Sri Krishna Janmastami:
Our Fortune and Focus

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in Venezuela
22 August 2011, part 1

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

I am very happy to see you all today. Today is a good festival for you all there—Sri Sri Krishna Janmastami maha-mahotsav. On this day, Krishna appeared in this world to rescue your all, and us also.

We are very fortunate to have got connection with this line through our bona fide Guru and through the previous Guru-varga: through Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, and then our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

We feel very fortunate today to have got a bona fide guru and we are spending this day for Lord. Many people have a holiday today, and here in India people are enjoying with material things, but Krishna's devotees are enjoying for Krishna—their enjoyment is for Krishna. That is their hope, that is their fortune. Gurudev brought you all to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, and such fortune is rare and does not come for everyone.

Here in India, it is now also another happy day—Nanda Maharaj's festival. Make Nanda Maharaj happy. If Nanda Maharaj is happy, if Mother Yasosa is happy, then Krishna will be happy too—if Gurudev is happy, Krishna will be happy too, but if you please only Krishna, then you cannot get mercy. You must understand this.

"Guru bade Gauranga bhaje, sei papi raurave padi maje (the sinner who worships Gauranga without the Guru will fall into a terrible hell)": if you worship Gauranga without worshipping the Guru, you will be a great sinner and you will spend all your life in hell.

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur said, "Even if my Guru goes to a prostitutes' quarter, to a very bad place, he is still my Guru (my Guru is Nityananda Prabhu, my Guru is Radharani)!" If you serve Nityananda Prabhu, you will get mercy. This is what you are all doing in Venezuela—you are all worshipping Nitai, Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra, that is why you are getting mercy. Why are you exalted? Because you are worshipping your Guru (Guru means Nityananda) and you have so much faith in your Guru.

When I first joined the Gaudiya Mission, people said so many bad things about my Guru, but I never listened to it—it went into one my hear and came out of the other. You must understand that we will not look at the Guru's activities—we will see to our own activities; we will take only good things from the Guru, and we will not take any bad things from the Vaishnavs, otherwise it will be an offence to the Vaishnav, and that will create a big difficulty in our life.

If you invite Krishna, Krishna will not come, but if you invite Mother Yasoda, then Mother Yasoda will bring Krishna with her. If you worship Nityananda, Nityananda will bring Mahaprabhu to you. If you worship your Guru, your Guru will bring the Lord to you. This is our main conception. If we follow it—if we follow Rupa Goswami's, Sanatan Goswami's line—then we can easily understand it.

Our Gurudev preached all over the world only for his Guru, Srila Sridhar Maharaj. We all will also preach for our Guru—we will not preach about ourselves, we will preach about our Guru.

দুর্দ্দৈবে সেবক যদি যায় অন্য-স্থানে ।
সেই ঠাকুর ধন্য তারে চুলে ধরি' আনে ॥

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane
sei thakura dhanya tare chule dhari' ane

If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.47)

We are fallen souls, we have no quality, no qualification, but if we surrender to Gurudev, Gurudev will catch us by our sikha and throw at the lotus feet of Krishna. That is why you must please Yasoda Ma and Nanda Maharaj—if you please devotees, then devotees will give you mercy of the Lord. If you cannot make devotees happy, you will not be able to get mercy. You must understand this.

So, today is a very special day, the janmastami day when Krishna came to this world, but we always say, "Nitai," "Nitai," "Gaura Nitai," "Mahaprabhu". Even Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj made a rule that on janmastami day there must be parayan of Chaitanya-charitamrita. "Parayan" means that every devotee will read Chaitanya-charitamrita in the temple—for one hour, half an hour, or ten minutes, but everybody must take turns reading Chaitanya-charitamrita. This is the rule that Srila Sridhar Maharaj made for the main Math, the main temple of Chaitanya Saraswat Math, and we did it yesterday here in Nabadwip—they did this continuous reading (parayan) of Chaitanya-charitamrita from morning until midnight.

You must realise how merciful Mahaprabhu is to us, how merciful Nityananda Prabhu is to us, and how merciful Gurudev is to us. Where were we before? He brought us all and threw at the lotus feet of the Lord. So, if we have no faith in our Guru, we cannot do anything. We must follow our Gurudev's instruction and direction. That is our main way. That is called chastity and sincerity. Gurudev gave this classification—there is a 10% devotee, a 20% devotee, a 50% devotee, and so on. "Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari (শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী): the kind of devotion you get depends on how much faith you have." (Cc, 2.22.64)

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