(1) Devotion Comes from Devoting Yourself

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Siliguri, 1 May 2019, evening, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Sitting on the bank of Sri Radha Kunda, Vraja-gopis say, 'We do not have the kind of devotion that Prahlad Maharaj has. What devotion? We do not have any devotion... We do not have any devotion to Krishna so far.' Krishna is these gopis' innermost heart, their very life and soul – they always think about Krishna. Krishna is all they know – they do not understand anything except Krishna. But these gopis spoke so humbly about themselves: 'We have no devotion to Krishna.'

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই’ করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha varjana
chari-gune guni hai’ karaha kirtana

‘Humility, compassion, honouring others and giving up your own prestige – become enriched with these four qualities and chant the Lord’s Holy Name and glories.’

(Sri Gitavali, Sri Siksastaka Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

জীবে দয়া নামে রুচি বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

‘Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name happily and serve Vaishnavs. Sanatan, except for this, there is no other religion.’

We must show kindness to jiva souls. We must have taste for chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. And we must serve Vaishnavs. We bring to this path of devotion the souls who have turned away from Lord Krishna. We must give up deceit and the consciousness of 'I like it' and 'I do not like it.' We do not need all this! We must always only think about Krishna, about Gaura-hari.

We have recently done the parikrama of Sri Nabadwip Dham. We lived in a very beautiful place and walked around a holy land. You walked and listened to Hari-katha from the mouths of sadhus. You have heard so many glories. For example, you have been to Sri Saranga Murari's place and heard about him.

Saranga Thakur was a devotee who served the Deity of Lord Gopinath in Mahaprabhu's time. At some point, he had become very old, so he came to the Lord and prayed, 'Why do You not create somebody? Why do You not arrange somebody? I have become so old now, I can leave at any moment and I cannot even serve You properly anymore. Please arrange for somebody to come and take over Your service.' He cried to the Lord like that, and the Lord came to him in a dream that night and said, 'Saranga Thakur, listen to what I am going to say. You go to bath in the Ganges every morning, so tomorrow when you wake up and go there, give initiation to whoever you meet first. That person will be your disciple, and you can teach him how to worship Deities and do other services.'

The next morning, Saranga Thakur woke up and went to bath in the Ganges. When he entered the river, he saw a banana-tree raft floating towards the bank. The raft was decorated with many flowers. Seeing the raft coming towards him, Saranga Thakur decided to see what it was. When the raft came to him, he saw a ten-year-old dead boy lying on it. The name and the address of the boy was written there, too. The Lord had told him, 'Give initiation to whoever you meet first,' so he spoke the mantra into the dead boy's ear. As he spoke the mantra, the boy suddenly woke up and came back to life. He rose, opening his eyes, and looked around.

Saranga Thakur took the boy by the hand and took him to his ashram. When they came, Saranga Thakur offered arati, taught the boy, gave him brahman initiation and engaged him in the service of the Lord.

Many days later, the boy's parents got the news that their son had survived and was staying at an ashram. Many villagers come to temples to see the Deity, so they must have seen the boy there and recognised him. So, the parents came to the ashram and wanted to take the boy back home.

'Baby, come home with us. You are our dear son,' they said.

'I do not know you,' the boy said.

'What? You are our son!'

'I have heard that, my gurudev has told me about it, but I am not your Murari anymore. I died and you set me floating down the Ganges. My gurudev saved me and brought me to him. By his mercy, I have got service to the Lord. How can I leave now? I cannot do that. My gurudev has kept me here to serve the Lord. I am not your Murari – I belong to my gurudev now, so I am Saranga's Murari.'

Such is the effect of the Holy Name.

অপরাধশূন্য হয়ে লহ কৃষ্ণ-নাম ।
অচিরাৎ তুমি পাবে কৃষ্ণ-প্রেম-ধন ॥

aparadha sunye haye laha krsna-nama
achirat tumi pabe krsna-prema-dhana

‘Chant the Holy Name of Krishna without offence and you will quickly get the treasure of divine love for Krishna.’

When we chant the Holy Name, we mostly chant offences (nama-aparadh) – perhaps, sometimes it can be shadow Name (namabhasa) at most. You chant the Holy Name, you chant and chant, but you do not come to realise your intimate, heart-to-heart relation to the object of your service – you do not realise that the Lord is your very own, your dearest and nearest. You still think, 'I do this', 'My qualification', 'I can do this', 'I have done this.' Do not be like this. You must hand everything over to your guru and Vaishnavs. Nothing can happen without the will of the Lord, so whatever happens happens by the will and wish of the Lord. We must give everything up to the Lord and rely solely on Him. Nothing is in our hands – we are not managers. One manager is already there – He manages and controls everything. You cannot try to do anything bypassing Him!

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি’ সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

‘Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

We forgot the Lord, and as the result, we are suffering now from the blazing agony of the threefold miseries. If you want to get relief from this suffering, the only way to do it is to take shelter at the holy feet of the Lord.

কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণনাম-কীর্ত্তনং
রাম-রাম-গান-রম্য-দিব্য-ছন্দ-নর্ত্তনম্ ।
যত্র তত্র কৃষ্ণনাম-দান-লোক-নিস্তরং
প্রেম-ধাম-দেবমেব নৌমি গৌর-সুন্দরম্ ॥

krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-nama-kirtanam
rama-rama-gana-ramya-divya chhanda-nartanam
yatra-tatra-krsna-nama-dana-loka-nistaram
prema-dhama-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram

'After that, on the pretext of making a pilgrimage, He set off to deliver South India through the Holy Name: posing as a youthful sannyasi, the beautiful Lord wandered throughout South India visiting various holy places and chanting very sweetly, “Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna he” and singing “Rama Rama” – stirred internally in an inexplicable divine way, He would display an extremely sweet and peculiar dance; He made everyone chant and distributed the Holy Name of Krishna anywhere and everywhere without considering whether the time was right or whether the recipient was fit – I am singing in praise of this beautiful Lord Sri Gauranga-sundar, a worshippable Deity of divine love.'

(Sri Sri Prema-Dhama Deva Stotram, 22)

'Prema-dhama-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram. I am singing in praise of this beautiful Lord Sri Gauranga-sundar, a worshippable Deity of divine love.'

You must chant this Holy Name of Lord Krishna yourselves.

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Length: 78 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Divine Fortune
2) Exclusive Sincerity of Gaudiya Vaishnavs
3) Heartfelt Service
4) Far and Near
5) Quenched Quest
6) 'I Am Coming'
7) Jagannath Manifesting Himself
8) No Deity Without Devotee
9) Come Forward
10) Know What to Know
11) Honest Enquiry
12) Open Book
13) Take Shelter in Hari-Katha