PLEASE NOTE, THIS DOCUMENT IS AT DRAFT (NOT PERFECT) STAGE. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO READ WITH GM’S VIDEO IN BACKGROUND.
Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram
I heard today that you did the Panihati Cida Dahi Utsava. So I will speak a little bit about that. First I want to thank all the children who were throwing flowers, all the ladies who did “dhrishti”, all the ladies who did the dipa dan and all the devotees who did kirtan. My doctors said that I should not leave India till August 15th, but somehow we got special permission for Malaysia!! I am very happy to see all the devotees here again! I have great affection for all of you! You have always been very kind to visit me in Mayapur. The Cida Dahi festival is celebrated all over the world. And this was especially Raghunath das who was offering this feast to Lord Nityananda, and it was Lord Nityananda who was celebrating it. When Lord Caitanya started His sankirtan movement, then Balarama who incarnated as Nityananda, He came from Vrndavana to join Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Caitanya said, “a great soul has come to Navadvip to join Me!” But Nityananda was in the mood of Balarama, and He was crying, “Where is my Kanhai Gopal? Where is Kanhai Gopal?! Enge Enge Kanhai Gopal?!(In Tamil Enge means where) Vango! (Tamil for please come)” So Lord Caitanya was joined by Lord Nityananda when His sankirtan movement started in Navadvip. Then He went with Lord Caitanya to Jagannath Puri when Lord Caitanya took sanyas. So Lord Caitanya told Lord Nityananda, “go back to Bengal and finish Your preaching work.” So Lord Nityananda was preaching all over Bengal. Raghunath das was the heir of the Mujumdar family. His father and uncle paid yearly taxes of 12 million gold coins. One gold coin is about a thousand dollars now! So 12 million times a 1000 is 12 billion. Well, you can imagine how much money they had, if they had to pay so much tax! But Raghunath das, he wanted to join Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya told Him that you are a grihasta, you should not suddenly leave your ashram. Perform your household duties but keep your mind on Krsna. And Raghunath das did that for about a year. Then he got an idea, that he would go and see Lord Nityananda. At that time Lord Nityananda was in Panihati, sitting under a banyan tree. And He was surrounded by His associates and distinguished gentlemen and brahmanas. At that time, Raghunath das offered his obeisances, prostrate, from a distance. And Nityananda Prabhu’s secretaries told him, there is Raghunath das. “Oh, Raghunath das, like a thief, like a thief, he is coming here! I will punish you, come here! Let Me give you punishment! Danda, danda! I will give you danda, I will give you punishment!” Raghunath das, he didn’t move. Who of you would run forward if someone said, I will punish you? So then Lord Nityananda, He went and put His lotus foot on the head of Raghunath das. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Jai Nitai! So He said, “My punishment for you, you have to provide a breakfast feast for everybody!”
Yogurt, flat rice and fruits. For Raghunath das this was not a big thing – I mean financially! So he started to send his servants to buy different flat rice, yogurt and fruits. He had some big clay pots, four feet high! He made some cida dahi with chini campa bananas, various kinds of bananas. Mangoes, jack fruits, litchi and cashews! All kinds of nice things! He offered also condensed milk. Lord Nityananda, gave seven different pots. The word got out, Mahotsva! Feast! Feast! People dropped what they were doing and came running. They filled up the field, maybe hundreds of thousands of people. So many people were there and some people stood in the water on the Ganges side. Then there was still no room, so some people were knee deep in the water. Some went, waist deep! Raghava Pandit came and told Lord Nityananda, “Your lunch is ready!” But Lord Nityananda said, “I am a cowherd boy. I am used to taking My lunch in this forest among the trees. Sit down and take some yogurt and fruits. I will take My lunch later.” So like this Lord Nityananda brought Lord Caitanya, by His meditation. That time Lord Caitanya was in South India. Maybe Tamil Nadu! Then no one could see Lord Caitanya, except a few very, very, advanced associates. Lord Nityananda went, taking Lord Caitanya through the crowd of devotees. Everybody had two pots – one with condensed milk and one with yogurt. Lord Nityananda took some cida dahi from someone’s pot and fed it to Lord Caitanya. He would life up the cida and it would disappear in the air! Then Lord Caitanya would take the cida from someone else’s pot, lift it up and put it in Lord Nityananda’s mouth! They couldn’t see Lord Caitanya, but they could see the cida dahi rising in the air and then GOING INTO LORD NITAI’S MOUTH! Nityananda was playing just like He did when He came as Balarama. Like a cowherd boy, They would take food from each other and eat it! Everybody in the crowd, they could only say one word, Haribol! If they wanted more they would say, Haribol! If they had enough they would say Haribol! So the whole crowd, everyone was chanting Haribol! HARIBOL! HARIBOL! HARIBOL! HARIBOL! HARIBOL! NITAI! NITAI! GAURANGA! Nitai Gauranga! Nitai Gauranga! Nitai Gauranga jaya Nitai Gauranga! Nitai Gaura Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! People came with their bullock carts filled with provisions and they sold it to Raghunath das. Then Raghunath das gave them two pots of cida dahi, made them sit down and eat. There is a saying in Bengali, ratha dekhi, kola vechi – see the ratha and sell your bananas. They came and sold their bananas and they ate a feast! Haribol! So this festival is also known as the Danda Mahotsava. The festival of Punishment! Lord Nityananda’s punishment is His blessing! Ha! But when Raghunath das went to Lord Caitanya, He was sent back. Lord Nityananda is the original guru. If you want to reach Krsna, you have to go through the guru. Raghunath das, by pleasing Lord Nityananda, he got the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya. So by Lord Nityananda’s mercy, one can get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. By the mercy of Lord Caitanya, one gets the mercy of Radha and Madhava. Nitai Gauranga! So this is a special festival. Srila Prabhupada in Atlanta, he sang this song by Locanadas Thakura in front of the deities in Atlanta. He called Atlanta as New Panihati Dhama. So I was the GBC there for 22 years. And I am also the GBC of Old Panihati! Guess what I did! I had a big festival for Panihati! I couldn’t go there this year otherwise, I went for 40 years without a break! But I went there by internet, I was there in the kitchen! So since it was America, we thought we should do something special, so we made 18 flavors. Six sweet yogurt, six sweet condensed milk, in the West people like salads, so we made six salty salads – Italian salad, Mexican salad, American salad, Cajun salad, like that we did different salads. South Indian hot and spicy salad! And then traditional East Indian salad with dry roasted jeera (cumin), and for the South Indian whole peppers and chilies! Specially for our Andhra Pradesh Telugu speakers, they like lots of chilies! I went there one year, first year by our boat, the Nitai Pada Kamala, we took Nitai Gaur there and suddenly someone started singing in Bengali, Oh, Nitai Gaur have come! Nitai Gaur have come! Nitai Gaura esheche, esache esache, Nitai Gaura eseche Panihati eseche! Then we had a truck of yogurt, flat rice and fruits, but the police stopped them and said, look, how can you go? The road is packed with people! I went to the truck; how could we distribute the cida dahi if we could not bring the provisions to the banyan tree? And suddenly a rain cloud came overhead! It started to rain! And all the people ran off the road, they went under the trees and porches. The road was empty! I told the devotees, take everything on your backs and go running to the tree! Then they ran to the tree with a half truck full on their backs! Then it stopped raining! People were back on the road. We walked back to the truck. We reached the truck, the rain cloud came again! And it started to rain! Everybody went off the road! We took the other half of the truck on our backs and ran! Haribol! Jai Nitai! So then we made 108 clay pots and offered to Lord Nitai Gaur under the tree. But how to distribute? So one devotee went out and started to give people. Then he was surrounded by people and he disappeared! And they took all the cida by force! He crawled out between their legs!! So this is not the way to distribute!! Someone climbed up a tree and was giving out the cida to people like birds, baby birds! Anyway, now we have a bamboo queue system and we give it out systematically. We don’t advertise, but everybody shows up there and people distribute to others. So we are very glad that here in Malaysia you also observe the Panihati festival. It is very dear to Nitai Gaur! Haribol! Nitai Gauranga! Nitai Gauranga! Nitai Gauranga jaya Nitai Gauranga! Jaya Nitai Gauranga Nitai Gauranga! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! So you participated in the festival of punishment. Getting a punishment from Lord Nityananda is pure mercy! Haribol! If you wear a tie on your knee, then you call it your knee tie! Ni Tai! And when you put it on my knee. Then you say ten times my knee, my knee. My knee becomes Ni Mai. So Ni Mai Ni Tai. LN is very funny! He is called avadoot because He does things very spontaneously. When He joined Lord Caitanya for the first time, that time Lord Caitanya asked someone to sing the glories of Krsna. Lord Nityananda, He jumped high into the air! He was feeling such separation from Lord Krsna, that He shouted loud, so loud! That the devotees thought they were going to have their ear drums broken! And the sound reached the far end of the universe. Then Lord Nityananda fell unconscious to the ground. Then Lord Caitanya took the head of Nityananda on His lap. Since Gadadhar was the elevated shakti, He knew that Nityananda was Balarama, whose expansion is Anantadeva, the servant, Anantadeva. But normally Anantasesa carries Lord Visnu on His coils. But now Lord Krsna as Krsna Caitanya, was carrying Anantadeva on His lap! But Gadadhar prabhu, He noticed this reverse of position. You are all very fortunate to be in Lord Caitanya’s movement. By the mercy of Lord Caitanya, one can get pure love of Krsna. By the mercy of Lord Nityananda, one gets the mercy of Lord Caitanya. People are wandering in this world, looking where is the truth? But the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda are truth! His lotus feet are satya! Jai Nitai! Jai Gaura! Haribol!
Parama koruna pahu dui jana Nitai Gaura Candra, Saba avatar saro siromani kevala ananda kanda
Bhajo bhajo bhai Caitanya Nitai, sudrada viswasa kori, visaya cariya sei rase mojiya, muke bolo Hari Hari!
Dekho or bhai, tribhuvane noi, eimono doyalo data, pasu pakhi jhure pasane bidore suni jaro guna gata
Samsara majhiya rohili padiya sei pathe nahilo asha, apana karama bunjya samono, kohe yei locana dasa
So we can either exactly get the reactions for our karma, or we can get the mercy of Nitai Gaur. So coming here on the airline, they said, thank you, thank you, thank you! So the airline said, thank you for taking their airline. So say that you have two choices – the karma airline or Nitai Gaur mercy airline! So who wants the karma airline, raise your hands! Who wants karuna airline? Who wants Nitai Gaur airline? Haribol! Thank you! Terima kasih! (Malay for thank you), Nanri! (Tamil for thank you). So I end here.
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
16 June 2019