A break for questions and answers

[Srila Narayana Maharaja:] Are there any questions?

[Raghunatha dasa:] By your mercy we will open a preaching center in Miami very soon. The devotees want to make an arrangement for my Deities, Radha-Govinda, to go to the preaching center. I am attached to my Deities, so only if it is your desire that They go to the center – only then will I allow Them to go.

[Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja:] I think that you are alone. Also, you are traveling with me here and there. How can you personally manage? I think it is better that you accept the advice of the devotees. If there is a preaching center, there must be Deities; I think that you should donate your Deities. There they will do arcana (worship) and make many other nice arrangements for the Deities. From time to time you will also go there and also serve Them.

[Raghunatha dasa:] Okay, Gurudeva. I just wanted to know if this is your desire. It is no problem.

[Brajanath dasa:] So many people can have darsana of the Deities at the preaching center.

[Maha-buddhi dasa:] We have been having discussions amongst the devotees in South Florida about renting a preaching center. We have been having programs in devotees’ homes for the past four or five years, and now we want to have a place to bring more guests. Many guests are already coming, and so many devotees. At the time of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he ordered us to open preaching centers. Is this also your desire – to have a preaching center here?

[Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja:] You can begin. At the time of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, the devotees also used to rent preaching centers. In this way, by the devotees’ continually preaching, worldly people would come and join.

Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
Experiencing a Higher Taste
(A Darsana)
June, 1992: Vrndavana, India

[Question:] Since we spirit souls haven't fallen from Krsna's pastimes in Goloka Vrndavana, why do the scriptures say we ‘revive' our relationship with Krsna, or that we have ‘forgotten' that relationship? Since we have never experienced it, what is the question of ‘reviving' or ‘forgetting' it? *[See endnote 1]

[Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja:] We can understand by the following verse:

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha
(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.117)

["Forgetting Krsna, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy maya gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence."]

The answer has been given in the word anadi. Anadi means ‘no adi', or ‘no beginning'. The conditioned jiva has never met Krsna.

 [Respected Harikatha Readers,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga. On the request of Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, we are in the process of producing a book composed of his lectures regarding the origin of the living entity (jiva-tattva). Because he also regularly discusses these same points during his world tours, we are sending you each lecture as it becomes ready. The following lecture was given on June 14, 2005 in Badger, California. We hope you enjoy it, and we always appreciate your feedback.
Your aspiring servants, the Harikatha team]

I am explaining to you the commentary of the first verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam, as Sri Svarupa Damodara explained it to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. That verse is as follows:

janmady asya yato 'nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat
tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah
tejo-vari-mrdam yatha vinimayo yatra tri-sargo 'mrsa
dhamna svena sada nirasta-kuhakam satyam param dhimahi

["O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krsna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance, and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him.

Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
(An informal meeting at the airport in Hong Kong)
April 16, 2008

[Devotee:] You teach, and it’s stated in scripture, that all those in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu have two constitutional or spiritual forms – one in the pastimes of Radha and Krsna and one in the pastimes of Mahaprabhu. Many scriptures describe the personal services of Srimati Radharani’s maidservants, Sri Rupa Manjari and her followers, in Radharani’s transcendental pastimes with Krsna. So my question is this: what are the personal services of the followers of Srila Rupa Gosvami in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabu’s pastimes?

[Dear Readers,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.
July 8, 2008 is the celebration of the divine festival of Hera Pancami. Below is an excerpt from Srila Narayana Maharaja's book, "Origins of Ratha Yatra," beautifully explaining this festival. He is inviting you all to be there with him:]

The difference between Vrndavana and Dvaraka

The meaning of Hera-pancami is as follows. On the fifth day of the Chariot Festival, Laksmi-devi becomes very worried and thinks, “Where has my husband gone? He told me, ‘I am going for a change of environment for some days, and I will return very soon.’ It has been five days now, and still He has not come back.” Unable to tolerate this, she becomes very angry and gives orders to all her associates as though they had to fight with the enemy: “Take up your weapons!” Then she becomes the commander-in-chief of her “army,” and goes to “attack” her husband.

During the Ratha-yatra Festival, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to taste the mellows of Hera-pancami. In early morning He went to Sundaracala along with His associates and took darsana of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra in the Gundica Mandira. Whenever He went to Jagannatha’s temple, He used to see Jagannatha as Krsna, Vrajendra-nandana Syamasundara, with a peacock feather in His crown, a flute in His hands, with very beautiful lotus eyes, and with all the other attributes of Krsna when He is with the gopis in Vrndavana. Mahaprabhu never saw Baladeva, Subhadra, or Sudarsana cakra, because Krsna never carries Sudarsana in Vrndavana. Mahaprabhu never prayed to Baladeva or to Subhadra in the temple. He saw them both during the Chariot Festival, but otherwise He saw only Jagannatha. This was all very wonderful.