CC Antya 3.165–214 – The Glories of the Holy Name—Part 02

Giriraj Swami:

 CC Antya 3.212

yadyapi haridāsa viprera doṣa nā la-ilā
tathāpi īśvara tāre phala bhuñjāilā

TRANSLATION

Although Haridāsa Ṭhākura, as a Vaiṣṇava, did not take seriously the brāhmaṇa’s offense, the Supreme Personality of Godhead could not tolerate it, and thus he made the brāhmaṇa suffer the consequences.

TEXT 213

bhakta-svabhāva, — ajña-doṣa kṣamā kare
kṛṣṇa-svabhāva, — bhakta-nindā sahite nā pare

TRANSLATION

A characteristic of a pure devotee is that he excuses any offense by an ignorant rascal. A characteristic of Kṛṣṇa, however, is that He cannot tolerate blasphemy of His devotees.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The characteristic of a Vaiṣṇava and the characteristic of the Lord mentioned in this verse are very significant. In His Śikṣāṣṭaka (3) Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has taught the characteristics of a Vaiṣṇava:

tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

A Vaiṣṇava strictly follows this principle of being humbler than the grass and more tolerant than a tree, expecting no honor from others but offering honor to everyone. In this way, a Vaiṣṇava is simply interested in chanting about the Supreme Personality of Godhead and glorifying Him. Haridāsa Ṭhākura epitomized this foremost order of Vaiṣṇavism.

Kṛṣṇa, however, cannot tolerate any insults or blasphemy against a Vaiṣṇava. For example, Prahlāda Mahārāja was chastised by his father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, in so many ways, but although Prahlāda tolerated this, Kṛṣṇa did not. The Lord therefore came in the form of Nṛsiṁhadeva to kill Hiraṇyakaśipu. Similarly, although Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura tolerated the insult by Gopāla Cakravartī, Kṛṣṇa could not. The Lord immediately punished Gopāla Cakravartī by making him suffer from leprosy. While instructing Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī about the many restrictive rules and regulations for Vaiṣṇavas, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has very vividly described the effects of offenses at the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava. Yadi vaiṣṇava-aparādha uṭhe hātī mātā (Madhya 19.156). Offending or blaspheming a Vaiṣṇava has been described as the greatest offense, and it has been compared to a mad elephant. When a mad elephant enters a garden, it ruins all the creepers, flowers and trees. Similarly, if a devotee properly executing his devotional service becomes an offender at the lotus feet of his spiritual master or another Vaiṣṇava, his devotional service is spoiled.

TEXT 214

viprera kuṣṭha śuni’ haridāsa mane duḥkhī hailā
balāi-purohite kahi’ śāntipura āilā

TRANSLATION

Haridāsa Ṭhākura was unhappy when he heard that the brāhmaṇa Gopāla Cakravartī had been attacked by leprosy. Thus after informing Balarāma Ācārya, the priest of Hiraṇya Majumadāra, he went to Śāntipura, the home of Advaita Ācārya.

COMMENT

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written one song where he says, “If I see that someone else is happy, I become morose, and if I see that someone else is unhappy, I become happy.” He goes on to describe his faulty nature. And Srila Prabhupada used to sing this song, and it has been recorded with Srila Prabhupada’s explanation. But if I see that someone is going up, I try to bring him down. So Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that he is just the opposite of what a devotee should be. And he gives the examples of how.

Here Haridasa Thakura gives the example, what a devotee should be. But if we look at ourselves, we can see what is our position. If someone insults us or offends us, we think he is not to be blamed.” Of course, we may be wrong, but even if we are not wrong, like Haridasa Thakura was not wrong, even if we are not wrong, do you think, Well, he is ignorant. He can’t help it because he is ignorant.” I don’t think, Oh, he has offended me. He will pay for this. He can’t get away with this. Doesn’t he know who he is dealing with?

Well, if something bad happens to the person, you will think, Oh, just see, that rascal! Krishna punished him because of his offense against me. And we feel happy. Like some of us, when we heard this, we laughed. Haridasa Thakura was not happy when he heard that Gopal Cakravarti was attacked by leprosy. And he didn’t want to stay there; he didn’t feel like moving because he was insulted. Like if we are insulted, “Oh, I am going. I am going to Durban. I am going to my mother’s house.” He didn’t want to leave when he was insulted. But when he heard that Gopal Cakravarti was attacked by leprosy, then he wanted to leave. “Oh, the poor fellow has suffered because of me. Ultimately, I should leave.” Then he went to Shantipur and took shelter of Advaita Acharya.

So, are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:07:20]

Giriraj Swami: As we have been reading, different devotees are on different levels. Haridasa Thakura was fully surrendered to Krishna, and he was completely dependent on Krishna. Whatever happened, he didn’t mind. The magistrate arrested him and told him that you should give up hari-nāma. “If you don’t give up hari-nāma, we will punish you.” Haridasa Thakura replied, “Even if you take my body and cut it into little pieces, I will not give up hari-nāma.” He had no attachment for the body; he was attached only to the holy name and Krishna. He had no fear for the body, and he was completely dependent on the mercy of Lord Krishna. And even though they tried to beat him to death, he was protected by the Lord.

Now, we cannot imitate Haridasa Thakura. So, we should act according to our position, what is appropriate. Well, okay, we say Haridasa a Thakura was uttamā-bhāgavata. We are not uttamā-bhāgavata, so we cannot imitate him. If we are uttamā-bhāgavata, we will have faith in Krishna and we will depend on Krishna. And even if there are difficulties, even if there are problems, we will not leave Krishna consciousness because we have firm faith in Krishna and the process of Bhakti. Someone may not be madhyam Vaishnava also, so may be kaniṣṭhā bhakta. And they don’t have so much faith; they can leave. And if they are not dealt with properly, they can leave. Of course, leave can come in two forms: one is, he leaves the institution but doesn’t leave the practice of Krishna consciousness, and one is he leaves both, the institution and the practice of Krishna consciousness. So it may be that someone has faith, but he can’t work with the management of ISKCON. So he may leave the institution but continue with sādhana-bhakti. Or someone may feel so discouraged by what he perceives as the mistreatment of the devotees that he loses faith in the whole process, and he gives up everything.

So we don’t want devotees to give up the practice of Krishna consciousness. And as managers, we also don’t want devotees to leave ISKCON because they could help the mission of Srila Prabhupada in ISKCON. In perceiving the fact that the managers or people in positions of authority may not always deal the way they should, I wanted to create a system whereby devotees who were mistreated or abused could have recourse to justice. So, it is good because we are not on the level of Haridasa Thakura, and we can’t imitate him. So if someone is weak, but at the same time he feels that he can get help, then he may feel more protected, more secure in Krishna consciousness because he doesn’t have so much faith that Krishna will protect him. But if he sees that within the institution, there is protection, then he may maintain enough faith in the institution to continue his service. So, it is good for a big institution with so many people on so many levels, I think.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:13:50]

Giriraj Swami: Well, Hare Krishna is the maha-mantra and Hare Krishna can reveal different forms of Krishna and different pastimes of Krishna. The holy name is a desire tree. What to speak of the different forms of Krishna, it can give liberation, it can give material gain, it can give whatever the devotee wants. So, it can give material gain, it can give freedom from sinful reactions, it can give liberation, it can give Narayana, it can give Dwarkadhish, it can give Mathura, it can give Gopal, it can give Laddu-Gopal, it can give Gopinatha, it can give Radhanath, so according to desire of chanter.

So, a dṛḍha-vrata, at a stage, he has made a resolve that, “I will love Krishna as my master, come what may, but I will have Krishna as my master,” or “I will have Krishna as my friend, or my son, or whatever.” So, [Unintelligible 00:13:50], when Krishna as a master, or a friend, or a son, or a lover becomes dear to the devotee, then he will naturally chant the name of Krishna which is dear to him. And being on the liberated platform, when he chants the holy name, the form of Krishna which is dear to him, then the qualities and pastimes will also be revealed, and it all will be manifest. So, some of our acharyas like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami up to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, have given an explanation of the maha-mantra in terms of Radha and Krishna. They explain each line of the mantra in terms of the pastimes of Radha and Krishna, according to their realization.

Just like we have one hundred and eight beads in our mala, so they explain each line of the mantra one hundred and eight times, giving different pastimes. Just to give an example, Hari means “who steals away” or “who takes away.” So, they will say that in Hare Krishna, as an example, Hare means Radharani who is stealing Krishna away to the bushes of Vrindavan. And Rama, because everything in Sanskrit depends on how the words are joined, and the same conjunction can be explained differently. Like niyamāgraha. It can be niyaṁa-āgraha or niyama-agraha, but joined together, it is the same. And one means following the rules and regulations like a fanatic without understanding the goal, or it may mean neglecting the rules and regulations and acting independently or whimsically. Rama also means the goddess of fortune, which can also mean Srimati Radharani. So, Hare can mean Hari or Krishna and Rama can mean Radha.

So, by explaining the words differently and the relationship between the words differently, they get a whole pastime of Krishna, and each two words of Hare Krishna, it takes on a different meaning. Because it is the maha-mantra, you can fulfill all desires of every devotee. It could reveal pastimes in what vātsalya-rasa, sākhya-rasa, dāsya-rasa also. But our acharyas have explained their realization in terms of the pastimes of Radha and Krishna. But it doesn’t mean that they chant only the maha-mantra also. There are so many kirtans that they sing, as Narottama dasa Thakura and Bhaktivinoda have written. There is one song by Srila Gaura Kishore dasa Babaji Maharaja, kothai Gaura prema-mayi, Radhe Radhe Radhe. . . mostly just Radhe Radhe Radhe. . . but in the mood of deep separation. kothai Gaura prema-mayi, Radhe Radhe Radhe; kothai means where is, Gaura means Radharani with golden complexion, prema-mayi means full of prema, Radhe Radhe Radhe. . . So, every line is like that, but when he is saying he was feeling separation from Radharani and Krishna and Their service. So, that should be the mood. Then it is really chanting; otherwise, just mechanically. “Hare. . .Krishna. . .oh come here, Hare Rama. . .Rama. . .

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:23:25]

Giriraj Swami: It depends who the other devotee is, depends who the person is who did the insult, it depends what the insult is. “Oh, you insulted my wife? I am calling my Sudarsana Chakra! I am following Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, I can’t tolerate any offense to another Vaishnava.” When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came with His Sudarsana Chakra, He knew that He could deal with Jagai and Madhai.

Now, if there is really an offense against Krishna, or guru, or Vaishnava, then we should not tolerate, definitely we should not tolerate. But there are some choices. If we can defeat the other person in argument, then we should, or we can think, and then we should. But if we won’t be able to defeat him, either because we don’t have the knowledge or the capacity to defeat him, or we apprehend that even if we defeat the person, he is just going to become more angry and more offensive, so it is better just to leave. Like when we distribute books, we may meet someone who is offensive, but it doesn’t mean that we should waste time defeating him. If he is not going to accept anyway, we are just wasting time. But to listen is itself an offense, so we should not listen. We should either leave or defeat the offensive statements, or depending on the situation, change the subject at least. But we shouldn’t listen.

And it is not that, just like, Ramadas Abhirama, the great devotee of Nityananda Prabhu, there was a program of kirtan at the residence of Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami’s brother, and Ramadasa was there in the mood of ecstatic love, and all the devotees came and offered him respect. But the brother of Krishnadasa Kaviraja did not offer him respect, and he became angry, not because of lack of respect for him, but the lack of respect was actually for Nityananda Prabhu. He was the devotee of Nityananda Prabhu, and because the brother did not respect Nityananda Prabhu, he consequently also did not respect Ramadasa. So, Ramadasa became angry, not because of lack of respect to him, but because of lack of respect to Nityananda Prabhu. Although apparently one could think that he was offended because he was not respected. And Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that the reason he was upset was because of Nityananda Prabhu, not himself. And that, therefore, great devotees do not find fault with the behavior of Ramadasa because they knew his inner mood. So Vaishnavas cannot be stereotyped because an attack against me may not actually be aimed at me as an individual; it may ultimately be aimed at guru or Krishna. Then I should respond.

And similarly, an apparent attack on Krishna may not really be serious either. If we know the context. Of course, this is not the same as what you asked, but it may give some idea of the situation. That suppose Hanuman were to come to Vraja and see that the cowherd boys are wrestling with Krishna, and that Krishna is down on the ground and they are on top of Him. If you think he will become so angry that, “Oh, they are fighting my Lord,” and he will become furious. If he sees Mother Yasoda with the stick about to beat Krishna, he will become furious at, “How can she do this?” So, something which may appear to be an offense really may not be an offense. And so the devotees, they get intelligence from Krishna. Krishna gives them the intelligence to understand the situation and act appropriately.

Like Madana-mohan, the original deity of Madana-mohan was discovered by Advaita Acharya in Vrindavan. Then he gave the deity to some Mathura brahman, and they accepted Madana-mohan as their son, along with their other son. So in the morning, the brahman’s wife would cook for Madana-mohan and the other son. And somehow, Sanatana Gosvami came to visit the house, and he saw that the lady, she gets up, she doesn’t take a bath, put on fresh cloth, or tilak or anything. She just goes into the kitchen and starts to cook. He said, “You are not following the proper standard. You should take a bath, you should put on fresh cloth, and you should put on nice tilak.” And sometimes, anyway, there is so many details. So she thought, Oh, I am making an offense, I am making an offense. So then she started to take a bath and do everything, follow all the rules, like Sanatana Gosvami said. And the next time Sanatana Gosvami came in the morning and Madana-mohan and the boys were weeping. The other time, they were playing and laughing and enjoying. This time, they were weeping and crying. So, Sanatana Gosvami asked them, “What is the matter?” So they said that prasāda is late, and we are hungry. So then he went to see the brahman’s wife, and he said, “Why is the prasāda late?” He said, “Well, now I have to take a bath, I have to put on tilak, I have to get dressed, and I have to follow so many rules and regulations, it takes longer.” So then Sanatana Gosvami said, “Actually, I have made a mistake. I think you should cook just as you were cooking before. They were more happy then.”

Madana-mohan became very attached to Sanatana Gosvami. Santana Gosvami used to visit every day, and He decided that He wanted to go with Sanatana Gosvami. And in his heart, Sanatana Gosvami, of course, he also was attracted to Madana-mohan. Then finally, the brahman, Purushatam Choubey offered Madana-mohan to Sanatana Gosvami, and Sanatana Gosvami took Him. But he had no means to worship Him. He just kept Him in a tree, near the side of the Yamuna, and whatever he got, he would offer. And usually, he just used to offer dry chapattis. So one day, he didn’t even have salt. So the deity complained, “You are just offering Me dry chapattis. You are not even putting a little salt on it. How do you expect Me to eat this?” And Sanatana Gosvami said, “I told You in the beginning that You should not come with me, that I cannot take care of You, but You insisted. So now You are realizing.”

So then, I am sure you know the story, that one big merchant was carrying a barge of salt to Agra to sell, and the barge got stuck in the sands of the Yamuna. Then Vrindavan was like a forest. The Gosvamis had just gone, and they were just discovering some of the holy places; otherwise, it was like a forest. So when the barge got stuck, he didn’t know where to go; he is in the forest. So then, up on the hill, he saw there was some light, which was where Sanatana Gosvami was doing bhajana. Then Krishna came in the form of a small cowherd boy to the merchant, and He said, “There is one baba up on the hill; maybe he can help you.” So he went up, and Sanatana Gosvami put it the other way, that “I can’t help you, but maybe if you go to Madana-mohan, He can help you.” So he went to Madana-mohan, who was in the tree, and he did daṇḍavats, and he wanted to offer something, some gold coins. But he looked in his pockets, and there were no coins. The only thing he had was a little bag of salt, which he kept as a sample because he was a salt merchant. So he offered a little sack of salt to Madana-mohan.

Then that man went back to his boat, and in the meantime, his boat had become freed. And so he was very happy, and he decided, “I must do some service to this baba.” So he went to Agra, he sold the cargo, and he made a big profit. And anyway, he was a rich man. So he came back to Sanatana, and he said, “You have saved me; I would have been ruined. And now I want to do some service for you.” He said, “Well, I don’t want any service for myself, but if you like, you can build a temple for Madana-mohan.” And Sanatana Gosvami, he designed it and supervised it. But then when the temple was built, and there was so much opulence, pujaris, and land, and cows, and everything, he left. Actually, if we hear the deity complain that there is no salt, or no ghee, or no this, or no that, we will not tell the deity that, “You should be satisfied with what you have,” even if we don’t have money. Even say we are like Sanatana Gosvami, we have no money, but then we will go to the neighbors, and we will beg, “Can you give me some salt? Can you give me some ghee? Can you give me some milk? Can you give me some flour so I can serve Madana-mohan.” That is what we should do. But Sanatana Gosvami, no. He said, “Whatever You send me, I am giving You. You didn’t send any salt, so how can I give You salt? You should be satisfied.”

So different things are appropriate for different levels of devotees. If we see some ordinary devotee sees Sanatana Gosvami arguing with Madana-mohan, he will think that Oh, he is committing offense. He is so offensive to the deity.” Of course, if we do it, it would be an offense; might be an offense.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:40:40]

Giriraj Swami: Santana Gosvami went to Govardhana, different places, living very simply. That is the idea. But for preaching, we accept opulent positions. Even Srila Prabhupada, when the first guest house in Mayapur was completed, where Srila Prabhupada’s quarters were, Srila Prabhupada didn’t want to leave the grass hut. He said, “Oh, you are all in the mode of passion. You like to live in the marble palace, but I like to live in the grass hut.” And they couldn’t convince him to move. And finally, they said, “But Srila Prabhupada, if you stay in the grass hut, people won’t be attracted to come and meet you, and you won’t be able to preach as much.” Then Prabhupada said, “Oh well, for the sake of preaching, I can go. But for myself, I don’t want to.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:42:05]

Giriraj Swami: Well, again, it depends on who the devotee is and who you are. If you are a parent, you are responsible to see that the children behave properly. So the child is making some disturbance, you shouldn’t think that Oh, he is a devotee, and well, it doesn’t matter that he is making noise and disturbing the class because he is more advanced than I am. He has taken birth in the Vaishnava family, and anyway, he is in the temple, he is having darshan of the deities, and he is taking prasāda. So we just see the good, then we won’t be doing our duty as parents.

So within ISKCON, there are also authorities who are responsible to maintain the standard. And if some devotee doesn’t adhere to the standard, then the authority should correct him. He should correct, as a parent, with love and with sympathy, but he should not neglect to correct the devotee otherwise, the devotee will continue to make mistakes or commit offenses. But even if we are subordinate and we see an older devotee make a mistake, we can inform that devotee’s authority. We may not be able to correct him directly because it is not our position, but we can inform that devotee’s authority, and he can investigate, see whether the complaint is justified. And if the devotee needs to be corrected, he can correct him. But again, we have to be careful about niyamāgraha, both, acting whimsically and independently or following the rules and regulations fanatically, because the whole purpose of everything is to develop love for Krishna, help others to develop love for Krishna. So if we are only thinking of the rules and regulations, how to enforce the rules and regulations, and for the sake of the rules and regulations, we upset the other devotees, then it may not be the right thing to do. Every case is different, we can’t generalize.

Once the devotees in Calcutta were disturbed, and they complained to Srila Prabhupada about the president and the GBC. So the GBC said that he was defending himself. He said, “Srila Prabhupada, I was just trying to execute your will.” So Srila Prabhupada replied, a little sarcastically, “Is it my will that all the devotees should be disturbed?” So okay, maybe he was trying to execute Prabhupada’s will, but the way he did it, all the devotees were disturbed. And Srila Prabhupada was saying, “Is that my will that they should all be disturbed?”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:46:43]

Giriraj Swami: Well, as you said, every living entity has the seed of some eternal form and service to Krishna. And by sadhana, when he comes to the stage of bhāva, it will be revealed. So when we are in the stage of sadhana, we cannot really know what our svarūpa is. We may have the sentiment, we want to worship Rama, or we want to serve Krishna as a cowherd boy, or whatever. But until the stage of bhāva and svarūpa-siddhi, we cannot really know the fact. But it is also a fact that mādhurya-rasa is ādi-rasa, the origin of all other rasas. And you can say that all the other rasas are included in mādhurya-rasa.

So if someone comes to the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and tries to follow the path of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to follow the gopīs, and even if they don’t have the seed, they can, automatically, what seed they have will become manifest. But generally, Krishna arranges that one gets the association that one needs. Like Ajamila, he chanted the holy name of Narayana, he got the association of the Vishnudutas. Then he went to Haridwar, he didn’t go to Vrindavan, he went to Haridwar, and ultimately, he attained the service of Lord Narayana. If he would have had the seed of vraja-bhakti, Krishna could have arranged for him to get that association. So generally Krishna arranges. But it doesn’t mean that. . .  Of course, it is true, if someone comes to the movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and is serious, he has a good chance, has every chance to develop vraja-bhakti. But so many people come and go also. They don’t go to Vraja, they don’t go to Mathura, they don’t go to Dvaraka, they don’t go to Ayodhya, they don’t go to Vaikuntha, they go to hell. But if someone is serious and he really follows, he certainly has a good chance.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!