Festival of Sheltered Souls

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 9 August 2020, part 1

Haribol. Dandavat.

By the mercy of Gurudev, we get to meet all the devotees every week, and very soon a festival is coming—Sri Krishna Janmastami festival. It is on 12 August, this coming week. We will also make a programme on this day—it will be good, we will discourse about the appearance day of Lord Sri Krishna.

Without the appearance of Lord Sri Krishna, our life is useless. These are Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words. Without the appearance of Lord Sri Krishna, our life is useless. I was reading about it today, and I feel in my heart that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's expression is very nice. Wait until 12 August, and I will tell what a great expression, what a wonderful presentation Srila Prabhupad has given everybody on the occasion of Lord Sri Krishna's appearance day. After that, in fifteen days, there is also Radhastami (sukla-astami, midday), the appearance day of Srimati Radharani.

Our dhyan, meditation, is always Sri Sri Radha-Krishna's lotus feet. What is the highest, the most important meditation (dhyan) in our spiritual life? Sri Ramananda Ray expressed it to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saying that our perfect meditation is meditation on the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani and Sri Krishna.

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everywhere, everybody worships many incarnations of Lord Sri Krishna—they worship Kurma avatar, Varaha avatar, Vaman avatar, Matsya avatar, Nrisingha avatar, Baladev avatar, Buddha avatar, Parasurama avatar, Kalki avatar, Rama avatar. There are so many incarnations described in our scriptures, They are all incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu, and Their worship is present everywhere. However, our line's conception is Radha-Krishna's combined form—Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu. What is our goal in the age of Kali? Our worshippable goal is Radha-Krishna's combined form. This combined form of Radha-Krishna comes in Kali-yuga as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and we worship Gauranga Mahaprabhu. However, first, before worshipping Gauranga Mahaprabhu, we are to take shelter of Gurudev who is non-different from Lord Nityananda Prabhu (asraya-vigraha, embodiment of shelter).

আশ্রয় লইয়া ভজে তার কৃষ্ণ নাহি ত্যজে
আর সব মরে অকারণ

asraya la-iya bhaje, tare krsna nahi tyaje
ara saba mare akarana

"Krishna never leaves those who take shelter in Him and serve Him—all others die in vain."

First we must take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu (Gurudev), only then will we worship Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. "Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe (নিতাইয়ের করুণা হবে ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ পাবে, ধর নিতাইয়ের চরণ দুঃখানি)—when Nitai bestows His mercy you will reach Radha-Krishna in Vraja." If you get the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, you will get the mercy of Srimati Radharani and Lord Sri Krishna.

So, we properly arrange this great Janmastami festival every year—we fast all day and celebrate the appearance of Lord Sri Krishna at midnight. This year, however, due to the pandemic situation and problems related to covid-19, we cannot gather many devotees in one place, but we can still reach everybody's heart, we can reach everybody through this scientific instrument. So, we will use this opportunity to arrange the festival on this day...

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