CONTENTS:
- CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU IS THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD;
- SRILA PRABHUPADA APPRECIATION;
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU IS THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD
He has been described as the most munificent, most magnanimous, most generous, most compassionate, most kind maha-vadanyaya and what is He doing? He is giving out Krishna Prema. So the difference here is the King says that you have to surrender unto Me, meaning you have to love Me. Generally when the Lord descends that is the condition He makes, “Okay, I am here and performing My pastimes and develop your loving relationship but in this feature when He is coming as a devotee, He is distributing that love. Previously it was conditional one has to decide for himself to love the Lord, now here He is giving the love of the Lord so that is why He is so munificent. How is He distributing that love? Whether one understands or not, He is teaching them to say, “Oh my Lord, I love You, Oh my Lord, I love You, Oh my Lord, I love You.” He may not understand what is love what it means but he keeps on saying that and by hearing that somebody is saying to the Lord, “I love You, I love You, I love You.” The Lord accepts and says “you love Me,” and He reciprocates. What is the Sanskrit way of saying, “Oh all attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead I love You with all my heart and soul.”?
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
When the Lord came as a devotee, He came at a time when it was the most degraded phase of existence, the Kaliyuga. People are completely averse to submission to the Lord, they totally atheistic they do know believe in the existence of the Lord and that is the feature of this age, absolutely atheistic, absolutely degraded, absolutely offensive. At that most degraded condition, most degraded situation the Lord has come to bestow this most amazing mercy. What is that most amazing mercy or to understand that? That is the nature of love, nature of love is the most unqualified one becomes the object of attention. For example the father has four sons, one son is very capable and well situated, the next son is okay but not as competent as his elder brother, the third son is still in college and the fourth son is a toddler. Now tell me upon whom the mother’s attention will be projected the most? To the youngest one and especially when that son becomes sick, what do the mother and father do? They stay up through the night taking care of the child. So that is the nature of love. The most competent doesn’t deserve the greatest attention the weakest one demands the greatest attention. ‘
That is why the Lord has become so merciful in the age of Kali, in this age because the people of this age are most degraded, most unqualified, most fallen, absolutely sick, the Lord’s mercy has come down to take care of them. He Himself has come down to take care of them. How is He going to display His mercy? By giving them the means by which they will become qualified to develop that loving relationship. And that is why He came to introduce this process of chanting the holy name. That is why He came in the age of Kali and when He appeared what did He do? He appeared at a time when there was a lunar eclipse, eclipse are actually very inauspicious times, these are the moon and sun, they are divine and auspicious objects but when that auspiciousness departs what does it mean? Most inauspicious Rahu is devouring moon so at a time like that what is the natural custom?
To chant the holy name of the Lord because at that inauspicious moment the chanting of the name of the Lord causes auspiciousness. To drive out that inauspiciousness and to establish auspiciousness. So the Lord appeared here at a time, took His apparent birth in this planet at a time when there was lunar eclipse and at that time what people were doing? They all were chanting; they all went to the Ganges or some auspicious situation in temples or other places. So see how He descended making the whole world chant the holy name of the Lord. This is how we can see what His mission actually was. His mission was to make the whole world chant. Then He attracted His devotees, some of the devotees recognized that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead especially His maternal grandfather who was a great astrologer. In India there is a culture of calculating the person’s future from the time of his birth, seeing the position of different stars and planets, they can determine the entire life of that person. Seeing how different influences of planets will be casted on him and on a day to day they can actually measure. His maternal grandfather after reading His horoscope, meaning seeing the position of the stars and planets he could make out that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead because these kinds of characteristics are not present in an ordinary living entity no matter how exalted he may be. In this way some individuals, some exalted devotees recognized Him. Prior to that also we have seen that the demi-gods have come and offering prayers to Mother Saci when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in the womb so in this way the demi-gods knew that the Lord had descended. As I mentioned yesterday the purpose of this seminar, describing the pastimes of the Lord is to make everybody recognize that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has descended as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This is how His pastimes started to unfold into birth, like a human being. Now because He has taken birth like a human being does it mean that He is a human being? One should not make a mistake like people do nowadays, He has taken birth, I have taken birth so if His is God then I can be God, He looks like a human being, I am a human being therefore if He can be God I can be God. These are the unfortunate features of this degraded age of Kali, people are so envious that they cannot surrender to the Lord rather they want to become the Lord and want to become the supreme controller. When you see the life and activities if Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu it’s so amazing that when we go through them then we cannot possibly have a shadow of doubt that He is The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
SRILA PRABHUPADA APPRECIATION
Prabhupada did not want us to blindly accept something. Prabhupada wanted us to justify whatever we accepted. Probe into it find out why Prabhupada used to challenge us to make us accept it in a proper way and get the proper understanding and have the proper knowledge. Prabhupada did not want us to even accept because I am saying it you have to accept it. No use your intelligence and find out.
GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
What is the Sanskrit way of saying, “Oh all attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead I love You with all my heart and soul.”? HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a seminar entitled, “the transcendental Pastimes of Lord Caitanya” given by HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja at Drakensburg Retreat, South Africa on 20 January 2017)
(Compilation & editing by Hemavati Radhika dasi)