Acharya Srinivas: Rescuing Scriptures

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 22 November 2020, part 5

One day, Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu gave an order to Srila Narottam Das Thakur, Srinivas Acharya, Raghav Goswami, and others to visit various forests of Vrindavan to see the places of Krishna's pastimes. (Sri Kavi Karnapur writes that Sri Raghav Goswami is an incarnation of Champakalata, Srimati Radharani's friend.) Sri Narahari Chakravarti describes in Sri Bhakti-ratnakar how Srinivas Acharya, Narottam Das Thakur and Raghav Goswami travelled throughout forty-eight krosh of Vrindavan, what places they visited, etc. So many things are written about Acharya Srinivas.

There is a famous pastime of Srila Srinivas Acharya and Raja Birhambir. Srila Srinivas Acharya, Srila Narottam Das Thakur, and Srila Shyamananda Prabhu were once travelling with all the books of Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Sanatan Goswami, and others. (At that time, Muslim rules were disturbing very much and destroyed Hindu holy books, so to preserve the scriptures, devotees took them away to a safe place.) Now, King Birhambir had an astrologer who said that some people were travelling nearby and they had very valuable things in their trunk. Raja Birhambir thought that there must have been much money in the truck, so he sent some dacoits to steal that trunk. When the Vaishnavs realised that the trunk had been stolen, they were mortified; they kept searching for it everywhere, but they did not find it. Everybody thought, "What is the will of the Lord? What is going to happen now?" After a while, Srila Narottam Das Thakur went to Khetari Dham (Bengladesh), Srila Shyamananda Prabhu went to Kalna to the house of his Gurudev (Hriday Chaitanya Prabhu), and Srila Srinivas Acharya stayed in the area and kept looking for the lost books. One day, he heard that the king of that village area (King Birhambir), who lived in Vishnupur, was a ring leader of dacoits and somehow it was suggested that the king could have stolen the trunk.

In the meantime, when King Birhambir got the trunk and opened it, he saw that there was no money there, only a great number of books. Just by seeing those books and touching them—just by merely seeing Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's handwriting—all sins of the king were removed and his heart became pure. Such was the effect of merely touching those books. After that, the king closed the trunk and kept it in some safe place. As his heart had become pure, the king began to worry, "What have I done? I have stolen all these books, I am giving pain to devotees. What will happen now?" Later that day, at night, he saw a dream—an astonishingly beautiful man came to him, his moon-like face was laughing, "Do not worry, I am coming to meet with you. I will be pleased with you internally, and you will be the Lord's eternal servant, birth after birth."

When Srila Srinivas Acharya came to Vishnupur, he met a brahman named Krishna Vallabha Prabhu. Srila Srinivas Acharya was very pleased with him and gave him initiation. He also gave some Bhagavatam class and chanted kirtan in the area, and when the king heard about it, he invited him to give a Bhagavatam class at his house. Srila Srinivas Acharya agreed and came to the house of Birhambir. Birhambir welcomed Srila Srinivas Acharya with a full obeisance, he offered him a good asan and offered some worship, flowers to him. After that, Srila Srinivas Acharya started his class of Srimad Bhgavatam. As he recited the first slokas and started the class, hearing it, Raja Birhambir began to cry. ("Darsane pavitra kara ei tomara guna: you purify souls simply by seeing them, such is your power.") Birhambir's heart melted. When Acharya Srinivas finished the class, he started Nama-sankirtan and began to dance, and King Birhambir offered a full obeisance to Srila Srinivas Acharya and embraced him. After that, he gave all the books back to Srila Srinivas Acharya. This is how Srila Srinivas Acharya rescued all the books.

There are so many things written about Srila Srinivas Acharya—how he met with Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami, Ramachandra Kaviraj, and so many other events. We have no time to read all of it right now, but I am telling some of the things about his life.

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')

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