Transcribed by Frederick Prabhu(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sydney 2003)
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was dancing during Ratha Yatra and everyone had come to Puri to see the dancing of the Lord. Before Ratha Yatra, as we know, there is Snana Yatra. It is two weeks before and He comes out again at Ratha Yatra, and they paint Him meanwhile and things like this.
So, in Jagannatha Puri every year, Snana Yatra was going on, at the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also. At that time, the king was Maharaja Prataparudra.
Maharaja Prataparudra, he had, like kings used to have, a number of queens, queens that would used to sit during the Snana Yatra, the bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannatha, in special viewing galleries. They're nice, they're royal galleries and everyone would sit there, and all the queens and etc.. would have a close up look...
So this particular year Lord Caitanya was there, and His associates, and Maharaja Prataparudra really wanted the mercy of Lord Caitanya and therefore he arranged it that the queens would not be sitting in the galleries this year, but that the associates of Lord Caitanya would sit in the galleries. So the queens were really upset...
They came and said, you know:
*moan moan * “We came to see the Snana Yatra, and now we can't see it this year because we don't have our galleries, and there's no point in even being here!"
The king was just saying:
"No no no no, it's alright, you know. You'll be seeing it from the roof. You’ll get a very good view from the roof this year, and everything will be fine,"
And they were all like *moan moan* not very happy at all.
But then when Snana Yatra actually took place, it was totally ecstatic, because Lord Jagannatha was being showered in tonnes of water and drops were bouncing off His body and the sun was shining and these drops were glistening in the sunlight and looked like unlimited diamonds.It was just a wonderful view and everyone was ecstatic. But that was not everything. In front of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Caitanya was dancing, and from His body there were as many drops as there were bouncing as from the body of Lord Jagannatha.
But, the drops that were shooting off the body of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were not from bathing water, but were from the tears of ecstasy that were flying off His body.
Nobody had ever seen anything like that. No one had ever seen anybody dance like that, and nobody had ever seen anybody crying so many tears as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
So, it was amazing. Actually, everyone just looked at Lord Caitanya - they saw Lord Jagannatha, but they all were staring at Lord Caitanya, because it was just too amazing what they were seeing. And the queens even forgot that they were on the roof and not in the viewing galleries, and they were just amazed and they said, "Boy, we never saw anything like this!"
They became so enthusiastic and they went beyond themselves, everyone became swept up in an ocean of enthusiasm, and that's what it is all about, Krsna consciousness!
Transcribed by Frederick Prabhu
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Sydney 2003)
