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Gaur Katha by Gurudev Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Maharaj- Part 1 (Translated from Baba’s Bengali pravachan on the occasion of the Pran Pratishtha of Sri Sri Radha Madhav, on 3rd June 1999 at Sri Gouranga Ashram, then located in Chittarnjan Park, New Delhi, by Sukhvinder Sircar and Indrani Bannerjee)
(1.28 min)
As they were both crossing the Ganges on a boat, a new sentiment emerged in the heart of Mahaprabhu. He thought, ‘I am going to meet Gauri Das after so long, what should I give him?’ He looked at the boatman and said to him, ‘will you gift me your oar?’ After crossing the river, as he got down from the boat, Mahaprabhu told the boatman, ‘again and again I told you about the oar, will you please give it to me?’ The boatman replied, ‘my Lord, I can give you whatever you ask for, even my own life, this oar is nothing.’ The boatman then gave the oar to Mahaprabhu. When the boatman, the one who helps you cross over, gave his oar to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu took it and along with Nityananda Prabhu arrived at Gauri Das Pandit’s ashram. The pain of Gauri Das’s bruised heart seemed impossible to assuage- Mahaprabhu had taken sannyasa! Sitting under a tree, burning in the pain of his aggrieved heart, Gauri Das Pandit was continuously chanting the Harinaam. Sometimes he would behave like a delirious person. Sometimes he would shout saying, ‘The Lord who fights and quarrels with me, who has taken sannyasa without my knowledge, may he be the Lord of my heart for all lifetimes. May I always attain him as my master!’
Mahaprabhu replied, ‘I have got this oar for you.’ Gauri Das asked, ‘what will I do with this oar? Mahaprabhu said, ‘With this oar you can help people cross the river of nescience. You will ferry individuals across the material world; be the boatman of people’s lives. Taking shelter at your feet, people will be able to cross the ocean of ignorance, which is why I have got this oar for you. Please accept it.’Gauri Das accepted the oar. He again prostrated at the feet of Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu embraced Gauri Das Pandit. Gauri Das said, ‘My lowly life has now been sanctified. My body has now become a holy site. I hope your golden body is not polluted with the touch of my impure body.’ Mahaprabhu said, ‘please let go of your humility. You have the capacity to purify the three worlds with the power of your devotion. Now tell me Gauri, what is your desire?’. Gauri Das replied, my desire is that I will not let you and Nityananda prabhu leave my ashram. Why did you submerge the golden Nadia into darkness by taking sannyasa? If you take sannyasa and emigrate from here what will be the state of the people of Nadia? We are immersed in grief, now what will happen to us?’ Nadia chhariyagelo Gaurango Sundor When Nadia was abandoned by the beautiful Gaurango Closing his eyes, Gauri Das said, ‘My Lord, you are the sight for sore eyes. If you are not there, what will be left for us? Who is going to be my shelter?’ Mahaprabhu said, ‘what is your prayer?’. What is your heart’s desire, tell me!’ Gauri Das replied, I want to hold you and Nityananda Prabhu as eternal captives in my temple. Please stay here forever. Mahaprabhu replied, ‘How is that possible? My mother who is the mother of the entire world has instructed me that in order to safeguard my Sannyasa Ashram, I must go to Neelachal Purushottam Dham. When I am there, I will have darshan of the Lord daily and immerse myself in devotion to Krishna without any encumbrances.’ Gauri Das said, ‘I do not want to listen to all this.’ The Lord said, ‘that’s not feasible. If you want to serve me and Nityananda, then do this: Establish the dual idols of me and Nityananda.’ Mahaprabhu called for Nayan Bhaskar. When Nayan Bhaskar arrived, Mahaprabhu told him to prepare the wooden deities of Gour and Nityananda. As instructed, Nayan Bhaskar sculpted the dual deities of Mahaprabhu and Nityananda. Mahaprabhu said, ‘I will consecrate the deities myself.’ With the resounding of Harinaam, the dual deities of Gour Nitai were consecrated in Gauri Das Pandit’s temple. After the consecration, Mahaprabhu told Gauri Das, ‘it was your heart’s desire that Gour Nityananda should be eternal captives in your temple and you will serve them both with all your heart.Now these two deities will be here with you forever. Serve them to your heart’s content.’ Gauri Das said, ‘My Lord, what will I do with these deities?’ Mahaprabhu then replied, ‘Do as I say. These dual deities are not lifeless representations, they are fully alive.’ Gauri Das asked, ‘How is that?’ Mahaprabhu asked him, ‘will you not make food offerings to the deities?’ Gauri Das responded, ‘If you teach me the correct process of worship and empower a lowly soul like me, I will certainly make food offerings to the deities. I will do it as a daily practice.’ Mahaprabhu taught Gauri Das how to worship and make food offeringsto the Gaur Nitai deities. Gauri Das pandit cooked various types of vegetables and rice to offer to the deities. Mahaprabhu then called him and said, ‘listen, you are now going to offer the cooked food in front of the deities. Now let me tell you the process of doing this. Prepare four seats.’ Gauri Das asked, ‘Why four? There are only two deities. The dual deities of Gour Nitai. So, I should be offering only two seats.’ Mahaprabhu said, ‘Not so, the two dual deities, and we two Gour Nitai will together enjoy the bhog.’ Gauri Das could not understand the import of Mahaprabhu’s words. Mahaprabhu said, ‘you have to witness the scene with your own eyes. Only then will you be able to have trust and have faith in what you see. You have been chanting the name of the Lord for so many years continuously, now. will you not witness the fruit of your sadhana?’ Gauri Das thought, ‘Let me witness the Leela that will be played out in front of my eyes.’Accordingly, he placed four seats and offered bhog to all four. He prostrated saying ‘Gauranga Namaha!’. He then invited Mahaprabhu inside the temple to partake of the prasad. The dual deities of Gour Nitai came down from the altar and sat down to partake of the prasad. Nitai andGauranga who had come from Shantipur also sat down to partake of the bhog. Together four of them sat down to enact the Leela of accepting the food offerings. Enjoying the loving devotion of Gauri Das, with great satisfaction they relished the bhog offered to them in the temple. After completing the meal and washing their hands and mouth, Mahaprabhu told Gauri Das, you wanted to hold the two of us captive in your temple. Now choose those two from the four of us. The four of us accepted your bhog, now select any two.’ Now Gauri Das was totally bewildered! He could not decide, which two of them he should keep and which two he should let go. Gauri Das then thought, ‘let me keep with me the Lord of my heart who is speaking with me, with whom I am having a conversation along with Nityananda Prabhu, who is on his right. That is, these two are the living animate deities. What will I do with the deities on the altar?’ Considering these two as living divinities, he asked them to stay back and the two deities on the altar who had partaken of the prasad may leave. ‘I have no objection to that.’ Then he saw, the deities on the altar came alive and began to walk away. And the ones he thought were living animate divine entities became non-moving deities. Gauri Das became perplexed and wondered, ‘What just happened?’ He thought ‘I must be under some illusion. This Mahaprabhu was talking to me a moment ago.’ He said, ‘‘No no my Lord, you are the moving divine God, I did not ask you to leave, I asked the non-moving forms on the altar to leave. You two please stay and let them leave.” Then these two deities began moving and the ones who were moving away turned into non-moving deities.
Naam bigraha Swarup teeneybhednaai The Name, the deity and the incarnation are non -different (13.08 min)
(14.20 min) One day Gauri Das Pandit told Hridayananda, ‘I am going to Shri Dham Vrindavan. I will return during Phalguni Purnima, the appearance day of Mahaprabhu. We will celebrate Mahaprabhu’s birth anniversary in our ashram.You continue serving Gour Nitai without any worry.’ There was just one day left for Mahaprabhu’s appearance day, Gauri Das Pandit had still not returned. Hridayananda had not even received any intimation about Gauri Das Pandit. Hridayananda wondered, ‘My Gurudeva had left for Vrindavan long back and he has still not returned and he has also not instructed me how to celebrate Gour Purnima. Yet, Mahaprabhu’s birth anniversary has to be celebrated.’
He took a stick from his room and went out in search of Hridayananda. Gauri Das Pandit thought, ‘Hridayananda has stolen the deities and gone to the banks of the Ganga. He is celebrating his separate festival with them there.’ He beganwalking towards the banks of the Ganga. After going some distance, he saw a huge festival being celebrated on the banks of the Ganga. Thousands and thousands of devotees, men and women were beginning to arrive there.It seemed that a big wave of people was arriving. On one side was flowing the melodious Ganga and on the other side werestreaming these waves of devotees. He was dumbfounded to witness so many people and the accompanying hustle bustle. As he came closer, he saw a group of devotional singers and the most rapturous congregational chanting. And the very next moment, he saw Shripad Nityananda Prabhu dancing in the congregation, and along with him the Emancipator of the whole world, Vishwambhar prabhu was dancing with uplifted hands. That is, both Gour and Nitai were dancing in bliss. Gauri Das was shocked. ‘What is this? Nityananda and Gour Hari are dancing here! This Sankirtan appears to be like Raas-Leela. In my entire life, I have never witnessed such a sublime sankirtan Raas Leela. Though I went to attend the Raas Utsav in Vrindavan, I could not directly witness the Raas Leela of Shri Krishna. How is it that this Sankirtan Maha Raas is being performed on the banks of melodious Ganga? Does it mean that the Ganga has attained union with Govind and Kalindi (Yamuna)? How else is sankirtan Raas happening in Kaliyuga? Just as Mahaprabhu is the united form of Shri Radha Madhav, has Ganga attained the form of Yamuna? That must be the reason why the sankirtan Raas is happening on the banks of Ganga!’ He became mesmerized by the nectarine sweetness of the sankirtan.
Hearing this, Gauri Das’s heart was filled with bliss. He thought, ‘blessed be! what an inconceivable joy- Mahaprabhu is himself arriving on his Abhirbhav tithi.’ Soon Mahaprabhu arrived there and witnessed the great joy of Gauri Das. He said, ‘Gauri, why did you reject Hridayananda? Did you not see me entering into his heart? Do you not know that Hridayananda and I are non-different? Never make such a mistake again. You had witnessed Raas in the bank of Ganga, now you will witness Raas in your own Ashram. Mahaprabhu instructed his beloved Mukunda, ‘there will be a Sankirtan Maha Raas here in Gauri Das’s ashram. Sing the Harinaam in raag Bihaag.’
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