(1/2) At Sri Siddha Bakul

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Puri Dham parikrama, 1 July 2019, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Continuing our Sri Puri Dham parikrama, by the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma, we have now come to Siddha Bakul, Srila Haridas Thakur's bhajan-kutir. Srila Haridas Thakur is chanting kirtan here to this day, so when you come here, you must not talk. You cannot hear it, but he always chants the Holy Name, eternally, incessantly and loudly.

When he was present here, he chanted 300,000 Holy Names every day. Sriman Mahaprabhu would come here every day to see Srila Haridas Thakur after getting Lord Jagannath's darshan and before going to bath in the ocean. Srila Haridas Thakur himself never went to Lord Jagannath's temple because he felt, 'I am a very fallen soul, born in a lower caste, I have no quality or qualification – I have no right – to go to Lord Jagannath's temple. Anyway, just by seeing Mahaprabhu I already have Lord Jagannath's darshan.' So, he never went to Lord Jagannath's temple, he stayed and served the Lord here.

This bakul tree that you can see here today has been here from Mahaprabhu's time. The bark that is left from it has been here for a very long time – the tree itself is not there, but the new tree with all the new branches and leaves that you see here grew from that bark.

There are many pastimes of Srila Haridas Thakur. He is called 'Namacharya' Haridas Thakur. He performed many pastimes in Kulia and also in a village that is now called Haridaspur (Benapole, Bangladesh) – there he rescued the prostitute Laksa Hira who had been sent to him by Ramachandra Khan.

Srila Haridas Thakur was flogged at twenty-two market places in Nabadwip! They told him, 'Do not say "Hare Krishna"!' but in reply he only loudly chanted again, 'Hare Krishna!!' No matter how much they beat him, the Lord absorbed all the lashing and there was not a single mark on his body. Those who beat him suffered in the end – the Lord made it so that they were arrested. In the end, they begged Srila Haridas Thakur, 'Please take pity on us, save us.' What did Srila Haridas Thakur reply? You can see it in Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. He said, 'You are in the right place.' The dacoits did not understand what he said – they were horrified, 'What do you mean? Are we going to stay here our whole lives then??' But this is not what he meant! Srila Haridas Thakur explained, 'You are standing now here with joint palms, speaking humbly – may you live like this your whole lives.'

As for Laksa Hira, this is what happened. Ramachandra Khan was envious of Srila Haridas Thakur, so he decided to hire a prostitute to seduce him and destroy his spiritual life. When Laksa Hira came to Srila Haridas Thakur, he told her, 'Sure, I will fulfil your desire, but first please listen to the Holy Name.' He chanted loudly the whole day, so Laksa Hira came back to Ramachandra Khan and reported to him, 'He is only chanting the Holy Name the whole day, he is not saying anything else.' The next day, she came to Srila Haridas Thakur again, and he told her, 'It is the end of the month, but I have not completed my vow to chant one billion Holy Names yet. Come tomorrow.' She came again. Ramachandra Khan kept asking her, 'What is the news? Have you managed to do anything?' Laksa Hira always replied, 'No, he was chanting today, too.' She came again, and Srila Haridas Thakur was still chanting the Holy Name. He told her that he had not finished yet and that she had to come the next day.

What is the power of the Holy Name? Even those who only hear the Holy Name from a pure Vaishnav can get benefit.

অসাধুসঙ্গে ভাই কৃষ্ণনাম নাহি হয় ।
নামাক্ষর বাহিরায় বটে তবু নাম কভু নয় ॥

asadhu-sange bhai krsna-nama nahi haya
namaksara bahiraya bate tabu nama kabhu naya

‘Brother, the Name of Krishna cannot be chanted in bad association: it may certainly sound like the letters of the Name, but it can never be the Name proper.’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.1, Srila Jagadananda Pandit)

The Holy Name can be chanted only in holy association. It is impossible to chant the Holy Name in bad association. So, having listened to the chanting of the Holy Name for a few days like this, Laksa Hira came one day and decided to do Tulasi parikrama while waiting for Haridas Thakur. In the end, she cried and told him, 'Prabhu, please bestow your mercy on me – please rescue me!' Srila Haridas Thakur had told her, 'I will fulfil your desire,' so what does it mean? It was not her actual desire to seduce Haridas Thakur – she only came to do it out of greed for money. Ramachandra Khan promised her money and sent her to him, that is why she ended up in that position. So, Srila Haridas Thakur said, 'I told you that I would fulfil your wish. I would have left this place a long time ago, but I knew that you would come, so I stayed here and waited to give you the right to serve the Lord. So, now I am leaving, and you must stay here and serve this Tulasi every day, do Tulasi parikrama.'

This is what happened.

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1) At Sri Siddha Bakul
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