Guṇḍicā Mārjana – Lord Jagannātha's Pastime | 21.7.2019 | ISKCON Calgary |Śrīla Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī

Bana kaya. All glory to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. All glory to Śrī Nārādhana Mahāprabhu. All glory to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. All glory to Śrī Guru Mahāprabhu. All glory to Śrī Guru Mahāprabhu. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So King Indradumna is the king who built the Jagannāthpuri Temple., and it was his strong desire to have darshan of the Lord as Nil Mahādhau. And this Nil Mahādhau became Lord Jagannātha. That story we can give you some other time. Indra-Prandīcā is the name of the wife of King Indra-dyumna. And those of you who have been to Jagannātha Puri may have been to the Gudīccha Temple. How many of you have been to the Gudīccha Temple? Okay. So this Gudīccha mārjanam ceremony is held before the rāthiyātra. Mārjanam means to clean. Just like in the First verse of the Śrīśrīla Ācārya Stacara. What is said? Chetā deva-mārjanam. By chanting the Holy Names of the Lord, the heart gets cleansed. So, gundī-cāra-mārjanam means cleansing of the Gundīya temple. And Bhaktisiddhānta Mahāprabhu explains, actually this means cleaning your heart. So Chaitanya Mahāprabhu had just come from the tour of southern India, and He came to the temple of Gundīcāya. He came to Jagannātha Puri. And, "Na, it's okay. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." "It's okay. Prabhu, it's okay." And when Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to Gudīcā, He told the manager of the Gudīcā temple, "I want to clean the Gudīcā temple." The manager said, "You are the Supreme Lord." You want to clean the temple? No, this is not appropriate for you. But Lord insisted, I want to clean the Gudīcā temple. And then— I'm sorry, this page got mixed up. So he said, "I want to clean the Gurdwara temple." So then the manager said, "My Lord, this is your leela or pastime. If you want to clean the Gurdwara temple, I can't stop you." So this message was communicated to the king whose name was? What was the king's name? King Prasada Pura. King Pratapura told the managers of the temple, "Give Lord Caitanya whatever he wants." So the manager arranged 100 buckets, 100 brooms, and he arranged all the facilities. You want to— in the middle I'll read also. So then Lord Caitanya organized the cleaning of the Gudīja temple. They would bring water in buckets, pass it on to the other individuals. Then Lord Caitanya took the— told them how to scrub the ceiling, how to scrub the floor. How to scrub the wall. And the beauty is hundreds of buckets of water were being brought, but nobody would utter one word. They're all chanting Hare Krishna non-stop and by sign language communicating, now I want this, now I want this. And they cleaned the whole Kūrīcāya Temple. There was one Bengali Brahman who had arrived, and he took the water and washed Lord Caitanya's feet in front of the Deities. Lord Caitanya was so angry! He said, "Look at this Brahman! He's making me commit a big offense." Because even though our Lord Caitanya was God, He appeared in the role of a devotee. And in front of the Deities, no one should be glorified. The Guru should not be glorified. In front of the Deities only. In front of the Deities, one should not even offer respects to the Guru. Dāna bāta the Guru. Water should be offered outside the temple room. In the temple room, we only offer respects to Prabhupāda and the Deities. So this brahmin came and took the water and washed the feet of the Lord in front of the Deities. Lord Caitanya was teaching us by example. He chastised His secretary and said, Why is this happening? Lord Caitanya and His devotees cleansed the whole Gundicha temple. Turn off your mobiles, please. Cleansed the whole Gundicha temple. First they scrubbed the ceiling, scrubbed the walls, scrubbed the floor. Lord Caitanya was personally taking part in the cleaning operations. And Lord Caitanya was going all around to every individual and checking how much dirt is he accumulating. And if somebody was collecting less dirt than others, then he would tell him, Please show this man how to collect more dirt. And when Lord Caitanya cleaned not only the temple room, He also went outside to clean the entrance and those windows. On all four sides. So this is briefly the cleansing of the Gṛhṇī-jñāna temple. I'll read some verses. I think you read till which verse? I read when the superintendent was giving all the facilities. Indeed, 100 devotees were engaged. And cleaning all around the temple. And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was personally carrying on the operation just to instruct others. A leader teaches by example. So the Lord was teaching by example. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu washed and cleansed the temple in great jubilation, chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. All the time. Similarly, all the devotees were also chanting and at the same time performing their respective duties. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was cleaning the temple, scrubbing the floor, supervising the devotees, but He was just chanting nonstop. None of them were talking.. And hundreds of devotees were engaged in this operation. And they were all just chanting nonstop. They were not talking or— So when we do our service, our focus should be do the service and chant. The entire beautiful body of the Lord was covered with dust and dirt. In this way it became transcendently beautiful. At times when cleansing the temple, Lord shed tears, and in some places when cleansed with those tears— You see, Lord Caitanya was cleaning the Gauñīcā temple. His whole body— Lord Caitanya is the Lord Himself. His body is golden in complexion. But His beautiful body was full of dirt. So normally when our body is full of dirt or dust, it becomes dirty. But here they said, because it was covered with dust, it became transcendently what? Beautiful! We just heard, "He is beautiful God." We should speak in Hindi, maybe. It says that when the Lord's body was being cleansed, dirt went all over His body. So normally when dirt goes, dust comes on your body, you try to rub it out. But the Lord's body was— became even more beautiful. And Lord Caitanya was— Lord Caitanya was getting so much ecstasy in cleaning the Gondija temple, the tears were flowing from His eyes. What was flowing from His eyes? Tears. Lord Caitanya would personally cleanse the floor with His tears. He was getting so much happiness in seeing hundreds of devotees engaged in the cleaning operation. The tears were flowing from His eyes. After Caitanya Mahāprabhu collected all the straw, nuts and grains of sand in one place, He gathered it in all His clothes and threw it outside. Lord Caitanya collected the straw, dusty dreams. And then He put it in a cloth. And what did He do? What did He do with the cloth? Throw the cloth outside. Just like you gather the dirt and throw it in the dustbin. So Lord Caitanya carried all the dirt put it in his cloth and threw the cloth outside. Following the example of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the devotees in great jubilation began to gather straw and dust with their own cloths and throw them from outside. So the devotees saw what Lord Caitanya was doing So they all started copying that. They would all take the dirt in a piece of cloth and throw the cloth outside. The Lord told the devotee, "This is beautiful, just hear. I can tell how much you have labored and how well you have cleansed the temple simply by seeing."— all the straw and dust you have collected outside. Lord Caitanya was going to every individual, as I just said, and He would see how much dirt and straws everyone is collecting. Lord Caitanya said, "I can see how much dirt you have in your cloth as to how hard you have worked." If a devotee works hard, there is preaching success. But if he's just lazy or works for name's sake, naam ke vaste, then he doesn't have much result to show. Lord Caitanya, He was evaluating devotees. It is very clear. He would go and see. "Look, how much dirt is in your cloth? How much is in your cloth? How much is in your cloth?" And when He saw that some devotees have more dirt than others, He would tell them, "Go and train up the others so they can gather more dirt." So all the devotees began to do this. The Lord then told the devotees, Okay. Even though all the devotees collected dirt in one pile, the dirt collected by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was much greater. This is very interesting. All the devotees were sweeping and collecting the dirt. They put it on cloth. All of them put together could not match the dirt that the Lord had collected. The Lord personally collected more dirt than all of them put together. The Lord then ordered everyone to cleanse inside of the temple very perfectly by taking pointed straw and grains of sand and throwing them outside. After Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and all the Vaiṣṇavas cleansed the temple for the second time, the Lord was very happy to see it. So they cleaned the Gudīja temple. How many times? Twice. Twice. First they cleaned the Gudīja temple, collected the dirt, straws, beans, threw it out. Rādhā Caitanya was not satisfied. He told them, "Let's do a thorough job." So they all again did the operation. To make sure that no dirt was left behind. Sometimes when you're shaving your hair, you shave it once, and to make sure nothing is left behind, you shave it a second time. While the temple was being swept, about 100 men stood ready with filled water pots, and they simply awaited the Lord's order to them. As soon as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu called the men— We need a few more voices. In this way, Caitanya Mahāprabhu first washed the main temple, then thoroughly washed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the sitting place, and everything else within the room. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His devotees began to throw water under the ceiling. When this water fell, it washed the walls and floors. Then Chaitanya Mahāprabhu began to wash the sitting place of Lord Jagannātha, and with both hands. And all they would do is bring water to the Lord. I understand your cleaning operation today is a very simple one. Am I right? Why don't you do a thorough one tomorrow? With water and everything. Anyway, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally supervised the whole cleaning operation. And then all the devotees had a broom Each devotee had a jar of broom in his hand for cleaning. So the Ācāryas have explained This līlā of Gurnīja mārjanam. Of course, Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His devotees personally swept, rubbed, gathered the dust. Once Lord Caitanya was not satisfied. So He said, "Do it again." And not only did they clean the temple room, they cleaned everything around the temple also. The entrance and all the four sides. On all the four sides it was all clean. Now, our Ācāryas have explained the significance of this story. The significance of this story is our heart, our heart is very, our heart is very dirty. Contaminated. What is it contaminated with? Anārtas. Our heart is full of anārtas. 'Life cycle we eat and we hate it,' he says. 'Cow grows, cow moves, man moves.' So due to these anārtas, we don't surrender to the Supreme Lord. Usually, the nārtas, we don't appreciate the value of devotional service. We need to cleanse the heart. Now, how can you cleanse the heart? We can cleanse the heart through the process of śrīvānām and kṛṣṇa. So cleaning the heart It's very necessary. And how do we clean it? We have to scrub it. Just like you saw the Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His devotees. They were scrubbing the floor, scrubbing the ceiling, scrubbing the walls. So we need to scrub the heart. Our heart is very contaminated, full of unlimited material desires. And these material desires are not easy to overcome. Even after we become a devotee, these material desires keep haunting us. Material desires will keep haunting us till the end of our lives. Once the great Emperor Akbar, he had a very intelligent Prime Minister, Birbal. So he asked him, "How long does lust trouble the living entity?" Birbal said, "Sir, if you want my honest advice, it troubles you till the end of her life. Akbar could not believe it. He said, 'You mean even in old age, it's going to trouble me?' So one day Birbal came to Akbar and said, 'Come with me to visit a dying man in the hospital.' They went to see the dying man. But he said, 'When you come, bring your young daughter with you.' When they reached the hospital, what would he see? The dying man was seeing more on the daughter than him. So he understood and told the Prime Minister, "Now I know why you brought me here." So these anarthas are impediments on the path of spiritual advancement. And how can you rid yourself of these inert herbs? By śrīmad-bhāgavatam and Kṛṣṇa. We need to chant and hear. Now you may say, "Why chant and hear? There's nothing to worry." Chanting and hearing is done in many stages. There is the offensive stage, the stage of minimizing offenses, and the purified stage. I may be chanting the Holy Name, but I may be inattentive while chanting. I'm chanting, but I'm bringing up my work, answering telephones, cooking, doing everything along with it. So you will get some benefit. But not full benefit. Dēnāmēvikcī, then is the stage of minimizing offenses. I know the 10 offenses. Actually, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said, bahau janmākāre yādi śauṇa-kṛṣṇa tavo dhanabhāya kṛṣṇa-padaye priya-madana. One may go on chanting The holy name, birth after birth. But if one doesn't avoid the offenses, he will not develop love of God. So we have to, you know, not only chant but remind ourselves. Each of us should write down the 10 offenses and keep them near your altar. In all our ISKCON temples, Every morning after mangala arati, they read out the 10 offenses. So then we are reminding ourselves, if I want to take full advantage of the chanting, I must avoid these offenses. So that is known, nama-bhasa, the stage where you're trying to minimize the offenses. So when you're chanting attentively, chanting and hearing, and avoiding offenses, that is the intermediate stage. In that stage, if you chant, you'll be able to clean your anātmas, and eventually you'll be able to develop love of God. And then there is ishwāna-nāma, the stage of purified chanting. So chanting is beneficial in any case. Prabhupāda said, if someone says, "Teṣa te zeḥkārīṣa Kṛṣṇa," it's still beneficial. You utter the word "Kṛṣṇa." But in order for us to really make advancement, we need to cleanse the heart like Lord Caitanya was cleansing the Gundicha temple. What did He do? Did He just throw the water, Lord Caitanya? How did he clean the Gurdwara temple? Scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Rubbed it. Took a broom to clean it. So we have to scrub our heart. We have to— and you can scrub your heart not by taking a broom and— but by this chanting process. And not only chanting, but chanting and avoiding the offenses. And just like when we do seva, when we do seva in the temple, that is comparable to cleansing of the heart. You know, sometimes we request people, please come and do some seva. And they look for excuses not to do their seva. But if you don't do the seva, your heart will not get cleansed. When we do service in the temple, whether it is cleaning, cooking, whatever, by this seva you are actually cleansing the heart. This seva is for our purification. When we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra, we are cleansing the heart. And we are praying to the Lord, "Please give me service, please give me service, please give me service." And then when you get service, "Ah, today I have a stomach ache." Today I have this, we look for excuses. So then the dirt will remain there. Externally you may be a devotee, externally you may be initiated, but spiritually there is no advancement. Because we are not scrubbing at the heart the way Caitanya Mahāprabhu was scrubbing the floor. But if we endeavor to scrub the heart sincerely, Then there will be cleansing of the heart. So this story of Gundiḍīcha Mārjana has a very powerful message. Our Ācāryas have commented on this story. And Lord Caitanya, He was cleansing the temple and at the same time chanting the Holy Name. So we should chant the Holy Name as much as we can. Of course, the 16 rounds that we are supposed to chant should be chanted with concentration. But while driving, cooking, doing household duties, being in the office, if you want to chant, no problem. But don't include the head. Chanting in a quota of chanting. In their quota of chanting, be attentive chanting. So the more we scrub, the greater will be the cleansing of the heart. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained to Sanatana Gosvāmī, prabandha-pramīre koda bhāgavānārjī guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpā-bhāya bhaktiratha. After going through Many, many births and deaths. Is he the fortunate soul who received the seed of bhakti? You've gone through so many stages, but your life is full of misery. We know when we are young, we don't realize that. The other few days ago, I was in Vancouver. And I had gone to see one of our senior God Sisters, Padyavali, you all know. She is in an old age home or whatever you call it. It's really a sophisticated place. It's like a 5-star hotel, you know. The B.C. government takes very good care of its people. And I go there every year to visit her. But if you ever go there, you'll see how people are suffering in old age. Prasad Raavalī is better off, where devotees regularly come and visit her, bring prashad and all. But in general, old age is so painful. Youth is so painful. There is nothing but misery from birth to death. Just in the middle you get some flashes of happiness. Just like— Prabhupāda is a good example. In the old days, the system of punishment in India was, they would take the criminal in the middle of the ocean. Duck his head under water just to make sure he doesn't die. He will, ha, put him out. He could get, ha, relief. Then again, duck his head under water. So why I'm giving this example? That is exactly as Prabhupāda said, material life is misery from beginning to end, but in the middle you get a little flashes of happiness. And when you get those flashes, you say, "Where is the misery? Where is all that?" This is all propaganda of sahaj-yoga. But this is not propaganda. This is the ground reality. So we need to cleanse the heart. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu said, the seed of devotional service, after going through many, many births and deaths, is he the fortunate soul who receives the seed of bhakti. Seed of bhakti means knowledge that bhakti is the real goal of life. Knowledge that you can only capture Kṛṣṇa by bhakti. You can't capture Kṛṣṇa with your money. You can't capture Kṛṣṇa with her beauty. You cannot capture Kṛṣṇa with your wealth. You cannot capture Kṛṣṇa with your educational degrees. Then how can you capture Kṛṣṇa? How? Seva! Sevāmukhehi ivadho suriḥ sevasvār sevā— So our seva begins with śravanaṁ kīrtanam. Chanting and hearing. Those who don't have a taste for chanting can never make spiritual advancement. Those who do not chant, who do not endeavor to improve the quality of their chanting, will not be able to make spiritual advancement. So this seed of bhakti grows as you do śrāvanaṁ Hankirtana. The seed of bhakti grows, but along with that, unwanted weeds also grow. Unwanted weed means, like in a plant, there are weeds. When the weeds grow, what do you do? Pluck them out. So sometimes When we become devotees, we become proud. "Oh, now I'm chanting. Now I'm such an elevated devotee." So the unwanted weeds. "I must get this much respect. If I don't get respect, I won't do anything. I must get this much honor." All these is āsṭhā. And then, we don't make special advancement. Therefore, stay in sadhu sangha, because if you stay in sadhu sangha, the unwanted weeds will be pulled out. Otherwise, the unwanted weeds will remain. So just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He organizes massive cleansing operation to purify everyone's heart. So these unwanted weeds must be pulled out. But they can only be pulled out if you are in sādhū-saṅga. When you are in sādhū-saṅga, if someone tells you, "Prabhupāda Ji, this is your aṅkāra, you need correction," you should be willing to take it. Not that, "Eh, that guy is envious of me. He just tried to pull me." No, no, no. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, the unwanted weeds will grow, but also you should have a strong fencing around you. Strong fencing means you must be in good association. Sadhu-sanga, sadhu-sanga. Sadhu-sanga. Always remain in devotee association. Now you may have a very beautiful garden, but if you let a man-elephant come in, what will happen? It gets destroyed. You may have a very beautiful sitting room, but if you let two kids play there, What will happen? You have young kids. They'll play havoc, isn't it? So similarly, on the devotional path, we should avoid— What should we avoid? On devotional path, what should we avoid? Don't read books. You should avoid offenses. A prāsa. Man-elephant offense is what? What is man-elephant offense? A prāsa. We should avoid offenses. Because if we commit offenses, then the gain of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa will be? This way. So all the devotional paths we have to keep chanting and hearing all the time. This is our most important business. This cleansing of the Gṛhī-jñāna temple is a very appropriate pastime.. And in every ISKCON temple we do this before Rath Yatra, but in most of our temples we do it on a big scale with water, brooms, and we start early in the morning and do it pretty much for half a day. But I understand you are doing a softer version. Or maybe you are planning on taking part in Gurdwara march, you know. Would you want? Would you? You want to take part in Gurdwara march? You? All of you should take part. I have a, I don't know what it is, Margaret told me only last night. They had their planning meeting, Gudī-jāmāyana. So this Gudī-jāmāyana story is very effective. Please endeavor to cleanse the heart. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I don't want to go too long because it's Gudī-jāmāyana. Some questions? Sir, how to clean out the deep-rooted weeds? Deep-rooted weeds— good question, sir. You asked a nice question. Deep-rooted weeds are we, are anarthas, are deep-rooted. So if you want to clean them, this chanting is the only process. There's nothing else. Do you chant? Yes, sir. Very good. I have started chanting, sir. So please keep chanting, don't stop. Okay. Sometimes people remain stuck on one mala for years and years.

Whatever. We just clean the kitchen downstairs, clean the temple hall, and back here.

Not with water.

This is all wood also.

Oh, you're lucky this is all wood. You have to do less labor. You can't throw buckets of water. Any more questions? My request to all of you is, please take part not only in Guruji's Munija Mahajanaam, but also in Seva. Just like when you rub silver, then what happens? It shines. It shines. So similarly, if we rub the heart, chant the Holy Name, it will more shine. So when we do service, sometimes when we do service we think, "Why I am obliging those temple authorities?" You are not obliging anyone. You are just obliging yourself. You think, "Do Seva." you'll get benefit. If you don't do seva, you're the loser. We, sometimes we have this pride, "I'm doing seva." We do service for our own purification. If we don't do seva, then we'll remain contaminated. Y'all should read this story. Any more questions? Sir, do we have any type of insecticide to kill the weeds down from the roots? Yes. What is that insecticide? Chanting, hydration. We have everything. Only chanting, sir? Yes. Chanting and staying in Sadhu Sangha. Your questions are good. He has asked intelligent questions. No questions from the rest of you? No questions? Answer is, Saint can bless us and clean us. Who? Any saint, sir. Saint can bless you, but he can't bless you to the point that you don't chant and you'll get Kṛṣṇa-prema. Saint can bless you and bring you to the right path. You can take the horse to the lake, but you can't make the horse drink if it doesn't want to drink. So the saint can give you proper wisdom, knowledge, show you the path. But if you don't want to take the path, then what can the saints do? Any more questions? Tell the people what to do.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Maharaj, for the lectures. So now we'll have prasadam in 20 minutes. Meanwhile, we can do some kirtan. Maharaj will go for a walk and then come back and have some breakfast.

I'll do breakfast.

Okay. So he'll go for a walk and all the devotees, how many are ready to do their services? Cleaning. I hope all.

All those who are ready to do the seva?

I can't see all the hands. Okay, so we will all have halas kalingi mataji. There's lots of cleaning to be done downstairs in the temple hall, and the Brahmin initiated, I'll ask them to clean the temple hall.

Maybe we should give prasad after the cleaning, not before.

Okay, anyways, Prasadam is not ready, so we'll start off with cleaning. If the cleaning is finished, then we'll all have as a tribute, as a gift from Radha Madhav Guru Maharaj, we will have all prasad, mahaprasad.

Give the prasad, we will all go home.

That's a nice idea. So no prasadam? We are all very hardworking today, but 'Tauru bache aadhe maas relax.' So I request Brahmin initiated to come and see me, and the rest can— I'll ask Kalindi Mataji. So where we need cleaning to be done, she can assign you the duties. So thank you so much.

Actually, the story of Guneet Ramajana had been commented by all our acharyas. They have all agreed that this is the way to clean the heart. By chanting here, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Chanting that Vraja-nama, how about bhāgavān-nama?" There are various gains in chanting the Holy Name. One of the gains of chanting the Holy Name is that your heart gets cleansed. So we should take this very seriously. The problem is we don't take it seriously. In from one ear, out from the other ear. In from here, out from here. But we need to retain this, what we are getting. Retain this knowledge. And if you retain this knowledge, we are going to be the beneficiaries. Sadhu, the guru, can just remind you. But ultimately we have to make an effort. And we should be serious about it. Prabhupāda once told a story called "Sorry, No Time." In that story, Prabhupāda said he was preaching to an important man in India. The man said, "Swāmiji, you don't know how busy I am." "Sorry, I have no time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness." And the next day, he had a heart attack and he died. So there's danger at every step. And the only thing that's going to help you is your chanting and devotional service. You are fortunate in that you have come to devotional path. Please take full advantage of it. We don't take full advantage. Just like in material life, you want to progress fast. If you have pain in the body, what do you tell the doctor? Please relieve my pain right away, not slowly, slowly. Is that what you say? Reduce my pain 1% today, 1% tomorrow. Instantly. Instantly. So our goal should be to make spiritual advancement, and doing seva, chanting a round, developing the mood of humility— this is very important, developing the mood of humility to make spiritual advancement. So please make an effort for all this, then all this is ultimately your