Supremely Merciful—Nityananda-trayodasi Evening

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna! So, we welcome you on the most auspicious occasion of Sri Nityananda Trayodashi, which is the date on which Sri Nityananda Prabhu appeared in this world. Nitya means eternal and ānanda means bliss. Every one of us is hankering for eternal happiness, but we do not know how to find it. But the very name Nityananda suggests that we can find that eternal happiness by taking shelter of Lord Nityananda.

Who is Nityananda? The Vedānta-sūtra begins with the aphorisms, athāto brahma jijñāsā, janmādy asya yato, that now that we have come to the human form of life, we should inquire into the Absolute Truth. The human form of life is a special facility awarded to the living entity during his sojourn in the material universe in so many different species of life. Because in the human form of life, one can inquire into the Absolute Truth. And what is the Absolute Truth? janmādy asya yato, that from which or from whom everything emanates. So, Vedic authorities have informed us that the Absolute Truth, or that from whom everything emanates, is a person, and that person is called Krishna. And Krishna expands Himself into different plenary and partial incarnations. The Brahma-saṁhitā gives the example that if you have one candle, from that candle you can light a second candle, and from that candle, you can light a third, and from that candle, you can light a fourth, and they all have the same candle power. They are all the same in that sense, but still, there is one original candle, and the original candle is Krishna. And Krishna’s first expansion is Balarama.

In Vedic knowledge, there are two considerations: rasa and tattva. Tattva means the truth, the ontological existential truth of something, and rasa means how that entity, if you will, relishes especially in relationship with others. So, in terms of tattva, Balarama is the first expansion of Krishna, and in terms of rasa, He is Krishna’s older brother. He plays the part of Krishna’s older brother. So, Krishna appeared on earth about five thousand years ago, and He wanted to give eternal happiness to the conditioned souls. And thus, He spoke the Bhagavad-gītā and gave them instructions on how they could achieve that Nityānanda. But unfortunately, very few people could understand Him. And therefore, He came again five hundred years ago to teach us by His own example how to serve Krishna, how to realize eternal happiness. And just as Krishna appeared as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is seen on the left altar on our right side with His hands raised, so Balarama, He also appeared five hundred years ago as Krishna’s older brother, as Nityananda. And These two brothers are very merciful. God is merciful in every appearance, in every manifestation. But These two brothers, Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda, are especially merciful. Yes, and the process that They gave us is, kevala ānanda-kāṇḍa. It is simply joyful. There is nothing difficult in this process at all. Even children can participate. There is nothing in their process that is not possible for anyone and everyone. And the main process that They gave us is the chanting of the holy names.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

And this chanting is guaranteed to make you happy. Sometimes we meet people and challenge them to chant this Hare Krishna maha-mantra even once without smiling. And I have not met a person yet who can chant just one mantra without smiling because it brings bliss, kevala ānanda-kāṇḍa. And that is what we want. So, parama karuṇa, that means supremely merciful. Pahū dui-jana, nitāi- gauracandra, These two brothers, Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, are supremely merciful. Saba avatāra-sāra śiromaṇi, They are the essence of all incarnations. And kevala ānanda-kāṇḍa, the method They taught is simply joyful. But the author of that poem, Lochan dasa Thakura, he does explain that saṁsāre majiyā, se rase majiyā, that in order to be fully absorbed in that nectarean experience of this blissful process, one must give up sense gratification. Now, someone might think, Well, I thought there were no conditions, that it was simply joyful. But the truth is that sense gratification, Krishna says which is against the principles of devotional service, but which works against the success of devotional service, is best given up. And this is a common experience that we all have in life, that sometimes to get a greater gain, you have to give up something. And that is how you progress.

There is one historical incident that involved a worshiper of Lord Shiva. Now, Lord Shiva, vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, Lord Shiva is a great Vaishnava, a great devotee of Vishnu or Krishna. But sometimes people approach him for some material gain. And one of his names is Asutosha, which means he is very easily pleased. And so, people who approach him for material gains often get results quickly. But what his inner mood is that, “Oh, this person is bothering me for something material. Alright, I will give it to him so he doesn’t bother me anymore.” So sometimes, “Okay, just take it and go.” So, this one worshiper of Lord Shiva asked for the benediction of getting the most valuable thing. And he thought that the most valuable thing is a touchstone, which is a stone, but anything that touches it becomes gold. So, I think even in Western, anyway, I don’t know, something Midas, the Midas touch. Well, anyway. But so, Lord Shiva told him, “Go to Vrindavan,” Vrindavan is a very special place where Lord Krishna and Balarama manifested Their pastimes on earth about five thousand years ago. That place still exists. And so, this incident that I am relating to took place about five hundred years ago. Lord Shiva told him, “You go to Sanatana Gosvami in Vrindavan. He has the most valuable thing.”

So, he went and he asked Sanatana Gosvami, “I heard you have the most valuable thing and that you will give it to me. So, that touchstone, you have the touchstone.” So, Sanatana Gosvami said, “Yes, it is out in the back with the trash.” So, when he looked through the trash, he found the touchstone and it was working. He was getting immense wealth. But then he thought, If Sanatana Gosvami is keeping this in the refuse pile, he must not consider it very valuable. He must have something more valuable. I think I am getting cheated. So, he went back and he said, “I thought this was the most valuable thing, but you are keeping it in the back with the trash. You must have something more valuable. I want that.” So, Sanatana Gosvami said, “Oh, you want that most valuable thing? Alright, take that touchstone and go to the Yamuna River and throw it in the river and come back. And then I will give you the most valuable thing.” So, the man hesitated because he had something that was producing results. It was giving him wealth. But still, he knew that Sanatana Gosvami must have something more valuable. So, he did as Sanatana said. He threw the touchstone in the Yamuna River and he came back and said, “I am ready now. I want really the most valuable thing.” Sanatana Gosvami said, “Alright, I will give it to you.”

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

That is the most valuable thing because it is Krishna, Krishna and Radharani. That is Hare and Krishna and Balarama, Rama referring to Balarama. That is the most valuable thing. And someone who has that is fully satisfied and he has no other desires for anything else. And that Harināma-cintāmaṇi, that touchstone of the holy name, is such that when one chants it, there are different stages of chanting. And the chanting is blissful even from the beginning stage. But there are still more developed stages of chanting. And so, one of our great spiritual teachers, actually the younger brother of Sanatana Gosvami named Rupa Gosvami, he prayed that, ”How can I chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra with one tongue and two ears? If I had millions of tongues and billions of ears, then I could begin to chant Hare Krishna.” So, now that is real taste. That is real taste. I mean, you might like some food preparation, say like, oh, there is so many. At noon, they offered two hundred different preparations to Lord Nityananda. So, imagine any one of them, say halavah or sweet rice. But when you eat sweet rice or halavah, do you think, if I could have a million tongues, then I could really relish this? No, because that is on a totally different level. Of course, it is prasāda, and we do relish it. But the holy name, which is Krishna Himself, Rupa Gosvami says, “I want millions of tongues and billions of ears.” So that means there is no limit. There is no limit to the pleasure that one can derive from chanting the holy name purely.

And so, Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, They began this saṅkīrtana movement of chanting the holy names in public places. In the beginning, They used to chant in private, just amongst devotees. But at a certain stage, that ecstasy that They were experiencing was too much for Them to keep just for Themselves. It was overflowing, and They came out, and They were singing and dancing, and everyone who came near Them became influenced by that supreme bliss. And there were two very fallen brothers, talking about brothers, and they were delivered, especially by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And following His mercy, they got the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And that is our general process, that by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, one gets the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. In fact, here in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada encapsulated the whole process in a very condensed statement. He said that one can approach Radha and Krishna only by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, and one can get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya only by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And one can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda by approaching people like Jagai and Madhai. In other words, by approaching these sorts of fallen souls, I mean, they did many really bad things, very bad, murdering and plundering and raping. But even they were delivered. And so, by approaching people without discrimination, one can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And then, by His mercy, the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, we can approach Radha and Krishna. Can we keep the bell a little quieter?

Now, I will give an example of how this mood was exhibited by our Srila Prabhupada. In Bombay, well, there were a couple of incidents. But Srila Prabhupada had one disciple who came from a Sikh background, by chance. And he would drive Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to get donations for building the Vrindavan temple. But after a while, he thought, why should I drive them? I can also get donations. And so he started to collect money and keep the money for himself. He wanted to, I guess, whatever, start his own movement. But we don’t even know exactly what he had in mind. So Tamal Krishna Goswami approached Srila Prabhupada that he is doing this, we have to stop this, we have to put out a notice that he is no longer with us and the money that he is collecting isn’t coming to us. And Srila Prabhupada thought about it, but he was reluctant to do that because he still held out some hope that this devotee would come back. And he did, but then again, he went off and he fell into the company of what we call,  a bhogi yogi, the bogus yogi or whatever. And so, this disciple of Srila Prabhupada was learning from him how to put a coin in one ear and have it come out the other ear. So Tamal Krishna Goswami went to Srila Prabhupada and he said, “Alright, now he is doing this, we have to do something. We have to set a limit.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “You do not understand the mercy of Lord Nityananda.” “What do you mean?” He said, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limit. There is no limit to how merciful He is or to how forgiving He can be.” And so, we should bear that in mind when we deal with anyone.

And there was another incident. Srila Prabhupada was in Bombay and one of his very early disciples from America had gone to Calcutta and was smoking ganja, well marijuana, in more common parlance. So the temple president in Calcutta phoned Bombay, and Prabhupada’s secretary took the call and he explained to Srila Prabhupada the situation, that this early disciple had fallen into bad habits and was smoking ganja. What should they do? And Srila Prabhupada said, “Tell him that if he does not stop smoking ganja, I will reject him.” And then afterwards, we asked Srila Prabhupada, “Is that true? That if he doesn’t stop, you would reject him?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, I cannot reject anyone. I cannot reject any disciple. I cannot reject anyone, very, very rarely.” So, this is the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And that mercy is coming to us through His followers in disciplic succession, through Srila Prabhupada. And it is flowing even now, it is flowing and flowing and flowing.

This morning, we heard some very wonderful stories from Sachi Tanaya Prabhu about people who had received Lord Nityananda’s mercy. And that includes us. We are also here because of Lord Nityananda’s mercy. But generally, to give something, you have to have what you want to give. And so, to give Lord Nityananda’s mercy, we have to have His mercy. And getting His mercy means getting the process of devotional service, getting the holy name and chanting the holy name. There are two general processes for chanting. One is more quietly, mainly just for one’s own self to hear. I mean, others will hear, but mainly for oneself. That is called japa. And then kirtan, which is performed loudly, usually with musical instruments. And so, both of those methods are very important. And especially for taking initiation, which is part of the whole systematic process, one should chant at least sixteen rounds a day.

When we were traveling with Srila Prabhupada in India in the early Seventies, there weren’t that many people from outside India who were coming to India then. It was very expensive to get there by plane. But there is one young man, I think maybe American or European, and somehow he met up with the devotees and he started to travel with the devotees and Srila Prabhupada. He was very humble. He kept saying, “God definitely exists because otherwise how could someone like me be getting all this nice food every day?” So anyway, once he asked Srila Prabhupada, “If all service is absolute, why do we have to chant sixteen rounds?” And it was quite an interesting discussion. He was saying that suppose somebody comes late at night and I still have some rounds to chant. Well, should I speak to that person or should I finish my rounds? And Srila Prabhupada understood that the underlying premise of the question was that he wanted to go to sleep. It was like one or the other, do I speak to the person and go to sleep or do I finish my rounds and go to sleep? But he didn’t say it like that. But Srila Prabhupada understood the underlying premise. And he said ultimately it came to the point that you should chant sixteen rounds. If you are so worried about your eating and sleeping, you can eat and sleep all day long, but you must chant your sixteen rounds.

Then Srila Prabhupada turned to the other devotees and said, “This is just for him, this is not for not for all of you.” But the boy kept pressing the point, why? And then, although Srila Prabhupada didn’t often do this, but he asserted himself and he said, “Why? Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead wants you to chant sixteen rounds.” But still, Lord Nityananda says, whatever you can do, whatever you can do is good and it is a beginning, and it will, it will grow and grow and grow if you just keep in the association of devotees. It will just grow and grow and grow. The mercy will expand more and more into you and through you, and there will be no limit, no limit at all. There is no limit to the mercy of Lord Nityananda means there is no, there is no limit. However, fallen you may be, there is no limit. He will still give you mercy.

But another meaning is there is no limit to the heights that His mercy can take you to. There is no limit to the ecstatic love that you can feel for Radha and Krishna, for Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda. No limit to mercy of Lord Nityananda. So, we are so blessed to be here. I will conclude with one example, that one of our acharyas has given that how could Lord Chaitanya, and that includes Lord Nityananda, how could They give this highest love of Godhead to the most fallen souls in the present age, Kali-yuga? And he gives the example, and earlier we read this statement about Nityananda Prabhu, that He is intoxicated, He is an incarnation and mercy, and He is intoxicated with love of God. And therefore, He doesn’t consider who is good and who is bad, but He gives His mercy to everyone, He delivers everyone. So, this authority gives the example that a king has the most precious jewels in his treasury, and he becomes intoxicated, and in his intoxicated state, he goes into his treasury and he takes out the most precious jewels, and he goes out on the street and starts giving them away to whoever is there without discrimination. So, we have been given these precious jewels, the jewel of the holy name, the jewel of the association of devotees, the jewel of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā, Srila Prabhupada’s books. So, we should treasure them, take advantage of them, and share them with others.

So, thank you very much, and now we will join the . . .

[Applause].