Our Enemies

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
21 August 2011, part 6

Question: What are the enemies a new or a beginning devotee should be cautious about?

There are actually many enemies, and we must realise what they are. For example, Gurudev told me three things: ku-katha boliba na, I will not say bad things; ku-suniba na, I will not hear bad things; and ku-dekhiba na, I will not see bad things. You should not listen to bad things. Do not listen to Vaishnav-ninda, sadhu-ninda, it is bad and it can remove you from Krishna consciousness. Sadhu-ninda and Vaishnav-ninda are Nama-aparadhas. You can see and read the ten offences of the Holy Name (ten Nama-aparadhas). Gurudev always tells, "You can read these offences and you must avoid them."

There are also four rules and regulations—dyuta, pana, striya, suna. Avoid gambling (dyuta), intoxication (pana), illegal sex (stirya), and do not harm, do not kill any jiva souls (suna). You know these four things—we always tell it at the beginning when somebody takes initiation. These things are our primary enemies. Later, there come six more enemies—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya.

You know what kama is. Some sex desire, some lust comes easily, but it must be used properly:

কৃষ্ণসেবা কামার্পণে, ক্রোধ ভক্ত-দ্বেষিজনে,
লোভ সাধুসঙ্গে হরিকথা ।
মোহ ইষ্টলাভ বিনে, মদ কৃষ্ণ গুণগানে,
নিযুক্ত করিব যথা তথা ॥

krsna-seva kamarpane, krodha bhakta-dvesi-jane,
lobha sadhu-sange hari-katha
moha ista-labha bine, mada krsna guna-gane,
niyukta kariba yatha tatha

"I will engage lust by offering it in Krishna's service. Anger I will direct towards those who are envious of the devotees. I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of devotees. I will feel illusioned without achieving my worshipable Lord. I will be maddened while singing the glories of Krishna. In this way I will engage these enemies in their proper places."

(Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, 22)

Krishna says, "If somebody offers Me something thinking about his own self, it is not bad; or if somebody pays obeisance to Me, but in lieu of that they ask Me for something, this is also not bad—at least they offer something to Me, at least they are surrendered to Me." Krishna also says,

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥
আমি-বিজ্ঞ, এই মূর্খে ‘বিষয়’ কেনে দিব ?
স্ব-চরণামৃত দিয়া ‘বিষয়’ ভুলাইব ॥

krsna kahe,—ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi' visa mage,—ei bada murkha
ami—vijna, ei murkhe 'visaya' kene diba?
sva-charanamrta diya 'visaya' bhulaiba

"Krishna says, 'They worship Me, desiring material happiness—leaving aside nectar, they ask for poison. They are great fools. I am very intelligent though. Why will I give these fools material things? Instead, I will give them the nectar of My lotus feet and make them forget the material world."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.38-39)

"Somebody is worshipping Me but thinking about his own material enjoyment. It is actually not right, but I am not foolish—I am intelligent, why will I give these material things to them? Instead of that, I will give My lotus feet to them—I will engage them in My service." Krishna Himself says this, you can see it in Chaitanya-charitamrita.

Krodha bhakta-dvesi-jane. Krodha means anger. You have anger, but what must you use it for? If somebody speaks against your guru, if somebody speaks against Vaishnavs, you can say it is not good. You should not say, "Oh, you are bad," but do not listen to such talks, it is illusory environment.

Lobha is greed. I have lobha—but what should this lobha be for? You should be always greedy for Krishna-katha and Krishna-prasad.

Moha is attachment.

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)

You have some attachment to your family, to the people you have blood relation with, like your husband, daughter, sister, brother, mother, etc., but this kind of attachment, love and affection must come towards the Lord, towards your Guru, then you can understand that there is some devotional activity in your life. Gurudev told me also, "Do you love or like to read the newspaper or do you like to read Srimad Bhagavatam or Chaitanya-charitamrita? Do you get pleasure from hearing Hari-katha or do you get pleasure from hearing some fiction and cinema stories? If you realise it, then you can understand whether your devotional activities are increasing or decreasing."

Mada means ahankar, ego. Yes, everybody has an ego, but what kind of ego is it necessary to have? The ego must be that, "Yes, I am a servant of my Gurudev. I am a servant of the Lord." Such ego must come. I am a sweeper of the temple. I am a sweeper—I am not the manager of the temple, I am not the master of the temple, I am not the guru—I am a servant of the temple, I am a sweeper, I am a gatekeeper of the temple. Such ego must come. Actually, everybody has ego, but that kind of ego is very difficult. Suppose the sun rises, but we cannot see the light of the sun because there is a wall in the middle that does not let any sunlight come through. Ego eats everything, it is very difficult.

Finally, matsarya, envy, or jealousy. Krishna says, "Jealousy is very bad, I cannot give any place for it." Jealousy means, for example, somebody thinks, "Oh, he has become a great guru, and I cannot become a guru!", "Oh, Gurudev has given this position to him!", "He has become a sannyasi, and I cannot become a sannyasi!", "He joined just a few years ago and he has become a sannyasi, he has become a guru, but I joined 30 years ago, 50 years ago, and Gurudev cannot give this position to me!" This is jealous mood and if it comes to somebody's mind, they will go to hell. Krishna has given some place for five things (lust, anger, greed, attachment, ego), but Krishna has not given any place for matsarya, jealousy. Jealousy is very bad, that is why you must be careful.

And there are also other things—rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (eye-beauty, taste, smell, sound, touch).

Rupa means beauty. You know that beauty gives us problem because our eyes always go after beauty. Suppose there an ugly girl going and a beautiful girl going down the street—our eyes will go after the beautiful girl. This is also bad, this is rupa.

Gurudev gives an example of what rasa means. You know that ants always go to a pot of molasses. If you eat some molasses, you will find many ants in it—nobody puts ants in molasses, but ants themselves comes wherever there is molasses. Ants come to molasses thinking, "It is very nice! I do not want to come out from here! It is so good here!"—then the ants eat and eat, and in the end become so full that they cannot come out of the pot. This is rasa.

Gurudev gives many examples. There is also gandha, enjoying smells, there is also sparsa; even gandha (smells), even sparsa (tactile experience), even sabda (sounds) also make us die. There are many examples of this. Therefore, rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (search for pleasure through form, taste, smell, sound, and touch) are also our enemies.

Devotee: Thank you very much, Maharaj. You are very kind, very merciful to us all...

Gurudev is very merciful. I do not have anything to give to others, I actually always want to take something from devotees—I want to take their feetdust. That is always my desire; that is my hope and pleasure. I am a fallen soul, a mlechchha, but Gurudev has given this position to me, and I am taking all the brahmans' remnants now.

Devotee: Jay Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay
Jay Sri Krishna Janmastami maha-mahotsav ki jay
Jay Nanda Maharaj Yasoda Mayi ki jay
Devaki Vasudev ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay

How powerful Krishna is! When He is only three days old, He finished demoness Putana. Only three days old! I have had the good fortune to visit that place where Krishna killed Putana, and sometimes I think a lot that little Krishna has such small and tender feet, but He killed Putana. How powerful He is...

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Jay Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay
All the worldwide devotees ki jay
All the Goswami-vrnda ki jay
All the sannyas-vrinda ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math all the worldwide devotees ki jay
Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay

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