Heartfelt Prayers

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, second afternoon programme
12 February 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

We pray, "Gurudev, please hijack me!" We sing in the kirtan "Gurudev krpa bindu diya": "Ami sakti-buddhi-hina, ami ati dina, koro more atmasatha. I have no strength, I have no intelligence, I am very poor! Please hijack me!"

গুরুদেব!
কৃপাবিন্দু দিয়া কর এই দাসে
তৃণাপেক্ষা অতি দীন ।
সকল সহনে বল দিয়া কর
নিজমানে স্পৃহাহীন ॥

gurudev!
krpa-bindu diya kara' ei dase
trnapeksa ati dina
sakala sahane bala diya kara
nija-mane sprha-hina

"Gurudev! Please give this servant a drop of your mercy, and make me more humble than a blade of grass. Please give me the power to tolerate everything and to be free from any selfish desires."

"Please give me strength so that I may be able to tolerate everything. Nija mane sprha-hina: I do not want any honour or respect to myself. I have no desire for this. I do not care if anyone says anything about me or chastises me. I do not even think about it."

সকলে সম্মান করিতে শকতি
দেহ' নাথ ! যথাযথ ।
তবে ত' গাইব হরিনাম সুখে
অপরাধ হবে হত ॥

sakale sammana karite sakati,
deha natha! yatha yatha
tabe ta' gaiba hari-nama sukhe,
aparadha habe hata

"O master! Give me the ability to befittingly honour everyone. Then I will sing the Lord's Name happily, and all my offences will be eradicated."

"Sakale samman: I want to give honour to everyone. Please give me such strength."

শক্তিবুদ্ধিহীন আমি অতি দীন
কর মোরে আত্মসাথ ॥

sakti-buddhi-hina ami ati dina
kara more atma-satha

"I am devoid of ability and intelligence, and greatly distressed. Please hijack me."

Where must Gurudev hijack me from? I have fallen into the bondage of illusory environment. "Gopinath, padechhi mayara phere! Gopinath, I have fallen into Maya's perils!" There is a very beautiful Gopinath kirtan. "Gopinath! Mama nivedana suna. Gopinath! Please hear my humble plea."

গোপীনাথ মম নিবেদন শুন ।
বিষয়ী দুর্জ্জন সদা কামরত
কিছু নাহি মোর গুণ ॥

gopinath, mama nivedana suna
visayi durjana sada kama-rata
kichhu nahi mora guna

"O Gopinath, hear my prayer. I am a wicked, constantly covetous materialist. I do not have any good qualities."

"I always want this, that, that. I am always subservient to lust. I am enthralled by the material world and things." We sing this kirtan, praying to Radha Gopinath for mercy. It is necessary to always chant kirtans in this way.

What kirtan have we just sung?

এইবার করুণা কর বৈষ্ণব গোসাঞি ।
পতিতপাবন তোমা বিনে কেহ নাই ॥

ei-bara karuna kara vaisnava gosai
patita-pavana toma vine keha nai

O worshippable Vaisnava, be merciful to me this time. O saviour of the fallen, without you there is no one.

কাহার নিকটে গেলে পাপ দূরে যায় ।
এমন দয়াল প্রভু কেবা কোথা পায় ॥

kahara nikate gele papa dure yaya
emana dayala prabhu keba kotha paya

"If anyone comes to you, their sins go away. Where can such a merciful master be found?"

গঙ্গার পরশ হৈলে পশ্চাতে পাবন ।
দর্শনে পবিত্র কর এই তোমার গুণ ॥

gangara-parasa ha-ile paschate pavana
darsane pavitra kara—ei tomara guna

If the Ganges touches someone, he is later purified, but you purify souls simply by seeing them—such is your power.

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare harinama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahiko edana

"If somebody offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers them, but if somebody offends you, they have no way to be saved."

If you make an offence at the holy lotus feet of the Lord, Vaishnavs can rescue you, but if you make an offence at the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs, who will rescue then? You must have heard the story of Chapal Gopal.

Srivas Pandit would chant kirtan every evening behind the closed doors of his house, but people would come to the door and leave bottles, sidur, etc. in front of it so that they could later say, "Oh this sadhu chants kirtan during the day, but at night he drinks liquor." They wanted to criticise Srivas Pandit and tarnish his name. Srivas Pandit did not care—he would only say to all the senior neighbours, "Look how bad my position is! I chant kirtan during the day and drink liquor at night! Come and see the bottles in front of my door." However, do you know what happened to Chapal Gopal who did such things to Srivas Pandit? He got leprosy.

One day, when Mahaprabhu was walking down the street, Chapal Gopal begged him, "Prabhu, You are rescuing so many people, will You not give Your mercy to me? Will You not rescue me?" Mahaprabhu told him, "I will feed you to worms and insects life after life!! You have made an offence to Srivas, you have made an offence at the feet of My devotee! You will have no respite!" Chapal Gopal started crying even more, "Oh, what will I do now? What will become of me?" Then, Mahaprabhu said, "You can only get relief if you come to Srivas's lotus feet and ask him for forgiveness of your offence (for the mischief you have done)." Mahaprabhu knew everything.

Therefore, when you make an offence to a Vaishnav's holy feet, you must ask for forgiveness. The problem is that we cannot recognise a Vaishnav. Not only that, even Brahma admits he cannot recognise a Vaishnav! That is why we must always give honour to everyone. We were just singing:

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare harinama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahiko edana

"If somebody offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers them, but if somebody offends you, they have no way to be saved."

— : • : —

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