Know Best

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 21 March 2021, part 7

I have sung Nityananda Prabhu's kirtan,

নিতাই-পদকমল কোটীচন্দ্র-সুশীতল
যে ছায়ায় জগত জুড়ায় ।

nitai-pada-kamala, koti chandra-susitala,
ye chhayaya jagata judaya

"Cooling like ten million moons, Nitai's lotus feet soothe the world with their shade."

The sun gives light, but it gives light and at the same time it heats, its rays are hot; but the moon never produces heat—it gives light, but it is not hot. Lord Nityananda Prabhu's feet are compared to ten million moons. One moon is cooling, but if you take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu's lotus feet or the lotus feet of Sri Gurudev (Gurudev is non-different from Nityananda-tattva), you will feel the invigorating, soothing coolness of ten million moons.

Anyhow, our programme is as follows. Tomorrow is adhivas, do not go roaming here and there, our parikrama starts the day after tomorrow. We will go from here to the ghat by bus, will take prasadam during the parikrama. This year we are going to a new place—Sri Rudradwip. We have not been going there every year because we did not have enough time, but we are going by bus, so we can go there this year. We will take prasadam, and after that we will get on the bus and go there. I went there the other day by car, it is several kilometres from the place where we usually take afternoon prasadam. I spoke to the Maharaj who is in charge of the temple, I told him we would come and asked him not to close the temple. The temple is situated on the bank of the Ganges (in the north of Nabadwip, a little to the north-west of Antardwip). So, the day after tomorrow is the parikrama of Sri Antardwip, Sri Simantadwip, and Sri Rudradwip—three islands in one day. When you go to Mayapur, you only go to ISKCON, but we do not do that—we go with the parikrama and visit all the places of Mahaprabhu's pastimes, all the places where Mahaprabhu walked.

গৌর আমার যে সব স্থানে
করল ভ্রমণ রঙ্গে ।
সে সব স্থান হেরিব আমি
প্রণয়ি-ভকত-সঙ্গে ॥

gaura amara ye-saba sthane
karala bhramana range
se-saba sthana heriba ami
pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

Last year we also went to a new place—Khalovecha Sridhar's house. Mahaprabhu would often take rest at his house. We searched that place out and found it in the jungle. We will go there this year too. Sridhar Prabhu was a very poor brahman, Mahaprabhu went there and took water from a glass with a hole. You know that Krishna took banana skin at Vidura's house, but He did not take Duryodhan's raj-bhog. Mahaprabhu also did not accept any raj-bhog, but He would go to the house of Sridhar Prabhu and forcefully take bananas, fruit, banana stem, banana flowers, etc. from him.

ভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু লুটিপুটি খায়
অভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু উলটি নাহি খায়

bhakter jinish prabhu lutiputi khay
abhakter jinish prabhu ulti nahi khay

"The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it, but He does not take anything from a non-devotee."

The Lord accepts everything from His devotees, but He does not even look at non-devotees no matter what they try to give Him. Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita also, "I only know My devotees, and My devotees also do not know anyone except Me—they only know Me." You can read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, and you will see it there. Therefore, we must all try to become servants, slaves of the Lord's devotees.

I have arranged everything for you—you have come to Sri Nabadwip Dham from far, so I have taken care of everything so that you do not have to struggle. We are far from the ghat, so we will go there by bus, and when we finish the parikrama, it is also very far from here, so the buses will bring you all back. Do not worry. Everybody must try to go for the parikrama.

When we will go by bus, not everyone will get a seat, but the ride is not very long, you can stand for 10-20 minutes. You know how people go by bus in the villages. When I go by car, I see it—so many people get on the bus, everybody is standing on each other's head. Even when young people go to school or college, they struggle so much in the crowded buses, I see that. There are maybe fifty seats in a bus, and another fifty people go standing. Everybody cannot get a seat. Do not be mean to each other—give seats to the elderly, to the elderly ladies, to the children. This is the general etiquette. Give respect to everyone,

সকলে সম্মান করিতে শকতি
দেহ' নাথ ! যথাযথ ।

sakale sammana karite sakati,
deha natha! yatha yatha

"Gurudev! Please give me such power that I can give due honour to everyone."

We sing this in the kirtan. "Even if I cannot sit myself, I will let others sit." These days everything has become topsy-turvy—the school master will stand, and all the students sit. The students take after the school masters. When we were students, as soon as we saw our teacher, everybody would keep a big distance from him. When I used to teach, when the students saw me, they would flee (They would say, "Oh man, he is coming! Run!")! They were afraid of me because I would catch them truanting school or college lessons. And now students smoke, and the teachers smoke with them at the lessons; the teacher looks at photos in his phone, and the students also look at photos in their phones. Like teachers, like students. Like guru, like disciples.

You must learn these things.

সকলে সম্মান করিতে শকতি
দেহ' নাথ ! যথাযথ ।

sakale sammana karite sakati,
deha natha! yatha yatha

"Gurudev! Please give me such power that I can give due honour to everyone."

Give due respect to everyone—everybody should be given some particular respect, and you must give that due respect to everyone. We always sing this in the kirtan, but you must remember this—you must not only sing it with your mouth, you must follow it in your own life and behaviour. Now we will sing one more kirtan, Mahaprabhu's kirtan...

[His Divine Grace sings 'Emona durmati...'.]

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