Bhakti Charu Swami—Following in the Footsteps of Sanatana Gosvami

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Today is a very auspicious day. It is Guru Purnima, which is also known as Vyasa Purnima because it is the appearance day of Srila Vyasadeva. It is also the disappearance day of Srila Sanatana Gosvami, the senior most of the Six Gosvamis. Yes, so today is a most auspicious day. Sri Guru Purnima, which is also known as Vyasa Purnima because it is the appearance day of Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Vedic scriptures, and it is also the disappearance day of Srila Sanatana Gosvami, who was the senior most of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan, direct disciples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And now, it is also the disappearance day of HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja, who left this world about twelve hours ago. So, we’ll begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and having a short kirtan, and we’ll speak. And then, we’ll sing the song to the departed Vaishnavas Je anilo prema dhana for HH Bhakti Charu Swami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami.

So, as I mentioned, today is Vyasa Purnima, the appearance day of Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Vedic literatures. I will read something that I wrote.

READING by Giriraj Swami

About Vyasadeva Srila Prabhupada wrote: “Vyasadeva was a real person, accepted by all authorities, and anyone can judge how wonderful he was to have compiled the Vedic literatures. He is therefore known as mahā muni. Muni means thoughtful or great thinker, a great poet, and mahā means still greater. There is no comparison of Vyasadeva with any other writer or thinker or philosopher. Nobody can estimate the scholarly importance of Srila Vyasadeva. He composed many millions of Sanskrit verses, and we try to receive just a fragment of the knowledge in them by our tiny efforts. Srila Vyasadeva therefore summarized the whole Vedic knowledge in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is known as the ripened fruit of the desire tree of Vedic knowledge. The ripened fruit is received hand to hand through disciplic succession, and anyone who does this work in disciplic succession from Srila Vyasadeva is considered a representative of Vyasadeva. And such a bonafide spiritual master’s appearance day is worshipped as Vyasa-puja.” (Srila Prabhupada letter dated August 25th, 1970)

Not only is today Vyasa Purnima, the appearance day of Vyasadeva, but it is also the disappearance day of Srila Sanatana Gosvami, the most senior of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan. His book Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta was the first major work of the Six Gosvamis. Sanatana Gosvami also comes in the disciplic succession from Lord Krishna to Brahma, but he is especially significant because he is a direct follower of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself. Because Lord Chaitanya is Krishna, He is capable of beginning His own disciplic succession, but because He was acting as a devotee, He chose to take initiation in the disciplic succession from Krishna to Brahma. Still He is God, and the process by which He imparted knowledge to His immediate followers; Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami, is comparable to the way Lord Krishna imparted knowledge to Brahma. Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami in his Caitanya-caritāmṛta writes of Sanatana’s younger brother Rupa.

COMMENT

This is also indicative of the position of Sanatana.

TEXT 19

vṛndāvanīyāṁ rasa-keli-vārtāṁ
kālena luptāṁ nija-śaktim utkaḥ
sañcārya rūpe vyatanot punaḥ sa
prabhur vidhau prāg iva loka-sṛṣṭim        [CC Madhya 19.1]

TRANSLATION

Before the creation of this cosmic manifestation, the Lord enlightened the heart of Lord Brahmā with the details of the creation and manifested the Vedic knowledge.

COMMENT

In the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said tene brahma hrdaye – that Krishna imparted the knowledge to Lord Brahma within the heart.

TRANSLATION

In exactly the same way, the Lord, being anxious to revive the Vṛndāvana pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa, impregnated the heart of Rūpa Gosvāmī with spiritual potency.

COMMENT

The same could be said of Sanatana Gosvami.

TRANSLATION

By this potency, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī could revive the activities of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, activities almost lost to memory. In this way, He spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the world.

READING continued

Lord Chaitanya also empowered Rupa Gosvami to write books on bhakti-yoga, and the same could be said of Sanatana Gosvami. So, there is a very intimate relationship between Sanatana Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. Overall, he was a great shelter to Vaishnavas in Vrindavan. He was not only intelligent—all the Gosvamis were extremely intelligent, but he was very shrewd, very clever. He had been something like the prime minister of Nawab Hussein Shah, who was a tyrannical ruler over Bengal. So, he wasn’t just a simple sadhu. He was very astute in terms of politics and diplomacy. It is said that Rupa Gosvami was very simple, but that Sanatana Gosvami was very astute. He could understand people’s motives and intentions. So, he was able to protect devotees in the most practical ways because he had that type of intelligence, and he protected Raghunatha dasa Gosvami on every level. So, on the day of Guru Purnima, which we are observing, because Sanatana Gosvami was the most senior of the Gosvamis and the śikṣā-guru of almost everyone in Vrindavan, the Vaishnavas went to Govardhana to offer him respects. Upon their arrival at his bhajana-kuṭira at Manasi Ganga, they saw that he was in a trance. He didn’t move at all, and they didn’t want to disturb him so they waited. Eventually they understood that he had left, and they all were overwhelmed with separation. They took him on parikramā of Govardhana Hill. He had done parikramā of Govardhana Hill faithfully every day. Then they weren’t sure where to place his body. Srila Jiva Gosvami, who was the leader after Sanatana Gosvami, decided that they should bring him back to Vrindavan, close to the temple of the deity of Madana-mohana, who was so dear to him, and that took place on Guru Purnima.

COMMENT

And yes, even today, devotees can go on parikramā to the Madana-mohana temple and see the samadhi of Srila Sanatana Gosvami. It’s a very sacred place, and it’s not that far from our Krishna-Balarama temple in Vrindavan. You go to the parikramā marga, and you walk a little distance and you are there. It’s very auspicious, and the pujari there is very appreciative of Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON.

READING continued

So, we can see how the devotees helped each other. Everyone helped everyone. In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we find that all the Vaishnavas were always helping each other, and we should learn from their example. We should develop that mood.

COMMENT

So, some devotees have commented, and I also had the same thought that in some respects HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was also like Srila Sanatana Gosvami. Srila Sanatana Gosvami was very friendly. He would always approach people like a family member. He would approach people and ask them, “How is your mother? How is your father? How are your children? How is your business?” And he really was a real friend to them, like a family member. If there were disputes in Vraja, the disputants would come to Sanatana Gosvami because he was so deliberate and just, and also a well-wisher of everyone, and whatever decision he gave, everyone would accept. So, HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was also very friendly to everyone, a true well-wisher of everyone, and he would help them on all levels.

We have one devotee here from Spain named Ganga devi dasi, and she told a story of when her daughter Jahnava was four years old. They were in Malaga, Spain in the south of Spain. Ganga was so involved in temple service and book distribution that she had no time or opportunity to arrange a birthday party for her four-year-old daughter, but HH Bhakti Charu Swami was there at the time, and he found out that it was her birthday, and he arranged a birthday party for her. He arranged for people to make a cake with a feast, and he even got her some toy dolls. He apologized that he couldn’t find any Krishna conscious dolls, but he did give her some dolls, which as a four-year-old she would have appreciated. So, he was very loving and caring.

I had the opportunity to serve with him. Well, of course, it began during Srila Prabhupada’s presence that we were together and then later, after Srila Prabhupada left, I was the GBC for South Africa and Mauritius, [and] I invited him to come and help me. We were co-GBC’s, and devotees have very fond memories of those days when the two of us were the co-GBC’s. We really are feeling his separation, and so I thought it would be appropriate to sing the song of separation, which would be appropriate not only for him, of course for him, but also for Srila Sanatana Gosvami, whose disappearance day we are also observing. So, we will sing this song, which is on page ninety-one.

This song is written by Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, and it is called

Sapārṣada-bhagavad-viraha-janita-vilāpa—Lamentation from separation from the Lord and His associates from his book called Prarthana. It is the tradition that devotees sing this song on disappearance days, and HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja, in Mayapur, would always be the one to sing this song on the disappearance days of great acharyas. I will read the translation first, so that as I’m singing you’ll have a sense of the meaning. So, Text One. So, I won’t play these. Someone else can play them (kartals).

TRANSLATION

(1)
He who brought the treasure of divine love and who was filled with compassion and mercy—where has such a personality as Srinivasa Acharya gone?

(2)
Where are my Swarupa Damodara and Rupa Gosvami? Where is Sanatana?

COMMENT

Whose disappearance we are observing.

TRANSLATION

(2)
Where is Sanatana? Where is Raghunatha dasa, the savior of the fallen?

(3)
Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopal Bhatta and where is Krishnadasa Kaviraja? Where did Lord Gauranga, the great dancer, suddenly go?

(4)
I will smash my head against a rock and enter into the fire. Where will I find Lord Gauranga, the reservoir of all wonderful qualities?

(5)
Being unable to attain the association of Lord Gauranga accompanied by all these devotees in whose association He performed His pastimes, Narottama dasa simply weeps.

COMMENT

So, today is also the first month of cāturmāsya. There are four months in the cāturmāsya. This period, it’s very interesting is considered to be something like the nighttime for the demigods, and so they are not, well I don’t know if nighttime is right, but they are not available for ritualistic ceremonies. So, during this period of cāturmāsya, there are no marriages or other such events in traditional Vedic culture, but people wait until the end of cāturmāsya. The fourth month of cāturmāsya is Kartik or the month of Damodara. So, we are entering the first month of cāturmāsya, and in each of the four months, one is enjoined to refrain from eating a particular type of food. So, I’ll read a little about cāturmāsya from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter Four, Text 169.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The Cāturmāsya period begins in the month of Āṣāḍha (June-July) from the day of Ekādaśī called Śayanā-ekādaśī, in the fortnight of the waxing moon.

COMMENT

Now, yes, sometimes the devotees begin the observance from the Ekādaśī, and sometimes from the Purnima, and we observe from the Purnima, which is today. So, we are beginning our cāturmāsya today.

PURPORT (continued)

The period ends in the month of Kārttika (October-November) on the Ekādaśī day known as Utthānā-ekādaśī, in the fortnight of the waxing moon.

COMMENT

Or on the Purnima.

PURPORT (continued)

This four-month period is known as Cāturmāsya. Some Vaiṣṇavas also observe it from the full-moon day of Āṣāḍha until the full-moon day of Kārttika. That is also a period of four months. This period, calculated by the lunar months, is called Cāturmāsya, but others also observe Cāturmāsya according to the solar month from Śrāvaṇa to Kārttika. The whole period, either lunar or solar, takes place during the rainy season.

COMMENT

In India.

PURPORT (continued)

Cāturmāsya should be observed by all sections of the population. It does not matter whether one is a gṛhastha or a sannyāsī. The observance is obligatory for all āśramas. The real purpose behind the vow taken during these four months is to minimize the quantity of sense gratification. This is not very difficult. In the month of Śrāvaṇa one should not eat spinach.

COMMENT

That’s the first month though. No spinach.

PURPORT (continued)

In the month of Bhādra one should not eat yogurt, and in the month of Āśvina one should not drink milk. One should not eat fish or other nonvegetarian food during the month of Kārttika. A nonvegetarian diet means fish and meat.

COMMENT

But of course as devotees, we don’t take fish or meat in any case.

PURPORT (continued)

Similarly, masūra dhal and urad dhal are also considered nonvegetarian.

COMMENT

For the sake of the cāturmāsya fast.

PURPORT (continued)

These two dhals contain a great amount of protein, and food rich in protein is considered nonvegetarian.

COMMENT

For the purposes of the fast.

PURPORT (continued)

On the whole, during the four-month period of Cāturmāsya one should practice giving up all food intended for sense enjoyment.

COMMENT

So, this is another auspicious event that is taking place today on this Purnima, the beginning of cāturmāsya. Generally in India, because it’s the rainy season and it’s hard to travel, I mean in the old days people would travel by foot, so generally sadhus who travel during the rest of the year, they would make their base somewhere during the four months of the rainy season and give their mercy to the residents of that locality. Although we discussed Sanatana Gosvami’s qualities and activities and his disappearance, I’ll read a little bit more about him just to glorify him and purify ourselves. This is from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Ten, Text Eighty-Four.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī is described in the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (181).

COMMENT

So, Gaura means Lord Chaitanya, gaṇoddeśa means people like His associates, and dīpikā means a lamp. So, Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā is a lamp that illuminates the associates of Lord Gauranga. And that book, which is written by Kavi Karnapura explains the identities of the devotees in gaura-līlā what is their identities in kṛṣṇa-līlā.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī is described in the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (181). He was formerly known as Rati-mañjarī or sometimes Lavaṅga-mañjarī.

COMMENT

Generally, I should say, he is accepted as Lavaṅga-mañjarī, and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is accepted as Rati-mañjarī, but still.

PURPORT (continued)

He was formerly known as Rati-mañjarī or sometimes Lavaṅga-mañjarī. In the Bhakti-ratnākara it is stated that his spiritual master, Vidyā-vācaspati, sometimes stayed in the village of Rāmakeli, and Sanātana Gosvāmī studied all the Vedic literatures from him. He was so devoted to his spiritual master that this cannot be described. According to the Vedic system, if someone sees a Muslim he must perform rituals to atone for the meeting. Sanātana Gosvāmī always associated with Muslim kings. Not giving much attention to the Vedic injunctions, he used to visit the houses of Muslim kings, and thus he considered himself to have been converted into a Muslim. He was therefore always very humble and meek. When Sanātana Gosvāmī presented himself before Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he said, “I am always in association with lower-class people, and my behavior is therefore very abominable.”

COMMENT

So, this is his humility, and that is the natural characteristic of any of Vaishnava. It’s an essential ingredient of love of Godhead; one who has love of Godhead is naturally extremely humble. HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was also very humble.

PURPORT (continued)

When Sanātana Gosvāmī presented himself before Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he said, “I am always in association with lower-class people, and my behavior is therefore very abominable.” He actually belonged to a respectable brāhmaṇa family, but because he considered his behavior to be abominable, he did not try to place himself among the brāhmaṇas but always remained among people of the lower castes. He wrote the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

COMMENT

Hari-bhakti-vilāsa is a guidebook. Sort of a manual of rules and regulations for devotees and especially for householders.

PURPORT (continued)

He wrote the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa and Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, which is a commentary on the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the year 1476 Śakābda (A.D. 1554) he completed the Bṛhad-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the year 1504 Śakābda (A.D. 1582) Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī published an edited version of the Bṛhad-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī named Laghu-toṣaṇī.

COMMENT

As we mentioned earlier, he wrote the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, which is a wonderful book. It’s been brought out by the BBT, translated by Srila Prabhupada’s wonderful disciple Gopiparanadhana dasa. Sri Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta by Srila Sanatana Gosvami. Srila Rupa Gosvami says of this book, “Our divine master has revealed in his Bhāgavatāmṛta all the sweet conclusions of devotional philosophy including its most confidential secrets.” Our Srila Prabhupada has said, “Anyone who wants to know about the subject matter of devotees, devotional service, and Krishna must read this book.” So yes, highly recommended by Srila Rupa Gosvami and by our Srila Prabhupada. So, thank you for joining us. We will conclude our program by singing the Nṛsiṁha prayers and offering Vaishnava praṇāma.

So, my dear devotees, we are living in dangerous times with the coronavirus pandemic, so please take care. Try to observe all the recommended procedures of social distancing. The best thing is not to go out if you can avoid it. Observe social distancing as required and wear a mask. Masks are very important in this process. I’ve read reports from countries that have had a very good success rate in avoiding the coronavirus, and basically those countries didn’t do anything different than other countries, but they produced masks and gave out masks to all the citizens or at least made them easily available, and that made a big difference. So, anyway, we don’t want to lose any more devotees due to COVID-19.

Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto all the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees and can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca
kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo
vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Thank you for joining us, and I wish you a wonderful Krishna conscious rest of the day and night. Hare Krishna.