MS: So now some of the instructional stories from the Sri Caitanya Caritamrta. This story is called ‘Lord Caitanya takes Prasadam from the Sanodiya Brahmana in Mathura.’
This is chapter 17 of Madhya lila. Of course the title of this chapter is Lord Caitanya travels to Vrndavan. It’s interesting, we mentioned a few minutes ago, about Lord Caitanya coming to Vrndavan for two months. He arrived on Kartika Purnima, which is three weeks from now. He arrived just at the end of Kartika, which is the last day of Kartika, and He stayed for two months.
And He did Dvadasa vana parikrama, its called courasi kosa parikrama. He toured all the forests of Vrndavan and He revealed many of the holy places. Although Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami had already been deputed to come to Vrndavan, they were already here and before them Bhugarva Gosvami and his friend Lokanatha Gosvami, he had come. And they were both wandering all over Braja, praying to the different Kalpavrksa trees that the Kalpavrksa trees would reveal the lila vilasa and the lila sthalis of Radha and Krsna. kujat kokila hamsa sarasa gana kirne mayura kule
How does it go?
nana-ratna-nibaddha-mula-vitapa-sri-yukta-vrndavane
radha-krsnam ahar-nisam prabhajatau jivarthadau yau muda
Something like this…Radha Krsna arthato – for the benefit of the jivas, jiva artha. For the benefit of the jivas – these six Gosvamis and the two others, they were called the seventh and eight Gosvami – Lokanatha and Bhugarva.
They were wandering and sleeping under the trees, they were sleeping under the roots, at base of the trees and they were praying to the trees – “Oh trees of Vrndavan, Oh Kaplavrksa trees… You are wish fulfilling trees and your roots are in the ground. Your roots are deeply embedded to the ground of Vrndavan. But the ground of Vrndavan is jewels nana-ratna-nibaddha-mula-vitapa… mula means root. Nana-ratna, your roots, the roots of your trunk. Your roots are not merely clutching soil.
Usually when a tree is growing in a ground, the mula, the vrksa mula, the roots of the tree are clutching the earth or the soil and extracting minerals and water and nourishment from the soil and distributing from the branches, trunks and twigs of the tree, leaves.
But these, nana-ratna-nibaddha-mula-vitapa…. It says – Oh Kalpavrksa trees of Vrndavan,” the six Gosvamis are praying when they were sleeping…
Everyone’s heard that they under a different tree every night. So why is that? Because they went to different lila sthalis. There are thousands of lila sthalis and there are all these sacred trees growing there. Kadamba tree, Tamala tree etc…And they would, these roots, the mula, the roots of these trees which are growing in the land of Vrndavan. In the roots of these trees, these trees were clutching onto gems, nana ratna means various different kinds of gems, jewels.
What types of jewels are these? These are called cintamani, cintamani gems
cintāmani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksāvitesu surabhīr abhipālayantam
laksmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam
govindam ādi-purusam tam aham bhajāmi
These trees are all clutching or holding onto these cintamani gems. So these six Gosvamis were saying, “Oh! Kalpavrksa, you are a Kalpavrksa, you can fulfill all desires and you yourself are holding onto the cintamani gems of Vrndavan – Cintamani bhumi, Cintamani dhama, Vrndavan. So please fulfill my desire because this is the real, priceless, valuable jewel that I am looking for, I am looking for these jewels, I am looking for these jewels at your roots, I am looking for these jewels of Radha & Krsna’s prema vilasa. I want to know what prema vilasa, what lilas, lila vilasa they had under your branches, in this sthali, in this place, please reveal to me. Was rasa dance held here? Was this the sight of Ban bihar? Was this the site of suka sari samwad? Where the parrots would have discussions about Radha and Krsna? Is this the place where Krsna braided Radharani’s hair? Is this a place where Radharani showed mana to Krsna? And ran away and Krsna caught the edge of Her saree when She running? What happened here, please reveal to me?”
So as they moved around Braja, and they prayed to these different trees, and the trees would speak to them in spurti. They would have spurti or vision while sleeping or even awake, while chanting japa.
Then they would write down in their note books, in this place, this is Ter Kadamba, Rupa Gosvami was in Ter Kadamba doing bhajana and he saw so many variegated pastimes of Radha & Krsna there, in spurti and vispurti, by the mercy of Kalpavrksa trees in cintamani bhumi Braja, and then he revealed all these things.
Because this was the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave four orders to Rupa and Sanatana. He said, “Oh Rupa and Sanatana you to go to Vrndavan and you do four things. You establish the worship of the murtis of the Deities of Radha & Krsna, and you write Bhakti Sastra lekhana, you write sastras to describe the practice of devotional service, and you excavate the hidden places, its called lupta prakasa, lupta lila sthali prakasa or something like that, you unveil or you reveal the lupta, the hidden places of Radha Krsna’s pastimes in Braja.”
Because they are hidden by time, time neglect, overgrowth, Mughal invaders etc. so many environmental factors, social or environmental factors and the time factor obviously. They cause the holy places to become covered, hidden.
So Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He… they discovered so many places but there is one place they could not discover, the combined efforts, the combined efforts of Lokanatha and Bhugarva Gosvami and Rupa & Sanantana, all four together, there is one place they could not find, despite their hardest endeavor, and they were looking for it very sincerely. What was that place?
Radha Kunda! They could not discover Radha Kunda. It was elusive. It was eluding them. They were not able to discover or find Radha Kunda. Caitanya Mahaprabhu – Radha & Krsna Yugala, Rasaraja Mahabhava Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally came to Radha Kunda and He personally discovered this place.
So we are all eternally indebted to Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu for revealing this topmost place of Radha & Krsna’s lila vilasa. So here when Caitanya Mahaprabhu came for His one and only Braja Yatra, as Srila Prabhupada came for Braja Yatra in 1971, I believe and later in 72 he came for Kartika vrata.
Srila Prabhupada observed one Kartika vrata in Vrndavan. He observed this Kartik vrata in Vrndavan in 1972 in seva kunja. Quite an appropriate place, where did he observe it? Well the worshippable Deities for Kartik as you know are Radha-Damodara and these are the original Deities. They consider, the arcaryas say that the original Deities never leave Braja.
Siddha mahatma Chandrasekhar dasa baba, he was one of the great mahanta’s of Braja-bhumi and so many others. They say whatever Deities left Braja, they are the expansion Deities. Because all the scriptures say that Krsna never takes out a step out of Braja.
So Who is that in Jaipur? Who is that in Karoli? Who is that in outside of Jaipur – Radha Madhava, I don’t know what it is called Kankal or…Kanak, place called Kanak Vrndavan, about 10 kms outside of Jaipur, they claim that’s the original Diety of Jaidev Gosvami, the old beautiful Diety of Radha Madhava.
Did you see? You went there with me? No. So we had many yatras over there, Jaipur, I cant remember who went over the years.. So the rasika mahatmas of Braja, they say that Krsna never leaves Vrndavan, so Who is that that left? Who went to Mathura? That’s Vasudeva Krsna, of course that’s told quite explicitly in the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagvatam, Akrura Ghata.
At Akrura Ghat, Ananta Sesa and Vasudeva Krsna, They manifested there, They sat on the chariot and went off to Mathura, and Krsna and Balarama got off and went back to Vrndavan. Because they can’t leave, it is impossible! How can you leave someone that loves you? If someone really loves you and you really love them then love is inseparable. When there is love, there is no question of separation. If there is not love then anything is possible, murder, death, extortion, cheating, all kinds of things. Where there is true love, true love, spiritual love, visuddha prema, there is no question of separation, impossible.
So Who left was the expansion Deities, the Govindaji. Of course then Jaipur will say, this is the original, Rupa Gosvami’s original Deity, original Deity of Radha Damodar etc. etc. but that is there bhava, but the siddhanta is something different, so the original Deities are even still here. So when Lord Caitanya came to Mathura then He met his one brahmana. So we will discuss this story – Lord Caitanya takes Prasad from the sanodiaya bramhin in Mathura.
Madhya Lila chapter 17 verse 156 through 189
mathura asiya kaila ‘visranti-tirthe’ snana
‘janma-sthane’ ‘kesava’ dekhi’ karila pranama
SP: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered the city of Mathura, He took His bath at Visrama-ghata. He then visited the birthplace of Krsna and saw the Deity named Kesavaji. He offered His respectful obeisances to this Deity.
MS: following this is called Sadhu vartana vartante. What we just read is the fourth limb of bhakti – To follow in the footsteps of predecessor acaryas.
So when the sastras that describe Braja yatra, there are sastras that describe how to perform Braja yatra and specifically how to perform caurasi kosa parikrama, how to tour the twelve forests of Vrndavan or the 84 courses or the 168 square miles, 84 (caurasi) means 84 kosa, caurasi kosa means 168 square miles, the Braja mandala parikrama – 84 times 2 – 168 square miles. So, there is one, the most recent scripture that’s extent, its called Brajabhakti Vilasa.
Brajabhakti Vilasa is written by Narayana Bhatta Gosvami. Narayana Bhatta Gosvami actually took diksa from Gopal Bhatta Gosvami, but later he defected or whatever. He went to the nimbarka sampradaya. He is a great brahmana, a great scholar, he established the rasa lila performances and rasa mandalas all over Braja mandala to be preserve the ancient culture of young celibate, rather not celibate but, what do you say, like kanya, like boys before they reach puberty, whatever that’s called…to preserve the tradition of adolescent boys of Brahmin youth in performing the rasa lila. They dress up like gopis and Krsna and Radha and sing all Braja bhasa, songs and enact the rasa lila and many other types of lilas, Jhulan etc… Holi on different mandalas, rasa mandalas.
They were established all over Braja in different villages about 420 years ago to preserve this memory of all these wonderful, eternal pastimes of Radha and Krsna. So people would gather around the rasa mandala and they would sit around the ground, there is one right here in Govindaji temple when we go to Govindaji, there is raised circular platform, that’s where they would hold the rasa lila and then there is some asana there, that is the simhasana for Radha and Krsna to sit on to be worshipped and the Yugala Aratika, or what’s called yogapitha puja before the rasa mandala, rasa begins, the mandali means the dance troupe.
The mandali, those who perform on the mandala are called the mandali. Sometimes they say, Akhanda Kirtana mandali, I think our Aindra baba calls his kirtana group – Akhanda Kirtana mandali or something, isn’t it…Krsna Balaram…so this comes from this tradition… rasa lila mandali.
So now there are a bunch of Govardhana silas seating on there, on that simhasana there. So in Braja Bhakti Vilasa, in addition to revitalizing this Braja culture and instituting this performance of rasa lila all over Braja which is still going on in a big way in Vrndavan and also in Barsana and other places. Here may be, occasionally it goes on here in Radha Kunda. I saw one here on back street sometime on a stage, its dying out, it’s been replaced by cable TV and discos. On Cable TV shows and discos, discotheques, every place is rasa mandalas. Kali yuga…
But Vrndavan, during Sravana mahina, Sravana masa, sometimes Kartika but very much during Sravana mahina and so many pilgrims come, it’s the biggest month, all the yatris… there are at least ten different rasa lilas going on every night, in different locations, its that popular, and specifically people come from all over India to see them.
Some professors have done studies and papers on Braja mandala, statistics etc …they say in this month so many yatris come, pilgrims, and in this month so many… this was a paper I read in 1980, long ago. But in Sravana masa 5,00,000 people come, yatris, during that month to visit the temples because it is in between harvest time, mostly farmers and villagers, its rainy season, so there is no harvesting, there is no planting, there is no harvesting crops, so there its free time, vacation time…so what to do, go on a pilgrimage…Go to Haridwar, go to Badrinath, go to Vrndavan, wherever you can go…Badrinath or whatever, Venkateswar..so 5,00,000 people come in Sravana masa.
And then Holi time which is March, Holi Purnima, Gaura Purnima, that’s the 2nd biggest month and that would be about 2,50,000. 5,00,000 in Sravana, 2,50,000…and there are other months like January 20,000 and Kartika was 80,000. Kartika was not very big actually.
So there is a break down like that then May and June 10,000…not too many…The point is the biggest month, the biggest for the pilgrims and yatris to come to Vrndavan is Sravana masa which is, what is that, that’s like – July, August or something like that, then there is Bhadra, Krsna’s birthday, so even though Krsna’s birthday, of course sometimes they stay over, but Sravana, Sravana masa, July and august, very nice weather, rainy season, then they again come in spring, spring time is Basanta.
Actually, traditionally, Holi lila goes from Basanta Pancami, from Basanta Pancami, which is actually quite cold isn’t it? Beginning of February or something….from Basanta Pancami to Holi Purnima, Gaura Purnima, 40 days. In the original Braja culture, Holi lila was celebrated everyday for 40 days.
When Radha and Krsna were here and They are playing Holi here and there and everywhere, playing Holi in the night time, playing Holi in a daytime, 40 days Basanta Pancami, if you count the days from Basanta Pancami to Gaura Purnima it is 40 days.
Now people say, “Oh my god, 5 days I am doing crazy stuff, Stop! One day is too much, 40 days!”
And even to this day in Braja Mandala, on Basanta Pancami they begin, Holi begins, in different villages… they start throwing… so there is no guarantee, when you are moving around Braja mandala from Basanta Pancami to Gaura Purnima and even a few days after you may get darts with some color here and there…and Kamyavan or Barsana or Nandagaon..Uncagaon…
“Hey what is this, Holi is so far away!”
No! It’s forty days and they are very keen to let you know about it. So it’s a forty days in the desert or something…watch out! Don’t come to Vrndavan, unless you want to get sprinkled. So it seem it will be difficult to get this story up, story off the ground here!
So what I was saying here is, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered the city of Mathura, He took His bath in Visram Ghat. He then visited the birth place of Krsna and saw the Deity named Kesavaji. He offered His respectful obeisances to the Deity.
So what I was starting to say is that, as Lord Caitanya was following scriptures like Haribhakti Vilasa which is written afterwards, but in the scriptures it tells, how to go on a Braja Yatra.
There is a system its called yatra krama, the system of how to perform a yatra. The first thing when you come to Braja Mandala, very first place you are supposed to go is where? Yamuna, Visrama Ghat where Krsna rested, visrama means rested, He rested after killing Kamsa. He came there, washed His hands in the Yamuna, He washed His hands off everything.
He washed His hands of all the blood then He rested under the Banyan tree on the banks of Yamuna. First you are supposed to go to a Visrama Ghata and if you are really fired, a man will shave his head there. Because the first day when you go to a holy place, you are supposed to shave your head, shave your head and fast and second day you take all darsana and you give daksina and the third day is brahmin seva and then you leave…you don’t stay more than 3 days in a Holy place.
So Lord Caitanya was already shaved up so He didn’t have to worry about that. He came here as a sannyasi. So if you see in Bhakti Ratnakara, other books depicting…Narottama Vilasa, Prema Vilasa…so many books describe the Life and teachings… the Gaura Parisada Caitavali, Vaisnava Abhidana, many, many books describing the life, the character, the biographies of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. How they come to Vrndavan… How Rupa Gosvami came to Vrndavan, how Sanatana Gosvami, how Jahnaha mata entered Vrndavan, how Nityananda entered Vrndavan, how Advaita Acarya entered Vrndavan, how Madhavendra Puri entered Vrndavan, They all came to Vrndavan, how Vallabhacarya entered Vrndavan, And how did they entered Vrndavan? They just fly…they just fly in to Delhi, hopped into the AC Sumo and come to the MVT for a pizza…straight away…First thing to do is…hey driver take me to the MVT fata fat…as fast as you can, it closes at 3, I had to get there on time for a pizza and an ice-cream… brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.. brrrrrr rrrrrrrrrr…run up the stairs…hey, give me a full pizza, extra cheese.
Personally I have never even seen the place, I don’t even know…I know somewhere there is a restaurant, I have been in a few rooms to visit the devotees. There is some restaurant in the MVT, I have never even seen that, I don’t know. If someone asks me to take them, I don’t even know where to take them.
It’s a well known hot spot or they say holy spot. It fills the hole in your stomach, so it’s a holy spot. You have a hole in your stomach and you go there, and it fills the hole in your stomach, so it’s a ‘holy’ spot!
I give you a spot of food to fill the hole in your stomach, so it’s a holy spot.. that’s the meaning of the holy spot.. I give you a spot of food to fill the hole in your stomach so therefore it is a holy spot. Very interesting definition.
Yes, yes I am visiting all the holy spots…Hari Om dhaba, MVT, Govinda’s restaurant…
So this isn’t the way it was done…entrance to Vrndavan was done like this – when Srila Prabhupada, lets look at our own guru maharaja. When Srila Prabhupada came to Vrndavan, of course fortunately or unfortunately, there was no MVT.
So when Srila Prabhupada came to Vrndavan where did he go? He first came to Mathura. And where did he..he went to Visrama ghata and took bath, then from Visrama ghata he went to Janmasthan, to the birth place of Lord Krsna and honored the birth place, the Janmasathana and then he took darsana of Kesavaji Who is the Lord of eastern petal. Kesavaji was installed by Krsna’s great-grandson, Vajranabha, this is the 5000 year old Deity, of course original Deity is purported to have been stolen or removed or somewhere in the area of Kanpur or something like that.
Or this is the replacement Deity, there are different ways to look at it, original one is here and that’s the expansion…
Anyway, Kesavaji is the Lord, is one of the original five or seven installed by Vajranabha 5000 years ago, He is the Lord of the eastern petal, Purva digiswara. Lord of the eastern petal of the lotus of Braja guarding the entranceway – Lord Kesavaji.
All the sastras say, this is the prescribed; this is the right way to enter Braja mandala. So everybody did it that way. Bhagavan did it that way, the devotees of Bhagavan did it that way, the acaryas have done it that way, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, when he first entered Vrndavan, he came by train from Calcutta to Mathura, train or he walked I don’t know. There was train, may be he came by train, can’t remember, but he did come firstly to Mathura, went to Visrama ghata, bathed in the Yamuna, went to Kesavaji.
So Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu is doing the same thing. We tell our students when they want to receive Harinama, I say…because it is very purifying…very, very purifying. In the scriptures, Padma Purana and others, they say how purifying it is to take bath at Visrama ghata. To take a bath in Yamuna at Visrama Ghata is more sukrti, more purifying than taking a thousand baths in Kumbha mela or something like that.
Very, very powerful place..very, very powerful holy tirtha – Visrama ghata in Mathura. To live in a Triveni in Allahabad for a thousand years and take all the holy baths on Amavasya, Purnima, Sankranti etc…you get the same benefit of taking one bath at Visrama ghata…it’s really big…lots of sukrti and punya are accumulated there, so there are so many brahmins there, it’s a very ancient tirtha, so there so many brahmins there and barbers. B&B – Brahmins and Barbers, to shave you up and to clean you out, so to speak. Clean out your pocket book, shave up your hair and shave out your wallet.
So, you shave you head there and take bath, then you do puja of Yamuna and do brahmin dana and than you begin your yatra. So I have my students go there and bath in Visrama ghata, shave their head, do Yamuna puja and brahmin dana, take darsana of Kesavaji and the come here for mantra to enhance their eligibility, to enhance their purity, to receive the sacred function of diksa.
So Lord Caitanya is doing the same thing..
Text 157
premanande nace, gaya, saghana hunkara
prabhura premavesa dekhi’ loke camatkara
SP: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted, danced and made loud
vibrations, all the people were astonished to see His ecstatic love.
MS: When Mahaprabhu chanted, danced and made loud vibrations, all the Mathurawasis were astonished to see His ecstatic love, premanande nace. Absorbed, full of bliss and prema, He was dancing full of blissful love, singing full of blissful love… saghana hunkara… repeatedly… saghana hunkara …repeatedly over and over, loudly exclaiming Hari Bol! Hari Bol!
prabhura premavesa dekhi’ loke camatkara… When all the people saw the avesa, avesa means absorption… Mahaprabhu’s absorption of ecstatic love, they became camatkara, they became amazed, overwhelmed…
Who is this person? What do we…What sound vibration are we hearing? What is happening to us, we feel so much compelled to look at Him, we feel so much attracted to Him, We can’t leave…whatever business we had at hand, we forgotten about it, we dropped everything we were doing, we are simply transfixed here, we are riveted to this position, we can’t move an inch. We can’t move our ears, we can’t move our eyes, we can’t move our feet!
Moreover, we do don’t want to go, we don’t feel to go, we don’t desire to go, we just want to stay here forever, we want to stay here forever and gaze upon the moonlike face of Gaurangasundara, and want to stay here forever and listen to His sweet madhura-vaca, His sweet singing, His hunkara, His roaring and observe the tears shooting from His eyes!
Such an amazing feat, we have never seen it in lifetimes and lifetimes of being born in Mathura, we have never seen such an amazing sight …dekhi’ loke camatkara …so amazing, so astounding, overwhelming, attractive and captivating!
“Have you ever seen this person before?”
“No…where does He come from?”
“I don’t know He must be from outer space! Must be from another planet! UFO – unidentified flying object”
Text 158
eka-vipra pade prabhura carana dhariya
prabhu-sange nrtya kare premavista hana
SP: One brahmana fell at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and then began to dance with Him in ecstatic love.
MS: One brahmana fell at the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu and then began to dance with Mahaprabhu in ecstatic love …eka-vipra pade prabhura carana dhariya
It is interesting because in the translation its saying one brahmana fell at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and the Sanskrit says carana dhariya and Prabhupada’s own translation..dhariya means…Muralidhara, to hold the Murali, Dhanudhara – to hold the bow, it says carana dhariya.. it says carana dhariya prabhu-sange nrtya kare premavista hana..
Carana dhariya… it says he fell at the lotus feet..Hari bol…and dhariya means he was holding. One brahmana, when he was seeing, Lord Caitanya absorbed in His loving mood and dancing in Mathura at Visrama Ghata, then he actually, he fell at His feet and he dhariya..carana dhariya…he caught on to His, Lord Caitanya’s feet, he clutched His feet, he held onto His feet, because he can understand that it is camtkara dekhi..
What I am seeing is most astounding, most amazing…This person is dancing, nace and gaya singing, premananda, He is absorbed in the bliss of prema.
Who is this golden figure? He became overwhelmed…camatkara..so he had an immediate response, he immediately submitted himself…no submission no admission, no admission no permission.
So he submitted himself at Lord Caitanya’s feet, prani patena… prani patena means to lie like a stick, he laid his whole body at the feet of Lord Caitanya. Then he, carana dhariya, he held onto Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet, and by that contact he became transformed.
It says here premavista hana. Avista means avastha chitta, avastha chitta means absorbed in deep consciousness, like stunned… So premavista means he became absorbed, he became enveloped by the prema of Lord Caitanya…it was like contact high! He was holding onto His feet, and by holding onto His feet, first submission, then he submitted, he held onto His feet, krpa karo krpa karo…give me mercy!
And the Lord accepted him. He didn’t kick him away, He didn’t step on him – give him a karate kick!!! Thooo…What are you doing! Get out from here you fool…
No He accepted him and He blessed him. He gave His full blessing, asirwada and all the prema flowing, flowing from Lord Caitanya’s feet like a Ganga river of mercy. Ganga river of mercy is flowing from His feet, then that man who had submitted himself in a humble way at the feet of the Lord holding onto to the feet, he received prema through his hands, premavista.
And he began, it says – being absorbed in love he began to dance along with Lord Caitanya. How fortunate! At first he was dekhi camatkara, he was one of the astounded onlookers, one of the mesmerized spectators in Mathura when Lord Caitanya arrived on His first day in Vrndavan. He went to Visrama Ghata, took bath in Yamuna, then we went for darsana…Kesavaji and He started dancing.
Following the sequence of this situation, it says, first He went to Visrama Ghata and He bathed, then He went to the Janmasthana and took darsana of Kesavaji’s Deity. Now after that He is dancing.
So one would assume, that He is in the temple, He is having darsana of Kesavaji in terms of the flow of the verses, because this is the general pattern…wherever Lord Caitanya toured, He went into the temple, He saw the Deity, He felt ecstatic to see the puja or Deity or whatever and He would start dancing then and there..
Not that He would go out on the street and dance or whatever. So He is in the Janmasthana mandira in Mathura and he is taking darsana of Kesavaji, Krsna and this is the Krsna that He is searching for, this is the Krsna that He is been chanting the name of, all over India.
Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Hey Krsna Kesava Krsna Kesava Krsna Kesava Pahimana..
So this is Kesava, this is Kesavaji and all over India
“Kesava Kesava Kesava Kesava… Kesava Kahan…? Kesava Kahan…? Kesava Kotai…?”
“Where are You Kesava?”, Radharani crying in separation, vipralamba bhava, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna in Radha bhava, Radha’s kanti and bhava.
So now, coming to Mathura, I have been looking for Kesava, and here is Kesava! Kesava is standing before Me. Who is that Kesava? Kesava is that Bhagavan Sri Krsna in Vrndavan Who is dressing Radharani’s hair – At Sringara vata and Kusum Sarovara and so many places in Vrndavan…
Krsna breaks Radharani’s mana, he mollifies or pacifies her anger or contrary mood by offering some flowers at Her feet, crying at Her feet, offering His turban, sometimes His vamsi, sometimes He sits behind Her and very gently takes Her hair and touches Her hair and sees that She responds. If She doesn’t respond then He touches a little more and She says, “Huuh!”
Then He says, “Ooh, She is in a very hot mood!”
But if She is little submissive, then He starts brushing Her hair very gently and very slowly…brushing Her hair or may be it is loose. Her braid may be undone due to anger or disturbed mind.
So then He starts brushing Her hair and separating and braiding it and putting some Bakul flowers in it, maybe He made some garland of Jasmine flowers, He weaves it in Her braid, so in this way He renders service. So, that form of the Lord who is very expert in serving Radharani, very expert in dressing and combing and brushing Her hair, He is known as Kesava. Kesa means hair.
So now this Radharani in Radha bhava – Radharani has found Her Kesava. She is been searching all over India, “Where is My Kesava?” I am looking – now I took bath in Visrama Ghata, now I have come in the temple and seeing Janmasthana… Oh! Here is My Kesava, He is so expert and He did so much service to Me, I remember, I have remembrance of so many intimate pastimes.
So naturally Lord Caitanya enters into a deep mood, lila pravesa, He enters deeply into the mood of smarana, into lila – asta kaliya lila, and Radhrani starts remembering so many intimate and confidential and sweet loving pastimes She shared with Krsna in Vrndavan upon seeing that Deity acting as the udipana, or stimulant or excitant of Her permanent, loving mood towards the Lord in madhura rati, parakiya bhava.
So She starts dancing in ecstasy, premanada. premanande nace, gaya, saghana hunkara, saghana hunkara means – every so often, screaming or yelling, “Ha! Ha! Ha! Kesava! Ha!” ecstatic mood…
prabhura premavesa dekhi’, Seeing that Lord Caitanya was so much absorbed in prema, all the loke, loke camatkara, all the people, all the bystanders, all the spectators became amazed, camatkara.
But one of them, one very fortunate one, not all of them, only one, it says eke, eka-vipra pade prabhura carana dhariya
MS: One smart man. He is vipra, vipra means he is supposed to be smart, he knows Jyotirveda, Ayurveda. Vipra, yagna, homa, puja….
So he is really smart, he is really vidyavanaya sampanna, he really has vidya. Because he recognizes – this is not only something to see, camatkara dekhi, but this is an amazing sight.
Look everybody! Look at this…if you see something amazing everyone gathers around. We were walking on parikrama one day in the morning, of Radha Kunda, we saw, everyone looking, everyone standing by the subji market and leaning over…and they are all a big group of 100-200 people, all looking over like this, looking down at Radha Kunda.
Naturally you would think – What are they looking at, you become curious. This is human nature. Curiosity killed the cat. So then you think if you are really absorbed in your bhajana, “Oh, what do I care… my bhajana”.
If you are not very absorbed, and you are more absorbed in buying subji then that’s not a very deep absorption. You are going there to buy subji, not just doing lila smarana and parikrama or whatever. So then you already have spaced out thinking of subji, so then you say, “Alright, what are they looking at!”
So you also lean over and you become 101st person to lean over – because a 100 people plus you. Then you lean over to see a dead body and then you say, “Who is that and what happened?”
“Oh he jumped and committed suicide, these were his belongings on the side and he left a note and said he wanted to attain Radharani by committing suicide in Radha Kunda. That’s what’s going on.”
“Oh accha theek hai …ok now back to the subji.”
So you see a curious sight, dekhe camatkara, loke dekhi camatkara. Everyone is looking, “Oh ok very amazing sight” and you go back to your business, go buy subji or whatever.
But eka vipra, he is smart, he said, “Hey I don’t want to miss this opportunity, I don’t want to lose this, this person is veryy extraordinary, there is something special going on here, I can feel it, I can see it, I can perceive it. My response to this whole experience is, I want to be a part of it, I don’t want to be a spectator, I don’t want to be an outsider, I want to enter deeply.”
Like sometimes people see the Harinama party, we were chanting Harinama in the West, we would stay across the street like 100 yards away and…
“Hey what are they doing over there,” they used to talk to each other, “hey what’s that,”
They would start pointing,”Hey look at that…Hare Krsna…”
Then somebody says, “I don’t want to look like this” and may be even… whatever… find fault…”I want to take part.”
So then he comes little closer, then he…then some people come right in, right in the center and they start dancing with the devotees…aaah haaan thaa thaa thaa…and they chant, and they see the drum, “Let me okay that thing! May be some good guy takes the drum or something like that.
I had that experience, once we were in Puri with Dhruva Maharaj and his wife and it was Nityananda Trayodasi. We were staying there for some months in Puri and they were staying in one place, so we thought – we got together and said we should do some kinds of function or worship Lord Nityananda, because we are children of His mercy – mercy child. So we said alright, we made our little program on the beach, so we put our money together and our heads together and we made a pandala, it was only three of us. So we made a little pandala, we rented from the pandala shop – small like, what you call…a canopy…canopy, 20 feet by 10 or so, then we got red and blue thing, like rug type thing you put on the…catai or whatever, on the beach. We didn’t have any mrdanga, but in that place he was saying he had some tablas…so they had some tablas, I had my kartalas and I think his wife harmonium or something, I cant remember, but for sure we had these tablas and we had kartalas, and then his went and bought abound 1000 pieces of Jagannatha Mahaprasadam, so we kept in some baskets…
So our idea was… because we don’t know Oddiyan language, so our idea was to have Harinama, just chant ‘Hare Krsna’ and to distribute prasadam, to glorify Nityananda, chant the Holy Name in Jagannatha Puri. We made this pandala in this large area to sit because we thought people could sit under the…, because it was quite sunny at that time. They could sit under the pandala and chant with us. There are many European tourists there. There were many young ladies and gents moving around the beach here and there, especially where we were there because it was Catikara, Catikara road side. Travelers lodge and Zee hotel and all these places where all the hippies stay because all these places have ratings in Lonely Guide, so they all stay over there.
I think, may be, Dhruva was playing the tablas or me or something…we don’t know anything about the tablas so…dumm chicka boom boom… like that (laughs) and it wasn’t very…so we were playing and some people would sit down and chant Hare Krsna. Then three or four fishermen came, they were black as tar in color, they we really dark in color, and all skinny wearing gumca and they were chanting very enthusiastic – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna.
So one of them said, very humbly, “Could I try the tablas, little bit?” then we said “Ya”…so it turned out, this guy was like black belt in tabla playing or whatever…virtuoso in tabla playing, like he taught Ali Ustad Khan, or whoever the famous tabla players are, looks like he was the teacher…
Dhaa, thoom, tha thoom tha thoom! He was too much good, he was really good, and then maybe his wife was playing harmonium, I don’t remember. Then all of a sudden the kirtana went from a total sleeper, what we call ‘sleeper kirtana’, to an ecstatic kirtana. Really good sounding at least…
Oh ya, we rented some microphone and amplifier, I forgot. It was like a big, little program by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy…So then people started gathering around, “Hey something is happening here,” it’s not a ‘sleeper kirtana’ after all!
So then people started seating down, some Europeans came up, because this guy was good, mostly everyone was looking at him, because he was too good you know. He had his eyes closed the whole time, he was relishing, you know. And people relished seeing how he was into it, then after about an hour he stopped…because he was only speaking Odiyan, “I have to go, my patni this that..lunch” and…then we opened up the Jagannatha mahaprasadam and we said, “No, no, take some mahaprasadam and keep playing.” So we gave him some mahaprasadam.
He said “ok ok dus minute aur”
“Adha ghanta aur” “half hour more”
We said, “Ok, ok…dha dha dha Hare Krsna Hare Krsna.”
So then after half hour he said, “I have to go,”
So we said, “Take some more..ha ha” (laughs)
So we kept giving him Jagannatha mahaprasadam and he stayed from about 12 o’clock in the afternoon till sunset! (laughs)
He just kept going and going and going…So he really got into it and so many people heard the holy name and so many people, literally thousands of people probably, got the Jagannatha’s mahaprasadam.
So it is an unforgettable, Nityananda Trayodasi at Jagannatha Puri.
So this person, I am just saying, this person joined in with us. Like sometimes people join in with us in the Harinama. They don’t just look, so this person was looking and seating and then he joined in and became the key member of whole sankirtana party.
So in the same way eka vipra pade…there are so many hundreds of people, whenever there is something happening in India as you know hundreds of people gather. If anything happens, if someone digs a hole! Someone just goes out in the middle of the street and digs a hole then at least three hundred people watch…”Hey look somebody is doing something!”
Because basically nobody really does anything in India, they just live and let live and few people scurry around the city trying to make some money but the other 999 million and 99 thousand, they just have nothing to do.
Somebody goes out in the street and starts chopping the asphalt and digging a hole, “Ooh! Check! Hey!” 500 people…”Hey look hey look he is digging a hole!”
You know everything stops, half of India stops to look at it..
So now all these people are watching Lord Caitanya dance in Kesavaji mandira in Mathura, and He is into it, He is dancing, you can imagine a seven foot figure, 7 feet tall and huge, long arms and auspicious… ajanu lambita… there is one bhajana…ajanu lambita means long arms, very auspicious arms, beautiful features, dancing absorbed in the love of God.
And genuine, not some imitation, not making some show, He is just in His own internal, it is His prema vesa, prema vesa means internally absorbed in your own love. It’s not like some exhibition; He is not an exhibitionist going down to the Central Park and playing His guitar and congo drums to get the crowd around..dhaa dhaa dhaa dhaa…you know it’s not like some exhibition, trying to get a crowd…crowd pleaser..raise a few quarters or dollars thrown in your guitar box, it’s not like that.
You are there or you are not there! I am there!
You are here or you are not here! But I am there!
And Lord Caitanya – Kesava is here, I am here, He is My beloved priyatama, I am His beloved Priyaji, I am dancing for Him, for Kesava. If anyone sees or no one sees, it doesn’t matter, because He is sees, He is for Me, and I am for Him, and this dance is for His pleasure, this is the mood – premananda. hunkara…
“Aaah Kesava Kesava..Aah!”
So one person thought – this is a golden opportunity, there is something special, this is one of those rare events like 9/11 in New York, it’s a rare event, it doesn’t happen twice in a century, Thank God. But this is a rare event, Lord Caitanya came only for sixty days.
In His whole life He spent sixty days in Braja mandala. So then this person was smart, he fell at His feet. He got the mercy, by surrendering, he got the mercy. By going close to the sankirtana movement you get the mercy, by submitting to the sankirtana movement, you get the mercy. This is what is going on. Well this sankirtana is with san – kirtana, many people together or ek kirtana, Lord Caitanya is the Pancatattva, He is all the demigods, He is also the sarva avataris.
If Lord Caitanya is alone doing the sankirtana, singing in kirtana, there is also sam-kirtana, samyak kirtana – chanting with many, because He is sarva avatari. So all the avataras of Bhagavan are engaged in that kirtana. All the expansions of Bhagavan are there, because He is every…, all the forms of Godhead are there, sarva amsi, sarva avatari.
So He looks like one person, solo kirtana, but actually everyone is there, everything is there. So this person, he submitted himself to the sankirtana movement, he contacted, he touched the feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he got the mercy by submission. He attracted, sankarsana, principle of attraction, he was attracted, he was non-offensive, he was attracted looking at the Lord, listening to the kirtana, he was non-offensive, non-envious, then he submitted at the feet of the Lord in a most humble way, lying at the dust of the feet of the Lord.
He held onto the Lord, begged for mercy and contacted Him, touched Him, then the Lord blessed him. So all these elements of his approach, all these elements were the constituents of his approach to the Lord, are the same elements are constituents which any conditioned soul must have in order to attain perfection in spiritual life. There must be some principle of attraction operating. He must be attracted to what he is pursuing or what he sees, he sees something…
It says dekhi loke camatkara… the loke, the people they were seeing, dekhi and there was camatkara, they were amazed, they were attracted.
Some people are attracted but they become offensive – “Oh look the Hare Krsnas, aah… stupid guys, they shave their heads, they look like jerks… this that….why don’t they get a job, these beggars, hey go back to India.”
I remember.. I could not figure out their logic, I am not exactly Indian looking, but when on kirtana and sankirtana in 1974 & 1975 in San Francisco, people would come and say – “What are you doing here in America, go back to India where you belong.” I said, “Really!” This guy is so crazy…
“What are you doing here, you don’t belong here, you are not one of us.” Of course everything he said is true –
“You don’t belong here”… I agree
“You are not one of us” …I agree
“Go back to where you belong” …I am trying!
It is not so easy to go back to where you belong, where you belong is the lotus feet of Krsna in His eternal service in love and bliss in Goloka, I wish! I was praying, I said, “Yes! Please bless me that all these things come true.”
“Go back to India!” I must have heard that if not once, may be a thousand times, “Go back to India, go back to where you belong, get out of here! We don’t like your kind, we don’t want you here, go back to India.”
I didn’t have any idea to argue – I am one of you, see I am born here, see I also have a passport, I am also American, rather I accepted everything. Yes, I would love to go to India! Can you give me some money for the ticket, I am busted, besides, temple commander won’t let me go!
I am the number one sankirtana man, I can’t go, I am bound, give me opportunity and I will be out of here any second. I am not staying here because I want to be here. I tried in 1981, I remember in 1981 I could not stay, circumstance brought me back, came in 1987 again…”Go back to India!” I guess their blessings came true!
“Go back to India where you belong!” Whoever you were, all you great souls, may you be blessed. I am back in India where I belong, and you are where you belong, you were in hell, where you belong. “Having a great time”, I’ll send them a post card, “having a great time, wish you were here, All the best, your cousin, your nephew.”
Text 159
dunhe preme nrtya kari’ kare kolakuli
hari krsna kaha dunhe bale bahu tuli’
SP: The two of them danced in ecstatic love and embraced each other. Raising their arms, they said, “Chant the holy names of Hari and Krsna!”
MS: Mahaprabhu and that brahmana, they danced together in ecstatic love, and then they embraced each other. Can you imagine!
Try to be there. Be there now, not here now. Be there now, just go down the road, fifteen kilometers down the road, five kilometers to Govardhana-Mathura road, then fifteen kilometers to Visrama Ghata, so 20 kilometers from here, from this very place, 23 kilometers, and you are there, you are there in Janmasthana, you are in Kesavaji mandira, there is a beautiful Kesavaji standing there, playing His flute in murti form, and Lord Caitanya is in the mandira dancing.
And then you are watching all these brahmanas standing around looking and one brahmana is dancing with the Lord… just like these… usual it’s drunkards or something… but they come and join the devotees and dance all around the streets when we are having kirtana. There is always some guy who comes and sometimes he will hold your hands and dance with you and you both dancing together, you must have had this experience over hundreds of times.
So you are dancing and he will take your hand or he’ll put his hand out and dance with you and everyone is clapping. He is life of the party, of course he is usually drunk. But this is eka vipra, usually brahmanas aren’t drunk, it is not permitted for them to be intoxicated…sucinama, supposed to be pure.
So here, this brahmana is dancing in the kirtana party, he is been accepted, submission, permission, admission. He has submitted, and he is been given permission to join the Lord’s sankirtana party, and he is been admitted. How deeply he has been admitted, how deeply his admission has become!
He has been admitted or attained admission deep into the heart of the Lord, premalingana. He is embracing heart-to-heart, chest-to-chest…premalingana. He is embracing him with love and dancing with Him, he is the lucky one. He lucked out because he was intelligent enough to see a golden opportunity and take advantage of it, they say – when opportunity knocks or something take advantage, something like that..
Don’t miss the opportunity or something, when opportunity comes…
So he is dancing in ecstatic love… preme nrtya kari’ kare kolakuli… kolakuli means embracing… dunhe bale bahu tuli, bahu tuli- raising the arms, bahu means arms, tuli means raising. And he was speaking raising their arms, just see.
The brahmana and Gauranga, they were dancing and embracing and dancing and then raising their arms and then they were saying,
“Chant the holy names of Hari and Krsna!”
“Chant the holy names of Hari and Krsna!”
“Hare Krsna Hare Krsna…!”
Everyone else was just like…This is camatkara…this loke dekhi camatkara. So one brahmana and one Lord – Lord Caitanya, they were right into it, they became one, they became one in love and one in communion, sankirtana, communion with the holy name. They were communing with Lord Kesava and the holy name and chanting in ecstasy and everybody is – “Look at that guy! He is dancing with the sannyasi! He is embracing him! Look at the ecstasy! They both are absorbed in prema!”
And Lord Caitanya sees these guys, their jaws hanging open –
“Hey do some seva here, snap out of it, hey! Come on – Hey bolo! Chant Hare Krsna…”
“Huh! Yes, yes, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna!”
They are all stunned! camatkara also means amazed, amazed to the point of being stunned, camatkara…what to do, what to say, where to go, which way to move. I am frozen, my feet are frozen, immobilized, I can’t move, I can’t turn, I can’t speak, I can’t think, what’s going on. I am flabbergasted, amazed, astounded, astonished. So Lord Caitanya is saying,
“Hey!!”
“Oh ya…Hare Krsna…”
“Chant Hari and Krsna!”
You heard these names… no? Hare Krsna Hare Krsna…this is really interesting…then they say – ooh! Ya! Hare Krsna Hare Krsna…
Text 160
loka ‘hari’ ‘hari’ bale, kolahala haila
‘kesava’-sevaka prabhuke mala paraila
SP: All the people then began to chant, “Hari! Hari!” and there was a great uproar. The priest in Lord Kesava’s service offered Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu a garland.
MS: kolahala haila… there was a great uproar… ‘hari’ ‘hari’ bale… loka… all the people, all the bystanders, all the spectators who were watching the spectacle, this spectacle of prema between the vipra, this Mathura brahmana who is the most fortunate person in all of Mathura mandala.
He is there at the greeting party, he is one of the lucky ones to welcome Lord Caitanya to Mathura, because the first place He went to is the Visrama Ghat took a bath, next place He went is ten minute walk down the road to Janmasthana for darsana of Keshava, this is the prescribed method of entering Braja.
Then this brahmana is also in the temple taking darsana. Many people often gather together in a temple to have Lord’s darsana, sringara darsana, and he is such a lucky one, he is there in the welcoming party. Doesn’t know how fortunate he is!
All the people began to chant the holy name, there was a great uproar. All the people began to chant “Hari! Hari!” and there was a great uproar. The priest, the sevaka, the Kesava sevaka, the pujari of the Kesava murti, engaged in serving the Lord, the sevaka – he offered Caitanya Mahaprabhu a mahaprasadam garland from Kesava.
This is just like the rasa dance, when Radharani is dancing in the rasa dance at the rasa sthali in maha-rasa. She is dancing so expertly, so adroitly, so perfectly, beautifully; fluidity and movement, Krsna is playing His flute and Radharani is dancing and sometimes Radharani is playing the veena and Krsna is dancing. Sometimes They are both playing together and sakhis are dancing around them.
There is tandava nrtya and there is hali salakya and cakra brahmana dancing, there is hali salakya, lasya dancing, there is tandava nrtya, there is ladies dance, then there is couple’s dance, and there is man’s dance. All different kinds of rasa dances are there, described in the Govinda Lilamrta, Krsna Bhavanamrta.
So when Radhrani is dancing so expertly and so beautifully and enchantingly, Krsna becomes very pleased and very happy. To show His gratitude, appreciation and love, then Krsna takes His gunja mala. Gunja mala is like some poison berries, some red and black berries, they are poisonous, you eat them, you die. They have no value, they are not jewels. Necklace of pearls, necklace of diamonds are very valuable, necklace of poison berries, you don’t get much mileage out of that.
Go to the market, go to the baniya, “Will you buy these poisonous berries, can I trade these poisonous berries with some wheat flour!” “Hey get out, throw that down, it’s a worthless thing.”
But Krsna says, “Oh! You picked these poisonous berries for Me and made a necklace, a mala! It’s not a moti mala, it’s not a heera mala, it’s not a neelam mala, it’s not a garland of blue sapphire gems, it’s not a garland of pearls, it’s not a garland of diamonds, it’s a garland of poison berries! Red berries with a little black spot. You offered these to Me with love, with purity of devotion, with the sympathy and softness of your heart.
I will immediately take it, without hesitation, I will drape it around My neck and wear it proudly, all day long I will wear it, and at night I will hang it on the side of My bed and the next day I will wear it again, because this is your love offering. This garland is not only your offering but it is you, it represents you.
This garland around My neck is not a garland of poison berries, it is a garland of loving kisses. Each one of these red berries is your red lips, and each one of these red berries, dried red berries that makes this gunja mala, I feel like I have so many kisses on My body, these are all kisses from your lips, your bimba fruit lips. So how can I ever take this mala off? This is My decoration, this is My prize, My prize that I won!”
So that mala which is made by, sometimes the cowherd boys or sometimes the gopis or manjaris, Krsna very happily, satisfactorily and proudly wears it. When Radharani dances so pleasingly, Krsna honors Her by taking that mala and putting on Her neck.
So not Mahaprabhu – Radharani in Radha Bhava, this is Radharani dancing for Kesava in the Kesavaji mandira, dancing so beautifully, prema avesa, absorbed in prema and hunkara, shouting and engaging everyone else in chanting. So Kesava Krsna is so pleased and happy with Her dance performance, so in the same way these lilas are going on. Wherever there is Krsna, wherever there is Radha, there is lila, there is kirtana, there is dancing, there is rasa kirtana.
Wherever there is sankirtana being performed, the hearing and chanting and dancing, this is rasa lila, this is rasa. So Kesava is so pleased, He says “Yes Radharani, please take My garland. Please take my Puspa mala!”
So then this sevaka, Krsna’s sevaka, manjaris are also Krsna’s sevaka, and Radha’s sevaka. So sevaka is the pujari, servant of the Lord, so he takes the mala and offers it to Mahaprabhu. Same type of lila going on right in the mandira.
So how much relish, how much Mahaprabhu is remembering Krsna by receiving that mala and remembering the rasa dance!
So tomorrow we will continue the story, now just freeze that frame in the movie reel of your mind or they say ‘digit’ now. Keep that digit, there is the picture, it Mathura, Mathura mein, Kesavaji’s Mandira – Kesava playing His flute, Caitanya Mahaprabhu dancing with His arms upraised with this one, eka brahmana, who is that brahmana? What is that brahmana’s name? Where does he come from? What will be the future of that brahmana? What will happen to that brahmana and Lord Caitanya!
Stay tuned tomorrow…!