A Caitanya-caritāmṛta Class by Gurudeva (Madhya Ch. 19) #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

My name is Jayapataka Swami. I'm disciple of his divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. And I live in Mayapur, India, in West Bengal, the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. I've been living there since 1970 and I oversee ISKCON operations in Eastern and Southern India. So I know Bengali and Aurea and little area, some the Hindi. In the north, I'm trying to learn Tamil and Telugu and Kalang Malayam. Those are the areas that I will receive for Iskhan. Apart from that, Sri Lanka and Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. And South America. Four countries. This is my official area. Plus I'm the Minister of Congregational Development. I went to a European tour. This came from Bosnia and I'm going to Italy tomorrow. And so we planned that I could be here tonight with Human invited me to the Rathyatra but I couldn't make it. So I said okay, at least I'll give it one night. So please forgive me for not being here for the Rathyat Channel this year. Last year we went on Every year after Gura Purim I take the Voice with me to to different holy places and we use the program. This year we went to Hardware Rishikesh via the Gaji's route. And last year we went to Manduram and Karnataka to visit Maharishingha temples. After the class, would someone like to see the slideshow? Which one you want to see? North India or South India? 40 minutes. South India. South India. South India. We'll take a vote. Yeah. Equal. Equal. On the North Indian toy, we have a picture. We went to this Rava Khalee village of Rupa Goswami. So that's relevant. After meeting Shaitanya Maharabhu in the village of Ram Kali, the brothers Rupa and Sanatana returned to their homes. I have a picture of the tree where they took initiation and come on to you. The two brothers devised a means how they could give up their material activities. They appointed two Brahmanas and paid them a large amount of money. The Brahmanas performed religious ceremonies and chanted the holy names of Ka so that the two brothers might attain shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Chanya Mahaprabhu. Very soon at this time, Srila Pragoswamy returned home taking with him large quantities of riches loaded in boats. Srila Rupa Goswami divided the wealth that he brought back home. He gave 50% in charity to Brahmanas and Vaishnavas and 25% to his relatives purport. This is a practical example how one should divide his money and retire from household life. 50% of one's money shall be distributed to qualified and pure devotees of the Lord. 25% may be given to family members and 25% may be kept for personal use in case of emergency. What's interesting to note that this is when he was retiring. This is his surplus money that he had saved. It's kind of interesting. So he kept one fourth of his wealth for emergencies with a respectable Rahman. He kept this for his personal safety because he was expecting some legal complications. He also deposited 10,000 coins which were later spent by Sri Sanatha Goswami in the custody of a local Bengali grocer. So Rupa Goswami heard that Chichetanimabhu had returned Jagannath Puri and was preparing to go to Vrindavan through the forest. So like this he got some news from Jagannath Puri. And he found that to find out when Lord Chaitanya will be going. While Siddhartha Goswami was in Goda Deshur, Bengal, he was thinking the Nawab is very pleased with me. I certainly have an obligation. If the Nawab somehow or other becomes angry with me, I shall be greatly relieved. That is my conclusion. On the pretext of bad health, Sanatana Goswami remained home. Thus he gave up government service and did not go to the royal court. The greedy masters of his clerical and secretarial staff performed their government duties while Sanatana personally returned home and discussed the revealed scriptures. Siddharth Goswami was Prime Minister of the empire of the Hussein Shah, known as the Panchagod Empire. He was whole eastern northern India. He was responsible. His border was the Nadali Empire. His was Eastern India Empire. So part of. I don't know exactly how far his went. Probably up to Bihar. And he was conquering big areas. But Samadhan Goswami was managing his secretariat. So normally what happens is the government people steal if they get a chance. They think it's anyway public money, I can take it. So the ministers. Normally King has to watch over the minister. But in the case Sanatha Goswami was such a reliable person that he was actually seen that nobody stole. So the Nawab was very pleased with him that he was such a reliable secretary. When Lord Chaitanya had met Rupa and Samatan in the previous chapter to this they came with straws in their teeth. Actually they're from Brahmanas. Originally they migrated from Karnataka, came to Bengal where there for seven generations became kings after a few generations. And then they were kings. They came from Karnataka. Then they became Brahmanas and Bengal. In those days it seems that people could change their varna according to their occupation and quality. So there were like seven generations in North India. And then somehow they got recruited as the Prime Minister and finance minister of the. So he gave them nicknames which are Islamic names. Sakya and Malik became Sanatan and Ravir Kas became Rupa. They are initiated by Lord Chaitanya. They came with straws in their teeth. They put a piece of grass in their teeth and fell at the feet of Lord Chaitanya. And said that although we were born in a good family but we've taken up an employment with this government which is meeting government. We lost all our good qualities. They simply want the mercy from you. But actually they were. It wasn't like that. They actually lost their good habits. They always remain vegetarian. So they were giving profuse charity to the Brahmanas. That's why Mahavadvi Dam could force great places of spiritual and vedic knowledge like Nabadid, like Matura days. They were all flourishing within there empire. Because they were regularly giving lots of donations to the saintly people, to the Brahmanas. There's many evidences about this. But they were presenting themselves to be very fallen, very unqualified to get the mercy. In fact they said that Jaggaribandai were born Brahmanas and we were delivered them. But they were actually Dhambasis. We are lower than Jaggai Malik. We never lived in the holy Dhaam. We live here in Ramakeli. The Lord Chaitanyas. You're breaking my heart. How many times you see the Prime Minister going with a straw in the street, falling at the feet of some Sannyasi guru and saying I'm the most fallen person in the universe. Give me your mercy Prime Minister. Usually just to get an appointment with the Prime Minister you go through so many people here. They're falling at the feet of Lord Chitanya. So they were very much highly intellectual, highly intelligent, highly qualified and most humble. So after they got initiated by Lord Chaitanya then they decided that they wanted to leave this government employment. They wanted to directly help Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. At this time they were already quite elderly. Children were growing up, they didn't have any. So they wanted to retire and go to Vrindavan or Migoitz. Hochetta told them to go to Vrindavan. So they had some instruction. So that's what's happening in this Ram Keila. They said with this tour we went on, we went to Ram Khili. You can see a picture of the deities there. It's a very beautiful place. The ruins of God are 3 km away from Ram Kheli. God is actually the capital of this empire. Ancient. He will show you some pictures and this explaining what happened in Sanat. Goswami started just the king was always really nice to him. Never mistreated him. So he felt obliged. So how can I just walk out on? So he thought that if I don't go to office for a long time, if I just read the scripture, eventually he'll find out. He'll become angry with me then. That way if he's angry with me, then I'll have more of a moral reason. Okay, now I can leave him. In other words, he was a very thoughtful person. So he was staying home every day having Bhagavatam class. Finally one day the Nawab shows up and see said he's because he was sending that he's sick. Sent the physician's physician, there's nothing wrong with him. So then the Nawab came and saw that there he's having Bhagavatam plants. And he said, look at him. Come back and do your duties as prime minister. And he said, well, please release me. I can't do it in Fiji. I want to just focus on my religious self. He said, come on, I'm fighting wars. I'm depending on someone to watch my administration while I'm out. You're my right hand person. You have to change your mind and become prime minister. Actors who prime minister again. Until I'm giving you time to think about in the meantime putting you in jail. How many people. How many people do you know that you had to become prime minister or put you in jail and they're resisting. Usually though, prime ministers hang on till the bitter end, till they're voted out to something Here. He was really a spiritually kind person, to say the least. Honesty. So I have a picture of the Jiao where he was kept. He's in the shape of a kind of a dome, like a logical. So I'll show you that later. There's a whole detailed story of Swami. He had a let me influence the jailkeeper. So meantime, RPA Goswami found out Lord Chaitanya had left, sent a message to Samadhi, said that we're going to drive to Vrinavan. I left 10,000 coins with his grocer, used it to get out of the prison. Get out of the prison and come to Vrindavan. So Rupa goes. Swami is both Rupa and Samantha disappearance Ladies Rupa. So Rupa Goswami went to Prayag. Prayag is now called Allahabad. And there they were able to meet Lord Chaitanya. They went to see the temple of Bindu Ramanava. Many thousands of people were following the scene. Kishta Kishta Voli KE Hogaragodhi Jaya. Some of the people who followed the Lord were crying, some were laughing, some were dancing, some chanting. Indeed, some of them were rolling in the ground, explaining Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Prabhu Dubai, location of Premier Bonheat Prague, is located at the confluence of the two rivers, the Ganga and the Jamuna. Although these rivers were not able to flood Prayag with water, Sri Caitanya Mahbhu inundated the whole area with waves of ecstatic love for Ka. So Rupha had gone there with his younger brother Balab Anupam. And they were standing in a secluded place. You could see Lord Chaitanya was ecstatic to see the Dindu Mahara like was loudly chanting the holy name of Harim. He asked everyone to chant Hareem Hari. It mentions that if you chant the two syllables and the Lord will steal away from you. Neon. You sound a bit worried. You know what he steal from you? You want to know? You just chant Hari, Hari. You steal away from you all your suffering, all your contamination. Someone comes to steal away your garbage. Do you mind when they steal your car, your wallet handy or something? So Hari steals away all the suffering, all the dirt, all the contamination. So Lord, she sending out everyone to chant Hari, Hari, Hari, Hari. The choice for Hare Krishna. So everyone was astounded to see how Lord Chaitanya. We have thousands of people in the chant. And the word got spread around. The Lord Chaitanya had been in South India. He met a Brahmana. And that Brahmana had somehow gone to Prayag. So they invited him to come for meals. So he took him to his place. So when he was in the solitary place in the home of the Deccan Brahmana, Rupin Samatin Rupin, rather Shiva came to meet him again. The brothers put straws of grass in their mouth and their teeth. They recited prayers and Sanskrit verses, offered a basin again and again, Satan Niwaba was very pleased to see Rupa Goswami and told him, stand up, stand up, my dear Rupa. Come here. Chicha Chandi Marva said, it is not possible to describe Ka's mercy For he has delivered you both from the well of material enjoyment. Krishna said, even though a person is very learned scholar of the Sanskrit Vedic literatures, he is not accepted as my devotee unless he is pure in devotional service. Even though a person is born in a family of dog eaters, he is very dear to me. If he is a pure devotee who has no motive to enjoy fruitive activities or mental speculation. Indeed, all respect should be given to him and whatever he offers should be accepted. Such devotees are as worshipable as I am. So this verse was spoken by Lord Caitanya. Quranic verse. So the Lord Chaitanya embraced the two brothers. They paid their obeisances. He put his Lord's foot up their head. So two brothers offered this prayer with folded hands unto the Lord. O most munificent incarnation, you are Ka himself, appearing as R. Caitanya Mahprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Rt Radharani. You are widely distributing pure love of Ka. We offer our respectful obeisances unto you. We offer our respectful basis unto that merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead who has converted all the three worlds which were maddened by ignorance and saved them from their diseased condition by making them mad with a nectar from the treasure house of love of God. Let us take full shelter of that personality of Gandhi and Sri Krishna Chaitanya, whose activities are wonderful. This verse is found in the Govinda Vilamrita. People think that happiness is in the material world. They do religion, they get some good karma, some blessings, so you can get more material happiness. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revealed that love of God is the highest happiness. It makes material happiness very dull and shallow, incomparable. Where people are really missing out on the spiritual happiness, spiritual bliss. And he was really giving it. But normally only the very great saints who are in pure devotional service, they can get a glimpse about this pure love for Ka and the happiness that's connected to it. But Chaitanya Mahapatbah is really giving out this happiness. So much happiness that he was literally flooding the world. That's why the people were chasing after him. People were dancing, crying, Some of them were rolling on the ground. So this was understood by Rupa Goswami that he has opened a treasure house of love of Godhead and he's giving it to everyone freely. Therefore his activities are Al Bhuta. They're wonderful. How many of you would like to get this supreme happiness blessing from Chaitanya Mahmud? Few people did raise their hand. Let's try one More time. So these are very important prayers. So Rupa Goswami was someone who understood who Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was. How many of you from Andhra or Karnatak? Anybody from South India? You know Balaji Venkateshwara. So you know that his pastime, how he married Padmavati. With every Kali Yuga the Lord is known as Tri Guga. He comes Satya Darpa Cheta, 9th Series Cheta Dwarfa. But in Kali Yuga he says he comes in a disguise cover like Chana all the time. So the previous Kali Yuga, the Lord came as Balaji Srinivasa Govinda. So he just came like as if he was a human being. That time Lakshmi came down from the spiritual world and Srinivas came down and they had this amazing pastime and his deity is still there in Thirummala Tirupati. So that was the previous Kali Yuga. So this Kali Yoga Lord came as Chaitanyamala, but he came not as a proclaimed avatar. He came as a Chanda avatar, as a hidden incarnation. It says in the Vedas in this Kali Yuga the Lord would come and would spread there the chanting of his holy names and distribute love for Godhead. All these things are predicted in Puranas. But so as the Lord Shaitan ever said publicly that I'm Krishna, rather he denied it. He said, no, I'm this to serve all the Mayavadis, all the Shankarais, they're all claiming to be God. Lord Chaitanya said O and Krishna does and who does and who does? Does he have a special mission? He words Krishna come as a devotee. Because in the previous Yuga Dharma Yuga Rukmini his clean told him that you don't know what we feel for you. You're the big Lord. You know everything that's going on everywhere. The one thing you don't know is what we feel and that aren't for you. Just like in this planet, in this world, there's that feeling that men don't understand women and women don't understand women, what they feel for each other. So she was saying like that we're your devotees, we feel so much love for you, but you don't know what we feel for you because you're Lord. So you just see it from your point of view. So then he said, okay, I'm going to come as my devotee and experience what it's like to be a devotee of me. So that's why he came in the mode of Chaitanya Mahakuku. As his own devotee, he's Lord, but he's in the mood of devotee. So it's a unique situation because although he's avatar, he's mixing with the devotees, he's talking with the devotees, he's sharing his emotions and his experience with the devotees. And especially very wonderful devotees like Rupa Goswami. So Rupa Goswami, he was in this prayag. He was instructed for two months on the essence of Bhakti Yoga at the Dasa Sumeri Ghat. Also we went to Dasa Sumeda Ghat. We have pictures of that. That's right. Looking over the confluence of the Trinity of the Ganges, Jamun and Saraswati. So the essence of Ka consciousness we get from Rupa Goswami. We are all followers of Rupa Goswam. So give me first. So Rupa Goswami, we're called Rupa Nugas that follow Rupa Goswami because he wrote down his instructions for us to easily understand. What is the essence about Bhakti Yoga? How many of you have seen the book Nectar of Devotion? So that book is written by Rupa Goswam. Bhakti, Vasami, Terasintiva. Many important literatures were written by him. Also by his elder brother, Sanatana Goswami. Rupa Goswami, more than anything focused on the principles of Bhagti, where Sanatana was more in dealing with the details. How many of you know what Bhakti is? Actually, there's different kinds of yoga. But in Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that of all the yogas, the devotional yoga is the most important. It's the most effective yoga that intimately unites the yogi or the practitioner with Ka. Bhakti means that we offer our love, our devotion, our intelligence, our activities, everything to the service of Ka Yoga, you're just offering the mind. Hatha Yoga, you're mainly offering your body, doing some meditation. But this Bhakti Yoga, you're offering the mind, the words, the deeds, everything. In Christmas service, all the other yogas, if you want to practice and achieve self realization, they mainly say you have to be a Sannyasi. Like Shankaracharya says, if you want to practice Gamma Yoga, you have to be a Sannyasi. But Bhakti Yoga is so powerful, you don't have to be a Sannyasi. Sanyasi means renounced order. You can practice Bhakti Yoga even as a married person. With husband and wife together, they serve Ka. They can establish like we Have a temple with deities. They can establish ka. Actually, now it's the Jhulab festival going on in India. I'm surprised. I thought here you would have Radhakrishna swinging. Fortunately, no devotees have Radhakrishna in their house. Someone telling God, Guru Vihari, you can set up a little swing at least for the purima. Let everybody swing. Radha and Krishna sad Bhakti, you get to do some personal services for the Lord. That personal service is so powerful. It burns up so many bad karmas. It gives so much spiritual merit, spiritual credence, that it's beyond calculation. You can't compare spiritual things with material things. It's not totally two different dimensions. So the science of bhakti was revealed to Rupa Goswami. He presented to us in very simple wage. So this period, now this is. This is the Jula. Remember now? And thousands of people come and they're all pulling Rashid Maya for all the gurukul children. And the householders, they have like a kind of unspoken competition amongst themselves. Who can do the nicest Jhulan Yatra presentation. Every neighborhood of our little township, the married couples and the families, the children, they make the little swings and they decorate with plants and flowers. It's very beautiful. Some of the children they use, they're very creative. They get one of those little rubber swimming pools, you know, like for kids. And they get. I saw one of them made a little motorboat with a battery. And they had a swinging Radha Krishna and the boat going around a little quite creative. So that we. As a local swami, when I'm in my ampere, the Red Tiger, I'd have to go and visit all the Jhula yantras in the neighborhood. And then go to the main temple and pull. There'd be maybe a dozen different Jew lands going on in Mayapur alone. So just here, seeing her in Moochen, you are so much deprived, you're not even having one organize it. Of course, you're having Posaya Di, the important time and Mother Krishna are in Golokada, Prada, Madan Mahan. They were taken from Nashinga temple nearby here, to the other side of the west of Germany. Ten years ago. Ten years ago. So you're. Otherwise you could probably have julag with them. I don't know. But anyway, here there's some pihastas we have. Or you have a picture. You can do it. So all these different festivals are examples of how bhakti gives us an opportunity to exchange our practical service to the Lord. And when you exchange a service to the Lord, the Lord, he never forgets a little service you offer to Krishna. And Krishna will always remember that this devotee is serving. So this devotee is taking my service seriously. I must take seriously protecting this devotee from so many dangers that I hear in these material worlds. Worst danger is to forget about Ka, forget about the Supreme Lord, and just to think that we're this body. Bhagavad Gita tells us that we're not the body. The body is the biological machine. And we make the body conscious because we're inside the body. We're the living force that's in this body. We have the atma or the jiva that's inside the body. And we are acting through the body. When eventually this body breaks down, decays, gets diseased, finishes, then we have to leave the body. The living force never dies. We take a new birth. Just like who am I here? She's got a baby ready to come. Maybe it was a devotee from a previous life who didn't finish. Maybe some beta child. We don't know who's coming to give us all spiritual enlightenment in the future. So we had to again take birth. If we don't finish our business according to our karmas, we get a particular mother and father. To be born in a family of devotees is considered the highest birth. Because you start out immediately in Bhakti Yoga, highest in the sense of most fortunate for spiritual self realization. So most people, they don't think that who they are, they don't realize that they're not a body. They just make all the twins and I can't accept that this is me. I am this body. So Aryan culture, which is referred to in the Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata, was a culture where people knew that they were actually spiritually enlightened people. So they would use their bodies in a spiritual manner, responsible manner, sustainable spiritual manner. So all the rules and regulations in the Vedas are meant for how to sustain our spiritual consciousness while we're a human being. Well now many of those traditions are forgotten and some of them are followed, but just mechanically so. Even Krishna 5,000 years ago, he says, out of thousands of human beings, it's hard to find one who's looking for the truth. And out of thousands who are looking for the truth, it's hard to find one who's understood the truth. And out of thousands of those who have understood the truth, it's very rare to find anyone who's actually realized. One thing is to know what the truth is. Other Thing is to realize it. And amongst those who are realized which this is very rare. Very rare to know someone who knows me. So you're already fortunate. You're human beings. You have this opportunity to understand who you are. What your purpose in life is. Can someone give that nose if they have to leave early? That gets a prashad. Thanks for coming. Please take prasad. Someone can see they get some prasad. So Rupa Goswami, he was many pastimes with the Lord. He went to Jagannpuri after being instructed. He found the holy places. He wrote these literatures. He went back to Jagannathuri to meet Lord Chaitanya. He understood Caitanya Mahmoud's inner mood. Most people didn't really know who Lord Chaitanya was. Exactly what his mood was. But Rupa Goswami understood that he went back from Jagannath Puri back to Vrindavan. It's a long walk. Those days you have to walk. It's about 1500 kilometers now. We go by train or plane. So take months to walk so far, isn't it 1500 kilometers? If you will, you will walk 20 a day. How much it takes 45 days. Nobody can watch one a day. Every day is sustained for 2, 3 months. Sri was walking to the back and forth and seeing Lord Chaitanya. Many intimate pastimes then. So he was actually. After Lord Chaitanya left, Rupa Goswami was the person who was in charge of protecting the entire followers of Lord Chaitanya. Guiding them, distracting them, teaching them. There's always some leader who's guiding the people at different times throughout the history. So today is the anniversary when he left the world. Very sad moment for the people. Because the person who was protecting them, who was guiding them, he left the worlds. Of course, when he goes, he goes back to the spiritual worlds. He came down, played like a human being. Played all these worlds like primariness to everything. Just for fulfilling the Lord's desires. And when the Lord left. And he eventually left also on this holy day. So today is a very special day for us. Thank you for watching our videos. Be sure to subscribe to our channel. We publish new videos every day. And don't forget to like and share our channel.