GUIDANCE

Issue #18

Lectures of His Divine Grace

Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj

published at SCSMathInternational.com during January-March 2019

CONTENT

Depend On Your Guru

17 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay!

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay!

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay!

Sada Siva Gangadhar jiu ki jay!

Giriraj Govardhan ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

Yesterday I was explaining what we have got the human body for and how we should utilise that body. Pariksit Maharaj also asked, "I have got eyes, ears, nose, everything, but how should I utilise these things?" Then, Sukadev Goswami came and spoke Srimad Bhagavatam—everybody listened to Srimad Bhagavatam for seven days. This is how the solution came to Pariksit Maharaj, then he could understand everything clearly.

We have got this human body by fortune, we do not know where we will be posted next—we have so many wishes, so many different desires inside us, and depending on these desires we will be posted in some place, we will go to a particular place. We must realise that twenty-four hours is His time, it is the Lord's time, so we must use these twenty-four hours for His service. We must understand the value of time and be miserly when it comes to wasting time on nonsense things. If you wasted even a little time on some other job, it means you have wasted time from your life.

What is our duty? Krishna has given all His power to our Gurudev, and all you need to do is to listen properly to his advice, his order. We are not independent. If we do some service under the guidance of Guru and Vaishnav, then we can realise everything properly. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur told clearly,

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane

duhkha dure gelo o pada-varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life. All my distress has gone away by embracing Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

"When I was independent, I got some sadness, some unhappiness, but all unhappiness, all sadness is gone, it has run away once I surrendered to the Lord."

Krishna has given His all power, everything to the Guru, and if we can depend on him, if we can listen to his advice properly, then we can understand everything clearly.

Srila Madhavendra Puripad also said,

kamadinam kati na katidha palita durnidesa,

tesam jata mayi na karuna na trapa nopasantih

utsrjyaitan atha yadu-pate! sampratam labdha-buddhis

tvam ayatah saranam-abhayam mam niyunksvatma-dasye

"O Lord! How many kinds of wicked orders from lust and others I followed! They had no mercy on me, nor were they ever satisfied! O Krishna! Suddenly, I managed to leave their side and got some good intelligence—I have surrendered at Your fearless lotus feet, please engage me now as Your servant."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.16)

There are so many bad things—kama, krodha, lobha, anger, lust, greed, ego, etc. We became their servants and followed their orders. At that time they were our masters, and so many problems came, so much sadness came, but when we got good association, when we got the mercy of Gurudev and he gave us some service, then we understood what the real position is and what we should do…

* * *

Greatest Gift

17 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

For the service of the Lord we can do anything. We can understand easily what is service of the Lord and what is necessary for our spiritual life.

I was reading Srila Prabhupad's book called Upadesamrita and at that time I understood his advice.

Srila Prabhupad was staying in Kolkata. One day, Srila Bhakti Vijay Bon Maharaj went on collection—he went door to door, shop to shop, but he did not know Kolkata well, so as he was walking place to place he suddenly by mistake came to a lane which turned out to be a pros-quarter. At first he did not even realise what place he was in—he was walking, collecting, some women gave him some money—but when he did, he was horrified, "What have I done!" He did not go there for his own enjoyment—he went there for service and did not know what place it was.

Sad, he came back to Prabhupad and said, "Prabhupad, I have made a mistake today. I went to a very bad place, I did not know..."

Prabhupad asked him, "What place did you go to?"

Bon Maharaj told what the place was, and Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told him, "Am I doing wrong? I have also gone to many visayis' houses—the houses where fathers, mothers, relatives are all attached to illusory environment, to their families. I went to their houses and brought so many young boys from there—when they heard about Krishna consciousness, they came to me from that kind of family. After these brahmacharis learn Krishna consciousness, learn to preach, I again send them to materialist householder people to preach to them. Am I doing wrong? You are preaching and went to some visayi place, but I also send our brahmacharis to such kind of place..."

We must understand what Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswat Thakur wants to tell us. We must understand what is the main thing, what for we have come to this world.

We go door to door, house to house preaching. What do we preach about? We preach what Mahaprabhu gave—love and affection; we preach what Gurudev told us about love and affection—Krishna-prem. Who can understand the extent of Nityananda Prabhu's help to us? What is Nityananda Prabhu's doya, mercy? We must understand that. It is astonishing, it is amazing to think the way Nityananda Prabhu gave mercy to people, how incredibly kind Nityananda Prabhu is to people, to devotees. Nityananda Prabhu gave us more than even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—He gave us what even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu could not give us.

Take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu—Nityananda Prabhu is non-different from Guru-tattva, non-different from Gurudev. We can understand easily how merciful Gurudev is, how kind Gurudev is to us. He is giving us, presenting us such good things. We must only accept it—we must realise what this preaching movement is for, what is Gurudev's service, Gurudev's love and affection, Gurudev's mood. We must always remember our Gurudev. We do not know anything, we cannot understand anything, but Gurudev has given us so much power—he has told us what the truth is, what the main things in our spiritual life are.

* * *

Pure Surrender—Key to Pure Solution

17 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

Why should we be afraid? If any problem comes, we cannot solve it, so always surrender to the Lord. What do you keep your problem to yourself for? You cannot solve it. Leave it to Gurudev, he can give a solution easily, he can show the way how to solve it. This is what Gurudev's mercy is.

I told yesterday also that we cannot understand Gurudev without Gurudev's mercy and we cannot understand the Lord without the mercy of the Lord, that is why we should avoid bad things, bad elements. We do many wrong things, we make many mistakes, but Gurudev is very merciful, he always engages us in the service of the Lord. It is our fortune that we have got such bona fide Guru who always uses us for service. Gurudev always told us, "If you have service, you have mercy. If have no service, you have no mercy." If we understand these things, then we can really understand the Absolute, we can understand who Krishna has sent to us. We must try, but under guidance of the Guru and Vaishnavs. Gurudev can recognise a Guru, Gurudev can recognise the Lord's representative, but we have no eyes to recognise a Guru or a Vaishnav. We can only pray, we can only have a great desire. These are the main things in our spiritual life.

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

If I fully, properly surrender when I take initiation, Krishna thinks, "He is My very own, he is as dear to Me as I Myself." It is necessary to have pure surrender, and pure surrender is not possible without sukriti. There is jnata sukriti (conscious spiritual merit) and ajnata sukriti (unconscious spiritual merit). Jnata sukriti means you do some pious activity and you know that you will get some pious merit for it; and ajnata sukriti means you are doing something but you do not know what will come to your life as a result. First comes ajnata sukriti, then ajnata sukriti, then sraddha (faith).

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya

krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

There are four types of faith: kamala-sraddha (delicate faith), taranda-sraddha (fickle faith that comes in waves), drdha-sraddha (strong faith), and sudrdha-sraddha (strongest faith). It is necessary to have the strongest faith. Without having the strongest faith you cannot understand the Guru.

Also, we should not bargain with the Guru—when Gurudev tells you something, you should listen to him properly and show with your action, with your service that you are a proper servitor of your Guru. You must show Gurudev with your actions that "I am not independent." I was just quoting Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur:

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane

duhkha dure gelo o pada-varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life. All my distress has gone away by embracing Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

"When I was independent, I was very unhappy, I got so much sadness, but once I surrendered to you, all kinds of sadness, all kinds of unhappiness were removed from me." We should understand this.

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur taught Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur very well, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur in turn gave us our Guru—without Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur we would not have got Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Then, even though we are fallen souls, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj presented us a good guardian of devotion. The only problem is that if we cannot surrender to him, then we cannot understand it. Krishna has sent him for us as our Guru to preach Krishna consciousness, to preach about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world, and he did that—he gave us such a great solution. Just like Sri Sukadev Goswami who spoke Srimad Bhagavatam and gave all solution to Pariksit Maharaj, Gurudev also gave such a great solution to us—he told us what spiritual life is. We must understand this.

Everything exists for the service to the Lord. Once, a brahmachari went begging and got ash from somebody—he came to Prabhupad and cried, "They have given me ash!" but Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "Why are you crying? You should be happy that you have got ash. This ash is also useful—it can be used to clean plates. We can use the man who has given you ash for the service of the Lord too." Prabhupad showed in this way that everything that exists in this world is for the service of the Lord. We must use everything properly. That is the main thing.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

* * *

Turning Homebound

18 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay!

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay!

Sada Siva Gangadhar jiu ki jay!

Giriraj Govardhan ki jay!

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Tadiya sakha-math samuha ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

We should understand that we have all actually come from the same family—Krishna's family—but through our karma-phal (results of our activities) we are now separated and live in so many places. Our Param Guru Maharaj Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj has a book called Loving Search for the Lost Servant: Krishna is searching for us. Krishna has also lost His servant—He has lost His sons and daughters like us.

We are suffering so much at present. We use our life to do nonsense thinking that we will go to heaven, but actually we may also go to hell... We carry on our life in this way, but this is not right because we all have come from the same family—from the family of the Lord (Krishna's samsar, Krishna's paribar). We are members of Krishna's family. As I have just said, we are now separate, going here and there because of our karma-phal (the result of our nonsense activities), but we must remember that we must come to the place where we have come from—we must get to our destination. To achieve that, proper practice is necessary.

In this life, unless we get proper guidance, we do not know which way we must go. Not knowing anything, we use this life on many illegal activities, but if we want to go the proper way, then a guardian is necessary. This guardian is the Guru. Krishna comes to us Himself or He sends His associate as a Guru. We must take shelter of such Guru, then he can guide us and tell us which way we should go and which way we should not go. If you listen to him, you can go the proper way. When a real Guru comes to our life, he can advise, he can order and manage our life.

The main thing is that we must go the proper way and that to go that proper way it is necessary to practise properly.

* * *

Price for the Advantage

18 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

Srimad Bhagavatam tells,

kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah

kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-bandhah param vrajet

"My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 12.3.51)

"Kaler dosa nidhi"—there are so many faults in the age of Kali, but there is also one great quality in it: Krishna Himself comes in the form of His Name. If we take shelter of the Holy Name—if we can chant the Holy Name properly, without offence—then we can understand the real truth.

It requires some patience. Sometimes we think that we took initiation many years ago and we chant sixteen rounds as Gurudev has told, and even more than that, but still we are not getting the result. What is the reason?... Do not lose patience. It is necessary to have patience, it is necessary to believe properly. If you do service properly, if you follow Gurudev's guidance properly, if you take shelter in Gurudev and follow his advise properly, then one day Krishna will take you to Him. It is necessary to realise these things and to have patience. This is very important for our spiritual life.

We know also:

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

We need good association. You cannot be a sadhu without good association. We have been rusting for so many years that now, just as a magnet cannot attract a piece of rusty iron, Krishna cannot attract us. There are so many bad elements in our lives—kanak, kamini, pratistha (desire for money, companions, fame), kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy)—and we have been their servants since time immemorial, but now we have understood that we must become servants of our Guru, servants of the servants of the Lord. We did not come to this world to become a Vaishnav, we have come to be a servant of the Lord.

We do not know anything—how to continue our life, how to utilise this life—we do not understand anything, but we now have a guardian, then we can understand easily what is necessary for our spiritual life (sadhu-sanga, Nama sankirtan, etc.).

I told everybody: wake up in the morning, sing five songs in the morning and five songs in the evening (Guru-vandana, Pancha Tattva's vandana, Vaishnavs' vandana, Nityananda's vandana, Mahaprabhu's vandana, then chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra). Recite these five songs minimum and try to understand their meaning. If you sing with the Gaudiya Gitanjali, the Kirtan Guide, and understand the meaning of these songs, then you will get proper guidance through that.

* * *

At Mangalagiri (1)

At Mahaprabhu's Footprints Temple,

Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh

4 January 2019

Here, Nrisinghadev always takes half of the water offered to Him and gives the other half to His followers, devotees. Also, this hill's name is Mangalgiri and it looks like an elephant. Sriman Mahaprabhu visited this place when He toured South India. After Mahaprabhu took darshan of Nrisinghadev, He sat here at this place—you can see here the footprints of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur established this place.

We are very fortunate to have come here, to visit the place where Mahaprabhu went, in the company of devotees. We must also come again to this place. I have been here before, but for you this is the first time. You are fortunate to see this place of Lord Nrisinghadev. Now we are going down, to the temple of Laksmi Nrisinghadev.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said that the a holy place, a dham, is where devotees are. He would also often quote,

gaura amara ye-saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se-saba sthana heriba ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

We too shall visit the places where Mahaprabhu went, with great sadhus, in good association.

We are paying our obeisance at this place and praying to Mahaprabhu for the devotion that He has to Nrisinghadev, for the devotion that He has for Krishna. We only want to serve His devotees, and actually we better like to have devotion to Mahaprabhu. We do not want to be a devotee of Krishna—we want to be a devotee of Srimati Radharani. Some people preach that they are Krishna-bhakta, but we say that it is better if you become Radharani-bhakta. This is the main thing.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Sarveswar and Nirgun Krishna

18 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

"Amara jivana sada pape rata nahika punyera lesa": our lives are always full of sin. "Parere udveg": we give so much anxiety to others. This was expressed for us by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. How perfectly he expressed it! We also sing, "Sarvasva tomara, charane sampiya, parechhi tomara ghare"—we surrender and come to You, Prabhu; we do not know anything, we have no quality or qualification, we can only depend upon You. You are sarvesvar (master of everything), You know everything. We must understand the meaning of these songs. Krishna is nirgun (beyond the three material gunas of goodness, passion, and ignorance).

I remember I was reading in one of the books that after the Kuruksetra war one rishi named Utanka told Krishna, "Krishna, look at this—the widows are crying, they have lost their husbands and sons, children are crying because they have lost their fathers. Everyone is crying and it is all because of Your war! You are responsible for all this! I am giving You curse!" Krishna stopped him and said, "You are a brahman rishi, you have acquired so many things through your pious activities. I am nirgun. You can curse Me, but you will only lose all the result of your pious activities, it will do nothing to Me." Then, you must believe that He is all in all, that He is doing everything.

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

He is the cause of all causes. He is doing everything, and we are only instruments, we cannot do anything. We should surrender to Him and practise properly: sadhu-sanga, nama-sankirtana, Bhagavata-sravana, mathura-vas. Mathura-vas does not mean you must stay in Mathura. Mathura is Krishna-katha. We will not go to the place where there is gramya-katha, nonsense talks, we will not listen to this, we will ignore it, but we will go where there is sadhu-sanga, good things—we will speak and listen to Krishna-katha, Hari-katha, Bhagavat-katha.

If you use your tongue to talk so many nonsense things, you will lose the energy to talk Krishna-katha. If you walk here and there, you will lose the energy to do even Tulasi parikrama—you will not be able to walk the dham parikrama because you have been walking in so many nonsense places (places that are not a dham, not a holy place). We have indirya, senses—chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin)—and we must use all these senses for the service to the Lord. You must use all your energy for the service to the Lord. This is the main thing you must understand.

jada-vidya yata, mayara vaibhava,

tomara bhajane badha

moha janamiya, anitya samsare,

jivake karaye gadha

"All mundane learning is an exhibition of maya and an obstacle to Your service. It brings about infatuation for the temporary world and makes an ass of the soul."

(Saranagati, 3.3)

What education do mundane schools, colleges, universities give? What do they teach? It is all jada-vidya (mundane knowledge), avidya (ignorance). Suppose someone becomes a big doctor and says, "Oh, I can do many things!" but ask them, "Can you give relief to the patient if the person has died?" They cannot do that—no doctor can give life to those who have died. Even scientists also say that they can do so many things, they have invented so many things, but they cannot give life to a soul, jivatma. Then we must understand that everything is in Krishna's hands. The sun is giving light, the moon is giving light—He is doing all this. He controls everything that is happening in this world. Krishna orders Brahma and Brahma creates this whole universe—everything is running on Krishna's order, with Krishna's intention, otherwise nothing could run.

We must have faith and believe these things. When we are born, our mothers tell me, "This is your father," and we believe it because only the mother knows who the father is: "This is my father because my mother has said so." In the same way, we must believe properly what the scriptures say.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay!

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay!

Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

* * *

Primary Realisation

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 1

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

"I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the salve of divine knowledge."

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

I am very fortunate today because after many years I am again able to come here to meet with you all: my well-wishers, godbrothers, godsisters, assembled devotees, the sannyasi-vrinda, the brahmachari-vrinda. I am very fortunate to meet with you all here in South India, near Guntur, near Kovvur (the city where Raya Ramananda's place is). Before Mahaprabhu settled in Puri, He also came here and visited all the holy places here in South India. We have also been here before and now this year we are again able to come. It is impossible to come here without a great fortune.

We are sitting here, joining this programme, meeting with you all, and in this way we keep connection. This is actually our real family. Our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's Guru is Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and he said that this is actually an examination place. After you complete your study at school, college, or university, you take an exam—similarly, Krishna has sent us to this human body and we should think that this is our examination time.

You know everything. We have gone through eighty-four lakhs (8,400,000) of bodies—we have gone through aquatic species, trees, we lived as beasts and birds, goats, cats, snakes, frogs, monkeys, we have got all kinds of bodies—and now Krishna has mercifully given us this body. It is rare to get a human body, but we have finally got it. What is the difference between those previous birds' and beasts' bodies and this human body? Krishna has sent us to a human body and He is examining us, He wants to see what we do after that.

Some may see no difference. What do we do in family life? Having got this human body we are doing the same thing that we did when we had a cat's body or a dog's body. But this is not the point. Having got a human body just to do all the same things—ahara, nidra, bhaya, maithunamcha (eating, sleeping, defending, and enjoying)—this is not what human life is for. We should not live like cats and dogs. Yet, we live like that because at present we are covered by illusory environment, Maya.

We should understand this. We should know it and we should search for the answer to the question, "What is our duty in this human body?" First of all, we should understand and know that my body and myself is not the same thing. Actually, in this human body we have some parents (just as when we had a cat's body, a dog's body, we also had a father and a mother). We only get a body from our parents, but our identity is that we are a jiva soul (jivatma), and the soul does not come from any parents—it comes from the Lord.

When we get a material body (a human body now or some other body previously), the body comes from our parents, but when the material body dies—when we leave our body—the body is burnt and destroyed, and it returns to the same place where it has come from (the material body is made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether). This is a material body. You think that you will live a hundred years, but your life is eternal, it is ananta-kal (infinite), and these only hundred years is nothing.

I have mentioned Maya just now. What is Maya? Maya means illusory environment—Maya is created by the Lord Himself and she always gets her power from the Lord. If Maya Devi sees that you are surrendered to the Lord, she will run away from you.

We change our clothes every day, day after day, and we also change our bodies every few years. For example, a mosquito's lifetime is sometimes fifteen days or two months, somebody's lifetime is a hundred years, somebody's lifetime is five years, somebody's lifetime is ten years, and so on. There are different kinds of jiva souls in this world. This is how the world is running. Just as we change clothes every day, we also change bodies depending on our karma-phal (result of our actions). 'As you sow so you reap.' As I have just told you, this is an examination place. You do some karma (actions) in this human body, according to your actions (it can be sukarma, vikarma, or akarma—good actions, bad actions and inaction), you get some result, and depending on that result of your actions (karma-phal), you get another body.

What is our duty at this moment? We are alive in this world, but do you realise how many thousands and millions of jiva souls we kill every day just to stay alive in this house or in this world? We kill millions and millions of jiva souls every day—even when you drink some water, even when you breathe or take your food. How many jiva souls do you kill in your lifetime? What kind of result will you get after that? You should think about it. You commit so many sins, but how can you overcome it? How can you recover from all these sins?

You know that 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction'—whatever you do, some reaction will come to you. We should understand what is necessary to do in this lifetime, and all solution is there. You can read Srimad Bhagavatam, you can see Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. You can also read Srimad Bhagavad-gita. Srimad Bhagavad-gita is the primary stage—if you read Srimad Bhagavad-gita and understand what it says, then you can see that all the solution is there.

* * *

Our Mission

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 2

For this age of Kali, Krishna Himself comes in the form of His Name and as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Radha-Krishna's combined form. Mahaprabhu came here to South India and after that He stayed in Puri and showed His separation lila (pastimes) there. You can realise that pastime of Mahaprabhu...

Mahaprabhu Himself came as a teacher and He Himself practised Krishna consciousness, showing His example to others. After Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, mainly Shyamananda Prabhu, Narottam Das Thakur and Srinivas Acharya continued this line and Mahaprabhu's conception. Later, it was our recent Guru-parampara—this conception was further spread by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur spread Krishna consciousness all over the world—he established Sri Gaudiya Math and Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya (disciplic succession). What is the duty of this sampradaya? This sampradaya's acharyas and devotees go door to door preaching the true conception, preaching our duty in this human body.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur opened many temples and preaching centres all over India and even preached abroad. He revived this Krishna consciousness movement and rescued us also.

After Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's demise, his disciple Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was very sad and went to Vrindavan. He stayed in Nanda-gram, the house of Lord Krishna, it is near Pavan Sarovar. Having stayed there for a short time, he heard a message from the sky—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srimati Radharani told him, "What are you here for? I have selected you as the acharya of this Rupa-Raghunath sampradaya—why are you staying here? You must go to Nabadwip!"

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj immediately came back from Vrindavan and stayed in a cottage on the bank of the Ganges. That place is in Koladwip, aparadh-bhanjan-pat (place where all offences are forgiven). Many of his godbrothers came to him and heard Hari-katha from him. He was spreading Krishna consciousness from there. That was 1941. A few years after he came to Koladwip, a preaching party from our temple went preaching to some places and our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj joined them and immediately came to take shelter at the lotus feet of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. He took initiation and became a brahmachari—his name was Sri Gaurendu Brahmachari. He served his Gurudev for many years, fulfilled all desires of his Gurudev, and finally, in 1985, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave him sannyas and selected him as his successor, the president sevaite-acharya of this temple—he handed over everything, all charge to our Gurudev.

After Srila Sridhar Maharaj expired in 1988, our Gurupadpadma Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj started to preach all over the world. Starting from 1992, he went all over the world twenty-five times, preaching Krishna consciousness and bringing so many fallen souls—snatching them from Maya and keeping them at the lotus feet of the Lord, Sriman Mahaprabhu.

Sripad Shanta Maharaj and Sripad Muni Maharaj came to Gurudev when they were brahmacharis, and Gurudev told them, "You know Telugu language, you can preach in South India." Following Gurudev's order, they came to South India many times. Preaching to you all, they brought you to the lotus feet of Gurudev. This is your great fortune. After Gurudev left his body in 2010, Sripad Shanta Maharaj invited me to come to South India and now this is the third time I have come here to you.

What message have I come to give you? I want to try to give you the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the message of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, of our Gurudev and our Guru Maharaj. I want to give you the Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute. Those of you who are fortunate souls have already accepted it, and I am coming again to give nourishment to you. I want to see how much you are preaching, how much you are practising Krishna consciousness.

What for do we go preaching? Suppose you buy a mobile phone. If you use the phone without charging it, the battery will soon finish. In the same way, the sadhus come to charge you. It is always necessary to keep good association, sadhu-sanga. Without good association, without practising, you will have no life. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "Even if I am not alive later, I will always be alive for you though the books and scriptures." You can see there are so many books written by Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj and Gurudev. You may have never seen Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj or even our Gurudev—you can see their photos, but you will get their real association through their books.

So, what I want to say is that you should understand how to continue your life, how to use your human body. It is necessary to know this. That is why I have come—I want to tell you what is necessary for our spiritual life, what we have got the human body for. This is what I will discuss with you.

* * *

Enjoyer, Controller, Provider

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 3

I have mentioned just now that we commit so many sins in the course of our lives. If you want to know the solution, it is easy to understand it from Srimad Bhagavad-gita. There, Krishna says, "Everything that exists in this world, what I have created through Brahma, exists for My enjoyment, not your enjoyment."

It does not mean you must leave everything—you can live a family life, it is not a problem. Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told a very good thing: somebody may live a family life, but if they always think about Krishna, if their life is surrendered to Krishna, Gurudev, Lord Nityananda Prabhu, then they are not a mere householder (grihastha), they are like a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. You cannot detect this through someone's outer clothes—it depends on whether the person serves the Lord with heart and soul, it depends on how much one is surrendered to Krishna, how much affection one has for Krishna.

There are so many gurus in this world—kaulik gurus (Kali-yuga gurus), laukik gurus (family gurus), karmi gurus, jnani gurus, yogi gurus. You can see they wear all kinds of clothes, they do all kinds of things. As Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said, some wear a ten-feet-long cloth, some may even wear a five-feet-long cloth. Someone may walk without shoes, someone may have long hair, jata (dreadlocks), beard, etc. You see such people and think that it is a big guru, but you cannot identify this through one's clothes and outer appearance. We are not into renunciation. A guru cannot be recognised through these things.

Who is a real guru? Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explains it. A real guru is one who practises properly, who follows Krishna consciousness, and whose whole life is surrendered to the Lord, whose life is fully offered to his guru (saranagati). Gurudev also said (Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Prabhupad also told this) that if you want to be a guru, you must first be a good disciple. A guru's first identity is that he is a proper disciple of his guru, and a disciple is a person who is always surrendered (avanata mastak, lit. with lowered head, humble), who always follows rules and regulations (sasan mane, lit. obedient, disciplined) and who always follows the instruction of his guru.

So, the main thing, as Srimad Bhagavad-gita says, is that everything in this world exists for the Lord's enjoyment. Because of our ego we always think that this property is my property, these things are my things. You should understand that nothing is yours: when you came to this world, you did not bring anything with you, and when you leave this world, you will not take anything with you. Nothing in this world is yours. If you think that everything belongs to you and enjoy with everything, it means that you are attacked by Maya Devi.

Through good association you can realise that there is somebody who controls you, that you are not the controller, and you must know where He is, what His duty is, and what our duty is. Following that, you will understand that we are only servants, nothing more than that. We must be servants of devotees, servants of the Lord. That is our only identity.

As for the family life, I will tell you how you should live such life. Suppose you are cooking and eating something—you can cook, but you should not cook for yourself or your family; you should cook for the Lord, offer it to the Lord and take prasadam after that. If you do not do that, then, as Krishna said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "If you take something without offering it to Me, it means you are stealing My things, you are committing a sin and the reaction will come to you."

You may like this food, that food, and you think you have the right to eat it. You may plant a tree at your house, and you think you own the tree. You buy some fruit for yourself, and you think that you earn the money you buy it with. Your wife cooks and thinks, "I am cooking." This is all ego. You should understand that we have no power, we cannot do anything and nothing belongs to us. Krishna does everything, He is the owner of everything. Suppose you plant a mango tree. When the mangoes come, you think that you will eat it, your husband or wife will eat it, your father, mother will eat it. This is ego. You can plant a mango tree, but you cannot give life to it. Who gives life to a tree? Krishna. Krishna gave life to this tree and Krishna is the owner of that tree, so you must first offer the mango to Krishna, after that you can take prasad. Do you think that if you offer something to Krishna, He will take everything for Himself? This is not so. Krishna is very merciful—He gave us this life and He also provides food, provides everything for us.

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha

ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through all kinds of material suffering.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117)

The problem is that we have forgotten Krishna. We must remember Krishna, and the purpose of good association is that sadhus, Vaishnavs remind us about Him, they give us proper instructions, they tell us about our proper identity. We must listen to them attentively.

* * *

Chalking Out the Path

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 4

First of all you should practise, chant the Holy Name.

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

Sraddhaya sri-murtir sevana: We have heard that we must offer everything to the Lord, therefore we must do some puja, worship the Lord; but first is good association (sadhu-sanga), then Nama-sankirtan, then Bhagavat-sravan, then staying in Mathura. It does not mean you have to go to Mathura. Where is Vrindavan? Where is the dham? Where there is a sadhu, where there is a Vaishnav.

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi

grhete goloka bhaya

"On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there."

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Some may think that they must go and stay in Mathura, but Prabhupad said that if you stay in Mathura out of your own material desire, for your own enjoyment, that is not living in Mathura, it is living in narak (hell).

Whatever you do—whether it is sukarma, vikarma or akarma (whether you do something good, bad or nothing), you will get the result according to your actions—you may go to heaven, you may go to hell. This is not what devotees want though—devotees do not even want liberation, they never ask for it; devotees always think, "I want devotion, janma-janmantare: I want to be able to serve the Lord life after life." Even if you do something good and do not think about Krishna, you will go to heaven, but it is temporary, it is not permanent—when your punya (pious merit) finishes, you will have to come back to this abode again. The same with hell—you may go to hell, but when the result of your sins finishes, you will also have to come back to this abode.

You must understand that neither heaven nor hell is our permanent, proper place. We come from the Lord, we come from Krishna and we should go back home—back to home, back to Godhead. That is our real place. Through the service to the Lord, through the service to Guru, Vaishnavs, you can go to your real place, which is Goloka.

A perfect guru, a perfect sadhu does not come to take your money, property, wealth. What do they come to you for? They actually go door to door to hijack—hijack not your money or property—they come to hijack you. You are staying in a mundane, material family, so they come to grab you, hijack you from this material family and bring you to Krishna's family. When you go to your real home, you will not have to come back again—whatever service you do here, you can get the same service there.

* * *

Help Yourself and Others

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 5

You should realise something—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that those who have initiation should not only chant themselves, but they should also preach. You should go door to door, you should tell them, you should bring people to the proper guidance, proper things.

Just now when we were doing Tulasi parikrama we were singing, "Ami sakti-buddhi-hina—I have no strength, I have no intelligence, nothing. Ami ati dina—I am very poor, I have nothing, I am very low. Kara more atmasatha—please hijack me!" What does 'hijack' mean? Srila Gurudev, Srila Guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur come to you through us—what for? They are hijacking you. At the same time, you are also praying to Gurudev, "Gurudev, please hijack me from this mundane world!" This is your prayer every day, and you must pray every day—not just sing it, but you must pray to Gurudev and Vaishnavs, "I have no intelligence, I have no brain, please hijack me! I am suffering so much! I am following so many orders of Maya—I am always following bad orders of lust, anger, etc. and I am very unhappy. However, now that I have surrendered to the Lord and I am getting relief and I am very happy." This is the main thing. You should say, "Please hijack me from the mundane world and bring me to the family of Krishna."

Another thing Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told is that you have twenty-four hours a day, but these twenty-four hours are not for you, they are not for enjoying mundane things. Krishna says, "It is My time. You must give twenty-four hours for My service." When you join Krishna's family, whatever you do—whether you cook, work or do anything else—you must do it for the Lord. Krishna says, "I am giving you twenty-four hours a day, and these twenty-four hours are for Me." If you join Krishna's family, you can engage yourself twenty-four hours a day for the Lord, for the Guru.

* * *

Making Offering: Have Heart, Follow Rules

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 6

You must understand how to serve the Deities. "Sraddhaya sri-murti sevana: serve the Deities with faith." You may have a good heart, but it is necessary to know some rules and regulations—if you know the rules, if you get the proper teachings and lessons from your Guru and senior Vaishnavs, then you will be an even greater practitioner. You must practise (be a practitioner), and you must be a great servant. These are the main things.

I remember when I came here many years ago I was jokingly telling everyone one story. It was 1998-1999, after I took sannyas. At that time, the prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, went to Bihar, and the person who was serving him food gave him a mango—without taking out the skin, without cutting it. Vajpayee did not say anything, but he was a little annoyed—how was he supposed to cut it? He did not have a knife or anything. I heard that later, although it was the fault of the man who gave the mango to Vajpayee, the man who was in charge of that visit got suspended from his job.

Then, if we offer a whole fruit like that, the fruit may look very nice, but how is Gurudev, Krishna supposed to eat it? Are you going to give them a knife and have them do the job themselves (peel it, cut it, etc.)? Service means you must arrange everything, then it will be proper service. When we offer the bhog, we must give an asan (a mat for sitting), give some water, etc. You must serve the same way you serve your relative. When you give some food, some fruit to your son, do you just give him the fruit as it is and say, "Eat it!"? Gopal is small. When you have a very small son, do you give him a fruit like this? How will he know how to eat it? Maybe he will eat it with the skin.

You must learn to provide everything, learn how to offer fruit. When you carry some food with you, it is ok, you carry it with the skin, but when you offer bhog in your house, you must peel the fruit, you must cut it. Imagine you come home and give rice, flour, vegetables just like this without cooking them, "Here, Krishna, eat it!" [His Divine Grace laughs.]

On another occasion, hearing the pujari ring the bell, His Divine Grace asked the devotee coming out of the altar room:

—Prabhu, are you already offering the bhog? Have you cut the mango?

—No.

—Oh, do you offer the whole fruit like this, without taking out the skin? When you offer mango, liches, etc. you must peel them. You can leave the seed, but you must take the skin out. Where did you learn puja? Offering mangoes with the skin is South Indian style. You are doing wrong. This is against the rules, it is an aparadh (offence), and when you make an aparadh you have to suffer for it. In some place, a devotee fell down after having been doing puja for thirty years. And how will they give prasadam to everybody? Offering the fruit and then cutting it?... You must learn from a senior devotee. Skin has to be taken out.

* * *

Primary Qualities of Devotee

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 7

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told his disciples a very nice thing. He said, "I will not keep a single rupee for you for future. If I keep money, you will become lazy and not practise properly."

That is why I am telling you that you should go preaching door to door—collect people, collect what is necessary for preaching, collect money, etc. You can do whatever is necessary for the service to Krishna, to the Lord. If somebody steals or robs for himself, reaction will come to them for that, but Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave an example of alwar dacoits, you may have heard about them—they did not get any karma, reaction because they stole for Krishna—the service they did went to Krishna. In this way, for the service of the Lord you can do anything.

You can see also the example of Vraja gopis—they were giving their feet dust to Krishna. Even Narad Muni said, "What are you doing?! You will go to hell!" but they said, "We can go to hell, our legs can be burnt or get leprosy, it is not problem. If it makes our Krishna happy, we will give our feet dust."

This feeling must come, "If some unhappiness or some problem comes through my service to Krishna, that is my happiness."

So, Prabhupad said, "I will not leave a single rupee for you. For preaching, you can take a loan, then to pay the loan, you will have to go door to door. Sometimes, householder people will not be happy when you go to collect, they will throw you out, but at that time you will learn tolerance, humility, giving honour to others." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said that if you go door to door but you do not practise properly, householder people will not give even one rupee to you. That is why you must practise properly, behave properly—you must become a devotee. 'Devotee' means following Mahaprabhu's teaching:

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

Be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. If you think that you have become a great Vaishnav, that is not a devotee's quality. Vraja gopis say, "We do not have any devotion like that of Prahlad Maharaj." If you think you are becoming a great sannyasi or a great Vaishnav, that is not vaishnava-ta (a quality of a Vaishnav). Even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "I do not have even a trace of Krishna-prem. I only aspire to become a servant..." Uddhav Maharaj also said, "If I can become some foot dust of the Vraja gopis, that is sufficient for me. I do not want to be anything more than that."

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says that many people may renounce kanak (money) and kamini (women), but it is very difficult to give up pratistha (name and fame). So, if somebody thinks, "I am becoming a great Vaishnav, I am becoming a great sannyasi," this is not vaishnava-ta, that is not a devotee's quality.

And another thing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told is that if somebody comes to Krishna consciousness thinking, "Oh, I will get some result! I will get something!"—that is also a desire, that is also not good. We come to Krishna consciousness to please the Lord, to please Gurudev—not to please ourselves. This is the main thing. You must please Lord Krishna—please your Guru, the Vaishnavs and Bhagavan.

* * *

Purpose of Surrender

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 8

Are there any questions from you? Do not be shy. You can ask what you want, everybody can also learn something from your question.

Devotee: My mother's sister always phones me and complains, "When will my difficulties end?" What should I tell her?

When she surrenders to the Lord, then all difficulties will leave. It must be a proper surrender. When we live in the mundane world, we suffer from three-fold miseries (tritap-jvala): adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (miseries caused by your body, by the nature, and other souls). Even if you think that you suffer because you are poor, you have no money, you can ask the richest people in the world who have a lot of money (like, multimillionaires Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani), "Do you suffer?" They actually suffer more than you! You can remember also when there was an earthquake in Gujrat and Nepal, when there are floods, heatwaves, etc.—people die and suffer so much from these adhibhautik-, adhidaivik-, adhyatmik-jvala. Sometimes mental problems also come. People suffer from so many material disease, and a doctor can give you some medicine, but they cannot stop the disease. No scientist can stop an earthquake. We cannot do anything—everything is in the hands of the Lord. Even when a calamity happens, they can give you some relief by giving some money if your house is broken or if somebody died, but how much benefit will you get from that? Not much. That is why Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Mahaprabhu tell: (Lord Krishna says,) "If you surrender to Me, if you come to Me, then you will be able to overcome all kinds of suffering, all kinds of problems."

But there is another thing you must think about. You think, "I am suffering from so many problems, so I must surrender to the Lord"—this is not the real way how to surrender. Thinking, "I will come to the lotus feet of Gurudev, to the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, then all my suffering will go away"—this is not devotion. You should surrender with heart and soul, with the devotion. If you get devotion and serve properly, then automatically everything will be set right. You should not think about yourself ("When will the problems leave?")—you do not surrender for that, you must surrender to the Lord to love the Lord.

Devotee: In Bhakti-ratnakar, it is written that if Krishna gives you enjoyment it means He gives you a great disease.

Yes, what you are saying is correct. If you are enjoying in the mundane world, if you are getting much money, this is a disease. Sometimes Krishna gives that disease also.

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya

kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

If you always disturb—always cry, always ask for something—this is what happens. Just like when a child cries to his parents, "Give me this!", "Give me this!", "Give me this!", sometimes his father can get annoyed and give the child some toy or something and leave. Sometimes the child says, "I want to go with you! I am coming with you!" But how will the father take the child with him if he is going to work? So, he gives the child something, some chocolate and leaves. Then, think about it.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told another thing also. Sometimes when people want to get a job, they bribe some minister. So, if you worship some God (Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesh, Kartik, Kali, Radharani, or anyone else) and you want to get something from Them, it means you give Them something and make Them ghuskhar (corrupt, lit. one who loves taking bribes)...

* * *

Always Chant the Holy Name

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 9

Question: Does Krishna's family lineage still exist on this planet?

Krishna exists everywhere. If you have good eyes, not maya chaksu (illusory mundane eyes), but proper eyes, then you can see that Krishna is everywhere, but generally it is not possible for everybody to see Him. Here in South India you are near Nrisinghadev, then you have heard this: when Hiranyakasipu asked, "Where is your Hari? Where is your Krishna? Is He in this pillar?" Prahlad Maharaj replied, "Yes, father, He exists in this pillar." Then, Hiranyakasipu broke the pillar and saw that yes, Lord Krishna was within it.

Question: I constantly pray to the Lord, but my mind always goes somewhere else. How can I concentrate my mind purely on the Lord?

Mind is always naughty, it always wants something. Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told: when your mind is disturbing you, loudly chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, then your mind will concentrate on the Lord. So, at such time chant loudly, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare." Chant this Holy Name again and again and your mind will concentrate. But it is necessary not only think about the Lord and pray—you should just chant the Holy Name.

Question: Are there any limitations or restrictions concerning time and place?

There are no limitations, no restrictions. You can even chant the Holy Name in the bathroom, it is actually good because you know that sometimes people even die in the bathroom—they can have a heart attack or a stroke and die. Then, you can chant anywhere.

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane

aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

“Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.”

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28)

Mahaprabhu, Lord Krishna Himself, says, "You can chant My Name anywhere." There are no restrictions or rules about wearing clean clothes, dirty clothes, etc. Anyone can chant the Holy Name.

One time, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was going to the toilet in Puri. His tongue always chants Harinam maha-mantra, so He was going to the bathroom biting His tongue to prevent it from chanting. Mahaprabhu had a servitor named Gopal. Gopal saw Mahaprabhu going like this and asked Him,

"Prabhu, is there any problem? Why are You biting Your tongue?"

Mahaprabhu said, "This tongue has become very naughty! I am going to the toilet, it is a dirty place, but even then the tongue wants to chant the Holy Name!"

"Prabhu, but You said that we could chant the Holy Name anywhere, at any time, that there were no rules, no restrictions, then why cannot You chant in the bathroom?"

"Yes!" Mahaprabhu exclaimed, "Yes, one can chant the Holy Name in the bathroom also. Gopal, I have forgotten about it and you have reminded Me about it today! You have become My Guru and from today your name will be Gopal Guru!"

Actually, now people have less faith (sraddha). I see that sometimes they take initiation, but they feel shy to wear the Tulasi neck beads. I heard an analogy from one sadhu. Why do we wear the Tulasi beads? You can see there are many street dogs everywhere—these street dogs have no collar, this is how you can recognise that they have no master. And when a dog is walking with a collar and a leash, then you can understand that it has a master. So, when you wear Tulasi beads, then you and others can recognise, "Oh, this person has surrendered to the Lord," and you yourself will think then, "I do not control myself. Krishna is my master and controller." Also, Krishna actually likes Tulasi beads—Tulasi is the dearmost of Krishna.

You must remember that you can die at any time. Always chant the Holy Name. You can remember Ajamil's story—he always thought about his son named Narayan, he was very attached to him, and when he died and Yamaduts came to take him, he was very afraid—at that time he remembered his son and started calling out to him, "O Narayan! Please help me! They have come to take me!" As soon as he chanted the Name of Narayan, Vishnuduts came and rescued him.

* * *

Learn and Practise

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

3 January 2019, part 10

You should wear Tulasi neck beads, do Tulasi parikrama. As I was telling you, you suffer from so many material diseases in your family life—if you want to get relief, you must take prasadam. Always give an offering to Deities. Otherwise, if you cook and do not offer what you cook to Deities, it means you are stealing the Lord's things. You must chant the Holy Name every day, do arati every day, offer bhog every day.

prasada-seva karite haya,

sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We suffer from five kinds of diseases (prapancha) and these diseases will be removed if you offer bhog and take prasadam. Sadhus always take prasadam (take what is offered). We should always try to avoid outside food, but sometimes when you are outside, when you are on a train, etc., to keep the strength in the body, to stay alive you have to take something, drink some water, etc.—then you can remember Krishna, remember Gurudev, offer it to them mentally and then take it. It is necessary to do this, otherwise Mahaprabhu said,

visayira anna khaile malina haya mana

malina mana haile, nahe krsna-nama grahana

"If you take food that comes from materialistic people, your mind becomes contaminated. When your mind is contaminated, you cannot chant the Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.278)

If you take outside food without offering it to your Guru, your mind can become dirty and you will forget Krishna's Name.

Do you have any questions?

Question: How can one surrender to the Lord? How one must chant the Holy Name?

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

How will you serve the Lord? You can come to the one who is the dearmost servitor of your Guru and surrender to that kind of Vaishnav—he can give you proper guidance. Also, you can read the books, you can pray to the Lord, and in that way you can remember the Lord. The main practice is sravan (hearing) and kirtan (chanting), this is srestha, the best...

You can see also what we do. We do evening arati, then Tulasi parikrama, offer bhog, then we take prasadam. In the morning, wake up early, do mangal arati, after that some kirtans. Sripad Paramarthik Maharaj is here, he will do the mangal arati and show everything to you, he will teach you how to practise Krishna consciousness properly. Learn from a proper sadhu.

[Addressing one of the devotees:] Prabhu, do you have no questions? You are a retired person, why cannot you join the temple full-time? You are still serving your wife, aren't you? This is very difficult. Only when they take the last drop of your blood, will they be happy. These are very dangerous things, is it not? Family always takes everything, and every moment they want to engage you in their service in lieu of service to Krishna... They think that they are the enjoyers, but they must understand that Krishna is the enjoyer, we are only servitors.

When Mahaprabhu also wanted to take sannyas, He said, "I am always thinking, 'I will leave, I will leave,' but Maya always attacks Me!" Arjuna was also attacked by Maya—he said, "I do not want to fight, I do not want the kingdom, I do not want to kill my relatives." You are also like that, but when Arjuna listened to Krishna, listened and listened, then he understood what the right way was.

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Finally, Krishna said, "Give up everything I have told you previously—Veda, Vendanta, everything—forget it and only surrender to Me. I will give you relief."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

* * *

At Mangalagiri (2)

At Sri Sri Laksmi Nrisinghadev Temple,

Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh

4 January 2019

We come to preach Krishna consciousness in South India because Gurudev wanted this preaching in South India.

We have visited some places here today, but actually we have no eyes—our eyes are full of dust. How can I see Lord Nrisingha, Pana Nrisingha or Laksmi Nrisingha? It comes through good association—when we visit these places with good association of devotees, then through those devotees we can realise how much devotion Prahlad Maharaj has. All the Vraja gopis of Vrindavan also said, "We do not have the kind of devotion to Krishna that Prahlad Maharaj has."

When Nrisinghadev appeared in this world showing His angry mood (appearing as Ugra Nrisingha), at that time all demigods, Laksmi Devi, Durga, Kali, Indra, everybody was afraid, but Prahlad Maharaj was not afraid. How much devotion he has that he was not afraid! He is a devotee of santa-rasa. How much chastity to the Lord he has.

We can learn another thing also from Prahlad Maharaj. His father gave him so much trouble, so many problems, he even wanted to kill him, but Pralad Maharaj was not angry with him—he did not say a single bad word to him. And you can understand how much devotion, how much love and affection Prahlad Maharaj has that the Lord Himself comes in this kind of form. What did Prahlad Maharaj teach us? When Nrisinghadev asked him, "What kind of boon do you want?" He first said, "My father has given You so much trouble (he did not say "to me"—he was thinking about the Lord!), he has even hit You, made so many offences to You. If You want to give me a boon, then please rescue him." Nrisinghadev said that his father had already got liberation, so He told him to ask for something else. What boon did Prahlad Maharaj finally ask Nrisinghadev for? He said, "Give me that kind of boon so that all asking mood, all desire mood is removed from my heart."

From this example, we can understand that we do not go to the Lord to ask Him for something—we only come to pay obeisance to our Lord. We must pay obeisance with devotion, with so much heart. We do not ask for anything material or even anything spiritual, not even liberation, nothing. We only pay dandavat to the Lord thinking, "I do not know anything. I only want to improve my devotion." It is necessary to be like this.

When Mahaprabhu came here, He would sing,

jaya nrsimha, sri nrsimha, jaya jaya nrsimha

prahladesa jaya padma-mukha-padma-bhrnga

ito nrsimha parato nrsimho

yato yato yami tato nrsimhah

bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimho

nrsimham adim saranam prapadye

I want to explain the meaning of these two verses. The first verse says, "Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay. Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Sri Laksmi Nrisinghadev ki jay. O Nrisingha! Glory to Nrisinghadev! Glory to Prahlad, a bee on the lotus feet of Laksmi Devi." The second verse means, "Here is Nrisingha, there is Nrisingha, wherever I go there is Nrisingha, outside is Nrisingha and within, in my heart, is Nrisingha. I take shelter of Nrisnigha, the original form." He also sang,

vag-isa yasya vadane laksmir yasya cha vaksasi

yasyaste hrdaye samvit tam nrsimham aham bhaje

"I serve Nrisingha in whose mouth resides Saraswati, on whose chest resides Laksmi and in whose heart resides Absolute Consciousness.”

* * *

Enthusiasm for Service

Translated from Bengali, part 5

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

It is necessary to think about pure things. We must serve pure devotees. Those who are real devotees never go travelling to so many different places. Such travelling is just eye exercise, but those who practise real Krishna consciousness, their practice is not like that. We must follow their example.

If we can progress in Krishna consciousness, then we can join the eternal service of Radha-Krishna. The duty of the Guru is to engage the low and fallen souls like us in the service of the Lord's lotus feet. So, all of you who have come here should always engage yourself in the eternal, daily service of the Lord (nitya-seva).

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi

grhete goloka bhaya

"On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there."

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Goloka Vrindavan is in the house where the Lord is offered bhog every day, where the Lord is offered arati every day. It is necessary to do such daily service (nitya-seva) with sincerity. "I will do today, and tomorrow I will not do"—not like that. It must be eternal service. We must always remember this. "How can I use myself in the service of the lotus feet of my Gurudev? How can I use myself in the service of the Lord? What service can be done through me?" We must think about this at every moment.

We must leave offences. Have you not heard it:

aparadha ghuchi' suddha name ruchi

krpa-bale ha'be hrdaye sanchara

"When will my offences be finish and the taste for the pure Name appear within my heart by your mercy?"

Always think about this. We must live thinking about this. If we can live always thinking about this, then we can achieve supreme benefit. There is no other way for us. "Bahu grantha na paribe, bahu kalabhyasa na karibe: do not read so many books, and do not practise so many things." It is necessary to always serve the Lord. When you go to Goloka Vrindavan, you will get there an eternal service. It can be washing dishes, gardening, making garlands, etc. Whatever service we get here by our fortune, that kind of service we can get there also. Otherwise we will have to keep coming here again and again.

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli

tabu tattva na sikhili

nijer matha nije khaili

e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?"

Who will you blame then?

It is necessary to have desire, to have enthusiasm for service, for mercy. Do you remember who Nityananda Prabhu gives mercy to? He does not discriminate—He does not see who is junior, who is senior.

uttama, adhama, kicchu na kare vichara

ye age padaye, tare kraye nistara

"Nityananda Prabhu does not consider who is good and who is bad, He saves anyone who falls before Him."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.208-209)

Nityananda Prabhu gave mercy to whoever fell at His feet. That is the speciality of Nityananda Prabhu. He did not think whether someone is ready or not, what dharma one follows, what caste they belong to, how much money they have, etc. What did He look at? Whoever would fall at His feet. That was his criteria. So, if having got this human birth, we cannot serve the Lord in this life, if we cannot do anything for the Lord in this life, if we only live satisfying our own senses, worrying about our own welfare, then we will not get anything.

durlabha manava janma labhiya samsare

krsna na bhajinu duhkha kahiba kahare?

“I attained a human birth, which is most rare in this world, but did not serve Krishna. To whom shall I express my sorrow?”

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala

labha na ha-ila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy in my material life, and I have got nothing—only became burdened."

How beautiful these words are. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur also writes about the qualifications required to chant the Holy Name:

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others. Live without causing anxiety to others; do good unto others without considering your own happiness."

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

We must throw our own happiness for others' benefit.

* * *

All Loss, All Gain

Translated from Bengali, part 6

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

We must throw our own happiness for others' benefit.

A few days ago someone went to hospital and told me the doctor there works from early morning till 2 a.m. I was thinking how can one work like this? Working till so late at night, they can give someone a wrong medicine. But the doctor is not angry, he is not worried, he just sits and does his job.

Imagine how many patients come to doctors to cure their material diseases—someone has a headache, someone's leg is paining, etc. They all come there and sit in the hallway waiting to see the doctor... But the bhava-rog doctors, the doctors that cure the heart diseases of material existence, themselves come to you. If only we could become such bhava-rog doctors. How will people who have fallen into this illusory world, struggling and drowning in this ocean of material existence, get relief? We must think about them.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean."

Proud of wealth, proud of education, proud of bodily beauty, proud of some mystic powers—how many days will you stay here, tell me? Apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara—always try to leave your ego.

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

"Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others."

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Live without causing anxiety to others; do good unto others without considering your own happiness."

We must throw our own happiness for others' benefit.

Forgetting their own happiness, leaving everyone—their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, friends, whoever they had—sadhus, Gurus and Vaishnavs go door to door and tell people about Krishna consciousness.

We pray to you—always speak about Krishna, always hear about Krishna. This is the greatest benefit in this world. We must speak about Krishna, we must preach about Krishna. If you only come here and say "Haribol," "Haribol," this is not real service. It would be better if you always thought about Gurudev, about the Lord.

Even if you hear you have cancer, for example, and you have to die soon, do not worry—you have to die one day any way. If you can spend the time talking about Krishna consciousness, chanting the Holy Name and leave your body, then the benefit from doing this will stay with you in the next life as well. If you get to know that you have to leave in, say, six months, even if you have cancer and it cannot be cured, then you have only one medicine—chanting the Holy Name. Spend your life in kirtan. In this way you can get supreme benefit.

This world is temporary, we all have to leave this world one day. We have been born in the form of a human this life, and one day you will have to leave and answer—what answer will you give? If you do not have the ferry fare, how will you cross this ocean of material existence? You must first earn the fare. If you cannot do that, then you will not be able to pass—you will have to return here again.

You can see there are so many bhukti-, mukti-, siddhi-kami (people seeking enjoyment, liberation, powers), so many karmi gurus, jnani gurus, yogi gurus—they all stand in one line, but Bhakti Devi is guarding the door and does not let anyone enter. Bhakti Devi will let on the boat only those who have devotion, who have earned the qualification, who have the ticket, and others will be denied entry, they will have to go back.

That is why it is said that among millions of karmis (fruitive workers), there is one jnani (wise man); among millions of jnanis (wise people) there is one liberated soul; and among millions of liberated souls there is only one devotee of Krishna. Even though it is so rare to find such a devotee, but that one devotee can liberate the entire universe.

* * *

Crest Jewel

Translated from Bengali, part 7

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

There are so many jiva souls in this world, but there are not so many human species among them. People say they follow the Vedas, but they do what is prohibited in the Vedas—they practise something for the sake of religion, wealth, material desires, or liberation (dharma, artha, kama, moksa).

When Mahaprabhu came to Keshav Bharati, Keshav Bharati told Him, "This is Kali-yuga, there is actually no sannyas in this age. You have come to take sannyas, but You are only twenty-four—You are living as a grihastha now, You can wait when You become fifty, You can become a vanaprastha, travel to the holy places, but how will you become a sannyasi when you have not even finished your brahmacharya?"

Mahaprabhu said then, "Prabhu, let us say I have become fifty now."

Keshav Bharati said, "You have not learnt to control the five senses (sight, taste, smell, hearing, touch), then even if You are fifty, You cannot take sannyas."

"OK, I am sixty."

"When You are sixty, You still suffer from the six faults of kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, attachment, illusion, envy), even then You cannot take sannyas."

"OK, I am ninety."

"Even if You are ninety, unless You have mastered the devotional nine practices, You cannot take sannyas."

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya

tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati

sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

"In the beginning there is faith, then good association, then practising life. After that, the offences gradually go away, faith becomes stronger, taste comes, then attachment, then there arises affection and love. This is how love to God comes to those who practise Krsna consciousness."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.4.15-16)

"OK, I am one hundred now."

"Even when You are one hundred, You still cannot control your ten senses—five karmendriya (feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth) and five jnanendriya (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin)."

"Does that mean I will never be able to take sannyas?"

Mahaprabhu has expressed this so beautifully.

Finally, when He took sannyas in Katwa, He came with Nityananda Prabhu to the Ganga and saw Advaita Prabhu there. He was surprised, "Advaita, how did You know I was in Vrindavan?"

"Wherever You are, there is Vrindavan."

Then Mahaprabhu realised that He was not in Vrindavan, "Oh? I thought I was in Vrindavan! But I have already recited mantras in glorification of the Yamuna!"

"You did not make any mistake. Here, one bank of the Yamuna and the other is the Ganga. So, there is no problem."

Then, it was a cold winter day, but Sita Rani cooked thirty-two items (battisa-athiya-kalara angatiya pate) for Mahaprabhu and Mahaprabhu chanted kirtan the whole day—we chant for one two hours and feel out of breath, but Mahaprabhu chanted twenty-four hours a day.

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

Later, the Supreme Lord travelled to the holy places of pilgrimage in South India with the clever intention of delivering the fallen souls. Appearing as a beautiful young renunciate, He distributed the sweet Names of the Lord, singing: "Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna he," as He strolled down the different pathways, entered temples, and visited homesteads during the sacred pilgrimage. Infused with an inconceivable type of divine inspiration, the Lord freely chanted "Rama Rama" and joyfully danced with the most charming gestures. Irrespective of time or personal qualification, the assembled bystanders were delivered by the Lord, who inspired them to chant Krishna's Holy Names. I offer my obeisances to that beautiful Golden Lord, Gauranga Sundar, the divine form of Krishna prema.

(Prema-dhama-deva Stotram, 22)

Chanting, "Krishna, Krishna," He liberated the entire world.

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will spread to every village and town on this earth."

He preached His Name everywhere. The Name, form, qualities, pastimes and associates of the Lord are non-different from the Lord, and only the Lord Himself or His associates can distribute His Holy Name. Mahaprabhu gave Gaura-dham, Gaura-nam—He gave everything to Nityananda Prabhu. It is by the unlimited mercy of this Nityananda Prabhu that we have come to His dham and have got this opportunity to chant His glories.

Always chant the Holy Name. Even those who are cutting the vegetables must also cut the vegetables and chant the Holy Name, chant the Name of Nitai. Come, come for Nityananda Prabhu.

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

Gora knows how much service You do for Him! We do not want people, we do not want any powers, we do not want money, we do not need any of this. Mahaprabhu did not take disciples, but thousands of people followed Him everywhere. We need quality, we do not need quantity! You must not only say "Haribol," "Haribol" with your mouth—even if you read all Vedas, you must first of all follow and practise what is written there yourself, with sincerity, then your life will be successful.

It is necessary to think about this.

* * *

Capital Misjudgement

Translated from Bengali, part 8

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

"Following the whims of your mind on pretext of service is not service; following the order of the Guru, serving the Vaishnavs and satisfying them is called service." It is necessary to always serve the Guru. Some shave their heads during the shraddha ceremony and some shave their heads on Nityananda trayodasi—do you think it is the same?

There is a story that Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told. "I will say nothing, and you too will say nothing."

This country's name is India, and some time ago the government here was British—the magistrates, judges were all British. One time, a man came to a judge and brought him a jackfruit. Foreigners usually do not know this fruit, so they do not know how to eat it, what the seeds look like, etc. The judge was busy in the court when the man came, so he saw the fruit only later. It was a big ripe jackfruit. He was surprised, "What kind of fruit is this?"

He pressed it and felt that it was soft inside. The judge was British, so he did not know what to do with it—he cut the fruit and took out the peel and then he started digging in the sticky part of it that is usually discarded. Now, the judge had a big beard. So, when he tried to eat the jackfruit, the sticky sap of the jackfruit and its pulp all got stuck in his beard. No matter how he tried to get it out of his beard, nothing helped.

In the morning his assistant came and the judge chastised him, "What kind of fruit is this?! All my beard is ruined now! How can I go to the court like this? Bring a barber!" The assistant called a barber and the barber shaved the judge's beard off. When he came to the court, everybody talked among themselves, "Look, what has happened to the judge's beard? Where did it go?"

That day, a sadhu came to the court (he had some case). You know that sadhus shave their heads, they have no beards. When the judge saw that sadhu, he told him to come to his house in the evening, after all the hearings. The sadhu came, and the judge asked him, looking at his shaved head,

"Have you also eaten a jackfruit?"

"No..."

"How come you have no beard then?"

"All of us are like that—we shave our heads and beards."

"All right, do not tell anyone about it. I will keep quiet and you also keep quiet."

There is another story also. One time, a man went to a house where they had a night-long kirtan and listened to the kirtan the whole night. In the morning he thought, "I must go to the mangal arati." So, he went to take a bath in a pond (after that he was going to go to the temple). When he came to the pond, he saw another man taking bath there. It was a thief who was taking a bath after having stolen something.

The thief asked the man, "Which district did you steal in this night?"

The man said, "What do you mean? I went to that house over there, they had a night-long kirtan."

"Oh, and I thought that you too had been stealing..."

A thief thinks every man steals.

We are also like this—we think that everyone is like us…

* * *

Muddled Mind

Translated from Bengali, part 9

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Srila Prabhupad also told another story about Lalu and Kalu.

Once, there was a shopkeeper who had two very naughty sons who did not want to study. Their father tried in many ways to get a teacher for them, he thought, "I have got old, who will take over the shop after me? These two do not want to learn anything, how will they run the shop?" So, he decided to give an advertisement in a newspaper, he wrote there, "Looking for a good teacher who would come to the house and teach two children. The salary is ten thousand per month."

One day, a poor but educated brahman came to him and asked what he must teach them. The shopkeeper said, "I have two sons, they are foolish and very naughty. They neither want to go to school, nor want to study anything. Will you be able to teach them?"

"Yes, I will try."

"All right, but you must always stay with them—eat with them, even when they go to the bathroom, you must stay with them. They are very naughty."

"All right, I will."

So, he began teaching them. One day, they had lunch and the brothers said they were going to sleep. The teacher did not sleep because he had to watch the naughty children, but the boys told him, "Teacher, you sleep, do not worry." Now, Kalu was naughtier than his brother, so he told his brother, "Brother, let's start snoring, then the teacher will think we are asleep." The teacher was surprised that both of them had fallen asleep so soon and soon dozed off himself. As soon as the children understood that the teacher had fallen asleep, they sneaked outside and went for a smoke. Then, they returned and the teacher did not notice anything.

After a while, the teacher woke up and felt the smell of tobacco.

"Hey, you two, wake up! Why does it smell of tobacco in the room?! Where did the smell come from? Have you smoked?!"

"What are you talking about, Sir? You were with us in the room and we were asleep—you felt asleep before us. When would we smoke?"

"Give me your hand!" He smelt their hands. "You have smoked!"

"No, someone else must have come and smoked on my hands."

"So naughty!! Come with me now!"

They went to a field. There were some cows in the field and the teacher asked one of the brothers, "How many legs does this cow have?"

Lalu started counting, "One, two, three—"

"Do not say, brother! The teacher is trying to trick you! He is trying to teach you maths!"

We are like that too—even though we are taught to chant the Holy Name, but nobody wants to say Hare Krishna. Guru Maharaj also told jokingly that some people walk around with a big mala but if somebody hits them in their stomach, they will cry, "Ma! Baba! [Mother, father]"—no "Hare Krishna" at that time…

* * *

Clasping for Shelter

Translated from Bengali, part 10

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

First of all, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj begging him for his causeless mercy. After that, I am offering my obeisance to all Guru-varga, all the worldwide acharyas, to all my God-brothers and sisters, to all devotees, sannyasis, brahmacharis and all of you praying for your mercy to this low soul.

As I have told earlier, we are very fortunate to have come here to Sri Ekachakra Dham. "Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe: without Nityananda Prabhu we cannot get mercy of Radha-Krishna." You have heard it, it is a very nice kirtan—but only hearing is not enough, you must also realise its meaning. It is such a beautiful kirtan:

nitai-pada-kamala, koti chandra-susitala,

ye chhayaya jagata judaya

"Cooling like ten million moons, Nitai's lotus feet soothe the world with their shade."

The moon gives light, the sun also gives light, but what is the difference? When the sun rises, everything becomes hot, but when the moon rises, does it get hot? No. Koti chandra-susitala—just as everything becomes cool by the light of the moon, in the same way, if you take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu's lotus feet, you will feel the coolness of millions of moons. The light of His feet relieves, cools the entire world.

hena nitai vine bhai radha-krsna paite nai

drdha kari' dhara nitaira paya

"Without Nitai, you cannot reach Radha-Krsna. Firmly grasp Nitai's feet."

"Drdha" means strongly—you must take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu with all your strength, firmly; you must take shelter of Guru-tattva with all your strength. Gurudev also said in his book,

yadyapi amara guru vesya-bari yaya

tathapio amara guru nityananda-raya

"Even if my Guru, Nityananda Ray, goes to a prostitute's house, He is still my Guru."

People say many things about Nityananda Prabhu—He goes to this house, to that house, He does not follow any rules or regulations, etc. but Mahaprabhu Himself gave a certificate to Nityananda Prabhu:

madira javani jadi nityananda dhare

tathapi brahmara vandya kahila tomare

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat: Antya-khanda, 6.123)

"If Nityananda Prabhu comes drunk with a Muslim girl hand in hand, even then Brahma will not see any fault in Him." Who gave Nityananda Prabhu such certificate? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Such is Nityananda Prabhu's quality, and He is Guru-tattva.

You have heard that when Nityananda Prabhu came to Nabadwip, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Chandrasekhara Acharya and Srivas Pandit, "You go find Him." In those days, there were not so many houses in Mayapur—there were not so many temples, houses, etc. Nityananda Prabhu came to meet with Mahaprabhu, and Mahaprabhu is antaryami, He understood that He had come, but nobody could find Him—they came back to Mahaprabhu and said, "Prabhu, we have not found anyone." "You have not? Then I will go Myself!" Mahaprabhu Himself went to the house of a householder devotee named Nandan Acharya where Nityananda Prabhu was. He came there and immediately embraced Nityananda Prabhu, and after they spoke a little, Mahaprabhu took His hand and brought Him to His house where Sachi Mata fed Them both very nicely.

That is why it is said that Nityananda Prabhu is actually very hidden (esoteric)—it is very difficult to find Him. Unless one is a very fortunate soul, one can never find Him.

* * *

You Be an Instrument

Translated from Bengali, part 11

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

You have heard what happened in Jhamatpur, about Gunarnava Misra and Ramdas Minaketan. One day, the brother of Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami arranged a big kirtan programme and invited a priest Gunarnava Misra who kept there a Deity of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, but not that of Nityananda Prabhu. When Ramdas Minaketan came there, Gunarnava Misra did not even give him a place to sit. Everyone acknowledged his arrival, but the priest remained busy with his puja. Then, Ramdas Minaketan went to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami and said, "What is this? He gives respect to Gauranga, but not to Nityananda! Because I am a servant of Nityananda Prabhu, he did not even give me a place to sit. This is ardha-kukkuti nyaya (half-hen logic)!"

What does it mean? 'Kukkuti' means a hen. Half-hen logic means you keep the part that the hen gives eggs with and throw away the part that the hen eats with. This is called half-hen logic. It is written in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. I have heard about it from Srila Guru Maharaj, I asked him one day. If you cut the head of the hen, will you get any eggs from it? Therefore, if you give respect to one and not to the other, it is called half-hen logic.

That night, when the programme was over, Nityananda Prabhu gave a dream to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami, "Listen Krishna Das! Do not stay in Jhamatpur anymore, you must not associate with your brother, he is an atheist (pasanda)! Come to Vrindavan!"

You cannot worship Gauranga and not worship Nityananda Prabhu. In the same way you cannot serve Krishna without Radharani. Once, one elderly devotee had an argument with Kolkata High Court judge over this matter. The judge said that in the scriptures there is only Krishna's Name, Radharani's Name is not mentioned anywhere, so why must we worship Radharani? The devotee called me and said, "Maharaj, I got your phone number, please save me! I have to prove to the judge that one cannot serve Krishna without serving Radharani." I told him some quotes from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Sri Chaitanya-bhagavatam, quotes of Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad and the judge was convinced.

So, without service of Nityananda Prabhu you cannot serve Gauranga and without service of Radharani you cannot serve Krishna.

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela

krsna-bhajana tava akarane gela

"If you do not worship Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna is nothing."

When we were doing Nrisinghadev's temple, everybody said, "What is this? We worship Nrisinghadev here." I told them, "How can you worship Nrisinghadev alone? Laksmi Devi must be there too." That is what service in santa-rasa is.

Srila Guru Maharaj said also one thing, "We are only instruments."

Suppose you have a tractor, can a tractor run without a driver? It cannot—if you do not start the tractor, it will just stand there. In the same way, Gurudev and the Lord are the drivers and we are only Their instruments. There is a saying in Bengali also that says, "How can a musical instrument sound without a music player?" Suppose, you have a mobile phone and it rings, can you hear the person if you do not press the button? No. Only when you press the button can you hear anything in it. That is why, when you have a thing it is necessary to have those who operate that thing (if it is a music instrument, it is necessary to have a person who plays the instrument; if you have a mobile phone it is necessary to have a person who uses the phone). That is why, we must serve those who serve the Lord, we must serve the Lord's eternal servants. You cannot become a devotee without service to Vaishnavs, without service to Bhakti Devi. You cannot serve the Lord without service to Vaishnavs. Guru Maharaj also said that if you serve Vaishnavs, then the Lord Himself will come to serve you—the Lord Himself will come and do the service through you. It is necessary to have such faith, to always think about this.

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya

krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

Your debt to your mother, father, rishis (sages), demigods—all debts are cleared if you serve the Lord. No debt to your mother, father, ancestors, rishis (sages), demigods remains. Always remember this. If you serve the Lord, all debts are cleared.

* * *

Hidden Practice and Broad Preaching

Translated from Bengali, part 12

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Nityananda Prabhu preached in many places, but Virachandra Prabhu (His son) along with other devotees revealed His glory. When Srila Sridhar Maharaj came here to the appearance place of Nityananda Prabhu and paid his obeisance here, he received the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. After that, he started taking disciples. When he asked Nityananda Prabhu for his mercy, Nityananda Prabhu sent him a message, "You have already got much mercy from Prabhupad, but you are coming to Me asking Me for My mercy—first distribute the mercy you have got! You do not need My mercy—reveal to this world the mercy of Nayana Manjari, Srila Prabhupad."

Therefore, those of you who are going home after the festival, must preach these things. After this birth itself we can actually engage ourselves in the service to the lotus feet of Radha Govinda. It is for this purpose (to get the service to the lotus feet of Radha Govinda) that we come to the holy dham, we serve the dham—we sweep, we make garlands, we wash the Lord's dishes, cook for the Lord. When you serve the Lord, you have no debt, nothing left—this kind of merit will stay with you. There is someone writing your diary and if your diary says you never heard about Govinda, you never served Govinda, that you spent your whole life only saying "my, my, my" ("my husband, my son, my wife, my family, my friends, my relatives"), then what result will you get? That is why sadhus and gurus come to you:

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara

nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

They do not come to you for their own benefit, for their own purpose—those who are real sadhus, they come to your door for your benefit, to cure your heart-disease. These are the real sadhus. "He is not your father, he is not your friend, she is not your mother, he is not your husband, he is not your guru, if they cannot bring you to this path of Krishna consciousness." If a guru cannot rescue you from this ocean of material existence, he is not a real guru. You must take shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord by taking shelter at the lotus feet of a guru who can rescue you from the illusory environment and by engaging yourself in the service of the Lord. This is what life is.

We pray to you—wherever you go, wherever you stay, only chant, "Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna," chant "Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol" to yourself. You do not need to show anything to others. If people criticise you, it will be your offence. If you chant on your beads showing it to everyone, and someone says to you, "Oh, look at him, he is chanting on beads, what a big sadhu he has become!"--if this kind of remark comes because of you, it will be your offence. So, you do not have to show your beads to everyone, you can hide your mala under your cloth and chant. You think people will get benefit by seeing you chant, but the result will be the opposite, and the fault will be yours—you will get the bad result for that. That is why you must keep your spiritual practice (bhajan) to yourself.

Also in Mahaprabhu's time also people criticised Him and made offences to Him, but when Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip they shed tears and became rescued...

Anyhow, much has been said. Tomorrow is Ekadasi, you must observe it. You can eat as much potato as you want, you can eat even five kg, no problem. We have brought much potato for tomorrow.

Devotee: And if one has diabetes?

If you eat potato one day, nothing will happen. I also have diabetes, but I take three kg potato on Ekadasi (one kg in the morning, one kg in the afternoon, and one kg in the evening), you can ask those who cook for me. [Everyone laughs]. Follow Ekadasi. Do not worry that you will be hungry, this, that. You can take anukalpa (prasadam allowed on Ekadasi). Sometimes Ekadasi is observed on Dvadasi—that is when Ekadasi day falls on Dvadasi. Sometimes Ekadasi day is viddha (mixed, i.e. overlapping other days), then Ekadasi is observed on the next day, Dvadasi. Sometimes Dasami, Ekadasi and Dvadasi can also be all in one day, it is called "Trisprsa."

* * *

Love To Death

Translated from Bengali, part 13

27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Tomorrow is Varaha dvadasi, the appearance day of Varahadev. Taking the form of a boar, the Lord defeated Hiranyaksa and Nrisinghadev defeated Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu were Jay and Vijay, two brothers and gatekeepers in Vaikuntha. Narayan became annoyed with them and let them be cursed.

When the ego of servitors increases, the Lord can get annoyed. It happened to Uddhav Maharaj also—he thought, "I always stay with Krishna, I am a big devotee!" but the Lord showed him that the gopis were the greatest devotees. Gopis have no hair on their heads because they carry all the butter pots, water pots, etc. on their heads! They lost the hair on their heads! And Krishna showed to Uddhav Maharaj that they are the highest devotees. Gopis neglect their own bodies. Look at us—we always think about the body, we apply oil, use this, that. But they gave their footdust when Krishna had headache. They said, "Even if our legs burn, if we get leprosy, we do not care as long as our Lord is OK." How much love they have for Krishna!

But what are nowadays' wives like? Their husbands lose legs in a car accident, and they say, "No problem, I can get another husband." Such stories are in newspapers every day... Somebody also gets a lover and they kill the husband together. What people do for the sake of trifle happiness! This is Kali-yuga. If you read newspapers, you will see these stories there every day, not even one day passes without some news like that.

And if you hear what science does, you will be amazed. Once, a woman plotted with her lover to kill her husband. She killed her husband and then poured acid on the face of her lover and got him admitted to hospital. Then she called the parents-in-law saying that their son was going to commit suicide by pouring acid on himself and now he was in hospital. The parents came to the hospital and told the plastic surgeons to restore the face of their son. Then, the man was treated, but seeing his behaviour the parents got suspicious—one day, they gave the man some goat soup in hospital, but the man said he was vegetarian and refused to eat it while the son of the parents had always eaten meat. Then they called the police, the wife was arrested and everything was revealed.

What the world has come to!

* * *

Ditching the World

Translated from Bengali, part 1

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day

29 January 2018, evening, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Today we have successfully made Sri Ekachakra Dham parikrama...

[There is too much background noise.]

I am begging you, please do not talk. I am clasping your feet and asking you. Please do not talk, you are making offence. "Dinera madhye abala-tabala kata pachala parite para, tara madhye ki eka-bara govinda bolate nara!": You can talk about so many nonsense things all day long, but amidst all can you not say "Govinda!" just once? We talk so much, but when the Lord takes the power of speech from us, then we will not be able to say a word. You think you have got this mouth for eating and talking—the Lord will send you to a cow's body, then you will moo and eat grass all day long!

Sadhus, Gurus, Vaishnavs they come to your door as bhava-roga doctors and stand in front of you just to tell you some Hari-katha. In this world, to see a good doctor, you have to wait in the queue, you have to go to a good hospital, but the bhava-roga doctors go door to door distributing the medicine for the material disease of heart (bhava-roga), but if you do not take this medicine properly, will there be any result? If you keep on talking gramya-katha, gramya-varta (village talks and village news), then you will not get anything.

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana

tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

Even if you hear about the Lord and chant the Lord's Name, practise for millions of lives, you will not get the Lord. Why?

hena krnsa-nama yadi laya bahu-bara

tabu yadi prema nahe, nahe asrudhara

tabe jani, aparadha tahate prachura

krsna-nama-bija tahe na kare ankura

"If you chant this Name of Krishna so many times but still there is no love, there are no tears streaming from your eyes, then as I understand there are too many offences and the seed of Krishna's Name does not sprout."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.29-30)

Because you must chant the Holy Name without offence! You must give up offences. This is natya-mandir—this is a place only for talks about Prabhupad, Guru Maharaj, Gurudev, for singing Nityananda Prabhu's glories. This is not a place for anything other than that. This is "bhakti-siddhanta sravan sadhan"—this is a place where we must talk about devotional teachings (bhakti-siddhanta). You can talk about all sorts of nonsense things all day long at home, but here you are tolerating so much austerity lying on the cold floor. Have you got no realisation? Has the Lord not given you any understanding? Do you think the Lord does not see you? Do you think He does not see that you come and only talk all the time?

We have come here by a great fortune. Not everybody can come here. We must take the dust of this place, we must take prasad at this place.

alpa-bhagye seva nahi haya

koti janma thakle bhagya

visaya chhede haya vairagya

"Service does not come by just a little fortune. Only after ten million births of good fortune, can you leave this material world behind."

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

mali hana kare sei bija aropana

sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

“Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper. As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practising: hearing and chanting.”

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151-152)

We want this sravan and kirtan water. You must always think, "How can always I chant the Holy Name in good association?" You must earn devotion—if you do not earn devotion, you will not get the Lord. How does one earn it? "Bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhakta-sangena parijayate (Brhan-naradiya Purana)—you can get devotion through the association of devotees." It is necessary to associate with devotees.

What is association with devotees? Eat with them from one plate? Sleeping with them in one room? Living with them? This is not association with devotees. If you listen to what devotees say and follow that, if you practise according to their advice, then you will come in touch with devotion. You must always remember this.

Every day we sing in the morning,

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

“Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion.”

Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami:

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

What did Nityananda Prabhu say? We have come here to the holy abode of Lord Nityananda Prabhu to please Nityananda Prabhu. How can we please Him? Do you think He will be happy if we come and talk all kinds of nonsense talks here? Nityananda Prabhu told us to chant the name of Gauranga:

bhaja gauranga, kaha gauranga, laha gaurangera nama re

ye jana gauranga bhaje, sei amara prana re

"Worship Gauranga! Say Gauranga! Take Gauranga's Name! Those who worship Gauranga are My heart and soul!"

This is what Nityananda Prabhu told and this is what we must do!

When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip and took sannyas, what did He tell all the devotees?

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)

If you love Mahaprabhu, then you must chant the Holy Name of Krishna. And not only say it:

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

If you are to practise truly, then you must cook, you must serve the Lord nicely, you must become detached and peaceful (shanta). Always think about this. If you do not think about this, where will it take you? You have got this rare human birth having travelled throughout 8,400,000 species (among them only 400,000 are human species, and the rest are so many species—trees, plants, insects, beasts, birds, aquatic species, etc.), you have got birth in Bharata-bhumi (India):

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara

janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

"One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of his birth and bring benefit to all other people."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 9.41)

What is benefit to others? Jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava-seva (be kind to the jiva souls, have taste for chanting the Holy Name, and serve Vaishnavs. If you give somebody ten rupees or if you give somebody prasad in winter, but they will go away and later they will again come to you. This is not charity. What is the true charity? If you bring even one soul averse to Krishna to this path and engage them in the service of the Lord, that is called true charity. Sarva-jive Krsna adhisthan: Krishna lives within all jiva souls. All souls are born to serve Krishna, and you must use every jiva soul for the service of Lord Krishna. Then it will be charity to others.

So called learned people of this world say, "Jive prema kare yei jana sei jana sevichhe isvara: love God by loving others." They tell others, "As many faiths, so many paths (yata mat tata path)." People are attracted to this, but we do not understand the real thing. Do you see our condition? We must cry,

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

('Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

"When will material attachment be removed from my heart? When will that happen?"

kabe jive daya haibe udaya,

nija-sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdaya

"When will compassion to all souls arise in my heart and I forget my own happiness?"

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?')

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

“When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?”

("Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

When will our material desires become insignificant and leave me?

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote,

emana durmati samsara bhitare

padiya achhinu ami

“O Lord! I am very wicked-minded and have fallen into this material world.”

('Emona Durmati' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

When Mahaprabhu left and took sannyas, Guru Maharaj said He would sing about His position, "Ami yai yai mane kari, ami yaite nahi pari—maha-maya pichanete taya!" The Lord says, "I have decided that I will leave, but I could not! I want to leave this material world, but Maya pulls Me back!"

We must think about it. We must always think how we can reach the Lord.

* * *

Masterminding the Escape

Translated from Bengali, part 2

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day

29 January 2018, evening, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Srila Sanatan Goswami asked Mahaprabhu five questions: "Who am I? Why do I suffer? What is my benefit? What is the goal? How to attain that goal?"

"Who am I?" What did Mahaprabhu reply? We say, "I am such-and-such Maharaj"—we say this is my head, this is my skin, these are my ears, these are my eyes—but who am I? This is what we do not understand. My body and I are not one and the same thing.

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'

krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; the souls comes from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

We have light here in the temple, but it comes from a power house. The power house gives electricity to so many places, but a single bulb's capacity is very small. In the same way, the sun gives light to the entire planet, but a single sun ray can give light to only one room, for example. The Lord is like a great sun and we are like rays of that sun. How small are we? If you take a tip of a hair and divide it ten thousand times, this is the size of the soul—but we are so proud—we think we are so great. It is all useless.

"Why do I suffer?" Why do we suffer the agony of the three-fold misery?

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha

ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

“Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through all kinds of material suffering.”

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117)

As a result of forgetting Krishna we struggle with three kinds of miseries—adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls). What must we do to get relief from all this? We must take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. Where can you find the Lord? You can find the answer to this question in Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur's kirtan:

tava nija-jana kona mahajane

pathaiya dile tumi

"You have sent a great soul, Your associate (to rescue me)."

The Lord has sent His own associate to save the low and fallen souls like us and Srila Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur wrote:

saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair

uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih

kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya

vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

Guru is the Lord Himself or His very associate, i.e. Srimati Radharani. Nityananda Prabhu is Guru-tattva. I tell you all the time, "Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe: when Nitai bestows His mercy, you will reach Radha-Krsna in Vraja." If you get mercy of Nityananda, you will get mercy of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Radha and Krishna who came to this world and went door to door saying,

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya

maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

"When someone is possessed by a ghost, they become bewildered. This condition overtakes souls bound by Maya."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

As a result, we become covered by the feeling, "My house, my children, my wife, my sister, my family"—while we think about all this, our life comes to its end. We have no time! We can leave at any moment. That is why Prabhupad said,

uthare uthare bhai ara ta samaya nai

'krsna bhaja' bale uchchaihsvare

“Wake up, wake up, brother, there is no time! Worship Krishna!”

We must worship Krishna, we must loudly chant the Name of Krishna, then we will get the greatest benefit. Mahaprabhu ordered everyone to chant the Holy Name of Krishna. This is not Satya-yuga (you do not have 100,000 years of life)—no scripture says that you can get the Lord through meditation in Kali-yuga.

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam

sangopangastra-parsadam

yajnaih sankirtana-prayair

yajanti hi su-medhasah

"Those of sharp intellect will worship Krishna who appears with a non-black bodily hue, who is armed and surrounded by His associates and servants, and who always chants the Holy Names."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

The weapons in this age are mridanga and karatals: the Lord's associates fight Maya with mridanga and kartals. Prabhupad said that it is necessary to declare war against Maya. A sannyasi is not someone who goes to the mountains and lives somewhere in a jungle or a cave. A sannyasi means a general—he will declare war again Maya (illusory environment) and with his soldiers he will fight the illusion. This is what Prabhupad said.

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri

vibudhabahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri

sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani

vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

"With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of liberation. With his third step, he eased the hard rules and regulations by a touch of the Divine Love: he gave us the worship of Sri Sri Radha and Govinda. The real existence of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad is in his divine teachings. May those teachings dance eternally within the core of your heart."

He declared war against Maya and relaxed the rules and regulations (as for example, people fasted for three days on Ekadasi—one day before and one day after; but he told to fast only on Ekadasi and allowed anukalpa at noon).

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya

sadhu-gurur krpa vina na dekhi upaya

"It is not possible to conquer maya by engaging in maya. I see no other way to get relief except for the mercy of sadhus."

('Ki rupe paibe seva', Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

It is impossible to defeat Maya—only if you get the mercy of sadhus and Guru, can Maya be defeated. Otherwise not. We must always be careful. Maya always surrounds us, and as soon as you become weak and become obstructed in your service, Maya will attack you. You know that if your health becomes weak, then different diseases start attacking you. Illusion is also a kind of a disease, and a very difficult kind of disease. If you are obstructed in your service, if you become lax in your service to the Guru and Vaishnavs, then Maya, who is always near, will jump on you and seize you.

krsna-bahirmukha hana bhoga vanchha kare

nikatastha maya tare japatiya dhare

"When souls become averse to Krishna and desire enjoyment, nearby Maya seizes them."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.2)

She will seize you at once. This is Maya's job—she takes you away from service and makes you her slave. You want to be a slave of the Lord, but Maya is always behind you—when will you come to her?

Suppose a man is walking down the street drinking alcohol. You do not drink alcohol, but he will call you, "Hey, listen, come here!" You are scared, but you come to him and he pours alcohol down your throat. Then he will tell everyone, "He also drinks alcohol!" Everyone then will criticise and laugh at you. This is how deceptive Maya is. This can happen at any time; we are fallen souls, we have fallen into this illusory world.

One time, I saw in Nabadwip some man had been drinking alcohol all night and fell into a drain. I tried to wake him up but he would not get up. He said, "What? I am lying on my posh bed! I am the Prime Minister!" I laughed when I heard it. We are also like this. We think, "I am the king, I am the minister, I am the master of this house and you are all my servants!" You must think—who is the Master? The only Master is Lord Krishna.

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

It is by His desire that there is water, by His desire that rain comes, by His desire there is a house, etc. Everything happens and is arranged by His will, without His will, nothing is possible. The Lord Himself says, "I am one." From one comes ten, then hundred, then ten thousand, then one hundred thousand, and so on. But first is one. If someone worship this, that, meditates, does this, that, if someone does not serve the Lord following the Guru, then everything is in vain—such practice, such worship all go in vain, there will be no result. It is necessary to take shelter of a bona fide Guru. Who is called a bona fide Guru? What does mortal material world (mrityu-rupa samsar)? It means coming and going, always suffering from illusion. He who can rescue you from such illusory world and take you to Goloka Vrindavan engaging you in the service of Radha and Govinda, is called a Guru.

* * *

Look for Purity

Translated from Bengali, part 3

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day

29 January 2018, evening, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Sivji Maharaj told Parvati Devi, "O Devi, there are so many vitta harankari gurus in this world!" Vitta means money—there are many gurus who steal money from people.

Suppose you come to a doctor. The doctor sends you for a blood test to check your sugar, and the result comes that you have diabetes. What does the doctor do then? He will give you medicine and a chart with the foods you must avoid. He will tell you that you must not eat any sweets or potato. But you say, "Doctor, I have much money. Whatever medicine you prescribe, I will take it, but I cannot give up sweets." If it is a good doctor, if the doctor loves you, he will say, "I do not want such patient as you." And if the doctor loves your money, he will say, "OK, you can eat, but a little less, try to give up sweets gradually."

There are such gurus in the this world that say, "Eat whatever your soul desires." But the soul wants to serve the paramatma, it does not want to eat anything! It is the eyes and the mind that want to eat! People go to a fish market and when they see some nice big fish, their mouth waters. Eyes want it and if you have money you buy it. This is all the disease of eyes, mind and other senses. This is jihva-veg (urge of tongue). We sing in the kirtan also, "Chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi', subjugate the six urges, rectify the six" defects..."

When Mahaprabhu wanted to take sannyas, He told Keshav Bharati,

"Prabhu, My age is 100 now."

Keshav Bharati replied, "If you cannot control your ten senses, then even if you are a hundred, you cannot become a sannyasi." (Mahaprabhu took sannyas at twenty-four.)

Mahaprabhu said, "I am fifty."

Keshav Bharati replied, "If you cannot control your five sense, then even at fifty you cannot take sannyas."

"I am sixty."

"If you cannot control the six enemies (kama, krodha, lobha, mada, moha, matsarya), then even at sixty you cannot take sannyas."

"I am ninety."

"If you cannot follow the nine practices of devotion, then even at ninety you cannot take sannyas!"

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya

tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati

sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

"In the beginning there is faith, then good association, then practising life. After that, the offences gradually go away, faith becomes stronger, taste comes, then attachment, then there arises affection and love. This is how love to God comes to those who practise Krsna consciousness."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.4.15-16)

This is how service comes, gradually.

It is said so beautifully in the scriptures, If you get relief from the disease of this world, you can get spiritual world. For that you must listen properly, you must follow the regulative principles properly (no gambling, illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating), if you can follow the five main practices (sadhu-sanga, sravan-kirtan, Mathura-vas, Bhagavat-sravan, sraddhaya Sri Murti sevan). This is what is practised at Gaudiya Math. If somebody asks you, "What happens at Gaudiya Math?" What will you reply? "Oh, they chant the Name." Everyone everywhere chants the Lord's Names. You can pay someone and they will sit and sing all day long, and if you give more money, they will sing even longer. There is one story that Prabhupad told.

There were two brothers who always fought with each other. Once, one of the brothers arranged asta-prahar kirtan at his house—he brought a band to the house, fed them and they started singing and playing kirtans. They sang so well and showed so much emotion that they would even float in the Ganges. The other brother came to them after that and said, "You have done a nice kirtan at my brother's house. You must do even a better kirtan at my house! You must show even more emotion!" They said, "Yes, we can, but you must give more money as well. And bring some pan (betel leaf)." The singer took the betel leaf with some drug and began singing, "Hare Krishno-o-o-o-o" and fell down. He fell down and did not get up. One hour passed. Someone started shaking him, "Brother, wake up, wake up! Long time has passed, wake up." This is all deception.

I have also seen this. In my previous life, when I was a small kid, some kirtan party from this or that sampradaya would come to our house. And they would come to our house with onions—they would put some onion juice or mustard oil in their eyes to start crying. Do you think that if you hear such kirtans you will get benefit? No, you will only get inauspiciousness.

Sivji Maharaj said if you take milk, you will get nourishment and health, milk has many vitamins. Suppose you have two cups with milk, if you put some snake poison in one of them and drink it, what will happen? Both look the same, but if you drink one you will get nourishment and if you drink the other one you will die. In the same way, if you hear the Holy Name, you will get benefit, but if you hear Nama-aparadh, you will get inauspiciousness, you will die. That is why it is said,

asadhu-sange bhai krsna-nama nahi haya

namaksara bahiraya bate tabu nama kabhu naya

"Brother, the Name of Krishna never appears in bad association: the letters of the Name may appear, but the Name never does."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.1)

One time, when there were no mobile phones (when people used to write letters and postcards to communicate with each other), a lady came to a festival and took initiation from a Guru. Now, it happened so that her husband's name was Hare Krishna, so when she came home, she realised, "Gurudev told to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, but it is my husband's name!" She told her husband, "Listen, Gurudev told me to chant the Holy Name, but it is your name, how can I say your name?" (In India, wives do not say their husband's name.) The husband said, "Yes, I am your husband! Your Guru did not do right. You cannot take my name. You must write to him and say about this." The wife asked, "But he told me to go home and chant the Name, what should I do now?" The husband replied, "Then chant Pare Keshto Kare Keshto Keshto Keshto Pare Pare."

That's how we chant the Holy Name...

sadhu-sange krsna-nama—ei matra chai

samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

“I desire only to chant the Name of Krishna in the association of the sadhus. There is no other way to conquer samsara.”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.13)

* * *

Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Sakti

Translated from Bengali, part 4

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day

29 January 2018, evening, Sri Ekachakra Dham

The Lord has tried to save the souls bounded by maya in so many ways in this Kali-yuga. Nityananda Prabhu also showed that when He had saved Jagai and Madhai. He was the only child of Hadai Pandit and Padmavati Devi and He left them when He was twelve. Later, He was introduced to Jahnava Devi.

We have a ladies' ashram in Kalna, and near the temple there is Gauri Das Pandit's house. Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu stayed at that house, and that house is still there, along with the paddle that Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu used to get to them (They would go there by boat), it is still preserved and kept there nicely—even though wood generally perishes quickly, but this paddle has stayed in tact. If you go to this house of Gauri Das Pandit, you can also see there the Deities of Nityananda and Mahaprabhu.

When Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu came there, They stayed there for some time and when it was time for Them to leave, Gauri Das Pandit said, "Prabhu, You have come by Your wish, but I do not allow You to leave."

"How is it possible, Gauri Das? You know that We must go preaching door to door, how can We stay at your house?" replied Gaura-Nitai.

Gauri Das Pandit did not give in—he kept sitting in the middle of the veranda. Then, Mahaprabhu or Nityananda Prabhu said, "Look behind!" He turned round and saw that there was Gaura Nitai inside the house too—Gaura Nitai standing both inside and outside, talking to him at the veranda.

Gauri Das Pandit was puzzled, "Which is Deity and which is real Gaura Nitai? I cannot understand!"

"Which will you keep?"

"All right, the ones who are in the house are better."

In this way, Gaura Nitai who were inside his house stayed and the ones outside left. After this, Gauri Das Pandit started worship of the Deities of Gaura Nitai.

In Mahaprabhu's time, His Deity was installed in three places—one is in Nabadwip (Vishnupriya Devi's Deity of Mahaprabhu at Sanatan Mishra's house), another one is in Champahati (Gaura-Gadadhar Deity) and the third is in Kalna, at the house of Gauri Das Pandit (Sri Gaura Nitai).

One time, it was close to Gaura Purnima, Mahaprabhu's appearance day. Gauri Das Pandit went preaching to different places and kept his disciple Chaitanya Das to worship the Deities at the temple. Time passed and only three days were left before Gaura Purnima, so Chaitanya Das became uneasy because his guru was not coming back and it was necessary to invite people for the festival. What was he to do? Chaitanya Das personally invited everybody to the Kalna Temple for the festival. That very day Gauri Das Pandit came back to the temple.

Chaitanya Das said, "Prabhu, I have made an offence—without asking you for permission, I have invited everyone for the festival."

Hearing this, Gauri Das Pandit became angry, "You have invited everyone without asking me? Go away from the temple!"

Chaitanya Das did not say anything. It is necessary to learn humility, then we will be able to chant the Holy Name.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others. Do not trouble others for your own upkeep, forget your own happiness in the course of helping others."

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur is writing very beautifully, you must remember it. When Nityananda Prabhu was beaten, what did He do? He cried. If someone swears you, if someone beats you, if someone says anything to you, we must always be humble. Never answer back. Always control your anger, then you will get the right to chant the Holy Name.

What did Chaitanya Das do then? He went away and made a small room on the bank of the Ganges. Those who had got his invitation came and asked Gauri Das Pandit, "Where is Chaitanya Das?" Gauri Das Pandit replied, "He is not here, he is sitting on the bank of the Ganges. Since he invited you, then go to him!"

Everybody went to the bank of the Ganges. Suddenly they saw a big barge in the middle of the Kalna River with rice, dal, etc. They decided to make the festival right there. On the Gaura Purnima day, when Gauri Das opened the temple, he saw that there was no Deity! Do you see? If you do not serve devotees, the Deity will not be satisfied. Many say, "Oh, there is a festival, just offer some bhog to the Deity, some yoghurt and ten sweets," but if you do not give prasadam to all the devotees, the Lord will not be happy.

In this way, Gauri Das Pandit's Deity had gone away. He thought, "My Gaura Nitai, where did They go leaving me here alone?!" He took a stick and marched to look for Them at the Ganges. You remember that Gaura Nitai are very tall, one and a half time taller than average height. When Gauri Das Pandit came to the Ganges, he saw Gaura Nitai dancing with raised arms surrounded by thousands of people. Gauri Das Pandit said, "I'll show you!" and was going to hit the Deities with the stick, but Gaura Nitai entered the heart of Chaitanya Das, after which his name became Hriday Chaitanya.

When Gauri Das returned to the house, he saw that the Deity was again there. Chaitanya Das returned too.

In that house, there was also Gauri Das's brother, Surya Das.

One day, Mahaprabhu told him, "Gauri Das, Nitai always eats at this house, that house. I wanted to say something."

"Yes, what is it?"

"You have a girl at your house, Jahnava. Marry her to Him."

"That girl is not mine, she is my niece. I will ask Surya Das."

When Surya Das heard about it, he said, "He eats at different houses, He does not have rice, and we must give our daughter to Him?"

Then, one day, Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu were walking and sat under a tamarind tree (that tree is present to this day). Now, in old time, girls were very shy—it is very rare (maybe one out of a thousand) to find now a girl who thinks, "My parents can see to it, I do not need to see my future husband." So, before the boy and the girl would not even see each other before their marriage—as their parents decided, so they did. So, when Nimai and Nitai were sitting under that tree, suddenly Jahnava went that way and their eyes met—she then hid in the jungle and fainted in divine love to Nityananda Prabhu, foam coming from her mouth. After some time, everyone started looking for her but nobody could find her anywhere. The guards eventually found her in the forest. They took her in their arms and brought her home, laying her on her bed. They thought maybe a snake had bitten her, but they did not find any trace of poison, however she was like dead.

Then, Gauri Das Pandit went looking for Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu, "Where did Nitai go? Where did Nimai go?" He found them sitting under that tamarind tree and asked Them, "Prabhu, please come! Please come to my brother's house!"

"What has happened?"

"Jahnava has fallen ill."

Nityananda Prabhu said, "What will we do there? Are we doctors?"

Gauri Das Pandit insisted and in the end managed to bring Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu with him to his house. Then, he said to Surya Das, "There was some misunderstanding earlier. Give your daughter to Him now."

Nityananda Prabhu said, "What will I do with a dead girl?! She is dead—she cannot cook, cannot serve the Lord. I can accept her, but only on one condition—I want dowry."

"Prabhu, I am a poor brahman, where will I get dowry?" (He thought Nityananda Prabhu meant money.)

"No, no I do not want all that."

"Then what is your condition?"

"You must give Me your second daughter (Vasudha) as the dowry!"

They were amazed, "What is this? First He does not want any of them and now He is taking both!" but anyhow, they got afraid and agreed to give both girls to Nityananda Prabhu. Then, Nityananda Prabhu chanted Gauranga Mahaprabhu's Name and put His hand on Jahnava's head—the foam stopped coming out of her mouth and she opened her eyes and saw Nitai. Life came back to her when she saw Lord Nityananda Prabhu... After that, two garlands were brought and both Jahnava and Vasudha put a garland on Nityananda Prabhu's neck.

In this way they were married (in those days they did not have money to arrange big ceremonies, so marriages were simple). This is how Nityananda Prabhu's sakti came to Him. Jahnava and Vasudha served Nityananda Prabhu, and when Nityananda Prabhu left, Jahnava went to Vrindavan and practised bhajan at Radha-kunda.

These are the saktis of Nityananda Prabhu, just as Sita Devi is the sakti of Advaita Prabhu. In this way, Nityananda Prabhu performed so many pastimes...

* * *

Nityananda Prabhu's Special Gift

Translated from Bengali, part 5

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day

29 January 2018, evening, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Nityananda Prabhu has shown many pastimes. Sometimes He would wear blue clothes, sometimes yellow clothes, sometime He would bangles on His wrists, necklace on His neck.

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur wrote a very beautiful kirtan about Nityananda Prabhu. We can sing it. [At the end, His Divine Grace sings 'Nitai amara dayara avadhi'.]

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, but everyone says that the name is wrong—this book should have been named Sri Nityananda-bhagavat because Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur wrote more about Nityananda Prabhu. Where did he live when he wrote it? Denur. Nityananda Prabhu kept him there. Nityananda Prabhu is "akrodha-paramananda Nityananda Ray" but that time He got angry—why? For our benefit.

One time, Nityananda Prabhu was travelling to Sri Puri Dham from Nabadwip, Vrindavan Das Thakur was only thirteen years old at that time. He was the son of Narayani Devi, and a niece of Srivas Pandit (Srivas Pandit's in-laws' house was in Mamgachi, so Malini Devi was from there). Narayani Devi was married, but her husband's name is not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures.

When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip for Puri, Nityananda Prabhu and Sivananda Sen would walk with the devotees to Puri. One time, when they came to Denur, they sat in a mango grove to take some rest. A worshipper of Nityananda Prabhu named Ramhari Chakravatri Mahasay was staying in that area. He always thought about Nityananda Prabhu, "When will my Guru give me his darsan? When will I be able to see my Guru?" Then, one morning he woke up and saw that there were so many sadhus gathered near his home. He came to see them and there, amidst the sadhus, he saw Nityananda Prabhu. He fell at His feet in obeisance and asked, "What is Your order, Prabhu? Please, come to my house." Nityananda Prabhu said, "Your house is small, and there are so many of us here. Bring rice, dal, etc. here, we will cook here and make a picnic."

After taking prasadam, Nityananda Prabhu told Vrindavan Das Thakur, "Give Me My thing." He did not tell the name, only said, "Give Me My thing," and Vrindavan Das Thakur, His servitor, understood what Nityananda Prabhu needed: he had got some hartaki (mouth freshener) from Nabadwip and kept some for the way. When he gave hartaki to Him, Nityananda Prabhu got angry—He said, "You will not be able to be a brahmachari, you a hoarder! You must stay here, make a family and preach about Gauranga Mahaprabhu!" Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed there and wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat. The original manuscript written on palm leaves is still kept there. Our Gurudev's birthplace temple is nearby. Sripat Denur. Vrindavan Das Thakur lived there and served Nityananda Prabhu and Gauranga Prabhu' Deities. He was born in Mamgachi but lived in Sripat Denur.

* * *

Remembering our Fortune

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay sa-parikara Sri Sri Guru Gaura Nityananda Prabhu ki jay

Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay

Tadiya avirbhav stahli Sri Ekachakra ki jay

Jay Virachandra Prabhu ki jay

Jay Virachandapur-basi bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Samagata Sri Gaura Bhakta Vrinda ki jay!

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Sada Siva Gangadhar Giriraj Govardhan ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Samagata Sri-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

All the assembled devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Samagata Sri-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Jay Hadai Pandit Padmavati Mayi ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya-varya Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay! Harinam sankirtan ki jay. Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

We have come here by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Without their mercy we cannot be present here. Out of His mercy, Nityananda Prabhu has given us some small place at his birthplace where we can stay.

Actually, I have not been able to come to Ekachakra for a long time. Last time I was here was after Gaura Purnima time and I also came here a few days ago—I had some preaching programme in this locality, so I got an opportunity to stay here for one-two days. I went to preaching in the nearby villages from here. There are not many devotees staying here—only Niriha Maharaj and two-three devotees, two-three ladies, and a pujari are staying here.

We are also very fortunate because this year there is so much dust in this building—you can get an opportunity to clean this building. That is also one kind of mercy. Nityananda Prabhu has given us this mercy. This building has not been cleaned for many days, and Nityananda Prabhu has brought you here to clean His place.

Gurudev told me, "If you want to make a temple in Ekachakra, first you must make devotees' house in remembrance of Nityananda Prabhu's parents, Hadai Pandit and Padmavati Mayi."

You know also that this temple was made, Gurudev was still present in this world (Gurudev's presence is still with us, no doubt), when he was in Kolkata or Nabadwip, he arranged everything and made this building, sevak bhavan for the devotees' accommodation. Many foreign devotees helped, they gave donation to Gurudev—Gurudev supplied it to me, and I tried to make a building here. Gurudev was very happy with it, you know that. Gurudev would then stay in Nabadwip or Dum Dum park, and he hung a photo of this place on his veranda. He would always look at this place. Gurudev wanted to come here, and I also arranged for him to come here, but he was too sick and could not come.

Gurudev's mood is always the same as that of Nityananda Prabhu. Everybody now preaches Krishna consciousness, but Nityananda Prabhu preached Gaura consciousness, that was His mood. Gurudev also preached Gaura consciousness. That was the main peculiarity of his preaching.

When Vrindavan Das Thakur, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami were writing their Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, they both got mercy of Nityananda Prabhu...

* * *

Place of Pivotal Pastimes

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 2

Mahaprabhu told Nityananda Prabhu, "Nityananda, preach Krishna consciousness, Krishna-latha," but when Nityananda Prabhu preached in Gauda-mandal, Bengal, He would preach,

bhaja gauranga, kaha gauranga, laha gaurangera nama re

ye jana gauranga bhaje, sei amara prana re

"Worship Gauranga! Say Gauranga! Take Gauranga's Name! Those who worship Gauranga are My heart and soul!"

It does not mean that Nityananda Prabhu did not follow Mahaprabhu. He did. Krishna and Gaura are non-different—Gauranga Mahaprabhu is Radha-Krishna's combined form.

Our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also came here to ask Nityananda Prabhu for His mercy, but Nityananda Prabhu told him, "You have already got the mercy of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, who is the dearmost of Srimati Radharani. That mercy already exists with you, so first you must distribute that mercy, then ask Me for mercy." Having got this message from Nityananda Prabhu, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj started to take disciples.

Before Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj made Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math he had got full power from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Just before passing away, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur wanted to hear the kirtan, "Sri Rupa manjari pada" from his mouth. In this way we understand that Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had got that mercy—he was empowered to protect and distribute Sri Rupa-Raghunath line.

Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu actually gave blessed Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu so much—He gave Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu transcendental power. And Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu, in turn, gave that power to Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu had been trying so hard to get free from maya, from the material world but he had not been able to until he had got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. When Sriman Nityananda Prabhu engaged him in service to Vaishnavs [in Panihati], Nityananda Prabhu gave so much mercy to Raghunath Das Goswami—when Raghunath Das Goswami paid his obeisance to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu put His legs on his head. Raghunath Das Goswami had got that kind of mercy. Tha time Nityananda Prabhu told him, "Now you can go to Mahaprabhu. He will engage you in service." When Raghunath Das Goswami came to Puri, Mahaprabhu engaged him in the service of Svarup Damodar and said, "From today your name will be Svaruper Raghu." There are many Raghunaths, but He gave him the name Raghu of Svarup.

After that, Raghunath Das Goswami had stayed in Puri for many years. He was a very renounced person, he had too much Vaishnavata (qualities of a Vaishanva)—humility, tolerance and giving honour to others. Even if he saw one Vaishnav five times a day, he would pay dandavat to them five times a day. That was his quality. When both Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Svarup Damodar finished their pastimes, Raghunath Das Goswami was very sad and went to Vrindavan.

Our Param Gurudev was also very sad when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur left his body—he also went to Vrindavan and stayed in Nanda-gram near Pavan-sarovar. You know that place—every time we go to Vrindavan, we visit it. It is the place of Sanatan Goswami's bhajan kutir. In Krishna-lila, the name of Visakha's father is Pavan, so the kunda (pond) that he had made is called 'Pavan Sarovar'. When Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was staying there, he heard a message from the sky, "What are you staying here for? Everything is in Nabadwip. I have left you here so that you can preach Rupa-Raghunath's katha, the message of Sri Rupa-Raghunath, the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but you are staying here!" Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj immediately came back to Nabadwip, and you know that in 1941 he made Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in a thatched house.

As I have said, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also came here in Sri Ekachakra Dham, before he started taking disciples, and every year he would send some small donation for the service of Nityananda Prabhu.

* * *

Capture Nityananda Prabhu's Heart

Sri Ekachakra Dham, last evening class

18 February 2019, part 1

You have been listening to the glories of Nityananda Prabhu for the past few days and will hear it today too, but there are many foreign devotees here who do not understand Bengali, but because they want to hear from me, they have been sitting at the classes every day. You too please stay and listen—I will first speak a little in English and then will again speak in Bengali. If you came and could not hear any class, you would also be upset, would you not? So, please stay quiet, listen to Hari-katha in English.

By the mercy of Gurudev and by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, we have celebrated Nityananda Prabhu's appearance festival, as well as the installation anniversary of Sri Sri Guru Gaura Nityananda Prabhu's Deities. We have celebrated this festival very nicely, and all the devotees all over the world participated in this festival. Devotee came to this festival from every corner of the would—from various countries abroad, as well as from all over Bengal and India. Today is the last day of our festival for this year and we look forward to this festival near year.

We must remember this Nityananda Prabhu's appearance festival every day—not only every day, but at every every moment. We must always, at every moment remember how much mercy Nityananda Prabhu has bestowed all over this world. Even Brahma, even all the demigods wait for the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, but the first thing we must realise is that we are fallen souls and have no quality, no qualification. We can only try to serve Nityananda Prabhu's devotees, Nityananda Prabhu's servitor. That is our only hope. We must understand that this is the only way how we can please Nityananda Prabhu.

Actually, it is impossible to understand Sriman Nityananda Prabhu. Gurudev also told that it is very difficult to understand Nityananda Prabhu. Even Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also said that only a fortunate soul can understand Nityananda Prabhu—without fortune you cannot understand Nityananda Prabhu's behaviour, Nityananda Prabhu's dealings, Nityananda Prabhu's character. Only a fortunate soul can understand Nityananda Prabhu's mercy. It is not so easy.

We cannot understand Nityananda Prabhu and His mercy (kripa) because we do not have proper attachment to the service of Nityananda Prabhu's servitor. It is necessary to have proper attachment to a servitor of Nityananda Prabhu. That is the main thing for our spiritual life.

We cannot cross Nityananda Prabhu—we cannot get Gauranga Mahaprabhu or mercy of the Lord, Radha-Krishna, or anything else jumping over Nityananda Prabhu. There is only one channel through which we can go there—that channel is Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, and it comes in this Rupanuga line. This is how we can understand Nityananda Prabhu's tattva. There is not other way, no other channel.

Srila Rupa Goswami came to Gauranga Mahaprabhu through Nityananda Prabhu's mercy. Without Sri Rupa-Raghunath's mercy we cannot even think about getting a place in Sri Goloka Vrindavan. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur also told that only by Nityananda Prabhu's mercy can you get the right to enter the market of the Holy Name (Nama-hatta). Without His mercy, we do not have any chance to chant the Holy Name. That is the main thing. It is not so easy to enter the market of the Name—you can easily enter the market of offences to the Name, but not the Name. If you want to enter the proper market of the Holy Name, you must first surrender to Nityananda Prabhu. That is the main thing. Surrender, have full faith, then you can understand everything—if you surrender to Nityananda Prabhu, you will get faith.

* * *

Hope of the Hopeless

Sri Ekachakra Dham, last evening class

18 February 2019, part 2

Srila Raghunath Das Goswami wanted and tried to go to Mahaprabhu so many times—not only one time, he tried many times, but he did not get His mercy, neither could he get free from the attachment to his family—he wanted to leave maya, he wanted to leave the illusory environment, but he could not.

When he came to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu told him, "Come, chora, come." 'Chora' means 'a thief.' So, He said, "Come here, thief. I will give you punishment today!" Why did Nityananda Prabhu call him a thief?" It means that Raghunath Das Goswami wanted to stealthily go to Mahaprabhu, but without the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, it is impossible to get the mercy of Mahaprabhu. But finally Raghunath Das Goswami got it. How did he get it?

One day, Raghav Pandit invited Nityananda Prabhu to his house in Panihati, a small town on the bank of the Ganges. When Nityananda Prabhu came there, He first sat with the devotees under a banyan tree on the bank of the Ganges. In the meantime, Raghunath Das Goswami, whose father's house was near Panihati, heard that Nityananda Prabhu had come. He asked his father for the permission to go and see Nityananda Prabhu. He said, "Father, Nityananda Prabhu has come to Panihati, it is close by, not far. Can I go there?" His father did not really believe his son because he had tried to run away to Mahaprabhu many time before that. So, Raghunath Das Goswami's father allowed him to go but he sent many security guards with him so that he could not run away from the family. He protected his son so much.

Mahaprabhu also told Raghunath Das Goswami, "Go home, do not go crazy. One day you can get relief from your family life attachment." Raghunath Das Goswami asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, but how will I come? There are so many guards, so many problems..." but Mahaprabhu said, "That is Krishna's matter. Surrender properly and Krishna will see to it. If there is any problem, He can manage and solve it."

So, when Raghunath Das Goswami came to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu told him, "Ai chora, ai—come here, thief. I will give you punishment."

Raghunath Das Goswami asked, "What is my punishment, Prabhu?"

"You must get flat rice, yoghurt, sweets, jackfruit, mango, etc. and feed all the devotees here."

"It is not punishment! I want to do some service to the Vaishnavs, to Your servitors and anugata-jan (those who serve You under Your guidance)."

Raghunath Das Goswami was very happy and he happily fed all the Vaishnavs. (You know that we go to Pahinati every year to celebrate this festival.) After that, Raghunath Das Goswami came to Nityananda Prabhu, offered his obeisance at the Lord's feet and Nityananda Prabhu put His legs on his head, He was very pleased with Raghunath Das Goswami, and Raghunath Das Goswami was also very happy. Then, Nityananda Prabhu said, "Now you can go to Mahaprabhu." All his bondage was gone—he went to Puri and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him. Mahaprabhu engaged Raghunath Das Goswami in the service to Damodar Pandit, and he became known as Svaruper Raghu.

Then we can understand how kind Nityananda Prabhu is to the very fallen souls. We are fallen souls, we do not know so much about the culture, we do not know so much about the rules and regulations, we do not know so many mantras, we do not do so many things, we do not do anything properly, but we have Nityananda Prabhu—we have hope that if we fully surrender to Nityananda Prabhu, then everything will be revealed.

When you chant the Name of Krishna, it can be offensive chanting, but if you chant Gaura Nitai's Names, there is no offence.

* * *

Purifying Shelter

Sri Ekachakra Dham, last evening class

18 February 2019, part 3

One time, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother made a festival—he brought a brahman Gunarnava Misra to do the puja, but he worshipped only Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and not Nityananda Prabhu. When Ramdas Minaketan came there, he was very upset—he thought, "What is this? He follows one person and does not follow the other person? What is the difference between Nityananda Prabhu and Gauranga Mahaprabhu? They are One but only in two bodies—one is Gauranga and one is Nityananda Prabhu, but it is the same tattva. What he is doing is ardha-kukkuti-nyaya (half-hen logic). I am very sad to see He is making such a big offence to Nityanada prabhu's lotus feet." Ramdas Minaketan told about it to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami. Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami quarrelled with his brother and gave good nourishment, good prasadam and shelter to Ramdas Minaketan. That same very day Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami saw a dream—Nityananda Prabhu was standing in front of him, He said, "Come to Vrindavan at once! Do not stay with your brother, he is an offender. Come and stay Vrindavan."

Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami wrote in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, "I have got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu through service to His servitor, Ramdas Minaketan. By the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu I have got shelter in Vrindavan Dham."

One time, a brahman came to Mahaprabhu and complained about Nityananda Prabhu, "I cannot tolerate His character! What is He doing? Sometimes He is angry, sometimes He wears different clothes, sometimes He eats in different houses, sometimes He visits different houses, sometimes He wears saffron clothes, sometimes He wears earrings and bangles. What is this?"

We cannot do that. We look at what Nityananda Prabhu does, but He is avadhut, He can do anything. What does 'avadhut' mean? 'Avadhut' is one who purifies dirty things. We sometimes pretend to be Nityananda Prabhu—we follow Nityananda Prabhu's behaviour, but we do not follow His instruction. Sahajiyas (imitators) do that; they want to be Nityananda, they want to be Gauranga, Radha, Krishna, Lalita, Visakha, they want to be Narottam Das Thakur, but we are fallen souls, pasandi, and who is Narottam? How can we be Narottam? One does not become Narottam just by calling themselves Narottam—if you want to be Narottam, you must have the quality and qualification. That is the main thing.

Mahaprabhu told that brahman, "O brahman! You do not know, but even if Nityananda Prabhu catches and pulls a drunkard lady to His room, He has no fault. You cannot see any fault in Nityananda Prabhu. You do not know Nityananda Prabhu. Go and tell all Nabadwip Dham who Nityananda Prabhu is. Whatever He does, even if He does wrong, He is avadhut and even Brahma always worships Him." Hearing Mahaprabhu's words, the brahman was very happy.

Nityananda Prabhu purifies everything. That is why we always pray to Him. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wrote Nityananda-dvadasakam, you can read it and see how much Nityananda Prabhu is glorified there.

Before starting to take disciples, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj came here to Sri Ekachakra Dham, the birthplace of Nityananda Prabhu, and every year after that he would send some money for the festival of Nityananda Prabhu's appearance. When he came here, he asked Nityananda Prabhu for His mercy, but Nityananda Prabhu sent him a message saying, "You have already got mercy from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad and you are coming again for mercy. First you must distribute what you have got!" After that, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj decided to start taking disciples, and he began initiating devotees.

Our Gurupadpadma, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, also came here before he started travelling abroad. He came here for the first time in 1990 during preaching. He stayed in Kandi, about forty-five minutes from Ekachakra, on the way to Murshidabad, and we have a small centre there now. I came here in Sri Ekachakra Dham for the first time in 2004, and in 2007-2008 I started coming regularly. We bought the land here on 8 January 2008.

So many things have happened—we are here now by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, and we always pray to Him, "I am a fallen soul, I have no quality and qualification, I am always making offence. Please forgive my offence. Please take my service; please give me shelter at Your lotus feet." We can pray and ask Nityananda Prabhu for this.

Jay Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay!

* * *

Srila Prabhupad: Universal Benefactor

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's appearance day

24 February 2019, Hooghly district

Today is our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur's appearance day. Every year we celebrate this day in honour of Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad in a grand way. Actually, if he had not come to this world, we would not have been able to get our Guru Maharaj, our Gurupadpadma—we do not know to whom we would have surrendered, where we would be staying.

After Mahaprabhu finished His pastimes (lila), there were Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami, and after that Srila Narottam Das Thakur, Acharya Srivinas, Shyamananda Prabhu, Srila Jiva Goswami Prahbu were expanding and running Mahaprabhu's line and preaching Mahaprabhu's conception properly. After them however so much misconception came to this world—aul, baul, kartabhaja, neda, darvesh, sani, sahajiya, sakhibekhi, smarta, jata gosai. So many apa-sampradayas came to this world.

Then, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur appeared in Birnagar, Nadia district, in a village called Ula. He was a district magistrate in Krishnanagar and other places and he started searching what Mahaprabhu's actual conception was. He saw that instead of Mahaprabhu's conception numerous apa-sampradayas, sahajiyas, were spreading so much misconception in this world. Through his prayers, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur searched and discovered Mahaprabhu's birthplace and made so much contribution to the revival of Mahaprabhu's line. He tried to preach Mahaprabhu's real conception. One time, he and his wife Srimati Bhagavatai Devi prayed to Lord Jagannathdev and Bimala Devi (this is the name of Laksmi Devi within Jagannath Temple), "Please, send someone who can preach Mahaprabhu's conception in this world." After that, Srimati Bhagavati Devi and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur got a son—they named him Bimala Prasad because he came as prasad (mercy) from Bimala Devi.

Later, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur stayed in Godrumdwip, Svananda-sukhada-kunja (you know this place—we visit it during the parikrama of Sri Nabadwip Dham). Bimala Prasad also stayed there, and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur taught him the proper conception. One day, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur sent him to take initiation from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj. At first Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj did not want to give him initiation, but eventually he agreed. In this way, Bimala Prasad got initiation from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj and later, when he took sannyas, he became known as Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

At some point, he promised that he would complete chanting one hundred crores Holy Names and after that start preaching Mahaprabhu's proper conception, but as he was chanting the Holy Name, one day Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Giridhari came in front of him and Srimati Radharani said, "You must preach pure conception of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, the combined form of Radha-Krishna." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "I am alone, how will I preach?" After that so many great scholars (dig-pals) came to help him—our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Vichar Jajavar Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Kumud Shanta Maharaj and many others. This is how Prabhupad started preaching the proper conception in this world, and it is owing to him that we are here now, that we can preach now. That is why we must glorify Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

During his lifetime, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur accepted Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj as the next preacher of Srila Rupa-Raghunath's line. We know that Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj sang Sri Rupa-manjari kirtan in front of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur when he was very sick, and after he finished singing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur left his body. Even before that, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj pleased Srila Prabhupad with his Srimad Bhaktivinod-viraha Dasakam where he wrote

srigauranumatam svarupaviditam rupagrajenadrtam

rupadyaih parivesitam raghuganairasvaditam sevitam

jivadyair abhiraksitam sukasivabrahmadi sammanitam

sriradhapadasevanamrtam aho tad datum iso bhavan

"What was sanctioned by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by His descent was intimately known only to Sri Svarupa Damodara Goswami. It was adored by Sanatan Goswami and served by Rupa Goswami and his followers. Raghunatha Das Goswami tasted that wonderful thing fully and enhanced it with his own realization. And Jiva Goswami supported and protected it by quoting the scriptures from different places. The taste of that divine truth is aspired for by Brahma, Siva, and Uddhava, who respect it as the supreme goal of life. What is this wonderful truth? Sri radhapadasevana: that the highest nectar of our life is the service of Srimati Radharani. This is most wonderful. O Bhakti Vinoda Thakur, you are our master. It is within your power to allow them to bestow their grace upon us. You are in a position to bestow the highest gift ever known to the world upon us all. It is at your disposal. O Bhakti Vinoda Thakur, please be kind to us and grant us your mercy."

He wrote so many things, actually. He also wrote song prayers in glorification of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur ('Sujanarvuda-radhita-pada-yugam yuga-dharma-dhurandhara-patra-varam...'). This song is now very famous and is sung in every temple of Gaudiya Mission all over the world. Everybody loves this song. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also wrote Sri Gaura Saraswati Arati:

jayare jayare jaya gaura-sarasvati

bhakativinodanvaya karunamurati

"All glory to the voice of Sri Gauranga, the embodiment of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's mercy, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur!"

prakasile gaura-sevabhuvana mangala

bhakati-siddhanta suddha prajnana ujjvala

"He manifested Sri Gauranga's service for the upliftment of the world. His teaching of devotion is pure, brilliant, and enlightening."

If we realise the meaning of this song, we can remember that Srila Prabhupad was present in this world for sixty-four years and he established sixty-four temples in India during this time. He preached proper conception and demolished all misconceptions. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj composed this sloka,

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri

vibudhabahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri

sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani

vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

"With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of liberation. With his third step, he eased the hard rules and regulations by a touch of the Divine Love: he gave us the worship of Sri Sri Radha and Govinda. The real existence of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad is in his divine teachings. May those teachings dance eternally within the core of your heart."

Srila Prabhupad declared a totalitarian war against maya. It is also written,

শ্sri-gauranga-parisada thakura bhakti-vinoda

dina-hina patitera bandhu

kali-tamah vinasite anilena avanite

toma' akalanka purna indu

“Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is an associate of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu and a friend of all low and fallen souls—to dispel all darkness of this dark age, he brought to this earth you, a spotless full moon.”

(Sri Acharya-vandana)

He is an associate of Sriman Mahaprabhu and he appeared in this world through Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. Today is his holy appearance day, and on this day we pray to him, "Prabhu, wherever you are staying, wherever your pastimes are now, be it Goloka Vrindavan or anywhere else—please forgive my offence; please, give us some mercy so that we can preach your proper conception in this world." That is our hope and that is our prayer to him.

Jay Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Jaga-Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay

* * *

First Memories of Sri Ekachakra Dham

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 3

I had heard Ekachakra's name (Nityananda Prabhu's birthplace) before and I had wanted to come here many times, but when I told about it to Gurudev, he said, "What will you go there for? It is all a sahajiya place there." Later, in 2004, I offered Gurudev around Gaura Purnima time to take some devotees to Ekachakra, and Gurudev finally allowed it—he said, "OK, you can go with devotees and do some parikrama there, but on your way you must stop in Jajigram and pay obeisance there."

Srila Acharya Srinivas Prabhu's house is in Jajigram, it is about three kilometres from Katwa, the place where Mahaprabhu took sannyas. There is a little temple there now, and Gurudev told me to stop there, so to this day we always remember that and stop there. There is also one more place in that area—Narahari Thakur pat, the house of brothers Mukunda Prabhu and Harahari Thakur in Srikhand (Bardhaman district, near Katwa). Mukunda Prabhu is the father of Raghunandan Prabhu (his appearance day was just a few days ago, we celebrated it in Tarakeshwar). In that area also here is Jagadanandapur, the house of Jagadananda Pandit. Hapaniya, our Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's birthplace, is also near. Our Gurudev's birthplace (Bamunpara) is a little to the west from there, it is 15-20 kilometres from Hapaniya.

Anyway, I went to Nityananda Prabhu's birthplace first time in 2004. We took some breakfast in Jajigram and after that continued our journey by two buses, one rented and the other one is our preaching bus (that is now in Ekachakra). We got a cook and brought cooking utensils with us, so when we arrived we cooked and then did a parikrama of Ekachakra.

At that time, there was no house at Pandav-tala—there was just a tree. The five Pandavas stayed there, Vyasadev also visited this place. Behind our temple there is a very nice kunda called Jahnu Kunda, or Hantugada place. This is the place where Nityananda Balaram played and it is said that where there is Balaram there is Krishna. There is also Kadam-khandi, the place where it is said that Yamuna became narrow for fear of Nityananda Prabhu.

Nityananda Prabhu is avadhut. It means he can purify the lowest, the most sinful people; and the other meaning is that He is beyond any rules and regulations. Some people cannot understand Nityananda Prabhu and they criticise Him, but Sriman Mahaprabhu said that someone may criticise Nityananda Prabhu, but even Brahma always worships Him, and if anyone criticises Him even by mistake, they will have to go to hell. This is what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told.

* * *

His Mercy Is Essential

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 4

When Nityananda Prabhu came to Nabadwip to meet with Mahaprabhu, He first came to Nandan Acharya Bhavan. You know this place—when we do parikrama in Mayapur, Antardwip, we come to Nandan Acharya Bhavan. When Nityananda Prabhu came there, Mahaprabhu knew that He had come and He sent some devotees saying, "A big personality has come to Mayapur. Go and find Him." Devotees went, but they did not find anyone—they came back to Mahaprabhu and said, "Prabhu, we have not found any new personality here." Then, Mahaprabhu Himself went—He went straight to Nandan Acharya Bhavan. (There is a temple of Gaura Nityananda there now, Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj's temple.)

Mahaprabhu showed that it is not so easy to find this kind of personality, but Mahaprabhu found Him easily because They are very intimate—He appears in Treta-yuga as Laksman, and in Kali-yuga He comes as Nityananda Prabhu. In Treta-yuga, Laksman is Lord Rama's elder brother so He could not serve the Lord at that time, but Nityananda Prabhu comes to serve Mahaprabhu. Nityananda Prabhu's mercy is essential in our lives.

You know also the pastime of Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami. A brahman named Gunarnava Misra came once to the house of Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami, invited by his brother. When Nityananda Prabhu's servitor Ramdas Minaketan came there too, Gunarnava Misra did not give him proper respect because he was Nityananda Prabhu's servitor—he loved Mahaprabhu but did not love Nityananda Prabhu, which made Ramdas Minaketan very upset. This is called ardha-kukkuti-nyaya (half-hen logic)—you give honour to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but not to Nityananda Prabhu. I asked Gurudev once what ardha-kukkuti-nyaya means, and he explained it. It means you have a hen (kukkuti), and you think, "Oh, I like eggs, so I will keep the half (ardha) of the hen (kukkuti) where eggs come from, and I will throw away the other half." It means you destroy everything.

Nityananda Prabhu and Balaram are non-different, They are two forms of the same body. Nityananda Prabhu is Mul-Sankarshan—from Him appear Sankarshan, Vasudev, Aniruddha, Pradyumna; from there come Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, Ksirodakasayi Vishnu, and Karanodakasayi Vishnu; from there appear the ten avatars of Vishnu (Rama avatar, Narasimha avatar, Varaha avatar, and so on), as well as all of us (jiva souls). You can read Chaitanya-charitamrita, all this is written very nicely there.

So, that day, when Gunarnava Misra made offence to Ramdas Minaketan, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami pleased Ramdas Minaketan—he made him happy and gave good nourishment to his lotus feet. Nityananda Prabhu was very happy with him because His servitor had got proper respect. That night, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami dreamed that Nityananda Prabhu had come in front of him and called him, "O Kavi Krishnadas! Do not stay in Jhamatpur any longer! Come to Vrindavan!" [Jhamatpur is Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's birthplace, it is near Katwa.] Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami immediately left his family life, everything and went to Vrindavan.

We know also that in his Chaitanya-charitamrita, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami described the beauty (rupa) of Sri Nityananda Prabhu in a very nice way...

* * *

His Service Is Essential

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 5

Nityananda Prabhu is essential for our spiritual life.

When we came here in Sri Ekachakra Dham for the first time in 2004, we wanted to make a temple, but Gurudev told, "You have not got mercy from Nityananda Prabhu yet. When you get His mercy, then you can make a temple." So, in 2004 Gurudev told us to come back to Nabadwip and not to think about making a temple here. Three years later, in 2007, when Gurudev was in America, he called me and Sripad Tirtha Maharaj and said, "Now I think it is Nityananda Prabhu's desire—go and buy a land there." I came to Ekachakra again and saw many places before finally choosing this place here. You know what happened after that.

Gurudev wanted to come here, but he did not manage to come here physically. Still, we know that he is alway with us. After Gurudev's disappearance, in 2011, the Deities were installed. Gurudev had told me before that Gaura Nitai would be 7'6 and 7'4 tall, and we tried to follow that.

In his last day, our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj did not chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra on his beads. Once, his servitor asked him, "Maharaj, shall I give you your mala to chant?" but Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied, "You can give that mala to Govinda Maharaj—I have Nitai, I do not need to chant on the mala." He would always chant, "Nitai Gaura haribol, Nitai Gaur haribol." Then we can understand how essential Nityananda Prabhu, service to Nityananda Prabhu is.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also wanted to make a temple here but he could not do that. A follower of our Srila Gurudev made this temple here, and this is how we are able to stay here, chanting and glorifying and spreading the message and Holy Names of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. We must be humble, tolerant and we must give honour to others. It is necessary.

How much tolerance Nityananda Prabhu has! When Madhai beat Him, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very angry—He shouted and called His Sudarshan Chakra, but Nityananda Prabhu reminded Him, "Prabhu, what are You doing? Why are You calling Sudarhan Chakra? You have promised that You will not touch any weapon in this age of Kali!" Nityananda Prabhu stopped Mahaprabhu and begging for Madhai from Him ("Prabhu, please give Madhai to Me!" When Madhai then paid obeisance to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu embraced and raised him. Then, Mahaprabhu accepted him. That is why,

uttama, adhama, kicchu na kare vichara

ye age padaye, tare kraye nistara

“Nityananda Prabhu does not consider who is good and who is bad, He saves anyone who falls before Him.”

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.208-209)

Nityananda Prabhu does not judge—His mercy is above justice. We need this mercy of Nityananda Prabhu.

yogyata vichare kichu nahi pai

tomara karuna-sara

"Your mercy is everything. If you are not merciful to me, then, crying, I will no longer maintain my life."

We think we are qualified, but we must think that we are unqualified, that we are disqualified—we have no quality, no qualification. This is our conception, these are our main things.

Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe, dhara nitaiyer charan duhkhani—When Nitai bestows His mercy you will reach Radha-Krishna in Vraja. Grasp Nitai's feet!" Nityananda Prabhu says, "Amare kiniya laha bhaja Gaura-Hari—you can buy Me if you worship Gauranga!" Chant with heart and soul—it is necessary to serve Nityananda Prabhu with heart and soul.

* * *

Servant or Merchant?

Sri Ekachakra Dham

14 February 2019, part 6

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told, "You cannot make a programme with ten rupees—even with twenty rupees you cannot make a kirtan." Here, people give fifty rupees and they do a kirtan like that [sahajiya kirtan is heard in the background]. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur told also that when people worship Kali, Durga, etc. they give ten rupees and the pujari goes, "Namoh, namoh, namoh." That is ten rupee puja, and if you give fifty rupees they can chant some kirtan. The problem is that it is not what kirtan is.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that in lieu of serving the Guru, instead of serving Nityananda Prabhu, instead of serving Krishna, we make Them serve us—we must not make Nityananda Prabhu, Gurudev our servants, we must serve Them. Do not make Guru and Krishna your servant, a bribe-taker. A "bribe-taker" means you give ten rupees to them and you want something in return. This is bribery. "I want some name and fame, I want kanak, kamini, pratistha." These are Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words—and these are very strong words.

I am very happy that everybody has come, that so many devotees have come—tomorrow more devotees are coming, and on Saturday even more. Then Sunday is the festival... Service is our life, without service we will not be alive—it is better to die then. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said that when some sannyasi says, "Do not give jay to me! Do not give jay to me!" it is not true—it actually means that the sannyasi is saying, "Give more jay to me." That is what it means. Prabhupad told it very nicely.

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

[Regarding the sahajiya kirtan in the background:] Too much Nama-aparadh. We should do kirtan and take this sound out of our ears.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

* * *

Serve Nitai without Deceit

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Om Vishnupad Paramahamsakula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj ki jay

Sach-chid-ananda Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur ki jay

Sarvabhauma Sri Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj ki jay

Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Vrinda Devi Tulasi Devi Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay

Sri Shyama Kunda Radha Kunda Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay

Sri Mayapur Dham Sri Nabadwip Dham Sri Vrindavan Mathura ki jay

Purusottam Ksetra ki jay

Baladev Subhadra Jagannath jiu ki jay

Akar-math-raj Chaitanya Math ki jay

Mayapur Yogapith ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Chaitanya Saraswat Math Krishna-anusilana-sangha ki jay

All the assembled devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Jay Sada Siva Gangadhar jiu ki jay

Sa-parsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay

Sa-parsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Samagata Sri-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

Actually, I was telling yesterday that by the mercy of Gurudev we have got an opportunity to serve this place—this is Nityananda Prabhu's appearance place, Sri Ekachakra Dham—we must take advantage of this opportunity for our benefit.

We must understand how essential Sriman Nityananda Prabhu is for us, how necessary it is to serve Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and His devotees. This is the main thing in our spiritual life and this is the proper sambandha-jnana (knowledge of the relationship).

Last night I was reading and I saw how much Gurudev praised Sri Nityananda Prabhu, how nicely he glorified Him. Sriman Mahaprabhu also told about Nityananda PrabhuL: "Those who have little fortune cannot know Nityananda Prabhu's glories because His glories are the highest conception. Those who have a great fortune can understand the pastimes of Nityananda Prabhu.

What did Nityananda Prabhu come to this world for? He came only for the fallen souls—Gurudev says Sriman Mahaprabhu told that Nityananda Prabhu comes to this world to rescue the fallen souls like us. Even Mahaprabhu can reject us, but Sriman Nityananda Prabhu does not reject us.

If you chant the Holy Name of Krishna, offence can come, but there is no consideration of offence in chanting the Names of Gaura and Nitai (Nitai-Gaurer Namer aparadher vichar ta nai re)—Nityananda Prabhu does not judge whether an offence can come or not as long as you chant Nityananda Prabhu's name without any deceit (niskapat).

* * *

Nitaichand: Spotless Moon

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 2

It is said that if someone cannot understand the character of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu, then they are making so much offence—because of that devotion can be removed from her or him.

There was one brahman who criticised Nityananda Prabhu, and Mahaprabhu explained to him properly who Nityananda Prabhu is ("You think that Nityananda Prabhu runs this way, that way, but you cannot understand Him!")—after that Mahaprabhu told him to go to Nabadwip and tell everyone about Nityananda Prabhu. If somebody criticises Nityananda Prabhu behind His back, then no one can protect them—they must go to hell.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also said about Nityananda Prabhu,

madira yavani yadi nityananda dhare

tathapi brahmara vandya kahila tomare

"Even if Nityananda Prabhu takes a drunk lady by Her hand, He is always worshippable even for Lord Brahma."

You know also that Vrindavan Das Thakur praised and glorified Nityananda Prabhu so much and so beautifully. Raghunath Das Goswami also got some mercy from Nityananda Prabhu. Sriman Nityananda Prabhu bestowed His mercy everywhere.

When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip, He told Nityananda Prabhu to preach in Gauda-mandal, Gauda-desh, and Nityananda Prabhu did that. Also, when Mahaprabhu went to Puri, Mahaprabhu had one danda (He was an eka-dandi sannyasi, not a tridandi sannyasi), but Nityananda Prabhu broke His danda into three. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that Nityananda Prabhu showed us that one must take sannyas with kaya, mana, vakhya (body, mind, speech), and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and his Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya were the first to start giving this tridandi sannyas. This was actually inspired by Nityananda Prabhu. Gurudev also said that a tridandi sannyasi means one must be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. This is Mahaprabhu's conception. A sannyasi must be more humble, more tolerant, and give more honour to others. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur started that.

* * *

Nitaichand: Our Only Hope

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 3

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

('Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

"When will Nityananda Prabhu give some mercy to me? When will the attachment to my family life, attachment to my material life be removed from my heart?"

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur also told,

amara prabhura prabhu sri-gaurasundar

e bada bharasa chitte dhari nirantara

"My Prabhu (my master) is Nityananda Prabhu, and His master is Gauranga Mahaprabhu. That is my great hope (bharasa)."

Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami also told in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita,

eka ‘mahaprabhu', ara 'prabhu' duijana

dui prabhu seve mahaprabhura charana

"There is one Supreme Personality of Godhead ('mahaprabhu'), Sri Gaurasundar, and there are two 'prabhus'—svayam prakas-vastu Nityananda Prabhu and svamsa Advaita Prabhu—both of them serve Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

('Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

visaya chhadiya kabe suddha habe mana,

kabe hama heraba sri-vridnavan

"When will my mind, leaving the material world, become clean? When will I see Sri Vrindavan?"

"When will my mind be purified? When will my material desires be removed? When will I be able to serve Sri Dham Vrindavan with a clean mind?" That is the main thing for us. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also wrote for Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day that our only hope is Sri Guru-Nityananda—if we serve Their lotus feet, we can increase our devotion, our spiritual life. That is the main thing about Nityananda Prabhu.

* * *

Nitaichand: Our Eternal Shelter

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 4

These are Nityananda Prabhu's pastimes. When He was twelve years old, He left His house—a sannyasi came and begged Hadai Pandit and Padmavati Devi for their only son. He asked Padmavati Devi, "Can you give me your son?" She said, "I cannot decide, but when my husband comes, he will tell." Then, Hadai Pandit consulted with Padmavati Devi and they agreed to give their only son to that sannyasi, and He left.

After that, Nityananda Prabhu visited many places with Mahaprabhu. One time, when Mahaprabhu was preaching in Kalna area (it is near Nabadwip, we pass it when we come here), He came to the house of Gauridas Pandit and his brother Surya Das. Mahaprabhu thought, "Nityananda Prabhu does not have any family, does not have anyone. Who will cook for Him and look after Him?" So, He arranged first Jahnava, and then Vasudha (both are daughters if Surya Das) for Nityananda Prabhu. After Nityananda Prabhu, Jahnava continued His line. Later, Vasuda Devi's son Virachandra Prabhu took initiation from Jahnava Devi and continued the line after her. Jahnava spent her last days on the bank of Radha Kunda, she did her bhajan and worship there, and every time we go to Vrindavan we visit her samadhi and bhajan place. These are the pastimes of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu

As for us, we are fallen souls, we must always ask for forgiveness, "Please, remove our offence." This is the main thing for us.

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

“When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?”

("Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"When will He be kind to us? When will our material desires, material attachments be removed from our hearts? When will the day come when I will be free from this material bondage?"

Lord Nityananda Prabhu is our eternal shelter. We cannot conceive of it, but Guru-Nityananda is our eternal shelter. Gurudev is the eternal shelter of our life. Unless we can realise or understand this—unless we can understand what the reality, vastava-vastu, is, there is no other way for us to get relief from suffering (tri-tap-jvala: adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik, miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls). We are always suffering from so much in our lives and we cannot understand it. If we cannot understand what is the reality, then we have no way to get relief from this suffering.

We spend so much time talking so much gramya-katha, talking so much nonsense, but we must stop it. We must glorify Nityananda Prabhu in this world. That is what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told.

* * *

Beware Imitation

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 5

Srila Narottam Das Thakur explained the glories of Srrman Nityananda Prabhu very nicely, and we sing about it in the kirtan every day. Also, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told very nicely that if we follow Srila Narottam Das Thakur, we can get some understanding about the glories of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu.

There is anusaran and anukaran. If you follow what Gurudev told you, this is anusaran, and if you want to do the same pastime of Krishna showed, this is anukaran, imitation.

So, if you follow Narottam Das Thakur's advice, this is good, but if you think you want to do what Narottam Das Thakur did, if you want to become Narottam, then it is a very big problem. Do not imitate Nityananda Prabhu.

We sing also,

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

pratisthasa asi', hrdaya dusibe,

ha-iba niraya-gami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour). If desire for name and fame pollutes my heart, I will go to hell."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If I think that I have become a Vaishnav, it means I desire pratistha, name and fame—if such desire comes, we will have to go to hell (niraya-gami).

* * *

Householders' Hypocrisy

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 6

There is no difference whether one is a householder, a sannyasi, or a vanaprastha—if one practises properly, with heart and soul, with the Holy Name of Krishna, with the Holy Name of Nityananda Prabhu, with a clean heart, then there is no difference whether it is a householder or a sannyasi.

Sometimes people say, "Gauranga Mahaprabhu's parents Sachi Mata and Jagannath Misra or Nityananda Prabhu's parents Hadai Pandit and Padmavati Devi, or Lord Krishna's parents Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaj were grihasthas and maintained their family life, why will I be a sannyasi or a brahmachari? Family life is better!" But is their family life the same as our family life? It is not. They may stay in the householder life, but their mind, body, everything stays in the house of the Lord, in the temple of the Lord. They cook and do everything always thinking about the Lord, serving the Lord. And some householder people say, "Oh, if they maintain their family life, why will we not do that?" Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told about that.

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur says,

“sikha-sutra ghuchaile-i se krsna pai

grhastha tomara mate vaisnava ki nai?”

[Gadadhar Pandit to Mahaprabhu:] “You say one gets Krishna by keeping a sikha and having a sacred brahman thread, but is a householder like You not a Vaisnav?”

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.26.172)

Jagadananda Pandit told

grhi hauka, tyagi hauka, bhakte bheda nai

bhakte bheda haile kumbhipaka narakete yai

“There is no difference between devotees—be they householders or renunciants. If someone makes distinctions between them, they go to the hell of boiling oil.”

(Sri Prema-vivarta, 17.22)

We always fight, "We are householders! We are brahmacharis!" but there is no difference.

A grihastha Vaishnav always avoids offences to the Holy Name—he always accepts what is favourable to devotion and always rejects what is unfavourable to devotion. That is the main thing. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told one more thing—suppose you start a fire sacrifice (a yajna), and one time you put a spoon of ghee and another time you put a spoon of water and then again you put a spoon of ghee—will it work like that? It will not. You must always put ghee otherwise there will be no fire. So, we must accept what is in favour of devotion, and we must reject what is not in favour of devotion. Both cannot run together.

Another thing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said is that sometimes people think, "If I become a sannyasi, I may fall down later, so better I become a householder, then there is no risk of falling down!" Sometimes also we stay in our house and on pretext of making Krishna's family we create so many servants and maidservants of Krishna—this is called sahajiya (imitation). Those who are interested in spiritual life do not live like that. One can never prosper or develop their spiritual life by such hypocrisy.

* * *

Bhakti Siddhanta Vani

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 7

Once, somebody asked Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur a question, "Prabhupad, how will we get the right to chant the Holy Name?" He replied very nicely. Who brings this Holy name to this world? Sriman Mahaprabhu. So, you must first serve Mahaprabhu's devotees. If you serve Mahaprabhu's devotees, then through their service you will get the right to chant the Holy Name.

Somebody asks also, "How can we get vaishnavata, qualities of a Vaishnav?" Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that many people do not want to be servants of Vaishnavs, but they want to be Vaishnavs—he said it is impossible to become a Vaishnav without service to a Vaishnav's servant.

Prabhupad said also: I am not a devotee. I cannot serve the Lord and the Lord's servants constantly, at all times. Sometimes we are born as a man and we are attracted by the beauty of ladies; sometimes we think we are a lady and we are attracted by men. How can I be a devotee? I am a pasandi, an atheist! How can a naradham sinner like me become a devotee! Do you know the English word for naradham? [A devotee: An animal with two legs?] [His Divine Grace laughs.] Fallen people (naradham) cannot become a devotee.

Another thing Prabhupad (and Gurudev also) told is this: I cannot understand it—so many people are chanting the Holy Name, they actually want to serve devotees, but do they increase their devotion? They are only mind-enjoyers—they are only enjoying with their minds...

* * *

My Happiness

Sri Nrisingha Palli, Gaura Purnima Day

21 March 2019, part 1

Actually, I am very happy that devotees have come here from various countries. Unfortunately, they are getting some austerity because this is a very small place—you all know what is going on in the temple; but, despite everything, you are still following Gurudev's instruction. It my great happiness that we can go on this parikrama together, that we can celebrate Sri Gaura Purnima festival together. That is happiness for me.

All the sannyasis are also giving me their mercy, engaging me in their service, I am very happy about that. Even if someone is sick and I can give them some medicine—that is my happiness. I feel happy that I am being engaged in the service to all the devotees. Gurudev told me, "Take care of the devotees. Take care of my mission." Even though so many problems are coming to me, I still want to preach Gurudev's message, I want to preach for Gurudev's mission—I want to preach what Gurudev wanted. This is what I want to give to all of you, and whatever austerity I am getting through that, it is my happiness.

The most important thing is that we are together, we can do and we have done the parikrama and we are going to make Sri Gaura Purnima festival and Jagannath Misra's main festival. After that, there will be a festival on pancham-dol in Hapaniya—we are going to celebrate at the appearance place of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

I am very pleased that we can share this austerity and that everybody is together.

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My Hope

Sri Nrisingha Palli, Gaura Purnima Day

21 March 2019, part 2

We should understand that in Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time the accommodation was also not so good and not so much, but Gurudev arranged for so much accommodation for the devotees, and we too will try to make more accommodation in future. Ultimately, we have hope that we will get accommodation in other places as well and we will solve this problem. Anyhow, Krishna is with us, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Saraswati Thakur are with us—devotees' mercy, sannyasis' mercy, everyone's mercy is with us, so this gives us even more happiness.

When all the devotees are with us, when all the devotees' mercy is with us, we have no worry. Gurudev says: when a door closes, another door will open. When Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj handed the charge over to Gurudev, there were also problems, but not as big as the problem there is now—some little problem came and one way or another it was solved by the mercy of Srila Guru Maharaj. This problem too will be solved by the mercy of Gurudev. Actually, I do not think that this is a problem. I hope that this situation will finish quickly. I promise to all of you that as long as I am alive I will not run away.

When Gurudev made his declaration of succession on the day of his Vyasa Puja and appointed me the acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, I was on my way to Australia at that time (I was supposed to stop in Malaysia for a few hours and then go to Australia). After that, he got a letter letter from some big devotees, some conspirators, and he was very shocked. As soon as he got it, he called me and told me to shorten my programme in Australia and leaving Srila Ashram Maharaj there, to come quickly back. I immediately made some arrangements for protection of Gurudev and came back within seven days. I went directly to Nabadwip from the airport and went straight to the room of Gurudev. He was lying on his bed and called me to come near—when I came up to him, he caught my hand and gave me the letter. He asked me, "It is very painful for me. What do you think you will do? Will you solve this problem? I told a little bit about my desire in the declaration, but tell me, you will have to face so many problems, will you run away from it?" I replied, "I will not run away, Gurudev. I will face all problems, but I will not run away from the devotees."

I have never actually run away—I have never wanted to run away from Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, but all the devotees who surrounded me told me, "They will kill you unless you leave at once. What can you do? We cannot protect you. Please, you have to leave immediately." That is why I left that day.

Still, we hope that by Srila Gurudev's mercy, this problem will be solved soon and it will be overcome. All the court cases have almost finished now and we near to returning there. This is our hope. These are the main things.

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Birds of Feather Flock Together

Sri Nrisingha Palli, Gaura Purnima Day

21 March 2019, part 3

I am very happy with the foreign devotees because they come every year, they are with me, and they too face some problem—they have put court cases against Sripad Tyagi Maharaj, Srila Ashram Maharaj, Srila Avadhut Maharaj, Deva Bandhu Prabhu, many ladies also (Jamuna Priya Didi, Sanatani Didi, Nanda Priya Didi, Sudevi Didi, Laksmi Kanti Didi, Lavanya Mayi Didi), one South African Mukunda Prabhu, Aravinda Lochan Prabhu, Mahananda Prabhu (Madhusudan Maharaj) and many others.

We have taken initiation from Gurudev, we did not take initiation from a temple, so we will go wherever Gurudev is. That is our main things. Everything will happen according to the desire of Gurudev. Krishna will protect Gurudev's mission, Guru Maharaj will protect his mission. I have a 100%, 200% faith in that.

I am very happy with you all, and I always invite you all—you can always come. You may think, "Where will I stay?" but by the mercy of Gurudev we have so many temples—not only in Kolkata, there is a temple in Tarakeshwar near Kolkata, there is a temple in Ekachakra, Siliguri, etc. There are so many facilities, so many places. You can come and stay longer here, it is not a problem for me at all. If you want to stay here for a longer time and do service, I always welcome you all. I am always with you.

You can see also now that all those who are Gurudev's enemies—who were rejected by Gurudev, who Gurudev got pain from—are now together and when we were passing their parikrama I saw who was there—all those who disturbed Gurudev in Guru Maharaj's time, all those who were ousted have now come together. How will I go there and mix with them? How shall I see their faces? I can tolerate my godbrothers who are doing wrong, but how shall I tolerate those who are enemies of my Gurudev? When they were rejected in Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time, how can I tolerate them? I can tolerate those who give some problem to me, but how shall I tolerate those who made problems in Guru Maharaj's time? How can I face them? That is my main thing. If somebody secretly goes there and mixes with them, getting involved in some politics, they can do it, I do not have any objection—they will get the result for it. If somebody eats fire, they will pass coal as stool. I always pray that they will may become good, that they may be reformed.

Gurudev told them if they wanted to make disciples they had to go outside Chaitanya Saraswat Math. Why should they disturb Chaitanya Saraswat Math? They came to disturb Chaitanya Saraswat Math, they did not come to serve Chaitanya Saraswat Math. They have come to Chaitanya Saraswat Math for bhog, enjoyment—for their own interest, their own benefit. That is very bad for us. People come from Nabadwip and give news—they have cut many trees, they have sold many cow, they do not take care of Guru Maharaj's things, they do not even clean the rooms, yesterday also when we were passing by in the parikrama I saw that they broke a wall near the five-storey Sevak Bhavan and people are using it now for bathing there. They are doing this, it is OK, it is their karma and they will get the result for that.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj.

Harinam sankirtan ki jay.

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Eternal Remembrance

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 8

Maya Devi is very strong. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that if you put a piece of iron into fire, it will become red after a few minutes; it gets the power of fire and if you touch someone or some cloth with that iron, it will also be burnt. Maya Devi's action is also like that. Maya Devi gets her power from the Lord and she always wants to use the jiva souls for her own purpose, for her own service. Maya Devi's action is always like that because she gets her power from the Lord. However, when anyone is surrendered to the Lord, Maya Devi thinks, "Krishna is my Master and this jiva souls is properly surrendered to my Lord—this jiva soul serves my Lord, my Master, twenty-four hours a day; then I will withdraw my action from this jiva soul." Maya Devi always keeps a little bit far, always keeps distance from those who are fortunate souls, who can serve properly. That is the main thing in our spiritual life.

Those who do service must do it with sincerity, nistha...

We can do some kirtans now... Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says, "Kirtana prabhave smarana haibe: chanting (kirtan) arouses remembrance (smaran)." You must do kirtan—you may be alone, but you can sing playing kartals or just by clapping your hands. Always do kirtan. I tell everybody that you must sing five kirtans every morning and five kirtans every evening. If you can do it, then you will get energy for service through the kirtan. Do you understand it? This is the main thing. You will get energy.

I see that not all devotees can follow kirtans because they do not sing properly. If you sing the kirtans every day, then you can easily memorise them. I myself have not got time to read books, so I have not read so many books, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also says that it is not necessary to read so many Vedas, Vedanta, Mahabharata, etc. It is not necessary to read or know so many things. You can read a little from the main books—the books that are running under the guidance of Srimad Bhagavatam. If you are thirsty, you need to drink one glass of water, what is the need thinking of a big ocean?

Srila Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur wrote, "Samsara-davanala-lidha-loka tranaya karunya-ghanaghanatvam: The Guru assumes the form of a cloud of mercy to deliver the souls burning in the blazing fire of material existence." You should sing it and try to understand its meaning. "Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu jive daya kari: Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu comes to bestow mercy on the jiva souls." "Thakura vaisnava-gana, kari ei nivedana mo bada adhama durachara: O worshippable Vaisnavas, I offer you this prayer. I am very fallen and misbehaved." If you remember, "Bhaja re bhaja re amar mana ati manda, bhajan vina gati nai re, Vraja-vane Radha-Krsna-charanaravinda: Serve! Serve! My mind is so foolish. There is no way other than service! Serve Radha-Krsna's lotus feet in Vrndavan." This was actually sung by Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Sanatan Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami—they are remembering Their names.

Actually, when you remember a devotee's name, when you remember devotees' pastimes, your heart becomes clean in this way—and this must be eternal. Nistha (sincerity) is necessary. It must be done every day. Even when I am alone, I always think, always remember devotees' pastimes. When I get time, I also read a little, but the main thing is "kirtana prabhave smarana haibe"—you can remember the Lord's and the Lord's devotees' pastime through kirtan.

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Engage Yourself In Service

Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class

15 February 2019, part 9

Why are you afraid of me? If somebody is making some offence inside or doing something wrong, they will be afraid of me, otherwise no one should be afraid of me. I am sometimes angry with those who do not follow properly, but other than that I am not an angry man.

I am a very strict person, and I do not speak about anyone behind their backs. If I want to say something, I will say this in front of the person. That is my nature. I have told before that I cannot harmonise with any deceit (kapatata). I tell what is necessary clearly. Gurudev is also like this—he never lies, he tells what is the truth. He does not try to avoid it through some duplicity. Why is it necessary to lie? If you want to say something, tell me. Tell me everything, honestly.

[To a male devotee who has grown his hair 3-5 cm:] You need to shave your hair. Why is it necessary to keep long hair? I know you are going back to your country soon, but will nobody give you a job if your hair is short? Some people grow a big moustache and I ask them, "Do you get any tax concession with this moustache?" Do you get any benefit from the government by keeping hair? Do not grow your hair, keep it very short.

Always avoid mano-dharma (mental concoction)—do not please your mind.

You will not get any letter from the Lord, but you will get a letter from devotees. Here in India, they think that the atma and the mind are the same, but mind is external and atma is internal. Atma has connection with the Lord—atma knows what is necessary for the Lord. That is why Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says that you will not get a letter from the Lord, but you will get a letter from devotees, i.e. Lord's servants. Those who are intimate friends of the Lord can bring a letter from the Lord and can give you the message from the Lord. That is why we are servants of devotees.

You can see my example—I do not think that I am the Acharya, or that I am a sannyasi. You saw yesterday that when I came here in Ekachakra I did not immediately go to my room. I was busy all day and was tired—I could come to my room and take rest, but I did not do that. You saw that I first engaged everybody. I stayed here and made sure devotees cleaned everything—all verandas, prasadam hall, etc. I have been busy past five-six days. I did potato collection for four days and during those four days I went to five hundred houses (120 houses each day). I went house to house asking, "How much potato will you give?" "One bag." "OK." Writing it down. Next house, "How much potato will give?" "Two bags." Writing it down. In this way, I went house to house. You must engage yourself in service.

Another thing is that you have got a mouth—Krishna has give you a tongue—therefore you must chant loudly. You can even say softly, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna," that is also good, but not silently, with your mouth shut.

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