Bhakti-Yoga: Our Right and Duty

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to the devotees in the USA
5 August 2013

In this life both bhog (ভোগ, enjoyment) and tyag (ত্যাগ, renunciation) are dangerous. Both are not good for us—we have right to neither enjoy, nor renounce anything.

Suppose you plant a mango tree. When the tree grows, it gives mango, but the tree itself has no power, no right (adhikar, অধিকার) to take and enjoy that mango because it is not the proprietor—you planted the tree, so the tree lives under your shelter and you have the right to take the mango from the tree. In the same way, we must understand that everything that exists in the world is Krishna's property, and you have no right to enjoy anything because it means you will be enjoying others' property (what is not yours). This is the main thing.

Once, Mahaprabhu asked Gadadhar Pandit, "Do you want My interest or do you want your interest? Do you want My happiness or your happiness more?" Bhog means enjoyment—it means you are using Krishna and Gurudev for your own purpose.

If however you use yourself, or if you even use your Guru, for the Guru's service, then it is good. For example, many countries have policemen. When a there is a terrorist in the country, the government tells the policeman to kill the man, and if he does this job, the government give him a reward. Do you understand? Because he follows his government he gets rewarded, but if that same policeman illegally takes a bribe from you, he will get punishment. So, if you do something for your own benefit, you will get punishment—the result will be karma-phal (কর্ম্মফল, some consequence in the future).

So, we should clearly understand what is bhakti-yoga and what the main thing is. The question is how we can understand it. Our mind is chanchal (চঞ্চল), always restless, and Krishna said to Arjun in Srimad Bhagavad-gita that you cannot control your restless myself yourself, but it is possible to control it through practice under the guidance of a good advisor (a bona fide Guru), then slowly, slowly your mind can be controlled and you can understand what your duty is.

We must understand what our problem is. We spend all day and night in the search of some food, we work the whole day just for food and some comfort in life, but we neither understand nor try to understand what our main problem is. We think our problem is deficiency of food, deficiency of electricity, deficiency of water, sleep, etc.—Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we have a dog's brain inside our head. If we know what our real problem is, then we can easily solve the problem...

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