CC Madhya 12.187–198

Giriraj Swami: Today is Sunday. We continue reading Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta which is the custom in Dallas. We are reading from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter Twelve: “The Cleansing of the Guṇḍicā Temple.”

TEXT 187

tabe prabhu pratyeke, saba bhaktera nāma lañā

piṭhā-pānā deoyāila prasāda kariyā

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu then took all the remnants of food offered to Jagannātha, such as cakes and sweet rice, and distributed them to all the other devotees, calling them individually.

TEXT 188–189

Śrī Advaita Ācārya and Nityānanda Prabhu sat side by side, and when prasādam was being distributed They engaged in a type of mock fighting.

First Advaita Ācārya said, “I am sitting in line with an unknown mendicant, and because I am eating with Him, I do not know what kind of destination is awaiting Me.

COMMENT

So this is a very important principle. Although the exchange is in the mood of joking but the underlying principles are genuine and honoring prasāda is a very intimate activity and an association is a very powerful influence. Once we were invited by quite a pious and generous family to have lunch at their place. Actually they had invited Srila Prabhupada to spend a few days and Srila Prabhupada had planned to spend a few days. So the first day that they served lunch, very well prepared and tasty prasāda, but it was their holiday home and so they serve the prasāda on a lazy susan which is a round platform, you could say, on which you put the different food items in serving bowls and then that round platform rotates. And so you sit where you are and if you want a particular preparation you just turn that lazy Susan and the serving container with that particular item will come in front of you and then you serve yourself from the serving container with the serving spoon. 

Now after the meal, Srila Prabhupada said that eating in this way we are all contaminated and he said, “We actually have to leave here.” Anyway after the meal the family went out and Srila Prabhupada and the disciples stayed back and many things happened. One day with Srila Prabhupada so many things happened. So then the next morning Srila Prabhupada called his servant, first I guess he rang the bell for the servant and the servant didn’t come immediately but Srila Prabhupada could hear the sound of snoring in the next room. So eventually the servant came and Srila Prabhupada said, “Where is everyone; what is everyone doing?” And pretty much, they were all snoring, was sleeping. And Prabhupada said again, “We have to get out of here, our spiritual lives, your spiritual lives are being ruined by this association.” They were very pious and generous. 

So then the question was how to do it without offending them. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Just say that my health is not good,” which is pretty much true all the time. “You just tell them that my health is not good and we have to go back to Bombay.” So this is on the point of the influence of association which is a very real factor in developing spiritual consciousness. But here in this case, Advaita Acharya who is an acharya, who is a very proper brahman was joking with Nityananda who was an avadhūta. Avadhūta means transcendental but someone who doesn’t follow all the rules and regulations strictly, at least externally he doesn’t. Of course internally Nityananda Prabhu was fully absorbed in love of God. So 189.

Devotee: Maharaja where was [00:09:28 Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes I will tell you later. I don’t want to give too many details.

TEXT 189

First Advaita Ācārya said, “I am sitting in line with an unknown mendicant, and because I am eating with Him, I do not know what kind of destination is awaiting Me.

TEXT 190–192

“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is in the renounced order of life. Consequently He does not recognize discrepancies. As a matter of fact, a sannyāsī is not affected by eating food from anywhere and everywhere.

“According to the śāstras, there is no discrepancy in a sannyāsī’s eating at another’s house. But for a householder brāhmaṇa, this kind of eating is faulty.

“It is not proper for householders to dine with those whose previous birth, family, character and behavior are unknown.”

COMMENT

So Advaita Acharya is teasing Nityananda Prabhu.

TEXT 193 

Nityānanda Prabhu immediately refuted Śrīla Advaita Ācārya, saying, “You are a teacher of impersonal monism, and the monistic conclusion is a great hindrance to progressive, pure devotional service.

COMMENT

So again the principle is correct but the application is completely wrong. It is true that to associate with someone who teaches impersonalism is a great impediment to one’s spiritual progress and Advaita Acharya would teach the yoga Vasistha which is actually a devotional scripture, but like many scriptures it can be taught in an impersonal way. And Advaita Acharya being in a superior position to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in age, was always respected by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as an elder and he was also in a superior position in terms of generation of initiation, because he was initiated by Srimad Mādhavendra Puri which put him on the level of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s spiritual master. So from both points of view he was respectable by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

But Advaita Acharya wanted to relish the position of servant of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He didn’t want to be in the position of the superior to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so he started to give classes on the yoga Vasistha giving the impersonal explanation, thinking that as soon as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard he would come immediately and chastise him. And so his strategy worked and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became like fire when he heard that Advaita Acharya was preaching impersonalism and he came and he chastised Advaita Acharya. And then Advaita Acharya felt elated that now Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has accepted me as his servant because only the master can chastise a servant. So there is a background to this joke. Nityananda Prabhu immediately refuted Srila Advaita Acharya saying,

TEXT 193 (continued)

“You are a teacher of impersonal monism, and the monistic conclusion is a great hindrance to progressive, pure devotional service.

“One who participates in Your impersonal monistic philosophy does not accept anything but the one Brahman.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The impersonal monist does not believe that God is the only object of worship and that the living entities are His eternal servants. According to the monists, God and the devotee may be separate in the material state, but when they are spiritually situated, there is no difference between them. This is called advaita-siddhānta, the conclusion of the monists.

COMMENT

Dvaya means duality and advaya means non-dual.

PURPORT (continued) 

Monists consider devotional service of the Lord to be material activity; therefore they consider such devotional activities to be the same as karma, or fruitive activity. This monistic mistake is a great stumbling block on the road to devotional service.

Actually this discussion between Advaita Ācārya and Nityānanda was a mock fight to serve as a great instruction for all devotees. Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu wanted to point out that Advaita Ācārya, a pure devotee, did not agree with the monistic conclusion. The conclusion of devotional service is:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.” (Bhāg. 1.2.11)

Absolute knowledge consists of Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. This conclusion is not the same as that of the monists. Śrīla Advaita Ācārya was given the title of ācārya because He spread the bhakti cult, not the philosophy of monism. 

COMMENT

So Advaita Acharya has described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that, acharya bhakti samsaman, that he is called Acharya because he preaches the Bhakti-cult and he is called Advaita because he is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But not because of being a monist but because that is his actual identity.

PURPORT (continued)

The true conclusion of advaita-siddhānta, expressed at the very beginning of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 1.3), is not the same as the philosophy of the monists. Here advaita-siddhānta means advaya-jñāna, or oneness in variety. Actually Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu was praising Śrīla Advaita Ācārya through friendly mock fighting. He was giving the Vaiṣṇava conclusion in terms of the Bhāgavatam’s conclusive words, vadanti tat tattva-vidaḥ. This is also the conclusion of a mantra in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, ekam evādvitīyam.

A devotee knows that there is oneness in diversity. The mantras of the śāstras do not support the monistic conclusions of the impersonalists, nor does Vaiṣṇava philosophy accept impersonalism without variety. Brahman is the greatest, He who includes everything, and that is oneness. As Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.7), mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: there is no one superior to Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is the original substance because every category emanates from Him. Thus He is simultaneously one with and different from all other categories. The Lord is always engaged in a variety of spiritual activities, but the monist cannot understand spiritual variety. The conclusion is that although the powerful and the power are one and the same, within the energy of the powerful there are varieties.

COMMENT

So as we discussed, Krishna is shaktimaan. He is the powerful or the owner of shaktis and there are varieties of shaktis; the internal energy, the marginal potency, the external energy, but because he is the origin of them in one sense he is not different from them. But at the same time he is different because the sun, and the sunshine; the sunshine is the energy of the sun, so they are not different but at the same time they are different. You can say that the sunshine is in my room but you cannot say that the sun globe is in my room. So they are simultaneously one and different and this is the sublime philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they are one in quality but different in quantity. A molecular particle of sunshine has the same qualities as the sun globe but the quantity is different. And as Srila Prabhupada said God is infinite and the living entities are infinitesimal. 

PURPORT (continued)

The conclusion is that although the powerful and the power are one and the same, within the energy of the powerful there are varieties. In those varieties there is a distinction between the different parts of one’s personal self, between types of the same category, and between types of different categories. In other words, there is always variety in the categories, which are understood as knowledge, the knower and the knowable. Due to the eternal existence of knowledge, the knower and the knowable, devotees everywhere know about the eternal existence of the form, name, qualities, pastimes and entourage of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Devotees never agree with the monists’ preaching of oneness. Unless one adheres to the conceptions of the knower, the knowable and knowledge, there is no possibility of understanding spiritual variety, nor can one taste the transcendental bliss of spiritual variety.

COMMENT

So brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate, so the non-dual absolute truth is known as brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Brahman is realized by impersonal speculation, Paramātmā is realized by yoga and Bhagavān is realized by Bhakti. And brahman is realization of the sat or eternal feature, Paramātmā is realization of sat and cit, eternity and cognizance or eternity and knowledge and Bhagavān is realization of sat, cit and ānanda. So bliss, which is what everyone ultimately wants, is realized only in a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead through bhakti-yoga.

PURPORT (continued)

The philosophy of monism is an adjustment of the Buddhist philosophy of voidism. In a mock fight with Śrī Advaita Ācārya, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu was refuting this type of monistic philosophy. Vaiṣṇavas certainly accept Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the ultimate “one,” and that which is without Kṛṣṇa is called māyā, or that which has no existence. External māyā is exhibited in two phases — jīva-māyā, the living entities, and guṇa-māyā, the material world. In the material world there is prakṛti (material nature) and pradhāna (the ingredients of material nature). However, for one who becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, the distinction between material and spiritual varieties does not exist.

COMMENT

So these two types of maya; there is the material energy which is maya, guna-maya the three modes of nature, and then there is the maya that covers the living entity, that throws him down and keeps him down and that is called jiva-maya. That jiva-maya is actually the action of the of the three gunas but it particularly in relation to the living entity. 

PURPORT (continued)

An advanced devotee like Prahlāda Mahārāja sees everything as one — Kṛṣṇa. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.4.37), kṛṣṇa-graha-gṛhītātmā na veda jagad īdṛśam. One who is in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not distinguish between things material and spiritual; he takes everything to be related to Kṛṣṇa and therefore spiritual. By advaya-jñāna-darśana, Śrīla Advaita Ācārya has glorified pure devotional service. Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu herein sarcastically condemns the philosophy of the impersonal monists and praises the correct nondual philosophy of Śrī Advaita Prabhu.

COMMENT

I will just read one more verse and purport.

TEXT 195

hena tomāra saṅge mora ekatre bhojana

nā jāni, tomāra saṅge kaiche haya mana

Nityānanda Prabhu continued, “You are such a monist! And now I am eating beside You. I do not know how My mind will be affected in this way.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ (Bg. 2.62). One develops his consciousness according to society and association. As Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu admits, a devotee should be very careful when associating with those who are not devotees. When asked by a householder devotee what the behavior of a devotee should be, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately replied:

asat-saṅga-tyāga, — ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra
‘strī-saṅgī’ — eka asādhu, ‘kṛṣṇābhakta’ āra

(Cc. Madhya 22.87)

COMMENT

So asat, sat means devotees, sat means truth and asat means non-devotees and tyāga means to give up. So asat-saṅga-tyāga, giving up the association of non-devotees, ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra, that is the behavior of a Vaishnava. Then Srila Prabhupada continues,

PURPORT (continued)

A Vaiṣṇava, a devotee, should simply discard intimate association with nondevotees. In his Upadeśāmṛta, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has described the symptoms of intimate relationships in this way:

dadāti pratigṛhṇāti guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati

bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam

The words bhuṅkte bhojayate indicate that one should eat with devotees. One should carefully avoid eating food offered by nondevotees. Indeed, a devotee should be very strict in not accepting food from a nondevotee, especially food prepared in restaurants or hotels or on airplanes. Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu’s reference in this connection is meant to emphasize that one should avoid eating with Māyāvādīs and covert Māyāvādīs like the sahajiyā Vaiṣṇavas, who are materially affected.

COMMENT

So it is very damaging to eat food prepared by non-devotees and therefore devotees do not eat in restaurants or hotels or any other such places. Srivas Prabhu told me a story of a salesman who came to Los Angeles temple community to sell Srivas Prabhu a monitoring device for the restaurant kitchen. And he was telling Srivas Prabhu the things that can turn up on the monitor in a restaurant kitchen. And he gave some examples that in one restaurant a customer complained that the food was not hot enough so he sent back the food to the kitchen to be reheated. And the cook in the kitchen got upset, he didn’t want to have to bother re-heating the food, so out of anger he spat into the food, heated it up, and sent it back out. So the salesman was saying, “You need this device because otherwise you don’t really know what is going on in the kitchen.” Of course Srivas Prabhu said, “We are Hare Krishnas, we are not going to do that.” But the point is that we don’t know what goes on in the kitchens of restaurants and so it is very risky what we could be ingesting. 

And then the vibration, the consciousness of the cooks also go into the food and who knows what consciousness the cooks are in. So this is a genuine principle and so the Upadeśāmṛta says, bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva, these are exchanges of love shared amongst devotees. And in Srila Prabhupada’s edition of Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, The Nectar of Instruction, Srila Prabhupada quotes his guru Maharaja’s commentary on the verse and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati says that the positive injunction is that one should engage in these six activities with devotees. But the negative side of it, the prohibition is that one should not engage in such activities with non-devotees, so we should be very careful and mindful of this. And even in vegetarian restaurants, leave aside the consciousness which is an important factor, there is onions, garlic, and so many things, they are not offerable and they are not really meant to be eaten by devotees. They are in the lower modes and they will affect our consciousness, so contaminate our consciousness.

TEXT 196

Thus They both went on talking and praising one another, although Their praise appeared negative, for it appeared as if They exchanged ill names.

TEXT 197–198

Thereafter, calling all the Vaiṣṇavas, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu distributed mahā-prasādam as if sprinkling nectar. At that time the mock fight between Advaita Ācārya and Nityānanda Prabhu became more and more delicious.

After taking their lunch, all the Vaiṣṇavas stood up and chanted the holy name of Hari, and the resounding noise filled all the upper and lower planetary systems.

After this, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu offered flower garlands and sandalwood pulp to all His devoted personal associates.

COMMENT

So that basically concludes the discussion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita Acharya honoring prasāda together. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? Yes well first Mother Suchari. Yes wait. I think it is connected now.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you. (inaudible) So the scripture says that the spiritual master is no different than the Lord but what is the entourage of the Lord? Is this Krishna’s family directly, is it all the devotees? What does entourage means? [0:39:47.7 Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes the entourage are the associates. So in kṛṣṇa-līlā the entourage would be Nanda, Yasoda, the household servants, the coward boys, Srimati Radharani, the gopīs, they are the entourage and wherever Krishna appears they accompany Him. And in caitanya-līlā the entourage includes Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, Gadadhar Pandit, Srivas Pandit, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, Ramananda Raya, so many, the six Gosvamis, that is the entourage. Any other questions or comments? 

Devotee: I just have one question about [00:41:11 Inaudible] can we still honor that? [00:41:46 Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes. It happens that family members want to cook for their devotee children or grandchildren or whatever, and we don’t want to ruin the relationship with them which in turn would also make them negative towards Krishna consciousness or more negative if they are already negative. So my own sense, which is perhaps similar to what you said, is that if they prepare the food with love and devotion for the relative who is a devotee and use only the ingredients that are acceptable in the devotee’s diet, then we could accept it for the sake of the relationship. There still may be some effect of it but ultimately our goal is to please Krishna and sometimes as devotees, as preachers, we do accept some adverse reaction for the sake of giving mercy to the fallen souls. But you should be conscious of the fact.

Like Srila Prabhupada said, preaching means taking risks but we should be aware of what the risk is and it should be a calculated risk, not just willy nilly going into a situation and not considering what the consequences would be. Of course the best is to invite family members and give them prasāda, cook and give them prasāda, but occasionally there may be such a situation. And like I said, I feel if they are cooking with love and devotion for devotee and using the ingredients that are acceptable in the diet of the devotee, then on occasion one could do that for the sake of the relationship which would ultimately be beneficial for them in terms of their spiritual life also. 

Devotee: Maharaja I have two questions. One is related to [0:45:45.4 Inaudible] Basically I was watching Srila Prabhupada’s memories and I forget the name of the devotee Prabhupada’s disciple who mentioned quite early on during I think in the sixties, late sixties, once some Christian people came to meet Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada had a discussion. And after that when they were leaving, at that time I think books was still not there, hardly any books at that time, but there was one pamphlet of Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada asked a devotee to give them that. The next morning when Prabhupada was going for his morning walk they found that same template lying there, just a block away or something and Prabhupada was quite unhappy with these people. And so [0:47:06.8 Inaudible] I understand that as devotees, when we go out to preach and when we give out books and things like that are we not to expect those things? We have to be willing to accept the reactions for those things. So what went through my mind is that I visit the prisons where there is no question of selling books. All the books I give I physically buy and just give out. So they are circulating hundreds of books in the prison and many times they have some people read and something books are found lying on the floor in some areas. They will pick it up and bring it back to us like that so [0:47:46.3 Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: Well, in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna said that His teachings should not be shared with those who are not austere and devoted. And Srila Prabhupada comments that sometimes we preach Krishna consciousness in an open meeting and we don’t know whether the people who come are devoted and austere and free from envy and have the qualification to hear. But Srila Prabhupada says that the devotees, knowing the purpose of the Lord, take the risk because if they don’t take the risk then sincere people won’t get the chance to hear. So it is the same principle with book distribution. One should not really give the book to someone who is not a willing recipient but we can’t really know and therefore we take the risk. And as Srila Prabhupada often said that the books are like time bombs. That was something different that someone discarded the pamphlet on the way and sometimes it would happen at the airports. People would throw the books into the garbage cans and then sometimes the staff would go around and pick up the books from the garbage cans and return them to the devotees. So a preacher means that he takes risks for the sake of offering mercy to the fallen souls, and that pleases Krishna, and therefore Krishna gives special protection and care to the preachers.

Devotee: Maharaja, when we make sure that distributing books outside we are going to be free and there is a volunteer [0:50:38.4 Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that was Srila Prabhupada’s point, that if they give some money they will take it seriously; they will spend some money so let me see what is there. 

Devotee: The other question Maharaja is, my father is in India and he is totally a non-devotee; not even a Mayavadi, he doesn’t accept that there is anything called God. So recently, two months ago when I was spending a few days at home there was some [0:51:25.1 Inaudible]. 

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I think that is the true meaning, wonderful. All right, thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Caitanya-caritāmṛta ki jaya! Gaura bhakta vrinda ki jaya!