CC Adi 4.56 Bhakti Vikasa Swami

Lecture by His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Swami (download mp3), given on February 28, at the 2007 Gaura Purnima Festival, Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, Mayapur, India.

Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi 4.56

radha-krsna eka atma, dui deha dhari'
anyonye vilase rasa asvadana kari'

TRANSLATION: Radha and Krsna are one and the same, but They have assumed two bodies. Thus They enjoy each other, tasting the mellows of love.

PURPORT: The two transcendentalists Radha and Krsna are a puzzle to materialists. The above description of Radha and Krsna from the diary of Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami is a condensed explanation, but one needs great spiritual insight to understand the mystery of these two personalities. One is enjoying in two. Sri Krsna is the potent factor, and Srimati Radharani is the internal potency. According to Vedanta philosophy, there is no difference between the potent and the potency; they are identical. We cannot differentiate between one and the other, any more than we can separate fire from heat.

Everything in the Absolute is inconceivable in relative existence. Therefore in relative cognizance it is very difficult to assimilate this truth of the oneness between the potent and the potency. The philosophy of inconceivable oneness and difference propounded by Lord Caitanya is the only source of understanding for such intricacies of transcendence.

In fact, Radharani is the internal potency of Sri Krsna, and She eternally intensifies the pleasure of Sri Krsna. Impersonalists cannot understand this without the help of a maha-bhagavata devotee. The very name "Radha" suggests that Srimati Radharani is eternally the topmost mistress of the comforts of Sri Krsna. As such, She is the medium transmitting the living entities' service to Sri Krsna. Devotees in Vrndavana therefore seek the mercy of Srimati Radharani in order to be recognized as loving servitors of Sri Krsna.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally approaches the fallen conditioned souls of the iron age to deliver the highest principle of transcendental relationships with the Lord. The activities of Lord Caitanya are primarily in the role of the pleasure-giving portion of His internal potency. The absolute Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, is the omnipotent form of transcendental existence, knowledge and bliss in full. His internal potency is exhibited first as sat, or existence-or, in other words, as the portion that expands the existence function of the Lord. When the same potency displays full knowledge it is called cit, or samvit, which expands the transcendental forms of the Lord. Finally, when the same potency plays as a pleasure-giving medium it is known as hladini, or the transcendental blissful potency. Thus the Lord manifests His internal potency in three transcendental divisions. [End of purport]

[Invocatory prayers]

Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Srila Prabhupada writes here:

"The above description of Radha and Krsna from the diary of Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami . . ."

By above description, he is not referring to this verse which we read today, but the verse before it. It's a famous verse in Sanskrit, a part of a chapter of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, this verse is the beginning of the explanation of the verse which Prabhupada says is the condensed explnation of the famous verse:

radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmad ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha-bhedah gatau tau caitanyakhyah prakatam adhuna tad-dvayah caikyam aptah radha-bhava-dyuti-suvalitah naumi krsna-svarupam

"The loving affairs of Sri Radha and Krsna are transcendental manifestations of the Lord's internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Radha and Krsna are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Sri Krsna Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Srimati Radharani although He is Krsna Himself."

Prabhupada begins his purport by describing Radha and Krsna as "transcendentalists". Generally we think of transcendentalist as someone who is practicing sadhana with the aspiration to attain the transcendental platform. Another meaning Prabhupada is giving of transcendentalist is those who are on the transcendental platform.

From Radha and Krsna's perspective, they are not on the transcendental platform. That's only from our perspective because we are not transcendental. They are transcendental to us. They are on the absolute platform. We are on the relative platform. We are relative to them. They are the absolute reality.

So Radha and Krsna don't discuss such matters. As here Prabhupada is saying, according to Vedanta philosophy, there is no difference between the potent and the potency: sakti-saktimatayor abhedah. But Radha and Krsna are not discussing this. They are just being Radha and Krsna and enjoying. Technically Krsna is the enjoyer and Radha is the enjoyed, but they are both happy always. Happy in a way that as long as we are in the relative position, we cannot begin to understand

So Prabhupada writes:

"The two transcendentalists Radha and Krsna are a puzzle to materialists."

Not only are they are a puzzle to materialists, but they are a puzzle to most transcendentalists also. They are a puzzle even to most Vaisnavas. Vaisnava means they are worshipping Visnua: visnur yasya devata iti vaisnava: simple definition of a Vaisnava is one who worships Visnu. Karsna means who is recognizing Krsna. Gaudiya means who is worshiping Radha and Krsna. Even most Vaisnavas recognize Visnu is supreme or they may recognize Krsna is supreme, but it is very difficult to understand the pastimes of Radha and Krsna.

We are enjoined not to speak above our realization. These verses are given for discussion. Should we speak on them or not? Well, we shouldn't take a vote. We should follow mahajano yena gatah sa panthah, we should follow what the great personalities prescribe. We should discuss because on one hand we shouldn't speak beyond our realization; on the other hand, unless we know what we are aiming for, we are never going to get there and we are shooting in the dark.

So what is the goal of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas? Srila Prabhupada writes in one purport in his song book, "Do not think this dancing and chanting will be to the desired perfection. It will. The goal of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas is to join Radha and Krsna in their rasa-lila." We may join as a gopi or someone bringing the flowers, arranging the place of rest afterwards, or if we're very fortunate, we could be some grass.

It is an aspiration which even Uddhava, who Krsna told Uddhava:

na tatha me priyatama atma-yonir na sankarah

He says that, "No one is more dear to me. Na tatha me priyatama atma-yonir na sankarah, you are more dear to me than Lord Siva and Lord Brahma, Lord Brahma who is born from my own body. Na ca sankarsano na srir, not even Lord Balarama, or even Laksmi, my wife, naivatma ca yatha bhavan, and even me myself. You are more dear to me than all of them and even to me myself. "

But Uddhava is asking after he went to Vrindavan, he was sent by Krsna to Vrindavan. He is the disciple of Brhaspati. He is very learned, very intelligent, and known as the greatest devotee in Dvaraka. But when he went to Vrindavan he understood that "Krsna sent me here not to bring a message to the residents of Vrindavan, the gopis, I am supposed to be speaking about Krsna to the Brajabasis to make them somewhat pacified, but I am learning from them. I have to learn. I learned from Brhaspati. What Brhaspati taught me is worshiped in the world, but there is this little place called Vrindavan which no one gives much importance to. They're all Hastinapura and Dvaraka and big cities, running up and down and making battle plans, doing politics, and who cares about Vrindavan? But Krsna cares even more than he cares for the Pandavas. He is doing so much for the Pandavas. His heart is in Vrindavan."

So Uddhava was praying, "Ultimately I can become the creepers, the grass, something insignificant in Vrindavan so that sometime the gopis might walk on my head," the head of the grass, trinad api sunicena. "Then I will get their dust on my head."

So who can understand this? It is beyond any material understanding, which is exemplified, although Uddhava is not a material person, he is a fully transcendental person. He is a transcendentalist, but the knowledge that he has, the knowledge of activities of this world that he has received from the greatest Vedic scholar, Brhaspati, that is not enough to even begin to understand radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmad. . . , the loving pastimes of Radha and Krsna, which is therefore very difficult to understand.

To help us to understand it, Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami at the beginning of Caitanya-caritamrta has presented the philosophical understanding of who is Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Those who like nectar, they like to hear stories only, will hear the nice stories of how Caitanya Mahaprabhu is dancing in Ratha-yatra, how he is chastising Jagadananda Pandit, how he is rejecting Chota Haridas. There are so many sweet pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Caitanya-caritamrta, amrta means nectar, very sweet. But if we think we shall relish the nectar of Caitanya-caritamrta without taking the whole Caitanya-caritamrta as it is, without trying to understand as Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami has taken the trouble to inform us of who is Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, why is he performing these lilas, what is he doing, even if we think of him as a devotee, it is very sweet to hear, but if we can understand at least theoretically the mystery of his appearance, the reasons.

There are reasons. He who is sarva-karana-karanam, the cause of all causes, there are also reasons for his descending into this world. There are reasons why Radha and Krsna, who are one, they are two. They are the same one truth.

This will be described in the next few slokas. Just like the musk and its aroma are inseparable. You cannot have the aroma of musk without musk and you cannot have musk without its aroma. In the same way, Radha and Krsna, they are one in as much as they are inseparable. All these points will be discussed by Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami so that the readers of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, here we are reading anyonye vilase rasa asvadana kari', they reciprocate with each other to enjoy, to taste the rasa, the mellows of love. So devotees, by hearing Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, they also relish, by hearing, the natural ecstasy of the soul to be happy in Krsna consciousness.

Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami compiled this philosophical section at the beginning of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, even though he was writing he did not know how long he would live because from the non-transcendental perspective it appeared that his body was very old. He said, "I may die at any time. I am writing but I cannot see properly and I cannot even hold the pen properly." Pen in those days meant a feather. He had so much of the pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to record, but still he took the trouble at the beginning. He considered it important that at the beginning of Caitanya-caritamrta he would give the philosophical understanding of who Caitanya Mahaprabhu is. If we simply hear about Caitanya Mahaprabhu without understanding this, still there is great benefit.

The other two famous biographies in Bengali, Sri Caitanya-bhagavata and Sri Caitanya-mangala, especially in Caitanya-mangala, there is almost no philosophical description there at all. And Caitanya-bhagavata, definitely not in the way there is here in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.

In Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, here at the beginning, the first four chapters discuss the philosophy of understanding guru-tattva, caitanya-lila-tattva. There is the description of the Caitanya tree, who the Panca-tattva are. Later on in Caitanya-caritamrta there are also extension philosophical discussion of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings to Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami.

All these are there so that we can understand at least theoretically. By understanding theoretically we can begin to enter into the actual understanding of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is ultimately to be experienced, but for those who are sadhakas, those who are traversing the path from, acaitanyam idah visvah, everyone in this world is acaitanya. They have no consciousness. They don't have Krsna Caitanya. They don't have consciousness of Krsna or Krsna Caitanya. Those who are traversing the path from being unconscious, acaitanya means also unconscious, to consciousness of Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, for them it is essential to understand that sri-krsna-caitanya radha-krsna nahe anya, what are the implications of Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu being Radha and Krsna.

What does it mean? How is it that Radha and Krsna, who are eternally happy in the land of Vrindavan, who are complete in all respects, they have nothing to gain? Krsna is atmarama, aptakama. He is full and complete in himself. All his desires are automatically fulfilled. Still, he feels some inadequacy. How is this possible? So this is a puzzle to materialists.

Somehow there are certain non-devotees who are attracted to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They are attracted because they are demons, actually. They are attracted just like so many demons are attracted to Krsna. They are always thinking of Krsna, but in an inimical way. Similarly there are mundane scholars, they could study anything. They have to make a living and they are intellectually inclined. They could have studied butterflies or they could have studies frogs or they could have studied mathematics or they could have studied the Napoleonic era, but they decided to study Krsna. It is another subject. Put it in a test tube and see what happens. They have to make a living.

They bring their relative way of thinking to try to understand Krsna. It doesn't work. The very beginning of transcendental understanding is to understand that we cannot understand that which is beyond our brain power:

acintyah khalu ye bhava na tahs tarkena yojayet prakrtibhyah parah yac ca tad acintyasya laksanam

It is almost like a roundabout statement that whatever is acintya, that which is not within the scope of our mind and senses and brain cannot be understood by the mind or senses or the brain. It is almost like saying it is like this because it's like this. Well, that's a fact. Why can't you understand Caitanya Mahaprabhu with the mind and brain and the senses. Because it is not the right apparatus. You can't do it. You can't measure the density of an object with a ruler. It's good for measuring some things. You can measure what is the width of this book. Or you can't measure the distance from here to Hong Kong with a ruler. It's just not capable of doing so.

So the mundane scholars like to understand. They have invented a term: gaura-paramyavan?, the theory that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But none of the devotees of Caitanya Mahaprabhu speak about this because they all accept from the very beginning. Vrindavan das Thakur, from the very beginning, the first major Bengali biographer, writing in Bengali, of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Before that Kavi-karnapura, and the very first biographer, Murari Gupta, Svarupa Damodara Goswami.

From the very beginning, it is not like someone at some point dreamed up like happens with the so-called modern incarnations. Someone at some point in time has a theory. Just like in Bangladesh, more than twenty years ago when I was traveling there, there was a Hindu preacher called Vivekananda Brahmacari. We met him once. He was known as, he had all the usual big, "mahatma", "1008 glories", and all that. The next time we met him, he was an avatar. He had been promoted. That is not with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. From the very beginning, it was understood. The devotees who were with him understood.

The mundane scholars have to give speculations that when in Caitanya-lila it is described how he showed to devotees he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for seven praharas, twenty-one hours, sitting on the throne of Visnu in the house of Srivasa Thakur. He showed all his devotees he is the Supreme Lord. That was recorded by the devotees in their biographies. So from the beginning there was no doubt in the mind of the devotees that he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

But the mundane scholars, it is their business to doubt because they are andha yathandhair upaniyamanas te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhah. They are blind following the blind. When they want to become a leader of the blind, they have to exhibit their blindness. So they make up this theory and that theory and that theory. They have a theory that someone had a theory that Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

It was never a theory in the minds of those who are actual transcendentalists. They knew from the very beginning. To help others understand this and appreciate this, they compiled their writings. This verse, radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmad, this is from the karcha, or the diary of Sri Svarupa Damodara Goswami, which is not extant anymore. It seems he kept it secretly because that wasn't revealed very widely.

Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami has quoted the key verses from that describing the personality of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and why he comes to this world. As Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami describes, he has taken the karcha of Svarupa Damodara Goswami, the karcha of Murari Gupta, who described the Navadvipa pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami heard from Raghunath dasa Goswami who was with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri. In this way, he took all the lilas and he fluffed it out in his own language. He elaborated on it. Not that he speculated. He didn't add anything of his own. He said, "I am simply chewing the remnants of that which is given by my gurus."

His gurus are Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Bhatta Raghunatha Sri Jiva, Gopala Bhatta, Dasa Raghunatha. With the exception of Jiva Goswami, they all personally were taking part in the pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and they understood who is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They are also all sakti-tattva.

Radha and Krsna are one and the same. They are saktiman and sakti. Just as Krsna is the possessor of all potencies and Radharani is sakti. Just as Krsna is the root or the fountainhead of all avataras, not only avataras, but all the Visnu forms and even Vrindavan Krsna, from him are manifest, not manifest but eternally existing. It is difficult to say because it is difficult for us to imagine in our constricted consciousness what is the nature of God, but language as far as possible is meant for describing this. There is no use of writing or talking unless we discuss these subjects.

So Krsna expands himself as Mathuresa, the Krsna in Mathura, and Dvarakesa, Krsna in Dvaraka, Partha-sarathi. Then as Balarama, Vasudeva, Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and so many forms. In the same way, Srimati Radharani is the fountainhead of all saktis. That means within Vrindavan, all the gopis and outside Vrindavan, there's Rukmini, Satyabhama, and all the queens. So Krsna and Radha are the original fountainheads and the six goswamis, Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami are also sakti tattva. They are gopis. They have come to join Radha ad Krsna who have come as one, as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to assist him.

Their service, they are meant for serving the saktiman. They are saktis meant for serving, for giving pleasure to Krsna. They give pleasure to Krsna through Radha. She expands herself in so many forms and all these forms of the gopis. And on Krsna's side, Balarama, he is the personification of-- again personification is not a very good term, but what can you do, it's English, it gives the idea of something that didn't exist but comes into existence--but Balarama is eternally existing as the fountainhead of service to Krsna, as is Radharani. Radha, the very name means she who is the best worshiper of Krsna. She only thinks of how to please Krsna. And all her energies, all her expansion, for want of a better term, they are assisting her to please Krsna.

This is a mystery. It is a puzzle, Prabhupada says this. To materialists, it is an enigma. How can they understand? It is an enigma to them because from the point of view of materialists who shouldn't discuss these things at all, the pastimes of Radha and Krsna seem to be vulgar. On the other hand, the great devotees of Radha and Krsna are not at all vulgar.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu was so strict even in his family life. In his childhood he used to joke with the young girls, but then after that, he was very proper in his dealings. Of course everything Caitanya Mahaprabhu does is proper, even if it seems improper, but from the point of worldly dharma, or worldly cultured behavior, he didn't mix up with the women of Nadia as is wrongly misconstrued by the gaura-nagari apasampradaya.

And after taking sannyasa he was so strict about this that his devotees didn't even say the names of any women to him, even the names of women elder, on the level of mothers. Anyway you don't say the names of women, but when Paramesvara Modaka, one of his devotees came and said, "Oh, Mukunda-ma, she has also come." Means his wife had also come. In the Vedic culture, generally you won't say the name of the woman but you'll say what is the name of her first son and "mother", so Mukunda-mata. So she has also come.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "Oh," he was feeling, "I'm a sannyasi. He shouldn't say like that." He was so strict. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu and all the devotees, all the great acaryas who have worshiped Radha and Krsna, their behavior is exemplary in terms of moral behavior. There are certain rascals who criticize Caitanya Mahaprabhu for setting a bad example by abandoning his widowed mother. They're rascals. We don't have to accept what they say.

It is enigmatic. How is it that the pastimes of Radha and Krsna, which appear so vulgar, are worshiped by great sannyasis and persons in whose behavior there is no trace of vulgarity? It suggests that what they are saying, if we are going to approach this at all from the mundane platform, that if what they say is true, that actually hearing about Radha and Krsna is purifying. That is the version of the Bhagavatam, that by hearing about the pastimes of Radha and Krsna, which seem shocking to the materialists.

Of course in the modern age it is not shocking that a man would sport with other people's wives, but actually it should be shocking because for a man to sport with other people's wives is uncivilized. It is subhuman behavior. Or in the case of Krsna, it is superhuman behavior. But those who are only on the human platform, they cannot understand this. Those who are subhumans, they certainly can't understand it. And those who are only human, they also can't understand it.

One has to become transcendental. Then he can begin to understand it. At least in the beginning it should be accepted that the same Vyasadeva who compiled all these sastras for the elevation of human society was not in his old age senile, but in his old age--not his old age, rather, he is still there in the Himalayas--but the last literary contribution he made was the Srimad-Bhagavatam in which he described in detail the pastimes of Krsna in Vrindavan and Mathura and Dvaraka. And he described there, in a guarded way, what is Krsna's gopi-lila. It is there. In a guarded way it is described.

Later Caitanya Mahaprabhu came, the Panca-tattva came and the storehouse of love of Krsna, which is Srimad-Bhagavatam, that required to be opened by the devotees who are described in the beginning Bhagavatam: pibata bhagavatah rasam alayah muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah. Those who are rasika-bhaktas, they can understand to the fullest extent what is the teaching of Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Here Prabhupada writes Radha Krsna are a puzzle to materialists, but they are a puzzle to transcedentalists and even to great Vaisnavas who have established that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that the parama-tattva, the supreme principle of supreme reality is Krsna or Hari, Visnu, the supreme person. They have established this very strongly in the world.

Madhvacarya especially has completely smashed the Mayavadi theory that all is one and one is all, that there is no supreme or less, everything is simply one. So Madhvacarya established that but the full ramification of Krsna being the supreme person is that he is the supreme enjoyer, the supreme lover. He's not simply supreme sitting on a throne. He exhibits his supremacy more by dancing in the cowherd pastures of Vrindavan without any shoes on with the gopis. So this is the logical, if you want to take it as far as logic will go, the logical conclusion of Krsna being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but being constricted by sastric understanding, many Vaisnavas, Madhva Sampradaya, for them it remains a puzzle, an enigma.

Even if we go in the temple of the Sri Krsna Matha in Udupi, the heart of the Madhva Sampradaya, when we walk in the temple, do you see the Deity? Who's been there, Udupi? When you walk in do you see the Deity? No, because he is on the other side. You walk in and you go around because he turned around. The story is that the Deity turned around.

But what you do see when you go in, you'll see a big picture on the wall of Radha and Krsna, which according to Madhva philosophy shouldn't be there because they don't accept Radha. But still from the picture being there it seems they don't reject. It's a mystery to them because they are perfect in understanding the sastras. They have perfectly understood that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they haven't perfectly understood the implication of what it means to be a person, which will not be described in the sastra. That's not for everyone.

In the morning newspaper you might read that the prime minister said, whatever nonsense they say, the price of everything is going up, but you don't read how he had an argument with his wife. That doesn't come in the newspaper. That is his own private business. So what Radha and Krsna are doing, that is Krsna's private business. But it may be that the prime minister is reading out, "Here is the price of everything . . . ," and he is thinking, "What am I going to say to my wife when I get back?" because to him his wife is more important.

Of course for Krsna, Radha is more important, but it may not be for the Prime Minister, I don't know. His emotional affairs are more important to him even than the state of the country or his ministers. They are important, he knows he has a duty, he has to look after them, but to him his own personal affairs, because he is a person, that is more important to him.

There was one King of England, he was supposed to become the King of England. He gave up his claim to the throne because he wanted to marry a woman who was already divorced. In those days, that was only seventy years ago, that was considered unacceptable. Nowadays, the president of America can have illicit sex left, right, and center and people don't give a damn. Times have changed. So his emotional affair, he considered it more important. "Yes, I know I've been trained since childhood to be the king, but I just can't do it because I am ruled by my heart."

So Krsna also being the supreme person, he is not simply a wooden or stone statute. Most important for him is just like he says:

na tatha me priyatama atma-yonir na sankarah na ca sankarsano na Srir naivatma ca yatha bhavan

That Uddhava, you are more dear to me than Brahma. Well in the universal creation, Brahma is more important than Uddhava, so is Sankara, Lord Siva, but to Krsna, Uddhava is more important because he loves him more. Uddhava loves Krsna more and Krsna loves Uddhava more.

So these are the internal affairs of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, of Radha and Krsna and we didn't even come very close at all to speaking about why Radha and Krsna are one. They are two but again they become one. Of course it requires a lot of time to discuss these things. No, not a lot of time, unlimited time. Ananta is discussing timelessly. I presume that will be discussed in the next few days because that is the subject matter of the next few verses.

I am supposed to have stopped already so if anybody would like to make any comments or give any questions, kindly do so. And we should go on discussing these things. Why don't we do that for the next few days, at least up to Gaura Purnima? Why don't we make a vow that we are not going to talk about the state of our stomachs or various political matters inside or outside of ISKCON.

Let's discuss about Caitanya Mahaprabhu. How about that? Is it a good idea? I think so. Let's do that. When we meet each other, we should discuss all these topics.

Hare Krsna.

Any comment or question please?

yadi amara prati sneha thake sabakara tabe krsna veti vrikta ??? na gaibe ara

Caitanya Mahaprabhu said if you love me, then do one thing--don't talk about anything else but Krsna.

So see if we can do that for at least a few days. We'll talk about Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Please? Oh, you weren't putting your hand up. There's a fly in the Dham of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We have to connect it somehow to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Otherwise we are not following our sadhana.

Q: You were saying that Krsna was in the rasa dance dancing without his shoes on. Can you elaborate on that?

A: Why he doesn't have his dancing shoes on? Well, Krsna doesn't wear shoes in Vrindavan because he loves the cows. He told his mother, "I'm not going to wear, either you make shoes for all my millions of cows or I'll go without shoes." So he goes without shoes. And the gopis are crying that the rough stones and the spikes are hurting Krsna's foot. Also all the living beings who are fortunate to be the grass, they get directly the mercy from Krsna's feet. That's his mercy also. If he had shoes on, it would be a little bit removed. [Chuckles.] It's a speculation.

Hare Krsna.

Srimad Caitanya-caritamrta ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Hare Krsna.

CC Antya 1.132 Sivarama Swami

Lecture by His Holiness Sivarama Swami (download mp3), given on February 27, at the 2007 Gaura Purnima Festival, Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, Mayapur, India.

Caitanya-Caritamrita, Antya 1.132

anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau
samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam
harih purata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah
sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah

TRANSLATION: "'May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Srimati Sacidevi be transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has descended in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most elevated mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.'"

PURPORT: This verse (Vidagdha-madhava 1.2) also appears in the Adi-lila (1.4 and 3.4). In his commentary on the Vidagdha-madhava, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura remarks, maha-prabhoh sphurtim vina hari-lila-rasasvadananupapatter iti bhavah: "Without the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one cannot describe the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Therefore Srila Rupa Gosvami said, vo yusmakam hrdaya-rupa-guhayam saci-nandano harih pakse simhah sphuratu: "May Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is exactly like a lion that kills all the elephants of desire, be awakened within everyone's heart, for by His merciful blessings one can understand the transcendental pastimes of Krsna." [End of purport]

Sivarama Swami: There are fourteen verses, slokas, which are like the bija or seed of Caitanya-caritamrta. The author, after mentioning them, he says, "I will now elaborate further on these verses." And that is Caitanya-caritamrta is about. Bija, seed, it is like we also have our kama-bija, klim. From that seed then comes the kama-gayatri mantra. Just like with a tree, within the seed the potential for the entire tree is there. In material world, when you have the seed, you don't have the tree. When you have the seed, the tree is gone. In the spiritual context, these things don't exist. In fact, Rupa Goswami describes this later on in Nectar of Devotion. So both the seed exists as well as the tree that comes from the seed.

This is the fourth of the fourteen slokas. The first six describe Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then Lord Nityananda, Advaita Acarya, concluding with panca-tattvatmakam krsnam. These constitute the basis of Caitanya-caritamrta. This verse, anarpita-carim cirat, is composed by Rupa Goswami. It is to be found in his Vidagdha-madhava. It's interesting that those fourteen verses are a compilation of his own composition. Rupa Goswami, Svarupa Damodara Goswami, and also other sources, they are not his, but all together, they present the tattva of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's lila, his ontology, as well as the nature of his rasa, particularly here in this verse and in the two verses that follow this one.

The history of this verse now been spoken, this chapter is entitled "Rupa Goswami's Second Meeting with the Lord". When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was residing in Jagannath Puri, his daily habit would be to visit Thakur Haridas because Haridas Thakur was not able to go to the temple, being born in, considered to be, a mleccha family, although he was a greatly exalted transcendental personality. Still, he followed all the proper rules and regulations and he wouldn't go. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally came. Caitanya Mahaprabhu being non-different than Lord Jagannath, so Jagannath came to visit Haridas Thakur and he brought him prasadam. This went on for the entire duration of Haridas Thakur's stay in Puri up until he finally left his body.

At this time, Rupa Goswami was also residing there. Following the Ratha-yatra festival, Rupa Goswami composed a very beautiful verse. That verse is found in Padyavali. It was in response to another song that Caitanya Mahaprabhu was singing. During Ratha-yatra, Caitanya Mahaprabhu would sing this song beginning with "yah kaumara-harah sa eva hi varas". This was not a sastric song. It was more like a popular song that was known at that time, but it was more or less a love ballad, but it reflected the spirit or the mood of Ratha-yatra.

When Rupa Goswami heard this, then he presented it in a more direct way. So he wrote this other verse: priyah so 'yam krsnah saha-cari kuru-ksetra-militas tathaham sa radha, and so on. So he wrote this on a palm leaf and left it in the thatched roof of Haridas Thakur's hut. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu came, he saw this. When he saw it, he showed it to his other associates, and he put up this rhetorical question, "How is it possible that Rupa Goswami could understand my heart?"

Because the song actually describes the meeting of Srimati Radharani and Lord Krsna at Kuruksetra and it describes the spirit of the gopis, "You are the same Krsna, these are the same moonlit nights, I'm the same Srimati Radharani - tathaham sa radha tad idam ubhayoh sangama-sukham - this meeting is very nice, it's giving us a lot of pleasure, but it's not the same. There's no Yamuna here, there's no Govardhan Hill, there's no Vrindavan, and there's no flute. Where's your flute? Rather, there is simply the opulence of a great king, so we want to take you back to Vrindavan."

That is the spirit of Ratha-yatra, bringing Krsna, bringing Lord Jagannath from the Dvaraka opulence which he is manifesting in Kuruksetra back to Vrindavan, and ultimately Krsna did go to Vrindavan. They succeeded in bringing him back, but it was a little later time that Krsna followed the inhabitants of Vrindavan back to his home.

So when Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "How is it possible he understood this?"

Ramananda Raya replied, "It's only possible by your mercy. How else could anyone understand anything?" How else can anyone understand Lord Krsna because this is describing Lord Krsna's pastimes, but this is Lord Krsna's pastimes as are revealed in radha bhava dyuti suvalitam, in the innermost core of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's heart.

After that follows this whole episode of speaking, Rupa Goswami reading of speaking certain parts of Lalita-madhava, Vidagdha-madhava. Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to actually glorify Rupa Goswami in the presence of his associates. Srila Prabhupada, Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami describes how much great pleasure Lord Caitanya derived from this because ultimately, Rupa Goswami is our paramacarya. We are rupanugas. We follow in Rupa Goswami's line. Even though other personalities are extremely elevated in terms of their relationship with Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krsna, perhaps a certain sense of seniority, but in terms of sri-caitanya-mano-'bhistam sthapitam yena bhu-tale, in terms of the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Rupa Goswami is empowered to do that and he has also established the mission of fulfilling Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's desire of spreading Krsna consciousness all over the world.

Anyway, Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to glorify Rupa Goswami, and interestingly enough, he was also interested in seeing how his associates would react. Particularly in the next verse, raya kahe, rupa kahe, this is sort of a dialogue going on between Ramananda Raya. . . earlier, in the Eighth Chapter of Madhya-lila, there is this very extensive discussion between Ramananda Raya and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, which really reveals the different stages of spiritual life, different stages of devotional service, and the topmost levels of Krsna conscious exchanges, experience between Srimati Radharani and Lord Krsna, and particularly how those are experienced by Lord Caitanya.

It's a very wonderful exchange, one that even back in the late 50's or early 60's Srila Prabhupada wrote this little book, Ramananda-samvada, the discussion or conversation of Ramananda Raya. Anyway, Ramananda Raya was a great scholar. He was now Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associate and he'd also written plays, particularly this Jagannath Vallabha nataka, which is a very beautiful play about the meeting of the Divine Couple, Radha-Madhava, so he wanted to see how he would react and how they would react when they heard Rupa Goswami's composition.

Then they're asking different things and this is in response to the question, "Ramananda Raya said, 'Now please recite the description of the glories of your worshipable Deity.'"

Rupa Goswami was hesitating. He was embarrassed because his worshipable Deity here, Sacinandana, was Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was sitting right there. So Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu encouraged him. He said, "Why are you embarrassed? You should recite it so that the devotees can hear the good fruit of your writing."

"When Rupa Gosvami thus recited his verse, Caitanya Mahaprabhu disapproved of it because it described His personal glories." In the purport Srila Prabhupada is quoting Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur that without Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, no one can really understand Lord Krsna. Of course this is understand, not describe, the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

This is certainly a most important principle. In fact, it is the essential principle by which we practice, or we are in the Krsna consciousness movement. We are in the Krsna consciousness movement, but Krsna consciousness personified is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore, even in this place Srila Prabhupada on different occasions had repeated that "We cannot go directly to Lord Krsna. We must go through the guru parampara and that begins by going through Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."

Otherwise, approaching Krsna becomes extremely difficult. Knowing Krsna becomes difficult. Yei krsna-tattva-vetta, sei 'guru' haya. So knowing Krsna tattvatah, Krsna also explains mam vetti tattvatah. To know the real truths of Krsna is very difficult.

Rupa Goswami writes:

aher iva gatih premnah svabhava-kutila bhavet

He says, "If you want to understand Krsna or the pastimes of Vrindavan, they are extremely convoluted, extremely difficult." He says, "They are like the movements of a snake." If you have sen the movements of a snake, they move this way, but they also move sideways. So never know really where they're going. They're moving like this. So understanding Krsna, directly approaching Krsna, is a very difficult thing. Narottama das Thakur also concludes his Prarthana by making this statement. But if someone approaches Krsna through Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then that becomes very easy.

Earlier on, Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami says:

kathancana smrte yasmin duskaram sukaram bhavet

If someone remembers Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the most difficult thing, and this is the most difficult thing, understanding Krsna, Krsna-tattva, becomes very, very easy. But:

vismrte viparitam syat sri-caitanyam namami tam

But if you forget Caitanya Mahaprabhu , the easiest thing becomes very, very difficult. So our whole idea, the whole process of Krsna consciousness is to approach Krsna through Caitanya Mahaprabhu and to learn to glorify Krsna through Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

There are two nice examples of this that come to mind. One is the example of Puridas, who later became known as Kavi Karnapur. When he was a very little boy, his father, Sivananda Seva, who would annually come to Jagannath Puri from Navadvipa Dham, he would go from here to there and take all of the devotees, Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associates. When Puridas came, Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked him to speak something about Krsna. He wouldn't say anything. This sort of went on and on until Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave Puridas his blessings and Puridas actually got the dust of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu lotus feet, at which time immediately he began to talk. In fact, he is known as Kavi because all Gaudiya Vaisnavas consider him to be a great, learned scholar. And although he was a very little boy, he composed this very beautiful verse:

sravasoh kuvalayam aksnor anjanam uraso mahendra-mani-dama vrndavana-ramaninam mandanam akhilam harir jayati

And there he is describing Krsna: Krsna is like a flower decoration for the ears, aksnor anjanam, and just like anjana, premanjana, just like ointment for the eyes, black ointment for the eyes. He is the, Prabhupada says he is the universal ornament for the gopis, and let him be glorified, harir jayati, let that Hari be glorified. Yes, and he is just like a necklace around the neck.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very much pleased with that. In other words, after Puridas received Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, then he could glorify Lord Krsna.

In fact earlier on, another verse in Caitanya-caritamrta where Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami says:

sri-caitanya-prasadena tad-rupasya vinirnayam balo 'pi

He says bala, bala means a child. He says even a child can describe the glories of Lord Krsna's pastimes in Vrindavan, sastra, according to the way they are described in sastra, sri-caitanya-prasadena, if he has the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This is the particular example of Kavi-karnapura, who was just a little boy.

Of course the other example is our Thakur Bhaktivinod. Just recently I was reading his own statement. Since I can't quote it, I won't even paraphrase, but Bhaktivinod Thakur said that when he started to delve into Gaudiya Vaisnavism, he first started reading Srimad Bhagavatam. And when he read Bhagavatam, he read the Tenth Canto, he was really disturbed. He could not accept that this is God. He could not accept that God in the dead of night is enticing other people's wives to dance with him. It's a highly immoral act. It was an immoral act five thousand years ago, but it was also immoral one hundred years ago, Bhaktivinod Thakur's time. In his words, he more or less rejected. He could not accept that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

But when he read Caitanya-caritamrta, then through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he said then I could understand. Then it became very clear. Of course our Thakur Bhaktivinod is an eternally liberated soul. But still, he is setting this very suitable example for us that if we want to understand Lord Krsna and if we want to glorify Lord Krsna--which Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to do, Srila Prabhupada instructed all of his followers that you should write. He said that this was our lineage, our tradition, Furthermore, he said that Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted all of his followers to write, that's why he empowered all of the Goswamis to do so. It's not possible unless one actually sees things through the eyes, teachings, worship, and the grace of Lord Caitanya. And Bhaktivinod showed us this thing that if one goes directly, it becomes impossible.

Therefore, we have to do, but for that, one requires real faith in Caitanya Mahaprabhu because ultimately, in Krsna consciousness, any level of achievement is only acquired through the degree or the level of faith that we have. Therefore Vaisnavas must have this great faith in Caitanya Mahaprabhu, not only Caitanya Mahaprabhu but also in Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associates. Gaurangera sangi-gane nitya-siddha, that all of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associates are described as, here Narottama das Thakur says you must accept that they are nitya-siddha, parikaras, they are not ordinary personalities even though they may appear like that.

Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami's elder brother accepted Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but he wouldn't accept Lord Nityananda. He fell down. Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami immediately left his home, left his association. That's how he ended up coming to Vrindavan.

Srila Prabhupada points out that there are Vaisnava schools, what to speak of other religious organizations, who don't accept Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And often, they may propound also that someone else is the yuga-avatara. Prabhupada says that there are some members of the Nimbarka Sampradaya who reject the fact that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the yuga-avatara or that he is directly Krsna. Prabhupada says they think that he is a great saint, that he's a great devotee, but not that he is svayam-bhagavan. That's why here Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami begins by establishing the truth of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This third verse:

yad advaitam brahmopanisadi tad apy asya tanu-bha

He says what the brahmavadis consider to be this Brahman, what is the effulgence of his body, and that Paramatma who is residing within the heart of everyone, who the yogis worship, that is his plenary expansion within the heart of every living entity. And that svayam-bhagavan, that is non-different than this Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

This becomes the first premise, the first statement, vastu-nirdesa, establishing what is the vastu, or the substance, or the goal of Caitanya-caritamrta, that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And Prabhupada states that the most important verse which substantiates this is the verse found in the Eleventh Canto:

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

Srila Prabhupada quotes this verse any time he talks about Caitanya Mahaprabhu being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yuga-avatara. Srila Prabhupada quotes this verse and he quotes other verses to substantiate. It is actually a very important verse.

If you remember, this is Maharaja Nimi questioning the Nava-yogendras and Karabhajan Muni is speaking. Maharaja Nimi is asking, "I want to know, particulary for the Kali-yuga, what is the avatara, how is he worshipped, what is the yajna by which he is meant to be served?"

Karabhajan Muni has gone through the different yugas. Then he says, "Tat srnu", like Krsna says. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says he makes this point because "Now I am going to tell you something very important. Now you should listen. Up until now we were talking about plenary expansions of the Lord, but now we are talking about the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself."

Then he cites this verse, krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam, which is described, Srila Prabhupada analyses this verse in many different ways. Krsna-varnam, he points out this word varnam, varneti is explained in different way. Srila Prabhupada gives one, someone who always has the syllables krs-na, who is always vibrating the syllables krs-na, he is krsna-varnam. We saw that five hundred years ago, Nimai Pandit, later Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was always chanting Krsna's holy name. Krsna-varnam, varna also means category, so Srila Prabhupada said, just like he is also in the same category as Krsna. In other words, he is also svayam-bhagavan, but he is tvisakrsnam. Tvisa-akrsnam, his complexion is akrsna.

When this question comes up, tvisakrsnam, does it actually mean, because it simply means he is akrsna, tvisa akrsna, he complexion is not krsna, not blackish. Prabhupada very often, when he refers, he quotes Tenth Canto, one verse, very famous verse, which Gargamuni speaks when he's talking to Nanda Maharaja. And he's talking particularly about Krsna. He says, "Your son, he has many different births. In these births, he appears in different colors. That also starts with varna, that verse, but he says:

suklo raktas tatha pita idanim krsnatam gatah

He says, in previous age, he comes in a white incarnation. So because it says akrsna, but Prabhupada says, sukla, the white incarnation, he cannot be white because white incarnation has already come. And he cannot be rakta, he cannot be red, red incarnation has also come. Therefore pita, he is of yellow or golden complexion. Idanim krsnatam gatah, and now he's appearing in this blackish form.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and other commentators analyze this verse in great detail. They analyze it using Sanskrit grammar, which I don't have a grasp of, but they point out how particularly the fact that Krsna is being described as the last, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In other words, although the chronology should be sukla, rakta, krsna, pita because that is how the appearance comes, it's described like this in order to give emphasis, idanim, "Now he's coming here." The past is given with the first two, the red and the white. And the idanim, presently he's appearing in this color, which by implication means, "And in the future, pita, yellow incarnation." This is meant to be another affirmation from Srimad Bhagavatam that this golden incarnation who appears is actually Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and not some other personality who neither chants Hare Krsna, neither is a golden incarnation.

Just on another point closing on this, which is a statement made by Lord Brahma, very interesting explanation of a Bhagavad-gita verse that we recite regularly. Locana dasa Thakur quotes this. It's a conversation between Brahma and Narada. Lord Brahma is:

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

So in this explanation he is saying when Krsna saying, "sambhavami yuge yuge," he says, "I come in this age, yuge, and in the next age, yuge, and in the one after this." Generally our translation is Krsna comes in "age after age". This particular explanation says, "In this age now I am here as Krsna speaking Bhagavad-gita in front of Arjuna. And in the next age, I am also coming, svayam-bhagavan, Supreme Personality of Godhead."

So the conviction, or the faith, of Gaudiya Vaisnavas, which is based on sastra, but ultimately rests on our acaryas' explanation of sastra is that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And as is described in the verses which follow:

radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmad

This Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir, he is the embodiment of Krsna in the radha-bhava-dyuti, in the mood, the complexion of Srimati Radharani.

We have that ultimately, Srila Prabhupada once was arguing back and forth with a Sanskrit Indologist professor. Ultimately when they were giving interpretation, he said, "We accept Caitanya Mahaprabhu's version and as Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings are given to us by our acaryas. This is our ultimate pramana."

Sruti is the ultimate pramana, but how to understand? Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. Therefore Bhaktivinod Thakur says that the highest evidence in the ultimate sense is the words of the self realized souls. Just like for us, members of the Krsna consciousness movement, the highest form of evidence is Srila Prabhupada's words, how Srila Prabhupada explains Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, and as he explains it, even though someone else may say something else apparently, we take that as being gospel and that becomes our pramana. By that conviction, then we have the vision of Lord Krsna as derived through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, anarpita-carim cirat.

Then here the first two words, first two lines are the tatastha-laksana. These are the secondary symptoms and the last two are the svarupa-laksana of this verse and also of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When talking with Sanatana Goswami, Sanatana Goswami was asking about this krsna-varnam sloka. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "Activities of the incarnation of the Lord constitute his secondary characteristics and his physical characteristics. That is that he is krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam. These constitute the primary symptoms."

Then Sanatana Goswami started to dig. After all, he was a prime minister. He was very, very smart. He said, "Well, does that meant the yuga-avatara of this age has golden complexion, he is always chanting Hare Krsna, which is implying that he is you?"

Lord Caitanya said, "Don't. You're up to your tricks. Don't make too many tricks." Then he just got off the subject and continued on.

So anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau samarpayitum unnatojjvala, all of this is described earlier on by Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami. He says that this verse describes the external reason for Caitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance, that external reason being that Caitanya Mahaprabhu has come to give, as it is stated here, samarpayitum unnatojjvala. He is giving the topmost process of devotional service, which means that he is teaching us vraja bhakti though the agency of chanting the Hare Krsna Mahamantra.

And ujjvala-rasa, not just vraja bhakti, but ujjvala-rasa refers to in the conjugal mellow. It's not in the translation, but in the word for word, Srila Prabhupada translates ujjvala-rasa - the conjugal mellow and unnata means elevated.

But this is sriyam, this is a treasure. This is a very confidential thing. The next two verse describe the, what Prabhupada uses, he uses words like "confidential reason". He even uses the word "real reason" for Caitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance:

sri-radhayah pranaya-mahima kidrso vanayaiva-svadyo yenadbhuta-madhurima kidrso . . .

In order to taste the ecstasy, pleasure moods of Srimati Radharani, Lord Krsna has appeared in this form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Then we get this blessing:

sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah

That we should take this Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu within our hearts with his, here, kadamba-sandipitah. He is like the clouds, like the rumbling of the clouds. Here it is called harih. Hari also refers to a lion. When the lion roars, then all of the insignificant creatures in the forest disperse. Similarly, when we hear the chanting of the Hare Krsna Mantra, when we hear Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching through Rupa-Sanatana Goswamis, this destroys all of the ignorance within the heart. Also kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah, when we see the beautiful complexion of Lord Caitanya, the golden complexion as we see here in the form of Panca Tattva, then these two things, Caitanya Mahaprabhu's voice and his complexion, they destroy all the obstacles to Krsna consciousness.

Then kathancana smrte yasmin duskaram sukaram bhavet, what's very difficult to achieve becomes very, very easy by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy. Rupa Goswami is giving us that blessing, benediction. This is part of Caitanya-caritamrta, receiving benedictions, part of the invocation. If we accept those blessings of Lord Caitanya, of our guru parampara, then by Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, we also can glorify Lord Krsna, understand Lord Krsna, and ultimately become Krsna conscious.

That's it as far as our time is concerned.

Thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

[Applause]

Sri Sri Radha Madhava ki jai!

END

SB 3.1.26 BVV Nrsimha Swami

Lecture by His Holiness BVV Nrsimha Swami (download mp3), given on February 26, at the 2007 Gaura Purnima Festival, Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, Mayapur, India.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.1.26

kaccit puranau purusau svanabhya-
padmanuvrttyeha kilavatirnau
asata urvyah kusalam vidhaya
krta-ksanau kusalam sura-gehe

TRANSLATION: [Please tell me] whether the original Personalities of Godhead, who incarnated Themselves at the request of Brahma [who is born out of the lotus flower from the Lord] and who have increased the prosperity of the world by elevating everyone, are doing well in the house of Surasena.

PURPORT: Lord Krsna and Balarama are not two different Personalities of Godhead. God is one without a second, but He expands Himself in many forms without their being separate from one another. They are all plenary expansions. The immediate expansion of Lord Krsna is Baladeva, and Brahma, born from the lotus flower from Garbhodakasayi Visnu, is an expansion of Baladeva. This indicates that Krsna and Baladeva are not subjected to the regulations of the universe; on the contrary, the whole universe is under Their subjugation. They appeared at the request of Brahma to liberate the burden of the world, and They relieved the world by many superhuman activities so that everyone became happy and prosperous. Without the grace of the Lord, no one can become happy and prosperous. Because the happiness of the family of the Lord's devotees depends on the happiness of the Lord, Vidura first of all inquired about the well-being of the Lord. [End of purport]

BVV Narasimha Swami: We're hearing from the Fifth Canto, First Chapter. Vidura is speaking this chapter, of course, "Questions by Vidura". Vidura had been introduced in the Srimad Bhagavatam, First Canto, Thirteenth Chapter, Dhrtarastra Quits Home. The chapter began with Vidura's entrance into the palace at Hastinapura. It describes that he had come from pilgrimage. During his pilgrimage he had been receiving instructions from Maitreya. The chapter goes on to describe Vidura's preaching to Dhrtarastra and his encouraging his brother to get out from home and to prepare for his fast-approaching death.

Throughout the Second Canto Vidura is not mentioned again. He's only mentioned in the First Canto in the Thirteenth Chapter in relation to Dhrtarastra quitting home. Now it's interesting why this incident is explained in the First Canto without giving a detailed presentation about Vidura. Sridhar Swami, the famous commentator on Srimad Bhagavatam, explains that both Vidura's returning to Hastinapura and also Arjuna's returning to Hastinapura from Dvaraka, both of these incidents have been described in order to prepare the scene for Maharaja Pariksit becoming the ruler of the world. Then also with Pariksit becoming the ruler of the world, how he challenges the Personality of Kali, and how ultimately, he is cursed to death.

So these two incidents are very important in preparing the scene for describing the speaking of Srimad Bhagavatam, which is the cursing of Maharaja Pariksit, these two incidents: Arjuna's returning from Dvaraka and describing everything and then also this incident of Vidura coming back to Hastinapura.

Throughout the Second Canto we have a lot of information about the creation, we have the catur-sloki Bhagavatam described and how it relates to the subject matter of Srimad Bhagavatam. There is a lot of technical information about the creation of the universal form and also about material creation and annihilation. So hearing all these things, at the end of the Second Canto, the sages in Naimisaranya forest requested Suta Goswami to "Please tell us more about Vidura. Earlier you mentioned about Vidura and he had been receiving instructions from Maitreya, so tell us about that."

The sages themselves changed the topic. Just like we're in a class and the class is very technical and it's got a lot of technical details, you can't just take in a lot of technical stuff, you have to vary it. Prabhupada was very expert. He could lace his lectures with wonderful analogies and pastimes and different incidents to keep us interested in the philosophy. If we hear only the philosophy all the time without the lila, it makes it a little difficult for us. I mean, it's difficult at the best of times to absorb our minds in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam, but when it's just straight philosophy, then it's really difficult.

So it seems the sages themselves, Prabhupada mentions in the purport, at the end of the Second Canto, Tenth Chapter, Prabhupada says the sages wanted to hear more transcendental topics. They had had enough of the physical because they had been hearing about creation and annihilation and they wanted to hear something more transcendental. Prabhupada, in that purport, goes on to explain how there are two classes of men. There is the materialist and the transcendentalist. For the materialist, they like to hear about all the physical laws.

Maybe many of us, previously, before becoming devotees, we were scientists or engineers or we were absorbed in the material nature, thinking how wonderful material nature is: The beauty of the rose, how it has such a wonderful appearance, and at the same time, such a wonderful fragrance, how it opens, closes. So many wonders are there in nature to attract the mind.

Prabhupada met one man, he was studying grass and why grass is green and how it grows. Prabhupada said, "You should understand who is behind all of this nature, not just to be caught up in studying the nature only, but see who is the personality who is controlling all of this nature."

Prabhupada touches on this a little bit in this purport because he explains how Krsna and Balarama appeared in this world to perform their superhuman pastimes. Their pastimes are certainly superhuman, but they are attractive not only for the devotees. Transcendentalists are certainly attracted, but even the materialist can take pleasure in hearing of the superhuman activities of the Lord.

You like to hear love affairs? Women often like to read love stories and things like that. There are so many love stories in Srimad Bhagavatam. You can read about Krsna's pastimes with his gopis, with his queens of Dvaraka. We can hear about crime, the stealing of the Syamantaka jewel and how Krsna goes as a detective to bring it back. You like to hear about war stories, so many different incidents are there, killing demons, fighting battles. It's all there in Srimad Bhagavatam, so even a mundane materialist can take pleasure in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam.

A transcendentalist will undoubtedly will take pleasure in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam. Prabhupada writes this in his introduction to Krsna Book, how the Krsna Book is good for three kinds of people: the materialist, one who is endeavoring to become transcendental, and one who is already transcendental. They will all take pleasure in hearing these pastimes of the Lord.

Sukadeva Goswami in quoting the atmarama sloka that even atmaramas, even those who are liberated souls are inclined to discuss topics, hear the narrations of the pastimes of the Lord. We know that Sukadeva Goswami was attracted to hear Srimad Bhagavatam and that brought him back to the home of Vyasa to hear again the Srimad Bhagavatam. Although he had no interest in the material world, he was not attached to his family, he was not entangled in material life, but he was attached to hearing Srimad Bhagavatam.

So transcendentalists will also take pleasure in hearing the topics of the Lord. That is why these sages, they wanted to hear these transcendental topics. When Maitreya and Vidura met, what did they talk about, what did they discuss? This is what is being described now.

Sukadeva Goswami is describing this meeting between Vidura and Maitreya and the questions which Vidura put. He wants to know. He wants to hear. He's asking Maitreya, "What happened to all these different people? Tell me about them." Vidura is concerned about the Personality of Godhead. Are they well? He is not wondering did they catch a cold or have they got a fever or are they suffering from some disease or bodily ailments. Are they well?

How could a devotee be concerned about the welfare of the Lord? The Lord, of course, his welfare is related to that of the devotees. the Lord is concerned for the welfare of the devotees. He comes in this world for the pleasure of his devotees.

Prabhupada explains first of all that the Lord is not just simply one. Sometimes people are confused when they come to our temple because they see so many different gods. They say, "I thought you people were monotheistic. I thought you just worshipped one God. You've got so many different Gods here." But they are the one Lord in many different forms. The Lord is appearing in countless forms, innumerable forms.

Lord Balarama is another of his forms. His original form is called the svayam-rupa, the original form of the Personality of Godhead, complete and full of all opulence, svayam-rupa, Lord Krsna as a cowherd boy in Vrindavan, playing. But Lord Balarama is his first expansion, non-different from Krsna, only difference in color. Lord Balarama possesses all the potencies of the form of Lord Krsna, but he comes in the mood of the Lord's servant. Lord Balarama is able to serve Krsna in all different rasas. He will be the friend. Sometimes he will be friendly with Krsna. Sometimes he will serve Krsna. Sometimes he will play the part of the older brother and he will allow Lord Krsna to serve him. In his form as Ananga Manjari, Lord Balarama is also is serving Lord Krsna in madhurya-rasa. So in all different rasas Lord Balarama is able to render service to Lord Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada goes on to explain that Lord Brahma is also an expansion of Lord Balarama because Lord Balarama expands himself first of all as Sankarsana, then from Sankarsana into the caturvyuha: Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Vasudeva. Then again there is another caturvyuha, secondary caturvyuha. From that we have also the three purusa-avataras: Garbhodakasayi Visnu, Karanodakasayi Visnu, and Ksirodakasayi Visnu. They are all coming from expansion of Lord Balarama. In this way, Lord Brahma is also an expansion of Lord Balarama.

Vidura is saying in this verse that these two Lords, Krsna and Balarama, they have appeared at the request of Lord Brahma, who is born from the lotus flower of Garbhodakasayi Visnu. Queen Kunti mentions like this. She offers different reasons why the Lord has appeared. One of these is: at the request of Lord Brahma because Lord Brahma was concerned that the world was overburdened by so many demoniac kings. Lord Brahma had been approached by Mother Bhumi. She had gone to Lord Brahma and requested for help to alleviate her distressing condition of having so many demoniac kings. At that time Lord Brahma approached the Lord at Svetadvipa, and offered his prayers. This is one reason Kunti offers for the descent of the Lord.

Prabhupada goes on to explain that by their appearance in this world everyone becomes happy and prosperous. Now we should appreciate what is real happiness and prosperity. Actually conditioned souls do not know what is real happiness. They are thinking happiness to simply be some satisfaction of the senses: fill the belly, eat and sleep, mating, and defending. This is their happiness, giving some pleasure to the body.

But factually we know that material sense gratification never satisfies anyone. It simply increases the burning fire of lust. Nobody is satisfied in the material world. No one has enough. Everyone is wanting more. They will have one holiday. After one vacation, they can't wait for the next one. Nobody ever gets any real satisfaction from material life. No one will say, "I have enough wealth. I don't need any more." They are always anxious to increase their power, their fame, and their prosperity because they are thinking prosperity means "my bank balance", having the latest model of a car, or having a big house bigger than the others and having all the latest gadgets in the house. They are thinking prosperity means economic development.

Prabhupada said economic development is just a polished way of saying sense gratification. It is nothing more than sense gratification. The Lord, when Lord Krsna and Balarama come in this world, their business is not just to satisfy our material senses or make us simply prosperous. Prosperity means having peace of mind and control of the senses.

This question is discussed in Tenth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. The question is raised that the devotees of Siva are so opulent. They enjoy so much wealth, but it seems the devotees of Visnu are not so wealthy, not so opulent. Although Laksmi is the goddess of fortune and the consort of Lord Narayana, it seems that her devotees have the curse of Bhrgu on them. They are bereft of opulence. Lord Siva, although he is austere, lives under a banyan tree, his devotees enjoy lots of wealth. So why is it like this?

It is explained that the real prosperity, the real wealth is not simply in having money in the bank and all types of assets in the form of land and home and family members, but the real prosperity is in having a peaceful mind and controlled senses. That is the opulence of the devotees of Lord Krsna. This peacefulness has to be achieved by the grace of the Lord. How to get the grace of the Lord? the grace of the Lord can be achieved by everyone by recognizing him as the proprietor.

In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna explains the Peace Formula:

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-mahesvaram suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jïatva mam santim rcchati

We simply have to know Krsna is three things: that Krsna is the supreme proprietor, not proprietor of some little land or a little house somewhere, not even the proprietor of one country or one planet, but he is sarva-loka-mahesvaram. He is the proprietor of all the planets, everything is his, all the universes. And yajna-tapasam, everything we do is for his pleasure.

Bhakti Vikasa Swami was explaining to me yesterday that with the coming Ekadasi, we should not think that simply by our tapasya or performing the vow of austerity that Krsna is obliged to fulfill our desires, Krsna is obliged to give us a nice temple in Moscow, Krsna is obliged to take care of our problems in Kazakhstan. Not like that. Krsna is not just our order-supplier.

We have a loving relationship with Krsna. Our business is to please Krsna, to give pleasure to Krsna. Our business is not to tell Krsna what we want, "give me this, give me that". That is material religion. That is already rejected in the beginning of Srimad Bhagavatam: dharmah projjhita-kaitavah atra paramah. That is all kicked out, religion which is materially motivated. Our business is to please Krsna, to give pleasure to Krsna, and whatever difficulties we undergo for his pleasure, that is our pleasure, that is our enjoyment.

In Siksastakam, Lord Caitanya describes:

aslisya va pada-ratam pinasöu mam adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va

"Even if you handle me roughly by your embrace, make me brokenhearted by not being presented before me, you are free to do anything and everything, but always you are my worshipable Lord." This verse is spoken in the mood of Srimati Radharani herself, the greatest, topmost devotee. The mood of the gopis is to serve Krsna in separation, even with a broken heart. The difficulties which we undergo are, for the pleasure of Krsna, our greatest pleasure.

In the material world, we take pleasure in seeing the distress of others. When others are suffering, we say, "Ha, ha, look at them! They know all about it now. Look at them!" We enjoy seeing others suffer. That is material life, but in Krsna consciousness, for a devotee, our pleasure is taking difficulties for Krsna's pleasure without asking anything in return.

A devotee has nothing to ask from Krsna. Devotees' only business is to please Krsna, to give pleasure for Krsna without ever asking anything in return. The mood of the gopis is, "If our crying, if our distress makes Krsna happy, that is our greatest happiness."

I often ask our householders, can you tell your spouse like that? "My dear wife, if my distress makes you happy, then that is my happiness." We don't have that kind of love in the material world. This is only with Krsna. These loving relationships are spiritual. The nature of spiritual love, perfection, is to cry for Krsna. Our dear Godbrother, Gaura Govinda Maharaja used to say that he had opened a crying school in Bhubaneswar. He wanted to train people to cry for Krsna.

Prabhupada also writes in the Nectar of Devotion how perfection can be achieved by this crying for Krsna. Accepting difficulty, undergoing all kinds of trials and tribulations for the pleasure of the Lord, that is our happiness. That is our greatest pleasure. And by pleasing Krsna, by accepting all kinds of troubles, going out preaching, distributing books in all difficult conditions, doing the vow of Ekadasi also, these things, parikrama also, not just going on parikrama thinking, "I will get rid of my sins, I will purify myself," but for Krsna's pleasure. If we are just trying to get rid of our sins, that is devotional service in goodness, but pure devotional service, transcendental devotional service is doing everything for the pleasure of Krsna. We want to please Krsna. This is Krsna consciousness, that we are thinking how to please Krsna at every moment.

Of course the easiest way to please him is simply by chanting his Holy Name. Lord Caitanya has taught everyone how we can give pleasure to Krsna: Simply through chanting his Holy Name. So Krsna consciousness can be easy. It doesn't have to be a great struggle. We don't have to cry, but if we do have that strong desire, nothing wrong with that.

In this way, Vidura is inquiring, "Tell me about these people. These different devotees, how are they? Are they doing well in the house of Surasena?"

Are there any questions?

Yes, Prabhu?

Visuddha-sattva Prabhu: I want to, with your permission, Maharaja, thank you for the nice class. I want to clarify a point. Sometimes, the mood of the gopis, you say this is the mood of Lord Caitanya, crying for Krsna, the mood of the Gosvamis also, as Umapati Maharaja was saying in his class.

Is it the mood ? 11:45 ? in separation, in vipralambha, but sometimes, the ? Gaudiya Vaisnava, this is misunderstood that not only in the mood of separation, but there are some kind of gopis, they want the union of Krsna also. We just suppose that is the high thing, you know vipralambha bhava, but there are explanations from the acaryas that the special manjaris, they want the union. They are separate but they want the union of Radha and Krsna.

I put the example of the couple, the husband and wife. They are separate because they travel some place, but their separation intensifies the necessity for union. But special gopis and manjaris want Krsna and Radharani be united, not only separate. This is an important thing to mention because sometimes we think, no, Gauranga Mahaprabhu came only in the mood of vipralambha bhava, but he wanted also the union between Radha and Krsna.

BVV Nrsimha Maharaja: Well, the feeling of separation itself necessitates that there will be a union.

VSP: It's a play, you know. ?? It's play.

Maharaja: The more the feeling of separation intensifies, then that brings the union.

VSP: With your permission, I want to quote an important point in regard to Bhaktivinod Thakur. It was surprising to me, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Maharaja was saying, "Bhaktivinod Thakur wants to serve in the mood of Kuruksetra." The gopis are waiting for Krsna but they can't meet with him. So there was a mystery, why Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wants to be in that mood? Because the intensity of bhakti is very high at that moment, so he can render better service.

Maharaja: He is explaining that at Kuruksetra, at the time of the solar eclipse, Krsna had come with all the queens from Dvaraka and Nanda Maharaja had also brought all the gopis and the other Brijabasis to Kuruksetra. So they were meeting after a long time. At that time, the gopis along with Srimati Radharani, they were seeing Krsna after a long time, but they were not able to speak to him because Krsna was there with all of his wives. So Krsna, in the presence of all of his wives and his family members and these young gopis, maybe not so young by that time, but they were all there. They could not immediately go and talk to Krsna, "How are you? We haven't seen you in a long time," as we would do because the Vedic culture is such that women would not speak to another man.

VSP: Because Krsna was also in the mood of king, not in the mood of Syamasundara in Vrindavan.

Maharaja: Yes, that's also true, that he was coming more in his Vasudeva form, coming from Dvaraka, but still the gopis, they were attracted. They knew this is Krsna, the same Krsna. They wanted to bring him to Vrindavan. So they were not able to immediately speak to Krsna, they had to wait for the opportune moment when Krsna could free himself from his wives and all of his family members.

VSP: The intensity, they want to meet with Krsna but they can't, so the desire to meet came to a very high point.

Maharaja: Yes. So we can imagine how great the feeling of separation, intensity to be with Krsna was even greatest here at Kuruksetra. So he was saying Bhaktivinod Thakur was aspiring for this mood that the feeling of separation at Kuruksetra was the greatest because they are seeing Krsna, Krsna is there, he's not far away, but still the culture is such that they can't go, they can't meet with him, they can't talk to him. This was the highest fire of separation.

Umapati Swami Maharaja?

Umapati Maharaja: There has to be a desire for union because if there's no desire for union, there's no lamentation in separation. So the desire for union must be there, otherwise there is no seperation. But it is mentioned in several places that the ecstasy of separation is the most intense. In Krsna Book, Prabhupada mentions that when everybody thought that Krsna was dead, that Kaliya had killed Krsna, they were actually experiencing the highest ecstasy.

BVVN Maharaja: Any other questions, comments? Yes, Mataji?

Question: It's probably quite an ignorant question, but I'd like to ask, how is it that the austerity of Ekadasi, say that one fasts all day, how is it that it pleases Krsna?

Maharaja: Because Ekadasi is very dear to Krsna. It is like Krsna's day. Of all the days, it is a special day which is very dear to Lord Krsna.

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes in his song "suddha-bhakata-carana-renu":

madhava-tithi, bhakti-janani

He says, "By following the holy days such as Ekadasi, which is the mother of devotion, one can give pleasure to Krsna."

Ekadasi is like Krsna's day. Just like Janmastami, we think of that as Krsna's day also, right? Why? Because it's his birthday. But Ekadasi, Krsna's birthday is not only every year, Ekadasi is also Krsna's day, a day that is very dear to Krsna. That is why Prabhupada said he wants us to observe Ekadasi by increasing our hearing and chanting. It is a day on which we increase our remembrance of Krsna. Everyday we have to remember Krsna, but especially it is powerful on the Ekadasi. And if we observe the Ekadasi, it becomes the mother of devotion for those devotees who take shelter of her. Devotion is awakened within us just by remembering Krsna, intensifying our remembrance of Krsna on Ekadasi. Exactly why Ekadasi is dear to Krsna, I don't know.

Anybody know? Anybody like to say? Visuddha-sattva Prabhu?

VSD: If you study in the Purana, there it mentions how Ekadasi appeared. When that bow(?) was after Krsna, while killing Krsna, then appeared. Ekadasi is the internal potency of Krsna, antaranga sakti of Krsna. Because it protected Krsna so it is very dear to Krsna. There are more elaborate descriptions in the Puranas.

Maharaja: So he says Ekadasi is antaranga sakti, internal potency of Krsna. He said this is described in Puranas.

We will find many people they are also observing Ekadasi, not only Krsna devotees, but there many other people that are yogis and tantrics and so on, they observe Ekadasi. Their mood is different. Their mood is not to please Krsna. They are observing Ekadasi, they are fasting on Ekadasi, they may not be sleeping. Why are they following Ekadasi vrata? They are doing it to increase their piety, maybe to develop some siddhis, to get rid of some of their past karmas. Their mood is not for the pleasure of Krsna.

This is the difference between devotees and the other transcendentalists. Our business is to please Krsna, everything for Krsna. By serving Krsna, when Krsna is happy, we also feel happy. When we see the Deities beautifully dressed, we feel pleasure. When we see nice offerings, nice kirtans, everything for the pleasure of Krsna, it is also pleasing for us. We become happy. Ekadasi is another means for pleasing Krsna.

Yes, Prabhu?

Question: There is a letter from Prabhupada where he explains some of the simple rules for cooking, but in it Prabhupada says, "We must follow the rules and regulations, otherwise what is the proof that we love Krsna?"

Maharaja: This is a very clear, basic point. We follow the rules and regulations because we love Krsna. It is proof of our love for Krsna. We want to do all the things we are supposed to do. Why do we do these things? Just out of love.

Sometimes people wonder: "What are you people doing? You people are always out here singing and dancing. Who is paying you?" they often wonder like that, "Who is paying you guys?"

They can't believe we're doing it out of love because material world, nobody does anything out of love: "How much will you pay me? What are you going to give me? You want me to do something? You'll have to pay me."

That's not bhakti. That's not devotion. Devotional service, we do things out of love. We wake up early in the morning, people wiling to stay up all night, sing and dance, not even eating because they have love for Krsna, or they want to get love for Krsna. They're greedy for that.

OK, thank you very much.

Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!

[Applause]

END

SB 3.1.25 Bhima Dasa

Lecture by Bhima Dasa on Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.1.25.

No transcript available.

This lecture was given on February 24, during the 2007 Gaura Purnima festival at the ISKCON Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir, in Mayapur, India.

SB 3.1.24 Umapati Swami

Lecture by Umapati Swami on Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.1.24.

No transcript available.

This lecture was given on February 23, during the 2007 Gaura Purnima festival at the ISKCON Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir, in Mayapur, India.

SB 3.1.20 Candramauli Swami

Lecture by His Holiness Candramauli Swami (download mp3), at the 2007 Gaura Purnima Festival, Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, Mayapur, India.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.1.20

ittham vrajan bharatam eva varsam
kalena yavad gatavan prabhasam
tavac chasasa ksitim eka cakram
ekatapatram ajitena parthah

TRANSLATION: Thus, when he was in the land of Bharatavarsa traveling to all the places of pilgrimage, he visited Prabhasaksetra. At that time Maharaja Yudhisthira was the emperor and held the world under one military strength and one flag.

PURPORT: More than five thousand years ago, while Saint Vidura was traveling the earth as a pilgrim, India was known as Bharatavarsa, as it is known even today. The history of the world cannot give any systematic account for more than three thousand years into the past, but before that the whole world was under the flag and military strength of Maharaja Yudhisthira, who was the emperor of the world. At present there are hundreds and thousands of flags flapping in the United Nations, but during the time of Vidura there was, by the grace of Ajita, Lord Krsna, only one flag. The nations of the world are very eager to again have one state under one flag, but for this they must seek the favor of Lord Krsna, who alone can help us become one worldwide nation. [End of purport]

Candramauli Swami: So here we are reading about the pilgrimage of Saint Vidura. Why was Vidura on pilgrimage? This is a very instructive point that is being played out here. Vidura was the uncle of Duryodhana and the brother of Dhrtarastra. As we have been hearing from previous verses, he was always the well-wisher of Dhrtarastra, and the whole family, in fact.

His advice was sought after in many cases on spiritual matters. But here, in this particular instance, Vidura's advice to Dhrtarastra fell on deaf ears. He explained how, "Dhrtarastra, you are old. It's about time you take up spiritual life. You've been defeated in battle. Everything is finished." But actually, he was criticized, he was blasphemed, and he was thrown out of the house.

That same house was the house were Lord Sri Krsna actually resided. He immediately took this as an opportunity to visit holy places. We might even say, from his point of view, to purify himself. The question came up, Lord Sri Krsna was there during that particular incident. Why didn't he take shelter of the Lord? Why did he choose to travel to different holy places? Not only for a few years, but actually, for thirty-three years he traveled to holy places. What was his motivation? Sri Krsna is the personification of all holy places.

But the point was made that actually because of his association with Dhrtarastra, and of course Duryodhana, he felt he had become sinful. He felt he had become contaminated. He felt that he was not able to approach the lotus feet of the Lord. So he was thinking, "Let me purify myself. Let me purify my heart, and in that way I will be able to approach the Lord." So he left.

The situation that he left under is explained as an interesting fact. He was actually trying to preach. He was actually the well-wisher of everyone. His motivation was simply to do good to Dhrtarastra and his family. He had no personal motivation. He had no personal interest. He was simply trying to help them by giving them direction, counsel, and spiritual knowledge.

But because Dhrtarastra was blind, it is explained that his blindness was not simply physical, that was one aspect of his blindness; he was actually spiritually blind also. He was attached. He was attached to his family members. He was attached to his sons, even though they were so nefarious, even though they had acted against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

It's amazing. Dhrtarastra actually knew that the Pandavas were favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and he understood that. But still, he could not, because of his spiritual blindness, he couldn't act intelligently. He couldn't act properly. It's amazing how attachment can overshadow one's good intelligence, how attachment can overscome one's good intelligence. This is very, very instructive because sometimes we know it's right, but still, because of attachment, or let's say weakness of heart, not be able to make that proper decision still based on material attachments.

Material attachments go deep. The conditioned soul has been associating with the material energy for so many million lifetimes. We can't even trace out the sojourn of the living entity in the material world. It is explained that the living entity is called nitya-baddha. The word nitya means eternal and baddha means conditioned. So how is it possible that this term can apply to the conditioned soul? How it is possible to be eternally conditioned? It's not. Because we understand:

nitya-siddha-krsna-prema 'sadhya' kabhu naya sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya

In the hearts of all living entities, eternal, loving relationship to the Supreme Personality of Godhead exists as one's constitutional nature. That love is ecstatic and eternal and completely fulfilling. Yet the conditioned soul, falling into the material world, has been so much conditioned that they cannot even trace out their conditioning. So that term nitya-baddha explains how the living entity becomes trapped by the material energy, even when given good advice.

Vidura was not someone coming from outside. Dhrtarastra wasn't seeking some advice or getting some advice imposed upon him by someone who was a stranger. He was a family member. He was a friend. And everyone respected Vidura, but still the attachment Dhrtarastra had, he couldn't hear. "I know it's right, but still I can't do it."

Prabhupada uses this simple example how you see people in the material world, they smoke cigarettes. On the package it says, the packages are really becoming like horror statements. You read some of these packages nowadays. Especially when you go through the airport in London, these big cigarette packages: "Smoking Kills", two words half the size of the package, "Smoking Kills". And they are selling more cigarettes now than they did before this type of advertisement came out. It's amazing. Isn't that amazing? They tell you. Of course there are subtitles like "Complications in pregnancies", so many other things, emphysema, so many things. Still the living entity cannot give up material attachments, so strong.

Here what is the real deep attachment? Family affection, it goes really deep. Sometimes we see in our Krsna consciousness society how families become interruptions to one's spiritual life. A devotee will try to take to Krsna consciousness, family members will try to bring them back. So many incidents like that.

There was one incident in Bombay. Of course in India, family attachments are a little different than Western countries because the families are closer knit. In the West, families are not. Because of the sociological and somewhat political situation, families have a tendency to be more divided because of these aspects. The Vedic culture and tradition gives the Indian families a stronger sense of bondage and responsibility upon each other.

I remember in Bombay, a young man wanted to join the temple. He came and he was there. His mother, she didn't like it. She came to the temple and she demanded that her son come back.

He didn't want to come back. So there was a light fixture hanging down from the ceiling. She said, "If you don't come back, I'm going to stick my finger in that light socket." In other words, "I am going to give up my life right now." Phew!

So the boy came back. He actually came back because his mother seemed like she was really, really serious. He went home, stayed for a little while, but because of his attachment to Krsna consciousness, he came back again. And again his mother came. Again she threatened, but this time, nobody paid any attention. She was really bluffing. But see what family members can do to destroy one's spiritual life and how others will take to family life.

We have the opposite example in our society. His Holiness Giriraja Maharaja, his father, he was a wealthy, wealthy high court judge in a local district of Chicago, USA. He was a millionaire. When he [Giriraja Maharaja] joined the Hare Krsna movement, he lost contact with his family.

At one time, his mother and his father came to India to see him. Prabhupada was also there. They were begging, they were asking Prabhupada, "Can you please send our son back?"

Prabhupada said, "He is independent, he can do whatever he likes." Prabhupada didn't say one way or the other. "He can do whatever he likes."

Giriraja was there, but he wasn't willing to go. Then his father offered one million dollars, if I could have my son back.

Giriraja swami said, "Nope!" So he stayed, they went back, it went on.

Just about five years ago, just before his father left the world, again he came. He offered this time again, to his son directly, one million dollars, "Come back and be normal again." Be like us, normal, watch television, so many normal things that people do, but he was so fixed in his Krsna consciousness that he considered that one million dollars just a disturbance. So this is the ideal example, but here we have the opposite example how that attachment, Dhrtarastra couldn't.

So Vidura, he just left. It is said when you give good instructions to a fool or you give good instructions to a person who is envious, Dhrtarastra was envious of the Pandavas. He saw the Pandavas as his competitors. Although the Pandavas loved him and took care of him, still because of his attachment to his son, Duryodhana, he considered the Pandavas his enemy.

So Vidura's instructions were like Prabhupada uses the example of giving milk to a serpent. Milk is a very nice substance. Prabhupada said all nutritional qualities are found in milk. But given to a snake, it becomes poisonous. That same milk cannot be taken. Otherwise, it will cause poisonous effect. So Vidura just left.

Prabhupada says the internal energy was working in two ways in this particular situation. For Duryodhana and for Dhrtarastra, it was the external energy, but for Vidura it was the internal energy. He saw that this is Krsna's arrangement: "Here is an opportunity for me to actually take up Krsna consciousness in full determination."

This is very instructive. Krsna says, "One who sees me in everything and everything in me, I am never lost, nor is that person ever lost to me." So a devotee tries to see Krsna in all situations. Therefore a devotee is fearless. He knows that by executing his devotional service according to the instructions of the spiritual master, then whatever happens is the arrangement by the Lord to teach, to purify, or to facilitate, in one way, a devotee's purification. Sometimes a person will get sick. Sometimes a person's desire will not be fulfilled. But sometimes we can see this may be Krsna's arrangement for some higher principle.

We use the example, they say this in the West: Every cloud has a silver lining. Silver lining is supposed to be the auspicious omen that circles the black cloud. This means there is something good that is about to happen because of what appears to be negative. Someone asked Prabhupada, I remember there was a morning walk conversation, Prabhupada was talking about this.

A devotee said, "This principle that every cloud has a silver lining does that apply in all cases?"

Prabhupada said, "No." He said, "No." He said, "For the materialist it doesn't apply. For them a cloud is simply a cloud because they're on the wrong path."

They are looking towards the material energy as a source of happiness, as a source of success. So when they somehow or other their desires are unfulfilled, what does it mean? Are they going to give up? No, they are going to try different ways to fulfill their same desires. Unless they become so beaten down by the same material energy that they wake up and look towards spiritual life, but in general, for a materialist it doesn't lead. But for a devotee, it does. A devotee always tries to see Krsna in everything because he knows that Krsna actually is arranging everything.

Vidura had that consciousness and he left. He took the opportunity to visit various holy places. Here, this whole theme is being played again in another aspect. He is traveling from one holy place to another. Prabhupada goes into the last few purports describing what is the proper consciousness of a devotee when coming to a holy place.

So what is the proper consciousness? Prabhupada says to come to a holy place simply to take bath, to just visit the holy place is not really experiencing the holy place. One should hear from saintly persons, one should worship the Lord that is worshiped in that holy place with devotion, and one should engage in some practical devotional service.

Visiting holy places is one of the nine principles of bhakti. There are nine principles and one of them is pada-sevanam, worshipping the lotus feet of the Lord. So when we come to a holy place, we are actually performing this particular aspect of bhakti, we are worshipping the Lord's Dham.

The Dham is non-different from the Lord, especially Sri Dham Mayapur, very special Dham. It is explained that all the other Dhams, due to the influence of Kali-yuga, gradually start to develop a materialistic covering over their pure, spiritual nature. It is very difficult to perceive unless one is very highly, highly, highly spiritually advanced. The material energy cannot affect holy places, but for one who does not have that vision, it appears to.

There was one time, one man, he heard about Vrindavan Dham. He was living in Germany. He decided to go visit Vrindavan Dham. He had been reading about Vedic culture, about spiritual culture, he had read that Vrindavan Dham is the essence of all the holy places. So he traveled all the way from Germany, took a train to Delhi, somehow went from Delhi to Mathura. Gradually, as he was seeing the countryside, he was thinking, "Holy place?" When he finally got to Vrindavan, he started to see dogs, hogs, so many unpleasant sights, apparently. He never made it to Vrindavan, he turned around and went back. He said, "This is not a holy place." Simply having material vision.

In Kali-yuga, things become more and more difficult. I was just in Vrindavan last week. Dina Bandhu Prabhu made a statement, he said, "Vrindavan's becoming a little like Bombay." Especially in front of the temple, traffic and horns and so many things. Peaceful atmosphere is being challenged in a very strong way. Of course the Dham remains the Dham. It always does.

But one thing about Mayapur Dham, and this is a statement, that this particular Dham, as Kali-yuga increases, it become more and more revealed. It becomes more and more revealed. Sri Dham Mayapur has been given the special, special blessings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates. As Kali-yuga continues, people will see this Dham more and more. People will come from all over the world to take shelter. Prabhupada said, "Sri Dham Mayapur, this is our home." This is our home. He said, "When you come here, you're home." This is our home. This is as good as the spiritual world.

Prabhupada was giving a lecture in America back in the '70's. He was in Gainesville, Florida. I don't know how many people, most Americans know about Gainesville, maybe a few others. Gainesville, Florida is right near the Alachua community there, one of the biggest communities in America. So Prabhupada was preaching. At that time there was a small temple. Prabhupada said, "Here we are in Gainesville, Florida, in this very remote corner of the world, so far from Sri Dham Mayapur." Prabhupada was seeing that Mayapur was the center of the world. For Americans to think of Gainesville as remote, that's like heresy. [Chuckles.] It's like making really a strong statement to challenge the American consciousness.

Prabhupada understood this is the center of the world. So this Sri Dham Mayapur is the holy place of all holy places. While we are here, we should take shelter of hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. In Sri Dham Mayapur, the essence of Krsna conscious development is harinama-sankirtana, chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. That harinama-sankirtana has become even more powerful and even more glorious when it is performed in this place. When devotees chant and dance with enthusiasm, there is no difference between the spiritual world and the actual Sri Dham Mayapur through the chanting and dancing of the Holy Name. So this is the glory of Sri Dham Mayapur.

So we've come to this very special place. Don't waste time. It's not that we just come and visit, purchase a few things, look at the scenery, meet a few friends, and go back. Take part in the programs, dive deeply into chanting and hearing, visit the holy places, and associate with devotees in the proper mood.

Coming to the holy place actually means keep Krsna consciousness the focus; no time for gossip, no time for prajalpa, no time for things are unrelated to devotional service. Leave that behind. If we leave it all behind, when we go back after experiencing the essence of the bliss, the absorption in Krsna consciousness, when we come back to our respective areas, whatever consciousness we left with will be increased in a positive way. We'll see our environment in a different way. We'll become more and more enthusiastic to become more and more Krsna conscious in our present environment. The dham has so many wonderful benefits.

And Vidura, he is absorbed. He is going from one place to another. Prabhupada makes an interesting point in this purport. So far I haven't even mentioned the purport yet. I guess you're wondering when I'm going to get to the purport. Prabhupada talks about how the whole world was under one rule. There are so many nations now, there are so many so many countries, Prabhupada said, "United Nations, so many flags." At that time, it was just Maharaja Yudhisthira, he was the emperor of the entire world.

People are hankering for peace, they are hankering for unity, at least honest and decent people are. Sometimes we question our leaders, what is actually their motivation. Some of them are motivated in the right way, but in the wrong direction. If you are going ninety miles an hour in the wrong direction, you go to hell faster. It is important not only to go with the right motivation, but in the right direction. The world at that time, Prabhupada says, it was under one flag. It was Krsna conscious.

Now there are so many flags, so many states. They try to make some kind of unity, but there is no unity because the unity that the materialistic people try is that they have to destroy diversity. They have to destroy diversity because as long as there is diversity, from their perspective, there is no unity because everyone sees themselves as the center. So what is the common bondage? There is none.

The real unity in diversity is to keep Krsna in the center or to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the supreme aspect in all situations:

yat karosi yad asnasi yaj juhosi dadasi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurusva mad-arpanam

Krsna says everything you do, everything you do, everything you offer, everything, your whole life should be focused on Krsna consciousness, on religious principles. This is real unity. Even in our day to day dealings with devotees, always keep Krsna consciousness, religious principles in the center. In that way, everything will be for the better.

So here we are in this holy place of Sri Dham Mayapur. We have the wonderful opportunity to dive deeply into Krsna consciousness. Take the dust of the holy place, associate with devotees, and hear and chant the glories of the Lord. This is the essence of Krsna consciousness. It is said throughout the scriptures that this is the essence of Krsna consciousness. By hearing about Krsna, we chant about Krsna. When we chant about Krsna sufficiently, then we remember Krsna. And when we remember Krsna, that is the goal of life because actually that is the ultimate principle: to always remember Krsna, not when it is easy, or not when it is part of the way I usually do it. Always remember Krsna.

The Visnu Purana says, this is a very interesting statement, sometimes one might hear such strong statements, it says that what is the greatest anomaly, what is the greatest catastrophe, what is the greatest mistake? To forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead for one moment. That is from the Visnu Purana. One second. How many times do we forget Krsna? I know I don't remember Krsna all day.

But here in the Dham, the facility to remember Krsna is given a very, very powerful way. So purify our consciousness by hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. Believe me, whatever problems you have, whatever anxieties you have, whatever difficulties you have all become solved within that principle of always remembering Krsna because Krsna does everything else. He makes everything easily understood.

OK, so we have about ten minutes. Any questions, comments.

Yes?

Q: Prabhupada said, "Vrindavan is my home, Bombay is my office, and Mayapur is my place of worship." Could you clarify that for me?

A: You want me to give a purport to that? I don't know if I'm qualified to give a complete purport on it because Prabhupada's statements are very deep, but Bombay, the place of office, the place of preaching. When you speak about office, you speak about preaching. What was Prabhupada's work? His work was preaching. He wanted to spread Krsna consciousness in Bombay. If he could make the city of Bombay Krsna conscious, that would spread throughout India. Same Prabhupada said in America, if we can make New York Krsna consciousness, we can make the rest of the society Krsna conscious, or we can make the Americans Krsna conscious.

As far as home, Prabhupada resided in Vrindavan five or six years before he actually took up his mission to come to the Western world. Prabhupada considered this home. It is the appearance place, the janmasthana of Lord Sri Krsna. The pure devotee sees the Lord's home in that same way. He wants to take shelter of the home of the Lord.

Place of worship, in this age, we worship Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Panca Tattva. We approach Radha and Krsna through Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In fact, that is the only way we can approach Radha Krsna in this age.

I'm sure there is much more purport to that. Yes, Prabhu, would you like to add something?

[Comment inaudible]

Ah, well Prabhupada said that in that one statement. He was referring to the devotees in general. In other words, this is the home of our ISKCON society, Sri Dham Mayapur, the home of the ISKCON society. This is the headquarters worldwide.

Visuddha-sattva Prabhu: Maybe you can clarify that. Whatever Prabhupada said is completely transcendental, but Prabhupada said Vrindavan is my home, also Prabhupada said Mayapur is my home. Prabhupada said, "I live eternally in my bhajan kutir in Radha Damodara." This we will take as Prabhupada's transcendental home is Vrindavan. Also, Mayapur is non-different from Vrindavan, those who have the vision. But he said the home of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is Mayapur.

Candramauli Swami: That was the reference in that case. He was referring to our ISKCON society as a worldwide organization. He said this is our headquarters for the entire world. This is where Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared. It is mentioned in Caitanya-caritamrta that the flood of love of God, which will overcome the entire world, begins here. It flows through the many tributaries out and gradually inundated the whole world with the devotion, or with the love of God.

Any other questions? Yes, Prabhu?

Q: Thanks for the wonderful class, Maharaja. We heard in the class, Dhrtarastra, even after knowing that Pandavas are under the protection of Krsna, he didn't really understand that. Even we in our lives, after hearing so much that attachment is not good for the soul, still it's difficult to give up. So our conditioning is so intense, so how to overcome?

Candramauli Swami:

'sadhu-sanga' 'sadhu-sanga'-sarva-sastre kaya lava-matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya

This is the most powerful way: associating with saintly persons and hearing from them, and at the same time, engaging in the process of devotional service. The association of great souls can immediately destroy one's attachments, if that association is of the ultimate perfection, if we associate in the right consciousness.

Prabhupada was traveling and he stopped in Japan, I think, Tokyo. It was overnight. He was changing planes. One man he met at the airport, Prabhupada talked to him. He told him, "Start a center here in Tokyo." The man, first time he met Prabhupada, took it serious. He actually went out and began a center. This is the power of saintly association. Of course that person's consciousness was also in the right way.

How do we understand? We have to hear for a long time. Prabhupada was asked that question about this verse 'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'. How is it that we are associating and we are not getting purified, or it appears we are not becoming fully purified?

Prabhupada said, "When the wood is wet, then it has to dry out before it can ignite." We may still be somewhat deep in attachment, so we have to continue to hear for a long time and associate with great souls and continue the process of hearing. When the consciousness becomes somewhat purified, then one can give up the attachment.

Still we should try to understand the nature of material attachments, simply by intellectual understanding, philosophical knowledge that material attachments lead to suffering. They also lead us away from Krsna. By that intelligence, we should very carefully try to remove ourselves from these attachments. Gradually, by the external activity of distancing ourselves from that, and by the purification of heart that comes from hearing and chanting, that attachment can be destroyed. Both are necessary.

If we are doing one, if we are hearing and chanting, but we are still engaging in the same activity, it is very slow. And if we are just trying to give it up but we are not hearing and chanting, then it is all external. It is artificial because the living entity is by nature ananda, we always look for pleasure. We have to find that pleasure on the spiritual platform. So associate with saintly persons, hear from them, and carefully try to give up one's attachments.

Q: You mentioned that Vidura went on a pilgrimage because he felt unqualified to meet Lord Krsna, so he wanted to purify himself first. But we know that Prabhupada also encouraged that to approach the Lord is the best means to get purified.

Candramauli Swami: So here we are in a holy place. We are being purified. That is what we are doing. We come to the holy place to become more and more purified. As we become more and more purified, we can approach the Lord.

We are looking and we are seeing Sri Sri Radha Madhava. That is Krsna in Vrindavan, but do we see Krsna in Vrindavan? If you have that consciousness, then you have reached perfection. Are we seeing sometimes or not completely? How much of Krsna are we actually experiencing? Coming to a holy place purifies our heart more and more if we engage in the activities. Gradually we can actually approach the Lord.

Just like our worship is in the mood of Laksmi Narayana. We worship the Lord in opulence, with awe and reverence, but Krsna in Vrindavan we don't. That mood is the mood that Krsna is either subordinate or equal. Krsna is a beautiful, loving boy in Vrindavan. Everyone sees him as the essence of their life in all aspects. That mood of Vrindavan, they don't worship Krsna as the Supreme Lord, but as the beautiful boy of Vrindavan. So as we become purified, Krsna reveals himself more and more and more.

Any other questions?

OK, thank you very much for your kind attention.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!