All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gauranga
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagat Guru said that – “Nothing more important than hari-kathā, somebody speaking that I have no time to hear hari-kathā—this is called māyā.”
In this regard I can remember one incident of my Paramahaṁsa Gurudeva. It happened long ago when Śrīla Guru Mahārāja used to go to Śrīla Prabhupāda to hear hari-kathā from him daily after office hours at No.1 Ultadanga road North Kolkata (Śrī Bhaktivinod Asan). At that time Śrīla Guru Mahārāja had some official obligations because he was a service holder at Port trust office Kolkata. Once it happened so that after office hours, he was in hurry to run to Śrīla Prabhupāda to attend his divine hari-kathā, but while he was going to put his leg inside the cloth shoe then immediately, he was bitten by a poisonous Scorpio which was already they’re inside the shoe, but still, he didn’t care to stop going to Śrīla Prabhupāda to attend the hari-kathā. In this condition when he went on hearing hari-kathā Śrīla Prabhupāda could realize some pain in his body by watching his face, so after the hari-kathā was over, on being asked he was told by him the fact. Śrīla Prabhupāda was so happy by hearing the fact that he was ready to bestow full kṛpā on him by watching this kind of irresistible urge for hearing hari-kathā. So, we can understand the magic spell of hari-kathā. Nothing can be more important than hari-kathā. If we have strong faith in hari-kathā then nothing can stand in front of us as a barrier in the way of our devotional progress.
We can see from the pastime of Śrīla Prabhupāda that long ago Śrīla Prabhupāda was busy speaking hari-kathā in some devotees house, in the mean time somebody started shouting in tension or anxiety to inform him that a small boy fall down into glowing fire, but Śrīla Prabhupāda started speaking in cool brain that—“Where hari-kathā going on there no such dangerous incident can happen at all, go and try to see the boy all ok. Really it was so, the boy was completely ok, no harm was there with the boy at all.
One day one man was feeling hesitation to attend hari-kathā because his mother was almost going to die, she was laying sick at hospital. On being asked by Śrīla Prabhupāda he was bound to speak out all in details about the deteriorating (degrading health) of his mother, for why he was ready to leave sādhu-saṅga and hari-kathā. Śrīla Prabhupāda told— “Let your mother die, you try to hear hari-kathā, nothing more auspicious and important then hari-kathā.”
Once Śrīla Prabhupāda told in front of devotees that — “Let the whole world become inundated by flood water, but still, I like to float in the flood water by embracing Caitanya-caritāmṛta on my chest.” On another occasion Śrīla Prabhupāda was bound to say to somebody that— “The whole world is burning. What it concerns to you? You try to concentrate in hari-kathā–kīrtana.”
Long ago Śrīla Prabhupāda went to Barisal district E.B. (at present Bangladesh) the native village of Śrīla Vinoid Bihari Prabhu (later on he was known as Śrīla Bhakti Pragyan Keshava Gosvāmī Mahārāja) to speak hari-kathā there. Śrīla Vinod Bihari Prabhu was very much interested to attend that hari-kathā program, and in course of his hearing hari-kathā, he was just surprised to hear a revolting siddhānta-vichar from Śrīla Prabhupāda that — “I am ready to sacrifice countless jivas to protect the minimum interest of Śrī Guru-Vaiṣṇava-Bhagavan.” Then he was just full of doubts and suspicion. He started thinking that how it is possible for such a great siddha mahātmā to speak like this? He is being the eternal pārshad of Śrīla Prabhupāda who within some interval of time immediately could understand that the siddhānta-vichar spoken by Śrīla Prabhupāda is absolutely perfect. This material world is the perverted reflection of that transcendental world. This material world having negative value, which is full of māyā or illusion, whereas Vaikuṇṭha jagat is nitya jagat, so has some positive value. Even one dust particle from Vaikuṇṭha jagat cannot be compared with the summation of the whole infinity material creation, because those are all having negative value (no reality in true sense), whereas the dust particle from Vaikuṇṭha jagat is itself complete, I mean pūrṇa-vastu (I mean has absolutely positive value). Keeping -0- in the middle if we go towards the positive direction then–the more we go ahead, the more the valuation of digits can be found, whereas if we go towards the negative direction from zero the neutral point, then the more we go ahead in the negative direction, the more the valuation of digits can go down.
………………………….-4, -3, -2, -1…… 0 …….. +1, +2, +3, +4……………………..
…………………………-4 (-3 (-2 (-1………0………..+1 (+2 (+3 (+4 ……………………
This material world is the perverted reflection of the transcendental world, this means this jagat is negative. Here in this material world any amount of honour, prestige, power, riches, etc. all useless, whereas that eternal world (Vaikuṇṭha jagat) is pūrṇa-vastu.
We can remember the positive mood (the exclusive devotional mood) of Śrīvas Paṇḍit at the time of death of his son at home when night time sankīrtana rasa was going on there under the guidance of sankīrtana-pīṭha – Śrīman Mahaprabhu, but he did not care the case so much important as to stop sankīrtana rasa, because he knew it very well that this phenomenal world is unstable—no actual value can be attributed. We know that common people or foolish people cannot realize the gravity of this deep analytical scientific vichar, because they are only busy to understand material benefit, they are all in the group of utilitarians; they have no superfine scientific vichar. In reality all jivatmas are traveling around these fourteen planetary systems up and down according to their karma phal for infinite period. How they can get respite from māyā (illusion) that is the main question. Only and only by the association of a genuine sādhu and by his kṛpā one can develop the degree of consciousness up to such a great level so that aprākṛta-vastu can became visible in front of them. We know the following śloka from Caitanya-caritāmṛta that:
aprākṛta -vastu nahe prākṛta-gocara
veda-purāṇete ei kahe nirantara
(CC Madhya 9.194)
“Spiritual substance is never within the jurisdiction of the material conception. This is always the verdict of the Vedas and Purāṇas.”
So we can realize that nothing more important than hari-kathā–kīrtana.
Gaura Hari Hari Bol