(1/3) Remembering Saranga Murari

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

The pastime number two. Another place we go to during Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama is Mamgachi. We come there last, and after that take prasadam. The place I want to tell you about is visited just before Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur’s birthplace. It is a very small place, and it is hard to enter it when there is a large crowd. We can only come, quickly pay our obeisances and come out. Actually we do not get a chance to speak there – when people come there, they run past the place to quickly take prasad, and, after taking prasad, they run to the buses to return to the temple. Only one-pointed devotees go there. So, the temple that we visit just before Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur’s birthplace is the place of Murari Gupta and Saranga Thakur. The Deities of Sri Sri Radha-Gopinath are still there, and Their service is continuing to this day from Mahaprabhu’s times.

It is a common tradition to install Deities, but not many think who will take care of the Deities after them. Those who install Deities must make sure that they bring up their children in such a way that they can take care of the Deities after them. Otherwise, Deities become nigraha (‘confinement, burden’) and then galagraha (‘throttling’): at first you feel burdened and then throttled by the Deity. You can often see that people stop worshipping Deities and bring them to the temple. You have seen such Deities in temples, have you not? That is why when you come to this line, you must try to bring your children to this path as well. Otherwise, it will be a problem if you keep Deities. I never tell anyone to keep Deities – keep a photo, then you will not have any problems. If you keep Deities and go somewhere, who will serve Them? If there is no one, you have to take your Gopal with you and keep Him at the temple. That is why I always tell everyone to keep photographs – your gurudev’s photograph and the photograph of the Deities in our temples in Nabadwip, Nrisingha Palli or Ekachakra. You can do the worship like that. Otherwise, emotionally, you buy Gopal in Nabadwip and take the Deity home, but you have to serve Gopal after that – who will serve Him when you cannot? Later, you will want to go to your guru's house, to do the parikrama, what will you do with Gopal then? You have to take Him with you. It is a problem. That is why I tell you that you must keep photographs of Deities, not Deities, because when you go somewhere, if you do not give bhoga to a photograph, Their service is still going on at your gurudev’s temple: for example, if you keep the photograph of Nabadwip or Nrisingha Palli Deities and cannot make an offering because you have to go somewhere, it is not a problem because the service of those Deities is going on every day in Nabadwip or Nrisingha Palli. There is Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Madan-mohan in Tarakeshwar, you can keep Their photograph in your prayer room and worship Them – even if you have to go somewhere, it is not an offence to leave because Their service is done every day at the temple. I tell this to everyone. Gurudev told this, and I am telling the same thing. People come and emotionally buy Gopal’s or Mahaprabhu’s Deity, but if you do not serve those Deities after that, it will be an offence.

So, I was telling you about Saranga Thakur. When Saranga Thakur became old, he had no strength to even put a garland on the Deities or dress the Deities. He cried to the Deities, ‘Gopinath! Please send somebody to me who would be able to do Your service!’ He cried to the Lord every day, and one day, the Lord came to him in a dream and said, ‘You go to have a bath in the Ganges every day, so tomorrow you must give initiation to whoever you see first. He will do your service: he will come and stay with you.’

In the morning, Saranga Thakur woke up and went to have a bath in the Ganges. On the way, he saw a banana-tree raft floating down the river. A boy had died from a snake bite in some family, but they had not burnt his body – they had just set it floating down the Ganges. So, when the raft drifted to the bank, Saranga Thakur saw that there was a body of a boy on it. He gave Harinam to the dead boy, and as as soon as he chanted the Holy Name (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare) into his ear, the dead boy suddenly opened his eyes! He got up and paid a full obeisance to his gurudev. Taking his guru by the hand, he came to his ashram. The boy was eight years old at that time, and his name was Murari. When his guru initiated him, he gave him the name Saranga Murari (‘Saranga’s Murari’), saying, ‘You are now mine, nobody else’s.’

When the boy’s parents later got the news that their son was alive, they came to the temple to take him back, but Murari said, ‘No, I am not yours anymore! I now belong to my gurudev. I am Saranga’s Murari, I am not your Murari anymore, so I will not come back to you.’ From that time, Saranga Murari served his guru, and when Saranga Thakur left his body, Saranga Murari made his samadhi. He served at that temple all his life. When we come to that temple, we speak about this pastime.

If we do not hear about these pastimes and glories of the holy abode, how will we do the parikrama? Who will tell you these things if you go to Mayapur as a tourist on a bus tour?

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Remembering Chapahati
2) Remembering Saranga Murari
3) Remembering Pastimes