A Humble Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, India
3 March 2016

Do you understand that I want your good? It is necessary to give honour to others. We pray to Gurudev, "Sakale sammana karite sakati deha natha yatha yatha." Do you understand what it means? "Gurudev, please give me power to give respect to everyone." If you eat wood, you will pass coal in the stool: as you sow, so you reap.

We must understand that the Lord can remove, can forgive all offences. Madhai beat Nityananda Prabhu, and Mahaprabhu could not forgive it, but when Nityananda Prabhu gave His mercy, then his offences went away.

We must realise why we chant kirtans. Somebody says, "I will not sing!" But, "Aparadha-phale mama chitta bhela vajra-sama:" if you make so many offences, your heart becomes as hard as a thunderbolt, and as a result, kirtan, chanting of the Holy Name will not come to your mouth. This is the condition that comes if you always make offences. If you make offences to the Vaishnavs, to the Guru, then even the Lord Himself will not save you.

Look at Ramachandra Puri's example. Madhavendra Puri had two disciples, Ishwar Puri and Ramachandra Puri. What offence did Ramachandra Puri make? He used to criticise Mahaprabhu behind His back. One time Mahaprabhu was invited to take prasadam at some house, and Ramachandra Puri went there secretly to see what kind of prasadam Mahaprabhu was given and what He was eating. When he saw it, he said, "Oh, He is a sadhu, but eats so much!" Mahaprabhu heard about this and said to the devotees, "From tomorrow do not invite Me again." All the devotees went to Jagannath and said, "Please remove this person from here!" And Jagannath did.

Another time, before that, Ramachandra Puri saw that there were ants in Mahaprabhu's room. Ants can easily come anywhere, but he said to Mahaprabhu, "What is this, O sannyasi, O sadhu? You are a new sannyasi, are You taking too many sweets?" Mahaprabhu thought, "Everybody says he is criticising Me behind My back, but today he is doing it openly in front of Me." Mahaprabhu replied, "Yes, yes, Prabhu. My tongue is always very naughty, what can I do? My tongue wants to taste sweet things, so now I am eating sweets." What was Mahaprabhu to say to him? This was Ramachandra Puri's offence.

হরিস্থানে অপরাধে তারে হরিনাম ।
তোমাস্থানে অপরাধে নাহিক এড়ান ॥

hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama
toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana

"If one offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers him, but if one offends you, one has no salvation."

If you offend a Vaishnav, this offence goes to Mahaprabhu, then to the Lord. You must always remember this.

As I was saying the other day, we have nine 'doors' in the body. Through one door urine passes, through one door stool passes, through another door spit passes, and so on, but out of their mercy, Gurudev and Krishna gave us a tongue, and Krishna lets us chant the Holy Name with it. If, instead of chanting the Holy Name, we criticise others, what is then the difference between your mouth and the other doors where urine and stool come out of? It is the same. Guru ninda, Vaishnav ninda are like urine and stool—if you criticise, chastise or say bad things about the Guru and the Vaishnavs, this is what is coming from your mouth. The Lord gave you the tongue to chant the Holy Name.

করিতেছ উপকার যাতে পর উপকার
লভে জীব শ্রীকৃষ্ণ-সেবায়

karitechchha upakara yate para upakara
labhe jiva sri-krsna-sevaya

"You are giving great benefit by helping other souls get service of Lord Krishna."

If you chant the Holy Name, you will get the great benefit; if you do service, you will get the benefit; and if I do service, I will get the benefit. Just as when I take prasadam, my belly is full—will your belly be full if I take prasadam? No. Out of anger, you say, "I will not chant!" If you do not chant, what is the problem for others? It makes it difficult for you—if you do not chant, it is demotion for your spiritual life. You are angry with somebody and say you will not chant the kirtan, you will not take prasadam, but what will you get by that?

"Tosamod kari' kakhon guru hate pare na: you cannot become a guru by flattery." If it is my godbrother, I can say, "Please stay, do not go away," but if it is my disciple, I will not—if somebody cannot tolerate my chastisement, then they can go somewhere else, no problem. If you are my disciple, you must tolerate my chastisement because I am chastising you for your own benefit.

I tell how much Gurudev chastised me as an example for everybody. He chastised me so much and I am happy about that. Now I am sad because now no one chastises me, but when Gurudev chastised me I was very happy—I laughed and came again. I did not worry about it. Everybody was afraid to go to Gurudev, but I was not—he is my everything, why will I be afraid of him? He would tell me to get out, but I would come closer to him. I did the opposite. This is the relationship that I have with my Guru, and now I can understand how much he is supporting me—he is removing all kinds of dirt, all kinds of obstacles.

We must always think about these things. Nija sukha bhuli, sudina-hrdaya: we must forget our own happiness and have a very humble heart.

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