At Srivas Angan (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day One
Antardwip, 23 March 2021, part 8
Translated from Bengali

When you worship the Lord, you will be remembering the Lord; otherwise, you will be thinking about your children and husband. If you worship the Lord, the Lord will bring your children or husband back from the office or school, so you must think about the Lord, cook for the Lord, etc. When Sri Sachi Mata cooked, she cooked for Gaura Hari, and the Lord always stays in her kitchen. Where else does the Lord stay? In Srivas Angan. The Lord said, "I stay every day in Srivas Pandit's house—wheneven devotees sing kirtan there, I will be present there." The third place where the Lord stays is in the dance of Nityananda Prabhu—wherever Nityananda Prabhu dances, the Lord is present there; and the fourth place is Raghav Bhavan, the house of Sri Raghav Pandit. Raghav Pandit would make so many preparations for Mahaprabhu throughout the year—he would make different kinds of pickles and dried preparations (mango fruit leather [aam shotto], kasandi, achar from kul and other fruits, etc.) and send them all for Mahaprabhu to Puri.

When Mahaprabhu was here at the house of Srivas Pandit, He told Srivas Pandit, "You must have kirtan every day at your home." Srivas Pandit was a poor man—he did not have a job, he did not trade anything, he did not have any land, but Mahaprabhu told him to host kirtan at his house, so he could not disobey the order, and the Lord accepted his service.

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."

So, Srivas Pandit would have kirtans at his home every evening, and Mahaprabhu would come there too. There was one girl, a maid, who lived at the house of Srivas Pandit. Do you remember her name? Duhkhi. She would wash the dishes, do various other works around the house and also take prasad at the house. One of her duties was to bring water from the pond. One time, Srivas Pandit told her, "We are going to observe Mahaprabhu's birthday this Purnima..."

[Too much clamour]

দিনের মধ্যে আবল-তাবল
কত পচাল পাড়িতে পর
তার মধ্যে কিন্তু তুমি একবার
গোবিন্দ বলে আর কথা বলিব না

dinera madhye abala-tabala
kata pachala parite para
tara madhye kintu tumi ekbara
govinda bale, ara katha baliba na

"All day you talk all kinds of nonsense, how much idle talk you engage in! But find time amidst all that to chant the Name of Govinda, do not talk about other things!"

When we do the parikrama, I always look who is chanting the Holy Name and who is not...

...So, Srivas Pandit told Duhkhi, "We are going to celebrate Mahaprabhu's birthday this Purnima. Mahaprabhu will come, and we will do His abhisekh (festive bathing)." Abhisekh means festive or ceremonial bathing; it is not done only by reciting mantras. Many think it is sufficient to just recite some mantras and not actually bathe the Deities. There are pujaris who are brahmacharis and worship the Deities every day, but when you come to clean the altar, you see cockroaches and rats' stool everywhere. They do not mind it. So, abhisekh is not done just by reciting mantras—it means cleaning, washing to please the Lord. You always dust and sweep your room, you always shake your bedding and make sure it is clean. In the same way, you must do abhisekh of the Deities every day and must always make sure Their place is clean. It is necessary to keep everything clean. Anyhow, when Srivas Pandit told Duhkhi the news, he asked her, "Please bring more water today, we will all bathe Mahaprabhu." Hearing this, Duhkhi began to cry for joy, "The Lord will bathe today in the water I bring!"

Then, the time came for Mahaprabhu to bathe, and Duhkhi kept bringing and bringing water, keeping it all in the house. When Mahaprabhu noticed her and asked her what her name was, He said, "What is your sadness [duhkha]? From today, your name is Sukhi [happy]!" She has got Mahaprabhu's mercy that day. It is not necessary to do much—she only served by bringing some water, but she has got Mahaprabhu's mercy.

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