Practise and Preach

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 9 March 2015

[A devotee comes in late, Srila Acharya Maharaj gives a summary of what he has been talking about.]

I am telling about practising life: devotees are leaving, going to do their own work, and I am telling them how they should practise Krishna consciousness, how they should maintain their spiritual life.

When devotees are going to their home, they think that is their home, but it is not their real home. They are going there and do not practise properly—they become busy with their own work. They work all day and night to maintain their family, and do not even get time to chant the Holy Name, to cook for the Deities, to remember Krishna. So, I am telling what they should do and how they can make their family Krishna-mayi (how they can make Krishna the centre of their family), and how they can leave their bad habits, anachar.

If you try, you can do everything. You can listen to Gurudev's lectures, listen to some songs of Bhakti Vinod Thakur, or you can sing some songs of Bhakti Vinod Thakur—but you must know the meaning of the songs otherwise you will not get taste through it; when you understand the meaning, you will get the real taste, the real sweetness through it.

In the morning we sing this song:

শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য প্রভু জীবে দয়া করি' ।
স্বপার্ষদ স্বীয় ধাম সহ অবতরি ॥

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari'
svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari

The meaning of it is that Bhagavan Krishna, Chaitanya, came to this world with His associates for the benefit of the jiva souls. What did He teach? He taught sad-anga saranagati, six types of surrender.

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

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

(1) Krishna saves, protects us, (2) Krishna takes care of us, we are not independent, (3) humility, (4) surrender, (5) accept what is in favour of devotion, and (6) reject what is unfavourable to devotion. Mahaprabhu came to teach these six types of saranagati. He is the main teacher, the main acharya.

If you do not practise properly, no one will learn from you because what you tell others will not work. If you show that you practise properly, then that will work. For example, if you chant the Holy Name, then if you give the Holy Name to others, that Holy Name will work; if you recite gayatri, then when you give gayatri to your disciple, that gayatri will work—otherwise it will not. It is said,

নিজে আচারি' ধর্ম্ম জীবকে শিখায়
আচার পর্রচার নামের লইনু কার্য

nije achari dharma jivke sikhaya
achara prachara namera lainu karya

Mahaprabhu said that if somebody practises Krishna consciousness and does not preach, it is not correct—when somebody practises and preaches, that is correct. Practising and preaching are two main things.

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