Nama Om Vishnu paadaaya..
Hari Haraya Naama Krishna …
Jaya Radha Madhava…
Mukham karoti…
Today we are going to read, Fruit of hearing Sridhar Receiving the Boon. Who wants to have some fruits? Haribol! Just by hearing, simply by hearing you can get some special mercy! Is Haridhwani here? Ha! Ha! The devotee Haridhwani? Acintya prabhu said, no. Ha! Ha! Acintya prabhu said, guru maharaj is asking for the devotee Haridhwani from America. Yes! Haridhwani! Nitai Gaur Haribol! Ulu dhwani. In the parikrama, we used to have competition of which group would do the most loud Hari dhwani and ulu dhwani. My dear god brother, Jagajivan prabhu, he was doing this. But he has gone back to Godhead since then. But sometimes the Russian ladies won! So there is no restriction, any lady can do ulu dhwani. Today we had the SGGS meeting, the Sanyasis, Gurus and GBCs Sangha. I had also had some meetings on the Jagannath Puri land project. We have about 25 acres there and so the court gave an order in our favor that they should give us permission to build our temple. So soon we will have our own temple in Puri by Jagannath’s mercy! So today I cycled over 700 cycles. My record in Chennai was 1380! So I still have a long way to go! But I had to be here to give you class. So I had to sacrifice. But this year, Shyamarasika, I have a book on Gaura Mandal Bhumi, and he has been taking photos of the different Sripaats and he got a shaaligram shila worshipped by Vishwanath Chakra Thakur, one of our great acharyas and he also got some manuscripts on palm leaves which we gave to the BRC, Bhaktivedanta Research Centre in Kolkata. We got inspired, that on safari we should visit these Sripaats, which Prabhupad wanted so much to see them maintained and developed. So who is going on safari? You can hear a lot more pastimes, four more sanyasis apart from me, have already signed up, and I will be going as much as I can. So let us read the chapter. Jaya Jaya dhwani! Ha! Ha!
All the assembled vaishnavas began to chant, jai, jai, all glories, all glories! Making Hari dhwani! Gauuuuranga! Haribol! Haribol! Sridhar, he received the benediction. When they heard the benediction that Sridhar received, they began to chant Hari Hari! Jai! Jai! Jai! Jai!
Who can recognize these servants of Lord Caitanya? They have no wealth, no followers and no education! But they have bhakti! Ha! Ha! Haribol! Haribol! It is impossible to identify the characteristics of a vaishnava by material sense perceptions or external symptoms. It is not that one who possesses more wealth is a superior vaishnava, not one who gathers more followers is a superior vaishnava, it is not one who has more knowledge of the scriptures is a superior devotee of Vishnu. The servants of Lord Caitanya may not have the educational followers, academic qualifications, not gather many followers, not have much wealth, and may not be expert in argument and counter argument, but ordinary people have no qualification to understand why they are indifferent to such matters. The servants of Lord Caitanya, consider the service of Sri Caitanya as superior to wealth, followers and knowledge. Therefore, it is impossible for ordinary people to estimate their dignity, glories and greatness. So even we went to one house and there was a host. He started doing a drama, Oh, Krishna you have come, Oh Krishna you have come! Oh! We knew that he was just faking it. So gradually the devotees got up and walked out. He was very upset. Nobody appreciated his transcendental ecstasy, and when he did not have an audience, he gave up. If Krishna was really there, who would care whether people were watching or not. We should not be fooled by some false show, real devotees can tell when some other devotee is experiencing ecstasy. The devotees of Lord Caitanya, when they saw the qualities of Sridhar, they were also crying and they could appreciate that Sridhar was a real devotee. Hare Krishna!
What is the value of education, wealth, beauty, fame, aristocratic family, they simply increase one’s false pride, and at the root, one falls down. So ordinary people they think that wealth, beauty, fame, family prestige, these are the goals of life. The Beatles they got wealth, they got fame, but when they got there, it was not what they wanted. So then they met Prabhupad, and some of them became devotees. George Harrison, he came here to Mayapur. He said he will come here, as long as we would not tell the media he was here. After he left, we told them. He was afraid that he may be assassinated like John Lennon. So how he was blessed to come to Mayapur dham! Haribol! So one of the qualities of a devotee is nishkinchina or akinchina – to have nothing. Once Prabhupad, in the train he was watching some poor people carrying half burnt firewood. It used to be that India had steam engines and they would depend on coal. To light the coal, they would use the wood. So the half burnt wood would be collected by these poor people. Prabhupad was observing that this wood has no commercial value, can’t sell it, half burnt wood. But if you try to take that wood from them they would fight. No, no, it is my wood! So although they have very little, they are not niskinchina. Prabhupad mentioned, how wonderful, how wonderful it is to have nothing?! So the devotee, he sees everything as Krishna’s. Even our body, we offer to Krishna. One time I steeped on a nail and my foot got infected. Somehow Prabhupad found out, he wrote me a letter. You have given your body to guru and Krishna, now you have to take care of it! That is one order that I did not follow so well! Ha! But I had no choice! Before I was trying to help different devotees but now my caretakers tell me that I have to watch out for myself also! My body! Anyway, so the Lord can be easily approached by those who are materially exhausted. But one who is on the path of material progress, trying to improve their wealth education, opulence, their respectable parentage, their bodily beauty, they cannot approach You with sincere feeling. But not understanding this people hanker for wealth, education, beauty, fame and good family. Therefore, the transcendental greed for the service of Lord Caitanya does not find a place, due to their misfortune! Somebody, yesterday or day before that why greed? We should be greedy to get service to Lord Caitanya. Haribol! Haribol!
We are having the kirtan mela starting tomorrow. We should be greedy to hear the holy names and chant the holy names.
That which Sridhar got by selling bananas and banana stems, and that even in millions of days of Brahma, multi-millionaires do not get such a result! Ha! Ha! Haribol! So don’t worry even if don’t have lot of money, you are not the most beautiful person, if you don’t have lot of high education, you could still have Hare Krishna, Lord Caitanya is Lord of all wealth, all beauty, all fame. So the maha yuga is four million thirty-two hundred thousand solar years. That means satya, treta, dvapara and kali. A thousand of such four yugas, is a maha yuga, is one day of Brahma! Ha! Ha! And millions of such days of Brahma, multimillionaires cannot get what Sridhar got! Ha! Sridhar, he was born in a poor brahmin family. He traded in bananas and banana products. But he got the boon from Lord Caitanya that the lords of millions and millions of opulences cannot get in millions of such days of Brahma.
So the materialistic people were falsely proud and envious, absorbed in material enjoyment, they get the fruit of falling down and they don’t know what their future holds. The goal of every living entity is to serve the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. Those who have a strong desire for material enjoyment, come that is not related with Krishna, come under the control of false pride and become envious of devotional minded devotees. People whose hearts are greedy for material enjoyment, ultimately fall down. Narottamadas Thakur said that karma kanda, which is part of the Vedic literature, by which one can enjoy the fruits of his activities, and gyana kanda by which one is able to get impersonal liberation, they are both pots of poison! The lives of those who have a strong thirst by drinking these pots of poison are sure to be ruined! RUINED! People who are under the control of karma kanda, desire to gratify their senses, thereby fall into the cycle of birth and death and increase their aversion to the service of Krishna, by remaining imprisoned within golden cages, or in other words material bodies. This is the living entities’ degradation in the form of considering the body as the self. Krishna gives us certain ways we can have some sense gratification, because being in the material world, there has to be some sense gratification. Even if we don’t want it, it comes. So that way we have prasadam, we have married life, but one should all the situations in such a way that they can increase their attachment for Krishna. they can advance in Krishna consciousness. Bhakti Vinod Thakur is saying that married people talking to their spouses, touching each other, is all auspicious as long as their devotional service also increases. So we should not neglect our bhakti for material enjoyment.
If someone ridicules a saintly person, seeing him as foolish or poor, he gets as a result of his own misdeeds, nija karma doshe, he goes to the hell known as kumbi paakha. Look at the 5th canto. Kumbi paakha, horrible hell! In the Skanda purana, Markandeya speaks to Bhagiratha as follows:
“My dear king, if one derides an exalted devotee, he loses the results of his pious activities, his opulence, his reputation and his sons. Vaishnavas are all great souls, whoever blasphemes them falls down to the hell known as Maha Raurava. He is also accompanied by his forefathers. Whoever kills or blasphemes a vaishnava, whoever is envious of a vaishnava or angry with him and whoever does not offer obeisances, or feel joy upon seeing a vaishnava, certainly falls into a hellish condition.”
Who has the ability, the power to recognize a vaishnava? Although a vaishnava possesses all perfections, he appears to be afflicted. Foolish people who are maddened with worldly wealth and knowledge, cannot recognize a vaishnava. All perfections are within the grip of a vaishnava. But he is indifferent to those perfections, and therefore in the vision of foolish people, he is completely distressed and afflicted. Remember how the neighbors of Kolavecha Sridhar thought that he was chanting the holy name of the Lord all night, because he was hungry to cover the hunger pangs, he was crying out the holy names! Such foolish people!
Sridhar the banana seller is proof of this. He only accepted devotion leaving aside the eight mystical perfections. Normally people are very attached to the material perfections. The eight mystic perfections, and they desire fruitive results. They engage in sense gratification; they are trampled under the feet, by the seemingly poor Sridhar, who obtained the benediction of devotional service. The opulences of freedom from rebirth, mystic perfections, sovereignty in the lower planet systems and the position of Lord Brahma, are the prayers of people who have not realized their real self. But for the vaishnava, who has taken shelter of a self-realized soul, the insignificance of such prayers are naturally understood. Those who receive the opportunity to discuss the pastimes of Sridhar, obtain the prime example of these topics.
How many more verses? 7 they said.
Any questions? Is Iliana (not sure of the name) here? Who are the groups?
Chinese group and a group from Cochin, India.
Is Shiromani here? I heard just now it is Shiromani’s birthday today! We will celebrate with Haribol! Ulu dhwani, Hari dhwani! Guru maharaj sang – Going on safari for another day! chanting, dancing, places of play, all over Gaura Mandala Bhumi!
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
4 March 2019