CONTENTS:
- SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S PASTIMES IN JAGANNATHA PURI, NILACHALA (PART - 2)
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S PASTIMES IN JAGANNATHA PURI, NILACHALA (PART - 2)
Who is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Why did He come? Another apparent reason is He came to Jagannatha Puri on the request of His mother. Why Jagannatha Puri because Jagannatha is also Krishna who is yearning to be with the devotees. Krishna of Dwarika is yearning to come to Vrindavan and be with His devotees. Do you see the similarity? Jagannatha is Krishna who is away from Vrindavan and He is yearning to be with His devotees. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna who is trying to find out how the devotees of Vrindavan love Him especially how Srimati Radharani loves Him. In this way the Supreme Personality of Godhead came as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
It’s a very very deep understanding, a deep consideration of bhakti and that is why Krishna consciousness is the highest form of spiritual understanding. We can see those other religions their understanding is very basic, one thing we can consider with all due respect for other religion most of the other religions have one or two books, Christians have Bible, Jews have Tora, Muslims have Koran. It’s like when you are in a lower class in school you have only one or two books but as you grow to higher and higher standards the number of books increase and when you are in PHD writing a thesis you are dealing with a whole library.
Similarly, these other religions are very basic and they have one or two books but when you come to the Vedas, it’s a huge array of transcendental literature. The problem is that unless you are at that level you can’t really deal with the library you will be very confused, therefore you need a teacher to guide you. If you in a lower class and you go to a library the teacher tells you get such and such book or study these books. So, when you dealing with the library you need a teacher otherwise it will be very confusing. And we can see that in today’s Hinduism everybody is totally confused because they don’t have a teacher. At the same time, they are very puffed up and arrogant, very proud, “O we know everything” but the reality is that they don’t know anything. Hinduism is so confused; in a way we can say that other religious groups have their religion but the Hindus are a group who doesn’t have any religion. They don’t have any specific book to follow.
Although Krishna gave the essence of the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and Vyasadev very mercifully gave Srimad Bhagavatam, they don’t study that. At least the Muslims read Koran, Christians read Bible, Jews read Tora but what do the Hindus read? On top of everything these so-called scholars are giving their commentary on Bhagavad Gita so they are so confused. On the other hand, when we see that we have a proper teacher then what happens? The entire understanding becomes crystal clear. We have experienced ever since we have come across Srila Prabhupada’s teachings everything has become crystal clear, no confusion and no doubts. We understood Bhagavad Gita in a perfect way, Bhagavad Gita as It Is.
This is the state of affairs in this age. The Vedas are giving such clear understanding, as I was saying, like not only God is the greatest, as the Muslims say Allah, Allah actually means the greatest but here we have the understanding why He is the greatest. You are repeating God is the greatest but if we ask you why He is the greatest, they don’t have any answer. The Christians God thy father, love thy Father, love thy God, God is the father and they asking to love Him but is there any information about the father? On the other hand, they have conflict against each other like one group is saying Jesus Christ is God and the other group is saying No Jesus Christ is the son of God. So, this is how they are confused. They taking Jesus to be God, Jesus never said that he is God. Now we can see in the religious domain and by the way the Hindus and if you ask them what is their answer? “I am God, you are God, and we are God.” Only God is not God.
So, this is how we can see the whole world’s religious scenario, the whole world has become so confused due to lack of understanding. But when you come to the proper teachings you can see who is God. Krishna is God. Another problem, the general understanding is that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, if you look at the dictionary, the definition of Hinduism is that Hinduism believes in many Gods, does it sound alright? How can there be many Gods? The thing is that they got mixed up, in English there is only one word God but in Sanskrit we find two expressions, devatas and Bhagavan, Devatas are devas and devis controllers of different affairs or departments of the universe. Like there is air department who is the controller Pavandeva, water department Varundeva, fire department Agnideva, education department Sarasvati devi, finance department Laxmi devi. So, this is how there are different devas and devis, there are innumerable different universes and, in each universe, there is a set of devas and devis but there is Bhagavan.
Who is Bhagavan? Bhagavan is the one who has no one equal to Him or no one is superior to Him, One without a second. Now is Hinduism monotheistic or polytheistic? Monotheistic, because there is no proper understanding, the difference between Bhagavan and devas and devis people are getting confused. They all confused that is why the dictionary is giving that definition. When you approach the proper way to Hinduism, proper understanding of the Vedic scriptures what do you get to understand? We get to understand Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and we all are His parts and parcels.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
On the other hand, when we see that we have a proper teacher then what happens? The entire understanding becomes crystal clear. We have experienced ever since we have come across Srila Prabhupada’s teachings everything has become crystal clear, no confusion and no doubts. We understood Bhagavad Gita in a perfect way, Bhagavad Gita as It Is.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
When you approach the proper way to Hinduism, proper understanding of the Vedic scriptures what do you get to understand? We get to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead and we all are His parts and parcels.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 10 December 2019 at Jagannatha Puri at morning class (Divine Pilgrimage 2019))
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)