Radhanath Swami

Pushyabhishek
ku-manäù su-manastvaà hi
yäti yasya padäbjayoù
su-mano-’rpaëa-mätreëa
taà caitanya-prabhuà bhaje
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya because simply by offering a flower at His lotus feet even the most ardent materialist becomes a devotee.  All glories to Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu! All glories to Lord Nityänanda Prabhu! All glories to Advaita Äcärya! And all glories to all the devotees of Lord Caitanya! Let me now enumerate the activities of the Lord between the ages of five and ten. His chief occupation during this period was to engage Himself in study.  The pastimes of the Lord during His paugaëòa age were very extensive.

His education was His chief occupation, and after that His very beautiful marriage took place.  When the Lord was studying grammar at the place of Gaìgädäsa Paëòita, He would immediately learn grammatical rules and definitions by heart simply by hearing them once.

PURPORT
Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura says that the Lord was given lessons by a teacher named Viñëu and another teacher named Sudarçana. Later on, when He was a little grown up, He was under the care of Gaìgädäsa Paëòita, who taught Him grammar of a higher standard. Anyone serious about studying the Sanskrit language should first learn grammar. It is said that simply to finish studying Sanskrit grammar takes at least twelve years, but once one learns the grammatical rules and regulations very nicely, all other scriptures or subject matters in Sanskrit are extremely easy to understand, for Sanskrit grammar is the gateway to education.

KRISHNA IS BHAKTAVATSAL
Today we are celebrating Pushyabhishek, our annual flower festival. So the brahmcharis have selected this particular verse to give us a deeper sense of the profound form of meditation that you are all immersed in at this very moment. What seems to be something very ordinary, plucking flowers, the petals, anyone can do it. You don’t have to have had studied 12 years of Sanskrit grammar. Male or female, Indian, Australian, American, Russian, African, educated or uneducated, from one caste or another, everyone is united together. There is no high or low. But yet if it is done with the spirit of devotion, it has the most powerful effect of cleansing our heart and uplifting us to the spiritual platform. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells.
patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà
yo me bhaktyä prayacchati
tad ahaà bhakty-upahåtam
açnämi prayatätmanaù
“If one offers Me with love and devotion even a fruit, a flower, a leaf or some water I will accept it.”  Krishna is saragrahi. That means He accepts the essence of the feeling of the heart of our intention, whether it is something very grand or something as simple as this. Krishna is bhakta vatsala. He agrees to be purchased, conquered by the love of His devotee. And being Lakshminath, the husband of the goddess of fortune, Krishna does not need anything. He is no need of food, He is no need of flower petals, He is in no need of any types of wealth or palaces or jewels. In fact if these things are offered to Him without proper humility or devotion, He will not even look in that direction. The holy scriptures are filled with examples that how the Lord accepts the simple, humble offerings of love. May I tell a few. (Devotees Chant: Hari Bol!) May take some time but no body looks tired today.

KRISHNA BECOMES PEACE MESSENGER
We will begin with Mahabharata. The Pandavas had just being exiled to the forest for 12 years. Despite so many attempts to humiliate them, to kill them, to increase their exile for another 12 years, by every type of unfair means, Duryodhana was not successful. The Pandavas returned. They simply wanted what was theirs as back. They were meant to be the rulers of the whole world. But Duryodhana convinced his father Dhrtrashtra to banish them and usurp everything that belonged to them. Yudhisthira was so kind. He sent a message to Duryodhana, “Just give us 5 villages and we will be happy”. Duryodhana rejected even that and because of that Duryodhana was mobilizing forces for an entire war and the Pandavas had no choice but to respond. The armies were assembling. But Yuddhisthira, so kind and gentle. He didn’t want this war. Krishna didn’t want this war. Yuddhisthira approached Krishna, who is the supreme Absolute Truth, who had incarnated with in this world but who is playing in such a sweet way that He accepted the role of younger brother, being the cousin of Yuddhisthira and He was always eager to help and serve His devotees. Yuddhisthira Maharaja was very impatient, “This war would be horrible. We have to avoid it. We have to make sense somehow or other, give sense to Duryodhana, we have all tried, everyone has tried.  Krishna you are the last hope. You are the only possibility that he may listen to You. Ask him to be a little fair for the sake of dharma, for the sake of so many lives. Go to Hastinapura and give him this message.” Krishna became the messenger of His devotee. He is the speaker of the Vedas, the highest truths and yet He humbles Himself to be the messenger of His devotees and later to be the charioteer for His devotees.

KRISHNA SEE’S THE MOTIVATIONS
So when Krishna was on His way to Hastinapura to offer this message of peace, the spies of Duryodhana found out that He was coming. Dhrtrashtra, first of all who was the father of Duryodhana, who was blind, who was actually the king at the time was, very excited. Krishna was coming. He said, “Let us make grand arrangements to welcome Him” And they were arranging to offer Him and magnificent throne to sit on, music and dance and the most precious of all jewels and silks and they were arranging to give him a magnificent feast. Duryodhana was very excited about this too. When Vidura heard about it he said “You cannot win over Krishna by your gifts”. There motivation is by giving him all these gifts he would abandon the Pandavas and join their side. That was there motivation. They were trying to bribe God for their own selfish purposes. And just see how the mentality, the whole world is the mirror of your own consciousness. Because Duryodhana was so much thinking about himself and what he could gain, he was thinking everybody must be like that. Even God, even Krishna, everyone has their price.  We will give him such wonderful feasts, we will give him such wonderful hospitality, we will give him the most beautiful jewels in the entire world, we will give him everything and he will join our side and than the Pandavas are finished without Krishna. Vidura said, “Krishna doesn’t need anything you say. He will be angry as fire if you try to bribe him like this”. Meanwhile Lord Krishna came and he refused to take the food that Duryodhana prepared for him or any of the entertainment or anything else and Duryoudhana arranged the most beautiful palatial suite for Krishna to stay in while he was there. Krishna made it clear, He will be living and eating at the very simple house of Vidura, who had a pure heart. When they welcomed Krishna they had the most magnificent throne anyone has ever seen. Inlaid with jewels, there was diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sapphires and it was inlaid with ivory and gold and silver. Krishna sat on it. Duryodhana first thing he said, “We are offering you such wonderful hospitality, why? Why Krishna are you rejecting it? It is not right.” Chastised him. We have offered you this magnificent feast why you are not eating? Why you are going to Viduras house. Krishna said, “I have come for business not for eating. I will eat after my business. I have to give a message. Duryodhana said, “That is not right when hospitality is offered it should be accepted.” Krishna said, “let Me be honest with you. The Pandavas are your own cousins, they have always been fair to you, they love you and they are My devotees. They represent Dharma and because you hate them, because you have cheated them, because you tried to kill them, you are My enemy,  I will not eat the food of My enemy.”

KRISHNA’S IMPARTIALITY
Now this is very interesting. Because in Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells that no one is my enemy,  I am equal to all, I am not partial, “sammoham sarva bhutesu”. Every living being. So why it appears that Krishna is partial to Pandavas. Krishna gives everyone, he is equal to everyone in the sense that he is everyones well wisher. But according to how we use our free will, Krishna reciprocates accordingly. If we become the enemy of Krishna’s devotees than by our free will Krishna responds and becomes our enemy. But what kind of enemy he is only speaking with the most intimate sweet love for his enemies to help to give them liberation, to give them the highest ecstasies of pure love of God. He is just teaching them what is good for them. He has no malice towards anyone. He is speaking what is good for Duryodhana. And than Krishna got up and left and went to and went to Viduras house, simple home, where he was offered very simple food. According to legend they were not prepared for Him and they just had a banana ready and they gave him a Banana and Krishna was happy eating a banana. That was offered with Love and devotion than that magnificent feast of hundreds of preparations cooked by the finest chefs, Served in Golden plates. Krishna is only pleased by our devotion. Vidura told Krishna, “Please, you shouldn’t have come to Hastinapur., they will not listen to you, they may insult, they may do something very crazy. They will not listen to you, they may insult you. They may do something very very crazy. Dont go! Why are you going to speak to Duryodhana, why are you going to see Drtarashtra, who is under the control of his envious son? They will not listen, it would be futile.” Krishna said, “I know, I know, that when someone is very envious, they can’t hear good reason but still it is My duty to give everyone a chance. It is My duty to speak the truth, because still they have their free will. And let the world know that if there has to be a war, all the blame must be on Duryodhana, because Yudhistir has tried everything humanly possible to stop this war and so have I.”
KRISHNA TRIES TO CONVINCE
The next morning Krishna went to the court and all the greatest kings and rulers and princes were there. Drtarashtra was sittign on his throne, Duryodhana had his magnificient throne, and they gave Krishna the most magnificent throne. Krishna looked at Drtarashtra and said, “Please, this is your last chance to end the enmity, between your nephews and your sons. You are from the royal order of the Kuru dynasty, which is known throughout the ages for its integrity, for its values, for its morality and upholding of dharma. If this war takes place you will be the cause to disgrace the name of your dynasty forever. You will have to suffer seeing the death of your own children and millions of others. Krishna told Drtarashtra that “if you just give the Pandavas a little bit of land, you will have on one side of you Bhishma, Dhrona, Ashwathamma, Radhyeya, Dushasana and on the other side you will have Yudhistir, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva, Drushtadyumna, you will have everyone. I can tell you and you know this in the core of your heart that Yudhistir Maharaj is so pure and selfless that he will be absolutely grateful to accept you as the king and serve you and lay down his life for you. Everyone will love you. But if you don’t, there will be mass bloodshed, a disgrace. Do the right thing. It’s all in  your hands”, Krishna told Drtarashtra. Drtarashtra was physically blind, he replied, “Krishna, I know everything you’re saying is true. And I know that your mission here is one of compassion for our own benefit. But I am helpless. Duryodhana,  I tried to explain this to him, his mother tries to explain this to him, Vidura and Bhishma, but he won’t listen. He is bent on the ruination of the whole dynasty. Please Krishna, no use speaking to me, speak to my son Duryodhana. May be you can make sense to him.” Krishna turns to Duryodhana, with compassion with love and he praised him as being the son of such a great heritage. “Just be fair to Pandavas, they will serve with you as brothers . Yudhishtir maharaj will immediately forgive and forget all the injustices you’ve done to him. Just give them a little land, that’s all they want.” 

DURYODHANA RETALIATES
Duryodhana became furious, hearing the words of Krishna. He said, “Krishna, why are you bewildering everyone? Whay are you speaking these lies? What nonsense? You are trying to make me the blame for this war. I am the upholder of Dharma. I will not budge from Dharma and you are trying to make me something else.You are spreading this lying propaganda against me. This war is Pandava’s fault and not my fault. You are saying I took everything from them; the fact is they lost everything in that dice match. Yudhistir lost everything and it is all mine and you want me to give it back. That would be adharma for me to give back something that they have lost. Don’t put the blame on me. I will not budge an inch for your irreligious purposes for any situation. I would rather lay down my life in the battlefield, die and be the food for vulture rather than do what you are saying.

ADAMANT DURYODHANA
Krsna was very displeased with Duryodhana’s words. “Knowing that a kshtriya could not refuse a challenge. He had to do it. And you had Shakuni with loaded dice who had the mystic power where there was no possibility for anything to happen, but you to win. You cheated and you talk about dharma. All the times you tried to poison Bhima, trying to give him cakes for his birthday which had bitter poison in them. And how you sent the Pandavas and their helpless mother Kunti to Varnavata. And put them in a beautiful house made of flammable house made of lac. And then you lit it on fire to burn them to death. And you talk about dharma and fairness. And you had Draupadi, the wife dragged by the hair. That too in an assembly. And with nasty and horrible blasphemous words which cut her heart like razor blades. You tried to strip her naked and humiliate her. And while they were in the forest all the  lies you spread against them. And you sent people there to murder them and to kill them. And you are talking about dharma. But still Yudhistir is willing to be your friend and to forgive you and work with you. Give him a little land. Duryodhana said, “I will not give them enough land  to pierce the head of needle through.” When Duryodhana heard Krsna’s words he stood up in anger and walked out. He said “I will not be insulted by these lies.” With his head up in total arrogance he walked right by Krsna and Bhisma and out of the assembly. And all of his brothers and the kings who supported him walked behind him. And practically the whole assembly room was emptied. Bhisma, Drona they were all trying to convince Duryodhana and Dhrtarashtra to give up this non-sense son of yours. Dhrtarastra was so pained by what had happened. He said “I could see that my whole dynasty has finished, my son has offended Krsna in this way. And my poor wife Gandhari, how she will suffer when she sees that all her children are dead. I think that the only hope is if she herself tries to convince him.” And so they called for Gandhari. And a message was sent to Duryodhana. A message which he could not refuse. “Mother is calling for you.” Duryodhana returned. She was such a soft heartedvirtous lady. She said, “I gave birth to you. I love you more than anything. Why don’t you listen to me.yudhistir and the Pandavas are good people, they represent the highest principles of purity and fairness. Why are you doing this to us? Do you want me and your father to live the rest of our lives in a misery of having seen all of our sons dead? No one will be our friends. We will be alone.And what about every one else. Give the Pandavas their land. They love you and I love you.”

DURYODHANA TRIES TO ARREST KRISHNA
Bhisma and Drona were tryingto convinceDuryodhana. And Duryodhana and Dushasana started speaking in front of everyone. “That Krsna by his lying propaganda is turning everyone against us. I know his plan. His plan is to convince everyone to make me a prisoner and hand me over to Maharaj Yudhistir. He will not gain the fulfilment of his wishes. Today we will tie up Krsna with ropes and make him our prisorner and Pandavas will be finished. And no one can do anything to us. This was their plan. Dhritarastra said, “Done speak this insanity. You want to tie up Krsna and make him prisoner. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Vidura was telling Krsna, “Please leave before this humiliation. They are going to attack you.” Krsna said, “Let us see what they can do to me.” There was panic in the hall. Bhisma was outraged, Drona was outraged. And rapidly, more and more soldiers of Duryodhana entered into the assembly all held bent on arresting Krishna, tying Him up and put Him in prison. As they approached, Krishna laughed. It was a laugh nobody ever heard of Krishna. They saw Krishna with angry eyes. They saw Krishna speak, but they never heard Him laugh like this. It was a laugh of both sorrow and anger. Anger that Duryodhana was so envious. And he was going to cause so much death, suffering and sorrow. Because Krishna loved Duryodhana as He loves every living being. ahaà béja-pradaù pitä. Krishna is the father and mother of everyone. As the soldiers came to arrest Krishna, Krishna manifested a form that began to shine like the sun. It grew in size. It had many arms. Within that form that covered all directions, all the devatas… It was the universal form, the Viradrupa. It’s a magnificent form. The form of the Almighty!
And although Dritharastra was born blind, by Krishna’s grace, for the first time in his life, Drithrastra could see. He looked upon the universal form of Krishna, so absolutely beautiful, shining like the sun, with many hands, holding many many weapons. Not only was it so sweet and beautiful, but it showed the unlimited power of God. Dritarasthra looking at this form was in ecstasy. And he told Krishna, “I have seen Your form now. It’s the only thing I ever want to see again. Please close my eyes again and make me blind, for I never have to think about that I have never seen anything in my life and I will never see anything in my life except You.” The soldiers ran away. And Krishna manifested His ordinary form again and walked out of the assembly.
Krishna wants us to love each other
So, this story is very philosophically represents the relationship between the jiva or the soul and the God. yadä yadä hi dharmasya glänir bhavati bhärata – Krishna tells in Gita, “I have come to this world. I descend again and again and again in so many avatars, prophets, incarnations.” For what reason? - To give us the same message that Krishna gave Duryodhana essentially. “Don’t misuse your independence. Just act in harmony with dharma. Act in devotion, I am your father, I am your mother. The whole spiritual world is yours.” But still, because of our unwillingness to listen, the Lord still never gives up. He comes again and again and again to keep reminding us, and warning us about the consequences of giving up our inherent spiritual nature. Although Duryodhana and Drtarashtra were ruling as kings and they were offering Krishna the best most opulent things in the entire kingdom, Krishna wouldn’t even look at it. All He wants is our love. All He wants is for us to love each other. That’s what He was saying, “You are all brothers, sisters, and I just want you to love each other. That will be my greatest happiness.” And that’s always Krishna’s message. We are all related. Every living entity, not only all varieties of human life, but all species of life, we are all the same family – brother, sisters, cousins. Krishna wants us to love each other, to cooperate with each other, to not be envious and greed and exploit each other and hurt each other. That was His message to Duryodhana. That’s His message to all of us.
GAJENDRA’S OFFERING OF LOVE
And to experience the essence of the real happiness, the treasures of the soul, its so easy. Whoever we are, if we have is consciousness of humility and generosity, and devotion, anyone of these flower petals that you are plucking today, any single one of them, if you do it with this consciousness, You will attain the highest perfection of life. That’s how gracious God is. We read in the Srimad Bhagavatam  8th canto about Gajendra, he was an elephant and Gajendra with his whole family, He was the king of the jungles, he went on a nice holiday excursion, they came upon a very beautiful lake filled with lotus flowers, the whole lake was fragrant because the pollen of the lotus flowers was falling in the water and the water became like nectar and it was a very nice cooling temperature, Gajendra went into the water, oh! It was so pleasurable to his body and he wanted to share it with his wife and children so with his trunk he was magnanimously spraying them with the water, the fragrant, nectarean, cooling waters of  this lake, but the nature of this world: whoever who are, wherever you are: padam padam yad vipadam na tesam, there could be dangers at every step, as he was at peak of enjoying the nicest environment suddenly a Crocodile bit his leg and there was a great battle between him and crocodile. The crocodile  was trying to pull him in the water, he was trying to pull the crocodile, it was going back and forth and back and forth for  a long time and he looked at his relatives, they couldn’t help him and all of his strength couldn’t help him. Because the crocodile  being water was stronger, it wasn’t his place to be in the water so finally when he was on the verge of death he remembered his past life, where he was a king and he was a devotee and he remembered the Supreme Lord, he forgot Him in his entire life as an elephant that at this most critical juncture, the darkest moment of his life,  he remembered the Lord and with his trunk he plucked a single lotus flower and raised it up to the sky and with tears of love and affection in his eyes he offered a beautiful prayer, it was a prayer of surrender, he was not praying Lord Save me from death, he was not praying Lord Save me from pain. Through that flower, he was offering the Lord his heart and his life. Do anything you want with me, I am Yours. And from that one gesture of just offering one little flower with love and devotion, the Supreme Lord incarnated from the spirutal world to the scene of that place and immediately rescused Gajendra. He cut the mouth the crocodile off and seeing Gajendra, all he wanted was loving service of the Lord, the Lord immediately sent him, first He manifested Gajendra’s original pure spiritual form from the spiritual world, his siddha deha and then he sent him to Vaikuntha. Here is a person, who wasted his whole life spiritually, with no  consciousness of God whatsoever but in just a few seconds, he just offered a flower with genuine love and devotion within minutes he was promoted to the spiritual world:patram puspam phalam toyam.
LORD RAM TASTES SABARI’S DEVOTION
In Ram Lila, the story of Sabari, when Ram and Lakshman were looking for Sita, they were andering through the forest. Kabandha, the least expected person to good advice, told them go to Pampa sarovar, it’s a beautiful lake and close by is Sugriva and his friend Hanuman, make allies with them, they will help you to find Sita. So Ram and  Lakshman came to Pama sarovara and there living, there was little thatched hut and also a cave, there was very old emaciated women dressed  in rough tree bark, her name Sabari and as far as cast she was like from the jungles, she was considered an outcast from that designation. She was there waiting year after year after year for Ram to come. When Ram arrived, Sabari she bowed down, all she had to offer Him was a little grass seat, a little grass mat and Ram and  Lakshman sat and she explained to Lord Ramachandra about her life. She was a disciple of Matanga Rishi and Matanga Rishi went back to the spiritual world with all his disciples , but he told Sabari “You are not prepared to go. You remain here because years to come, Lord Ramachandra, God who has appeared on earth would come to this place. Then you serve Him with love and devotion. Then you will attain perfection and then you will join all of us in the spiritual world.” Sabari day and night was just waiting for Rama in separation. And when He came, she wanted to offer Him the best she had. But what did she had? She was living in a jingle.
There was a particular type of berry, very small fruit that grew wild there. But the problem with that fruit is whether it was ripe or unripe it looked exactly the same. Now some people are very expert at knowing how to judge what is a ripe fruit and what isn’t. My mother was very expert at that. When I was a little boy and she would go shopping the sometime she would take me with her and she would go to the fruits and just by looking at them and touching them she could tell exactly what state they were in and I was so bored watching. There is anything a little boy can’t tolerate is watching their mother testing fruits in a grocery store. So I would usually run away.
But even the best fruit tester could not tell the difference between these particular berries. So Sabri she is sitting on the ground in the jungle. Rama is on a little grass mat. And she is taking the fruit and she is taking a slight little bite out of each berry and tasting and if it was sweet she would take it out of her mouth and give it to Rama and if it was bitter she would throw it off to the side. She would probably eat them later. I don’t know! Now according to the principles of making offerings to the Supreme Lord, this is extremely offensive. According to the Vedic scriptures when we cook offerings to God, we should be in the mood that it is completely for His satisfaction. Unless we are specifically preparing we should not be even looking at the food. We shouldn’t be enjoying the smell. We should definitely not taste it. Lord should taste it first and then we accept His remnants. But here she is eating them and taking them out of mouth, But Lord Rama was unlimitedly happy because although she was very simple and uneducated in the rules and regulations of proper ritual, she was doing it with simple hearted love and devotion. Lord was happier eating the saliva decorated fruits of Sabari then even someone who like Duryodhana preparing nice feast. All the rules and regulations are simply meant for the purpose of developing the simple hearted love and devotion that she already had. Rama ate the fruits, accepted her love and then Rama told Sabri, “Now you are mine. Go back to the spiritual world” And on that very day her own power she ignited the fire from her own body and a beautiful spiritual form emerged and she went back to the spiritual world. Why? Because she offered a little fruit to the Lord with love and devotion.

 STORY OF SUKLAMBAR BRAHMACHARI
There is a story in Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s lila of Suklambar Brahmachari. Suklambar he had nothing except a little straw hut on the bank of the ganges. And as a brahmchari in those days, everyday he would go out to beg for food and he had little cloth bag he would kept hanging from his shoulders. He would go house to house, 10-12 houses minimum everyday, he’d beg. So for may have had who had done begging like this. How many have? People don’t give you the best things in their house. They would give the cheapest things in their house. And in Bengal in those days, the cheapest things were the broken pieces of rice at the bottom of the rice barrel.  So people would just throw a small handful of broken rice in his bag and he would be grateful. He would be thinking of Krishna, chanting the Krishna’s names through out the whole day. Then he would get back home and with love and devotion he would cook those broken pieces of rice after washing it and offer it to Krishna. That’s how he lived his life.
So one day when Lord Caitanya, who was in the role of a devotee, sometime just to please his devotees, He would take the mood of Krishna and accept the worship of His devotees and he was sitting on a throne. He was sitting on the altar, not a throne, He was sitting on the altar offering benedictions to his devotees and everyone was chanting kirtan for His pleasure and than in the back of the room Lord Caitanya happened to see this little poor brahmachari Suklambar. He had his tattered set of clothes and he was dancing ecstatically chanting the Holy name and that little cloth bag with his handfuls of begged rice was swaying to and fro from his shoulder as he was dancing and dancing and dancing, he was so happy. Lord Caitanya was just enjoying seeing his bliss. Just taking the name of God, the Lord called Suklambar, Come, Come!!  Suklambar came close the kirtan continued and he was dancing and smiling. Lord Caitanya was just laughing seeing this, and suddenly the supreme Lord thrust his hands in to Suklambars bag and took out a handful of his raw broken rice and Lord Caitanya put it in his mouth and ate it. And than put his hand again in the bag and ate it. Handful after handful , after handful.  Suklambar was saying what are you doing this rice is not fit for you,  its not even cooked .  When the devotees saw this everyone was struck with wonder. Lord Caitanya was eating handful after handful and he was saying I have never ever tasted anything so sweet so delicious as the rice in the bag of Suklambar. And than Suklambar said, “My Lord please this is not fit for you.”
STORY OF SUDAMA
And Lord said, “birth after birth you have been a beggar and I have been stealing your rice.” He said, “You do not remember, but I remember in your past birth you were Sudama vipra, leaving near Dwarka and that time you were in so much povertyand you were practically starving and your wife feeling sorry for you sent you to me who was living in a palace in Dwaraka asking for some favor so you wouldn’t starve so that you wouldn’t starve, you wouldn’t suffer so much. And you said, Sudama vipra said to his good wife, ”If I go to see Krishna I have to offer him a gift”, They literally had nothing in her house. So she went out and begged and got some chipped rice and he didn’t have a proper bag for it, he just tied it to a little piece of cloth, old cloth. And he went to see Krishna in Dwaraka.  This poor Brahman went through all this magnificent gates and when he arrived Krishna put him on his own bed and Krishna washed Sudama’s feet. Krishna worshipped him to show the world, how the Lord worships those who love him. And than after they spent the day and they spent the day and talked about how they were old friends in school. Sudama was thinking I cant offer Krishna this old begged chipped rice, so he didn’t say anything. But Krishna knows everything, he is in the heart of every living being. He said to Sudama did you bring me anything.  Sudama said, “No I didn’t bring you anything.” And than Krishna grabbed the bag from Sudamas little dhoti and he said, “No My Lord you cannot eat this. This is not fit for you and Lord Krishna opened it and took that chipped rice and ate a morsel of it.” And Rukmini his queen she said, “That’s enough, I cant seeyou eating this. You have already satisfied the universe by eating this chipped rice.” And Krishna was glorifying the sweet taste of this chipped rice. Sudama wouldn’t ask Krishna for any favour. He only asked Krishna “How can I serve You? He did not have the heart to ask Krishna for anything.”  As he was going home he was thinking “My wife is not going to be happy, I went there to ask, but I can’t ask. How can I ask anything from the Lord, I can only ask how can I serve. And when he came to where his house he thought was, instead of that old straw thatched hut, there was a beautiful palace. He thought, “May be I got lost, where am I?” And out of his palace came his wife, wearing beautiful clothes. And there were all kinds of other people. And there were lovely trees and lakes and nothing like the jungle he lived in. And his wife looked at him and cried, “Krishna knew, Krishna’s kindness upon us!”  And he cried and when they looked at each other all they could do was cry. Bothe the husband and wife had a deep loving relationship. He cried to see how Krishna was so kind to his wife and she cried how Krishna was so kind to him. Neither of them wanted anything for themselves. And so beautiful, they lived the rest of their lives in that luxury, but they had exact same luxury as they had when they lived in poverty. What is that mentality? They had no envy, they had no selfishness. What ever they had they used for the service of God and for the service of other living beings. Being poor is not a disqualification, being wealthy is not a disqualification. Whether one is a king or living in a cave in the mountain, we all have equal opportunity. Krishna just accepts our love and devotion.

STORY OF KOLAVECHA SRIDHAR
I will end today’s class with one more story. Should I end now or one more? A story of another leaf and fruit and flower and water. This person offered everything. His name was Kolavecha Sridhar. When Lord Caitanya was a young boy he disguised himself as an ordinary boy. Nobody knew that he was the Avatar of Krishna, that he was the supreme Lord. Although he attracted the people’s love, as he was God, he disguised the reality by the yoga maya potency. So little Nimai Pandit would every day go to a simple banana leaf seller named Sridhar. Sridhar was really materially poor. He just sat on the ground, on the side of the road and what he would sell? Banana leaves and if he had any bananas, he would sell bananas. And if he had any flowers from the banana... he had a few banana trees and  any part of the tree that would grow he would he would sell it. He would sell the bark, the flowers, the leaves, the roots. Just a couple of things at a time, and he was so honest, he was so compassionate to all living being s that he utilized his intelligence to some how or the other charge as little as possible and get by. Because he didn’t want to cause any one any inconvenience. And with what ever little he made the first thing he would take half of his profits and use it to worshiop the mother Ganga, the Ganges, by taking that water of the Ganges and offering it to Krishna. He would offer the pujas to Ganages and then take that water and offer it with love to Krishna. So little Nimai would come to him, “How much are these bananas and how much for this leaves.” And he would give a fair price andNimai would say, “I will give you half. Why do you try to cheat me?” Sridhar said, “I have given a fair price, if you don’t like my price go somewhere else.” Nimai would say, “NO! I know a good supplier and when I find one and I will never go anywhere else. I will give you half.” And then they would argue over the price, because half means Sridhar would take a tremendous loss. And for 1 paisa loss was practically everything he had. And after arguing for 2 hours, Nimai would just take the bananas and say I am not giving you anything, I am just taking.” And he would just walk away. Sridhar would smile, he just took his whole inventory and nothing left. The Lord just took it away and gave him nothing. But the Lord lover Sridhar somuch that he would come every day and Kolavecha Sridhar loved Nimai so much that when it was time for Niami to be coming Sridahr actually would be all day sitting with his heart pounding with anticipation for Nimai to come to steal his bananas. Just to see that form, he didn’t know he was God, but he loved him like God. That was his life, his soul, everything. And if Nimai was late, Sridhar, his heart was going through ecstasies of separation.
One day Nimai said to Kolaveccha Sridhar, “Why do you worship Krishna, what is He doing for you? Look at how poor you are? There are all kinds of atheists, the worshipers of demigods, materialistic people, look, they have nice homes, they have good food, they have nice clothes. See your house, is it a house? It’s a straw hut. I know what goes on in your night. The straw hut, the roof leaks and in the monsoon, everything is wet. You have to sit with a little umbrella. And there is no furniture. Nothing. All you have in your whole house is one old dented, iron pot carrying water. And as far as your clothes, there are so many holes in your clothes, and you can’t afford needle and threads, you just take the two sides of the holes and tie knots. I see at least 20 knots in your clothes. As far as your food – what do you eat? You are emaciated . You are undernourished. And yet you are always chanting Krishna’s names, you are always worshiping Krishna. What is He doing for you?”
Kolaveccha Sridhar, he loved Krishna, he loved Krishna so much, he would chant Krishna’s names all night long and sometimes, he couldn’t contain himself, he would chant very loudly. And the neighbors, he would wake them up. And they will get really angry. They would scream at him, “Sridhar, shut up.” Sometimes they would get more angry, they would just take old rotten vegetable, and they would throw at Sridhar’s head and say, “eat this and be quiet. You must be crying like this, because you are so hungry. Its hunger pain. Eat this and go to sleep.” Sridhar didn’t care. Praise, blame – samsiddhir haritosanam. His only satisfaction is pleasing to the Lord.
When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He was saying like this to the Lord, Sridhar, he replied, “I have been in this world for a long time. And I have observed. And I want to tell You my observation. Whether one is a king, living in the palace, with magnificent clothe and eating fine foods, or whether one is a bird which wears one set of feathers, and lives in a little nest made of grass, just eating little berries here and there. I don’t see much difference between the two. Somehow or the other both have what they need and time is passing for both of them in the same way. And they are both essentially trying to do the same thing. Trying to be happy. And as far as I could see that God is supplying for both of them. What’s the difference? I am happy chanting Gods name.I happy with what I have. I don’t need anything else. And thenNimai said “Shridhar you are a cheater. You are cheating everyone. You are making your self look like a poor beggar to get people’s sympathy, but actually you have a great treasure. You have immense wealth. But you are hiding it all just to deceive us. What you mean? Whatever you see is what I have. The Lord said “Someday I will expose you.” Then the Lord stole some bananas and walked away.
Interestingly every single day, when Sacimata would cook lunch for Lord Caitanya. Lord would only eat it on the banana leaf plates that were given to him by Shridhar. Yes. He would rather have that then in silver or gold plates. For him everything that was put on that plate tasted like nectar, because it was served on the banana leaf of Shridhar. Because they were offered with love. We know the story where Lord Caitanya performed the procession to ChandKazis house where he literally had millions of people following him and  singingKrsna’s holy names in ecstatic love. And the ChandKaziwho hated Hindus and outlawed their practice. Actually his heart completely changed and he became a great devotee. After that historical procession and that great victory, Lord Caitanya took a few of his devotees to KolevechaShridhar’s house. That was not on the way, but it was completely out of the way. Why did he go there?
I am going to back up a couple of years and then I am going to come back to what happened there.
He took the form of God andwas offering any benediction to any of his devotees. To Murari Gupta who was a devotee of Rama, he showed the form of Lord Rama. And revealed that Murari Gupta in his past life was Hanuman. And to HaridasThakur, he manifested his opulent form as Krsna. And he told the devotees bring Shridhar. They said “Who is this Shridhar?” He said,“It is the middle of the night so he will be chanting. Go to the outskirts and when you hear him, you will know who he is.” When they brought him, the Lord manifested the form of Krsna and Balaram right before the eyes of Shridhar. And he said to Shridhar, “Ask for anything.” Shridhar said, “I am seeing you I don’t want anything else.” CaitanyaMahaprabhu said, “I want to give you something. I will give you an entire kingdom with a beautiful palace. There is no longer for you to live in your abject poverty anymore.”
Shridhar said, “I don’t want any kingdom or palace.” Then he said, “I will give you the 8 mystic siddhis. What yogis perform tapasyafor many lifetimes to achieve, I will give you these mystical powers.” Shridhar said, “That will be a distraction if I have these powers. I don’t want powers.” “Then I will give you mukti. No more suffering again”. “Don’t tempt me with these things”. “Then I will give you elevation to the spiritual world”. “I don’t want that either.” “You don’t want it. But I want to give you something. Please ask.”Shridhar said, “If it pleases you then you can give me this one benediction. In every birth I take let me always in my heart of heart remember the little form of Nimai. And always come to me. In that beautiful little form of Nimai always come to my house to steal my bannanas. Let me always be remembering youin that form and nothing else.” When he said that the devotees began to cry and Lord Caitanyabegan to cry. He said, “I grant you the highest esctasies of pure love for ever”.
Now how is this Suklambarbrahmacari and Shridhar, the Lord takes things from them. Usually when you offer something to God you are supposed to chant mantras, tantras, yantras, pooja, mudra, and if you do it all with good devotion God will accept it. But SuklambarBrahmacari and Shridhardid not do any of these, but the Lord stole it from them. Because the Lord is hungry for the love of his devotee.
From ChandKazi’s house, the lord took a few of his devotees to Shridhar’s house. And outside the house was that old dented iron water pot. He used it to for every purpose. He used it to wash, to drink from, toclean. And he had already drunk water from that pot. Lord Caitanya saw that pot and went into ecstasy. Everyone was watching. He walked right to the pot, he picked up that pot and as everyone was gazing upon the Lord with suspense, he put the pot to his lips. Then Shridharcried out “No my Lord, I drank from that pot and it is a dirty old pot.”
It’s a dirty old pot, according to the scriptures, even the most desperate thief in all of Bengal wouldn’t have cast his eye, it was so old and useless.  But in front of everyone, Mahaprabhu drank the water from the pot, He drank it  more and more and KoIavecha Sridhar  fell to the ground and said, now I am finished. He is drinking the water that I have washed myself with and drank from it and Lord Caitanya was in ecstasy, He was began to cry, He began to chant, He began to dance, He said, “Today for the 1st time in My life I have tasted the sweet nectar of Krishna’s love because I have drank the water of Kolavecha Sridhar’s pot.” 
LORD  IS HUNGRY FOR DEVOTEES LOVE
The Lord wanted to show the world, offer a leaf: He ate everyday on Sridhar’s banana leaf, a fruit: He would steal his bananas everyday, a flower: Lord Catania’s most favorite preparation, He would take, He would steal banana flowers from Sridhar and have banana flower sabji, it’s written about in the scriptures and on this day, the water, but interesting Krishna says if you offer Me, a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it if it is with devotion. But Sridhar wasn’t even offering it, Suklambara didn’t even offer it. Sudama vipra didn’t offer, but Lord is literally hungry for the love of His devotees, now great sages are considered to be Atmarama that means they are beyond hunger and beyond thirst and they are transcendental to all of these material emotions. One of Krishna’s names in Bhagavad Gita is Yogeshwara means te Master of all mystic yogis, Krishna is not in need of anything but He is Rasabihari, by His own will He loves the loving exchanges of His devotees. So Krishna becomes hungry for the love of His devotees, little Gopal, when Mother Yashoda with her motherly love when milk would begin to drip from her breast , Krishna would wake up in the morning early and He would run to His mother: “feed Me, feed Me, I am hungry, I am hungry” He is hungry for her motherly love. This is Rasa, this is the ecstatic exchange between Krishna and His devotees. The devotees are longing to serve Krishna and Krishna is longing for the love of His devotees that is love on the spiritual platform. So simple.
COOPERATIVE LOVE AND DEVOTION
We also read about great kings like Ambarish. He had a fantastic temple in his palace and the best of everything , he had offered to Krishna. And Krishna accepted in great ecstacy. Ambarish’s royal offerings and Kolavecha Sridhar’s simple banana leaves. Queen Kunti prayed: janma aishvarya sruta sribhir edamanam manah..tvam akincan gocaram, that Krishna is the property of the impoverished but this doesn’t mean physically impoverished. When you see nothing is mine, everything belongs to God, whether you are multi-billionaire or a you are a simple brahmacari in the ashram. So today this festival is in honour of this principle. Yes today we have sitting among us, we have multi-millionaires who are CEOs, Chairman of the Boards of International Corporations, 10s of 1000s of share-holders, massive companies, factories stretching blocks, city blocks, many such things, travelling all over the world and we have PhD scholars, former Heads of Department of Science from the largest university in Mumbai, we have lawyers, we have magnificent intellectuals who chant beautiful slokas, speak in such a way that just penetrates the heart and convinces the intelligence and we have engineers, who have mastered the art of manipulating material energy and we have Principals of Schools, and we also have simple people who work for the railways, farmers who during the drought suffer like anything, not suffer but they don’t know, just hoping a little rain would come, so they can grow some peanuts and we have middle class people and very financially poor people, we have brahmacaris, monks who have nothing to their name and I see today we have Indians from Maharashtra, Gujaratha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Himalayas, we have even some people from Bengal and there are also Europeans from Germany, from America, from Australia, from Ukraine, from Russia, from Africa, we have men, women, old, young and amazingly all different castes, people from all different religious backgrounds. People who are born Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist. Everyone, it’s all right here in this room,  and everyone is just sitting together and plucking petals from the flowers and every single petal that you are plucking is going to be offered to Krishna. And when there is 10’s and 1000’s, millions of petals showering on Krishna, it is the combined love and devotion of all of us. That is Sankirtan, Krishna likes that best. When devotees cooperate together to make beautiful offerings of combined co-operative love and devotion to Him. So Yes, every single petal that you are plucking can liberate you from all birth and death, from all sufferings and can elevate you to the highest liberation if you just do it with that feeling of devotion and humility. And every flower that everybody else is plucking, that’s part of your offering, you see when the shower of flowers go on the Deities, none of you are going to be able to say that petal I plucked, you are not going to be able to see the difference and that’s good, it’s oneness, we are all going to become one, in our love. We are plucking out our sinful propensities with each petal and awaking our love and it is in this mood. And awakening our love and it is in this mood of combined cooperative devotion, when we chant together, it has the most purifying effect for the whole world and is most pleasing to God. This is sankirtan , so let us offer this beautiful petals and together chant the Holy names.
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”
10 million times louder please,
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”. “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”
50 million times louder please
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!!
Thank you very much