Nama Om…
Mukham karoti vaachalam…
So yesterday we had the Gita Jayanti and all over the world people were worshipping and distributing Bhagavad Gitas. It was also Ekadasi, so today Ekadasi breakfast time was 6.25 to 6.27 am – we had two minutes to break the fast. So all our clocks were different times. So we used our mobile phones for the internet time. Steady, ready and at 6.25.10 we broke our fast!! Jai Jagannath! We took Lord Jagannath’s dry rice prasad. Today at breakfast time we had khichdi with paapad and tomato chutney and little dahi. So we ended our Ekadasi this way. We had our physical therapy this morning and after taking oil bath we took water bath and went down, and chanted Gayatri in the sun and then cycled 260 pedals.
So now we are giving class, compiling the Caitanya lila. Lord Vishwambhar went to Gaya to perform the final rites for His father, then He met Ishwara Puri maharaj and took initiation and after that He manifested love for Godhead in Bihar. And He came back to Navadvip and He told some of the vaishnavas His new state of mind. He told His mother, and gave mother Sachi lots of instructions. Then He was teaching His students, He told them that He cannot teach them anymore. That they have learnt enough about shaastra and now He would just talk about Krishna. They said they just wanted to know about the chanting of the holy names. So now Lord Caitanya is teaching them how to chant sankirtan. So He was in ecstasy and He fell unconscious now He has regained His consciousness. So we will continue from that.
When the Lord regained His external consciousness, He did not talk any mundane topics. Rather, He grabbed all the vaishnavas by their necks and holding them He was crying in ecstasy.
Together all the vaishnavas pacified the Lord and then all the vaishnavas left in great happiness.
Some of the students went with the Lord and followed a detached path and they were absorbed in the ecstasy of Krishna Prema. So some of the students of Lord Caitanya were inspired to follow Lord Caitanya and accept vaanaprastha or sanyas. They didn’t accept vaanaprastha or sanyas in the same way that a materialist does. They didn’t accept vaanaprastha or sanyas like the materialist, mundane, mental, speculator. They were inspired by the intense ecstasy of Krishna’s devotional service, to accept proper vaishnav vaanaprastha or vaishnav sanyas. In other words, Lord Caitanya is the example of total absorption in Krishna and inspired many people around Him to also follow the path of pure devotional service.
So in this way Gaurasundar Mahaprabhu started to manifest His own glories. All the devotees’ sadness was vanquished or destroyed.
When all the devotees saw the Lord’s wonderful love, they were all greatly amazed. All the devotees, their minds were overwhelmed in great wonder.
In great satisfaction the vaishnavas went to Advaita Acharya and they informed him what they had seen.
The most powerful Advaita Gosain, by the strength of his bhakti yoga immediately understood “the Lord has incarnated.”
Again the truth of Advaita Gosain is difficult to understand. Sometimes He manifests Himself, sometimes He hides Himself. You can read more about Advaita Acharya from the Caitanya Caritamrita Adi Lila, chapter 6, verses 26 – 30, 33 – 37, 42 and 43, 113 to 115. So Advaita Acharya is an expansion of the Maha Vishnu. His name Sri Advaita means He is non-different from the Lord. So Maha Vishnu is the one who creates all the universes. Now He has descended to give bhakti to deliver all the living beings. He would explain Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam in the light of devotional service. Yamunacharya, he offers a prayer in his Stotra Ratna:
“Oh my Lord everything within material nature is limited by time, space and thought, Your characteristics however, being unequal and unsurpassed are always transcendental to such limitations. You sometimes cover such characteristics by Your own energy but nevertheless Your unalloyed devotees are always able to see You in all circumstances.”
So Advaita Acharya is also a Vishnu Tattva but the original personality of Godhead is Krishna and He has descended as Sri Krishna Caitanya. So He is essentially gifted to give out pure devotional service, to give out Krishna Prema, pure love of Godhead. So Advaita, He could give salvation, but to give pure love required His original form. So He prayed to Krishna, please come down. So Krishna came as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and He manifested His mercy.
When Advaita Acharya heard this news He became fully absorbed and He was very happy. And then He began to speak as follows.
Hear my confidential subject matter. My brothers, certainly I saw last night, something in a dream.
Reading a passage from Bhagavad Gita, one verse I didn’t understand very well. So I was unhappy. And took rest without eating.
In the dead of the night someone came and spoke to me in a dream, cries Acharya, go and take your meal.
What you read, I am telling you the meaning. Rise up and take your meal and worship Me.
Why are you feeling sad? You have gotten whatever you have performed your resolution for. You have got everything you wanted.
The fasting you did, the worship you did, the way you cried and called the name of Krishna, that thing for which you raised your hands and made your promises, that Prabhu, that Lord, that you wanted has now manifested. So elaboration of these verses is found in the Caitanya Caritamrita in the Adi Lila 3rd Chapter verses 92 and 96 – 110. Advaita Goswami is the incarnation of the Lord as a devotee. His calling the Lord was the reason of Krishna’s incarnation. When Advaita descended, He found the world was devoid of devotional service to Sri Krishna because, the people were engrossed in material affairs. So He thought if Lord K Himself came, then He could preach by His example. In this age of kali there is no other religion than chanting of the name of Krishna. He is thinking how can I get Krishna to appear and He remembered that there was a verse in the Gautamiya Tantra. So it gave the process of offering Tulasi and special water and that the Lord is very much favorably inclined to His devotees. So in this way one can worship the Lord. So Advaita thought, He would use this process. So Krishna cannot think how He will repay the debt to someone who offers Tulasi and Ganges water. So the Lord nullifies the debt by giving Himself to the devotees. So Advaita Acharya, considering this, He started worshipping the Lord with Tulasi leaves, Tulasi manjaris and Ganges water. He appealed to the Lord, with loud calls and made Krishna to appear possible. So therefore this was the principle reason for the Lord’s descent, it was the appeal by Advaita Acharya. The Lord, the protector of all religions appears by the desire of His devotees. So the Lord Vishwambhar, He came down to this world on the request of some devotees like Advaita Acharya and He came to show how one can love Krishna. How you can love God. In many holy scriptures of different religions, they say that one should love thy God but how to do that? There is no hint on how to do that. Lord Caitanya came to show us how to love God. He came to show us how to love Himself!! So although He is the Lord, He came as a devotee. And He did not reveal who He was except to a very small circle. So Advaita could understand that He had prayed for Krishna to come down and that now He was fulfilling that.
All countries will have the chanting of Krishna’s kirtan from house to house, town to town eventually.
That pure devotional service that is rare even for Lord Brahma, will be available to everyone by Your mercy. So it goes down. I will continue tomorrow. Are there any questions?
Question: How much does astrology affect a devotee’s life?
Guru maharaj: One astrologer offered Prabhupad to read his chart. Prabhupad said, alright, then he turned to the devotees, we will take it with a grain of salt! Astrology tells us the forces that are playing on us since our birth but they can also be changed by Krishna and of course there is the possibility that the astrologer did not read your chart properly. Or that the nurse did not write the exact time of your appearance and then there is a limitation of the astrologer. Next question.
Hello Leslie, (Leslie Bauer) my purva ashram sister! Am I more understandable now?
Question: Can non initiated devotee give Srimad Bhagavatam class and can he or she sit on the Vyasa aasan?
Guru maharaj: You don’t sit on the Vyasa aasan as such, that is called the Bhagavat aasan and that is to offer respect to the Bhagavatam, that the Bhagavatam is on a higher platform and we sit there to read scripture. So one can sit on the Bhagavat aasan, but if you are not following strictly then there will be kind of offence on your part. So that’s for the individual to think. If you are following the four regulative principles, chanting 16 rounds, under shelter of spiritual master in Iskcon, then I think you can sit on the Bhagavat aasan if you are requested to.
Question: Kaivalya Sundari dd: You said that there were only two minutes’ window to break Ekadasi fast today. How important is it to breakfast in the exact times? What does it mean for those who steadfastly followed Ekadasi but failed to breakfast in the tiny window? I was told one time that it means that my whole Ekadasi fast did not count. It was as if I ate grains. Please set me and others straight on this?
Guru maharaj: Well I haven’t seen this written anywhere. But it is the tradition that you break the fast at the prescribed time. I heard that if you didn’t break it at that time, your Ekadasi was not complete. What that actually meant, whether it means you ate grain, I don’t know. I don’t know if that is a fact but the Ekadasi fast is not complete So your fast was somehow not successful. So we always ask when is the parana time, when is the breakfast time, usually it is 3-4 hours from sun rise to 10 o clock or so. So this is a rare thing that it is two minutes. I was once in California and the fast was to be broken in one minute. I was at some gym working out and they called me up and said you have 45 seconds to break your fast. But exactly what happens when you don’t break your fast, that I will have to look it up. But I know that you are supposed to break it at the proper time.
(In response to the devotees saying that guru maharaj’s voice was clearer today and understandable, guru maharaj said)
This is the voice therapy. I was 45 days with a tracheostomy and I could not speak. And then after that I was not accustomed to speaking. Then I had a voice therapy, where they are training me how to speak. So I am glad that more people can understand me. Hare Krishna!
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari dd
20 December 2018