The Coconut Lila
Reading from Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya Lila chapter 15, this is the story of Raghava Pandita, this is called the coconut lila. Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He was having lunch at Sarvabhauma’s house in Jagannatha Puri and while He was sitting with all the devotees, Lord Caitanya was glorifying one devotee named Raghava Pandita. And these verses are all direct and personal words of Lord Caitanya. So He says, Suna nari kelera katha.
Narila means coconut and katha means like Hari katha, lila Katha. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Just listen to the coconut katha.” Like we have Hari katha, listen to the talks about coconut. So this whole lila, He is describing, by describing this pastime of Raghava Pandita and his offering of coconuts. He is teaching so many aspects of Vaisnava sadacara and bhakti bhajan.
And we heard yesterday how much care and attention and enthusiasm and endeavor and eagerness which Raghava Pandita put into his service. We heard that Raghava Pandita, he had a coconut grove near his house. There were hundreds of coconut trees. So it was easy for him to procure coconuts for Thakurji’s seva. But when someone would come to him and say, “Raghava, do you know there are some very good coconuts twenty miles away”. Twenty miles away. He would go there, twenty miles away, just to get those good coconuts for Thakurji’s pleasure, his Deity’s pleasure.
And the coconuts were locally costing like five gandas. I mean these coconuts that were being sold twenty miles away, were selling for four pannas each, which means some type of currency, monetary value. These coconuts twenty miles away were more costly, they cost more, and when he heard about it, he was very eager. Eagerly and with great endeavor he ran twenty miles away just to get some good coconuts for Thakurji, although right next to his house he had hundreds of trees and millions of coconuts on it.
So this shows that how much of an endeavor a devotee can undertake to please his Lord. He never thinks that he has offered the best thing, he always wants to offer something better and better and better to his Lord for His pleasure.
So then we heard, he was about to make an offering. And one of his servants was bringing ten coconuts to offer to Thakurji on a thali. Ten coconuts is quite heavy, it weighs may be five kilos, they are a heavy thing. So he was waiting to give these coconuts or present these coconuts to Raghava Pandita. He held the tray of coconuts, the thali, in one hand and he put up his one hand like this above the door. He put his hand just to lean there, just to change his posture, to relax. And there was some dirt up there in the doorway. And then he came back with that hand and touched the tray. And that’s where the story leads us there.
Text 81
dvärera upara bhite teìho häta dila
sei häte phala chuìila, paëòita dekhila
SP: “Räghava Pandita then saw that the servant touched the ceiling above the door and then touched the coconuts with the same hand.
MS: Raghava Pandita, he saw that the servant touched the ceiling above the door and then touched the coconuts with the same hand.
Text 82
paëòita kahe,——dväre loka kare gatäyäte
tära pada-dhüli uòi’ läge upara bhite
SP: “Räghava Paëòita then said, ‘People are always coming and going through that door. The dust from their feet blows up and touches the ceiling.
MS: Then Raghava seeing this that he touched his doorway which had dirt and smoke whatever. He said, Listen, people are always coming and going through that door. The dust from their feet blows up and touches the ceiling. I mean in other words people walking bare foot, in and out of the Deity kitchen or in and out of the house. And there is dust on their feet. Who would ever think of this? Who would ever even see this?
There is dust on their feet and the dust is rising up and collecting on the ceiling and you put your hand up there just to relax and touch that dust and then you, and with that foot dust of devotees you touch Thakurji’s tray. Now you contaminate the tray, the tray is already like bhoga. It’s a prasad, it already offered to devotees. So then He says –
Text 83
sei bhite häta diyä phala paraçilä
kåñëa-yogya nahe, phala apavitra hailä
SP: “‘After touching the ceiling above the door, you have touched the coconuts. Now they are no longer fit to be offered to Kåñëa because they are contaminated.’
MS: After touching the ceiling above the door, you have touched the coconuts. Now they cannot be offered to Kåñëa because they are contaminated. Just see how strict he was in his service to his Thakurji, how clean!
And some times you see these families in Krsna consciousness. The mother, the father and some children and they have a refrigerator, one refrigerator. And they are keeping the bhoga and their fruits and other things, and their children eat some cereal or eat some bowl of fruits, ice-cream whatever and they can’t finish it and they say –
“O, mommy I can’t finish it.”
“O, put it in a refrigerator and keep it for later.”
So then that mucci contaminated uchista, half eaten food of that boy or girl goes in the refrigerator. And then all the bhogas in there, all the fruits and the vegetables that are to be offered to Thakurji later, its all mixed up, it becomes one. It becomes one contaminated mucci mess. And so this is very much unconscious consideration, no vicara, no consideration of the cleanliness and purity in the service of the Lord.
And as we mentioned yesterday, Srila Prabhupada was telling us, there are three requirements in Deity service. This we must ensure. And he didn’t say that we have to offer new outfit everyday or every month or anytime. But he did say that if you want to have perfection in Deity worship, there should be punctuality. Punctuality is that, the thing should be on time.
And even the story we read yesterday about Raghava Pandita, he was very concerned, he said, listen there was very little time to offer these coconuts, they were brought very late. It was already late for the offering.
So here it is showing that even five hundred years ago this concern for punctuality or timely service for the pleasure of the Lord was very much in place among the members of Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya. So Prabhupada said, everything must be punctual, on time. Thakurji eats at one, he eats at one!
And Srila Prabhupada, he was a pure servant of Krsna and he had the same mood of punctuality. He was very punctual. At this time he would put his shoes on, at this time they would hand him his cane, at this time the door would open, at this time he would step out of the room for his morning walk. Even the time he would put his shoes on, they would have everything ready for him. This is described in lilamrta, that he would finish his morning gayatri after his bath and go out for a morning walk and it was like clock work. He would stand up and go walk towards the door to leave the apartment or the room in the temple. Then they would have the shoes lined up and he would step into his shoes and then a second later they would hand over his cane and they opened the door. It went like clock work. He didn’t waste a minute. Everything went so smoothly. And if he didn’t than the servants would find out about it, right away.
In Vrndavana when Prabhupada was here, he had two chowkis, I don’t know what you call them. But two little asanas, one had a chowki in front of it, one didn’t. Chowki is small table. And they were on either side of the door. They used to be there in his house in Vrndavana temple, I don’t know if they are still there. But there were two small wooden seats with a pillow on them, with a pillow behind and no backing, may be a small backing. Prabhupada would chant gayatri on one, facing east and the other one he would eat in. So he would chant his gayatri in one seat. He would take bathe around twelve, twelve-thirty and chant his gayatri, then he would get from that seat and sit on his next seat. That would be the bhoga asana, where he would take his bhoga. And then he had a little bell there And exactly at two minutes to one, he would ring the bell. Because he would eat everyday at one O’clock, exactly. He would have a massage at eleven, bath around twelve, then gayatri, then eat at one.
So Sruta Kirti or whoever was serving Prabhupada, they would run out –
“Prabhupada everything is ready, the dhal is ready, subji is ready, we are just finishing the chapattis. And rice is almost done.”
And Prabhupada would say –
“Bring whatever you have.
So he would bring the dhal and he would bring the subji.
“But Prabhupada, the chapattis are almost ready.”
“I don’t care, I don’t want them.”
“The rice is almost ready.”
“I don’t want it.”
Then Prabhupada would eat subji and dhal. He would eat rather slowly, half hour, forty minutes and then he would get up and take a little rest.
And then Sruta Kirti said, “Prabhupada it is two minutes, five minutes, thirty seconds, ten seconds…Prabhupada said, “Forget it.”
So obviously the servant, he got very serious, very soon. Next day everything was ready. So this is the first point – punctuality. Not that O Krsna you have to understand, I am making special offering. Usually I offer you five things for lunch. But today I am going to offer you fifteen things, but then it is going to be one hour late. Krsna says, you jerk, you non-sense, you stupid, you pagal. I don’t care. I want to eat on time. I am hungry. I have been playing all morning with my friends, I want to eat. You are just wrapped up in your own kitchen bhava and you are not really thinking of pleasing Me. Besides, you are going to eat all those fifteen things later anyway. So better you have it on time. If it is one thing, have one thing on time, which I explained by telling that anecdote of Prabhupada.
You can make five hundred offerings, fine. It has to be on time.
“But Krsna it’s really a big day, I am going to make, aham karta. I am the karta, I am going to make 108 preparations for Your birthday.”
“O that’s nice. When will it be ready?”
“That will be ready next year!”
“I didn’t say which birthday, but I am starting now. That will be ready by next Janmastami.”
This is not a very appropriate bhava. If you want to make 108 things and you are slow than start two weeks before hand. But when that offering comes at eleven O’ clock at night, its not like – O there is one more, five more minutes, five more minutes, five more minutes, five more minutes…
We have seen it hundreds of time in temples and people’s homes where they make Krsna wait. It is a big offence. Better you offer two things on time then three thousand things late. Of course you don’t get so much ego, gratification. You don’t get so much glorification of your mind, but you please Krsna. That’s the basic.
Second requirement for proper Deity worship is cleanliness. All the fruits should be washed, all the nuts should be washed, all the raisins should be washed, the dates, all the dry fruits. Practically speaking, the law of the kitchen is, wash everything except the flour. Atta, you say atta, besan atta, gehu atta, chana atta, it called flour, right? I don’t mean mogra – that flower.
“O, you washed the dry fruits?”
“O, what is that? My mother never did that.”
“What is it! You wash the raisins and dates and nuts. We never did that.”
“Yes, but you are a mleccha.”
Krsna is not a mleccha, He is God. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Just try washing dry fruits once and see what happens. See how much dirt and camel hair and rat stool and everything else that comes out of water when you wash it.
“O, no, no, we bought this dry fruit in a very good shop. 600 rupees a kilo, one kilo of cashews, very good, pucca shop.”
“Accha, thik hai! Wash it and see how much dirt comes out.”
And moreover the water purifies it, even if it is pucca, clean. Still it’s been…The guy that packed it, fifty kilo bag was repacked in one kilo bag and it was sealed in these little plastic bags at a local shop. That guy thats packing them is going like this (Maharaj makes some sound and gestures).
You think that packer who is packing those one kilo packages, he is wearing sanitary gloves? And he washes his hands with Dettol soap ten times, wearing rubber sanitary gloves.
“O, pretty careful.”
He is smoking cigarettes, wiping his rear end, anything and he is putting on touching the food. So everything should be washed, because water is pavitram, it is pure, it purifies. So anything we want to offer to Thakurji, which ultimately we will take, if He leave anything, we will honor the prasadam. It should be clean.
Prabhupada taught us punctuality, cleanliness and the third principle of Deity worship is simplicity. So simplicity doesn’t mean that you just offer Krsna one chickpea and a slice of apple or you just, like in Banke Bihari, they understand this principle of simplicity, so everyday he gets a new outfit, he gets a 99 rupee dhoti everyday. They take one white dhoti that costs 99 rupees and wrap it around him and they give him the flute and that’s a new outfit. And anybody can get that mahaprasadam. That’s a little too simple.
So Prabhupada defined simplicity in Deity worship as ‘don’t concoct’. Whatever guru has taught you, whatever you have learnt from proper sastras and arcana marga. Then you follow those. You don’t make concoction, don’t get complicated. Keep it simple, say straight forward, simple approach to Deity worship. You can have very elaborate outfits and all kinds of jewelry if you are in this kind of bhava. And Prabhupada even said for temple puja where you have installed deities, they should be worshipped like Laxmi Narayan, which means with grandeur and pomp and in a royal way, at least in terms of paraphernalia, although your bhava may be madhurya bhava or braja bhava.
But if you have your own personal deities than you can worship them according to your bhava but still it should be simple. It’s not like, you say, “O I saw in the market these nice chicken feathers. They are these purple and green and pink chicken feathers for sale. It looks so cute. I am going to buy these and stick them on Krsna’s hair.” Because you know he wears peacock feathers, why not chicken feathers. One bird is the same as the next.
And they are so cute, they are pink and purple. Of course they are dyed that way. There are not too many purple chickens around or pink chickens.
So they did this, I remember in LA, they were sticking ostrich feathers Ostrich is kind of a big bird. May be you have it in your country, I don’t know. They have long legs and a big fat body and may be a big neck too, I can’t remember. They are like a big thing. Big bird. And because they are big birds, they have long feathers. They are quite long, about two feet long. Feathers are feathers.
So then the karmis would pick these or roast them or whatever they do, to get the feathers. They get the feathers and they dye them and they would sell them and people put them in their hats you know. Big feathers sticking because whatever, its fashion.
Devotees thought this would look nice on Radharani or Rukmini-Dvarkadhisa. So then they adjusted the crown and put these feathers on the crown and Prabhupada was there and he took darsan and he said, What’s that? This is not simplicity, this is concoction. In other words, simplicity means you don’t concoct things and make up things out of whimsical ideas of what you think is beauty or standard of puja or proper, suitable offering for Radha and Krsna. So then someone said –
“Prabhupada those are very rare and costly ostrich feathers.”
Prabhupada said, “What! Feathers from a bird! This is contaminated, dirty, you can’t offer this.”
“But Prabhupada we offer peacock feathers from Vrndavana?”
“No that’s different. Krsna personally chooses those.”
So we have to maintain this principle of simplicity. Sometimes you see that, some a new devotee comes, he dresses the Deities and he thinks, “O, I have been seeing Deity dresses for so many years. I am a brahmana now, I am initiated and they have asked me to dress the deities. But see, really these pujaris, they don’t know how to dress properly. So I have some idea of fashion and design and style. So now it’s my turn to be the pujari. I am going to show these people what really is beautiful. So I am going to put on Thakurji’s mukuta, now I am going to put 3492 peacock feathers.
They are going to come out about, the mukuta will be here, but I am going to make it in such a way that peacock feathers go about nine feet. You know. And look totally out of proportion and gross and not the least bit artistic. But I want to do this because I see these other pujaris, they don’t know what beauty is, I have been watching for days. They don’t know really how to make it beautiful.
So you see when Aindra dresses Radha- Shyamsundar everybody in India comes there to take darsan, whenever he dresses, that’s when all the news people come and take pictures and put on Doordarshan. Doordarshan and these other television shows, they have pictures of deities before they start different shows like Mahabharat.
When they do the film credits they used to have the pictures of the deities in Vrndavana. And every time you see the deities on television, it’s only the days that Aindra was dressing. Because people don’t know Aindra from anybody, but people understand what is the standard of excellence or standard of beauty. So when they go and see, this is beautiful – there is pagdi, there is a turban, there are one or two peacock feathers. Natural, natural look.
But I go to Delhi and they have this idea to put the crown on and you put three thousand peacock feathers on it. So the Lord’s head is this big and the crown is like…imagine wearing a crown on your head this big you know! I don’t mean Jagannatha coming out for a Ratha yatra or something. He is a Jagannatha, He can wear whatever He wants, in fact He looks quite good in this huge crown. And it is in proportion because His head is also six feet across. You know that special crown he wears for Ratha yatra? His head is six feet across and His crown is only about a foot here and a foot here. Its like, you know its eight feet. So it is not so bad, it is proportionate. But when you have a head this big and a crown goes out like this you know and this peacock and this one, that one, stuck here and stuck there, it looks like brrrrrrrrrrrr! It’s called top heavy.
Like you have one of these little Indian truck and they put like 50 miles high baggage on the back of it. Its going down the street, vroooom vroooom…these lorries, they pack them up to the sky.
Krsna’s head looks like a back of a lorry with all these peacock feathers. This is not simplicity, this is total mental concoction. Simplicity means you follow the traditional standards. This is the meaning of simplicity. Prabhupada said simplicity means you don’t concoct something new. Follow the standard. If you don’t know the standard then find out.
So here in the pastime of Raghava Pandita and the coconuts, its all about cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. So he was very concerned that, “O, you touched the dirty ceiling and now you touched this tray!” Now he could argue, well I didn’t touch the coconuts. The coconut pulp is there, the water is there. What’s wrong with that, I only touched the tray. But he was so strict.
Raghava Pandita was so strict in his cleanliness standards that he rejected these coconuts that he went twenty miles away to get. Can you imagine? You went twenty miles and you had to walk there. He walked twenty there and twenty miles back – forty miles, which is about seventy kilometers or so to get a few coconuts. When he got back, the servant contaminated them by putting a bunch of smudge and dirt from the ceiling on the tray and Raghava Pandita just rejected them. Can you imagine?
He could say, well I walked twenty miles, just wash them water and offer them. You know, what’s a big deal. Throw a little water on them and offer them. But he would not compromise his standard. And Lord Caitanya goes on –
Text 84
eta bali’ phala phele präcéra laìghiyä
aiche pavitra prema-sevä jagat jiniyä
SP: “Such is the service of Räghava Paëòita. He did not accept the coconuts but threw them over the wall. His service is purely based on unalloyed love, and it conquers the whole world.
MS: Such is the service of Räghava Paëòita. He did not accept the coconuts but threw them over the wall. May be he is little angry here. Can’t say. It does not say that. He didn’t even put them aside and say, well I consider them offered and I will eat them later. He just threw them over the wall. So he didn’t accept them. Raghava’s service is purely based on unalloyed love. aiche pavitra prema-sevä jagat jiniyä. And it conquers the whole world. Jiniya means conquers. Through his prema seva. That’s our goal. Our goal is prema seva.
In prema seva there is such a standard of excellence, such a standard of cleanliness. If someone says, what is your goal? To go back to Godhead? No. Our goal is not to go back to Godhead. We will go here there anywhere. But our goal is to serve Krsna. We don’t want to go back to Godhead unless we can serve Krsna.
Just to go there and chill out and enjoy or relax or kick back or lay back and eat mangoes and watch the clouds go by and when we get hot, we bathe in Yamuna, sleep under a Kadamba tree and sometimes we see Krsna and we say Hari Bol!
It’s not that. We do not have this idea of enjoying in the spiritual world. We want to go wherever the service is, like a soldier in the army. Listen soldier, now we are fighting a front in Africa. So you get on this boat and you go to Africa and you fight for India. Yes Sir! And he goes and fights. So now listen our theater, they say the war theatre, now we are fighting in China, so you get in this aero plane and you go to china and fight. So the soldier goes wherever the commander sends him and he is happy.
So the devotee goes wherever Krsna sends him. He has no other desire than that. But if someone asks, our goal is prema seva. We want the prema seva of Radha and Govinda. And more specifically Radharani. Its called Radha dasyam. To become a dasi of Radha or become her servant. This is one of the main teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This manjari bhava, braja bhakti.
So this is what..Raghava Pandita’s service is being described by Lord Caitanya Himself as prema seva, pavitra prema-sevä jagat jiniyä and this is pure. This service in love, it conquers the whole world.
Text 85
tabe ära närikela saàskära karäila
parama pavitra kari’ bhoga lägäila
SP: “Thereafter, Räghava Paëòita had other coconuts gathered, cleansed and clipped, and with great attention he offered them to the Deity to eat.
MS: Thereafter, Raghava Pandita had other coconuts gathered, cleansed and clipped, and with great attention he offered them to the Deity to eat. Parama pavitra kari’, so thereafter they were cleaned and cut and prepared. parama pavitra, with the topmost cleanliness. It says with great attention to keep them pure. Because pavitra means pure, this is the word for word based on the Bengali words of Mahaprabhu. And the translation comes out – with great attention he offered them to the Deity.
As I had been mentioning, Prabhupada very much summarized the translation when he put it in English. Because he says with great attention, but the actual Bengali he is saying – with a great attention to keep them pure, parama pavitra kari’. You could also say that he did his act; he offered these coconuts with the topmost purity and in the most pure fashion that he could. In other words he made sure that no one touched the ceiling or anything. Like this.
Text 86
ei-mata kalä, ämra, näraìga, käìöhäla
yähä yähä düra-gräme çuniyäche bhäla
SP: “In this way, from distant villages he collects excellent bananas, mangoes, oranges, jackfruits and whatever other first-class fruits he has heard about.
MS: In this way, from distant villages Raghava Pandita collects excellent bananas, mangoes, oranges, jackfruits and whatever other first class fruits he has heard about. So in this way means, in the same way that he collected coconuts from twenty miles away, he would also go twenty miles away to collect mangoes, oranges, jackfruits and any other first class fruits he heard about.
So to walk twenty miles and twenty miles back, that’s forty miles. The average walking speed is about three miles per hour. They say like that, but our experience is that it can be faster. Let’s say it is four miles an hour. He walks twenty miles there to collect the mangoes and twenty miles back. That’s forty miles and four miles an hour, that means ten hours. So he was willing to travel for ten hours to get first class fruits for the Thakurji. So that you could say, it doesn’t really compare. That’s like getting in the car and going to Delhi. It takes three hours to go to Delhi and three hours back. Its only six hours.
Because in Delhi you can procure very wonderful for Thakurji in the middle of the winter you can buy cantelope melon. You say kharbuja and tarbhuja and all these things. You can buy cantelope melon in the middle of the winter from Delhi for 900 rupees a kilo and it comes from turkey or somewhere like this. They have all kinds of imported fruits that come from all over the world. Chanakapuri or there is some market there where all these different foreign embassies are situated and they have foreign takka, they have foreign money and they don’t mind spending 900 rupees for a watermelon. Watermelon is only five rupees but if you want to get a watermelon in January then you have to bring it in from Turkey or Africa or somewhere.
For our Thakurji in Vrndavana – Radha Shyamsundar, when it is janmastami or some big function, devotees go to Delhi and they buy such fruits. These big honey dew melons from Iran and all these things, I have seen.
So in the same way Raghava Pandita, he would go, walk for ten hours, just to get a few good mangoes for his deities. This is inconceivable.
Like we live somewhere in Bombay and someone says,
“O you know in this part of Bombay there is some very good fruits.”
“No that’s too far, that’s like half an hour drive. I can’t do that. I am not going to drive there, it is too much trouble.”
“But you have a driver.”
“Ya, I know, I have a driver.”
“But you can even send your driver.”
“No but he might cheat me out of thirty rupees you know. He might try to make some money out of buying those fruits.”
And so many ways we cut corners and calculate ourselves out of pleasing our Thakur. So Lord Caitanya is telling these things for us to consider. These are sastric statements, these are slokas from sastras and Lord Caitanya considers it important and everyone should hear this. In the beginning, He says suniya sab jana. He says all the people, everyone, you should hear about Raghava Pandita. He is only saying a few sentences. He could speak for hours, but He is speaking five, ten, may be fifteen sentences about him and He is mentioning key points. Raghava Pandita’s strong attachment to cleanliness and serving his Deity, his strong attachment to punctuality and his strong attachment to working hard and taking all kinds of personal hardships to please the Deity. Walking twenty miles to get the mango and walking twenty miles back, walking ten hours just to buy some good first class fruits for the deities. And we live in Lajpat Nagar and we are too lazy to go to Greater Kailash to get some good quality fruits which is like fifteen minutes away.
I remember when I was living in Vrndavana in Raman Reti, there weren’t any good fruits but by Banke Bihari mandira…That’s a whole brahmana community there. Goswamis from Banke Bihari all around those houses. So all the fruitwalas, they come there and there is one fruit stand by Bankhandi Mahadeva which is a little further from Banke Bihari. He was famous in all of Vrndavana because he would go to Delhi every two or three days and buy the best quality fruits. These big Afghan pomegranates, these big red ones and that time you could not even find the pomegranate, anar, in Vrndavana. Now you find these little ones here and there. These little tennis ballwalas you know and they are not very good.
But he would go to Delhi and bring back these fruits and he would sell them at a good price, hundred rupees a kilo or whatever. But he sold all of his stuff to all the Goswamis. So we remember going down there to buy some nice fruits for Radha Shyam because the things around the temple were all junk. We would go to Banke Bihari side and nice things. Pay little more but you get it first class.
So this is a kind of extra endeavor, enthusiasm that a devotees put into their service whether it is serving the Lord or teaching or studying or chanting or reading or preaching or any service, these qualities are important. Enthusiasm, working hard and always meditating on the pleasure of the Lord and being punctual.
Text 87
bahu-mülya diyä äni’ kariyä yatana
pavitra saàskära kari’ kare nivedana
SP: “All these fruits are collected from distant places and bought at a high price. After trimming them with great care and purity, Räghava Paëòita offers them to the Deity.
MS: All these fruits are collected from distant places and bought at a high price. That’s what it says here, these fruits are collected from forty miles away and they are purchased at a high price. After cleaning them with great care and purity Raghava offers them to the Deity.
Text 88
ei mata vyaïjanera çäka, müla, phala
ei mata ciòä, huòuma, sandeça sakala
SP: “Thus with great care and attention Räghava Paëòita prepares spinach, other vegetables, radishes, fruits, chipped rice, powdered rice and sweetmeats.
MS: With great care and attention Räghava Paëòita prepares spinach, other vegetables, radishes, fruits, chipped rice, powdered rice and sweetmeats. So again we are reminded of the essential quality of his offering. Although it is interesting that this verse only mentions food, there is no mention about great care and attention. Prabhupada is just continuing..well there is a word ei mata which means in this way. So I guess this verse is referring to the other verse, with great care and attention. So this is the thing, great care and attention.
Text 89
ei-mata piöhä-pänä, kñéra-odana
parama pavitra, ära kare sarvottama
SP: “He prepares cakes, sweet rice, condensed milk and everything else with great attention, and the cooking conditions are purified so that the food is first class and delicious.
MS: Raghava prepares cakes, sweet rice, condensed milk and everything else with great attention, and the cooking conditions are purified so that the food is first class and delicious. Sarvottama, so it is the topmost, everything is the best of all, topmost of everything. First class and tasteful. parama pavitra, everything is very very clean.
Text 90
käçamdi, äcära ädi aneka prakära
gandha, vastra, alaìkära, sarva dravya-sära
SP: “Räghava Paëòita also offers all kinds of pickles, such as käçamdi. He offers various scents, garments, ornaments and the best of everything.
MS: Räghava Pandita offered all kinds of pickles, such as käçamdi. He offers various scents, garments, ornaments and the best of everything.
We mentioned the other day about someone buying some samaan or some water pitchers for the asram. And this person has a standard of always buying some good quality. Someone else bought some pitchers. You can buy water pitcher for 200 rupees or you can buy one for a thousand rupees. This person bought a thousand rupee ones, because they thought O this is for the asram, this is for Vaisnava seva. Vaisnavas are so dear to Krsna, we should get the best quality that we can afford for them. Rather than cutting any corners or trying to save money for what! The best use of money is to spend it in the service of Krsna and the devotees.
So then he bought first class things. So we hear this is a characteristic of Raghava. That he is also offering the best of everything, sarva dravya-sära. Dravya means objects, articles and sära means the essence or the best and sarva means the best of everything. Best possible thing available.
Text 91
ei-mata premera sevä kare anupama
yähä dekhi’ sarva-lokera juòäya nayana
SP: “Thus Räghava Paëòita serves the Lord in an incomparable way.
Everyone is very much satisfied just to see him.”
MS: Thus Räghava Pandita serves the Lord in an incomparable way.
Everyone is very much satisfied just to see him.
Text 92
eta bali’ räghavere kaila äliìgane
ei-mata sammänila sarva bhakta-gaëe
SP: Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu then mercifully embraced Räghava Paëòita. The Lord also offered all the other devotees a farewell with similar respect.
MS: After speaking like this to glorify Raghava Pandita, Mahaprabhu mercifully embraced Raghava. The Lord then also offered all the other devotees a fair well with similar respect. So after the Lord ate prasad at Sarvabhauma’s house He glorified the other devotees in different ways and then He bid farewell. So we will also bid farewell. To Raghava Pandita and Mahaprabhu and tomorrow we will hear the story of, this was the story of Sri Caitanya glorifying the cooking standard of Raghava Pandita.
Tomorrow we will hear about Gauranga’s darsan of Nanda and Yasoda.
Is there any questions about this discussion or these points?
Q: you mentioned Raghava Pandita was angry throwing these coconuts.
A: It’s not fair. It only really said, factually it said, he threw them over the wall. So I am just saying how I would feel. If I had walked forty miles to get coconuts and my servant put his smudgy dirty fingers on him. And then I considered they were not offer able, I would be little angry when I threw them over the wall. It doesn’t say that (pertaining to anger).
Q: another question but not audible
A: Is that anything to do with our coconut lila? Are you taking of, interjection of my own disqualifications, anyway go ahead.
Maharaj is now rephrasing the question asked by a devotee: (38.41)
Mean when Lord Nityananda kicks Sivananda Sena in the chest with a taekwondo kick because Sivananda Sena was making arrangements for the devotees when they were going from Bengal to puri and he didn’t make the arrangements in time and Lord Nityananda was angry. Then he gave a nice kick to the chest. This means that Nityananda was angry? Or what does this mean?
Actually Sivananda Sena was so happy, O my Lord, You kicked me in the chest. I have been blessed by the touch of your lotus feet. Right?
So that’s Sivananda Sena getting kicked by Nityananda. So you have to understand, Vaisnava is existing in bhakti. He has actually immersed himself in bhakti. His mind, his heart, his intelligence, his senses are in svarupa sakti of the Lord, like the analogy Rupa Goswami is giving – if you take the iron rod and put it inside the fire, the entire length and width of that iron rod becomes turned into fire. It can burn, it can do everything that the fire can do although it maintains its identity as a piece of iron ultimately but becomes fire-ized. The front of it, the back of it, the end of it, the whole thing is red hot.
So the body, mind and senses of a Vaisnava when they are immersed in the svraupa sakti of the lord which is known as bhakti, bhakti is svarupa sakti, they become spiritualized. So his thinking, his feeling, his willing, everything he is doing is an expression of devotion, expression of bhakti. Sometimes he is happy, sometimes he is sad or apparently showing happiness or sadness or concerned or no concern or sometimes he may be angry. It is called anubhavas, but all these expressions are simply coming from the undercurrent of his devotion or coming from his mind or heart, which are saturated with devotion.
So you are saying a devotee sometimes shows anger, but that anger is actually an expression of his love. Just like a mother. A mother has a sthayi bhava or permanent mood of love towards her child and sometimes she kisses him and hugs him and keeps him at her breast and feeds him and if he misbehaves she gives him a slap, which appears to be…she raises her voice and chastises him and it seems to be an expression of anger, it even looks like anger. Someone will say –
“O your mother is angry at you”
And you say to the mother, “
O you are angry?”
She replies, “No I am not angry with you, I am just showing my love.”
And it’s a fact. So it’s a fact, so I don’t know what exactly you are asking but.
Like Prabhupada looked like he is getting angry sometimes with his disciples. And even when they speak in vyas puja as say. Gargamuni and Brahmananda had so much association, they often say, “O, you would never want to be around Prabhupada when he got angry”. Because when he got angry it was like a cyclone, toofan and then he would just cut you to pieces and whatever. I mean Prabhupada wouldn’t start throwing lamps around the room, yaaaan woooooooh, you know, some kind of crazy tantrum. He wasn’t like that, he wasn’t uncontrolled. But he was simply raising his voice or sometimes hitting his hand on the table. But I don’t remember hearing Prabhupada ever physically did anything to his disciples. But he would express his anger if someone did something stupid or lost some money or whatever. Krsna’s money.
But still Prabhupada’s expression of anger did not diminish the content of his love or the quality and quantity of his love for the disciple. By showing anger now he would decrease his love for the disciple or decrease his affection. In fact Prabhupada would often say that I only chastise the disciples that I really love. He even said that. He said, unless you are an advanced in your relationship with me and advanced in your love for me then I won’t chastise you. Because I know that if you are a neophyte in your relationship with the guru, if the guru chastises you or seemingly shows anger than the neophyte devotee will respond in a negative way.
O my gUru got angry, what is this! Can’t the guru see? O I don’t like him. He is not nice. I better find another guru.
So this is a neophyte. So knowing that then the guru is always very gentle and kind to the new disciple, O yes, you do any damn thing, its ok! But when he actually smacks or corrects or rebukes the disciple, that’s the show of his love.
The son is playing in the yard and he keeps playing, he keeps hitting the ball and the ball keeps running out on the road and he keeps running after it. It is a very busy street and the trucks are going very fast – zip, zip, zip, up and down in front of his house and the mother looks out of the window and sees the boy, he has his ball and the bat and he keeps hitting it. And he doesn’t hit towards the house, he always hits it towards the road. And he always runs on the road and he always drops his bat and he always runs very fast to get the ball because he is very attached to that ball. Ball is his everything. And always the trucks are going (makes a screeching sound), you know, jamming all their breaks and just missing him this much, running him over.
So the mother comes out, she says don’t play with the ball in the street, don’t hit it in the street. He says yes yes and then the next minute he hits it in the street and she is running on the streets. And finally she comes out. Listen you, she pulls his ear and gives him a slap across his face – AHHHH! She says, look if you do that again I am going to tie you up or lock up in cell or basement or something. So she shows him heavy anger. Why? Because she loves that son more than her life. But some neighbor would say, O look that mother, she is beating her son, lets call the police! Child abuse. That mother should be arrested, she should just let her son freely, get run over and that’s that.
So this expression of anger, we have to see, where is it coming from? What is basis? Where is it coming? We have to source it, like they say, source it out or what’s the source? Sourcing. Resourcing. So what is the source of the anger? Is it coming from a part of envy or is it coming from a part of love?
So if the anger is coming from part of envy then it is not transcendental. If it is coming from a part of love, it is transcendental in terms of devotees but if it’s a mother, it also could be coming from material love, its not transcendental love, but its not envy, she loves her son. It’s the consciousness behind the anger that determines whether its actually devotion or not.
Like some people say, he is really a mellow guru. He never chastises his disciples, he is really good, you should take initiation from him. He will let you do whatever you want. O ya that’s what I need, I need a guru like that who would let me do whatever I want.
Sometimes disciples or new devotees or aspiring devotees, they are looking for someone like that – easy going, soft spoken.
“Who is your guru?”
“My guru is Gaur Govinda Swami.”
“O, I am not going to take initiation from him, I heard he even slaps his devotees.”
He literally slaps his devotees right on the face, not on the face but like on the top of the head – You pagal! You crazy mind!
“O, I am not going to take initiation from him. It is terrible.”
Then you go ask the devotees – beating with his cane or walking stick or something. I saw him slap. Then when the devotees would sit down for a class, I was there a few times at Bhubhuneshwar, everyone would make sure that they would sit at least five feet away so he could not slap him. And that’s when sitting was first there and then he would be singing Jaya Radha Madhava. And then before the class starts, all these brahmacaris who maybe are doing kitchen seva, whatever, sleeping, who know what. Somewhere they would come running in just before the class and they would sit right in front of the asan. And I was wondering. What! These guys came late and everyone is kind of keeping a good distance and these guys would come right in the front, they would sit down. So then Maharaj says –
“O, you are not afraid!”
And they would say, “Maharaj we are ready!”
And I didn’t know what is going on because I was a newcomer over there. Because this is family business you know, guru and disciples, very intimate circle. So I was a god brother, naturally, but I wasn’t familiar with the dealings there.
So I was guest there for one week, 1995 0r 1994 or so, visiting there, I had Maharaja’s association. So then they said, no Maharaj we are ready. So I was wondering what’s happening here? So Maharaj is speaking –
“So what is this verse from Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, vairagya vidya?”
“O, Maharaj, vairagya vidya nija bhakti yoga”
“Hey you, then he gives a big slap, you don’t know this verse, how many times I told you”
“Yes Maharaj.”
I said, “O that’s why they are sitting there.” So these senior devotees that were really attached to the guru and really surrendered and really want to get the mercy, they ran and jumped in those pole positions, in those front row seats to get the love slaps of their beloved guru – Srila Gaur Govinda Swami. So it was really quite a beautiful sight to see.
(Someone interrupts with a comment…not audible)
Ya, ya, you have to be ready to get slaps from the guru. And Lord Nityananda, he is also a guru, he is like adi guru. And he is giving a good slap to Sivananda Sena, right? There is a nice painting. (Maharaja shows some painting) every disciple should keep this painting in their room. You see this! Nityananda is giving a kick on the right hand side. Big picture, Nityananda is giving a big Taekwondo, you know chest kick, or whatever they call it, to Sivananda Sena. Because they are going to Puri and he said listen I am a rich guy and I will take care of everybody, food and everything, housing. Don’t worry. And they came in one village and Nityananda said –
“where are we staying?”
And Sivananda Sena replied, “Well I don’t know.”
“You stupid!” Dhoonk (sound of the kick)
Of course this was a perfection of his life. This is a nice thing to meditate on actually. Dhoonk!
That’s like when Brghu Muni went to Visnu and stepped on his chest. We told that story of Brghu Muni stomped on Him, he didn’t just kick. Visnu is lying in bed with Laxmi, that’s the description in the Bhagavatam. It says He is lying on a flower bed, which is quite interesting for Narayana, it’s in Srimad Bhagavatam, chapter ninety. He is lying, resting in a flower bed intimately and privately with Laxmidevi in the private quarters and Brghu Muni bursts in, runs over to the bed and just DHOONK! He just stomps while Visnu is lying down, not that Visnu is standing up and he gives Him a kick or setting in His chair. Visnu is lying in His bed in the most intimate tender setting with His wife and Brghu Muni comes and stomps on His chest, right while He is in bed. And then Narayana gets up and says, “O, please forgive Me, My chest is so hard and you are a Brahmana so your skin is so soft and you must have hurt your foot. Please forgive Me and now let Me wash your feet and let me give you some food, seat in this chair, is everything ok?”
So even the Lord is ready to take slaps from the guru, Brghu Muni is also a guru. So it’s the same Brghu Muni doing your Brghu reading. Brghu Muni is reading your chart, your Brghu is getting done by him.