English
24th April 2019
GLORIOUS LIFE OF NAAMACHARYA
Thank you all for Chanting with us. Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jai! He is Haridas, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave him title of Naamacharya. He is our Acharya. He is like ‘ Hero’ of the Chanters. His Chanting was exemplary. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has put glaring example in front of us, in form of Haridas Thakur.
vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yoga-
śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-śarīra-dhārī
kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye
(CC 6.254)
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared to teach Chanting to the whole world. Then He selected & empowered Namacharya Haridas Thakur, so that he would become the empowered teacher, for Chanting of the holy names of the Lord. He is most inspiring for the Chanters. He is the 'Shiromani’ or 'Mukutmani’ among Chanters. We should study the life of this Acharya. We will learn many things. Primarily we learn to Chant. We will get inspiration to Chant, in all different types of situations & circumstances & we see whatever situation he was in, he kept Chanting. Sometimes there were so many odds & challenges, but he never ever stopped Chanting.
Kirtaniya sada Hari. (Shikshastakam verse 3)
happened in each & every situations & in all those circumstances.
We could may be going over some of those incidents to understand how Naamacharya Srila Haridas Thakur didn't stop his Chanting. He continued Chanting.
We can discuss some of the incidents of his life, to understand in which situations he didn't stop his Japa. So there comes the prostitute, in the middle of the night, who was young & beautiful & no one else was around. Srila Haridas Thakur didn't stop Chanting. He suggested her to be there, three nights passed one after the other & he was still busy Chanting. That was a time when Maya personified, came in form of a beautiful young girl, but that also didn't work, as he kept Chanting. We all know, prostitute couldn't convert Namacharya Haridas Thakur but on the contrary, he converted the prostitute & she became the great Chanter of the holy name & she also started Chanting three hundred, thousand holy names. She renounced everything. Just took beads & sat down to Chant. She became Aacharya of the Holy name.
Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was once residing in a Phulia gram & Namacharya Haridas Thakur was Chanting. He had to share the cave with a big poisonous snake. Visitors who used to come to meet him had noticed that snake is sharing the cave, because they were afraid of the snake, they stopped visiting.
But Srila Haridas Thakur was not afraid, he kept Chanting there. So, this was another situation. Where Namacharya Haridas Thakur kept Chanting. He didn't leave the cave. Instead the snake had to leave the cave. You could learn lessons from each of this situation. I am not going to draw any conclusions, to bring it to your attention.
While Namacharya Haridas Thakur was staying in Saptagram in big assembly, he was challenged & insulted, offended. Because the other party, someone in the assembly was not accepting the Holy name. He was saying, 'it is just exaggeration of the Glories of the Holy name’ Namacharya Haridas Thakur was talking about Naamabhas stage of Chanting that time. He was protesting & insulting. But Namacharya Haridas Thakur didn't take that as an offense. He kept Chanting & Chanting.
Once Namacharya Haridas Thakur was imprisoned. But did he stopped Chanting in a prison? No! he kept, preaching co-prisoners & converting them to be a devotee. He inspired them to Chant.
Once he was with Advaita Acharya in Shantipur & then those two persons were the first one to receive the news of appearance of Gauranga or Nimai. They were Chanting & dancing on the banks of Ganga & everyone was wondering, what has happened to Them. But they knew the reason of Their jubilation, as Lord had appeared.
Namacharya Haridas Thakur was also Chanting there that time. So we note that he was Chanting even before the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was aware of the appearance of the Supreme Lord. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was one day old, that time Advaita Acharya was fifty years old. Namacharya Haridas Thakur & Advaita Acharya both got the news that Nimai or Gauranga has appeared. Namacharya Haridas Thakur was a Chanter, even prior to advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Then Kazi ordered, this person is born in Muslim family, but he just keeps Chanting names of the Hindu God. 'Hare Krishna Hare Ram’, stop him!! Beat him to death!!! Then that attempt was also made. Who could understand, what Acharyas’ have undergone?
Namacharya Haridas Thakur got beaten up in one market place & then another like that 21 market places. They said you stop Chanting, we will stop beating. But if you don't stop Chanting, we won't stop beating. But Namacharya Haridas Thakur, he went on & on with his Chanting & they also went on beating, but he didn't stop. It's a long story.
Under those circumstances also he didn't stop Chanting. And we know what happened to those who were beating, they stopped, but Namacharya Haridas Thakur didn't stop Chanting.
Then Haridas Thakur reached Jagannath Puri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also reached along with His few parshads. Haridas Thakur was not allowed in the temple, since he was a Muslim. Muslim Born are not allowed in the temple. But he kept Chanting. Whether he was allowed in the temple or not allowed, he kept Chanting. It didn't matter to him. He didn't protest. He respected the rules & kept Chanting. Of course, we know, he was not able to go to Jagannath but Jagannath used to come to him, to give him Darshan in form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Then he became very old. So old that he couldn't even sit up & Chant. He used to lie down & Chant. One day Govind was sent by Mahaprabhu with prasadam. When prasadam was given to him, he exclaimed, No! No!! my Chanting is not finished yet, so I can't take prasadam. He was still attempting to stick to his standards, even in his last days. He just took few grains, just to respect the prasadam, as prasadam is the form of Lord. Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had come. Then He was asking, why he has to stick to the quota of Chanting three thousand rounds? You could come down or reduce the number. But Namacharya Haridas Thakur didn't want to minimize his Chanting. Lord Himself was telling , O! Chant less! To us our counsellors or Gurus keep telling, Chant more! Chant more!
Here Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was telling chant less! But still he didn't want to reduce his usual number of rounds.
Time was passing & against all the circumstances or odds we will find that Srila Haridas Thakur stick to his Chanting. That's the reason why he is called as Naamacharya. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave him title of Naamacharya. Srila Haridas Thakur ki Jai!
We pray to such Naamacharya to give us necessary inspiration, determination & devotion to keep Chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. We keep doing Kirtaniya Sada Hari.
Okay, you study the life of Naamacharya Haridas Thakur. This is the homework for you. All glories to Naamacharya Haridas Thakur!
All glories to Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Nitai gaura premanande.
Hari Hari Bol!!.
