Surrender Your Mind

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day One
Evening class, 23 March 2021, part 7
Translated from Bengali

You must think how you will get devotion. There are sixty-four limbs of devotion—if you practise them, this is how devotion comes. We go for the dham-parikrama, fast on ekadasi, offer arati at the temple, circumambulate the temple, chant kirtans, etc.—these are all limbs of devotion. You can get the (Bengali) Calendars, you will see all this written in them, you can see also where and which festivals are held at the temple. When I wake up in the morning, I always look in the Calendar to see whose appearance or disappearance it is today. If you cannot make a festival on some day, at least give 'jay' to the Vaishnav and remember them. There is an appearance day of Srila Jiva Goswami, there is a disappearance day of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami. Even when I do not see these days, I still remember them—I leaf through the Calendar and see what is in it...

We must practise Krishna consciousness in this way.

We will go by bus tomorrow in the same way as we did today. We will get off the buses at the bridge and start the parikrama of Koladwip. First, we will go to the temple of Vriddha (or Buro) Siva. It is a very old Deity of Lord Siva. Mahaprabhu came there. All the places where we go were visited by Mahaprabhu Himself.

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."

We will do this parikrama together with the devotees. We will visit all the places where Gaura served and worshipped the Lord.

After Vriddha Siva's temple we will go to Prauddha Maya, and from there we will go to offer obeisance at the house of Vishnupriya Devi where she stayed and worshipped Mahaprabhu's Deity. After that, we will go to the samadhi-mandir of Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj. There is a field nearby, and we will arrange for prasadam there. After taking prasadam, the buses will be waiting there—we will come back here, to the temple, by buses again. Everybody must try to go for the parikrama. First surrender, then go. If you think, "Oh, I cannot walk," "Oh, I cannot go," "I cannot do this", "I cannot do that," etc. then you will not be able to do anything. This is in your mind. The cure is in the mind. When Mahaprabhu asked Srila Haridas Thakur, "What is your disease?" Srila Haridas Thakur replied, "My body is not sick, it is my mind that is sick." If you are lying and thinking, "Oh, I am so tired, I will not go tomorrow," then that will happen. You must think, "No, I must go! Whatever danger, whatever obstacle comes I will go for the parikrama of the holy dham." We must always remember this.

When we were on the parikrama today, we did not have time to sit at some places and say everything we could. For example, we have been today to the house of Srila Srivas Pandit, but we did not have time to say everything there. Do you know what happened there one time? Because some naughty people harassed Srivas Pandit, he would close his door and do kirtan inside with the doors closed so that people did not disturb him. What did the outside people do? When Srivas Pandit closed his door and was chanting kirtan, naughty people would eat meat, fish, drink liquor and throw the bones and bottles in front of Srivas Pandit's house so that people would see it in the morning and say, "Look at this sadhu, he is chanting the Holy Name and eats meat, fish, etc.!" Srivas Pandit tolerated everything, he did not say anything to anyone. Rather, he would tell others, "Look at me, look how bad I am! How vile I am! I chant kirtan and drink liquor at night! I am so bad, I do such bad things." Others were upset thinking, "Who could have done this?" Who did that? Actually, he who did it got the result for it within three days—his name is Chapal Gopal. He got leprosy in three days after that—insects (bugs and worms) started living in his body. One day, when Mahaprabhu was going to bathe in the Ganges, Chapal Gopal saw Him and said, "Prabhu, You rescue everyone—will You not rescue me? Will You keep me suffering?" Mahaprabhu was very angry, He said, "You have made an offence at the lotus feet of Srivas! You will suffer hellish misery for millions of births. You will be an offender for ten million births!" Saying this, Mahaprabhu left. When Mahaprabhu took sannyas and came back to Kuliya, Chapal Gopal again came to Mahaprabhu's lotus feet. Mahaprabhu said, "I cannot forgive your offence. You have made an offence at the lotus feet of Srivas, so you must go to him and ask him for forgiveness."

So, when we make an offence to any Vaishnav, if we do not ask that Vaishnav for forgiveness, our offence will never be forgiven. So, if you make an offence to any Vaishnav, you must go to that Vaishnav and ask them for forgiveness. We sing in one of the kirtans also,

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare harinama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahiko edana

"If somebody offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers them, but if somebody offends you, they have no way to be saved."

— : • : —

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

• Listen to the audio or download (2.4 Mb, 6 min)