Take Care of Your Seed

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
7 March 2011

Yesterday there was a wedding festival in a rich family in Bihar. They celebrated so much, but when they fired guns into the sky, some bullet fell down and killed a brother of the groom. It is the Age of Kali: one way or another, they have to die. Death is inevitable, you know that.

There is an example also. There is a pond all covered by kochuripana (কচুরিপানা, water hyacinth). If you throw a stone into that pond, you will see some water, but then a wave comes and the water again gets covered. I saw when somebody's friend died, they came to Gurudev saying, "What is this life for? It is pointless. Nothing. It is only a few moments of enjoyment, but we did not know before that we must practise Krishna consciousness..." They come emotionally, but ten days later they go back to the material world.

Once a man invited us, "You must come to my house tomorrow! I will feed you and your party in the morning, noon, and evening—I will give you prasadam three times a day. Do not go to any other house." I said to him, "Everybody wants us to come to a different house each day so that we can make everybody happy, but you are saying that we must take prasadam at your house three times a day." Anyhow, they forcefully told us to come and I agreed—he was a big man in that village. When we came, he showed me his new house—his room, bathroom, etc. He said, "We will inaugurate the house and do Vaishnav seva. My father did not give any money, I have done all this with my own earnings," and he told his story and boasted that he had done so much—always "I, I, I." Next day in the morning, he went to cut a small tree at the main gate, and there was a small snake near that tree. He was about to cut the tree but the snake bit him. He did not get even three minutes to reach the hospital (the hospital was nearby, just three minutes away from his house). His life was taken.

I have seen with my own eyes how people die... বিষয়-বিষম-বিষ সতত খাইনু, visaya-visama-visa satata khainu: we always take the dangerous poison of material enjoyment.

I told earlier today about the loving search for the lost servant: Krishna, the Lord, always wants our service. Krishna Himself says, "I do not take food from everybody—I take service from devotees, not from anybody else." Such fortunate souls are rare to find:

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥
মালী হঞা করে সেই বীজ আরোপণ ।
শ্রবণ-কীর্ত্তন-জলে করয়ে সেচন ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
mali hana kare sei bija aropana
sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper. As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practising: hearing and chanting.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151-152

Sravan-kirtan-jal: you have a flower garden, and if you transplant a new plant but do not give it water—you plant the devotional seed but do not give it proper nourishment—one day it will dry. And also there are bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami sakali asanta—many insects will come and you have to use a spray; many branches will grow and you have to cut them, otherwise the tree will not grow big. It is compared like this in Chaitanya-charitamrita (Madhya-lila, Chapter 19): if you read this chapter, many things will come.

Somebody says, "Oh, I took initiation 20 years ago, 50 years ago. I took initiation from A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad, 50 years ago"—but they do not practise, so they do not get the result. If you plant a marigold flower and then do not go there for ten days, do not give water, nourishment—how do you expect it to grow on its own?

Practice is necessary. I have told many times: why do we make a festival? It is like charging the battery. For example, today we had to push Gurudev's car because it did not start—the accumulator, the battery, charge was low. So, Gurudev has given you a battery, but if you do not charge it, the battery will be damaged. It is necessary to charge the battery—and charging means sravan, kirtan, Bhagavat-sravana, Mathura-vas, Sri-Murtir sraddhaya sevan [hearing, chanting, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith], etc. There are sixty-four bhaktangas.

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