Hens, Bats, and Bananas

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class
Sri Varaha Dvadasi, 6 February 2020, part 3
Translated from Bengali

We are going to chant some kirtans in glorification of Nityananda Prabhu, and I told you yesterday also that you should buy this holy book, Sri Nityananda Mahimamrita. I told you that you can read this book and chant the kirtans from there. Advaita Prabhu sung in praise of Nityananda Prabhu, you can find his stuti (glorification) in this book and also in the Antya-khanda of Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata.

I was telling you yesterday about the parikrama of Sri Gauda Mandal and I forgot to mention one more place, Jhamatpur Baharan, it is near Katwa. There were two brothers living in this town, Govinda Das and Krishna Das. They stayed in one house but lived separately, and one day Govinda Das arranged an asta-prahar kirtan at the house. You must have seen how people make clay Deities for such kirtans. Govinda Das did not make Gaura Nitai, he only made the Deity of Gauranga; one brahman named Gunarnava Misra was the one who told him to do like that. When this Gunarnava Misra was offering worship to the Deity, a servant of Nityananda Prabhu, Rama Das Minaketan, came there, and Gunarnava Misra did not even give him a mat to sit on—he did not show him any respect. Why? Because Gunarnava Misra did not like Nityananda Prabhu.

Do you think anyone is capable of judging Nityananda Prabhu's behaviour and practices? Can we criticise Him? Mahaprabhu Himself said,

মদিরা যবনী যাদি নিত্যানন্দ ধরে ।
তথাপি ব্রহ্মার বন্দ্য কহিল তোমারে ॥

madira yavani yadi nityananda dhare
tathapi brahmara vandya kahila tomare

"Even if Nityananda Prabhu takes a drunk lady by Her hand, He is always worshippable even for Lord Brahma."

"If Nityananda Prabhu catches and brings a drunk Muslim girl, even then Brahma will pay obeisance to Him!" Some brahman said bad things about Nityananda Prabhu to Mahaprabhu, and Mahaprabhu told him this, adding, "I have taught you the truth. You have said this once, but never say it again. Have you understood it? Now go and teach this to everyone else." Nobody has the power to understand Nityananda Prabhu—sometimes, He wears colourful clothes; sometimes He wears a sari; sometimes, He wears earrings, bangles and anklebells; He dances, He sings, He laughs. He goes to a random house and says, "Mother, give Me something to eat!" and eats there. He does not have any discrimination—He did not follow any rules. That is why He is known as avadhut.

So, what did Rama Das Minaketan do? He went to the room of Krishna Das and told him, "What kind of kirtan has your brother brought to your house? And through what sort of brahman does he worship the Lord? Hearing what he says and see what he does, I am thinking he is an atheist!" He told Krishna Das everything openly. Krishna Das chastised his brother, Govinda, "You have made an offence at the lotus feet of Nityananda Prabhu! Do you not know that Rama Das Minaketan is the main servitor of Nityananda Prabhu? How could you disrespect him? You will not have any escape now with your half-hen logic."

"Half-hen" logic means you worship Gaura and do not worship Nitai, or you worship Nitai and do not worship Gaura—if you respect one and do not respect the other, this is the same as being an atheist. Why did he call it "half-hen" logic? Because you take only the half of the hen where eggs fall from and you throw away the upper half of the hen because no eggs fall from its mouth. Will you have a hen if you do that? You will get neither eggs nor anything else then. I did not understand at first what this half-hen logic (ardha-kukkuti-nyaya, অর্ধকুক্কুটী-ন্যায়) was, so I asked Gurudev, and Gurudev explained it to me.

After that, Nityananda Prabhu came to Krishna Das in a dream, saying, "Listen, Krishna Das! Do not stay any longer in Jhamatpur! Come to Vrindavan!" After that night, he woke up and left home. He went to Vrindavan and it was there that he composed Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita.

He stayed at Radha Kunda and also in the house that we purchased (opposite our temple in Vrindavan)—his puspa-samadhi is there, you can see it. Many of you have been to Vrindavan and have seen Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's samadhi.

Therefore, if anyone makes an offence at the lotus feet of Nityananda Prabhu, they become hopeless. If you make an offence at the lotus feet of Sri Guru, you are hopeless—you will have never have any relief, never. You must think about this.

Param Guru Maharaj said: "If you think that you will make much noise and that is chanting the Holy Name, then why do you think bats are abused for their annoying noise?" (চেঁচামেচির যদি এত হরিনাম, তাহলে ছূঁচোর চাবচিকা কেন রে দুর্নাম ?) You think your loud chanting is Harinam, but bats also make much noise—is that also Harinam? If it is, then why do you call them bad names when they make noise? They are doing the same thing. Making noise is not Harinam. Harinam is:

একবার কৃষ্ণনাম যত পাপ হারে ।
পাতকীর সাধ্য নাহি তত পাপ করে ॥

eka-bara krishna-name yata papa hare
patakira sadhya nahi tata papa kare

"A sinner cannot commit more sin than once chanting Krishna's Name can remove."

At the same time:

কোটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

Even if you listen Hari-katha and practise millions of lives, you will not get the Lord. Why? Because there are offences. You must chant the Holy Name without offences.

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 never appears in bad association: the letters of the Name may appear, but the Name never does."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.1)

It is necessary to chant the Holy Name in sadhu-sanga. People sing fancy melodies, play the harmonium, tabla, ektara. They sing for the tune. People even enter competitions to show their singing skills. However, the Lord does not want any tune, melody or anything like that. If you just call the Lord by chanting His Name ("Krishna! Krishna!"), that is sufficient. He does not want any tune. The Lord wants to know if your heart, mind, soul and everything else is at His feet or not. Do you understand it? Srila Narottam Das Thakur sang: "Vrndavane chabutara tahe mora mano-ghera—my entire mind dwells within the courtyard of Vrindavan." If we sing this song, we sing "my mind dwells within the courtyard of Vrindavan," but we know it very well where our minds really are. You think of your garden, you think of a banana grove, you think, "Has he bought bananas or not? What shall I buy at the market?" [To one of the devotees:] Why are you ducking? I did not mean you! [His Divine Grace and devotees laugh.] So, we know very well in which courtyard our minds dwell...

So, these are some of Nityananda Prabhu's divine qualities and glories. He appeared in this holy abode. This place is non-different from Vrindavan Dham. If we can take the dust of this place on our heads—if we can serve this holy place—then we will get super benefit. If you cannot serve the holy dham, then only inauspicious things wait for you. Anyhow, I will chant now a few kirtans, only about Nityananda Prabhu. First, I will chant Guru-vandana (kirtan in glorification of Sri Guru)...

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