“What Can Make You Faint?” Sripad Paramananda Prabhu. 4 July 2016. Gupta Govardhan. Disappearance of Srila Gadadhar Pandit and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur



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Sripad Paramananda Prabhu 

What Can Make You Faint?

(4 July 2016. Gupta Govardhan)

Disappearance of Srila Gadadhar Pandit and Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

 

Intimate and very important day for Gaudiya Vaishnavas—the disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. Харидаси понимает по-английски. Я буду периодически переходить на русский язык по мере возможности, просто мы большинством голосов [решили говорить по-английски]. So, disappearance day of Gadadhar Pandit Goswami and Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakura. One time we heard from Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj about how Swami Maharaj, when he first time came after he went to the West and that he returned to India, so, he came with his disciples to India for the first time. So, he brought his western disciples and among those disciples was a devotee named Achyutananda Das. So, they went straight to Guru Maharaja’s Math and even though they were greeted by another party from Keshava Maharaj, Bhakti Prajan Keshava Maharaj’s Math, Srila Swami Maharaj he chose Guru Maharaj’s Math for his place of residence while he was in Navadwip.

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So, at that time Srila Guru Maharaj and Srila Swami Maharaj were engaged in a very long and deep conversations behind closed doors, and of course Srila Swami Maharaj disciples were wondering what is going on and what are they talking about they were very curious the first time in India it’s the first time to see Srila Guru Maharaja, Srila Swami Maharaj’s godbrothers and been exposed to the culture of Vaishnavism in the land of Vaishnavism. So, after Srila Swami Maharaj left Guru Maharaj’s Math his disciples Achyutananda Prabhu, he approached him and he was very curious so he asked very sincerely, “So, Srila Swami Maharaj Prabhupada, can you tell us what you’ve been talking about with Srila Sridhar Maharaj?” And then Srila Swami Maharaj he commented that Srila Sridhar Maharaj is a very, very advanced Vaishnava and he had a very deep realizations about Krishna consciousness.

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“And if I would tell you what we were discussing with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, you will faint.” That was the answer of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Swami Maharaj. But we should remember that fainting is not fainting that we are thinking about losing our consciousness like someone feeling disease and then suddenly they’re just on the floor and someone needs to give some medicine to them, it’s not like that. In this case fainting means unable to maintain your consciousness on this plane. But actually, entering deeper experiencing deeper spiritual reality that’s what it was meant to be. And Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj he heard about it of course, every disciple of Swami Maharaj heard about this case and no one pushed it further, no one asked but yes, but: “Prabhupad, can you please tell us what you were talking about? Even though we will faint, it’s all right, we want to know.” Nobody asked that.

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But Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj, he was very curious, he said and he maintained that curiosity, he really wanted to know what it was all about. Not out of just pure mundane curiosity but he wanted to hear that nectar at least some hints of what was the discussion about. Out of spiritual curiosity so he said that, one day he decided to ask and he was preparing for that moment, he was waiting for that particular moment, when Srila Guru Maharaj would be available for that kind of question. And he said, at that time he was alone on the veranda, Guru Maharaj’s veranda, and Srila Govinda Maharaj was there with Srila Guru Maharaj and were having a light conversation. And then Goswami Maharaj said that. “I decided to ask that question and I submitted this question to Srila Guru Maharaj.” And Srila Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Goswami Maharaj, he heard that question and started laughing.

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So, he found very amusing and then Srila Guru Maharaj he also got curious what is Goswami Maharaj asking about and then Govinda Maharaj answered, “Oh, Maharaj, he wants you to make him faint.” And then Srila Goswami Maharaj, he said, “Guru Maharaj become very grave, his expression became very grave, and he chanted pranam mantram that he composed for Srila Gadadhar Pandit Goswami.” And after hearing this pranam mantra Goswami Maharaj said [that] he stumbled down from the veranda and he was practically unable to maintain consciousness because it was given to him chanted with such spiritual force that, it’s entered forcefully it centered his heart. And for the moment he experienced that high reality and he experienced what means to faint when you hear something like that. So that was Gadadhar Pandits pranam mantra.

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And then Srila Goswami Maharaj regaining his consciousness he went back to veranda and then he saw that Guru Maharaj and Srila Gurudev, they’re engaged in a very light conversation like nothing happened, they just keep going with their conversation talking about something. And then Goswami Maharaj, he said, “I realized that for them, it’s nothing special actually for them, this is the reality, they can just exchange these slokas, that can make you faint as some kind of a transcendental game, for them it is the reality. But for us it’s something that will make us faint.” Again, it requires a certain qualification to hear those slokas. Anyway, so unfortunately due to my poor memory I don’t remember that sloka but I do have it in my iPad. So, I will read it for my own purification.

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nilāmbhodhi-taṭe sadā sva-virahā-kṣepānvitaṁ bāndhavaṁ
śrīmad-bhāgavatī-kathā madirayā sañjīvayam bhāti yaḥ
śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ sadā sva-nayanāśrū-pāyanaiḥ pūjayan
goswāmi-pravaro gadādhara-vibhur-bhūyāt mad-ekā-gatiḥ

“On the shore of the broad blue ocean Gadadhar Pandit used to read Srimad-Bhagavatam to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was suffering from the great internal pain of separation from Himself [Krishna]. Gadadhar Pandit supplied the wine of Krishna-lila to intoxicate his afflicted friend and give Him relief. As he read, tears would fall from his eyes like flowered offerings onto the pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam. May the pleasure of the brilliant personality Gadadhar Pandit the best of Goswamis be my only object in writing this book?” So this verse was composed by Srila Guru Maharaj who also revealed the glories of Srila Gadadhar Pandit and his exalted spiritual position.

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So, we heard from Srila Gurudev on many occasions how he was talking about a certain Krishna-lila when Krishna is in the company of the gopies and then at some point and Lalita is there, Vishakha is there, other sakhis are there, and at some point Radharani, She decides to leave and then suddenly Krishna loses that access it that flow is not there anymore. So, He is disturbing, He goes and looking for Radharani and then He finds Radharani and then that ecstasy is coming back to Him. And after then while He decides to disappear, because He wants to see what Radharani will feel, He wants to mine Her ecstasy, He wants to see what is in the heart of Srimati Radharani and then Krishna hides Himself and He witnesses the ecstatic transformation of Radharani’s ecstasy and separation from Krishna. And then, at that moment, Srila Gurudev said, “He decides that, He wants to taste that wonderful excesses Radharani’s experiencing. So, He decides to become Srimati Radharani.”

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And when Krishna wants something, automatically Srimati Radharani exists only for Krishna’s pleasure. Your only reason is to serve Krishna. She is the best servitor. So, when She hears something like that, She offers Herself fully for that. So, Krishna, He takes Her heart and knowing Srimati Radharani knows what She is experiencing for sure, but Krishna is very curious, He doesn’t know, He wants to know, He wants to experience that and knowing that Srimati Radharani also wraps Him with Her halo. And that’s how Mahaprabhu appears. But Mahaprabhu always comes with His parshadas, His followers, and of course Srimati Radharani comes together. And She is already giving the heart to Krishna, She’s already given Her appearance for halo everything is given bhava kanti, all is given to Krishna, and Krishna changes His form of Shyam Sundar into a golden form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

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And what left that Srimati Radharani, She appears as Gadadhar Pandit in Mahaprabhu’s lila, it is very difficult to comprehend and understand, it’s actually impossible to understand, it’s a very deep spiritual conception. In fact, I am not qualified even to think about it, what to talk about, speaking about it. But at the same time, I cannot not to say anything about it because today is this very special day and on this occasion, we must glorify Srila Gadadhar Pandit, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. So, this is my duty in front of my spiritual masters. So, I’m trying to say what I heard from Srila Guru Maharaj, from Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s recordings and from Srila Goswami Maharaj and other Vaishnavas. So please forgive me I should have started from that.

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My explanation is far from being perfect and it is actually impossible to ever become perfect when we’re talking about this subject. Anyhow Gadadhar Pandit, he appears giving Srimati Radharani himself. So, we shouldn’t forget that giving, everything to Krishna giving Her heart. So Srila Guru Maharaj says that Gadadhar Pandit is like the shadow of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu whatever was taking from Srimati Radharani what left is Gadadhar Pandit and She is following, he is following Mahaprabhu wherever, he goes but maintaining respectful distance always ready to serve Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in any way possible, but there is always some distance.

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And from the history, not the history but actually reality, we hear from Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami’s Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam how Gadadhar Pandit since a very small, when he was a child, basically he had no attraction whatsoever to any mundane things, he was renounced since the beginning since very early age, he had no interest and every anything but Krishna consciousness. And we should remember that who is the source of Krishna consciousness? The source of Krishna consciousness is not Krishna. He is Krishna but who is Krishna conscious in the perfect way is Srimati Radharani. So, She is giving that Krishna consciousness. Everything is coming from Her. And so many wonderful stories we can hear, you can read it in Srimad… in Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam, how Gadadhar Pandit participated in early lilas of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. One time there was a beautiful kirtan and Hari-katha in Shuklambar Brahmachari’s house. I think it is described in Chaitanya Bhagavat or some other scripture.

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And at that time devotees were hearing this Krishna-katha and Mahaprabhu was singing beautiful kirtans, speaking about Krishna and Gadadhar Pandit was inside the house, he was hiding there again maintaining this distance. And at some point, unable to check his emotions, his ecstasy, he started crying very loudly and Mahaprabhu, He heard this crying and ask, “Who is crying? Who is crying?” And then someone came, “Oh, it’s Your Gadadhar, he’s crying, he’s right behind You, behind that wall in the house.” Also, there’s a beautiful story how Gadadhar Pandit met his Guru Pundarik Vidyanidhi. So his good friend Mukunda Datta, a very dear friend of the Gadadhar Pandit, he took him. Gadadhar Pandit ask many times that he wants to see a real Vaishnava, substantial Vaishnava, and he wanted to accept initiation from such Vaishnava. And one day Mukunda came running to Gadadhar Pandit and said, “Yes, now your desires will be fulfilled. That Vaishnava have come. Please come with me and I will introduce you to him. His name is Pundarik.”

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And before that many devotees they heard like Mahaprabhu during His ecstatic kirtans would sometime call, “Ba Pundarik! Ba Pundarik!—Father Pundarik! Father Pundarik!”, been in the mood of Srimati Radharani. But they all wondered, “Who is that Pundarik?”, because no one knew who is that Pundarik. And then on one occasion Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he was visiting Navadwip and Mukunda Datta knew him. And then he invited Gadadhar right away because Gadadhar wanted to see a pure devotee of the Lord. So, when they came, he saw Pundarik Vidyanidhi who was a very wealthy gentleman, wealthy from a spiritual point of view, no doubt about it, but also wealthy from a mundane point of view. He was traveling on a very well decorated carriage followed by the servants and he was there and, you know, there was a few servants offering him chamaras and making sure that he is very comfy and not too hot and he was smoking something, he’s smoking hookers or something. Gurudev used to come into that, anyhow so this is how Gadadhar Pundit he saw Pundarik Vidyanidhi and immediately he had some doubt, of course, we have to remember, it’s Krishna-lila, Mahaprabhu’s lila so everything has the reason everything is serving the purpose of lila.

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So, he had some… he felt some doubts about the qualification of Pundarik Vidyanidhi and then he expressed those doubts to Mukunda and then Mukunda looked at Gadadhar and he said, “No, no, no, don’t pay attention to this external manifestation but watch this.” And then he started reciting a very intimate verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam describing Vrindavan-lila of Krishna and then upon hearing those verses Pundarik Vidyanidhi went into ecstatic trance. He basically rolled out from his seat and started tearing all his expensive garments and his hair went wild and he was unable to maintain himself and unable to maintain the posture. And when that was witnessed by Gadadhar Pundit he realized that this person Pundarik Vidyanidhi is a great Mahatma, great Vaishnava, maha-bhagavat devotee. And immediately he felt very bad because in his mind he offended him, he thought, “Oh, this is a something is strange with this devotee why he dressed so opulently why he has servants this is not the Vaishnava’s behavior.”

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So immediately he went to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he submitted himself asking for His advice and he said, “I committed this offense and I feel that Pundarik Vidyanidhi is my Guru. So, to nullify the defense I would like to accept him as my Guru and take shelter of Pundarik Vidyanidhi.” And immediately Mahaprabhu answered, “Yes, Pundarik Vidyanidhi is your father, your eternal father. So, it will be wonderful if you do that.” And then immediately Gadadhar Pundit he went and accepted Pundarik Vidyanidhi as his Guru. And then later on when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyas, that was a heartbreaking news for all the Navadwip residents including Gadadhar Pundit who followed Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Puri Dham. Again, we’re hearing Guru Maharaj how he is saying that how Gadadhar is following Mahaprabhu everywhere. But somehow Mahaprabhu denied Gadadhar his desire to travel to Vrindavan with Mahaprabhu.

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So, you can see how much sacrifice is there and how much separation is experiencing Gadadhar. He is giving everything already and he is asking to follow Mahaprabhu to Vrindavan. And Mahaprabhu is denying him right, everyone went with Mahaprabhu—Rupa, Goswamis went there, some other devotees went, they’re to ... Mahaprabhu everywhere but Gadadhar Pandit was denying that right. So, he is fainting and Mahaprabhu is leaving, He’s begging Gadadhar, “Please, don’t do that.” Because upon external reason He is giving, “Oh, you are accepted kshetra-sannyas. If you’re leaving then what will happen? What people will think about your kshetra-sannyas? Kshetra-sannyas means you’re taking a while to stay in a particular place. You don’t leave that place and you’re engaged in the service and worship and that place. You cannot live the boundaries of that place, no matter what happens.” And then Gadadhar Pandit said, “What is the use of this kshetra-sannyas if I will not have Your company?” It is all useless, it’s all external, I don’t care about it but somehow again for the purpose of lila he stayed behind and Mahaprabhu went to Vrindavan. And later on, during His antya-lila pastimes, when Mahaprabhu was fully experiencing Radha-bhav, Gadadhar Pandit like it was beautifully described in pranam mantram composed by Srila Sridhar Goswami, he was supplying the slokas from Srimad-Bhagavatam when Mahaprabhu was deeply experiencing deepest ecstatic emotions in separation from Krishna.

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Feeling attracted by Hari-katha. So, he was reading Srimad-Bhagavatam to Mahaprabhu but himself unable to restrain his ecstasy, so tears would flow down like rivers. And the slokas he was reading for Mahaprabhu are washed away. It is in pranam mantram, it was like offerings to Srimad-Bhagavatam. And what is the offering to those slokas and you can imagine what kind of slokas Gadadhar Pandit was reading to pacify Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to supply according to His mood and necessity he has applied certain slokas, but we can imagine what it was. And then later on, in the later past times of Gadadhar Pandit when Srinivas Acharya he came on the orders of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to see Gadadhar Pandit and ask him, “Please, teach me Srimad-Bhagavatam.” Gadadhar Pandit said, “Yes, I can teach you Srimad-Bhagavatam but the problem is you need a book and I don’t have a book. I remember, I can remember, I can you know just recite those slokas but you need the book. So please get that book, my book is all damaged. Many slokas are washed away by the tears so what can I do.” So that past time has also happened. So, it is a very, very unique in Gaudiya Vaishnavism the position of Srila Gadadhar Pandit worship the Deities of Gaura-Gadadhar is extremely high in reserve for the very high souls. So, I do not dare to venture there.

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Once Srila Gurudev was approached by somebody who proposed to install the Deities of Gaura-Gadadhar in our Math. And then Srila Gurudev declined that proposal, he said that the concept of Gaura-Gadadhar is so high that is it is reserved only for the highest plane, for the highest souls for the highest Vaishnavas. And if we install this Deity already there are so many sahajiyais, so many unqualified followers, so many imitations it will create a massacre. Gurudev use this word, it will just create a massacre because it’s so high, it cannot be imitated. Also today is the Bhakti Vinod Thakur disappearance day, there is a reason why Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Gadadhar Pandit disappeared on the same day. And you all know about Bhakti Vinod Thakur, you know the history and everything. So, I don’t have to tell about all those details.

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But we also heard from Srila Guru Maharaj talking how Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur appreciated and really liked his poem that he composed Bhakti Vinoda Viraha Dashakam. Srila Sridhar Maharaj he felt some inspiration, he composed that prayers glorifying a prayers of separation, he expresses his mood of separation from Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur and when Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati very critical started reading this poem when he reached a certain verse. I’m not sure what verse was, maybe verse five. He proclaimed that whatever he came to give to everyone in this world is well received and at least one man is there to fully represent our sampradaya, our line. And that was Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

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And Bhakti Vinod Thakur, we have to remember the sloka by Raghunath Das Goswami:

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nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ…[1]

“Whatever I have all the gems in my life the service to Gauranga, the company of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami, the residents in the holy Dham. Everything came to me by the mercy of my Guru.”

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So, Bhakti Vinod Thakur give us everything. Actually, before Bhakti Vinod Thakur appeared there was nothing much left of Vaishnavism, it was very dark time, again very similar time like if Mahaprabhu would appear Himself at that time there was also many sahajiyais, mayavadis and impersonalists. So not so many Vaishnavas were available, so everything was well forgotten. So, at the time of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s appearance everything was pretty much forgotten lots of sahajiyais, lots of imitations, the holy places have disappeared and very few Vaishnavas was available. And that’s when Bhakti Vinod Thakur came and what he gave us? He gave us Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again, the beautiful concepts of teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is true identity. And the position of Srimati Radharani everything came from… from Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. The shastras, the Guru Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, the holy places, the Dham—Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur was the one who by inspiration of the Lord discovered the holy places, rediscovered them.

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The Yogapith, other places—Srivas Angam, Advaita Acharya’s house, the house of so many other followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There was nothing left, there was just fields and moons and hills. You have to remember that Ganga inundated the whole Navadwip Dham. So, all the holy places disappeared at that time. And feeling some inspiration from the Lord Bhakti Vinod Thakur actually he wanted to stay in Vrindavan, he wanted to spend some time in Vrindavan, that was his mood. So, when he went to Vrindavan that desire awakened in his heart, but then Lord appeared to him and said, “Don’t forget about your mission, don’t forget what you came here to do. Go to Navadwip, go to your home.” And then Bhakti Vinod Thakur went there and then he acquired a land in Godrumadwip where he built a small house, a small kutir where he stayed. And one day he saw this mystical, very unusual effulgence on the horizon, on the bank of the Ganges.

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And then the next morning he went there and he talked to local people and all of them pointed, some old people they say, “Oh, my grand-grandfather was saying that. This is where Mahaprabhu have appeared.” And so many of them confirmed his vision. So he was very happy, but in order to reconfirm it and make sure that this is 100% Mahaprabhu’s appearance place, he asked one of the greatest Vaishnav perhaps the… the greatest Vaishnava besides Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaja and Bhakti Vinod Thakur himself Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj to come and to give his confirmation of that place. And at that time Jaganath Das Babaji Maharaj was very old, he was more than 100 years old. And he was unable to walk, a servant would carry him in a basket because he was like this, you see pictures of Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, they are all like that very small figure, maybe he was about 120 years old at that time.

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But when they arrived to the Yogapith place, Mahaprabhu’s birthplace, suddenly he [Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj] jumped out, he is unable to walk, he’s unable to do anything but he jumped out and started dancing revealing extraordinary ecstatic transformations in his body and showing extraordinary static emotions. So that happened and then Bhakti Vinod Thakur was absolutely sure this is the place. So, you can see how he is showing us a proper approach, even though he is already sure this is the place, he received this confirmation in his heart. He knows this is the place, still he wants to consult the higher Vaishnava that’s why he brought Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj. Then what? He is revealing us the holy places, the whole Navadwip Dham was revealed to us by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. And he composes Navadwip Dham Mahatmya to make sure that we know what places where what kind of past times happened there doing Mahaprabhu and before Mahaprabhu. And then he is giving us Guru Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and then he is giving us all these beautiful prayers that we are singing every day, most of them are composed by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur.

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So much is given, in fact if no Bhakti Vinod Thakur then where we would be now? What will be our situation? And he was respected by both Vaishnavas and mundane people. He’s a wonderful example of someone a personality that was very well respected in the mundane world, he occupied very important government positions. At some point he was appointed as the superintendent of Jagannath temple. So, at that time there were so many corruption cases Jagannath temple was exploited by the very greedy pandas, servitors of Jagannath, so-called services of Jagannath, and to restore order in Jagannath temple Bhakti Vinod Thakur was appointed there and then he made sure that everything was perfectly arranged the worship was on a grand scale he established everything of the highest standard and he performed kirtans and Hari-katha every day that was done.

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And then later he was appointed to many different places and all the time he was in a very important position as a magistrate, doing very high government jobs but his heart and his soul were fully absorbed in Mahaprabhu. And he kept composing exploring mining, mining his heart for those gems and whatever he felt took shapes of beautiful prayers and beautiful books composed by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. And Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati—coming back to that conversation—Srila Guru Maharaj said that, “My Guru, my Gurudev, he considered Bhakti Vinod Thakur, his father, to be his Guru but more than that, he considered him to be a maid servant of Srimati Radharani Herself.” “But if,” he said, “that if I look deeper, I see that he is non-different from Srimati Radharani Herself. This is how I see Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur.” That was the vision of Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur ... to us by Srila Guru Maharaj. And so, there is no coincidence why both—Srila Gadadhar Pandit who is non-different from Srimati Radharani, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur who is seen by his disciple, by his son and by all of us ultimately in a deeper reality as Srimati Radharani Herself—both of them disappeared in the same day it is very meaningful.

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And so many wonderful stories I don’t, I don’t even know where to start connected to Bhakti Vinod Thakur. We heard from many devotees how he would chant in his bhajan­kutir in Godrumadwip. Bon Maharaj was there. I think his name was maybe Parvat Maharaj. He was living next door and he would describe how he would hear Bhakti Vinod Thakur early morning he would wake up and walk in the garden in his house in Godrumadwip and chant Hari Krishna mahamantra. And he said, “It wasn’t a normal chanting, it was like someone was crying deeply affected by separation from someone. He was crying for that person, calling for that person.” It was heart-wrenching to hear Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s chanting. It was not just regular Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare… not something we used to hear, not something that is coming from our mouth.

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But something amazing, something absolutely transcendental spiritual.

Chinese Devotee: He is non-different from Srimati Radharani…

Paramananda Prabhu: This is how Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, “If I look deeper, I will see that Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is non-different from Srimati Radharani.”

Chinese Devotee: So, Srimati Radharani here alone at that time?

Paramananda Prabhu: This is more of a conceptual. It’s like for us, for Guru and disciple, disciple… Krishna says:

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ācāryyāṁ māṁ vijānīyān…[2]

“I’m not different from Acharya, I’m the Acharya himself.” So, we see Guru as Krishna Himself, non-different from Krishna. Then if we look more deeper than our focus becoming, more finer and we start seeing that our Guru is a servitor in a camp of Rupa Manjari. He is one of the manjari, main servant of the sakhis. And what is the position of the manjari? They are allowed where the sakhis are not allowed because of their purity, they existing purely for the service to Divine Couple.

#00:35:48#

So, this is how disciple would see but if you refine your vision of your Guru, you will see that Guru is serving in such a way that undoubtedly, he is non-different [from Srimati Radharani], he is a direct delegation of Srimati Radharani and as such he is non-different from Srimati Radharani Herself. So, this is the finer vision, finer theistic vision of Guru. So, it’s not like a black and white thing. All this, all these things are very high, these concepts are very high, our ideals are very high. So, we’re aspiring one day that we will be able to somehow be useful in the service that our Gurus are performing. And through that service we will get that very deep connection with our Guru. And by receiving that deep connection everything what we are hearing those beautiful ideals, this beautiful concept, will enter our heart because Krishna cannot reject anyone, who is presented to Him by His best servitor, who is Srimati Radharani Herself.

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So, this is our aspiration. There is no use to try to understand who is who and why and… It’s not for our mind to analyze these things, it can be understood through your heart, through the service connection, through finding your place in the heart of your Guru, in the heart of the Vaishnava, then everything will be revealed to you naturally.

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So, tomorrow is the Gundicha-marjan, the cleansing of the Gundicha temple. And day after tomorrow is Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra, They are getting on Their chariots and distributing mercy throughout the world by giving darshan to everyone without any consideration. And it is also mentioned that is a wonderful day to start something new.

#00:38:15#

And I’m not saying to start a business or something else talking about some you can take some spiritual valves, make some decisions, make another step in your spiritual life. Dedicate yourself to a higher purpose, so that’s the day of Ratha-yatra day. This very, very important day for us because Krishna, He chose this day to return to Vrindavan. So, this day, a lot of potency we can talk about it on the Ratha-yatra day in the morning of Ratha-yatra day. And tomorrow is a Gundicha-marjan means purifying your hearts first of all. And doing many things by diving deeper into our sadhana, cleansing the temple and by cleansing the temple we will cleanse our hearts as well.

#00:39:33#

Also, if someone have any issues between each other that’s a good time to cleanse that as well we establish a wonderful relationship between the Vaishnavas. Ask for forgiveness, offer your obeisances. And we will read tomorrow how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and all the devotees who come to visit Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Bengal, they were cleansing the temple of Gundicha. And that was every year, every year when Mahaprabhu was staying in Puri, when the devotees from Bengal would come Mahaprabhu would attend Ratha-yatra festival and before that would personally go there and cleanse the temple.

#00:40:17#

So that will read tomorrow morning. And after that we expect everyone to clean their hearts, temple, rooms, relationship, chant mahamantra more attentively, increase the quality of your sadhana. So very happy days now, and we will remember Gurudev’s pastimes during these days too. I was fortunate to be in India a few times on the Ratha-yatra day but Srila Gurudev, he stayed in Calcutta at that time. So, I was there in his company. And he would since there was a very direct translation, we’re in India. So it’s very even though the Kali is very powerful, and he is overtaking India actually. Gurudev used to say, “Still they have direct translation of Ratha-yatra festival 20… I mean pretty much—24 hours from early morning till very late evening like real time.” So that will happen and Gurudev would watch Ratha-yatra on the TV and he would recite different slokas commenting on different moments of Ratha-yatra, remembering stories. It was very beautiful, very happy time. And there’s lots of times ahead of us that are very happy and beautiful. So, we should remember those moments of association with the great devotees of the Lord, but we should also look forward to be useful in their service not dwell in the past but dwell in the present and pray in hopefully future.

#00:42:16#

Jay Srila Gadadhar Pandit Goswami ki jay! Srila Bhakti Vinod, Srila Satchitananda Bhakti Vinod Thakur ki jay! Nitai-Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!

Devotee: Sripad Paramananda Prabhu ki jay!

Paramananda Prabhu: Jay Srila Gurudev ki jay!

And I am pretty sure that this…

Потоки нектара [разливаются] сейчас в России, я очень завидую всем. Госвами Махарадж там, Мадхусудан Махарадж, [Бхакти] Лалита [Деви Даси]. Авадхут Махарадж, наверняка, бегает везде и занимается менеджментом, чтобы все чувствовали себя комфортно, [чтобы] фестивали прошли успешно. И скоро они отправляются в Петербург, да?

Преданная: Авадхут Махарадж уже там.

Парамананда Прабху: Уже в Петербурге?

[Неразборчивые реплики.]

Парамананда Прабху: Мадхусудан Махарадж до сих пор в Москве. [Неразборчивые реплики.] А, вообще куда-то поехал… А-а, в проповеднический тур. На самом деле Россия — настолько удачливое место. Удивительно, насколько удачливое место. Столько милости, просто потоки милости.

Captured by Ananta Krishna Das
Edited by Tradish Das


1 ↑  Nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ, rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭavāṭīm / rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ, prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi—“I bow down to the beautiful lotus feet of my spiritual master, by whose causeless mercy I have obtained the supreme Holy Name, the divine mantra, the service of the son of Shachi-mata [Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu], the association of Srila Swarupa Damodara, Rupa Goswami, and his older brother Sanatana Goswami, the supreme abode of Mathura, the blissful abode of Vrindavana, the divine Radha-kunda and Govardhana Hill, and the desire within my heart for the loving service of Sri Radhika and Madhava in Vrindavana.” (Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. “Sri Mukta-charitam”).

2 ↑ А̄cāryyāṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta karhicit / na marttya buddhyāsūyeta, sarva deva-mayo guruḥ—“One should know the Acharya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods” (Shrimad-Bhagavatam, 11.17.27).

 




←  “Life without love.” Srila B. B. Avadhut Maharaj. January 8, 2015. Gupta Govardhan | «Жизнь без любви». Шрила Б. Б. Авадхут Махарадж. 8 января 2015 года. Гупта Говардхан ·• Архив новостей •· «Две предавшиеся души». Шрипад Б. Л. Акинчан Махарадж. 17 июня 2004 года. Колката, Индия | “Two Surrendered Souls.” Sripad B. L. Akinchan Maharaj. 17 June 2004. Kolkata, India →

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English

Sripad Paramananda Prabhu 

What Can Make You Faint?

(4 July 2016. Gupta Govardhan)

Disappearance of Srila Gadadhar Pandit and Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

 

Intimate and very important day for Gaudiya Vaishnavas—the disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. Харидаси понимает по-английски. Я буду периодически переходить на русский язык по мере возможности, просто мы большинством голосов [решили говорить по-английски]. So, disappearance day of Gadadhar Pandit Goswami and Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakura. One time we heard from Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj about how Swami Maharaj, when he first time came after he went to the West and that he returned to India, so, he came with his disciples to India for the first time. So, he brought his western disciples and among those disciples was a devotee named Achyutananda Das. So, they went straight to Guru Maharaja’s Math and even though they were greeted by another party from Keshava Maharaj, Bhakti Prajan Keshava Maharaj’s Math, Srila Swami Maharaj he chose Guru Maharaj’s Math for his place of residence while he was in Navadwip.

#00:01:21#

So, at that time Srila Guru Maharaj and Srila Swami Maharaj were engaged in a very long and deep conversations behind closed doors, and of course Srila Swami Maharaj disciples were wondering what is going on and what are they talking about they were very curious the first time in India it’s the first time to see Srila Guru Maharaja, Srila Swami Maharaj’s godbrothers and been exposed to the culture of Vaishnavism in the land of Vaishnavism. So, after Srila Swami Maharaj left Guru Maharaj’s Math his disciples Achyutananda Prabhu, he approached him and he was very curious so he asked very sincerely, “So, Srila Swami Maharaj Prabhupada, can you tell us what you’ve been talking about with Srila Sridhar Maharaj?” And then Srila Swami Maharaj he commented that Srila Sridhar Maharaj is a very, very advanced Vaishnava and he had a very deep realizations about Krishna consciousness.

#00:02:19#

“And if I would tell you what we were discussing with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, you will faint.” That was the answer of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Swami Maharaj. But we should remember that fainting is not fainting that we are thinking about losing our consciousness like someone feeling disease and then suddenly they’re just on the floor and someone needs to give some medicine to them, it’s not like that. In this case fainting means unable to maintain your consciousness on this plane. But actually, entering deeper experiencing deeper spiritual reality that’s what it was meant to be. And Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj he heard about it of course, every disciple of Swami Maharaj heard about this case and no one pushed it further, no one asked but yes, but: “Prabhupad, can you please tell us what you were talking about? Even though we will faint, it’s all right, we want to know.” Nobody asked that.

#00:03:27#

But Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj, he was very curious, he said and he maintained that curiosity, he really wanted to know what it was all about. Not out of just pure mundane curiosity but he wanted to hear that nectar at least some hints of what was the discussion about. Out of spiritual curiosity so he said that, one day he decided to ask and he was preparing for that moment, he was waiting for that particular moment, when Srila Guru Maharaj would be available for that kind of question. And he said, at that time he was alone on the veranda, Guru Maharaj’s veranda, and Srila Govinda Maharaj was there with Srila Guru Maharaj and were having a light conversation. And then Goswami Maharaj said that. “I decided to ask that question and I submitted this question to Srila Guru Maharaj.” And Srila Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Goswami Maharaj, he heard that question and started laughing.

#00:04:41#

So, he found very amusing and then Srila Guru Maharaj he also got curious what is Goswami Maharaj asking about and then Govinda Maharaj answered, “Oh, Maharaj, he wants you to make him faint.” And then Srila Goswami Maharaj, he said, “Guru Maharaj become very grave, his expression became very grave, and he chanted pranam mantram that he composed for Srila Gadadhar Pandit Goswami.” And after hearing this pranam mantra Goswami Maharaj said [that] he stumbled down from the veranda and he was practically unable to maintain consciousness because it was given to him chanted with such spiritual force that, it’s entered forcefully it centered his heart. And for the moment he experienced that high reality and he experienced what means to faint when you hear something like that. So that was Gadadhar Pandits pranam mantra.

#00:05:47#

And then Srila Goswami Maharaj regaining his consciousness he went back to veranda and then he saw that Guru Maharaj and Srila Gurudev, they’re engaged in a very light conversation like nothing happened, they just keep going with their conversation talking about something. And then Goswami Maharaj, he said, “I realized that for them, it’s nothing special actually for them, this is the reality, they can just exchange these slokas, that can make you faint as some kind of a transcendental game, for them it is the reality. But for us it’s something that will make us faint.” Again, it requires a certain qualification to hear those slokas. Anyway, so unfortunately due to my poor memory I don’t remember that sloka but I do have it in my iPad. So, I will read it for my own purification.

#00:07:01#

nilāmbhodhi-taṭe sadā sva-virahā-kṣepānvitaṁ bāndhavaṁ
śrīmad-bhāgavatī-kathā madirayā sañjīvayam bhāti yaḥ
śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ sadā sva-nayanāśrū-pāyanaiḥ pūjayan
goswāmi-pravaro gadādhara-vibhur-bhūyāt mad-ekā-gatiḥ

“On the shore of the broad blue ocean Gadadhar Pandit used to read Srimad-Bhagavatam to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was suffering from the great internal pain of separation from Himself [Krishna]. Gadadhar Pandit supplied the wine of Krishna-lila to intoxicate his afflicted friend and give Him relief. As he read, tears would fall from his eyes like flowered offerings onto the pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam. May the pleasure of the brilliant personality Gadadhar Pandit the best of Goswamis be my only object in writing this book?” So this verse was composed by Srila Guru Maharaj who also revealed the glories of Srila Gadadhar Pandit and his exalted spiritual position.

#00:08:16#

So, we heard from Srila Gurudev on many occasions how he was talking about a certain Krishna-lila when Krishna is in the company of the gopies and then at some point and Lalita is there, Vishakha is there, other sakhis are there, and at some point Radharani, She decides to leave and then suddenly Krishna loses that access it that flow is not there anymore. So, He is disturbing, He goes and looking for Radharani and then He finds Radharani and then that ecstasy is coming back to Him. And after then while He decides to disappear, because He wants to see what Radharani will feel, He wants to mine Her ecstasy, He wants to see what is in the heart of Srimati Radharani and then Krishna hides Himself and He witnesses the ecstatic transformation of Radharani’s ecstasy and separation from Krishna. And then, at that moment, Srila Gurudev said, “He decides that, He wants to taste that wonderful excesses Radharani’s experiencing. So, He decides to become Srimati Radharani.”

#00:09:31#

And when Krishna wants something, automatically Srimati Radharani exists only for Krishna’s pleasure. Your only reason is to serve Krishna. She is the best servitor. So, when She hears something like that, She offers Herself fully for that. So, Krishna, He takes Her heart and knowing Srimati Radharani knows what She is experiencing for sure, but Krishna is very curious, He doesn’t know, He wants to know, He wants to experience that and knowing that Srimati Radharani also wraps Him with Her halo. And that’s how Mahaprabhu appears. But Mahaprabhu always comes with His parshadas, His followers, and of course Srimati Radharani comes together. And She is already giving the heart to Krishna, She’s already given Her appearance for halo everything is given bhava kanti, all is given to Krishna, and Krishna changes His form of Shyam Sundar into a golden form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

#00:10:38#

And what left that Srimati Radharani, She appears as Gadadhar Pandit in Mahaprabhu’s lila, it is very difficult to comprehend and understand, it’s actually impossible to understand, it’s a very deep spiritual conception. In fact, I am not qualified even to think about it, what to talk about, speaking about it. But at the same time, I cannot not to say anything about it because today is this very special day and on this occasion, we must glorify Srila Gadadhar Pandit, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. So, this is my duty in front of my spiritual masters. So, I’m trying to say what I heard from Srila Guru Maharaj, from Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s recordings and from Srila Goswami Maharaj and other Vaishnavas. So please forgive me I should have started from that.

#00:11:34#

My explanation is far from being perfect and it is actually impossible to ever become perfect when we’re talking about this subject. Anyhow Gadadhar Pandit, he appears giving Srimati Radharani himself. So, we shouldn’t forget that giving, everything to Krishna giving Her heart. So Srila Guru Maharaj says that Gadadhar Pandit is like the shadow of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu whatever was taking from Srimati Radharani what left is Gadadhar Pandit and She is following, he is following Mahaprabhu wherever, he goes but maintaining respectful distance always ready to serve Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in any way possible, but there is always some distance.

#00:12:24#

And from the history, not the history but actually reality, we hear from Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami’s Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam how Gadadhar Pandit since a very small, when he was a child, basically he had no attraction whatsoever to any mundane things, he was renounced since the beginning since very early age, he had no interest and every anything but Krishna consciousness. And we should remember that who is the source of Krishna consciousness? The source of Krishna consciousness is not Krishna. He is Krishna but who is Krishna conscious in the perfect way is Srimati Radharani. So, She is giving that Krishna consciousness. Everything is coming from Her. And so many wonderful stories we can hear, you can read it in Srimad… in Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam, how Gadadhar Pandit participated in early lilas of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. One time there was a beautiful kirtan and Hari-katha in Shuklambar Brahmachari’s house. I think it is described in Chaitanya Bhagavat or some other scripture.

#00:13:46#

And at that time devotees were hearing this Krishna-katha and Mahaprabhu was singing beautiful kirtans, speaking about Krishna and Gadadhar Pandit was inside the house, he was hiding there again maintaining this distance. And at some point, unable to check his emotions, his ecstasy, he started crying very loudly and Mahaprabhu, He heard this crying and ask, “Who is crying? Who is crying?” And then someone came, “Oh, it’s Your Gadadhar, he’s crying, he’s right behind You, behind that wall in the house.” Also, there’s a beautiful story how Gadadhar Pandit met his Guru Pundarik Vidyanidhi. So his good friend Mukunda Datta, a very dear friend of the Gadadhar Pandit, he took him. Gadadhar Pandit ask many times that he wants to see a real Vaishnava, substantial Vaishnava, and he wanted to accept initiation from such Vaishnava. And one day Mukunda came running to Gadadhar Pandit and said, “Yes, now your desires will be fulfilled. That Vaishnava have come. Please come with me and I will introduce you to him. His name is Pundarik.”

#00:15:02#

And before that many devotees they heard like Mahaprabhu during His ecstatic kirtans would sometime call, “Ba Pundarik! Ba Pundarik!—Father Pundarik! Father Pundarik!”, been in the mood of Srimati Radharani. But they all wondered, “Who is that Pundarik?”, because no one knew who is that Pundarik. And then on one occasion Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he was visiting Navadwip and Mukunda Datta knew him. And then he invited Gadadhar right away because Gadadhar wanted to see a pure devotee of the Lord. So, when they came, he saw Pundarik Vidyanidhi who was a very wealthy gentleman, wealthy from a spiritual point of view, no doubt about it, but also wealthy from a mundane point of view. He was traveling on a very well decorated carriage followed by the servants and he was there and, you know, there was a few servants offering him chamaras and making sure that he is very comfy and not too hot and he was smoking something, he’s smoking hookers or something. Gurudev used to come into that, anyhow so this is how Gadadhar Pundit he saw Pundarik Vidyanidhi and immediately he had some doubt, of course, we have to remember, it’s Krishna-lila, Mahaprabhu’s lila so everything has the reason everything is serving the purpose of lila.

#00:16:27#

So, he had some… he felt some doubts about the qualification of Pundarik Vidyanidhi and then he expressed those doubts to Mukunda and then Mukunda looked at Gadadhar and he said, “No, no, no, don’t pay attention to this external manifestation but watch this.” And then he started reciting a very intimate verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam describing Vrindavan-lila of Krishna and then upon hearing those verses Pundarik Vidyanidhi went into ecstatic trance. He basically rolled out from his seat and started tearing all his expensive garments and his hair went wild and he was unable to maintain himself and unable to maintain the posture. And when that was witnessed by Gadadhar Pundit he realized that this person Pundarik Vidyanidhi is a great Mahatma, great Vaishnava, maha-bhagavat devotee. And immediately he felt very bad because in his mind he offended him, he thought, “Oh, this is a something is strange with this devotee why he dressed so opulently why he has servants this is not the Vaishnava’s behavior.”

#00:17:41#

So immediately he went to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he submitted himself asking for His advice and he said, “I committed this offense and I feel that Pundarik Vidyanidhi is my Guru. So, to nullify the defense I would like to accept him as my Guru and take shelter of Pundarik Vidyanidhi.” And immediately Mahaprabhu answered, “Yes, Pundarik Vidyanidhi is your father, your eternal father. So, it will be wonderful if you do that.” And then immediately Gadadhar Pundit he went and accepted Pundarik Vidyanidhi as his Guru. And then later on when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyas, that was a heartbreaking news for all the Navadwip residents including Gadadhar Pundit who followed Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Puri Dham. Again, we’re hearing Guru Maharaj how he is saying that how Gadadhar is following Mahaprabhu everywhere. But somehow Mahaprabhu denied Gadadhar his desire to travel to Vrindavan with Mahaprabhu.

#00:18:48#

So, you can see how much sacrifice is there and how much separation is experiencing Gadadhar. He is giving everything already and he is asking to follow Mahaprabhu to Vrindavan. And Mahaprabhu is denying him right, everyone went with Mahaprabhu—Rupa, Goswamis went there, some other devotees went, they’re to ... Mahaprabhu everywhere but Gadadhar Pandit was denying that right. So, he is fainting and Mahaprabhu is leaving, He’s begging Gadadhar, “Please, don’t do that.” Because upon external reason He is giving, “Oh, you are accepted kshetra-sannyas. If you’re leaving then what will happen? What people will think about your kshetra-sannyas? Kshetra-sannyas means you’re taking a while to stay in a particular place. You don’t leave that place and you’re engaged in the service and worship and that place. You cannot live the boundaries of that place, no matter what happens.” And then Gadadhar Pandit said, “What is the use of this kshetra-sannyas if I will not have Your company?” It is all useless, it’s all external, I don’t care about it but somehow again for the purpose of lila he stayed behind and Mahaprabhu went to Vrindavan. And later on, during His antya-lila pastimes, when Mahaprabhu was fully experiencing Radha-bhav, Gadadhar Pandit like it was beautifully described in pranam mantram composed by Srila Sridhar Goswami, he was supplying the slokas from Srimad-Bhagavatam when Mahaprabhu was deeply experiencing deepest ecstatic emotions in separation from Krishna.

#00:20:34#

Feeling attracted by Hari-katha. So, he was reading Srimad-Bhagavatam to Mahaprabhu but himself unable to restrain his ecstasy, so tears would flow down like rivers. And the slokas he was reading for Mahaprabhu are washed away. It is in pranam mantram, it was like offerings to Srimad-Bhagavatam. And what is the offering to those slokas and you can imagine what kind of slokas Gadadhar Pandit was reading to pacify Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to supply according to His mood and necessity he has applied certain slokas, but we can imagine what it was. And then later on, in the later past times of Gadadhar Pandit when Srinivas Acharya he came on the orders of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to see Gadadhar Pandit and ask him, “Please, teach me Srimad-Bhagavatam.” Gadadhar Pandit said, “Yes, I can teach you Srimad-Bhagavatam but the problem is you need a book and I don’t have a book. I remember, I can remember, I can you know just recite those slokas but you need the book. So please get that book, my book is all damaged. Many slokas are washed away by the tears so what can I do.” So that past time has also happened. So, it is a very, very unique in Gaudiya Vaishnavism the position of Srila Gadadhar Pandit worship the Deities of Gaura-Gadadhar is extremely high in reserve for the very high souls. So, I do not dare to venture there.

#00:22:37#

Once Srila Gurudev was approached by somebody who proposed to install the Deities of Gaura-Gadadhar in our Math. And then Srila Gurudev declined that proposal, he said that the concept of Gaura-Gadadhar is so high that is it is reserved only for the highest plane, for the highest souls for the highest Vaishnavas. And if we install this Deity already there are so many sahajiyais, so many unqualified followers, so many imitations it will create a massacre. Gurudev use this word, it will just create a massacre because it’s so high, it cannot be imitated. Also today is the Bhakti Vinod Thakur disappearance day, there is a reason why Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Gadadhar Pandit disappeared on the same day. And you all know about Bhakti Vinod Thakur, you know the history and everything. So, I don’t have to tell about all those details.

#00:23:48#

But we also heard from Srila Guru Maharaj talking how Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur appreciated and really liked his poem that he composed Bhakti Vinoda Viraha Dashakam. Srila Sridhar Maharaj he felt some inspiration, he composed that prayers glorifying a prayers of separation, he expresses his mood of separation from Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur and when Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati very critical started reading this poem when he reached a certain verse. I’m not sure what verse was, maybe verse five. He proclaimed that whatever he came to give to everyone in this world is well received and at least one man is there to fully represent our sampradaya, our line. And that was Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

#00:24:57#

And Bhakti Vinod Thakur, we have to remember the sloka by Raghunath Das Goswami:

#00:25:01#

nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ…[1]

“Whatever I have all the gems in my life the service to Gauranga, the company of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami, the residents in the holy Dham. Everything came to me by the mercy of my Guru.”

#00:25:27#

So, Bhakti Vinod Thakur give us everything. Actually, before Bhakti Vinod Thakur appeared there was nothing much left of Vaishnavism, it was very dark time, again very similar time like if Mahaprabhu would appear Himself at that time there was also many sahajiyais, mayavadis and impersonalists. So not so many Vaishnavas were available, so everything was well forgotten. So, at the time of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s appearance everything was pretty much forgotten lots of sahajiyais, lots of imitations, the holy places have disappeared and very few Vaishnavas was available. And that’s when Bhakti Vinod Thakur came and what he gave us? He gave us Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again, the beautiful concepts of teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is true identity. And the position of Srimati Radharani everything came from… from Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. The shastras, the Guru Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, the holy places, the Dham—Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur was the one who by inspiration of the Lord discovered the holy places, rediscovered them.

#00:26:43#

The Yogapith, other places—Srivas Angam, Advaita Acharya’s house, the house of so many other followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There was nothing left, there was just fields and moons and hills. You have to remember that Ganga inundated the whole Navadwip Dham. So, all the holy places disappeared at that time. And feeling some inspiration from the Lord Bhakti Vinod Thakur actually he wanted to stay in Vrindavan, he wanted to spend some time in Vrindavan, that was his mood. So, when he went to Vrindavan that desire awakened in his heart, but then Lord appeared to him and said, “Don’t forget about your mission, don’t forget what you came here to do. Go to Navadwip, go to your home.” And then Bhakti Vinod Thakur went there and then he acquired a land in Godrumadwip where he built a small house, a small kutir where he stayed. And one day he saw this mystical, very unusual effulgence on the horizon, on the bank of the Ganges.

#00:27:51#

And then the next morning he went there and he talked to local people and all of them pointed, some old people they say, “Oh, my grand-grandfather was saying that. This is where Mahaprabhu have appeared.” And so many of them confirmed his vision. So he was very happy, but in order to reconfirm it and make sure that this is 100% Mahaprabhu’s appearance place, he asked one of the greatest Vaishnav perhaps the… the greatest Vaishnava besides Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaja and Bhakti Vinod Thakur himself Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj to come and to give his confirmation of that place. And at that time Jaganath Das Babaji Maharaj was very old, he was more than 100 years old. And he was unable to walk, a servant would carry him in a basket because he was like this, you see pictures of Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, they are all like that very small figure, maybe he was about 120 years old at that time.

#00:28:50#

But when they arrived to the Yogapith place, Mahaprabhu’s birthplace, suddenly he [Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj] jumped out, he is unable to walk, he’s unable to do anything but he jumped out and started dancing revealing extraordinary ecstatic transformations in his body and showing extraordinary static emotions. So that happened and then Bhakti Vinod Thakur was absolutely sure this is the place. So, you can see how he is showing us a proper approach, even though he is already sure this is the place, he received this confirmation in his heart. He knows this is the place, still he wants to consult the higher Vaishnava that’s why he brought Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj. Then what? He is revealing us the holy places, the whole Navadwip Dham was revealed to us by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. And he composes Navadwip Dham Mahatmya to make sure that we know what places where what kind of past times happened there doing Mahaprabhu and before Mahaprabhu. And then he is giving us Guru Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and then he is giving us all these beautiful prayers that we are singing every day, most of them are composed by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur.

#00:30:13#

So much is given, in fact if no Bhakti Vinod Thakur then where we would be now? What will be our situation? And he was respected by both Vaishnavas and mundane people. He’s a wonderful example of someone a personality that was very well respected in the mundane world, he occupied very important government positions. At some point he was appointed as the superintendent of Jagannath temple. So, at that time there were so many corruption cases Jagannath temple was exploited by the very greedy pandas, servitors of Jagannath, so-called services of Jagannath, and to restore order in Jagannath temple Bhakti Vinod Thakur was appointed there and then he made sure that everything was perfectly arranged the worship was on a grand scale he established everything of the highest standard and he performed kirtans and Hari-katha every day that was done.

#00:31:24#

And then later he was appointed to many different places and all the time he was in a very important position as a magistrate, doing very high government jobs but his heart and his soul were fully absorbed in Mahaprabhu. And he kept composing exploring mining, mining his heart for those gems and whatever he felt took shapes of beautiful prayers and beautiful books composed by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. And Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati—coming back to that conversation—Srila Guru Maharaj said that, “My Guru, my Gurudev, he considered Bhakti Vinod Thakur, his father, to be his Guru but more than that, he considered him to be a maid servant of Srimati Radharani Herself.” “But if,” he said, “that if I look deeper, I see that he is non-different from Srimati Radharani Herself. This is how I see Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur.” That was the vision of Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur ... to us by Srila Guru Maharaj. And so, there is no coincidence why both—Srila Gadadhar Pandit who is non-different from Srimati Radharani, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur who is seen by his disciple, by his son and by all of us ultimately in a deeper reality as Srimati Radharani Herself—both of them disappeared in the same day it is very meaningful.

#00:33:21#

And so many wonderful stories I don’t, I don’t even know where to start connected to Bhakti Vinod Thakur. We heard from many devotees how he would chant in his bhajan­kutir in Godrumadwip. Bon Maharaj was there. I think his name was maybe Parvat Maharaj. He was living next door and he would describe how he would hear Bhakti Vinod Thakur early morning he would wake up and walk in the garden in his house in Godrumadwip and chant Hari Krishna mahamantra. And he said, “It wasn’t a normal chanting, it was like someone was crying deeply affected by separation from someone. He was crying for that person, calling for that person.” It was heart-wrenching to hear Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s chanting. It was not just regular Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare… not something we used to hear, not something that is coming from our mouth.

#00:34:22#

But something amazing, something absolutely transcendental spiritual.

Chinese Devotee: He is non-different from Srimati Radharani…

Paramananda Prabhu: This is how Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, “If I look deeper, I will see that Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is non-different from Srimati Radharani.”

Chinese Devotee: So, Srimati Radharani here alone at that time?

Paramananda Prabhu: This is more of a conceptual. It’s like for us, for Guru and disciple, disciple… Krishna says:

#00:35:10#

ācāryyāṁ māṁ vijānīyān…[2]

“I’m not different from Acharya, I’m the Acharya himself.” So, we see Guru as Krishna Himself, non-different from Krishna. Then if we look more deeper than our focus becoming, more finer and we start seeing that our Guru is a servitor in a camp of Rupa Manjari. He is one of the manjari, main servant of the sakhis. And what is the position of the manjari? They are allowed where the sakhis are not allowed because of their purity, they existing purely for the service to Divine Couple.

#00:35:48#

So, this is how disciple would see but if you refine your vision of your Guru, you will see that Guru is serving in such a way that undoubtedly, he is non-different [from Srimati Radharani], he is a direct delegation of Srimati Radharani and as such he is non-different from Srimati Radharani Herself. So, this is the finer vision, finer theistic vision of Guru. So, it’s not like a black and white thing. All this, all these things are very high, these concepts are very high, our ideals are very high. So, we’re aspiring one day that we will be able to somehow be useful in the service that our Gurus are performing. And through that service we will get that very deep connection with our Guru. And by receiving that deep connection everything what we are hearing those beautiful ideals, this beautiful concept, will enter our heart because Krishna cannot reject anyone, who is presented to Him by His best servitor, who is Srimati Radharani Herself.

#00:37:16#

So, this is our aspiration. There is no use to try to understand who is who and why and… It’s not for our mind to analyze these things, it can be understood through your heart, through the service connection, through finding your place in the heart of your Guru, in the heart of the Vaishnava, then everything will be revealed to you naturally.

#00:37:44#

So, tomorrow is the Gundicha-marjan, the cleansing of the Gundicha temple. And day after tomorrow is Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra, They are getting on Their chariots and distributing mercy throughout the world by giving darshan to everyone without any consideration. And it is also mentioned that is a wonderful day to start something new.

#00:38:15#

And I’m not saying to start a business or something else talking about some you can take some spiritual valves, make some decisions, make another step in your spiritual life. Dedicate yourself to a higher purpose, so that’s the day of Ratha-yatra day. This very, very important day for us because Krishna, He chose this day to return to Vrindavan. So, this day, a lot of potency we can talk about it on the Ratha-yatra day in the morning of Ratha-yatra day. And tomorrow is a Gundicha-marjan means purifying your hearts first of all. And doing many things by diving deeper into our sadhana, cleansing the temple and by cleansing the temple we will cleanse our hearts as well.

#00:39:33#

Also, if someone have any issues between each other that’s a good time to cleanse that as well we establish a wonderful relationship between the Vaishnavas. Ask for forgiveness, offer your obeisances. And we will read tomorrow how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and all the devotees who come to visit Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Bengal, they were cleansing the temple of Gundicha. And that was every year, every year when Mahaprabhu was staying in Puri, when the devotees from Bengal would come Mahaprabhu would attend Ratha-yatra festival and before that would personally go there and cleanse the temple.

#00:40:17#

So that will read tomorrow morning. And after that we expect everyone to clean their hearts, temple, rooms, relationship, chant mahamantra more attentively, increase the quality of your sadhana. So very happy days now, and we will remember Gurudev’s pastimes during these days too. I was fortunate to be in India a few times on the Ratha-yatra day but Srila Gurudev, he stayed in Calcutta at that time. So, I was there in his company. And he would since there was a very direct translation, we’re in India. So it’s very even though the Kali is very powerful, and he is overtaking India actually. Gurudev used to say, “Still they have direct translation of Ratha-yatra festival 20… I mean pretty much—24 hours from early morning till very late evening like real time.” So that will happen and Gurudev would watch Ratha-yatra on the TV and he would recite different slokas commenting on different moments of Ratha-yatra, remembering stories. It was very beautiful, very happy time. And there’s lots of times ahead of us that are very happy and beautiful. So, we should remember those moments of association with the great devotees of the Lord, but we should also look forward to be useful in their service not dwell in the past but dwell in the present and pray in hopefully future.

#00:42:16#

Jay Srila Gadadhar Pandit Goswami ki jay! Srila Bhakti Vinod, Srila Satchitananda Bhakti Vinod Thakur ki jay! Nitai-Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!

Devotee: Sripad Paramananda Prabhu ki jay!

Paramananda Prabhu: Jay Srila Gurudev ki jay!

And I am pretty sure that this…

Потоки нектара [разливаются] сейчас в России, я очень завидую всем. Госвами Махарадж там, Мадхусудан Махарадж, [Бхакти] Лалита [Деви Даси]. Авадхут Махарадж, наверняка, бегает везде и занимается менеджментом, чтобы все чувствовали себя комфортно, [чтобы] фестивали прошли успешно. И скоро они отправляются в Петербург, да?

Преданная: Авадхут Махарадж уже там.

Парамананда Прабху: Уже в Петербурге?

[Неразборчивые реплики.]

Парамананда Прабху: Мадхусудан Махарадж до сих пор в Москве. [Неразборчивые реплики.] А, вообще куда-то поехал… А-а, в проповеднический тур. На самом деле Россия — настолько удачливое место. Удивительно, насколько удачливое место. Столько милости, просто потоки милости.

Captured by Ananta Krishna Das
Edited by Tradish Das


[1] Nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ, rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭavāṭīm / rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ, prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi—“I bow down to the beautiful lotus feet of my spiritual master, by whose causeless mercy I have obtained the supreme Holy Name, the divine mantra, the service of the son of Shachi-mata [Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu], the association of Srila Swarupa Damodara, Rupa Goswami, and his older brother Sanatana Goswami, the supreme abode of Mathura, the blissful abode of Vrindavana, the divine Radha-kunda and Govardhana Hill, and the desire within my heart for the loving service of Sri Radhika and Madhava in Vrindavana.” (Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. “Sri Mukta-charitam”).

[2] А̄cāryyāṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta karhicit / na marttya buddhyāsūyeta, sarva deva-mayo guruḥ—“One should know the Acharya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods” (Shrimad-Bhagavatam, 11.17.27).

 

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Основатель-ачарья: Шрила Б. Р. Шридхар Махарадж
Севаите-Президент-Ачарья: Шрила Б. С. Говинда Махарадж
Преемник Севаите-Президент-Ачарья: Шрила Б. Н. Ачарья Махарадж

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