Importance Of Submissive Hearing

The Lord maintained that it is dangerous for a sannyasi to be in intimate touch with worldly money conscious men and with women. The Lord was an ideal sannyasi. No women could approach the Lord even to offer respects. Women's seats were accommodated far away from the Lord. As an ideal teacher and acharaya, He was very strict in the routine work of a sannyasi.

Apart from being a divine incarnation, the Lord was an ideal character as a human being. His behavior with other persons was also above suspicion. In His dealing as acharya, He was harder than the thunderbolt and softer than the rose. One of His associates, Junior Haridasa, comitted a great mistake by lustfully glancing at a young woman, and the Lord as Supersoul could detect this just in the mind of Junior Haridasa. He was at once banished from His association and was never accepted again, even though He was implored to excuse Haridasa for the mistake.

Junior Haridasa afterwards committed suicide due to being disassociated from the company of the Lord, and the news of suicide due was duly related to the Lord. Even at that time the Lord was not forgetful of the offense, and He said that Haridasa had rightly met with the proper punishment.

On the principles of the renounced order of life and discipline, the Lord knew no compromise, and therefore even though He knew that the King was a great devotee, He refused to see the King only because the King was a dollar and cent man. By this example the Lord wanted to emhasize the proper behavior for a transcendentalist.

A transcendentalist has nothing to do with women and money. He must always refrain from such intimate relations. The King was, however, favored by the Lord by the expert arrangement of the devotees. This means that the beloved devotees of the Lord can favor a neophyte more liberally than the Lord. Pure devotees, therefore, never commit an offense at the feet of another pure devotee.

An offense at the lotus feet of the Lord is sometimes excused by the merciful Lord, but an offense at the feet of a devotee is very dangerous for one who actually wants to make progress in devotional service.

As long as the Lord remained at Puri, thousands of His devotees used to come to see Him during the Ratha-yatra car festival of Lord Jagannatha. And during the car festival, the washing of the Gundica temple under the direct supervision of the Lord was an important function. The Lord's congregational sankirtana movement at Puri was a unique exhibition for the mass of people. That is the way to turn the mass mind towards spiritual realization. The Lord inaugrated this system of mass sankirtana, and leaders of all countries can take advantage of this spiritual movement in order to keep the mass of people in a pure state of peace and friendship with one another. This is now the demand of the present human society all over the world.

After some time the Lord again started on his tour towards Northern India, and He decided to visit Vrndavana and its neighboring places. He passed through the jungles of Jharikhanda (Madhya Bharat), and all the wild animals also joined His sankirtana movement. The wild tigers, elephants, bears and deer all together accompained the Lord, and the Lordaccompanied them in sankirtana. By this He proved that by the propagation of the sankirtana movement (congregational chanting and glorifying the name of the Lord) even the wild animals can live in peace and friendship, and what to speak of men who are supposed to be civilized. No man in the world will refuse to join the sankirtana movement. Nor is the Lord's sankirtana movement restricted to any caste, creed, color or species. Here is direct evidence of His great mission: He allowed even the wild animals to parttake in His great movement.

On His way back from Vrndavana He first came to Prayag, where He met Rupa Gosvami along with his younger brother Anupama. Then He came down to Benares. For two months, He instructed Sri Sanatana Gosvami in the transcendental science. The instruction to Sanatana Gosvami is in itself a long narration, and full presentation of the instruction will not be possible here. The main ideas are given as follows.

Sanatana Gosvami (formerly known as Dabir Khas) was in the cabinet service of the Bengal Government under the regime of Nawab Husain Shah. He decided to join with the Lord and thus retired from the service. On His way back from Vrndavana, when He reached Varanasi, the Lord became the guest of Sri Tapana Misra and Candrasekhara, assisted by a Maharashtra brahamana. At that time Varanasi was headed by a great sannyasi of the Mayavada school named Sripada Prakasananda Sarasvati.

When the Lord was at Varanasi, the people in general became more attracted to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu on account of His mass sankirtna movement. Whereever He visited, especially the Visvanatha temple, thousands of pilgrims would follow Him. Some were attracted by His bodily features, and others were attracted by His melodious songs glorifying the Lord.

The Mayavadi sannyasi designate themselves as Narayana. Varanasi is still overflooded with many Mayavadi sannyasis. Some people who saw the Lord in His sankirtana party considered Him to be actually Narayana, and this report reached the camp of the great sannyasi Prakasananda.

In India there is always a kind of spiritual rivalry between the Mayavada and Bhagavata schools, and thus when the news of the Lord reached Prakasananda he knew that the Lord was a Vaisnava sannyasi and therefore he minimized the value of the Lord before those who brought him the news. He deprecated the activities of the Lord because of His preaching the sankirtana movement, which was in his opinion nothing but religious sentiment. Prakasananda was a profound student of the Vedanta, and he advised his followers to give attention to the Vedanta and not to indulge in sankirtana.

One devotee brahmana, who became a devotee of the Lord, did not like the criticism of Prakasananda, and he went to the Lord to express his regrets. He told the Lord that when he uttered the Lord's name before the sannyasi Prakasananda, the latter strongly criticized Him, although he heard him uttering several times the name Caitanya. The Brahmana was astonished to see that the sannyasi Prakasananda could not vibrate the sound krsna even once, although he uttered the name Caitanya several times.

The Lord smilingly explained to the devotee brahmana why the Mayavadi cannot utter the holy name of Krsna. "The Mayavadis are offenders at the lotus feet of Krsna, although they utter always Brahman, Atma, or Caitanya, etc. And because they are offenders at the lotus feet of Krsna and the Personality of Godhead Krsna are identical. There is no difference in the absolute realm between the name, form or person of the Absolute Truth because in the absolute realm everything id transcendental bliss. There is no difference between the body and the soul for the Personality of Godhead, Krsna. Thus He is different from the living entity who is always different from his outward body. Because of Krsna's transcendental position, it is very difficult for a layman to actually know the Personality of Godhead, Krsna, His holy name and fame, etc. His name, fame form and pastimes all are one and the same transcendental identity, and they are not knowable by the existence of the material senes."

"The transcendental relationship of the pastimes of the Lord is the source of still more bliss than one can experience by realization of Brahman or by becoming one with the Supreme. Had it not been so, then those who are already situated in the transcendental bliss of Brahman would not have been attracted by the transcendental bliss of the pastimes of the Lord."

After this, a great meeting was arranged by the devotees of the Lord in which all the sannyasis were invited, including the Lord and Prakasananda Sarasvati. In this meeting both the scholars (the Lord and Prakasananda) had a long discourse on the spiritual values of the sankirtana movement, and a summary is given below.

The great Mayavadi sannyasi Prakasananda inquired from the Lord as to the reason for His preferring the sankirtana movement to the study of the Vedanta-sutra. He said that it is the duty of a sannyasi to read the Vedanta-sutra. What caused Him to indulge in sankirtana?

After this inquiry, the Lord submissively replied: "I have taken to the sankirtana movement instead of the study of Vedanta because I am a great fool." The Lord thus represented Himself as one of the numberless fools of this age who are absolutely incapable of studing the Vedanta philosophy. The fools indulgence in the study of Vedanta has caused so much havoc in society.

The Lord thus continued: "And becuase I am a great fool, My spiritual master forbade Me to play with Vedanta philosophy. He said that it is better that I chant the holy name of the Lord, for that would deliver Me from material bondage."