The following is an excerpt from Śrī Gadādhara Paṇḍita’s Jīvan-Carita by Śrīla Gaura Govinda Svāmī Mahārāja (tvpbooks.com)

 

prabhu bale,—“gayā-yātrā saphala āmāra
yata-kṣaṇe dekhilāṅa caraṇa tomāra

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.50

The Lord said, “My journey to Gayā has become successful the moment I was able to see your lotus feet.”

tīrthe piṇḍa dile se nistare pitṛ-gaṇa
seha,—yāre piṇḍa deya, tare’ sei jana

tomā’ dekhilei mātra koṭi-pitṛ-gaṇa
sei-kṣaṇe sarva-bandha pāya vimocana

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.51-52

“If one offers oblations to his forefathers in a holy place, then those forefathers are delivered. Yet, one delivers only the forefathers to whom the oblations were offered. By seeing you, however, millions of forefathers are immediately freed from material bondage.”

prabhu bale,—“gayā-yātrā saphala āmāra
yata-kṣaṇe dekhilāṅa caraṇa tomāra

tīrthe piṇḍa dile se nistare pitṛ-gaṇa
seha,—yāre piṇḍa deya, tare’ sei jana

tomā’ dekhilei mātra koṭi-pitṛ-gaṇa
sei-kṣaṇe sarva-bandha pāya vimocana

ataeva tīrtha nahe tomāra samāna
tīrther o parama tumi maṅgala pradhāna

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.50-53

“My Gayā-yātrā has become successful because I met you, O My spiritual master Śrīpāda Īśvara Purī. I saw your lotus feet there. If someone goes to a tīrtha, a holy place, to offer piṇḍa, that pitṛ-puruṣa to whom piṇḍa is offered may be delivered, however, when someone sees you, a most elevated Vaiṣṇava, millions upon millions of pitṛ-puruṣas will be delivered. Therefore this tīrtha, this holy place is not equal to you. You are parama-tīrtha, the tīrtha of tīrthas, the supreme tīrtha.”

saṁsāra-samudra haite uddhāraha more
ei āmi deha samarpilāṅa tomāre

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.54

Then Mahāprabhu said, “Please deliver Me from the ocean of material existence. I surrender Myself unto you.”

The following is an excerpt from The Beauty of a Premī-bhakta by Śrīla Gaura Govinda Svāmī Mahārāja (tvpbooks.com)

 

While Nimāi Paṇḍita was teaching as a professor in Navadvīpa, the followers of the karma-kāṇḍīya section of the Vedas, known as the smārta-brāhmaṇas, were very great in number. They were criticizing Mahāprabhu, and they were criticizing the Vaiṣṇavas. No one was even uttering the word bhakti. But Mahāprabhu had come to establish bhakti. He is bhakta-rūpa. Assuming the mood of a bhakta He came to teach bhakti. That was Mahāprabhu’s mission. So Mahāprabhu thought, “This is the proper time. I will now manifest Myself and My mission, the purpose for My descent.” So in order to defeat and bewilder the smārta–brāhmaṇas, Mahāprabhu went to Gayā to offer oblations for His deceased father. There was no need of going to Gayā to offer oblations. A Vaiṣṇava never does that. It is said that a Vaiṣṇava should not wear kuśa grass and offer piṇḍa, piṇḍa-dāna to the deceased forefathers. This is the karma-kāṇḍīya vadhādi of the smārta-brāhmaṇas. A Vaiṣṇava will never do Gayā-śrāddha, go to Gayā to offer oblations. That is forbidden to Vaiṣṇavas. Then why did Mahāprabhu do it? Why did He go to Gayā? Mahāprabhu did not go to Gayā merely to offer oblations. He went only because at that time the smārta-brāhmaṇas were in great number and very influential in the society. The whole society was following them. Going to Gayā to offer piṇḍa was a principle in society during that time. If Mahāprabhu would not have done it, He would have been criticized. Therefore Mahāprabhu went to Gayā, and He had decided that it was simultaneously the proper time to manifest Himself, establish bhakti, and to defeat the smārta–brāhmaṇas and bewilder them. Thereby He showed everyone, “Yes, I am following the principle. My father died so I am going to Gayā.” But when He met Īśvara Purī there He said, “Gayā-yātrā saphala āmāra – My Gayā-yātrā is successful because I met Īśvara Purī, My spiritual master here.” It is not that He went there to offer piṇḍa. That was only Mahāprabhu’s abhinaya, He was just acting the part in order to bewilder the smārta-brāhmaṇas. And to show who a real brāhmaṇa is, He manifested jvara-līlā. He became sick with a high fever and called for the water that had washed the feet of a brāhmaṇa as the medicine to cure His fever. He manifested that līlā to teach the people that one who is a sevaka, a devotee, a paramārthika Vaiṣṇava is a perfect brāhmaṇa. In order to show how powerful the water that has washed the feet of such a brāhmaṇa is, Mahāprabhu manifested that līlā. And That is why He said to His students, “That is the medicine for Me.” This is all mentioned in the Caitanya-bhāgavata.

The following is an excerpt from The Heart of a Vaiṣṇava, Chapter 5 by Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Purī Mahārāja

 

Lord Caitanya revealed the same truth in His pastime of visiting the famous pilgrimage site Gayā, where He encountered His spiritual master, Īśvara Purī. As soon as the two of them saw each other, they both were overwhelmed by waves of ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. Mahāprabhu then told Īśvara Purī that His actual purpose in coming to Gayā had been to meet him—

prabhu bale,—“gayā-yātrā saphala āmāra
yata-kṣaṇe dekhilāṅa caraṇa tomāra

tīrthe piṇḍa dile se nistare pitṛ-gaṇa
seha,—yāre piṇḍa deya, tare’ sei jana

tomā’ dekhilei mātra koṭi-pitṛ-gaṇa
sei-kṣaṇe sarva-bandha pāya vimocana

ataeva tīrtha nahe tomāra samāna
tīrther o parama tumi maṅgala pradhāna

saṁsāra-samudra haite uddhāraha more
ei āmi deha samarpilāṅa tomāre

‘kṛṣṇa-pāda-padmera amṛta-rasa pāna
āmāre karāo tumi’—ei cāhi dāna”

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.50-55

“My trip to Gayā became a success as soon as I saw your lotus feet. One who comes here to offer oblations delivers his forefathers and perhaps himself as well. As soon as I saw you, however, millions of forefathers were immediately delivered from their material bondage. No holy place could ever be your equal. Indeed, saints like you are the only real reason any holy place has the power to sanctify sinners. Please lift Me out of this ocean of material entanglement. I hereby surrender My body and life to you. All I ask of you is that you please give Me the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet to drink.”

Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the world teacher and we can all profit from this instruction. The greatest benefit that comes of visiting places of pilgrimage is to meet the holy persons who frequent them. We will only feel the need to engage in pious activities such as visiting holy places or giving in charity, mundane rituals like offering oblations to the deceased, or various types of meditative practices, until we have surrendered to a bona fide spiritual master and tasted the sweetness of service to the Supreme Lord. One who makes offerings to the forefathers at Gayā will only liberate the beneficiary of the ritual, but on simply seeing the spiritual master, a Vaiṣṇava, or other holy person, millions and millions of forefathers are liberated. Therefore, no one should think that visiting a place of pilgrimage is ever equal to coming into contact with a pure devotee, spiritual master or a Vaiṣṇava. The spiritual master is so powerful that he can bestow on us a taste for the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, the highest purpose in life.

The following is an excerpt from the book Prabandha-pañcakam – Five Essential Essays, by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja

 

After a jīva has realised that material existence in the chain of birth and death is useless and distressful, he can recognise that the attainment of service to the lotus feet of Bhagavān is the supreme auspiciousness. Therefore one who is extremely fortunate accepts dīkṣā and śikṣā from a person who is thoroughly versed in śabda-brahma, who is adorned with realisation of Bhagavān and who has no attachment for sense gratification. That jīva then enters into paramārtha, the acquisition of his highest spiritual objective. In Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s nara-līlā (human-like pastimes), He went to Gayā Dhāma on the pretext of making offerings (pitṛ-śrāddha) for the benefit of his deceased father. There He offered Himself fully at the lotus feet of Śrī Īśvara Purīpāda, who was the bud of the desire-tree of prema. He was also a supremely rasika and bhāvuka disciple of Śrī Mādhavendra Purī, the root of that desire-tree of prema.

prabhu bale,—“gayā-yātrā saphala āmāra
yata-kṣaṇe dekhilāṅa caraṇa tomāra

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.50

saṁsāra-samudra haite uddhāraha more
ei āmi deha samarpilāṅa tomāre

‘kṛṣṇa-pāda-padmera amṛta-rasa pāna
āmāre karāo tumi’—ei cāhi dāna”

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.54-55

āra dine nibhṛte īśvara-purī-sthāne
mantra-dīkṣā cāhilena madhura-vacane

Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.105

tabe tāna sthāne śikṣā-guru nārāyaṇa
karilena daśākṣara-mantrera grahaṇa

Śrī Caitanya Bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 17.107

According to this section of Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Śrī Nimāī Paṅḍita performed the pastime of surrendering his heart at the feet of Śrī Īśvara Purī.  He prayed to him for the dīkṣā–mantra in order to get release from material existence and to attain Śrī Kṛṣṅa prema, and Śrī Purīpāda very affectionately gave him dīkṣā by the ten-syllable mantra.

The following is an excerpt from the book Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu-bindu (Third edition) by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura (Translation into Hindi and commentary by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja)

 

In his book Prārthanā, in the prayer known as Svaniṣṭhā, Śrīla Narottama Ṭhākura has expressed deep faith in the association of Vaiṣṇavas in the following words:

vaiṣṇavera pada-dhūli, tāhe mora snāna-keli,
tarpaṇa mora vaiṣṇavera nāma

vaiṣṇavera ucchiṣṭa, tāhe mora manoniṣṭha,
vaiṣṇavera nāmete ullāsa

 

To consecrate my body with the dust of the lotus feet of Vaiṣṇavas is a bath of ecstatic delight. By chanting their names, my offering of oblations to the forefathers is automatically accomplished. The remnants of their prasāda is my all-in-all, and by hearing and chanting their names, indescribable bliss radiates within my heart.

The following is an excerpt from Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta, a compilation of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda’s instructions, in question-and-answer form, published in Rays of The Harmonist, Year 7 (Issue 12)

 

Question 2: On the occasion of śrāddha (oblations to one’s ancestors on the anniversary of their departure), is it appropriate to offer prasāda to our ancestors?
Answer: On the day of observing śrāddha, we offer mahāprasāda, the transcendental remnants of food offered to the Supreme Lord, to those who were devoted to harināma but have left this material world. It is not wise to offer anything but mahaprasāda as ‘piṇḍa’ (oblations of food offered to one’s forefathers).
   Engaging in material activities (karma) leads to eventually experiencing their consequent results. But those who engage in chanting the holy names are not obligated to undergo the fruits of karma after leaving their body. Still, it is the duty of their kin to offer bhoga to the Supreme Lord on the day of their śrāddha, and afterwards offer them some prasāda to assist in their spiritual well-being. It is also obligatory on that day to satisfy the devotees by offering them that prasāda and to perform harināma-saṅkīrtana.

The following is an excerpt from Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta, a compilation of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda’s instructions, in question-and-answer form, published in Rays of The Harmonist, Year 6 (Issue 1)

 

Question 3: Are Vaiṣṇavas ever impure?
Answer: No. Whether they are householders or renunciants, Vaiṣṇavas are never impure. Only in performing hari-seva can we truly offer helpful oblations to our forefathers. Hence, devotees need not make any separate arrangements to offer such oblations. However, as a social custom, householder devotees may perform such duties as the śrāddha oblations by offering mahāprasāda to their forefathers, and by engaging in harināma for the eternal purification of everyone. This is Vaiṣṇava śrāddha.

 

The following is an excerpt from the book Kṛti-ratna: Jewel Among Guru-sevakas published by the inspiration of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja

 

The ancestral homage, or śrāddha ceremony, is to be performed on the eleventh day after a person’s passing. The male relatives are to shave on the morning of that eleventh day and offer bhagavat-prasāda, or mahā-prasāda, as śrāddha [to the departed person], according to the decrees of Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī’s Sat-kriyā-sāra-dīpikā. If the surviving wife and children have not been given harināma or dīkṣā initiation, they are not qualified to perform Vaiṣṇava śrāddha. In that case, a godbrother or godsister should perform the śrāddha rites for the departed. The uninitiated sons or daughters are not to do anything, since the departed Vaiṣṇava would never have faithfully accepted water and food from them while alive.

The following is an excerpt from the book Ācārya Kesarī Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī – His Life and Teachings, 2nd Edition by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja

 

There is another matter which should be properly understood. It is forbidden in all respects for pure Vaiṣṇavas to do kuśa-dhāraṇa and nāndīmukha-śrāddha. The meaning of the word śrāddha comes from śraddhā (faith) – śraddhā hetutvenāstyasya aṇ. The word śrāddha can only properly refer to those activities that are performed with śraddhā towards Hari, Guru and Vaiṣṇavas. According to the smārtas, everyone becomes a ghost in his next life, even those who are greatly dedicated to religion (dharmātmās) and have taken shelter of harināma. On the basis of this notion, smārta priests make everyone call out the mantra, “ete preta-tarpaṇa-kāle bhavanti iha – may the ghost be present here and accept this piṇḍa.” Here the belief is that although one’s mother or father or anyone else may have engaged in bhagavad-bhajana throughout their entire life and always have adhered to pure conduct, as soon as they died they became ghosts. Then at the time of śrāddha they are offered piṇḍa composed of meat, fish, burnt bananas and rice and they are addressed, “O pitṛdeva, you have become a ghost. May you accept this ghost food and be satisfied.” Is this a qualified son’s expression of faith (śraddhā) in his qualified father? This is why Vaiṣṇavas boycott such ghostly śrāddha ceremonies.
   You should also boycott a society that performs or makes one perform such ghost śrāddha. Show my letter to the members of your village community and tell them that we are prepared to debate on this subject anywhere in any religious assembly. If they want to debate, then we will always be ready to come to your village to discuss the scriptures.

The following is an excerpt from the book Kṛti-ratna: Jewel Among Guru-sevakas published by the inspiration of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja

 

In the age of Kali, those with a degraded inclination base their countless endeavours on physical prowess. Yet, ultimately, their pursuits are not sustainable in the slightest. The ritual criterion your village abides by dictates that no one can worship Nārāyaṇa if they are impure. That being the case, Nārāyaṇa often has to go ten, twelve or fifteen days, and sometimes a whole month, without eating. These notions are heresy. They posit that no one is qualified to perform spiritual activities once they are contaminated. They think that their standards of contamination are so powerful that even Bhagavān Himself succumbs to them! No one can accept this. Your neighbours’ degradation and contamination will persist for their entire lives; nothing can eradicate that. You, however, are initiated into the practice of Bhagavān’s nāma-mantra, that is, the viṣṇu-mantra and the holy name, and as such, you have no impurity. You do not need to follow such customs of aśauca. Those who see you as fallen are mistaken. Actually, they themselves are fallen, so do not associate with them, ever. Understand that keeping company with degraded people degrades you. Vaiṣṇavas deliver the fallen. Degraded souls will gain deliverance if they associate with Vaiṣṇavas. Do not entertain any ideas held by such hypocrites. Society is not God. Society is subservient to God and His devotees.
   In certain places in Bengal, if someone dies, generally it is their son that performs their śrāddha ceremony and, according to their race and caste, observes a period of aśauca. Vaiṣṇavas are never to perform the style of śrāddha practised by smārtas, which is known as nandīmukha-śrāddha. I have understood from your letter that your village does not perform the śrāddha ceremony that accords to pure Vaiṣṇava standards, but rather, it follows śrāddha in accord with the aforementioned impure tenets of Raghunandana. This is not to be considered śrāddha proper. I think I have told you a few things about this earlier. I am jotting them down again to remind you:
   What does the word śrāddha mean? The śrāddha rite has evolved from the word śraddhā, which means “faith”. In other words, it involves expressing to the departed individual one’s faith and devotion. The word śrāddha is constructed by integrating the conjunct ṣṇa into the word śraddhā. Activities related to śraddhā (faith) are called śrāddha. However, the mantras chanted in smārta society when offering oblations, or śrāddha, to one’s deceased mother or father imply that they are considered to have become ghostly spirits. One such chant is as follows: “ete preta-tarpaṇa-kāle bhavantīha – when oblations are being offered to them they summon their ghostly spirit to be present.”
   Consider that no matter how good of a man the son’s father was, once he falls into the jaws of death, he will be regarded as a ghost, and the son must address the father as such. “O father, you have become a ghost now. I am offering you what ghosts eat: fish and other burned preparations. I am giving you burned fish and burned food. Please eat this and be appeased.” The priests actually say this during the śrāddha ceremony. Certain educated individuals have heeded Vaiṣṇava counsel and accepted their rebuke, and so, in their homes, they offer burned bananas or rice and other items instead of fish. Still, a son cannot consider this to constitute śrāddha for his father. Rather, these are aśraddhā (faithless) acts.
   Indeed, we need to put a stop to these customs in society for good. Vaiṣṇava tenets assure that one is under no obligation to perform śrāddha, as it constitutes a nāma-aparādha [implies a lack of faith in the holy name]. However, for the sake of social graces, a ceremony that involves offering the sāttvika mahāprasāda (remnants of foodstuffs in the mode of goodness that have been offered to the Lord) is true śrāddha. Liberated personalities, demigods, demons and even those of abominable birth all attain salvation by partaking of mahāprasāda. There is no mention anywhere of gaining such results from performing smārta śrāddha. The smārtas know this, and that is why they perform śrāddha and other related rites in Gayā, at the site of Viṣṇu’s footprint. This practice, however, contradicts their own edicts concerning śrāddha. Since their ceremony itself is supposed to release the soul, why would they need to offer śrāddha again at Viṣṇu’s lotus feet? Never participate in any śrāddha ceremony held by the smārta community. Even if you are invited, do not partake of the foodstuffs served if you accept the invitation, because even the smārtas themselves do not partake of those offerings.
   Those who eat fish, onions and garlic, chew tobacco, smoke cigarettes and biḍis and drink alcohol are degraded. Nowhere in Hindu society, even among those who worship various demigods, do they offer either cooked or raw cut meat or fish. This is not standard practice anywhere. Those who partake of such impure foods are indeed fallen, because they fail to offer the gods high-grade respectable food items.
   Those who neither consume fish, onions, garlic, biḍis, cigarettes, tobacco, etc. themselves nor even touch food prepared by those who consume them are truly elevated souls and never degraded. Those who try to act like demons for no good reason, and call you fallen, are surely the fallen ones, or “patita”, as they say in your dialect. You are never fallen.

The following is an excerpt from a lecture given by Śrīla Gaura Govinda Svāmī Mahārāja in Bhubaneswar, India on 22 September 1992

 

One brāhmaṇa had studied the Vedas. He was conversant with Vedic knowledge [but he did not know the real purport of the Vedas]. He was a very greedy fellow. Brāhmaṇas are by nature very greedy fellows. Once he ate the anna (food) offered to bhūtas, pretas, ghosts. Do you understand? He and his friends ate it. When they died, they were taken to the court of Yamarāja. Yamarāja decided then what birth they will take next. Yamarāja is Dharmarāja. He said they will be born as ghosts. Ghosts, do you understand? Ghost means subtle body. No gross body. That is very painful. Therefore ghosts are always trying to enter a gross body to get some relief. It is very painful [Those who are weak-hearted are haunted by ghosts].
   So that brāhmaṇa asked, “Why shall we remain as ghosts?” Then Yamarāja (who is one of the mahājanas) said, “O yes, you have not acted on your sva-dharma. You are brāhmaṇas but you ate the anna, you are so greedy that you ate the anna offered to ghosts. Brāhmaṇas are forbidden to do so. Sva-dharma-vyatikrama, you have violated the principles of dharma. This is the reaction.” They saw there was nothing to be done. So they fell flat at the lotus feet of Yamarāja and said, “Please tell us how we can be released from these ghost bodies.”
   Yamarāja said, “You will all stay in a desert as ghosts. If by chance a Vaiṣṇava will go there and you render some service to him, and if that Vaiṣṇava is pleased, then by his blessings you may be released from these ghost bodies.”
   They remained many, many years in the desert. By chance a Vaiṣṇava went there. He was travelling everywhere. He was very thirsty and hungry. The ghosts saw that a Vaiṣṇava had come end they remembered what Yamarāja had said. So one of them assumed the form of a tree. Ghosts can assume any body also. Do you understand? One of them became a tree, giving very cool shade. The other ghosts assumed the body of human beings. They paid him obeisances and asked, “How can we serve you?”
   Then that Vaiṣṇava said, “I am very hungry and thirsty. Will you kindly please bring some fruits and cold water?” The leader of the ghosts, who was previously a brāhmaṇa brought some cold water, some fruits and some roots. Ghosts can bring things also. If you can utilize them in service, they will do nice service. Yes. Otherwise, they will create all disturbances. Do you understand? Yes.
   So, the Vaiṣṇava uttered the name of Viṣṇu, did kīrtana, offered those fruits and roots to Viṣṇu, and honoured prasādam. He then gave some remnants to them. Ghosts have subtle bodies, they cannot eat, they can only smell. So they smelled it and immediately they got the mercy because they had served a Vaiṣṇava. They were released from their ghost bodies and got very handsome demigod bodies. Then they came and paid obeisances to that Vaiṣṇava, who was amazed and asked what happened. They related the whole story.

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