Keep Yourself Busy with Nama Sankirtan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, morning class, part 1
7 November 2012, mostly translated from Bengali

Among the sixty-four types of practices there are these main nine practices—"sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam (hearing, chanting, remembering, offering obeisance, engaging in service as a servitor, as a friend, and self-submission)." But if you do only one service, and that is sufficient. For example, you can be cooking and by that cooking you can be doing all the sixty-four practices; or if you only chant the Holy Name, all the sixty-four practices are accomplished through that. Through one type of service, all sixty-four practices can be accomplished. That is why we must always use ourselves for service of the Lord.

Days and nights pass. Only yesterday we spoke Hari-katha till 8:30-8:45 p.m. and now it is already morning 6:30. Ten hours are gone—we cannot even realise how the time goes by. We get minute after minute, moment after moment, but we must use ourselves for the Lord, for His service each moment. How?

The Vedic culture says that among millions of karmis (fruitive workers) there is one jnani (pursuers of knowledge), among millions of jnanis there is one liberated soul, and among millions of such liberated souls there is only one devotee of Krishna. It is also said that you cannot get the Lord by doing any kind of work or any kind of sacrifice (what to speak of carrying on with your life within this world)—you can get the Lord only through devotion...

How will you get devotion? How will your devotion increase? The answer is "sraddha-anusari haya bhakti-adhikari (শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী, Cc, 2.22.64)." It depends upon faith. Your devotion depends on how deep your faith is. Gurudev always said there is a 10% devotee, a 20% devotee, a 30% devotee, a 40% devotee, etc. He also said that if you give 25%, you will get 25%; if you give 10% (if you surrender to the Lord for 10%), you will get 10% from the Lord, but to get even these 10% you have to give 10%. It all depends upon practice.

If you only do much puja (Deity worship), you will not get the Lord. You cannot get the Lord unless the taste for the Holy Name of the Lord comes to you. What I mean is that you must worship the Lord, you must look after the temple, etc., but the main thing is the Holy Name. You have seen the description of Mahaprabhu's life in Prema-dhama-deva-stotram: Mahaprabhu went to many places, but did He do any puja in any of the places? Not so much. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu always chanted the Holy Name. Later, for the attraction of people, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur made many temples and installed Deities. We must always keep ourselves busy with Nama-sankirtan. Always remember this.

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

We must always keep ourselves busy with these, we must always engage in Krishna-kirtan. If you do not practise, you will not get anything.

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