(6/13) 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 ॥১॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya [1]

‘When will Sri Chaitanya (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaisnavs’ feet?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘When will Sri Chaitanya bestow His mercy on me?’ What does it mean? ‘Sri Chaitanya’ here means that we have a chaitya-guru (internal manifestation of the guru) in our hearts. Guiding us from within, this chaitya-guru brings us to our mahanta-guru (external manifestation of the guru) and shows us everything. When we recite the guru 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 to Sri Guru, who has opened my eyes, rescuing me from the illusory darkness of ignorance, by applying the salve of knowledge upon my eyes.’

Sri Guru cures us from diseases: from avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against our enjoyment) and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits). He bestows upon us the gift of vision and removes the darkness of ignorance from us. When we have a cataract, we cannot see anything, but once the cataract is removed, we can see everything clearly. Similarly, Sri Guru gives us nice eyes: we used to live in darkness and could not see anything, but Sri Guru has given us divine eyes (divya-chaksu), enabling us to see. So, we pray, ‘When will I come to such a guru? When will I be able to take shelter in him? 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 dear associate to this world to tell us about Him. Therefore, we pray, ‘When will I get Sri Chaitanya’s mercy? When will I get the association of Vaishnavs?’

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥২॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana [2]

‘When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

গলবস্ত্র কৃতাঞ্জলি বৈষ্ণব নিকটে ।
দন্তে তৃণ করি’ দাঁড়াইব নিষ্কপটে ॥৩॥

gala-vastra krtanjali vaisnava-nikate
dante trna kari’ dandaiba niskapate [3]

‘I will stand before a Vaishnav sincerely, with a cloth around my neck and joined palms, holding a straw between my teeth.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘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 ॥৪॥

kandiya kandiya janaiba duhkha-grama
samsara anala haite magiba visrama [4]

‘Weeping, I will tell Vaishnav Thakur about my miserable life and pray to him for respite from the fire of material existence.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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?’ We must pray to the Vaishnav like this. First, we must appeal to a Vaishnav, and the Vaishnav will then send us to gurudev. What will gurudev do with our ‘letter of appeal’? He will send it on to the Lord. If we go directly to the Lord, bypassing Vaishnavs and gurudev, our appeal will not be granted.

‘When will I get some respite from the raging fire of this material existence?’ Do we even try to escape it? On the contrary, we forcefully go even further into material life – we enjoy even more. We do more and more. ‘Weeping, I will tell the Vaishnav about my miserable life and pray to him for shelter from the fire of material existence.’ What does the Vaishnav do then?

শুনিয়া আমার দুঃখ বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর । আমা’ লাগি’ কৃষ্ণে আবেদিবেন প্রচুর ॥৫॥

suniya amara duhkha vaisnava thakura
ama’ lagi’ krsne avedibena prachura [5]

‘Hearing about my sorrow, worshippable Vaishnav Thakur will ardently pray to Krishna on my behalf.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Hearing my prayer, the Vaishnav will tell about me to the Lord. We must never want anything from the Lord. The only desire we can have is to always have causeless devotion to the lotus feet of the Lord. We do not want anything else. 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

‘O Supreme Lord (Master of the Universe, Jagadiswar)! I do not desire any wealth (religion, money or material desires), any followers (wife, sons, servants or maidservants) or material knowledge (beautiful poetry). My only prayer is that I may birth after birth have pure devotion to You, devoid of seeking any result.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

Outside people say, ‘Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, bharyam 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.’ But Mahaprabhu said the opposite, ‘I do not want any wealth, I do not want any followers, I do not want any beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. All I want is to have causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give Me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I can serve You life after life.’

I told a devotee recently: if you want to stay here, stay. It is your temple – stay here and serve; I have no objection. But if you stay at the temple, you must practise Krishna consciousness. Practising Krishna consciousness means chanting the Holy Name and doing service. There is nothing else to it. You do not need to walk the streets begging; the Lord provides everything. I am here also. The Lord arranges everything. So, only practise sravan and kirtan and do service. This is your duty. There is no other job except this.

You must reject what is unfavourable to Krishna consciousness. I have told you what is unfavourable. One of the unfavourable activities is listening to all kinds of talks. I see what people do – they like to go to their neighbours’, friends’ or relatives’ houses and spend time talking there. Good for them. But those who stay at the temple are the 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 with a group of other devotees 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. Other than this, it is prohibited to go to anyone’s houses. I know that some go back to their houses, stay there for five–ten days, and then they take off their household clothes at home and come back to the Math dressed as devotees. 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

‘O Supreme Lord (Master of the Universe, Jagadiswar)! I do not desire any wealth (religion, money or material desires), any followers (wife, sons, servants or maidservants) or material knowledge (beautiful poetry). My only prayer is that I may birth after birth have pure devotion to You, devoid of seeking any result.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

What does the song say next?

বৈষ্ণবের আবেদনে কৃষ্ণ দয়াময় । এ হেন পামর প্রতি হবেন সদয় ॥৬॥

vaisnavera avedane krsna dayamaya
e hena pamara prati habena sadaya [6]

‘Hearing Vaishnav Thakur’s appeal, merciful Lord Krishna will take pity on this wretched sinner.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You must come to the Vaishnav very humbly, and Vaishnavs must also be very humble. Vaishnavs always feel that they are low. If somebody says that they have become a Vaishnav, it means that they have ‘poured’ too much sravan and kirtan on their devotional seed [listen to or practise what they had no right to listen to or practise] and have become rotten. If somebody says that they have understood much, it means that they have not become a Vaishnav. If you pour five mounds of water [186,5 litres] on potato, all plants will die. It is the same here.

বিনোদের নিবেদন বৈষ্ণব চরণে । কৃপা করি সঙ্গে লহ এই অকিঞ্চনে ॥৭॥

vinodera nivedana vaisnava charane
krpa kari’ sange laha ei akinchane [7]

‘Bhaktivinod prays at the holy feet of Vaishnavs: “Please take this destitute soul with you.”’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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Length: 92 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Always Practise Devotion
2) Pure Devotional Life (1)
3) Pure Devotional Life (2)
4) Detach and Immerse Yourself
5) Earn Qualification
6) Humble Heartfelt Plea
7) Quality and Qualification
8) Devotional Depth
9) Surrender and Practise
10) Cut Off Material Attachment
11) Bogus Kirtan – Bogus Devotion
12) Embracing Controlled Life
13) Start From Tongue