English
Japa Talk : 03th May 2024
Speaker:- H H Loknath Swami Maharaj
Theme: Srila Vrindavan Das Thakura Appearance Day
Sub Theme: Introduction
Hare Krsna!
Param dekhe dukhi, para sukhe sukhi
Devotees become sad when they see others sad or in misery. They become happy when they see others happy. Participants or locations have reduced today since yesterday when we had 1500 participants. Due to your endeavor’s, the class was houseful yesterday.
Like Children are motivated to go to school and again the next day they need to be motivated to go to school again. You shall continue your efforts and keep this room our housse full. Similarly, new joining devotees would be happy. I would also be happy after seeing them and ultimately, Lord Krishna will be happy too. Yasha prasada bhagwat prasado, this is our ideology.
Theme: Jive Daya/Name Ruci/Vaishnava Seva
jive dayä näme ruci vaisnava sevana iha chära dharma nähi suna sanätana
Hear, Sanätana! Kindness to all living beings taste for the holy name, and service to Vaisnavas—apart from these there is no other religion. This is the theme till the next Ekadashi! This is a campaign to increase the taste in the holy name, service to Vaishnavas, and kindness to all living beings. We will do all possible efforts to increase the taste in Holy Name. To increase the taste in Holy Name, we first need to service devotees, and second, we need to show kindness to all living beings. These three are the homework or one consolidated homework i.e. taste in the holy name, service to Vaishnavas, and kindness to all living beings. I will not tell much.
One of our targets is driven by the increase in the holy name's taste i.e making this conference house full. That is one thing. The second thing is reciting Shikha Astakam and reciting or remembering the 10 offenses towards Hari Naam. We all need to understand and focus on these two items i.e. understanding Shikshasthakam and understanding 10 offences towards Holy Name. When we learn about the 10 offences it talks about the prohibition. We shall not commit these mistakes or those mistakes. Shikshasthakam talks about how shall we do the Japa i.e. We shall do the Japa with pure devotion and surrender. This is also called law or method of practicing the Holy Name. Similarly, we have Service offenses, Vaishnav offenses, and deity service offenses that come under the 10 offenses. Offenses talks about what we shall not do. These are the dos and don’ts, Yam or Niyama. There is Asthang Yog and Dhayana Yog which Krishna explained in the sixth chapter of the Bhagwat Gita. Asthang Yog – The first two rules of Asthang Yog is Yam and Niyam. Yam – means the work which will take us to Yam Puri. Niyam – means the regulations or methods.
satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nitya-yuktā upāsate [Bhagwat Gita 9.14]
Our objective is to always perform Kirtan of Holy Name. What is the work of Gopis?
smartavyaḥ satataṁ viṣṇur vismartavyo na jātucit sarve vidhi-niṣedhāḥ syur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ
[Bṛhat-sahasra-nāma-stotra] CC Madhya 22.113
Gopis only knows two things i.e. Smartavyah satatam Visnur – Always remember Krishna and vismartavyo na jātucit –never forget and always remember Krishna. Krishna Kanahiya Lal ki Jai! Radha Shyam Sundar Ki Jai! Hare Krishna! Radhe Krishna!
ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma vṛṇdāvanaṁ ramya kaścid upāsanā vraja-vadhu-varga-vīrya kalpita
śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇaṁ premā pum-artho mahān śrī-caitanya mahāprabhor matam idaṁ tatradaraḥ na paraḥ [Caitanya-mañjusā]
[The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, is to be worshiped along with His transcendental abode, Vṛndāvana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopīs of Vṛndāvaṇa. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the spotless authority on everything, and pure love of God is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regard, are the opinion of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.]
As per Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one of the points is how shall we worship Krishna, we all shall worship Krishna similar to Gopis of Vrindavan. This is the recommendation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. We shall always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna. Understanding Shiksha Astakam will help us to remember Krishna.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!!
When we chant this Maha Mantra in the full mood of remembering Krishna. And when we avoid the offenses we will be able to do offense-free chanting of Holy Name.
aparadha-sunya ho'ye loha krishna-nama krishna mata krishna pita krishna dhana prana from nadiya-godrume by Bhakti Vinod Thakur
We all need to very well understand these dos and don’ts till the next Ekadashi. We will have classes in the Japa Talk to have a deeper understanding of the Shikha Astakam. We have prepared a syllabus
which will be covered by various speakers including me. I will be showing you the book which was covered during the Pad yatra. This book unfortunately is out of stock because of the high demand. Does any one of you have this book? Raise your hand in case you have.
Who all have these book can scan and distribute this book to all of you?
dadāti pratigṛhṇāti guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam NOI 4
This way you are going to help lots of devotees. We will not spend much time on this. If by any means it reaches you it would be very nice. Anyways padayatra press need to reprint this book, but it will take time and you might not be able to get reprint version near soon. You can get it from Shyam Sundar Prabhu ji from Vrindavan. He is one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable disciple of mine. He has compiled and written this book. We will discuss the 10 offenses and other offenses for the next 2 weeks.
mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā bodhayantaḥ parasparam kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca [Bhagwat Gita 10.9]
Devotees will share their deeper understanding of these two topics and you can also share your opinion and understanding on the topic. This small thinking is actually not a small and can-do revolution in your consciousness. It can bring transformation in your behavior. We all believe that today’s you will not be there till next Ekadashi. You will be a different you after these 15 days. With these attempts Gauranga will be happy will all of you! Hari Hari!
These things are our objectives or our homework till the next Ekadashi! We will have a strong foundation in Devotion and on top of it we can build many more stories of devotion further. We can build high devotional buildings touching the skies. To have such buildings we need a strong foundation and this theme will provide the required foundation for the same.
Yam, and Niyam are the foundation of Ashtanga Yog. After this foundation only we can follow other asanas like Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi! If Yam and Niyam are not stable then we will not have a stable foundation and it can lead to our destruction. We all will make our foundation very strong. This is our resolution to have a stable foundation. You all are also ready to have a strong foundation. I am proposing this resolution. Who all are ready to participate in this transformation journey? Is there anyone who is not interested in this journey, came forward?
It seems all of you are taking this resolution.
We will close this Japa talk with a discussion about Vrindavan Das Thakur’s Appearance Day. Vrindavan Das Thakur Ki Jai!
Vrindavan Das Thakur appeared at the same time as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu! He was an incarnation of Srila Vyas Dev Ji! Vyas Dev appeared in the form of Vrindavan Das Thakur. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in Jagannath Puri, after taking Sannyasa, that time Vrindavan Das Thakur appeared in Mamgachi, Modadruma-dvipa, Nawadweep! We don’t know all these places. Modadruma-dvipa is in between Jahnudvipa and Rudradvipa. Elder brother of Srivas Thakur, Nalin Pandit’s daughter Narayani’s son is Vrindavan Das Thakur. Narayani was also a very special devotee. When Narayani was
only 4 years, Mahaprabhu revealed his Mahaprakash pastime for 7 pahrs (21 hours). Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Narayani to perform Kirtan during his Mahaprakash time. She performed Kirtan will full submission and involvement. She was crying and doing Kirtan. She was showcasing the eight types of devotions. Vrindavan Das Thakur was the son of such exemplified devotee Narayani. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this material world, a complete spiritual universe appeared along with him on this earth as mentioned by Kavi Karnapura in his scripture, Gaura Ganoddesa Dipika. He mentions who from Krishna’s pastime appeared as what in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastime. There he mentioned that Sri Vyas deva appeared as Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur.
Krishnaraj Kariraj Goswami was similar to Six Goswamis. He also wrote Sri Chaitanya Charitmrit. He has mentioned a lot about Vrindavan Das Thakur.
bhāgavate kṛṣṇa-līlā varṇilā vedavyāsa caitanya-līlāte vyāsa — vṛndāvana dāsa CC Ādi 11.55
Śrīla Vyāsadeva described the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Vyāsa of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was Vṛndāvana dāsa. He is given a detailed explanation of Sri Chaitanya Mahapurabhu in his scripture Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat! He is very well qualified to remove the darkness from this world from his scripture. Earlier Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur names his scripture Sri Chaitanya Mangal. But when he came to know that Lochan Das Thakur, another spiritual master, has also written a scripture named Sri Chaitanya Mangal, then he renamed his scripture as Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat.
bhāgavate yata bhakti-siddhāntera sāra likhiyāchena iṅhā jāni’ kariyā uddhāra CC Ādi 8.37
In Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala [later known as Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata] Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has given the conclusion and essence of devotional service by quoting the authoritative statements of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The way Sri Vyasa dev has written Srimad Bhagwatam, similarly, Vrindavan Das Thakur has written in Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat, as mentioned by Krishna Raj Kaviraj Goswami.
manuṣye racite nāre aiche grantha dhanya vṛndāvana-dāsa-mukhe vaktā śrī-caitanya CC Ādi 8.39
This scripture can not be written by an ordinary person. The subject matter of this book is so sublime that it appears that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has personally spoken through the writings of Śrī Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura.
vṛndāvana-dāsa-pade koṭi namaskāra aiche grantha kari’ teṅho tārilā saṁsāra CC Ādi 8.40
I offer millions of obeisances unto the lotus feet of Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura. No one else could write such a wonderful book for the deliverance of all fallen souls. We offer our obeisances to Vrindavan Das Thakur who has given this scripture which has the capability to overcome fallen souls from this
material world. We have to study this Shri Chaitanya Bhagawat as well. Although Srila Prabhupada has only given Sri Chaitanya Charitmrit to us. In case he had more time he could have translated Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat in English as well.
We will know the character and pastimes of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu only when we read both Sri Chaitanya Charitmrit and Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat. They complement each other. It is because the pastimes of nawadweep are explained in detail in Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat by Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur. Only a few of these pastimes are explained by Krishnaraj Kaviraj Goswami in Sri Chaitanya Charitmrit. This might be the policy Krishnaraj Kaviraj Goswami that he has either completely omitted or written in short those pastimes which were written in detail by Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur.
Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur was the councilor and was close to Sri Nityanada Prabhu. He was very educated and initiated the disciple of Sri Nityanada Prabhu. If you want to read the pastimes of Nityanand Prabhu then also you have to read the Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat. It is so because Sri Chaitanya Charitmrit has very less description of the pastimes of Nityanand Prabhu! Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur became the benevolent disciple of universal spiritual master Nityanand Prabhu. It is because of the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu he wrote this magnificent scripture Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu! He stayed here for 82 years and disappeared after that from this material world.
As Prabhupada said if you want to know me, read my books. Similarly, if we want to know Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur you shall read his books. Prabhupada also said that I will never die and will always remain alive with my books. Certainly! Similarly, Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur is also alive with his scripture. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given the gift of Sri Harinaam. Similarly, Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur, the expansion of Sri Ved Vyasa, has given Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat, a magnificent gift, as a gift to all of us. So we all shall read, listen and hear Sri Chaitanya Bhagwat along with Sri Chaitanya Charitamrit.
Nitai Gaur Premamananda, Hari Hari Bol!!
