By the grace of our Srila Prabhupada and those exalted compassionate acaryas of our parampara the doors have opened for all of us to spend this price less time togethre in Sri Vrindavan dham, where the opportunity to access the higest treasure of preme bhakti is being given to all of us. Simply by our sincereity to serve, our enthusiasm to hear chant and the intensity of our prayer there is no impediment. And Srimad Bhagavatam teaches us that the only real impesidemt to pure devotional service is our own lack of desire. Material obstacles only serve as great impetus to pure devotional service. If we have that sincerity in the association of devotees following the foot steps of great souls we can all be empowered by that sincerity. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who was Krishna and Sri Radha in the one supreme most munificent form of the Lord, brought with him loving eternal associates from spiritual world. And as Lord Caitanya although Krishna himself took the form or the role of a devotee to teach by His example similarly His most intimate gopis and gopas of spiritual world did the same. How to actually connect to the infinite depths of mercy that is in Vrindavan is specially taught by Lord Caitanya through the six goswamis and their associates and their descendents.
When Lord Caitanya was in Ramkeli, He was performing kirtan with millions of people. Late at night in a secluded place Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami and their brother Anupam came to meet the Lord. Anupam’s son, who was later to be known as Jiva Goswami was witness to this historical event. He saw with his eyes and felt with his heart three of the wealthiest most learned poeple of the world, their beauty their knowlege, influence popularity, land that they owned, palaces built for them, were unparalled. Yet they saw his father and two uncles coming in cognito in very simple dress in the middle of the night putting clumps of straw in between their teeth fell to the ground at the lotus feet of the Lord and wept tears and prayed manifesting the deepest most genuine feelings of humility declaring themselves to be the most fallen, the most unqualified. The ycame to the Lord not as billionaires but as beggars. Little Jiva who was just a small boy saw his father and uncles in that state. What an impression that had in his heart. And he saw the beautiful form of Thakur Haridas who was constantly chanting the holynamesand Lord Nityanada Prabhu who brought Rupa, Sanatan and Anupam befor the Lord. And he saw that most magnificinet splendid form of Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu, placing His feet upon the heads his father and uncles, embracing them and showering mercy upon them. from that moment this little boy enshrined the deities of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda in the core of his heart and wished for nothing else but to follow in the foot steps of his uncles, who were willing to give up everything of this illusory world for that one supreme reality of devotional service. Yes he was there, when his father and Rupa Goswami gave up everything, put all their wealth in the boat and gave it all away and went to Vrindavan. And how his uncle Sanatan was put in prison for his unwillingness to enjoy the pleasures of this world. When little Jiva heard the news of how his father and uncle met Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu at Prayag and when they returned to Bengal his father passed away from the world. He was beside himself with grief.
At that time he had made little deities of Krishna and Balaram because Gaur-Nitai’s form was naturally in his heart he had this natural attraction for Krishna-Balaram. While other small children would be studying and playing his only interest was worshipping the deities. And his mother had much wealth but he didn’t care for anything. He clapped and danced and offered flowers; he would go out to forest to collect flowers and make garland with his own hands. He would make sweetmeats, bring fruits, make offerings and offer dandavats again and again and again. Day and night he was simply immersed in serving Krishna and Balaram. And when night came he embraced Krishna and Balaram very tightly and sleep, crying “when will I go, join my uncles in Vrindavan.” This is how he spent his childhood.
As he grew little older it became more and more intensified. Bhaktiratnakar explains little Jiva Goswami at this time, a teenage person wanted to escape from everything and just wanted to go to Vrindavan, where his uncles were. And he would cry not being able to sleep longing for the mercy of Lord and all of His associates. One night he had a dream, not exactly a dream but a spiritual vision. There he saw Lord Caitanya with his arms raised with tears pouring from His eyes along with hundreds and thousands of people along with Nityananda Prabhu, Panchatattva and amidst all of his close assocaites they were all dancing . Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu was indundating the environment with the kirtan so he induced everyone to raise their arms reaching out for the shelter of the Lord and crying and filling all directions with the holynames.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
In this vision the inner most fulfilment of his desires were being manifested. Suddenly the dream ended and Jiva Goswami woke up. He wanted to be back there in spiritual world with the Lord. There is an example given if some one is in poverty for so many years and that person in given tremendous amount of wealth and then suddenly all that wealth is lost, how he cant think of anything else. Jiva Goswami was yearning and longing for the dream to carry on crying out, “Oh Lord Gauranga, Oh Lord Nityanada” and he fell unconscious. And then he had another vision. His deities of Krishna-Balaram appeared in Their original forms. There was Lord Balaram and Lord Krishna glancing mercifully upon Jiva Goswami. And then Balaram transformed into Lord Nityananda and Krishna became Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Caitanya spoke to Jiva Goswami, he said “I am entrusting you under the care of Lord Nityananda, from this day on you are His property. And Lord Nityananda spoke to Jiva Goswami. He said, “It is My wish that you make Lord Caitanya your life, your soul, your everything”, and the dream disappeared. From that day there was nothing that could keep Jiva Goswami home .
One day he told his mother and other relatives he was going to visit some relatives in one of their ancestral homes. And when he came out of their sight he told the boat man to go to Navadwip. He wanted to go to Navadwip, but he had heard that Nityananda Prabhu was in Mayapur dham. When he arrived he went to the house of Srivas. Srivas greetd him and said, “Lord Nityananda is in my home waitng for you. And Jiva Goswami surrendered his heart and soul to Sri Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu picked him up and embraced him and offered him to take him on a personal tour of the nine islands of Navadvip dham. First He brought him to yoga pitha where Lord Caitanya appeared and perfored pastimes of 24 years of His life as Navadwipa Chandra as the son of Sacidevi. Sacidevi and Vishnu priya, the mother previous wife of Lord Caitanya were still there with Vamsi Vadana, the personal assistant of Sacidevi. They were practically emanciated in seperation from Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu. Their seperation knew no bounds. When they saw Jiva Goswami they became so happy. They felt Lord Caitanya was sending such a special personal associate of His for them to serve. Sacimata ran into the house, cooked with her own loving hands and served Nityananda Prabhu, Jiva Goswami and Srivas and shared Gaur katha.
Nityananda Prabhu took Jiva Goswami from place to place. Not only was He telling them the stories of the Lord’s lilas but at times he was lifting the curtain of the dham and actually showing Jiva Goswami, Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu’s eternal pastimes of Navadwip Dham. In some places Nityananda Prabhu gave Jiva Goswami the realization and vison where he could see the Lord dancing and singing, taking prasad with His devotees. Our beloved acarya Bhakti Vinod Thakura has recorded the essence of this parikrama in his Navadwipa Dham Mahtmiya and has presented it to all of us. At the end of this parikrama Nityananda Prabhu told Jiva Goswami, “Lord Caitanya has given Sri Vrindavan dham to your family. You should go to Vrindavan and there dedicate the rest of your life in service of Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami.”
Nityananda Prabhu knowing the inner most heart of Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu undertood the mission of Jiva Goswami. He was going to be empowered to be the greatest philosopher and scholar of spiritual philosophy and knowledge the world has ever seen. He sent him to Varanasi to study under Madhusudhan Vacaspati, the disciple of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. he became thoroughly learned the Vedic scriptures according to the consluions of bhakti. Surrending his life to Nityananda Prabhu and taking his leave Jiva Goswami went to Varanasi, spent some years there. Such a scholar he became with such character, with such devotional qualities and humility that his fame spread through out the land and when he completed the studies he took that journey to where we are sitting today, Sri Vrindavan.
Sanatan Goswami the eldest senior most of goswamis offered Jiva Goswami to Rupa Goswami. And Rupa Goswami wanted to teach the world through his own disciple, for about an year Jiva Goswami just did the simple most menial services. Here he was, son of a billionaire, a world famous erudite scholar of scriptures and languages. He was purely renounced, he had ecstatic love for Krishna yet he was very happy and enthusiastic to perfom any type of little service. Rupa Goswami had him clean the temple, cleaning the place where people were living, sweeping the floor, arrange parapharnalia for Radha Govinda Dev so that Rupa Goswami and other pujaris can offer their acarcana. Jiva Goswami was just doing the backup, little things. He would massage Rupa Goswami’s legs and feet and Rupa Goswami was wiriting books and Jiva Goswami wasn’t writing then, he was preparing the pens. Becasue in those days you dont go to loibazar and and buy pen an paper. You had to make them out of twigs or from trees or feathers and make ink from herbs by diggin them out of the ground by your hand and prepare palm leaves and other types of paper that was used. He was just the servant of servant. And wanted nothing else. Because in Bhakti, where there is love there is no question of high or low according to relative positons. In Navadwip Lord Caitanya showed us that. Kolavechha Sridhar wasn’t well educated. He was just a simple seller of banana leaves and flowers. No body ever heard of him. But after Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu conqured and transformed the heart of Chand qazi he went to Kolavechha’s house and drank the water from his beaten old water just to show the world that the greatest of all wealth is devotion. Lord Caitanya said for the first time in my life I am tasting love of Krishna like never before becasue i am drinking water from this old dented pot that has been used by Sridhar.
The ahakar or false ego puts us in a state where we want to be important in the eyes of this world. And in that state if some one is given more importance we become more envious. And we become in a very egoistic way very competive. Or else we become very discouraged and depressed becasue we dont have that position. And somehow or other we feel we are in a more superior position wherher be it in our knowledge or our accomplishments or in any other way of this world. We become very proud. But this is the very basic principle of Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu’s teachings – gopi bhartur pada kamalayor dasdasanudas. Our happiness is in the opportunity to serve when we are deeply grateful just to be the servant of the servant. Whether we are empowered to do great things in eyes of the world or whether we are just empowered to sweep the floor, Krishna sees the sincerity of our intent. Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami Raghunath Das Goswami, Jiva Goswami these great goswamis gave us literatures that take us from the preliminary states of just coming to the path of devotion to the highest deepest realms of braja bhakti, revealing to us how to be the intimate servant of the maid servants of Sri Radharani. But we must follow in their foot steps. We cant understand what is in their books unless we imbibe or atleat strive to imbibe the qulities in which Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu was most pleased to empower them to give us this incredible knowledge. And the six goswamis, we find their humiity, their eagerness to serve, their disposition of total non-enviousness was so atractive to Lord Caitanya that he revaled the highest pleasures of bhakti through them and through them taught us how we can understand and realize it.
Rupa Goswami initiated Jiva Goswami and he became so dear to his guru. In Bhaktiratnakar there is a beautiful story of a digvijay pandit named Rupa Narayana. He came to Vrindavan after travelling to so many places of learning through out India. And where ever he went he would challenge people in debate and argurment, soundly defeat him. He was a powerful scholar. But his ahankar, false ego was even greater than his knowledge. He had a jaya patra which is acertificate any he defeated had to sign it and he would go all over showing your name, would you admit defeat. He heard the glories of Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami and approached them and very proudly challenged them to a debate. Both Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami said, “You are such a great scholar, we are such simple people. Why should you waste your time debating us”. He said “If you don’t feel qualified to debate me, then sign your name”. “Yes give us the paper.” They signed hapily, couldnt care less. And he approached Jiva Goswami. Such an egomaniac this person was, he said, “I have defeated Rupa and Sanatan Goswami your own Guru, now you sign.” Jiva Goswami thought, “They didnt even debate with him. They were just so humble they didnt want to waste their time.” So in order to protect the dignity of his Gurus he aceprted the challenge. They sat on the banks of the Yamuna for seven days. Jiva Goswami thoroughly defeatd him. When the news came to Rupa Goswami he understood Jiva Goswami’s intentions, selfless service to protect the dignity of our sampradaya. But he wanted to teach the world through his devotee. He said”Jiva, why did you waste your time debating with that materialistic person. It is becasue there are still some traces of false pride in your heart. Vrindavan is not a place for any one with any pride in their heart. You must leave.” Jiva Goswami did not argue. He did not say, “Gurudev, you do not understand”. He felt in the core of the heart, “Yes. I havefalse pride in my heart. I dont deserve to be here.” He went to Mathua and lived in a little straw hut on the bank of the yamuna. And there he performed severe austerities to attone for his offence. constantly crying out with tears in his eyes, the holynames of Krishna, praying to become humble like a blade of grass so hecan actually please his guru so he could be qualified to be in Vrindavan. Sanatan Goswami happened to be travelling through Mathura and saw the state of Jiva Goswami. Who was practically not eating or sleeping and was was just crying out the names of Krishna day and night to attone for his offences. Sanatan Goswami spoke with Rupa Goswami. He said, “One of the prime teachings of our Lord Caitanya is Jiva doya, compassion to jivas”. And Rupa Goswami knew exactly what he meant. Rupa goswami brought him back and personally nurtured him back to health and showered his love and affection upon him and taught the world the greatness of a true vaishnava and Jiva Goswami taught the world the faithfulness and loyalty to protect the dignity of our guru and parampara.
Srila Rupa Goswami with his own hands carved a deity of Krishna and personally installed that deity and began performing the puja. That was Radha Damodar. Rupa Goswami out of love for his disciple and nephew entrusted the care of Radha Damodar to Jiva Goswami, who for the rest of his life worshipped Radha Damodar as his life and soul. Our vaishnava acaryas explained how they had such a loving relationship.
Srila Prabupada quotes
arcye viñëau çilä-dhér guruñu nara-matir vaiñëave jäti-buddhiù çré-viñëor nämni çabda-sämänya-buddhiù
If we consider the form of a deity made of wood or stone, the guru to be ordinary or a vaishnava to be restricted to some categorization of a caste or creed or race. Then our consciousness is hellish. Krishna is absloute, He is abhijna and svarat…all knowing and infinitely ..on the path of bhakti the development of personal service meditation on His personal form through service, the Lord takes the form of deity. One time Srila Prabhupada was challenged, “how could you limit God in the form of wood or stone?” Srila Prabhupada with such deep conviction replied, “how could you limit God that he can’t be in wood or stone to accept our love and devotion”….we see the great acaryas were worshipping the deity with love and devotion…in this form to receive our love and to bestow his love. Shankaracarya worshpped Nrsingha dev….Ramanuja worshipped Ranganath in Sri Rangam…Madhwacarya worshipped Udupi Krishna. Not only did they worship but they established …around the very very regulated through pleasure of the deity.
Sri Caitnaya Mahaprabhu every single day in Puri in early morning would go to worship Jagannath…..so many temples here. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati established the worship in 64 mathas through out India. Srila Prabhupada estblished Radha Krishna, Gaur Nitai, Jagannath Baladev Subhadra in almost every major city of the world. When Jiva Goswami would worhip Radha Damodar, Damodar would speak to him. For the rest of us ….but Radha Damodar would say to Jiva Goswami “I am hungry. Feed me.” He would massage the….one time when Jiva Goswami was doing his seva in another room something incredible happened. He heard the very sweet sound of Krishna’s flute permeating the entire Radha Damodar compund. It was the same effect as the flute had when Krishna played under the Vamsi vat tree for the gopis of Vrindavan…he heard…”Jiva Jiva come I am playing for you.” Jiva Goswami went on to the altar….smiling and glacing upon him. He saw the murti of Radha Damodar playing the flute and dancing simultaneously. Jiva Goswami wept tears of humility and feel unconscious.
These are just samples of stories…to reveal to us what was gong on for practically every monmet of every day for Jiva Goswami. He personlly wrote over 40,00,000 sanskrit verses.. . He met with Jiva Goswami and gave him a …large tract of land were developed…I was at…just the pastimes of Radha and Krishna to discusss the books and mision that they were meant to give to the whole world. They would take prasad there….Jiva Goswami placed his samadhi in the court yard of Sri Sri Radha Damodar temple. And as time passed Krishna das kaviraj goswami’s Radha Vrindavan Chandra was brought there, Bhugarbha Goswami’s Radha Krishna deities were brought there. And in about 1959 His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada made his residence in Sri Sri Radha Damodar temple to bring the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as his Guru maharaj instructed him…..
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In 1959 His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta swami Srila Prabhupada made his residence in Sri Sri Radha Damodar temple to bring the mercy of Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU as his Gurumaharaj Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur instructed him. Through the mercy of Rupa and Jiva Goswami to the whole world.
Sometimes Srila Prabhupada, told his followers how Rupa Goswami would appear to him to bless him for his mission to going to the west in his old age.
Not far from Radha Damodar Temple is temple of Radha Shyam Sunder.
In the Bengal area there was a mother and a father. They had two sons who both died when they were just babies. Then they had the 3rd son. They named the child Dukhi. Dukhi means one who is miserable. This is traditional in some places in India that when you loose children you want Yamraj to feel sorry for this child, and if your name is miserable, Dukhi then the idea is that Yamraj is going to feel sorry for you and not kill you.
So Little Dukhi grew up, spontaneously naturally attracted to Lord Chaitanya & Lord Nityananda. Whenever he would hear anything about Lord Chaitanya or Lord Nityananda or their associates, he would run to that place with great enthusiasm.
When he grew up a little, his father and mother told that it was time that he should select a spiritual master. And he said that I already have in my heart. I have heard about this person. He is the disciple of Gauridas Pandit, who was a very very intimate loving associate of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda. His name is Hridayachaitanya and he is living in Ambika kalna.
So he was sent there. And Hridayachaitanya accepted him as his own. And he served his Guru with great love and devotion. And through Hridayachaitanya who had taken over the Service of the Gaur Nitai deities from his guru Gauridas Pandit. He was being trained in pure devotional services. Hridaya Chaitanya sent, he actually initiated and gave him the name Dukhi Krishna das. And He sent him to vrindavan to train and study the Goswami’s literature under Srila Jiva Goswami
When Dukhi Krishna Das came to Vrindavan, Narottam Das Thakur & Srinivas Acharya were already there.
The three of them became most intimate loving friends and brothers
NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR was a disciple of Loknath Goswami.
Srinivas Acharya, disciple of Gopal Bhatt Goswami. And DUKHI KRISHNA DAS was disciple of Hridayachaitanya.
But Because they were all serving their guru and they were all united and one in heart in the service of the six Goswami and One in united in the service of LORD Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU, there was no boundaries to the intimacies of their affection, their respect for each other.
This is Vaisnava society.
Jiva Goswami gave DUKHI KRISHNA DAS a very simple service, to go every day for many hours and sweep and clean the pathways of sevakunj. So he would go with a broom and get on his hands and knees and sweep. Of course, the dusty pathways so as he would be sweeping, his body would be Covered, his hair his clothes everything would be covered with dust of vrindavan. And He was just so grateful so honored to do this menial service. DUKHI KRISHNA DAS was a very very powerful scholar and a very advanced Paramhansa.
When Krishna sees that we are grateful for the service that we have, that we do not take any aspect of the devotional service to be ordinary or take it for granted, then Krishna really accepts our devotion and that gives pleasure to him.
As it has been said, nothing about Krishna Consciousness is ordinary. The Gopis of Vrindavan are on highest position. They are making garlands, they are milking cows, they are churning butter, they are taking care of babies sometimes, they are doing ordinary things, but because they are doing it with such ecstatic peak love for Krishna, even the greatest scholars and swamis and renunciates are aspiring for what they have.
Happiness in Krishna Consciousness is very much when we can deeply be grateful for whatever service we are allowed to do.
Whether we are sitting on crowded train where we don’t even have, not even sitting, standing, where we don’t even have a feet and it is so hot, there is hardly any air to breathe, and there is no water to drink but in that state where people are pushing their elbows on our face and stepping on our feet and pushing us in all different directions and Babies are screaming, and the toilet is over flooding and fumigating the whole train. Everyone from India has this experience. But in that state, I can chant Krishna’s Name.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
And we are grateful, we are absolutely grateful, I am allowed to chant Krishna’s name here by the mercy of the Guru, by the mercy of Vaisnava, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya & Lord Nityananda. There are no hard and fast rules, even in this condition I can chant Krishna names; I can remember Krishna. I can pick up a book, one of Prabhupada Book and read a line. IF we are grateful for whatever opportunity we have to serve, that gratitude is an expression of our love for Krishna. and that is what makes us happy If we are not grateful even if we have every type of material facility and every type of spiritual facility and everything is just going so much exactly the way we want it to go, if we are not grateful there could be no happiness in our heart because Krishna is not pleased with us.
Our happiness is when Krishna is pleased with us.
So this was Dukhi Krishna. He was absolutely in ecstasy so grateful “I get to sweep this forest every day.”
On his hands and knees, something, anybody can do physically. Yes! but it was the order of Jiva Goswami his Shiksha guru, so he took that service as if life and soul and he did it every day for 7 yrs. He never asked Jiva Goswami, “can’t I do something else.”
This is what pleases my Guru Deva. This is what pleases Krishna.
And Radharani, who is Vrindavaneshwari, the queen of vrindavan, who is the very origin and reservoir of all devotional service, she blesses us when she sees our sincerity.
One day as Dukhi Krishna was sweeping, he happened to see some light that was coming from under one of the bushes and he is sweeping, sweeping and sweeping and there he found an incredible ankle bracelet. It was made of gold, ornamented with precious jewels,
As soon as he saw it ecstatic love awakened in his heart and when he touched it to pick it up rushes of ecstasy started to go through all his limbs. And in his heart of heart, that in the eternal leela, the aprakat leela of Radha & Krishna, this was Srimati Radharani’s ankle bracelet.
In the leela beyond the modal eyes could see, Our Acharya tell us, Sri Radha and Sri Krishna were having there leelas and she lost her ankle bracelet. She told her most confidential assistant, Lalita Sakhi to go and bring it to her. Lalita Sakhi disguised herself as a very simple old woman and approached DUKHI KRISHNA DAS and said “Did you find an ankle bracelet.” And DUKHI KRISHNA DAS said “Yes I did”.
The old lady said, “That belongs to my daughter in law. Please give it to me”
DUKHI KRISHNA DAS said, “bring me to your daughter in law, I will like to deliver it myself.”
Seeing the purity of his devotion, she brought Dukhi Krishna Das in Seva Kunj to Lalita kund and she dipped his body and when he came out his original form from Goloka Vrindavan was manifested as a gopi named Kanakamanjiri. Then Lalita Sakhi Brought Kanak Manjiri into the eternal leela of Radha and Krishna; and brought her before Srimati Radharani.
As Kanakamanjiri, Dukhi Krishna Das, was about to present this jeweled ankle bracelet to Srimati Radharani, Radharani took it and lovingly pressed it very firmly against his forehead and created a special tilak like no one has ever seen before and then Srimati Radharani said, because you have pleased me so much by your devotion, I want to give you that what is so much dear to my heart. From Srimati Radharani’s heart manifested a deity of Krishna named Shyamsunder. She gave it to Lalita Sakhi, who gave it to Kanak Manjiri.
The Lalita Sakhi said, because you have given so much happiness to Srimati Radharani, Shyam, Your new name should be Shyamananda but you must not tell anyone about what happened here. And suddenly Kanak Manjiri became Dukhi Krishna, Shyamananda in his male form covered with dust with a broom in his hands but the deity was still with him and tilak was still on his head.
When he came back to the association of the devotees, they were wondering “What is this tilak you are wearing? But he could not tell them. Now you know how devotees could be. When you do something that is not the way it is conventionally done. You can get in lot of trouble, this is a, I guess this is eternal truth, within moral grounds. So they were worried, all of a sudden you have this tilak and and now you are calling y yourself Shyamananda. But Srimati Radharani revealed the truth to Jiva Goswami but he could not tell to anyone either. So gradually the news came all the way back to Ambika Kalna, where Hridayachaitanya was living and he was very much worried.
“What’s happened to my disciple, I gave him a name, now he has a different name. I gave him a Tilak, now he has a different tilak” he wanted to protect his disciple and between vrindavan and west Bengal how many different things get added to the story?…
So he took very great Mahants, Liberated souls, associates of Nityananda, brought with him all the way to Vrindavan just to try to save his disciple. And when he asked, Jiva Goswami could not tell him & Shyamananda Could not tell him.
Hridayachaitanya was very much concerned “You are making apradha. This is not right.” He said “let me, if this is really meant to be the tilak then it will not come off you when I rub it off”
So Hridayachaitanya started rubbing the tilak from his forehead and the Name Shyamananda was written on his chest. He started rubbing that. and he was getting more and more water and getting clay and water and rubbing and rubbing and putting tilak and everything and however, The more it rubbed, the more it shined brighter and brighter and brighter and eventually it is a long story, but LORD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU personally appeared to Hridayachaitanya and told him everything and Hridayachaitanya accepted that you are better than me and Shyamananda said I Am your obedient eternal servant and in this day everything was resolved in the most historical and wonderful way in vrindavan.
So when you go to RSS temple, the small deity on the right side of the large deity is the deity that was manifested by Srimati Radharani. And the deity of Radha, the Maharaj of Bharatpur, he offered the self-manifested deity of Radharani to stand beside the Shyam Sunder. And the large deities are also named Radha Shyam Sunder, they were worshiped by Baldev Vidya Bhushan.
There is another temple, Radha Gokulanand.
The history of that place, for many many years it was the bhajan kutir of Loknath Goswami.
He was born in the Jaiswar district of what we now call Bangladesh.
His father name was Padmanabha, his mother was Sita and they were great devotees and associates of Sri Adviata Acharya.
When he was a young man, he went to Sri Navadwip dham to take shelter of LORD Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU. He became one of the very close intimate loving associate of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
But he felt a deep churning in his heart. He could understand by indications that were happening that LORD CHAITANYA was going to leave his wife leave his mother leave all his associates in the holy land of Navadwip To become a sanyasi.
The thought was more painful than death for LOKNATH GOSWAMI. One day Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU, Lord Gauranga, he took Loknath Goswami into confidence and he said, “Very soon I am going to take Sanyasa. And because of the nature of the love for me, if you see this happen, you will not survive. After I take Sanyasa, my plan is to go to Vrindavan. So you should live immediately, go to vrindavan and prepare for my arrival. Bhugarbha Goswami who was a very very best friend with Loknath Goswami and Disciple of Gadadhara pandit was asked to go with him. The two of them left. It was a pettier scene. Loknath Goswami fell at the feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he bathe those beautiful golden feet with the tears of his love. He could not tell what was in his heart but he went to the feet of every devotee, Begging for their blessings and started that long pilgrimage to vrindavan.
The whole time his heart pounding with the idea that Lord Chaitanya is going to cut his beautiful hair to become an ascetic and travel like a beggar.
You see for the devotees, the pleasure of the Lord is the only pleasure of the heart.
On the way of vrindavan, they heard the news that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did take Sanyasa.
Loknath Goswami went to vrindavan and was waiting for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to come. That all he lived for. He set me on a mission to be here to prepare for him. To serve him when he comes and LORD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU was on his way. But Lord Nityananda Prabhu diverted his journey to Shantipur, where Sachimata and all the devotees told “Don’t go to Vrindavan. Go to Puri, where Krishna is living as Jagannath.”
And Next thing Loknath Goswami heard was that Lord Chaitanya has just gone on tour to south India. So he was thinking I only came to Vrindavan to serve CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU and now he is in South India.
So LOKNATH GOSWAMI left vrindavan and by foot went all the way to south India Searching for CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU. When he arrived in the southern provinces of India he heard that Lord Chaitanya had already completed his south India tour and went to Puri.
When he came to the precincts of Puri, he found out that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had already left Puri to go to vrindavan where he was supposed to be waiting for him. So LOKNATH GOSWAMI as fast as he could walk he went all the way back to Vrindavan. Now please understand that He has been walking for years. That was his anticipation, his eagerness to serve LORD CHAITANYA and finally he arrived in Vrindavan where he was meant to be waiting for Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU. That was the order that was the service, the only thing he lived for.
And when he finally arrived, he got the news that Lord Chaitanya travelled through the 12 forests of Vrindavan for 2 months he stayed at Akrur Ghat, he was travelling around, he was doing his japa at the banks of Yamuna, at Imli Tal and now he has left to go to Prayag.
LOKNATH GOSWAMI fainted. And he woke up and decided the first thing in morning I am going to Prayag.
That night LORD CHAITANYA appeared to him in the dream and told him, “This is all my past times. I want you to stay in Vrindavan. Because very soon, Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatt Goswami, Raghunatha Das Goswami, Gopal Bhatt Goswami, Jiva Goswami, they will all be coming; I want you to be living with them. You remain in Vrindavan and you will feel my presence always.”
This was the nature of the service attitude of these great devotees.
Loknath Goswami, realized that LORD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU was
“radhabhava duti subalita Krishna swarupa”
Krishna with the Mahabhava and the most golden Complexion of Srimati Radharani. That Radha & Krishna of vrindavan has manifested this Munificent merciful form of LORD CHAITANYA and he was performing his leelas in Puri. There was nothing in this world that LOKNATH GOSWAMI would do rather than go there.
But it was the lord’s order that he stay in vrindavan. And on the physical level he never saw LORD CHAITANYA again for the rest of his life.
From that day when LORD CHAITANYA he never saw LORD CHAITANYA as a sanyasi. On the day he sent him to vrindavan his order was to remain there always.
LOKNATH GOSWAMI started to travel throughout the 12 forests absorbed in the mood of loving separation. And near the Kabiravan forest there is a Forest call Chatravan where there is a village called umraon and in that village is Kishori Kund.
Loknath Goswami was performing his bhajan there. He would just sleep under the bushes and the trees.
And if anybody wanted to give him anything, he would not accept anything except some little roti, but in his heart grew an intense desire to have a deity to worship.
When a great soul has the desire to serve we can understand it is Krishna within that heart of that devotee who want to receive that service from that devotee and that desire is actually Krishna’s desire.
But where is LOKNATH GOSWAMI going to get deity, living in isolated forest in Kabiravan. One day while he was sitting with this thought, this extraordinary personality Came up to him and handed him deity and then immediately left, disappeared. LOKNATH GOSWAMI was thinking who that was and what am I supposed to do? He was bewildered. And the deity spoke. He said “my name is Radha Vinod. And I have been living in this forest for a long time just waiting for you Loknath Goswami and I have come by myself without help of anyone else to give myself to you.”
Hearing this Loknath Goswami was trembling.
And then Radha Vinod smiled and said I am hungry, cook for me.
LOKNATH GOSWAMI went into the forest and started collecting vegetables and herbs and started making fire and cooking some nice bhoga, made a little altar out of leaves, twigs and made a beautiful offering; he chanted beautiful mantra for the pleasure of Radha Vinod.
And after he offered him the Bhoga, he offered him a little aarati. And then he made a bed. HE
Collected special soft leaves, flower petals and laid Radha Vinod onto bed. He massaged the lotus feet of Krishna. And He then made a fan of leaves and started fanning him and singing with great love.
He wanted to build a temple. Do you know how he built the temple?
He went out and begged for simple cloths and with his own hands he sewn a bag where he put Radha Vinod, and hung him around his neck and that was the temple.
And because these deities were so beautiful, small deities, self-manifested from himself, different villagers and town people were coming and saying we will build a temple for him, but he said: “He already has a temple.” Just hanging from his neck. He would travel around, he lived like this for many years, When Rupa and Sanatana Goswami made their bases here in vrindavan. they invited LOKNATH GOSWAMI to come to live with them. So where the Radha Gokulanand temple there is Samadhi of LOKNATH GOSWAMI and that is where he had his bhajan kutir and where he worshiped Sri Sri Radha Vinod.
Narottam das Thakur was the only disciple of Loknath Goswami.
He was a son of a great king, who left everything to come to vrindavan. He literally had to escape from home, Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU established within his heart this Faith of LOKNATH GOSWAMI.
But by the time NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR came to Vrindavan, Rupa and Sanatana Goswami had already disappeared from this mortal world. And LOKNATH GOSWAMI was in such deep pains of separation, ecstatic love of separation.
LOKNATH GOSWAMI told him, “I cannot accept any disciple. I have no qualification.”
We know the story, NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR in great humility; he did not pressurize LOKNATH GOSWAMI to do something which he didn’t want to do. He just served his guru secretly on the banks of the Yamuna by cleaning the place where he would pass urine and stool before taking his bath.
And for so many months Loknath Goswami was seeing how its all being done so nicely.
Who is it, how is it.
So one day he came early and he was hiding in the bushes and he saw Narottam Das Thakur performing this service and Loknath Goswami came out and cried out with tears, “why are you doing this. You are the son of the king; you are great scholar and aristocrat. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has personally appeared to you. Nityananda Prabhu has personally appeared to you. Why such an exalted person, Are you demeaning yourself to be on your hands and knees cleaning the excrement Of another man, Why?”
NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR with folded hands spoke from his heart “I have renounced everything in this world, and I have achieved by the mercy of the lord, the highest privilege, The greatest honor and wealth of rendering personal service to my Spiritual Master.”
LOKNATH GOSWAMI heart melted and soon after LORD Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU appeared in a divine vision and told him that “it is my will that you initiate NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR.”
And In the Radha Gokulanand Temple is the deity of Lord Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU that NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR personally worshipped and also the Samadhi of NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR is there.
In the same courtyard is the Samadhi mandir of VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR., he was born in Devagram.
NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR had many many disciples in the Kheturi area of Bengal.
There was one man who was one of the most celebrated aristocratic Brahmins of the area; his name was Ganga Narayan Chakravarty. And in those days the caste system and the brahmanical system was very very strong and Narottam Das Thakur was not from a Brahmin family and Brahmins were actually taking initiation from him. This outraged these people, the caste Brahmins. They considered it the seed of ruination of Vedic culture. They were angry and they were extremely envious and some wanted to destroy NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR.
One time NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR and one of the disciples of Srinivas Acharya, Ram Chandra Kaviraj, were sitting together and 2 young boys, Ramakrishna and Hari Rama, they were purchasing some goats to bring to their father to offer in sacrifice for the Durga puja.
And Ram Chandra Kaviraj & NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR just started talking about Krishna consciousness with each other and these 2 little boys over heard it and they wanted to hear more and more and eventually they left the goats away and they went back to Kheturi gram and they got initiated by Ram Chandra Kaviraj & NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR, one each. And got Trained in the Vaisnava system of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And meanwhile the father is waiting, week after week after week, “where are the goats,” then when he found out what had happened he was outraged. He was a very high birth , smartha Brahmin. It was a total embarrassment that his 2 sons were initiated by a Kayastha , a Shudhra ; horrible. HE was at fire with his sons and the sons preached to him and he could not defeat them. So Ultimately he called for the greatest scholar of the whole area, the pandit of the king, to come to debate with these children and the children just after a few weeks of training with NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR defeated the greatest scholars of the king.
And this time the father was so humiliated, he was on the verge of death. And at that time Durga appeared to him in his dream with her weapons specially sharpened and said that Lord Chaitanya & Lord Nityananda are the worship able Lords of my life and NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR is the guru for the whole world, and if you don’t surrender to NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR I will do to you what you were going to do to the goats.
Well he surrendered.
Meanwhile this Ganga Narayan Chakravarty how these 2 little children defeated the greatest scholars of the time, By the power of NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR, he was wishing I need to meet this NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR, I need to meet him.
And one night in the dream NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR appeared to him and said “Tomorrow go to river Ganga to bathe and I will meet you there”.
So in the morning he went to Ganga and there he met NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR . and NAROTTAM DAS THAKUR preached to him and Ganga Narayan Chakravarty became his disciple.
And What a history that followed that.
Ganganarayan Chakravarty had a daughter; he had no son. But he had one disciple whom he loved like his own son. His name is Krishna Charan Chakravarty. And VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR, he took shelter of Krishna Charan, but at the time he was very very old. So he asked his disciple, Radha Raman Chakravarty to initiate VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR, which he did.
VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR , when he was very young, his parents got him married. But It was just not his nature to be married; all he cared about was reading Srimad Bhagavatam and he wanted,.
There is a beautiful story,
He would become so totally absorbed in reading Srimad Bhagavatam, that even in summer, where there was scorching sun, there was always a cloud between him and the sun giving him shade.
At one time a King was In a palanquin, with a whole procession in a royal procession, and it started raining very heavy, and the king was getting inconvenience, he was getting wet and they could not shelter him and he happened to look to the side and there was VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR just sitting on the ground, under the open sky wholly immersed reading Srimad Bhagavatam and the rain was falling everywhere around him but not a drop would fall on him or his book.
VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR came to vrindavan.
There is a story that once his guru told him, that actually your wife’s family want him to spend little time with your wife. So he went back and Whole night gave her only Bhagavat Katha. So the wife and the in laws and everybody just Blessed him to go to Vrindavan.
He did not know anything but Krishna and love of Krishna.
He went back to vrindavan, and when he came here, please understand, this is after Aurangzeb and other very very cruel dictators and kings they murdered countless devotees here, they destroyed deities, Destroyed temples, destroyed homes. The whole culture was beaten down and persecuted And VISWANATH CHAKRAVARTY THAKUR came and practically single handedly, he revived the whole gaudiya Vaisnava Movement here in Vrindavan.
By his own fearless, humble, intense love and devotion he inspired the Vaisnava and brijavasis.
At his time there was an incredible reticence of ecstatic prema bhakti here in vrindavan. And he was suffering death threats and all sorts of obstacles.
But with complete faith in the mercy of Sri CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU and NP and that higher taste of ecstatic love for Radha Krishna nothing could stop him.
97 min onwards
But with complete faith in the mercy of Lord Caitanyaand LORD NITYANANDA and that higher taste of ecstatic love of Radha and Krsnanothing could stop him. One day a Brahmachariwith a small dietycame to VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURAthe small deity of Krishna named Gokulanandaand said Krsna wanted me to give this to you. VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURA said I have no home, I have no temple I have no money I have nothing. How can I take responsibility you take the deity back but thatnight the Brahmachari had another dream where Gokulananda said bring me back to VishvanathChakravartiThakur and the BRAHMACHARI took the deity back. But now he will not refuse because Gokulananda appeared to VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURAin the dream and said I don’t want material things I want your love and devotion and it was here that VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURA established the worship of Sri SriGokulananda and he travelled around Vrindavan and he based himself here at Gokulananda temple .And much of his time he spent in Radhakundtemple,where he composed some of the most deepest profound philosophical rasika literatures. For this he was perfectly and fully empowered by Srila RupaGoswamito continue on the parampara of ecstatic love of Sri Vrindavan dham
Also in the temple if Radha Gokulanandais Radha Giridhari. When we go to Govardhan if it is Krishna’s arrangement we could speak something about RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI. What I would to speak this evening is one precious bit of history Vaishnava lineage. When Sri CHAITANYA was living in Puri there was a sannayasi of the name Sankaranandasaraswati who had come from Vrindavan and offered Lord Chaitanya two gifts a Govardhanshila and a gunja mala. Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu accepted these gifts in the highest ecstasies in the spirit of Radha Ranis MahabhavaLord Chaitanya saw the Govardhanshila as directly the personal body of her beloved Krishna.Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu kept the shilaconstantly with him , and when he was in his deepest feelingsof divine love he would press the shila to his eyes , forehead press Him to his heart and Krishnadaskavirajgoswami tells us tahat practically constanty thatGovardhanshila waswettened by the ecstatic tears and kept the shaligramshila for three year. And seeing the devotion the renunciation of RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI the Lord wanted to give to him what was most dear to his heart. RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI father and uncles were like billionaires, they were the largest land owner, they had huge influence and he was the only heir in there entire family , but he left everything to chant and hear the glories of the Lord and to be the servant of the servant of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri.And at a certain time RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI all he was eating was from a pile outside one of the gates of the Jagannath temple. Where the Jagganathprasad which was given to the shopkeepers for many days was not sold and rotten and was thrown into the pile and the cows would eat it. It was so rotten that the cows spit it out and .Raghunathin the middle of the night when no one was around would go and collect it and open up the hard part of the kernel in the middle and put a little salt on it and that is all he ate.SRI CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU came to house and forcibly grabbed some and ate it.SwaroopDamodarGoswami said that’s enough you cant eat this my lord.….SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU said I have tasted so many sweets and so many cakes but I have not tasted Prasad so nectarean as what is eaten by Raghunatheveryday. Mahaprabhubhaktaganevairagyapradhan Krishna das KavirajGoswami says that renunciation is the basic principle that sustains the true devotees of SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU…And seeing renunciation offered with love LORD CHAITANYA tastes the greatest happiness. SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU gave his Govardhanshila and gunja mala to RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI and personally taught him how to worship it with certain number of Tulsi leaves manjaris flowers .And he had SvarupDamodarGoswami get some special type of sweets for RaghunathDas goswamito offer.RAGHUNATH DAS GOSWAMI as he would be worshipping he was thinking , that as my Lord has given him permanent residence at Govardhan hill, by giving me this shila and myLord has given me eternal shelter at the lotus feet of Radha Rani by giving me this gunja mala. After SvaroopDamodarGoswami and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed from the world Raghunath Das goswami came here to Vrindavan where he spentthe rest of his days.as one of the six Goswamis and he worshiped that Girirajshila. If you look carefully you will see how once when LORD CHAITANYA was holdingGiriraj in the ecstasy of Radhas Love Govardhan melted and gave his own personal thumb print to this day can be seen. Lord Chaitanyacame to Vrindavan and then sent the Goswamis especially to reveal it to the world. Herein Vrindavan there are some special places with fascinating history, There is Nidhuvan, which is a very beautiful kunja of small tree. According toVISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURA when Lord Krishna left the Rasalila to find Radha Rani that is the place where that happened. He wrote a story Svapna Vilas where VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURA explains the pastimes of a dream. If you go to Nidhuvan there is a very beautiful temple called RangaMahal where Radha & Krishna would go torest. VISHWANATH CHAKRAVARTI THAKURA explains one time they were sleeping their andSrimati RadhaRani had a dream. She woke up and she said to Krishna I have to tell you this dream that I just had .You have shown me so many different ways you appear in this world.You have shown the form of Ram and Varaha and you showed me the for of Narayan. But the form I saw in this dream was unlike any I have ever seen. I saw a beautiful golden form more beautiful than any other incarnation. This form was dancing ecstatically on the banks of a river which looked exactly like Yamuna and a forest which looked exactly like Vrindavan. And I saw all around you were thousands of people were singing and chanting .They were playing mridangas and karatals and instruments we play in Vrindavan . This Golden form was a Brahmin and his arms were raisedAs he was chanting in Kirtan it seemed he was flooding the whole universe with love of god. Sometimes these golden bodied brahman was crying out. O my Lord Krsna where are you and sometimes I heard him crying out ,Oh my beloved Radha where are you. And I was thinking when he was chanting Oh my Krishna where are you that he was me and as he was chanting Oh Radha where are you that he was you .Can you tell me who is this person ?Krishna he lifted his Kaustubhamani from his chest and told Srimati Radha Rani to look within it. When she looked within it she saw the exact same pastime that was there in her dream.She saw the beautiful form of Gauranga singing and dancing. Sometimes crying out for Krishna and sometimes crying out for Radha Rani and Srimati Radha Rani said Now I can understand that we both are going to combine, The two of us are going to incarnate in this age of Kaliyuga.to spread our love throughout the world through the congregational chanting of our holy name.
Garga Muni told us that you have appeared in different colors in different ages.You appeared in a white colour and a Red colour and a yellow colourand now you are appearing in a darkish bluish colour .Sri Krishna Caitanya Radha Krishna nahianya…LORD CHAITANYAMahaprabhu comes in this age of Kali, Krishna to tast the sweetness of Radha’s love and to distribute that love to the world The love of Vrindavan Srila RupaGoswami and SanatanGoswami,Raghunath das Goswami , Raghunath Bhatt Goswami ,JivaGoswamiand all of their descendants when they came here to Vrindavan they werepreparing for LORD CHAITANYAs mission to spread throughout the world and then came that historical day, Friday 13 August 1965 when Srila Prabhupad boarded the Jaladuta. What he had with himabout forty rupees which could not be changed outside of India, he had his Japa beads and umbrella and a box of books SrimadBhagwatam. It was at Radha Damodar temple that he worked for years, as HH Giriraj Maharaj was telling us yesterday to write these books with commenteries and different translations.Because the Six Goswamis the very foundation and the basis of all of their writings and the lives that they lived was the SrimadBhagwatam. Which LORD CHAITANYA proclaimed to be amalampuranam the spotless puranam ,the crest jewel of all Vedic literatures.SrilaPrabhupad told the disciples that when he came offthe Jaladuta after 38 days at the sea heart attacks , sea sickness. As he was coming down from the ship he didn’t know if anyone would be there to help him… he didn’t know whether to go right or left but he felt complete confidence because he knew that he had the blessings of his Guru Maharaj Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Srila Prabhupadand he had the holy name of Krishna and the SrimadBhagwatam. When LORD CHAITANYA was living here he was staying there at Akruraghat.Yesterday H HGiriraj Maharaj explained to us the ecstatic happiness of compassion that prabhupad had when he had completed commentary on CaitanyaCaritamrita. 17 volumes and hardly an year and a half. Therein Srila Prabhhupad has given the story of Lord Chaitanyas living in Vrindavan.In the mornings he would sit at Imlitala, the ancient tamarind tree from the time of Lord Sri Krishna, the story of that tree is during one of Krishna many Rasalilas in Vrindavan when Sri Radha Rani had left the arena of rasa dance and Krishna left all the other Gopis to search for her he sat under the holy KalpaVriksha Tamarind tree on the bank of Yamuna and feeling such intense love in separation he was crying outSrimati Radha Ranis holy names. Vrindavan is the abode of Radha Rani Krishna is the supreme controller isvaraparamaKrishna.But in Vrindavan Krishna is controlled by the love of his devotees. In many manyVaikuntha planets Lord Narayana in his many forms is the supreme controller the supreme object of worship of infinite beings but Vrindavan which is Madhurya dham is the place where the supreme controller reveals to the world that his greatest happiness is that he is controlled by the love of his devotees ,this is explained in Chaitanya Caritamrits. Once in a day of Brahma and a night…Brahmas day is 8billion 643 million years and those intervals Lord Krishna appears in his original transcendental form as the Lord of Vrindavan and reveals the pastimes of Vrindavan to us. And once in day and night of Brahma in Kaliyuga following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appears. There in Chaitanya Caritamrita the reason for appearance of Lord Krishna in the world is explained to us.He says throughout the great religions of the world.
GDP follows.
There in Caitanya Caritamrita… in the world is revealed to us. He says, throughout all the great religions of the world, in the Vedic followers, people will hponour Me and worship Me through mantra, yantra and tantra, puja and mudra, as the Supreme king, but the love for Me is crippled in My heart by the recognition of My Supreme majestic powers. I will descend into the world to reveal the love of Vrindavan ewhere I am conquered and controlled by the love of My devotees. Where the gopas, My little friends, they play with Me, they joke with Me, and they chastise Me and they jump on Me and sometimes they wrestle with Me and they defeat Me, and I carry them on My shoulders to everyone in Vrindavan, “I have been defeated by Sridama.” And Mother Yashoda, she ties Me with the rope of her love and I become like a prisoner of her love. And the gopis, through their glances and their smiles and sometimes their chastisements, I am like a puppet, controlled by their devotion. And the supreme reservoir of all the love of Vrindavan is the is the Hladini shakti, the pleasure potency of Srimati Radharani, who is the feminine aspect of the Absolute Truth, Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna is the vishaya vigraha, the supreme object of all love. And Sri Radha is the ashraya vigraha, the Supreme abode of all love. Krishna revealed to the world and it has come down to us through Srimad Bhagavatam – the love of Vrindavan.
Under the Imli tal, Lord Krishna was feeling so much separation from Sri Radha’s love. He could not live without the love of Radha. This is rasa. How could Krishna not live? He is the sourse of all life. He is sat – He is eternal forever. Mamaivamso jiva… we are only existing because we are infinitesimal tiny little particles of Krishna, but here Krishna is thinking, fearing that “I can not live without the love of Radha,” and He is crying out Radha’s name in separation, totally immersed in separation from her. In that absorption, His beautiful complexion turned the golden color of Radharani’s body. And at that time, Srimati Radharani and gopis came and saw Krishna weeping and chanting Sri Radha’s names. And Srimati Radharani asked Him, “What am I seeing?” and Krishna said, “In the age of Kali, I am going to appear, feeling the ecstacy of your love manifested the beauty of your complexions and through bhakti, prema bhakti, I am going to enlighten the world with the inner rasas of Vrindavan and inundate the hearts of countless people with your love through the chanting of the holy names.
HKHK…
We should follow the Lord’s guidelines at this time and dance, chant together in Hari nama sankirtana. xt
Thank you very much.
