20210410 Virtual Spiritual Safari Day 2 (Bangladesh)

We have come with more than a thousand devotees for the Bangladesh Safari. Thank you for the Swamibagh temple in Dhaka. Haribol! ISKCON Nrsingdi temple. Haribol! Chāppānna bhoga! Feast! 108 items! All the Safari devotees, they have to take this prasāda! Hare Kṛṣṇa! I am busy eating the prasāda! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

So I am offering my obeisances to all the Vaiṣṇavas – vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca/ patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. We heard from His Holiness Bhakti-vighna-vināśana Narasiṁha Mahārāja, the glories of Rūpa and Sanātana, but what is the connection with Bangladesh? That was missing. That we have a Rūpa and Sanātana śmṛti-tīrtha, that is about 2 kilometers from the birthplace of Rūpa and Sanātana, and according to the Vaiṣṇava culture, a śrīpāṭ is some holy person’s appearance has a radius of 3 miles, so Sanātana śmṛiti-tīrtha is on the edge of that distance. Their parents were landlords, they were like zamindars. They had a large tract of land and that land is famous for having 96 Hindu villages! So the villagers have donated us about ten acres in that land which was the land of the parents of Rūpa and Sanātana. So, we made an āśrama and temple there, we call that Rūpa and Sanātana śmṛti-tīrtha, the place where we remember the glories of Rūpa and Sanātana. That is in between Jessore and Khulnā. You go from the Benapole border and you can go to that land.

Also, the Kheturī-grāma which is on the bank of the Padmā river, the Ganges is divided into two – Bhagīratī which goes by the side of Māyāpur to the land of Sagara Island, called Gaṅgā Sāgara and there, there is a deity of Kapila deva. So, there the sons of Sagara Mahārāja had acted disrespectfully with Kapila, so he burnt them into ashes. So in order to deliver them, Bhagīratha Mahārāja brought the Ganges down to earth from the heavenly planets. So at the place where the Ganges goes south, another part of the Ganges goes into Bangladesh. That is called the Padmā river. And there if a devotee bathes there, he will get love of Kṛṣṇa, and if someone who is envious of the Vaiṣṇavas bathes there, he gets into trouble. So you have a dichotomy. Some people get prema and some get problems. So Lord Caitanya left love of Kṛṣṇa there in the Padmā river and so Narottama dāsa bathed there, he got love of Kṛṣṇa. So, if you look on Kheturī-grāma on YouTube you can see some videos. As it is already explained the first Gaur Pūrṇimā festival was held there and all the associates of Lord Caitanya who were still present went there. Narottama dāsa, he sang kīrtana in separation and it was so thick that the people were feeling they were dancing on ghee, in slow motion. All of a sudden Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, and all His associates who had left the world, They came back. They joined in kīrtana with the devotees and everybody became ecstatic! Gaurāṅga! They got lot of bliss this way. So this Kheturī-grāma is very special of all these regions. You went to Advaita’s birthplace, Puṇa-tīrtha, nearby there is Mādhavendra Purī’s birthplace. And we are trying to get that. I heard today, when we went to visit Puṇa-tīrtha by internet and they said they were going to try and they had hope that they would get it.

We have many places in Bangladesh which are places of Lord Caitanya’s associates. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi he is the third branch of the Caitanya tree. And he appeared in Bangladesh near Chottagrama and if we got ISKCON Puṇḍarīka dhāma on YouTube you can see Puṇḍarīka dhāma. I don’t know whether Marīci has the video where they have the deities of Varṣabhānavī Murāri and Lord Gaurāṅga. Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi is also known as Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi. He was Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja in Kṛṣṇa-līlā. So since Rādhārāṇī is Kṛṣṇa’s consort, so Her father is His father. He would call him as bāp. And he became the guru of Gadādhara. Gadādhara is an avatāra of Rādhārāṇī. So Vṛṣabhānu who is the father of Rādhā, as Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi with gad guru. So in his birthplace, we have Megalagrāma and Chottagrāma. Nearby there about 500 m is the āśrama of Vāsudeva Datta and Mukunda Datta. We built a temple for Vāsudeva Datta and a temple of Mukunda Datta is still there. We have also got their birthplace which is about 200 meters from there. Like that, various holy places are there in Bangladesh. The appearance place of Śacīdevī, of Jagannātha Miśra, and Murāri Gupta, Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, many holy places. And devotees have like a 300-years old in Comilla of Lord Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā. The Deities are still there. Many places to see in Bangladesh. And this morning when I gave class, I met many devotees from Bangladesh who listened to the class. And in Chittagong there are two temple, one in Parvataka and one in Nandankanana, and then we saw Sylhet which is near the place of Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra, there were many devotees there. That is a temple on a hillock. So like that we have about 108 temples in Bangladesh. In North Bengal, in Thakuragaon and all over. So we are very happy that the devotees could visit some of the places in Bangladesh. Somehow the leaders there, the devotees are very dedicated to get all the holy places. The birthplace of Haridāsa Ṭhākura in Benapole, we have a place, which is very close to the birthplace. So like that many temples, Locanadasa Ṭhākura, many temples in Bangladesh. We thank all the devotees for preserving the heritage of Lord Caitanya. And we thank all the devotees who have come on this Bangladesh safari. Hare Kṛṣṇa!