Vaishnav Rites

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vaishnav Seva Programme, Kolkata,
29 January 2021, part 1

Today, by the mercy of Vaishnavs and by the mercy of Gurudev, we are present here at this function in honour of the departure of Sripad Manoranjan Das Adhikari Prabhu's mother. You all Vaishnavs are present here today on this occasion. I see that many familiar devotees, my dear family, have come today. Supreme Lord Sri Krishna said, "I do not know anyone except My devotees, and devotees do not know anyone except Me."

We come to the association of Vaishnavs as a result of a very great fortune:

বৈষ্ণবের গুণ-গান করিলে জীবের ত্রাণ
শুনিয়াছি সাধুগুরুমুখে

vaisnavera guna-gana karile jivera trana
suniyachhi sadhu-guru-mukhe

"Singing the glories of the Vaishnavs rescues and protects the jiva soul. I heard this from the mouth of sadhus and my Guru."

('Jayare jayare jaya paramahamsa mahasaya')

Because Sripad Manoranjan Prabhu has come to this line, his mother's departure rites (paralaukik kriya, পরলৌকিক ক্রিয়া) are observed according to the Vaishnav tradition. There is one beautiful letter written by Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Once, one of this disciples's father died, and on this occasion, he wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupad, saying, "My father has died. What will be now? What should I do?" Srila Prabhupad replied:

"When I received your letter, I had understood everything. I knew your father had passed away. One of the sons who is initiated should give maha-prasad as pindu after ten days (on the eleventh day), and they must serve pure devotee brahmans, brahmans, and Vaishnavs with prasadam. When somebody chants the Holy Name, the scriptures do not say that they should think of their parents as being possessed by ghosts or perform common funeral rites. [His Divine Grace—Hoping the dead person goes to heaven, people perform various rites: they apply fire to the mouth of the dead during the cremation because they are afraid a ghost can possess the body, etc.] Smartavadis arrange all the rites according to their own qualification. [His Divine Grace—Everybody lives and follows rules according to their qualification and right.] Particularly, if one performs the sraddha rites for their mother or father according to the smarta rules, then the father, the mother, as well as the person who does this sraddha for them, will have to again be born in the womb of a mother. [His Divine Grace—Do you understand this? This is why we do not make all this. Gurudev said that even if you cannot make a fire sacrifice, you must give prasad to Vaishnav brahmans. This is what we do. We make a fire sacrifice ('hom yajna'), etc.] The devotees of the Lord do not accept the rules and teachings of the smarta brahmans. Your eternal well-wisher, Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati."

I have printed a book that can be followed to make sraddha ceremonies, and this letter is written there. Anyhow, this had to be said, and I have told you. Many create a lot of problem out of this—they say that this is necessary, that is necessary, etc. Do you know why they do this? I wrote this small book, but there are many big, big books: those who do sraddha ceremonies for money take 10-20,000 or 25,000 rupees for the ceremony and ask you to buy so many things—clothes, pillows, etc. We do not do all this. What will those who cannot afford it do? Brahmans say, "If you chant the Holy Name, then the fire sacrifice will be pure." It must be done, but they do not do it. However, when we come, we do parikrama, chant kirtan, Harinama maha-mantra. This is the rule. Not all fire sacrifices are pure, but if you chant the Holy Name, then the sacrifice will be pure, but it is necessary to chant the Holy Name; otherwise, if you only chant "Om Svaha" it will not work.

Have you not heard about the yajna-patnis? When Krishna was herding the cows, the brahmans were doing a big fire sacrifice with fruit, etc., but these brahmans who were doing the sacrifice, chased Krishna away, "Hey, where are You going, a cowherd boy! So what You are hungry? We have not finished the fire sacrifice, and You think we must give you something to eat?" He for whom they are doing this sacrifice—Lord Narayan Himself—came there, asking, "Please give Me some fruit, give Me some prasad," but they chased Him away and could not recognise Him.

Anyway, I will chant some kirtans now, after that I will start the class...

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