CONTENTS:
- A WONDERFUL DRAMA THE LORD HAS MADE
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. A WONDERFUL DRAMA THE LORD HAS MADE
The Lord had to gate keepers Jaya and Vijaya and they desired to give the mellow of chivalry to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because in Vaikuntha this mellow the Lord cannot experience. In Vaikuntha can you fight with the Lord? In reality who can fight with the Lord? But because they desired that, that desire was fulfilled in the form of a curse and the curse was that they will take birth in the earth planet in three yugas as three demons and the Lord would appear to kill them. These two gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya became Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyakash in Satyayuga; in Tretrayuga and Ravana and Kumbakaran and in 
Dwaparyuga Sisupal and Dantabakra.
These two devotees of the Lord being cursed appeared as Ravana and Kumbakaran. Ravana became invincible due to the blessings of Lord Shiva, when he was asking for a boon, he thought a human being is so insignificant he decided not to mention human being, he mentioned everything except human being. This is how the Lord plays His pastimes in such a wonderful arrangement and therefore the Lord appeared as a human form. What did Ravana do? He stole Sitadevi Lord Ramachandra’s eternal consort when they were in the forest.
On the thirteenth year, the last year, Ravan kidnapped Sita and took her to his capital to Sri Lanka, a city of gold. It was one hundred yogenas away from the Southern tip of India. One yogena is 800 miles so it was 800 miles away. There was a celestial bird called Sampati and he could see 800 miles away and could see that Sita was in captivity. Lord Ramachandra wanted to confirm that Sita was really there and in order to confirm that Hanuman jumped 800 miles away and then he found out Sita was there. Not only had he found out Sita, single handedly he plundered the capital of Ravana. He killed three generals including Ravana’s son and these three sections of the army was destroyed just by Hanuman.
This is what happens when the devotee becomes empowered by the Lord. Apparently, it seems to be impossible but when the Lord empowers somebody then it becomes possible. He even burnt the city of Lanka. It was a golden city and the city burnt so there was a river of gold flowing because when the city was burning the gold was melting. Hanuman brought the news of Sita and he proposed that I will take you back but Sita refused for two reasons one is that I can’t touch any other man besides my husband and the second reason is that if I leave like that this will be a disgrace for Ramachandra that He could not save His wife someone else had to do it. We can see how noble these personalities were.
It was now confirmed that Sita was in Lanka 800 miles away so the consideration was how to cross the ocean and then it was decided that they would build a bridge, mind you an 800-mile-long bridge. You know how long it took them to build the bridge? Only five days. The first day they built 14 miles, the second day 20 miles, third day 21 miles, fourth day 22 miles and the fifth day 23 miles and the bridge was built. Let’s add it 100 and so the bridge was built and they went across it and the battle ensued. Ravana had the most sophisticated army with such sophisticated weapons that they could fight with the demi-gods. The monkeys were fighting with sticks and stones and there were only 7 human beings fighting on behalf Lord Ramachandra which was Ramachandra, Laksman, Vibishan (Ravana’s brother who joined Ramachandra), and Vibishan had four associates who were Raksasas who assumed the form of human beings and the rest were monkeys. Who are these monkeys? They were demi-gods empowered by the Lord Himself and you know what happened at the end of the day? They naturally won. When the Lord is with His associates, the devotee’s victory is bound to be there.
They won but many monkeys died and after the battle was over, they were celebrating Vibishan who was coroneted on the throne and Indra the demi-god the King of the demi-gods also came to take part along with the other demi-gods. Indra very humbly proposed to the Lord, “My Lord what can I do for you?” Lord Ramachandra said, “If you really 
want to do something for Me just revive all the monkeys those who are dead.” Indra replied, “That is not within my ability but if you empower me, I can do that because by Your mercy anything is possible.” And so, all the monkeys were brought back to life.
This is another thing when you fight for the Lord and lose your life don’t worry, the Lord will revive you and give you the eternal. This is how the Lord performed His pastimes. You see pastimes are like a drama it’s not really real. Lord Ramachandra is playing the pastimes like a drama played on a stage, different actors and actresses those roles. So here that is the case the Lord assumes a certain role and His associates play I the same drama assuming different roles.
The drama has two purposes one purpose of the drama is entertainment and the other is a message. A good drama must have a message. Drama has a conflict, the more the conflict the better the drama. The conflict is between the hero and the villain, the Lord is the hero and the demons are the villains. See what a wonderful drama the Lord has made, whatever He has made is perfect and did you get entertainment? Did you learn something? This is the purpose of the Lord’s pastimes.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
“Srila Prabhupada had though that by running his business he would make money and then be able to go to the West to fulfil Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s order. As it turned out, when he did go to the West, he went as a pauper, without support. Then everything just started to happen in the most amazing way. It was, he said, all by the arrangement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And through that experience, he had learned an important lesson – that when one served the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one did not have to worry about money or anything. The Lord would make all the arrangements; if one served Him sincerely, He would provide everything. Even as I was listening, I was aware of my own good fortune to be hearing about Srila Prabhupada’s life story from his own mouth.”
(Extract from “Ocean of Mercy” by HH Bhakti Charu Swami)
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
This is how the Lord performed His pastimes. You see pastimes are like a drama it’s not really real. 
Lord Ramachandra is playing the pastimes like a drama played on a stage, different actors and actresses those roles. So here that is the case the Lord assumes a certain role and His associates play I the same drama assuming different roles. The drama has two purposes one purpose of the drama is entertainment and the other is a message. A good drama must have a message. Drama has a conflict, the more the conflict the better the drama. The conflict is between the hero and the villain, the Lord is the hero and the demons are the villains. See what a wonderful drama the Lord has made, whatever He has made is perfect and did you get entertainment? Did you learn something? This is the purpose of the Lord’s pastimes.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in ISKCON New Jersey on 28 March 2015)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)