CC Madhya 11

Giriraj Swami: 

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

jayādvaitacandra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Reading from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter Eleven, “The Beḍā-kīrtana Pastimes of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.”

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura summarizes the eleventh chapter in his Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya. When Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya tried his best to arrange a meeting between Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and King Pratāparudra, the Lord flatly denied his request. At this time Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya returned from his governmental post, and he praised King Pratāparudra highly in Lord Caitanya’s presence. Because of this, the Lord became a little soft. The King also made promises to Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who hinted how the King might meet the Lord. During Anavasara, while Lord Jagannātha was resting for fifteen days, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, being unable to see Lord Jagannātha, went to Ālālanātha. Later, when the devotees from Bengal came to see Him, He returned to Jagannātha Purī. While Advaita Ācārya and the other devotees were coming to Jagannātha Purī, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Govinda, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s two personal assistants, went to receive all the devotees with garlands. From the roof of his palace, King Pratāparudra could see all the devotees arriving. Gopīnātha Ācārya stood on the roof with the King, and, following Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya’s instructions, identified each and every devotee. The King discussed the devotees with Gopīnātha Ācārya, and he mentioned that the devotees were accepting prasādam without observing the regulative principles governing pilgrimages. They accepted prasādam without having shaved, and they neglected to fast in a holy place. After Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya had explained to the King why the devotees had apparently violated the scriptural injunctions for visiting a place of pilgrimage, the King arranged residential quarters for all the devotees and saw to their prasādam. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu talked very happily with Vāsudeva Datta and other devotees. Haridāsa Ṭhākura also came, and due to his humble and submissive attitude, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave him a nice solitary place near the temple. After this, the Lord began performing saṅkīrtana, dividing all the devotees into four groups. After saṅkīrtana, all the devotees left for their residential quarters.

TEXT 1

aty-uddaṇḍaṁ tāṇḍavaṁ gauracandraḥ
kurvan bhaktaiḥ śrī-jagannātha-gehe
nānā-bhāvālaṅkṛtāṅgaḥ sva-dhāmnā
cakre viśvaṁ prema-vanyā-nimagnam

TRANSLATION

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu merged the entire world into the ocean of ecstatic love by performing His beautiful dances within the temple of Jagannātha. He danced exquisitely and jumped high.

TEXT 2

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda
jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

TRANSLATION

All glories to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu! All glories to Lord Nityānanda Prabhu! All glories to Śrī Advaita Prabhu! And all glories to all the devotees of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu!

TEXT 3

āra dina sārvabhauma kahe prabhu-sthāne
abhaya-dāna deha’ yadi, kari nivedane

TRANSLATION

The next day Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya requested Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to give him permission to submit a statement without fear.

TEXT 4

prabhu kahe, — kaha tumi, nāhi kichu bhaya
yogya haile kariba, ayogya haile naya

TRANSLATION

The Lord gave the Bhaṭṭācārya assurance that he could speak without fear, but added that if his statement were suitable He would accept it, and if it were not, He would reject it.

TEXT 5

sārvabhauma kahe — ei pratāparudra rāya
utkaṇṭhā hañāche, tomā milibāre cāya

TRANSLATION

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya said, “There is a king named Pratāparudra Rāya. He is very anxious to meet You, and he wants Your permission.”

TEXT 6

karṇe hasta diyā prabhu smare ‘nārāyaṇa’
sārvabhauma, kaha kena ayogya vacana

TRANSLATION

As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard this proposal, He immediately covered His ears with His hands and said, “My dear Sārvabhauma, why are you requesting such an undesirable thing from Me?

TEXT 7

virakta sannyāsī āmāra rāja-daraśana
strī-daraśana-sama viṣera bhakṣaṇa

TRANSLATION

“Since I am in the renounced order, it is as dangerous for Me to meet a king as to meet a woman. To meet either would be just like drinking poison.”

TEXT 8

niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya
pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣor bhava-sāgarasya
sandarśanaṁ viṣayiṇām atha yoṣitāṁ ca
hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṇato ‘py asādhu

TRANSLATION

Greatly lamenting, the Lord then informed Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, “ ‘Alas, for a person who is seriously desiring to cross the material ocean and engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord without material motives, seeing a materialist engaged in sense gratification or seeing a woman who is similarly interested is more abominable than drinking poison willingly.’ ”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This is a quotation from Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya-nāṭaka (8.23). Thus Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu enunciates the principles for a sannyāsī renouncing the material world for spiritual advancement. Spiritual advancement is not meant for magic shows and jugglery but for crossing the material world and being transferred to the spiritual world. Pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣoḥ means desiring to go to the other side of the material world. There is a river called Vaitaraṇī, and on one side of this river is the material world, and on the other side is the spiritual world. Since the Vaitaraṇī River is compared to a great ocean, it is named bhava-sāgara, the ocean of repeated birth and death. Spiritual life aims at stopping this repetition of birth and death and entering into the spiritual world, where one can live eternally cognizant and blissful.

COMMENT

The material world is also called an ocean because the sky is an ocean, and within ocean of the sky are so many islands, which are planets. Therefore, the planets are called, for example, Jambudvipa. Dvipa means island because the island of the planet is floating in the ocean of space. So we want to cross over the ocean of birth and death, that is, the ocean of space, which is filled with so many islands or planets.

PURPORT (continued)

Unfortunately, the general populace does not know anything about spiritual life or the spiritual world. The spiritual world is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.20):

paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ‘nyo ’vyakto ‘vyaktāt sanātanaḥ
yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati

“Yet there is another unmanifested nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.”

Thus there is a spiritual nature beyond this material world, and that spiritual nature exists eternally. Spiritual advancement means stopping material activities and entering into spiritual activities.

COMMENT

In Juhu, Prabhupada wanted us to build a vanaprastha-ashrama for retired persons. Srila Prabhupada made the point very emphatically that they could retire from material responsibilities, but they should take up spiritual responsibilities. They don’t retire from material responsibilities to do nothing, but rather they should take up spiritual responsibilities and serve the Krishna consciousness movement.

PURPORT (continued)

This is the process of bhakti-yoga. In the material world, the via media for sense gratification is mainly a woman. One who is seriously interested in spiritual life should strictly avoid women. A sannyāsī should never see a man or a woman for material benefit. In addition, talks with materialistic men and women are also dangerous, and they are compared to drinking poison. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very strict on this point. He therefore refused to see King Pratāparudra, who was naturally always engaged in political and economic affairs. The Lord even refused to see the King despite the request of a personality like Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who was the Lord’s intimate friend and devotee.

COMMENT

So, Srila Prabhupada made a point that a sannyasi should never see a man or a woman for material benefit, nor should he speak to a man or a woman about material topics. Because the king is supposed to be engaged always in economic development and sense gratification, Lord Chaitanya, to set the example for the world, refused to meet him.

TEXT 9

sārvabhauma kahe, — satya tomāra vacana
jagannātha-sevaka rājā kintu bhaktottama

TRANSLATION

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya replied, “My dear Lord, what You have said is correct, but this King is not an ordinary king. He is a great devotee and servant of Lord Jagannātha.”

TEXT 10

prabhu kahe, — tathāpi rājā kāla-sarpākāra
kāṣṭha-nārī-sparśe yaiche upaje vikāra

TRANSLATION

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “Although it is correct that the King is a great devotee, he is still to be considered a venomous snake. Similarly, even though a woman be made of wood, one becomes agitated simply by touching her form.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Śrī Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has stated in his moral instructions: tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ bhaja sādhu-samāgamam. This means that one has to abandon the association of materialistic people and associate with spiritually advanced people. However qualified a materialist may be, he is no better than a venomous serpent.

COMMENT

In Sri Īśopaniṣad, there are many mantras about the process of knowledge and the process of nescience. In the purport, Srila Prabhupada explains that the hellish condition in modern society is created by the culture of nescience, or in other words, the culture of education that does not relate to the soul and spiritual elevation but relates to the body and sense gratification. Srila Prabhupada compares materialistic education to a jewel on the hood of a serpent. The fact that a serpent has a jewel on its head does not make it less dangerous. In fact, it makes it more dangerous because someone may be attracted by the jewel and then be bitten by the snake, poisoned by the snake. A materialistic person is compared to a snake, and when he is decorated by the jewel of mundane education, he becomes even more dangerous. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada made the point that we have to educate people in spiritual values; otherwise, the world will remain miserable.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone knows that a snake is dangerous and poisonous, and when its hood is decorated with jewels, it is no less poisonous or dangerous. However qualified a materialist may be, he is no better than a snake decorated with jewels. One should therefore be careful in dealing with such materialists, just as one would be careful in dealing with a bejeweled serpent.

Even though a woman be made of wood or stone, she becomes attractive when decorated. One becomes sexually agitated even by touching the form. Therefore one should not trust his mind, which is so fickle that it can give way to enemies at any moment.

COMMENT

The mind is fickle; it is not faithful, and just like a pickled person, it’s supposed to be loyal to you, but it’s not loyal and may actually join with the enemy. So the mind also is not loyal; it may join with the enemy. And what are the enemies?

PURPORT (continued)

The mind is always accompanied by six enemies — namely, kāma, krodha, mada, moha, mātsarya, and bhaya — that is, lust, anger, intoxication, illusion, envy, and fear. Although the mind may be merged in spiritual consciousness, one should always be very careful in dealing with it, just as one is careful in dealing with a snake. One should never think that his mind is trained and that he can do whatever he likes. One interested in spiritual life should always engage his mind in the service of the Lord so that the enemies of the mind, who always accompany the mind, will be subdued. If the mind is not engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness at every moment, there is a chance that it will give way to its enemies. In this way we become victims of the mind.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada also used to quote the English saying that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. In other words, we always have to keep the mind engaged in the service of the Lord; otherwise, the mind becomes subject to the enemies or to the devil.

PURPORT (continued)

Chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra engages the mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa constantly; thus the mind’s enemies do not have a chance to strike. Following Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s example in these verses, we should be very careful in dealing with the mind, which should not be indulged in any circumstance.

COMMENT

In the Bible, there is the story of a genie who go out of the work and disturb the man. Man thought that I have keep him in work. Finally, he told that in the garden, there is one coconut tree, so you should climb to the top of the tree, and when you reach the top, you should climb down, and when you reach the bottom, you should climb up again. And look, when you get to the top, you should climb down again, and when you get to the bottom, and thus the man was saved. Now, what is the instruction in the story? The genie is the mind. The mind always has to be engaged in some work, some service to Krishna; otherwise, the mind will turn on us and kill us. But to keep the mind always engaged is not easy, so we need some engagement that will keep the mind always busy. So things that will keep the mind always busy are chanting Hare Krishna and just climbing up the tree and climbing down again and climbing up and climbing down, like going around with japa-mālā. We have to keep going around japa-mālā, and then the mind will always be engaged in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and devotees are saved.

PURPORT (continued)

Once we indulge the mind, it can create havoc in this life, even though we may be spiritually advanced. The mind is specifically agitated through the association of materialistic men and women. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, through His personal behavior, warns everyone to avoid meeting a materialistic person or a woman.

COMMENT

Are there any questions or comments?

Question: Krishna Chandra Prabhu has raised the question that when we go to preach, we have to associate with materialistic persons, and if we don’t associate with them, how will they get the chance to become Krishna conscious?

Giriraj Swami: So, what you say is true. The devotee is merciful, and he always thinks of the welfare of materialistic persons, and therefore, even at some risk, he may go to them to preach and engage them in Krishna’s service. But we should know that there is risk involved when we approach them, and we could not take a risk that is too much for us. Of course, if we go exclusively for the purpose of preaching and gaining the person in devotional service, then the risk is less, but still, the chance is there that in the association of some powerful materialistic force, one may fall down. Srila Prabhupada had one sannyasi disciple who went to Iran and he somehow became friend with the daughter of Shah of Iran and of course, she was a very opulent materialistic person. So he would go to her to instruct her in yoga, and she did something they won’t mention to make him fall down, and he actually fell down. So we have to be careful, especially when we deal with very opulent person, very powerful materialists, we should be careful. Of course, he went alone which is big mistake. Srila Prabhupada told that we should not go alone but should go in pair.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:27:45]

Giriraj Swami: Well, the verse you quoted from Bhagavad-gītā supports the statement of Srila Prabhupada in the purport that the mind must be controlled. You cannot allow the mind to run free. So when the mind is controlled, it acts as our friend, but when the mind is not controlled, it acts as the enemy. So to indulge the mind is tantamount to not controlling the mind. So the verse you quoted confirms Srila Prabhupada statement in the purport that if we allow the mind to run wild, set it free, it will become our worst enemy because it will join hands with our worst enemy: lust, anger, and so on.

Three are two more verses which conclude the incident.

TEXT 11

ākārād api bhetavyaṁ
strīṇāṁ viṣayiṇām api
yathāher manasaḥ kṣobhas
tathā tasyākṛter api

TRANSLATION

“ ‘Just as one is immediately frightened upon seeing a live serpent or even the form of a serpent, one endeavoring for self-realization should similarly fear a materialistic person and a woman. Indeed, he should not even glance at their bodily features.’

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This is a quotation from Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya-nāṭaka (8.24).

TEXT 12

aiche bāta punarapi mukhe nā ānibe
kaha yadi, tabe āmāya ethā nā dekhibe

TRANSLATION

“Bhaṭṭācārya, if you continue to speak like this, you will never see Me here again. Therefore you should never let such a request come from your mouth.”

TEXT 13

bhaya pāñā sārvabhauma nija ghare gelā
vāsāya giyā bhaṭṭācārya cintita ha-ilā

TRANSLATION

Being afraid, Sārvabhauma returned home and began to meditate on the matter.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta kī jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!