Gender of the Soul

Goswami Mahārāja: Any question?

Devotee: Yes Maharaj, the first is a request from Laksmi Pria Didi in the US and she is asking about today. Mahaprabhus auspicious arrival in Panihati, so maybe you can tell us something.

Goswami Mahārāja: Well, Panihati is a very auspicious place. How will we say, south of Shantipura in Nabadwipa and north of Calcutta and Varaha Nagara. Actually when you, if you travel from present day Calcutta to Nabadwipa, and there are different ways you can go but, there are many Holy places that you find along the way. This is one of them, Varaha Nagara which is a little bit north of Calcutta and we are told that Mahaprabhu went through there.

When we sometimes talk about “Did He go to Calcutta?” So for the northern part of Calcutta we say yes. So Panihati is famous in different ways. We know that previously some months back we celebrated the @@ chira-doy festival when Ragunatha Das Goswami meets Nityananda Prabhu there and with Rāghava Paṇḍita and others they make a big festival and it’s there that there He gets the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. Das Goswami is always trying to extricate Himself from family life – indra-sama aiśvarya, strī apsarā-sama– He had the wealth of Indra and a wife as beautiful as an apsarā, which means a heavenly courtesan.

So where Nityananda Prabhu, He describes it as punishment that He is going to punish Das Goswami and we know that the punishment of Nityananda Prabhu is most favourable for spiritual culture. So how is He punishing him? He is saying that all of His eccentric friends and associates the dvadasa gopals, the twelve principle cowherd boys, from Krsna lila they are descending into Gaura lila, you know from the Gaura -ganoddesha-dipika the ‘who’s who’ of Chaitanya Lila. Some devotee occupies a position in Krsna Lila and then how do they appear in Gaura Lila?

So Nityananda Prabhu, Balarama, Nityananda Balarama, so many of His associates are cowherd boys in Vṛndāvana. And there are what is called dvadasa gopals which means ’12 principle cowherd boys’ and they are quite a group and not unlike Nityananda Prabhu who is the avadhuta and is unpredictable in His behavior, they have so many, they are spiritually-centric -we can say.

Like Abhirama Thakur, he carries a tree trunk that they say takes 64 men to lift, and he plays with it like a flute. He is twirling it (laughs) we can’t conceive of that properly. He has a whip, a spiritually conscious whip, known as Jaya-Mangal and if He whips somebody they are infused with Krsna prema. And Gauridas Pandita, someone is Subhala, Shridham, there are different cowherd boys. And Guru Maharaja is telling us that they like the game ‘hide and seek’. When they descend into Gaura lila, it’s not like everyone knows who everyone is and where they are but just like hide and seek - they’re hidden. The way they recognize one another is by observing certain spiritual tendencies, then they realise who you are – and it brings a lot of happiness to them.

We are told, yogamaya if we study Vishvanatha’s commentary of the 10th Canto (Srimad Bhagavatam) he’ll give great detail of how yogamaya is sometimes making Krsna forget things and others, so that it can enhance the pastimes. Just like our friend Stanislavsky in the..

Russian Devotee: [Quips]

Goswami Mahārāja: (laughs) his namesake.. The Russian Guru of acting that Stanislavsky, he is a disciple. He is saying you can become so absorbed in playing a part that you lose your own identity and totally identify with that role. So not that you will think you are acting or playing a part but you will have become that person, you will feel that, like an epiphany – with so much identification with the character that you transfer into the character.

Like that, so these devotees – and these are crude examples but they help us to a certain degree to understand. When they descend here how can Nityananda, Balarama not know how is Nimai Pandita, how is that possible? It is possible in the pastimes, so when Mahaprabhu tells the devotees that He has a dream, seeing Him on the chariot? That’s another thing, this is the dream, when Mahaprabhu dreams that Nityananda is coming. Nityananda Prabhu, He goes on pilgrimage to different Holy places in anticipation of His Pastimes with Gauranga – with Nimai Pandit.

He is waiting for Nimai Pandit - the cycle of His Navadwipa pastimes, so there is a certain entry point for Nityananda Prabhu. And to pass His time, with pastimes, He is visiting south India, Vṛndāvana. We are told in Vṛndāvana He finds the places where Krsna and Balarama used to play and that He is devastated with ecstasy, finding out Nanda Bhavan. I’ve told it’s like Chernobyl, some nuclear event took place there , a certain… (asks devotees).. How long ago was that, 30 years?

Devotee: 1986.
Goswami Mahārāja: Around 30 years ago and things will grow and different things will happen but if someone goes with a Geiger counter, or something that can detect nuclear radiation they will see ‘Oh, this place is rich, it’s full of radiation’ – it’s just an example (laughs). The fact is that there are tourists who go there now, it is a tourist place - this is Kali-Yuga (laughing) instead of going to a Holy place, let’s go to Chernobyl and look at melted stones. Whereas you could see stone melted from the touch of the feet of Krsna or do you want to, you know… Kali-Yuga.

Anyway, in my example – those who have the instruments they can see some very powerful nuclear event took place here and it is still radiating from that time. Again, these are crude examples but they help us to understand something. So we sing every day, twice a day Radha Krsna Nitya Lila korilo prakasha that these pastimes they are nitya meaning that they are eternal but nitya also means that they are circular. Just as a circle is eternal in that sense, it has no beginning middle or end. As Guru Maharaj says, quoting Descartes “Everywhere centre, nowhere circumference”.

Devotee: Also Nicolas of Cusa..
Goswami Mahārāja: Nicolas from Cusa. There are different people this quote is attributed to but the point is ‘everywhere centre, nowhere circumference’. That’s the infinite, so these pastimes Nitya-lila they are going on like that. So Nityananda Prabhu (pastimes) although they are eternal and can be seen from another point of view, to find Vṛndāvana roughly 5000 years later objectively looking different, this is the point that I wanted to make. From an objective point of view it looks different and we are riveted to objective verification, when they show Kaliya-hrada in Vṛndāvana the lake of Kaliya and there is no water there, it’s just sands now and there is some tree and someone will say “This is the tree from which Krsna leapt into the Kaliya lake and danced on Kaliya’s head” and someone will go “Is that the original tree?” (laughs). Or “This is the neem tree” – “Is that the original one?”.. Guru Maharaj’s answer to this, he said “The Jagannatha Deity is changed every 12 years, is it Jagannatha?” Every 12 years they replace, they take that Deity and they put it… Is that Jagannatha? Which one is Jagannatha?

When Gauridas Pandit.. to stay in this zone, remember he is subhal sakha that means the top, the @@parama-priyasta, the priya-narmā the top of the cowherd boys. So Gaura Nitai, Krsna and Balarama are at his place at Champahati and it is time for them to go and he cannot bear the separation so they arrange for deities of Gaura Nitai. Saying, they will be the deities of Gaura Nitai and Gaura Nitai they start to leave and he is saying, “This is unacceptable to me!” and they explain to him saying “Well the deity @@sakshad vajenren anandam hari what’s the other sloka.. @@deha dehi vedo yam isvara vidjate the deity is identical, non-different from Krsna, non-different from the Lord. And Gauri das Pandit says “Ok, then why don’t we do this, the two of you stay and the deities, they go? (laughs). You say by your own admission they are non-different so let’s do it like this – the two of you will stay and those deities they can go”. So “As you wish”.

So now Gaura Nitai – they are deities, and the deities start walking away and Guru Maharaj says “Oh, I am a stupid man – you do some switcher thing and I am a fool! They are the deities standing there and then they are walking and I’m supposed to believe that!” (laughs). Then Mahaprabhu says “You make up your mind, who should stay and who should go” (laughs). So this is for their play, so Nityananda Prabhu when He comes to Navadwipa – and we know when we go on the parikrama every year and we go to the Math of Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj which is at Nandan Acharya – that is where Mahaprabhu and Nityananda meet. And Mahaprabhu is so beautiful, remember this is Krsna - like we are singing in the arati song syama gopa.. He is ekshana radha..eksahnu in one form now Radha and Krsna have been combined.. They say yam syamasundaram achintya guna svarupam that Krsna is inconceivably beautiful. Srimati Radharani is Krsnas internal sweetness expressed, so Srimati Radharani is inconceivably beautiful. Then if Krsna is ‘Reality the Beautiful’ how can you improve upon Him? How can He become more beautiful? If you combine Radha and Krsna together that takes inconceivable beauty ad infinitum..

So now Niyananda is seeing, who is formerly Krsna, seeing Him covered in this divine form where He has become Gauranga, He cannot even believe the beauty of Mahaprabhu. And we hear that this is Krsna – so Mahaprabhu signals to Mukunda Datta to sing something and he is saying @@ syama hiraṇya bari […]. The way Krsna looked when the vipra patnis, the wives of the Brahmins came and found Krsna and Balarama in the forest and Krsna leaning with His left arm on a cowherd bow twirling a lotus flower and smiling and His hair, Guru Maharaj described as ‘agreeable negligence’ (laughs).. The gopis they find Krsna every day in Vṛndāvana - they wait at 5 o’clock, set your watch to it, at 5 o’clock Krsna comes back from cowherding all day, there are demi-gods lined up at the sides trying to offer some prayers.

You see when they appear as demi-gods Krsna will deal with them in a very respectful way so what they like to do at other times is to take on different forms, so they can have more intimate dealings, as a cowherd boy or some other way. Otherwise, if Shiva shows up as ‘Shiva’, Brahma shows up as ‘Brahma’ then Krsna has to give some salute but anyway.. when Mukunda Datta sings this beautiful description of Krsna then Nityananda is realizing that this is that syama-sundhar, syama gopa rupa that cowherd Krsna and He faints in ecstasy and when He awakes He is in the lap of Nimai Pandit. He is fanning Him and bringing Him back to Krsna consciousness and it is mentioned that that is a role a reversal, normally Shesayi, Ananta-Shesha is the bed and Vishnu is lying on the bed. Normally, but here this is an opportunity for Krsna and He has become the lap - and there is a very sweet exchange between them.

So anyway the Panihati at that time, Nityananda is there and as his punishment Das Goswami is hiding and Nityananda brings him near and says “I’m going to punish you” this is a way of giving His mercy by making him feed all of his devotees and they have the ciḍā-dadhi festival but we hear at that time Rāghava Paṇḍita – he also wants to give some special prasad. and there is later what becomes known as the rāghavera jhāli what is made by, what is his sisters name? Madhavi?

Bhakti Lalita Devi Dasi: Damayanti.
Goswami Maharaj: Oh, Damayanti. Right, and Rāghava Paṇḍita, why are they such good cooks? (In Krsna Lila) I believe Rāghava Paṇḍita is Dhanishta. Who brings Krsnas remnants to Radharani like we sing in the song by Bhaktivinode Thakur. They are the best cooks, that’s why even with the ciḍā-dadhi – He makes so many things and he is told “Oh, this evening you will supply prasad.” Now we are having this festival and that festival there in Panihati it is reminiscent of Krsna and Balarama and the cowherd boys having lunch on the banks of the Yamuna and Mahaprabhu shows up there and Nityananda -they are feeding each other. Nityananda is putting prasad into the mouth of Mahaprabhu and Mahaprabhu is feeding Nityananda – back and forth, some confidential devotees can see that but not everyone can see that.

So we are told that there are different times, different instances where Mahaprabhu shows up, appears to reciprocate the devotion of His devotees. When mother Sachi is feeding Him, sometimes she prepares everything and He comes and eats everything and she looks and sees no prasadam and she thinks she is losing her mind. So she cooks again, but He sends a messenger to say “No, it’s not your imagination I come and take your prasadam every day. “ From Him, when Nityananda prabhu is dancing Nrsimhananda Brahmachari he also brings Mahaprabhu to Panihati so Rāghava Paṇḍita we are told… Hare Krsna..

Anyway, these different devotees they bring Mahaprabhu by their devotion so repeatedly this divine place is showing up in the pastimes of Mahaprabhu, how wonderful and auspicious it is, it is celebrated by all the devotees. There is a little town nearby called Tribeni, which means where three rivers meet. And I remember another devotees and I, we made some life members of these so called ‘Ghosh’ brothers. They owned a sweet shop in Calcutta called the Satya Narayana Mishti Bandar (laughs). How we discovered them I don’t know! It must be Krsnas arrangement (laughs) but they had this superb mishti dadhi, the white kind because there is mishti dadhi that is pan, this was like.. any way it was very special so they are all became members the three ‘Ghosh’ brothers. And then they said “We would like to invite you for nagar-sankirtana to our village, our hometown, which was Tribeni near Panihati and they asked my partner, the other devotees, “What sort of prasadam should we arrange?” and he said “Just sweets” (laughs) – we were going to be there for three days! (laughs) This was a bramachari – and he says “Just sweets.” Misti dadhi, Rasgullas, Sandesh that’s all we need (laughs) – fortunately they didn’t listen to him, (laughs). They own a sweet shop and a very popular one, the sweets won’t be a problem. This is first time we ever had begun bhaja cooked in mustard oil, fried eggplant cooked in mustard oil.. we had this at around 9 or 10 o’clock at night after going kirtan we were invited out there and there was like a sister or aunty or someone at the table – we were all at the table taking prasadam and she was like that (Maharaja mimes some acting crazy) so we are trying to have a polite conversation and we are very eager to Panihati as that we had all heard about and all these pastimes there. But she is hard to ignore (the crazy lady) after a while and I said “What’s which didi?” (laughs) you know.. and he goes “Oh, near about a month ago – she got the moksh’ – Moksha – (laughs). Instead of saying “She has lost her mind, she is puggle” He said ““Oh, about a month ago – she got the moksh’ – because she is like (mimes some odd behavior) and I’m going like “Really.. (laughs) I did not know that” – (mockingly) Moksha (laughs) – Only a Bengali could say that (laughs harder) “She got moksha” Oh, congratulations!

We ate so much that night, the begun bahja the puris everything they served was so wonderful and with all the sweets they served and everything - it was very difficult to wake up the next morning and they wanted to wake us up to do nagar-sankirtan at you know 5 am. So they opened the door and my friend he (laughs) as soon as they opened the door and shone the light in, he like does dandavat and goes “jayati jana-nivāso devakī-janma-vādo yadu-vara [..]” he starts chanting that sloka from the 87th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam (10.90.48) “The prayers of the personified Vedas“ and they are like (amazed) they shut the door and everyone goes back to sleep. They come back and open the door (again) and he goes “jayati jana-nivāso devakī-janma-vādo yadu-vara […]” they are starting to think “How many times is he going to do this before he actually gets up?” (laughs) but anyway, if you get the opportunity to spend any time in Bengal you will be surprised every step along the way is some Holy place – pretty much. That’s what I recall about Panihati. Any other question? Did I leave something out?

Devotee: What we can see with our imperfect senses is that Damodar is related with Vātsalya rasa and not Mādhurya rasa – so how to harmonise it?

Goswami Maharaj: Yes, well that is an interesting question because as you say we normally think of Damodar with the pastimes of mother Yashoda, binding Krsna. ‘Dama – udara’ so this is the belly and she wants to tie a rope around Krsna and it is mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam @@dui angala it is always ‘two fingers too short’ and she keeps tying more rope, really long ropes – I forget the exact measurement but they are very long and its always ‘two fingers too short’. So @@ jñāna manta prayasana upasa manta eva don’t try to measure Krsna –
They are back (laughs) they have come for Hari Katha..
So how is she bound? By.. I mean Krsna.. How is He bound? By ultimately, her love and devotion when He sees how fervently she is trying and for His sake, she wants to bind Him for His sake. But in the song the Damodar-astikam we hear these slokas were written at different times, very far apart, by Satyavrata Muni over long period of time and it does have the pastimes with Mother Yashoda, it describes that but if we listen to the very last sloka – it says @@namo radhikaya tudiya priyayay namo nanta lila devaya tubyam there is some hint, some suggestion of other types of pastimes. So I don’t have the qualification to speak about that but other than, we can say dik darshan indicating a particular direction, in the final sloka there is some reference to that, and what is the first line, of the last verse?

Devotee: (Starts to reply…)
Goswami Maharaj: No, of the last verse. Oh..

Devotee: (Continues reply…)
Goswami Maharaj: What is it again? @@namaste sudham isvara dipya dhamay namay radikhay priyay deva tubyam. So, I can’t speak to that other than some general indication. And as you say there is the deity in Jiva Goswamis temple Radha Damodar because there are different ways of interpreting things always. There is another question?

Devotee: Yes, about the soul and gender because we are born as women and men but it is also told that the soul doesn’t have gender. However, in the spiritual world there are Gopis and Gopas and they have like..

Goswami Maharaj: Where does it say the soul doesn’t have gender?

Devotee: Ha, I mean because..
Goswami Maharaj: I’m asking, you said “It’s also said..” Where is it said?
Devotee: Maybe we just heard randomly from somebody..
Goswami Maharaj: What do we say about the soul? We say jiva shakti right? When we are talking about the soul – jiva shakti. Is Shakti male or female? What is it? It’s female. Shakti is female. So jiva shakti here is taking male and female (forms) and also appearing in male and female forms, svarupas in the spiritual world. So what’s the problem? What is the question I mean?
Devotee: Ok, why are women not considered to be appropriate to study scriptures or that they have a lower birth?
Goswami Maharaj: (laughs) You have to ask.. therefore..
Devotee: Well women of certain..
Goswami Maharaj: Well not modern women… (laughs) Well this requires some history and let us put it this way also, these statements where do they come from? From thousands of years ago, right so they are not slokas that have been expressed at the present time that we live in, they are from ancient culture, ancient civilization at that time. strī-śūdra-dvija-bandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā that’s the verse - na śruti, they shouldn’t hear the śruti mantram. That’s why Guru Maharaj for the Brahma Gayatri taking of the śruti shruti we are respecting Guru Maharajs decision about these things but that’s where is says strī-śūdra-dvija-bandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā these classes should not hear. If you want to give more context in that culture the Bhagavatam is not śruti so ‘Suta’ could speak it, otherwise the ‘Suta’, Suta Goswami, @@ Brahma harshen.. this kind of thing.. They can’t speak Veda either, so it’s not just women. They are in those who are included so within that culture it has to do with qualification so even many groups of men in that culture are also not to hear śruti mantra and vibrate śruti mantra.
Guru Maharaj was asked once.. He was giving a lecture in Dhaka which is now Bangladesh, at a university there and so many students had come and there was one Muslim man in the audience too, maybe more than one but he is listening and when it is time for questions and he says to Guru Maharaj – “You say Ramachandra is perfect”, “Yes” – “Then why did He behead the shudraka? For no apparent reason? Why?” This is part of the pastimes of Ramachandra and Guru Maharaj gave an answer, He said:” What is the meaning of sudra?” And remember we heard this from Srila Prabupada a long time ago “One who wails” – that is what it means. “One who laments” who is overwhelmed, crying out, wailing with lamentation. That is actually one of the definitions of ‘sudra’. So Guru Maharaj began His explanation and then He said “Who will have to cry out with this type of intense lamentation? One who accepts this world as all-in-all will have to lament like that.”

So Brahmins by their nature, we say @@namo brahmanite vaya go brahmine hitya acha krsna govinda namo namaha it is interesting to note – Krsna likes Brahmins for some reason – we know He likes the cow, this that and the other but He has some special.. Brahmin is a mundane designation but Krsna likes them. Why? Because what other people are having a hard time getting their heads around, for Brahmins it’s in their DNA. They get spiritual culture intuitively they are hardwired for it and born and bred that way. We can say in Kali Yuga everything is topsy-turvy and that’s another thing but Brahmins, why have they appeared in this part of the varna-ashrama culture? Because cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13) because they have certain qualities and tendencies and their quality and tendency is towards spiritual culture. Exclusive spiritual culture. Why don’t Brahmins have an occupation and never a salary? They are maintained because they are aloof to the mundane and we have seen - even in modern times - Guru Maharaj comes from such a Brahmin family and Gurudeva, with natural spiritual qualifications.

Anyway, so now the sudra is forbidden to engage in austerities – remember we are talking about ancient Vedic culture just like there is ancient Chinese culture there is ancient Vedic culture. Why? Guru Maharaj explains because if an unqualified person performs austerities he will gain some power. Then it will be abused and that will create a disturbance for society and for the person themselves in terms of karmic reactions. So (laughing) Guru Maharaj told it himself “Ramachandra nipped it in the bud”. (laughs) by beheading the shudraka. In other words, just as we see Hiraṇyakaśipur created havoc as a result of his performing austerities and we see it in the modern world too – I don’t want to get too specific about it – but when unqualified people achieve certain types of powers they make life hellish for other people and also there is future suffering for themselves.

So what is Kuntis prayer? tathā paramahaṁsānāṁ munīnām amalātmanām bhakti-yoga-vidhānārthaṁ kathaṁ paśyema hi striyaḥ [SB 1.8.20] - She says, really you, she’s praising Krsna, you are that paramahaṁsānāṁ munīnām amalātmanām really you are meant for the paramahamsas and the great munis bhakti-yoga-vidhānārthaṁkathaṁ paśyema hi striyaḥ and what can we women understand or no. That is her posing. Kuntis prayers are in the Bhagavatam, right. This prayer I am quoting right now where she is saying “What can we know?” – Oh, we are now studying your prayers for five thousand years because they are full of revelation about Krsna. You are saying from a social position, you shouldn’t understand that the Vraja Gopis are less than that – Kunti is a Queen. They are the cowherd girls, right? As Guru Maharaj said, and I’m only repeating his words – “Half civilized stupid jungle girls” – and they are everything. @@Arja patim gi hitva those Vedas that they are not supposed to be able to hear – they reject and have crossed over all of that. The Gopis ostensibly are not pandits – remember Krsna is the cowherd. He and His friends they don’t know the Vedas either technically so who in their group is the advisor? Madumangal – he is a Brahmin (laughs) they are playing in this way so whenever they need to do something and very often something devious – like Krsna wants to do something, he will ask Madumangal is there some sloka some.. and Madumangal will say “Well,..” (coughs). You know” He can quote things.. sometimes the Vraja Gopis they will say “Oh there were some Brahmins here the other day doing a puja to Surya and they were chanting some mantras and we heard them.” They will say things, they know everything. We see it in their pastimes in Gaura-lila, that these so called ‘socially unqualified women’. We were talking before about Nityanada and the cowherd boys these “Half civilized stupid jungle girls” who are they in Gaura-lila? The Six Goswamis of Vrndavan, Srila Jiva Goswami - the greatest philosopher and scholar of all time - is a thirteen year old girl in Vrndavan. So what is that world? So it’s just a play, look at the vipra-patnis..their husbands got Brahminical initiation, studies the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the āgamas – they know all the Vedic rituals and perfectly chanting mantras and everything and when they are faced with the prospect of offering Krsna and Balarama prasad, they say “Oh, it’s not time yet for prasad – we have more mantras to chant, more rituals to do – come back later” (laughs) and Krsna tells the cowherd boys – “Go to their wives” and their wives have no sacred thread, srutiḥ na gocara – they are not hearing the srutiḥ mantra, they didn’t go to the Gurukula they don’t know all that. These women they are beside themselves, with everything they have got on their stove or in their oven they are just running to Krsna, and that’s the sloka - that is where that sloka is from that Nityananda hears from Mukunda Datta. So as Guru Maharaj said – “Who is a woman here may not be a woman there and vice-versa” So this is the Rupanuga line and all of our Gurus, you know gopi bhava rasamtrita adi lila hari – they are drowning in waves of Gopi bhava, all of them. Really in this context the antaraṅga-bhaktas Ramananda Roy, Vishaka, Svarupa Damodar, Lalita, the Six Goswamis – Gadadhar Pandit is Radharani Herself.

So we know enough about ancient civilization, and East and West to understand it was a different culture and social stratification of that time, it’s more or less a distant memory at this point, so Guru Maharaj would say “we are interested in the degree of devotion and not dress”. Whether someone is wearing saffron or someone is wearing a sari – or a saffron sari for that matter (laughs).
If we say ‘Oh why in Mahaprabhus pastimes they are taking the male role’ it is a very good point and very important – to eliminate the possibility of these pastimes being thought of in terms of mundane eros or eroticism. As some Gauranga Nagaris are apt to do, they try and impose the Krsna-purusha or enjoyer position on Nimai Pandit and we are told that He has no erotic pastimes even with Lakshmi-priya, Vishnu-priya there are none. Prabhupada said once, he never joked with any women only one time the only joke we know of with any lady, Sachimata was looking or something and couldn’t find it and Nimai Pandit said “Maybe Vishnu-priya took it” (laughs). So I remember being on the veranda with Gurudeva in Calcutta and there is that picture of Bhakti Vinode Thakur on the altar with the big beard, with the picture like that and Gurudeva looked and He said “And to think, in the spiritual world He is a twelve year old girl”.
It has to do with ancient Vedic culture, by divine will Suta Goswami can seek the Bhagavatam but not Veda because the suta is technically a sudra. So it is mentioned, who Vedavyasa is entrusting different types of Vedic knowledge to Vaishampayana Rishi, who else, Jaimini some others – He gives different.. (those) who are qualified to represent that type of knowledge – that’s what it has to do with. We think of knowledge as information but it’s not just data transfer. Certain types of knowledge require certain types of qualifications to receive that, to imbibe that from another.

Devotee: Is that a restriction?
Goswami Maharaj: Yes, I would think so. Just like sannyās – sannyās is forbidden in the Kali-Yuga. So what are we doing? Gomedha, aśvamedha sannyās and some other things are forbidden in the Kali Yuga – so what is Guru Maharaj saying karma- sannyās, karma-kanda – the Vaishnava Sannyās given by Ramanuja – that is another thing.
But the male female principle, this is what is binding us to material existence and the disbelief that there is any possibility for that expression in the spiritual reality, that is why we are in material existence. We don’t really believe, and I’m speaking rhetorically, of this possibility muktir hitvānyathā-rūpam svarupeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (BG 2.10.6) we don’t know, and are not sufficiently educated about the liberated position. We’re rather like the lady “She got the moksh” we are thinking like you are sitting there staring out into space with some abstract realisation of whatever. When we hear a sloka likes Rupa Goswamis, tvat saksat karanahlada visuddhabdhi sthitasya me sukhani gosoadayante brahmany api jagad guro (BRS 39) brahmanando bhavedesa cet prararddha gunikrtah naiti bhakti sukham-bhodheh paramanu tulam api (BRS 38) he is telling at the beginning of the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu about what is the happiness of Krsna Bhakti Rasa – if you take Brahmananda – that means generic spiritual happiness of the mukta kula – of the generic mukta group, it is so absorbing, overwhelming and filling one full of happiness that sex pleasure which is generally considered the most intense mundane pleasure, is of no interest to such personalities. They have no interest in it and that is just Brahmananda – and Rupa Goswami is saying if you take that pleasure – they are already experiencing something that is millions of times greater than the highest mundane pleasure so they have no interest in that. Rupa Goswami says, if you take that and multiply it a trillion fold it won’t be equivalent to an atomic fraction of the pleasure of Bhakt-Rasa. But we don’t believe that (laughs). It’s the most incredible ad, advertisement that you could hear. We should at least think, “How can he say that! – Sure it must be good but that good?” This is the aparādha of our imagination – we don’t understand who is Krsna what actually is Love, what actually is pleasure. We have such a miserly notion of these things – remember one of the ten offenses we hear is, don’t think what you read in the scriptures is imaginary. @@Netti hasana kalpanam/hari-nāmni kalpanam it’s not historical, in the mundane sense and neither is it imaginary and it is not hyperbole.

When Rupa Goswami.. when Mahaprabhu says “Rupa tell that sloka you wrote that makes everyone happy” and who is there? Haridas Thakur, the nama Acharya and others and He says tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī-labdhaye –
I need to see that clock – either move the clock or yourself a little bit, ok.
tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī-labdhaye karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām (CC Antya 1.99) what is chanting Krsna nama according to Rupa Goswami? And it’s one of the people in His plays.. (asks question to devotees) is it Purnamasi? It maybe.. who says “When I hear the name of Krsna..”, and this is talking about one name krsna neti varna dui just Krsna one - Krs-na – when you really hear it. Guru Maharaj would say to try and key us into this, “What is the voltage in the Krsnanama of Yashoda when she takes the name of Krsna?” The voltage, like here they were working on some voltage before Rama Kantha and Jananivas and we know sometimes and you go to a voltage box and you see lightning bolts – it’s a universal icon I think – lightning bolts and you see “High Voltage” you know they are warning you. I remember Akinchan Maharaj, who is a master builder, he can build anything and won’t touch electricity – he would always call an electrician for that - showing humility. So what it the voltage of the Krsnanama of Mother Yashoda? What is the voltage in the Krsnanama of Srimati Radharani? Inconceivable, right? But we can understand beyond powerful. So Rupa Goswami is saying that real Krsnanama is so tasteful that one tongue is insufficient and that one will desire millions of tongues to taste the sweetness of Krsnanama. And how beautiful does it sound? That two ears are insufficient, one will desire to have 10 million ears to catch all the sweetness. So back to the nama-apradha – it is not hyperbole, not imagination. When Haridas Thakur, the nam-acharya heard this sloka and He has heard everything, He knows all the holy name slokas – He is Hari Das Thakur, he loved hearing this so much it made Hari Das Thakur happy, Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodar everyone there. They are all so happy to hear this expression from Rupa Goswami. Hare Krsna.

Why did I mention that? The connection.. we were talking about shruti and not hearing.. Oh.. anyway (laughs) we are the followers, the aspiring followers of the Vraja Gopis, what more can you say to that? Why not start there? (laughs). Whom we revere that’s the position that they occupy. I was saying to not mistake the mundane about spiritual erotic potential. That is why they are all male is these pastimes. There is no.. and Guru Maharaj said Mahaprabhus pastimes as they are presented in Chaitanya Charitamrta are presenting Madhurya Rasa in such a way that it cannot be misunderstood and then He said “And still it is misunderstood”. It is being presented perfectly, everything, it is airtight – the presentation. Why there are males in Gaura Lila? Everything is perfect and still it will be misinterpreted so we want to err on the side of spiritual caution, especially dealing with Sukadeva Goswami’s advice – if you can’t… You know Mahadeva can drink an ocean of poison @@Viśuddha Rudra but you can’t digest the pastimes of Krsna until you become free from the conception of male and female in the mundane sense and reconceive svarupa shakti, hladini shakti spiritual concepts of gender and identity. Hare Krsna.