PLEASE NOTE, *THIS DOCUMENT IS AT DRAFT (NOT PERFECT) STAGE. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO READ WITH GM’S VIDEO IN BACKGROUND. *
Announcement of the programs on following days: Three Haribols to welcome Guru maharaj! Three Haribols for Srila Prabhupada! Tomorrow there will be no program, it will be a rest day for guru maharaj and guru maharaj will attend to some management issues. However, on Wednesday the 19th at 7 pm, guru maharaj will give a class in the hall in front of the temple. On the 20th guru maharaj will travel to Sebarang Jaya, Penanga, the Temple of Devotion and Vedic Understanding. He will be there. Then guru maharaj will return on 25th to Kuala Lumpur, that will also be a rest for guru maharaj. On Wednesday, the 26th guru maharaj will meet with all the teams. On the 27th guru maharaj will give an address and meet the congregation of the Jagannath Mandir.
Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram
So today we are observing the sacred Snan Yatra. Did everybody bathe Jagannath Baladeva Subhadra? How did you like serving the Lord? So that is what we do in the spiritual world all the time – serve the Lord. Here we get the opportunity to also serve the Lord in His arca avatar form. For the advanced vaisnava, there is no difference between the arca vigraha and the Lord Himself. So Lord Caitanya used to have daily darshan of Lord Jagannath. And He was very happy to see the Snan Yatra when the Lord was being bathed. Then after the Snan Yatra, the Lord catches a cold! For 15 days, you cannot see Him! Actually at this time, repairs are done to His body. Sometimes He is newly painted. But the word is out that He is sick! So He is given special medicine. He takes fruit juices and such things. He is convincing Laksmi devi that He wants to go to Vrndavana for a short time. So He uses this time with Her alone and convinces her. Externally, Lord Caitanya could not have the darshan of Lord Jagannath. But suddenly He got overwhelmed by great separation. There was a Visnu temple called Alalarnath which is some 16 miles away. So Lord Caitanya decided to go to that temple and He ran. HE RAN AND RAN! Odinaar (Ran in Tamil). Then when He got to the Alalarnath temple, He paid His prostrate obeisances. He was feeling such separation that His body was on fire! He melted the stone! MELTED IT! HE MELTED IT! In a song by Locanadas Thakur he mentions how Lord Caitanya caused the animals to chant and cry, and how He melted stone – pasana bidore. Dekho o re bhai tribhuvane noi, eimoni doyalo data, pasu pakhi jhure, pasana bidore, suni jaro guna gata. Now who has gone to Jagannath Puri? Who has seen the stone melted in Alalarnath? Not as many as have gone to Jagannath Puri. I was one time offered that stone to be worshipped. Since then, they have lifted it out of the temple and they put it on the outskirts of the temple. And they do puja for the body print of Lord Caitanya every day. You can go and put your hand on the body print. And you can see how tall Lord Caitanya was. He melted the stone! Melted it! Melted it! Gauuuuuranga! Gauuuuuuranga! Gauuuuuuuuuuranga! So one year, Lord Caitanya was in Alalarnath and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya convinced him to return to Jagannath Puri. He said that the devotees from Bengal would soon arrive and that they wanted to see Him. So then Lord Caitanya went back with Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. Then Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya introduced Him to the residents of Jagannath Puri. Here is Pradyumna, the pujari of Lord Jagannath. Like that he introduced different devotees. Here is the devotee who writes down the lilas of Lord Jagannath, and here is the devotee, his name is Simhesvara das! He does the service of Lord Jagannath, very blissfully! All the devotees paid their prostrate obeisances to Lord Caitanya. And then LORD CAITANYA EMBRACED EACH ONE OF THEM! How many of you would like to be embraced by Lord Caitanya? So then Bhavananda Rai came with his five sons. Lord Caitanya said, “you are just like Pandu and your wife is like Kunti devi. You are the father, you have five sons like Pandu did, who can explain their glories?” One of the sons was Ramananda Rai, who had met Lord Caitanya and discussed Krsna consciousness on the Godavari river side. Lord Caitanya said, “your sons are all erudite scholars in Krsna consciousness, you are blessed!” The grihasta has this facility to create devotees. We sanyasis and brahmacharis cannot do this. You grihastas can do THIS! YOU CAN BE THE MOTHER AND FATHER OF PURE DEVOTEES! But you have to give your best, to have your son or daughter be a devotee. I am so happy that our youths are organizing kirtan melas. Haribol! Lord Caitanya was feeling great separation, but the devotees all chanted Hare Krsna. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare! So there is no difference between the Lord and His deity or His holy name, or His lilas, or His qualities, or His glories. So by hearing the holy names, Lord Caitanya became pacified. His separation was appeased. The priest of the Asta Laksmi temple in Chennai, he came and chanted the Visnu mantras and Laksmi mantras. So there is no difference between the mantras and the Lord Himself. And also they gave this prasad cloth. Like this Lord Caitanya, He started to chant hearing the kirtan and all kinds of ecstatic symptoms began to appear on His body. His body was gold in color. It was very beautiful. His hair was standing on end. Tears came pouring from His eyes. His dancing was exceedingly beautiful! Seeing Him dancing, all the villagers, men and women, they also began to dance! Lord Nityananda predicted that by Your dancing, in the whole world, people in all the villages will dance. And Srila Prabhupada in his purports said that this is already happening. The western devotees are going from village to village, and people are chanting Hare Krsna. I see Lokanath maharaj has started the pada yatra in Italy and it is being followed in Slovenia and all over Europe and America. I personally inaugurated a pada yatra in Italy! So all the people in the different villages are also being exposed to the chanting of Hare Krsna. In Tennessee, I saw one party went from house to house, from farm to farm. Giving out cookies and prasadam, chanting Hare Krsna. Are they also doing it in Malaysia? Here is the land of ratha yatra! Haribol! So like this Lord Caitanya was observing some special pastimes around the Snan Yatra. Today in Mayapur, they observed the Snan Yatra of the Jagannath Baladeva Subhadra deities. All the villagers, the men and ladies, they bathe in the Ganges and take a clay pot of water, and march to Lord Jagannath. With wet cloth. Here you were allowed to bathe the deities and you didn not even take a bath in the Ganges! Paripurnananda you are a Mayapurvasi right? In Mayapur they bathe in the Ganges and carry the water, right? They sing Jai Jagannath Jai Jagannath,Jai Jagannath, Jai Baladeva, Jai Baladeva, Jai Subhadra, Jai Subhadra. Jagannath swami nayana patha gami nayana nayana patha gami bhavatu me. Jai Jagannath Jai Baladeva Jai Subhadra, Jai Jagannath, Jai Jagannath, Jai Jagannath, Jai Baladeva Jai Subhadra. Jai Sudarsan Cakra Jai Sudarsan Cakra Jai Sudarsan Cakra, Jai Sudarsan Cakra. Haribol! Haribol! Nitai Gaura Haribol!
So by Lord Nityananda’s prediction, now the sankirtan movement is spreading all over the world. All over the world, all over Malaysia! That also reached even to China! Srila Prabhupada said that it will be very hard to make them devotees but once they become, they will be very, very strong! We welcome all the devotees who have come from China! All the Chinese congregation here. Haribol! Haribol! So the Snan Yatra festival was celebrated by Lord Caitanya in a very special way. He liked the festival, but afterwards He felt great separation. You also let the deities stay alone for 15 days? Oooon (guru maharaj made a face like crying). Somehow we survive but for Lord Caitanya it was very difficult. All we can do is that we have to chant every day. So that we can bear the separation. In Mayapur, the Mayapur TV did not show the Jagannath deities in mangala arati. I was watching the mangala arati. But they showed the Radha Madhava and asta sakhis again and again. But they didn’t show Panca Tattva or Jagannath! They just showed half the Panca Tattva, when they were closing the curtain! It was very, very hard to bear! So we are very fortunate that here tonight I could see Lord Jagannath! We could also bathe the Lord, and maybe with our enthusiasm we bathed the Lord too much and He got sick! The Lord in His deity form, He also performs lilas. Our Lord Jagannath in Rajapur performs lots of lilas! One day, the pujari was distributing Jagannath prasad. But the person receiving it did not believe. He took the prasad and threw it. I do not take any food offered to an idol! So the pujari said why did you come here then? If you don’t have any faith in the deity, then don’t come here. Then he left. Next day, he came, he offered his prostrate obeisances. He came and begged the pujari, please give me some Jagannath prasad! The pujari said, what are you? Are you crazy? Yesterday you threw the prasad! Today you are begging for it? He said last night I had a dream. The deity with the white face, He came and grabbed me by the neck. He said, “You threw My brother’s prasadam! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! And the lady with the yellow face, she said, “KILL HIM KILL HIM! I was so frightened. And the one with the black face with a big smile, He said, “let him go, let him go, it is only his first offence. It is not so great.” I believe! I believe, I believe! I DO BELIEVE! I BELIEVE!! I will never throw prasadam again! These deities are alive! I will take Their prasadam! So our deities in Rajapur, they do various pastimes like this. Who knows here what pastimes these deities perform? I ask different temples what pastimes the different their deities perform. In San Diego they told me some pastimes. In Los Angeles they also told me some pastimes. The deities are there. And if you are afraid the devotees won’t believe me, you tell me I will believe you! Jai Jagannath! Jai Baladeva, Jai Sudarsan Cakra, Jai Subhadra Devi, Nitai Gaur Haribol! Translate it. Ha!
Thank you all very much!
Announcement: Yesterday we celebrated Father’s day with Guru Maharaj together with us and today we celebrated Snan Yatra with guru maharaj. There will be arati now and guru maharaj will take rest.
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
17 June 2019