19850704 Caitanya Caritamrita Adi Lila.1.4-55 The Appearance Of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu@ Golccha Hall Kathmandu Nepal

19850704 CAITANYA CARITAMRITA ADI LILA 1.4-55 APPEARANCE OF SRI CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU, GOLCCHA HALL, KATHMANDU

Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no other incarnation ever offered before. The most sublime and radiant spiritual knowledge of the mellow taste of His service.

Caitanya Caritamrita 1.4.5: Translation:

The loving affairs of Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rädhä and Kåñëa are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Çré Kåñëa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Çrématé Rädhäräëé although He is Kåñëa Himself.

Hladini Shakti, Anandaka Shakti. Krishnadas Kaviraj in Vrndavan, this is the great history of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Krishna Caitanya and Lord Nityananda who are like the sun and the moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all. In the Vedas it describes that North India is known as Gauda and South India is known as Dravida. Gauda means up to the Himalayas. Five ancient states are there in Gaudadesh. This is including from Gujarat to Nepal, Mithila and on the east Bengal. And the eastern horizon of Gauda, the eastern portion that is Wanga. So Lord Caitanya, He appeared on the east just like the sun and moon appear in the east. So They have appeared in the east, this is to indicate that just like the sun and the moon come, They have come to take away all the darkness of the world. So every incarnation of Godhead is predicted in the Vedic literature, it is mentioned in the Vedas, without being mentioned no one can be accepted as an incarnation of Godhead or avatar. Avatar means that from the spiritual world the Lord Himself comes in order to give benediction to the people in the material world. As well as to sometimes perform Their own pastimes. Just as Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita – paritraanaaya saadhunaam vinaashaaya cha dushkritaam, dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge. That I come in every millennium to deliver my devotees and to annihilate the miscreants and to establish real religious principles. Similarly, when all these great gurus and acharyas have stated that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is an avatar of Krishna, there must be some reason why they are saying that. One thing was that Prahlad Maharaj in the Bhagavatam, he stated that in kali yuga, he stated that the Lord is known as triyuga because He appears only in Satya, Tretha and Dvapara yugas.

“My Lord you kill all the enemies of the world in Your multifarious incarnations in the families of man, animals, demigods, rishis, aquatics and other forms. Thus You illuminate the world with transcendental knowledge. In the age of kali oh Mahapurusha, You sometimes appear in a covered incarnation. Therefore, You are known as triyuga, one who appears only in triyuga.”

So here Prahlad Maharaj predicted because he was in previous yuga, that in kali yuga Krishna comes but in a covered avatar, He comes in disguise as an actor. We know that in this age the yuga dharma is to chant the holy names of Krishna.

That in kali yuga we chant Hari kirtana, the holy names of Krishna, Hari. So in the Bhagavatam Mahapurana it predicted that Krishna will come in a non-blackish color to spread this yuga dharma of the chanting of Krishna sankirtanam.

The Bhagavat Purana is however not the only Vedic literature to predict this coming of the Lord. In the Caitanya Upanishad there is also a prediction.

“Lord Gaura who is the all-pervading Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears as a great saint and powerful mystic. He is above the three modes of material nature and He is the emblem of transcendental activity. He disseminates the cult of devotion throughout the world. “

Here it is predicted loke kasyati – loke means throughout the planet. It was predicted that Lord Caitanya’s movement would go throughout the entire world. In the Shwetaswatara Upanishad there are also predictions.

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Mahaprabhu who disseminates transcendental enlightenment. Just to be in touch with Him is to be in contact with the indestructible brahma jyoti. “ So there are many Vedic references that the Lord comes in Kali yuga in golden color and that He spreads bhakti, He spreads sankirtan. That He comes not as the Supreme Lord like Rama or Krishna did with Their full opulence but He came directly as a saint, as a sadhu, as a devotee. It is important to understand that since these are general predictions, someone may say that how do we know that specifically Lord Caitanya is fulfilling those predictions? Maybe there was someone else who also had similar features? Of course up to now we don’t find any other similar personality who specifically taught the Srimad Bhagavatam, pure bhakti and who spread Harinaam sankirtan all over southern Asia. Apart from that there are some specific predictions which mention that in Kali yuga the Lord will come as the son of mother Sachi.

In the Vayu Purana it mentions – “In the age of kali when the sankirtan movement is inaugurated I shall descend as the son of Sachi devi.”

In the Krishna Yamala it states “I shall appear in the holy land of Navadweepa as the son of Sachi devi. “

Just as it was predicted that Krishna would come as the eighth son of Devaki, it was also predicted in the Vedas that Krishna will come as a devotee, in the form of a devotee as the son of Mother Sachi. I know that all these quotations and everything they may be a bit lengthy but I am just trying to present it in a very systematic way so that you can have the full reference because I know many of you may not be acquainted with the Vedic background of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is more than a saint. He is actually a secret incarnation of Krishna which was predicted by all of the Vedic literatures. He came here amongst all of us and He left and while He was here He kept His personality covered. Only after He left was it revealed that actually what was to all, what was His real purpose. So there are so many other quotes from Mundaka Upanishad, from the Brahma Yamala, Ananta Samhita, so many other various quotations which are predicting the coming of the Lord in this form.

Lord Buddha is also an incarnation in a covered form. But He is a shaktyavesh avatar, He is a partial incarnation. This is known as shaktyavesh avatar. That is mentioned in different puranas and all Vedic scholars accept that Lord Buddha is one of the ten avatars or one of the avatars. In the Ananta Samhita, there the Lord’s secret mission for coming is mentioned. “The Supreme Person Sri Krishna Himself who is the life of Sri Radharani is the Lord of the universe in creation, maintenance and annihilation. He appears as Gaura, oh Maheshwari.”

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He Himself didn’t write any volumes of books. Rather He only wrote eight verses known as Shikshashtakam. Although He was known as the greatest pandit in India, in this part of Asia then. Rather He told everyone that they should daily read the Srimad Bhagavatam. He glorified the Bhagavatam as the spotless Purana as especially suited and necessary to read in this age of Kali. The second verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam explains the purpose of the Bhagavatam. “The great scripture Srimad Bhagavatam compiled by Mahamuni Vyasadeva from the four original verses describes the most elevated and kindhearted devotees and completely rejects the cheating ways of materially motivated religiosity. It propounds the highest principle of eternal religion which can factually mitigate the threefold miseries of the living being. And award the highest benediction of full prosperity and knowledge. Those willing to hear the message of this scripture in a submissive attitude of service can at once capture the Supreme Lord in their hearts. Therefore, there is no need for any scripture other than Srimad Bhagavatam.”

Actually the Srimad Bhagavatam, in one of the first verses also mentions that the Srimad Bhagavatam is intended to create a revolution in the materialistic lives of the conditioned souls. That the Srimad Bhagavatam is establishing the eternal religious principles in a world where everyone is acting only for temporary purposes. Srimad Bhagavatam is challenging all the other scriptures. They are saying dharma, artha, kaama, moksha are all cheating. Such a heavy challenge Srimad Bhagavatam is giving to the other scriptures. They are saying that religion for fruitive activity, that accumulation of economic development as well as sense gratification and even liberation are all ultimately to be rejected as part of the material world, that these are not transcendental. That Srimad Bhagavatam is establishing that real, eternal principle of Bhagavat dharma is actually to engage in the direct service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Spontaneous loving service to the Supreme Lord, that is the eternal religious principle. For instance, another verse in the Srimad Bhagavatam states that if one practices religion but doesn’t develop pure love for God then what is the use of that religion? It is simply a useless waste of time. If you just do the rituals but ultimately you don’t become situated in transcendental consciousness, the Srimad Bhagavatam is saying shrama eva hi kevalam, you are simply expending energy. So that is the nature of pure bhakti, that it is self-effulgent, it is not depending upon any other process. Now it is saying that if you have the patience to go through the twelve cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam, verse by verse, reading the purports, by Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupad, you can see how systematic the subject is explained. Srimad Bhagavatam very clearly establishes that there are two types of religion – materially mixed religion and pure spiritual religion. In material religion there are unlimited varieties and shapes of religion. But you come to transcendental religion, there is one kind. So if the world is to be united one religion in the entire world has to only be understood of transcendental religious principles. So Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He only taught purely transcendental, spiritual or religious principles. As mentioned in the various previous verses, He had an external and an internal purpose for coming down into this world. His external purpose was to spread this bhakti and the chanting of Hare Krishna in the world. As I mentioned before that this chanting is the most effective means of self-realization recommended for this age. Not that other processes are not good, religion by definition is good, but the question is that if we have a shortage of time and in that short period of time what is the best thing that you can do? Just like for instance, everyone knows that people should graduate from their university and then they should enter into the business field. That is the normal tradition. To give a material example the General Managing Director and Chairman of Microsoft computer corporation, he left his university and he immediately started his company. He didn’t get his degree. And now his company is making a profit of 50 million dollars a year or about 75 crore Nepali rupees. So sometimes there may be a short cut. What is the need of him having a degree if he can already make his, I mean materially speaking, make his fortune without the degree? For other yugas there is plenty of time, Kali yuga time is very short. We only live maximum 100 years, according to the Vedas. The Vedas say that as Kali yuga goes on that 100 years will gradually reduce to 30 years. So now insurance companies say that the average life expectancy is somewhere between 60 and 70 years. So already half the figure has come down. So in this short period of time we need very condensed spiritual practices. Therefore, this Harinaam sankirtan process is given – this is very concentrated. Therefore, the process of pure bhakti is given because that is very condensed. Other processes of religion are good but they are slow. Either they are slow or leading to a non-spiritual objective. So that means it is a roundabout way. It is good but it is not the need in this Kali yuga – we need something more powerful. Just like the mosquitos of Kali yuga – they are developing immunity towards all type of poisons. They have to invent newer and newer medicines to counteract malaria because the mosquitos are developing immunity. So you can take that dharma is like a medicine to cure our sinful life which is like a disease to eradicate all the bad karmas. But we have developed immunity for dharma. Our sinful mentality, our materialistic mentality is so strong that the ordinary dharma, that medicine is not strong enough, we have developed immunity, it doesn’t change our consciousness. In spite of going to temple, in spite of doing so many different rituals, still material desires are always disturbing the consciousness. Therefore, we need a very strong spiritual medicine which can counteract our hard mentality, our immunity towards becoming purified. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has brought that process into the forefront. He has popularized it, that is the process of Sri Krishna sankirtanam, chanting congregationally the names of Krishna. Lord Caitanya’s formula was very simple. He said exactly the same thing that Bhagavat is saying, the same thing the Vedas are saying. He said, bolo Krishna, you chant the name of Krishna. He said bhajo Krishna, worship Krishna, be His devotee, bhajo Krishna, you worship Krishna. Koro Krishna Shiksha, and you study the teachings of Krishna. There are two books which are teachings of Krishna. One is Bhagavad Gita which is spoken by Krishna Himself which is accepted by all the acharyas all over Nepal and India as the essence of Vedic wisdom and even Shankaracharya has accepted that the Bhagavad Gita is the cream of the Vedic culture. So this is one of the teachings of Krishna, it is spoken by Krishna so it is also a teaching of Krishna. The Srimad Bhagavatam is also Krishna’s shiksha because it is spoken about Krishna. So this is a very simple process given by Lord Caitanya. Srimad Bhagavatam says you don’t need any other scripture. As it is Srimad Bhagavatam is 18,000 verses. How many people in India and Nepal have read the Srimad Bhagavatam? And the youth, how many have read Bhagavad Gita? The older people have read but many of the younger people that I have met, they have not touched the Bhagavad Gita. This is very unfortunate. But actually these two books are adequate to bring us to this spiritual, transcendental understanding. Then chant Hare Krishna, worship Krishna, feast on His prasadam, this is very simple but it is very powerful medicine. Our Founder Acharya, Abhaycharan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, he being empowered by Lord Caitanya, brought this message all over the world. He spread it all over the world. When he proposed this system to the western people who are not very acquainted with Vedic culture, even they don’t find anything very complicated about singing Hare Krishna and dancing and then feasting on the Krishna vegetarian prasadam. They don’t find it very complicated, are able to do it. And if you are very philosophically inclined then you sit down and discuss Srimad Bhagavatam.

So just in conclusion I would like to speak something about the other purpose for Lord Caitanya’s coming.

“To taste the mellow, quality of Srimati Radharani’s loving affairs in Her relationship with Krishna and to understand the reservoir of pleasure in Krishna, Krishna Himself as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted the mood of Radharani.”

Of course to understand this very esoteric purpose we have to have a basic understanding who is Krishna. You see, in the Upanishads, they glorify the brahmajyoti, the source of the spiritual effulgence which is eternal and all pervasive. That this brahmajyoti is explained by the Srimad Bhagavatam to be the first level of spiritual realization. That the Absolute Truth is realized in three features. That Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, these are the three features that the Absolute Truth is realized. Just like the first is the brahmajyoti, the second is realizing the Supersoul which is present in everyone’s heart. When Bhishmadev was lying in the bed of arrows, at that time leaving his body, just as he was about to leave the world, he called for Krishna to be present, he begged that Krishna would be present. At that time the last thing he said before leaving his body is that how Krishna, You are present in everyone’s heart as the Paramatma. And thus it is very hard to understand Your position. Then he said that now I have understood that this Paramatma is simply a plenary portion of Yourself. Plenary portion means amshaprakaash. So Bhagavan or the Supreme form of the Absolute Truth, that is the ultimate realization. Bhagavan is the personal aspect of the Parabrahman, is the ultimate realization, highest realization or complete realization. So Krishna, He is always the Lord, Bhagavan is Parama Ishvara, Ishvara Parama Krishna, sat cit Ananda vigraha, anadir aadir Govinda, sarva kaarana kaaranam. So He is always worshipped as the Supreme Lord and Krishna, He has various energies. Just as it is mentioned in the Shwetaswatara Upanishad that there are various types of energies of the Supreme Lord. Those energies are into sat, cit and Ananda. The eternal energy, the cognizance energy and the pleasure potency. Sat Shakti, Cit Shakti and Ananda Shakti. So Srimati Radharani is the Ananda Shakti. Or in other words, Krishna expands Himself in these different energies and the energy of pure bhakti of Prema, of Ananda, that is the form of Radha. So Krishna, He is always accepting worship but He sees that His pure devotees, especially Radha, they are experiencing such a wonderful ecstasy by doing spontaneously loving devotional service for Him. But He is not experiencing this consciousness because His perspective is Ishwara bhaav. So He doesn’t know what is the bhakta bhaav. So one time He wants to know Himself what is that mood of devotion that My devotee is feeling for me. The only way He can know is that He has to become His own devotee. He is a very mysterious avatar! If you can understand the avatar of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, you will never take birth again in this material world. And you will achieve spontaneous love for Godhead. This is a promise of the great devotees. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu is actually Krishna who has taken on the color of His greatest devotee Radha, the golden color and He has also taken on Her mood of devotion. Someone may say well, why Krishna bhakti? Why not Narayana bhakti or Vishnu bhakti or some other bhakti? Because Narayana, He is also the expansion from Krishna. Only the form of Krishna can invoke the highest sentiment of spontaneous loving devotion for the residents of Vrndavan especially the gopis. For instance, there is a history that one time the gopis were looking for Krishna. And then they saw that Krishna is sitting, He is sitting in the distance. So they ran to where Krishna was sitting. So Krishna, He couldn’t hide, He was spotted, He was exposed. So what can He do? So suddenly He changed His form! And He manifested the Narayana form with four arms. Shanka, chakra, gadha, Padma. So when the gopis came they saw, oh, it is not Krishna, it is Narayana! So they offered their respectful obeisances, oh Narayana, Lord of Vaikuntha, please accept our obeisances! Kindly tell us where is our beloved Krishna, with peacock feather in His hair, with His three-fold bending form and His beautiful flute, we are looking for Him. You see, residents of Vrndavan, they weren’t satisfied, they had Narayana there! They are asking where is Krishna? We want Krishna! Krishna inspired that loving sentiment in their hearts. So of course it was Krishna who had taken the Narayana form, He said go that way and they ran off looking for Krishna! Ha! But then Srimati Radha came and Her love was so intense for Krishna that when She asked where is Krishna? She was feeling such a viraha, such a separation, Her love is known as Mahabhaav or greatest form of pure love. So then Krishna wanted to keep His four handed form and fool Radharani but because She is personally the Hladini Shakti, the Ananda Shakti, Her love is so intense, He could not keep His four arms there, His two arms disappeared and He repeatedly showed His two armed form, he could not even if He wanted to, disguise His identity, so strong was Radha’s love.

This is a quote from Ujjwala Nilamani that also states that Krishna, He couldn’t hide Himself. So Krishna, He became attracted that what is this bhakti Shakti that My devotees have? I want to understand it Myself. So therefore that son of Nanda Maharaj, that same Krishna, He came as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as devotee as His experiment you can say, as a research into His own devotion. So that is the inner purpose of Lord Caitanya’s coming.

So we would like to, because Nepal is known as the rooftop of the world, we would like them also to know the topmost of this Vedic understanding, this most secret of all secrets. This avatar of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu reveals the confidential subject matter of the Vedic literatures. It reveals the secret of what is actually Krishna Prema and how can we achieve it in this lifetime. So when we worship Lord Caitanya as the Vedas predicted, He comes with associates, sanga panga aastra paarshadam, we also worship Him along with His companions, His associates. So we chant the name of Lord Caitanya plus the name of Nityananda. Sri Krishna Caitanya Advaita Nityananda Srivas Gadadhara aadi jotho bhakta Vrnda. So we chant these fiver personalities’ names. Sri Krishna Caitanya is Krishna Himself coming down for all the purposes that I mentioned. Just like when Krishna came, Balaram came. So with Krishna Caitanya this time Balaram also came, He came as Nityananda. Mahavishnu also came, He came as Advaita Gosai. So Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita, these are three avatars. Gadadhara is the incarnation of Radha or the internal potency. In this pastime She is coming to assist the Lord in His research on His own devotion. And Srivas is Narada Muni who has come down to also assist the Lord. I would like you all to repeat this Pancha Tattva Mantra, it is very purifying.

Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivas Aadi Gaura Bhakta Vrnda. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

Transcribed by: Jayarareshwari devi dasi 06 July 2016


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