Ganga puja, Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Gangamata Goswamini
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Вриндаван · 2025
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Invocation and opening prayers
Oh my natirandasya, Vyanjana Salahya, Shaksuru Vilitami, Tasmai Srimpura Vama, Ramam Vishnu Padaya, Krishna, Preštaja Bhutale, Srimate Bhakti Vedanta, Sami Pinami, Namaste Saraswid, Gurawani prachari, nivisi Sasuavadi, Vschatyadi Satani, E Krishna Karana Sindho, Vinabandho Jagatpate, Vopisam Bopikat, Radakantamusti, Taptakanchangi, Rade brindamane sware, richam sude, pranamami hari, mancha biesch, Kripasindhubia, Patitanay, Vrisnavi Byamama, Sri Krishna Chaitana Prabhunitananda, Sri Advaitagadatara, Srivassadivna, Alare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Breanu Lambita Bujokana Kabadata Sankirtanaika Pita Rokama Lai Daksha, Viswambaru vi java yuga dharmapala, bandai jagarpiakaru karunatara, tak pravi mama vachamam pra sutam samji vaja ki wa shakti dharaswadam nanyam Swasya stuvisa calam, dyayan tu butani, shivammi kodiyamam Hare Krishna.
So today is an important day in our Vaishnava Gorya calendar, and therefore I was asked to speak on three personalities who are celebrated today on this very day.
The first significance of this day is that it is Ganga Puja or Ganga Dasara. It's Dasame of the Sukla Paksha of Jajta months, and on this day,
Maharaj Bhagiratha, due to his austerities, due to his purity of heart, his sincere desire to save people of this world from their sins, made goddess Ganga to descend from the spiritual world, from heavenly planets, and ultimately from the spiritual world.
And therefore, this day is called Ganga Dasara Dasa means ten. Today is Dashami.
And another meaning of Dasa means that Ganga can purify Dashahara from these two Sanskrit words combined together the Hindi word Dasara comes Dasahara.
It basically means that Ganga can purify you from the sins accumulated within 10 births. Very simple. You go to Ganga, you pray to Ma Ganga, or just take dip in Ma Ganga and all the sins disappear.
And all the people take advantage of this. Millions of people gathered together on this day on the banks of Ganga to take holy dip.
Inspired by all the statements of the Shastras, that just by taking this holy dip everything will be accomplished. Little do they know that there is some secret behind this?
So many people live on the banks of Ganges, but we don't see the results, the magic results of purificatory activities.
And we have to very clearly understand what's going on and how to achieve the results which are promised by the Shastras. Shastras promise these results and therefore they will come. There's no doubt about it.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura on spiritual energy
We don't have to have any shadow of a doubt that the holy dip in Ganga will bring about these miraculous results.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wrote a special essay on this topic explaining that yes, first of all, we have to understand what are the results which have to come. If we only do it for purification of
our sins, then there are also you know, uh, what is the use? We're purified of the sins of the ten births, but we have millions of births, so there are still enough sins to bring about another birth.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he explains very beautifully that those people who are focused on the material promises of the shastras, on the promises of material results of the shastras, they can only get material results.
This in itself is a fault. If you only go to holy place or if you circumambulate Tulasī because you killed a few brāhmaṇas and you want to get rid of this brahma-hatyā sin. It's not going to work.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that uh it doesn't work like this. Uh you have to know the science behind it, and the science, he says, there is no doubt about it that the result will come, but you have to have proper consciousness.
He says in the same way as the electricity is the certain energy. So Ganga Devi or Tulasī Devi, they also are carriers of spiritual energy. And it is spiritual energy which purifies us.
When we come in contact with the carrier of spiritual energy, whether it is Ganges, Holy Name or Tulasī Devi or holy dhāma, and there are plenty of this.
We have to understand that this result only takes place if there is no offence involved.
He gives this example of the electricity. He says, yes, electricity, the energy of electricity, can be transferred from the object which is the carrier of this energy to other object, provided the other object doesn't have resistance.
If the other object has the resistance, you know you may put a huge uh power bank into this uh table. Nothing will happen with the table. The table will remain insentient as it was before.
The spiritual energy will not go into this object just because there is no conductive power. Just because there is a resistance in this particular object,
in a similar way, if we have the resistance against this uh spiritual power or spiritual energy, then the result will not take place.
And the resistance which comes within us is the resistance which is a result of our offenses.
And the offensive mentality is exactly this: you go to the holy place or you go to Ganga or you go to Tulasī Devī because you want to get rid of the sins to facilitate sinning again.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says if you have this mentality, let me be purified from my sins so that I would live happily in this world, then it will not take place. Exactly the opposite what you expect.
But he says that therefore when we hear
Devotion as the main purpose
the results of the holy dip in Ganga or in Yamuna, in fact, in this day it is also recommended to take the holy dip in Yamuna. It's equally as powerful as going to Haridvāra or Devprayag or whatever Gomukh and take bath in Ganga on this day, but it is said that uh on this day we also should do Yamuna puja and take the holy dip in Yamuna.
But he explains that uh to get the result of this, we have to understand the whole scope of the results. Purification of the sins is just a little tiny fraction of
what Mahāgangā can give to us. The real result of taking dip in Ganga is that we get devotion to the Lord. We get bhakti to the Lord.
The purification of the sins is just a side effect. And if we go and if we do something for the sake of side effect, the result will be opposite.
We have to really understand what is the main result which is expected from certain action which we do. And in this particular case, taking Holidipa in Ganga.
If we understand that the main result which should be expected from this is devotion to the Lord, and we go with this purpose, then the side effect will take place automatically.
If we come for the side effect then we will become sinful. It's it's a very s there is a very simple example which we can understand. You know, like for example the side effect of sex relationship is pleasure.
But the main result of sex relationship is to beget beautiful children. If you do sexual relationship for the sake of the main result, that the side effect will take place automatically.
But if you do the sexual relationship for the sake of side effect, it will become sinful. So the same principle works here.
If you do some activity for the side effect, not for the main effect, then you will not get uh nothing, you will become sinful. Even the side effect will not come ultimately.
Those people who are engaged in illicit sex, they ultimately uh they're desperate because the the even the pleasure which they get reduces drastically and ultimately doesn't come.
So in the same way when we uh do something for the sake of side effect, we make a great mistake.
So when we do this holy deep in Ganga or in Yamuna, we really have to purify our consciousness preliminarily to make it conducive to receive, to make it receptive, to receive this spiritual energy, which is there in Ganga, which is there in Yamuna, which is there in the Holy Name, which is there in the Holy Dhāma. So that's the main effect.
And therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says when the holy scriptures describe the glories of Ganga, they speak so many different things. But people are focused only on the material results. And therefore, they get nothing.
And therefore, the result is so minimum.
Connection between the three events
So it's very interesting if we uh try to understand the connection between these three events. One is the holy appearance of uh Ganga Devi and this world, uh, by the mercy of King Bhagiratha.
Another one is the appearance of Ganga Mata Goswami, who is a great devotee in our line. And another one is the disappearance day of Balladevi Yapushin, we can see the thread which connects these three events.
And if we understand the subtle connection between these three seemingly uh unrelated events, uh, we will take the full advantage of this very holy day.
Indeed, this day is very Madhava Titi Bhakti Janani Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that what is the meaning of Madhava Titi of special titiis on Vaishnava calendar is that they create bhakti in our heart.
If we celebrate them properly, if we try to absorb the energy of this day.
So this is a very holy day, the Ganga Dasara and uh we should do certain rituals, we should go to Yamuna and Ganga, do Ganga Puja or Yamuna Puja and do Shastras say at least ten dips in Yamuna or in Ganga, but with the idea that ultimately it gives us devotion.
How? Let's try to understand the subtle connection between these three events which took place on this particular day of our calendar.
It's very interesting that Gaṅgā Devi being pleased by the purity of heart and purity of intention. Again, the same topic is there.
Why Ganga Devi didn't come on the request of Maharaja Dilip, who was the father of Maharaja Bhagirat? Why Ganga Devi didn't come on the request of Maharaja Amsulman?
This whole sequence of dynasty of great kings, Mahārāja Dilīpa was such a great king. His glory is amazing. Still, Ganga Devi didn't come. She only came on the request of Maharaja Bhagiratha. Why?
Because the purity of his intent was more. That's the conclusion which we should make. He was deprived of even a shadow of some sort of selfishness.
Yes, he wanted to purify his ancestors, but ultimately he was driven by the desire to purify everyone. And touched and moved by the purity of this intent, Gaṅgā Devi came.
But when she appeared in front of Mahārāja Bhagīratha due to his total absolute purity, She said, yeah, I have two doubts.
The first doubt which I have is that if I come here to earth, the power of my descent will be so great that I will just penetrate this earth and go to Patala Loka and I do not want to go to Patala Loka. There is nobody who is praying in Patala Loka for me to come.
So why should I go to Pātāla-loka? But it's practically inevitable if I will just, you know, gush and from such a huge height to Earth, then I will not stay in the middle planets, I will go down. So what shall I do?
Tell me, somebody should hold me so that I will not go down. This is the first doubt.
And the second doubt, of course, she knew what's going to happen. People will be inspired to sin more because they have such an easy way to get rid of sins. Instead of purifying the humanity, I will create
horrible stuff and besides that, all the sinners they will come to me and they will dump all the sins into me and what will happen to me? Then I will go to Patala Loka on my own because that will be my destination.
So, what am I supposed to do? So, please first dissipate these two doubts of mine and then I will agree to your request. I'm ready to do it. And Maharaja Bhagiratu, of course, he said that yeah, no problem.
Lord Shiva anyway holds the whole universe, so it's not difficult for him to hold you because he is penetrating the whole universe. So he's the only one who can really maintain you in a proper position.
So I would request Lord Shiva to do it and he started performing his austerity to Lord Shiva, and Lord Shiva of course mercifully agreed to hold Ganga.
Pure devotees purifying holy waters
And therefore Ganga she's intimately connected with both Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva.
But then the second request: hearing the second request, Maharaj Bhagirata gave a very clever answer, which is actually the key to understand the subtle connection between these three events which took place on this day.
He said that yes, uh I will promise to you that you will be purified of all the sins dumped in you by the sinners who come to you because the devotees will also come to you.
And not only low class devotees, Kanishta Dhikaris, middle class devotees, madhyamā-adhikārīs, but even uttama-adhikārīs will come to you. Because the devotees are very obedient to the shastra.
And when the shastra says you should do it, the devotees in their humility will come to your place. And then the devotees will come to you, they will purify you from all the sins which you accumulated.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains why the devotees should uh purify Ganga from all the sins?
Because when devotees come to Ganga and Ganga accumulated all the sins, then the sins will come to the devotees, and the Supreme Lord cannot tolerate then the sins come to the devotees, so He will be in a hurry to take away all their sins.
It's a very interesting point which we should understand very clearly that the Supreme Lord could have taken and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says it's only the Supreme Lord who can take away the sins.
Otherwise, to maintain the balance in this world, the sins has to remain. You know, if somebody committed sins, then the proportionate reaction has to be there. So you may transfer it to somebody, and then transfer it to somebody else, and then ultimately transfer it to Ganga.
But then you know what happens then? Only the Lord has the power to take away the sin completely. Only the Lord Himself has the power to completely eradicate all the sins.
But the Lord can take away the sins from Ganga but he doesn't because of his compassion and because of his intimate connection with the devotees because of this completely unbroken connection with great devotees, not the great devotees who are middle class devotees and not the great devotees who sometimes chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
But the great devotees who are really pure in their heart.
When these devotees go to the holy place, when these devotees go to the holy river, then the Lord, being so compassionate and so uh intimately connected, he uh takes all the sins and ultimately this whole story and this whole glorification of Ganga
and in other shastras is to make a very simple point. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in other shastras is to make a very simple point. The most purifying agents in this world are pure devotees.
Because they can even purify the holy place, they can even purify Ganga. Nobody else can purify Ganga.
Because Ganga is pure anyway, but but the still Ganga is concerned about all the sins and therefore the pure devotees are there because the Lord Himself fulfills all the desires of pure devotees.
And what is the secret of purity of pure devotees?
Sadhu-sanga as the true purifier
That's again we have to understand, and that's the thread which will connect these three events.
So from the first event from Ganga Puja, we can learn that Maharaj Bagiratha actually by saying this, he's glorifying Sadhu Sangha.
People are so eager to perform all these ritualistic activities, forgetting that the most purifying is the association of devotees. Because when you associate properly again without offense in your heart.
With the proper intention. I'm coming here just to get a little fraction of bhakti which is there in the heart of this particular person.
If we come and here with this intention, with this idea that here is the golden opportunity for me to get a little fraction, a little atomic particle of bhakti which is there. Let me serve him.
And it's very easy to serve the devotee. The devotee likes when somebody hears him. Devotee is usually very talkative. Because they like to talk, Krishna-katha. They can talk on and on and on.
So when they see that somebody is eager to hear, when somebody is sitting there: yes, yes, I know, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sādhu-sādhu. Very good, very good. Then it's not service.
But if you come with the intention to serve your devotee, and to serve pure devotee again, it's very simple, just to hear him, with a good intention in the heart.
Yes, I want to hear what he has to say, because what he says is coming from his heart, and his heart must be pure. This is a pure place in which he serves the Supreme Lord. Then the bhakti comes and then the effect comes.
And again, Mahārāja Bhagīratha is performing this pastime, not to, of course, to glorify Ganga and her purifying power but first and foremost to glorify sādhu-saṅga. Because this is the real Ganga.
This is the real Gaṅgā, which comes to this world, because Gaṅgā, being neutral, being somewhat indifferent. Of course, Gaṅgā is not indifferent, she's a personality, she's mother,
she's taking care of us, she's janani, she's our mother. But still she is somewhat neutral. But uh, she purifies externally. But when we hear the devotee, the intention of the devotee is to purify your heart.
When the devotee speaks, he speaks with this intention: may those who hear me attentively, be purified within their heart. And therefore, the words of the devotee they penetrate deeper than the waters of Ganga.
They penetrate deeper than, because there the śakti, the energy which is there in the heart of the devotee, has a particular address, the heart of his uh hearers.
And this is how the purification of sādhu-saṅga takes place. Sādhu-saṅga does not purify by just, you know, give me a āśīrvāda, āśīrvāda, āśīrvāda, Mahārāj, āśīrvāda. Just by touching their feet.
The purification takes place if we, with proper intention, hear what they have to say and try to understand the emotion behind their words. And the emotion is this: may people be purified. May people have bhakti.
May bhakti be established in their heart and flourish in their heart and give them the complete pleasure and please of being established in their heart.
Early life of Ganga Mata Goswamini
So in this connection we can study the next event which took place on this day. On this day Ganga Dasera, Ganga Matagaswamini was born somewhere in Bangladesh, in modern day Bangladesh, ಧಿin Quintadi district.
And her father was very wealthy landlord. He was a small king of a small area. He was very, very wealthy. And she was the only daughter and her father, Naresh Raja, loved her daughter very much. But she loved Krishna.
Actually, yesterday I attended one class, one uh Hari-katha by one devotee here in Vṛndāvana Achyutalao Mbata Goswami and he explained that there are different parakiyas he explained that the different kinds of parakiyas.
He said that the śāstras they they described three kinds of parakiyas. And two kinds of parakiyas they glorify and one kind of parakiyas they condemn very much.
So I think everyone is very much intrigued, you know, what kind of parakiyas is glorified in the śāstras, so he said amazingly, he said that śāstras glorified parakiyas meant that unmarried girl uh falls in love with uh yogi, a yogi with a good uh boy who is deserving when she gives the heart to the good boy and they fall in love with each other.
She has to glorify this. Because this is a natural attraction between male and female and if it is done in the parameters of proper Śāstrik uh rules like Duṣyanta and Damayanti which is glorified in the Shastras,
then this kind of parakiyas is glorified.
And then it is very interestingly that the second kind of parakīyā-rasa which is being glorified in śāstra, when the married woman has her husband, but she couldn't care less about her husband and she wants to marry Krishna.
So this parakīyā-rasa is also good. These two kinds of good, another kind we will not mention, not to contaminate the hearers. But this Saci-devi, who was the daughter of Naresh Raja, she had the first kind of parakiyas.
Her father and her mother very much wanted see her indifference into this material world. They very much wanted to marry her with somebody.
And when she found out, and they they wanted to marry her when she was very young, and when she found out this, she said, no, no, I'm not going to marry anyone, my husband is Krishna. And they told you, you're crazy.
And she said, No, you are crazy. I'm not crazy. I do not want to have any other husband. My only husband is Krishna. And she was so adamant that ultimately her parents who were very insistent had to give up.
And when her mother passed away.
It's also very interesting and very instructive, her whole life story is very instructive because she teaches us how this internal renunciation or internal sparkle bhakti, which is there in everyone's heart, has to develop.
Even in case of Gopis of Vṛndāvana it starts with pūrva-rāga. In case of Gangamata Goswamini, it also starts with pūrva-rāga. In her childhood, she had this pūrva-rāga.
She heard about Krishna and she fell in love with Krishna and she became very adamant and determined that I will only marry with this beautiful Krishna who is the Lord of the universe.
Internal renunciation and pilgrimage
But then the next stage has to take place also. You have to prove that your pūrva-rāga is that you are serious in your pūrva-rāga.
Initially, when we start our bhakti, yes, some initial inclination, some initial attraction is there, but still we have to prove that we're serious and we want to come to the end of the on this path.
And therefore she left home. The first thing which she did when her mother passed away, she left home and she went on pilgrimage. And from Bangladesh, she came to Navadvīpa first.
From Navadvīpa she came to Jagannātha Purī, and from Jagannātha Purī she came here in Vṛndāvana. So this is the first thing. Initially, some initial attraction should be there, is there.
But then you have to endeavor to purify yourself. You have to perform certain austerities, you have to perform to prove that you want to do this, and for that you have to perform certain vairāgya. So she left home.
She went from one holy place to another holy place, and when she came here,
she came to Govindajī Temple. And the Pujari of Govindajī Temple was one Haridas Pandit who was the disciple of Ananta Acharya, who was a disciple of Gadadhara Paṇḍita.
So it was third generation from Gadathra Pandik, the great associate of the Supreme Lord Chaitanya and Shrimati Ratharani. And his disciple Anantachary was Sudevi Gopti.
And Haridas Pandit was the main Pujari in Govindaji's temple. And when she saw Haridas Pandit, she understood that her pilgrimage bore fruit.
We have to again understand uh this dynamic or this uh this thing you know we go uh we get the initial attraction we go for purification, we go to tirthayatra.
But again, the result of purification is that we have to appreciate some devotee. Appreciate deeply in the heart.
If this doesn't take place, if this does not happen, then all our purification is waste of time, it's useless. It doesn't really bear any fruit.
So Krishna from the heart of Ganga Mata, who was not Ganga Mata Sachidevi at that time still, he told her, this is your preliminary destination.
This is the place the foot, the lotus foot, lotus feet of this great devotee is the place where you find what you're looking for. But the Haridas Pandit was very hesitant to give initiation to her.
It is said very clearly in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa that the guru should not be in a hurry to give initiation. Of course, nowadays gurus are very merciful, sometimes too merciful.
But it is it is very clearly said that he has to give a test. And especially, you know, she's a uh Raja Kanya, she is a daughter of a king, she is born in a very opulent family.
So he was not in a hurry, he was looking at her and testing her. Again and again and again, but she was adamant and she was so insistent and determined.
She would come to him again and again and again, and she said, I don't want anything else. Actually, the real initiation only takes place within the heart of a devotee or disciple.
If he has this desire, I don't want any other desire. I don't want I I do not want anything else. This is what I want. This connection I want. Because only because of this connection I can go further in my spiritual life.
And ultimately, seeing her sincerity, he gave her initiation, gave her aṣṭākṣara mantra, Gopāla mantra, 18-syllable Gopāla mantra, which we also chant. And she started chanting and she started studying Kantahim. She was already a great scholar.
And that's another very important point because ultimately, hopefully, we will come to Baladevi Devushan, who was the greatest scholar in Alasam Pradaya.
So, to spoil the whole Khatha, I want to say that ultimately what is purifying within the heart of a devotee. Initially, I said this that we have to understand that we have to come to the pure devotee.
But what is so purifying within the heart of a pure devotee? The spiritual knowledge which is there in the heart of a pure devotee is the purifying agent. The spiritual knowledge which lives in the heart of a pure devotee.
The knowledge and his realization, of course, not just theoretical knowledge of the shastras, but his realization, his knowledge of the shastras which is coupled by His sincerity and His Sadhana and His austerities, this is what is purifying, what is the purifying factor.
And even Krishna Himself, he glorifies the knowledge, he says there, is nothing more purifying than the spiritual knowledge. So when we come to a pure devotee, we have to come with this intention.
I am coming to his lotus feet to get the spiritual knowledge which is there within the heart.
And Ganga Mata Boswamini, who was still Shachidary at that time, she came to Haridas Pandit and she studied under him for one year.
Cultivating humility through begging
And during this one year he gave her another test. He said to her, now you have to maintain yourself by Madhukari, which is very difficult.
And actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda followed this tradition and he also said to his disciples, whom he gave initiation: if you really want to prove that you're a real disciple you have to go on the street and do Madhukari.
And of course, you know in New York nobody will appreciate if you knock on the door and ask for some hamburger or whatever whatever they have in the home. So his Madhukari was to distribute books.
But that's the same tradition. Go out and do Madhukari. Go out and back. Why? Why is it so important? Because the most important quality of a disciple is humility. And how you get the humility?
Only if you go to distribute books nowadays. Only if you go and uh humble yourself by begging others. That's a very important part of our discipline being shish.
We have to go for Madhu Kari basically means we have to get rid of our false ego. We all have false ego. You know, we have big false ego. Śacī dēvī had very small false ego. She was a daughter of a king, she was very rich.
But still she had very small false ego. Nevertheless, her guru told her: go do madhukari. We're not born in a high family, we're not really rich, but we have big false ego.
More important for us it is to understand the key of our success on the spiritual path is the humility. Therefore, this is the second test. The first test, he sees her determination.
She knows exactly how to ignite the purvaraga which is there in the heart. She goes to purify herself, she finds the guru, he tests her determination and then sends her out for Madhukari.
For one year she was maintaining herself only on the food which she begged from the local villagers. And then he calls her again. And then he says to her: Now you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Only after that you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa.
Sometimes devotees are so inspired, they go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa immediately. Oh yeah, I have to, this is the highest place, I have to get parikramā immediately. Yes, they get parikramā, no problem.
But another kind of parikramā, which is not mentioned in the śāstras in a good way.
You know, to go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa and to get the full benefit, benefit of going to Rādhā-kuṇḍa, you really have to first humble yourself, get rid of your false ego. If you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa equipped with your false ego.
Once a disciple came to Śrīla Prabhupāda and said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I want to live on Rādhā-kuṇḍa. He said, why? He said, I want to chant there, I want to live there.
He said so many monkeys live in Rādhā-kuṇḍa and you will be one of them. That's Śrīla Prabhupāda's blessing. Go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa and become one of the monkeys there.
If you do it prematurely, if you go there with your false ego, with your false identity, then what will you get there? You will only commit offenses in this most holiest of the holiest places.
Therefore, first the discipline should be there. And my discipline is to finish this class within five minutes. And I don't know how I will do it, but I will try.
So he sends you to Rādhā-kuṇḍa and he says there in Rādhā-kuṇḍa your aunt lives there and she is a great devotee. Be there under the guidance of a pure devotee and chant there three lakhs every day.
So Sachadevi goes there to Radhakund and she stays there for several years by chanting every day one lakh of Harinama and going to Govardhan Parikrama every day. We sometimes do Govardhan Parikrama.
And because Govardhan is very merciful, we do half of Govardhan Parikrama. Sometimes we say just a few steps is also good. She was doing every day Govardhan Parikrama. At the same time chanting one lakh.
This is the qualification to live in Radhakund. That's if you're ready to look for this, no problem. Go straight there. So for several years she was living there.
Again, under the guidance of uh Lakshmi Priya, her aunt, and was chanting uh the holy name.
Preaching mission in Jagannath Puri
And then uh Haridas Pandit calls her back to Vrindavan and gives her another test. And another test is even more severe.
He tells you: live in Radhakund, live in Raj, live in Vrindavan, go to Jagannath Puri and repair the place of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, which is completely demolished and destroyed. Do some practical activities.
You chanted a lot of Harinama, now do something practical. So which is even more severe.
You know, you're here, you're attached to this holy place, this is the holiest of the holy places. But Guru says you go from here there. Without even tweaking her eye, she goes directly there to get her full glory.
She's one of the acharyas of our sampradaya.
The whole branch of sampradaya, the whole parivara is Gangamata Goswamini parivara. Somebody says that women cannot be guru, yeah, women cannot be guru, but pure devotees can be guru, and women can become pure devotees, there's no doubt about that.
So, Ganga Mata Goswami goes there directly from here by foot. She goes to Puri from this holiest of the holy places, and she starts preaching by showing again by her example that
to purify yourself you have to chant a lot of Harinama being in the holy place, but then the full manifestation of the purity of Harinam is to distribute it to others.
And she preaches so powerfully in Jagannath Puri that all the local Dhama vasis are so impressed by her, they just throng in hundreds and thousands to hear her speak from Srimad Bhagavatam on Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy.
And even the king of Jagannatha Puri, Mukundadeva, at that time he He uh uh comes to her and listens to her discourses.
So to make the long story short, uh it's very important to bring it to conclusion and uh to speak at least a few words about Prahladdevi devotion. To make the long story short, she gives her some land near Svetaganga.
Śvetagaṅgā is a very holy place. This is the place where in ancient time Maharaja Sveta was living. He was the Maharaja of Puri.
And I'll tell a little story of this Maharaja Sveta on whose name Śveta Gaṅgā Sarovara is called. This Maharaja Sveta was a very opulent king, and he was serving Lord Jagannath in a very opulent way.
He improved the standard of serving Lord Jagannatha and he was offering him so much bhoga and everything else. And then one day he came to Jagannatha Mandir.
And he saw in Jagannatha Mandir that demigods came before him and gave much more opulent offerings to Lord Jagannatha.
And he became so morose, he said, what my tiny puny little insignificant offerings are in front of these offerings which even demigods are offering to Lord Jagannatha.
And he was standing there with his heart completely demolished basically by this scene of opulence uh of proper opulence to Lord Jagannatha.
And in this moment uh Lord Jagannatha shows him uh the vision, he gives him the darśana and he sees Mother Lakshmi who is herself there on the altar and the Mother Lakshmi is taking offerings which are offered by Maharaja Sveta by her hand and gives to Lord Jagannatha, to Baladeva, to Subhadra Devi from her hand, and she neglects all the offerings given by the demigods. And he became so happy and so pleased with this.
And Lord Jagannatha gave him the benediction that you will leave this body on your desire. So this Maharaja Sveta he gave up his body on his desire when he finished his life on this place, Śveta Ganga Sarovara,
And on behalf of him, this Śvetagaṅgā Sarovara was called Śvetagaṅgā.
And so Gaṅgā Mātā Gosvāmī, who is still Śacīdevī, was given the land near Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya's house, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya Bhavan on the bank of Śvetagaṅgā.
And there she gives the discourses and she took kṣetra-sannyāsa.
She said, My Guru Maharaj gave me this mission to take care of this holy place, and therefore I will not leave this holy place, I will stay in this holy place, and I will do his mission till the last day of my life.
I will do, I will bring the glory to this house of uh Sarvabham Bhatachary Bhavan, uh, and uh I will I will serve the here.
Descent of Ganga for Sachi Devi
So she gave uh kshatra sannyas and uh and then the the day of uh varuni Ganga uh came when all her friends went to Ganga and they were calling her, let's go to Ganga, it's very important, it's such an important day, let's uh make this pilgrimage in the holy Ganga. She said, No, I cannot.
But at the same time, a desire to take bath in Ganga was strong in her heart. And she went to sleep in her little putir on the bank of Svetaganga. And in the first part of the night, Lord Jagannātha appeared to her.
And she asked her, Why are you so morose? She said, Oh, you know, all my friends are there, Ganga river is so purifying. And Lord Jagannātha asked her, From where do you think Ganga takes place, from where it emanates?
She said, Oh, from your lotus feet. He said, So why are you so worried? Come to my place, and the Ganga will come from my feet. No problem. So he said to her: you go at midnight
on this day, Vāruṇī-gaṅgā, and take bath in this Śvetagaṅgā Sarovara, and then I will arrange everything else. The Ganga herself will come from my lotus feet to you. So she does what she was said.
She does what she was said.
She wakes up, she goes to Śvetagaṅgā, she takes bath, and at this moment she hears the tumultuous sound. She sees so many people are taking bath and she really understands I'm on the bank of Ganga.
And all these people, they're making all this sound and they're taking holy dip, and she's there, and she's happy, she sees all her friends, and she goes into this Ganga, which uh the Śvetagaṅgā Sarovara became the river Ganga. She goes and all of a sudden she feels that the current of Ganga takes her.
And it's such a strong current, and the current of Ganga takes her and she
finds herself within Jagannātha Mandira. Lord Jagannātha brings her miraculously into Jagannātha Mandira and she is still there and she hears all this, you know, all the people who are making sound.
You know, well, and there are so many, when the festival is there, there is a lot of sound people are making. Whether it is Kumbha Mela or whatever.
So there is Kumbha Mela is going on in Jagannātha Mandira at night. And she's taking bus and she's also making sounds and being so happy about this.
And the guards of Jagannath Mandir, they hear this sounds from inside the door and they wonder what's going on there. What's the heck is going on there?
And they got the permission from the head priest and they open the doors of Jagannath Mandir, and lo and behold, they see Sachi Devi who is standing there alone, and she is all wet and in her wet sari, and she's looking and then the whole scene disappeared.
Arrest and king surrendering to Sachi
There is no Ganga, there is no people, only she and Jagannath, and Jagannath is smiling. So the guards, they got suspicious because she was still a beggar.
And they thought maybe she's a beggar, and the beggars, they tend to steal, because this is what the beggar's profession is. So they bring her to King Mukunda-deva.
And they say she's alone, she's at night, somehow or other she stayed there, somehow or other she's wet, we don't know how, and she probably wanted to steal some decorations or some ornaments of Lord Jagannath, and the priests were also suspicious, and they put her in prison.
So here you are. There's another obstacle on your spiritual path. You end up in prison. You're very sincere, you do all austerities, you purify yourself, you chant Sri Laksha harinam, and then you end up in prison.
And then all the priests, including Mukunda-deva, they got some terrible disease, and Lord Jagannath comes to Mukunda-deva and says, Because of your offense to Sachi Devi, you have all this disease.
And if you want to get rid of the disease, you go to her, not to Ganga, not to Svetadvepa Sarovara, not to myself. You go to her and you surrender to her.
You take initiation from her, you take the holy knowledge, divine knowledge, transcendental knowledge which is there in your heart, in your heart, in the form of holy mantra, take initiation, only then everything will be restored.
So this is the happy end of the whole story: how she got the name of Ganga Mata Goswamini. From this day on, she was called Ganga Mata Goswamini. And we celebrate this day. Again, to understand this.
And just to say one sentence about Baladeva Vidyabhushana, if we study his life, which is also very intimately connected with Jagannath Puri, somehow or other
there is this internal connection, Ganga Mata Goswamini, Baladeva Vidyabhushana, who was born near Jagannath Puri in Remuna in Balasore district and ultimately came here. Then again, what is his glory? His glory is the transcendental knowledge which he gave and which is till this day as the holy Ganga purifies people who come in contact with this.
We still can come in contact with the great devotees. The sādhu-saṅga is again not only to externally have sādhu-saṅga, to be in the place where the pure devotee speaks, that's very important.
But also to study his words and try to understand the intention behind these words. The glory of Baladeva Vidyābhaṣaṇa is that he brought up the glory of Gaudiya Sampradaya into the context of the glorious Vedic culture.
Before Baladeva Vidyābhaṣaṇa, the Gaudiya Sampradaya was kind of isolated sect which was prominent in a few
places like Navadvīpa and Vṛndāvana and Manipur. But it is because of Baladeva Vidyābhaṣaṇa and his transcendental knowledge and his desire to bring this to a wider audience, to the greater audience, to the people of the world, he made this transcendental knowledge, this school accessible.
He translated basically, the teachings of Lord Chaitanya made it accessible to everyone who is who belongs to uh to Vedic culture and brought the bridges between other people and people from other sampradayas for them to come to Gaudiya Sampradaya.
Universal appreciation of Govinda Bhasya
Just little anecdote and I will finish this class which is already too late. Uh I have my friend who is a Acharya in uh Madhva Sampradaya. He's a great Sanskrit scholar and he's great scholar of Madhva Vedanta.
He knows Madhva Vedanta Nyasuddha through and through he knows by heart all the commentaries which are done by Madhva Siddhanta.
And I asked him, why don't you teach this Gaudiya Bhāṣya, Govinda Bhāṣya, which is written by Baladeva Vidyābhaṣaṇa. Bhūṣaṇa.
And he said, I don't know what is this Govinda Bhāṣya, what is this? And uh we gave him the Sanskrit uh book of Govinda Bhāṣya and he started reading and he couldn't stop reading it. And he said, it's such a beautiful book.
I know all the explanations, I know all the commentaries of Madhva Sampradaya.
It's such a he he didn't say it's better, but he said it's such a beautiful, it's such a simple, uh simply explain such exp such difficult and uh complex uh ideas of Vedanta explained here. He was glorifying it.
He said, Oh, this Baladev. I never heard about this Baladev. Who is he? Tell me more about Baladev.
So that's a completely impartial uh testimony of somebody uh who is from outside sampradaya and that's exactly what Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa did. He brought the teachings of Lord Chaitanya to everyone.
And then of course Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and ultimately Śrīla Prabhupāda, they completed this mission.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came, Rūpa Gosvāmī came and explained this most esoteric and most subtle teachings of Lord Chaitanya for us to practice. But then the great Acharyas, what is their job?
Their job is to bring this to our hearts.
And if we are grateful to them and if we understand this principle, the most important principle of this day, that the most purifying in this world is the transcendental knowledge, we have to serve them with all humility, fulfilling their desires, fulfilling their missions, and trying to come in contact with their knowledge and with their bhakti within their heart which they express through their words.
So thank you very much. That's the that's my little explanation of the glory of this day. Thank you. How are you still? Śrīla Prabhupāda.