— { HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA } —
Practise Without Deceit

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kulgachia Gram, Howrah District
6 May 2018, part 4

We must always listen to Hari-katha. Sravan means sreyo-yog-van. There are two types of katha—sreyo (beneficial) and preyo (pleasurable). Preyo-katha is dancing, singing, playing the harmonium, etc. Many of you have seen such kirtans—they hold twenty-four hour's kirtans, forty-eight hours' kirtans, many kinds of lila kirtans. But even if you do such kirtans all your life, you will not reach the Lord.

কোটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

When people hold hired kirtans, these kirtan players do whatever they want, they eat whatever they want, they do not practise anything—they talk about Mahaprabhu, but they do not follow His teachings.

“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)

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

Some show they are devotees but secretly do bad things. For example, you think, "I am doing nirjal ekadasi today. Everybody knows I am fasting and not even drinking water!" but when you go to bathe in the pond, you secretly put some water into your mouth. Others may not see it, but the Lord sees everything—He can see that hidingly, like a thief, you are taking water. So, whatever you do and whatever you do not do, Gaura knows you are a thief. He can catch you red-handed. Do not hide anything from the Lord, from Gurudev—they know everything.

Gurudev goes to Nabadwip, to Vrindavan, or Puri, and you sit here and think, "How will he know what I am doing and what I am not doing?" But he is antaryami, he can understand everything; he knows what you are doing and what you are not doing, you do not need to hide anything. If you do not have faith in this—if you think Gurudev cannot know something, cannot understand something—it is an offence against the Holy Name (to consider the Guru a mere mortal, like one of us). Those who think, "He is just like us, so he cannot know it," cannot know the Guru. Gurudev knows everything, he understands everything.

When you come to Krishna consciousness, you should practise properly. You must practise the teachings that Sanatan Goswami gave, the teachings that Rupa Goswami gave (Rupa-siksa, Sanatan-siksa), as well as the teachings that Mahaprabhu gave to Raghunath Das Goswami. You must practise it. If you practise it, you will get benefit.

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Additional reading:

• Rupa-siksa • Sanatan-siksa • Rupa- and Sanatan-siksa (.epub file for offline reading)

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