N ityananda Trayodasi has always been a special festival celebrated at Sri Mayapur dhama. Most of the ISKCON’s preaching warriors , carrying out Sri Nityananda’s mission of reaching holy names to nook & corner of the world are assembled here at Sri Mayapur dhama, for the annual GBC meetings. So, we were blessed with wonderful Sadhu Sanga- double mercy- abhisheka and spectacular darshan of Sri Panca-tattva and Nityananda Katha & Kirtan. HH Bhakti Charu Swami gave Nityananda pastimes in English & HH Subhag Swami showered the nectar of pastimes in Bengali. As Lord Nityananda was offered Maha abhisheka, HH Loknath Swami led the Kirtan singing Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu bhajan and Mahamantra. Please take darshan of around 156 pictures of the festival are uploaded in our festival gallery.
Transcription of Nityananda Katha by HH Jayapataka Swami:
Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 16th, 2011
Topic: Appearance of Lord Nityananda
Speaker: HH Jayapataka Swami
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They asked me to speak on the philosophy of Lord Nityananda. We heard the pastimes first. Maharaj like to give the sweet words but of course everything about Lord Nityananda is ecstatic and very blissful.
I want to thank Radhanath Swami for his very much appreciated lecture on how Lord Nityananda was first in Ekacakra; also how He came to meet Lord Caitanya. I was listening to Srila Prabhupada. He spoke about this song written by Narottama dasa Thakura,nitai pada-kamala, koti-candra susitala, ye chayaya jagat judaya.
That by the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have heard that He is Balaram as well, by His mercy everything in this universe, everyone in this universe they are all suffering from anxiety. You ask a person in the United Statesi and they are eloquent yet everybody is suffering from anxiety. Prabhupada was saying that by the mercy of Lord Nityananda we don’t have any anxiety – although we have got seven thousand devotees and we have to feed them.
Normally just to feed one family there is so much anxiety but somehow we don’t have any anxiety. Jai Nitai! Jai Nitai! Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.]
Jagat judaya means, the whole world, the whole universe cries upon hearing the ecstatic pastimes of how Lord Nityananda left Ekacakra. I think that it is hard not to know how much He was loved there. By Lord Nityananda’s mercy we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya, you get the mercy of Radha and Krishna
heno nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna paite nai, drdha kori’ dharo nitair pay
If we don’t have the mercy of Lord Nityananda we don’t get the mercy of Radha and Krishna. So with great faith we should grab the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. We should fully take shelter of Lord Nityananda. By His shelter we can also get Lord Caitanya’s mercy and we can also get Radha and Krishna’s mercy. The whole perfection of our life is to have the mercy of Radha and Krishna, to experience Their pastimes that is the real bliss, the real ecstasy and that is possible only by the mercy of Lord Nityananda.
Somehow we went past over Lord Nityananda like in the Pannihati festival, which is also known as the Danda Mahotsava Lord Nityananda said to Raghunath dasa, “I am going to punish you! You come here! I am going to punish you!
PUNISH you!” Raghunath dasa paid his obeisances knowing that he was going to get punished.
Then Lord Nityananda came and put His lotus feet on the head of Raghunath dasa. You thief! You have to feed all these associates with cida, dahi and fruits. Haribol! Jai Nitai. [Audience chant responsively.] As Radhanath Swami said Lord Nityananda is very mysterious. He is also very jolly, very cunning. So His punishment was that Raghunatha dasa had to feed His associates chipped rice and yogurt and fruits. Now this is nothing. He is wealthy. His uncle and father are millionaires so it is not a big thing for him. But by this little seva which he got. This festival is called the Danda Mahotsava. It is called the festival of punishment or the Panihati Cida Dahi festival. So, why?
Although Nityananda was very close to Raghunatha dasa, he was in Adi-Saptagram and Nityananda was in Kolkata(?) in Panihati he was directly going to Lord Caitanya and he was refused. He was not accepted. He was told so many things. So then he got the idea, “Let me go to Lord Nityananda. By His mercy I will get Lord Caitanya.” Then he was on the right track. He went to Lord Nityananda and he got the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Jai Nitai!
[Audience chants responsively.]
So that is the punishment that He said, “Why you are staying away? You are a thief.” Because he was not coming to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. If you don’t get His mercy, you don’t get Radha and Krishna, you don’t get Lord Caitanaya. So how many of you want Lord Nityananda’s mercy? [Audience chants Haribol!] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.]
There was a second meeting. I don’t know all the details that were told by Radhanath Swami. These details are very ecstatic. At the second meeting Lord Caitanya was at the house of i Thakura. That is Candrasekhara Prabhu. So he was there doing kirtana and Lord Nityananda came there. Either in the day or night there was a second meeting. So there They saw each other. Nitai, “GAURANGA! NITYANANDA! [Audience chants responsively.] GAURANGA! NITYANANDA![Audience chants responsively.] GAURANGA! NITYANANDA! [Audience chants responsively.] They ran and embrace each other and danced in ecstasy.
In that dancing it is said that sometimes Lord Caitanya would be on the lap of Lord Nityananda and He would wash Lord Caitanya’s head with His tears and sometimes Nityananda would be on the lap of Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya would wash His head with tears. Like this Gadadhara Prabhu was watching and he was amazed how it seemed like Lord Caitanya was Maha Visnu on Anantasesha and he saw Their affection and was amazed. He said, “This is really exceptional.” So They had a second meeting. I wish I had all the details. So nice kirtana was going on at iThakur’s. i Thakur i
se sambandha nahi jara brtha janma gela ta’ra, sei pasu bada duracara
So those who don’t know the mercy of Lord Nityananda are not, se sambandha – who don’t have any relationship with Lord Nityananda their birth, brtha is useless. So our acarya Narottama sings. Pasu is an animal. It is very filthy.
Prabhupada here says that we are all dogs, in one sense. We are all serving some masters. But we should become a dog of Lord Nityananda and by being His dog we can get all the mercy. So we can be a dog for the masters in the material world or we can be a dog like Vaisnava kukur like Bhaktivinode Thakura is saying, “O Vaisnava Thakura I want to be your dog.” So like that we should be a dog of Lord Nityananda. We should be His dog serving Him with our mind, endeavor and our words and our activities, our deeds. So in this way we can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda.
Lord Nityananda is very, very, very merciful. [Weeps.] If we don’t na balila mukhe majila samsara-sukhe. What will be the use of all their education if someone thinks, “I can achieve Krishna consciousness. I have a degree. I have a Phd or a doctorate or a master’s degree or a bachelor of arts. All these degrees don’t help. What helps is the mercy of Lord Nitai. Nitai!
[Audience chants responsively.] Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] So we should take shelter of Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet. We sing in the mornings:
ha ha prabhu nityananda premananda-sukhi krpavalokana koro ami bado duhkhi
So Lord Nityananda gives His mercy to the fallen souls. He is very merciful.It is said that He is always immersed in spiritual bliss. In that meeting that was told by Radhanath Swami so ecstatic. There are so many pastimes where Lord Nityananda was showing His ecstasy. He is always filled with spiritual bliss. And we can get the mercy of Lord Nityananda very easily just by chanting the holy names.
If you go to Ekacakra and if you don’t say Nitai-Gaura, if you say Gaura-Nitai everybody will think, “What is wrong with you?!” You got to say Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Nitai-Gaura. [Audience chants responsively.] Then by the mercy of Nitai you can get the mercy of Gaura.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said that just by chanting the name Nityananda, [Audience chants responsively.] [Audience chants responsively.] we can get love of Krishna. Just by chanting the names Gauranga [Audience chants responsively.] we will all get Krishna. So we want to take shelter and chant the names of Nitai and Gauranga. Nityananda [Audience chants responsively.] Gauranga [Audience chants responsively.]
In South India there is a i called Nityananda i just by saying Nityananda he is having some illicit relationship with some movie starlets. I told him to explain that he is not Nityananda of five hundred years ago i. Is quiet unusual. So this name people will use but they don’t know who Lord Nityananda is. In our temple of the Vedic Planetarium our main deities are Panca Tattva. And there we have Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda, Advaita, Gadadhara and Srivas. So Nityananda He is the very major personality for this temple and all the people will know who is Lord Nityananda. They should know.
Some people are confused. They don’t think that Balaram is Visnu-tattva. i but we know that He is known as the prakasa lila. He is the expansion of Lord Krishna. He is the first expansion and from Him all the other avataras and all the other Visnus, Narayans are expanded. So Balarama is very important.
In fact it is said when Radharani sometimes faints in ecstasy of separation from Krishna, when She is unconscious then Krishna also faints. And when Krishna faints everything stops. The moon stops, the sun stops, everything stops except Balaram. He has the duty to wake up Krishna and then massage Him. Krishna is the Supreme consciousness so if He stops, everything stops except Balaram. So how important Balaram is people don’t know but He is very, very important. So when He comes as Nityananda he gives His mercy so much so that because of Him Jagai aand Madhai were delivered. Even when He was hit on the head by a wine bottle and blood was coming he said, “Just because you drew blood does that mean that I won’t give you love?” So then Jagai said, “He just smashed the wine bottle all over His head. He is bleeding but He still talking about love! This is no ordinary soul. I surrender.” So Jagai encourage Madhai to surrender.
Then Lord Caitanya came and He invoked the Sudarsan Cakra. Afterwards Madhai went to Nityananda and he begged, “Please forgive me for my offence.” And Lord Nityananda said, “I don’t take any offence. You are like a little baby.
The baby kicks the mother but the mother doesn’t take offence.” Lord Nityananda compared breaking the wine bottle all over His head which caused Him to bleed with the baby kicking the mother. But it is not the same thing but this is how Lord Nityananda took it. Madhai was feeling i so he asked, “I have committed many offences to the dhambasis.” Then Lord Nityananda said, “Yes. That is true.” So he said, “What shall I do to counteract that?”
So he said, “If you will facilitate people in their Krishna consciousness then you will get forgiven for your offences to the dhambasis.”
So in the hottest day of the year in the month of May he dug a ghat with his own hands, which he named Madhai Ghat which extends into the Ganges. All the people use that. They were facilitated in their service to the Ganga and brahmanas and service to Krishna. So because of that Madhai was forgiven for his offences to the dhambasis all by the mercy of Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.] Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.] Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]
So if we don’t take the mercy of Lord Nityananda then our life is useless and it is very hard to make advancement. So we should get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]
ahankare matta hoiya, nitai-pada pasariya, asatyere satya kori mani
So we are very much affected by the false ego. We think that the temporary world is eternal, that the false things are true. So in this way we get thoroughly illusioned. So we should not miss the mercy of Lord Nityananda.We should not leave His shelter because of false ego. We should take shelter of Lord Nitai and in this way we get to be situated in proper spiritual strength.
Nityananda is non-different from Balarama. So Balarama as I was explaining, Bala means strength. In the western world people think strength means a stout body, big muscles. This is not the strength that is talked about. This is spiritual strength. So Lord Nityananda is giving us this spiritual strength, the special bliss to transcend this material world. So we should take shelter of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda. [Audience chants responsively.]
nitaiyer koruna habe, braje radha-krsna pabe, dharo nitai-carana du’khani
So by the mercy of Lord Nityananda we get the mercy of Radha and Krishna. We should grab onto the two feet of Lord Nityananda or the diksa guru. The gurus, Prabhupada he is coming in the line of Lord Nityananda. It is said that the guru is very dear to Lord Nityananda. So we take the shelter of guru, of Prabhupada. In this way we should not miss the shelter of Lord Nityananda. We should take shelter of Lord Nityananda and in this way we will get Radha and Krishna.
So we should not be illusioned by the false ego and think that somehow we can get Krishna because of our material qualification. There is verse that also says that bhakti is,
sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam, tat-paratvena nirmalam, hrsikena hrsikesa- sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Madhya 19.170]
So to be free from all these external designations, which causes us to be falsely proud. All of us have some designations but we don’t take it as very important. It causes us to leave Krishna consciousness. All we need is the mercy of Lord Nityananda, mercy the guru and the mercy of Vaisnavas.
Haribol! Gauranga! [Audience chants responsively.] Nityanada [Audience chants responsively.]
nitaiyer carana satya, tanhara sevaka nitya, nitai-pada sada koro asa
Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet are eternal and His servants are eternal. So we go on the Navadvip Parikrama because Lord Nityananda went and we are following in His footsteps. Srila Jiva Goswami went on the Navadvip Parikrama so we also go. i So this year I heard that we have four groups. We have the international group. We have the Bengali group. We have a Russian Group and this year we have the Hindi group. [Harbol.] It will increase.
There is a big quantity of speakers. This year we tried four groups. We have a Bengali group as well. 2500 people in the International group 1500 Russian. So like this it is very usual to have so many groups.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura he had between 5 000 and 10 000 people on parikrama. So this is also certifying that they get the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Nityananda [Audience chants responsively.]
We know that His lotus feet are eternal and to be His servitor one will be eternal. When Prabhupada arrived here in Mayapur after givingihe took some water in his golden goblet and said, “Oh! Mayapur! Living and dying in Mayapur is all the same.” Our living and dying is the same. He said if you are living in Mayapur you are living in the spiritual world and if you die there you go back to Goloka, go back to the spiritual world. Mayapur dham ki! Jai! So this is all the mercy of Lord Nityananda that by His mercy we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Radha Krishna and we can stay here in the holy dhama.
So we should take this holy day and grab onto His lotus feet and take full shelter. Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] So one more line.
narotamma boro dukhi, nitai more koro sukhi, rakho ranga-caranera pasa
Narotamma says, “I am very, very sad, very much in distress. Lord Nityananda please make me happy. Keep me by Your lotus feet.” So how many of you want to be kept by the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda? [Haribol] Jai Nitai![Audience chants responsively.] So I heard the class started 15 minutes late. Now it is twenty minute over. I always i So thank you very much and I hope you have a very blissful Nitai Trayodasi by the mercy of Lord Nityananda. Haribol! Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai!
[Audience chants responsively.] Jai Nitai! [Audience chants responsively.] Haribol!
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