(2/2) Haridas Thakur's Desire

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Puri Dham, Srila Haridas Thakur's samadhi,
30 June 2019, part 2
Translated from Bengali

When Haridas Thakur said, 'It is not my body that is sick, Prabhu; it is my mind that is sick,' Mahaprabhu replied, 'You are old now. You are Namacharya, you do not have to chant so many Holy Names now.' You know that Haridas Thakur is an incarnation of Lord Brahma, and Mahaprabhu Himself gave him the title 'Namacharya.' So, Mahaprabhu said, 'You are Namacharya, you have been practising so much your whole life – why do you need to chant so many Holy Names now? Chant a little less, you are old now.'

Haridas Thakur caught Mahaprabhu's hand and pulled Him to sit down next to him on his bed. Then, he said, 'Prabhu, I have never asked You for anything, but I want to ask You for something today. Will you give it to me?

'What is it? Tell Me what you want.'

'First promise me You will give it to me.'

'All right. What is it?'

'Prabhu, You have shown me Your pastimes of birth, childhood, adolescence, Your householder pastimes and Your sannyas pastime. Now, too, You have shown me many of Your pastimes here in Puri Dham. But I have one humble request to You. I think You will not stay in this world much longer, but I will not bear seeing You leave before me. I will not be able to see this pastime. Please give me Your blessing that I may leave before you. Please give me permission to leave my body before You.'

'Haridas, I have performed all My pastimes together with you, so what are you saying now? This world will become void without you!'

'What loss is there if one ant dies? If a tiny ant dies, how does it affect Your Harinam-sankirtan? Thousands of devotees are chanting Your Names! So, if I die, what problem is there? Please do not give me any illusion. I want to leave holding Your holy feet on my chest, I want to behold Your lotus moon-like face with my eyes, and I want to leave chanting Your Name with my mouth, "Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya."'

'When devotees wish for something, the Lord must certainly fulfil their desires. But—'

As soon as Mahaprabhu said, 'But—' Haridas Thakur grasped His feet and said, 'Prabhu, please no buts. I do not want to hear any buts...'

'All right,' Mahaprabhu said finally. 'What else can I say?'

Feeling very sad, Mahaprabhu went back to His room in Gambhira to rest. The next day, Mahaprabhu again came to Haridas Thakur in the morning. He asked him, 'Haridas, what do you want?' Haridas Thakur replied, 'As You wish, Prabhu.' After that, Haridas Thakur again took Mahaprabhu's hand and made Him sit next to him. He pulled the Lord's feet and placed them on his chest. Then, looking into Mahaprabhu's eyes, Haridas Thakur said, 'Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya.' Saying this, the soul left Haridas Thakur's body... This is how Srila Haridas Thakur left this world...

Many things happened after that. Mahaprabhu personally took Haridas Thakur's body and came here, on the bank of the ocean. He bathed Haridas Thakur's body in the ocean, and all the devotees drank the water from the ocean (showing reverent respect to Haridas Thakur in this way). Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then dug a hole with His own hands and placed Haridas Thakur in his samadhi. After that, Mahaprabhu again personally went to Ananda Bazar beside Lord Jagannath's temple and begged alms. Ordinarily, when Mahaprabhu went begging, He would say, 'Krsna bala, sange chala, ei matra bhiksa chai (কৃষ্ণ বল, সঙ্গে চল, এই মাত্র ভিক্ষা চাই). I am begging you for one thing only – come with Me and chant the Holy Name of Krishna!' But when Mahaprabhu went begging for Haridas Thakur, He said, 'My great friend Srila Haridas Thakur has left! I have come to beg some prasad from you today. I want to feed all Vaishnavs today.' All the shopkeepers gave Mahaprabhu countless baskets laden with prasad. Having collected all that prasad, Mahaprabhu personally, with His own hand, distributed it to all the Vaishnavs. All the devotees were shy – nobody could take prasad like that. Finally, somebody said, 'Prabhu, unless You sit down Yourself, nobody will be able to take prasad. Please sit down and start taking prasad first, then we will all eat, too.' To please all the devotees, Mahaprabhu sat down and started taking prasad, and everybody else took prasad, too. This is how Mahaprabhu arranged vaishnav-seva in honour of Srila Haridas Thakur.

You must remember this. The Lord Himself taught by His own example how to do vaishnav-seva. I will now speak briefly in English. Please give some pranami here. This is Haridas Thakur's samadhi-mandir. Mahaprabhu Himself dug this samadhi here (the bank of the ocean used to be closeby)...

Jay Srila Haridas Thakur ki jay.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Haridas Thakur's Purity
2) Haridas Thakur's Desire