Mukham karoti…
Nama Om…
Mukham karoti…
So we are continuing the compilation of the Caitanya book.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead’s activities are all glorious and transcendental which conditioned souls are not able to understand. Whatever is in this world is a perverted reflection of what exists in the spiritual world. Here you have academicians, and they have their field of activities. The Supreme Lord, He also likes to have academic pastimes and He comes as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nimai Pandit to enjoy those academic pastimes. He is beyond the comprehension of the conditioned souls. Therefore, His activities are all transcendentally glorious.
All the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are meant to deliver the suffering souls in this material world. The root of such activities is the Lord Himself and His activities are meant to deliver the conditioned souls. So the Lord descends from the spiritual world to this world to award the supreme personal benefit to the conditioned souls. So His different pastimes are performed with a purpose to deliver the living entities. In the material world things look sweet in the beginning but ultimately they are inauspicious. And the souls are averse to devotional service. These conditioned souls even find fault in the Lord. For that reason, they are considered ignorant or fallen. When the conditioned soul realizes that he is the eternal servitor of Lord Krishna, then he no longer has any fear or distress. Some people are afraid of death but if they know that the soul never dies, although Krishna appears many times He does not forget. Just to know a few things about the Lord’s appearance and activities can save one from the greatest danger.
“He wanted to say something but no reply would come from his mouth. He then began to consider this puzzle within his mind.”
“This mere boy has blocked my intelligence. I can therefore understand that mother Saraswati has become angry with me.”
Intelligence, forgetfulness and remembrance come from the Supreme Lord. But he thought that since he could not respond to the boy, mother Saraswati is angry with him. So by the Super Soul he got the intelligence to understand that somehow he had been defeated by this Boy and that this is all by the will of the Lord. Even if one is a great scholar, if he commits an offence at Krishna’s lotus feet, he will lose his intelligence. So mother Saraswati created such a situation in order to bless Keshav Kashmiri.
“The wonderful explanation the boy has given could not have been possible by a human being. Therefore, mother Saraswati must have spoken personally through his mouth. “
“Thinking thus the pandit said, my dear Nimai Pandit, please hear me. Hearing Your explanation, I am simply struck with wonder.”
“I am surprised you are not a literary student and do not have experience in studying the shaastras. How have You been able to explain all these critical points?
“Hearing this and understanding the pandit’s heart Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied in a humorous way.”
“My dear sir, I don’t know what is good composition and what is bad but whatever I have spoken must be understood to have been spoken by mother Saraswati”.
“When he heard this judgement from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu the pandit thoughtfully wondered why mother Saraswati wanted to defeat im through a small Boy. “
“I shall offer prayers in meditation to the goddess of learning the champion concluded and ask her why she has insulted me so greatly through this Boy.”
“Saraswati had in fact induced the champion to compose his verse in an impure way. Furthermore, when it was discussed she covered his intelligence and thus the Lord’s intelligence was rampant.”
The Digvijay was at the point of entering into defeat and Nimai Pandit’s students were just about to laugh. So Keshav Kashmiri was facing defeat and he couldn’t understand why he was being defeated by this small Boy.
So the Lord stopped all His students from laughing. And to the brahmana He started to speak sweet words.
“When the poet champion was thus defeated all the Lord’s disciples sitting there began to laugh loudly but Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked them not to do so and He addressed the poet as follows.”
“You were the most learned scholar and the topmost of all great poets, for otherwise how could such fine poetry come from your mouth?”
“Your poetic skills are like the constant flow of the water of the Ganges. I can find no one in the world who can compete with you.”
“Even in the poetic compositions of such great poets as Bhavabhuti, Jayadev and Kalidas there are many examples of faults.”
“Such mistakes should be considered negligible. One should only see how such poets have described their poetic power.”
So some poets compose poetry glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because it contains glorification of the Lord, great personalities read, chant it and hear it. Although some faults and errors may exist in their poetry one should read it on the matter of its subject matter. According to the vaishnava philosophy any literature which glorifies the Lord is considered glorious whether they are properly written or not. It is considered first class and there is no need of other considerations.
“I am not even fit to be your disciple; therefore kindly do not take seriously whatever childish impudence I have shown.”
He told the Digvijay, you please go home for today. Tomorrow we can discuss some more.
You must be very tired after the long recitation and it is getting real late, so go rest.
The Lord was so gentle in His behavior that even if He defeated someone they did not feel any kind of distress. His behavior was soft like a lotus.
After the Lord defeated each of the professors at Navadvip, the Lord spoke sweetly satisfying them with His behavior. So no one felt distressed by being defeated by the Lord.
The Lord continued to speak, go home for today and then look at your books and come tomorrow and I will ask you questions and you can give Me the answers. So that was the Lord’s system. He would ask questions and the other teachers could not answer His questions but then He would talk to them very sweetly and they would be appeased.
“Please go back home and we may meet again so that I may hear discourses from the shaastras from your mouth”
Even after defeating someone the Lord would not insult him. Rather all those whom He defeated, the people were happy these were the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. The Lord was not hampering one’s personal prestige.
For that reason, all the pandits of Navadvip dham, they all respected the Lord and had great affection to Lord Caitanya.
The Lord accompanied by His students went to His home. The Digvijay Keshav Kashmiri was feeling great shame inside.
“In this way both the poet and Caitanya Mahaprabhu went back to their homes and at night the poet worshipped mother Saraswati.”
The greatly saddened brahmana was thinking again and again, that mother Saraswati had personally given me a blessing.
With logic and analytical study of the material nature, the yoga system, the mimamsa philosophy, the vaisheshika and Vedanta experts whomever I have met, within this world, there is no one who was able to compete with me. Who could compete with me, what to speak of defeat me? He met philosophers of the six philosophies of India and they were not able to enter into debate with him, what to speak of defeat him.
He teaches children grammar, this brahmana, He has defeated me. This is certainly an act of providence. So the Digvijay was lamenting that he had been defeated by this brahmana Boy and he did not understand why he was defeated. Nevertheless, this young Boy was expert in Sanskrit grammar and has defeated even an experienced champion like myself.
It seems to be that Saraswati’s benediction has proved to be a failure. So this has created a big doubt in my mind.
Have I committed some offence at the lotus feet of mother Saraswati? Is that why my intelligence was diminished? So he was wondering what offence he committed against Saraswati that he was defeated by a grammarian despite being great Sanskrit poet. Therefore, he thought I must have done some offence.
I cannot understand what is the reason for my failure. What is the cause of my defeat? Saying that he began chanting the mantra, sitting down. So we will end here. Any questions?
Question: How to approach a person who is into some demigod worship deeply, for preaching?
Guru maharaj: Try to get them to first offer puja to Vishnu tattva and then offer the prasad to the devas. This way their worship of demigods is done, but in the right way.
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari dd
8 July 2018
Guru maharaj: Try to get them to