 Years Strong: The Bhaktivedanta Research Center Celebrates Anniversary
→ ISKCON News

Hari Sauri Dasa speaking at the Anniversary event. The year was 2009. A fledgling library and research center were inaugurated on June 28th by Jayapataka Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami, Jananivas Dasa, and Hari Sauri Dasa. Fast forward to 2024, and it has expanded to three thriving centers in Kolkata, Pune, and Mumbai, as well as […]

The post 15 Years Strong: The Bhaktivedanta Research Center Celebrates Anniversary appeared first on ISKCON News.

Exciting New “Art of Kirtan” School Launches Online
→ ISKCON News

Bada Haridas, one of the founding teachers of the Art of Kirtan. Art of Kirtan, launched in May 2024, is an online music school and heritage project. The initiative is headed by Bada Haridas, who has been leading and teaching kirtan for the past 50 years and is a professionally trained musician and composer. His […]

The post Exciting New “Art of Kirtan” School Launches Online appeared first on ISKCON News.

Urgent Prayer Request for Devotees in Myanmar
→ ISKCON News

The ISKCON community in Mogok, Myanmar, has been significantly impacted by a recent armed conflict in the area. One side of the dispute has taken possession of a portion of the 13-acre temple complex. Some devotees have fled, while others are taking refuge in a safe room. The Deities have been relocated to safety. Urgent […]

The post Urgent Prayer Request for Devotees in Myanmar appeared first on ISKCON News.

GBC Highlights Report from June 26, 2024 Meeting
→ ISKCON News

We are pleased to present the 26 June 2024 GBC Meeting Highlights Report. This report aims to provide an overview of the online GBC meeting, highlighting the key topics discussed. The meeting commenced with an invocation of prayers led by Bhakti Caitanya Swami, followed by a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam (1.5.33, 1.6.8, and 1.6.10) […]

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2 GEV Gita Course Chp 2 5 Detachment What It Is And Isn’t
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Hear this class at: 2 GEV Gita Course Chp 2 5 Detachment What It Is And Isn’t

2 GEV Gita Course Chapter 2-5 Detachment What It Is And Isn’t Click here to download notes

Food for Life Vrindavan: Empowering Girls Through Education
→ ISKCON News

Food for Life Vrindavan (FFLV) has been empowering thousands of girls in Vrindavan and surrounding areas for years. Recently, one of the students, Nandini, won the prestigious “Student of the Year Award.” Nandini said, “I’m thrilled to get the Student of the Year award! Thanks to my school and teachers for believing in me and […]

The post Food for Life Vrindavan: Empowering Girls Through Education appeared first on ISKCON News.

TOVP Announces: Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies Online Summer School
- TOVP.org

We are happy to announce the inaugural Bhaktivedanta Institute Summer School (online-only). Everyone is encouraged to register for free (registration deadline: 10th July)! Please register and advertise this within your circles.

Program:
Four amazing sessions of online presentations of the latest research and projects of the BI covering: Mind & Consciousness, the Philosophy of Science, understanding the science within shastra, life sciences, appearance of species, archeology, cosmology and what’s beyond the universe. The esteemed speakers are affiliated to or collaborators of the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies (BIHS, Florida). The summer school is open to participants of all ages. Students and early-career professors of science and philosophy, and doctors of medicine, are especially encouraged to join.

Dates: 13th-14th July and 20th-21st July 2024 (two weekends in July)

Timings:

US Eastern Time 9am – 12pm
United Kingdom 2pm – 5pm
Indian Standard Time 6.30pm – 9.30pm

For Registration and more information see:

https://biss2024.github.io/
https://iskconnews.org/bhaktivedanta-institute-for-higher-studies-inaugurates-online-summer-school-in-july-2024/

TOVP NEWS AND UPDATES – STAY IN TOUCH

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HARE KRISHNA! Film Continues to Reach Hundreds of Thousands of New Viewers Online
→ ISKCON News

Yadubara Dasa (John Griesser), the director of the award-winning documentary “Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami who started it all” recently shared an enlightening Q&A following a YouTube post which also shared the full Hare Krishna film. In the Q&A, Yadubara shared the early history that led up to the film being […]

The post HARE KRISHNA! Film Continues to Reach Hundreds of Thousands of New Viewers Online appeared first on ISKCON News.

Sri Srivasa Pandita’s Disappearance Day
Giriraj Swami

Srivasa Pandita is one of the members of the Pancha-tattva: sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasa. Vedic authorities state that in the current Age of Kali, Krishna came as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Balarama came as Sri Nityananda Prabhu. Similarly, Maha-vishnu appeared as Advaita Acharya, Srimati Radharani as Gadadhara Pandita, and Narada Muni as Srivasa Pandita.

panca-tattvatmakam krsnam
bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam
namami bhakta-saktikam

“I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Krsna, who is nondifferent from His features as a devotee, devotional incarnation, devotional manifestation, pure devotee, and devotional energy.” (Cc Adi 1.14)

Panca-tattvatmakam: The Pancha-tattva comprise one truth on the absolute platform. Lord Chaitanya is bhakta-rupa, Krishna in the form of a devotee. Lord Nityananda is svarupakam, the expansion of a devotee. Advaita Acharya is bhaktavataram, the avatar of a devotee. Srivasa Thakura is bhakta, a devotee. And Gadadhara Pandita is bhakta-saktikam, the energy of the Supreme Lord who supplies energy to the devotees—the devotional energy, Srimati Radharani.

In the Adi-lila of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami describes the tree of Lord Chaitanya. The tree itself is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and at the same time Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the gardener who tends to the tree. This tree, like any tree, has a trunk, limbs, and branches. The limbs and branches and leaves are devotees—the devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says that he is listing such devotees for his own purification, just to glorify them, and that he cannot distinguish between who is higher and who is lower; he wants to glorify them all. And Srila Prabhupada remarks that this is the attitude of a pure devotee. A pure devotee respects all devotees. He does not distinguish that some should be respected and some not; he respects all of them.

Srila Prabhupada also mentions that ISKCON is a branch of the Chaitanya tree. In reality, Prabhupada himself is a most important branch of the Chaitanya tree, but in his humility he says that ISKCON is a branch. So, all the devotees in ISKCON, who are attached to ISKCON, are leaves on the Chaitanya tree. And we should respect and honor them all.

After introducing the Chaitanya tree, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami begins to describe specific devotees, and the first he describes is Srivasa Thakura. For our purification, we shall read now the first verses of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Ten, “The Trunk, Branches, and Subbranches of the Caitanya Tree.” And then we shall discuss more about Srivasa Thakura.

TEXT 1

sri-caitanya-padambhoja-
madhupebhyo namo namah
kathancid asrayad yesam
svapi tad-gandha-bhag bhavet

TRANSLATION

Let me repeatedly offer my respectful obeisances unto the beelike devotees who always taste the honey of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. If even a doggish nondevotee somehow takes shelter of such devotees, he enjoys the aroma of the lotus flower.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The example of a dog is very significant in this connection. A dog naturally does not become a devotee at any time, but still it is sometimes found that a dog of a devotee gradually becomes a devotee also. We have actually seen that a dog has no respect even for the tulasi plant. Indeed, a dog is especially inclined to pass urine on the tulasi plant. Therefore the dog is the number one nondevotee. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtana movement is so strong that even a doglike nondevotee can gradually become a devotee by the association of a devotee of Lord Caitanya. Srila Sivananda Sena, a great householder devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, attracted a dog on the street while going to Jagannatha Puri. The dog began to follow him and ultimately went to see Caitanya Mahaprabhu and was liberated. Similarly, cats and dogs in the household of Srivasa Thakura were also liberated. Cats and dogs and other animals are not expected to become devotees, but in the association of a pure devotee they are also delivered.

COMMENT by Giriraj Swami

This is an important verse to begin the description of the Chaitanya tree. The tree describes the devotees, and here Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami glorifies the power of the devotees: by their power, even a doglike nondevotee can become a devotee and taste the nectar at the lotus feet of the Lord.

In six days we shall observe Jagannatha Ratha-yatra, and that date is also the disappearance day of Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Srila Sivananda Sena. Every year, Sivananda Sena would take a party of devotees from Bengal to Orissa for the Ratha-yatra, and one year a dog joined them. Sivananda Sena was so merciful that he accepted the dog as part of his party, so much so that when they had to cross a river by boat, he paid the boatman extra to take the dog.

One day, when Sivananda Sena had to attend to some work, his servant forgot to feed the dog. And when Sivananda came and inquired, “Did you feed the dog?” he discovered that it had not been given its meals. Sivananda Sena immediately sent ten men to find the dog, but they could not find it. And Sivananda Sena felt so sorry, he fasted.

The next day too they did not see the dog, but when they reached Puri they saw it sitting a little distance from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was throwing it remnants of green coconut pulp and requesting it to chant the holy names “Hari,” “Krishna,” and “Rama.” Sivananda Sena, out of his humility, offered obeisances to the dog, feeling that he had been an offender, because he had neglected to serve it properly. The following day, however, no one saw the dog, for it had been liberated and gone back home, back to Godhead, by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the holy names.

This is the strength of the mercy of a pure devotee. By the mercy of such a devotee, one gets the association of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—the opportunity to chant the holy names of Krishna—and in the end goes back home, back to Godhead.

TEXT 2

jaya jaya sri-krsna-caitanya-nityananda
jayadvaitacandra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda

TRANSLATION

All glories to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Nityananda! All glories to Advaita Prabhu, and all glories to the devotees of Lord Caitanya, headed by Srivasa!

TEXTS 3–6

The description of Lord Caitanya as the gardener and the tree is inconceivable. Now hear with attention about the branches of this tree.

The associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were many, but none of them should be considered lower or higher. This cannot be ascertained.

All the great personalities in the line of Lord Caitanya enumerated these devotees, but they could not distinguish between the greater and the lesser.

I offer my obeisances unto them as a token of respect. I request them not to consider my offenses.

TEXT 7

vande sri-krsna-caitanya-
premamara-taroh priyan
sakha-rupan bhakta-ganan
krsna-prema-phala-pradan

TRANSLATION

I offer my obeisances to all the dear devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the eternal tree of love of Godhead. I offer my respects to all the branches of the tree, the devotees of the Lord who distribute the fruit of love of Godhead.

TEXT 8

srivasa pandita, ara sri-rama pandita
dui bhai—dui sakha, jagate vidita

TRANSLATION

The two brothers Srivasa Pandita and Sri Rama Pandita started two branches that are well known in the world.

PURPORT

In the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika (90), Srivasa Pandita (Srivasa Thakura) is described as an incarnation of Narada Muni, and Sri Rama Pandita, his younger brother, is said to be an incarnation of Parvata Muni, a great friend of Narada’s. Srivasa Pandita’s wife, Malini, is celebrated as an incarnation of the nurse Ambika, who fed Lord Krsna with her breast milk, and as already noted, his niece Narayani, the mother of Thakura Vrndavana dasa, the author of Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, was the sister of Ambika in krsna-lila. We also understand from the description of Sri Caitanya-bhagavata that after Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s acceptance of the sannyasa order, Srivasa Pandita left Navadvipa, possibly because of feelings of separation, and domiciled at Kumarahatta.

COMMENT

Sivananda Sena resided at Kumarahatta, and Srivasa Thakura came to live near him. Later, Vasudeva Datta also took up residence there.

Kumarahatta is a very important place. It is the birthplace of Isvara Puri, whom Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted as His guru. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went there on pilgrimage and visited His guru’s birthplace, and He took dirt from the ground there and kept it in His cloth, and every day He would eat a little bit of the dirt. Sri Caitanya-bhagavata (Adi-khanda 17.98–103) describes:

“The Supreme Lord, Sri Caitanya, personally visited the birthplace of Isvara Puri. The Lord said, ‘I offer My obeisances to the village of Kumarahatta, where Sri Isvara Puri appeared.’ He cried profusely at that place and spoke nothing other than the name of Isvara Puri. He took some dust from the birthplace of Isvara Puri and tied it in His cloth. The Lord said, ‘The dust from the birthplace of Isvara Puri is My life, wealth, and living force.’ The Lord exhibited such affection for Isvara Puri, because He takes pleasure in increasing the glories of His devotees.” Even today, devotees take dirt from the same place.

It is said that, following the example of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, every disciple should visit the birthplace of his spiritual master. Last November, His Holiness Radhanath Swami and I visited Srila Prabhupada’s birthplace in Calcutta. Srila Prabhupada took birth under a jackfruit tree, and we visited the tree. We also saw the Deities and temple that his mother would visit. I imagined how she would pray to that Deity of Krishna for the child in her womb and how after the child’s birth she and all the relatives would pray for his well-being.

TEXT 9

sripati, srinidhi—tanra dui sahodara
cari bhaira dasa-dasi, grha-parikara

TRANSLATION

Their two brothers were named Sripati and Srinidhi. These four brothers and their servants and maidservants are considered one big branch.

TEXT 10

dui sakhara upasakhaya tan-sabara ganana
yanra grhe mahaprabhura sada sankirtana

TRANSLATION

There is no counting the subbranches of these two branches. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu held congregational chanting daily at the house of Srivasa Pandita.

COMMENT

This sankirtana that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed at Srivasa-angana is significant. There is a parallel between the pastimes of Sri Krishna Chaitanya and the pastimes of Krishna, and the nocturnal kirtan at Srivasa-angana in gaura-lila corresponds to the rasa-lila in Krishna’s pastimes. It was the highest ecstasy. To enable Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His confidential devotees to enter deeply into the kirtan and relish its mellows without disturbance, Srivasa Thakura would lock the door to his house. Only the most confidential devotees were allowed.

Srila Prabhupada comments that to spread Krishna consciousness, when we have large-scale congregational chanting of the holy name we keep our doors open for everyone to participate, and that by the grace of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu this policy has brought good results. But the special kirtans held at Srivasa Thakura’s residence at night were reserved for only the most intimate devotees, so that they could freely experience and manifest their ecstasy, which they could do only in the association of devotees. A pure devotee will not do that if there are outsiders.

Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Gargamuni dasa once told Prabhupada that sometimes he felt like crying in the kirtan. Prabhupada replied, “That’s all right, because you are chanting with devotees and they will understand.” Otherwise, devotees don’t manifest such symptoms of ecstasy.

TEXT 11

cari bhai sa-vamse kare caitanyera seva
gauracandra vina nahi jane devi-deva

TRANSLATION

These four brothers and their family members fully engaged in the service of Lord Caitanya. They knew no other god or goddess.

PURPORT

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura has said, anya-devasraya nai, tomare kahinu bhai, ei bhakti parama-karana: if one wants to become a pure, staunch devotee, one should not take shelter of any of the demigods or -goddesses. . . .

COMMENT

This is an important point, especially for Hindus who are used to worshipping gods and goddesses. Sometimes even after such people come to the association of devotees and hear the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and to some extent understand it, they are reluctant to give up their worship of demigods. They may think, “Our ancestors worshipped demigods, so how can we stop?” Sometimes their deities have been passed down through generations in their family and they are afraid that they will displease their ancestors or deities if they stop the worship—that Lord Shiva or Durga or whoever will be displeased. But according to the Bhagavad-gita, one should not worship gods and goddesses. Rather, one should take full shelter of the Supreme Lord Krishna, and if one does so, the demigods too will be pleased. Lord Krishna states,

ye ’py anya-devata-bhakta
yajante sraddhayanvitah
te ’pi mam eva kaunteya
yajanty avidhi-purvakam

“Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way.” (Gita 9.23)

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.” (Gita 18.66)

To engage fully in the service of Krishna or Krishna Chaitanya and to know no other god or goddess is an important qualification. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami could have mentioned many other qualities of Srivasa Thakura and his family, but he specifically mentioned that they had full faith in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and did not worship any devas or devis.

Five thousand years ago, Lord Krishna exhibited the pastime of lifting Govardhana Hill. The residents of Vrindavan were used to worshipping Indra, who is the king of heaven and demigod in charge of rainfall. Lord Krishna told them to take the paraphernalia that they had gathered for the indra-yajna and use it instead to worship Govardhana Hill, the cows, and the brahmans. And because the Vraja-vasis had simple faith in Lord Krishna, they did what He said.

Due to some false pride and illusion, Indra became angry when his worship was stopped. But what was the result? Although Indra became angry and sent torrents of rain to inundate Vrindavan, Lord Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill and held it up as an umbrella to give shelter to all the residents of Vrindavan. And the result was that they were able to be with Krishna continuously for one week, 24/7. Every day, under ordinary circumstances, they would be with Him for some time but then they would be separated. In the early morning, for example, Krishna and Balarama would be with Their mother and father, but then They would go out to the fields to tend to the cows and Their parents would be separated from Them. Almost all of the residents of the Vrindavan village would be separated from Them during the day; only the cowherd boys would be with Them. But in the late afternoon, when Krishna came back from the pasturing grounds, He would again enter His home and be with Nanda and Yashoda and others there, and He would be separated from the cowherd boys. Then in the middle of the night He would sneak out to meet the gopis, and then He would sneak back before His mother came to wake Him up in the morning. And then He would be separated from the young gopis.

When the gopis gazed at Krishna as He returned from the pasturing grounds in the late afternoon, they would curse the creator, Brahma, for creating eyelids. Even the momentary blinking of their eyes, that momentary separation from the sight of Krishna, felt like yugas, like many thousands of years, because they had such intense attachment (anuraga) for Him. And so the gopis prayed to Krishna,

atati yad bhavan ahni kananam
truti yugayate tvam apasyatam
kutila-kuntalam sri-mukham ca te
jada udiksatam paksma-krd drsam

“When You go off to the forest during the day, a tiny fraction of a second becomes like a millennium for us because we cannot see You. And even when we can eagerly look upon Your beautiful face, so lovely with its adornment of curly locks, our pleasure is hindered by our eyelids, which were fashioned by the foolish creator.” (SB 10.31.15)

So, there was constant meeting and separation, and the separation was terrible for the Vraja-vasis, because they had such deep love for Krishna. But during the govardhana-lila the Vraja-vasis could be with Krishna continuously. The gopis, the elder cowherd men and ladies, the cowherd boys, the servants, and the animals all got to be with Krishna continuously. So by giving up their worship of Indra and following Krishna’s instruction to worship Govardhana Hill (which is nondifferent from Krishna), they did not lose. Rather, they gained continuous, close association with Krishna. So, if we give up the worship of demigods or goddesses and take fully to the service of Krishna, we will not lose. Rather, we will gain in the most wonderful way.

Because Srivasa Thakura would lock the doors of his house during the kirtans, some people became angry. The Caitanya-caritamrta describes that, being excluded, some of these nonbelievers (pasandis) burned with envy and plotted against Srivasa Thakura. The leader of the nonbelievers was a brahman named Gopala Chapala, and he assembled paraphernalia for the worship of the goddess Bhavani (Durga) and placed it outside Srivasa Thakura’s door to defame him, because generally the worshippers of the goddess Bhavani, Durga, or Kali, are considered lower class. They drink wine and eat meat. For a Vaishnava, such things are anathema. So, Gopala Chapala wanted to defame Srivasa Thakura, and alongside the paraphernalia for the worship he placed a pot of wine.

In the morning, when Srivasa Thakura opened the door and saw all the paraphernalia, he immediately called for the respectable gentlemen of the neighborhood. He told them, “Just see, here is the paraphernalia for the worship of Bhavani.” There was a banana leaf and some rice and red sandalwood paste—and the jug of wine. He said, “Every night I worship the goddess Bhavani. Now all you respectable gentlemen can understand my actual position—who I really am—and you can take whatever action you deem fit.”

Of course, the respectable brahmans and other members of the higher castes could understand what had happened, that some envious person had wanted to defame Srivasa Thakura and desecrate his house. So they called for a sweeper, a hadi, to dispose of all those untouchable things and purify the place by mopping it with a mixture of water and cow dung.

Three day later, Gopala Chapala was afflicted with leprosy. Blood oozed from sores all over his body, and he was attacked by germs and insects. The position of a devotee is such that anyone who offends any devotee suffers. And that is also the Lord’s mercy. By punishing the offender, He simultaneously protects His devotees from being offended further and prevents the offender from committing more offenses. He helps the offender realize his mistake and make progress in spiritual life. So Gopala Chapala was burning with leprosy, suffering unbearable pain.

One day when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu passed nearby, Gopala Chapala appealed to Him, “You are an incarnation of God. You have come to deliver the fallen souls. I am very fallen and wretched. So please deliver me.” Of course, it is true that Lord Chaitanya came to deliver the fallen souls, but He really came to deliver them from material existence altogether—not from any particular condition—by distributing the holy name and krsna-prema. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura prayed,

golokera prema-dhana, hari-nama-sankirtana,
rati na janmilo kene taya
samsara-visanale, diva-nisi hiya jvale
judaite na koinu upaya

“The treasure of divine love in Goloka Vrindavan has descended as the congregational chanting of Lord Hari’s holy names. Why did my attraction for that chanting never come about? Day and night my heart burns in the fire of the poison of worldliness, and I have not accepted the means for relieving it.”

vrajendra-nandana yei, saci-suta hoilo sei,
balarama hoilo nitai
dina-hina yata chilo, hari-name uddharilo,
tara saksi jagai-madhai

“Lord Krishna, the son of the King of Vraja, became the son of Saci, and Balarama became Nitai. The holy name delivered all those souls who were lowly and wretched. The two sinners Jagai and Madhai are evidence of this.”

Lord Chaitanya brought the practice of chanting the holy name—the treasure of krsna-prema—and delivered all who were sinful and fallen, even Jagai and Madhai. Although this Gopala Chapala was very sinful and insulting, he had one good quality: he was simple. He accepted Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and had faith that Mahaprabhu could deliver him. So he appealed to Him, and Mahaprabhu called him a sinner and told him, “Because of your sins, you are suffering.” And that is a fact: whatever suffering we experience in this world is due to our sins. The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu explains that suffering is due to sin and that sin is due to ignorance. Thus the only way to really become free from suffering is to become free from sin and ignorance—in other words, to become enlightened in transcendental knowledge, engage in devotional service, and ultimately go back to Godhead.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told him, “You are envious of pure devotees. That is the worst sin. I shall not deliver you. Rather, I shall see you bitten by these germs for millions of years. For your offense against Srivasa Thakura, you will fall into hellish conditions for millions of lifetimes. He is My pure devotee.” After some time, Gopala Chapala actually took shelter of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Lord mercifully instructed him, “If you approach Srivasa Thakura and get his mercy—and if you do not commit such sins again—you will be freed from the effects of your offenses.”

That is the only way to be relieved from vaisnava-aparadha. It is the recommended way and the fastest way—to go to the Vaishnava you have offended, throw yourself at his feet, and beg for forgiveness. Gopala Chapala did that. He took shelter of the lotus feet of Srivasa Thakura, and by Srivasa’s mercy he was freed from all sinful reactions.

Then there was another person, a brahmachari who practiced austerities and ate only milk and fruits. Repeatedly, daily, he begged Srivasa Pandita, “Please allow me to witness the sankirtana in your house at night. I will be ever grateful to you.” He begged and pleaded, and finally Srivasa Pandita relented: “I know you are a good soul. You are a strict brahmachari and eat only fruit and milk. I think you are eligible to see the Lord’s dancing, but you will have to remain hidden, because the Lord has ordered that no one be allowed in the house.”

Srivasa Pandita secretly brought the brahmachari inside the house and hid him. During the kirtan, Lord Chaitanya and His other associates chanted and danced, but they did not experience their usual ecstasy. After a while, the Lord remarked, “Today I do not feel the same ecstasy while dancing. Perhaps someone is hiding inside the house. Please tell the truth.”

Srivasa Pandita became afraid and said, “My Lord, I assure you that there are no nonbelievers in the house—only a brahmachari, a qualified, sinless brahman who eats only milk and fruits. He had a strong desire to see You dance. Still, You are right, my Lord. He is hiding here.”

The Lord became furious and said, “Take him out of this house immediately. What is his qualification to see My dancing? How can one develop devotion to Me simply by drinking milk?”

“Just by drinking milk no one can attain Me,” the Lord declared. “A person may be a renunciant without mundane attachment, but if he does not surrender to Me I do not accept him. On the other hand, even a low-caste dog-eater who takes full shelter of Me I accept.”

Hearing all this, the brahmachari was trembling with fear, and he came out of hiding. Still, he thought, “I was so fortunate to see the Lord dance. And now I am receiving the appropriate punishment.” He accepted the Lord’s chastisement as mercy. And the Lord, understanding the brahmachari’s heart, blessed him. He told him, “Do not try to attain power through penances and austerities. Rather, render loving service unto the Supreme Lord Krishna. That is the highest activity.” And the Lord placed His lotus feet on the brahmachari’s head.

Another brahman came to witness the kirtan at Srivasa-angana, but because the door was locked, he could not enter, and he returned home disappointed. The next day, he met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, broke his brahman thread, and cursed Him: “You will never enjoy material happiness.” When Lord Chaitanya heard this curse, He felt great jubilation. He took it as a blessing: “I will be free of material enjoyment.”

Even the cats and dogs in Srivasa Thakura’s house were delivered. In Caitanya-bhagavata, after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard Srivasa Thakura speak with great faith and love for Nityananda Prabhu, He blessed him, “Everyone in your household, including your pet dogs and cats, will find complete shelter in My devotional service.”

Srivasa Thakura had a Muslim tailor. (We also had a Muslim tailor, Abdul, at our Juhu temple, and he sewed our cloth.) This tailor stayed near Srivasa-angana and used to sew garments for Srivasa Thakura and his family. One day the tailor saw Chaitanya Mahaprabhu dancing. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu chanted and danced in ecstasy not only in His private kirtans but on other occasions as well, and the tailor, seeing the Lord’s dancing, became enchanted. Lord Chaitanya understood the tailor’s mind and mercifully showed him His original form as Krishna. Then the tailor began to shout, “Dekhinu! Dekhinu!”—I have seen! I have seen! In ecstatic love, he danced with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and he became a first-class Vaishnava and prominent devotee of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Anyone who takes shelter of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu can be delivered. It does not matter if one is a brahman, a brahmachari, a milk-drinker, a meat-eater, or a Muslim. These are not qualifications or disqualifications. Anyone who takes shelter of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or, better yet, His devotee (the tailor was a servant of Srivasa Pandita) can get the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and obtain love for Krishna.

In His ecstatic mood, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Srivasa Thakura, “Please bring My flute,” because He was in the mood of Krishna. But Srivasa replied, “The gopis have stolen it.” When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard this, He became ecstatic. He said, “Please say more. Please say more.” Srivasa Thakura began to describe the mellows of Krishna’s Vrindavan pastimes, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Please say more. Please say more.” Then Srivasa Thakura described more—how Krishna played on His flute and the gopis wandered in the Vrindavan forest, and how Krishna celebrated the rasa dance and played in the Yamuna. “Please say more. Please say more.” Srivasa spoke more and more about the mellows and pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan, especially the rasa-lila. Thus the two of them passed the entire night, and when morning came, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced Srivasa Thakura and Srivasa was satisfied.

These are some of the earlier pastimes, when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu resided in Navadvipa. Eventually Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa, left Navadvipa, and settled in Jagannatha Puri, and Srivasa Thakura, in separation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, moved to Kumarahatta.

Every year, Sivananda Sena would lead a party of devotees from Bengal to Orissa to meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, participate in the Ratha-yatra, and stay with Him for caturmasya, the four months of the rainy season. One year, Srivasa Thakura observed the Hera-panchami festival with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Svarupa Damodara Gosvami. Hera-panchami is a very special festival. Two weeks before Ratha-yatra is Snana-yatra, the public bathing of Lord Jagannatha, after which Lord Jagannatha retires to His private quarters and for two weeks does not see His devotees. It is said that He catches a cold from the Snana-yatra, and so for two weeks His wife Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, serves Him faithfully, giving Him special drinks and infusions, represented by fruit juice, to help Him recover and feel better.

After two weeks, feeling separation from His other devotees, Lord Jagannatha takes permission from Lakshmi to go out. Really, He wants to meet and reciprocate with His devotees in Vrindavan. So, in the Ratha-yatra, He proceeds on His chariot from Nilachala, which is like Dvaraka (or Kurukshetra), down the road to Sundarachala, to the Gundicha temple, which is considered to be Vrindavan.

The day before the Ratha-yatra is Gundicha-marjana, during which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees clean the Gundicha temple to make it fit to receive the Lord. And the next day is the Ratha-yatra procession. Then, for about eight days, Lord Jagannatha stays in the Gundicha temple. But after four or five days, Lakshmi becomes impatient: “Where is my husband? He said He was just going out for a ride. Where is He? He should be back.” Restless and angry, she takes her maidservants and travels to Sundarachala in her own procession. At the gate of the Gundicha temple, she sends her maidservants to arrest the principal servants of Lord Jagannatha, which they do. They bind the servants around the waist and make them fall down at her lotus feet. And they berate the servants, making them the butt of jokes and loose language.

During this pastime Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, and Srivasa Thakura had a discussion. Srivasa Thakura, as the incarnation of Narada Muni, a great devotee of Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha, became ecstatic seeing the opulence of the goddess of fortune, the eternal consort of Lord Narayana. He told Svarupa Damodara, “Just see how opulent my goddess of fortune is. Vrindavan’s opulence consists of a few flowers and twigs, some minerals from the hills, and a few peacock feathers. When Jagannatha was in Vrindavan, Lakshmi wondered, ‘Why did Lord Jagannatha give up so much opulence and go to Vrindavan?’ Then, to make Him a laughingstock, she decorated herself and brought her maidservants to deride Him and His servants. Finally, His servants submitted to her and promised to bring Lord Jagannatha before her the very next day, and the goddess of fortune, being pacified, returned to her apartment.” Thus Srivasa Thakura joked with Svarupa Damodara, as described in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 14.213–215):

amara laksmira sampad—vakya-agocara

“ ‘Just see! My goddess of fortune is opulent beyond all description.

dugdha auti’ dadhi mathe tomara gopi-gane
amara thakurani vaise ratna-simhasane

“ ‘Your gopis are engaged in boiling milk and churning yogurt, but my mistress, the goddess of fortune, sits on a throne made of jewels and gems.’

arada-prakrti srivasa kare parihasa

suni’ hase mahaprabhura yata nija-dasa

“Srivasa Thakura, who was enjoying the mood of Narada Muni, thus made jokes. Hearing him, all the personal servants of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began to smile.”

Then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself spoke.

prabhu kahe,—srivasa, tomate narada-svabhava
aisvarya-bhave tomate, isvara-prabhava

“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu told Srivasa Thakura, ‘My dear Srivasa, your nature is exactly like that of Narada Muni. The Supreme Personality of Godhead’s opulence is having a direct influence upon you.

inho damodara-svarupa-suddha-vrajavasi
aisvarya na jane inho suddha-preme bhasi’

“ ‘Svarupa Damodara is a pure devotee of Vrndavana. He does not even know what opulence is, for he is simply absorbed in pure devotional service.’ ” (Cc Madhya 14.216–217)

Then Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, who is an incarnation of the gopi Lalita-devi, one of Srimati Radharani’s most confidential girlfriends, glorified Vrindavan’s opulence. He said that the natural opulence of Vrindavan is like an ocean and that the opulence of Dvaraka and Vaikuntha cannot be compared even to a drop of that ocean. He said that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in all opulences, and that His opulences are fully manifest only in Vrindavan. He paraphrased and elaborated upon a verse from Sri Brahma-samhita (5.29):

cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of laksmis, or gopis.” Govinda, Krishna, the cowherd boy, is served by hundreds of thousands of laksmis in the form of gopis. In fact, these gopis are considered super laksmis. The laksmis in Vaikuntha are only expansions of these gopis. In Vrindavan, the houses and land are made of cintamani stones; the trees are kalpa-vrksas, wish-fulfilling desire trees; and the cows are surabhis, who deliver oceans of nectar-like milk.

Svarupa Damodara then quoted a related verse by Bilvamangala Thakura, to glorify the opulence of the gopis and Vrindavan:

cintamanis carana-bhusanam angananam
srngara-puspa-taravas taravah suranam
vrndavane vraja-dhanam nanu kama-dhenu-
vrndani ceti sukha-sindhur aho vibhutih

“The anklets on the damsels of Vraja-bhumi are made of cintamani stone. The trees are wish-fulfilling trees, and they produce flowers with which the gopis decorate themselves. There are also wish-fulfilling cows, which deliver unlimited quantities of milk. These cows constitute the wealth of Vrndavana. Thus Vrndavana’s opulence is blissfully exhibited.” (Brs 2.1.173, Cc Madhya 14, 228)

And he quoted another verse from Sri Brahma-samhita (5.29):

sriyah kantah kantah parama-purusah kalpa-taravo
druma bhumis cintamani-gana-mayi toyam amrtam
katha ganam natyam gamanam api vamsi priya-sakhi
cid-anandam jyotih param api tad asvadyam api ca

“The damsels of Vrndavana, the gopis, are super goddesses of fortune. The enjoyer in Vrndavana is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. The trees there are all wish-fulfilling trees, and the land is made of transcendental touchstone. The water is all nectar, the talking is singing, the walking is dancing, and the constant companion of Krsna is His flute. The effulgence of transcendental bliss is experienced everywhere. Therefore Vrndavana-dhama is the only relishable abode.” (Bs 5.56, Cc Madhya 14.227)

Actually, the opulence of Vrindavan is greater than that of Vaikuntha. But the special quality of Vrindavan is that its opulence is covered by an exquisite sweetness so powerful that the pure devotees in Vrindavan forget that Krishna is God. In Vaikuntha the devotees are aware of the Lord’s opulence and worship Him with awe and veneration. They act as His servants (dasya-rasa) or at most as reverential friends (gaurava-sakhya-rasa); there is no sense of equality with the Lord. But in Vrindavan the devotees are able to enjoy ecstatic, intimate relationships with Krishna, with full freedom, because they forget that He is God.

If the residents of Vrindavan were conscious that Krishna is God, the cowherd boys could never play with Him as equals like they do. Sometimes Krishna and the cowherd boys compete in sport, and if Krishna loses, He has to carry the other boy on His shoulders. This is unheard of in Vaikuntha; if someone got up on Lord Narayana’s shoulders, he would immediately be expelled. And Krishna’s parents, Nanda and Yashoda, and others in the parental mood, such as Ambika, feel that Krishna is dependent on them. Ambika is Krishna’s nurse in Vrindavan; she suckles Krishna. And Malini, Srivasa Thakura’s wife, is her incarnation. So she has that maternal mood. Such devotees, in vatsalya-rasa, feel that they have to take care of Krishna. The cowherd boys feel that they are Krishna’s equals, His friends, and the elders feel like they are Krishna’s parents and guardians, that Krishna is dependent on their care and protection.

In fact, Krishna is providing everything for everyone. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam: He is the singular eternal one among so many eternal beings, and He is the singular conscious entity among so many conscious entities. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman: He is the one, singular, eternal conscious being who is providing all the necessities and fulfilling all the desires of the many, plural, eternal conscious beings. He is providing for everyone, but still Mother Yashoda is thinking, “He is my son. If I don’t feed Him, He will starve.” She can think that way because her attachment for Him as a mother for her son is stronger than her awareness of His divine opulence. Most of the time she forgets; she is not even conscious that He is the Lord. And most of the time, the residents of Vrindavan forget.

Sometimes Krishna enacts deeds that remind them of His godly opulence, such as when He lifted Govardhana Hill. After He did so, the elder cowherd men were confused and approached Nanda Maharaja. “Your Krishna is no ordinary boy,” they said. “He lifted a great mountain and held it in one hand for seven days. And as a mere infant, He sucked out the life of the powerful demoness Putana. And He killed many powerful demons and performed many wonderful feats. He is no ordinary person. He might be a demigod—or even Lord Narayana Himself.” They weren’t sure. “Still,” they continued, “we have constant affection for your son—and He has natural attraction for us.” They were bewildered. But when they thought of Krishna’s humanlike pastimes, they became overwhelmed with parental affection. They thought of all the times He had become frightened, the times He had felt hungry, the times He had done mischief. And they remembered how He had become happy when they had coddled Him and sad or angry when they had neglected Him. Thinking of Krishna’s childlike, humanlike behavior (nara-lila), they became overwhelmed with parental affection and forgot His divine opulence.

Once, Mother Yashoda looked into Krishna’s mouth. Krishna and Balarama were playing with Their friends, and all the boys joined with Balarama to complain to Mother Yashoda that Krishna had eaten earth. Sometimes, when children are at a certain age, they put anything into their mouths. Krishna said, “No, Mother. They are lying.” Yashoda replied, “But even Your brother Balarama says that You ate dirt.” Krishna said, “He is lying, too. But if you have any doubt, you can look.” “All right. Open Your mouth. I will see.”

So, Krishna opened His mouth, and Mother Yashoda looked inside, and there she saw the entire cosmic manifestation. She saw all moving and nonmoving entities, all directions, the material elements, the sky and stars and planetary systems. She saw the living entities, the modes of nature, time, and karma. She saw everything. She even saw herself and the land of Vraja. And she was struck with doubt and wonder. Was she dreaming, or hallucinating, or being mystified by some illusion of the material nature, perhaps created by the demigods? Or was she having a vision caused by her son’s mystic power? “All right,” she said. “Close Your mouth. Just don’t do it again.” Even then, she still thought of Krishna as her son. Although Krishna is always full in all opulences, His display of opulence does not diminish His pure devotees’ love for Him—as a son or a friend or a beloved. That is vraja-bhakti.

In this discussion with Srivasa Pandita, Svarupa Damodara glorified the opulence of Vrindavan, but that opulence is covered by the sweetness of these intimate relationships, in which the devotees forget that Krishna is God and, to reciprocate with His devotees’ love, Krishna also forgets that He is God. When Mother Yashoda threatens Krishna with a stick and Krishna becomes afraid, He is not pretending. He actually feels like a child, and He feels afraid. In her prayers, Queen Kunti remarks that she sees the image of Krishna with Mother Yashoda standing with ropes to bind Him: Krishna is crying, and His tears are washing the mascara around His eyes. The same Krishna who is feared by fear personified is afraid of Mother Yashoda. And thinking of this contradiction, Kunti becomes bewildered.

gopy adade tvayi krtagasi dama tavad
ya te dasasru-kalilanjana-sambhramaksam
vaktram niniya bhaya-bhavanaya sthitasya
sa mam vimohayati bhir api yad bibheti

“My dear Krsna, Yasoda took up a rope to bind You when You committed an offense, and Your perturbed eyes overflooded with tears, which washed the mascara from Your eyes. And You were afraid, though fear personified is afraid of You. This sight is bewildering to me.” (SB 1.8.31)

These are elevated, transcendental topics—not easy to understand. Although we may have theoretical knowledge, we still tend to identify with the body and act on the bodily platform: “I” and “mine.” Still, hearing these topics is part of the process of purification. By offenseless hearing of the Lord’s activities, even without complete understanding, we can become attracted and purified. And we want to be attracted, to desire to serve in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes, and ultimately in Krishna’s pastimes. We do not want to remain bound to temporary, material affairs and engrossed in ephemeral, mundane relationships.

One night, during the kirtan at Srivasa-angana, a calamity took place. One of Srivasa Pandita’s sons, who had been ill, died. Naturally, Srivasa’s wife, Malini, and others were distraught, but Srivasa said, “Keep quiet. We must not disturb Mahaprabhu’s kirtan.” So nobody cried or said anything. After the kirtan was over, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (who is God and knows everything) said, “There must have been some calamity here.” When Srivasa told him, “My son died,” Sri Chaitanya replied, “Why did you not tell Me earlier?” He went to the place where the son was lying dead and asked him, “Why are you leaving Srivasa Thakura’s home?” The son replied, “I stayed here as long as my destiny allowed. Now that the time is over, I must proceed to my next destination, according to Your order. I am Your eternal servant, a dependent living being, and I move by Your desire.”

By this exchange between Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srivasa Pandita’s dead son, everyone in the household was enlightened with spiritual knowledge. There was no cause for lamentation. They realized the knowledge of the Bhagavad-gita (2.13):

dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” Actually, everyone changes his or her body even in the same lifetime. Just as one has a baby’s body, then a youth’s body, and eventually an old person’s body, similarly, at the time of death, one accepts another body. And dhiras tatra na muhyati: the sober are not bewildered by such a change.

The body is like dress. Just as one discards an old and useless garment and puts on a new one, similarly, when the body is old and useless, the soul leaves it and takes on a new body.

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
navani grhnati naro ’parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
anyani samyati navani dehi

“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” (Gita 2.22)

Ultimately, everything is under the control of the Lord, and all the more so in the case of devotees. Everything and everyone is under the control of the Lord, and these principles were manifested in the exchange between the dead son of Srivasa Pandita and his eternal Lord and master, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Srivasa Pandita (and Malini), “You have lost one son, but Nitai and I are your eternal sons, and We shall never leave you.” Malini is Ambika in krsna-lila, so she is in the mood of a mother, or nurse. But whoever we may be, if we just surrender to Krishna and offer everything to Him, we will not lose. Rather, we will gain unlimitedly. Srivasa and Malini lost one son, who was encaged in a temporary, miserable body, but they gained two sons who are eternal.

Srila Prabhupada advises that instead of being absorbed in these temporary relationships that last only as long as the body (at most), we should, rather, develop our relationship with Krishna, or Sri Krishna Chaitanya, which is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge. This relationship develops by offenseless chanting and hearing of the holy names and pastimes of the Lord. Offenseless, attentive chanting cleanses the dust from the mirror of the mind (ceto-darpana-marjanam), and thus one is able to realize one’s constitutional position as an eternal servant of Krishna, an eternal servant of Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. One still does one’s duties in the world—that is another thing—but one gives one’s heart to Krishna, to one’s relationship with Krishna, and realizes eternal, blissful, spiritual love.

jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva
jivanti san-mukharitam bhavadiya-vartam
sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir
ye prayaso ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyam

[Lord Brahma said to Krishna,] “Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words, and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.” (SB 10.14.3)

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed that Srivasa Thakura never went to earn anything for his family’s maintenance. So one day He asked, “Srivasa, I see that you never go anywhere. How will you maintain your family?” Srivasa replied, “I do not want to go anywhere.” Mahaprabhu said, “But you have a big family. What will happen to them?” “Whatever is destined will come,” he replied. “If that is your mentality,” Mahaprabhu said, “then you should take sannyasa.” “I am not ready for sannyasa,” Srivasa objected. “I do not have the power to take sannyasa.” “Then how will you maintain your family?” Mahaprabhu asked. “These days, if you do not make some effort, nothing will come. Then what will you do?” Srivasa clapped his hands thrice and said, “One. Two. Three.” Mahaprabhu asked, “What does that mean?” Srivasa Thakura replied, “If for three days no food comes and I have to fast, I will tie a rock around my neck and drown myself in the Ganges.”

When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard this, He became agitated and roared, “Srivasa, what are you saying? Why should you fast three times? Have you forgotten My words in the Bhagavad-gita (9.22)—ananyas cintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate/ tesam nityabhiyuktanam yoga-ksemam vahamy aham: ‘Those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have’? Not even once will you be lacking. Even if the goddess of fortune herself becomes poverty-stricken—even if she becomes a beggar—your house will never know want. I will personally bring whatever you need.”

Of course, what the Lord says in the Gita is true, though such constant concentration on Krishna is not so easy. But if one does come to the stage of always meditating on Krishna without deviation, the Lord will arrange whatever one needs. In that stage, one depends completely on the mercy of the Lord. Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham—as people surrender to Krishna, He rewards them accordingly. If one thinks, “I will make my own arrangement,” the Lord will think, “All right, he’s making his own arrangement, so I need not worry about him.” The Lord reciprocates according to our degree of surrender.

It could be said that previously the culture was more conducive to a brahminical way of life, and that is true, but still, what Lord Chaitanya said is also true.

There is a famous story of a brahman who was reading the Bhagavad-gita, and when he came to the verse in which Krishna says, “To those who concentrate on Me exclusively, I preserve what they have and carry what they lack (yoga-ksemam vahamy aham),” he thought, “Well, no. Krishna might send it through somebody, but He will not come personally.” (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Srivasa Thakura, “I will come personally if need be.”)

ananyas cintayanto mam
ye janah paryupasate
tesam nityabhiyuktanam
yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

“Those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.” (Gita 9.22)

When the brahman came to the words vahamy aham, “I carry,” he scratched them out with red ink. He did not believe that Krishna would personally carry what the devotee required.

Later, the brahman went out to beg alms. There are different ways by which brahmans maintain themselves, and one is to go out and beg alms. So, while the brahman was gone, a young boy came to the brahman’s house with a rod across his shoulders, and suspended from the ends of the rod were baskets full of rice, dal, flour, ghee, and vegetables—everything one needed to prepare a feast. It was such a heavy load that the boy could hardly carry it. He barely managed to reach the door. The lady of the house, the brahmani, asked, “Who are you?” He said, “Your husband sent me. I have brought all these ingredients for you. He will be coming soon. Please cook a nice feast for him. He will be hungry.” She cooked a big feast and invited the boy to stay. But the boy replied, “No, if I take too long, your husband becomes angry with me, so I will have to go.” And when he turned to leave, she saw slashes on his back—wound marks—which were red with blood.

Eventually the husband returned, dejected. He said, “I tried all day, and not one person gave me anything. I did not get even one grain of rice. Today we shall have to fast.” She said, “No, you sent that boy with so many provisions. I have already cooked a big feast.” “No, I didn’t send any boy.” “You did. He brought all these ingredients. But when I asked him to stay, he said that if he delayed, you would become angry with him. He already had wounds from you on his back.”

The brahman thought of the Bhagavad-gita. He looked in his copy to where he had cut the words vahamy aham, and he saw that the red ink was gone. Then he knew: “That boy was Krishna.” The Bhagavad-gita is the Lord Himself. By cutting those words in the Gita, he had cut the body of the Lord. And he understood that Krishna, true to His word, had come personally and carried what His devotee lacked (yoga-ksemam vahamy aham).

That is a high level of Krishna consciousness—to always be absorbed in Krishna, without deviation—but that is our goal. And the more we have faith in Krishna, the more we will be able to chant and hear about Krishna with exclusive attention. We won’t be distracted, worrying, “From where will the money come? How will we pay the bills?”—or whatever—so many anxieties. As we develop more faith in Krishna, we are able to surrender more, to Krishna and to the process of bhakti-yoga, to chanting and hearing the holy name and glories of the Lord and serving the Lord’s devotees. We are confident that Krishna will take care of us.

Devotees never go hungry. Once, many years ago, I asked a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, “Krishna consciousness is so nice—just chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy, with no anxiety—is there any austerity?” And he replied, “The austerity is that there is too much to eat. To honor the prasada and to please the devotees, we may have to eat more than we want.”

We have much to learn from the example of Srivasa Thakura, from his dealings with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees. And we have much to learn from all the members of the Pancha-tattva, and from all the devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—from the branches, subbranches, and leaves of the Chaitanya tree, including the present members of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual family and transcendental household.

Sri Srivasa Thakura ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya!
Nitai-gaura-premanande hari-haribol!

[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Srivasa Pandita’s disappearance day, June 28, 2008, Moorpark, California]

Srivasa Pandit Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

Srivasa Thakura is understood as tatastha-shakti, a marginal energy of Bhagavan, Krishna in person. Devotees who are headed by Srivasa Thakura are described as ‘parts’ of transcendental body of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (his eyes, ears, hands, disc/cakra, etc.).

They all participated in His transcendental pastimes. They all helped to spread Krsna consciousness, sankirtana-yajna. On the other hand, Srivasa is also Narada – an eternal transcendental associate of Lord Krsna.

Srivasa was studying Srimad-Bhagavatam with Advaita Acarya, who was at that time in Navadvipa. The home of Srivasa, Srivasa-angam, was a place where Sri Caitanya perform sankirtana-yajna, congregational chanting of Krsna’s Holy Names, and it was a place where the Kazi, a noted Muslim leader, ruled.

However, the Kazi had a dream where Sri Caitanya said that he should allow devotional service, so since that time he promised that he would never oppose sankirtana-yajna, and also that no one from his family would ever be against Krsna.

Srivasa Thakura had previously lived in Sri Hatta, but because he wanted the association of devotees he went to live on the banks of the Ganges in Navadvipa. Srivasa Thakura had three brothers: Sripati, Srirama and Srinidhi. He also had one son, but at a young age his son died.

In the house of Srivasa, Chaitanya showed His transcendental form to all His eternal associates. So Srivasa-angam is also a place from which the Krishna Consciousness movement around five hundred years ago was started.

Tens of Thousands Join in 48th Annual New York Ratha Yatra
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On June 7th, the 48th annual New York Ratha Yatra processed down Fifth Avenue, one of the world’s most iconic streets. Over 30,000 participants took part in the parade, which traveled from East 45th Street to Washington Square Park. This festival grows in size each year, with over 5,000 more participants than last year. Special […]

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Lord Jagannath Parades in Kelowna for the First Time
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Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra smilingly oversee the parade – by CINECAVES Photography On Sunday, June 23, 2024, in the heart of the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, a colourful and jubilant parade wound its way through Kelowna’s lakeside City Park. The Festival of Chariots was a first for the city, and it was […]

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Water Management Program at Gokul Dham Eco Village | Bhakti Rasamrita Swami
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Water is life. The shortage of water gravely endangers the ecology of our planet. To address this impending threat exacerbated by climate change, the need for adaptation strategies, innovative and sustainable water management solutions are paramount. Gokuldham, a unique and picturesque eco-village near Belgaum Karnataka, India, uses simple, effective and environmentally friendly methods of conserving
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TH3 LOT: Humble Beginnings Lead to a Community Revolution in Mayapur
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Urugaya Das, co-founder of TH3 LOT with his wife Lalita Kunda Devi Dasi, serving Prasadam to the Sri Mayapur locals. Amid the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a remarkable initiative called TH3 LOT took root in Sri Mayapur Dham, India, and began to flourish. TH3 LOT is a community-driven project led by the […]

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Amidst Religious Tensions, Hindu Caretaker Upholds Peace at Varanasi Mosque
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Photo credit: Thirdman. In the spiritually significant city of Varanasi, India, a Hindu has served as the caretaker of the Anarwali mosque for over four decades. In stark contrast to the violence elsewhere, the nearly 400-year-old mosque has become a sentinel of peace between Muslims and Hindus thanks in large part to its caretaker, Bechan […]

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St. Louis Chariot Festival Draws Hundreds to Popular Lakeside Setting
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The ISKCON Saint Louis, Missouri Center celebrated its 2024 Chariot Festival on Saturday, June 22nd, at Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park. The popular park is located in a diverse neighborhood in the heart of the city where many people come to walk and enjoy the beautiful lake amenities. After the success of last year’s Chariot […]

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Sri Badrinath Dhama Yatra The Abode of Lord Nara-Narayana Rsi
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Eco Odyssey Conference Held in Krishna Valley Paves the Way for a Sustainable Future
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In May, the 2024 Eco Odyssey Conference was held in Krishna Valley, Hungary. It brought together hundreds of attendees and renowned experts to explore practical and theoretical aspects of social sustainability. Highlighting Krishna Valley’s sustainable initiatives, the event provided valuable insights and tangible solutions for a sustainable future. The devotees in Hungary held a major […]

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Sri Vakresvara Pandita’s Appearance Day
Giriraj Swami

Today is the of Sri Vakresvara Pandita, one of Lord Chaitanya’s most dear associates. Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 10.17–20) states, “Vakresvara Pandita, the fifth branch of the [Caitanya] tree, was a very dear servant of Lord Caitanya’s. He could dance with constant ecstasy for seventy-two hours. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally sang while Vakresvara Pandita danced, and thus Vakresvara Pandita fell at the lotus feet of the Lord and spoke as follows. ‘O Candramukha! Please give me ten thousand Gandharvas. Let them sing as I dance, and then I will be greatly happy.’ Lord Caitanya replied, ‘I have only one wing like you, but if I had another, certainly I would fly in the sky!’ ”

In his purport to text 17, Srila Prabhupada writes, “In the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika (71) it is stated that Vakresvara Pandita was an incarnation of Aniruddha, one of the quadruple expansions of Visnu (Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna). He could dance wonderfully for seventy-two continuous hours. When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu played in dramatic performances in the house of Srivasa Pandita, Vakresvara Pandita was one of the chief dancers, and he danced continuously for that length of time. Sri Govinda dasa, an Oriya devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, has described the life of Vakresvara Pandita in his book Gaura-krsnodaya. There are many disciples of Vakresvara Pandita in Orissa, and they are known as Gaudiya Vaisnavas although they are Oriyas. Among these disciples are Sri Gopalaguru and his disciple Sri Dhyanacandra Gosvami.”

A contemporary of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named Devananda Pandita had no faith in Mahaprabhu and thus avoided Him, but fortunately, Devananda Pandita developed great faith in Vakresvara Pandita and rendered service to him. And by Vakresvara Pandita’s mercy, Devananda Pandita developed faith in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and ultimately achieved His shelter.

Concerning this incident, Sri Caitanya-bhagavata (Antya 3.485–487) confirms the efficacy of serving pure devotees and the results one attains by doing so: “The service of Vaishnavas is superior to the service of Krishna. All scriptures, headed by Srimad-Bhagavatam, confirm this. There may be a doubt whether the servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead will attain perfection, but there is absolutely no doubt that those who are attached to serving the Lord’s devotees will attain perfection. Therefore service to the Vaishnavas is the best means of deliverance.”

Hare Krishna.

Vakresvara Pandit Appearance
→ Ramai Swami

Once in the house of Srivasa Thakura Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu sang while Vakresvara Pandit danced in constant ecstasy for seventy-two hours. At that time Lord Caitanya said, “Vakresvara, I have only one wing like you, but if I had another certainly I could fly in the sky”.

Expert at singing and dancing, Vakresvara Pandit always pleased Lord Caitanya with his service in the Navadvipa sankirtana parties (which he joined from the beginning), the dramas at Srivas Angam, and the yearly Rathayatra at Jagannatha Puri.

By Vakresvara’s blessings Devananda Pandit was freed from the Vaisnava aparadha he committed against Srivasa Pandit. Then Sri Caitanya accepted Devananda Pandit as one of His “own devotees.”

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu commented on this incident, “Krishna has made His home in the heart of Vakresvara Pandit. As Krishna dances in his heart, so Vakresvara Pandit himself dances. Whatever place Vakresvara Pandit blesses with his association becomes a holy place of pilgrimage more sacred than all the holy places.”

Vakresvara Pandit established Deities of Sri-Sri Radha-Kantha in Kashi Mishra’s house next to the Gambhira in Jagannatha Puri. Kavi Karnapura says Vakresvara Pandit is an incarnation of Aniruddha of catur-vyuha.

Vakresvara Pandit initiated Gopala Guru Goswami and many others in Orissa. Dhyan Candra, a disciple of Gopala Guru Goswami, says in his books that Vakresvara Pandit is an incarnation of Tungavidya-sakhi, an expert singer and dancer serving as one of Srimati Radharani’s asta-sakhis .

Snana Yatra Events Bathe Cities Around the World in Spiritual Bliss
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Gajavesha Darshan at ISKCON Auckland on Snana Yatra. On June 22, 2024, devotees worldwide celebrated the Snana Yatra festival with great love and devotion. Held on the full moon day of the month of Jyestha, the festival signifies the bathing of Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, and Sudarsana chakra. After the holy bath, the Deities are […]

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