Sri Chaitanya’s Gift

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur explains the medicine for the heart first revealed through Śrīla Mādhavendra Purīpād.

Śrī Chaitanya’s Gift

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sāraswatī Ṭhākur

Translated from the original Bengali text
quoted for Gauḍīya and published in Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan:
Volume 10, Issue 11, Thursday, 10 June 1965.

To read the Bengali text, view this year’s Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā edition of Śrī Gaudiya Darśan here.

Śrī Gaurasundar, whose loving words made the residents of the land of Gauḍa glorious in all respects, whose sweet words the people of the world discuss and find peace within, is supremely merciful. We are all beggars of mercy. Humanity is stricken with deprivation. One who frees others from deprivation is accepted as a ‘benefactor’.  Everything that is considered a gift in this world is temporary and incomplete, and the number of benefactors in this world is also very small. If beggars’ desires and expectations are too great, then all the benefactors in the world cannot come forward and give the beggars the gifts they desire. The wise cannot give the foolish, the rich cannot give the poor, the healthy cannot give the sickly, and the intelligent cannot give the unintelligent the gifts they desire. Yet can humanity even desire, even pray, for a gift as great as the gift Śrī Gaurasundar has given? Previously humanity could not even think or expect that such a great gift could come to this world, could be showered upon souls by their good fortune. The unprecedented gift Śrī Gaurasundar has given to humanity is pure love for the Supreme Lord [Bhāgavat-prema]. The greatest deprivation in this world is that of love, and it is because of this that violence, enmity, selfishness, and so on trouble souls so much. [In this world] even godly people—even the gods themselves—are prepared to obstruct souls who aspire to serve the Lord.

We are all men gravely stricken with deprivation—stunted vision. Being beaten by the three modes of nature, we cannot search for the real truth. This is why many accept the alluring bait of untruth. If one becomes tempted by this, then one’s human life does not become successful.

From whose holy mouth did Gaurasundar’s gift emanate? Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī is the central root of Gaurasundar’s gift—of the tree of divine love [prema]. Divine love is the only thing to be searched for, the unadulterated soul’s only necessity. Śrī Mādhavendrapād sang a mūla-mantra [axiom] about how divine love is achieved. Īśvar Purī heard this song, and Mahāprabhu showed His Pastime of hearing this song from Īśvar Purī’s mouth. That song is this:

This gift was distributed in India [Bhārata-varṣa] by Mādhavendra Purīpād. We do not know whether it was distributed in places outside of India. The Indians whose ears this mūla-mantra for the Pastime of distributing Kṛṣṇa-prema has reached have attained all perfection, and those whose ears it has not reached have remained entangled in insignificant matters. The human life of one who has not understood this mūla-mantra’s importance is meaningless. This song of separation is our unadulterated soul’s dharma—our innate nature.

Ṭhākur Bilvamaṅgal once acted as if he were immersed in immoral affairs. When he was deeply engaged in the service of peacock feather-crowned Kṛṣṇa, he also sang about service in separation [vipralambha-bhajan] within his Karṇāmṛta [Śrī Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta], more or less. Let us discuss the message Gaurasundar came to speak to humanity. Even now, proud of being ‘residents of the land of Gauḍa’, we remain immersed in material affairs! This is such far gone deprivation that it cannot be described with human language. Mādhavendrapād sang this song of separation to deliver us from such deprivation:

We often, with sorrow, jokingly mock someone who does not understand our deprivation by calling them ‘dayita’ [‘dear’]. When the Lord went to Mathurā and left the Vraja-vāsīs, then the Vraja-vāsīs called Kṛṣṇa this name. And they also called Him ‘Mathurānāth’ [‘Lord of Mathurā’]. They did not call Him ‘Vṛndāvannāth’ [‘Lord of Vṛndāvan’]. Many people have heard discussion of Mathurā songs. All the words in these songs are terms related to separation [vipralambha]. What is called ‘viraha’ is called ‘vipralambha’ in lyrical Sanskrit texts. In separation, the Vraja-vāsīs are saying to Kṛṣṇa, “You are ‘Dayita’ [‘dear’], but You now are ‘Mathurānāth’ [‘the king of Mathurā’]. You have broken away from us and left. We are destitute. You are our wealth, and today we have lost that wealth. Thus, we express our sadness, but what can come out without humour? You are our eyes’ jewel, and today You have left our vision—You have shocked us and left for Mathurā. [While saying this Śrīla Prabhupād’s voice faltered, his face glowed with a reddish colour produced by divine feelings, his eyes became absorbed in an extraordinary ecstasy, and he began to shed tears of love. In the midst of a general assembly, Prabhupād, though deeply situated in mahābhāva, quickly checked his emotions and began to speak again.] 

“O Kṛṣṇa, will you remain invisible [adhokṣaja] forever? Will we not be able to see Your beauty, form, and sweetness again? You are  ‘knowable’ [attainable by renunciation—jñān], but because we have no such knowledge we cannot see You. We are unknowing, childish, and unintelligent. Considering we have not performed thousands of years of austerities, You have gone to the land of ‘knowledge’—where our senses cannot go. Yet You alone are our shelter, and Your heart is melted with mercy. When will we see You? You met us, and through that meeting You stole our hearts and wealth. Today Hari, the stealer of our wealth, has gone to Mathurā! Deprived of Your sight, our hearts are broken.”

What is the medicine for this condition of the heart—for the pain in the heart of one who is bewildered by separation from Kṛṣṇa? It is Gaurasundar’s mūla-mantra:

Gaurasundar says, “O people whose hearts are immersed in the mundane, to become detached from the triviality [lit. ash-pile] of worldly affairs, even while labouring amidst it, and attain good fortune, to reach a transcendental state, accept this teaching: engage in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s saṅkīrtan.”