Pastimes of Lord Caitanya and His associates. Seminar 3
Divnomorsk
2 October 2003

Hare Krishna. We are discussing Lord Caitanya’s pastimes and philosophy along with the associates of Lord Caitanya. Yesterday we discussed Advaita Acarya. Day before we discussed Lord Nityananda. Today we are going to discuss, of course Caitanya Caritamrita, and Srivas Thakur.

This morning when I was out on my morn-ing walk with few devotees – I usually walk every day for one hour – there were two dogs that were following us around. Everywhere we went these dogs came. I think they wanted to hear the holy name. I thought I would share with you all two stories on this topic. The only danger is, don’t misuse the story. Don’t say, ‘Lord Caitanya did this, I can also do it!’

There is a devote of Lord Caitanya called Sivananda Sena. Devotees are compassionate to everyone, so was Sivananda Sena. Once he was just walking and one dog following him wherever he went. Sivananda Sena took this as maybe a desire of the Lord. He wanted to cross in a boat – in Bengal you have to take a boat to go to a different city. The boatman said, ‘Hey, we cannot take the dog in’. But Sivananda Sena said, ‘No, this is not possible. I am coming, how can my dog stay behind’. He gave him extra money and took the dog.

The next day Sivananda Sena got held up by some toll men for some reason. And for some reason his servant did not feed the dog. The servant did not have quite the same mentality that every child of the Lord has to be taken care of. When Sivananda Sena came back home in the night he asked his servant, ‘Did you feed the dog today?’ He said, ‘No’, and Sivananda Sena got very angry. He said, ‘Why did not you feed the dot?’ And they discovered that the dog was gone. It was hungry, so it was looking for food probably. Sivananda Sena was so concerned, he sent ten people to go and look for the dog but they could not find the dog.

Next day as usual they were visiting Lord Caitanya near the Jagannatha Puri temple. Lord Caitanya was staying at that time in the house of Kashi Misra. Kashi Mishra’s house is just few minutes from the Jagannatha Puri temple. Sivananda Sena and the devotees have gone to meet Lord Caitanya in Kashi Mishra’s house and what did they see? Lord Caitanya was putting green coconut pulp in the mouth of the dog and the dog was chanting hare krishna hare krishna. Lord Caitanya was throwing the pulp from the top and the dog would jump up and take it. Lord Caitanya would say hare krishna and the dog would say hare krishna.

When all the devotees and Sivananda Sena saw this they were amazed. They said, look at the fortune of this dog. He is getting fed coconut pulp by Lord Caitanya! And next day the dog went back to Godhead. No one ever saw it again. This is a result of sadhu-sanga. Sivananda’s dog had a fortune of first getting the mercy of Sivananda Sena. Then it had a fortune of getting association, mercy of Lord Caitanya.

This story does not give you a license for starting to keep dogs now because Lord Caitanya made the dog chant Hare Krishna. Unless you can guarantee the dog will chant Hare Krishna you cannot imitate this lila. Lord Siva had a whole ocean of poison controlled in his neck, therefore he is known as Nilakanta.

There was another story which Locan das Thakur describes in Caitanya Mangala. This story about Sivananda Sena is described in Krishnadas Kaviraja’s Caitanya Caritamrita and Vrindavan das Thakur’s Caitanya Bhagavata. So Locan das Thakur says, once when Nimai was a young boy he and his friends saw many puppies. Nimai took the best puppy home. The other friends of Nimai said, ‘What is this! You took the best puppy and left the dirty one’s for us!” Nimai said, “What’s a problem? You can come to my house and play with that puppy’.

Anyway, friends had a fight like they always do when they are young kids. One of the friends went to Sacimata and complained, ‘Look at this! Your son has a puppy dog at home!’ Sacimata said, ‘Oh! This is not good! We are brahmanas. What will people say? This is not proper’… One day when Lord Nimai went for a bath to Ganga Sacimata untied the puppy dog that was tied to the chair. Then the puppy left home and started wandering on the streets of Navadvipa.

When Nimai came back from the Ganges He saw the puppy dog had been released from the house. Everyone started searching for that puppy dog and then they found the puppy dog in the center of Navadvipa. What was he doing? Standing on two legs and two hands raised up. He was chanting Hare Krishna and his hair was standing on end. He was displaying all symptoms of ecstatic love of God. Tears were coming from his eyes and in front of everyone waving ‘Good bye’ he went back to Godhead. There was a golden chariot that came on which he rode and he went back to Godhead.

In the house of a devotee even if one is born as an animal, insect it is very fortunate. Thakur Bhaktivinode prays, ‘My dear Lord, if You want to give me another birth, give me another birth in a house of Vaisnava, even if it is as an insect’. Please keep in mind that that in both the cases Lord Caitanya made the dog chant Hare Krishna.

Yesterday we were discussing Caitanya Caritamrita and we came as far as Lord Caitanya finishing His tour of South India and meeting Ramananda Ray. We discussed two or three of the questions Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked Ramananda Ray. I think the last thing we discussed yesterday was Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s question, what is the greatest distress to which Ramananda Ray replied that the greatest unbearable distress is being separated from the devotees of the Lord.

Lord Caitanya continued His tour of different places of pilgrimage. You may recall that when Lord Caitanya was leaving Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s house Lord Nityananda insisted that He should not go alone, He should take somebody with Him. Actually there were thousands of people following Lord Caitanya wherever he would go. But Lord Caitanya’s assistants did not want this to attract the attention of the Government people. Lord Caitanya said, “Okay, I will go all alone. After all, I am a sannyasi’. But Lord Nityananda said, ‘No, You cannot go alone. Your two hands are going to be used for chanting. You must take at least somebody who will go with you to carry your pots and so on’.

This assistant of Lord Caitanya, his name was believe it or not, Krishnadas. Now as Lord Caitanya was traveling there was a community of gypsies that tempted him to associate with women. This Krishnadas being under the influence of maya left Lord Caitanya’s association to be with the gypsies. Then Lord Caitanya brought him back by force. What does this show? This shows that the living entity always has a free choice to accept God or reject God. In the material world at any time one can be captured by maya if he is not fully alert. No one can be overconfident and say, ‘Oh, I cannot be touched by maya’

Thus Lord Caitanya rescued His servant from the association of the gypsies who had bewildered him. Then Lord Caitanya as He was traveling met a group of Buddhists. Lord Caitanya was able to convert people of all walks of life, of all religious beliefs to the path of Krishna consciousness. And during the course of His travel He met a group of Buddhists and he had a philosophical discussion with their leader. The Buddhist leader presented their viewpoints but philosophically he was defeated by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

The Buddhists were feeling bad about this. They wanted to make a plan to embarrass Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They wanted to avenge this defeat and what did they do? They took some contaminated food, placed it on the metal plate, took it to Lord Caitanya and said, ‘Here is some mahaprasad from our temple’. They were offering the metal plate to Lord Caitanya and as they were offering it a bird flew in, took the metal plate, took the contaminated food and dropped the metal plate on the head of their guru. When the metal plate fell on the head of the Buddhist leader what happened? He fainted.

His disciples and followers were feeling very embarrassed. They said, this is all due to our contamination, our evil plan to embarrass Lord Caitanya that now our guru has become unconscious. They revealed their devious plan, apologized to Lord Caitanya and begged forgiveness. They told Lord Caitanya, ‘Please bring our Guru back to consciousness. Lord Caitanya said, ‘Go and whisper the Hare Krishna mantra in the ear of your guru’. They did that and as soon as they chanted the Hare Krishna mantra in the ear of their guru their guru came back to consciousness. And then all of them surrendered at the feet of Lord Caitanya, became Vaisnavas and took to chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

Lord Caitanya as He was traveling to different places of pilgrimage, He came a temple where He also found the fifth chapter of Brahma Samhita. He found a hand-written manuscript of the Brahma Samhita.

Lord Caitanya as He was traveling He converted people of all ideologies and whoever came in contact to the path of Krishna consciousness. When He came back to Jagannatha Puri He stayed in the house of Kasi Misra where He revealed His four-handed form. It is said that the great sages travel to the holy places of pilgrimage to purify even the very places of pilgrimage. In the First Canto of the Bhagavatam Maharaja Yudhisrhira told Vidura that great sages like you travel and purify even the places of pilgrimage. Similarly Krishnadas Kaviraj says that Lord Caitanya traveled to different places of pilgrimage to purify the places of pilgrimage and purify the devotees who came to these places of pilgrimage.

You can only question how can a place of pilgrimage be purified. Places of pilgrimage are visited by all types of people. They are visited by the devotees and by nondevotees and the nondevotees go there and leave behind their sinful burden. The great sages go to these places of pilgrimage and purify them because these places of pilgrimage are overburdened with sinful reactions left behind by innumerous visitors. Therefore Lord Caitanya even traveled to the places of pilgrimage. Therefore Vidura was also traveled to different places of pilgrimage. Therefore we explained the other day how Lord Nityananda traveled to the places of pilgrimage for twenty years and we also heard how Lord Balarama traveled to different places of pilgrimage.

At the moment it would appear that Divnomorsk  has also become a place of pilgrimage. Because so many thousands devotees here are chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. So definitely this has become a place of pilgrimage at least for the duration the devotees are here. The sages travel to the places of pilgrimage to purify and to preach the message of the Lord.

There was a king called King Prataparudra. Where was he the King? In Jagannatha Puri. Unlike the present day kinds he was a great devotee of the Lord. Ramananda Ray was working as a Governor in South India under the king and he requested Caitanya Mahaprabhu to resign his Government service. Lord Caitanya said, ‘You can resign your job and come and be with Me in Jagannatha Puri’. Ramananda Ray resigned his job and the king agreed to give him full pension, full salary because he was serving Lord Caitanya. I am sure all of you would like to have a boss like King Prataparudra. Ramananda Ray said, ‘I want to go and serve Lord Caitanya.’ He said, ‘No problem, resign your job. I will give you full salary’.

The king was so great but still Lord Caitanya would not give him audience. Lord Caitanya was a very strict sannyasi. He did not want to associate with the king because being a king the king naturally had to deal with so many different types of people etc. But actually the Lord was doing all this to intensify the King’s desire to associate with the Lord. If you get something easily in life you don’t value it that much, do you? Therefore even if you want to go back to Godhead you have to pay a price. If you want to become free from miseries of birch and death you have to pay a price. What is the price you have to pay for going back to Godhead? Greed! Laulyam! You have to eliminate your anarthas.

So the Lord refused the request of His dearmost devotees like Ramananda Ray and Lord Nityananda. They both pleaded to Lord Caitanya, ‘This king will become a mendicant. He is ready to renounce his all kingdom if he does not get an audience with You’. Lord Caitanya still refused. Then Lord Nityananda gave Him a compromise formula. What was that compromise? He took a cloth that the Lord had use and when the King received the cloth that was used by the Lord just by touching that cloth he manifested the symptoms of ecstasy.

This incident has an important purport. The purport is that anything that touches the Lord that is used by the Lord is pure, sanctified and very powerful. Just like we drink the caranamrita every day. What is caranamrita? That’s water, ingredients that are used to bathe the Lord. Just drinking it is very purifying. In India we have two devotee brothers who are completely handicapped. (One of them, Caturatma Prabhu has just recently left his body – YND). Actually these are initiated disciples. We had a devotee in Ahmedabad go house to house selling Gitas and he bumped in their house and they bought a Bhagavad-Gita.

These two brothers are from birth completely handicapped. They cannot walk, they are always in a wheel-chair and the doctor had told their parents, ‘Now we cannot give any more medicine. Your children have just two-three months the most to live’. The parents gave up all hopes for the survival of their children. But by some divine plan they cane to the ISKCON temple in Ahmedabad on the day of Gaura Purnima and they had caranamrita that was used on that day for bathing the Deities. This had such a powerful effect. Now it is almost six year since this happened. They are preaching, they give lectures and they don’t take any medicine, all as a result of taking caranamrita.

The doctors who were treating them before are amazed. They said, we have never seen a case like this of suffering from such a severe diseases and they are going so strong. So don’t underestimate the caranamrita or the paraphernalia used by the Lord. They are not different from the Lord.

The King was very happy that he got some cloth that was used by the Lord but he was still not satisfied. Then the Lord agreed that He will see the son of the King. The son is considered the representative of the father. When the Lord embraced the King’s son the King’s son felt total ecstasy. But the same king was further tested by the Lord who gave him a very special privilege. Lord Caitanya instructed His followers to go house to house and preach but on the occasion of Ratha Yatra they were all allowed to come back and take part in the Ratha Yatra.

Before the Ratha Yatra of course, there is a temple near the Jagannatha Puri temple know as the temple of Gundica. They say Gundica was the name of the wife of King Indradyumna. You know who was King Indradyumna? He is a king who built the Jagannatha Puri Temple and commissioned carving of the Jagannatha Deities. King Indradyumna had a great desire to see the Deity of the Lord carved. He commissioned a sculptor called Visvakarma to make the form of the Lord. Visvakarma said, ‘I will make it on the condition you don’t disturb me and don’t come in’.

Many months went by and Visvakarma never came out of the room. The King was in anxiety what’s happening. Finally the king broke in and as soon as he broke in Visvakarma disappeared from there. The king saw the form Jagannatha that you see right in your temple room right behind you. Of course these Deities were not dressed up and decorated as these are. The king thought because he prematurely interrupted the sculptor he left behind an unfinished form of the Lord. Then Narada Muni appeared on the scene and said, ‘No, this is not an unfinished form. It is a finished form’.

Before the actual Ratha Yatra the Lord gets taken to the Gundica temple for a little bit of resting. Lord Caitanya organized the cleansing of the Gundica temple along with hundreds of  His devotees. They were all cleaning the temple and hundreds of buckets of water were being brought but they would not even utter one word. They would go on chanting Hare Krishna and just do the work physically. They were communicating by hands but they would keep chanting and doing the work.

Lord Caitanya was so pleased when He saw that for the Ratha Yatra King Prataparudra had personally swept the whole road on which the Lord’s cart was going to be pulled. Not only did he sweep the whole route, he did something else. He washed the whole route with rose water. Can any country of the world today afford to wash the streets with rose water? During Lord Ramacandra’s rule all the streets of Ayodhya would be washed every day with rose water. It is not a fairy tail, it’s a reality. King Prataparudra, though king, he swept the whole road and he washed the whole road with rose water.

Lord Caitanya as we said was increasing the king’s desire to see the Lord. The Lord was so pleased that He gave the king a special divine vision. Just like Krishna gave Arjuna a special divine vision to see His universal form. Do you remember Krishna gave Arjuna special divine eyes to see His universal form? So Lord Caitanya gave the king special vision. (Balloon burst) – Confirmed! What was that special and divine lila that the Lord was performing? The Lord has organized seven sankirtana parties to lead chariot. Four in the front, one to the left, one to the right and one in the rear. The Lord has expanded Himself to be present in each of the seven sankirtana parties.

Lord Caitanya was present in all the seven parties, all the devotees were saying, ‘Oh, how fortunate we are. Lord Caitanya is in my party’. There were only two devotees who could detect that the Lord was doing His divine lila. One was king Prataparudra and the other was Lord Nityananda. Lord Caitanya was increasing the devotee’s anxiety to see Him and then when He tested him thoroughly He revealed His transcendental lila.

Krishna is happy to reveal Himself. Krishna is happy to get purchased but we have to make the endeavor. Just like in few days the month of Karttika is going to start. In this month of Karttika we are going to be singing the Damodarastaka prayers. In these Damodarastaka prayers we read about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord stealing butter, milk, yogurt from the houses of different gopis. In response to the complaints Mother Yasoda decided to tie her son down. She took first one rope, then added on two-three-four-five. But she was unsuccessful. The road was always two fingers short. But then the Lord said, ‘My mother is trying so hard to tie Me down. She looks disappointed’. And then the Lord agreed that his mother tie Him down. Krishna will reveal Himself based on how we surrender.

We will talk a little bit about Srivas Thakur now. Like every day we take one associate of the Lord for discussion. Srivas Thakur is described to be an incarnation of Narada Muni. Vasa means ‘home’, sri means ‘glory’. Srivas Thakur’s house was a base from which Lord Caitanya started His sankirtana movement. Fortunately, the Srivasangam is very near to our Mayapur temple. It is only five-tem minutes walk from our Mayapur temple. Srivas Thakur had three brothers and they were a very pious family. They used to take their bath in the Ganges three times.

Srivas Thakur’s house as I said was a place where many of Lord Caitanya’s transcendental pastimes took place. That place is also known as khol-bhanga-danda that means the place where the khol or a drum was broken. This is a place where Lord Caitanya’s devotees were doing sankirtana but the Kazi’s men came and broke the drums. For one full year Lord Caitanya did the Harinama Sankirtana from this location, Srivas Thakur’s house. Srivas Thakur gave full facilities for Lord Caitanya to start His sankirtana movement. They used to have kirtan all night. They used to start in the evening and go on till the morning.

Lord Caitanya would only allow His most confidential devotees to take part and witness this ecstatic display of emotions. Actually the entry to these kirtanas was highly restricted. Once Lord Caitanya was doing His ecstatic kirtan and all of a sudden He felt that there is somebody here who should not be here. He stopped the kirtan and said, ‘Who is here who shouldn’t be here?’ Srivas Thakur got nervous. He said, ‘My dear Lord! My mother-in-law is here’. His mother-in-law had a strong desire to see Lord Caitanya’s ecstatic sankirtana.

Neophyte devotees misunderstand the display of ecstatic symptoms. Just like tears coming from the eyes is one of the symptoms of ecstatic love of God. The average neophyte person will say, ‘Hey, this is just sentimentalism’. Just like when devotees are doing ecstatic kirtan, sometimes they are dancing, what do the nondevotees say? They say, ‘This is just a show. They are just trying to impress us’. The devotees don’t display these ecstatic symptoms in public. You could have heard stories that sometimes Prabhupada was doing kirtan, tears would come from his eyes but he would at once stop it because he did not want future generations of devotees to start imitating these symptoms and to show that they are advanced.

So, even though this lady was Srivas Thakur’s mother-in-law, Mallini’s mother, she had to leave because she was not at that advanced level. Or on another instance again Lord Caitanya stopped saying, ‘Some one is here who should not be here’. Srivas Thakur had allowed a brahmana to come in. This brahmana was very austere. He would only live off milk. Nothing else. He would practice great austerity. But he had not taken to the path of devotion. He was a mental speculator. He had not taken shelter of Lord Caitanya.

Lord Caitanya while dancing could see that someone was here who should not be here. And then Srivas Thakur told him the story, ‘This brahmana was pleading with me, please let me come in and watch Lord Caitanya’s dance. So I allowed him to come in but I told him, hide behind this cardboard’. But even though he was hiding behind the cardboard there was a small hole and through that hole he was watching Lord Caitanya’s dance. But Lord Caitanya observed that somebody was here and He stopped his dancing. Then by the mercy of the Lord this brahmana became a devotee and surrendered to Lord Caitanya.

Srivas Thakur was very popular because Lord Caitanya would every day be doing kirtan in His house. There was one brahmana who was very envious of the privilege Srivas Thakur was getting. So he made a special plan to embarrass Srivas Thakur. What did he do? Put some paraphernalia for worshiping goddess Durga in front of Srivas Thakur’s house. Srivas Thakur was very compassionate. When he opened his door and saw all these paraphernalia for worshiping goddess Durga he said, ‘Neighbors, come here! See my true identity. I was never a devotee of Krishna. I am a devotee of Durga!’ But the neighbors did not accept that.

What happened to that brahmana? He got leprosy. He was suffering and he came to Lord Caitanya begging forgiveness but Lord Caitanya refused to pardon him. He said, ‘You have offended such an exalted devotee, Srivas Thakur, by trying to defame him. You have to beg forgiveness from Srivas Thakur’. Then he had to go and beg forgiveness from Srivas Thakur.

The ecstatic kirtan that would take place in Srivas Thakur’s house was so ecstatic that when Lord Nityanand would step on the ground, the ground would shake an earthquake. And Lord Caitanya was flying in the air. For our neophyte senses it is hard to describe and hard to comprehend the beauty of this ecstatic dancing of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda.

Once while the kirtan was going on a tragedy took place in Srivas Thakur’s house. What was the tragedy? His son died. But Srivas Thakur was so concerned that he did not want to stop the sankirtana that was going on. Even though his son died he was so advanced spiritually, he knew how the body is temporary, the soul is eternal. As the kirtan was going on Lord Caitanya stopped and said, ‘Something happened here. Some tragedy’. Then He was informed that Srivas Thakur had passed away.

By Lord Caitanya’s divine power the soul entered the body and the body was communicating. In the Srimad Bhagavatam you read the story of King Citraketu, how his son was called Harsasoka. Harsa means ‘happiness’, soka means ‘grief’ – one who is a cause of both happiness and grief. By Lord Caitanya’s mercy this soul entered the body and there was a dialogue in which the soul acknowledged how this body is temporary and then all the members of the house were relieved and they stopped lamenting.

Srivas Thakur was very compassionate and an eternal associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Actually when Lord Caitanya was doing His ecstatic dancing Acyutananda, the son of Advaita Acarya became unconscious. The devotees were singing Lord Nrisimhadeva prayers but still Acyutananda did not come back to consciousness. But Lord Caitanya called his name and he woke up and joined the kirtan party.

I think we will stop here on Lord Caitanya’s presentation today. We gave you a little summary presentation of Srivas Thakur, another associate of Lord Caitanya. There are so many associates of Lord Caitanya who all appeared along with the Lord to make His pastimes more enjoyable. We shouldn’t forget what Krishnadas Kaviraj told us on the subject. He says, ‘By the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu a blind man can see, a lame man can cross mountains, a deaf man can hear, a dumb man can speak. And by the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu difficult things become easy and without His mercy easy things become difficult’.

We should absorb ourselves in these pastimes of the Lord and His devotees. The more we absorb ourselves in these transcendental pastimes the less will be the opportunity for maya to attack us. The illusory energy can influence anyone. We gave you an example of Krishnadas, Lord Caitanya’s personal servant. We have to be extra careful. Our defense weapons are the holy name, Prabhupada’s books and the association of devotees.

When you join ISKCON you become a member of a big-big-big family where you swim along with thousands of other devotees. It is spiritual association that gives us the strength to pursue spiritual life. That’s why in these festivals devotees are busy from morning to night. Except for prasadam there is no free time. And even prasadam is devotional service because this prasadam is Krishna’s mercy. If you don’t eat how will you go on?

Prabhupada gave us so many wonderful programs and one of them was this program of festivals. He first introduced the Mayapur-Vrindavan Festival which gave the devotees an opportunity to come to these dhamas. And now you have so many versions of the Mayapur-Vrindavan festival. These festivals are a great opportunity for the devotees to get together and rejuvenate themselves spiritually. Here you have an opportunity to hear philosophy spoken by so many senior leaders and the more we hear the faster will be our spiritual development. You should hear attentively and apply it in practice. Hare Krishna.