Practise Kirtans

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
29 November 2010, part 5

He is a young sixteen-year-old boy, he can learn something here, and he has a good mood. You can teach him how to do puja. Knowing puja is useful everywhere—you know, even if he goes to London, for example, they have two temples there.

Devotee: And every festival, every Sunday programme, he washes the dishes of everybody in the temple, of all the guests and devotees! Every Sunday!

It is a good service.

Usually, Mahaprabhu would not allow anybody to touch His feet, but when one sadhu touched His feet and took some of His footwash water, Mahaprabhu allowed him and told the devotees not to chastise him. His name is Kalidas... Do you see how he got the mercy?... In Bengal, he had taken every Gaudiya Vaishnav's plate and taken the remnants from their plates, that is why he got a great chance to touch Mahaprabhu's feet.

This is an example from Chaitanya-charitamrita, you can find all examples there... You can see that you can get a greater service, a greater opportunity through a smaller service...

Do you have a six-month visa?

—Yes.

Good, stay here and serve here, get some training. You must come to the class, to the sankirtan. Everybody must go for sankirtan every evening, then go to take prasadam—I will be very happy. Learn some sankirtan.

Whether somebody has been here for one month or two months or fifteen days, that is not a question. Everybody can learn two-three songs and chant every day. Follow the songs, that is good. It is not necessary to have a beautiful tune or sing professionally, it is necessary to just sing. Then, even if you go to your own country, you can also do it. If everybody sings and you only read the book, that is not good.

If you only learn a few songs from Gaudiya Gitanjali, you can preach about their meaning. You can give a class by explaining just one song. It is true. Every day you sing such songs as "Jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale, kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole", "Gaya Gaura madhura svare", "Emana durmati samsara bhitare padiya achhinu ami", "Amara jivana sada pape rata nahika punyera lesa", and also the parikrama songs, "Jivana anitya janaha sara tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara, namasraya kari' yatane tumi thakaha apana kaje," etc.

Actually, I did not read the song book so much. When I went for the kirtans, devotees sang and I would follow it, that is how I can sing now too. I am not a professional singer, nothing of the kind—I had never sung in my life; but I listened when the devotees sang and sometimes I also did the kirtan. At first, when I just joined the temple, in my brahmachari life, I went to the nat mandir every day for two months or more than that. After that, there was so much service pressure and I could not go, but during that time I had been singing at every arati, mangal arati, parikrama, etc. and all songs are now in my mind—I did not follow it with a book. Also, you know that *** does not even know how to read, but he knows many kirtans. How? Because he listened to the songs and remembered them. If you do kirtans, it is good for you.

Do kirtans every evening. What is our job after the arati? We go for prasadam at 7:30-8 o'clock, then we can do kirtans for one hour—why waste our time? In the morning you can come here, and in the evening those who have some service can do their service, but if everybody sits in the nat mandir after the arati and sings the kirtans, it is good. You can also learn how to play mridanga.

That is our education. In the morning, as soon as the arati and parikrama finish, you can do some kirtans. If you do not like to do it there, you come here also. Bring one mridanga and kartals and I can sing, you can learn here also, I will be happy. I am not a lazy man.

We do not want good tune—we do not want to be a gopi. There are already many "gopis" in this temple, I do not want to have another "gopi" here...

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

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