On Shiva

So, Shiva... who just came, Mangal? Madhu Mangal… So, not only auspicious, but sweet... Madhu Mangal. So, Shiva means auspicious. Once when we were preaching, in a place outside of Delhi, I think it’s called Mirat, either Mirat or Bireli... and India is so wonderful, the land of samskara, punya-bhumi. It’s position is unique. When people say, “Why do all the avatars, incarnations appear in India, why not in Smolensk?”

Of course, some great devotees appeared in Smolensk… But Guru Maharaj would say, “Why do you play football on a football field?,” “Why do you play golf on a golf course?” because it’s designed for that. So, India is designed for Krishna. It’s divine. Sometimes the scientists say, and I like to hear it now, they go, “The earth is really unique, there’s nothing else like it.” That’s true. Maybe not exactly the way they mean it, but it is true. They’re always saying, “The Earth… Out of all the trillions and trillions of life, there’s just one earth that sustains this type of life, consciousness.” Agreed! I’ll agree with that, because,

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

This is the right place for Krishna-lila, Krishna’s Pastimes, Vrindavan ...human like Pastimes. So, it’s all perfect in that way…

So, being in that town outside of Delhi we are preaching, and as we heard from Guru Maharaj, when Saraswati Thakur and the devotees of Gaudiya Math were preaching, they’d go to any town… you always find… the way we are preaching, we take place there… we find out very quickly who is the most pious man in this town. Everybody knows. Like you can get variable information from the coconut seller or the fruit… you know. Here also in a similar way. But there you’re going in the town and say, “Who’s famous for being a devotee? He is pious, he built a temple, he give…” and they’ll go, “Oh! That’s so and so Babu,” immediately you’ll know who that is, then you’ll go there and we’d make our presentation, and in most cases that man would happily... they were thrilled for us to be there, and they’d offer us their whole place and their servants to assist and to do programs.

So, Saraswati Thakur… Guru Maharaj told us that in similar situations and they would ask someone… he’d be introduced to the local leader, pious gentleman and ask him a question like, “Under whose direction are you engaged in your spiritual life and practices?” and very often the person would say, “Oh, no one, no intermediary, Rama directly, or Krishna directly,” very proudly the’d say, “No-no! not like that, Krishna direct,” or “Rama direct,” or “Shiva direct,” or “Avadhut direct.”

Hare Krishna …Jaya Bhakti Bimal Avadhut Maharaj ki jaya… Hare Krishna. So, Saraswati Thakur at the time he gives his pranam, show some respect, but Guru Maharaj said that later he would tell his disciples, “He has no devotion.” And what he meant was this point: we hear, “ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param…” (Padma Purāṇa), when Devi, Parvati, she asked Mahadev Shiva, “What’s the best type of all the aradhana, types of worship, what’s param, the highest?” and he answered, “viṣṇor ārādhanaṇ param”, the worship of Vishnu is supreme.”

So, we’re told she felt a little pain in her heart, because Mahadev, Shiva is her Lord, and he said, but… “tasmāt parataraṇ devi tadīyānāṁ samarchanam,” …but higher than that is, and the word that is used is tadīya, and tadīya means to garland a devotee… (Hare Krishna… Ki jaya…) really, tadīya means what is dear to Krishna. (That’s better you’re not going deflect, defer, defray…
Avadhut Maharaj (joking): I will garland myself.)
Goswami Maharaj: So what is dear to Krishna… So, he tells Uddhava, “mad-bhaktya-pūjāvyādhikā,” the worship of my devotee takes precedence over worship of myself, so we always begin with the devotee… and also, when Gurudev made any place, he always started with the devotee’s residential quarters, the servitors, the Sevak Bhavan, Pashchatya Bhavan, etc, and then he’s doing other things.

But, what I wanted to say, so in a town like that, I’d have to go back and forth on rickshaws visiting different people, to preach, to collect, other things, and every time I’d go by on this one street, it was kinda the main street, you had to go through to get everywhere, there was this one seller who was a Shiva-bhakta, and when he would see me he’d always go, as I go by he goes, “Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva,” and if I came to the…,  “Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva,” so I didn’t know if it was like he was performing an exorcism or he liked seeing me, or something in-between or a little bit of both, but I did like hearing that Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, rapid fire Shiva. I think he was taking that we were with Vishnu tilak and everything that there was some auspiciousness there. I hope it was that way, otherwise… other interpretations are also possible, but when in Brihad-Bhagavatamrita, Narad approaches Shiva in Shivaloka, he is offering… Well, when he encounter Shiva was busy: engaged in Krishna-katha, Rama-katha, he’s ecstatically dancing, singing...

I used to hear this old tune he sang many...

brahmā-bale-chatur-mukhe
kṛṣṇa-kṛṣṇa hare-hare
mahādeva  pañcha-mukhe (with his five heads)
rāma-rāma hare-hare

And Gurudev’s mantram that he wrote for the Gangada Sadashiva Mandir, he also mentioned that pancha, five headed he’s described as in many instances. Anyway, when Narad Muni is glorifying him, he’s taken aback and very uncomfortable. When he realises… comes out of his own trance and realises that, “He is glorifying me…,” he is somewhat disturbed by that and he offers a different conception of himself, and it’s very peculiar and it’s very interesting, and informative, instructional, because he’s also, “vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ,” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 12.13.16) the best amongst the Vaishnavas, he’s also showing the proper attitude of a devotee is to deflect that praise to another, and that’s the structure of Brihad-bhagavatamritam. Narad, in the first part particularly, Narad is praising one devotee accurately and from the heart, it’s not flattery or hyperbole or exaggeration, it’s a proper assessment, but that devotee, they’re not seeing themselves that way, and if they’re pressed to conceive of proper devotion, they don’t think of themselves as an example of that, they have someone else in mind.

That’s the way it shall always be. They’re not thinking that they’re highly evolved, highly developed in Krishna Consciousness. So, when Narad is praising Shiva, Shiva starts responding with a contrary image of himself, saying that, “So many times I’ve given boons to disciples, and out of affection for my followers they’ve brought me into conflict with Krishna,” like Banasura and some others, he’s saying, “I’m fighting with Krishna, this is shameful,” and he takes it to the extreme when he says, “And not only that, I even once asked Krishna for the boon to be greater than him, I’m that type of man. Shameless to the extreme. Others are praying… I asked for a boon to be greater than him…”

Then Sanatana Goswami starts explaining that Krishna has a particular nature also, and we see this come up in different ways in Krishna-lila and also Mahaprahbu’s Pastimes. He doesn’t like high level devotees like Maha Vishnu, Shiva and others to be too humble in his presence. Like we’ll see sometimes when great devotees are being humble Mahaprabu will say, “You’re breaking my heart, please stop.”

We’d hear that Advaita Acharya as Maha Vishnu, and we’re also sometimes told he’s Sadasiva, he can’t tolerate that Mahaprabhu, Nimai Pandit is treating him like a superior, and the inverse there too, is that Krishna doesn’t like for Shiva, who’s practically his other self; he’s his own tattva, Shiva-tattva. We have Vishnu-tattva, Jiva-tattva and Shiva-tattva, sometimes told to be the sum total of all jivas… so, Shiva knowing that this fawning, which means being very humble in the presence of another, he doesn’t want to make Krishna uncomfortable… this is all being revealed by Sanatan Goswami, who says, when he asks that he wants to be someone greater than him, well… who or what is greater than Krishna? “mad-bhaktya-pūjāvyādhikā”, Krishna says, “My devotee.” So, Sanatana Goswami says, “Really what he saying is… he knows… if I say I just want to… if Shiva says to Krishna, “I just want to be the servant of the servant…” that will be too much for Krishna. So what is his way of saying that? “I want to be greater than you, that’s what I want, so will you give me that? I want to be greater than you are.” Who’s greater than Krishna? The devotee of Krishna… “mad-bhaktya-pūjāvyādhikā.” So this is Shiva’s way of saying, “I want to be a devotee,” and that can make Krishna happy.

That type of dialogue, so when we hear something, say Mahaprabhu is traveling to South India and meets a brahmin, Shiva disguised as a brahmin, and Parvati as a brahmins wife, he’s taking prasadam for a few days, whatever, and all it says is, “They have conversations that no one can understand.”
Audience: Three days worth.
Goswami Maharaj: Yes! And the contraction of time and space, what are those three days? We can understand by inference that numerous volumes can be published on what is the subject matter of those discussions.

And Narad, he’s Narad… he’s not easy, so they’re going back and forth, and he’s not one to be outdone, but Mahadev can outdo… and then taking it away from himself, he starts praising the inhabitants of Vaikuntha, where the Lord is constantly living, we hear so many wonderful things about them, their qualities, etc. Parvati is listening the whole time, and she notices that while praising the inhabitants of Vaikuntha, that Sri, Lakshmi Devi has not been mentioned, so she wants to enter into the conversation. So she starts speaking about the glories of Lakshmi Devi, and it’s a very beautiful thing, and we know that really she’s also her expansion… Parvati, Shiva, Shakti.

So, Sanatana Goswami points out interestingly in one purport… we always say when we give Harinam the ten offences, and the first about satam-nindam and the second about Sri-Vishnor, and the different names of… excuse me… different gods and Goddesses, but here in Brihad-bhagavatamritam Sanatana Goswami tells that offence about what we generally say is, “To take the name of Shiva and other Gods to be equal to Krishna is an offence,” here he says, “If you think that the all auspicious names of Shiva are not equal to the names of Vishnu, that is an offence to the Holy Name.” Just takes it in the you could say opposite direction or just so far deep that it…
Audience: Can you say it again?
Goswami Maharaj: If you think that Shiva’s name are not equal, that’s an offence.

So, and we see with Srila Gurudev, he liked to give names of Shiva: …Umadhava, Ashutosh, but Ashutosh Krishna …Ashutosh is a name of Shiva, it means Ashu-tosh, he’s quickly pleased, easily pleased, and Gurudev will talk about that, but from a purely Vaishnava point of view, how with a little bit of faith, if you can please Mahadev you’ll get so much mercy to proceed on this path. As acknowledged there Mahadev Shiva and Parvati, not only can they give mukti, they can give Krishna-bhakti… they can.

So, Gurudev made this distinction, because Guru Maharaj will say we conceive of Shiva there is: bhoga, tyaga, bhakta. Bhoga Shiva, Tyaga Shiva and Bhakta Shiva. Bhoga Shiva: “māyāṁ tu prakṛtiṁ vidyān māyinaṁ tu maheśvaram” (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 4.10, 6.7), so Maheshvara… He is the Lord of maya, or as Guru Maharaj said, “master of Maya, servant of Vishnu.” When Guru Maharaj would be traveling in South India, and there certainly are people who have good reason to believe Shiva is supreme…you know in one place Rama is supreme, Krishna is supreme, Shiva is supreme. Ma Kali is supreme... where would Ma Kali be supreme?... Gopal?

So at the time we were going from Calcutta to Nabadwip in the car… what was that driver’s name who can’t see? The blind guy, with the coke bottle glasses?
Nitya Gopal Prabhu: Subhas?
Goswami Maharaj: Jayadev. So, he’s driving, can’t see to begin with, but he’s the driver, and we’re in the fog… and they’re doing that thing… and then we’re going to have a head on collision with another car, and I don’t know if I can say what I shouted, and then Giri… what’s his name? Bhakti Kiran Giri Maharaj was it? I think he said, ‘Jaya Radhe’ or something and Gurudev said like ‘Jaya Ma Kali’.
Nitya Gopal Prabhu: Kali can save.
Goswami Maharaj: Yes! Like he used to always tell this story after that, the man on the bus going from Nabadwip to Calcutta… there are no stops on it, and he’s… how do we say this?…He’s trying to control nature’s call, the extreme call of nature, and he’s praying to Ma Kali to save him… and the bus, it’s going over bumps and… and finally…Gurudev is telling the story, they get closer and closer to Calcutta, where there’s going to be a stop and then he goes, “But at last, Ma Kali could not save him.”

So, we know that in the case of Srila Gurudev he had this ...extreme fondness, devotion, connection with Shiva, so much so that his mother and father, praying for a son, they prayed to Shiva, and the inspiration came from Shiva that they would get a son, but that when he was seventeen, he would have to take sannyasa. So, they thought, “Oh! Shiva sannyasa.” Gopal, explain to us what Shiva sannyasa is.
Nitya Gopal Prabhu: Yearly happening, one year for 15 days you do sannyasi and after normal again. 15 days follow vegetarian, fruit eating… that type coming.
Goswami Maharaj: Fifteen days!
Avadhut Maharaj: They have special danda.
Goswami Maharaj: Right, you see them in front of the Math sometimes, and they’re following a little procession …so, they’re… she was thinking, “Oh… Shiva’s sannyasa, no problem,” but I remember being with Gurudev in London when all the packing was going on, getting ready to go somewhere, and he said, “They didn’t know that it would be forever,” and he told how he was so happy in his village, he loved everyone, everyone loved him and the trees loved him, the insects, the birds, all the animation, and he said, “Even the rickshaw wallahs,” and he loved everyone. And then a preacher from Guru Maharaj’s Math came, he said, “Talking this nonsense, your mother is nothing, the world is nothing, you’ll have to die, give up everything here,” and he said and that struck like lightning struck his heart and he couldn’t deny the truth of those things. Most people say, “Oh! I had such a miserable life.”

chatur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
janāḥ sukṛtino ‘rjuna
ārto jijñāsur arthārthī
jñānī cha bharatarṣabha
(Bhagavad-gītā 7.16)

Krishna’s saying why people get involved in Krishna Consciousness, and high up on the list is misery. People go, “My life is just so miserable,” but what is Gurudev… what was he saying? “My life was so happy,” he was saying everything was …he loved it. His life was very happy, and he loved the life he had, he wasn’t thinking of changing it. So a very unique individual …he used to always wake up at three o clock in the morning, even when he was a little boy, a toddler practically, he’d wake up at three o clock in the morning, be in his father’s chest, and they didn’t want to wake anyone up, so his father would teach him mantras, like the Satya-yuga mantra, the Treata-yuga mantra, the Dvapara-yuga mantra they said, the other things.

So, anyway those events led to him coming to Chaitanya Saraswat Math, the lotus feet of Srila Guru Maharaj, and Gurudev was happy to discover that in Guru Maharaj’s background, when he was younger… what was the place called? Jhamal? Jhamalpur?
Nitya Gopal Prabhu: Jhamalpur.
Goswami Maharaj: that Guru Maharaj would go… where is Buroraj?
Nitya Gopal Prabhu: In Jhamalpur.
Goswami Maharaj: Yes! So Guru Maharaj would collect some lotuses from a kunda on the way and offer to Shiva, and pray for some inspiration to really connect with Mahaprabhu’s agent.

When Guru Maharaj was a boy, the first time he heard about Gaura-Nitai, someone was telling him about Gaura-Nitai, Guru Maharaj said, “Do they have any philosophy?” And they go, “What, are you kidding?” So, they’re good singers and they’ve got philosophy, and they asked Vamsi Das Babaji about his Gaura-Nitai deities, “Who are they?,” and he goes, “Well, one’s a sannyasi from Vrindavan, and other is a leader of a bunch of thieves.”

So, Gurudev liked that, that Guru Maharaj worshipped Shiva in his childhood, and that he had that connection. Guru Maharaj put it this way about the prayers of his mother and father he said, “Shiva… He sent one of his own men,” because of Gurudev’s mystic powers and mystic abilities. So, whenever he was in desperate need of help in Krishna Consciousness, and more specifically meaning, the seva of Srila Guru Maharaj, and more specifically meaning in relation to the health of Srila Guru Maharaj, he would pray to Shiva. Once he was bathing and praying to Mahadev Shivaji, “Guru Maharaj’s health is so bad and he is praying to… “If you can indicate some medicine for him.” And he said, “I heard the sound Kali Phos,” and at the time, he said he didn’t know what Kali Phos was.

He was praying to Shiva for help for Srila Guru Maharaj, and he heard this vibration said, “Kali Phos.” So, he went asking “There’s some medicine called ‘Kali Phos’?” And they go “Yes! There’s one homeopathic medicine.”
Audience: He said, at first he didn’t believe that so he asked again and again...
Goswami Maharaj: Kali Phos 3x… I don’t know about the doses and the potency, but he heard that, and then it was verified. And that and… what was the other one? The one that sounds like… the way the bengali… Gurudev was like ‘Karagas’… It’s like… It looks like Krtegos or something. But what he said – ‘Karagas’. It’s like K-r-t-e-g… It doesn’t matter what it is, that’s how he would say it. It’s heart medicine. So with these medicines. And even If you listen to tapes you’ll hear Rama didi, Guru Maharaj is doing Hari-katha and Rama didi will go “Phos.” That’s all she would say, she’d be there with a little glass, the shot with the Phos and she’d go, “Phos.” …And a little saffron cloth, and she’d give it to Guru Maharaj and he’d drink it, and he had this certain way he’d drink it, and then he’d take this saffron cloth.

So, he kept Srila Guru Maharaj alive extra years by getting some mercy from Shiva, by appealing to him for help for Srila Guru Maharaj. So, when the time came for the Gangadhar Sadashiva Mandir… Oh, why that name? I was going to say. So when Guru Maharaj was preaching in South India and the people: Shiva supreme, Rama supreme, Krishna supreme. As Mahaprabhu used very simple arguments, like with Venkata Bhatta, ”Why does Lakshmi Devi want rasa with my Krishna?” And then all the ontology and siddhanta comes spilling out from there, so Guru Maharaj would say, “Why is he Gangadhar?” Dhara means who’s carrying, Gangadhar… when you see the pictures of Shiva, you see the chandramaulim, the moon, but you also see the Ganga above his head, because with Maharaj Bhagirathi it was arranged that as the Ganga is going to come… Ganga’s really we can say from the lotus feet of Vishnu, and it’s coming from the spiritual world, entering into the material world and it’s going to crash, like a cascading crash, so it goes through Shiva to soften it and turn into a flow. But Guru Maharaj would say, “Why is he taking the foot bath of Vishnu on his head? He’s always meditating upon whom?” We hear he lives under an 800 mile by 800 mile wide banyan tree, that’s very quiet and he’s meditating there, and Guru Maharaj would say, “But upon whom?”… and Gangadhar is taking the foot water of Vishnu upon his head as worshipable.  

So, we have Bhoga Shiva, master of Maya, servant of Vishnu. Tyaga Shiva on Shivaloka, in-between, and Bhakta Shiva – Sadasiva, Sada in this sense means pure, the purest one. So Gurudev made it a point to call the Shiva Mandir that was established on bank of Govinda Kunda there as the Gangadhar Sadasiva Mandir, and he wrote that sloka...

devādidevam-ahibhūṣaṇam-indukāśaṁ
panchānanaṁ paśupatiṁ varadaṁ prasannam
gaṅgādharaṁ praṇatapālakamāśutoṣaṁ
vande sadāśiva-haripriya-chandramaulim
(Gaṅgadhara Sadāśiva Praṇām-Mantram)

His garland is ahi… ahibhūṣaṇa, he’s garlanded with ahi – snakes, but who are they? Anantadev, he wants his association also.

The gopis… This day, the girls in Nabadwip, unmarried girls, they’re going to Shiva and they’re all saying, “Please give me one husband like you.”
Audience: What you were saying before, Gurudev liked to give names of Shiva…
Goswami Maharaj: Like Ashutosh Krishna, Umadhav, his name I asked specifically about, because after his initiation they were coming out telling something, and I can’t understand exactly what’s being said, so I went directly to Gurudev and said, “What name did you give?” And he said, “Umadhav.” I said, “Oh, like Uma-Dhava, just like Krishna’s name is Madhava, Ma-Dhava, the husband of Ma, Lakshmi Devi, Shri… So, here Uma-Dhava, the husband of Uma... and there’s others.

Audience: Deva Bandhu told me once Gurudev said, “You know…” Deva is thinking: Deva Bandhu – Krishna the friend of the Devas. “Shiva.” Indicating the Pastime of churning of the ocean… drinking the poison.
Goswami Maharaj: Yes, because that’s important as we have said before, that in Srimad Bhagavatam, you can say the culmination, where madhura-rasa is being presented in the tenth canto, so this astonishing revelation to all the exalted sages assembled… who’ve come from all over the universe, and they’re somewhat shocked by hearing the divine Pastimes of Krishna with Radharani and Vraja-gopis, and Parikshit Maharaj and Shukadev they can detect some apprehension the minds, hearts of these even great sages, so Parikshit Maharaj says, “Well you told this in the beginning, this, “dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo…” and “jugupsitaṁ dharma-kṛte ‘nuśāsataḥ…” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.1.2,1.5.15) That religion, as we understand it, is being condemned, and now we’ve gone to the highest point, you’re saying what is normally is thought to be condemnable, that’s the real religion. That’s quite a difference. We start off with ‘religion is condemned’ – “dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ…,” and now what appears to be condemnable, you’re saying that’s sanatan-dharma, that’s the highest religion.

That’s “pramāṇam amalaṁ,… śrīmad bhāgavataṁ pramāṇam amalaṁ” (Chaitanya-mañjuṣa), that’s the spotless puranic evidence, the indication of the  highest conception of divinity. How are we to understand that? And Shukadev says different things, one of which is, “naitat samācharej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ…” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.33.30) saying, “What you just heard here, don’t even think about it.”…but wait! He’s just told us about it.” – Yeah, but not with your mind… This is not accessible to the mind, the intellect. Don’t even think about thinking about it! You’re ill equipped, the mind has to be dissolved, the mundane mind, “bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva cha…” (Bhagavad-gītā 7.4) That type… that has to be dissolved, and the real substantial think has to come out… “vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ cha viṣṇoḥ, śraddhānvito…” It’s a matter of sraddha… “anuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.33.39). What you’ll hear from a proper Vaishnava, the way they will give you exposure to this …and back to Gurudev’s homeopathy, as he once told… because some people will say, “Wait, you’re saying this is the medicine that cures the lust in the heart, and now you’re saying that you have to cure the lust in the heart to cure the medicine, what’s the deal?”

Yes, it’s the medicine, but like the homeopathic medicine, first you identify – that is the medicine, then what is the potency and the dosage. Medicine, potency, dosage, and Gurudev added another thing, saying, “And your time for healing must have come.”

So, and then what is the example he gives? He says, when the devas and asuras were churning, when Kurma-avatar is in the ocean of milk, the Mandara hill and the divine serpent, and they’re churning the ocean and Laksmi Devi is being produced, and the moon is being produced, so many nectarine things, but there’s also impurities, just like when you make the ghee, there are impurities. So, as things were separating into the nectarine and the impure, there was all this poison, and they didn’t know what to do. An ocean of poison generated. So Vishnu suggested Mahadev, he’s the one. He comes and he drinks an ocean. It says, ‘rudra adbdi – means ocean… visham’. He drinks an ocean of poison, and what’s the end result? Nilkanta – his throat becomes blue.

Once… We know about Mohini Murti, In the Bhagavatam… That once Shiva wanted to see what is Vishnu Maya. So Vishnu takes this feminine form, Mohini Murti, and Mahadev is bewildered by that, and that’s another Pastime, but what I wanted to say was that once our Siddhanti Maharaj… this came up once in Gurudev’s presence and Siddhanti Maharaj said,… this was unique, he said, “Well, didn’t he just drink the ocean of poison?” And Gurudev said… Oh… in other words, he used like intoxicated and out of his mind at that time… [laugh] We’d never heard these two things connected before, is what I mean to say... He’s going to find an adjustment where Mahadev comes out on top somehow.

So, anyway, that point is made… And why did you say that? Oh, for Deva Bandhu. So, this point is here that Shiva can digest these things. So he’s Gopeshvar… the Raksak… or the guard of the rasa-lila, saying who will enter, preventing the unqualified from entering.
Audience: What’s that verse that Gurudev used to like? “Vṛndāvanāvani-pate jaya soma-soma…” (Saṅkalpa-kalpa-druma)
Goswami Maharaj: And what is it? I mean the general. Gist.
Audience: It’s like, “Glory to you. Oh, gate-keeper of Vrindavan...
Goswami Maharaj: Oh...
Audience: Who’s forehead is decorated by the moon, worshipped by Sanak, Sanandana, Narad. Oh, Gopishvar, I’m desiring that you bestow upon me that prema  for the lotus feet of Sri Radha-Madhava…” Like gate-keeper of Vrindavan.

Goswami Maharaj: Yes! And what we can say in hearing all these things, is this is Gurudev’s property. As Trivikram Maharaj likes to say… when he said to Gurudev once like doing veranda seva, as his guard… “And I’m…” like you know vaiṣṇava (tumi to’) ṭhākur, tomāra kukkur… (Sarvasva tomāra 1) ”I’m your dog.” And he said Gurudev turned around and said, “That is Bhaktivinod’s property.”

So, hearing these things, someone will say, “This is the property of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.” Keep it as such! Honour it, revere it, worship it as his. Like when we hear Gaura-Gadadhar, Gurudev will say, “That is the private channel of bhajan of Bhaktivinod Thakur.” So that he expresses these things, we will worship that, revere that and appreciate that, and not imitate.

Avadhut Maharaj: Maharaj, what’s our ability, how we can properly address Lord Shiva, without crossing lines in our devotional line?
Goswami Maharaj: Well, Gurudev wrote that wonderful sloka, so that’s good. In other words, we stay focused on what’s been given to us, our group, our adhikar, our level. That is our focus, we will be ill served to deviate from that.
Avadhut Maharaj: Will be appropriate sometimes for us to also offer our prayers to Lord Shiva? And in which condition that will be proper?
Goswami Maharaj: What do you see in the Prapanna-jivanamritam? Those are the prayers that Guru Maharaj has selected as being appropriate for someone who is aspiring in the line of surrender. So, we see what we’re discussing, the famous ‘ārādhanaṁ sarveṣāṁ’, these kind of things, we’re not to go for something else.
Avadhut Maharaj: So that means we have to have a respectable distance from other concept and be more loyal to what has been…
Goswami Maharaj: Yeah, because what you see in Brihad-bhagavatamritam is gradation, so if we have some chaotic or unsystematic approach to things that won’t be helpful.

As Guru Maharaj mentioned, not in this connection, but with regard to sahajiyism and other things, we’re saying, “Those who cannot distinguish… We are having difficulty distinguishing between the mind and intellect, and we’re going to approach these higher things? So where is the location? That’s why we have Brihad-bhagavatamritam, if someone wants to understand properly, then they’ll be best served by reading there… and see the gradation, what comes before it and what comes after it, then you can find proper placement... but again, what is the necessity? Is it curiosity? Pariprashna is not curiosity, it’s service necessity.

Avadhut Maharaj: Maharaj, in Vrindavan we heard that there are different temples of Shiva like Bhuvesvara, Chakaleshvara… And Mahesvara, Mahadev… so that gives five names of Shiva, representations in different parts of Vrindavan.
Goswami Maharaj: Right, but what I’m saying is, read Chaitanya-charitamritam and see what is the emphasis there. That will always be the key. We will find many things, in many places, but look here, those who are fully aware of all these things, what did they select for our edification? And with what sort of emphasis? So, when in doubt, the Chaitanya-chaitamritam reigns supreme… and you’ll see to what degree these things are mentioned there, and to what degree they’re not. To what degree they’re emphasised and to what degree they’re not emphasised. We have to understand, that is the perfect selection. Then we have, who’s doing the selecting? In this case, Srila Guru Maharaj; Prapanna-jivanamritam. Devotees want to hear what are proper prayers, there’s a whole book that in the beginning, middle and end consists of proper prayers. Read that and something will resonate there. Otherwise, it’s infinite.

To take it away from this for a minute, once I was in the Ukraine… what is that town we used to go to? Donetsk? Is that the name? …So, one lady was there, she got initiated at the time, she asked what should be her morning practices. I said, “Well, what are you doing right now?” She said, “The Narayan Kavach,” which is from the sixth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, and I was saying, “Why are you doing that?” and she said, “Well, if you read it, it says one who does this… how auspicious it is…” and all these things, and that’s true, and it’s written by Srila Prabhupada, Swami Maharaj, but in his lifetime, one of his disciples started doing that, the Narayan Kavacha, because of what he could understand was being said there in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam, Prabhupada wrote him a letter saying, “I don’t understand why you’re doing this.” “Well, I’ve read in your purport ‘one who does that…’” you know, all the endorsements. Prabhupada was saying, “I haven’t asked you to do this, I haven’t selected this for you. Of course in the commentary we’re saying this is a wonderful thing in a particular context, but I didn’t asked you to do this, and neither have I given it to you as a means of sadhana.” So, we can look through all these Scriptures ourselves and decide, “Oh! I like this part, and I don’t like that part so much, this is appealing to me, that – not…,” but what is our criteria for selection? Or we turn to the acharya and our Guru-varga, and we think, “They’ve selected this!” So, that’s why I ended this talk by saying, “This is the property of Srila Gurudev.” He did not emphasise this as a means of sadhana or practice  for his disciples, it’s some special appreciation for him.

He even said, “Guru Maharaj is tolerating,” he also said that, because he is unique and extraordinary. Those who have the capacity to extract, what are they selecting for our edification? We’ll give our attention there.
Avadhut Maharaj: Basically, if I understood right, to conclude, we will have so many auspicious indications from Scriptures which our mind will propose in front of us, but  do we have to follow the mind or our Guru’s instructions?
Goswami Maharaj: Yes, and the first line in the definion of an acharya is “āchinoti yaḥ śāstrārtham…” (Vāyu Purāṇa). Śāstra-arha – one who extracts the meaning of the Scripture. There’s eighteen thousand slokas in the Bhagavatam, many things are described there, many things that are bewildering are described there also… many things that a neophyte might choose to emphasise as significant, that someone of actual capacity, would not emphasise… or even someone very qualified would fail to appreciate, as when Guru Maharaj met with the South Indian Pandit who knew all eighteen thousand slokas, and Guru Maharaj said, “Who do you think, in your opinion, are the highest devotees?” and the he said, “The Kumaras,” so someone who knew all eighteen thousand slokas of the Bhagavatam, his opinion was the Kumaras are the highest devotees, that’s the highest level of devotion that’s highlighted there… and he knows the entire book, that’s his qualification, and Guru Maharaj’s answer – “They’re in the lowest position.”

Who are the highest devotees? The Vraja-gopis, and then with two slokas, he proves it.

na tathā me priyatama
ātma-yonir na śaṅkaraḥ
na cha saṅkarṣaṇo na śrīr
naivātmā cha yathā bhavān
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.14.15)

What’s he saying? Not atma bhu – Brahma, nor sakarshan – Shiva, nor… excuse me sankara – Shiva – Sankarshan… By extension even Baladev, Laksmi, Sri… Naivatma …I’m not as dear to myself as you are, back to the original theme, “mad-bhaktya-pūjāvyādhikā,” …So, in one place we’re saying, “vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ,” in another place Guru Maharaj on this very point, this is one of the points that he directed me to read in Brihad-Bhagavatamritam… saying, “Where will his position be found in there?” In this context, above Brahma, below Prahlada.

That’s why Sanatana Goswami is the sambandha-jnana acharya… He’s delineating step by step what is the gradation. So, anyway with those two slokas, the one first endorsing the position of Uddhava amongst all the devotees, and then that verse Uddhava says,

āsām aho charaṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāṁ
vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.47.61)

He wants to be a creeper, a blade of grass, an atomic presence in the soil in Vrindavan, so that the dust from the lotus feet of Radharani and the Vraja-gopis will come upon his head, like, “naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ…,” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.5.32) being… what’s that… the other line… ‘niṣkiñchanānāṁ’… no… about abhishek being bathed in the dust of the lotus feet of the devotee, from Maharaj Rahugana and also in the prayers of Prahlada, the same saying, but here expressed in it’s highest position by Uddhava.

Brahma has a very similar position after the Brahma-vimohan-lila, what is it?…

tad bhūri-bhāgyam iha janma kim apy aṭavyāṁ
yad gokule ’pi katamāṅghri-rajo-’bhiṣekam
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.14.34)

Where he is saying, “I want to…,” it’s very similar to Uddhava’s sloka, he says, “I want to be anything, a creeper, a blade of Grass …In Vrindavan, so that the dust from the lotus feet of the Vraja-basis will consecrate my existence.” So on the surface, we can say, “Why is the Uddhava sloka given so much importance?” And here’s Brahma… It’s a great sloka also, but not of the same stature, because he says, “Vrindavan and the Vraja-basis,” whereas Uddhava is saying, “The Vraja-gopis. Radharani and the Vraja-gopis,” getting more specific, he’s delineating further in a more refined, way what is the highest thing.

So it’s always about perfect, more perfect and most perfect. So, Guru Maharaj will conclude by saying, “Sri Chaitanya-charitamritam is the greatest literature to have ever seen the light of day in all time, in all space, in all circumstances and in all creations.” That’s quite an endorsement. It’s THE book, everything is regulated from here, as connotation increases, denotation decreases. The highest connotation of all of these things is found in the Chaitanya-charitamritam. So, if we view of everything through the lens of Chaitanya-charitamritam, then we will see everything in it’s perfect position.

Hare Krishna