Heal and Declutter

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bengali evening class in Sri Puri Dham
10 July 2018, part 1

By the mercy of Gurupadpadma, we have completed the second day of the parikrama today. Do you remember where we went today? First we went to Jagadananda Pandit's bhajan kutir. He composed Prema-vivarta. This book has been published from our Math in a very beautiful way. Many other Maths have printed this book, you can get it for some ten rupees, but we have printed it in a very beautiful form, both English and Bengali together. I had told Sripad Tyagi Maharaj that if he could print both together, it would be good. Those who are fortunate can read it and those who have no fortune can never in their life read it... People easily spend two-three hundred rupees on many things but they will not buy a book for this money. I feel much pain to see people's nature—to see this world's inauspicious habits, this world's aversion to service. Where will they go after this life? What place will they get after this life?...

I have told it many times—the Lord has given you this human birth, and if you spend your whole life chanting, "Pore Keshto Pore Keshto Keshto Keshto Pore Pore*," you will get nothing. You must chant Krishna Nam—pure Name of Krishna. Why will you chant it? To get service. We must chant the Holy Name to get service. What did Mahaprabhu tell Sanatan Goswami?

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

There is no other religion except this. You must be kind to the jiva souls. You must bring the souls who are averse to Krishna to this path—those who do not understand anything about Krishna, who are averse to Krishna, averse to Mahaprabhu. It is necessary to preach in this world. You must get taste for chanting the Holy Name. What does 'taste' mean? Suppose my mother cooks for me or my servitor cooks for me, but if I have fever or I am sick, I will not feel any taste for the food because the body is sick. In the same way, we are also sick. Our disease is avidya, asmita, etc. There are five diseases, they are written in the [Bengali] Calendar. This is not cancer, not gall stone, not women's uterus tumour, none of this. The five diseases are avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits).

Avidya means ignorance. The soul has forgotten its own true identity. We forget who we are. We think, "I am such and such Maharaj," "I am such and such manager," "I am such and such Temple Manager," "I am such and such secretary," "I am in charge of the temple," "I am in charge of the house—and these children, this wife are all under me, they listen to me and obey me." Some people take sannyas, they stay at a temple, but they still keep their ego. This is a disease.

Asmita means identifying yourself with your body. "My house," "my son", "my husband," "my wife"—always thinking about "my", "my", "my".

Rag. It is not "rag" that is anger; it is attachment to the things that are favourable to your body [material pleasure]. "What will become of me?", "I have joined the temple, but when I am old, who will look after me? I must save some money!"

Dvesa—being averse to anything that is opposed to material enjoyment. Somebody is doing service and you see them and become jealous—you do not do it yourself and do not want others to do it, and you criticise them behind their backs. Somebody can get angry hearing this, but I am reading this from a book. Everybody can understand themselves who does this, I do not need to tell any names.

And last is abhinivesa—there are sixty-four devotional practices (such as serving sadhus, offering vegetables, washing the Lord's asan, etc.), and abhinivesa means you have no attachment to this. You feel apathy towards these practices, but you are eager to engage in material activities.

These are the five diseases that we have.

Think about it. Suppose you invite me to your house saying, "Baba, come to my house," but the room that you have is full of your things—you are keeping there sacks with rice, dal, etc. all sorts of household things, etc. Where will you tell me to sit there? There is no place. In the same way, you must give place for Gurudev, for the Lord, for Bhakti Devi to take their seat. You must give them place in your heart! Your heart is full of kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (desire, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy), rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (seeking pleasures of eyes, taste, smell, ear and touch), kanak, kamini, pratistha (seeking wealth, companions, self-establishment)—when you call Gurudev or Bhakti Devi, or the Lord, there is no place for them to sit. When there is no place in your heart for them to sit, what happens when you call them? They will come and go back. Bhakti Devi will leave and go back.

Listen carefully to what I am saying.

*'Pore Keshto' is a reference to a story His Divine Grace likes to tell from to time. Once, a lady took initiation into chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra from a Guru. When she came home, her husband, whose name happened to be Krishna, became angry, "How can you take your husband's name?!" [In India, it is a custom that a wife never address her husband by his name.] So, instead of chanting Hare Krishna, she started chanting Pore Keshto, Pore Keshto thinking it was all the same.

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