CC daily 24 – M 87-90 – The essence of initiation is not the ritual but the commitment to serve

Chaitanya Charitambulam, Madhya Lila, verse 87, chapter 4, सकल ब्राह्मने पूरी वैश्णव करील सेही सेही सेवा मद्धे सबानी योजील So, Madhavendra Puri has installed the deity of Gopal.

Hundreds and thousands of people have come and had darshan and taken prasad. And now, Madhavendra Puri is making long-term plans for continuing the deity worship. सकल ब्राह्मने पूरी वैश्णव करील So, all these brahmanas, he made them into Vaishnavas, वैश्णव करील What does it mean? It means he gave them Vaishnava Diksha.

Brahmanas are themselves based on their general qualities. If we look at the qualities of a brahmana described in the Bhagavad Gita in the 18th chapter, 1842, it's stated that शमोदमस्तपशवचब् शान्तिरार्चमयमुच्य घ्यानम् विघ्यानमास्तेक्यम् So, it's not mentioned that they were specifically that brahmanas have to be bhaktas, and certainly it's not mentioned that they are bhaktas of Vishnu. आस्तिक्यम् means generic faith in Vedic scriptures.

So, there can be Shaivites also who are brahmanas. There can be different worshipers of different devatas who can be brahmanas. But, so, brahmana and Vaishnava are differentiated here, and it says ब्राह्मण वैश्णव करील These people were already brahmanas, they already had faith in Vishnu, and certainly they were living in Vrindavan.

So, they were Vaishnavas. But here, what is being mentioned, वैश्णव करील means that he gave them Vaishnava Diksha, by which they could start worshiping Lord Vishnu, and they could start performing deity worship specifically. Now, we wonder that, but haven't they already performed deity worship? Haven't they already participated in service of the deities? Yes, they have.

And as brahmanas, they certainly had the purity. So, there is no brahmana, there is no Diksha exam or something that is being done. But, the point is, for emergency, there is आपद्धर्म.

So, when suddenly the deity is manifested and the festival is to be held, so, for such a purpose, there can be temporary waiving of the rules. And whoever is available for service, that person is engaged in service. But, for steady worship, the standards have to be followed.

And initiation, whenever initiation is performed, along with that, the commitment to following standards and commitment to service comes in a formal way. So, the brahmanas were already practicing brahmanical culture. And Madhavendra Puri initiated them as Vaishnavas.

Now, it's not mentioned whether he performed a fire sacrifice, whether he gave them some specific mantras, whether he expected them to follow certain standards. All this was implicit, understood. We don't have to pin initiation down to a particular fire sacrifice or a particular form or set of rituals.

Initiation is essentially the transmission of divine knowledge and transmission of devotion from the spiritual master to disciple. So, it's called what we have, Brahman Diksha, which comes after Harinam Diksha. So, this is the one particular way in which Diksha is performed.

Traditionally, Harinam could be chanted by anyone and the real Diksha was the Brahman Diksha. So, here what is being done is brahmanas are being initiated. Vaishnava Karela essentially means that they were initiated so that they could regularly perform deity worship.

So, they are going to worship a deity of Vishnu. Of course, Krishna and Vishnu are non-different. So, that's the point made.

That is the next line. After worshipping the deity, what happens? After being initiated by Vaishnavas, what happens? Under different divisions, people were allocated to the worship of the deities. So, the purpose and principle of deity worship, of initiation, sorry, is engagement in service of the Lord.

So, for the formal, regular service of the Lord, the initiation of people in the devotional path was done over here. And thus the people were brought closer to Krishna. So that they could thus be the brahmanas.

They were in a formal connection, connected with Krishna so that they could continue the deity worship on a regular basis. So, now the Lord had been rested in the afternoon and the Lord was awakened in the evening. Puna means again, at the end of the day, Prabhu refers here to the Lord.

He was awakened. So, as compared to the magnificent bhoga that was offered to the Lord, now, nothing could compare to that. There are festivals and huge quantities and a variety of bhogas are offered.

So, as compared to that list, what was offered now was not so special. Although when devotion is there, everything that is offered is special. But the point is that now this was a routine form of service that was being performed.

Therefore, here, Krishnaskaran Goswami does not mention anything. Kichu bhoga. So, Jallapanakaraila.

So, Kichu bhoga, some food was offered and along with that, some water was offered. The point of stating this is that after the extraordinary festival, now the routine deity worship has started. So, Madhavendra Puri has instituted a system by which regularly the service of the Lord could be continued.

And in that way, the desire of Gopal that a temple be established for him and that he be served regularly has been fulfilled. Now, some people had come at the time of the festival, but the festival was held barely on a day's notice, not even a day's notice. So, even the people in that particular village did not have time to go to other villages to inform that, oh, there is a festival, come here.

They were all engaged in the worship. So, some people from the nearby, some people from the vicinity had come. But as the news spread that, oh, there is a Gopal deity has manifested over here.

Gopal Prakatahaila. So, it's not mentioned over here that a temple was built because in the sense of conventional architecture, there was no temple over there. But the heart of the temple, the essence is the presence of the Lord as the deity and the presence of the devotees who are serving the Lord.

So, that was already there. And from there, a temple would manifest gradually. So, what people heard was, it's not that they are going there to take darshan of the temple.

They are not going there sightseeing to see the architecture of the temple. What they heard is Gopal Prakatahaila. Oh, Gopal has manifested.

Deshe Shambdahaila. This word spread far and wide like wildfire. And then, Asha Pasha Gramera.

The people who were in the nearby villages, Loka Dekhitaila. They wanted to see, oh, just taking darshan of the Lord itself is auspicious. And especially when people are pious, devotionally minded, they want to take darshan of the Lord whenever there is the deity of the Lord in the temple.

But, all the more so, if the Lord has manifested in a miraculous way, then this, what is the magnificent form of the Lord? We want to see that. So, desiring this, the people came from nearby villages. And then, Now, when the people came there, they did not just want to have darshan, they wanted to render service to the Lord.

So, they heard out how, in that, from the village where Gopal had manifested, the people had performed Andakut over there. The people from that village had performed Andakut. Now, the people from other villages desired, oh, we also want to perform Andakut.

So, So, they all made a schedule. And they said, oh, from this village, we will perform Andakut on this day. And from this village, we will perform Andakut on the next day.

They asked for one-one day as an opportunity for service. And they performed Andakut for the Lord. And they became jubilant by the performance of Andakut, feeling delighted at having this opportunity to serve the Lord.

So, here, we see that the appearance, manifestation of the deity leads to arousal, activation to a high level of devotion, spirit in the people and their engagement in service. And thereby, the reciprocation of the Lord is that when we serve sincerely, the Lord manifests in our heart and Harashita, we become jubilant by the service of the Lord. So, when they saw this, oh, we are also able to do a festival for the Lord.

We have offered Andakut festival for the Lord. They became jubilant by that. So, the deity becomes a center of a vibrant community which delights in devotional offering and devotional reciprocation with the Lord.

And all this is manifested because, it's possible because Gopal has manifested out of the love of Madhavendra Puri.