Strive for Your Benefit

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
27 December 2014

The main thing you must understand is that we have got this nice mouth not only for eating, not only for gossiping and talking about all sorts of things—we must use it to chant the Holy Name.

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28)

প্রভু কহে,—"কহিলাঙ এই মহামন্ত্র ।
ইহা জপ' গিয়া সবে করিয়া নির্ব্বন্ধ" ॥

prabhu kahe—kahilan ei maha-mantra
iha japa' giya sabe kariya nirbandha

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 23.77)

"There are no rules, no regulations, no prohibitions—whether you are eating, lying down, or sitting, you must always chant the Holy Name."

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28)

Chant, practise kirtan all the time. Mahaprabhu Himself would chant even in the bathroom. One time, He went to the bathroom holding His tongue between His teeth, and one person, Gopal, asked Him,

"Prabhu, why are You biting Your tongue?"

"My tongue is naughty—I am going to the bathroom but it wants to chant the Holy Name! That is why I am biting it," explained Mahaprabhu.

"But why, Prabhu? What is the problem if you go to the bathroom and chant at that time?"

"Yes, you are right, Gopal!"

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28)

Chant always, day and night—otherwise now you have got this tongue, but later the Lord will take the ability to speak away from you (He will send you as a cow or a cat, then you will lose the ability to speak). If we, having got this human birth, waste our life, we will have to suffer later. We all have to leave one day, but we must chant the Holy Name, otherwise you will simply come and go.

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?"

You yourself are your friend, you yourself are your enemy. You must help yourself, you must be a friend to yourself, otherwise who can help you if you do not help yourself, if you yourself do not understand what is good for you? Even if somebody comes to help us, we will not accept their help. Suppose I am sick, I go to a doctor, doctors gives me a prescription, but I do not want to chant the Holy Name. Just as when you have fever, your mother can cook nice things, but you will not get the taste—everything will taste bitter to your tongue. In the same way, we do not get taste for chanting the Holy Name because our tongue is offensive. As long as we do not strive for Krishna, do not strive for service, our tongue will never be able to chant. That is why you must stop eating outside food, you must take prasadam. Make your tongue right first, then the Name of Krishna will dance on it. Otherwise you can say so many things, but the Name of Krishna will not come to your mouth; you can hear so many things, but you will not feel like hearing anything about the Name of Krishna...

Always remember this. Always listen attentively. When you go to school, you listen to the teacher very attentively—if you do not, you will not be able to pass the exam well. It is said in the scriptures also that there can be found only one wise man among millions of selfish workers; there is only one liberated soul among millions of such wise men; and among millions of such liberated souls there is only one devotee of Krishna. It is very rare to get a devotee of Krishna. If you associate with pure devotees, you will get pure devotion, and if you do not associate with pure devotees, you will not get pure devotion.

We have got this birth as a result of a great fortune and our Guru-varga are trying so hard to bring us to this path, but we are holding maya's pillar, we are bound by maya, illusion and we cannot surrender. We always have live with an independent mentality (svatantra buddhi):

বড় দুঃখ পাইয়াছি স্বতন্ত্র জীবনে ।
সব দুঃখ দূরে গেল, ও পদ বরণে ॥

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane
duhkha dure gelo o pada-varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life. All my distress has gone away by embracing Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

"When I was independent, I got so much sadness, so much unhappiness, but when I surrendered to You, all kinds of sadness was removed."

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ॥
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

"Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord's guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me'."

Saranagati, 1, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

Be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. There are only three duties:

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

Our only religion is jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava seva—you must be kind to the jiva souls, must chant the Holy Name, and you must serve the Vaishnavs. Make your family Krishna's family and give up bad practices, then your family will become Krishna's family.

If you do not heed it, you will have to continue floating in this ocean—today you have got this human body, next you will get a cat's body or tomorrow you will have a frog's family... This is how life goes for those who are bound by illusion. People do not understand this. They do not understand what is good or bad for them ("kise bhala haya, kabhu na bujhinu"). The Gurus, the Vaishnavs explain so much, tell so many things, try so hard, but we are still bound by maya, we cannot give up maya... Our mind is always fickle, it does not practise.

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

These five are the main practices. First, it is necessary to always be in good association because if you listen just for one day, you will forget everything. This will not do. Nama-sankirtan means you must chant the Holy Name. Bhagavata-sravan means listen to Bhagavatam, to the narrations about the Lord.

পৃথিবীতে যত কথা ধর্ম্মনামে-চলে ।
ভাগবত কহে সব পরিপূর্ণ ছলে ॥

prthivite yaha kichu dharma name chale
bhagavata kahe taha paripurna chhale

There are so many things going on in the name of religion in this world, but Bhagavatam says that it is all complete cheating (paripurna chhale). You must listen to the Bhagavatam, to Mahaprabhu's teachings... Sell your head to Mahaprabhu's feet, to the feet of the Guru and Vaishnavs, then you will get the result.

If you always live thinking about "I" and "mine" (my house, my room, my sons, my family, etc.), then you will have to come to this world again and again. You will come and go, go and come... As you sow, so you reap, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Depending on what you do in this world, you will get a reaction accordingly next life (some reaction you may get in this life, and some reaction will come next lifetime). For example, if I kill somebody this lifetime, they will kill me later in next lifetimes—if you cut a goat, a cow, or a fish, they will kill you in a later lifetime. For example, today you cut a goat—it means that goat will get a human birth later, you will be demoted and eventually get a goat's body, and that goat will kill you. This is what the scriptures tell. You must follow what is written there.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj.

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