Highest Stance

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 12 January 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

"When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?"

We have a chaitya-guru in our hearts, and when this chaitya-guru gives us the inspiration, we come to our mahanta-guru (we come to our guru and take initiation from him). That is why we pray, "When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I get the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet? When will I find my asraya-vigraha (worshippable embodiment of shelter)? When will I be able to accept the shade of the holy feet of Vaishnavs? When will I be able to take shelter of a bona fide guru? When will Chaitanya be merciful to me, that is, when will my chaitya-guru bring me to the Lord?"

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

When will I give up all ego? I think, "This is my house," "This is my room," "This is my son," "This is my family"—when will all this leave me?

আসক্তিরহিত সম্বন্ধসহিত ।
বিষয়সমূহ সকলি মাধব ॥

'asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'
visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

"When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Madhav Himself."

('Vaishnav ke?' verse 12)

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?" When will I be able to pay obeisance to devotees? When will I be able to think, "Prabhu, I am your slave"?

গলবস্ত্র কৃতাঞ্জলি বৈষ্ণব নিকটে ।
দন্তে তৃণ করি দাঁড়াইব নিষ্কপটে ॥

gala-vastra krtanjali vaisnava-nikate
dante trna kari' dandaiba niskapate

"With a cloth around my neck, joined palms, and straw between my teeth, I will sincerely submit myself at the Vaishnav's feet."

When will I be able to come with all humility (with a cloth on my neck, joined palms, and straw in my teeth)? Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu and Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu were chief ministers serving emperor Hussein Shah, but when Mahaprabhu came to Ramkheli, both of them came to Him with straws between their teeth, like cows, "Prabhu, we are your cows, dogs, goats—whatever You may call us." They came to Mahaprabhu with straws between their teeth! Are we ever able to do that?... To stand with all humility (with a straw in my teeth), with all sincerity. This is very beautiful. "When will I take a straw between my teeth and stand before You, my Lord? I will stand before You without any duplicity." Most of us are duplicitous: externally, we show we are sadhus, and internally, we have another mood. We are disguised as sadhus. There are a lot of such disguised sadhus in this world. You can dress as a sadhu, but have you become a sadhu?

Parvati Devi also told Sivji Maharaj, "Have you become a gopi or have you only dressed as a gopi?" One time, dressing himself as a girl, leaving his dreadlocks and arranging his hair beautifully, Lord Siva decided to enter rasa-lila. Even Laksmi Devi has not got a chance to enter there, but Sivji Maharaj was determined, "I will go there." At that time, Parvati Devi said to him, "Have you dressed as a gopi or have you become one? You are only dressed as one, so how will you enter there?" Lord Siva replied, "I am praying with all my heart to you—please bless me so that I may become exclusively devoted to gopis." It is possible to enter rasa-lila only if you have exclusive chaste devotion (anugatya) to gopis. So, receiving Parvati Devi's blessing, Sivji Maharaj was able to enter there. Krishna recognised who had come and came to speak to him. However, seeing Krishna in the company of this new gopi, all the other gopis, including Srimati Radharani, became angry, so much so that Radharani left rasa-lila and went away to a place known as Man Sarovar ("man" means pride; She came there, showing hurt dignity). Why did She feel hurt? Because when Sivji Maharaj came as a gopi, Krishna had called him Gopeshwar ('master of gopis'), but Radharani thought, "I am Gopeshwari! I am the head of all gopis. How can some new gopi who has just come be Gopeshwar?" In the end, gopis caught up with what was going on—they threw off Sivji Maharaj's clothes, wig, etc. They attacked him, saying, "What is this? Have you come to make fun of Radharani?! She has left because of you!" When the truth came out, Krishna told Sivji Maharaj to leave and stay nearby. So, Gopeshwar now stays near Vamsivat in Vrindavan...

Therefore, chaste devotion (anugatya) to gopis is everything—there can be no spiritual life without anugatya.

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