Vaishnavs' Wealth and Glory

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
Morning, 12 December 2010

বৈষ্ণবের গুণ-গান করিলে জীবের ত্রাণ
শুনিয়াছি সাধুগুরুমুখে

vaisnavera guna-gana karile jivera trana
suniyachhi sadhu-guru-mukhe

"Singing the glories of the Vaishnavs rescues and protects the jiva soul. I heard this from the mouth of sadhus and my Guru."

('Jayare jayare jaya paramahamsa mahasaya')

If we give some honour, give some glorification to the Vaishnavs, it is actually for our benefit. It is for our own benefit that we do some ceremonies, some festivals, glorifying the Vaishnavs. It is necessary for our spiritual life, and it is one of the bhaktyanga, one of the practising processes. That is why we make Vaishnavs' disappearance and appearance festivals, and sometimes we also put their names in the panjika, calendar.

Before there was a brahmachari called Ajit Krishna Brahmachari. Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, loves him so much, and he was a very nice brahmachari, but he expired here. It happened many years ago. He was a very good servitor: sometimes he cooked, sometimes did puja, and so on—he did everything alone. Srila Sridhar Maharaj put his name and his disappearance day in the calendar (panjika).

Before, there were many servitors. Rama Didi and Sankari Didi also did so much, now what is going on is a little artificial. Before, when the rice paddy came from the crops field, they boiled it and made rice from it themselves. Now no one does it—now they husk the paddy and sell it to buy rice—because there is nobody to do this. Who will give so much labour here? But before they did; they served the temple heart and soul.

Gurudev also says that everybody does service, but fewer people have attachment to service, but service attachment is necessary.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

That kind of love and affection must come for the Deities and the Lord. What kind of affection is that? You have material affection for your children, your relatives, but if the same kind of affection comes in relation to your Guru, to the Lord, then you can understand that devotion is coming.

This depends upon faith: "শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী, sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari." (Cc, 2.22.64) There are four types of faith—kamala sraddha, taranga sraddha, drdha sraddha, sudrdha sraddha (delicate faith, wave-like faith, strong faith, and the strongest faith). There are many kinds of faith, and faith is necessary. "তটস্থ হঞা বিচারিলে আছে তর-তম, tata-stha hana vicharile, achhe tara-tama: there are lower and higher levels." (Cc, 2.8.83) You can understand your qualification according to your faith.

In this age of Kali, however, it is difficult to come to Krishna consciousness. Those who help you come to Krishna consciousness are your real friends, but it is rare to find that kind of friend, and that kind of friend is necessary—if we get association of that kind of friend, then we easily get benefit in our spiritual life.

Not every mother, not every father are also that kind of friend. Every parent wants their child to be a big scholar, a big engineer, a big doctor, a big professor or a big lawyer, but what parent wants their child to become a devotee, a brahmachari? Narottam Das Thakur's mother was like that, but that kind of parent is rare in this world. Mostly they do not help their children so much in coming to Krishna consciousness...

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