Re: Poem: Nitaai - His devotee, His mercy

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

Dear Swamiji and devotees of the Supreme Lord Gauranga Krishna. Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet and my heartfelt thanks for your well-wishes for my birthday. Our Lordships Nityananda and Gauranga gave me this morning a present for my birthday that I will never forget and I share it here with you. The whole experience was in an atmosphere in which They accept me exactly as I am and in that very comfort They have made me laugh and laugh until my stomach and cheeks were hurting. Everyone of you have probably such remembrances that you were with a good friend and that you laughed and laughed with so much intensity that it hurts your cheeks and stomach. Anyway, I was reading when the inauguration of the Lord�s Sankirtana movement came to its full manifestation, just after He performed His pastime as Lord Sankara with matted hair on the shoulders of a devotee of Lord Shiva who without offenses chanted the glories of Lord Shiva.

Lord Gauranga said: �O brothers, listen to the essence of all advice. Why are we uselessly wasting our nights? Make a resolution that from today on we will congregationally chant the holy Names at night. We will all perform Sankirtana and become merged in the Ganges of devotional service. Let the entire world be delivered by hearing the Names of Krishna�.� From then on �every night kirtana was held at the house of Srivasa, except some nights it was held at the house of Candrasekhara�.� �The loud roaring of the Lord (here I got my first giggles as I see the Lord roaring from the top of His lungs) and the tumultuous chanting of Hari�s name (more giggles when I see the loud responsive chanting of the assembled devotees all drowned in ecstasy) shattered the covering of the universe. Hearing that sound, the atheists jumped about in anger and said, �These fellows drink wine at night�..� The atheist said: �twelve hours have passed and we could not sleep (for twelve hours they were trying to sleep, trying to merge themselves into ignorance but they couldn�t because of the auspicious chanting that shattered not only the covering of the universe but also the slumber of the atheists) They angrily said: �all we hear is the load sound of Bol! Bol! By this time I couldn�t read any further as I was laughing so deeply and so profoundly so full of joy that I had to put down the book. The scene kept repeating over and over�the Lord�s pure and ecstatic chanting party and the angry atheists irritated with the intoxication of the pure devotees. I imagined for a moment myself trying to fall asleep and all I hear is a loud Bol! Bol! uninterrupted for twelve hours. These atheists couldn�t experience their own fortune; the covering of their little universes were shattered with the holy Names of the Lord! Bol! Bol!

I don�t know really how to describe my intimate involvement in this little segment of the Sri Chaitanya Bhagavata Madhya Kanda, Chapter 8 but it was as if I was laughing together with our Lordships and Their intimate associates, uncomplicated, as close friends without the boundaries of any order. It is at these precious moments while reading about the pastimes of the Lord that we are suddenly drawn into the actual presence of the pastimes itself and we actually participate within the reality of its eternal existence. On those moments we fully know who we are and we fully identify with the essence of ourselves: being an eternal servant of the Lord. 

Could I have been given a more beautiful birthday present? It is only possible to be drawn into such ecstasy through the transparency of Gurudeva, and his Gurudeva, and his Gurudeva, all being without any self-interest and all totally dedicated to Sri Guru and Gauranga. So today I pray to my eternal Gurudeva His Holiness Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Guarangapada�s holy lotus feet seeking again and again his shelter as his humbled servant. And I pray that when I inspire anybody at all into the holy Names of the our Lordships Nityananda Gauranga and Radha Krishna that I will be enabled to do that with the same transparency as Gurudeva who has opened so widely the gateways to our ultimate fulfillment.

Your aspiring servant,

Hadai Nityananda dasa

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

Comment on this Post