Practise. Serve. Believe.

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bengali class on the eve of Srila Gurudev's
Appearance Day, 11 December 2011

You are very fortunate. Always think about it, always remember it. You must think that this Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math is a ship, and the captain of this ship is Gurudev. If we can stay on this ship, we can reach the place that this ship is taking us to. You may say, "Oh, this ship looks good," or, "This motor boat looks good," but if you get on another ship, it will take you to Kashi, Gaya, etc.—in those ships, you will not get to Vrindavan.

When you come to the railway station, you must get on the train that goes to Vrindavan. How will you know which train it is? You need to ask somebody—if you want to get to the Lord you need to ask a person who really knows the address of the Lord. For example, if you come to Kolkata and ask some local man, "Baba, which way is Park Street?" he will show you some other place, and you will roam the street the whole day and will not get there. If, however, you ask somebody from the Hooghly district, they will tell you, "Go this way." If you want to find the house of the Lord, you must ask those who know the address of the Lord—such person is called a real, bona fide Guru.

In this world there are so many gurus available. There is guru-business also—they lie that they are a guru, make disciples and get so much money. As our Guru Maharaj says, if somebody is in a hole, how can they ever pull anyone else out of that hole? You must understand this.

You have taken shelter of a real, bona fide Guru, and it is necessary to bring others who have gone astray, "back into the mainstream" so to say. What is our duty? Our duty is not to attack others, our duty is to be tolerant—to tell them, explain to them, "Please, you are going in the wrong way, come to the real path. Do not go the wrong way." We must know our line, and understand which line is which. "Come to the shelter of a bona fide Guru, come to the lotus feet of Gurudev"—this is our prayer to everyone. Sometimes, one has to give up their guru also, and the scriptures tell when one can do it. For example, somebody says to you, "Your Guru has died, come to me, I can give you initiation now!" This is bogus. Does the Guru ever die? No, he does not. He is eternal, he always exists. Anyhow, actually first you must be a gentleman, then you can be a Vaishnav ("Dusta man, tumi kisera Vaishnav?").

You have come here to serve the Lord and you have come to a real, bona fide Guru. This is your Math, you have received so much blessing from Gurudev. He kept you here, and you must practise properly. As I have told you before, Gurudev said once, "If you can become a particle of dust of Chaitanya Saraswat Math, then I can take you to the place where I am, I can take you to the abode of the Lord." We must become such dust.

Come. Come for Gaura Purnima, come for the parikrama of Virachandrapur in February. Ekachakra Dham is a holy Dham, non-different from the abode of the Lord. Mahaprabhu went there, Nityananda Prabhu came there to take the darshan of Mahaprabhu, and His mercy is unlimited. When you do parikrama of the Holy Dham, your parikrama of the material world comes to an end, you will not have to come back.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

You have received this seed, and now you must protect it. It is my prayer to you all: stay on this real path and bring those who have gone astray to this path so that they can serve the Lord. This is always my and Gurudev's prayer. I always want good for everybody. I wish good even for those who think bad about me. This is my mood, and this is what I learned from Srila Gurudev.

One time, Gurudev tested me. When I first came to the Math, I used to distribute prasadam. One time I put a little more on somebody's plate and a devotee hit me for this. I did not reply anything to him. Later, Gurudev heard about this, he called me and asked, "Why did you not say anything to him?" He was testing me. At that time I was new and did not know the Vaishnavs' ways so much, so I replied, "If a dog bites a man, why should the man bite the dog?" Gurudev said, "What is this? Is this Vaishnavism? Have you learnt this from me?! It is wrong to think like this. You think he is a dog, but it is an offence."

So, tomorrow let us make a good festival. Come to the mangal arati, after that I will give class, then there will be a festival programme. You should all come. Also, the day after tomorrow we are going to Bamunpara, Nadan Ghat, the places of Gurudev's childhood pastimes. Gurudev went there last time two years ago, in December.

When Mahaprabhu came to the birthplace of Ishwar Puri, his Guru, He took some dust from that place, the devotees did the same too, and there appeared Chaitanya-doba (a pond) at that place. When Mahaprabhu went to the birthplace of His Gurudev, there became a pond. Remember this when you go to Bamunpara...

"Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari" (শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী, Cc, 2.22.64). It is necessary to have a strongest faith. To 'buy' devotion you must pay with faith—the more faith you have, the more devotion you have. There is kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, drdha-sraddha, and sudrdha-sraddha. First become a proper receiver. Even if you do service, you can fall down at any time if you do not make yourself a proper receiver. It is necessary to practise properly following Vaishnav rules and regulations. We have three "enemies"—eyes, ears, and mouth. Do not see bad things with your eyes, do not speak bad things with your mouth, and do not hear bad things with your ears. Always do kirtan.

sri-krsna-kirtane yadi manasa tohara
parama yatane tanhi labha adhikara

"If you aspire to chant the Name of Krishna, then, with great care, become qualified to do so."

কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণ-কৃষ্ণনাম-কীর্ত্তনং
রাম-রাম-গান-রম্য-দিব্য-ছন্দ-নর্ত্তনম্ ।
যত্র তত্র কৃষ্ণনাম-দান-লোক-নিস্তরং
প্রেম-ধাম-দেবমেব নৌমি গৌর-সুন্দরম্ ॥

krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-nama-kirtanam
rama-rama-gana-ramya-divya chhanda-nartanam
yatra-tatra-krsna-nama-dana-loka-nistaram
prema-dhama-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram

Later, the Supreme Lord travelled to the holy places of pilgrimage in South India with the clever intention of delivering the fallen souls. Appearing as a beautiful young renunciate, He distributed the sweet Names of the Lord, singing: "Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna he," as He strolled down the different pathways, entered temples, and visited homesteads during the sacred pilgrimage. Infused with an inconceivable type of divine inspiration, the Lord freely chanted "Rama Rama" and joyfully danced with the most charming gestures. Irrespective of time or personal qualification, the assembled bystanders were delivered by the Lord, who inspired them to chant Krishna's Holy Names. I offer my obeisances to that beautiful Golden Lord, Gauranga Sundar, the divine form of Krishna prema.

(Prema-dhama-deva Stotram, 22)

Continue in this way and do your service. With this prayer, I would like to finish here.

বাঞ্ছাকল্পতরুভ্যশ্চ কৃপাসিন্ধুভ্য এব চ ।
পতিতানাং পাবনেভ্যো বৈষ্ণবেভ্যো নমো নমঃ ॥

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha
patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

"Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees."

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }