Preparing Ourselves for Parikrama

ext we will go to Navadvipa Dham Parikrama (circumambulation) on the seventeenth of March. It is as per the desire of the devotees. I shall start from here to Navadvipa because Parikrama of Navadvipa Dham will start from the nineteenth March and the twenty fifth of March is the advent anniversary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The next day, there will be a great festival and also the annual function of Vishva Vaishnava Raja Sabha. Along with that, the Centennial function of our most revered Gurudeva will be celebrated in a huge way. There will be one hundred and eight Mridangas in the Kirtan; not two, three or four, there will be one hundred and eight Mridangas from different places and there will be musical parties from Assam, Punjab etc. There will be so many devotees coming from different places. On the nineteenth a procession will start from Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. It will be huge; we have never heard of this. Devotees from Bombay are organizing this and their main figure is Madhusudan Maharaj. If you come there then only you will be able to see it.

Now eighteenth March is Adhivasa Tithi. What is the meaning of Adhivasa? It is a preliminary function before a solemn ceremony. Another meaning of Adhivasa is prior preparation. We have to prepare ourselves on how we are to perform Parikrama. In regard to this, we are to hear from the devotees, the sadhus, on the eighteenth, one day prior to the Navadvipa Dham Parikrama. We are doing Parikrama but of the family; round the material relations. This will increase our attachment to the non-eternal relations. It will be the cause of our bondage. How can you get deliverance from this bondage? For that we have to circumambulate Navadvipa Dham. We may say, “Oh, I had been to Navadvipa Dham. I saw Navadvipa Dham. It is near Kolkata about seventy-eighty miles.” But by this physical body we cannot enter into Navadvipa Dham. We think we entered into Navadvipa Dham or Vrindavan Dham but they are not the part of India, or the part of Uttara Pradesh. Dham descends in this world.

Supreme Lord is All Existence, All Knowledge and All Bliss. He is a transcendental spiritual form. His realm is also transcendental. How can we see that by these material gross sense organs? This body is non-eternal. It has got birth and death. Surely it will die. Nobody can live in this world eternally. There are six hundred crores of human beings in this world. After one hundred and fifty years nobody here now will remain (in the same body). New people will come. Then again birth and death. As this body is not eternal, all the sense organs are not eternal, whatever you see with their help is also non-eternal but you are giving much importance to these things, observational and experimental time.

If you can actually perform Parikrama, you will be released from the bondage. Our Guru Maharaj used to give one example in this regard. Do children or young people fly kites at your place? I think they do. At our place also. There are different kinds of kites; paper kites, cloth kites etc. Now when you fly a kite, the thread is getting released and the kite goes up and if you want to pull the kite back to you then you have to roll the reel in the opposite direction and the thread is rolled back in the reel. Both the movements are there. In one movement the thread gets released and in another movement it gets rolled in, wrapped up. Like that, when we engage our sense organs, mind, intelligence and everything for our body or bodily relations then our attachment to non-eternal relations will increase more and more and that causes bondage in this world. How to get rid of this bondage? You have to now get released from this bondage. You have to get emancipated. How to get emancipated from this bondage? For that you have to perform Parikrama. You have to engage your sense organs, mind, intelligence and everything for the service of Navadvipa Dham. The transcendental Navadvipa Dham, the spiritual realm is one with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the most munificent form of Godhead. Navadvipa Dham is all merciful. Without the grace of Navadvipa Dham you cannot perform Vraja Dham Parikrama. You will not be able to see Vraja Dham. By the grace of Navadvipa Dham, by the grace of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, you will get that sort of ability, transcendental sense organs, transcendental eyes to see Vraja Mandal Dham. If you perform Parikrama by submitting to devotees, the pure devotees who have dedicated their lives to the service of Sri Krishna, Gauranga Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, who have appeared in this very Kaliyuga, the black-age, then you will get the grace of the Dham.

First I had no desire to go outside India. You have already heard about it. But when the devotees of North India approached me repeatedly to request to go outside India, I thought, what benefit will I get by going outside? If I die there then I shall be again born there. I did not want to go. They were repeatedly insisting. Then I said that our Guru Maharaj left us; it is our greatest misfortune. Next, I have got my Shiksha Guru, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaj. I shall approach him and speak to him in this regard. I thought Puri Goswami Maharaj is very strict in ritualistic performances and all this, so he will not accept the proposal for my going outside India. I thought, when I shall speak to him, he will say, “No, you should not go outside India”.

I submitted my prayer to Srila Puri Goswami Maharaj. That time he was at Gopinath Gaudiya Math. I prayed to him, “All the devotees are pressing me to go outside India. What benefit will I get? Do you support it?”

Srila Puri Goswami Maharaj, “Yes, you should go”.

I was astounded. “Why?” [I asked]

“Because this is the order of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This is a special Kaliyuga. Mahaprabhu does not advent in all Kaliyugas. In the Dvapara-yuga of twenty eighth Chatur-yuga of seventh Manavantara, Krishna appears and plays pastimes with His own Personal Associates but does not give that prema, sweet love, transcendental love to anybody. But He appears in the next Kaliyuga, taking the form, transcendental spiritual form and mood of worship of Radharani; outside devotee and inside Krishna, to taste His own sweetness as well as to distribute this Divine Love to all. Not limited to India only, in this very Kaliyuga He wants to give it to all. You are an atomic particle of His taṭasthā potency (marginal potency). You are His eternal servant. If you want to satisfy Him you have to act according to His orders. You have to inform this to all whether they come or not, you should not think about it. You should go. Then He will be satisfied. Your Guruvarga will be satisfied. This love should not be confined only to India. You should give it to all because it is the desire of the Supreme Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu,

pṛthivī paryanta āche yata deśa-grāma
sarvatra sañcāra haibeka mora nāma
(Chaitanya Bhagavata 3.4.126)

“My name will pervade every village and country in the world.”

That is the order. Our Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Siddhantha Sarasvati Goswami Thakur also wants the same thing. So, you should go.”

I was astounded. What is this? He has ordered me to go. Next year again I went. What can I do?

Puri Goswami Maharaj, “I have already said. Why are you thinking? You have got enough knowledge of scripture.”

He is persuading me to go. Three years consecutively he said so. Then he wrote a letter to me and the last time I went to him and prayed, “Will you take my responsibility? There is opulence, so many attractive things, worldly things. I renounced my family life, parents for the service of Krishna. If my future life is lost there then I shall be indebted to my parents. By serving Krishna I shall be rescued from the debts. I have duties to parents and to others. Will you take my responsibility?”

“Your Gurudeva will take responsibility”

He did not say he will take the responsibility. He said, “You should go”.

Then I was compelled and got my passport, visa, etc. and as you all know I travelled outside for four to five years. Now I have some heart difficulty. So, all the friends are advising that I should not undertake a hectic tour. It is the doctor’s advice, “If you undertake a hectic tour it will have a bad effect upon your health. Your heart is not good. You should not speak at a stretch.” All these things. They are giving me a warning. Any moment I may die. Nobody can remain in this world eternally. If I go outside or I do not go outside, I cannot stop my death. Death will come inevitably. When my actions of this birth will be finished, this body will automatically go. This our Gurudeva used to say.

Now here you see, to serve Navadvipa Dham, you have to have transcendental ego, spiritual ego. That is important.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

In deity worship (archan) also bhūta-śuddhi (purification) is required. You have to purify yourself. How?

nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir nāpi vaiśyo na śūdro
nāhaṁ varṇī na ca gṛha-patir no vanastho yatir vā
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramānanda-pūrnāmṛtābdher
gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ
(Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya 13.80)

“I am not Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, or Shudra. I am not Brahmachari, Grihasta, Vanaprasta, or Sanyasi. I am the servant of the servants of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna in whom all kinds of delightful relations exist, all kinds of bliss exist.”

That sort of ego should be there. I am not Brahmana, Vaishya or Kshatriya; I am not of India, I am not of this world. I am not of America or Russia, I am of Krishna; Krishna is transcendental, His marginal potency, the real self is also transcendental. You will find this in Gita. The soul is also real, eternal. It is said in the Gita:

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2.20)

“There is no birth or death to the ātmā (soul). It is not that He has come into being at a certain time in the past and he will exist for a certain time in future. It is an eternally existing principle for whom there is no birth and death. No one or nothing can kill him. He has got no relation with this mortal body.”

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 15.7)

“That conscious principle is part of the potency of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. Potency should remain for the possessor of the potency. My potency works for me, the Supreme Lord’s potency will work for Him.”