THE DIGNITY PERSONIFIED SHRI RAM’S APPEARANCE FESTIVAL

Wishing you all a pleased Ram Navami.

Ram Navami is a very famous festival celebrated throughout India and worldwide by all the devotees of Lord Shri Ramchandra.   

It is celebrated on the Navami tithi of Shukla paksha of Chaitra month every year. Lord Shri Ram is the 7th incarnation in the dashavtaras of Lord Vishnu. 

He appeared with His three brothers, Bharata, Laxmana and Shatrughna, in tretayuga. They appeared as the sons of King Dasharatha in the Surya dynasty of king Ikshavaku.

BUT WHY DOES GOD INCARNATE?

This curiosity, everyone wants to know, why does God take incarnation? Lord Krishna has answered Srimad Bhagavad Gita. As per BG 4.7

Lord Krishna says to Arjuna-

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛijāmyaham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.”

In the very next verse of BG, Lord says –

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām
dharma-sansthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge 

“To deliver the pious and annihilate the miscreants and re-establish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.”

SIGNIFICANCE OF RAMNAVAMI

The significance of the Ram Navami festival is that no matter how big the evil is, it has to be defeated by the good. Ravana, who had ten heads, Lord Ram defeated him with one arrow. Lord Ramchandra proved that He is the complete Lord of the six luxuries by killing him.

In Brahma vaivarta Purana, Lord Brahma vividly explained the definition of being the Lord. He said, “One who possesses all Aishwarya or riches, all virya or strength, all Yasha or fame, all shree or beauty, all gyana or knowledge, all vairagya or renunciation is called Bhagwan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

This proves that only God Ram is the greatest and the most influential personality in the universe. Therefore the defeat of Ravana was inevitable.

THE STORY OF LORD RAMA IS AS FOLLOWS

According to Bhagwatam Purana, Lord Vishnu had two gatekeepers, Jai and Vijay. Both of them were cursed by the four kumaras – Sanaka kumara, Sanatana kumara, Sanandana kumara and Sanat kumara. As per the curse, both of them had to take birth on earth three times as demons, and they would be the enemy of Lord Vishnu.

Both of them took birth as the sons of Pulasthya brahman. From birth, they were ruthless; they captivated many demigods and demi goddesses.

Seeing all this, Lord Vishnu appeared as the son of King Dashratha.

According to Valmiki Ramayana, King Dashratha had 353 queens. Only three queens were prominent, mother Kaushalya, mother Keikai and mother Sumitra. King Dashratha, who could move his chariot in ten directions, was a great, powerful and majestic king. 

However, he was disappointed in his life. He had no son who could become the future king of Raghukula dynasty, which was the reason for his constant despair. Due to this concern, Sage Vashishtha suggested that he perform the Putra kameshthi sacrifice. As a result of that sacrifice, he got a bowl full of kheer prasadam. He distributed that kheer equally among his three queens. Mother Kaushalya was the eldest of his three queens, so she got half portion of the kheer first. While honouring kheer prasadam, she thought that her child should be able to rule all over the earth. As a result, she received Lord Shri Ram in the form of her son.

Mother Keikai also honoured kheer prasadam, and she thought that her child should always follow the path of dharma. Thus, she received Bharata in the form of her son.

Mother Sumitra received two portions of kheer prasadam. She thought that her son should always serve the elder brothers with love and respect. As a result, she received two sons, Laxmana and Shatrughan. They were constantly engaged in the service of their elder brothers.

Lord Rama accepted queen Sita as His wife. Their entire life story is presented in the Ramayana book, composed by Sage Valmiki.

Ramayana is divided into seven parts:  

1. Bal kand
2. Ayodhya kand
3. Aaranya kand
4. Kishkindha kand
5. Sundar kand
6. Yudh kand
7. Uttar kand

Shri Ramchandra was known as Maryada Purushottam. He taught the whole society how to be an ideal son, an ideal brother, an ideal husband, an ideal friend, an ideal king and an ideal father.

When Ravana kidnapped, mother Sita in her husband’s absence and took Her to Lanka, Lord Ramchandra attacked Lanka with the help of monkeys and brought Sita back. Ravana represented lust, which is just the opposite of pure love.

Lord Ramchandra destroyed unrighteousness and restored dharma by killing Ravana.

We all should take shelter of Ramnaam on this auspicious occasion of Ram Navami so that all the lustful desires in our minds can be destroyed.

Hare Krishna

Around 500 years ago Lord Shree Krishna appeared in the form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in this world. Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in 1486 in Mayapur, Bengal province, in phagun Purnima. His father was Shree Jagannath Mishra and mother was Shreemati Sachi Devi. He was the youngest son of his parents who later became famous by the name of “Nimai Pandit” and after accepting Sannyasa Ashram He was known as Lord Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. After presenting His divine pastimes for 48 years He left for His divine Abode from Jagannath Puri.

Who is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a very important and special incarnation of God. God has taken this form for the people in the age of quarrel and sorrow i.e. “Kali-Yuga” for their welfare. Most of the people even don’t know Him and also don’t even recognize Him. If anyone knows Him, they know Him as a saint or a devotee. Those who know Him they praise Him as a devotee which is not wrong because He has taken this incarnation just to teach us how to do “Bhakti” or become a pure devotee. However, it is not fully correct; He is undoubtedly a devotee of God but also God Himself.

Lord Shree Krishna advents just to show the people of Kali-Yuga how to do bhakti, but this is also a fact that people do not believe that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is God himself. They say, “We know that He was a great Saint, a great Devotee, has done a great work in devotional life but how can we believe that he was Personality of Godhead Krishna Himself?”

How to check authenticity of God

So, to answer this query, the first question arises, “How can we identify any incarnation of God?” especially in today’s era where we get to know about many self-declared Gods here and there. People are confused and don’t understand who is God actually?

So, the truth is that, no one can become God; God is not a position which can be acquired. God is always God and will remain to be God always either in past, present or future. God cannot become anything except God and the one who is not God cannot become God in any condition.

Now the main question arises, “How can we identify the incarnation of God, what is the proof?” In reply to this query we should seek answers from an authenticated source. There should be information about the incarnation in the scriptures. Information like His place of appearance, time of appearance, His looks, purpose of appearance, His father and mother name. All these information should be present in the scriptures in order to identify the incarnation of God. These entire details one can find in depth in scriptures for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. However, He is identified as secret incarnation of God.

Proof from Srimad Bhagavatam

God has hidden His real identity because He wanted to play the role of a devotee. The information can be found in Srimad Bhagavatam that God would come and spent His time doing the mass kirtan with His followers. This would do the welfare of human society. 

According to scriptures every age has his own religion and by following that we can attain love of Godhead. “Naam Sankirtan” is the only religion of this age and so it was preached by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This authenticate that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is none other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Proof from Mahabharata 

Second proof we can get from Mahabharata. When Bheeshma Dev was giving knowledge to Yudhisthira Maharaj there he pronounced Vishnu Sahasranama. He also described about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and told that Mahaprabhu body complexion would be like molten Gold, He would be very beautiful. He would accept Sannayas Ashram and would spread peace everywhere while doing the devotional service of God.

Proof from Chaitanya Upnishad 

There is one more proof that can be referred. We have 108 Upanishads out of which one is Chaitanya Upanishad, and can be found in Atharva Veda. From this upnishad we can know that Brahmaji has one great ascetic son Pipalad. He questioned to Brahmaji, “What is the easiest route of welfare for the people of most fallen age, Kaliyuga? Which mantra should they chant? Which Demigod should they worship?”

Brahmaji became very happy and replied, “Govind who resides in Goloka Vrindavan Dham, is the beautiful deity form of Spiritual World. He is beyond material senses and is the Controller and Originator of Infinite Universes. He is the Absolute Truth whose lotus feet are meditated upon even by great saints and demigods. That Lord Sri Krishna will appear in Kali-Yuga as Gaura on the bank of Ganga in Navdeep Nagar. He will be known as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu” Saying that, Brahmaji paid his obeisance unto the Lotus Feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Brahmaji very clearly told that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is God himself and He even foretold that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would spread happiness everywhere by chanting His own name:

Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram! Hare Ram!

Ram Ram Hare Hare

Brahmaji also added, “This is an absolute mantra and it can be known only through Devotional service.”

“He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who resides in everyone’s heart as Supersoul, parmatama. Whose feet are even worshipped by Anata Sheeshji and Lakshmiji. In Kali-Yuga, if someone wants to attain Lord Sri Krishna, it would be possible only by the path demonstrated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu”.

In this way, many scriptures clearly define that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Lord Krishna Himself and He has taken this form to give love of Krishna to the people of Kali-Yuga using Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

Divine forms of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Apart from this if someone is God he should show his Universal form like Lord Sri Krishna has shown to Arjuna. Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had shown His universal form to Advaita Achraya. He presented his Varah form to Marari Gupt. Nityananda Prabhu who is Balrama Himself, Mahaprabhu presented Shatbhuj form in which he was playing flute from two hands as Krishna in Vrindavan, in the other two hands He was holding bow and arrow as Sri Ramchandra and in the other two hands He was holding Sannayas stick and kamandal as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He also presented His RadhaKrishna form to Ramananda Rai.

Transcendental pastimes of Mahaprabhu 

Now let’s talk about the third prospective to identify and authenticate the incarnation of God. One’s capability to do something divine and extraordinary; which cannot be done by any Human Being. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed so many divine activities which we can’t even imagine. Let us discuss one of such pastime.

When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu after accepting Sannyaas Ashram was performing Naam Sankirtana along with a servant, Balabhadra Bhattacharya, He reached in today’s Jharkhand. At that time it was a big and dense forest there. As Chaitanya Mahaprabhu passed, doing Hari Naam Sankirtana, even wild animals gave them route to pass and danced on Krishna’s name. Tiger and Deer started treating each other with love and affection. This was the effect of God and devotion. Even Trees are attracted towards Him. In that way Deer, Peacock, Monkey and Cow rendered service to Lord Krishna. Learning for all of us, when deer and tiger can live together then why not we humans belonging to different caste, country can live together?

Peace formula for the world

Today, war happens between nations belonging to different castes. Even they fight within themselves. But from the above example we can see that if Krishna’s name and devotion will be spread everywhere, there would be love, brotherhood, compassion and friendship. Thus, vanishing all the bad qualities, lack of knowledge and violence at once.

Thus, we can see and understand that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Lord Sri Krishna Himself, and there is practically no difference between the Teachings of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. As per the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the Hari naam Sankirtana movement will develop peace and love in the entire world. That’s why we should celebrate Gaur Purnima as the Appearance Day of God Himself.