English
Topic: Appearance Day of Srinivasa Thakur
Date: 02nd April 2024
Speaker: HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj
HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj says:
om ajnana-timirandhasyajnananjana-salakaya
cakshurunmilitamyenatasmaisri-guravenamah
sri-caitanya-mano-’bhishtamsthapitamyenabhu-tale
svayamrupahkadamahyamdadatisva-padantikam
sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-advaitagadadharasrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare - Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
I welcome all you chanters in today’s japa talk. You were welcomed before also. I am welcoming you again. Firstly you were welcomed for japa and now you are welcomed for the japa talk. We do two things: japa and japa talk which is heard by all of you. So today is an auspicious tithi which is the appearance of Srivasa Thakur. He was called by the name of Srivasa Thakur or Pandit. Although you all are aware of him and we should know about all the Gaudiyavaishanava. We should know him as he is a part of the Panchatattva. So he is Narada Muni himself and I was about to say that Narada Muni becomes Srinivas, so Narada Muni appears as Srivasa Thakur. So appears as both at the same time. So Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and all the panchatattva’s mission is:
Bg. 4.8
paritrāṇāyasādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmiyugeyuge
Translation
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.
They all are great personalities and the dharma which they are establishing is of Harinaam Sankirtan. He is Narada Muni who is the establisher of dharma himself and he is the establisher of Harinaam: Narayana! Narayana! and he travels all around the three worlds.
Narada Muni Bajay Vina by Bhaktivinod Thakur
nāradamuni, bājāyvīṇā
'rādhikā-ramaṇa'-nāme
nāmaamani, uditahaya,
bhakata-gītā-sāme( HeText 1)
Translation
When the great soul Narada Muni plays his vina, the holy name, Radhika-raman, descends and immediately appears amidst the kirtan of the Lord’s devotees.
He preaches around the whole universe and travels here and there and known as Parivrajakacharya and mostly he preached everywhere similarly Srila Prabhupada is known as Jet-age Parivrajakacharya and he travelled around the world but Narada Muni’s travel is inter-planetary, not only restricted to inter-continent or inter-national travel. He travels from one planet to the another all the time and he goes to Vaikuntha as well. So this is Narada Muni. He is one of the Dwadash-Maha Bhagavat. This Narada Muni comes whenever Lord appears- at the time of appearance of Lord Rama, Krsna and in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’slila as Srivasa Thakur. He is Narada Muni himself who is the guru of Valmiki Muni and he is a Shakatavesh avatar and he is the guru of the creator of all scriptures. He is Prahad Maharaj and Dhruva Maharaj's guru, who are big devotees in this entire universe. Lord has given him power of attorney. He is shaksad Hari.
Sri Guruashtakam by Srila Vishwanatha Chakravarti Thakur
saksad-dharitvenasamasta-sastrair
uktastathabhavyataevasadbhih
kintuprabhor yah priyaevatasya
vandegurohsri-charanaravindam [Text 7]
Translation
I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is the Lord's beloved devotee
In Srimad Bhagavatam, in the beginning a list is there of different avatars and in that 22 names are there and he is included in that list. We should remember him today. Srinivas Thakur can be remembered only when we understand Narada Muni. His appearance was in Bangladesh. And a lot of associates of Lord have also appeared there. At the time of appearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they came to Navadwip or Mayapur and Srivasa Thakur had four brothers - Sri Rama, Sri Pati, Sri Nidhi, and Srivasa. They all used to do kirtan. They had joint family. The place where they lived, that was known as Srivasa Angan. That was also called as Srivasa Thakur Badi. He is the neighbour of Saci mata and Jagannath Mishra and they have good friendship between them. He stayed near the Yogapitha, where Mahaprabhu has appeared. Srivasa Thakur is the friend of Jagannath Mishra and his wife Malini is also friends with Saci mata. So, in this way Srivasa Thakur and Malini have parental love towards Nimai. They have Vatsalya Rasa just like in the residents of Vrindavan. In Mayapur, Gauranga and have sakhyaprema with people of same age and with elderly people, they have Vatsalya Rasa and Sakshya Rasa is in the form of kirtan. And in Vrindavan gopis and sakhi's do Rasa lila and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu takes pleasure of that Rasa lila (Madhurya Rasa) in the form of Sankirtan. In Mayapur the same mercy is taken as in Vrindavan and it is preached as well. Vrindavan Dham is Aasvadandham. And CM ,Srivasa Thakur included they all show mercy and they distribute and preach Sankirtan and in Mayapur Dham is Audarya dham. They all become compassionate to others. Sankirtan movement's preaching and distribution is done by Srivasa Thakur who has a big role in it. Yogapitha is the birthplace of Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu and SrivasaAngan is the karma bhumi of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It become the headquarters of Sankirtan- Srivasa Badi. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began Sankirtan with Srivas Thakur's Angan. He performed kirtan all day. So at this place, a lot of kirtan took place. One day Kirtan was happening at his place when his son died and women started crying, then Srivasa Thakur said that they should stop this crying as it will be a hindrance in the kirtan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He instructed them to stay quiet till the kirtan ends. He had no worry for his son and he was only concerned about the kirtan. So he didn't say start crying and stop the kirtan.
Gaura Aarati by BhaktivinodThakura
(kiba) jayajayagorācāńderāratikośobhā
jāhnavī-taṭa-vane jaga-mana-lobhā
jaga-jana-mana-lobhā
TRANSLATION
All glories, all glories to the beautiful arati ceremony of Lord Caitanya. This Gaura-arati is taking place in a grove on the banks of the Jahnavi (Ganges) and is attracting the minds of all living entities in the universe.
This aarati used to happen in Srivasa Angan. This aarati used to perform in the Srivasa Angan. And who else took part? Brahma, Shiva performed it it happened in that place. This kirtan was preached. Karma kandis used to say that open kirtan is not God and these Hindu karma kandis went to Chand Kazi and asked them to stop the kirtan and torcher the people who are singing this kirtan. So some of the people of Chand Kazi and they broke thier mridangas and break their bones. Khola bhang- khola means broken bhang means mridanga that means mridangas were broken here. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard this news then he gave the instruction that everyone should come in big numbers and reached Srivasa Angan and he thus started this Non-cooperation movement.
So Srila Prabhupada also faced this in Bombay and was told that- this Hare Krishna kirtan is nuisance and the Police commissioner was asked to stop the kirtan. So what Srila Prabhupada did was that he asked everyone to do kirtan and called everyone as it was the time of Vrindavan festival was there and he said we have to do kirtan everywhere in Juhu. So they said that they can't stop the kirtan and it should be everywhere, so this protest started from Srivas anagan, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that this kirtan cannot stop.
Sri Krsna Chaitanaya Mahaprabhu did Maha Prakash lila. People said you are Supreme personality of Godhead and showed his Godliness and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna himself and for twenty one hourshourshe continuedthis and at that time Sri Krsna Chaitnaya Mahaprabhuhid his godliness for a long time but now he showed his real form. And all the people felt that he is Krsna himself. This is special lila and Srivasa and Malini had parental bond with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Malini would act like a nurse and used to serve like Saci mata. Amongst seven types of mothers nurse is also a mother. She was nurse in Vrindavan and she appeared in the same way in Mayapur. In future when Nityanand Prabhu was travelling and he came to know Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had appeared in Nabadwip and he came running to him from Radhukund. And it is said at the residence of Srivas Thakur's Angan, he stayed there.
So Malini used to feed her own milk to Nityanand Prabhu. She used to take him in her laps and feed him milk. He was thirty two years old and Malini was the nurse of Krsna and Balarama as well who is Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu only. And in SrivasaAngan, they organised Nityanand Prabhu's Vyasapuja at their residence. In future Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannayas and he was staying in Jagannath Puri so Nabadwipmayapur's devotees and associates used to go and meetChaitanya Mahaprabhu. Srivas Thakur was always there in these yatra leading them and he used to go meet him. I said in the beginning that he is Narada Muni himself. Whenever kirtan happens , then he used to participate in the kirtan and he used to walk shoulder to shoulder with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He preached with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and was present with him everywhere and preached everywhere.During Puri rathyatra, they formed formed small circles and on the outer circle King Prataprudra was present so that he doesn’t fall while dancing. It was made so that no one disturbs Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did Udand kirtan whose darshan Srivasa Thakur used to take with much determination. So once Chandan Acharya saw that KingPrataprudra could not have darshan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so he pushed Srivasa Thakur who was blocking the view.So Srivas Thakur slapped him in response to that and Pratap Rudra’s associates also went to slap him. But then King Prataprudrastopped them and said that I wish I was that lucky that I could have been slapped by Srivasa Thakur. So, this was the personality of Srivasa Thakur. So I say a little but a lot is there in his character, qualities, touch, opulence. Hari Hari
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lived in Jagannath Puri and he asked him to preach in Bengal and said:
Nadiya Godrume Nityananda Mahajana by Bhaktivinod Thakur
prabhuraājñāy, bhāi, māgieibhikṣā
bolo `kṛṣṇa,’ bhajokṛṣṇa, koro kṛṣṇa-śikṣā
Translation
O people of faith! O people of faith! By the order of Lord Gauranga, O brothers, I beg these three requests of you: Chant "Krsna!", worship Krsna, and teach others about Krsna.
He makes his headquarter as Srivasa Angan and Nityanand Prabhu also made it his headquarters as well. So in future when Jiva Goswami when he left his place- Rama keli, he goes straight to his place who was a young man at that time. So, Nityanand Prabhu did Parikrama with him. They both lived there. So Nityananda Prabhu becomes the guide and he did Navadwip mandal parikrama with Jiva Goswami.So it was difficult for Srivas Thakur to stay there as he used to remember Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So all Mayapur vasi had vairagya in their minds. So this Badi was left by him and he went to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Guru, Ishwara puri's village. For him to stay in Mayapur was difficult. Appearance day of Srivasa Thakur ki Jai! Panchatattva ki Jai.
Hari hari!
We say it is Guru and Gauranga's team and he preached every where and established harinaam Sankirtan. He played an important role in doing the same.
