Six Opulences of Lord Chaitanya (6): Strength Wealth Fame part 2

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And we discussed how the holy name has a power which nothing in the material world has. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu comes to exhibit this power. Now the holy name had that omnipotence, that extraordinary power, even before Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared.
Because Krishna is always not different from the holy name. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu invested special potency. So we need to understand that the holy name is not like a mechanical powerhouse.
But suppose now we want electricity, so we just turn on a power switch and the power manifests over there. So the fan turns on, the light turns on, the holy name is not like a mechanical power switch. The holy name is a personal manifestation of the Lord.
And how much the Lord will manifest when the holy name is chanted, depends on the sincerity of our heart and the mercifulness of the Supreme Lord. So when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu manifested, he invested far far greater potency in the holy name. Bhaktivinoda Thakur uses the word, invest naam of Prabhu in the mantra.
He used to invest the holy name in the mantra. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s special mercy is that the same holy name, which is always non-different from Krishna, became specially powerful in the sense that it became specially accessible. In the past, only brahmanas were allowed to chant Vedic mantras.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu allowed everyone to chant. Not only that, he made the power of the holy name more easily accessible to everyone. So one manifestation Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s power is the power of the holy name.
And we see all over the world, there are miraculous transformations of hearts of people, just by a little chanting of the holy names. On other spiritual paths, some people keep practising this spiritual path for 20-30 years, and still they are struggling to give up some basic undesirable habits like smoking or drinking. But by the chanting of the holy names, we may not see any bombs exploding or any fire rising or any mushroom balloon caused by explosion rising, but the explosion takes place inside the heart.
And it transforms our heart. We see by chanting of the holy names, just within a few months of practise, in a bad habit if the world struggles to give up, everybody gives up relatively effortlessly. So this is one aspect of the strength of the holy name.
Strength to transform the heart and to bring about internal transformation. This is the special potency that Lord has offered by the gift of the holy name. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also exhibited strength in various other ways.
He exhibited strength by countering the oppression of the Muslim rulers at his time. Chand Kazi tried to forcibly stop the Haryana Sankirtan. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu mounted what was the first public disobedience movement.
Thousands and thousands of people came along with Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, marching at his behest, completely fearless. And all of them were chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra. Along with chanting the holy name of Lord Krishna, they were also chanting another mantra at that time.
They were chanting Kazi Murtaba, Death to the Kazi. They were very very angry at that time. And seeing the sheer exhibition of strength, the Kazi sent some of his soldiers.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu mounted this civil disobedience movement. They were not like the modern rioters who go around killing anyone and everyone. Nobody was wounded or killed by the power of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu over there.
Although the Muslims were frightened, they did not transform. They also, electrifying the magnetising effect of the Haryana Sankirtan at that time was so strong, that even the melekshs and yavanas started chanting the holy names. And Shant Kazi, although he had the whole powerhouse of Bengal behind him, and at that time Bengal was not a very small kingdom.
Bengal was very big and very powerful. There is a Mughal emperor that just conquered Bengal. I had conquered Delhi, but Humayun and Babur and others, but still they could not conquer Bengal.
Because the Bengali Nawab was very powerful. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was completely fearless. And this Shant Kazi, according to some sources, is actually like the spiritual teacher.
The Muslims don’t exactly have a concept of spiritual master. But he was like a spiritual teacher for the Nawab Hussain Shah. Opposing Shant Kazi is not an ordinary thing.
And Nawabuddin is not very far away from Calcutta. Of course Calcutta was not there at that time. But in that area near Ramakeli was the capital of Nawab Hussain Shah.
So to mount a civil disobedience movement so close to the capital of the Islamic ruler and against the person who is the spiritual teacher of the Islamic ruler is not ordinary thing. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did that fearlessly. Not only was he fearless, everybody with him was fearless.
And in fact, not only were they fearless, seeing their show of strength, the Nawab became fearless. And the Nawab went and hid in his, sorry, the Shant Kazi went and hid in his house. And then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu very swiftly called him out and they had a discussion.
And Shant Kazi was completely transformed by both the wisdom and the compassion of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he also became a devotee. And he made a proclamation that as long as, he says, as long as my dynasty continues, none of my successors will ever disturb the Haryanam Sankirtan.
And even now, when our devotees go to Haryanam Sankirtan over there in Mayapur in that area, at least those Muslim descendants will never disturb the Haryanam Sankirtan. This was an exhibition of the prowess of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also exhibited his strength by demonstrating the Vishwaroop.
Advaita Acharya at one time desired that he wanted to see the Vishwaroop. Just as Arjuna had seen the Vishwaroop shown by Krishna. He requested this Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at once to come to his house.
When Advaita Acharya was in a trance of ecstasy, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu woke him up. Advaita Acharya begged to him, please show me the Vishwaroop. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, no Vishwaroop is displayed.
Advaita Acharya was dazzled. He could not see. Krishna is describing the Bhagavad Gita in all directions.
Now Arjuna says, I don’t know where I should offer obeisances to you. When we come in the temple, whether it is in front of us, we can offer obeisances in front. So he says, Vishwaroop, you are ahead, you are behind, you are top, you are below, you are all around me.
Where do I offer obeisances? He says, I offer obeisances ahead, in the behind, I offer hundreds of times in all directions. So Advaita Acharya was also similarly overwhelmed. He started offering obeisances and offering fruitful prayers.
Now there is one difference between this Vishwaroop shown by Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In the Vishwaroop shown by Lord Krishna, it is described that all the warriors in the battlefield, especially the Kauravas, all of them were entering into the mount of Vishwaroop. But in this particular case, in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Vishwaroop, who was entering into the mount of that Vishwaroop? There were no Kauravas here, there was no battle going on.
But here, all those who were offenders to the Vaishnavas, all the Aparathis, Vaishnava Aparathis, they were all entering into the mount of the Vishwaroop and getting destroyed. And at that time, Nityananda Prabhu in his own ecstasy was wandering in the streets of Navadvipa. And he also realised that, oh, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is exhibiting the Vishwaroop.
So he came to the house of Acharya and knocked on the door. Now Arjunacharya was completely overwhelmed. He was completely overwhelmed in ecstasy, offering prayers and beholding this.
He was knocking, knocking, nobody was opening. Then suddenly the door opened. And you know who opened the door? It was the Vishwaroop that opened the door.
And Nityananda Prabhu was stunned. And he also fell and offered obeisances. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu displayed his extraordinary strength in protecting all the A.A., showing the Vishwaroop.
So, actually, showing the Vishwaroop is one characteristic by which we can understand who is the Supreme Lord. So these people claimed to be Aparathas. But not many of them can show, none of them can show the Vishwaroop.
Now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also exhibited his dharmaputra, his great strength in another way. It was by practically checking the power of death. We know that when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was performing his dharmaputra at the house of Srivasa Thakur, at that time Srivasa Thakur’s son passed away.
When he passed away, everybody started crying. But Srivasa Thakur did not cry. He only told the ladies in the house, don’t cry.
Because we are here to serve Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Even our personal sorrows and personal grievances should not disturb our service to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He said, ladies, you know, Supreme Selflessness, you can see the antithesis is exactly opposite.
You know, ordinary people think that the purpose of God’s existence is to free us from suffering. That’s why they go all the time to the temple and ask Him, please solve this problem, please solve that problem. Some of us try to serve as facilitators or counsellors.
Everybody comes to us with their problems. Yeah, we are happy to help others. Sometimes it can become a burden.
So when we go to the Lord, we imagine the Lord is giving darshan. And as soon as He gives darshan, everybody charges to solve this problem, solve that problem, solve that problem. And Lord will say, close the curtain, I don’t want to give darshan only.
So it’s the ordinary mood of going to the Lord to ask Him to solve our problem. It is good. It’s better to go to the Lord than to try some mundane means without taking shelter of the Lord.
At a higher level, a devotee doesn’t want the Lord to solve his problems. A devotee wants to serve the Lord. And he wants to solve the Lord’s problems.
I mean, what problems does the Lord have? The Lord’s problem is that all of us are in problems. The Lord’s problem is that all of us have forgotten Him and are suffering in the material world. So a devotee wants to solve the Lord’s problems.
A devotee doesn’t want to create any problem in the Lord’s service. There is a very famous lecture in the 20 series. He says that, you know, sometimes devotees feel that, I am chanting Hare Krishna, I am practising Krishna consciousness, but still maya is troubling me.
Lust is coming, greed is coming, envy is coming. Prabhupada explains that maya’s purpose is to test us. Whether we want to serve Krishna or whether we want to disturb Krishna.
As long as we want to disturb Krishna, maya will disturb us. As long as we want to disturb Krishna. I want to do this, I want to do that, I want this, I want that.
As long as we want to disturb Krishna, maya will keep disturbing us. So many anarthas will keep troubling us. As soon as we want to start serving Krishna, sincerely, wholeheartedly, then maya’s disturbance will occur.
One time a devotee asked Prabhupada, Prabhupada, if I want to serve Krishna, then why is maya so strong? Prabhupada immediately replied, because your purpose is so strong. Because your purpose to serve Krishna is so strong. His purpose was so strong.
He not only did not consider the departure of his son as a disturbance, he said we should not disturb Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath came to know about it eventually after 7 hours. He was so overwhelmed.
He felt so grateful. And out of his gratitude for Srivastava’s selfless, extraordinary love, Jagannath actually called his son back to him. And his son spoke.
He spoke words of wisdom. And everybody was stunned to see the omnipotence of Lord Jagannath. He had such a great strength that he could turn the direction of death and take someone who has gone from life to death back from death into life.
There is another less known incident that happened similarly in the Ratha Yatra. Advaita Acharya had three sons. The most famous among them was Achutananda, who later on became one of the Nira-Jyotar movement after Advaita Acharya.
Another son was Gopal. So Advaita Acharya along with his sons was dancing in the Ratha Yatra festival in Jagannath Puri. And suddenly this Gopal fell unconscious.
And with Gopal fell unconscious, Advaita Acharya started sprinkling water, chanting the holy names. But he did not come back to consciousness. They could practically see no signs of life.
Because of no signs of life, they were overwhelmed. And Advaita Acharya would continuously hear. But it was so shocking, so sudden.
But then, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came there. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu just called Gopal. Get up.
And as soon as he touched Gopal, Advaita Acharya started dancing. So the person who had died like this was brought back to life. In the Christian tradition, Jesus brought one person back to life.
That’s considered so glorious. In Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he has brought millions of people back to spiritual life. Those who were dead, he brought them back to life.
But there are incidents when he also brought some people back to life. Those who were physically dead, he brought them back to physical life. But the greater blessing of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is that those who are spiritually dead, he brings them back to life.
This is the opulence of strength of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is also the Supreme Lord. So what about the opulence of wealth? Now we will see that Kshatriya has wealth.
Brahmana doesn’t have any wealth. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a Brahmana. On top of that, all of you are the Brahmana.
You are the Sanyasi. Sanyasi renounces all wealth. So of course, there is material wealth and there is spiritual wealth.
So now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, there was never any shortage for him or even for his devotees. That’s why we know that famous incident. Vasudeva Thakur said that, My dear Lord, if there is no food in my house, I will just clap three times.
I will clap three times. And within three times clapping, if the food is not arranged, then I will put a stone around my neck and drown myself in the Ganges. So this is it.
He had the faith that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Lord. One of his names is Vishwambhara. Vishwambhara means one who maintains the wealth.
So Mukunda Shekhar Maharaj says, वो पच्ची रशिनावनो विन करो पासिश्चिति विप्सिमा He says, My dear Lord, you remove the miseries. You solve the problems. You provide the necessities.
Even for ordinary materialistic people who just occasionally ever come to you. Why will you not maintain your own devotees? I will show you the Lord will maintain. So we see that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu removes all the pure Brahmanical life.
So Lord Thakur never had any shortage. It is described in Arvind Acharya’s house, where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came after taking sanyas. So not only was he there, not only were the Vaishnavas there, but hundreds and hundreds of other people were also there.
And all of them were fed sumptuously. It is said that Arvind Acharya’s granary was never exhausted. Although he took out as much food as was required still it remained.
In Acharya’s granary, his food would go down. His food reserves were like the Akshaya Patra. He had an endless reserve of food that was there in it.
Similarly, that is actually the result of the wealth of the Lord, who Thakur Thaksura was worshipping. By his mercy, there was no shortage of food. Similarly, when Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in South India touring, whenever they started off, thousands and thousands of soldiers were there with him.
Ordinary people were there with him. And when he came from Surinder Nagpuri, especially to Bengal, at that time, the Nawab Usang Shah, who was passing by Ramakini, he was impressed. He got the news from his orderings, his servants, that there is this sanyasi who has come.
And Usang Shah’s people are following him. And they just consider him complete. In fact, wherever he walks, people just follow that place and try to take the dust from it.
Sometimes, many places, the place where he has put his food, a big ditch is created because everybody has come and taken the dust from that. You know how he started? He says, I have my servants, but I have to pay them, and still they don’t do their job properly. This sanyasi is not paying any attention, but still people are following him.
And they are obeying him and their deeds are being taken care of. This is the realisation. Surely, this is the supreme law.
Otherwise, how would he have such generosity? How would he have been able to attract so many thousands of people? Again and again and again and again. So, in this way, by the power of the holy name, which can do that destruction, which is an authentic pralaya, which cannot be done internally, by the power of showing the Vishnu, by the power of bringing the dead back to life, and by the power of curbing the Muslim rulers, and maintaining all his devotees, because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gives his strength and later his wealth. So, now regarding Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s deed.
Interestingly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is known as Chinna Avatar. Chinna Avatar means Fiddle incarnation. So, incarnation that is fiddled, does not exhibit his opulence.
Does not exhibit his opulence. So, why does he not exhibit his opulence? Prahlad Maharaj in his prayers in 7th canto describes, Chinna Kalaulye Dabhavat Priyogasam. So, he says, my dear lord, you are known as Puri Yogi.
Prahlad Maharaj often used to ask lord, see there. He is saying that you are known as Puri Yogi because you come, sometimes people say that you are known as Puri Yogi because you don’t come in Kali Yuga. No, he says you will come in Kali Yuga, but you don’t exhibit your opulence.
You are known as Chinna. Chinna means cover. So, why does the lord come as Chinna in Kali Yuga? Because the lord wants to set an example of humility for everyone.
See, there are different kinds of teachers. There is one teacher who teaches. Okay, the teacher draws the drawing.
Draw this, draw this, draw this. Now, you draw like this. So, the students may also try to take a crayon and they try to move their fingers, but what they draw and what the teacher draws is very different.
So, one teacher may teach by instructing. Another teacher comes and takes the hand of the student. Draw this.
So, first teacher just teaches. Okay, this is drawing. Second teacher demonstrates drawing.
Third teacher takes the hand of the student and draws for him. So, these are all progressively better and better teachers, more and more compassionate teachers we can say. Similarly, previous incarnations come and teach.
Sarva-dharmam paritthuti mam ekam sarvam. Lord Ram also instructs like this. One should take shelter of him.
That is very nice. But Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will come to demon’s case. How to take shelter? How to chant the holy names? So, it is God himself that is coming in the mood of a devotee to teach us how to practise devotional service.
Not just by words, but by His example. So, we do come back. So, it is not only teaching by example, it is also helping us to practise it.
So, it is Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu only who teaches us the determination, the willpower to chant the holy names. So, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally chants Hare Krishna Mahamantra and teach people how to chant Hare Krishna. So, because He has come in the mood of a devotee, He hides His body.
So, He hides His body because He wants to exhibit the mood of a devotee. You know, the students know that the teacher is a teacher. Imagine the teacher comes in the dress of a student.
And then, the other students say, Oh, this teacher is doing the art so nicely. If they know it is a teacher, then there is not much fun. If they know it is a student, then, the student is doing the art so nicely, he is also like us.
We should also be able to do it. We should also be able to do it. So, what happens? If another student can do it, then we can also do it.
In that way, the students also feel inspired. So, like that, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He was God, but He hid His body. And so, He is also another ordinary person.
He is also another human being. He is a simple person. He is not a child.
So, we can also chant like this. And we can also express our ecstasy. Now, so, at one level, the students don’t know that the teacher is actually, this high quality student is actually a teacher.
And then we feel inspired. But if there are other students, who know that the student is a teacher, then, they can become even more inspired. How? Because they can feel how kind is this teacher.
Although he is a teacher, he is actually hiding that, impersonating as a student, so much to inspire others. That’s how the devotees feel all the more inspired. The devotees feel all the more inspired, that, now we see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s interesting, very interesting role, that normally if anybody would call Him as God, He would say, No, I am not God.
It is wrong, to consider, a living entity to be God. And you plug His ears and say, Vishnu, Vishnu, Vishnu. Now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, especially in front of common people, wanted to present them the role of a devotee.
He wanted to present them the role of a devotee, and inspire them also to practise devotional service. Now, the devotees appreciate this humility and compassion of the Lord. They also appreciate it more because, they understand it is God, who is being the only true devotee.
And they want to, broadcast this unique glory of the Lord. That’s why the devotees, want to broadcast, although Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Chinna, the devotees want to broadcast His glory so that, people can understand His extraordinary compassion. How He is God, He is playing the role of a devotee.
He is not playing the role of a devotee in a very proud way. See, you don’t like, I am God, I have come to teach you how to be a devotee. But, He is God who has come as a devotee, and He denies that I am God.
So that, ordinary people, who are actually not God, should not claim that they are God. So, it’s a very profound psychology, of how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is God, but He denies that He is God. He keeps it as Chinna.
The devotees appreciate the Lord’s being Chinna, so the devotees broadcast the glory of the Lord. Because they want the world to know the compassion of the Lord. Now, interestingly, the Bhaktivinoda Thakur, who is written about Lord Chaitanya, is life and teachings.
So, in the end of the introduction of this book, he says, that ultimately, divinity, the divinity of an avatar cannot be subjected to, is, there are scriptural basis for the divinity of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and you can look at His activities, you can see His love, that He has exhibited. But, he says, I leave the decision to my readers. Even if the readers cannot accept Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as, as the Supreme Lord, it doesn’t matter.
He did some miracles. But even demons have done miracles. Miracles are not the proof of divinity.
The real gift of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, offers an extraordinarily life transforming blessing of divine love. So, he says, I request my readers, whether they accept Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as God or not, at least try out His process of divine love. Try out chanting His holy names.
So, if people chant His holy names, if people experience that kind of love and ecstasy, that is not experienceable by anyone but God. And by experiencing that, you will get the conviction that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Chaitanya. So, that’s why, when we are preaching to new boys, you know, sometimes they may not have that faith that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Chaitanya.
You don’t have to emphasise that, at this stage. You can just encourage them to practise Krishna Consciousness. And ultimately, how can a patient know whether a doctor is genuine or not? You know, he can go and, he can look at the medical certificate.
But, you know, after all, people can even take the medical certificate. Or somebody who is sceptical, this medical certificate, how do you know it’s bona fide? You know, it could be bogus also. So, like that, you know, there are many other incarnations of God also, so-called incarnations of God, who may also try to screw some shloka from the medical certificate, say, just prove that my guru is God.
Or somebody may create their own shloka, so, that’s like making their own certificate, bogus certificate. So, people can write a Sanskrit. So, ultimately, yes, there are Sanskrit verses too, basically, in the divinity of Lord Yajna, and they are important.
But, we don’t have to make a big argument about it, with new people especially. So, if a patient just takes the medicine of the doctor, he will understand, this doctor is genuine. So, like that, if people just follow the verses of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they will understand, his genuineness.
That’s why, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, in a very open-ended way, whether you accept Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as God or not, at least try out his verses, then you will see, the tremendous transformation that happens. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s feat, is that, you know, sometimes, humility can also make a person very famous. Just like, when a person, when a person, say, gets a very big award, for example, and recently there was a news that there was some cricketer, you know, he got the man of the match award.
And when he got the man of the match award, actually, he said, that there was a younger cricketer, you know, who also performed as well as me, and I have got so many man of the match awards, but he has never got. So, I would like to offer this man of the match award to him. And when he, you know, he offered that award, that made him all the more famous.
Why? Because, he had performed well, but his younger player had also performed reasonably well, very well, according to the younger player’s standards. So, he wanted to offer that credit to him. So, fame comes not just by demanding fame, or receiving fame, fame can also come by sacrificing that fame to somebody else.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does not claim that I am God. He claims that Krishna is God. He is worshipping.
And by that worship of Krishna, which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu teaches, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself also becomes famous. Because he has spread love of God, spread renouncing people in a way that very few other people have. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s fame, of course, a devotee sees, that if the Lord is not famous, what does he think? He thinks, it is my responsibility to make the Lord famous.
Now, if we see Tirupati Balaji is among the wealthiest temple, of course, now Padmanabh Swami temple is considered to be the wealthiest. Padmanabh Swami temple’s wealth is an indication of, it’s a small glimpse, it’s one small relatively less known temple, in one corner of India, that had so much wealth, you can imagine in the past, how much wealth would India have had. That’s why all these western conquerors, Pakistani conquerors, Greek conquerors, European conquerors came to India, for its wealth.
And the remarkable thing is that India can still keep producing the same wealth, if India just live in harmony with the laws of the Lord. That’s not enough at all. The point is, we know the story of Tirupati Balaji is that, when Lord had, when Lord did not have any money, and still he was and he wanted to get married.
So, he took a loan from Kubera. He took a loan from Kubera. He said, in future my devotees will repay that loan.
That’s why devotees are going to do so much donation at Tirupati Balaji. Now, a sceptic may think, why does God need money? No, God does not need money, when a devotee wants to express his devotion to God. And the Lord has made a promise, that yes, in the future my devotees will repay this debt to, to Kubera by giving donations over here.
The devotee feels it’s my duty to keep the word of the Lord. Similarly, you know, the Lord is already eternally famous. In the spiritual world he is famous.
In the heavenly world he is famous. But the Lord is not, Lord’s fame is not spread in this world. A devotee thinks, it is my responsibility to make the Lord famous.
It is my responsibility to spread the glory of the Lord. So, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has already said, that in every town and village, his own name will be chanted. His own name of Krishna will be chanted.
So, a devotee feels, yes, it is my responsibility to fulfil this promise of the Lord, and to fulfil this prediction of the Lord, and make his well-being far and wide. So, if we become, what you call, high-quality devotees, very well-read in scripture, very well-behaved, very cultured, very responsible, we just make this person click, make this person so famous, so nice. Then, we can say, because of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s love, Krishna will be famous, and he will create the fame of the Lord.
In our Guru Puja, we conclude the Guru Puja by saying, एभे यश्य भुषुत्रिभुवन। Let the glories of the spiritual master spread in all the three worlds. How will they spread? The disciples consider that it is his responsibility to make the glories spread. So, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s fame is manifested in this, making Lord Krishna famous.
And we see, that Lord Krishna has indeed become famous all over the world. So, there are thousands and thousands of devotees, hundreds of devotees, from very small, small countries, and just one, there are Hare Krishna devotees in India. So, this is the mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And, in this way, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also exhibited his grace. So, in the future class, next week, we will discuss about the manifestation of the Lord. So, to summarise, today we will discuss the three opulences of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s strength as exhibited through the power of internal transformation brought about by the all-powerful Holy Name, as exhibited by the stopping and reversing of death, as exhibited by countering Chandrashekhar’s Muslim tyranny, as exhibited by displaying the Vishuddhi.
We discussed about his wealth. He exhibited that by making sure that none of his devotees, no matter how many people there are, they are never having a shortage, and how the Krishna Consciousness movement also doesn’t have any shortage. And, he is the Lord of the Goddess of Fortune.
And, because he is playing the role of a Brahma, as an emancipator, he exhibited his opulence directly. And, last we will discuss how he exhibited his fame, offering all fame to the Lord. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions? You can make a comment. Yes, please. Yes, please, any questions? So, many times we get, to acquire more knowledge, more strength in terms of personal possession, we keep getting the desires.
So, how do we work with this? So, actually, in one sense, soul has come in this world to imitate Krishna. To imitate Krishna means to acquire the opulences of Krishna. So, when a person wants to be known as very knowledgeable, as very strong, basically, that person wants to imitate Krishna.
So, he wants to imitate Krishna and through that opulence, become all attractive, by his knowledge, by his strength. Now, of course, when devotees want to serve Krishna, they don’t want to imitate Krishna. But, does that mean that they don’t have, or they should not aspire for these opulences? A devotee aspires for service.
And, if knowledge is required for that service, a devotee surely acquires that knowledge. If strength is required for that service, surely, a devotee can acquire strength also. You know, if he, when Maharaj Patapudra was the ruler of Orissa, at that time, because he had that strength and that position, he could use all the state’s resources in the service of the Lord.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself had great learning, Jiva Goswami, Valde Vidya Vidya, he had so much knowledge. That’s how they could establish the philosophy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The philosophy of Vedic literature as revealed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
So, the desire for knowledge and strength is not wrong. But, our primary desire should be the desire for service. So, we should desire knowledge for the sake of service.
We should desire strength for the sake of service. That’s why, if we try to cultivate the desire for service, we will find that Krishna will automatically bless us with knowledge. You know, even if we study, Krishna will give us understanding from our studies very fast.
Krishna will give us position, post. Now, what happens is, this knowledge and strength, it can take us towards Krishna, but more often it can take us away from Krishna. Because we may start thinking, I am so great, I am so powerful, I am so knowledgeable.
That’s why, this can be dangerous. So, what a devotee does is, a devotee focusses on the service of the Lord. And by chanting, by doing service, we try to strengthen our desire for service.
And when we have a strong desire for service, automatically, Krishna will give us knowledge, Krishna will give us strength. Therefore, the devotee works at the foundation. And, if we make our desire for service strong, we should know that we will get strength and knowledge in a way that will enhance our spiritual life and not in a way that will harm our spiritual life.
So, as devotees, we don’t have to give up these desires, but we have to prioritise our desires. we make the desire for service the strongest, and the desire for knowledge and strength, subordinate to that desire for service. There is a story about Ambarish Maharaj, that, you know, he made his desires his servant.
He did not become the servant of his desires. Now, to make the desires his servant means, he himself was the servant of the Lord. So, he made his desires, the desires of service to the Lord.
So, if we do it in the same way, then our desires for knowledge and strength will also be fulfilled by the mercy of the Lord. They will be fulfilled in a way that doesn’t take us away from Krishna, but that takes us closer to Krishna and takes others also closer to Krishna. Any other questions? Yes, I don’t know any questions.
Any questions, anyone else? Or should we stop here? So, it’s almost 7.45 now. Thank you very much.