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O Wayfarers on The Path of Devotion!

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur calls devotees to circumambulate the Holy Dhām.

Translated from a Bengali quotation
published in Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan,
Volume 1, Issue 8,
on Sunday, 11 March 1956.

Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā Hariḥ: Always chant the Name of Hari”—practitioners of pure devotion have now become eager to speak about devotion to the Lord and to chant the Name of the Lord according to this instruction of Śrī Gaurasundar. Having complete faith in the words of Śrī Gaurasundar, being more humble than a blade of grass, being more tolerant than even a tree, showing respect to the whole world, and loudly chanting the Name of the Lord, they should circumambulate all sides of the Holy Dhām, Śrī Gauḍa Maṇḍal, and the whole world. Not only that, they should spread everywhere all the Gauḍīya–Vaiṣṇava scriptures—this is their kīrtan. They should engage in all the practices of devotion—this is their Kṛṣṇārthe akhila-cheṣṭā [performance all endeavours for Kṛṣṇa’s sake]. After accepting the vow of household life, they should not inattentively chant the Name of the Lord—they should not make offences to the Name. Only because of offences to the Name do all worldly sins arise. Therefore, in these days of scarcity of glorification of the Name, the auspicious arrival in this world of this Śrī Rūpānuga-kīrtan sampradāya [movement to glorify the Lord following Śrī Rūpa Goswāmī] is the one and only diet and medicine to eradicate the jealousy of the enjoyers and renunciants. So, I say, “O wayfarers on the path of devotion! Do not wander in the four directions of the material world controlled by blind faith like a blindfolded ox; circumambulate the Holy Dhām. A mind that thinks of things other than Kṛṣṇa will be subdued by thinking of Kṛṣṇa, and only then, upon attaining eternal qualification for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s form, qualities, and Pastimes, will you become qualified for the fifth end of life [Kṛṣṇa-prema].”

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