The lotus feet of Lord Nityananda

Tashkent
May 1994

nitai-pada-kamala, koti-candra-susitala
je chayay jagata juray
heno nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna paite nai,
drdha kori' dharo nitair pay
se sambandha nahija'r, brthajanma gelo ta'r,
se pasu boro duracar nitai na bolilo mukhe,
majilo samsara-sukhe,
vidya-kule ki koribe-tar
ahankare matta hoiya, nitai-pada pasariya,
asatyere satya kori man!
nitaiyer koruna habe, braje radha-krsna pabe,
dharo nitai-carana du'khani
nitaiyer carana satya, tahara nevaka nitya,
nitai-pada sada koro asa
narottama boro dukhi, nitai more koro sukhi,
rakho ranga-caranera pasa

Narottama dasa Thakura says in this Bhajan "Let me take shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda, because without His mercy I cannot develop prema for Radha-Krsna". "heno nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna pai te nai", "nai" means "No". If Lord Nityananda will not give me His mercy, I cannot get love of Radha-Krsna. So I am praying "please let me get some mercy from Lord Nityananda". Narottama das Thakura has compared Lord Nityananda with millions of moons put together. The lotus feet of the Lord are equal to millions of moons, Lord Nityananda is very powerful. In another song Narottama das Thakura, while praying says "ha ha prabhu nityananda premananda-sukhi" in your spiritual bliss you are always satisfied and full of happiness, but I am very sad and if you do not give me your mercy, I cannot have the mercy of the Lord Caitanya.

se sambandha nahi jar, brtha janma gelo-tar

When I have no relationship with Lord Nityananda, I cannot have any relation with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

sei pasu boro duracar

This human life without the relationship of Lord Nityananda is simply like an animal's life. In one of his songs Narottama dasa Thakura prays saying,

hari hari! bifale janama gonainu
manusya-janama paiya, radha-krsna na bhajiya
janiya suniya bisa khaina

Being born as a human being, which is so rare and having not worshiped Radha and Krishna, I was deliberately drinking poison. I was trying to get some material happiness, having forgotten the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. I was simply trying to get some material pleasures.

Vidya-kule ki koribe-tar

The word vidya means material education or knowledge. And he is praying, "What is the use of all these material education?" Please don't misunderstand us, we are not against material knowledge. We don't say that you be a devotee only, and that you should have very low material education, and that if you are educated, please don't come to us - it is only for uneducated people. Some body may say in this case, why are you condemning material education"? But we don't condemn material education. It can be used in some service to the Lord. When material education is not used in devotional service to the Lord it is like a very heavy turban on your head. If you have a very heavy weight on your head, you will be drawn in an ocean very easily. If you have some material education which is used in devotional service to the Lord, then it is wonderful.
Krishna says "four types of people do not surrender to me." The first is the Mudha. Mudha means an ass, a fool. In Russia it is difficult to see an ass, but in Asia we can see many asses and in India too. An ass carries heavy load and what does it eat? Kachori's, pakora's? An ass likes some natural food very much. It eats only some grass, and it is not necessary to buy the grass at a supermarket, in fact some grass can be found anywhere and everywhere, but the ass does not think about it. He thinks, "if I don't carry this load for any master I will get no grass", and carries heavy loads of dirty clothes on its back. Similarly the materialists are carrying so many types of loads. They have no time for self realisation. If you will talk with them and say, "Sir please accept this science of selfrealisation. What is their reply? "We have no time, we have so many things to do." They are mudhas, they have so many desires for sense gratification and too many material duties. "I want to have a big house like those in America, I want to have a nice T.V., then this thing and that thing." These people just follow the naradharam. Naradhama means one who wants a good status in society and strives forthe same, but does not know what is the aim of human life. Such a person may be the President of some country, or a Vice-chancellor, a professor, a businessman or some person having a high status in society. But if you ask him "what is the aim of life? His answer will be having good food, sleeping and enjoying life. We see that if the leaders are blind, so too are the others. In Srimad Bhagavatam (7.5.31) Prahlad Maharaj says,

na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum
durasaya ye bahir-artha maninah
andha yathandhair upaniyamana
te 'pisa-tantryam win-damni baddhah

"Andha" means blind. The leaders are blind so too are the followers. What happens when the leaders are blind? Yes, the leaders and the followers-fall into a ditch. In a museum in France there is a picture, it was published in our magazine "Back to Godhead". This picture shows a number of people who are following a blind person and all of them fall into a ditch. These are naradhamas. They have no moral qualities, the have no faith in God, but they are the leaders of the society.

mayayapahrta-jnana

The third category of fools, what are their characteristics? They have very huge storage of material knowledge, "vidya", so many academic degrees, but when it comes to spiritual knowledge, what do they say, "there is no God. Where is He. Show Him to us." There was a very famous Indian philosopher named Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. Have you heard of him? He was very highly educated and besides his name there were so many titles. He translated the Bhagavad Gita; but gave his own interpretation, that the Lord has no personality. And everyone would say "Oh the Bhagavad Gita translation of Dr. Radhakrishnan is very good. What an outstanding philosopher? These so called educated people turn everything, in the wrong direction. They do not remember, what Krsna said to Arjuna "I give you this knowledge, not because you are a candidate of science but because you are my dear friend and devotee. Therefore you can understand the secret of this great science "asura bhava asrita" they are frank atheists. So, for so called educated people it is quite difficult to take to the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. They very often ask "Can you show us God?" What proof do you have that there is life after death"? Is there somebody who has seen it and who can tell us? They always use their brains, for discrediting the position of the Lord. So, Narottama dasa Thakura says, "What is the value of the vidhya, if it turns in the wrong direction".

ahankar matta hoya, nitai-pada pasariya

Because of my ahankar. What does ahankar mean? False ego. So because of my false ego. I did not take the shelter of Lord Nityananda. Because of false ego, I did not worship Radha-Krsna. There are two types of ego, false ego and real ego. False ego means that you think you know everything. "Don't tell me anything. I don't want to listen." This is false ego. But there is a real ego too. The real ego make you understand that I am the servant of the servant of the Lord, "jivera swarup hai krsnera nitya das". "I am the eternal servant of the Lord." For example, what is the status of your hand? It serves the body. While the leaf is the part of a tree, it retains its freshness. How are these wonderful flowers blooming? Now since they are separated from the root, they won't remain fresh for a long time. But when they are the part of a plant, they are living and are fresh. While sparks are present in the fire, they are shining, but when they fall to the ground does it shine? Similarly, when a living entity is connected to the Lord, he is shining, but when he is separated the shine disappears. So ahankare matta hoiya, because of my false ego, I did not accept the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda,

asatyere stya kori mani

I accepted this material body to be real. What are the external manifestations of maya? Often the devotees ask, "How can we know when we are in maya?" You are in maya when you think that you are the body, mind and senses. In this case you are influenced by false ego. We should take note, that there is nothing fearful in thinking that you are the body, mind and senses, if you decide to use them in the service of the Lord, but problems arise, only when you equate yourself with the body, mind and senses and want to use them only for sense gratification.
After this Narottama dasa Thakura says, nitaiyer carana satya
"Let me hold the lotus feet, of Lord Nityananda very tightly because they can slip from my hands." What does it mean? We must take an image of Lord Nityananda and hold it in our hands? Is it like that? No, we should hold the instructions of Lord Nityananda. We must hold them very tightly. Prabhupada said that the spiritual master is always living with his disciples. What does it mean? It means that the disciple must always meditate on his guru's instructions. My guru said, "Always chant Hare Krsna". My guru said, "Go for book distribution even if it is difficult to do so". This is vani instructions. When you try to follow these instructions, then too you are in relation with your guru. You may offer to your guru very nice flowers, but if you don't follow your guru's instructions, it gives him no satisfaction. Now when Narottama dasa Thakura says that he wants to hold the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda, it means "I want to hold tightly the instructions of Lord Nityananda in my heart and what are the instructions of Lord Nityananda? and what are the instructions Lord Caitanya? Always chant Hare Krsna only. So, if you take shelter of Lord Nityananda, Lord Caitanya will accept you. Lord Caitanya gave very simple instructions. You need not be a candidate of science to remember the instructions of Lord Caitanya.
One can see the degree of tolerance in Lord Nityananda. When he was attacked by Jagai and Madhai, Lord Caitanya wanted to kill them, but Lord Nityananda said, "No, no, please don't do that. He was very-very tolerant. The devotee take shelter of the tolerance of Lord Nityananda. For setting an example, Lord Caitanya told his most advanced disciples to go and preach the holy names of the Lord in every city and village of Bengal. Who were these devotees who were sent by Lord Caitanya? They were Haridas Thakura and Lord Nityananda. They belonged to two different communities. You can imagine the group yourself. Lord Nityananda and Haridas Thakura going out to preach together. In the whole city the most degraded persons were Jagai and Madhai. They were very famous in the town, because they were born in brahmin families. In India there are people who are born in brahmin families, but they eat meat, smoke, drinkalcohol and so on. Noweveryoneinthetown said "Lookatthesetwo brahmins. They are so degraded". Everyone knew that they were demonic, and were afraid of them. All knew that to come too close to them,was verydangerous, because they could kill anybody. Haridas Thakur and Lord Nityananda thought if they could save these two, then all the people in Bengal would be saved. They thought if we can save Jagai and Madhai then the glory of Lord Caitanya will spread far and wide. So, they concentrated their attention on converting Jagai and Madhai, to devotees. Everyday they went and spoke to them. At last Jagai and Madhai became very angry, because they were reminded of their real culture. So Nityananda was attacked with stones. His forehead started bleeding, hearing this Lord Caitanya came to the spot. He became very ang ry on seeing Nitya nanda's forehead bleeding. He was so angry that He took up His Sudarshan Chakra to kill the two brothers, but Nityananda begged Lord Caitanya to spare them. Lord Nityananda then pleaded saying "No matter my forehead is bleeding, but please chant the Holy names.
When the two brothers heard this their hearts were moved, their demoniac hearts melted and they said, "Look at him.
We attacked Him, we almost killed Him and He still says, "Just chant". He is probably a saint. After that they began to chant 'Hare Krsna'. Seeing this, Madhai too started chanting. Then they both fell down at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda. Just imagine to yourself the scene. This is only the reflection of the effulgence, of Lord Nityananda's transcendental qualities. So Narottama dasa says, "I must hold very tightly the instructions of Lord Nityananda".

narottama bom dukhi, nitai more koro sukhi

Narottama dasa says that he is very sad. Nitai only you can make me very happy. Withoutthe mercy of Lord Nityananda the devotee is always in sorrow.

rakho ranga-caranera pasa

Narottama dasa is praying to Lord Nityananda, "Please keep me at the corner of your lotus feet". As I said before, Lord Nityananda can be compared with millions of moons puttogether. Therefore don'tunderestimate Lord Nityanada. He is an expansion of Lord Balarama and Lord Nityananda is our first spiritual master. Krsna is satisfied when our spiritual master is satisfied. So it is said,

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto 'pi
dhyayam stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyam
vande guroh sri-caranarvindam

By the mercy of the spiritual master, we can have the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and by the mercy of the Lord we can have the spiritual master.
Hare Krsna!