An Auspicious Evening

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Rupanuga-sri-guru-varga ki jay
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay
Suddha-bhakti-vighnar vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay
Sri Sada-Siva Gangadhar, Giriraj Govardhan ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya-varya Ashtottara-shata-sri Srimad Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

[Clamour in the audience.] Please do not talk, stay quiet. If some of you are are busy cooking, busy with the service to the Lord, then do your service with your hands and only say "Krishna", "Krishna" with your mouth. There must be no other talks.

So, we are very fortune because we have come today on this auspicious evening. There is a very special day coming very soon...

[His Divine Grace calls a devotee and instructs:] Can you get a lau [gourd]? Make some payesh with lau, milk, and sugar. Mahaprabhu is leaving Nabadwip tomorrow [to take sannyas]. Make some payesh from lau and milk, enough for everyone to get some.

On this day today, Mahaprabhu sat together with all the devotees in the evening in Nabadwip. Only four devotees (Vakreshwar Pandit, Mukunda, Nityananda, Sachi Mata, and maybe Vishnupriya) knew that Mahaprabhu would leave tomorrow in the morning. Everybody else did not know it. Mahaprabhu left early in the morning, at dawn, He swam across the Ganges... He left Sachi Mata and Sri Vishnupriya Devi to save such fallen souls of this world as ourselves. Do you know what Mahaprabhu told everyone that evening (today)? Mahaprabhu asked,

"Do you really love Me or not?"

"Yes, Prabhu, we love You."

"If you have any love and affection for Me, then only say 'Krishna'—do not say anything except 'Krishna.' I am leaving Nabadwip, but My life, My heart and soul will stay with you all. I will always be with you."

Then, Mahaprabhu told Srivas Pandit,

"Srivas, you must have kirtan at your house every evening. You will see Me come there. You must have kirtan at your house in the evening, every day."

One time, somebody asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, where do You stay?"

Mahaprabhu replied, "I stay at Sachi Mata's kitchen, in Nityananda's dancing, at Srivas Angan, and at Raghav Bhavan." Sachi Mata's kitchen is where Nimai's Mother always thinks about Him and cooks for Him—where she thinks, "If only Nimai was there, I would cook all these nice things for Him and feed Him!" Srivas Angan is the house of Srivas Pandit. And Raghava Bhavan is the house of Raghav Pandit in Panihati where Raghav Pandit's sister Damayanti cooks so many things for Mahaprabhu during the whole year, and two months before Ratha-yatra, when Sivananda Sen and Raghav Pandit would go to Puri with all the devotees, they would put baskets full of different pickles (achar), kasundi, pitha (cakes), pana (snacks), etc. on their heads and carry it all to Mahaprabhu in Puri.

And today, on this day, is a very auspicious day—to fulfil the desire of His devotees, He told His mother, "Mom, please make some payesh with milk and lau." His mother was surprised, "Oh my, but it is cold in the evening—who is going to have lau?" Magh Mas was coming (end of winter season), and on poila magh Mahaprabhu took sannays. Mahaprabhu walked to Katwa and took sannyas from Keshav Bharati. Tomorrow He walks the whole day—it is forty or forty-five kilometres to Katwa from Nabadwip. He walked the whole day and in the evening appeared at the door of Keshav Bharati's ashram.

Each of our temples observes this day. It is Sankranti tomorrow. It is the day when Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip. Before He left, He told everyone,

যদি আমা'-প্রতি স্নেহ থাকে সবাকার ।
তবে কৃষ্ণ-ব্যতিরিক্ত না গাইবে আর ॥

yadi ama'-prati sneha thake sabakara
tabe krsna-vyatirikta na gaibe ara

"If you have any love and affection for Me, then only say 'Krishna'—do not say anything except 'Krishna.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 28.27)

Why does Lord Krishna come in this Kali-yuga? What was His purpose? To rescue the conditioned souls who are ruined by Kali and live in the material bondage of illusion. The souls of the material world always think, "This is my house," "This is my room," "This is my son," "This is my relative," "This is my wife," "This is my daughter." They always think about this and live in a world of "my, my, my." There is so much illusion... We sing in a kirtan written by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur,

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

"When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?"

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

When will I be able to surrender at the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs and know about the Lord?

— : • : —

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