(2/8) Internal Appearance of Lord Krishna

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nandotsav Festival, Tarakeswar
24 August 2019, morning, part 2
Translated from Bengali

You probably know that before we built our temple here in Tarakeshwar, people used to throw away dead cows' bodies in this area and there used to be a jungle with many dead snakes's bodies scattered around. When I first came to see the land, people told me, 'Where are you going?! There are so many snakes there!' But you can see now that Sri Sri Radha-Krishna and Mahaprabhu have given us a very good land, and now there is daily service is continuing uninterrupted. Who are the owners of this land? Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Madan-mohan: Guranga Mahaprabhu, Gandharva and Krishna. The devotees here serve Them every single day, offering Them bhoga five times a day.

Just as people like to eat five times a day, the Deities are also fed five times a day. For example, when you wake up, you like having tea with some biscuits. In the same way, right after the morning arati, we offer balya-bhoga (usually, some sweets). This is the first bhoga offering. After that, we make an offering the second time at the time of archan. For example, you may like to have some muri with cooked vegetables for breakfast, so you can offer a similar breakfast to the Lord – offer whatever you can make. The third time we offer a full meal at noon. Most people like to eat rice with vegetables, some people also eat luchis or puris with vegetables, so you can make and offer that. The fourth time we offer bhoga is in the late afternoon. You can understand it yourselves – after you have lunch at noon, you usually get hungry after a few hours, so you usually have some snack like muri, chanachur, etc. Usually, at this time (at about four o'clock), we offer some fruit to the Deities. The fifth bhoga offering is in the evening, before going to bed – at 8:30 or 9 p.m. Before we go to bed, we like to eat something, so we also offer bhoga to the Deities before They retire to rest at night. These are the five times when we feed the Deities. The more you can feed the Lord, the better it is.

The Deities must always be taken good care of like this. Also, just as we take a shower every day and change our clothes, the Deities also must be bathed and offered fresh clothes. This is what is done at the time of archan in the morning. Basically, 'archan' means changing the Deities' clothes. Those who cannot do it every day do it every week or so, and those who have the capacity do it every day do it every day. You can understand it yourselves – we take a shower every day and wear fresh clothes every day. Some people even change their clothes two or three times a day because if you work the whole day, your clothes become dirty, so you change your clothes in the afternoon and in the evening. When you worship Deities, you have to change your clothes because when you sit down to eat, some food can fall on your clothes – your clothes become contaminated, so you cannot worship the Deities in those clothes. When you go outside, you do not know what gets on your clothes on the street, so you cannot worship the Deities in such clothes.

This is how you must serve Deities. Offer bhoga five times a day and serve Them eternally, every single day without fail. First and foremost, it is necessary to be surrendered. You must surrender everything to the Lord. Those who can do it are very fortunate souls. I told you yesterday that the appearance of Lord Sri Krishna must take place in your hearts. It is not like Lord Krishna's appearance took place yesterday and that is it, no, Lord Krishna's appearance must take place in every soul's heart.

Before Lord Krishna appears in your hearts, Bhakti Devi (the Goddess of Devotion) must appear there. If Bhakti Devi does not appear in your hearts, who will bring the Lord there? Bhakti Devi comes and brings the Lord with her. To make Bhakti Devi appear in your hearts, you must live in devotees' association. If you associate with devotees, it brings Bhakti Devi to your hearts, and when Bhakti Devi comes, then you can get the Lord. The more you associate with devotees, you make your hearts pure, and then Bhakti Devi will come and will bring the Lord to your hearts. Once the Lord makes His appearance in your hearts, He will make sure that you can live in devotion to Him, and He will ward off any danger or trouble in your lives. Always think about this.

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Length: 91 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Glorious Service Festival
2) Internal Appearance of Lord Krishna
3) Pure Eyes of Pure Hearts
4) External and Internal Culture
5) Lord of Lords, God of Gods
6) Kamsa's Crippled Ploy
7) At Nanda Maharaj's Palace
8) Nanda Maharaj Meets Vasudev