Strongest Faith

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
14 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

For a newcomer, it is necessary to have faith, sraddha. There are different kinds of faith—kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, drdha-sraddha, sudrdha-sraddha. It is necessary to have the strongest faith. Devotion comes through faith—the devotion that comes to you depends on what kind of faith you have. Not everybody has the same faith for the Lord, for the Guru.

I have explained it before. Kamala-sraddha means little or soft faith, a newcomer's faith. Taranga-sraddha is, for example, when there is some festival or programme, people come with excitement, but their faith is like a wave: when there is wind, the water of the river always comes in waves, but once there is no wind, the water is still; so, as soon as the festival finishes, everybody goes to their homes and almost everybody is attacked by maya.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told also: when Gaura Purnima finishes, everybody is ready to go to their own homes, but they do not know what their real home is. He even cried in sadness, "They have come here and done this Nabadwip Dham parikrama for seven days, and now they are going to a place that they think is their home, but it is not their real home." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur would say, "You are going there, but do not cheat me. You are going to your homes, but do not forget me, do not forget the Lord."

These are the main things. When there is a festival, so many devotees come, so many people come, but after the festival almost all people leave and become attacked by maya—they return to their own jobs. That is taranga-sraddha.

So, there is kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha; then, there is drdha-sraddha, much faith. We may have a strong faith, but sudrdha-sraddha (the strongest faith) is the faith that Srila Haridas Thakur has: when Muslim people beat him at twenty-two market places, everybody told him not to chant the Holy Name, not to chant Hare Krishna (they said, "If you chant, we will beat you!"), but Haridas Thakur continued chanting loudly. Although they beat him, he still chanted loudly. That is called the strongest (sudrdha) sraddha. That is the main thing.

"Adau sraddha, tatah sadhu-sanga...": first is faith, then good association. Good association means not only sitting with the Guru. Actually, we always think the opposite—we see Gurudev doing some material work, we see Guru as a mortal man (we have martya-buddhi), but this is not so. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said also, "Baba Radha badha." His brother Lalit Prasad thought, "Bhaktivinod Thakur is my father," but Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur always thought, "Bhaktivinod Thakur is more than a father. He is not an ordinary human being—his body is transcendental. He has come from the Lord—he is my Guru, who is the Lord Himself or His associate coming in front of me. He is not an ordinary person, an ordinary human body. Bhaktivinod Thakur's body is transcendental. Ultimately, he is an associate (parsad) of Srimati Radharani." Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur saw Bhaktivinod Thakur like that. Somebody thinks about our Gurudev also, "Oh, he is my uncle, why cannot I stay at the temple?" But we think Gurudev is not an ordinary person—he is not only a father, an uncle, etc. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj brought him from Goloka Vrindavan, and he did his service in this world, showed us so many pastimes, and after that the Lord Himself or his Gurudev called him back and he went to them. That is the main vision.

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena 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 who is considered to be so by the sadhus; yet he is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

Mother Yasoda and Sachi Mata also think that Krishna or Nimai Vishvambhar is their son. It is vatsalya rasa. However, we see what is written in the scriptures, we see what is written in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, and we can learn from Mahaprabhu's teachings. Srila Sanatan Goswami and Srila Rupa Goswami also clarified it. The Guru is the Lord Himself who comes to us in the form of the Guru. Moreover, the Lord Himself also wants to hear His teachings, His conception: Krishna Himself wants to hear Krishna-katha from Sri Ramananda Ray.

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