"O Vaishnav Thakur!"

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Translated from Bengali
9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 1

Always chant the Holy Name.

কলিকালে নামরূপ কৃষ্ণ-অবতার ।
নাম হৈতে হয় সর্ব্বজগৎ-নিস্তার ॥

kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara
nama haite haya sarva-jagat-nistara

"In the Kali-yuga, Krishna appears in the form of the Name. The entire world is delivered through that Name."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 17.22)

In Kali-yuga, the Lord has appeared in the form of the Name. There is no difference between the Lord and the Lord's Name—the Lord's Name, qualities, pastimes, associates, features are non-different from the Lord Himself, and no one except the Lord Himself or His associates can distribute this.

একবার কৃষ্ণনাম যত পাপ হারে ।
পাতকীর সাধ্য নাহি তত পাপ করে ॥

eka-bara krishna-name yata papa hare
patakira sadhya nahi tata papa kare

"A sinner cannot commit more sin than once chanting Krishna's Name can remove."

Always chant the Holy Name. If we chant the real Holy Name, then we can get shelter, we can get a place at the lotus feet of the Lord. The Lord is our real friend—He is our real friend, our real father, mother, everything.

কৃষ্ণ মাতা, কৃষ্ণ পিতা, কৃষ্ণ প্রাণ ধন ।

krsna mata, krsna pita, krsna prana dhana

"Krishna is your mother, Krishna is your father, Krishna is your very life and wealth."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 1.343)

We must always chant the Holy Name of Krishna, always engage in Harinam sankirtan. This is the duty of every soul. We have got this very rare human birth, and you know why it is said that it is rare. Listen carefully—you can listen for one hour and can start living in Goloka Vrindavan after that. Listen carefully and you will get supreme benefit.

Chant the Holy Name, chant the glories of the Lord. As I was saying yesterday, not so many people come when there is chanting of the Holy Name, but everyone comes when it is time to take prasad. If someone thinks, "I will come to take prasad," the problem is that they do not think about their spiritual benefit. You saw yesterday also—there were few people in the evening, but at night time, when it was prasadam time, there was a big crowd—people crowded all the way down the street. If, however, they take prasadam and their tongue becomes purified, then the Holy Name of Krishna will dance on that tongue. The Holy Name of Krishna is conscious.

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)

If you always take prasad, then one day the Holy Name can come to your tongue.

Always think about Nitai Gaura, always think about the Lord. You live in a very good place here in Tarakeshwar—you live near Sivji Maharaj. Sivji Maharaj sings the glories of Krishna with his five mouths. There are millions of Sivas in Siva-loka, and they always roam around singing the glories of Lord Krishna. Siva is a devotee of Krishna, he is Vaishnav Thakur. Vaisnavanam yatha Sambhuh: it means that Lord Siva is the highest Vaishnav. We chant the kirtan for Lord Siva ("Ohe Vaisnava Thakur dayara sagara e dase karuna kara") in our Nabadwip Math, Mednipore Math, in the temple in Bardhaman. Here in Tarakeshwar, Sivji Maharaj is present as Taraknath. He himself says that you must chant the Holy Name of Krishna—he himself says that we must chant the pure Name in the association of pure devotees. Suppose you want to plant potato. If you get seeds from a bad place, the result will be not good, you will not like that potato. You must buy the seeds from a good place. In the same way, you must take initiation from a bona fide Guru. There are many Gurus in this world who run independently and do what they please.

I have told the other day that we live in this world at the expense of so many thousands of living entities. We breathe every day, we eat rice, we drink water, we cut vegetables, outside people eat fish and meat, and every time we cut a cauliflower, marrow, spinach, etc. we kill living entities. This is how we live. If you can turn your family into Krishna's family—if you live for Krishna, if you cook for Krishna, if you do marketing for Krishna, if you work for Krishna—then whatever sin you contract will be nullified as you will be doing it for Krishna.

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

One is karma and one is seva. A cat carries a mouse in its mouth, and that same cat carries its kitten in the same mouth. It looks the same, but what does it carry a mouse for? To give it affection? No. It carries a near dead mouse for its own pleasure, for its food, but when it carries its kitten, it does not carry it to eat it, it carries it for the service to the kitten.

Whatever we do in this world is karma if we do it for our own selves, but if we do everything for the Lord—just as in this house devotees offer bhog to the Lord every day, take prasad, etc.—then it becomes seva. I have told you before also—you eat every day, you sleep every day, you go to bathroom every day, you take bath every day, in the same way Krishna is there—He is our father, He is our Master; you must serve Him every day. In many houses you have old people, they are senior, the heads of the family. In the same way, the head of the family is Krishna, Radha-Krishna, Gopal, Mahaprabhu (whatever picture or Deity you have at your house). They are the masters of the house and it is necessary to feed Them first when you cook. After They eat and leave Their prasad, you can take Their remnants. The Lord will not keep you starving, He takes what you offer and leaves His remnants for His devotees.

Always remember this. Sadhus come to your houses again and again to teach you how you must live, how you must chant the Holy Name, how you must associate with the devotees.

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)

Sadhus go house to house to save such fallen souls as ourselves—to save the fallen sinners like us from this world of maya and give us entrance into the family of Krishna, engage us in the service of Krishna.

You must listen carefully and understand why we come to this world, why we have got this human birth.

হরি হরি ! বিফলে জনম গোঙাইনু ।
মনুষ্যজনম পাইয়া রাধাকৃষ্ণ না ভজিয়া
জানিয়া শুনিয়া বিষ খাইনু ॥

hari hari! viphale janama gonainu
manusya-janama paiya radha-krsna na bhajiya
janiya suniya visa khainu

O Lord! My life has passed uselessly. I attained a human birth, but I did not serve Radha and Krishna. Knowingly I drank poison.

('Hari Hari viphale' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

If you consciously take poison, you will be committing suicide—if you take poison, you will die. We know about it, we hear about it, but still we take poison... We do not worship Radha-Krishna, we continue taking poison. I pray to you—do not take poison, practise Krishna consciousness, you will get supreme benefit.

The Lord approaches you for one reason—we have all come to this world of maya forgetting our own Father, but we have found a bona fide Guru, and he tells us where Krishna's house is, he shows us the way to our home. And it is to show you that way that I have come to you today. If you do not know the path well, you will not get there. Just as today we went to the temple of Lord Siva—I had not gone there for a long time and did not remember the way so well, so I told one of the devotees to go ahead of us and show us the way, and we got there easily.

When we came to the temple, the pandas (servants) of the temple allowed us to give our obeisance to Sivji Maharaj. We cannot have the darshan of Lord Siva with these eyes. Are we able to have his darshan? Do we have the eyes? We have the eyes for maya—we always see great buildings, we see the things of illusory world, parents, friends, etc. Our eyes must become clean—we must wipe the dust... You cannot see anything when you have a cataract in your eye, but once the cataract is removed, you can see well. Our eyes are blind.

অন্ধীভূত চক্ষু যার বিষয ধূলিতে ।
কিরূপে সে পরতত্ত্ব পাইবে দেখিতে ॥

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite
ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

When our eyes are blinded by the dust of material things (visaya), how can we have the darshan of Lord Siva, Taraknath? Do we have the eyes?

We must pray to Lord Siva, "Prabhu, I have come to you, please forgive my offences. You are the Lord's own, the Lord will listen to you. I have come to you, please ask the Lord to give me some devotion to Him, please give me an opportunity to be able to serve Him. O Vaishnav Thakur! O Taraknath! O Sivji Maharaj! Please give me such a boon that I may see the way how to get the darshan of the Lord (your Lord, my Lord, the Lord of everyone). Please show me the way to the Lord."

aparadha-sunya haye laha krsna-nama
achirat tumi pabe krsna-prema-dhana

'Chant the Holy Name of Krishna without offence and you will quickly get the treasure of divine love to Krishna.'

We must become absolved from our offences, we must become free of offences, therefore we should pray to Vaishnav Thakur, "Prabhu, I make so many offences consciously and unconsciously, please absolve me from these offences. Give me the taste for the Name of Krishna. May I be allowed to have the taste for the Holy Name and engage in Krishna's service. Please give me the quality and qualification for that!"

This is what we must pray for. What do outside people, material people pray for? You must have seen during the Sravan month crowds of people walking all the way from the Ganga—they bring the Ganges water for Baba Taraknath, but they come with their material desires. Some have debts, some are in some trouble, some want to get their daughter married, some want a good job for their son, some are sick and want to get healthy, so they pray to Lord Siva. They have all these desires, but the devotees of the Lord do not want all this. Devotees pray to Lord Siva for forgiveness of their offences. "O Vaishnav Thakur! If I have committed any offence at your feet, please forgive me." If you ask him for forgiveness, he is very merciful, he can remove your offences. If you make an offence to the Lord, the Lord cannot remove that offence, but Vaishnav Thakur can...

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