(Excerpt from lecture series on Caitanya Caritamrta, Kartika 2006, Part 2, Lecture 16 – ‘Kalidasa the Nectar Hound I’)
Lord Caitanya is the ideal devotee and setting the proper standard of behavior in all His dealings. This is called mandira acara. When one comes in a temple, there are particular activities he should do.
Firstly, when he enters the temple ground he washes his feet and secondly, he rings the bell outside the temple, there is some facility for ringing bell. He rings the bell before he enters the temple, because the temple is the house of the Lord and the Lord is engaged in His confidential pastimes there, so we should have some permission before we enter.
We don’t just bust in the temple door like some Wild West movie. Some Wild West movie and the cowboys come in, kick open the ballroom door – Here I am! Thoosh!
It’s not like that. We have to make some announcement and if there is no bell provided in the temple, many of the temples in Vrndavana used to have bells. Radha Damodara and other temples had bells in early days but Vrndavana being as it is, those bells walked away! So to speak… So there haven’t been any bells for many years there. So the devotees who know the etiquette before they enter Radha Damodara they say Jai Damodara! They say Jai Damodara! Jai Damodara! Jai Giriraj! Giriraj Maharaja Ki Jai! And then they walk in the temple, not that they just slide in like a chor.
Like here in the morning people come in the temple, they open the door, slide in quietly like they are going to steal something. So Krsna does not like that. Krsna is very formal. The Indian people think that Krsna is like an Indian because in America everyone knocks on the door before they enter. They ring the bell in Europe also. They ring the bell or they knock on the door and someone says –
“Yes? Who is it?”
“It’s the police.”
“I am not here!”
(Everyone laughs)
So they may knock on the door or they ring the door bell. But India has a custom that they usually don’t have any doors to begin with! In the village they don’t have any doors, very traditional. So there is nothing to knock on! So they would just walk in. Even if they have doors people haven’t really got the samskaras, the doors are a type of impediment because we have been staying in Delhi for so many years and behind the closed door in the guest house, and you see all of a sudden, the door opens and people walk in,
“Maharaja!”
I said –“Ya, Haribol! Did you ever think about knocking?”
“Oh Knocking? What’s Knocking?”
They don’t really have it in their mind. It’s not programmed in their citta.
So Caitanya Mahaprabhu is showing - first we should wash our feet then we should make some sound with the bell, if there is no bell provided then we have our own ghanta, we make our own sound – Jai Damodara! Jai Giriraja! Then we go and pay obeisances.
Firstly you are supposed to pay obeisances from a distance and then closer. As soon as you walk in a temple like we go on parikrama, we enter Harideva mandira and as soon as we cross the threshold we offer obeisances then we go closer and again we offer. May be you have noticed when we do parikrama.
Sometimes, somebody sees their gurudeva, they see him but he does not see them, so then they pay obeisances. Then they come in front of the guru. Then they all pay obeisances when they come in front of him. If the guru is in the mood of teaching anything, (usually they don’t care) but if the guru is in the mood of teaching anything, if it’s a new devotee he will say- ‘the etiquette is one should pay obeisances when he greets his spiritual master or meets him.’ Then the disciple who’s pretty much operating out of false ego, he will say, “I already did it, but you didn’t see!”
That’s the basic false ego in action which is usually on a duty 24 hours a day. It never quits till we come to the platform of bhava, the false ego moves out away and then gopis ego comes inside -gopi bhava… Until then it’s isvara bhava, artha bhava, kama bhava, purusa bhava.
So at the level of bhava bhakti, then that bhava retires and gopi bhava rises. If someone was actually approaching such humble realization he would say, Jai gurudeva! And then no defense… what’s the loss?
Srila Prabhupada used to glorify his devotees. Once he was in the car and he was driving, down in some farm, New Talavan or something and it was raining and the road was all muddy and the devotees came out to greet Prabhupada. The ladies were on one side of the road and the men were on the other. As the car got closer then all the ladies fell down and offered obeisances. Not dandavats but obeisances, in their nice saris and hairdo and everything, in the mud. All the men were standing like this – Jai Prabhupada. The men at the temple were like – “Oh it’s too much muddy down there!”
And Prabhupada turned to his servant and said – “Just see. See this natural simplicity of these women, these lady devotees. By that simplicity they will go back to Godhead. Because, they just saw- Oh! gurudeva is coming and forget about the sari and mud and everything.” But the brahmacaris and sannyasis- “Jai Prabhupada!” So we have to learn the proper behavior.
