Enacted (CC and Other Books)

Expressions researched:
"enact" |"enacted" |"enacting" |"enactment" |"enactments" |"enacts"

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 10.13, Translation and Purport:

Ācāryaratna was also named Śrī Candraśekhara Ācārya. In a drama in his house, Lord Caitanya played the goddess of fortune.

Dramatic performances were enacted during the presence of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but the players who took part in such dramas were all pure devotees; no outsiders were allowed. The members of ISKCON should follow this example. Whenever they stage dramatic performances about the lives of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu or Lord Kṛṣṇa, the players must be pure devotees. Professional players and dramatic actors have no sense of devotional service, and therefore although they can perform very artistically, there is no life in such performances. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to refer to such an actor as yātrā-dale nārada, which means "farcical Nārada." Sometimes an actor in a drama plays the part of Nārada Muni, although in his private life he is not at all like Nārada Muni because he is not a devotee. Such actors are not needed in dramatic performances about the lives of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 11.17, Translation:

Śrīla Gadādhara dāsa was always fully absorbed in ecstasy as a gopī. In his house Lord Nityānanda enacted the drama Dāna-keli.

CC Adi 13.15, Translation:

All the pastimes enacted by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His ādi-līlā were recorded in summary form by Murāri Gupta.

CC Adi 13.61, Purport:

The present priestly order of the temple belongs to the family of Gopījana-vallabhānanda, one of the branches of Nityānanda Prabhu. There is a land settlement in the name of the temple, and income from this land finances the expenditures for the temple. There are three parties of priestly gosvāmīs who take charge of the temple management, one after another. A few steps from the temple is a place known as Viśrāmatalā, where it is said that Nityānanda Prabhu in His childhood used to enjoy sporting with His boyfriends by enacting the rāsa-līlā and various other pastimes of Vṛndāvana.

CC Adi 17.238, Translation:

Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita narrated all the pastimes enacted during the six changing seasons. He described the drinking of honey, the celebration of the rāsa dance, the swimming in the Yamunā and other such incidents.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 1.17, Translation:

After accepting sannyāsa, Lord Caitanya remained within this material world for another twenty-four years. Within this period, whatever pastimes He enacted are called the śeṣa-līlā, or pastimes occurring at the end.

CC Madhya 13.118, Translation:

When Caitanya Mahāprabhu was dramatically enacting the song, He would sometimes fall behind in the procession. At such times, Lord Jagannātha would come to a standstill. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu again went forward, Lord Jagannātha's car would slowly start again.

CC Madhya 22.132, Translation and Purport:

“"One should congregationally chant the holy name of the Lord and reside in Vṛndāvana."

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung:

śrī gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi, yeba jāne cintāmaṇi,

tāra haya vrajabhūmi vāsa

"One who understands the transcendental nature of Navadvīpa and its surrounding area, where Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu enacted His pastimes, resides always in Vṛndāvana." Similarly, living in Jagannātha Purī is as good as living in Vṛndāvana. The conclusion is that Navadvīpa-dhāma, Jagannātha Purī-dhāma and Vṛndāvana-dhāma are identical.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 15.1, Translation:

The ocean of ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa is very difficult to understand, even for such demigods as Lord Brahmā. By enacting His pastimes, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu submerged Himself in that ocean, and His heart was absorbed in that love. Thus He exhibited in various ways the exalted position of transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

In the lower stage of human civilization there is always competition between men in their attempt to dominate material nature. In other words, there is continuous rivalry in an attempt to satisfy the senses. Thus driven by sense gratificatory consciousness, men enact religious rituals. Thus pious activities and religious functions are performed with an aim to acquire some material gain, and if such material gain is obtainable in another way, this so-called religion is neglected. This can be seen in modern human civilization. Since the economic desires of the people appear to be fulfilled in another way, no one is interested in religion now.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 22:

According to Vedic civilization, unmarried girls from ten to fourteen years of age are supposed to worship either Lord Śiva or goddess Durgā in order to get a nice husband. But the unmarried girls of Vṛndāvana were already attracted by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa. They were, however, engaged in the worship of goddess Durgā in the beginning of the Hemanta season (just prior to the winter season). The first month of Hemanta is Agrahāyana (October–November), and at that time all the unmarried gopīs of Vṛndāvana began to worship goddess Durgā with a vow. They first ate haviṣyānna, a kind of food prepared by boiling together mung dhal and rice without any spices or turmeric. According to Vedic injunction, this kind of food is recommended to purify the body before one enacts a ritualistic ceremony. All the unmarried gopīs in Vṛndāvana used to daily worship goddess Kātyāyanī early in the morning after taking a bath in the river Yamunā. Kātyāyanī is another name for goddess Durgā. The goddess is worshiped by preparing a doll made of sand from the bank of the Yamunā.

Krsna Book 29:

The author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, has explained that lust means sense gratification, and love also means sense gratification—but for Kṛṣṇa. In other words, when activities are enacted on the platform of personal sense gratification, they are called material activities, but when they are enacted for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, they are spiritual activities. On any platform of activities, the principle of sense gratification is there. But on the spiritual platform, sense gratification is for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, whereas on the material platform it is for the performer.

Krsna Book 29:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always full with six kinds of opulences, and this is an instance of the opulence of renunciation. This renunciation confirms Kṛṣṇa's total nonattachment. He is always self-sufficient and is not dependent on anything. This is the platform on which His transcendental pastimes are enacted.

Krsna Book 33:

The kings in the dynasty of Yadu were considered to be the most pious, and their descendants were also like that. Having taken birth in that family, how could Kṛṣṇa have been seduced, even by the gopīs? It is concluded, therefore, that it was not possible for Kṛṣṇa to do anything abominable. But Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in doubt as to why Kṛṣṇa acted in that way. What was the real purpose?

Another word Mahārāja Parīkṣit used when he addressed Śukadeva Gosvāmī is suvrata, which means to take a vow to enact pious activities. Śukadeva Gosvāmī was an educated brahmacārī, and under the circumstances it was not possible for him to indulge in sex. This is strictly prohibited for brahmacārīs, and what to speak of a brahmacārī like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. But because the circumstances of the rāsa dance were very suspect, Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired for clarification from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śukadeva Gosvāmī immediately replied that transgressions of religious principles by the supreme controller testify to His great power.

Krsna Book 33:

In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord clearly says that whenever He appears He does so by His internal potency; He is not forced to accept a body by the laws of karma, like an ordinary living entity. Every other living entity is forced to accept a certain type of body by his previous actions. But when Kṛṣṇa appears, He always appears in a body that is not forced upon Him by the action of His past deeds. His body is a vehicle for His transcendental pleasure pastimes, which are enacted by His internal potency. He has no obligation to the laws of karma.

Krsna Book 37:

"I shall also see how You save King Nṛga from a hellish condition," said Nārada Muni. “This You shall enact in Dvārakā. I shall also be able to see how You get Your wife and the Syamantaka jewel and how You save the son of a brāhmaṇa from death after he has already been transferred to another planet. After this, I will be able to see You kill the Pauṇḍraka demon and burn to ashes the kingdom of Kāśī. I will see how You kill the King of Cedi and Dantavakra during the great sacrifice of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Besides all this, it will be possible for me to see many other chivalrous activities while You remain in Dvārakā. And all these activities performed by Your Grace will be sung by great poets throughout the world.

Krsna Book 38:

Akrūra thought, “That Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, has now appeared as one of the descendants of the Yadu dynasty. The principles of religion are His enacted laws. Those who are abiding by such laws are demigods, and those who are not abiding are demons. He has advented Himself to give protection to the demigods, who are very obedient to the laws of the Supreme Lord. The demigods and the devotees of the Lord take pleasure in abiding by the laws of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa takes pleasure in giving them all sorts of protection. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, these activities of Kṛṣṇa—His protecting the devotees and killing the demons, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā—are always good for men to hear and narrate. The glorious activities of the Lord will ever increasingly be chanted by the devotees and demigods.

Krsna Book 52:

This time, Jarāsandha thought that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were very much afraid of his military strength and were fleeing the battlefield. He followed Them with all his chariots, horses and infantry. He thought Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to be ordinary human beings, and he was trying to measure the activities of the Lord. Due to this pastime Kṛṣṇa is known as Raṇacora, which means "one who has left the battlefield." In India, especially in Gujarat, there are many temples of Kṛṣṇa known as temples of Raṇacorajī. Ordinarily, if a king leaves the battlefield without fighting he is called a coward, but when Kṛṣṇa enacts this pastime, leaving the battlefield without fighting, He is worshiped by the devotees. A demon always tries to measure the opulence of Kṛṣṇa, whereas a devotee never tries to measure His strength and opulence but always surrenders unto Him and worships Him.

Krsna Book 87:

A devotee's transcendental position within this material world is maintained in the association of pure devotees, simply by hearing the glorious activities enacted by the Lord in different ages and in different incarnations. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based on this principle. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, "My dear Lord, let me be engaged in Your transcendental loving service, as indicated by the previous ācāryas, and let me live in the association of pure devotees. That is my desire, life after life."

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.9:

The Lord never favors one and discriminates against another. Factually, He advises everyone to give up all material activities, which are by nature unstable and temporary. Because of forgetfulness of God, a man becomes an eternal victim of ignorance, which then colours all his actions. The Bhagavad-gītā (5.14) says,

The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature.

Therefore all activities except those performed as a sacrifice to Lord Viṣṇu are whimsical actions done of one's own volition.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7:

By the influence of karma, one who is attached to the material body and mind has to change bodies life after life. In this way the soul roams the fourteen planetary systems within this material universe, sometimes going up and sometimes coming down. These planets are transitory—merely theatrical stages upon which the soul enacts his mundane existence. But when the living entity is elevated to spiritual perfection and is situated in his pure, eternal identity, devoid of all mundane designations, he attains the natural habitat of the spirit soul, the supramundane realm transcending this material creation and the intermediary zone of the unmanifested Brahman effulgence.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 4.4:

The jīva's spiritual existence in the abode of the Lord consists of service to Him in different mellows, such as servitude, friendship, parenthood, and conjugal love. Both Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu mercifully enacted pastimes to attract the jīvas and to teach them the meaning of the following words in the Gītā:

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

(BG 18.66)

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

Conceited persons who think they can obtain liberation without the Lord's mercy, simply by performing strict penances and austerities, are totally mistaken; they fail. Still, although receiving the Lord's mercy is the prime cause for attaining liberation, the Lord does not participate directly in the affairs of the conditioned soul. As the Lord states in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.14), referring both to the jīva and Himself,

na kartṛvaṁ na karmāṇi

lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ

na karma-phala-saṁyogaṁ

svabhāvas tu pravartate

The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature.

Although the above statement is true, it is under the Lord's guardianship that the jīva souls in the conditioned state experience the dualities of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, and so on, according to their activities. Since this is all indirectly controlled by the Lord, it is futile to complain about it. One should simply pray for His mercy, and all dualities will be eradicated.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

All the pastimes of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world are eternal. His earthly pastimes are similarly transcendental and eternal. As the Caitanya-bhāgavata states, "Even at this very moment Lord Gaurāṅga is enacting His eternal, transcendental pastimes, but only the most fortunate souls can see them." When the sun sets, it goes out of our sight, but it continues to shine somewhere on this globe. Similarly, when the Lord winds up His earthly pastimes, He continues to manifest them in one or more of the uncountable millions of planets in the universe.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

Success in any activity depends on five essential factors: the place, the doer, the tools or senses, the endeavor, and finally the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Of these, the Supreme Lord's blessing is the most important. This sanction is enacted through the Supreme Lord's favorable supervision of His material energy, for it is by the Lord's will that material nature acts. Material nature acts according to one's consciousness: when the living entity is under the influence of the three modes of nature, his actions are conducted by the Lord's external energy, the material nature.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya assessed the prevailing trends of his time and concluded that the monistic view, or the impersonal philosophy, was best suited for his contemporaries. But that was not his final conclusion. He went on to say, bhaja govindaṁ mūḍha-mate: "O fools, simply worship Govinda." From his use of the word bhaja, "worship," we understand him to mean that one should worship Lord Govinda's name, form, qualities, pastimes, and do on. The state of transcendence discussed here is far beyond impersonal realization, the ultimate goal of the monists. Indeed, those who worship Govinda enter into Śrī Vṛndāvana in Śrī Mathurā, the highest spiritual realm, where Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa enact Their quintessential pastimes.

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 18, Purport:

Fruitive activities, or the karma-kāṇḍa path of self-realization, is the lowest stage in this endeavor. As soon as such activities even slightly deviate from the regulative principles of the Vedas, they are transformed into vikarma, or acts against the interest of the actor. Such vikarma is enacted by the illusioned living entity simply for sense gratification, and thus such activities become hindrances on the path of self-realization.