En Route to Dvaraka

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online,
31 October 2018, on the train Kolkata-Dvaraka

I am very sorry that I could not speak yesterday and the day before yesterday because I have been very busy—you know that the devotees are taking me to Dvaraka, Vrindavan, and Govardhan. I am speaking now from the train because this is an almost three-day journey from Kolkata to Dvaraka. Right now we are in Madhya Pradesh. We started from Howrah, Kolkata, and have already passed West Bengal, then Bihar state, after that Jharkhand, and today we are passing Madhya Pradhesh.

I myself have never actually been to Dvaraka, have not been to the temples of Dvarakanath, Somnathji, but this year devotees told me, "Maharaj, we want to go to Dvaraka with you," that is why we have arranged some programme and are going there now with more than two hundred devotees. Although we are going to Dvaraka, our main spiritual things, our target is always Vrindavan and Govardhan. This [Kartik] parikrama has been going on since Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time—sometimes, we also go to Haridwar, Hrisikesh, Benares (Kashi), and Gaya (Mahaprabhu went to Gaya and Kashi, that is why we also visit them). This year it was not possible to go to Gaya and Kashi, so we finally decided to go to Dvaraka and Somnath (Prabhas Patan) this year. After that, we will go to Vrindavan. In this way, we are going to do this very auspicious tour in the niyam-seva month, Kartik month. Such parikramas—visiting holy places in the association of devotees—are very necessary for our spiritual life.

Mahaprabhu could not go to Dvaraka, but Nityananda Prabhu went there. Some of our guru-varga also went there, and now we are going to Dvaraka too, for the first time. Our main target remains Sri Giriraj Govardhan puja. We celebrate it every year—some years we could not observe it in Govardhan due to my health, but this year we expect to be in Govardhan for Sri Govardhan Puja. So, after Dvaraka we are going to Vrindavan, after that to Govardhan, and then, finally, back to Kolkata.

As we will read in Sri Garga-samhita, Krishna stayed in Dvaraka with His mahisi (queens) and most of His pastimes took place here in Dvaraka (He lived here, managed everything from here, and left from here also), but even when He was staying in Dvaraka with Rukmini, Satyabhama, and the rest of His 16 108 queens, He was always thinking about all the Vraja gopis.

We are very glad to be with all the devotees and to be continuing our spiritual tour and programme. We gave devotees prasadam at breakfast time, and we have also brought some lunch prasadam, which we will give later today. We are going to live here on the train today and tomorrow, and, according to the train schedule, we expect to reach Dvaraka at 9 o'clock in the evening. In Dvaraka, some devotees are helping us with the accommodation and other arrangements. This is our programme. We will speak about the glories of Dvaraka in the Dvarakanath Temple, we will visit Rukmini's temple, Satyabhama's temple, etc. We will see the places where Krishna's pastimes are going on. After that, we will go to Vrindavan and Govardhan and in this way spend this Kartik month, by the mercy of Gurudev, with the Eastern and Western devotees. You too can help us—stay in touch with us, and we can make these programmes together.

Everything depends upon Krishna—without His mercy, we cannot go anywhere, we cannot visit the places of His pastimes. Actually, Krishna's pastimes, Krishna's beauty, Krishna's Name, form, etc. are non-different form Krishna Himself. We must remember that. Who can preach these things? Only Krishna Himself can preach about Himself: if Krishna allows us to preach His conception, then only can we preach Krishna consciousness; otherwise, without His mercy, without the mercy of Gurudev, we cannot understand it.

Anyway, we will talk and hear about the Dvarakanath temple tomorrow; we will speak about the pastimes that we know. I am going there and will see what is going on there. Krishna consciousness is preached all over the world, and we will also preach it.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Here with us there are some devotees from Malaysia, some from Mauritius, some from Venezuela, some from Colombia, from Australia, there are also some Indian devotees. Sripad Mahayogi Maharaj also came from London, Sripad Niskinchan Maharaj, Sripad Paramarthik Maharaj are here, and Sripad Shanta Maharaj and Sripad Muni Maharaj are on their way to Govardhan now to arrange everything there—they also arranged for some prasadam from Iskcon devotees that they will give us after one or two stations. All together we are going on this parikrama, and we are continuing our programme.

Somebody may think, "Why are we going to Dvaraka?" Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we may be following Krishna consciousness, but we must still study Vishnu consciousness (Garbhodakasayi, Ksirodakasayi, Karanodakasayi Vishnu). That is also our conception and we must also read about it from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Sri Garga-samhita. I have just seen here in Sri Garga-samhita a part about Dvaraka, but it is very big and I cannot read it all now, but I will try to tell something tomorrow and you can see the importance of Dvaraka. We can read from Sri Garga-samhita next time. Maybe we can also read it when we reach Dvaraka.

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