Sanatan-Siksa:
The Path to the Supreme Goal

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
25 June 2015

[His Divine Grace is reading from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, chapter 23:]

As I told previously, not everybody has sraddha (faith)—first sukriti has to come. Sukriti means the result of some pious activities. For example, this jackfruit tree here—if its fruit is offered to the Deities, the tree gets some sukriti, and after that it can get a human body and some service.

So, first is sukriti. There is jnata sukriti (conscious spiritual merit) and ajnata sukriti (unconscious spiritual merit). Some people come here because they see a nice building, a guesthouse, and somebody comes for the sacred things, for the hidden treasure.

(What is the hidden treasure of this place? We must search for it. What did we come to the temple for? Why did we join the mission? Why did we come to Krishna consciousness? We should know it.)

If you want to know something, if you hanker for something, then sukriti comes. For example, you come to the temple, you do not know anything, but you pay obeisance to the Lord, to the Vaishnavs, you listen to some katha—in this way, some sukriti comes. This is called ajnata sukriti, some pious merit that you do not know about. If a tree has some fruit and a devotee takes the fruit to the Deities, the tree gets some sukriti although the tree does not know about that.

Then, from sukriti you get some faith. There are four types of faith—kamala sraddha, taranga sraddha, drdha sraddha, sudrdha sraddha. Your devotion depends on your faith: if you have the strongest faith, you will get the strongest devotion, and if you have little faith, you will get little devotion. As much you can give to the devotees, the Deities, and the Lord, that much you will get. If you give 25% you cannot think that you will get 75%; if you give 25% to the Lord, you will get 25%. That is the main thing.

Through sraddha (faith) you will get good association, sadhu-sanga. What does 'association' mean? Sleeping at the same place as the sadhu? Eating with the sadhu? Then even flies and mosquitos want to get some association, but the mosquito puts its legs on you and bites you. Does it mean that it is getting association? No, it is disturbing! Association means following what the Guru, the Vaishnavs, the sadhu tell you.

What result comes through good association? Sravan, kirtan. Through sravan, kirtan, all offences, all sins you have in your heart will be destroyed. It is written here very beautifully: if you do sravan, it will keep maya far away.

You do everything—you eat regularly, you go to the toilet regularly—why not practise Krishna consciousness regularly? Why not do sravan and kirtan regularly? You should regularly chant, hear Hari-katha, come to the class—this is our life.

There are sixty-four types of bhaktyanga, sixty-four types of practising, and from all of them nine are very important,

sravana, kirtana, smarana, pujana, vandana
paricharya, dasya, sakhya, atma-nivedana

"Listening, chanting, remembering, worshipping, offering prayers, serving, becoming a servant, becoming a friend, full surrender." [22.117]

From these nine, five are the most important,

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 and veneration. [22.124]

And from these five, the main practice is sravan and kirtan.

By sravan and kirtan, your offences are removed, then comes sincerity. Sincerity means nistha (what service you do, you do it every day). Through nistha, you will get some taste. Through taste, you will get some attachment, you will not be able to leave your service. Through attachment, priti, love and affection will come; then ecstasy, paramour love—everything will come through that. This is how practice develops.

If somebody hears these kinds of Hari-katha, Krishna-katha, their hair will stand on end...

They always think about Krishna, listen about Krishna, serve Krishna, then greed, liberation, etc. cannot attack them.

Although they are very scholarly, they are always humble, dainya.

These are very strong things...

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• Running Away
• On the way to
Mahaprabhu
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• Brahmas' Realm
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• The Cry of a Surrendered Soul
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• Delusion of Liberation
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• Full Faith
• Power Transmission
• Surrender in Good Association
• Six Limbs of Surrender
• Sixty-Four Devotional Practices
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