(3/14) 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 (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaishnavs’ feet?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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 come in the shade of 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 in a bona fide guru? When will Chaitanya be merciful to me – 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 give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘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?’, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad)

‘When will I give up my mundane ego? When will I be able to honour the Lord’s devotees? When will I be able to pay obeisance to them? 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

‘I will stand before a Vaishnav sincerely, with a cloth around my neck and joined palms, holding a straw between my teeth.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When will I be able to come with all humility (with a cloth on my neck, joined palms and a straw in my teeth)? Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu and Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu were chief ministers serving the emperor Hussein Shah, but when Mahaprabhu came to Ramkeli, both of them came to Him with straw between their teeth, like cows, ‘Prabhu, we are your cows, dogs, goats – whatever You may call us.’ They came to Mahaprabhu holding straw between their teeth! Will we ever be able to do that? To stand with all humility (with straw in our teeth), with all sincerity? It is very beautiful. ‘When will I hold straw in 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, but internally we have another mood. We are merely disguised as sadhus. There are a lot of such disguised sadhus in this world. You may be dressed as a sadhu, but have you actually become a sadhu?

Parvati Devi also told Sivji Maharaj, ‘Have you become a gopi or have you only dressed yourself as a gopi?’ One time, dressing himself as a girl, leaving his dreadlocks and arranging his hair beautifully, Lord Siva decided to enter the 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 yourself 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 to you with all my heart – please bless me so that I may have exclusive devotion to gopis.’ It is possible to enter the rasa-lila only if you have exclusive chaste devotion to gopis (gopi-anugatya).

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 the rasa-lila and went away to a place known as Man Sarovar (‘man’ means pride – She came there showing Her hurt dignity). Why did She feel hurt? Because when Sivji Maharaj came as a gopi, Krishna had called him Gopeshwar (‘master of the 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 and wig and 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. Since that time, Gopeshwar has been staying near Vamsivat in Vrindavan…

Therefore, chaste devotion (anugatya) to gopis is everything – there cannot be any spiritual life without anugatya.

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Size: 49 Mb
Length: 101 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) What Is Surrender?
2) Proper Recipient for Proper Taste
3) Highest Stance
4) Cry and Pray
5) Seeking Respite
6) Greatest Choice
7) Nityananda Prabhu's Mercy
8) Mahaprabhu's Mercy
9) His Things, For His Service
10) Faith Is Not Idle
11) Devotion or Display?
12) Example to Follow
13) Shelter of Sri Guru's Mercy
14) Service or Offence?