How Lord Chaitanya’s glory is established in the Chaitanya Charitamrita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
last time I met from office I arranged for the talk I will share that here structure, flow and overview structure means how it is written flow means how one part flows to the next and overview refers to what is it contained inside so we will see how it will be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is actually a long tradition Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a man and although it is in our natural language, it is in Bengali it goes from 65 different Sanskrit books of course maximum quotations are from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because Mahaprabhu is another Purana Chaitanya Mahaprabhu declared that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the highest so now these Sanskrit chapters are called Parikshetas so there are 62 Parikshetas in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 17 Nagas 25 Madanikas and 20 Indiandanikas and if you look at it, sometimes some of us may also write poetry and try to make but to make 23000 verses run perfectly all the verses you see, the ending parts are run perfectly there is no small change even from a literary or poetic point of view Chaitanya Mahaprabhu basically uses two main types of verses when the normal descriptive narration is going on then the standard fire might come whatever it is now especially when songs are being sung or a special kind of glorification is being done at that time, the more music is required to be produced so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu basically uses these two sides of the glory verses for explaining the pastime and teaching the projects in the present now so now in the approximate sense, the Matsyamita is the hardest and the longest even in the point of the Parikshetas, there are 25 Parikshetas 25 chapters are there and the Adi Leelas and Ganga Leelas are approximately half an hour so it’s 25-25, 50-50 like that and it’s very interesting sometimes if a speaker wants to speak with you systematically, then he will tell you ok, this is the point that I am going to speak to you when you want to speak properly tell the people what you are going to tell them tell them and then tell them what you told them so actually Chaitanya Mahaprabhu basically uses that side how it does that for each chapter at the end of each chapter, Krishna says structurally, very systematically, he won’t go so chapter is the last of the first khanda, so there in the last verse he gives the simple summary of what he taught in the Adi Leelas similarly in the Matsyamita similarly in the Andalya in the last part of the Andalya so very systematically he gives a summary of everything now not only the summary of the system of khandas now if we go to the structure of each chapter as most of you have noticed each chapter starts with the transcript verse that is the summary of the past time or the teaching that is given in that particular chapter so he knows exactly what he is going to speak in this chapter and then at the end, he gives a review, one or two Bengali verses that explain what he taught in that chapter and sometimes in one chapter there may be two or three past times like say we have chapter 13 of the Yantra Leela where the past time is the Jalan Pandit and so the conclusion of the past time is over so that is something very remarkable very efficient in the use of verses and at the same time it is very profuse in the quoting of other references in Jyotish e.g. it is interesting if you look at the language Jyotish e.g. as we know has a very extremely position in the Gaudiya Vaishnava literature so how do we go into that whenever he quotes a Sanskrit verse he does that also systematically first he will give the Bengali language, this is the point that I am talking about and then he will quote the verse and after that again he will quote the Bengali translation of that verse that way even people who don’t understand Sanskrit they can understand what it is like similarly if we are quoting a reference first we tell the point which we want to tell then we quote the verse which is substantial at that point and then we explain the verse to show the same way he does that in Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also throughout, whenever any verse is quoted there is now if you look at the flow, this is the most important part Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not just a biography, it is a book of theology theology means systematic study of God so in the book of philosophy and theology in the mode of a biography if we look at the Gaudiya history, the last biography Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has written was Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and this became the final most important biography and historically speaking we have Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu which were written in Bengali then we have Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu which was written by by by Kavi Karanam he also wrote one more book Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Murali Gita of a culture which people don’t know so from this were written somewhere in Bengali but in general where in mostly the the ratio are transformed there was not much philosophy that was included so actually the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is characterised by one striking fact that after Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed in Tamil but all the past tense are going on ecstatically and all the devotees and generally speaking even when the founder of a tradition departs at that time the transition is systematically planned and even then there are problems but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he departed he personally had not written any books he had not met his disciples directly or he had not appointed his professors directly nor had he established an organisation so from the point of view of organisational history that Gaudiya Vaishnavism survived because in spite of all these three happening appointing professors starting an organisation and leaving one still in the form of books still there is chaos you see that’s what happened in the case of Shatrughna so in spite of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that is the age he did not write any books he did not survive his life and when the Britishers came to Bengal they found Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was like the god of all religions later on Mayavad got his tendency to survive and write his books so actually that was his handiwork so what happened Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the beginning Vaishnavism was another disarray Vaishnavas came from four regions one was Vrindavan second was Bengal third was Odisha and fourth was South India so these were the four places and different variations among them the sustained following were in three places Odisha, Vrindavan, Mayavad and Vrindavan now the Goswamis were sent to Bengal from Bengal to Vrindavan and they established a temple and they wrote the books so now the Goswamis wrote a lot of books on Narmada Deva there were a lot of books written on philosophy by the Goswamis and in one month the Goswamis got the association of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they had a short association with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu made an association with the Goswami and that’s why the books that the Goswamis wrote were primarily on the teaching of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they are mainly the pastimes of Krishna as explained by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the pastimes of Lord Krishna so the Goswamis wrote about the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so now one book was needed which would bring these two together and that purpose of integrating these two branches of Lord Krishna’s from there he went to Vrindavan on a train not only Lord Krishna but also Rama and Kavya and he did all those literary achievements in this one month so what he has done is is the book of philosophy in the form of biographical so he took biographical format which is the English language and he integrated the philosophical teachings that the Goswamis did and he put it all together in one book and that’s why we see these two styles or these two purposes or these two purposes integrated in this one example let me give you an example like this if you look at the first line that comes twice to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu it comes in the 5th chapter and it comes in the 3rd chapter so why is it coming twice the first reason is that it comes first let’s look at it paragraphically Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s life journey to describe so how he goes from Mayapur to Kashi and from Kashi to Puri and from Puri goes south India comes back to north India so by describing the biographical chronological description so after meeting with the Goswami and after meeting with the Goswami and then after that he delivers the so then he delivers his dhanyas in Kashi so the chronological description comes in chapter 25 but if you look at chapter 25 it’s more describing the retreat so actually chapter 25 does not contain only the philosophical description it contains the description of the realisation of Prakashana Saraswati and his disciples after they were converted so the philosophical description comes primarily in Adila chapter 7 so why Adila chapter 7 because that is where Prakashana Saraswati is speaking of the theology so there from the theology point of view that’s what he talks about so there he describes systematically how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a supreme lord except of sanity of Godhead so now so importance is not sufficient on Karambhattacharya but on Prakashana Saraswati why? because in the Navdeep Kalkan Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that actually Sarvamantacharya is Vaishnav in Sarvamantacharya so if you look at the past time of Sarvamantacharya given Chaitanya in Bhagavad and Chaitanya in Saraswati actually it’s very different in Chaitanya Bhagavad and Sarvamantacharya leads to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he directly behaves as if he is only Vaishnav and he starts the whole reference of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so what it appears as if he is Vaishnav only is apparently Mahaprabhu so Bhaktivinoda Thakur has actually studied Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s past time systematically it’s like he revealed Navdeep Kalkan and wrote Navdeep Kalkan on Bhaktivinoda Thakur and wrote Navdeep Kalkan on Bhaktivinoda Thakur and that he describes how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sees all his associates so Navdeep Kalkan is actually Vyasadeva so Vyasadeva knew that he was chastised by Nanak Muni because of describing all the kaitava dharmas and then he described the paradharma in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so as Vyasadeva he decided I will not so he just bypassed this the fact that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Mayavadi he just described straight away the Vaishnav interactions of Karmaputra so Karmaputra actually manifested Vaishnavism and he became integral of the when Varanasi is the Vrindavan of the Mayavadis they were like the capital of Mayavad so it’s like it’s like India goes to Pakistan and frees Pakistan Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Varanasi and defeated Pratapana Goswami so because of that, that pastime is talked about twice so by definition the philosophy is talked about in 7 chapters and the chronology will be discussed in chapter 25 so how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu grows is actually it grows chronologically and from there it starts Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes and then it goes on but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he is describing the events but whenever there is a philosophical discussion he puts a pause puts a pause and and so there are 5 great conversations 5 great conversations which Prabhupada gave us the book which is about Chaitanya we will come to that later but this is the theme so we take the style of a biography but it isn’t only the biography Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they only have philosophical statements they don’t have the philosophical narrative it is a corpus and the statements are just like that there is no analysis, deliberation, discussion over there that’s how this book integrates philosophy and so what is the difference between philosophy and theology philosophy is also trained with logic that which can be logically explained is called a philosophy that which can only be scripturally understood is called theology theology focusses primarily on God so I can establish through philosophical reasoning the existence of God but by no philosophical reasoning can I prove that God is a bluish black colour, we cannot have any philosophical reasoning for that for that we need scriptural reasoning so theology primarily focusses on God it is also based on scripture theology we can have very engineering and sweet but it does not prove that logic so now the first seven chapters are focused on Gauraparamyava Gauraparamyava means paramya is supreme so the supreme that you have got, Chaitanya is established in these seven chapters so this is Aditya actually the narration of the past times starts from chapter 20 so in the first seven chapters Krishnadevaraya Goswami is taking the combinations his purpose primarily is to explain the philosophy and so these are if you notice the first 17 verses of Aditya chapter 1 first 17 verses of the full book and 15, 16, 17 these are the three verses about the Brahmata Vidya Prajnaparamita Divya, Vrindana, Anekasura these three verses are there but before that he is offering obeisances to Duryodhana, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Radha, Krishna so basically the first 14 verses are expanded into the first 10 chapters the first 14 verses at now is frozen in chapter 5 ok we will go to chapter 3 chapter 3 chapter 2 in the Adi Vilayas Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of God chapter 3 is the external religion Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the internal religion so then he has those famous verses Radhaya, Prema, Mahina so he takes those verses which are in chapter 1 and he elaborates them in the corresponding section of the Adi Vilayas so here 4 verses about the Supreme of the Purusha Vityananda and then he elaborates that the Lord of Vityananda Ram is chapter 5 then he has the famous Advaitam Prema Advaitam, the obeisances to Amritacharya, then he elaborates in chapter 6. Now chapter 7 is the most important chapter in Daughtra Ramya first he has established how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of God in chapter 2 then he explains that actually the Lord is not descended alone, the Lord is associated with the associates and there was one Krishna that we will elaborate in chapter 10 now after this so after laying the foundation then Krishnadevaraya becomes the installer in the context now the hypothetical comment starts but it will not start with directly the Master of the Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he starts with himself in the sense that how he came to write this book. First he makes the philosophy clear and chapter 8 is the author gives the orders of Guru and Krishna and he describes it that kind how the Karna expels many men Karna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna and then after that in chapter 9 and chapter 10 and then he gives an analogy of the theory of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and then it becomes chapter 11 where most of us skip those chapters why because there are so many names of so many Upanishads and actually Gautam Sachdeva did extensive research to document where was he living, what was he doing and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is almost 90% basically a translation of the Gaudiya Bhashya of Sanskrit language and the 10% that is more in the learning instructions to the disciples or talks about how the Sannyasis should interact with Gaudiya Bhashya so there are many proposals that are actually drawn from most of the Sanskrit language is Gaudiya Bhashya it’s a good part, it’s helpful otherwise it’s really impossible to complete all the Gaudiya Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in just two months and he will be repeating his work that’s what he actually does over here so now here in chapters 11 and 12 what is happening, so here an important point, Shastra has a universal kind of context what does it mean universal means I am just like it all the time contextual means I am just like it at particular time for example Vishwakarma Upadhyaya talks about he may talk about how as long as they keep filing as long as they don’t acknowledge the supremacy of the Lord the properties of the Lord there is no chance of peace now we may find actually communism is dead now actually communism is not dead so how is the support relevant Arjuna gives the eternal message but for the eternal message he will be contextualising that’s why a scripture has a central eternal message and there is also contextual content so what Krishna says in 11th chapter 11 and 12 is that as we know after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed many people claimed for his followers and some of them deviated small or major means so because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is an authorised scripture Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wished Vishwakarma Upadhyaya should move who are the authorised followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that’s why he claims every one of them so he wished who are the expansions of the among the expansions who are the branches who are the expansions from Adivashastra who are the expansions from Vatajapayana who are the expansions from Vityananda so we see that finally Surya Mahaprabhu, Vishwakarma Upadhyaya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he had associates who were who were also worshippers of other form of Buddha, for example and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu never asked whether he converted towards Lord Krishna although Chaitanya Mahaprabhu never initially decided to in the Gaudiya Sampradaya but in the Gaudiya Sampradaya the Guru has to have Dalai Lama as Lord Krishna so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him as the one who is Vaishnava but initially the Gurus in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the Gaudiya Sampradaya are both Vajeshwara Krishna so Aditya chapter 11 and 12 serves the purpose of delineating who are the authentic expansive philosophic principles then he clarifies historical circumstances of how he wrote who are the authentic followers for whom he is writing this book and then he starts writing then he starts in chapter 31 onwards to describe who are the what are the past times of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so now in the Madhya Lila and Andhra Lila Gaudiya Sampradaya was a theme of agnism, philosophical theme and how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu supreme manifestation a mad manifestation Gaudiya vision is how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu defeats different philosophies that is what is described in the Madhya Lila so he defeats Mayavadya in two places one in chapter 6 defeats Sarvabhattacharya in chapter 25 similarly he did this during his tour of south India so there he describes Prachinath similarly he encountered Muslims and defeats them he encountered Muslims on three occasions one is in the Mayavadhya encountering Shamsadhi second is when he is travelling from Pune towards Bengal at that time the ruling king over there is a Muslim and his you cannot travel at this time over here but when he just was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he is so inspired and he comes and surrenders and he was the commander of Sarvabhattacharya and then we have in chapter 19 this is before he makes up his mind he assumes his love and he is going towards Kashi at that time he meets the Muslims over there who think that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is at fault so he should be punished and all these encounters of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu fearlessly he defeats and transforms Gaudiya creating a fearful name of terror in India and then Gaudiya so this is the other Dhamantas which are refuted so there is a philosophical discussion and which will be harmed but along with that there is also another purpose another factor in Gaudiya Vishay that is that he also believes that the Gaudiya Vaishnavism is the highest among other forms of Vaishnavism and this is established by Krishna through the conversation of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with other Vaishnavas so we have three main conversations one is the Tattvavadi that is found in the 9th chapter where Madhinda travels to the holy places and there also we have a famous conversation with Venkata so what he is doing is through this conversation it is not just a sweet conversation it is sweet but at the same time it actually establishes how the repetition that he gave to the world is not just the highest among the different laws and similarly there are interactions Vinayana Mahaprabhu interacts with Avalokacharya Avalokacharya is a Vishnu Tattvavadi formed after Krishnima so Krishnima is some way similar and some way dissimilar but he had a tremendous amount of influence at that time so the first interaction chapter 18 of where they meet in Vrindavan and at that time they have a cordial meeting but at the same time Avalokacharya realises the ecstasy of this person is extraordinary that is why he is inspired to come and meet come and meet Venkata Mahaprabhu when he comes and meets Venkata Mahaprabhu there a chapter which is chapter 7 meeting Vrindavan there it starts very beautifully Lord Krishna performs a leela to destroy the false pride of Indra similarly Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in this leela destroys the false pride of Vrindavan it is a very beautiful exactly appropriate example because Indra is a devotee but in spite of being a devotee he when his pride becomes removed so Avalokacharya who is a great devotee at the same time meets Avalokacharya and actually succubuses so it is a first we talk about those who are outside the Vedic school like Buddhism and Islam and then we talk about other Vedic knowledge within the Vedic school and then we talk about on the mountain that is where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu conveys his conversation now I mentioned about the Pancha Mahatma of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teaching and they are duly emphasised by Krishnadevaraya Goswami so there are two of them are instructions two of them are debates and one is instruction rather Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is giving instructions so it is interesting that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructs to Goswami for ten days and he instructs to Goswami for two months so that for ten days instructions of course none of these are in conversation and that’s why he said that he will describe the pastimes of only a few frogs only one frog so he describes the pastimes what he primarily does is he takes the most essential points like what are the most significant like if we have a car then we make a summary note of a car so although it is a different chronology at the same time it is not exactly that’s how the format is going on in the previous two chapters correspondingly so now it is interesting that another Goswami and then the 24th chapter is just a distinct intellectual emotional that is expression of the Atmanam so although why is that actually this is not Goswami’s humility and actually this is actually the structural Sandarwal already made by Kumar Mata the books are collaborative projects so now these two are the instructions so here Jaitanya Mahaprabhu is primarily speaking then there are two which are debates to be discussed with Prakash Mata and Sarvabhattacharya so it is interesting how Sarvabhattacharya becomes not just an associate but an integral associate and after the weaknesses like last time Jaitanya Mahaprabhu in the early morning so Sarvabhattacharya quickly honours Jaitanya Mahaprabhu and says how are you sitting like this you have not taken bath how are you sitting like this then he pours the embers as soon as he heard Prakash immediately honours him and Jaitanya Mahaprabhu that is not the only lesson from this class actually it is not this industry generally Mayavadis think that it is only their dhyan and their followings of the rules of sadhana they don’t believe in the principles of Prakash so much so what Sarvabhattacharya putting aside the rules of Sadhana is not that he has come back to Madhya Prasad he has ascended from the dhyana level to the Madhya Prasad because he has not just transformed intellectually he has transformed that was his great joy and then of course this is the theological climax of the Jaitanya Mahaprabhu chapter 6 of the chapter 8 of the Madhya Prasad Ramanatharaya so here the three topics are discussed so these three have been hinted at earlier but no detailed investigation has been done about it those confidential aspects of the lord are not meant to be spoken to the world and then at that time a very beautiful narration so Ramanatharaya says that he said that O Lord Jaitanya Mahaprabhu when I first came initially I thought that you were a refuge of sannyasis and then as we kept talking more I started seeing you and now I am seeing as if you are a golden female what is this Jaitanya Mahaprabhu says actually it is the glory of the devotee that whatever is in his heart he sees it Jaitanya Mahaprabhu is over it so Ramanatharaya said no he would like to know and he insists like that then Jaitanya Mahaprabhu so actually in one sense Lord Krishna instructed Arjuna and at the end of the Madhya Prasad Krishna asked Arjuna do you understand properly do you understand properly have you understood clearly so Arjuna said yes and because there was Kashi over there ending of Arjuna so when he comes at Jaitanya Mahaprabhu there actually speaking Ramanatharaya gets his revelation and one says this from this point onwards Ramanatharaya is the main person who brings the Radha out of Jaitanya Mahaprabhu so Jaitanya Mahaprabhu has this twofold aspect of Krishna and Radhani so as Krishna is propagating Ramanatharaya and Radhani he is actually relishing Krishna’s love so after Arjuna comes back to me then Jaitanya Mahaprabhu it will be Andalika and primarily Ravishi Ravishi the Sangha of the Vaishnavas and the remembrance of Krishna so again we have three principles of Vaishnavism Namah Ruchi, Jeeva Daya and Vaishnav Ruchi so this Jeeva Daya is manifested primarily in the primary Samadhi Leela generally after those North India, South India debates and disputes chapter 17 where it deals with the Karthikas in the Samadhi Leela it is primarily the Vaishnav Sangha and Namah Ruchi that is manifested so what happens in the Andalika chapter 1-13 it is basically talking about how Jaitanya Mahaprabhu relishes this Vaishnavism so there is Goswami’s second meeting Goswami’s second meeting three principles that they carry on and then from chapter 14 onwards the beginning of the Krishna Saraswati Mahabharat the Radha Bhava then it is about and it is as he goes into that devotional Samadhi he manifests different forms of visions he is walking along in the Krishna in the forest nobody has seen Krishna you have to call him there is a parallel reality sometimes he feels something different than what others will feel and only when that becomes deeper not only his perception is different but his personality is also different he is not talking as if he is Jaitanya Mahaprabhu he is talking as if he is he is Anand and that is why for many years the Gita Gopis have been narrated he is so overjoyed Gita Gopis is basically a narration of the Krishna that oh you are Anand, please go and associate with Krishna and give pleasure to Krishna so Jaitanya Mahaprabhu hears that he runs towards wherever the sound is coming and immediately Jaitanya Mahaprabhu manifests in the Krishna so there is manifesting a little personality and when the trance becomes deepest it is not just the perception it is not just the emotions it is the body of Krishna and that is why there is another extract where Jaitanya Mahaprabhu is like a cool monk where all the sins are withdrawn or when he is in the ocean he will pick up his hand and so this actually shows how there is a higher reality and one who has absorbed this higher reality that means physical effects he will feel better and then Jaitanya Mahaprabhu keeps out some very very important incident of Jaitanya Mahaprabhu the first two sannyas he keeps it for that one reason first reason is that it is too hard for him to describe it second reason is that it has been described in his previous life and he is focussing primarily on that and because the teachings live on he keeps the last chapter the last chapter of Jaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Shiksha Shastra why? because actually the Heela never ends the Heela is eternal it is we who have experienced the eternal reality because we have that Heela so the teachings are expressed in a ladder elevated to enter that Heela the Lord comes here and demonstrates the Heela to us but when he disappears it is not he who has disappeared rather it is we who have lost the possibility to see it so that kind of relationship is there between the Lord and Jaitanya Mahaprabhu he concludes in the teachings and as it turns out in the Hindu scholar Jaitanya Mahaprabhu was in this book which on which we are going to talk about some more we have described in the Shiksha Shastra and he was not to interview us in the Shiksha Shastra this is said in one book it is actually given as a comprehensive overview of the life, the past time, the teachings thank you very much Jaitanya Mahaprabhu Krishna, Kavita, Swamiji, Swamiji, Swamiji