Discipline Yourself (2)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 February 2018, Kolkata, part 10

Our time is very short. We have got this human body and we must understand what is the pure conception.

চারি বর্ণাশ্রমী যদি কৃষ্ণ নাহি ভজে ।
স্বকর্ম্ম করিলেও সে রৌরবে পড়ি মজে ॥

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje
svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or asram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krsna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26)

These are very strong words. Even if you are a brahmachari, even if you are a grihastha, a vanaprastha, or a sannyasi, even if you are a brahman, a ksatriya, a vaisya, or a sudra, you will go to a place that is worse than hell if you do not worship Lord Krishna. Compared to that place, hell is good; raurav is a very dangerous place. This is what Chaitanya-charitamrita says. These are the main things for our spiritual life.

Gurudev says, and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also says, that if you do something wrong, or you make some mistake, and you know you do it, then you cannot tell anything to others if you see they do something wrong, you cannot chastise others because you yourself have a problem. You must correct yourself first, then you can tell something to others, otherwise, "Hambhi chup, tumbhi chup (হাম্­ভি চুপ্, তুম্­ভি চুপ্)—I will keep quiet, and you will keep quiet." It is a very nice story told by Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, I told it the other day in Bengali:

Before 1947 when India became independent, there was a British period and India was under the British for almost 200 years. At that time, the judges were all British, and they had thick beards, long moustache. They would come to the court, listen to the lawyers on both sides and give the judgement (it is still going on in this way, but the judges are not British now).

One day, a man got very happy with the court's judgement and he thought, "I have a good jackfruit, I want to present it to the judge." So, he came to the judge and gave the jackfruit to him. It was in the afternoon. In the morning, the judge looked at the jackfruit and thought, "That man gave me some fruit, I heard it is very tasty, but I have never eaten it. Let me clean it now." The judge took the jackfruit, felt it and saw that it was very soft inside. He did not know how to eat it (he had never seen a jackfruit before), so what did he do with that jackfruit? He broke the peel and took the seeds and pulp (the main things in a jackfruit that are eaten, which he did not know) and threw it all out. Now he had the carcass of fruit, empty. While the judge was cleaning and trying to eat that peel, all the gum of the jackfruit got into his thick beard, moustache and hair! He ran to wash it out, but the more he tried to wash it out, the tighter his hair got tangled! What was he to do now? He got very angry, "What kind of fruit did that man give me?! Look what it has done to me! What is this? It is already nine o'clock, I have to go to the court! How am I to go like this?" He called his servant, "Hey, bring, call the barber quickly!" The barber came and gave him a full shave.

When the judge came to the court, all the lawyers began to smile whispering among themselves, "What has happened? The judge has shaved! He has never shaved before, he has always kept his beard. What has happened to him?" Then, suddenly the judge saw a sadhu coming into the court (the sadhu had some court case going on). He saw that the man had tilak on and he was also fully shaved just like him—his head and his beard were shaved. He called that sadhu and said, "Come, come! Listen, when the hearing of your case finishes, wait here, we will go to my house." The sadhu became afraid, he thought "Why is the judge calling me? What have I done?" In the evening, when they came to the judge's home, the sadhu was shaking from fear. He asked,

"Sir, you have called me—"

"Yes, why are you so afraid? Have you also eaten a jackfruit?" asked the judge.

"No, no, I have not eaten jackfruit!"

"No? But you are also shaved!"

"I am a renounced person (a sadhu), that is why I shave."

"Oh, and I thought you have eaten a jackfruit..." said the judge.

"Why? Have you eaten a jackfruit," asked the sadhu.

"Yes, that is why I am like this, but do not tell anybody! I will also not tell anybody about you."

That is the story Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told. So, those who are guilty themselves cannot tell anything to others.

For that, Jagadananda Pandit told,

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

If think you are a devotee of Gauranga, it is not correct—you must practise what Mahaprabhu tells us. When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip, He said,

যদি আমা'-প্রতি স্নেহ থাকে সবাকার ।
তবে কৃষ্ণ-ব্যতিরিক্ত না গাইবে আর ॥

yadi ama'-prati sneha thake sabakara
tabe krsna-vyatirikta na gaibe ara

"If you have any love and affection for Me, then only say 'Krishna'—do not say anything except 'Krishna.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 28.27)

"If you love Me, if you have love and affection for Me, then do not say anything except 'Krishna.' Always chant the Holy Name."

That is the main thing for our spiritual life. Chant the maha-mantra and chant the songs properly, then you can get a great benefit for your spiritual life. It is necessary to have faith in this. Life must be surrendered—your life must be engaged for the service of the Lord, that is good for you. Whether you clean, drive a car, work, cook, etc.—whatever you do, everything is service for the Lord. This is how we must life. I always tell everybody,

প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয়
সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়

prasada-seva karite haya,
sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

It means that if you take prasad, your material desires will be conquered. That is why we always recite (and Gurudev also explained it),

mahaprasade govinde nama-brahmani vaisnave
svalpa-punya-vatam rajan visvaso naiva yayate

"O king, one whose fortune is meagre never develops faith in mahaprasad, Govinda, the Holy Name, or the Vaisnavas."

bhai re!
sarira avidya-jala jadendriya tahe kala
jive phele visaya-sagare
ta'ra madhye jihva ati lobhamaya sudurmati
ta'ke jeta kathina samsare

"The body is a net of illusion, and the material senses are the enemies; they throw the soul into the ocean of mundanity. Among the senses, the tongue is the most greedy and wicked. It is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world."

krsna bada dayamaya karibare jihva jaya
sva-prasad-anna dila bhai
sei annamrta pao radha-krsna-guna gao
preme daka chaitanya-nitai

"O brothers! Krsna is very merciful: to conquer the tongue He has given us His remnants! Accept this nectarean food, sing the glories of Radha-Krsna, and with love call out, 'Chaitanya! Nitai!'"

This tongue is very naughty, it throws us into material environment. It always goes everywhere, it wants to eat this, this, this. You cannot conquer your tongue, but how is it possible to conquer it? If you take prasad, then you can conquer your tongue. Offer whatever you cook to the Lord with Tulasi leaves, then take that prasadam. It is necessary to follow this. If there is some problem some day and you have to take something outside, then you must always remember Gurudev and then take it. Without prasadam you cannot conquer your tongue, you cannot conquer all your other indriya—there are five karmendriya, and five jnanendriya. Five karmendriya, instruments are feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth (pada, pani, payu, upastha, vak); five jnanendriya, senses, are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin (chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak); and there is also mind, intelligence, and ego (man, buddhi, ahankar). We have so many senses and we cannot conquer them—they always pull us in so many directions. The solution is in prasadam. If you understand this, then you can realise Krishna consciousness, then you can realise why we serve the Lord, why we serve our Guru, why we have come into this world for, etc.

You must think what our main conception is, then you can get relief, and you will yourself feel pleased through your service. You can understand it yourself. How can you be happy? If you see that you are behaving properly and you are thinking properly (following the proper conception), then you will be happy.

— : • : —

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