Gaur Purnima – Lord Chaitanya makes supremely fortunate the materially unfortunate and the materially fortunate

Hare Krishna On the auspicious occasion of Gaur Purnima, let us meditate on the extraordinary mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

So, I'll talk of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy in… from two different aspects. One is that how that which is considered unfortunate, he makes that also fortunate. And, that which is considered fortunate, that which is considered successful, he raises even that to a higher level of fortune, to the highest level of fortune.

So, the mercy of Lord Chaitanya as we say, So, he is supremely merciful. Now, what is the nature of his supreme mercy? We will look at it from these two ways. So, normally in this material world, there are dualities.

There is success and there is failure. There is wealth and there is poverty. There is honour and there is dishonour.

And, the positive side of the duality, that is honour, success, pleasure, wealth, these are considered to be good. These are considered to be fortunate. Whereas, the negative side of the duality, that is poverty, infamy, misery, these are considered to be unfortunate.

However, this conception of fortune and misfortune is dependent largely on the material conception of life. And, from the spiritual conception of life, both are unfortunate if they do not connect us with Krishna. So, So, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, it is said that, that this is good, this is bad.

All this is illusion. So, this is auspicious, this is inauspicious. This is just a mental concoction.

Why? Because, somebody might be a luxury cabin passenger in the Titanic. And, somebody might be just a cabin cleaner who sleeps on the deck. But, when the Titanic sinks, you know, whether the person was living in the luxury cabin or the person was a menial cleaner of the luxury cabin, both are going to sink.

And, both are going to drown. And, it is going to make no difference. In the ultimate analysis, as it is said that, you know, at the end of the game of chess, both the king and the pawn go back into the same box.

So, like that, death is the box which ends everything. And, none of the material differences make any difference. But, of course, we may say that, from the point of view of what karma a person has done, that will make a difference.

Yes, but we are talking here from the point of view of this world's perspective. When it is over, it is over. So, that person does not carry any of those assets to the next life.

So, now, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in one sense, he is equally apathetic to both definitions of success, to both success and failure within this definition of, within this conception of life. And, he is equally sympathetic to both. So, let us see how this is.

So, let us look at how he makes the materially unfortunate fortunate. And, how he makes the materially fortunate also truly fortunate. So, first, let us look at how he makes the materially unfortunate fortunate.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, at what time did he appear? He appeared at the time of an eclipse, a lunar eclipse. So, now, an eclipse is, whether it is in the Indian tradition or in the ancient western tradition, in more or less, most natural tradition, most traditions, an eclipse is considered to be an auspicious time. And, hardly anyone will start any new project at the time of an eclipse.

And, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he was to appear in this world, he appeared at the time of an eclipse. Actually, he stayed in his mother's womb for a very long time. It was actually much more, the pregnancy was much longer than normal pregnancy.

And, his mother and Jagannath Mishra were very anxious. And, Nilambar Chakravarti told that, actually, this child is waiting for an auspicious moment to appear. And, he said, in the Magha, Purnima, this will be an auspicious time and that's the time when he will appear.

But then, on the Magha Purnima, when he was to appear, what happened? At that time, actually, that happened in an eclipse. And, eclipse is very inauspicious. So, now, Lord Chaitanya appeared at that time.

However, what did he do? Because it was in an inauspicious time, people wanted to counter their inauspiciousness and they started bathing in the Ganga, which is an auspicious activity. And, they started chanting the names of Hari, which is also an auspicious activity. Now, if you look at the society in which Lord Chaitanya appeared in Navadvip, their people were largely Karmakandis.

And, they focused on, even if they acquired scriptural knowledge, that was the purpose of gaining fame and prestige in society. And, not for transcending this world. So, they would hardly ever chant the holy names of the Lord.

But, even they knew that when an eclipse happens, at that time, the only way to ward off the inauspiciousness is by chanting the holy names. And so, they wholeheartedly started, they started chanting the holy names loudly. And, the sound became tumultuous.

All over, people were chanting the holy names fervently. And, the chanting of the holy names was so pervasive that even the Mlecchas, even the Muslims, they saw all these Hindus, what are they doing? Chanting the holy names, chanting the name of Krishna, Hari. So, to mock them, they also started chanting the name of Hari, Hari.

What are you doing this Hari, Hari, Hari? So, it was practically everyone. At that time, in 1486, the Britishers had not, nobody from Europe had come there. So, there were Mlecchas and there were the Hindus.

So, everybody was chanting the holy names at that time. And, it was such a tumult. So, that everywhere, whatever inauspiciousness was there because of the eclipse, was completely countered and you could say decimated by the thunderous chanting of the holy names.

And, it was amidst such thunderous chanting of the holy names that the Lord appeared. So, the Lord, although the overall setting in which He appeared seemed to be inauspicious, He inspired people during His time to chant the holy names fervently as a super soul in their heart. And, He created an extremely auspicious atmosphere.

And, by His appearing at that time, He gave a message that He had descended with the chanting of the holy names to stimulate the chanting of the holy names. So, in this way, Lord Chaitanya demonstrated that the chanting of the holy names is supremely auspicious, counters whatever inauspiciousness that is there. So, in the material world, there are many inauspicious things that happen.

And, Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami in the Chaitanya Charita Amrita actually offers obeisances not just to Lord Chaitanya, but in the 13th chapter of the Adilila of Chaitanya Charita Amrita where the appearance of Lord Chaitanya is described, He actually offers obeisances to Lord Chaitanya's appearance day. And, He says that that Govardhanamayasa is Satguna Purnam Tam. One day, one day I offer obeisances, Satguna Purnam Tam.

Because the Lord appeared over there, this particular day is filled with six obeisances. And, as I said, the Lord is opulent, this day is opulent. So, this day is a, we could say, a manifestation of Krishna in time.

So, we are in every moment of Govardhanamayasa, we are actually interacting with the Lord. And, we are relishing, we can actually experience the Lord who is manifested on this day, just as the Lord manifests in space as the dham. So, the Lord manifests in time as the tithi of His appearance.

So, He brings auspiciousness by His very appearance, converting an auspicious time into an in an auspicious time into an auspicious time. And, that applies at a broader level also because Lord Chaitanya appears in Kali Yuga. And, Kali Yuga is an extremely inauspicious time.

Because, here, it is populated with souls who have very little spiritual interest and is pervaded by an atmosphere which is spiritually bankrupt. And, such an atmosphere for people to even enquire, is there anything more to life than eating, sleeping, mating, defending, that itself is extremely rare. So, in such an atmosphere, Lord Chaitanya descends and gives extraordinary mercy.

What is the mercy He gives? He gives the mercy of pure love for Krishna. That is the highest mercy that the Lord can give. And, He gives that in this dark age.

So, the Bhagavatam predicts this, … So, although Kali Yuga is considered darkest of ages, … … Just as, here, Krishna's Graja Swami is offering obeisances to the day of Gaur Purnima. So, the Bhagavatam is saying, the Arya people, they worship Kali Yuga. … … … Why? … … Those who know the qualities of various ages, … and they know not just the qualities, they are aware of the saar, they are aware of the essence of things.

… So, what do they know? What is the saar of Kali Yuga? Although there are many inauspicious qualities in Kali Yuga, … … Here, by sankirtan, here by glorification of the Lord, … … All auspiciousness is attained. … … Now, Lord, so, this verse is actually a verse which reflects the magnanimity of Lord Chaitanya in transforming this abominable age of Kali into a worshipable age. Certainly, this transformation happens by sankirtan, but sankirtan happens because it is propagated by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Bhakti has been propagated by many saints, and even Harinam has been propagated by many bhakti saints, but Harinam sankirtan has been emphasised by no one as much as by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is the propagator, the systematiser, the giver of the gift of sankirtan, and by this he converts this dark age into a bright age, this abominable age into a worshipable age. Because, ultimately, whether in Satyuga or Kali Yuga, this world is a prison, and certainly, we could say that in Satyuga, relatively speaking, in the prison, the conditions are comfortable.

Kali Yuga, in the prison, becomes much more uncomfortable, much more miserable, although, of course, there are cover-up attempts by which the misery is not apparent, but what is important is not how comfortable or how miserable the prison is, but how accessible is the way out of the prison, and by Lord Chaitanya's mercy, sankirtan offers an eminently accessible way, the supremely accessible way for coming out of this prison of material existence. So, in that sense, the darker, the drearier, the dankier the prison, then the more eager the people will be for getting out. So, similarly, in Kali Yuga, Lord Chaitanya makes it so easy for people to come out that if they just open their eyes and see beyond the razzle-dazzle of materialistic culture and they see how actually there is so much misery everywhere, then they will want to charge out and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu offers them an express way to come out.

So, in this way, he makes this inauspicious age also auspicious. Further, the third way we could say is that he actually elevates even people who are outside Varanasi, they are outside Arya Dharma. So, this magnanimity of Lord Chaitanya is seen in two ways we could say.

Many ways, but let's focus on two wherein not only Lord Chaitanya travel all around the country right from as Krishna Svarajoswami says Setubandh to Vrindavan right from the North India, South India to the Northern part of India and he went through Gauradesh also. So, he travelled through the length and breadth of the country distributing the nectar of the holy name, nectar of Krishna Bhakti and Krishna Prem to people everywhere and he did not discriminate whether a person was in what was the position in Varanasi. So, that is one level of mercy that he grants entry and access to everyone.

So, but a greater level of mercy is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrates that not only can anyone and everyone enter, but anyone and everyone can be elevated to the highest level. So, that we see through the examples of Rupa Sanatana Goswami and Haridas Thakur both. So, now Haridas Thakur was born in a militia family.

He was born in a non-Aryan, non-Hindu or Muslim family and he had a great taste for the holy name and that was the arrangement of the Lord and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu celebrated him as the, anointed him as the Namacharya, the Acharya for teaching the glory, for demonstrating and teaching the glories of the holy name and we can just imagine the magnitude of the glorification that Lord Chaitanya has done because his mission is to propagate the holy name. So, in that mission to propagate the holy name, the Namacharya is the most important person we could say. Who can be more important than Namacharya in a movement that is about the Nam and that Namacharya, Lord Chaitanya appointed as a person who was not even born in Arya family.

So, this is how Lord Chaitanya not only accepts anyone who might be at the lowest level but he elevates them to the highest level and how great was the regard of Lord Chaitanya for Haridas Thakur that after Haridas Thakur passed away not only was Lord Chaitanya right there next to him. Now, it is described Haridas Thakur's departure is compared to Krishna's, to Bhishma's departure because in both cases the Lord was present with Bhishma, Krishna himself was present Krishna Saksha Darshanama Agataha as Bhishma says, how fortunate I am that Krishna has come to give me his darshan when I am about to depart from this world. Similarly, when Haridas Thakur was about to depart, Lord Krishna was there but in many ways Lord Chaitanya manifested the mercy of Godhead far far more than any other manifestation, even Krishna.

Certainly, the Lord's presence is far very auspicious but we see that Lord Chaitanya actually Lord Krishna Bhishmaji was standing and was lying before Krishna but Haridas Thakur was actually holding on to the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya. Not only did he hold on to the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya directly when departing from the world but more than that after Bhishma departed, his body was cremated but with respect to Haridas Thakur, Lord Chaitanya personally picked up his body and danced with the body. This is unprecedented and you could say it's scandalous for a sanyasi actually a dead body is considered to be quite inauspicious and people don't even the intimate relatives of a person don't want to touch that body.

No matter how much in romance a man may claim to love a woman or a woman may claim to love a man you know once the body dies the spouse in the romantic relationship will not pick up the dead body and dance with the dead body and that is in spite of the fact that in most romantic relationships actually there is largely a bodily conception of life. So although people equate the person with the body still after the person has died they will not dance with that body and Lord Chaitanya is far beyond the bodily conception of life. He knows that Haridas Thakur is not his body and his body is transcendental in the sense that it was used for the service of the lord but it is not transcendental in the sense of being Satchitananda.

It is made of material elements and it has to be cremated. It has to be appropriate antasamskara have to be done for it. But despite knowing that the body is different from the person still Lord Chaitanya danced with that body.

Danced and danced and danced and he kept dancing and eventually the devotees had to say oh lord the sun is setting now. Before that we have to complete the antasamskara so please stop. And then Lord Chaitanya stopped.

So now what was Lord Chaitanya demonstrating that he loved his devotees so much that whatever may be dear to his whatever may be connected to this devotee that also becomes very dear to him and so Haridas Thakur had been present in that body and that's why that body was also very dear to the lord and this way Lord Chaitanya demonstrated this extraordinary mercy his extraordinary love that the dead body is considered to be inauspicious. It is considered so impure so unclean that after going to crematorium people come back and take bath but that Lord Chaitanya he actually took that body and danced with that body. Now dancing is something which is done when we are very happy and it's a jubilant activity.

It's not done when something is inauspicious. But such is the lord's magical mercy that he transformed the demise of an associate into an occasion for celebration and for demonstration of the unparalleled love for those who give themselves to the service of the holy name so in this way Lord Chaitanya transforms the unfortunate into the fortunate. So now let's look at the other extreme of the pendulum of duality and see how Lord Chaitanya transformed those who consider themselves to be fortunate, those who consider themselves to be successful to the level of supreme success so now in the community that Lord Chaitanya lived in at that time in mediaeval India so the learning learning was considered to be the greatest success especially in the brahminical circles and that's why all the brahmins sons the brahmins wanted their sons to become very famous as great scholars and that's what they wanted they wanted their sons to become pundits and it was in such an environment of competitive scholarship that Lord Chaitanya effortlessly rose to the top he just by the age of 14 was such a peerless scholar that he was fearless even scholars who were much older than him in age and he could not only defeat whoever had to challenge him but he could completely befuddle that person so he would take one position and the opponent would take opposite position and he would demolish the opponent's position using logic using scripture using erudition using rhetoric demolish the opponent's position and the opponent would completely stand overwhelmed deflated and then Lord Chaitanya would switch from that position to the opposite position and he would resurrect that position in such a way that the demolition would get demolished and he would prove whatever he had said was false whatever he had demolished he would demonstrate that was the correct understanding and as the person was, as the onlookers were watching in astonishment with mouths open and eyes wide and then Lord Chaitanya would again flip over and take the opposite position the position which he had taken originally and he would demolish the opposite position, the position which he had just defended not just defended, reconstructed, resurrected and in this way Lord Chaitanya could show that what a phenomenal scholar he was so he became the champion scholar in an age of extraordinary scholarship and such was his scholarship that when the travelling scholar Keshav Kashmiri came there and Keshav Kashmiri wanted to have his championship certificate his Jayapatra he wanted his championship certificate to become more enhanced his profile to become even more overpoweringly impressive by adding victory in Navadweep to his cap of feathers so the scholars in Navadweep were so scared of facing Keshav Kashmiri because they knew Keshav Kashmiri had been blessed by the Goddess Saraswati herself so none of them was ready to debate with him but then they saw that if anybody can help us save face it is this Nimai Pandit and therefore they requested Nimai Pandit can you face with him and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu defeated him without dishonouring him if Keshav Kashmiri had been defeated in a formal debate then his dishonour would have been so great that he would not have been able to not only accept defeat but actually learn anything from the defeat as it is a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still Lord Chaitanya took a very humble position and in that humble position he actually demonstrated the supreme erudition Lord Chaitanya took a humble position by saying that I am simply a teacher of grammar I don't know advanced I don't know advanced poetry you speak advanced poetry in praise of Mother Ganga and when he spoke in praise of Mother Ganga actually Lord Chaitanya told him that your poetry is defective and in that way he actually demonstrated how not only alleged that it was defective but he actually through logical argument showed how he had used a wrong word Bhavani Bhartu this is not his path Bhavani Bhartu means that Bhava is Lord Shiva, Bhavani is the wife of Lord Shiva, so Bhavani Bhartu refers to the husband of the wife of Lord Shiva, so what does it mean does she have any husband other than the husband is she unchaste so like this he pointed out many many some easily understandable and some technically comprehensible flaws and mistakes in Keshav Kashmiri's poetry and in this way he humbled Keshav Kashmiri and then he gave him love for Krishna so what this demonstrates is that his mercy was so great that even those who consider themselves greatly fortunate, one who was a recipient of Saraswati's mercy by which he was a world conquering Pandit, Lord Chaitanya elevated him to a level where he not only conquered the world but he conquered material existence and became fixed in pure devotion to the Lord so those who are considered successful material Lord Chaitanya blessed them also now going beyond that if we see the one definition of success success was just worldly scholarship just to be respected in the world and then there is another definition of success was was to actually be situated in impersonal realisation to take sannyas and get liberated so those who were householders they would follow some dharma and in that way they would gain piety for future lives but those who were not householders those who had renounced the world they also had enormous respect in society they had such huge hold in society and they were also greatly respected Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so now what are you over here when you talk about successful things Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrated that he could have the same success which the materialistic people could have he had a he had such phenomenal scholarship that nobody could defeat him and if he had wanted to engage lifelong in just the nectar of scholarship then he could have got that but he shows by becoming a scholar like them by becoming a scholar better than them and then by giving up scholarship for the sake of devotion he forcefully demonstrated to people that actually the higher the nectar of scholarship is the nectar of devotion far far higher so he just gave up like a blade of grass on the street he gave up whatever he was whatever was the world's dream glamorised dream and he took shelter of the supreme lord through the process of bhakti through the process of hearing now this is one level of mercy of lord Chaitanya wherein wherein those who are already consider themselves successful Chaitanya Mahaprabhu raises them to a higher level of success now there was another kind of learning among the renunciates and that was the Advaitic learning and this this learning and the social position that it provided is demonstrated through Prakashanan Saraswati who just didn't live in Navdeep but he actually reigned in not Navdeep in Varanasi he reigned in Varanasi he was actually ruling in Varanasi and yet it was the same lord Chaitanya who went to Varanasi and he defeated Prakashanan Saraswati and not only defeated he transformed Prakashanan Saraswati so Prakashanan Saraswati it was he was very proud of his own philosophical opinions but lord Chaitanya demonstrated how by conversing with him and through his phenomenal knowledge of Shastra lord Chaitanya demonstrated that Prakashanan Saraswati first time by association with lord Chaitanya came to know what is Prakash what is Ananda and what is Saraswati what are their actual roles they all have transcendental aspects so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he followed the career trajectory chart of a householder when he was a householder attaining the zenith of success and then he renounced it all and thus he jolted those who were following that definition of success their files are being that actually don't get infatuated by this definition of success rise to a higher definition of success that is the definition of success of pure devotion and similarly with respect to the Sannansi kind of scholarship Chaitanya Mahaprabhu didn't take sannyas simply to gain respect gaining respect so that his message could have a proper representation so that his message would have a proper forum proper niche to hear so that was good now beyond that lord Chaitanya also demonstrated a very sharp eye a very sharp mind for deciding who could who could be receiving his mercy now of course lord Chaitanya wanted to give his mercy to everyone but he also knew that not everyone will be ready to take his mercy what did he do therefore? he actually gave that mercy to by trans people's heart that is seen in Prakashanth Saraswati after talking with lord Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu briefly displayed the Brahmin effulgence which is very attractive to the impersonals and then he exhibited such scholarship that the that the that Prakashanth Saraswati was converted that he who was a dry hearted gyani by the end of the discussion became a soft hearted devotee chanting the holy names along with his thousands of disciples as lord Chaitanya led the kirtans and that those who had the pinnacle of success lord Chaitanya elevated them to a higher success and this applies not only to the brahmanas but also the kshatriyas Prataparutra was such a great king very powerful but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu raised him to a higher level by giving him higher missions similarly our responsibility is not to focus on the issue of how unqualified or qualified we are our eagerness is our qualification if we have eagerness then we may be at the top of the social ladder or the bottom of the social ladder it doesn't matter by the lord's mercy we will be elevated and we will be liberated thank you.