Nama Om…
Mukham karoti vaachalam…
Today we are continuing reading and compiling the Shri Krishna Caitanya book. We have many visitors here. We thank all of you for coming. And so far 105 on Facebook! But we hope more will come! So we got some news that in Avatari Desh in the Middle East a group of single devotees, who are married people and their wives are in India but they are staying in the Middle East. This group in the month of Damodar, they were able to engage 30,000 people to do offering of lamp to Damodar. I hope they will send their results to the Congregational Development Ministry. It seems that the total will be more than one million lamps, combining all over the world. So we are very grateful that these bachelors and these single married men have done such a tremendous seva, in spite of their heavy workload they found time to cultivate so many people. Normally those conditioned souls are very busy how to have sensual enjoyment but real happiness, the real satisfaction comes when we please guru and Krishna and we have a service attitude rather than being a godaasa or a slave to the senses we become goswamis or the controller of the senses. So today I had physiotherapy. I had voice therapy and I met with various devotees. I talked over the phone to the devotees in Avatari desh. So like this we hope that everyone will use their energies to please Krishna and to help people become liberated. So now we will start the reading.
This is Lord Caitanya speaking to His students. He talked about Ajamila that He remembered that his son who was named Narayana and who he called out at the time of leaving his body. Narayana! So then he remembered that this name is not the name of his son originally but this is the name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Narayana. By remembering this he ultimately went to Vaikuntha. So worship the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. Hare Krishna!
So Ajamila was the most fallen sinful person. He first uttered the name Narayana for calling his son. But as soon as he gave up this idea that the name was of his son and that Narayana, is non-different from the name of the person, he immediately attained liberation by the influence of naam aabhaas, the accidently chanting of the holy name and with that alone he was able to enter the spiritual kingdom VAIKUNTHA! Which is transcendental, beyond the region of mundane senses and beyond the jurisdiction of maya, the illusory energy of Krishna. You will find the description of Ajamila’s life in Srimad Bhagavatam canto 6, chapter 1, verses 26-28 as well as chpter 2 and 3 of canto 6.
Lord Shiva is going around naked; He serves the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. Those lotus feet are served by Lakshmi devi with great – Lakshmi devi wants to serve those lotus feet with great desire. So the Brahma Vaivartha purana also states the glories of Krishna. that if one wants to achieve the topmost abode, he should worship the lotus feet of Lord Govinda.
Anantadev, glorifies the lotus feet, the glories and the qualities to those lotus feet, one should take a straw in the teeth and worship those lotus feet of Lord Krishna.
Render devotional service to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. As long as one has life, as long as their body has the strength. In Srimad Bhagavatam 11th canto, 9th chap 29th verse, the mendicant the brahmana speaks the following to the king of the Yadus:
“After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober human being should quickly endeavor for the ultimate perfection of life as lons as his body, which is always subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most abominable species of life, whereas Krishna consciousness is possible only for a human being.”
So this point, Lord Caitanya is teaching His students that being a human being and being born as a brahmana in Navadvip, they should worship Krishna as long as they have life in their body. So this instruction is very potent and people today should also take advantage of Lord Caitanya and Srimad Bhagavatam’s instructions. The purpose of human life is to understand our real relationship with Krishna, to develop our Krishna consciousness To awaken our dormant love for Krishna. So this truth is largely absent from the modern psyche. He will not think that the human life is meant for understanding the higher spiritual goal. Instead they find unique ways to waste the valuable human form of life. Like sports, people surfing – Prabhupad called them sufferers, they were surfers but Prabhupad called them sufferers. So many activities but they are not including Krishna. So Lord Caitanya gave us a process which is simply blissful, singing Hare Krishna, dancing Hare Krishna, studying the teachings of Lord Krishna and serving Lord Krishna and feasting on His prasadam.
Krishna is your Mother; Krishna is your Father. Krishna is your life and wealth. I fall at your feet and beg you, engage your minds in thinking of Lord Krishna. So in this verse from the Caitanya Candramrita 90 states that someone has a very humble mood, he falls at the feet of some person, hundreds of times and he implores him with sweet words saying, oh noble soul, please throw out everything you have learnt, cultivate the attachment to the lotus feet of Shri Gauranga! GAURANGA! GAURANGA! GAURANGA! One devotee went to a Kazi, not Chand Kazi, another Kazi, and he said please chant Hare Krishna. He said, I will chant HK tomorrow. So he said oh, you just chanted Hare Krishna!! Don’t stop now!! And then one devotee went to a very aristo man and he said you are born in a very good family, you are handsome, you are rich, you are educated, you have all the good qualities, I have just one thing to request you, please. He said ok. He said forget everything you know, everything you have leave aside and take up the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Gauranga. GAURANGA!! So these devotees of Lord Gauranga would preach in these bold ways. In the Srimad Bhagavatam 7th canto, 1st chapter 32th verse, Narada muni speaks to Yudhisthir maharaj as follows:
“Somehow or other one must engage his mind in thinking of Krishna.” Haribol!
In the mood of a servant, Gaura Mahaprabhu singing His own glories since He is Krishna Himself, half the day passed. But there was no end in sight. The word seema means the end, completion and finished. So there is a song in the Aadivas kirtan yagna. So they say that when we chant for 24 hours from morning to next morning and the night before they do Aadivas, one of the ananader seema noi, ananda seema noi, there is no limit to the bliss. Nirananda dure jai – sadness goes far away – nirananda dure jai. Anander seema noi, anander seema noi, nirananda dure jai, niranande dure jai. So if we have can have questions more or less related to the text that would be much better. And if you want, we will answer just questions and answers one night. Otherwise we are meditating on Lord Caitanya teaching His students and many topics in relation to serving the Lord came up. So rather than having questions which take away the mind away from this beautiful meditation, better ask questions which are related to the class.
Question: Dearness of Radha Madhav – Guru maharaj, is it ok to think more of Lord Krishna than Lord Caitanya even though we depend on the mercy of Lord Caitanya to reach Krishna?
Guru maharaj: Lord Caitanya and Krishna are the same. But They are in different mood. There is not much information that people have about Krishna. Sometimes someone feels more attached to Krishna. But if you are attached to Lord Caitanya, automatically you are attached to Krishna. So devotees of Lord Caitanya they achieve the pastimes of Lord Krishna and Lord Caitanya and in Kali yuga we are not at all qualified to serve Lord Krishna but Lord Caitanya gave us the maha mantra and by chanting that we can go back to Krishna. As long as you are thinking about Lord Caitanya or Krishna, it is alright. Because Lord Caitanya sent us Prabhupad and he taught us Krishna consciousness.
Question: Ishwari Lalita devi dasi: Why the Lord and the devotees’ lotus feet are glorified in all the scriptures?
Guru maharaj: Why not? The scriptures are meant to help us to go back to Godhead. And it is only because of the devotion to the Lord and His devotees that one can go back. It is not by any good karma or other activities, not by taking sanyas, by doing austerities, not by any other reason but devotion to Krishna and service to His devotees.
Any other questions?
So sometime we will have a question and answer class, mostly questions here are not related.
Question: How to become attached to chanting the holy names of Krishna, not as a duty but out of pure love, pure desire so we can experience unlimited bliss always?
GM: In the Nectar Of Devotion it explains that there are two processes of vaidhi bhakti. One is simply following the rules and regulation but has not necessarily develop the taste, does it with a sense of duty. The second stage, one tells these activities spontaneously and that stage is called raaganuga, one likes performing these activities that leads one to the stage of bhaava bhakti where one develops loving ecstasy for the activities of service. So there are different levels of bhaava bhakti and that leads one to prema bhakti which is pure love of Krishna. So it is a gradual, systematic process. You first of follow rules and regulations, then the sankirtan leader or temple president or something service in which you can think how to execute service to Krishna. May be you cook, maybe you are pujari, something or the other it is like not mechanical spirit but trying to improve So then that will gradually purify one and take one to the ecstatic level. Where by chanting Hare Krishna they feel the trans ecstasy. Prabhupad he engaged us preaching so that we naturally take up this stage of raaganuga bhakti. Some people go to the holy places, to sit down and chant but that is a very slow process because when you go out and try to help people become Krishna conscious, that is more effective, more dynamic and it pleases Krishna more. In the 18th chapter of Bhagavad Gita it says that those who preach this message are very dear to Me. In this world they are the dear most. So we should not be confused that the outreach is something mundane. It’s the purpose why we are here. Hare Krishna!
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
14 December 2018