Jananivas: In 1973 we had just completed the lotus building in Mayapur. I went to Prabhupada’s room and asked him,
“Can Lord Chaitanya wear a peacock feather?”
He said, “Why not? He is Krishna.”
I told him some of the Gaudiya Math people were complaining that Lord Chaitanya shouldn’t wear a peacock feather.
Srila Prabhupada became very disappointed and he just looked down. He didn’t say anything else.
I took it to mean that he was disturbed that his God-brothers always criticized him.
In fact he wrote one letter, “How can they help when they only hinder us.” It was an open letter.
My understanding was that Prabhupada was wondering why they didn’t see what he had accomplished?”
He picked us out of the gutter of material existence.
We had shaved heads, we wore tilaka and dhotis and we were chanting Krishna’s names.
In other words, “Look at what he’d done rather than fault finding.”
Since that time I found new evidence where Lord Chaitanya is described with a peacock feather.
In the Advaita Gauranga Maji by Advaita Acharya he gives the description of Mahaprabhu in meditation.
In the description he says He has His sikhi-piccha, the peacock feather in His hair and another one over His ear. [laughs]
There is another in the nitya-lila of Mahaprabhu when after breakfast He goes with His friends on sankirtan.
They see all the white cows and the peacocks and He corresponds with Vrindavan-lila when Krishna goes out with the cows in the morning.
So he gets into His cowboy mood. [laughs]
So he starts calling out to all of His cows,
“Ah, Shyama he, Dubala he, Ganga he, Yamuna he, come on.” [laughs]
All the devotees would inquire, “What’s happening?”
“Oh, He’s in the mood of Krishna in Vrindavan.”
So they are all assuming the same mood as Him.
They would pick up sticks and start twirling them around like cowboys do. “Hi, hi, hi, let’s go up to Goverdhan.”
Nityananda Prabhu tends to have a Buffalo horn, “Woo, woo, woo, Goverdhan he.”
In that description Lord Chaitanya wears a peacock feather.
Also Prabhupada asked Malati mataji one time, “Why Lord Chaitanya is not wearing a peacock feather?”
She said, “Oh, He should be wearing?” He said, “Yes.”
She asked, “What about Nityananda Prabhu?”
He said, “Sometimes he could wear but Lord Chaitanya should always wear.”
So now we had guru, sadhu and shastra. It became a little bit controversial.
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