The Gift of Vision

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
5 October 2014

When I see the old devotees—Gurudev's friends—it gives me pleasure and happiness. Actually, how can we see the devotees? To see a Vaishnav, to observe a Vaishnav, it is necessary to have transcendental eyes—without such transcendental eyes we cannot understand the Guru, Vaishnavs, or Bhagavan.

How many people also could understand Mahaprabhu? Mahaprabhu told Nityananda Prabhu, "Go to Gaura Mandal and preach Krishna consciousness—preach about Krishna and Krishna's Pastimes," but Nityananda Prabhu thought, "Krishna's Pastimes are very deep, and simple-hearted people cannot understand them, they will take the meaning in another way." So, Nityananda Prabhu began to preach about Gauranga Mahaprabhu's Pastimes.

In the same way, who can understand Nityananda Prabhu? When Mahaprabhu, Sachi Mata, Vishnupriya and others were sitting together, Nityananda Prabhu came in naked. Mahaprabhu immediately gave Him some clothes, but He knew that some devotees will make offence (will think bad things about Nityananda Prabhu), so He begged Nityananda Prabhu for His kaupin (bahirvas). Nityananda Prabhu gave it to Mahaprabhu, and Mahaprabhu tore the cloth into small pieces and gave each devotee a piece, saying, "Keep this on your neck like Tulasi beads. Keep it safe and worship it very carefully. If you worship it, if you keep this cloth carefully, you can control all your bad senses and desires." This is how Mahaprabhu saved the devotees from an offence to Nityananda Prabhu. If somebody thinks something bad about Nityananda Prabhu, they will make an offence and have a big problem, but who can understand this? Who can understand Nityananda Prabhu?

Even Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya at first did not pay obeisance to Mahaprabhu, but Gopinath Acharya did. He asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, "Why are you not paying obeisance to Mahaprabhu? He is a sannyasi, and not only that—He is the Lord, the incarnation of the Lord. Krishna Himself came in this Age of Kali as Mahaprabhu!" Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya could not admit it, he did not want to believe it, and they began to debate. He showed that his sastras say there is no avatar in Kali-yuga, but Acharya Gopinath did not agree,

"You have read many sastras, but have you not read Bhagavatam? Have you not read Mahabharata?"

"Are you saying I have no sastra-jnan, I do not know the sastra, because I do not believe He is as an avatar?"

"You cannot understand, cannot see who Mahaprabhu is with your intelligence, with your brain, or education. I have a heart, and above all I have some mercy of Mahaprabhu, but you have no mercy, that is why you cannot understand Him. This is the ultimate answer to your question."

We can observe and understand the Guru and Vaishnavs by the mercy of the Guru and Vaishnavs; otherwise just by their external appearance and external activities we cannot see who is a Vaishnav, or who is the Guru.

...You are very fortunate souls, you have got the mercy of Gurudev, you have taken shelter of Gurudev and are now staying in one boat with Gurudev as its captain. We will not go to any boat that has no captain—we will only go to the boat that Gurudev is the captain of.

Actually I am a fallen soul, I have no quality or qualification, but my Guru is very powerful and can rescue me—he can give me and he is giving me power, strength, and mercy. Now I feel separation from Gurudev, but in Gurudev's time I could not properly understand him although he came to rescue me, a fallen soul, from a hellish position... But you are the fortunate souls because you took shelter of Gurudev.

When Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur disappeared, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "I am a fallen soul, and when he was present, I could not recognise who Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur was, could not recognise that he came to rescue me; but those who took shelter at his lotus feet are fortunate souls."

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