Prayers show their powers again
Ahead of the satsang on the 13th of March, one of our satsang members from California called in to request for the prayer for their three year old son who was suffering from high fever. The fever hadn’t subsided for 2 days in a row. So they were tensed.
The satsang members on the call sincerely chanted praying for the little one’s health.
The grace of the Guru and the power of the Mahamantra was yet again glorified, when on the subsequent week’s satsang, the satsang friend called in to thank everyone and let all know that very soon after the prayers, the fever subsided and the little one was doing well now!
Hail the Mahamantra! Glory to the Sadguru!
The marriage that was averted
It was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Jayanthi that day and we had organized a satsang. When the satsang was just about to conclude, one of their friends’ requested for Nama chanting for their servant maid back in India who was facing some problems. Their maid’s daughter was supposed to be married off to a guy who didn’t possess good moral values and that the bride was totally not interested to get married to him but she didn’t have much say in this matter. When the Nama request came up, placing the request at the feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all chanted for that girl.
What a surprise! The very next day, we were very glad to hear that the bride’s father had elevated this case to the local Panchayat and it was decided that the girl will not get married to that guy!
- Aravind Thathachari,
Orlando, FL
Nama spreads like fire!
I usually listen to Mahamantra audio in a subtle volume at his work place – right from morning to the end of the day. I have been doing this for quite some time. Recently, one of my colleague who sits beside me was fascinated by the beauty of the Mahamantra and requested if he could play it too! I happily shared the audio with him. Soon after yet other colleague also expressed his interest to play the Mahamantra on his computer! Now, about seven of us listen to the Mahamantra on our own computers at work!
True, isn’t it?
‘Padidum bhaktarayum paadidum thalaththaiyum
Paavanamaakkidum keerthanam paadeere’
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Aravind Thathachari
Orlando, FL
Mar-27: The Almighty and sin-cleansing
The Nama kirtan was lead by Bhoomaji from Dallas, TX. Followed by brief round of introductions, Ramaniji from Los Angeles talked about the basics of Sanatana Dharma, which were excerpts from ‘Deivathin Kural’.
Deivathin Kural is a series of lectures and interviews given by the Kanchi saint Sri.Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal. He is fondly called as MahaPerivaa.
If you see a house, one can quickly say that this house was built by a civil engineer. If you see a car, we can without any hesitation say that it was manufactured by some expert. A house or a car has been built for a specific purport. It cannot be said that it was here on its own or it came here by accident. Can we? No certainly not. It is very clear that there is intelligence involved behind all these creation. It is only right to say that there is a person behind all these intelligence. We see innumerable animate and inanimate objects in this universe. Though there are so many of them, they all behave in an orderly fashion as though they are bound to something or somebody. Acharya says that if there is an order then there must be some control and it is imperative that control cannot take place without a person. We so many different things not related to each other yet bind with each other to give us a specific output.
When we delve into this thought one can very easily conclude that there is an absolute supreme that has created all these for a reason. As mentioned earlier it is very easy to find the builder of the house or a car but on the other hand it is not possible to locate the person who created the tree. We wonder with awe as to what tools that person must have used to create a tree. Likewise it also baffles us to think about the person who created the mountains, stars and moon etc. One may argue that these were created too long ago to investigate the person behind their creation.
Well, then let’s take another classic example, a freshly blossomed rose. It is not as old as mountains, star and moon either. It has too many intricate petals. It just blossomed right before our eyes and yet we cannot find the person behind this splendid creation. Can we? We think that we are the intelligent species in this world and we fail to realize how ignorant we are. Acharya paraphrases it in a very amusing way. He says that we are akin to a wild buffalo that entered the city accidentally. The buffalo will be confused and scared and so are we on this earth. There is someone more intelligent than us who has kept us this way. The flowers are bound to a rule and it is case for all the celestial objects including earth. There is a person behind all these creation and keep them bound them in order.
Mankind should strive to perceive and know the person behind all these creation. The reason to know this person as Acharya mentioned is that he is not only intelligent but compassionate enough to keep everything in orderly fashion. Acharya calls this person as GOD.
A thief leaves some evidence in a crime scene. He calls God as thief who has left an impression all over the universe. The purport of this is to find him, know him and understand him. Even our intelligence is a classic example of his impression. There cannot be a better example to substantiate that there is a Creator in this universe.
Achraya questions if we can draw lines that are akin to the ones in our hands. Even though we admire man made creation and call them wonders of the world, yet can we draw the drawings close enough to the veins of a single leaf? Acharya re-iterates the impressions of this thief who is also known as god. A thief is one who concedes his identity and so does god. God lives inside a cave and that cave is our heart. He hides himself inside us and yet created all these wonderful creation on this earth. By wondering, he makes us search for him and that search is called Bhakti.
Following this, Narayananji from Boston talked about Srimad Bhagavata Purana.
We all know that Bhagavatha Purana is the one of the greatest Purnanas and it is the Satvik of all puranas. The puranas are eighteen in total. They are classified into three types namely the Rajasika, Tamasika and Satvika. Srimad Bhagavatam is the eighteenth purana and it is a beautiful blend of Bhakti and Vedanta. It is a very relevant purana in this age. Just as one would tend to read the first few and last lines of a letter or a telegram, if we take the first few verses of Srimad Bhagavatam it begins by meditating on the supreme who is the universal god and at the end it talks about ‘Sharanagati’ (surrender). The path prescribed for surrender is verily the chanting of the Divine Names of the Lord.
“nama sankirtanam yasya sarva papa pranashanam
Pranamo dukha samanaha tam namami harim param”The middle portion of Srimad Bhagavatam – sixth canto – talks about Ajamila Charithra. Srimad Bhagavatam talks about ten different lakshanas. One of the lakshana is the description of the universe. The fifth canto talks about the various concepts of astronomy, and it also expounds on twenty different hells. There are descriptions of all the hells and the specific sins associated with every one of them. The twenty sixth chapter of fifth canto briefly talks about all these infernal regions. .
King Parikshit who listens to all this intently, is worried. He says, the description of these entire abysses is so very gory and is frightening and asks if there are any atonement for all these sins? While there were atonements for the sins, people tend to commit more sins knowing that there is way out! But one needs to understand the root-cause that urges people to commit a sin.
Let’s ponder on this by looking at an example. A person speaks falsehood. Assume that there is a panacea for this. Let us say that the remedy for speaking falsehood is to donate a few dollars within a period of time, or else the person’s tongue will be cut. So the person tends to commit falsehood and tries to repair his wrong-doing by doing the stipulated donation.
But Sage Sukha says that the true way to come out of these sins is to cleanse one’s heart of these bad qualities that reside deep within the heart. Sage Sukha beautifully explains this with an example – “Manye Kunjara sauchavat”. An elephant likes to play in sand. The mahout scrubs the elephant and gives him a good bath. After the bath, he dries him and lets him wander while the Mahoop takes a quick shower. The elephant wanders it quickly puts sand all over its body. The same thing happens in our case too. Atonements are not a permanent means to cleanse the sins. It is only means to a vicious cycle. The more one gets involved in this worldly life, the more does the sins get firmly imprinted in our heart. What has to be done is, to cleanse the root cause of the sins by making the mind pure. At this point, Sage Sukha narrates the story of Ajamila.
Ajamila was born in a very orthodox and religious family. Good qualities that one possesses are not necessarily by birth. It comes through the society as well. Although Ajamila was born in a very pious family his mind got corrupted because of the influence of the society and he took to bad ways. The ‘sanga’ (company) in which one belongs will have a great influence. To underline this fact, Sage Sukha introduces Ajamila as a ‘dasipati’ (womanizer).
It is required to be in the company of Sadhus. Sadhus are the ones who are in divine communion with the lord and are always chanting the Divine names of the Lord. Ajamila committed a small sin and that sin lead him to do more and more sins. He gave his heart for lust and that had a lot of repercussions.
Sage Sukha talks about how Ajamila named his last son as Narayana and during his last moments of his life, he chanted ‘Narayana Nama’ and was immediately cleansed. He didn’t chant the Narayana Nama thinking of the lord Narayana. He just called his son and the Lord came to his rescue and reached the divine feet of the Lord.
It is said that even if one chants the divine names of the lord by mistake, it reaps lots of goodwill.
The satsang ended with prayers with Nama Kirtan.
Mar-20: How serious are we?
Nama Kirtan was lead by Ramaniji’s family from Los Angeles, CA. Followed by brief round of introductions, Nishaji from Houston gave a blissful satsang talk.
It is said that “Jantu Nam Nara Janma Dhurlabam”. It is very rare to be bestowed with a human birth and rarer it is to have all the limbs intact but the rarest of all is to be in a satsang and have one’s life directed by a Sadguru. Our Guru Maharaj, Sri Muralidhara Swamiji prescribes an easy path of liberation which is verily the chanting of the divine names of the Lord. Nothing more is expected out of us. But if we think about this, are we really making use of what providence and grace of Bhagawan has really given us? Is the Mahamantra always on our lips? Sometimes we chant the Mahamantra only during the satsang and completely forget about it during the rest of the day.Do we strive for every opportunity to have satsang? There are even times when we get bogged down by our worldly chores and during such times satsang takes a back seat. We have all heard that human birth is indeed very rare but has this fact really sunk into us? We need to realize that the ultimate purpose of life is attaining God. If we realize this fact then every act of us will be directed towards that ultimate goal.
Ramanujamji in one of his lectures mentioned that there is no such thing like spiritual life and worldly life. There is only one life and it depends on how we view it. It is not correct to say that when somebody is in a satsang he is into spiritual life and when he is back at work he is into his materialistic life. Spirituality means that the ultimate goal in one’s life is to reach God.
Our beloved Guru Maharaj in one of his discourses forecasted how the future would look like. Satsangs are going to be very difficult. The society is going to be very corrupted and it is very rare to see someone chanting the Divine Names of the Lord let alone finding a Jivan Mukta. We need to make full use of what we have right now, which is the very valuable gem.
Once Sri AdiShakaracharya was taking a stroll with his disciple and saw an old man sitting on the banks of the river Ganga trying to learn some verse in Sanskrit. He was surprised by this and asked the old man as to what he was doing. The old man replied that the king had announced a golden shawl as prize to someone who can recite this Sanskrit verse. This old man was in his nineties and was on the brink of his death. That’s when AdiShankaracharya composed the great song “Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam Mooda Matae”. Have we really pondered on the message that he is trying to convey in this great song? ‘Oh Foolish Mind! Chant the names of Lord Govinda’. He further tells the old man “Sampraptae Sannihitae Kalai Nahi Nahi Rakshati Dukrin Karanae” The Sanksrit grammar is not going to save you in your last moments and it is verily the chanting the names of Lord Govinda that is going to save you.
We are fortunate to have a Sadguru and a Satsang. We shouldn’t be a barrier to obstruct the grace of the guru. To substantiate this, there was a person called Palaniswamy who served as an attendant to Ramana Maharishi. On the brink of his death , Bhagawan was sitting right next to Palaniswamy and placed his hand on his fore-head and was trying him to grant him liberation. But Palaniswamy opened his eyes and Bhagawan couldn’t do what he wanted to. This is to show that we should not be a barrier to our Guru’s grace.
Just follow the Sadguru’s instructions verbatim without questioning it and make sure to follow it all the time. There was once a young man who wanted to have darshan of Sri.Yogiramsuratkumar and had some offerings that he wanted to give it to Yogi. While he was having darshan, he tried to give his offerings but at the same time, Yogi tried to give him some Prasad. But this young man didn’t accept the prasadam and kept on pressing the Yogi to accept what he himself was offering to the Yogi. This went on for a while for a while. Later Yogiji said that he was trying to bless the devotee with the Prasad to ward off his impeding danger! This clearly shows that the young man obstructed the yogi from showering his grace. We should always trust whatever our Guru instructs us to do and should always bear in mind that his actions are always driven by a reason. Our Guru is protecting us and showering his grace always.
Our Guru Maharaj’s earnest request for all of us is to chant the Divine Names of the Lord. Let’s honor his request by chanting the Mahamantra wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
After this wonderful discourse the forum was opened to discussions. A few Nama Anubhava were shared.
Prayers show their powers again
The marriage that was averted
Nama spreads like fire!
The satsang wrapped up with Nama Sankirtan.
Mar 13: Bodendra Swamigal
The telecom satsang began with Nama sankirtan which was led by Ranjaniji and Rajasekarji from Plainville, MA. Followed by a brief round of introductions, Ramyaji from Bay Area talked about Sri Bhagawan Nama Bodendra Swamigal.
“Bhagavan comes up with innumerable ideas to liberate the human beings and have these ideas of Bhagavan been really successful? We can emphatically say, “No!” Till date they have not been successful because Bhagavan’s creation (’srishti’) is still taking place. Crores of people are still remaining ignorant. Innumerable kinds of birds, animals are still being born on this earth. Hence, Bhagavan’s ideas to take ashore the ‘human beings’ have not met with success till date.
It is said that there is an eternal struggle between the devotee and the Lord. The devotee always tries to run away from the Lord and the Lord is determined to take the devotee unto himself. He is never deterred by the act of human beings. It is the struggle between the ignorance of the devotee and the compassion of the Lord. And finally the lord wins. The compassion of the Lord is so much that , even if we chant His Name in mockery or as an insinuation, He grants us Moksha:
‘Sanketyam parihasyam va stopham helanam eva va. Vaikunta naama grahanam …’
goes the verse.Finding his work unaccomplished through the Vedas, Bhagavan decided to incarnate Himself on earth. He, therefore, came down to the earth as Lord Rama. The message that Lord Rama tried to convey was not practical to lead in daily lives. In Krishna Avatar, he tried to show his prowess and the message he tried to convey about surrender was very subtle. Neither of the above acts of the lord fulfilled his wish and hence he decided that he will not come down to earth.
“Kalau Khalu bhavishyanti Narayana parayanah”
“Tamraparni nadhi yatra kritamala payasvini”says the Bhagavatam.
In this Kali Yuga innumerable Sadhus will come down to the earth.
Well! How will these Sadhus who come down in this Kali Yuga be? They will not be in the garb of an ascetic (’sanyasi’) who remains aloof and away from the people, instead will mingle freely with the worldly (’samsariis’). None of the Azhwars, the Nayanmars, Pandaripura Bhaktas were Sanyasis. The Sadhus in this Kali Yuga will mingle with the simple folks, live amidst the worldly, cleanse their minds (‘chitta shuddhi’), transform them into a beautiful golden flower and throw them at the Feet of Bhagavan, even without their knowledge.
Reminiscing on the life-history of great saints to name a few Pattinathar, RamaLinga Vallalar, Sri Thyagaraja swamigal, Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra, Arunagiri Vallalar, the various Sants of Pandarpur, they have all sung the glories of the lord in the form of Kirtans and Abhangs. These great Saints have composed so many kirtans and Abhangs because they loved the Lord so much and they could see the lord everywhere. The essence of all these Kirtans and Abhangs convey the importance of Nama chanting and the significance of having Satsangs. But none of them substantiated the significance of Nama and hence the path of Nama Sankirtan was always debated and questioned by the vidwans. One great Saint, Sri Bhagawan Nama Bodendra Saraswati Swamigal incarnated in this earth to do Nama Siddhantha. He wrote eight texts elucidating the significance of Nama. He showed the prowess of Nama Sankirtan by showing various excerpts from Vedas, Puranas as proof and the Vidwans after reading these texts were totally dumb-founded and never debated about Nama Sankirtan again.
In this Kali Yuga, all the great saints who have incarnated in this holy ‘Bharata’ Desa have chiefly shown us one of the easiest paths to liberation – singing the Divine Names of God. The chief among them was the great saint from South India by the name Bhagavan Nama Bodendra Saraswati Swamigal.
A small summary of the life of Bodendra Swamigal is below.
Sri Bodendra Swamgal was born to Mohana Pandurangan and Suguna Devi with the blessings of the then Peetadhipathi of Kanchi Kamakoti mutt, Vishwadikendra Saraswati. With the blessings of the Acharya, at a very young age, Purushottaman (which was the ‘Purvashrama’ name of Bodendra Swamigal) was inducted into the service of the Mutt.
Once when Purushottaman and his friend Jnanasagaran undertook a trip to Varanasi to meet their guru, the latter passed away en route. When Purushottaman wanted to give up his life (to keep a promise that he made to his friend), his Acharya forbade him from doing so and initiated him into Sanyasa Ashrama and asked him to take Nama Sankirtan to the world.
Later Swamigal came to the South. He relinquished his position in the Mutt towards the divine cause of taking the Rama Nama to everyone. Among his ‘Siddantha granthas’, “Bhagavan Nama Rasodayam” was the most important, that spoke at length about the glory of Taraka Mantra. He initiated everyone who came to him with Rama Nama, irrespective of caste, creed or religion and purified them.
Once while camping in a village called Perambur in Tamil Nadu, Bodendra Swamigal was saddened by the fact that a little boy who was both deaf and dumb could neither chant or listen to the Rama Nama. However, no sooner did the little boy partook of the ‘uchichishta’ (remnants of food partaken by Swamiji) than he started singing and dancing the Rama Nama in bliss.
Sri Bodendra Swamigal is in a Jiva Samadhi at a place called Govindapuram next to Tiruvidaimarudur in Tamizh Nadu, on the banks of river Cauvery. It is said that Bodendra Swamigal lives there chanting the Rama Nama all 24 hours and round the year.Today, anyone going to Sri Bodendra Saraswati Swamigal’s Samadhi Govindapuram with problems and sufferings in their heart and pray with Bhakti are ridden of their ills.
The above is only a short summary of the lecture. The detailed story of Sri Bodendra Swamigal can be read from Namadwaar:
http://www.namadwaar.org/articles/mahans/bodendral.html
The talk was followed by a brief account of how a devotee of Sri Swamiji who in his last breath was fortunate enough to chant the Mahamantra. This particular devotee was blessed to perform more than a hundred Bhagavata Saptahams. He had the practice of reciting Srimad Bhagavatam and Ramayanam regularly. When he came to know that a 108 akhanda Srimad Bhagavata Saptaham (continuous reading of Srimad Bhagavatam) is being performed at Premika Bhavanam under the auspices of Sri Swamiji in 2006, he enthusiastically participated. Since then he became an ardent devotee of Sri Swamiji and rarely missed any opportunity to perform Bhagavatam or Ramayana Parayana.
It is said that whatever one does in his entire life, what matters is whether he remembers the Lord in his last breath. It is indeed the Srimad Bhagavatam parayanam and the grace of the Guru that gave such a fortune to this devotee.
The satsang ended with Mahamantra Kirtan prayers.
Mar 6: A leaf from a Bhagavatottama’s life
The satsang started off with Nama Kirtan by Zivanji and family from Chicago, IL. This was followed by a quick round of introductions, after which Narayanan from Boston gave the discourse.
“It is said that “Shravanam” or hearing to the Lord’s glories is the easiest means removing the sins that we have accrued, and to attain chitta shuddhi which in turn leads us to liberation. Prahlada Swami in Srimad Bhagavatam, for this very reason, states “Shravanam” as the first step to Bhakti.
But as we go ahead reading Bhagavatam, in the first chapter of the 10th canto, we find the following Sloka:
“Nivrutta darshair upageeyamanat bhavaushadaat strotra manobiraamaath |
Ka uttamasloka gunanuvaadath puman virajetha vina pashughnat || “Having spoken of the different dynasties and lineages in the Ninth canto, Sage Sukacharya very briefly speaks of the “Yadhu” dynasty, the kings of the dynasties and also about Lord Krishna’s life. A worried Parikshit asks the sage, ‘Oh Holy One! You have expounded the all the clans and kingdoms in great detail. You have spoken greatly of my grandfather. But why have you cut short the story of Lord Krishna. I have been all along waiting to listen to His divine exploits. Am I not fortunate enough to listen to them? Have I committed such a grave sin as killing a cove that I am not fortunate enough and entitled to listen to Krishna Katha?”
Cow is considered to be very sacred and is considered to be a form of the Lord himself. Killing of a cow is considered as a grave sin. He asked Sage Sukha “Did I kill a cow (‘pashughnat’) and incur so much sin that I am not able to listen to Krisha Katha?”
It is only due to the merits accrued in the past that we are gifted to listen to Krishna Katha. We see this in our daily life don’t we? How many people try to escape away from a Krishna Katha discourse happening next door, with silly reasons as “I don’t have time”, “I have already heard it” and so on?
Now comparing the two facts, firstly we said, the sins getting destroyed by listening to Krishna Katha and secondly if one has sinned then he cannot listen to the stories of Lord Krishna. Does this not sound like a chicken and egg paradox?
Srimad Bhagavatam provides the solution for this conundrum and this can be found in Bhagavatham itself. Krishna’s life-history is depicted in the tenth canto only. The first nine cantos lead us to wash away our sins so that we can listen to Krishna katha in the tenth canto. The first nine cantos beautifully explain the glories of the devotees of the Lord and that makes us mature enough to listen to the stories of the Lord himself in the tenth canto. Otherwise we may ask silly questions and not enjoy the ‘bhaava’ of the katha.
Once a devotee asked our Guru Maharaj as to why Lord Krishna did Rasa Leela. In reply to this question, he asked him to only see and enjoy all the good deeds that he had done, by killing the demons etc. In fact Rasa Leela starts with the term “Bhagavaan api”. We should come to terms that we are talking about the glories of the Lord.
Talking about Rasa Leela, our Guru Maharaj once mentioned an interesting take away point. The playful games of Krishna and the Gopis are celebrated as Holi, specifically in the North of India. In south India, in villages, it is celebrated as the festival of ‘Kaama’. ‘Kaama’ is cupid or the Lord of love. On the same day, when the Lila of Lord Krishna’s Rasa with the Gopikas is celebrated, also celebrated is the burning away of ‘Manmadha’ (Kaama) by Lord Shiva through His third eye. Both Shiva and Krishna were bereft of lust and they exhibited this in different ways. While Lord Shiva showed that He had conquered lust by destroying Kaama, Lord Krishna did so, by Rasa Lila. How can one say that Lord Krishna is devoid of any lust?? If we take the Krishna Ashtotara (which contains the hundred and eight names of Lord Krishna), there is one name that is unique to Lord Krishna only – “Aanadi Brahmacharinae Namaha” – He is an eternal celibate!
Our Guru Maharaj beautifully explains this fact: A person has no craving for wealth. One way to do this is to embrace the path of sanyasa by renouncing everything in this world and sit in the forest thinking about the Lord, thereby eliminating the need to touch money. The other way is to be in the family and accumulate a lot of wealth but not be greedy by giving away all the wealth as charity. Is it not?
By listening to the stories of Bhaagavatas (devotees of the Lord), we become mature enough to listen to the stories of the Lord. Now who is a Bhagavata? Anyone who chants the name of the Lord (even once in his lifetime) is verily a Bhagavata. A Bhagavatottara is one who incessantly chants the name of the Lord. A Bhagavatottama (the superlative) is one whose very touch and sight makes people chant and dance to the joy of Nama. Today, we will speak of one such Bhagavatottama.
The Lord when he took Rama Avatar showed the ideal path of leading a life. In Krishna Avatar Lord showed His “Parakrama” (power) throughout His lifetime. But the message (about surrender) that he conveyed was very subtle. In order to make the message more blatant , the Lord wanted to take yet another avatar and as He loved the Krishna Avatar, He decided to take the form of Krishna avatar in kali yuga and make the message very clear. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Navadeep on a full moon day in the year 1486. That day happened to be lunar eclipse. No sooner was he born than he started sending out the message for the Kaliyuga which was chanting the Divine Names of the Lord. And how did he accomplish this? By being born on a lunar eclipse day! it is considered very auspicious to do any sadhana on the day of eclipse and the merits accrued would be far more than any other normal day. Navdeep being a place of learned scholars, this fact was a no-brainer. All of them had gathered in the banks of the Ganges to perform Japa and Hari Nama Sankirtan!
Right from his childhood, akin to Lord Krishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (he was fondly called Nimayi or Gauranga)’s life was filled with pranks and mischiefs.
In Krishna’s leela’s we read a nice episode called “Yagna Patni Uddharana”. The learned scholars didn’t possess any compassion or mercy in their heart and were haughty about their knowledge and once continued to do Yagas without realizing that the hungry Lord Sri Krishna and his friends were in their neighborhood. It is seen how Lord Krishna showers His compassion on their spouses and eventually gets the scholars to His feet. That’s a beautiful episode in Bhagavatham.
Akin to this, in the life-history of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he subdues the ego of so many different pandits and it is seen how he takes them to his feet. There once lived a pandit by name Keshav Suri, who hailed from Kashmir. He was a very learned scholar. In those days there was a practice called Digvijaya, where pandits go to any places to conquer other pandits. They debate with other pandits and enslave the losers. This Keshav Suri Pandit was a very successful ‘Digvijaya pandit’ and he had a battalion of pandits who always followed him. He happened to visit Navadeep and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was taking classes to young disciples. Keshav Suri wanted to debate with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The latter being very humble in nature didn’t want to debate and hence was reluctant. Digvijay Pandit immediately composed hundred verses on the Ganges. The pundit who was very complacent that Mahaprabhu couldn’t have grasped any of the verses, asked him to comment on the 100 verses and speak about their pros and cons. To his surprise, Mahaprabhu recited all the verses one after another in quick succession. He recited all the hundred verses and gave the positive and negative points about the verses and commented as to how they should be written. This really angered the Digvijay Pandit but he agreed that they were genuine mistakes. This pandit who had the blessings of Lordess Saraswati went to her and asked her as to why he failed in front of a small lad. She immediately replied that he was not a small lad and that he was Lord Krishna himself.
There was another Pandit by name, Sarvabhauma in the royal court. He was very haughty about his knowledge and didn’t want to take the path of Bhakti.
Once while Mahaprabhu was with Sarvabhauma Pandit, the latter took a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam (Canto 1, Chapter 7) that goes ‘aatmaraamaascha munaya: nirgrantaat apyurukrame…’), expounded on this verse and gave nine different commentaries. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took the same verse and gave sixty one different commentaries! There was no other way for the pandit but to surrender on to his feet.
We have seen in Krishna leela about the sons of Kubera, Nalakupura and Manigriva. They are inherently good natured but after having consumed a liquor called ‘varuni’ they misbehave in front of Narada in intoxication and become trees in the spell of Narada’s curse, only to be liberated by Lord Krishna during His childhood.
In a very similar case, there are these two sinners, Jagayi and Madayi who are liberated by Mahaprabhu. They are Brahmins but they commit so many atrocities and sins. They were in fact numb to making sins and they only committed sins all the time. It was obviously Mahapranhu who was destined to correct these two people.Once during a Nagara Sankirtan, when Mahaprabhu was absorbed in the ecstasy of Nama Kirtan, Nityananda Swami (who was always with Mahaprabhu) who was leading from the front, spotted Jagayi and Madayi. On seeing them he requested them to chant the Names of the Lord. Sinners as they were, they started to mock Nithyananda Swami and the stronger of the two, Madayi hit him and Nithyananda Swami started to bleed profusely. Seeing this, Mahaprabhu came to front and when Madayi was about to strike him again, Jagayi stopped him saying that he was on the verge of death and asked him not to hurt the Swami anymore. After having given the first aid to Nityananda Swami, Mahaprabhu immediately embraced Madayi and thanked him for his compassion. This very act of Mahaprabhu made him realize his folly and immediately surrendered himself to Mahaprabhu Eventually, both became his followers. Mahaprbhu liberated them by initiating them in Nama.
He has liberated so many people by mere touch and by singing the maha mantra and he made the wild animals like lions and tigers dance to his tune of the Mahamantra.
In Srimad Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna embraces his very ardent devotee Trivarka (Koobja) who had a hunchback and the moment Lord Krishna touched her, she became a beautiful woman.
Being a Sanyasi, Mahaprabhu went around the country on foot. He even visited South India, all the way to Sri Rangam and Kanyakumari. On such a visit to a place called Sri Kurmam in Andra Pradesh happened this wonderful incident.
Vasudeva lived in that town and was a leprosy patient. He had sores all over his body and worms dwelling in his wounds. He was an outcast from the village for obvious reasons. However he was so kind at heart that he would take the worms that fell from his sores put them back on, for he did not wish to deprive them of their food!
Having heard the news of Mahaprabhu’s arrival, Vasudeva was all excited to have the darshan of the great mahatma. However, the next day Vasudeva missed the darshan of Mahaprabhu and wept bitterly. Seeing the heart of this great devotee from far away, Mahaprabhu ran and came back, merely to give darshan to Vasudeva. The moment he saw Vasudeva, he embraced him and showered all his love. This very act of his turned Vasudeva into a very handsome man and cured him of his leprosy. Vasudeva’s joy knew no bounds and he immediately prostrated to Mahaprabhu. Thanking Mahaprabhu profusely for his compassion, Vasudeva asked as to why he cured him, for his disease kept him grounded and now that he was cured, his ego of being handsome will play havoc. Mahaprabhu in reply told him that it was all Gods’ grace and that his ego will not shoot up if he chanted the Divine Names of the Lord and left.
We could go on with such great incidents from this Mahatmas’ life, but we are time constrained.
Lord Rama had to come down for fourteen thousand years and Lord Krishna took about hundred twenty five years to accomplish their tasks, while Mahaprabhu lived for only forty-eight years and in that span, he spent only a part of it carrying his mission and was very successful and till date Mahamantra kirtan is carried out in different places.
His only literary work was Shikshashtakam, consisting of eight verses talking of the Glories of the Bhagavata, the Lord and the efficacy of His Divine Name.
Our Guru Maharaj in his maha mantra kirtan, sings –
“Chaithanya devaruum Nithyanandharum Bakthi vellam paaiychiya Keerthanam Paadeere!”The mantra (“Hare Rama..”) with which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nithyanandji flooded the world with devotion.
Nithyanandji’s jayanthi is on the ninth of March and Mahaprabhu’s jayanthi is on tenth of March and we are all thankful to the Almighty for having given us an opportunity to listen about the Mahatmas during this time.
After the discourse, Sri Vinodji who is traveling from India shared some of his experiences with our Guru Maharaj.
The satsang wrapped up with Namakirtan with prayers for Namadwaar and the economy.
