(2) Deities' Divine Demeanour

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, festive morning programme,
6 March 2019, part 2
Translated from Bengali

I have told you many things over the past three days. Today I would like to speak about Deities.

It is not possible to see the Deities with these eyes because these eyes belong to the illusory environment.

অন্ধীভূত চক্ষু যার বিষয ধূলিতে ।
কিরূপে সে পরতত্ত্ব পাইবে দেখিতে ॥

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite
ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

'Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world – how can we see the transcendental world?'

Our eyes are blind with the dust of the illusory environment, so how can we see anything transcendental with them?

অপ্রাকৃত বস্তু নহে প্রাকৃত-গোচর ।
বেদ-পুরাণেতে এই কহে নিরন্তর ॥

aprakrta vastu nahe prakrta-gochara
veda-puranete ei kahe nirantara

'The transcendental realm can never be an object of direct material perception. All the Vedas and Puranas always keep saying this.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.9.195)

You can see only material things with your material eyes: you can see a wooden idol, a stone idol, such things; but a Deity (vigraha) is Lord Vrajendra-nandan Himself (He is the Son of the King of Vraja Himself). This is something that you can see only with the eyes of your hearts. If you hear somebody talk about a Deity and you ask, 'Oh, what is it made of? Wood or stone?' it means that you have not got the darshan of the Deity.

A Deity is Lord Krishna Himself. A Deity speaks, a Deity gives witness, a Deity steals. If you come with me to Puri, you can see Saksi-Gopal there – I will tell you there how the Lord acted as a witness. There is also Ksir-chor Gopinath who stole ksir for Sri Madhavendra Puripad. The Deity stole ksir (condensed milk)! His devotee thought, 'Oh, if only I could try this ksir, then I could offer it to my Gopal, too,' and the Lord secretly kept a bowl of ksir under His throne. Later, when His pujari went to sleep, He came to him in a dream and said, 'There was a fair at the market, and now that it is over, the place is abandoned. My devotee is sitting there alone. I have kept some ksir for him, take it to him.' Then, the pujari woke up and, taking that bowl of ksir, went to look for that devotee. He walked and cried, 'Where is Madhavendra Puri? Gopinath has stolen ksir for you!' So, the Lord can steal. For His devotee, He can do even that which is considered bad. Krishna also promised that He would not take up any weapon during the battle of Kuruksetra, but when the battle started He did fight in it.

Now, let me tell you about Lord Siva – his temple was inaugurated here yesterday. I spoke about him yesterday and the day before. This here is Jamalpur, and there is another Jamalpur near Hapaniya, in Bardhaman district, where the Deity of Buroraj Siva is. Our Gurudev is the son of Buroraj Siva.

Gurudev's mother, Tarangini Devi, had several children (perhaps, ten or twelve), but none of them survived – they all died in infancy. One day, she came with her husband to Buroraj Siva to offer him worship. She prayed, 'O Lord Buroraj, if I have a son, I will give him to you – he will be your son.' After that, she got a son. On the sixth day after his birth, when they were going to perform the chhathi ceremony, she suddenly heard a voice in the sky, 'You have given this son to me, then why have you put a black cow-dung dot on his forehead? What for? You have given him to me, so I am the one to protect him! You will not be able to ward off any ghosts or witches from him with this dot. Wipe it off and put sandalwood paste on his forehead.' That was our Guru Maharaj. He came to the Math at the age of seventeen – he travelled to hundreds of countries and made devotees all over the world. Our Gurudev is a son of Lord Siva, so whatever he said always came true. He told us that an astrologer had told him that his lifetime was fifty-four or fifty-five years, but his Guru Maharaj said, 'Throw away your horoscope! You will live eighty-three years.' So, Gurudev said, 'I will leave at eighty-three,' and he did leave after he turned eighty-three... Just one day before that, he told me, 'Stay here, I am leaving tomorrow.' Speaking as usual and smiling, he said, 'I will leave tomorrow.' He left in March 2010, soon after Gaura Purnima. His appearance day is in December, and we have a temple in his birthplace in Bamunpara... Anyway, it is a long story.

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