(4) Srila Prabhupad's Renown

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's
appearance day, Hooghly district
24 February 2019, morning, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Srila Prabhupad came to this world, but if he had not, how would we live? Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj composed a pranam-mantra of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur where he says:

গুরুদং গ্রন্থদং গৈরধামদং নামদং মুদা
ভক্তিদং ভূরিদং বন্দে ভক্তিবিনোদকং সদা

guru-dam grantha-dam gaura-dhama-dam nama-dam muda
bhakti-dam bhuri-dam vande bhaktivinodakam sada

'He is the giver of Sri Guru; he is the giver of scriptures; he is the giver of Gaura’s holy abode; he is the giver of the Name; he is the giver of pure devotion. He is the greatest donor. I forever offer my obeisance to this Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur.'

(Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj)

If Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur had not come, how would we have got Srila Prabhupad? If Srila Prabhupad had not come, how would we have got our Param Gurudev Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj? And if Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had not come, where would we have found our Gurudev?

So, today, on this auspicious day, we pray to him, 'O Master, O Prabhupad, wherever you may be now, you are present in your eternal abode, rejoicing in your eternal pastimes, but your unfortunate children are left here, in this world, floundering amidst the illusory environment. We are suffering from an unbearable agony in this material world, so, O Lord, we are praying to your holy lotus feet: please pray for us, please bless us, please bestow your mercy upon us so that we can be irresistibly attached to your holy feet, so that we can always stay in the shelter of your holy feet and never become removed from it. May our devotion to your holy lotus feet increase day by day, and may we never leave the shelter of the holy lotus feet of your dear associates who, coming through the channel of guru-parampara, are preaching about Mahaprabhu in this world. May they graciously bestow upon us loving attachment to the service of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda in Vrindavan.'

Jay Srila Prabhupad ki jay.

In this way we speak about Srila Prabhupad today. His glories are unlimited. We preach about Srila Prabhupad all over the world, and many of the things I tell you are actually his words. He was a daring, fearless preacher. He boldly declared a war against Maya. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wrote:

নিখিল-ভুবন-মায়া-ছিন্নবিচ্ছিন্নকর্ত্রী
বিবুধবহুল-মৃগ্যা-মুক্তি-মোহান্ত-দাত্রী ।
শিথিলিত-বিধি-রাগারাধ্য-রাধেশ-ধানী
বিলসতু হৃদি নিত্যং ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত-বাণী ॥

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri
vibudhabahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri
sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

‘He slashed to shreds the illusion of the whole material universe, putting a stop to scholarly speculations and conceptions of liberation; he eased the strict rules and regulations, bestowing the conception of natural loving worship of the Divine Couple – may the devotional teachings of this Sri Bhaktisiddhanta play eternally in our hearts.’

(Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj)

People can wonder, 'How can sadhus wage a war?' Yes, they can! Who do they fight against? Against Maya, illusory environment. They defeat Maya and engages souls in the service of her Master. Everything that is created in this world is created for the Lord's service. But what do we do instead of serving the Lord? Instead of serving the Lord, we turn Him into our servant. We come to the Lord and say, 'O Lord, give me this', 'Give me that', 'Give me knowledge', 'Give me beauty', 'Give me a wife', 'Make me a great poet' – this is what mayavadis pray for. Because we are overcome with ego and pride, we take the Lord's things and enjoy them. When flowers blossom on a lau (gourd) tree, they are also the Lord's property – they are also related to the Lord and should be used for the service of the Lord. You know, if you take lau leaves and cook them as herbs with some potato, it tastes very nice! If you offer bhoga to the Lord like that, it makes Him very happy. The Lord likes such simple offerings.

বৈরাগীর কৃত্য—সদা নাম-সঙ্কীর্ত্তন ।
শাক-পত্র-ফল-মূলে উদর-ভরণ ॥

vairagira krtya—sada nama-sankirtana
saka-patra-phala-mule udara-bharana

'The duty of a renunciate is to always engage in Nama-sankirtan, and maintain your stomach with vegetables, leaves, fruit, and roots.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.226)

The only duty of a renounced person is to engage in Nama-sankirtan. And Srila Prabhupad is a holy embodiment of kirtan (Hari-kirtana murti-svarupa). Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wrote:

কৃপয়া হরিকীর্ত্তনমূর্ত্তিধরং
ধরণীভরহারক-গৌরজনম্ ।
জনকাধিকবৎসলস্নিগ্ধপদং
প্রণমামি সদা প্রভুপাদপদম্ ॥

krpaya hari-kirtana-murti-dharam
dharani-bhara-haraka-gaura-janam
janakadhika-vatsala-snigdha-padam
pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

‘Bestowing mercy upon jiva souls, he is manifest as a worshippable deity of Hari-kirtan personified. He is an associate of Sri Gaura who removes the burden of offences from Mother Earth. I offer obeisance to this very gentle fountainhead of greater parental affection towards jiva souls than even that of a father. I eternally offer obeisance to the radiance emanating from the toenails of my master.’

(‘Sri Sri Prabhupadapadma Stavakah’, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj)

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur carried the burden of Mother Earth, but this world does not understand it... He said, 'You do not like now what I am saying, but when I am no more, then you will remember me.' And I think that this is very true. Thousands of people all over the world are remembering him today in all kinds of languages: Farsi, Urdu, Spanish, English, Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujrati, etc.. Even Muslim people are talking and thinking about him today: even those who do not know any other language except Arabic are talking about him in Arabic today. They have books translated into Arabic. Srila Prabhupad's glories are written in Arabic, Farsi, Gujrati, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, English and every other language of this world.

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