Through Heart and Mercy

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
6 December 2014, Bengali class, part 3

What danger we are in! You may say, "I do not understand—what danger is he talking about?"

Pariksit Maharaj was a great and absolute ruler on earth, and he got a seven days' notice that he had to leave his body. In our cause, we are not going to get such a notice at the end—if we could, then we would know when we have to leave. When Pariksit Maharaj got that notice, he immediately understood that he had to leave all kingdom, all his subjects, the whole world, etc. and who gave him the solution? Srimad Bhagavatam. Arjuna also wanted solve his problem, and everybody told him different things, but who finally gave him the solution? Srimad Bhagavad-gita.

If we remember and try to understand the scriptures, then we can understand what love really is, what devotion really is. Gopis left everything—honour, disrespect, shame, fear. Who did they leave everything for? For Krishna—people can give them respect, can criticise them, they can put them to shame, make them fearful, they did not care and gave up everything for Krishna.

When Narad Goswami said to the gopis, "Do you know what is going to happen to you if you give your feetdust to Krishna?" They said, "Yes, we know. We will have to stay in hell birth after birth., but if it means something to Him, then it is good. We are not afraid to live in hell, we do not worry about it. As long as our Lord is well, then it is good." Gopis never think about themselves. "If I die, let it be, as long as my Guru is OK, as long as the Lord is OK"—this is what we must think about, and this is what is called love... Such love must come to us.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

The same kind of love that we now have for material things must come for the Lord, for the lotus feet of our Guru, then you can think that you have devotion, that you have something.

Our Gurudev said, "You can check yourself—do your ears want to hear all kinds of nonsense or do your ears want to hear Krishna-katha?" He also said that a temple is a place for Bhagavat-katha, for Hari-katha, it is not a place for nonsense talks. There is a Deity in a temple, and there is also a drain in a temple (what is a drain for? it is a place where all dirt and stool goes)—which side will your eyes go? When you go to Vrindavan, you can get the darshan of (behold) the intimate pastimes of Radha-Krishna, you can practise constant service in the seva-kunja, or somebody can only see monkeys pass stool everywhere.

You must have the eyes to see proper things—you cannot see it with your material eyes. Even Brahma himself says, "If they know, they can know, but I do not know [the Lord]." At first, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not pay obeisance to Mahaprabhu, but Gopinath Acharya did. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya said,

"Gopinath, who did you pay obeisance to?"

"Do you not know who He is?"

"Who? He is just a new sannyasi!"

"You do not know it, but He is the Lord Himself!"

"I do not think so."

"That means you do not know the scriptures."

"I have read many scriptures!"

"Oh, you say you have read so many scriptures, but have you read Bhagavatam? Have you read Mahabharata?"

"So, I say He is not the Lord, so I do not know the scriptures, and you say He is the Lord so you think you know all the scriptures! Go take prasad, then come and we will talk!"

In the end, Gopinath Acharya said to him, "You cannot know the Lord with the help of knowledge, eduction, or intelligence. If you want to know Him, you need to have a heart, and ultimately you need what? You need mercy. You do not have that mercy, and I have it. If you get mercy one day, then you too will be able to understand it."

You can understand Mahaprabhu as long as you have Mahaprabhu's mercy. Who can know the Guru? Who can understand the Guru? We always want Gurudev's mercy because without his mercy we cannot understand, we cannot know Gurudev. You cannot understand the Guru with these material eyes, with your material knowledge, your brain—you need to have a heart, and ultimately you need mercy, then you can understand your Guru. If you want to know who is the Guru, if you want to understand the Guru, you need to have eyes in your heart.

ওঁ অজ্ঞানতিমিরান্ধস্য জ্ঞানাঞ্জনশলাকয়া ।
চক্ষুরুন্মিলিতং যেন তস্মৈ শ্রীগুরবে নমঃ ॥

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

'I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, applying the kajal of divine knowledge on my eyes.'

You cannot get a Guru through knowledge, through renunciation, through intelligence, education, through this mundane knowledge. That is why Gopinath Acharya said to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, "I have mercy and you do not. If you get mercy one day, then you can know who Mahaprabhu is."

What did Sivji Maharaj say? "Aham vedmi, Suka vetti, Vyasa vetti na vetti va. I know it, Sukadev Goswami, the son of Vyasadev, knows it, but Vyasadev himself, who composed Srimad Bhagavatam, may not know it." Even Vyasadev who wrote Bhagavatam may not know it, but Sukadev knows it!

It is necessary to know who Gurudev is, to understand Gurudev. We only want to have Gurudev's mercy...

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