Humble Heartfelt Plea

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, 10 February 2021, part 6

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

"When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?"

What does it say here? When Sri Chaitanya bestow His mercy on me? What does it mean? You have a chaitya-guru in your heart. When this chaitya-guru moves us from within, he will bring us to our mahanta-guru. Who brings you to the mahanta-guru? Chaitya-guru. Chaitya-guru will take you to your mahanta-guru and show you everything. When we recite the Guru's pranam-mantra, we say:

ওঁ অজ্ঞানতিমিরান্ধস্য জ্ঞানাঞ্জনশলাকয়া ।
চক্ষুরুন্মিলিতং যেন তস্মৈ শ্রীগুরবে নমঃ ॥

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

'I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, applying the kajal of divine knowledge on my eyes.'

He cures me from my diseases of avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits). He gives the gift of vision and removes the darkness of ignorance. Just as when you have a cataract, you cannot see anything. So, the Guru gives you nice eyes—I lived in darkness and could not see anything, but the Guru has given me the gift of divine vision (divya-chaksu). When will we get the shelter of this Guru? When will we be able to take this shelter? When will I be able to serve Gurudev? You must always remember this. If you go directly to the Lord, you will not get any reply. The Lord sends His own man to this world to tell about Him. Therefore, we pray: "When will I get the mercy of Sri Chaitanya? When will I get the association of Vaishnavs?"

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

গলবস্ত্র কৃতাঞ্জলি বৈষ্ণব নিকটে ।
দন্তে তৃণ করি দাঁড়াইব নিষ্কপটে ॥

gala-vastra krtanjali vaisnava-nikate
dante trna kari' dandaiba niskapate

"With a cloth around my neck, joined palms, and straw between my teeth, I will sincerely submit myself at the Vaishnav's feet."

কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া জানাইব দুঃখগ্রাম ।
সংসার অনল হৈতে মাগিব বিশ্রাম ॥

kandiya kandiya janaiba duhkha-grama
samsara-anala haite magiba visrama

"Weeping, I will convey my sorrows to the Vaishnav and pray for shelter from the fire of material existence."

I will pray to the Vaishnav: When will you rescue me from this ocean of material existence? I keep coming to this material world, I keep falling into this world, but when will I be rescued from this material existence? You must pray for this to the Vaishnav. First, you must appeal to the Vaishnav. He then will send you to Gurudev, and what will Gurudev do with our letter of appeal? He will send it on to the Lord. If you go directly to the Lord bypassing Vaishnavs and Gurudev, your appeal will not be granted.

When will I get some respite from the raging fire of this material existence? Yet do we even try to escape it? On the contrary, we forcefully go even further into material life—we enjoy even more, we do even more. "Weeping, I will convey my sorrows to the Vaishnav and pray for shelter from the fire of material existence." What does the Vaishnav do then? Listen:

শুনিয়া আমার দুঃখ বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
আমা' লাগি' কৃষ্ণে আবেদিবেন প্রচুর ॥

suniya amara duhkha vaisnava thakura
ama' lagi' krsne avedibena prachura

"Hearing of my sorrow, the worshippable Vaishnav will thoroughly pray to Krishna on my behalf."

When the Vaishnav hears my prayer, he tells about me to the Lord. We must never want anything from the Lord—the only desire you can have is to always have causeless devotion to the lotus feet of the Lord. We do not want anything. Do you know what Mahaprabhu told? We sing it during the Chaturmasya month:

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want followers, I do not want beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 20.29)

Outside people say: "Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, varyam dehi, kavitam dehi, sundarim dehi, yasam dehi. Give me wealth, give me knowledge, give me beauty, give me a good wife, make me a poet, give me a beautiful girlfriend, give me fame." Yet Mahaprabhu said the opposite: "I do not want wealth, I do not want followers, I do not want beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

I told one devotee: if you want to stay here, stay, it is your temple, stay here and serve; I have no objection. If you stay at the temple, you must practise Krishna consciousness. Practising Krishna consciousness mean chanting the Holy Name and doing service. There is nothing else to it. You do not need to walk the streets begging, nothing. The Lord arranges all this. I am here, and the Lord arranges everything. Therefore, only practise sravan and kirtan and do service. This is your duty. There is not other job except this. You must reject what is unfavourable to Krishna consciousness. I have told what is unfavourable—to listen to various talks. I see what people do. They go to neighbours' houses or some other houses and spend time talking there. Good for them. But those who stay at the temple are guardians of the temple. Even if you go to anyone's house, you must behave there as you behave at the temple. That is why Guru Maharaj said that if a brahmachari goes to anyone's house, he must not go alone. He must go there with a party and chant kirtan there. None of the sannyasis, none of the brahmacharis can go to anyone's house alone. They can only go there accompanied by other devotees—to chant kirtan. It is a strict rule of our Math. It is prohibited to go to anyone's house. Some go to their house, stay there for five-ten days, and then they leave their household clothes at home and come back to the Math. This is wrong.

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want followers, I do not want beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 20.29)

What does the song say next?

বৈষ্ণবের আবেদনে কৃষ্ণ দয়াময় ।
এ হেন পামর প্রতি হবেন সদয় ॥

vaisnavera avedane krsna dayamaya
e hena pamara prati habena sadaya

"Satisfied by the Vaishnav's prayer, Krishna will be merciful to this sinner."

You must come to the Vaishnav very humbly. Vaishnavs must be very humble, they always feel they are lowly. If somebody says they have become a Vaishnav, it means that they have poured too much sravan and kirtan, so they have become rotten. If somebody says they have understood much, they have become Vaishnavs. If you pour five mounds of water (186,5 litres) on potato, then all plants will die. Here, it is the same.

বিনোদের নিবেদন বৈষ্ণব চরণে ।
কৃপা করি সঙ্গে লহ এই অকিঞ্চনে ॥

vinodera nivedana vaisnava-charane
krpa kari' sange laha ei akinchane

"Bhaktivinod prays at the feet of the Vaisnavas: "Mercifully take this lowly soul with you."

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