Satisfaction

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Caracas, Venezuela
20 September 2009

Question: How do you feel here in Venezuela? Do you like the receptivity of the devotees here?

I am very happy to see all the devotees. If I was not happy, I would not have danced yesterday the way I did. When I was dancing yesterday, Lord Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu danced too—those who have some eyes, could see that. I am very happy with the devotees here. You know also that I always like Venezuelan devotees to dance with me in Nabadwip.

Actually I want to take some devotees from here to Bangladesh. There, one thousand devotees are waiting to take initiation, they want to stay in the temple. We have many temples but not so many brahmacharis, so it will be good if we go to Bangladesh and bring some brahmacharis from there. That is why I want to take some devotees from here with me. Some ladies, girls can also come—they can dance and chant very nicely.

You know, Gurudev made one disciple, a seventeen-year-old girl—she is a good singer, but she does lila-kirtan. When she starts singing and dancing, ten thousand people will easily come together, and we can go there and give some lecture. Actually, what I tell is a very hard conception for all India and Bangladesh because it is very difficult for everybody to obey the rules and regulations; not all new devotees can understand such conception, but those who have no disease, that is those who are always surrendered to the Lord, can understand it. People like to hear lila-kirtan, but if she gathers people, I can come there and give them the last medicine [His Divine Grace laughs.]

We can sometimes preach in this way, then more devotees will come. I saw yesterday when we were doing street sankirtan, some people gathered around: we can give them some leaflet, some invitation. Through this kind of preaching we can bring new people and increase our devotees. I saw also that sometimes new people who were not devotees also came and joined our sankirtan—that is called sukriti. Srila Prabhupad himself said that you can make one hospital and thousands of people will be cured, but if you make one person a devotee, it has thousands and thousands times more value. You chant Hare Krishna and if you tell others, "Please chant Hare Krishna," you will get some commission.

This kind of preaching is necessary for us, and this is what we do everywhere. How do so many devotees come for the parikrama? We invite them—they do not know anything about Mahaprabhu, but we just invite them, "Come and see." They listen to Hari-katha and get some sukriti and through that they become devotees. First is sukriti, then sraddha, faith. There are four types of faith: kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, dridha-sraddha, sudridha-sraddha.

Kamala-sraddha means somebody sees you and says, "Why are you wearing tilak and sikha?" and next they open up like a blooming lotus, but once they are taken out of the water, their faith dries.

'Taranga' means 'a wave'. Taranga-sraddha means when the wind comes, all sea or river water is agitated, but when the wind finishes, the water is calm again. In the same way, when a festival comes, everybody dances and chants, but when the festival is over, they go to their houses and forget everything.

Dridha-sraddha means the determination, "Anything, any obstacle can come in my life, but I will not forget Krishna, I will not forget to chant."

Finally, sudridha-sraddha. There is only one person who has this kind of faith—he is Haridas Thakur. When people beat him and told him, "Do not say Hare Krishna!" he said, "Hare Krishna!" They beat him at twenty-two marketplaces to show others that if anyone wanted to chant the Holy Name, they would get this kind of punishment, but those who were beating Haridas Thakur were crying because no matter how much they tried to kill Haridas Thakur he did not die. Finally, when they thought he was dead, they threw him into the Ganges, but his body floated away and he came to Shantipur, Phulia district. Haridas Thakur was like this—they would beat him, they would put him into jail, they would tell him not to say Hare Krishna, but he had that kind of sudridha-sraddha, a strongest determined faith.

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