Shri Chaitanya-bhagavata
Madhya-khanda -
By
Vyasa Avatara Shrila Vrindavana dasa Thakura
Chapter Five: Lord Nityänanda's Vyäsa Püjä Ceremony and His Darçana of the Lord's Six-armed Form
TEXT 126
svabhava
kahite visnu-vaisnavera prita ataeva vede
kahe svabhava-carita
Both Visnu
and the Vaisnavas take pleasure in glorifying each other, therefore the Vedas describe their natural
pastimes.
There is a
special significance in hearing the glones of the devotees from the mouth of the Supreme Lord. Both Lord
Visnu and the Vaisnavas take pleasure in
describing each other's charac-
teristics. That is why the Vedic literature
sings the natural pastimes of Visnu and
the Vaisnavas.
TEXT 127
visnu-vaisnavera
tattva ye kahe purane sei-mata likhi ami
purana-pramane
I write
the glories of Visnu and the Vaisnavas according to the evidence given in the Pur anas.
TEXT 128
nityananda-svarupera
ei vakya-mana "caitanya— isvara,
muìi taì'ra eka-jana"
The
thoughts and words of Nityananda Svarupa are, "Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Lord, and I am one of His eternal
ser- vants."
By His
mind and speech, Sri Nityananda Prabhu accepted Sri Caitanyadeva as His own Lord and considered
Himself the servant of that Lord. In the
Caitanya-caìtamrta {Adi 5.137) it is stated:
apanake
bhrtya kari' krsne prabhu jane—"He considers Himself a servant and knows Krsna to be His master."
TEXT 129
ahar-nisa
sì-mukhe nahika anya katha "muìi taì'ra,
seha mora isvara sarvatha
Day and night no words came from His mouth
other than, "I am His servant, and
He is My Lord in all respects.
Statements
such as, "The Supreme Lord is Mine," and "I belong to the Lord," constantly issued from the mouth
of Sri Nityananda. He did not say
anything else.
TEXT 130
caitanyera
saìge ye mohare stuti kare sei se mohara
bhrtya, paibeka more"
"Anyone who glorifies Me along with Lord
Caitanya is actually Mv servant and will
certainly achieve Me."
Sri
Nityananda said, "Sri Caitanyadeva
is the Supreme Lord and I am His
servant. Anyone who glorifies Me in this way is actually My servant, and he will certainly obtain Me as his
worshipable Lord."
TEXT 131
apane
kaìyachena sad-bhuja darsana tara pìte kahi
tana e saba kathana
He has
personally seen the six-armed form of the Lord, there- fore I am describing these topics for His pleasure.
The author
is saying, "Sri Nityananda Prabhu saw the six-armed form of Sri Gaurasundara. Therefore by describing
that pastime, Nityananda will be
pleased."
TEXT
132-134
paramarthe
nityananda tahana hrdaya doìhe doìha
dehhite achena suniscaya
tathapiha
avatara-anurupa-khela karena isvara-seva,
ke bujhibe lila
seha ye svikara prabhu karaye apane taha gaya,
vame vede, bharate, purane
On the
spiritual platform Nityananda always sees the pastimes of Sri Gaurasundara in His heart, and They certainly
both always see each other. Yet Sri
Nityananda serves the Lord by acting in accordance with the pastimes of Their incarnations. Who can
understand His pastimes? The Supreme
Lord thus accepts service from Himself, as sung about and described in the Vedas, the Mahabharata, and
the Puranas.
Although
Sri Nityananda constantly sees the pastimes of Sri Gaurasundara within His heart and Sri Gaurasundara also exhibits all His pastimes to Nityananda, for the understanding
of ordinary people Nityananda externally
displays pastimes in accordance with
Their particular incarnations. In spite of
being the Supreme Lord Himself, Sri
Nityananda Prabhu serves the Lord. This pastime of Nityananda is incomprehensible to ordinary people. The
topics of Nityananda's pastimes as a
servant are described in the Vedas, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas.
TEXT 135
ye karma
karaye prabhu, sei haya 'veda' tahi gaya
sarva-vede chadi' sarva-bheda
The
activities performed by the Supreme Lord are called Veda. The four Vedas sing of those activities while avoiding
all con-tradictions.
The Vedas
glorify the activities performed by the Supreme Lord. The intention of the Vedas is to reveal the
activities of the Supreme Lord. The
activities of the Lord are the actual subject matter of the
Vedas. The
Vedas do not establish any contradictory statements in their glorification of the advaya-jìana Lord, or
the Absolute Lord. Topics of the
advaya-jìana Hari are sung in the Vedas without contradictions.
TEXT 136
bhakti-yoga
vina iha bujhana na yaya jane jana-kata
gauracandrera krpava
Without
engaging in devotional service, no one can understand this. This is known to a few people by the mercy of
Gauracandra.
Those
persons with prominent materialistic propensities, or those who are mental speculators, cannot understand the
actual characteristics of devotional
service. Only those who are favored by Sriman Mahaprabhu can realize the pastimes of Gaura through
devotional
service.
TEXT 137
nitya-suddha
jìanavanta vaisnava-sakala tabe ye
kalaha dekha, saba kutuhala
The Vaisnavas are eternally pure and full of
knowledge. Their quarreling is simply
part of their pastimes.
The pure
Vaisnavas are full of eternally pure knowledge. The differences of opinion seen among such exalted Vaisnavas
is simply for increasing the wonders.
There are actually no differences of opinion among Vaisnavas. Differences of opinion are only
present among mental speculators. The
differences of opinion found among Vaisnavas expands the variety of their constitutional
activities. In those, there is no question
of material enjoyment, renunciation, or pseudo devotional service.
TEXT 138
iha na
bujhiya kona kona buddhi-nasa eke vande, are
ninde, yaibeka nasa
If someone
who has lost his intelligence and does not under- stand this worships one and criticizes the other, he
will be ruined.
Those who
do not understand this fact and consider that one Vaisnava has eternally pure knowledge while another
Vaisnava does not are understood to have
perverted intelligence. The confidential mystery in this regard is that if one accepts a
non-Vaisnava as a Vaisnava without
knowing the difference between a Vaisnava and a non-Vaisnava, then such a misconception will spread among the
Vaisnavas and create bewilderment.
TEXT 139
abhyarcayitva
pratimasu visnum
nindan
jane sarva-gatam tarn eva abhyarcya padau hi dvijasya murdhi druhyannivajìo narakam prayati
"Just
as a foolish person who worships the feet of a brahmana and then beats him in the head goes to hell, one who
worships the Deity form of Lord Visnu
and then disrespects that same Lord who is situated in the hearts of all living entities also goes to
hell.
In this regard one should discuss the Srimad
Bhagavatam (3.29.2124 and 11.5.14-15).
TEXT
140-141
vaisnava-himsara
hatha se thahuka dure sahaja jlvere ye
adhama pida hare
visnu
pujiya o ye prajara pida kare puja o nisphale
yaya, ara duhkhe mare
What to
speak of being envious of the Vaisnavas, if one causes pain to ordinary living entities he is considered a
fallen low-class person. Even after
worshiping Lord Visnu, if a person gives trouble to other living entities, his worship becomes fruitless. Such
a person suffers unlimited miseries.
If a
person is knowingly or unknowingly envious of a Vaisnava who is engaged in the nonduplicitous service of Lord
Hari, his degradation is inevitable. Of
this there is no doubt. Apart from this, if even persons claiming to be devotees of Visnu are envious
of ordinary living entities and give
various troubles to them, they are actually far away from devotional service to Visnu and are not fit
to be called human beings. Their worship
of Visnu becomes the source of misery. Those endowed with an absence of jlve-daya, or compas- sion
for other living entities, and yet
proudly consider themselves servants of Lord Visnu achieve the threefold miseries rather than the devotional
service of the Lord.
TEXT 142
sarva-bhute
achena sri-visnu najaniya visnu-puja kare
ati prakrta haiya
The worship of persons who do not know that
Lord Visnu is present within the heart
of every living entity is certainly materialistic.
Activities
performed through material senses by conditioned souls who desire to enjoy their results are called
prakrta, or materialistic. Those who
consider that the Supersoul, Lord Visnu, is
not present within each and every atom of
gross and subtle matter and consider
that He does not exist within the hearts of all living entities— such persons' worship of Visnu is simply
cheating and materialistic rascaldom.
TEXT 143
eka haste
yena vipra-carana pakhale ara haste dhela
mare mathaya, kapale
Their
worship is like someone who washes the feet of a brahmana with one hand and beats him on the head with his
other hand.
By
becoming envious of living entities, one automatically be- comes envious of Lord Visnu, who is situated in
their hearts. As it is contradictory for
a person to hit the head of a brahmana with a stone and wash his feet with another hand, if one
is indifferent to the worship of a
Vaisnava, who is nondifferent from Visnu, and worships Lord Visnu, then that worship becomes a source of misery.
TEXT 144
e saba
lokera ki kusala kona ksane haiyache, haibeka?
bujha bhavi' mane
Consider
carefully, have such persons ever been benefited, or will they ever be benefited?
Those who
discriminate between Hari, Guru, and Vaisnava and worship one while criticizing another will never
attain any auspi- ciousness. This is
simple to understand.
TEXT 145
yata papa
haya praja-janere himsile tara sata-guna
haya
vaisnava nindile
It is a
hundred times more sinful to blaspheme a Vaisnava than to be envious of ordinary living entities.
Lord Visnu is situated in the heart of every
human being. And although Vaisnavas
appear to be ordinary human beings, they are
always situated as Vaisnavas due to their inclination towards the
service of Lord Visnu residing in their
hearts. Ordinary human beings are bereft
of the service of Visnu and are situated in the modes of passion
and ignorance, whereas Vaisnavas are
fully saturated with the mode of
goodness and are constantly engaged in the service of Visnu. So if
one carefully considers the differences
that exist between them, then it is
understood that by envying a Vaisnava who is engaged in the service
of Visnu one incurs a hundred times more
sins or offenses than by envying an
ordinary living entity. In the Srlmad Bhagavatam (4.4.13) it is stated:
nascaryam
etad yad asatsu sarvada
mahad-vininda kunapatma-vadisu sersyam mahapurusa-pada-pamsubhir
nirasta-tejahsu
tad eva sdbhanam
"It
is not wonderful for persons who have accepted the transient material body as the self to engage always in deriding
great souls. Such envy on the part of
materialistic persons is very good because that is the way they fall down. They are diminished by the
dust of the feet of great
personalities." In the Skanda Purana it is stated:
yo hi
bhagavatam lokam upahasam nrpottama haroti tasya nasyanti artha-dharma-yasah-sutah
nindam
kurvanti ye mudha vaisnavanam mahatmanam
patanti pitrbhih sardham maha-raurava-samjìite
hanti
nindati vai dvesti vaisnavan nabhinandati krudhyate yati no harsam darsane patanani sat
purvam
krtva tu sammanam avajìam hurute tu yah vaisnavanam mahi-pala sanvayo yati saìhsayam
"My
dear King, if one derides an exalted devotee, he loses the results of his pious activities, his opulence, his
reputation and his sons. Vaisnavas are
all great souls. Whoever blasphemes them falls down to the hell known as Maharaurava. He is also accompanied
by his forefathers. Whoever kills or
blasphemes a Vaisnava and whoever is envious of a Vaisnava or angry with him, or whoever does
not offer
TEXT 146-148
him
obeisances or feel joy upon seeing a Vaisnava, certainly falls into a hellish condition. O ruler of the world, one
who first respects a Vaisnava and then
later insults him is vanquished along with his family." In the Amrta-saroddhara it is stated:
janma-prabhrti
yat kiìcit suhrtam samuparjitam nasam ayati tat
sarvam pidayed yadi vaisnavan
"If
one gives pain to the Vaisnavas, then the results of his pious activities like high birth and high caste are
all destroyed." In the
Dvaraka-mahatmya it is said:
kara-patrais
ca phalyante su-txvrair yama-sasanaih nindarh kurvanti ye papa vaisnavanam mahatmanam
pujito
bhagavan visnur janmantara-satair api prasidati na visvatma vaisnave capamanite
"Those
most sinful people who criticize great Vaisnavas are sub- jected by Yamaraja to the severe punishment of being
sliced in pieces by very sharp saws.
Lord Hari, the Supersoul of the entire universe, is never pleased with the miscreant who insults a
Vaisnava, even if he has worshiped Visnu
for hundreds of births." In the Brahnxa-vaivarta Parana, Krsna-janma-khanda, it is stated:
ye
nindanti hrsxhesam tad-bhaktam punya-rupirxam sata
janmarjitam punyam tesam nasyati niscitam
te patanti
maha-ghore humbhipahe bhayanake bhahsitah
hita-saìghena
yavac caxxdra-divaharau
tasya
darsana-matrena punyam nasyati niscitam gaìgam
snatva
ravirh drsta tada vidvan visuddhyati
"Those
who criticize Lord Hrsikesa and His devotees lose all the benefits accrued in a hundred pious births. Such
sinners rot in the Kumbhipaka hell and
are eaten by hordes of worms for as long as the sun and moon exist. If one sees a person who blasphemes
Lord Visnu and His devotees, then the
results of all his pious activities are lost. When learned persons see such non-Vaisnavas, they
purify themselves by taking bath in the
Ganges and looking at the sun."
sraddha kari' murti puje bhakta naadare'
markka, nica, patitere daya nahi kare
eka
avatara bhaje, na bhajaye ara krsna-raghunathe
hare bheda-vyavahara
'balarama-siva-prati
prita nahi kare bhaktadhama' sastre kahe
e sabajanare
Those who
faithfully worship the Deity form of the Lord but do not respect His devotees; those who do not show
compassion to those who are foolish,
wretched, and fallen; those who worship one incarnation of the Lord and do not worship other incarna-
tions; those who discriminate between
Krsna and Ramacandra; and those who have no love for Balarama and Siva are, according to the
scriptures, the lowest of all devotees.
Those who
faithfully worship the Supreme Lord but do not worship the devotees who are engaged in His service and
inseparab- ly related to Him; those who
do not display mercy by instructing the fallen souls who are bereft of the Lord's service; and those
who do not display mercy by giving up
the association of atheists who are averse to the Lord are described by the scriptures as low-class
persons devoid of devotion. If
worshipers of Rama envy the devotees of Krsna, or if so-called
devotees of Krsna blaspheme the
worshipers of Sri Rama-Sita, then they should
not be counted as devotees but rather as low-class persons. Lord
Visnu resides in innumerable Vaikuntha
planets in His various eternal forms.
Those who have no faith in the existence of that Visnu or His
devotees are fit to be called adhama, or
low-class. The worship of those who
blaspheme the servants of the Lord like Baladeva, Laksmi, Garuda, Vayu, and Rudra is incomplete. That is why it
is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam
(11.2.47) that those devotees who are situated on the platform of kanistha-adhihara are eligible to
fall down into material existence:
"A devotee who faithfully engages in the worship of the Deity in the temple but does not behave properly
toward other devotees or people in general
is called a prakrta-bhahta, a materialistic devotee, and is considered to be in the lowest
position." There are two
kinds of Vaisnavas—ordinary or unauthorized Vaisnavas and pure or authorized Vaisnavas. The
Visnusvami-sampradaya originated from
Rudradeva, the Sri Madhva-sampradaya originated from Brahma, the Ramanuja-sampradaya originated from Sri
Laksmidevi, and the Nimbarka-sampradaya
originated from the four Kumaras. If someone
respects one and blasphemes another by taking into consideration
their mutual disagreements, then he cer-
tainly falls from the platform of
hanistha-adhihara. All the demigods and demigoddesses pass their time fulfilling their responsibility of serving
the Lord, and their entrusted positions are
known to this world. Yet their constitutional position as Vaisnavas is not lost. If one out of material
conceptions disrespects the demigods and
demigoddesses, he cannot have devotion to Visnu. If one accepts the spiritual masters or the demigods
and demigoddesses to be devoid of
devotion to Visnu, then he commits offense. But by worshiping the entrusted positions of the demigods and
demigoddesses and thereby forgetting the
service of Krsna, one cannot achieve any benefit. That is why Thakura Narottama has said: hrsike
govinda- seva, na pujiba devideva, ei
ta' ananya-bhakti-hatha—"I will engage my senses in the service of Govinda, and I will not worship
the demigods. This is the description of
unalloyed devotional service." Becoming unalloyed in the service of the Lord does not entail blasphemy
of the demigods. All the demigods and
demigoddesses are under the shelter of the Supreme Lord, therefore simply by serving the Supreme
Lord the worship of the demigods is
automat- ically performed. If one worships a particular demigod or demigoddess, then other demigods
and demigoddesses become dis- pleased.
But if one worships the Supreme Lord, then all the demigods, who are subordinate to the Supreme
Lord, are automat- ically worshiped.
Blasphemy of a Vaisnava is hundreds of times more severe than blasphemy of an ordinary living entity.
Therefore no intelligent person should
tread such a path.
TEXT 149
arcayam
eva haraye pujam yah sraddhayehate na tad-bhaktesu canyesu sa bhdktah prakrtah smrtah
"A devotee who faithfully engages in the
worship of the Deity in the temple but
does not behave properly toward other devotees or people in general is called a prakrta-bhakta, a
materialistic devotee, and is considered
to be in the lowest position."
TEXT 150
prasange
kahila bhaktadhamera laksane purna haila
nityananda sad-bhuja-darasane
In the
course of these topics, I have described the symptoms of the lowest devotees. Thus Nityananda became
filled with bliss on seeing the
six-armed form of the Lord.
The
symptom of the lowest devotee is to give up the worship of the devotees on the pretext of worshiping Hari.
As a result of such activities, there is
every possibility that such a devotee will become bereft of Lord Visnu's service. Those who worship the Supreme
Lord and His associates and consider
that worship of the devotees is more important than worship of the Lord are actually advanced
devotees. There is very little
possibility of their falling down, because they know:
yasya deve
para bhahtir yatha deve tatha gurau tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah
"Only
unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of
Vedic knowledge automatically
revealed." (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23)
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