(8/14) Illusion of Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class,
16 February 2019, part 8
Translated from Bengali

মূকং করোতি বাচালং পঙ্গুং লঙ্ঘয়তে গিরিম্ ।
যৎকৃপা তমহং বন্দে শ্রীগুরুং দীনতারণম্ ॥

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim
yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

'The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

First, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of my Divine Master Om Vishnupad Jagad-guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, begging him for his causeless mercy and aspiring to serve him; after that, I am offering my full obeisance to all the assembled guru-varga, all my godbrothers, to all the listeners, to all the motherly lady devotees and all the devotees, sannyasi-vrinda, brahmachari-vrinda. I am offering my obeisance at your holy feet and praying for your mercy to this lowly soul.

It is a very auspicious day today.

Devotee (interrupting His Divine Grace): Today is ekadasi, but we have not sung 'Suddha-bhakta-charana-renu'.

Yes, we will sing it; we have not finished kirtans yet. I remember everything...

First, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of my Divine Master Om Vishnupad Jagad-guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, begging him for his causeless mercy and aspiring to serve him...

Actually, we sing in the kirtan:

শুদ্ধ ভকত-চরণ-রেণু
ভজন-অনুকূল ।
ভকত-সেবা পরম-সিদ্ধি
প্রেমলতিকার মূল ॥

suddha-bhakata-charana-renu
bhajana-anukula
bhakata-seva parama-siddhi
prema-latikara mula

‘The dust of pure devotees' feet is favourable to devotion. Serving the devotees is the supreme fulfilment and the root of the creeper of divine love.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Service to devotees is the root of devotion. If a tree has no root, it cannot live; in the same way, without service to devotees, there can be no hope to come to the Lord or to even know the Lord. Many people sing kirtans, but how many people actually practise what they sing, tell me? Many people read Srimad Bhagavad-gita. When Mahaprabhu was told about the highest advice of Gita: 'Sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja (সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ). Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone,' He rejected it as karma-misra-bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits). In reply to what Krishna says in Gita, Mahaprabhu says, 'It is superficial. Go deeper.' After that, jnana-misra-bhakti (devotion mixed with knowledge-seeking) was mentioned. Mahaprabhu again said, 'It is superficial, go deeper.' Only when jnana-sunya-bhakti (devotion free from knowledge-seeking) was mentioned did Mahaprabhu say, 'Yes, this is OK.' The conversation went on and went up to prema-bhakti (pure loving devotion). But in our cases, how many of us practise even karma-misra-bhakti?

We live in the bondage of the illusory, material world, so we live in fake, pretentious, deceitful devotion and surrender. We often behave in a hypocritical way. Guru Maharaj said jokingly, 'You chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra shedding so many tears and crying, "Krishna! Krishna!", but if somebody punches you in the stomach, no "Krishna", "Krishna" will come out of your mouth — only "O Ma!" will come out.' One time, devotees were doing the temple parikrama and singing, 'Karuna na haile kandiya kandiya prana na rakhiba ara (করুণা না হৈলে কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া প্রাণ না রাখিব আর). If I do not get your mercy, then I will weep and give up life.' When they chanted that line, Guru Maharaj said, 'They are all liars. They are telling lies.'

So, how can we develop devotion? How can we serve the Lord? We do not know it... Everybody is thinking that they have become Vaishnavs. That is always the problem.

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

'Humility, compassion, giving honour to others and giving up your own prestige — become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Holy Name.'

(Gitavali, Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj showed the greatness of a Vaishnav in this world and who is called a Vaishnav. Moreover, sitting at Radha Kunda, Vraja-gopis said, 'We do not have any devotion! We do not have a trace of devotion for Krishna!' We have taken shelter in those gopis, but they say, 'We do not have any devotion for Krishna! We do not have any love or attraction to Krishna. We do not have the kind of devotion that Prahlad Maharaj has!' The gopis had so much devotion that they left everything – all fear, shyness, honour, pride – and ran after Krishna! They lamented for Krishna and became mad for Krishna, 'Where am I to go to find Kana? Where can I find Krishna?! Where am I to go?!' We have no right to go there or ever compare ourselves with them.

Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said very nicely one thing. Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami wrote in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita:

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥
মালী হঞা করে সেই বীজ আরোপণ ।
শ্রবণ-কীর্ত্তন-জলে করয়ে সেচন ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
mali hana kare sei bija aropana
sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

'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. As gardeners, they plant this seed and water it with sravan (hearing) and kirtan (chanting, practising).'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151–152)

When you pour water on a seed, the seed sprouts. If you keep watering it, the sprout will continue growing. But what happens if you pour too much water? So, what happens is that we try to practise the things where we have no right to enter. We run to read Vidyapati and Chandidas, Jayadev's Gita Govinda – we talk or think about such things. Those who have the right to read or think about such things can practise all that, but do we have this right, tell me? Can we practise such things? Never. We cannot discuss what the gopis sang. This is a very high matter. If we try to discuss these matters, the sprout of our devotional creeper will be destroyed. Be careful! Always be careful not to become removed from service.

— : • : —

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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