Panihati Cida-dadhi Festival

Giriraj Swami: As His Holiness Indradyumna Swami said, there is so much to be said about the pastime of the Panihati Chida-dahi Festival, but I will just take one theme, which is relevant to all of us because it relates to our actual identities and our eternal service. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu identified Himself as gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna, who is the maintainer of the gopī damsels in Vrindavan.

So, we have heard how Raghunatha dasa was blessed by the association and mercy of many of the associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, especially those who are associated with his family, and as we heard, he approached Nityananda Prabhu, and he has been with the feast, and then Nityananda Prabhu blessed him, as His Holiness Indradyumna Swami describes. But Nityananda Prabhu said one more thing to Raghunatha dasa when He mentioned that he would get the shelter of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri, and that was that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would place Raghunatha dasa under the care of Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvami. So, if we see the pattern of Raghunatha dasa’s life, he was elevated by the mercy of the devotees to attain the shelter of Nityananda Prabhu, and ultimately, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And after achieving the shelter of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu placed him under the care of Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvami, and Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvami was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s personal assistant, and Raghunatha dasa was Svarūpa Dāmodara’s assistant.

Now, we touched on the point that these associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in gaura-līlā are also associates of Krishna in kṛṣṇa-līlā. A little esoteric, but you are advanced devotees. So, Svarūpa Damodara Gosvami, in kṛṣṇa-līlā was the gopī Lalita devi, the main gopī after Srimati Radharani. And Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was Rati Mañjarī or Tulasi Mañjarī. and she was also one of the confidential servants of Srimati Radharani under the supervision of Lalita devi. After Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Svarūpa Damodara Gosvami left this world, means it came to the close of the manifest pastimes in this world, Raghunatha dasa was feeling so much separation, that he decided to go to Vrindavan and give up his life.

Now generally, suicide is considered extremely sinful, and generally, materialistic people commit suicide. They have strong material desires, but their desires are frustrated, and then out of frustration and disappointment they want to give up their bodies, and the result is that they suffer more. Srila Prabhupada gave the example if you are in prison and then you try to escape the prison, then when you are caught, you are punished doubly, you have to finish the sentence for the crime you were already convicted of, and on top of it, you are punished for trying to escape.

So, leaving aside that discussion, Raghunatha dasa, he wanted to commit Vaishnava suicide, (it is different), by jumping from Govardhana Hill. But before doing so, he wanted to see Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. Among the Six Gosvamis, Rupa and Sanatana were the most senior. So he went to them, and they told him, “You should not go through with your plan. You have the personal association of Mahaprabhu in Puri, you know all about the internal and external features of his activities in Puri, you should stay with us and speak to us about Mahaprabhu. The two of us will accept you as our third brother.” And so, he agreed to stay, and as Maharaja quoted, he would offer daṇḍavats two thousand times a day, he would chant the holy name a hundred thousand names a day, at least respect the Vaishnavas a hundred thousand times a day, and he would hardly sleep. But he would discourse for three hours at the house of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri, and he would eat just a little butter-milk, not the butter-milk but the chaz.

So Raghunatha dasa got sick, and he hardly took care of his body. So the devotees, they called a physician from Mathura to treat him, and the physician said that he is suffering from indigestion due to overeating. [laughter] The disciples got so upset, “What are you saying? He hardly eats just a few drops, and sometimes not even that.” And then, Raghunatha dasa said, “Actually, it is true.” [laughter] “Last night, there was a big festival in the spiritual world, and I ate too much.” [laughter] So, the lesson for us is, it is okay when there is a spiritual festival.

So, he took shelter of Rupa and Sanatana, this is the point, that he was always under the shelter of Vaishnavas, and he himself was the shelter for so many Vaishnavas. And that is how Krishna consciousness works, our paramparā works, we are under the shelter of Vaishnavas, and that enables us to give shelter. If we don’t have shelter, how can we give shelter to anyone else? And here too, what took place in Vrindavan, was a manifestation of Raghunatha dasa ‘s eternal relationship in the spiritual world, because in the spiritual world, Raghunatha dasa is Rati Mañjarī, and Rupa Gosvami is Rupa Mañjarī. And in the spiritual world, Rati Mañjarī serves Srimati Radharani under the guidance of Rupa Mañjarī, and they are the closest friends as gopīs in the spiritual world. In caitanya-līlā they were friends; the mood was a little different, more respect that way in caitanya-līlā but Raghunatha dasa was so attached to Rupa Gosvami and all the devotees.

So, as Maharaja quoted, Srila Prabhupada said, “We will have another ISKCON in the spiritual world.” So, what does that mean? Actually, when someone started joking and said, “Does that mean we will have a GBC there?” [laughter] And then another godbrother said, “Yes, maybe the Six Gosvami.” [laughter] So, it means that we all are in the mood of being the servants of the servants of Krishna here, Prabhu. Srila Prabhupada said we must address each other as Prabhu, “You are my master means, I am your servant.” And so, in that mood of being the servant of the servant of the servant here, for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada, the paramparā, the Pancha-tattva, and ultimately Radha and Krishna, it is the spiritual world. And by that mood of service in the material world, we become eligible to enter the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada said, “If you are doing college-level work when you are in high school, then you can be promoted to college.” So, if we are doing the activities of the spiritual world in the mood of the devotees of the spiritual world while we are here in the material world, we are elevated to be promoted to the spiritual world, or it doesn’t matter, because we are in the spiritual world.

Indradyumna Swami quoted this exchange with Shraddhanjali dasi, in which he asked, whether I would be prepared to come back for her if she wasn’t completely successful, and I said yes, I was. But there was a condition. [laughter] Not for her, but His Holiness Rtadhvaja Swami and I were having a talk, are we afraid of death? I do service and in the field of hospice and I am writing a book on death and dying, but what about me? So, Ṛtadhvaja Swami said that, “If I can have the association of godbrothers like I have in this life in the next life, and if I can chant the holy name in the next life like I can in this life, then I don’t mind taking birth again.” He is not afraid of death. So, I am not really placing any conditions, but I really do pray that if I do come back, that I will have the association of godbrothers like Indradyumna Swami and so many others, and to chant the holy name and preach and serve Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees. And [Unintelligible 00:16:00].

Indradyumna Swami reminded me of our pact. This pact was reached in Mauritius. We were younger then, and we had been invited to a grihastha’s home, in which the wife was an excellent cook, and somehow, we had the idea that we should have a contest, a three-way contest. The first contest was between us and the cook, whether she can cook more, or we could eat more. [laughter] And then the second contest between Maharaja and me, which of the two of us could eat more. [laughter] You see the connection? Raghunatha dasa was seeing how he could eat less, his whole life was eating less and less, but, I had a different idea. [laughter] So, our contest was who could eat more, and she was a good cook, and she kept coming out with more and more prasāda and we kept eating. And in the end, I would say it became transcendentally intoxicated. And in that state of divine, sweet intoxication, we made a solemn pact, and that is that neither of us will go back to Godhead without the other.

Devotees: Haribol! [applause]

Giriraj Swami: So, I am very confident now. [laughter] Actually, I don’t have a thing to worry about at all. [laughter] Haribol! [applause] Now we can just chant and wait until we go back to Godhead. It is already decided.

Hare Krishna. [applause]