Lecture on Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Prabhupāda: There are many sat-saṅga society, but in Europe and America, Western countries, this is the only, and they have very kindly joined us. So to serve them is our first business.

So, we are talking of teachings of Lord Caitanya to Sanātana Gosvāmī. Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was one of the very responsible minister in the [indistinct] government of Bengal. And as minister, he was a learned scholar both in Sanskrit and Arabic. So he resigned his post as minister and wanted to join Lord Caitanya in His saṅkīrtana movement.

He had some difficulties to get out of the responsible position. The Nawab, Hussain Shah, was very much counting upon his assistance. Generally, the Muhammadan kings, they were dependent on Hindu ministers. I have heard that in your this Bombay city, Aga Khan[?], his establishment for management were all Hindu officers. I do not know whether it is a fact. Is it a fact?

Guest: It's a fact.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They know that the Hindus can manage very intelligently. They're not extravagant.

So Sanātana Gosvāmī was favored by Lord Caitanya by instructing him for two months. He created two, three lieutenants for preaching His cult. One of them was Rūpa Gosvāmī, one of them was Sanātana Gosvāmī, the chief of the Gosvāmīs. And He talked with also Rāmānanda Raya, another stalwart.

He was also statesman; he was governor of Madras on behalf of the then king of Orissa, Mahārāja Pratāparudra. He was very powerful king. The Muhammadans, the Pathans, they practically conquered all over India, but they could not enter Orissa. He was very strong king, and in those days Madras was under the Orissa government. So another responsible officer...

[doors bang] [aside:] Stop this. How it is happening? You can close these doors.

So he was another big officer, governor, he also joined Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And these two brothers, Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, they were ministers in the government of Hussain Shah, they also joined. And Raghunātha dasa Gosvāmī, he was also a big zamindar, landlord, so he also joined. And a big scholar, he also from Madras side, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī. And Jīva Gosvāmī, he was also a very big scholar. He happened to be from Bengal.

In this way six Gosvāmīs, they were immediate disciples of Lord Caitanya, and Lord Caitanya's instruction to them..., directly gave instruction to Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rāmānanda Raya. So one of the Gosvāmīs, Sanātana Gosvāmī, the Caitanya Mahāprabhu is instructing at Benares. So his proposition was that "Some people, my neighborhood people or my dependents, government officers, they call me as a learned scholar, paṅḍita."

Of course, it is a system in India that a brāhmaṅa is addressed as a paṅḍita, because he is supposed to become a learned scholar. Brāhmaṅa's business is to study Vedic literatures and teach others also: paṭhan pāṭhan. He must be scholar and he must make others also scholar. Not that he is simply remains a scholar. No. That is bad. Brāhmaṅa is so liberal that he wants to make others also scholar.

Paṭhana pāṭhana, yajana yājana. Yajan means worshiping the Lord, and yājan means helping others. Priest, you know, priestly business. Priest means he helps the householders how to become Kṛṣṅa conscious. Purohita. Purohita means one who does welfare activities for the householders. Purohita.

Yajana yājana, paṭhana pāṭhana, and dāna pratigraha. Brāhmaṅa business is to take charity from his disciples, followers, and again spend it for Kṛṣṅa's service. So these six kinds of business is for the brāhmaṅas, and they are suppose to be very learned, paṅḍitajī. Brāhmaṅa's position is paṅḍita.

So he was called paṅḍita, and he was actually paṅḍita, but he presented himself as a fool, although he was learned. He presented himself, "My dear Lord, people say that I am very learned, but actually I do not know what I am, wherefrom I have come, why I am suffering."

First of all, we do not know that we are suffering in every step. Why we are using this fan? Because we are suffering. Because the excessive heat we cannot tolerate—suffering. Similarly, in the winter season this wind will be another suffering. We have closed the doors tightly so that air may not come. Now the air is counteracting suffering, and in another season the same air will be suffering itself. So the air is the cause of suffering and it is the so-called cause of happiness also. Actually we are simply suffering. That we do not know.

But we get information from Lord Kṛṣṅa that this place is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg 8.15].

[After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.]

It is a place for miseries. You cannot expect any happiness. That is our foolishness. That is our foolishness. We are trying to adjust things to become happy, but we are so foolish that we do not know there cannot be any happiness. This is called ignorance. This is called ignorance.

Therefore Bhāgavata says, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāta [SB 5.5.5]. Abodha-jāta, every one of us born foolish. And we are acting in different ways to become happy, but we do not know that in every step we are being defeated. We are fighting with the stringent laws of nature, struggle, but we are happy by some complacent thoughts that "We have become happy. We are advanced. We are happy. We are becoming educated. We are advanced in science." But Bhāgavata says, "No, you are not advancing; you are simply being defeated, because you do not know how to get happiness. You are not trying for real happiness."

So this ignorance is dissipated by the knowledge of the Vedas. Lord Caitanya therefore has said—that Kṛṣṅa, He will say—that because we are so foolish we have forgotten how to become happy; therefore Kṛṣṅa has made so many Vedic literatures. Ataeva kṛṣṅa veda purāṅa karila [Cc Madhya 20.117].

[Forgetting Kṛṣṅa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.]

So we should take advantage of these Vedas. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says—we have already talked now—He says, sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṅonmukha haya [Cc Madhya 20.120]. This is Bengali—I think you will understand—I will explain in English also.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's proposal is: by the mercy of sādhu, holy man, or saintly person, or devotee... Who is a sādhu? We know this term sādhu. Sādhu means saintly person. But actually there are different kinds of sādhus. Generally people accept a sādhu when he is dressed with the saffron garment, but there are different types of sādhus, mahātmā. Some of them may be jñānīs who wants to merge into the Brahman effulgence.

And another sādhu may be yogīs, those who are trying to—the same ambition—to merge into the Supreme by finding out in the heart. Yoginaḥ, paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. Dhyānāvasthita-manasā, by meditation, meditative mind, dhyānāvasthita-manasā dhiyāṁ paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1].

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

Yoginaḥ, they are trying to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead by meditative mind. That is yogī, and he is also sādhu.

And bhaktas. Just like we have taken the path of devotional service to serve Kṛṣṅa at any cost. We don't think anything greater than the service of the Lord. That is the bhakta's position. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṅānuśīlanam [Cc Madhya 19.167],

[When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṅa favorably, as Kṛṣṅa desires.]

that is bhakti: simply to serve Kṛṣṅa favorably, Kṛṣṅa conscious, always thinking of Kṛṣṅa, how He will be satisfied. Not thinking of Kṛṣṅa how I shall kill Him. That is Kaṁsa's Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Kaṁsa was always thinking of Kṛṣṅa, but his business was to make plan how to kill Kṛṣṅa. Not that sort of Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

Our Kṛṣṅa consciousness is ānukūlyena, favorable, how Kṛṣṅa will be satisfied. Although Kaṁsa's Kṛṣṅa consciousness helped him—he got liberation... Kṛṣṅa consciousness is so nice that if you become Kṛṣṅa conscious unfavorably, still you get the immediate profit, being liberated, for which the jñānīs and yogīs, they are trying hundreds of years. Kṛṣṅa is so nice that if you simply think that "I shall kill Kṛṣṅa, I shall kill Kṛṣṅa..."

There is a story in the Bhaktamarg grantha that one paṅḍita was reciting Bhāgavata, and he was describing Śyāmasundara. Mother Yaśodā was decorating with all jewels very nicely to go with His cowherd boy friends, with the calves and cows, Śyāmasundara, and in the forest of Vṛndāvana. So, one thief was also hearing that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So he thought it wise, "Why not go to Vṛndāvana and get all these ornaments from these boys? [laughter] They are all boys, so either I can kill them or somehow or other cheat them, get these ornaments." So that's a long story; I am short, I'll show it.

So with that spirit he went to Vṛndāvana to find out Śyāmasundara to exploit Him, to take all the ornaments from Him. When he actually went to Vṛndāvana, he was finding out, "Where is Śyāmasundara? Where is Śyāmasundara?" Śyāmasundara came and "Here I am." So, first of all he was [indistinct], "My dear boy, You give me all these ornaments I will give You nice thing." He said, "No, I cannot give you. My mother will be angry. No." [laughter] In this way then he decided that "I shall take forcibly." In this way simply by association of Śyāmasundara he became a devotee. That is the fact.

Dhruva Mahārāja also went to worship Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṅa, to get the kingdom of his father. He was insulted by his stepmother, that "You cannot sit down on the throne, or on the lap of your father, because you are not born from my womb." So he took it very seriously. He went to his mother, "My stepmother insulted me like this." So his mother said, "My dear boy, yes, it is a fact because you are not born from my..." What it is called co-wives?

Devotee: Co-wife.

Prabhupāda: "...in the womb. I'm unfortunate; you are born of my womb. So, so you cannot." Then, "I must have." The boy was very insistent, kṣatriya boy. "Then Kṛṣṅa helps you, then you can. Otherwise how, you cannot." Then he went to search out Kṛṣṅa in the jungle, and he searched out. When he saw Kṛṣṅa he said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce [Cc Madhya 22.42],

[[When he was being blessed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Dhruva Mahārāja said:] ’O my Lord, because I was seeking an opulent material position, I was performing severe types of penance and austerity. Now I have gotten You, who are very difficult for the great demigods, saintly persons and kings to attain. I was searching after a piece of glass, but instead I have found a most valuable jewel. Therefore I am so satisfied that I do not wish to ask any benediction from You.]

"No more I want it. No more I want it." This is the process.

So pure bhakti is without any desire, but even if you are filled up with desires, you go to Kṛṣṅa. Don't go to other demigods.

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa kāma udāra dhīḥ tivreṅa bhakti-yogena yajeta paramam puruṣa [SB 2.3.10]

Even if you have desires, not that anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11],

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

without any material desires... Generally we go to temple, to God, for some..., for fulfilling some material desires. So śāstra says even if you have got material desires, even if you are not śuddha bhakta... What to speak of śuddha bhakta, even if you are an enemy of Kṛṣṅa, some way or other go to Kṛṣṅa. Go to the fire and you'll get warm. That is our propaganda. The Gosvāmīs recommend, therefore, yena tena prakāreṅa manaḥ kṛṣṅe niveśayet: somehow or other you just try to become Kṛṣṅa conscious, then everything will be successful. That is our propaganda.

Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, sādhu śāstra kṛpāya. A sādhu means devotee. That I was going to explain. A sādhu, there are different kinds of sādhus, but only the devotee, he is sādhu. It is explained by Kṛṣṅa Himself: api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ [Bg 9.30].

[Even if one commits the most abominable actions, if he is engaged in devotional service, he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated.]

He is sādhu.

Even if you find some defects in him due to his former habits, but he is simply engaged in Kṛṣṅa's service, unflinching devotion, he is sādhu. He is sādhu—in spite of some defects. We must admit, even in fire there are some defects. Fire is so pure that anything impure you put into the fire, it becomes pure. Perhaps you know in our Hindu system if a one utensil becomes impure some time, you put it in the fire and it becomes pure. Is it not? Is it not?

Lady guest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: In Bengal this is the system.

Lady guest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So fire is considered to be pure. Therefore any ceremony is done before fire god. So Kṛṣṅa says that even fire is so pure, still there are some defect, there is smoke. So if you want to find out defect, you'll find out in fire also. But that doesn't matter; fire is fire. Similarly, a devotee, an unflinching devotee, without any other desires, who is dedicated to the service of the Lord, he is sādhu. So we have to take shelter of such sādhu. Ādau gurv-āśrayam.

And sādhu will instruct you—not by whims, but through śāstra. He is sādhu. Sādhu will never speak to you anything which is not in the śāstra. Sādhu, śāstra and guru. And guru is bona fide spiritual master who follows sādhu and śāstra. Who follows his bona fide spiritual master and who follows the instructions of śāstra, he is guru. Sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya, tinete kariyā aikya.

Narottama dasa Ṭhākura says that you have to act by accommodating the instruction of sādhu, instruction of śāstra. And you have to distribute. Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that these ignorant people who are being defeated repeatedly, such persons, they are being entangled in this materialistic way of life, in this material world. Kṛṣṅa bhuliya jīva. He said, kṛṣṅa bhuli' sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha [Cc Madhya 20.117].

[Forgetting Kṛṣṅa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.]

Anyone who has forgotten Kṛṣṅa, he is anādi bahir mukha: he is enamored by this external energy, material world.

Just like in Bombay city everyone is working hard, very hard. Their mission is, "How I shall be able to construct a skyscraper building?" That's all. Why they are working so hard? Their mission is that "I must have a skyscraper house and good apartment and nice wife, nice children and bank balance, then happy." [chuckles] But he does not know how long these things will continue. Ten years, twenty years, fifty years, hundred years, then finished. Your skyscraper building, your nice wife, your apartment, your friends, everything that you have made, you do not know where you are going. That you do not know. There is risk.

Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty [Bg 8.6].

[Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.]

At the time of death everything will be examined. What are you going to be next? You have to accept another body. So that body will be created in this life, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi, and that bodily structure will be formed at the time of your death. Just like if you leave this apartment, you'll have to go another apartment. So you have to select another apartment, good or bad.

That will depend on your capacity, how much rent you are able to pay. Then you leave this apartment. Similarly, at the time of death, by the superior arrangement, another apartment will be given to you, and immediately that is settled up, you leave this body and enter into that body. Daiva-netreṅa, karmaṅā daiva-netreṅa [SB 3.31.1].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.]

That will be considered by your work. If your works are nice... That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā,

yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām [Bg 9.25]

[Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me.]

So if you have prepared your life for going to the higher planetary system, in the moon planet or sun planet or..., there are so many hundreds and thousands and millions of planets up, and similarly down, and similarly in the middle. Catur [indistinct], fourteen worlds. So, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā [Bg 14.18]: if you have developed sattva-guṅa, then you will be allowed to go to the upper planets.

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ jaghanya-guṅa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ [Bg 14.18]

[Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.]

So we have to see from the śāstras; therefore śāstras. So this is the position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains that sometimes you are elevated to the svarga-loka, sometimes you are going to the naraka-loka. In this way it is going on. But this is not our good business.

Now, suppose I am in this good apartment, say for six months, and next if I cannot pay the rent, I have no means, then I go, what is called? Jhopri [slum]? Eh? There are jhopris also in Bombay. So, not that because one is in Bombay, he is always in the skyscraper. He may be in jhopri also. So everyone wants. So this is going on, [indistinct] narake: sometimes in the heavenly planet, sometimes in the hellish planet, this is going on. But this business is not good. Na sādhu manye. Even if you get the body of the heavenly planet, what you get? There is also janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

You have to die there. Even Brahmā dies. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna [Bg 8.16].

[From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.]

So this is the process going on. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṅonmukha. Our only business is how to become Kṛṣṅa conscious. How to become Kṛṣṅa conscious. That can be done simply by the mercy of sādhu. Therefore sādhus' business is go from door to door and enlighten them. Mahad-vicalanaṁ nṝṅāṁ gṛhiṅāṁ dīna-cetasām [SB 10.8.4]. The sādhu's business is that he goes from door to door and tries to invoke Kṛṣṅa consciousness, dormant Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

In everyone's heart there is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. It is in a sleeping state. Just like these European and American boys, unless there was Kṛṣṅa consciousness dormant, how it could be invoked? It is not sentiment. It was there. Our business was to..., just to arouse. Śravaṅādi-śuddha-citta koro ei udaya.

nitya-siddha kṛṣṅa-bhakti sadhu kabhu naya śravaṅādi-śuddha-citta karaye udaya [Cc Madhya 22.107]

[Pure love for Kṛṣṅa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.]

This is the statement of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The Kṛṣṅa consciousness is already there, but by hearing and purifying yourself, that consciousness comes. Just like water. Water is very clean. When it drops from the clouds it is very clean, but as soon as it drops on the ground it becomes muddy. So that that muddiness has to be cleansed, then water will come out again clean. Similarly, our consciousness is clean, Kṛṣṅa conscious, actually, originally, but because it is contaminated with the muddy things of the material nature, it is cloudy.

So this process—Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa Kṛṣṅa, Hare Hare—is the cleaning, clarifying process of the consciousness. Clarifying process. Ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam [Cc Antya 20.12].

[Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṅa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṅa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.]

If you take to this clarifying process, then it will be just like as clear as mirror, and you will be able to see your face nicely, what I am. Then you'll understand that "I do not belong to this material world; I belong to the spiritual world, ahaṁ brahmāsmi." And when you realize that, then if you can act yourself as Brahman, then your life is successful.

brahma-bhutaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg 18.54]

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

That is beginning of devotional service.

So Kṛṣṅa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṅonmukha haya sei jīva nistare [Cc Madhya 20.120]. Nistare means he becomes delivered. If somehow or other he becomes Kṛṣṅa conscious by the mercy of a sādhu, and by understanding the śāstra, if somehow or other he becomes lean to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, then he is eligible for being delivered from this miserable condition of material life. Māyā tāhāre chāḍaya. Then this illusion, māyā, releases our light here now.

That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā,

daivī hy eṣā guṅa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etaṁ taranti te [Bg 7.14]

[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]

This simple process: that you surrender to Kṛṣṅa and māyā immediately gives you release, "Oh, no more. That's all right."

Yes, any question?

[pause] So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is very scientific, authorized and practical, and very simple. You all take to this and be happy. That is our program. If you have got any question, you can ask.

[pause] We shall hold class here in the morning at about half past five, six, and in the evening at seven, half past seven.

[pause] Any questions? Then have kīrtana. [end]