(8/10) Devotion to Gopis

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
20 February 2019, evening, part 8
Translated from Bengali

We must always approach the Lord through the medium of our guru, Vaishnavs and through submissive adherence to their orders. You can travel to many holy places, you can practise the sixty-four devotional practices, but if you do not respect and follow your guru – if you do not understand what chastity to your guru (anugatya) is – then it is all a waste of time and energy. When we reprinted Gaudiya Gitanjali recently, I wrote there Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's guidance about it. It is an offence to be like that. One must live in submission to their guru not only while in the conditioned state, but even when one attains spiritual perfection (siddha). You think that when one attains spiritual perfection, there is nothing left to do, but we cannot even get free from material attachments...

আর কবে নিতাইচাঁদ করুণা করিবে ।
সংসার-বাসনা মোর কবে তুচ্ছ হ'বে ॥
বিষয় ছাড়িয়া কবে শুদ্ধ হ'বে মন ।
কবে হাম হেরব শ্রীবৃন্দাবন ॥

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe
samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be
visaya chhadiya kabe suddha habe mana
kabe hama heraba sri-vrndavan

'When will Nitaichand give His mercy to me? When will all my material desires become trifle? When will I give up this material world and my mind become clean? When will I behold this Vrindavan?'

('Prarthana', Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

'When will I become some grass, some creeper or some insect, bird or beast in that Vrindavan? I do not want to be born as Brahma, Indra!'

কীট জন্ম হউ যথা তুয়া দাস
বহির্ম্মুখ ব্রহ্মজন্মে নাহি আশ

kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa,
bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa

'May I be born even as an insect, as long as I can be Your servant – I have no wish to be born as Brahma, averse to You.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

And before you become a devotee of Krishna, you must become a devotee of Krishna's devotees.

নাহং বিপ্রো ন চ নরপতির্নাপি বৈশ্যো ন শূদ্রো
নাহং বর্ণী ন চ গৃহপতির্নো বনস্থো যতির্বা ।
কিন্তু প্রোদ্যন্নিখিলপরমানন্দপূর্ণামৃতাব্ধে-
র্গোপীভর্ত্তুঃ পদকমলয়োর্দাসদাসানুদাসঃ ॥

naham vipro na cha nara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro
naham varni na cha grha-patir no vanastho yatir va
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramananda-purnamrtabdher
gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah

'I am not a brahman, not a ksatriya, not a vaisya, not a sudra; neither am I a brahmachari, a householder, a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. I identify Myself as a servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, who is the beloved of the gopis, an ocean of nectar, eternally self-effulgent (self-manifest) and filled with the entire scope of all possible highest ecstasy.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.13.80; Padyavali)

I am not anything – I am only a servant of a servant of gopis. We must always remember, and never forget, this devotion to the gopis (gopi-dasya). If you respect and accept Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, you must read his Jaiva-Dharma, Bhajana-Rahasya. What does he say in his writing?

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ-ভজন তব অকারণ গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

'If you did not become devoted to the worship of Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna was in vain.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Radhara dasira Krsna sarva-vede bole (রাধার দাসীর কৃষ্ণ সর্ব্ব বেদে বলে). Krishna is the property of the maidservants of Srimati Radharani. All Vedas say this.'

রাধিকা দাসী যদি হোয় অভিমান ।
শীঘ্রই মিলই তব গোকুল কান ॥

radhika-dasi yadi haya abhimana
sighrai milai taba gokula kana

'Those who pride themselves on being maidservants of Radhika will quickly come to meet Gokula Kan (Krishna).'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must always keep this in mind, but, instead, we always forget the Lord. We forget Govinda! We forget Mukunda! We forget service to the lotus feet of Mukunda! What will become of us then? Where will we go after this life? One day we will have to leave. We turned away from the Lord and have been averse to Him since time immemorial. Even having got this human birth now, we cannot understand anything. We live satisfying our senses, spending our days on eating, sleeping, fearing and copulating.

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

'My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We never think that our death is sitting next to us. We can leave this world at any moment. So, what must we do? Our only duty is to remember our gurus, Vaishnvas and the Lord and serve them. We must spend our days serving them.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 29 Mb
Length: 60 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Sadhus' Approach
2) Help Yourself and Others
3) Wasteful Living, Low Thinking
4) Immerse Yourself in Service
5) Clear-Cut and One-Pointed
6) Sincere Devotion
7) Hari-Kirtan Adhikar
8) Devotion to Gopis
9) Student Means Studying
10) Read and Learn