Core of Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 22 November 2020, part 1

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 saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
All the sannyasi-vrinda ki jay
All the brahmachari, all the assembled devotees ki jay
All the worldwide devotees ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Please accept my humble obeisance. We are meeting with you all today again this week. Today is also some Vaishnavs' disappearance day—today is the disappearance day of Sri Gadadhar Das Goswami, Sri Dhananjaya Pandit, and Sri Acharya Srinivas Prabhu. It is a very nice day. We must always remember disappearance and appearance days of all Vaishnavs. If we can remember such personalities, such great souls, it will bring a great benefit to our spiritual life.

I can see that all the devotees are here today. Actually, I have come today from Tarakeshwar. I went to a preaching programme the day before yesterday and stayed in Tarakeshwar temple for two days. I always come to Kolkata on Sunday for this programme (zoom class) with you all so that I can see all the foreign devotees and meet with them. It gives me very much energy and enthusiasm. I feel my practising life becomes very perfect owing to this association of the devotees. We always want good association. We always want the association of the grantha-bhagavat (scriptures embodying Bhagavatam) and Vaishnav-bhagavat (Vaishnavs embodying Bhagavatam)—if we can get this kind of association, it is very good for us.

Today is the disappearance of Sri Gadadhar Das Goswami. He is an associate of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but this is not the same person as Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami who we mention in Pancha-tattva ("Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasadi Gaura bhakta-vrinda"). Sri Gadadhar Das and Sri Gadadhar Pandit are not the same person. Sometimes people make this mistake forgetting and thinking Sri Gadadhar Pandit and Sri Gadadhar Das are perhaps the same person, but it is not so. Sri Gadadhar Pandit is one of the Pancha-tattva and an incarnation of Srimati Radharani; and today is the disappearance of Sri Gadadhar Das Goswami, this is another personality. He is also a nice devotee.

Today is also Srila Acharya Srinivas Prabhu's disappearance day. When we go to Ekachakra from Nabadwip, we pass Jajigram on the way—this is the birthplace of Srinivas Acharya. It is near Katwa, where Mahaprabhu took sannyas. We sometimes stop there and come to pay obeisance at his birthplace. So, today is the disappearance day of this Srila Srinivas Acharya Prabhu.

All Vaishnavs, all guru-varga, all associates of Mahaprabhu come to this world to give some nourishment to such fallen souls as myself. Otherwise, if such personalities did not come to this world, what hope would we have? All conditioned jiva souls are always attacked by the illusory environment, and it requires an exalted personality to rescue them from this condition. Srila Guru Maharaj, Srila Gurudev also came to this world and gave us very much nourishment—they spread the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the message of Srila Prabhupad all over the world. Who is capable of telling it? Everybody, all guru-varga, said about Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "If you want to hear Hari-katha from Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, you must go to Srila Sridhar Maharaj." So, the Hari-katha that Srila Sridhar Maharaj spoke in this world is meant for the benefit of all jiva souls—he gave us the highest, the most perfect things. We must understand this.

Dandavat, Srila Ashram Maharaj. Please accept my humble obeisance, Maharaj.

Srila Ashram Maharaj: Dandavat, please accept my humble obeisance at your lotus feet. How is your health, Maharaj?

I am OK, just a little tired today because I have just returned from Tarakeshwar—there was a programme nearby on Friday, all the devotees joined it, there were some initiations also. I gave a class on Friday and Saturday evening at the temple. I left Tarakeshwar this morning, after breakfast, visited one devotee's house (the devotee is a little sick, so I met with him) and then came here to Dum Dum Park because today is Sunday and I do not want to miss your association. I have told everybody, "Wherever I am staying, I must come back to Dum Dum Park on Sunday"—it is important for me because I am meeting all the devotees, I see their faces and get their good association, it is good for my practising life.

We are all practitioners. "Sisya thakibo sarvada (শিষ্য থাকিব সর্ব্বদা). We will always be disciples." These are Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words. We always want to be disciples. This is our mood. We will always be disciples, not masters—we do not want to be masters, we always want to be disciples. This is very important.

I also visit different temples and see that despite the pandemic situation they are getting so much enthusiasm to practise and preach. Almost all temples are now going on parikramas every day. It is Kartik month, Damodar month now, so devotees go on parikrama every day early in the morning. They do this in Nrisingha Palli, Bankura, Tarakeshwar, Ganga Sagar, Midnapore, Siliguri and some villages also. Devotees come together and go on parikrama during this Damodar month. It is also very nice climate now—it is not too hot and not too cold.

So, I try to encourage everyone. It is good to do such parikramas. "Ara kota kal ghumaibe maya-pisachira kole. How much longer are you going to sleep on the lap of this witch Maya?" All the people of this world are sleeping in the lap of Maya, so if they hear some Harinam sankirtan, they can get some benefit through devotees. This is necessary for conditioned souls, otherwise how will they understand in this life what this human body is for, what they have got this human body for? If they do not understand it properly, if they live and use their human life on living like cats and dogs—if they only sleep, enjoy and run behind money, wealth, property, kanak (money), kamini (women), pratistha (fame)—what will become of them? They must understand what they have got this life, this human body for. This body is meant only for the service to the Lord and to the Lord's devotees. This is the main thing they should understand. These conditioned jiva souls, wasted by Kali, are too much engrossed in the material world, they cannot even sacrifice their life for the service of their Lord. That is why we must go and preach more and more, and this is what devotees are doing now in this situation.

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