English
24th June 2019
Life of Raghunatha Dasa Goswami and effect of Vaisnava Apradha
Hari Hari!
So, I was in Vrindavan and I was also remembering Raghunatha Dasa Goswami and Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur and I was also remembering some of the nama-aparadha, offences. So, this will be the theme and we will talk about these personalities and basically about nama-aparadha. One or more than one of the nama-aparadha.
There lived a Majumdar family of two brothers Govardhana Majumdar and Hiranya Majumdar in Bengal in a town called Saptagrama. Raghunatha dasa Goswami was the son of Govardhana Majumdar who was a zamindar and he was a very wealthy person. But he was also a very charitable person and the recipients of his mercy in the form of wealth were practically all the brahmins who were receiving dakshina, financial assistance from Govardhana Majumdar. Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was the son of such a wealthy landlord. All the wealth of his father, of course was his wealth which he eventually had renounced and had run to Jagannath Puri to join Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
‘Tyaktva turnam asesa-mandala-pati' (Sri Sri Shad Goswami ashtakam)
All the six Goswamis, especially Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, were ashesh mandalpati, owners and possessors of mandala, so much land and so much wealth which they renounced. So that is how we understand this son of Govardhana Majumdar. But he was not attracted to the wealth of his father. He was attracted by Gauranga and attracted by the Holy name of the Lord more than the wealth. Or he had no attraction for the wealth or the wife.
So how did he develop this kind of vairagya, detachment from all worldly wealth and how did he also develop attraction for the Holy name of the Lord? Or he was going for Gauranga, why was he attracted to Gauranga and Gaura nama?
Especially during his childhood days, Raghunatha Dasa Goswami had association of Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur. There is a place called Benapol, where he had encountered that prostitute for three nights and he had become victorious in converting the prostitute into his followers. So, he left that place Benapol and travelled to another part of Bengal. Benapol is now in Bangladesh but that time it was part of Bengal, before that there was only one Bengal, no east Bengal and west Bengal.
So, from Benapol, he travelled to Saptagrama, where the father of Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was residing. Govardhana Majumdar was hosting him and had made all the arrangements for Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur to stay in his town in a secluded place where Namacarya Haridasa Thakur was doing his
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Not just one time but three hundred thousand times in a day.
So, Govardhana Majumdar, father of Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was a very pious and religious person. He also had a priest called Balaram Acharya who was also taking care of Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur. Raghunatha Dasa Goswami would also go and associate with Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur while the Namacarya was chanting. You can imagine next to Namacarya Srila Haridasa, Raghunatha dasa Goswami is sitting and chanting, and what kind of powerful association of those pure vibrations he was acquiring! So Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was greatly benefitted by the association of Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur; in those days.
"Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur ki, Jai!"
So, Govardhana Majumdar would organize satsangs. So, one day, there was a satsang and through Balaram Acharya, he invited Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur to also come and attend the satsang festival. So, he had kindly come. Normally he would just prefer chanting and chanting and chanting. But today, he had come to also speak if there is an opportunity for him to do so during the satsang.
There was a big gathering and many pandits, learned personalities were in the gathering and the discussion began and they were talking about 'Harinam Mahatmya', the greatness of the Holy name of the Lord. This was the topic of discussion. So, one of the pandits said, “By chanting the Holy name of the Lord Papakshaya hoya.” You become free from the reactions of all the sins you have gathered. Another pundit said, "No, no, Moksha hoya.” You can attain liberation by this chanting of the Holy name of the Lord. Then Srila Haridasa Thakur said, "No, no, not just papakshaya, moksha hoya, these are not the real benefits. Ultimate benefit of chanting is premodaya.” You attain prema, love of Godhead, that is the principal and ultimate benefit. Becoming free from the reactions of the sins and attaining liberation is benefit of secondary nature.
So, like that there was a discussion and sort of debate was on, about the glories of the Holy name. They were not able to come to a conclusion. Namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakur was asked to throw some more light, explain how Premodaya is the topmost benefit of chanting of the Holy name of the Lord. He started talking, glorifying the Holy name and how there are different phases. We don’t know the details of the talk, we know something but we could say, he must have explained offensive chanting; the three phases of chanting; the three kinds of chanting.
The first is offensive chanting. Second, as one chants and chants, then there is a clearing stage which is also called Namabhasa stage. Third, the final topmost stage; phase of chanting is Shuddha nama japa, the pure chanting. And there are different benefits of chanting at various different levels or grades or phases. Amongst all of those, Shuddha nama japa is the topmost and that kind of chanting gives rise to premodaya. Love of Godhead is aroused or attained by offenceless and attentive chanting.
So, he was comparing offensive chanting to the night time and it is dark all around. The nights are very scary, jungle animals are around, snakes are crawling trying to find someone to psshhh. Dacoits are there, thieves are there going all around. When there is dark, they take advantage of this and cause all the trouble during the night time. But during dawn before sunrise; the sun has not risen but the rays are there, they are appearing, and darkness is getting cleared and somethings are visible now. Then, it is safe to go around; there is no fear of dacoits. They wind up their stealing business because as soon as there is light, they will get caught. They stop, so that is a good time. You have become free from fear. You have attained moksha from all the troubles of the night during dawn; this is compared to namabhasa.
Namabhasa is, moksha, you are becoming free from the reactions of the sins. So, that clearing stage, where no more troubles, no more reactions caused by sinful activities and you have attained moksha, you are relieved, you are liberated from the troubles of the night time caused by sinful acts. So that is namabhasa stage. Just by namabhasa chanting, nama-bhasa, like Surya Abhasa, Abhasa here means sun has not risen, but you could feel the presence of the sun, some experience the sun before sunrise. That is called abhasa.
Like the chanting of Ajamila, he said "Narayana, Narayana." That chanting was of the Namabhasa stage. And that resulted in him becoming mukta, moksha. The Yamadutas had to go emptyhanded. So that way, he was freed, and that was the outcome of chanting at namabhasa or clearing stage.
So, in the audience there was one smart brahmin, vaisnava aparadhi. He could not tolerate this kind of glory. He could not digest, just at namabhasa stage, you could attain moksha? Just by chanting, just some clearance is there and at namabhasa stage, you are in the middle of chanting stage, you have not reached the topmost level. Even at namabhasa level, as he had heard from Haridas Thakur one could attain moksha, he said, "No, no, how could this be possible? I can't stand this; I can't accept this.” He said according to his understanding that “Caitanya Caritamrita has described, it takes 'koti koti janma' for a Jnani, a learned person to attain moksha. You have to be learned, knowledgeable, read this shastra, that shastra, vedanta study, and then you attain this 'moksha'. But you are saying just by chanting
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
one quickly attains this moksha. No, I don’t accept your stand." He was making those offensive statements, offending, counteracting or trying to counteract Haridas Thakur's stand or statement; he was doing apamaan, insult of Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur. He was committing vaisnava aparadh by opposing Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur.
Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur said, "This is not just my statement but throughout the shastra, this has been proven that by chanting at Namabhasa stage, one could attain moksha, liberation." But this gentleman named Gopal Chakravarti, the smart brahmin said, "No, no, you have to prove. I do not accept this. I challenge your statement Haridas Thakur, and if you can’t prove your statement that by chanting of
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
one could attain moksha, liberation, then we will cut your nose". So it was very offensive statement. The other learned, devotee type persons were trying to shut up Gopal Chakravarti, "You shut up, you are offending namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur with whatever you said that his nose should be cut off. You are offensive". They were not happy with what Gopal Chakravarti had said and gradually the satsang was concluded and everyone went to their respective homes. But in a few days, Gopal Chakravarti developed leprosy with flies all over, pus, blood and smell. And his nose melted, he lost his nose and he was suffering.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami said,
bhakta-svabhāva, — ajña-doṣa kṣamā kare
kṛṣṇa-svabhāva, — bhakta-nindā sahite nā pāre(CC Antya lila - 3.213)
The nature of devotee and the nature of Lord is described. The nature of a devotee is that he doesn’t take other's, ignorant person’s offences seriously. But Lord takes it very seriously and He takes action. The devotee doesn’t take action, one who has been offended doesn’t take action, he tolerates and ignores. But, the Lord takes action, so that is what lord did; causing the leprosy and Gopal Chakravarti losing his nose.
So, in this case there were two kinds of offences committed by Gopal Chakravarti. One is vaisnava aparadh. He committed vaisnava aparadh towards the great vaisnava Namacarya Srila Haridas Thakur and the other aparadh is Harinam nikalpanam, to consider the glories of the Holy name as exaggeration. Gopal Chakravarti was saying, "You are exaggerating the glories. No, no, how come just by chanting you could attain moksha"? Namacharya Haridas Thakur was saying, "This is nothing, getting moksha is nothing, you could get much more than moksha". Gopal Chakravarti said “No, this is too much, just by chanting you can’t get moksha”. So, this is exaggeration, this is Harinam nikalpanam. So that offence he was doing, he was considering the glories of the Holy name to be exaggeration. Of the ten offences against the Holy name, Vaisnava aparadh is the first, worst one, and Harinam nikalpanam is the fifth one. He committed these two offences and as a result, you know what the outcome was. Better be aware and not commit these kinds of offences. Otherwise you know what happened. You know what Lord did to Gopal Chakravarti, that could very much be the treatment the offender could get, does get. So better be careful. Avoid offences.
Make all endeavor to chant purely, offenselessly and systematically and try to come to the level of shuddha naam japa which is moksha and much more Krsna prema which is the love of Godhead, the goal of human form of life.
Gauranga.
Hare Krishna!