(10/13) Turtle Consciousness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ganga Sagar, evening class,
Deity Manifestation Anniversary day
12 January 2019, part 10
Translated from Bengali

Practise Krishna consciousness. If you do not have Tulasi at home, plant a tree and do Tulasi parikrama, worship Tulasi every day. This is how devotion will come. And also try to eat vegetarian food, follow ekadasi. If you do this, you will see that it will do you good in all respects, be it health-wise or in other ways. Some scientists say that it is not good to be vegetarian, but you can see that we are vegetarian and we do not have any problems. Some people say, 'Oh, if I eat vegetarian food, I will be fat.' It is not true. If you eat a lot ghee, then of course you will be fat. Take the Lord's prasad, take vegetables, and everything will be good. If you take the Lord's prasad, the Lord will look after you and make sure that you get supreme benefit.

There is a group of people that tell everyone, 'Here, take these beads, do japa!' Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave one analogy in this regard. If you come to a homeopathic doctor, the doctor will give you a small bottle of globules that look like sago balls (he puts some medicine inside those balls). But if you go to the market and buy some globules, will your disease be cured? It will not. You will just take those globules that taste sweet. You know, you can buy those globules by kilo at the market. So, if you buy beads at the market and chant on them, it will not give you anything. To get the seed of the devotional creeper, you must get the beads from a bona fide guru that belongs to a guru-parampara. Do not think that you can buy some beads on the street, chant on them and that is the Holy Name. No. It will be mostly only nama-aparadh; it can sometimes be nama-abhasa; but it will never be the pure Holy Name because the seed has not been planted yet. If you cultivate the land and finish watering it before planting the seed, you will not get any crops – only grass (weeds) will grow.

[Distracted by noise]

Hey, why are you talking so much over there? Can you not come here and listen to the class? What are you doing there? You are walking everywhere with a bag the whole day.

Devotee: I went to the market.

What did you do the whole day that you had to go to the shop now? Why must you go and do it now, during the class and kirtan? If you do not listen to Hari-katha, then how will you know all the things we are talking about here? If you could get a book and get all knowledge by studying it on your own, then there would be no need for schools. You can buy all books at the market. You can get books on medicine, English, physics, chemistry, etc. But reading them will not take you through the exams. If you could learn everything just by reading books, then all the money the government spends on organising schools and colleges would be wasted. It is not like that. It is necessary to go to school, to attend lessons and listen to lectures. If you do not listen to lectures, you will not get proper knowledge and will not be able to understand anything. You must listen to lectures carefully. Those who bunk classes fail their exams. Why do so many students fail exams? Because they do not study, they skip lessons. It is the same here too – most people do not come to the lectures. There is a class going on here, but if in the name of service, you sit in some other place, chatting with others, telling each other stories, gossiping about material things, do you think the Lord will like this? There is Hari-katha – talks about the Lord – going on here, and the Lord is listening to it, but you are sitting in another place, chatting and gossiping. What is this? This is not ruchi. You are chatting with others, but you do not think, 'Maharaj is going to give class, so I will go to the shop before that to make it in time.' In Gurudev's time, I would do all work while Gurudev was resting. Sometimes, I would sit with him for a few hours, but when he started taking prasad, I would go quickly and run to do all the things I had to do. After that, I would come in the evening and listen to what he said. We are talking about devotion, about the Lord here. I am not going to be here every day. If I come here, give class but you do not come to listen, then what will you tell people when you preach to them? You will say, 'We have bed and breakfast here,' and everybody will come for bed and breakfast, but this is not right. You must preach about the Lord! If you only stay here to sleep and eat, then you are not staying at a math – you are staying in a kamath (turtle's shell). A math is where there is service to the Lord, where devotees speak about the Lord; but if people gossip and talk about other things, this is not a math, not a house of devotion. Gossiping, talking about material things, about family matters and other nonsense – this is done in the houses of rotten householders (pocha grihastha, পচা গৃহস্থ).

নিদ্রালস্য-হত, সুকার্য্যে বিরত,
অকার্য্যে উদ্যোগী আমি ।

nidralasya hata, sukarye virata,
akarye udyogi ami
pratistha lagiya, sathya-acharana,
lobha-hata sada kami

'Ruined by laziness and sleep, I am averse to doing anything good and eager to do wrong things.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You walk around doing wrong things.

I went out at three o'clock today – you could have taken prasad and done everything. You had a lot of time to do shopping and get that is needed. Now in the evening, there is kirtan, class, but you are going out and then sitting in another place, chatting with others. What is this? I will not stay here for a long time – I will be here a couple of days, and then you can relax. Is that so or not?

Devotee: Maybe you could write a sign saying not to gossip.

One can write and say many things, but what is the use?

Devotee: Yes, it is necessary to accept it from within...

You know, when they write somewhere, 'Do not spit paan here (পানের পিক ফেলবেন না),' people will spit there even more! Have you not seen it on the street? It makes me laugh when I see it. In some places they write, 'Harvest festival is coming (নবান্ন সামনে)' and it means the party people will come to collect taxes. And in other places, they write, 'Do not spit paan here,' and the whole place is covered with colour from paan. So, does writing something help? It is necessary to read, study and follow these things. It is necessary to practise. We have many books, so many things are written in them, but how many people accept what is written there and practise it in their lives? Mahaprabhu's teachings are:

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

'One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

What more can I say?... All words that Srila Prabhupad spoke are very good. He said that everybody would not come to this line. People do not feel happy, do not feel enthusiastic to serve the Lord...

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 44.5 Mb
Length: 89 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Clean Your Heart and Cultivate Devotion
2) Seva-Dharma and Mano-Dharma
3) Strive for Spiritual Subsistence
4) Where There Is a Will There Is a Way
5) Excreting Visaya
6) Live in Domain of Mercy
7) The Side-Tracked and the Drowning
8) Servants' Wealth
9) Live Thinking about Lord
10) Turtle Consciousness
11) Learn and Practise
12) Sadhu's Duty
13) Internal Asuddha