Gopinath 1 song meditation

Song ppt

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
to our real spiritual path. Hare Krishna. Today we will discuss the song by Bhaktivinod Thakur, Gopinath, Mamma Nivedha Neshu.
Bhaktivinod Thakur is one of the most celebrated Vaishnava poets. And his songs are characterised by not just intense devotion, but also by profound philosophical contemplation that directs the heart towards Krishna with intense devotion. So, among his various songs, the Gopinath song is special in that it is almost like a direct communion with the Lord.
It is almost as if he is standing or sitting in front of the reeti of Gopinath and calling out, revealing his heart and begging for mercy. Gopinath, Mamma Nivedha Neshu no, Vishai Durjana, Sada Kamarata, Kichu Nahi Moraguna. O Lord Gopinath, please hear my petition.
Now, when the devotee goes to the Lord, the devotee goes in a mood of humility because Krishna is so great. He is infinite. I am so tiny.
I am infinite as me. And I need Krishna’s mercy to live in this world in devotion and to return to him ultimately, to leave this world successfully. So, Mamma Nivedha Neshu no.
At one level, Krishna is always there in the heart and Krishna is always hearing everything that we speak, even if we are speaking to other people, what to speak of when we are speaking to Krishna himself. But, the devotee wants to have a personal relationship with the Lord and the devotee treats the Lord like a person and therefore, by requesting the Lord to hear, the devotee expresses the intense desire of the Lord, desire for the mercy of the Lord. And when we approach the Lord, there is a fundamental difference between how we may approach the Lord and how we approach others.
When we go for a job interview, we want to put our best foot forward. We want to show our qualifications. I have this degree, I have done this course, I have done this extracurricular activity, they have these many certificates, so please give me a job.
On the other hand, if somebody is a beggar, and when the beggar wants to beg from someone, at that time, the beggar will try to show how desolate I am. I am not eating for three days. I am dying of starvation.
Please help me. So, beggar, if the beggar goes with a nice big feast of chocolates and rasgullas and cakes in his pouch, and they are protruding out of the pouch, and the beggar begs for food, and says, I have so much, give me something. Why should I give you? The donor may ask.
So, similarly, when a devotee goes to the Lord, we go in a mood of begging. And that’s why, when we go in front of the Lord, we don’t go about parading our qualifications. We focus on our disqualifications, by which we invoke the mercy of the Lord.
Of course, the Lord is always merciful. But, we want to feel the need for His mercy. So, telling about our desolate position is not so much to inform the Lord, but to remind ourselves so as to intensify our call to Him, so as to feel the need for Him, and thereby, call fervently for Him.
So, this whole song is filled with heartbreaking, almost, admissions of humility and weakness and feebleness. And, these admissions actually give admission to the grace of the Lord. Otherwise, our confidence in our own abilities blocks away the mercy of the Lord.
So, admission of our weakness gives admission to Krishna’s strength into our heart. So, here is saying, Vishay Durjana, Sada Kamarata, Vishay Durjana, I’m a sense gratifier, I’m a bad person, Durjana, Sada Kamarata, always filled with lust, and Kichu Nahi Morabuna, I have no qualities. The Bhaktivinoda Thakur is a person of the highest morality.
In fact, his integrity was such that even the British government trusted him and gave him many challenging responsibilities on delicate issues, because they trusted his integrity and his competence. So, normally there is character and competence, which are considered two important features that comprise a person’s set of abilities. So, he had both, but yet he is saying, Kichu Nahi Morabuna, I have no qualities.
What is my situation? Sada Kamarata, I’m always filled with lust. Actually, that is the situation of all of us. Every… Ever so often, the mind becomes filled with desires for sensual enjoyment.
So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur takes the position of us conditioned souls to teach us how we should pray to the Lord. And he is not in this situation, but he, just as the Lord descends from the spiritual world to the material world to elevate us, similarly, the great Vaishnavas descend from the uttama platform to the lower levels, not in terms of their doing low-grade activities, but in terms of being able to communicate with conditioned souls. Here he prays, he comes down to the level of our conditioned souls in such prayers, and he prays on our behalf, thereby teaching us how to pray.
So, Prabhupada writes that the thought of sex desire is never far away from the conditioned soul. So, sadha kamaratha, just prowls anytime and distracts us from our purity and our focus on Krishna. Now, sadha kamaratha, why are we constantly filled with material desires? Actually, that is just our nature because we have a material body and we have a materialistic mind.
But in today’s situation, things are worse because the culture is becoming more and more licentious and explicit. We are exposed more and more to sensuous stimuli. So, as it is, Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote this song almost 150 years ago.
100 years ago at least. yeah, 150 whatever. Most of his songs he wrote in the 1870s, 1880s, 1890s.
So, 120-130 years ago. So, his literary creation was between 1870 to around 1905. So, at that time, the culture was even impure.
And still, he says, in that time it was sadha kamaratha. But now, with the culture becoming more and more impure, our need for the mercy of the lord so as to be able to stay pure is even greater. And he says, mamma nivedhanashu.
Oh my lord, please hear my petition. So, actually, the petty has not made any request till now. Normally, when people go to the temple, primarily what they do is go with a shopping list.
Please arrange for this. Please arrange for this. So, now here he is saying, I make a petition.
But in the petition, he is not asking for things. He is primarily revealing his plight. And after revealing his plight, then he starts, he continues on to eventually ask something, to petition the lord.
So, he says, now because in the previous verse he is talking about how I am sadha kamaratha and I have no qualities. So, now, does that make one hopeless? Yes, we are fallen, but we are not hopeless. Because Krishna is our hope.
And that is talked about in this verse. Gopinath, amar bharasatumi, tomar sharane, loilu sharana, tomar kinkurami. So, he says, amar bharasatumi, you are my shelter, I trust you.
So, we are weak, we are sinful, we are fallen. But, Krishna is strong, Krishna is pure, Krishna is supremely elevated, eternally liberated. And he can liberate us.
And he wants to liberate us because he is supremely loving. So, he says, amar bharasatumi, you are my faith, you are my shelter. So, we may be hapless, but we are never hopeless.
Hapless is often thought to mean helpless, but hapless actually means unfortunate. We are definitely unfortunate because we have become disconnected from Krishna. But, we are not hopeless because Krishna is our hope.
Amar bharasatumi, tomar charan, loinu charan. So, your beautiful feet, I take shelter of. Now, what does taking shelter of Krishna’s lotus feet mean? It actually means serving him.
Because when we put ourselves at the feet, that means we accept that I am lower than that person. If I am lower than someone, what do I do? I serve one who is higher to me. So, we take shelter of Krishna by serving him.
So, of course, praying to him and beseeching him is also a form of service. And that is also a way in which we take shelter of Krishna. Sharana, taking shelter, elsewhere, Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains how it has six elements and the first two of them are actually active elements.
anukulyasya sankalpa patikulyasya bharjan. So, surrender is not just passive, raise your hands and give up everything. Surrender is actually active.
Do that which is favourable for bhakti and give up that which is unfavourable for bhakti. So, loinu charan. So, we can take shelter at each moment when we are exposed to some sensory stimuli.
By turning away from that stimuli, we are taking shelter of Krishna. patikulyasya bharjan. That’s what we are doing.
And when we have opportunity to engage in some devotional activity, we try to absorb ourselves and we turn ourselves fully into it and turn away from the other distracting things. That is also how we are surrendering to Krishna. anukulyasya sankalpa is what we are doing at that time.
So, tomara kinkora ame. We are Krishna’s parts. We should be a part.
We should not be apart. Apart means separated from him. A part means we are his connected beings and we should stay connected to him.
So, by praying to him and by serving him, we become a part and we end our life of being a part. tomara kinkora. I agree.
I admit. I declare that I am your part, my dear lord. kinkora.
Actually, the word kinkora is separated in samdhi vigraha. kinkaroti iti kinkara. kinkaroti means what should I do? So, a servant basically asks the master, what should I do? And does accordingly.
So, it is not just intellectual admission, I am your part, but it also a practical acknowledgement that it is Krishna who should direct our lives. That we ask Krishna, what should I do? kinkaroti. tomara kinkora.
Aami. O my dear lord, I am your part and I take shelter of you. You are my protector.
I have faith in you. So, the first stanza stated that how how regrettable my plight is. Please hear my petition.
And the second sentence is, yes, but you are my hope. So, a beggar admits that actually I am so poverty stricken, I am so miserable. And then he says that, you have O donor, you have the capacity to relieve me.
I have faith in you. So, that’s what Bhaktivinoda Thakura is saying over here. And then, now the lord may say that actually there are so many processes of elevation.
There is karma, there is jnana, there is bhakti. You can elevate yourself by all those. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, no.
Gopinath, kemon ne shodhi be more. Na jani bhakti karme jada mati porechi samsara ghore. Kemon ne shodhi be more.
What is going to be my destination? How will I be elevated? Na jani bhakti. So, a devotee never feels that I have devotion. A devotee always feels that actually, I am lacking in devotion.
I don’t even know what is devotion. Na jani bhakti. Om.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that if I had devotion, then in separation from Krishna, I would not even be alive. The very fact that I am alive means that I have no devotion for Krishna. So, the extraordinary of devotion is that those who have little devotion feel that they have a lot of devotion.
Those who have no devotion actually feel they have a lot of devotion. Those who have a lot of devotion feel that they have no devotion. Why? Because those who have little devotion often consider devotional advancement also as another accomplishment.
I got wealth, I got marks in my exams, I got position and promotion in my job. So, similarly, now I have advanced in devotion also. So, that’s why we always try to overestimate ourselves in material life.
And the same we do in our spiritual life also and think that I have a lot of devotion. But, when we truly become advanced, then we realise so great is the beauty of Krishna, so great is the love of Krishna that as compared to that, the very fact that we are attracted to other things indicates that we have no love for him. So, those who have little devotion because of their tendency from material life to overestimate themselves, they think that they already have a lot of devotion.
But those who have no devotion or those who have a lot of devotion, they think that actually we don’t have any devotion. So, Krishna is so extraordinary that even in a war field He is reciprocating love with His devotees such as the mysteries of devotion. We simply think of devotion as maybe some chanting, some dancing.
But, the mysteries of devotion are very profound and you need to penetrate deep into the heart to understand it. And, since that most of the time, what am I doing? I am caught up in my consciousness is caught up in karma in just materialistic activities. Jada in dead matter, it’s obsessed.
And because it is obsessed like this, karma-jada-mati, so, poraichi samsara ghore in this terrible material existence, filled with constant misery, three-fold mysteries of adhyatmika, adhibhautika, the four-fold problems of janma, mattu, jaraga, adhi. Samsara ghore in this terrible existence, poraichi, I have fallen. Actually, we fall not because somebody pushes us into it.
It is because we follow the lead of our own material desires. So, our material desires are not leaders, they are misleaders. And, suppose there is an open well which is deep and dark and dangerous.
And then somebody just walks into that well. What will happen? We’ll just fall. So, like that, our desires are what cause us to walk into the deep, dark well of material existence.
And that’s how poraichi samsara ghore. So, here, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that actually the implication is, this is continuation of Mamma Nivedha Nishma. Please hear my petition.
My petition is that who will deliver me, although it’s not mentioned who it is, who will deliver me except you? Of course, it’s mentioned by saying Gopinath, by calling out to the Lord. Gopinath, it’s a personal prayer and we see that emphasis of our heart-to-heart prayer from the Lord to the devotee by his repeating, repeatedly invoking the name of the Lord. He stands there at the start.
Just as Gajendra, he called out to the Lord helplessly, realised that actually, I have no help except for you. So, similarly we say, what help is there for me? Now, normally we say that we require devotion to call out to the Lord. But if I say, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, I don’t even have devotion.
Therefore, my only hope is your mercy. Of course, hoping for Krishna’s mercy is also an indication of devotion. Because those who don’t have devotion, won’t even have faith in Krishna’s mercy and won’t ask for his mercy.
But as we discussed, this is the mystery, the magic of devotion that a devotee feels, I have no devotion. So, I have no hope except for you my dear Lord. Otherwise, because of my materialistic consciousness, I have fallen into this miserable material existence.
Now, then he says that, okay, he goes on describing further the plight of how I have fallen into this miserable material existence. Now, he is emphasising that even when I have fallen in maya, that doesn’t mean I have fallen out of your reach. When I have fallen into samsara ghore, somebody may say that, oh, you are not in my jurisdiction.
It’s like say, say some Indians are caught in some country where a war is going on and the Indian government wants to get them out. But it has no jurisdiction in that particular country. And that’s why the citizens over there can’t be rescued.
Often, protectors in this world have some limited jurisdictions. So, is it that when we fall into the ghor samsara, we have fallen out of Krishna’s jurisdiction? No, he says, sakali tomare maya. My falling into material existence, into the illusion created by maya, that does not make me fallen out of your jurisdiction, Krishna, because this maya is also your energy.
Sakali, whatever form of illusion that might be there in this world, it is all tomare maya. It is all your illusory energy. And he goes on describing how the illusory energy has bound me.
The first line emphasises that actually you still have the capacity to rescue me because it’s your illusory energy, O Gopinath. And the remaining lines talk about how I don’t have the capacity to rescue myself. Nahi mamma baala.
So, I don’t have strength. Now, of course, Bhaktivinoda Thakura had a very sickly body and it is remarkable how he was able to do so much despite being troubled by many different sicknesses at different times. But he is not necessarily referring to physical strength over here.
He is talking about the strength of willpower, the strength of determination to do the right thing, to give up temptation and to cultivate devotion. So, he says, I don’t have that. Nahi mamma baala.
Jana su nirmala. So, actually, if our knowledge is pure, then we will understand that serving Krishna is our best interest and serving Maya is our worst interest. We will get nothing but trouble by serving Maya.
But, to the extent our knowledge is not su nirmala. It is mala. To that extent, our perception gets distorted.
So, Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita that lust has three sitting places and interestingly he says Indriyaani Mano buddhir. That lust is situated even in the intelligence because the senses, the mind and the intelligence. So, now, actually, we normally have to use our intelligence to go beyond illusion.
But Krishna says that lust has hijacked even our intelligence and that’s why it’s not possible for us to come out of illusion just by the strength of our own intelligence. We need Krishna’s intelligence. We need spiritual revelation coming through Guru and Sadhu.
Then, that spiritual intelligence counters our material intelligence. So, here he is saying Gyaana su nirmala. I don’t have any pure knowledge and because of that I cannot do anything my dear Lord.
Su nirmala. I need pure knowledge but I don’t have it. Swadhin nahi ekaya.
So, actually this body is not in my control. Whereas, this body or to speak of controlling other things, I can’t even control my own body oh Lord. So, we may think that I’ll be a controller, I’ll be a boss, I’ll have so many people obeying me.
But the reality is that when, for example, the call of nature comes, we just have to practically sarva dharma parityajya. Run to respond to the call of nature. Then, sometimes even the basic activities we are not able to do.
If I get some ulcer, now then even speaking becomes painful. I’ll take speaking so much for granted but I’ll not be able to speak. Sometimes we get insomnia and actually sleeping is the least exerting activity.
We sleep so that we can overcome the exertion that happens by other activities. But the nature of illusion is that the nature of our helplessness is that even we may not be able to do the least exerting activity. So, we try to sleep and we are not able to sleep when we get insomnia.
So, the least exerting activity can become so exerting that we find that we have no strength left to exert. And that’s how we realise at times Actually, as we become older, we will realise this more and more. Actually, I’m thinking of becoming a controller in the world but I’m not even the controller of my own body.
The point of talking this is actually to emphasise that you are my rescuer, my dear lord. I cannot be my own rescuer. Gopinath, it is you who can have mercy on me.
So, please here is my wretched condition that I’m telling you. Please have mercy on me. So, in my terrible condition what is my petition? Gopinath, I want Niyat Charanisthana Mage e Pamar Kandiya Kandiya Kuroho Karuna Dana So, he says, my dear lord, I want Niyat Charanisthana I want a place at your lotus feet eternally.
I want to be your servant eternally, my dear lord. So, Niyat means actually constantly it is my constitutional position and I want it to be constantly available to me. So, I’m taking shelter now to Lohinu Charan this is Tomara Charan I’m taking shelter of you.
But the nature of the mind is that it keeps wavering and now we take shelter and after some time we give up that shelter and turn away towards Durashtra. We take bad shelters. Shelters which leave us shelterless.
Shelter of materialistic things we take. So, he says, I want to come out of this whole world of illusion where we get distracted again and again from the real shelter and we get caught in the false promises the betraying treacherous false shelter. So, Gopinath a constant shelter at your lotus feet I beg for I beg for Kandiya, Kandiya Now, attaining the Lord’s feet is something which is very exalted.
The Lord may ask what is your qualification for this? He says, Actually, I’m a pauper. I have completely penniless. Now, Bhaktivinoda was a respectable person.
He was not penniless materially. But he is saying that in terms of qualifications for attaining your shelter, my dear Lord, I’m a pauper. And to the extent we also realise Krishna, all my big big achievements, even if I do achievements in devotional service, they are useless as far as attaining you is concerned.
My devotional accomplishments will not be able to help me gain your shelter. It is by rendering devotional service to Krishna, if I absorb myself in him and I develop attraction to him and I want to offer myself to him, only then those services will help us. So our devotional accomplishments are not bad.
We can accomplish and we should try our best to accomplish wonderful things in Krishna’s service. But it is not those things that will take us to Krishna. It is our desire to go to Krishna that should result in those things.
So what is important is that the various services we perform, that they increase our inner absorption. Not that they increase our outer ostentation of our devotion. I’m a palmer.
So therefore because I’m penniless, Kandiya Kandiya. My dear Lord, I lament. I cry.
I grieve. Kandiya Kandiya. And what can I do? Korohe Karuna Dana.
So I cannot make any bargain with you, my dear Lord, because I have nothing to offer to bring in the bargain. I’m simply asking you to give a donation. Korohe Karuna Dana.
Why should you give me a donation? Why should you give me the gift of a place at your lotus feet? Because you’re Karuna. You’re merciful. So it is your mercy that I’m depending on.
It’s your mercy that I’m begging for. Begging to you so that I can attain you. Korohe Karuna Dana.
And then says Gopinath, now the Lord may ask, what? How can you ask for something like this just? You have no qualification and still you’re asking for donation? How can I give like this? He says, my dear Lord, you’ve done it in the past also. There are precedents. And I’m not demanding something which is unprecedented, my dear Lord.
He says, Gopinath, Gopinath, he says, actually you delivered everyone. Everyone. That means you delivered very very fallen people.
And the classic example of the Lord delivering is Nithyanand Prabhu Markhe Premdey. He was beaten by Jagai Madhai, but instead of beating them back, the Lord had to destroy them in one moment, but far from destroying them, he rewarded their assault to him by giving them liberation. That is extraordinary mercy.
So Gopinath, you have delivered practically everyone. There are so many people whom you encountered and either way, there are devotees whom you purified and liberated or there are demons whom also you killed and liberated. And especially in Yama Maharshi’s incarnation, even the demons you purified and liberated.
So again, faith is in the immense power of the Lord that yes, there are many people who are very sinful, but your strength is far greater than the strength of your compassion is far greater than the strength of the demon’s obsession with matter. And that’s why no matter how fallen we are, we are never so fallen that Krishna cannot reach us. His power is always greater than our weakness.
And that’s why So who is a greater sinner than me, my dear Lord? Now, this is not an expression of false ego saying that actually my dear Lord, you are the and he is not saying that I am the greatest sinner. Actually, it’s not a matter of ego. It’s a matter of just begging from the heart.
Who is there who is as sinful? That means, please have mercy on me. So sometimes a devotee may talk about oneself in a way which might seem extremist. It might seem to be like egoist.
But the essential point is it is motivated by not a desire to brag about oneself, not even brag in a negative sense, saying that actually I am the greatest, not even the greatest sinner. But the point is I need your mercy, my dear Lord. So here the point is not that I am the greatest sinner.
The essential point is that I need your mercy very greatly. So my dear Lord, you have given your mercy to so many people. So please give your mercy to me also.
Kena chepa pidaro. So now when we talk about the Lord’s heroic deeds, especially His heroism of compassionately delivering others. So by that, what happens is He enables us His heart softens.
His heart is always soft. But when He sees us remembering His Shivala’s deeds, His Shivala’s compassionate deeds, that attracts Him to us. That softens His heart and attracts His attention to us more.
And then He delivers His mercy to us. So therefore He is saying, please, you have delivered so many people, please deliver me also. And then Gopinath tumi kripa parabara.
Jeeve rakarane asiya prapanche lila koile subistaram. Gopinath tumi kripa parabara. So actually you are immensely, infinitely merciful Lord.
And it’s not just that you have delivered a few demons here and there, actually the whole purpose of your descent to material world is to deliver. So tumi kripa parabara. So merciful that the Lord, the king doesn’t have to come to a prison.
But the king comes to the prison for what? Simply to benefit the prison. So like that Krishna comes to the prison of material existence to deliver us. And when He is coming, what does He do? It’s interesting, Bhaktanath Thakur here is not talking about Krishna’s descending to this world to kill the demons and to establish Dharma.
Yes, that is there. But He is focussing not on Gita 4.7 or 8. He is focussing on Gita 4.9. Many times when people talk about the descent of the Lord in general Hindu community they talk about yada yada dharmasya paritranaya sadhuna. Yes, Krishna descends whenever there is adharma.
So He establishes dharma by killing the demons and protecting the devotees. Yes, that is true. But that is what He does in the material world.
So, then after that what happens? Now 4.9 says the real purpose. Actually, Krishna comes to descend to make order in this world. But what is the purpose of establishing dharma in the world? It is the purpose of establishing dharma in the world is to establish us in dharma.
The goal of spiritual life is to make spiritual life our goal. To make spiritual life our goal means to enable us to return back to the spiritual world where we will live spiritually eternally. So, 4.9 is what Prabhupada would quote much more than 4.7 or 4.9 in the Gita is So, those who understand my activities, they will become so attracted to me.
They will fall in love with me. They will understand what a beautiful lord is he. How can we not love him? And therefore by loving him they will return back to him.
So, he is saying, Bhaktanath Thakur here that what is your mercy on the living entity is that you come to exhibit these wonderful pastimes. You come to this material existence for the sake of the Jivas. But what do you do for the Jivas? Perform elaborate pastimes.
In various pastimes, in various rasas, with various devotees, you manifest various forms of you are all attractiveness and you attract different souls back to you. So, God sitting and taking lunch with his friends and God taking the Jhuta of his devotees and this is something so stunning that even Brahmaji couldn’t comprehend it. But such a maji who has the idea that Krishna that God is situated and eats Bhoga after being offered properly.
He is amazed and bewildered by seeing how sweet Krishna’s pastimes are. Such are the pastimes which can attract the heart of people. By understanding how those who render even a little devotional service to him.
Fruit vendor gave him a little fruit and got packets and packets full of jewels. A whole basket full of jewels and more than that he got a heart full of the supreme jewel of devotion. So, by remembering how the Lord reciprocates so wonderfully, we can become attracted to him.
And how can we remember the Lord reciprocates so wonderfully? It is when he performs pastimes here in this world that we come to know about those pastimes. So, Krishna is so merciful, that he performs these pastimes for our sake. So, again what is the connection over here? Bhaktivedanta Thakur has talked about his own plight and then he has said, you are my dear, you are my hope.
And then he is saying, actually it is your merciful nature. You please deliver me because you delivered so many demons and in fact it is to deliver all souls that you perform pastimes. So, please deliver me also.
Gopinath, Ami ki doshi doshi, Asura sakala, Pailo charana, Pinoda thakila bose. Ami ki doshi doshi. Who can be more faulty than me? Okay, this is like a patient saying, Oh, please doctor, I am so sick.
Please, I need urgent attention. When a patient says, I am extremely sick, that is not a matter of ego. I am more sick than anyone else.
It is just a matter of desperation. So, Ami ki doshi doshi. I am such a faulty person.
Please, oh dear lord. Asura sakala, Pailo charana. All the Asuras, they all got, they all attained shelter of your lotus feet.
Pinoda thakila bose. Therefore, Bhaktivedanta Thakur is also begging for your mercy. Asura sakala.
So, Lord Ram, he gave shelter to Vibhishana. Although he was somebody more in a family. Vibhishana came with shelter and Lord Ram gave shelter immediately.
And he said, anyone who seeks my shelter, I will never refuse your shelter. So, you have given shelter to so many people, my dear lord. So, you will give shelter to me also.
Please give shelter. I await your shelter. Pinoda thakila bose.
I await your shelter. So, the song starts with Mama nivedanashu. Oh lord, please hear my petition.
And what is my petition? He is saying that I want the shelter of your lotus feet. Niyata charanesthana. And to build up that case, that please grant, my petition is I want shelter at your lotus feet.
And to build up his case, first he talks about his own fallen nature. And secondly, he talks about the exalted nature of the lord. I am fallen, you are exalted.
I am helpless, but you are supremely compassionate. Therefore, oh lord, please grant me your shelter. Pinoda thakila bose.
So, these songs seem to begin with such heart-breaking hopelessness. They end in such heart-warming hopefulness. Because their focus is Krishna.
And Krishna’s great mercy. By meditating on Krishna’s exalted nature and our fallen nature and by letting the meditations of great Vaishnavas like Bhaktivinoda Thakura as manifested in their songs, by letting those meditations guide our meditation, by contemplating on such songs, we can also feel a very personal bond with Krishna and fervently call for his shelter. And then as we experience his shelter, as we live in his shelter, we’ll march steadily onwards towards his abode, towards his personal presence, where we’ll forever be sheltered perfectly and joyfully,