(18/22) Do Not Cheat Yourself

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, noon, 20 January 2019, part 18
Translated from Bengali

How can you come to the Lord?

আদৌশ্রদ্ধা ততঃ সাধুসঙ্গোঽথ ভজনক্রিয়া ।
ততোঽনর্থনিবৃত্তিঃ স্যাৎ ততো নিষ্ঠা রুচিস্ততঃ ॥
অথাসক্তিস্ততো ভাবস্ততঃ প্রেমাভ্যুদঞ্চতি ।
সাধকানাময়ং প্রেম্ণঃ প্রাদুর্ভাবে ভবেৎ ক্রমঃ ॥

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya
tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati
sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

'First, there is faith; then, saintly association and practising life. After that, unwanted habits gradually go away, spiritual life becomes stable, and spiritual taste comes. Then comes attachment, feeling and finally transcendental love. This is how love for the Lord comes to those who practise Krishna consciousness.'

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.4.15-16)

First comes faith. As the result of your faith, you can get sadhu-sanga (association of saints). You can see that when it is time for prasad, hundreds of people will come, but how many people come to hear the class? There are not even fifty–sixty people here now. So, not everybody has this kind of sukriti, or fortune. Even when the programme is on a Sunday, many people stay in their rooms and gossip about their families, about politics, about how many people come to Mamata's meetings – they are busy discussing other people and criticising other people, but they do not have the fortune to hear about the Lord. When fortunate souls take saintly association, they then start practising sravan and kirtan, and their anarthas (bad tendencies) go away. Anarthas are rupa (eye-enjoyment), rasa (tongue-enjoyemnt), gandha (nose-enjoyment), sabda (ear-enjoyment), sparsa (tactile enjoyment), kanak (money), kamini (women), pratistha (name and fame), kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (illusion), mada (madness), matsarya (envy). The Lord says:

কৃষ্ণসেবা কামার্পণে, ক্রোধ ভক্ত-দ্বেষিজনে,
লোভ সাধুসঙ্গে হরিকথা ।
মোহ ইষ্টলাভ বিনে, মদ কৃষ্ণ গুণগানে,
নিযুক্ত করিব যথা তথা ॥

krsna-seva kamarpane, krodha bhakta-dvesi-jane
lobha sadhu-sange hari-katha
moha ista-labha bine, mada krsna-guna-gane,
niyukta kariba yatha tatha

'I will engage lust by offering it in Krishna's service. I will engage anger towards those who are envious of the devotees. I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of devotees. I will feel illusioned without achieving my worshipable Lord. I will be maddened while singing the glories of Krishna. In this way I will engage these enemies in their proper places.'

(Sri Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Lust (kama) should be for Krishna and His service; anger (krodha) should be directed at those who are against devotees; greed (lobha) should be for Hari-katha and Hari-prasad. Attraction (moha) should be for the Lord:

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

'May I have the same love and attraction to Your holy feet that I now have for material things.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You must love the Lord the way you now love your family, then it will be devotion. You will lament, 'Oh, I have not been able to offer bhog to the Lord today!' When you cannot feed your child, you feel very bad, and that kind of pain must come when you realise that you have not been able to feed the Lord, that you have not been able to chant the Holy Name. When this kind of feeling comes to you, then you can understand that you have some devotion.

After all unwanted tendencies are gone, you will feel taste for the Holy Name. If you have a fever, you will not have any appetite even if your parents make the best preparations for you – everything will taste bitter. Why do people do not like chanting or hearing the Holy Name? Because they have anarthas. That is why people do not like chanting or hearing the Holy Name, but they like drinking and listening and dancing to disco music, DJs, etc.

Nabadwip consists of nine islands, and each of the nine kinds of devotion resides on a corresponding island. Remember this.

আদৌশ্রদ্ধা ততঃ সাধুসঙ্গোঽথ ভজনক্রিয়া ।
ততোঽনর্থনিবৃত্তিঃ স্যাৎ ততো নিষ্ঠা রুচিস্ততঃ ॥
অথাসক্তিস্ততো ভাবস্ততঃ প্রেমাভ্যুদঞ্চতি ।
সাধকানাময়ং প্রেম্ণঃ প্রাদুর্ভাবে ভবেৎ ক্রমঃ ॥

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya
tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati
sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

'First, there is faith; then, saintly association and practising life. After that, unwanted habits gradually go away, spiritual life becomes stable, and spiritual taste comes. Then comes attachment, feeling and finally transcendental love. This is how love for the Lord comes to those who practise Krishna consciousness.'

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.4.15-16)

Each of these nine steps in devotion have a corresponding place on the nine islands of Nabadwip.

Take a look at what is written in Manu Samhita.

যো যস্য মাংসমশ্নাতি স তন্মাংসাদ উচ্যতে ।
মৎস্যাদঃ সর্বমাংসাদস্তস্মান্মৎস্যান্ বিবর্জয়েৎ ॥

yo yasya mamsam-asnati sa tan mamsada uchyate
matsyadah sarva-mamsadas-tasman-mat-syan vivarjayet

'Those who eat meat are called meat-eaters, but those who eat fish devour all kinds of meat (cow, pig, etc. even one's own meat). Therefore, one must completely give up eating fish.'

(Manu-samhita, 5.15)

Whenever people eat fish and meat, they eat their own flesh. How so? I explained it to you yesterday, do you remember what I said? Your soul and your body are two different things – when your body dies and decays, it gets mixed with soil. After that, some fish body is created from that soil (all bodies are created from soil, water, air, etc.). In the meantime, because you like eating fish so much, your soul will get a cat body and eat fish. This is how you end up eating your own body. 'Those who eat meat are called meat-eaters, but those who eat fish devour all kinds of meat (cow, pig, etc. even one's own meat). Therefore, one must completely give up eating fish.'

Question: But some say that fish comes as a gift from the Ganga?

People say many things. That is why it is said:

পৃথিবীতে যত কথা ধর্ম্মনামে-চলে ।
ভাগবত কহে সব পরিপূর্ণ ছলে ॥

prthivite yata katha dharma-name-chale
bhagavata kahe saba paripurna chhale

'Bhagavatam says that whatever is going on in this world in the name of religion is complete cheating.'

(Based on Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.1.2)

There are thirteen bogus sampradayas: aul, baul, kartabhaja, nera, darvesh, sani, sahajiya, sakhibekhi, smarta, jata gosai, atibari, churadhari, gauranga-nagari. We are told by the scriptures and by Mahaprabhu not to associate with such people. They are all more or less the same – they drink, smoke, etc. You can see during the Jayadev Mela how many baul sadhus come there to smoke ganja (marijuana). They say, 'Oh, Sivji Maharaj smokes ganja, too!' So, they become Sivji Maharajs... But Siva also swallowed poison, can they do that, too? Then all your baul kirtan is a sham. Sivji Maharaj can digest everything, but you cannot, so do not pretend to be Sivji Maharaj. Sahajiyas also keep ladies saying that Krishna did that, too...

When Srila Swami Maharaj came back from abroad, he brought some small boys with him. Those boys would go to the market and take some fruit and sweets and eat them. When they did this in Vrindavan, the shopkeepers were very annoyed. They said, 'These Swami Maharaj's boys look so nice, we cannot even say anything to them, but they steal our sweets!' One time, one of the shopkeepers asked a boy, 'Why are you doing this!' The boy replied, 'Krishna was born in this village. Krishna took and ate everything, so I will take and eat, too!' Then, all shops closed down and the shopkeepers came to Srila Swami Maharaj. They said, 'Maharaj, you have brought these adorable small boys from abroad, but we cannot open our shops. They keep taking and eating our sweets and fruit.'

'Really? Do they not pay you? They come from abroad, so it is not that they do not have money.'

'No, they say, "Why must we pay? Krishna ate everything, and He did not pay. He did that, so we will do that, too."'

'All right, when I give the class in the evening, I will explain it to them. You can open your shops, do not worry.'

Then, in the evening, Srila Swami Maharaj came to give class. He said, 'So, I hear that you have been going to shops and taking and eating their sweets without paying for it. Why do you do this? You have money, you must pay.'

One of the boys said, 'But why? Krishna ate it for free, He did not pay for anything! He could come to any place and take anything He wanted, so we come and just take whatever we want, too.'

'Really? But Krishna also lifted Govardhan with His left pinky. Try and lift even a brick with your pinky. When you cannot do even that, how can you compare yourself to Krishna? Go ahead and lift Govardhan then.'

'Well, we cannot do that.'

'Then you cannot steal fruit and sweets either! You cannot imitate what Krishna did. You can follow Krishna, but you cannot imitate Him. Follow what Krishna says in Gita. If you try to imitate what Krishna did, you will be lost.'

If you pour water on a seed, the seed will spout and grow, but if you pour too much water on it, it will rot. If we try to enter where we have no right to enter – if we want to know more and more – the sprouts of our devotional seeds will be destroyed. Remember this. This is what sahajiyas do. 'I am Krishna', 'I am Radharani' – this is what sahajiyas, bauls, etc. think. They sing, 'O my Golden Gaura, I will keep You in my heart and never leave You (sonara Gaura chhede deba na, hrta-majhare rakhiba ara chhede deba na).' They say with their mouths, 'I will keep you in my heart and never leave You,' but when they go back to their homes, they do not do anything – they do not even worship the Lord. They ask you for money on trains and spend that money on their wives, children, etc. That is why it is said:

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

"Just saying, 'I am Gora's! I am Gora's!' does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result."

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6–7)

Gora knows that you are theives – you cannot hide anything from Him.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Course of Life
2) Special Arrangement for Kali-Yuga
3) Beyond Religious Bigotry
4) Innermost Desires
5) Fortune, Faith and Frauds
6) Think about Your Real Self
7) Come to Krishna's Family
8) Seek Out Eternal Shelter
9) Proper Surrender
10) Misdirected Worship
11) Deepest Faith
12) Beyond Illusory World
13) Turn Home
14) Gross and Subtle Cheating
15) Watch for Milestones
16) Come Home with Me
17) All That Glitters Is Not Gold
18) Do Not Cheat Yourself
19) Soul's Plight
20) Eternal Transformations
21) Origin of Hinduism
22) Pig's Life, God's Life, Devotee's Life