20230227 NMP Day 5 Addresses

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Haṁsavāhana: Śukadeva Gosvāmī was giving class on gaura-līlā and Lord Śiva heard about that in Kailāsa. He wanted to immediately go and listen to the gaura-līlā. So he went by a bull but he got to Satyaloka. And the bull was going too slow. So he asked Brahmadeva if he could borrow his swan vāhana (carrier). Lord Brahmā agreed and he gave him the swan. And then on the earth in this place in Madhyadvīpa, all the sages were listening to the class when Lord Brahmā’s swan entered. They all stood up and they were surprised to see instead of Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva was there. So that is how this is known as Haṁsavāhana. And they used to keep the Deity in the water of the Gomatī river. But it was stolen. Then, the police said you have to keep the Deity locked up. And therefore the Deity was kept in the house when you go by the road. And we were coming to see the Haṁsavāhana when the Deity would be outside the water for a short time. We were racing in the car and all water from the Ganges that we had brought to bathe Lord Śiva had spilled out. So, about two kilometers from here there is the Puṣkara tīrtha. So we decided to go to Puṣkara tīrtha and we will fill our containers of water, and then we came back. Then we were chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Then the pūjārī came out and said, “Stop! Don’t make noise.” Then after some time the pūjārī came out again and said that Lord Śiva was not giving any blessings since I told you to stop chanting. You please chant! We were chanting and Lord Śiva was giving blessings. They put a particular flower on the back of Śiva, in this Deity there is a small Śiva on the back of the Haṁsa. Then people would ask for some blessing and if Lord Śiva was giving them blessing, then the water would fall on the flower and the flower would fly in the air. If Lord Śiva was not giving blessing, the flower would just fall on the side. Mmmmmm! Apparently, all the blessings were closed when they stopped us from chanting. So then we brought inside and we offered our water on Lord Śiva. Of course, we only asked for pure kṛṣṇa-bhakti. We don’t want anything material. Then Lord Śiva’s flower flew up and we got Lord Śiva’s blessings. Hare Kṛṣṇa!