Jivan Chakravarti's Pastime (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, evening programme
13 February 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

In my life, I have been in many very dangerous situations, but amidst all that danger, I always gave everything up to Gurudev and the Lord... We must always remember our Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord. We must always serve our Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord.

I have been called to a place called Mankar. I will go there one of the days. Have you heard about this place? It is near Panagar in Bardhaman. I will go to a place where one house stood (it is no longer there—everyone there became devotees and came to the Lord). Do you know who lived in that house before? One brahman family. The name of head of the family was Jivananda Das, and his previous name is Jivan Chakravarti.

Living in Mankar, Jivan Chakravarti worshipped Lord Siva. He had twelve silas of Lord Siva, and he worshipped them religiously every day. Eventually, Lord Siva became pleased with his worship and came to him in a dream one night. Lord Siva asked Jivan Chakravarti, "Tell me, what do you want?" Jivan Chakravarti's devotion was karma-misra bhakti.

There are four kinds of devotion: karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits), jnana-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with knowledge seeking), jnana-sunya bhakti (devotion devoid of knowledge seeking), and suddha-bhakti (pure devotion). Somebody worships the Lord and prays, "O Lord, give me this." You must have seen it when people worship Durga—brahmans recite mantras, "Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, varyam dehi (give me wealth, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a good wife), etc." It is Saraswati Puja on Monday, all the children will be saying:

om sarasvati mahabhage vidye kamalalochane
visvarupe visalaksi vidyam dehi namostute

"O great Goddess Saraswati, the personified knowledge possessing large lotus eyes! I offer obeisance to you, please give me knowledge."

They ask for knowledge. This is how people turn God into their menial servant ("Lord, give me this"). They give some fruit, some money, some things and ask God to give them something—they bribe the Lord and turn Him into their servant (you give ten rupees and expect to get something in return: "God, give me knowledge," "God, give me wealth"). This is karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits).

Jnana-misra bhakti means people have knowledge (there are many missions and highly educated people in this world). They think they are Brahma, the Supreme Lord, themselves. They consider themselves Gods. They chant, "Vande Purushottam! I am the Lord!" Yet Mahaprabhu was the Lord Himself, and whenever anyone called Him the Lord, He would say, "What is this? No, no!" He did not want to hear it and prohibited others to say this. Vaishnavs also never think that they have become Vaishnavs: "'Ami ta vaisnava' e buddhi haile amani na ha'ba ami ('আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে অমানী না হ'ব আমি): If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others." There are many tilak-wearing people roaming around. I will not mention their names, but many like this—they walk around wearing tilaks, thinking they are great sadhus. They get initiation in Nabadwip and think they have become great Vaishnavs!

'আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে
অমানী না হ'ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি' হৃদয় দূষিবে
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥

'ami ta vaisnava' e buddhi haile
amani na ha'ba ami
pratisthasa asi' hrdaya dusibe
haiba nirayagami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)—my heart will become polluted by the desire for fame and I will end up in hell."

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

Gora knows what you have been doing! He can understand everything. He will catch up with you. Always remember all these things.

So, when Siva Thakur came to Jivan Chakravarti and asked what he wanted, Jivan Chakravarti said, "I want some money to get my daughter married. She has grown big now, and I have no money to arrange her marriage." Then, Siva Thakur said to him in that dream, "I do not have wealth. Go to Vrindavan. There is a sadhu, Sanatan Goswami, there. He has extremely valuable wealth..."

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