20240302 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.1. The beginning

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Śrī Caitanya-Śikṣāmṛta

The Nectar of the teachings of Śrī Caitanya

Today’s chapter is: First Shower — General description of determining the religion of highest goal.

First Stream — the beginning.

Respectful obeisances unto Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

Identity of Kṛṣṇa’s adobe —

Notes:

tasmād arthāś ca kāmāś ca
dharmāś ca yad-apāśrayāḥ
bhajatānīhayātmānam
anīhaṁ harim īśvaram

nālaṁ dvijatvaṁ devatvam
ṛṣitvaṁ vāsurātmajāḥ
prīṇanāya mukundasya
na vṛttaṁ na bahu-jñatā

na dānaṁ na tapo nejyā
na śaucaṁ na vratānica
prīyate’malayā bhaktyā
harir anyad viḍambanam

tato harau bhagavati
bhaktiṁ kuruta dānavāḥ
ātmaupamyena sarvatra
sarva-bhūtātmanīśvare

The four principles of advancement in spiritual life — dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa — all depend on the disposition of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, my dear friends, follow in the footsteps of devotees. Without desire, fully depend upon the disposition of the Supreme Lord, worship Him, the Supersoul, in devotional service. My dear friends, O sons of the demons, you cannot please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by becoming perfect brāhmaṇas, demigods or great saints or by becoming perfectly good in etiquette or vast learning. None of these qualifications can awaken the pleasure of the Lord. Nor by charity, austerity, sacrifice, cleanliness or vows can one satisfy the Lord. The Lord is pleased only if one has unflinching, unalloyed devotion to Him. Without sincere devotional service, everything is simply a show. My dear friends, O sons of the demons, in the same favorable way that one sees himself and takes care of himself, take to devotional service to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present everywhere as the Supersoul of all living entities.

Jayapatākā Swami: So all good things that people consider are dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. Charity, austerity, sacrifice and cleanliness, vows. But you have to have unflinching desire to please the Lord. If one has little desire to please themselves then Kṛṣṇa will not be pleased. But actually, in the class this morning, it was mentioned there are two types of living entities – one wants their own pleasure, and the other wants the pleasure of the Lord. But those who want their own pleasure, they are in nitya-baddhas and those who want the Lord’s pleasure they are nitya-muktas. So Kṛṣṇa gives people freedom to either serve Him or serve their senses. Why people want to serve their senses is not know. Those who are in the spiritual world, they are very happy to serve the Lord’s spiritual senses. But Kṛṣṇa gives us free will. If you want to experiment, like Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was saying it is not so important to know . . . like he gave an example, say you are on a big ship and you fall off into the water. All around are sharks and dangerous animals. It is not so important to understand how you fell in. It is more important to understand how you can get out. Once you are out, then you can figure it out. So, like you are attacked by sharks, a ship or boat comes to save you, and you tell them before you are on the boat you tell me how did get into the water. Meanwhile the sharks are attacking you. First you should get on the boat and then you think how you fell in. So Kṛṣṇa comes as a boat to get us out of the material ocean. And we want to take shelter of the boat or ship, and then we are on the ship and then we can find out. So here in the paragraph the living entity is advised in this way.

* * *

Everything is sweet and the form of eternal happiness. Fruits, flowers and twigs are the wealth of that place. The wealth of the cows are the citizens. The cowherds are the friends. The gopīs are the consorts. Butter and yogurt are the food products. All the forests and parks are all filled with love of Kṛṣṇa. The River Yamunā attracted in the service Kṛṣṇa. All the energies are maid servants of Kṛṣṇa. The thing which elsewhere receives the worship and respect of all as para-brahma, is the only wealth of the life of that abode, sometimes equal to the worshipper, sometimes known in the form of an inferior.

Kṛṣṇa full of sweetness, without opulence is the object (Viṣaya) of love —

Jayapatākā Swami: So, we heard how Kṛṣṇa and there are different energies of Kṛṣṇa. This explains how these energies are dedicated in giving Kṛṣṇa pleasure. How there is ahiṁsa milk, cow protection. All the cows, they feel protected. Like they see the cowherds as their friends. This way we get some idea of the spiritual world. Then how the spiritual world is sweet?

* * *

If this is not the way, can a tiny living entity love the absolute truth? The absolute truth is full of pastimes, free to act according to His own desires and desirous of the unalloyed pure love of the living entities. Does the Lord by nature, like the human beings desires to be worshiped, or is he satisfied by worship and attains happiness himself? Concealing all of his opulence by sweetness, Kṛṣṇacandra, as the receptacle of the supremely amazing pastime mellows, enjoys Himself in the transcendental Vṛndāvana, accepting equality and inferiority with the living entities qualified for mellow (rasa).

Jayapatākā Swami: We know that Kṛṣṇa, His servants are lower than Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa He is equal to His friends. But He is inferior to His parents. So He tries to serve them. Kṛṣṇa has a special relationship with His conjugal lovers. Sometimes, they are inferior, sometimes they are in friendship. Like sometimes they also protect Him. So that means each rasa contains all the lower rasas. So all the living entities with rasas, they are serving Kṛṣṇa and they want to express their service to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, He possesses unlimited qualities. Sometimes He told the cowherd boys who were attacked by a great fire to close their eyes. I will take care of the fire. So they closed their eyes He swallowed all the fire.

Kṛṣṇa He conceals His opulence by hiding it with His sweetness and He displays amazing pastimes which are also filled with mellows. In Vṛndāvana, sometimes He is equal, sometimes He is inferior with different living entities. So Lord Caitanya expressed His separation from the vraja-vāsīs. This is an amazing feature of the Lord. Somehow, He displays inferiority or equality. Actually no one is greater or equal to Kṛṣṇa, but if He wants to, He can display these qualities. Sometimes, Kṛṣṇa, He was saying He wanted to lift a rock. First, He may act as if the rock is heavier than Him and then He lifts it. So this way it mentions how these are pastimes so the Lord He lifts a rock which is very heavy. With His inconceivable potency He lifts the rock. So He can adjust His potency to appear either this way or that way. So, Kṛṣṇa is enjoying these different pastimes. Just like the father may sometimes take his baby on his back and crawl around. But Kṛṣṇa may do anything, and He enjoys that. The living entity should like to do things that make Kṛṣṇa happy. So we are in this material world because we want our own happiness. But something we try it doesn’t work out, we think of something else. In this way we take birth after birth. But in the spiritual world everyone is absorbed in love of Kṛṣṇa. Haribol!

* * *

It was a very long day. This morning there was the inauguration of the Nṛsiṁha wing preparation and then late morning there was the inauguration of the East Wing of the Nṛsiṁhadeva wing. Did you see that? You all prayed so hard, Nṛsiṁhadeva came there and appeared! Amazing!