Narottama dasa Thakura Madhava Purnima

Today is a very auspicious day. It is the birthday of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, who is one of the solid and strong pillars of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's preaching. After the generation of the Six Gosvamis and Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, Narottama Thakura, Syamananda Prabhu and Srinivasa Acarya became the leaders of the Vaisnavas in Bengal.

We should not waste our time in sense gratification, which is also reserved for you in animal life. If you are a hog or a pig you can collect numerous wives, and there will be no need to spend any money. You will not have to divorce to enjoy many new mates. There will be no court case and no need of maintenance of children. In this life you can have only one son or daughter in a year - not more than that - and if twins come, you can have two, three or four. But hogs, pigs and dogs have eight, ten, twelve, or sixteen children at a time...

O my dear brother, my foolish mind! Taking hold of your feet, I humbly pray to you with sweet words. Please give up all pride and quickly develop sublime and incessant rati for Sri Gurudeva, Sri Vraja-dhama, the residents of Vraja, the Vaisnavas, the brahmanas, your diksa-mantras, the holy names of the Supreme Lord, and the shelter of Kisora-Kisori, Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, the eternally youthful divine couple of Vraja...

One day, Krsna and His cowherd friends, the sakhas, were grazing their cows in a forest where there were no mangoes or other fruits. His sakhas told Him, “We are very hungry; we cannot remove this demon of hunger. There are some tal trees nearby, but we will have to go carefully because a demon named Dhenakasura lives there...

Today is the disappearance day of Srila Narottama Thakura dasa, so it is a very sacred day. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura took birth in West Bengal as the son of a very great king, and he was a beautiful prince. The king was one of two brothers, but there was only one son in the family. Still, from the beginning of his life he was very pure and devoted, and he remained a life-long brahmacari, never marrying...