19840701 Caitanya Caritamrita Adi Lila.9.49-51 Atlanta

19840701-Caitanya-Caritamrita-Adi-Lila.9.49-51-Atlanta-Literal-Version--

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on July 1st, 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia. The class begins with a reading from the Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter 9, Verse 49-51.

Jayapataka Swami:

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Devotees: jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Jayapataka Swami: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Devotees: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Jayapataka Swami: jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Devotees: jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Jayapataka Swami: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Devotees: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Jayapataka Swami: jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Devotees: jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

Jayapataka Swami: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Devotees: jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Jayapataka Swami:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter 9.

mahā-mādaka prema-phala peṭa bhari’ khāya

mātila sakala loka — hāse, nāce, gāya

Translation:

The fruit of love of Godhead distributed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu is such a great intoxicant that anyone who eats it, filling his belly, immediately becomes maddened by it, and automatically he chants, dances, laughs and enjoys.

ei mālākāra khāya ei prema-phala…

keha gaḍāgaḍi yāya, keha ta’ huṅkāra

dekhi’ ānandita haṣā hāse mālākāra

ei mālākāra khāya ei prema-phala

niravadhi matta rahe, vivaśa-vihvala

Translation:

The great gardener, Lord Caitanya, personally eats this fruit, and as a result He constantly remains mad, as if helpless and bewildered.

Translation:

The great gardener

Devotees: The great gardener

Jayapataka Swami: Lord Caitanya

Devotees: Lord Caitanya

Jayapataka Swami: personally eats this fruit

Devotees: personally eats this fruit

Jayapataka Swami: and as a result

Devotees: and as a result

Jayapataka Swami: He constantly remains mad

Devotees: He constantly remains mad

Jayapataka Swami: as if helpless and bewildered

Devotees: as if helpless and bewildered

Jayapataka Swami:

Purport:

It is the mission of Cait… Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to act Himself and teach the people. He says, āpani ācari’ bhakti karila pracāra (Cc. Ādi 4.41). One must first act himself and then teach. This is the function of a real teacher. Unless one is able to understand the philosophy that he speaks, it will not be effective. Therefore one should not only understand the philosophy of the Caitanya cult but also implement it practically in one’s life.

While chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu sometimes fainted and remained unconscious for many hours. He prays in His Śikṣāṣṭaka (7):

yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam

śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me

“O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from My eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.” End of translation, Siksastaka, 7. This is the perfectional stage of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and eating the fruit of love of Godhead, as exhibited by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One should not artificially imitate this stage, but if one is serious and sincerely follows the regulative principles and chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the time will come when these symptoms will appear. Tears will fill his eyes, he will be unable to chant distinctly the mahā-mantra, and his heart will throb in ecstasy. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that one should not imitate this, but a devotee should long for the day to come when such symptoms of trance will automatically appear in his body.

The great gardener, Lord Caitanya, personally eats this fruit, and as a result He constantly remains mad, as if helpless and bewildered.

So Lord Caitanya, He showed practical Krishna consciousness by His own example. He would personally chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

[aside]

Why don’t you move this here?

And He was frequently absorbed in so much ecstasy that, that He actually fell unconscious. In fact in chanting He would chant so enthusiastically that sometimes in the middle of chanting He would become overwhelmed with ecstasy and just fall on the ground with a loud sound, thump. And His mother, Mother Saci, she was nearby the kirtana, she would then become very much in anxiety because mothers are always concerned over the son’s bodies that maybe He was hurt. Of course being in ecstasy and falling somehow one is protected by Krishna. So but because she was being upset and it was Lord Caitanya,

(Pujari rings bell from altar)

Jaya Nitai Gaura! Jagannath, Subhadra, Balarama ki,

Devotees: Jaya.

Jayapataka Swami: Then Lord Caitanya blessed her that whenever He was chanting kirtana she could also be in ecstasy then she was oblivious to what was going on. Actually the real point about this is that by chanting Hare Krishna one is able to achieve the symptoms of love for God very quickly. Its described that, it’s kind of like the way you feed a child at a feast, the sweet first, because he is too impatient to wait. Normally everyone will take first the soup, salad, the main course and then have the dessert at the end but the kids want the dessert right away. So in Kaliyuga because of, people are not so much interested in spiritual life Krishna has given the dessert, the sweet, right in the beginning. You can experience the ecstasy very quickly. After having experienced the ecstasy of Krishna consciousness then its very easy to control the senses. Thus we pray to Lord Nitayananda,

hā hā prabhu nityānanda premānanda-sukhī

kṛpāvalokaṇa koro āmi baḍo duḥkhī

To give us His mercy of experiencing transcendental love because even a drop of mercy from Lord Nityananda is enough to carry us completely out of this material world and to the pure consciousness, pure Krishna consciousness. Its enough ecstasy that we can forget about all the material so-called happiness. Actually these material bodies are machines. But due to an intricate arrangement of false ego, ahankara, and the material body and the soul, the soul is identifying with the body, although the body is actually a machine and is simply able to perceive through its senses due to uh, an arrangement by the material nature, still the illusion is so strong that we identify completely with this body.

So in fact even the so called religious people of the world if you ask them, they all admit they have a soul. In other words their identity they consider it like the body, and the body has a soul. Rather than from the Vedic point of view, like just in normal language in Bengali, someone will come up and say, ‘tomara sarira kemon acche? That means how is your body? tomara means your and sarira means body. tomara sarira kemon – how is your body, you see. (laughs) and there is a complete different perspective, that you are soul and you possess a body, you have a body. Not that you are the body and you possess a soul. And your soul is going to go to Heaven and you are you know sitting in the grave, something like that. (laughs) You are the soul, you are spiritual entity.

Its very scientific, the Vedic understanding has minutely described the size of the soul, the nature of soul as part of God, it’s a minute particle, its indestructible, its eternal, by nature always happy, its by nature filled with knowledge, but that knowledge, that natural happiness has been covered up. So normally people will go through all of the various stages of spiritual development to have self-realization, God realization and so on. And finally come to the level of, ānandamayo ’bhyāsāt actual ecstatic existence. But in Kaliyuga Lord Caitanya is so kind, He is giving us the ecstasy first, much in the beginning of our spiritual progress as an impetus, or as a special benediction because people are very impatient and it’s very hard for them to control their senses without experiencing some more immediate type of spiritual reciprocation.

We should understand that the ecstasies that Lord Caitanya is experiencing, He is fainting or He is crying or He is laughing or the different eight symptoms of preliminary love for God, and the symptoms of pure love for Godhead, that these symptoms are not material. What He is experiencing is not material. It’s not like some mother is crying because her son has gone off to the Navy or something like that, and feeling separation. They are feeling the distances. It’s not that same emotion. It’s a similar emotion but there is a big difference in that, for Krishna it doesn’t simply stay on the mental emotional platform but it goes right to the soul, and when these ecstasies are being experienced it’s beyond the mind. At time the mind doesn’t know what’s going on.

Those who have scientifically analyzed, the previous acaryas have analyzed this nature of ecstasy in Krishna consciousness and at that time the mind is able to perceive the, the mind is very happy, the mind is experiencing but what is the cause and what is the you know try to label it or fit it in some category, the mind is incapable of fully comprehending what is being experienced. At that time the mind is just an observer on the side, it goes beyond the mind, and that means it is completely satisfying to the self, but when the self is actually satisfied at that time it is easy to control the mind, its easy to control the intelligence. How to get the transcendental ecstasy of Krishna consciousness Prabhupada has advised us that we shouldn’t try to imitate it, we shouldn’t try to force it. It actually comes by placing our self in an intense situation of Krishna consciousness.

Sometimes a devotee feels that there is too much service. But it is actually by accepting in a very intense, unbroken, continuous period of service that that is like putting the iron in a fire. If you put it in the fire and you turn the bellows on and you fan it, and you keep fanning it then the fire gets hotter and hotter and then the iron will start to get red hot. So it’s like by having ourselves in an intense situation of continuous Krishna consciousness then we start to burn up all the coverings on our consciousness and at a certain point then the actual ecstasy of Krishna consciousness we can experience when enough of the crust is burned off.

Sometimes just due to some very special association of an advanced devotee or some very, Prabhupada said that when there is some very ecstatic kirtana sometimes Narada Muni or some other liberated soul has visited the temple, at that time giving a special boost to the kirtana chanters, you see. So Prabhupada advised that one should not artificially imitate this stage but if one is serious and sincere, follows the regulative principles, and chants the Hare Krishna, the time will come when these symptoms will appear.

Tears will fill his eyes, he will be unable to chant distinctly the mahamantra and his heart will throb in ecstasy. And sometimes in chanting uncontrollably laughter will come. Again this is not, just like someone tells a joke, its on a mental platform, it seems funny and you laugh. But this is an uncontrollable laughter at that time the mind is just kind of standing there, doesn’t really know why the person is laughing because it is not laughing due to any change in the mind. He is laughing right from the spirit, right from the soul. In some kirtanas the devotees may experience this spontaneous laughter. It just comes out, at that time its just like waterfall, water just going, just completely purifying one. Every chanting, just even smiling is considered to be very purifying. By clapping and dancing and chanting and smiling before the deities. It is said clapping, just like scaring away birds from a rice field, one’s so many material contamination's are just flying off ones consciousness.

Actually of course here I don’t think many people have experience of scaring birds off a rice field, maybe off a corn field. But in Mayapur after fifteen years we have plenty of experience that when there is a rice season, everyone grows rice at the same time, its like ocean of rice. And when the wind blow its like a sea. And so all the rice normally comes at the same time to seed, to its ripened state. So at that time there are flocks of literally thousands and thousands of sparrows, maybe millions, I mean they can turn the sky black in a particular area, there are so many. And they come down, whoosh and they just hit a… just, you know (imitates crow sound), and they’re eating the rice as fast as they can and so you have to have boys there with tin cans special thing, bang, bang, bang, bang they hit their tin cans, let off fire crackers, they start screaming (claps) clapping and just by the sudden noise they come like a swarm of bees, they go off to next guy’s field. (laughter) So when it says like by clapping birds, how the birds come, it’s not just one or two birds but so many sinful reactions are leaving one. So many karmas are being freed, we don’t know how purifying it is, the chanting. Of course we do have a pretty good stock of reactions from all the births we have taken in this material world but still those are not more powerful than the power of the holy name to purify.

Here in the West, this artificial imitation we don’t have too much symptom of but in India there are people who do imitate artificially to get some cheap attention or thinking that that’s… when you do imitate, like if you are an actor, you have to do a part in Krishna-lila, sometimes even by imitating that particular part you feel some vikara, some special feeling in the heart through imitating. So there are some people who, they actually just imitate some great devotees or this ecstasy and in doing so they do feel something but because they are actually forcing it by their mind it’s very temporary, and it’s very detrimental because then instead of developing ecstasy on the, developing one’s devotion and love for Krishna in a natural way, instead they learn to dramatize their ecstasy. And after its over how you can tell about those particular people is that the symptom is after the chanting if someone really feels ecstasy they are not going to have the desire to go out and light up a cigarette or to do something else like that. These people that put on the show then afterwards you go and find that usually smoking or they are doing some nonsense activity. There are professional kirtana singers and they are very expert in imitating the ecstasies.

There is a story about one guru at the time of Bhaktisiddhanta or was it Bhaktivinoda? He was so expert in crying that he would just shake and roll and crying do a whole thing in public so much. They had two people wiping his eyes on both sides, that people were just amazed, they thought that anybody who can do that much shaking and rolling, he must really be in ecstasy but Bhaktisiddhanta would chastise them very strongly that as a result of all this type of exploitation of the people, Bhaktisiddhanta or Prabhupada and the previous acaryas they would… always advised that even if one should feel ecstasy specially if one is in a public place or where there are any non devotees, even in the presence of devotees generally one should try to contain it, allow it to be internalized. There are some times when you can't, when it just overwhelms, at that time one is supposed to try to keep it down as much as possible. So it’s not to… because it opens the door for people to imitate and try to claim that they are very advanced devotees on the basis of some false standard.

Text 52:

sarva-loke matta kailā āpana-samāna

preme matta loka vinā nāhi dekhi āna

With His saṅkīrtana movement the Lord made everyone mad like Himself. We do not find anyone who was not intoxicated by His saṅkīrtana movement.

And Lord Caitanya made everyone ecstatic by the sankirtana movement. This is not the same as like, I heard there is something in the South, the Holy Rollers or something where people like they chant get worked up into a frenzy. I know that in Iran they have a sect called the Sufis. And they do have some branch in the States too. The Sufis they madly dance and dance until they get worked up like some kind of an African voodoo dance or something where you can go into an actual trance by… it’s not like that. This is something very sublime, the chanting and dancing, then automatically one feels happy, feels light, feels like dancing, and then it just gradually increases without, it’s not a forced thing. It’s something that happens from within like bubbling spring just coming out, one just starts to feel very transcendentally effervescent, very happy, very ecstatic.

ye ye pūrve nindā kaila, bali’ mātoyāla

seho phala khāya, nāce, bale — bhāla bhāla

Translation:

“Persons who had formerly criticized Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, calling Him a drunkard, also ate the fruit and began to dance, saying, “Very good! Very good!”

Purport:

When Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu started the saṅkīrtana movement, even He was unnecessarily criticized by Māyāvādīs, atheists and fools. Naturally we are also criticized by such men. They will always remain and will always criticize anything that is actually good for human society. But the preachers of the saṅkīrtana movement should not be deterred by such criticism. Our method should be to convert such fools gradually by asking them to come and take prasādam and chant and dance with us. This should be our policy. Anyone who comes to join us, of course, must be sincere and serious regarding spiritual advancement in life; then such a person, simply by joining us, chanting with us, dancing with us and taking prasādam with us, will gradually also come to say that this movement is very good. But one who joins with an ulterior purpose, to get material benefit or personal gratification, will never be able to grasp the philosophy of this movement.”

Hmm. I personally realized this last point. In India we… because labor is relatively cheap so, you know the monthly wage is usually around thirty dollars a month for skilled labor like, and for just ordinary labor its maybe half that. And you can have, like all the grhasthas there everyone says how difficult it is but all the grhasthas they all have a girl that takes care of their babies, that washes all the clothes, cleans the house, does all the work but they have to pay twenty rupees a month. That’s two dollars a month plus food. Here you will probably get, child labor (laughs) because they have big families they can’t afford it, if you take the daughter, feed the daughter, clothe her and pay her twenty rupees a month. pshew That’s really… they are really happy with that. Because they have to feed the daughter, clothe her, take her you know they have to do everything and she doesn’t earn a dime. So here she is completely maintained in a nice family, better than what they could feed her and they are very happy.

So the grhasthas they actually they have much more time for doing their service, it’s not actually a problem. But one thing we know because the labor is cheap, we hire drivers for the car, we hire gatekeepers and so many different people that free the devotees for works that only the devotees can do. So what happens when they come they always say “Oh I love your philosophy, I like devotion so much.” they are always you know very very devoted. But not one of them you know, I don’t think one of them in so many years ever became a devotee. Because they are coming out of some material motivation. Very very rare. If somebody comes as a devotee, they become devotees. When they come to get this job or something. I have also seen people who have come simply to steal. In India you have to be very expert in spotting those people. And they also, they don’t make an advancement.

There was one devotee, he used to visit all the temples, not only ISKCON, but all the Vaisnava, he knew all the Vaisnava slokas, he knew the Bhagavad-gita. He studied it just so that he could go to these different temples and pose himself as a very advanced person. He assumed sanyasa, called himself Sagara Maharaja, and you know when we first came to India we were a little bit raw, we didn’t know all these things. So I remember one time I was with him and we were coming back from the, from Mayapur, and in the train station, there was another Gaudiya Math, that means another temple from another branch of Lord Caitanya’s tree. And, from the same branch but a little bit separate. Suddenly this sannyasi jumped behind a taxi crouched down, “What?” and just “shh!” Said, “Whats going on?”

And later on we found that that was one of the other groups that he had stolen from and so he had to do a whole you know “Shh.” So someone told us that this person is a thief. At that time Madhudvisa was there, I told him don’t give the person any money, he is a thief. All the other temples have told us. He said “No, he’s a sannyasi. He is very nice! How could he be a thief? He is chanting!”

In India there are people that they only are going just to steal. That’s, and there are people out here in America the Christians, just they haven't caught on yet, because the Hare Krishna’s they don’t have any money. But there are plenty of people like the Evangelists, different people, their purpose is probably only to just get money. So in India because that’s the religion so there are people like that they are going just to exploit. But our devotees are normally so sentimental, they treat the servant as if he was a devotee. And they spoil the servants, they spoil the paid people, they are not devotees unless they actually want to be. If they want to be spiritually advanced then they work on a different level, the wont work just for money.

You get these people who are coming for some material reason, you have to deal with them as material people, fairly but strictly, not as a devotee, not as Godbrother, guru bhai, but you know. In the beginning no one understood these things so he was treating this person like, no no, he is a very good person and he gave him money. And he stole Prabhupada’s typewriter, and he stole some money from the first Kumbha mela, ran off with two, three thousand rupees. I tried to cut it off, hit it off as much as possible but by that time I got to the Kumbha mela he had already ran off with some things. Even we told him, Madhudvisa, not to give him any money but they didn’t believe us till he learned firsthand.

So like that you learn a lot of things but actually one who joins with some ulterior purpose, you can see they don’t actually, they can’t understand what’s really happening. So even some one’s negative, like we have heard that Jesus apparently said 'you be hot, you be cold but if lukewarm I spit you out'. Hot water or cold water you can drink, just completely tepid its uncomfortable you don’t like it. It’s not nice. So if a person even negative, “I don’t believe your movement, I don’t…” you know, just completely even just… but not motivated. He is just a negative person “Alright I will try it out. Just to see you people are all…” just from a negative aspect. But his actually interest is to become spiritually advanced if it was bonafide. That person he can change his heart. Because he is sincerely negative. (laughs) He is sincere. Any sincere person chants Hare Krishna, takes Krishna prasada, and it will have effect because this is a bonafide process. And if a person is sincerely positive oh, it will work even faster.

But if a person insincere, that means a person is coming for some other motive, you see, that person might be weak, that doesn’t mean is person is insincere. But if a person is coming for another motive just like you know come to steal or something like that, you don’t really have so much I don’t think of that in the West, so guards are pretty much down. But if there is such a person that’s coming for some other motive then you find that they don’t understand the philosophy very well even after a long time.

So to make up for that they have to imitate as if they are very devoted. That’s why there is a saying in Bengali ati bhakti corera lakshana –too much devotion is a sign of a thief, too much bhakti, that means a person normally if a person comes he is going to have difficulties, he is going to have certain problems, he is going to have certain attachments, which are going to come up, which is expected. It’s not expected that one comes, immediately he is a superstar. That’s very rare. But one will have to go through certain, like pay the dues and go through the preliminary purification until one comes up to the level of experiencing this ecstasy. Now someone may be very fortunate and experience it right away. Doesn’t mean, it’s not…. every person is an individual. But that’s more rare. If a person comes and immediately pfft, everything is perfect, you have to watch out. How can somebody be so good. It’s very rare. That’s kind of just more, less from the Bhagavatam, more a practical realization.

The point that we should understand from this is that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, even in India, even in India He wasn’t understood. The Mayavadis, the athiests and the fools they used to criticize Him unnecessarily. Why? Because everybody was chanting Hare Krishna but they were doing it in a very mechanical way, in a ritualistic way, only the priests only the brahmanas. Lord Caitanya came and He said no this chanting is for everyone. And He showed in the Vedas that in the past it had been chanted by various types of people and that its not restricted but in the perverted caste system that had developed in India it had become an exclusive thing, just by birth. And Lord Caitanya smashed that whole illusion and reopened it up to the mass of people and he inaugurated the congregational chanting.

So in the initial stage all these caste conscious people they all started thinking whats going on here? You see, as much as maybe in the Roman Catholic church only the priest would chant the Latin hymns when they used to do that. Not everybody would chant. So its like that type, people couldn’t understand why everyone is chanting the Sanskrit song,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Why people are chanting and dancing? You see because they didn't take the time to try to understand the philosophy behind it, to hear. Its not that there isn't a philosophy, there is a very deep philosophy and it’s completely bonafide. But they just didn’t take the time to understand. So initially they would criticize. When they criticized, some devotee would hear and then preach to them, somehow or another they would convince him “You take some prasadam, you try chanting. Why you are criticizing?” and then in this way if they were sincere, and they would try it, then they would have the effect and they would themselves become followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This happened so many times.

So of course here we are finding in the West that the more impious the people are, the more they are mayavadis or impersonalists, the more they don’t want to accept God as a person. And actually relate with God as an individual. And thus be forced to surrender to God because the individual means then as a person we have to understand that we are subordinate. If you just kind of keep Him vague, something in the sky, doesn’t relate with you, that’s impersonalism. Then you can just kind of go on, do whatever you want. So the more that that’s prevalent, the less that people relate with God and His devotees as persons and the more they just put them off in some kind of abstraction. Then the more that they are critical of the Krishna consciousness movement. They don’t understand why someone would sing and dance the names of God, why they are doing all these things.

Relatively speaking it seems that the Roman Catholics relate with God more as a person, just superficially. Not absolute understanding but in general we find that in the Latin countries the people the Roman Catholics do seem to take to Krishna consciousness relatively easily even in North America they seem to be able to relate somewhat easier with our philosophy although we have plenty of Protestants and Jews who join but to some extent we have seen that they are able to relate with it or at least even if they don’t become devotees in every case they appreciate some of the things that we do, general people. At least in South America we find that the general people do appreciate quite easily. Possibly it’s because they may have more of a personal concept. But this impersonal concept was what Prabhupada had to deal with. That’s why we say a prayer to him, that, mayavadi sunyavadi pascatya desa tarine, he has come to deliver the impersonalists and the voidists from the Western countries.

So these Westerners they are actually thinking that either God is zero, there is no God or that if there is a God, He is completely impersonal and doesn’t care, doesn’t have to do with anything, anyway. He is just some kind of abstract thing up there. Up somewhere, down, whatever. They don’t know who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they don’t know have any factual knowledge. And to try to explain to them is also quite difficult because they are already prejudiced. They don’t want to. Just like there was some person last night saying that his girlfriend didn’t want to know God. She is quite satisfied with God being just kind of in an off… awesome position far, far away. Don’t have to deal with that. This is the basic kind of thing. People don’t actually give a place for God in their lives in a personal way because they don’t have that understanding.

So to try to preach to them, there are very few people that can relate with the philosophy on that level. If we talk about self-realization, karma, yoga, they can relate with it. When you start talking about the Personality of God many people start to become frightened. So for those people better to get them to chant. Better to get them to dance in ecstasy, get them to take some Krishna prasadam. And then automatically when they start to feel this ecstasy this love for Krishna in his preliminary stages they feel so good, then they become receptive to why this is happening. Then you explain about the Personality of Godhead, they understand that it’s not something to fear, it’s not something strange, its actually what we are missing in life. We are all looking for a friend, we are all wanting a friend, our real friend is Krishna. Our real friend is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is with us in every life, in every circumstance. But we are turning our face away from Him.

So by Lord Caitanya’s mercy we can experience what is association with Krishna, because what is actually happening we are chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, the vibration Krishna is non-different than Krishna Himself because on the absolute platform, the platform of God realization there is no duality. So the name of God, the person God, the form of God, the knowledge about God, the service to God, I am having to use the word God but Supreme Personality of Godhead is all one, it’s all on the same material platform, there is nothing material in connection with the Supreme Person. So as a result the person who is doing this service, who is chanting, he is getting direct association with Krishna. And that association is where the ecstasy comes, we feel ecstatic simply by associating with Krishna. Simply by His presence, by His nearness, our natural happiness is coming out.

That happiness is love, love for our most dear loved one, who we have forgotten, who we have got separated from so long, we turn our self away from. Instead we are misdirecting our affection. We are directing our affection to His material energy, to dead matter. That is the illusion. So naturally if people can chant, take prasadam, get purified and they start to feel the presence of Krishna that is making them feel happy. And when they understand that, then their fear for Krishna goes away. Then they actually become more and more advanced as devotees.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

[Aside]

Anyway, it’s sankirtan.

Any questions?

Yes?

Question: One time I heard… (inauidible) …I think it something… that, the material world is a very lonely place because you never want to leave anyone. I was… we’re always thinking, “I am this body.” And the bodies, we try to connect but there’s no connection, since it’s temporary, and, that’s why we don’t (inaudible) … talked about how only in devotional service you can experience some… (inaudible) …relationships. It’s hard to explain that to the materialists or someone who’s not in Krishna consciousness… (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: Well, for example we don’t actually see anything… according to, the Vedas say that in the material world we are always in the past or the future. But in the spiritual world you are in the present. In the material world you are in the past. You are thinking about the future but actually you are already in the past because time is going so fast that as soon as it is there it’s already gone. In other words just like science says that we don’t see anything, whatever we are seeing is a reflection of the light. So we are seeing something which is already millionth of a second, whatever, gone. But in the spiritual world its more, it’s in a more kind of homogenous atmosphere where you are actually not seeing, you are on a transcendental platform. I mean it’s quite inconceivable, totally inconceivable. You are realizing, it’s not, there is a connection between everything, it’s not that you are seeing the bouncing, you are just, it’s not a mechanical thing. You are actually in touch with everything, yet everything has its own individual reality. It’s actually inconceivable by material intelligence or.

So in a relationship with Krishna that is actually an eternal relationship. It’s a soul to soul relationship. It’s not based on just like as a body we can relate with human beings. It’s hard for us to relate with a fish or with you know, they try to relate with dogs but to what extent they are actually able to relate, to really communicate, or have a meaningful you know friendship, it’s actually quite limited because of the bodies. Its takes two similar entities to be able to relate. But on the spiritual platform the similarity is there. We are all eternal spirit soul. And relating on the spiritual platform then we transcend the body differences. Maybe it’s difficult for a Yankee to become friend with… you call ‘em Dixies? A rebel, in a material, you know situation or difficult for a young person to relate to an old person. Difficult for people from different cultures to relate with each other, but in Krishna consciousness we find that people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, different situations they are able to have immediately a very intimate relationships on the spiritual because it is not material.

By, just like two things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. So when you are related with Krishna then you are related with each other. It is automatic, relation is established. There has to be some common denominator, people talk with each other, they like the same thing, in this way they develop a friendship on the basis of similar material attachments, similar likes and dislikes. So they find themselves compatible. In this way they develop a material relationship you see. Some people they are born in the same family so because of a common interest, common attachment to certain people, to certain environment so they feel themselves related with each other due to attachment.

But the devotees they are attached to Krishna, they are connected with Krishna and therefore their relationship is established due to a relation with Krishna. Now the relation with Krishna is eternal and that’s a spiritual relationship from a soul to a soul. Krishna doesn’t have any material aspect of Himself. And His material aspect is His material world. But directly He is completely spiritual so that relationship with Krishna is spiritual, devotees relating on that level of devotional service, they immediately also have a very intimate relationship. Because the relationship with Krishna is eternal, the relationship between devotees is eternal, the relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple is permanent.

Prabhupada was one time giving a class and then he said that materially speaking you are all young people from a different country and I am an old man. Normally there wouldn’t be such a deep relationship between us, there wouldn’t be this type of a but yet we find that there is such a very deep relationship, this is because it’s on a spiritual platform. Nothing to do with the material situation. Just like you show the materialist Back to Godhead Prabhupada’s picture sometimes, why is he so angry? They can’t relate with his grave countenance, his grave look. But then a devotee looks he is very ecstatic, he is smiling. But he is smiling you know gravely. They can immediately relate to that type of look but ordinary materialist they have a completely different idea. When I used to distribute Back to Godhead's I know, couldn’t relate at first, many people.

So the devotees because they are able to taste even a drop, not even that they have to taste a whole ocean of ecstasy but even a drop of spiritual happiness they immediately feel intimate, some connection with Krishna. And this connection is there between the devotees, between the spiritual master and the disciple and it’s not dependent upon the material. Just like there are devotees in the movement, some people were movie stars and some people were farmers and yet together they can serve and they are quite compatible. Materially they would never associate with each other. They would be complete misfits but on the spiritual platform there is no problem because the common denominator is there, serving Krishna.

Transcriber: Suvilasi Madhavi dd Date: 19 May 2015

Revised by Jagannatha dasa Brahmacari


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