Three Chambers of Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Evening class at Sri Govardhan
28 October 2019, translated from Bengali

Today, by the mercy of Gurudev, you have beautifully done this parikrama, and tomorrow we are going to do the biggest part of the parikrama of Govardhan. We will take prasadam and go.

Do not stay without the service of the Lord, without the narrations about the Lord. If you feel unwell and cannot go tomorrow, do not stay here and gossip and talk nonsense—if you have to stay, then take care of your health and engage in service. Tomorrow, everybody should have a shower, then take these pots here and bring some water from Manasi Ganga for the abhisekh of Sri Giriraj (do not bathe in Manasi Ganga, it is not necessary). According to your ability, get some sweets, fruit, etc., offer everything to Giriraj today, serve Giriraj from your heart and pray to Him that you may be able to serve Him and His devotees. You must pray to Giriraj, "O Lord, please give us Your mercy, please give us Your blessing so that we may serve You forever, until our death."

When we arrive in Vrindavan the day after tomorrow, we will take some rest and then start the parikrama. We will start in the morning and come back by midday. I see that sometimes when we sit in some place, people start roaming around or go shopping and then we all get late. First do the parikrama—the parikrama of Vrindavan is short, about ten miles, so we will come back soon and you will have time for other things.

Actually we do not have any capacity to do the parikrama—if Radharani, Gurudev give their mercy, then only can we circumambulate their holy abode. Do you think everybody can do it? Everybody walks around, gossiping, telling mundane stories, etc.—not everybody has the fortune to come and do the parikrama attentively, come to the arati, get the darshan of the Deities. Everybody says they are going to Goloka, Vrindavan, but instead they go to serve Maya. We come to this world and spend our lives making sacrifices (yajna) for Maya Devi (we engage in Maya-yajna). Maya Devi makes us struggle so much, but we do not feel any shame. Maya Devi shows no mercy on us, she makes us suffer so much, and we keep ourselves busy the whole day with our wife, children, etc.—we give our life for them. Our duty is to practise Krishna consciousness in strict adherence (anugatya) to our Guru. If you practise Krishna consciousness fanatically following sadhu, Guru, and Vaishnavs, taking shelter of a bona fide Guru, then you will get supreme benefit.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj has opened such a beautiful 'service factory'—he has given us so many opportunities to serve, but we cannot do it. Sri Gurupadpadma widely announces service opportunity, but we cannot serve—we only keep serving Maya as her slaves, we roam the worlds in search of kanak, kamini, pratistha (money, companions, and fame).

I have got a phone call today from Odisha. Some devotee whom I do not know called and asked me, "Mahaprabhu took ekadanda sannyas, then why does Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya give tridanda sannyas?" I told him why. Because Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur established it. Why did he do it? Actually, when Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He came to Odisha to take the darshan of Jagannath, and at that time Nityananda Prabhu broke His danda into three parts and threw it into the Bharghi River. Getting inspiration from there, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur started giving tridanda sannyas in our sampradaya. He also told that tridanda sannyas means serving with one's body, mind and speech (kaya, mana, vakya)—sannyasis always serve the Lord with their entire life and soul. Gurudev also explained the meaning of tridanda sannyas with Mahaprabhu's sloka,

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

Gurudev explained that tridanda sannyas means being humble, tolerant and giving honour to others. However, now, in this age of Kali, it is very difficult to see a true sannyasi. There are so many sannyasis in this world, they all have taken tridanda sannyas, but having read many scriptures, seeing what is written there, I see that their tridanda means kanak, kamini, pratistha (money, women, fame)...

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