KKS lecture-

Durban South
Africa
30/09/2007
(Invocatory prayers)

So it is stated that the

transcendental pastimes of Lord
Krsna are very difficult to
understand, from a material And said like, “How is it
perspective. They are possible?” And the only
bewildering because Lord Krsna, explanation they could think of
He performs many extraordinary was that the Salligram sila was
activities. When Krsna appeared coming off the altar and running
in the form of Sri Caitanya through the house! They could
Mahaprabhu He also bewildered never imagine that it was
the minds of many devotees. It is possibly Nimai- “Definitely not,
said when He was only very Not Nimai! Must be the
young, there were all kinds of Salligram sila…”
confusing incidents. Like one
time Jagannatha Misra, His
father, requested the small boy to
go in the house and bring a book.
But as He was running in the
house, they didn’t see Him but
they could hear ankle bells
ringing. And then, later when the
boy came out of the house and
brought the book, after that they
came inside and they saw
footprints of Visnu all over the
floor!
In
this way the pastimes of Krsna
are very bewildering. It is further
 described that one time a pious
brahmana who was a great
devotee of Bala Gopala, Krsna in
His childhood form, and he was
carrying that Deity of Bala
Gopala with him. And he was
staying in the house of
Jagannatha Misra and he was
making an offering to the Deity,
and just when he was chanting
the Gopala mantra for invoking
the presence of Lord Gopala,
Lord Gaura-Gopala came! Lord
Gaura-Gopala came right there
on the spot and ate all the
offerings! So, “Ahh! The child
has eaten the offerings!” it was a
drama! So Jagannatha Misra
chastised his son and arranged
that his son will go to a house of
the neighbour so He couldn’t
perform His mischief anymore
because he knew very well. So
Jagannatha Misra was very
upset. But somehow or other,
although He was in the
neighbour’s house, when the
brahmana cooked again and
started another offering- again,
Gaura-Gopala took the offering!
And this went on several times
until…at midnight, the whole
house was asleep and finally the
brahmana, upon the request of
Jagannatha Misra, cooked one
more time. They begged him,
“Please!” Even Visvarupa, the
elder brother of Nimai, came and
he was very pure. So when
Visvarupa came and begged
what could the brahmana do! He
cooked again, he cooked again
and Jagannatha Misra personally
stood with a stick in front of the
door!
So it seemed that this time Nimai
would not get in…but, the night
was moving along and everyone
was getting a little tired and
finally Nimai was sound asleep.
So Jagannatha Misra, also being
a little tired, put his stick to the
side and sort of lied down for a
few minutes and then a few
minutes became a lot of time,
until…suddenly in the middle of
the night, at midnight, the
brahmana was ready to make
another offering and there, there
again, again that boy somehow
or other appeared and again took
the offering! The brahmana was
about to lament... when Nimai
took a four-handed form! And in
that four-handed form, with two
hands He played a flute and with
the other two hands He was
stealing butter from a pot! So in
this way the brahmana could see
that, “Here is my Bala-Gopala!”
very clear. And then He became
Gauranga- Gaura-Gopala. All
right, then the Brahman
understood and Lord Caitanya
told him very strictly not to tell
anyone.
But in this way who can
understand, who can understand
the Supreme Lord! They’re
difficult, but in this way Lord
Caitanya performed His
transcendental pastimes and
played with His devotees and
they felt, “Something is going on
here…” From before His birth,
mother Saci had strange dreams
about celestial beings offering
prayers. And after His birth, they
got so many visitors in the
house, so many coming to see
the child- strangers from
anywhere came- even demigods
in disguise had come to see the
child. So many amazing
pastimes took place and
gradually Nimai grew up and He
became a glorious brahmana- the
glory of Navadvipa! This
brahmana, with His broad golden
chest and His very tall features,
was very, very handsome- very
handsome! And the brahminical
cord that was wresting on His
chest was Ananta-sesa itself!
Because this is the nature of
Ananta-sesa, who’s an expansion
of Lord Balarama, He becomes
the servant of the Lord and
becomes His bed, he becomes
His seat, he becomes His plate,
he becomes His shoes…he even
becomes His brahmana thread!
So wearing Ananta-sesa for a
brahmana thread- everything
about this brahmana was very,
very attractive- very attractive.

Many different pastimes took
place at that time. At one point,
Lord Caitanya, revealed to His
devotees who He really was.
There was a time at Srivasa
Pandit’s house:
Srivasa Pandita’s house was the
place where all the devotees
would assemble but the
neighbours were always
complaining because every night
there was so much noise (they
had kirtana). And every night
these kirtana’s and people were
very disturbed that so much
noise was being made. So they
had threatened different times
and different things but nothing
had worked. So finally they said,
“Okay, we’ll make an official
complaint to the government- to
the Muslim government- that you
are chanting all these Hindu
things here very loud and
publicly and they’ll fix you up!”
So after some time, they came
back and they said, “All right,
very soon you will see Srivasa, a
group of soldiers will come to
arrest you! They’ll send a boat
down the river to come and get
you.” So that was of course…it
looked serious. It didn’t just look
like hollow threat- it really
looked like they meant it!
So Srivasa was getting a little
concerned and he started a
worship of Lord Nrsimhadeva.
So he was chanting different
prayers to his Deity of Lord
Nrsimhadeva and he bouldered
all the doors. And as he was
praying, “My dear Lord, please
protect me,” just at that time,
someone came and kicked the
door of his house with great
force! Srivasa was convinced it
were the soldiers had arrived but
instead of that, a voice- a
thundering voice- roared and
called out: “Srivasa! Srivasa!
Don’t you know that the Lord
that you are worshipping is
standing in front of your door!”
“Lord Nrsimhadeva?” (Srivasa)
It was Lord Nrsimha-Caitanya!
Lord Caitanya was personally
present and Srivasa for the first
time saw Him, he saw all His
glories and he realized, He is
indeed the Supreme Lord.
So then Lord Caitanya walked
into the house, sat down on the
altar, moved the Saligram-silas
aside and just sat down in the
middle of the altar and said, “So,
will you worship Me?” And
Srivasa began to worship and
then somehow or other the doors
were open and the devotees
came in from everywhere and
they brought things for an
abhisheka and nothing was
organized but they had the
biggest abhisheka that you’ve
ever seen of Lord Caitanya! So
at that time they worshiped and
recognized Caitanya
Mahaprabhu as the Supreme
Lord.
So from that time on, Lord
Caitanya had a group of intimate
devotees who knew that He was
the Supreme Lord. Otherwise
common men had still no idea;
they still thought He was just a
brahmana- very wonderful
brahmana, very pious- but they
didn’t know who He was. But
that group of devotees, they did.
So one day Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu told the devotees
that Nityananda has arrived. And
they didn’t quite know anything
about Nityananda but Lord
Caitanya told the devotees to
look for Him. They were looking
everywhere and couldn’t find
Him and then Lord Caitanya
personally found Him in the
house of Nandacarya and
brought Him back. And it was a
very ecstatic meeting and from
that day on, these two
transcendental brothers were
practically inseparable!
So one evening, mother Saci put
her Deities of Krsna-Balarama to
rest. Every day she was
worshipping Krsna and
Balarama, she put Them to rest
with different mantras and so on
as appropriately is done.
And she lay down to sleep
herself and then, that night, she
had a dream and she was
dreaming of the Deities. So it
was very nice. Then suddenly,
suddenly in the dream Nimai and
Nitai appeared and They started
fighting with the Deities over the
offering! And it was a big fight!
And They said to Krsna-
Balarama, “Get out of here! Get
out of here! Because, this is Our
Yuga! This offering is Ours!”
Nityananda won and They had
the offerings! So mother Saci
woke up and she was really
shocked, “What is going on?
What is going on?
How is it Nimai, my son,
fighting with the Deities!” So
anyway, as time moved on she
said, “Oh, it was just a dream-
strange dream though, very
strange.” So you know how it is
with the dreams, during the day
it sort of disappears in the
background and you don’t think
of it anymore and you almost
forget it. So that happened with
mother Saci and just that day,
that day both Gaura Nitai came
for lunch. So mother Saci
offered the lunch to Them at two
little tables and two little seats
and served Them Their tallies,
and just then as she was serving
Them, suddenly she had a flash
back and remembered the
dream! And suddenly she
realized that Gaura-Nitai were
non-different from Krsna-
Balarama and then she fainted.
And forgot it again of course!

So it was a big fight- especially

between Nityananda and
Balarama- and eventually

Like that the Supreme Lord is
playing, playing with His
devotees. This is actually the
true reality- the pastimes of the
Supreme Lord. We somehow or
other must understand that is
real. Just like here in the temple,
you can look up to the ceiling
and you can see the pictures of
Krsna. And then you look a little
bit down and you look out of the
window and you might think, as
we are looking out of the
window, that’s reality, and you
look up at the roof and you think
those are the pictures. No. On
the roof, that’s reality, and that
out of the window, that is a
picture, that is a picture, that’s
just a picture. That is just some
illusion out there, that is not real,
that’s just a picture. But upwards
on the painting, that is real, that
is reality.
You got that, right! And you let it
sink in for a moment because if a
little later I’m asking you for the
key of your BMW then it’s just
your BM-illusion! The ‘u’ stands
for illusion- double illusion! So
may as well give your illusory
key of your illusory car and free
yourself from this Maya!
In that way so that you can
without distraction focus on the
reality- Krsna- and just
remember Krsna only. If
anybody has a BMW then…I
only take new ones! What can I
do!
So like this we are thinking of
Lord Caitanya, of His different
pastimes, of He acted with His
different devotees.
That brahmana, who remained
hidden from everyone, at one
point His father died and He
went to Gaya to perform the
sraddha ceremony and make
offerings to Lord Visnu, which is
done in Gaya where the footprint
of the Lord is found in a rock-
nowadays a temple around- and
Lord Caitanya went there and
met His spiritual master, Isvara
Puri. Isvara Puri became the
spiritual master of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu and that is kind of
interesting because Isvara Puri
was a disciple of Madhavendra
Puri. So Madhavendra Puri, he
was the famous acarya actually.
Madhavendra Puri was the
extraordinary, ecstatic
personality and Madhavendra
Puri was like the first one who
showed these extraordinary
symptoms of love of God and
whoever met him also became
ecstatic!
It is said that once, Madhavendra
Puri was walking with his
disciples (Isvara Puri was also
there) and then they met Lord
Nityananda.

This is long before Lord
Caitanya came in the picture.
Madhavendra Puri met Lord
Nityananda and it is said that
when the two saw each other,
they realized that never before
had they seen anybody with so
much love of God in the whole
world! Never before had they
seen anyone with such
symptoms of love of God in the
entire world. Therefore, when
these two saw each other they
felt that, “All this time we were
alone. Wherever we went, we
saw many devotees but all these
devotees were simply following
regulative principles. We saw
many devotees that worshipped
the Lord and they did it
according to the rules of the
scriptures very nicely but did
they do it with love in their
heart?”
Up until the day that
Madhavendra Puri and Lord
Nityananda met, they had never
seen anyone with such love of
God. So when they touched each
other, they became so ecstatic
they fell on the ground and
started rolling in the dirt and you
can imagine the disciples were
looking, “What is Guru
Maharaja doing?” Imagine that
here in Durban in the middle of
the Ratha Yatra! Such an event!
Some of the devotees are, “Yeh!
That’s what we want next Ratha
Yatra! We book it now!” but
such ecstatic moments cannot be
booked; they occur, they happen
spontaneous and nothing can
stop. So everyone was amazed to
see such ecstatic love.
Isvara Puri, of course he was
also full of love but he was not
as famous as Madhavendra Puri,
for he did not so openly exhibit
such extraordinary symptoms.
Isvara Puri’s qualification was
that in the last days of
Madhavendra Puri’s life,
Madhvavendra Puri was
incapacitated. He was paralysed
for some time and sometimes
could not keep his bowel
movements under control and
then had to be washed, and it
was Isvara Puri who did all of
that service very faithfully
everyday.
And therefore it was Isvara Puri
who is specifically known for
being the servant of his spiritual
master. He is not known as the
most amazing personality like
Madhavendra Puri but rather he
is known as the servant of his
spiritual master and he who was
known as the greatest servant of
his spiritual master became the
spiritual master of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu!
So this is interesting, in the
pastimes, to see how this is
arranged like that and how Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu is
teaching us like that and showing
us what truly the essence is- He
accepted that spiritual master.
So after Nimai had met His
spiritual master in Gaya, He
changed. Before He was the
learned Nimai Pandita but after
that He became a devotee. And
when He came back everyone
was amazed! “Nimai’s become a
devotee” and they treated Him
like a new bhakta- Bhakta
Nimai- and they allowed Him to
do some service for them. He
would wash the clothes for some
of the Vaisnavas or carry things
for them. Everyone thought,
“Good, then in this way Bhakta
Nimai can make some
advancement.” But He made
advancement very, very quick!
So quick that within no time He
began to show symptoms that
were much more advanced than
anybody else had because He
began to show ecstatic
symptoms of love of God. And
of course, this continued again
and again. He would crash to the
ground; His mother thought it
was a disease! She called a
doctor who said, “I’ll take that
disease anytime! Give it to me!
I’m begging for this disease
myself! This is the disease I’ve
been looking for all these years.
Trying to get contaminated but
no, it didn’t act as yet.” He said,
“He is very fortunate, you are
very fortunate.” But mother Saci
still was not completely satisfied
because Nimai would crash to
the ground and get very restless
and all these things. So she
wasn’t so happy.
So here we’re seeing how the
Adi-lila, the initial pastimes of
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, come
towards an end. And then we see
that the Madhya-lila really
begins after the Lord has taken
sanyassa, the Adi-lila ends with
sanyassa really.
Then in the Madhya-lila Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as a
sanyassi, is roaming around and
He’s trying to go to Vrndavana
but it’s a little difficult because
He’s so ecstatic that He can’t
find the way and is sort of a few
kilometer’s off and He’s by foot,
so He really missed a turn you
could say! And in that way He
winds up way lost in Bengal and
it is Nityananda who
manipulates some boys to send
Him back, back to Bengal
instead of to Vrndavana. And Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu winds up
in the house of Advaita Acarya,
where they have staged a whole
reunion with all the devotees.

At that time of course, mother
Saci is cooking for Nimai for the
last time. And she is cooking in
such a way like no one has tasted
before! Because she puts all her
separation in what she cooks and
therefore anybody who takes that
prasada, virtually starts to cry
tears and becomes ecstatic
because this is how it is- it is the
bhakti that’s in there. So it’s not
that Krsna is some sort of
prasadam-machine! It’s like you
put the plate in front of the
picture and you sort of ring the
bell, instead of pushing the
button, and then ding!
Prasadam! It’s not exactly like
that! But rather there is prasadam
and prasadam, if you know what
I mean! I mean there is really
ecstatic prasadam, so this
prasadam of mother Saci
produced…everyone went mad
for it- mad!
Then we get the point where
mother Saci requests Nimai to go
to Jagannatha Puri. So Caitanya
Caritamrta gives us a nice
description of mother Saci
requested Him to go to Puri
because Puri and Navadvipa is
like a house with two rooms and
the people from Navadvipa go
from Navadvipa to Puri, so in
this way she thought, “I will here
something about my son.”
because there was no e-mails and
no cell phones and nothing. So it
was like, if He would take
sanyassa you might never hear
from Him again;
 CONTD IN PART 2

He had no website or nothing

like that! It was pretty tough! So
quite austere in a sense! Then the
Caitanya Caritamrta, after this,
describes how Nimai is supposed
to Jagannatha Puri then it begins
to describe…it’s sort of a flash
back and it begins to describe the
story of Madhavendra Puri…….