Poison and Medicine

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
28 February 2012

There are four places where Kali stays: gambling, intoxication, free mixing, and killing animals. These four things are prohibited.

How long do you think you will stay in this world? Do you think you will not survive if you do not eat meat, fish, etc.? Here, you get prasad, vegetables, etc.—does anyone die? So, gambling, intoxication, mixing with women, and killing others are prohibited, you must avoid these four things.

Is it good to play cards, play dice? No, this is where Kali stays. The same is with wine, drugs, paan (betel), etc. Do you know what drunkards do? They drink till they get drunk and then, lying somewhere in the drain, they think, "I am so great! I am lying on my luxury bed!" Just like that, becoming drunk with the wine of material world, we think, "I live in my five-storey house! My wife is a queen and I am the king! This is my house, all is mine!" Drunk with the wine of material life, we jump into this material world... If you tell about this to somebody, they say, "I cannot chant the Holy Name, I will not chant. I cannot eat be a vegetarian, and I will not be a vegetarian. I cannot live without meat and fish. I will not chant—I rather eat meat and fish." They have sak, they have all kinds of vegetables—cauliflower, cabbage, potato, marrow, etc.—everything is there, but they want to eat fish, to eat meat, to drink wine... They do not understand it...

"Aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana (ঐছন আমার মন ফিরে যেন অন্ধজন): my mind is naughty and blind." You know what happens if you are led by a blind man. Who can clear our mind? A bona fide Guru, a sadhu—they can set the naughty mind right. Mind always disturbs—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (desire, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy). If you cannot control your tongue, you will not be able to control anything else. Remember it. Take sattvik food, not tamasik or rajasik, and always chant the Holy Name with your tongue, always take prasad—make your tongue levelled, then the Holy Name will come to this tongue. Gurudev placed the Holy Name into your heart, and the Holy Name will come to your tongue—for that, your tongue should be plain (levelled), otherwise how will the Holy Name dance there? The Holy Name is conscious (chetan vastu).

So, think how much longer you will live. Why do the sadhus come and tell you all this? They tell it to you for your own benefit,

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

If you take medicine, your disease will be cured—if I chant the Holy Name, my disease will be cured, and if you chant, your disease will be cured. If I chant the Holy Name, what is it to you? You will not get any benefit from it. It is not enough to hear about Krishna consciousness, it is necessary to practise it. That is called Vaishnav seva.

Gurudev comes to your house and you show everybody you drink the water that washed his feet, but the next day you eat impure food. One day you take good medicine and the next day you take poison. What will happen to you then?

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