Sri Gaura-purnima

Giriraj Swami:

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

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

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

We read from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā, Chapter One,

TEXT 1

vande gurūn īśa-bhaktān

īśam īśāvatārakān

tat-prakāśāṁś ca tac-chaktīḥ

kṛṣṇa-caitanya-saṁjñakam

TRANSLATION

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual masters, the devotees of the Lord, the Lord’s incarnations, His plenary portions, His energies and the primeval Lord Himself, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

TEXT 2

vande śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-

nityānandau sahoditau

gauḍodaye puṣpavantau

citrau śan-dau tamo-nudau

TRANSLATION

I offer my respectful obeisances unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauḍa to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all.

TEXT 3

yad advaitaṁ brahmopaniṣadi tad apy asya tanu-bhā

ya ātmāntar-yāmī puruṣa iti so ‘syāṁśa-vibhavaḥ

ṣaḍ-aiśvaryaiḥ pūrṇo ya iha bhagavān sa svayam ayaṁ

na caitanyāt krṣṇāj jagati para-tattvaṁ param iha

TRANSLATION

What the Upaniṣads describe as the impersonal Brahman is but the effulgence of His body, and the Lord known as the Supersoul is but His localized plenary portion. Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa Himself, full with six opulences. He is the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to Him.

TEXT 4

anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalau

samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasāṁ sva-bhakti-śriyam

hariḥ puraṭa-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandīpitaḥ

sadā hṛdaya-kandare sphuratu vaḥ śacī-nandanaḥ

TRANSLATION:

May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacī-devī be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.

TEXT 5

rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād

ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau

caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptaṁ

rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalitaṁ naumi kṛṣṇa-svarūpam

TRANSLATION

The loving affairs of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are one in Their identity, previously They separated Themselves. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī although He is Kṛṣṇa Himself.

TEXT 6

śrī-rādhāyāḥ praṇaya-mahimā kīdṛśo vānayaivā-

svādyo yenādbhuta-madhurimā kīdṛśo vā madīyaḥ

saukhyaṁ cāsyā mad-anubhavataḥ kīdṛśaṁ veti lobhāt

tad-bhāvāḍhyaḥ samajani śacī-garbha-sindhau harīnduḥ

TRANSLATION

Desiring to understand the glory of Rādhārāṇī’s love, the wonderful qualities in Him that She alone relishes through Her love, and the happiness She feels when She realizes the sweetness of His love, the Supreme Lord Hari, richly endowed with Her emotions, appeared from the womb of Śrīmatī Śacī-devī, as the moon appeared from the ocean.

COMMENT

So, when the Supreme Lord appears he does not take birth but actually he appears. Just like the moon rises over the horizon over the ocean, the moon exists before it rises but it is invisible to our eyes. So, when we say that the moon rises, what actually happens is that the moon becomes visible to our eyes. Similarly, the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna Chaitanya exists eternally. But, as a pastime, he arises from the womb of Srimati Sachi devi just as the moon rises above the horizon of the ocean. Lord Chaitanya came with two purposes. One is the internal purpose, the other is the external purpose. The internal purpose was to experience Srimati Radharani’s love for Him, the glories of Her love. The quality in Him that She experiences through Her love and the happiness that She relishes in Her love. That is the internal purpose for Lord Chaitanya’s appearance. And the external purpose is to propagate the yuga-dharma of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana.

According to the Vedic literatures, there are four ages that repeat in cycles like the four seasons and in each age a different method of self-realization or God realization is recommended. And in each age a specific incarnation of God appears to propagate the specific method for the particular age. So, in the present age of Kali-yuga, the recommended method is hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, the congregational chanting of the Lord’s holy name, especially the maha-mantra

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Lord Chaitanya personally led His devotees to do saṅkīrtana through the streets of Navadvipa. In previous ages, people used to go to the temple and worship the Lord but in Kali-yuga, when people are so fallen, the Lord comes out of the temple in the form of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. And Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta confirms, kali-kāle nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa-avatāra, that the avatar for Lord Krishna in the present age of Kali is the holy name of Krishna. The holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are identical. They are the same. And the Lord, as Lord Chaitanya propagates the method of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. Thus, Lord Chaitanya acts as the yugāvatāras of Kali-yuga. But, at the same time He is Krishna Himself, coming to experience Srimati Radharani’s love or Her mood, Her bhāva.

So, what is the connection or is there a connection between the Lord’s internal purpose for His descent and His external purpose? Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains further in Chapter Four of the Ādi-līlā that Srimati Radharani and the gopīs of Vrindavan have the purest love for Krishna. Although their desire to associate with Krishna may appear to be lust or kāma, actually it is pure love or prema. Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraj Gosvami, the author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, explains that although the two resemble each other, there is a gulf of difference between them. Kāma is like iron and prema is like gold. And he explains the difference that in kāma one desires to gratify one’s own senses whereas in prema, one desires only the happiness of Krishna, to satisfy Krishna’s happiness. And it is also the special quality of Srimati Radharani that She does not want to be the only one to serve Krishna directly or to enjoy Krishna’s company personally, but She also wants to arrange that others should have the opportunity to serve Krishna in direct association of Krishna.

So, here we find the similarity between the activities of Srimati Radharani and the other gopīs in Vrindavan and the activities of Lord Chaitanya’s associates and followers in the material world. The associates and followers of Lord Chaitanya in the material world acted to spread the saṅkīrtana movement, engage others in the service of Krishna or in other words, to bring others to Krishna. And Srimati Radharani and the gopīs in the spiritual world, they also engage in the same activities. In the sense that they also want to arrange for the others to be with Krishna. They also want to bring people to the Lotus feet of Krishna so, they serve Him. And Srila Prabhupada has stated that the way to develop the love of gopīs for Krishna is to spread the saṅkīrtana movement all over the world.

In the spiritual world the gopīs render the best service to Krishna because out of their pure love, they are able to give the greatest pleasure to Krishna and in the material world, the greatest pleasure we can give to Krishna is to bring others to Him. So, although the internal reason for the Lord’s descent and the external reason appear to be different, in the sense, are different, but there is a connection. There is a similarity and there is a connection and by working in the material world to bring others to Krishna, we become qualified to serve Krishna in the spiritual world and there too, we will continue to serve in the same mood for wanting to bring others to Krishna. But the beauty of the loving reciprocation from the spiritual world is that we are trying, we will try to arrange for Srimati Radharani to be with Krishna and She will try to arrange for us to be with Krishna. And therefore, there is pure love in every direction.

Certainly, Srimati Radharani has the purest love for Krishna but She also has pure love for Her friends, for Her maid servants, for her other associates, and She wants them to enjoy the pleasure of Krishna’s company which really means She wants them to have the opportunity to serve Krishna directly. And Srimati Radharani’s friends and maid servants, they also have pure love for Krishna but they also have pure love for her. They only want that She should be happy. They don’t have any desires for personal happiness. That is the mood of residents of Vrindavan, that is the mood of the pure devotees of Lord Krishna. They desire only that He should be happy. They have no other desires and their happiness relies in His happiness and specially, in mādhurya-rasa, in which Lord Chaitanya came to give. There is pure love of the friends and maidservants of Srimati Radharani. They only want to see She is happy with Krishna and that Krishna is happy with Her, in Her company and they have no other desires. And by their desires to serve and please Radha and Krishna, they experience the highest pleasures and bliss.

In fact, it is said that the mañjarīs enjoy thousands of times more when they see Radha and Krishna together, than they enjoy when they are alone with Krishna themselves. So, this is the nature of pure love. There is no such experience in the material world. Lord Chaitanya has come to give us the taste of this love. He recommended that the love of the gopīs for Krishna is the best, most preferred of all desires, [Unintelligible 18:53–18:59] Their worship of Krishna, their upasana of Krishna is the ideal. And at the same time, to please Krishna and Lord Chaitanya, the combined form of Radha and Krishna, we engage in the saṅkīrtana movement and try our best, work our hardest to bring others to Krishna. And even if we are so absorbed in serving the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that we don’t endeavor separately to think of Radha and Krishna, still by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates and servants in the disciplic succession, we will attain to the service to Radha and Krishna, in that mood of the service of the gopīs because, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nahe anya , Lord Chaitanya Himself is the combined form of Radha and Krishna, as He reveals Himself or in other words, He brings the devotees to the service of Radha and Krishna. At least the ones who have the goal in mind.

The chanting also can be performed in two ways - japa and kirtan. Japa means basically chanting for one’s own self to hear. Generally, japa is chanted softly, just loud enough for one’s own self or the people nearby and one, in principle, can chant japa alone. And the other method of chanting is kirtan. In kirtan, one chants loudly, usually with musical instruments and other devotees too. And preferably in the association of others. That is called saṅkīrtana. Kirtan means glorification of the Lord and san means complete. So, the glorification of the Lord is complete when we come together with other devotees and chant the holy names and the glories. And of course, kirtan is complete when we glorify the Lord in every respect, His holy name, His transcendental form, His divine qualities, His wonderful pastimes, His entourage and His associates, His paraphernalia. So, saṅkīrtana also means to glorify the Lord completely in every respect - nāma, Rupa, guna, līlā- and so on. That is the saṅkīrtana movement. It is very easy but the results are very great. It is simple and sublime. But as Srila Prabhupada has commented, yes, it is easy to chant the holy names, but to maintain the determination to chant is not so easy. And therefore, we require the association of devotees to keep us focused on the goal of pure love for Krishna and the means to achieve the goal which is to saṅkīrtana.

So, Lord Chaitanya in His instructions to Srila Sanatana Gosvami and Srila Rupa Gosvami has explained that there are five especially potent processes of devotional service. nāma-kīrtana is first, chanting the holy name; bhāgavata-śravaṇa, hearing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; sādhu-saṅga, associating with more advanced devotees; mathurā-vāsa living in Mathura, Vrindavan or Navadvipa, Mayapur or any place that is made holy by the presence of the Lord and His devotees; and murti sevā, the worship of the deity with love and veneration. These are the five most potent processes in the devotional service. And even a little association with any one of them can bring the desired result of love of Godhead, ecstatic love of Godhead, bhāva-bhakti . But one must engage in them without committing offenses and one will quickly achieve the result. But if we do chant the holy names without offense, here that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam without offense, associate with advanced devotees without offense and so on, how we can very quickly achieve the desired success of pure love of God, by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His servants. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 26:55] please elaborate on what constitutes an offense.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, well, basically there are two categories of offenses, sevā aparādha and nāma-aparādha. Sevā aparādha means offenses in the worship of the deity, in the service of the deity and nāma-aparādha is the offenses against the holy name. Offenses against the holy name are much more serious and it is really the offenses against the holy name that you should understand and especially avoid. And the Padma-Purana lists ten such offenses. Srila Jiva Gosvami in his previous Bhakti Sandharva, he discussed the efficacy of chanting the holy names and also the obstruction of one’s progress in the course of chanting and he quoted these ten offenses from the Padma-Purana. Just to give an idea, the first is sādhu-nindā, blaspheme the devotees that have dedicated their lives to preaching the holy name. Then there is [Unintelligible 28:40–28:47] disrespect the Vedic literatures [Unintelligible 28:51–28:57]. Then there is guror avajñā, disobeying the orders of the spiritual master, disrespecting the spiritual master [Unintelligible 29:01–29:10] considering the names of demigods - Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva- to be equal to the independent of the holy name of Lord Vishnu or Krishna. So, like that there are ten and one that our acharyas have especially warned against, Srila Prabhupada says the greatest offense against the holy name to commit sin on the strength of chanting, because according to scripture, by chanting the holy names one can become free from the reactions of sins that you may have committed. So yes, before coming to Krishna consciousness, we may have engaged in sinful activities and by engaging in Krishna consciousness, by chanting the holy name, we have become relieved of our sinful actions in the end. But if someone thinks that he can take advantage of the mercy of the holy name and purposely engage in sinful activities with the idea that he can save himself from the reaction by then going and chanting, that is greatest offense. And blaspheming the devotees Srila Prabhupada calls it the worst offenses and those are serious and we should know what they are and avoid them. And they are not just offenses that we commit at the time when we are chanting, but they are offenses that we may be committing in the course of our misunderstanding of devotional service, our misunderstanding of the elements of devotional service [Unintelligible 31:20–31:23] of devotees.

So, having an offensive mentality or engaging in offensive behavior when we are not directly involved in chanting will have an adverse effect on us when we chant. But even if you commit offenses. You get freed from committing the offenses by knowing what they are and avoiding them, but the way to get free from the reactions to the offenses, in most cases, is just to continue chanting. In one book called Harināma-cintāmaṇi, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura suggests different specific remedies for specific offenses, but the general process is just to sincerely regret that one has committed to the offense and, resolve very seriously not to commit the offense again and continue in the process of devotional service, the process of chanting. And he also says that on the negative side, you shouldn’t blaspheme, but on the positive side, you should praise and glorify and serve and if engaged in praising and glorifying and serving the holy name, the devotee, the scriptures, then [Unintelligible 33:35–33:50]. So, these are mentioned in The Nectar of Devotion and they are quoted in relevant places in Srila Prabhupada’s purports, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

So, are we ready with the ārati tray?

Devotee: Yes