Gauranga Shata Nama 10 – The more we offer ourselves, the more the Lord reveals and charms us

Thank you. Now, the Gauranga Shatanaam.

The description of the list of the nine islands of Navadvipali mentioned. And this and the next verse. And so the nine islands, as per the revelation of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, represent the nine processes of devotional service.

Antardvipashashadharam. So is the crest jewel. Is the moon.

Sorry, crest jewel is the moon. The shining moon of the land of, of the place of Antadeep. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is often compared to Chandra, Gaurachandra, as it is said.

So he manifested. It says the moon manifests in the sky at night. Similarly, he manifested himself.

He appeared in the place of Antadeep. This is the place where Yoga Peetha is there. Where Lord Chaitanya appeared.

And the house of Srivasa Thakur and many other sacred places there. So this is, this represents Atmanivedanam. Utter surrender of one's very heart and life to the Lord.

So the devotees, especially Advaita Acharya, by his fervent calls, he offered his entire life to the Lord and begged the Lord, please appear. And the devotees gave up all kinds of sense gratification, offered themselves completely to the Lord in devotional service. Then the Lord reciprocated by descending to this world.

And that magnificent, miraculous, earth-transforming descent happened in Navadvipa. So Navadvipa Shashadhara, Simanta Vijaya. Simanta is the second Dvipa and it represents Simanta, the process of Shravanam.

Now, here Vijaya. The adjectives that Thakur uses to describe each of these places and the pastimes are related to the pastimes performed over there. So Vijaya, this is the place where one of the greatest victories of Lord Chaitanya's life and by far the greatest victory of his life in Navadvipa was manifested.

It was here that he brought to culmination the march of hundreds and thousands of devotees who accompanied him to protest against the religious oppression that the Chand Kazi had started by breaking Amritanga, threatening devotees and banning kirtans. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was unarmed from the material perspective and was a Brahmana. He positioned himself against the formidable might of the Vleksha rulers who had banned the kirtans.

But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by previously manifesting as Narasimha at night and giving a strong warning to Chand Kazi jolted him out of his complacency and he became very submissive again when he saw the huge number of devotees who had accompanied Lord Chaitanya and the furious mood in which they came. So when he was submissive and he actually hid himself first from Lord Chaitanya and Lord Chaitanya asked him to come then. He was very respectful and then they had a discussion and Lord Chaitanya transformed him.

He submissively asked questions to Lord Chaitanya and Lord Chaitanya countered all the objections that were there under those questions and transformed him. So not only did the devotees get the right to do Harinam Sankirtan once again but even the Kazi became transformed and Kazi became almost devotionally minded. Almost like a devotee.

He became devotionally minded and almost like a devotee although he did not externally take on the garb of a devotee. So it was a thunderous victory for Lord Chaitanya and that was manifested over here. Srimantar Vijaya and this leaf represents Shravanam, the process of hearing.

Lord Chaitanya made everyone hear the chanting of the holy names here and he also made the Chand Kazi hear the glories of pure devotion to Krishna and for millennia, for hundreds of years devotees also rejoiced in hearing the Lord's glories here. Srimantar Vijaya Then Godhruma Bihari Madhya Dweepa Leela Shraya So Godhruma Bihari The Dweepa of Godhruma represents the process of hearing sorry of Kirtan, Godhruma Godhruma Bihari So here Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed a delightful pastime. So here this represents Kirtan and it is said that there is a forest of there are many sacred places and when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was performing Kirtan in this forest at one time he saw that although the devotees were spiritually jubilant in the performance of Kirtan but materially they were exhausted and so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was always compassionate to his devotees miraculously manifested a mango seed and he planted the tree and right in front of the devotees they saw that that tree grew into a huge tree and produced a large number of fruits something that would normally take years upon years, decades to happen happened within moments by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's unconceivable mercy and not only was that miraculous but even the mangoes that came from that tree were also miraculous because they had no skin and they had no root seeds so just pure nectarian fruit Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took the fruits and offered them to Lord Krishna and then he distributed 200 of the fruits to all the assembled devotees who were there and in this way he spiritually nourished them through Kirtan and materially nourished them through this extraordinary mango which he had manifested this fasting happened at a place called Amaghat so he demonstrated that he is the delightful lord of nature Godruma Bihari where he does Bihar, he does celebration, he does joy, he does dance he delights basically in performing Sankirtan and he delights in adjusting material nature so that the joy of Sankirtan can be continued and expanded and then Madhyadweepa Leelakshradam Madhyadweep which is the fourth veep, it represents Smaranam remembrance of the lord so here there are multiple pastimes performed and there is Kurukshetra, Naimisharanya forest even Gauranga Setu is there over here so these are all, it is said that in Navadweep all the holy places are present in a subtle form because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy has made Navadweep so potent that all the other holy places are attracted to come there and be present over there so Madhyadweep, so Leelakshradam so there are many leelas that happen in Navadweep which lord Chaitanya performed and all those leelas are sheltered in the lord it was he who performed the pastimes, it was he who was the centre of the pastimes it was he who was the purpose of the pastimes and he delighted in the pastimes and he enabled his devotees to delight in those pastimes and those pastimes are so relishable that even other devotees, that even other holy places came here to take shelter of the lord so Leelakshradam, so all these leelas that are performed by lord Chaitanya and that are performed by other great devotees at other places they all sought the shelter of lord Chaitanya in this celebrated place so that lord who performs such extraordinary miraculous pastimes or can also perform the extraordinary pastimes of purifying our heart of redirecting our heart towards love towards Krishna and thereby helping us find everlasting fulfillment.