19810617 Caitanya Caritamrita Madya Lila.7.113 Whole USA could Chant Hare Krishna Srila Acaryapada & Srila Ramesvara @ Los Angeles, USA

CC Madhya 7.113

ei-mata yāite yāite gelā kūrma-sthāne kūrma dekhi’ kaila tāṅre stavana-praṇāme

So, when Ramanujacharaya went to Jagannath Puri, then Lord Jagannatha spoke to him and told him that "You are going to Ranganatha, Tirupati, but these temples are like the peel of the banana. The real fruit is Navadweep Dham. You should immediately go tonight without telling, you send all your associates to Kurma Sthana, to the place of Kurma( as mentioned here)." And you go immediately, alone to Navadweep Dham and there, you will find the perfection of your life. And then you go and meet your disciples at Kurma Sthana. Of course whether he was thrown there, I am not sure. Then Ramanujacharya, he immediately proceeded to Navadweep. Reaching Navadweep Dham, in the island of Modadrum Dweep, in the place which is non-different from Vaikhuntha. There he saw Lord Narayana with Neela, Bhu and Sri. Bhu Devi, Neela, Sri, and nearly prostrated himself and there Lord Narayana became Caitanya Mahaprabhu, took that form and He blessed Ramanujacharya and told him that he should go all over and preach the daasya rasa. Ramanujacharya wanted to stay in Navadweep but He said no, "You have to go as Jagannath ordered to Kurma Sthana. Later when I come, then you will join Me," like that. So then Ramanujacharya went to Kurma Sthana and continued his preaching. From "The story by Nityananada to Jiva Goswami on the glories of Navadweep Dham.

Texts 114-119 While at this place, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was in His usual ecstasy of love of Godhead and was laughing, crying, dancing and chanting. Everyone who saw Him was astonished.

After hearing of these wonderful occurrences, everyone came to see Him there. When they saw the beauty of the Lord and His ecstatic condition, they were all struck with wonder.

Just by seeing Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, everyone became a devotee. They began to chant “Kṛṣṇa” and “Hari” and all the holy names. They all were merged in a great ecstasy of love, and they began to dance, raising their arms.

Always hearing them chant the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the residents of all the other villages also became Vaiṣṇavas.

By hearing the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, the entire country became Vaiṣṇava. It was as if the nectar of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa overflooded the entire country.

After some time, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu manifested His external consciousness, a priest of the Lord Kūrma Deity gave Him various offerings.

Here we see how Caitanya Mahaprabhu, just by seeing His chanting and dancing and ecstasy, people were converted to pure devotees, and they began to… all could chant and dance. And other people seeing them chant and dance also became devotees. In this way, one after another, everyone became devotees of the Lord, vaishnavas.

Texts 120 – 124 Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mode of preaching has already been explained, and I shall not repeat the explanation. In whichever village the Lord entered, His behavior was the same.

In one village there was a Vedic brāhmaṇa named Kūrma. He invited Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to his home with great respect and devotion.

This brāhmaṇa brought Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to his home, washed His lotus feet and, with his family members, drank that water.

With great affection and respect, that Kūrma brāhmaṇa made Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu eat all kinds of food. After that, the remnants were shared by all the members of the family.

The brāhmaṇa then began to pray, “O my Lord, Your lotus feet are meditated upon by Lord Brahmā, and these very lotus feet have come into my home.

This is a fact that, remember how Lord Brahma became a little bit proud and stolen the calves, and cowherd boys from Krishna and put them in a cave and went away.

Of course when he returned, then Krishna showed His transcendental power, because He had already remanifested all the stolen calves and cowherd boys. And Brahma seeing that and Krishna out of each of those cowherd boys and calves manifested unlimited Narayanas, each Narayana more brilliant than millions of suns. And out of those cowherd boys the Narayanas were coming out with four hands, Shanka, Padma, Gada and Chakra. They are coming out and going out in all the material elements on all sides, offering their respects to the forms of Narayana. Seeing these millions of Narayanas coming out from the hundreds of cowherd boys he thought he had stolen, Brahma became so bewildered that he fell down and begged Krishna, please forgive me! Please forgive me for my offence, do not forget that I am Your eternal devotee, and of course Krishna forgave him. Brahma returned the stolen cowherd boys and calves. Brahma was thinking how fortunate are these cowherd boys and calves, these cowherd boys are behaving just like friends with Krishna. How fortunate, if only I could be so fortunate. Instead, as a Brahma, I become so puffed up with my false position that I commit offence to the Lord, at the lotus feet of my Master, Sri Krishna.

Thinking this way, he left and decided to perform tapasya for purification and meditate on the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Navadweep Dham at the Yoga Pitha, the very place where Lord Caitanya comes in Antardweepa. Here Lord Brahma meditated on Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu knowing that He was the ocean of mercy. Meditating on Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the all merciful golden avatar appeared to him. Lord Brahma bowed down with his forehead to the Lord seeing His beautiful form with His lotus eyes going back to His ears, His hair tied up in a kaccha, in a brahminical style, with His flowing robes and flower garland, bumble bees flying all around the garland trying to get the nectar from His lotus feet. And accompanied by His associates. Lord Brahma said, "My dear Lord Gauranga you are the most merciful avatar. I am so fallen, kindly have Your mercy upon me. Because I am a Brahma, therefore I always forget my position as Your eternal servant of Sri Krishna. Since You are the ocean of mercy, please have Your mercy upon me that I may take birth in Your upcoming incarnation, as Your assistant, an associate ; that I may be purified from my false ego. As a Brahma, learn humility so that I may never forget for the rest of my life the lotus feet of Sri Krishna. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He accepted with the words, Tathasthaha. So be it.

Lord Brahma, whatever you have wanted, you shall have. You will appear as My associate and when you leave your body, I will be personally present at that time. So your soul will be purified. But to purify you from the false ego of being a Brahma, you have to take birth in a Mohemadan family but you will be My dear devotee and your name will be Haridas. And you will chant everyday three hundred thousand names of Krishna and by chanting these three hundred thousand names your whole life, that will give you enough sukriti to last you the rest of your life of Brahma. That you will never forget. Saying that Caitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared. Lord Brahma again fell down, jumped up in joy – Chatur mukhe brahma bole Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Pancha mukhe mahadeva Rama Rama Hare Hare

So Lord Brahma went back to Brahmalok to tidy up all the pending business and prepare for coming down in a few minutes of his time, five thousand moments, to join Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So actually Lord Brahma did wish from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and everything he wished was given to him by the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. To be born in a Muslim family meant that he had to be humble, because he wouldn’t be accepted by the strict Hindus. But Lord Caitanya, He accepted him as His associate and devotee. So everything that he wanted was given. Actually we can see from this that Lord Brahma desired to be an associate of Lord Krishna, friend of Krishna, that was being fulfilled by the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So what else did the brahmana say here?

Texts 125 & 126 “My dear Lord, there is no limit to my great fortune. It cannot be described. Today my family, birth and riches have all been glorified.”

The brāhmaṇa begged Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “My dear Lord, kindly show me favor and let me go with You. I can no longer tolerate the waves of misery caused by materialistic life.”

Janma kula means birth, aristocratic heritage and dhana means Lakshmi, money. In other words, whether one is very rich or one is very poor, this material world is designed just to create a burning in the heart, to create troublesome situations. Therefore, one should always be eager to take shelter of the Lord. Bishoya chardiya kobe shuddho hobe mon – when will we stop to see this material world as an object of sense enjoyment? When will our mind become pure? What is that pure mind? That pure mind is the pure mind of Krishna consciousness of wanting to see everything engaged in Krishna’s service. Whatever we see, we want to engage that in Krishna’s service. This is the pure mind. But let us see how Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied.

Texts 127, 128 Translations

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied, “Don’t speak like that again. Better to remain at home and chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa always.

“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”

So this is the mission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, that everyone should know what are the orders of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, of Lord Sri Krishna as given in Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and instruct everyone else about these orders. In this way, we see that how the South Indian brahmana, he would chant and his friend would chant and his neighbors would chant and in this way the mission was expanding. So by this calculation, someone has come to the conclusion that the United States of America could be completely situated in a friendly mood to Krishna chanting Hare Krishna Maha Mantra in about 35 months! Ha! Ha! By a very simple process called the One a Month Club. That if you just started from one person and if he convinces one other person to chant Hare Krishna, 108 times a day, and to also convince his friend to be friends of Krishna in this way, then 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, goes on like that till you get up to 250 million after 35 months. See, very easy! Of course it works out mathematically, but only if everyone at least brings in one per month. So it may be difficult to get everyone. Even some people, they stay in the temple, they cannot pay their own rent. They accrue a deficit. So if everybody lives in the temple, then they all have to be at least rent payers.

But here Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is advising that at least everyone should chant in their homes, then they won’t have the obligation to pay rent to the temple. But they still have to follow the instruction of the spiritual master. We should not forget that. It is said here very clearly, under the direction of a spiritual master, one should chant the Hare Krishna Mantra regularly and should learn how to follow the regulative principles. So this principle, if one is chanting in his home, it still means they have to follow the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master. Not that they become independent of the spiritual master. They may only be financially independent but spiritually they should always be under the shelter. In this way, simply by one person a month, within a short time, literally millions of people, it takes only 22 months in Bolivia, that’s when I worked it out first, nearly four million people.

Of course, in the last months there will be a big rush trying to find out who is left. Who are the people who are still not chanting? But that’s what happened – Lord Caitanya got everyone chanting, but He said, there are still those yavanas, they are not chanting. Those argumental students and those particular type of butchers and others, somehow they all have to be brought. Haridas Thakur said, do not worry. This the mood of the devotee, to serve the Lord’s innermost desire, to deliver these fallen souls. Everyone who comes in contact with Krishna consciousness, as Srila Rameshvara Swami mentioned yesterday, we want to distribute the Holy Name and the books which are giving the lessons, the instructions, whereby one will be induced or convinced to chant the Holy Name of Krishna. When literally thousands and thousands of people start to chant Hare Krishna, following the example of the fully dedicated devotees in the temple, chanting in their homes, then the whole atmosphere will change. The karma of this country and the world will change. Simply by people chanting. So this is what is important. People who read out books, who are favorable, somehow or other there should be a program to encourage them to chant Hare Krishna more and more, and gain faith to chanting and reading those books and [hear]the spiritual master and follow his guidance how to be purified, how to give up all these anarthas, unwanted miserable situations of life. Then there can be a total renovation of this crashing society.

Text 129 Translation

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu further advised the brāhmaṇa Kūrma, “If you follow this instruction, your materialistic life at home will not obstruct your spiritual advancement. Indeed, if you follow these regulative principles, we will again meet here, or, rather, you will never lose My company.”

So coming here to New Dwaraka, I can testify, in the association of Srila Rameshvara, that the place is converted into the Dham. Therefore I would like to take this opportunity to have everyone to hear the nectar from Srila Rameshvara at this point. I have to pack for my plane.

Srila Rameshvara Swami:

Actually, this is the essence of our mission, to teach people to chant the names of Krishna. Hari Naam sankirtan. To get people to chant is the essence of our mission, because Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu came from the transcendental abode of Goloka Vrndavan to distribute pure love for Krishna to those who had no good qualification. So that in itself is inconceivable. How someone without any good qualification can ever taste love of Krishna which was previously impossible. Couldn't even be imagined. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared to do the unimaginable and the impossible.

And how He did it was by placing this divine love of Krishna, the ability to taste this divine love of Krishna, within the Holy Name of Krishna. So He personally came to distribute the Holy Name everywhere. Therefore this is the essence of the Krishna consciousness movement. To have the devotees educate the peoples of this world about the importance of singing the names of God by giving lectures, by distributing books, by personally demonstrating the chanting in the Hari Naam sankirtan parties – these Hari Naam parties are demonstrations for the public. Our whole life is centered around this distribution of love of Krishna because we are followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

We were discussing a little bit about this in our Pancha Tattva Mandir in Laguna Beach that the vaishnava in this age of Kali, he carefully studies and hears from bona fide authorities and he comes to the conclusion that there will never be anything more important in his whole life and this is a very deep realization. That there will never be anything more important in his whole life than establishing a relationship with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The vaishnava cannot imagine anything being more precious or more valuable or more important to his life than this, because it is the characteristic of Caitanya Mahaprabhu that anyone who comes in contact with Him, immediately He bestows love of Krishna on that living entity, on that living being. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s natural characteristic. Just like the natural characteristic of the sun is to radiate effulgent light and heat, so the natural characteristic of Lord Caitanya is to bestow love of God. So even though we are not very qualified, if we can somehow or other come into contact with Lord Caitanya, then automatically we will be able to taste this transcendental love of Krishna.

It is written in the Adil Lila, chapter 7 that anyone who is in contact with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Prabhupada writes, "immediately comes to the ecstatic platform, " Immediately. So how to have this transcendental contact with Caitanya Mahaprabhu? How to establish our transcendental relationship with Lord Caitanya? Transcendental, meaning that it is ever present, ever existing, that we are feeling Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s presence at every moment. That is the meaning of transcendental relationship. That is the goal of the devotee. His whole life is based o searching after this relationship and acting in a way and living in a way that this relationship becomes transcendental, permanent, ever present. That he is able to see every moment that he is in contact with Lord Caitanya. And he considers, the devotee thinks that this is the highest position, so let me go for it. There is nothing more important. There is nothing that is more valuable, let me therefore dedicate myself, all my energy and all my time to this pursuit of the transcendental Raas with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Because I have otherwise no qualification and I have no hope to ever experience love of Krishna. But if I can just find where is Lord Caitanya, automatically, He will bestow love of Krishna, which I could never get on my own in this age. I could never get love of Krishna on my own. So this is how the devotee is thinking. So to have a relationship, we can just study even in our ordinary dealings, there have to be similar mentalities, there have to be similar interests, there has to be compatibility. You can just study in ordinary human dealings why someone becomes a friend of someone else.

Why there is mutual friendship existing, mutual, some kind of relationship. So, if someone has a great desire or a great anxiety and his friend who is devoted to him sees that, and then gives up his time and energy, he endeavors to relieve his friend of that anxiety or to fulfill his desire, then naturally the relationship becomes very intimate. So much gratitude and satisfaction and love is felt on both sides. So we learn from the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita and from the Nectar of Devotion and from all of Srila Prabhupada’s purports and lectures and letters, we learn about the transcendental desires of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya mano abhishttam sthaapitam yen bhutale, this is the inner desire as revealed by Rupa Goswami of Lord Caitanya. Sri Caitanya mano – this is what is in His mind. Abhishtam – this is His desire. Sthaapitam yena bhutale – that His mission of chanting the Holy Names of the Lord be spread throughout the world. So one who wants this special benediction of love of God, who wants to taste this, he goes after the relationship with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And when he hears about Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s inner desire, he is anxious for this to happen. Then that devotee who is serious about getting love of God and who knows he must go through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he simply focuses his life, his mind, his whole heart on this inner desire, this anxiousness of the Lord, the mission of the Lord to get people all over the world to hear about Krishna, to hear Krishna’s message and to chant Krishna’s names and his whole life becomes simply dedicated to this. This is the essence of the Krishna consciousness movement. To take up the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and spread it all over the world. By dedicating ourselves in this way, we can know for certain that we will be benefited with love of Krishna and thus we will be able, without a doubt, to return back to home, back to Godhead. That is the process for the members of the Krishna consciousness movement.

Srila Prabhupad has written over and over that if one simply endeavors to distribute Krishna’s message, simply endeavors to go out and preach, just blesssing on the mercy of Lord Caitanya, by his endeavor alone to distribute books, to print books, to get people to chant and know about Krishna, Prabhupad has written that certainly, he will return to Krishna, which means he will be blessed with love of Krishna. Returning to Krishna is only possible when one has developed his love of Krishna. That is the special characteristic of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and it is bestowed freely on His dedicated servants. That is the essence of our Hare Krishna movement. Jai! Hare Krishna!

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi 19 February 2014


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