At the time, when Srila Gurudev was performing his manifest pastimes on this earth, we were under him directly, so we had no worries. Whatever he directed was directed by Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. Gurudev is the absolute counterpart of the Supreme Lord, and we were not to be worried. But, after his disappearance, we could not see him physically although, indirectly, he was still directing everything. As God is eternal, His absolute counterpart is also eternal.

As long as there is the sun, the light of the sun, the quality of the sun will also be there. If the sun is eternal, its light will also be eternal. Like that, the Supreme Lord is the Supreme Eternal Entity and, therefore, His absolute counterpart is also eternal. He is grace incarnate. He graces all the deserving enslaved jīvās of this world.

By the grace of the Supreme Lord, we can see that His grace incarnate is the bonafide guru, His personal associate. Gurudev, the grace incarnate of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Gaurāṅga Mahaprabhu, appeared and put his holy footprints in our own place. I had no knowledge of Gaudiya Math, but he attracted me. He is the expansion of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent His own personal associate here. Gurudev also went to many different places and rescued many fallen souls. We have to remember Gurudev. Without his race, without submission to him, without sincere belief in him, we cannot have any kind of contact with Krishna.

Throughout the infinite planets, you will find all the pastimes of Sri Krishna going on continuously, one after another. In this sense, His appearance pastime is eternal:

ei-mata brahmāṇḍa-madhye sabāra ‘parakāśa’
sapta-dvīpe nava-khaṇḍe yāṅhāra vilāsa
sarvatra prakāśa tānra—bhakte sukha dite
jagatera adharma nāśi’ dharma sthāpite
(Chaitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.218-219)

There are infinite brahmāṇḍas and infinite planets—so many that we cannot even conceive of them. Somewhere within these brahmāṇḍas, He is appearing continuously. So, in this sense, His appearance is eternal. But He also appears, reveals Himself, in the sanctified heart of the śuddha bhakta. This is also His eternal appearance. We have to prepare ourselves so that Mahaprabhu will think us to be qualified to get Him. Then He will appear in our hearts. Today is the day before

‘Adhivāsa’ means that we have some prior duty to perform before His appearance, so that we will be ready for Him. We have to sanctify our hearts so that Mahaprabhu can appear there. He is already there, but we are not aware of His presence.

ceto darpaṇa mārjanaṁ bhāva-maha—dāvāgni nirvāpaṇam
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhu-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vigayate śrī-Kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam
(Śikṣāṣṭaka 1)

Supreme Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wrote this verse thereby instructing us how to attain the association of Krishna. How can Krishna appear in us? What do we have to do? “Sri-Krishna-saṅkīrtanam”: chant the Holy Names of Sri-Krishna. Then you will get everything. “You do not need to do anything to purify your mind, except to go on chanting ‘Rādhā-Krishna’, Hare Krishna mahāmantra. Everything will come to you.” We say this repeatedly with our words but, in practice, we have no belief.

The Supreme Lord will descend into our hearts—will be revealed in our hearts—when we actually and sincerely take absolute shelter at His lotus feet. He will reveal Himself to the surrendered soul. If we chant with bonafide submission, we will find that everything is there in the Holy Name—Form, attributes, everything. The Name is saccidānanda. Krishna is saccidānanda. This realization will descend into our hearts. We might think that we will get Him by our own capacity, but He is not subservient to us. He is Self-effulgent, Self-luminous like the sun.

Svāmī Maharaj (Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj) used to say, “If one is enlightened by that knowledge by which ignorance is destroyed, then that knowledge reveals everything, just as the sun illuminates everything at daybreak.”

When the sun rises, he shows himself and everything else in proper perspective. We think harināma to be material sound and that we can get Krishna by our own capacity. No! If we submit to God and His absolute counterpart, then all will be revealed.

We cannot bribe the Supreme Lord. Everything is within Him, there is nothing outside Him. Dhruva Maharaj received the grace of the Supreme Lord. We are uttering the Name and we are not getting this grace. Why? “He is not gracing us!” we complain. No, no. The sun is giving light to all. It is shining in the filthy place, the clean place—everywhere. Some are taking advantage of it, but the majority is not. Nonetheless, we complain, “The sun is not blessing us.”

Dhruva had firm belief. His faith was without a trace of doubt. “My mother told me that, by crying the Name of Sri Hari, I shall get Sri Hari.” He was crying, crying, crying continuously. We are not doing this. He was continuously uttering the Holy Name, completely absorbed in Hari and, whatever he saw, whether a lion, crocodile or any other beast, he embraced. They did no harm to him as he was protected from all danger. However, we have difficulty believing this. Ultimately, he received the grace of Nārada Gosvāmī.

That was an example from Srimad Bhāgavatam but, in this Kali-yuga, when we were once in Punjab, a very astounding event took place. A devotee woman was traveling by rickshaw from her shop to a remote place, about two miles away.

She was wearing many gold ornaments. She traveled for some time along the well populated road when suddenly the rickshaw driver turned away from the main road, toward a field.

“Why are you going across this field?” the lady protested. “That is the way, over there.”

“No,” the rickshaw driver said, “I am taking a shortcut. We will go this way.” He would not heed the woman’s words.

Then, the woman became afraid, thinking, “I am wearing so many golden ornaments. The driver must be greedy for them. He will rob me and kill me.” For this reason, she jumped from the rickshaw and started to run away, shouting, “Hah Govinda! Hah Govinda!” This is fact. We were there at the time. To save herself, she jumped into a well. In terror, she remained in the well throughout the night, all the time uttering, “Hah Govinda!” At dawn, the next morning, many people from the village came for their morning walk. They heard the sound of a woman’s voice uttering the Holy Name. “What is this?” they asked. They followed the voice to the well and found the woman who was crying, “Hah Govinda! Hah Govinda!” An extremely poisonous snake was swimming around her, circling her. “What is this?” they wondered.

Then, they saw the rickshaw. A man holding a dagger lay next to it—dead. A great cry rose from the crowd and many people gathered from different places to see what had happened. By now, it was daylight and, as people came to the woman’s aid, the snake left.

All the witnesses at the scene said they had never seen that snake before and, since that time, they have never seen it again. When the rickshaw driver went to kill the woman with his dagger, the snake bit him and injected him with venom, killing him instantly. After that, the same snake protected the woman throughout the night by circling her, so that no one could come near. The woman had firm belief. She did not utter any other name, only, “Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!”

Even in this Kali-yuga, you can find such an event. Therefore, you should have belief.

Gaura Purnima and other auspicious functions at the Math are “hari-smaraṇamahoṭsava” (grand celebrations dedicated to the remembrance of Hari). You will find, in a certain hymn, that the entire purpose of performing bhajana is to remember Krishna. We shall destroy all evil thoughts by remembering Krishna. We shall get everything by remembering. But, it is said in the scripture called Vaiṣṇava Cintāmaṇi, that it is not easy to remember, to meditate, with this material mind. It is very difficult. All the sins, vices and evil thoughts will be destroyed by remembrance of Krishna, but it is not so easy. But we can remember Krishna if we utilize our lips to utter His Name. By moving these lips, we can obtain eternal benefit, but, unfortunately, we have no aptitude for this. We cannot remember Krishna by means of the material mind.

When we are able to remember Krishna by loudly and continuously performing harināma, and that remembrance is revealed in our hearts, then we will be entitled to perform bhajana in a secluded place, but not now. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is teaching us. Our Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura is teaching us.

If our Gurudev ever saw some devotees dancing and chanting the Holy Name, he would show them great respect. “They are expressing their hearts! Hari bol!” In order to gain some respect, name and fame, I was also dancing. “Ah! Very good!” Gurudev would say. He would be pleased with me, although I was doing it to receive praise. Inside, I had no feeling, no want for Krishna, and no perturbation of heart. I did it only to get respect from others. Nonetheless, Gurudev was so satisfied. Why? This you have to understand. “Kīrtana prabhāve smarana haībe” (Srila Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura). Remembrance of Bhagavān comes from constant chanting of the Holy Name.

Prahlad told all the demon boys, “Why are you afraid? There is no difficulty in worshipping Krishna. You should just utter the Name. You are calling your father and your mother without difficulty. Call Him and He will be satisfied. There is no difficulty. He is within you. He has affection for you. You will find the affection of crores of mothers in Sri Hari.” Here in this world, one always encounters difficulty when trying to please another person, but Krishna is not at all difficult to please. With a sincere heart, utter His Name.

In your household life, you wile away the time for nothing, for worldly things. If you are also gossiping about these things here in the temple, then why have you come? The temple is for the worship of Krishna, nothing else. You should think about this.

Why have you come here? Have you spent so much money to come here only to gossip about worldly things? What is bhagavān-bhajana?

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ dhyānaṁ harer adbhuta-karmaṇaḥ
janma-karma-guṇānāṁ ca tad-arthe ’khila-ceṣṭitam
(Srimad Bhāgavatam, 11.3.27)

Once, our Guru Maharaj was in Vraja-maṇḍala performing parikrama. Generally, our Guru Maharaj would remain in front to perform kīrtana, guiding the other devotees. On this particular occasion, Guru Maharaj was held up with work at some place and would not be able to come until later. At the front of the procession, all the Vaiṣṇavas were chanting the Holy Name and the others were answering him back. But, at the back of the procession, there were so many devotees who were idly gossiping about worldly things. They did not know that

Guru Maharaj was coming up from the rear. When Guru Maharaj came up to them, he said, “Oh! Your whole life’s fortune has been destroyed! At this great procession you are also gossiping about worldly things? Then they quickly started chanting, “Radhe Govinda! Radhe Govinda!” What is the reason why we have spent so much money to come and be here? Is it to give our energy to worldly things? If we hear about Krishna, we shall go to Krishna. If we hear about worldly things, we shall go to worldly things. If we sing about Krishna, we shall go to Krishna. If we speak about Krishna, we shall go to Krishna. If we remember Krishna, our minds will go there. If we devote all our sense organs for the service of Sri Krishna, we shall go to Him. This is called bhajana. If we go on expending all our energy for worldly things, while remaining externally in the Math, what benefit will we receive?