(14/16) See Good and Do Good

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ganga Sagar, evening class,
11 January 2019, part 14
Translated from Bengali

We must always live engaging ourselves in the service to the Lord. I have told you many times that we are always busy with four things: eating (ahara), sleeping (nidra), fearing (bhaya) and increasing posterity (maithunam cha). This is what we do, what else is there? We do not like to listen about the Lord – we only want to speak and hear about material things and nonsense, we like to criticise and gossip about others. Mahaprabhu said:

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

'Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself and give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236-237)

Serve Radha-Krishna in your mind – do not speak about any material things.

I want to use every single jiva soul in the service of the Lord. You can see that devotees have brought so many things – somebody brought dal, somebody brought sugar, somebody brought cabbage, somebody brought chilli, and so on. Why must it be wasted? We can use everything in the Lord's service. Even if we have to struggle, so what? When I was coming here, I had stand in a long queue, but we rely on the Lord. Then, we took all the bhoga to the boat, but those people do not have the fortune to serve the Lord – they complained, 'This is not a boat for transporting goods! Why are you bringing all these things there? We will call the police.' They took all our bhoga off the boat. Then, everybody got on the boat, and we again spoke to the owners and they allowed us to take the bhoga with us. It is necessary to try.

It is not that you will only chant the Holy Name and not trouble yourself with anything else. The Lord has given you hands, legs, ears, nose, and everything else – you must use everything in service! The Lord has given you a mouth to speak about Him; the Lord has given you eyes to see His Deities. You must always try to see good things. For example, there is service going on, there are Deities here, there are devotees here, and there are also bathrooms and drains. If you examine the drain, you will only get a bad smell. Srila Prabhupad said: a person can have five faults, but that person will also have five good qualities, and you must talk about the five good qualities – do not see the faults. Srila Guru Maharaj said that if you think or talk about others' faults, those faults will come to you, and you will lose whatever good qualities you have. This is the result of criticising or gossiping about others. When somebody came to complain about each other at the temple, Prabhupad would stop them and say, 'Quiet! Stop it. Find good qualities in each other and glorify each other for ten minutes.' This is what Srila Prabhupad taught.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Keep Trying
2) Highest Realm of Devotion
3) Bribing and Increasing Stool
4) What Is a Soul?
5) Service with Faith and Love
6) Core of Devotion
7) Set Your Heart for Govinda
8) Think and Learn
9) Think about Your Soul
10) Sadhya-Sadhan-Tattva
11) With Faith and Surrender
12) Surrender and Learn
13) Bhakta-Seva Pravritti
14) See Good and Do Good
15) See Through It
16) 'Lord Exists for Those Who Have Devotion'