(12/13) Main Target

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bankura Temple Anniversary Festival,
26 January 2021, part 12
Translated from Bengali

Our main goal, our main target is pure devotion. There is devotion mixed with material desires (karma-misra bhakti), devotion mixed with pursuits of knowledge (jnana-misra bhakti), and pure devotion free from pursuits of knowledge (jnana-sunya suddha bhakti). Sriman Mahaprabhu discussed this in His conversations with Sri Ramananda Ray and Srila Sanatan Goswami.

Mahaprabhu told Srila Sanatan Goswami, ‘This body was given to you by the Lord. How can you want to spoil a body that does not belong to you?!’ Why did Mahaprabhu say this? Because Srila Sanatan Goswami thought, ‘I have come to do some good, but it turned out just the opposite. I have come to serve the Lord, but instead I am only making offences because this body is diseased.’ After Mahaprabhu left, Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami went to Vrindavan. Mahaprabhu told them, ‘I will do much work through your bodies. I will serve Vaishnavs and devotees through your bodies, and I will recover so many holy places and compose so many books through you two!’ Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami composed many beautiful holy books. We must always remember their teachings.

You can read ‘Sri Rupa-Siksa’ (‘Mahaprabhu’s Teachings to Srila Rupa Goswami’) and ‘Sri Sanatan-Siksa’ (‘Mahaprabhu’s Teachings to Srila Sanatan Goswami’). Srila Sanatan Goswami asked Mahaprabhu five questions: (1) ‘Who am I?’ (2) ‘Why do I suffer?’ (3) ‘How can I get benefit?’ (4) ‘What is the highest goal?’ and (5) ‘How can I attain the highest goal?’ In a nutshell, the answer is this: ‘Bhagavata pada Vaisnavera sthane, ekanta asraya kara Chaitanya-charane. Read Bhagavatam under the guidance of a bona fide Vaishnav and take shelter at Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet! That is your benefit.’ We must read Bhagavatam at the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs (to hear it from Vaishnavs or read it strictly on the order of Vaishnavs); otherwise, we will not be able to understand its meaning or we will understand it in a wrong way. It is necessary to hear Bhagavatam from a Vaishnav and to take shelter at the holy lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Mahaprabhu personally came in this Kali-yuga:

কৃষ্ণবর্ণং ত্বিষাঽকৃষ্ণং সাঙ্গোপাঙ্গাস্ত্রপার্ষদম্ ।
যজ্ঞৈঃ সঙ্কীর্ত্তনপ্রায়ৈর্যজন্তি হি সুমেধসঃ ॥

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

‘In the Age of Kali, very intelligent people engage in sankirtana-yajna (congregational chanting of the Holy Name) to worship the Supreme Lord who always chants the Name of Krishna, who possesses non-black (golden) lustre, and who is surrounded by His various associates and weapons.’

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

Krishna comes stealing Srimati Radharani’s heart and halo. It is said in the scriptures that Sri Gadadhar Pandit is Srimati Radharani’s incarnation in this Kali-yuga, but then a question can come, ‘If Gadadhar Pandit is Srimati Radharani’s incarnation, then how can Gauranga Mahaprabhu be Radha-Krishna’s combined form?’ Krishna has taken Radharani’s heart and halo – if you take someone’s heart and halo, there will be something else still left from that person. So, when Krishna takes Srimati Radharani’s heart and halo, the remainder becomes Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami. This is the answer. That is why Gadadhar Pandit always stayed near Mahaprabhu; they were very intimate. Gadadhar Pandit would read Bhagavatam, and Mahaprabhu would come and listen to him reading. One time, Gadadhar Pandit was going to make some spinach. He knew that Mahaprabhu liked wild spinach very much, so he decided to test Mahaprabhu, ‘If I cook spinach but do not invite Mahaprabhu, will He come Himself?’ When Gadadhar Pandit finished cooking, he saw that Mahaprabhu had come – Mahaprabhu came to him even without an invitation.

On the one hand, Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, comes to this world to relish the divine separation mood of Srimati Radharani and Vraja-gopis; on the other hand, He comes to establish and propagate the religion of this age – Sri Harinam-sankirtan. He went house to house, begging everyone, ‘Say “Krishna”, follow Krishna’s teachings!’ Mahaprabhu teaches everyone that it is necessary to accept and follow the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna.

First and foremost, it is necessary to become a devotee of Gauranga, Nityananda, a servant of gurudev. Sri Vasu Ghosh wrote very beautifully:

যদি গৌর না হ’ত, তবে কি হইত,
কেমনে ধরিতাম দে ।
রাধার মহিমা, প্রম-রসসীমা,
জগতে জানাত কে ? ॥

yadi gaura na ha’ta, tabe ki haita,
kemane dharitam de
radhara mahima, prema-rasa-sima,
jagate janata ke?

‘If Gaura had not come, what would have happened? How would we have lived? Who would have revealed to the world Radha’s glory and the acme of Her ecstatic divine love?’

(Sri Vasu Ghosh Thakur)

If Gauranga Mahaprabhu had not come to this world, who would have told this world about the glory of Srimati Radharani? Nobody except Him can do it. Therefore, if you are to know the glory of Srimati Radharani, you must first worship Gauranga. You cannot worship Radha-Krishna unless you worship Gauranga. So, worship Gauranga, worship Nityananda…

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Length: 108 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Remembering Guru-Varga
2) Sacrifice For Preaching
3) Loving Interactions
4) A Hole In Surrender
5) Have a Heart For the Temple
6) Power of Service
7) Origin of Bhagavatam (1)
8) Origin of Bhagavatam (2)
9) Origin of Bhagavatam (3)
10) Lacking or Slacking?
11) Feeling Hungry?
12) Main Target
13) Determination and Surrender