Radhanath Swami Lectures on Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi Lila 1.1-6
- I offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual masters, the devotees of the Lord, the Lord’s incarnations, His plenary portions, His energies and the primeval Lord Himself, Çré Kåñëa Caitanya
- I offer my respectful obeisances unto Çré Kåñëa Caitanya and Lord Nityänanda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauòa to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all.
- What the Upaniñads describe as the impersonal Brahman is but the effulgence of His body, and the Lord known as the Supersoul is but His localized plenary portion. Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa Himself, full with six opulences. He is the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to Him.
- May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Çrématé Çacé-devé be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.
- The loving affairs of Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rädhä and Kåñëa are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Çré Kåñëa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Çrématé Rädhäräëé although He is Kåñëa Himself.
- Desiring to understand the glory of Rädhäräëé’s love, the wonderful qualities in Him that She alone relishes through Her love, and the happiness She feels when She realizes the sweetness of His love, the Supreme Lord Hari, richly endowed with Her emotions, appeared from the womb of Çrématé Çacé-devé, as the moon appeared from the ocean.
Radhanath Swami Speaks on the Invocation Verses of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita
These are the beginning invocation verses of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita where Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami is surrendering first his life with great humility to his spiritual master and then he surrenders his life to all the great spiritual masters. ‘Gurun’, the plural, which means all those great acharyas in the displic succession who have so carefully and lovingly preserved the supreme truth of loving service to the Lord through the ages. And also to all of those diksha gurus and shiksha gurus who are living at the present. He is offering his surrendered obeisances to all those great souls who are living amongst us who are preserving the pure and unadulterated message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through their lives and through their words. He offers his obeisances to the Lord’s incarnations, His planery portions, His energies and ultimately to the primeval source of everything that exists – Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In the first verse of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, it is established that Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya is the absolute truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all incarnations full with all six opulances. And He descends in this age of Kali along with His eternal associate, counterpart Sri Balaram like the sun and the moon simultaneously to give light in this age of darkness. Kaviraj Goswami refers to the Upanishads. Although the Upanishads’ conclusion is devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a great emphasis of the Upanishad is given to the impersonal aspect of the supreme, the radiant brilliant light of the Lord. Kaviraj Goswami also explains that the Lord also appears as the supersoul within everyone’s heart. But Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He is the absolute truth. He is full with all six opulances. Brahman is His energy, paramatma is His localised expansion. But their existence is wholly and exclusively dependent on Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And then he prays, that “May that Lord Who appeared from the womb of Srimati Sachidevi be situated in the innermost chambers of your heart”. Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami wrote Chaitanya Charitamrita as he explains himself in humility for his own purification, in obedience to the orders of his superiors, the goswamis of Vrindavan. But especially he wrote it for the ultimate benefit of all living beings. And it is our great fortune that this benefit has been given to us. Srila Prabhupad has written in the beautiful translation of one of the purports wherein the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya are available for the understanding of all living beings. In this age of Kali, there is so much predominant ignorance and attachments to the bodily conception of life, attachments to the pleasures of the senses of our own body, sense gratification, and attachment to giving physical sense gratification, emotional sense gratification to those who are near and dear to us. These are all illusions, they are all based on the principle of ignorance. And practically the whole world is going on according to this influence. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to deliver what no other incarnation has ever given so freely.
Lord Chaitanya Presented the Essence of All Vedic Scriptures
So we are humbly requesting all of you to very very carefully study this great literature – Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita. It is most important and sublime. Srila Prabhupad, when he first began preaching in the Western world, one of the first books that he wrote in the nineteen sixties was the ‘Teachings of Lord Chaitanya’ which is the summary study of the philosophy and teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And I remember, when I first came to a temple, back in the very early seventies, the morning class was just a reading from ‘Teachings of Lord Chaitanya’. We would all just sit and one person would read ‘Teachings of Lord Chaitanya’ and everyone would just listen. Because Srila Prabhupad explains, that all the philosophy is included in this one book. Because Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, through His various teachings to His devotees as well as to other persons that He converted, He presented the essence of all the Vedic scriptures. To become a scholar of all the Vedas is very very difficult in this age of Kali. You have to know that even if you study, to understand is almost impossible because the vedas are written in so many ways for so many different classes of people. Lord Chaitanya came to extract the essence. The Srimad Bhagavatam is the extraction of the essence of all the Vedas. And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught in such a way to make the Srimad Bhagavatam understandable, accessible to everyone. That is His great mercy. Lord Chaitanya, He did not discriminate in any way. Just like today, during the kirtan, we saw so many different people with so many different places, all dancing together. Nityodita Swami has come from the strange foreign land of Buffalo, New York. Jai Murari Swami, from even more distant foreign land of Indiana, America. And people from here in Maharashtra, from Bengal, from South India, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, people from simple villages, people from big big metropolis cities, people from high caste, low caste, outcaste, people who do not know how to write their names, people who are PhDs in celebrated universities, little children who are orphans from the streets, others who are from very very famous prestigious Saraswat Brahmin families; and everyone is dancing together blissfully, simply experiencing great love to see how all others who are tasting the sweetness of Krishna’s holy names. This is the gift Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come to give the world, the gift that could bring unity in an age of disunity, the gift that could bring love in a world of hatred, peace in a world of violence, friendship in a world of animosity.
Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami Wants to Establish Lord Chaitanya’s Supreme Position
Lord Chaitanya has that authority because He is the absolute truth. And this Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami wants to establish before we hear any of the teachings or pastimes of Lord Chaitanya. Because much of the world, they respect Lord Chaitanya as a great devotee. But you will not get the real benefit of hearing this literature. You will not get the blessings of the Yuga avatar in full if you just consider that He was a great astonishing devotee. In the writings of so many great philosophers, they praise Lord Chaitanya as the devotee Who exhibited the most ecstasies of love of Krishna and they praise Him like anything. But Krishnadas Kaviraj cannot accept such an explanation. And some accept Him as an incarnation of Vishnu or an incarnation of Krishna. And Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami wants to establish, that is also not correct. Of course, there are those who consider that all the incarnations including Lord Chaitanya are temporary manifestations of impersonal brahman. He wants to also teach what is the real truth of Lord Chaitanya, that He is Krishna Himself. He is not an incarnation, He is Krishna directly. Kåñëas tu bhagavän svayam [SB 1.3.28]. Lord Ram, Lord Narasinga, Lord Vamana, Lord Parashuram, all of these avatars are all partial expansions of the incarnations of that original source Who is Krishna, Who is Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is full of all six opulances. He is bhagawan. And when we understand the truth of the glory of the Lord, then, when we read about His wonderful inconceivable pastimes, we will make the supreme type of spiritual progress. Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami has laboriously described citing the most important sections of the Veidc literatures, also citing undefeatable logic and reasoning to establish Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s supreme position. And he has done this so that we can have faith.
Radhanath Swami describes how Faith is the Only Qualification
This faith is most essential. If we hear the pastimes of the Lord with faith, those pastimes will most certainly awaken our original love from within, pure devotional service. If we chant the holy names, çré-kåñëa-caitanya prabhu-nityänanda çré-advaita gadädhara çréväsädi-gaura-bhakta-vånda, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare; with faith, then we will gain the greatest benefit. When we chant Hare Krishna mantra, we should know that it is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Who extracted this mantra from the vedas and distributed it to the world as the mahamantra and the yuga dharma. And the ultimate effect of chanting Hare Krishna is very much dependent on our faith in that person who has given this mantra. Hare Krishna mantra is the medicine in this age of Kali. To the degree we have real faith in the physician who has given us the medicine, we will actually have the capacity to attentively take shelter of the name. Because without the blessings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Hare Krishna mahamnatra will not have the real benefit we require. And therefore, Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, out of his infinite kindness, compassion and mercy upon all of us, is trying to invoke that faith within our hearts. ‘May that Lord Who is known as the son of Srimati Sachidevi, be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart’. This begins through faith. Faith comes through hearing. And when we hear from such great empowered acharyas as Kaviraj Goswami, it has a sublime spiritual effect on our consciousness. If we hear the message of Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavat, or even Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, from those who are not genuinely humble servants of the Lord, then their words will not invoke real faith within our heart. It is not possible. Because the mood of service that we have to the Lord, to guru and His devotees, it gives potency to whatever we say or whatever we write. In the beginning, Srila Prabhupad explains that to translate vedic literatures and write books, one should actually be a liberated soul situated in pure devotional service, not just being a scholar. There are so many scholars who know the Sanskrit language so well. But their books will not invoke your faith. Because they are not empowered by the blessings of Krishna. But Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, he was authorised, he was blessed to humbly write this book for the sake of revealing truth of Lord Chaitanya to the world. And in our dicsiplic succession, we should understand the science, that by hearing from those who have faith in Him as a great acharya, that is how our spiritual life really begins. Srila Prabhupad said, “My only qualification”, speaking of himself was, “I have complete faith in the words of my guru and I repeat those words. Therefore whatever I say, every syllable of every word”, Prabhupad said, “can enlighten you with pure love of Krishna”. And Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati and all the previous acharyas said the same thing, that their only qualification was complete faith in the words of their spiritual master. So it is the disciplic succession of faith, faith which is coming down and anyone who has that faith can enlighten our hearts and enlighten our lives. And Kaviraj is explaining here what is that faith, that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the absolute truth, the cause of all causes, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the most munificent, the most merciful of all incarnations Who has come to distribute the love of Srimati Radharani to all the world. Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu ki?
Devotees: Jai!
Gauranga!
Devotees: Gauranga!!
Radhanath Swami narrates Nimai’s Childhood Pastimes
And in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Chaitanya Bhagavat, there are so many wonderful wonderful stories. And especially, Lord Chaitanya’s childhood pastimes where He appeared to not be a devotee. Sometimes He would reveal, like we saw the drama that Sri Damodar Pandit prabhu so wonderfully produced and directed on Gaur Pournima, of how when Lord Chaitanya was a little boy, Nimai Pandit, how He would just play. In the name of playing games, He did not claim any authority. He just would play games. And in His games, He would induce all His friends to chant ‘Hari Hari!’
Devotees: Hari Hari!
And His friends would chant
Devotees: ‘Hari Hari!’
And they would dance.
Devotees: Hari Hari!
And even the dry…., Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explains that those persons who study the Vedas, pandits, but do not accept pure bhakti to Krishna as the conclusion, he says that their studying the shastras is like eating dry oil cakes. Did you ever eat dry oil cakes? We don’t serve them in our temple. They just stick to your mouth, they have no taste, they are just a burden to chew and to chew and to chew. My nature is, I like to try to experience all these various explanations so I have tried dry oil cakes. You just chew it and you chew and it’s just a labour, you mouth becomes exhausted. So dry! Just makes you more thirsty. So much labour of studying so many scriptures without any result. So these pandits who are trying to taste the dry oil cakes of all their studies, when they were touched by Sri Gauranga, and heard the beautiful song His devotees singing, they all ecstatically began to dance and chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”. But Sachidevi who was none other than mother Yashoda in Krishna leela, she was especially empowered to protect Lord Chaitanya’s disguise position of an innocent child. So she came. She chastised the pandits who were all great scholars, “You are ruining my child by causing Him to chant and dance like a mad man, wild! Shame on you!” The pandits were shocked on getting chastised by a mataji. Panditjis do not like to get chastised by matajis. But they were speechless, because they didn’t know what they were doing and why they were doing it. And she took Nimai away, “Let me take you home away from these contaminated beings causing You to become so crazy”. One time when He was just a baby, He looked at the moon and He said to His mother, “Give Me the moon. I want the moon!” She said, “I’ll give You anything You want”. He said, “Give Me the moon. I want it in My hands”. And mother Sachi didn’t know how to put the moon in His hands. He went in a fit of crying and weeping and He wouldn’t be satisfied with anything except the moon. And of course, we should understand that He is the proprietor of the moon, He is the proprietor of all the planets, everything is His. And a devotee’s position is to bring everything back to Him. And He was teaching this most wonderful sublime lesson to the world. But He did it in such a childlike way, the only one who understands the truth of the tattva of Mahaprabhu can appreciate. Others, they listen and they enjoy, “O, this story of a little boy crying for the moon”. People like stories like that. But when devotees hear, it brings great enlightenment. Sometimes when He would see birds flying in the sky, He would tell Sachi, “Give Me that bird”. Sachi wanted to give Him the bird, but she didn’t know how to reach the bird. So He would cry and He would weep and He would beat His hands against the ground, “I want that bird”. Because every living being is His part and parcel. The Lord comes to this world because He wants every living entity to come back to Him. Not only the human beings, not only the Brahmins, but all classes of the society. He also wants all the animals, all the birds, all the insects, they are all spirit souls, part and parcels. He is crying out, “I want them all to come back to Me”. But only if a devotee who understands the truth of Lord Chaitanya can understand the inner significance of these apparently sweet, innocent child like pastimes which are so much covered with ras that they bring great joy to the hearts of anyone who understands them in truth.
Radhanath Swami explains how Ananta Sesha Comes to See Lord Caitanya
When Nimai was just a little baby, little boy, Ananta Shesha Himself wanted to have His association. It was actually Lord Nityananda. Because Lord Nityananda Prabhu was living in Ekachakra and He knew that He was not meant to directly meet the Lord in His original physical presence until the Lord would begin His sankirtan pastimes. When He was a child, nobody knew Who He was. Everyone just thought He was the most beautiful little baby. Anyone who saw His beautiful beautiful golden complexion, they just loved Him, they wanted to see Him forever. They wanted to make Him happy, to do anything for Him. That was the nature of His beauty. But even His father, mother, nobody had the slightest inclination of understanding that He was the supreme Godhead. So Nityananda, feeling intense separation, He expanded Himself as one of His forms of Ananta Shesha and there He went to Nimai’s courtyard and He crawled out like a serpent. And Nimai came and just to satisfy Him, Nityananda Prabhu, He layed on the top of the coils of the snake. But the residents of Navadveep headed by His own mother and father, when they saw this, they were very afraid. This deadly poisonous snake our son is laying on! Can you imagine, one day you father and mothers, you saw your little child laying on a gigantic venomous serpent? But the anxiety you will experience is nothing because you have no capacity to love your child even a fraction of how Sachidevi loved Nimai. What to speak of anybody who loved Nimai! And when Ananta Shesha saw He was causing disturbance to the devotees, He began to go away. And the parents immediately ran to catch Him. But Nimai was trying to run away to catch the serpent to bring Him back. Such beautiful pastimes! But what is the inner significance? What is the deep transcendental message that He portrayed? The separation between the Lord and His devotees. And of course we understand Who is this Ananta Shesha. He is holding all the universes on His hoods. He is so great, He is so powerful, the whole cosmic manifestation is resting on His various hoods. What is the power of this incarnation of Ananta Shesha! And yet, that great most compatibly powerful divine personality is coming just to render the simplest service to His divine supreme master, Nimai Pandit, Navadveepchandra, the moon of Navadveep. Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu ki?
Devotees: Jai!
Lord Chaitanya Increased the Devotees’ Separation From Krishna Katha
The great biographers have given so many beautiful beautiful narrations. When Lord Chaitanya was little older, how He would actually ridicule the devotees. But He did it to increase the intensity of their love for Krishna. He was such a master. He would always be talking about word jugglery, grammatical rules and regulations and so forth. And the devotees, they didn’t like to talk these things. They only liked to chant the beautiful glories of Krishna katha and chant His holy names, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. But Lord Chaitanya Who was then Nimai Pandit, He would just stop the devotees on the road. By force, He would take them by the hand and He would say, “Stop! I have questions for you” and He would start challenging them with intricate detail, grammatical rules and regulations to see if they could defeat Him. And He would juggle words so carefully that He would defeat the devotees. And the devotees would just get involved in all these debates which had nothing to do with Krishna. And they would just want to get away from Him because devotees don’t like to discuss things that are not related to Krishna. But at the same time, there was some mysterious love that they had for Him, that they never wanted to leave Him. So in this way, He was actually revealing the glories of His devotees, how devotees do not like to waste a second with anyone for any subject other than Krishna consciousness. So He was glorifying His devotees by debating on mundane subjects with them. And not only that, as He was debating with them, they would feel such intense separation from Krishna katha, so He was actually increasing their desire for Krishna consciousness mysteriously. But externally, He was simply appearing to be a disturbance. So we must understand the inner significance of Lord Chaitanya’s wonderful childhood pastimes. One time Mukunda, who was approximately the same age of Lord Chaitanya, he was walking. And Lord Chaitanya saw him. Mukunda saw Lord Chaitanya and he very very discreetly but quickly turned the other way and started hiding. And Lord Chaitanya said to His students, He said, “Why is Mukunda running away from Me?” And the students said, “I think that he must have some very special important business to perform and seva”. He said, “No! That is not the reason. He has run away from Me because I talk all nonsense about material subjects and he doesn’t like to talk about anything but Krishna. And he knows, if I catch him I will force him to debate on material subjects so he has run away and he has hid from Me. but you just wait Mukunda. Someday I will be the greatest devotee of all devotees. You will see that even Brahma and Shiva will fall at My feet and worship Me”.
Devotees: Haribol!
And His friends, even though He was explaining Who He was, His friends were just like, “What is He talking about? What is this?” They just couldn’t understand. They weren’t supposed to understand.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Revealed Himself to His Most Intimate Devotees
But after going to Gaya and meeting His spiritual master and taking initiation from Sri Ishvara Puri, when He revealed to the world the type of love and emotion, which has never been revealed except in that great scripture, the Srimad Bhagavatam, the love of Radha for Krishna. But even then, in order to teach a lesson to the world, He would never admit openly that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And also, He would restrain His deep loving emotion and it would only be revealed when He was with His most intimate purified devotees who had some conception to understand His divine ecstasies. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the house of Srivas was very free to express His love to His devotees. And at times, He would directly manifest His supreme divinity. To Haridas Thakur He revealed His beautiful form of Sri Krishna standing playing upon His flute decorated by beautiful garland of forest flowers. To Kolavecha Sridhar, He exhibited a beautiful eight armed form of Shyamasundar Krishna. To Sri Murari Gupta, He revealed the beautiful form of Sri Ramachandra with a brilliant complexion like fresh newly grown grass. At times He revealed His form of Narayan. And in the courtyard of Srivas, to Sri Advait Acharya, (45.15) ……. (45.17)
…. cover His ears when people would identify Himself as Krishna. Because He wanted to show the world what a devotee should be. The Lord came in the role of His own devotee to show us how to be perfect devotee. And one of the basic principles of devotee is one who has no other identity than to be the eternal servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna. Gopé-bhartuù pada-kamalayor däsa-däsänudäsaù (CC Madhya 13.80). A devotee cannot tolerate the idea of becoming one with God. God Himself denied He was God to anyone but those with pure unalloyed love to teach the path by which everyone can come to that plane of pure unalloyed love.
Radhanath Swami enlightens that “To Have Faith is the Greatest Gift”
Caitanya Caritamrita is the most important of all the biographies of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for this simple reason. Because philosophically it establishes beyond doubt the supreme position of Mahaprabhu and it describes in great detail His teachings to the world. So this is the great gift, it is the literary incarnation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, just as the Srimad Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of Krishna. So on this very auspicious festival of Gaur Pournima which we have been celebrating for the last four days, we want to urge all of you to really deeply try to apply our good intelligence to understand the supreme glory and position of Lord Chaitanya, to deeply endeavour to comprehend the teachings of Lord Chaitanya and the teachings of those great souls who have presented Him to the world. Because through this process, there will be great faith. And faith is the ingredient that makes all of our other sadhana, all of our other spiritual activities empowered to activate the awakening of love for the Lord. Yasya deve parä bhaktir yathä deve tathä gurau (Çvetäçvatara Upaniñad 6.23). The great spiritual masters, they have come with this message. To have faith in their message is to have faith in God. To have faith in them is to have faith in their message. When we talk about faith in Guru, faith in Guru does not mean faith just in a person. It means faith in the message of the representatives. That is called vani. The great spiritual masters’ appearance is most mercifully manifested through their teachings, through their words. And their vapu, their physical presence is only meant to induce us to take more seriously their words and their teachings. In fact, their activities should be non-different than their words. Last night we heard so many wonderful wonderful narrations, Srila Prabhupad’s pastimes. And we found that Malati Mataji and Giriraj swami, with their wonderful stories, they explained how each one of these pastimes of Srila Prabhupad was an exemplary exhibition of his teachings, a practical application of the highest truths of life. That is vani. So to have that faith is the greatest gift, it is the greatest treasure. It is the real property that we should treasure as our life and soul. To associate nicely with devotees, to hear submissively the true words descending like the river Ganges through the disciplic succession through serving, through living a pure life, gradually our faith becomes stronger and purer.
Radhanath Swami induces “Chant Hare Krishna Eternally”
So we are so grateful to all of you for taking this mission of Lord Chaitanya so seriously in your lives, for accepting the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita with such simple faith. Make this your life and soul. Take this gift of Mahaprabhu, because this is the only gift that can give relief, real relief, permanent relief in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy. And of course we know that the culmination of all philosophy and the manifestation of our faith comes when we come together to chant the holy names and the glorification of the Lord, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. And when Srila Prabhupad was asked, “What do you hope to get from this chanting of Hare Krishna?”, some people, they chant Hare Krishna because they want money. Because “Hare is the goddess of fortune and she will give me money if I chant her names”. And some people chant Hare Krishna because they want a long life, healthy life. The impersonalists, they chant Hare Krishna because they want mukti, liberation. And the yogis, they chant Hare Krishna because they want great great powers and concentration in their meditations. So when Srila Prabhupad was asked, “What do you hope to get out of this chanting Hare Krishna?”, Srila Prabhupad’s reply was, “Chanting Hare Krishna”. This is what we hope to get out of chanting Hare Krishna. The ways and the means and the goal are the same. By chanting Hare Krishna, we become purified and in that purified state, what will we do? We will chant ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare’ for all eternity. Devotees, in their neophyte state when they are chanting their rounds, they are thinking, “When, when O when will that moment be, when the sixteenth round is finished? Then I can do things I like to do when the austerity is complete for the day until tomorrow morning. Then I have to do it again”. But our goal is that we can chant Hare Krishna not until the sixteenth round is done, but kirtaniya sada hari. And we want to chant Hare Krishna forever. That is our goal. That is our ultimate aim in life – to chant the names of God with pure love all of eternity – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Some times during kirtan, we look at the clock and we begin to worry, “Prasad may be getting cold. Not only that, but the best preparations may run out before I get there. But at the same time, I don’t want to leave the kirtan because what will people think?” And sometimes we tell someone, “I have an important appointment”, “I have to go to a wedding”, something like that. But our real goal in life is when we can dance and chant in the glorification of the Lord eternally, forever. In the spiritual world, of Goloka Vrindavan, there is the land of Navadveep where eternally, the devotees with their arms raised are together dancing in ecstasy chanting the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”. This is the gift that Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu has given to the world. Änandämbudhi-vardhanaà prati-padaà pürëämåtäsvädanaà [Cc. Antya 20.12]. It is only through this love that Krishna expressed through hearing and chanting His names and glories, of all the innermost desires of the soul can be fulfilled.
Radhanath Swami describes Rathayatra and Significance of Cross Maidan
At the end of this month, thirty-first, first, second of March and April, the beautiful beautiful pastime of Lord Chaitanya will be reenacted here in Bombay rathayatra. And Sri Radha Rasabihari mandir, Radha Gopinath mandir, Bhayendar temple are all working together to make a beautiful beautiful wonderful festival for Lord Chaitanya. Srila Prabhupad really emphasised this rathayatra because it was a festival that would include everyone. So we are humbly requesting everyone to attend each of the programmes. The rathayatra will go through the streets of Bombay and then each night at Cross Madian… Cross Maidan is a special place. Cross Maidan is the first place Srila Prabhupad had a large public programme in India. It was his first large gathering in India at Cross Maindan in nineteen seventy-one. Tens and thousands of people came to hear him preaching, and tens and thousands heard the beautiful nectar of his kirtan. So it’s a very historical place, and also from my own insignificant point of view, it is the place where I first was blessed with the divine association of Srila Prabhupad.
Devotees: Haribol! Srila Prabhupad ki? Jai!
It is the place where he first picked me out of a crowd of thousands and asked me to sit by his side and allowed me to take the dust from his lotus feet. So it is my… what to say… it is the place of my spiritual conception, conception of my spiritual life. And of course, Lokanath Swami also first met Srila Prabhupad at that same programme on the same day, he became devotee. So it’s a wonderful wonderful place to really celebrate this rathayatra. So we request everyone attend all the programmes and also, if you can, whatever you can do to participate in helping to organise and make this rathayatra wonderful festoival, please talk to Radha Krishna and volunteer to help.
Radhanath Swami Expresses Gratitude
Before ending this talk, I would like to, on behalf of all of the devotees of Sri Radha Gopinath mandir, offer our deepest gratitude for special guests that have come from New Vrindavan. HH Nityodita Maharaj.
Devotees: Haribol!
HH Jai Murari Maharaj
Devotees: Haribol!
HG Srimati Malati Devi
Devotees: Haribol!
HG Srimati Gopala Supriya Devi
Devotees: Haribol!
Gopala Supriya is actually the unofficial president of New Vrindavan. She actually does everything. That’s my perception when I go there. everyone else kind of makes certain… what to say.. appearances. But when it comes right down to it, she gets everything done. So we should try to induce her to come back by saying ‘Haribol’.
Devotees: Haribol!
And Srimati Jayashree Devi
Devotees: Haribol!
who of course you heard this morning is one of Srila Prabhupad’s very very senior disciples. And mother Srimati Tilakini Devi.
Devotees: Haribol!
Is there anyone else? Ha… Is Garga Rishi here? Garga Rishi is the official president. Garga Rishi is the senior most of all devotees in New Vrindavan. First time he has ever come to India. So we should offer our grateful obeisances to Sri Garga Rishi prabhu. And his son Khichari Das.
Devotees: Haribol!
And Rava (1.03) is still here, he is not going, you are all going. And anyone else I may have forgotten?
Devotees: Haribol!
Thank you very much.
Now I would like to ask all of you to show your eternal gratitude to one another for so kindly demonstrating such wonderful devotion to Sri Sri Radha Gopinath….
