Power of Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bankura Anniversary Festival,
26 January 2021, part 6
Translated from Bengali

The name of Lord Krishna's Deity here (at the Bankura temple) is Radha-Raman. Those of you who have been to Vrindavan know that there are a lot of Deities in Vrindavan, but not all Deities there are original Deities. When Muslims and mlechhas were breaking Hindu temples, devotees took all big Deities to Jaipur or Karauli. You can see now that all old temples' tops are broken in Vrindavan—they would come from Agra and break the domes of all high temples. So, among all the Deities in Vrindavan, Radha-Raman is the only original Deity that stayed there.

When we go for the parikrama we often go wearing socks not to get hurt by some stones, etc. on the street, but when you come to the temple of Radha-Raman, it is a rule that everyone must take off not only their shoes, but also their socks; you cannot sit cross-legged on a chair there—they start scolding you a lot. They do not allow to take photographs also. The temple is very strict. This Radha-Raman Deity manifested Himself through the service of Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami, who is one of the six Goswamis:

জয় রূপ সনাতন ভট্ট রঘুনাথ ।
শ্রীজীব গোপালভট্ট দাস রঘুনাথ ॥

jaya rupa sanatana bhatta raghunatha
sri-jiva gopala-bhatta dasa raghunatha

"All glory to Sri Rupa, Sanatan, Raghunath Bhatta, Sri Jiva, Gopal Bhatta, and Raghunath Das!"

(These are the six Goswamis, and the seventh Goswami is Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur.)

Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami worshipped twelve salagram-silas in a very strict and determined way. He followed all the rules of Sri Hari-bhakti-vilas that nobody can follow. For example, when we observe niyom-seva month (Kartik), we say that we should not eat certain things (eggplant, patol, etc.), but Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami said that one must eat 'go-gras' way during this time. It means you must eat directly from the ground, like a cow ('go')—without using your hands. Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami was very strict and followed all rules. He also said that it is necessary to observe a complete fast on ekadasi (without taking any food or water).

So, one day as Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami was offering arati to his twelve silas, some man came to the temple. The man paid his obeisance and gave a parcel with some Deity ornaments and clothes to Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami saying, "Please take these, you can put them on Your Deities." Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami said, "OK, I will do that." Later, finishing the arati, he opened the parcel with the Deities' clothes and saw that it was a Deity outfit (the same as offered to all Deities of human-like form). Seeing the outfit, he thought, "The man has given me this outfit, but how will I put it on my Deity? I do not have a human-form Deity—I worship salagram-silas. How will I put it on a sila? I have taken it from the man, but I cannot use it for service! What will happen now, O Lord? I have made an offence!" Then, he took prasadam and went to rest.

The next day, he woke up, took a bath, applied tilaks, etc. and came to the mangal-arati. Coming to the temple room, he saw that there was a human-form Deity among the salagram-silas. It was Radha-Raman. There were originally twelve salagram-silas, but when he counted the salagram-silas that morning he saw there were only eleven. Where did the twelfth one go? Then he saw that there was a mark in the shape of a magnet on the back of Radha-Raman's Deity—the twelfth salagram-sila had turned into a Deity.

Do you see? Nothing is impossible in this world through the service of the Lord...

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