Gaura-purnima. CC.adi.17.7-9

So we will read a few verses from the 17th chapter of Vadi Lila, Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita. And I have chosen to speak because I was given freedom to choose my topic. I have chosen to speak on the topic of Gaya Gamma Nalila, of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, which was the turning point in his life and in many senses in our own life when he took initiation from Sri Isvara Puri. So we'll speak on this Gaya Gama Nalila but I will first read a couple of verses from Sri Chaitanya chaitam rita. Jaya Jaya Sri Chaitanya Jaya Nitananda Jaya Dvaita Chandra Jaya Gaur Bhakta Vrinda Jaya Jaya Chaitanya Gaur Bhakta Vrinda Let's start from verse number 7. Translation. In His use, the Lord exhibited His ecstatic love of Krishna on the plea of disturbance of the bodily airs. Accompanied by His confidential devotees, he enjoyed various pastimes in this way." Purport by Srila Prabhupada. According to Ayurvedic treatment, the entire psychological system is conducted by three elements, namely vayu, pitta and kapha, air, bile and mucus. Secretions within the body transform into other secretions like blood, urine and stool, And if there are disturbances in the metabolism, the secretions turn into kapha mucus by the influence of the air within the body. This is for those who are preparing for a new pandemic of COVID, they should know this. According to the Ayurvedic system, when the secretion of bile and formation of mucus disturb the air circulating within the body, 59 varieties of disease may occur. One such disease is craziness. On the plea of disturbance of the bodily air and metabolism, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu acted as if crazy. Thus in his school he began to explain the grammar of verbs through Krishna consciousness Explaining everything in grammar in relationship to Krishna The Lord induced his students to refrain from worldly education For it is better to become Krishna conscious and in this way attain the highest perfectional platform of education. On this grounds, Sri Jiva Goswami later compiled the grammar entitled Harinam Amritav Yakarna. People in general consider such explanations crazy. Therefore, the Lord's purpose in His attitude of craziness was to explain that there is nothing within our experience but Krishna consciousness for everything may be dovetailed with Krishna consciousness. These pastimes of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has been very vividly described in the Chaitanya Bhagavata Chaitanya Madhyakanda chapter 1. Text number 8. Dabhira Karyala Prabhu Gaya Te Gaman Ishvara Purira Sangye Tatai Milan Thereafter the Lord went to Gaya there he met Ishvara Shri Laishvara Puri Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Gaya to offer respectful oblations to his forefathers this process is called Pindadan in Vedic society after the death of a relative especially one's father mother, one must go to Gaia and there offer oblations to the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. Therefore, hundreds and thousands of men gather in Gaia daily to offer such oblations or shraddha. Following these principles, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also went there to offer Pinda to his dead father. Fortunately, he met Ishvara Puri there. And then the text number nine. Diksha Anantari Hoyla Premira Prakash Deshe Agamana Puna Premira Vilas. In Gaya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was initiated by Ishvara Puri and immediately afterwards he exhibited signs of love of Godhead, he again displayed such symptoms after returning home. Purport by Srila Prabhupada. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Gaia, accompanied by many of his disciples, he became sick on the way. He had such a high fever that he asked his students to bring water that had washed the feet of Brahmanas. And when they brought it to the Lord, when they brought it, the Lord drank it and was cured. Therefore, everyone should respect the position of the Brahmana as indicated by Sri Chaitanya Mahabrabhu. Neither the Lord nor his followers displayed any disrespect to the Brahmanas. The followers of Lord must be prepared to offer Brahmanas all due respect, but preachers of Lord Chaitanya's cult object if someone presents himself as a Brahmana without having the necessary qualifications. The followers of Lord Chaitanya cannot blindly accept that everyone born in a Brahmana family is a Brahmana. Therefore, one should not indiscriminately follow the Lord's example of showing respect to brahmanas by drinking water that has washed their feet. Gradually, the brahmana families have become degraded because of the contamination of Kali Yuga. Thus, they misguided people by exploiting their sentiments. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jāya. Namāṁ Viṣṇupādāya Kṛṣṇa-Priṣṭāya Bhūtālē Śrīmatyā Bhaktivedanta Svāmīnī Tīnāmīnī. Namaste Sarasvati Devi Gauravānī Pracārīne Nīrviṣeṣa-Sūnñāvādī Pāścātya Deśa-Tārīne. Vāñca Kalpātaru Bhāścā Kripa Sindhu Bhācā. Patitanam Pavanibhyo Vaiṣṇavibhyo Namāna Mahā. Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhupada Ananda Shri Advaita Gadadhara Sri Vasadhi Gaurabhaktavrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna. I am very happy to be back to this beautiful temple. Of course, I am for the first time in this particular building, but I am not for the first time in Bangalore, and I dearly respect and love devotees in Bangalore, so thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you. Because we are preparing ourselves for celebrating Gaur Purnim, which is the festival commemorating the purpose of the Lord coming to this Kali Yuga to deliver all of us. Since we are preparing ourselves to this joyous and wonderful event, we are discussing different aspects of Lord's pastimes in the morning before Gaurapur Nima. and I have chosen to speak on this Gaya Gamana Lila because as Srila Prabhupada showed even in these three purports which we read Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu could fulfill his mission of distributing love of God only when he himself was officially initiated by Ishvara Puri. It is very clearly said in the first verse which we read that Lord Chaitanya, before the initiation by Ishvara Puri, before his Gaya Gamuna Lila, before meeting with Ishvara Puri and taking mantra from him, he was full of ecstatic love of God of course some people including his mother thought that it's some sort of craziness and his mother was applying some special oil on his head some Shiva Tila to bring him back into normalcy because sometimes he was displaying some very unusual kind of behavior. But even though he was displaying this completely ecstatic behavior, he was not able, of course he was able, he is always God, but in his Lila, he is showing us the process, the proper way of doing things. He was not able to inflict or infect, let us say, using the pandemic language, infect anyone else by love of God. It's a special kind of infectious disease which is transferable from one person to another person. And Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself advented to this world just for this purpose. to show what is love of God, how beautiful it is, how powerful it is, how enjoyable it is, how joyful it is. And then to start this pandemic of Krishna Prema. This pandemic of Krishna consciousness, there is nothing new about pandemic. Originally it was started by Shichai Tanya Mahaprabhu himself and he wants this pandemic to spread all over the world, but he shows the proper way of infecting other people or transmitting this craziness into the heart of other people. So he himself was displaying these beautiful symptoms of love of God. And of course sometimes it was very unusual, you know, because sometimes he was beating his wife Vishnu Priya on the pretext of being crazy. But in general, as Vrindavan Das Thakur explains in Chaitanya Bhagavata, where this pastime is described in great details, And the Lord lived a very ideal life of a Brahmana. He was teaching his students. He was earning money by teaching students, by getting the free donations for his teaching. And he was displaying the ideal behavior of a Brahmana. And every now and then he would manifest ecstatic symptoms. But again, the point which I want to make is that, you know, to achieve love of God, there is a path. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came himself, and even though he was sometimes displaying this completely spontaneous and unbelievable symptoms of love of God, he nevertheless showed us the systematic way how to attain it. that was his purpose his coming as the teacher of love of God in Kali Yuga to explain that love of God is a systematic process you have to follow certain pattern to achieve love of God as an inevitable result of this process even though love of God it cannot be completely placed into some you know, boundaries of certain process, nevertheless there is a scientific process. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in this Gaya Gamana Lila explains where should we start, what is the starting point. Where is the starting point of this beautiful journey which will ultimately bring us to the lotus feet of Krishna full of love. Not in the condition of moksha. You know, people, they are seeking for moksha and they say, you know, moksha means that ultimately come to God. But ultimately, we want, we do not want just to come to God. You know, it's not a big deal to come to God. You will come to God, you will look at Him and you will say, yes, bye-bye, I will go to take prasadam. You know. Coming to God is not a big deal. Getting liberation, getting some kind of moksha, living in one planet with God or whatever, is not a big deal. It's not such a big achievement. Chaitanya Mahabrabhu came and he said, if you want to come to God, come to God with something which you can offer to Him. Not just formal, you know, haribo. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya You have my business, I have my business. No, coming to God means I come to God and I want to offer my heart to Him. So how to do this? This is a beautiful journey. How to come to God with heart full of love? How to gradually fill up our empty heart with love by following this process? Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu shows himself. And Vrindavan Das Thakur, he is very emphatic. This is the last chapter of Yezadi Lila, because Madhya Lila of Chaitanya Bhagavata is completely devoted to the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sankirtan movement, when he started Sankirtan movement. But the last chapter is Gaya Gamana Lila. So before Sankirtan movement, before Lord Chaitanya ventured this Sankirtan movement by coming out from the house of Sri Vaspandit and on the streets of Navadvip and distributing love of God, he himself went to Gaia. But before that, Vrindavan Das Thakur makes a very important point. he says that the Lord was leading ideal life of a Brahmana. He was leading an ideal life of a member of Varnashama society. He was very pure in his life. He was following all the rules and regulations of Smriti Shastra. And Vrindavan Das Thakur, he says that the purpose of this is dual. the first purpose of showing this that this is the starting point of our journey towards love of God is to show that pure life within Varnashem is very much necessary because it prepares the heart to receive the love the Lord is ready to give the love but not anyone can receive the love if the heart is contaminated if the heart is dirty we will not be able to appreciate love We may even feel sometimes love, but because the heart is dirty, we will think that, you know, no, this is some, you know, some sentiment which I have. Let me do something more practical. So he says the first purpose of the Lord leading the ideal life of the member of Varnashama, Brahmana in this case, the very highly placed Brahmana in his case is to show that this is a necessary preliminary step towards love of God. But the secondary, the second purpose of his leading this life is to show that ultimately it's futile. It's important and futile at the same time. It's important because it prepares us to spiritual life. It's not spiritual life itself. Sometimes people think that living Varnashama life, living, you know, being Brahman or being this or that, it's already spiritual life. It's not spiritual life. It's a regulated, beautifully regulated material life. It's purposeful material life. But its purpose is to come to spirituality. and if this life however pure however good and correct and however sincere doesn't lead you to spirituality it's completely useless useless Varnashrama useless Sanatana Dharma because ultimately if the highest Dharma is Pramadharma if this notion doesn't come to you if you don't really understand it, then everything what you do is useless. And in this Gaia Gamma Nalila, the Lord shows this gradual process of coming or this spiritual awakening. When we really understand that, you know, the purpose of life is not to lead very pure life according to rules and regulations of Farnashima. The purpose of life is not to be happy. You know, when you live a very pure life, you become naturally happy. You're loving yourself. And because you're so loving, you're attracted. You know, so many other people are attracted to you. And the exchange of love makes you happy. But this is not the ultimate purpose of life. You may be very happy living this life, pure life in Varnashrama society, but still, deep down in your heart, you will be not satisfied. and different rituals of Varnashrama have a very specific purpose ultimately all the rituals which are recommended in Varnashrama the purpose of them is to bring you to the meeting with the devotee and therefore the whole beginning of this lily is that Lord Chaitanya goes to Gaia to perform Shrada ceremony. And that's a completely Rajasic ceremony according to Varnashama system. It's not a very highly, you know, placed thing, but the Lord uses this pretext of going to Gaia to perform Shrada to show that no matter how you meet with the devotee, the most important you meet with the devotee. Whatever pretext is. It may be because you want to perform some ceremony for your deceased parents and going to Gaia or whatever it is. It doesn't matter. The point is that you have to do all these rituals, but the essence of these rituals, the purpose of all these rituals is ultimately bring you closer to devotee. So, this is a beautiful pastime. The Lord has many disciples and these disciples are very enthusiastic disciples, very devoted to his master, to his guru. And he goes with this whole entourage of his disciples to God. And he is displaying the natural tendency of a guru to be little proud. I mean, little or not little. But the natural tendency, if you have followers, is to become proud. Isn't it? You know, people, there are so much after this, gaining more and more followers because it gives them some prestige and some understanding how important I am. Look, I am the leader. And everyone else is my follower. And look how many of them are there. Very impressive crowd. All my followers. So he goes, he performs this ritual of going to Gaia with many of his disciples. and enjoying sort of this position. And in the middle of this journey, which Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport of the last verse, when he reaches Mandara Mountain, and he goes to this Mandara Mountain and visiting the temple of Madhusudan, he all of a sudden falls sick. COVID. Corona. Really sick. Much more sick than an average person from Corona. High fever. Really, really, really high fever. And his disciples are worried. Totally, completely worried. They don't know the reason why all of a sudden he's so sick. And why all of a sudden the fever is so high. and they're trying to bring any remedies but nothing works. The fever becoming higher and higher and higher. And actually this whole disease is symbolic. The Lord by displaying this lila of getting sick on the way he's showing us that actually the pride is the disease. And the pride is the disease of fever. when we become proud we become feverish and the fever increases and increases and increases because pride is never satisfied pride always wants to increase we always want to increase our causes for pride and there is no remedy for this normal remedy don't work the only remedy from the disease of pride from this high fever of pride is humility. So his disciples are trying to cure him, treating him as the guru, as the master and everything else. But then he himself says, I think there is only one remedy. There is only one medicine which can cure me from this high fever. if you bring me the water which washed the feet of a pure brahmana he specifically says pure brahmana not just anyone who is driving riksa and you know proud of his brahminical jangma so and again as I said there is a very, whatever the Lord performs in His lila, in His life, He is doing it for a purpose. So Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that you may lead a very pure life of Farnashama follower, but then the problem of this will remain because, you know, the life of a follower of Farnashama will make you proud. You know, Brahmanas are proud, Kshatriyas are very proud, Vaisyas are extremely proud, and Shudras are very arrogant. You know, when you perform your Dharma, when you do all the rituals, the tendency is there. You become very proud. I am so pure. I am so good. I perform my duties so perfectly. Look at me. So this pride is there. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he shows this. And he says, this pride is the fever. That's the disease which we all have. And the cure of this disease is humility. And humility, what humility does, please listen very carefully because it's very important. Humility opens our heart. The pride closes our heart. When we are proud, we physically can feel how our heart is closed and we look down at everyone else. We are not really receptive to accept something higher. Because there is nothing higher. We are the highest. The highest achievement is already there. Look, I am so pure. I am so good. You know, but humility makes our heart soft. And the soft heart is the receptive heart. The proud heart is the heart which rejects anything higher. The proud heart is the heart which does not allow us to go further in our journey. If we want to know the truth, we have to be ready to admit our ignorance. And it means to become humble. And brahmanas, who are brahmanas, who are pure brahmanas, pure brahmanas are those people who know the truth. Only those, why they are called brahmanas, because they are supposed to know brahman. Because they are supposed to know the greatest of all, So the water which washed the feet of a Brahmana is the symbol of this thirst which is there among our material life, the thirst to receive the higher truth. If this thirst is not there, and subsequent humility, if the subsequent humility doesn't come to our heart, It means we're not ready to start our spiritual life. Spiritual life means I am not satisfied with whatever is there. I need to know more and for that, and because I need to know more, it means that I'm ignorant. And because I'm ignorant, I have to become humble in front of those who have this higher knowledge. This is a very important first step. Of course, the first step, the preliminary step. The preliminary step is to lead very nice and pure life according to Dharma Shastra. It's important. There's no doubt about it. But then, this pure life of Dharma Shastra, of good person, good sattvic person, will have to awaken the thirst for higher knowledge. And with this thirst for higher knowledge, the humility also comes into your heart. So it's very interesting. The Lord says, please bring me the water from the lotus feet of a Brahmana, of a pure Brahmana. And it definitely reminds us the past time when Lord Krishna also became sick in Vrindavan. and Narda Muni became very worried. Lord Disney had terrible headache and he was suffering from this headache and Narda Muni said, what can cure you, my dear Lord? He said, the dust from the lotus feet of my devotees can only cure my headache. And of course we know that nobody wanted to give the dust from me. They are lotus feet to the Lord. And when Narada Muni came to gopis, the gopis said, you know, all our dust is yours. No problem. We will scrape a lot of dust. Let us go to hell. Let us, Krishna, be happy. No problem. We are not caring about us. So here, by more or less reenacting this pastime, also Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is teaching us. He is teaching us that humility means to accept somebody who is pure, who is a devotee, who is pure devotee, as higher than you. To understand the power of devotion. So, he is displaying this pastime to teach us that this is the starting point of real spiritual life. Humility is the starting point when we appreciate the power of devotion and power of knowledge, because devotion means knowledge, definitely. So, the Lord comes, Vrindavan Das Thakur explains that after this pastime, when this pastime is over, miraculously he is cured you know for many days he was sick with this very high fever dangerously high fever and then he drinks the water and he says oh I am ok let's go so miraculously he is cured from this disease and he goes to Gaia and he reaches Gaia and in the outskirts of Gaia he first takes the Snan in Brahmacund and makes ablations to his forefathers. And then it's very interesting. He comes to Gaia and he comes to Chakravena, the place where the lotus feet of the Lord are imprinted. When the Lord stepped down on the head of Gaia Sura and the imprint imprinted his lotus feet there. And he first, what he sees, what is the first impression, after being humble, he first sees the grandeur of the worship of the Lord. He's very much impressed by this. The Brahmanas are chanting mantras and the Brahmanas are applying sandalwood paste on the lotus feet of the Lord and the Brahmanas are offering the garlands of the flowers to the lotus feet of the Lord and everyone is this very beautiful, joyful atmosphere which is there when we perform real Vedic rituals. You know, Vedic rituals are beautiful. The chanting mantras are so majestic. And all these beautiful rituals, you know, offering some flowers, some sandalwood paste and everyone becomes joyful. So the Lord, because his heart is opened, you know, his heart is opened during this humiliating pastime of drinking Charanamrita from the lotus feet of Brahmana. His heart is opened and then he takes, what he takes? He takes the emotional content of this Vedic ritual. You know, sometimes we sit in this Vedic ritual, especially these yagyas which are performed by, you know, not very qualified ISKCON Brahman. Sorry. Because in ISKCON we are not very good in all these yagyas. We are only good in one yagya. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama. Everything else is just for pro forma sake. Anyway, so, you know, sometimes we are present in these rituals and we don't understand the essence of these rituals. We are only performing some mechanics of these rituals. We are performing some external mechanics of the ritual, whereas the essence of the ritual is to impress upon us how great is God. To impress upon us, to give us this emotion of grandeur and beauty of God. you know this is the emotional content of the ritual and if the ritual is performed properly you you will become impressed there will be very deep samskara how beautiful it is how beautiful is the lord you know it's amazing he left his uh imprint of his lotus feet and you know for thousands and thousands of years non-stop the brahmanas constantly chant his glories uh being at his lotus feet and serving his lotus feet by all these ingredients of offering fruits and offering flowers and offering sandalwood paste. In one sense, you know, Vedic ritual is very natural. It's very simple. You know, you offer just some fruits, you know, like today somebody came to me and brought me some fruits from Shalagram Shila, you know, take these fruits from Shalagram Shila. It's very natural, you know, some fruits, you know, the Lord doesn't ask you to, you know, like, yesterday Rabbi Kirti showed me this Nityananda Baba who is sitting on the golden throne and is all clad in gold and everything else. The Lord doesn't say, you know, worship me with gold. He says, patram pushpam palam tayom, you know, just one fruit, one leaf, something like this. But if you do it properly, then you understand the grandeur of God. He's so great and he's accepting my offering and I feel he's accepting my offering. And, you know, of course the mantras of the Vedas they give you this understanding of this. And, you know, the Brahmanas, the Lord Chaitanya is there. he's visiting this place where the imprint, the footprint of the lotus feet of the Lord is there. And the Brahmanas are chanting and glorifying the lotus feet of the Lord. The Brahmanas are saying, she Lakshmi holds this lotus feet of the Lord as the most dear to her life. The goddess of fortune who is, you know, the goddess of all the opulences. The goddess of everyone is seeking the favor of goddess Lakshmi and she's humbly worshipping this lotus feet. And Lord Shiva, he brings this lotus feet and closes them to his bosom. You know, he just, you know, takes them and worships them. And Bali enjoys them when the Lord puts Bali Maharaja the powerful Maharaja enjoys them when the Lord puts them to His head. So these Brahmanas, they are glorifying again and again and again the lotus feet, the power of the lotus feet of the Lord. How precious it is. And the same Lord, He came and He left this lotus feet to us. We have the same opportunity as Lakshmi Devi, have the same opportunity as Lord Shiva, have the same opportunity as Lord Brahma who took the water from which washed the lotus feet of the Lord and his Kamandalo and this water became Ganga. So the Brahmanas, they're glorifying again and again and again the power, the purifying power of the lotus feet of the Lord. And Lord Chaitanya sees how sincerely they worship this lotus feet of the Lord. and he is overwhelmed and this is for the first time Brindavan Das Thakur says for the first time the ecstatic symptoms come to him how come for the first time before that he was already you know crazy Nima he was already doing some crazy things teaching grammar in a very crazy way you know everything is the Lord nothing else is there no because it's bona fide because he shows systematically what is the step by step by step. You know, you open your heart by humility. You go to a holy place. You meet with some transcendental manifestation of the Lord in the holy place. In this particular holy place of Gaia, this is the Vishnu part, the feet of the Lord. And then you see how others glorify the Lord and then you feel the emotion. the emotions which they feel which are actually stored in the holy places being reflected in your pure heart or receptive heart so that's what happened that's what's supposed to happen with us when we go to pilgrimage when we go to Rindavan, when we go to Mayapur when we go to Gaia any other place, when we go to different Tirtas Of course, we have to understand that the purpose of going there is to receive the glimpse of the love towards the Lord, which is stored in this particular place. I was in Udipino, and I met some very young devotee. Maybe he's present here, I don't know. he didn't he didn't know but he started telling me that he's aspiring for Lokanatmaraj and he takes initiation and this and that and he says I'll go to Yatra I said where are you going to Yatra he said I will go to one I don't remember the place he said it's a very beautiful Shiva temple and there Nandi is growing the stone is growing and growing I will go there you know the purpose of Yatra is not to go to some place where some miracle takes place it's okay if you need miracles no problem go there, strengthen your face by miracles, but actually the purpose of Yatra is not this the purpose of Yatra is to receive the glimpses of love which are there. Those people who worship the lotus feet of the Lord in these places, their worship, their emotions, they are stored there. They are in the ether of these places. They saturate these places and we go there and gratefully receive this gift of spiritual emotions there. And Lord Chaitanya shows, and therefore Vrindavan Das Thakur says, for the first time he experiences the real spiritual emotions. Because for the first time he opens his heart in his lilo, of course, and for the first time he shows this is what it is. I go there. I go there as a humble pilgrim. And as a humble pilgrim, I try to respect everyone who is there and receive what they have in their heart. And the Lord Chaitanya, you know, all of a sudden, all the hairs in his body stood on end. And the tears started flowing like Ganga River. And all the Brahmanas, they look at him and say, who is that? He's so beautiful. He's crying and crying and crying. And, you know, they look at him and they also start crying. So this is how it is. he becomes very impressed by the lotus feet of the Lord and he says this is my goal he has this first experience in the sense that experience which will become the goal of his life because before that what was the goal of his life he was displaying his pandit lila his vyakarana lila he was teaching vyakarana and showing other people so his goal of life was to know the Vedic knowledge for the first time he shows the goal of life is the lotus feet of the Lord I want to achieve the lotus feet of the Lord because just being present next to them I feel so blissful I feel so immensely blissful and at this very moment please listen very carefully because this is the description the important description of the dynamic of spiritual life in this very moment when he is crying at the lotus feet of the Lord in Gaia at this very moment Ishvara Puri shows up at the same place Krishna brings Ishvara Puri at this very moment when the Lord needs him the most and the Lord looks at Ishvara Puri And of course he knows Isvara Puri. He met with Isvara Puri before in Navadvip. Isvara Puri spent almost one month in Navadvip. Couple of weeks at least in Navadvip. Staying in the house of Nandanacharya. And he had some interaction and he took some prasadam at Lord Chaitanya's home. And Lord Chaitanya, by biding farewell to him, he said, sometime in the future I will meet with you again. So at this moment of time, when he's so overwhelmed with this spirituality, with the flow of spiritual emotions which are coming to him from this chanting of the Vedic Gims, of the Brahmanas, and from this worship, from these Vedic rituals, At this very moment, Ishwarapuri comes to this place and Lord Chaitanya looks at him and he says, now I understand everything. Now I understand why did I come here. I came here not to perform Shrada ceremony, which I thought I'm coming for this. I came here not even to see the lotus feet of the Lord. The real purpose of my coming here is to see you. Because where your lotus feet is there, then the lotus feet of the Lord is there. You know, Tirtha Kurvanti Tirthani, he chants this verse from first kent of Simad Bhagavatam where Yudhisthira Maharaj says that, you know, whenever pure devotee is there, then the Lord is there. The Lord is where the pure devotee is. And why I said it's so important to see these coincidences, of course we know there's no coincidences. Even in our life there is no coincidence. Everything has some purpose. Everything has some purpose to teach us. Moreover, there's no coincidence in the Lord's life. So the teaching here is very important. when when the sincere desire to worship the Lord through the encounter with some manifestation of the Lord which are there in this world when this desire even if it's a glimpse of sincere desire, a little spark of sincere desire when this sincere desire comes to your heart then the Lord arranges your meeting with your spiritual master he sends you the spiritual master through which you can solidify this desire you know but the desire should come first the sincere desire that you know I'm not satisfied with whatever offering this world can give to me I can only be satisfied if I have some transcendent truth, some higher truth, some spiritual truth, some spiritual experience. And at the same time, some spiritual experience is coming. You know, I remember, it's very interesting in my life, in my not very, you know, exemplary life, it's also like this, you know, I remember very much when I was utterly frustrated. I was doing as Suvarnagorohar said, molecular biology. I only remember about this when somebody introduces me. I already forget it long ago. So I was doing this, I was more or less, I mean, it was reenactment of the, you know, early lila of Nimai Pandit when he was displaying his scholarly lila, I was displaying my pastime lila, of my scientific lila, you know. I was trying to find the truth by studying science, but I was so utterly frustrated because at one point I understood very clearly that the study of science will not reveal the truth to me. I just understand it's a scam. It's a big scam. Everyone is trying to, you know, to pause or to pretend that this is the way to know the truth. No, they don't know the truth. You know. Recently I listened to some scientific lecture and the scientist said that the beauty of the science is that all the mistakes of the science are very practical. Or something like this. He said something really ridiculous. you know you know at that point of my life I didn't I didn't feel that this is the way to know the truth and we all know instinctively deep in the heart we know I'm born to know the truth I have to know the truth I have to know the higher truth and in the pursuit of this in the wrong pursuit of this higher truth I may go this little or that little I may study Sanskrit or I may study molecular biology, but it's all wrong. The real thing is that to understand that I should know the higher truth and the higher truth can only be revealed to myself. I cannot, by my own endeavors, I cannot find the higher truth. And this is exactly what happened when Lord Chaitanya found himself in front of this imprints of, in front of Vishnupada in Gaia, in front of the imprint of Vishnu's lotus feet, he felt the Lord revealed himself. And at this very moment, the desire to serve the lotus feet appeared in his heart. As Vrindavan Das Thakur says, at this very moment, the desire to serve his own lotus feet appeared in the heart of the Lord. To show us that he's the Lord himself. He is enacting this pastime for us. For us to understand what is necessary to proceed in this spiritual journey. And he shows that this desire to worship the lotus feet of the Lord and to experience this spiritual experience which is accompanied by the worshiping lotus feet of the Lord appeared in the heart of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And at this very moment Ishwara Puri came and the puzzle became all of a sudden solved. Lord Chaitanya understood everything. Of course he knew everything from the beginning but in his pastime he said, now I understand everything. Now I understand why I met you before but didn't appreciate you before so much. Didn't really, I was not ready to surrender to your lotus feet. Yes, I saw you, yeah nice, nice, nice, very nice, nice sadhu, Hare Krishna. No problem, come to my home, I will feed you with some prasad. Not yet ready, but this process of opening the hearts through humility, through going to a holy place, through having some sort of spiritual experience, and then the spark of desire to serve. Then only the spiritual master comes. Because the purpose of spiritual master is to receive your service, is to ignite and to fan the spark of desire to serve. By giving you the opportunity to serve, by giving you the mission to serve, by giving you the, you know, the, yeah, by giving you all the facilities to serve. So, you know, like we build this beautiful temple, what it is? It's just, you know, for us the opportunity to serve. The Lord doesn't need this temple, you know, he has so many temples. You know, in every village in India, you have five temples. why do we need one more? Just because we need to serve. We need to serve the way we can serve the Lord. And Isverapuri comes there and the Lord becomes overwhelmed and he says, now I know why I'm here in Gaia. Because you're here and because I want to meet with you. So he goes, to Ishvara Puri and he speaks with Ishvara Puri and he enjoys some rasa. And actually Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Takur Prabhupada who is commenting on these verses of Chaitanya Bhagavata, he says that you know unless one is fed up with viṣṭa viṣṭa yāraṣa viṣṭa means stu Vishaya means sense enjoyment and rasa means rasa, the taste. He says, unless one is fed up with this vishta-vishaya rasa, the beautiful taste of the stool, of material enjoyment, he is not ready to receive the taste for spiritual rasa. To appreciate spiritual rasa, to understand what is spiritual rasa, and how valuable it is, you have to first turn away from this material rasa and material enjoyments. And actually the pilgrimage, going to the holy place is a very good way to get out from the vicious circle of your normal life, so to speak. when you go in the morning you know, take your car and go in the morning for two hours in the traffic of Bangalore to your office and then spend, you know eight hours in the office and go two hours back so for that, pilgrimage is there to take you out from this vicious circle of your so-called normal life and give you some spiritual experience and if you appreciate this spiritual experience If the real appreciation of spiritual experience is there, then the spiritual master comes to you and says, you're ready. And Chaitanya Mahabrabhu meets with Ishwarapuri and he's becoming convinced. And then, you know, next day, the very next day, Lord Chaitanya is still there in Gaia. The very next day, Ishwarapuri himself comes to the dwelling of Lord Chaitanya. And he comes to the dwelling of Lord Chaitanya when Lord Chaitanya is cooking prasada for himself. He started cooking some rice and some sabjit for himself. I don't know how he did it, but, you know, he was doing this. And at this very moment, you know, Isvara Puri knocks at the door. And says, may I come in? And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, yes, this is the most beautiful moment. I just cooked prasadam, please take the prasadam. And he said, Isvira Puri says, if I take the prasadam now, what will you eat? And he said, no problem, I will cook myself again. And Isvira Puri said, no, no, no need to cook again. You know, you share it, you know, half by half. You cooked enough, give me half and leave half for you. Ishwara Puri actually is making a test. He is testing Lord Chaitanya. You know, you said you want to serve. Okay, let's see. You know, you're hungry. You're ready to take your meal. Let's see how you behave. He comes to you and he tests your sincerity. How sincere you are to serve. And Lord Chaitanya says, no, no, no, no. no need, I will cook myself, no problem, I will cook again Prasadam, please take everything which is there. And this Svirapuri, he eats everything till the single grain of rice. Nothing left. And of course, Lord Chaitanya puts the sandalwood paste on his forehead and garland and serves his lotus feet. and he passes the test. He gives everything which is there with him, to him. And then Vrindavan Das Thakur, very interestingly, he says that at this moment, while Lord Chaitanya was worshipping Ishwarapuri by applying sandalwood paste on his forehead and worshipping his lotus feet, at this moment Ramadevi, Lakshmidevi herself, cooked prasadam for the Lord. So he didn't miss much. Rama herself, she cooked prasadam and the Lord took and partook the prasadam which was cooked in the meantime. But he showed that he is sincere. I am ready to serve. I am there to serve. I am not for myself. I am not cooking for myself. I am going for my spiritual master. So next day, the Lord Chaitanya himself goes to Ishwara Puri and he says, please give me Diksha Mantra. And it's very interesting also one more little detail, which is also very significant. When the Ishwara Puri himself first come to him to test him and to taste prasadam cooked by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself, he enters his door. and while entering the door he's little drunk with love of God he's not completely normal his head is reeling his ecstatic emotions are there overwhelming his heart and he's chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram It's very interesting. Because first Ishvara Puri gave him first initiation. Initiating him into this Hare Krishna mantra. And he himself came to the Lord by chanting the names of the Lord and showing how beautiful it is. He himself comes. So when it comes to you know to the first initiation then you know the initiative may be with the spiritual master he comes to his disciple and he says come on, come on, let's take this holy name of the Lord but then Lord Chaitanya himself, the very next evening he goes to Ishwarapuri he bows down to his lotus feet and he says please give me Diksha Mantra. Please give me your mercy in the form of Diksha Mantra. Because what is Diksha Mantra? Diksha Mantra is the mercy given to the disciple. Anugraha. It is explained by Shilajiva Goswami in Bhaktisandarva that the Diksha Mantra is nothing but Anugraha. The concentrated form of the mercy of the Lord given to the disciples through the lips of the spiritual master. So he asks for the initiation and Isvarapuri says, do you have recommendation from your temple president? No, he doesn't say it. He says, no problem, I'll give you initiation. I'll give you mantra, please listen very carefully to this mantra and he gives this ten-syllable mantra which is a mantra about Krishna and Vrindavan and his relationship with Gopis. He gives this ten-syllable mantra to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and again very significant point in the whole description I should finish now, right? So, in the next couple of days, one or two days, Lord Chitanya is still there in Gaia. And he sits down and he starts chanting his Gayatri Mantra. and he chants his Gayatri Mantra silently as it is supposed to be in his Dhyan, in his deep meditation he is meditating on Gopijana Valabha on the beautiful form of the Lord as Gopinath as the master of the Gopis and total, complete it is actually said that even before that Vrindavan Das Takur said that when in Gaia after meeting with Ishwara Puri and receiving some mercy from Ishwara Puri, different sort of feelings overwhelmed Lord's heart. Sometimes he would feel Vatsalya Ras towards the Lord. Sometimes he would feel very acute Dasya Ras and he wanted to serve the Lord. Sometimes he would feel Sakya Ras. Sometimes he would feel Madhuri Rasa. Different Rasas were reflecting, not a single Rasa. Different Rasas were reflecting in his pure heart because his heart was already pure and was capable, restored the ability to reflect the transcendental emotions. But then when he sits down and repeats the mantra, repeats this ten-syllable mantra given to him by Ishwara Puri. That cute sense of separation overwhelms him. Where is my Lord? Where is my Lord? Where is my Lord? He is so beautiful. He so beautifully graces His devotees. He is performing his eternal pastimes in Vrindavan by dancing rasa dance with the gopis. And here I am. What am I doing here? What am I doing here in this place? What am I doing here? deprived of his association. I need to go to him because separation means the impetus to meet. Separation means if you are overwhelmed with this vipralamba, it means that you desire the meeting. Vipralamba nourishes your desire to meet and he is overwhelmed. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada while commenting on this pastime he says, this is the mood which Lord Chaitanya brought to us to experience. We have to learn how to experience Vipralamba Ras or Vipralamba mood. The feeling of separation with the Lord. And this is why the mantra is given to us. We have to try to experience this mood of separation. what am I doing here? I still didn't see Krishna. So many years after I still didn't see Krishna I still didn't have Darshan. I remember once I went many times I went to different astrologers very highly qualified astrologers and they all said you will have Darshan of Krishna. Still I didn't have Darshan of Krishna. Recently somebody else said when you are 80 years old you will have Darshan of Krishna. So some hope is still there. It's gradually vanishing. But the point is that, you know, the desire to meet with Krishna has to achieve certain peak, certain level of intensity. The Lord is not so cheap. He is not coming to you just by your demand. Oh yeah, let me see. you. Okay, nice, no problem. You know, it doesn't work like this. You know, the desire has to be so acute, so much so that the tears on your eyes will flow. Oh my Lord, I want to see you. Oh my Lord, what am I doing here? My heart is empty because of this separation with you. And, you know, totally overwhelmed by this feeling of separation Lord Chaitanya says I'm going to Madhura that's it enough for this Gaya Lila and other Lilas now there is only one Lila only Vrindavan Lila no other Lilas and he's crying and crying and crying his disciples are coming to him and they say you know Master Guru Maharaj we have to go back to Navadvip. He says, I'm not going to Navadvip. I'm not going back to my family. I'm not going back to the samsara. My only goal in life is Madhura. And he starts crying. And disciples, they try to console him and say, you know, no problem. You know, you will, no problem. When the next vacation is there, you will go to Vrindava. Now do your duty. he said no forget it no job anymore no duties anymore my heart is there in Vrindavan and he says you go back to Navadvip I'm not going I'm going to Madhura my way is different I'm going to Madhura and early in the morning without saying a word to anyone he starts to Madhura while chanting the holy name of the Lord Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And he travels for some distance, but all of a sudden he hears the voice from the sky. And the demigods say, you know, it's not time for you to go to Madhura. The time will come when you will go to Madhura, no problem. But now, do your duty. Now, go back to Bangalore and distribute books. Literally, that's what they said to Lord Chaitanya. They said, you came to propagate this movement of love of God. You came to start this Sankirtan movement. Didn't you remember it? Why are you doing this? Now you will go to Madhura and you will drown yourself in Yamuna and you will never fulfill the mission for which you came to this material world. You came to this material world to overwhelm, to overflood all this material world with love of Godhead, go to Navadvip and start your Sankirtan movement. We are your humble servants. The demigods from the sky, they say, we are your humble servants. Maybe not so humble at this moment of time Because we want to remind you what is the real purpose of your advent to this earth. Your real purpose is to bring this beautiful Sankirtan movement to the earth so that everyone would start chanting, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. And Lord Chaitanya of course being obedient to this Akashvani ethereal voice, he turns back and he goes to Navadvip with his disciples, but he is a different person now. Before that he was great scholar Nimai, the pride of Navadvip, And now he is Babu Knimai. He is completely transformed. He is humble. He is feeling separation with the Lord. And he is ready to serve everyone whom he meets. And this complete transformation, miraculous transformation, impresses everyone. And by this miraculous transformation, Lord Chitani actually teaches us what does it mean to preach to preach means to experience oneself these different moods of spiritual love, to understand the depths of these experiences and try to transmit the depths of this experience to the hearts of other people because this is the only way to correct or to improve or to purify the polluted hearts of the people of Kali Yuga. Little town of Navadvip which is described elaborately by Vrindavan Dastakur in the beginning of Chaitanya Bhagavata is a sample is a model of the whole Kali Yuga society. And nobody was impressed by Advaitacharya in Navadvip. although he was so learned you know they were respectful to him but nobody was impressed by him Advaita Acharya is the powerful incarnation of the Lord he couldn't preach Krishna consciousness Chaitanya Mahabrabhu himself came he couldn't do anything unless he took initiation from Ishvara Puri was overwhelmed by this feeling of separation with the Lord and came back as Babu Knimai as Nimai who is experiencing above, experiencing love of God at every moment of his life. And then his pastime of preaching and spreading this Sankirtan movement starts. And we are all beautiful fruits of this pastime. We all result of his emotions which are still raging in his heart and we are receiving these raging emotions and in this way getting the purpose in our life. So, thank you very much, Hare Krishna. Thank you. Thank you so much for your nice advice. Vipralamba brought Vipralamba bath to us. And the spiritual experience starts with Vipralamba. And Vipralamba makes our desire to meet with the Lord very strong and very pure. And then only we can hope to have some other experiences. But Vipralamba bath is the bath which he brought. And which we are supposed also to experience. And it's easy in one sense because when we understand who is the Lord and where I am. Where is the Lord and where I am? And what is the difference? What is the gulf of difference between him and myself and my fallen condition? Then, you know, we may experience some tears. It may not be pure tears of love of God, but it may be the tears of pity towards ourselves. Still it's good. Still, these tears have some spiritual origin.