(9/9) A Taste of Sadhu-Sanga

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
24 February 2019, evening, part 9
Translated from Bengali

We keep coming to this material world, changing material families each time. Even dogs have their families, even goats have their families, even cats have their families, even pigs have their families. You are thinking about heaven. Do you want to go to heaven? Sadhus are not interested even in heaven because they know that when you go to heaven, your stay there is only temporary. You come to heaven after you accumulate sufficient piety, but when that piety is exhausted, you have to come back again. In the same way, if you live a sinful life, you go to hell, and when your sins are finished there, you will have to come back from there. Both heaven and hell are temporary. They are situated within the fourteen planes of each material universe: Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar, Maha, Jana, Tapa, Satya; Atal, Vital, Sutal, Talatal, Mahatal, Rasatal, Patal. Beyond these fourteen planets lies the Viraja River, after that there is Vaikuntha, the abode of Para-brahma, and beyond all that is Goloka Vrindavan. Lord Vishnu resides in Vaikuntha, the world beyond the Viraja. As for us, we must try to join the service to the Lord that is going on in Goloka Vrindavan.

'Chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba (ছাড়িয়া বৈষ্ণব-সেবা নিস্তার পায়েছে কেবা): Without service to Vaishnavs, you cannot get any relief.' We must serve Vaishnavs. Some people want to become Vaishnavs, but nobody can become a Vaishnav without service to Vaishnavs. If you want to become a devotee, you must serve devotees; otherwise, without serving devotees, you can never become a devotee. Always remember this. If you can live like this, you can get the highest benefit and reach your supreme destination in the holy abode of the Supreme Lord. Other than that, there is no other way to achieve it.

Wherever you go, wherever you are, always stay in the association of sadhus. For example, many people go to Puri – they book a group tour and go sightseeing in a bus. But when devotees go on a parikrama, they visit all the holy places that Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu went to.

গৌর আমার, যে সব স্থানে,
করল ভ্রমণ রঙ্গে ।
সে সব স্থান, হেরিব আমি,
প্রণয়ি-ভকত-সঙ্গে ॥

gaura amara, ye saba sthane,
karala bhramana range
se saba sthana, heribo ami,
pranayi-bhakata-sange

'In the company of loving devotees, I will behold all the places my Gaura roamed during His ecstatic pastimes.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Every year we go to Puri at the time of the Ratha-yatra festival. We stay there for seven days and provide everybody with accommodation, meals and transportation. When we go there, we do not just go sightseeing – we chant kirtan, we give classes and speak Hari-katha. We come to different places, sit down for a while and speak about the glories of each place. Hundreds of people join us every year. When you come on a parikrama, you must realise where you go and why. Do not go there only thinking, 'When will I go to the market?', 'When will I go swimming in the ocean?' Come to do a parikrama in the association of devotees. We also take everybody to Vrindavan every year.

In Puri, we get to take Lord Jagannathdev's prasad, Sri Ananta Vasudev's prasad, we take the darshan of the ocean, we visit the place of Sri Ganga Mata Goswami, we speak about the glories of Sri Ananta Vasudev and Bindu Sarovar, and so on. You cannot understand all these things unless you keep listening about these things. Many people go to Bindu Sarovar, but they do not even know what this place is. I am writing a book about Sri Puri Dham, and I was just writing about Bindu Sarovar today. I wrote the description of its glories very nicely! When we go there, we usually do not get much time because everybody gets hungry by that time, but I wrote about the glories of Bindu Sarovar and how it appeared in a book that we are going to print very soon.

Bindu Sarovar is situated in Bhuvaneshwar, near the temples of Lingaraj and Ananta Vasudev. How did Lord Siva (Lingaraj) come there to Bhuvaneshwar? What happened there?

One day, when Sivji Maharaj was speaking, he told his wife, Parvati Devi, 'Parvati, you know, there is a place that is more charming than even Kailash, where the Lord of Kashi resides. That place is in Purusottam Ksetra (Bhuvaneshwar).' Parvati Devi was surprised, 'Really?' She decided to come to that place.

Coming alone, she stayed there as a Vraja-gopi for fifteen years. One day, two demons were passing by the place where Parvati was staying and saw her. They were smitten, 'Oh, what a beautiful young girl! We did not even know there is such a beauty living here!' Hearing them speak like this, Parvati became scared that the demons could do something to her. She started remembering Sivji Maharaj, and Lord Siva came to her in disguise of a gopi. Parvati told him everything, and Sivji Maharaj started meditating. It turned out that the demons had got a boon from demigods that they could not be killed with any weapon. Lord Siva told Parvati Devi, 'Only you can kill them.'

'How can I kill them?!' Parvati Devi asked.

'I will teach you how.'

After Lord Siva told her what to do, Parvati Devi came to the demons and said,

'All right, you can marry me – I will become your wife – but I have one condition.'

The demons were excited, 'Yes, what is it?'

'I will marry the one who can carry me on his shoulder.'

Then, the demons started fighting between each other. One said, 'I will carry her!' The other one said, 'No, I will carry her!' Parvati Devi interfered and said, 'Stop fighting. I shall keep my one leg on your shoulder and my other leg on his shoulder.' Then, when Parvati climbed on both demons' shoulders and started pressing down so hard that both demons died under her weight!

Having killed the demons, Parvati Devi suddenly felt fatigued. She thought, 'Oh, I am so thirsty, but there is no water anywhere here.' She asked Lord Siva, 'Please do something, I am very thirsty!' Then, Sivji Maharaj dug out an enormous hole the size of a pond. Parvati Devi told him, 'Make so that there is always water in this pond. I want an eternal water reservoir.' Then, Lord Siva went to each and every holy place (Ganga, Saraswati, Yamuna, etc.) and collected, drop by drop, water from each of the places and placed it in the hole he had dug. That is why that pond is known as Bindu Sarovar. 'Bindu' means 'a drop' – Lord Siva collected the water for that pond taking drops from each holy place.

Therefore, the glory of that pond is such that if anybody bathes in that Bindu Sarovar, their ancestors (even if they are suffering in hell) become liberated and enter the Lord's abode. When Lord Siva created that pond, Lord Brahma and all the other gods came and bathed in it. After that, Lord Siva prayed to the Lord, 'O Supreme Lord! I would like to stay here.' The Lord gave His permission, 'Yes, stay here, next to Ananta Vasudev.' That is how Lord Siva came from Kashi and started staying there: this is how the temple of Lord Lingaraj appeared there. Ever since then, Lord Siva has been every day taking Lord Ananta Vasudev's prasad there, in Bhuvaneshwar.

Where will you hear about such things? Who will tell you about it? If you go on a bus tour, will they tell you about it? Nobody knows about it, and nobody is going to tell you about it. When we come to Sri Puri Dham, we take the Lord's prasad and talk about Lord Jagannathdev, about how He appeared there and His various pastimes.

Jay Lord Jagannathdev ki jay.
Sri Ananta Vasudev ki jay.
Sri Sivji Maharaj ki jay.
Harinama-sankirtan ki jay.
Nitai-Gaura premanande Hari bol.

Let us chant some kirtans now.

— : • : —

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Length: 48 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Cherish Tulasi Seva
2) Know Thyself
3) Align Yourself with Your Soul
4) Appealing to Intelligence
5) Turn Karma Into Seva
6) Mental Hunger
7) No Cheating
8) Kali's Poison
9) A Taste of Sadhu-Sanga