(10) Come Out of Darkness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, Lord Siva's Temple inauguration,
5 March 2019, morning, part 10
Translated from Bengali

It is said in the scriptures, ‘Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi’ anachara (করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার). Leave bad habits and make your family a family of Krishna.’ We must live as members of Krishna's family and we must leave all bad habits. Always think about this.

There are so many stories that you can hear and feel happy. You must never forget the Lord.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha

‘Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

If we come to a goat and say, 'O goat! Chant the Holy Name! Practise spiritual life!' will it understand anything? It will not. They can neither understand nor know these things. But those who have got a human birth and have some intelligence can take to sadhu-sanga: as they listen to sadhus more and more, they can develop attraction and loving attachment to Lord Krishna. You can learn to love God.

I have a prayer to you all. I keep telling you about it again and again. Try to understand and follow the religion of Kali-yuga. In Satya-yuga, people lived for a hundred thousand years and their religion was meditation: they would meditate for more than sixty–seventy thousand years without eating anything! They would meditate on Lord Narayan, praying:

নারায়ণপরা বেদা নারায়ণপরাক্ষরাঃ ।
নারায়ণপরা মুক্তিরনারায়ণ পরাগতিঃ ॥

narayana-para veda narayana-paraksarah
narayana-para muktar narayana-para-gatih

This is how they came to the Lord. It is a very austere practice. Later, in Treta-yuga, people lived for ten thousand years and practised fire sacrifices. They sacrificed horses (asvamedha-yajna), humans (naramedha-yajna), and so on. Next, in Dvapar-yuga, people lived for one thousand years and their religion was Deity worship. And in Kali-yuga, human lifespan is only a hundred and twenty years. Now there are hardly any people who live that long – many people die at a much younger age. Despite such a short lifetime, the religion in this age is Harinama-sankirtan (congregational chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord). How was this religion established in this age?

One time in Dvapar-yuga, Krishna was sitting under a tamarind tree on the bank of the Yamuna. He was absorbed into meditation, 'Why does Radharani cry chanting My Name? What sort of happiness does She feel when She served Me? What taste is there in Her devotion?' Desiring to taste and relish Her mood, Supreme Lord Krishna appeared in Sri Nabadwip Dham, right near your homes, as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna. This is so near your homes, but you cannot go there. Others come from thousands and thousands of miles away to visit Sri Ekachakra Dham, the holy abode of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu. You can see some foreign devotees seated here with us today – I have brought them with me from Ekachakra. They will be leaving back to their countries soon. Do you have any idea where they live? This planet is like a ball – India is on top, and their countries are right on the opposite end, at the bottom of the globe. They come from Latin American countries. It is almost noon here, but in their countries it is night now. When the sun sets here, in their countries it is only rising.

I have even been to such a country where the whole day there is only day – there is no night. The sun sets only for fifteen minutes, and then it rises again! When I went there at another time of the year, I saw that there was no day! The whole day was dark. They have daylight for one half of the year and night for the other half of the year! This is the kind of place I have visited. People from such places chant the Holy Name. But what do we do?

Here, in India, people say, 'The darkest place is under the candlestick' (pradipera nichei andhakara; প্রদীপের নিচেই অন্ধকার) and Muslim people say, 'Those who live in Mecca do not observe prayers' (makkar loka haj paya na; মক্কার লোক হজ পায় না; synonymous to the proverb, 'The nearer the church, the further from God'). If you were to go to Nabadwip, you could start out in the morning and get there by noon – we have a temple there, we do parikrama there, there are so many opportunities, but how many of you even know Mahaprabhu? Thousands of devotees from all over India and many countries of the world come at the time of Gaura Purnima – they dance and chant, 'Gaura Hari! Nitai Gaura!'

Please come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Come for five days. You do not need to give any money or pay for anything – just come. You will get prasad. If you want to give any donation, you can do that; otherwise, I am not asking anybody for anything.

If a husband and a wife are initiated, they can come together; it is not a problem. We walk most of the way during parikrama, but sometimes we also take buses. We leave in the morning and come back before evening. If you cannot walk, you can hire a rickshaw and go together with the party, chanting kirtan together with us. We stop at various places and speak Hari-katha. You will get prasad three times a day. In the morning, we take some muri and vegetables at the temple; then go for the parikrama, and it when it comes to one o'clock, we stop somewhere and bring prasad for everybody; in the evening, we return to the temple, freshen up, have a class, chant kirtans and after taking prasad at nine o'clock go to sleep. The next day we wake up and start parikrama again. This is how we do parikrama during four days: ekadasi, dvadasi, trayodasi and chaturdasi. On the purnima day is the main festival, Sri Gaura Purnima. On this day, everybody must stay at the temple. Outside people play dirty games – they smear paint on each other's bodies, throw colors at girls, and so on; that is why we tell all girls and boys not to go outside. Do not spoil your clothes, do not take part in dirty things. Actually, we have no right to take part in this whole play with colors – Krishna is the one who played with gopis like that. Do you think that if Krishna does something, we must also do it? If you think like that, then Krishna also lifted Govardhan with His little finger – can you do that, too? If you can, then you can play. Krishna had 16,108 queens, but how many women can you take care of? If you try to do what Krishna did, you will become a sahajiya. You must always make sure that you are conscious of this, that you think and remember all this. This is what Krishna consciousness is.

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