West London Temple: Auspicious Day

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Anniversary Festival in West London Temple
Kolkata-Worldwide, 22 August 2020

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay
Vrinda Devi Tulasi Devi Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay
Sri Shyama Kunda Radha Kunda Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay
Sri Mayapur Dham Sri Nabadwip Dham Sri Vrindavan Mathura ki jay
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay
Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Tadiya sakha Math samuha ki jay
Sri Mather sevak vrinda bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Ananta-koti Vaishnav vrinda ki jay
Sri Gaudiya Acharya vrinda ki jay
Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay
Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay
Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay
Suddha-bhakti-vighnar vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay
Jay Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math London anniversary day festival maha-mahotsav ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay!
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

How are you all? I am very happy to see everybody. Srila Ashram Maharaj, dandavat, please accept my humble obeisance.

Srila Ashram Maharaj: Dandavat, Maharaj, same to you, my dandavat to you.

I offer my humble obeisance to all the devotees present today. It is a very auspicious day today for the London devotees, as well as all over world. Srila Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj wanted to make a centre near the Heathrow airport—he had tried to make it in many ways, but it was not possible in his time. After that, Sripad Bharati Maharaj and Lalita Madhav Prabhu gave much financial help to the mission and this centre was started. Since then, the mission there has been running properly. Saraswati Devi took the charge of the temple as the manager, and with the help of many devotees the temple is managed and runs smoothly. I know that there are many expenses to run a temple—devotees help maintain the temple and mainly Lavanya Moyi Devi and Sachi Devi every month collect for the temple going door to door and collecting. I am very happy to see that the temple runs smoothly.

Actually, when it comes to the temple and Deity manifestation, we can only see that it comes through the hand of a pure devotee, and it is indeed so—many places and Deities manifested in India and other countries also in Gurudev's time (Veracruz in Mexico, Saint Petersburg in Russia, Govinda Dham in Australia, etc.). Many Deities came to this world and took Their place through the hand of Gurudev (a pure devotee). We can see the example of previous acharyas in the scriptures—Sri Govindaji came to Vrindavan through the hand of Srila Rupa Goswami, Sri Madan-Mohan came through the hand of Srila Sanatan Goswami, Sri Radha-Gopinath (Gopinathji) came through Sri Madhu Pandit's hand, Radha-Ramanji came through Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami's hand, Banki Bihari manifested through the hand of Tansen's Guru Haridas Das (not Haridas Thakur, another Haridas), and so on. We can see all these examples.

There are so many Deities in Vrindavan now, but actually there is only one original Deity there—Sri Radha-Ramanji. All other Deities went to Jaipur and Karauli (Govindaji and Madan-Mohanji), but Radha-Raman is a small Deity, so when some bad people who hated Hindu Deities, temples, etc. were destroying temples, it was very easy to hide Radha-Raman. This Deity manifested through the hand of Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami. You know how it happened.

Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami always worshipped twelve Salagram-silas. One day, a big rich man from Delhi came to him and gave him some ornaments for his Deities. Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami took the ornaments, but then he thought at night, "How I will put these ornaments on my Deities?? I worship Salagram-silas—my Deities have no arms, no head, etc..." When he woke up in the morning, he saw the Deity of Radha-Raman! We always visit that place where Radha-Raman manifested when we do Vrindavan Dham parikrama, it is near Nidhuvan. Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami was astonished, "How has this Deity come here?" Then, he counted his Salagram-silas and saw that there were eleven silas, not twelve. So, he understood that one Salagram-sila had melted and taken the form of a Deity. This is how Radha-Ramanji came to Sri Vrindavan Dham.

You read and know also from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita how Sri Madhavendra Puripad manifested his Govardhan-dhari Gopal. This Deity was originally established by Krishna's prapautra (প্রপৌত্র), great-grandson Vajranabha, but when Muslim people were breaking Hindu temples, the pujari of the Deity hid Him in the jungle under some soil. When Madhavendra Puripad came to Govardhan, the Deity came to him as a cowherd boy with some milk. Madhavendra Puri was surprised to see the boy, he asked Him, "Who are You? Where are You from?" The boy left, and when Madhavendra Puripad went to sleep that night, Gopal again came to him in a dream and said, "I am Govardhan-dhari Gopal. I have been suffering so much from rain, heat, and cold for many years now. Please rescue Me from this place!" The next day, Madhavendra Puri gathered the village people and dug the Deity of Govardhan-dhari Gopal out in the jungle. This is how he manifested that Deities.

We see in Srimad Bhagavad-gita also,

অনন্যাশ্চিন্তয়ন্তো মাং যে জনাঃ পর্য্যুপাসতে ।
তেষাং নিত্যাভিযুক্তানাং যোগক্ষেমং বহাম্যহম্ ॥

ananyas chintayanto mam, ye janah paryupasate
tesam nityabhiyuktanam, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

"I bear the responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me, and who worship Me in every way."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

Krishna Himself said, "When somebody surrenders to Me, when somebody thinks about nothing except Me, I personally bring their food!" So, you know the story of Arjuna Mishra. There was one brahman named Arjuna Misra who lived with his wife. One day, when he was reading Srimad Bhagavad-gita and saw this verse "Ananyas chintayanto mam...," he cut that line and wrote there "karamy aham," (I am doing it!), instead of "vahamy aham" (Krishna's words that He is carrying it). He thought, "No, I do it myself! I go for collection, I beg—my wife cooks and I offer that food to the Deities. Why does Krishna say He does it? I do it!" When he went for collection next time, he had walked around the village the whole day, but he had not got a single grain of rice anywhere. He cried and cried and did not know how he would come home empty-handed. In the meantime, Krishna Himself came to the house of the brahman carrying pots and bags full of vegetables, subji, rice, dal, etc. He gave everything to the wife of the brahman. Arjuna Misra's wife was surprised, "What is this? Who has sent You?" Krishna, in disguise of a boy, replied, "Oh, your husband has sent Me to bring this." After a while, the brahman eventually came home crying, "I have not got anything today! We will be fasting today! Our Deities are going to fast today!" His wife said, "What are you talking about? You have sent so many things with that boy!" The brahman said, "What boy? I did not send anything!" Then, he saw his Srimad Bhagavad-gita and saw that Krishna Himself had come to his room and wrote, "Do you see now? You think you do everything, but what you wrote it wrong! You do not do anything yourself, I do everything!"

So, we think that the Deity is made of marble, wood, clay, etc. but it is not so. A Deity is a Deity. A Deity is saksat Vrajendra-nandan (Lord Krishna Himself). The Deity sometimes speaks (you know the story of Saksi-Gopal when He spoke with Chhota Vipra), the Deity even steals (as Ksirchor Gopinath did when He stole ksir for Madhavendra Puri)—He can do everything. Sometimes, when we offer some food to the Deity, the preparation can be too spicy or there can be too little spices, and we think it is alright. The Deity does not talk, the Deity tolerates and takes everything, but we must be careful with this. That is why scriptures say,

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

Sraddhaya Sri Murtir sevan—we must worship the Deity with full faith. We must worship Deities properly, with full faith and full attention, rules, regulations, etc. Once, a devotee asked me, "Gurudev, I do not know any mantras, I do not know so much about the culture. How will I do puja?" I told him, "I will tell you the mantra. The mantra is this—'I do not know anything, I am a fallen soul, I have no quality, no qualification. I do not know how to cook properly, but I have made this, please accept it.'" This is the mantra. We must worship Deities whole-heartedly.

So, today is very auspicious day for all London devotees. It is sure that Gurudev can see everything, he is watching everything. He may be in samadhi now, but he watches everything and thinks about everything because all devotees are fulfilling his desire. It is our happiness that we can be together, without any false ego.

We always run behind false ego thinking, "Nothing can be done without me," "I am senior!" etc. We must avoid such thoughts. If we can serve Deities in this way, it will be very nice and Gurudev will be more and more happy. That is my wish. All devotees should stay together and think how they can run this mission together. I have heard many times Gurudev say, "East London temple has been sold two-three times, and I am always concerned about the London temple." Now, there are two temples in London. The first temple is on Green Street—Gurudev went there, I also went there with him. Actually, I wish I could go to London and see the new temple, but the pandemic situation due to covid-19 is still going on and I am unable to go now to visit any foreign countries. When time comes and Krishna allows me to go, I will definitely come to London and meet all the devotees there. Also, I am inviting all devotees to come here—please come when you have a chance to visit India. Please come and join Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in the Nabadwip Dham parikrama, this is the main festival of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. If you come, I will be very grateful and very happy, and all the devotees will also be very happy.

Now, I think many sannyasis present here also want to say something. Srila Ashram Maharaj is there, I do not know if Srila Janardan Maharaj will come today or not because there is some problem in California because of the fire situation—I spoke to him this afternoon, the condition is very serious, but Gurudev said that our Soquel temple is Govardhan, so I told them not to worry—Krishna, Giraraj Govardhan, will always protect the temple.

Anyhow, I am finishing here. Srila Ashram Maharaj can now please speak.

Jay Srila Gurudev
Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

[Srila Ashram Maharaj, followed by other dignitaries, then speaks to the assembled devotees.]

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