Esoteric Pastimes On the Banks of the Ganges

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day One
Evening class, 23 March 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

There are nine kinds of devotional practices—sravan, kirtan, smaran, vandan, etc. We have been to three islands today and I have told you about the three kinds of devotion that reside on each of these three islands. We have been to Antardwip, Simantadwip, and lastly Rudradwip today. The temple that we visited in Rudradwip was built later—the original temple, which was the last temple built by Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur in 1936, broke and was taken by the Ganges. However, these days the Ganges does not break anything so much...

শ্রবণ, কীর্ত্তন, স্মরণ, বন্দন,
পাদসেবন দাস্যরে ।
পূজন, সখীজন, আত্মনিবেদন
গোবিন্দ দাস অভিলাষ রে ॥

sravana, kirtana, smarana, vandana
pada-sevana, dasya re
pujana, sakhi-jana, atma-nivedana
govinda-dasa-abhilasare

Govinda Das desires to engage in the nine practices of devotion: hearing about, glorifying, remembering, praying to, attending to, serving, worshipping, befriending, and surrendering to the Lord.

We must practise these nine kinds of devotion.

First comes faith (adau sraddha). The more faith you have, the more devotion you have—and the less faith you have, the less devotion you have. After faith, there must be good, saintly association (sadhu-sanga); from sadhu-sanga comes devotional practice (bhajana-kriya) and then all unwanted elements (anarathas) become remove—you will consider money, food, sleep, fear, enjoyment, etc. trifle. Srila Sanatan Goswami, Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami were all great landowners, they had a very big job, but they considered it all trifle—they rejected it all like filthy stool.

We have been to Chaitanya Math today and saw the samadhi mandir of Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj. When Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj came to Nabadwip from Vrindavan, everybody in Nabadwip considered him crazy, but Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur could recognise him that Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj was not a crazy man—he was crazy with the transcendental love for Krishna.

Mahaprabhu would madly chant kirtan, always crying, "O Krishna! O Krishna!" Sri Sachi Mata said, "My son has become crazy! He does not do anything, only keeps saying 'Hare Krishna'!" She would bring cooling oil and dunk Nimai into it. Srila Srivas Pandit came then and said, "Didi, can I say something?" "What is it?" "This madness will not go away by your cooling oil. I too want to become crazy like him!"

কবে নবদ্বীপে সুরধুণী-তটে
'গৌর-নিত্যানন্দ' বলি' নিষ্কপটে ।
নাচিয়া গাইয়া, বেড়াইব ছুটে,
বাতুলের প্রায় ছাড়িয়া বিচার ॥

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,
'gaura-nityananda' bali' niskapate
nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,
batulera praya chhadiya vichara

"When will I wander along the banks of the Ganges in Nabadwip, sincerely calling out, 'Gaura-Nityananda!', while dancing, singing, and running about, without any thinking as though mad?"

"When will I become crazy? When will I run along the bank of the Ganges chanting and always thinking, 'O Krishna! O Gaura!'?"

Do you know where Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj used to sleep? He is Srila Prabhupad's Gurudev, so remember what I am saying. He never stayed at any temple. At some point, he stayed at a public toilet on the street! Everybody told him, "Babaji Maharaj, does it not stink in the toilet?" But Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj replied, "This stench of the toilet can be tolerated, but I cannot take the stench of the visayi (materialists) and bhogi (enjoyers)—I would rather stay far away from them!" Materialists always live engrossed into the material world, it is better to keep away from them. Also, now we chant the Holy Name on beads, but do you know how Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj would chant the Holy Name? In those days, people did not have furnaces and electric current to burn dead bodies, and they would burn them on an open pyre. So, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj would pick some cloth left from a dead body, tear it into strips and tie some knots and chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra with that—"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare" on one knot, and then "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare" on the next knot, and so on. He would stay near the cremation ghat in Nabadwip (you know that there are many workers and other people sit around near the ghat, and Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj would stay like one of them, he would drink alcohol, country liquor (chullu), smoke tobacco, eat pan, etc. At some point, he made some hut with banana leaves and would go there to sleep at night. One time, some boys hear a female voice coming from that hut, and they thought, "Who does this sadhu speak to at night? He must be spending his nights with some girl!" They decided to stay near the hut and guard to see the girl when she comes out. They guarded in this way one day, two days, three days, but they never saw anyone enter the hut but still heard Babaji Maharaj speak to somebody—they could hear some girl's voice. After that, they decided to break into the hut and get to the bottom of it anyhow. When they did that, they saw that Babaji Maharaj was sitting and chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Babaji Maharaj did not care his hut had been broken—he was not conscious of it (who broke it, what broke—he did not think of anything). The boys saw there was nobody inside and they were greatly puzzled. Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj is Srimati Radharani's own, Her dear associate, so he would talk to Her. This Nabadwip Dham is non-different from Vrindavan Dham, the amorous pastimes of Krishna and Radharani take place here eternally. Fallen and low souls like us cannot see it, but some fortunate souls can see that.

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