The Identity of the Deity and the Holy Name

Giriraj Swami: All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories all glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna. Today is a very special day because after being unseen for fifteen days, Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra are again being worshiped on the altar of the temple. This is very significant. Yesterday morning, we discussed the fifteen-day period between Snana-yatra when Lord Jagannatha is bathed in public view, and Ratha-yatra, when after fifteen days of being in seclusion, Lord Jagannatha comes into public in the chariot procession.

So, I will read a few verses from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta that explain, in brief, how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu experienced this Snana-yatra, the anesvara, and how He returned to Jagannatha Puri from Allalanatha, which is where He went during the anesvara, and then we will discuss how this relates to all of us, which is most important.

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

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter One, Text 122. 

TEXT 122

anavasare jagannāthera nā pāñā daraśana
virahe ālālanātha karilā gamana

TRANSLATION

When Jagannātha was absent from the temple, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who could not see Him, felt separation and left Jagannātha Purī to go to a place known as Ālālanātha.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Ālālanātha is also known as Brahmagiri. This place is about fourteen miles from Jagannātha Purī and is also on the beach.

The word anavasara is used when Śrī Jagannāthajī cannot be seen in the temple. After the bathing ceremony (snāna-yātrā), Lord Jagannātha apparently becomes sick. He is therefore removed to His private apartment, where no one can see Him. Actually, during this period renovations are made on the body of the Jagannātha Deity. This is called nava-yauvana. During the Ratha-yātrā ceremony, Lord Jagannātha once again comes before the public. Thus for fifteen days after the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannātha is not visible to any visitors.

COMMENT

How many of you saw this Snana-yatra ceremony here? Raise your hand? And how many of you came in the last fifteen days and noticed that Lord Jagannatha was not on the altar? And how many of you were here for the Ratha-yatra yesterday? And how many of you have seen that Lord Jagannatha is on the altar today?

TEXT 123

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu remained for some days at Ālālanātha. In the meantime, He received news that all the devotees from Bengal were coming to Jagannātha Purī.

TEXT 124

When the devotees from Bengal arrived at Jagannātha Purī, both Nityānanda Prabhu and Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya greatly endeavored to take Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu back to Jagannātha Purī.

TEXT 125

When Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu finally left Ālālanātha to return to Jagannātha Purī, He was overwhelmed both day and night due to separation from Jagannātha. His lamentation knew no bounds. During this time, all the devotees from different parts of Bengal, and especially from Navadvīpa, arrived in Jagannātha Purī.

TEXT 126

sabe mili’ yukti kari’ kīrtana ārambhila
kīrtana-āveśe prabhura mana sthira haila

TRANSLATION

After due consideration, all the devotees began chanting the holy name congregationally. Lord Caitanya’s mind was thus pacified by the ecstasy of the chanting.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Being absolute in all circumstances, Lord Jagannātha’s person, form, picture and kīrtana are all identical. Therefore when Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, He was pacified. Previously, He had been feeling very morose due to separation from Jagannātha. The conclusion is that whenever a kīrtana of pure devotees takes place, the Lord is immediately present. By chanting the holy names of the Lord, we associate with the Lord personally.

COMMENT

So, there are two important points in this verse and purport. One is that the form of the Lord, the arcā-vigraha, is the Lord Himself. And the other is that the holy name of the Lord, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, is the Lord Himself. The Padma Purāṇa says that if one thinks that the Deity is just a statue made of stone or wood, if he thinks that a Vaishnava belongs to a particular caste or community, or if he thinks that the spiritual master is an ordinary human being, he is a resident of hell, or he has a hellish mentality.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw the Deity of Jagannatha as Krishna Himself. When He first arrived in Jagannatha Puri, He was so eager to see the Lord that He rushed to enter the temple, and when He saw the Deity, He began to run towards the Deity whom He saw as Krishna, Shyamasundara, but almost immediately, He fainted in ecstasy and fell to the floor.

From the material point of view, the Deity of Jagannatha is just a piece of wood with some paint, and the painting is also not done very artistically from the material point of view, we would call it primitive, folk art. Yet, when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw the Deity, He didn’t see a wood statue with paint, He saw Krishna.

And actually, the Deity is Krishna, and because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, of course, is Krishna in the mood of Radharani, but He felt so much separation during the fifteen-day period when Lord Jagannatha was in seclusion, that He couldn’t stay in Puri, He went to Allalanatha, and took shelter of the Deity at Allalanatha, and He didn’t want to come back to Puri until Lord Jagannatha came out of seclusion for the Ratha-yatra.

But because so many of His devotees from Bengal traveled by foot all the way from Bengal to Orissa, Nityananda Prabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya with great endeavors induced Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to return to Puri. But in Puri, it’s described His unhappiness knew no bounds. Now, of course, that unhappiness and separation from the Lord is actually only apparent, that separation is actually ecstasy, but still, in the variegatedness of transcendental emotion, it takes the appearance of lamentation.

So, the devotees were thinking, What to do? Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is in so much separation, feeling so much lamentation, what to do? And they decided to do kirtan, and when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard the kirtan and joined the kirtan, He became pacified because the holy name of Krishna is the same as the person Krishna. On the absolute platform, there is no difference.

We often give the example that in the material world, the name of a thing and the thing are different. If you are hungry and you chant, “Mango, mango, mango, mango,” simply chanting, “Mango, mango” will not satisfy your hunger, because the word mango and the actual mango are different. But if you chant, “Krishna, Krishna, Hare Krishna,” Krishna is actually present, dancing on your tongue. And therefore, when pure devotees chant the holy name of Krishna, they feel the presence of Krishna.

And Lord Krishna Himself says, naham vasami vaikunthe, “I do not reside in Vaikuntha,” yoginam hridaye na cha, “I do not reside in the hearts of the yogis, but I reside wherever My devotees are chanting My glories.” So, when we chant the holy name of Krishna without offense, we feel the presence of Krishna, and we feel ecstasy, and that will satisfy the soul. Nothing else will satisfy the soul.

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada would give the example of a bird in a cage, that you may keep a bird in a very beautiful cage, golden cage, and decorate the cage with valuable gems and jewels and flowers and incense, but the bird is not happy in the cage. Of course, some birds, domesticated birds might be, but generally. . . Anyway, if you don’t feed the bird, the bird will not be happy. So, the bird is like the soul, and the cage is like the body. So, even if we do everything for the body, decorate it with gold and jewels and surround it with so many nice pleasurable things, but if we don’t feed the bird in the cage, if we don’t feed the soul, the soul will not be happy.

So, the food for the soul is the association of the Lord through chanting the holy names, through hearing the revealed scriptures, kṛṣṇa-kathā, through seeing the Deity, worshiping the Deity, serving the Deity. This is the food for the soul. And no matter what we do for the cage, for the body, if we don’t feed the bird within the cage, the bird will be frustrated, the bird will be miserable, and ultimately, the bird can die. Of course, the soul never dies literally, but spiritually, we die if we don’t have the association of Krishna through devotional service. And that’s the only way to get Krishna’s association, through pure devotion.

TEXT 55

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti
yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ

COMMENT

So, how many of us have that consciousness? That’s the question. How many of us have the hellish mentality? We think that the Deity is just a statue. Of course, there are some people who don’t know, it’s sort of hedging their bets. They are not really sure if the Deity is real. But if the Deity is real, they want to be sure they get blessings. So, they come and do a little praṇām, they put a little money in the box, but the mentality is not of service, the mentality is to get personal gain. It’s just like you want to get someone to do something for you. So, you might invite them for dinner, you might give them gifts, you might speak sweet words, but your actual intention is to get something.

So, people approach the Deity in that mood. They want to get something, and so they offer some fruits or flowers, put some money in the box or on the tray, but their mood is not to serve Krishna, not to develop love for Krishna. They love their bodies, they love their families and their nice houses, and their cars and their money, and they want to increase their material happiness, so-called happiness, their material assets, so they are actually selfish, they are not in the mood of service. But still, it’s good they are approaching Krishna, they are at least entertaining the possibility that the Deity might actually be Krishna or have some power to fulfill one’s desires, but that will not satisfy the soul.

Even if they pray to get something material, and even if they get it, how long will they be able to keep it? Eventually, they’ll lose everything, often sooner. But if not sooner, then at least at the time of death, they’ll lose everything. So, why try so much for things which first of all will not satisfy us, even in this life? But even if we do get some superficial gratification, we can’t keep those things, they’ll be taken away from us at the time of death, if not sooner.

So, why not invest our time and energy in something that will last beyond the duration of this body? And we don’t know how long the body will last, we don’t know how long the soul will remain within the body. We might think, Well, I’ll live a long life, but we don’t know. People are dying every day. People are dying every minute, but still, the illusion of maya is such that we think we won’t die, and we make plans to enjoy in the body, in the world, or we think we might die later, but not sooner. But how do you know? You don’t know.

You could die at any moment, and it happens. Nobody thinks they will die, but every minute, someone is dying, but he also thought, I won’t die, not now, maybe later, but definitely not now. But we will, and all that we work so hard to get will be lost. So, why not invest in something that will satisfy the soul and that will last? And that is our relationship with Krishna, and that relationship is revived through this process, especially chanting the holy names,

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

Krishna is manifested through the chanting of the holy name as well as through the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Deity, but the advantage of the holy name is that one can chant anywhere, at any time. One does not need a Deity, a physical Deity, one can just chant. One does not need a book, one can just chant. And therefore, chanting is the easiest process, and the most universal, because anyone can do it anywhere. All he needs is a tongue and two ears.

Now, that’s another point, we have the ability to speak, we have the ability to hear by the grace of the Lord. There is no guarantee that we will continue to have the ability to speak or hear or even control the mind. Those are also gifts of God, and they can be taken away. We see it happen. Somebody may have an accident or just grow old, it happens when you grow old, you lose your faculties, you are not able to speak properly, you are not able to hear. So, we can’t take even that for granted.

But now, we can speak, we can articulate, we can pronounce the holy names, and we can hear, and we can make the effort to control the mind, so that we can hear the name when we chant. So, we should do that, we should do that while we can. So many things we take for granted, and generally, when we take rest at night, we assume that the next day is going to be the same as the day before, but it’s not always like that. One day, it’s going to be different from the day before. Something’s going to happen that you don’t expect and that you don’t want.

It happened to me. I mean, in retrospect, it might not seem like such a big thing, but it was a big thing. One morning, I woke up and I had a pain in my right wrist, and I didn’t take it too seriously. I didn’t want to allow it to interfere with my activities, but as I was chanting my rounds, the pain in my wrist got worse, and eventually, it became quite painful. It turned out to be an inflammation of the joint. Some sort of arthritic pain.

So, I went to a rheumatologist because it was becoming very painful, and he said I have to give my wrist complete rest, and he suggested I get a splint and put my arm in a splint, so that the wrist would not move. But I was still very attached to chanting my rounds. So, I said, “Well, what if I keep my hand in a splint, but I just keep the beads in my fingers at the end?” He said, “No, absolutely no, no movement,” and I still didn’t want to accept it. So, I said, “Well, what if I do move my fingers?” He said, “Well, your condition will get worse.”

So, I realized that I had to follow the doctor’s orders, and it was very difficult not to have the use of my right wrist. I mean, I still had my tongue, I had my two ears, I had my mind, and intelligence, but I couldn’t use my right wrist, which meant I couldn’t chant on my japa-mālā with my right hand. So, for a while, I had to use my left hand, but it was very strange, it seemed backwards. It was hard.

I mean, I did it, I had no choice, but now, I don’t take the use of my right hand for granted, because I know from experience, I may not be able to use it. I mean, an inflammation of the joint is just one example of what could happen to our hand. So, even to be able to use our right hand to chant japa is a gift that we should not take for granted. We shouldn’t take anything for granted, and while we have these opportunities, these facilities, we should use them.

There is a verse by King Kulasekhara, who is a great devotee, in which he says, kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam. He says, “Let the swan of my mind be entangled in the stem of the lotus feet of Krishna.” Swans have the tendency that they like to sport in the water with the stems of lotus flowers. So, King Kulasekhara prays, “Let the swan of my mind be entangled in the stem of the lotus flower of Krishna, the lotus feet of Krishna.” And then he says, “At the time of death, the three dosas; Kapha, Pitta, and Vayu will be disturbed, and my voice will be choked.”

That’s a common phenomenon. From the Ayurvedic point of view, there are three dosas; Kapha, Pitta, and Vata, and when there is some imbalance in the three, there is disease. And when the three cannot be restored to their proper function, then death takes place. And at the time of death, one chokes and there is a sound, which they call the death rattle.

So, King Kulasekhara prays, “At the time of death, when the three datus become deranged and my throat becomes choked, it will be difficult for me to remember Your holy name.” So, King Kulasekhara prays to Krishna, “Now, while my senses are in order and I can chant Your holy name, let me die now, let me die immediately, so I can chant Your holy name.”

So, that is a point that we can’t take anything for granted, but one thing is sure, and that is death. As sure as death. And death is a very cataclysmic event. The bodily functions stop working. So, how will one be able to remember the holy name of Krishna at the time of death? So, the purport of this verse is that we have to practice now. If we practice chanting the holy name now, when our senses are in order, our mind is in order, then it will be possible for us to remember the holy name of Krishna at the time of death. Otherwise, how will we be able to? We have to prepare now. Death is the final examination.

Now, if a student is in school or college and doesn’t attend the classes, doesn’t do the assigned reading, doesn’t do the homework, how will he pass the final examination? He has to prepare now; he has to prepare all along. So, for everyone, death is the final examination. Our whole future depends on our consciousness at the time of death.

A child may say, “I don’t want to study, I don’t want to do my homework, I don’t want to go to class, I want to play with my friends.” If they are a little older, they might say, “I want to go out with my friends, or go to a party with my friends.” But the parents or the guardian will say, “No, if you don’t study now, if you don’t go to the classes, if you don’t do your homework, if you don’t pass the exam, then you’ll suffer later in your life.” The child is thinking, I just want to play. The parent knows if the child just plays, in the end, he’ll suffer, he won’t be able just to survive in life. So, spiritually, we are like naughty children. We just want to play. It may mean work to make money, that’s also playing from the spiritual point of view.

Like they say, the materialistic people say something like, “He who ends up with the most toys wins.” Something like that. The idea is the more you can accumulate, the more material things you can accumulate, the better. That makes you a winner. But actually, that’s true in the society of children, but it’s not really true. So, if the parents see the children are just playing and interested in toys, and they don’t want to study, they don’t want to go to school, they don’t want to do their homework, they don’t want to take their exams, they’ll say, “No. You can play with these toys for a while, but you are going to grow up. You are going to have to face life and you have to be educated, you have to be prepared.”

So, we are working to accumulate lots of toys, but in the end, we are going to lose all of our toys, we are going to lose everything. So, that should not be our focus. Our focus should be our relationship with Krishna and preparing for death. Preparing for the final examination. All of our life’s activities will be examined at the time of death. And if we can think of Krishna at the time of death, then we are successful. Otherwise, we have failed to make the proper use of the human form of life.

So, the temple is a facility, we should take advantage of it. At the temple, you can get good instructions on how to live your life, how to revive your relationship with Krishna, so that you can remember Him at the time of death, and become free from this samsara chakra, repetition of birth and death, disease, and old age. But you have to do your work.

Once, a man came to meet our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, in Bombay, and he was crying, “Swamiji! Swamiji! Only you can save me, only you can save me. Please save me.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “I cannot save you. You have to save yourself. But I can give you the method by which you can save yourself.”

So, we are giving the method. “We” means Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada, sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya. But you have to take it. As they say, you can lead the horse to the stream, but you can’t force the horse to drink the water. That’s up to you. So, you are here, you’ve been listening, that is very good. So many people are not here, they didn’t even come, and some came but they didn’t stay to listen. So, you’ve come and you’ve stayed to listen, so that’s good, but you have to take up the work seriously.

But it’s such a thing that it’s enjoyable at every stage. I mean, doing homework in the material sense might not be very enjoyable, but the work in Krishna consciousness is really fun. I mean, it’s chanting and dancing and hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā, taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Kevala ananda-kanda, it is a joyful process. So, in that sense, it’s not that you suffer and then you think of Krishna at the time of death and then you go back to Godhead and enjoy, but actually, you enjoy at every stage. You enjoy more, obviously, in Krishna consciousness than outside of Krishna consciousness.

I mean, there are many examples. One example is I guess after the 1971 war, a lot of refugees from east Pakistan, which then became Bangladesh, flooded into India. There were large refugee camps for them, and there wasn’t much facility, there wasn’t much food, but I think every afternoon, I’m not even sure, they’d get some bread and maybe some powdered milk, something. They got something little to eat, to sustain them, and basically, they would just wait for that time. And then, well, before that time, they would start to line up in queues so they would be there to get their powdered milk and bread or whatever.

So, our devotees started to go to the refugee camps and do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and the refugees were so happy with the saṅkīrtana that when it was time for them to get their little provisions, they didn’t even go, they just stayed with the devotees and enjoyed the chanting and dancing. So, that’s just one example of how the satisfaction of Krishna consciousness is much greater than that of anything else. And these are really poor people, really hungry people, but even then, they got more life out of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana than out of their little meal.

There is a story of Sanatana Gosvami. There was once, I believe he was a devotee of Lord Shiva, and he prayed to Shiva for the most valuable thing. So, Lord Shiva said, “If you want the most valuable thing, you have to go to Sanatana Gosvami.” Sanatana Gosvami is one of the Six Gosvamis. They were direct disciples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and he lived in a hut in Vrindavan.

So, the man went to Sanatana Gosvami. He said, “I’m searching for the most valuable item, and I heard that you have it.” So, he said, “Oh, you mean the touchstone?” Parasmani, touchstone means it basically gives you whatever you desire. So, he said, “Yes, yes, you have the touchstone? Yes, I want touchstone.” So, Sanatana Gosvami said, “Alright, it’s out in the back with the trash. If you look through the trash, you’ll find it.” So, the man was a little intelligent. He thought, Well, if Santana Gosvami’s keeping the touchstone in the trash, he must not consider it very valuable. It means he must have something more valuable even than the touchstone.

So, he came back to Sanatana Gosvami. He said, “You are keeping the touchstone out in the back with the trash, that means you have something more valuable than the touchstone.” I mean, he went, he found it, he got it, but then he thought there must be more. So, Santana Gosvami said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I do have something more valuable than the touchstone.” So, he said, “Well I want that!” So, Sanatana Gosvami said, “I can give it to you, but then you have to let go of the touchstone. You have to go to the river and throw the touchstone in the river.”

So, the man was hesitating because he thought he could get a lot out of that touchstone. He wasn’t sure he wanted to give it up, but then he reasoned that Sanatana Gosvami definitely has something more valuable than the touchstone. So, okay, he threw it in the river and then he approached Sanatana Gosvami and he said, “Yes, now I’ll give you what is really most valuable. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

So, we can get that most valuable treasure of the holy name, which is a touchstone, nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś, but we have to give up our material attachments. It doesn’t mean we have to give up material things, doesn’t mean we have to give up our wife or husband or children or parents or home or work, but it means we have to give up the sense of false proprietorship, “It’s mine to enjoy,” we have to give up the sense of false enjoyment. We have to be in the consciousness of servants of Krishna.

Like Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he was a householder, he had many children, he had a responsible post, but he prayed,

manasa deho geho jo kichu mor
arpilu tuwa pade nanda-kisor

“Whatever I have, manasa, my mind, deho, my body, geho, my home and family and household paraphernalia, and yo kichu mor, whatever else I have, I tender at the lotus feet of Nanda Kishore, Krishna.”

So, in that mood doesn’t mean we have to give up the things, but we surrender ourselves and everything that we have to Krishna, which means we use everything in Krishna’s service. And in that mood, without any sense of false proprietorship or false control, false enjoyment, we can chant the holy name with feeling, we can get the real treasure of love for Krishna.

And when we have that treasure of love for Krishna, then naturally, we will think of Krishna all the time, and naturally, we will think of Krishna even at the difficult moment of the time of death. And then we will go to Krishna, because whatever we think of at the time of death will determine our next life. So, if we think of Krishna, we will go to Krishna. But to be able to think of Krishna at that difficult moment, we have to really develop our love for Him, increase our attachment for Him, so that we are more attached to Him than anything else.

Because at the time of death, generally, our mind will think of the thing that we are most attached to. So, we want to be most attached to Krishna, and that can be achieved by this process of sincerely, attentively, mindfully chanting the holy names, hearing the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and worshiping and serving the Deity, and last but not least, taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:09:40].

Giriraj Swami: He is saying that we say surrender to Krishna, but can we just as well say surrender to the holy name? Yes, but the holy name also includes the other servants of the holy name. Surrender to Krishna includes surrender to the devotees of Krishna. That’s a mistake if we think we can approach Krishna directly. We can’t, we have to approach through the proper channel, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam. That’s a mistake if we think we can surrender directly.

There is a process of surrender, and it begins Ādau gurvāśrayaṁ, take shelter of a spiritual master, shiksheti diksheti, take instruction from him, take initiation from him, sadharma priksha, inquire about devotional service from him. There is a process of surrender. I mean, ultimately, Krishna and the holy name are identical, and going through the proper channel, yes, you surrender to Krishna, surrender to the holy name. Hare Krishna.

Any other questions or comments? Alright, thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!