Mercy Means Anugatya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class
10 October 2015, part 5

Once, there was a big assembly of sannyasis in Kashi. Mahaprabhu came there and sat humbly in a dirty place. All the sannyasis were sitting on an elevated place (podium, or stage), but He sat in a lower place. He sat quietly but manifested His radiant opulence and when they looked at Him they thought they were looking at Narayan Himself.

"You are a sannyasi, why are You sitting in this lower dirty place?" somebody asked him. "You look like an exalted person, but You are sitting in this lower place. Come onto the podium, come."

"No, no," Mahaprabhu replied. "I am fine here."

"No, come sit with us. You have taken sannyas from Keshav Bharati, You are a sannyasi of our sampradaya, then why will You not sit with us? What is the problem? Come, come."

Mahaprabhu came closer. Then, Prakasananda Saraswati asked him,

"You have taken sannyas from Keshav Bharati, You are a sannyasi of our sampradaya, but why are You dancing and singing like a madman? A sannyasi is supposed to practise meditation and yoga."

Then, Mahaprabhu replied, "My Guru thought I was foolish, so he said I had no qualification to read Vedanta. He told me to only dance and chant kirtan, that is why I am following the order of My Guru and dance and chant."

It is necessary to always think about the order of your Guru. Guru's mercy means following the order of the Guru—if you follow the order of your Guru, then you get his mercy. I often tell this funny story about a disciple and his Guru. The disciple once got very hungry and the Guru gave him one rupee saying he must go to the market and buy some chickpea (chana). The disciple went to the market and started asking the price of all the other things—apples, grapes, etc. Finally, he went into a sweets shop and asked the price of chnana (paneer). The shopkeeper said that everything was the same price—everything was one rupee. The disciple got very happy and thought, "Then I can buy chhana instead!"

That is how the mind is—it cannot follow the order of the Guru. We are also like that. Gurudev often said, "If Krishna asks you for a singara (samosa), then you must give a singara." Suppose Gurudev has blood sugar. He comes to a house of a disciple, and the disciple asks him, "What shall I cook for you, Gurudev?" Gurudev tells you to give him something boiled, but you think that something boiled is not good, so instead of giving him what he has asked for you give him some sweets and milk. Our mind is always perverted.

So, Gurudev of that disciple sent him to buy some chana (chickpea), and he bought chhana (paneer) instead. When he came back, the Guru told him, "Give me what you have bought, give me the chana." The disciple replied, "Gurudev, what chana? This is such a nice place, everything is the same price here!"

A few days ago, seeing our Math's car somebody told me, "Oh, Your Deity is Krishna, and we also worship gods, it is the same!" What do the scriptures say? Krishna says, "If you worship Durga, Kali, Laksmi, Ganesh or any other demigod, whoever you worship, you are actually worshipping Me but in a wrong way—it is avidhi, it goes against the prescribed rules (viddhi)."

Srimad Bhagavad-gita finishes at "Sarva-dharman parityajya..." which is karma-misra bhakti, but Mahaprabhu said, "Go further." In His conversation with Ramananda Ray, Ramananda Ray first spoke about karma-misra bhakti. It means means whatever you do, whatever you cook, do it for the Lord—if you work, work for the Lord; if you cook, cook for the Lord; do everything for the Lord. Mahaprabhu said, "Eho bahya, age kaha ara. It will not do, go further." Then, Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-misra bhakti. Mahaprabhu again said, "Eho bahya, age kaha ara." Then, jnana-sunya bhakti, and Mahaprabhu said, "Eha haya. Yes, this is." What is jnana-sunya bhakti? It means you realise, "My Lord, I do not know anything, I do not understand anything."

I have told it many times—sometimes you can see that the Name of Krishna does not come out of somebody's mouth. Do you know what the scriptures say? It is said that if you worship the Lord in a temple for one hundred births as a brahman, then the Name of Krishna will come out of your mouth. It is not so easy! If you kick somebody in their stomach, they never say "Hare Krishna!"—they cry out, "Father! Mother!"

You have got this human birth, do not waste it—you must practise, you must engage yourself in the service of Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord.

Param Guru Maharaj also told that when you are sick, you must go to a doctor—if you do not go to a doctor, if you do not try to cure your disease, but instead go to a shop and buy some nice things, will your disease be cured? You must take the medicine that a doctor prescribes for you. You can go to the market, buy chanting beads and chant on them—but it is not the same thing as what the sadhus do. When you take the chanting beads from Gurupadpadma's hands with his blessing, then there will be some result from such chanting, then it will work. Also, if you do not chant yourself but give the mantra to others, that mantra will not work. You must chant yourself and engage others in chanting.

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