Parikrama Adhivas: Fixed In Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama Adhivas, evening
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 22 March 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

Nabadwip and Mayapur are not places for strolls and outings—this is not a place for eye-exercise. You must do dham-parikrama (circumambulate the holy abode); go on this parikrama being intently fixed on chanting kirtan with all the devotees. We will go with kirtan to different places within this holy land, we will sit at different places and hear Hari-katha.

Crossing the Ganges, we will go first to one temple, offer obeisance there, and after that we will go to the temple where Gaura and Nityananda met for the first time. When Nityananda Prabhu left Ekachakra Dham, He first came to that place here in Nabadwip. You all know this place, it is the house of Nandan Acharya (Nandan Acharya Bhavan). We will go there to offer our obeisance. After that, we will go to offer obeisance at the puspa-samadhi of the founder of ISKCON, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad, we will speak some Hari-katha there. From there, we will go straight to Yogapith, the house of Sachi Devi and Jagannath Misra, where Mahaprabhu appeared under a neem tree. We will chant kirtans and speak Hari-katha there. From there we will go to Srivas Pandit's house, the place where Chand Kazi broke a mridanga. Nearby, there are also the houses of Advaita Acharya Prabhu and Sri Gadadhar Pandit (Advaita Acharya came to Mayapur from Shantipur and stayed there). We will not stop there for a long time because there is not much time or place, so from there we will proceed to Chaitanya Math, the place where the bhajan kutir and samadhi of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur is. We will sit there for some time, speak some Hari-katha about Chaitanya Math. From there we will go to Chand Kazi's samadhi. You know that this is that Chand Kazi who broke a mridanga—he did wrong at first, but later he became a devotee of the Lord, a devotee of Mahaprabhu, and his samadhi is there now under a great tree. Before that, we will also go to Jagai-Madhai Ghat. This ghat is the place where Madhai hit Nityananda Prabhu. Although Mahaprabhu at first could not forgive him for this, Nityananda Prabhu forgave him and later Mahaprabhu also forgave his offence. Now the current of the Ganges has changed, but before the Ganges was flowing through those places and there were many ghats in that area. So, that ghat where the pastime took place later became known as Jagai-Madhai Ghat. When Madhai approached Mahaprabhu and asked what service he could do, Mahaprabhu gave him the service of cleaning the bank of the Ganges. A lot of people came to Nabadwip to bathe in the Ganges, and there used to be no toilets—people would pass stool and urine on the bank of the Ganges—and Mahaprabhu gave this responsibility of cleaning that ghat to Madhai. Later, the ghat became known as Madhai Ghat, or Jagai-Madhai Ghat. We will go there, offer our obeisance and speak some Hari-katha. There is a new temple there now, we started going there just two years ago. From there we will go to Yogapith. So, after Chand Kazi's samadhi we will go to the place where we always take prasadam. Everybody will get prasadam, water, etc. at the same place as always. Before that, we will also take prasadam at the Math of Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj (the place where Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu met). Whatever is cooked here in the morning will be given there. We will cross the Ganges and take prasadam at the first stop. Later, after taking prasadam at noon, we will go to the temple of Lord Jagannath and then to the place of Sridhar Pandit (Sridhar Angan). From there we will walk a little and take the buses again. About seven kilometres away from there, there is Rudradwip. We will pay our obeisances at Rudradwip, we will sit there for some time, hear some Hari-katha, and then again get on the buses and return to the temple here. There will be evening class every evening. Everybody must take part in the evening arati, class, kirtans. I am also here with you all.

I know you want to come here and eat well, have a nice room, etc. I have been coming here twice a week and I have been here for some time already, making sure you get everything for staying. You can see that there is a new building now, it is not completed yet so we had to get the rooms cleaned, painted, etc.

So, come here to the temple every day, join the kirtans and the class. The next day (the day after tomorrow) we will again take buses up to Gauranga Setu Bridge. You will not have to walk to the bridge, it is far from here. We will go until the bridge by bus and will start walking from there and do the parikrama of the other side of Nabadwip starting from our old temple. We will return again by buses after taking prasadam. The second day is very short, there are not many places, so you will not have to walk much. Koladwip parikrama is not so big. There is a temple of Praudha Maya (Paramatala), a temple of Vriddha Siva, and there is also the Deity of Mahaprabhu that was served by Sri Vishnupriya Devi (at her father's house). Vishnupriya Devi worshipped Mahaprabhu before their marriage, and after Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip, she personally had that Deity made and installed it in her father's house. Mahaprabhu left her when she was only thirteen years old, and from that age she always thought about Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu's Deity is there at that house, and His wooden shoes bearing the footprint of His soles are also there. After that, we will go to Srila Jagannath Das Babaji's samadhi mandir and bhajan kutir. He was the one who gave recognition to the appearance place of Mahaprabhu (Yogapith). We will go there and pay our obeisance. The place is small, but we will sit there for some time and speak some Hari-katha. After that, we will take prasadam and return here to the temple again by bus. The second day is short. The next day will be ekadasi. I thought about it and decided not to make you struggle on this day. I thought we would do parikrama for five days, but we will go to Rudradwip on the first day, and you can stay here at the temple on ekadasi and take some rest, hear some Hari-katha.

This is our programme for the nearest days. Remember it. If you go to other places besides this programme, this is anyabhilasita—your other, material desires. There are so many things to hear and to see, you can go to so many places, see so many sights, I know that. I heard somebody went to Mayapur today. I can understand who went to Mayapur. I told you all yesterday we would go there, but they still went there on their own. They come to enjoy...

We come here to practise Krishna consciousness, to serve the Lord. Today is adhivas. What does it mean? 'Adhivas' means 'Bhagavaner nikate vas' (staying with the Lord). Upavas and adhivas both have this meaning. You must spend your days in the service of the Lord. Do you think 'staying with the Lord' means you have to live in the same room with the Lord? Many want to stay close to Gurudev, but I can easily understand when somebody pretends, it is easy to understand that. If you read Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, you can see that in Mahaprabhu's time also there were many people who pretended. It is easy to understand this, and such people eventually get caught—you cannot pretend for long. Gurudev always said that people think sadhu-sanga means staying near the sadhu, but even worms in stool stay close to the sadhu, even mosquitos stay near—do you think they do sadhu-sanga? They do not. They disturb the sadhus... If you make a show of doing kirtan, if you make a show of practising Krishna consciousness, it will not bring any result. It is not necessary to be like that... You do not need to show anyone what service you do. Gurudev can understand what service you do or not do. You do not need to say what you are doing. You must never praise yourself in front of Gurudev. It is an offence. If you are doing service, do it from far. You must understand within you, internally, what service is necessary to do. It is not necessary to show anything.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (3.6 Mb, 9 min)