All fired up – Part 2 Posted: 21 Dec 2011 03:14 PM PST (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta Part 2 In the ecstatic side of Khetari, it is said that Srila Narottama Das Thakur had started this new style of kirtan, and it created such ecstasy that everyone just got up and were dancing spontaneously! Suddenly, they saw that the Panca Tattvas were also dancing in that assembly. All the devotees were in the greatest ecstasy and the next thing that happened was that the Panca Tattvas had disappeared! So when they disappeared then everyone started to cry in separation and the ground became wet from all the tears and turned into mud. So there were a lot of people crying and a lot of tears! So that was the Khetari festival. Jahnava Mata was the senior most vaisnavi and she was respected by all as the person presiding over the festival. She was the senior most and definitely given the most respectful position. Although she accepted all this respect, at the same time she went into the kitchen and cooked an incredible feast for all the devotees. It was a very transcendental event! |
All fired up – Part 1 Posted: 21 Dec 2011 02:57 PM PST (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta Part 2 So the Khetari festival (besides it being a transcendental experience) had established Gaudiya Vaisnavism clearly in Bengal. Before that, Nityananda had preached in Bengal (by the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu) and had created a lot of enthusiasm. The Caitanya Bhagavata describes how there were kirtans that were so ecstatic that everyone just joined in….the whole village is emptied out and old men begin to jump up high….. so high that they jumped up right into the trees! And they begin to dance on the branches of the trees…even from the tips of the branches and those branches don't break! The young boys were in the kirtan for thirty days. These boys got so fired up…..and more and more fired up that they didn't even get any prasadam or nothing to eat, but just kirtan non stop for thirty days! In the end they were just mad….totally mad and so fired up that they ripped trees out of the ground! So it was a fired up kirtan – Nityananda's kirtan. People were just seeing the kirtan and disappeared right into it! People lost their relatives and so they went looking for them! Whilst looking, they merged into the kirtan, and they too had disappeared! The whole villages and families from those villages had disappeared. Several village leaders would go looking for them and in this way the whole village would disappear into the kirtan of Nityananda. So the kirtan of Nityananda was conquering Bengal…………………………………….The Khetari festival was a festival that brought structure in Bengal where Nityananda brought out the enthusiasm in the people, and ecstasy in the people. There was not much philosophy behind it, but Khetari brought ecstasy and philosophy. So Khetari was very significant! |
Our shelter Posted: 21 Dec 2011 03:00 AM PST (Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 21 December 2011, Cape Town, SA) Sometimes I come on this point of taking shelter and how no one on his own is spiritually strong. It's just by taking shelter that one becomes spiritually strong. So yes, again and again we must take shelter. The mind says, 'no!' the body says, 'no!' that may be…and even people around us might say, 'what are you doing? Come on!' maybe those who are close to us will shake their heads and say, 'you're gone! You're lost! You're totally impractical! Be more practical! I mean how are you going to deal with life like this? Now you're young, and you think you are going to last like this your whole life? And what will you have later on, when you'll need it to fall back on? Nothing! You're wasting the best years of your life!' In this way we hear and seeds of doubt are planted in our consciousness by the environment, by family, by friends, by the media, by our own minds… So how do we counteract all these mundane influences that are somehow or other entering our consciousness? By just turning back to the devotees. |