How Lord Nityananda Complements Lord Chaitanya – Part 2

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Om Gyanti Nirambasya Gyananjani Shalakaya Chakshuroon Mila Tamye Na Tasmai Shri Gurve Namaha Nama Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prishtaya Bhutme Hrimate Bhakti Vidanta Swami Iti Namine Namaste Saraswati Deve Gauravani Tacharini, Nirvishesha Shunyavadi, Pashyakya Deshitarini, Vanchakalpa Taruneshcha, Krupasindhubhevacha, Patitanam Pavanebhyo, Vaishnavebhyo Namo Namaha, Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Shri Advaita Gadadhara, Shri Vasadigauru Bhakta Vrinda, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna.
So today I’ll continue my discussion on the appreciating Lord Nityananda, how he compliments Lord Chaitanya and they both manifest the conservative-liberal dance at the heart of our tradition. So in that connection, I’ll do a quick recap of what we discussed yesterday. I started by talking about how in every tradition there are conservatives and liberals.
So the conservatives connect the tradition with the past through fidelity or through faithfulness. And the liberals connect the tradition with the present through resourcefulness or flexibility. And while Lord Chaitanya is the supremely merciful incarnation, simultaneously, he is very devotionally magnanimous, but he was culturally conservative in many ways.
So his actions were primarily orientated toward reaching out in a respectable way to those who were following the Vedic tradition. So whether it was the sannyasis in Varanasi to whom he tried to reach out by ensuring that he followed their, that he was not flouting their expectations of how a sannyasi should live, where a sannyasi should eat. And like that, he in some ways was culturally conservative.
And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is culturally liberal, we could say. He was a avadhut, a form of sannyasi. And he left to practise his service to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by reaching out to people who were left out of the Vedic folder, whether they be the theives or whether they be people like Jagai and Madai.
And we see that he in being, in reaching out to people like Jagai and Madai, he was being, it was risky for him. And so being liberal is not just about being loose. It’s also about being courageous.
It’s about being heroically courageous to take Krishna’s message to places where it would not otherwise go. Of course, everywhere there is danger in the world. And yes, in being liberal there is a danger, but in being conservative also there is a danger.
Now we see how one of the most damaging deviations for the Vedic tradition has come from within the Vedic tradition itself, that is the caste system. So alertness is required whether we are conservative or whether we are liberals. So today I’ll talk about how this particular theme of conservative and liberal is seen within the most celebrated pastime of Lord Nityananda and that is the deliverance of Jagai and Madai.
So the very desire of Lord Nityananda to deliver Jagai and Madai indicates his desire to serve Lord Chaitanya. And not only serve Lord Chaitanya, serve Lord Chaitanya in ways that are normally not done and they were normally not even considered doable. We know famously how Prabhupada tried to go to America and he went after long efforts and many of his Godbrothers, many of them were also very devoted, they were also very learned, they were also very renounced, but somehow they felt that Western people would never become devotees and that’s where the issue ended.
But Prabhupada wanted to reach out to those people and that’s how he was very, in one sense, well we may sometimes think of Prabhupada as conservative. Yes, he was conservative in some ways, but he was also very accommodating. The word liberal might have negative connotations.
We can use the word accommodating or very inclusive in other ways. We know that he stayed at the Mishra Yoga Studio and this Mishra was a Mayavadi. He wouldn’t let Prabhupada speak because Prabhupada would refute his Mayavadi and then he would let Prabhupada only do Kirtan and when Prabhupada got an opportunity to serve Krishna, a better opportunity to serve Krishna, he immediately left from there and he went to the Lower East Side.
But Prabhupada did not hold any negativity or resentment towards Mishra. So later on, many years, many days, almost a decade or so later, both of them met and Giriraj Maharaj mentions this past time that he says that they had a very cordial and warm talk and he was a little surprised. Isn’t he a Mayavadi? That was the question in his mind and Prabhupada said, yes.
Just philosophically, we argue like anything, but culturally, we are friends. So people are not just philosophical creatures. We cannot reduce them to a philosophical designation.
People are multidimensional and culturally, they found some similarity. Prabhupada was courteous and they connected at that level. So similarly, what happened that Prabhupada did not see the Western people simply as fallen.
Yes, they were fallen, but Prabhupada also saw them as having a spark of spirituality, having some potential he detected in their searching through drugs and their search through rebellion, through the counterculture. They had some spark. Similarly, Vityanand Prabhu saw some spark.
Now, the story of Jagayana Mata is also poignant because it is said that they were born in Brahminical families and the Jagadananda and Madhavananda and both of them fell away. Now, how exactly did they fall away? What exactly happened? It is said that by bad association, they fell away and they fell away to such an extent that they themselves became the worst bad association eventually. And as they were living like this, so nobody would want to be with them.
Let me deliver. And the second time, if they went again. Now, when they went again, what happened at that time? When he went again.
So this time, Jagananda and Madhavananda tried to attack. Sorry, especially they both got angry and they both tried to attack Lord Nityananda. And at that time, when they actually tried to attack, they attacked Lord Nityananda.
And when they attacked Lord Nityananda. So what happened at that time? At that time, he started bleeding. It was not just a small blow.
It was a big heavy pot. It was so close to his head. His whole head started bleeding and his body was not just smeared, but his body was drenched with blood.
It was a severe blow. And at that time, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard that and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became furious. He had a Swarjan Chakra.
Vishnu, Vishnu and Chakra, Chakra. He wanted to lop off the head of Jagayar Mata. What did he try to do? He intervened and he said, my dear Lord, if ever I have done any piety, then please, you give me some reward in exchange for that.
And the reward I seek is, I want the charity that you give me the body of these two people. Please don’t punish them. So they had wounded him, leave alone wanting to wound the back.
He didn’t even want somebody else to wound them. He didn’t want the Lord to wound them. Now, when he stopped the Lord’s wrath from coming on them, was he opposing the Lord? No, he was not opposing the Lord.
Externally, he was stopping the Lord from doing something. But internally, what was the mood? He was actually fulfilling the Lord’s mission. Lord Chaitanya has this dynamic mood.
At one level, he wants to uphold the principles of Dharma. Upholding of Dharma and there is transcending of Dharma. So, sometimes in upholding the principles of Dharma, by Dharma we can mean duty, rules, activities which are righteous.
Dharma can have many different meanings. One meaning, of course, is that it refers to innate nature, but also refers to many other things. So, when he is upholding Dharma, he wants to set a very strong example of what is to be done.
But there is another side of him, that compassion ultimately transcends Dharma. Of course, compassion is the highest Dharma, but sometimes in the process of following rules and pursuing rules, the principles of Dharma might get obscured. So, we could say that rules are like roads and principles are like the direction.
So, if you want to go in a particular direction, the rules are often the best way to go in that direction. But still, it may happen sometimes that the road is blocked and the road is blocked. Then if you want to go in that direction, then we may have to leave the road and then find some other way to go in that direction.
So, unless we understand this principle that for each one of us, ultimately to the direction that is important. So, now at one level, it is Lord Chaitanya is being entirely right. He is being right in saying that actually, if anybody is doing wrong, they need to be punished.
But at the same time, in this case, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, both of them are working together. And at one level, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is following the letter of the law. You are such a grievous attacker to my devotee, I will punish you.
But ultimately, Lord Chaitanya is a merciful Inca avatar. He is supremely merciful. So, what he does is he is manifesting that mood of compassion through Nityananda Prabhu.
So, Nityananda Prabhu is not acting opposite to Lord Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya is setting one example and he also wants the other example to be set. So, in this sense, we could say Lord Chaitanya is being strict.
He is being conservative. That he is, this is, you did this. This is the rule.
Throw the rule book at the person. They have to be punished. And that is required.
The wrongdoers need to be punished. Otherwise, society, there will be chaos in society. At the same time, along with justice, there is a principle of compassion.
So, Nityananda Prabhu is manifesting the principle of compassion over here. And both of them are working together and they’re both working for the same purpose. The purpose is to deliver, is to deliver, not just deliver a message to the world.
So, though you cannot very easily get away after injuring devotees. You have to work very, we have to, there can be serious consequences. But Nityananda Prabhu is so merciful that when he intervenes, he is intervening out of compassion.
And that compassionate intervention actually is fulfilling the purpose of Lord Chaitanya. So, we see the similar, similar point elsewhere in Balabhadra Bhattacharya. He is Lord Chaitanya’s servant.
And when he is being servant of Lord Chaitanya, he goes, he gets off, he gets diverted by the Bhattacharyas. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is very upset by that. And when he is upset by that, what does he do? He actually, he still stays, he still keeps him by his side.
But when he comes back and he is, you know, with great displeasure, he says, this is your servant. This is what he did. This is the person you had sent with me.
Just see what he did. And he just, in one sense, rejects him. But although he rejects him, what do the devotees do? The devotees are kind to him.
Devotees are compassionate to him. And what is the way they show the compassion? They show the compassion by giving him some other service. Now, from the point of view of rules, yes, the rules have to be followed.
But at the same time, if somebody slips from the rules, we don’t want everybody to start taking rules casually, nonchalantly. But we don’t want the rules to become obstacles for people to come to Krishna. So that means that in that case, in that situation, the devotees show compassion.
And among those who will turn to is also there. OK, you go to Sachi Mata. You go to you go to Mayapur and tell them about the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya.
And in that way, what happens is here, he feels rejected by the Lord. What is my value? What can I do? But from that situation of being rejected by the Lord, he’s now put in a situation where he’s welcome. Oh, you are going to tell us about Chaitanya’s pastimes.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. So this is how the devotees ensure that even the Bhattacharya feels valued. So here, this is an important point that everybody needs to feel valued, not valued at the same level, because different people are at different levels of spiritual advancement.
But if being conservative makes us devalue people, that is undesirable. And if being liberal makes us devalue rules, that is also undesirable. So let’s look at a diagram over here to understand this principle.
Here there’s four quadrants. We can say this is about if we consider there is a letter of the law and there is spirit of the law. Now, if one cares neither for the letter of the law nor the spirit of the law, then that person is being musical.
That is undesirable. That is very, that will not take us anywhere. Now, in the conservatives, the letter of the law is important.
But that doesn’t mean the spirit of the law is not important for them. But the letter of the law is important. This is how things are made.
The words liberals and conservatives have certain connotations. So it’s just a limitation of language. But the point is that sometimes in the name of giving importance to the spirit of the law, we might neglect the law completely.
So we could say if somebody goes too much in the conservative direction, here at the bottom, at the light bottom, there will be fanaticism. At the left top, there will be relativism. That means if you become too liberal, oh, this is your way, that is your way and everything is yato matato pat.
It will become like that. And that is undesirable. But if you become too conservative, then what will happen is then we’ll go to a direction of fanatical.
And those who don’t remember what I said, that liberals are those who connect the living tradition with the contemporary world. And the conservatives are those who connect the living tradition with the past. And both connections are required.
And when both connections are wrong, there is high regard for the letter of the law and there’s a high regard for the spirit of the law. That’s when it’s most effective. That’s when it’s most effective.
So now, Niyamagraha, we know this concept in the Bhakti Rasamritsa, in the Upadesha Amrit. And Niyamagraha can happen from both sides. If we stick only to the letter of the law and neglect the spirit of the law, that is Niyamagraha.
But if you neglect both the letter and the spirit of the law, and then that can also lead to Niyamagraha. So overall, the principle is that Lord Chaitanya, he, in a devotional sense, he breaks all barriers and gives the mercy to everyone. But in a cultural sense, he is conservative.
Nityanand Prabhu, he takes that same mode of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he breaks cultural barriers. And by breaking cultural barriers, he reaches out to people who would otherwise not be reached out to. Nityanand Prabhu is known as an Avadhut.
Now the word Avadhut has a specific meaning that it refers to one who is beyond the rules. It is beyond the rules because they need more than, it’s not that they reject the rules, but they transcend the rules. They don’t need the rules.
If somebody is a seasoned traveller, they have gone in a particular direction hundreds of times, even if there is no road, they know which direction to go. So for most people, the safest way to go in the right direction is to go by the rules. But sometimes the rules may block the way for some people sometimes.
So then for them, if you find some way, even if the rules are not working, find some way to keep them moving forward. So Nityanand Prabhu manifests that, that magnanimity of Lord Chaitanya in a particular, particularly in a remarkably inclusive way. Now Nityanand Prabhu, if you look at his overall life, we see some things that he is, it is said that he is the first class servant of Lord Chaitanya.
And the first class servant of Lord Chaitanya means that he is, he is giving Lord Chaitanya the, he is, he knows the mind of Lord Chaitanya. Because he knows the mind of Lord Chaitanya. So what happens? So because he knows the mind of Lord Chaitanya, he can, he can fulfil the mind of Lord Chaitanya even if he goes against the word of Lord Chaitanya.
So the mind of Lord Chaitanya is that everybody should be delivered. And the word of Lord Chaitanya is, for example, somewhat different. Lord Chaitanya also wants Jagai and Madai to be delivered.
But the way he does it is in a different way. He talks about the principle of Dharma also and that is shown by Lord Nityananda. So what I mentioned, this is a simple PowerPoint what I discussed till now.
I will move forward from here. The role of rules in bhakti. We see the rules as showing the way.
This is the way. That is the conservative understanding. But sometimes the rules block the way.
The rules block the way. What do we do? That’s when you have to be liberal. I mentioned yesterday about Prabhupada.
When he came to America, he wanted to have a centre. And he wanted funds to build a centre. But they didn’t have funds.
There was one wealthy Indian businessman, Padampat Singhania, who was interested in having a temple built in America. But at that time, the Indian government’s rules about foreign exchange were very, very strict. And do not let money go out of India.
So Prabhupada tried very much to request the Indian government, but it didn’t work. Prabhupada asked his godbrothers to go. Some of his godbrothers were quite influential.
They knew the heads of state, some high ups in the Indian government. He asked them to help, but they didn’t help. And Prabhupada planned that.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister of India at that time. He was going to go to Moscow and then come to America. Prabhupada had hoped that he would be able to meet him during the American visit and request him to release foreign exchange.
But then what happened? Lal Bahadur Shastri unfortunately died in Moscow. And then Prabhupada wrote to Padampat Singhania. He said that, you know, ultimately we want to glorify Krishna.
Prabhupada spoke in very beautiful ways. You have the mood of Dwarka and I have the mood of Vrindavan. But we’re all glorifying Krishna.
So in Vrindavan, Krishna is worshipped simply. So let’s worship Krishna simply. You just send me some funds and I will start something over here.
And then eventually we can build a temple as more funds come. So but unfortunately, Padampat Singhania said, he was too conservative. He said, if I want a temple, the temple has to be proper architecture, proper spire.
Otherwise, I don’t want to contribute. And then, so here it is, Prabhupada is a pure devotee. He’s being liberal.
And somebody is a pious Hindu. What is the use of building a temple if you don’t have the proper architecture? And then what is happening? What is normally the way is blocking the way. So Prabhupada decided to start with a storefront.
Now in the case of Avadhootas, the rules are no longer needed to see the way. That is the Avadhootas. So this is broadly, Nityanand Prabhu acts at the Avadhoota level and sometimes he acts at this level also, where if the rule is blocking the way, the rule is you offend a devotee, you will be punished.
Nityanand Prabhu says, no, I don’t want them to be punished. My dear Lord, please, please, for my sake, forgive them. So what is he doing? He’s extending the mercy beyond the rule of the law, beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law.
So as I said, roads are the rules and the direction in which you are going, the direction of the principle. So we need to acknowledge the rule, but also focus on the principle. So Niyamagraha can happen in two ways, insist on the rules at the cost of the principles or neglect both the rules and the principles.
And both Gauranathai, I said, we are going to talk about the dance that is the liberal conservative dance that is the heart of our tradition. So Gauranathai work together. And there are two different forms of mercy.
Lord Chaitanya’s mercy is at one level. He wants to punish the offender and he wants to protect the offender. Now, we may say, what is the mercy in punishing the offender? Well, there is something over there to consider.
Some people are lifted by the rules. And some people are left out by the rules. So everybody needs to be elevated.
Everybody needs to be elevated. And how does one elevate everyone? By knowing what to offer when. So for somebody who has the capacity to follow rules and thereby grow, there is no need to be liberal with them.
And for them, be conservative. For those who are in a situation where the rules will just leave them out, then be liberal. So Nithyananda Prabhu manifests this mercy of Lord Chaitanya by reaching out to people who would be left out by the similar rules.
When Prabhupada was in America, there were devotees who joined him. And although they were culturally, the way they had been brought up was very far away from the Vedic standard. But they developed faith in Prabhupada and surrendered their life to Prabhupada.
And in that way, they were attracted and they were elevated. And they followed Krishna Consciousness very seriously. So for them, it was Krishna Consciousness almost like 1-0.
If you are outside in the material world, you are materialist. But if you are inside the temple, then you are wearing robes and having the full morning programme and going out and doing missionary work. You are a devotee.
That was their conception. Now when Prabhupada came back to India, at that time, it created a sensation to see these Western people wearing Indian dress and following Indian culture. And Indians were astonished and delighted and proud of it.
They were proud of their own culture and they were very appreciative and admiring of Prabhupada. But still, they didn’t become devotees. You see amongst Prabhupada’s disciples, many became life members and many helped in very big ways to build various temples.
So now Prabhupada with the life members was liberal. So Prabhupada manifested in some places the mood of Lord Chaitanya, some places the mood of Lord Nityananda. So in some places, this is the rules and you have to follow the rules.
But for the life members, it was not at every life member’s house he went. He insisted you have to chant 16 rounds and you have to follow four regs. Many of them were of course following the four regs.
But he didn’t insist to them in every class to Indians, you should chant 16 rounds. Now Prabhupada saw what was their interest. Many of Prabhupada’s talks in India are in one sense appealing to the cultural nationalistic feelings of Indians.
Prabhupada says, for example, in lecture that Bhagavad Gita is a book from India. And to teach the Bhagavad Gita in India, I have to bring people from abroad. Why don’t you study the Gita and teach the Gita? You can teach it all over the world.
So at one level, the Bhagavad Gita is not Indian. Bhagavad Gita says even we are not Indians. We don’t belong to any particular nationality.
So Prabhupada engaged them. He had them contribute to building the temples. He had them become life members and he engaged them at the level that they were at.
Many of them were already following many other spiritual teachers, worshipping various other devatas. And Prabhupada didn’t condemn them for that. Prabhupada just engaged them in service.
Guru Raj Maharaj was extensively with Prabhupada during those times. I asked Maharaj, when Prabhupada visited the house of Indian life members, they probably had their own altars with various objects on their altar with various pictures of various deities. So did Prabhupada question or criticise? He said, I don’t remember a single incident when Prabhupada did that.
So Prabhupada said, OK, what can I do for these people? They have some cultural piety. Let me engage them in service. So Prabhupada gave them, they became life members, Prabhupada gave them the books.
He didn’t give them the full, which person when. So it’s not so much about conservative and liberal just terms. The ultimate principle is that we want to rise ourselves and we want to raise others.
And the way to do that is by doing what is required for the other person to rise. And that was the mood of Lord Nityananda. Wherever he went, why did he wear such opulent clothes? Because that would attract theives.
Why did he behave in an avdhoot way? When he behaved in such an avdhoot way, it was the people who were normally following strict rules, they were perturbed by that. But just as we have the example of Lord Shiva is called as Bhutanath. Bhutanath means that he is especially compassionate to those who are in the mode of ignorance.
So to the bhutas and pretas. Similarly, Nityananda Prabhu, he behaved in an extraordinary way, dressed in some extraordinary way, surprised, intrigued. What is this? Who is this? Was this a simple person? What is he doing? And he attracted them.
So Nityananda Prabhu is extraordinarily merciful. And I’ll quickly mention the outline of this pastime of theives. And we will conclude with that and we can have a few questions.
So while Nityananda Prabhu was presiding in magnificence, in glory, he had royal magnificence, regal glory, he had regal opulence he was exhibiting. He attracted this group of thieves. And they decided that, who is this person? We will rob him.
With one robbery, we can get more than enough for our entire lifetime. So let’s do that. So they came one night and then they saw there were giant people, giant guards over there.
They said, we are thieves, we are hooligans, we are tough people. But when they came back, somehow, you know, this happened for one day, two days, three days. And what was Nityananda Prabhu doing? Nityananda Prabhu could have straight delivered them, condemned them, done them anything in one day itself.
But Nityananda Prabhu was purifying them by his remembrance. Because they were thinking, oh, when will we go to that person? When will we rob? When will we get his jewels? When will we get these from him? So what happened by that is that they were thinking about him more and more and more and more. And as they were thinking about him more and more, it is, as I said, the Seventh Canto of the Bhagavad Gita is quite clear that however we remember Krishna, it’s purifying.
Gopya, Kama, Bhayat, Kumso, Nisha, Chai, Yada, Yandrupa. So the Gopis, some of the Gopis, some of the Gopis remember Krishna out of pure love, but some of the Gopis were not yet purified. They were attracted to Krishna by Kama, just like a girl might be attracted to a boy.
Bhayat, Kumso. Kumso was attracted out of fear. He was not attracted.
He was meditating on Krishna. Constantly meditating on Krishna out of fear. So we could say that.
Then Chaitanya, Shishupala was meditating out of envy. So we could add to that list, you know, Sthena Lobhath. These thieves, they were meditating on the Lord.
That meditation was purifying them. That meditation was purifying them. And one day they got, one day they went and they were blocked by the guards.
Another day they went and they found the devotees were doing Kirtan. And the Kirtan was going on and on and on and on. They were wondering when will it end? They just waited and waited and waited and then rose off.
And then when they woke up, by the time it was all day time and they had all these weapons and everything. They immediately hid all the weapons and they went away. And they thought, oh, we didn’t worship the Goddess properly.
So we see in the Vedic context that even those who were, like we have demons, even Kamsa would worship the Goddess. So even these people who are wrongdoers also sometimes gain power by the higher beings. They think of appeasing the higher beings.
So they worship the Goddess and they went back. And they thought with the Goddess blessings, we will be successful today. And the Goddess really blessed them and they were really successful.
But the way they were successful was a storm and a thunderbolt and there were rains and there seemed to be snow pebbles coming. There seemed to be sleet coming down. And what’s happening? And then it seemed like they became blinded and they fell into a ditch and they didn’t know what to do.
And in that situation, the leader of the thieves started thinking, we have done so many robberies. We never faced a problem like this. What is this? Maybe, maybe, actually, maybe Nityananda is really God.
Otherwise, how could we have been thwarted so many times? And thinking like this, he prayed, Oh Nityananda, please forgive me, please deliver me. And then what happened? As soon as he said that, then the storm disappeared and the ice came back. And then he just ordered all his associates and he got up and he went in.
And the devotees, some of the devotees were apprehensive. Who is this hefty looking, menacing looking person coming into the field? Is this person coming to disrupt things? And that person came and he just came straight to Lord Nityananda. And the devotees were wondering, how will he stop him also if he tries to attack? Will Nityananda have to exhibit some miracles? He just came and offered straight Dandavat Pranam to Lord Nityananda.
And he surrendered his life to him. And he surrendered his life to Lord Nityananda. Nityananda embraced him and blessed him with Nityananda.
He filled him with eternal bliss of love for Krishna, love for Lord Chaitanya, love of God. And then he became so transformed by this that he set about a mission that Nityananda is so merciful, I have to give his mercy to others. And he started going around and giving that mercy to his devotees.
And Nityananda Prabhu would travel across, he would go to Bengal and Orissa at that time. Wherever he would be having Satsang Prabhu and suddenly the devotees would be sitting and hearing Katha. And sometimes what would happen is suddenly a group of threatening looking people would come in.
And those people would not know because this is a new crowd. And one said, we are going to a new place. And they would come and this thief who had become a preacher now, they would all come and surrender to Nityananda Prabhu.
And this way Nityananda Prabhu reached out to people. So now what he did was, somehow or the other, this is not just a principle for us. We have to remember Krishna.
It’s also a principle about how we are to engage others. Somehow or the other, get people to think of Krishna, get them to raise their consciousness. So Nityananda Prabhu, by wearing these expensive clothes and ornaments, he attracted thieves’ attention and he got them to think of Krishna.
And G. C. Shrila Prabhupada also did that same thing. There is a story of how Shrila Prabhupada would sometimes be given very expensive gifts. And Prabhupada was very unattached, but because the gift was given, he would accept it.
So one time somebody gave Prabhupada a very expensive Rolex watch and he was wearing this. And there was one person in India. He was a thief.
And he somehow met some devotees. He saw B.T.G. magazine. Prabhupada was wearing this watch.
He said, oh, Swami has this watch. He says, maybe if I give it to Swami, he will steal this watch from me. And he investigated about it and he was in the Mumbai area.
So he came to the Juhu temple. So he went to the temple and he asked, where is this Swami? He says, he is not here, but he will come in future. So he seemed interested.
The devotees were very much lacking in manpower. They said, if you want, you can stay here and you can do some service. He said, fine.
He started staying there and following the rules as much as he could. And then he was waiting. Somehow Prabhupada attracted him.
He had an ulterior motive. But he was eager for Prabhupada. When is Prabhupada going to come? When is Prabhupada going to come? So on one level, he was thinking about Prabhupada, thinking about Prabhupada.
At the same time, what was happening? He was with the devotees who were loving Prabhupada. He was serving Krishna. He was in various ways connecting and that was purifying him.
And when he finally met Prabhupada, what happened was when he went into Prabhupada’s room, Prabhupada saw him and on his own, Prabhupada took out his Rolex watch and gave it to him. And he was stunned. How did he know? He just didn’t know what to say at that time.
And then all the things he had heard about Prabhupada, how he is such a great devotee, because he was a thing he had not cared about at that time. But because of this, what happened is he was so impressed. He said, you know, this Swami must be like a very, very good person.
How did he manage so challengingly giving up this watch and giving it to him? And he had heard from other devotees when he was in the ashram. Many of those devotees were from well-to-do families. Giriraj Maharaj himself was from a very well-to-do family.
He left it all and come. So all that, in that one gesture of Prabhupada, all that he had experienced and heard in the last several weeks, it all came together in one bolt of lightning. What happened is, hey, no, Prabhupada, I don’t want this.
I want to serve you. I want to serve you. It happened on TV.
Now we have, of course, Iskcon Desire Tree and Hare Krishna TV is very big. But almost two decades before, he was the person who started Iskcon TV, ITV as we call it. And then we had the Atma serial where Gaurang Prabhu and other devotees were on TV speaking about the Bhagavad Gita.
So what happened is that Prabhupada, he didn’t have to wear an expensive watch. But Prabhupada, he adopted certain things so that he could attract certain people. So a devotee is expert.
So we can conclude this point that the importance is not being liberal, not being conservative, it is being daksha. It is being expert. One of the qualities of a devotee is daksha.
A devotee is expert to attract people to Krishna by doing whatever is necessary. You know, in Singapore, Prabhupada was in the Hilton Hotel and some journalists came to him and they said, Swamiji, you are supposed to be renunciate. Why are you staying in this Hilton Hotel? And Prabhupada said, I can live under a tree.
But if I had lived under a tree, would you have come to interviews? And that reporter felt silent. So, so compassion is a very, is a very lofty value. And we all want to internalise the value or the virtue of compassion within us.
But how compassion translates in our day to day life, in our actions is through expertise. Expertise means we don’t see Krishna consciousness as simply a set of rule books. Krishna consciousness is not just simply like having a formula and or memorising a set of statements and speaking them out to others.
Expertise means, where is this person? What is the spark that I can fan on this person? By that they can take a step towards Krishna. And when we have that mood, we find that there are so many people whom we thought that they are never going to become Krishna conscious. Yeah, they may not become Krishna conscious in a particular sense, but maybe their consciousness can move one step upward towards Krishna.
And we can become an instrument in that. So, the way Nithyanand Prabhu radically transformed Yadayana Madhai from people who, on seeing them, people would run away and take bath in the Ganga, to they became so purified that when people saw them, they thought that they were bathed in the Ganga. Now, that level of transformation, we may not be able to bring about in anyone.
That requires an extraordinary level of purity and potency. But the principle of compassion is, wherever a person is, how can I help them rise? It may be by giving them books. It may be by inviting them to a temple.
It may be by just speaking a kind word to them. It may be just by establishing a human connection with them. They feel this devotee is a nice person.
And that Ajna Sukrti, our behaving in such a way by which they appreciate a devotee, that is also a way in which we are helping them grow. So, we can all pray to Nithyanand Prabhu that the extraordinary, radical, revolutionary compassion that he manifested, that we become both the objects and the instruments of that compassion. The objects of that compassion means that by that compassion, our consciousness becomes elevated and attracted toward Krishna and that we become instruments of that compassion in my reach.
Now, we can share whatever way the Lord wants us to share Krishna’s mercy, help people to take one step forward at least in their journey toward Krishna. So, Shri Nithyananda Prabhu ki Jai. Shri Nithyananda Rayodashi Mahamahotsav ki Jai.
So, I’ll quickly summarise. And if you have a question, you can take. So, I spoke three main points today.
First of all, I started by talking about how Lord Chaitanya Nithyananda manifest mercy, the same mercy in two different ways. One is mercy can be manifested to some people by providing them the rules by which they can rise upward. So, rules are like the road.
That is a time tested way to move in the desired direction. But for some people, the rules may not be possible. The road is blocked for them.
So then for them, we have to show them another way. And that is what Nithyananda Prabhu does. So, if you are attacking a devotee, you need to be punished.
That’s the rule. And that’s what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was doing. But the same Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy was manifested to Nithyananda Prabhu by, Oh no, my dear Lord, please forgive them.
So, mercy can have many different manifestations. So, I talked about Niyamagraha in terms of how the letter of the law is important, the spirit of the law is important. So, the conservatives are more concerned about the letter of the law and liberals are more concerned about the spirit of the law.
And when both of them come together, a shared concern can make a tradition extremely effective. And then I concluded by talking about the Theus pastime, where Nithyananda Prabhu, he orchestrated this whole Leela. First, he dressed in a very opulent way.
And then through various days and various obstacles that those Theus men met in their attempting to rob Lord Nithyananda, what happened is they were thinking about him, thinking about him. And that Sthena Lobhad, by thinking about him in a mood of greed, they became purified. And we discussed about Nithyananda Prabhu also manifested, sometimes conservative, sometimes liberal.
The point is not being conservative, being liberal, but being expert. Expert means this person in this situation, how can I help them come closer to Krishna? Sometimes we can help them go all the way to Krishna. Sometimes we just need to take one step towards it.
So, we can pray that Lord Nithyananda can make us both object and instrument of his compassion. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna, Prabhuji. Koti Koti Dandvat Pranam. That’s such a blissful and ecstatic class, Prabhuji.
Thank you very, very so much for sharing the wonderful realisations with us. The pastimes of Nithyananda Prabhu and Srila Prabhupada. Thank you very so much.
I now request devotees, please go ahead and unmute your microphones to share your realisations. Or if you have any questions for Prabhuji at this time, please go ahead. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Dandvat Pranam. Dandvat, Hare Krishna.
Prabhu, I’m speaking from Gurgaon. Hare Krishna. I have not been able to follow the role of rules in bhakti.
Okay. So, what is the role of rules in bhakti? Bhakti is essentially the redirection of our heart toward Krishna. We want to offer our heart to Krishna.
Now, at a highest level, when we love someone, or when you want to love someone, what do we do? We do the things that please them. And we avoid doing the things that displease them. So, in bhakti, essentially rules are those two things itself.
The rules of bhakti are of two kinds, prescriptions and proscriptions. What we should do and what we should not do. So, essentially, the prescriptions are, we do the things that Krishna likes.
And what are the things that Krishna likes? Krishna likes those things which connect us more with him, which help us to come closer to him, so that ultimately he can take us home to him eternally. So, the prescriptive rules, do’s in bhakti are basically the things that Krishna likes us to do, because they will bring us closer to him. And the don’ts in bhakti, the proscriptions, are essentially the things that take us away from Krishna, that disconnect us from Krishna, that infatuate our minds with many other things.
So, if you consider intoxication, or unrestrained sexual activity, or gambling, all these activities, what they do is they fill our mind with so many agitating stimuli that we can’t go toward Krishna. So, Krishna doesn’t like it. Krishna is displeased.
When we turn away from him, because he loves us and doesn’t want us to languish and suffer in material existence for more than necessary. So, basically, instead of seeing them simply as rules, we can see them simply, rather than, we can see them instead as essentially ways of developing a relationship with Krishna. So, we do the things which Krishna likes, and we avoid the things that Krishna doesn’t like.
Prabhu, in relation to liberal and conservative, you had explained, which I could not follow. No. So, no, I don’t understand.
What is it? Because the whole class was about that. What exactly about it did you not follow? In connection to conservatives and liberals, how does it imply? Imply what? You had shown some diagram, which I missed out. OK.
So, you had shown some diagram. This one, isn’t it? As regards conservatives and liberals. So, liberals are more concerned with the spirit of the law.
So, spirit of the law means what? That if there is a particular rule, say, for example, like I gave the example, that temple architecture should be in a particular way. So, that’s the rule of the law. But the spirit of the law is that ultimately God is to be glorified.
The Lord is to be glorified. Any place where the Lord is glorified can be a temple. So, the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.
That is the liberal rule. Now, I don’t want to cast the conservatives in the negative light. But the point is that sometimes the letter of the law is also important.
So, what I said is that there is a letter of the law and the spirit of the law. So, when there is a high regard for both of them, that’s when things are effective. So, there is a rule and that is the purpose of the rule.
So, the rules are to be followed. Just like we have, we have traffic rules and we can’t break the speed limit. We can’t break the signals.
And it’s important for most people following the traffic rules is important. But suppose there is an ambulance and a person is about to die. And ambulances, when they start honking, everybody else stands by the way and they can make signals and go.
So, there are situations when, ultimately, what is the purpose of traffic rules? It is to ensure smooth and safe travel. It is to ensure that people live and people flourish. People can do whatever they need to do in life.
But if an ambulance, that’s an emergency. So, the rules can be suspended at some times. So, that’s how the relationship between liberals and conservatives is.
That what needs to be stressed, when that has to be understood. Is it clear now? Yes. Yes, Prabhu.
Thank you very much. Wonderful class, Prabhu. Happy to be of service.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Thank you so much for the session on two days. It’s very, very clear. So, Prabhuji, in practical sense, for our day-to-day life, I want to ask how to take this to approach.
So, as a neophyte, when we start practising, our focus is more on following rules so that we can become strong. And then, you know, we can, if we follow the rules, then we become strong. We don’t, our mind don’t get legs if we follow the rules.
But in a family situation, not everybody at same level. So, for others, like rules are, they are not following the rules. So, we think that, OK, take a liberal approach and break the rules for them.
But then, like my mind says that if I break the rules, then I, myself is not strong. So, I may sleep, I may fall as well. So, how to balance that to approach in a day-to-day practical family life when not everybody at same level? OK, very good question.
So, let me show you something here. Yeah. Can you see this diagram? So, basically, we can see that we have a full screen.
So, there are three dynamics over here. There is Krishna. There are, we are here.
And then there are other person. So, you can see the relationship. So, there is a relationship with Krishna.
There is a relationship with others. And there is their relationship with Krishna. So, quite often what happens is when we are in a relationship with someone, we are very concerned about their relationship with Krishna.
Are they practising bhakti? And that is an important concern. No doubt. However, be clear about the priority.
See, our relationship with Krishna is the first and most important. The second is our relationship with them. And third is their relationship with Krishna.
Why is that the third? Because everybody has free will. Even Krishna doesn’t force anyone. So, who are we to force? So, usually in devotee, devotional context, most of the problems come because we force three on the other person too much.
Do this, do this, do this. And when we force the three, that creates a strain in the two. When we try to push others to do more in Krishna bhakti than what they are ready for, then that creates a strain in our relationship with them.
And when that strain is created in our relationship with them, then that strain affects our relationship with Krishna also. If there is false intention or quarrels or harsh words being spoken, then we can’t chant properly. We may sit and take the beat, but we can’t chant.
So, what we need to do is stop pushing three too much. Stop pushing three. And ideally, we would like all three to go together.
But in some situations, just separate the two. We maintain two at a human responsible level. If you are in a family, in a relationship, whatever is expected in that relationship at a functional level, at a proper dharmic level, we do that.
And if we just do that, so if we give the other person their space, over a period of time, they will give us our space. But what happens when we intrude into their space, then they will intrude into our space. So basically, in that sense, yes, if others are not following rules, then what do we do? We can’t force them to follow rules, but we can make it clear.
These things are important for me and I’ll do these things. We can tell them that I’ll be happy if you do it, but I won’t force you. But when I am doing these things, please, please don’t obstruct me.
I’m not going to stop you if you have some other things you want to do. And I won’t stop you from that. But you please don’t interfere.
So once we can keep our one strong by separating the two and the three. Sometimes you start thinking that, you know, if this person is not practising bhakti, then why am I relating with that person? No, sometimes some people, by their association, sometimes, you know, they’re not being a devotee. We may actually learn more humility and tolerance and service attitude.
And that might help us grow in bhakti. So bhakti is not just simply externals. Yes, we would like them to also come to the temple.
They’re also to practise bhakti. But if that doesn’t happen, we can separate the three and focus, make sure that one is taken care of. But we don’t have to make one like dominate our entire life.
Have time for our bhakti, have time for our satsang and seva and other things, satsang, seva, sadhana, whatever is there. But after that, you know, do as responsibly as we can. And quite often, if we are good in the two, you know, if we do our duties responsibly and they will see that, Oh, you know, you used to, you were so short tempered earlier.
Now you have become more patient. You have become calmer. And that if the two improves and they start feeling, how can this improve? That is because of one.
That is because of your relationship with Krishna. And they will also be inspired to develop their relationship with Krishna. So that’s how we can we can maintain strictness with ourselves.
At the same time, be accommodating, lenient with others. OK. Thank you so much.
Like it’s it’s become so clear with this one, two and three and a priority. Like I was always confused with this. So today you made it so simple and so clear.
So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
Happy to be of service. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Thank you for the class, Prabhu. I just had one question in the process of, you know, being magnanimous or going over and above, you know, trying to serve others. So is there a chance of, you know, in one sense, diluting bhakti or, you know, kind of cheapening bhakti? I mean, do you think that that may happen? And and also I was hearing another class yesterday where Prabhuji, one Prabhuji, he gave a class and he was saying that this, I mean, the apparent behaviour of Shrila Nithyananda Prabhu actually created some doubts even in scholars.
So I was just wondering if you can help me understand that. Of course, is it possible that while being, say, while being liberal and trying to reach out to others, there’s a possibility to dilute bhakti? Yes, that danger is always there. You know, in this world, there’s a danger that we can dilute bhakti.
That’s one danger. But there is other danger also that we can make bhakti completely so lofty that becomes inaccessible for people. Then if Prabhupada wanted that, why did he go to America? Also, he wanted to make sure that bhakti is accessible.
And so Prabhupada says that a realisation means to present things in a way that is interesting for the audience without screwing out any unscrupulous media. So that both points are there. So that means while we are presenting bhakti, we present things in a way that will be relevant for the audience.
But if that is all that we are doing. So, for example, when we speak to new people, we may speak very basic concepts. But if we start speaking like very pre-devotional or semi-devotional kind of knowledge, even in our bhagavatam classes, then that is a problem.
If you see Shri Prabhupada, if you read the book Ishopanishad, in the entire Ishopanishad, Prabhupada hardly ever uses the word Krishna. Prabhupada uses the word Lord, God, Ishwara, he uses the word like that. He doesn’t use the word Krishna.
Now, why is that? We have that famous example of Bhakti Sanyasi Thakur saying that he would just count how many times the word Krishna has been used in an article and he would publish that. Now that is one anecdote and that was not the standard editorial policy. Bhakti Sanyasi Thakur was also quite strict in editorial and he wanted the editorial content to be good.
In fact, sometimes he would, most of the times he would himself review every single article and then he would carefully edit and publish it. So, we can’t take that one anecdotal example as an absolute principle. But what is Prabhupada doing in Ishopanishad? The Upanishads are what generally attract the Jnani kind of people who are often impersonalists, who are often attracted to the impersonal aspect.
So, Prabhupada was commenting on a book which is considered a stronghold of the Advaitins. And while he was commenting on that book, if he starts itself by talking about Krishna, the Advaitins will say that this is simply, those who are impersonally orientated, they’ll say, oh, this is simply a personalist book and I’m not interested in this. They will reject the book.
What Prabhupada does is he talks in very broad terminology, gives deep philosophy, talks about universal principles. And then slowly but surely, he brings in personalist principles very clearly, but he doesn’t use the personalist terminology. So, he doesn’t use Krishna over there.
So, is Prabhupada diluting Krishna’s message? No, it’s for reaching out a particular audience, Prabhupada does a particular thing. So, so basically dilution can happen broadly in two main ways. One is that if we start, say, either the pre-devotional message or the pre-devotional practises or pre-devotional standards, if we start teaching them even to devotees or we start practising them ourselves, that’s how dilution happens.
If we’re reaching out to a particular segment of people who are anyway otherwise not going to be reached out to, if we adopt a particular approach, then is that dilution? No, if that is only for that audience and people who are anyway not going to come to a temple, who are not anyway going to hear about Krishna, anyway those who are not going to follow the rules of bhakti, then let them take one step upwards. So, why not do that? So, we have that example that Prabhupada’s Kota Chanakya Pandit and he said that, ekash chandra sthamo hanti laja taaras asrasha. He said that it is one moon outshines a thousand stars.
Yes, so Prabhupada said, you know, it’s better to have one moon and a thousand stars, which is true. If we get one serious devotee, that’s wonderful. But, you know, sometimes in the name of looking for that one moon, we end up extinguishing the thousand stars.
No, let the stars also stay in the sky. What do I mean extinguishing the thousand stars? That somebody who’s not able to digest the higher message, somebody who’s not able to digest the higher standards, we start making them feel so rejected, so guilty, so impure that whatever little spirituality they may have, whatever little appreciation or interest in Krishna may have, that gets destroyed. So, yes, we all want Prabhupada’s mission to be successful if he has one pure devotee.
But why did Prabhupada engage with the life members? Prabhupada went to the house of thousands and thousands of life members and he took prasad at their house, inspired them in bhakti. Hardly anyone become initiated. So it is, we don’t know in advance which star will become a moon.
And just because a star is not becoming a moon, if we extinguish it, then we are doing violence. So sometimes the star has to be fanned so that it will become a moon. But if the star is not becoming a moon, then we just fanned, we just extinguish it.
That is unhealthy. So we could say there is a funnel effect, funnel effect or not a funnel, a pyramid effect, I could say. You know, if people who are living lives in the modes of passion and ignorance, if by us, by hearing something from a devotee, they learn something and they come to goodness, it’s a significant step up for them.
If somebody from goodness comes towards a general appreciation of spirituality, that’s also good for them. But somebody who from a general appreciation of spirituality comes to a specific appreciation of Krishna, that’s wonderful. So we definitely want people to come all the way to the top of the pyramid.
But those who are not ready to come up, come all the way to the top, we don’t have to kick them down. If you can’t come all the way to the top, take one step. So if that is all we offer and that is what we start doing, then it’s dilution.
But it’s it’s if we are reaching out to people who are not ready to take the full journey by offering them avenues by which they can take one step forward, then that is compassion. Does it address the question? Yes. Thank you so much.
I just, you know, I’m from Houston, Texas, and we have several outreach programmes here, which devotees, like you said, in a very magnanimous mood, they try to give Krishna consciousness to everybody. And there is one programme particularly, which we have here. And we’ve seen that, you know, on a practical level, they have been, you know, some problems because devotees try their best to, you know, preach and do nicely.
But sometimes the mood is different than that of, you know, a Krishna conscious mood. I mean, what we normally see in a temple environment like that. So I understand it’s just so tricky to tread on that territory, you know, trying to do that kind of preaching.
So I was bewildered myself, you know, though, for whatever reasons. I mean, I’m not a great devotee or anything just talking, but I’ve been in Krishna consciousness for 17 years now. But still, I found it so difficult to get across to them because I was always this thing was on the back of my mind that, you know, somewhere, something, you know, may not turn out as what we’re expecting it to be.
So, yeah, I find it very tricky, Prabhuji. I mean, all glories to the great devotees who do this. I agree it’s not easy.
It’s not easy. It’s that’s why it’s best at our level to focus on our practise of bhakti to see the moment is very broad. And from the moment we take whatever inspiration we get for our bhakti and move on.
And if tomorrow Krishna gives us an important leadership position, then we can we can do a greater contribution. But at our level, if you have some concerns, we get the questions and concerns addressed. But overall, we have come here to serve Krishna.
We have come here to come closer to Krishna and maybe whatever capacity we have, help others come closer to Krishna. So rather than rather than spending our time too much in judging who is doing what, we focus on am I moving closer to Krishna? Because in some ways, Krishna consciousness can be very, very vast because Krishna is unlimited. So the ways in which people can reach out to Krishna can be many.
And the ways in which maya can reach out and take away people who are reaching out to Krishna is also many. So now which is happening where we don’t know. So something is troubling us specifically.
We try to ask and clarify and get some reasonable understanding. But otherwise, there is no need to divert ourselves too much in what who is doing. We can focus on our practise of bhakti.
And if we focus on that, we will find that in the Krishna consciousness movement, wherever we are, there are resources available for us to grow in our bhakti. So thank you very much for this opportunity to glorify Lord Nithyananda.