Srivas Pandit's Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
19 July 2013

Question: Srivas Thakur's son died when Mahaprabhu was performing kirtan, and Srivas Thakur did not disturb Mahaprabhu because of this. Why was Mahaprabhu very happy with Srivas Thakur?

Because Srivas Pandit loves Krishna more than his son. It is a simple matter. At that time there was chanting of the Lord's Name going on, and for him his son was nothing compared to that.

One time, it was many years ago, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj went to Russia for preaching. At that time the communist party was ruling, and they arrested one pregnant lady and put her into jail. They tortured her there very much, but she refused to leave chanting of the Holy Name. When the baby was born, he cried very much, and one of the military men put his heavy high boot on the face of the baby and said, "I will kill your son if you do not stop your kirtan. Stop it, then I will not kill him." The lady replied, "No problem. If you want, you can kill—then I will chant the Holy Name even louder, he will hear it and after death will go to Goloka Vrindavan. He will die one day anyway, maybe today, maybe one hundred or sixty years later, and who knows, maybe he will not be able to hear Hari kirtan during his last moment in life. So, if he can die hearing Hari kirtan now, it is very good."

But Srivas Pandit's son was very fortunate because every day there was good kirtan in his house. Mahaprabhu said to Srivas Pandit, "I will come to your house every day. Some devotee will be able to see Me, some devotee will not be able to see Me—those who have eyes can see it. I am always present in three places—Srivasa angan (house of Srivas Pandit), Raghava bhavan (house of Radhav Pandit), and Sachi Ma's rannasala (kitchen of Sachi Mata)."

Srivas Pandit was very much attached to the Holy Name and the Lord more than to his own son, that is why he did not care that his son had died. He did not tell anything to Mahaprabhu, because he understood that if Mahaprabhu got to know about it, He would stop the kirtan and there would be so much problem. But Mahaprabhu understood that something was wrong, something had happened. He thought, "Why am I not getting so much pleasure and happiness today? What is happening?"

"Srivas, has something happened today in your house? Why am I not getting happiness internally from the kirtan?" Mahaprabhu asked Srivas Pandit.

(Everybody's quality is not the same, maybe not everybody was present during the kirtan time, maybe some relatives were crying—the body of the son was still in the house; not everybody had so much faith.)

"Yes, Prabhu," answered Srivas Pandit. "It is correct, something has happened. My son has died, his body is in the other room."

"Why did you not tell Me before?!"

"Because I did not want to disturb You. If you had known about it, Your kirtan would have been stopped, some problem would have come..."

When Mahaprabhu heard this, He was very pleased to see how much attachment and love he had for the Lord. Srivas Pandit thought, "You can get a son, a daughter, a father, a mother in every birth, but you will not get the Lord in every birth Lord. This life is very important, you can get the Lord in this life, why should I misuse it? Why should I not use this opportunity?"

That is why he did not disturb the chanting of the Holy name. That is the strongest devotion to the Lord.

After that Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit's dead son and asked the boy, "O son, why are you leaving us? What offence have we made to you?" And the dead body of the boy spoke in front of everybody, "There is no offence, Prabhu. There is nothing wrong. I had had some connection with Srivas Pandit for a few months, and now You are calling me and I am going to You."

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