Sri Nityananda-trayodasi

Giriraj Swami: That brought him to Los Angeles and by that time, the temple president, Satsvarupa dasa recommended me for initiation, and Srila Prabhupada initiated me. Well, he was in Los Angeles and I was in Boston and every day we would go out on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana.  And one day just a little after Satsvarupa well he was grihastha then Satsvarupa Prabhu recommended me, I felt some say divine presence descend on me and I just realized, not just as a theoretical concept but I realized that I was not the body. I just was not the body. And then I started to weep and so I asked the devotees, “Do you think that maybe I was being initiated at that moment?” And they thought, Yes that is very possible. And then a few days later I got my beads and my initiation letter. And in the initiation letter, Srila Prabhupada wrote that, “Giriraj is a name for the Govardhana Mountain where Krishna used to tend his cows and sometimes devotees take a stone from that mountain and worship it as a representation of Krishna.” Now before I joined I and other members of my generation were quite proud of our family name Teton because there are some mountains, the Grand Teton Mountains, Grand Teton National Park. Even the other day I was on the phone with someone, some business I was doing maybe with the airlines and so I said, “My name is Glenn Teton.” “Oh, like the mountains.” 

So, I was very proud of that name and then I got my initiation letter and Srila Prabhupada said, “Giriraj is a name of the Govardhana Mountain.” So I thought, “Well, I got to keep my mountain name but I got a much better mountain.” So this is hard to say which comes first; it is like guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja, by the mercy of Krishna one gets guru and by the mercy of guru, one gets Krishna. But definitely, it is by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada that we have come to know about Lord Nityananda and I was also thinking upstairs in his quarters just now how it was really his obedience to his spiritual master’s order, that he should preach Krishna consciousness in the English language in the Western world that brought Srila Prabhupada here and that in turn has brought all of us here. 

So yes, he certainly is a representative of Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu is the original spiritual master. And so our spiritual masters are representatives of him. So, I will read a few verses from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. This is a very important book. All of Srila Prabhupada’s books are important. Usually, we start in terms of progression with Īśopaniṣad, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, The Nectar of Devotion, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And to understand Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya we first have to understand Lord Krishna and Balarama. So, according to Vedic scriptures and Srila Jiva Gosvami, in particular, has given elaborate proofs as to why Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the super most evidence among all Vedic literatures or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the absolute truth. First of all what is the absolute truth? Janmādy asya yataḥ, the absolute truth is that from which everything emanates. And then the Bhāgavatam goes on to describe that that absolute truth is Krishna. And Krishna expands himself, not in the sense; of course, he can do that it can also get bigger but expand himself in two expansions. Brahma-saṁhitā gives the example that with one candle you can light a second candle and from the second candle you can light a third candle and so on. And there they all are the same they all have the same candle power but there is still one original candle and the original candle is Krishna and the and the next candle the first one after Krishna is Balarama. And Balarama is the original spiritual master because the spiritual master has two functions one is to serve Krishna and the other is to give knowledge of Krishna. And Balarama does both.

Once in Calcutta Srila Prabhupada asked, “What is the duty of the spiritual master?” And then he gave the answer, “To serve Krishna” and then he asked, “What is the duty of the disciple?” And he gave the answer, “To assist the spiritual master.” And he gave the example that the spiritual master installs the deity and it is his duty to keep the temple clean. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau. So, when the disciples clean the temple they should think that actually it is their spiritual master’s duty and they are assisting him. So, Krishna appeared about five thousand years ago and then about five hundred years ago he came again as Lord Chaitanya. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna instructed, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru; man-manā—always think of me, mad-bhakto—become my devotee, mad-yājī—worship me, māṁ namaskuru—and offer obeisances unto me. But people did not understand exactly how to follow Krishna’s instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā and therefore Krishna came again as Lord Chaitanya to show by his example how to be a devotee of Krishna. And Balarama came as Lord Nityananda; Lord Nityananda is actually Lord Balarama serving Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

I mentioned that the duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krishna and Balarama’s pleasure is to serve Krishna. There are four primary rāsas or spiritual relationships that one can have with Krishna. The one is called vātsalya-rasa—that is the parental relationship, one is sākhya-rasa—that is the relationship of friendship of equals, and one is dāsya-rasa—the relationship of servant. And Lord Balarama takes pleasure in serving Krishna in all of these rāsas. Because he is the older brother so there is an element of parental affection but they are brothers almost the same age Balarama is just a little older and so they have a very friendly relationship sākhya-rasa. But Balarama is also in the mood of servant dāsya-rasa but his desire to serve Krishna is so great that he also wanted to serve Krishna in mādhurya-rasa in the conjugal relationship and therefore he appeared as Anaṅga-mañjarī who is the younger sister of Srimati Radharani to serve Krishna in mādhurya-rasa. 

Now previously Lord Chaitanya well Lord Chaitanya or Krishna had appeared as Lord Ramachandra and Balarama had appeared as Lakshman but in that advent, Lakshman was the younger brother and he had to do many things that were painful to him not in the personal sense but they were painful to him because they caused suffering silly superficially involved suffering for Lord Rama. So after that advent Lord Balarama, Lakshman, who was playing the part of Lakshman decided I don’t want to be the younger brother anymore because as the younger brother I always had to do what Lord Ramachandra told me to do even if it caused Lord Rama pain or suffering. So he became the older brother as Lord Balarama and in caitanya-līlā he was also the older brother. They were not real brothers as we say but the relationship was like that. Lord Nityananda was the older brother. And he is known for his extreme, unlimited, unqualified mercy. Yes, even more than Lord Chaitanya, he is known as the Patita-pāvana. Well, they all are Patita-pāvana but he is especially the deliverer of the fallen. 

And there is one beautiful verse in Caitanya-caritāmṛta composed by the author Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami in which he says that Lord Nityananda, he is always intoxicated in love of Godhead and he is an ocean of mercy and he delivers anyone who falls down before him. And therefore he delivered such a wretched soul as me. So yes, in our own ways we are fallen and wretched but that is not a disqualification. If we have the qualification of falling down before Lord Nityananda or the spiritual master or Lord Nityananda represented by the spiritual master, and then he will deliver us. 

There was one incident in Bombay in Juhu. Srila Prabhupada had a disciple who became a little strange and he started living on Juhu beach with a yogi, and I forget exactly what he would do but he would do something like put a coin in his ear and then it would come out of his mouth; very strange things and actually Srila Prabhupada said where I am going to quote twice. There was another time I think this might be a better example for more accessible. One of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples from America had come to India and he had gone to Calcutta and he was smoking ganja which is I guess the Indian name for marijuana or hashish, and so the temple president in Calcutta was concerned and confused about what to do. So he called Srila Prabhupada in Bombay. I happened to be there and Srila Prabhupada told the temple president, “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja I will reject him.” And after the phone call, Tamla Krishna Gosvami asked Srila Prabhupada, “Is that true that if he didn’t stop he would reject him?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, it is not true.” And then he said, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda is unlimited.” And the same thing with that devotee who started to live with some yogi on Juhu Beach. Tamla Krishna Gosvami said, “Are you going to reject him?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No.” And Tamla Krishna Gosvami said, “Don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?” And Srila Prabhupada replied again “The mercy of Lord Nityananda is unlimited.” 

So this is our line of mercy. On the way here one devotee named Vishnu Priya dasi told me that her husband Chakri Prabhu had come to join the temple not knowing that it was Nityananda-trayodasi but he happened to come on Nityananda-trayodasi and he told the temple authorities he wanted to move in and they said, “Well we don’t have any space." But then one of them said it is Lord Nityananda’s appearance day, he is the most merciful. We have to make space; this is Lord Nityananda’s mercy, and they did. So that should be our mood. The two, Gaura-Nitai have so much love for each other that if anyone develops love for Lord Nityananda or chants the name of Nityananda with love, Lord Chaitanya becomes sold to that person. One famous example of Lord Nityananda’s mercy was demonstrated in relation to Jagai and Madhai. Jagai and Madhai were perhaps the most sinful people in history. Yamaraja who is the god of death, the demigod in charge of justice, has a scribe named Citra Gupta and Citra Gupta keeps track of all the sinful activities of all the living entities. But he could not keep up with Jagai and Madhai because as soon as he had finished writing the account of their sinful activities up to that point, they had committed more sinful activities and it is described that he was almost having a nervous breakdown, trying to keep track of their sinful activities; talk about stress at the office. 

So, Lord Chaitanya, he sent out Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura to approach people. And with his order, bhaja Krishna—worship Krishna, bolo Krishna—chant Krishna’s name, and Krishna śikṣā koro - follow Krishna’s instructions. So Haridasa and Nityananda went out so they thought well who should we approach and then decide we should approach Jagai and Madhai. Because they are the most fallen they are the most sinful. And if we deliver them then Lord Chaitanya’s reputation as the deliverer of the fallen will be increased to no limit. So they approached Jagai and Madhai who were usually drunk, they would do everything, I don’t even need to list, but there they would burn people’s houses down, they would plunder, they would steal. Even with each other, in their drunken state, sometimes they bash each other and so Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakura approached them and they reacted very strongly and started to blaspheme them and chase them to beat them. And as they were running away Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakura exchanged some joking words and Lord Nityananda said that, “Your master.” meaning Lord Chaitanya, “Now look at what trouble we got into following his orders. He is sannyasi and he gives orders like a king.” And Haridasa Thakura replied, “Well, don’t blame Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it is your own nature that you wanted to approach them, and now look at the trouble we got.” Anyway they escaped but then they went back again and this time they, the two brothers, were so angry in their drunken stupor apart from blaspheming Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura one of them, Madhai took a clay pot and threw it and struck Nityananda Prabhu in the head causing blood to flow.

So, news of this incident spread and reached Lord Chaitanya and when he heard that his beloved Nitai had been injured he came rushing to the spot with his Sudarsana chakra, that is his disc weapon which he uses to sever the heads of deserving people from their bodies. So he was so he was coming with his Sudarsana disc to kill Jagai and Madhai. Now at that point, Lord Nityananda intervened because actually after that Madhai struck him with the pot he was going to do more he was going to beat him and Jagai intervened and he said, “What benefit will you get by harming this renunciant?” So when Lord Chaitanya came with his Sudarsana chakra to kill them Lord Nityananda said that, “Madhai was ready to beat me but Jagai intervened on my behalf and stopped him.” So, when Lord Chaitanya heard that his heart softened towards Jagai and he decided, “Okay, I am not going to kill him.” And then Madhai, he was still on the list and he said, “Well, if you are going to show mercy to him then you should show mercy to me too. He and I have been in this together. Every sinful act that I have done I did with him.” So then Lord Chaitanya said, “Well if Nityananda forgives you then I will forgive you.” So Nityananda Prabhu forgave them. Lord Chaitanya said that if you really forgive them you should embrace them. Nityananda Prabhu embraced them, and they were delivered from all their sinful activities. They became devotees. They surrendered to Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda.

And then that night at the kirtan at Srivasa Thakura’s home, Lord Chaitanya invited them and he instructed all the devotees, “You should accept them as us.” Of course he warned them, and in front of everyone, he accepted all their sinful reactions and his body turned black and Srivasa Pandit started to smile. And Lord Chaitanya, he knew of course he knew, he said “Why are you smiling?” Because he looked just like Shyamasundara; he became black with all their sinful reactions. So then he accepted them and they became great devotees. But although they were accepted and purified they still felt very sorry for all of the offenses they had committed towards people. And so they asked, “What can we do, we have offended so many people, we have hurt so many people, we don’t even know who they are.” So, Lord Chaitanya said that you should make a ghat on the bank of the Ganges, and then people will use that ghat. That ghat is there still and you will be doing service to them. And then you wait at the ghat and whoever comes, you apologize if you have hurt them in any way and ask if you can serve them and ask them to forgive you. 

So, this is Lord Nityananda’s mercy that he delivered these two most sinful persons, Jagai and Madhai. And after that anyway there is so much to say, news spreads throughout the universe and it went to Yamaraja and everyone was so happy they couldn’t believe it. They started chanting and dancing and kirtan, Yamaraja and all of his assistants Citra Gupta there, it was amazing. So I have said a bit but yes maybe I will read about his mercy to the author. I will describe it. I have seen generally devotees prefer when someone speaks. So Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami was having saṅkīrtana at his home in Jhamatpur and at that saṅkīrtana festival, one of the great devotees of Lord Nityananda, named Minaketana Rama dasa was sitting in the courtyard. And it is said that anyone who sees the eyes of Minaketana Rama dasa tears will automatically flow from his eyes. Because there was a constant flow of tears of ecstatic love of Godhead coming from the eyes of Minaketana Rama dasa.

When I read that it also reminded me of Srila Prabhupada because when I first joined the Boston temple devotees told me that Srila Prabhupada’s eyes were always wet with tears of love for Krishna. So at that festival Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s brother committed an offense against Minaketana Rama dasa, he didn’t show him any respect. And his brother he had faith in Lord Chaitanya but he didn’t have faith in Lord Nityananda. Externally Lord Chaitanya was acting like a perfect sannyasi but Nityananda Prabhu is like avadhūta, means beyond the regulated principles, he didn’t follow the norms of a renunciant. So that brother had faith in Lord Chaitanya but not in Nityananda and so afterward Krishnadasa Kaviraja rebuked his brother. And he said that Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda are like one soul in two bodies. He said it would be better to be an atheist and reject both of them than to be a hypocrite and accept one and not the other. 

And he said it is like the ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya half hen philosophy. Half hen philosophy is that, you have a hen and you think well the hind portion is very valuable because that is giving the eggs but the neck portion is very troublesome because you always have to feed it. So the half hen logic is, you cut the neck because that part is botheration, you have to feed the thing and you just keeps the hind portion and you get the eggs which is what you want. Of course when you do that you lose everything. So Krishnadasa Kaviraja invoked that logic with his brother, he is saying, ok we are going to cut Nityananda Prabhu don’t like that part but we will take Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; and then his brother fell down. 

So, that night Nityananda Prabhu appeared in Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s dream which Krishnadasa says was because of his good quality in rebuking his brother. So Nityananda Prabhu appeared in his dream. There is a beautiful description of his beauty, him and his associates, and he said, “My dear Krishnadasa go to Vrindavan and there you will achieve all things.” So Krishnadasa his sleep broke, he woke from his dream and he immediately set out for Vrindavan. And in Vrindavan everything that Nityananda Prabhu said came true. He achieved all things he got the mercy of Rupa Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. He got the shelter of the deities, Madan Mohan, Gopinatha, and Govinda. He got everything. And I take that as an instruction for us. Of course Nityananda Prabhu may not appear to us in a dream and give us instructions but he is the original spiritual master. And if we follow the instructions of the spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and his representatives, then we will achieve all things. And just the fact that we are here shows how far we have come by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Nityananda Prabhu. And to show our appreciation and gratitude for them we should share what we have gotten from them. In one talk Srila Prabhupada said that in order to approach Radha and Krishna, it is generally our goal as Gaudiya Vaishnavas, in order to approach Radha and Krishna you need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And in order to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya you need the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And in order to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai. In other words, we have to be ready; go out on the street or wherever, you don’t have to go on the street you can find them in the Universities, you can find them in the. . . and yes, try to extend that mercy to them. 

So we have a few minutes. I will end here, and of course, I must say that the method they came to give was the chanting of the holy names. So please chant:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.        

All right so now we do have a few minutes. If anyone has any questions or comments. Yes Archita Prabhu.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 44:24:07]

Giriraj Swami: Oh yes it was true, I saw that. Later on he would engage us in service, so when he was giving instructions and I wouldn’t sit and look at his eyes. . . but at that early stage when I looked I did see, he did have tears of love for Krishna in his eyes. Any other? Oh yes. Bhṛgu, oh there is a few; all right okay yes. Wait do we have. . . yes yes.

Devotee: My question is can you explain more about it or if it is right that we are in Lord Nityananda’s age.

Giriraj Swami: Well we’re in Kali-yuga and that was also something that Lord Nityananda said to Lord Chaitanya when he came to kill Jagai and Madhai. He said in Kali-yuga everyone will be sinful like Jagai and Madhai. Maybe not to the same extent but they will be sinful like Jagai and Madhai, so if you kill them you will have to kill everyone and then what will happen to your mission? So in a way, there is truth to that that I wouldn’t say we ae not in the age of Lord Chaitanya but I would say we are in the age of Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya. Yes someone has to. . .Archita  Prabhu can you guide where the microphone goes? Okay, Bhrigupati.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja. Does it take some time for the mercy of Lord Nityananda or the spiritual master to mature in one’s life? Sometimes we see that people have come forward to practice Krishna consciousness, they have taken initiation, they are chanting, they are following the principles, they are even engaging in service to the best of their capacity but a lot of suffering on different levels comes their way. So have they not got the mercy or did they lose the mercy or how do we understand that?

Giriraj Swami: You are saying someone may engage in devotional service but may externally suffer. Well I don’t see the problem in that as long as we stay engaged in devotional service. Yes, I don’t think it means they didn’t get the mercy maybe they are getting more mercy. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Maharaja, I was listening to a lecture by Srila Prabhupada he was explaining who Lord Nityananda is and that Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya are one and he was using a Sanskrit terminology to explain this. I don’t remember that but I do remember him saying that Lord Nityananda exhibits Lord Chaitanya and I wish I had more reference to give you to try to ask this question but can you explain what he means by Lord Nityananda he exhibits Lord Chaitanya.

Giriraj Swami: By his approaching Jagai and Madhai he gave Lord Chaitanya the chance to exhibit his supreme mercy which was glorified throughout the universe. There are a couple of more questions, is it okay to have silent ārati for a few minutes in the mood of Lord Nityananda’s compassion. 

Devotee: Oh Maharaja, I have a question regarding religious haters. Recently in Kashmir, twenty-four soldiers got killed by religious people rather religious haters, so what should we do with them? Should we hate them or pray for them?

Giriraj Swami: I couldn’t understand that. 

Devotee: No, recently in Kashmir twenty-four people got killed by terrorists.

Giriraj Swami: Where?

Devotee: In Kashmir. 

Giriraj Swami: Kashmir. 

Devotee: Yes, twenty-four Indian soldiers got killed by religious, sorry forty-two soldiers got killed by religious haters so what should we do? Should we pray for them?

Giriraj Swami: By religious?

Devotee: Haters, terrorists. 

Giriraj Swami: Well what should we do, what are our options? Considering our limited options, I guess we should pray for them. Thank you all for being so attentive and merciful, and now we will join the beautiful ārati ceremony.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya
Sri Nityananda Prabhu ki jaya 
Sri Nityananda-trayodasi ki jaya
Gaura premānande Hari Haribol