English
5th June 2019
Lords beautiful form is described as 24 and half chandras
Nagpur
Today we have 636 participants. I am happy that more and more japa participants are joining. Anandamayi Radha mataji’s father has joined us today. And I am sure there are some other new faces. Don’t remain new faces, become old faces by keep doing chanting and become familiar faces. Introduce yourself, let Krishna acknowledge your presence and show yourself to the Lord, present yourself to the Lord, ‘I am here Oh Lord! I had turned my face away from You for such a long long time, but now I am here facing You. I am sanmukh now. Please accept me Oh Lord.’ You could pray like that.
Of course you could also begin, facing the devotees first or the gurujans, the spiritual master first. You face them and they will also introduce you to the Lord. They will recommend your case to the Lord, ‘Here is someone my dear Lord. He has turned his face towards You, please accept him.’ So that also could be there. You begin facing devotees and then they would turn you towards the Lord, introduce you to the Lord.
So chanting stirs up our thoughts and we think and we remember as we chant, the expected remembrance of the Lord.
I had some thoughts as I was chanting this morning and I was remembering dialogue between Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sanatana Gosvami. And this is something, the way Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was remembering Krishna, He was sharing that with Sanatana Gosvami. And that sharing was going on and on for almost two months. Then just cross section of that dialogue or just one or two statements of that, we are going to talk about. I am trying to share something which Sri Krishna Caitanya Maghaprabhu was thinking. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami has kindly presented that dialogue between Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sanatana Gosvami in Caitanya Caritamrita.
So Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu although He is Lord Himself, but He is thinking this way in the mood of the devotee of the Lord and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu at one point during that dialogue with Sanatana Gosvami, He was more ecstatic and more excited when He said something that I am going to share. So Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is talking of the beauty or beautiful form of Sri Krishna. That we always hear and say and write that Lord is Sri Krishna or Caitanyacandra or Ramachandra or Krishnachandra is compared with the Chandra. Lord is called as Chandra, Ramachandra, Krishnachandra. The reason why we call or address Lord as Ramachandra or Krishnachandra, because They are, some parts of Their body are compared with Chandra. They act like chandra- moon, shining, dazzling, and effulgent; rays emanating from certain parts of Lord’s body.
So Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is talking of Sri Krishna having 24 and half chandras, 24 and half moons in the Personality of Krishna. Beginning with the Lord’s face, this is the main principle. Moon face of the Lord is moon like face. So, that is the main principle moon of the Lord. He describes the moon like face, this moon is principle Chandra and other chandras are subsidiary chandras.
So this moon like Chandra, mukhachandra or shashimukha, makes whole body of the Lord, full form of the Lord like His asana, like His seat and He takes the main seat and He represents the face of the Lord. And the description goes on, the counting of 24 and half moons, which ones are 24 and half; so the face is one. And the cheeks, these are the two additional moons, so three moons. Then tilak Lord wears, this is yet another moon, say fourth moon. The forehead of the Lord is half moon. It doesn’t make complete round, astami’s moon, Chandra chakor. Then the fingernails of the Lord, ten more moons are the reddish complexion, dazzling moons are the fingernails of the Lord. And the toe nails which are again ten in numbers those are additional ten moons, nakhachandra.
In Bhagavat Mahatyma it is also described as Chandravali, it is awali like dipavali (rows of lamps) there is chandravali (rows of moons), all those chandras, each toenail is one Chandra and another Chandra and another. Even Chandravali gopi, presence is felt on the toenail of the Lord. The yogis do meditation and lot of time they meditate on this effulgence which is emanating from the form of the Lord, coming from His face or His toenails or fingernails, specially from the toe nails, that effulgence becomes the object of meditation, but unfortunately their realization is incomplete and they consider this effulgence complete in itself and they do not understand source of that light- Effulgence (jyoti) is the form of the Lord. So that is unfortunate!
Vaishnavas, of course, they understand the effulgence, Brahmajyoti and the source of Brahmajyoti is form of the Lord, the moons of the Lord are the source.
And Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is talking with Sanatana Gosvami and He goes on and states that when Lord Sri Krishna plays His flute then His fingers and fingernails are dancing, so it’s just like moons are dancing as He is playing flute. Similarly, Nataraja Sri Krishna, ‘natavarvapuh karnikaram’, that ‘Natavara’, as He dances then the moons on the toenails of the Lord, those moons are dancing. So while playing the flute those fingernails moons are dancing and while Lord dances, the toenails moons, Chandravali they dance.
Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu goes on and on and on to describe in great detail and then He says the flute playing, those moons are glorifying Sri Krishna, the sound, the murali-dhvani, the vibration emanating from the flute of Sri Krishna, those moons are singing the glories of the Lord. And while the Lord is dancing, the ankle-bells, nupur around the ankles of the Lord, that sound and the moons on the toenails, they are talking, they are glorifying the Lord.
These 24 and half moons, this has the connection with one of the Gayatri mantra called Kama Gayatri. That 24 and half letters in Kama Gayatri and each one of them represents moons in the form of the Lord and as one chants Kama Gayatri, he meditates on the form of the Lord- Lord’s form with 24 and half moons.
Srila Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur gave commentary on Kama Gayatri called, I think Mantradipika, that’s his bhashya, commentary on Kama Gayatri. So in the middle of writing commentary, in Vrndavan, on the banks of Radhakunda, he had questions. So he was trying to understand the 24 and half moons represented by 24 and half letters or syllables of Kama Gayatri. He was not able to ascertain, come to conclusion, which one is half letter in this Kama Gayatri, half letter representing half moon in the form of the Lord, which letter? So he was thinking it should be only 24 moons, or 24 syllables or maybe 25. I don’t see which one these is half letter or half moon. Is Krishnadas Kaviraj Gosvami who has mentioned, talked about 24 and half-moons, is Krishnadas Kaviraj wrong in mentioning 24 and half? He should have mentioned 24 or maybe 25, but not 24 and half. So he was confused and not able to come to conclusion what is right, what is wrong. When he was thinking and thinking and he was not coming to right conclusion, right realization and he was also thinking if Krishnadas Kaviraj could he wrong, or my thinking may be offensive as I am thinking that Krishnadas Kaviraj may be wrong and it is described in the life of Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur that he was even considering, I should give up my life if I could not understand what is reality, what is the fact. And Radharani kindly appeared to Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur and Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur was face to face with Radharani and Radharani gave all the explanation and also explained which letter is half letter and certainly Krishndas Kaviraj Gosvami couldn’t be wrong in stating 24 and half moons and they are not 24 or 25 but they are 24 and half. Krishnadas Kaviraj was right, Radharani was insisting, emphasizing and clarifying this in person. The forehead which is half moon, which is difficult to understand, which one is half, ‘lalatapatale kasturi tilakam, so kasturi tilakam’ is one full moon, but the whole lalata, forehead is half moon. And the last letter of the Kama Gayatri mantra is ‘halanta’ but that is considered as full letter, but then which one is half letter? It was explained that the fifth letter of the gayatri mantra is Kamadevaya, that one is half and not the last one is half. Middle one, fifth letter is half! So Radharani, kindly revealed all the truths and facts and saved the life of Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur with Her darsana. She blessed him.
So while chanting Hare Krishna, this could be very useful, substantial thing to think about. Thu, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is revealing the form of the Lord, the beauty of the Lord, this is one Chandra, this is another Chandra, 24 and half chandras. So this is a nice topic, wonderful topic for our meditation as we chant Hare Krishna- the great detail of Personality of the Lord reveals. Lord is chanting and talking also, japa, ajapa, japa that we always do, the formal way of chanting with the beads we chant prescribed number of rounds, but then there is state of life or practice of Krishna consciousness, which is called ajapa, they are not chanting japa, but the chanting is going on. It becomes so natural, unknowingly you are chanting, so Sri Krishna Mahaprabhu is doing japa, ajapa. And while doing japa and ajapa, He is thinking and talking. So it is authorized, while chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna to think like this, remember like this.
Hare Krishna