H.G. Krpamoya Prabhu - 09/03/09 – Lessons from the interactions of Lord Caitanya and His devotees – Lord Caitanya and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya – Manor

H.G. Krpamoya Prabhu - 09/03/09 – Lessons from the interactions of Lord Caitanya and His devotees – Lord Caitanya and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya – Bhaktivedanta Manor

Class:

• There are no mundane people in the spiritual world, therefore you better get used to associating with devotees if you want to go back there!
• New Age concept: I like the company of those people who are searching after God, but not those who have found God!
• Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura: utsaha-mayi – flush of enthusiasm
• Taranga rangini – a surfer doesn’t recognize the waves, rides the waves too low, and just gets the froth rather than the deep waves, therefore sometimes we mistake the byproducts of devotional service to be the same as bhakti.
• In one sense, the surfer can say “but I’m still riding a wave”, but there is more, must do more to experience the real waves, similarly the sadhu cuts, he tells us to do more to experience real bhakti
• Otherwise we’ll all be part of M.A.S.S. – the mutual appreciation society of sadhus – and we won’t make any advancement.
• The Holy Name, philosophy and books require some agency to deliver the effect
• Holy Name requires Sukadeva and Ananta to go out on Harinama
• The philosophy requires the uni preaching team to go and preach
• The books require Sutapa and the sankirtan devotees to go out and distribute them
• Prabhupada asked “Who will relieve Lord Caitanya’s anxiety?”
• Lord Caitanya: “How many places can I be at one time?”
• Krishna is ajita – unconquerable, for example He saved Draupadi, Gajendra, He killed Putana and Sisupala
• Although He is ajita, Lord Caitanya disempowers Himself to experience the dependency of a devotee.
• We untie a knot in order to tie it to something else, similarly preaching means to untie someone’s faith in other things and direct that faith towards Krishna
• Prabhupada: “we should preach to people to doubt the scientists”
• Prabhupada translated bhakti as “devotional service” not “devotion” because bhakti means activity
• Bhakti Tirtha Swami met a professor who knew everything about the life and teachings of Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis but he himself was smoking, so this shows that knowledge is useless without practice.
• Lord Caitanya defeated nyaya (mundane logic), which was represented by Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya
• Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was born in 1450
• Studied nava-nyaya in Mithila
• Expert in epistemology (how to know something to be true)
• Epistemology involves 5 stages of proof:

1. Pratijna – something requires proof (assumption) e.g. there is a fire on the hill

2. Hetu – reason for assumption, why do you deduce there is a fire on the hill? e.g. smoke

3. Udaharana – example of something seen before (where there is smoke there is fire)

4. Upanaya – reaffirmation – there is smoke on the hill

5. Nigaman – conclusion

• Causation – nimitta – efficient cause à remote cause
• Some say there is God some say there is ‘not God’
• Vedanta sutra explains what is the cause:
• Vivarta-vada – transformation of Brahman
• Parinama-vada – transformation of energies of Brahman
• No printing of books allowed, because brahmanas attached to fame
• Every varna has their attachment:
• Brahmana attached to fame
• Ksatriya attached to power
• Vaisya attached to money
• Sudra attached to being loved
• Vedanta uses technique of deconstructing reality e.g. Sankara says when one sees breasts of a beautiful woman, deconstruct the form to just lumps of flesh, blood and puss.
• Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya wanted to initiate Lord Caitanya into a higher order of sannyasa (some things never change!)
• Lord Caitanya showed the sadbhuja form in Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s house
• The Panca Tattva painting is set in Srivasa’s house
• Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya composed verses revealing that Lord Caitanya is God, but Lord Caitanya ripped up the leaf that the verses were on. Luckily, Jagadananda Pandita had heard the verses and noted them down.
• The envious will always criticize the behavior of sannyasis e.g. Bhattacarya’s son in law Amogha criticized Lord Caitanya for eating a lot.
• Lord Caitanya later told Amogha “You are a brahmana so naturally you have the Lord in your heart, why then do you allow dirty things in your heart? How will the Lord reside there?”