Pastimes of Lord Siva

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, 11 February 2021, part 5

You are staying near Tarakeshwar Dham. Sivji Maharaj is a great Vaishnav (vaishnavanam yatha sambhu). Those who take drugs and come to Siva are not devotees of Lord Siva—they only try to dress as Siva. They think, "Siva takes marijuana, so we will also take it." Yet Lord Siva also took poison and his neck became blue (this is how he got his name Nilakantha). So, you can tell them, "You take drugs saying you are a devotee of Siva, but then you should also take poison. Can you digest it?"

Lord Siva is a great Vaishnav. He took part in the rasa-lila of Lord Krishna. We always offer obeisances to Lord Siva. We have Lord Siva's Deity in many temples—there is Gangadhar Siva in Nabadwip, there is Lord Siva in Mednipore, Ganga Sagar and other places. We always offer Lord Govinda's prasad to Lord Siva (after the offering is done to Lord Govinda, that prasad is offered to Lord Siva).

One time, Sivji Maharaj went to Nandagram, Vrindavan, and sat there, thinking, "I have not been able to get the darshan of Gopal!" When Sivji Maharaj had come to Mother Yasoda (wearing snakes on his neck and long dreadlocks), Mother Yasoda said, "No, if Gopal sees you, He will get scared." Then, Gopal started crying, "Asesvar Mahadev (Lord Siva) came and went away without seeing Me!" And the Lord then went Himself to Lord Siva to give him His darshan. Gopal told His mother, "Come this way, Sivji Maharaj is waiting for Me there!" In this way, Lord Siva got Gopal's darshan. There is a place of Aseswar Mahadev in Nandagram, where this darshan took place.

There is also Bhuteswar Mahadev, Chakleshwar Mahadev, there is also Gopeshwar Mahadev in Vrindavan. Gopeshwar Mahadev took part in the rasa-lila in Vrindavan. One day, Sivji Maharaj came to his wife Parvati Devi and said, "Parvati, I will go to the rasa-lila!"

"You will go to the rasa-lila? But you are a man!" replied Parvati. "Nobody except gopis (ladies) has the right to enter there."

"Then dress me as a gopi!"

Parvati dressed Siva as a gopi, and as Siva was about to leave, she quickly called him,

"Hey, listen, listen! Have you dressed as a gopi or have you become a gopi?"

The question is that whether one dresses as a sadhu or becomes a sadhu? Many dress as sadhus—it is easy to dress as a sadhu, but it is very difficult to actually becomes one. It is necessary to become a sadhu. It is not sufficient to wear the cloth and chant on your mala. You must be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, and give honour to others. It is necessary to have patience, tolerance, it is necessary to leave ego, etc.

So, Lord Siva said, "Bless me so that I can become a staunch follower of gopis."

After that, Lord Siva entered the rasa-lila. None of the gopis could recognise him, but Krishna did, "Siva has come dressed as a gopi!" So, Krishna started talking to him in a very lively way, but Radharani got angry: "A new gopi has come today, and Krishna is only talking to her!" Sulking, She went away. There is a pond where She stayed for five days, sulking. The name of that pond is Mana-sarovar. She sulked angrily, "I am Gopeshwari [mistress of gopis], and He says that that new gopi is Gopeshwar [master of gopis]! Who is she!" Then, Krishna told Her, "Can You not recognise who has come here?" Suddenly, all the gopis started pulling Sivji Maharaj's clothes off! The gopis started scolding and hitting him, "Naughty! How could you come here!" Sivji Maharaj quickly left then.

Such is the glory of Sivji Maharaj. There is also another pastime. If you go for Nabadwip Dham parikrama, there is a place called Hari-Hara Ksetra in Godrumdwip. Hari means Krishna, and Hara means Siva. That Deity was stolen at some point, and the temple was closed down, but one day, when somebody came to the closed temple, they saw the Deity was there! They had looked for the Deity everywhere, but then the Deity appeared in the temple on His own. One day, Sivji Maharaj told Krishna, "You have so many pastimes—can You show one pastime to me? Show me a pastime that I have never seen before." It is said that Kali cannot become Krishna, but Krishna can become Kali—you can make yoghurt out of milk, but you can never make milk from yoghurt. So, Krishna can become Kali, Durga, Siva, anyone, but Kali can never become Krishna. So, when Siva asked Krishna to show him a special pastime, Krishna became a very beautiful girl, wearing a thin sari that was waving in the wind and She had a ball in Her hand that she was walking and playing with ('ping-pong, ping-pong'). Seeing this girl, Sivji Maharaj was captured and started running behind Her. Everybody said, "God, what kind of sadhu is this? He is running like crazy behind a girl!" So, Siva ran and ran behind the girl, and when he finally caught Her, She turned into Krishna. That is how the Deity appeared—one side is white, and the other side is black. This pastime took place when the ocean was churned and nectar and poison came out. Krishna performed so many pastimes. At that time, Krishna gave nectar to all the Vaishnavs, and He tricked all the demons into taking poison.

The Lord has performed many kinds of pastimes. What I wanted to say is that you must come to this line. Time is passing...

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