(8) No Deity Without Devotee

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Deities' Manifestation Anniversary festival, Siliguri, 1 May 2019, morning, part 8
Translated from Bengali

The Deity is not an idol – the Deity is Lord Krishna Himself. The Deity can speak, can give witness, can steal. You have heard the pastime of Ksir-chor Gopinath, Saksi-Gopal. I have also told you about Raghunandan Thakur and Madhavendra Puripad. At Sri Chaitanya Math, there are Deities of Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Giridhari: They came there just by Srila Prabhupad casting his glance on Them. When Srila Prabhupad glanced at Them, he said, 'Oh, Krishna has come.'

The ISKCON temple in Mayapur was inaugurated in 1973, thirty-two years after our Math was established. There is a photograph taken during that Deity installation programme – you can see it printed in several of our books. In the photograph you will see our Gurudev at the microphone, and near him there is our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj seated on a common asan. So, when they were opening their temple (the land was five khatas; about 756 square yards), ISKCON had invited all Gaudiya Maths to the inauguration programme, but none of the Gaudiya Maths came. Only Srila Sridhar Maharaj came there together with Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj and our Gurudev. The others did not come because ISKCON consisted mostly of foreign devotees, and everybody thought that they were mlechas, that they did not follow the rules, and so on. Now they give them respect, but at the beginning it was not like that. So, when Srila Sridhar Maharaj came there and met Srila Swami Maharaj, he was very happy. He saw that many respectable gentlemen had come, too, but looking around, he remarked, 'You have made all arrangements, but where is your fire sacrifice?' Do you know what Srila Swami Maharaj replied to that? He said, 'When my siksa-guru Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj has come, why do I need any fire sacrifice? You have come, so my temple is already open.' This is what Srila Swami Maharaj said. They do not talk about this, but we have these things recorded.

During that programme, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj asked our Gurudev, 'Govinda Maharaj, I am not feeling well today, so you please speak on my behalf.' When Srila Gurudev started his speech, he recited one peculiar sloka. The meaning of that sloka is this: 'Whom shall I tell and who will believe me? A simple cowherd boy roams the banks of the Yamuna, and a host of Vraja-gopis runs behind Him like mad. Whom can I tell about this?' Through that, he was saying, 'Whom can I tell that our Abhay Babu (Srila Swami Maharaj), who was a simple householder devotee from Kolkata, took sannyas and has now conquered the whole world? Whom can I tell this and who is going to believe it?' As soon as Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj heard it, he clapped his hands and exclaimed, 'Hari bol! Nitai Gaura Hari bol!'

After Srila Swami Maharaj left, many of his disciples (Srila Janardan Maharaj, Srila Ashram Maharaj, Yudhamanyu Prabhu, Hasyapriya Prabhu, Pusta Krishna Prabhu and many others) came to take shelter in Srila Sridhar Maharaj because Srila Swami Maharaj had told everybody to go to Srila Sridhar Maharaj after him. Later, Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave all responsibility for foreign devotees to our Gurudev, Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, 'I cannot adjust with all the foreign devotees, but you can do it. You can take responsibility for them. You can give them time.' That is why Gurudev spent so much of his time abroad. He travelled the world twenty-four or twenty-five times. The whole world came to this path through him.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj never went abroad, but so many came to him through Gurudev. Now many devotees are pained very much because they know what Srila Sridhar Maharaj said and what is happening now. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, 'If somebody cannot respect Srila Govinda Maharaj, I do not consider them my disciple.' But now you can see that many people put in the guru-parampara their own photograph next to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's photograph. They remove Srila Govinda Maharaj. This is very sad. They remove Srila Govinda Maharaj and blame everything on his disciples. This is what is happening now...

It was Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj who declared that Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj is a saktya-vesa-avatar of Nityananda Prabhu. We cannot forget this. We must always think about this – we can never come to the Lord bypassing the guru and Vaishnavs.

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