(4/5) Sprout of Deviation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 18 January 2019, evening, part 4
Translated from Bengali

Everybody wants to reach the destination, so everybody goes to primary school, but how many people remain when they proceed to high school, college and university? Who will understand all these things?...

Some other missions do not understand this. They are such big preachers, but they say, 'Become a devotee of Krishna!' They are creating sahajiyas by doing this. They follow all the strict rules, eat strict vegetarian food, but they are making people sahajiyas. I do not know what can be done with this now.

We must not become removed from Krishna consciousness. What is our main goal in life? Chanting the Holy Name, practising sravan (listening about the Lord) and kirtan (chanting glories of the Lord, practising), serving the Lord. We must not deviate from this goal. You say proudly, 'Oh, I have taken initiation from gurudev!' but what did you take it for? Why did we take initiation? Taking initiation means serving the guru. If you cannot serve your guru, what is the use of such initiation then? Service to the guru does not mean washing his feet; service means following what gurudev says.

What did Gurudev say to you all? Your gurudev said, 'You must love Acharya Maharaj. If you love me, you must stay with him and follow him with chastity.' If you follow this, that is service to your guru. Those who follow it are staying with me. I am continuing and preaching everywhere together with them, and if somebody cannot follow what Gurudev said, they deviate and start following another line.

I went to Sundarpur today. They called their ashram 'Sri Krishna Ashram.' I had told them to name it 'Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Asham,' but they changed it. When I came there, I told them, 'What is this??' I did not tell it to them diplomatically – I told it straight during the class, in front of everybody. They understood it and said that they would change the name. One of my disciples said later to me, 'Maharaj, that is why I have not come here for the past four months.' There was also an atheistic mayavadi at the programme who asked me many questions. It is actually a little better to be a sahajiya than an atheist. Why? Because sahajiyas accept and believe that Krishna has a form, but mayavadis think that Krishna has no form and they say that jivatma and Paramatma are one and the same. [To a devotee] Did you see the fighting during the class today? It was about jivatma and Paramatma being one and the same. To say that jivatma can become Paramatma is nonsense, it is a big offence. This is heresy. Paramatma is the Lord, and jivatma (the soul) wants to serve Paramatma. Before you say something, you must know the conception – you must think about the benefit of the soul. But you are forgetting this. I and this body are not the same. It is necessary to understand this.

Who gave me this body? My parents. If you take my blood and my parents' blood and examine it, you will see that it is the same blood. But there is something inside the body that makes the body speak and move (that makes it possible for me to move my hands, legs, etc.). This 'thing' inside the body is the soul. This is what 'I' is (this is what I am). When the soul leaves the body, the legs will not move anymore. Who gave me that soul? God. My parents give me a perishable body (it will be spoilt tomorrow), but my Supreme Father (Param Pita) has given me the soul, which is indestructible. This soul is a particle of the Lord. This is what we must explain to the Lord. It is necessary to know this. We always only think about the body, how to preserve the body, how to keep the body healthy. When one sincerely, genuinely and selflessly surrenders to the Lord's holy feet, the Lord says, 'I will take care of everything for you.' Why do we not have faith in what the Lord says? The Lord says, 'I will take care of you. You will not have any debt to anyone.'

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

'Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

When this verse was mentioned to Mahaprabhu, He rejected it and went even higher. Mahaprabhu manifested the pastimes of separation – He always felt separation. He did not feel, 'I have got it!' Rather, He was always absorbed in Radhika's mood of separation from Krishna (vipralambha-lila, or viraha-lila). This is what devotion is. Devotion means feeling separation. If you feel separation from your gurudev, from the Lord, that is devotion. This is the main thing, but if you say, 'I have got it!' this is not devotion. There is no question of 'I have got the Lord!' We want to be servants of the servants of devotees. 'Radhara dasira Krsna sarva-vede bole (রাধার দাসীর কৃষ্ণ সর্ব্ব বেদে বলে). Krishna is the property of the maidservants of Srimati Radharani. All the Vedas say this.'

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ-ভজন তব অকারণ গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

'If you did not become devoted to the worship of Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna was in vain.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

রাধিকা দাসী যদি হোয় অভিমান ।
শীঘ্রই মিলই তব গোকুল কান ॥

radhika-dasi yadi haya abhimana
sighrai milai taba gokula kana

'Those who pride themselves on being maidservants of Radhika will quickly come to meet Gokula Kan (Krishna).'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

This is the main thing. This is Mahaprabhu's conception.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 19.1 Mb
Length: 39 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Do Not Become Sahajiya
2) Sincere and Selfless Service
3) Think What You Are Doing
4) Sprout of Deviation
5) Love Others