(1/6) Beyond Superficial Reverence

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
27 February 2019, afternoon, part 1
Translated from Bengali

In other missions, they say, 'Everybody must become a devotee of Krishna!' but we do not say such things because even Lord Krishna Himself said, 'Those who say that they are My devotees are not My devotees. My devotees are those who are devotees of My devotees.' What did Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur say?

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ ভজন তব অকারণে গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

‘If you did not become devoted to the worship of Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna was in vain.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Radhara dasira Krsna sarva-vede bale (রাধার দাসীর কৃষ্ণ সর্ব্ব বেদে বলে). Krishna is the property of the maidservants of Srimati Radharani. All the Vedas say this.' Whom does Krishna belong to? To Radha's maidservants. We must remember this. What else did Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur say?

রাধিকা দাসী যদি হোয় অভিমান ।
শীঘ্রই মিলই তব গোকুল কান ॥

radhika-dasi yadi haya abhimana
sighrai milai taba gokula kana

'Those who pride themselves on being maidservants of Radhika will quickly come to meet Gokula Kan (Krishna).'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

[It suddenly starts raining.] O Lord, we are speaking about You, but it is raining! We must call out to the Lord properly. Of course, it has to rain... [His Divine Grace laughs.] Do not be afraid, stay quiet and whatever will be will be.

So, we must become devotees of Nityananda Prabhu and Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

যদি গৌর না হ'ত তবে কি হইত
কেমনে ধরিতাম দে ।
রাধার মহিমা প্রেমরস-সীমা
জগতে জানাত কে ? ॥

yadi gaura na ha'ta tabe ki ha-ita
kemane dharitam de
radhara mahima, prema-rasa-sima
jagate janata ke?

'If Gaura had not come, what would have happened? How would we have lived? Who would have revealed to the world Radha’s glory and the extremes of Her ecstatic divine love?'

(Srila Vasudev Ghosh Thakur)

Who would have known the glory of Srimati Radharani in this world if Gauranga Mahaprabhu had not come?... One time, a man from another mission came to Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to take sannyas. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, 'You are a Krishna-bhakta, how can I give you sannyas? First you must become a devotee of Radharani, then I can give you sannyas.' So, we should not try to become devotees of Krishna; we must first try to become devotees of Srimati Radharani and Vraja gopis. Mahaprabhu revealed the mathura-viraha-bhav in this world. What mood is this? He showed the mood that came over Srimati Radharani when Krishna left all the gopis and left for Mathura and Dvaraka. This is what is also called vipralambha-lila (the pastimes of divine separation). That kind of irresistible attraction towards the Lord and extremely intense desire to see the Lord must come to us. 'Where am I to go to find Kanu?! Where am I to go to find Krishna?! How can I do some service? How can I come to the Lord?' – this kind of intense mood must appear within us. Until and unless this mood comes to us, we will not get anything.

Oh, look, the rain has stopped.

We must always worry about 'Where am I to go to find the Lord?' and we must live engaged in this search; otherwise, we will not be able to practise Krishna consciousness.

যে যথা মাং প্রপদ্যন্তে তাংস্তথৈব ভজাম্যহম্ ।
মম বর্ত্মানুবর্ত্তন্তে মনুষ্যাঃ পার্থ সর্ব্বশঃ ॥

ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante, manusyah partha sarvasah

'Howsoever people surrender to Me, I accordingly reward them. Being the ultimate goal of all paths, I am the objective to be attained by all. O Partha, all men follow My various paths.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.11)

We must serve the Lord in a very special way.

For example, Srimati Mamata Banerjee is the chief minister here in West Bengal. If she were to come here right now, everybody would get up and greet her, bowing down, 'Didi, namaskar.' But when she comes home, everybody deals with her informally, 'Oh, Mamata, come here!' Her grandchildren climb on her shoulders and say, 'Granda, have you brought anything for us today or have you forgotten again?' Her servants will come and say, 'Didi, I told you that we did not have turmeric in the kitchen. Have you forgotten to arrange for it? How will we cook without turmeric?' She is not a chief minister at home. So, when you serve the Lord, it is also like that. You must serve the Lord with love, taking Him as your very own.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

‘May I have the same kind of love for Your holy feet as I now have for this material world.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When people try to do some service or worship, they are always scared, 'Oh, I must have committed a sin!', 'Oh, I will die!', 'Oh, I must have made a mistake!', 'Oh, what have I done?', 'Oh, what is going to happen?' Why be like that? There are different moods in service: santa (neutral servitude), dasya (serving the Lord as a servant), sakhya (serving the Lord as a friend), vatsalya (serving the Lord as a parent), madhura (serving the Lord as a paramour). You must love and think about the Lord with very deep love. He is the very treasure of devotees' hearts, and He is always with His devotees. So, if we can only serve His devotees, He will be at our beck and call: He will do whatever we say! This is how you must serve the Lord; otherwise, He will never be ours. When Vraja gopis serve the Lord, they never worry about such things. For example, you are going to offer worship to the Lord and you discover that there are no flowers at home. If necessary, you can go and steal some flowers from somebody's tree. If somebody swears you and calls you a thief, let them do that. You are doing it for the Lord, not for yourselves (you are not taking those flowers for your own enjoyment – you are taking them to offer them to the Lord). It is said even in the scriptures that to serve the Lord you can even do wrong, but you cannot do any wrong for your own selves. You can remember how Govinda crossed over Mahaprabhu. You can never cross your guru's body, but he crossed Mahaprabhu's body to enter the room. Mahaprabhu arranged this to teach us.

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Length: 31 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Beyond Superficial Reverence
2) Your Faith and Priorities
3) Burning Your Boats
4) Coming Unstuck
5) Beware Imitation
6) Daily Grind or Daily Gain?