Glories of Srila Haridas Thakur (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Disappearance day of Srila Haridas Thakur
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 1 September 2020, part 2
Translated from Bengali

Today is the disappearance day of Srila Haridas Thakur. We can speak and hear today about the glories of Srila Haridas Thakur.

বৈষ্ণবের গুণ-গান করিলে জীবের ত্রাণ
শুনিয়াছি সাধুগুরুমুখে

vaisnavera guna-gana karile jivera trana
suniyachhi sadhu-guru-mukhe

"Singing the glories of the Vaishnavs rescues and protects the jiva soul. I heard this from the mouth of sadhus and my Guru."

('Jayare jayare jaya paramahamsa mahasaya')

Because of the ardent cries of Srila Advaita Prabhu and Srila Haridas Thakur, the Lord descended from Goloka to this material world (Bhuloka). Advaita Thakur worshipped the Lord with the Ganga water and some Tulasi leaves, and Haridas Thakur would loudly chant the Name of the Lord. In this way, they brought the Lord from Goloka to this world—Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this world in order to save such fallen souls as ourselves. Today, we are going to speak about this Haridas Thakur.

Not much is mentioned about Srila Haridas Thakur's birth, but it is known that he is an incarnation of Lord Brahma. Sri Advaita Prabhu was an incarnation of Maha-Vishnu. In this age of Kali, Brahma comes as Haridas Thakur and performs his pastimes with Mahaprabhu. Haridas Thakur appeared before Mahaprabhu. As I have already said, Haridas Thakur would loudly chant the Lord's Name. Why did he chant loudly? Why did he not chant silently, in this mind? Because if you chant loudly, then the living beings that cannot hear, cannot speak, cannot move (plants, trees, insects, beasts, birds, etc.), also get some benefit. That is why we must chant kirtans out loud. Srila Haridas Thakur would chant three hundred thousand Names daily. Can you imagine this? It takes four hours to chant one hundred thousand Names, and he chanted more than three hundred thousand Names. He would chant more than ten million Holy Names a month!

When Haridas Thakur came to Nabadwip, Mahaprabhu asked him, "Haridas, how will all these yavans (Muslim people) become rescued in this age of Kali?" Srila Haridas Thakur said, "They will get liberated by chanting the shadow of the Holy Name (Namabhasa)." When one chants the Holy Name and it is not perfect chanting, it is called Namabhas. Muslim people always say, "Haram [bad, abominable]!", "It is haram to eat this," "It is haram to say this," and so on. "Haram" means "Ha Rama! [O Rama!]" This is how, he said, they will get liberation. You can hear Muslim people say, "Do not say this, it is haram! Hey, do not eat this, it is haram!" They never take Lord Rama's Name, but when they keep saying, "Haram," they say "Ha Rama," and chant the Lord's Name in this way. They will get rescued because of their chanting of the Lord Rama's Name.

I want to say a few things about Srila Haridas Thakur. His life is described in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata.

Srila Haridas Thakur was born and brought up in a yavan family. I have already told you that he is an incarnation of Lord Brahma. One time, he was beaten at twenty-two marketplaces to stop his chanting of the Holy Name. It happened in this age of Kali during the time of Mahaprabhu. They beat him at marketplaces so that everyone could see it and not chant the Holy Name, "If you chant the Holy Name, you will be guilty and punished in this way too!" This is how Muslim kings would punish—by bashing people at marketplaces. They kept him in prison at first, but by his association other prisoners began chanting the Holy Name (the Hare Krishna maha-mantra). Before they, seeing he was a sadhu, they came to him with folded palms saying, "Prabhu, please think about us." Srila Haridas Thakur said (it is written in Chaitanya-bhagavata), "Stay as you are!" They were angry to hear it, "We must always be as we are? Must we stay forever in prison and die here?!" This is not what he wanted to say actually, what he wanted to say is, "You have come to me with humility (trnad api sunichena...), and I pray you always remain like this." Then they understood him. Later, when the guards beat him at one marketplace after another, they saw that Haridas Thakur did not die from the beating and they began to cry bitterly. Then, on the order of the king, they threw him in the Ganges. The king thought, "If we bury him, he will go to heaven!" So, they threw him into the Ganges, and Haridas Thakur in this way arrived in Kuliya, near Shantipur.

In Kuliya, he lived and engaged in his service in a cave (it is still there). One enormous and very poisonous snake lived in that cave, it would emanate such a bad smell around that nobody could stay near that place. One day, some people came to Haridas Thakur and prayed, "Prabhu, please give us your mercy. We had to leave our houses and go away from this place..." By the mercy of Srila Haridas Thakur, that snake went away from that place.

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