Where should we focus?

Goswami Maharaj: Any questions from anyone? Yes, the lady on the back.
[Question in Russian]
Question: In the previous lecture you were telling about gayatri mantra and giving the explanation that Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave and this explanation is for the level of souls, not for men or women, etc. But why don’t they give gayatri mantra to girls, only give to the boys?

Goswami Maharaj: It’s just a Vedic tradition. [It] says in the Bhagavatam, “trayī na śruti-gocharā,” (SB: 1.4.25) it says hold over from that time,

strī-śūdra-dvijabandhūnāṁ
trayī na śruti-gocharā
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 1.4.25)

They are not be given sruti-mantra. So, here brahma-gayatri is taken to be sruti-mantra. So it is in line with the tradition. But what I would say is that better than that [is] Srila Guru Maharaj’s explanation and that’s open to everyone. And if you heard what I was saying, I was saying [that] at that time, those of us who received this mantram, sometimes were enquiring what’s the meaning and no one had the capacity to express that. But Srila Guru Maharaj, he expressed this and we published it in the end of the Guardian of Devotion [and] it is the last chapter in the Subjective Evolution of Consciousness. The whole mantra is there, you can read the whole thing. So, I don’t think it is much of an issue.

Guru Maharaj is saying the target is Radha-dasyam. We are told in Brahma-samhita, in the eight ear holes of Brahma. Why eight? Because he has four heads! Therefore 8 ears. And Divya Saraswati is giving the mantra. Is she not a female? That’s not brahma-gayatri, but it is kama-gayatri. So Divya Saraswati, a female, is giving the kama-gayatri mantram. When Brahma hears the sound of Krishna’s flute with his eight ears, he is saying, “oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svah tat savitur varenyaṁ,” known as brahma-gayatri.

As Srila Guru Maharaj once said, “Who is a female here, may not be a female there. Who is a male here, may not be a male there. On the verandah, in Dum Dum park there are different pictures on the wall, acharyas, some picture of Mahaprabhu and his associates, different pictures. Mahaprabhu and his principal associates are gopis in Vrindavan and they’ve descended in Gaura-lila. They take on male forms and that has some purpose also so that the imposition of an enjoyer will not be placed upon Krishna descending as Mahaprabhu, the mistake of the Gaura-nagaris taking him to be Krishna as an enjoyer. Anyway, looking on that wall, Srila Gurudev saw the picture of Bhakti Vinod Thakur and that is the very picture in front us. Bhakti Vinod Thakur with a beard and the japa-mala. And Gurudev musing at that time said, “The thing [is] in the spiritual world, he is a fourteen years old girl.”

The Vraja-gopis, the wives of the brahmans, they did not live in the Gurukula, undergone the sruti-mantra, the sacred thread and all of that. But we are told as expressed by Uddhava,

āsām aho charaṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāṁ
vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām
yā dustyajaṁ sva-janam ārya-pathaṁ cha hitvā
bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.47.61)

What the srutis are searching for, we’ve said, “trayī na śruti-gocharā,” those srutis what they are searching for, they have got. The half civilized stupid jungle girls of Vrindvan, the Vraja-gopis [have got] what the srutis are searching for. “Nikhila-śruti-mauli-ratna-mālā,” (Nāmāṣṭaka:1) in Rupa Goswami’s sloka, Guru Maharaj says that the srutis (the personified Vedic sounds) are declaring ratna-mala, the crown jewel of all sounds is the Holy Name of Krishna. Srila Guru Maharaj says there that they must say this. To not say this, to not indicate this, would be to commit suicide on their part.

So, they are saying, of all sounds, of all that is to be heard, the Holy Name of Krishna is the central sound.

ekasya śrutam eva lumpati matiṁ kṛṣṇeti nāmākṣaraṁ
sāndronmāda-paramparām upanayaty anyasya vaṁśī-kalaḥ
(Vidagdha-mādhava: 2.9)

In one sloka of Rupa Goswami, Srimati Radharani is saying, “I heard the name of Krishna, and that captured my heart then I heard the sound of His flute, I was captured by that, and then the side of His form, I was captured by that. So, I am now torn into three. It would have been to be dead than to be in this position.”

Of course, it is the name of Krishna, the flute of Krishna and the form of Krishna, but she is treating them as if there are three individual different people. Radha-dasyam. Guru Maharaj is revealing in his explanation that this is the purport of the brahma-gayatri: it’s the service of the Lotus Feet of Srimati Radharani. And what is it telling here, I mean in different places? The Vraja-gopis have got that.

In the modern world we want to try and tie identity to gender, that is not Krishna Das, Radha Dasi. “Jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya dāsa,” (Cc: Madhya, 20.108) the spiritual identity not tied to gender. But from this position, whatever one’s position is,

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.14.3)

“Sthāne sthitāḥ,” means whatever your position is, begin hearing about Krishna from substantial devotees, from authoritative sources,

praviṣṭaḥ karṇa-randreṇa
svānāṁ bhāva-saroruham
dhunoti śamalaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ
salilasya yathā śarat
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.8.5)

Krishna conception through the ear enters the heart, the flag of Krishna conception is planted there and the experts have said, once this has happened then it is a matter of time before Krishna conception establishes its supremacy, totality, exclusiveness over the whole heart.

Gopi bhava, gopi deho. Sometimes gopis are joking with Krishna and saying that He stole the wife of Narayan, Laksmi Devi. Because we hear she is like a golden [mark] on His chest. Srilekha—this marks on the chest of Krishna, indicative of the presence of Goddess of fortune. They are saying, “Shamelessly, He has taken Visnu’s consort as His own.” That is their Divine way of seeing things and expressing things. But when wives of Kaliya, after their husband was converted by the magic wand of Lotus feet of Krishna into a Vaisnava, they began realising his good fortune and expressing that in their prayers. One of their prayers is,

kasyānubhāvo ’sya na deva vidmahe
tavāṅghri-reṇu-sparaśādhikāraḥ
yad-vāñchhayā śrīr lalanācharat tapo
vihāya kāmān su-chiraṁ dhṛta-vratā
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.16.36)

They say, “yad-vāñchhayā śrīr lalanācharat tapo,” Śriḥ, [it] was the desire of Sri, Laksmi Devi to enter into the rasa-lila and get the dust of the lotus feet of Krishna. To that end, to achieve that, it is extraordinary and rare achievement to try that and achieve that. “Lalanācharat tapo,” she went to the tapo-van, to the forest, and executed austerities and penances for many life times to try and get that position. And they are thinking, and in their praying [they are] saying, “But she could not get. But our husband,...” and they are seeing [him] (this is after Krishna danced all over the heads of Kaliya), and his heads are very dizzy and nauseous, but also decorated with the pada-dhuli of Krishna. So, they are looking at [Kaliya], “What the Goddess of fortune could not achieve, he got that.” How extraordinary is that?

Mahaprabhu [stayed during] the Chaturmasya time, (the four months where tradionally, the sannyasis would not travel, due to rainy season, unfit conditions) stayed at the house of Venkata Bhatta, the uncle of Gopal Bhatta Goswami and brother of Prabhodananda Saraswati, they are Sri Vaisnavas—worshippers of Visnu. After so many days of wonderful Hari-katha, Krishna-katha, Mahaprabhu said to Venkata Bhatta, “Why is that your Laksmi Devi, wants to have rasa with my Krishna?” A little teasing. And Venkatta Bhatta [this] famous sloka, “siddhāntatas tv abhede ’pi śrīśa.” (Cc: Madhya 9.117) It says, siddhantically speaking Krishna and Narayana are the same. So, why should there be any doubt or suspicion there? Krishna is known as rasa-raj. Visnu has His reputation. Krishna is known in a particular way. He is known as rasa-raj. So, if she wants rasa, why not go to Krishna? Krishna and Visnu are identical. That was his response.

And Mahaprabhu said, “That’s a good answer. It is in line with scriptorial understanding; very good answer. But what I don’t understand though then is why she wasn’t given entrance into the rasa-lila. What you say makes sense. But then how come she was not given admittance? And furthermore, [as] we told before [that] the personified srutis, the personified Vedas, they were given entrance, the Dandakaranya Risis were given entrance. But not Laksmi Devi. At this point the mind of Venkatta Bhatta was blown, blew a fuse. It was beyond what He could conceive. This is going beyond logic, reason, rational, human discussion, it is entering another domain. Mahaprabhu told him, that the Goddess of fortune doesn’t have the adhikar to participate in these Pastimes, as Svarup Damodar tells in the Hera-panchami Pastimes.

Laksmi Devi doesn’t have the adhikar, means eligibility, capacity, qualification. So, we can say the Goddess of fotune, the Goddess of wealth can’t buy a ticket for the rasa-dance with all of that wealth. Why? He said, “Because as Laksmi Devi she wanted to enter—that is incompatible. Whereas the Dandakaranya Risis and personified Vedas, srutis, they took on gopi-bhava and gopi-deho. The heart and form of gopis, their devotional mood, their heart, and gopi-bhava and gopi-deho, the form of gopis and then they participated there.”

Whereas Goddess of fortune in her aisvarya-rupa could not enter. But then he says, “But don’t think ill of Laksmi Devi. As gopis she is there.” We hear in Brahma-samhita, what does it say about gopis? “Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ,” (Bs: 5.29) hundres and thousands and millions of gopis. So,

Gurudeva once in a just a simple way drew this comparison between Narayan of Vaikunta and Krishna of Goloka. Narayan of Vaikunta, one Laksmi for one Visnu, Narayan. “Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ,” but hundreds and thousands, millions and billions of Laksmis for one Krishna.

From a mundane point of view, we can say, they are not qualified to do certain Vedic, ritualistic performances. Not only because they are women, they are vaisyas, cowherds, they are not brahmans or ksatriyas, [they are] right in the middle. Sometimes, Guru Maharaj would say, “Krishna conception is in the middle.” The central conception of the infinite,

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā,
nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa
gopa-veśa, veṇu-kara, nava-kiśora, naṭa-vara,
nara-līlāra haya anurūpa
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya, 21.101)

Right in the centre the human-like Pastimes of Krishna are perfect for expressing the full spectral range of loving possibilities and reciprocation. But we see sometimes in the Goswami’s literatures, when the Vraja-gopis are pressed to respond in some particular situation that they have extensive knowledge of the scriptures, Puranas [and] everything and of Sanskrit language and all of its intricacies.

Really, we would say that they are suppressing that sort of knowledge, this aspect of themselves. It only comes out under service necessity. And as we see in Gaura-lila it is Vraj-gopis who take on the position of the Goswamins and they are writing so many books. Jiva Goswami, the ultimate Sanskrit scholar, Rupa, Sanatan, Raghunath Das, they are writing these incredible books. So many Pastimes in perfect Sanskrit.

We said earlier that the mistake of [the] Gaura-nagari-vad, type of sahajiya that wants impose the position of an enjoyer on Mahaprabhu. Because Krishna is the adi-purusa, the supreme enjoyer, they think when Mahaprabhu appears, [he has] some erotic relationships which is erroneous. They are implying [that]. Guru Maharaj says, some of the ladies in Nabadwip may have expressed erotic sentiments towards Nimai Pandit, but they were never reciprocated. That said, they use some of the works of Narahari Sarakar Thakur to try and justify this position, [but] it’s dismissed wholesale by the substantial Vaisnavas. But he is not dismissed. He is the unique devotee and he according to his conception he is expressing certain things towards Mahaprabhu.

One of his slokas, Guru Maharaj liked very much, “Gopīnāṁ kucha-kuṅkumena nichitaṁ vāsaḥ kim asyāruṇaṁ,” (Śrī-Śachīnandanāṣṭakam: 1) where he says to Mahaprabhu, “I don’t recognise your sannyas!” Everyone is: ‘what?!’ He is saying, “I don’t recognise [that] you are sannyasi.” Why? “Am I supposed to believe, that famous womeniser, women hunter, “gopa-vadhūṭī-viṭaṁ brahma,” (Cc: Madhya, 19.98) from Vrindavan (meaning Krishna), He has become a sannyasi! I can’t accept this.” And they say, “No, but look, He has the saffron cloth...” He told, “I am not fooled by that. I know his cloth has become saffron from the kumkum from the Vraja-gopis. Due to the extent of mixing that made His cloth saffron. So, I don’t recognise that he is a sannyasi.”

Here, we see Mahaprabhu sometimes is making reference to his position in society that he is a sannyasi and he should observe the rules of sannyasi and be very cautious. As when they were offering him very opulent Jagannath prasad, Svarup Damodar and other devotees, Mahaprabhu says, “Give the rich prasadam to the devotees, and I will take some laphra, (very simple, basic vegetables).” Thinking of himself in terms of social position, gender, he is sannyasi etc., he is moving in a particular way. Svarup Damodar would tell him, “You just try and understand that how Jagannath was enjoying this prasadam. It’s all Jagannath prasadam, it is not that it’s rich, it is this, that. That’s from external point of view. Really it is being converted into some sort of inconceivale nectarean substance. It has been relished by Jagannath. So, you think of this in that way. These other considerations—leave them behind.”

When Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu and the other devotees are visiting Ksirachora-Gopinath, and he tells the story to the devotees, the pujari also brings some ksir for Mahaprabhu and his devotees. Six pots or so. It is mentioned there that in one sense Mahaprabhu has already tasted this as Krishna, as Gopinath. But here as Mahaprabhu, “Rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalita,” (Cc: Ādi, 1.5) enriched with the heart and halo of Radharani, he will now relish prasadam. When he was Gopinath, they offered him bhog. As Gopinath, he is enjoying that. But here it’s pointed out by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami that Mahaprabhu is relishing being in this position as a devotee: it will have a different taste and he will taste it in a different way than when Krishna took the bhog. Now it is prasad, Krishna adharamritam, that is the nectar of Krishna. Now from the devotees point of view that will be tasted and it’ll be more relishable. So, we don’t want to pass judgement from some external way of seeing.

Sometimes Srila Guru Maharaj would say, “We are not interested in degree of dress but degree of devotion.” Whether one is in white or saffron or whether one is male or female. But the pool of karmic circumstances will be there. And Guru Mahraj gave an interesting observation in that regard. There is something called ‘parabdha-karma’, without going into that, that means more or less what you are stuck with in this life time, not future-past... This is what you have to deal with in this life time. Some are of that opinion, some schools [say] that you have to get rid of that and then you’ll the people say, “Then in your next life you will be born in India.” I know many people are going, “Oh God, no!” [laughing]

I used to have a fantasy when I was collecting in Calcutta [that] in my next birth I will be a thela-wallah on Mahatma Gandhi Road, they are the ones who have these two wheels carts, looks like a ladder on two wheels and they put twelve almarahs on it and too guys carry them up the road and then carry them back down the road. And oh! That’s what it’s going to be a thela-wallah on Mahatma Gandhi Road. They are not saying you have to be thela-wallah on Mahatma Gandhi Road, but they are thinking: when you are finished with your parabdha-karma, you will get some real nice birth in India. Anyway, that’s another conception.

Again this is on the basis of Vedic culture. In Vedic culture, the husband has some rights over the wife. She has some obligations, some responsibilities to the husband. And here, Guru Maharaj said, “This is like the jiva, she—jiva. The karmic circumstances are like the rights of the husband. We have done certain things that put us in our present situation. The force of karmic circumstances wants to assert itself over us. And it has a right to do that. Because we have done these things. And now they are coming, the karmic reactions. We are surrounded by karmic reactions.

But Guru Maharaj said here, [and] this is unique to him, for the devotee he introduced the concept of parakiya-bhava. We know that it is a very high aspect of madhura-rasa—Vraja-gopis. But he is applying it in life saying, “Just as the paramour, parakiya they make the husband think that they are completely dutiful and absorbed in their duties, while really within their hearts they are with the paramour. So the devotee gives the karmic circumstances its due, so that it appears that the devotee is acting responsibly in terms of karmic circumstances, but really within the heart, the heart is given over to Krishna.” That is what really matters, what is in the heart.

So, we are not here to try and adjust the endlessly mutable karmic circumstances. Whatever it may be, allow it to take, what it is taking, its due. I don’t know any other word to say at this moment. While, the heart is given over to Krishna. Any other question?

Question: Can you explain the meaning of loka-hita.
Goswami Maharaj: Loka-hitam? Is that something I said like two days ago?
Audience: No, she heard something, she was listening to the lecture of Gurudev.
Goswami Maharaj: I have to hear what he said. Loka-hita, means what is ultimately beneficial for the people. There is a famous sloka in the second canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. What is ultimately good for the people. Sometimes loka means people. So, Sukadev Goswami [is] saying to Pariksit Maharaj, I can’t remember the exact sloka. But it is in the 2nd canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. [It is] talking about what is ultimately beneficial. He is saying,

varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ
kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.1.1)

Something like that. There is what is called sreyas and preyas. Preyas means what is immediately beneficial, short term gain and sreyas means what is ultimately beneficial, long term gain.

Question: Speaking about Narahari Thakur, what about Chaitanya-mangala, this book?
Goswami Maharaj: Chaitanya-mangala?
Question: We not supposed to read this book or...?
Goswami Maharaj: Srila Saraswati Thakur said, that there are aspects of it. As we’ve told about the Gauranga-nagaris, they might have modified and inserted Gauranga-nagari-vada. The book that Saraswati Thakur said is perfect in all respects is Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. So much so that he even said, Chaitanya-bhagavata sometimes gives a description: these are the men who accompanied Mahaprabhu after he took sannyas. Chaitanya-charitamrita lists another group. If we are pressed, we will accept what is said in Chaitanya-charitamrita as the ultimate authority. So, really, that is where our focus is. But Chaitanya-charitamrita and Chaitanya-bhagavata, if we are unacquainted with the spiritual substance, particularly new answers of siddhanta then we may be polluted by reading anything and everything that has the name of Mahaprabhu or Nityananda Prabhu upon it. So, what is our necessity? Really our necessity can be addressed by focusing upon the subject matter of Chaitanya-charitamrita. And what we see there, sometimes it sends us to the pages of the Bhagavatam or some other book.

But we have to be cautious. Same situation with the Bhakti-ratnakara. Now it is popular [with the] devotees, because of internet, they think you can read anything and everything. You don’t know what is the book originally, what is qualification of the person translating that, so many things. And then we will read something and think that it is authoritative. Why? We should be more careful. [The devotees would] go to India visit some place, come back and say, “The pujari at so and so place told this story.” He was a pujari since last week or last month. Who is his Guru? What is his connection? He was a pujari of so and so place and he told this story. Many stories that are told are what we call apocryphal, they are of doubtful authenticity. Without becoming acquainted with Gaudiya siddhanta as it is given in the pages of Chaitanya-charitamrita under the guidance of our Guru-varga we won’t be in the position to make a judgment on what is proper, improper, authentic, or inauthentic. So, you can see the distinct disadvantage.

So, we are even more reliant upon our Guru-varga. What have they selected for us? Are they telling us, you should run here, you should run there? We see where their main focus is and what they have extracted from here. Even the Srimad Bhagavatam: Gurudev and Guru Maharaj are not telling everyone they should make an exhaustive study on their own of the Srimad Bhagavatam. They have selected from there what is the essential for us.

I was in Ukraine in a place called Donetsk. Is that the name? One lady got initiated.
She said, “What should I do for my morning sadhana?” I said, “What are you doing now?” She said, “My daughter and myself chant the Narayan-kavacha.” I asked, “Why do you do that?” She said, “We’ve read in a book, that it is so auspicious and should be done and everyone should [do it].”

But interestingly, even in Prabhupad’s life time, one of his leading disciples, reported to him that he was doing that. Prabhupad said, “Why are doing this?” He said, “You wrote in your book that one should do this, how important it is and you get this...” So, he read in a purport something, that to him seemed like Prabhupad was giving a resounding, wholesale, full recommendation to do this. But when [Prabhupad] talked to him personally he told, “I’ve never told you to do that. I am not asking you to do that.” He said, “Well, in the book...” That is another thing. There are so many things: one who hears this, one who does that, one is advised to do this. That’s why we have Guru. Sadhu, sastra, guru, vaisnavas; we have the scriptures and the living scriptures.

We need to focus on what has been selected by the Guru-varga as been substantial [and] become acquainted with that and not avoiding that. There is a Bengali saying, “Ghoḍā ḍiṅgiye ghās khāoyā,” —the horse, what is in front of the horse is called the trough. There is the trough full of food. The horse jumps over the trough and runs in search of food. Bengalis are knowing many things. [laughs]

So, they are serving nectar to us on a golden plate. We are going, “Is there going to be dessert? What is he eating over there, the guy over there in the dark, I can’t see it.” We are our own worst enemies. These things are so important, it is better to err on the side of caution.

When Vallabha Bhatta told Mahaprabhu that his commentary was superior to that of that of Sridhar Swami, who is considered to be the principal commentator on Srimad Bhagavatam. Mahaprabhu’s famous joke was (because swami also means a husband), “One who does not accept the Swami is a prostitute.” And then, there is another verse, I used to use this to praise Srila Guru Maharaj, and he and Srila Gurudeva like that very much,

śrīdhara-svāmi-prasāde ‘bhāgavata’ jāni
jagad-guru śrīdhara-svāmī ‘guru’ kari’ māni
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Antya 7.133)

“Śrīdhara-Svāmi-prasāde,” by the mercy of Sridhar Swami, “‘Bhāgavata’ jāni,” I know the Bhagavatam. “Jagad-guru Śrīdhara-Svāmī ‘guru’ kari’ māni,” that’s why I accept him, he is the Jagad Guru and [is] accepted by everyone as the Jagad Guru.

My approach to Guru Maharaj, I used that to say if someone doesn’t accept what he says, his judgment of things. It is one of the reasons that Srila Saraswati Thakur, gave him the sannyas name Sridhar, one reason is—his commentary stands supreme among all others.

When that Vallabhacharya persisted, he said, “I can give so many explanations of different names of Krishna.” And Mahaprabhu said, “I only know two, Yasoda Nandan and Syamasundar. In fact, I am incapable of knowing more.” What does that mean?

He says, “Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarvva-śaktis,” (Śikṣāṣṭakam: 2) Krishna has unlimited names. He says, “I only two.” He is talking about the particular quality and also the implication is if you are not focused on quality, then you are going to be searching for quantity.
So, Rupa Goswami advises, “Don’t initiate many disciples, don’t make many temples, don’t read many books. This will be detrimental to the culture of pure devotion.

Mahaprabhu is taking it to the atmarama sloka giving 61 explanations of one sloka. So, we shouldn’t think that our Guru-varga, they’ve given so much for us to focus on in our study, [but] that they forgot some really important thing to tell us and we will find that.

nānā-śāstra-vichāraṇaika-nipuṇau
sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau
lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau tri-bhuvane
mānyau śaraṇyākarau
(Ṣaḍ-Gosvāmy-aṣṭakam: 2)

They studied all the scriptures and extracted from them for the benefit of everyone. So, really our focus should be narrow in this sense, like Guru Maharaj said, most exclusive, that we are narrowing our focus to what is all comprehensive.

Hare Krishna