Exploring the many dimensions of Caitanya-caritamrita (video)

(The below transcription is automatically generated by a voice recognition tool)

I wanted to create places where after people received the book they could come and be cultivated and I perceive that for the non-indian audience the temple seen as the first stop most of the time doesn’t make it and so how did kind of a lounge or bhakti nightclub type of atmosphere a place that I as a new yorker back in my non-devotee days would feel like hey this is a cool place let me drop by good food good music good people nice books yeah okay I wanted to create that kind of scene and so I’ve over the years so many persons from all over the world have come to bhakti through these kind of centers persons from the so-called impossible countries like france or sweden germany what to speak of the uk and certainly the usa and canada so just by being perched part of the year in new zealand I see persons in their 20s and 30s from all over the world becoming krishna conscious beautiful thank you for that you know that the gbc spt has been doing this celebrating sri caitanya charitabita and we certainly thank you for taking out your valuable time to lead us in this just for the sake of the audience we started this on february 19th with the joyta acharya’s appearance day radha nath maharaj let us off we have over 60 devotees senior devotees that really know that caitanya turned and rita weld and they’re all speaking about this over the course of the time from february 19th until the gore pornima of the 28th and you know everything is loaded up on our website if devotee would like to go and see some of the past events and and of course I’d like everyone to stay awake to the fact that we have between two and three events every day between now and gorponema so thank you maharaj for spending time with us when you and I spoke a bit about what inspires you about the sri chaitanya charter we do you came up with a number of topics that you wanted to speak about and they’re all really rich and deep so let’s just start off with the first one which was understanding the internal mood of caitanya mahaprabhu give us give us your realizations on this many devotees think that mahaprabhu is an avatar loosely that is correct and of course we hear the term the golden avatar but actually changing the mahaprabhu we should be clear is swayam bhagavan he is the original personality of godhead now you might say well how can that be so there’s krishna and then krishna has his expansions and so isn’t mahaprabhu like an expansion or plenary something no this is the mystery both are sway and bhagavan I like the way that shula bhakti siddhant sashi takur explains this deep mystery he says that when krishna wants to experience love and separation he is sri taitanya mahaprabhu and when shri taitanya mahaprabhu wants to be the supreme enjoyer he’s krishna both are sway and bhagavan both are the original personality of godhead looked at another way sri titani mahaprabhu is vipralumba rasa vigraha he is the form of the flavors of love and separation whereas radha krishna they are samboga rasa vigraha they are the form of the feelings of being together of meeting so in that way we should always see as the sastra says sritan and this form of separation form of separation is there anything more to say of the form of separation okay we can look at this greatest mystery from another angle treated under mahaprabhu is the form of krishna with the emotions of srimati radharani and those emotions of srimati radharani so predominate that this the form of krishna turns golden hmm now in in caitanya mahaprabhu’s pastimes of course you know he absorbs himself in the feelings of shimati radharani and the position of srimati radharani and sometimes he manifests directly at shumaki radharani but srila prabhupada in the majjalila actually chapter 14 text 96 says that mahaprabhu is in the role of an assistant to srimati radharani it’s very the most deep level of bhakti oh does that mean he’s like the primary gopi or taking the mood of a primary gopi assisting assistant yes which maidservant which is of course in bhakti the most confidential reality so anyone who thinks that prabhupad’s books didn’t give you everything I suggest you read caitanya cherry tomatoes more closely [Laughter] so how does this condition our own approach to caitanya to radha and krishna but what you know his internal move he we know his external mood and we follow that by saying kirtan and being dedicated to spreading the glories of the holy name and then what does it mean to start walking down the the path of bhakti as it relates to this internal mood the internal mood is linked with the external sometimes devotees think that external means inferior no kabiraj goswami when he uses the term external means what’s readily visible but it doesn’t mean that the outreach activities the preaching activities are inferior or lesser sometimes we hear that misunderstanding I’ll give you an example from shiloh prabhupad’s time amongst us this example comes from before our dear gopher buddha prabhu became president of los angeles [Laughter] long time ago I don’t even remember it this is early 70s maybe 73 or 74. and I know this directly because I had the service during my bbt days of filing all shiloh problems correspondence both letters to him and from him so it was a con controversy down under me say controversy but we’ll change it to controversy the sankertan devotees were going around saying that when you sing nikunj the spiritual master is very dear because he’s expert in assisting the gopis who at different times make different tasteful arrangements for the perfection of radha and krishna’s conjugal loving affairs within the groser mondavan the sanguitan devotees were saying that this verse of govastic prayers applies to the book distribution because the book distributors are going out and in enlisting people in the service of the supreme personality of godhead and so therefore it’s that overall in general it’s that same kind of bob so some devotees are outraged oh my goodness they’re really getting fanatical now these book distributors are way over the top now they’re claiming you know you know it’s just too much so the con controversy raged and as everything did back then the whole issue went to schiller paul but and I saw with my own eyes both letters and his response he said yes this is true so I I I think he said this is true you have the correct understanding or something like that it was this an additional word I do remember this so okay directly linked our external that caitanya mahaprabhu’s external and internal directly linked and this internal mood of serving radha and krishna is it could you could you say that preaching in one sense is the outpouring of whatever love we have for krishna it depends on what level the devotee is on I often discuss this point with his holiness shivaram mirage is preaching automatically wrong it depends on how the devotee sees it in terms of how how how real and vibrant that spontaneous attitude is there there’s nothing wrong with doing outreach according to rules and regulations I must do this it’s my duty that is wonderful we need more of that but by doing that duty because the outreach service is so dear to krishna you’ll be elevated to just loving to do it as prabhupad says you know you’re making spiritual advancement when you can’t live for a moment without glorifying krishna so if you see the outreach activities in a certain consciousness then yes you’re participating in the wrong the spontaneity but please those of you who are just doing the outreach because well this is what the guru instructed this is our duty that is wonderful but certainly from that the rag will develop beautiful let us just move to a second topic that you wanted to speak on and that is how the relationship of lord caitanya and the devotees of the chaitanya charity rita how they set the standards of today’s how we should be relating talk talk to us about that yes this is very important by closely reading sritanya charitamrita and watching the relationships between mahaprabhu and the devotees you can be dispossessed of that horrible disease known as envy you’ll learn how to just be caught up in glorifying devotees appreciating devotees here are some examples from chaitanya cherry tom rupa and sanatan received lorteitanya’s mercy at raw mckayley and what was the response of the devotees watching these were the top most devotees who were watching the whole situation lord caitanya’s close associates they were all so congratulatory they didn’t feel like oh someone else is taking our spot our share of the spotlight who’s this who are these newcomers what about us we’re old-timers we’re we’re we’re in the staunch inner circle no they were so congratulating and and then lord caitanya instructs rupa and sanat and goswami touch their feet get their blessings so it’s going both ways and prabhupada as many of you know who’ve read chaitanya cherry temperature he seizes the time he seizes this incident to point out this is real vaisnavism a real devotee is not envious a real devotee is so happy to see others become empowered another example is when lord caitanya actually tested sabra bulma butterchar and ramananda roy benny testing he this is after rupa goswami com presented his compositions of two special verses glorifying the holy name and glorifying a special pastime of krishna and so when the first time this these two verses manifest hari dastakur heard it and he was just leaping in the air dancing I’ve never heard anything like this such glorification of the holy name I’ve never ever experienced it and then the next day mahaprabhu was with his associates and he requested rupa goswami what about that verse because rupa goswami was very shy to speak it mahaprabhu began glorifying rupa goswami as if panchamukha as if he had five mouths to test sarah roma but acharya and ramen under roy pouring it on miss devotee how do you take that I’m checking you out are you going to feel a bit I’m shrewd amada I thought it’s quite interesting that lord tanya is testing his devotees of course these devotees are beyond any kind of fault but he’s just mahaprabhu is displaying their qualities of non-enviousness and appreciation for our benefit so please don’t think that by his testing and that implied they have some weakness no he’s demonstrating the qualities of these extraordinary devotees and we should try to follow in their footsteps [Music] I mean you you can re you know what it’s like someone is being glorified and mahaprabhu speaking glorification of a devotee like with five mouths and you kind of well what about me and I mean is that prabhu is that david dashie really that all that good I mean there’s this conditioned nature that comes out and so changing the cherry tomato purifies that rubbish because we don’t want it we don’t want it we want to be real devotees another example last example prataparuja in the garden during rathyatra he managed to in his disguise and his reciting of the gopigeeta tabaka tamritam he received the embrace of mahaprabhu you are the most munificent you are the most munificent and so the devotees were watching they were in the garden too and they were watching and what did they do they praised the king’s good fortune and what I always remember and I try to take as an example for myself other words their minds were open and blissful so I I’ve tried to take that upon my lowly consciousness when you see the mercy bestowed upon another vaisnava when you see another vaisnava doing the extraordinary service your mind is open and blissful and it’s so refreshing it’s such an enlivening feeling I hardly recommend it to everyone [Laughter] you know if you don’t mind me just going offline for a second and you really don’t have to respond but just this I think this is the third interview we’ve done and I have seen myself just listening to you get happy I really feel happy listening to you maharaja I want to thank you for that let’s let’s you indicated when you were speaking a little bit you had this little I can’t remember the exact words just a little phrase suggesting that maybe not that many devotees have thoroughly read chaitanya chara narita and we have some actual evidence to that effect that it’s not read so much and I’d like you to just speak about that point and then particularly as it relates to this uniqueness and the unparalleled scope and depth of sri chaitanya chara and rita and and and you know let’s encourage us to read it more caitanya charity is very confidential copyright swami describes it as a deep russia topmost mystery topmost confidentiality you know in bhagavad-gita krishna says to arjuna I’m going to because you’re my devotee and because you’re my friend I’m going to speak this greatest mystery well let’s hear from a statement many authorities attribute to bhakti sudan to sarasota persons like salinas gorgovinder maharaj as well as senior personalities his disciples shilobhakti siddhanta sashidako’s disciples coming after him so he says if you’re caught in the flood of annihilation the flood waters you’re around at that time and you’ve got to swim for it take three books with you take bhagavad-gita bhagavatam and chaitanya cherry tommy to hang it and swim go for it but if you’re having difficulty while you’re swimming all right regretfully let go of bhagavad-gita keep swimming still difficulty you’re going to have to let go of shimon bhagavatam but he said never let go of chaitanya cherry tom rita further elucidation caitanya charizard in a sense is bhagavatam because there’s so many shima bhagavatam verses there you get introduced to gopi baba and in a very guarded reserve way there’s mention of srimati radharani but chaitanya charitamerja just takes the lid off of the container of radha tutfa as you see lord caitanya in action you’re seeing how krsna’s dearest devotee loves krishna that is the glory of sri ditanya charitamrita I could go on note how this publication originated it’s very personal from shilla prabhupada to us as he wrote on the front piece as soon as you open adidas one he says this is presented to the devotees my devotees and friends who like to read my books hmm this is personal you want something personal from pro but here it is they like to read my books and they requested I render the great caitanya cherry tom rita now the amazing thing is to do the whole rendition took pro about 18 months during the most roller coaster ride time of iskcon 73 74 when there were just massive booms and some bus and magnificent leaders rising and then disappearing the next week and how prompt I kept all that together amidst book distribution explosions and centers all over the world and he’s handling all that and writing chaitanya tom rita his rendition in 18 months this is his gift from him to us and so first came this adillah chapter seven before the volumes the hardcover volumes rolled out prabhupad wanted adizeela chapter seven as standalone paperback why he said because it eradicates the maya bodies remember so in the audience chapter 7 you see the sastric basis for the mayavad distortions which are way underneath all the pop mayavad that you encounter on the streets and various places today so please keep that in mind these are profits gifts to us so 18 months to to render it into english with the bhaktivedanta purples now would you like me to say briefly something about the next miracle the publishing marathon yes as soon as you just drive a little bit more into this special role of chapter seven because we know that srila prabhupada as you say nervous this is a primary mission of srila prabhupada it was a primary point that siddhanta saraswati liked about prabhupada’s poem he particularly liked that verse I can’t really remember it exactly but it was you know speaking about how bhakti-sadanta you know really destroyed impersonalism and have we gotten a little soft on that in this con maybe are we are we just like trying to be too friendly and therefore kind of weakening or no oh you’re trying to draw me into troubled waters there they’re all different kinds of viewpoints in this kind these days from the so-called hardliners to the softies smiling everyone love one another and then the hardliners no this is not a big tent it includes everyone we must draw the line I am not taking sides [Laughter] call me in the wishy-washy middle so I have to beg off from taking that question head on all right okay still it is a main mission of srila prabhupada however we however we choose to act on that I believe it’s one of his main missions for us some way or another yeah and we haven’t gotten out of the age of mayavad and shunyavad it’s there just in different clothes and different garments but the the corpse is still the same so yes go go then to the the completion of of chaitanya charan amita and and his push to get it published go ahead and tell us about that all right the books were finished by prabhupada in terms of his part but iskcon from what prabhupada saw was lagging behind particularly the bbt and the bbt press prabhupad described this problem as an iscon problem where are the books I finished itani cherry chamrita I finished the fifth canto where are the books and so he put the heat on in in a way that most of you out there in listening land would find very uncomfortable if it happened take a managemental genius like our gopal butter prabhu if someone comes to you with a strategic plan and a deadline that makes no sense to you you’re going to your every inch of your intelligence is going to say no no no problem was very displeased and letting everyone know about it even before his arrival in los angeles he was spreading the word turning up the heat through his secretaries to visiting vip devotees and so when he got there in l.a the bbt leaders were kind of ready for action and then of course but told them we have a society-wide problem and so they rallied they had been giving prabhupada one book every four months they came up with a plan under pressure a fabulous plan to quadruple it not double it as we talk about these age but quadruple four times they said we’ll give you a new book every month wow we’re wonderful we’re sharpies we’re managers said no I want all the books done in two months all 17 volumes in two months this is like someone pointing to dry land and saying it’s water swim or pointing to an ocean and saying it’s dry land walk your mind just fractures but as they often point out what could any of the devotees do about it they couldn’t as often done these days I’m going to find a six year guru there was no way to run nowhere to hide so you had to take it head on a direct hit and so yes the devotees when they surrendered to this mission impossible that to any manager’s intelligence didn’t compute when they surrendered to embracing prabhupad’s vision that it was possible amazing energies descended unforgettable this by any chance I mean one time girl would said impossible is a word dictionary is this at that point when he used that yes when the devotees told him it’s impossible what you’re asking and it was impossible and to this day it doesn’t make material sense [Laughter] and were you part of that team yes my service during that chaitanya cherry tomato marathon was to be the final editor what you call a copy editor these days I read chaitanya chris army to 12 hours a day you might say oh nectar but my job was to make sure there were no mistakes and that’s great 12 hours a day seven days a week month month after month it’s like taking a university final exam in physics every day it was intense but by prabhupad’s mercy the impossible was done and this experience is unforgettable wow it’s a particular mercy that you were directly involved I I actually didn’t know that you were and when I asked the question I actually didn’t know so I was actually asking a question I didn’t know so that’s wonderful let’s let’s move to the last topic that you were speaking that you wanted to speak about bhaktivinoda’s presentation daryadam maduryadam what that sounds that sounds very confidential tell us about that yes and it is confidential but it’s it’s there in the jaiva dharma it’s there in naval dam mahatma and by the way the bbt is working on a extremely authentic authorized version of java dharma repeating an introduction bye bye so let’s just take a sidebar real quick tell us about that well we iskcon needs its own authentic java dharma and so we have a translator now who’s in india and he scoured all of india for all the authentic manuscripts he’s collated them and and seen places where other translators have kind of drifted a bit and so this is going to be so authentic so authorized it will be the standard for ages to come and we’ve also uncovered the introduction to driver dahmer by bhakti siddhanta sarasinataku so hey no one will have to feel they need to go searching around here there and everywhere for a java dharma and you’ll have the bbt’s java dharma which is completely my to a minute degree faithful to the original do you have an estimated pub date on this a couple of years because we’re really working on it to make sure it is the gold standard wonderful wonderful okay let us go back to bhaktivinoda’s presentation he takes you on a journey go cross the viraja river through the brahman effulgence into vaikuntha go further pass by kunta to sri galoka and then you get to krishna loka or galakrandavan which has two symmetrical halves one side is the other side is they are the same tatfa in two subdivisions looked at another way they are the same russa overall but that overall russa the midoriya has two departments two emotional departments one is odaria munificence and the other is the sweetness both are sweet but they’re different flavors of sweetness for example when the mood of madurya prevails that’s when krishna appears when the mood of odaria munificence prevails that’s when changing mahaprabhu appears so these two are one yet different and therefore it’s an offense the acharyas tell us to erase the distinction between gor leela and krishna leela at the same time they’re also one but we can’t forget the difference so where you might say well that’s bhaktivinoda takur what about prabhupad hey take a look on the cover of the first volume of shimad-bhagavatam for scanner what do you see in the world of the lotus flower you see the two symmetrical halves you see vrndaven on one side on the right side and you see another dweep on the left side so there it is right on on your bookshelf so wow where did he make this presentation in jive dharma in jaipur dharma yes and also briefly in navajo ah okay okay we got we covered all the six points you wanted to oh me I could go on for hours but I know you could I know you could in our unfortunately our time is limited I almost was thinking about five minutes ago you know if we should even have a second time so maybe we should but I do want to just go back and to to one point and that is to ask you to encourage the devotee community to read caitanya turret amrita certainly everything that you’ve said is basically an encouragement to read it I mean who would not be encouraged listening to you but still tell us why we should be reading this encourage us to read this book because I know for a fact it’s not read enough how are you going to understand krishna and krishna leela without going through chaitanya mahaprabhu you should see that road sign in neon lights flashing in front of your eyes you must go this way it’s very difficult as the acharya say to understand krishna leela without going through sriti mahaprabhu mahaprabhu in caitanya retirement is showing the perfection of loving krishna he’s showing that in action caitanya richard is prabhupada’s personal gift to us for devotees who like to read his books he and he says enjoy it for the enjoyment of the devotees throughout the world and what did bhakti-sadanta sashitakura do in his leisure time his use of leisure time is very instructive for us he would kick back so to speak in modern lingo and read caitanya cherry tomrita now what do we do in our leisure time don’t answer so you see the standard for vaishnava relaxation tj [Laughter] so well let’s hope that go ahead I’m sorry so kabiraja goswami at the end of majulila he says that I worship my readers those who read this I worship them the water that washes their feet I drink that water the dust from their feet becomes the the ornaments on my head what kind of book is this so please take advantage if you want to understand krishna and krishna leela you must go through caitanya mahaprabhu and his associates it would be really nice if the bbt got enough orders of shri tai chan and chara narita that they couldn’t fulfill them immediately and had to print more yes every devotee should feel embarrassed I haven’t read it I don’t even have it in my house what’s wrong with me I’m missing out on the greatest wealth because it’s all going on there in action as shri daniel mahaprabhu taking the position of shimachi radharani demonstrating her emotions and confidentially acting as the assistant of srimati radharani so you want the depths and to be aware of the depths it’s all there and of course even for the neophyte there’s so much information about how the krishna conscious movement should go on prabhupad put so many instructions there for posterity so please take advantage I’m amazed that in 45 minutes you covered so many deep topics and covered them so well it’s just really been enriching and as I told you midstream I’ve just been so happy listening to you I want to thank you so much really appreciate your time and we should cut off soon but let’s just remind the devotees that maharaja’s time on sri caitanya terenam rita is part of this overall portrayal that the gbc spt is doing please check us out on our website tell your friends about this wonderful time that we’ve had with devamrita maharaj and spread the word that that we’ve got something very very wonderful going on here devon thank you so much please accept my humble assistance glorious wonderful work so important thank you you