🤲 Preparing for the auspicious arrival – (♻️ post)

This Ekādaśī Eve, I’m reposting something I wrote for this mailing list a couple of years ago. Although it was originally written just before Nityānanda Trayodāśī in 2023, I feel it’s even more relevant to reflect on now, as we approach the Vyāsa-pūjā of Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja (observed this year in India on January 29th).

At the end of the post, I mentioned a WhatsApp group where I shared daily countdowns for the next six upcoming tithis to help us prepare and receive them with more honor when they arrive. That group has been inactive for a while, but revisiting this post has inspired me to restart it. (You’ll find the link to join at the end.)

One exciting update before we dive in: during these days leading up to Vyāsa-pūjā, Srivas is joining our daily readings to share his translations of Śrīla Gurudeva’s articles from the early issues (the 1950s!) of Bhāgavata-patrikā. Most of these gems have never been seen in English before. Here’s a playlist of the articles we’ve read so far, and you’re warmly invited to join the upcoming sessions on my YouTube channel or Zoom. (Reply to this email if you want the Zoom link)

And now, here’s today’s Ekādaśī Eve posting:

Every year from 1996 onwards, Śrīla Gurudeva blessed Badger, a little town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, with the dust of his lotus feet and transformed it into New Braj. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.13.10), Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja said to Vidura that because he carried the Lord in his heart, he turned wherever he went into a place of pilgrimage (tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni). Such is the power of the mahā-bhāgavatas.

A kirtan especially dear to my Gurudeva was Śrīla Bhaktivinoda’s Rādhā-kuṇḍa-taṭa. He would often have devotees sing and explain it. In one class, he said, “Those who want to do bhajana should always remember this song – always.”

In this kirtan from Śaraṇāgati, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura takes us through various places in Vraja and describes the uddīpana there. Uddīpana means stimuli, or those ingredients that stimulate remembrance of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, such as the Yamunā, Vaṁśīvaṭa, the trees and creepers of Vṛndāvana, the birds and deer, the Malaya winds, the peacocks, bumblebees, clouds, springtime, the moon, karatālas...

At the end of the song, in Verse 7, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, “e saba choḓata kãhi nāhi jā̃u, e saba choḓata parāṇa hārā̃u – I will not give up this uddīpana to go anywhere else, for to abandon them is to give up my very life!”

Śrīla Gurudeva fully embodied these words. It was completely impossible for him to give up the uddīpana of Vraja. For him to give up Vraja would mean giving up his very life (parāṇa hārā̃u). So the only way he was able to step out of Vraja and journey to the West was by taking the entirety of Vraja with him. I once heard a devotee glorify Śrīla Gurudeva by saying, “You can take a tiger out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the tiger.”

Viṣṇu Prabhu nicely highlighted this point in one of his remembrances:

I got to drive Śrīla Gurudeva back from the airport, and in my foolishness, I thought, “Gurudeva is coming to America for the first time and, generally, people get very excited to see the freeway here and the roads, because in India the roads are so bad and even the roads in England are not as amazing as the roads in the US. Especially Houston has amazing wide freeways.” So I said, “Gurudeva, how do you like the roads here?”

Gurudeva said, “I am only seeing Māna-galī, Prema-galī. What roads?”

Like this, he saw Braja everywhere. He really saw it; it was not theoretical. He lived in Vṛndāvana because he carried Vṛndāvana in his heart, and he wanted to give Vṛndāvana to all of us.

For one who is completely laden in vraja-rasa, who is eternally residing in Vraja, everywhere he goes becomes permeated with the mood of the Vrajavāsīs; and it affects everyone who has the fortune to come near him. Whatever mundane city one physically happens to be in fades away in the presence of a true Vrajavāsī. Every day, no matter where he was, became a grand mahotsava—a festival of Vraja. Even the quiet, unremarkable redneck town of Badger was transformed by the dust of his feet into a genuine holy place. It became New Braj—not just in name, but you could really feel the very mood of Vṛndāvana alive in that place. The effect of his foot dust there lingers even now.

Preparing for Śrīla Gurudeva’s arrival in New Braj

For those of us living in New Braj, Gurudeva’s annual harikathā festival would begin well before he arrived; it was the preliminary festival of preparation and anticipation. There was much to do: setting up the kitchen, washing the pots, cleaning up the house and temple, mowing, weed-whacking and trimming, digging outhouses, setting up the campsite for the devotees, setting up the harikathā pandal, decorations, and the list goes on. As his arrival date neared, the excitement would continuously build until, finally, that glorious, brilliant day would arrive and the atmosphere would be bursting with joy.

There’s no way to describe the delight that filled the air as we did kirtan in the driveway, listening out for the car and eagerly watching the driveway for him to arrive. Finally, after some false alarms (other cars driving past), Gurudeva’s car or van would appear and slowly wind up the long driveway. The kirtan would completely explode. As the car door would open and he’d step his lotus foot onto the pavement, everything and everyone around him would bask in his purifying effulgence.

Although a video camera is not able to capture the experience everyone felt at that moment, you can see footage of the first time I obtained darśana of Śrīla Gurudeva in that driveway, here.

Preparing for the arrival of holy tithis

Divine personalities are not limited by the physical laws of time and space, and we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to welcome them as they make their auspicious arrival on their holy tithis throughout the year. On Phālgunī Pūrṇimā, Mahāprabhu descends; on Āṣāḍhī Amāvasyā, Śrīla Gadādhara Paṇḍita and Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura descend. On the Āṣāḍhī Pūrṇimā, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī; on Śrāvaṇa Dvadaśī, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī; on the Kṛṣṇa Aṣṭamī of Bhādra, Śrī Kṛṣṇa; our Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda descends the very next day after that; on the Śukla Aṣṭamī of Bhādra, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. On so many days of the year, the associates of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, our guru-varga, and numerous pure Vaiṣṇavas keep on descending to bestow their mercy and give us strength in our devotional practice.

Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja stressed countless times that if we neglect these personalities when they come to us on these auspicious days, it constitutes an aparādha. We see in a verse from Skanda Purāṇa that it is considered vaiṣṇava-aparādha to not welcome a Vaiṣṇava (nābhinandati) and to not feel joy upon seeing a Vaiṣṇava (no harṣaṁ darśane). So we must take special care to honor these days when they mercifully come to us.

Today, Ekādaśī made her divine descent, tomorrow Varāhadeva will arrive, then Nityānanda Prabhu, then Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, then my Paramgurudeva, then Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda and Śrīla Gour Govinda Swami Mahārāja... We should be ready to receive and honor them.

Just like there was so much to do in preparation before my Śrīla Gurudeva would come to New Braj, in the same way, there is much we can do in preparation for these days. Nityānanda Trayodaśī doesn’t need to start in three days from now. The preparation for the festival can start today. My mind and heart are so dirty. I’ve watched many YouTube videos and listened to lots of music these past days. Now I need to clear that all out and wash away the filth they left in my mind and heart with harināma, harikathā, and kīrtana.

When Nityānanda Prabhu arrives, what am I going to do? Am I going to just stand there before Him like a mute? I should memorize some of our guru-varga’s prayers of glorification of Him, which I’ll be able to offer Him on that day. There are also many articles to read, classes to hear, services to perform in preparation, right now. On the eve of any great tithi, Śrīman Mahāprabhu and His followers would often perform adhivāsa-kīrtana, the big kirtan festival before a special day. The more we can prepare ourselves, the more seriously we will be able to honor these days.

My plan, starting this Ekādaśī

What I’m going to try out this time, for these two weeks till the following Ekādaśī, is to do a little something every day in preparation for the approaching holy days. For example, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda's appearance day is in ten days. Maybe each day leading up to it, I can try to understand the word-for-word meanings of each of the ten verses of Śrīla Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja's Prabhupāda-padma-stavaka.

So that I never lose sight of the holy days coming up, I'm making a “Tithi Countdown” WhatsApp group, where, every evening, I'll post countdowns for the next six or so approaching holy days, like this:

Of course, you will need to check the calendar to know the dates in your specific region. Visit PureBhakti.com world Vaiṣṇava calendar here. In this WhatsApp group, I’ll be sharing the Navadvīpa calendar dates only so you can get an approximate idea.

What are some ways we can prepare for these upcoming festivals? Feel free to share your idea(s) by writing in the comment section below or replying to this email.

That’s all for now.

Jaya Śrīla Gurudeva! Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda!