Family Foundation (1):
Conception

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
speaking online to devotees in Caracas
1 July 2012

Question: How should we preach to our family?

That is necessary and that is easy. You should tell them Gurudev's conception, tell them what Gurudev told us, tell them about the main conception,

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

You can tell them about the lecture and advice that Mahaprabhu gave to Sanatan Goswami and Das Goswami. Mahaprabhu advised Das Goswami that you must maintain your life but without showing false renunciation, phalgu-vairagya.

Also, you should remember that your family may not always come to this line, but we all actually come from the same family. You get a father and a mother in every life, but we get an honest Guru (sat guru) only in this human body. So, you can preach to your family about this, explain what this human body is for.

The only problem is our ego. I have told it many times: when we do not practise properly, always some disease comes, always the mind starts disturbing. I have said it before: you must always engage yourself in service. If you are becoming lazy—if you engage in ahara, nidra, bhaya, maithunam cha (আহার, নিদ্রা, ভয়, মৈথুনং চ), eating, sleeping, defending, and sex—and you increase these activities, then they will automatically increase. You must control your sleeping, eating and your sex life. How can you control it? It can be controlled only through practising otherwise the more you do it, the more it will always increase—for example, if you sleep today eight hours, tomorrow you will want to sleep half an hour more. We have done ahara, nidra, bhaya, maithunam cha many times before, but if we take Deities' prasadam, then "prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়)": all kinds of bad elements, all senses will be conquered.

This is how you can teach others the practitioner's life. You should read Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, chapters 19-23—there you will see what is sambhanda, abhidheya, and prayojan, how your should practise Krishna consciousness. Read these chapters of Chaitanya-charitamrita. When somebody gives a class, they should mostly read these chapters. Sanatan-siksa, Rupa-siksa are there and they are the main teachings: "Who am I?", "Why are we suffering?", and so on. Mahaprabhu was asked these questions and He gave the answer, and you must read it, then you will know how to practise and you can teach this to others also.

— • :: • —

Additional reading:

• Rupa-siksa • Sanatan-siksa • Rupa- and Sanatan-siksa (.epub file for offline reading)

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