Proper Attachment and Approach

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Speaking online to the devotees in Caracas
5 December 2012

Question: If a devotee makes many offences to another devotee, how can they get relief?

You can pray to Nityananda Prabhu. In Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's time, Ramachandra Puri made many offences to Mahaprabhu, and all the devotees prayed to Lord Jagannath to remove him from Puri...

Actually, we should not see bad things in others—we should not see who is doing what. If somebody eats wood, they must pass coal as the stool.

Question: We heard that if you do even one Ekadasi, you can get liberation. Why do we not get this result?

In his last days, Gurudev said, "Those who took initiation from me are already liberated." Being liberated is not our goal. Do not think about Ekadasi in this way. Ekadasi is only a practice—just as you do Tulasi parikrama, Ekadasi is also one of the bhaktyanga, one of the practices. There are sixty-four bhaktyangas and Ekadasi is one of them.

Otherwise what do you think? You are making so many offences to the Vaishnavs, you do not practise so much, and you think you can do only one Ekadasi and get liberated? Liberation is nothing for us! Sayujya, merging with Brahman; sarupya, having the same body as the Lord; salokya, residing at the same planet as the Lord; samipya, being an associate of the Lord; sarsti, having the same opulences as the Lord—for us, liberation is not only nothing, it is actually very bad.

We have already got liberation when we got initiation from Gurudev. Now we must practise.

Question: To be a good practitioner we need some faith. How we can attain that faith?

How did you take initiation if you do not have faith? You cannot take initiation without faith! It is not a toy, or a game! First you must have faith, then you take initiation from your Guru, then practise, practise, and the strongest faith will come.

Question: We heard that Radharani is a representation of faith. How can we relate to that?

Krishna left Vrindavan, and He had not been there for a hundred years. All the gopis, Nanda Maharaj, Yasoda, had been crying so much that there was a drain of tears coming from Nanda Maharaj's house... When Uddhav Maharaj came there, he asked, "Where? Where are all the gopis? I want to see them!" Finally, he saw that all the gopis had become trees, and he prayed, "I also want to become a tree so that I could hear the gopis' crying from separation. I also want that kind of feeling of separation!"

Then you must think why that kind of separation from Krishna is not coming to you. Gurudev has left, and that kind of feeling of separation from your Guru must come...

Question: Sometimes we feel bad because when we do some service, it does not turn out the way we want it to...

If you think it is not what you want, then it is not service—it is enjoyment. Service is what Guru wants, what Vaishnavs want, and what you want is not service, it is karma.

If Gurudev tells me, "Cook rice," and I cook chapati, it is not service. Gurudev says to me, "Please give me some rice with poppy seeds," but instead you make arepa. It is not right. If you want arepa so much then you can make both, arepa and rice, then it is not a problem.

Question: How we can become attached to the Guru when we only can see his body...

If you think like this, it is Nama aparadh, one of the ten offences to the Holy Name. It is a simple question. Thinking that Gurudev is marttya-buddhi, that Gurudev is only the body, is Nama aparadh.

You cannot serve the Guru with a material body. "Aprakrta-dehe tanra charana bhajaya": you can serve the Guru, Vaishnav, and Krishna only with a transcendental body. It is said in Chaitanya-charitamrita (3.4.193).

It is only a surrendered soul that Krishna protects—first it is necessary to surrender (there are six types of surrender). Krishna Himself came in a human body, but Govardhan Hill is also Krishna Himself. Why do we do Govardhan puja, why do we do Govardhan parikrama? And when we make the annakut mahotsav, who takes all that rice? Govardhan Hill takes it, but if you see only a piece of stone, how is it then possible?

Question: How can we avoid feeling attached to some person?

If you have attachment to Krishna, then gradually that attachment will be removed. The more attachment to the Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan comes, the less attachment to maya there will be. Practise more, hear more classes, have more Krishna consciousness, do more service, join the programmes more, come to the temple more—that is the rule, that is the policy. This is what is called sadhana-bhakti, a practising life.

Question: How can we tolerate living in a nondevotee family and become a good devotee in that kind of environment?

What can you do? You must harmonise with everything. You know that even in Srila Sridhar Maharaj's family not everybody was a devotee, Gurudev's family are also not really devotees. Gurudev tolerates it, and we too must tolerate it.

You must understand that in a devotee's family not everybody will be a devotee. You can try and try to make them a devotee, that is good, but sometimes we may also feel hopeless because we try so much to make them a devotee but we cannot do that...

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