Actions Speak Louder Than Words

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in Colombia
14 October 2013, part 2

Question: How can we know that our practising life is going in the proper way?

I can see that your line is going in the proper way—I can see the devotees' mood and I can tell you that, otherwise if devotees did not have proper faith, why would they come to you? Devotee have faith, that is why they join the programmes, they practise. That is how I understand that your practising is going on properly. If you serve your Guru with full surrender, practising sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam (hearing, chanting, remembering, offering obeisance, rendering service as a servitor, as a friend, and self-submission), then you have nothing to worry about.

I can tell you one story, it explains what faith is very nicely.

Ever day Narad Muni went to Vaikuntha to see Lord Narayan, and one time, on his way to Narayan, he saw a brahman—a very pure brahman, a pandit scholar. The brahman asked Narad Muni, "When you come to Narayan, can you ask Him when my karma-bandhan (bondage of my karma) will be finished and when I will be able to meet Him?" Narad Muni agreed and continued his way. Soon he came across a cobbler (a shoemaker) who asked him the same question, "When will my karma-bandhan finish and I can meet Narayan? Can you ask the Lord about this?"

So, Narad Muni came to Narayan and said, "I met a brahman on the way, he asked me to ask You when his karma-bandhan would finish and when he would be able to come to Vaikuntha to meet You?" Lord Narayan did not give any answer. Then Narad Muni asked the Lord about the cobbler, a simple worker, and Lord Narayan laughed and replied, "Yes, Narad Muni, that cobbler will come here and meet Me in his next birth!" Narad Muni was surprised, "Why did You not give any answer about the brahman?" Narayan replied, "Even I cannot say when that brahman will come or when his karma-bandhan will be finished. Even I do not know it." Seeing that Narad Muni was puzzled, Lord Narayan said, "When you come to them, both of them will ask you what I was doing when you met Me. Tell them that I was pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle and back. Tell it to the brahman and you will understand everything easily—you will understand why the cobbler will join Me next life, and why the brahman cannot come to Me."

Narad Muni came back to this martya loka (mundane world), and the brahman asked him, "What was Narayan doing when you meet Him?" Narad said, "He was pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle." The brahman said, "It is impossible! I do not believe it, you are telling a lie!" Then Narad came to the cobbler. The cobbler asked him the same question, "What was Narayan doing when you met Him?" and Narad told him the same thing that Lord Narayan had told him, "The Lord was pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle." When the cobbler heard it, he easily believed it. He said, "Yes, this can easily be true! I am sitting here under a banyan tree—the tree has so much fruit, and if such a big tree can grow from just one seed of that fruit, then why cannot that be true too? Narayan can do anything!" Then Narad Muni understood why the cobbler was coming to Vaikuntha next life and why the brahman could not... The brahman can be a scholar, but he has no faith in what the Lord says.

We always follow our mind, and the mind always takes us in a bad direction—we do not know what is the right way, what is the wrong way, that is why our mind controls everything, but if you can control your mind with the help of your sumedha (good intelligence), that is good for you. The mind controls everything on behalf of the atma, jiva soul, like a naughty manager, and the mind is always chanchal (fickle), but if you practise properly and under the guidance of a bona fide Guru, then the mind can be controlled.

That is why Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj says that if you have faith, the strongest, proper faith (sudrdha visvas), then you have devotion, then you can see the dham and everything else. For example, there are many beautiful things in this world but this world of beauty is nothing for a blind man; there are so many sounds in the world, there is a whole sabda-jagat (world of sound) out there, but for the deaf, for those who cannot hear properly, this sabda-jagat is nothing.

We have finally got this human body and we must use it for the service to the Lord—for the service to the Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan. This is the purpose of this human body, this is what we have got it for, and if we use it according to its purpose, then we can be happy. If you have such faith and can use yourself for the service of the Lord, then your human life will be successful and you will be successful in your spiritual life.

Those who do not practise, who do not come to Krishna consciousness, have so many desires and next life they will be posted in another body depending on their own desire—according to their desires they will get another body. We must be careful with this human body and use it wisely otherwise if we do not use our human body properly (for the service of the Lord), then this body is nothing, it is useless.

It is necessary to be a sincere seeker, to have chastity for your spiritual life. Chastity is the main thing. You must be chaste to your spiritual life.

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