(1/14) Students' Chastity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class,
16 February 2019, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Please do not walk here and there. Everybody must come here today. Please come to the nat-mandir and sit here. Come down from upstairs and sit here, it is not a problem – whether it is cold or hot, it does not matter, please come here and sit with us. Do not sit in your room, gossiping and telling each other stories – come here and discuss some Hari-katha. Sit here and listen about Nityananda Prabhu, then your coming here will be worthwhile. You have no time for the Lord – you are sitting in your rooms and talking. Please come here. We are starting the adhivas maha-mahotsav programme. If you have some service, then you can stay there and do it, but those who do not have service (who are walking idle around or sitting in their rooms) must come here and sit with us.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay.
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gaura Nityananda Prabhu ki jay.
Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay.
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay.
Vrinda Devi, Tulasi Devi, Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay.
Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay.
Sri Mayapur Dham, Sri Nabadwip Dham, Sri Vrindavan, Mathura ki jay.
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay.
Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay.
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay.
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay.
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay.
Tandiya sakha-math-samuha ki jay.
Sri Mather sevak-vrinda, bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Ananta-koti Vaishnav-vrinda ki jay.
Sri Gaudiya Acharya-vrinda ki jay.
Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay.
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay.
Suddha-bhaktir-vighna-vinasa-kari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay.
Sri Sada-Siva Gangadhar, Giriraj Govardhan ki jay.
Sriman Nityananda Prabhur avirbhav-tithibara adhivas maha-mahotsav ki jay.
Tad upalakse samasta yatri-vrinda, bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
All the sannyasi-vrinda ki jay.
All the worldwide devotees ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Gaura premanande Hari bol

Everybody, say together with me:

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Say together with me, 'Dayal Nitai! Dayal Nitai! Dayal Nitai! Dayal Nitai!'

As you all know, today is the adhivas (eve) of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance. [Much clamour] Quiet! Do not speak! If you are here with your children, keep them by your side – if you cannot handle them, take them outside or to your room.

We are very fortunate to be present here today. It is ekadasi today, you have all been observing it and you have got ekadasi anukalpa prasad. Tomorrow, after the mangal-arati, there will be a class and kirtans; after that, there will be Lord Varahadev's archan, and then the favourite preparation of Lord Varahadev (sweet rice) will be offered to the Deities along with all the other preparations for Gaura-Nitai's breakfast. After the bhog is offered, you will take paran (break the fasting) by nine o'clock. We will be giving prasad from eight to eight-fifty; after taking prasad, we will go out for the parikrama. The parikrama is only one–two hours – we will leave in the morning, and when we come back, we will have a programme here. There are a few holy places nearby – we will circumambulate them.

I know you are struggling here a lot – many devotees come from various places, and there is not enough accommodation for everybody. So, I was thinking this afternoon that I will build one more floor above the nat-mandir. I hope that next year, if I am alive that is, you will not have any problem. I took the decision this afternoon to build the third floor here to make more rooms and bathrooms so that you do not have to struggle so much anymore. I was also thinking today that if more Western devotees came, the other building would be full and there would be no place for others to stay. I have managed to give the fourth floor of that building to some devotees, but many are staying here in the nat-mandir, sleeping in the cold. It is a problem. When it is hot, we can sleep on the veranda, but it is very cold now. So, I will make more rooms above the nat-mandir. I will start the construction right away. Many devotees have come and could not get a room, so they are staying on the veranda, here and there, struggling. I feel bad. But what can I do? If you want to get Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, you have to put up with some austerity. The Lord is testing your tolerance. This king of material world is a place of examination for devotees. The Lord is testing His devotees in various ways. Some pass these tests, and some cannot. The madhyam examination is going to start soon at schools – those who have been studying well will pass it and those who have not been studying will fail it. In the same way, this world here is a place of our examination. We all must pass this examination.

We are all, in various ways, living in material bondage. We cannot understand how many people are actually genuinely practising Krishna consciousness. We do not understand what real Krishna consciousness is, what it means to live following the line of pure devotion; mostly, we only make nama-aparadh and listen to nonsense singing and chanting. We are eager to go to the places where they have hired people sing kirtans and play the harmonium. If you listen to such singing, your devotion will be destroyed.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

'Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

You can see devotees from *** here. Are you still going to listen to sahajiya singing? [The devotees say, 'No.'] Good. There is a story about Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj that happened when he was staying at the Math in Nabadwip. At that time there was no boundary wall around the temple – there was only a fence. Srila Babaji Maharaj was a very good kirtan singer himself, and he would sometimes stealthily jump over the fence and go to listen to some ladies' singing kirtans. When Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj got to know about it, he said to him, 'I have told you many times, but you are not listening. It is better if you leave. Leave the temple.' Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj left the temple. When he came to a place to cross the Ganges, he met a householder disciple of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. The devotee asked him, 'What has happened? Why did you leave the temple and where are you going now, Maharaj?'

'Oh, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told me to leave the temple...'

'What? Sridhar Maharaj does not kick out even an ant, why would he kick you out? You must have done something wrong.'

'I secretly went to listen to some kirtan that some girls and boys were singing at night.'

'Oh! You are a babaji who chants three lakhs of Holy Names every day, but do you not get any taste from the Holy Name? Why would you go to listen to girls and boys singing? Sridhar Maharaj did right!'

Srila Prabhupad himself said also that all this is Maya consciousness, not Krishna consciousness. When they hire people to sing kirtan, it gives some pleasure to the audience, it pleases your minds, but it will never bring you any spiritual benefit. If you yourself serve the Lord with devotion, then it is great devotion. Devotion means service to the Lord.

— : • : —

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Size: 68.8 Mb
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