CONTENTS:
- SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU RETURNED TO JAGANNATHA PURI AND HE TOOK PART IN THE RATHA YATRA FESTIVAL
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU RETURNED TO JAGANNATHA PURI AND HE TOOK PART IN THE RATHA YATRA FESTIVAL
Hare Krishna. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi Gaura bhakta Vrinda. Namo maha vadanyaya Krishna preme pradaya te krishnaya Krishna Chaitanya namne gaura tvishe namah. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Rama Hare Rama Hare. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when He was traveling in South India in the temple, He came across one Brahmana who was holding Bhagavad Gita and very sincerely with a lot of devotion he was reading Bhagavad Gita but his pronunciation was not very good. As a result of that many people were laughing but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed that the person was reading Bhagavad Gita very sincerely and as a result of that there were ecstatic symptoms like tears flowing from his eyes, hair standing on end, shivering.
Seeing that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became quite curious so He asked that Brahmana, “Which part of Bhagavad Gita is causing you to feel this way?” The Brahmana frankly admitted “ Actually I cannot read Bhagavad Gita and understand its meaning but my spiritual master asked me to read Bhagavad Gita so although I am illiterate but because my spiritual master told me I make an effort to read, Whenever I hold the Bhagavad Gita I get to see that Krishna is speaking to Arjuna and when I consider how merciful Krishna is that He is bestowing such mercy upon His devotee so I just see that and become overwhelmed with emotion seeing how kind and merciful the Lord is.” Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced him and told him that he was the real reader although apparently illiterate although he read in a mistaken way but he understood the real purpose of Bhagavad Gita and he received the real mercy of Krishna.
In this way through this incident, we get to understand how to study scriptures, with full faith we have to approach them with deep conviction that these are the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that Krishna is speaking. Even the other scriptures we must understand that those descriptions are not literary descriptions they are descriptions of the spiritual world, those words and descriptions are from the spiritual sky and in this way with full conviction we must study scriptures then only will the transcendental knowledge be revealed in our hearts. Transcendental knowledge is not a matter of intellectual perception or understanding rather it is a matter of revelation. Dibya jnana hridaya prakasito transcendental knowledge becomes revealed in the heart. Revealed means the transcendental world, spiritual reality becomes manifest.
Intellect is also a material thing. Mind, intelligence and false ego are subtle elements so understanding may be more profound more deep than understanding through the senses, our intellectual perception may be beyond our sense perception but that is not the ultimate understanding. Like when we read Brahma Samhita what do we see? Is Brahma just writing something or is Brahma transported through the spiritual world and he is describing the spiritual world? It is a perception of the spiritual reality that eventually happens and we become transported to the spiritual sky. Just like this Brahmana was he there? No, he was transported to where Krishna and Arjuna were, he was seeing how Krishna is speaking to Arjuna and that is what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was appreciating. Can you imagine the Lord was embracing him? What an inconceivable good fortune! Although materially people around are laughing at him, “Oh look at this illiterate fool, he can’t read Bhagavad Gita and can’t even read alphabets and he is pretending as if he is so advanced.” This is the mundane and materialistic way of looking at him.
How did the Supreme Personality of Godhead see him? When He heard what he was saying He was impressed. So, in this way the Lord will accept our sincerity, He is not going to be impressed by scholarship. He will see the sincerity of our hearts; He will see the simplicity of our hearts. After travelling through South India Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returned to Jagannatha Puri and He took part in the Ratha Yatra festival and devotees from Bengal came to meet Him. They had a wonderful Ratha Yatra celebration and then after that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to leave for Vrindavan but when King Patraparudra came to know that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to leave for Vrindavan he was very heart broken. He told Sarva Bhauma Bhattacharya, “Please don’t let Him go, let Him stay here.” Sarva Bhauma Bhattacharya told Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, “Soon it will be winter time so winter will be very cold so this is not a proper time to travel.” In this way he persuaded Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to stay on and Mahaprabhu accepted.
Ratha Yatra takes place during monsoon time and the devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Bengal decided to come to Jagannatha Puri and this time their wives also wanted to join them. They were also feeling separation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Advaita Acharya Prabhu’s wife Sitadevi joined, Srivas Thakur’s wife Malinidevi joined and in this way different ladies also joined and they prepared various kinds of foodstuffs for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sivananada Sen was the organizer of this travelling yatra, he made all the arrangements, their accommodation, their prasadam, tax, they had to pay tax across the country and across the rivers. They arrived in Puri and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent one devotee with two garlands to receive them and these garlands were given to Advaita Acharya Prabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. When they came to the boundary of Puri then Mahaprabhu sent garlands to garland all of the devotees. Then when they came to the main gate of Jagannatha temple Mahaprabhu Himself met with them.
They were all so ecstatic to see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and then they had the darshan of Lord Jagannatha and He Himself distributed the prasadam to them, this is how wonderful the loving exchange took place between the Lord and His devotees. The previous year Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Nityananda Prabhu just go back to Bengal and preach there but this time when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw Nityananda Prabhu He told Him, “You don’t come again with Me You stay in Bengal.” Nityananda Prabhu said, “Ok since I have come here let Me stay here.” Ratha Yatra time came and the day before Ratha Yatra they all cleaned the Gundicha temple, Ratha yatra festival is actually the journey by chariot of Lord Jagannatha along with Lord Baladeva and Subadra to the Gundicha temple and Lord Jagannatha stays there for eight days. Going to Gundicha temple is actually Lords journey to Vrindavan.
Krishna left Vrindavan and went to Mathura and the residents of Vrindavan were so attached to Krishna that they could not tolerate a moments separation from Him especially the Gopis. When their eyes would blink, for a fraction of a second their eyes would close they could not see Krishna during that time they considered that was a big defect in Brahma’s making this human body. They criticized Brahma for this what kind of body he made that the eyes blink and as a result of that we can’t see Krishna so in this way they could not tolerate separation from Krishna for even a fraction of a second! Now Krishna has left. While Krishna was leaving Vrindavan the Gopis did not want to let Him go they tried to stop Krishna. Their attitude was literally, “Over our dead bodies.”
They were holding onto the wheels of the chariot, holding onto the horses and some of them even laid down in front of the chariot with a very simple attitude, “Krishna now we won’t let you go.” Krishna assured them, “Don’t worry I will come back soon, there is something to be done is Mathura. As soon as I finish my job I will come back.” But when Krishna went to Mathura and killed Kamsa and released Ugrasena, Vasudeva and Devaki and reinstated Ugrasena on the throne. At that time Ugrasena requested Krishna, “Krishna in your absence all the kings are going to attack us so how we are going to deal with them, if You go away, please stay on.” Krishna stayed on and during that time seventeen times Jarasanda, Kamsa’s father-in-law attacked Mathura and Krishna and Balarama defeated him seventeen times. The army that Jarasanda came with was twenty three aksohini and Krishna and Balarama went out destroyed the entire army and only spared Jarasanda and let him go and Jarasanda came again with another twenty three aksohini soldiers, mind you the battle of Kuruksetra was fought with eleven aksohini from Kaurava side and eleven aksohini from Pandava side, total number of soldiers in the battlefield of Kuruksetra was eighteen aksohini but Jarasanda attacked with twenty three aksohini and Krishna and Balarama won seventeen times.
The question arises why did Krishna spare Jarasanda? He wiped out the entire army but He left only Jarasanda standing and let him go. The answer to that is Krishna came to kill the demons and, in His mission, Jarasanda was actually Krishna’s recruiting agent, he collected all the demons and brought them to Krishna. Krishna did not have to go to all these places Jarasanda had brought them to Krishna. When Jarasanda was to attack on the eighteenth time at that time another enemy Kalyavana also arranged and attack. Seeing this precarious condition of the attack from two sides Krishna decided to transport all the residents of Mathura to Dwarika. Overnight Krishna arranged for a city to be built in the middle of the ocean and while the residents of Mathura were sleeping in their sleep, they all were transported to Dwarika. Can Krishna do that? Yes. The city was built by Visvakarma.
Krishna just ordered: Visvakarma just build this.
Visvakarma: How many houses?
Krishna: Every family will have a house
Visvakarma: How much time?
Krishna: Overnight
Visvakarma: Your wish is my command my Lord
First Krishna dealt with Kalyavana, He didn’t kill Kalyavana, He got Muchukanda to kill Kalyavana and then He dealt with Jarasanda. He played a trick with Jarasanda He ran away from the battlefield, Ranchor, one who ran away from the battlefield.
Krishna climbed onto a mountain and Jarasanda set the whole mountain on fire. Krishna jumped off from the top of the mountain with Balarama into the ocean and arrived in Dwarika. Anyway, a long time went by and in the meantime, Krishna got married to 16 108 princesses. Quite a long time went by and Krishna also had quite a few children.
See for how long Krishna could not go to Vrindavan. Finally, on the occasion of the solar eclipse Krishna went to Kuruksetra. It is the custom in India that during the solar eclipse people go to Kuruksetra to take bath in a lake. On this occasion Krishna went there with Balarama and Subadra. The residents of Vrindavan also went there. The solar eclipse was over everyone was ready to leave to their respective places and the residents of Vrindavan were about to leave and at that time they got the news that Krishna was there. Upon getting the news that Krishna was there they all ran to meet Krishna. In the meantime, Krishna was also preparing to leave Kuruksetra and was already on His Chariot, Balarama was on His chariot and Subadra was on Her chariot. The residents of Vrindavan especially Gopis headed by Srimati Radharani arrived. When Radharani saw Krishna, she felt this is not the Krishna that we knew.
Radharani: Krishna that I knew He was a cowherd boy and this person is a prince. My Krishna wears a peacock feather on His head and He is wearing a crown on His head. My Krishna wears a flower garland and He is wearing all these valuable necklaces and auspicious gems. My Krishna wears a yellow silk dhoti and He is wearing a royal robe. My Krishna carries a flute and He is carrying weapons. Where I used to meet Krishna, it was such a serene atmosphere on the bank of the river Yamuna. Here there is so many soldiers, so much noise, elephants are trumpeting, horses are whining and clashing of weapons. This is not the one I wanted to meet and this is not the place where I wanted to meet Him. Understanding Srimati Radharani’s heart what did the residents of Vrindavan do? What did the followers of Srimati Radharani do? They grabbed the horses and started to pull the chariot towards Vrindavan in order for Radharani to meet Krishna in a proper way.
So that is the Ratha Yatra festival. Krishna came from Dwarika to Kuruksetra and the residents of Vrindavan were taking Krishna from Kuruksetra to Vrindavan. Here Jagannatha temple is the Kuruksetra and Gundicha temple is Vrindavan. Krishna stayed in Vrindavan for eight days and He had His loving exchange with His most intimate devotees the residents of Vrindavan. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to clean the Gundicha temple and cleaning the temple is synonymous to cleaning our hearts. When you clean the temple then our hearts become clean then Lord who is present in our heart becomes manifest. This is cheto darpanam marjanam heart needs to be cleansed because when the heart is dirty, like a mirror that has dust on it can we see our faces in it?
Similarly, when our hearts are dirty then because of the dirt in the heart we cannot recognize our actual self. It is due to the dirt in the hearts that we cannot recognize our spiritual identity, because of the dirt in the hearts we become absorbed in our body consciousness and that is actually an impurity. But when the heart becomes purified and cleansed then we can see our real self in the mirror of our heart. In the heart we can also get to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the process and that is why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at the very beginning of His Sri Siksha Astakam says cheto darpanam marjanam, cleanse the mirror of the heart.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
The more we recognize and appreciate the glory of Srila Prabhupada the more we will be able to appreciate of the activities of Supreme Personality of Godhead, because Srila Prabhupada came to give the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mercy of the Lord flows through Srila Prabhupada, the most bona fide representative of the Lord.
(Prabhupada Realisations)
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- To study scriptures, with full faith we have to approach them with deep conviction that these are the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that Krishna is speaking;
- Even the other scriptures we must understand that those descriptions are not literary descriptions they are descriptions of the spiritual world, those words and descriptions are from the spiritual sky and in this way with full conviction we must study scriptures then only will the transcendental knowledge be revealed in our hearts;
- Transcendental knowledge is not a matter of intellectual perception or understanding rather it is a matter of revelation;
- So, in this way the Lord will accept our sincerity, He is not going to be impressed by scholarship. He will see the sincerity of our hearts; He will see the simplicity of our hearts; and
- When our hearts are dirty then because of the dirt in the heart we cannot recognize our actual self. It is due to the dirt in the hearts that we cannot recognize our spiritual identity, because of the dirt in the hearts we become absorbed in our body consciousness and that is actually an impurity. But when the heart becomes purified and cleansed then we can see our real self in the mirror of our heart. In the heart we can also get to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
(The content of this E-Magazine is based on a Lecture given by HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja on given at Drakensburg Retreat, South Africa on 22 January 2017.)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)