(5/5) 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 (vaisnavanam yatha sambhu). Those who take drugs and come to Siva are not devotees of Lord Siva – they merely try to dress as Siva. They think, ‘Siva takes marijuana, so we will take it, too.’ But Lord Siva also took poison, because of which his neck became blue (this is how he got his name Nilakantha, ‘the one with a bluish throat’). 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 him. We have Lord Siva’s Deity in many temples – there is Gangadhar Siva in Nabadwip, there is Lord Siva in Midnapore, 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, lamenting, ‘I cannot 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!’ But then Gopal started crying, ‘Asheshwar Mahadev (Lord Siva) came and went away without seeing Me!’ The Lord went Himself to Lord Siva to give him His darshan. Gopal told His mother, ‘Come this way, Sivji Maharaj is waiting for Me over there!’ In this way, Lord Siva got Gopal’s darshan. There is a place of Asheshwar Mahadev in Nandagram where this darshan took place.

There is also Bhuteswar Mahadev, Chakleshwar Mahadev, there is also Gopeshwar Mahadev in Vrindavan who 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!’ Parvati Devi replied. ‘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! Tell me, have you dressed yourself 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 to do so, but it is very difficult to actually become a sadhu. It is necessary to become a sadhu. It is not sufficient to wear the clothes and chant on a 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 – then only can you become a sadhu.

So, Lord Siva said to Parvati Devi, ‘Please bless me so that I can become a submissive follower of gopis.’

After that, Lord Siva entered the rasa-lila. None of the gopis could recognise him, but Krishna did: ‘Oh, Siva has come dressed as a gopi!’ So, Krishna started talking to him in a very lively way, seeing which Radharani got angry, ‘A new gopi has come today, and Krishna is talking only to her! What is this?’ 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 the new gopi is Gopeshwar [master of gopis]! Who is she!’ Then, Krishna told everyone, ‘Can You not recognise who has come here?’ Suddenly, all the gopis got alarmed and started pulling Sivji Maharaj’s clothes off! They scolded and slapped him, ‘Shameless! How could you have come here!’ Sivji Maharaj quickly left the place.

Such is the glory of Sivji Maharaj. There is also another pastime. If you go for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, there is a place called Hari-Hara Ksetra in Godrumdwip. Hari means Krishna, and Hara means Siva. Once, that Hari-Hara Deity was stolen and the temple was closed down, but when somebody came to the closed temple later, they saw the Deity was again there! They had looked for the Deity everywhere, but in the end 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 nobody has ever seen before.’ It is said that Kali cannot become Krishna, but Krishna can become Kali – you can make yoghurt from milk, but you can never make milk from yoghurt. So, Krishna can become Kali, Durga, Siva, anyone, but Kali can never become Krishna. When Siva asked Krishna to show him a special pastime, Krishna turned into a very beautiful girl wearing a thin sari that was waving in the wind. She had a ball in Her hand that she was playing with (‘ping-pong, ping-pong’) as She walked. 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!’ 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 nectar and poison emerged after the ocean had been churned. At that time, Krishna gave nectar to all the Vaishnavs and tricked the demons into taking poison.

The Lord has performed many kinds of pastimes. But what I wanted to say to you is that you must come to this line. Do not delay: time is going…

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Self-Deception
2) Think About Lord
3) Stay Away From Nonsense
4) Delay No More
5) Pastimes of Lord Siva