Sri Caitanya Bhagavata

anadi · March 22, 2007

Yes...I also have a copy of Caitanya Bhagavata. Unfortunately I do not read Bengali, so I must rely on the english translation. There are several things I notice in Caitanya Bhagavata. It is different than Caitanya-caritamrta in some ways. Sometimes in Caitanya-bhagavata Lord Caitanya takes on an opulent mood. One example of this can be seen in the madhya-khanda chapter ten. Teaching his devotees of his supreme position. Then at other times he becomes embarrased of such behaviour when it manifests within Him.

Dear bija, dandavat pranam

Some persons still think that Sri Caitanya MahAprabhu never said He is the same Krishna, the Supreme Original Lord.

In “Sri Caitanya Bhagavata” , Srila VRndAvana dAsa ThAkura relates the lila of how Advaita Acarya wanted to be treated by Sri Caitanya MahAprabhu as one of His Servants not as a superior personality and decided to teach the glories of jJAna-yoga.

When Sri Caitanya MahAprabhu inquired from Advaita Prabhu, “Between bhakti and jJAna, which is superior?” Advaita Prabhu replied that jJAna was superior. On hearing this Sri Caitanya repeatedly struck Advaita’s back with His fist, and after it started to reveal that He descended just because of Advaita’s prayers.

An excerpt from Sri Caitanya Bhagavata, Madhya, Chapter 19.140-152.

The Lord said:

“I was sleeping in the Ocean of Milk, when You, nADA (sada-shiva), woke Me to fulfil Your mission. (Sri Caitanya MahAprabhu called Advaita acarya sometimes nADA.)

You brought Me to reveal bhakti, but now You are covering bhakti with Your explanation on jJAna.

If Your intention was to cover bhakti, then why did You have Me to descend (into this world).

I never frustrate Your resolve, but You always deceive Me.

After releasing Advaita, the Lord sat down at the doorway and began to loudly reveal His own glories.

O nADA it was I (Sri kRSNa) who killed kaMsa. You know everything, don’t You?

BrahmA, ziva, zeSa and laxmi, all engage in My service. The cunning impostor vAsudeva was killed by My (Sri kRSNa’s) chakra.

vArANasI was completely burned by My chakra, and the mighty rAvaNa was killed by My arrow.

My cakra cut off the arms of bANAsura, and My cakra destroyed narakAsura.

It was I (Sri kRSNa) who held up Govardana Hill with My left hand, and it was I who brought the pArijAta flower from heaven.

I deceived Bali and then bestowed mercy on him. It was I who killed HiraNyakazipu to save PrahlAda.

In this way the Lord revealed His opulences, and Advaita floated in an ocean of ecstatic love while listening.

Advaita was filled with ecstasy after receiving His punishment. He clapped His hands and danced in humility.”

anadi · April 4, 2007

Sri Krishna Caitanya shows the Universal Form to Advaita and Nityananda

as revealed by Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur in Caitanya Bhagavata Madhya lila Chapter 24.38-63:

Arit-yoga advaiter punaH punaH bADe

ekezvara zrIvAsa-aGgane gaDi’ paDe

As Advaita’a lamentation steadily increased, He rolled around alone on the ground of ZrIvasa’s courtyard.

kAryAntare nija-gRhe chilA vizvambhara

advaitera Arti citte hala gocara

Vizvambhara (Sri Caitanya), who was engaged in some activities at His own house, understood the lamentation of Advaita.

bhakta-Arti pUrNakArI sadAnanda rAya

AilA Advaita yathA gadagaDi’ yAya

The ever blissful Lord relieves the distress of His devotees. He therefore came to that place where Advaita was rolling on the ground.

Advaiterea Arti dekhi’ dhari’ tAGra kare

dvAra dIyA vasilena giyA viSNu-ghare

On seeing Advaita’s lamentation, the Lord grabbed His hand, took Him inside the ViSNu temple, closed the door, and sat down.

hAsiyA ThAkura bale - ”sunaha AcArya!

Ki tomAra icchA, bala ki vA cAha kArya?

The Lord smiled and said, “Listen Acarya! What is Your desire? Tell Me, what can I do for You?”

Advaita balaye, - “tumi sarva veda-sAra

tomArei cAhoG prabhu, ki cAhiba Ara”

Advaita replied, “You are the essences of all the Vedas. I simply want You, O Lord. What else could I need?”

hAsi’ bale prabhu, - “ami ei ta’ sAkSAte

Ara ki AmAre cAha bala ta’ AmAte”

The Lord smiled and said, “I am right here. Tell Me what else You want.”

Advaita balaye – “prabhu kahilA su-satya

Ei tumi sarva-veda-vedAntera tattva

Advaita then replied, “O Lord, whatever You said is completely true. You are the only subject matter of the Vedas and the VedAnta.

tathApiha vaibhava dekhite kichu cAi

prabhu bale, - “ki vA icchA bala mora ThAni”

“Still I wish to see some of Your opulence.” The Lord said, “Tell Me exactly what You want.”

theist · April 4, 2007

anadi,

Whose translation of CB are you reading. I have never read it but have the edition by Sarvabhavana. But I noticed you include the bengali so there must be other english translations that I am unaware of.

anadi · April 5, 2007

dear Theist,

It is Bhumipati dasa's translation the edition from 1998.

theist · April 5, 2007

Thank you!

gHari · April 5, 2007

There is a wonderful MP3 audio of the Sri Caitanya Bhagavata available from India Divine.

theist · April 5, 2007

Oh? And who translated that one gHari? And also you have it on your site and you have posted from it for years. Whose translation do you use?

Puru Das, das anudas · April 5, 2007

http://bvml.org/SCM/SCB/index.html

<center></center> <center>Adi Lila

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

Madhya Lila

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

Antya Lila

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6</center>

gHari · April 6, 2007

Puru, many of those chapters have since been edited for grammar and spelling errors. Madhya is quite different now with 23 chapters, but it is still missing the last few chapters.

Puru Das, das anudas · April 6, 2007

Puru, many of those chapters have since been edited for grammar and spelling errors. Madhya is quite different now with 23 chapters, but it is still missing the last few chapters.

Whose translation is it? Where can I access the current version?

gHari · April 6, 2007

Whose indeed? This we just don't know. A Bengali devotee put it on tape for Agrahya das (ACBSP and BVNM) from the Carolinas who then quickly typed it. He shared it in the newsgroup alt.religion.vaishnava back in the mid-nineties and allowed me to publish it on the Kingdom site and make grammatical changes. This process has taken ten years and has gotten near the end of the Madhya Khanda. The later chapters have had a quick edit, but are still filled with errors and awkwardness. Somehow the last couple of chapters of the Madhya Khanda have not survived this process (or perhaps they have become annexed to earlier chapters).

It all seems to have been Lord Caitanya's arrangement to get me to read His pastimes carefully. And it has been a most joyous exercise as you can imagine. So the translator, we do not know, but we are in debt to them for offering us Vrndavana dasa's masterpiece much earlier than the more official translations which have appeared on the net over the past few years.

The current .htm files are to be found at http://geocities.com/caitanyamahaprabhu/bhagavat.htm

anadi · April 13, 2007

As today is the disappearance day of Sri Vrindavan das Thakur, I post again for our remembrance and meditation, from his Caitanya Bhagavat about a great event, a display of oppulence and sweetness:

Lord Caitanya’s mahA-prakAza, or great revelations

during which all the vaiSNavas obtained fulfilment of their desires, as recorded by ZrI VRindAvana dAsa ThAkura in his "ZrI Caitanya bhAgavata".

This pastime is widely known as sAta-prahariyAbhAva or “The twenty one hour exstasy”.

During this time the Lord (Caitanya) manifested various incarnations.

During this pastime the Lord ate wonderfully, huge amount of prasadama was being offered unto Him,

manifested wonderful forms according the mood of His servants, and awarded devotional service to one and all.

The Lord said to ZrIvAsa,

“O ZrIvAsa, do your remember when you once heard Zrimad BhAgavatam from DevAnanda paNDita?

Every line of Zrimad BhAgavatam is full of loving devotional mellows, and your heart melted on hearing that narration.

You began to cry loudly and fell to the ground, overwhelmed with ecstasy.

Not understanding your devotional sentiments, the foolish students could not understand why you were crying.

You lost external consciousness while exhibiting transformations of ecstatic love and the students carried you outside.

DevAnanda did not stop them. As the guru was ignorant, so were his disciples.

When they left you outside the door, you returned home greatly distressed.

Feeling unhappy at heart, you sat down in a solitary place and again began to read Zrimad BhAgavatam.

Seeing your distress, I left VaikuNTha and appeared in your body.

Then I sat in your heart and made you cry by awarding you loving devotion.

You became ecstatic by hearing Zrimad BhAgavatam, and the entire area became wet as if by rain."

Realizing the words of the Lord, ZrIvAsa became overwhelmed. He felled on the ground, cried, and sighed deeply.

In this way the Lord reminded all the VaiSNavas headed by Advaita about their previous experiences.

The lion like Gaura (golden avatara) happily enjoyed His pastimes while extending His feet and touching the bodies of the devotees.

If by chance a devotee was not there, by the sAta-prahariyAbhAva or “The twenty one hour exstasy”, the mahA-prakAza, or great revelations during which all the vaiSNavas obtained fulfilment of their desires, the Lord personally ordered the he should be brought there. He ordered,

“Quickly, go and bring ZrIdhara. Let him come and behold My opulences.

As he constantly thinks of Me, he feels great unhappiness.

Bring him at once so that he may see My glories. Go to the edge of town and wait there. Bring that person who is calling out My name."

Following the Lord’s instruction, some vaiSNavas hurried to the house of ZrIdhara, who earned his livelihood by selling banana leaves. He would buy one banana tree, cut it into pieces, and then sell those pieces. He offered half of whatever he earned in a day in worship of the Ganges. With the other half, he maintained his life. This is the test of a devotee of ViSNu. He was as truthful as MahArAja YudhiSThira. He never deviated from whatever price he fixed. He passed the entire night without sleep while loudly chanting the names of kRSNa and Hari. All the atheists complained, “Due to ZrIdhara’s loud cries, we cannot sleep at night and our ears are broken. He is a low-class fellow who cannot fill his stomach. Being afflicted with hunger, he stays up all night.

As soon as the devotees got halfway there, they heard the loud cries of ZrIdhara.

The devotees followed that sound and quickly found ZrIdhara.

“O MahAzaya, come. Come and see the Lord. Let us become glorious by your touch.”

On hearing the Lord’s name, ZrIdhara became overwhelmed with exstasy and fell unconscious to the ground. The devotees quickly picked him up and carefully brought him before Vizvambhara (Sri Caitanya).

On seeing ZrIdhara, the Lord was pleased and called him, “Come, come. You have worshiped Me so long. You have passed many lifetimes to obtain My love. In this lifetime you have also served Me so much. I always eat rice off of your banana leaves.

When the Lord manifested His pastimes as a scholar, He acted like a most arrogant person. The Lord daily visited ZrIdhara’s shop and bought banana leaves, bananas and banana stems.

He would daily quarrel with ZrIdhara for two hours and then buy his goods for half price.

The Lord would say, “O brother zrIdhara, why do you live like an ascetic when you have so much wealth? Then ZrIdhara would stand up, grab hold fo the goods, and a tug-of-war would ensue.

ZrIdhara asked, “Are there no other shops? Go there and buy leaves cheaper.”

The Lord replied, ”I will not give up My supplier. Take My money and give Me stems and bananas.

On seeing the Lord’s beauty, ZrIdhara would become overwhelmed and smile. Then Vizvambhara (Sri Caitanya) would jubilantly speak harsh words to him, “You buy ingredients that you regularly offer to the Ganges, so what is wrong if you give Me a discount? I am the father of the Ganges, whom your regularly worship. This is the thruth Iam telling you.”

ZrIdhara then covered his ears and exclaimed, “ViSNu! ViSNu!” Seeing the Lord so arrogant, ZrIdhara then gave Him the leaves and stems.

In this way they both regularly quarrelled with each other.

In this way the Lord enjoys the gifts of His devotees and does not glance at millions of gifts offered by nondevotees.

As ZrIdhara was brought before Sri Caitanya, the Lord said, “O ZrIdhara, look at My form. Today I will award you the eight mystic perfections.

The exalted ZrIdhara raised His head and saw that ViZvambhara (Sri Caitanya) was blackish like a tamAla tree. He held an enchanting flute in His hands, and BalarAma stood at His right side. ZrIdhara saw the entire place was filled with a bright effulgence.

He saw goddess Laxmi offer betel nuts into the hand of the Lord and the four headed BrahmA and five headed Ziva offer prayers to the Lord….

On seeing this, ZrIdhara was struck with wonder. As such, he reeled and fell to the ground.

The Lord ordered, “Get up. Get up, ZrIdhara.” ZrIdhara than regained consciousness by the words of the Lord.

The Lord said, “ZrIdhara, offer prayers to Me.” ZrIdhara replied, “ O Lord, I am most foolish…” The Lord then said, “Your words alone are prayers to Me”. By the order of the Lord, SarasvatI appeared on ZrIdhara’s tongue and he began to offer prayers.