(2/5) Heartfelt Prayers

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, second afternoon programme
12 February 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

We pray, ‘Gurudev, please hijack me!’ We sing in the kirtan ‘Gurudev krpa bindu diya’, ‘Ami sakti-buddhi-hina, ami ati dina, kara more atmasatha. I have no strength, I have no intelligence, I am very poor! Please hijack me!’

গুরুদেব!
কৃপাবিন্দু দিয়া, কর এই দাসে,
তৃণাপেক্ষা অতি দীন ।
সকল সহনে, বল দিয়া কর,
নিজমানে স্পৃহাহীন ॥

gurudev!
krpa-bindu diya, kara ei dase,
trnapeksa ati dina
sakala sahane, bala diya kara,
nija-mane sprha-hina

‘O Gurudev! Please give a drop of your mercy and make this servant very humble, humbler than a blade of grass. Please give me the power to tolerate everything and to be free from any selfish desires.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘Please give me strength so that I may be able to tolerate everything. Nija-mane sprha-hina: I do not want any honour or respect for myself. I have no desire for this. I do not care if anyone says anything good about me or chastises me. I do not even think about it.’

সকলে সম্মান, করিতে শকতি,
দেহ নাথ যথাযথ ।
তবে ত’ গাইব, হরিনাম সুখে,
অপরাধ হবে হত ॥

sakale sammana, karite sakati,
deha natha yatha-yatha
tabe ta’ gaiba, hari-nama sukhe,
aparadha habe hata

‘Master! Give me the strength to give everyone appropriate honour, then I will happily chant the Holy Name and all my offences will be destroyed.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘Sakale samman: I want to give honour to everyone. Please give me such power.’

শক্তিবুদ্ধিহীন, আমি অতি দীন,
কর মোরে আত্মসাথ ॥

sakti-buddhi-hina, ami ati dina,
kara more atmasatha

‘I have no strength, no intelligence, I am very poor. Please hijack me!’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Where must gurudev hijack me from? I have fallen into the bondage of illusory environment. ‘Gopinath, padechhi mayara phere! Gopinath! I have got myself into a scrape in this illusory world.’ This is a very beautiful kirtan addressing Lord Gopinath. ‘Gopinath! Mama nivedana suna. O Gopinath! Please hear my humble petition.’

গোপীনাথ, মম নিবেদন শুন ।
বিষয়ী দুর্জ্জন, সদা কামরত,
কিছু নাহি মোর গুণ ॥

gopinath, mama nivedana suna
visayi durjana, sada kama-rata,
kichhu nahi mora guna

‘Gopinath! Please hear my humble petition. I am a gross materialist and a very bad person who always indulges his desires. There is nothing good in me.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘I always want this, that, that. I am always a slave of lust. I am enthralled by the material world and things.’ We sing this kirtan, praying to Radha-Gopinath for Their mercy. It is necessary to always chant kirtans in this way (attentively, in a prayerful mood).

What kirtan have we just sung?

এইবার করুণা কর বৈষ্ণব গোসাঞি ।
পতিতপাবন তোমা বিনে কেহ নাই ॥১॥

ei-bara karuna kara vaisnava gosani
patita-pavana toma bine keha nai [1]

‘O worshippable Vaishnav, please be merciful to me this time. O saviour of the fallen! I have no one except you.’

কাহার নিকটে গেলে পাপ দূরে যায় ।
এমন দয়াল প্রভু কেবা কোথা পায় ॥২॥

kahara nikate gele papa dure yaya
emana dayala prabhu keba kotha paya [2]

‘If anyone comes to you, their sins go away. Where can you find such a merciful master?’

গঙ্গার পরশ হৈলে পশ্চাতে পাবন ।
দর্শনে পবিত্র কর এই তোমার গুণ ॥৩॥

gangara parasa haile paschate pavana
darsane pavitra kara ei tomara guna [3]

‘After touching the Ganges, one can eventually attain salvation, but your quality is such that one can be purified just by seeing you.’

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥৪॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana [4]

‘If somebody offends the Lord, the Lord’s Name delivers them; but if somebody offends you, it is impossible to get away with it.’

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

If you make an offence at the holy lotus feet of the Lord, Vaishnavs can rescue you, but if you make an offence at the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs, who will rescue you then? You must have heard the story of Chapal Gopal.

Srivas Pandit would chant kirtan every evening behind the closed doors of his house, but people would come to the door and leave bottles, sidur and other dirty things in front of it so that they could later say, ‘Oh, this sadhu chants kirtan during the day, but at night he drinks liquor!’ They wanted to criticise Srivas Pandit and tarnish his name. But Srivas Pandit did not care – he would only say to all the senior neighbours, ‘Look how bad my position is! I chant kirtan during the day and drink liquor at night! Come and see the bottles in front of my door!’ Do you know what happened to Chapal Gopal who did such things to Srivas Pandit? He got leprosy.

One day, when Mahaprabhu was walking down the street, Chapal Gopal begged Him, ‘Prabhu, You are rescuing so many people, will You not give Your mercy to me? Will You not rescue me?’ Mahaprabhu told him, ‘I will feed you to worms and insects life after life!! You have made an offence to Srivas, My devotee! You will not be spared!’ Chapal Gopal started crying even more, ‘Oh, what will I do now? What will become of me?’ Then Mahaprabhu said, ‘You can only get relief if you come to Srivas’s lotus feet and ask him forgiveness for your offence (for the wicked mischief you have done).’ Mahaprabhu knew everything.

Therefore, when you make an offence at a Vaishnav’s holy feet, you must ask them forgiveness. The problem is that we cannot recognise a Vaishnav. Not only that, even Brahma admits that he cannot recognise a Vaishnav! That is why we must always give honour to everyone, as we were singing just now:

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥৪॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana [4]

‘If somebody offends the Lord, the Lord’s Name delivers them; but if somebody offends you, it is impossible to get away with it.’

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

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Length: 30 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Vaishnavs' Nature
2) Heartfelt Prayers
3) Devotional Ingenuity
4) Devotional Substance
5) Pure Name Comes From Pure Heart