Lord Chaitanya’s 500th Sannyasa Anniversary

Giriraj Swami:

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

We read from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Eight: “The Author Receives the Orders of Kṛṣṇa and Guru,” Text Ten is written on the board.

TEXT 8

more nā mānile saba loka habe nāśa

ithi lāgi’ kṛpārdra prabhu karila sannyāsa

TRANSLATION

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu thought, “Unless people accept Me they will all be destroyed.” Thus the merciful Lord accepted the sannyāsa order.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.3.51) it is said, kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet: “Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, or Lord Kṛṣṇa’s name, one is liberated and goes back home, back to Godhead.” This Kṛṣṇa consciousness must be achieved through the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One cannot be complete in Kṛṣṇa consciousness unless he accepts Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His associates as the only means for success. It is because of these considerations that the Lord accepted sannyāsa, for thus people would offer Him respect and very quickly come to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Since Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is Kṛṣṇa Himself, inaugurated the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, without His mercy one cannot be elevated to the transcendental platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

COMMENT

We have gathered on a most sacred and significant occasion, the five hundredth anniversary of Lord Chaitanya’s sannyasa. In this section of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Prabhupada, following Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, explains why the Lord took sannyasa. Earlier in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains that Lord Chaitanya appeared for two reasons, an external reason and an internal reason. The external reason was to propagate the yuga-dharma of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and the internal reason was to personally relish the mellows of pure love and to inspire others to relish such mellows. 

In the purport Srila Prabhupada quotes the Twelfth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet. Maharaja Parīkṣit was very concerned about the fallen condition of people in the present age of Kali and Śukadeva Gosvami reassured him, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann, that although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults. . . Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if someone has a sore, he can put some ointment on the sore, but if your whole body is sore, you have to cover your whole body with ointment. So he was saying that Kali-yuga, it is not that there are one or two faults, there is a whole ocean of faults. Each and every one of us is filled with faults. And the only solution—this is what Śukadeva Gosvami said—kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ—-but in this terrible age of Kali, there is one good quality, and what is that? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya: by performing kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, mukta-saṅgaḥ: one becomes liberated from material association and bondage, paraṁ vrajet: and one achieves the supreme destination.

So it sounds easy. All we have to do is chant the holy name of Krishna. But Srila Prabhupada explains that one can chant the holy name of Krishna and develop Krishna consciousness only by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore if anyone does not respect Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and get His mercy, he will be destroyed. How will he be destroyed? We are all being destroyed by the repetition of birth and death. The only way not to be destroyed is to chant the holy name of Krishna, develop Krishna consciousness, and go back home, back to Godhead, but that is possible only by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, and therefore it is imperative that everyone receive the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Now there was an incident leading up to Lord Chaitanya’s decision to take sannyasa. Lord Chaitanya had been a Sanskrit teacher in Navadvipa and one day when He was deep in the mood of the gopīs. In His internal mood, He was chanting the names of the gopīs, and He had some impudent students. It happens with brahmans. It happens with every conditioned soul, but it happens with brahmans that they become proud. That is the typical fault of brahmans, they become proud of their knowledge of their good qualities. So Lord Chaitanya had an impudent student who was so foolish, so proud and foolish, that he dared to criticize the Lord. He said, “Why are You chanting ‘gopī gopī gopī gopī’? Where in the scripture does it say that you should chant ‘gopī gopī gopī gopī’ or the names of the gopīs? You should chant the name of Krishna.” Lord Chaitanya, in His internal mood, was not happy with the instruction that that impudent student offered Him. He rebuked him and took up a stick and said, “Get out of here you rascal!” And that impudent student went all over Navadvipa criticizing the Lord, saying, “I am a brahman and Nimai Pandita was so impudent that He dared to rebuke me and He took up a stick against me.” The impudent student created a big agitation and rallied other brahmans to support him against Nimai.

So Lord Chaitanya thought that, “These people are all going to be ruined. They are all going to be ruined because of their offenses.” And He was thinking, “How can I save them from offenses? How can I deliver them from the material miseries?” After considering deeply He concluded, “I will take sannyasa,” because in India, even today, people offer respect to sannyasis.

In the previous verses Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says:

TEXT 8

pūrve yaiche jarāsandha-ādi rāja-gaṇa

veda-dharma kari’ kare viṣṇura pūjana

TRANSLATION

Formerly kings like Jarāsandha [the father-in-law of Kaṁsa] strictly followed the Vedic rituals, thus worshiping Lord Viṣṇu.

TEXT 9

kṛṣṇa nāhi māne, tāte daitya kari’ māni

caitanya nā mānile taiche daitya tāre jāni

TRANSLATION

One who does not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is certainly a demon. Similarly, anyone who does not accept Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as Kṛṣṇa, the same Supreme Lord, is also to be considered a demon.

COMMENT

Jarasandha worshipped Lord Vishnu and followed the Vedic principles, but because he did not accept Krishna—rather he opposed Krishna—he was considered a demon. 

Krishna Himself appeared as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His original form and still people could not accept Him or recognize Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Chaitanya is the same Krishna, but He didn’t even appear as Krishna. He appeared as a devotee of Krishna. So how much more difficult would it be for ordinary people to realize that He is Krishna when even great kings who were devotees of Vishnu and followers of the Vedic principle couldn’t even recognize the original Krishna. So in order for people to offer Him respect and thus become eligible to receive His mercy, Lord Chaitanya took sannyasa. 

He took sannyasa from Kesava Bharati who was a sannyasi in the Śaṅkara-sampradāya. The Śaṅkara-sampradāya is very prominent in India. It was very prominent in India. Although there is a Vaishnava tradition of sannyasa, the Mayavada tradition of sannyasa is more greatly reputed in India. It was more greatly reputed. The Mayavadi sannyasis are called ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs and the Vaishnava sannyasis are called tridaṇḍi-sannyāsīs. The Mayavadi sannyasis’ danda consists of one rod or stick because they believe in oneness, impersonal monism. And the Vaishnava sannyasis’ danda consists of three sticks. Therefore they are called tridaṇḍi-sannyāsīs which indicate that they have dedicated their bodies, words, and minds to the service of the Lord.

Lord Chaitanya accepted ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs from a sannyasi, Kesava Bharati, in the Śaṅkara-sampradāya, but there is a very interesting fact here which is that in the Mayavada sampradāya they consider a sannyasi to be Narayana. So, by accepting ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs, Lord Chaitanya actually tricked people into worshiping Him as Lord Narayana, and He actually is Lord Narayana. He is the origin of Lord Narayana. So He tricked them. 

But it is really mortifying to have someone respect a jiva as Lord Narayana. Once I visited a wealthy man in New Delhi, the famous Jaipuria family, and as I was leaving and getting into my Ambassador car—he was a family Pandita—he approached me, he said, “Oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya.” It was terrible, but that is the Mayavada understanding of a sannyasi that he has become Narayana and they worship him, “Oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya.”

There is a book that Srila Prabhupada mentions in a purport in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta called prema-vilāsa written by a devotee named Nityananda dasa who is a disciple of Jahnava Mata. Prema-vilāsa records a very confidential discussion between Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Lokanatha Gosvami and in this discussion Lord Chaitanya reveals His deep unhappiness to Lokanatha Gosvami and He says that one reason for His unhappiness is that the caste brahmans are being offensive and they are not respecting Him. And because the sannyasa order, a sannyasi is considered the guru of all other orders, so Lord Chaitanya considered that if He accepted the renounced order of sannyasa, these brahmans who were being ruined by their offenses, would respect Him, and thus they would have a chance to be delivered.

So five hundred years ago in this exact period of time, Lord Chaitanya left home and took sannyasa. According to some authorities, He decided to leave home on January 14th which was yesterday. January 14th is a very interesting date. It is the date of Makara-sankranti, the Gaṅgā-sāgara-melā, and it is always on January 14th. Other dates vary. There is a difference between the date on the Vaishnava calendar, lunar calendar, and the date in the Gregorian calendar or solar calendar. And He actually received sannyasa on January 18th. It is Monday. So we are right in this period.

Lord Chaitanya travelled by foot to Katwa to meet Kesava Bharati who in Caitanya-bhāgavata is described as the best of sannyasis. Nimai Pandita was only twenty-four years old and He was extraordinarily handsome. When He approached Kesava Bharati for sannyasa, Kesava Bharati began to tremble. He thought, “I cannot give Him sannyasa. He is so handsome and so youthful, how will He be able to maintain sannyasa? And He has never known any suffering or any discomfort in His life. How will He endure sannyasa?” 

Just then Nityananda Prabhu, Chandrasekhar Acharya, and other devotees from Navadvipa who had understood that Nimai had left home to take sannyasa, they also arrived in Katwa, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu greeted them and said, “It is very good that you have come here.” In the meantime Kesava Bharati had an idea to escape the predicament that he was in. He told Nimai Pandita that He should go back to Navadvipa, take permission from His wife, take permission from His mother, take permission from the other devotees, and after obtaining their permission, come back. Kesava Bharati thought that as soon as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu leaves, he will run away to some other place, and Nimai will never find him.

So Nimai fell at Kesava Bharati’s feet and said, “Master, I beg you, please give Me sannyasa. I will do what you say. If you want Me to go back to Navadvipa and take permission from My mother and wife and others, I will do as you say, but without your mercy, I cannot attain the perfection of My life. I cannot attain Krishna. So please be merciful to Me.” And saying that, Lord Chaitanya stood up, and having said He cannot attain Krishna, He entered the mood of being Krishna, and He assumed the tribhaṅga form, and He began to roar like a lion, and call the name of Vrindavan and Govardhana Hill, and dance in ecstasy. In this mood He left for Navadvipa.

When Kesava Bharati saw this revelation of Lord Chaitanya’s mood, he considered that Nimai is no ordinary young man. He is Krishna Himself. He is the guru of all gurus. So he thought, “I cannot escape Him. All the universes are coming out of the pours of His body. He is everywhere. He is in every atom, in between every atom, His eyes and ears and arms and legs are everywhere. How will I escape Him?” And he thought, “It is not possible.”

So then he called Nimai back and had a frank talk with Him. He said, “I know who You are. You are Krishna Himself. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You are the guru of all gurus. So how can I become Your guru? It is not possible, so please excuse me.” Chaitanya fell at his feet, begged him to give Him sannyasa. 

Then He did another trick. He said that, “I had a dream in which a sannyasi gave Me the sannyasa mantra and I want to know if the mantra that I received in the dream is real.” And then He uttered the sannyasa mantra into the ear of Kesava Bharati and thus initiated him [laughter]. And Kesava Bharati, because the Lord is in the heart, Kesava Bharati got the inspiration to understand what was happening, that although Kesava Bharati was initiated in the Mayavada sampradāya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu initiated him into the Vaishnava sampradāya. He understood that this was the Lord’s desire for His pastimes that He should accept sannyasa from Kesava Bharati, and so Kesava Bharati now, being initiated as a Vaishnava, surrendered to the will of the Lord, and played his part in the Lord’s pastime of sannyasa.

When he agreed to give Chaitanya sannyasa, Chaitanya began to dance in ecstasy. He inaugurated a huge hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and Kesava Bharati and Lord Chaitanya danced together in ecstasy in kirtan. Kesava Bharati felt that by this kirtan, by this ecstatic chanting and dancing with the Lord, he was being purified from all the offenses and contamination of his previous Mayavada conceptions and he was being enabled, by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to attain the actual goal of life: pure love for Krishna, and so he became a Vaishnava, he became an ecstatic lover of Krishna, and playing his part in the Lord’s pastimes, he awarded the renounced order to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

There are so many pastimes. In fact from then on in one sense all of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes are sannyasa pastimes. But, in particular, as He was walking, in brief, Lord Nityananda took His sannyāsa-daṇḍa, ekadaṇḍa, and broke it into three pieces, indicating that Lord Chaitanya was not an ekadaṇḍī sannyāsī, but he was actually a tridaṇḍī-sannyāsī. But He also broke it into three pieces because He thought, “Lord Chaitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why should He take sannyasa. What does He have to do with sannyasa.” He broke the daṇḍa into three pieces.

Although Lord Chaitanya accepted outwardly ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs in the Mayavada sampradāya, He instructed people in the true understanding of sannyasa. Later, when Lord Chaitanya visited Vrindavan, His assistant, His servant, Balabhadra Bhattacharya, approached Him, and he said that, “People are saying that Krishna has appeared in Vrindavan and that every night at Kaliya-daha He dances on the hoods of Kāliya. So everyone is going to see Krishna and I also want to go and see Him. Can You give me Your permission?” And Lord Chaitanya said, “Yes, but not today. You can go tomorrow.” 

Later in the day one man came to meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he told Him that “Ignorant people are saying that Krishna has appeared and that He is dancing on the hoods of Kāliya at night. Actually it is not so. What happens is every night a fisherman goes out in his boat to fish and these foolish people, they see the dim image in the distance. They think the boat is Kāliya and they think that the fisherman’s lantern is the jewels on the hoods of Kāliya and they think the fisherman is Krishna.” So he disclosed the real fact to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the presence of Balabhadra Bhattacharya. You can see Balabhadra Bhattacharya was Lord Chaitanya’s personal assistant. He was with Krishna Himself, but he couldn’t recognize Him and he was looking for another Krishna who wasn’t Krishna.

In the meantime people came to Him, ignorant people, who were thinking they were seeing Krishna, came to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “So, you all were thinking you were seeing Krishna.” They said, “Well, now we are seeing Krishna because we are seeing You and You are a sannyasi. Oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya. Oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya.” [laughter] Chaitanya Mahaprabhu blocked His ears and He shouted, “Vishnu! Vishnu! Vishnu! Vishnu!” He could not tolerate the blasphemy. Of course He is Vishnu, He is Lord Narayana, but He was playing the part of an ordinary sannyasi. So He blocked His ears and cried out the holy name of Vishnu and then He explained the proper understanding of sannyasa that a sannyasi is also a jiva. The jivas are part and parcel of Krishna. They can never be equal to Krishna. Krishna is ṣaḍ-aiśvarya pūrṇa, full in the six opulences, and it is an offense to compare an ordinary living entity with the Supreme Lord. He said the Supreme Lord is like the sun and the living entities are like the tiny molecules of the sun’s rays. Krishna is like the original fire and the living entities are like fragmental sparks of the original fire.

So, although Lord Chaitanya accepted ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs for the sake of convention, because ekadaṇḍī sannyāsīs was considered the main form of sannyasa, but to get people to respect Him, and be eligible to receive His mercy and become Krishna conscious. He never accepted the blasphemy of an ordinary living entity being equated to the Supreme Lord and He always presented the proper siddhanta.

In brief, this is the external reason why Lord Chaitanya accepted sannyasa, but as I mentioned earlier, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that the Lord had His external reasons for His appearance and He had His internal reasons. Now what were His internal reasons for accepting sannyasa? This is a very confidential mystery. 

It is a well known fact that Krishna is conquered by the love of His devotees. He comes under the control of the love of His devotees. Now who could love Lord Chaitanya more than the devotees in Navadvipa?—His loving mother Saci, His obedient wife, Visnupriya, His childhood friends, His elders. Who could love Him more than them and all the Pancha-tattva were there—Nityananda Prabhu was there, Advaita was there, Gadadhara Pandita was there, Srivasa Thakura was there—everyone was in Navadvipa. How could He who is conquered by love, who is subdued by love, break away from the ropes of the love of His most loving devotees? This is a great mystery. 

Part of the solution to this mystery is given in the same book, prema-vilāsa. In prema-vilāsa Lord Chaitanya tells Lokanatha Gosvami that, “I am very, very unhappy. I am very unhappy because of the brahmans who are offensive and are being ruined, but I am deeply unhappy because I have a debt to pay and I am unable to repay this debt.” He was referring to the debt that He felt towards Srimati Radharani. In the Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham, that is, “As one approaches Me or as one surrenders to Me, I reciprocate accordingly.” But Krishna’s promise to reciprocate His devotees’ love was broken by Srimati Radharani because after Krishna left the rasa dance and was later reunited with Srimati Radharani and the other gopīs, there was some discussion about different types of lovers. 

One category reciprocates the love that he receives, like a businessman: “You show affection to me, so I show affection to you.” Like a businessman. Because I want to keep enjoying your affection, so I calculate I have to show you some affection otherwise you might stop showing me affection. So, it is quid pro co. Tit for tat. Krishna says that it not the path of love or the path of dharma. It is simply business.

In the second category, the person is affectionate even towards those who are not affectionate towards him, and in this category there are two subdivisions: those who are naturally affectionate like parents towards their children and those who are merciful. Those who are merciful refer to Vaishnavas. They are merciful even to those who are not affectionate towards them, like Nityananda Prabhu with Jagai and Madhai. Jagai and Madhai were completely offensive towards Nityananda Prabhu. Not only did they blaspheme Him, but they became physically violent. But still He delivered them. 

Then, the third category: whether you are affectionate towards him or not, he doesn’t reciprocate. There are four divisions in that category. In other words, you may be affectionate to me, but I don’t reciprocate. So if I am not going to reciprocate the affection of those who love me, what to speak of those who don’t love me or are indifferent to me or inimical to me. So he doesn’t reciprocate with anyone. And in that there are four divisions. One is ātmārāma: he is self-satisfied. He doesn’t care for the world because he gets his pleasure within. And the next category is āpta-kāmā: he has desires, but his desires are already fulfilled. So there is no reason for him to interact with you because his desires are already filled. It is like someone does get hungry, but after he is had a full meal, he is not hungry anymore, so he has no interest in food, because his desires are already satisfied. Then the next category is akṛta-jñā: ungrateful. You are kind to the person, but the person is ungrateful. He doesn’t appreciate your kindness or reciprocate your kindness. 

So the gopīs were thinking Krishna falls in that category because He had played on His flute. That means He had some desire. He wanted to meet with them and they left everything—their husbands, their elders, their children—they left everything to meet Him. So He wasn’t ātmārāma. He had desires. And He wasn’t āpta-kāmā. His desires weren’t fulfilled and that is why He called them. But after they came, leaving everything for His sake, for the sake of His service, He didn’t reciprocate. He left them. So they were thinking, “He is akṛta-jñā. He is ungrateful.” But they didn’t want to say it themselves. They are so intelligent and tactful, they didn’t want to say, “Oh Krishna, You are ungrateful.” They very intelligently asked Him to describe these different types of lovers and say which is best. And then the fourth is guru-druha. That means one who is envious of the guru or a superior and again there are different categories of those guru-druha.

Krishna said that, “Actually I don’t come in any of these categories. Although when I disappeared from the rasa dance I seemed to be neglecting you, but actually I was not neglecting you. I was with you all the time and the only reason I removed Myself from your vision was because I wanted your love for Me to increase.” 

Krishna gives the example that poor man, after much endeavor will get some money, but he may take the money for granted once he gets it. But then if he loses the money, he’ll be thinking of it all the time. He won’t be able to think of anything else. He’ll just be thinking, “What happened to my money? How can I get my money back?” Sometimes it happens with devotees with their chanting beads, they take their chanting beads for granted and then suddenly they can’t find them. “Where did I leave them? Where are they? Did I lose them?” Then they are thinking all the time, “Where are my chanting beads? Where are my chanting beads? How can I get my chanting beads back?”

Krishna said that, “I know that your heart’s inner desire is for you to increase in your love for Me, so I removed Myself from your vision to fulfill your heart’s desire for your love for Me to increase. So I was reciprocating your love.” But actually what Krishna said was not true [laughter] because the gopīs’ love for Him was naturally increasing. As Vedānta-sūtra says about brahman, it is unlimited and always increasing, so the gopīs’ love was like that. It was unlimited and always increasing. There was nothing He had to do to make it increase. So that was not the real reason. That could be true of ordinary devotees that example of a man working hard to amass some wealth and then when he loses the wealth, he thinks of the wealth all the time, but that is not the case of the gopīs.

So, what is the fact? The fact is that Krishna could not reciprocate their love and in the end He admitted His defeat. Na pāraye ‘haṁ niravadya-saṁyujāṁ. And He said to the gopīs that, “I cannot repay My debt to you even if I had the prolonged life of Brahma. You have given up all family connections which are very difficult to break. You have forsaken the path of chastity and Vedic principles which for a chaste person is worse than giving up her life. You have done all of this for Me, but I could not do that for you. Your love for Me was eka-niṣṭhā, fixed only on one point, on Me, but My love is bahu-niṣṭhā. You gave up everything and everyone for Me, but I could not do that. I would sneak out at night. No one knew that I was gone. And I would sneak into bed in the morning. No one would know that I was gone. I didn’t break My ties with My mother, Yasoda, or My father, Nanda, or any of My family members. And besides that, I reciprocate the love of all of My devotees. I love My devotees in mādhurya-rasa; I love My devotees in vātsalya-rasa; I love My devotees in sākhya-rasa and dāsya-rasa; even in śānta-rasa. Even sādhakas who have not attained Me, but who are just trying to develop love for Me, I also reciprocate their affection for Me. So, na pāraye’ham. It is impossible for Me to reciprocate your love for Me. I am in debt to you and I cannot repay My debt to you.”

Lord Chaitanya told Lokanatha Gosvami that, “I was unable to reciprocate Srimati Radharani’s love for Me and I have a great debt to repay, but I am unable to repay it, and this is causing Me great pain.” And then He said, “The only way that I can repay My debt to Srimati Radharani and reciprocate Her love is if I do what She did. I have to give up My family. I have to leave My home. I have to give up everything and leave everything for Her sake. And I will achieve that by taking sannyasa.” 

When Krishna was present in Vrindavan—everyone knows Krishna as Syama, bluish-black—and Srimati Radharani would always wear a blue sari which would remind Her of Krishna, but after Krishna left Vrindavan, She would wear a saffron colored sari, in the mood of separation from Krishna. She would consider Herself a maidservant of Krishna. So Krishna thought, “I will wear the saffron colored cloth of separation.” And the main thing, because Srimati Radharani and the gopīs gloried Krishna as Rasa raja, as the supreme reservoir of pleasure, so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, thought that, “I have to proclaim the glories of Srimati Radharani and I will do that by accepting Her mood in separation, and explaining Her glories.”

Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna, but He came to teach by His own example how to love Krishna, how to serve Krishna and how to love Krishna. He showed that externally by hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and internally in this mood of separation, and specifically the mood of Radharani in separation from Krishna so that all devotees could learn this process. 

Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes that after Krishna left, after manifesting His pastimes five thousand years ago, He thought, “I did everything—paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām—I delivered the devotees; I annihilated the miscreants; dharma saṁsthāpanārthāya: I reestablished religious principles. I did everything, but the main thing I didn’t do. The main thing was to show people how to love Me in the mood of pure devotion—vraja-bhakti, kevalā bhakti—-in the mood of the residents of Vrindavan. The main thing I didn’t do.” So Krishna thought, “I have to come again and this time I will give them vraja-bhakti, but not as Krishna, but as a devotee of Krishna, and by following My mode of worship, they will develop pure love in the mood of the residents of Vrindavan.”

So these are very confidential topics, very deep topics, but they have been revealed to us by our previous acharyas, Rupa Gosvami. Of course what Rupa Gosvami revealed about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s inner mood and what Svarupa Damodara Gosvami revealed about Lord Chaitanya’s inner mood is all presented to us in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami and explained, which is the most important, explained to us for our understanding by Srila Prabhupada.

So, tridaṇḍi-sannyāsa in the line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a very deep thing, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s own sannyasa is unfathomably deep, but in essence internally He is experiencing the mood of Srimati Radharani in separation from Krishna and trying finally to reciprocate Her single-pointed love for Him, Krishna. All of these truths, we made a distinction between the external and internal, but all of these truths are contained in the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and they can be revealed through offenseless, pure chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, which is our main activity. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Carlos: Thank you for the class. It was very beautiful and instructive. It is described in the Vedas that if one wants to attain the pure devotee mentality, you have to be in the mood of the gopīs and Radharani. Sometimes I ask myself if Krishna was surprised getting this from women because they were placed on earth to increase the population more and that having a lead role within religiosity or more like being in the kitchen and taking care of the kids more than having a lead religious or meditative role. Sometimes I ask myself if this is what actually surprised Krishna. When you mentioned that He says He felt in debt with Radharani because maybe the gopīs didn’t actually mention that He didn’t have gratitude, but I think Radharani in the pastime of the bumblebee She did. She probably went forward and She said it to Him that He didn’t have any gratitude for the rest of the gopīs. 

Thank you very much for your class. I link it to the fact that Srila Prabhupada also opened the doors for women to come inside the temple and to let them advance evenly with guys. In some way sometimes I get some sort of feeling that there is confusion maybe with how gender works and our roles in the movement. I really see some good women devotees who also take renunciation or brahminical initiations.

Giriraj Swami: There are a few points you raised, good points. When Krishna descends He comes in His original body which is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. He doesn’t come in a physical, material body. You know that?

Carlos: No.

Giriraj Swami: I didn’t think so. When Krishna comes, He comes in an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He doesn’t come in a physical body made of flesh and blood and bones like you and me. Although He appears to take birth and have a baby’s body and a child’s body and a youth’s body, but He actually has a spiritual body and the full potencies of Godhead from the very beginning.

When He was just days old, He killed a big demon named Pūtanā. When He was seven years old, He lifted the Govardhana Mountain with the little finger of His left hand, and held it over His head for seven days.

So, people with an ordinary, material body cannot do such things. Furthermore, His body never aged beyond sixteen years. Although Krishna was manifest on earth for more than a hundred and twenty years, His body never aged beyond the appearance of sixteen years. When Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, by material calculation He was over ninety years old, but you never see a picture of Krishna looking like an old man, with His face all wrinkled and grey hair and walking with a stick. 

So, although His body resembles a human body, but it is not made of material elements. In the conditioned soul, there is a difference between the material body and the spiritual soul within the body. But in the case of Krishna, His body is made of the same spiritual substance as the soul. It is all spiritual.

Carlos: My question was more in relation to, because He Himself said He can’t repay His debt. . .

Giriraj Swami: There are many steps to the answer to your question, but the first step is to understand that Krishna comes in a spiritual body. Do you understand that now?

Carlos: Yes. On the spiritual platform, the spiritual body is not different from the so-called external body.

Giriraj Swami: Now Srimati Radharani is a direct expansion of Krishna. So She also never has a material body. She has a spiritual body just like Krishna. The principle gopīs are direct expansions of Srimati Radharani. They also have spiritual bodies. So, we may say that they are women, but they are not women anymore than Krishna is a man. They are completely spiritual, but Krishna’s form is like a man and the gopīs forms are like women, but they are spiritual. They are not the physical bodies of men and women. Krishna doesn’t have our male hormones. The gopīs don’t have ordinary ladies’ hormones. They are not men and women. They don’t have men’s bodies and women’s bodies like ours.

Carlos: Could we say that He already knew that they were going to do because they are more or less on the same platform? Why would He be surprised and felt like He had something in debt to them because they left their physical families and their physical children and physical duties to come to serve Him?

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good question. It is one that has been asked by many learned scholars and here is the answer from other learned scholars. Krishna has two aspects. One is called sarva-jña, which means He is all-knowing, and the other is mugdhā, which means He becomes bewildered. This is only in vraja-līlā. This is nowhere else that Krishna becomes bewildered. This is achieved by the agency of yoga-māyā, Krishna’s spiritual energy. There is mahā-māyā which bewilders the conditioned souls into forgetfulness of Krishna and there is yoga-māyā which causes Krishna and the pure residents of Vrindavan to forget that Krishna is God because if Yasoda was conscious that Krishna was God, she couldn’t feed Him, she couldn’t chastise Him. And Krishna, to reciprocate His devotees’ love, also forgets that He is God, and He actually feels hungry for His mother’s love. 

As we mentioned, Mother Yasoda’s body is spiritual. So her breasts fill with milk, but that milk is not ordinary milk. That milk is actually prema. So when Krishna becomes hungry for Mother Yasoda’s breast milk, He is not exactly hungry for milk, but He is hungry for Her love, and in the mood of being Krishna’s mother, she is eager to feed Him with her breast milk which is actually her love, but in that mood of parental love under the influence of yoga-māyā, she actually thinks Krishna is hungry. “If I don’t feed Him, He will starve.” And also under the influence of yoga-māyā, Krishna forgets that He is God, that is providing food for all the living entities, and He feels hungry, and He wants to be fed by Mother Yasoda. 

So that is mugdhā. That is Krishna’s bewilderment for the sake of His loving pastimes in Vrindavan. That is only in Vrindavan. Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha doesn’t become bewildered like that. That is only in Vrindavan. 

But when there is need, Yoga-māyā arranges that Krishna remembers that He is God. For example, Kamsa sent demons to Vrindavan. He sent demons to Vrindavan to set fire. So Krishna is taking the calves to pasture with the cowherd boys and He is thinking He is an ordinary cowherd boy and they are also thinking He is an ordinary cowherd boy and they are friends and they are wrestling and playing just like equals. 

And then suddenly there is this huge forest fire threatening to engulf everyone. Now if Krishna remained in forgetfulness of His divine opulences then what would have happened? Everyone would have been consumed in the forest fire. So, Yoga-māyā, knowing the purpose of Krishna, allows Him to remember that He is God so that He can swallow the whole forest fire and save all the cows and cowherd boys. But then again, when His purpose is fulfilled, she covers Him and the cowherd boys with her potency. So they are again thinking, “Krishna is our friend. How wonderful He is. He swallowed the forest fire, but He is still our friend.”

So, in His sarva-jña aspect, He knows everything, but for the sake of His pastimes in Vrindavan, He becomes enchanted by the love of His devotees and especially the love of the gopīs and especially the love of Radharani.

Garles: You mentioned something about the mood of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His internal mood. In ISKCON I see that most of the time we worship Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the mood of His Navadvipa-līlā so I wondered why we don’t worship Him in that mood which He was in sannyasa?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is a very good question. Devotees don’t like to think about Mahaprabhu’s sannyasa so much because it is very painful. It is painful because He left His loving devotees in Navadvipa—painful for them and for Him—and it also painful because He had to accept so many austerities as a sannyasi. There is a whole thing about His shaving His beautiful hair when He took sannyasa. 

So, it is like Krishna’s disappearance pastimes. Devotees don’t like to think about it because it is spiritually painful. In the same way, devotees don’t like to think so much about His pastime of accepting sannyasa because it is spiritually painful, but, that said, it was in the Gambhira in Jagannatha Puri that Lord Chaitanya revealed His most intimate and intense ecstasies. And devotees who are developing that mood of separation, they relish Caitanya-caritāmṛta and the descriptions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s internal moods, but it still is painful. Even the devotees who were with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannatha Puri found it painful to see Him in such separation because separation is painful, but on the transcendental platform, on the absolute platform, that pain is ecstasy. Internally it is ecstasy but externally it is agony. So it is a little complex. 

But yes, we worship Gaura-Nitai. We are worshiping Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda in Navadvipa, performing saṅkīrtana. Devotees are happy to see Gaura-Nitai in Navadvipa, and that is when He propagated the yuga-dharma of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. He began the saṅkīrtana movement in Navadvipa and that is where we begin. We may end up in the Gambhira in Jagannatha Puri but we begin in the saṅkīrtana movement, Navadvipa.

Devotee: In the purport, some verses after this, Prabhupada is talking about this idea that Lord Chaitanya and Krishna are separate and if they worship Krishna but they don’t worship Lord Chaitanya, then they are demons, or if they worship Lord Chaitanya and they don’t worship Krishna, then they are demons. And he said that this conclusion is a product of Kali-yuga. So I am wondering now because I am quite interested in design, if anything that is a product of Kali-yuga is intrinsically flawed and if it is possible for there to be any products or services designed in Kali-yuga that would be less flawed.

Giriraj Swami: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in Kali-yuga so naturally misunderstanding Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s position would arise in Kali-yuga because He appeared in Kali-yuga, but it doesn’t mean that everything in Kali-yuga is intrinsically flawed. Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that by mental concoction we say, “This is good and this is bad,” but actually nothing is good. Everything is bad outside of Krishna consciousness. So if it is in Krishna consciousness, it is good, but if it is outside of Krishna consciousness, it is bad.

Like the microphone is a product of Kali-yuga. Whoever invented the microphone never imagined that it would be used for kṛṣṇa-kathā or reciting Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but we are using it for that purpose, and so it becomes part of Krishna’s paraphernalia. And the same thing with so many inventions. I don’t even know what this is [laughter]. When I grew up we never had these things, but it is being used in Krishna’s service so it is performing a good function. So if your design can be used favorably in Krishna’s service, it is good, but we can’t just offer something whimsically to Krishna and assume that He will accept it. So we have to learn what’s favorable through paramparā, through sadhu, shastra, and guru.

I am just making this up and I don’t know what kind of design you do, but if you wanted to do some artwork and instead of using paint and canvas, you decided to use onions and garlic, that might not be favorable, but if you are acting under superior guidance in a way that is pleasing to Krishna, that is favorable to Krishna’s pleasure, then the fact that you are doing it in Kali-yuga, it is not a problem. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!