SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

Afterword

Yesterday we completed our Ratha-yatra festival. By the mercy of our gurudev and Vaishnavs we have completed this festival very beautifully and smoothly. You have come here tolerating much austerity, but one cannot come to the Lord without austerity. The great goswamis spent their whole lives staying beneath trees, and you, too, have come to the temple for a few days and had to stay in a pandal, tolerating rain falling on your heads and taking prasad like paupers. Still, everyone is alive, are they not? As Guru Maharaj often said, people die because of food – nobody dies because of a lack of food. You eat whatever you want at home, but during these past few days that you have spent here, you have had to struggle for the Lord, taking the Lord's prasad. This is actually great fortune.

Why do we come on a pilgrimage? Do we have the eyes to climb atop Lord Jagannath’s chariot to have His darshan? We do not have the eyes to see the Lord, but if you come here during Ratha-yatra, the Lord can see you. Besides, is the Lord only on His chariot? Do you think that the Lord is only on His chariot or only in His temple? He is present everywhere, in the whole universe – He is present even in all the hellish planets (Atal, Vital, Sutal, Talatal, Mahatal, Rasatal, Patal).

Many think, ‘Oh, I did not manage to see the Lord on His chariot yesterday, so I will go and see Him today.’ Do we have the eyes to do that, tell me? One day, a sannyasi said to Param Guru Maharaj, ‘Maharaj, I went to Hapaniya to see the Deities.’ Param Guru Maharaj replied, ‘To see the Deities? My dear, you may have eyes to see Them, but I do not.’ We must realise that we do not have the genuine ability to see. We have eyes in our hearts – if we can listen about the Lord and keep what we hear within our hearts, then we can have His darshan even while we are sitting here. If you come in front of Lord Jagannath’s chariot, Lord Jagannath certainly can see you – if you have a very strong, earnest hankering. If the eyes in your hearts are not blind – if the eyes in your hearts are clean – then you can have the darshan of Lord Jagannath even when you are sitting here.

Our Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, would never usually go to the Ratha-yatra precession itself, mixing with the crowd. He would come there very few times, maybe only once or twice. Sometimes, he said, ‘Just look at how many people come for parikrama – even if you try to count them, you will never be able to reach the end.’ Countless people come to Puri – some come for entertainment, some come to earn some piety. People rent hotel rooms and do many wrong things; people come to Puri on a trip and eat meat and drink alcohol here. They contaminate the holy place and leave. But why do you, Vaishnavs, come here? Even a holy place wants and waits, ‘Please come! Come to me and chant the Lord’s Names, then I will again become pure.’ That is why I always tell you to chant kirtan – when you come to a holy place, you must chant kirtan there.

If you come to a holy place for eye exercise, then you will not get anything spiritual. It will only be an offence. I never wish you any harm. ‘A guru is not a guru if he cannot bring you to the genuine path.’

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 Gaura visited during His pastimes.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

I took you to all the places where Mahaprabhu went, nowhere else.

Some of you could not enter the Gundicha temple, but what is the problem? You can sweep outside, you can pay your obeisances outside. There is no need to become upset – you can pay your obeisances from far; that is sufficient. It is not necessary to come close because it is necessary to do service and to stay alive – otherwise, it is no use if you go inside that crowd and only damage your body.

This is how you must behave. Everybody says, ‘Hari bol! Hari bol!’ but devotion to the Lord is all about faith, devotion and deep hankering. People run after money, wealth, cars and houses, but how long will you be in this world? You came here empty-handed, and you will have to leave empty-handed, too. Do not eat too much (atyahara), do not hoard things (prayascha), do not talk too much or listen to gossips (prajalpa), accept what is favourable to devotion, reject what is unfavourable to devotion (niyamagraha), give up greed (laulancha) and bad association (jana-sanghancha).

Coming for this parikrama, you should pray to Lord Jagannath, ‘O Jagannath! Please be merciful to me! Please forgive me!’ We make so many offences, we do so many wrong things – it is necessary to ask the Lord forgiveness. The Lord is very merciful, very gracious, but if we do not follow our guru, if we do not understand who the Lord is, then we will not be able to understand anything. Therefore, without Lord Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy, without Sri Gurupadpadma’s mercy, we will not be able to understand anything.

How did Nityananda Prabhu bestow His mercy? He could beat! But if you, on the other hand, get scolded, you will say, ‘I do not need such a guru! I want a guru who will love me.’ What is love?

What is children’s love like? When the father is leaving to go to work, the child cries, ‘I want to come with you!’ The child does not understand that his father is going to work, so he starts disturbing him. What does the father do? He gives his child a chocolate or a toy to distract him – the child immediately forgets about him, and the father leaves home. It is the same when it comes to us and the Lord. If you ask the Lord for cars, houses, money and other things, the Lord will give you everything – He will make you forget Him and leave.

So, by the mercy of our Gurupadpadma, we have visited all the places. Jagannath is the master (nath) of the world (jagat) – you can get His mercy just by uttering His Name. Some think, ‘Oh, I stood so far away!’ Some think, ‘And I have climbed the chariot!’, ‘I have done this’, ‘I have done that’ – all this is not the point. Lord Jagannath could see you, and He knows from how far you have come to Sri Puri Dham to get His mercy. If we can get Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s mercy, we will be able to get Krishna’s mercy and Lord Jagannath’s mercy.

hena nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna paite nai,
drdha kari dhara nitaira paya

‘Brother, it is not possible to come to Radha-Krishna without this Nitai. Firmly grasp Nitai’s feet!’

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

It is necessary to hold firmly onto Nitai’s feet! We have got this human birth having crossed so many other births and species.

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

‘Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

Having travelling throughout the whole universe, if some fortunate soul gets, by the guru’s and Lord Krishna’s mercy, the seed of the devotional creeper – and if they can take care of this seed properly and nurture it into a kalpa-vriksa (a wish-fulfilling tree) – then their life is successful. Those who have got Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy attain Lord Krishna’s mercy. You must remember this.

Another thing is that if you want to become devotees, you must first become devotees’ servants. We do not come to the temple or to this line to become devotees – we must become servants of devotees. Remember this. We are not to become Vaishnavs – we have come here to become Vaishnavs’ servants, or slaves.

Who has the most devotion? Vraja-gopis. But what do Vraja-gopis say? It is a very important matter, listen carefully and try to understand it. Gopis say, ‘We do not have any devotion to Krishna! We do not have the kind of devotion that Prahlad Maharaj has (his devotion was so great that Krishna even appeared as Nrisinghadev!). When will we have that kind of devotion in our lives?’ They have so much devotion, but they themselves say that they do not have any devotion.

The symptom of a devotee is that they will never say, ‘I have become a Vaishnav!’ or ‘I have become a devotee’, ‘I have become something big’ – a genuine Vaishnav thinks, ‘I have no qualification, I am not fit. I am a lowly, fallen soul.’ We sing in one of the kirtans also, ‘I find no quality or qualification within me – your mercy is everything (yogyata vichare kichhu nahi pai, tomara karuna sara).’ We must always remember this. ‘I have nothing, I have nothing to give. O Lord, if only I could become a speck of dust at the holy feet of Your devotee, that is sufficient for me. I do not want to be anything big.’

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami

‘If I think, “I am a Vaishnav”, then I will never stop desiring honour.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If we consider ourselves Vaishnavs, we will not be able to give honour to others. All we need to do is serve. ‘I have become a guru, so everybody must serve me’ – this is a wrong conception. Mahaprabhu taught with His own example: although He is the Supreme Lord Himself, He personally did service, and He preached about the Holy Name wherever He went. He is the Lord, so He could just sit in His own abode (like Lord Narayan does), but my Gaura-hari, my Lord practised Himself and went everywhere distributing His Holy Names.

Who can chant kirtan? Who has the right to do it?

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha varjana
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.’

(Sri Gitavali, Sri Siksastaka Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to become humble. It is necessary to have compassion for others. It is necessary to give honour to others and to get rid of the desire for name, fame and recognition – it is not necessary to earn a good name, fame or anything.

Why do we come to a holy place? To serve the holy place. How should you serve a holy place? Not by coming to a holy place and sleeping and gossiping there. Of course, you get sleepy, so you must sleep, but you must primarily listen to kirtan and classes, you must come to have the darshan of the Lord during His arati. We do not come here as tourists. We come here to serve the holy place.

tirtha-yatra-parisrama, kevala manera bhrama,
sarva-siddhi govinda-charana

‘The trouble of travelling to holy places is simply a delusion because all possible perfection is at Lord Govinda’s feet.’

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur also wrote very beautifully:

mana, tumi tirthe sada rata
ayodhya, mathura, maya, kasi, kanchi, avantiya,
dvaravati ara achhe yata [1]

‘O mind! You are always attached to places of pilgrimage – Ayodhya, Mathura, Maya, Kasi (Varanasi), Kanchipuram, Avantiya, Dvaraka and so many other places.’

tumi chaha bhramibare, e sakala bare bare,
mukti-labha karibara tare
se kevala tava bhrama, nirarthaka parisrama,
chitta sthira tirthe nahi kare [2]

‘You want to travel to all these places again and again to get liberation, but this is only your illusion and a waste of energy – even when you go there, you still cannot focus your restless heart.’

tirtha-phala sadhu-sanga, sadhu-sange antaranga,
sri-krsna-bhajana manohara
yatha sadhu, tatha tirtha, sthira kari’ nija chitta,
sadhu-sanga kara nirantara [3]

‘The result of visiting a place of pilgrimage is association with pure devotees and becoming exclusively drawn to the service to Sri Krishna. A place of pilgrimage is where a pure devotee is. Always keep pure devotees’ association and firmly fix your mind.’

ye tirthe vaisnava nai, se tirthete nahi yai,
ki labha hantiya dura-desa
yathaya vaisnava-gana, sei sthana vrndavana,
sei sthane ananda asesa [4]

‘I never go to a place of pilgrimage if there is no Vaishnav in that place – what is the use walking so far? Vrindavan is where Vaishnavs are – in such places, there is no end of joy.’

krsna-bhakti yei sthane, mukti-dasi sei-khane,
salila tathaya mandakini
giri tatha govardhana, bhumi tatha vrndavana,
avirbhuta apani hladini [5]

‘In the place where there is devotion to Krishna, liberation serves as a maidservant, all water is Mandakini, all mountains are Govardhan, and all land is Vrindavan. The internal energy of the Lord automatically appears there on her own.’

vinoda kahichhe bhai, bhramiya ki phala pai,
vaisnava-sevana mora vrata [6]

‘Vinod says, “Brother, what do I get by roaming all these places? My sole vow is service to Vaishnavs.”’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘I do not have money, food and a nice place to sleep in’ – these are all trifle interests. Guru Maharaj often said, ‘If you want to get great things, you must give up small things.’ Why do we waste our chance to get great things because of some trifles? You can have the greatest attainment – you can come back to where you are from. You must come back to your home! We keep floundering in this ocean of material existence that Maya Devi threw us into, but how can we get out of it? Thrown into this ocean of material life, we have been born as goats, cats, cows and other species before – we have been born in all kinds of countries – but in this birth, by some fortune, we managed to come to a guru. When Mahaprabhu came to His guru’s holy feet, He said,

‘samsara-samudra haite uddharaha more
ei ami deha samarpilana tomare’

‘Please rescue Me from this ocean of material existence! I am surrendering Myself to you.’

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 1.17.54)

You have come to do this parikrama together with sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs. You can become rescued from this ocean of material life – come, come back to the Lord, to your own home! The Lord is calling you, He is looking for you, for His lost children. Come back to your Father’s home. This is the reason why we come to do parikrama together with sadhus, chanting Krishna-kirtan.

You will go back to your homes soon, and everybody will look at you with sad eyes and ask, ‘Uncle (Father/Mother/etc.), what have you brought for me from Puri?’ What have come to take from here? Krishna-prema! But they do not understand this. Children do not understand what Krishna-prema is – they understand only food and things. We, too, are like children – we always fight over money, food and clothes. I have seen that some people worried about themselves so much that they could not even sleep at night.

kabe jive daya, haibe udaya,
nija sukha bhuli’ sudina-hrdaya

‘When will compassion for all souls arise within me? When will I forget my own happiness and become most humble at heart?’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must throw away our own happiness and think about others. ‘It does not matter if I have to suffer as long as others do not experience any trouble’ – this is what is called compassion (daya). We must always think about this.

nijera posana, kabhu na bhaviba,
rahiba bhavera bhare

‘I will never think about my own maintenance, and I will always remain in the shelter of loving attachment to You.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘I will not think about myself. I will think only good thoughts.’ It is not necessary to worry about anything. If you think about the Lord, the Lord will arrange everything for You, He will take care of everything. There is no need to worry about anything.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

The grand procession of Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladev and Lady Subhadra.

The King of Odisha sweeping the chariot.

His Divine Grace joyfully greeting Lord Jagannath.

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Sri Puri Dham – during an evening class.

Devotees honouring Lord Jagannath's prasadam.

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CONTENTS