(4/4) Buroraj Siva's Worship

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, day four
20 March 2019, part 4
Translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace requests Srila Bhakti Kusum Ashram Maharaj to speak and translates and elaborates on the following points mentioned by Srila Ashram Maharaj.]

The Deity of Lord Siva at this temple is called Buro Siva, or 'Old' Siva, and some people can think that Lord Siva who is present here has now gone old. But this Deity is very old – it existed here even before Mahaprabhu's times, and Mahaprabhu Himself came here during His pastimes.

Lord Siva is worshipped in many places within Sri Nabadwip Dham. But Lord Siva himself worshipped and served Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu together with Parvati Devi. Our Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, also installed Lord Siva's Deity on the bank of Govinda Kunda. Many people wonder, 'Why do Vaishnavs worship Lord Siva? Why do they open Lord Siva's temples?' One reason why they do it is because Lord Siva is Ksetrapal, the Protector of the Holy Dham; and another reason is because Lord Siva is Param Vaishnav, a very high Vaishnav – Vaishnavs serve Vaishnavs.

At present, our Nabadwip temple has grown very big – so many buildings and facilities have appeared – but Gurudev said, 'Who will look after all these buildings, guesthouses, prasadam hall, etc.? Lord Sivji Maharaj will protect it.'

[Srila Ashram Maharaj speaks about the untiring serving of Srila Acharya Maharaj in expanding the temple, building guesthouses, Govinda Kunda and many other projects, allowing Srila Govinda Maharaj to focus on preaching and rely on Srila Acharya Maharaj to look after the temple.]

On the day when we went to Chaitanya Math, we went to the Yogapith temple established by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, and we saw there a temple of Ksetrapal Siva. From that, we can understand what line we must follow as followers of the Vaishnav preceptorial line and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. When Gurudev opened the temple of Lord Siva on the bank of Govinda Kunda at our temple in Nabadwip, he gave the Deity the name Sri Sada-Siva Gangadhar.

Parvati Devi always asks Lord Siva, but one day she felt some doubt in her heart, so she asked Lord Siva, 'Whose service is the highest?' She thought that she was doing the highest worship, but Lord Siva replied, 'The worship of Lord Vishnu is the highest.' Parvati Devi became upset, and then Lord Siva said, 'But higher than even the worship of Lord Vishnu is the worship of Lord Vishnu's devotee.'

We started our parikrama today from coming to pay our obeisance to Lord Siva, and after that we will proceed to the temple of Praudha Maya at Paramatala. Actually that place was initially called Praudha-maya-tala, but in the course of time, the name became shortened to Paramatala. After paying our obeisances there, we will go to the house where Mahaprabhu's Deity that was served by Sri Vishnupriya Devi is worshipped. After that, we will go to the samadhi-mandir of Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Praying to Buroraj Siva
2) Esoteric Nature of Koladwip
3) Vasudev's Worship of Varahadev
4) Buroraj Siva's Worship