Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga - The golden volcanoes of divine love.

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Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga - The golden volcanoes of divine love.

 

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LORD BALADEVA'S APPEARANCE DAY

Vrndavana, India, August 15, 2000)

 

Translator: Sripad Ramacandra dasa Adhikari

 

You know the pastime of Sri Baladeva's killing Romaharsana Suta, but

do you know why He did it? The fact is that this Romaharsana Suta

never honored any devotees. He thought, "I am supreme of all. I am

guru of all the 88 thousand rsis assembled here." There were

thousands of devotees present who were superior to him, but he never

gave any respect to them. You know that Baladeva knows all things,

and so He realized this. He at once came to test him. As Romaharsana

Suta was accustomed not to honor any Vaisnava, thinking himself

superior to all, when Baladeva Prabhu arrived he also did not honor

Him. He could not stand up from his position and do pranamas. If

anyone is like this, he is neither qualified to tell hari-katha nor

is he qualified to hear hari-katha. Baladeva Prabhu at once cut him.

He said, "Nonsense, you don't want to respect any of the devotees,

and you think you are superior to them because you are telling hari-

katha and they are hearing."

 

He had never offered pranama to his audience. Quite opposite to this,

Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to offer

pranama to his entire audience. Feeling that they were prominent, he

would tell them, "If you are not here, I cannot tell hari-katha to

anyone. You are like my vipada uddharana bandhu. You are my friends

who are saving me from great danger." If anyone explaining hari-katha

thinks, "None of them know anything", what is this? It is an offence.

 

Although someone may not be speaking hari-katha, still he may be as

qualified as Srila Haridasa Thakura or Srila Gaurkisora dasa babaji.

He may be lakhs times superior to the person telling hari-katha.

Those who are tasting Vaisnava seva, harinama, and hearing of hari-

katha, have more sukriti than anyone. Sometimes we neglect this, but

we should try not to.

 

Baladeva Prabhu also killed Dvivida bandara (gorilla) in Dvaraka.

Dvivida bandara was present at the time of Rama. He had served Him so

much, and he had helped Him to fight against Ravana. However, he had

never given honor to Laksmana. He was thinking, "What has Laksmana

done? Nothing." He did not understand that Laksmanji was always

serving Rama, and in fact He was Rama Himself.

 

Dvivida lived for so long that he was also present at the time of

Krsna. However, because he had the bad association of Bhaumasura,

Maya Dhanava, Kala Yavana, Jarasanda, and all others demons, he

became more and more stupid. He began to see everywhere, in all

devotees, some loophole, some fault, and he used to criticize them.

And again he was finding a 'loophole' in Laksmana, who was now in the

form of Baladeva Prabhu. He became naked and began to show off his

body to the young women with whom Baladeva was enjoying pastimes. In

that condition he began to criticize Baladeva. He said, "How can you

respect Balarama? Balarama is a lampata, a very lusty person. He has

Revati as His wife, and He is so much attached to her."

 

Anyone can be like this if he has the association of those who

criticise Vaisnavas. Such a person will have no eyes to see the

qualities of Vaisnavas. Even a kanistha is superior to him. One

should try to be very humble with all, and especially one should not

to see faults or 'loopholes' in any Vaisnavas. If we start finding

faults in Vaisnavas, then we will come to a state like Dvivida

gorilla. We will also start finding fault in our guru, and also in

akhanda-guru-tattva, that is, Balarama or Nityananda Prabhu. Even

those who were killed by Baladeva prabhu, like Dvivida bandara and

Romaharsan Suta, were fortunate. We are even worse than Dvivida and

Romaharsana Suta because we don't have this opportunity to be killed

by Baladeva. We are not so fortunate, and we are still cultivating so

many

aparadhas.

 

What does Baladeva Prabhu do? He plows. What does He plows? He

cultivates. In Vraja He is cultivates the field of the eternal living

entities, the jivas. He is preparing them or producing them. He is

creating or manifesting the sandhini-sakti.

 

Then, in Vaikuntha, in the form of Maha Sankarsana, Baladeva is

cultivating the field of the eternal associates of Vaikunthadipati,

meaning Narayana. As Karanodakasayi Visnu, Baladeva is cultivating

(creating) all the tatastha-sakti living entities, those who are fit

to go both to the spiritual abode and to the material abode.

 

Krsna is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha. This word actually consists of three

words: sat, cit, and ananda. Krsna Himself is considered to be the

predominating Deity of cit. Cit means jnana, which, when condensed or

intensified, converts into bhava; and this bhava goes up to the stage

of mahabhava. Baladeva Prabhu is the predominating Deity of sat. Sat

means existence, and all existence comes from Balarama Prabhu. Even

the existence of Krsna's body is due to Balarama. Radharani is the

predominating Deity of ananda, and all these three are toether sat,

cit, and ananda in Krsna.

 

Although all these three are in Krsna together, they are also

separate. This is Krsna's inconceivable potency. Each and every

potency of Krsna can take a separate form. His drsti, His sight, also

becomes personified. His capacity to see is His potency, and it can

also take a form. In our case, this potency is invisible, but in

Krsna's case the same potency can take a form. Drsti, the potency to

see, can also become personified. This is true also in the case of

Radharani, Her rupa is Rupa manjari and Her sight is Nayana-mani

Manjari. In this way, although the sac-cid-ananda potencies are in

Krsna, when they take forms they become Balarama and Radharani.

 

As Ananga Manjari Balarama serves Radharani in the conjugal mellow.

In Radha Kunda the central and most important kunja is Svananda

sukadha kunja. This kunja belongs to Ananga Manjari, and in this

kunja she always arranges nice paraphernalia for the pastimes of

Radha-Krsna.

 

In Rama-lila this same Baladeva was Laksmana, where He was forced to

perform many types of pastimes that He did not wish to perform. At

that time He was the younger brother, and He could not say anything

to His elder brother. He had to perform one fire test for Sita, and

He had to banish Her. In Gaura-lila He came back as Lord Nityananda,

the older brother, not younger brother, and He broke the ekadanda of

Mahaprabhu.

 

Sometimes Baladeva Prabhu appears black. Why? When He came from

Dvaraka, and He found the gopis so much absorbed in Krsna, then He

also began feeling separation from Krsna, absorbed Himself in Krsna,

and became black.

 

Respect all the Vaisnavas and develop your tendency to serve. Try to

serve each and every Vaisnava. Cultivate this taste of serving.

Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja had engaged some of his disciples in

cultivating the seeds of eggplants. Why? Because they were not fit to

continue chanting throughout the entire day. They had wanted to learn

so much from him, but upon accepting them as disciples, he asked them

to cultivate a field of eggplants. When Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

went there, they complained, "Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja is so

close to you. Please ask him something for us. We have left our homes

to learn something about Krsna consciousness and chanting and hari-

katha. Instead of giving us hari-katha he is asking us to do this

field cultivation." Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura felt their pulse and

replied, "He has done correctly. This is your bhakti; this is your

Krsna consciousness cultivation. Because all of us are not fit to

continue chanting all day, we require to work, and we should serve

according to the instructions given by Vaisnavas and Gurudeva."

 

Today is also Raksa-bandhana. We bind rakhi (a very fancy cloth

bracelet) to Krsna. Earlier, this festival was practiced differently

from today. We bind rakhi to Krsna, or to Balarama, so that they will

protect us. They are our real protectors. Anantadeva is our real

protector. This was the purpose of this festival. During the reign of

one Muhammedan leader, the Muhammedans were inflicting so much

atrocity on the Indian women. Many Indian women accepted powerful

kings as their protectors. They sent their rakhi to them and

said, "Please bind this rakhi and protect us." Since that time this

festival has taken place: that a sister will bind a rakhi around the

wrist of a brother who will protect her. The protector, however, is

not, in fact, a brother. The protector is actually Balarama. We can

also take Gurudeva as our protector from unwanted activities and

mentalities, aparadhas etc.

 

We can bind this rakhi to Gurudeva, and we should have this belief in

our heart that in order to serve our Gurudeva we can kill the whole

world. It is not that you go and start killing the whole world, but

this must be the emotion and feeling in your heart. Whoever does not

have guru-nistha cannot progress. This does not mean that because I

am your guru I am asking and persuading you to serve me, but this is

what I am seeing from our guru parampara. Srila Prabhupada used to

say about Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja: "When I approached

him to take initiation, he refused me. He made a pretext that I had

so much knowledge, but in fact he was saying, 'You are so much proud

of being learned.' So he wanted to break my pride, and he refused to

give me initiation. My whole pride was collapsed and I began a fast.

I vowed that 'I will die now. I will die.' Then he gave me

initiation."

 

Similarly, my Gurudeva served Prabhupada so earnestly. In one night

he changed a graveyard into a garden. Whenever he used to talk about

his Gurudeva, he could not utter the words 'Srila Prabhupada', and he

used to weep bitterly. We see that this does not take place in our

case. He was so much dedicated to his Gurudeva.

 

If someone is criticizing one's Gurudeva and the disciple remains

quiet, then he is not more than an impotent eunuck. When our Gurudeva

started Ratha-yatra in Navadvipa, no one criticized him. When he left

this world, however, a very highly advanced devotee spoke something

against Ratha-yatra in Navadvipa. The day I heard it I could not

sleep at night. I was restless and so much agitated. Soon after that

I wrote an article in our magazine, and that article created chaos,

havoc and very great agitation on the other side. Hence there was a

fight, and that fight lasted for an entire year. If we do not do

these things, we are not doing mano-bhista seva, service to the inner

heart's desire of Sri Gurudeva. We should establish our Gurudeva's

principles and, when any opposition comes, we should defeat it.