Dear friends,

 

A couple of weeks ago I returned from my second parikrama of Sri Navadvipa dhama under the guidance and shelter of my Gurudeva, Sri Prem Prayojan Prabhu, What a wonderful experience: loud sankirtan through the streets of the nine islands, hearing incredible histories and having wonderful association with my god-brothers and sisters from far-off places. There were six kiwis there this year - a record in the short history of Chaitanya Academy. Hopefully, we can beat that record in years to come!

 

I was going to attempt to write a short reflection, in the hope of purifying myself and deepening the impressions that I pray have made some dents in my hard heart. However, Gurudeva has given so much that I've discovered it won't all fit into one report, so, with your blessings, here is part one.

 

Please forgive all my mistakes and offences and correct any inaccuracies. I am an ignorant fool with a short memory and little concentration. Any inspiration is only due to the mercy of Sri Guru, the dhama and the Vaisnavas.

 

As our plane landed in Kolkata, the sky, illuminated by flashes of dramatic lightning, reminded me of the words of my Gurudeva – that avidya (ignorance) is nothing but the absence of light, and the only real knowledge, or vidya, is given through bhakti yoga and by engaging in the sankirtan movement of Mahaprabhu. Therefore, it was with joyful anticipation that I looked forward to my second parikrama of the holy dhama of Navadvipa, following in the footsteps of my Gurudeva, Sri Prem Prayojan Prabhu, and the humble vaisnavas. I was especially happy because this time, I was accompanied by my dear husband and two longtime friends.

As we progressed through the nine islands of Navadvipa, listening to the katha of our Gurudeva, several themes emerged for me to meditate on. Gurudeva impressed on us many times that the mysteries of parikrama and the dhama are not available to us by seeing – only a glimpse can be had by hearing the katha of the pure vaisnavas. By hearing this katha, we can begin to perceive the glories of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga, the holy dhama of Navadvipa and the mercy that pervades the whole world in the form of Nama Sankirtana. Thirdly, in describing the many histories of Mahaprabhu and His associates, Gurudeva pulled back the curtain to give us a glimpse of the eternal drama of meeting and separation and how this separation nourishes prema. Lastly, and of utmost importance, we were reminded again and again of the glories of the vaisnavas in our Guru Parampara, and of how guru nistha is the backbone of bhakti.

 

Part One: The Glories of Navadvipa Dhama, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Nama Sankirtana

 

Before parikrama officially began, Gurudeva kindly gave class to the few of us who arrived early, in which he gave some background to Krsna’s advent as Mahaprabhu. Although I am so unqualified and unintelligent, I will try and convey some of the wonder of Gurudeva’s words. He described how the essence of prema is bhava, the essence of bhava is mahabhava, and ultimately, the essence of mahabhava is Radha. Therefore, Krsna is overwhelmed with curiosity (bhava lauki – supremely curious) with greed in His heart to find out what Radha is experiencing. Gurudeva described with great glee how this curiosity of Krsna is dakidaki – condensed, hot and bubbling and unable to be contained. Therefore, to fulfill His desire He came as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Now, those waves of joy could be expressed and distributed in Nama Sankirtana.

 

In the same way as the Supreme Lord made His appearance in the world, one’s mind becomes overtaken by waves of Nama sakti as long as one is offencelessly chanting. The Name is self-manifesting, for bhakti is the essence of samvit and hladini, which automatically impart joy. This joy cannot be contained and manifests as singing – the anubhava of prema.

On the eve of our parikrama, our whole group assembled on the bank of the Jalangi River and made our vows to attend all the classes, every mangal arati, visit all the holy tirthas and refrain from being angry or thinking bad thoughts about anyone – even by mind. As we chanted the mantras and received the pure water of Mother Ganga on our heads, we prayed to one day experience that prema.

 

The next day, as every day, we joined together in the courtyard, dancing and singing the holy names with five mrdangas, gongs, karatalas – and bagpipes! Then we paraded joyfully to our waiting tuktuks which took us to our first destination within the island of Antardwipa – Nandanacarya Bhavan, the place of Sri Caitanya’s first meeting with Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

Here, the identity of Nitai was revealed when Nimai told Srivas Pandit to recite the verse from Srimad Bhagavatam, in which the gopis complain that the venu of Krsna is the adharmic King Vena. This caused Nitai to roar, dance, and run around in circles with uncontrollable, ecstatic love, before finally fainting in the arms of Nimai Pandit. Each of the associates began to have divine visions of Laxman in the arms of Rama, of Ananta Sesa reclining in the lap of Narayan. And thus, the glories of Nityananda Prabhu were revealed in these transcendental role reversals.

 

Soon, we moved on to the most holiest of places – Yoga Pitha, where Gurudeva described the wonderful pastimes of Mahaprabhu as the boy Nimai. Gurudeva told us how from the moment He was born, He made everyone chant. When He was a baby He would see a bird in the sky and ask for it; He demanded the moon and cried when no one could give it to Him. The only time He was happy was when He heard the singing of Hare Krsna. Here, we also learned about all Mahaprabhu’s milestones and His extraordinary intelligence – how as a tiny child, He wrote all the letters, then all the consonants, before discovering all the different names of Krsna which He would write over and over again, relishing them. We heard how later, He would quarrel with older students like Murari Gupta, who would complain about Him and demand, “Why have you got such a big ego?” In response, He would stun them all by explaining commentaries of commentaries of commentaries of a sutra before refuting His own commentaries.

 

Here, Gurudeva also told us the story of Mahaprabhu insisting on eating the ekadasi preparations offered by two brahmanas in Godruma. He sang a verse to remind us that those who are doing bhajan of Krsna are very, very clever, and of Krsna’s words in Bhagavad Gita 10:10: “To those who serve Me with affection I give the intelligence by which they can come to me.” I pray for such affection and determination.

 

When we arrived in Godrumadvipa the next day, Gurudeva encouraged us to keep up that determination, warning us not to go back to our lives only to eat and sleep. “You only receive the shelter of Nityananda Prabhu if you are doing seva, if you open a branch of Nama Hatta.” He compared it to multilevel marketing with Nityananda Prabhu at the top.

 

At Surabhi Kunja in Godrumadvipa, we also heard the history of Lord Indra, who came here with Surabhi, still repentant after creating the deluge over Govardhana Hill. He said to Surabhi, “What if I become bewildered by pride again and commit offences?” Gurudeva warned us about commiting aparadhas, which can build up like snowballs. But Surabhi said, “Let’s go and take shelter of Mahaprabhu’s mercy in Navadvipa dhama.” Here, also, on the island of kirtan, we were reminded how, of all the angas of bhakti, Hari Nama sankirtan is the best.

 

Over and over again, Gurudeva told us of the glories of Navadvipa Dhama, which has the power to overcome offences. When we arrived at Suvarna Bihar, we also heard how Narada Muni instructed Suvarna Sena, who was engaged in fruitive activities. He knew that dharma leads to artha, but Narada Muni informed him that he has no relation with these. He also described how in mukti, when the seer, the seen and the seeing are destroyed, there is no subject or object, therefore there is no happiness. True happiness only lies with Krsna. Nevertheless, worshipping Krsna may take a very long time, but serving Mahaprabhu in Navadvipa will bring prema very quickly.

 

Gurudeva elaborated on this point in class that evening. He impressed on us that the Name, form and pastimes of Radha Krsna are not perceivable by the material mind and senses. Only ‘cetana darpana marjanam’ – offenceless chanting causes the mirror to become cleansed. However, Gurudeva proceeded to explain different levels of contamination which must be overcome.

 

For some, ignorance is like mud. “You’ll need a bucket of water and you’ll have to scrub, but after some time you’ll be able to catch a reflection in the mirror.” For some, it is like a wooden crate, for which “you need an axe.” And, “Now in Kali yoga it is like a very hard type of stone, which can only be removed by dynamite. Sri Sri Gaura Nitai gave us the dynamite – very loud sankirtan! Through this kirtan, the citta can become very clear and you can catch the abhasa, the reflection.”

 

Gurudeva went on to describe how the samadhi achieved by kirtan is greater than that achieved by great sages of other yugas. Surprisingly, jivas in previous yugas had a choice of yuga dharma, whereas in the kali yuga our only process is Nama sankirtana. Jiva Gosvami posed the question: why did they not practise it? The answer, Gurudeva told us, was because it is so simple. They thought “it can’t be that simple,” so they could not develop faith in it. Just repetition of the syllables of Sri Nama in a spirit of surrender is the best in any age. Everything else is kirtan adim – subordinate, dependant of kirtan.

 

Continuing to glorify the holy dhama, Gurudeva told the story of Lord Brahma who heard his sons talking about Gaura Lila. “If you want more sadhu sanga, this will come by mercy of the dhama. When a person visits a holy dhama, one gets the mercy of sadhus, and this gives one a taste for hari katha.”

 

Listening to the stories of the seven sages at Madhyadvipa, we learned more about the mercy that we receive just by being here and hearing the glories of Gaura lila: “The lila of Gaura has no rules or regulations.” Gauranga appeared to the sages, saying, “I am blessing you that you can all appear in My pastimes. But for now, keep it hidden.” Through this history, Gurudeva tried to give us the understanding that, even if you study sastra for thousands of years, you cannot understand who is the Supreme Lord – it only comes through mercy.

 

On the sixth day of our parikrama, we arrived with kirtan at a very unassuming, peaceful tirtha, which belied its great significance. This was Vidyanagara, the centre for all learning. Here, we learned that Lord Brahma was inspired in this place at the very beginning of creation. We found out that the Goddess Sarasvati lives here, and during the cosmic devastation Satyavata Rsi and the Vedas took shelter here. Here also, Valmiki Rsi compiled the Ramayan, Narada Muni wrote Pancaratra and the six darshans were established.

 

Gurudeva told us of Brhaspati, the guru of all the demi-gods, who has vast, unimaginable intelligence. Even Uddhava is his disciple. Brhaspati was in anxiety, knowing that kali yuga was soon to come. “He knew that Mahaprabhu would appear on earth and it would be the most intellectual adventure of all time. He could not miss this vidya vilasa of Gauranga, so he came to earth here and worshipped Nimai Pandit, weeping and calling out the Holy Names.

 

“Gauranga appeared to Him. ‘Soon I will appear here and perform my vidya vilasa. I give you the service of making Navadvipa Dhama the favourite place of learning.’” So Brhaspati manifest in Gaura lila as Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya.

We learned how in due course Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya brought the school of logic (Navya nyaya) to Navadvipa and had thousands of students here. (all his students were demigods – his students from heaven) and all the academics began to flood Navadvipa. In Gurudeva’s words, “the scene was set.”

 

After Mahaprabhu destroyed the theories of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s students, he set off to find and defeat the great scholar himself, establishing the Absolute Truth as savisesa-brahma – having all transcendental attributes, rather than nirvisesa brahma – being devoid of any attributes, as Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was presenting. Thus the people were attracted to bhakti.

 

On completing this story, Gurudeva impressed on us two things of fundamental importance: All the knowledge given by previous acaryas in the Guru Parampara is like a jewel; and all knowledge comes from chanting of the Holy Names - vidya is never independent from Hari Nama Sankirtana.

 

I pray that I may carry these tattvas within my heart, and that the impressions of the dhama will stay with me, now that I am back in my comfortable life far away. I pray for the shelter of the Holy Names, and I pray that Lord Nityananda will give me the strength and determination to take the Holy Names out into the market place and be His instrument in distributing them in my small corner of the world.

 

 

In an attempt to hold on to the impressions so kindly given to me on Navadvipa Parikrama by my beloved Gurudeva, Sri Prem Prayojan Prabhu, I have been reflecting on those experiences and trying to remember the incredible katha that Gurudeva gave as we took darshan of each tirtha, each personality, following in his footsteps and in the footsteps of Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja and the acaryas in our guru varga. Most of what I have written is paraphrasing Gurudeva’s words, so any qualities are only due to his presence within those words. Please forgive any distortions, mistakes and omissions which I, in my ignorance have made.

 

Here is part 2:

 

Navadvipa Dhama Parikrama 2019 Part 2

 

In this, only my second parikrama of Navadvipa dhama, it became much clearer to me, through the katha of my Gurudeva, how all the different lilas – Dvarpara Lila, Visnu Lila, and especially Vraja Lila come together in a divine drama, culminating in Navadvipa Dhama. Gurudeva described the lila in Navadvipa Dhama as the denouement of the drama – where all the loose ends are tied up and the characters and personalities in the drama meet again in joyful ecstacy, only to be separated again when Mahaprabhu becomes unmanifest to them.

The curtains opened to this divine theatre of prema when we arrived at Nandanacharya Bhavan. Gurudeva informed us that this is Isodyana, where Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performs his midday pastimes, completely absorbed in the meeting of Radha and Krsna at Radha Kunda – His aprakat lila.

In His prakat lila (manifest pastimes), this is the place where Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Acarya and Mahaprabhu used to come and hide!

In the serene courtyard, secluded from the blaring horns outside, we listened as Gurudeva described the first meeting of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu here, in this very place.

Nityananda Prabhu, after travelling for many years, was in Vrndavana looking for His brother: “My brother, where are you?” He would roll on the ground, weeping in separation. “Have you seen my kanaya?”

At this point, Gurudeva posed the question: As Krsna and Balarama, and as Rama and Laxman they are inseparable, but how have they become separate in this lila? This was the first hint of the theme of transcendental meeting and separation that we would hear as parikrama progressed.

While in Vrndavana, Nityananda Prabhu met some travelling pilgrims who informed Him they had seen the transformation of Nimai in Gaia. After receiving Hari Nama Diksa from Isvara Puri He had become overwhelmed with ecstatic love for Krsna. They told Nitai, “Krsna has appeared. He has gone back to Navadvipa where He is inundating everyone with ecstatic love through Nama sankirtana.”

Nityananda Prabhu thought, “I must go at once!”

Gurudeva, the master storyteller, then brought us back to Navadvipa, to Srivasangam, where Nimai was telling His associates, “A great personality will come.”

Nityananda arrived at Nandanacarya’s house and no one knew He was there.

Meanwhile, Mahaprabhu announced that He had had a wonderful dream in which He saw a golden chariot, and on the chariot was a flag with a palm tree. Driving the chariot was a tall, muscular man, built like a wrestler, wearing blue silken cloth and with earrings in His ears, carrying a plough. Mahaprabhu was in the mood of remembering Nandanandana and Balarama. In the dream, Balarama was calling, “Is this the house of Nimai Pandit?”

“Yes, yes! Who are You?”

“I am Your brother, and tomorrow we will meet!”

Mahaprabhu smiled and led the devotees from Srivasangam to the house of Nandanacharya, where they saw Sri Nityananda in meditation, shining like millions of suns and laughing. Everyone bowed down as Mahaprabhu approached His brother with great astonishment.

As Gurudeva described the moment Nityananda opened his lotus eyes and looked into the eyes of Mahaprabhu, some of the devotees were weeping. For us less fortunate souls, we could only imagine the scene – the two brothers, who have been separated in this Gaura Lila, now look into each others’ eyes for the very first time.

At this point, Gurudeva quoted from Srimad Bhagavatam (chapter 15, txt 8), when Krsna appears to be glorifying Balarama. Gurudeva explained that, rather than glorifying Balarama, Krsna is indirectly boasting that today He has met with Radha for the first time. As Balarama is His older brother, Krsna is shy to speak directly. In this verse, Krsna is implying, “Today the earth is fortunate because today my feet have kumkum on them.” And the creepers, rivers and mountains are the vraja gopis, graced by the glance of Krsna.

Gurudeva also told us how Mahaprabhu ordered Srivasa Pandit to recite the verse describing how Krsna and Balarama are leaving to go to the forest – the best verse for describing the rupa of Sri Krsna. We learned how Krsna’s beautiful form nourishes the nectar of prema by arousing feelings of meeting and separation simultaneously. He gave the example that food is relishable if you have been hungry. In the same way, in meeting, Krsna’s beauty increases the gopis’ hunger, and therefore the desire to meet with Him again increases. And at the same time his beauty increases their separation, even in meeting.

This is the inconceivable lila of Krsna, and someone like me can only pray that one day I will have some understanding of the profound joy that comes with the experience of realisation.

Once Srivasa had revealed this verse, Nitai began to roar, dance, and run around in circles with uncontrollable ecstatic love, before finally fainting in the arms of Nimai Pandit. Every time Nitai fainted, Nimai told Srivasa to tell more verses. At last, Nimai Pandit said to His brother, “Today I have seen you – the embodiment of bhakti yoga which is the essence of all the Vedas.”

And Nitai replied, “I was searching everywhere, but in every temple the sringasan was empty. No one was standing there. I asked ‘Where is my Lord? Where is my Lord? Where is my Lord?’”

 

Later, we came to a beautiful place with many kinds of fruit trees where we heard another wonderful narration of meeting and separation which took place here. Koladvaita Sridara used to bring his bananas to sell in the market place here, and Nimai would come and haggle over the price and even steal the bananas.

In telling this story, Gurudeva reminded us of Vidura’s wife being so overwhelmed with love for Krsna that she peeled bananas for Him and gave Him the banana peels, which Krsna relished because they were given with devotion. Krsna is atma sat to His devotees – My heart is yours; I am Yours; I have no independence. If someone has love for Krsna He will come and take it even before the offering, but if not offered by a devotee, He will not take it at all. Why is He atma sat to His devotees? He is begging – just give me something. He has lalanicha – the desire to be pampered by His devotee. In this way, all feel happiness – the devotees by giving to Krsna and Krsna in feeling the happiness of the devotees.

As Gurudeva told of Koladvaita Sridar’s deep separation mood when Mahaprabhu left to go to Puri, there were many tears among the devotees – especially our Gurumata, who was trying valiantly to translate the words of Sridara through her weeping: “I just want to see You as the boy who used to steal my bananas.”

This history illustrated how devotees only want laukika sambhava – a humanlike relationship with Krsna - which is imbued with an intense, excessive mood of possessiveness.

While he endeavoured to soak us in the mercy of each tirtha, by hearing about the deep realationships of prema with the Lord and His associates, Gurudeva also elaborated on the seriousness of trying to separate Krsna from His associates and His lila. In explaining the history of Lord Brahma stealing the cows, Gurudeva showed us that Brahma’s fault was that he wanted to see Krsna’s pastimes by an empirical approach – through his own effort. But he also made an offence even greater than Lord Indra’s because he tried to separate Krsna from His associates, whereas, by causing the deluge of rain in Braja, Indra brought all the brajabasis together under the umbrella of Govardhana Hill.

However, when Lord Brahma landed in Antardvipa, he prayed very humbly to Mahaprabhu, who eventually appeared to him and told the inner purpose of His descent. Again, we learned how Krsna is impelled by greed.

This same greed was shown by Advaita Acarya and Hari das Thakur, calling from his cave – Je Anilo Prema dasa: their deep longing impelled Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to descend to Navadvipa dhama.

Later, in Bhandiravan, we also heard how Lord Rama came there and revealed to Sita that she would come to Navadvipa as Visnupriya and be immersed in separation. Mahaprabhu spoke to Her about sambhoga and vipralambra. In meeting, two bodies can be close together but there can be some distance between the hearts. But in vipralambra, the two can be far away, yet experience a million times more joy. The rasa of meeting cannot be nourished without vipralambra.

That mood of separation was conveyed the most deeply and sweetly by Gurudeva, as he melted our hearts on the bank of Mother Ganga at Nidaya Ghat, telling us of the heartbreaking moment when Nimai left His mother Saci and devoted wife, Vishnupriya, to cross the river and take up the vow of sannyasa.

In this katha, like so many other histories he told as we progressed through the nine islands, Gurudeva impressed on us how all the unresolved situations of all the lilas of all the avataras are like acts in a drama, and they are all resolved in the final act of Gaura Lila.

I am deeply grateful to Gurudeva for his endless endeavours to share his transcendental realisations with us. By hearing again and again about these great personalities, the associates of Mahaprabhu, in the places where they experienced such deep moods of meeting and separation, I pray that, one day, with the extraordinary mercy of my Gurudeva and our Guru varga, I will understand my incredible good fortune, and begin to experience a tiny essence of that mood.

 

 

Anupama Lowe