Table of Contents

 

Misc.Notes
 

Paramananda Puri     http://bvml.org/SBNM/sppw.htm  see p.379

http://www.scsmath.com/memories/04/040618-puri_jmohin_report1.html

http://www.scsmath.com/index.html

Sri Svarupa Damodara

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1494944

http://www.chakra.org/living/inspirJul01_03.html

http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/gss/sastra/literature/texts/svarupa.htm

http://www.radhakunda.com/personalities/svarupa_damodara.html

SriPremaVivarta
 Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
 A WHIRLPOOL OF LOVE
(The first in the series of discourses on the book “Sri Prema-Vivarta”)
Badger, California: June 17, 2008

 

Paramananda Puri Tries to Intercede

In the meantime, Paramananda Puri heard that all the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were eating only half as much as usual. He and some other devotees approached the Lord with great humility and submission and said, "Ramachandra Puri is by nature a slanderer. It is not wise to give up eating on his say-so. It is his wont to make someone eat far more than he wants. Then he reproaches that person for overeating. Two kinds of activity, though rejected in the revealed scriptures, constitute the substance of his daily affairs:
para-svabhava-karmani na prashamsen na garhayet
vishvam ekatmakam pashyan prakritya purushena ca

"One should neither praise nor criticize the activities of others which result from their nature, because everything in the universe is a combination of the material nature and the living souls, and is thus one sole entity.
(SB 11.28.1)

"Of the two rules, Ramachandra Puri obeys the first by abandoning praise, but although he knows that the second is more prominent, he neglects it by criticizing others."

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur comments on this verse by saying, "The above-mentioned verse from Srimad Bhagavatam gives two injunctions. The first, called purva-vidhi, is that one should not praise, and the second, para-vidhi, is that one should not criticize. It is generally said that the rule which is given later takes precedence over previously given injunctions. From this we can understand that to praise someone is not so dangerous, while one should avoid calumny. Here, however, Ramachandra Puri observed the injunction to avoid praising others, but did not observe the prohibition against criticism. Thus he neglected the para-vidhi but strictly observed the purva-vidhi. This verse thus has an ironical meaning."

Paramananda Puri continued: "Ramachandra Puri does not praise even a person who has hundreds of good qualities; he rather finds some way of calling these qualities a fault. You should not give up eating properly because of his criticism; you should rather accept invitations as before."

Mahaprabhu replied, "There is no reason to get angry at Ramachandra Puri. A sannyasi should not be lusty after the pleasures of the tongue, but only eat in order to keep body and soul together."

When the devotees continued to press the Lord to abandon his new principle, he would not do so. Finally, he responded to their request by accepting half of the original amount of prasad (rather than a quarter as he was then doing). Thus the cost for the food needed to invite him was fixed at two panas of cowries (160 conch shells), and that food would be taken by two men and sometimes three.

Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami writes:

"When a Brahmin at whose home an invitation could not be accepted invited the Lord, he would pay two panas of conch shells to purchase the prasad. When a Brahmin at whose home an invitation could be accepted invited him, the Brahmin would purchase part of the prasad and cook the rest at home.
(Caitanya-caritamrita 3.8.89-90)

 

Svarupa Damodara