At Sri Hari-Hara Ksetra

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Three
Sri Godrumdwip, 26 March 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace chants 'Ohe Vaisnava Thakura'.]

We have come here, Sri Hari-Hara Ksetra, as a result of a great fortune. I will chant one more kirtan just now. Hari-Hara means the Lord united with Lord Siva. You have seen the Deity here: one side is black and the other side is white. I will tell you why it is like this.

[His Divine Grace chants 'Tumi sarvesvaresvara vrajendra-kumara'.]

tumi sarvesvaresvara vrajendra-kumara
tomara ichchhaya visve srjana samhara [1]

'You are the Lord of Lords, Vrajendra Kumar! By Your will, creation and annihilation take place within the universe.'

tava ichchha-mata brahma karena srjana
tava ichchha-mata visnu karena palana [2]

'By Your will, Brahma creates the universe; by Your will, Visnu maintains the universe.'

tava ichchha-mata siva karena samhara
tava ichchha-mate maya srje karagara [3]

'By Your will, Siva annihilates the universe; by Your will, Maya creates her prison house.'

tava ichchha-mata jivera janama-marana
samrddhi-nipata-duhkha-sukha-samghatana [4]

'By Your will, the souls take birth and die; by Your will, they experience prosperity and ruin, happiness and distress.'

michhe maya-baddha jiva asapase phire
tava ichchha bina kichhu karite na pare [5]

'Bound by Maya, the souls uselessly wander about; unless it is Your will, they are not able to do anything.'

tumi ta' raksaka ara palaka amara
tomara charana bina asa nahi ara [6]

'You are my protector and maintainer; I aspire for nothing other than Your feet.'

nija-bala-chesta prati bharasa chhadiya
tomara ichchhaya achhi nirbhara kariya [7]

'I give up relying on my own strength and effort; I depend upon Your will.'

bhakativinoda ati dina akinchana
tomara ichchhaya ta'ra jivana marana [8]

'Bhaktivinod is very poor and detached; whether he lives or dies, it is up to You.'

Everything happens by the wish of the Lord--death, birth, happiness, prosperity, unhappiness and sadness. If we think in this way, there will be no happiness, no pain in our lives. By the wish of the Lord, one is born, and by the wish of the Lord, one dies. By the wish of the Lord, one becomes rich, and by the wish of the Lord, all wealth becomes destroyed. Sometimes, happiness can come, and sometimes, unhappiness can also come. Everything happens by His wish.

By the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma, continuing our parikrama of Sri Godrumdwip, we have now come to this Sri Hari-Hara Ksetra, and there is a very ancient story related to this place.

One time, a great sage and yogi Durvasa Muni was walking down the street when he suddenly met King Indradev. Durvasa Muni wanted to give his blessing to the king of demigods, so he took the garland from his neck and gave it to the king. However, Indradev, intoxicated with his ego and opulence, gave that garland to his elephant Airavat. Seeing the king's insolence, Durvasa Muni cursed him, 'May you lose all your opulence along with the three worlds!'

Having heard about that incident and feeling very happy about it, demons declared a war against demigods. Demigods lost the war and had to flee from heaven. They all went to Brahma and started praying and crying to him. Brahma then came with demigods to the shore of the ocean of milk and offered praise and prayers to the Lord; pleased with the praise offered by all the demigods headed by Brahma, Ksirodasayi Visnu appeared and advised them to negotiate a clever truce with demons and churn the ocean of milk (using Mandar Hill as the churning rod and Vasuki, the king of snakes, as the rope) to get nectar that would grant them immortality. The Lord also warned them against showing greed or fighting for anything else that would come out of that churning.

So, following the Lord's advice, demigods declared a truce with demons. Then, they went to Mandar Hill and offered demons to churn the ocean of milk together to get the nectar that would make them immortal. Demons agreed. Demigods and demons worked so hard churning the ocean that many demigods and demons actually died as a result of their intense labour, but the supremely merciful Lord came and brought them back to life. Because Mandar Hill floated in the ocean, it was impossible to churn the ocean; so, the Lord appeared as Kurmadev (a tortoise) and, entering the water, held Mandar on His back. After that, many things appeared from the churned ocean, but first there was poison. Seeing the poison coming out, everyone got scared, but demigods came to Lord Sivji Maharaj and prayed to him for help. Sivji Maharaj mercifully came to the place and drank all poison: as a result, his throat turned blue and since that time he has been famous as Nilakantha. Although Lord Siva drank the poison, some drops of poison got scattered around, and when those drops fell on the ground, they entered the bodies of snakes, scorpions, poisonous trees, plants, etc. Having got rid of the poison, demigods and demons continued churning the ocean. Next, Surabhi Cow appeared. Demigods took her to perform fire sacrifices (cows give milk that can be turned into ghee, butter, etc.). After that, a horse named Uchchaihsrava came out. Bali Maharaj took it. Then, so many other auspicious gifts came out: the kaustubha jewel, the parijata flower, apsaras (angels), Laksmi Devi, and so on. Demigods took everything. In the end, the Lord appeared as a man named Dhanvantari and brought nectar. Seeing the pot with nectar, demons decided not to lose time: they snatched the pot and quickly ran away. However, then demons started fighting among themselves, unable to decide who would drink it first. Demigods were shocked to see their boastful vanity: they went again to Visnu and started praying. Without saying anything to them in reply, Visnu assumed the form of an extremely beautiful enticing young girl, Mohini. Coming to demons, Mohini cast some illusion on them, and all demons completely fell for Her unbelievable beauty. The Lord, in the form of Mohini, understood that demons had become weak, so She agreed to divide the nectar among them. However, demons were so blindly drawn to her beautiful form that they did not notice that the Lord had cheated them: the Lord gave all nectar to demigods! Foolish demons were so bewildered that they did not even notice anything.

Some time before that, Sivji Maharaj was once thinking about the Lord and prayed, 'Prabhu, please show me some of Your pastimes. I want to see your miraculous form and beauty.' So, when the Supreme Lord Sri Visnu appeared as Mohini, He decided to test Sivji Maharaj.

When Krishna suddenly appeared as Mohini after the churning of the ocean, He answered Sivji Maharaj's prayer and appeared before him, playing with a ball. Seeing this amazingly gorgeous girl, Sivji Maharaj felt completed charmed and ran after Her.

Seeing him run, everyone said, 'Oh my, why is this sadhu running behind a girl? Has he gone mad?'

Parvati (Lord Siva's spouse) also said, 'Oh my, where are you going, my husband?! I am your wife!'

What wife! Sivji Maharaj gave up everything and could not hear anything. In the end, he managed to catch Mohini, and when he embraced Her, the beautiful girl turned into Krishna and their bodies merged into one: one part is Hari, and the other part is Hara. The place where it happened became known as Sri Hari-Hara Ksetra.

By a great fortune and mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma and all the guru-varga, we have come here today and have got an opportunity to remember this miraculous pastime of the Lord.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay. Sri Hari-Hara Ksetra ki jay.

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