22 June 2020
Netrotsava of Lord Jagannatha
Hare Krishna! Have you seen the screen sharing? Did you see Jagannatha? Did you like it? You got to see all the darsana that takes place during the year. We have participants from 788 locations today.
jaya sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
jagannātha svāmī nayana-patha-gāmī bhavatu me
Translation
May Jagannatha Swami be the object of my vision. (Sri Jagannatha Astakam)
There should be correct pronunciation. We should preach about it. This is the goal of our life that we meet the Lord and get darsana of the Lord. When we chant, we pray:
sva-presthena saha svabhista-lilam sravaya krishnen sah
Translation
O Radhe! Please make us hear your confidential pastimes with Krsna. (9th Hare, Hare Krishna commentary, Gopala Guru Goswami)
We pray like this to Krsna and Radha while chanting. Their pastimes are written in the scriptures. Scriptures are apaurusheya, compilations of the Lord.
adho madhe ante harih sarvatra giyate
The beginning, the middle and the end of the scriptures has been sung by Radha and Krsna. When we pray while chanting, then the Lord directs us to read these pastimes.
tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te
kāryākārya-vyavasthitau
jñātvā śāstra-vidhānoktaṁ
karma kartum ihārhasi
Translation
One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradual-ly be elevated. (BG. 16.24)
The Lord has given the scriptures.
gītā su-gītā kartavyā, kim anyaih śāstra-vistaraih
yā svayam padma-nābhasya, mukha-padmād vinihsrtā
Translation
The wonderful song called Bhagavad Gita has been spoken by the lotus mouth of the Su-preme Lord Krsna himself. What other scriptures do we need to seek then? (Gītā-māhātmya 4)
The Lord spoke Bhagavad Gita as well as other scriptures. Śrila Vyasadeva compiled this scripture so it means that he is the Lord or the Saktyavesa avatāra of the Lord.
sva-presthena saha svabhista-lilam darsaya
Translation
O Radhe! Please show us your confidential pastimes with Krsna. (11th Hare, Hare Krish-na commentary, Gopala Guru Goswami)
We pray to hear and see the pastimes of the Lord. We hear and then we see also. It means we see the Lord through our ears. It becomes śravanotsava.
Today is very special. Today is the day we get darsana of Lord Jagannatha. We have not been having darsana for many days, but today we get darsana of Lord Jagannatha. I get the credit for giving the darsana of Jagannatha. I arranged it. I became the instrument in giving you darsana. You can also become the instrument. This is called paramparā.
yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa
Translation
Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate eve-ryone in this land. (CC Madhya 7.128)
Today is the day of darsana and the Lord is darśaniya. Darśaniya means worthy to be seen. If there is something worth seeing then it should be seen thousands of times. If there is an-ything to be seen again and again in this world then it is only the Lord and His pastimes which are darśaniya, smaraniya and ramaniya. We can immerse ourselves in remembering the Lord’s pastimes.
mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca
Translation
The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and con-versing about Me. (BG. 10.9)
We can immerse ourselves in śravana, kirtana, smarana and darśana of the Lord.
maya saha ramasva
Translation
O Radhe! Please enjoy with me. (16th Hare, Hare Krishna commentary, Gopala Guru Goswami)
When we take darsana of the Lord, that darsana is ramaniya. It means we are enjoying hav-ing darsana.
Rāma Rāma Rāmeti, Rame Rāme Manorame;
Sahasrenāma tattulyam, Rāma Nāma Varānane
Translation
By meditating on “Rama Rama Rama” (the Name of Rama), my Mind gets absorbed in the Divine Consciousness of Rama, which is Transcendental, The Name of Rama is as Great as the Thousand Names of God (Visnu Sahasranama-stotra, Uttara-khanda, Padma Pura-na 72.335)
Lord Śiva is telling mother Pāravati that he takes pleasure in darsana of the Lord Rāma. In this way a devotee finds pleasure in the Lord’s name, His pastimes, abode and doing parikramā.
Today is the day of darsana of Lord Jagannatha. Today many different darsanas through-out the year were shown to you. The first of them was nava yauvana darsana. It is today’s darsana after the Lord became fit yesterday. Now there is no need for bed rest and no re-strictions of having darsana. When Śrila Prabhupāda was ill, he wanted to travel to Govardhan in the bullock cart. But the devotees thought that he was not fit to travel. He could travel when his health had improved. Similarly today Jagannatha has a clean chit in regard to his health. Today’s darsana is nava yauvana. As today’s darsana is beautiful, it is also called netrotsava. Devotees take darsana to their hearts content. Caitanya Mahāprabhu took darsana as mentioned in Siksastakam.
yugayitam nimeshena
chakshusha pravrishayitam
shunyayitam jagat sarvam
govinda-virahena me
Translation
O Govinda! Feeling Your separation I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence. (Verse 7, Sri Siksastakam)
We don’t take darsana with such emotions.
namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-shaktis
tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
etadrishi tava kripa bhagavan mamapi
durdaivam idrisham ihajani nanuragaha
Translation
O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names, like Krsna and Govinda. In these transcenden-tal names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them. (Verse 2, Sri Siksastakam)
We don’t have any attraction for the Lord’s name and His form. Gaudiya Vaiśnavas are al-ways excited for darsana.
he radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno kutah
sri-govardhana-kalpa-padapa-tale kalindi-vane kutah
ghoshantav iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair maha-vihvalau
vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau
Translation
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvamis, namely Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Sri Jiva Gosvami, and Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, who were chanting very loudly everywhere in Vrindavana, shouting, “Queen of Vrindavana, Radharani! O Lalita! O son of Nanda Ma-haraja! Where are you all now? Are you just on the hill of Govardhana, or are you under the trees on the bank of the Yamuna? Where are you?” These were their moods in execut-ing Krishna consciousness. (Verse 8, Sri Sri Shad-gosvamy-astaka)
These are the moods of Gaudiya Vaiśnavas. If they do not have these emotions then it means one has not become a Gaudiya Vaiśnava. Today the Gundicha Mārjan pastime takes place. Śri Krsna Caitanya Mahāprabhu performs this mārjan (cleaning) of the Gundicha temple.
Nilachala Nivasaya
Nityaya Paramatmane
Balabhadra Subhadrabhyam
Jagannathaya Te Namah
Translation
I offer my humble prostrated obeisances to the internal supreme power, Sri Jagannath, the super soul of all living entities, who resides with His divine elder brother Sri Balabhadra and little sister Shree Devi Subhadra in the most holy abode of Nilacala, Puri.
Jagannatha, who resides in Nilacala for the whole year, will go to Sundaracal tomorrow, on the day of Ratha-yatra. Gundica temple is in Sundaracal. Gundica is the name of King In-dradyumna’s queen. He installed Jagannatha Swami. He was a premi bhakta (lovable devotee). Such a premi bhakta got the premi bhagavan (lovable lord). One who has dukh (miseries) is called dukhi. Similarly, one who has a lot of love is called premi.
ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham
Translation
But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcen-dental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have. (BG. 9.22)
King Indradyumna was one such devotee. ananyāś, an means no and anyāś means other objects. cintayanto means concentrating. He did not think of anything else except the Lord.
ye ’py anya-devatā-bhaktā
yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
te ’pi mām eva kaunteya
yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam
Translation
Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kuntī, but they do so in a wrong way. (BG. 9.23)
One is Lord and then the others are there.
King Indradyumna and his wife had no children. The Lord becomes their son and He goes to their palace on the day of Ratha-yatra. Today there will be cleaning of Gundica temple. Śri Krsna Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that He will do the cleaning because He considers Himself to be a śudra. If a new devotee is there, we engage him in cleaning services. Both Deity worship and temple cleaning are transcendental services. Caitanya Mahāprabhu per-formed temple cleaning service along with His associates. He didn’t just supervise, but did the cleaning of the temple. King Prataparudra arranged 100 brooms and water pots for cleaning purposes. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that He wanted to see how much garbage each one had collected before throwing it outside. He encouraged and congratulated those who had collected more dirt. If one is spaced out and has collected just a handful of dirt, then he was asked to feed Gulab Jamuns to everyone as punishment.
Everyone was filling water pots from Narendra Sarovar. Devotees were passing pots in a row until it ultimately reached Gundica temple. They were not saying anything else while passing the pot. They were just saying Haribol! Haribol!Caitanya Mahāprabhu was clean-ing the altar of the Gundica temple where Jagannatha would sit. Others were cleaning the floors, walls and roofs. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu was cleaning while remembering the Lord, tears were gliding down from His eyes. His tears were also cleaning the temple.
One devotee among them was clever and was trying to wash the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Another devotee was trying to drink that water which washed the feet of the Lord. The third devotee was also looking to drink it. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu got to know about all this, He called Swarup Damodar Goswami pointing out a Bengali devotee washing His feet in the Jagannatha altar. Was there anything wrong in washing the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the altar?
vāsudeva ghoṣa bole kori joḍa hāt
jei gaura sei kṛṣṇa sei jagannātha
Translation
Vasudeva Ghosa says: Folding my hands, I declare: Gauranga is Krsna and He is Jagan-natha. (Verse 5, jaya jaya jagannatha sacira nandana, Vasudeva Ghosa)
Considering this, the devotee washed Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s feet. But Mahaprabhu said, “Jagannatha is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and I am just a devotee.”
nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir nāpi vaiśyo na śūdro
nāhaṁ varṇī na ca gṛha-patir no vanastho yatir vā
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramānanda-pūrnāmṛtābdher
gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ
Translation
I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brah-macārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance. (CC Madhya 13.80)
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “I am not from any of the varnas or asramas. I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Lord Krsna and he is washing My feet.” When the temple cleaning was completed, kirtana started. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was dancing surrounded by all the devotees in a circle. Sometimes Mahāprabhu danced, and sometimes He jumped and when He fell down, the earth shook.
Krsna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami has described both of these pastimes of the temple cleaning and kirtana in Caitanya Caritāmrta vividly. You can read it. You all can perform kirtana and clean your houses which are temples.
ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha–davagni-nirvapanam
shreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamritaswadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam
Translation
Glory to the Sri-Krsna-Sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankir-tana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious. (Verse 1, Sri Siksastakam)
Śri Krsna Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, “If the temple cleaning is done with an attitude of devotion then the cleaning of our heart will also take place” – cleaning of the temple along with the heart. Two in one!
Gaura premanande hari haribol!