Lord Nityananda’s Appearance Day
Nizhny Novgorod
4 February 2004

We’d like to welcome everyone to our program this evening. We have the audience a mixture of those who are regular practitioners of Krishna consciousness and those who are coming for the first time.

Since we have few guests at our program today I just want to take a little liberty by ex-plaining in the nutshell what is the Krishna consciousness movement and what are we trying to achieve and how are we trying to achieve this. Basically, Krishna consciousness means accepting a spiritual way of life, ac-cepting a way of life based on the teachings of the scriptures. By following the laws of God that are revealed in the scriptures one can hope to find real happiness. By violating the laws of God one can never be happy.

Today we see by an large people are unhappy. You may say, ‘No, they are happy. You see more cars on the road in Russia then ever before’. Yes, you may see more cars all over the world, you may see more technology all over the world but that does not make people happy. What makes us happy is understanding our subordinate relationship with the Lord. The Krishna consciousness movement is teaching people this science of establishing our relationship with the Lord. Unless you endeavor to establish this relationship the goal of human life is wasted.

We base our teachings on the ancient texts – Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavatam and of course Caitanya Caritamrita. Our process is very simple. We acknowledge Krishna as the Supreme Lord. We acknowledge the living entity as subordinate to the Supreme Lord. We accept that the process of pleasing the Lord is to chant the holy names.

Lord Caitanya was the most magnanimous incarnation who appeared on the planet to give us a simple process of developing love of God. This Krishna consciousness is such a sublime process that can be practiced in any part of the world by anyone.

With that brief introduction we will proceed to our topic for today which is the life and teachings of Lord Nityananda. Today our program is especially designed for the whole day to glorify Lord Nityananda. In the morning we had a Bhagavatam verse from the Seventh Canto that glorifies the supreme position of Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya. After that we had a very nice abhisheka ceremony and arati in glorification of Lord Nityananda.

As we explained in the morning, Lord Nityananda is none else but the incarnation of Lord Baladeva. Balarama or Baladeva means strength. There two types of strength, one is material strength and the other is spiritual strength. These days people are very interested in material strength. The countries are busy making their armaments stronger and stronger and stronger. The individuals are busy going to gymnasiums to build up their body, build up muscles, build up physical strength. But there is also something called spiritual strength.

Spiritual strength means having the determination to pursue spiritual life. This strength to pursue spiritual life is necessary because in the society you and I live the material forces are very active and dominating. The material forces are always trying to bewilder us. They are trying to make us believe, ‘This is what you should be doing. Spiritual life? Oh, that’s not for you today!’ There is no hurry for spiritual life. We keep getting notices about the end but we still keep ignoring that.

There is a story that once a very prominent lawyer was about to die. Lawyers always send notices on behalf of their clients. They send notices, ‘Please pay my client within the next forty days. Otherwise we will take you to court and possess your goods. Please vacate my client’s flat in the next one month’. Before taking action they always send you a notice. This lawyer, he was a very prominent lawyer, he was about to die. He protested to Yamaraj, ‘Yamaraj! You cannot let me die right now. You did not send me any notice about death. I am a lawyer. I do everything after sending notices. If you want me to die, send me a notice, “Okay, Mr. Lawyer, in one month you are going to die”. You cannot take me without giving me a notice’.

Yamaraj said, ‘Who says I did not give you a notice? What’s the color of your hair now?’ He said, ‘All white’. ‘What was the color of your hair ten years ago?’ ‘Black’. ‘How strong is your eye sight now?’ He said, ‘Very weak’. ‘How sharp was your eye sight ten-fifteen years ago? Twenty by twenty – very sharp’. ‘What’s the position of your cheeks today?’ ‘All wrinkled’. ‘What was the position of your cheeks ten-fifteen years ago?’ ‘Oh, they were very beautiful’. ‘How many teeth do you have left? Natural teeth’. He said, ‘Oh, just four-five’. :’How many did you have fifteen years ago?’ ‘All thirty-two’.

Yamaraj said, ‘I sent you so many notices. Your teeth started falling, your hair started getting white, your cheeks started getting wrinkled and you say, I did not send any notice. So now you have to die’. We all are getting so many notices about the inevitable death but we tend to ignore all these notices. That’s our tragedy. Krishna consciousness teaches you the art of living and the art of dying. We need to know both, the art of living and the art of dying, that’s intelligence. Lord Caitanya appeared and taught us both of these.

As we said in the morning in the prayer, Lord Caitanya is described as an incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna and Balarama appeared as Nityananda. The word nitya in Sanskrit means ‘eternal’. You may say, I am also nitya, I am also eternal. Definitely you are eternal. The only difference is you don’t have the second part, ananda. Lord Nityananda, nitya means ‘eternal’, ananda means ‘bliss’. Nityananda means ‘one who is always blissful’. Nityananda is always blissful and He gives us bliss also. Nityananda is the source of eternal bliss.

Lord Caitanya appeared along with His eternal associates. First it was Advaita Acarya who appeared. Advaita Acarya had appeared and along with Haridas Thakur He has prayed for the Lord to descend. Materially speaking, Lord Nityananda appeared as the elder brother of Lord Caitanya, just like Lord Balarama appeared as the elder brother of Lord Sri Krishna. Materially, he was about twelve years older then Lord Caitanya.

Nityananda’s father’s name was Hadai Pandit and His mother’s name was Padmavati. In His childhood Lord Nityananda would do nothing but enact the pastimes of the Lord. He would perform Krishna-lila: Krishna killing the demon Putana, Krishna lifting the Govardhana Hill, Krishna going and stealing the butter and not getting caught. He would also duplicate the pastimes of Laxman-Rama. His parents would get surprised at this. They would say, ‘We never taught our son all this. Who is teaching Him all this? Where did He learn all this?’ They could never understand how was this young child learning everything, who was teaching Him. Then Lord Nityananda would say, ‘These are all My own divine pastimes’.

For the first twelve years Nityananda lived with His parents. Once when He was twelve years old one saintly personality who was traveling around came to stay in His father’s house. This person was a traveling mendicant or a sannyasi. Sannyasi generally have no permanent residence. They virtually live out of their suitcase and just travel from one place to another. They will go uninvited to people’s homes for prasadam. And there are some devotees who love to take care of mendicants and sannyasis.

Just like Prabhupada used to tell us about his father, Gaura Mohan De. Gaura Mohan De would regularly take care of sadhus. Regularly saintly people would come to his house and stay or eat prasadam. This traveling mendicant was a guest in the house of Nityananda’s father. Nityananda’s father took care of the guest. Then he just asked as a curtsey, ‘Can I render some service to you, Maharaj?’ The sage said, ‘I am an old man and I am traveling all alone. If you want to help me, I have a request. I could use an assistant’.

The father said, ‘Sure, how can I help you?’ ‘Can I have your son as my assistant?’ Reluctantly, the father agreed and Nityananda became the sannyasi’s assistant. Then this sannyasi traveled to different places of pilgrimage. He went to Vrindavan, Dvaraka, all the places of pilgrimage. When He went to Vrindavan, He manifested such great ecstasy because He remembered all the pastimes He had performed over there previously when He appeared as Balarama along with Krishna. Nityananda it is also described as an avadhuta. Avadhuta means someone who does not strictly conform to the normal tradition but is fully obsessed in thinking of God, serving God and God consciousness.

For twenty years Lord Nityananda traveled to the different places of pilgrimage along with the sannyasi Laxmipati. He went to all these places of pilgrimage. Just like when our Russian devotees come to India they go to so many places of pilgrimage. I was told that this year three thousand devotees from CIS are going to India for about two to three thousands devotees from CIS are going to India for the annual festival. Because they all land in Delhi, every day in Delhi you see at least. When you go to India you go to all these places of pilgrimage, Jagannatha Puri Right now the are all in Jagannatha Puri having a big Russian festival there.

Lord Nityananda also went to all these places of pilgrimage. Now, who is Lord Caitanya? God Himself. But did He advertise that He was God? He never said, I am God, isn’t it? He said, I am a devotee of God. If someone would say, ‘Are you Krishna?’ He would close His ears and say, ‘No, no, no! I am not Krishna!’ Lord Caitanya was God but appearing in the role of a devotee. Just like sometimes in school a teacher holds the hand of the student and teaches the student how to write. But just because a teacher is teaching the student how to write does not mean that the teacher becomes the student. The teacher remains the teacher, the student remains the student.

Lord Caitanya is God but He appeared in the role of a devotee. And Nityananda, though the Supreme Lord’s expansion, also appeared as a devotee. Lord Nityananda knew when He was 32 years of age approximately, that now Lord Caitanya has started manifesting His real mission in Navadvipa. In the young age Caitanya Mahaprabhu became a very prominent Sanskrit scholar. Then He became a Sanskrit teacher. He opened a Sanskrit school. He defeated all the prominent Sanskrit scholars of His time including Keshava Kashmiri. But then Lord Caitanya started His real mission. What was His real mission? To save humanity.

Just like Narottama das Thakur says, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, You have appeared to save the fallen people of Kali-yuga, and there is no one more fallen then me. As I said this morning Caitanya Mahaprabhu specially appeared to save the fallen people of Nizhny Novgorod and the neighboring cities.

So Lord Caitanya started His preaching movement. How did He start His preaching movement? By personally telling everyone to chant the names of Krishna and sending His associates to go house to house to preach the glories of the holy name. The Lord appeared to reclaim the most fallen people of this age. People in this age are very fallen and are getting more fallen day by day. Few months ago I was in Ukraine. A devotee couple talked to me what to do with their seven years old kid? The told me that their seven-years old son was studying in a public school and he knew everything dirty that you can imagine. He even started smoking at seven. I said, started smoking at seven? They said, yes. What to do now? This is a small sampling of the direction the society is headed in.

In this age people are very degraded. Even in India you see people getting very degraded. Lord Caitanya appeared to reclaim the degraded people. Lord Caitanya called all His associates and told them, ‘Now you must go house to house and preach the glories of the holy name’. Lord Nityananda teamed up with another great devotee called Haridas Thakur. Before that I just wanted to say one thing, that Lord Nityananda as I said, when He knew that Lord Caitanya had started His preaching mission, He proceeded to Navadvipa. In Navadvipa He came in the house of a devotee called Nandana Acarya. There is one Nandana Acarya devotee in Yaroslavl, isn’t it? But this is the original Nandana Acarya. What we have here are the duplicates.

The original Nandana Acarya was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya knew that Nityananda had arrived and was in Navadvipa in the house of Nandana Acarya. Haridas Thakur and Srivas Pandit went everywhere looking for Nityananda. Srivasa Thakur is an incarnation of Narada Muni and Haridas is an incarnation of Lord Brahma. They went looking through all the houses in Navadvipa because Lord Caitanya told them, ‘One very great avadhuta personality has arrived and He stayed in one of the homes in Navadvipa. Go and find Him immediately!’

They went to every house but they could not find him. Then Lord Caitanya said, ‘Okay. I will go Myself and find Him’. Lord Caitanya knew where He was. He went straight to the house of Nandana Acarya. This house of Nandana Acarya is only few minutes walk from our Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir. In fact if any of you have been on Navadvipa parikrama, this is the first stop we do in the parikrama, the house of Nandana Acarya. Every year we go on parikrama to all these prominent places of pilgrimage where Lord Caitanya performed His pastimes that you read about in the Caitanya Caritamrita and other scriptures. Every year about four-five thousand devotees go for this parikrama.

Lord Caitanya came to the house of Nandana Acarya and there He saw Nityananda and the two Lords embraced each other. When the devotees saw the two Lords meeting each other, embracing each other and shedding tears of joy they could not even imagine a scene like this.

Lord Caitanya started His preaching mission and He dispatched all His associates to go house to house and preach. One team was made of Nityananda and Haridas Thakur. Lord Nityananda is famous for many things but what is He most famous for? He is most famous for saving Jagai and Madhai. We will discuss this to some extent.

Who were Jagai and Madhai? They were born in brahminical families. Brahminical family means born in a family of high culture. But just because you are born in a family of high culture does not mean you become a man of high culture. Therefore we recommend brahmanas by qualification and not by birth. One could take his birth in a very degraded family, a mleccha family but still become highly cultured. Just like our Krishna consciousness movement is making brahmanas all over the world. These are brahamanas by qualification, not by birth.

So these two were born in a cultured family but they fell in bad association in the young age and became very degraded. All day virtually they would be drunk. Today when I was entering Nizhny Novgorod our driver Ekanath was stopped by the cops. The cops stopped many vehicles, four-five vehicles in one stroke. Of course this is very normal in your country. Ekanath said, they were testing, an alcohol test. I said, ‘Alcohol test early in the morning at nine o’clock?’ He said, ‘Yes, people start drinking in the morning’.

Jagai and Madhai would also be drunk all day. They were drunk, they were fighting each other, pulling each other’s hair, abusing each other. The would commit all sorts of crime, burn people’s homes. They have virtually committed every sin you can think of. There was only one category of sins they have not committed. What was that? Abusing a Vaisnava. Why? Because no Vaisnava would come near them. They would always be drunk, they would always be throwing stones, they would always be using foul language that no Vaisnava ever came close to them. They were just saying, ‘Good bye’ from a distance.

When Lord Caitanya instructed Haridas and Nityananda to start preaching they thought that they should first try and preach to the most degraded people of the society. They figured if a degraded person becomes a devotee of Lord Caitanya then all of Navadvipa will say, ‘Look at Lord Caitanya! He is a miracle man!’. Just like this morning I gave you that story when Lord Caitanya made a puppy god chant and dance. They thought, ‘Okay, let us try and make these two brothers into devotees’. Many people in Navadvipa said, ‘Don’t be crazy and preach to these two brothers! The moment you tell them about Krishna they will kill you! Don’t you know that no Vaisnava has ever gone anyway near them?’ But Nityananda and Haridas were not discouraged by this.

They made up their minds they must try and save them. Haridas said, ‘Nityananda, whomever you decide to save will definitely get saved, does not matter how difficult the case may be’. Haridas and Nityananda, they went to preach to Jagai and Madhai. When Haridas and Nityananda were preaching they’ve got a variety of comments from the society. When Lord Caitanya was doing His ecstatic kirtanas in the house of Srivas Thakur He would only allow His most confidential devotees to take part. The reason was that Lord Caitanya was displaying these various ecstatic symptoms which could only be understood by advanced devotees.

Just like sometimes even in the midst of kirtana devotees jump up in kirtana but what do the visitors say? ‘Are these people drugged up? Are they taking drugs? They are jumping so high? Are they jumping high to impress us that they are very exhaled devotees?’ They give so many comments, isn’t it? Lord Caitanya when he was doing His ecstatic kirtanas He would only allow His most confidential devotees to be present. Many residents of Navadvipa were not allowed.

When Nityananda and Haridas were going house to house they were giving only one message. Bolo krishna – that means chant the names of Krishna. Bhajo krishna – worship Krishna and give Krishna’s message. This was their mission, tell every one house to house, chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna and accept Krishna’s teachings. Where do you find Krishna’s teachings? You find Krishna’s teachings in Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavatam etc.

When they were going house to house preaching they would end up going to homes of people who were not allowed to come to Lord Caitanya’s display of ecstatic kirtan. When they would see Haridas and Nityananda coming to their home, knocking on the door with their message they would say, ‘Get out! You cannot come in! When we wanted to come to Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana He did not let us come in. So now you cannot come to our house. Don’t give us your philosophy!’

Still Haridas and Nityananda were not discouraged. Some people homes they would go, they would say, ‘Yes, yes! Please come! Please bless us! Please purify our house!’ And some people’s homes they would go they would say, ‘Hey! These two are spies in the form of devotees. These spies came to see what we have inside our house. Then they will send their agents to come and steal in the night’. When Nityananda and Haridas would hear people calling them spies they would just laugh at it.

If you go out preaching and someone kicks you out of their house, does not let you come in or call you a spy don’t get discouraged. I am sure when you go preaching you get your share of accusations, don’t you? Some say, spies, some say, you are brainwashed, some say you have no intelligence. Don’t get discouraged. Nityananda and Haridas did not get discouraged but simply went on with their preaching.

When they went to Jagai and Madhai on the first day these two drunkards just abused them and chased them away. They ran behind them. Haridas and Nityananda ran and these two drunkards ran behind them. Because they were drunk they had big belly so they could not catch up to Haridas and Nityananda, they would slimmer.

Next day Nityananda again came back to preach in that area and that greatly angered Madhai. He said, ‘Yesterday I told you out of this place! How dare you come back and tell me again about Krishna’s message!’ He got very angry and what did Madhai do? He threw a stone that hit the forehead of Lord Nityananda. His forehead started bleeding. Then Jagai, the other brother said, ‘What have you done? Why did you do this? He is a sadhu, a saintly sannyasi. Why are you attacking a sannyasi?’ Just at that time Lord Caitanya arrived over there. Lord Caitanya arrived there with His Sudarsana Cakra and was about to use it when He got stopped by Lord Nityananda.

What did Lord Nityananda say? ‘No! This is typical of what you can expect in this age of Kali’. Then Madhai and Jagai, when they saw Lord Nityananda’s magnanimous nature they have indeed made a big mistake. They realized they made a mistake. After all Lord Nityananda appeared to reclaim the fallen people. Then Madhai fell at the feet of Lord Caitanya and begged forgiveness for having thrown a stone that hurt Nityananda.

Madhai wanted to know what he could do for atonement. When we commit sins we should atone but we should not become professional sinners. You know what’s a professional sinner? He goes on sinning. Some of us think that ‘Okay, I can sin but then I can go to the church or the temple or the mosque and atone for that sin’. Can you in a course of ordinary activities commit a crime, be pardoned by the police or the judge, commit a crime, be pardoned by the police or the judge but go on repeating it every day? Can you?

You work for a company. You make a mistake. Your boss says, ‘Okay. Don’t do that again’. You make a mistake again. Can you hope to keep your job by repeating the same mistake every day? So how can you expect you go on sinning, atoning, sinning, atoning and every day you are going to get pardoned? That’s an illusion to think we can sin, go to the church on Sunday, then again sin, then again go the next Sunday.

Madhai wanted to know, ‘What can I do for the mistake that I have done?’ Then first Jagai took initiation from Lord Caitanya. Do you know how much chanting he had to do? He started chanting 200,000 times a day the holy name. Two thirds of what Haridas would chant. Haridas would chant 300,000 times a day. Then Madhai also got initiated.

So Madhai wanted to know, ‘What can I do for the mistake that I made in attacking Lord Nityananda?’ Lord Nityananda gave him an assignment. On the banks of the Ganges there is a ghat. The assignment was to clean that ghat and he would clean it all day. All day he would clean it so that when pilgrims came they found the whole environment very clean. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Cleanliness is one of the four ingredients of religion. When we talk about religious philosophy it must be based on truthfulness, cleanliness, mercifulness and austerity. Whenever Prabhupada would go to any temple in the world he would first see the standard of cleanliness in the temple. If he saw that we would not be keeping the temples clean he would be very upset.

Madhai cleaned the ghat all day and kept it completely clean for all pilgrims. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw that Jagai and Madhai were repenting He agreed to take on their sins on His account. But these sins were so heavy that even the Lord’s golden complexion became black for a moment when He took on their sinful reactions.

Yamaraj is the superintendent of death. He is keeping an account of everyone’s’ karma balance. When you do something good Yamaraj credits your account. When you do something bad your account gets debited. Just like when you deposit money in your account your account gets credited, when you withdraw money it gets debited.

Just like you are attending this lecture now, seven o’clock, fourth February, your account is being credited. But suppose you go home at ten o’clock turn on your TV and watch a movie then it is going to get debited. Your activities are being monitored every minute and Yamaraj is a keeper of records. In the material world you know the computers get screwed up, people manipulate the accounts and the truth is always hidden. But Yamaraja’s computer never crashes. It does not get a virus infection. You can neither bribe Yamaraj or any of His assistants.

Yamaraj has an assistant called Citragupta. Yamaraj said, ‘Okay, Citragupta! Give me a score card of Jagai and Madhai’s sinful activities’. Citragupta sat down to do a tally of Jagai and Madhai’s sinful activities. Their activities were so sinful that Citrgupta just fell down and fainted, he could not even tabulate.

Jagai and Madhai were saved by the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda but Lord Caitanya doesn’t get the credit for saving Jagai and Madhai, do you know that? Who gets the credit for saving Jagai and Madhai? Nityananda. The Lord told Nityananda, ‘You can do what even I cannot do’. The unique relationship between the Lord and the devotee is, devotee is anxious to glorify the Lord and the Lord is anxious to glorify the devotee. Nitai’s mercy knows no bounds and He quickly forgave Madhai for his offences.  Lord Nityananda is very-very merciful.

After Lord Caitanya took sannyasa He was going to Jagannatha Puri. He was traveling with Lord Nityananda. On the way they stopped at the sacred river where Lord Caitanya was going to take bath. The river was known as Bhargi river. Lord Caitanya kept His danda with Nityananda and said, ‘Hold it. I am going to take a bath and come back’. Lord Nityananda saw the danda of Lord Caitanya. He broke it into three and threw it in the river. When Lord Caitanya came back He said, ‘Where is My danda?’ Nityananda said, ‘Your danda? Oh, it’s gone’. ‘Where has it gone?’ ‘I broke it in three pieces and threw it in the river’. Lord Caitanya said, ‘Why did you throw away My danda? I am a sannyasi! How can you throw away my danda!’

Why did Lord Nityananda break His danda?  Lord Nityananda knew that Lord Caitanya is none else but the Supreme Personality of Godhead and being God He does not need any of these external formalities. So He said, ‘You don’t need a sannyasa danda’. There is another secret behind this. Lord Caitanya is Krishna but He appeared in the mood of Radharani. He wanted to have darshan of Lord Jagannatha in Jagannatha Puri but He wanted to go to see Him alone. Because Lord Caitanya displayed anger at what Nityananda did it gave Him an excuse for going alone for Jagannatha Puri temple.

When He went to Jagannatha Puri Lord Caitanya saw Lord Jagannatha and He was in such great ecstasy when He saw Lord Jagannatha that He fainted in that ecstasy. He fainted in His ecstasy and nobody knew what to do. It was time for the pujari to close the door and he did not know what to do. Lord Caitanya was carried to Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s house which is very near to the Jagannatha Puri temple.

A little later Nityananda came looking for Lord Caitanya. When they reached Lord Jagannatha’s temple they overheard some people talking as follows. They overheard that one very handsome sannyasi had come and the moment He saw Lord Jagannatha He was in deep ecstasy and He fainted. And then He was carried to the house of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. Lord Nityananda knew this handsome sannyasi is none else but Lord Caitanya. Then He went there and He saw Lord Caitanya lying in His ecstatic bliss but unconscious. How did Lord Nityananda bring Lord Caitanya to consciousness? He clapped and chanted Hare Krishna. When Lord Caitanya heard the ecstatic chanting of the holy name He at once got up. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was amazed to see this.

You all know the story how Lord Nityananda saved Jagai and Madhai. Do you want to hear another story how He saved another very debaucher individual? Lord Nityananda was staying in Navadvipa in the house of a devotee called Hiranya Pandit. I told you earlier that Lord Nityananda was a very unconventional sannyasi. Therefore He was called avadhuta-sannyasi. Once Lord Nityananda had decorated Himself very opulently with some nice jewelry, jewel necklaces and golden rings on all His fingers. There was in Navadvipa another prominent thief. This thief has also taken His birth in a brahminical family but he became a debaucher, like Jagai and Madhai.

This thief had his gang of robbers. He called all his assistants and said, ‘Have you seen this avadhuta Nityananda walking on the streets of Navadvipa?’ They all said, ‘Yes, yes, yes’. ‘Did you see how many rings He had on His fingers?’ They said, ‘Yes. He has a golden ring on every finger’. ‘Did you see how many necklaces He has and how expensive necklaces were?’ The thieves made a plan. They were going to rob Nityananda of all His jewels. One robber said, ‘Okay, I am going to take a ring from Nityananda’s hand!’ Another said, ‘Oh, I will take the necklace’. The third said, ‘I will take the diamond’. They all made plan how to plunder and share the jewelry on Lord Nityananda’s body.

They made a plan that when Nityananda goes to sleep in the night they would send the dacoits to rob. The dacoits camped themselves near Hiranya Pandit’s house. They sent a spy to see what was that avadhuta Nityananda doing inside. They spy came inside and saw that Nityananda is engaged in eating prasadam along with His host Hiranya Pandit. The spy came back and told them, ‘Nityananda is eating prasadam right now’. So they made a plan when Nityananda eats prasadam and goes to sleep and the lights are turned off then they would break into the house in the night and plunder the riches and run away. The thieves were all well armed. They probably had the latest Russian weaponry with them.

The thieves were just waiting outside the house when are the lights going to be turned off. That means they have gone to sleep and then we can go and attack them. As they were waiting Nidra devi put them all to sleep. Nidra means sleep. The illusory energy is also one of the energies of the Lord. Just like both heat and cooling come from the same power station. It’s a same socket in which you put the heater and the air conditioner. By the illusory energy of the Lord these dacoits all fell asleep and they were snoring.

In the morning when the birds started chirping… You know the birds, it is a natural alarm-clock. You don’t need an alarm-clock if you live somewhere near where the birds are staying. In the ancient days you did not have all these multi-story buildings or concrete jungle. So in every corner there would be trees with the birds. The birds would wake you up with their chirping every morning. But now you see concrete jungles everywhere – building after building after building. No trees, no birds, nothing.

In the morning the birds started chirping and the dacoits got up. They said, ‘Oh! We fell asleep! We were supposed to rob Nityananda last night’. They started fighting with each other, ‘You fell asleep first and then we all fell asleep’. They started accusing each other that because you fell asleep I also fell asleep. Then their leader said, ‘Okay, don’t worry! We will attack again’. Next day they made another plan to attack Nityananda. They went again in the night with their weapons and all to attack Nityananda. But when they were going to Nityananda’s house they saw from a little distance guards, well-armed, protecting Nityananda’s house.

The dacoits saw that Nityananda’s house was fully protected and they began to wander how did this happen. Who told Nityananda they were coming to attack Him tonight. They saw all these guards. One of the dacoits said, ‘Nityananda must be a mystic yogi. He found out that we were coming and He prepared for His defense by having security guards’. Then another robber said, ‘Nityananda is an avadhuta. Maybe some important man has come to meet Him and the security people belong to that important man’. So they dropped the plans to rob Him on that night. But the dacoit chief said, ‘Don’t worry, we are not giving up our target. We just have to plan better. Let us for the next ten days worship goddess Durga’. The devotees worship Vishnu or Krishna. Those who have lower goals, they worship Durga for material enjoyment.

After ten days of worship they again proceeded to attack Nityananda.

The dacoit army was going. In Nityananda’s house it was all dark, there were no lights. They said, now He is sleeping, let’s go and rob Him. As they were going towards Nityananda’s house that night became the darkest of nights ever in history. It was exceptionally dark with no rays of the moon or the stars. On top of that Indra would release very heavy rainfall. These dacoits were going towards Nityananda’s house but they became blind because it was so dark.

One of the dacoits as they were going, he fell in the ditch. It was so dark, he could not see, he fell in the ditch and cried, ‘Save me! Save me! Save me!’ Another fell in the ditch and he was attacked by mosquitoes. They all fell in different ditches and they were blinded. They were going to attach Lord Nityananda. Then the leader of the dacoits had a realization. He thought, ‘I have been trying to organize to rob Lord Nityananda but this Nityananda is not ordinary. First time I went to rob Him we all fell asleep. Second time we went to rob Him we saw guards protecting His house. Third time we went to rob Him we have become blind and we all fell into the ditches and hurt ourselves badly. It’s better we now take shelter of Lord Nityananda.

They mentally took shelter of Lord Nityananda in their hopeless condition and they got their eyesight back. Then the leader of the dacoits went to Lord Nityananda. He revealed all his evil plans that He was trying to do and then they surrendered at the feet of Lord Nityananda. Lord Nityananda is very magnanimous. Once Lord Nityananda organized a big festival at Panihatti. There was a great devotee called Raghunatha das Goswami. He organized a big festival. He was a child of a wealthiest person of his time.

Today we are celebrating the Appearance Day of Lord Nityananda. Appearance Day means a birthday of Lord Nityananda. On this auspicious day we should all take shelter of Lord Nityananda’s instructions. This morning we also commented to you on the bhajan that was composed by Narottam das Thakur. In that bhajan Narottam das Thakur says, please hold on to the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. How are you going to hold on to the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda? As I said there are few variants. One variant is you have a Deity of Lord Nityananda and just hold on to His feet. Another is you carry a picture of Lord Nityananda and just keep your finger on His feet. And another variant you follow Nityananda’s instruction and keep following His instructions. What was Lord Nityananda’s instruction? Chant Hare Krishna.

Of the three variants how to you hold on to Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet? Which variant is better? Chanting the holy name. So, nitya means ‘eternal’, ananda means bliss. Narottam das Thakur very nicely says, ‘Lord Nityananda, You are always blissful but I am miserable’. How can you become blissful? By chanting the names of the Lord. Lord Nityananda is also a representative of Sankrashana. Lord Nityananda is the original spiritual master and through the mercy of Nityananda we can understand Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha and Krishna.

We should pray to Lord Nityananda on this auspicious day that please give me the determination to stay on the spiritual path. There is a saying God helps those who help themselves. If you help yourself Krishna will help you. We should chant the holy name. There are different stages of holy name. The Lord invested all His transcendental energies in His holy name. I understand there are many guests in the audience today. Some of they are coming for the first of second time. We would like to explain that the principle means of self-realization in this age  is the means of chanting the holy names of the Lord.

Why do we chant the holy names of the Lord? Because this is the instruction of the Lord. The Lord has invested all His transcendental energies in the holy name and when you chant the holy name you feel that you are associating with the Lord. There are different stages of chanting the holy name. Just like in every language you have good, better, best, so there are three principle stages of chanting the holy name. One is the offensive stage. The other is the stage of minimizing offenses. Third is the stage of purified chanting.

Initially when we came to the chanting of the holy name we may have committed many offences at the same time. We have been chanting holy name and eating meat at the same time, getting drunk at the same time. We were getting drunk and saying, the taste of this liquor is Krishna. That is the initial stage, we are chanting but at the same time we may not be following regulative principles. But we are still chanting. But then as we progress and associate with devotees we understand that in order to get full benefit of the chanting we should follow certain standards. By standards we mean we should avoid the offences, follow the regulative principles. This is known as the stage of minimizing offences or the nama-abhasa.

Then as you progress you get to the stage of purified chanting when we are chanting without any offences at all. This chanting is beneficial in any situation, knowingly or unknowingly. This was Nityananda Prabhu’s life to propagate the chanting of the holy name. There are many other pastimes of Lord Nityananda. You can read about them in Caitanya Caritamrita and Caitanya Bhagavata. We just gave you a small sampling because we have a limited time.

Pray to Lord Nityananda for His mercy so that we can make spiritual advancement. As we said, Lord Nityananda is very merciful. Even if you struggle with your mind and senses He will help you. Everyone is struggling with his mind and senses. Kali-yuga is an ocean of vice where every way you turn around you see nothing but vice. But there is one special benediction in this age. That is chanting of the holy name of Krishna. Lord Nityananda whomever He saw He would tell them to chant the holy name. Lord Nityananda is inseparable from Lord Caitanya.

Once Lord Caitanya brought paraphernalia to do Guru-puja to Lord Nityananda and He came to the house of Srivasa. Lord Caitanya made Lord Nityananda sit down and He was personally going to offer Him arati. Lord Caitanya wanted to show how one should worship the guru. But Lord Nityananda got up from the seat and instead pushed Lord Caitanya there and did arati to Him. Lord Caitanya had many humorous pastimes with Lord Nityananda also. We should meditate on these different pastimes. Hare Krishna!