Amra Mahotsav, Mango festival
Text 79: One day the Lord performed saṅkīrtana with all His devotees, and when they were greatly fatigued they sat down.
Text 80: The Lord then sowed a mango seed in the yard, and immediately the seed fructified into a tree and began to grow.
Text 81: As people looked on, the tree became fully grown, with fruits that fully ripened. Thus everyone was struck with wonder.
Text 82: The Lord immediately picked about two hundred fruits, and after washing them He offered them to Kṛṣṇa to eat.
Text 83: The fruits were all red and yellow, with no seed inside and no skin outside, and eating one fruit would immediately fill a man’s belly.
Text 84: Seeing the quality of the mangoes, the Lord was greatly satisfied, and thus after eating first, He fed all the other devotees.
Text 85: The fruits had no seeds or skins. They were full of nectarean juice and were so sweet that a man would be fully satisfied by eating only one.
Text 86: In this way, fruits grew on the tree every day throughout the twelve months of the year, and the Vaiṣṇavas used to eat them, to the Lord’s great satisfaction
Sri Caitanya Caritatamrita
Adilila 17 th chapter.
SRI RAY RAMANANDA
By His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev Goswami
Ramananda Raya was a married man, but he was recognized by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a master of his senses to the extreme degree. Once a brahmana priest named Pradyumna Misra came to Mahaprabhu and told Him, “I would like to hear about Krishna from Your lips.” Mahaprabhu said, “I do not know anything about Krishna, but Ramananda Raya knows. Go to him and hear about Krishna. Take My name, and perhaps he will talk with you.”
Pradyumna Misra was hesitant, but he went and observed Ramananda Raya for some time and then returned and reported to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu asked him, “Have you heard about Krishna from Ramananda?” “No.” “Why?” “I saw him engaged in something objectionable. I watched for some time, and then returned here.” “What did you see?” Pradyumna Misra answered, “I saw Ramananda Raya training some young dancing girls!”
Girls who are generally devoted to the service of the Jagannath Deity from a young age are known as deva-dasis. They do not marry, and sometimes their character is not very good. Pradyumna Misra saw Ramananda Raya training deva-dasis in a very objectionable way. He was showing them how to go before the Jagannath Deity and dance and sing. He showed them how their posture should be, how they should gesture, and how their looks should be enticing. And for such training he would sometimes even touch their private parts. So Pradyumna Misra told Mahaprabhu, “Seeing Ramananda doing all these things, I had no regard for him, so for some time I saw him busily engaged in that matter, and then I went away.”
The all-auspicious Supreme Lord.
(Ultadanga Junction Road, Calcutta, June 19, 1925)
Let them harass you as much as possible; you simply must quietly tolerate these disturbances. We firmly believe that the people of the world will not allow injustices to predominate. The Supreme Lord arranges everything for our benefit—this is our firm faith. The atheists cannot flourish in this world for long, for eventually they are pulled down by the punishment of providence. Everything takes place by the will of the Supreme Lord.
(Patramrita – Nectar from letters by His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Thakura Prabhupada)
Sri Sita Navami – The appearance day of Srimati Sitadevi, the consort of Lord Rama.
Sitadevi represents chastity, service attitude, commitment, humility, spiritual strength and unlimited beauty. Let us pray to Her to bestow the above qualities on them in their service to Sri Rama.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya lila, Chapter 9, 201-206
pativrata-siromani janaka-nandini
jagatera mata sita–ramera grhini
Srimati Sitadevi is the mother of the three worlds and the wife of Lord Ramacandra. Among chaste women she is supreme, and she is the daughter of King Janaka.
ravana dekhiya sita laila agnira sarana
ravana haite agni kaila sitake avarana
Pujyapada Sri Saurīndranāth Bhakti Vāridhi Prabhu
Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj remembers an exalted servant of Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga.
The Departure of Param Bhāgavat
Śrīpād Saurīndranāth Bhakti Vāridhi Mahoday
by Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj
Translated from the Bengali article published in Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan, Volume 13, Issue 1, Sunday, 24 August 1969.
There is a village named Madla not far from Bogra. In this village is the opulent home of the renowned and powerful landholder Yogendranāth Sarkār Mahoday. Yogendra Bābu himself was a very clever and forceful administrator. He twice fought in lawsuits that went up to the Privy Council (Supreme Court of Great Britain) between a landholder in Bogra and Śrī Mohamed Ali, the former chief minister of Pakistan [Bangladesh]. Once, he also invited the Bahadur governor of Bengal at that time to his home and honourably hosted him.
SARANAGATI
About Surrender to the Supreme Lord
sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma suchah
Abandon all forms of religion and surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all sin. Do not despair.
—Sri Gita
tasmat tvam uddhavotsrjya chodanam pratichodanam
pravrttin cha nivrttin cha srotavyam srutam eva cha
mam ekam eva saranam atmanam sarva-dehinam
yahi sarvatma-bhavena maya sya hy akuto-bhayah
O Uddhava, abandoning the Vedas and their auxiliaries, all of their prescriptions and prohibitions, and everything you have heard or may ever hear, with all your heart take exclusive shelter of Me, the life of all beings. By My grace you will become completely fearless.
—Srimad Bhagavatam
There was once a maker of Deities, who made three Deities, all exactly the same in every way.
Each was made using 100 grams of gold.
He brought it to the court of King Vikramaditya and told him I am not asking money for these; but I want to know if there is any one in your court who can put a price to them, and who can tell which of these is more valuable?
Many learned persons ( Vidhvans) were sitting in the court, and many of them came up to inspect the Moortis, but none of them could make out any difference at all!
The Karigar, or moorti maker told the king that I am disappointed that there is no one in your whole court who can make out the difference.
Then the King told Kalidas, who was also present, to check the moortis.
Kalidas discovered that the Moortis had a hole in the ear and he was intrigued.
So he took a thin wire and picked the first moorti and put it into the ear. It came out in the other ear.
Kalidas said this Moorti is totally useless.
Then he put the wire in the second Moorti, and it came out in the mouth.
Kalidas said this Moorti is worth a Thousand gold coins.
Divine words of His Divine Grace
Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Dev Goswami
The siksa-guru parampara should be considered the most substantial thing. Eliminating the sahajiya-vada which gives much importance to the outer cover, try to look within, and see things more deeply. Try to understand the deeper vibrations of the outside environment, and see within yourself also. Dive deep, and you will find the plane of the finest vibration which will carry that news to you, and you will see that truth.
We are slaves of the truth. We are beggars for the pure current of truth that is constantly flowing: the fresh current. We are not charmed by any formality. I will bow down my head wherever I find the river of nectar coming down to me.
Maya means ‘local interest’, to see things or read the environment by local interest, not from the standpoint of universal interest.
So if my inner voice, my spiritual conscience decides that a type of company cannot really help me, then I will be under painful necessity to give it up, and to run away towards my destination, in the direction that my spiritual conscience guides me. Otherwise it will be hypocrisy, and it will check our real progress.
Real progress towards the Infinite gives the idea that, “I am nothing, I am in great danger.” Progress towards the Infinite is like that. Thinking, “I have it, I am above,”—this is a foolish feeling, a foolish statement. The very nature of advancement is that, “I am low, I am undone, I am the most helpless.” The closer we are, the further away we will feel, whereas the further away we actually are from divinity, we may complacently feel we are close. As much as we come into the relativity of the Infinite, we cannot but conceive ourselves to be the lowest of the low.
That is the criteria.
The very sign of real progress will show I am nothing, I am the most needy, the most wretched and the most helpless. The negative aspect must be improved to attract the positive. If one point of the negative will say, “I am positive” then immediately it will be rejected, you are under the false control of måyå.
His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami
