So Chota Haridasa went to the lower court and his case was rejected and took the higher court and then the devotees…
Then Lord Caitanya said, “Listen if you keep pressing this case of Chota Haridasa then I am leaving here forever, I am leaving Jagannatha Puri, I am going out to the jungle.”
It was quite a jungle in those days. Even now it’s quite a remote area, it’s about 45 minutes from Jagannatha Puri out on the country side. “I am going to Alalanatha and I will stay there quietly and do my bhajana.”
So then everyone left and Paramananda Puri, who is actually Uddhava, he came over there and he tried to petition. That’s high court petition.
He tried to petition on behalf of Chota Haridasa and he was not successful. That when Lord Caitanya, when Paramananda Puri said, “Listen why don’t You forgive Chota Haridasa”, then Lord Caitanya said, “Listen Paramananda, you are like My guru, you are disciple of Madhavendra Puri, you are just like My guru, like Iswara Puri, and like My senior, but listen, if you continue to press this point I am leaving immediately.”
So of course, Paramananda Puri, persuaded in a sit-down. He said “You are svatantra Iswara, my Lord, You are totally independent, You can do whatever You want, what can we say to check You. Ultimately everything You do is for the benefit of the people. Even if we can’t understand, Your intentions are very deep and grave.”
Then all the devotees went to see Junior Haridasa.
Text 142
prabhu yadi yana jagannatha-darasane
dure rahi’ haridasa karena darsane
SP: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to see Lord Jagannatha in the temple, Haridasa would stay a long distance away and see Him.
MS: Next day Mahaprabhu went to take darsana of Lord Jagannatha in the temple. Haridasa entered the temple but he kept himself at a great distance and gazed at Lord Caitanya.
Text 143
mahaprabhu——krpa-sindhu, ke pare bujhite?
priya bhakte danda karena dharma bujhaite
SP: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the ocean of mercy. Who can understand Him? When He chastises His dear devotees, He certainly does so to reestablish the principles of religion or duty.
MS: Mahaprabhu is a krpa sindhu, ocean of mercy. Who can understand Him (hari bhujite)? When Mahaprabhu chastises His dear devotees, He certainly does so to reestablish the principles of religious duty, priya bhakte danda. So Chota Haridasa was a priya bhakta, but he got the danda. It doesn’t mean he was awarded sannyasa, sannyasa danda. It means he was beaten, by the neglect of Mahaprabhu, it was a type of beating.
Here is the purport. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says in this connection that Mahaprabhu was an ocean of mercy, He chastised Junior Haridasa although he was a priya bhakta, very dear devotee in order to establish that one in the devotional line, engaged in pure devotional service, should not be a hypocrite, means preaching or saying one thing and doing another thing.
For a person engaged in devotional service in the renounced order, vairagi, having intimate relationships with women is certainly hypocrisy.
This chastisement was given to Junior Haridasa as an example to future sahajiyas who might adopt the dress of the renounced order to imitate Rupa Gosvami – that means, dress like a babaji, – and other bona fide sannyasis but secretly have illicit connections with women. To teach such men, Mahaprabhu chastised His dear devotee Haridasa for a slight deviation from the regulative principles.
Srimati Madhavi devi, whom he begged rice from was a highly elevated devotee; therefore approaching her to ask for some rice for the service of Mahaprabhu was certainly not very offensive.
Nevertheless, just to preserve the regulative principles for the future, Mahaprabhu enforced the hard-and-fast rule that no one in the renounced order should intimately mix with women.
Text 144
dekhi’ trasa upajila saba bhakta-gane
svapne-ha chadila sabe stri-sambhasane
SP: After all the devotees saw this example, a mentality of fear grew among them. Therefore they all stopped talking with women, even in dreams.
MS: After the devotees saw this example, a mentality of fear grew among them. Therefore they all stopped talking with women, even in dreams.
Now these devotees are extremely good yogis, because they can control not only their conscious life but their unconscious life. Usually it is very difficult to control, practically impossible to control our conscious life, what to speak of our unconscious life! When we sleep at night and dream, our dreams take us where they want to go. We are the bound passenger on the dream boat of our mind. So we must go wherever the mind carries us.
But these devotees were somehow great yogis that could control their dreams and if some woman would come into their dream they would just take mauna, they might see their mother in their dream but they wouldn’t talk to her, their sister might appear in their dream and they (silent) they wouldn’t even talk in their dream.
In connection with stri-sambhasana, talking with women, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura says that talking with women for the purpose of mingling with them for sense gratification, subtle or gross, is strictly prohibited. So mingling for sense gratification, “Oh hello, didn’t you go to so and so university?” “Oh yes, this that” Small talk, in other words, picking up women or men, just to have small-talk as a prelude to some more intimate relationship, obviously this is the preliminary to more advanced actions of sense gratification. So this preliminary action of stri-smabhasane for the purpose of enjoying is highly discouraged and prohibited for serious devotees.
Canakya Pandita, the great moral instructor, says, matr-vat para-daresu. Thus not only a person in the renounced order but anyone engaged in devotional service, everyone should avoid mingling with women. One should consider another’s wife his mother.
matr-vat para-daresu… Daresu means someone’s wife, should be considered mother.
Text 145
ei-mate haridasera eka vatsara gela
tabu mahaprabhura mane prasada nahila
SP: In this way a complete year passed for Junior Haridasa, but still there was not a sign of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy toward him.
MS: An entire year had passed. After this incident of being banished from the association of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Chota Haridasa passed one year and there was no sign of change in Mahaprabhu’s mercy towards Chota Haridasa.
Text 146
ratri avasese prabhure dandavat hana
prayagete gela kareha kichu na baliya
SP: Thus at the end of one night, Junior Haridasa, after offering Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu his respectful obeisances, departed for Prayaga without saying anything to anyone.
MS: At the end of one night, after one year, Junior Haridasa, after offering Mahaprabhu his respectful obeisances, then he departed for Prayaga without saying anything to anyone.
Text 147
prabhu-pada-prapti lagi’ sankalpa karila
triveni pravesa kari’ prana chadila
SP: Junior Haridasa had conclusively decided to attain shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Thus he entered deep into the water at Triveni, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna at Prayaga, and in this way gave up his life.
MS: Junior Haridasa had conclusively decided to attain shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Very interested way, sankalpa, this is a very common word and concept in the Indian culture, vedic culture, sankalpa. All of our desires and ambitions are rolled into one, sama, san-kalpa. Everything is concentrated; all of our thoughts and conceptions, and desires and ambitions are condensed and concentrated into one thought, one desire, sankalpa.
At that particular moment, at the moment of doing a puja, or at the time of performing an austerity or tapasya or fasting, before beginning our Kartika vrata we make a sankalpa, which is a one month vrata. Before beginning the ekadasi vrata, we make what is called a sankalpa.
This is actually required according to the law of sastra, to make a sankalpa which in English is generally translated as a resolution, we resolve… we make a commitment or resolution, sankalpa. “My dear Lord Damodara, I am going to, with Your grace, try to observe this Kartika vrata for Your pleasure and I am performing a sankalapa that if You are pleased with this performance of Kartika vrata, my sankalpa is that You please reveal the 11 symptoms of my siddha deha.” This is the example of a sankalpa, quite a high caliber sankalpa.
And sometimes we say, “My dear Lord, I am performing this dhaampati vrata on Bahulastami with my wife and we are fasting all day and we will go at midnight to Radha kunda, my wife and I, dhaampati vrata, and we will worship Radha kunda and Syama kunda and my sankalpa, my resolution, my desire is that You please, by performing this austerity, by fasting and bathing at midnight to honour this Radha kunda avirbhava, You will bless my wife and I with a son, a child. This is my sankalpa, my affirmation.”
So this is the principle of sankalpa. It is something that we desire to attain, to improve our… sometimes there is material sankalpa and then there is spiritual sankalpa. Because it is said that if we just jump into some austerity without sankalpa, then there is really no phala. It is sankalpa, then kriya, then phala. Kriya, means the action, like we have kriya yoga. There is some particular result. There is desire, there is activity, there is result.
We have desire, I want a degree in medicine. I want to be a doctor. Then there is an action, I go to college.
Then there is result. I get a degree, I become a doctor.
So devotees don’t want anything but more service. Service, more service, more service. So we want more purity so we can do better service. So here Srila Prabhupada translates sankalpa as conclusive decision, in other words you conclusively decide what you want before you engage in a particular activity, sankalpa… sankalpa karila…
prabhu-pada-prapti lagi’ sankalpa karila
So he made a sankalpa, a resolution, an affirmation, Chota Haridasa made a sankalpa karila. What was Chota Haridasa’s sankalpa? His sankalpa was mahaprabhu-pada-prapti, prabhu-pada-prapti. That sounds like a good sankalpa, especially for disciples of Srila Prabhupada.
Prapti means to acquire, to attain, to reach, to see, to meet, to serve eternally. Of course this is not referring to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, but Mahaprabhu-pada. Prabhu means Mahaprabhu, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, pada means His feet.
prabhu-pada-prapti lagi’ sankalpa karila
Chota Haridasa made a sankalpa. “My dear Lord, I am about to do some type of austerity,” some type of fasting, I am about to give some charity, I am about to perform a parikrama, I am about to go on a tirtha-yatra for one month, I am about to do some activity, some kriya, “but before I do that I am going to make a sankalpa to You. Please listen to my sankalpa which I will speak out loud – I am going to perform this activity, but my sankalpa is that I want this result, this phala.”
“By doing this activity, I want You to please bless me that lagi, I will attain the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This is what I want. So to attain this I am going to perform this activity.”
Then we will find out the activity that he performed in order to try to fulfill his desired sankalpa. Is it clear?
Junior Haridasa, made a sankalpa. He decided conclusively, to attain the shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In other words, as I mentioned, sama, means all or everything and kalpa means his dream, his imagination, his aspiration, his desire.
vancha kalpa taru bhayas cha
kripa sindhu bhaya eva cha
… kalpa… desire tree.
So he collected all of his thoughts, he collected all of his desires, he collected all of his ambitions, he concentrated them and he collected them into one. There was not a second one, which is practically impossible, if you think of ourselves…
We have one desire and many other desires. So many desires! Bahusakha! So many desires…So he had only one – prabhu-pada-prapti lagi’ sankalpa karila
The only thing in his mind, the only thing in Chota’s heart, the only desire and ambition he had, was to attain the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
This is certainly a most desirable sankalpa and in our case, let us first attain the lotus feet of Prabhupada, our Prabhupada and first Prabhupada and then Mahaprabhu-pada. Because without guru there is no Gauranga. Right? Gurukrpa gives us Gauranga. So the guru, Yadunandana gave his krpa to Dasa Gosvami, to Raghunatha. And then Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, got the shelter of Nityananda. And then Nityananda guru gave his mercy to him and he got the shelter of Sri Caitanya in Puri.
So by the mercy of guru, one gets guru tattva and then… because guru represents guru tattva. So Yadunandana guru gave Nityananda guru, and then Nityananda guru gave Gauranga, then Gauranga gave him Rupa and Sanatana and Rupa and Sanatana gave him Radha and Krsna’s nitya seva. It is like this and it will be like that for everyone.
rupa-raghunatha pade, haibe akuti,
kabe hama bujhabo, sri yugala-piriti
So his sankalpa was only this. I am going to do something very grave and I am going to do some very serious austerities here, I am going to stop reading the newspapers for the whole month of Kartika! Haribol! So these are the types of rigid austerities that are performed in the age of Kali, and nowadays that’s impossible, to even entertain such a rigid austerity now.
But now the greatest austerity would be to leave the cell phone off for 24 hours! This would be an inconceivable mahatapa! This would be one of the most difficult, rigorous austerities that the human being could even conceive of – is to leave the cell phone completely off, black, sleeping for 24 hours non-stop, anyone who can do that, they are guaranteed to go back to Godhead! (Everyone laughs)
We laugh, but probably the ones who are laughing are the ones who can’t do it! Nokia-vada ki Jai!
We have venu-vada, the sound of the venu… we have Nokia-vada… the gopis would hear venu vada, they would hear the sound of Krsna’s venu, or murli vada, we say murli vadana, vadana means His face, He would put the murli to His lips and He would vibrate them, the murli vada, the sound of the murli, and the gopis would go crazy, they would drop everything else and run to Krsna to dance with Him in the middle of the night.
So we have Nokia vada, we hear the Nokia vada, we drop whatever we are doing, we run to the cell phone and pick it up!
He has made his sankalpa, and what was his sankalpa? He went to Prayaga, where there is the Triveni – Ganga, Saraswati, Yamuna, and he went out to the middle, the confluence, where these 3 rivers join together, of course the Saraswati is underground, but one can see the dark waters of the Yamuna, mixing with the lighter color waters of the Ganga, at the Triveni, it’s very beautiful to see how the 2 beautiful rivers Gangadevi and Yamunadevi meet there at the Triveni, 2 sisters meeting together harmoniously and then he went there, he entered very deeply into the water and in this way he committed suicide. He gave up his life.
He said, “My dear Lord, my dear Caitanya Mahaprabhu, You have denied me Your association. This is Your lila, You are svatantra iswara, this is Your icha, this is Your will, Thy will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name… so I hope to attain Thy kingdom and my sankalpa is, all I want to attain, prabhu-pada-prapti lagi’, all I want to attain is the lotus feet of prabhu-pada, the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu, rasaraja-mahabhava, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So to do this, I am giving everything I have.”
We have this expression in English – “Prabhu you should give it ‘everything you have’, give your full energy, give your full enthusiasm to this service which has been given to you by guru and Krsna. Don’t hold back. Why are you holding back? Why are you keeping something in reserve? Give everything. You are too attached to give everything? You are afraid you will lose something if you give something to guru and Krsna? You will lose the sense of possessiveness? Lose the sense of self control? Lose the sense of being God if you surrender unequivocally and absolutely to guru’s will and give everything to his service?”
So Haridasa is showing, he says, mano, kayo, vakya, mind, words, body, all I have is this skin and bones and mind and intelligence. I am sacrificing it all on the altar of surrender. I am giving it my all, I am giving Mahaprabhu my everything. I am not holding anything back. I am not holding my body back, my mind back, my thoughts, I am throwing my whole body into the water and the only thought on my mind when I leave my body is Sri Caitanya-carana, the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Text 148
sei-ksane divya-dehe prabhu-sthane aila
prabhu-krpa pana antardhanei rahila
SP: Immediately after committing suicide in this way, he went in his spiritual body to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and received the mercy of the Lord. However, he still remained invisible.
MS: Immediately after committing suicide in this way, he went in his spiritual body to Mahaprabhu and received the mercy of the Lord. However, he still remained invisible.
Sei-ksane, in a moment. So generally, when a devotee… not a devotee, when a person commits suicide, he becomes a ghost. Because their suicide is not part of God’s lila, it is their free will and choice, which is most sinful and they get the reaction by spending the balance of their allotted time in the ghostly form. Then they go on to various hells for judgment about their sins.
But he, after giving up, divya-dehe prabhu-sthane aila, he got a divya deha, a spiritual body, antardhana, he remained invisible. He went in his spiritual body to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
So his sadhaka rupa, or his body as Chota Haridasa, was utilized in the service of the Lord, he executed the service of the Lord, his last service was to bring very fine quality rice for Bhagawan Acarya to cook for the pleasure of the Lord, that one service itself is perfection.
If we can render one service which gives pleasure either to the devotee or to the Lord, then our perfection if guaranteed – Just one service.
So of course he rendered so many services, because we all remember in the description of the character of Chota Haridasa, it says he was a kirtaniya, he was a great kirtana leader. And he would regularly sing in the kirtana parties in Jagannatha mandira and on this particular occasion, a year before this, he was invited by Bhagavan Acarya to sing for the pleasure of Lord Caitanya in his house as a kirtana leader. So he rendered so many wonderful services.
He taught a very important lesson about detachment and renunciation and association and that was his mission and that was his utilization, that was his utility as a principal. That was the principal of his existence. And he satisfied the Lord and he fulfilled His mission and so there was no need to continue, and so the Lord arranged for him to give up his body.
But then in his spiritual body he went to the nitya lila of the Lord and engaged there. It is called aprakata lila. There is prakata lila and aprakat. Prakata lila is manifest and aprakata lila is unmanifest.
Lord is manifest in this world, and he is also in the spiritual world in aprakata lila. So this is what is being told here. Divya deha, he went antar-dhanei, invisible, because aprakata lila is invisible.
Aprakata lila is going on now, today, in Vrndavana, 5500 years ago the prakata lila was going on in Vrndavan and everyone could see Krsna in Vrndavana – prakata lila, but now Krsna is not apparently in Vrndavana so it’s called aprakata lila.
So this is called antardhanei, he was not visible to anyone on this plane of prakata lila because he was in aprakata lila.
He went in his spiritual body to Mahaprabhu and received the mercy of the Lord. However, he still remained invisible.
Text 149
gandharva-dehe gana karena antardhane
ratrye prabhure sunaya gita, anye nahi jane
SP: In a spiritual body resembling that of a Gandharva, Junior Haridasa, although invisible, would sing at night for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to hear. No one but the Lord, however, knew of this.
MS: In a spiritual body resembling that of a Gandharva, Junior Haridasa, although invisible, would sing at night for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. No one but the Lord, however, knew of this.
So there are some different explanations I have heard about this group of verses. What I explained is one explanation – divya dehe. That is transcendental body and he entered lila because he is an eternal associate, Chota Haridasa and that’s of course correct.
And another meaning of the celestial body is gandharvas. Gandharvas are an equivalent of the Christian conception of an angel. Angel has a human form – has legs, chest and arms and face, everything like a human being, but tacked on to the back of this human being are 2 wings, like the traditional, proverbial angel and they fly around. But as everyone knows gandharvas are very expert.
They live on gandharva-loka, which is not very far away from the earth, sometimes they say the music of the spheres, some special beings they hear celestial music or celestial singing, sometimes in altered states of consciousness, sometimes people are very highly attuned to such subtleties of the world, psychics are mediums, etc. and sometimes very highly realized souls connect with these different planes of existence, the subtle existence.
(Wind chime rings in the background)
I think we are hearing the music of the gandharvas, or is it a wind chime? I think it’s a wind chime. I am hearing a wind chime. I think you may be hearing Chota Haridasa singing for Lord Caitanya.
But anyway, so another explanation is that Chota Haridasa attained a celestial body, because he was a kirtaniya, he was a singer, he was singing here in the lila of Lord Caitanya, the Puri lila.
So then he gave up this body. So the general flow or reaction when someone gives up their body is that they attain a subtle body, but generally is it a subtle body in the mode of ignorance, which is a ghost. A subtle body in the mode of ignorance is a bhoot, or preta or ghost. But a subtle body in the mode of goodness, or let’s say, passion or goodness can be a gandharva. And a subtle body in a high level of goodness would be a rsi in Tapaloka, they are in pure goodness. Not visudha sattva, that’s spiritual; but pure goodness, very high sattvika guna, they are also living in subtle bodies, like Brahma and all these different beings.
So the subtle body of Brahma is practical all buddhi, intelligence. So these gandharvas they have subtle bodies, and it’s not like – some people say it was a ghost, it’s not a ghost, it’s a gandharva.
Ghost is subtle body, but pervaded by tama-guna, they do all kinds of mischief and tamasika things. But the gandharvas have a subtle body where they do all passionate and good things. They dance for the demigods and they sing and do nice services. Because they are good guys, good subtle bodies, because they are in the mode of goodness and passion also.
But the ghosts, the bhoots and pretas, they are bad guys. They are in tama-guna. Usually people in tama-guna do lots of dark things, ignorant things, intoxicated things. And they deal with liquor and meat and all these things, and so do ghosts, they have some interaction with these types of things.
So divya dehe is sometimes described to mean that he attained the form of a gandharva, which is a very subtle form, some people can see, generally not and he would come regularly and sing for Lord Caitanya. I think you may have seen the picture in Caitanya Caritamrta there is a winged creature hovering in the sky above Lord Caitanya – a very beautiful picture.
So it says here, in a spiritual body resembling that of a gandharva, Junior Haridasa, although invisible would sing at night for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to hear. No one but the Lord however, knew this. So what this means is, this is his nitya seva, in his siddha deha he is a singer in the kirtana party of Lord Caitanya, in nitya Navadvipa
And when Lord Caitanya came to this world, he was also singing for Him in Puri. Then he served the function of teaching the story about renunciation and association with stri-sangha. And then that lesson was taught and he gave up the body that taught that lesson. Then again he assumed a body to sing for the Lord and he does this eternally, singing in the Lord’s kirtana party, this is his nitya seva.
Whatever form he is in, he serves.
Text 150
eka-dina mahāprabhu puchilā bhakta-gaṇe
‘haridāsa kāṅhā? tāre ānaha ekhāne’
SP: One day Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired from the devotees, “Where is Haridāsa? Now you may bring him here.”
MS: One day Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired from the devotees, “Where is Haridāsa? Now you may bring him here.”
Just see this… svatantra iswara, the supremely independent Lord, one year and a few days have gone by and all the devotees gave up everything about him and there was no more sight of Chota Haridasa in Jagannatha Puri. No one knew where he went because he left in the dead of night, not informing anyone. And he peacefully and silently and quietly went off to Prayaga, took a sankalpa, gave up his life at Triveni and attained a form to continue serving the Lord because this form, the form that he was in, he wasn’t pleasing the Lord.
So he said, “What good is this form? I can’t please the Lord in this form. I want to sing for my Lord. My service is to sing for my Lord but He is not accepting this form. So let me adopt another form which I can utilize to sing for the Lord. This form is useless, let me just throw it away, this is a good place to throw it away, I will throw it in the Ganga, I will consecrate my body in the waves of the Ganga at Triveni and then I can get purified of that activity by this prayascita or atonement, which of course is mentioned in the sastras, which is not delineated here. But that is prescribed atonement for such a transgression of dharmic codes, but that is not explained as I said.
His main concern was not prayascita or doing atonement. His main concern was seva. Seva, seva seva… “This is my service to the Lord Caitanya – to sing everyday in the kirtanas in Jagannatha Puri. And in this body he doesn’t want to see me, and if he doesn’t want to see me, naturally he doesn’t want to hear my kirtana. So why live? What is the purpose of living without service?”
Like we often say that life without love is not worth living. So that’s what Chota Haridasa thought. He said, “What’s life? I am a devotee. You take away seva, then I am dead.”
Devotee means a serving instrument, a unit of dedication, a unit of service. If I have no service, I might as well be dead. What’s point dragging these bones around and feeding them? Isn’t it?
Seva is everything, seva is life, jeevan, mora prana-dhana. Everything, mora prana-dhana seva. Seva means love, Seva means Krsna, Seva means bhakti. This is pani, (33.10 min) forget it.
So now Lord Caitanya says, “Oh where is Haridasa? Has anyone seen Haridasa? Well now you could bring him here.”
Text 151
sabe kahe,–‘haridāsa varsa-pūrna dine
rātre uthi kāṅhā gelā, keha nāhi jāne”
SP: The devotees all replied, “One night at the end of a full year, Junior Haridāsa got up and went away. No one knows where he has gone.”
MS: “One night at the end of a full year, Haridāsa got up and went away. No one knows where he has gone.”
Text 152
śuni’ mahāprabhu īṣat hāsiyā rahilā
saba bhakta-gana mane vismaya ha-ilā
SP: While hearing the devotees lament, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was mildly smiling. Thus all the devotees were very astonished.
MS: While hearing the devotees were vismaya, surprised and lamenting, Mahāprabhu was hāsiyā, īsat hāsiyā, He was slightly smiling. Thus all the devotees were very astonished and surprised, vaisnavera kriya mudra is very difficult to understand the mind of a Vaisnava, what to speak of the mind of the Lord of the Vaisnavas, Who is Visnu, Visnu-mana, what is the mind of Visnu? Very, very difficult to understand.
The devotees are crying, they are astonished and their Lord is smiling. Because He knows something that they don’t know.
Test 153
eka-dina jagadānanda, svarūpa, govinda
kāśīśvara, śankara, dāmodara, mukunda
samudra-snāne gelā sabe, śune katho dūre
haridāsa gāyena, yena dāki’ kaṇtha-svare
SP: One day Jagadānanda, Svarūpa, Govinda, Kāśīśvara, Śankara, Dāmodara and Mukunda all went to bathe in the sea. They could hear Haridāsa singing from a distant place as if calling them in his original voice.
MS: One day Jagadānanda, Svarūpa, Govinda, Kāśīśvara, Śankara, Dāmodara and Mukunda all went to bathe in the sea. Then, while they were bathing, they heard the singing of Haridāsa as if calling them in his original voice.
(sings)Braja dhama may call you
Anytime anyplace
Braja dhama is an enchanting, mystical place, it is beautiful to see, it is beautiful to hear, it is beautiful to touch, it is beautiful to remember, it is beautiful to live in, it is beautiful to swim in, it is beautiful to be in. Vrndavana dhama ki jai!
So the devotees say, “Hey wait a minute! Mukunda! Did you hear that? Govinda, did you hear that? Kāśīśvara!”
“Yes! Oh that can’t be anyone else but, that must be Haridasa! This is the alankara.” (sings…Hare Krsna…) Something like that, not exactly like that, but so, they said, “listen that must be Haridasa singing, I can hear him!”
“Where? Where? We are surrounded by water and sky everywhere, I don’t see Haridasa.”
“Mukunda, Govinda, Svarūpa, Kāśīśvara, where is Haridasa? I don’t see, but I can hear him.”
“Are we going crazy or we had too much mahaprasadam for lunch or what? What happened? We are hearing things… wait a minute, I am hearing voices.”
When people get cracked and they go crazy, they hear voices. Waah waah waah… ha! They go to the psychologist and say, “My dear doctor, wherever I turn I hear a funny sound! Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama…I am sitting in my room in my office. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna…Then I go to the temple, I hear – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna… I go to the prasadam room, there is a tape playing Hare Krsna Hare Krsna… I go on the streets, there are some strange people walking the streets – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna … everywhere I go, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna …” “Well that’s ok, just relax, pretty soon you will have a shaved head!” (laughs) so this is how people go crazy for Krsna.
So this amazing, they are swimming in the ocean and being serenaded all at the same time; it’s like a water-proof walkman. Pretty good, listen to stereo singing while you are swimming in Jagannatha Puri. Put on your favorite cassettes of Srila Prabhupada, ride the waves…
Text 155
manusya nā dekhe–madhura gīta-mātra śune
govindādi sabe meli’ kaila anumāne
SP: No one could see him, but they could hear him singing in a sweet voice. Therefore all the devotees, headed by Govinda, made this guess.
MS: No one could see him – manusya nā dekhe, but they could hear him singing madhura gīta-mātra – very, very sweet singing, in a sweet voice. Therefore all the devotees, headed by Govinda, made this guess, anumāne.
Text 156
‘visādi khāsā haridāsa ātma-ghāta kaila
sei pāpe jāni ‘brahma-rāksasa’ haila
SP: Haridāsa must have committed suicide by drinking poison, and because of this sinful act, he has now become a brāhmaṇa ghost.
MS: This is what they guessed. Haridāsa must have committed suicide by drinking visa, poison, ‘visādi khāsā and because of this sinful act, he has now become a brahma-rāksasa, brāhmana ghost. So that is what they are guessing.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja is saying divya-dehe prabhu-sthane, divya-dehe he attained transcendental body. Nitya siddha, siddha deha, divya deha, and they are saying, “I think he became a brahma-rāksasa.”
So you can see the misconception, even in the sangha of devotees there is some misconception. This is Svarūpa Damodara, it is Govinda, Kāśīśvara, Mukunda dasa, who is Mukunda dasa? Vrnda-devi.
They have all gathered together in the ocean, they are swimming and they are hearing the voice of Chota… “Ohh, what do you think?” “Ah, he took some poison. He ate a bunch of rat poison, he died and because it is suicide he became a Brahma-raksasa.”
Because he was a Brahmin, most of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s associates are Brahmin, so he was a Brahmin. And he committed suicide so he became a raksasa.
So that’s what they are thinking. What’s the fact? He got a job with Citibank, he got a good job, he is working, he is maintaining his family, and doing his bhakti.
No, he got his divya deha and he was doing his nitya seva, singing for the pleasure of the Lord!
So on one side, he is perfectly situated, perfectly engaged in the service of the Lord and the society and devotees are saying he is a brahma-raksasa! Can you imagine? It is very interesting – societal comment in the vaisnava raja sabha, in the association of the Vaisnavas, even 500 years ago, there is misconception.
I am just reading the book. And it is there, what does it say?
sei pāpe jāni, they thought he was a papi, he became a ‘brahma-rākṣasa’ – that’s the Bengali, English is quite exactly correct.
Is that the fact? No. That means that Sankara, Kāśīśvara, Svarūpa, Jagadānanda Pandit, Govinda, Dāmodara and Mukunda, who are all Brahmins, and they are all eternal associates of the Lord, they are subject to mistake? They can make miscalculation? They can make misjudgments? What about us? We are all eternal associates of the Lord? We are all Brahmins? To err is human. To make mistake. Many interesting lessons, hm?
They were thinking one thing, the fact is another thing.
So we are subject to misconception. Misconception is one of the 18 coverings of the conditioned soul, of course these aren’t conditioned souls, but they are showing something about ourselves, it is for our teaching.
We are subject to misconception. We make faulty judgments. Imperfect senses, remember we all have 4 defects, remember? We tend to forget our defects. We have imperfect senses, tendency to be in illusion, the cheating propensity and the tendency to make mistakes.
They went on to postulate –
Text 157
ākāra nā dekhi, mātra śuni tāra gāna’
svarūpa kahena,–“ei mithyā anumāna
SP: “We cannot see his material form,” they said, “but still we hear his sweet singing. Therefore he must have become a ghost.” Svarūpa Dāmodara, however, protested, “This is a false guess.
MS: They are all talking like this, “We cannot see his material form, nevertheless we are still hearing the sweet singing of Chota Haridasa. He must have become a ghost.” Because you can’t see ghosts, but sometimes they do things in this world, they move bricks across the room, or they play the piano, or they turn on the light switch, or they push you down the stairs. They have some powers. Different ghosts have different powers. They can move objects in this world.
So Svarūpa Dāmodara, protested, “Hey, this is all false, all your guessing is a misconception.”
So Svarūpa Dāmodara, who is Lalita sakhi, is the guru of Radharani, Svarūpa Dāmodara is the guru of all the associates of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, siksa guru, he is setting things right.
So in any sangha of devotees, there must be one wise person to consult. So maybe 5-10 devotees get together and say, “Yes, yes, lets condemn him, lets hang him, he is wrong, he is a demon, caste him from the society!” And then some wise person comes and says, “Wait a minute, gentlemen. You are completely wrong – Every single one of you. The sum total of your perception is faulty. This is the truth.”
So fortunately, Krsna arranges, there are some balanced, perceptive, compassionate and wise saints in the world to adjust things correctly when the masses become deluded by misconception because there is a general tendency of the living entity for delusion, self delusion and cheating. We cheat ourselves and we cheat others and then all the cheaters get together and create a cheating philosophy.
But since the beginning of time, the wise men have always walked the planet Earth to set everything straight. This is the mercy of God, saktyavesa avatara.
kali-kalera dharma—-
krsna-nama-sankirtana
krsna-sakti vina nahe
tara pravartana
To establish the sankirtana movement and prema dharma of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one has to have Krsna sakti, the mercy and power of Krsna. Without the potency of Krsna sakti, who is Krsna sakti? Radha. Sarva sakti mayi Radha…
Prem se kaho, Sri Radhe!
This is Radharani’s month, this is Radharani’s place, this is Radharani’s dhama, Vrndavana, what is the name of Vrndavana? Sri-dhama.
So Svarūpa Dāmodara is saying, “Listen you are wrong, everyone is wrong. Although you are all Brahmins, you are all very wise.”
Text 158
ājanma kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, prabhura sevana
prabhu-kṛpā-pātra, āra kṣetrera maraṇa
SP: “Junior Haridāsa chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra throughout his entire life and served the Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Moreover, he is dear to the Lord and has died in a holy place.”
MS: “Junior Haridāsa”, said Svarupa Damodara, “chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra throughout his entire life and served the Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Moreover, he is dear to the Lord and has died in a holy place.”
So divya dehe, means the first explanation I gave. It is siddha deha.
Text 159
durgati nā haya tāra, sad-gati se haya
prabhu-bhaṅgī ei, pāche jānibā niścaya”
SP: “Haridāsa cannot have been degraded; he must have attained liberation. This is a pastime of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You will all understand it later.”
MS: Svarupa Damodara went on to say, “Haridāsa cannot have been degraded to become a brahma-raksasa or a ghost; he must have attained liberation, sad-gati. Sad means sat, eternal gati, the eternal destination… this is the opinion of the guru of Gaudiya Vaisnavism.
Svarupa Damodara is the acarya, the guru of Gaudiya Sidhanta, Lalita sakhi, Swarupa Damodara.
“He must have attained liberation. This is a pastime of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You will all understand it later.”
Text 160
prayāga ha-ite eka vaisnava navadvīpa āila
haridāsera vārtā tenho sabāre kahila
SP: A devotee returned to Navadvīpa from Prayāga and told everyone the details of Junior Haridāsa’s suicide.
MS: A devotee returned to Navadvīpa that had recently been visiting Prayāga and he told everyone that he had seen Junior Haridāsa in Prayaga and he had seen Junior Haridasa board a boat on the banks of the Ganga and he had seen Haridasa go out with that boatman to the Triveni at Prayaga. And he saw Haridasa jump over the boat and commit suicide.
So he came back to Navadvīpa and he gave the report, this is how the news was conveyed.
Text 161
yaiche sankalpa, yaiche trivenī praveśila
śuni, śrīvāsādira mane vismaya ha-ila
SP: He explained how Junior Haridāsa had made his resolution, sankalpa and had thus entered the waters at the confluence of the Yamunā and Ganges. Hearing these details, Śrīvāsa Thākura and the other devotees were very surprised.