Hare Krishna!
Krishna tells us in Sri Bhagavad Gita that he is the strength of the strong, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the ability in every living being. The miracles of nature are the miracles of God. Do you hear those jackals? That’s jackals, you know? They are having a Jackal kirtan! In Navadvip, every jackal, as far as I have learnt, things that …there’s no more beautiful sound than the sound of a jackal. But nobody else likes the jackals. Everything is very relative. So just by hearing the jackal…they are singing together so much. So many dozens and dozens and dozens, and they are enjoying, we’re disturbed, at least, we could be. But if we just think that how the jackals are so attracted to their beautiful songs, and they hear us singing, they probably think the same way we think of jackals. So there’s a philosophical lesson in every situation in life if we’re receptive. Think of it this way.
Radhanath Swami draws lessons from mosquitos
Raise your hands if you’ve been bitten by any mosquitoes since coming to Mayapur. When those little mosquito come to bite you we could be thrilled when we feel mosquitoes biting us, because what an incredible invention, the mosquito flies. And man, we have made airplanes. We need runways, radar, traffic controls, and all kinds of safety devices. But a mosquito, just flying in the air, no runway! And if you go to slap him, the mosquito doesn’t wait, as soon as the mosquito sees that you hand is coming (woosssshhh) gone, off to another destination. Incredible! What is the size of mosquito’s brain? Yet such incredible intelligence for flying! He can fly under one lamp. I’ve seen street lamps, thousands of mosquitoes flying together swarming around. I’ve never seen any two mosquito’s crash into each other. For our airplanes, we need all sorts of traffic control so that the planes don’t crash. Thousand within a few square feet and they are just flying flying flying flying (sound)…taking off, landing. Where do they get their ability from? None of them went to schools for being pilots. Their mothers didn’t learn the engineering of Aerodynamics, just intuitive; Krishna has given the ability of a mosquito to do what humans can never do. And every human has so many incredible abilities.
prakrat kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah
ahankara vimudhatma kartaham iti manyat.
Krishna tells that it is foolish to be bewildered into thinking that we are the doers of our activities, because everything we’ve been given, and everything we can do is a gift – To breathe, to see, to think, to hear, and to digest, sarva karana karanam, all these things exist only because they exist in the absolute truth. Janmadyasya yatah.
Radhanath Swami explains Krishna as the source and cause of everything
The Vedanta sutra tells that the absolute truth is one from which everything emanates, everything has its ultimate source in Krishna. So one may question – what about the evil and the bad and the greed and the envy, and the pain that this all causes. If Krishna is the cause of everything, is he the cause of that too? A shadow is the absence of the sun, but the cause of the shadow is the sun. You can’t have a shadow without the sun. When you turn towards the sun you see light, when you turn away from the sun you see the darkness of the shadow. So Krishna’s all good, there’s nothing inauspicious, everything is Om purnamadah purnamidam, everything is perfect. Krishna has the infinite compassion, love, humor, sweetness, strength, wealth…infinite everything, its perfect auspiciousness.
But the jiva, the little entity who has a free will, and that free will is a gift, comes to facilitate the deepest purest love. When we misuse our freewill and turn away from Krishna, then that Yoga Maya comes as Maha maya. In that shadow, all these inauspicious things or anarthas exist. We read in Srimad Bhagavatam how Krishna lifted the Gowardhan Hill with the little finger of his left hand, and we think, ‘How is that possible?’ But how is it possible for the mosquito to fly the way he is flying so expertly? Krishna is performing his miracles everywhere, and when he comes to this world he perform incredible pastimes, in such a way to attract our hearts, and the absolute truth who is beyond morality and immorality, the absolute truth as Krishna, sometimes even steals and even says “No mother I didn’t eat the dirt,” and while he’s saying that the dirt is in his mouth. We may say why would Krishna do that? What kind of example is that? We can’t understand Krishna simply by our mundane logic. We have to understand from guru–sadhu–shastra, from the enlightened beings, because when Krishna does this, it brings such joy and awakens such blissful love in the hearts of the devotees.
You see, immorality is when we say something contrary to truth for selfish purposes. Krishna said, “I didn’t steal.” It gives bliss to us but another thing is that he’s telling the truth, because sarva loka maheshwaram, everything already belongs to Krishna, so he doesn’t steal, it’s already his! Just like if somebody…if you go into your home and you put your clothes on, and you go outside and somebody says, “why did you steal that clothes? ‘It’s my clothes!” But actually it is not your clothes, its Krishna clothes, everything is Krishna’s. Anytime we claim proprietorship over something we are stealing on a subtle level. But everything belongs to Krishna and when Krishna tells the mother, “Mother, I didn’t eat dirt.” Nothing is inside or outside of Krishna in one sense. The entire cosmic manifestation is within Krishna. So when we try to put relative convention to absolute, we cripple our capacity to actually appreciate and love the absolute. But when we try to give absolute justifications to our relative state of mind, then we cripple our own capacity to make easy spiritual progress whatsoever. Does that make sense?
So Krishna, who is the strength of the strong, the ability in man, in his original form of Lord Chaitanya…we learned yesterday how he was born like an incredible orchestra conductor. He was …through his Yoga Maya, his energies, he was just conducting this whole orchestra of a Lila. The moment he was born, millions and millions of people here in the Nadia district were loudly crying out God’s holy name…
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
And the Lord appeared.
It is very symbolic, because Krishna is not different from his name, lord Gauranga is no different from his name.
When we chant with sincere heart Lord appears within his sound vibration. – Radhanath Swami
And the Lord actually appeared. And similarly,
Srila Prabhupad would tell us that when we chant the name with humility, without offenses, with love, then Krishna reveals himself to us within our hearts, perhaps even before our eyes according to his sweet will. – Radhanath Swami
As a little infant baby, he seems so helpless, every little thing that may have happened anywhere around the house induced deeper and deeper feelings of parental affection, not only for his mother and father, but all of his relatives, and all the neighbors, and all of the people who knew him.
After sometime, the Lord learnt to crawl on his knees. As he crawled, just a little tiny golden form crawling around, it was so beautiful. All of his loving devotees around him, in order to protect the innocence and the sweetness of their love for him, he would not allow them to sense that he was actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They were all pure devotees of God, and they loved him even more than God. How could you love anyone more than God? Because if you’re God you can make somebody love you more than god. That’s what Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would do. But they didn’t even understand what was happening, they just loved him unconditionally. Lord Chaitanya would do so many beautiful things like Krishna in Vrindavan to intensity and excite the sweetness of their love.
Radhanath Swami tells the pastime of child Lord Chaitanya and serpent at Yogpeeth
One day at the Yogpeeth, when Mahaprabhu was born, in the house of Jagannath Mishra and Sachidevi, there was a little courtyard in front of their home, and little Nimai was crawling. Suddenly, a gigantic, monstrous, poisonous serpent crawled into the courtyard. They had a little fence around it, but somehow the serpent crawled around the fence. And when little Nimai saw that, the serpent was many many many times bigger than him, he’s just a little baby, when little Nimai saw that serpent, he became so enthusiastic, he crawled as fast as he could, he crawled, and crawled and crawled…and he grabbed the tail of the snake, and held on to it as tight as he could. The snake was trying to get away, and he kept pulling and the snake kept going away, and he kept pulling. The snake could not escape his little tiny baby grip so the snake made a coil.
Now sometimes, I remember recently I was in one community, a devotee community and I was showing some people around how nice and how beautiful it was. And we saw this little piece of wood that looked like a nice piece of wood, and we lifted it, and there was this gigantic snake in a coil, he looked up, his tongue was going zzzzzzzzzz…..zzzzz, we put the wood down and (laughter). My god brother, he said “I thought it was supposed to be so nice up here, so it is you know. But you know coiled up poisonous snakes look quite ferocious.”
The little Nimai, he saw this big big snake with so many coils, and he crawled on top of the coil and went to sleep. Like a very comfortable bed, really, I mean think about it – If you are not afraid of snakes, it will really be a comfortable bed, all these modern beds, they’ve like certain texture and different…and they kind of move to your body, nothing can compare to a snake’s coil.
Nimai just laid in the snake and started smiling. His relatives, his mother and his father saw this big–big snake with big big teeth, they were horrified, what cold they do? The howling of wolves, jackals! They were afraid to get near, if they went near the snake, the snake would be, you know, bite the Lord, or wrap its coils and strangle the Lord, little Nimai. They couldn’t do anything. Put yourself in that position – Here’s this helpless little baby whom you love more than life itself, lying in the coils of a venomous serpent. They were weeping, crying, some of them were shouting out, “Garuda Garuda!!! You are the Lord’s servant who kills the snakes, please save Nimai from this snake.” They didn’t know what to do, and as they were crying, the snake saw what kind of suffering he was causing to everyone so he came out of his coil and started to slither away. As he was slithering away, little Nimai was following him to grab his tail and bring him back. Just at that time, Sachimata and the ladies, they ran and picked up Nimai, took him away. As soon as they put him down, he started crawling back to the snake to grab the snake and they kept bringing him.
They started chanting mantras to take any inauspicious dangers away from their little baby. They brought Ganga waters, and sprinkled that on his limbs to purify him of any dangers that may come. We learn that snake was actually Ananta Shesha, the Lord’s supreme eternal associate, who came to share this beautiful pastime with the Lord. And in this wonderful story, we learn how the dynamics of bhakti, how for a devotee who is aspiring to love Krishna, even the dangerous challenges that come in our life are impetuses to increase that love. Vrindavan Das Thakur, the author of Sri Chaitanya Bhagavad, tells anyone who hears and understands this story with faith will be forever delivered from ever having to suffer from the snake of birth and death. (audience says Haribol!) Hare Krishna!
Radhanath Swami describes Lord Chaitanya’s first steps were to dance in Kirtan
So they would bring Nimai back in the house and gradually he learned how to walk
And his first step were to dance in Kirtan. Because from the very day of his birth, he taught everyone that nothing makes him happier than the chanting of Hare Krishna! Govinda, Hari, Ram, Banmali, Mukund, Murari, whenever they were singing Krishna’s holy names, he would smile, and as soon as he learned to walk, he danced. What a beautiful dance! He was such a little child but his dance was so perfectly graceful. So innocent! So sweet! Not like a professional actor dancer. His dancing, simply, melted their hearts totally. Forever, for all eternity, the devotee could just sit and watch Nimai dance and never get bored and would never need to go to another station or do anything else because his beauty and his sweetness in his dance is ever increasing and in that dance.
When Krishna is dancing for his devotees, he is offering his infinite love to his devotees through that form and the devotees are receiving it and offering their love and gratitude back and the love for the devotee is increasing as the lord’s love is increasing. So the lord’s dance is more beautiful and then devotee’s appreciation is more beautiful. This is the spiritual consciousness! – Radhanath Swami
They would clap their hands and chant “Hari! Hari!” and Nimai would dance and smile and he felt so grateful!
All of a sudden he would run out of the house. The little tiny boy, he would run out of the house and go onto the street. He was so beautiful with his golden complexion and his lotus like eyes and his beautiful curling hair around his moon like face. Anybody who saw him on the street outside fell in love with him. Even if they never knew him and they would do anything for him just to make him happy and said, “O Child! What can I give you? What can I give?” And he would say, “Give me Bananas!”, “Give me Coconut”, “Give me sweet”, they would just give him for free just to please him. What he would do, he would get a bunch of bananas from somebody, beg for it and would run back again. When the ladies would sing for him, he would start dancing and smiling, he would give them bananas. Then in the Kirtan he would run outside, and smile and people would ask, “What would you like?” and he would say, “Give me Sweet”, he would run back in and distribute it to all of the devotees.
Charming their hearts, reciprocating with their love, this is Bhakti. The lord gives us the power to sing and if we sing for him with affection, he feels so grateful, he feels, so indebted, he feels conquered by the love of the devotee through their song. He is our creator and he has given us the ability to sing and this is God’s greatness.
Radhanath Swami tells the story of two thieves who tried to steal ornaments of child Lord Chaitanya
One time when the Lord was playing near the bank of the Ganga, there were two thieves, they saw that Sachi Mata had put very nice ornaments – The lord had ankle belts, bracelets and little necklace, They wanted to steal it. And this is the easiest thing! – A little tiny child who is just learning walking, barely walking around alone! But there were thousands and thousands of people near that bathing Ghat, so how to steal from that baby? One of them had a plan, they got some Sandesh! They said, “O Child! You are lost? Child! Our Child! Our beloved family member! Let us take you home! Here have some Sandesh!” And they picked up little Nimai and put up him on their shoulders and as everybody was watching, they were saying, “Yes! Our little child! We will take you home. We are taking you home. We missed you so much.” And Nimai was smiling and he was eating Sandeshes. Meanwhile they were meditating, “I will get his bangles, and I will get his bracelet. There is some little jewel there that is going to be mine.” But for Nimai, he was just very happy, he was getting a ride on their shoulders. He was a little child and he was getting to see Navadwip from a little elevated position. And they were going to their secret hideout, they had been there so many times, they knew where it was.
Meanwhile back at Nimai’s house, the relatives were looking all over for him, he didn’t come home, and he was not around. They were asking everybody, but nobody saw Nimai. Time passed! They were searching frantically in all directions and there was nowhere else to search. How far a little boy can go? So they were sitting in their homes with their heads in their hands, weeping, “where is Nimai?” Praying to God to bring home Nimai. There was anguish, And Nimai was smiling! Dancing around on their shoulders eating sweets! They were, just to keep him from crying, they were feeding him. And then they came to, where they thought was their secret hideout, and they said, “O child! Now we have come to your home. So please now you can get down!”
And Nimai looked and they actually took him back to his home. They were under such an illusion, they were standing right in front of his front door and they are just a few feet away from where Jaganatha Mishra, Sachi Devi and all the relatives were crying, thinking “Where is Nimai? Where is Nimai?” And they thought this was their secret hideout. They said, “O Child! Now we are home. Get down!” Little Nimai said, “Now I am at home. I will get down.” And they brought him down and he ran inside and right into his mother’s arm. “O Nimai! You have returned! Where have you been?” and all the relatives were, “O such a relief.” They were celebrating. After that separation not knowing if he was safe, seeing him again was ecstasy. Somebody asked, “Where were you?” And somebody said, “I Just saw, two grown men just brought home” Meanwhile in the middle of all this commotion the thieves thought, “What Happened? What kind of magic spell came over us? This is not our hideout and this is his parents. We kidnapped him and now we are standing right in front of his parents. But seeing that they were all celebrating, and they were all looking at Nimai, let us escape.”
So while everybody was in their own commotion they ran away. They ran and ran and ran. They ran so fast in such fear and finally when they looked around a distance away and nobody was following them, they thought that, “Goddess Durga has saved us.” They asked Nimai what happened and Nimai said, “O I was playing near the bank of Ganga and I got lost and I didn’t know where to go and these two nice men picked me up and brought me home.” They were thinking we must reward them, they made nice beautiful, token turbans! They ran after to give to the men, but they could not find them anywhere. Those two thieves, they gave pleasure to the Lord, even though their motivations were very selfish, the Lord had fun riding on their shoulders and eating their sweets. Those two thieves, in the course of time attend the supreme perfection because of the service they had rendered. Vrindavan das Thakur explains, by hearing this story all inauspiciousness in our heart is stolen away and we attain firm devotion to the supreme lord. During these little childhood days of Nimai, every moment was something incredible. Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat tells, if the Vedas had 10 million forms and each form had 10 million mouths, they could not begin to explain the good fortune of Jaganatha Mishra and Sachi Devi that the Supreme Personality of Godhead was living like a little child in their home.
Radhanath Swami narrates the story of a Brahmin – a devotee of Gopal
One day a Brahmin came to their door, he was a very special soul, he had no home, and he just wandered around constantly changing the name of his worshipable lord Gopal. Around his neck he had a Shaligram shila and a deity of Gopal, he never eats anything that he didn’t offer to Gopal.
He came to Jaganatha Mishra’s house and Jagannath Mishra saw the purity of the saintly person, so simple, had no possessions, but he had the greatest wealth, the wealth of love of God.
Great Kings, during the cultural times, would bow to those ascetics who had the wealth and the power of this love and compassion. Jaganatha Mishra, he fell at the Brahmins feet, he held onto his feet and said, “My home is so fortunate that someone as great as you has come to bless it, please tell me where your home is?” The pilgrim said, “I have no home. I have no country. I wander from place to place chanting the names of my beloved Gopal.” Jagannath Mishra said, “Well anyone, anyone who you visit is most blessed and fortunate. Please come into my house and we will prepare the kitchen and all the ingredients for you to cook and make an offering to Gopal.” And everybody in the house, “Please! Please! Please!” So the Brahmin said, “If it pleases you, I will do!” So he went in the kitchen and with deep devotion, he prepared all the various ingredients, including, what the Bengalis loved the most, Rice. And after he prepared it, he set up a nice little altar; and put the Shaligram shila, and the little Gopal deity, his life, his soul and he chanted a mantra, calling Gopal to eat the Bhoga.
Just as he was chanting, little Nimai, he just very quietly ran up and stood right over the plate, he was very tiny, with his right hand he picked up a handful of rice and put up into his mouth and then he looked with his lovely eyes at the Brahmin and smiled. The Brahmin was shocked, he cried out “Hi! Hi! This restless naughty child has spoiled my offering to Krishna!”
Everybody looked up, Jaganatha Mishra was so disturbed and chasing after little Nimai he said, “How can my child do this? I have to teach him!” and Nimai looked at his father coming and ran away.
The Brahmin grabbed Jaganatha Mishra’s hand; He said, “He is just a tiny little boy. He doesn’t understand, he doesn’t even know what is right. You cannot punish a child or chastise him.”
Jagannath Mishra said, “If I don’t teach him, how he will learn?” He said, “No! No! No! Please “And all the people in the family said, “Jagannath Mishra please.” The pilgrim said, “I can’t eat this now, because I can’t offer it to Krishna as somebody else already ate from it. So just give me some fruits or roots if you have any.” Jagannath Mishra said, “Please, we will clean kitchen again, get more ingredients and Cook a second time.” He said, “It’s already seen that my destiny is not to eat rice today. Just bring whatever fruits and roots that you may have. I live in the jungle most of the time. That’s all I get. It’s is very rare that I get rice like this.” And all the relatives pleaded with him, “Please! Please cook again. It would be such a shame if you come to our house and don’t get nice Prasad.”
He Said, “Yes! If it pleases you, I will cook again.” So they cleaned whole kitchen, brought more ingredients, and he started cooking. Sachi Mata took little Nimai and picked him up and brought him to a neighbor’s house. There was a whole group of ladies there and said, “Please watch my restless son and keep him with you all the times” So as the Brahmin was cooking, they were chanting and clapping and Nimai was dancing and smiling. And they said, “Nimai! Why did you eat that food that was being offered by that pilgrim?” And Nimai said, “He called for me to eat and so I ate.” They said, “You don’t even know who he is? You may get contaminated by eating from stranger like this?” Nimai said, “He is a Brahmin and I’m a cowherd boy and cowherd boys always like to eat from Brahmins” He was telling who he was but they just laughed hysterically. It was so funny but they could not understand that what he was saying was true.
And he was smiling and playing with them and joking with them so sweetly, they became so enchanted that they just didn’t even notice that he slipped away.
Just as the Brahmin was chanting the mantra to call Krishna to eat, the Brahmin looked up and there was little Nimai, his Beautiful golden complexion. He was covered with dust closed in only the 4 directions. With a handful of mouth being chewed and Nimai just gazed at him with such love and smiled. The Brahmin cried out “Hi! Hi! Again this child ruined the offering.”
At that point Jaganatha Mishra picked up the stick and Nimai saw that stick and jumped off and ran into a room. Jaganatha Mishra ran after him and Nimai shut the door and Jaganatha Mishra went to open the door, and the Brahmin said, “No! No! No! He does not know right from wrong. You just can’t chastise him” And everybody in the family was telling Jaganatha Mishra, “Please don’t chastise him.”
Please understand that Jaganatha Mishra, in pure ecstatic love, he was impelled to teach his little son what is the right thing, He would have never hurt him, so Jagannath Mishra just sat with his head in his hand again feeling completely ashamed, that this special saintly pilgrim came to their house and can’t even eat. At that point, Vishvarupa, Nimai’s elder brother, about 10 yr. older than him, came into the room. He was so beautiful! An expansion of lord Nityanand! When this Brahmin saw Vishvarupa, he could not stop looking at him. He asked, “Whose son is this?”
The people said, “This is the son of Sachi and Jagannath Mishra” He said, “How fortunate such parents!” And Vishvarupa, he was so well mannered, he bowed down before his guest and said, “You are such a holy person who holds Gopal in heart and reveals Gopal where you go. We are so fortunate that you have come to bless our home but we are so unfortunate and we are so ashamed because you have to fast in our house. Please cook again.” He said, “I have already cooked twice. It is already most midnight, just give me some roots and fruits, if you have any in the house.”
And Vishvarupa said, “It’s not so late, it’s a very good time for cooking, so please cook again. Because saintly people like you, others people happiness is your happiness. And we will be very happy if you cook again.” And then everybody in the family started making the same request, he was so affectionate towards Vishvarupa, he said, “If it pleases you I will cook again.”
They cleaned the kitchen, brought the ingredients, Jagannath Mishra heard the people say, “Let us lock and hold the door that Nimai is in and we will keep a whole group of guards outside the door.” And Jaganatha Mishra said, “Yes! That is a good idea.” Some of the ladies from inside said, “Nimai is fast asleep, he does not know anything except sleep at this moment. And so no reason to be in anxiety.”
The pilgrim cooked and just when he was finishing, by the will of little Nimai, who was fast asleep in his little bed surrounded by ladies who were chanting Krishna’s names, he sent Nidra devi, Nidra Devi is the Goddess of sleep, when she entered into the house, helplessly, effortlessly everyone fell fast asleep except the Brahmin. He chanted the mantra with the food in front of Gopal, as he chanted, he opened his eyes and little Nimai was chewing on his rice with a hand in his mouth, smiling and gazing upon him. “Hi! Hi! Again the child has spoiled by offering!” But there was dead silence, if there were any jackals around, even they were asleep. No body heard it.
And now it was Little Nimai face to face with this pilgrim. And Nimai looked at him very curiously with innocent affection and said, “What is my fault? You called for me and I came. You offered the food to me and because you are offering it with such love, I can’t help from coming to eat it! I am that Gopal that you have made the object of all your love.” At that moment little Nimai manifested the incredible form. The pilgrim saw standing before him was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He had 8 arms – 4 were the arms of Vishnu holding the conch shell, the disc, the club and the lotus flower, two of his arm, one held the pot of butter and other was eating it, and two of the arms were playing sweet sweet song on the flute. His complexion was like a dark monsoon cloud, he had beautiful lotus like eyes, and his every limb was the essence of perfection. The Kaustubha Mani was a jewel that was around his neck and resting on his chest, seemed to be illuminating all direction. He had the garland of Kunj, holy seeds from Vrindavan. In his beautiful hair, there was a Crown of Malati flowers and peacock feather and a Vaijayanti mala, a garland made from wild celestial flowers that Extended below his knees. Behind Nimai he saw that divine Kadamba tree, and he saw the holy river Yamuna and there he saw all around beautiful Surabhi cows and loving gopas and gopis.
This is exactly what he was mediated upon for his whole life and now he was seeing directly in front of his eyes, in uncontrolled ecstasy this pilgrim fainted! Nimai, with the soft touch of his hand brought him back to consciousness, he looked up again and there was Goloka Vrindavan manifested with Krishna and Krishna’s dear most associates. He fainted again, came back, had darshan and fainted.
Then Nimai spoke, “Birth after birth you have been my pilgrim beggar, you don’t remember but I remember. In your last birth, you came to Mahavan, Gokul when I was just a little baby Krishna. You came to beg from Nanda Maharaj. And he provided all the ingredients for you to cook and in the same little form I came and stole you’re offering then, you don’t remember but I do. You are my eternal loving associate and whenever, wherever you offer with such love and devotion, I must come to accept it.
In this incarnation, I will establish the Sankirtan movement, the congregational chanting of the holy names. I will spread Prema Bhakti, the highest perfection of life, the ecstasy everyone is longing for. I will spread throughout the countries and throughout the world, village to village, towns to towns. You should not tell anyone what you have seen but you should remain in Navadwip and come and secretly watch my transcendental past times.
Then Nimai resumed his little form again, went back to his room, laid on his bed and went to sleep.
This Brahmin was so ecstatic, he could not control himself any more. He started crying out, “Jai Gopal! Jai Gopal!” He was picking up the rice that was the rice that he offered, that was the rice that Lord Krishna accepted, that was the rice that the lord ate. And in his delirium, and ecstasy, “he was not only eating the rice but smearing the rice on every limb of the body and dancing all over the house crying out “Jai Gopal! Jai Gopal!” You kind of sound like the jackals…. Louder please… “Jai Gopal! Jai Gopal!” Everyone woke up, they just heard the pilgrim, “Jai Gopal! Jai Gopal!”
“What’s happening? They didn’t even know why they were sleeping or how they were sleeping.
All of a sudden they came running to see what happened. And they saw this person tears flowing form his eyes, his hair standing on end, rice smeared on every limb of his body, dancing around the house, “Jai Gopal! Jai Gopal! “This is a very great pilgrim, they are looking around, “What happened?”
He became very calm. Right in front of them he kind of chanted and washing his body and he sat down and said, “The offering was complete and I am eating Prasad.” He wanted to tell them so badly, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the absolute truth, the cause of all causes, Krishna, Gopal of Vrindavan is living in your house. If I tell you this good news your life will the absolutely perfect. But I’m not allowed the tell you. He never left Navadwip, he roamed around the area of Navadwip and every single day he would come and watch Nimai’s past times and secretly surrender his heart, his soul and his life. Anyone who hears this past time with faith will get the benediction of personally meeting Krishna.
Shall I continue?
Radhanath Swami lights on the pastime of Lord Chaitanya with Jagdish and Hiranya Pandit
One day Nimai cried, everyone was so excited! Aahh! He is crying, we will chant and he will be happy. So they were clapping, clapping, clapping and chanting, chanting, ‘Hari Hari’. And little Nimai the more they chanted, the more he cried, they were very confused. Because seeing him cry was so painful to their heart. They said Nimai you always are happy whenever we chant, we are chanting, we are chanting, and more and more people were coming to join the kirtan and they were chanting louder and more intensified, Nimai kept crying….
Nimai, what is it? What can we do for you? Nimai, he said, if you want to save my life, there is one thing you can do for me. Nearby there is the house of Hiranya and Jagadish Pandit. Today is Ekadashi – a fast day and they have cooked a very special feast for their deity of Krishna. Go and bring that feast for me to eat that will save my life. Sachi mata, she said, how can we do this? This is against religious principles – Today is Ekadashi, how can you take what belongs to Vishnu? We are not allowed to eat those things on this day. Other people in the house said, he is just a child, we have to do whatever he wants.
Jagannath Mishra, he loved Jagdish and Hiranya Pandit as his dear most friends, because he knew they were such humble, pure, exalted devotees. So he went to their house and gave the message to them. As soon as they heard the message, they were thrilled. They said, “How could this tiny little child have known? We never make feast like this on Ekadashi for the Lord. Somehow or other we were inspired to make an incredible, elegant feast for our deity on this day of Ekadashi. For him to know this, means that Krishna must be living in his heart.” They didn’t say he must be Krishna, they said Krishna must be living in his heart. Otherwise, how could he know? And with great excitement, Krishna wants to eat this offering through this baby.
So, they brought the whole offering, and they laid out all these dozens and dozens of wonderful preparations and put them in a circle around Nimai. Then everybody started chanting and clapping their hands, and Nimai was dancing. He went to each preparation and took a little portion and ate it. And the kirtan was going and he was eating, he was dancing, Jagdish and Hiranya, they considered this the ultimate perfection of their whole lives. That in the heart of this child their beloved lord was accepting their offering.
Radhanath Swami describes how Lord Chaitanya made a little puppy to chant the holy names, “Radha Govinda, Radha Govinda…”
One day, Nimai was playing with his little friends on the bank of the Ganga and they found a little group of new–born puppies, puppy dogs, somehow the mother was not there. She had given birth and she was gone. There were these little puppies, they were just kind of jumping around and the boys were playing with them. Nimai took one little puppy and was playing with him. And one of his friend said, Nimai, why you took the most beautiful puppy and left us with the ugly ones, children are children. Nimai said no no, we can all play with this puppy, I’ll bring him to my house, and we will all come to this house and we all play.
They went to Nimai’s house, when they went to the house, Sachi mata was not at home, she was with her friends at the Ganga. Nimai was playing with all the children and they were taking the puppy and putting it on their heads, and they were running and dancing and embracing. And one of the children, same one, he started arguing with another child and Nimai said, “Why every time we play you always fight with us?” And he said, “Because you took the most wonderful puppy.” And then he ran out and as he was running, he saw Sachi mata – Nimai’s mother.
In great fit of anger, he said, “Sachi mata, you should see what your son is doing. He is just a little boy.” He said, “he brought a dirty, filthy dog, a puppy dog into your house and your Nimai, he is embracing it, he is kissing it, he is putting it on his face, and he is doing all these things.” Sachi mata said, “My boy will never do that.” So she ran home and when she came into the house, Nimai was holding the puppy, embracing the puppy and all the friends were playing with the puppy with Nimai.
Sachi mata said, “Our house is a temple.” This was just a little house. “This is the temple of the lord. You can’t just bring animals in like this. You are bringing dogs, we are a family of Brahmans, what will happen to our reputation? What will happen to the cleanliness of our house? Why are you so mischievous? Why are you so restless? I don’t know, how I could live, when you are doing things like these Nimai.”
Nimai said, “But this puppy is so beautiful and I love him so much.”
Sachi mata looked at Nimai and her heart melted and then she said, “Nimai, just bring the puppy in your room and play and forget about your mother and father.” And then she said, “Nimai, let me embrace you, let me kiss you, let me feed you.”
Nimai ran into her lap and said, “I love this little puppy.”
Sachi mata, she said, “You must be hungry, and you have been playing all day. Go to the river Ganga, and take your bath, play with your friends, and come back and I’ll have nice Prasad for you. I’ll take care of your puppy.”
He said, “You promise, you will take care of my puppy?”
She said, “Yes, I’ll take care of you puppy.”
She didn’t say how she will take care. So, Nimai tied the little puppy with a nice little thing, so that he would be safe. And then he ran. He took some Sandesh from his mother and ran to the Ganga. As he was playing with all his friends, Sachi mata untied the puppy and send the puppy away very sweetly. One of his friends saw this and ran to the Ganga and said, “Sachimata sent the puppy away.” Nimai immediately jumped out of the river and ran home ran home.
“Mata! Mata! My mother! Where is the puppy?”
“Oh puppy? Where is the puppy?”
“You sent my puppy away.”
“Oh! I don’t… where is the puppy?”
“That puppy was so beautiful, I had such affection for that puppy, and don’t you know how much you just hurt my heart?”
And Sachi mata said, “Please eat your food and we will find the puppy.” So, he sat down to eat. Meanwhile, what happened to the puppy? Because he was touched by Nimai, he was so blessed that soon after that, the little puppy just little, only this (size) big. He went into the streets of Navadvip and in front of 100s, 1000s of people started chanting the holy names of Krishna. He was crying out in his little puppy voice, “Radha Govinda. Radha Govinda. Radha Govinda.’” How the puppies say it? Radha Govinda. (Sound) Something like that. Radha Govinda. Like that.
He was chanting very sweetly; not like those jackals. Then he was chanting mahamantra.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
He was chanting and chanting and began to dance, as he was dancing and chanting the mahamantra, tears, torrents of tears were pouring from his little puppy eyes. His paws were raised above his head, like this in ecstasy as he was dancing on his hind legs, every single hair on his puppy body was standing erect in ecstasy and all of his little puppy limbs were trembling uncontrollably as he was crying out Krishna’s name.
The people of Navdvip could not believe what they were seeing. This little baby dog was dancing through the streets in ecstasy, chanting the lord’s holy names. It was so mesmerizing and intoxicating that he was inducing everyone around him to raise heir hands and chant loudly the mahamantra. As everyone was looking on, absolutely hypnotized by this dog’s attainment of the ultimate perfection, right in front of their eyes the dog fell to the ground dead. Krishna tells in Gita,
anta-kāle ca mām eva
smaran muktvā kalevaram
yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ
yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ
That one who remembers me at the time of death, attains me without fail. This puppy dog in the ecstasy of ecstatic love was performing kirtan at the moment of his death and then right before everyone’s vision, imagine seeing this, an incredibly elegant chariot from Goloka Vrindavan descended – It had magnificent domes and celestial, divine people in it and they picked up the little body of the puppy dog, and put it on the chariot. Just then the puppy dog assumed his original, eternal, spiritual form and that chariot brought the puppy dog back to Goloka Vrindavan – the abode of Krishna in the spiritual world, as he was going through the sky the demigods were watching – Brahma, Siva, and Indra, they were surrounding the chariot giving all honor and respect to the puppy dog. Within their heart of hearts they began to sing the glories of Lord Chaitanya.
We have seen so many avatars over the millenniums, but never, not even Krishna, just take an ordinary little dog, and within days, send him back to the spiritual world, the ultimate perfection of life. The son of Sachi is the most munificent, the most merciful and the demigods with tears in their eyes, they were praying, will there ever be a time when we will be so fortunate to be blessed like this little puppy by the mercy of Sachi–Nandana!
Radhanath Swami depicts how Lord Chaitanya taught the lesson of pure devotion to Murari Gupta
Nimai, one day he was walking down the streets with some of his little friends. Very small boy, very mischievous. Murari Gupta, was about 20 years older than him. Murari Gupta was born in a family of Ayurvedic doctors, Vaidya, a great scholar. He was in the school of Gangadas Pandit – a descendant of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s learning institution. He was a great scholar and he with some of his students was discussing the yoga vishishta, which is describing the absolute aspect of the lord, who is without form.
As he was speaking very, very deep profound philosophy, little Nimai started imitating him, in a way that is very irritating. Like, if Murari Gupta would move his head a little to the side, and say “you know… brahma satyam.” And little Nimai would very exaggeratedly move his hear and move his hand and say “brahma satyam.”
Murari said, “What are you doing?”
Nimai said, “What are you doing?”
Murari Gupta said, “Just go home.”
And Nimai would just say, “Just go home.”
So he tried to ignore him, and he got back into the philosophy with his students and he was talking, he was saying, “yada yada hi dharmasya.” And little Nimai – “yada yada hi dharmasya.” Murari Gupta said, “Why are you so restless? Why are you so naughty? Why are you irritating me so much?”
And Nimai just started imitating him again, and mimicking him and laughing, all the children were laughing at Murari Gupta like anything. That was the worst things even Murari Gupta’s students, they couldn’t stop laughing at their own teacher, because Nimai was so expertly making fun of him. Nimai said, “Today at lunch I will give you the lesson. I will give you a good lesson at lunch today.” So Murari Gupta went home. He had a wife, his wife served lunch to him – Nice rice, sabji and he forgot about what Nimai said.
Meanwhile, little Nimai, was dressed very special on that occasion. As Murari Gupta was eating, do you want to hear the story? As Murari Gupta was very, very reverentially and gratefully honoring the Prasad, little Nimai just very slowly, very quietly, crept up, step by step, very mischievous, he was walking so slowly and so silently, so that Murari Gupta would not know he was coming. Murari Gupta was absorbed in eating. Then little Nimai came right up to the plate, and Murari Gupta still didn’t notice it, still eating. In a most graceful, aesthetically pleasing, heart enchanting, beautiful, merciful way, little Nimai passed urine right on the rice! Murari Gupta was shocked, he didn’t know what… He is a scholar, he was trying to figure this out philosophically, he was speechless like the… and he looked out at Nimai, and Nimai was laughing and he was dancing.
He said, “I told you, I will teach you a lesson. You forgot, but I told you I will teach you a lesson.” And what was the lesson?
That Murari Gupta was a devotee, but mixing all sorts of other philosophies with pure devotion. Philosophies that are contrary to pure devotion is like putting urine on Prasad. Of course Lord Chaitanya’s urine is Prasad itself. Nimai was dancing and said, “I told you that I will teach you a lesson. I taught you everything today.” And Murari Gupta, he was so philosophical, he figured out instantly, exactly what Nimai… Nimai actually just liberated him from all misconceptions and gave him a completely pure exclusive understanding of what ecstatic love of god really is. That was the effect of his passing urine that day. So this is why this story is so beautiful. You know if you or I pass urine on somebody’s rice… But Nimai gave completely unadulterated the very sumum bonum essence siddhanta of the Srimad Bhagavatam by passing urine on that rice to Murari Gupta. And he has given it to the whole world for all times to come through that lesson if we hear this pastime with faith.
Meanwhile while he was dancing, and chanting, and singing, and laughing and Murari Gupta was watching and then Nimai ran away. Then Murari Gupta just thought, ‘he was just restless little boy.’ But somehow or other at this moment he became so completely enamored with spiritual love for this child, he ran after him. Little Nimai ran home and jumped in the arms of his father Jagannath Mishra and his father was kissing him and hugging him. Then he jumped into the lap of his mother, Sachi mata.
Meanwhile Murari Gupta who was one of the most venerable, exalted scholars, doctors, Brahmans, respectable family man, he came in, and he saw this little tiny boy is being embraced by his parents. Murari Gupta was offering with folded hands, his dandavats – He was laying himself prostrate on the floor again and again bowing down offering prayers, to this little boy. Sachi Devi and Jagannath looked at him and asked, “Murari, what are you doing? And why are you doing it?” Murari said, “You don’t know who your son is?”
I have to make a confession. One day when I was in Mayapur and I heard these jackals howling, I was thinking someone was playing a recording of me singing kirtan. Anyways, you are all very tolerant.
Radhanath Swami elaborates on mischievous and sweet pastimes of Lord Chaitanya in River Ganga
On another day Nimai was playing in Ganga with all of his friends, he was the leader of his friends. They would do whatever he did because they just wanted to please him. Nimai would give so much pleasure to all the people by His mischief. After going to school in the morning just around the noon time, he would go to the Ganga with His friends. As we explained before thousands and thousands of people were there at every bathing ghat at noon taking their baths. There were many sadhus, Brahmans, ascetics, scholars, pandits, professors and ordinary people also and they would do their religious duties. They would setup their little altars, they would have garlands of flowers and candana, puja. They would take their baths, purify themselves before coming out.
Nimai and His friends would go there, Nimai with His little lotus feet could kick in such a mystical way that it would make the water splash. You know how when you are swimming and you kick your feet like this and make the water splash (chhhchhhhchhhhchhhhh). He would so expertly do it. He would aim His kicks in such a way that the water would spray right in the eyes of the people bathing in the Ganga. Somebody is trying to chant his Gayatri mantra and all of a sudden (chhhchhhhchhhhchhhhh) and they would say, “Nimai what are you doing?” They would try to catch him and he would swim away really fast.
Somebody, a very grave ascetic doing Gayatri and little Nimai would swim under water secretly and his head would come out right in front of them and he would go and spout a full mouthful of water from his mouth right in their face. Other times some very stoic professors would be chanting his Gayatri Mantra and little Nimai would be under water and he would grab their feet, pull them down and make them disappear under water.
When all His little friends saw Nimai doing it, they all started doing it. He had dozens of friends. He had a whole little army of mischief makers who were spitting Ganga water on the faces of Brahmans, pulling their feet and doing all this. After they would come out of the Ganges nice and clean, every single person, Nimai and his friends would throw sand and cover their bodies with sand. So they have to take another bath. They would then throw sand again and they couldn’t catch them.
Some of these very very senior grave Brahmans went to Jagannath Mishra. Actually they loved it, it was the highlight of their lives when Nimai would do these things. They went to Jagannath Mishra just because they wanted to taste the sweetness of complaining about him because in the process of complaining you are feelingly glorifying the Lord’s pastimes, even though they didn’t know that he was the Lord.
You see this is the beauty of Hari Katha. When we speak about Krishna, we are actually reliving Krishna’s pastimes ourselves because these pastimes are absolute. They are not subject to time and place. So they were telling Jagannath Mishra, “Your little boy Nimai for 6 hours a day, practically every day he is doing these things to us.”
“He is kicking water, throwing sand on us, spitting on us.” One Brahmana said, “He stole my Shiva linga!” Another said, “He stole my Bhagavad Gita when I was in the water.” Another said, “He stole my clothes. I came out of the Ganga with my Kaupins and there were no clothes.” Another said, “I had setup a beautiful throne for Vishnu. I had my Puja paraphernalia, I had my garlands, and I had Bhoga to be offered to Vishnu. I went to take my bath before the Puja. I come out of the water and see that Nimai is sitting on the throne of Vishnu with the garlands and eating the offerings. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and ran away and then he yelled back that to whom you have made these offerings has just accepted and enjoyed these offerings.”
Another said, “My little son, my little tiny boy, I put him on the side of the Ganga. I went inside and Nimai put water in his ears and made him cry.” Another said, “I was chanting my Gayatri and Nimai jumped on my shoulder and then jumped off my shoulder and said that I am ‘Mahesh’.”
Some of the other Brahmans said, “It is hard for us to tell you this. Do you know what your son did? – Ladies bathe on one Ghat, Men bathe on another Ghat, before we go in, and we put our set of clothes in a special place. When we all came out the ladies clothes were on the men’s side and the men’s clothes were on the ladies side. In order to not come back home naked I had to put on a Sari, Choli whatever you call it. And the ladies were putting on Dhotis. Do you know how much disturbance your son causes us? And he does this for hours and hours every day.”
And then some little girls came and they approached Sachi Mata. They were smiling, they said, “Sachi Mata! We want to tell you what Nimai does every day to us – He steals our clothes, he insults us, and he splashes us.” One little girl said, “I came out of the Ganga and my beautiful hair….He threw sticky itchy okra seeds all over me.” Another little girl told that, “He told me that he wants to marry me.” Some of the other girls said, “We have our offerings and Nimai sits where our deities are and he says that Give me all your offerings and I will bless you that you will have a very strong, handsome, kind, loving, generous husband who is a great scholar and you will have 7 children, all full of health, obedient and who will charm your hearts. Just give me all your offerings.” And some of the girls were thinking, ‘Who are you to do this?’ and they took their offerings and ran away and Nimai yelled at them, “If you don’t bring back your offerings to me, you will have an old, diseased, deformed husband along with 4 co–wives.” So we all came back running and gave our offerings to him. It seems that this child has some special powers, he does this everyday. So far we have been keeping it as a secret but if we tell our parents they are going to come to you and they would be very disturbed. Sachi Mata embraced all the little girls and said, “You are all my own little daughters. I will take care of Nimai.” The girls were laughing. They were in such great ecstasy explaining Nimai’s pastimes.
Meanwhile Jagannath Mishra picked up a stick again and said, “Nimai can’t get away with all these things. How will he grow up to be a proper gentleman if he is causing so many problems to all these respectable people?” So he started charging towards the Ganga. Meanwhile all the little girls from another direction they were giggling and laughing ran towards the Ganga. They saw little Nimai and they loved Nimai. They said, “Nimai Nimai Nimai! Your father is coming because so many complaints were made against you. You better go. You better fly away from here very fast because Your father looks reallly mad” And Nimai told his friends, “When My father comes tell him that I haven’t come here today. I went home by a different route.” And then he laughed and everybody laughed.
Meanwhile Jagannath Mishra arrives and he sees all the little children playing and he is looking around where is my Nimai. And one little boy said, “He hasn’t come today.” And all the Brahmans who complained said, “Jagannath Mishra we only told you this because we are in total love with your little Nimai. All His mischief is the most precious joy of our heart. We can’t calculate your unlimited good fortune that such a child is your own son. Whatever we spoke was simply His glorification by the love of our hearts.”
Jagannath Mishra said, “Please consider Nimai as all of your son and forgive him if he does anything wrong.” Meanwhile Nimai comes home from another direction and he runs into His mother’s arms and his mother sees that his hair is completely dry, it has dust. All these ink spots are there all over his body from his school and there wasn’t a trace that he could have possibly taken a bath. Jagannath Mishra comes and he was wanting to teach Nimai some lesson but as soon as Nimai saw Jagannath Mishra, he jumped on his lap and embraced his father and his father melted helplessly. Jagannath Mishra said, “Nimai why do you do these things? These Brahmans, why do you harass them and other common people. Aren’t you even afraid of Vishnu? You are stealing his offerings.” And little Nimai said, “What did they say those things about Me. I didn’t even go to the Ganga today and they are saying these things about me. Today they will see what I will really do.” Then he smiled, jumped off His father’s lap and ran to the Ganga.
So our Acharyas explain these people, they were the most fortunate souls that these special intimate loving pastimes were not only being revealed to them but he was giving them intimate entrance. The pastimes of Nimai are absolutely non–different from the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan.
And his mischief was for one purpose only, in the ultimate sweetest way to completely capture the love of these people’s hearts that is what he has done. By understanding how Nimai is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and understanding the nature of his Lila or transcendental pastimes, they are not of world, they are not of the ego. Children in this world they are playing because they are trying to find some temporary happiness, but even so children of this world charm our heart like that. But here is the atmarama, the totally self satisfied Rasaraj, he is simply sharing the infinite sweetness of his love with his devotees through these apparently ordinary child like pastimes here in Navadvipa, Sri Mayapur dham.
By hearing these wonderful narrations the greatest scholars, the greatest ascetics, the most self realized enlightened grihasthas and sannyasis through out the history have worshiped these pastimes of Nimai and tasted them again and again and again. By Srila Prabhupada, our beloved Guru Maharaj’s causeless mercy he has invited all of us to Sri Mayapur to bath in the Ganga of these beautiful narrations which melts our heart. Hari means one who steals, the beautiful names, the beautiful pastimes, the beautiful qualities of the Lord steal our heart away from all the inauspicious envy, lust, anger, greed, arrogance, illusion and steal our heart from all anxieties, suffering and impediments of this world. By hearing the pastime sincerely and the philosophy behind it that natural bhakti prema of our hearts awakens.
Thank you very much.
