(3) Beyond Religious Bigotry

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, evening, 20 January 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

সাধুসঙ্গে কৃষ্ণনামে—এই মাত্র চাই ।
সংসার জিনিতে আর কোন বস্তু নাই ॥

sadhu-sange krsna-nama—ei matra chai
samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

'I desire only to chant the Name of Krishna in the association of sadhus. There is no other way to conquer this material world.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.13, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

We know that we can come to the Lord just by chanting the Holy Name, then why does it say here that the Holy Name must be chanted in the association of sadhus? Because

অসাধুসঙ্গে ভাই কৃষ্ণনাম নাহি হয় ।
নামাক্ষর বাহিরায় বটে তবু নাম কভু নয় ॥

asadhu-sange bhai krsna-nama nahi haya
namaksara bahiraya bate tabu nama kabhu naya

'Brother, the Name of Krishna never appears in bad association: the letters of the Name may appear, but the Name never does.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.1, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

It is impossible to chant the Holy Name in bad association (asadhu-sanga). Chanting the Holy Name and chanting the letters of the Holy Name are not the same thing. Calling the Lord is one thing, but hypocritically pretending to call the Lord is not calling the Lord. That is why it is said that Krishna's Name never appears in bad association: what is pronounced may sound like the letters of the Name, but it can never be the Name proper.

We chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but there are ten offences. When I went to Sehakhala, Hooghly, for a preaching programme, somebody asked me, 'Maharaj, it is the Boishakh month now, so we do Nama-kirtans in every province, going house to house – we do four-prahar and eight-prahar kirtans. But why does it not bring any benefit to our village?' I explained why. After that, we went to the next programme at another house. When I came to the house and was going upstairs, I saw some people sitting dressed up to the nines (wearing fine white traditional panjabi and dhoti) chanting kirtan. Then, I suddenly saw the man putting a hand in his pocket and taking out a bidi (cigarette). Then, another man, a pickpocket, entered the place and put his hand in that man's pocket. The first man was so relaxed that he did not even notice anything. I did not go inside there because there was singing, dancing, playing the harmonium going on, why will I go there? I turned to the man who had asked me about kirtans earlier and told him, 'You were asking me why you do all these kirtans but get no benefit. What benefit can such hired kirtan singers bring to you?' You listen to such kirtans for one day, feel happy in your mind, and the next day you do whatever you want. What benefit is such kirtan to you? If a sadhu can bring even one person to this path, through that person ten more people will come to this path. This is the genuine process. What common people chant is called 'Nama bale papachar – sinning on the strength of the Holy Name (thinking that you can chant the Holy Name and all the sins you keep committing will be removed by the power of the Holy Name).'

People pride themselves on holding eight-prahar kirtans (twenty-four-hour day-long kirtans, from sunrise to sunrise). What does it mean? It means they do all kinds of wrong things 364 days a year, and one day a year they hold kirtan, thinking, 'All my sins will be removed!' This is 'Nama bale papachar'. This is one of the offences to the Holy Name. You do wrong things from morning to evening, and in the evening you chant the Holy Name once, thinking, 'Oh, I have done something wrong, but I have chanted four rounds, so all my sins will go away.' If you chant with this idea, this is not the Holy Name – it is nama-aparadha. Remember this. There are ten offences to the Holy Name, and this is one of those offences. Even if you chant the Holy Name like this your whole life, you will not get any result.

I told yesterday also that at the place I come from, they used to hold month-long kirtans (240-prahar kirtans). I told them, 'You are only wasting your money. I do not want to be part of this, so I cannot stay at your house anymore. I do not want to have any connection with your house.' I left my job and that house thirty-five years ago, when I was twenty-five. I was firm, 'I do not want to have any relation to your house.' When a guru came to their house, he never spoke any Hari-katha – he would only speak some gramya-katha. There was no Holy Name, no arati, no puja. When we come to devotees' houses, we follow all rules and regulations – we wake up early in the morning for the mangal-arati, chant kirtan, offer balya-bhog, do archan, offer morning bhog, take prasad, then cook and offer noon bhog, take noon prasad, then in the afternoon we again wake up the Deities, offer some fruit bhog, then do evening arati, chant evening kirtans, again offer bhog and take prasad. This is how you serve the Lord – you should do for the Lord everything you would do for yourself. For example, if you feel hot, you turn on the fan, so you must turn the fan or the A/C on for the Deities. If you feel cold, you wear a shawl, so you must also put a shawl on for the Deities. If it is a hot day, you like to eat sorbet, so you should offer sorbet or some lassi to the Deities. This is what is called atmavat-seva (আত্মবৎ সেবা). I have also seen in other missions that they offer panta-bhat (পান্তা ভাত, cooked rice soaked in water overnight) in the morning on a hot day. If one feels happy eating panta-bhat, they even offer that. I have seen others do that.

I have built a house, so I am the master – it is not so. It is not my house, the owner of the house is Gopal, the Lord. We cannot eat anything without feeding Him. He is the master of the house, so we cannot do anything on our own, bypassing Him.

You wake up in the morning and first thing you say is, 'Hey, make me some tea.' (You treat your wife as your servant.) You have your tea, but the Lord is sleeping, and you do not worry about Him – you only always think about yourself. This is wrong. Only those who practise themselves can preach to others – if you do not practise yourself, you cannot preach to others.

নিজে আচারি' ধর্ম্ম জীবকে শিখায়
আচার পর্রচার নামের লইনু কার্য

nije achari dharma jivke sikhaya
achara prachara namera lainu karya

'Practise yourself and then teach religion to other souls. Your chanting and preaching about the Holy Name will be effective when you practise yourself and preach.'

If I do not follow the rules and regulations but tell others to follow them, who will listen to me? If I follow all the rules and regulations myself, then I can tell others to follow them and others will listen to me. If I do not chant the Holy Name, do not pray three times a day (trisandya-ahnika, ত্রিসন্ধ্যা আহ্নিক), do not chant on my beads, then how can I tell others to do it? Therefore, we must always practise properly ourselves. This is what we have come to teach you all. I have told you before that I do not come here to chant the Holy Name – I come to give you an opportunity to chant the Holy Name (to make you chant the Holy Name). If I eat, my stomach will be full – not yours. So, if I chant the Holy Name or some hired singers come and chant or some hired brahmans come and do puja, what use is it to you? I have seen some 'brahmans' go shop to shop – they put tilak (phonta, ফোঁটা), chant, 'Om, om, om' and get their monthly wage from you. They make business with this kinds of 'puja'. All such hired worship will not do. You must call out to the Lord from within your heart; you must serve the Lord with heart. You say that you have no time, so you bring some hired people to do service – how will they do it? What worship can they do? Do they have the right to worship the Lord? First you must understand who is a genuine brahman.

In the place where I came from, my mother washed the guru's feet with her hair! I studied at the seventh or eight grade at that time, and one time, I asked that guru, 'When gurus or sadhus come, they come to speak some Hari-katha, but you do not say anything. You say that you are vegetarian, but I heard you tell men to catch a nice fat carp and cook it for you!' He said, 'Do not act smart. Carps are vegetarian (niramish, নিরামিষ), and all the small fish (horn fish – shim শিং; anabas – koi, কই) are non-veg (amish, আমিষ).' I replied, 'Oh really?' How can that be? Fish is fish, it is non-vegetarian.

It is actually written in the scriptures that demons (those who hate brahmans – devadvija-drohi, দেবদ্বিজ-দ্রোহী) are born as brahmans in Kali-yuga. There are many good brahmans who become Vaishnavs, but not everybody are like that. I know that if any brahman hears this, he will feel hurt, but I cannot but say this because this is what is written in the scriptures. Brahmans take from others without giving anything to them (they come with a stretched out hand), they mix with widows, they grow long beards and hair, wear red tilaks, drink alcohol, take drugs. They take a lower birth than even that of a sudra. These are the words of the scriptures (Bhagavatam, Varaha Purana, Mahabharata, etc.), not mine. Of course, if any of such brahmans comes to this line and become a Vaishnav, then he will become great.

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