(13/14) Covering Up Prejudices

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class,
16 February 2019, part 13
Translated from Bengali

You have been listening for a long time, does anybody have any questions? Raise your hand if you have any questions. Do not be afraid or shy.

Question: We are fasting on ekadasi today, but I do not know why.

It is not necessary to know it. Mahaprabhu told to follow ekadasi, so we follow it. Do not fast because you want to get something. What did Srila Prabhupad say? What is it that you cannot give up even after you have given up everything? You come to this line of Krishna consciousness, thinking, 'If I serve the Lord, I will come to Him.' This is also a desire, and even that kind of desire must be given up. There are books where the glories of each ekadasi are described ('if you fast on this ekadasi, you will get this result'), but we want neither sin nor piety, neither heaven nor hell. Devotees do not judge about sins or piety, they do not think about heaven or hell. Mahaprabhu and gurudev told to follow ekadasi, and you do it – it is not necessary to think about anything else. Mahaprabhu told His mother, 'You must follow ekadasi,' so we follow ekadasi – all devotees of Mahaprabhu followed ekadasi, Srila Prabhupad also told everyone to follow ekadasi. The question is not why you must follow ekadasi but how you must follow ekadasi. It is not necessary to know why you follow it – gurudev told to follow it, so we must follow it. This is what faith is.

Suppose you are walking together with gurudev. Suddenly, you see a snake, so you cry, 'Gurudev! A snake! A snake!' but gurudev says, 'It is not a snake; it is a rope.' You must believe it. This is what is called chastity. It is not necessary to think about it in any other way. Mahaprabhu told to followed ekadasi, so we will do it. There are books that describe many results you can get by following ekadasi – you will get this result, that result, etc. So, some people follow ekadasi hoping to get some result. Many people read Srimad Bhagavad-gita: at the end of the book, there is glorification of Gita where it says that you can get this result, that result; people like to think about those results, but they do not think about what Gita itself says and do not follow what Gita itself says. There is karma-yoga, jnana-yoga and many other kinds of yoga described in Gita, some of those yogas are disguised mayavadi teachings. Another word for mayavadis (impersonalists) is sunyavadis (voidists) – they want to become effaced by merging into the impersonal Brahman. So, it is not necessary to know about all these 'glories'. If you want, you can read about the glories of ekadasi. For example, it is said that if you fast on Sat-tila Ekadasi, you can offer one sesame seed and all your sins will go away; if you fast on Pama-vimochani Ekadasi, all your sins will go away; and if you fast on Bhima Ekadasi, you will get the strength like that of Bhima, right? [His Divine Grace laughs] It is no use knowing about all these results. Do not think about these things. If you think about this result, that result, you will not be able to practise Krishna consciousness.

Our main thing is service mood. We only want to serve the Lord.

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

'You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

I am offering some service to the Lord, and He may or may not accept it, it is His matter.

Question: Many say that when you fast on ekadasi, you must bathe in the Ganges.

People say many things... You know, one time, I went to a mill in Bardhaman to do collection, and it was an ekadasi day. The owner of the mill offered us something to eat, but we said that we were fasting. Then, I asked him, 'Are you not fasting today? It is ekadasi...' He replied, 'Why will we fast on ekadasi? We are not widows!' I said, 'Oh, so we are widows then?' [His Divine Grace bursts out laughing.] So, in Bardhaman there is this idea that only widows fast on ekadasi. At the same time, if they think that a widowed lady must fast on ekadasi, then widowed men should also fast on ekadasi. This is all a transgression against women. Some girls become widows at a very young age, so they make them fast during three days – on the day before ekadasi, on ekadasi, and the day after ekadasi. This is called dhama-chapa (ধামাচাপা) – avoiding or covering up the truth.

I have told you a story about a hidden cat. When a girl got married, she saw that her parents-in-law kept a cat locked away. If the girl had asked, she would have been told that the cat was just naughty and because many guests were coming, the cat would have disturbed them. Then, the lady had her own children, and some twenty-five years later, she arranged her son's marriage. She told her husband, 'I remember when I came to your house, your mother had kept a cat locked away, but we do not have a cat now. Find a cat and bring it home.' The man brought a cat home, but the wife said, 'Oh, but that was a black cat, and this is not a black cat.' They could not find a black cat, so the woman said, 'All right, plaint this cat with black paint then!'

I have seen similar things here, in Ekachakra, also. When I first came here, I wanted to make a tin shed, but I needed to buy bamboo. I went to one brahman's house to buy bamboo. The problem was that there were no workers to cut it. I bought a lot of bamboo for the future construction works for forty or fifty rupees (now the price is much higher). I asked the brahman to cut it, but he said, 'Nobody in my family cuts bamboo!' I started asking him questions, and eventually he told me that somebody in their family got hurt in the eye with a bamboo twig, and nobody from that family had been cutting bamboo ever since!

In Nasigram, there is one family where the head of the family says, 'Nobody in our family is allowed to go to Jagannath Puri for Ratha Yatra.' I told them, 'I will take you forcefully then!' Why did they not go for Ratha Yatra? Because their grandmother had gone there once and hurt her leg in the crowd. I forced them to go and when we returned, I asked them, 'So? Has anything happened to you?' This is all dhamachapa, doing something wrong to avoid the truth.

People say that you can eat fish, meat, everything and when you dunk yourself into the Ganges, all your sins will go away – you will become pure. Do you know what else they say? Many sadhus even at our temples say that it is OK to use the pots and utensils that are used for weddings and other functions – they say that you can just wash them in the Ganges and then use at the temple. One time, devotees in Uluberia told me about this. I told them that they could not do that. They said that some maharaj had told that it was OK. I said, 'All right, then you also can eat fish, meat and just go dunk yourself into the Ganges and you will be clean again.'

These are all misconceptions; these are the things going on in this world. If these things did not exist, how would the guru business run then? If everybody was to hear Srila Prabhupad's teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, then all this would go away – they would not be such people in this world. That is why Srila Prabhupad said that even all hopes must be given up. We must not have any desires or hopes for anything.

— : • : —

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Length: 144 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Students' Chastity
2) Parikrama Outline
3) We Cannot Ignore Nityananda Prabhu
4) Reaching Out to Nityananda Prabhu
5) Dasya-Abhiman
6) Be Sincere and Serious
7) Worship Nitai!
8) Illusion of Devotion
9) Vaishnavs' Qualities
10) Who Are You Serving?
11) Learn to Appreciate Service
12) Lesson for Householder Devotees
13) Covering Up Prejudices
14) Devotion to Devotion