SRI NABADWIP DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

Koladwip (Pada-sevanam: serving the lotus feet of the Lord)

Sri Praudha Maya

Having paid our obeisance to Sri Vrddha Sivji Maharaj, we have now come from his temple to the temple of Sri Praudha Maya, or Yogamaya, at Paramatala. Maya is a potency of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna; she manifests herself in two ways, as Yogamaya and Mahamaya. Yogamaya serves the Lord in His eternal abode, and Mahamaya serves the Lord in this material world. As we offer our obeisances at this temple of Sri Yogamaya, we should remember what was spoken earlier in relation to Simantadwip:

One day in Satya-yuga, Sivji Maharaj started dancing, chanting the Holy Name of Gauranga. Seeing his state, Parvati Devi (Sivji Maharaj’s spouse) asked him, ‘Why are you always calling out, “O Gauranga! O Gauranga!”? Who is this Gauranga? When I see you dance and hear the Name of Gauranga, it is melting my heart. I am thinking that whatever mantras, tantras, etc. I have heard before, it is all garbage for the soul! Tell me about Gauranga. I can feel that if I serve Him, I will gain life.’

Hearing Parvati’s words, Mahadev said, ‘As you are the primaeval energy, part of Sri Radha, I will tell you everything openly. In Kali-yuga, Krishna will take Radha’s heart and halo and appear in a village called Mayapur. Intoxicated with the joy of kirtan, He will distribute the jewel of transcendental love to everyone without any discrimination. Remembering the promise of the Lord makes me feel overwhelmed with transcendental love. Unable to steady my mind, I left Kashi and came to Mayapur, where I then decided to worship Gauranga in a small hut on the bank of the Ganges.’

Hearing Sivji Maharaj’s words, Parvati Devi came to Simantadwip and started meditating on Sri Gauranga’s form. As she chanted and chanted the Holy Name of Gauranga, transcendental love sprang up in her heart. She could no longer control her mind. In the end, Gaura appeared in front of her together with His devotees. He asked her, ‘Parvati, what do you want? Why have you come here?’

Anxiously, Parvati Devi offered her obeisance at the Lord’s holy lotus feet and spoke in reply, ‘Prabhu, You are the life and soul of the world, you my Prananath, the Master of my very being. You are bestowing Your mercy, love and affection all over the world, but You are so cruel to me! You have given me such a cruel service: I am to bind the souls who are averse to you. I am doing what You told me to do, but I myself am cheated out of Your mercy! People say that wherever there is Krishna, there is no place for Maya (Maya cannot stay there): I have become completely separated from You. When and how will I be able to see Your pastimes? If You do not tell me how to reach You, I will lose all hope.’ Saying this, Parvati took some dust from the holy feet of Gauranga and rubbed it onto the parting of her hair (simanta). From that time, this place became known as Simantadwip, although ignorant people still call it Simuliya-gram.

In reply to Parvati’s words, Mahaprabhu said, ‘Parvati, you are My non-different energy. You are the Mistress of the whole world, and you always stay with Me. You have two forms: by your intrinsic nature, you are My Radhika, and externally, you are an expansion of Radha. My pastimes are not possible without you. You are always present in My pastimes as Yogamaya. In Vraja, you perform your eternal pastimes as Paurnamasi, and in Nabadwip, you live with Ksetrapal (the guardian of the dham) Sivji Maharaj as Praudha Maya.’ Saying this, Mahaprabhu disappeared.

Ever since that time, always keeping these words in her heart, Parvati Devi has been staying as Simantini Devi in Simantadwip and as Praudha Maya in Mayapur.

Coming here, to Praudha Maya, we, lowly and fallen conditioned souls, very carefully pay our obeisance at her holy lotus feet and submit our prayer to her, begging that she may one day shower her mercy upon us and that she may, removing all material dirt and attachment from us, give us the right to enter the domain of devotion to the Lord and attain service to the Lord’s devotees.

Lord Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (7.14):

daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te

‘My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me.’

‘I have created Maya, and you cannot overcome her. What is the way out though? When one surrenders to My feet (when one comes and falls at My feet), I gradually rescue this surrendered soul from Maya. When one becomes My devotee and surrenders to Me, Maya Devi will see, “My Master, my Creator, has come,” and she will gradually run away from them.’ To overcome Maya, the illusory environment, you must always keep good, saintly association. There is no other way to defeat the illusory environment except through sadhu-sanga:

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya
sadhu-guru krpa bina na dekhi upaya

‘It is impossible to conquer illusory environment and break free from it. I see no other way to get relief except by sadhus’ mercy.’

On the one hand, we come to Maya and always humbly pray to her for her mercy; on the other hand, we must always remember one thing: Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad declared a totalitarian war against Maya, so we must always be very careful not to ever compromise with Maya.

We will not be here in this world for a long time. This is no news. If I live for one hundred years but do not do anything during this time (do not show kindness to jiva souls, do not think about other jiva souls, do not serve my gurudev and the Lord), if I only live selfishly (eating fancy food, wearing fancy clothes, sleeping on a fancy bed), then living for a hundred years is the same as not living at all – such a life is inauspicious, useless; there is no value in such a life and it is better not to live for these hundred years at all then. But if I live only forty years but during these forty years I think about other jiva souls, about the Lord, about Vaishnavs and devotees, then albeit only forty years, this life is successful. We should not judge others. We should first see our own faults. The problem is that we cannot see it. Vaishnavs are adosa-darasi (they never see faults in others), but we are so deeply conditioned that, bound by the illusory environment, we always only try to find faults in others, we never think what faults we have inside us.

As long as we are alive in this world, if we can do some service to the Lord, guru, and Vaishnavs, then our life will be successful; and even if we live for only a few days, such a life will be successful – we can truly reach the Lord.

We always say ‘surrender’, ‘surrender’, but how many of us have truly surrendered to the Lord and gurudev? Instead of serving our guru, we only pretend that we have taken initiation. We become guru-bhogi and guru-tyagi (we use our guru or reject our guru), but we cannot become guru-sevi, servants of our guru. We have been spending our lives on pursuing our own interests, living for ourselves, worrying about our own welfare, about money and other things, but we never think about other souls, about how other souls can get some spiritual benefit.

When somebody takes initiation from me, I must remember that I am not doing a favour to this person; rather, this person is doing me a favour by taking initiation from me. When disciples came and offered their obeisances to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he would say, ‘Daso ‘smi. I am your servant.’ But we have all become ‘masters’ now – everybody has become ‘prabhu’ and ‘maharaj’. If somebody does not pay obeisance to us, we become angry and our ego hurts, ‘Oh, I have taken sannyas, but nobody pays obeisance to me! Nobody calls me maharaj!’ This ego and pride come to our minds, but this is not Vaishnavism, brother! Vaishnav culture is something completely different:

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha varjjana
chari-gune guni hai karaha kirtana

‘Humility, compassion, honouring others and giving up your own prestige – become enriched with these four qualities and chant the Lord’s Holy Name and glories.’

It is necessary to be humble. It is necessary to be kind. We must give honour to others. These qualities must always be there in us. We do not need to become big. What did Mahaprabhu say?

na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad-bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

‘O Supreme Lord (Master of the Universe, Jagadisvar)! I do not desire any wealth (religion, money or material desires), any followers (wife, sons, servants or maidservants) or material knowledge (beautiful poetry). My only prayer is that I may birth after birth have pure devotion to You, devoid of seeking any result.’

Explaining this sloka, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote in one of his kirtans:

dhana jana ara, kavita sundari,
baliba na chahi deha-sukha-kari
janme janme dao, ohe gaura-hari,
ahaituki bhakti charane tomara

‘When will I say that I do not want any wealth, followers, poetic gift or any other bodily happiness? O Gaura-hari! Birth after birth, please give me unconditional devotion to Your holy feet!’

We can see that outside people (the jiva souls who are averse to Krishna) come to the Lord and pray, ‘Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, bharyam dehi, kavitam sundarim dehi. Make me rich, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a wife, make me a great poet.’ People want this all the time. Brahmans recite such ‘give me’ mantras, people also say this and think about this all the time, but whatever will be will be (whatever is written in your destiny, this is what will happen). You think that you are happy sleeping in a ten-storey building, but you can feel even more happiness sleeping on the bare ground.

Look at Mahaprabhu’s teachings. When Krishna was in Dvaraka, He was fanned by His queens, He lay leisurely on a royal bed, but when this same Supreme Lord came in Kali-yuga as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and took sannyas, He slept on dry banana leaves on the ground! How much austerity He had to undergo when He preached in this world – for our sake!

Therefore, we must always glorify the Lord, we must always chant the Lord’s Names. You must always rely completely on the Lord. Always think about the Lord – you must always give up your own happiness and enjoyment. Do not surrender to Maya. If you surrender to the Lord, you will be gainers. We all live in the world of Maya and spend our days and nights in the bondage of illusory environment, submitting and surrendering ourselves to illusion, Maya. Why is it necessary to do that?

Our message is one: ‘Krishna bala, sange chala! Ei matra bhiksa chai. Chant “Krishna”, come with us. This is all we beg you for.’ We pray to you that wherever you stay, whatever you do, if you can amidst all that, at the back of your mind, serve the Lord, serve your guru, engage yourself in the glorification of the Lord, guru and Vaishnavs, if you can glorify the qualities of the guru and Vaishnavs, then you will get supreme benefit; otherwise, you will have to keep coming and going in this material world. ‘Nitai charana na bhajila yaoya-asa sara haila. You have not worshipped Nitai, so all you did is just come and go in vain.’

We must always remember this. If we genuinely want to practise Krishna consciousness, we must leave all illusory environment, we must leave all material attachments and enter the domain of devotion, accepting the advise of Sri Guru and Vaishnavs in our hearts. Moreover, we are doing this parikrama now, but we must think: are we doing the parikrama of Maya or are we doing the parikrama of the holy dham? Watch out!

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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