Parallels in Krishna lila and Gaura lila

[Bhagavatam class on Jagannatha Mishra Festival Day at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Are there any questions? Hare Krishna. So, today is the festival of Jagannath Mishra, the day when Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s nimaip and nibai’s birth was celebrated by his parents. So, I’ll drop in this Bhagavatam verse, and broadly I’ll speak on the theme of parallels between Gaur Leela and Krishna Leela, and largely parallel in the theme of protection.
So, here, in this particular verse, it is said that Dwaraka was protected. Now, the context is that Krishna has come back from Astinapur to Dwaraka, which is the place where he is residing currently. And, the residents of Dwaraka welcomed him with words of great respect and affection, permeated with intense bhava.
And then, the Lord enters in. The next several verses will be describing the glory of Dwaraka. So, Dwaraka, by its very name, is, was a fortress.
And, Dwaraka, where is the door? It was such an impregnable fortress. Dwar means door. Ka means where.
So, where is the door? It was such an impregnable fortress that for invaders, just no way they could enter. And, you know, originally, because Krishna was repeatedly, when Krishna was living in Mathura, he was repeatedly attacked by Jarasandh. And, Krishna defeated him every time.
But, he felt that the attack disturbed the Mathuravasis. Especially, the attack disturbed the Vrajavasis. Because, when Jarasandh came from Magadh, on the way from Magadh to Mathura was Vrindavan.
So, Jiva Goswami says in Gopalachampu that each time the Vrajavasis had to leave their homes and take refuge in the nearby forests. So, of course, Jarasandh didn’t plunder Vrindavan because for him Vrindavan was very small and insignificant. His goal was Krishna and the wealth of Mathura.
But, Krishna eventually felt that he wanted to protect the Mathuravasis and the Vrajavasis. So, he transported the Mathuravasis to another place, Dwaraka. And, it was quite far, almost the other end of the country.
So that, any invaders there would not in any way trouble the Vrajavasis. So, the place of Dwaraka was very well protected. And, it’s interesting here that Atmatulya, which is, there are many great warriors from different dynasties, they were as powerful as Krishna.
Now, normally it is said asamoordhva, that the absolute truth is, has no equals. There is no one equal to him, not to speak, what to speak of greater than him. So, what does it mean when it is said that these are Atmatulya? Now, even their names are not mentioned specifically.
They said that the descendants of these dynasties were as powerful as Krishna, as good as him. So, now, there are rhetorical ways of saying things, which are not meant to be taken literally. Say, for example, when we say that trividham narkasthedham dwaram nashanam atmana three gates to hell, and they destroy the soul.
So, 16.21 in the Bhagavad Gita. Now, one of the fundamental characters of the soul is Avinashi and the soul is indestructible. The soul is indestructible.
If the soul is Avinashi, then how can it be Atmanashi? dwaram nashanam atmana So, this nasha is non-literal. The point is that what is destroyed is the spirituality of the soul, not the soul itself. The spiritual consciousness, the spiritual inclination, the spiritual interest is all destroyed by lust, anger and greed.
So, the context makes it clear. This is a standard principle in Mimamsa. Mimamsa is a school of thought which has elaborately talked about how scripture is to be studied.
And they say where the literal meaning does not make sense, it’s understood that there is some other meaning going on over there. The standard example is he lives on the river or that house is on the river. Now, obviously, house cannot be on the river.
It means it’s on the banks of the river. So, like that, here atmatulya is not meant in the literal sense that they are equal to God but in the sense that there is no inadequacy in the protection of Dwaraka in the absence of Krishna. So, just as Krishna could protect them, so, similarly, the warriors could also protect them.
It’s not that they were omnipotent. It’s not that they could show the Vishwaroopa. But, in terms of martial defence, if you see the overall context that is going on, it’s protection.
Just as Krishna could protect, they could also protect. So, as far as protection was concerned, see, here they have to see the context. The context is the glory and the opulence of Dwaraka is being described.
And the point is that if there is a powerful kingdom, one of the characteristics of powerful kingdom is not just the wealth it has, the big towers it has, but also the warriors it has. So, if Krishna is the only source protector over there, if Krishna is not there, any enemy can come and ransack. Then, you may say, okay, it’s a good kingdom, but not so great.
So, a kingdom’s greatness is seen not just by the greatness of the leaders, but the greatness of other people also in the kingdom. Not just the main leader, but other leaders in the kingdom also. So, Atmatulya is not in literal equality.
It is in terms of the potency of protection. That is the theme over here. So, in terms of protecting Dwaraka, there are many warriors who were very competent for protecting Dwaraka.
No one is equal to the lord in the absolute sense. But, in this particular sense, they could be equal. So, now, in scripture, often metaphors are given.
And those metaphors, if we do not have a proper context, they will be very difficult for us to understand. So, for us, in each culture, there might be some metaphors. Say, somebody comes from India, or somebody comes to India from, say, a place like Africa, where people don’t even know much about cricket.
And say, this person is as famous as this cricketer. Because people who think cricket is an insect, for them, that reference will not make any sense only. What do you mean? That is a cricketer.
Cricketer means one who takes care of crickets. What is a cricketer? So, every culture provides a context. And naturally, while speaking in that culture, certain examples, certain metaphors are naturally drawn from that context.
But, outside that context, it may not make sense. So, now, when we are studying the Bhagavatam thousands of years later, now, we may not even know about what is Bhogavati. We don’t know what is Nagaloka.
We don’t even know, OK, how Nagaloka is protected. But at that time, it was understood that Nagaloka is a very formidable place. There are sarpas and nagas.
Krishna talks about them as different in the in the in the Bhagavad Gita 10 chapter. He says, among sarpas, among the snakes, I am Vasuki. And among nagas, I am Ananta.
So, the difference, Baldev Devji explains, there are many normal snakes, but nagas are snakes with hooves. They are considered special. Not just special in terms of they can be very powerful, but they are also considered auspicious in some ways.
There are many places in India where nagas are worshipped. So, snakes which have hooves are worshipped. So, especially in South India.
Now, of course, even ordinary snakes are worshipped because people don’t find nagas, so they start worshipping snakes also. But the idea is nagas were what were worshipped. So, snakes are considered envious, but nagas are considered auspicious.
And if a naga is present, people, when people see a snake, they will run away. Almost everyone will run away. And if somebody sees a naga, people will offer respects.
People may offer some milk or some respects. So, the idea is, nagaloka is nagaloka is something which is considered to be a part of the celestial world. There is the terrestrial world where we live, the celestial is where the devatas live, and there is the subterranean world.
So, although the nagaloka is situated below, but still it is not considered exactly like a demoniac place. It is considered that nagas are also auspicious people. Now, of course, there is some simplistic linguistic correlation that is done which really does not stand much critical historical scrutiny.
Like some people say Australia is astralaya. This is the place where the Pandavas stored their weapons. This is not at all, there is no linguistic correlation like that, literally.
Similarly, somewhere nagaloka is nagaland. So, nagaland is the state in India. So, this sort of correlation, some devotees may do it and it might appeal to some people.
But historical scrutiny or literally linguistic historical scrutiny if we do, we find that that may not stand so much scrutiny. So, nagaloka is, this is a different level. It has got nothing to do with nagaland.
Although there might be some correlation in terms of that particular place, maybe snakes were worshipped, nagas were worshipped a lot sometime in the past. But, if there is a level of serious scholarship, it does not really stand scrutiny. But the point here is that Krishna is, the Bhagavatam is saying Doharka was well protected.
And for that, the names of the warriors are given and another example is given of a city that was well protected and was known to be well protected in that cultural context. So, for us, if we consider theme of the lord’s protection, Krishna, when he protects, how does he protect? So, Kunti Maharani talks about various reasons why Krishna descends in her prayers in the 8th chapter of the first scantra, which is three chapters before this. And she lists various reasons.
First she says, okay, actually some people say that you came to glorify He says that some people say this, you come because you want to glorify the pious kings. Some people say you come to destroy the envious. So pious means you came to glorify your history and prove to the world how glorious he is.
Some people say you came to destroy envious people like Kamsa and protect your parents. Some people say that actually you come to lower the burden And she gives various reasons like that. And then she gives a concluding reason.
She does not necessarily say this is the true and that is false. She basically says, some people say this, some people say this, some people say it. And some people say, this is the last reason she gives.
She says that you come to perform pastimes in this world and by performing pastimes for subsequent generations you give substance to hear about, to remember about. And that hearing and remembering about you is the means to rise above material consciousness, to come out of the material world. Bhavesmin klishyamananam bhava asmin.
In this world there are many distresses, klishyamananam. Avidya kama karma bhi. Brahmapada says that these three words summarise the whole of material existence.
He says minimum words, maximum wisdom. Avidya, kama, karma bhi. Because of ignorance we have worldly desires, kama.
And because of worldly desires, karma, we engage in worldly activities. And that leads to klishyamananam, distress. So, avidya, kama, karma bhi.
But this is removed. Our karmic bondage is stopped, our kama is purified and avidya is removed. Our ignorance is removed, our worldly desires are purified.
Our worldly activities are also spiritualised. How? If we hear about Krishna and understand that he is our ultimate goal. Shravan smaranarhani krishyantike chana.
So, giving us food to hear about. Now, we all face various dangers in life. And there are, there are, even materially there can be dangers in job insecurity, there can be, there can be diseases infecting anyone at any time, there can be accidents happening, there can be terrorist attacks, there can be various kinds of dangers at the physical level.
And there can be dangers in terms of temptations for us as seekers. So, ultimately, at the material world, at the material level, the protection that we seek is for our consciousness. And the protection for our consciousness comes by having an absorbing object for our consciousness.
The body, as it is possible, we do need to protect it. But the body cannot be ultimately protected because it is going to grow old, get diseased and die. So, the body is a vehicle for consciousness.
And just like if we are driving a car, if we are driving a car to some particular station, then say, or if we are driving some senior devotee, then we will drive carefully. But if there is an accident, then what we will try to do is we will try to minimise the damage to the living people over there. Say, if somebody is sitting behind us, we are talking in a car and some truck comes and hits from the opposite side, then we will turn the car around so that the truck hits the other side, not the side where we are sitting or the other person is sitting.
So, the car is important, but more important than the car is the person in the car. So, both need to be protected. But comparatively speaking, more important is to protect the person.
So, similarly, the body needs to be protected, the body’s needs have to be taken care of. But if there is a choice between the body and the soul, the soul’s protection is most important. And Krishna does protect us at the bodily level also.
But Krishna’s primary protection is at the level of the soul, at the level of consciousness. So, Krishna protects us primarily by giving us a satisfying object for consciousness. What is the satisfying object? His own rich pastimes.
His own pastimes which are filled with such spiritual emotion, with such spiritual profound meaning, permeated with love that we can become attracted to them. And thus we can become absorbed in them. And that facility for absorption that he provides us, that is his greatest benediction.
So, with that more that absorption in Krishna’s pastimes, absorption in Krishna’s purpose, Krishna’s service, Krishna’s mission, that is the ultimate protection that Krishna can offer us. With that more, let’s try to absorb ourselves a little bit in the pastimes of the Lord by comparing Gaurlila and Krishnalila. So, we see, in terms of appearance, both the appearance of Lord Chaitanya, of Gaurachandra and Krishnachandra, both was preceded by trauma.
Of course, at one level, in the appearance of Krishna, there was not just trauma, there was a threat, active threat. Kamsa was out to kill Devaki and but then, it was said that Kamsa brutally murdered the children of Devaki before Balram and Krishna were appeared. Now, in the case of Jagannath Mishra and Chichidevi, there was no threat like that.
But still, they also lost numerous children. They also lost multiple children. Now, we could say, at that time, infant mortality was very high, whatever, but some sources say six, some sources say eight.
They also lost multiple children before they could have the Supreme Lord born to them. So, that is also representative that the manifestation of the Lord is never easy in the world. And it’s very significant, Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit says that when they lost their children repeatedly, Jagannath Mishra and Chichidevi didn’t become resentful of the resentful, but they became even more intense in their devotion.
Instead of praying to Vishnu more and more, they started praying that let us become purified, let us have a child, a celestial child. So, whenever we want the Lord to manifest in our heart, Prabhupada compares Devaki, Devaki’s womb to be like our heart. And he said, this is six anarthas have to be killed, Devaki’s such sons have to be killed before Guru Balram could manifest and after that Krishna could manifest.
So, similarly for us, if we, on the path of progressive devotion, go through difficulties, we shouldn’t become disheartened by that. It is just a part of the process. Life is tough, but bhakti can make us tougher.
Life is tougher than what we think, but bhakti can make us tougher than what we think we can be. So, in that way, we will face difficulty or sometimes bhakti itself is increasing difficulty in our life. But bhakti is also increasing our capacity to face difficulty.
And by that, and just as Satchi Mata and Jagannath Mishra took more and more shelter of bhakti of Krishna, similarly we also need to take more and more shelter of the Lord when we face difficulties. Then eventually, when they were there in the womb, both Krishna Chandra and Gaurachandra, at that time various mysterious events happened. Jagannath Mishra had a special vision just as Nanda Maharaj had a special vision, just as Vasudeva had a special vision.
Oh, some divine being is going to come. And the devatas came and offered their prayers. In the 10th Canto, 2nd chapter, the whole chapter is Garbha Suti, before the appearance of Krishna.
So, how when Devaki had Krishna in her womb, the devatas offered prayers to Krishna. Similarly, it is described that the devatas came and offered prayers to Gaurachandra also while he was there. And then eventually when he was born, it is described that both Krishna Chandra and Gaurachandra were very mischievous.
The forms of mischief were slightly different. Krishna would steal butter, primarily. But now, Gaurachandra would go to the nearby Ganga, and he would play in the Ganga, and he would throw water on the others.
And he would, just as Krishna would tease the gopis, the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nimai, at that time, would tease the girls who would be worshipping Lord Shiva over there. And then they would be worshipping Shiva, so that they would have a good husband. And he would say, I am the Lord of Shiva, I will be your husband.
And they would say, what kind of blasphemy is this? You will offend the Lord. He said, no, I am not offending, I am speaking the truth. They just couldn’t understand what he is doing.
So, both were mischievous. Now, there is a difference significantly that Krishna was born in a Kshatriya family, and then he went and stayed with Vaishyas. Vasudeva was a Kshatriya, and then the Mahayoga Vaishya.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in a Brahmana family. And he was also mischievous, but because he is in Brahmana family, for him, learning was considered very important. Now, both of them are said to be precocious.
Precocious means, they learn very quickly, very fast. So, because initially Krishna was in the Vaishya family, so, in the Vaishya family, there is Diksha that happens. Generally, Brahmana, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas get Diksha.
Diksha in the Vedic context was somewhat different from how it is now. Diksha, now in the Vaishnava tradition, is more like a lifelong commitment, lifelong relationship between the Guru and the disciple. In the past, Diksha was more of a finite time of training.
There is no description of, say, Chaitanya, of Krishna’s interactions with Sandipani Muni after he leaves the Guru. But of course, the lessons that are learnt are always there. So, then Krishna went to the Sandipani Muni’s ashram, and within a short while, he says, in 64 days, he learnt all that was to be learnt.
What takes years and years for people to learn, learn very quickly. Similarly, Nimai also learnt, he did not go and stay in a Gurukul. He was a Brahmin.
He stayed at home. He went to his, he went to Ganga Das Pandit’s teetola, his teaching academy, and there he learnt so fast. He just learnt so quickly.
He, within a few years, not only had he finished all learning, initially he was very mischievous. At the age of between 6 to 8, he started learning, and then by 14, he had his own academy. By the age of 10 or 12, he had finished all his learning, and at 14, he had not only started teaching, but he had got an academy with his own students.
So, Krishna, by the age of 10, went back to Dwaraka, went back to Mathura. So, both of them took up responsibilities very early. That is, responsibility very early means that both of them, Krishna took up the Kshatriya responsibility of bringing down Kamsa and protecting the Yadus.
And Nimai took up the responsibility of Brahminical duty, of teaching. Another major difference is that, not only both of them in different Varanas, we have that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that with Krishna, Balaram was always there. And Balaram was there with him before in Vrindavan, and then he came with him to Mathura, and then he came with him to Dwaraka also.
But however, for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, his brother, he was known as Vishwaroop, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was Vishwambhar. So, Vishwaroop, he took sannyas when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very young. And then, later on, so as you said that Vishwaroop was not exactly a manifestation of Balaram, but Nityananda Prabhu was a manifestation of Balaram.
But Nityananda Prabhu came into his life later. So, around the age of, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was around 10, Vishwaroop took sannyas. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was around 20, he manifested his devotion.
Approximately, these dates are variable depending on which biography of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we refer to. But during those 10 years, Nityananda Prabhu was just waiting. Nityananda Prabhu was much older than Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but he was just waiting, waiting, waiting.
And the moment he came to know that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had started Harinam Sankirtan, immediately he came. So, both of them were inseparable thereafter. The, beyond that, when both of them started their mission, Krishna’s mission was Paritranaya Sadhana, Vinashaya Yadushpitam, Dharmasamsthapanarthaya Sambhavami Yugemo.
The Lord, whenever the Lord descends, the Lord has a contextual mission and an eternal mission. The contextual mission is to establish dharma in the time when he has descended. And that dharma is established for some time, but the nature of the world is by the power of time, everything gets degraded.
So, Krishna establishes dharma, and Yudhishtira becomes the king, after Yudhishtira, Parikshit becomes the king, and after Parikshit departs, then Janamejaya becomes, but then Kali Yuga starts taking over. So, even when the Lord descends and establishes dharma, that is not always going to be there forever. So, definitely, it is important to establish dharma at that time.
It is a contextual purpose of the Lord, circumstantial purpose to establish dharma at that time. But the eternal purpose is to show the path of dharma for all time. So, just as Krishna, because he was born in a Kshatriya family, as a Kshatriya, his primary role was to remove the adharmic rulers.
Krishna does not give a lot of philosophical instructions. Krishna focusses primarily on eliminating demons. And then he himself hears from the sages, and he encourages others to hear from the sages, by his example, by his actions.
There are of course times, like when he speaks of Bhagavad Gita, where he acts as not just a brahmana, but as the guru of the brahmanas, as the lord of the brahmanas. But Krishna does the Kshatriya dharma of fighting against the demons. And establishing dharma thereby.
So, then Mahaprabhu is also the supreme lord, but he has come as a brahmana. And as a brahmana, he does not use weapons. So, Kshatriyas use, Kshatriyas use Shastra.
Brahmanas use Shastra. Shastra is scripture and Shastra is weapons. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s weapon for overcoming or dissipating illusion was to use the, to use scriptural knowledge.
And he did not give elaborate scriptural knowledge, although he had that. Just as Krishna, wherever he went, he was victorious. Nobody could defeat Krishna.
Even, although Krishna seemed to be like a little child, he defeated big, big demons. And whoever demon he fought, Krishna defeated all of them. Similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Madhanila describes how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was victorious in all directions, wherever he went.
The south is, as soon as, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was like a small town, Navadvip was not a, it was a well-known town, but it was a small town. As soon as he came out of Navadvip, the first thing that happened was, in Jagannath Puri, he met a great scholar, Sarovam Bhattacharya. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it was like his, after sannyas, it was his first encounter and just completely transformed Sarovam Bhattacharya.
Not only defeated him, but he converted him. It’s a great victory. And then he went to South India and there is an encounter with, with all the sampradayas described.
He went with Sri Vaishnavas and there was Bhopal Bhattakoswami and his father Venkat Bhatta, who were transformed from Sri Vaishnavism to Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Then he went to Udupi and he met Madhava Vaishnavas. And there also he instructed in the glory of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Then he went to North India and there he met Mayavadis. He went to Mayavadis in the heartland of Mayavad. Prabhupada said, Varanasi is the Vrindavan of the Mayavadis.
It’s like what Vrindavan is for devotees, Varanasi is for the Mayavadis. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went there and in their heartland, he defeated Prakash Anand Saraswati. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he spoke so brilliantly that after hearing him, Prakash Anand Saraswati understood for the first time what was Prakash, what was Anand and what is Saraswati.
He understood what is real knowledge, what is real bliss and what is the real blessing of Saraswati Devi, what is real illumination. So that was the great potency of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Victorious in scholarship wherever he went.
Wherever he had scholarly encounters, he was victorious. But more than scholarship, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu shared the ultimate conclusion of all scholarship, that is love for Krishna. Now whoever he met, whoever saw him, whoever he touched, they all were permeated with love for Krishna.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was also Digvijayi in terms of the way he travelled. This is Krishna was victorious with Shastra, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was victorious with Shastra and with the Siddhanta of Shastra in establishing it through debate where required and through the surcharge of devotion wherever possible. And I will conclude with one last important example of the parallel between Gauri Lila and Krishna Lila.
That is both are characterised by the flavour of separation. Krishna was in Vrindavan and he was the life of the Vrajavasis. But Krishna left Vrindavan.
He left to answer the call of duty. He was a Kshatriya, he had to leave because he had to fight against the demons. Similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in Navadvipa.
Of course, Krishna had not been born in Vrindavan. He had come from Mathura to Vrindavan. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Navadvipa.
But the principle is similar. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also left Navadvipa. And the devotees went deep into immense separation.
They drowned in an ocean of separation from Lord Chaitanya because they just couldn’t live without him. In fact, some of the biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they don’t even describe Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s departure from Navadvipa. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also does not describe Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taking sannyas very elaborately.
This is a cursory mention of it. But it’s too traumatic for devotees to talk about. And that’s why when we worship the Lord, because the devotees never wanted to think of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a sannyasi.
So although we depict him as a sannyasi also, because he was a sannyasi for a major part of his life, but we don’t show him, we don’t worship him as a sannyasi. We worship him in the mood he was in Navadvipa. It’s like Krishna also has weapons.
Krishna has weapons and Krishna uses weapons. Krishna has Sudarshan Chakra, Krishna has his Charan Dhanva Gadadhara, he has his mace, he has his bow. But when we worship Krishna, we worship him in the mood of Nirvana, with the flute, with the peacock feather.
Krishna doesn’t enter into Dwaraka Palace with a peacock feather. But if it is there, it’s not a prominent. He has like majestic crowns, not a simple crown made of forest, forest remnants, forest paraphernalia.
Wow, it’s just as Krishna, both of them left the place where they were most loved. And both of them are eternally cherished and remembered and worshipped in the mood of that place. Now, why did they leave? Again, circumstantially, there’s a different reason.
Krishna had to fight against the demons. Krishna was obligated by the request of the Yadus. So, similarly, there is a circumstantial reason that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was cursed by a Brahmana that he could not enjoy family life.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also had to establish Dharma. And for establishing the Yuga Dharma, he had to travel across the world. And as a grahastha, he could not travel.
That’s why he took sannyas. But ultimately, it was primarily to elevate the devotion of his devotees to an even higher level. That separation does to love what wind does to fire.
Separation does to love what wind does to fire. That when the fire is small, the wind extinguishes the fire. But when the fire is large, the wind spreads the fire.
So, similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was separated from his devotees. And Krishna was separated from his devotees because his devotees had such great devotion that it spread more and more and more. And in that way, he actually took his devotees to a far greater level of ecstasy.
And there’s a beautiful, I’ll conclude, there’s a beautiful verse of, in the 11th canto, which Vishwanath Jagadgur explains, it refers to all the three avatars, Ram, Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And that also gives some parallels. So, I offer my obeisances to that great person.
So, who is that great person? So, this verse refers to all the three avatars that are described. So, let’s see what is the meaning. That which is very difficult to give up the great fortune, which is aspired for even by the gods, that this great person gave it up.
Why did he give it up? Because he was very devoted to dharma. And to honour the word of Arya, of a respectable person, he went to the forest. That he became, that he started, he started chasing after a muruga, after a deer who was illusory.
Considering it very dear, he started chasing after that deer. And to that great lord, I offer my obeisances. So, at one level, whom does it refer to? Who chased after illusory deer? Ram.
So, Ram left Ayodhya, which is very prosperous and even the gods were amazed at the prosperity. He left Ayodhya to honour the word of his father and went to the forest. And then he chased after the deer in order to get it for his dearly beloved Sita.
So, that’s referring to Ram. But he says it can also refer to Krishna. He was born in Mathura.
And Mathura was extremely prosperous. But Krishna gave up Mathura to go to Vrindavan. Why? Aryavachasa dharmishta.
Dharmishta Aryavachasa. That Vasudeva had promised to Kamsa that, if I have any son, whatever children I have, I will give to you. So, what he did? He did give a child.
He gave that girl that was born to Ananda Maharaj. So, because Krishna had to be protected. So, if Krishna had been kept over there, Vasudeva would have been obligated to give.
But because of that, he didn’t give him. He went away from there. Dharmishta Aryavachasa yadaga dharanyam.
And he went to the aranya of Vrindavan. And Chakranjeeva beautifully says over in Sanskrit, the words can be reversed and the meaning still can be retained. Not the same meaning, but a meaning can be retained.
Just like in poetry, you can reverse word order in English also. So, he says, Krishna maya mrugam daitha icchita manu vadhavata. What does this mean? He says, Krishna became a mrug in the hands of yoga maya, that is Radharani.
And when Radharani went away from him, Krishna ran after her to pacify her, to placate her, to win her over. Daitha icchita manu vadhavata. So, he becomes like a deer.
And that is the great love of Srimati Radharani, that she can make the Supreme Lord dance like a deer. And lastly, he says that, this also applies to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that Navadvip was filled with opulence, opulence of Brahminical opulence, not great wealth, but there was great learning, a very pious atmosphere was there. That from such an atmosphere to leave was not easy, because everything that was there, he had his mother, he had his wife, he had prestige, he had respect, he had followers, but he gave it all up.
He, why did he give it up? Because Brahmana had cursed him and he was dharmishti, he wanted to follow the dharma. And agad aranyam, he went to the forest. Which forest did he go to? He says that, there is a bhava aranya, the forest of material existence.
That is described in the 5th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. So, he went to all the places in the world where people were not so closely connected with God. People were impious or only pious but not spiritual.
He went to that forest of material existence. And he says, maya mrugam daitaya ipsitaman vadhavan. Here he gives a beautiful twist to that.
He says, that the conditioned souls are like mrugam, are like deer and they are chasing after maya. They are chasing after the illusive sense objects of the world. The soul is chasing after the sense objects, chasing after maya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu chases after that soul.
Maya mrugam daitaya ipsitaman vadhavan. He ran faster than them to catch them and give them Krishna’s mercy. He travelled, not just he ran, but he ran in jumbo jet planes going across the world giving Lord Chaitanya’s mercy to everyone, giving Lord Krishna’s mercy to everyone.
So, ultimately the supreme parallel between both of them is, both of them are compassionate. Both of them are here to deliver us and they deliver us by giving us the opportunity to absorb ourselves in them, in their pastimes, in their purpose. So, the festival of the appearance of Lord Chaitanya which is celebrated today, Jagannath Mishra Mahotsav, the mood of that is, just as Lord appeared in the house of Jagannath Mishra, let may the Lord appear in our hearts also.
And he will appear in our hearts when we strive to remember him, when we strive to make him the default object of our consciousness, the foremost object of our consciousness. And when our consciousness becomes absorbed in him, that is the supreme protection. So, I will summarise.
I spoke on the theme of the protection, parallels between God Lila and before that I took this verse and I said that how Atmatulya refers not that the Dwaraka warriors are equal to Krishna in all respects, but they are equal in terms of protecting Dwaraka. Dwaraka had lots of opulence including great warriors. And we look at cultural context to understand the Bhogavati and Nagaloka, that the purpose of the metaphor, if you do not know the metaphorical comparison point, it may not be easy to understand, but the point is to protect.
And we talk what is the Lord’s protection ultimately? If a person is driving a car, the car itself will be insured, but more important than protecting the car is protecting the person driving the car. Similarly, the body is like a vehicle for us. So, protecting the body is important, but for Krishna’s purpose, protecting the occupant of the body, the soul is most important.
A soul’s protection means protection of the consciousness of the soul. And Krishna provides us protection, as per his contextual dharma when he descends, he may not protect the body or the people who were there at that time. But his ultimate gift is that he gives us wonderful pastimes to relish, by absorbing ourselves in which our consciousness can always be protected.
And then we talked about the similarities between Kaur, Leela and Krishna Leela, how there is trauma before their appearance, that indicates that for the Lord to manifest in our heart, there will always be some trauma which we have to go through. And then we talked about how both of them are mischievous, both of them at a very young age took up their responsibilities as Brahmana or Kshatriya. Both of them were victorious wherever they went.
Krishna in terms of warfare and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in terms of intellectual warfare. And then ultimately, both of them blessed their devotees by being separated from them, because they gave them the highest ecstasy of devotion in separation. And I talked about how Vishwanath Chakravarti used this beautiful shloka to demonstrate that both of them are compassionate.
And for us, just as on Jagannath Mishra’s festival, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the house of Jagannath Mishra. So we pray that the Lord appear in our heart and make our heart is home. Thank you very much.
Today, we will discuss on the topic of paranormal phenomena and spirituality.