Srila Madhavendra Puri’s Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: Today is the disappearance day of Srila Madhavendra Puri. So, the authorities here said I could speak about Madhavendra Puri today instead of the regular Bhāgavatam class. They also said I could go a little longer because the Deity is open later today. Madhavendra Puri is extremely important to us in Gaudiya-vaiṣṇava-sampradāya. He was the spiritual master of Isvara Puri, who later became the spiritual master of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Madhavendra Puri also initiated Advaita Acharya and initiated Nityananda Prabhu as well. We have many things to learn from Madhavendra Puri about how to act as devotees. Madhavendra Puri introduced some new features in our disciplic succession, which were later expanded by Sri Chaitanya and his followers.

First, we will discuss some of those items, and then we will read about the disappearance of Madhavendra Puri. When Lord Chaitanya went to Orrisa from Bengal, he stopped at the temple of Khirchora Gopinatha at Remuna. Lord Chaitanya told the story of Madhavendra Puri as he heard it from his spiritual master, Isvara Puri. When Lord Chaitanya later went to Vrindavan to the birthplace of Lord Krishna in Mathura, he was dancing in ecstasy. He was met by one Sānoḍiyā-brāhmaṇa who also joined him in dancing in ecstasy. Afterwards, they talked, and the Sānoḍiyā-brāhmaṇa revealed that he had been accepted by Madhavendra Puri as a disciple when Madhavendra Puri had visited earlier.

In the caste system of Hindu society, there are different types of brahmans who deal with different types of people. So the Sānoḍiyā-brāhmaṇa dealt with lower-class people, and because he dealt with lower-class people, he himself was considered to be lower class by association. Just like now, the Jagannatha temple in Puri, in principle, they don’t let foreigners or non-Hindus into the temple. And now they also don’t allow Hindu Indian ISKCON devotees to enter, and the reason is because of their association with us; they’re considered to have become contaminated and fallen. So the same principle applied for the Sānoḍiyā-brāhmaṇas. Because he was ministering to the lower-class people, he was considered to be lower class. Still, Madhavendra Puri accepted him as a disciple and took prasāda prepared by him at his house. Thus, he established the principle that one’s spiritual advancement is more important than one’s birth or one’s caste.

Later on, Madhavendra Puri went to Govardhana to Govinda Kunda, and his principle was that he would not ask for food or make arrangements to get food, but he would accept whatever came of its own by the grace of the Lord. So at Govinda Kunda, Madhavendra Puri was chanting the holy name of the Lord and fasting. For three days, he didn’t get anything to eat. So, one young cowherd boy came to him with a pot of milk and asked, “Who are you? What is your method of worship? Why are you fasting?” The boy said, “I am from this village, and here nobody is allowed to fast,” and so he gave him some milk and said he would come back soon to get the pot. The boy left and didn’t come back, but at night, the boy appeared again in Madhavendra Puri’s dream. He said, “I have been watching you and waiting for you to come to accept your service. I am buried in the bushes in my deity form, and so you please come and take me out.” Lord Krishna, in the dream, took the hand of Madhavendra Puri and led him to the place where the deity was buried or hidden. Thus, Madhavendra Puri called all the townspeople, took out the deity and they installed the deity, distributed prasāda, and so on.

Two years later, the deity appeared again to Madhavendra Puri in a dream and told him that, “I am feeling very hot, so you please go and get some sandalwood to rub into my body to make me feel cool.” Madhavendra Puri went to Orissa. When he was in Bengal, he met Advaita Acharya at Shantipur. Advaita Acharya was very impressed with his ecstatic love for God and took initiation from him. Here is another example set by Advaita Acharya and Madhavendra Puri. Because according to smārta regulations, one should only accept initiation from a householder brahman, not from a sannyasi. By accepting Madhavendra Puri as a spiritual master, Advaita Acharya showed by example the principle later enunciated by Lord Chaitanya: kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya, it doesn’t matter if one is a brahman, sudra, or a sannyasi; if he knows the science of Krishna, he can be a guru.

So, Madhavendra Puri went to Orissa to get the sandalwood. He got about eighty-one pounds of sandalwood and eight ounces of camphor, which was very valuable, and with the help of two assistants, he was to carry it by foot all the way to Govardhana. Madhavendra Puri was not eating sometimes; he was tolerating so many difficulties and inconveniences to bring the sandalwood to Vrindavan. But when he got to Remuna, again the Lord appeared in his dream and said, “If you offer the sandalwood paste to the body of Gopinatha in Remuna, then Gopal at Govardhana would feel relieved.” Madhavendra Puri didn’t care anything for his bodily comforts or discomforts. He was ready to accept all types of inconvenience for the service of the Lord. This is another example for us to follow. Although there were so many difficulties carrying the sandalwood, going by foot, having to deal with the Muslims who were ruling the country, and being harassed in so many ways by them, just the fact that he was rendering devotional service to the Lord gave him sufficient happiness, and he didn’t care for material inconveniences.

Now we will come to the actual disappearance pastime of Madhavendra Puri. Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, Chapter Eight,

TEXT 19

purī-gosāñi kare kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana
‘mathurā nā pāinu’ bali’ karena krandana

TRANSLATION

Mādhavendra Purī was chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, and sometimes he would cry, “O my Lord, I did not get shelter at Mathurā.”

One disciple of Madhavendra Puri, Ramachandra Puri, was so foolish that at that time, he fearlessly dared to instruct his spiritual master. “If you are in full transcendental bliss,” he said, “you should now remember only Brahman. Why are you crying?”

So, Ramachandra Puri was actually a latent impersonalist, and he couldn’t understand the transcendental feelings of separation of Madhavendra Puri. He mistook Madhavendra Puri’s ecstatic feelings of separation from Krishna to be material lamentation. So he advised him, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati: if you are situated in Brahman, then you won’t hanker for anything or lament about anything. So you should be fixed in Brahman.” Besides being an impersonalist, he was an offender to his spiritual master by advising him like this.

TEXT 21

Having heard this instruction, Madhavendra Puri, greatly angry, rebuked him by saying, “Get out, you sinful rascal!”

TEXT 23

“Oh my Lord Kṛṣṇa, I could not reach you, nor could I reach your abode, Mathura. I am dying in my unhappiness, and now this rascal has come to give me more pain. Don’t show your face to me. Go anywhere else you like.

If I see your face, I shall not achieve the destination of my life. I am dying without achieving the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, and therefore I am greatly unhappy. Now this condemned foolish rascal has come to instruct me about Brahman.”

TEXT 26

Ramachandra Puri was thus denounced by Madhavendra Puri. Due to his offense, gradually developed material desires within him.

Here we can see the effects of vaiṣṇava-aparādha or guru-aparādha, that when one offends the pure Vaishnava or the spiritual master, he is condemned and develops material desires. Material desires come in different forms. One form is the gross desire to enjoy the material senses, and another form is the subtle desire to merge into Brahman. Both are considered material desires. Especially in relation to Ramachandra Puri, the material desire that became very strongly manifest in his heart was impersonalism. He became absorbed in dry speculation and in finding fault with Vaishnavas. This is the great fault of the Mayavadis, that they can’t appreciate the Vaishnavas. They think their sentiments are material, their devotional service is material. They think that their worshipable Lord is material or assumed the material form, and therefore, they commit offenses. Lord Chaitanya has warned us about Mayavadis to avoid their association. Even one who is liberated, jivan-mukta, he can fall down if he offends the pure Vaishnava of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. it is stated in the scriptures.

TEXT 27

One who is attached to dry speculative knowledge has no relationship with Kṛṣṇa. His occupation is criticizing Vaiṣṇavas. Thus he is situated in criticism.

TEXT 28

Īśvara Purī, the spiritual master of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, performed service to Mādhavendra Purī, cleaning up his stool and urine with his own hand.

TEXT 29

Īśvara Purī was always chanting the holy name and pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa for Mādhavendra Purī to hear. In this way he helped Mādhavendra Purī remember the holy name and pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at the time of death.

TEXT 30

Pleased with Īśvara Purī, Mādhavendra Purī embraced him and gave him the benediction that he would be a great devotee and lover of Kṛṣṇa.

TEXT 31

Thus Īśvara Purī became like an ocean of ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, whereas Rāmacandra Purī became a dry speculator and a critic of everyone else.

TEXT 32

Īśvara Purī received the blessing of Mādhavendra Purī, whereas Rāmacandra Purī received a rebuke from him. Therefore these two persons, Īśvara Purī and Rāmacandra Purī, are examples of the objects of a great personality’s benediction and punishment. Mādhavendra Purī instructed the entire world by presenting these two examples.

I think there is verse in Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which says that the dust of lotus feet of the devotees is very powerful and the same dust can promote one to Vaikuntha, and the same dust can one send to hell. Such is the power of the dust of the lotus feet of the devotee. If one serves the dust of lotus feet of devotee, one is benedicted with the love of Godhead. and if one offends the lotus feet of the pure devotee, he goes to hell. The Padma-Purana also confirm that one sees the deity simply as the stone and think that spiritual master as the ordinary man or think that Vaishnava belong to certain nation or community, such a person is a residence of hell.

So, we have to be very careful while dealing with the devotees, with spiritual master. Serve them favorably, not to offend them. We come to holy dhāma to chant the holy name of the Lord without offense. And two very dangerous offenses are: to blaspheme the Vaishnavas and disobey the spiritual master. So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura who also resided here in Mayapur dhāma and help to reveal the holy dhāma and glories of the holy name has written about holy name in one book call Harināma-cintāmaṇi. He discusses the ten offenses and other aspects of the holy name. And in discussion about guror avajñā, means to disobey the spiritual master or disrespect the spiritual master or in extreme case to reject the spiritual master. So, first is to find a bona fide spiritual master, emphasizing the main point: he should be pure devotee of Krishna. He does not matter that what caste or community he comes from but the main qualification is that he should know the science of Krishna and fully engage in the service of Lord Krishna. Then he discusses the case of spiritual master who is bona fide in the beginning, falls down. Then he says that it is not offense to rejects such fallen spiritual master. But one should reject such a fallen spiritual master and instead accept a bona fide spiritual master in his place.

Then he discusses case where someone reject someone who actually a bona fide spiritual master and he said that such a person is the greatest offender and he should be shunned by devotees, and that by such an offense even demigods can fall down to hell. So, Madhavendra Puri also showed us the results of a disciple who offends the spiritual master. He was actually thinking that he was superior to his spiritual master that he was more advanced than his spiritual master and that he could instruct his spiritual master, so therefore he was a great offender and he fell lower and lower as a result of his offense.

TEXT 33

His Divine Grace Mādhavendra Purī, the spiritual master of the entire world, thus distributed ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. While passing away from the material world, he chanted the following verse.

ayi dīna-dayārdra nātha he
mathurā-nātha kadāvalokyase
hṛdayaṁ tvad-aloka-kātaraṁ
dayita bhrāmyati kiṁ karomy aham

TRANSLATION

“O My Lord! O most merciful master! O master of Mathurā! When shall I see You again? Because of My not seeing You, My agitated heart has become unsteady. O most beloved one, what shall I do now?”

In this verse Mādhavendra Purī teaches how to achieve ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. By feeling separation from Kṛṣṇa, one becomes spiritually situated.

So, Madhavendra Puri actually introduced ecstatic law for Krishna in the conjugal mood into the disciplic succession coming from Lord of Brahma and Madhvacharya. He was actually the first one in the disciplic succession to manifest such ecstatic feelings of love for Krishna in the mood of separation especially, in the mood of vipralambha. And the verse that he recited, that verse was actually spoken by Srimati Radharani and it was personally revealed to Madhavendra Puri by Srimati Radharani. And when Lord Chaitanya heard the verse, he also experienced great transcendental ecstasy. And it is said that except for these three persons: Srimati Radharani, Madhavendra Puri and Lord Chaitanya, no one else could understand the deep significance of that verse.

So, we can just imagine how exhausted was Madhavendra Puri and how important he is because from Madhavendra Puri, the seed of ecstatic love for Krishna in separation was planted, and it later grew into a great tree in the form of Lord Chaitanya. And the same mood is passed down to us through Lord Chaitanya and his personal associates, the Six Gosvamis and the other acharyas in the line. So, the basic principle of the mood of separation is that the devotee feels very fallen and neglected by Krishna. In fact, this mood of Radharani, she feels very fallen and very aggrieved that she could not attain the goal of her life which is devotional service to Lord Krishna.

We shouldn’t think that devotees who are in the mood of separation want to have the association of Krishna for the sake of sense gratification or personal happiness, what they actually want is the service of Krishna. And not having the service of Krishna, they lament and they feel ‘What is the use of living without the service of Krishna.’ In fact, when Lord Chaitanya was feeling ecstasy in the mood of separation, crying and exhibiting so many other ecstatic symptoms, people would say “You have so much love for Krishna.” but Lord Chaitanya would reply, “I don’t have any love for Krishna. If I actually had love for Krishna I wouldn’t be living, the fact that I am able to remain alive shows that I have no love for Krishna.” So, this is the mood of Srimati Radharani and Lord Chaitanya, Madhavendra Puri and others.

Now, the question may arise that how do such exalted states of love of God relate to us? Clearly, we are not on that level. And another question that could arise is how does the mission of propagating creation of consciousness, the saṅkīrtana movement relate to such intense internal feelings? So, one story can help us to understand this, that once when Lord Krishna left the other gopīs in the rasa dance Srimati Radharani and her most confidential associates: Lalita devi and Vishakha devi, they became mad with separation from Krishna and they were rolling all over Vraja in search of Lord Krishna. And they would approach the trees and ask them, “Have you seen Krishna?” They would approach Govardhana hill and ask him, “Have you seen Krishna?” And then this way, they went deeper and deeper into transcendental madness and separation from Krishna and they became practically delirious in looking for Krishna and feeling that there was no use in living without the service of Krishna.

So, after they reached the most extreme state of feelings of separation, Lord Krishna appeared. And Srimati Radharani explained everything to Him that happened after He left them. And Lord Krishna was very pleased with Srimati Radharani and He asked her what wishes she had for Him to fulfill? So Srimati Radharani only asked for three things. Firstly, she asked that Krishna should never leave Vrindavan, He should always remain present in Vrindavan. Secondly, she asked that those who come to take shelter of Vrindavan who are somehow overpassing their days in Vrindavan trying to attain devotional service to Lord Krishna, they should not be disappointed but Krishna should fulfill their desire. And thirdly, she asked that anyone who wants to take shelter at the lotus feet of Krishna, Krishna should give them shelter and mercy.

So here, Srimati Radharani shows us that even in the most extreme state of personal anguish and separation from Krishna when she actually got the association of Krishna and could ask for whatever she wanted, she didn’t think of herself but she followed others, how others could be blessed with Krishna consciousness with Krishna’s mercy. So, this is actually the real mood of vipralambha that one isn’t thinking of his own sense gratification or personal happiness but he is actually thinking of others. He feels himself to be very fallen, therefore he feels that others are actually more fit to serve Krishna than he is. So, he always wants to arrange for others to get the chance to serve Krishna. Just like the gopīs they feel that Radharani can please Krishna more so they want to arrange for her to be with Krishna, and Radharani feels that they can please Krishna more so she wants to arrange for them to Krishna. So, this is actually the preaching mood that we want to arrange for others to serve Krishna, for others to give pleasure to Krishna, for others to get the association of Krishna. And therefore the inner feelings of Lord Chaitanya feeling separation from Krishna, we are not incompatible with his feeling of wanting to bestow mercy upon the fallen souls and enable them to serve Krishna.

So, even though we don’t have such feelings now, we can aspire to have such feelings and the way to actually develop such feelings is to serve the order of the spiritual master to preach. Srila Prabhupada actually said that the way to develop the love for Krishna of the gopīs is to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world. So, we should on this occasion pray to Madhavendra Puri for his mercy that we can become good servants of our spiritual masters, of Srila Prabhupada, of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and become their instruments to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world to make ISKCON strong to maintain what Srila Prabhupada gave us and to expand the book distribution and temples, number of devotees. And in this way, step by step, not artificially but step by step, we can also get the blessings of our spiritual masters, the blessings of the disciplic succession. Just like Isvara Puri got from Madhavendra Puri and develop some love of God. Hare Krishna.

Any questions?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:33:55]

Question: The question is, why does the Lord appear in a dream? Why not in person?

Giriraj Swami: Actually, the Lord does appear in person. Before he appeared in the dream of Madhavendra Puri, he appeared in person. But Madhavendra Puri couldn’t appreciated that the Lord had come. On the absolute platform, there is no difference because Krishna is Absolute, so He can come in whichever way He feels is most suitable to help the devotee.

Devotee: You mentioned how Madhavendra Puri was the first devotee in our line of exhibiting the mood of conjugal love, the mādhurya-rasa. Generally, we understand that one develops his rasas by the mercy of his guru, so obviously Madhavendra Puri’s guru wasn’t in that line. Can we just understand that Radharani is his guru?

Question: One develops one’s rasa with Krishna by the grace of the guru, so Madhavendra Puri was the first in the line to manifest ecstatic love in the conjugal relationship. Where did he get it from? Did he got it directly from Radharani?

Giriraj Swami: Well, in one sense, everyone gets conjugal love ultimately from Srimati Radharani, hlādinī-śakti. There are exceptional cases of special souls who can manifest ecstatic love due to some previous achievement in devotional service. Rupa Gosvami even discusses the same point in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that generally, one must serve the spiritual master and associate with the devotees, follow the regulated principles of devotional service in order to manifest ecstatic love. But sometimes it’s seen that someone, without going through the whole process, manifests ecstatic love. So Rupa Gosvami says that the only explanation is that such ecstatic love is the result of some past contact with devotional service. We may not know the details of Madhavendra Puri’s previous association, whether he came directly from the spiritual world or what exactly the situation was, but we can understand that he was already highly elevated from a past life. Like Haridasa Thakura also, we don’t read about his execution of Krishna consciousness but we just read of this manifestation of exalted quality.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:37:50]

Question: Maharaja says that we read that many of associates of Lord Chaitanya were gopī or mañjarīs. So, do we know, who Madhavendra Puri was?

Giriraj Swami: Certainly, he was a gopī because he was experiencing the mood of Radharani. That’s what the mādhurya-rasa is, and a very intimate or confidential associate because he could understand the verse, which only Srimati Radharani and Lord Chaitanya could otherwise understand. So I think we could safely conclude that he was a gopī, but which particular gopī, it’s hard to say. Harikesh Maharaja knows.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:39:14]

Giriraj Swami: Harikesh Maharaja says that in Śrī Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā, Rupa Gosvami says that Madhavendra Puri was a incarnation of a kalpavṛikṣa tree. There seems to be some confusion somewhere about the name of the book, the authors, so maybe we should look into it more with all due respect. Of course, it’s true that in Vrindavan, even devotees who aren’t gopīs, they have the sense of mādhurya-rasa, like Śukadeva Gosvami. He is supposed to be one of the parrots in Vrindavan. So from one point of view, you could say he is in śānta-rasa, a parrot, but even the parrots, they also get involved in Radha-Krishna’s affairs, and they carry messages and different things like that. In fact, anyway, there are so many creatures in Vrindavan, and they see the pastimes, they also take part. So the parrots, they fly hither and thither, carrying messages to facilitate the pastimes. So from one point of view, you could say śānta-rasa, but from another point of view, you could say mādhurya-rasa. So, that’s also possible.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Srila Madhavendra Puri disappearance day ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!