(16/16) 'Lord Exists for Those Who Have Devotion'

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ganga Sagar, evening class,
11 January 2019, part 16
Translated from Bengali

There are sixty-four limbs of devotion (bhaktyanga), you should read what they are. I have written everything at the end of our calendars. If you read it, it will be good for you. I have written there what the ten offences to the Holy Name are. We chant in one of the kirtans about the six urges (chhaya vega dami', chhaya dosa sodhi'). What are these six urges? It is the urge of the mind (mana-vega), tongue (jihva-vega), belly (udara-vega), genitals (upastha-vega), speech (vakya-vega) and anger (krodha-vega). The urge of the stomach means that you have just eaten lunch, but then you feel hungry again. Overeating is an urge of the stomach. The urge of the tongue means you take prasad and you feel, 'I do not like it,' but you like eating shapta (pancakes with kheer) and pantua (gulab jamuns). As for the urge of the genitals, you all know what it is – it is the pleasure that women and men hanker to enjoy. Attachment to one's wife, just as attachment to any woman, must be given up. It is said in the scriptures that a woman and a man can enter into a physical relationship only to produce a child, not more than that. If somebody is attached to that kind of relationship beyond that, it is wrong attachment. These are very hard things to say, but this is what the scriptures say, so we must follow it. If you do not follow it, you cannot practise spiritual life. If you practise spiritual life, if you do service, all these things must go away.

Anyhow, I have said much today. We have some books here, please take them and read them. You throw away ten rupees at tea-stalls, but I am giving you a book for forty–fifty rupees. You can find what I have told you today in the books called Upadesh. There are two volumes of Upadesh. The first two volumes has already come out, and I am proofreading the third one now (it will come out soon). Take the kirtan guides and chant kirtans. We have big kirtan books and small ones. You can carry a small kirtan guide in your shirt pocket and chant kirtans whenever you get time. Sing to yourself. Kirtans are not chanted for others – you chant kirtan for yourselves. You can sit alone at home and chant clapping hands. 'Kirtana kariba pratistha magiba. I will chant kirtan and beg for prestige' ('Vaisnav Ke?') – we do not do such fake kirtans. We do not chant kirtan to please others. The lila-kirtans and pala-kirtans that people chant are all nama-aparadh. People chant those kirtans to earn money. I know that many of you like to hear such kirtans, that you like to hear ladies sing kirtans and dance. People perform for money. Otherwise, how many people do they bring to this path through their kirtans? Those who chant genuine Hari-kirtan do it to take people out of this illusory world of Maya and bring them to the family of Krishna – they do it to help others.

করিতেছ উপকার, যাতে পর উপকার,
লভে জীব শ্রীকৃষ্ণ-সেবায়

karitechchha upakara, yate para upakara,
labhe jiva sri-krsna-sevaya

'Your benevolent kindness is such that receiving it, souls get the benefit of attaining service to Lord Krishna.'

(Acharya Vandana)

How should you help others? You should engage everyone in Krishna's service. This is the sadhu's duty. We have cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, patal here – you can see ladies are sitting and cutting all the vegetables. They do all this for the service to Govinda. If you use broad beans (sheem), eggplant, cabbage or cauliflower in the service to the Lord, then the plant that has produced that vegetable can also get a chance to serve the Lord. So, sadhus use all living entities in the service of the Lord. This is what we all must do. If we can do this properly, then others can get supreme benefit – they can get the kind of benefit by getting which they will have nothing else to attain or aspire after. By getting that kind of benefit, there will be no hunger left. If you come to the Lord, everything else will go away...

To survive in this world, you have to take something, but the question is do you live to die or do you die to live? Srila Sridhar Maharaj often said this: Die to live. The problem is that we do not understand anything about devotion. Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave one analogy. For example, I am speaking now in the microphone and you can hear the sound, but if somebody is deaf, does this sound have any value to them? So, Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, 'The world of sound exists for those who have ears, but it has no value for those who have no ears.' At this Ganga Sagar Mela also, there are many beautiful decorations, so many people are coming here, but if somebody is blind, all this will have no value to them. So, the world of vision exists for those who have the sight; the world of sound exists for those who have ears – in the same way, the Lord exists for those who have devotion. For those who have no devotion, there is no Lord.

I heard the other day a follower of Dayananda Saraswati give a class – he was saying, 'Oh, there is no God!', 'God has no form!' When I spoke after that man at the programme, everybody agreed, 'Yes, what you are saying is right!' Dayananda Saraswati's story was such that once he went to Bhuvaneshwar to take the darshan of Siva-linga. When he came there, he saw a rat at the temple – everybody knows that rats go everywhere, but he said, 'Is the Lord here? If He were here, how could this rat be here?' The man lost his faith and concluded, 'There is no God.'

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Why are you shy to ask questions? What is there to be shy about? If you have any doubts, you can ask me, I will be happy to help. Also, if you ask me questions, then I can understand whether you all understand what I am saying or not. Everybody has some questions, but they are just shy to ask.

Question: Why do we follow ekadasi?

Actually, we do not discuss the glory of each particular ekadasi. I have told you today that you should not serve the Lord thinking, 'I will serve the Lord because I can get something in return' – this is material desire, desire to enjoy. 'I serve the Lord because I will get something in return', 'I will fast on ekadasi because I will get this and that result' – this is also material desire. Mahaprabhu, our Guru Maharaj and guru-varga told us to fast on ekadasi, that is why we do it. Mahaprabhu first taught His own mother not to take grains on ekadasi, and He explained that if you take grains on ekadasi, you will be eating sin. There are various descriptions of what result you can get by fasting on each of the ekadasis (you will get this piety, you will get that sin, you will attain all kinds of things) – all this is told to entice more people to follow ekadasi. But we are interested in neither sin nor piety. Just as getting piety is a desire, the fear of committing a sin is also a desire. Both are material desires. We do not want anything. We have come only to serve the Lord to make the Lord happy – we must always have devotion to His holy feet. We do not serve the Lord out of love for ourselves – we serve the Lord out of love for Him.

In the same way, why do we wear Tulasi beads? Even science tells us about Tulasi's benefit, but we wear Tulasi because it pleases the Lord. It is said,

যাঁকো দরশে পরশে অঘনাশ হোই
মহিমা বেদ পুরাণে বাখানি ॥

yako darase parase agha-nasa hoi
mahima veda purane vakhani

'By seeing or touching you, all sins are destroyed. Your glories are sung in the Vedas and Puranas.'

That is why we always wear Tulasi beads on our necks. Also, if you wear Tulasi neckbeads, Yamadutas cannot touch you (only Vishnudutas can touch you). All these things are told in the scriptures. So, there is both scriptural and scientific evidence. But it is not necessary to think about all this. Our gurudev and Vaishnavs have told us to do something, and we do it. This is all we know. What result does this give? What result does that give? It is not necessary to think about it. It is not wrong to want to know it though. You can ask about it, and I will tell you, it is not a problem.

Question [indistinct about a dubious argument heard somewhere]

They can say whatever they like. I have told you:

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

'Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236)

Do not listen to all those things. Srila Prabhupad said, 'If you take 100 people, 100% of them will not come to practise Krishna consciousness, but do not be disheartened to see this.'

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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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'