Nama Om Vishnu paadaaya..
Hari Haraya Naama Krishna …
Jaya Radha Madhava…
Mukham karoti…

So today I attended Mangala Arati mentally, offering arati to all the deities but my caretakers said that I should not go in the temple because it is very crowded and I may get an infection. Since my immune system is very low. But it was very nice to see Pancha Tattva, Radha Madhava Ashta Sakhi, Prahlad Nrsimhadev, Prabhupad and Tulasi. So today we had the MEB, Mayapur Executive Board meeting and we saw the Master Plan of Mayapur unfolding. So today we will continue with the Gauranga book, with the compilation of the Krishna Caitanya book. Just like there is a Krishna book, we want a Krishna Caitanya book. Since there are many books on the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, written by associates, and those who had association with the associates, like we have the Caitanya Caritamrita, and also the Caitanya Bhagavat, Caitanya Mangal, like that there are seven or eight books. Each pastime is told by at least one book or sometimes serval books. But the Lord has unlimited pastimes and we can never say all of them. So we go on. Read it.

Lord Gaura reminisces His past interaction with Sridhar and description of Nimai Pandit visiting Sridhar.

Devagauranga will read the Bangla now. FM 100 is Bengali channel. We would like to welcome the devotees from China. Everybody give a Haribol! Haribol!

Oh mahashay! Come! Come! And see the Lord! We will become grateful by your touch!

When Sridhar heard the name of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he fell unconscious on the ground, overwhelmed with ecstasy. He fell on the earth, unconscious.

Caitanya Bhagavat Madhya Kanda.

So Kolavecha Sridhar has fallen on the ground unconscious, so what did the devotees do? They picked him up very carefully and took him before Lord Vishwambhar, and they carried him and brought him before Lord Vishwambhar, very quickly. This shows how a devotee doesn’t let anything impede his service. They carried Sridhar very gently, without any pressure.

The Lord, when He saw Sridhar, He became very happy, very pleased. He said, come here, come here! And then He began calling.

So you have worshipped Me for so long, and many births you have taken, to attain My pure love. So that means that he was born and he left life, so like this he passed many lifetimes to achieve Krishna Prema! Haribol! Don’t think it is a cheap thing!

In this lifetime, you have served Me so much, I only eat My rice from your banana leaves! Ha! Ha!

I have eaten many items obtained from you. You have forgotten, what discussions you had with Me.

When the Lord was enjoying His pastimes as a scholar, He acted very arrogantly, He acted like – that was His manifestation.

At that time, His identity concealed, He had many pastimes with Sridhar, on the pretext of buying bananas and banana products from Sridhar.

Every day, He would go to visit Sridhar and He would purchase banana centres, bananas, banana roots, banana leaves, and banana flowers. Once I was in Ecuador. I had many bananas. So I took some banana flowers and I thought I knew how to cook them. I cooked them, they were so bitter. I didn’t know the secret, that you boil the banana flowers first and pour off the bitter water, and then you cook the bananas. So I cooked the banana flowers without pouring out the water. It was yuuuuck!. So there is a secret to all these Bengali preparations. Not every banana has edible flowers. That is the second secret!

So every day, Lord Gaurasundar would quarrel with Sridhar for 4 dhandas, one dhanda is 22 and half minutes, so for an hour and a half. Then He would buy the goods at half price, even though Sridhar was giving the lowest price in the market and half of what he made, he would spend on worshipping the Ganges.

Sridhar was very truthful, so he would quote a reasonable price. But the Lord, He would give half the price and take the goods with His own hands!

Sridhar das, he would stand up and he would grab the things from Gaurasundar. In this way, Sridhar and the Lord Gauranga would shove each other. In this way they had a tug-of-war with the bananas!

The Lord Gauranga said, My dear brother! Why do you appear like an ascetic? When you have very much of wealth hidden?

In taking the goods from My hand, you don’t know after all these days, who I am? (ulu dhwani by devotees sitting there)

The most great brahmin Sridhar did not become angry when He saw the Lord’s lotus face. He gave Him all the goods. So Gaurasundar did not see any symptom of anger in the face of Sridhar. Gaurasundar was worshipped by all the brahmanas. He took all of Sridhar’s goods and Sridhar, on seeing the enchanting face of Gaurasundar he did not become angry even though Gaurasundar forcibly took all his goods!

So Gaurasundar’s form was more enchanting than Cupid. On His forehead He had a beautiful tilak which went upwards in a most enchanting way.

So the Lord had a dhoti which had three folds call tri kachhas. His hair was very curly and beautiful and His nature and His eyes were very restless, the words in Bengali are parama chanchal.

Gaurasundar had a white brahmin thread, which was very beautiful, on His golden body. In the subtle form, Anantadev was serving His body! So Anantadev serves Gaura Narayana in the following ten different forms. As His umbrella, slippers, bedding, pillow, garments, ornaments, resting chair, residence, sacred thread and throne.

His lips, which were red with betel nuts, He was looking at Sridhar, smiling. Again He picked up the banana products with His own hands.

So this ends the chapter entitled Lord Gaura reminisces His past interaction with Sridhar and description of Nimai Pandit visiting Sridhar.

If you had any difficulty in understanding anything I pronounce, you can write it down and give it to Ekarani. She is lifting her beautiful hand up! Ha! Those who are watching on Facebook they can also send the words in the comments. The two sisters from Delhi, they are daily sending the words to guru maharaj. Mayapur TV viewers can send the words in chat.

So we will take a couple of questions and then we will meet some devotees. At the end of every class we will spend 20 minutes or so, meeting devotees. Will your coordinate this, Krishna Kishora? Any questions?

Question: How many times is Lord Gauranga’s name equivalent to Radharani’s name?

Guru maharaj: Well, we don’t know the answer to this question. But Radha Rani always like to be with Krishna. So we chant Hare Krishna and the Hare is Radha and Krishna is Krishna. So Lord Gauranga’s name according to Prabhupad is one thousand times more merciful and powerful than Krishna’s name but you get the result when you chant Krishna’s names. So we chant first Lord Caitanya’s name and then Krishna’s name. Sri Krishna Caitanya prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadaadhar Srivas Adi Gaura bhakti Vrnda. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! Haribol!

Question: Hare Krishna guru maharaj! (guru maharaj said Hare Krishna!). You mentioned that Mahaprabhu is manifesting His pastime as a scholarly person and he was behaving like an arrogant scholar. So what is the significance of the scholarly, arrogant behavior of Mahaprabhu?

Guru maharaj: The scholars, professors, scientists, they are often very arrogant. So Lord Caitanya was observing this lila. He was the greatest pandit, so in order to play that part, He also acted arrogantly. At the same time, He is very humble. So some people, He would be arrogant and for some people He would be very humble. Like Keshav Kashmiri, he was criticizing Him, oh, You are just teaching grammar to the kids, then He would say you are a great scholar, we are very blessed to have your association. If you could please show some of your learning, give us some verses on the Ganges. Keshav Kashmiri rattled out a hundred verses, jujujujujuju in an hour and a half. Then he said, so how did You like it? It was very wonderful! No one is as learned as you! But I was wondering, what are the good and bad qualities of your poetry? And he said, there are no bad qualities. He said, I just wanted to know what are the good and bad qualities. So then Keshav Kashmiri told Him well you point out any bad qualities. Then He quoted the verse 57 and Keshav Kashmiri was shocked because He rattled off the verse just like that! He didn’t even know as he could not even repeat the same verses! So how Lord Caitanya picked up one verse! He was just amazed how did He do it! Just like you have some blessing to be a learned scholar, I have some blessing to have good memory! Ha! Ha! Like that! Sometimes He could be very humble and gentle, sometime very restless and arrogant. That way He was hiding His real identity. Otherwise if He is always good then people would think that, maybe He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, some deva or something! But since He was sometimes arrogant, keeps people away! Just like the rich and famous people they don’t tend to mix too much with ordinary people!

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
26 February 2019