Lord Caitanya

A lecture given by H.H Kadamba Kanana Swami Maharaja- 10 March 2009, Radhadesh, Belgium

Lord Caitanya as the teacher

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, just as Krsna appeared within the heart of Vasudeva and was then transferred to the heart of Devaki, in the same way Lord Caitanya appeared in the heart of Jagannatha Misra and was transferred to the heart of Saci Mata. Lord Caitanya�s appearance in this world was covered; it wasn�t known that He was the Supreme Lord. And although we see here in the verse that the Lord appeared as a devotee to teach the process of devotional service, in the beginning that was also covered- throughout His youth the Lord was teaching in a covered way. Still, He started teaching practically from the beginning, because as the Lord appeared in the 13 months of pregnancy of Saci Devi, at the time of the eclipse of a full moon, the entire world was chanting Hare Krsna. And thus the Lord began His mission as a teacher, as a preacher right from the moment of His appearance. Remember how He cried and wouldn�t stop? And the ladies found out pretty soon that the only way that they could stop Him was chanting Hare Krsna. And it is said that the kirtana was always going- a constant kirtana- going around Nimai! So Lord Caitanya is a teacher from the very beginning of His pastimes until the very end of His pastimes.

After He took sannyasa, Lord Caitanya really became the acarya- the public teacher. A little before, after He returned from Gaya- He began to reveal His identity as a devotee. But from the very beginning, Lord Caitanya was teaching. We can remember how on one occasion His mother gave Him sweets to eat and He didn�t eat them; instead He ate dirt! So she said, �What is this? How are you eating dirt?� She snatched it from His hands and He was saying, �but what is the difference? Why are you so upset? What is the point? This dirt, that dirt- it is all dirt! The sweets that you�re giving Me is just a transformation of the same dirt, so why are you so upset?� So Mother Saci responded to His early presentation of His Mayavada philosophy by saying that, if we take a lump of clay we can turn that lump into a clay pot and the clay pot can hold water and we carry water with it and so. But when we pour water on that lump then it�s useless; it just becomes a mess and it cannot contain the water. Therefore there�s a difference; this clay, that clay�� In that way she defeated Mayavada philosophy as impractical.

So all throughout the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu there are so many instructions where the Lord is teaching devotional service. Also in His earlier pastimes, Lord Caitanya is showing several miracles to reveal His identity as the Supreme Lord. For example, what comes to mind is when the child was running through the house there was the sound of ankle bells but He had no ankle bells! Or, there were small footprints in the house with the marks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead- all over the house! And His parents couldn�t understand that it was Nimai. Jagannatha Misra was convinced that it was the salligrama sila that was running through the house, which is nice!!!

In this way the Lord, from the beginning, performed pastimes as a human being and yet performed supernatural activities at the same time and revealed His identity as the Supreme Lord, but in a subtle way; not everyone could just pick it up and His parents definitely had no idea. So eventually Lord Caitanya, in the last few years in His pastimes in Navadvipa, began to reveal His identity as the Supreme Lord to His devotees. And at that time Lord Caitanya began to preach the sankirtana mission at large in Navadvipa and He began to relate to His devotees in a dual identity. On the one hand- as the Supreme Lord; and on the hand- as a devotee, teaching by example. We see this interchanging in Lord Caitanya�s pastimes; although He�s taking the role of the devotee, sometimes He is clearly showing His identity as the Supreme Lord at times.

For example, when He dealt with Damodara Pandita, He made it clear. Damodara Pandita was very, very strict and Damodara Pandita was always setting the standard and constantly reminding the devotees of what the proper standard was in Krsna consciousness. So on one occasion, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a sannyasi in His preaching, was visited by a very nice young boy. And this boy was a brahmana boy; very nice features, very nice behaviour, very humble, good service attitude- really first class candidate for getting spiritual instructions�but there was only one problem- his mother was a beautiful, young brahmani widow. So Damodara Pandita was thinking, what will people say? When You show so much affection to this young boy the result will be that people will start thinking something�s going on with the mother�and thus he disapproved of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu associating with that boy. So later Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, �Just see, Damodara is so great, he can even instruct Me.� And then Damodara Pandita was no longer allowed to stay in the association of the Lord and basically sent away as a messenger from Puri to Navadvipa to Saci Devi. So here Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was showing that He was the Supreme Lord, that He wants to be respected as the Supreme Lord. And from time to time He revealed that identity in different ways; He performed different miracles.

The topic of the miracles of the Supreme Lord is the topic that intrigues me. Seeing how Lord Caitanya performed the bheda bheda sankirtana pastimes and was simultaneously manifest in different sankirtana parties, seeing how Lord Caitanya could push the chariot of Lord Jagannatha when even powerful elephants couldn�t pull it, we see that He�s invested with more than ordinary power. Seeing in Jharikhanda how He made these animals chant and dance in love of God, seeing how the Supreme Lord performed amazing miracles. In the Madhya lila we begin to see how so many become swept up in Lord Caitanya�s kirtana parties. As He is chanting, people joining the chanting become ecstatic and it swells to huge crowds, people become immediately overwhelmed with love of God and gradually Krsna consciousness is spreading and spreading. In this way we see how Lord Caitanya, His mercy is there from the beginning but gradually that mercy is unfolding and opening and gradually His teaching become manifest. Lord Caitanya begins to teach the philosophy more and more clearly, instructing Rupa and Sanatana, He performs pastimes at Ratha Yatra and begins to show that mood of viraha bhava- that mood of separation.

And then gradually in the final pastimes, Lord Caitanya begins to show the greatest miracle; He begins to show love of God to its fullest extent. And in this way the pastimes of Lord Caitanya are gradually bringing us deeper and deeper into full ecstatic surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, where it shows that pure devotional service is not just an activity where one is giving up all material desires- anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam- where one gives up all desires for material enjoyment, where one gives up all hankering for liberation. But He shows that pure devotional service is filled with the greatest ecstasy. Not only a type of ecstasy which is anywhere in the realm happiness that we know but where the happiness and the ecstasy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is bursting out of His heart like bursting out of a volcano- completely uncontrolled! It is said that love of God, when it manifests within a heart, it manifests in transformations within the body; Prahladananda Maharaja described some of the transformations. But it is said that when love of God in its initial stages, the devotee can still hide these symptoms, naturally a devotee at this stage of advancement will be inclined to, out of humility, to hide such symptoms. It is said in the beginning, when love of God first arises, then such love of God is manifesting in the smoking stage, the dhumayita, where it is like a smoldering fire within the heart. But with due course of time, that fire becomes more and more inflamed more and more, until finally comes to the stage of suddipta- an intensely blazing fire. And it was like that, that the love of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu manifested. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, �My mind is like a horse and the five senses are seated upon this horse and this horse is just running at full speed towards Radha and Krsna.� So in this way, His Krsna consciousness was way beyond religious principle, it was way beyond ecstatic devotional service, it was just overwhelming, uncontrolled love for Krsna, which was so strong that it resembled tidal waves.

In this way Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is teaching; He is step by step teaching. He is teaching from the very beginning: by chanting the holy name of the Lord, one can attain the Supreme goal. He chanted the holy name and turned to His spiritual master and said, �this chanting�what kind of mantra have you given Me! This mantra has made Me mad!� His spiritual said, �You are very fortunate, you are fortunate; anyone who has achieved that madness is very fortunate.�

So little by little, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu revealed within His pastimes, the full process of Krsna consciousness and furthermore, within His instructions. And in that way we are commemorating the pastimes, the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and remember what is the true goal; the true goal of our movement, the true goal of our life and we realize that it is a very difficult path- how can we follow in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu? But other than the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu; by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, mukam karoti vacalam�pangum langhayate girim yat-krpa tam aham vande, then it is possible, by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then we can rise above our limitations. And thus the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is wonderful, it is of the highest quality, it is distributed most widely to the most unqualified and who can through that mercy, reach beyond their limitations and actually attain full perfection. Thus by hearing about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu we can develop full faith that actually through this process of harinama sankirtana we can attain the full perfection of the spiritual world.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jaya! Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki, Jaya! Sri Gaura Purnima maha-maha-utsava ki, Jaya!