Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

Date: February 18th, 2011

Topic: Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead

Verse:SB 4.12.13Speaker: HG Ajamila Prabhu____________________________________________

sat-trimsad-varsa-sahasramsasasa ksiti-mandalambhogaih punya-ksayam kurvannabhogair asubha-ksayam

TRANSLATION: Dhruva Maharaja ruled over this planet for thirty-six thousand years; he diminished the reactions of pious activities by enjoyment, and bypracticing austerities he diminished inauspicious reactions.

PURPORT: That Dhruva Maharaja ruled over the planet for thirty-six thousand years means that he was present in the Satya-yuga because in the Satya-yugapeople used to live for one hundred thousand years. In the next yuga, Treta, people used to live for ten thousand years, and in the next yuga, Dvapara,for one thousand years. In the present age, the Kali-yuga, the maximum duration of life is one hundred years. With the change of the yugas, theduration of life and memory, the quality of kindness and all other good qualities diminish.

There are two kinds of activities, namely pious and impious. By executing pious activities one can gain facilities for higher material enjoyment, butdue to impious activities one has to undergo severe distress. A devotee, however, is not interested in enjoyment or affected by distress. When he isprosperous he knows, "I am diminishing the results of my pious activities," and when he is in distress he knows, "I am diminishing the reactions of myimpious activities." A devotee is not concerned with enjoyment or distress; he simply desires to execute devotional service.

It is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam that devotional service should be apratihata, unchecked by the material conditions of happiness or distress.The devotee undergoes processes of austerity such as observing Ekadasi and similar other fasting days and refraining from illicit sex life,intoxication, gambling and meat-eating. Thus he becomes purified from the reactions of his past impious life, and because he engages in devotionalservice, which is the most pious activity, he enjoys life without separate endeavor. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.14]
HG Ajamila Prabhu: So in this section of Srimad Bhagavatam entitled 'Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead' and also this particular verse is wonderfullyinstructive. From Srimad-Bhagavatam we learn unlimited lessons and unlimited teachings of the spiritual science of devotional service. Here in thisparticular section of the Srimad-Bhagavatam specifically Dhruva Maharaj is being related to.

Just to recap on the history or the events surrounding this particular verse that is being described is that Dhruva Maharaj as a boy was the son of KingUttanapada. King Uttanapada had two queens namely Suruci and Suniti. So the queen Suruci was very much favored by King Uttanapada and it so happenedthat the other queen, Suniti was not favored equally. The king had sons with both of these queens and the situation arose that Dhruva Maharaj was tryingto get on the lap of his father as any child would naturally do. But the child of the other queen was already on the lap of his father.

So he was shunned away by his father because of the presence of his other co-brother on his lap. So Dhruva Maharaj, as any child would, became upsetby this. He was very disturbed. Naturally if the child cannot get on to his father's lap the child would become very emotional, cry and throw a tantrumand all of that.
Then to make matters worse Queen Suruci said so that Dhruva could hear and everybody else could hear, said that, "You are not qualified to get on thelap of your father because you are not born from my womb. You are born from the womb of Suniti who is not favored as much. So this disturbed DhruvaMaharaj very much, so much so that he went crying to his mother. His mother preached to him actually that, "You should just simply tolerate." But Dhruva Maharaj was a ksatriya by nature.

The true nature of a ksatriya is that if you offer some insult they will become very offended. They would become immensely angry. Whereas if youoffer some insult to a brahmana it is simply like water off a ducks back. The brahmana is not disturbed by insult or any offence but the ksatriyas arebecause they are in the mode of passion. Of course this nature is also utilized in Krishna's service.

Dhruva Maharaj was from a very powerful ksatriya family and he also had the very same nature, as Srila Prabhupada describes so he became immenselydisturbed by the situation. His mother said that, "If you want to change the situation, then simply surrender to Krishna. Engage yourself in devotionalservice." So Dhruva Maharaj actually left the palace and went into the forest immensely determined to perform austerities.
His desire was that he wanted to have a kingdom that was unrivaled in all the three worlds. So this is the nature of a ksatriya. Ksatriyas like tohave the power, they like to have control, they like to have a kingdom and they like to have something which they can rule over. They like to rule overthe people. So they can do that either in a good way or a bad way but thatis a different thing.

So this was Dhruva Maharaj's desire that he wanted to have a kingdom that was unsurpassable in all the three worlds. So it is explained in theBhagavatam then Narada Muni came and was amazed by the ksatriya qualities of Dhruva Maharaj. He said to him, "Dhruva Maharaj what are you doing?" ThenNarada Muni preached to him and said, "You should just forget it. These things happen. Due to you previous activities you were put into a situationwhere you were insulted. You should tolerate that and go on with your life and take it as your wealth, take it as your ornament. Please tolerate." Actually he was preaching to him in a brahminical way but Dhruva Maharaj said, "I cannot do that. I know you have instructed me to do that but Icannot. I cannot tolerate that. Please show me a way in which I can attain an unrivaled kingdom. So as you all know Dhruva Maharaj then received fromNarada Muni the mantra, "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" which is a very, very powerful mantra. Dhruva Maharaj attained perfection by reciting this mantravery purely.

So Dhruva Maharaj's desire to attain an unequaled kingdom was relative but by the time he finished chanting "Om Nama Bhagavate Vasudevaya" he became sopurified by love for Krishna. He said, "I am no longer interested in the kingdom. I am simply interested in serving Krishna. He became totally purified. So Narada Muni's instruction was quite perfect and befitting. So that is the background behind the events in this section of the Bhagavatam.
When Dhruva Maharaj was given the kingdom, as described here Dhruva Maharaj ruled over the planet for thirty six thousand years. In history we are nowtwo thousand years and eighty years after the death of Christ. 2011. So this is thirty six thousand years. It is quite a long time for one person to liveand to also render the kingdom.

The explanation is given by Srila Prabhupada's purport that was in the Satya yuga. Srila Prabhupada explains that in the Satya yuga people would live forone hundred thousand years. So if Dhruva Maharaj's life span was a hundred thousand years he ruled the earth for thirty six thousand years. So thatportion of his life was as a ksatriya was taken up as a ruler. That is about one third of his life.

We know that in contrast the rulers of today are still clinging on to power when they are like sixty or seventy sometimes even eighty years old. Theyare quite dysfunctional and still they are hanging on to the power and transgressing this example the example that Dhruva Maharaj set, which is onethird of his life he would spend taking rulership and for the other two thirds he would simply dedicate for practicing Krishna consciousness. Theone third was the beginning of the life when he was trained; the middle third was when he was ruling others and the last third of his life in theequivalent of about a hundred years equal one hundred thousand years we can assume that he would have retired at about sixty five or sixty six.

Srila Prabhupada also mentions in another place that although Dhruva Maharaj's body was seemingly old his body still looked strong and powerful.The next point here is that Dhruva Maharaj diminished the reaction to his pious activities by enjoyment and by practicing austerities he diminishedthe inauspicious reactions.

This is also philosophically instructive that in this whole material creation there is only two things, which is punya and papa. Above that isdevotional service. Devotional service is transcendental. As devotees devotional service is also very closely followed by punya and papa. We quiteoften hear throughout the Bhagavatam how things are said to be this is good punya. We do this because it is auspicious and we avoid that because it isinauspicious and we avoid that because it is inauspicious- subham and asubham, auspicious and inauspicious. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita,

subhasubha-parityagi bhaktiman yah sa me priyah  [Bg 12.17]

 That a devotee who subhasubha-parityagi, that a devotee renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things. A devotee's position is very, veryelevated. It is actually not so easy to be subhasubha-parityagi. Bhaktiman yah sa me priyah - then one becomes very dear to Krishna as soon as werenounce both auspicious and inauspicious activities.
However until we attain to the platform of pure devotional service we strive for the mode of goodness and we have to purify ourselves from previoussinful reactions. So we come to Krishna consciousness with sinful reactions from previous lifetimes. By executing Krishna consciousness we eliminate thesinful reactions from previous lifetimes. By executing devotional service we also accumulate punya. So the question arises if a devotee is renderingdevotional service is he accumulating punya or is that devotee renouncing punya and simply accumulating transcendence? Which mean you don't keepaccrue any pious or impious activity. So this is a very interesting, deep philosophical point.

My understanding is that it depends on the consciousness of the devotee. Each devotee is desiring or not desiring like that. A devotee may desirematerial enjoyment. Just like the typical example is Dhruva Maharaj. He was advised by Narada Muni, "Just engage in pure devotional service. Don't worryabout the fact that you were insulted. That is a way to burn off your sinful reaction from previously." But Dhruva Maharaj in that instance he rejectedthat instruction but took up devotional service under the instruction of Narada Muni simply to get some material enjoyment.

So as we find in the beginning of Srimad Bhagavatam that whether you are full of material desires, whether you have no material desires or you desiresome liberation surrender to Krishna. Whatever your state of being is, whatever you desire go to Krishna for that desire. So the question is when adevotee is rendering devotional service is he accumulating punya or is he accumulating transcendental association with Krishna? It depends on thedesire of the devotee.

Therefore what we desire determines everything. Just like Dhruva Maharaj's desire was to enjoy. So Krishna rewarded him accordingly. Later DhruvaMaharaj's desire was not to enjoy. His desire was only by following the process that Narada Muni gave him, he developed love for Krishna. Kuvera,the treasurer of all the Devas (And Lord Kuvera is not short of any benedictions that he can give,) even came to him and said, "You name thebenediction and I will give it to you. Whatever you want I will give it to you."

He could have given him this kingdom, that kingdom, the treasuries of the heavenly planets. So Dhruva Maharaj's reply to that was that, "I only wantpure devotional service. Please give me only pure devotional service." As a result of Dhruva Maharaj desiring the punya, it is stated here that hediminished the reactions of his pious activities. He had to actually leave it out. He diminished those pious activities. So if we desire the results ofpious activities then that is what we will get. If we desire only krsna-prema then that is what we will get, Krishna willing.

What we learn from this is as Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport that a devotee is not concerned with the enjoyment or distress but only withunmotivated pure devotional service so that he can be situated in Krishna's service unconditionally either in the material world or in the spiritualworld. And that is the only desire that a devotee has.

Due to our previous lifetime we see that some devotees diminish the results of their previous pious activities by bona fide enjoyment. There is bonafide enjoyment and there is un-bona fide enjoyment. Dhruva Maharaj's enjoyment was bona fide. He gave up everything according to the regulativeprinciples of Vedic culture. In this way he lived out enjoying the results of his previous pious activity.

When we look around in the world today we see there are many people actually enjoying the results of their previous pious activities. What are thesymptoms of pious activities? Health, wealth, education and beauty! These four things characterize the symptoms of the pious activity from previouslifetimes. And when there is a lack of those four things - no health, no wealth, no education or no beauty that is a symptom that place is made oftotally distress. A totally distressful situation! No health, no wealth, no education or no beauty.

We can see people in that situation around the world. That is a symptom of previous sinful activity. When we see people who have health, wealth,education or beauty then that is a symptom of previous pious activity. When the people are in the situation of pious activity in this Kali yuga we seewhat do they do with it? They enjoy the results of their pious activities in an un-bona fide way. They break every rule in the book. They engage in meateating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex. You can see that they are leading very sinful lives.

Sometimes people say, "How come that person is enjoying all those thing? He is not getting any reaction. Here I am a devotee. I am chanting and I amsuffering." It depends on which devotee really but we look and we see that if they join us we can understand that those people previously did somepunya to be in that position. But all their punya are going up in smoke in one lifetime. In one lifetime it is all going up in smoke! The nextdestination is the hellish planets. In one lifetime they will burn up all the punya. Krishna knows how many lifetimes they took to accumulate all thatgood punya.

A very good example that always comes to my mind is one very big Iskcon supporter in London named Sri Chand Hinduja. He is a very pious man andeveryday he comes to the Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara Temple gets mahaprasad and takes darsan. And his whole family is worth maybe three or four billionpounds. So you can see health, wealth, education and he has got all the symptoms of good punya from previous lifetimes. But what is he doing withthat good punya? He is utilizing it to some degree in Krishna's service.

So when a person comes intoiand he utilizes it in Krishna's service then it is truly fortunate. Just like Dhruva Maharaj here he diminished the resultsof his pious activities by enjoying them in Krishna's service. In the kingdom that he was ruling everyone was a devotee.

On the other hand we see that there is a reaction called impious activities. Srila Prabhupada specifically mentions in the purport, "The devoteeundergoes processes of austerity such as observing Ekadasi and similar other fasting days and refraining from illicit sex life, intoxication, gamblingand meat-eating."

Personally I take a lot of interest in Ekadasi' and I like to observe them as much as I can. What I learnt by studying then, is that you find so manyconversations were Krishna instructs that His devotee should observe this Ekadasi vrata. So the result of the Ekadasi is twofold. One is that you getpunya and the other is that you get krsna-prema. And we find that in the 'Nectar of Devotion' Srila Prabhupada mentions that the sole main purpose ofobserving Ekadasi is to increase our love for Govinda. Again devotional service depends on your desire, on the individual devotee's desire.
One can desire Krishna, love for Govinda or one can desire the heavenly planets like Dhruva Maharaj or a kingdom. Everyone is free to desirewhatever they want to desire. So we read the descriptions that benefit of observing these austerities are twofold. One is that it gives you punya andit also gives you krsna-prema. But on the other side it is very powerful in eradicating sinful reactions from previous lifetimes.

The reason why the living entity will suffer in this lifetime is because of the reactions to sinful activities in many previous lifetimes. Sospecifically in all of the descriptions of Ekadasi if you go through it very carefully you will find that if you observe this Ekadasi then this sin isgone and that sin is gone. It says that for ten thousand of lifetimes before every mistake is all gone if you do this particular Ekadasi vrata.

Sometime while preaching some people come to me and they say, "Can you look at my horoscope?" and to be honest I know the basics of astrology. It is ahuge subject. It is all about punya and papa. It is all about what kind of karma a person creates in his previous lifetime and usually a person goes toan astrologer when you are in distress. Usually when they are enjoying they don't go to the astrologer. Why does he need an astrologer? He is alreadyenjoying. When he goes to the astrologer he thinks, "Oh he is going to give me a quick fix so that I can get back to the enjoyment line again."

So usually this comes from not usually people who are initiated devotees but people who are sort of followers of our movement and take a keen interestand follow philosophically. So I tell them, "Look if your are suffering from your previous lifetime, observe the Ekadasi vrata. You just fast on Ekadasibecause the reason why you are suffering in this lifetime is all of your sinful reactions have caught up with you. That is the reason because yousinful reactions have caught up with you. Your pious activities are being diminished. Your sinful reactions have taken over. So observe the Ekadasivrata."

They are not going to observe the Ekadasi vrata for getting krsna-prema but they will definitely get relief from their previous sinful activities ifthey follow the vrata. And that s a hundred percent guaranteed as said in the scripture by Krishna and so on. It is actually a good preaching tool.And there is one example; he will never become a devotee. He is totally materially interested. They only want material enjoyment. Their materialenjoyment has run out and they come to me and say, "I am suffering. What's happening? Can you give me a solution?"

So I said, "You sinful reactions have caught up with you. Observe this vrata and then your sinful reactions will go away." And then I always explain thatyou can get material enjoyment or you can get love of Krishna and liberation to the spiritual world. The choice is yours but if you are really smart youwill choose love of Krishna, get out of this material world. Don't come back into material enjoyment because sometimes the living entity is one thehigher planetary system, sometimes on the lower planetary system. He is going up and down repeatedly. Don't go back there again. Just nullify thereactions from your sinful reactions from your past lifetimes and develop love of Krishna and then go back home back to Godhead.

By Krishna's mercy I have been able to get people on the path of devotional service who otherwise wouldn't. But they start with wanting to nullify theirsinful reactions and get back some material enjoyment but once they become educated and enlightened then they can choose if they want to come backagain or if they want to desire material enjoyment and come back again or if they want to desire simply to want to be with Krishna and to serve Krishnaand go back to being an eternal servant of Krishna.

So we can't go to Krishna if we can diminish both the results of our pious and impious activities. This is clearly a very nice instruction that welearn here from this section of Srimad Bhagavatam. One example that comes to mind, I think it is in the Brahma Purana, my mind is focused on that, butthere is one sastra were lord Brahma is explaining how one time Radharani was questioned by the gopis about what is the best possible vrata, austeritythat they can do to get Krishna. So Radharani's reply was, "The Ekadasi vrata." So that is coming from Radharani. The Ekadasi vrata is verypowerful. And as we learn from Bhaktivinode Thakur,

madhava-tithi,  bhakti-janani, jatane palana korikrsna-vasati,  vasati boli', parama adare bori

Bhaktivinode Thakur says," With great care I observe holy days like Ekadasi and Janmastami for they are the mothers of devotion." They can also be themothers of enjoyment. It depends on the individual's desire. But for the bhaktas these are the days are the mothers of devotion.
So if we go through Srila Prabhupada's instructions on what he said of how we should observe Ekadasi one thing is for sure that he said that motivationfor observing Ekadasi is to develop love for Krishna. And he also said that on Ekadasi, no other business. Why just twenty five rounds? And Nirjal! Andthen also you can take Ekadasi Prasad. He said that the type of observance that on Ekadasi a devotee does is up to each individual but somehow or theother we have to utilize that day for preaching and for chanting extra sravanam, kirtanam, visnu smaranam. And if we can fast completely evenbetter! But absolutely we don't take any grains on Ekadasi.

We should simply think that this is the day when Krishna opens the door. Chanting is much more powerful on those days, many times more powerful. AndKrishna opens the door saying perform some seva or vrata for Me on that day them the love of God will come more quickly. So if devotees want love ofKrishna, or if you want pious activity or if you want to be please from the results of sinful reactions you can take shelter of Krishna in that way onEkadasi.
Bhaktivinode Thakur says, "With great care I observe holy days like Janmastami for they are the mothers of devotion. Then he says, "With thegreatest reverence and love I choose as my dwelling place the transcendental abode of Lord Sri Krishna like Sri Dhama Mayapur and Sridham Vrindavan. Sowe are very fortunate to be here in Sridhama Mayapur. And to do any austerities or vratas in Mayapur is many, many more times powerful thandoing Vratas and austeries outside. Of course more powerful than that is preaching.

Preaching is the highest service as Krishna mentions in the Bhagavada-gita. Srila Prabhupada said that we should come annually to Mayapur and getrejuvenated and he said it is a place where we can experience unity in diversity. That is one of the many things he said about Mayapur and theMayapur festival. And we see that there are so many different devotees here from so many different countries. If we were not devotees we wouldn't wantto live with each other, what to speak of talking to each other. Now with unity and diversity we are all coming here in Krishna consciousness. We seeso many devotees from all over the world with smiling faces.

Last night I was at the Govinda's Restaurant and all of a sudden twenty five Chinese devotees came in. It was so ecstatic. I have never seen so manyChinese devotees in my life before. It was amazing. And they were all saying, "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" This is the power of SrilaPrabhupada's mercy. So unity in diversity in Sridham Mayapur is very wonderful. So we will end there. Are there any questions or comments?

HG Sudarsan Prabhu: Ajamila Prabhu perhaps one of the biggest problems that we are burning off as we endeavor to serve Prabhupada is the mode ofpassion. Sometimes we tend to stay out in extreme positions for example I am just imagining a scenario where somebody who is really into Ekadasi vratainsists that this is what we have to do, just sit down and you already touched on this. Then somebody else may say, "No even Sarasvati Thakura gavegrains and to his disciples he said, "You just go preach." So you get all type of devotees sparring over their positions. How can you find out whatmakes sense in such a situation?

HG Ajamila Prabhu: So I am also guilty of that trying to impose my thoughts on other people. But you see each individual devotee has to develop love ofKrishna somehow. Preaching is a higher service. Prabhupada's one instruction is that on Ekadasi no other business. He says just chanting and why twentyfive rounds and nirjal. That is one of the things that he said about Ekadasi. So that is one option. In another place he says unless there issome emergency work. Emergency work means preaching. We are more familiar with the quote that in an emergency situation for preaching you can even eatmeat. Now that is in a genuine emergency. I am sometimes in that situation when it is Ekadasi and you have to preach. You can't get out of it. So wetake Prasad and we preach. We take annabhoga and then we preach.

So we have to accept what is favorable but if every Ekadasi is an emergency, you find and emergency situation so that you can eat then you have toquestion, "Am I gaining control over my senses?" It is actually a very good exercise which is reducing the bodily demands, which is the first lesson ofBhagavad-gita and trying to get more attached to Krishna. We shouldn't kill ourselves trying to do it but we simply accept what is favorable, a balanceshould be found by each individual and we should.

If one individual is doing a vrata and he thinks, "The reason why I am doing this is because I am better than everybody else then that is also material.That is not helpful. As Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur relates it's a powerful day for rejuvenating your devotional service. It is no question about it.You can really gain the mercy of Krishna on these days and increase your devotion. 

Prabhu: Thank you. You were saying earlier you need desire and to do motivation checks and then balance?

Ajamila Prabhu: Yes.

Prabhu: Thank you.

Prabhu: Ajamila Prabhu my impression that devotional service has permanent results and cannot be diminished by things like punya and papa. Punya andpapa are suffering and enjoying reduces. Those are in a separate category and sometime sastra describes about the results of devotional service in theform of punya but it is just to entice the devotees so they could engage in devotional service. So I just wanted to know the difference that devotionalservice cannot be decreased by having some good results and enjoying spirit. Ajamila Prabhu: Devotional service can be checked by one thing and that isVaisnava aparadha. Of all the papa that one can possibly commit Vaisnava aparadha is the most destructive. It is like a mad elephant going into agarden. It destroys everything in your garden of devotion. So therefore Krishnadasa Kaviraj recommends,

trinad api sunicena, taror api sahishnunaamanina manadena, kirtaniya sada hari

We should wear this verse as a thread or garland around our neck. Always be in that mood. There is that one verse in the Caitanya-caritamrta were SrilaPrabhupada mentions quoting from some other sastra, "If one blasphemes even a devotee of Lord Visnu," He did not say Krishna. He said, "Even a devoteeof Visnu, (Not that there is a difference between Visnu and Krishna.) after the end of this life he goes o the Kumbipaka hell and there he is bitten bythe worms for as long as the sun and moon exists. Immediately if you want to strip yourself of all your punya very fast, commit Vaisnava aparadha,because you will lose all you health, all your wealth, all your education. And in the next life time a person will find himself no, wealth, no health,no education and being eaten by the worms for as long as the sun and moon exists. Some devotees say to me that is just an exaggeration. You can take it as anexaggeration but I don't because if Srila Prabhupada is quoting that in a purport in Caitanya-caritamrta it is not exaggerated. It is a very seriousthing. Always take a humble position and ever blaspheme Vaisnavas. Never criticize Vaisnava. Then the question may arise that if nobody criticizes anyone then we are notgoing to make any progress because we need critical thinking. That is also a good point. There is respective critical thinking. In a way that isrespectful that you come up to the Vaisnava. Srila Narada Muni describes the three types of behavior we need. We are compassionate to the younger thanus, junior; we are friendly with those that are equal and we pay utmost respect to those who are senior.So when relating in that way to other Vaisnavas we have to do it withrespect. If we are relating to a junior we do so with compassion. If we are relating to an equal then be friendly, be respectful. And then especially toa senior, a senior devotee should never be criticized. That is the end.Srila Prabhupada said, "I can criticize my god brothers but you cannot." Soyou cannot criticize someone that is senior in that respect. If you have some problem then that needs to be addressed. Someone in a senior position,if a senior devotee needs to be corrected then you go to a senior equal to that senior and then respectfully say, "Can you do something about it."

So it is how you go about it as well that determines whether it is Vaisnava aparadha because we need critical thinking. We can't just let anybody doanything. Like there was one time when one senior member of the movement deviated and Srila Prabhupada said, "Why didn't you say something aboutthat?" It took place during the period that Srila Prabhupada was present. So there is actually a balance there.

If somebody is needlessly and offensively criticizing a Vaisnava then that is Vaisnava aparadha and is very dangerous. If you want to criticize utilizeyour critical nature on the mundane politicians or the non devotees. Blow out all your steam on them but not on the Vaisnavas. It is very dangerous.Hare Krishna. Srimad bhagavatam Ki Jai.

I apologize for not saying anything about Srila Narottama dasa Thakura. It is his appearance day today and he is the composer of many of our Vaisnavasongs so I request you all to please meditate on him sometime during the day and one of his bhajans.  Srila Narottama dasa Thakura Ki Jai! SrilaPrabhupada Ki Jai. Srimad Bhagavatam Ki Jai! Nitai Gaura premanande. Hari Haribol!

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 17th, 2011
Topic: Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead
Verse: SB 4.12.12
Speaker: HH Romapada Swami
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tam evam sila-sampannam
brahmanyam dina-vatsalam
goptaram dharma-setunam
menire pitaram prajah

TRANSLATION: Dhruva Maharaja was endowed with all godly qualities; he was very respectful to the devotees of the Supreme Lord and very kind to the poor and innocent, and he protected religious principles. With all these
qualifications, he was considered to be the direct father of all the citizens.

PURPORT: The personal qualities of Dhruva Maharaja described herein are the exemplary qualities of a saintly king. Not only a king but also the leaders of a modern democratic or impersonal government must be qualified with all
these godly characteristics. Then the citizens of the state can be happy. It is clearly stated here that the citizens thought of Dhruva Maharaja as their father; as a child, depending on his able father, is completely satisfied, so the citizens of the state, being protected by the state or the king, should remain satisfied in every respect. At the present moment, however, there is no guarantee by the government of even the primary necessities of life in the state, namely, the protection of the lives and property of the citizens.

One word is very significant in this connection: brahmanyam. Dhruva Maharaja was very devoted to the brahmanas, who engage in the study of the Vedas and thereby know the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are always busy
propagating Krsna consciousness. The state should be very respectful to societies that distribute God consciousness all over the world, but, unfortunately, at the present moment there is no state or government support given to such movements. As for good qualities, it is very difficult to find anyone in state administration with any good qualities. The administrators simply sit in their administrative posts and say no to every request, as if they were paid to say no to the citizens.

Another word, dina-vatsalam, is very significant also. The state head should be very kind to the innocent. Unfortunately, in this age the state agents and the presidents draw good salaries from the state, and they pose
themselves as very pious, but they allow the running of slaughterhouses, where innocent animals are killed. If we try to compare the godly qualities of Dhruva Maharaja to the qualities of modern statesmen, we can see that there is no actual comparison. Dhruva Maharaja was present in the Satya-yuga, as will be clear from the next verses. He was the ideal king in Satya-yuga. The government administration in the present age (Kali-yuga) is bereft of all godly qualities. Considering all these points, the people today have no alternative but to take to Krsna consciousness for protection of religion, life and property. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.13]

HH Romapada Swami: In this section of verses before, the chapter is entitled 'Dhruva Maharaj Goes Back to Godhead'. So this is before he goes back to Godhead. This is after he achieves spiritual perfection. And the thirty-six thousands of years that he was ruling as a king indicates Satya-yuga. Otherwise that is not possible.

It is describing how he ruled. In Visvanatha Cakravati Thakura's commentary he is singing that Dhruva Maharaj is showing by example the proper execution of duties as karma-yoga and then later he leaves those duties and does
jnana-yoga. Actually he is transcendental to either karma-yoga or jnana-yoga or any other sadhana. He is on the perfectional platform. That was demonstrated way back when he was just a small boy. So this is the context.

When he was just a small boy he achieved spiritual perfection. He went from sakama to niskama bhakti, to suddha bhakti just like the description of Prahlad Maharaj where he is being touched by the lotus hand or paw of Lord
Nrsimhadev. It is explained that this is a portion of the display of mercy that even the Goddess of fortune herself had never experienced. Inconceivable for her! But Prahlad Maharaj was a recipient of such mercy. Dhruva Maharaj similarly, the incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Visnu touching his forehead, allowing him to recite such beautiful prayers.

In those prayers it is said that he is a king there. He wasn't in the sadhana stage, he was in that perfectional stage. In the discussion of Ramananda Raya were Lord Caitanya is asking him to identify the sadhya sadhana, the goal of life and the means to achieve it. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu hears some of our most famous verse, our favorite verse of Bhagavad-gita, He says external. 

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg 18.66]

External!

brahma-bhutah prasannatma, na socati na kanksati [Bg 18.54]

yat karosi yad asnasi,yaj juhosi dadasi yat [Bg 9.27]

External! The previous verses show the internal position of the Dhruva Maharaj. The internal position of Dhruva Maharaj is after Lord Visnu left he was torn with these two conflicting emotions - in complete ecstasy, in complete devastation. The ecstasy was that he saw the Personality of Godhead face-to face. His whole body was in this state of ecstasy. He was exhibiting such symptoms of ecstasy that he couldn't speak until the Lord helped him by touching him with the conch.

So we can see beautiful words, beautiful prayers! And then the Lord after giving him residence in Dhruvaloka, after he rules the kingdom of Uttanapada for thirty-six thousand years then he could go to that place and then the Lord left. And when the Lord left he was sobbing, "I could have gone with the Lord instead of the stupid material desire that said, 'I want a kingdom. I want a big kingdom.' And because of that material desire the Lord is now making the arrangement that I rule this kingdom. I could have gone with Him. I just couldn't have the proper desire."

He was not just embarrassed. He was ashamed. What did he do? He gathered himself up and went back to the palace. And when he came back to the palace Uttanapada was i Although Narada had come to somehow pacify him, he was somehow sustaining his life. Imagine if your six or seven year old son just left home because he felt abandoned by you. So Narada came and said, "Don't worry. Your son is going to achieve spiritual perfection and when he comes back you will become purified by his association." In fact that is what happened.

Uttanapada became so inspired by the association of his uttama bhakta son that he left the kingdom and he followed Dhruva's footsteps. He went to the forest and tried to find Visnu instead of the happiness with his co-wives.Dhruva ruled.

And in the immediate previous section his battle with the Yaksas and Svayambhuva Manu coming and pacifying Dhruva that, "You have done your duty. All these Yaksas you defeated. You were trying to destroy the whole
population of Yaksas. The whole population of Yaksas couldn't kill your brother. You defended the honor of your brother. Now stop." And that is the grandfather. Just at the word although he was very unique, because he is an
uttama adhikari and he got carried away. But just one word from Svayambhuva Manu he was steady. And because the Yaksas are worshippers of Kuvera, Kuvera was very pleased. Kuvera came and expressed his pleasure, Your
submissiveness to Svayambhuva Manu, your consciousness is so fixed upon the Personality of Godhead, you pleased me very much. I would like to offer you some benediction."

What is this, a demigod offering a pure devotee a benediction? What benediction did he want? One benediction is that please let my dedication be undeviatingly fixed on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So how can a demigod give that benediction? He actually can't. He has to give him. But the clue is that although Kuvera had expressed his pleasure with Dhruva, Dhruva wanted to make sure that there was no lingering aparadha because when there is aparadha that blocks ones capacity. It is one of the anarthas, one of the clouds that don't commit one to become absorbed in unalloyed devotion to the Personality of Godhead. He was seeking that forgiveness but he did not say that. He said, "Please benedict me with the capacity to remain always fixed on the Personality of Godhead." So Kuvera to the core excused him from that mistake.  Each one of those proper applications of api cet su-duracaro [Bg 9.30] It was not directly anger but sadhur eva sa mantavyah [Bg 9.30] Such a person, Dhuva Maharaj should be considered saintly. Krishna considers him saintly. We should consider that the Bhagavatam considers him an uttama adhikari vaisnava. So now he is king. And for some period of time, not just externally but internally he is fixed in Krishna consciousness but he is given a service that says, "You be king for thirty-six thousand years."

So the way that we are presented the verse is how we do sadhana but the position of Dhruva is that he is at the perfectional stage exhibiting that this is how you can practice. He is exhibiting qualities just as the first line of the verse indicates, tam evam sila-sampannam.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu  similarly or in the stage or something that we can relate to more, because we are not on the perfectional stage, how do we perform our worldly duties while always remaining fixed in Krishna consciousness or how do we practice that. There is a very nice instruction that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving to Raghunath dasa Goswami. Before he became Goswami he was Raghunath Majumadara. He was the son of Govardhan Majumadhara. They were two brothers, Hiranya, the older brother and Govardhan, the younger brother and Raghunath was the son. And of these two,this is directly described in Caitanya-caritamrta, their income was 1200000 rupees per year. I don't even know if they had rupees that time but that is what Prabhupada writes in the purport.

When Prabhupada first came to America it was seven dollars to a rupee. Then it quickly became fourteen and so on. So Prabhupada said multiply by one hundred and that is their wealth. Whatever it is, they were fabulously wealthy, amongst the wealthiest of all families in all of India. And they were not miserly. They were Vaisnavas and they were very liberal in giving charity. Just as it is cited about Dhruva he was so charitable that practically he would empty his treasury and then because he was so spiritually qualified his treasury would fill and he would empty it again.

The Majumadara's would maintain all of the brahmanas and Vaisnavas in their whole area. So they were very popular and they were respected. But they were not just high and respected. It is described that the place where they came from was Krishnapura and wasn't so far from Navadvip and they had relationship with Jagannath Misra and they practically worshipped Jagannath Misra. Jaganath Misra, Lord Caitanya's father was so qualified amongst all the Vaisnavas in Navadvip. He was so qualified and respected by everyone. So even from distant places this Majumadar family worshipped him.

Caitanya-caritamrta sas that Jagannath Misra was so Vaisnava-like that he treated them just like friends. They were worshipping him and he was treating them as friends.  They would go and serve Advaita Acarya in Santipura, because he was such an elevated Vaisnava and he was very pleased with the Majumadars, so much so that when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was making His pilgrimage to India, He made a little detour first through Bengal and after
going through Divya nagara so many hundreds and thousands of people came. It was too much so he went to hide in Navadvip, in Kulinagram. There He stayed in the house of Madhava dasa. 

And for seven days thousands and thousands of people will gather aroundiThen he went to Santipur and stayed there for ten days. While He was in Santipura raghunath came to know that Lord Caitanya was there, very close to their
family. So he pleaded with his father, "Please let me go there. I don't know  if I would be able to maintain my life." He was so eager for Lord Caitanya's association. So with some reservation and like ten gaurds, Raghunatha was

allowed to go. 

For seven days Raghunath was receiving the remnants of lord Caitanya's prasadam. It was arranged by Advaita Acarya or him to have the mahaprasad from the hand of Advaita Acarya. How fortunate! He did not say anything but in his mind he was praying for Lord Caitanya, "Somehow please deliver me from the clutches of material existence and allow me to be in Your association." He didn't say that but Lord Caitanya knew his mind.

So Lord Caitanya spoke very instructive words which were very appropriate for this situation what Dhruva Maharaj was facing. Three things: "be patient; go back home; don't be a crazy fellow. In due course of time you will cross the ocean of material existence." Then He gave him this internal, external instruction. "Don't be a show-bottle devotee or a false renunciate. For now enjoy the material world, external world in a fitting way but don't
be attached to it. So within your heart remain faithful. Externally behave like an ordinary man. By doing like that very soon Krishna will deliver you. 

He will provide you with the means. He will be clear with the means for you to escape that circumstance." Very instructive! Because my appearance as a i sannyasi many questions that people ask are the 'how to' questions. Here is the 'how to' answer. In executing the duties of life it seems by so doing it is very entangling, very time consuming and one becomes attached. Just like Priyavrata, coming later, very soon in the Bhagavatam. Priyavrata, when the lineage of kings from Uttanapada was broken, there was no qualified king to carry on the line, Svayambhuva Manu went to Uttanapada's elder brother, Priyavrata and requested Priyavrata, "My dear son please become the emperor of the material world." And he did not want to say, "No I don't want to do that." But he did not want to do that because his understanding was that by so doing I will become attached.

"To become an emperor then I will have to have a queen and I will also have to have a family. And for one who comes in to contact with the opposite sex and money if is very easy to become attached and I do not want to become attached." On the other hand here is Raghunath dasa Goswami who is renunciation personified and here Lord Caitanya is saying to him, "Go back. Go perform your duty externally."

So this is the clue. Externally as required to properly carry out whatever needs to be done, do that in a very responsible way be. Internally be very faithful and do not become attached. Don't allow yourself or your mind to
become attached but perform all of your duties in a very responsible way. In due course of time Krishna will help you cross the ocean of material existence. It's cultivation. In the course of doing that, same as the verse Lord Caitanya accepted,

jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva [Madhya 8.67]

You stay sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir [Madhya 8.67]

You stay in your position and hear the topics of the Personality of Godhead through the proper sources and don't involve yourself in endeavoring for knowledge and mental speculation. But that is on the jnana-yoga side and on
the material side there is the appearance of this world perform your duties without attachment, preach the message of Bhagava-gita. This is such a nice example or two nice expressions 'how to' live.

Dhruva Maharaj is not on the external platform. He is doing his duties and dedicating them to the Supreme Personality of Godhead but his mind is completely fixed. The Bhagavatam is so great in that it gives us such close,
intimate examples of consciousness and heart both external and internal of the perfected devotees.

Similarly Ambarish Maharaj's opulence was surpassing that of the heavenly realm and he didn't care about it all. In that he did not care about it at all it is described that he did not value it more than a pebble or small stone. Imagine if after class we walk out and we see a small stone on the courtyard. How exciting is that? Who is ever going to pay any attention? He didn't consider his enormous treasury any more significant than that. Totally insignificant! And yet he used it fully as the previous verses about Dhruva described. He engaged the brahmanas in the performances of yajnas and he gave in charity to the brahmanas and to all of the citizens he was distributing all of the fruits of piety because that was the platform on which they were on. But yet internally he was completely absorbed.

Just like again the example of Ambarish Maharaj, it is described there was a drought in his kingdom and Ambarish was so pious that when he heard that there was a drought what did he do? He engaged the brahmanas who were very expert in yajna in performing yajna while he was in the temple worshipping the Krishna deity because he was Krishna bhakta. He was engaging the citizens in his kingdom appropriate to their position and according to the faith of the citizens who can accept whatever they can accept but his consciousness did not stray one fraction from, sa vai manah krsna-padaravindayor [SB 9.4.18] Externally doing duties as they are to be done, as appropriate for the circumstance and time and so forth and internally fully absorbed in thought of Krishna.

This is Dhruva Maharaj's example. In the verse it describes that the first statement is that he was decorated with all good qualities, tam evam sila-sampannam. In the twelfth chapter of Bhagavad-gita Krishna describes the position of worshipping Him in the personal feature versus the impersonal feature. One who worships the personal feature he becomes fixed in qualities, that is to say, Krishna decorates His devotees with good qualities.

There are twenty six qualities of a devotee mentioned in out scripture and of those twenty six qualities one is svarup laksana and the others are tatasya laksana - principle characteristics and marginal. And the marginal
follow the principle. And the principleone - krsnaika-saranam is something that pleases Krishna that Krishna then begins to decorate His devotees with nice qualities. And when Krishna sees the devotee come before Him with nice
qualities He is very pleased. He decorates the devotee with nice qualities. From where else we are going to get good qualities? They come from Krishna. He decorates His devotees with good qualities.

When the devotees see that Krishna is very pleased then they become fully satisfied and when they are fully satisfied the mind doesn't dwell on other things. They are protected by this one thing, their exclusive shelter and devotion to Krishna.

So the verse says that Dhruva had all godly qualities. He manifested three of them. He was brahmanya. Just like we say, namo brahmanya devaya. He had quality of Krishna. He is very kind i very respectful to the brahmanas. He
was very affectionate to the brahmanas. As described here he engaged them. As described her he obeyed them and being liberal he gave in charity to thebrahmanas. He saw to their protection and to their well being. And because
they were protected and in a state of well being the whole country was benefitted by the proper execution of those religious duties that the brahmanas were doing. Everyone was prosperous and everyone was very happy.

Those who are innocent persons, a great personality, because somebody is small or in worldliness insignificant they do not make such a distinction. This is some innocent person. They are very kind to them, just naturally so.
It is part of the character of a Vaisnava. And when that character of a Vaisnava is missing there is not just a ... Krishna will decorate one with those qualities. (I shall share and anecdote in this regard shortly.) Particularly those who are sannyasis or on that path of life, more particularly preaching, it is little difficult as a sannyasi because
everyone wants to serve you, carry this or help you with that. You can't do anything because people want serve and it is difficult but after some time it becomes like a service to accept a person who wants to do this and a person who wants to do that. It is a service unto the society to take that position, in the service of the society.

So I was recently travelling in America going to the North American Temple President and GBC meeting in Dallas towards the end of January. The flight on the way back goes from Houston to Dallas with this i So the Dallas airport is; I don't know who designed it but it is like so far apart. There is terminal A; B; C and D. So there was arrival over here and departure over there. If you had to get from departure to arrival it would take about half an hour. They had a slide which was broken. So I didn't know what to do so I went to one of the guys with these little bob-carts. I asked him where is gate C-26. He said, "Oh it is way down. You have to walk." I said, "Do I?" He said, "Okay, hop on."

He went to some other place to get people onto the elevators and he had handicap people for terminal B and then off to terminal C. When we got to the end we were there on time. They were just getting ready to board and I was thinking, Wow!"I said to the man, "You do this for a living? You just like help people make their flights. I am not even disabled. This is like a disable vehicle and you showed compassion on me. Thank you very much.

I didn't get it right away. He reached in his pocket. That is like a signal, "I want money." That is how; I don't know how it worksithey get a tip. That is what they call it in America. I didn't give him any. Then I was getting onto the plane and then somehow the Supersoul reminded me like, "Hello!" This man isn't a Vaisnava. He is a worker and his livelihood, his family his everything depended on the tip. I told him, "Thank you very much." He did not want a 'thank you very much.' He wanted a tip. He had his family.

It wasn't devotional service. I was in this very difficult spot because I was supposed to be on this plane departing. I went to go back and find him. I don't even know if he is there. They would take the bag off the plane. I asked them and they said, "I am sorry we can't take your bag off the plane because of security reasons." I was thinking how do I contact this man and give him something. It is very personal. I am just sharing this with you that we have worldly duties.

Besides serving the Vaisnavas and so on there is a littleiBhurijana was sharing this with me about Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, that in Vrindavan at Radhakund they were doing circumambulation around Radha-kund and there are these persons with a little begging bowls and he was with some industrialists from Delhi and they were sort of just passing by the persons who are receiving contributions. And they just walked and so Bhaktisiddhanta stopped and said that, "Do you think that now because you are Vaisnavas you have passed beyond the karma kandha rituals of helping. It is actually the duty of a grhasta, as a Vaisnava grhasta to help those who are poor." Dina vatsala. Of course we have to be discriminating unto who but the principle that we have duties to abide and duties to the world. Ideally to deliver people the message of Krishna consciousness and suddha bhakti, not just helping this poor person and that poor person. 

As grhastas in particular how do we interact with the world without being entangled? Just like it is shown here that the proper discrimination and the quality is built upon krsnaika saranam. It is built upon Krishna consciousness and our Krishna consciousness is built upon hearing and chanting and receiving the mercy of Krishna through that process of hearing and chanting. We should always be ready in whatever position to fine tune executing our duties of life, certainly among the Vaisnavas and within the world.

I felt terrible! Like when you are going to become a human being tuned into this person has a need. Help this person. He has a need. Have some prasadam. Give some prasadam or something. It is important. Krishna consciousness. It is not inconsequential. The Vaisnava behavior is part of our Krishna consciousness.

Goptaram dharma-setunam - he was the protector. The surrendered soul is always feeling protected by Krishna. And the king or the i or a person who is taking charge of others has to give protection to religious principles. It is part of Krishna consciousness. Not just an external thing. It is part of your absorption in Radha and Krishna, protecting of religious principles particularly ior for one who is in a position of giving protection to others. Because those qualities were there, because Krishna consciousness was there the citizens felt completely protected. They felt like he is there original father. He was protecting. They were feeling protected. Religious activities were being protected but most importantly for him he was absorbed in Krishna all the time.

There was no sticking. There was no misfire. No opportunity lost to carry out his duties as an ideal king. We will end there Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada Ki.Jai!

Suresvara Prabhu: In a little role play Maharaj, say I am your disciple and I just heard you give class and I want to say to you Maharaj, [Sanskrit] you shouldn't have felt bad after that incident in the airport because that person, the Bhagavata says that you have given your life to Krishna and you are serving Krishna so nicely. There is no need for you to have any other obligations.

HH Romapada Swami: That is right.

HG Suresvara Prabhu: Don't feel bad Maharaj.

HH Romapada Swami: No obligation. So what you say that it is not an obligation a debt to be repaid that is like you know, that is material? You are correct my dear disciple. [Laughter.] But it is part of our Krishna consciousness but it is part of our Krishna consciousness. Just like Bhaktisiddhanta said to his grhasta disciples. It is part of your Vaisnava duty. Not material duty so that you can get free from the sin of neglecting duty or so that you can prosper by proper performance of duty. Those are material. This is transcendental. We have to act in the society in a transcendental way. And there are different situations of life that call for transcendental action.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: In that regard that you had with the bob-cart isn't  there also a principle called loka vicara?  If you were dressed in Vaisnava clothes and you don't give them money then that creates an unfavorable impression for him making it difficult for him to advance further? 

HH Romapada Swami: Yes I was thinking that this gentleman will probably
never be iVaisnava i [Laughter.] Is that your point?

HG Janmastami Prabhu: Yah! [Laughter.] i

HH Romapada Swami: i besides the higher purpose is our duty to Krishnai

HG Janmastami Prabhu: We already have a bad reputation in the airports from book distributioni.another question that I had is that we understand that if we give ourselves heart and souls to following the order of the spiritual
master, pushing on his mission, sometimes devotees tend to see that as part of their internal meditation.

HH Romapada Swami: Yes. Of course!

HG Janmastami Prabhu: and there are external duties to go with that.

HH Romapada Swami: Yes. That's the point.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: It seems that there is a tendency to be attached like, "This is my service. This is an important pastime of this service, some of its external features." So I question who has that discrimination?

HH Romapada Swami: Krishna.

HG Janmastami Prabhu: For sure. One last question Maharaj: In the studies that we have done of the verse, sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir [Madhya 8.67] this dedication to hearing and chanting, making this one's main activity in life sometimes that is included in one's external responsibilities. So that seems to be i

HH Romapada Swami: There are priorities. And if which is of the higher priority is done while you are practicing something which is of the lower priority it is not a transgression. Now how do we know that we have our priorities straight? If we follow guidance from those who are qualified. We close class because of time. You are not getting another chance to question because you have had three.  Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 16th, 2011
Topic: Appearance of Lord Nityananda
Speaker: HH Jayapataka Swami
_________________________________________

They asked me to speak on the philosophy of Lord Nityananda. We heard the pastimes first. Maharaj like to give the sweet words but of course everything about Lord Nityananda is ecstatic and very blissful.

I want to thank Radhanath Swami for his very much appreciated lecture on how Lord Nityananda was first in Ekacakra; also how He came to meet Lord Caitanya. I was listening to Srila Prabhupada. He spoke about this song
written by Narottama dasa Thakura,

nitai pada-kamala, koti-candra susitala, ye chayaya jagat judaya.

That by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have heard that He is Balaram as well, by His mercy everything in this universe, everyone in this universe they are all suffering from anxiety. You ask a person in the United Statesi and they are eloquent yet everybody is suffering from anxiety. Prabhupada was saying that by the mercy of Lord Nityananda we don't have any anxiety - although we have got seven thousand devotees and we have to feed them.
Normally just to feed one family there is so much anxiety but somehow we don't have any anxiety. Jai Nitai! Jai Nitai!  Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.]

Jagat judaya means, the whole world, the whole universe cries upon hearing the ecstatic pastimes of how Lord Nityananda left Ekacakra. I think that it is hard not to know how much He was loved there. By Lord Nityananda's mercy we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya, you get the mercy of Radha and Krishna
 
heno nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna paite nai, drdha kori' dharo nitair pay
If we don't have the mercy of Lord Nityananda we don't get the mercy of Radha and Krishna. So with great faith we should grab the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. We should fully take shelter of Lord Nityananda. By His shelter we can also get Lord Caitanya's mercy and we can also get Radha and Krishna's mercy. The whole perfection of our life is to have the mercy of Radha and Krishna, to experience Their pastimes that is the real bliss, the real ecstasy and that is possible only by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Somehow we went past over Lord Nityananda like in the Pannihati festival, which is also known as the Danda Mahotsava Lord Nityananda said to Raghunath dasa, "I am going to punish you! You come here! I am going to punish you! PUNISH you!" Raghunath dasa paid his obeisances knowing that he was going to get punished.

Then Lord Nityananda came and put His lotus feet on the head of Raghunath dasa. You thief! You have to feed all these associates with cida, dahi and fruits. Haribol! Jai Nitai. [Audience chant responsively.] As Radhanath Swami said Lord Nityananda is very mysterious. He is also very jolly, very cunning. So His punishment was that Raghunatha dasa had to feed His associates chipped rice and yogurt and fruits. Now this is nothing. He is wealthy. His uncle and father are millionaires so it is not a big thing for him. But by this little seva which he got. This festival is called the Danda Mahotsava. It is called the festival of punishment or the Panihati Cida Dahi festival. So, why?

Although Nityananda was very close to Raghunatha dasa, he was in Adi-Saptagram and Nityananda was in Kolkata(?) in Panihati he was directly going to Lord Caitanya and he was refused. He was not accepted. He was told so many things. So then he got the idea, "Let me go to Lord Nityananda. By His mercy I will get Lord Caitanya." Then he was on the right track. He went to Lord Nityananda and he got the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.]

So that is the punishment that He said, "Why you are staying away? You are a thief." Because he was not coming to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. If you don't get His mercy, you don't get Radha and Krishna, you don't get Lord
Caitanaya. So how many of you want Lord Nityananda's mercy? [Audience chants Haribol!] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.]

There was a second meeting. I don't know all the details that were told by Radhanath Swami. These details are very ecstatic. At the second meeting Lord Caitanya was at the house of i Thakura. That is Candrasekhara Prabhu. So he
was there doing kirtana and Lord Nityananda came there. Either in the day or night there was a second meeting. So there They saw each other. Nitai, "GAURANGA! NITYANANDA! [Audience chants responsively.] GAURANGA! NITYANANDA!
[Audience chants responsively.] GAURANGA! NITYANANDA! [Audience chants responsively.] They ran and embrace each other and danced in ecstasy.

In that dancing it is said that sometimes Lord Caitanya would be on the lap of Lord Nityananda and He would wash Lord Caitanya's head with His tears andsometimes Nityananda would be on the lap of Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya would wash His head with tears. Like this Gadadhara Prabhu was watching and he was amazed how it seemed like Lord Caitanya was Maha Visnu on Anantasesha and he saw Their affection and was amazed. He said, "This is really exceptional." So They had a second meeting. I wish I had all the details. So nice kirtana was going on at Thakur's. Thakur 

se sambandha nahi jara brtha janma gela ta'ra, sei pasu bada duracara

So those who don't know the mercy of Lord Nityananda are not, se sambandha - who don't have any relationship with Lord Nityananda their birth, brtha is useless. So our acarya Narottama sings. Pasu is an animal. It is very filthy. 

Prabhupada here says that we are all dogs, in one sense. We are all serving some masters. But we should become a dog of Lord Nityananda and by being His dog we can get all the mercy. So we can be a dog for the masters in the
material world or we can be a dog like Vaisnava kukur like Bhaktivinode Thakura is saying, "O Vaisnava Thakura I want to be your dog." So like that we should be a dog of Lord Nityananda. We should be His dog serving Him with
our mind, endeavor and our words and our activities, our deeds. So in this way we can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda.

Lord Nityananda is very, very, very merciful. [Weeps.] If we don't na balila mukhe majila samsara-sukhe. What will be the use of all their education if someone thinks, "I can achieve Krishna consciousness. I have a degree. I have a Phd or a doctorate or a master's degree or a bachelor of arts. All these degrees don't help. What helps is the mercy of Lord Nitai. Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] So we should take shelter of Lord Nityananda's lotus feet. We sing in the mornings:

ha ha prabhu nityananda premananda-sukhi krpavalokana koro ami bado duhkhi

So Lord Nityananda gives His mercy to the fallen souls. He is very merciful. It is said that He is always immersed in spiritual bliss. In that meeting that was told by Radhanath Swami so ecstatic. There are so many pastimes where Lord Nityananda was showing His ecstasy. He is always filled with spiritual bliss. And we can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda very easily just by chanting the holy names.

If you go to Ekacakra and if you don't say Nitai-Gaura, if you say Gaura-Nitai everybody will think, "What is wrong with you?!" You got to say Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Then by the mercy of Nitai you can get the mercy of Gaura.

In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said that just by chanting the name Nityananda, [Audience chants responsively.] [Audience chants responsively.] we can get love of Krishna. Just by chanting the names Gauranga [Audience chants responsively.] we will all get Krishna. So we want to take shelter and chant the names of Nitai and Gauranga. Nityananda [Audience chants responsively.] Gauranga [Audience chants responsively.]

In South India there is a i called Nityananda i just by saying Nityananda he is having some illicit relationship with some movie starlets. I told him to explain that he is not Nityananda of five hundred years ago i. Is quiet unusual. So this name people will use but they don't know who Lord Nityananda is. In our temple of the Vedic Planetarium our main deities are Panca Tattva. And there we have Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda, Advaita,Gadadhara and Srivas. So Nityananda He is the very major personality for this temple and all the people will know who is Lord Nityananda. They should know.

Some people are confused. They don't think that Balaram is Visnu-tattva. but we know that He is known as the prakasa lila. He is the expansion of Lord Krishna. He is the first expansion and from Him all the other avataras
and all the other Visnus, Narayans are expanded. So Balarama is very important.

In fact it is said when Radharani sometimes faints in ecstasy of separation from Krishna, when She is unconscious then Krishna also faints. And when Krishna faints everything stops. The moon stops, the sun stops, everything stops except Balaram. He has the duty to wake up Krishna and then massage Him. Krishna is the Supreme consciousness so if He stops, everything stops except Balaram. So how important Balaram is people don't know but He is very, very important. So when He comes as Nityananda he gives His mercy so much so that because of Him Jagai aand Madhai were delivered. Even when He was hit on the head by a wine bottle and blood was coming he said, "Just
because you drew blood does that mean that I won't give you love?" So then Jagai said, "He just smashed the wine bottle all over His head. He is bleeding but He still talking about love! This is no ordinary soul. I surrender." So Jagai encourage Madhai to surrender.

Then Lord Caitanya came and He invoked the Sudarsan Cakra. Afterwards Madhai went to Nityananda and he begged, "Please forgive me for my offence." And Lord Nityananda said, "I don't take any offence. You are like a little baby. The baby kicks the mother but the mother doesn't take offence." Lord Nityananda compared breaking the wine bottle all over His head which caused Him to bleed with the baby kicking the mother. But it is not the same thing but this is how Lord Nityananda took it.  Madhai was feeling i so he asked, "I have committed many offences to the dhambasis." Then Lord Nityananda said, "Yes. That is true." So he said, "What shall I do to counteract that?"
So he said, "If you will facilitate people in their Krishna consciousness then you will get forgiven for your offences to the dhambasis." 

So in the hottest day of the year in the month of May he dug a ghat with his own hands, which he named Madhai Ghat which extends into the Ganges. All the people use that. They were facilitated in their service to the Ganga and
brahmanas and service to Krishna. So because of that Madhai was forgiven for his offences to the dhambasis all by the mercy of Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.] Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]
Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]

So if we don't take the mercy of Lord Nityananda then our life is useless and it is very hard to make advancement. So we should get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]

ahankare matta hoiya, nitai-pada pasariya, asatyere satya kori mani

So we are very much affected by the false ego. We think that the temporary world is eternal, that the false things are true. So in this way we get thoroughly illusioned. So we should not miss the mercy of Lord Nityananda. We should not leave His shelter because of false ego. We should take shelter of Lord Nitai and in this way we get to be situated in proper spiritual strength.

Nityananda is non-different from Balarama. So Balarama as I was explaining, Bala means strength. In the western world people think strength means a stout body, big muscles. This is not the strength that is talked about. This is spiritual strength. So Lord Nityananda is giving us this spiritual strength, the special bliss to transcend this material world. So we should take shelter of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]

nitaiyer koruna habe, braje radha-krsna pabe, dharo nitai-carana du'khani

So by the mercy of Lord Nityananda we get the mercy of Radha and Krishna. We should grab onto the two feet of Lord Nityananda or the diksa guru. The gurus, Prabhupada he is coming in the line of Lord Nityananda. It is said
that the guru is very dear to Lord Nityananda. So we take the shelter of guru, of Prabhupada. In this way we should not miss the shelter of Lord Nityananda. We should take shelter of Lord Nityananda and in this way we will get Radha and Krishna.

So we should not be illusioned by the false ego and think that somehow we can get Krishna because of our material qualification. There is verse that also says that bhakti is,

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam,  tat-paratvena nirmalam,
hrsikena hrsikesa- sevanam bhaktir ucyate
[Madhya 19.170]

So to be free from all these external designations, which causes us to be falsely proud. All of us have some designations but we don't take it as very important. It causes us to leave Krishna consciousness. All we need is the
mercy of Lord Nityananda, mercy the guru and the mercy of Vaisnavas. Haribol! Gauranga! [Audience chants responsively.] Nityanada [Audience chants responsively.]

nitaiyer carana satya, tanhara sevaka nitya, nitai-pada sada koro asa

Lord Nityananda's lotus feet are eternal and His servants are eternal. So we go on the Navadvip Parikrama because Lord Nityananda went and we are following in His footsteps. Srila Jiva Goswami went on the Navadvip Parikrama so we also go. i So this year I heard that we have four groups. We have the international group. We have the Bengali group. We have a Russian Group and this year we have the Hindi group. [Harbol.] It will increase. There is a big quantity of speakers. This year we tried four groups. We have a Bengali group as well. 2500 people in the International group 1500 Russian. So like this it is very usual to have so many groups. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura he had between 5 000 and 10 000 people on parikrama. So this is also certifying that they get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda [Audience chants responsively.]

We know that His lotus feet are eternal and to be His servitor one will be eternal. When Prabhupada arrived here in Mayapur after givingihe took some water in his golden goblet and said, "Oh! Mayapur! Living and dying in Mayapur is all the same." Our living and dying is the same. He said if you are living in Mayapur you are living in the spiritual world and if you die there you go back to Goloka, go back to the spiritual world. Mayapur dham ki! Jai! So this is all the mercy of Lord Nityananda that by His mercy we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Radha Krishna and we can stay here in the holy dhama.

So we should take this holy day and grab onto His lotus feet and take fullshelter.  Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] So one more
line.

narotamma boro dukhi, nitai more koro sukhi, rakho ranga-caranera pasa

Narotamma says, "I am very, very sad, very much in distress. Lord Nityananda please make me happy. Keep me by Your lotus feet." So how many of you want to be kept by the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda? [Haribol] Jai Nitai!
[Audience chants responsively.] So I heard the class started 15 minutes late. Now it is twenty minute over. I always i So thank you very much and I hope you have a very blissful Nitai Trayodasi by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Haribol! Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Haribol!

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 16th, 2011
Topic: Appearance of Lord Nityananda
Speaker: HH Radhanath Swami
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HH Radhanath Swami: I am very grateful for this opportunity to be with all of you in the holy dham Sri Mayapur on the holy day of the appearance of Sri Nityananda Prabhu. It appears that there is no verse selected so with your
permission I will just talk in what time is allotted.

How Lord Nityananda Prabhu revealed the glories and the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is one of the most important truths that Gaudiya Vaisnava's ardently worship. The first author of Lord Caitanya's life was Sri Vrindavan dasa Thakura. He wrote Sri Caitanya Bhagavat. He was the last disciple of Lord Nityananda. He was given the order of Lord Nityananda Prabhu and with that order he became empowered to reveal Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the whole world.

It was Niyananda Prabhu who appeared in divine vision to order Sri Krishna dasa Kaviraja Goswami to leave his home forever and to go to Vrindavana and compose Caitanya-caritamrta. Krishna dasa Kaviraja Goswami gives credit to Nityananda Prabhu because it is he who is speaking through Krishna dasa Kaviraj Goswami with the mercy of Rupa Goswami and Raghunath Goswami to reveal Mahaprabhu's life and teachings to the world. And Rupa and Sanatana Goswami when they went to meet Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Ramakeli (the first meeting) they first approached Lord Nityananda Prabhu and Thakur Haridasa. It was Lord Nityananda Prabhu who personally brought them into the presence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

They are our sambandha and abhideya acaryas. And our prayojana acarya Raghunatha dasa Goswami he tried to leave his home in Sri-krsnapura, Adi-saptagrama again and again to dedicate his life to Lord Caitanya but every time he was dragged back by force by his family members. Then he went to Panihati to see Lord Nityananda Prabhu offering his obeisances from a distance.

Sri Nityananda Prabhu was sitting under a beautiful banyan tree on the bank of the Ganges with His associates and he called Raghunatha, "You are a thief. You are hiding in a distant place. Your atonement is feed all of My devotees, everyone with cida dhahi, chipped rice in yogurt." Raghunatha dasa Goswami took this very seriously. He bought practically every flake of chipped rice and all the yogurt not only in Panihati but also from the villages nearby. He soaked half in milk. He soaked all in milk and then he put half in yogurt and half in a combination of condensed milk and camphor, ghee and sugar. He gave everyone two clay pots and Nityananda Prabhu was so happy to see this.

Raghunath dasa Goswami brought such happiness to all the Vaisnavas and to all the people in general. He personally called Lord Caitanya to honor that feast with Him. In a divine spiritual body Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya
went throughout the crowd taking some chipped rice and yogurt from each pot. Then Nityananda Prabhu gave all His personal remnants to Raghunath dasa Goswami. The next day Raghunatha dasa Goswami fell at the feet of Nityananda Prabhu and prayed that, "One cannot achieve the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu without the Your mercy. I beg You, please liberate me from the bondage of this material existence and give me the shelter of Lord Caitanya's lotus feet.

Sri Nityananda Prabhu place His lotus feet on Raghunatha dasa Goswami's head and He said, "Because you have pleased all the devotees and Lord Caitanya came I bless you." Actually he first asked all the devotees to bless   Raghunath dasa Goswami. "Because you have to render service to the devotees very soon you will be liberated from all material bondage and you will become Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's personal associate under the care of Swarup Damodara Goswami.

So our sambandha, abhideya and prayojana gurus were all brought to Lord Caitanya by Nityananda Prabhu. The two most prominent biographies of Caitanya Mahaprabhu were inspired or ordered by Sri Nityananda Prabhu. And
our beloved Srila Prabhupada he established Lord Nityananda's deity along with Lord Caitanya all over the world because he was so much in that spirit of compassion.

Nityananda Prabhu is guru-tattva. Narottama dasa Thakura prays:

vrajendra-nandana yei, saci-suta haila sei, balarama ha-ila nitai

That the son of Nanda appeared as the son of Saci and Balaram appeared as Nityananda Prabhu. Balaram is the original guru because He serves the Lord. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead always in the mood of serving Lord Krishna. He expands Himself as the dhama to provide a beautiful place for the Lord to have His pastimes. He manifests as the Lord's shoes, the Lord's bed, the Lord's ornaments, the Lord's clothing and in all of the various
rasas of relationship He is prominent. He serves the Lord in these ways in santa rasa; dasya rasa; as a gopa in sakya rasa, the Lord's friend; as His elder brother. Sometimes He takes the role of vatsalya rasa and expands
Himself as Ananga Manjari, Srimati Radharanis younger sister in madhurya rasa. In this way Sri Nityananda Prabhu is enthusiastic to serve is all pervading.

As Balaram we know the pastime of Romaharsana Suta. Romaharsans Suta was sitting in a place as a spiritual leader in the presence of great sages, Naimasaranya. But when Balaram appeared Romaharsana Suta payed no attention. Lord Balaram understood that he has too much false pride. He spoke very angrily, "Although you Romaharsana Suta are directly a disciple of Vedavyasa. You have profoundly learned the Vedas, Itihasyas, the Puranas and all these scriptures from Him. Yet all your knowledge has not annihilated your false pride. Therefore I consider your knowledge of the scripture to be completely useless like an actor playing the role without any realization. I have come to liberate the world from cheaters like you."

Then He picked up a piece of grass and touched that grass to Romaharsana Suta and Romaharsana was liberated. [Laughter from audience.] The sages said, "What are we going to do now?" [Laughter.] They said, "Just before You
came we were going to bless him that he would live a long life!  [Laughter from audience.] Balaram said, "Well if you like I can bring him back." They said, "We know that You are the Supreme Lord. We can ask for You to bring
him back!" Then the Lord atoned by removing Balvala who was disturbing their sacrifices and He said, "The father lives through the son." So Balaram empowered Suta Goswami to speak to the sages.

As Lord Nityananda Prabhu that grass that He liberated Romaharsana with in a similar way He too grass between His teeth and here in Navadwip he went house to house, door to door, shop to shop. Grass in His teeth is an
expression of totally humbling oneself before someone else, taking the grass they step on and putting it in your mouth. He would bow down, roll on the ground and beg people, "Please take the name of Krishna." And if they
refused, which most did he would kneel on His knees and beg them.

The Supreme Absolute Truth who is actually the source of Nrsimhadev; Varahadev, who is Balaram with the plough he started dragging the entire city of Hiranyakaspu [Hastinapura(?)] into the Ganges that had all the Kurus
including Bhisma surrender to His Supreme power. That same Balaram is going to sinful ordinary people with straw in His teeth crying and begging them, "Take the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."

parama karuna, pahun dui jana, nitai-gauracandra
Locana dasa Thakura is saying that these two brothers are supremely merciful. They have given what nobody else has given freely. Locana dasa Thakura also wrote in another song that Nityananda Prabhu is never angry. He
goes town to town, village to village giving ecstatic love for Krishna to everyone and anyone never considering their qualification or disqualification. All He asks is, "Just accept."

The place that Srila Prabhupada went, the tolerance, the compassion, the humility in which he gave such wretched, sinful people an opportunity to attain life's perfection. He truly was the embodiment of Lord Nityananda's mercy. We can always i remember him and worship Him on His appearance day. There are many stories in the Vaisnava literatures. 

Not far from here is a village called Udani (?) There was a marriage close to there, where Nityananda Prabhu's wife Jahnavadevi along with Narottama dasa Thakur, Ramacandra Kaviraj and many other intimate associates of both
Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya were present. iplace after Nityananda Prabhu had already departed from the world Jahnavadevi invited everyone, "Let us go to Ekacakra, Nityananda Prabhu's birthplace." She had never been
there before.

They all went together. Their hearts were overflowing with happiness just at the prospect of seeing this holy place. They had heard so much about it for so long. They were going down a simple lane that was shaded by Pipal trees
with singing birds. They saw from a small distance a very old brahmana whowas walking with a stick. He started coming towards them but then he sat under a tree. He was looking with wonder thinking, "Where are all these
Vaisnavas coming here for?"

They all approached him and spontaneously bowed down. Then they asked, "We have heard so much about Ekacakra that it is a very prosperous town but it appears to be in total ruins. Do you know anything about the history?" The
old brahmana sat down with Jahnava and Narottama and all of these devotees. Then he explained the history of Ekacakra.

He said, "At one time this was such a prosperous and affluent town with great scholars, great devotees of the Lord. And there was one astrologer. He was the best of all astrologers. He came to the conclusion that the Supreme
Personality of Godhead Balaram will take birth in Ekacakra but I am sounfortunate that I will not live to see that most auspicious day."

Then all the other astrologers and scholars came together and agreed that this is absolutely true. Lord Balarama will come here. Then this old brahmana said that was a very great scholar and saint of the name Bhoja. He was very influential in every way but he and his wife were very sad. Every time they would give birth to a child just after birth the child died. Heperformed much prayer and tapasya and ultimately a beautiful child was born to them. The named him Ojha. He became a very great scholar and a great devotee of Krishna. Because of his scholarship he was given the name Hadai Pandit. His father and mother arranged for him to marry a girl named Padmavati who was equal to him in every way.

A few days after the marriage Hadai Pandit's mother and father died. He was struck with grief. As time went on the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared within the womb of Padmavati. Then on this day, the thirteenth day
of the waxing moon in the month of Marg a beautiful child was born in Ekacakra. People from all over the town were coming to see the beauty of this child. Some said, "He is so beautiful. He is so soft like butter. His complexion is like gold. Everything about Him charms our hearts." 

The people of Ekacakra were coming day and night just to be with this child. Hadai Pandit was giving charity to everyone in every way he possibly could with the prayer of protecting his beloved boy.

The brahmana told Jahnavadevi that one time he was in serious distress, anxiety. So naturally he ran to the house of Hadai Pandit and Lord Nityananda Prabhu climbed up on his lap and immediately he became ecstatic.  All of his distress vanished.

At the time of the name giving ceremony of Lord Nityananda some called Him Nityananda and some called Him Rama. As He crawled around His name was Nitai to the people of Ekacakra.

For His mother it was unbearable to separate Nitai from her lap even for a moment. And Hadai Pandit if he wasn't looking at Nityananda Prabhu he was in great distress. As Nitai began to crawl and then began to walk His mother
and father showered Him with the most intimate affection. His mother would anoint His body with oils that were very fragrant to cool Him but His body was cooler and more fragrant than the oils.

One day she put ornaments and beautiful dresses of silks on little Nitai and said, "Now play." He said, "But you keep Me with you all the time. I have no friends to play with." So from that day onwards they invited the little children of Ekacakra to play with Nitai. And there was only one game they played - enacting the pastimes of Krishna. Nitai was the actor, the director, the script writer and it was spontaneously. Everyday Nitai would dress them up according to their parts and make all kinds of props. Everything was so authentic.

When they wanted to do the birth of Krishna he called all His friends to meet Him at midnight! [Laughter.] All the little children made a replica of the prison of Kamsa and then they brought little baby Krishna across the Yamuna. There was a river there so they went across the river and brought Him to Gokul. They played. Usually Nityananda Prabhu would play the part of Krishna. One boy would be Putana, Trnavarta, Sakatasura. Nitai would play the role of Krishna stealing butter. And they really did very authentically. He would go into the houses of the people of Ekacakra and steal the butter.

[Laughter.] Then another boy would bind Him up with ropes and He would knock down the two Arjuna trees. The played the killing of Bakasura, Aghasura, Vatsasura. They played the game of stealing the gopi's clothes. He lifted
Govardhan Hill. They killed Aristasura, Vyomasura ans when they played the lila of Akrura taking Krishna out of Vrindavan, Nityananda Prabhu played the part of a gopi and wept rivers and rivers of tears from His heart. Everyone
watching was astonished.

He played the pastimes of Lord Krishna in Mathura and Dvaraka, in other avataras, of Vamanadev. Nityananda Prabhu personally played Nrsimhadev and one of His friends was Hiranyakasipu. 

And in Rama lila in one pastime Nityananda played His own role as Laksman and another boy was Ravana and threw a lotus flower at Nitai's chest representing the sakti-sila and Nityananda Prabhu fell to the ground. There was no heartbeat and no breath. The children did not know what to do. They were weeping and crying. Soon Hadai Pandit and Padmavati came running to the place. When all the other people of Ekacakra came Nityananda Prabhu appeared
dead. They were all chanting God's names and trying to mentally restore him but nothing worked.

Then somebody said, "He is playing these dramas as something very real. Did He say anything to any of you what to do for Him if it becomes like this?" One little boy said, "Yes. Yes. I forgot. I was so much in trauma. [Laughter.] He said if I fall down unconscious gather around Me and cry, which we are all doing. [Laughter.] But then have the boy playing Hanuman to get the medicine for Me." [Laughter.]

One little boy said, "Yes. Yes. I am Hanuman." [Laughter.] and he came running and the other little boys who were playing demons were trying to stop him. Then Hanuman went to the Himalayan Mountain and the little boy brought some herbs back and gave it to the doctor who put it in Nityananda's nose and He opened His eyes and smiled.

He was only ever a small boy. Nobody told Him these pastimes. Somebody asked Him, "How do You know all of this?" he smiled and said, "These are My transcendental pastimes." [Laughter.] But due to His yoga maya potency
nobody could understand what He was talking. In this way He spent His youth.

When He was twelve years old, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared here in Navadvip and Lord Nityananda, this little boy roared in ecstasy. The whole universe shook. Nobody understood what was happening. And he was thinking,
"How am I going to leave My home? My mission is to assist Lord Gauranga in His lilas, His mission of spreading the nama- sankirtana mission in all directions. How can I leave My mother and father? How can I leave the people of Ekacakra? They are so attached to Me they can't live without a second of not seeing Me.

By His own mystic potency a sannyasi came to Ekacakra. He came right to the house of Hadai Pandit, who fed him Prasad, gave him a sitting place. And the two of them, Hadai Pandit and this sannyasi spoke about Krishna all night
long. In the morning as the sannyasi was about to leave he said to Hadai Pandit I wanted to ask you for one thing."

Then Hadai Pandit very enthusiastically from his heart said, "Anything you want I will give you." He said, "I am travelling all over India to holy places and I have no brahmana assistant. Give me your lotus son, Nityananda Prabhu to travel with me." It was like a massive thunderbolt striking the soft heart of Hadai Pandit. In his mind he was thinking, "He has asked me to give him my very life. I cannot tolerate even a moment not seeing my son. What can we do? If I give it to him, if I give my son I will die. If I don't my whole life will be ruined for not serving a great soul."

He was thinking of King Dasaratha when asked by Visvamitra Muni if e was willing to give Rama, his own life and soul to travel with him. Hadai Pandita went to Padmavati and told her what has happened and asked her opinion. She said, "Whatever you do I accept that."

Hadai Pandit entrusted his little son to the sannyasi. And Nityananda Prabhu strangely showed total detachment as he walked away with this sannyasi. As soon as they left the house Hadai Pandit and Padmavati fell to the ground
unconscious and as soon as the regained consciousness all they could do was weep and cry incessantly.

When the people of Ekacakra heard about this it was unbearable of them. They all ran looking for this sannyasi. Every person in Ekacakra decided that, "When I find this sannyasi I will fall at his feet and offer him all my sons. We will give him all the sons." Because they all wanted Nityananda Prabhu more than their own children, more than their own lives. "Just give us Nityananda back."

They went running in all directions but they could not find that sannyasi. For the next three months Hadai Pandit and Padmavati could not eat a morsel of food. They cried. They only thing that kept then alive, (and they didn't
even lose any weight) was their intense twenty-four hour attachment to Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Sometimes Hadai Pandit like a mad man would cry out, "Nitai! Nitai! Come and sit on my lap. I haven't seen you for such a long time. Nitai, please let's go to your favorite lake, Padmavati-kunda and let's take bath together."

At other times he would look around with tears in his eyes and he would cry out, "Nitai, I am seeing You again. Please let us take Prasad. Padmavati has made just Your favorite foods to eat. Come let's eat together. Nitai the crops are just bearing about to give fruits. Let's go walk through the fields together and see everything." Sometimes he would call out to Padmavati, "Padmavati, look! Look down the road! It is Nitai! He isreturning! The sannyasi is bringing Him home again! He is bringing him home again! Look! He is coming! He is coming!" And they looked down the road weeping, crying but He never came. Crying out the names of Nityananda Prabhu, Hadai Pandit and Padmavati left this world for the spiritual abode.

The brahmana told Jahnava and all the devotees that after Hadai Pandit and Padmavati left nobody could live in Ekacakra anymore. It was too painful. Nityananda's little friends were constantly in tears and with broken hearts as were their parents. Ekacakra was practically deserted and had turned into ruins. And the brahmana said, "But I can't leave. Even though this has happened years ago every day since Nityananda Prabhu left I go to all the places where He had His pastimes just waiting for Him to return and I pray only one prayer in my life, "Let me take birth life after life after life waiting for Nitai to return to Ekacakra. In every lifetime let me give up my body crying out the name Nitaicand!"

Then the brahmana fell to the ground weeping. Jahnava, Narottama dasa Thakura, Ramacandra Kaviraj and all these great associates of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda Prabhu saw him, they all fell to the ground weeping, chanting the holy names of Lord Nityananda. 

[Audience chant loudly] Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Then the brahmana told Jahnava that he would give them a tour but as he brought her to the house of Hadai Pandit which was crumbling and in shambles he could no longer control himself. He quietly left and Jahnava told the
devotees, "Let him leave."

That night it was dark. They all slept in the house. Jahnavadevi was thinking, "I never got to meet Hadai Pandit or Padmavati. I never got to be with Nityananda and His family here in Ekacakra." She started crying and she was given a spiritual vision where the house was beautifully decorated, a very opulent place and there was Nityananda Prabhu and Padmavati and Hadai Pandit showering her with so much affection. Then the dream ended and she
woke up crying again. Then she had another dream where on the bank of the river in Ekacakra in a beautiful garden there was a throne and Nityananda Prabhu was sitting with Jahnava and Vasudha on either side and He was
offering such intimate expressions of affection to them through His words and His glances. All her desires were fulfilled.

Nityananda Prabhu after He left Ekacakra He went on pilgrimage to so many places with this sannyasi and eventually came to Vrindavan. During the pilgrimage He met Madhavendra Puri and accepted him as His guru, Lakmipati
Tirtha and accepted him as a guru. In Vrindavan He waited. 

After Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came back to Navadvip from Gaya He began His sankirtana movement. The Lord was calling Nityananda from His heart and Nitai came to Navadvip to the house of Nandanacarya.

Oneday Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in ecstasy. He said, "A great personality has come here." He told Srivas Thakura and Haridasa, "Go find Him. I had a dream last night. A chariot that can take anyone and everyone to the
spiritual world, Goloka came right in front of My house. And on that chariot there was a very powerful personality. He had lotus eyes. He was very strong. He had blue garments. He carried a plough on His shoulder. There was a flag of a palm tree on that chariot. This person's eyes were rolling as if He was intoxicated in ecstatic love. He had an earring on His left ear and as he was swinging back and forth he said again and again, 'Is this the house of Nimai Pandit? Is this the house of Nimai Pandit?' "

Lord caitanya said, "I could understand that this was Lord Balaram Himself. I asked Him, 'Who are You and what are You doing here? And this great personality said, 'I am Your brother. Tomorrow We will get to know each other.' Go find Him! Go find Him!"

Srivas Thakura and Haridas Thakur went to every house, to every shop, to every market place, to every bathing ghat in all of Navadvip and finally they came back and said, "We have searched everywhere for nine hours. We
can't find such a person!' Lord Caitanya smiled and said, "Nityananda Prabhu is very mysterious." Then he said, "I will take you." And The Lord brought Them right to the house of Nandanacarya where Sri Nityananda Prabhu was
sitting.

When Lord Caitanya and all the devotees first saw Him they bowed down. And when Lord Nityananda Prabhu saw Lord Caitanya, He became stunned. His eyes could not blink. He was drinking the beauty of Lord Gauranga with His eyes, tasting it with His tongue, smelling it with His nose, touching it with His arms. He was totally absorbed with Caitanya Mahprabhu like a statue. Lord Caitanya told Srivas, "Chant a verse.' Srivas chanted a beautiful verse from
Srimad-Bhagavatam describing Krishna standing in the pastoral grounds in the forest of Vrindavan. He had curly blackish hair encircling His moonlike face, beautiful lotus eyes. A blue flower over His ear! He had a wonderful
flower garland on. He entered into the pastures of Vrindavan playing His flute.

When Nityananda Prabhu heard this He fell unconscious and when He finally came to consciousness He began rolling and roaring ecstatically with torrents of tears flowing from His eyes. Only Lord Caitanya could calm Him down.

Then on that historical moment Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda danced together in the ecstacy of kirtan. Sometimes They embraced. Sometimes They raised Their arms. Sometimes They touched each other's feet. They connection of these two eternal associates, Krishna and Balaram have appeared again together in the land of Navadvip dancing and chanting. All the devotees raised their arms loudly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.

[Audience chant loudly] Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

And now HH Sripad Jayapataka Swami Maharaj who for the past forty years has been spreading the glories of Lord Nityananda Prabhu and His very dear associate Srila Prabhupada all over the world will speak.

Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaj Ki Jai! Thank you very much. [Applause.]

In Celebration of the 8th Anniversary of Vrinda Kunda Temple Opening, we have made an ecstatic schedule of parikramas and festivals from Feb 15 to Mar 4th.This year Mayapur festival is late, so Vrindavan Festival will be very hot. But in Vrindavan before Mayapur Festival is one of the best times of the year asthe weather is very pleasant. Last year one devotee told me that he never knew there was so nice weather in Vrindavan. Our festival ends on Mar 4th so youhave time to get to Gaura Mandal Parikram which begins on Mar 8th!

Most of the parikramas will be from 18th onwards. Those who are going to the other temple aniversary festivals on Nityananda Trayodasi and were wanderingwhat to do until Mayapur Festival can take advantage of our festival Program.

Almost everyday we will leave in the morning from Krishna Balaram Mandir and visiting different places of the Divine Pastimes of Radha and Krishna andthen returning for lunch, unless otherwise noted. The grand finale, our famous Sankirtan Procession around Nandagram with the ladies in front carryingwaterpots with coconuts on top, Kalash Yatra, will be on Sunday Feb 14th. And that day will be totally free for everyone!

15th Vrinda Kunda (lunch at Vrinda Kunda)
16th Nityananda Trayodasi Festival in the Temple
17th Harer Nama Procession around Vrindavan from Sringar Vat
18th Narottama's App. Feast at Radha Vraja Mohan Mandir
19th Vrindavan Temples
20th Javat - Ter Kadamba - Vrinda Kunda (lunch at Vrinda Kunda)
21st Govardhana Parikrama (lunch at Uddhava Kunda)
22nd Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's Vyasa Puja
23rd Barsana
24th Radha Kunda - Kusum Sarovara
25th Gokula
26th Man Sarovar, Bhandirvan, Baelvan
27th Vrinda Kunda Festival (feast at Vrinda Kunda) Free

All bus parikramas will be free for Srila Prabhupada's disciples and accompanying family members.
For further assistance you may contact the Information Center for taxi pickup or dropping at all railway stations or Delhi Aiports, railway reservations, oraccomodation at <iskcon.vrindavan@pamho.net> or Krsna Balaram Prabhu +919897476111. In addition you can book your train tickets to Mayapur onlineat:

http://www.indianrail.gov.in/index.html
For pics of previous year's festival:http://picasaweb.google.com/Vrindakunda4/VrindaKunda6thAnniversaryFestival02#

In the late 1960s, while Srila Prabhupada was translating and commenting on his monumental edition of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, heconceived of writing a book which would contain the essential teachings of the Bhagavatam as he was not sure how long he wouldremain manifest on this planet. He then composed a summary study of the most celebrated portion of the Bhagavatam, the Tenth Canto, andentitled it Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He often referred to it as the “Krsna book”.
Mayapur Online Education now offers "Nectar of Srimad-Bhagavatam", an online correspondence course on this great literature to help devoteesrelish the nectar of Srimad-Bhagavatam. The course also incorporates the chapter summaries of the Tenth Canto by Srila VisvanathaCakravarti Thakura, a great authority on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, who was often quoted by Srila Prabhupada.
For further details, read the course prospectus at http://courses.mayapur.com/nectar-of-srimad-bhagavatam.
Other online correspondence courses offered by Online Education:

1. Basic Bhagavad-gita Study

2. Basic First Canto Study

3. Essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam

4. Gita Sanskrit, and

5. Overview of Srimad-Bhagavatam

For more information, please visit http://courses.mayapur.com.

This is some  very curious information and shows, 1) how Haiti rebelled against Monsanto's  seed donations, and 2) what other crimes against humanity Monsanto is known for.
_http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1623_
(http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1623)

Manifest Haiti:  Monsanto’s Destiny
Ryan Stock
10 February 2011
Let  It Burn
“A fabulous  Easter gift,” commented Monsanto Director of Development Initiatives Elizabeth  Vancil. Nearly 60,000 seed sacks of hybrid corn seeds and other vegetable seeds  were donated to post-earthquake Haiti by Monsanto. In observance of  World Environment Day, June 4, 2010, roughly 10,000 rural Haitian farmers  gathered in Papaye to march seven kilometers to Hinche in celebration of this  gift. Upon arrival, these rewarded farmers took their collective Easter baskets  of more than 400 tons of vegetable seeds and burned them all.

[1] “Long live the  native maize seed!” they chanted in unison. “ Monsanto’s GMO [genetically  modified organism] & hybrid seed violate peasant agriculture!” According to  Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, coordinator of the Papay Peasant Movement (MPP), “there  is presently a shortage of seed in Haiti because many rural families  used their maize seed to feed refugees.”

[2] Like any benevolent disaster capitalist corporation, Monsanto extended a hand in a time of crisis to the 65  percent of the population that survives off of subsistence agriculture.But not  just any hand was extended in this time of great need, rather: a fistful of  seeds. The extended  fist was full of corn seeds, one of Haiti’s staple crops, treated with  the fungicide Maxim XO. With similar benevolence, not just any tomato seeds were  donated to the agrarian peasants, but tomato seeds treated with Thiram, a  chemical so toxic the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled it too  toxic to sell for home garden use, further mandating that any agricultural  worker planting these seeds must wear special protective clothing.

[3] Happy  Easter! Monsanto’s website’s official xplanation for this toxic donation is  that “fungicidal seed treatments are often applied to seeds prior to planting to  protect them from fungal diseases that arise in the soil and hamper the plant’s  ability to germinate and grow. The treatments also provide protection against  diseases the seed might pick up in transfer between countries.”

[4] However,  according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Hazardous  Substance Fact Sheet, “repeated exposure [to Thiram] can affect the kidneys,  liver and thyroid gland. High or repeated exposure may damage the nerves.”

[5]  Why would Monsanto be so eager to donate seeds that could potentially compromise  the health of so many famished people? “The Haitian  government is using the earthquake to sell the country to the multinationals!”  stated Jean-Baptiste. Welcome to the new earthquake. “[It’s] a very strong  attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds ...  and on what is left of our environment in Haiti.” -Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, executive director of the Peasant Movement of Papay. A  Brief History of Violence Monsanto is  also responsible for other life-changing inventions, such as the crowd-pleasing  Agent Orange. The Vietnamese government claims that it killed or disabled  400,000 Vietnamese people, and 500,000 children were born with birth defects due  to exposure to this deadly chemical.

[6] Up until 2000, Monsanto was also the  main manufacturer of aspartame, which researchers in Europe concluded, “could  have carcinogenic effects.” In a rare  demonstration of social justice, in 2005, Monsanto was found guilty by the  US government of bribing high-level  Indonesian officials to legalize genetically-modified cotton. A year earlier in  Brazil, Monsanto sold a farm to a senator for one-third of its value in exchange  for his work to legalize glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide.

[7]  In Colombia, Monsanto has received $25 million from the US government for providing its trademark herbicide, Roundup Ultra, in the anti-drug fumigation  efforts of Plan Colombia. Roundup Ultra is a highly concentrated version of  Monsanto’ s glyphosate herbicide, with additional ingredients to increase its lethality. Colombian communities and human rights organizations have charged that the herbicide has destroyed food crops, water sources and protected areas and has led to increased incidents of birth defects and cancer. With more  than 11.7 billion dollars in sales in 2009 and more than 650 biotechnology  patents - most of them for cotton, corn and soy - Monsanto is an economic  powerhouse. Nine out of ten soybean seeds in the US are also controls more than half the world’s seeds with no effective anti-trust oversight. One of the  world’s most powerful corporations, Monsanto teamed up with United Parcel  Service
to have the 60,000 hybrid seed sacks transported to their intended  destination for Easter 2010 in its drive to trickle down some good to the little  guys. Distributing Monsanto’s seeds on this auspicious occasion was a $127  million project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID),called “Winner,” designed to promote“agricultural intensification.”

[8]  According to Monsanto, the originaldecision to donate seeds was made at the  World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland,
 
[9] unbeknownst  to Haiti. “Without  chemicals, life itself would be impossible.” - Monsanto’s former motto. The  genetically-modified seeds such as those donated and later immolated,cannot be  saved from year to year. Some so-called terminator seeds - the DNA of which is  altered so as to not drop seed after harvest - require the farmer to buy new  seeds from Monsanto the following year in a legally binding contract, instead of  collecting the seeds that would have naturally developed on the plant before its  DNA was modified.Other GMO  seed which do drop fertile seed may not be replanted by contract. Diminished  yields, health problems and weakened prospects to buy the next season’s seeds in  consequence of and combined with that binding contract with Monsanto have driven  many rural farmers to poverty, and subsequently led to a rash of farmer suicides  in rural India. Since 1997, more than 182,936  Indian farmers have committed suicide, according to a recent study by the National Crime Records Bureau.

[10]“As seed  saving is prevented by patents as well as by the engineering of seeds with  non-renewable traits, seed has to be bought for every planting
season by poor  peasants. A free resource available on farms became a commodity which farmers  were forced to buy every year. This increases poverty and leads to indebtedness.  As debts increase and become unpayable, farmers are compelled to sell kidneys or  even commit suicide,” Indian
author Vandana Shiva noted in her 2004 article “The  Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation.”

[11] Foreign  farmers are not the only ones affected by these product features and associated  business practices. As of 2007, Monsanto had filed 112
lawsuits against US  farmers for alleged technology contract violations on GMO patents, involving 372  farmers and 49 small agricultural businesses in 27 different states. From these,  Monsanto has won more than $21.5 million in judgments. In estimates based on Monsanto’s own documents and media reports, the multinational corporation appears to investigate 500 farmers a year.

[12] “Farmers  have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone  else’s genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically engineered seed from a previous year’s crop has sprouted, or ‘volunteered,’ in fields planted with non-genetically engineered varieties the following year,” said Andrew Kimbrell  and Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety.

[13] A Monsanto seed will  often magically appear in an ordinarily organic field, giving Monsanto grounds  for an onerous lawsuit that will eventually lead to the complete occupation of  the innocent farm. Nothing New Under the Caribbean Sun Jean-Robert  Estimé, who served as Foreign Minister during the murderous Duvalier  dictatorships, is Monsanto’s representative in Haiti,

[14] and refuses to acknowledge  his involvement in furthering the impoverishment of his own people. However,  Monsanto’s “Manifest Destiny”-like intentions for Haiti are hardly  anything new. Many Haitians consider Monsanto’s seed donation to be part of a  broader strategy of US economic and political imperialism. Haiti’s  agricultural sector has already been decimated by United States’ interference once. Jean  Bertrande Aristide was overthrown by a coup supported by the US government in  1991. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund collectively decided that  if he were to return to power, a condition upon his return would be that he open  the country to free trade. Shortly thereafter, the tariffs on rice fell from 35  percent to 3 percent and the
money that was originally reserved for agricultural  development went into paying off the country’ s external debt. Under the Clinton  White House, the
Haitian market was flooded with subsidized rice from Arkansas. Since then, almost all of Haiti’s rice is imported and  subsequently, much of that local
knowledge and expertise of rice cultivation is  lost.

[15] Food  Sovereignty,Not Agricultural Slavery As the new  earthquake continues to shake, this seemingly benevolent donation of vegetable  seeds will forever change the paradigm of Haitian agriculture and thus lead to  its further dependence on seeds that poison both the soil they are grown in and  the bodies that consume them and that create financial dependency on the  biotechnology firm Monsanto. “Our people will never be autonomous if Haiti  has to suffer through what is called generosity, but makes us dependent on  corporate control in agricultural production,” said Catherine Thélémaque of  Action SOS Haiti in Montreal.

[16]Agro-ecologists Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer, at the  University of Michigan, have recently published a study showing that  sustainable, small-scale farming is more efficient at conserving and increasing biodiversity and forests than industrial agriculture.

[17] With less than 1 percent of its original forest coverage remaining, Haiti cannot gamble on the  disastrous environmental effects of hybridized industrial monoculture to feed  its many hungry. “If the US  government truly wants to help Haiti, it would help the Haitians to  build food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture, based on their own native  seed and access to land and credit.That is the way to help Haiti,” says Dena Hoff, a diversified organic
farmer in Montana and member of Via Campesina’s  International Coordinating Committee.The  Impending Storm In his 1780  History of European Colonization, Guillame Raynal remarked that there were signs  of an “impending storm.”

[18] This storm erupted into a full-fledged monsoon on  August 22, 1791, when Dutty Boukman sounded the conch shell and the slaves of  Saint Domingue rose in revolt against the French imperialists. Under the  leadership of Touissant L’Overture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the slave rebels  overthrew the imperialist occupation of Napoleon Bonaparte and in 1804,  Haiti was declared a free republic.  Lest we forget the lessons of history, we cannot discount the
power of unity.  Much as Napoleon himself did, a tyrannical corporation such as Monsanto exports poverty would keep the people as agricultural slaves and
must be resisted. It’ s  time for Boukman to sound his conch once more: La liberté ou la  mort! Footnotes:

 1]  Bell, Beverly. “Haitian farmers commit to burning  Monsanto hybrid seed.” _Huffington Post_ () , May 17, 2010.

 2] _La  Via Campesina_ () , “Haitian peasants march against Monsanto Company for  food and seed sovereignty,” June 16,2010.

 3] _Extension Toxicology Network_ () , Pesticide Information  Project of the Cooperative Extension Offices of Cornell University, Michigan  State University, Oregon State University and University of California at  Davis.
 
 4] Veihman, Mica. “Five Answers on Monsanto’s Haiti Seed Donation,” Beyond the Rows, _May  20, 2010_ () .
 
 5] New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. “_Hazardous Substance Fact  Sheet_ () .”

 6] MSNBC, “Study Finds Link Between Agent Orange, Cancer,” January  23, 2004, The Globe and Mail, “Last Ghost of the  Vietnam War,” June 12,  2008.

 7] Kenfield, Isabella, “Monsanto’s seed of corruption in  Brazil.” North American Congress on  Latin America, _October 16, 2010_ () .

 8] PR Newswire. “Monsanto Company Donates Conventional Maizeand  Vegetable Seed to Haitian Farmers to Help Address Food Security Needs,” _May 13, 2010_ () .

 9] Monsanto Company, “Monsanto donates maizeand vegetable seed to  Haiti.” Monsanto Blog, _May 13,  2010_ () .

 10] Shiva, Vandana, “The Suicide Economy Of Corporate  Globalisation.” ZNet,_February 19, 2004_ () .

 11] Chopra, Anuj, “Debt drives farmers to suicide.” The National, _January 20,  2009_ () .

 12] Center for Food Safety, “Monsanto vs. US Farmers,” Nov.  2007. 13] Andrew Kimbrell and Joseph Mendelson, “Monsanto vs. US  Farmers,” Center for
 Food Safety, 2005.

 14] Urfie, Fr. Jean-Yves, “A new earthquake hits  Haiti: Monsanto’s deadly gift of 475  tons of genetically-modified seed to Haitian farmers.” Global
 Research.  Canada. May 11, 2010. xv. Holt-Gimenez, Eric. “Haiti: roots of liberty, roots of  disaster.” Huffington Post, _January 21 2010_ () .

 15] Organic Consumers Association. “Canadian Groups Support  Haitian Rejection of Monsanto’s Seed Donation,” _June 3, 2010_ () .

 16] University of Michigan. “SNRE Professor Perfecto  co-authors PNAS paper on family farms, biodiversity and food production.”  Ann Arbor, Michigan,
 _February 22, 2010_ () .

 17] Center and Hunt, “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,” 119. Ryan Stock is a Returned Peace Corps  Volunteer from the Dominican Republic and a contributor  to Reclama  Magazine [Courtesy Truthout

Chinese companies mass producing fake rice out of plastic

The Chinese food contamination freak show is back in full swing with new reports out of Singapore indicating that certain Chinese companies are now mass producing and selling fake rice to unwitting villagers. According to a report in the Korean-language Weekly Hong Kong, the manufacturers are blending potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic industrial resin to produce the imitation rice.

A report in Very Vietnam states that an official from the Chinese Restaurant Association has announced that eating <http://www.naturalnews.com/eating.html>;  three bowls of this fake rice , <http://www.naturalnews.com/rice.html>;  is the equivalent of eating an entire plastic bag. Consuming such plastic material is obviously a serious health hazard, and officials are allegedly gearing up to conduct an investigation into the factories accused of producing the phony rice.

The scandal is not a surprise when considering China's long legacy food <http://www.naturalnews.com/food.html>;  problems, including the 2008 melamine-tainted milk incident where roughly 300,000 people were injured and at least six infants died as a result of being poisoned by the toxic chemical (http://www.naturalnews.com/024837_f...
<http://www.naturalnews.com/024837_food_products_china.html>; ). Other tainted food from China has included melamine-tainted pet foods, lead-tainted children's cups, and even another fake rice case where a Chinese <http://www.naturalnews.com/Chinese.html>;  company added synthetic flavorings to ordinary ice to trick people into thinking it was the more expensive "Wuchang" variety.

Some media commentators have already begun to run wild with the fake rice story, comparing the imitation rice to what they say is the imitation reality in which the world lives.

"Fake stimulus, fake money printing, fake GDP growth, fake goods and services being produced, is ... forcing us to consume fake food because we can't afford real food, because we have no real growth, we have no real economy, we have no real industry, we only have fake stuff," bemoaned talk show co-host Stacy Herbert from Russia Today. "So it makes sense that we're
only eating fake food."

By
His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami (Calcutta)

The word pada-yatra literally means to walk on foot. In early India people used to travel by chariot, horseback, elephant, bullock-cart, or palanquin. But saintly persons, having renounced such worldly comforts, would travel by foot. Their main concern was to teach the glories of God to the conditioned living entities and thereby deliver them from their miserable materialistic lives. Walking was the best means of contacting the common people and accomplishing that goal.

When Lord Chaitanya took sannyas - the renounced order of life - He travelled throughout India on foot. First He went from Bengal to Jagannatha Puri in Orissa and then He toured South India on foot of course.

At that South India was seriously influenced by impersonalism, and the people in general had deviated from the path of devotion to the Lord. Love of God is the source of real happiness, and when one abandons that loving relationship with God, he suffers. Lord Chaitanya wanted to deliver the conditioned souls plunged in the absolute misery of that impersonalism. In order to reinstate them as devotees of the Lord, Sri Chaitanya went personally to South India.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is none other than the Supreme Personality of God-head who appeared as a devotee to teach the science of devotion - the only means of deliverance from material bondage. When the Lord performs any ac-tion, its effects are wonderful; similarly, when He directs His devotees to do anything, their result will also be wonderful. Lord Chaitanya's deliverance of South India stands as a proof that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the guise of a devotee.

In order to understand the magnitude of Sri Chaitanya's South Indian influence, we have to visualise the religious condition of South India at that time. The phi-losophies of impersonalism and voidism were so prominent that the vast major-ity of people had become atheists (impersonalism being nothing more than cov-ered atheism). When one thinks, as the impersonalists do, that God has no form, no qualities, no potencies and no desires, then he effectually denies the existence of God. The voidist theory that God is 'nothing' is an even more direct negation of His factual existence. This kind of indirect atheism is considered to be more dangerous than atheism, because, in these system God's existence is accepted, but then arguments are given for considering Him to be nothing. On the other hand, in direct atheism God is considered to be non-existent. By logic and ar-gument an atheist ca be convinced about God's existence, and converted into a theist. When an atheist becomes a theist, then automatically he becomes a devo-tee of the Lord by accepting as the Supreme Person. But the voidists and imper-sonalists become God's competitors instead of becoming His devotees. The con-cept that 'I can become God' is the most serious disease that a living entity can suffer from. God is God under all circumstances, and the living entities are His eternal parts and parcels, just as a king is the king and his subjects are always his subjects. If a subject wants to take over the throne and become king himself, then he is considered to be a rebel and that is considered to be the most danger-ous offence. One gets the most severe punishment for such an offence. One may say that the revolt is successful, then the rebel becomes the king. But a living entity can never become God, because God is always the omnipotent, omnis-cient Supreme God, so no one can dethrone Him. He is everyone's father, and he is extremely merciful toward all living beings. So when we make plans to take over His position, he gives us the chance to become tiny gods. This material na-ture is the place where we get the chance. Here we all think that we are the lords and masters of everything, but since we are not the real lords or gods, we make a mess out of it and suffer. The more we try to lord it over the material nature, the more we suffer. But the Lord is our Father. He does not want us to suffer. So He comes down to tell us to give up that futile endeavour to become the lord and to go back to the spiritual sky by becoming His servants. - So, South India at that time was full with people who wanted to become God, and our Supreme Father went there as Lord Chaitanya to deliver them from that misconception.

In South India, wherever He went, by His embrace He was empowering who-ever He met. He asked them to chant the Holy names of the Lord, and they in turn went to their villages and empowered others to chant the Holy names. Thus village after village became converted to Krishna consciousness. Then He went to a place called Kurma Ksetra and stayed in the house of a brahmana (priest). This learned brahmana was so moved by Lord Chaitanya that he wanted to leave home and go with Him. But the Lord instructed him, "Don't speak like that. Better to remain at home and chant the Holy name of Krishna always. Instruct eve-ryone to follow the orders of Sri Krishna as they are given in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liber-ate everyone in this land.

"If you follow this instruction, your material life will not obstruct your spiritual advancement. Indeed, if you follow these regulative principles, we will again meet here, or rather, you will never lose My company."

While on His tour, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would spend the night at a tem-ple or on the roadside. Whenever He accepted food from a person, He would give him the same advice that He had given this brahmana. Thus He would re-main in one place at night and next morning, after bathing, start again.

There was a brahmana named Vasudev who was a great saintly person but who was suffering from leprosy. He came to know about Lord Chaitanya's arrival, and in the morning he came to see the Lord at the house of Kurma. However Lord Chaitanya had already left. The leper then fell to the ground unconscious. Then the Lord immediately returned to that spot and embraced Vasudev. As soon as the Lord touched him, his leprosy disappeared and his body became very beautiful.

When king Prataparudra of Orissa heard about this wonderful pastime of the Lord, he told his chief advisor, Sri Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, "There is no doubt that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise, how can he have so much compassion of the living entities? He cured of leper, that is not really so surprising, because yogis can also do that. But he embraced that leper: that no one else could do."

Thus delivering all the living entities, the Lord came to Simhachalam, where the self-manifest deity of the half-man half-lion form of the Lord called Nrisim-hadeva is worshipped in the temple of Jiyada Nrisimha Ksetra. Lord Chaitanya sang and danced before the deity of Lord Nrisimhadeva in great joy. That night Lord Chaitanya told those present with Him how that deity of Lord Nrisim-hadeva became manifest. Sitting around the Lord, all the devotees of Lord Nri-simhadeva heard about Lord Nrisimhadeva's pastimes with rapt attention.

On the bank of the Godavari river the Lord met Ramananda Raya, the governor of that place and a great devotee of Lord Krishna. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had heard about Ramananda Raya before, so He was very happy to meet him. Ramananda Raya also became extremely joyful. He openly admitted, "You must be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because such beauty and such qualities are not possible in an ordinary living entity." He also became surprised upon witnessing another incident. There were about one thousand brahmanas with Him. They were very proud of their scholarship and at first quite cynical about Lord Chaitanya's behaviour. But soon they began to chant the Holy names of the Lord, displaying all the ecstatic symptoms such as shedding tears, trembling, standing of hair on the body, etc. In a fraction of a moment they all became pure devotees of the Lord. That evening the Lord had a discussion with Ramananda Raya concerning the ultimate goal of human life. In this most exalted philosophical discussion the Lord explained through Ramananda Raya that unconditional love for the Su-preme Personality of Godhead in the mood of His eternal consort Srimati Rad-harani is the highest goal of life.

In a place called "Siddhabat" the Lord met a devotee of Lord Ramachandra. He stayed at his house for one night, discussing about spiritual topics. At the end of the discussion, this man began to chant the holy name of Krishna. This was quite surprising because the man was such a dedicated devotee of Lord Ramachandra that he never used to chant another name of the Lord but that of Lord Ramachandra. Quoting from the scriptures, he explained the reason: "One name of Rama is equal to a thousand names of Narayana, but the name of Krishna is equal to three names of Rama. Although I knew this fact, since I was a devotee of Lord Rama, I used to chant His name very earnestly. But now, just by seeing You, I started to chant the name of 'Krishna'. That indicates that You are none other than Krishna Himself." Through this pastime the Lord explained that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, whereas the other forms of Godhead are His incarnations.

From Siddhabat Lord Chaitanya went to a place called Vriddha-kasi to see one temple of Lord Shiva. Then He visited a nearby village where many learned brahmanas used to reside. They were believers of different branches of philoso-phy, and they were adverse to he path of devotion. These brahmanas had a big debate with the Lord. At the end they were defeated and voluntarily accepted devotional service to Krishna.

Then the Lord came to a city named Trimanda. The king of that place was Bud-dhist, and he used to patronise many vastly learned Buddhist scholars. They de-cided to challenge Lord Chaitanya and defeat Him. The Buddhists are very fond of arguments, and their philosophy is solely based on arguments. But they were defeated by Lord Chaitanya. They felt very insulted and wanted to take revenge, so they sent a plate full of contaminated food to Lord Chaitanya. But as they were about to offer it to Him, a huge bird picked up the plate, scattered all the contaminated food on the heads of those envious Buddhists and dropped the plate on the head of their leader, Ramagiri, from great height. The rim of the plate struck Ramagiri on the head, causing a deep cut, and he fell unconscious. The Buddhist followers of Ramagiri began to cry, and begged Lord Chaitanya to forgive them and to revive their spiritual master. Lord Chaitanya asked them to chant the holy name of Krishna. Then Ramagiri also begged forgiveness and became a devotee of the Lord. All Ramagiri's followers also became devotees of Krishna.

Then the Lord came to a place of pilgrimage called Vatesvar, and seeing the de-ity of Lord Shiva there, began to sing and dance in ecstasy. That day he fasted and spent the night in the temple. At that time a very rich man called Tirtharama came there with two extremely beautiful prostitutes. When he saw the beauty and renunciation of the Lord he wanted to test Him. He instructed those two prostitutes to seduce the Lord. But the Lord was totally unconcerned, and ad-dressed them as mothers. Then they realised their mistake. Their hearts became purified by the fire of lamentation, and they took shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. Tirtharama's heart became purified and he fell down at the lotus feet of the Lord begging forgiveness. He said, "I am the most sinful demon, called Tirtharama. Please deliver me by giving me the holy name."

The Lord then consoled him and taught him the science of renunciation. Lord Chaitanya said, "Consider material wealth as a bunch of straw, then only you will receive the wealth of devotional service. By the mercy of the Lord only one can receive devotional service to the Lord. One has to have faith in the Lord's mercy. It is unconditional, therefore it cannot be proved by any logic or reason-ing. So what is the need of discussing so many scriptures? Simply render devo-tional service with implicit faith."

Hearing this advice, Tirtharama developed an intense feeling of detachment from his material possessions, and discarding his costly dress and ornaments, he put on a loin-cloth and accepted the holy name from Lord Chaitanya.

Lord Chaitanya stayed in Vateswar for seven days and delivered everyone there. Then He left that place and walked twenty miles through a forest which was in-fested with ferocious wild animals. He was constantly singing the holy names of Lord Krishna. Hearing the sweet names of the Lord, the dormant love of God in the hearts of the wild animals awakened and they were delivered from their mis-erable material existence.

Crossing the forest, the Lord came to a city called Munna, where He sat down under a tree. Millions of people came to see Him there. No one had seen such a beautiful mendicant before. The hearts of all those who saw Him became puri-fied. Then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began to sing the glories of Lord Krishna and dance in ecstasy. All the people gathered there also started to sing and dance. Thus they got the taste of love of Godhead and became devotees of the Lord. When the decided to leave, they brought various foodstuffs, garments and ornaments. But the Lord asked them to offer these things to a beggar who was sitting under a tree. The inhabitants of Munna became extremely surprised to see this compassion shown by the Lord.

Then the Lord went to Sri Rangam and stayed there for a while. Sri Rangam is situated on the bank of the river Kaveri. There is a beautiful temple of Lord Ranganath (Vishnu),and that is why this place is considered to be one of the most important places in South India. In this holy place there was a brahmana named Venkata Bhatta who recognised Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the Su-preme Personality of Godhead. Venkata Bhatta asked Lord Chaitanya to stay at his house during the Caturmasya (the four months of the monsoon when the saintly persons are expected to stop Travelling and stay in one place). The Lord accepted this invitation and stayed at Sri Rangam for four months. Every day he used to go to the Kaveri to take bath. Then He would go to see Lord Ranganath and sing and dance before Him. All the residents of that holy place became ex-tremely fond of the Lord and they became devotees of Lord Krishna. Gopal Bhatta, the son of Venkata Bhatta, was ten years old at that time. Gopal Bhatta was so fond of the Lord that he used to stay with Him all the time. Later Gopal Bhatta became one of he most intimate associates of the Lord.

In Ranganatha the Lord performed many pastimes. One day He saw a brahmana who was reading the Bhagavad-gita while sitting in the temple. The people there were laughing at him because his pronunciation of the Sanskrit words was not correct. But that brahmana did not pay any attention to them. He was so ab-sorbed in reading that divine literature that out of acute joy tears were streaming from his eyes and all the divine ecstatic symptoms were manifest in his body. When he had finished reading, the Lord asked him what realisation of that scrip-ture made him experience this ecstasy. The brahmana replied, "I am illiterate and therefore I do not know the meaning of the words. Sometimes I read Bhaga-vad-gita correctly and sometimes incorrectly, but in any case I am doing this in compliance with the orders of my spiritual master."

"Actually I only see a picture of Lord Krishna sitting on a chariot as Arjuna's charioteer. Taking the reins in His hands, he appears very beautiful and blackish. When I read Bhagavad-gita I see the Lord's beautiful features, and my mind be-comes totally absorbed."

Then Lord Chaitanya replied, "Indeed, you are an authority in the reading of the Bhagavad-gita. Whatever you know constitutes the real purport of Bhagavad-gita." Saying that, the Lord embraced him.

Falling down at His feet, the brahmana said, "Seeing You my happiness in-creased unlimitedly. Therefore I can understand that You are the same Lord Krishna."

Then travelling for many miles and delivering innumerable fallen souls, the Lord came to Kanyakumari - the southernmost tip of the Indian Subcontinent and took bath there. Then Travelling north-west He reached the Malabar Hills. In a place Betapani, a group of pseudo-spiritualists called Bhattatharis used to live. They used to dress like renunciates, but cultivate black magic, enjoy beauti-ful women and cheat people of their wealth.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was accompanied by His servant called Krishnadas, who met the Bhattatharis there. They allured him with beautiful women. Early in the morning Krishnadas went to their place. To find him, the Lord went here and there and asked them, "Why are you keeping my brahmana assistant?"

Hearing that, the Bhattatharis attacked the Lord with weapons in their hands. However their fell from their hands and struck their own bodies. When some Bhattatharis were thus cut to pieces, the others ran away to save their lives. Thus the Lord saved His fallen servant.

When the Lord reached Trivancore, the king of that state, Rudrapati, wanted to see Him. The king sent his men to bring the Lord to the palace. Lord Chaitanya, however, refused to go there. The king's men tried to persuade Him in various ways. They told Him that if He went there He would get enormous wealth and all His desires would be fulfilled. But they did not know who they were talking to. They returned to the king and reported him about the young mendicant who dared to defy him. But the king did not take any offence. Instead he went to see the Lord himself. Very humbly, leaving his chariot and elephants behind, he came to see the Lord under a tree and surrendered at His lotus feet.

Travelling north Lord Chaitanya came to Surat. There was a Durga temple, and the Lord saw that one brahmana was about to sacrifice a goat to Durga. The heart of the Lord became filled with compassion for that poor animal. He told the brahmana, "You are sacrificing this animal just for the sake of eating its flesh, but you are not considering what would be the reaction. This form of Durga is all-auspicious, therefore how can she eat this inedible stuff? King Su-ratha sacrificed a hundred thousand animals, and after his death the departed souls of all those animals attacked him to take revenge. Did you not read this in the Scripture? There is no mention of violence like this in the Scripture. Actually the demons, in order to eat meat, introduced this system.

"You can force the spirit soul out of the body, but you cannot make a spirit soul enter into a dead body. If someone, in the name of worshipping Durga, chops your head off, then how will you feel?"

"Durga is a devotee of Lord Krishna and she never eats meat or drinks wine. If slaughtering animals is religion, then why don't you consider a murderer a saint? Killing an animal or a human is a great sin. If you commit this sin your suffering will increase."

Hearing this advice from Lord Chaitanya, the brahmana refrained from making the animal sacrifice, and worshipped the lotus feet of the Lord in pure devotion. Many people were present there at that time, and understanding the deep purport of the Lord's advice, they stopped animal sacrifice from that day onwards.

Lord Chaitanya reached Dwaraka and saw the Somnath temple. From there He went to Girna-hills, where He saw the foot-prints of Lord Krishna. Then He went to Prabhas Tirtha where Krishna performed His disappearance pastimes.

Lord Chaitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He came to deliver the conditioned living entities. So wherever He went He delivered innumerable living entities. How He did this will always remain a mystery, because this wonderful act was performed by His inconceivable spiritual energy. Therefore no material reasoning can fathom it out.

To a layman, these activities of the Lord may seem fictitious. To them, my ear-nest request is to at least consider what 'omnipotent' actually means. If God is all-powerful, the He can do anything according to His desire. As a matter of fact, the appearance of the Lord as Lord Chaitanya is His most down-to-earth appearance. In His other appearances like Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, Lord Nri-simhadeva and others, He performed much more supernatural and astounding pastimes.

Lord Chaitanya travelled and preached all over India and flooded the whole country with love of Godhead. However, due to demonic influence, in course of time people became atheistic and rejected the spiritual heritage of India. As a result of this their suffering increased and their way to hell has been paved. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that His teachings will spread all over the world. At a time when much of the world looked down on India, this prediction sounded like a poetic exaggeration. But then again, the Lord's inconceivable po-tency can perform any wonder.

In 1965 one of the most intimate associates of the Lord, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada went to the United States at the age of sev-enty, without any support or shelter, to spread Lord Chaitanya's teachings. His success is undoubtedly one of the greatest legends of today. The spiritual movement which he started single-handedly in New York in 1966 spread all over the world in just ten years time. Thousands of people from all over the world surrendered themselves to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and millions have become influenced by the philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Krishna which he purely presented to the world through his books and his perfect personal example. They also will surrender in due course of time. This world-wide mission of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhak-tivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the International Society for Krishna Conscious-ness, popularly known as ISKCON, is actively propagating God consciousness all over the world. At a time when the demoniac influence is so prevalent eve-rywhere, to preach love of God is not so easy. But the devotees of ISKCON are pushing on with their missionary work with absolute determination and dedica-tion. There is no doubt that they will become successful because God is all pow-erful and this world is His kingdom. Acting through His devotees, He will de-stroy the demonic mentality of those who oppose His will.

This year (1986) is the year of Lord Chaitanya's 500th anniversary. To com-memorate Lord Chaitanya's appearance on this earth, ISKCON has taken up many programmes mainly intended to propagate Lord Chaitanya's mission. One such programme is ISKCON's Padayatra.

ISKCON devotees began their Padayatra in 1984, retracing the route travelled by Lord Chaitanya. They started from Dvaraka and have travelled all the way to Kanyakumari. Travelling north-east, they will arrive at Sri Mayapur Dhama, Lord Chaitanya's birthplace, during the 500th anniversary of Lord Chaitanya's appearance which falls in March 1986. Devotees of different countries of the world are walking 10 to 15 miles each day, accompanied by bullock carts, prac-tically demonstrating in this troubled age that peace and unity of people of all nations is achieved by working co-operatively in God consciousness with the common aim of pleasing the Supreme Lord. The procession consists of hundreds of devotees, and is lead by Lord Chaitanya and His principal associate Lord Nit-yananda in Their deity manifestations. Thousands of local people join the pro-cession, and thus they are reminded of Lord Chaitanya, who travelled the same path delivering their ancestors almost 500 years ago.

Lord Chaitanya revolutionised the lives of people all over India with the most dynamic spiritual movement. This ISKCON Padayatra is reviving that spiritual revolution, and the people of India are responding warmly to this. Now that many of them are utterly disillusioned by the allurements of so-called material progress, the spiritual bliss offered by Lord Chaitanya through his sankirtana movement is becoming their real shelter.

Everyone is hankering for joy, but nothing in the material nature can offer that. It is for this reason that all material endeavours ultimately end in acute frustra-tion. There is no real joy or happiness in the material nature. Actual joy is a product of the spiritual nature. It is spontaneously manifest when the living en-tity begins to love God. Therefore, when the living entities are reminded of this simple process, response becomes natural.

Lord Chaitanya went all over India and offered this blissful life of Krishna con-sciousness to all He met. Following in His footsteps, the ISKCON devotees are distributing this message all over the world, and this Padayatra will go on until everyone on this planet is totally submerged in an ocean of bliss of love of God.

Dear Devotees, Friends, and Students of the previous retreats,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

With great pleasure we again invite you to attend our Divine Names Retreat in Radhadesh. This year, 2011, it will be held from April 22nd-28th. You can also attend our additional "Building the Retreat Culture through a Teacher Training Program," which will be held for one day, on April 29th.

In our retreats, we want to enter into deeper understandings and experiences of chanting the Holy Names, which can immediately empower every participant with an improved relationship to the Divine Couple, Radha and Krishna. With the help of teachers such as Bhurijan Prabhu, Giriraja Swami, and Bhakti Vijnana Goswami, our team has constantly worked on improving these retreats. Judging from the experiences of the many participants worldwide, we can safely say that the retreats work. They are truly transformational and life-changing events. In our retreats we mainly use a method called Active Learning, which helps the participants grasp the knowledge much better and imbibe it more deeply. In other words, there are many practical and powerful tools, new skills, and spiritual experiences awaiting all of you.

We would like to address two important questions, which devotees who have already attended our retreats often ask:
1)    Are new things taught in each retreat?
2)    Is there a benefit in attending more than one retreat?

The answers are:
1)    We are continuously working on improving the retreats by adding new knowledge, which shows up during our never-ending research on these subjects. We also apply the experiences and feedback of our participants to craft new schedules and deliver new contents. So each retreat is different.
2)    We highly recommend taking part in a few retreats. The best is once a year (I do a japa retreat during Karttika in Vrindavan). After all, what a retreat is really all about is all participants developing their personal relationship with Radha and Krishna, and there is always room for progress.

This year, we will introduce our Teacher Training Program, full with helpful tools and tips for those who wish to share the content of our retreats with others. This optional one-day program will enhance your endeavors to be part of the great mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada.

We wish to once again invite you and request that you give our team the chance to serve you. Please also invite your devotee friends who are serious about working on their chanting.

Wishing you all the best and lots of spiritual strength,
Sacinandana Swami and the Retreat Team: Gaurahari Dasa and Bhanu-nandini Dasi


Schedule:
22.04. Arrival and Entering the Retreat Class
23-27.04. Days 1-5
28.04. Closing the Retreat and Departure
29.04. Building the Retreat Culture through a Teacher Training Program

There are two ways of doing nama-seva, or service to the Holy Names of the Lord. One is through individual and congregational chanting of the Holy Names, and the other is by sharing the glories of the Holy Names. Thus we have developed an additional program that offers support to those who wish to share the knowledge with others. We call this program "Building the Retreat Culture through a Teacher Training Program". The participants can learn many tools and tips on teaching a retreat, e.g., by organizing japa-and-kirtan sangas and other kirtan events (workshops, nama-yajnas, or even public mantra programs). The program is primarily designed for the retreat participants who have just finished their retreat, but other interested devotees can also take part in this program to see if they can get new and fresh ideas for presenting japa and kirtan in their communities. It is a one-day program that will enhance our endeavors in being part in the great mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada. You are most welcome to take part in it.
Read more on:
http://bhaktivedantacollege.com/index.php?p=news&id=332

Hare Krishna everyone
Please accept my humble obeisances.  All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

By the mercy and blessings of all the vaishnavas, we are set to organize another spectacular Lord Jagannath's rath yatra in Meerut on Feb 13, 2011. On behalf of devotees in Meerut, I'd like to invite everyone to come, participate, enjoy, and give your blessings. Kindly reply to me if you are planning to come so that proper arrangements can be made for your pickup, stay, prasadam etc.

your humble servant,
Vidurpriya das

Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!

Hare Krishna!

Motto:
 "Ante Narayana Smrthi"

Features:

* Location*: Melkote-A calm, pollution free enviornment, with moderate temperamentclimate, spritually enchced and all basic necessities.

* Design* : Intelligently deisgned dormitory and  rooms a. Which are well-ventilated with sutable railings.Comfortable toilets and bathroom with ruff flooring and railings.

*care*: Dedicated staff of Devotees,Administrators,Cooks and Maids to make the stay comfortable, enlivening and enriching.

*Temple*: A small and beautiful temple for Sri Sri Jaganath Baladev and Subadra where satsangas and festivals are all round he year.

* Medical*: all medicines and medical accessiories that may be needed for treathment of the residents are stored as per the advice of senior doctors.ambulance facility also available.

* Yoga asanas*: Age specific yogis asanas and pranayama is a part of the daily regim.

*Parks and gardens*: comfortable benches and walking cum jogging tracks.


Admissions are open for devotees who are 50+ who wish to stay long time or
short stay at our facility in Melkote.
Accomodation and Prasadam is free for all devotees who are unable to
pay/Devotees who can pay can give a donation for they stay.

contact:
sarvajna Krishna dasa
34, next to travellers bungalow,
Melkote, Mandya dist, Karnataka, India.
Phone:0091 9980106108
email: sarvajna108@gmail.comDear Prabhus, Please accept my humble obeisances.

Mantra-Yoga:
A Necessity for this  Age
By Stephen Knapp
This is the first chapter in his forth-coming book, "Prayers,  Mantras and Gayatris." A Collection for Insights, Protection, Spiritual  Growth, and Many Other Blessings. This should be published and available in  another few weeks.

Using mantras or prayers is a means of doing  a number of things, depending on our purpose. First of all, it is a method to  raise our consciousness and prepare ourselves for perceiving higher states of  being. It can also help us enter into the spiritual dimension, or to invoke the  blessings of the Divine. It is also a means to call on the positive energies to  help us overcome obstacles, enemies, or to assist in healing our minds and  bodies from disease or negativity. And this book has an assortment of mantras or prayers to do any of  these.

There are two basic  kinds of mantras, those for spiritual and inner progress, and those for outer or  more materia needs. You can find both kinds within this book. Concentrating on a  mantra is also called mantra-yoga, especially when it is for our spiritual  upliftment, or to unite us with the Supreme. Mantra-yoga, or the art of focusing  on the sound vibrations in mantras or prayers, is actually a mystical tradition  found in almost every spiritual path in the world. It may involve the softly  spoken repetition of a prayer or mantra for one’s own meditation, or it may be  the
congregational singing of spiritually uplifting songs, prayers, or sacred names of the Supreme Being. It all involves the same process, but in the Eastern  tradition it is called mantra-yoga because it is the easy process of focusing  our minds on the Supreme through His names, which helps spiritualize our  consciousness. Man means the mind, tra means deliverance.

Therefore, a spiritual  mantra is the pure sound vibration for delivering the mind from material to spiritual consciousness. This is the goal of any spiritual path. Although all spiritual traditions have their own prayers or mantras, the Vedic Sanskrit mantras are especially powerful and effective in uniting us with the spiritual realm. However, a complete yoga process is generally a blend of a few yoga systems, such as ashtanga-yoga with bhakti-yoga, and bhakti-yoga with mantra-yoga. Therefore, some yoga systems also include mantra-yoga, or the process of concentrating on the sound vibration within a mantra. This is especially important in this age of  Kali-yuga.

Many years ago the brahmana  priests could accomplish many kinds of wondrous deeds simply by correctly  chanting particular mantras. Many of these mantras still exist, but it is very  difficult to find those who can chant them accurately. This is actually a safety  measure because if the wish-fulfilling mantras were easily chanted, there would  no doubt be many people who would misuse them. But other mantras that are  available can easily help purify one’s consciousness, give spiritual  enlightenment, and put one in touch with the  Supreme.

In Bhagavad-gita (10.25) Sri Krishna  explains that He is the transcendental om mantra and that the chanting of japa  (chanting a mantra quietly for one ’s own meditation) is the purest of His  representations and sacrifices. It is understood that by chanting japa and  hearing the holy sounds of the mantra, one can come to the platform of spiritual realization. This is the process of mantra-yoga. However, even though the mantra  is powerful in itself, when the mantra is chanted by a great devotee, it becomes  more powerful.

This is also the effect when a disciple is fortunate enough to  take initiation or diksha from a spiritually potent master who gives him a mantra for spiritual purposes. Then the disciple can make rapid progress by utilizing the mantra.

Sanskrit mantras often consist of eternal sound  energies that have always existed, both within the universe as well as beyond  it, and before its manifestation and after its annihilation. Such special  mantras are part of the eternal sound vibration called  shabda-brahma.

When it comes to mantras,  the Vedas mention three types: vedic, tantric and puranic. These can be further  divided into sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. The mantras that are sattvic or in  the mode of goodness are chanted for light, wisdom, compassion, divine love, or  God realization. They help bring peace, destroy karma, and bring one to  perfection after death. The mantras that are rajasic or in the mode of passion  are chanted for material benedictions, like blessings for a healthy child,  prosperity, successful business, and so on. However, such mantras do not help  one rise above karma, but force one to take rebirth in order to acquire the  results of their karma. The mantras that are tamasic or in the mode of ignorance  or darkness are also called “black magic.” These are used for the deliberate manipulation of the material energy for one’s own purpose. Thus, they are what  could be called sinful, and are often used to call spirits or to assist one to  perform deeds that may bring harm to others for one’s own benefit.

Some mantras hold certain powers  in their vibratory formulas that are directly related to particular Deities,  divine personalities, or forms of God.

In fact, they may represent the Deity in  full. When they do, they are considered non-different from the Deity and the  sound vibrations arespiritual in nature. By the repetition of the mantra, the  person who chants it invokes the energy and mercy of that Deity. Thus, the Deity  reveals Himself or Herself to the sadhaka, who then overcomes illusion and  realizes the spiritual position of the Deity and his or her relationship with  the Deity. The six kinds of mantras used in this connection are:
1. Dhyana  Mantras–mantras  for meditation to mentally invoke the Deity’s form, abode  or pastimes.
2. Bija Mantras–the seed mantras or seed words that are used for meditation and purification of the articles used in worship. Mantras often begin with these. They include such bijas or seed mantras as Aim and Shrim, which are often connected to the feminine or Devi. Or Klim which helps arouse the force of  attraction to the object addressed in the mantra. Or Krim which is
often  connected to Kali or Devi, or Gum which is in association with Ganesh. The bija  or seed mantras are derived from the 50 prime sounds which invoke various levels  of energy and also the nature of the elements, such as water, air, earth, fire,  etc., and are related to om.
3. Mula Mantras–root mantras are the essence of  the Deity, used when offering certain articles during the worship to address the  Lord or Deity.
4. Stutis and Stotras–mantras or prayers chanted before,  during and afterthe worship to glorify the Lord’s name, form, qualities, and  pastimes.
 5.Pranama Mantras–prayers offering obeisances to great  personalities or to the Lord, often used at the end of worship.
6. Gayatri  Mantras–Vedic or Pancharatrika mantras used to worship or invoke the blessings  of the Lord, or to focus the mind on God, and for invoking different moods,  energies, or powers.
The Vedic mantras,  such as those coming from the four samhitas of the Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva  Vedas, are eternal or spiritual sound vibrations. They are not composed by any  man at some particular point in history. They are part of the shabda-brahma, the  eternal sound vibration. These mantras are like seeds of vast amounts of power  and knowledge that are held within
them. Thus, many scriptures explain that such  powers cannot be fully revealed to someone unless such mantras have been  received through the process of diksha or initiation from a spiritual  master.Besides this, the results of  chanting a mantra depend on the chanter’s conception or intent in the mind while  chanting it. Thus, one must know the meaning or purpose of the mantra while  reciting it. If one thinks the mantra is for attaining material goals, the  person may get that. But if the inner purpose of the mantra is known to deliver  one to the spiritual world, and a person chants it sincerely for that purpose,  then that will be the reward rather than something minor or material, as long as  the person does not prematurely give up chanting  it. Most Sanskrit mantras have  several principles that you find in them. First, they are often handed down or  revealed by sages or authorities who have attained self-realization by its use.  They also generally use a particular meter or rhythm while chanting it. Plus,  the mantra often represents a certain Deity. It also has a bija or seed word  that gives it additional power,and the sound formula it contains has a special  shakti or energy. And finally, constant repetition of the mantra will open or  activate the key of it which then can reveal pure consciousness in the one who  has been initiated
into its use. The practice of repeating or chanting it for  one’s personal use is called japa. The japa or chanting it a required number of  times is often what triggers its power within the nsciousness of the chanter  in which it reaches its siddha, or perfection and  goal.The mantra is thus a point of  meditation for the mind, but also a formula or transcendental sound vibration,  like the holy name of God, that releases its energy into one’s consciousness.  Thus it prepares one for perceiving higher states of reality. With constant  practice of the appropriate mantra, and with the proper pronunciation and  devotional mood, the mantra can reveal the Absolute Truth to the practitioner as  well as one’s own spiritual form and relationship that you may have with the  Supreme Being.

This is why it is best  that one should receive and be initiated into the chanting of the mantra by a  qualified guru. Then the mantra will be especially effective and powerful, and  carry special means of invoking realizations into the devotee who uses  it.

Mantras can be divided into two  additional categories, namely saguna and nirguna. Saguna mantras (those that  describe personal traits) often are like prayers that invoke certain Deities or  characteristics of the Absolute. Nirguna mantras (those that refer to the nature  of the Absolute without qualities) describe the person’s identification with the  Absolute.
Mantras can be used in  different ways. They can be chanted in whispers, or out loud, or silently within  the mind. Generally each mantra has a recommendation as to which way works best.  Some mantras, like the Hare Krishna mantra, can be used in any of these ways, as  well as sung as a song with a group or congregation. Generally, this is done  with a lead singer who sings the mantra in a particular melody, and then  everyone else sings it afterwards. Some mantras  are meant to be chanted only within the mind because their vibration or  wavelength is beyond ordinary sound. So the silent method helps invoke the  energy within the consciousness. However, to first whisper it or softly speak  the mantra correctly may help one be able to chant it silently and make a  stronger connection with the mantra.

The  repeated chanting of a mantra is called japa. It is explained in the Vedic texts  that in this age of Kali-yuga the process of chanting japa or mantra meditation  is much more effective than practicing other spiritual paths that include  meditating on the void or Brahman effulgence, or trying to control the life air  within the body as in raja-yoga. Plus, only a very few can become erfect at  raising the kundalini force up through the various chakras, or moving the life  air up to the top of the head for enlightenment, and then get it to leave the  body at the right time to achieve full liberation. And meditating on the void  becomes useless as soon as there is the slightest external distraction, which in  this age of Kali-yuga is a continuous thing. Therefore, the most effective means  of focusing the consciousness is to concentrate on the sound vibration of a  mantra.

Using a mantra for japa meditation is a  process to help rid ourselves of unwanted thoughts and to retain the one thought  upon which we are concentrating. It helps us purify the mind of that which  obstructs knowledge of our true self. As our concentration on the mantra frees  our mind from random thoughts, and as the sound vibration of it raises the frequency level upon which we operate, our consciousness can become clear to observe our real nature. In the word japa, the letter “pa” stands for that which  removes or destroys all impurities and obstructions. The letter “ja”
stands for  that which puts an end to the cycle of birth and death. Japa, therefore, is a  means of liberation when the proper mantra is used for destroying the mental impurities and negative and materialistic desires and impressions that exist in the mind and consciousness. There  are two mantras that are especially recommended in the Vedic literature to  accomplish this. One is omkara or the om mantra, and the other is Hare Krishna,  Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama,Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare  Hare, which is known as the maha or great mantra. It is explained that these two  mantras can deliver one to the realm beyond material existence. But there are  ways to use these mantras, which we will explain next. Many of the instructions  that we describe for these mantras also work most effectively for the others  that are included in this book.

Ke Jabi Ke Jabi Bhai
"O brothers, who will go? Who will go?"
- by Srila Lochana Dasa Thakura


ke jabi ke jabi bhai bhava sindhu-para
dhanya kali-yugera caitanya-avatara   (1)

O brothers, who will go? Who will go? Who will cross over this ocean of birth and death? This is a special Kali-yuga because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come.


amara gaurangera ghate adana –kheya vaya
jada andha, atura avadhi para haya   (2)

At the bathing place of my Gauranga, there is a free ferry boat waiting. There is no restriction - everyone is coming, including the lame, the blind and the distressed. All are climbing aboard to cross over.


hari-nama naukakhani sri guru-khandari
sankirtana koroyala dubahu pasari   (3)

The holy name of Hari is the boat, Sri Guru is the captain, and the sakirtana party moving with upraised arms are the oars.


saba jiva haila para premera vatase
padiya rohila locana apanara done   (4)

All souls can cross over with the favorable winds of prema. Only Locana Dasa is so unfortunate that due to his own fault, he has been left behind.

Dear Prabhuji and Mataji,
Hare krishna
Pamho Agtsp.

Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International School at Vrindavana, India invites applications for High School and Post-graduate Teachers in following disciplines: English, Samskrit, Physics, Chemistry, Life Science,Mathematics and Social Studies.

Established in 1975 by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,the School is one of the premier residential institutes that provides value based education with strong emphasis on spiritual training and character building. Built on a culture of excellence, the School is renowned for its high academic standards. With about 30 academic teachers including five IIT graduates and an enrolment of more than 250 students in its current shape, it is planned to expand the current infrastructure to cater to the need of 600 students in the first phase. The academic pogramme of the school is being strictly monitored by the Director who is also a Professor in one of the IITs.

Applicants should have good academic credentials. Applicants with Masters degree as well as a degree in teachers training such as Bed will be given higher preference. "Successful candidates are expected to teach students both academic and spiritual subjects as desired by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Thus it is mandatory that these candidates adhere to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.

We offer competitive salaries. Remuneration will be commensurate with experience.

Application Procedure:
IMPORTANT -- Please indicate clearly the post applied for (i.e., High School Teacher in Physics or post-graduate teacher in English)

Please visit from more information and how to apply for Academic Appointments, http://www.bgis.org

Please ensure all requested information are enclosed in your application.

Electronic submission of application via info@bgis.org  is encouraged.

Hare Krishna.

INVITATION TO AN EXTRAORDINARY EVENT

Dear Disciples, followers and well-wishers of Srila Prabhupada,

2011 is a special time for all members of Srila Prabhupada's Australian
Family.

It marks a milestone in the history of the Krishna Consciousness Movement that began back in 1971, when we were all in the prime of our youth.  2011 marks the 40th Anniversary of Prabhupada's arrival in Australia, and 40 years  since Australia's first Deities - Radha Gopinatha - were lovingly carried across the Pacific in the arms of Vegavan  and Bali-mardan and finally installed in that fledgling storefront temple at 118 Oxford Street Paddington by Srila Prabhupada himself.

Srila Prabhupada expressed his desire that 10 temples be established in Australia and New Zealand, and that number has been well surpassed.

Some of us were early members way back then, and some of us 'joined' a bit later, some here in Sydney, and some elsewhere in Australia. And some have remained well-wishers, or become  disciples of Srila Prabhupada's disciples.

It's an incredible history, and one worth celebrating. Those years have left an indelible mark on our hearts.

Our lives have changed dramatically in those 40 years, but there is one constant: with Srila Prabhupada as our Spiritual Father we have a unique relationship as brothers and sisters.

Over three magical days, Friday 20 May to Sunday 22 May 2011, Sydney Temple will be celebrating that unique bond. The Temple will be hosting a whirlwind of memorable events that shouldn't be missed.

Family members from all over the world will be attending. That alone is a great reason to come - to meet old and dear friends again all in one spot, at the same time.  But there's more.

The formal program commences with a delicious reunion dinner on Friday 20 May. Slideshows, a tour to old Sydney temple sites, vintage films, guest speakers, an historic group photo, blissful chants, feasting and a picnic are just some of the highlights!

More details are available but for now, please mark these dates in your diary: Friday 20, Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 May, 2011.

Want to know more? Contacts listed below.

We eagerly look forward to seeing you again!

With love and affection,

Kurma dasa (on behalf of the 40th Anniversary Committee)


email:
kurma.acbsp@pamho.net

website:
http://www.kurma.net/

blog:
http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/

facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/kurma.dasa