(4/7) Pure Sambandha

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 31 January 2021, part 4

Devotional life does not depend on whether one is senior or junior.

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া, ভজিতে ভজিতে,
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥১॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura [1]

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur! May my ego go away by always worshipping you in full knowledge of the relationship.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Somebody thinks, ‘Oh, he is junior, and I am senior’, ‘I am Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s disciple!’, ‘I am Srila Prabhupad’s disciple!’, ‘Why must I pay obeisance to him?’ Such people do not know the relationship (sambandha). What is the relationship? Even a father should pay a full obeisance (dandavat) and give respect to his son because he will see that his son has the qualities that he himself does not have. A father should respect his son. This is sambandha. Sambandha means, ‘I give you full respect – you are my master, and I am your servant.’ It is very important to understand this, but the problem is that we always forget it.

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া, ভজিতে ভজিতে,
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥১॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura [1]

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur! May my ego go away by always worshipping you in full knowledge of the relationship.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I pay obeisances to junior devotees, then my ego will be removed; otherwise, my ego will not go. That is why Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, ‘I have no disciples. Everybody is my guru, and I am their servant.’ It is necessary to understand this, otherwise your ego will not go away. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also says that when you see each other first thing in the morning, you must pay dandavat to each other, you must greet each other saying, ‘Dandavat, Prabhu.’ In this way, ‘Bhajite bhajite abhimana hau dura. By worshipping you, my ego will go away.’

This is a nice song, a very beautiful prayer to Vaishnav Thakur. I always sing it.

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া, ভজিতে ভজিতে,
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥১॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura [1]

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur! May my ego go away by always worshipping you in full knowledge of the relationship.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to establish yourself in the proper relationship. What is sambandha? We know the relationship that ‘I am a disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj [or Prabhupad Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj], and you are a disciple of Srila Govinda Maharaj, so you are junior!’ This is the relation that we know, but this is not the actual sambandha. The true sambandha is, ‘You are my master, and I am your servant.’ When we realise this sambandha, then our ego will go away, but the problem is that we hold onto our ego. We think, ‘I am Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s disciple, you are Srila Govinda Maharaj’s disciple,’ or ‘You are Srila Acharya Maharaj’s disciple’, ’You are Srila Ashram Maharaj’s disciple,’ and so on. We discriminate and make such divisions. We cannot see, ‘He is my master, and I am his servant’ because we do not have this kind of eyes – our eyes are full of material dust, full of ego, full of all kinds of illusion and illusory dust. We think that we are Vaishnavs.

‘আমি ত বৈষ্ণব’, এ বুদ্ধি হইলে,
অমানী না হ’ব আমি ।

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami [2]

‘If I think, “I am a Vaishnav,” then I will never stop desiring honour.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I think that I have become a Vaishnav, then I will not be able to respect others.

‘আমি ত বৈষ্ণব’, এ বুদ্ধি হইলে,
অমানী না হ’ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি’, হৃদয় দূষিবে,
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥২॥

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami
pratisthasa asi’, hrdaya dusibe,
haiba nirayagami [2]

‘If I think, “I am a Vaishnav”, I will never stop desiring honour – my heart will become polluted with the desire for prestige, and I will end up in hell.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Then, pratistha will come to me, and I will go to hell.

তোমার কিঙ্কর, আপনে জানিব,
‘গুরু’-অভিমান ত্যজি’ ।

tomara kinkara, apane janiba,
‘guru’-abhimana tyaji’ [3]

‘May I consider myself your servant and give up the ego of a guru.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You must renounce and reject all guru-abhiman, all acharya-abhiman (the ego of a guru, the ego of an acharya). You must only know, ‘I am your servant!’

তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট, পদজলরেণু,
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥৩॥

tomara uchchhista, pada-jala-renu,
sada niskapate bhaji [3]

‘May I always earnestly worship the remnants of your food, your foot dust and the water that has washed your feet.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We cannot take others’ remnants, it is very difficult for us, but Kalidas did that! There is a washing place in front of Lord Jagannath’s temple where all devotees, including Mahaprabhu Himself, would wash their feet before entering the temple. One day, when Mahaprabhu went to Jagannath Temple and was washing His feet at the entrance, Kalidas suddenly came there and touched Mahaprabhu’s feet, trying to wash them. Everybody jumped at him, ‘No, no, no! Do not touch Mahaprabhu’s feet!’ but Mahaprabhu said, ‘Do not stop him.’ Mahaprabhu knew what had happened between Kalidas and Jhadu Thakur and He knew that Kalidas was a perfect Vaishnav because he had taken everybody’s remnants at Vaishnav festivals. Kalidas would never sit with everyone in one line to take prasad; instead, he would hide in some place and after everyone had finished taking prasad, he would go to the place where they threw their plates and take everybody’s remnants. This is Kalidas’s example.

নিজে শ্রষ্ঠ জানি’, উচ্ছিষ্টাদি দানে,
হবে অভিমান-ভার ।
তাই শিষ্য তব, থাকিয়া সর্ব্বদা,
না লইব পূজা কা’র ॥৪॥

nije srestha jani’, uchchhistadi dane,
habe abhimana-bhara
tai sisya tava, thakiya sarvada,
na laiba puja ka’ra [4]

‘If I believe, “I am the greatest”, I will start giving others my food remnants and other things, getting weighed down by ego. So, I pray to always remain your disciple and not accept worship from anyone.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If we start distributing our food remnants and other things, then so much ego will come to us. Sometimes, people become gurus and say, ‘Oh, you must worship me every day!’, ‘You must do an arati for me every morning and evening!’, ‘You must give me a garland every day!’ Why is all this necessary? We must not take puja (worship) from others.

অমানী মানদ, হইলে কীর্ত্তনে,
অধিকার দিবে তুমি ।
তোমার চরণে, নিষ্কপটে আমি,
কাঁদিয়া লুটিব ভূমি ॥৫॥

amani manada, haile kirtane,
adhikara dibe tumi
tomara charane, niskapate ami,
kandiya lutiba bhumi [5]

‘If I become free from the desire for honour and learn to give honour to others, you will give me the right to chant your kirtan. Rolling on the ground, I shall earnestly cry at your holy feet.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When we become humble and tolerant, then Vaishnav Thakur will give us the right to chant the Holy Name. Do you understand what is said here? This is a very nice song. If you sing such songs every day, you will understand perfect things. All right?

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) "I Want to Surrender"
2) Our Plight and Plea
3) Wealth of Nanda Maharaj's Yard
4) Pure Sambandha
5) Blessing In Disguise
6) Unconditional Life
7) Jewel of Sincerity