Appreciating Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy devotional ambitiousness and humility
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Using a reading from the Chaitanya Bhagavata. The Chaitanya Bhagavata is the sweetest biography of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Charitamrita is the book that Sri Prabhupada commented on and it contains a lot of philosophy.
Chaitanya Bhagavata is more like a fro of nectar. So, we will read some of the Sanskrit verses and then we will move forward. So here, we pick up Chaitanya Bhagavata, Madhyakhanda, chapter 13, entitled The Deliverance of Jagai and Madai.
So, I will read some of the verses and then we will comment on it. So, Nityanand Prabhu has heard about Jagai and Madai and he is inquiring and people are replying, who are these people? So, text 47. So, the Lokabale people said that, that these are actually brahmanas.
They were born, they are brahmanas because they were born in brahmana family, not just brahmana family, divya pitamata. That their parents were divine personalities, maha-kulete utpanna and they were born in a illustrious dynasty. In the past, a people's station in society was often determined by the birth dynasty.
So, this background of Jagai and Madai is giving the setting of how terribly they had fallen and how gloriously they were elevated. So, This for many generations, sarvakale, for all time they had, their ancestors have lived over here, purushe purushe, for many generations. And, there is not even a slight fault in them.
They were born in glorious families and they remain glorious. But, what has happened to these two people? They, pasarila dharma, they give up dharma and they are doing all kinds of sinful activities. And normally, we belong to certain social groups and we need to act in conformity with what is the expectation of that group.
When we don't act, then we are no longer, we no longer belong to that group. That's what happened to Jagai and Madai over here. So, normally, if we consider why people behave the way they do, one thing is that our upbringing is the factor which determines how we behave.
So, the underlying theme which I will be taking in this discussion is how our behavior can be transformed. So, broadly there are five factors which shape our behavior. There is our past conditionings, we could say our sabhava which we have got from the past.
There is our upbringing. Then there is our association. Then there is free will.
And then there is Krishna's mercy, the Lord's mercy. So, now if we consider these five factors, among these, what are changeable? The sabhava that we have got from the past is not really changeable. It is what it is.
The upbringing that we have got, that is also not really changeable. What we have got is what we have got in this life. Association is something which we can change.
At least to some extent. Free will is what we do need to exercise if we want to change ourselves. And then there is the determination, there is the Krishna's mercy, which is the ultimate transformational agency.
So, we will be focusing on how this transformational agency worked in the life of Gadai and Madai by the grace of Nithyananda Prabhu and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, if we see from their past karma, they were actually illustrious. They were people who were very very born in an illustrious family.
That means that their past sabhava was actually good. At least to some extent. There is no guarantee that normally a person born in a brahminical family is of a brahminical disposition.
But that is a general understanding. A soul who is born to a brahmana and a brahmini is likely to have a brahminical disposition. Unless of course there is some unusual karma which that brahmana and brahmini have to receive because of which they may get a son who doesn't behave brahminically.
So, that they were born in an illustrious family means we could say at least there was some goodness in their past sabhava and also their upbringing was very good. But then what happened? Their association was bad and they misused their free will. So, when they started misusing their free will and they started acting heinously, then what happened was their association also changed.
So, our association and actions, they are often symbiotic. Now symbiotic is often used in a constructive sense but they are we could say mutually reinforcing. The kind of actions we do, we naturally gravitate towards the corresponding kind of association.
And the kind of association we have that naturally shapes the kind of actions that we do. So, for example, if we are practicing devotees but if our non devotional or anti devotional desires start becoming very strong, then the result will be that we will not want to be in devotee association anymore. So, our actions will take us towards the association of those who want to indulge in those non devotional or anti devotional desires.
And the same thing happened here to Nityananda Prabhu. Sorry, to these peace souls who will be delivered eventually by Nityananda Prabhu, that is Jagai and Madai. So, they started taking the association of drunkards.
So, as it is said over here, in the text 49 and 50 in Chaitanya Bhagwat here is talking about this, how the mutually reinforcing effect of our actions and our intentions, of our association. So, they engage in sinful activities and then they were, we could say, they just went out of, their result is rejected them and they started associating with drunkards. Madhya pera sanga bhule swatantra saiya.
They are freely wandering among drunkards. It's addressed, the word freely, swatantra, now we use the word freedom in a very positive sense. But here the word freedom is used in the sense that earlier when they belonged to brahminical families, at least there was some restraint.
If some devotee wants to do some openly anti-devotional activity, they will try to do it secretly. They will try to do it discreetly, covertly. But if the devotee is, just gives up devotee association and publicly becomes a non-devotee, then whatever they want to do, they will do it openly.
So, this is what happened. When they were rejected from the association of the brahminical people, then the swatantra saiya, they freely started choosing actions that were taking them to, as we will see, hellish destinations. Now, they not only became sinful, they also became violent.
So, sin is something which may not necessarily hurt other people immediately. Say, if two people engage in illicit sexual activity, that hurts others. But somebody robs, somebody murders, somebody rapes, that is even more destructive to others.
So, they went even in that direction. So, we could say intox, when people get intoxicated, they hurt themselves first. But if somebody gets intoxicated and drives a car, they are likely to hurt many more people.
Somebody gets intoxicated, that's bad. But somebody gets intoxicated and does domestic violence, that's going to hurt many more people. So, Jagai and Madai were not only hurting themselves, they were hurting others also.
एदुई देखी सब नादिया धराया, नादिया धराया, all of Nadiya became fearful of them. पाछे करो कोन दिन वसती पोड़ाया, that they all feared that these two people may just come and burn our houses. वसती पोड़ाया, हे न पाप नहीं यहां न करे दुई जान, दाका चूरी मध्यमाम्स करे भोजान.
So, here we see that breaking the regularity principle became like a regularity principle for them. हे न पाप नहीं यहां न करे दुई जान, there is not a single sin that they have not committed. दाका चूरी, they were robbering, they were taking intoxication, they were eating flesh, eating meat.
मध्यमाम्स करे भोजान, in this way, they started doing all kinds of sinful activities. So, now we have taken up this narrative in between. So, this is what the people are telling Nithyananda Prabhu about these two people.
So, we come back to the context of the discussion that is described in 53rd verse. शुनि नित्यानन्द बड़ा करुण रुदाय, दुयेर उध्धार चिंते हय सदाय. So, on hearing this, Nithyananda Prabhu became very compassionate.
हय सदाय, करुण रुदाय, his heart became compassionate and he started making a plan about how to deliver them. So, Nithyananda Prabhu, we all when we live, we need some ambition to live with. We all need something challenging to do.
So, when some situation is very difficult, it can either dishearten us or it can stimulate us. So, on hearing how they had become fallen, what happened is Nithyananda Prabhu became stimulated. A devotee's ambition is to bring about, to manifest Krishna's incredible potency in the form of transformation of other people's hearts.
And that is what was the desire that was stimulated in Nithyananda Prabhu. Let's see what he says. Text 54, पातकी तारी ते प्रभु कैला अवतार, एइ मत पातकी कोथा पाई बेनार.
So, पातकी तारी ते प्रभु कैला अवतार. पातकी तारी ते, that means those who have fallen to deliver them, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, कैला अवतार has descended. एइ मत पातकी कोथा पाई बेनार.
But who can be more fallen than this? Now this ambition manifests out of compassion. Now suppose a doctor has found a cure or has made a cure, medicine that cures somebody who is sick. And now we find that there are people who are ordinarily sick and there are people who are extraordinarily sick.
Extraordinarily sick means that their sickness goes far beyond the normal level. They are almost on the verge of death. Then there is nothing more, there is no greater opportunity for a doctor to demonstrate the potency of the medicine than to actually cure a person who is not just slightly sick but severely sick.
If somebody is on the verge of death, you give them that medicine and they take and transform the cure. That would be a stunning demonstration of the potency of the medicine. In the same way here, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrates, Nityanand Prabhu wanted to demonstrate the stunning potency of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy.
And thus he says that who is there who is… Where will I find someone who is more fallen than them? So, therefore let me deliver them. And then there is a further intention over here for Nityanand Prabhu. Lukaya kare prabhu apana prakash, prabhavana dekhe loke kare upahas.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he was in Navadvip, for a significant amount of time he had kept his divine pastimes secret and discreet. For example, he would perform extraordinary exhibitions of devotional ecstasy in the kirtas that he performed at the house of Chandrashekhar Acharya and Srivas Pandit, especially in Srivas Angan. But everybody was not allowed over there.
So, not everybody was aware of the devotional potency of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, prabhu apana prakash, that means Lukaya. Lord Chaitanya is manifesting it confidentially, not for everyone.
But because of this, because prabhavana dekhe, people don't see the influence, kare upahas. They are actually criticizing. They taunt him, they make fun of him.
Say, what are you doing in private? So, people are not understanding. Especially when somebody is a well-known person and that person is doing something which we don't know what we are doing, then quite often ignorance leads to negative perception. Now, that means that say, if we are, if we know someone and we are walking along and that person doesn't greet us, even if we try to greet them, we will think, you know, this person is so rude, arrogant, or maybe have I done something to offend this person.
Basically, we start seeing the no interaction as a negative interaction. That means either I have done something wrong, which this person is upset, or there is something wrong with this person, this person is proud or whatever. So, like that, when Nityananda Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was performing his pastimes privately, then people felt that, what is he doing? So, dekhar upahas, Nityananda Prabhu could not tolerate this criticism of Lord Chaitanya.
He wanted to show, demonstrate to people that what wonderful things Nityananda Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was capable of doing. How extraordinary the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was. एदुयेर प्रभु यदी अनुग्रह करे, तबे से प्रभाव देखे सकल समसारे, तबे हान नित्यानन्द चैतनेर दास, एदुयेर कारान यदी चैतन्य प्रकाश। So, he said, if these two people can be delivered, then the whole world, सकल समसारे, the whole world will see the glory, the influence of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, प्रभाव, प्रभूर प्रभाव, they will all see that.
And then, here Nityanandam manifests its true ego, तबे हान नित्यानन्द चैतनेर दास, then I and Nityananda can truly be called as a servant of Lord Chaitanya. When, if through these two people, if through this transformation of these two people, एदुयेर कारान यदी चैतन्य प्रकाश। If there can be a demonstration of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's glory to these people, and that demonstration leads to transformation of these two people, then that is glorious. So, here we see the mood of, there is true ego and there is false ego.
False ego means, we want to feel that I am great. But true ego means that, not that I am great, but I am serving the great. And if I am serving the great person, then by that great person's potency, I should also be able to do great things when required.
So, we all need some positive force in our life, especially when we start practicing bhakti over the years. Initially when we are practicing bhakti, the transformation of our heart is, and our life is quite dramatic. We may have some bad habits which we give up.
But afterwards, the transformation starts becoming slower. The lust, anger, greed, pride, giving them up is not so easy. And we need to have some battles that stimulate us, that inspire us.
And quite often, what will help us to go on the long haul in our journey during the gradual inner purification that is going to happen is, if we can assist in outer transformation. Then we feel that we are doing something worthwhile in our life. Otherwise, our feeling is, oh, I am chanting everyday, I am practicing bhakti everyday, what is this doing? Is this actually making a transformation? We can become very disheartened.
So, to be conscious is to be desirous. And what we desire determines how enlivened we will be and where we will go because of that enlivenment. So, now, if our focus is simply on, oh, I have to say no to lust, I have to say no to anger, I have to say no to greed, I have to say no to pride.
But saying no, no, no, it's not pleasurable. And quite often we may say no, but still, we are not able to say no. We succumb to these things again and again.
So, then we just become disheartened. So, we have to have the positive drive in our life. And that positive drive comes by the practice of bhakti.
So, similarly, we can set up, we can take inspiration from the Thayanand Prabhu by seeing his spiritual ambition of how we also need to become spiritually ambitious. That we want to do something wonderful for Lord Chaitanya. Not in an egoistic sense that I am so great, but the Lord is so great that the great Lord can do something great to me.
And I want to do something great for the great Lord, not to demonstrate my greatness, but to demonstrate the Lord's greatness. When we have this mood, then we will see that the Lord will do great things to us. And here, this is the ambition that the Thayanand Prabhu has.
And he is further now, in a poetic way, going to describe his ambition. ekha na ye man mat apana na jane, ei mat hai yadi shri krishna rana me. So, he says, now they are so intoxicated with alcohol that they don't even know their own names.
If I can make them similarly intoxicated with love for Krishna, so that they will no longer be aware of what they are doing, of who they are. So, there is material intoxication, there is spiritual intoxication. So, we could say, material intoxication is in the mode of ignorance.
Spiritual intoxication is beyond goodness to transcendence. So, what Lord Chaitanya is saying over here is, I am going to raise them from the mode of ignorance to the level of transcendence. And if I can do that, then what happens? Then the potency of the names of Krishna will be demonstrated.
So, if these people call out, O my dear Lord, they refer to Lord Chaitanya, Lord Krishna and they say, O my dear Lord, and they call out with intense devotion, Then will be meaningful, my travel. Now, here travel, we can use as a general, travelling is, at least in the past, it was quite difficult to do. People would have to, the travelling mendicants would have to walk from place to place.
Now, we can just book a flight and we don't even have to go to the airport to book a flight. We just book a flight from where we are and we get into a car, we go to the airport, we sit in the plane and we go thousands of miles. Still there are some inconveniences in travelling.
But here we can use travelling as a metaphor, as a general shorthand to refer to whatever efforts we put in. So, if we can infuse love of Krishna in the hearts of others, then our endeavours will be successful. So, we have to see, there is internal success where we ourselves become attracted more and more to Krishna and there is external success where others become attracted to Krishna.
So, we want to be internally successful. But there is internal success and it takes time, we should also feel that our endeavours are meaningful and successful if others can also become attracted to Krishna. And not just attracted in the sense of we want to convert them to our way.
No, we want to help them to experience spiritual happiness and that if we can see people becoming truly spiritually transformed and spiritually joyful, then Whatever endeavours I am doing, they will all be successful. Another poetic way in which he says the transformation will be ये ये जन एदूये रच्छाया परशिया वस्त्रेर सहित गंगा स्नान करे गिया सही सब जन यदी दोहार धेखी गंगा स्नान है माने तबे मोर लिखी So he says that now people think of these two, people are so sinful that if they even see them, leave alone touch them, even if they are touched by the shadow of these people, people think oh I have become so contaminated, the pious people think I have to take a bath in the Ganga And the bath is so urgent need that I don't even have the time to take out my clothes, with my clothes I will take a bath, that means I just somehow if this contamination that has happened I have to remove that contamination But what in future I want that they should become so purified that people should feel and having their darshan that I have become purified the way I have become purified by taking bath in the Ganga So this is what Srila Prabhupada also did, many people who were from very sinful backgrounds, now by Prabhupada's mercy they have become such exalted saintly personalities that they purify even those who have been born in pious backgrounds So we may feel that oh we have become purified by association with these great saints, so the same ambition that Nithyananda Prabhu had, that ambition Srila Prabhupada also had and Srila Prabhupada has demonstrated this transformation by Nithyananda Prabhu's mercy So now here, Sri Nithyananda Prabhu's mahima apar, pati tera trana lagi yandra avataar, so Nithyananda Prabhu's mahima, his glory is apar, unlimited, and pati tera trana lagi yandra avataar, he has descended to deliver the fallen, pati tera trana, that is his purpose Now, what had happened was Nithyananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur had gone out on a expedition for distributing Lord Chaitanya's mercy, at that time they had heard about Jagai and Madai from the people So after hearing from them, so their first, if you see, you can visualize the stage, first what had happened here is that the people's description of Jagai and Madai's fallen condition has come, then Nithyananda Prabhu's contemplation has come, in which his spiritual ambition is expressed and now what Nithyananda Prabhu is going to speak to Haridas Thakur, that is there Sometimes I say, two devotees go out for doing some outreach service and they see some situation and then maybe the devotee is more spiritually enterprising, more spiritually advanced, that devotee may tell, okay now this is what had happened and this is what we should do now, this is how we should strategize, this is how we should execute, this is how we should do the service Eteka chintiya Prabhu Haridas prati, bhale Haridas deha, dekha dohara durgati. Oh Haridas, you see how these two have fallen, durgati, what is their fallen condition.
And so he says that, now Nithyananda Prabhu sees that it is not just, he is not thinking that I am the doer at all and he is not even thinking that I am such a great servant of Lord Chaitanya, that I will manifest Lord Chaitanya's mercy. He is actually going to earn such utter humility, he is going to appreciate Haridas Thakur and he is going to ask Haridas Thakur to bestow the mercy. Brahmana haiya ye na dushta vyavahar, e dohara yamahare nahi kanstar.
All the born in the Brahmin family, their behavior is dushta, it's wicked, it's heinous and there is no saving them from a hellish destination. But, there is one way to save them. Here Nithyananda Prabhu remembers the glory of Haridas Thakur.
Pranam te marila tomaye yavan gane, taharo korila tumi bhal mane mane. So, pranam te marila, that the yavanas were ready to beat you to the point of death. There are different kinds of beating.
Slapping is also bad, punching a few times is worse. But when somebody beats and their purpose is to beat till death, that's not just a murderous intention, it is also a very cruel disposition. Because there are different ways of killing.
Poisoning someone or hanging someone or beheading someone, that's bad, it's terrible, it's killing. But to beat someone to death, that means you not only want to kill that person but you want that person to suffer terribly with each successive blow till the person dies. So, when somebody has that much of a malevolent disposition, sometimes people who are dying, people who are in great pain because of cancer or something, they will say, I want to die now, I don't want to have this prolonged pain.
So, especially when somebody is causing somebody else's slow, prolonged, painful death through successive blows, it's very difficult to think beyond the cruelty of that person. But to have compassion to them who is causing us more and more pain this way till the point of death, it's very difficult. But, oh Haridas, you did that.
Even for such people, you were thinking of their welfare. So, similarly, he says that, okay, they were yavanas, they were hurting you directly and still you thought of their welfare. So now, please, please think about, please similarly desire the welfare of these two people.
शुभ अनुसन्धान करमने If you desire the welfare of these two people, तबे से उद्धारपाय एही दूई जने At that time, these two people will be delivered. तोमार संकल्प प्रभु ना करे अन्यथा अपने कहिला प्रभु एही तत्व कथा That, if it is your sankalpa, if it is your intention, प्रभु ना करे अन्यथा The Lord will not let your desire stay unfulfilled. The Lord will fulfill your desire.
अपने कहिला प्रभु एही तत्व कथा And Lord Chaitanya has told this to me personally about you. So here, Nityananda Prabhu's humility is saying, there is at one level spiritual ambition that I want to demonstrate, I want to transform Jagannath Mata and demonstrate to the world. But he is not thinking that I am such a pure devotee that I am going to transform.
That I will channel Lord Chaitanya's mercy. He is thinking that, oh Haridas, you pray. If it is your intention, then surely he will be transformed.
So the important thing here is, we appreciate the divine mercy, the divine consciousness of Nityananda Prabhu. That he is so sublime, that he is so sweet, that he is so, at the same time so spiritually ambitious and so spiritually humble. That he wants to do great things, but he doesn't think I am going to do it.
He is not even thinking that the Lord is going to do it through me. Because of my pure spiritual desire. He is thinking it is because of the glorious desire of the Lord's associate, of Haridas Thakur, that the Lord will do it.
So sometimes, even in devotee association, we may do wonderful things, we may do something extraordinary, but we become proud and we start thinking that, just see what a glorious thing I have done. And we start looking down at other devotees who have not done much, who are not doing much. If we distribute a lot of books, just see how many books I have distributed.
And these people, what are they doing? But here Nityananda Prabhu is teaching us that to the right consciousness we see how actually it is the Lord's mercy which is manifest through the blessings of the devotees. So, he is saying that it is because of the spiritual desire of Haridas Thakur that this transformation will happen. prabhura prabhava sab dekhu ka samsaar jaitanya karila he na duhirudhaar That samsaar, that whole world will see prabhura prabhava.
Here we see this beautiful alliteration that I had referred to. Prabhura and prabhava. So it begins with the, it has almost all the letters same except U and A. The influence of the Lord.
prabhura prabhava sab dekhu ka samsaar. The whole world will see prabhura prabhava. If, when will that happen? Jaitanya karila he na duhirudhaar.
If Jaitanya Mahaprabhu delivers these two people. So, in this way, ye na gaya ajamila udhaara puraane sakshate dekho na eba eti na bhuvane. We will see, just as the Puranas sing about the glorious deliverance of Ajamila, similarly, the world will sing about the glorious deliverance of Jagai and Madai and thus they will glorify the Lord.
Now we see the sweet devotional consciousness of Haridas Thakur. Nityanand Prabhu is giving credit to Haridas Thakur that by your desire this transformation will happen. But what is Haridas Thakur thinking? He is not thinking I am such a great devotee.
His humility is also seen over here. Nityananda tattva Haridas bhala jaane, paila udhaara dui jaani lena mane. So, he knew Nityananda tattva, he knew the position of Lord Chaitanya.
He knew the potency of Lord Chaitanya. And bhala jaane, he knew it very well. Therefore, what did he think in the mind? He knew that paila udhaara dui, that these two were already delivered.
Jaitanya Mahaprabhu had made such a strong spiritual resolution. Then he knew in his mind that now already Nityananda Prabhu's desire like this and that desire will be fulfilled. And then he expresses that outside.
That Haridas Prabhu bole, shuna maha shai, tomara ye ichha se Prabhu ranish chai. Haridas Prabhu bole that, Haridas said to the Lord, shuna maha shai, oh my dear Lord, please hear, oh great one, maha shai, tomara ye ichha se Prabhu ranish chai. That your desire is actually the Lord's resolution.
Nishchai means not just a desire but it's your resolution. If you desire something, the Lord becomes resolved that I have to do it now. So this is the wonderful transcendental reciprocation between the Lord and his devotees.
The devotees want to glorify the Lord and the Lord wants to glorify the devotee. So if a devotee desires to do something for glorifying the Lord, the Lord takes the intention of the devotee and makes it his resolution. Similarly for us, when we want to do some service to Krishna, sometimes we feel I am alone, the service is so difficult, how can I do it? But if we are doing it in the right consciousness, with the blessings of senior Vaishnavas, seeing ourselves as an instrument of the Lord, then we should know that our intention becomes the Lord's resolution.
And the Lord will help it to happen. Now exactly how it will manifest, that will vary. It does not mean that every single desire of every single devotee will be fulfilled.
Even Shri Sita Prabhupada also, some of the plans that he made, they did not manifest in exactly the same way. He tried to start League of Devotees in India, that didn't work out. He tried to, even when he was in America, he tried certain things which didn't work out so well.
For example, he started a gurukul, some gurukuls in some places, but that did not go off so well. But the overall intention of serving the Lord was glorious and amazing things happened. So many temples were opened, so many people became transformed, so many books were distributed, so many hundreds and thousands of people became attracted to Krishna.
So we need to know that we are not alone when we are trying to serve the Lord. The Lord is with us, the Lord's devotees blessings are with us. तोमारे यही इच्छा से ही प्रभूर निष्चे। My dear Lord, whatever is your desire, that is actually प्रभूर निष्चे। That is the intention of the Lord, so it will surely happen.
So Haridas Thakur continues his humility and then, आमारे भांडाओ ये न पशूर भांडाओ, आमारे से तुमी पुना पुना ये शेकाओ. He says, you are actually simply deceiving me, O Lord. This deception is not in a negative, manipulative sense, it's in a sweet sense.
He says, you are giving me credit, but actually, it's like sometimes an animal, we may trick an animal into doing something, the animal is not intelligent, animal may get tricked. So you are simply, actually my dear Lord, you are giving me credit where it is not due. In this way, you are teaching me.
So if I am not intelligent, then I will get tricked. If I am intelligent, then rather than getting tricked, I will see that, oh, the Lord is instructing me how to be humble. Now when we are glorified by some other devotees, if we take the glory for ourselves and think that I am such a great person, then we are actually letting ourselves be deceived.
The other devotees' intention may not be to deceive, because the devotee is seeing that actually it is Krishna who is manifesting through us. And yes, Krishna is glorious and the devotee through who is endeavouring to serve Krishna and through whom Krishna is reciprocating by manifesting some intelligence, some skills, some transformative potency, that devotee is also glorious. So for that devotee, that devotee may be sincerely appreciating us in their own way.
But if we take that credit for ourselves, then we become deceived. But instead of taking that credit for ourselves, we see that actually this is for my instruction. Whenever any devotee does something glorious, this is how I should be appreciating the devotees.
And we can see the appreciation also as, in three ways we can see. The appreciation as a reminder that Lord's mercy is there on us. We can see the appreciation as an indirect instruction that is how I should be serving Krishna.
And we can see that appreciation also as an indication of how we should also be looking to appreciate others. When others glorify us, it is not that, ah yes, now you recognize my glorious, please continue glorifying me. No, just as we should see that, just as this devotee is seeing Krishna acting through me, similarly let me see how is Krishna acting through this devotee.
Or let me see how Krishna is acting through others. And let me appreciate that. Let me also develop this mood of glorifying others.
So rather than thinking that I am so glorious, when others glorify us, we can see that, oh, I also need to learn to glorify others. Just as this devotee is doing so nicely. Now, so this is one section.
We will go through this incident in three sections. And we will see how much we can complete, maybe in this class or we may take more, we may have some breaks and we may have more classes also about this. But, so this is one frame and this is the discussion, contemplation and now, after this what will happen is, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Haridas Thakur will approach Jagai and Madai and Jagai and Madai will actually get angry.
They will try to attack Lord Nityananda and Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur will flee for their lives. So, that is one frame which we will not go into. We will now from here, take a jump forward and go to the time when after hearing about them, Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur, Nityananda Prabhu will again go to the Lord.
So, let's see. So, this whole pastime is very very sweet. But unfortunately, we don't have enough time to go through all of it.
So, here let us see. Then we know the whole outline of the incident how Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur when they flee from there. We see Srila Prabhupada also at one time, he had to flee.
When he was living with David Allen and David Allen just went mad with drugs and he came to attack Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada had to flee from the house where he was staying. Sometimes, even in the lives of great devotees, there may be some setbacks. They are trying to serve Krishna but the service doesn't work so well.
So, we don't have to become negative. We don't have to become disheartened by that. What we can see is that actually Krishna is there for us.
Krishna is eager to guide us and the guidance will come, the transformation potency will come as per His time, not our time. So, then what happens? The next day, they will come again. So, what happened was Jaga and Madhai, they came and they started camping near the Lord's place of residence.
The Lord kept a distance from them. Lord Chaitanya was a sannyasi and He often behaved in an exemplary way as a sannyasi, not doing anything which would make people criticize or accuse Him. But Nityanand Prabhu, He was Avadhoot but Lord Chaitanya had specifically entrusted Him with the responsibility of delivering those who were especially fallen.
And that He would approach people and this particular magical transformation which is going to be manifested, Lord also wanted to give Nityanand Prabhu the credit. So, therefore, the Lord kept a distance from them. But Nityanand Prabhu did not keep a distance.
What happened with Nityanand Prabhu? He came along and now let us see what happens. This is the most dramatic part of this incident. Ek din Nityanand nagar brahmi, yanai shaya aise donhe dhari leka gaya.
One night, Nityanand Prabhu went to them. Kere kere bali dake jagai Madhai, Nityanand balena Prabhu rabadi aai. He says, who are you? Where are you going? He says, I am going to the Lord's house, Prabhu rabadi.
Madhera vikshepa bale ki baanama tora, Nityananda bole avadhuta nama mora. So, what is your name? He says, my name is Avadhuta. So, Lord Nityananda acted like, he is also an intoxicated person.
He says, okay, you are intoxicated, I am also intoxicated. Intoxication of course is very different, but it's intoxication. Balya bhave maha tamma Nityananda rai, madhya pera sange katha kahena leelai.
So, he started speaking about the Lord's pastime to them. So, he had, now he had come there to deliver people. So, now, avadhuta is not exactly a proper identification.
It's more like a generic identification. Generic means, if somebody asks what is your name and they give a non-indefinite kind of answer, you might get angry. How? What does this mean? And why are you speaking like this? If somebody gets angry, because there is not a very definite answer.
So, Madhay became angry by this. Avadhuta nama shuni madhay kupiya, marila Prabhu rashire mutaki tuliya. So, he took a clay pot and he smashed it on Lord Shaitan's head.
Futila mutaki shire rakta pade dhare, Nityananda maha Prabhu govinda samare. So, when that pot hit him and his head started bleeding, what did Nityananda Prabhu do? He started remembering the Lord. A devotee's default reaction on facing any difficult situation is remembrance of the Lord.
A devotee tries to remember Krishna and become absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna. That's what he did over here. Dayahaila jagai, rakta dekhi mathe, ar bar mari te dhareel tarahate.
So, now Jagai, he had a little bit more sense. When Jagai saw that Madhay had hit Lord Nityananda, Jagai caught the hand of Madhay and said, don't hit him like this. Now, Madhay was so angry, his purpose was to just vent out his anger.
So, he had hit him once and he wanted to hit him again. But Madhay stopped by Jagai and said, kenahena karile nirday tumi drudha, deshantari mariya ki hai batumi bada. So, he says that why are you so heartlessly, nirdaya, why are you so determinedly heartless? It's one thing to be heartless and cause somebody pain.
But to hit and hurt somebody repeatedly, that is not just heartless, but it is obstinately heartless. So, you already hit him once, why do you want to hit him again? Why are you so relentlessly heartless? So, deshantari mariya ki hai batumi bada. So, now they had not seen Nityananda Prabhu too often and although Nityananda Prabhu had come and stayed in Navdeep, he was not born and brought up in Navdeep.
He was an outsider. So, Jagai had some amount of culture within him. He is an outsider.
He is not even a person who stays here. Normally, we say outsiders and there is a tradition that we treat the guests as if they are representatives of God. So, he is deshantari, he has come from outside.
Are you going to try to prove your greatness by beating an outsider like this? What greatness will you prove? In fact, you will only prove your smallness, petty mindedness, your evilness you will prove to others. Eda eda avadhute na maari hai aar, sanyasi mariya ko na bhalava to maar. He says he is avadhut.
Leave this avadhut alone. Eda eda avadhute. What will you gain by beating a sanyasi? Sanyasi mariya ko na bhalava to maar.
Now again, if you want to gain something, what will you gain? Sanyasi is not using weapons, so you will not feel that you are a very powerful person for beating a sanyasi. Sanyasi doesn't have wealth, so you are not going to gain wealth by beating him up. So, what are you going to gain? Nothing.
So, in the meanwhile, what happened? All this was happening, there was something dramatic happening. Athe vayathe loka giya prabhur kahila san. Jagai madhahir camp near lord Chaitanya's house only.
So, Chaitanya was not very far. So, they immediately ran over there. Gopange tatakshane thakura aila.
Gopange. So, for protecting, immediately lord Nityananda came over. Thakura.
Here, thakura is the word used to refer to lord Nityananda, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He came immediately. Nityanandera angesabha raktavahe dhare, hasti Nityananda se duye rabhitare.
So, now, lord Nityananda was standing in between the two of them, very close to them because he had approached them to talk with them. And his whole body was covered. Raktavahe dhare.
It was not just a casual slap. Sometimes, you know, even in movies you may see one person punches another person. And then, that punch means they get a black eye or there is some crack on their face by which blood is coming out.
But it was not like that. It was a big pot. And Jagai and Madai, Madai especially, they would eat meat and they were hooligans.
So, they were very strong people physically. And Nityananda was very close to them. So, it was just like a bullet, a gun when somebody shoots point blank.
That hurts much much more than when something shot from the distance. So, the Tantra would be very close to Madai and bang! He banged with full force the pot on his head. Now, why did he use the pot? Because that's what he had at hand.
And a pot we may not think is a big weapon. The pot is also strong. It is well formed and made to hit hard.
It was a blow from which blood was flowing profusely. And then, seeing this bloody sight, bloody not in the sense of a bad word, but seeing Lord Nityananda Prabhu bleeding, what happened? Rakta dekhi, krodhe Prabhu, bahiya nahi jaane. Chakra chakra chakra Prabhu, daake ghane ghane.
So, rakta dekhi, on seeing his pure and dear devotee, Nityananda Prabhu bleeding, bahiya nahi jaane, Lord Chaitanya was not aware of everything. Sometimes, some situation just demands our attention, captivates us so much, that we just forget everything. Bahiya nahi jaane, this can be both positive and negative.
Sometimes we may get attracted to something and we just become so captivated by that, that we forget everything else. People in romantic love movies, they show that. When one person sees the other person, he just becomes blinded to everything else.
But it can happen the other way also, where people get angry and in anger he just becomes blinded to everything else. You did like this, I will show you. So, Lord Chaitanya, this intense absorption in something is an indication of the immense emotional involvement over there.
So, here there is immense emotional involvement and Lord Chaitanya, he forgot everything else. Now, here bahiya nahi jaane means, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu normally did not manifest his divinity. He did not act like the Lord.
He had come as a channa avatar. He had come as a person who would not act as the divine, but he would act as a servant of the divine, as a devotee of the divine. But this mission of acting as a devotee, he forgot and as soon as he saw his devotee being hurt, he relapsed back to his divine nature and he summoned the chakra, chakra, chakra.
He called out, he summoned the chakra to come. So, the Lord's devotion to his devotees is so great that it causes him to forget even his divine mission. And as soon as the Lord summoned the chakra, the chakra appeared on his hands.
And Jagayamadai saw this, they were shocked. They had been born in Brahmana families, so they knew about Vishnu's chakra. They knew how nobody can counter it.
They saw that their death was right next to them right now. And when seeing this, soon, within moments, they would be killed. What did Nityanand Prabhu do? Pramada ganila sab bhagavata gana, athe vyathe yathyananda kare nivedana.
Pramada ganila sab bhagavata gana. That, everybody was astonished. They were intoxicated.
Bhagavata gana, seeing the Lord manifest his divinity and all the devotees were astounded. Seeing the chakra over there. Now, many of the devotees knew that Lord Shaitan Mahaprabhu was the Lord, but still, they had themselves not seen him manifesting his divinity.
They had not seen him personally showing the chakra. And chakra is not just some small ornament. It was blazing, it was ferocious.
It could cause immense devastation. So, the devotees were astounded. They were bewildered.
Pramada ganila. But Nityanand kept his composure. Even when Jagai had attacked him, Madhai had attacked him, Nityanand kept his composure.
And now when Lord Shaitanya was getting angry, in both the anger of Madhai and the anger of the Lord, one was out of ignorance, the other was out of transcendence. But in both cases, Nityanand Prabhu kept his calm. Madhai maare te prabhu rakhi la jagai, daive se padila rakta dukha nahi pai.
So, each of these lines that Nityanand Prabhu speaks is so amazing. First he is saying, Madhai maare te prabhu rakhi la jagai. Oh, my dear Lord, don't become angry with both of them.
He says, why? Because, actually, Madhai hit me, but Jagai stopped him. Rakhi la jagai. So, therefore, even if you are going to use chakra, please don't attack both of them.
Now, Nityanand and Chaitanya Maharaj thought that at least Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had gone to deliver both, Nityanand had gone to deliver both of them. And now he was wounded. So, he might think that both of them are together.
No, they are not together. Jagai tried to protect him. Then, the Lord must have thought that I am going to kill Madhai.
But no. Lord says, Nityanand Prabhu says, daive se padila rakta dukha nahi pai. All the blood was streaming down his face and his body.
Nityanand Prabhu says, actually, there is a little blood that fell and dukha nahi pai. It did not cause me much pain. Sometimes, when we are hurt, we want to tell the whole world about how badly we have been hurt.
But instead of doing that, it can be minimized. When there is a conflict, when there is a situation which might lead to further eruption, then we should act as agents of peace, not as agents of provocation. So, even if somebody has hurt us, if the situation is getting more and more aggravated, we don't have to provoke.
It's not a big thing. We will deal with it later. Let's calm down.
Let's get the temperature down over here now. So, daive se padila rakta. And one more thing, such a situation, actually, daive se padila rakta.
Actually, the blow was not very bad. But then, I am not feeling much pain. But there is so much blood over here.
I can see so much blood in daive. It is simply by destiny. Sometimes, we may see that there is a small wound for us.
It will just fall down a little bit somewhere and it is a big fracture that results. Sometimes, while shaving, there is a small cut, but the blood doesn't stop. It just keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming.
So, we understand that sometimes, small stimulus, small provocation can lead to a lot of complications. And we understand that is because of daive. While shaving, if we just say, cut ourselves somewhere where there is already some kind of swelling or something like that, there is already some sort of scratch or cut, then the blood may come much more.
Now, why did the cut happen at that place only and not somewhere else? We understand daive. That's because of destiny. So, my dear Lord, don't blame him.
I am not feeling much pain. There is some blood, but it is because of destiny. Now, we see Nityanand Prabhu's mercy even more.
मोरे भिक्षा देह प्रभू एदूई शरीर किछु दुख नहीं मोरा तुम्ही हाओ स्थीर My dear Lord, मोरे भिक्षा देह, please give me some charity, Prabhu. All we want in charity, एदूई शरीर, please give me the bodies of these two in charity. I am not in pain.
So, don't be so agitated. तुम्ही हाओ स्थीर किछु दुख नहीं मोरा. There is not much pain for me.
So, you please calm down, my dear Lord. There is no need to get so agitated. So, now it is interesting, Nityanand Prabhu is not asking for the souls of these two people to be delivered.
मोरे भिक्षा देह प्रभू एदूई शरीर. He is saying, please give me the bodies of these two people in charity. Now, why the bodies of these two people? Why not their souls? We will see that at this particular point, the danger was to their bodies.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was so angry that at this point, He was about to destroy their bodies. So, although Nityanand Prabhu's intention was to deliver their souls, but when a person is in embodied existence, we cannot really separate their body and their soul. We have to see that the body and the soul is one composite unit right now.
Although, from the eternal perspective, the soul and the body are different, but right now the body and soul are together. So, if we want to deliver, if we want to help someone, we cannot say that I will only help your soul and I will not take care of your body. If there is a danger to the body, we need to help.
If a devotee is sick, then we cannot say that I will pray for you. If we can be of help and take the devotee to a hospital, we should do that. So, when there is an immediate danger, that immediate danger needs to be addressed also.
So, here, the immediate danger for Jagannath Matai is that Chaitanya's Chakra might kill them. And here He is saying, no, no, no, we can't do it. We should not do it, O Lord.
So, mora bhiksha deha prabhu edui sharira. So, this is the amazing devotional consciousness. And not just devotional consciousness, but the deep devotional consciousness.
Just spare these two bodies, my dear Lord. Edui sharira. These two bodies, if you spare, O Lord, then what will happen is, we will be… And why should you spare it? He says, mora bhiksha deha prabhu.
Please give these two bodies in charity to me. So, He is praying that… Normally, somebody is a renounced order. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at this point has not taken sannyas.
Nityanand Prabhu is a avdhoot, which is like a sannyasi. Not officially a sannyasi, but unofficially He is informally like a sannyasi. So, He is saying, mora bhiksha deha.
So, here there is such a deep devotional consciousness. He is attributing the hurt to daiva. And even when He is appealing to the Lord, He is appealing as bhiksha.
Normally, if somebody is a householder, and some sannyasi asks for something in charity, a cultured householder will want to give that charity. So, here Nityanand Prabhu is not claiming that I am God and you are God. He is not even saying that I am your devotee.
He is saying, mora bhiksha deha Prabhu. Please give this in charity to me. And in this way you save me.
So, Nityanand Prabhu, we see His mercy will come in multiple installments. And here, first the mercy was that He approached Jagai and Madai and invited them to chant the holy names. Then His mercy is coming in that He tolerated the pain which they were going through.
And on top of that, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is about to destroy them because of their grievous offense of hurting His dear devotee, then He is just simply praying in humility, give these two bodies in charity to me, O Lord. Please give me in charity. So, this is how merciful Lord Chaitanya is.
And Lord Nityananda is especially. And that's how the life and the heart of Jagai and Madai will get transformed. That will come in the future discussion, which if time permits, we will have another session later.
But at this stage, these prayers are so profound, these requests. We can pray that when our own sinful reactions are going to hit upon us, then the Vaishnavas, who are merciful, being Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's representatives, intervene on our behalf. And they ask for our body in charity.
By Lord Chaitanya's mercy, by Lord Nityananda's mercy, our soul will be delivered in due course. But the Lord is so merciful, His mercy is inclusive. And He wants us to be delivered, not just at the level of the soul, but even at the level of the body.
So, mora bhiksha deha Prabhu, ei dui sharira. So, that is for us, we can pray for Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, that He may transform us, not just at the spiritual level, which of course is important, but even at the physical level, in terms of that we be protected, so that we can serve Him more and more. That if there are bodily tribulations, if there are bodily reactions, yes, they will come, but sometimes they may distract us, or they may limit our service to Krishna.
So, the Lord's protection is all-inclusive protection. Here, we see that this prayer for their body, Lord Chaitanya sanctions that, and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asks Nityananda Prabhu to embrace both of them. When He embraces both of them, both of them become surcharged with love for the Lord.
And that love is their life's greatest fortune. So, Nityananda Prabhu's consciousness, His devotional ambitiousness, His devotional humility, His devotional sharp intelligence in pacifying the Lord and beseeching Him for mercy in the right way, on behalf of Jagannath Mata, that's so heart-touching. Such is the mercy of Lord Nityananda, and such is the Lord whom we have the opportunity to beseech His mercy today.
Let us pray to Nityananda Prabhu that He also transform our hearts, that just as He became spiritually ambitious to deliver Jagannath Mata, there are Jagannath Mata-like tendencies in our own hearts, and that He may become merciful and free us from those tendencies, and thus, we may all become elevated. Thank you very much. Shri Nityananda Prabhu ki jai! Shri Prabhupada ki jai! Shri Nityananda Prabhu avirbhau mahotsav ki jai! Shri Gauranga Mahaprabhu ki jai! Gaur Premananda! Hari Shri Bola!