Remembering Sri Vrindavan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 17 December 2010

"Radha-padankita dhama, vrndavana yara nama (রাধাপদাঙ্কিত ধাম বৃন্দাবন যার নাম): Vrindavan, the abode decorated by the lotus-like Radha..." You must always do Vrindavan parikrama with your head. Do you know that? Not with your legs, but with your head. [His Divine Grace and devotees laugh]. We are laughing, joking, but actually you must remember in your mind, "Oh, I am walking here with my head." You must do parikrama of Vrindavan with your head.

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ-ভজন তব অকারণ গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

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

Without the mercy from the Guru, nothing can be possible, everything is impossible.

"Radha-padankita dhama, vrndavana yara nama (রাধাপদাঙ্কিত ধাম বৃন্দাবন যার নাম): Vrindavan, the abode decorated by the lotus-like Radha..."

Vrindavan is a very nice place. In Vrindavan, there is no meat, no eggs, no fish in the restaurants and hotels there. They arranged it there so well, I like that kind of things. Here (in Nabadwip), if you are hungry, you cannot have anything—you cannot take food anywhere because in every shop everything has eggs. I used to think that sweetshops were OK, but now even in sweetshops when they make samosa (singara), they put there some onion, garlic. You cannot bring anything from the shops now. We have tried to arrange so many things for Nabadwip, for so many years, but the government does not agree. People cut fish, meat, goat, chicken, etc, in the open (you can see how much degraded they have become). There is no restriction, no rules and regulations, they do it openly, without even any cover.

But we do Govardhan parikrama and Nabadwip dham parikrama—

গৌর আমার যে সব স্থানে
করল ভ্রমণ রঙ্গে ।
সে সব স্থান হেরিব আমি
প্রণয়ি-ভকত-সঙ্গে ॥

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."

I was just singing this now. "I will go to the places where Gaura went—I will see all these places with devotees (pranayi-bhakata-sange)." Mahaprabhu went to many places—for example, in South India. We have not got an opportunity to go there, but Gurudev went for the parikrama of South India many times. We also think that if we got time, we could go there after Gaura Purnima. I know much about South India from books, but I have never gone there—Guntur is there, the Godavari, the bank of the Godavari River is there. There are many very nice places there.

যে দিন গৃহে ভজন দেখি ।
গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায় ॥

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)

Actually, if worship is going on in some house, that house is like Goloka. That is why Gurudev would also tell the householder devotees, "You can make your house a temple." Mangal arati, kirtans—you can do it every day. That is called practising, and that is our practice.

...There is Govinda, Gopinath and Madan Mohan.

এই তিন ঠাকুর গৌড়ীয়াকে করিয়াছেন আত্মসাৎ ।
এ তিনের চরণে বন্দোঁ, তিন মোর নাথ ॥

ei tina thakura gaudiyake kariyachena atmasat
e tinera charana vandon, tine mora natha

"These three Deities of Vrindavan (Madana-mohana, Govinda and Gopinatha) have stolen the heart and soul of the Gaudiya Vaishnavs (followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu). I worship Their lotus feet, for They are the Lords of my heart."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 1.19)

They are the Deities of sambandha tattva, abhidheya tattva, prayojana tattva. First is Madan Mohan, sambandha tattva, then abhidheya tattva, Govinda, and then prayojana tattva, Gopinath. Sanatan Goswami served Madan Mohanji, Rupa Goswami served Govindaji, and Madhu Pandit served Gopinathji. They served them in Vrindavan.

Almost all Mahaprabhu's parsadas (associates) served Deities, this was Mahaprabhu's sampradaya. And Vaishnavs live everywhere in Vrindavan. You see that behind the place of Kaliya-daman-lila there is samadhi of Prabodhananda Saraswati's. All Vaishnavs are there—in Govardhan and Vrindavan. At Radha Kunda, there is Raghunath Das Goswami's samadhi, in Radha Damodar there is Jiva Goswami's samadhi, Bhugarbha Goswami's samadhi, Rupa Goswami's samadhi...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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