Ramananda dasa (Volcano, HI)

May 21, 2015

CC Ādi 5.154 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma present Themselves as younger brother and elder brother, but in the scriptures They are described as the original Supreme Personality of Godhead and His expansion.
CC Ādi 5.155 “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who by His various plenary portions appears in the world in different forms and incarnations such as Lord Rāma, but who personally appears in His supreme original form as Lord Kṛṣṇa.”
CC Ādi 5.156 Lord Caitanya is the same Lord Kṛṣṇa, and Lord Nityānanda is Lord Balarāma. Lord Nityānanda fulfills all of Lord Caitanya’s desires.
CC Ādi 5.157 The ocean of Lord Nityānanda’s glories is infinite and unfathomable. Only by His mercy can I touch even a drop of it.
CC Ādi 5.158 Please listen to another glory of His mercy. He made a fallen living entity climb to the highest limit.
CC Ādi 5.159 To disclose it is not proper, for it should be kept as confidential as the Vedas, yet I shall speak of it to make His mercy known to all.
CC Ādi 5.160 O Lord Nityānanda, I write of Your mercy out of great exultation. Please forgive me for my offenses.
CC Ādi 5.161 Lord Nityānanda Prabhu had a servant named Śrī Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, who was a reservoir of love.
CC Ādi 5.162 At my house there was saṅkīrtana day and night, and therefore he visited there, having been invited.
CC Ādi 5.163 Absorbed in emotional love, he sat in my courtyard, and all the Vaiṣṇavas bowed down at his feet.
CC Ādi 5.164 In a joyful mood of love of God he sometimes climbed upon the shoulder of someone offering obeisances, and sometimes he struck others with his flute or mildly slapped them.
CC Ādi 5.165 When someone saw the eyes of Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, tears would automatically flow from his own eyes, for a constant shower of tears flowed from the eyes of Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa.
CC Ādi 5.166 Sometimes there were eruptions of ecstasy like kadamba flowers on some parts of his body, and sometimes one limb would be stunned while another would be trembling.
CC Ādi 5.167 Whenever he shouted aloud the name Nityānanda, the people around him were filled with great wonder and astonishment.
CC Ādi 5.168 One respectable brāhmaṇa named Śrī Guṇārṇava Miśra was serving the Deity.
CC Ādi 5.169 When Mīnaketana was seated in the yard, this brāhmaṇa did not offer him respect. Seeing this, Śrī Rāmadāsa became angry and spoke.
CC Ādi 5.170 “Here I find the second Romaharṣaṇa-sūta, who did not stand to show honor when he saw Lord Balarāma.”
CC Ādi 5.171 After saying this, he danced and sang to his heart’s content, but the brāhmaṇa did not become angry, for he was then serving Lord Kṛṣṇa.
CC Ādi 5.172 At the end of the festival Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa went away, offering his blessings to everyone. At that time he had some controversy with my brother.
CC Ādi 5.173 My brother had firm faith in Lord Caitanya but only a dim glimmer of faith in Lord Nityānanda.
CC Ādi 5.174 Knowing this, Śrī Rāmadāsa felt unhappy in his mind. I then rebuked my brother.
CC Ādi 5.175 “These two brothers,” I told him, “are like one body; They are identical manifestations. If you do not believe in Lord Nityānanda, you will fall down.
CC Ādi 5.176 “If you have faith in one but disrespect the other, your logic is like the logic of accepting half a hen.*
CC Ādi 5.177 “It would be better to be an atheist by slighting both brothers than a hypocrite by believing in one and slighting the other.”
CC Ādi 5.178 Thus Śrī Rāmadāsa broke his flute in anger and went away, and at that time my brother fell down.
CC Ādi 5.179 I have thus described the power of the servants of Lord Nityānanda. Now I shall describe another characteristic of His mercy.
CC Ādi 5.180 That night Lord Nityānanda appeared to me in a dream because of my good quality in chastising my brother.
CC Ādi 5.181 In the village of Jhāmaṭapura, which is near Naihāṭi, Lord Nityānanda appeared to me in a dream.
CC Ādi 5.182 I fell at His feet, offering my obeisances, and He then placed His own lotus feet upon my head.
CC Ādi 5.183 “Arise! Get up!” He told me again and again. Upon rising, I was greatly astonished to see His beauty.
CC Ādi 5.184 He had a glossy blackish complexion, and His tall, strong, heroic stature made Him seem like Cupid himself.
CC Ādi 5.185 He had beautifully formed hands, arms and legs, and eyes like lotus flowers. He wore a silk cloth, with a silk turban on His head.
CC Ādi 5.186 He wore golden earrings on His ears, and golden armlets and bangles. He wore tinkling anklets on His feet and a garland of flowers around His neck.
CC Ādi 5.187 His body was anointed with sandalwood pulp, and He was nicely decorated with tilaka. His movements surpassed those of a maddened elephant.
CC Ādi 5.188 His face was more beautiful than millions upon millions of moons, and His teeth were like pomegranate seeds because of His chewing betel.
CC Ādi 5.189 His body moved to and fro, right and left, for He was absorbed in ecstasy. He chanted “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa” in a deep voice.
CC Ādi 5.190 His red stick moving in His hand, He seemed like a maddened lion. All around the four sides of His feet were bumblebees.
CC Ādi 5.191 His devotees, dressed like cowherd boys, surrounded His feet like so many bees and also chanted “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa,” absorbed in ecstatic love.
CC Ādi 5.192 Some of them played horns and flutes, and others danced and sang. Some of them offered betel nuts, and others waved cāmara fans about Him.
CC Ādi 5.193 Thus I saw such opulence in Lord Nityānanda Svarūpa. His wonderful form, qualities and pastimes are all transcendental.
CC Ādi 5.194 I was overwhelmed with transcendental ecstasy, not knowing anything else. Then Lord Nityānanda smiled and spoke to me as follows.
CC Ādi 5.195 “O my dear Kṛṣṇadāsa, do not be afraid. Go to Vṛndāvana, for there you will attain all things.”
CC Ādi 5.196 After saying this, He directed me toward Vṛndāvana by waving His hand. Then He disappeared with His associates.
CC Ādi 5.197 I fainted and fell to the ground, my dream broke, and when I regained consciousness I saw that morning had come.
CC Ādi 5.198 I thought about what I had seen and heard and concluded that the Lord had ordered me to proceed to Vṛndāvana at once.
CC Ādi 5.199 That very second I started for Vṛndāvana, and by His mercy I reached there in great happiness.
CC Ādi 5.200 All glory, all glory to Lord Nityānanda Balarāma, by whose mercy I have attained shelter in the transcendental abode of Vṛndāvana!
CC Ādi 5.201 All glory, all glory to the merciful Lord Nityānanda, by whose mercy I have attained shelter at the lotus feet of Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Sanātana!
CC Ādi 5.202 By His mercy I have attained the shelter of the great personality Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, and by His mercy I have found the refuge of Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara.
CC Ādi 5.203 By the mercy of Sanātana Gosvāmī I have learned the final conclusions of devotional service, and by the grace of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī I have tasted the highest nectar of devotional service.
CC Ādi 5.204 All glory, all glory to the lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda, by whose mercy I have attained Śrī Rādhā-Govinda!
CC Ādi 5.205 I am more sinful than Jagāi and Mādhāi and even lower than the worms in the stool.
CC Ādi 5.206 Anyone who hears my name loses the results of his pious activities. Anyone who utters my name becomes sinful.
CC Ādi 5.207 Who in this world but Nityānanda could show His mercy to such an abominable person as me?
CC Ādi 5.208 Because He is intoxicated by ecstatic love and is an incarnation of mercy, He does not distinguish between the good and the bad.
CC Ādi 5.209 He delivers all those who fall down before Him. Therefore He has delivered such a sinful and fallen person as me.
CC Ādi 5.210 Although I am sinful and I am the most fallen, He has conferred upon me the lotus feet of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī.
CC Ādi 5.211 I am not fit to speak all these confidential words about my visiting Lord Madana Gopāla and Lord Govinda.
CC Ādi 5.212 Lord Madana Gopāla, the chief Deity of Vṛndāvana, is the enjoyer of the rāsa dance and is directly the son of the King of Vraja.
CC Ādi 5.213 He enjoys the rāsa dance with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Śrī Lalitā and others. He manifests Himself as the Cupid of Cupids.
CC Ādi 5.214 “Wearing yellow garments and decorated with a flower garland, Lord Kṛṣṇa, appearing among the gopīs with His smiling lotus face, looked directly like the charmer of the heart of Cupid.”
CC Ādi 5.215 With Rādhā and Lalitā serving Him on His two sides, He attracts the hearts of all by His own sweetness.
CC Ādi 5.216 The mercy of Lord Nityānanda showed me Śrī Madana-mohana and gave me Śrī Madana-mohana as my Lord and master.
CC Ādi 5.217 He granted to one as low as me the sight of Lord Govinda. Words cannot describe this, nor is it fit to be disclosed.
CC Ādi 5.218-219 On an altar made of gems in the principal temple of Vṛndāvana, amidst a forest of desire trees, Lord Govinda, the son of the King of Vraja, sits upon a throne of gems and manifests His full glory and sweetness, thus enchanting the entire world.
CC Ādi 5.220 By His left side is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Her personal friends. With them Lord Govinda enjoys the rāsa-līlā and many other pastimes.