♦ Golden Reflections ♦

Foreword

By His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj Founder President Acaryya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Sridham Nabadwip

This Nabadwip Dham, on the banks of the Ganges, has such great value, especially for the realisation of our highest self, as recommended by Sriman Mahaprabhu. It is the land of love, sweetness, charm and beauty — all are synonymous. It is heart-capturing. Our real existence is neither in our knowledge nor our power, but in our heart. Really, our proper identification is with our heart. So, in which direction our heart is moving, that is the all-important factor in our life. It is a heart-transaction.

Mahaprabhu recommended: "Don't rely on your knowledge, reasoning capacity, or power, but the heart-transaction is all-important in you. The inner factor of your existence is in your heart. So try to guide your heart towards sweetness — towards home. And your real home is not here where we are wandering around with no certainty throughout eight million four hundred thousand species according to our karmma. But only in the human birth, with the help of the Divine Agent, can we go back to our home: to home and affection."

Home is there, where the environment will take care of us, our fortune, and our comfort, independent of our consideration. The affectionate paraphernalia there will help us very affectionately and lovingly. So we should make good use of this opportunity to go back to God, back to home, our sweet, sweet home.

Mahaprabhu recommended the path: "With the help of the Divine Agent and the revealed Scriptures, try to go there yourself. Your present position is uncertain. After death it is not fixed where you will be carried by the current of your previous karmma, therefore try to utilise for the best whatever time is available before your death. You have free-will, therefore those days before your death are to some degree in your hand to use, so that time you must utilise with the utmost care for God-realisation." There is nothing so important as this for all of us.

The advice in common for us all is: "Give up all your duties and jump into the one duty, to go back home. There, everything is full and complete, and everyone will look after your real interest. So you must go there: back to God, back to home." And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came here only for the purpose of telling us this: yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa — "Whoever you meet, talk to him about Krsna, and both parties — the hearer and the speaker — will be benefitted. By this cultivation of Krsna consciousness, both parties will be benefitted permanently." So, only in Krsna consciousness will our time and energy be best utilised.

Other things are superficial, but the serving spirit is the deepest part within us. That is the deepest transaction: a transaction with the environment in the deepest plane. And that serving spirit is divided into two. In the lower position it has some calculation, such as: "I must do this, I must not do that; for I need to attain so many things." But in the highest section, there is no calculation based on any selfish transaction. There the sacrifice is so great and so complete — so perfect — and the servitors have such deep connection with the Absolute that they do not care for themselves in the least. Through love and sacrifice they come to have such a deep connection. Their transaction with the Absolute is all-affection, all-loving.

Mahaprabhu Himself is the Absolute. He came as an Acaryya to preach about the highest destination of the jiva (the soul). He disclosed that the highest attainment is the greatest sacrifice: we must "die to live." Our ego — our entire egoistic individuality — must die a wholesale death, and then we will find we are in such a place: in the family of God, the family of the Absolute. We shall be amongst our family members, and they are not guided by any law, but only by affection and love. Our highest fulfilment of life is achieved neither through attaining knowledge nor power, but through affection and love. No science and no power can achieve that.

At present science is serving power. So many scholars are investigating and discovering so many things, but that scientific research is really subservient to power because it is trying to compete for the domination of this lower world of selfish sense-satisfaction. But the fulfilment of our heart's satisfaction is in the Krsna conception of the Absolute. He is the Lord of love, beauty, ecstacy and happiness. That is the innermost necessity of us all. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "Go straight to Vrndavan by this special train. Don't try to break your journey anywhere, for that will only be a loss of time and energy." In addition He said, "Whoever you find, give them Krsna consciousness. It is just as in a famine-stricken country, whoever you will find you will give some food to save him, but this is a hundred times more urgent — so you are to inject Krsna consciousness. Tell them, 'A loving Lord is above your head seeing everything — you only have to connect with Him and His servants. His servants are very, very kind and magnanimous. Somehow get some connection with them, and try to go to your home. Here, nowhere is home. Your home is only there."

For example, a madman may be wandering here and there, but if he is cured of his madness, he will go straight from the street to his home. He won't continue to wander in the street endlessly like a vagabond but he will go straight home to both satisfy himself and also to satisfy his near and dear ones, his guardians.

So, whoever you come in contact with, Mahaprabhu advises: yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa — "Whoever you find, you will have no other duty than to inject them with Krsna consciousness — that Krsna consciousness will not only save everybody from all troubles but it will also give them their highest fulfilment of life. Take that up and do such service with all seriousness and earnestness."

Nityananda Prabhu is the most magnanimous among the group who recruit. He is the head, the leader of all the generous recruiters: the most generous recruiting officer. We must try to have His mercy. A single drop of Nityananda Prabhu's mercy can help us wonderfully. Nityananda Prabhu wanted to distribute Sri Gauranga to one and all. He approached every door, begging each person, "Take the name of Gauranga! Take the name of Gauranga! I shall be eternally indebted to you. If you only take the name of Gauranga once I shall be your slave — your eternal slave!" Appealing in such a way He would begin to cry and He would fall down and roll on their doorsteps.

When Mahaprabhu took His permanent seat in Jagannath Puri He sent Nityananda Prabhu to preach: "I give You Gauda-desa (Bengal). Without You, Nityananda, no-one will be able to help them. Look after them. I give you this role. Go to Bengal to help them, to deliver them and give them the fulfilment of life."

Nityananda Prabhu took up that responsibility, and here in Nabadwip Dham we are under His guidance. Nityananda Prabhu is the leader of those preaching about Gauranga; and for one who receives the grace of Gauranga, automatically the Radha-Govinda Lila, the Vrndavan Lila, is his.

yatha yatha gaura padaravinde
vindeta bhaktim krta punya-rasih
tatha tathotsarpati hrdy akasmat
radha padambhoja sudhamburasih

Unknowingly, that Lila will come within your heart. Your attitude cent per-cent will be to understand Gauranga and you will find yourself to be automatically in Vrndavan — radha padambhoja sudhamburasih — you have become a member in the camp of Radharani: the place of Madhura-lila.

When Madhura is being distributed to the ordinary public, it is called Audara-lila, and that is the highest. When nectar is being distributed, that nectar is more sweet. Nectar is sweet and gives the highest fulfilment, but when it is being distributed, it becomes greater, more generous and more rare.

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