Hidden Practice and Broad Preaching

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Translated from Bengali, part 12
27 January 2018, Sri Ekachakra Dham

Nityananda Prabhu preached in many places, but Virachandra Prabhu (His son) along with other devotees revealed His glory. When Srila Sridhar Maharaj came here to the appearance place of Nityananda Prabhu and paid his obeisance here, he received the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. After that, he started taking disciples. When he asked Nityananda Prabhu for his mercy, Nityananda Prabhu sent him a message, "You have already got much mercy from Prabhupad, but you are coming to Me asking Me for My mercy—first distribute the mercy you have got! You do not need My mercy—reveal to this world the mercy of Nayana Manjari, Srila Prabhupad."

Therefore, those of you who are going home after the festival, must preach these things. After this birth itself we can actually engage ourselves in the service to the lotus feet of Radha Govinda. It is for this purpose (to get the service to the lotus feet of Radha Govinda) that we come to the holy dham, we serve the dham—we sweep, we make garlands, we wash the Lord's dishes, cook for the Lord. When you serve the Lord, you have no debt, nothing left—this kind of merit will stay with you. There is someone writing your diary and if your diary says you never heard about Govinda, you never served Govinda, that you spent your whole life only saying "my, my, my" ("my husband, my son, my wife, my family, my friends, my relatives"), then what result will you get? That is why sadhus and gurus come to you:

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

They do not come to you for their own benefit, for their own purpose—those who are real sadhus, they come to your door for your benefit, to cure your heart-disease. These are the real sadhus. "He is not your father, he is not your friend, she is not your mother, he is not your husband, he is not your guru, if they cannot bring you to this path of Krishna consciousness." If a guru cannot rescue you from this ocean of material existence, he is not a real guru. You must take shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord by taking shelter at the lotus feet of a guru who can rescue you from the illusory environment and by engaging yourself in the service of the Lord. This is what life is.

We pray to you—wherever you go, wherever you stay, only chant, "Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna," chant "Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol" to yourself. You do not need to show anything to others. If people criticise you, it will be your offence. If you chant on your beads showing it to everyone, and someone says to you, "Oh, look at him, he is chanting on beads, what a big sadhu he has become!"--if this kind of remark comes because of you, it will be your offence. So, you do not have to show your beads to everyone, you can hide your mala under your cloth and chant. You think people will get benefit by seeing you chant, but the result will be the opposite, and the fault will be yours—you will get the bad result for that. That is why you must keep your spiritual practice (bhajan) to yourself.

Also in Mahaprabhu's time also people criticised Him and made offences to Him, but when Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip they shed tears and became rescued...

Anyhow, much has been said. Tomorrow is Ekadasi, you must observe it. You can eat as much potato as you want, you can eat even five kg, no problem. We have brought much potato for tomorrow.

Devotee: And if one has diabetes?

If you eat potato one day, nothing will happen. I also have diabetes, but I take three kg potato on Ekadasi (one kg in the morning, one kg in the afternoon, and one kg in the evening), you can ask those who cook for me. [Everyone laughs]. Follow Ekadasi. Do not worry that you will be hungry, this, that. You can take anukalpa (prasadam allowed on Ekadasi). Sometimes Ekadasi is observed on Dvadasi—that is when Ekadasi day falls on Dvadasi. Sometimes Ekadasi day is viddha (mixed, i.e. overlapping other days), then Ekadasi is observed on the next day, Dvadasi. Sometimes Dasami, Ekadasi and Dvadasi can also be all in one day, it is called "Trisprsa."

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