Prepare Yourself for His Advent

Srila Gurudev emphasizes on removing all the desires from the heart other than Krishna's service. He narrates various topics like, Haridas Thakur’s grace on the infantrymen signifying the strength and power of Vaishnava’s grace, eligibility for staying in Dham and who can have real darshan of Dham, how Krishna’s advent is not like the birth of any ordinary enslaved jiva, the anarthas we have in our heart and how to remove them and the significance of Gundicha-marjan.

On Sri Krishna’s Appearance

In the beginning of this harikatha, Srila Gurudev narrates about sanctifying our hearts for the advent of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna. By narrating Srila Prabhupad’s ‘vaishnav ke’ kirtan, he advices us for not getting inclined to nirjan-bhajan and be always in association of the devotees which will rescue us from our spiritual fall down. In the later part, he narrates the advent pastimes of the Supreme Lord Krishna in detail and he concludes by emphasizing on the importance of listening about the Lord’s advent, His name, form, qualities, about His associates and about His other pastimes.

Pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna

Srila Gurudev narrates different pastimes of Sri Krishna at Gokul Mahavan during the braj-mandal parikrama. He speaks on brahmand-ghat lila, pastimes of killing of Putana, pastimes of stealing butter, Damodar lila and sakat bhanjan lila. He emphasizes on inner significance of these pastimes.

We Must Celebrate His Advent

Srila Paramgurudev said, "It is true there is a scarcity of rice. But, nonetheless, we see that everybody is still carrying on celebrating their own marriage ceremonies, birthday ceremonies and the like. Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the only Master and Enjoyer of these infinite brahmāṇḍas. Will there be no festival to celebrate His advent? There must be a feast tomorrow!"

Sanctifying the Hearts

‘Adhivāsa’ means that we have some prior duty to perform before His appearance, so that we will be ready for Him. We have to sanctify our hearts so that Krishna can appear there. Krishna is already there, but we are not aware of His presence.

The Serpent Kaliya

The banishment of Kaliya from the lake of the Yamuna has a most important spiritual significance. Those who have a purpose to create trouble among the pure devotees of Krishna by infecting their nature with their own malicious disposition meet with a certain degree of initial success in their nefarious undertaking. This emboldens them to make a direct attack on Krishna Himself when He appears on the scene of their depraved activities in order to restore the living faith of His Own bonafide associates.

Srila Param Gurudev on Sri Krishna Janmastami

The following are excerpts from the speeches of Srila Gurudeva during Sri Krishna Janmaṣṭami at the Kolkata Maṭh between 1968 to 1974 noted and translated by Srila Gurudev. He spoke on different topics like, ‘The significance of the worship of Sri Krishna’, ‘The devotee and Bhagavan’ and ‘Getting the grace of Sri Bhagavan’.

Jay Dau Jay Dau

In one harikatha on the advent of Lord Baladeva, Srila Gurudev emphasized the importance of performing the ‘Jaya Dau Jaya Dau’ kirtan. He instructed that his Gurudev, HDG Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaja used to pray for the grace of Guru, Vaiṣṇavas, and Bhagavan through this kirtan, and that we should do it without fail on every special tithi. By doing so, Guru, Vaiṣṇavas, and Bhagvan will be pleased.

Jay Govinda Jay Gopal..

Srila Gurudev has always emphasized on performing all the devotional practices with the sole purpose of satisfying the object of our worship Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. “Example is better than precept”, is his way of teaching. He showed the pastimes of utmost absorption in each and every devotional forms he enacted to practice. So does His pastime of performing Kirtans. Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Goswami Maharaj, one prominent disciple of Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad, used to say that Nityanand Prabhu and Gauranga Mahaprabhu Himself get manifest and dance in Srila Gurudev’s Kirtan.