Check Your Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, evening class, part 3
7 November 2012, translated from Bengali

If we have too much material attachment, then Hari-katha, Krishna-katha will not enter our ear. It is also said,

ভুক্তি-মুক্তি আদি-বাঞ্ছা যদি মনে হয় ।
সাধন করিলেও প্রেম উৎপন্ন না হয় ॥

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya
sadhana karile prema utpanna na haya

"If you have material desires, if you want liberation, enjoyment, some mystic powers, and so on, then even if you practise all life, or life after life, prem, divine love, will not come."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.175)

If you have desire for enjoyment, for liberation, etc. you will not get divine love even if you practise.

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

If you come to the Lord and instead of devotion you have desire to enjoy, you want a car, you want a house, etc, the Lord will give you everything, and just like a child who has got toys, you will forget about the Lord—the Lord will not give you the real things. If you get the Lord, you will get everything but instead of wanting the Lord we want to enjoy, that is why we come to this world again and again. Gita says about it, Bhagavatam also says about it...

It is said everywhere that if you do good work, you will go to heaven—there, you will be happy and enjoy, but one day you will again have to come down to this plane. That is why Guru Maharaj felt hopeless about the Bengali devotees. He said, "I explain to them so much, but they still cannot understand it. They all come for Gaura Purnima but when they go back they do not practise..."

One time, a man came to take initiation from Gurudev. It was at Dum Dum Park, Tirtha Maharaj was also there. Tirtha Maharaj asked the man, "You are taking initiation, but why is your wife not taking initiation?" Gurudev said to him, "Maharaj, why will she take initiation now? Now she will cook nice things in mustard oil, eat well, and later, when she is sick, she will take initiation!" Gurudev said this so that we learn something.

Gurudev worried so much about this. He told me that Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj (his Guru Maharaj) became a Guru in 1941, but his own brother took initiation only after more than forty years—his own brother could never believe, could never get devotion, he thought, "How could Ramendra become a Guru?" Those who have material desires always put spiritual matters off. We too do not understand it. How many people think about Mahaprabhu? How many people think about Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj? How many people think about Gurudev? They have accepted this human body to rescue all the jiva souls, they have left everything, they gave up all happiness and unhappiness and stayed at the Math for the sake of the jiva souls (jive daya)!

"Jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaisnava seva"—"jive daya" means bringing the souls averse to Krishna to this path, it is necessary to be kind to the jiva souls; you must have taste for the Holy Name; and it is necessary to use yourself for the service to Vaishnavs.

How many more days will you be here?

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?"

We all have to leave one day but tell me where will we go? "Kothay chilam hethay elam kothay yabo bhavi nay: I do not know where I was, where I came and where I will go." (কোথায় ছিলাম হেথায় এলাম কোথায় যাব ভাবি নাই)

In Mahaprabhu's time, Sanatan Goswami's mind also went in such a way that he decided, "I will commit suicide," but Mahaprabhu said, "This body is not yours! It is Mine! And I will do so many things through it!"

We must listen to what Gurudev says, what Prabhupad said—if we listen to their Hari-katha, we will be able to serve the Lord properly, we will be able to peach the message of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. If we can do what our Gurupadpadma has not finished, that will be Guru seva. Why did Guru Maharaj keep us here? Why did Gurupadpadma leave us here? To spread his message—to speak Guru-katha, to speak Govinda-katha. But instead, we are wasting our time... "Dinera madhye abala-tabala kata pachala parite para, tara madhye ki eka-bara govinda bolate nara! (দিনের মধ্যে আবল-তাবল কত পচাল পাড়িতে পার, তার মধ্যে কি একবার গোবিন্দ বলতে নার)—How many idle talks we have during the day, how much we talk during the day! We talk all sorts of nonsense and cannot even one time take the Name of Govinda!"

So, this is our message for you. Guru Maharaj said so many things, so many times, Gurupadpadma also said it, but how many people actually come to this line?

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