(14/15) Remembering Mahaprabhu's Sannyas

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata, preaching programme,
16 January 2021, part 14
Translated from Bengali

Today, Mahaprabhu left Katwa after taking sannyas. He left Nabadwip on the day of Sankranti. On the eve of Sankranti, each of our temples offers lau-payesh (bottle gourd cooked in milk with sugar). Do you know why? Vakreshwar Pandit, Nityananda Prabhu, Srivas Pandit, Sachi Mata, Vishnupriya and all the other devotees from Nabadwip gathered in the evening – at this time, one devotee brought lau (gourd), and another devotee brought milk. Mahaprabhu asked His mother, ‘Mother, please cook this lau,’ but Sachi Mata said, ‘Lau? Now? It is cold, how will everyone take it?’ Then Mahaprabhu said, ‘All right, then make some lau-payesh.’ Mahaprabhu knew that the next day, swimming across the Ganges, He would leave Nabadwip, so He wanted to take full prasadam in the evening before leaving. In this way, lau-payesh was cooked that evening, and in remembrance of that, each of our temples makes and offers lau-payesh the day before Sankranti. Many do it wrong and offer lau-payesh on the Sankranti day, but Mahaprabhu left and was walking towards Katwa on the Sankranti day – He took lau-payesh the day before that. Mahaprabhu took sannyas on the first day of the Magh month. After that, He did not eat anything for three days as He started walking towards Vrindavan. He was unaware of hunger or anything else. In the end, pulled by the love of Gaura-Gadadhar’s devotees, He came to the house of Advaita Prabhu in Shantipur.

When Mahaprabhu suddenly saw Advaita Prabhu standing before Him, He was surprised, ‘How did you know I was here? How did you know I would come to Vrindavan today?’ Advaita Acharya replied, ‘Prabhu, wherever You are, that is Vrindavan! Even the Ganges, in which You are standing now, is Vrindavan when You are present.’ When Mahaprabhu saw Advaita Prabhu, He was reciting prayers to the Yamuna, being confident that He had come to the Yamuna in Vrindavan, so when Advaita Prabhu said that He was actually in the Ganges, He exclaimed, ‘What?! Have I come to the Ganges?? Have I come to Gaura Mandal again?!’ Then Mahaprabhu understood that Nityananda Prabhu had tricked Him.

Mahaprabhu came to Keshav Bharati on the day of Sankranti, and they spent the whole night talking. One time, I asked Gurudev what they were talking about. The main reason for that conversation was that sannyas is prohibited in Kali-yuga. Moreover, according to the scriptures, one has to be quite old to take sannyas, but Mahaprabhu was a twenty-four-year-old youth. Because Keshav Bharati objected for these two reasons, Mahaprabhu said to him, ‘All right, suppose I am fifty now.’

‘If the fault of following the five tastes does not go away,’ Keshav Bharati said, ‘then You cannot take sannyas even if You are fifty.’

There is rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (seeking the pleasures for the eye, taste, smell, ear and touch). We are always drawn to beautiful things. You can see that when you put on the lights during the Kartik month, so many bugs and flies come – they think they will get nice things, but you can see later that they all die when they come to the lights. We are drawn to the pleasures of taste also. When you buy gur (molasses), you can sometimes see so many ants inside it – they think, ‘I will eat more’, ‘I will eat more’, but in the end they eat so much that they die right in that gur. In this way, there are five types of pleasures that we are always drawn to.

Next, Mahaprabhu said, ‘What if I am sixty?’

‘Then’, Keshav Bharati answered, ‘if You cannot conquer the six enemies, You still cannot take sannyas.’

The six enemies are lust (kama), anger (krodha), greed (lobha), illusion (moha), madness (mada) and envy (matsarya).

‘All right, I am ninety now,’ Mahaprabhu said next.

‘If You do not practise the nine types of devotion, then You cannot take sannyas even when You are ninety!’

I have told you earlier today. There are nine stages of devotion:

আদৌশ্রদ্ধা ততঃ সাধুসঙ্গোঽথ ভজনক্রিয়া ।
ততোঽনর্থনিবৃত্তিঃ স্যাৎ ততো নিষ্ঠা রুচিস্ততঃ ॥
অথাসক্তিস্ততো ভাবস্ততঃ প্রেমাভ্যুদঞ্চতি ।
সাধকানাময়ং প্রেম্ণঃ প্রাদুর্ভাবে ভবেৎ ক্রমঃ ॥

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango ’tha bhajana-kriya
tato ’nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati
sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

‘First, there is faith; then, saintly association and practising life. After that, unwanted habits gradually go away, spiritual life becomes stable, and spiritual taste comes. Then comes attachment, feeling and, finally, transcendental love. This is how love for the Lord comes to those who practise Krishna consciousness.’

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, 1.4.15–16)

Unless you can practise these stages, it is not possible to take sannyas even if you are ninety.

‘What if I am one hundred now?’ Mahaprabhu said, finally.

‘If You cannot subdue the ten senses,’ Keshav Bharati replied, ‘then You cannot take sannyas even when You are one hundred!’

This is the kind of conversation Mahaprabhu had with Keshav Bharati. So many things were said that night. The next day, when it was decided that Mahaprabhu would be given sannyas, nobody wanted to shave His head. He had beautiful shoulder-length hair, and nobody agreed to shave it. Finally, one barber stepped forward – he cried so much as He shaved Mahaprabhu’s head that no water was required for shaving.

This is how Mahaprabhu took sannyas. For three days following the day Mahaprabhu left, we offer bhoga to the Deities at the temples, but after the offering is done, everything is mixed together and taken like that, remembering that Mahaprabhu did not eat during those three days… Only when Mahaprabhu came to Shantipur, Sita Devi, Sri Advaita Acharya’s spouse, cooked nicely, and Mahaprabhu ate for the first time in three days.

— : • : —

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Length: 120 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Where Does the Lord Stay?
2) Mahaprabhu's Advent and Gift
3) Coming Out of Maya
4) Make Yourself Qualified
5) Six Limbs of Surrender
6) Sincere and Deep Prayer
7) Lend Me Your Heart
8) Follow the Footsteps of Great Souls
9) Suspicion Leads to Suspension
10) Only One Question
11) We Are Neither Enjoyers, Nor Renouncers
12) False Ego's Folly
13) Be Sincere and Studious
14) Remembering Mahaprabhu's Sannyas
15) Way Out