Nama Om Vishnu Paadaya, ….
Hari Haraaya Naam Krishna Yadavaya Naama Hari Gopal Govinda Rama Sri Madhusudhan
Mukham karoti…
(There was no audio for 2.57 minutes in the beginning)
Today is the auspicious appearance day of Advaita prabhu, Advaita Saptami. By the mercy of Advaita acharya and Srila Prabhupad, we have the birthplace temple of Advaita Gosain. It is in the north east of Bangladesh. We can see Meghalaya, India from that place. There is a holy river there, where Advaita Gosain, He called all the holy rivers on a particular thithi. So tens of thousands of devotees come on that thithi and bathe in that river. I went there by helicopter. That is another story. But we installed the deity of Advaita Gosain and we have a temple and a Nath Mandir there. So like this we have several important places in Bangladesh. The birth place of Rupa and Sanatan is worshipped by someone else but we are 3 km from there where Rupa and Sanatan grew up. We call that the Rupa Sanatan smrithi thirtha. We also have Pundarik Vidyanidhi, the third branch of Lord Caitanya’s tree, we have his birthplace. We have Srivas Thakur’s birthplace, and we have also recently attained Narottam das Thakur’s place, and some other places as well. The birthplace of Sachi mata, we have a temple nearby. So like that so many temples in Bangladesh. We are fortunate to get the birthplaces and lila places of these great associates of Lord Caitanya. Today I had my physical therapy in the morning and now I am on a marathon to read the GBC proposals and comment on the ones that I want. The 14th of February is the deadline. So we have two more days. Considering that, this day is almost over. So now we will start reading Lord Caitanya’s next chapter, Prayers by the devotees.
How many verses in this chapter? (Devagauranga das said not many, 10 or 15)
Glories, glories, GLORIES! To the Lord of all the universes! Please give Your auspicious glance over the conditioned souls who are resident in these universes, who are afflicted by the three-fold material miseries. Haribol!
All glories to the original cause of everything! All glories to everyone’s Father! All glories, all glories to the incarnation who has come to start the sankirtan yagna, to inaugurate the sankirtan movement! Although you see, the process of sankirtan is mentioned in various scriptures, but people are inclined to more solitary japa and meditations. To award the highest benediction in this Kali yuga, Sri Gaurasundar revealed the necessity of sankirtan sacrifice, the congregational, loud chanting of the holy names! Haribol! Hare Krishna!
All glories, all glories to the protector of the Vedic dharma and principles. All glories to the protector and deliverer of the saintly persons! All glories, all glories to one who has given life to everyone from Brahma down to the nonmoving living entities. Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita that He delivers the saintly persons and He chastises or annihilates the atheists. Paritraanaaya sadhunaam vinashaya cha dushkritam. So every yuga, the Lord comes and inaugurates the particular sacrifice for that yuga and the Vedic sacrifice recommended for this kali yuga is chanting the holy names of the Lord. So non-devotees, they follow various godless religious principles, things which are contrary to Vedic principles. So they are praying that let Sri Gaurasundar, Gaurahari, let Him be profusely glorified! He is the creator, the life giver for all the living entities, from Brahma down to the inanimate living entitites like plants and jewels.
All glories, all glories to the deliverer of the fallen souls who is a reservoir of transcendental qualities! An ocean of transcendental qualities! All glories, all glories to the Supreme shelter of the poor, and who is the friend of the poor!
All glories, all glories to the cowherd boy who lives in the middle of the milk ocean! All glories all glories to Him who manifests His pastimes for the sake of His devotees. Vrajendra Nandan, He is the original source of everything. In the Brahma Samhita it says He is the cause of all causes, and He is without any cause Himself. He is the original person, and He is also present in the heart of every living entity as the Paramatma or Supersoul. He shows His pastimes as a cowherd boy in Vrndavan, and He has appeared certainly as Gaurahari. So with a desire to manifest His own service, He manifested His Gaura pastimes, to satisfy the devotees. In the Bengali it says gopavaasi which could be He who resides in secret, guptavaas.
All glories all glories to the Lord, the Supreme Lord, who is inconceivable, unfathomable and the original truth! All glories all glories to the supremely gentle form of pure goodness, shuddha satva! Here in Chennai we have a restaurant called Shuddha Satva, ha! Lord Caitanya is the most gentle form of shuddha satva. Anything you can order in Chennai on Zomato and Swiggy, you can order preparations from Shuddha Satva and they will deliver it to your house!
All glories all glories, to the deliverer and the ornament of the brahmana community! All glories all glories to the Supreme Lord who is the deliverer of the brahmana community and the deliver and ornament of the brahmana community! All glories to the original giver of the Vedic principles and the life of all the living entities! So Gaurahari is the personification of the Vedic religious principles. The life and soul of all living entities and the most pure ornament and deliverer of the brahmana community. Devotees are offering all these prayers to Lord Caitanya.
All glories all glories to the deliverer of the fallen Ajamila. All glories all glories to the Lord who has delivered Putana, who is the performer of sinful deeds! He delivered her from all her sins, and gave her liberation as one of His mothers, in the spiritual world.
All glories all glories, who is the beloved Lord of Lakshmi devi who does not see the faults of others. In this way the great souls, the great devotees offered their prayers to the Lord.
Thus ends the chapter entitled Prayers by devotees under the second 21-hour ecstasy. Haribol! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Nitai Gauranga Nitai Gauranga!
So we read earlier how Lord Caitanya said to Advaita that because of You, I have come to this world and brought My associates with Me. So today Lord Advaita appeared and therefore we observed half day fast. So today is a sacred day. Advaita is not different from Mahavishnu and Sadashiva. So He came down and He brought the Lord, Caitanya. So we are very grateful to Him. Every year we observe the Govinda Dvadasi, the day He celebrates the disappearance of Madhavendra Puri. We go to Shantipur and distribute prasadam to about 30-40 thousand people. There Lord Caitanya said whoever takes prasadam at this place on this thithi, they get pure devotion for Govinda! Some years ago they asked me if Iskcon would do this puja, so we took it as a special mercy, and we have been doing it ever since. Prabhupad, he had written many letters to this temple of Advaita. If he didn’t get a place in Mayapur, he was thinking about making his world headquarters in Shantipur. So he had discussed that with Shanti Sakha Goswami and I saw the letters that he sent to him. This place has a temple where the three Prabhus had taken prasadam Lord Caitanya, Nityananda, Advaita. Lord Caitanya said that I am not a sanyasi, give Me a little prasadam, little bit! And Lord Nityananda said, I am hungry, I AM HUNGRY! I want you feed me properly. I have been fasting for several days now! I want good prasad. So there is a contrast – Lord Caitanya says give me little bit and Lord Nityananda says give a lot! At one point Nityananda threw some rice on Advaita and Advaita started jumping in joy ha! Although he was a very strict brahmana and was having some jhutha, some contaminated prasad thrown on Him, He took it as a blessing because it was the prasadam of Lord Nityananda prabhu, so he was dancing!! Then He said to Lord Nityananda, because of You my principles of Brahmanism are spoiled! Like this they were having nice pastimes with each other. We cannot understand what They are doing, but They were enjoying this transcendental relationship. So today is the day that Sri Advaita appeared in this world. All glories to Sri Advaita! Are there any questions? If there were any words that you had difficulty in understanding what I said, then please send me them up on the comments of this live Facebook class or give them to Ekarani devi dasi here, she is lifting her beautiful hand up!
Question: Dearmost guru maharaj, when bhakti yoga is the ultimate and topmost process, why is it kept rare/confidential? And why Lord Gauranga is gupt avatar if He is known in all the universes? Then all conditioned souls can easily be delivered but why He is rare? Shanta Gopi devi dasi.
Guru maharaj: Lord Krishna goes to every universe. Sometimes after Krishna Lord Caitanya comes. So I would assume that He visits every universe, since Krishna does. But He doesn’t visit every day of Brahma. Sometimes. You see, most people they pray to God to give them material benediction. Some people they want liberation, salvation. Those who want it, some get it. But that is rare! Because wanting is not enough, you have to work for it also. So there are different kinds of salvation, and the impersonal salvation is achieved or desired by most, and those that want to achieve the Lord’s service, they are more rare, and those who actually achieve it are still more rare! And those who get the service of Krishna, the supreme form of the Personality of Godhead, is most rare! So part of the fault is ourselves. We are not glorifying Krishna enough, people do not know that He is the summum bonum, He is the original cause, and therefore they want other things. So we try to tell people to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. And we should take up Lord Caitanya’s mission, everyone we meet we should tell them about the teachings of Krishna. Jaare dekho taare kaho Krishna upadesh – whomsoever you meet you should tell them about the principles taught by Lord Krishna and by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, one can achieve Krishna’s mercy very easily. How we get the mercy, that is unfathomable. Prabhupad has made our good fortune for us. Haribol! Srila P ki jai!
Last question.
Question: Only Putana was sent to the spiritual world, what about other demons killed by Krishna? Hemangi Vishaka devi dasi
Guru maharaj: Hemangi Vishaka dd, most demons killed by Krishna go to the impersonal Brahman, which is also for them a blessing. Because Putana gave her breast to Lord Krishna, and He sucked , her breast, and sucked out her life air, because she wanted to kill Krishna, she had put poison on her breast. And also she thought that if I had a baby I would like one like this. Too bad I have to kill Him! So Krishna reciprocated with her and killed her, but also because He sucked her breast milk like a mother, like a baby sucks mother, and because she desired for a baby like this, so He elevated her to the spiritual world as one of His mothers. So not every demon is so fortunate. She desired it and she acted like a mother.
Any other question?
Question: Dearest guru maharaj, what should be our prayer to Sri Advaita Acharya be on this auspicious day of His appearance?
Guru maharaj: Good question. One is of course, if we have made any conscious or unconscious offence, that we can be forgiven. Just as He brought Lord Caitanya into this world, can He bring us to the service of the Lord, would he be so kind to bring us to Lord Caitanya’s service?!
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
12 February 2019