CC Adi 1.5 – The Internal Mood of Lord Chaitanya

Host: Hare Krishna Giriraj Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Host: How are you this morning? 

Giriraj Swami: I am very fine.

Host: Good. Thank you very much for coming on again, actually you came on, on I think it was February 21st, and spoke about the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the closing words that Srila Prabhupada wrote and that was a wonderful time with you, and we asked you to come on again. And I know your time is very valuable but we are very appreciative of that. Just a mention to our audience, we are in the last week, last five days of the celebration of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. We have over sixty60 leading devotees that started on February 19th with Radhanath Maharaja and yourself, and we have been covering so many different topics about this absolutely, most amazing and wonderful book. And so our audience can see all of those videos at the website gbcspt.com 

So Maharaja, you are famous, I usually don’t need to introduce you, everybody knows you. But I thought as a kind of a little bit of an insight into your holy self because I have had the fortune, at times, to spend time with you and be in your temple room. You have pictures of some great great contemporary devotees and you honor them by having them as part of your altar set up. I was wondering if you could just take a minute to just show, hold us, hold up the picture and just say a few words of the devotees that you have on your altar? 

Giriraj Swami: Well, this is me with His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami.

Host: Haribol. Beautiful.

Giriraj Swami: Then, me with His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami.

Host: Hare Krishna. 

Giriraj Swami: Me with His Holiness Sridhara Swami.

Host: Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: And this is Mother Arca Vigraha, she might need a little introduction. She was a famous artist in South Africa and at a certain stage, she was diagnosed with cancer, and she was very foresighted, she was one of the first devotees to build a house in Vrindavan, near the Krishna-Balarama Temple. And so I suggested that she wind up her affairs in South Africa and come to Vrindavan. She did, although the doctors had given her six months, she lived for three years. And she loved Vrindavan, and she left her body there. Her last wish was that others should have the opportunity to leave their bodies in Vrindavan, at the time there wasn’t very good medical facilities there, she hoped that we could provide better medical care and that was the seed for the development of the Bhaktivedanta Hospice.

Host: Wow!

Giriraj Swami: She called it a Bhakti To Godhead Clinic or more usual term we use hospice. 

Host: Hmmm. Beautiful.

Giriraj Swami: And this is Mother Kirtida, a disciple of H.H. Tamal Krishna Goswami. She was a very advanced devotee and also coincidentally from South Africa. And she, of course, she spent a lot of time in Vrindavan and she could have left there. But she chose to live in Dallas, in the presence of her Guru Maharaja and other god brothers and god sisters. And yes, she is a great inspiration, great inspiration. At one stage, His Holiness Kesava Bharati dasa Gosvami was staying with me when she was, when Mother Kirtida, was in the process of leaving and we were in the mood asking her to stay, and I mentioned it to Tamal Krishna Goswami, and he said: “She is a nurse and she knows the sequence of what’s going to follow, and you can ask her but, you know, she is going to run the red light.” These are all exemplary devotees and yes, I am grateful to all of them for their association and I cherish my memories with them. 

Host: Wow, it is very wonderful. I remember it well, on my visits, seeing them and I thought that might be a nice thing to share with our audience. So Maharaja, you are going to give a kind of a Bhāgavatam style class. I’ll be backstage if you need me along with Sarva Sakhi devi, who is our orchestrator back there. We’ll just turn things over to you now, I will get off stage and you carry on and we will be listening with rapt attention.

Giriraj Swami: All right. Thank you. I will begin by singing the maṅgalācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan, and then we will speak about Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Lord Chaitanya’s internal mood. 

[Prayers]

Hare Krishna. So today’s topic is the inner mood of Lord Chaitanya and to begin, I will say that, as stated, in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which is the scripture that we have been studying during this series and which reveals the most confidential information about Lord Chaitanya. So the Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that Lord Chaitanya is Krishna in the mood of Radharani. And Ādi-līlā, Chapter One, Text Five, says: 

“The loving affairs of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are one in Their identity, previously They separated Themselves. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī although He is Kṛṣṇa Himself,”

Once, there was an interesting discussion with Srila Prabhupada in Calcutta on this topic, of Radha and Krishna and Sri Caitanya. At the time, we were living in a rented facility that was owned by Mr. Singh Roy and Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Achyutananda Swami met Mr. Singh Roy. And Mr. Singh Roy had his own theory about Radha and Krishna and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And his theory was that Lord Caitanya came first and then Radha and Krishna. And further he said that Lord Caitanya was greater than both Radha and Krishna. 

Acyutananda Swami related his discussion to Srila Prabhupada, I happened to be present in the room and he asked Srila Prabhupada, what is the actual position? Oh yes, and Mr. Singh Roy in making the point that Lord Chaitanya was greater than Radha and Krishna, gave the example of milk and sugar being combined to make a rasagullā. So Acyutananda brought this topic to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada said that Radha and Krishna come first. The same example, that first milk and sugar exists and then they combine and become rasagullā. And then, Acyutananda asks and who’s greater? Srila Prabhupada paused and then he pointed to a picture on his wall of Radharani in maan, it is a type of transcendental jealous, anger. And Krishna sort of kneeling at Her feet begging Her to forgive Him and to accept Him. And Srila Prabhupada said, Radha is the greatest. And then he pointed to another picture that showed Krishna carrying the shoes of Nanda Maharaja on His head, and then Srila Prabhupada said that Nanda Maharaja is the greatest. And then he concluded that the devotee is the greatest, but of all the devotees, Srimati Radharani is the greatest. So yes, this is. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna. I bow down to Him who has manifested Himself with the sentiments and complexion of Srimati Radharani although He is Krishna Himself and Text Six: 

“Desiring to understand the glory of Rādhārāṇī’s love, the wonderful qualities in Him that She alone relishes through Her love, and the happiness She feels when She realizes the sweetness of His love, the Supreme Lord Hari, richly endowed with Her emotions, appeared from the womb of Śrīmatī Śacī-devī, as the moon appeared from the ocean.”

So in essence, Lord Chaitanya’s inner mood is the mood of Srimati Radharani because He is Krishna in the mood of Srimati Radharani. And in both of these verses we find the word bhāva, which means, you could say mood, yes. Now, in particular, Srimati Radharani’s mood as manifested in the person of Lord Chaitanya is that of compassionate, that of compassion, of being compassionate. In The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter Twenty-two, Qualities of Lord Krishna. So one of the qualities is compassionate, and I will read from that section of The Nectar of Devotion: 

“A person who is unable to bear another’s distress is called compassionate. Kṛṣṇa’s compassion was also exhibited when Grandfather Bhīṣma was lying on the bed of arrows which had been shot through his body. While lying in this position, Bhīṣma was very anxious to see Kṛṣṇa, and thus Kṛṣṇa appeared there. Upon seeing the pitiable condition of Bhīṣma, Kṛṣṇa began speaking with tears in His eyes. Not only was He shedding tears, but He also forgot Himself in His compassion. Therefore, instead of offering obeisances to Kṛṣṇa directly, devotees offer obeisances to His compassionate nature. Actually, because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is very difficult to approach Him. But the devotees, taking advantage of His compassionate nature, which is represented by Rādhārāṇī, always pray to Rādhārāṇī for Kṛṣṇa’s compassion.”

So again, a person who is unable to bear another’s distress is called compassionate. And everyone in the material world is in a distressful condition, more or less. And so Lord Chaitanya, Krishna in the mood of Radharani, part of His mood was to deliver all souls; and this was expressed in His discussion, in Lord Chaitanya’s discussion with Haridasa Thakura, quoted in Antya-līlā, Chapter Three of this great scripture. So Text forty-nine describes: 

TEXT 49

One day Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu met Haridāsa Ṭhākura as usual, and in the course of discussion He inquired as follows.

TEXT 50

“My dear Ṭhākura Haridāsa, in this Age of Kali most people are bereft of Vedic culture, and therefore they are called yavanas. They are concerned only with killing cows and brahminical culture. In this way they all engage in sinful acts.

TEXT 51

“How will these yavanas be delivered? To My great unhappiness, I do not see any way.”

COMMENT

So again, Lord Chaitanya is exhibiting Srimati Radharani’s compassionate mood and expressing it in His desire for the yavanas to be delivered.

TEXT 52

Haridāsa Ṭhākura replied, “My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety. Do not be unhappy to see the condition of the yavanas in material existence. 

COMMENT

And here, Srila Prabhupada writes a very beautiful short purport, he says:

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada:

These words of Haridāsa Ṭhākura are just befitting a devotee who has dedicated his life and soul to the service of the Lord. When the Lord is unhappy because of the condition of the fallen souls, the devotee consoles Him, saying, “My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety.” This is service. Everyone should adopt the cause of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to try to relieve Him from the anxiety He feels. This is actually service to the Lord. One who tries to relieve Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s anxiety for the fallen souls is certainly a most dear and confidential devotee of the Lord. 

COMMENT

And then Haridasa Thakura, will give some explanation as to how the yavanas can be delivered by nāma-ābhāsa, as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard this from Haridasa Thakura, his happiness within his heart increased, but as a matter of course he inquired further. So the next verse that showed Lord Chaitanya’s concern for living entities in other bodies than human. So Text Sixty-seven:

TEXT 67–72

“On this earth there are many living entities,” the Lord said, “some moving and some not moving. What will happen to the trees, plants, insects and other living entities? How will they be delivered from material bondage? Haridasa Thakura replied, “My dear Lord, the deliverance of all moving and nonmoving living entities takes place only by Your mercy. You have already granted this mercy and delivered them. You have loudly chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and everyone, moving or not moving, [not moving means trees, for example], has benefited by hearing it. My Lord, the moving entities who have heard Your loud saṅkīrtana have already been delivered from bondage to the material world, and after the nonmoving living entities like trees hear it, there is an echo. Actually, however, it is not an echo: it is the kirtan of the nonmoving living entities. All this, although inconceivable, is possible by Your mercy. When loud chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is performed all over the world by those who follow in Your footsteps, all living entities, moving and nonmoving, dance in ecstatic devotional love.”

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada often expressed his care for a lower species of life, you could say, and by the loud chanting of Hare Krishna, trees and insects are all benefited. Once, when Srila Prabhupada first came to New York city and was living in an apartment, the landlord wanted to call an exterminator to fumigate the building, to get rid of insects, which are generally called pests. But Srila Prabhupada refused to allow the fumigation to take place in his apartment. So all the insects from all the other apartments came to Srila Prabhupada’s apartment and Srila Prabhupada commented, “Just see, they are taking shelter of Krishna consciousness.” 

And yes, so I think, we have covered this. Now, there is also a question of how do we understand Lord Chaitanya’s inner mood? Of course we understand it through great sages such as Srila Krishnadasa Kavirāja Gosvami. But how did they understand it? And there is one incident when Lord Chaitanya danced at the Ratha-yatra and he was singing a verse that seemed to be like from an ordinary love song. The translation of the verse was: “That very personality who stole my heart during my youth, is now again my master. These are the same moonlight nights of the month of Chaitra, the same fragrance of Malati flowers is there and the same sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same lover, yet my mind is not happy here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Reva under the Vetasi tree. That is my desire.” 

Now, the significance of this verse is that during the Ratha-yatra, Lord Chaitanya was in the mood of, you could say, dragging Krishna or Lord Jagannatha back to Vrindavan. That was his mood. And in that regard, the temple of Jagannatha and Nilachakra was considered the representation of Kurukshetra. And the Gundica temple at Sundarachala was considered the representation of Vrindavan. So Lord Chaitanya was in the mood of bringing gopī, of Radharani bringing Krishna back to Vrindavan from Kurukshetra. When the residents of Vrindavan went there at the time of the eclipse to see Lord Krishna. 

Now the only person who understood the significance of this verse was Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, Lord Chaitanya’s personal secretary. But one year Rupa Gosvami was there for the Ratha-yatra and he composed a verse that explained, the verse that Lord Chaitanya was reciting which was apparently from a mundane love song and the translation of his verse was: “My dear friend, now I have met My very old and dear friend Kṛṣṇa on this field of Kurukṣetra. I am the same Rādhārāṇī, and now We are meeting together. It is very pleasant, but still I would like to go to the bank of the Yamunā beneath the trees of the forest there. I wish to hear the vibration of His sweet flute playing the fifth note within that forest of Vṛndāvana.”

Now, so Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, so Lord Chaitanya showed this verse Rupa Gosvami had written it on the palm leaf and stuck it in the thatch of his hut and Lord Chaitanya saw it and he read it to Svarupa Damodara Gosvami. And in the meantime, Rupa Gosvami had gone to bathe in the sea. 

[Cc Antya 1.82–87]

After reading the verse, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was overwhelmed by ecstatic love. At that very time, Rupa Gosvami returned, having finished bathing in the sea. Seeing the Lord, Rupa Gosvami fell flat in the courtyard to offer obeisances. The Lord slapped him mildly in love and spoke as follows: “My heart is very confidential, how did you know my mind in this way?” After saying this he firmly embraced Rupa Gosvami: Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took that verse and showed it to Svarupa Damodara for him to examine. And the Lord questioned him, how could Rupa Gosvami have understood my heart? The Lord asked. Svarupa Damodara replied, I can understand that you have already bestowed your causeless mercy upon him, no one could otherwise understand this meaning. I can therefore guess that you have bestowed upon him your causeless mercy.

COMMENT

That is how we can gain access to Lord Chaitanya’s internal mood by his causeless mercy bestowed upon great souls, such as Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami, who have in turn shared their experiences and realizations in this great work, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. 

So in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Prabhupada explains the reasons for Sri Krishna Chaitanya’s appearance. Lord Krishna in His pastimes was unable to experience the glory of Srimati Radharani’s love for Him, the wonderful qualities in Krishna that she relishes through her love and the indescribable happiness she feels when she realizes the sweetness of His love, thus Lord Krishna assuming the guise of a devotee adopted the mood and complexion of Srimati Radharani and descended in Navadvipa dhāma to fulfill his innermost desire to experience Srimati Radharani’s ecstatic love for Him.

So Navadvipa dhāma is a manifestation of Srimati Radharani’s love for Krishna, the Puranas also describe that when, in the state of mahā-bhāva (the highest ecstasy of love for Krishna), Srimati Radharani reached the extreme in ecstatic feelings of separation from Krishna. He entered into her heart and stole her feeling of mahā-bhāva and that mahā-bhāva became manifested as Navadvipa dhāma, thus to better understand the mood of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we should understand Radharani’s mood of separation.

Once, when Krishna left the company of the gopīs, Radharani began to search for Him in one forest after another crying in intense separation. She approached a kadamba tree, “Where is Krishna?” She approached Govardhana Hill, “Where is Krishna?” She wandered everywhere throughout Vrindavan crying, “Where is Krishna? He is more dear to me than my own life, how can I live without His service?” Then in divine madness she fainted. After some time, when Krishna appeared, He addressed Srimati Radharani: “I am extremely pleased with you; you may ask from me whatever you wish.” And Radharani requested three things, “Please promise me that you will always remain in Vraja unseen by those without devotion.” Two, “Please never disappoint the devotees who reside here maintaining their lives by their love for you alone, hoping to attain your lotus feet.” And three, “Please always shower your mercy on your devotees and give them shelter at your lotus feet.”

We see that even though Srimati Radharani had been experiencing extreme separation from Krishna, when Krishna asked her what she wanted, she did not think of herself. She thought of the suffering of others. This is the mood of separation. Srimati Radharani’s desire to please Krishna is so pure and so intense that she wants to engage every living entity for Krishna’s pleasure, to give them Krishna’s service and association. 

And that mood was adopted by and expressed by Lord Chaitanya. So I thank you for this opportunity to reflect on Lord Chaitanya’s internal mood, which indeed is the mood of Srimati Radharani, especially in its feature of compassion. And yes, I mean I am so grateful to Srila Prabhupada for translating the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta into English for us, so that we can have access to the most confidential pastimes and philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates. And I pray that I can always be absorbed in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta and take into my heart the compassionate mood of Lord Chaitanya, which is indeed, the compassionate mood of Srimati Radharani, who as we read represents the compassionate nature of Krishna. And as Srila Prabhupada often said to give Krishna consciousness you need to have Krishna consciousness. And so that means as far as possible, rising early in the morning, chanting our rounds and doing all the things that we need to do to nourish our own Krishna consciousness, so that we can also help others. So again thank you for this opportunity. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Host: All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Maharaja, this was a very wonderful lecture. And I am wondering if I could just ask you a question, doesn’t directly relate to the topic, would that be okay? 

Giriraj Swami: All right.

Host: And I don’t want you to be embarrassed by this, please don’t.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, already blushing but okay. 

Host: No. As I was listening to you, I felt closer to Prabhupada. You have a way of, I know, I have listened to many of your lectures, you have a fidelity that is just so remarkable to me. How do you get close to Srila Prabhupada? What do you do? 

Giriraj Swami: Myself?

Host: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I would say that Srila Prabhupada bound me with his love and compassion. And yes, I can’t really separate my life from Srila Prabhupada and I always pray to him. Before giving this talk, I was constantly praying to him. And yes, my life is everything good in my life is due to his mercy. And so yes, I just, I can’t get enough of him. And one of the best ways that we can get his association and mercy is through reading his books, and especially, we are discussing Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So yes, somehow I think of a statement that Srila Prabhupada made referring to his disciples, that: “Distributing my books will keep them happy, and reading my books will keep them.” Meaning book distribution, saṅkīrtana keeps the devotees happy, it is very enlightening. But reading the books is also necessary because that will keep them in Krishna Consciousness. 

Host: Well, thank you for that answer and certainly a major goal of this series is to get the devotional community to read more of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. 

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Host: And certainly you are portraying these innermost moods, highly quoting from the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta is proof positive that we do need to read this book. 

Giriraj Swami: Yes. 

Host: Ok Maharaja, thank you so very much okay. I really appreciate it. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hare Krishna. 

Giriraj Swami: All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your service.

Host: Hare Krishna.