Nama Om…
Mukham karoti vacalam..

Aajanulmbhita bhujau kanakavataarau
Sankirtanai kapitaru kamalaaya taksha
Vishwambharau juga dharma karma paalau
Vande jagat Priya karau karuna avataru

I offer my respectful obeisances unto Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda prabhu whose arms extend down to Their knees who have complexions like molten gold and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus flower, They are the maintainers of the living entities, the best of the brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe and the most merciful of all incarnations.

Gaur Nitai ki jai!

So today we start with the second part of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. This may be known as the Madhya Lila in this series. He has come back from Gaya and reached Navadvip dham. In His house He is chanting the holy names and so the sankirtan movement is about to start. These following verses are the description of the beginning of the sankirtan movement. The sankirtan movement in Navadvip in the presence of Lord Caitanya. So we are happy that we completed Lord Caitanya’s pastimes in Navadvip as a student and as a grihastha. Now begins the part that many of you know something about, the gradual development of the sankirtan movement. So this mangala charan is the first verse in the Caitanya Bhagavat and it is a very beautiful verse offered to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda.

So as like other days I am continuing with my physical therapy. I had a voice speech therapist come by and give me some training. I have been using all the vowels and now they started out with consonants. First consonant is mmmm mmmm, you have to pronounce it through your nose like this. So combined aaa oooo mmm. So like that we are getting some training to combine the vowels which provide energy with the consonants which give form and beauty. So for one week I have been practicing on the mmmm sound, mmm consonant, mmmmmm, mmmmm, ha! Ha! So I am learning to speak all over again. If it is pretty clear to you tell me and that is why because of this training. So now we can go on with the next verse.

This is the second verse of the Caitanya Bhagavat.

O my Lord You are eternally existing in the past, present and future. Yet You are the son of Jagannath Mishra. I offer my repeated obeisances unto You along with Your associates, Your devotee servants, Your sons, Your Goswami disciples or the process of devotional service such as the congregational chanting of the holy name and Your consorts who according to regulative principles refer to Vishnu Priya, who is Bhu Shakti, Lakshmi Priya, who is Sri Shakti. And Navadvip which is Neela or Durga or who according to devotional principles refer to the two Gadaadharas, Narahari, Ramananda, Jagadananda and others.

So these two verses are in the Caitanya Bhagavat and they are given a commentary by Om Vishnupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami. Otherwise they are self-explanatory. This is a little esoteric subject matter.

So this is saying, glories to Vishwambhar, Vishwambhar means one who carries the weight of the universe, who is the king of all brahmanas. All glories to Vishwambhar’s dear ones who all are the vaishnava society. So these are the devotees who are engaged in the service of Vishwambhar and the ones who are dear to Him.

Sometimes Lord Vishwambhar is called as Dwijaraj. It is explained as follows: Although Sri Gaurasundar is Himself a full manifestation of the brahmanas, the worshipable Lord is also the best of the brahmanas and the society of the devotees or the Paramahamsa gurus, all varnas and the ashramas are most dear to the Lord. Those who are not gone through the purification rites are known as once born. The samskaras that the brahmanas take are called as second birth and the brahmanas and vaishnavas are also known as twice born. But the phrase Dwijaraj can only refer to a brahmana. Lord Caitanya, did not recommend the purificatory rites or He was not against it but what He promoted was to directly love Krishna and become His devotee. He did not consider the purificatory rites as favorable to devotional service. So the non Vaishnavas or daiva varnashrama was not appreciated by Lord Caitanya. He accepted the actual varnas and ashramas based on occupation favorable to devotional service. And He considered shakatas as daiva varnashrama. So in the society of non-devotees it is a special stress given on karma kanda. So long before Lord Caitanya appeared Sri Vaishnavas and Madhvacharya followers they were primarily in South India. So n that way Lord Caitanya established that we are the Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya. He established brahmanas like Sri Sanatan Goswami and Sri Rupa Goswami who were born in a brahmana family according to the bona fide vaishnava society. He accepted two vaishnavas and established them as His two dear devotees. So Lord Caitanya accepted as beloved devotees, Sripad Prabhodananda and Sripad Gopala Bhatta who were from the Sri Vaishnavas, He accepted them as His dear devotees. So the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya is also dear to Gaurasundar. Gaudiya sampradaya is the most dear. So the smarthas are those who are not devotees followed the system of Shankaracharya of Panchopasana. So He considered the vaishnava compilation, Hari Bhakti Vilas as being an essential description of vaishnav festivals. Like this the devotees of the Lord are very dear to the Lord and in Samskar Dipika and Samskar Kshatriya Dipika are accepted as Gaudiya smritis and Gaudiya vaishnava scriptures on social quotes. So the smarthas they just try to have good karma and good sense gratification. So they give many obstacles to the vaishnava devotees. So such acharyas as Gyanachandra, Rasikananda and recently Sri Srimad Bhakti Vinod Thakur have aspired for the eternal benefit of the Gaudiya vaishnava society, devotees, those in the line of Lord Caitanya. The whole thing can be described as Vishwa Vaishnava Raj Sabha, universal devotee controlling ruling assembly. So Bhakti Vinod Thakur and some other previous acharyas have totally removed many of the discrepancies that have entered the Gaudiya line. So those devotees who are acting in a non-duplicitous manner are very dear to Lord Vishwambhar, Lord Caitanya. Other persons unfavorable to the devotees, create unlimited inauspiciousness for the Gaudiya vaishnava society. In other words, they are disliked as opponents by Sri Gaurasundar, being opponents of Sri Gaurasundar’s dear ones.

Caitanya Bhagavat.

All glories to Lord Gaurachandra! He is the bridge to eternal religious principles. He is most sober. All glories to His congregational chanting of the holy names! All glories to His attractive, beautiful form! All glories to His most attractive form which is the embodiment of the congregational chanting of the holy names. Lord Caitanya by being a dharma sethu, He was a bridge of the pious people of this world to enter into the spiritual world. Gaurasundar propounded the achintya beda beda philosophy which reconciles the difference between the impersonalists and the vaishnavas. Lord Caitanya did not recommend any principles which are immoral, concocted or opposed to one’s constitutional duties. There are a set of so called followers of Lord Caitanya who maintain the religiosity and material sense gratification. They are called prakrata sahajiyas. On the basis of religiosity, they do all nonsense. They maintain mundane and material vision. So Lord Caitanya established that Sanatan dharma was the system. He taught everyone how to cross beyond the worldly activities and considerations by attaining the service of Adhokshaja, Krishna. By building a bridge in the form of preaching the congregational chanting of the holy names of Hari! Haribol! Mahadhira explained that Gaurasundar did not follow the path of argumentation, He followed the path of Vedas. He did not utilize mental speculation based on one’s sense gratification. Like ordinary karmi materialistic does. One who conquers the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is called dhira or self-controlled. Such persons are devoid of such self-control. They are controlled by the urges of the body mind and speech. They cannot understand the service to Hari or the Supreme Lord. So Lord Caitanya did not accept such arguments, He is considered as most sober and is worshipable by the sober sanyasis. The prakrata sahajiyas or the gaura naagaris have a wrong opinion about Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya exists very far beyond their concocted ideas of prakrata sahajiyas. So Lord Caitanya although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, He is the personification of the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna, and He has manifested His pastimes as Gauranga taking the role of a Maha Bhaagavat or great devotee, He is the personification of worshipable sound and the sacrifice of chanting the holy names, He is the Supreme Brahman.

All Glories to the Lord who is the friend, wealth and life of Lord Nityananda. All glories to one who is the loving abode of Gadaadhar and Advaita!

All glories to the Lord who is most dear to Jagadananda Pandit! All glories to the heart and soul of Vakreshwar and Kasheshwar. These are all great devotee associates of Lord Caitanya and later they will be described. Jagadananda, Vakreshwar, Kasheshwar. Jagadananda was the reincarnation of Satya Bhama in Dwaraka, Vakreshwar would be able to chant and dance 72 hours nonstop, Kasheshwar. wrote a beautiful book on Lord Caitanya which we are compiling in this series. So here all the glories are offered to all the different Lord’s devotees and the devotees headed by Srivas. And he asked that the Lord bestow His merciful glance on all the living entities

So in this Madhya kanda the topics are like drops of nectar. Atheism will be vanquished from the hearts of anyone who hears this narration.

So the great historians of Lord Caitanya they are requesting to everyone that they hear attentively how the inauguration of the sankirtan pastimes are described. So he calls everyone as his brother. He asks them to give their full attention, how the sankirtan movement was started.

So here he is offering glories to Narahari and Gadaadhar, the Lord of their lives, that means Lord Caitanya.

After completing the Adi lila, the Madhya lila begins. Whoever hears attentively will surely achieve the wealth, the treasure of pure love of Krishna.

So this Madhya kanda is like the essence of nectar. The Lord’s transcendental pastimes in Navadvip in Nadia district where He preached pure love of Krishna. And distributed Krishna prema freely.

Jagai and Madhai who were great sinners, they were delivered here and that is even dear to Lord Brahma that pure Krishna Prema or love of Krishna was given freely to these persons.

That place of the Harinaam sankirtan was manifested where the fallen were delivered, and where to deliver the fallen, He took sanyas.

So to tell these pastimes, this is the nectar part of the Caitanya pastimes. Whoever listens destroys his inner atheistic nature.

That was the mangala charan and introduction to Lord Caitanya’s pastimes as presented in Caitanya Bhagavat. Hereon we will have other scriptures like Caitanya Caritamrita Mahakaavya. So we will start these other descriptions tomorrow. So there are different writers who have cited who are telling the pastimes of the Lord starting the sankirtan movement. So are there are any questions?

Hare Krishna! So we have a separate video in which we announced that on the next Ekadasi, the end of the Damodar month, that is the last five days from Ekadasi to the full moon day can be observed as Bhishma Panchak. I will put on the Face Book the details of observance, basically it is offering a lamp to the Lord, offering to the five parts of the limbs of the Lord different flowers, do some ceremonies or tarpana for the wellbeing of Bhishma deva. If you are near to the Ganges, you do it in the Ganges or you can do it in the ocean. If you cannot do it anywhere else then do it in your shower, you can chant three times Ganga and invoke the presence of Ganga. In these five days you can go on one of the three diets. Eating the byproducts of the cow, Pancha gavya, second option is fruits and roots, that is what people do. If that is too austere then one can also take Havishanna and have khichdi and dahi, milk, you cannot use chili or other spices. So either havishanna, fruits and roots or Pancha gavya. Then on full moon day when the moon rises you have to break your fast and take a feast. It is a big austerity. Leave those potatoes behind! In Mayapur sometimes we see people take fruits and roots and piles of potatoes. Thank you very much! Is there some prasadam for distribution?

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari dd
16 November 2018