Humbug

By His Divine Grace
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
1 June 2013, part 3

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told many stories to teach the brahmacharis—he was making many temples and for our benefit he also told many stories and many funny stories also. One story is about chungola (চুনগোলা) and dudh (দুধ)—chungola means limewater [milk of lime] and dudh means milk.

Everything is not the same although it may look the same. There are many gurus, many sadhus in this world, but many are actually disguised sadhus—they pretend to be sadhus. Such people wear the garb of a sadhu for their own enjoyment, for their own benefit...

You can see sometimes on a train that if somebody is dressed as a sadhu, they do not have to pay the train fare, and the ticket master does not ask the fare from them also. It is not good. Why will we not pay the train fare? We are all citizens of India. Because they are dressed as a sadhu, they do not pay, but they are actually not a sadhu—I am thinking they earn money by begging and collecting, so why will they not pay? They say, "Oh, I am a sadhu!"—but those who say they are a sadhu are not a sadhu. Srila Prabhupad says that if you think, "I am a Vaishnav," "I am a sadhu," then you can never become a sadhu. A sadhu will never say, "I am a sadhu," a Vaishnav will never say, "I am a Vaishnav." Those who say such things are bogus sadhus. Even a bad person can take the garb of a sadhu and do some nonsense things, do other things—because of the sadhu's dress they think they can always do so many things, and people believe them, "Oh, he is dressed a sadhu, he must be a good person." This is not true. Railway ticket is the government's money—we are citizens of India, why will we not pay the train fare then? We must pay. Trains are for everyone's benefit, and we must pay the government for it.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj also says that we do not go for free: we must pay all taxes and bills (municipal tax, electric bill, land tax, etc.). Why will we do anything wrong with the government? This is not our duty. We will not take anything from the government, but we will give the tax and whatever other payments that are required. Gurudev also says this. This is our duty and we must do it.

Anyhow, Mahaprabhu says that it is very rare to get a sadhu in this world, in this age of Kali, that is why He Himself, Krishna Himself, comes in this world as a sadhu:

সাধু পাওয়া কষ্ট বড় জীবের জানিয়া ।

সাধুগুরুরূপে কৃষ্ণ আইল নদীয়া ॥

sadhu paoya kasta bada jivera janiya
sadhu-bhakta-rupe krsna aila nadiya

"Understanding that it is very difficult for a soul to find a sadhu, Krishna came to Nadia in the form of a pure devotee."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.8)

So, Prabhupad told one story about bogus sadhus. The story goes like this:

There was once a landlord who had many good cows. He kept many cowherd men to take care of the cow and also kept a milkman who would come every day to milk the cows. Every day that landlord chastised his cooks and the milkman:

"Why do you bring me such thin milk every day? It is not thick at all, it is too much liquid, like water! Why is the milk like this?"

"What can I do if your cows give that kind of milk?" answered the milkman. "I always give you pure milk, I do not mix any water or anything else into it."

But that landlord did not believe him, so every day he continued chastising him. Finally, one day the milkman said, "All right, I will bring you the milk from my cows tomorrow."

"Yes, show it to me. I want to see your cows' milk."

The next day the milkman brought it. Actually, instead of milk he brought thick limewater. He put the landlord's milk in one pot and his "milk" in another pot and said to the landlord, "Here is my cows' milk and this is your cows' milk. Which milk do you like more, tell me?" The landlord put his finger in his cows' milk and thought it was too thin, then he put his finger in the milkman's milk and saw that it was very thick (he could not understand that it was just thick limewater). So, the landlord said, "Your milk is very nice! Bring this milk for me tomorrow!"

The next day the milkman brought his "milk" to the landlord. The landlord was very greedy and got excited to see the thick milk ("Oh, such thick milk!"), but after he drank it he died...

So, if you take shelter of a bogus sadhu (a person who looks like sadhu but it is not a sadhu), you will also die—you will not get any benefit...

In the same way, chanting the Holy Name and offensive chanting of the Holy Name also can look the same—somebody chants the Holy Name outside, and sadhus also chant the same Name. Somebody chants the Holy Name for their own business, for their own benefit, interest, and enjoyment—to maintain their family, to earn money; they use many instruments like harmonium, flute, they play different tunes, etc. but this is not chanting—this is singing the Holy Name, not chanting. They sing the Holy Name, but actually they are making Nama aparadh, they make offences to the Holy Name. The Holy Name and the offence to the Holy Name look the same, but the result is not the same. If somebody makes such offences and, hearing them, somebody else begins to sing the Name in the same way, they will both be making offences. It is necessary to differentiate between Nama aparadh and the Holy Name.

· · • • • · ·

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

• Download (2.4 Mb)