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Vrindaban Unlike Navadvipa-dhama, offenses in

January 21st, 2001

Vrindaban

Unlike Navadvipa-dhama, offenses in Vrindaban are not pardoned so easily. The devotees feel more pressure here. I am confident, however, that if the devotees
maintain their sincere mood of approaching the dhama, they will enter?although it may take time.

Actually there is no difference between Navadvipa-dhama and Vrindaban-dhama. It is the same entity manifesting different moods, just as even an ordinary man can sometimes be sweet, sometimes magnanimous, and sometimes be sad. Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives a great explanation of this in his Nabadvipa
Mahatmya:

“Krsnaloka exists in two states of emotion. Rasa expands there in the form of madhurya and audarya, sweetness and munificence. Audarya exists within madhurya in fullness, and madhurya exists within audarya in fullness. But, that place where madhurya is the chief state is known by fortunate persons as Vrindaban. And that place where audarya is eternally predominant is called Nabadvipa in all the Vedas. There is no difference between Vrindavan and Navadvipa, only the different manifestations of rasa make them different.? (Navadvipa-dhama Mahatmya)

A few of the devotees became ill the last day in Mayapur and, therefore, the trip to Vrindaban was difficult for them. We will take it easy today and only visit Srila Prabhupada’s house in the ISKCON’s temple compound. As this was Srila Prabhupada’s residence in Vrindaban, many wonderful pastimes were enacted here including his glorious passing from this world. Although I never considered myself fortunate to have had much personal association with Srila Prabhupada, I was surprised by how much I remembered of what I personally witnessed here.

I spoke of the time when Srila Prabhupada had a dream that he would be cured by a rare type of medicine made with crushed diamonds and prepared by a kaviraj with thick white and red ramanuja-tilak. I remembered how devotees were sent to somehow find him. I was also there when one of the devotees returned and excitedly told Srila Prabhupada that he had found the kaviraj. He explained that while searching for the doctor in Delhi he just happened to have met a friend in Delhi who had just seen a local kaviraj. When he inquired from his friend what the kaviraj looked like, it became apparent that he was the kaviraj in Srila Prabhupada’s dream?a Ramanuja-kaviraj making the rare medicine Srila Prabhupada wanted!

Tamal Krishna Maharaja was sitting at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada at the time. I remember his reaction. He looked at Srila Prabhupada and exuberantly exclaimed, “Srila Prabhupada! This is like living the Caitanya-Caritamrita! ?

What Maharaja said was so true. The world around Srila Prabhupada’s room had a very mystical sense?like a stage for a divine drama. It seemed as if it was something you only read about, but we were there as personal witnesses to Srila Prabhupada?s lilamrita.

I spoke for several hours and it brought my consciousness back to the mood of intense devotion that was manifest when Srila Prabhupada lived there. Actually, a magic still pervades his rooms. Srila Prabhupada said that Vrindaban is his home, so visiting his home in Vrindaban and meditating on his mood here was the proper way for us to enter Vrindaban and begin our parikrama.

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