20140403 Śrī Navadvīpa Maṇḍala Parikramā Adhivāsa @ Śrī Yogapīṭha

Śrī Navadvīpa Maṇḍala Parikramā Adhivāsa @ Śrī Yogapīṭha

Type Of Talk:

Parikrama

Location:

Sridham Mayapur / India

Date:

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Collection:

Inspiration series - 2014

Audio player:

Sri Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama Adivas @ Sri Yogapitha

Nama Om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale Shrimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine namaste sarasvate devegaura-vani-pracharine Nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashcatya-desha-tarine

nama om vishnu-padaya krsna-preshthaya bhu-tale srimate Bhaktivedanta Swami iti namine namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim yat-kripa tam aham vande shri-gurum dina-taranam Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Iswaram

HH Lokanath Maharaj said that parikrama will be a life changing experience. But for me this hearing his words, seeing the sadhus, seeing all these devotees is already a life changing. What to speak of what follows. So many times we heard we are not this body. But somehow today when Lokanath Maharaj said “body is dead, always dead, it’s just the presence of atma that makes it looks alive”, oh that it’s true. Interesting way to think about. Prabhupad once said in Kolkata airport “these are all living dead”. Anyway when you are on the parikrama when you hear the different speakers speak, when you hear Prahlad Nandan Maharaj, when you hear whoever it is, may not be a Maharaj, may be a Prabhupad disciple, some senior devotees; somehow it penetrates the heart deeply. And what the chanting, the parikrama we do, that effect goes to the entire universe.

Now why we are here today? I think you heard that this place is the Yogapitha and here Lord Caitanya was appeared. So we start our parikrama from this place and we end our parikrama here. But because we have so many parties only one party walks here. The other parties go different places. So tomorrow we go to Godruma dvip. We skip Antardvip and Simantadvip. Last day we are in Simantadvip and Antardvip. So anyway here the devotees hear the childhood pastimes sankirtan pastimes of the Lord. So this is to make our official start so from now on we are in parikrama. And then we will meet all the other groups at the Mayapur temple a week from now. Of course we also see them till tomorrow then we split up.

So Navadvip dham is described like a lotus, the center I don’t know how many of you have seen the lotus. So the center is like a roller. And then this lotus has eight petals around. Eight plus one how many that equals? You are mathematicians and how many islands are there is Navadvip? You all are also experts of the dham. So this is the center island. Around it nine islands. So we start here we go around and then we come here again. That completes our parikrama. So why we are here, we do our sankalpa that means our determination to do Navadvip parikrama. Is Bhadracaru here? So now in the center of the lotus just like the center of this universe is Lord Brahma. So in the center of this Navadvip dham comes Lord Brahma, he comes praise the Lord. Now what to pray? He chants the Holy name of Lord Gauranga. And so that way he prays. So even by chanting Lord Gauranga’s name once Lord Nityananda says, you can burn up more sins that you can do. Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga!

Lord Brahma was doing that meditation. Normally we all clear away your sins and you go back and do more sins. That’s called elephant bath. Clean up, then come up, then take dirt and throw on their back. But we don’t want to do that. We want to go on developing and to achieve the love for Krsna. And Brahma he came and he was meditating on this holy name. Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! I can go on chanting but I shouldn’t take too much time.

So Lord Caitanya appeared to Lord Brahma and He asked “why are you calling me”? Lord Caitanya He is always present in the dham. Sometimes His pastimes are visible and sometimes they are not visible. That’s called prakat lila and aprakat lila. So in His aprakat lila He appeared to Lord Brahma. He asked “what do you want”. Brahma had just stolen the calves and cowherd boys and he was humbled by Lord Krsna. So here he was praying that “although my half of life is over still I am offensive. So I want to participate in your upcoming pastimes of Lord Gauranga and I want to get free from my offensive nature. I want to develop pure love for you. Please have your mercy on me”. Lord Caitanya said “tatastha ha. You will take birth in a non-Hindu family. This will teach you humility. And you will chant three hundred thousand times the Holy name a day. That will purify you and give you love for Krsna. And you will be my associate. You will be named as Haridas. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

This morning someone read to me a short pastime of our previous our Grandfather Guru Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. It was just before Janmastami, in 1905. At that time it was flooded here and so the only way to reach Mayapur was by boat. So Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur he was somewhere else nearby. So then he heard that the deity was not getting any milk. He felt very bad. He thought I should somehow get milk to the deity. Next day Landlord had sent a boat with all kind of milk products to the deities: milk, yogurt, buttermilk, butter and so when the Pujari came and reported to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur how the Landlord has sent a boat full of milk products, and then Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur he felt even worse. He came and prayed to the deities; “forgive me for desiring such a thing that I impelled you to go out and search someone to send milk products here. So forgive me for bothering you. Short pastime it shows his intimate relationship with Krsna.

So the sankalpa is ready? Are you ready to make this determination? Alright. The place this side here is birth place of Lord Caitanya, behind there is a Shiva temple here, you heard about that. And then there is the original deities installed by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and the deities of Lord Narsimhadev and Gaur Gadadhara and mother of Bhakti Vinod Thakur is underneath Gaur Gadadhar. Little in the front. So you can circle and see all these deities and head back after this. And the co presidents of the parikrama are HH Lokanath Maharaj and my humble self, I and Praghosh prabhu are the co presidents of the whole festival, Managing President is Bhakti Purusottama Swami, he does all the work but we have people who have badges which say can I help you. But in case they can’t help you, tell me. I will try to help you.