Practise What You Preach

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
11 December 2010

If you do not come to mangal arati, you cannot tell others, "Why do you not come to mangal arati?" "Nija achari' dharma jivake sikhaya (নিজে আচারি' ধর্ম্ম জীবকে শিখায়)": first you practise, then you can tell somebody that they must practise. That is called "nija achari'." Mahaprabhu said,

nija achari' dharma jivake sikhaya
achara na karle sikhana na yaya

"First follow the instruction yourself, then teach others. If you do not practise what you preach, your preaching will not work."

First you must practise dharma, rules and regulations, yourself, then you can tell somebody else to practise, otherwise no one will listen to you. Is it correct or not?

You know, one time a lady came with her grandson to Hazrad Muhammad. (He is Muslim's nabi, নবী, prophet, worshippable man, famous for giving advice to everybody). That grandson, a small boy, ate too much molasses and nobody could stop him—he did not listen to anybody. So, somebody advised the lady, "Take the boy to Hazrad Muhammad. He is a big personality and if he tells him he will listen."

So, the lady came to Hazrad Muhammad and said, "Hujur (Sir), please give some advice to my grandson. He takes too much molasses and does not listen to anybody." Hazrad Muhammad thought for a while and said, "I will not give you advice today, come tomorrow."

The lady came the next day and asked, "Please, give us some advice." Hazrad Muhammad replied, "Come in three days." Three days later, she came again, and the prophet said, "Come in seven days." Seven days later, she again came with her grandson, "Please, give us some advice." Then Hazrad Muhammad spoke, "Eating too much molasses is not good. It creates much disturbance in your stomach; it is not good for your spiritual life also; eating much molasses causes too much sleep."

He said many things like that, and the lady asked, "Sir, this is a two-minute matter, why did you make us come here three-four times? Why did you not tell this on the first day?" Hazrad Muhammad explained, "When you came, I also ate very much molasses, so how could I tell the boy not to eat it? During these ten days little by little I gradually reduced the amount of molasses I ate. Every day I ate less and less molasses, and now that I eat it less, I can tell it to him also."

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