When:
June 10, 2023 @ 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM
2023-06-10T06:00:00-10:00
2023-06-10T07:00:00-10:00
CC Ādi, 5.154 – 178

Speaker: Vidagdha Prabhu

Text 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.
Text 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.”
Text 156:
Lord Caitanya is the same Lord Kṛṣṇa, and Lord Nityānanda is Lord Balarāma. Lord Nityānanda fulfills all of Lord Caitanya’s desires.
Text 157:
The ocean of Lord Nityānanda’s glories is infinite and unfathomable. Only by His mercy can I touch even a drop of it.
Text 158:
Please listen to another glory of His mercy. He made a fallen living entity climb to the highest limit.
Text 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.
Text 160:
O Lord Nityānanda, I write of Your mercy out of great exultation. Please forgive me for my offenses.
Text 161:
Lord Nityānanda Prabhu had a servant named Śrī Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, who was a reservoir of love.
Text 162:
At my house there was saṅkīrtana day and night, and therefore he visited there, having been invited.
Text 163:
Absorbed in emotional love, he sat in my courtyard, and all the Vaiṣṇavas bowed down at his feet.
Text 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.
Text 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.
Text 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.
Text 167:
Whenever he shouted aloud the name Nityānanda, the people around him were filled with great wonder and astonishment.
Text 168:
One respectable brāhmaṇa named Śrī Guṇārṇava Miśra was serving the Deity.
Text 169:
When Mīnaketana was seated in the yard, this brāhmaṇa did not offer him respect. Seeing this, Śrī Rāmadāsa became angry and spoke.
Text 170:
“Here I find the second Romaharṣaṇa-sūta, who did not stand to show honor when he saw Lord Balarāma.”
Text 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.
Text 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.
Text 173:
My brother had firm faith in Lord Caitanya but only a dim glimmer of faith in Lord Nityānanda.
Text 174:
Knowing this, Śrī Rāmadāsa felt unhappy in his mind. I then rebuked my brother.
Text 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.
Text 176:
“If you have faith in one but disrespect the other, your logic is like the logic of accepting half a hen.*
Text 177:
“It would be better to be an atheist by slighting both brothers than a hypocrite by believing in one and slighting the other.”
Text 178:
Thus Śrī Rāmadāsa broke his flute in anger and went away, and at that time my brother fell down.