Gauranga Shata Nama 20 – Relish the topmost devotion in the sublimest dance

Thank you Alala Darshan Anandi so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is now has returned from the South India tour has been described Alala Darshan so there is in Alala Nath close to Jagannath Puri there is a deity of Vishnu Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would take darshan of that and so Alala Darshan Anandi Ratha Granartha so he was very delighted to see, to behold the beautiful form of Alala Nath some Gaudiya Vaishnavas explain that when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would see this Vishnu Murthi he would actually see that as Krishna in the Raas Leela you know that when Krishna had disappeared from the Raas Leela then he took on the form of Vishnu and all the other Gopis thought it is Vishnu and they asked where is Krishna and Krishna pointed in that direction and they all went in that direction but when Radharani came and tried to point because Radharani is intense and pure love and he just couldn't maintain his facade, his appearance and he actually got his two arms dropped away and he revealed himself as Krishna he revealed himself as Krishna so like that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was seeing this four handed Vishnu form but he was seeing that actually this is Krishna in a two handed form and he was very delighted Ratha Granartha so when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came back came to Puri for the first time he did not stay there long enough to participate in Ratha Yatra so the first Ratha Yatra that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu participated in that was after he came back from South India South India tour according to some estimates lasted for almost two years thereafter Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Ratha Yatra, dancing Ratha Yatra became one of the most celebrated events in the Vaishnava community because he would dance with such ecstasy that that the whole world along with Jagannath would be astounded what magnificent love is this Chaitanya Mahaprabhu if you see the way he would dance some devotees he had actually divided the devotees into seven groups and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu expanded himself into seven forms and he was there in all the seven groups reciprocating love with Jagannath on one side and reciprocating love with the devotees on the other side and so here if you see Jagannath is Krishna in separation from Radharani and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is actually Krishna only but is taken on the mood of Radharani and especially that mood of Radharani when she is in separation from Krishna because the Ratha Yatra was performed with Radharani and the Brajwasis or especially the Gopis feeling intense separation from Krishna at Kurukshetra wanted, envisioned making a cart and placing Krishna on the cart and taking him along with the cart back to Vrindavan so this is that means Krishna Jagannath is ecstatic Krishna or Krishna ecstatic in separation from Radharani and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu could say Radharani ecstatic in separation from Krishna and they are being reunited reunited in love by the mutual vision both of them are beholding each other and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would dance and dance and dance tirelessly for the pleasure of Jagannath and so his dance was so beautiful and so love filled that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would stop and the Ratha cart would stop Jagannath did not want to go without his great devotee without actually it is the lord himself in the mood of a great devotee and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when the Ratha would stop and then sometimes people, hundreds and thousands of people they were all pulling and pushing and the Ratha would not budge and then powerful people like wrestlers, they were brought into service and they pushed and still the Ratha would not budge and then elephants were brought in and they tried to push the Ratha and the Ratha would not budge finally when nothing worked Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came and he just touched his head to the earth, gently pressed the head to the earth in a pushing motion and the Ratha just easily started trotting away and people saw this miracle they understood that this is the great love of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that lord Jagannath who is the master of the universe, he cannot be forced by anything but when love pushes him, he does not resist he cannot resist because he is conquered by love so for the assembled people Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's potency to move the chariot that was otherwise immovable was demonstration of his supreme of the supremacy of his love, so in this way the Athyathara pastime is is one of the most historic pastime Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed and through this one pastime through his dancing and other activities during this pastime Chaitanya Mahaprabhu attracted hundreds and thousands of people towards Krishna Bhakti and one such person whose heart was conquered was Gajapati Prana was Gajapati was the local king who was known by the title Gajapati that was Maharaj Pratap Rudra Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because he was a strict sanyasi did not want to associate with wealthy people and certainly not with kings but when the king exhibited his great devotion and humility in various ways Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed it although Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not pay much attention he saw that the king was devout and the king had protected his child, sorry Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw that the king was devout and because he had served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the Vaishnavas so nicely Chaitanya Mahaprabhu bestowed his mercy on him in the Jagannath Vandava Gardens where during the intermission between the Ratra festival when the lord bathes and rests and takes food and so do we so there there Pratap Rudra Maharaj approached Lord Chaitanya and he sang the Gopi Gita and Lord Chaitanya blessed him profusely so Gajapati Trana he was rescued from the bondage of material existence that comes very aggressively when one has as much material opulence as a king has and Devananda Uddhara Devananda Pandit had offended the Bhagavatam and had offended the Bhagavat he had offended the Bhagavatam because he had pretended to he had often spoken in the Bhagavatam but without giving any devotional explanation at all and he had offended the Bhagavatam because once Shivas Thakur while hearing the Bhagavatam had got overwhelmed with ecstasy and considering that ecstasy simply to be a disturbance Devananda Pandit had just watched on while his students had just picked up the unconscious Shivas Thakur and practically thrown him out of the Kathamandap so that offence which he had committed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very angry with him but then in the Rathyatra festival when he served Vakreshwar Pandit by ensuring that when Vakreshwar Pandit was dancing nobody came in between and nobody interrupted with the ecstasy of his dancing and Vakreshwar Pandit would fall Devananda Pandit would pick him up and dust him and help him to again re-enter the ecstasy of dancing so seeing this humble service which he performed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was pleased and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu blessed him also so in this way this was the ecstatic dance during which he was himself relishing the topmost emotion of love for Krishna in the mood of Radharani and he was also distributing that love to everyone from whether it be a Kshatriya like Pratap Rudra or a Brahmana like Devananda Pandit everybody was blessed by Lord Chaitanya with Krishna Prema and that Lord is eager, ready, eager waiting to bless all of us if we just turn to him, open our heart to him, call out to him and seek and gratefully accept his mercy.

Thank you.