We welcome everyone to Radha Gopinath temple for our weekly Sunday festival. Very grateful you are all here. Back in the mid 1970’s, two devotees, one of my dearest friends, god brother and god sister – Rukmini and Bharadvaj Prabhu. From heart of hearts, they prayed to have child and that will spread the glories of god name through out the world and Gaur vani was born. (Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!). They prayed, they performed tapasya, they cried seeking their Gurudev Srila Prabhupad and the Lord that their child will be empowered and for this purpose. And when the baby was born they named Gaurvani, which means one who would spread vani or the message of God, Lord Caitanya. And what is the message? Jéva jägo jéva jägo gauracanda bole kota nidrä jäo mäyä-piçäcéra kole. Lord Caitanya’s message is very deep and profound – there are volumes and volumes describing the intricate explanation on philosophy of every aspect of life. But in principle it is very simple. Wake up, wake up, sleeping souls. You are sleeping in the lap of illusion. Essentially, we are all spiritual; we are all part of God. Krsna tells in Gita,

We welcome everyone to Radha Gopinath temple for our weekly Sunday festival. Very grateful you are all here. Back in the mid 1970’s, two devotees, one of my dearest friends, god brother and god sister – Rukmini and Bharadvaj Prabhu. From heart of hearts, they prayed to have child and that will spread the glories of god name through out the world and Gaur vani was born. (Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!). They prayed, they performed tapasya, they cried seeking their Gurudev Srila Prabhupad and the Lord that their child will be empowered and for this purpose. And when the baby was born they named Gaurvani, which means one who would spread vani or the message of God, Lord Caitanya. And what is the message? Jéva jägo jéva jägo gauracanda bole kota nidrä jäo mäyä-piçäcéra kole. Lord Caitanya’s message is very deep and profound – there are volumes and volumes describing the intricate explanation on philosophy of every aspect of life. But in principle it is very simple. Wake up, wake up, sleeping souls. You are sleeping in the lap of illusion. Essentially, we are all spiritual; we are all part of God. Krsna tells in Gita,

mamaiväàço jéva-loke

jéva-bhütaù sanätanaù

manaù-ñañöhänéndriyäëi

prakåti-sthäni karñati

We are all saccidananda, eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss. Anandamayobhyasat – as part of God, we are all seeking pleasure. And the essence of all pleasure is the pleasure of loving and being loved. Things can give pleasure to the senses and to the mind. But only love can give pleasure to the soul. And the origin of that tendency which is the essence of every living being is our natural love for God. In that love for God, is the spontaneous love for every living being. You cannot love God and not love anyone. When love for God is manifested within this world, it manifests as compassion, which is the greatest need. It s the very essence and foundation of every spiritual path – to be selfless instrument of compassion. And that is the innate nature of everyone – to celebrate the joy of love and compassion. But somehow or the other, sleeping we are in the dream that – I am a man, or I am a woman, or I am black, or brown or yellow or red. Or I am American, or South African or Israeli or Palasthenian or Pakisthani or an Indian. Or I am rich or I am poor, old or young.

väsäàsi jérëäni yathä vihäya – Krsna explains in the Gita, that this body is like a dress. But who is it? Who is it that is seeing through the eyes, hearing through the ears, tasting through the tongue, smelling through the nose, touching through the flesh, thinking through the brain and feeling through the heart? The driver of the vehicle of this body and the mind is by nature united with all others in our origin. Lord Caitanya taught us simple process –Wake up! Wake up to who you are!! And the simple method that he extracted from the Vedic literature which is very powerful, for waking up the sleeping soul in this age of Kali is God’s names.

kaler doñanidhe räjann asti hy eko mahän guëaù

kértanäd eva kåñëasya mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet

- that this age of darkness we are living in or Kali has so many faults. But there is one beautiful benediction – that through kirtan, through chanting God’s names, one can attain the perfection of liberation. This in essence is “Gaura vani” or the messge of Lord Caitanya.

As far as I could see, this in essence is Gaura Vani – (Maharaj smiles seeing Gaura Vani Prabhu). His parents prayed and they cried and they served for a child like this, and they gave him this name. and he is traveling around this world, bringing joy to so many people. Thank you very much Prabhu, very proud of you.

In a few days is Radhastami, the appearance day of Sri Radha. I believe you will all be in Vrindavan that day. We are all stuck here. But it’s nice to be stuck to a good place (Laughs). Radha rani is the feminine aspect of the Absolute truth. In all the great spiritual paths of the world, we find that the God is one. And in the mystical esoteric aspects of al of these paths, we find both male and female aspects of that one God. Especially, in the Vedic system, and especially in Vrindavan, we find the natural acceptance and very very deep philosophical, cultural understanding of the male and female aspects of that one truth. Krsna is the all attractive supreme object of love and Radha is the compassionate nature, the supreme lover or the supreme abode of love – the origin of all love.

There is a beautiful story from Vrindavan which I would like to share with you. There is a place called Shiva Khori, where there is a very wonderful temple of Lord Shiva, Rameshwar. And there is a small lake just close to that temple. 5000 years ago, a jackal was drinking water from that lake. Among animals, jackals are not at all respected. Many animals are glorified by humans. There are athletic teams called the lions, tigers, eagles, panthers, hawks, even the penguins. Sometimes if you are beautiful you dance like a peacock, sing like a cuckoo bird, you have meenakshi eyes like a beautiful fish, so many nice examples. But has any one glorified as being like a jackal.

That’s like the greatest insult. If you are a thief, a really cruel, selfish, thief you are called a jackal. There was once a mafia person called the “Jackal”. Because I am from Chicago, I know some of these things. And that was a “great praise” (sarcastic), and everybody respected hum because they were afraid of him.

A jackal is like a scrawny wild dog, generally very dangerous,. Eats dead corpses and that jackal was drinking water. And because he was a jackal, actually it was a she jackal. Because jackals are not respected at all, some children saw this jackal and started laughing at the jackal, running after the jackal, and beating the jackal with sticks. They were beating this Jackal with a stick. The jackal was crying and weeping in pain. They kept beating. And the jackal somehow or other rolled up on the ground and somehow or the other it ran and away. Then the children ran after it and were throwing stones on it. Somehow or the other the jackal found a hole in the ground and jumped in the hole and burrowed itself in the hole. The children were laughing and playing and they really wanted to make this jackal suffer. They were yelling names into the hole and all around the entrance of the hole there was a burning fire. They wanted to burn the jackal out so that they could beat it more. The jackal was screaming in pain.

Just at that time, Radha and her gopi friends happened to be walking some distance. This was actually when Radha and Krsna were on this earth. And she felt compassion and she told her friend Lalita, “No one should be suffering like this, go bring that person to me.” So Lalita ran and saw the children all waiting at the hole with a sticks and she chased all the children away and she put out the fire and she reached out in the hole with her hands and pulled out the jackal. And she brought the jackal to Radharani. The jackal bowed down at Radha’s feet and Radha knelt down and petted her on the head, and accepted her as her own eternal servant. Then she gave that jackal the perfection of liberation, prema bhakti, the ultimate perfection.

Now the symbolism of this story is the jackal represents the fallen conditioned soul in illusion. Actually we are pure spirit, we are all a part of God, Satcidanand but somehow or other we are identifying with these, with these jackal like material identity which is really embarrassing situation for the eternal soul. And the children, they represent the 3-fold miseries of material existence: adhyatmika miseries of one’s own body & mind, adhidaivika the miseries of nature too mch heat, too much cold, earth quakes, Tsunamis, rain, drought and adhibhautika miseries caused by other living beings, people, family members, enemies, insects or whoever. And the fire, the hole represents material existence and the fire represents the burning fire of material existence. Samsara davanalida loka, the scriptures describe that it is like a forest fire. And the Jackal’s cry is the humble calling out for the mercy of Sri Radha. When we chant her Holy name with that sincerity, then she will give us her heart. There is hope,ultimate hope, supreme hope for everyone. And the simple means by which we can access that grace is the sincere chanting of the holy names. Gaura Vani sang one beautiful prayer of Lord Chaitanya: param vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam. Param vijayate means supreme victory, will come to those who take shelter of the kirtan of the holy name.

Now we have to understand that this victory is not based on a material consideration. Sometime back there was one famous atheist person, who said: “Whether one is a saint or whether one is a criminal, they both have to die, so what’s the difference. everyone’s going to die. So if God is going to save you, so every religious person has to die and every irreligious person has to die. So what’s the difference, What is this saving, where is the victory?” In Ramayana, there are two stories of victory which seem quite contradictory to each other, but if we understand the essence, they are one. First there is Hanuman, Hanuman was fighting for Ram. Ravana, do all of you know the story of Ramayana. Sita is the feminine aspect of God, just as there is Radha & Krishna, there is Sita & Ram and there are other such manifestations.

So Ravana wanted to enjoy Sita for himself. He was a person with a massive false ego. Sometimes people with really big false ego work so hard to establish themselves so that they become really powerful and they could really terrorize others. So Ravana was from material standards the most powerful man on earth. He performed tapasya and gained mystical powers and changed his form. Each of his arms was like tens and thousands of elephants in strength. And he disguised himself and kidnapped Sita when Ram was away. Now there was a great war. And we read about Hanuman. Hanuman. He fought valiantly. With his heart with his soul with his everything. There were no limitations for him. And he was a prominent part of the great victory of Ram over Ravana. And he is celebrated throughout all time.

Then there was another devotee. He was equally devoted as Hanuman. When Ravana first stole Sita he was carrying her and at that time Jatayu was very very old. And Sita cried out to him, ‘Jatayu, don’t try to stop Ravana. He is so powerful and you are so old. If you try to stop him you will be killed. Just tell ram who has stolen me and tell him that we are heading in southern direction. But jatayu could not just stand there and watch. For him that was worse than death, to do nothing in the face of an injustice. So Jatayu jumped up to fight with Ravana and Sita said “don’t attack, Jatayu. You are too old you cannot fight.” But Jatayu, he attacked Ravana. ‘With life or death I will not allow you take Sita away’. And he fought with all of his power, with a long fight. He gave his everything. Ultimately he became so exhausted due to his age and he had no weapons. Ravana had every weapon. Ravana cut off his legs and cut off arms. Jatayu was laying there in blood. And Sita ran after him and started to cry. She padded his head and said you have given your life for me and now look at your condition. She blessed Jatayu with her heart of hearts. Ravana grabbed her by the hairs and took her to Srilanka.

Shortly after, Ram and Lakshman were searching for Sita. And they see this personality lying in the ground with blood all over the place. Ram says, ‘this must be the rakshasa this must be the person that stole my Sita. And all this blood around must be Sita’s blood. He must have killed her’. Ram took his bow and arrow. He jumped right towards Jatayu and aimed it right at Jatayu’s head. He said “I’ll slay this demon.” It’s a thankless task. He gave his life to Ram and now Ram is chastising him and about to kill him. And Jatuyu cries out, “I am your devotee, Jatayu. I am the friend of your father. It was Ravan that took Sita. I tried with all of my heart to stop him, but I was defeated.” When Ram heard those words, he dropped his bow and arrow fell to his knees. He Said “Jatayu, to protect my Sita you’ve given your life. I was exiled from my kingdom and lost everything and then I lost my father and then my wife was taken from me Sita. But the greatest pain I’ve ever experienced in my life is now, to see you in this condition. My own devotee, who even though you had no chance of winning, you fought for me. You fought to protect my beloved. And now you are about to die.” Ram, the supreme absolute truth wept tears of love and gratitude, profusely. He embraced that pitiful body of Jatayu that was chopped into pieces. And ram told him, “On this very day, I send you back to the spiritual world. On this very day I grant you the ultimate liberation, because you fought and you were victorious, because you gave everything you had. Then chanting the holyname of Ram, Jatayu gave up his life and attained spiritual perfection. And just to show the whole world for all time to come the gratitude of the Lord for those who sincerely give what they have in service. Ram performed the last rites for Jatayu. Lakshman got the logs and Ram personally lifted the body and Ram said the mantras and the prayers to send Jatayu to the spiritual world. Krishna tells us in the Bhagawad Gita, we should not be attached to success or failure, honor or dishonour, happiness or distress. These dualities will always be there. Material existence is constituted on the principle of duality. Like two sides of a coin, you can’t have the heads side of a coin and say I don’t want the tails. If you are attached to happiness to that degree you will suffer when there is distress. If you are attached to honor to that degree you will suffer when there is dishonor. Health, disease, life, death, heat, cold, it’s a world of dualities. But to rise above these dualities, there is a beautiful verse that teaches us how, atha pumbir dvija sresthas….. Krishna tells in the Bhagawad Gita, Arjuna, if you simply serve sincerely you will be victorious, it doesn’t matter what the material result will be. If Bhagawan is pleased by this sincerity of our efforts we are victorious. If we can sincerely chant the holynames like that little Jackal we can attain victory, victory over life, victory over death, victory over all sorrow and achieve anandam budhi vardhanam…that happiness we are all striving for. That endless spiritual love that is inherent with in all of us. Thank you very much GauraVani Pr for enlightening us in this subject matter and Jahnava devi, her parents were also crying and praying for the same thing and we are so proud of you. When she plays her Violin, it’s like the strings of our heart, begin to cry in devotion to Krishna. Thank you very much Hare Krishna.