HH Candramauli Swami (2nd Class)

[Guest guest]

From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

March 1, 2007

Verse: Caitanya-caritamrta Adi 3.47

Speaker: HH Candramauli Swami

 

 

suvarna-varno hemango varangas candanangadi

sannyasa-krc chamah santo nistha-santi-parayanah

 

TRANSLATION: "In His early pastimes He appears as a householder with a

golden complexion. His limbs are beautiful, and His body, smeared with the

pulp of sandalwood, seems like molten gold. In His later pastimes He accepts

the sannyasa order, and He is equipoised and peaceful. He is the highest

abode of peace and devotion, for He silences the impersonalist nondevotees."

 

PURPORT: This is a verse from the Mahabharata (Dana-dharma,

Visnu-sahasra-nama-stotra). In his commentary on the Visnu-sahasra-nama,

called the Namartha-sudha, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, commenting upon this

verse, asserts that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead

according to the evidence of the Upanisads. He explains that suvarna-varnah

means a golden complexion. He also quotes the Vedic injunction yada pasyah

pasyate rukma-varnam kartaram isam purusam brahma-yonim (Mundaka Up. 3.1.3).

Rukma-varnam kartaram isam refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as

having a complexion the color of molten gold. Purusam means the Supreme

Lord, and brahma-yonim indicates that He is also the Supreme Brahman. This

evidence, too, proves that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead Krsna. Another meaning of the description of the Lord as having a

golden hue is that Lord Caitanya's personality is as fascinating as gold is

attractive. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana has explained that the word varanga

means "exquisitely beautiful."

 

Lord Caitanya accepted sannyasa, leaving aside His householder life, to

preach His mission. He has equanimity in different senses. First, He

describes the confidential truth of the Personality of Godhead, and second,

He satisfies everyone by knowledge and attachment to Krsna. He is peaceful

because He renounces all topics not related to the service of Krsna. Srila

Baladeva Vidyabhusana has explained that the word nistha indicates His being

rigidly fixed in chanting the holy name of Sri Krsna. Lord Caitanya subdued

all disturbing opponents of devotional service, especially the monists, who

are actually averse to the personal feature of the Supreme Lord. [End of

purport]

 

 

Candramauli Swami: So in these last few days prior to the appearance of Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Gaura Purnima, we've turned our attention to his

personality, his glories, his activities, everything about the Supreme Lord

in the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

This verse is actually from the Mahabharata. It is describing the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It's interesting how

with careful research, one can find, in various religious scriptures,

indication of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's identity, his appearance, and his

activities. Here we find in the Mahabharata. Also in Srimad-Bhagavatam, in

the prayers by Prahlad Maharaja to Lord Nrsimhadeva, the Lord is also

indicated as one who appears in the color of gold, or yellow, pita.

 

Also in the same Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the prayers by the residents of

Jambudvipa, the Lord is mentioned as tri-yuga. Tri-yuga refers to that

personality who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appears as the

Lord in three yugas: in Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga. In Kali-yuga

he is channa-avatara. Channa means hidden. He appears not as the supreme

Lord but as his own devotee. Therefore he is referred to as tri-yuga, or as

the Lord who appears in three yugas. But in the Kali-yuga he appears as a

devotee of himself.

 

This is the position of Lord Caitanya that actually he is coming as his own

devotee. It is explained in the Caitanya-caritamrta in this fourth chapter

that he comes for six reasons. Three of them are external and three are

internal. It is explained that the internal reasons are foremost, the

primary. The external reasons we all know. He comes to fulfill the

yuga-dharma, the chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord or to spread the

mercy of pure love of Godhead in the form of harinama-sankirtana. That is

considered external. Also it is mentioned in Bhagavad-gita:

 

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

 

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam

dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

 

He comes in every yuga. In order to fulfill his own words in Bhagavad-gita,

he keeps that principle and appears in the Kali-yuga. But he appears once in

every thousand yuga cycles in the Kali-yuga as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as

the channa-avatara, hidden. Of course the third reason is to satisfy the

desire and the heartfelt prayers of Sri Advaita Acarya.

 

Jaya Radha-Madhava, Asta-Sakhi ki jai!

 

Sri Advaita Acarya was praying from the core of his heart that these

inhabitants of Navadvipa Dham have become so lost. Before the advent of Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Navadvipa Dham was considered one of the greatest

centers of learning throughout the entire world. People from all over the

world would go to get the highest and best education in Navadvipa. It was

concerned the greatest of all education bastions. It had some of the

greatest scholars in the world. In fact, all of the religious scriptures

known were present here. But generally, the population was somewhat pious

but not very much absorbed in pure devotional service. People were educated,

they had great intelligence, pious activities, good qualities, a lot of

material facilities, worshiping demigods, but very little of the essence of

spiritual life, pure devotional service.

 

Advaita Acarya, of course, who is Advaita Acarya? He is a combination of

Sada Siva and Mahavisnu. He is praying to the Lord, "Please come."

 

He was angry to see how people were wasting their lives in material

education. They were spending all their money. They would spend practically

life savings on weddings and pujas and vratas and homas. They were even

doing things like marrying cats and dogs because when you get materially

wealthy and situated, after a while, you get bored. You just want to do

different things or change. That's what happens when too much material

opulence without any real, solid spiritual worship. They get bored after a

while, so they do different things. It is explained by Vrindavan Das Thakur

in Caitanya-bhagavat that they were engaging in marriage of cats and dogs.

Can you imagine?

 

Advaita Acarya, feeling compassion for the fallen conditioned souls of this

age, he went down to the banks of the Ganges with great prayers in his

heart, worshiping his Nrsimha-sila with tulasi leaves and praying from the

core of his heart, "Please my dear Lord, come."

 

And Lord Caitanya actually said, "I have come because of the prayers of

Advaita Acarya." But there are many reasons. These are the three external

reasons.

 

The internal reasons are actually the primary reasons. What are the internal

reasons? These are very interesting. Sri Krsna himself, in order to

experience the position of Srimati Radharani, wanting to understand her

position in relationship to himself, he took on the position of her. He took

on her bhava, her relationship with Krsna. He wanted to understand not only

her position but he wanted to understand, "What is so attractive about me.

Why am I so attractive to Srimati Radharani?" She cannot, even for a

fraction of an iota of an insignificant speck of time, not be absorbed in

pure loving service to Krsna. Her love is intense. Even Krsna couldn't

understand Radharani's love. He wanted to find out what was the nature of

that love and what was it about him that makes her have such deep love. So

he wanted to understand his own good qualities.

 

Krsna is very attractive. There is a story, one time Krsna was walking along

and he came across a pillar. The pillar had a reflecting surface. He stopped

and looked and said, "Wow, who is that beautiful personality there?" He was

so overwhelmed seeing his own image that he just ran toward it to embrace

it. Then he realized it was himself. [Chuckles] This is Krsna. He is so

attractive that he attracts himself.

 

But in order to understand his own attractiveness, he had to take the

position of the object in order to understand the subject. Also to

understand what is the nature of the happiness she experiences from that

loving relationship, her happiness, her love, her position, and what are his

qualities. These are the internal reasons.

 

Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami points out in the Caitanya-caritamrta that

the time for the yuga-dharma or for descending in order to propagate the

teachings of harinama-sankirtana just happened to coincide with Lord Krsna's

desire to appear as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to understand the internal

reasons of his appearance, in other words, to understand that loving

relationship. The external reasons are secondary.

 

Here in this particular verse it is describing some of his extraordinary

qualities. One of the qualities that is mentioned, it was mentioned in the

previous class by His Holiness Sivarama Maharaja, that he has a beautiful

golden color. Radharani is called Gaurangi and Caitanya Mahaprabhu is called

Gauranga, golden complexion. Actually Krsna told Radharani, when he was in

the spiritual world, "I am descending in order to taste this loving

relationship of your love for me."

 

When Radharani heard about that, she was quite alarmed because she knew the

ecstasy he would experience in trying to experience her bhava. Therefore she

said, "Your body will not be able to maintain. Therefore I give you

protection of your body. I give you my own color." She gave him the color

golden. So here is it is explained: radha-bhava-dyuti-suvalitam, that he is

decorated with the transcendental color of Srimati Radharani. He is called

Gauranga.

 

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadatau

sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau

visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau

vande jagat priya-karau karunavatarau

 

In that verse it is also mentioned that Lord Caitanya has a golden color.

His arms extend down to his knees. His eyes are elongated. His is the best

of the brahmanas and he is teaching the highest principles of religion. That

is, he is initiating personally himself the yuga-dharma, the

harinama-sankirtana movement.

 

This chanting the Holy Name is the essence of all religious principles.

Yamaraja himself, when he was speaking to his followers after they had

returned in their failed attempt to take the soul of Ajamila to the

courtyard of Yamaraja, they were questioning Yamaraja, "What is your

position?"

 

He explained, "Actually, I am not supreme. I am subordinate. The devotees of

Krsna are in all sense worshipable. Therefore, even I worship them." Then he

explained that in this age, devotional service to the Supreme Personality of

Godhead is the highest form of religious principles, but the essence of all

devotional activities is to chant the Hare Krsna Mahamantra. That is the

essence of the essence.

 

Sometimes when we preach, or even sometimes in a very uninformed

understanding, we cannot understand how important it is to chant Hare Krsna.

Actually, Srila Prabhupada said, "All your advancement in devotional service

depends on chanting the Holy Names of the Lord." Everything else we do in

our devotional service is meant to purify our consciousness so we can

approach Krsna's name in the proper consciousness, with the proper mood.

 

Therefore all practices in devotional service are in one sense supporting

the quality of our chanting if we are performing those activities in the

right mood, with the right understanding: chanting, reading

Srimad-Bhagavatam, associating with devotees, engaging in practical

devotional service, worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These are

various principles of powerful devotional service, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu,

being the yuga-avatara, emphasized two things that are primary amongst all

religious principles. Those two things are association and service to

Vaisnavas and chanting the Hare Krsna Mahamantra. These are the essence of

the essence.

 

Here in Sri Dham Mayapur we have such a wonderful opportunity to serve

Vaisnavas and to hear and chant the Hare Krsna Mahamantra. Prabhupada said,

"This Sri Dham Mayapur is the spiritual world. It is non-different."

 

One time one senior devotee asked Srila Prabhupada, they were in Mayapur,

"Srila Prabhupada, sometimes devotees come to the dham and they are trying

to enjoy here." It was kind of a question like maybe it's not right.

 

Prabhupada said, "The dham, it is for enjoyment. It is the spiritual world,

spiritual enjoyment." What is that spiritual enjoyment? Chanting, dancing,

associating with devotees, taking Krsna prasadam, hearing the philosophy of

Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and purifying our hearts. What is the

culmination of purifying our hearts? Then these same activities become

transcendentally blissful. It's not that we change our activities. The

activities actually are the fundamental principle, the essence of devotional

practice. But in a purified state of consciousness they bring the goal of

life, that is, the direct connection between the Lord and his devotee.

 

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to teach that principle here in Sri Dham

Mayapur. We are so fortunate to be here to be able to engage in these

devotional activities - chanting the Holy Names, serving the Vaisnavas: nama

ruci, vaisnava seva. Then he emphasized one other thing, Lord Caitanya

mentioned. That is jiva doya. That is taking this mercy and giving it to

others. We might call it preaching, but distributing the mercy to others.

Not that we become "packed up", Prabhupada said, "packed up". We become

packed up, that's nice, but the pack becomes bigger when you give it.

 

Lord Caitanya said, "I have the storehouse of the fruits of love of God and

the storehouse is overwhelmed with fruits. I am just one gardener and I am

trying to distribute these fruits to the entire world. How much can I do?

Therefore, please help me to distribute these fruits."

 

He goes on to explain by distributing the fruits, the storehouse doesn't

become less. It actually becomes greater. The more you give Krsna, the more

you get Krsna. The more you try to keep Krsna, the more it is hard to find

Krsna. Krsna is fast. He is always moving. So we are chasing Krsna by trying

to catch him in the form of giving Krsna to others in devotional service. So

these three things Lord Caitanya emphasized. So this is the essence of Lord

Caitanya's movement. So we worship the Lord in this chanting and dancing.

 

We also have to be very conscience and cautious to avoid the negative. There

are things to do and things not to do: anukulya, pratikula. Things I should

do and things I don't do. Things that I don't do, if I do those things and I

am still doing the things I do do, it's like building a fire and pouring

water on it at the same time. One has to be very conscious to avoid things

that are detrimental to devotional service.

 

Lord Caitanya says, "I give my full mercy to anyone chants the Holy Names of

the Lord, serves the Vaisnavas, and does not find fault with others." He

says, "Finding fault with others or criticizing others is the fastest way

one can destroy the mercy that is being given." It is mentioned in the

Caitanya-bhagavat that one who criticizes others, Lord Caitanya said, "That

is like drinking poison and if you drink poison, you die." But how to

neutralize that poisonous effect? Glorify others. By glorifying others, by

glorifying the devotees, by seeing the good qualities in devotees and

magnifying those qualities, that is like drinking nectar. When one drinks

nectar, one attains immortal life.

 

So Lord Caitanya gives other considerations. We should be very careful not

to engage in prajalpa, or useless talk, finding fault, criticizing, because

we are just dampening the mercy that is so easily available in the form of

this harinama-sankirtana. So it is important to keep these principles in

mind. And Sri Caitanya is very merciful, but he emphasized certain

principles that in order to practice devotional service successfully one

must develop the qualities:

 

trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

 

This verse was spoken by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

Saraswati Maharaja sometimes he was asked, "Maharaja, can you tell me what

is my svarupa, what is my internal relationship?"

 

He said, "Your svarupa is:

 

trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

 

This is actually the principle that Lord Caitanya emphasized as far as

practicing devotional service successfully. And Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami in

Caitanya-caritamrta, he emphasizes this verse. He is actually quoting Jiva

Goswami, Jiva Goswami says, "You take this verse and string it on the

necklace of the Holy Name and wear it as your ornament." What is the result?

The result is kirtaniyah sada. One can develop an attraction, an attachment

to chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. Lord Caitanya emphasized this verse

amongst many, many verses.

 

So we are here, Sri Dham Mayapur, just on the advent of the appearance of

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When he appears, of course he is always appearing

in the hearts of the devotees who are following his instructions and the

instructions of his representative, the spiritual master, but on this Gaura

Purnima festival, the Lord's mercy is bestowed in such waves, such oceans

that on his appearance day, this more or less inspires us to become more and

more serious in our Krsna consciousness.

 

Many of us have to go back to our respective areas and we have to again

associate with the material energy more directly. Sometimes in occupation or

just living in mundane materialistic society. Whatever time we are here, we

should try to get as much opportunity to absorb in the mercy of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, purify our hearts more, bring it back, and preach that message

to others.

 

Prabhupada says there are two aspects to devotional service: become purified

and to help others become purified. Just to become Krsna conscious yourself

is not possible. One has to actually be an instrument of the mercy for the

Lord in whatever way we can. it's not that everyone has to take up a

position of being a great scholar of the Vedas or preaching in a formal way.

Lord Caitanya said, "Whoever you meet, tell them about Krsna. Whoever you

meet, tell them about the chanting of the Holy Names. By my command, be

guru, save the land." That means you come in contact, give them an

opportunity to somehow come forward.

 

Lord Caitanya's mission is a mission of compassion. He has taken Radharani's

love, which is his own bhava, in the form of this sankirtana movement, and

he is garlanding the entire world with that love in the form of this

sankirtana movement. This sankirtana movement is Radharani's love for Krsna.

This is the internal mood of this entire lila of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to

give Radharani's love in the form of this sankirtana movement to the entire

world.

 

We have a legacy. Our legacy is, as Srila Prabhupada said when someone asked

him, "How can we serve you Prabhupada?"

 

Prabhupada said, "Do what I am doing." He means that we should also take the

mission of the spiritual master as our life and soul. That means make his

mission our practice in devotional service. To try to in any way, we just

see what Krsna has given us, he has given us time, energy, facilities,

opulences, intelligence, whatever, use that in any way you can to spread

Krsna consciousness.

 

Caitanya Mahaprabhu when he went traveling through South India, he was

spreading the Holy Name and everyone who saw him became inspired. That

person told another person and that person told another person and that

person told another person. In this way, Lord Caitanya's mercy in the form

of the sankirtana movement spread throughout the entire continent of India.

In the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he made the entire continent of India

Krsna conscious by his presence and his travels to South India. That is the

power and that same mercy if fully available to us today.

 

sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda

 

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

 

Thank you very much.

 

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

 

Do we have time for questions? Are there any questions, comments? Yes?

 

Question: Hare Krsna. Maharaja, you were speaking about criticism. Can you

please explain corrective criticism? Also you were speaking about humility.

Can you please explain also . . . ?

 

Candramauli Maharaja:I'll try. I don't have these qualities.

 

The spiritual master is in the position to find fault with his disciple.

Why? As a service to his disciples, he can correct them to improve their

devotional life. In general, a relationship with other devotees, unless it

is in the role of a spiritual master-disciple, is to share the six loving

exchanges: to talk about Krsna, to hear about Krsna, to give prasadam, to

accept prasadam, to give gifts, to accept gifts.

 

If one finds a situation where one finds there is obligation to do some

correction, one should be very, very careful and cautious to do it in such a

way that doesn't cause disturbance and that person will accept. Generally

when a person is doing something wrong, they are not in a position to

understand because already their consciousness is wrong, so one has to be

very sensitive in offering corrective criticism.

 

One should think ahead of time what will be the results. Even if your

intention is not to offend and you do offend, it's still an offense.

Unintentionally, still it is an offense. The relationships between devotees

are very, very sweet, are meant to be very sweet and very, very loving. In

order to keep that mood, even in the mood of correction, we should be very,

very careful to do it in such a way that that person will accept.

 

If we feel we can't do that, we should ask someone else who feel may be in a

better position to do that correction. It's not wrong to do it, provided it

is done in the right consciousness. That means one has to be not in the mood

of "I'm the corrector" but in the mood, "I want to help this person and

their Krsna consciousness." It is a principle of compassion. Correction

means you are trying to make that person act in a more proper way that their

Krsna consciousness will not be affected in a negative way. You're trying to

help them, but it has to be accepted in that way.

 

We shouldn't walk around looking for faults to be the all Supreme

Personality of Godhead Corrector. Sometimes we find that. Some personalities

put themselves in the position of correcting everybody. That is not Vaisnava

attitude. The Vaisnava is always trying to see the good. Prabhupada said we

should be like bumblebee. Bumblebee goes for the honey. Fly goes for the

stool. Devotees may have, practically everyone has good qualities, everyone

has faults, except pure devotees.

 

So you can see what you want to see. You can see the faults or you can see

the good qualities. If you see the good qualities, then actually you'll

appreciate. We find that as we change ourselves, we also change others. The

more we develop our own Krsna consciousness, the more we will see the good

qualities in others.

 

In the form of corrective criticism, if it is done in the proper mood as a

service, then that is acceptable. Then again, one has to be careful how to

do that. Not, "Hey Prabhu, you're in maya!" That's not going to work. First

of all you can't call someone Prabhu and then say he's in maya. "Hey master,

you're in maya. Hey, stop that!"

 

The devotees are humble. Many times they'll accept, but sometimes in their

heart they'll feel, "Why did he do it like that? Why wasn't he more gentle

and sensitive? I'm not such a demon." So we have to be careful in dealing

with Vaisnavas, very careful. We see, we've committed a lot of Vaisnava

aparadha in our society. A lot of times devotees go away because these

things are done. Therefore, we have to be very, very careful but not foolish

to allow things that are against religious principles to go on simply with

the idea that we don't want to correct. If someone is doing something wrong

of offensive, some attempt should be made. If I can't do it, let me contact

someone who can do it more effectively.

 

Does that help? That didn't answer your question? OK.

 

[unclear comment]

 

Devotees are not fools, but they are humble. Humility does not relegate one

to foolishness. Humility is actually a position of empowerment. Humility

means, Prabhupada gave different definitions, but one of them is, "I can't

do anything; Krsna can do anything. Therefore, the more I take shelter of

Krsna and the spiritual master, the more I become empowered."

 

Srila Prabhupada spread Krsna consciousness around the world, but he was one

of the most humble of all personalities ever. He saw himself as an

insignificant person, but he was fully devoted to the lotus feet of the

Lord. He knew whatever success he is having or whatever he does is simply by

the mercy and kindness of the Lord and his spiritual master. That is

humility.

 

Humility also means I don't want to be honored. Prabhupada writes that in

Bhagavad-gita in the Fourteenth Chapter. He is describing the qualities

amanitvam adambhitvam. The first one is humility, the second one is

pirdelessness, the third is tolerance. He explains that these are qualities

of knowledge, or principles of knowledge.

 

The first principle of knowledge is humility because that is the main

quality of a Vaisnava. So Prabhupada describes humility means not to want

the distinction to be honored by others. Not wanting honor. Therefore

amanina manadena, to want to honor others and not want honor for oneself.

 

If someone gives you honor and if you keep it, then pride can develop. But

if someone gives you honor and you say, "All glories to my spiritual master.

All glories to the Lord. This person is actually seeing some good qualities

in me, that is his good quality he can see something good in me." These are

some definitions of humility as give by the acaryas.

 

Humility also means not to think less oneself, but to think of oneself less.

To think of oneself less. We are always thinking about me. We should be

thinking about ? or Krsna or how to serve, like that. If we are so much

overwhelmed by self consciousness, then that is a perverted principle of

humility. "Oh, I am so fallen, I am so useless, I can't do anything.

Therefore, I won't do anything." [Chuckles] That is not humility. Humility

gives one empowerment, empowers one to do things.

 

Does that help?

 

Thank you.

 

OK, I think we should go on. They say one cannot live by philosophy alone.

It's time for prasad.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

 

END.