— { HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA } —
Vaishnava Stance

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kulgachia Gram, Howrah District
6 May 2018, part 10

I tell it to you all the time, "Have you become a sadhu or do you only look like a sadhu?" In this world, there are many pretending sadhus. It is very easy to pretend to be a sadhu—put on a tilak, wear a mala... Our Guru-varga never say they are Vaishnavs, they are very humble and they consider themselves very poor (ami ati dina). When Mahaprabhu went to Ramakheli, Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami fell at Mahaprabhu's feet with straw in their mouth showing that they considered themselves lower than cows. We, on the other hand, think we have taken initiation, so we have become big Vaishnavs. This is not Vaishnav's qualities. It is difficult to become even anything close to a Vaishnav.

At the recent festival in Nrisingha Palli, there was a man who had taken initiation from me a few days before, and he sat with the Vaishnavs in one line to take prasadam, they took pranami and an umbrella also. How did he become a Vaishnav? Ten days ago they take initiation and today they sit with the Vaishnavs from Mayapur and take prasadam with them. I chastised them in front of everybody, "What is this? Is this devotion? Is this what a sadhu is like? Why did you come to take initiation?"

Maharaj gives sannyas to somebody and they think, "Guru Maharaj is a sannyasi, I am also a sannyasi, I will sit with him." You must think, "Do I have the right, the qualification to sit in the same line with them? Have I earned the right to sit there?" Guru Maharaj gave me sannyas, I may be a sannyasi, but it is not like I will now go and sit next to him to take prasad. It can never be like this. You must use your judgement. Never think, "I am just like him." This is a matter of a very high rasa. This is sakhya-rasa. Sridam, Sudam, Balaram sit next to Krishna in one line to take prasadam, they eat together. This is very high level.

Prahlad Maharaj is a santa-rasa devotee. Tell me, can we ever be like Prahlad Maharaj? Santa-rasa comes before sakhya-rasa. Prahlad Maharaj, a santa-rasa devotee, was thrown into fire but he did not burn—if you fall into fire, will you burn or not? Then, what kind of devotee are you? Prahlad Maharaj was thrown under the feet of an elephant, can anyone survive that? And we think about dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, we become sahajiya and venture into madhura-rasa thinking the prema I feel doing my service is the same prema that Radha Krishna experience... This is sahajiya. There are many sahajiya sampradayas—aul, baul, karttabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sakhibheki, jata-goswami...

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