CC Adi 13 – Sri Jagannatha Mishra’s Festival

Giriraj Swami: Today is another holy day. As we know, Sri Krishna Chaitanya appeared on the night of Falguni Purnima during the lunar eclipse, and His father Jagannatha Mishra celebrated the birth the following day. So today is the festival of Jagannatha Mishra. Of course, the Lord is unborn and eternal, He is the origin of all, and He has no origin, but still, to reciprocate the loving affection of His devotees He accepts the position of son and His parents are the most exalted devotees who had that desire to serve Him in that way.

So, Lord Chaitanya is the same Krishna from Vrindavan and when He descends His other associates from Vrindavan also descend. In Vrindavan, Krishna plays the part of a cowherd boy in a community of vaishyas, and as Lord Chaitanya He appears in a brahman family and His associates are primarily brahmans. And because He accepted the renounced order of life most of His intimate associates are in male forms, whereas in Vrindavan the same associates, many of the same associates are in female forms. So, many of the gopīs of Vrindavan they appeared in Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes as brahman boys. But internally the relationship was more or less the same. There are differences but the relationships were more or less the same but just transposed from the setting of Vrindavan to the setting of Navadvipa and later Jagannatha Puri.

To begin, I would like to sing a song with you that glorifies the mercy of Lord Chaitanya which we have all experienced and are experiencing. I believe you have the song sheets. Sri-Sri-Gaura-Nityananda Daya, the mercy of Sri Gaura and Nityananda by Locana dasa Thakura. Locana dasa Thakura, Srila Prabhupada said was almost a contemporary of Lord Chaitanya, he actually was present during Lord Chaitanya’s presence, but he was young and when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu completed His pastimes Locana dasa Thakura was fourteen years old, but still, he was a great devotee and acharya, wrote many songs and books.

parama karuna, pahun dui jana,
nitai-gauracandra
saba avatara, sara siromani,
kevala-ananda-kanda

bhaja bhaja bhai, caitanya-nitai,
sudrdha visvasa kori
visaya chadiya se rase majiya,
mukhe bolo hari hari

dekha ore bhai, tri-bhuvane nai,
emona dayala data
pasu-pakhi jhure, pasana vidare
suni yara guna-gatha

somsare majiya, rohili padiya,
se pade nahilo asa
apana koroma, bhunjaye samana,
kohoye locana-dasa 

 
Jaya Gaura-Nitai, jaya Prabhupada

TRANSLATION

The two Lords, Nitai-Gauracandra, are very merciful. They are the essence of all incarnations. The specific significance of these incarnations is that They introduced a process of chanting and dancing that is simply joyful.

COMMENT

As we have all experienced. Now, quite often when our acharyas or poets say, “My dear brother,” they are addressing their own minds because just like we would preach to a brother to encourage him to take shelter of Krishna, of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Srila Prabhupada, we also have to cajole our own minds because our own minds are prone to go elsewhere and take us elsewhere.

TRANSLATION

My dear brother, I request that you just worship Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda with firm conviction and faith.

COMMENT

Yes, sudrdha visvasa means firm conviction and faith. Everything depends on faith, ādau śraddhā, we are able to begin on the path of bhakti only when we have some faith. Without faith we will not be able to even begin, what to speak of progress. And the development of bhakti really means the development of faith. Srila Rupa Gosvami has analyzed different stages in the development of bhakti, ādau śraddhā, tataḥ sādhu-saṅga, ‘tha bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛttiḥ, niṣṭhā, rucis, athāsaktis, bhāva, prema, but they are actually all the same substance. What we call prema or pure love of Godhead or ecstatic love of Godhead is just a mature state of faith.

So, Locana dasa Thakura says:

TRANSLATION

My dear brother, I request that you just worship Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda with firm conviction and faith. If one wants to be Krsna conscious by this process, one has to give up his engagement in sense gratification.

COMMENT

This is viṣaya chādiyā. Of course, as long as we have the body which is made of senses we require to eat, to sleep, to take certain measures to keep the body and soul together, but we should fulfill the demands of the body in a moderate way according to regulative principles, not in an extravagant way. And the motive should be to keep the body and soul together in a fit condition to serve Krishna and remember Krishna, not to enjoy the senses independent of Krishna.

TRANSLATION

One simply has to chant, “Hare Krsna! Hari Hari!” without any motive.

My dear brother, just try and examine this. Within the three worlds there is no one like Lord Chaitanya or Lord Nityananda. Their merciful qualities are so great that upon hearing them even birds and beasts cry and stones melt.

COMMENT

Well, this is the extraordinary mercy of Gaura Nityananda. When Lord Chaitanya was passing through the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest on His way from Jagannatha Puri to Vrindavan He was chanting the holy name and the wild beasts, the ferocious beasts in the forest became inspired by transcendental bliss. Actually, when Lord Chaitanya was passing through the jungle there were so many wild animals around and His personal assistant was very afraid, he was very nervous, he thought, We could be finished at any time. But hearing the holy name from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and coming in touch with His ecstatic love for Krishna they gave up their ferocious attitude. And it is described that even animals who are naturally inimical to each other gave up their animosity and began to chant, and dance together, and even kiss as described. So, this is the potency of Lord Chaitanya’s mercy, that He can inspire even animals to chant and dance, elephants, tigers, deer, they are all chanting and dancing and showing signs of ecstasy and embracing each other and kissing.

So Srila Prabhupada says that we may not be able to induce animals to chant and dance but we should at least try to encourage all human beings to chant and dance. Although when we consider the people that Srila Prabhupada encountered when he first came to America and began the Krishna consciousness movement they were pretty much like animals. They had a lot in common with animals, and that he could get them to chant and dance and become devotees is nothing short of a miracle. And stone, well, our hearts are like stones but Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda are so merciful that even our stone-like hearts melt, and Srila Prabhupada also is similarly merciful.

TRANSLATION

But Locana dasa regrets that I am entrapped by sense gratification. Since I have no attraction for the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, Yamaraja, the superintendent of death, is punishing me by not allowing me to be attracted by this movement.

COMMENT

So, this is our predicament. Of course, we have some attraction and that is why we are here, śraddhā, we say faith but faith and attraction, śraddhā means faith and detraction. So we have some but it is mixed, we also have inclination towards sense gratification and mental speculation, and so we may be around devotees but not enter fully into the process of chanting and hearing and dancing. But that is all right as long as we keep our bodies in the association of devotees even if our minds sometimes want to go somewhere else, want to drag us somewhere else, we can tolerate that, we can ignore that.

We discussed the question that, “What if I am engaged in service but my mind is somewhere else?” And Srila Prabhupada gave the answer that, “We are in the kingdom of maya so it is natural that maya will call. But if we don’t heed the call of maya eventually she will give up and stop calling. So we should continue with our service even if our mind is hearing the call of maya.” There was another time when Srila Prabhupada was in Hawaii and he heard the sound of the Good Humor man, the Good Humor man is the ice cream vendor who travels with the truck with ice cream and the truck usually plays a sweet tune to attract the minds of people and inform them that the ice cream truck has come, and it is a usually a sweet little tune that children could appreciate and, “Oh, mommy, the good humor man has come let’s get ice cream.” So, Srila Prabhupada was sitting in his room with a disciple and you could hear the sound of the music coming from the Good Humor man, and he could see that the disciple who was sitting at his feet in the room, that his ears and mind were attracted by the sound and perhaps the thought.

So, Srila Prabhupada said, “Would you like some ice cream? You can have some ice cream.” He said, “No, no, no.” Prabhupada said, “No, no, go ahead, go ahead, you can have some ice cream.” And he said, “No, no.” And then Srila Prabhupada explained that maya is like that. She is always calling us, but if we heed her call she catches us in her clutches and punishes us. And he said that different animals are especially inclined to particular senses. In some it is the sense of hearing, I think that deer are especially attracted by nice sounds so the hunter will go into the forest and produce very nice sounds, music and then when the deer hear that they become stunned and then the hunters can catch them. And elephants are very inclined to enjoy with the opposite sex. So the hunters will build a big pit, the elephants are big, and cover it with grass and then beyond it they will have a she elephant who is emitting her sounds and then the he elephant will hear the sounds and become attracted and start running towards the she elephant and fall in the pit, and that is how the hunters catch elephants. So every species is attracted like that and the clever hunters, they exploit that particular species weakness, sensual weakness, and catch them. And Srila Prabhupada said, “And maya does the same thing, she is always calling us, ‘Come on enjoy me, come on enjoy me.” But again, if we don’t heed the call eventually she will give up.”

So Locana dasa Thakura is lamenting on our behalf that he is not attracted by the saṅkīrtana movement. He may be around it or it might be around him but he is not really plunging deeply into the ocean of saṅkīrtana. And then he is wondering, “Why? Why is it that Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda are so merciful and their qualities are so wonderful, and their process, kevala ānanda-kāṇḍa, is simply joyful, but still, I am not attracted. Why?” And then he laments that Yamaraja the superintendent of death is punishing him.

Now, this is a sentiment that is worth examining because actually pure devotional service, or bhakti, there is no material qualification or disqualification, it is beyond karma. The very first words of the definition of bhakti, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, that can’t be covered by karma or jnana. But still, as we have also mentioned the Bhagavad-gītā says, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ  janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām that one can engage in devotional service only when he is free from sinful actions and reactions. So, when we come to the association of devotees we have karmic reactions or sinful reactions that are due to us, but if we take very strongly to the process of devotional service they will be eradicated. And the Sastra says that simply by chanting the holy name once, one can become free from the reactions to more sins than he can commit.

But Srila Prabhupada also explains that there is a consideration of the quality of the utterance. What the scripture says is absolutely true. It is not exaggerated, but it is true if we chant in a mood of helplessness, humility, helplessness, calling out to the Lord, calling the holy name of the Lord. But if we are materially satisfied, content, we think we are doing fine, we have this and that in the material world, and we are okay, we are buying, and one will not be able to chant with such feeling. And consequently one will continue to suffer reactions and not be fully attracted to the saṅkīrtana movement. But still, if we keep chanting, keep associating with devotees, keep serving, keep hearing, then gradually our sinful reactions will diminish and our attraction for Krishna and Krishna consciousness will awaken more and more. Srila Prabhupada gave the example of a drop of stone. If some water is dripping on the same place over and over again even if it is stone it can wear away the stone. So, even though we may have stone-like hearts, or sometimes our hearts appear to be stone-like, by repeated chanting and hearing of the holy name the stone can be melted and we will feel attraction.

Hare Krishna.

And as we mentioned, Gaura-Nitai want more and more people to chant the holy names and so if we make the effort we will get special mercy from Gaura-Nitai. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada was so intent on engaging all of his disciples and followers in preaching and spreading the mercy of Gaura-Nitai because he knew that that would be the best way for his followers to get mercy. The more you extend mercy the more you get. Srila Prabhupada’s own spiritual master told him that he should repeat the message of Lord Chaitanya as he received it from Him and that would be good for him as well as for the people who heard him and helped him.

In one class, Srila Prabhupada said that in order to approach Radha and Krishna in Vrindavan one must get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, and in order to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya one must get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, and in order to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda one must approach people like Jagai and Madhai like they did and like Prabhupada did and like we do. And so that is a special process. It is available to everyone, but it is a special way of getting a special mercy, and it was one that was a very central point in Srila Prabhupada’s movement and is, it is meant to be.

Good. So now we shall read about Lord Chaitanya’s actual appearance and the joyous celebration that took place on this day, tithi, I will read some preliminary verses to give you a sense of what was life in Navadvipa like. Please repeat.

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

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Thirteen, “The Advent of Lord Chaitanya,”

TEXT 62

Lord Kṛṣṇa, Vrajendra-kumāra, first caused countless devotees to appear, and at last He appeared Himself.

COMMENT

Vrajendra means the king of Vrindavan Nanda; kumara, the child of the king of Vrindavan, Krishna.

Because Krishna has so many elders, of course, His mother and father, but so many others, uncles and aunts and friends of His parents, and then people who played the part of His teachers and instructors. So when Krishna appeared as Lord Chaitanya He needed the same cast of characters and so He arranged for them to appear before Him.

TEXT 63

Before the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the devotees of Navadvīpa used to gather in the house of Advaita Ācārya.

COMMENT

Now all the devotees of San Antonio gather in the house of Advaita Acharya dasa.

TEXT 64

In these meetings of the Vaiṣṇavas, Advaita Ācārya used to recite the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, decrying the paths of philosophical speculation and fruitive activity and establishing the superexcellence of devotional service.

COMMENT

So this is very nicely expressed, gītā-bhhāgavata kahe ācārya-gosāñi jñāna-karma nindi’ kare.  nindā, Prabhupada says decry; nindā, sādhu-nindā means to blaspheme devotees. So he would decry the paths of jnana and karma. Sometimes, we are advised, just to say positively what you want to say about your own process but don’t say anything negative about others, and under certain circumstances that could be true. But generally, our acharyas have done both, they have said, “This is what is good for you and this is what is not so good for you.” But anyway, leaving that aside, at least in Advaita Acharya’s home, jñāna-karma nindi’ kare, he would decry the paths of primitive work and philosophical speculation, and bhaktira baḍāi, proclaim the excellence of bhakti.

TEXT 65

In all the revealed scriptures of Vedic culture, devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa is explained throughout. Therefore devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa do not recognize the processes of philosophical speculation, mystic yoga, unnecessary austerity and so-called religious rituals. They do not accept any process but devotional service.

COMMENT

This is the purity of the devotee, the purity of devotional service.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement follows this principle. We do not recognize any method for spiritual realization other than Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service. Sometimes we are criticized by groups following jñāna, yoga, tapas or dharma, but fortunately we are unable to make any compromises with them. We simply stand on the platform of devotional service and preach the same principles all over the world.

COMMENT

Well, I didn’t want to but I feel compelled to share a story with you which I have shared on occasion, but because many of you are new to me I will tell it because it is so relevant to the topic. In 1971 I went to Madras, the first devotee from ISKCON to go to Madras. And Madras is full of Shaivites and Mayavadis and there are some Vaishnavas also. And historically, the Shaivites and Vaishnavites always argue over the supremacy of their respective deities, and then the impersonalists, the so-called intellectuals, they think, “Oh, how silly, how petty, they are fighting, Krishna is supreme, Shiva is supreme. Like children, my father is stronger than your father, my father can beat up your father. How silly, God is one, He is impersonal, He just comes in different forms, but ultimately, God is one.

So when I came to Madras I was preaching the usual way that I heard Srila Prabhupada preach and people were attracted. But I began to hear from friends that there was an undercurrent of protest against the way I was preaching, that people didn’t like that I was proclaiming that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that the means to attain perfection is bhakti-yoga, and there is no other means, and there is no other deity like Krishna, krishna-bhakti. So, I didn’t take it so seriously but I kept hearing it. Even friends, one man I stayed with for a while, very nice man, even he said, “Don’t criticize others, just say in a positive way what you want to say about what you are doing, but don’t criticize others.” And then he actually gave the example of the Gaudiya Math in Madras, he said, “They don’t criticize but they you know they worship Krishna, they chant Hare Krishna, and every year they have a big Janmashtami celebration and thousands of people come and they don’t criticize. Why do you have to criticize?”

So I thought about it. I knew he was a well-wisher and I thought about it but I considered, would Srila Prabhupada actually want us to be like the Gaudiya Math? I just didn’t think so. But anyway, it was building up and so I wrote Srila Prabhupada, and I kept hearing it again and again and it kept getting louder and louder, and then I thought, Okay, maybe Krishna is trying to tell me something, maybe I have to change my approach. And so I decided, all right, I am not going to enter into controversy, I am just going to speak positively about our activities and that is all. So I had an appointment with a big industrialist and so I showed him the pictures of our activities, Back to Godhead magazine, the books. Srila Prabhupada said, “If we just put the books on their tables. . .” Because the idea was to enroll them as life members and part of becoming a life member was that they would get all of Prabhupada’s books and subscription to Back to Godhead magazine. So, just piling our books on their table they will be inspired to become life members. So I did it all, and then I took out the membership form asked him to become a life member. Then he said, “What about Shankaracharya? You have said so many things, you haven’t said anything about Shankaracharya. What about him?” So I said, “Yes, he is also a great acharya, he is one of the great acharyas of India.” He said, “Yes, but why haven’t you said anything about him?” And he just kept probing, he just kept probing. I said, “Yes,” I tried to say something neutral. I definitely didn’t want to say something I didn’t believe but tried to avoid the controversial points like that. But he kept provoking me, deliberately provoking me.

And then finally I had to say, “Well, Shankaracharya is actually an incarnation of Lord Shiva but he came with a specific purpose to preach Mayavadi which is really a veiled form of Buddhism because the people were Buddhists which really means atheists and so he presented this misleading doctrine of Mayavadi. But it was for a reason, it was for purpose, to re-establish the authority of the Vedas, but because his audience were atheists he gave an atheistic explanation of the Vedas to reestablish the Vedas. And then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came and completed the process by beginning with the authority of the Vedas and then presenting the proper understanding of the Vedas like He did with Prakasananda Sarasvati in Varanasi, like He did with Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya in Puri, and like that.

So, he was not convinced. It is very difficult to convince a Mayavadi. He just wouldn’t budge, so I thought, Well, what to do? I wanted to avoid it but I couldn’t, I couldn’t help it. So, I put away all the pictures of our activities, put away the books, put away the magazine, put away the form, packed my briefcase. So the man was showing me out, I don’t know now, but then there were a lot of cultured people in India, they may not be devotees, they might actually be demons, but they are cultured. They offer you a place to sit, they offer you something to drink, something to eat, they accompany you to the gate, and things like that. So, he was walking me out to the gate of the compound. It was a big compound with his factory, his office, and his residence. So, as we were at the gate, and nearing the gate, he said, “Before you leave I want you to see my temple room.” So, I thought, Oh no, he is going to have a shiva-lingam, he is going to want me to offer full obeisances, if I don’t offer full obeisances he is going to think I am sectarian or prejudiced or naive. So I looked at him, “Do I really have to do this?” And he looked me in the eye that, “Yes, you do.” Okay, so we went to the house and he took me to his temple room which is quite a large temple room for someone’s private home. It probably holds six or eight people in it. And there was a big marble slab and on top of the marble slab were big deities of Radha and Krishna, and I was so happy to see them because I don’t think there are any deities of Radha and Krishna in Madras. There is a famous temple of Krishna called Partha Sarathi but that is just Krishna alone, and there are many Vishnu temples, most of the old Vaishnava temples are Vishnu.

So I was very happy to see them and offered obeisances and prayers. And then I looked at him, “What is happening? What is all this?” And then he said that, “My family and I and our family for many generations have all been devotees of Radha and Krishna. I was just testing you and you did not compromise so I am very pleased with you and I will be happy to become your life member.” So then we went back into his office and took out the books, took out the magazines, took out the form, and this time he signed it, wrote out a check for the whole amount, became a life member. So then I was thinking, Well, maybe what I have been doing isn’t wrong. But I still wasn’t sure because so many people were saying the opposite.

So the whole way back to the place where I was staying I was thinking Maybe what I am doing isn’t wrong, but I wasn’t sure. And when I got back there was a letter from Srila Prabhupada, and of course, I eagerly opened it and the words jumped out of the page and Srila Prabhupada said, “The fact is that I am the only one in India who openly criticizes, not only impersonalism and demigod worship but anything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna as the Supreme Godhead.” And he said, “My Guru Maharaja never compromised in his preaching, and I will never compromise in my preaching, and similarly, none of my disciples should compromise in their preaching. We must declare it boldly that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are His part and parcel servants, and unless they are willing to surrender to Krishna as the Supreme Godhead all of their plans and hopes for peace and prosperity will be doomed.” He didn’t use the word doom but that was the message. So, then I thought, This is my instruction, this is the answer I was waiting for. But still, as Srila Prabhupada said, there is an art to criticizing.

On one morning walk in Wardha, this is very interesting, Srila Prabhupada invited by a big industrialist Ramakrishna Bajaj to the Gita Pratishthan, foundation conference in Wardha, and there were a lot of big Mayavadis, heads of big organizations and some political leaders and all sorts of important people. And Srila Prabhupada preached in his usual way speaking the truth, without compromise. And I don’t remember the context exactly but on the morning walk he said, “There is an art to criticizing.” And then he looked at us and said, “Unfortunately, you do not know that art.”

So anyway, coming back to Madras. So there was a man named Mr. Ramakrishna who was reputed to be very religious. We would meet people and they would say, “Oh, have you met Mr. Ramakrishna? He is very pious, he is very religious, he will like what you are doing.” So eventually I met him and he was of this philosophy that Shiva is supreme. Okay, Krishna is supreme, so I cited my evidence and he had his evidence, and he was a very volatile person and he was becoming angry, and I was also becoming angry. He was raising his voice and I was also raising my voice, and it ended up in a very big conflict. And it was obvious it wasn’t going to get any better, it was just going to get worse if we continued the same way and so we parted. But I kept meeting new people, “Oh, have you met Mr. Ramakrishna? He is such a religious man. He will definitely support you,” and so on. I kept hearing that one again and again, and I thought, Well, maybe I should try again.

So I phoned him and he immediately agreed, and then I thought, He is probably hearing the same thing, “Have you met the Hare Krishna people? They are doing very good work you know.” So we met and this time we both wanted to avoid that type of explosive conflict so very carefully I would present what I wanted to say, he was also very careful, but gradually we came back to the same point: Who is supreme? Vishnu or Shiva? And the emotions were building up, he was getting agitated, and he was pressing his points, and I was also responding, and it was getting tense. And then I had a thought, before things get out of control like last time I said, “Look I am just a student but my teacher is coming to Madras so I think instead of your discussing with me, it is better you wait until my guru comes and you meet with him and you can discuss with him.” So he liked that idea because that way we avoided the conflict and he probably was happy, thrilled with the opportunity that he could meet Srila Prabhupada.

So Prabhupada came, I invited him and he said, “I have been discussing with your student, who is supreme? Krishna or Shiva?” And Srila Prabhupada moved that conversation onto a totally different platform. He just did not enter into that controversy who is supreme. And what he said was that our desire is for pure devotional service, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, without any material desire. And he said there are two words bhakti and puja, bhakti means that one serves for the pleasure of the deity without any desire or expectation for personal benefit or return, and puja generally means that one worships the deity with some hope to get something in return. And so he said we worship Krishna in the mood of bhakti but most people worship Shiva in the mood of puja, to get something in return. Then Mr. Ramakrishna said, “Well, couldn’t someone worship Shiva in the mood of bhakti?” And Prabhupada said, “Yes.” He said, “It is just like if someone goes into a liquor shop, generally it is understood he is going to buy liquor but he could be going for some other purpose. But generally, it is understood if someone goes to the liquor shop he is going to buy liquor.” Actually, I fit in that because when we would do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana on Boylston Street in Boston in the evening, we had a set time that we were supposed to go back to the temple. Satsvarupa was very much in the mode of goodness and wanted us back on time so we could get up on time. But sometimes it was just so good I just wanted to stay out longer, but I would have to phone him and get his permission and inform him. And cell phones, those things didn’t exist then, the only place I could phone him was a bar. So, I went in but it was for another purpose.

So then Mr. Ramakrishna said, “But what if one did worship Lord Shiva in the mood of bhakti without any desire of any material return?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “That would be fine because vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnava so if you approach him in the mood of service or in the mood of seeking the absolute truth, he will lead you to Krishna. But if you approach him for something material then he will be like a demigod and he will give you something material.” And there are many examples, Nityananda Prabhu, the temple president here himself, he was a big Shaivite, but he wasn’t in the mood of getting material benefit, he just thought Shiva was the supreme and eventually, Shiva brought him to Krishna. And there was a Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Barbara Holdridge a genius, and when she was a student in her junior year there was a program like your junior year abroad and she took her junior year abroad in India and she ended up in Varanasi which is full of Mayavadis and Shaivites.

And so she was very attracted. She immediately started wearing sarees, white, wearing white, no borders, something definitely from her past life, and yes, she immediately took to the diet and everything. But just that association, that atmosphere, she became a Shaivite. She actually took initiation from a guru in the line of Shankaracharya but that is also a little questionable because it appears that in his talks with his advanced students, he would actually say that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the supreme scripture and that Krishna is the Supreme deity, but generally, he doesn’t get into any controversy just let it take twenty minutes in the morning, twenty minutes in the evening. So this is Krishna’s arrangement or Lord Shiva’s mercy? So, one devotee named Krishna Ksetra dasa, he had the idea of going back to the university and pursuing his education in religious studies, and he got her as a professor. And by his association, she became much more aware of Krishna and krishna-bhakti and Gaudiya Vaishnavism. And then Hridayananda Maharaja went back to the university and then many of his disciples, and he was in L.A. He is based in L.A. Santa Barbara was just up the road. And people were talking about her because she was so favorable, so interested. And she was just too happy to get them in her department. So one after the other different ISKCON devotees enrolled in religious studies and became her student and she got more influence.

So one year at the American academy of religion conference, because she would go every year, that was like a big thing, and Tamal Krishna Goswami would go. And she would hear him speak and silently appreciate him, and he would hear her speak and he would silently appreciate her. But they never actually met, but each one would think it would be nice to get to know that person. And then one year, our godbrother Garuda Prabhu attended the conference and it turned out that he and Professor Holdridge had been students together at Harvard in the graduate program, and he thought he should introduce her to Tamal Krishna Goswami. So it was late in the conference, towards the end, they met and it was busy, they didn’t really have time to talk too much, but after the conference, he was going to come and spend some time with me in Santa Barbara and she was also in Santa Barbara so it was arranged that they would meet.

There are many details, but she was just becoming more and more attracted to Krishna, and specifically, in the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But she was wondering what about her devotion to Lord Shiva? Is she being unchaste in her devotion to Lord Shiva? And then I explained vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ. He is the greatest Vaishnava; he will actually be happier if you become a devotee of Krishna than remain stuck on the platform of thinking that you are devoted to Shiva. And gradually she understood it, and the big thing was she came to Vrindavan, that was a big thing. And now, her specialty is Krishna, Vrindavan, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and the literature of the Gosvamis, especially the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. She really hit the jackpot, really hit the jackpot.

So yes, puja and bhakti, and Shiva and Krishna. And so what Prabhupada said was not only philosophically true and non-confrontational, but it was practically true that if you worship Shiva not as a demigod to fulfill your material desires but just as a deity who you may think is the supreme, he will lead you to Krishna who is actually the Supreme.

Hare Krishna.

Well, we didn’t get very far in this story but I think we will end here. The description is here in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, if you have time today it would be nice to read about how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and how all the devotees of Navadvipa. . . Yes, Advaita Acharya and Haridasa Thakura were good friends. I mentioned their identities in kṛṣṇa-līlā. Now, Advaita Acharya is actually Maha-Vishnu, and Haridasa Thakura is actually Lord Brahma, and Lord Brahma is the servant of Vishnu, his direct master is Lord Vishnu. So, they were friends and they were elders, they were much older than Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and they would spend time together. So on the night of Gaura-Purnima they were together and they would always chant and dance, but that night in particular they were overwhelmed with ecstatic love and just dancing wildly like mad men, and they couldn’t understand why. And up until then as we were just reading or about to read Advaita Acharya was praying for the Lord to descend because he saw that people were losing their Krishna consciousness becoming absorbed in karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa, and he felt that he didn’t have the power to change them himself so he prayed for the Lord to descend out of mercy and of compassion for the fallen souls.

So he was praying for that and worshipping Shaligram Shila with Ganges water, and tulasi leaves, and crying loudly, it is described that Advaita Acharya’s loud crying it penetrated the coverings of the universe and reached all the way to Krishna. And so that night when they were chanting and dancing in unprecedented ecstasy they thought, I wonder if it has happened, I wonder if the Lord has actually descended. It was a lunar eclipse, and the idea is during an eclipse you should go to a sacred lake or a river and immerse yourself and chant the holy name during the eclipse. And so all the Hindus were doing that and so they went to the Ganges and they also did it, and they thought this was what they were waiting for.

And then the next morning, Jagannatha Mishra, the father of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a very respected and pious brahman in the community. The news went out that Jagannatha Mishra and his wife Saci had a baby. And so all the other brahmans, they came to see the baby, and give their good wishes, and bring presentations, and especially some of the older ladies, Srivasa Pandita’s wife and Advaita Acharya’s wife Sita Thakurani, they came and brought auspicious articles and chanted mantras for the protection and well-being of the baby. And different demigods came disguised as brahmans, and they also came to see the Lord and offer blessings and presentations, and to congratulate Jagannatha Mishra and Sacidevi. And then Lord Jagannatha Mishra had a big feast to celebrate. So today is known as the festival of Jagannatha Mishra or the feast of Jagannatha Mishra.

Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. My Name is Bhakta Brandon.

Giriraj Swami: How do you spell your name?

Devotee: Brandon, B R A N D O N

Giriraj Swami: Oh Brandon. Okay, we used to have a Brandon here, now he is Balarama.

Devotee: Oh really. Earlier you were talking about and I was thinking when we honour prasādam, often it is literally we eat as much as we want. Sometimes we eat more than we actually need… My question is how do we consciously eat healthily… not too much and not too little…

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada gave a standard diet for the week and he quoted two, I think, Bengali words: suki and puki. Suki means basically boiled and puki means fried. And the idea is that during the week, Monday through Saturday you eat simply. He gave rice, dal, vegetables, chapati, a little sweet at the end. And on Sunday and festival days you have a feast. And so that includes a balance. Usually when the food is simple it is not as tempting to overeat. And later I read in a book on yoga and health, I think quite a serious scholar and practitioner in India, and he said the same thing that, “I eat very simply during the week but once a week or on holy days I can eat more opulently.”

And one devotee told me he tried the zone diet, I don’t know if you have ever heard of the zone diet. You haven’t missed much, but he had health problems so he tried it and I think it actually helped for a while. The zone diet is extremely severe, you are only allowed to eat certain things and the quantities are very controlled, but it is supposed to work, I guess it works for some people. But then once a week you are allowed to eat anything and as much as you want. And the idea is that if you have to follow the severe diet all the time it will be too much and then you may just give up the whole diet altogether. So it is built into the system that once a week you can indulge and then you get that satisfaction and you might overeat and then regret it afterwards, and then that puts you in the right mood to go back to the diet.

In the beginning, Srila Prabhupada actually encouraged devotees to take a lot of prasāda because it is purified. It is purifying. If you read the early accounts you would always personally oversee the serving of prasāda and say, “Take more, take more, take more.” And in the first temple in Manhattan on the lower east side, he would keep a jar of Gulab jamuns by the door. Anyone could take as many as they wanted. And if a devotee thought of leaving Krishna consciousness, thought of leaving the association they would have to pass the jar of Gulab jamuns, and definitely, they will think, Oh, anyway, who knows when I will get another one. So they will have one or two or three or four and then their mind will change, Anyway, it is not so bad here, try a little longer.

Yes, and I heard when I first joined that Srila Prabhupada said that if you need to gain weight and you take kṛṣṇa-prasāda you will gain weight, and if you need to lose weight and you take kṛṣṇa-prasāda you lose weight. It adjusts everything. But yes, if you feel it, if you feel that you are eating too much and it is affecting your consciousness then definitely you should try to reduce, but the main thing is to stay engaged.

Devotee: Is fasting helpful with this….?

Giriraj Swami: Well, fasting is good. The main thing is to serve Krishna so if fasting is favorable yes, fasting is healthy. Yes.

Devotee: Earlier you said that by constantly doing devotional service we get freed from our sins so those of us who have a regular service that we are engaged with, what should be our mood. Should we be considering this is still a great purification…or do we think we are now deovtees… [Unintelligible 01:37:56].

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good question; that is an excellent question. And the term devotional service can be applied in a broad way or in a narrow way. So rather than try to answer yes or no, we should understand what the process is. And the beginning is sraddha, as we discussed, ādau śraddhā, the beginning is having some faith and attraction specifically for the devotional literature that explains devotional service. So, that is sraddha. After preliminary faith and attraction, sādhu-saṅga, one will associate with devotees, you are doing that.

And then after associating with devotees when one comes to the conclusion that, “I want to become more serious, I want to follow the process like the other devotees and take initiation and commit myself,” then that is bhajana-kriyā, you are following the process, and seeking the shelter of the spiritual master and taking initiation from the spiritual master. And then there is anartha-nivṛtti, the unwanted things in the heart. It is all happening, but that particular stage, anartha-nivṛtti, is a state of clearing anarthas, and then when the anarthas are sufficiently cleared one enters the next stage which is called niṣṭhā which is steadiness. And then it becomes easier; it all becomes easier. Then ruci, taste, your taste for bhajana, for Krishna consciousness is greater than your taste for anything else. And then āsakti, you become attached to Krishna. In ruci you are very attached to Krishna consciousness but it is more focused on the activities of Krishna consciousness, the chanting and hearing about Krishna. And in āsakti you are more focused on Krishna Himself, of realizing your specific relationship with Krishna, and wanting to serve Krishna in your specific relationship with Him in Vrindavan. And then comes bhāva, that is the preliminary stage of love of God. In the stage of bhāva, you get direct realization of Krishna, direct perception of Krishna, and then when that love, ecstatic love, becomes more condensed and steady, it is steady but it gets more condensed, then that is called prema.

So, from the very beginning, ādau śraddhā, you could say you are a devotee, but it is a preliminary stage of being a devotee, more of a neophyte. And then at the stage of bhajana-kriyā and when you start to become free from anarthas and more steady, that is more like the intermediate stage. And then when you reach bhāva and prema, that is perfection. So now, along the line actually devotee doesn’t think that he is a devotee. In fact, neophytes may have the tendency to think they are devotees but if they really examine themselves and what a real devotee is they will think, I am not a devotee but I am trying to become a devotee. And then an intermediate devotee, he also doesn’t think he is a devotee because he knows about what it means to be a perfect devotee, to actually realize Krishna, enter into direct service to Krishna, so he doesn’t think he is a devotee but he prays to become a devotee. And one who is perfect he also doesn’t think he is a devotee. In fact, as you move along the line you become more humble.

It is ironic that it is possible for a beginning devotee to be very puffed up, “I am a devotee, I know more than others.” And then the intermediate devotees are more humble. And the perfect devotees they are so humble they think everyone else is a devotee except them. Yes, I think the neophyte, he thinks he is the best devotee or one of the best and others are less, and the intermediate he can see more clearly this is Krishna, these are devotees, and as he matures he can distinguish different grades of devotees, and then these are innocent people and these are envious people. And the perfect devotee, mahā-bhāgavata, he sees that everyone is a devotee except himself, he sees that everyone is serving Krishna except himself. And in that consciousness, the mahā-bhāgavata does not preach because he doesn’t see any need to preach because he sees everyone is already serving Krishna. Because everything is Krishna or Krishna’s energy, and therefore, ultimately everyone is serving Krishna from that perspective.

And sometimes we can get a little glimpse of it. One devotee was telling me that, they made a like a chariot for Lord Jagannatha and they put it in a procession of some other event, and so he was on the chariot, he was up on the chariot with Lord Jagannatha and he was looking ahead and he was seeing all these marching bands and people playing music, and from Lord Jagannatha’s point of view he was saying they are all glorifying Lord Jagannatha, they are all part of Lord Jagannatha’s procession, they are all playing music for his pleasure. So a little glimpse like that.

So, bhakti, sraddha is also bhakti, but from a certain point of view you could say real bhakti begins after anartha-nivṛtti, then most of the anarthas are cleared and then you can really be steady. And then from another point of view, you could say real bhakti begins with bhāva and prema, that everything until then is just practice and that is real bhakti. So, there is no right or wrong answer to, “Are you a devotee?” Yes, you are a devotee. If you have sraddha you are devotee and if you are associating with devotees, sādhu-saṅga, that is even a little more advanced, and if you are following all the regulative principles, bhajana-kriyā, the same course that would lead one to take initiation, you are a devotee but not a real devotee from a certain point of view. But you are a devotee, you are definitely a devotee. And it is just a matter of time, if you stay with the process it is just a matter of time.

Srila Prabhupada gave the example of a green mango and a ripe mango. They are both mangoes, and if the green mango just stays on the tree it will gradually ripen. All it has to do is remain attached to the tree and it will gradually ripen and become a sweet mango. So if you just stay attached to the association of devotees and the practice of Krishna consciousness then you will mature and become an advanced devotee and eventually a perfect devotee. So you are a devotee. So Prabhupada didn’t really, in our practical interactions with him, he didn’t really speak so much about analyzing what stage you are in. He just wanted everyone to chant the holy name and serve the saṅkīrtana movement, and he had faith if they continued with the process and in the association of devotees, everything would follow.

Hare Krishna.

All right, thank you very much.