Gaur Purnima class 2023 – What is Mahaprabhus mercy? How does it work?

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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Summary

Discover the profound philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s magnanimity, how His mercy bridges the gap between material desires and spiritual love, and its practical application in daily devotion.

Key Insights on Mahaprabhu’s Mercy

• The Ultimate Shelter for All: Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu serves as the destination for those who are hopeless or lost, while elevating those who already pursue material goals (like dharma, artha, kama, and moksha) to the highest platform of pure love for Krishna.
• Transforming What We Value: True mercy acts as an elevator for human consciousness, realigning our inner values from temporary material attachments to the supreme value of an eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord.
• Accessible Spiritual Stimuli: Mahaprabhu made the process of devotional practice—such as participatory congregational chanting (kirtan)—widely accessible, breaking down traditional barriers so everyone could experience intense spiritual joy.
• The Power of Spiritual Impact: While inner mystical experiences can vary, the true measure of divine mercy is its transformative impact: inspiring a lifelong dedication to serving Krishna and sharing His glory with others.
• Outreach as Inreach: Following the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada, engaging in active preaching and distributing spiritual literature like Sri Chaitanya-caritamrita connects us deeper to Krishna while fulfilling Mahaprabhu’s divine prophecy.

Full Transcription

Sadhguru chants Jaya Jaya Sri Chaitanya Jaya Nithyananda Jaya Dwaita Chandra Jaya Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Chaitanya Charita Amrit Adhila chapter 7 verse 1 Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Vaishnavese? Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agatya Ek Gatim Natva Heena Arthadhik Sadhakam Sri Chaitanyam Likhyate Yasya Prema Bhakti Vadanyata Agati Of the most fallen Eka The only one Gatim Destination Natva After offering obeisances Heena Inferior Artha Interest Adhika Greater than that Sadhakam Who can render Sri Chaitanyam Unto Lord Sri Chaitanya Likhyate Is being written Asya Of the Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Prema Love Bhakti Devotional service Vadanyata Magnanimity Translation in purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Let me first offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is the ultimate goal of life for one bereft of all possessions in this material world and is the only meaning for one advancing in spiritual life. Thus, let me write about His magnanimous contribution of devotional service in love of God. A person in the conditioned stage of material existence is in an atmosphere of helplessness.

But the conditioned soul under the illusion of maya or the external energy thinks that he is completely protected by his country, society, friendship and love not knowing that at the time of death none of these can save him. The laws of material nature are so strong that none of our material possessions can save us from the cruel hands of death. In the Bhagavad Gita 13.9 it is stated janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-doushana-darshanam One who is actually advancing must always consider the four principles of miserable life namely birth, death, old age and disease.

One cannot be saved from all these miseries unless he takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is therefore the only shelter for all conditioned souls. An intelligent person therefore does not put his faith in any material possessions but completely takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.

Such a person is called Akincana or one who does not possess anything in this material world. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is also known as Akincana Gochara for he can be achieved by a person who does not put his faith in material possessions. Therefore, for the fully surrendered soul who has no material possessions on which to depend, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the only shelter.

Everyone depends on dharma, religiosity, artha, economic development, kama, sense gratification and ultimately moksha, salvation. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu due to his magnanimous character can give more than salvation. Therefore, in this verse the words Hinarthadhikasadhakam indicate that although by material estimation salvation is of a quality superior to the inferior interests of religiosity, economic development and sense gratification.

Above salvation there is the position of devotional service and transcendental love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the bestower of this great benediction. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said Prema Pumartho Mahan Love of Godhead is the ultimate benediction for all human beings.

Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami the author of Sri Chaitanya Charita Amrit therefore first offers his respectful obeisances unto Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu before describing his magnanimity in bestowing love of Godhead. Om Jnanati Mirandasya Jnananjana Shalakaya Chakshurun Militam Yena Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha Namaah Om Vishnupadaya Krishna Prishtaya Bhutale Shreemate Bhaktivedanta Swami Itinamine Namaste Saraswati Deve Gauravani Pracharine Nirvishesha Shunyavadi Aschatya Deshatarine Vancha Kalpataru Bhyascha Krupasindhu Bhyevacha Patitanam Pavnebhyo Vaishnavebhyo Namo Namaha Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Shri Krishna Prabhu Nithyananda Shri Advaita Gadadhara Shri Vasadhi Kaurava Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna I am grateful to be here with all of you today and we are celebrating the auspicious appearance of Mahaprabhu the occasion is two days later but logistics sometimes come in the way of our celebrations logistics sometimes gives the opportunity to expand our celebrations so when the festival is on a weekday we get to celebrate on the weekend as well as a weekday so today I will speak on the concept of mercy and how Mahaprabhu manifests his mercy now this is the Chaitanya Charita Amrit which we are discussing and the Chaitanya Charita Amrit has a very interesting structure in how it glorifies Mahaprabhu so Chaitanya Charita Amrit actually in one sense the the first Leela the Adi Leela has a certain number of chapters here we have 19 chapters the actual Leela begins from the 13th chapter onwards and before that till this chapter the Tattva is described the various aspects of Tattva and then after that in the next few chapters the Vamsha the lineages are described who are the authorised followers of Mahaprabhu Nityananda Vamsha Advaita Vamsha like that so this chapter marks the transition from you could say philosophy to history before this philosophy is being described then the historical lineages will be described that’s how Krishna Das Kailas Goswami described his authority in writing Chaitanya Charita Amrit what gives him the authority to write and then from chapter 13 he will start the pastimes the appearance of Mahaprabhu and in this particular verse he is talking about Mahaprabhu in two different ways he is glorifying him Vadanyata, Vadanyata is the magnanimity, the generosity so that magnanimity he is talking about it two ways, first he says is that for those who have were bereft of material possessions for those who are bereft of material possessions Mahaprabhu is the shelter Agatya means those Gati, see Gati in Sanskrit means motion as well as destination, we have motion when we want to go towards some destination but sometimes life puts us in a situation where we just feel nothing is worthwhile why should I do anything at all so Agatya Gatim so for those who have lost all hope in life it’s not just hope in spiritual life, sometimes people lose hope in material life also, why I have a job, why I pursue a relationship why I even live at all so for those who have lost any sense of destination, he becomes their destination he is he is the destination for the destination less those who have no destination they may feel that there is no point to live and then they will be given that point by Mahaprabhu and for those who have a destination that those who have a destination, for them he reveals himself as the highest destination so highest destination for those pursuing various destinations and in the purport, Sri Prabhupada talks about the general broad destinations that people have in life that is Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, these are four broad categories of goals that people have so Dharma is sometimes translated as religion, but Dharma also means virtue there are many people who seek virtue in life they want to live virtuously I want to be kind, I want to be truthful I want to be helpful, there are people who are charitable, so there are some people who pursue this, there are some people who pursue Artha Artha can simply mean money but it can also mean prosperity so prosperity can mean various things now Kama can mean sensual gratification but Kama can also mean satisfaction of desires we all have various desires and when our desires are satisfied then we feel satisfied to some extent so this is satisfaction and then Moksha Moksha is liberation, as Prabhupada uses the word salvation now philosophically speaking, salvation the word is used more in the Christian sense and their idea is that we go to heaven and we stay there forever, but the idea is that we are freed from this world so salvation or liberation, whatever word you use different people may have these four goals in different ways so some people may just seek I want financial security, I want a stable family life, everybody wants these things but different people want these things to different degrees and when somebody doesn’t get one of these or two of these or three of these, they start thinking what is the point even of living so here he is talking about the inclusiveness of Mahaprabhu’s mercy, if you are hopeless, if you have nothing to live for, Mahaprabhu will become the purpose for living and if you have something to live for Mahaprabhu will reveal you how there is something bigger that you can live for in this way Mahaprabhu’s mercy can encompass everyone right from those who may be fallen, those who may be goalless to those who are elevated, those who are living a life of value, they can find a life of greater value the supreme value so in that sense mercy, well it can mean many things, sometimes we may say oh it’s mercy that I got the association of the senior devotee or it’s mercy that I got to go to Vrindavan it’s my mercy that I even came to, got the opportunity to practise bhakti well all these are true so mercy in it can have two different senses to it mercy at one level means the opportunity to get something more than what we deserve generally mercy is the idea that it is not proportional it’s not merited that it’s we, the opportunity to get something more than we deserve, that’s one aspect of mercy so whatever karma we may have done in the past we may not have much spiritual interest we may not have much spiritual credits but still we get the opportunity to connect with Krishna so opportunity to get more than what we deserve but mercy has another equally important aspect and that is the capacity to value something higher than what we would normally value something higher than what we normally value so this is actually the internal aspect of mercy so when we we all value some things in life an alcoholic for them the biggest value is bottle of alcohol they are ready to sacrifice anything just to get something to drink there was one anti-alcohol video I saw that how a person can become addicted that this person is watching TV with his family and on TV there is an ad the price of vodka has increased so the son is fearfully asking his father dad will you drink less now the father says no you will eat less now so it is more than one’s children sustenance one thing is feeding one’s own addiction that is of the greatest value so everybody has something that they value in one fascinating purport Prabhupada says that everybody has some god and when you say that god what it means whatever is the locus of highest value for a person that is their god so whatever is the thing that they value the most that is their idea of god they may not literally worship that some people even do that but for some people it may be alcohol for some people it may be money for some people it may be health for some people it may be their reputation different people have different things that they value and in one sense impurity any kind of impurity is basically a misalignment between what we value and what is of value any impurity what it does is what we value so a person who is greedy they value possessions over everything else they may value positions above their reputation they may value positions above their character above their virtues everything so this misalignment every impurity what it does is it creates a misalignment between what we value and what is of value and purification essentially means the realignment between what we value and what is of value so purification is a gradual incremental process where when we have attachments generally every attachment means that we irrationally value something far more than its actual value so that is the essence of attachment many things are of value in life but attachment means we value something far more than its actual value and detachment means the willingness to let go of that however bhakti is not just about detachment bhakti is about attachment to Krishna so there are many things of value in life and when we are pure that means that which is of the highest value we accord it the highest value so ultimately we are souls, we have an eternal relationship with Krishna and our relationship with Krishna is of the highest value so when we learn to value that relationship with Krishna the highest that is the state when we are pure in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says in the state of samadhi, in the state of liberated awareness, the yogi recognises that there is no gain greater than this so now this process of changing what we value it is a very gradual incremental and often laboriously painful process but when we get mercy that mercy can change what we value in a dramatic way generally suppose somebody has a bad habit and they want to give up a habit, they want to give up alcoholism they try, they can’t give it up so their intelligence may understand that this is just getting me into trouble, I want to give it up but their mind keeps this is important, how can I live without it everything else I am ready to give up for it so that change, when it happens when they give it up that means a sober life a responsible life, my job my family, my health, I value those more and therefore I give this up so generally changing what we value requires a lot of effort but when we get mercy then what happens is what we value can change dramatically so if we consider say the most valuable thing is there say it’s our relationship with Krishna and there are many things of value in life, so we could go from like this till V9, V10 so whatever we are valuing, for a child the toy may be the most valuable thing and the toy breaks like the end of the world for the child now we may laugh but actually for the child it’s a catastrophe so that’s what they are valuing, so to even take one step upwards two step upwards or just one step from the previous one to next each of these takes time so this is gradual purification whereas when we get mercy, we can just it’s like an elevator purification is gradually like one step, one step we take we go via staircase upwards but when we get mercy, what we presently value and what we actually value there might be a huge distance between that but suddenly this is what really matters so that is the mercy of Mahaprabhu that when his magnanimity is what that whatever it is that we may be valuing presently which essentially determines the level of our consciousness, the level of our life from there we can rise to the highest value by his mercy in terms of this perspective or this visual you can say what is Mahaprabhu, this particular verse talking about the mercy the first point it’s saying is that if say somebody is right over here at the bottom nothing is of value in life what is the point even of living so agatya gatimnatva right from here a person can be elevated to the place where they will realise that love for Krishna, living in a mood of service to Krishna, that is the highest value on the other hand, somebody may be already at an elevated level dharmarthakama, if somebody is pursuing virtue that’s a good thing if a person is pursuing responsible doing their job honourably, respectably then that is also a good thing if a person is taking care of their family proper, that’s also a good thing so, but a person may already be elevated but from wherever they are from there also, they already have a high goal in life, relatively speaking but from there they can get the highest goal and even if somebody has liberation as their goal, even that they will transcend so in the past time sarvabhutacharya, it is krishnadaskar he says that that Mahaprabhu liberated sarvabhauma from the clutches of liberation so in the bhakti tradition liberation is considered to be like a clutch, it is considered to be a trap because in liberation we may be free from distress but there is no experience of love, there is no experience of the remembrance of Krishna, service to Krishna and in that sense even that is considered to be a deprivation so he was liberated from liberation, that is the glorification of kaivalya nistharakau, in the sadgoswami ashtakam, this kaivalya is liberation, it is the highest destination of the yogis and the jnanis but nistharakau, they deliver people from liberation you deliver people from material existence why deliver somebody from liberation because even liberation is something which deprives the soul of the highest experience the soul is capable of and that is love for Krishna so this is the essence of mercy, that what we value presently and what is of actual value, that huge distance that might be there that is bridged by mercy now when we get association of devotees, when we get to go to a holy place, when we get the opportunity to practise bhakti, that is mercy in the sense that we get glimpses of what is of higher value for people who have never encountered anyone spiritually minded, anyone who is a saint or a monk or somebody who renounced the world for them, they have no idea that there is something of higher value beyond this world they have heard vaguely these people are just foolish people, maybe they are failures in life, they are escapists they just run away from the world but actually they meet with a saintly person and they realise hey, this person has something of this person is so satisfied so enriched when Srila Prabhupada met Ambarish Prabhu for the first time Alfred Ford is a great grandson of Henry Ford the devotees in themselves Ambarish Prabhu is a very humble and sweet devotee the devotees were in awe, they were introducing Prabhupada, Prabhupada is a great grandson of Henry Ford and Prabhupada met him and Prabhupada was graceful but Prabhupada was also grave, Prabhupada said so, you are the great grandson of Henry Ford he said, yes Prabhupada where is he now, now so Ambarish Prabhu said that when I heard this what Prabhupada meant was that he accumulated all that wealth but that wealth is left behind, he has gone somewhere else, where is he now what did he carry with him he says Prabhupada is a real saint real saint Prabhupada is not here to flatter me to get some donation from me Prabhupada is here to actually enlighten me so what is of highest value, that when we associate with saintly people we are reminded of that so if what we value does not change by association with devotees by the practise of bhakti then our association of devotees or even our practise of bhakti is actually very superficial somebody may come to a temple one of my relatives they came to the Juhu temple when I had just joined as a brahmachari they had come to try to persuade me to not be a brahmachari and then I was staying in one of the guest rooms at that time and then they tried to talk with me they didn’t listen and then after a couple of days they called me and they said you know actually I thought they will be angry because if you come to persuade someone that person doesn’t listen to you you may get angry with that person actually our visit to the temple was very productive I said really he said we had just moved to a new house and we are thinking what kind of furniture to get so we saw the furniture in the guest house we were staying we decided to get that kind of furniture so it’s unfortunate that they don’t know anything about Krishna but at one level that if we come to Krishna and we continue to keep valuing the things that we value then also it’s good because we are connecting with Krishna and gradual purification will occur but that is that may take many lifetimes if you see what is the difference in 7th chapter Krishna talks about various kinds of people who approach him and then there are four kinds of people Krishna says who approach him in Kaliyuga there are four kinds of people who approach him, those who are distressed those who are distressed, those who are distressed and those who are distressed so people come but what is the difference between the four categories mentioned in 716 and 719 Krishna calls them Mahatma he says Vasudeva Sarvamithi the difference between those who come initially to Krishna and those who are considered Mahatmas is that for them Krishna becomes the highest value Vasudeva Sarvamithi now how does this change occur so the first part I talked about is mercy what is mercy it’s a change in what we value then how does this change occur and how does Mahaprabhu provide this change or he stimulate or accelerate this change so generally this change occurs through broadly two things there is intelligence there is intelligence and then there is experience we can use our intelligence to understand what is of value but experiences where we ourselves either experience somebody using great joy or we ourselves experience some great joy, great peace, great fulfilment and that is what completely realigns our inner world so intelligence is more through the path of philosophy we use our analysis we study philosophy Mahaprabhu also says that or Chaitanya Chaitanya says that hearing is very important, hearing like the food for the soul just as we have food for the body and experience comes by the practise of bhakti now philosophy is also part of bhakti but here specifically bhakti pareshaanubhava viraktiranyatra cha when we practise bhakti then we get experience of Krishna and pareshaanubhava somebody may come to the temple but when they come to the temple they may just see these are decorated dolls they don’t experience Krishna but if there is bhakti in the heart they say oh this is the almighty lord, this is this is the ultimate benedictor and protector of my life this is the person who is the ultimate purpose of my life so that bhakti gives us experience of Krishna so with our intelligence we understand there is something of higher value but through the practise of bhakti we experience something of higher value and that keeps drawing us forward that keeps drawing us upward and now this process of using our intelligence and seeking higher experience, this is a time honoured process but what maha prabhu does is maha prabhu by his mercy gives very advanced spiritual experiences to even people who are not very qualified generally the spiritual experiences they come rarely so when you talk about spiritual experiences it is across the, across history and geography there are different religious traditions, different theistic traditions, different wisdom traditions they talk about people experiencing something higher but this spiritual experience it’s almost like a black box now what is inside it is like a mystery in some traditions, in the Sufis they have the darvishes, people just keep whirling round and round and round and round and round they never get exhausted what kind of energy do they have in the Christian tradition sometimes people have they have the passion of the Christ, the word passion has different meaning for them passion is that when they meditate on Jesus sacrifice, when he was crucified, the similar bodily marks come on their body so in the Hindu tradition there are sometimes people who seem to get possessed by gods and goddesses and then they start dancing wildly and they start doing various kinds of things and at that time sometimes some people just start speaking in a different tongue start speaking in a different tone so there are experiences of the paranormal or something beyond the normal and these are often called as spiritual experiences now they may or may not be but the idea is people sometimes experience something different from the normal and now that is fine if somebody experiences something one time one devotee came to Prabhupada and he said, Prabhupada Krishna came in my dream yesterday and he was very excited he was not a devotee actually, he was a life member he was a person he said, Prabhupada, Krishna came in my dream yesterday and he was so excited Prabhupada was completely nonchalant alright, serve him today so Prabhupada focused not on the content of the experience but the impact of the experience anybody can claim Krishna came in my dream, anybody can claim that oh when I came to the temple Krishna winked at me from the altar can Krishna come in someone’s dream, can Krishna wink at someone who can stop Krishna from doing anything but who can stop anyone from claiming that Krishna has done those things so the content is something which is like a mystery what is real what is not real that is very difficult to know but there are two things what we can know is the impact if somebody has actually experienced Krishna what will happen is that they will start valuing Krishna much more than anything else that they will be pursuing Krishna wholeheartedly so we don’t know what the content of spiritual experience is but we don’t know what the impact is and if there is the impact, Prabhupada sometimes some devotees say that Mahaprabhu would go into ecstasy so much but Prabhupada didn’t seem to go so much into ecstasy Prabhupada said that preaching was ecstasy and ecstasy is not just about how we experience joy ecstasy is about how we give Krishna joy and when we give Krishna joy naturally we also experience joy so for Prabhupada as a missionary his focus was giving Krishna joy by getting souls to come who are lost to come towards Krishna and in that Prabhupada experienced ecstasy the impact was at an advanced stage Prabhupada had more energy than his disciples who were of an age of his grandchildren, not just his children so that extraordinary energy, that extraordinary dedication was the indication that Prabhupada had some extraordinarily higher experiences so the impact is what is manifested in terms of a person’s life and then before that is the stimuli now we don’t know what the internal of a spiritual experience is but we know we can say what are the external sources by which spiritual experiences can come so we come and behold the lord we hear his pastime, we participate in his kirtans, we do his seva by all these we are showing Krishna that Krishna I value you, you are important for me, your service is important for me, my mind may say do this, do that, do that but this is what is important for me and when we focus on that, when we in a systematic disciplined way focus on devotional stimuli, that itself is an indication that we have started valuing Krishna because why would somebody in a disciplined way keep practising bhakti either they are at least if they are not experiencing something directly at least at the level of intelligence they have started appreciating its value and then as long as we are exposing ourselves to devotional stimuli regularly, the experiences, the inner transformative experiences will come and then the impact will manifest, the impact will manifest not just in ecstasy that breaks the normal routine of life it can also manifest in increased dedication to the service of Krishna so what does in terms of this we are again talking about Mahaprabhu’s mercy, see Mahaprabhu made the stimuli that gives spiritual experience very richly available, bhakti was already widely prevalent when Mahaprabhu was there in India and bhakti is a part of the Vedic literature but what Mahaprabhu did was he made bhakti much much more accessible much much more easily available even if you see in the traditional Sri Vaishnava or Madhava Vaishnava traditions kirtan is a performance that accompanies aarti, if you go in the south Indian temples you will see that there is a pujari doing aarti and there are some people who are singing along with it and everybody folds hands and watches so kirtan was a performance to be beheld, just like when the person pujari on the altar is doing aarti, it’s not that everybody else also starts doing aarti no, everybody else watches so just as aarti is a performance to be beheld, similarly kirtan was also a performance to be beheld but it is Mahaprabhu primarily who said kirtan is not just a performance to be watched, it is to be participated in that’s why there is responsive kirtans and not just responsive kirtans, dancing kirtans bhakti was very much widely there, there are some saints who would dance in ecstasy but it was rare but Mahaprabhu said let everybody get access to the processes by which bhakti can be experienced in an intense and ecstatic way so Mahaprabhu also travelled all over India and he broke down the various castes and other barriers that were there and invited everyone to practise bhakti so he made the stimuli very widely available actually Prabhupada took it even further and he made those stimuli available to everyone, practically in every part of the world we have had devotees even going to Antarctica and distributing books over there and now there are not many people in Antarctica to receive books but at least in principle Prabhupada’s mercy has gone to every continent on the planet now Mahaprabhu’s mercy, the sources the stimuli that will lead to spiritual ecstasy they being distributed widely that itself is fortune and that itself is mercy but Mahaprabhu does something more than that, he not only gives the stimuli but Krishna’s three things his rupa his bhava and his karunya his form was majestically beautiful like a golden mountain he was just irresistibly attractive to look at rupa and then there was his bhava he himself was filled with so much ecstasy and then on top of it is karunya, so not just his ecstasy was in relationship with the lord Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that love for god when it is directed towards the lord it is manifested as absorption that when we are beholding the lord we forget everything else but love for god when it is manifested towards others it is manifested as compassion it is not that when we have to deal with others we are lost in the lord, no we are attentive to help others come closer to Krishna so his bhava was his absorption in the lord, when he forgot everything else, but his karunya was when he would travel across the country anyone he would say na dekhi patra patra just embrace everyone and you just infuse them with experiences of love for Krishna and this way not only the stimuli but Mahaprabhu would accelerate the process by which they would get experiences and they would get the impact, they would get completely transformed just forget everything else devote their life to love for the lord so Mahaprabhu’s mercy comes in both things that we get the opportunity for spiritual stimuli and by which we realise there is something of higher value and Mahaprabhu’s mercy also comes in the form that in our capacity to actually start valuing the things that are of higher value and this is this is these two have a relationship with each other I will conclude with this point and I will talk about one pastime which illustrates this point which I am making in the last that Mahaprabhu if we say his life had two distinct phases, in the first phase of his life he was constantly travelling first phase of his life as a devotee, Mahaprabhu started manifesting his bhakti from the age of 20 and then he was constantly inviting others to participate in kirtan and travelled across India, North India, South India that was his, in one sense his preaching phase he was doing outreach and then there was the outreach and we could say then there was the inreach in the last years of his life, the last 18 years, Mahaprabhu was going deep into his relationship with Krishna and he was experiencing and demonstrating the ultimate symptoms of ecstasy there are some transformations of the body like like say the signs of the crucifixion something appearing on people’s bodies, there are transformations of spiritual ecstasy talked about in various religious traditions, but the kind of transformation that Mahaprabhu would manifest, sometimes in ecstasy it appeared as if his arms had become so long that they had almost the bones had become disconnected and they were being held together only by the skin now the Gaudiya commentators explained that why would this kind of transformation happen and Mahaprabhu would feel separation from Krishna at that time he would long for Krishna and then spread his arms wide and as far as the could go, now depending, his already very long arms were there but still he would feel Krishna is so far away and stretching out for Krishna what would happen is his arms would become so long that it appears as if they were disconnected from his body so his limbs would become even longer and longer and sometimes his limbs would shrink into his body and that was when he would experience the presence of Krishna at that time he wanted to be so immersed in the experience of Krishna that all the senses would feel just like distractions so if we want to hear something and then we touch some, we put our hand on the ground, it’s too cold then we move somewhere, it’s too hot this is annoying, I don’t want to touch anywhere, just want to focus on hearing so sometimes if our senses are giving us some sensations that are distracting us from what we focus on we just don’t want anything to do with the senses so like if we are tasting something delicious and somebody wants to talk with us, later, I want to eat right now, just taste something delicious and sometimes it’s very delicious we want to close our eyes I don’t want to see anything, just feel the taste of this so like that for Mahaprabhu when he would feel the proximity and the presence of Krishna he would be in such ecstasy that I don’t want to experience anything else and that’s how all his limbs would withdraw into his body that no limb should be out causing any distraction so like this the transformation that Mahaprabhu would exhibit are extraordinary and by that also when he was experiencing it himself he was also demonstrating this to others demonstrating this to others he was giving them also a spiritual experience spiritual experiences can come when we ourselves experience Krishna but it can also come when we behold someone else experiencing Krishna and being extraordinarily transformed so Mahaprabhu in the later part of his life it might seem that he was not doing any outreach, but he was one form of outreach is to help people understand give up your dharma, give up your adharma just practise bhakti but here it says prema bhakti vadanyata in this particular verse that we discussed that vadanyata at one level to give bhakti give the opportunity for practising bhakti itself out of his generosity but beyond that to demonstrate prema, to demonstrate the ecstasy of love of God that is even greater mercy and this mercy, this multiple levels and layers of mercy Mahaprabhu demonstrated in the Ratha Yatra pastime so this is a very profound pastime and I will try to describe this briefly to demonstrate how Mahaprabhu was Mahaprabhu transformed his Ratha Yatra festival into a festival of the highest devotional ecstasy that was accessible and relishable for everyone traditionally in the Ratha Yatra festival there were three elements there was Lord Jagannath on his Ratha then around him we could say there are the devotees and then there are the common pious people who also come in thousands the pious people now in one sense there are three levels of interaction happening between the devotees and the Lord the devotees are beholding the Lord relishing the Lord’s beauty they are in the internal mood of the pastime which I will come to shortly then there is also the reciprocation between the people in general and the Lord and there is the reciprocation between the devotees and the people the devotees are absorbed in Krishna in ecstasy and what would happen is people would see that hey there is something special something extraordinary the Ratha Yatra festival was happening for a very long time and this reciprocation between the Lord and the devotees between the common people and the Lord and the common people and the devotees this was always happening in fact in any any devotional festival these three reciprocations are there say we have Janmashtami or we have Ram Navami people come to behold the Lord but what makes the festival special is they behold devotees who are devoted to the Lord who are in ecstasy hey that is something special to see that but when Mahaprabhu came what happened was something much much bigger so we have let’s put we have we have Lord Jagannath let’s put Lord Jagannath over here Lord Jagannath is Krishna and then we have Mahaprabhu now then we have devotees and then we have people in general so now there are multiple levels of divine reciprocation happening now we could say Mahaprabhu at one level is in the role of a devotee so Mahaprabhu as devotee is reciprocating with Lord Jagannath but there is much, Mahaprabhu is not just devotee actually Jagannath Jagannath is Krishna separated from Radharani Krishna, we know the story of how the form of Jagannath manifested that when Krishna first time it manifested that when Krishna was when the Dwarka wanted to hear about Krishna Leela and they asked Rohin to speak about it and Krishna was secretly hearing and Krishna became so absorbed eyes opened wide and his limbs shrunken and then he manifested Jagannath so Jagannath is Krishna remembering Rajivasis and Rajivasis ultimately is the topmost Rajivasis is Radharani so it’s Krishna remembering Radharani and separated from Radharani and Mahaprabhu is Radharani separated from Krishna, Mahaprabhu is of course Krishna but Krishna in the mood of Radharani and Radharani longing for Krishna that oh lord now you are the lord of the fallen people, you are the lord of your devotees but you have left us all and have gone to Mathura, you have become the Mathuranath, what am I going to do how am I going to live so Mahaprabhu is Radharani in the mood of separation from Krishna so actually in Rath Yatra it was not just devotees beholding the lord and rejoicing with the lord, it was actually the union of Radha and Krishna that is happening, so when Mahaprabhu was dancing and sometimes Jagannath’s cart would stop because Jagannath wanted to behold, Jagannath is Krishna wanting to behold Radharani and so this is the ultimate culmination of Rasa Leela that happened, Rasa Leela there is the whole pastime where they come together talk, then Krishna disappears then they come again together, they dance it’s extraordinary pastime, the culmination of that is the union of Radha and Krishna that’s what’s happening in the Jagannath festival also now while Mahaprabhu is is in the mood of Radharani, for Jagannath, for devotees Mahaprabhu is their lord so here between devotees and Mahaprabhu there is another reciprocation for him it is Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says there were two divines over there, there was the moving lord and the non-moving lord, non-moving means there was Jagannath who was not manifestedly moving and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was moving so for them now the earlier interactions I said they were always there these interactions there but this was the devotees were beholding Mahaprabhu and when they are beholding Mahaprabhu Mahaprabhu would frequently go into ecstasy but the kind of ecstasy would be there in the Jagannath Yatra would be unparalleled and they would be thrilled they would be amazed and generally Mahaprabhu’s ecstasies were exhibited in private, either at night when he was all alone with Sarod Damodar or Shankar Pandit or somebody like that he would exhibit his ecstasies but at the time of Rath Yatra, his ecstasies were exhibited for everyone to see so because of that even ordinary people got the exhibition of got the demonstration, got the darshan of Mahaprabhu in that mood of ecstasy so Mahaprabhu in one sense, the devotees who were already dedicated to the practise of Bhakti, he was giving them the experience of Prema the highest ecstasy and for those who were just pious he was showing them the ecstasy of love of God and increasing their faith he was elevating them higher and of course the other interaction with people and devotees were also there but in this way Mahaprabhu was both experiencing Krishna he was savouring Krishna and he was sharing Krishna, he was sharing Krishna with the devotees, he was sharing Krishna with the pious people in general and in this way he was elevating everyone I could speak much more about this past time but the point is that there are multiple levels of loving reciprocation that were happening and it was not that Mahaprabhu was just in his own world not caring for everyone else. At that time during Mahaprabhu’s time, historians of Bengal and of Indian religion say that the Rath Yatra festival attained heights like never before during Mahaprabhu’s time during those 17-18 years when Mahaprabhu was there, that time the Rath Yatra, thousands and thousands and millions and millions of people would come and they would behold Mahaprabhu and they would become spiritually inspired by that and that same ecstasy initially Prabhupada in the Antarila of Jyotindra when he speaks about when Mahaprabhu is experiencing ecstasy and he is talking about the mode of separation from Radharani, of Radharani’s separation from Krishna, longing for Krishna and Prabhupada writes in the Purports that the way to enter Radhakrishna’s pastimes is by spreading Krishna Consciousness all over the world.

Now some people say this is this is Rasa, what is going on? Here there are intimate parts of Radha and Krishna and we are supposed to go and tell people you are not the body or the soul you know where is the Rasa over here? Actually the Rasa is in pleasing Krishna It is not that Mahaprabhu was experiencing ecstasy because he was with Krishna Yes, it was with Krishna but Mahaprabhu was experiencing ecstasy because he was pleasing Krishna and Prabhupada took that responsibility Somebody may say I have faith in Mahaprabhu He is Krishna, yeah that’s wonderful but if he is Krishna then his prophecy is going to come true and a devotee may say yeah his God, his prophecy is going to come true Prabhupada says Krishna did not tell Arjuna Krishna you told me you are God so now you only win this war I will just sit and relax Arjuna said I will do your will So like that Prabhupada, he knew Mahaprabhu is God Prabhupada took the responsibility of sharing of sharing Mahaprabhu’s legacy of fulfilling Mahaprabhu’s desire that my name will be chanted in every town and village in the world When Mahaprabhu came to Varanasi he said I brought so many fruits of love of God but there is nobody to take them but nobody is buying them so I will give them free but I have so many fruits that I cannot even give them free so please assist me in giving these fruits of love of God that is vadhanita Prabhupada took that responsibility of distributing the fruits of love of God and for us we may or may not experience ecstasy when we take darshan or when we do puja and yes we will also experience ecstasy at times and those times will also increase as we keep practising bhakti but for us if we try to share Krishna bhakti with others then there in we will see wonderful things happening, wonderful things happening in how people become transformed by their contact with Krishna, wonderful things happening in our own hearts how we feel inspired, how we become enriched and that is also an experience of Krishna, so from where we are we want to rise higher and Prabhupada is saying that the way we rise higher is by learning to value Krishna enough to want to share Krishna with others and when we do that we will reach out not only outward to people and give them Krishna but we also reach inward to Krishna and connect more and more with him this is the mercy of Mahaprabhu which Prabhupada has given and which we all can ourselves relish and we can also distribute to others, so I will summarise I spoke broadly three main points today the first point I spoke was about mercy as elevating our values, our understanding of what is of value so we all value certain things in life and Mahaprabhu described that those who have no goal he becomes their goal those who already have goals he becomes their highest goal so this change in our values, it takes time slowly rising our value every impurity means it misaligns what we value with what is of actual value and purification means realignment happens, so this is incremental process like climbing up a stair case but by Mahaprabhu’s mercy it can elevate rapidly what we value can change and align with what is of value and the second part I discussed was about spiritual experiences so spiritual experiences basically this change of values, it can happen either through intelligence where we philosophically understand and through experiencing Krishna through the practise of bhakti now with respect to spiritual experiences that what actually happens within, it’s unknown nobody else can know and people can claim what they want but what we can look at is the impact the impact should be that a person who has had a spiritual experience should be valuing Krishna more than anything else and the way we can see that experience is by valuing the stimuli and exposing ourselves to the stimuli in a disciplined regular way now Mahaprabhu’s first level of mercy is that gives us access to the stimuli itself Mahaprabhu transformed kirtan from a performance to a participation Prabhupada gave the opportunity for kirtan to everyone all over the world so access to the stimuli itself if you consider the spiritual experience there are the stimuli and there is the impact and by Mahaprabhu’s mercy the impact also becomes faster, that happens by his rupa his bhava and his karunya, by his beauty, by his ecstasy and by his magnanimity and the last part we discussed is that how this reciprocation of love between the lord and the devotees that can happen in many many different ways in different places so in the rathyatra there was Mahaprabhu reciprocating with the lord, Mahaprabhu reciprocating with devotees and Mahaprabhu also reciprocating with the people in general apart from the devotees reciprocating with the lord, people reciprocating with the lord and devotees reciprocating with the people so for us the way we connect with the lord more deeply we of course practise bhakti and connect with Krishna deeply but when we try to connect others with Krishna when we try to share Mahaprabhu’s mercy that Ashila Prabhupada did so tirelessly and so fearlessly even in his old age then the more we try to do outreach, the more Krishna himself will do in reach, Krishna will reach out to us and then we will experience the transformation by which what we value will start aligning with what is of ultimate value and that is the mercy of Shri Jaitanya Mahaprabhu thank you very much Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments yes we have mic Hare Krishna, thank you so much for the class Prabhuji I was wondering if you could explain how offences block our ability to see what is of highest value ok, how do offences block our capacity to see what is of highest value see in general an offence itself is an indication in general offence itself is an indication that we are devaluing something of value that means, see that generally if we are ignorant then it is said that we are not offensive that’s why there is there is naam aparad the offence to the holy name occurs when somebody knows the glory of the holy name and neglects it but if we don’t know about the glory of the holy name and then we chant it in a in a disrespectful way that is not considered an offence so generally when we know something is of value and we devalue it in spite of that knowledge that is when it is an offence and then Krishna says despite knowing you don’t value it then I will take away your appreciation of its value that’s why what happens is when Krishna takes away the appreciation of its value the intelligence can be lost or just the taste can be lost and when that happens then it is almost like a free fall that we just fall from wherever whatever elevated state we might have been before to wherever our conditionings would have kept us in the past so basically our sense of valuation if we devalue something of value then Krishna will take away that sense of sense of value itself for us, that appreciation of its value both in terms of our intelligence and our taste and that’s how there are offences in that sense quite dangerous thank you any other questions yes please yesterday in buddhabala’s post class he actually also mentioned value and he said that value is synonymous to faith can you comment on this and how he is relating to what you are speaking here value is synonymous to faith yes we could say that faith is basically our value system shraddha mayoyam purusho yaya shraddha sa evasa that Krishna says that we are all made of our faith shraddha mayoyam purusho what constitutes what defines a person is their faith the soul is filled with joy that is true shraddha mayoyam purusho that we are actually made of faith what that means is that our faith determines the choices that we will make our faith determines the kind of goals we will pursue it’s just if I have faith that if I have faith in money then to earn money I will go to any extreme if I have faith in some people say in the communist rule people had great faith in the government that the government had become the substitute for god for people so for the sake of the government people were even ready to betray their family members it is said that every third person was like a soviet spy so you speak one thing against the government somebody in your family might be an informer so that means their faith in the government was greater than their faith in the family so basically faith is very much associated with our values now in one sense now when we talk about values there could be like rational values rational means rationally I understand this is important but faith is almost like a non-rational but a trans-rational value system I don’t need any reason to consider this to be important there are some things which we will never do even if somebody gives you a rational explanation that’s alright why don’t you do it you know there is there is increasing propaganda now in Europe that people should start eating insects like now there are it’s actually they say insects are very eco-friendly well it’s definitely not friendly for the insects themselves they are going to die but bread and pasta and all this is made using ground insects now there is most people they revolted I like the idea I can’t eat insects but what there is a paper published in a prominent scientific journal how to persuade people to start eating insects now we may say that ok there is some eco-friendly value this that there are so many proteins in this proteins in that so many Prabhupada said even human refuse as nutrition but that doesn’t mean you are going to eat human refuse isn’t it there are certain things we don’t need a reason to say no to no I am not going to do it so that is not irrational some things could be irrational but there is something we all have certain boundaries we will not violate that is so faith is about that valuation which is trans-rational so it’s I value certain things even if I can’t with reason explain why this is so important for me so faith is like trans-national values does it answer your question Hare Krishna Thank you very much Chaitanya Prabhu for this wonderful class I would like to share my experience here in this wonderful movement ISKCON movement I found something which is I might say that is more merciful than the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is mercy of devotees and I can say that sometimes I come to this temple room and I see lots of people standing while their kirtan is going and they are not joining them even here in the temple but when we have a chance to serve a devotee we receive this mercy from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Prabhupada it’s amazing that’s what I would like to say that mercy of serving for those who experience this mercy from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu even more merciful who is making this impact in this world so thank you definitely so that Mahaprabhu spread Krishna consciousness in Bengal and Orissa and South India Prabhupada spread all over the world I thought that Prabhupada is greater than Mahaprabhu but by Mahaprabhu’s mercy he wants his devotees to be glorified so yes, Krishna’s mercy Mahaprabhu’s mercy often becomes more accessible through his devotees thank you yes please Hare Krishna Prabhuji thank you very much for the enlightening talk is it, I would like to ask you whether to see others good qualities and to focus on one’s own bad qualities is recommended to invoke to be recipient for the mercy of the lord ok, is it recommended to focus on others good qualities and our bad qualities to receive mercy well, it depends the principle is Amanina Amanadena that we should respect others and respecting others means looking at their good qualities and Amani means not that we start disrespecting ourselves it’s that we don’t, we are not constantly craving for respect so now we all have everybody has some good qualities, some bad qualities and that includes we and others so generally looking at others good qualities is very good and that will help us to respect them now with respect to ourselves it depends on our state of mind generally we think that we often think that the opposite of opposite of humility is ego so if I want to avoid ego then I will ego means to think how great I am and I want to be humble so I will avoid ego, but actually I think of this as two things the opposite of ego is not humility, it is insecurity it is inferiority and these two, ego is to think I am far bigger than I am what I actually am and insecurity is I am far smaller than what I am ego means to think I am everything I can do everything insecurity means I am nothing, I can do nothing but in between these two the balance of the pendulum is humility that I am something I am a part of Krishna and I can do something I can play my part in Krishna’s plan so when we dwell on our bad qualities if we are in this direction of our inner self-conception is going towards the ego side, then to bring it here contemplate our negatives contemplate our bad qualities our deficiencies people may think I am so great but I can’t do this, I can’t control my senses, I can’t do this, I can’t do that that will keep us humble but if we are going towards insecurity, we are feeling worthless, we are feeling hopeless we are becoming so disheartened that we just don’t feel like practising bhakti, feel like doing anything in life then if we are going in this direction we have to contemplate our good qualities not in the sense of being self congratulatory but in the sense that Krishna values me, Krishna has given me some gifts also and I can use them in Krishna’s service and Prabhupada also in his different letters exhibits different things, one time one devotee wrote to Prabhupada, Prabhupada I want to assist you in saving fallen souls all over the world and Prabhupada wrote back, first one should save oneself don’t think that I am going to save the whole world so if somebody is having too high self conception bring it down little bit, first save yourself another devotee wrote a letter, Prabhupada I am such a fallen soul, what can I do in your glorious mission and Prabhupada wrote back, I need many fallen souls like you to save the whole world so Prabhupada is appreciating appreciating that devotee so it depends on our state of mind, see it’s like sometimes it’s good to look at ourselves, the way we would look at somebody we care for look at ourselves from a third person perspective so if somebody has come to us and they are just putting on air, they are bloated they are egoistic, then it may be our duty as their guide, as their friends to bring them a notch down but if they are already discouraged then that is not the time we have to teach them humility, it’s the time we have to give them encouragement, we have to boost their morale so it depends sometimes our limitations, our deficiencies, our bad qualities, contemplating them can be helpful, but the point is not so much whether I am contemplating my good qualities or contemplating my bad qualities, the key point is whether I am contemplating Krishna and my service to Krishna and for my service to Krishna sometimes remembering my good qualities can be helpful and sometimes remembering my limitations can be helpful so if we focus on Krishna then focus on service to Krishna then we can have a healthy, appropriate relationship with ourselves ok Ramji, is it ok to ask one more question ok, thank you so much you kindly said offences block mercy, please forgive me for asking second question, so if offences block mercy how can we nullify, sins can be nullified by devotional services but how can we nullify offences see ultimately Krishna doesn’t want to keep us away from him Krishna wants to wants us to give up the things that keep us away from him so if offence is essentially devaluing something of value then the way to correct offence is to start revaluing it that’s why if I have offended a devotee we go and seek forgiveness from that devotee so what, it’s not just an external act of forgiveness that is important what is that, I devalued you I am sorry, I am not going to devalue you I value you enough and that’s why I am seeking forgiveness from you, so if Krishna sees that we have started valuing what is of value at least according to our level of realisation then Krishna won’t keep us against, hold our past offences against him so generally it begins with seeking forgiveness from whichever manifestation of Krishna that we have devalued, if it’s a devotee we seek forgiveness from the devotees but we shouldn’t worry too much about offences it’s like one devotee I had gone to one place and he said that he used to come for classes and he used to sit right in front and he would hear the class and I was there for 3-4 days 6-7 classes, he didn’t come for a single class then I messaged him I cannot come for any class but I can come and meet you if you want I said ok sure please come he said what happened, why are you not coming for any class you lost interest in bhakti or what happened he said no no, bhakti is very important he said then what happened he said I came, yes before you came there was some devotee who gave a class on how dangerous Vaishnava Uparadhis so I thought that in order to avoid Vaishnava Uparadh I will stop going in the association of Vaishnavas only then I will never commit any offence no that is I told you, that’s like suppose somebody hears some talk about how dangerous food poisoning is and their solution is I will stop eating food only that’s not the solution we have to be careful of the food we eat not that we stop eating food so sometimes what happens is if one point is emphasised too much don’t commit offences, don’t commit offences they are so dangerous so we might make that avoiding offence the most important thing in our spiritual life now our most important thing in spiritual life is connecting with Krishna, serving Krishna and for that association of devotees is important so Krishna is not going to hold some incidental offences against us, the real serious offences are where we knowingly intentionally devalue a devotee if if somebody is, you know sometimes we displease someone, we hurt someone incidentally, circumstantially because of our limitations, that’s ok but knowingly we malign someone we try to pull someone down we try to spread rumours about someone that is where there is a serious offences thank you last question Hare Krishna Guru, thanks so much for the great class I was just wondering about something so you were mentioning about how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he was displaying ecstatic symptoms sometimes he was longing out reaching out for Krishna and sometimes he was experiencing Krishna within himself so I was just wondering a lot of times we hear, like we have that mood of longing out for Krishna wanting to connect with Krishna outside and we see that a lot of times in our in the Acharyas as well but we don’t really put much emphasis on experiencing Krishna within ourselves seated right within us so I was wondering if that’s something we can also meditate on also maybe in our job or something like that yeah, what’s your thoughts on that? so experiencing Krishna within us we don’t emphasise that too much yeah, sometimes it’s more like a longing and reaching out to reach out to Krishna rather than experiencing Krishna right within us it’s not necessarily reaching out is only in a physical sense sometimes people say that heaven is up but people all over the earth say heaven is up in India people say heaven is up in America people say heaven is up if you look at the earth is circular so heaven is up, heaven is up, where is up? isn’t it? so that up is not a geographical up it’s more of a consciousness wise up so the spiritual world exists at a higher level not just of a higher level of physical reality but a higher level of consciousness so we are talking about reaching out to Krishna it is not just outward it can also be inward inward Krishna is there close to us but still we are not perceiving him so he is far away from us so actually it is Krishna’s external manifestations that remind us of Krishna that reconnect us with Krishna and the more we expose ourselves to Krishna’s external manifestations the more we start becoming aware of his presence inside us also now broadly there are three ways in which we connect with Krishna or traditionally if it is not Krishna people have sought God in three broad ways one is the religious ways where people focus on worship and practises by which they focus on the external manifestations of the Lord then there is the psychological or internal meditational way where people focus on meditation and they try to turn inwards and there is the cosmic or the natural way where people go close to nature focus on the universe and then that is the universal form of God universal form is second kind of Bhagavatam so all three are ways which are included in the Bhagavatam now we primarily approach Krishna through the bhakti way but we can see Krishna in nature also when Prabhupada would go on morning walks he would talk about seeing Krishna there so if we personally are inclined to focus on Krishna in our hearts not at the expense of our normal bhakti practises which connect with Krishna externally but some people may be more introspective and they can focus on that also that’s also wonderful so thank you very much yes so now this is Chaitanya Charita Amrit marathon is going on all over the world this time and devotees are distributing lots of books of entire Chaitanya Charita Amrit set and Chaitanya Charita Amrit is a literature that is not so well known but that is an opportunity for us to distribute because we distribute Bhagavad Gita many people already say I have Bhagavad Gita not many people are going to say I already have Chaitanya Charita Amrit so that’s an advantage for us and it’s a extraordinary treasure of literature of devotion of art so on the occasion of Mahaprabhu’s appearance day it’s a if you don’t have CC you can have it you can distribute to your friends, gift it or inspire them to take it it’s a great opportunity to share the mercy of Mahaprabhu far and wide through distributing the Chaitanya Charita Amrit would you like to talk about it Hare Krishna Chaitanya Charan Prabhu Ki Jai Just to let you know Prabhu is a prolific writer and he’s written many wonderful books so if anyone wants copies of his books that he’s published we have a book table outside but before you go importantly I would also like to make an announcement all of us that are sitting in this room today we are followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and we are recipients of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with Gopini Ma coming up many of us are thinking how can we show and demonstrate our love for Srila Prabhupada for Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Srila Prabhupada gave a very a very nice answer to this question he asked the question what is the symptom of love what is the most important symptom what is the primary symptom and Prabhu said the most important symptom of love is that the devotee wants to see the glories of his lord spread far and wide so the glories of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are great anyone who comes in contact with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then their life becomes perfect we’ve had over a thousand sets of Sri Chaitanya Charita sitting in our warehouse now for years we’ve been chipping away distributing some but for a follower of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be sitting here and have thousands of sets sitting in a warehouse not distributed is a great travesty we can’t allow that to happen so we want to make a proposal to all of the devotees at least those ones sitting in the room here today and those who are watching online for this upcoming Gopini Ma festival please take a set of Sri Chaitanya Charita if you don’t have one keep it for yourself if you have one then sponsor one and distribute one, it’s only 79 pounds for UK and for sponsoring a set in India is 49 pounds you can go to krishnatemple.com backslash ccset for UK purchase and sponsorship and krishnatemple.com backslash cc for sponsorship in India once one devotee came to Srila Prabhupada and he said he wants to distribute Bengali sweets in the university Prabhupada said we’re not interested in distributing that Bengali sweet the real Bengali sweet is Sri Chaitanya Charita Amrita so let’s distribute the real Bengali sweet Sri Chaitanya Charita Amrita dear devotees we have a table outside there we have many sets we have languages Hindi Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali many many languages we have and English it’s accessible whoever takes a set gets the full audio book gets the Chaitanya Charita Amrita compact e-book you get a nice wooden carved set of Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet so as many gifts we are giving away for those who take and sponsor please become part of this effort many of you have this reservation that Sri Chaitanya Charita Amrita is not for everyone when Srila Prabhupada first published the Chaitanya Charita Amrita in a matter of 18 months he translated and gave purports to the 11,500 verses and the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada how many copies shall we print and they were thinking ok maybe Prabhupada will say 5,000 sets Prabhupada said 50,000 sets and the devotees said Prabhupada 50,000 sets there’s not so many devotees and Prabhupada said you distribute on the streets the entire set of Chaitanya Charita Amrita so don’t have this reservation that Chaitanya Charita Amrita is only for some devotees this is meant for everyone and Srila Prabhupada confirmed that so please dear devotees as part of God Purnima Festival become part of this effort to distribute as many many sets and in the least take one set home with you today, keep it in your lounge and Prabhupada said simply by doing that, simply by thinking how to do how to do we become liberated, simply by thinking how to do so take the set and from the time you take that set your mind will be thinking how to do we have some wonderful presentations some wonderful videos which you can share to your contacts via social media, come and see us and we’ll give you all of the material you need to promote Sri Chaitanya Charita Amrita Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.