First Yaam - Shraddha

Harikatha, Sreela Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj

3:22am to 5:46am. Chanting of the Holy Name Śrī Kṛṣṇa, completely, loudly in the company of devotees and without tenfold offences, which can bestow seven attainments— viz. cleansing of the mind-mirror, extinguishing of the forest fire of birth, death and threefold afflictions, bestowing eternal soothing benefit like moonlight, life of spiritual learning i.e. awakening of the real self, increasing of the ocean of bliss, bestowing at every step sweet taste of complete transcendental ambrosia, holy immersion of body-mind-real self—be supremely glorified.

  • Ataeva namābhase sarva pāpa vinash āra samsara kshaya
    (Sri Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu, Dakshin Part, 1/52)

    Therefore, glow of the Holy Name can destroy all sins and also rescue us from earthly attachments.

    taṁ nirvyājam bhaja guṇa-nidhe pāvanaṁ pāvanānāṁ
    śraddhā-rajyan-matir atitarām uttamaḥ-śloka-maulim
    prodyann antaḥ-karaṇa-kuhare hanta yan-nāma-bhānor
    ābhāso ‘pi kṣapayati mahā-pātaka-dhvānta-rāśim

    That person is addressed as guṇa-nidhe (one who is richly endowed with good qualities), who has got the aptitude to utter without delay, the Holiest Divine Name ‘Krishna’, greatest Redeemer of all redeemers, with firm faith, without hypocrisy and with simple-heartedness. The votary should chant the Holy Name with firm faith that by serving Krishna one serves all there. We cannot serve our parents or relatives or other human beings or demigods or any other person or living beings without the service of Sri Krishna, this sort of firm faith should be there. So, why should we spoil our time? Without serving Krishna we cannot serve all. We should chant the Holy Name Without deceitfulness, without hypocrisy and immediately with simple heartedness. There should be frankness of heart, then we can get the grace of Supreme Lord, worship Him and do Harinam with these qualities. Why? By the glow of the Sun at dawn before Sun rises, all darkness is removed like that the glow of the holy name entering the cave of the heart will destroys all great sins and nescience.

    parama pāvana kṛṣṇa tānhānra charaṇa,
    niskapata śraddhā saha karaha bhajan,
    jānra nāma suryābhās antare praveśi,
    dhvaṁsa kare mahāpāp andhakārarāśi,
    ei śikṣāṣṭake kahe kṛṣṇalīlā-kram,
    ihāte bhajan krame līlāra udgam,
    prathame prathama śloka bhaja kichu din,
    dvitīya ślokete tabe hauta pravīṇ

    By remembering Shikshashtaka, we can remember all the pastimes of RadhaKrishna of eight periods. Without following Shikshashtaka you cannot enter into the pastimes of Radhakrishna. You should follow the process. First you should give attention to the words of the first verse, and when you will be well-established then you have to practice the next verse and become eligible for next verse.

    chāri śloke kramaśaḥ bhajana pakkva kara,
    paṣcam ślokete nija siddha deha vara

    Without getting the realized self that is beyond this material plane, absolutely spiritual and transcendental, you cannot have contact with the transcendental Supreme Lord. By remaining with false ego, we cannot go there. ‘siddha deha vara’ is written in the 5thverse.

    ei śloke siddhadehe rādhāpadāśraya,
    ārambha kariyā krame unnati udaya,

    And if you want to get what our Guruvarga wants to give us, the highest prem, then you have to take shelter of Radharani. Our procedure is like this. Through Radharani you can go there. Radharani is also complete transcendental spiritual potency and we should be in a realized state as Her servant or maid servant whatever it may be.

    chaya śloka bhajite anartha dure gela,
    tabe jāna siddhadehe adhikāra haila,

    How you can understand that you are entitled to get this realized form? When by doing Harinam if you are not getting ecstatic feelings ‘nayanam galad-ashru-dharaya vadanam gadgada-ruddhaya gira pulakair nicitam vapuh kada tava nama-grahane…..’ While doing Harinam no tears are coming and ecstatic feelings are not getting manifested then there must be some offences. By that you can understand whether you have attained realized state or not, whether you are entitled to enter into these pastimes i.e. transcendental pastimes.

    adhikāra nā labhiyā siddhadeha bhāve,
    viparjya buddhi janme śaktira abhāve
    sāvdhāne krama dhara yadi siddhi cāo,
    sādhura carita dekhi śuddha buddhi pāo,
    siddhadeha peye krame bhajana karile,
    aṣṭakāla sevāsukha anāyāse mile,
    śikṣāṣṭaka cinta kara smaraṇa kīrtan

    Always you have to think about this. You have to remember, chant and speak about these things, then you can have entrance to the transcendental pastimes.

    krame aṣṭakāla-sevā habe uddīpana,
    sakala anartha jābe pābe premadhana,
    caturvarge phalguprāya habe adarśana

    That sort of inspiration will come to us. All kinds of ulterior desires will be removed. All the desires for material piety and others, dharma, artha, money, fulfillment of desire and even desire for emancipation are obstacles and all these obstacles will be vanished. By remembrance of Shikshashtaka, you will get everything.

    ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ
    bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
    śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ
    vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
    ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ
    prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
    sarvātma-snapanaṁ
    paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam

    Chanting of the Holy Name Sree Krishna, completely, loudly in the company of devotees and without tenfold offences, which can bestow seven attainments—viz. cleansing of the mind-mirror, extinguishing of the forest fire of birth-death and threefold afflictions, bestowing eternal soothing benefit like moonlight, life of spiritual learning i.e. awakening of the real self, increasing of the ocean of bliss, bestowing at every step sweet taste of complete transcendental ambrosia, holy immersion of body-mind-real self—be supremely glorified.

    saṅkīrtana haite pāpa-saṁsāra-nāśana
    citta-śuddhi, sarva-bhakti-sādhana-udgama
    kṛṣṇa-premodgama, premāmṛta-āsvādana
    kṛṣṇa-prāpti, sevāmṛta-samudre majjana
    (Chaitanya Charitamrita Antya 20.13-14)

    Everything you will get by doing sankirtan.

    Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has given us provision to remember Krishna’s pastimes along with Sri Shikshashtaka.

    Meditation on Krishna’s awakening pastimes:

    nishanta kirtane kunja bhanga kare dhyan
    krame krame citta lagane rasera vidhan

    Mind is the cause of our bondage and is also the cause of liberation. By mind we do remembrance. If in mind you are thinking about material things while sitting here then you are in material world. But if sitting at home if you think of Krishna-seva, then you are in Krishna-seva. So, it is said to meditate on the pastimes of awakening of RadhaKrishna in the grove at the close of night. If you think, do some practice, then you will get the fruit. Without doing anything how you can get? Gradually you will get the taste of the transcendental bliss.

    rātryante trastavṛnderita bahu-vira-vaibodhitau kirasārī
    padyair-hṛdhyair api sukha-śayanād-utthitau tau sakhibhiḥ
    dṛṣṭau hṛṣṭau tadātvoditarati-lalitau kakkhaṭīgīḥ saśaṅkau
    rādhā-Krishnau satṛṣṇāv api nija-nija dhāmnyāpta talpau smarāmi

    To awaken Radha Krishna at day break Vrindadevi sends Shuk-Sharika birds to sing and awaken RadhaKrishna. These are not ordinary birds. We have heard before, one who does not attain siddha-deha (realized form) cannot serve Krishna. So, they are all associates, not ordinary birds. Now we are doing the work of birds. Swamiji, you called us birds, you disregarded us? Actually, we are under the birds. They are beautifully singing Krishna’s glories. When Shuk sings more qualities of Krishna, devotees on behalf of Krishna are satisfied, but when female parrot Sharika sings glories of Radharani more than Krishna, the personal associates of Radharani become happy and Krishna’s associates’ heart sank. In this way, competition of singing continues. There is order that by force, by compulsion, by making loud noise of instruments waking up is not correct. By sweet words they should be woken up so that they open eyes by their own sweet will, so should be the singing. They have such melodious voice and so hearing their sweet songs in glories, Radharani opens Her eyes by Her own sweet will. Hearing glories over glories she feels happy and opens Her eyes. Along with Shuk-Sharika, even Gopis are singing kirtans in sweet voices and when Radharani wakes up Gopis worries are gone because their responsibility of service is over, it is now Radharani’s responsibility to awaken Krishna. Though Krishna is in front of Her, Radharani cannot wake Krishna up by shaking Him saying ‘get up, get up.’ Radharani is in difficulty as Krishna does not open His eyes. It is a pastime. There, sleep is not like Kumbhakarna’s sleep. That type of sleep is of tamo-guna. There is no existence of tri-guna—satva, raja and tama, everything is nirguna. In nirguna, Krishna is playing this pastime to give service to all. Krishna sees a female monkey by name Kakkhati. That monkey is also the personal associate of RadhaKrishna. She also has the desire to serve and Krishna is affectionate to His devotees, bhakta-vatsal, and does not lose sight of even smallest of the smallest sevak. Gopis do not give her permission because her voice is very harsh, not good, but she wants to serve. She has got the desire to serve. She is giving her sign to all the Gopis that you are unable to do, let me do my duty. They say, “No, your sound is very harsh.” So, she is disheartened. But Krishna wants to give her service. For Krishna her sound is sweet. We also have heard from our Gurudeva about one devotee, very devoted but whose voice was not good. Prabhupad says I want to hear from him. It is ok if voice is not good, if he has devotion then that is good. Devotees also have this kind of feeling.

    Sakhis were forced to give permission to Kakkhati despite her harsh sound when their efforts were not producing results and it was getting late. She made her harsh screaming sound and Krishna woke up. There is so much convenience in Krishna-bhajan, He is bhakta-vatsal, He does not leave anyone. Here also, we are doing the activities of birds in a way. And the monkey, what she is doing is like the ringing of the bell ‘tong.. tong..’ and Krishna wakes. Therefore we are called birds, not even birds actually, we are under them, surrendered to them, they are not ordinary birds. It is not good to feel that we are disrespected by being called birds. Then finally RadhaKrishna wake up. Their sleep is not like ours that is out of tamo guna, it is for giving service to devotees in their pastime. They look at each other and go to their respective homes. Everything is transcendental, not like here that on amavasya day we will need a torch light to see.

    na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ
    nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto ’yam agniḥ
    tam eva bhāntam anu bhāti sarvaṁ
    tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti
    (The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.14)

    “There (in the spiritual sky) the sun does not shine, nor does the moon, the stars or lightning as we know them, what to speak of ordinary fire. It is by the reflection of the spiritual sky’s effulgence that everything else gives light, and thus through its radiance this entire universe becomes luminous.”

    The Sun, the moon and the stars actually illuminate through the light of Krishna. He performed wonderful pastimes to give His service to all. They went to their respective homes and slept in their beds.

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