Sri Gaura-purnima

Giriraj Swami: Today is Sri Gaura-purnima which is the appearance day of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna come in the form of a devotee of Krishna, to teach us how to be devotees of Krishna. But before we proceed further, let us discuss a little about the nature of Krishna, or the absolute truth.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is considered the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the absolute truth, the origin of everything, the highest reality is realized in three features; Brahma, Paramātmā, and Bhagavan. Brahma is the impersonal effulgence that emanates from Krishna, but realization of brahman is only partial realization of the absolute truth. It is realization of the eternal aspect of the absolute truth. Beyond brahman realization, is realization of Paramātmā or the Lord within the heart. That realization includes eternity-sat and knowledge-cit, but it is lacking the main thing that every one of us, every single living entity in the entire creation wants more than anything else, and that is bliss, happiness, ānanda. And that can be realized in relation to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are jnanis who want to merge and become one with brahman but they are not happy. And generally being unhappy and unsatisfied, although they reject the material world as being false, they come back to the material world because they are not satisfied. The yogis, dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino, they meditate on the Lord within our hearts. But even that does not afford one loving relationship that we all want. And that loving relationship is possible only with Bhagavān or Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So Krishna appeared on earth five thousand years ago to show people who God is. People are always speculating about the nature of God. Some people imagine he must be an old man with white hair and a beard sitting on a throne, because he must be very old because he is the creator and he is the ruler, so he must be sitting on a throne. But Krishna comes personally to show us who God is. And it turns out he is not an old man, but he is a very playful, jubilant, affectionate, youth—eternal youth. He is older than the oldest but he appears as an ever fresh youth. And that is also something we would like, you don’t want to grow old. So Krishna comes and shows us who God is, but He does not come alone. God is never alone. He comes with a replica of the spiritual abode where he resides eternally, and engages in loving reciprocation with his pure devotees. And that replica of the spiritual world is called Vrindavan. And Krishna, you could say, manifests for all of us to see what is life with Him in the spiritual kingdom. And he shows us that we can enter into a direct personal loving relationship, in any one of five relationships. One relationship is passive service. This material world is considered an inverted reflection of the spiritual world. Everything that exists here exists originally in the spiritual world but in its pure form. In other words, where did all of this come from? Because we have parents, our parents are persons so we are persons. It would be unimaginable for someone who is a person to be born of something that is not a person.

So God is the Supreme Person and He has all the attributes that we have, but pure and to an unlimited degree. And this is part of the teachings of the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, that we are inconceivably, simultaneously one with and different from the Supreme. We are one with Him in quality, He is sac-cid-ānanda – He is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. And by nature in our spiritual essence we are also the same – sac-cid-ānanda. We are also by nature eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. So we are one in quality, but different in quantity because God is infinite and as Srila Prabhupada, our teacher said, we are infinitesimal. So we are one in quality, but different in quantity. And because we are one in quality, we can have a relationship with God. And because we are different in quantity, because he is great and we are small, our relationship is one of service. But that service can be rendered in different relationships. So one is sort of passive service like a tree; a tree gives good shade it gives food, it renders service. Then there is active service. You can become a personal servant of Krishna, and help His mother dress Him in the morning. You can become a friend of Krishna, you can have a relationship of a parent to Krishna; and you can even have a relationship of a wife or a lover of Krishna. So whatever relationship you want to have with God you can have. And Krishna came personally, five thousand years ago to show us what it is like in the spiritual world, to attract us out of this world which is the opposite – temporary; full of ignorance, full of misery.

But after Krishna left and returned to His abode, He considered that, I have not given the method by which people can realize their eternal relationship with Me. He did give instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā, which is the basic textbook of yoga. And he says, Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, you can worship only by bhakti-yoga. But he did not clearly define the process of bhakti-yoga, although it is defined in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But for people in this present age, it was a little bit difficult. By our instruction of Krishna and the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, give up all different “isms”, and just surrender to Me. But in this modern day that is not so easy. So Krishna came again as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and introduced the easiest method of realizing God, through chanting the holy names, specifically the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.

And He quoted one verse because He was Krishna, but He was playing the part of the devotee. And devotees don’t manufacture their own theories, but they repeat what is in scripture. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, playing the part of the devotee set the example. And he quoted,

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names; there is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in spiritual realization in the present age.

It is repeated three times for emphasis; you must do it, you must do it, you must do it—chant; and no other way, no other way, not by karma-yoga, not by jnana-yoga, not by ashtanga-yoga, but only by bhakti-yoga; by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. But we are so unfortunate that although we hear these divine instructions, we don’t take them to heart. We may give little respect or we may not at all. There was once a cartoon in a newspaper in New York City, and the devotees showed it to Srila Prabhupada. And in the cartoon there was an old man and an old lady sitting next to each other. And the wife is saying to the husband, “chant, chant, chant.” And the husband is replying, “can’t, can’t, can’t.” So that is our misfortune. With the same effort that it takes to say ‘can’t, can’t, can’t.’ We are like stubborn children, you will give a child some good advice and; “No, no, no!” Of course that is an age they go through. I was a psychology major in college and one of my professors told me that at a certain age, the child has to say no. And he told the story of a little girl of that age who was noticed by someone practicing saying no; “no, no, no!” Just practicing saying no in different ways. Now unfortunately, to some degree, we have that tendency. God is the Supreme father. He is full of love for us, he wants only the best for us, but we have that sort of stubborn, rebellious nature. But you all, are so fortunate that you have come to the association of devotees; and in the association of devotees everything good will come to you if you just stay in the association of devotees. Because a man is known by the company he keeps. For example, when a person is born he has no idea of smoking, and nobody has died from not smoking. They might die from smoking but they don’t die from not smoking, so how does that smoking habit come? It comes by association. Some peer, some friend will say, “Have you ever tried smoking? “No!” “Oh you should try it, it is good.” “No, it seems really unhealthy, inhaling smoke and it smells bad, and it pollutes the whole atmosphere.” “You should try it, how are you going to make a judgement and you haven’t even tried it?” So gradually, by association you develop that habit; that habit of smoking.

So in the same way, by good association you can develop good habit of chanting. And from chanting, everything follows. I should tell you a little bit about Srila Prabhupada. Some of you know already but there is a line of gurus that begins with Krishna, and no one can be considered a bona fide spiritual master unless he comes in that line. You can’t just declare yourself to be a spiritual master; or you have a spiritual master, he has a spiritual master, he has a spiritual master. He had no spiritual master, but he meditated in a cave and he had a realization and that is where it begins. But that is not what it begins; it has to begin with God Himself—God is the original. So there is a chain, an unbroken chain. It begins with Krishna, to Narada, to Brahma, to Narada, to Vyasa and so on. And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the ideal devotee, he also had category in the same chain. And then, he had his disciples, they had their disciples and all the way down to Srila Prabhupada through his spiritual master. And his spiritual master instructed him to take this knowledge out of India and share it with people throughout the world, which was unimaginable; and Srila Prabhupada did it. And he left India at the age of sixty-nine; he celebrated his seventieth birthday at sea and arrived in New York City. And this whole movement expanded in just twelve years, beginning with Srila Prabhupada at the age of seventy, through the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his guru Maharaja, and through the potency of the holy name. And Srila Prabhupada, after spreading the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Krishna in America for five years, from 1965 to 1970, he returned to India with some of his disciples, and I was one of them that he recruited. And in 1971, we staged under Srila Prabhupada direction, a large pandal program in Calcutta. A pandal is like a huge tent and they would have a big top; that is huge, and we were getting twenty thousand people a day and on the weekend, thirty thousand.

Now at that time, Calcutta was under the sway of Naxalites, who you could say were young communist, terrorists. And they would kidnap children of wealthy people and hold them for ransom. Sometimes they would just choose a rich man and just gun him down on the streets of Calcutta. And they didn’t like that we were putting on this pandal, and they sent Srila Prabhupada a note, “fly or die!” And it sounds like it is out of a movie but it is true; and they cut out different letters from newspapers and pasted it so like no one could trace the handwriting or a typewriter. They just cut out letters from newspapers and pasted it. So Srila Prabhupada didn’t budge. And then there was a press conference and even the press, that is communist mentality is sort of infiltrated. Anyway, people tend to relate things in material first, so they challenged Srila Prabhupada, “What is the purpose of this big pandal, what is the purpose?” You are going to be using money to feed poor people; what is the point; what is the purpose? And Srila Prabhupada replied, “The purpose is to give people a chance to hear” because the whole process of bhakti begins by hearing – śravaṇam which you are doing right now. And he said, “This whole arrangement has come just by hearing. Some of these American young men and women heard me. And from their hearing me all of this has come.” So, hearing – hearing and chanting. Everything comes from hearing and chanting; someone chants and someone hears. 

So the first night of the pandal came; people were streaming in, thousands of people were streaming in and the general system in pandals in India, is that most people sit on the ground. They are outdoors obviously, and they are Indian carpets called dhurries, people sit on the dhurries. And then usually there are chairs for VIPs and we were new. So our friends they advised us, you have a section of chairs and others can sit there (Unintelligible 00:26:22). So the Naxalites came and they objected. “Why are some people sitting on chairs and others are sitting on the ground, everyone should sit on the ground.” And so we were with Srila Prabhupada on the stage and we could hear in the background, there is this commotion, and it disturb the program. They started taking chairs, folding chairs banging them together, clapping them together to make noise. So we didn’t know what to do, which wasn’t that unusual. So we looked to Srila Prabhupada, which was very usual, and he picked up his kartals and began kirtan.

He came forward, we didn’t know what he was going to say and he just began kirtan and chant the Govinda prayers. And to us it seemed like suddenly, mystically, all the clapping of chairs together stopped and all the angry Naxalites disappeared – either they sat down and listened to the talk or they just left. And that was Srila Prabhupada’s faith in the holy name. He had faith, if  people just chanted Hare Krishna, everything would follow. Even if they didn’t chant it, they just heard it, everything would follow. And in America also, before going to India, I joined the temple in Boston; and Srila Prabhupada spend more time in New York. So once he came to New York, with a few devotees from Boston and he was at the airport. (Unintelligible 00:28:47) newspaper reporters. And one of the newspaper reporters asked him, what does this chanting accomplish? And Srila Prabhupada smiled this huge oceanic beaming smile and he said, “Chanting accomplishes chanting.” Now that was a very profound answer, because as Vaisesika Prabhu said, pure devotional service, bhakti, only can satisfy God; nothing else can. But to satisfy the heart it should be unmotivated and uninterrupted. So chanting accomplishes chanting; means there is no motivation. It is not that, by chanting I will get a Rolex watch, or by chanting I will get a Mercedes car, or whatever. All the devotee wants, is more service; and it is not interrupted; “Okay I will chant for a while then take a break.” In those early days in Boston, Srila Prabhupada, that is actually where I met him, at Brandeis University where I was a student. And then it turned out that this program was every Monday Wednesday, and Friday he would speak at the store front and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, he generally speaks outside, usually at the university; and then Sunday would be the Sunday program.

So one of the first talks he gave was at Harvard University, and he gave a wonderful talk but those students at Harvard University, I think they thought that they were pretty smart, and there become a certain point of view they were smart. So at the end, Srila Prabhupada asked, “are there any questions, raise your hands.” So one man he said, that “You say that by chanting all the problems of the world will be solved, but I don’t think that they would be solved, and in Russia there were people who at the turn of the century, they were chanting the name of Jesus but that didn’t really accomplish any change. What really accomplished the change was the revolution.” Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, for the people in Russia now, after the revolution, are they happy?” He said, “Well no, they are not happy.” And Prabhupada said, “Then what was the use?” And even if it is better for some time it will get worse again. So he was, from a certain point of view, (Unintelligible 00:32:40). “So then you say that by repeating Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, you get all these results. But couldn’t you get the same result by repeating anything; like counting one two three, one two three, one two three; wouldn’t that give the same result?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, ”Well, you can try counting and when you get tired of counting, you can try chanting.”

And the last one; “You say that by chanting you become fully happy and satisfied, are you truly happy and satisfied?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “If I tell you falsely that I am truly happy and satisfied, will you believe me?” And the students said, “No, I wouldn’t believe you.” And Prabhupada said, “Then what is the use of asking the question?” So I was transcendentally intoxicated by this whole experience. Actually at that time, devotees didn’t own any cars. The temple was quite poor and, in fact, the first time I saw Srila Prabhupada, was at Brandeis University and afterwards, one of the devotees asked if there was anyone driving to Harvard Square, in Boston, they needed a ride. So the devotee saw that I was coming every evening, they asked if I could drive Srila Prabhupada. So I drove him to that program, and I was just wandering among the students and listening to them talk about how impressed they were with Srila Prabhupada. And then suddenly one of the devotees came running up to me and said Srila Prabhupada is waiting for you. I said, “Oh my God.” So, I rushed to the car and we started to drive. And I found my way there during the day but now it was dark and all the streets all look the same. I thought anyway, I know which direction it is so I sort of calculated – go right, go left—but as we went further and further in the dark I started to have the uneasy feeling that we were completely lost. And I asked the devotees, does anyone know the way; and no one else knew the way. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Is not the driver supposed to know the way?” I didn’t know I was the driver, I just thought I was being a good guy, not officially a driver; the driver had duties and responsibilities.

Anyway somehow we figured it out and managed to figure it out. I was in the driver’s seat and Srila Prabhupada was in the passenger seat, and I rushed around and opened the door. And I said to Srila Prabhupada, I am sorry that we got lost. Srila Prabhupada looked at me with such love and compassion in his eyes and he smiled and he said simply, “That is alright.” And this really impressed me because I had just seen him at Harvard University completely demolishing all these brilliant students, so I knew if he wanted to demolish me he would have done it in a moment, but he didn’t. And then I thought, Wow, this is so perfect! It is like the perfect philosophy and the perfect process. But Srila Prabhupada is also very kind and compassionate. Vaisesika Prabhu said that I should share some of these experiences. There is one that more directly pertains to Lord Chaitanya. So we are back in Calcutta now and the same place called Green Castle; it is still there, 3 Orchid Road. And the owner of that property, which we were renting as our temple, was a Bengali gentleman named Mr. Singh Roye. And as I mentioned, we were very new in India, and so one of Prabhupada’s disciples named Achyutananda, got into a sort of philosophical discussion with Mr. Singh Roye. And Mr. Singh Roye said some things that we had never heard before.

There are a lot of things that we heard in India, that we never heard before and we would just check with Srila Prabhupada. So he was saying that actually Krishna is not the original, that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the original; and from  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Radha and Krishna come. And he also said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is greater than Radha and Krishna. Just like milk and sugar—rasagullā. I hope you know what is rasagullā, and if you don’t, please find out as soon as possible. But this description is totally clinical; it doesn’t give you a real sense of what it is but it is a spongy cheese ball, submerged in sugar and water that it absorbs the sugar and water. Anyway, it is a delicacy.

So Mr. Singh Roye was saying that actually Sir Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was greater than Radha and Krishna. Just as rasagullā is greater that milk and sugar. So Achyutananda came to present these questions to Srila Prabhupada, but it was filled with devotees, and he asked the question. So he said who is original, and Srila Prabhupada said that actually Radha and Krishna come first, and they combine and become Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, because like milk and sugar they stay separately first; then they combine and become rasagullā. And in this book, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which I hope you all either have or will get soon, like tonight, because it is a very auspicious occasion and they are actually being offered for a fraction of the regular price and even there is no price for it is priceless. But there is a verse, one of the first verses of Caitanya-caritāmṛta that says that “When Krishna wanted to enjoy He expanded Himself into two into Radha and Krishna, and those two Radha and Krishna have combined again as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.” And there are internal and external reasons for the Lord’s appearance, Krishna’s appearance as Sir Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And the internal reason is that He wanted to experience Radha’s love for Him. He knows everything; He is God, but without taking Her position, He couldn’t experience the happiness She feels in loving Krishna and in receiving Krishna’s love.

And these are the basis of human beings; it is the essence of life, it is the essence of bhakti – to love and be loved. And Krishna, he wanted to understand what it means to love from the position of Radha, and what it means to be loved by Krishna as Radharani. It is a very very deep subject and if we even begin to understand that our [Unintelligible 00:44:25] So then, Acyutananda Prabhu asked Srila Prabhupada who is greater. And Srila Prabhupada paused for a moment and looked down and then he said Radharani is the greatest. And he pointed to a picture on the wall and (Unintelligible 00:44:57) that Radharani sitting on a higher platform and Krishna was sort of kneeling towards Her feet, very intimate (Unintelligible 00:45:15) on wall and he said Radharani is the greatest. And then there was another picture in which Krishna was carrying His father, Nanda Maharaja’s shoes on His head. And then Srila Prabhupada said that Nanda Maharaja is the greatest. And then he said, the devotee is the greatest. The devotee is even greater than Krishna because Krishna comes under the control of the devotee’s love. So this is unheard of in any other religious conceptions; is unheard of, that God is controlled by the love of His devotees. And this is, not that we want to control Krishna but by hearing about this, we don’t think, we should think – “I want to become a devotee; I want to have that kind of relationship with Krishna. And that is the only thing that will ever fully satisfy my soul.” And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to give this to us fallen souls.

Now someone may ask, how is it possible because we know who we are, what we are. I have heard stories even from very pious friends who became devotees, and when they told the story of how they became devotees, I realized actually in Kali-yuga, no one is really exempt from sinful activities. One man is a great devotee, one of the best devotee in Bombay, he was playing rummy at the club, and the game was over, he had a little time to kill, he opened the newspaper, he saw,  ‘Grand opening of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari temple, Hare Krishna land in Juhu’. So from the rummy game, he went to the temple for the first time. There was another group, again like really pious people, they would go to. . .anyway, the point I am making is that in Kali-yuga, pretty much everyone is contaminated by some sort of sinful activity, wherever they may be from. And so we are so low and what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is offering us is so high. How is it possible so contradictory, so paradoxical? And one of our acharyas, one of our spiritual teachers in the line has given the example that a king may become intoxicated and go into this treasury, and take out his most precious gems, and go out on the street and just start giving them away to whoever he wants. So someone may think, “how could he do that?” He is the king; he can do whatever he wants.

And so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu being intoxicated with divine love from chanting the holy names, it is like he is going into his most confidential treasury and taken out these most precious jewels of divine love and giving them out freely to us, street people, and all we have to do is take it. And this Deity of [Unintelligible 00:50:05], Mahaprabhu, so His hands are out like this and call, “just take, just take, it is free.” It is inconceivable, this highest love of God, this most priceless treasure, just distribute the holy name. And that realization comes just by associating with devotees and taking the holy name, Harināma-cintāmaṇi, holy name—itself a gem that fulfills all desires and chanting.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

And this treasure was kept in India for some centuries. And there was an injunction that a saintly person or a sannyasi, a renunciate, should not cross the ocean. And the injunction was there because if he did cross the ocean he could be contaminated by the fallen people in the different cultures. But Srila Prabhupada, on the order of his guru, and with faith in the holy name of Krishna, crossed the ocean at the age of seventy. And he sat down under a tree in New York City chanting Hare Krishna. And he said that anyone can take Krishna consciousness anywhere in the world by the same method. You just go to the park in the center of the town and you sit down and chant Hare Krishna, and immediately people will think, this is Prabhupada’s own words, immediately people will think, “Who is this crazy person sitting and chanting in the town square?” And they will come around him to find out about this crazy person. And then he tells them about Krishna and about Bhagavad-gītā and the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

So this is continuing, it is continued by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu mercy and Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. And all we have to do, what you have to do, all we have to do is take it and distribute it. This is the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that you should taste and enter the holy name; taste love of God; and distribute it, share it with others. And so devotees go out on the streets and chant; they go door to door with books and they if like you, and if you are fortunate, intelligent, will chant and read the books with devotees or if you don’t do it, directly support those who are doing it, and get the same result. We are so fortunate and although Vaisesika Prabhu said, “I have a personal association with Prabhupada which is true, and you can hear about him from me, which is true. But I can honestly say that he has taken the mood and message of Sir Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada to us. And therefore this temple, this mission, ISKCON Silicon Valley is running very intimate service to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And therefore you can get a very strong connection with Them here.

I really encourage you to come as much as you can; spend as much time here as you can. And as Vaisesika Prabhu said, you can apply the same principles at home. Everything that we are doing here you can do it at home, but when you come here, you get the association of very sincere and advanced devotees. And that is a very important reason to come here. But other than that, whenever we do here, whatever you see us doing, we come. Devotees also can visit home and read Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And it is a wonderful blissful spiritual and I hope you are already part of it. Well actually we are all a part of it, but some elements of devotees. But in any case, I welcome you to this spiritual family and it will be a great honor and fortune for me to chant and dance with you, together, all the way back home back to Godhead.