Calling devotees to circumambulate the Holy Dham.

By Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur

Translated from a Bengali quotation
published in Sri Gaudiya Darsan,
Volume 1, Issue 8,
on Sunday, 11 March 1956.

“Kirtaniyah sada Harih: 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 Sri Gaurasundar. Having complete faith in the words of Sri 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 Dham, Sri Gauda Mandal, and the whole world. Not only that, they should spread everywhere all the Gaudiya–Vaisnava scriptures; this is their kirtan. They should engage in all the practices of devotion; this is their Krishnarthe akhila-chesta [performance of all endeavours for Krishna’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 Sri Rupanuga-kirtan sampradaya [movement to glorify the Lord following Sri Rupa Goswami] 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 Dham! A mind that thinks of things other than Krishna will be subdued by thinking of Krishna, and only then, upon attaining eternal qualification for Sri Krishna’s Form, Qualities, and Pastimes, will you become qualified for the fifth end of life [Krishna-prema].”