Control Your Urges

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Eve of Sri Nrisingha Chaturdasi,
2 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 4
Translated into English from Bengali

How can you conquer your tongue?

প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয়
সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়

prasada-seva karite haya,
sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Tongue always wants to eat so many things, and the Lord gave us the remedy. There are six urges—vakya-veg, jihva-veg, mano-veg, krodha-veg, udar-veg, upastha-veg (urges of speech, tongue, mind, anger, stomach, and genitals). We sing about this the kirtan—"chhaya vega dami', chhaya dosa sodhi'." You must know what these six urges are, what the six faults—we sing about it in the kirtan but do not know the meaning, we do not read about it, but it is all written in the [Bengali] calendar... It is necessary to control the six urges (urges of speech, mind, tongue, anger, stomach, and genitals), to correct the six faults (too much eating; too many material activities; too much talking; too much attachment; not rejecting what is unfavourable; associating with materialists). Of all urges, tongue is the worst—tongue destroys everything.

We sing when we take prasadam,

mahaprasade govinde nama-brahmani vaisnave
svalpa-punya-vatam rajan visvaso naiva yayate

"O king, one whose fortune is meagre never develops faith in mahaprasad, Govinda, the Holy Name, or the Vaisnavas."

sarira avidya-jala jadendriya tahe kala
jive phele visaya-sagare

"The body is a net of illusion, and the material senses are the enemies; they throw the soul into the ocean of mundanity."

This body is full of ignorance, and it throws us into the material world. There are five karmendriya (senses that allow us to function physically) and five jnanendriya (senses that allow us to function mentally). The five karmendriya are feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth; the five jnanendriya are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin; and also there is mind, intelligence, and ego. These are our ten senses (properties), and it is necessary to control them so they do not roam everywhere. How to control them? To control them, you must do prasad-seva (serve, honour prasadam):

প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয়
সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়

prasada-seva karite haya,
sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If you honour prasad, you can control all your senses. That is why we sing this, then take prasad. "Jive phele visaya-sagare": the tongue throws you into the ocean of material world. If you cannot control your tongue, you cannot control everything.

ta'ra madhye jihva ati lobhamaya sudurmati
ta'ke jeta kathina samsare

"Among the senses, the tongue is the most greedy and wicked. It is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world."

To conquer your tongue (ta'ke jeta), you must take prasad.

krsna bada dayamaya karibare jihva jaya
sva-prasad-anna dila bhai
sei annamrta pao radha-krsna-guna gao
preme daka chaitanya-nitai

"O brothers! Krsna is very merciful: to conquer the tongue He has given us His remnants! Accept this nectarean food, sing the glories of Radha-Krsna, and with love call out, 'Chaitanya! Nitai!'"

You must honour prasadam, chanting the glories of Radha Krishna and calling out to Chaitanya-Nitai. If you want to conquer your tongue, you must take prasad.

Everybody takes initiation and goes back to their houses, but it is not enough to just take vegetarian food. You cannot get the Lord by being vegetarian. Monkeys eat only vegetarian food; calves are also vegetarian, they drink only milk—but tell me, do they get the Lord? If you want to get the Lord, you must understand the siddhanta (conception), you must accept and follow the rules and regulations.

মাতল হরিজন কীর্ত্তন-রঙ্গে ।
পূজল রাগপথ গৌরব-ভঙ্গে ॥

matala hari-jana kirtana-range
pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange

"From afar we shall worship the raga-patha, the path of spontaneous affectionate service, while we ourselves shall live within the Vedic guideline."

We must keep the raga-patha in our hearts. Why do we never worship the yugala-murti of Radha-Krishna (Radha-Krishna alone, without Mahaprabhu)? Because this is beyond our capacity and right, we cannot do it. Have you ever seen yugala-murti of Radha-Krishna in any of our temples? Radharani serves Krishna, but we do not go to worship Their yugala-murti. This is the reason:

মাতল হরিজন কীর্ত্তন-রঙ্গে ।
পূজল রাগপথ গৌরব-ভঙ্গে ॥

matala hari-jana kirtana-range
pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange

"From afar we shall worship the raga-patha, the path of spontaneous affectionate service, while we ourselves shall live within the Vedic guideline."

We must always keep the rasa-lila of Radha-Krishna, the rasa-lila of Krishna and the gopis in our heart, we must always remember this lila, but we must serve in the audarya mood, or audarya-rasa [Mahaprabhu's sankirtan movement]. We must keep the madhurya-rasa in our hearts, and externally we must engage in the audarya-rasa—we must chant the Holy Name, we must preach, etc. This is our line, and we must always remember it.

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