MS: This is taken from Antya lila chapter 1 verses 17 through 24. This is a short dog story. Śivānanda Sena’s dog gets siddha deha. So cute! This is really a cute story.
Text 17
eka kukkura cale śivānanda-sane
bhaksya diyā lasā cale kariyā pālane
SP: While going to Jagannātha Purī, Śivānanda Sena allowed a dog to go with him. He supplied it food to eat and maintained it.
MS: While going to Jagannātha Purī, Śivānanda Sena allowed a dog to go with him. So he didn’t kick out the dog, “Oh this dog! Get out, get out from here. You will contaminate the devotees, you filthy disease ridden dog, you flee-bag dog!” and kick him in the side or get rid of him like the brajavasis do. Brajavasis always give blessings to dogs. Of course in Vrndavana everything is some higher adjustment. The Mayapura side is a little more merciful. Mayapura, audarya dhama. Śivānanda Sena is beginning his journey to Puri from audarya dhama – Navadvipa mandala. And all the devotees there have that mood of generosity and magnanimity for all living entities, whether they be Jagai and Madai or Kukkura dasa, Bhakta Kukkura, Bhakta dog. They feel very kind hearted.
Because it is told that Mayapura Navadvipa is bhajana sthali and Vrndavana is siddha sthali. So we engage in bhajana in Navadvipa mandala or at least in remembrance and connection with Navadvipa mandala and then we become qualified by the mercy of Gaura and Nitai and Panca Tattva, we become qualified to enter the siddha sthali. Vrndavana is called siddha sthali because here is where we come when we have perfected, then we go deep into our bhajana. Vrndavana life, Vrndavana bhajana is very difficult, very hard. So you see the treatment of dogs here is less compassionate than Śivānanda Sena.
Dogs here, no one is paying their way to cross the river. I have seen dogs down at Kesi ghata, where the boat starts, they try to get on the boat and the guy kicks the dog or throws him into Yamuna or something. They really get special blessings. But here Śivānanda Sena is bringing this dog along with him and taking him on the ferry boats, he sits down next to all the bhaktas. Bhakta dog, and he is sitting next to Advaita Acarya, Śivānanda Sena and Mukunda Dasa, all the great exalted devotees of the Lord, he has his seat right there on the ferry boat crossing the Ganga or whatever, sacred river. And they pay the one rupee fair for the dog also and then he gets his seat on boat. And not only that, they are feeding him mahaprasādam. Raghava Pandita and his sister Damayanti from Panihati, they have made so many special preparations – malpuhas, samosas and all kinds of things to offer to the Lord. So may be they also have some mahaprasādam with them from their Thakurjis, so they are offering that. The dog is eating mahaprasādam all the way to Puri and seating with all the Vaisnavas. So really a lucky dog, as they say.
So this is the kukkura, he was going to Jagannatha Puri, Śivānanda Sena allowed a dog to go with him. He supplied it food and maintained it bhaksya diyā lasācale kariyā pālane. Palana like Gopala. He maintained the dog.
Text 18
eka-dina eka-sthāne nadī pāra haite
udiyā nāvika kukkura nā cadāya naukāte
SP: One day, when they needed to cross a river, an Orissan boatman would not allow the dog to get in the boat.
MS: One day, when they needed to cross a river, an Orissan boatman would not allow the dog to get in to the boat. So he was in the Vrndavana mood, didn’t want the dirty dog defiling his boat.
Text 19
kukkura rahilā,–śivānanda duhkhī hailā
daśa pana kadi diyā kukkure pāra kailā
SP: Śivānanda Sena, unhappy that the dog had to stay behind, paid the boatman ten pana of conchshells to take the dog across the river.
MS: So Śivānanda Sena was unhappy, duhkhī, to see that the dog had to stay behind. Because the boatman threw the dog, he said, “No dogs, no dogs allowed, out, jao. This is only boat for human beings, we don’t take dogs on our boat. All the flees and dog hair and stink and everything.”
So Śivānanda Sena became unhappy because he accepted this dog as one of the party members and he adopted the dog. Bhakta dog was enrolled in the bhakta program. The intention was to take the bhakta dog to Jagannatha Puri and get him initiated by Lord Caitanya or at least have him take part in the Ratha-yatra festival. So he was unhappy, so then he said to the boatman, “Listen how much do you want for the dog?” the boatman replied daśa pana kadi. Like we say teen kadi gosvami, teen kadi. It's k-a-d-i, it's a rolled ‘d’.
A kadi is a conchshell. Ten kadis make one something and twenty of those make one rupee and like this. In old days they had this system of conchshells, dealing in conchshell currency instead of cash. Conchshell currency – that was the means of barter, two conchshells – one kilo of rice. Kadi, shells etc. So he paid ten kadis; quite a lot for the dog and he took the dog across the river.
So Srila Prabhupada is talking about this in a purport that this kadi was a medium of exchange and he says one paisa was divided in small conchshells. But he said now it is so expensive to buy anything, you can’t get anything for one paisa. I mean it used to be, one paisa was a big amount. There are hundred paisas in one rupee. And hundred rupees is whatever. So for one paisa you could get so much, then there was ten conchshells equals to one paisa and all these kinds of divisions.
And then Srila Prabhupada makes a point in the purport. In 1945 vegetables were so inexpensive that one paisa’s worth of vegetables could feed a whole family for one day. So the mother, the father, the grand mother, grand father, five or six children, eight or ten people could be fed on subji for one paisa sixty years ago. So prices have gone up a little bit. Now for one person to get a day’s worth of subji, it costs ten rupees! A little karela and a little this that and the other thing it’s like ten rupees. It’s like thousand paisa or whatever it is. So much!
Text 20
eka-dina śivānande ghātiyāle rākhila
kukkurake bhāta dite sevaka pāsarilā
SP: One day while Śivānanda was detained by a tollman, his servant forgot to give the dog its cooked rice.
MS: One day Śivānanda was detained by another tollman and, while he was doing that, his servant forgot to give the dog its cooked rice. So Śivānanda Sena as I mentioned was very rich. Sena means like a landholder, very wealthy person. Not only was he maintaining and feeding all the Vaisnavas, going for caturmasa vrata in Puri and attend the Ratha-yatra festival and Dola yatra, Snana yatra and all these festivals. But he was maintaining this one dog and they were giving him cooked rice everyday. That was his servant’s job. He told his servant, make sure that bhakta dog gets his rice prasādam everyday. So he forgot and then it goes on.
Text 21
rātre asi' śivānanda bhojanera kale
'kukkura pānāche bhāta?'–sevake puchile
SP: At night, when Śivānanda Sena returned and was taking his meal, he inquired from the servant whether the dog had gotten its meals.
MS: At night, when Śivānanda Sena returned and was taking his meal, he inquired from the servant whether the dog had gotten it’s meals. So this is the karuna of the Vaisnava. You say the Vaisnava is very much karuna, he cares for all living entities.
Human beings think that they are very much advanced in culture or civilization if they express concern or care for their immediate relatives. They make sure that their mother fed and father and grand father and grand mother and their children, they make sure that they get their meals on time and they are very careful about that. They didn’t care less about the village dogs and other animals.
But this is told in Bhagavat Purana, that a grhasta, before he eats, he should go out of his house and announce in a loud voice “If there is anyone here who is hungry, please come to my house and take food”. And further it says that a grhasta should make sure that every living entity in his house is fed – the ants should get fed, the birds around the house, the ants and even if there are some poisonous snakes living somewhere inside his house or basement, he should feed them also.
This is the duty of the Vaisnava householder in Vedic culture. So now barely we save food for our children when they go to school, if they are lucky their mother saves some food for them or some cookies in a cookie jar. Of course Indians they go out of their way, they wait patiently for their children, they enter the door after coming from school and they ask them, “Now, what would you like?” And they immediately go the kitchen and cook a fresh, hot meal. On order meal is ready, standing order.
But in America, the best provision you can expect to get is, your mother says, “There is the cookie jar, there are some crackers in that glass jar and there is some milk in refrigerator, when you come home from school, you do your own thing.” Your mother doesn’t wait on you hand and foot and serve you hot puffed up chapatis, ghee and subji of your choice and pakoras and sweet rice. But in India the people are spoilt to the max. Unbelievable!
So here Śivānanda Sena, he is feeding the Vaisnavas and he is very concerned, he is about to take his meal. Can you imagine seating down, you are about to take your meal, and say, “Oh did the dog get fed? Did the birds get fed? Did the cows get fed?”
vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
The learned person, the wise and loving devotee – he sees his Ista deva everywhere. He wants to please his Ista deva in the tree, in the ant, in the dog, in the human. So this is the broadminded visionary. The realized soul has this type of idea.
So he is taking his meal, usually you talk about politics and talk about the family and the school and how is your school work and how’s everything at home, this and that. He is taking his meal and he is saying,
“Hey how’s the dog? Kukkura kaisa hai? Did kukkura got his food? You fed the kukkura?”
And he says, “Oh, yes yes, bahut chaka chak! The dog ate to his neck and we filled him fully with his food.”
So you learn a lot about this. Can you imagine, this is a rasa sastra, the paramount rasa sastra of the Gaudiya Vaisnava movement and this is written by Krsnadasa Kaviraja who wrote the immortal classic Govinda Lilamrta, the asta kaliya classic. And here he is, he is talking all about a dog!
So Śivānanda Sena learnt one day –
Text 22
kukkura nāhi pāya bhāta śuni' duhkhī hailā
kukkura cāhite daśa-manusya pāthāilā
SP: When he learned that the dog had not been supplied food in his absence, he was very unhappy. He then immediately sent ten men to find the dog.
MS: Śivānanda Sena learned that the dog had not been supplied food when he was absent, he was very unhappy. Then he immediately sent ten men to find the dog. So Śivānanda Sena, he came back, he was eating his dinner, and he was out all day, and he didn’t see the dog or he was traveling whatever on the party.
So he asked,
“How is Mr. dog, bhakta dog? You saw bhakta dog? bhakta dog got his prasādam?
“No I don’t know. I didn’t see, I don’t think!”
“Ahh! Go immediately, you go to the North, you go to the South, you go to the East, you go in all ten directions. Go find bhakta dog and make sure he gets his prasādam.”
Can you imagine? How much karuna? How much compassion for the dog? Such vision! He is not thinking, ‘You are human being, you special. You are dog, you get kicked in the head. Oh my wife, I love you, I embrace you, but the dog gets kicked in the head.” This is not the idea of a Vaisnava. The wife and the dog are on the same platform (laughs), hopefully some slight difference, but the compassion is there.
We work hard to collect money to feed our wives and children. So he is also working hard to feed the dog. It’s not that they are feeding less. So at least in this department there is equal sharing, equal vision.
Text 23
cāhiyā nā pāila kukkura, loka saba āilā
duhkhī hanā śivānanda upavāsa kailā
SP: When the men returned without success, Śivānanda Sena became very unhappy and fasted for the night.
MS: Just see the extent, when the ten men returned scouring the ten directions searching for bhakta dog and they came back unsuccessfully, they could not find bhakta dog and get the report, meal report. Śivānanda Sena became very unhappy and fasted for the night. So he is about to sit down and eat his evening repast, his meal and first before he eats…
In other words, the husband may come home and ask the wife
“Have the children eaten?”
“Yes, yes the children ate and now they have gone to bed or whatever.”
“Acha”
“Have you taken?”
“No, no I am waiting for you.”
“Acha, thik hai! prasādam lao, de do.”
So he comes home and he is about to take his meal and the first thing he says, “Oh suno patni, kukkura bhata hua? The dog ate his rice?”
She says, “Oh no, he didn’t come today for prasādam.”
“Acha? Oh this is very bad! Immediately, hey you go, you, this that. Everyone go, find kukkura! Kukkura kahan!”
And then they came back, “Sorry sir, we could not find bhakta dog, he is out on a traveling sankirtana or something.” So, then he was very upset, so then he said, “If Mr. dog doesn’t eat, if he is not fed, I wont eat.”
Can you ever imagine such a thing? Can you stretch your imagination even to that extent? What to speak of ever contemplate! You come over here and ask the chowkidar, “Did Ramu and Shyamu eat? Are they here? Did they take the chapatti?”
“No”
“Ok. Don’t buy the sabji, I am not going to eat today”
So some says, “Maharaja are you fasting?”
“Yes I am fasting.”
“Why?”
“O, Ramu and Shyamu and Balu and Kalu didn’t get fed today. They were out chasing rabbits or something. They didn’t come back. So I am fasting”
And what will people think about me? They will make a mudra to indicate their thoughts! Exactly. This devotee has gone crazy. He is fasting because the dog didn’t get anything to eat. So Śivānanda Sena, he is one of Radharani’s asta sakhis, Campakalata sakhi or something. Just see the heart of a sakhi, see the heart of Gaura bhaktas, how expansive, how soft, how loving, how tender, how caring!
And we don’t even care for the guy next door, you live or die, let me live. So it’s like this, it’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s a fact. These books are teaching us, so many verses and pages to describe Śivānanda Sen’s kukkura bhojana lila, its all about his love for a dog.
It’s interesting, they have a phrase in America – Love me, love my dog. Just a phrase, it means, if I love my friend, then I should love his brother, all his relatives, this is the meaning, it doesn’t mean literally the dog! But here Śivānanda Sena is giving a new twist to this phrase, if you love Bhagavan, you love Bhagavan’s dog also.
That’s why Srila Prabhupada said, Krsna consciousness is a perfect paradigm, perfect world view. The Krsna conception is all embracing, all encompassing, it includes dogs – the happiness and welfare of dogs, human beings, squirrels, ants, whales, deer, trees and every living entity. The Krsna conscious person cares about their happiness, their welfare, their comfort, their peace of mind, isn’t it? Let everyone be happy visvam purna-sukhayate, let the whole universe be happy.
Whole universe means the universe and everything in it. Let mother earth be happy, don’t pollute mother earth. Let the scared rivers, the waters be happy, pure and flow freely. Don’t put dams up on the rivers, it’s a great offense to the rivers. Rivers are meant to flow to their husband. The rivers are the wives of the ocean, ocean is their husband. So you should never stop the flow of a woman’s love to her husband or prevent a woman from meeting her husband.
As it is a pious activity to bring separated people together, it is a grave sinful activity to prevent people from meeting each other that are meant to meet.
So the rivers are meant to meet the ocean, they are born in the mountains, then they grow and they move, they meander through the plains and finally they marry the ocean. They merge and become one with the ocean, their husband. So all these dams, this dam, that dam, Niagara falls etc, all these kind of dams they have. They are all damned, they are cursed, they are sinful, they are the most sinful thing.
So when one is Krsna conscious then everything is perfectly adjusted, the earth is happy, when devotees walk on the earth she becomes thrilled. And if it is a devotee like Krsna, the Supreme Lord, the epitome of devotion or a devotee like Radha, when such a devotee walks on the earth, mother earth feels so thrilled that her grass stands on end. The grass that we are sitting on is the hair on the body of mother earth. And when Krsna walks on the earth, not only does the grass stand straight in jubilation or exaltation but flowers bloom instantly, lotus flowers, they are called land lilies or land lotuses. There are water lotuses and there are also land lotuses in Vrndavana.
So when Krsna walks, the mother earth says – “Oh Krsna’s feet are so soft, so tender, so many beautiful marks there, carana cinha. Such a loving touch and such a loving caress of Krsna’s feet, such a radiance of His toe nails, such a soft and gentle touch” and she feels so thrilled from the core of her heart and she responds by, utpala, blossoming forth with flowers for every step that Krsna takes. So if you are a Krsna devotee, the water will flow freely, purely. Flowing water becomes pure.
So when rivers flow, they are pure. There is no question of water pollution. With Krsna conscious government there will be pure air, pure water, pure land and most importantly ceto darpana marjanam, pure minds, pure minds means pure dealings, pure dealings means love, appreciation, generosity. All will live happily, all will eat sufficiently, all will prosper, all will be fulfilled – Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven, so there will be the kingdom of God on earth. Sometimes they have phrases like ‘Heaven on earth.’
So this story of Śivānanda Sena is illustrating this Krsna conception and its application. It’s really happening. He really loved the dog, he spent his own hard earned money on the dog. He even paid the tax for the dog to cross the river. Because he knew that if the dog associates with Vaisnavas it will be beneficial for him. If the dog moves with the devotees, he will hear sankirtana and perform his own sankutana. He will hear the sankirtana, he will get the remnants, uccista, from the Vaisnavas. And by getting that uccista from the Vaisnavas, the remnants of their prasādam, he will become a human being, an elevated human being in his next life.
So the devotee wants to benefit everyone. Let everyone be benefited. Let everyone improve, let everyone rise, let everyone grow. No stifling, no suffocation, no destruction, no degradation, no diminishing. Let everyone expand, let everyone grow, let everyone thrive and prosper. This is the beautiful heart and the vision of the devotee. Śivānanda Sena is opening our tightly closed fisted hearts and opening our very stiff brains, so that we can understand what is the Krsna conception. Because without hearing behavior and without seeing or hearing examples of Krsna conscious behavior, we don’t know what the thing is.
We say “Krsna consciousness movement”, ok what it is? Is it a phrase? It's a product or a jargon? What is Krsna consciousness? What is it? Where is it? How is it applied? What does it mean? How is it expressed? How is it felt? How does it interface with the world? And how does it impact on others as they say? This story is marvelous – Śivānanda Sena’s kukkura lila.
So he is sending ten men to search for the dog and he won’t eat until the dog eats. The dog report, the 6PM dog report is that the dog didn’t eat, O then I have to fast – dog ekadasi, dog upavasa, it says upavasa, means fasting. Like sometimes we say,
“Did you eat today?”
“No, No, aaj upavasa hai”
Upavasa means no eating. So he was doing dog upavasa, he was fasting for the dog – the whole night, not just till sunset or something. Whole night from 6 pm to 6 am, twelve hours fasting.
Text 24
prabhāte kukkura cāhi' kānhā nā pāila
sakala vaisnavera mane camatkāra haila
SP: In the morning they looked for the dog, but it could not be found anywhere. All the Vaisnavas were astonished.
MS: At prabhāta, prabhāta means morning. In the morning everyone went to look for the dog. But it could not be found anywhere. All the Vaisnavas were astonished.
So they were on their way to Puri, dog has become a very important member of the assembly, he is traveling along with the 300 bhaktas and sakala vaisnavera mane camatkāra. Everybody, the minds of all the Vaisnavas, they were most astonished by the whole affair and the whole dealings.
Text 25
utkanthāya cali' sabe āilā nīlācale
pūrvavat mahāprabhu mililā sakale
SP: Thus in great anxiety they all walked to Jagannātha Purī, where Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu met them as usual.
MS: In great anxiety all the Vaisnavas walked to Jagannatha Puri where Mahaprabhu met them as usual. So utkanthāya, in great eagerness. Not anxiety, like we think of anxiety.
“Are you full of anxiety?”
“Yes, I am full of tension and anxiety”
“Well then read Bhagvata Gita and get free from anxiety and free from tension or take this pill or whatever.”
But they were very anxious and eager to meet Lord Caitanya, that was their utkanthāya. Last six kilometers they practically ran the whole way. They saw the flag of Jagannatha bellowing of the Bhargavi nadi, river and then they crossed the Taranala bridge, then they ran for the next six miles and practically trotted and jogged all the way to Gambhira. They went right past the Simhadvara gate and “Jai Jagannatha.” And they went right to see Lord Caitanya, they didn’t even didn’t care to even stop to see Jagannatha, because their prananatha was Gauranga.
Text 26
sabā lanā kailā jagannātha daraśana
sabā lanā mahāprabhu karena bhojana
SP: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu went with them to see the Lord in the temple, and on that day He also took lunch in the company of all those devotees.
MS: Mahaprabhu then went with them back to the temple of Jagannatha to see the Lord. On that day Lord Caitanya took His lunch in the company of all those devotees. There you have it! Prasādam satsanga. When you sit together with all the devotees, Lord Caitanya will come with you and take prasādam. So all the devotees came to Puri, and Lord Caitanya left to Gambhira to eat together with them in the collective area.
Text 27
pūrvavat sabāre prabhu pāthāilā vāsā-sthāne
prabhu-thāni prātah-kāle āilā āra dine
SP: As previously, the Lord provided them all with residential quarters. And the next morning all the devotees came to see the Lord.
MS: As previously Mahaprabhu provided all the devotees with residential quarters. And the next morning all the devotees came to see the Lord, prataha kale, that means around sunrise – 6 am to 8.26 am. So in other words, at the crack of dawn everyone ran to see Lord Caitanya, this is their mangala aratika. This is their mangala darsana, the auspicious beginning of the day, they wake up, they do their nitya kriya – evacuate, brush their teeth, shave, whatever, bath & dress, do acamana, then aneka, then run to see the Lord, morning program finished, run to see the Lord with great utkantithā, with great eagerness. All the devotees came.
Text 28
āsiyā dekhila sabe sei ta kukkure
prabhu-pāśe vasiyāche kichu alpa-dūre
SP: When all the devotees came to the place of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they saw the same dog was sitting a little apart the Lord.
MS: When all the devotees came to the place of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu they saw the same dog that had been previously traveling with their party and had been maintained by Śivānanda Sena. They saw that same dog sitting a little bit distant but nearby Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That’s what we call a lucky dog. You lucky dog!
Text 29
prasāda nārikela-śasya dena phelānā
'rāma' 'krsna' 'hari' kaha'–balena hāsiyā
SP: Furthermore, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was throwing remnants of green coconut pulp to the dog. Smiling in His own way, He was saying to the dog, "Chant the holy names Rāma, Krsna, and Hari."
MS: Mahaprabhu was throwing remnants of coconut, green coconut pulp, malai. That sweet malai He was eating and throwing it to the dog, smiling in His own way. Now imagine, you have to meditate on this verse, smiling in His own way, how Lord Caitanya smiles in His own way in the presence of His bhakta dog. Smiling in His own way, Mahaprabhu was saying to the dog, “Chant the holy names Rama, Krsna, Hari!”
So Radharani in Her ecstasy of mahabhava, She sees everyone in a relationship to Her Ista. She is in separation, so She is searching everywhere for, “Where is Hari? Where is My Ramana? My Radha Ramana. Where is My Ramana? Where is My Krsna? Where is My Hari?” So She projects Her bhava in every living and non-living entities, moving and non-moving. So She is Mahaprabhu in ecstasy of Radha bhava, looking at the dog and saying, “Tell Me, remind Me of My lover, My lover kahan? Hey, look, tell Me about My lover.” Mahaprabhu is not saying, chant Laxmi, chant Radha’s name. He is saying no. Hari, Krsna, Krsna nama. Rama is Krsna nama, its all Krsna.
“I want to hear, I want you bhakta dog to remind Me of My Krsna. Where is My Krsna? Tell me about Him? Help Me, please O bhakta dog, please help soothe My viraha. I am burning in this viraha agni, this intense separation from My Lord, My Krsna, Krsna kahan, Krsna kahan? Where is My Krsna? Can you help Me O kukkura? Can you help Me? Can you remind Me? O pulastya tree, O banyan tree, can you help Me? Can you show me where is Krsna? You can’t speak but you can wriggle your leaves and point in the direction of Krsna? Can you bend your branches down and say, no He is this way near the Yamuna? Can you give some indication? Some sanket? Some signal to indicate the location of My lord So I can proceed to abisara and meet My beloved? So O Kukkura, O Kukkura! Bolo Hari, Bolo Krsna, Bolo Rama!”
Bhaja Gauranga Kaha Gauranga Loho Gauranga nama re!
Right? So He is telling the dog. “Hey dog, take some mahaprasādam and chant Hare Krsna.” So smiling in His own way, balena hāsiyā, while He was telling, He is smiling and saying, “Come on Kukkura, you should engage in the service of Krsna, you should remind Me of My Ista. Tell Me about Krsna, nirbandah krsna sanbandhe, yukta vairagya ucate.”
So Lord Caitanya is using, say Radharani is using everything to establish Krsna sambandha. Radharani is using everything and everyone in Her environment to establish Krsna sambandha, which means a complete bond of relationship. A firm vow of relationship with Krsna. Let everyone and everything in this environment remind Me of Krsna, everyone should remind Me of Krsna by speaking Hari, Rama and Krsna. And every place should remind Me of Krsna by reminding of Braja dhama, lila bhoomi. And I see the Jagannatha Vallabha gardens, these gardens will turn into Vrndavana and remind Me of Krsna. And when I am walking on the road through South India and I see some clump of trees, that should remind of Keli Kadamba and Ter kadamba and it does. I see this Chandrabhaga river or this Narmada or Sindhu river and I cross it and I think Yamuna! Yamuna! This river should remind Me of Yamuna and it does remind Me of Kalindi. I remember Nauka vihara, I remember Jala keli, I remember so many beautiful pastimes.
When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in Allahabad, He was crossing the Ganga at the Triveni, and He saw the confluence of Triveni and Ganga, then He just said “Yamuna Yamuna.” He stood up in the boatman’s boat, he was taking Him to Valabhacarya’s house for lunch and He started dancing in ecstasy. This huge figure, seven feet tall, and you can imagine this little black Indian boatman, little guy like four feet tall. Usually these boatmen are skinny, like jockey types, like a little horse jockey. And he is pushing his boat, “Hey hey, buddy, Bengali baba” And this huge figure, seven feet tall, 80-90 kilos, I don’t know, strong, beautiful figure just dancing, “O Syama Syama Syama Krsna”. He is just seeing the blue color of the Yamuna and going completely in the ecstasy and the boatman is saying, “This guy is a nut case, he is some pagala baba from Bengal.” “Sit down, sit down! You are rocking the boat, You cant make all the disturbance for one paisa, you have to pay double time if you are going to rock the boat.”
So this is Lord Caitanya, Radharani is seeing every setting is Vrndavana and every person is reminding Her of Krsna. So when a dog shows up in Puri in this viraha lila, this intense separation lila, Radharani and Krsna tasting Radha’s mahabhava and immediately She takes the dog and says, “Get with it man, take Me to Vrndavana. Chant the name of My beloved, ease the pain of My separation, comfort Me in My hour of need. Service is judged by it s necessity – Chant Hari, Rama and Krsna.” And smiling slightly. balena balena.
Why is this slight smiling? When I see this balena hasya, balena means bolo hasya. Smiling and telling, speaking – Chant Hari, Chant Rama, Chant Krsna. So I am seeing this smile and all these thoughts are coming. Then Mahaprabhu is smiling, Radharani is smiling, “Yes you My little dog friend, you will help reduce the viraha agni, you will remind Me of Krsna, yes you can do it.” And everyone is thinking, ‘How is it possible? Dogs don’t chant Hari, Rama & Krsna, they just do bhow bhow bhow bhow, woof woof woof.”
“But don’t you know I have some special power, I am sarva saktimayi! Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard this power I have? aghatana-ghatana patiyasi-sakti. I have the power to make the impossible possible and I have the power to make the possible impossible.”
So it’s impossible for dog to chant Hari, Rama and Krsna but not Radharani’s dog, not Mahaprabhu’s dog. So there are chanting dogs and dancing dogs. So Mahaprabhu is saying, “Chant!”
Text 30
śasya khāya kukkura, 'krsna' kahe bāra bāra
dekhiyā lokera mane haila camatkāra
SP: Seeing the dog eating the green coconut pulp and chanting "Krsna, Krsna" again and again, all the devotees present were very much surprised.
MS: These devotees coming with Śivānanda Sena, they are simply absorbed in camatkara bhava, every other word is camatkara. sakala vaisnava mana camatkara. Their minds were astonished when they saw that Śivānanda Sena fasted for the dog, kukkura upavasa. And everyone looked for the dog, so they were simply astonished! This is amazing, this Śivānanda Sena has so much love & attachment for Ramu and Shyamu, for this dog. This is astonishing. What’s going on? And now to top it all up, the dog disappears, and when they finally arrive at their desired destination at the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu at the Gambhira, who do they see seating by the side of Caitanya Mahaprabhu? That shaggy dog who is seating there and Mahaprabhu is having lila with the dog.
First Śivānanda Sena is having lila with the dog and now Mahaprabhu is having lila with the dog. What is this world coming to? It is going to the dogs! The world is going to the dogs!
Śivānanda Sena is such a high class person, now he is paying for the dog across the river and he is fasting for a dog! And he is saving food and cooking separately, his private cooks are cooking rice for the dog, this is camatkara. It’s most astonishing, what the hell is going on here? If that is not enough astonishment to knock your ears of, then you get to the lotus feet of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and that same lucky dog is sitting right there interacting with Lord Caitanya.
He is saying, “Listen brother dog, hey brother dog, speak Hari, Rama and Krsna.” Bale na hasiya, He is smiling and saying, “Hey bolo, you can do it, bolo, come on kukkura, bolo Hari.” Haawf haawf!
So what does this verse say, they became again astonished, they were astonished by the behavior of Śivānanda Sena with the dog, paying for the toll, feeding and cooking for him, fasting for him, searching for him, engaging ten men looking for him. And if that’s not enough to make them just leave their Vaisnavas bodies on the spot, then when they come to Puri, Mahaprabhu is feeding that dog a kaccha nariyala, green coconut pulp and the Lord is telling him to chant.
Now what do they see? They see the dog eating the green coconut pulp mahaprasādam from Gauranga, Gauranga prasādam. And the dog is chanting “Krsna Krsna” again and again. All the devotees present were very surprised.
Can you imagine if you were there in this whole ordeal, you are traveling in the party with Śivānanda Sena and how much they are whispering among themselves. “I think Śivānanda Sena is cracked, he is cooking for that dirty filthy dog, he is fasting for him, listen, I am telling you, when we get to Jagannatha Puri, we are going to make a report, we are going to tell Lord Caitanya that Your devotee, Your worshipper is cracked, he has been away too long from You and he’d better stay here in Puri and not come back to Mayapura because he can’t bare the separation for eight months and in that eight months of Your separation he is going crazy for a dog.”
There were many in the party who are going to tell Lord Caitanya this very fact, they were going to squeal on Him or give the report. Then when they are all ready to give the report, when they get there.
“Ok. Now we are going to see Mahaprabhu. Are you going to keep your word, are you going to tell Mahaprabhu?”
“Yes, yes, I will tell Him. You watch, I will tell Him, then Śivānanda Sena will get set straight. What is this, that filthy dirty dog, taking him with all the Vaisnavas. We have to seat on the same boat with a dog? Didn’t you see how the boatman tried to drive the dog off the boat and I was happy. What is this dog! At least the boatman had some sensibilities, he is driving the dog off the boat so we can seat purely and happily”
“But what happened! Arre! Śivānanda Sena paid double price and took the dog too. We have to seat on the boat with this dirty dog and lose our caste and lose everything.”
Because you lose your caste if you sit on the same line with somebody in a lower caste, a human being.
So Sivananda Sena, as the professors when they describe Lord Caitanya, they said He was a great a medieval saint and social reformer. The great medieval saint of 15th century Bengal, Sri Caitanya. He broke all caste barriers, dogs sat with brahmanas. All this party going to Puri, they are all brahmanas except for Śivānanda Sena, he was the facilitator, he was a zamindar, Ksatriya, he was a daniwala. Gangadasa Pandita was there, Gadhadhara Pandita was there, all panditas, panditas, panditas…Sivananda Sena, Srivasa Thakura, they were are panditas, all brahmanas by birth. Traveling with a dog!?”
We think nothing of it because we sleep with dogs, they drive in the car, they lick the windows, they kiss us, the windows of the car are full of dog kisses, slobber and gook and the seats are full of dog hair and flees and they sleep on our beds. And young girls go to bed with dogs. And that’s like it’s a normal thing. Now Indians, a guy here has a dog in his house. But it is very normal.
But it was extremely abnormal 500 years ago. As I say, if you sit in a row with a lower caste person, you lose your caste. What to speak of you sit in a same row with a dog! You have to understand the social context which is even true today. If some dog comes in the Vaisnava Rajya Sabha! With a stick, thomm thomm, “Get out from here! Jao!”
If a dog enters a Jagannatha Puri temple even now, you see they can scoot in. You know there are so many people in a big rush and they scoot in between the legs. They go in the temple in Jagannatha Puri and the pujari sees, every single person in the temple has to vacate the temple. May be 5000 people taking darsana, “Everybody out, out, out”. They wash the entire temple down, every inch of the temple with water and cow dung. First they close the temple doors, they do all kinds of purification rituals, they show the mirrors and all the stuff for the Thakurji and then they purify the whole place and everything gets detained for about two hours.
The bhoga offering and the mahaprasādma which you are eagerly waiting for, and your lunch prasādam which usually comes at three, comes at six O clock. And you say why? They say “A dog entered the temple!” “Was it Śivānanda Sena’s dog?” (laughs)
So this dog is not a big deal in this, its not very big deal. that’s why they are all in camatkara. And then they come, the so called fated dog, when they come to Puri, they find him!
“Hey, wait a minute. Hey, come on, bolo, complain to Lord Caitanya about Śivānanda Sena’s dog.”
“Look! See that dog? Do you recognize that shaggy dog, that’s the same one we sat next to on the boat crossing the river, that’s the same one that he fed rice to, that’s the same one that he sent ten servants looking for, that’s the same one that he fasted for!
“Now look at the relationship! Has Lord Caitanya ever thrown any maha green coconut pulp from His mouth and thrown it to you?”
“No.”
Sannyasi should never leave remnants. So Lord Caitanya never left remnants.
What kind of a dog is this? This is amazing! Now look.
“Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna”
He seems to be a very intelligent dog because this is the best name of the Lord. Although the Lord said, “Chant Rama…”, He gave him a choice, “Listen bhakta dog, chant Hari, Rama, Krsna”
So Lord Caitanya ordered him to chant three names, but he is such a rasika kukkura that he chose the preferred name of Radharani. The name ‘Krsna’ is the best name, of all the names of Krsna of all the thousand, million, trillion names of Krsna, Krsna is the best. It is the most rasa filled, most prema filled and the most lila filled name and it is the favorite name of Radharani. That is why Mahaprabhu traveled all over India singing Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna he!. Not, “Hari Hari Hari Hari, Rama Rama Rama Rama”.
So the Lord is very compassionate, He said,
“Listen, pick one of the three. I’ll give you three names, you chant one of the three – Hari, Rama and Krsna”.
Dog said, “Hey look I am not a stupid dog, I am Śivānanda Sen’s dog, I have been favored by the Vaisnavas. And eating mahaprasāda, for one month, I have journeyed here with the Vaisnavas, I have got good devotional intelligence, so I know the name you really want to hear is the name of Your prananatha – Krsna. So I will chant this name. I will say, “Krsnai Krsnai bhara bhara”. Again and again I will say Krsna Krsna Krsna.
And you can imagine the response of Lord Caitanya when this dog…Radharani’s favorite name and Krsna is in Radha bhava and the dog is “Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna”. How much trilled and how much satisfaction and happiness Radharani is feeling, how this name is like soothing, cascading water fall to cool and reduce the fever of separation burning in Her heart. So the dog is rendering so much important valuable service.
So therefore seeing all of this, putting it all together, the response of the devotees was one collective. Camatkara! Complete astonishment.
“What am I seeing? Do you believe your eyes? Do you believe your ears? Do you seeing what I am seeing? This dog is eating the maha coconut from Lord Caitanya’s mouth and this dog is chanting ‘Krsna Krsna’. This is unbelievable, have you seen such a thing in your wildest imagination?”
So then they all realized, this dog is a parama Vaisnava. He is much better than we are. So you can’t judge a book by its cover. Cover may be one thing, but the content is something else. Cover was dog, the atma was covered by dog body, but the atma was a premi bhakta of Gauranga. So much fortune!
Text 31
śivānanda kukkura dekhi' dandavat kailā
dainya kari' nija aparādha ksamāilā
SP: When he saw the dog sitting in that way and chanting the name of Krsna, Śivānanda, because of his natural humility, immediately offered his obeisances to the dog just to counteract his offenses to it.
MS: When Śivānanda Sena saw the dog sitting nearby Lord Caitanya and that dog was chanting the name Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna. Śivānanda, because of his natural humility, nija dainya kari'. Because of his natural humility Śivānanda Sena immediately offered obeisances to the dog just to counteract his offenses to it. aparādha ksamā. ksamā means to balance or reduce, counteract and ksamāka – pitta ksamāka, vata ksamāka, balance. So aparādha ksamāilā, he want to counteract his offense because the dog disappeared and Śivānanda Sena wasn’t able to feed him and somehow the dog went on alone.
So Śivānanda Sena is showing the most exalted form of Vaisnava behavior, seeing the true essence of the being, seeing through all the cover, penetrating all the outerward cover of body and form and upadhi designation. Dog upadhi, woman upadhi, man upadhi, black, white, thin, fat, Russian, Indian, seeing through all the cover and all the upadhis to the essence. The core, the core reality as they say. The core reality, the essence of the being, the bhaktasara, the essence of devotion and the heart of that jiva.
So fortunate, such a saubhagya jiva. So fortunate. I somehow offended this great devotee of the Lord. So immediately he is offering dandavats.
Text 32:
āra dina keha tāra dekhā nā pāilā
siddha-deha pāsā kukkura vaikunthete gelā
SP: The next day, no one saw that dog, for it had obtained its spiritual body and departed for Vaikuntha, the spiritual kingdom.
MS: The next day no one saw that dog, why? Because that dog, that had been favored by the Vaisnavas, guru and Krsna. Vaisnavas are guru, that kukkura thathad been favored by guru and Gaura, he had attained Vaikuntha. It had attained its spiritual body and departed for Vaikuntha, the spritiual kingdom.
Purport – this is the result of sadhu sanga, sat sanga, consequent association with Mahāprabhu and promotion back home, back to Godhead. This result of going back home, back to Godhead is possible even for a dog, by the mercy of a Vaisnava. Therefore, everyone in the human form of life should be induced or encouraged to associate with devotees. By rendering a little service, even by eating prasādam, what to speak of chanting and dancing, everyone can be promoted to Vaikunthaloka. It is therefore requested that all our devotees in the ISKCON community, Prabhupada doesn’t say temple, he says community… become pure Vaisnavas, so that by the mercy of these pure Vaisnavas, all the people of the world will be transferred to Vaikunthaloka, even without their knowledge. Everyone should be given a chance to take prasādam and thus be induced to chant the holy names Hare Krsna and also dance in ecstasy. By these three processes. What are the three processes?
Take Prasāda, chant Hare Krsna and dance in ecstasy. These are the three processes, very difficult, rigorous and strict tapasya.
Eat to the neck, open your mouth if there is any space left, say Hari Bol Hari Bol, give a small order for your feet to move, your arms to raise above your head and dance, dance, dance, dance your way back to Godhead. Simple program 1, 2, 3 – take prasādam, chant and dance (laughs).
That’s why all the hippies joined Srila Prabhupada, like thousands. They were already chanting and dancing and taking Siva prasādam you could say, taking the sacred prasādam offered to Lord Siva, various herbs and spices and sometimes spirits, as they claim that Siva also takes different spirits and communicates. He is bhutanatha, so he is the Lord of the spirits, so you can also drink some spirits (laughs).
Bhutanatha, bhuta means spirits right? Spirit beings and spirits also mean alcohol! So you take the bhutanatha prasādam, take the spirits and sacred herbs and Hari Bol. But now we don’t take bhutanatha prasāda, Siva prasadam, we take Krsna prasādam. We don’t chant bam bam bhole, we chant Hari bol, Hari bol. Very similar, bam bam bhole and we say Hari bol, Hari bole…We don’t go to Sivaloka or Sadasivaloka or stay here and enjoy the delights, we go back home, back to Godhead and dance eternally in Krsna’s rasa lila.
By these three processes although performed without knowledge, ajnata sukriti, even an animal went to Godhead.
Text 33:
aiche divya-līlā kare śacīra nandana
kukkurake krsna kahāsā karilā mocana
SP: Such are the transcendental pastimes of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the son of mother Śacī. He even delivered a dog simply by inducing it to chant the mahā-mantra, Hare Krsna.
MS: Such are the transcendental pastimes of Mahāprabhu, Sacinandana. He even delivered a dog simply by inducing it to chant the maha mantra – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
So this is the story of Śivānanda Sena’s dog gets a siddha deha. So let’s pray to Śivānanda Sena so that he will accept us in his kennel. Kennel is a place where they keep dogs, like a gosala which means a place to keep cows.
So we pray to Śivānanda Sena that he will accept us in his dog kennel, in his group of dogs and he will throw some rice to us and by his mercy we will go to Puri and we will get to meet Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya will throw some coconut pulp to us that He has savored with His lotus mouth, then Lord Caitanya will order us to chant Krsna Krsna and we will chant Krsna Krsna and give up our body and attain a siddha deha. Simply by taking prasādam, chanting and dancing.
It is a beautiful story. Story with a happy ending, this is a very joyous story full of smiles. Different rasas, hasya rasa is there and there is astonishment, adbhuta rasa, vibatsa rasa, there is amazing camatkara pastime. So this is rich and varied pastime of Lord Caitanya. There are so many emotions and teachings. And so many layers and levels of beautiful rasa that emanate from these pastimes, that we can relish and taste according to our adhikara and the more we study Caitanya Caritamrta, the more the sweet teachings come into our heart and flavor our mind with the moods of devotion. Because now our minds are full of sour flavors and pungent flavors because of our bitter experience in the material world, that leaves a very sour taste in the mind and heart. But by advancing in Krsna bhakti and hearing the diving lilas of Gaura and Krsna, then our mind becomes sprinkled with divine sentiments and beautiful drops of rasa coming from the lotus feet of Yugala Kisora.