Nitai Pada Kamala

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Nitai Pada Kamala: The Spiritual Truths of Sri Nityananda Prabhu (Paperback)

by Prabhupad Shrila Premgopal Goswami (Author), Gadadhara Das (Editor), Dauji (Dau Dayal) Das (Editor)

Sri Nityananda Prabhu is everything for us, our all in all. Why is that so? I will briefly elucidate this conclusion (siddhanta) here. Nityananda Tattva is very confidential, very deep and very complex. Nityananda is very mysterious, He is an avadhut, beyond all the rules and regulations and injunctions of shastra, yet he gets married and becomes a progenitor. He appears to be a contradictory, inconsistent personality. It is very difficult to fathom His nature and to reconcile His outlandish, seemingly irrational behaviour. Thus He is known as Nitai pagal, mad Nitai. He is transcendentally mad and anyone who tries to figure Him out intellectually will fail to do so. He is the embodiment of acintya bhedabheda tattva, one and different simultaneously, which is beyond human logic. Therefore Nityananda tattva can only be realised by the heart, by accepting the truth and the mood hidden in the heart of a pure, genuine Guru who can instil it in the heart of a sensitive, faithful disciple. Therefore Nityananda hides Himself and His tattva in a tricky way – only those who have unwavering faith in Him and in his agent, Sri Guru, can understand Him in truth. And ultimately we aspire to become as mad as Nitai or at least imbibe a drop of His mood of seva to His Gauranga.
Nityananda/Balaram expands Himself in many ways and serves Radha-Krishna in all rasas and in all circumstances, spiritual and material. One may pose the question, ‘Who is more important, Nityananda or Gauranga?’ One answer is that Gauranga is more important because attaining Gaura prema is our ultimate goal. Another answer is that They are equally important because even though Their mood is different, They are one in tattva. But our conclusion is that Nityananda is more important for us because without His kripa (mercy) we cannot attain Gaura. He takes us to Gauranga, He teaches us how to serve Gauranga and without Him there is no Gauranga. In Gaura lila we are Nitai das, not Gaura das. We are dasadasanudas, servants of the servants of Gauranga and Nitai is Gauranga’s topmost servant. Similarly, one may pose the question as to who is more important, Guru or Vaisnava. We may say that Guru is more important or that they are equally important but our conclusion is that the Vaisnava is more important because he shows us who is Guru, he leads us to Sri Guru, and without his kripa we cannot attain the association and the shelter of Sri Guru. And who is Sri Guru? He is Nityananda prakash (direct manifestation of Nitai). Nityananda is adi Guru, the primeval Guru, the origin of Guru tattva, the Guru of all Gurus. Without sadhu/Vaisnava kripa we cannot get Sri Guru, without Guru kripa and Nitai kripa we cannot get Gauranga, without Gauranga kripa we cannot get Radharani kripa and without Her kripa we cannot attain Vrajendra-nandana Krishna.
Therefore it is said,
nitai phele gaura pabe, gaura pabe vraje jabe, vraje jabe yugal seva
“If you seek Nitāi you will get Gaura, if you get Gaura you can go to Braja, if you go to Braja you will get the service of the Divine Couple.”
‘Yugal’ means ‘two’ and refers to Yugal Kishor, the Divine Couple. But the confidential meaning of ‘Yugal’ is the two lotus feet of our Svamini Srimati Radhika.
In his song Nitai Pada Kamala, Śrīla Narottam dāsa Ṭhākura has written, “Without Nitai, O brother, we cannot attain Radha-Krishna.”
nitāi-pada-kamala, koṭī-candra-suśītala,
ĵe chāyāy jagata juḓāya
henô nitāi bine bhāi, rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi,
dṛḓha kôri’ dharô nitāir pāya

“The lotus feet of Nitāi are as cooling like millions of moons. Their shade gives solace to the entire universe. Without a personality such as Nitāi, O brother, it is not possible to attain Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, so firmly take hold of His lotus feet.”

Without Nitai kripa we cannot attain our ultimate goal of service to the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika (Radha dasyam). Therefore, we say, love Nitai and He will take care of everything and lead us to the kingdom of pure love.