At first, I pay my innumerable prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of my most worshipable Divine master, who is the redeemer of the fallen souls, the bestower of knowledge on the Absolute, the non-different manifestation of the Supreme Lord and the bestower of service of the Supreme Lord. I pray for his causeless mercy. I pay my prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of the worshipable Vaishnavas and pray for their causeless mercy. I pay my due respects to all the devotees who are inclined to hear discourses on the Supreme Lord and to those who are following Damodar-vrata. May they all become satisfied.

Today is the disappearance Tithi of Srila Narottam Thakur. His appearance is in Maghi Purnima. In one sense all of us are known as ‘Narottam Parivar (family of Narottam)’. In the spiritual world, Narottam Thakur is known as ‘Champaka Manjari’ who serves under ‘Rupa Manjari’. Our Paramgurudeva has come to bestow upon us the divine love of Sri Rupa Goswami. He has got a direct connection with Narottam Thakur. We remember Narottam Thakur in Guru-parampara every day followed by Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami and before Vishvanath Chakraborty Thakur. Sri Baladev Vidyabhushan Prabhu had taken shelter of Vishvanath Chakraborty Thakur. So we remember Narottam Thakur daily in our prayers to Guru-parampara. We should remember Vaishnavas always and especially on their appearance and disappearance Tithis. Simply by remembrance, everything can be achieved.

guru, vaiṣṇava, bhagavān, — tinera smaraṇa
tinera smaraṇe haya vighna-vināśana
anāyāse haya nija vāṣchita-pūraṇa
(Caitanya Caritamrta Adi 1.1.20-1)

By remembrance of Guru, Vaishnavas and Bhagavavan, we can get everything. The six Goswamis used to remember thousands of Vaishnavas daily and offered prostrated obeisances to them. In this way, they taught us that if we want to make progress in Bhakti we should pray for the grace of the Vaishnavas. Remembrance of Vaishnavas will remove all our ulterior desires and will bestow on us the highest objective which is attaining Krishna-prema. We should pray for their grace. The grace of a Vaishnava bestows on a living entity all attainments.

It is said in the Acharya Vandana composed by Gopal Govinda Mahant, vaiṣṇavera guṇa-gāna, karile jīvera trāṇa—the living entity will be rescued by singing the glories of the Vaishnavas. The Supreme Lord becomes satisfied if one sings the glories of a Vaishnavas. Who is called God? One who is devoted to His devotee is called God. Who is called a devotee? One who is devoted to God is called a devotee. For this reason, Supreme Lord loves His devotees very much and thus when the glories of His devotees are sung, the Lord becomes very much satisfied. Of this there is no doubt. But the problem is we cannot remember the Vaishnavas, their transcendental forms, their transcendental pastimes by our material minds. It is impossible to remember them! Simply impossible! We cannot pray for their grace by our material minds. We do not know how to pray for their grace. We are even scared to pray for their grace. While praying we desire from them worldly benefits.

In Bhatinda, there was a Jain Dharmashala. So one day one Mataji was sitting there and she was not willing to leave. We were all wondering what the matter was. After repeatedly being asked, she said, “Swamiji, I am very unhappy.” When asked what the cause of her sorrow was, she said, “Though I am married, still, I am not having a child. So I am very unhappy. You please tell me something by which I may have a child. “So, she has come to the saints to get a child. I said, “Trying to get a child forcibly will not be beneficial. If the Lord has not given you a child, look upon the Lord as your child, Gopal. You have got a chance! What will be the use of a perishable child to you?”

So we go to God and His devotees with such desires. So, a person like me does not have the courage to pray for the actual grace of the Lord. Most people come to the Lord with such material desires. I am also included in them. I also want name, fame, etc. So how Krishna will come to me? Krishna is residing within our hearts. Whatever we are thinking, He understands it before we have thought it. We cannot hide any of our thoughts from Him. So, according to what we are thinking in our minds, we will get the fruits from the Lord. We will not get the fruits according to the words we are speaking from our mouths but according to the thoughts in our hearts. So it is difficult to pray the actual grace of the Lord. The Supreme Lord is transcendental (nirguna) and His devotees are also transcendental. It is difficult for a conditioned soul to sing their glories.

Vaiṣṇavera guṇa-gāna, karile jīvera trāṇa—the living entity will be rescued by singing the glories of the Vaishnava. It is very easy to say this. But the Vaishnavas are transcendental (aprakrita). How can the conditioned souls comprehend them by means of their material tongues, material minds, and material intelligence? They will comprehend them wrongly and will speak wrongly. For this reason, to sing the glories of the Vaishnavas, their grace is necessary. Also to remember the Vaishnavas we need their mercy. There is no other way. If we sincerely try we will get their grace.

Narottam Thakur appeared on Maghi Purnima. He is Champaka Manjari who is subordinate to Rupa Manjari. He appeared as the son of Raja Krishnachandra Dutta and Narayani Devi in the Kheturi Dham of Rajshahi district. The Kaliyuga started on Maghi Purnima Tithi. Narottam Thakur too appeared on the day of Maghi Purnima and disappeared on the day of Panchami tithi. He left house-hold life on a day of Kartik Purnima and took Diksha from Lokanath Goswami on the day Sravan Purnima. Externally, he appeared in the family of ‘Duttas’ but he was the best of the Vaishnavas.

So, caste and creed do not matter for worshipping the Supreme Lord. Mahaprabhu abandoned the pilgrimage to Vrindavan because of the large crowd of devotees that had gathered around Him. On His return journey to Puri, Mahaprabhu went to Kanair Natshala. There he called out loudly “Narottam! Narottam!” At that time Narottam Thakur had not been born yet. Narottam Thakur was very dear to Mahaprabhu since he is Champaka Manjari in Krishna Lila. So when Mahaprabhu called out his name loudly, all became astonished. Nityananda Prabhu, who was accompanying Mahaprabhu asked Him, “Whom did you call by the name Narottam?” Though He knew everything still He asked. Mahaprabhu replied, “See, Narottam will come later. He has not yet appeared.” Mahaprabhu continued, “When I had taken Sannyas, You (Nityananda) cried so much for Me out of love. I had collected that love in the form of Your tears and kept it in the custody of Padma River for Narottam.”

We may think that the river ‘Padma’ is a mere river, a material thing. How can it have a consciousness? But we have to understand the Vedic culture. Behind everything is consciousness. As long as consciousness is present in our body, it will remain. When the consciousness leaves the body, it will perish. Even in the case of a building, as long as someone is living there, he will maintain it. If nobody lives there then in due course of time it will perish. We believe the sun to be a material object externally but there is the Sun-God present in it to protect it. Even behind the river Ganga, there is Ganga Devi. Similarly, there is a demigoddess called Padmavati Devi behind the Padma River. Worship of the ten directions is done since there are presiding deities of each of them. Behind every material object, there is a spiritual principle otherwise it cannot be maintained or sustained.

So Mahaprabhu kept Divine love in the custody of Padmavati Devi to be given to Narottam Thakur later when he arrives there. When Narottam Thakur appeared, all the divine qualities that are present in an exalted personality (Mahapurush) became manifested in him automatically since he is a personal associate of Gaura-Nitai. Narottam appeared as the son of Raja Krishnachandra. Raja Krishnananda had a younger brother named Purushottam Datta, who had a son named Santosh. When Narottam was twelve years old Nityananda Prabhu appeared in his dream and spoke to him as follows, “Why are you crying so much? Gauranga Mahaprabhu has kept Divine Love for you.” The name of the place where Mahaprabhu kept the Love for Narottam is Kutubpur. After Narottam received the Divine Love in that place it came to be known as Prem-tali.

Mahaprabhu had told Padmavati Devi, “I am keeping this Divine Love in your custody. In future when My associate Narottam will arrive here you give him this love.” The presiding deity of River Padma namely Padmavati Devi asked Him, “How will I know which person is Narottam? Here, thousands of people come to take bath every day.” Mahaprabhu replied, “When Narottam will bathe in your waters, your waters will overflow. In this way, you will recognise him.” Padmavati Devi agreed to the proposal.

As per the instructions given to him in a dream by Nityananda Prabhu, Narottam Thakur went to Padma River at Kutubpur and while bathing the waters began to overflow. The presiding deity of River Padma took her form and arrived in front of Narottam and spoke to him, “Mahaprabhu had kept this Love for you. I am giving it to you. Please accept it.”

Immediately after getting the Divine love his form changed. He repeatedly called out, “Krishna Krishna!” loosing all his connections with this world. He left his home repeatedly crying, “Krishna Krishna” In spite of being the son of a king, he left home without any money, or food or any servitors. By calling out the names of ‘Krishna’ he started moving towards Vrindavan. He walked for two days continuously without eating or drinking on the way, repeatedly calling out the names of ‘Krishna’ and crying simultaneously. Blisters developed under his feet due to continuous walking and he could go no further. He fell at one place and became unconscious. Then Gauranga Mahaprabhu appeared there to him in the form of a Brahmin and offered him a Lota (large cup) of milk, saying to him, “Drink this milk.” But he did not even have the strength to drink the milk. Both Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswamis, who had already disappeared at that time, also appeared to him at that place. They can even appear now. Even Narottam Thakur can appear now. But we should have that sort of qualification to see them. They are all eternal associates of the Lord and thus can appear at any place. After appearing to Narottam they touched his body and made him drink the milk. After drinking the milk when Narottam regained his strength they disappeared again. Narottam started his journey again towards Vrindavan. Who had provided the milk? Finally, he reached Vrindavan after the journey all the way calling out the names of the Supreme Lord. Just imagine he was the son of a King!!

When we go for Parikrama (circumambulation) be it Vraja Dham, Navadwip Dham or Puri Dham we book places to stay for us in advance. We look for nice rooms, latrines, etc. If there are nice accommodations for us, then we are satisfied, if not, we become unhappy. But see, Narottam was the son of a king and he simply traveled to Vrindavan without any money etc. Can a normal human being do this? So we should understand that though he appeared as a human being, he is, in fact, a personal associate of the Lord and was going there being afflicted by separation grief from the Lord.

Lokanath Goswami was present there in Vrindavan at that time. He is considered to be a personal associate of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Indeed, he was the first Gaudiya Vaishnava to be instructed by the Lord to go to Vrindavan. He came to Vrindavan along with Srila Bhugarbha Goswami. Lokanath Goswami used to perform bhajan in Vrindavan with strong renunciation and never accepted any disciples. If one accepts any disciple, he has to think about the disciple’s welfare. But Narottam had the desire to accept initiation (mantra) only from Lokanath Goswami and thus approached the latter. But Lokanath Goswami refused by saying, “No, I do not give Mantra to anyone.”

Lokanath Goswami used to go to forest for evacuation. Narottam observed where Lokanath Goswami goes for performing evacuation and after finding out the place he started to clean it nicely every midnight. Not a trace of filth was left over after his cleaning. He sifted the earth to make fine, clean earth with which Lokanatha Goswami could clean his hands. Lokanatha Goswami wondered how come the place becomes clean every day without a drop of filth etc. He had never seen this previously. So he thought to himself, “Who does such a thing every day. I will stay here at a nearby place to see who he is!” So one day he sat under a tree near that place performing bhajan. At midnight he saw Narottam arrived there and started cleaning that place. Lokanatha Goswami immediately called out, “Who is there?” Narottam got scared. He replied, “I am Narottam.” Lokanatha Goswami said, “Narottam!! Being the son of a king you are doing such work!! Why are you doing this? It is not right for you to do such a work.” Narottam said, “I want your mercy.” and started crying. Lokanatha Goswami became satisfied by his service and gave him mantra.

Our Paramguruji was exactly like Narottam Thakur. Srila Gaura Kishore Das Babaji Maharaj also used to perform bhajan with very rigorous renunciation. He used to stay on the banks of the Ganges and used to perform bhajan continuously eating the mud and drinking the water of the Ganges. If he got Madhukari he would accept that. Srila Prabhupada wanted to take Mantra from him but Gaura Kishore Das Babaji Maharaj refused him by telling, “I do not give Mantra to anyone.” In spite of repeated prayers, Srila Prabhupad was refused repeatedly by Babaji Maharaj. At last Babaji Maharaj told him, “See, I will ask permission from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and if He agrees only then I shall give you Mantra.” After some days when Prabhupada asked him again, he said, “Oh! I forgot to ask.” If we were in the place of Prabhupada we would have thought, “Oh! There are so many Gurus. I do not need a Guru like him. I will approach someone else.” A person like me would have become annoyed at such a situation. I would have thought, “Okay there are so many Gurus. I will accept Mantra from someone else.” But our Prabhupada did not leave him. He came back again after some days and asked Babaji Maharaj, “Did you ask Mahaprabhu?” Babaji replied, “Yes I asked Him.” Prabhupada, “What did He say?” Babaji Maharaj, “Mahaprabhu told not to give Mantra to a proud person like you.” After hearing this Prabhupada’s face became pale and dark.

Gaura Kishore Das Babaji Maharaj never allowed anyone to take his foot dust. If anyone tried he would threaten to give him a curse, “If you do so, then your everything will be destroyed!” But seeing Prabhupada’s unflinching conviction, Babaji Maharaj took foot-dust from his own feet in his hand and smeared it all over the body of Prabhupada. He then told Prabhupada, “You are the only person who is competent to preach the message of Divine Love to the people of this world.” He gave him a mantra and all the power that was required to preach. Only one person who is Srila Prabhupada moved the entire world by himself. There was no requirement of thousands and lakhs of people to do this.

The title of ‘Thakur’ is given to the chief amongst all the Pandits (learned persons) hailing from places like Gauda, Vrindavan, Mathura, etc. When Rupa and Sanatan Goswamis disappeared, Jiva Goswami became the Acharya. He gave the titles 'Thakur' to Narottam, 'Acharya' to Srinivasa and 'Shyamananda' to Dukhi Krishna Dasa. Here title means Names. Jiva Goswami gave all the books of the Goswamis written on leaves of Tal trees to Narottam Thakur, Srinivas Acharya, and Shyamananda Prabhu and asked them to carry them to Bengal.

There is another incident with Lokanath Goswami. When Narottam was serving Lokanatha Goswami he used to treat visitors with hospitality like, “Come, please take a seat.” etc. Lokanatha Goswami told Narottam, “Oh! You are the son of a king and have many responsibilities. Okay! You go to Kheturi, establish deities and stay there.”

The main intention of Lokanatha Goswami was to rescue the living entities of Kheturi through Narottam Thakur and so he sent him there. There is also a purpose of Lokanatha Goswami’s giving such order to Narottam. He is giving a teaching to the conditioned soul that by chanting Harinam one serves all the living entities. There is no necessity to render service to individual living beings if one performs Harinam.

Anyhow Narottam was ordered to go to Kheturi and perform worship there by establishing deities. Srinivas Acharya also reminded Narottam of the order of his Gurudeva. At that time Bengal was under Muslim rule. On being ordered by Jiva Goswami, when the three reached Bengal with the books of the Goswamis, they guarded those books the whole night to prevent them from being stolen by thieves. After reaching Bana Vishnupura which was under the rule of a Hindu ruler, the three became pacified that since this place is ruled by a Hindu king we can keep the books safely here. Thinking like this the three took some rest there. The ruler of Bana Vishnupur acted only like a king in the morning. He used to hear Srimad Bhagavatam in the evening and used to perform robbery at night. He was the leader of the robbers. An astrologer told the king that lots of wealth was arriving in his kingdom, and that he should rob this wealth. So the king, who was in fact the leader of dacoits, performed Devi Puja (demigoddess worship) and saw that the three travelers were in deep sleep, and, near to them was a large bag. The king thought that there is no need to kill these persons. They are sleeping so he just took away the bag, thinking that it contained the predicted wealth. On opening the bag, the leader found out that it contained only books and so he was dejected. But such transcendental books also have spiritual effects. Even if one sees the books he will become purified. So he kept the bag containing the books for himself. When the three got up in the morning and found the bag containing the books to be missing they started crying. They thought that it is no longer necessary for them to continue living. The bag contained all the books of the Goswamis including those written by Jiva Goswami and all are now lost. They had been given such a big responsibility and they had failed. Thinking like this they all cried and cried.

Then Srinivas Acharya sent Narottam Thakur to Bengal, Shyamananda Pandit to Utkal and he remained there. He thought that he will remain there until the books were recovered. The local people of that place told him that they suspect that the king had stolen those books.

Srinivas Acharya was non-different from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the name ‘Srinivasa’ was also kept by Mahaprabhu. On seeing his divine form all became astonished. So Srinivas Acharya came to the king. After seeing Srinivas Acharya’s tall, fair divine form, all were astonished. The king used to hear Srimad Bhagavatam in the evening. At that time discourses on Bhagavatam were taking place and Srinivas Acharya sat amongst the listeners. The king noticed his divine form and was wondering who this divine person is. When the speaker of the Bhagavatam told something that was against devotional principles, Srinivas screamed “Ah!” The king asked him, why did he make this noise? Srinivas replied that the explanations that are given by the speaker are not per the conclusion of pure devotion. The king exclaimed, “Will you read Bhagavatam? It will be good if you do so.” Srinivas agreed. The king got attracted to the divine form of Srinivas. After hearing Bhagavatam from Srinivas the hearts of the king and his family members changed. They all became disciples of Srinivas. The place became like Vrindavan.

But in spite of staying there for so many days Srinivas couldn’t find those books and became deeply aggrieved inside. One day he locked himself in a room and started crying. The king became anxious on finding his Gurudeva crying and started thinking that there must be some fault in his service that is making his Gurudeva cry. When Srinivas opened the door the king fell at his feet and started crying. He said, “We cannot serve you. Death is better for me than not serving you.” Being asked repeated by the king, Srinivas Acharya mentioned the reason for his worries. The King then immediately showed him the bag he had stolen containing all the books. Srinivas Acharya became blissful on getting those books and jubilantly gave the news to all Vaishnavas.

Narottam Thakur did extensive preaching in many places like Manipur etc. He converted ninety-five percent of people in Manipur to Vaishnavism only through singing Kirtans. The people of Manipur speak and write Bengali words and letters, but their language is completely different. We will not be able to understand it. But when they come to Vrindavan they sing Bengali Kirtans and also apply Tilak etc. They do Kirtans of Narottam Thakur. When they came to Agartala they performed lots of Kirtans. They have devotional impressions.

So today is the disappearance Tithi of Narottam Thakur. Many Brahmins also became disciples of Narottam Thakur. The Brahmins used to perform Devi-puja and used to sacrifice animals like goats in such worship. So one Brahmin sent his son to bring goats for Devi-puja and when the boy was bringing the goat along with him he met Narottam Thakur on his way. Narottam Thakur asked him why he is carrying the goats and when the boy told him the reason, Narottam Thakur told him that it is not correct to sacrifice animals since violence to living entities is not good. Narottam Thakur told him that human birth is only meant to worship the Lord and no envy should be done to any living being. After much convincing, the heart of the boy got changed. The boy asked him, “I have bought these animals. What will I do now?” Narottam Thakur said, “Leave them at once.” The boy listened to him. He then took Mantra from Narottam Thakur. The father of the boy who was a Brahmin became enraged, “Narottam has spoiled my Devi puja. He also took away my son. What is this?”

In this manner, one after another, many Brahmins became his disciples. However, the rest of the Smarta Brahmin community went to Raja Narasimha and lodged a complaint against Narottam about his making Brahmin disciples and thus in order to stop him they summoned a scholar named Rupa Narayan to debate with Narottam in order to defeat his Vaishnava Sidhdhanta.

So the Smarta Brahmins gathered at a place named Kumarapura village. The intention was to later meet Narottam Thakur. When this news reached Ganga Narayan Chakravarty and Ramachandra Khan, who were disciples of Narottam, they decided to stop them from approaching Narottam Thakur. When they heard that the Raja and his entourage were resting overnight in Kumarapura village, they decided to stay at that place. They went in disguise as a potter and a pan-seller and set up stalls in the village market. When the Brahmins came through the market, Ramachandra and Ganga Narayan spoke with them in Sanskrit. The Brahmins were astounded that ordinary stall-keepers in the village were able to speak in Sanskrit. Ramachandra and Ganga Narayan began a debate with the Brahmins, defeating every Smarta argument that they put forward and establishing the pure doctrine of devotional service. The Raja and his Digvijayi Pandit were rendered speechless by the scholarship of the two ordinary stall-keepers. When they learned that the two men were disciples of Narottama Thakur, the Raja said to his Pandita, “If Narottama’s ordinary disciples can defeat you in debate, there is no need of going to see him.”

So today is the disappearance Tithi of Narottam Thakur. He had written the song, “Sri Rupamanjari pada.” which means that Srila Gurudeva is everything for the disciple.

śri-rūpa-mañjarī-pada, sei mora sampada,
sei mora bhajana-pūjana, sei mora prāṇa-dhana,
sei mora ābharaṇa, sei mora jīvanera jīvana

I pay innumerable prostrated obeisances at the lotus feet of Sri Narottam Thakur and pray for his grace and blessings. May he forgive all the offenses I have committed knowingly or unknowingly. Though I have not seen him personally, I have seen my Gurudeva who is non-different from him. I pay innumerable prostrated obeisances at the lotus feet of my Gurudeva and ask forgiveness for all the offenses I have committed to him knowingly or unknowingly. I pray for his causeless mercy to bestow upon me loving service of his divine feet.