MS: Reading from Sri Caitanya Caritamrta. We are in Mathura, we are in a temple of Lord Kesava. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has met one brahmana there. They’ve been dancing in ecstasy and many of the onlookers and spectators also became ecstatic by seeing this sight and they joined in the dancing, they were laughing, crying, rolling on the floor, also dancing in ecstasy. And then, afterwards they fell at each other’s feet.
Gauranga and the brahmana fell at each other’s feet and started speaking to each other, making suitable introductions, and then Lord Caitanya… The brahmana said that he had served Madhavendra Puri, Madhavendra Puri had come to his place. And Lord Caitanya was saying that I see my dear brahmana, that you are exhibiting such ecstatic love, that can only be experienced when one has a relationship with Madhavendra Puri. Without him even a cent of such transcendental ecstatic love is impossible. Lord Caitanya was saying that, that’s where we left off yesterday.
TEXT 172
kintu tomara prema dekhi’ mane anumani
madhavendra-purira ‘sambandha’ dhara——jani
SP: “Upon seeing Your ecstatic love, I can just imagine that You must have some relationship with Madhavendra Puri. This is my understanding.
MS: Mahaprabhu made some observation of the brahmana’s behavior and how he also had exploded in ecstatic love dancing in ecstasy with the Lord and He said, “I can surmise that seeing your ecstatic love, that I can imagine that you must have some relationship with Madhavendra Puri, this is My understanding.”
Of course Lord Caitanya also has a relationship with Madhavendra Puri. What is the relationship of Lord Caitanya and Madhavendra Puri? Parama guru! Madhavendra Puri is the guru of Isvara Puri, Isvara Puri is the diksa guru of Lord Caitanya. So He Himself is in ecstatic love and dancing ecstatically and experiencing intense feelings of Krsna prema.
So He understands that He has received this because of the connection with parampara, at least on one level, because He is connected with His guru and His parama guru, then they find that these divine sentiments are manifesting within his heart and mind. So we are judged by our connection and we are products of our connection. It’s called a Krsna connection, we establish our connection with Krsna through our gurudeva and through our beloved line of guardians, devotional guardians, who are extending their mercy to us and extending their bhavas to us, through the chain of disciplic succession.
It’s called the avaroha panta, its descending from Krsna to Brahma to Vyasa to Narada and is coming down to parampara from the heart of our guru. From the heart of our parama guru to the heart of our guru from the heart of the guru coming into our own heart, if our heart is submissive, if our heart is faithful, if our heart is receptive – these are the two qualities that the heart must manifest to receive His Divine Grace. To receive His Divine Grace the heart must be saturated with sraddha and saranagati
yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathitaa hi arthaaha prakasante mahatmanaha
(Svetasvatara Upanisada 6.23)
That all this love, all this bhava, all this knowledge, gyana, bhava and love of God becomes prakasa, atma prakasa, prema prakasa, becomes manifested in the heart
yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau, tasyaite kathitaa hi arthaaha – Becomes manifest when the heart is saturated with faith – sraddha dana vita, when the heart is saturated and faith is proven by surrender. Little surrender, little faith. Lots of surrender, lots of faith. The pre-cursor of surrender is faith
adau sraddha tatah sadhu-
sango ‘tha bhajana-kriya
tato ‘nartha-nivrttih syat
tato nistha rucis tatah.
(Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya, 23.14)
Adau sraddha – first, the beginning, adi, is faith and then sanga and then surrender, in that sanga then diksa . So sraddha then saranagati, faith then surrender.
Komala sraddha means faith is weak then its sraddha abhasa, it’s told in Jaiva dharma and Nectar of Devotion. Sraddha abhasa, it’s a reflection of faith or a dim glimmer of faith, it’s not the full expression of faith.
So seeing this outburst of this display of intense devotion and ecstasy Lord Caitanya understand that a person cannot be so ecstatic, a person cannot be so effulgent with prema unless he has some connection with his prema-kalpataru.
It is described in Bhakti Ratnakara that Madhavendra Puri is a kalpa lata, he is a kalpa lata or a prema-kalpataru. He is a wish-fulfilling tree of Krsna prema and from this tree of Krsna prema so many branches have sprung forth.
So from this prema-kalpataru of Madhavendra Puri one big branch came forward named Isvara Puri and from that branch another big branch came out that was called Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and from the branch of Lord Caitanya many sub branches came out. The branch of Gadadhara pandita, the branch of Nityananda Prabhu, and the branch of so many Gaudiya sampradayas – Advaita sampradaya, Gadadhara, Nityananda, Syamananda, Caitanya-saraswat sampradaya and all the various followers of Lord Caitanya, the branches and sub-branches. So He is saying this, He said this is My understanding madhavendra-purira ‘sambandha’ dhara——jani. I think, I know, jani means knowledge – that sambhanda.
You must have, you my dear brahmana, eka vipra brahmana, oh Mathura brahmana! You must have some sambhanda, you must have some relationship, connection with a very high devotee. You must have connection with some very high exalted personality through diksa, through siksa, through saranagati. Some connection you must have, sambandha means connection. Otherwise how can you exhibit this? We have phrase – judge a tree by its fruits.
Have you heard this phrase? If the fruit is very good then the tree must be healthy. A sickly tree, a sickly dried up tree doesn’t produce succulent, juicy, tasty, attractive, shiny fruits. So healthy tree, healthy fruit.
So you can see how the fruits, the disciples are the fruits of the guru. The guru is the tree and the disciples are the fruits. Naturally what’s inside the fruit? Seed! There is a bijam inside a fruit. So where does the bijam come from? Bijam comes from the fruit! Where does the fruit come from? It comes from the tree!
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
(Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya, 19.151)
The bija comes from guru, that seed of prema comes from guru. So if you see a wonderful fruit that means there is a wonderful tree. So someone meets a very wonderful personality who exhibits very fine and proper behavior and great erudition and realized knowledge and may be even symptoms of love or attachment, a very perfect behavior, then someone will inquire – excuse me who is your gurudeva? Oh my gurudeva is Nitya Lila Pravista Om Astottara-sata Sri Srimad A C Bhaktivendanta Swami Prabhupada…
Acha, I thought as much, I thought so, I can understand I have seen something, there is something about you that is different. There is something extraordinary about you that I don’t find here and there around the market place. Yes this is gurukrpa, this is the tree, I sat on the branch, I fell off the tree, and you picked up the fruit. May be you found some value, I can’t say. That’s your perception, that’s your understanding. I am the fruit, I am the sweet, you are the tongue. How sweet I am, I don’t know. I am sugar, you are the tongue. You know how sweet I am, you are tasting me. I have no power to taste. I am only sweet. So you may perceive that, what can I say, it is all from Him, it is all coming from above.
This is the general principle everywhere, if you see something wonderful then there must be some source. Everything has a source. Now we have all these terms – outsourcing. They say in the work field – they are going to outsource this work to this group. Printing industry – yes, we do the layout but we outsource the cover to this group and outsource the binding over here and blah blah blah this that all these terms…outsource, insource, resource…so many sources.
So the same principle is seen here in Mathura 500 years ago. Lord Caitanya is saying – Oh I am meeting a great devotee. No one can be great unless there is someone great behind them. Even in social dealings they have this phrase “Behind every great man is a great woman”. What does that mean, where we have saktimana, there must be sakti. Krsna is saktimana – possessor of sakti, behind Krsna is Radharani, behind Rama is Sita, behind Visnu is Laksmi, behind or front whatever.
Behind doesn’t mean subordinate, sometimes people say – “Oh what is this! Why should woman be behind! In front of every great man there is a great woman!”
This is the ego they have. Why should a woman be behind, behind every great man is a great woman. No! In front of every great man is a great woman or it should be behind every great woman there is a great man… this is the point.
Whatever it is, the real point is that there is sakti and saktimana. No man can have sakti unless behind him there is woman, female principle. Purusa and prakrti. If you take away prakrti from Krsna He is nothing. Just like someone says – he is a rich man, very powerful rich man Bill Gates, ok take away all of his money, now what is he? Money is the power, money is the sakti…not Bill gates, it’s the money, the power – Power and the powerful. He is powerful because he has power and his power is the money, you take away the money there is he has no power. Then is he powerful anymore? Who cares about him!
So Krsna, Narayana, Rama, Visnu – they are powerful no doubt, They are saktimana, They possess the sakti, They utilize the sakti, They are powerful because they possess the sakti. If you take away the sakti! So they are inseparable. So Lord Caitanya is seeing this – I am seeing a powerful expression of divine love here. Prema!
Premananda dekhi – where has he received this prema from? It doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s not self manifested, its not atmabhu. You don’t self manifest prema, prema must come to you. It must be awarded to you, given to you, bestowed upon you. It’s a gift – golokera prema dhana hari nama sankirtana.
So it’s not self evident, self manifest. It’s called swaprakasa, doesn’t manifest within you automatically. Swaprakasa means self manifest within you. Swaprakasa, this is given. This prema has come down from Goloka, it is being given, prema dana. Dana, it’s a donation, it’s charity, it’s given.
So He is seeing, this person, this brahmana, this Mathura brahmana dancing with Me in ecstasy of divine love in the Kesavaji mandira Mathura, he has some divine love in him. Where has he received it? Who has given it to him? How has he gotten it? I am very curious. So now let’s see what more Lord Caitanya says –
TEXT 173
krsna-prema tanha, yanha tanhara ‘sambandha’
tahan vina ei premara kahan nahi gandha
SP: “This kind of ecstatic love can be experienced only when one has a relationship with Madhavendra Puri. Without him, even a scent of such transcendental ecstatic love is impossible.”
MS: Lord Caitanya is saying, He is saying – “This kind of ecstatic love can be experienced only when one has a relationship with Madhavendra Puri. Without him even a cent of such transcendental ecstatic love is impossible” – vina ei premara kahan nahi gandha, nahi gandha – you can’t smell it. Seeing is one thing, I have seen it, I felt it, I felt your prema coming out of your body as I embraced you and danced with you. And I saw it coming out of your eyes. I saw it and I felt it.
But you can even smell from a distance, you may not see something, you may not see some object or some person and you may not touch them but you may smell them. So the sense of smell can go around corners, the sense of smell is not limited, the eyes are somewhat limited. The object has to be in front of you, if the object is behind your head you can’t see it. If you want to touch an object it has to be within three feet of you. You follow?
To touch this prema, it has to be within 3 feet, to see it, it has to be in front of you. But to smell this prema can be in any direction. The smell can come from up, from down, from back from front, from a long distance, the wind may be carrying a smell. If the wind is powerful, it may be carrying a smell from a mile away. Let’s say there is a bread factory, I remember when I was staying in Puri, they were making some homemade bread around the corner from where I was staying.
And everyday I was walking to a particular temple over there, I walked down the street along the beach, parallel to the beach on the Cakratirtha road, I could not smell that bread factory although it was nearby. Then when I turned the corner, the wind was always coming in that direction, as soon as I turned the corner…hmmm whole wheat bread! I mean it should be offered to Krsna first. At the end of that street the bread factory was one mile down the road but the wind was blowing downwind, it’s called downwind. And hmm, I was getting closer and closer. So I could not see that bread, I could not touch that bread, but I could smell it.
So Lord Caitanya is using this very powerful analogy, He is saying – if you don’t have some sambandha, Madhavendra Puri sambandha or some rasika bhakta sambhanda or parama-vaisnava sambhanda or premi bhakta sambandha, if you don’t have that connection, if you don’t have that relationship then you will not even exhibit a cent – nahi prema gandha, you will not even exhibit a cent of prema, unless you have some relationship with Madhavendra Puri.
Fortunately we can exhale some relief, breath of relief… haaaaaa… “I am alright because I have relationship with Madhavendra Puri.”
We all have a relationship with Madhavendra Puri because he initiated Isvara Puri, Isvara Puri initiated Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya’s followers are all carrying the mercy of Madhavendra Puri. So our guruvarga, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and our Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Gaura Kisoradasa etc. and Srila Prabhupada…they all have the mercy of Madhavendra Puri. And they all have the scent – the prema gandha, the scent of prema, the look of prema, the touch of prema.
And they are the embodiments of prema, because they are the premi bhaktas, so we have that sambandha, guru sambandha, guru-sisya sambandha. We had that relationship with guru parampara therefore we can have this asabandha, this intense asabandha, this intense hope that very soon we will smell that prema and someone will talk to us and say “Oh! I am smelling something…you smell like love.”
There is some scent – there is some prema gandha, scent of love coming from you. So this is our birth right because we are coming in the sampradaya of Madhavendra Puri. And this Gauranga Prema Sampradaya, we are the children of Gauranga, we are Gauranga’s children and we are the children of God, our God is Gauranga.
They say, ‘Oh! The children of God’.
So we are the children of God, we are the children of Gauranga. And He is the prema avatara, so if the father is made of prema, then what are the children made of? Prema! Potential, prema potential. The potential to be embodiments of prema is within all the children of the father. So the father is the embodiment, the prema svarupa, the prema avatara. Kali yuga patita pavana avatara, prema purusottoma, prema avatara, prema svarupa. He is a Radha Krsna prema svarupa – Gauranga Mahaprabhu.
So we all have that birth right being born into this family of Gauranga. This is the Gauranga prema sampradaya
TEXT 174
tabe bhattacarya tare ‘sambandha’ kahila
suni’ anandita vipra nacite lagila
SP: Balabhadra Bhattacarya then explained the relationship between
Madhavendra Puri and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. After hearing this, the
brahmana became very pleased and began to dance.
MS: For so many verses we have been learning about eka vipra, this brahmana. So naturally the question is who this brahmana? What is his name? We know where he is, he is a Mathura brahmana. We still don’t know his name actually…
So tabe bhattacarya…who is Balabhadra bhattacarya? Anybody know who he is?
(Someone in audience replies) Yes, very good, thank you. Don’t be shy.
Lord Caitanya went on different tours of India, He came to Vrndavana, He went to South India, here and there, He took Kala Krsnadasa, couple of different servants, so when He came to Vrndavana…
It’s funny when you think about it, if you think about Caintanya’s lila, all of His servants fell into one form of maya or another. Once Balabhadra bhattacarya was in Vrndavana. Of course this is a chapter – Lord Caitanya travels to Vrndavana, now He is just entering Vrndavana, so this is during this lila, during this chapter which is chapter 17 of Madhya lila, verses 156 to 189, so later in this chapter, the same person Balabhadra bhattacarya who is the servant of Lord Caitanya, He fell into illusion, because everyone was saying, “Oh Krsna has reappeared,” it was only 500 years ago, “Krsna has reappeared in the Yamuna and He is dancing on the hoods of Kaliya, every night.” Of course it was a daytime pastime. “He is dancing on the hoods of Kaliya and everyone is going down to the Yamuna to see Him, please everyone come!”
And Balabhadra was asking, “Oh Mahaprabhu! Let’s go! Let’s go! I want to see, Lord Krsna has reappeared and He is dancing on the hoods of Kaliya serpent, on the jeweled hoods of the Kaliya, please let us go there.”
And Lord Caitanya, He slapped him, He said, “You stupid! Why are you so influenced by the voxx populi, there is nowhere in sastra where it says Krsna is going to reappear here in Vrndavana in Kali yuga.”
“No, no, no, everyone all the brajavasis, everyone is talking about it, I don’t want to miss it, it’s a big happening, I don’t want to be left out, please.”
And then some elderly brahmanas from Mathura, brajavasi brahmanas came there to meet Lord Caitanya and they said, “Oh Sri Krsna Caitanya, just hear the news how the foolish people have been bewildered, so many people are going down at night and there is one Muslim fisherman who has come here from Mathura and at 11 o’ clock at night he is out in the middle of the Yamuna in his long black boat which goes like this and goes up on one end and goes up on the other end and the bow and the stern, whatever it is called. And the bow on the front of the boat, hanging on the front of the boat there is a lantern, some kerosene lantern with some red glass giving out some red light and at night he is casting his fishermen’s net into the Yamuna and he is pulling it and he is moving from the front of the boat to the back of the boat, and people who are standing on the shore say, “Look Krsna is going back and forth on the hoods of Kaliya. See the red ruby on the hoods of the serpent and that’s Krsna dancing on the hoods of Kaliya…look, look Krsna Kaliya..’”
So they were telling that actually all it is, is the lantern, the light on the bow of the boat and one fisherman walking back ad forth on the black boat, they mistaking it to be Krsna dancing and Lord Caitanya was laughing, He looked at His servant – “You see! You foolish! You pagala! So you want to go see Krsna?”
“Ok I am sorry.” So the other servant while He was in South India, Kala Krsnadasa, he also got bewildered by the gypsies, bhattatharis, and they took him away so… This seems to be the nature of servants of gurus to become bewildered. Guru’s servants often become bewildered or Krsna’s servants, we have seen that also in Prabhupada’s life, many of his personal servants became bewildered, time to time.
Anyway, so the servant of Lord Caitanya explained, he actually explained because Lord Caitanya is saying, “I guess, Oh brahmana, I think you must have some relationship with Madhavendra Puri,” then Balabhadra said, “Yes” and he then explained the relationship between Madhavendra Puri and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
After hearing this the brahmana became very pleased and began to dance, anandita vipra nacite. So Balabhadra is watching this, Lord Caitanya is saying, “Oh brahmana, you must have some relationship with Madhavendra Puri that’s why you are so ecstatic.” Then Balabhadra could not restrain himself more, he could not keep himself quiet, so he entered into conversation, he said, “Listen brahmana, do you know that this very person who is glorifying you and your connection and relationship with Madhavendra Puri, this great sannyasi, He also has a relationship with that same Madhavendra Puri. He is His parama guru.”
“Oh really! He also knows Madhavendra Puri? Oh Haribol Haribol!”
ananda nacite… he starts dancing in bliss, like you might meet someone somewhere and say, “Where are you from?”
“I am from Detroit.”
“Oh you are from Detroit! Alright, alright!”
You are in some foreign place and you meet someone and say, “Who are you?”
“Oh I am brahmana”
“What is your caste?”
“My caste is kokil.”
“Oh you are kokil! I am kokil also! Haa Hari bol! What branch? What varga?” This that…so many sub branches this and that…
“You are a big kokil or a little kokil?”
“No I am big kokil! Oh you are big, I am also big kokil!”
And they have like sub branches, so many divisions in these varnas…so then…
TEXT 175
tabe vipra prabhure lana aila nija-ghare
apana-icchaya prabhura nana seva kare
SP: The brahmana then took Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to his home and, out of his own free will, began to serve the Lord in various ways.
MS: The brahmana took Mahaprabhu to his home and out of his free will began to serve the Lord in various ways
TEXT 176
bhiksa lagi’ bhattacarye karaila randhana
tabe mahaprabhu hasi’ balila vacana
SP: He asked Balabhadra Bhattacarya to cook Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s lunch. At that time the Lord, smiling, spoke as follows.
MS: The brahmana asked Balabhadra Bhattacarya to cook Mahaprabhu’s lunch. At that time the Lord smiling spoke as follows.
So the Mathura brahmana although he is a brahmana he did not consider himself to have the adhikara or the qualification to cook for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So he asked the personal servant of Lord Caitanya who was also a brahmana. He is a brahmana from Navadvipa – Balabhadra Bhattacarya. Bhattacarya is a proper Bengali name. He asked Bhattacarya, “I will collect the articles, you cook for your Lord.”
At that time the Lord smiling spoke as follows – mahaprabhu hasi’ balila vacana. So Mahaprabhu was smiling hearing this statement
TEXT 177
“puri-gosani tomara ghare karyachena bhiksa
more tumi bhiksa deha,——ei mora ‘siksa’”
SP: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Madhavendra Puri has already taken lunch at your place. Therefore you may cook and give Me the food. That is My instruction.”
MS: Mahaprabhu said, “Madhavendra Puri has already come here to Mathura and taken lunch at your place My dear brahmana, therefore you may cook and give Me My food, that is My instruction.”
So out of deference to Mahaprabhu, understanding that a sannyasi is usually very particular about whose grains he eats. The anna, because in anna is mana. I was just meeting with one person today, because he was asking about who is cooking, he said anna is mana, my one brahmana friend. I went for sadhu sanga this morning.
No collection no distribution, so I also have to collect, if I have to distribute by reading Prabhupada’s books and studying we can distribute. By meeting saintly people and hearing we can also distribute. No collection – If you don’t collect any money how can you distribute it to your wife!
So then I had some sadhu sanga and he was saying, “Who is cooking, who is in you asrama this that…Who is cooking?” I said, “I am cooking”. “Oh very good!” He said, “In anna is mana.”
In the grains is the mind of the person who cooks them. So if you are cooking your own grain your mind is there, so if you are crazy, your food is crazy and you keep eating crazy food and stay crazy. But if you are crazy and you eat from someone who is liberated then you get liberated from your craziness when you eat their prasadam. It is called prema bhoga.
Brajavasis also have these clever poetic statements – tapeswari, rajeswari, narakeswari. Tapeswari, you become a Lord of tapa and austerities and then by tapa phala and the result of all the austerities and tapasya you become a Raja, a big King. Tapeswari – rajeswari and then you live like a King, you eat, dance, sleep, mate, defend, so many enjoyments, women everything, then you got so many sins are there from all your enjoyment then you go to hell, you become Lord of hell, naraka – narkeswari… Tapeswari, rajeswari, narakeswari.
You become a Lord of austerity, then you become a Lord of enjoyment, then you become a Lord of hell. I have been living in Braja and everything has a rhyme and primarily is because this is a quality of Vaisnavas, this poetry, they are poetic – kavi, this is one of the 26 qualities. And moreover they like so much this Rama Carita Manas, these North Indian people, Rama Carita Manas by Santa Tulasidasa – he has compiled this Rama Carita Manas, and that’s Hindi so they like it because it is their language.
It’s all couplets, its all two line verses. And it goes like this dada dada dada bingo…. dada dada dada jingo… dada dada dada vupov.. dada dada dada pupov…so everything is a rhyme, so it is very easy to remember. It is almost childish type rhyming in Hindi. So they read it – it’s like children’s rhyming, very simplistic type poetry and simple Hindi, so they have this way of thinking, so they start speaking like that in their common speech.
Yes, mana is in anna. Of course it is a sutra, it is very short few words but there is much meaning there also, in many ways it is very profound. So it’s a fact – the mind of the cook is in the grains that he prepares.
So knowing that this Mathura brahmana is thinking, “Who am I? I have only met Him briefly just now in the temple, can I be so presumptuous to say, ‘Yes I will cook Your lunch! I have no relationship…’ Although on one level we have such a tight relationship and on another level…on one level I have no long standing relationship with You, I have just only met You. You are a stranger. And it’s not that You have even come to my house, I met You at the temple and I am inviting You for lunch. And I see that You are moving with the servant, You are not moving alone, if You are moving alone then there is no choice, I must cook for You. But You are moving with a servant so that means You have some choice in this matter, that he must be Your sevaite. He must be doing something for You, because You must have this outlook that You want to eat only food from his hand. It’s important for You so how can I crossover that rule and say, ‘Yes I will cook for You.”
Then Lord Caitanya recognizing that the hand of this brahmana is full of prema, the hand of this brahmana is very special, the mind and the heart of this brahmana are very special because he is connected with Madhavendra Puri. Therefore, “Forget the normal rules and regulations. Forget My normal standard. No, no that is alright, don’t worry. Today I will take food from your hand.”
Now this is very interesting when you think about it. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in Jagannatha Puri during the four months of the rainy season, which is July, August, September, October, the devotees – about 200 families would come from Santipura, Ambikalana, Mayapura, Bangladesa, etc, East Bengal and they would spend the entire Caturmasya in Jagannatha Puri. And every single day for 120 days, that’s four months, Lord Caitnaya was accepting invitations in the homes of different brahmanas.
So that’s 200 families in a 120 days, and some days He would go – few days in one house, so not everyone had the opportunity. But He would go to their homes and they would prepare prasadam or bhoga for Him, and they would also collect Jagannatha mahaprasadam to serve Him and that one day in the course of those pastimes He said, “I will not take My food anymore, I would not eat in any grhasta’s house unless he is a lakhpati.” Lakhpati means the father of one lakh or the Lord, pati of one lakh, the possessor or controller of one lakh of rupees, generally it is thought as rupees.
So all the brahmanas started crying, because Laksmi devi has cursed the brahamanas not to be very rich, of course if they stop being brahmanas then they can be rich. So many of the so-called brahmanas in Kali yuga, they are wealthy very, very wealthy because they are doing hook or crook business. When they do hook or crook business although they have brahmana gotra, they are brahmana by birth, then they get very wealthy. But they actually live as a brahmana and perform the sadkarmas of a brahmana – patan, patana, yajan, yajana, dana, patigraha… sadkarma nipuna vipro.
So the vipra, vipra must be nipuna, nipuna means very expert, very expert in sadkarma, six activities, six functions – patan, patana, yajan, yajana, dana, patigraha. Studying the bhagavata and teaching others bhagavata, patan, patana. yajan, yajana – he must be very expert in the svaha business – “Svaha, idam tanan tad visnu, svaha, svaha!” and pouring the ghee and throwing the grains in all this stuff and jnasa and mudra and all these things. And then that’s called doing this yajna puja then teaching others – homa, yajna, arcana, yajan yajana then dana, patigraha – he receives donations, collections, dana, then he distributes charity. He runs a big annaksetra in his mandira, he distributes free food everyday to all the visitors to Balaji, there is so much free kicri everyday. So patigraha, so he distributes annaksetra, then he does vidyadana, he has a Sanskrit school teaching Sanskrit, so much money he collects and gives it in charity.
A true brahmana collects a million dollars in the morning in charity and by sunset he has distributed it. He doesn’t keep, doesn’t retain one phi with him, one phi means one-tenth of a rupee or something, it is very insignificant. But nowadays a brahmana collects a lakh of rupees by noon, buys gold and sells it by evening and makes three lakhs. So it’s different types of brahmanas.
But there Lord Caitanya said, “You must chant one lakh.” So they are thinking, ‘We have been cursed by Laksmi, we don’t have 1 lakh, we don’t have 1 lakh of chickpeas in our house, what to speak of rupees! And You wont come to our house, You won’t accept an invitation at our house for prasadam or bhoga unless we have 1 lakh of rupees.”
So He said, “No, no you don’t understand, one lakh means one lakh of holy names. So any grhastas who chant 64 rounds a day, I will come to his house, so that was the requirement.” And recently I heard one acarya explaining, very interesting that, “Many Gaudiya Vaisnava acaryas commenting on this section of Caitanya Bhagavat say this one lakh can have different meanings – it can mean one lakh which is 64 rounds,” actually it is not 64, it is 59 rounds, it is hundred thousand names.
64 rounds is about 108,000 names. I guess a few extra in case you missed a few…generally they say 64 rounds is one lakh. Anyway, so some acaryas are saying, “This statement of Lord Caitanya eka lakh means eka laksana, the word is eka laksa, laksa means laksana – characteristics or quality and they are giving a commentary that chanting is not quantity, it is quality. That the chanting of the holy name the japa, the kirtana, the sankirtana whatever. In this case they say 64 rounds or whatever the rounds are, there should be one quality to those rounds, eka laksana.
Because Lord Caitanya said eka laksana, should be one quality on all those rounds, whether you chant one round or 128 rounds or 192 rounds like Haridasa Thakura, all those rounds should have one quality, that’s purity of purpose. ‘I am only chanting for the pleasure of Krsna, for His service. All I want is His service. I am His servant, I don’t want anything, I am chanting with pure faith and pure surrender, this quality.’”
So this is a very interesting comment on eka laksana.
So now that was the demand that Lord Caitanya was making in Puri, that “I will not come,” and these were His own devotees. These were known people to Him, He knew who they were. Some of them were His relatives and very intimate friends from Navadvipa and Santipura and Ambikakalana, Advaita Acarya’s family – Sita and Advaita and Sivananda Sen, they were family friends.
But He made this demand one lakh a day – “You chant one lakh and I will come to Your house and eat.”
Now here He shows up in Mathura in the Kesavaji mandira and He meets an unknown brahmana and at this point of the story we don’t even know what his name is! And He is saying, “I will take food from your hand!” He didn’t even ask him if he chanted his 16 rounds. Did you chant your 16 rounds today? He didn’t even ask him if he chants any rounds. He just saw, “You are connected with Madhavendra Puri, Ok fine that’s enough for Me.”
He didn’t say, “Do you follow the four regulative principles? Do you have a Diety in your house?” Of course it is obvious that if he is a brahmana, he must have some saligrama, there is no such thing as brahmana without a saligrama, so that’s a Diety, automatic Diety, so that’s understood. But He didn’t ask him, “Are you chanting so many rounds? Are chanting one lakh?”
He didn’t make any demands. “Are you chanting one lakh?” “No.” “Ok I am not coming.”
“Oh I already understand you have a connection with Madhavendra puri that’s sufficient for Me, ok I will take from your hand, I will take food from your hand, because I understand your consciousness. I understand the extent of your connection with divinity, how much connected you are with Madhavendra Puri. That purity, that love is in your heart, so that purity, that love will be in your hand, so that purity and love will be in your bhoga that you offer to Me. So that I want. I want the purity of your mind and the love of your heart because that purity, that love will come into the food you prepare and that’s what I am looking for”
yo me bhaktya prayacchati – I accept the bhakti, the devotion and you have it and I am greedy to taste your love. So He is saying, “You may cook” more tumhi biksa deha, biksa means My begging food, like madhukari. Tumhi biksha deha – better for you to cook.
So this is the instruction Lord Caitanya has given him and tomorrow we will hear more of this story of Lord Caitanya taking prasadam from the Sanodiya Brahmana in Mathura.