[Nectar] Navadvip Mandal Parikrama -Adivas day

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Written by gopijan ballab das

 

The 7-day pilgrimage to the Navadvipa Mandala and the pastime places

of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by walk, in the association of

vaisnavas is a spiritually enriching experience. Srila Bhakti Vinod

Thakur initiated the Parikrama, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarawati Thakur

developed it and Srila Prabhupad made this vision of acharyas into a

reality. The devotees participating in the parikrama are constantly

increasing every year. Two parikrama parties, an international group

and a Bengali group of devotees go in Parikrama and on the last day of

the parikrama, there will be a Mahamilan of two parties at the

Yogapith with ecstatic kirtan . Today is the Parikrama Adivas

day .The devotees went in a kirtan procession to Yogapith led by HH

Jayapataka Swami, HH Lokenath Swami, HH Umapati Swami, HH Bhakti

Siddhanta Swami. All the devotees danced at a wonderful harinam led by

HH Lokenath Swami at the birthplace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the

deliverer of fallen souls of Kaliyuga , floating in the waves of

ecstasy.

Maharajas gave an inspiring talk on the significance of performing

Navadvip Mandal Parikrama .

HH Jayapataka swami said that Yogapith is the place where the Supreme

Lord touches the earth or it is the place of contact where Lord

entered this universe with all His spiritual potency. It is situated

in the centre of the lotus like nine islands and is called as

Antardvip. It is in this very place where Lord Brahma performed

tapasya calling out the name "Gauranga" after the incident of stealing

the cows of vraja and subsequently surrendered to the Lord for his

mercy. LordGauranga appeared and asked him the reason for his calling

out to Him. Brahma replied that he had committed many offenses and

almost half of his life is over. So, now he wants to get purified, be

bestowed with the love of Godhead and freed from all offenses. The

Lord assured him that he will be born in a non-vedic family as

Haridas so that he will be always humble and chant 300,000 holy names

and eventually be purified. He will be one of his associate when

descends on this earth. Maharaja further added that each of the nine

island represent one process of devotional service .In this yogapith,

the beautiful deities of Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Mahaprabhu with

Laxmipriya devi and Visnupriya devi , Panca Tattva with Lord

Jagannath , Jaganath Mishra, Saci devi , Lord Lakshmi Narasimha, Gaur

-Gadhadhar and Vriddha Shiva, the protector of holy dham are there to

bless all of us and asked the devotees to take their blessings. This

place is so special that entire Adi lila tok place, Srinivas Acharya

stayed here and Ishana took Visnupriya devi on Parikrama and many

pastimes had taken place . So, the devotees are so fortunate to be on

this day to participate in this wonderful program.

HH Umapati Swami quoted that when he got initiation, he was waiting to

receive some name of Krishna but when Srila Prabhupad gave him name

as Umapati , he asked Srila Prabhupad, what is the significance of

this name? Prabhupada replied that "Now, you are servant of servant".

As Lord Shiva is servant of servant, so it is our duty to take his

blessings to become better servant of servants. He added that this

year the festival is special and Maharaja could see the developing

city, the fulfillment of Srila Prabhupada's desire in Mayapur and also

feel the loving relationships between devotees. He exclaimed that no

place in the world can be compared to Sri Mayapur. Actually, it is an

offense to see holy dhama as part of this material world or belong to

this earth as Mayapur dham in the earth and in the spiritual world are

all same. He assured that anyone who takes part in this pilgrimage

will forget everything other than the pilgrimage for one week and this

would be the high point of your life.

HH Lokenath Swami cited and explained the verse "Ajano lamnbhita

bhujau kanavadatau....... " as description of the Lord with long arms

reaching to the knees and the one who is having golden complexion and

the founding father of Sankirtan, the Lord with beautiful Lotus eyes

and maintainer of the entire creation and to that Gauranga, we offer

our obeisences. He said it is more important to feed the soul and best

way is to chant "Hare Krishna " and this Navdvip Mandal parikrama

gives lot of chance to feed the soul. A beautiful point that Maharaj

added was that each one of us, the time first we came in contact with

Mahamantra, that time two things has started. One is his journey back

home back to Godhead and other is journey to Mayapur. Those who are

here, are the souls touched by Gauranga's mercy. When He appeared

here, He brought His own abode and He is always here. There is no time

that Mayapur did not exist or will not exist- It is eternal and he

welcomed everyone to such a wonderful place in this universe.T his

Yogapith is filled with the affectionate voice of Saci mata calling

out "Nimai, Nimai" all the time. All this sweetness of the dham will

be revealed to us if we go deeper into the absorption of the holy dham

forgetting one's body and mind and engage totally in hearing and

chanting. Philosophy behind this parikrama is that " We walk in order

to hear and talk the glories , qualities and pastimes of Gauranga and

experience and develop a close interaction with the dham. We come to

the dham with Sraddha and by the mercy of the dham, our Nishta

increases. Maharaj said the Sankirtan will be complete only all the

three aspects - Singing, playing instruments and dancing- and this

parikrama gives chance for all the fortunate souls assembled here to

perform such Sankirtana for full 7 days. They are fortunate who walk

through these parikrama because "Those who walk through Navadvipa

actually walk out of the material world- walk back home back to

Godhead. "

HH Bhaktidhira Damodar Swami, a disciple of HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami ,

narrated the beautiful childhood pastime of Nimai with a puppy dog.

Once, Nimai bought a puupy to play with and Saci Mata scolded him for

bringing a puppy into the house, an act not befitting for a

Brahmana's son. When Nimai went to the ganges to take bath, puppy had

gone and Young Nimai cried for the puppy. In the mean time, the puppy

had gone to streets of Navadvipa where it started chanting in the

Kirtana and left its body. Everyone gathered witnessed the soul

reaching back to Godhead. In this way, Mahaprabhu gave mercy to this

dog.So, simply by the touch and mercy of Gauranga , a dog could be

liberated, so we as human beings should be thankful for our fortune to

relish and hear His wonderful pastime and in this way, get the mercy

of the Lord.

HG Vrajendranandan Prabhu cautioned about the offenses to the

Vaisnavas, dhamvasis and even to the living creatures in the dham . We

should attentively engage in all the activities of hearing, chanting

etc so that we become purified to get the unlimited mercy of the holy

dham. We should understand that the holyname is Krishna Himself , the

deity is Krishna Himself and the dham is the Supreme Personlity

Himself and in this way, we will get the best benefit out of such

parikrama. Most fragrant garland that one may wear is the garland of

the verse "trinad api sunicena". One should be unlimitedly fortunate

to participate in this parikrama as one particle dust has the potency

to be able to deliver the entire universe. Although we may not see the

unmanifest pastime of the Lord here, definitely our enthusiasm to

commit ourselves to our Guru will definitely grow more.

HG Makkanlal Prabhu said that this place is non-different from Goloka

and the harinam is descended from Goloka as " Golokera prema dhana

harinama sankirtana" . Actually if we chant hare Krishna, it is

understood that jamuna is flowing from our lips, Sri Radha-Krishna is

dancing in our tongue and to realize this we should become more

pure . We cannot appreciate the holydham as we suffer from cataract

and so, srila Prabhupada once said, " I have come here to perform

operation" That is the significance of the verse "ajnana timirandasya

"Actually dham is the hladini potency of the Lord and so, everyone

should engage more in devotional service so that the holy dham will be

reveled to them by the mercy of Guru and Krishna.

HH Bhakti Siddhanta Swami said all the devotees performing this

wonderful pilgrimage experience more rasas or mellows and will be a

part of special history- history of pastimes of Mahaprabhu as

Mahaprabhu is still here and his dust is still in the air. This is the

time to make our resolutions strong .JIva daya, Vaisnava seva and Nam

seva are the essence and meditation of this parikrama.

Devotees visit Bharadwaja Tila but this time as the path is muddy due

to recent rains, devotees had darshan from the Yogapith and marched

back to ISKCON temple, with their hearts filled up with transcendental

joy to relish more nectar during parikrama.

 

 

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