The Power of Holy Feet of Sri Sri Thakur

 GOD OF MERCY SRI SRI RAMTHAKUR

When a devotee wants the mercy of his God or Guru his first duty is to worship the holy feet of his God/Guru as it is the devotion of those feet only which saves him from all the troubles & problems of his life and also brings divine happiness. At one place once Sri Sri Thakur happened to visit the newly constructed house of a devotee and that person was asking him to put his holy feet in all the rooms etc. Suddenly that devotee asked Sri Sri Thakur to put his feet on an iron box in which many valuable jewellery items were being kept!! At this Sri Gurudeva said that if I keep my feet on them then all those valuable items would get mukti and vanish!! Hearing this that devotee became scared and asked Him not to!! Readers can laugh on this but at the same time think about the power of Sri Sri Thakur!! Another place there was one young boy who was a drunkard & because of whom all his family members were being fed up. That drunkard happened to visit Sri Sri Thakur and while prostrating at his holy feet started sucking the thumb-finger of His right foot and started saying to himself as “drink man as much as you can as you will never find such delicious alcohol anywhere in this whole world!!" Sri Sri Thakur called the house-owner and other people of the house and they all separated that boy from Sri Sri Thakur. Sri Gurudeva became angry and said “What have you done!! You are destroyed!!” Hearing this, out of fear that young boy started crying to which beloved Sri Gurudeva said “don’t worry, I meant to say that all your bad karmas are being destroyed!!” The Jadavpur Ashram at Kolkata came into existence by worshipping the shoes worn by our Gurudeva!! Just like when Lord Sri Ram was in exile for 14 years, Bharat carried out all the work of the Ayodhya Kingdom by keeping the holy sandals of Lord Sri Ram at the royal throne!! Many few people know that there is ashram of Sri Sri Thakur in Tundla, UP which was originally a devotee’s house.  This is the only ashram in the whole world I think where there is no portrait of  Sri Sri Thakur!! Instead there are one pair of holy sandals (Sri Charan Paduka) of Sri Sri Thakur kept at the puja altar and they are being worshipped with great devotion and many miracles have happened or are still happening at that place even now also!! One incident I would narrate here. Once a Sadhu who was a devotee of our Gurudeva when came to know about this place decided to visit there & accordingly went there. That time one big utsav was going on there which is being celebrated annually every year.  There is a ritual that on the last of the festival those holy sandals of Sri Sri Thakur are being taken out for procession amidst harinaam sankirtan & they keep them in a decorated chariot and do procession and then again bring them back in the temple. That sadhu was given the task of carrying those holy sandals from the temple to the chariot. Accordingly, the sadhu went inside the garbhagriha of the temple to bring those sandals but he had always this doubt as only sandals being kept here without any picture of Sri Sri Kaivalyanath or Sri Sri Satyanarayan!! Is it correct?? Is Guruji actually present here?? Nobody was inside and all were waiting outside for him but long time passed & the sadhu didn’t turned up!! Everybody became worried and restless as to what had happened? When people went inside they saw to their surprise that sadhu was crying profusely asking to forgive him again & again to holy Sri Charan Padukas!!! When asked he narrated about his disbelief about the holy sandals and that when he came inside thinking this he saw that grabhagriha is full of many devtas, mahaprushas doing vandana or praising Sri Sri Thakur alongwith the holy padukas!! The sadhu realised his fault of suspecting the holiness of those Sri Charan Padukas and fall before them asking for forgiveness!! In Sri Guru-Gita also the greatness & glory of holy feet of Sri Gurudeva have been sung!! Even if anybody serve the holy feet of Sri Sri Kaivalyanath or Sri Sri Satyanarayan with pure devotion he is bound to get the divine mercy of Sri Gurudeva!! Jai Sri Ram!

 

The Making of Sri Sri Kaivalyanath Portrait

SRI SRI KAIVALYANATHJI

Almost all the guru brothers and sisters have this holy portrait of our beloved Gurudev at their homes in their respective puja rooms and which is also very very dear to all of them.  But very few know about the making of this photo or how it came into existence and also there are some misconceptions surrounding this photo of Sri Sri Kaivalyanathji!! Once it so happened that Sri Sri Thakur was in Bangladesh along with his devotees and probably around some seven to eight families or so decided to go for a vacation with Sri Gurudeva and accordingly hired a big house at Dhaka. As per schedule all of them gathered at the place and started enjoying the holy company of Sri Sri Thakur. It was at that time when one devotee named as Sri Manomohan Payin took a photograph of Sri Sri Thakur by taking his prior approval.  When the photograph was developed and brought to Sri Gurudeva, He immediately remarked as “He is Kaivalyanath!!” Everybody wondered when they heard this name and asked as who is Kaivalyanath? At this Sri Sri Thakur replied “He was known by this name only in this particular place (region).”  Now what happened that while giving the snap Sri Sri Thakur sat on the bed and was covering his full body by wearing a big bedsheet and that remaining portion of the bedsheet in a bundled state in His right side also had came in the picture alongwith Sri Sri Thakur which was looking very odd!! All the devotees requested Payin mohashoy to do something for it which seemed odd to him also. Accordingly, he tried to erase that portion to the best of his capability (please remember that technology was not so much advanced those days!) After erasing the portion when the final print came all saw that almost 98% has been erased successfully and a very little portion of that cloth is visible. All of you can see that in the picture of Sri Sri Kaivalyanathji along the right foot where a very minor portion of it is still visible about which some devotees had spread a rumour that a lotus flower has emerged from the right foot of Sri Sri Kaivalyanathji!!   Jai Sri Ram!!

Porom Doyal Sri Ram

I would like to share with you a great experience or rather should say a great miracle of a great devotee of our Guruji. The incident happened in Bangladesh during partition days when lot of killing of hindus were being carried out by the muslims. One of the devotee of Sri Sri Thakur who used to chant the Holy Name and would read the Holy Sri Satyanarayan Panchali daily was called by the muslims living in his area and informed that he is going to be killed by them next day so there is no use if he try to escape. He was shocked as among them many of his muslim school friends were also there, they even showed him the swords by which they are going to kill him in an isolated place but before that they wanted know about the Panchali where is the stanza "Kolite Jobono Dushto" (in this age of kali the muslims are bad) is written and asked him to bring the Panchali next day with him when he comes there. That night this devotee could not sleep and he did not uttered a single word to his family as that would terrify them. He only cried to our Lord Sri Sri Kaivalyanath to help! The muslims were knowing about this line & had objection which according them was an insult to them. That full night he cried silently and prayed with deep devotion to the Sri Sri Thakur to help. Next day at the prescribed time they all arrived at his house to take him. He took the Panchali in his hands and prayed to the Lord with tears in his eyes and went with them to the isolated place where they asked him to show that particular line. Praying to the Lord when opened that place he saw to his astonishment that it is written Kolite Jobon Sreshto!!! in this age of kali the muslims are good) Daily he used to read Sri Satyanarayan Panchali How can that be possible!! He immediately understands the miracle done by Lord Sri Sri Kaivalyanath to save him from the hands of his enemies and showed them that line and accordingly explained it also. Then he told them somebody had misguided them telling that something bad has been written about them in the Panchali instead they have been praised there!!! somehow they believed him let him free and immediately next day he left Bangladesh with his family and came to Kolkata. This is a true story and I found in one Book named Chonnabotar Sri Sri Ram thakur written by Sri Sadananda Chakraborty. The book is a very thick one written in bengali and many other true stories are there which very few people know. In that book many wrong things had been clarified by the author which is written about Sri Sri Thakur in other books as the author was very close to Sri Sri Thakur for a long time. Tell your parents & friends this story & let all know the power of our Doyal Gurudev!  Jai Ram!

The above videos have been taken during 150th Birth Anniversary of our beloved Gurudev Sri Sri Ram Thakur Ashram at New Delhi.  The first one have been taken during night to show the lighting & flower decoration done at the ashram and the second one have been taken during the last day of the Janmo Utsav when the deity returns after the Nagar Sankirtan. In this video clip the welcoming or the baran rituals done for Sri Sri Thakur are very beautiful to see. Jai Sri Ram!!

The Melodious Aroti Kirton of our Beloved Gurudev & Bhagavan Sri Sri Ramchandradev which is sung during evening time & Sri Sri Satyanarayan Puja. This video has been provided by one of our dearest Guru Brother Sri Gautam Banerjee of Manu in Assam & I have no words to express my deep gratitude to him for his noble gesture which will benefit all of us in this age of advanced technology. 

The Omnipresence of Bhagavan Sri Sri Ram Thakur

Lot of incidents have been described by the various devotees & disciples of our Gurudev about His omnipresence.  At this moment, I can remember of an incident as told by Sri Rohini Mazumdar babu in his book named as “Sri Guru Sri Ramthakur” which goes like this.

Rohini babu had a habit of going to a club daily in the evening where he used to play some indoor games alongwith his other friends and club members.  Once when Sri Sri Thakur was residing at their home, he went to the club as usual where he became involved with his games very deeply and very soon it became dark. After the game was over, all of the club members along with him indulged in chatting and since the time was during winter, they felt an urge for some tea & subsequently ordered for the same.  The chit-chatting went on & slowly their discussions shifted to vulgar topics (here rohini babu mentioned that all of them were married and were fathers).  After completion of chatting when he returned home it was around 11.30 p.m. (normally he used to return by 8.30 p.m. daily) & when he entered his home he found that his wife, sister & Sri Sri Thakur were awake and were waiting for him. He became little embarrassed as to be so late in the night. Sri Sri Thakur was sitting on his bed & on seeing rohini babu his wife and sister went inside. Sri Sri Thakur called him and asked for him to be so late. When he replied as to be playing, Sri Sri Thakur literally scolded him as to be playing till late in the night!! He said “is this the time to play??” & then suddenly referred to the discussions what had taken place at the club!! He said “there is no need to feel as you have done something great or it is a matter of great pride by indulging in these discussions!! Instead these things pull down the humanity in you, I had never expected such kind of behaviour from you which is very disappointing” Rohini babu said “I was so dumb struck out of fear that I started sweating profusely even in that chilling winter season!!” Thakur is really antaryami!!

Another place Sri Sri Thakur was talking to a group of devotees at somebody’s home & outside that home one person came to meet Thakur but he started chatting with the owner of the house & for that they went to little far one place under a tree and both of them started smoking there.  While chatting, that person jokingly said that to meet a big judge, recommendation of his munsif is very much required & the owner of the house is the munsif, on which both of them laughed!! Sri Sri Thakur had prohibited this person earlier to visit him now but inspite of that he had came to see him!! After smoking & chatting both of them went inside the house to meet Gurudev. Sri Sri Thakur seeing that person became very angry and asked him why did he came here when he had asked him not to?? & then suddenly referring to the chatting taken outside the house said that if the judge is very influential & rich even the munsif also will not dare to take anybody to meet the judge!! Both of them became totally dumb struck and realised his omnipresence!!

Like this there are many incidents such as one fellow purchased some sweets thinking inside as Gurudev never eats anything & would only take a pinch out of these & then I will only eat them, but when he offered them to Gurudev, He rejected them by saying as how He can eat those already eaten sweets by that fellow which shows Sri Sri Thakur’s omnipresence again!! The food items offered to the portrait of Sri Sri Thakur were accepted by Him actually which He used to confirm later to that devotee by telling that salt was little less in the lentils or the fried rice dish offered was too hot to eat etc. thus glorifying His omnipresence!! Jai Sri Kaivalyanath!!

Devotion or Bhakti

What is devotion or how to do it actually or what one should do to please his God or Guru? This question may arise in the minds of the aspiring devotees of nowadays. The best way is to read & follow the life stories of the great devotees of our country which has always been blessed with them in the past at various times. It is said that devotion is nothing else than pure love or in other words we can say that devotion is the first step towards pure love with your beloved Lord!! According to our sacred scriptures, devotion has nine forms like shravanam (listening to the glories of Lord), kirtanam (singing the glories of Lord), smaranam (remembering the glories of Lord), pada-sevanam (doing service to the holy lotus feet of the Lord), archanam (doing worship of Lord), vandanam (prostrating before Lord), dasya (having relationship of servant & master with the Lord), sakhya (having relationship of a friend with the Lord), vatsalya (having relationship of child & parent with the Lord) & atma-nivedanam (offering your soul into the feet of Lord). These are called as Nava-vidha Bhakti in our holy scriptures and out of these Shravanam which has been given the first place in the series has been regarded as the very basic requirement to proceed for devotion!!  Listening continuously about the glories of the Lord would subsequently bring an urge to sing His glories in the devotee which is the next step as Kirtanam and like this the rest follows one after another & at the last in Atma-nivedanam which includes all the forms of devotion in it!! In the end the devotee surrenders even his soul & himself into the holy lotus feet of his Lord which is called as Atma-nivedanam.  Further, it can also be mentioned here that there are various great examples of devotion which are done with different relationships with the Lord. For example like for Dasya it is Hanuman whom we can remember whose immense devotion for Lord Sri Ram is well known!! For Sakhya it is Arjuna & Sudama who had this relationship of friendship with Lord Sri Krishna!! At one place I had read that some people used to find fault with Arjuna as he is restless, very emotional and had shown manyatimes some proudness also which was removed by the mercy of Lord Sri Krishna. But the acharyas  say that Arjuna may have many negative qualities but he had one great or say extra-ordinary quality which used to cover his all other negative qualities that is he knew nothing except Lord Sri Krishna!! His devotion for his Lord was so much that when he used to sleep, Sri Krishna’s holy name would emanate & echo from each & every pores of his body, such was his devotion & love for the Lord!! For Vatsalya we can see Surdas who had loved his Lord as Baby Krishna & he has written so many divine songs which sings about the divine past times of Gopala Krishna!! These bhajans have been written by him thousand of years ago but they seem to be fresh and enchant our minds with the divine leelas & bhakti of our Lord!! when the devotee establishes different types of relationships with his Lord depending upon their devotion like dasya, sakhya & vatsalya there is another relationship which is said to be topmost and in which all the aforesaid bhavs are merged which is called as Madhurya bhav which means pure love with your beloved Lord!! The love between Radha & Krishna or the Gopis of Vrindavan are the best examples of Madhurya!! The Rasa-Leela is the highest reward of this bhav where the Jiva & the Brahma merge with each other and there is no difference between them!! Once in Dwarka Rukmini & Satyabhama asked Lord Krishna that you always praise your gopis of vrindavan as we are nothing in front of them, now you will have to prove it. The Lord smiled as usual and then afterwards suddenly fell ill and complained of severe headache. All became very restless & busy in trying to cure him by calling all doctors one by one but nothing happened. At last everybody became confused and requested Him to tell the medicine for his headache. He said that there is only one medicine that is dust of the feet of his devotee & which has to be rubbed onto His head!! Hearing this everybody scared out of fear for going to hell if their feet-dust is offered to Him. Sri Krishna asked Rukmini, Satyabhama etc. give their feet-dust to Him but they couldn’t give out of fear!! All devotees including Saint Narad etc. from everywhere said a firm NO to the request of Lord! Then the Lord asked Narad to visit Vrindavan to go to the Gopis. Accordingly, Narad asked the Gopis for their feet-dust to which all of them said immediately "take as much as you want Narad." The rishi enquired as are they not feared of going to hell?? The Gopis replied so what?? Getting our Lord well is our first priority & when our Lord is not well what we will do by going to heaven, for the betterment of our Lord we are willing to go anywhere, even the hell!! This is called pure love & pure devotion!! Jai Govinda!!

Boasting & Realisation

Sri Sri Ram Thakur

Every human being on this planet have an urge to know something depending upon their beliefs or tastes. Similarly in spiritualism also people search through variety of books or internet and try to know about devotion, God, Guru, ancient temples of India & their history, stories about various deities and their respective devotees etc. Many a times it has been found that man starts to boasting about his so-called knowledge gained from the abovementioned sources infront of others without realising anything about those things!! You cannot simply measure the depth of the vast & unlimited sea by simply standing on the shore & counting the waves or by reading books. For that you will have to go inside it & realise it yourself!! Realisation & Boasting are completely two different things. A realised person never boasts just as a vessel which is full of water produce no sound! Empty vessels sounds much – this proverb we would have read many times in our schools, similarly those people boasts much who have only bookish or say netish knowledge & don’t have any realisation.  Renowned saint of Bengal, Sri Ramakrishna to whom many eminent scholars used to visit, they would recite before him various stages of bhakti as given in the various scriptures to which Sri Ramakrishna would say that he had already undergone those stages by the grace of Holy Mother Kali which are otherwise very difficult or say impossible for a common man to achieve. How it became possible?? Sri Ramakrishna knew nothing except his Mother Kali & would always chant her holy name & thus it became possible!! He used to say "In the scriptures you will find the way to realize God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work. Only then can you attain your goal. "What will it avail a man to have mere scholarship? A pundit may have studied many scriptures, he may recite many sacred texts, but if he is still attached to the world and if inwardly he loves 'woman and gold', then he has not assimilated the contents of the scriptures. For such a man the study of scriptures is futile.
"The almanac forecasts the rainfall for the year. You may squeeze the book, but you won't get a drop of water — not even a single drop." Said Thakur
When you do bhakti of your beloved God or Guru, it is He who bestow upon you all his mercy and give you all the knowledge automatically!! But this knowledge never brings proudness into your inner self as it is given by the Almighty Lord Himself & a pure devotee always knows this eternal truth deep inside his heart. But the materialistic people who gains this same knowledge through books or internet display lot of proudness in them as they think inside that this knowledge is acquired by them. After realisation of his beloved God, a devotee becomes quiet & talks only when it is desired so by his God!! God is like the Sun who don’t need any type of advertisement, introduction or announcement etc. When the sun arises in the east, everybody came to know about it, similarly God doesn’t need anybody’s help to inform about his presence in this universe. His presence can be felt in each and every vibration of his universe. When his devotees sing his glories & dance His presence can be felt there more. He resides into the heart of his devotees.  When you had realized Him you don’t even need to visit pilgrimage places, temples etc.  Once Sri Sri Thakur was in Puri with Sri Phanindra Malakar babu (who was very dear to Him) alongwith other devotees. One of the devotees asked malakar babu that did you had darshan of Sri Jagannath Dev? Come with me I will take you to have darshan! At this Sri Sri Thakur said let you all go and have darshan, Malakar babu doesn’t require it as his Jagannath resides always with him!! For Malakar babu Sri Sri Thakur was everything & infact actually he also didn’t wanted to go to the temple, therefore Sri Sri Thakur also did the same thing for him, so much blessed was he!! Malakar babu was knowing several divine & unbelievable incidents & miracles of our Gurudev due to his long association with Him for more than 18 years but he couldn’t reveal those things infront of others as he was under oath given to Sri Sri Thakur that he could only reveal those once Sri Sri Thakur leaves his mortal frame. This is called realisation which is only possible through pure devotion of your beloved God or Guru!! Jai Ram!!

The Essence of Pure Bhakti

Sri Sri Kaivalyanathji

The very first qualification required to enter into the heart of our beloved Gurudev, Sri Sri Ram Thakur is absolute innocence.  He has always insisted on this aspect as to be innocent like a child. A child’s innocence can bring you very closer to God which is much more easier as compared to other known ways. Moreover, a devotee should always be innocent like a child! Knowing too many things is not a big deal (thanks to internet), I have seen people who are maintaining various religious blogs or writing on various social networks like facebook, twitter etc. where they are boasting about their knowledge on spiritualism without knowing anything about innocence which is the basic requirement in this field!!  Absence of pure innocence can subsequently bring proudness (ahankar) in a disciple which is very dangerous for any devotee to proceed in this field of devotion (bhakti) as proudness takes you far away from your beloved God or Guru. Somewhere once Gurudev had remarked that to get your Lord’s mercy one needs a child’s innocence and which is not possible through knowledge or various rituals given in the Vedas!!  The greatness of the valuable & priceless thing called innocence is such that even when one acquires knowledge of many things by his Lord’s unlimited mercy he is untouched by proudness (ahankar).  Another qualification which is required is pure truthfulness. Out of many names of our Lord, His one name is Sri Sri Satyanarayan & Sri Satya Pir and this aspect of truthfulness is very well expected from his devotees which is quite natural. But its very sad to say that many a times I have found this aspect is missing in the so-called devotees of our Gurudev.  Our Gurudev’s panchali also starts with Sotto Sotto Sotto Pir  or Doyarthi Sodai Sebe Sottero (Gurudev’s) Choron  or Satyam Param Dhimahi(Truth is the biggest religion). A renowned saint of Bengal had once remarked that if you want to believe somebody then find out whether there is a similarity between his words and deeds!!  Many people some of them may claim to be your true friend would take you into confidence by agreeing to your beliefs, ideas or thoughts & would do just the opposite in actual deeds which might appear to you quite shocking at the first instance but at the same time these are the signs through which you can identify a true person or friend!! Another renowned saint once had remarked about himself that he was always used to be very cautious about truthfulness so much so that if he had even by mistake had said that he is feeling an urge to go the toilet (may be there was no need for going to the toilet that very time) he would just go upto the door of the toilet and return back just to stick to his words thus glorifying the importance of truthfulness!! Another most important quality which comes automatically along with these two aforesaid qualities is pure devotion & faith at the holy lotus feet of your God.  Devotion should be unmoving like a solid rock which should stood always in all types of difficulties or problems of your life. If you read the life story of great personalities from our epics you will find that they all had strong faith in their God despite serious troubles in their life which gives us noble lessons. For example, the Pandavas from the epic Mahabharat who even had to live in exile for 13 years but Lord Sri Krishna was always with them in their difficult times because they had pure devotion & faith in His Holy Lotus Feet. Duryodhan who was an arch rival of the Pandavas had tried to put them in trouble by sending Rishi Durvasa along with his 60,000 disciples to be fed by the Pandavas who were in exile at that time. Pandavas had one Akshay Patra (Divine Bowl) which used to remain always full of food until Draupadi ate from it. That day when the Rishi along with his disciples arrived at their hut Draupadi had already taken her meal and so the Akshya Patra was empty!! Draupadi became worried out of fear from the Rishi who was famous for his angriness and giving curse and thus she immediately remembered Lord Sri Krishna and asked for His help as only He could save them!! The Lord arrived there immediately and smilingly asked Draupadi to bring the empty Akshay Patra near to Him. When they bought it He took out a tiny small piece of a rice grain which was stuck somewhere in the bowl and ate it & took out a large belch & immediately the Rishi alongwith his 60,000 disciples who were taking bath in a river felt as if their stomachs are overloaded with food. Everybody told each other that they cannot eat even a very small amount of food and they ran from there before the Pandavas came there to ask them to take food!! This is called Saranagati (total surrender) without which one cannot get the mercy of Lord!! Jai Sri Ram!!