Srila Narottama Das Thakur - ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry

Srila Narottama Das Thakur

On the very auspicious Appearance Day of Narottama Das Thakur, let us remember him and beg for his mercy to spread the congregational chanting of the Holy Name worldwide. He appeared in order to spread the Sankirtana movement after Lord Caitanya’s departure. Through his beautiful poetry and songs, he made the realisations of Krsna Consciousness and pure bhakti easily understandable and applicable to common men and women. His bhajans are helping everyone to receive the mood and realisations of a pure devotee.

Srila Narottama Das Thakur did everything to preach to everyone and to fight the discrimination between castes and social groups, because everyone was eligible to get the spiritual knowledge.

Not only did he fight against the Smarta Brahmins but also presented Krsna Consciousness in its sastric way without mental and philosophical speculation. He is also known as Thakur Mahasaya for being well versed and equipped in sastric knowledge. He fought with great scholars, Kings, Smartha Brahmins, and initiated people from all castes, while caste Brahmins were forming groups to fight against Him. He was following the statement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that the Vaishnava position is more exalted than of a Brahmana.

Once, while staying at the bank of Padma River with Ramachandra Kaviraj, together they met two young boys who were herding goats and buffaloes. Narottama Das Thakur knew that those poor animals were meant to be sacrificed, and he also saw that those kids were still innocent in their heart.

 So he started a conversation with Ramachandra Kaviraj, while walking on a small distance from the two boys, and talked about how awful it is to offer animals in sacrifice to Mother Kali, and that it is not the proper way to please Her or to achieve spirituality, which is higher than any other benediction. They said that if one serves the Supreme Lord Krsna, it automatically pleases everyone else and one achieves the highest knowledge.

These two boys were astonished and after listening to this conversation begged to be initiated by Srila Narottama Das Thakur and Ramachandra Kavirah. They were named Harinam Das and Ram-Krsna Das.

Later, they defeated their father, Shivananda Acarya, one of the greatest Mayavadis, in a philosophical debate. And they did not stop there, these boys won every debate that they participated in against the Mayavadis by the mercy and knowledge of their Gurus.

Harinam Das and Ram-Krsna Das were very young, but because of their inner purity and that they were unknowingly following the wrong path, their hearts opened to bhakti in a second. They could learn because they wanted to listen. And that is the reason why the CDM always sees children and youth as the most important areas of preaching and improvement. This is our future, and at the beginning it is easy to shape it as a soft clay. For that reason, we created Bhakti Kids, and we are constantly working on that,

Srila Narottama Das Thakur was also the one who organised the first Gaura Purnima festival.  During the festival, six Deities were installed: Sri Gauranga Deva, Sri Vallabhi-Kanta, Sri Vraja Mohana, Sri Krsna, Sri Radha-Kanta and Sri Radha-Ramana.

During this festival Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura along with His disciple Santosh, taught everyone the art of welcoming and receiving Vaisnavas as guests. They welcomed each and every devotee with garlands; received them with utmost reverence and affection and bade farewell while walking with them at the end of the festival. This is the source of the ceremonies that we now follow during our programs in ISKCON.

  As it was predicted by Lord Caitanya, Srila Narottama Das Thakur spread the glories of the Sankirtan Movement after Lord Caitanya’s departure from this planet. So please kindly pray for us to receive the favour of Srila Narottama Das Thakur in our mission.

Srila Narottama Das Thakur ki Jaya! Ananta koti vaishnava-vrinda ki Jaya!

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