(11/11) Devotional Propriety

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
21 February 2019, noon, part 11
Translated from Bengali

The new volume of Guidance is written in difficult language, but you can read there about many important things – about hell, about why Srila Sridhar Maharaj established this mission, about the history of the temple; Srila Swami Maharaj, the founder of ISKCON, is also mentioned there. I have explained the difference between our mission and ISKCON. I have told you about it many times. I have also written here a chapter called 'Without Lord Krishna Life Is Meaningless', where I wrote the Hari-katha that we speak on the Janmastami day. I wrote also about 'The Unrenounceable' – what cannot be given up even after having given up everything? You can give up everything, but what you cannot give up is the highest end of life, the spiritual life; and another thing that cannot be given up is pratistha (desire for name and fame). Read it. I have also written the Hari-katha for the Radhastami day. Sometimes you cannot come to our temple on this day, so you go to some other places to celebrate this day, and I have written here what you should speak about on this day. I have written here about Srimati Radharani's glory. I have also written here about yatharna- or yathayogya-vad (the teachings about what is appropriate or right). This is a little difficult to understand. Yathayogya-vad means that no parents wants their child to become a brahmachari or a sannyasi. Even Jagannath Misra did not want it for his son – even he said:

"he govinda, nimani rahuka mora ghare
sabe ei bara, krsna, magi tora thani
grhastha haiya ghare rahuka nimani"

'O Lord Govinda, let Nimai stay at home. O Krishna, this is the only benediction that I ask of You. Let Nimai stay at home as a householder.'

(Chaitanya-bhagavatam, 1. 8.93–94)

Yathayogya means that the Lord gives us whatever is necessary, and we must be happy with that. Wanting more and more and more: I want to eat nice things, I want to live in a nice house – that is not right.

Srila Jagadananda Pandit, Sriman Mahaprabhu's associate, expressed the true meaning of proper renunciation in this way:

"yatha-yogya" ei sabda—dutira marmartha bujhe laha
kapatartha lana yena deharami na ha'

"Understand the two purports of the phrase 'as appropriate' so that you do not accept the false meaning and become a sensualist.

suddha-bhaktira anukula kara angikara
suddha-bhaktira pratikula kara asvikara

"Accept everything favourable to pure devotion, and reject everything unfavourable to pure devotion.

marmartha chhadiya yeba sabda-artha kare
rasera vase deharami kapata-marga dhare

"Those who reject this purport and misinterpret the phrase are sensualists controlled by pleasures; they follow the path of deceit.

bhala khaya, bhala pare, kare bahu dhanarjana
yosit-sange rata hana phire ratra-dina
bhala sayya attalika khonje arvachina

"They eat fancy food, wear fancy clothes, accumulate immense wealth. Attached to the company of women, such fools roam about night and day searching for a mansion with a fancy bed.

deha-yatrara upayogi nitanta prayojana
visaya svikara kari' kara dehera raksana

"Instead of all this, maintain the body by accepting things that are suitable and actually necessary for its preservation."

(Sri Prema-vivarta, chapter 9)

It is necessary to have certain material things, but you must keep that which you need for the body and health, not more than that.

sattvika sevana kara asaba varjana
sarva-bhute daya kari' kara uchcha sankirtana

"Eat food in the mode of goodness and reject intoxicants. Be kind to all beings and loudly chant the Name.

deva-seva chhala kari' visaya nahi kara
visayete raga-dvesa sada parihara

"Do not engage in worldly affairs on the pretence of Deity worship, and always avoid attachment and aversion to worldly matters.

para-himsa kapatata, anya sane vaira
kabhu nahi kara bhai! yadi mora vakya dhara

"Never behave enviously, deceitfully, or inimically with others, brother, if you want to follow My advice.

vaisnave adara kara prasadadi diya
artha nai dainya-vakye tosa minati kariya

"Honour the Vaishnavas with prasad and other remnants. If you have no wealth, then submissively satisfy them with humble words.

parijana parikara krsna-dasa-dasi
atma-sama-palane haibe mista-bhasi

"Consider your friends and relatives servants of Krishna, care for them as well as you care for yourself, and speak to them sweetly.

smarana-kirtana-seva sarva-bhute daya
ei ta' karibe yukta vairagi haiya

"Remember, glorify, and serve the Lord, and be kind to all beings. Do all this as a proper renunciant.

krsna yadi nahi deya parijana-parikara
athava diya ta laya sarva-sukhera akara

"Krishna may not give you friends and relatives, or He may give them and then take them away. Accept all such conditions as a source of joy.

soka-moha chhada bhai nama kara nirantara
jagai bale, e-bhava gaurera sane mora ko̐ndala vistara

"Brother, leave behind all lamentation and material affection, and always chant the Name." Jagai says, "I have many quarrels with Gaura about this."

(Sri Prema-vivarta, chapter 9)

Krishna has given us children, but He may or may not give them, and even if He gives them, He can also take them back. Therefore, you must neither lament nor have excessive illusory attachment to them. Do not indulge in material affection. When somebody dies, we lament, and when somebody is born, we are very happy, but both such lamentation and such happiness must be given up. '"Brother, leave behind all lamentation and material affection, and always chant the Name." Jagai says, "I have many quarrels with Gaura about this."' Srila Jagadananda Pandit writes this in his book Sri Sri Prema-Vivarta.

Srila Prabhupad also says, 'During the time when the averse to the service of the Lord and attached to the material world conditioned jiva soul leaves this world, it is afflicted by the same hellish suffering that it experiences in the womb before its birth – suffering continuously from such pain, the soul ends up in hell.' Deprived of service to the Lord and falling prey to material attachments, the soul suffers in hell before birth, while it is in a mother's womb, and after birth, while living in this world. How is the soul taken to hell?

'Engrossed in maintaining his family, unable to control his senses, a materialist householder becomes anxious seeing his family weeping in deep sorrow—in this state he finally loses consciousness and leaves his body. At death, he sees two fearsome messengers (yamadutas) of Yamaraj, the Lord of Death, come before him, their eyes full of wrath. Grief-stricken at the sight of them, he keeps passing stool and urine. At first, these yamadutas seize the agonising (subtle) body of the man and detach it from the gross body—they throw a rope on his neck and bind him tight. Then, like constables accompanying a criminal, the servants of Yamaraj take the man far away to their own place. Hearing the swearing of the yamadutas, the man's heart is torn apart, and he begins to tremble with all his body. On the way, dogs keep gnawing at him – feeling extreme pain, the man keeps walking remembering all his sins. The road that the yamadutas take him is full of scorching sand – with no shelter for rest and no water. He is dying from hunger, scorching heat and forest fires, extremely weak, unable to walk any further, but the yamadutas keep striking his back with a whip trying to impede his agonising walk. Fatigued, he collapses on the ground and faints, and then, having come round, he again carries on walking. In this way he is brought to the abode of Lord Yama down this dark, swelling with sins path. The path to the house of Yamaraj that one has to cover is ninety-nine thousand yojanas [one yojana is 8 miles] long, and the some people are forced to pass all this long road within two muhurtas [one muhurta is 96 minutes]. When the sinner appears in the court of Lord Yamaraj, he sees: in some places, bodies are surrounded by blazing coal burning the limbs of the sinner; in some places, the sinners tear off their own or others' flesh and eat it; even if the person is still alive, dogs, vultures and other animals living in Lord Yamaraj's house pull out his intestines; some are bitten and stung by snakes, scorpions, gadflies and other creatures and suffer excruciating pain; others have all their limbs and projecting parts severed piece by piece; some are hurled down from the top of a mountain; some are enclosed in a hole or dunked into water. The sinner has to undergo all these kinds of suffering. Be it a man or a woman, materialist householders have to suffer after death in a corresponding hell for all the sins they have contracted.'

Read these things carefully. I did not make up these things myself.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 31 Mb
Length: 64 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Step Forward
2) Be Content and Focused
3) Pursue Eternal Wealth
4) My Appeal to You
5) Lord Vamanadev's Appearance
6) Bali Maharaj's Sacrifice
7) Lord Vamandev's Gift
8) Rusted Souls' Solace
9) Read and Remember
10) Accept Guidance
11) Devotional Propriety