Professor: ...kīrtanas?
Prabhupāda: Eh? Bengali?
Professor: Yes. Yes. Do you sing any hymns, kīrtanas in Bengali also?
Haṁsadūta: Do we sing in Bengali?
Prabhupāda: Oh yes.
Professor: Or mostly, mostly in Sanskrit?
Prabhupāda: No, in Bengali some.
- hari hari bifale janama goṅāinu
- manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā,
- jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu
You have got harmonium here?
Haṁsadūta: Yes.
Śrutakīrti: Haribol.
Professor: I'm not...
Prabhupāda: Give me water. (Prabhupāda sings Hari hari bifale,) You can replay this. (break)
Professor: Who has written this?
Prabhupāda: Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura.
- narottama-dāsa koy, nā ṭheliho rāṅgā pāy,
- tomā bine ke āche āmāra
Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's singing, hari hari bifale janama goṅāinu: "My dear Lord, I have simply wasted my time. Bifale, without any profit. Because I got this human form of life, but I missed the opportunity for worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa." Manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā." And by doing this, I have taken poison knowingly." Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Then golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana." This nāma-saṅkīrtana is not any material thing. It is the ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa in the Goloka Vṛndāvana."
- golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana,
- rati nā janmilo kene tāy
"But I have no attachment for this hari-kīrtana." Saṁsāra-biṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jwale: "My heart is always burning in material existence." Juḍāite nā koinu upāy: "But I did not make any means by which I can get out of it." Brajendra-nandana jei, śacī-suta hoilo sei: "Formerly the same Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who was, who appeared as the son of Nanda Mahārāja, He has again appeared as the son of Śacīdevī." And balarāma hoilo nitāi: "And Balarāma has appeared as Nityānanda Prabhu." So their business is: dīna-hīna jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo, all sorts of sinful men, and materially suffering men, all of them have been delivered by these two brothers, Gaura-Nitāi, by preaching the saṅkīrtana movement. Tāra śākṣī jagāi mādhāi: "They have delivered all kinds of sinful men. The evidence is Jagāi and Mādhāi." Hā hā prabhu nanda-suta, vṛṣabhānu-sutā-juta: "My Lord Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, you are now standing with Rādhārāṇī, the daughter of King Vṛṣabhānu. So it is my appeal." Koruṇā karoho ei-bāro: "Kindly be kind upon me." Narottama-dāsa koy: "Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, 'Don't kick me out. I have no other shelter. Please take me.' " This is the...
- narottama-dāsa koy, nā ṭheliho rāṅgā pāy,
- tomā bine ke āche āmāra
"I have no other shelter. Don't kick me away." There are many very appealing songs in Vaiṣṇava literature.
Professor: How old is this one?
Prabhupāda: Eh? It is about two hundred fifty years ago it was written. There are many songs of Narottama Ṭhākura.
- gaurāṅga bolite habe pulaka-śarīra
- hari hari bolite nayane ba'be nīra
- āra kabe nitāi-cānder koruṇā hoibe
- saṁsāra-bāsanā mora kabe tuccha ha'be
- viṣaya chāḍiyā kabe śuddha ha'be mana
- kabe hāma herabo śrī-bṛndābana
- rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākuti
- kabe hāma bujhabo se jugala-pīriti
There are so many songs.
- gaurāṅgera duṭi pada, jār dhana sampada,
- se jāne bhakati-rasa-sār
Many songs. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's songs. Then Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's songs. Locana dāsa, Locana dāsa's songs.
- parama koruṇa, pahuṅ dui jana,
- nitāi gauracandra
- saba avatāra-sāra śiromaṇi,
- kevala ānanda-kanda
- bhajo bhajo bhāi, caitanya nitāi,
- sudṛḍha biśwāsa kori'
- biṣaya chāḍiyā, se rase majiyā,
- mukhe bolo hari hari
In this way, there are so many songs. Very simple Bengali. Especially Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's songs, they have been approved by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura as Vedic evidences. Although it is written in Bengali, they are full of Vedic authority.
- anya devāśraya nāi, tomare kahiluṅ bhāi,
- sei śrī bhakati parama kāraṇa (?)
What is that? Eh? Oh, Śaraṇāgati.
Pradyumna: All. the Mahājana-gīti by Narottama dāsa.
Prabhupāda: Oh. There are so many songs. So you have devotional tendency. Develop it. Make your life successful. That is my humble suggestion. Manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā, jāniyā śuniyā bi... Anyone who has got this human form of life, he does not engage himself in developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he's drinking poison knowingly. Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Biṣa means poison. A great opportunity, this human life. That is our mission, that this modern civilization, they have created such entanglement that people are rotting and they are losing the opportunity of this human form of life. Only on the basis of this bodily concept of life.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
So by order of our superiors, we are trying to introduce. But we are very unhappy, seeing these people. They are spoiling their life in the bodily concept of life. He does not know what is going to happen next life. But there is a next life. That's a fact. As we had past life as child, as boy, as young man, similarly, we have past life also. This simple truth, they cannot understand. Or there is no attempt in the educational field.