CC Adi 1.44 – Lord Nityananda’s Mercy 02

Giriraj Swami: We read from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter One, “The Spiritual Masters.”

TEXT 44

yadyapi āmāra guru — caitanyera dāsa
tathāpi jāniye āmi tāṅhāra prakāśa

TRANSLATION

Although I know that my spiritual master is a servitor of Śrī Caitanya, I know Him also as a plenary manifestation of the Lord.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Every living entity is essentially a servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the spiritual master is also His servant. Still, the spiritual master is a direct manifestation of the Lord. With this conviction, a disciple can advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The spiritual master is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa because he is a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa.

Lord Nityānanda, who is Balarāma Himself, is the first direct manifestation or expansion of Kṛṣṇa, is the original spiritual master. He helps Lord Kṛṣṇa in His pastimes, and He is a servant of the Lord.

Every living entity is eternally a servant of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya; therefore the spiritual master cannot be other than a servant of Lord Caitanya. The spiritual master’s eternal occupation is to expand the service of the Lord by training disciples in a service attitude. A spiritual master never poses as the Supreme Lord Himself; he is considered a representative of the Lord. The revealed scriptures prohibit one’s pretending to be God, but a bona fide spiritual master is a most faithful and confidential servant of the Lord and therefore deserves as much respect as Kṛṣṇa.

COMMENT

Today’s verse describes Lord Nityananda, and it also describes every spiritual master. Lord Nityananda is the original spiritual master. He is the first expansion of Lord Chaitanya, and as such he is the first servant of the Lord, and the spiritual master is the servant of the Lord. In fact, every living entity is the eternal servant of Krishna, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ and the spiritual master is also the servant of Krishna. And in fact even the expansions of Krishna such as Baladeva and others, viṣṇu-tattva, are also servants of Krishna. They take pleasure in the service of the original Personality of Godhead, Krishna. And similarly the expansions in caitanya-līlā such as Nityananda Prabhu, and Advaita Acharya, although they are viṣṇu-tattva they also take pleasure in the service of the Lord, and therefore they have the sentiment that they are servitors of the Lord.

So although Nityananda Prabhu is the first expansion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, is a direct manifestation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He is in the mood of service to the Lord, and He takes the greatest pleasure in service to the Lord. So the spiritual master serves the Lord as all living entities do and the spiritual master also teaches the science of Godhead. He has knowledge of the Lord and he teaches others. As the first expansion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu is the first person outside of the Lord Himself, outside of the original Personality of Godhead to have knowledge of the Lord and thus, He is able to teach others about the Lord. So the spiritual master, or the acharya, is the representative of Lord Nityananda. Lord Nityananda teaches the science of Godhead and He personally engages in the service of the Lord and all of His representatives in the disciplic succession, they also perform the same functions. It is stated in the shastra, that the acharya knows the principles of the scriptures, he follows the principles of the scriptures, and he teaches his disciples to do the same.

Srila Prabhupada has performed the duties of the acharya and he has taught us to serve Krishna. He has practically engaged us in the service of Krishna, and our duty is to follow his instructions. Once in Calcutta, Srila Prabhupada raised the question, “What is the duty of the spiritual master?” And different disciples gave different answers, and then finally Srila Prabhupada himself gave the answer that, “The duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krishna.” Then Srila Prabhupada asked, “What is the duty of the disciple?” And again Srila Prabhupada finally gave the answer himself that, “The duty of the disciple is to assist the spiritual master.” Then Srila Prabhupada said that he had established the temple there, Sri Sri Radha-Govinda mandir, and as the servant of Krishna, it was his duty to perform the worship of the deities. As the servant of Krishna it was his duty to clean the floor of the temple room, to keep the temple clean in every respect, to do all the services required in the temple. So that is his duty, and we, as disciples, when we are asked to worship the deity or clean the floor, we should think that, Actually this is Srila Prabhupada’s duty, but I am helping him.

We shouldn’t think of devotional service as a chore or a job, but in the mood of surrendered service to our spiritual master, we should feel that whatever we are doing is to assist him in his service to Krishna. Thus we aspire to be the servant of the servant, of the Lord, or the servant of the servant, of the servant, of the Lord as stated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, “I am not a brahman, I am not a kshatriya, I am not vaishya, I am not a sudra, I am not a brahmachari, I am not a grihastha, I am not vanaprastha, I am not a sannyasi.” “Then what are you?” gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, “I am the servant of the servant, of the servant of Krishna, the maintainer of the gopīs.” So, in the material world, everyone wants to get ahead. Everyone wants to be the top most. Everyone wants to climb the ladder of success to the top, but in devotional service we want to be the last servant in the line, dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ.

Once Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture. In fact there is a nice verse quoted in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that as long as one desires mukti or bhukti or as Srila Prabhupada has paraphrased it, as long as one wants to become more and more important, either in the material sense or the spiritual sense, he cannot taste the real pleasure of Krishna consciousness. So in one talk Srila Prabhupada was making the same point, and then he said that, “The more one wants to be the servant of the servant, of the servant, of the servant, of the servant,” and he moved his hand like this, “The servant of the servant, of the servant of the servant, the more Krishna consciousness becomes sweeter, and sweeter, and sweeter, and sweeter.” So our ability to taste the sweetness of Krishna consciousness depends on our service mood. The mood of being the servant of the servant, of the servant, of the servant of Krishna, and the more we are the servant, of the servant, of the servant, of the servant, of Krishna, the more we can relish the nectar of devotional service.

Once one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada that, “There is quarreling in the temple. There is quarreling among the devotees. What is the solution?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, that if each disciple thinks, “I am the servant of the servant. I am the servant of the other servants, then there will be no quarrel. There will be no conflict.” We quarrel because we are not thinking, I want to be the servant, of the servant, of the servant. We think, I want to be the top most master. So Srila Prabhupada said, if every devotee thinks, I am the servant of the servant. I am the servant of the other servants, then there will be no quarrel.” So we are in Kali-yuga. Kali means quarrel, Kali-yuga means the age of quarrel, but we should not allow Kali-yuga to enter, we should not allow Kali to enter our association. Our association should be in the mood of service. That is what Srila Prabhupada wrote in the purport, that the spiritual master trains the disciples in the mood of service. So we should be in the mood of service. We should teach the mood of service, and exemplify the mood of service. Then Krishna consciousness will be very sweet, but Kali, Kali always tries to create quarrel. Kali means quarrel, and we should keep Kali away; and how do we keep Kali away? By Hari-nāma.

At the end of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva Gosvami lists all the anomalies of Kali-yuga and there are so many anomalies. Srila Prabhupada said that if someone has a disease somewhere, say someone has a rash somewhere, you can put some oil on it, but if the person’s whole body is covered with rashes, you have to dunk the person in a vat of oil. He said Kali-yuga is like that. You can enumerate the faults of the age of Kali, but actually there is fault everywhere. You cannot look anywhere without some fault, and therefore we have to immerse ourselves in kirtan, chanting the holy names of the Lord. So after the list, after enumerating all of the defects of the age of Kali, Maharaja Parīkṣit was concerned that, what is the solution? What is the cure for the ails in the age of Kali. And Śukadeva Gosvami replied, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann, that Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults. It is not that there is a drop here or there, or a puddle here or there, or even a lake, but it is an ocean, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ, but still, there is one great opportunity, one good quality, kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya, by performing kirtan of Krishna, mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet, one becomes freed or liberated from the contamination of Kali-yuga, from the bad association, and one can achieve the supreme destination, the supreme goal.

So we should always be chanting. Whenever we have a moment, we should chant. Even when we are doing other services, we should chant, and if we can’t chant out loud because of circumstances then we should chant within our minds. When we first went to India with Srila Prabhupada in 1970, he dropped a few of us off in Delhi. We had actually gone to Amritsar for the Vedanta Sammelan with Srila Prabhupada, and while Srila Prabhupada was in America he had been corresponding with a man in Delhi named Gupta, and I guess Srila Prabhupada had written Mr Gupta that the train from Amritsar was going to be halting in the Delhi station for two hours, and Mr Gupta could come and meet him at the station. So the train arrived, and Mr Gupta came, and he really begged Srila Prabhupada to start a center in Delhi, to leave some disciples. So Srila Prabhupada called Guru dasa and told him the situation, said, “I would like you and Yamuna to get down and see what you can do.” And then Guru dasa wanted a few devotees more to help. So it was decided that I and the devotee named Gopal and another devotee named Bruce, who later became Bhanu dasa and then Bhanu Swami; So, we got down in Delhi.

So, we didn’t really know anyone, but Srila Prabhupada had a few friends from before he went to America. He sent us the name of another who turned out to be Gupta, RD Gupta, and RD Gupta was a pretty proud man, but not only proud, but an impersonalist, Mayavadi. So anyway, we visited him, at a very nice estate, and Srila Prabhupada actually stayed with him for some months before he went to America, and this Mr Gupta, RD Gupta, told us that whenever he would speak with Swamiji, he said, “Swamiji would always have his hands in his bead bag and, under his breath, he would always be chanting; Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Always chanting. Now, given that Mr Gupta was a Mayavadi, there may have been added impetus for Srila Prabhupada to chant while he was speaking, but still, the principle is there, that Srila Prabhupada was always chanting and that is what we should do.

I recently met one of my godbrothers, and he told me he had begun this practice of always chanting in his mind. He said, he doesn’t really tell people about it, but he told me, that whenever he is not doing anything else that requires his complete attention he chants within his mind, and he said that way nothing really bothers him. I mean that is not why he does it, but it came up, because we were in a meeting, and in the meeting I said something that I thought it might have embarrassed him a little. It wasn’t my intention. My intention was really just to make another point, but later I thought maybe I had put him in an awkward position. So afterwards I apologized for saying what I did, and explained that, “I didn’t say it to put you in an awkward position, but I just wanted to make another point.” And then he said, “Whenever I am not doing anything else I am always chanting in my mind, so nothing really bothers me.” Now that is not of course to say that he is like an impersonalist, everything is one, shanti, shanti everything is okay; I am okay, you are okay. But it means that his mind doesn’t get fixed on petty things that would make him upset for no good reason. I think that is basically what he is saying, because his mind is fixed on the holy name. Otherwise, we can very easily be distracted by small things, and become very preoccupied with petty things; obsessed with what this one said, that one did, and so on, and so on. Audibly is best, but even if not audibly then mentally, but with attention then, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and all these dirty things get cleansed from the mind and we taste the nectar for which we are always anxious. So chant, always chant.

Srila Prabhupada told of a cartoon, well I guess some devotee told Srila Prabhupada, but then Prabhupada would quote it in his talk sometime. An old man and an old lady were sitting on a park bench and the old lady was saying to the old man, “Chant, chant, chant.” And the old man was saying, “Can’t, can’t, can’t.” He was so stubborn. With the same effort that he was arguing against chanting, he could have been chanting and getting the benefit, and enjoying. So that is the influence of Kali. Although, we know how valuable the chanting is, and how easy the chanting is, but we don’t do it, or we do the minimum, but not more. Chant, chant, chant, doing it, always chant more and more. Distribute books, distribute books, distribute books, distribute books; always wanting to do more, and more. So that should be our mood, we always want to do more. Not, “I have done enough, no, leave me alone. Hey, back off, back off. I have done enough; I have done enough. Get someone else.” Now of course it is true especially as we grow older, that we do have physical limitations and sometimes we have to be intelligent enough to know how much we can do. That is there, but it should be in the mood that, “I wish I could do more, unfortunately I have this body that limits me, so I can’t do more, but I really wish I could, and I am sorry I can’t.” But not like, “How come I have to do it? Why not him? How come he gets off easy?” We pray to Nityānanda Prabhu and Srila Prabhupada and all of our spiritual masters to infuse us with the mood of service, so that we just want to serve more and more, and more, and eat and sleep less and less, and not quarrel at all. We can chant the holy names without offense, and that we can teach others about Krishna. So that they can also all together with us experience the nectar of Krishna consciousness.

Hare Krishna?

Any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Very good, very good. Did everyone hear? Yes.

Lord Chaitanya used to do that. The children would mock Him not exactly that, although He did that also, but the children would mock Him, and in a sarcastic way they would say, ”Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,” and then Lord Chaitanya would block His ears, and say, “Don’t say that, don’t say that.” And then being in their naughty mood, contrary mood they would do it even more, ”Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.” He was saying, “No, no, don’t say that, don’t say that.” ”Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.” So sometimes you have to use reverse psychology. Yes, I heard something like that too that he would challenge the audience that if you seriously chant Hare Krishna for six months, and if you don’t feel better at the end of six months I will give you ten thousand dollars cash. The principle is that we should hear.

Once I asked Srila Prabhupada the same question, in Surat, and he said, “Just like you are talking to me, and I am hearing you, that is how you hear. You just have to hear.” The trick is or the challenge is to be attentive. And yes, we want to hear the holy name which is, it is beyond the voice. Like the deity, we want to see the deity. And the deity is not different from Krishna, but the original form of Krishna is beyond the elements that the deity is made of. So the holy name also exists beyond our articulation of it, and therefore, there are different stages of chanting. And as one becomes more advanced, one actually appreciates the holy name per se.

In describing the different stages of advancement, one stage is ruci which means taste, and Srila Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thakura explains that in the, you could say, beginning stage of ruci or the lower stage of ruci, one has taste for kirtan, but one’s taste depends on the melodiousness of the performance. Whereas in a more advanced stage of ruci, one just appreciates the holy name, independent of whether the person is singing on tune or if the instruments are being played properly. Of course, because we are preaching, we want to make the kirtan as nice as possible, and also, because we are not that advanced, we want it to be as nice as possible so we can also appreciate it more. But when one is advanced enough, just the holy name of Krishna, independent of the musical presentation of it, that is enough to give pleasure to the devotee who is hearing it and chanting.

So we hear, in one sense there is no difference between hearing the voice articulate the holy name and hearing the holy name. But at the same time the holy name is beyond the voice, and one could actually get distracted from the name by the voice. When I first joined in Boston, there was a very nice devotee named Nanda Kishore and for a while he was the main, or one of the main kirtan leaders when we would go out on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and there was one tune that he would sing where the, “a” in Krishna was very elongated, like “Hare Krishnaaa, Hare Krishnaaa.” So I was trying to hear the holy name but that “a” was so elongated, so I asked him about it, and he said, “That is true. When I sing those long ‘a’ I always fall into maya.”

So it is possible that hearing the voice or hearing the musical instruments one could be distracted from the holy name even if it is part of the process of kirtan. So whatever it is, we want to focus on the holy name. I think in the beginning one chants more slowly. Srila Prabhupada said that in the beginning it is good to chant a round in seven and a half minutes, but then later, when one is more practiced, one can chant a round in five minutes, but you have to really chant and hear, not just rush through it to be done with it. In the beginning I would chant quite slowly, because I wanted to hear, but then automatically after some time it went more quickly, but in the beginning because I needed that time. I thought chanting slower was better, but then I heard that one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada about it, and Srila Prabhupada said that, “Slow is not more spiritual than fast.” So it is not really a question of slow or fast, but it is a question of what you need to be absorbed; not too slow or not too fast.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Devotee: [Unintelligible] 

Giriraj Swami: Yes please.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: But they can criticize also. When you were describing in the morning, how you said, “Rama Rama” twice, it reminded me of the first time; there was this man in Bombay named Mr Sethi, very nice devotee, P.L.Sethi, and at the time he lived way out in the suburbs in Goregaon, and we had an apartment in central Bombay, Warden Road. But still every Sunday he would invite the devotees to do nagara-saṅkīrtana in Goregaon, and then after the hari-nāma, the devotees would come to his house, and he would serve them a big feast. So he described his first meeting with Srila Prabhupada, that Srila Prabhupada asked him what he does in the morning, when he gets up. And he said, “Well I wash my mouth, and I read the newspaper, I have a cup of tea, bathe, dress, and go to work.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “And what is the difference between you and a pig?” Yes, but that was Srila Prabhupada, and that was Mr Seti. So we can’t imitate, but the guru knows what is best for the disciple, and he does what is best to lead him along the way, as you said.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande!