Darshan of Transcendental Abode

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vrindavan Dham, evening class
31 October 2019, translated from Bengali, part 1

Today by the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma, we have done the pancha-kroshi parikrama of Sri Vrindavan Dham—there are more than five thousand temples in Vrindavan, and you have circumambulated all of them. Tomorrow morning we will continue the parikrama. We will visit some main temples. Actually, we do not have the ability to take the darshan of those places,

অন্ধীভূত চক্ষু যার বিষয ধূলিতে ।
কিরূপে সে পাইবে পরতত্ত্ব দেখিতে ॥

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite
ki rupe se paibe para-tattva dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

We do not have the eyes to have a darshan of a holy place. If we keep hearing Hari-katha, if we keep practising Krishna consciousness and keep engaging ourselves in kirtan, keep chanting the Holy Name, then the eyes in our heart will open, and then only can we have a darshan of the Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord, then only can we understand our Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord. Who can understand the Guru? If the Guru makes himself known to a devotee or his disciple, then only he or she can understand him.

If you think, "Gurudev goes to the bathroom like us, he eats like us, he sleeps like us," it means you can only have darshan—you can only see—with your mundane vision; it means you are not able to see with our inner eyes. We have eyes in our heart, and it is necessary to open those eyes. If your heart is not clean, if there is dirt in your heart, if you have desires in your heart, if Vaishnav aparadh, Nama aparadh are born within your heart, then you will never be able to see the Lord, you will never be able to know your Guru and Vaishnavs. These are the main things.

You are doing this parikrama of the holy places, and if only some nice buildings, some nice things come into your vision, it means you have not got the darshan (you have not seen) the transcendental abode. If Maya Devi allows us to open our eyes, if she allows us to cut the net of illusory eyes, if she gives us her mercy and gives us such eyes, then we will be able to see the transcendental abode, to have the darshan of the transcendental abode.

When we do parikrama, we always do it with kirtan—if we can clean our hearts through kirtan, if we can clean our character and mind through the service to the Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord, then we can truly do dham parikrama. "Chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba (ছাড়িয়া বৈষ্ণব-সেবা নিস্তার পায়েছে কেবা): Without service to the Vaishnav, you cannot get any relief." You must always try to open the eyes in your heart.

I pray to you all that you may never compare this holy abode with any mundane soil, stones, big buildings, etc.—that you may never compare the Guru and Vaishnavs to the men of flesh and blood. If you do, you will be making an offence—you will be making Dham-aparadh, Nama-aparadh, seva-aparadh, Vaishnav-aparadh.

We must always engage in Krishna kirtan, Hari kirtan. Also, I speak mostly in Bengali, and there are many devotees here who speak other languages, so it is also necessary to speak English. Some also do not know English, they understand only Spanish, but actually the language of devotion is another matter—the true language is the language of devotion.

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