19831031-Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.3.9.44-Honolulu-Hawaii-Literal-Version

---

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on October 31st, 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, Chapter 9, Verse 44. [Editors note: This should read Verse 43]

Jayapataka Swami:

sarva-veda-mayenedam

 ātmanātmātma-yoninā

prajāḥ sṛja yathā-pūrvaṁ

 yāś ca mayy anuśerate

Translation by Srila Prabhupada: By following My instructions you can now generate the living entities as before, by dint of your complete Vedic wisdom and the body you have directly received from Me, the supreme cause of everything.

Translation with repetition:

By following My instructions

Devotees: By following My instructions

Jayapataka Swami: you can now generate

Devotees: you can now generate

Jayapataka Swami: the living entities

Devotees: the living entities

Jayapataka Swami: as before

Devotees: as before

Jayapataka Swami: by dint

Devotees: by dint

Jayapataka Swami: of your complete Vedic wisdom

Devotees: of your complete Vedic wisdom

Jayapataka Swami: and

Devotees: and

Jayapataka Swami: the body that you have directly received

Devotees: the body that you have directly received

Jayapataka Swami: from Me

Devotees: from Me

Jayapataka Swami: the supreme cause of everything.

Devotees: the supreme cause of everything.

Jayapataka Swami: Text 44:

maitreya uvāca

tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre

 pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ

vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa

 kaṣja-nābhas tirodadhe

Devotees : maitreya uvāca

Jayapataka Swami: tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre

Devotees : tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre

Jayapataka Swami: pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ

Devotees : pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ

Jayapataka Swami: vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa

Devotees : vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa

Jayapataka Swami:  kaṣja-nābhas tirodadhe

Devotees :  kaṣja-nābhas tirodadhe

Jayapataka Swami: tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre

Devotees : tasmā evaṁ jagat-sraṣṭre

Jayapataka Swami: pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ

Devotees : pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ

Jayapataka Swami: vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa

Devotees : vyajyedaṁ svena rūpeṇa

Jayapataka Swami:  kaṣja-nābhas tirodadhe

Devotees :  kaṣja-nābhas tirodadhe

Jayapataka Swami:

… the creator of the universe, to expand, the primeval Lord, the Personality of Godhead in His personal form as Nārāyaṇa, disappeared.

Translation with repetition:

The sage Maitreya said

Devotees: The sage Maitreya said

Jayapataka Swami: After instructing Brahma

Devotees: After instructing Brahma

Jayapataka Swami: The creator of the universe

Devotees: The creator of the universe

Jayapataka Swami: to expand

Devotees: to expand

Jayapataka Swami: the primeval Lord

Devotees: the primeval Lord

Jayapataka Swami: The Personality of Godhead

Devotees: The Personality of Godhead

Jayapataka Swami: In His personal form

Devotees: In His personal form

Jayapataka Swami: As Nārāyaṇa

Devotees: As Nārāyaṇa

Jayapataka Swami: disappeared

Devotees: disappeared

Jayapataka Swami:

Purport by Srila Prabhupada:

Before his activity in creating the universe, Brahmā saw the Lord. That is the explanation of the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam. When the creation awaited Brahmā’s activity, Brahmā saw the Lord, and therefore the Lord existed in His personal form before the creation. His eternal form is not created by the attempt of Brahmā, as imagined by less intelligent men. The Personality of Godhead appeared as He is before Brahmā, and He disappeared from him in the same form, which is not materially tinged.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the 3rd Canto, 9th Chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled Brahma’s Prayers for Creative Energy.

This clears up one doubt that sometimes mayavadis raise. The mayavadis, simply think that the personality of Godhead is a creation of the material world. They want to say everything is impersonal. So for those students of the Vedic literatures, in this chapter it has been irrevocably established that before Brahma could create, that he was able to have the audience with Lord Nārāyaṇa, the expansion of Krishna, and it is only by Nārāyaṇa’s mercy that he was able to create. What to speak of creating Nārāyaṇa, only Brahma could create by getting the mercy of Nārāyaṇa.

Nārāyaṇa exists before the creation, during the creation, and after the dissolution of this material world. So, those philosophers should have no doubt that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond this material creation. Even Sankaracharya, who is their founder so to speak, he has clearly said, nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt, that Nārāyaṇa is beyond the material, unmanifested state. That means that Nārāyaṇa is in the spiritual state, beyond the material world.

Of course the Bhagavatam explains, that there are the three features of Godhead:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

 tattvaṁ yaj jṣānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

 bhagavān iti śabdyate

That is Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, so the personalists, the devotees of the Lord, they understand the personality of Godhead, and automatically they also know the Paramatma feature and the Brahman feature or the impersonal feature. There is no difficulty for them to understand all the features, but for the impersonalist, they are not able to understand the Personality of Godhead. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He appeared in this uh, material world also, on His own free will. He is Krishna Himself, and He came into the material world for His own purpose, you see. The difference that when Krishna in His expansion or directly, as Lord Krsna or as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, come into the material world, They are not coming like an ordinary living entity, who comes under the dictations of karma.

A normal conditioned soul doesn’t have any freedom to choose, who will be their mother or father. They are forced by the laws of nature to take a birth, and are put into a particular situation, and they’re under the uh, dictation of the laws of karma, doing their uh, activities in their lifetime. But Krishna when He personally comes, Lord Caitanya when He personally comes, They are beyond the jurisdiction of this the material world. Rather the material world, it’s simply acting on behalf of the Lord.

We have seen in India, where many uh, ministers and Vice Presidents so on, they sometime visit our temple…the President of India, different people like… sometime visit our temple, and they tell their secretaries, uh, “You make arrangement, I am going to the Hare Krishna center.” and about a week ahead, the policeman come and say that, “So and so is coming here.” everything is ready, they check it out, where they are going to stay, the second day, the day before again some other officer comes and checks it out, then the day they come the morning, the police comes, stand in front of the main gate, in front of the temple, all around, and uh, then when they finally come, then they come with the pilot car in front, then they come, and then behind they got more police, you know, it’s like a whole thing.

Then when they come in, we have to feed them, five secretaries and their family and their attendants, and then all the six drivers for all the cars, and then another place they have to feed all the policemen. So big operation, we can see that how they simply tell their secretary, “Alright I want to go to this place, we will go and invite them”, he tells the secretary. From then on the police, and the district administration, and the state administration. One time the deputy… the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, was coming to Mayapur, as a official State… Guest of the State. He was the head of the Union Territory, and he was coming as an official state guest, attending a function in Mayapur. So for 1 month before his arrival, they pa… they had repaired the road, and all… and there is a little demarcation on one side where… which, what is the roa…government road property and what is the public property, they have little white stones that sit in the side of the road. About 30 feet -40 feet from the road. So those they painted white, put those numbers on, and showing how many miles to Mayapur, things like that. They did so many things to prepare for this dignitaries arrival. So similarly Krishna, He just tells His uh, His internal energy, “I am going to appear in the material world, She or tells the material energy, everything is automatically arranged. They don’t have to uh, Krishna doesn’t have to do anymore. The thing that Krishna is coming like an ordinary living entity you see, forced by the laws of material nature, this is very big misunderstanding, which these slokas tend to educate us in, by saying that even Lord Brahma is completely underneath the uh, domain of uh, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu.

So, when Lord Chaitanya appears also, the place that he appears is something very special. It’s not an ordinary place. That place is part of the spiritual world, it’s underneath the uh, protection of the internal energy. Just like when the Governor is coming, at that time he is not leaving his security up to us. He has got his own policeman, the government… even if he doesn’t care, the government doesn’t leave it up to us. They bring their people. They don’t want anything to happen, while he is there in their state. So the uh, spiritual energy, the place where Lord Caitanya is, although there is not a question of any danger, but nonetheless, the spiritual energy expands in that particular area just to accommodate the Lord’s pastimes. That, that area is permanently part of the internal energies uh, activities or jurisdiction. Just like the government have got their embassies all over the world and those embassies uh, fly the flag of that country under international law. For the holy dhama, the abodes of the Lord, in any part of the universe, wherever He appears, they are in their own ways, flying the flag of the internal energy. They are not under the domain of the material energy, you see.

Superficially it may appear that way on the crux of things uh, the material energy is maintaining. It’s like the road in front of the embassy might be maintained by the uh, municipality or they might be giving water, but technically, legally speaking, the actual embassy is underneath the jurisdiction of that specific government. So since the material energy is the expansion of the spiritual energy, there is not any conflict there, but superficially things on the dhama appear to be going on as usual in the material world, but actually the area of the holy dhama is under the spiritual potency’s jurisdiction and ultimately She reigns supreme there. And for those who have the eyes to see the spiritual vision, they can see the activities of the spiritual nature at work, they can see the pastimes of the Lord. So this is very important for us here in Hawaii, because we are living in New Navadvipa, which is uh, named after the original Navadvipa. So the Navadvipa, we should understand, what is the nature of the holy dham. Actually Navadvipa is considered to be gupta Vrindavana, or the hidden Vrindavana, it is the most uh, guarded secret in the Vedic literature, because Lord Caitanya was appearing in a disguise, He was coming in a, you can say a clandestine role. He was coming as a devotee. He wasn’t coming as a proclaimed way as the Supreme Lord. This is predicted in practically every Vedic literature, that in the Kali yuga, there’s a dozen places it predicts, the Supreme Lord comes as the devotee, not as a supreme lord. He comes in this Kali yuga after Krishna, in this uh, specific uh, covered role, where He covers His glory as a supreme personality of Godhead, and comes in the role as a devotee. Now if presently anyone was going to… any, you know… I don’t know who’d do it nowadays, but say, in the previous time the Kings, they do make spot checks amongst the citizens. You find in the Krishna book, that Krishna sometimes would dress Himself up as an ordinary citizen, and go out amongst His people to hear what they are speaking about the government, about the things, and really find out where things are at, you see. Of course now you have the newspapers doing it for you, but uh, in those times they wouldn’t, actually very intelligent not to have these kind of newspapers, so they would just have to know what the people were talking about, but if uh, in the corner they have the people with their bugles proclaiming (imitates trumpeting sound) that, “Here the King is coming in secret incognito at 5’ o clock today.” then everyone would be standing look… waiting. That would be completely ridiculous. So obviously, they don’t (inaudible)

So here, the Supreme Personality of Godhead… it’s given in the Vedas, that He’s coming in the Kali Yuga, so how is it that… how would it be a secret, everyone’s going to know, “Oh, here is the predicted Supreme Personality of Godhead avatara.” it would lose uh, its complete significance, if everybody knew that He was coming, He wouldn’t be able to act as a devotee, everyone would be calling Him out as the Supreme Lord.

So this secret was revealed, when Jiva Gosvami met Lord Nityananda. Jiva Gosvami has… he is of course the nephew of Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami and uh, he was living in Ramakeli where he met Lord Caitanya as an infant, and when he grew up he decided that he would also go to Vrindavan, you see, where Rupa and Sanatana are… were. He was going to join them. But on the way, he wanted to meet Lord… he wanted to see Navadvipa dham, and he was hoping to see Lord Nityananda.

So as he was going for Navadvipa Dham, walking from Ramakeli, about say roughly 200 kilometers, say 150 miles, not such a long walk, for those days, considering they’d walk 1,000 miles to Vrindavan. It was a fairly straight walk, takes a few days, say walk from Ramakeli to Navadvipa, and as he was approaching Navadvipa, he started to uh, just be overwhelmed with transcendental ecstasy, thinking that I am going to the holy dhama, going to Navadvipa, then as he entered the area of Navadvipa, he was feeling transcendental ecstasy, he just fell down on the ground and started paying his obeisances. Then as he went into uh, towards the Mayapur area, he was very fortunate not to meet Lord Nityananda. There he fell down from a distance when he could see Lord Nityananda. He couldn’t believe it that he was seeing Lord Nityananda, fell down offering his obeisances, and Lord Nityananda came over and in His unique transcendental jovial mood, He put His lotus feet right on the head of Jiva Goswami to bless him, that “I was waiting for you.”

Jiva Gosvami, and… after so many discussions, he requested that he was very eager to know what was the significance of the holy dhama of Navadvipa. If He could just have revealed to him, then he would be very satisfied. So Lord Nityananda agreed to take him on a parikrama. Parikrama means a tour of 9 islands of Navadvipa, starting from central island, Simanta… excuse me, Antardvipa, and going through the other 9 islands, Simantadvipa, Godrupdvipa, Madhyadvipa, Koladvipa, Ritudvipa, Jahnudvipa, Modadrumadvipadvip, Rudradvipa, nine islands comprise the total Navadvipa dhama.

So, Lord Nityananda agreed to take him, and first they went to the house of mother Saci, and mother Saci prepared Prasad for Lord Nityananda prabhu, Jiva Gosvami was able to take the prasadam from mother Saci, a very great honor. He was overwhelmed, he fell down on the ground, offering them obeisances. He couldn’t believe his great fortune. So, this type of… there are many pastimes like that. Anyway, Jiva Gosvami was able to see the… at least able to go through the (inaudible) where Nityananda Prabhu explained what is happening, how… what are the different places, where the Srivasangana was, Srivasa’s house, all the different places in the Antardvipa, the five ghats were still there of course where…the Jagai Mahdai ghat was built by Madhai, Madhai’s ghat. The uh, Barokana ghat, all the various ghats. Meaning the bathing fareways going into the Ganges which were… are considered to be very sacred.

Like this Lord Nityananda was explaining, so basically it is explained that Navadvipa dhama is uh, twenty-one yojanas, the total Gaura Mandala bhumi is twenty-one yojanas in circumference, and Naabadvipa is uh, uh, sixteen koshas, or 4 yojanas in circumference, in parameter. So that comes to about ten miles in diameter for Navadvipa Dhama, and for the Gaura Mandala bhumi it’s a 168, 21 yojanas, if I… my mathematics is correct. It’s approximately 168 miles, 8 miles per yojana, and the diameter comes into uh, I I forget

[aside]

(inaudible)

It works out to about, they call Vrindavan eighty-two krosha, that means twenty-one yojanas, I forget what the diameter is. Anyway, that is the total area of gaura-mandala bhumi, where Lord Caitanya has a transcendental pastime. So at this time, Jiva Gosvami was being taken quickly around the nine islands of Navadvip, the central island is island of atma nivedanam, self surrender.

Each island is connected with one of the nine practices of devotional service. The first island Simantadvipa, is the island of self surrender… excuse me, of hearing, the next island Godrumdvipa, is the island of chanting, sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam. Madhyadvipa is remembering, Madhyadvipa… the remembering deity is Prahlada. In the border of Madhyadvipa, Nrsimhadeva uh, temple is there, where Lord Nrsimhadeva visited in the Satya-yuga. It’s very near Madhyadvipa. So all this islands, originally were divided by various river, which are offshoots from the Ganges, in each there were twenty-one going in one direction and fourteen going in another direction, and in each of these uh, spiritually related to one of the sacred rivers like the Tamra pani, the Brahmaputra, the uh, Kaveri, the Sindhu like so on. All the various rivers, have got their representation in the original holy dhama, and this divided up the total land mass to make it appear as if they are nine islands.

So last night we discussed about Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath, where his temple is situated is in the island called Simantadvipa, in Simanatadvipa there is an extension of Jagannatha Puri. Its described it in the uh, previous uh, uh, period there was a time when, there was a demon called Raktabahu, who used to like to cannibalize brahmans, especially he liked to rip their arms off or kill them, because he was bloody from the blood of so many brahmans, that he got the name Raktabahu which means kind of like bloody hand. So the pujaris and the brahmanas kind of… Lord Jagannatha thought it would be a little dangerous for Lord Jagannatha to remain in that area considering the presence of the demon. So they took Lord Jagannatha the way, and brought Him to Nabadvipa, where he remained in seclusion for a period of time, while it felt like the king of the area was able to exterminate this demon. Then they brought Lord Jagannatha back.

So the inner reason for this pastime is given by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, that uh, basically uh… as explained by Lord Nityananda to Jiva Gosvami, it’s that Lord Jagannath wanted to visit Na…

[break]

Sometimes uh, just like you see the President likes to visit his allies. In the previous times in the British Empire, they have their territories all over the world. The… the King of England, visited uh… and the Queen, they visited India sometime, even though it took them a long time by ship, they wanted to see their territory, their dominion. For one reason or another, it’s Krishna’s… these are all perverted reflections of Krishna’s own desire. He likes to visit His holy places where His abodes are. So Jagannatha came up and visited Nabadvipa dhama for some time and then He went back. The place where He visited is the same place where this Jagannatha Deities are established in Simantadvipa.

This Simantadvipa… each of this islands have their own history of various activities and things happening, and as we go around the nine islands, we take devotees on the parikrama, which are replacing the root, that Lord Nityanada took Jiva Gosvami. Nityananda explained that you can do one day per island, nine days, which normally we don’t have, or we can do five days, or you can do 3 days. So we normally do the five day tour. Of course, the thing with Nityananda, they did it simply by walking. We take elephants, buses, and boats and lorries, so many because coming from the West most of the devotees couldn’t walk, you know the 32 miles, around the Nabadvipa dhama in the heat of the sun and everything, and being in good health, plus there so many programs we do like morning classes and different things. But basically uh, we are following uh, part of the rule, it is not the total rule of Lord Nityanada’s taking Jiva Gosvami.

He was able to go to so very remote places where there are no roads, and there are many places which are explained by Lord Nityananda to Jiva Gosvami for which the exact location is lost or hidden. So at that time, Nityananda prabhu explained to Jiva Gosvami, that Lord Caitanya kept through His internal potency those slokas in the Vedas, which describes His appearance, He just kept them more or less undiscernible to all the panditas. As… just like if you had a computer , and then you somehow things… like these military computers are written classified. So unless you have the classified clearance, you can’t get into that, because nowadays all these kids are trying to break through those things, so they are trying to remove their computers from the public telephone system. Well, we know that every time we read the Bhagavad-gita we get something new out of it. Every time we read the Bhagavatam we get some new inspiration. According to our purity, just like a kind of a automatic clearance, how much we can get out of it, and every time we read we get a little more purified, we read more we get something more, it goes on like this, in its own sublime way, kind of a crude example. But somehow by Krishna’s mystic potency, by His internal energy, the sages when they would read that there is going to be a chana avatara, somehow it just wouldn’t register, they would just go on. That aspect of their intelligence was just covered by Maya. So they… no one would… if they thought about it, they would just you know… couldn’t figure it out, kind of just go on, it wouldn’t register, Krishna covered their, you see, thought process in that way.

After Lord Caitanya appeared and after He disappeared from the planet, at that time uh, He allowed, He gave… told Nityananda, that now My glories they can be revealed after… because it is not going to interfere with His pastimes, then. So that time the glories of the holy dhama, the glories of Lord Caitanya, They had the full sanction to be revealed because they are not going to interfere with His pastimes anymore. Now people can know who He is, and what was His actual purpose, you see. But He was able to perform His pastimes, as a devotee without any hindrance. Only a few people could recognize Him as a supreme Lord, at different periods, and He kept that normally uh,very, how would you say? sublimated or very concealed and hidden from the general populace. If somebody would say, “You are Visnu.”

He’d cover His ears and say, “Visnu, Visnu, Visnu! What a great offence! How can a living entity be called God?” He would never allow anyone, even uh, Advaita Gosai, when you would address Him as Krishna or something, He would be very offended and run off. It’s only one time that uh, He did a Mahaprakash, twenty-one hour arati and worship that they performed… went actually… out of His causeless mercy He agreed to reveal His uh, Isvara nature. After that He wouldn’t, He didn’t reveal it again, you know except for like momentary things with Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and so on.

So now it’s our… we have the complete uh, authority to inform everyone, of the actual position of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the nature of His holy abode, Navadvipa Dhama, Vrindavana Dhama- the abode of Krishna, these things of course there is no problem ever for the abode of Krishna, but even Lord Caintanya and His abode, His name, this things can now be revealed. So, in this… for this reason Lord Caitanya was taking Jiva Swami and showing Him all this things. This tour of Nityananda with Jiva Gosvami, was recorded in several books, one is the Nabadvipa Mahatmya, one is the Bhakti Ratnakara, and in other places also there is mention of it.

So the… as I mentioned, each of the islands has got, you might even consider, which islands corresponds, but in any case, each of the islands has got their history… their spiritual history, just like in the same island where Lord Jagannatha is, in the Dvapara yuga, Lord Balarama visited that island and there, there was a demon called maya asura. This maya asura demon was harassing the sages, and they requested Lord Balarama to protect them, which is the duty of the government, to protect the Brahmanas. So there, he had a battle with this maya asura, and uh, liberated him, and the field, now this… the exact location of this was lost. So we… I have been looking for about 5-6 years now, trying to find the exact loca… location. Maybe uh, Satyanarayan (inaudible) He’s not good at this research work. He’s good at repair work. I sent him a list of (inaudible) burned them up.

So hard to find any clue, we went to the village, and there was one old man, like he… half blind, had to be held up by two people, and he said, “I know where the maya, ma, (inaudible) I know the place.” So then one day made an appointment and uh, he was taken out there, and he showed the one field on the side of the Jalangi river, said, “This is the place.” Later we found out that “Oh man, we also confirmed that was the same place.” So I wanted to get at these places which are completely lost to practically everyone… they’re just like hidden but are recorded in the sastras. To you have little pillars erected there, just to you know giving the details, the quotes from the scriptures, the slokas and it place in English and Bengali and Hindi, so that people can know that this the actual place, and then get a little area, because uh, as it is now, there are many places like that which are recorded in the sastra for which you know, like Bhaktisiddhantha, found about more than half of them, and erected temples there, but there are another say fifty, another… another, he called number which have not had any kind of uh, shrine or… or you know, what you call, memorial anything built there, and with time… although now people, in some of them it’s well known this is the place, where this particular activity took place, where Lord Siva uh, came.

He was so eager to go to Nabadvip dham, and his bull is very slow, on the way he was going…”, and he, “I am going to Nabadvip, I am going to Nabadvip.” and on the way he met Lord Brahma, and he said, “Your… your swan is so much faster than my… than my bull. Now let me borrow your swan, so that I can go to Navadvipa dham.” and he hopped on to the swan, and he went down to Navadvipa dham by a swan. So they called that Hamsa Vahan or the place where Lord Siva came to Nabadvip dham on the swan of Lord Brahma.

Like this there are many unique pastimes which are mentioned in Puranas, which are mentioned in different places, for which that deity is kept under water, the whole year and just take it out of the water, it’s in a river and they worshipped it under the water. That’s unique. I don’t know exactly why they do that, what’s the reason, but they keep the deity under water, and then once a year they take the deity out of the water and then they do a public worship outside the water, and they set him back down into the water.

Like this there is so many things to research, Prabhupada in 1977, formed the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity trust to do this type of research, as well as to do other programs, to try to unite, the uh, Gaudiya sampradaya, and uh, some of his Godbrothers were appointed on the committee as well as five of his disciples, on that committee also. The uh, so mainly they give me the responsibility doing the research work, and then I have like Satyananda and other people assisting. Right now Nitai Chand Maharaj is assisting for the uh, actual construction of it. So like this in each island of Nabadvipa, you find that there is like a dozen things, or sometimes even more that have happened, through the ages, that all the incarnations, when they go on their tour, they stop in Nabadvipa dhama at different times, and they have certain pastimes.

There was a time, when uh, Lord uh, Siva, sometimes he just spontaneously, anyway I don’t know, maybe we don’t have time…

[aside] (inaudible)

Lord Siva, he suddenly became overwhelmed with ecstasy just thinking about Lord Caitanya’s pastimes in the Kali Yuga. And he said, jumping up and saying, “Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga .” He just became completely overwhelmed, just uh, in the mood of Lord Caitanya, giving out love for Krishna, and His whole ecstatic pastimes, he could see in the future, He is coming there in Kailash, he became completely ecstatic, chanting Gauranga. Mother Parvati was completely uh, shocked, she didn’t know what was going on. She said, “Who is Gauranga? Just by hearing the name, my hairs are standing on end.”

And he explained that… who Gauranga was, and how in Kaliyuga Krishna comes. Not as the supreme person, but He comes just as a devotee, and He is giving anyone who comes in contact… gets this ecstatic love for Godhead, the… in the… and then mother Parvati, she said that, “I want to meet Lord Gauranga. I want to get His mercy. How can I do it?”

Lord Siva said, “Uh, he keeps coming in the Kali yuga.”

She said, “No, but I want to somehow see him now.”

So then Siva said, “Well, if you go to the holy dhama, Nabadvipa where he appeared, that’s underneath his uh, transcendental potency, and there He can be seen in any age, at any time, to those who He gives that blessing, but He is there, and if you go there, there is more chance that you could meet Him.”

So then she came down and she also did her worship in the same island of Simantadvip where those Lord Jagannatha deities are. In fact, I’ll explain how that island was named after this particular pastime. So there mother Parvati, she started doing her uh, yoga meditation, chanting the name of Gauranga. Gauranga… by using that simple mantra, “Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga” she was uh, meditating on Lord Caitanya, and worshipping Him in various ways.

So finally after some time, Lord Caitanya appeared to mother Parvati, and mother Parvati at that time was overwhelmed to see the beautiful form of Lord Caitanya. His lotus feet which are always dancing in ecstasy of Krishna consciousness, His uh… His lotus uh, eyes which are going back almost to His ears. His beautiful long flowing hair, His uh, garland with bumblebees, everything flying around, His broad chest just like a doorway, His narrow waist just like a lion’s waist, and then His uh, yellow garment, and uh, she was completely overwhelmed to see Lord Caitanya, and she fell at His feet and she started to appeal to Him that, “You are the most merciful incarnation, You give Your mercy to everyone, all the fallen souls get Your benediction. Without considering who is qualified, who is unqualified, You deliver everyone, so Your followers are always criticizing me. They are delivering everyone, and mayadevi, myself, I am the… so to speak, I am always the bad person.

So that’s alright, but one thing is that, can’t… won’t I get the opportunity to be delivered?, Can’t I be delivered? You are going to deliver everyone, and not me? I am not going to get the mercy, and I am so unfortunate that I won’t get the mercy? You are delivering everyone, and I have to live without love for Krishna, and everyone else is getting love for Krishna, except for me. Please have Your mercy upon me, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Gauranga Mahaprabhu!” and like this she was pleading and begging.

So then Lord Caitanya revealed to her at that time, although she is the expansion of the expansion of Radharani, you see, but at all time she might not be aware of it in a direct way. I have been aware that she is an expansion, but not her intimate connection with Radharani. Somehow by His divine mercy, He revealed to her, how she was the expansion of Radharani, and that in the holy dham of Nabadvip that she was non-different, and there she was able to perceive her connection with Srimati Radharani, and experience love for Krishna. In a very sublime way, so she resides there in a specific form known as praudha-maya.

So in the holy dham, Mayadevi doesn’t act in the same way, especially Nabadvip dham, she resides as praudha-maya, and she helps people to become Krishna Conscious. So like this, at that time, she took the dust from the Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet. She was pacified, and she put that dust on her forehead just like the married woman put the mark in their part of their hair, she put the dust there like that, and anointed her hair And this part of the hair is called Simanta, so that island is named because she took the dust of that island, put it on her hair, part…, with the simanta part of her lotus head. That island is known as Simantadvip, or the island of Simanta… the island where the dust was placed on the simanta location, on the forehead of mayadevi, Mother Parvati.

So like this each, every island have their specific pastimes, and histories, and then Lord Nityananda after showing this to Jiva Gosvami, then again He’d go to the next island, and continue with the various description. This is just sampling of some of the activities which happened in one of the nine islands in Nabadvipa dhama. So you are very, very fortunate to be living in new Nabadvip, here with the Pancha-tattva, expanding their pastimes, and the more that the Harinama Sankirtana yajna is uh, expanded throughout Navadvipa, certainly the presence of Lord Caitanya will have a purifying effect on all the residents.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Any questions?

Yes ?

Question: I was just wondering, is there any… (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami:

[aside]

Yes, go ahead.

There is a yearly magazine called the Mayapura magazine, once a year they give some of the highlights but as far as something more frequent, I don’t think you’ll get anything more frequent than that. Question: So, is there any specific reason behind the name New Navadvipa, since there’s nine islands in Hawaii?

Jayapataka Swami: Not familiar. You are supposed to manifest the mood of Navadvipa.

Question: So, the nine processes involving hearing, chanting… what was the special feature of Navadvipa? Is that the island of hearing, chanting…?

Jayapataka Swami: Navadvipa is nine islands. Within the nine islands, it is described that theres one island, the Antardvipa island is like a center, and the other nine islands come off it like eight petals in the whorl.

Question: What is Antardvipa?

Jayapataka Swami: Antardvip is where Lord Caitanya appeared.

Devotee: What is the process?

Jayapataka Swami: Atma-Nivedanam. That means self-surrender, full surrender,

Reply: Okay.

Jayapataka Swami: Total surrender. Here Lord Caitanya has appeared here, so then it’s like this would be the place of total surrender.

Devotee: Where is Mayapur?

Jayapataka Swami: That is Antardvip. Mayapur is a… you know that’s like uh, it’s also mentioned in the Puranas, but it’s also the legal name of the place. But Anatardvip is the spiritual name of the place.

Question: So do those nine islands also have specific locations here, in New Navadvipa?

Reply: We’ll think about it. (Laughter)

Jayapataka Swami: (inaudible)

Any other questions?

Question: You were saying that… that when the Lord appeared in a disguised incarnation, so He could go into difficult places and have His different pastimes?

Jayapataka Swami:

Lord Caitanya visited all the holy places in South India. Lord Nityanada visited the holy palaces, Lord Balarama visited the holy places. Different incar… even Lord Nrsimhadeva after His pastimes, He stopped in Nabadvipa, especially Nabadvipa, they’ve all visited. But, even in Vrindavana, you’ll find that different incarnations have visited Vrindavan over the ages, and there are many, although I am not well studied in the Nava… in the Vrindavan parikrama, but there, I just generally know that in each island there are many pastimes when different incarnations went there.

Lord Ramachandra visited uh, Nabadvipa dham, uh, Lord Krishna had to personally save Bhima in Nabadvipa dhama when Bhima was doing the…. call it the Rajasurya or agnihotra, you have to go on tour to all countries and defeat them… So that time there was a King in Navadvipa called Samudrasena, and he decided that if he could give a stiff fight to Bhima, so stiffly that he would be about to kill him, but then Krishna would come and save him because he is a great devotee of Krishna. That would give him the opportunity to have a darsana of Krishna. So, then he attacked Bhima; it was a heavy fight and he was about to defeat him, and then Lord Krishna came and saved him and Samudrasena, like Vibhisana, surrendered to him. He just wanted to have His darsana. So Krishna also visited Navadvipa in that way, but Lord Balarama of course (inaudible), and Siva visited there, Brahma did his tapasyas there, the surabhi cow. In this way, so many avataras. Varaha touched Navadvipa dhama.

Question: What did Lord Caitanya say was (inaudible) induced Him to come?

Jayapataka Swami: Advaita Gosai was the first to realize. After some time of this, joined the sankirtana movement. First Advaita then Srivasa, then after that… apart from some rare instances with different people (inaudible)

Question: How does Haridasa Thakura... did he… How did he find out? (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: I don’t know the exact first point when Haridasa Thakura found out. He was a devotee… he was one of the ones who prayed Krishna to come. Exactly, at which point did he join Lord Caitanya in Nabadvipa, I can’t (inaudible) He was always visiting Advaitya Gosai Exactly at which exact point did Haridasa Thakura join… definitely I… definitely he knew at the time when everyone else knew. I don’t have any specific… I can’t remember any specific evidence, but I won’t say that I’ve studied all the things…

[end]

---

Transcription by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das

Revised by Jagannatha dasa Brahmcari