(2/2) Basic Rules and Regulations

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, noon programme,
22 February 2019, part 2
Translated from Bengali

This Holy Name comes down through a guru-parampara. Brahma received it from Krishna; after that, Narad received initiation from Brahma; then, Vyasadev took initiation from Narad; Madhvacharya took initiation from Vyasadev. In this way, it comes through many gurus – I will not tell you all their names now because it will take a long time, but you can see all these names in our books (in my books and in the kirtan books). Anyhow, the Holy Name descends in this way through many gurus and comes to our main guru, Srila Madhavendra Puri. Sri Ishwar Puri received this Holy Name from Sri Madhavendra Puri, and then Mahaprabhu Himself received this Holy Name from Sri Ishwar Puri. Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and Srila Advaita Acharya had got it also from him, before Mahaprabhu. Continuing to descend in this way, the Holy Name came down to our Gaudiya Vaishnav line: Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and, finally, our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj (the Founder Acharya of our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math) and my Gurudev (our Math's Acharyapad, previous guru and sevaita-acharya) Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Srila Gurudev ordered me, 'If somebody wants to take initiation and is ready to sincerely follow all rules and regulations, you can given initiation to them.'

I think that you must have certainly heard about the rules and regulations. It is necessary to follow these rules properly.

(1) Gambling. Playing dice, cards, chess, buying lottery tickets. These must be given up. Many people buy lottery tickets, and it destroys their lives. There was a case recently when a man had won fifteen million rupees(!) in lottery, but then he spent everything, sold all his things and even his house and ended up as a beggar on the street.

(2) Intoxication. Alcohol, ganja (marijuana), bhang (hemp), bidi, cigarettes, paan (betel) and tea. If you are used to drinking tea, even that habit must be given up. If you are addicted to tea, you can suck on some chocolate and the habit will slowly go away. Instead of tea, drink hot milk.

(3) Illicit sex. It means association with women or men out of wedlock. If a man has a wife, he must not mix with other women; and if a woman has a husband, she must not mix with other men. Moreover, the scriptures say something that is even harder to follow. If I tell about it, you will not like to hear it, but I have to say it. Illicit association also means too much attachment to your husband or wife. You are to have sex with your wife only to produce a child, not for any other purpose, not at any other time.

Eating, sleeping, fearing and mating – the more you increase these things, the more they will increase. For example, if you always eat more, you will get used to eating a lot; but if you try to decrease your food intake, you will gradually eat less. When I first came to the temple, I could eat 25–30(!) rotis, but now I cannot eat even one roti – I take only a half, and I am alive, there is no problem. When I stay in Kolkata, I take half a roti. As I served and served the Lord, the amount of food I eat gradually decreased, and I am still alive, I do not have any problem. The same is true about sleeping. For example, I fell asleep at two o'clock yesterday. I have to write the book, so when I got free, at eleven in the evening, I sat and did some writing, and when I felt sleepy, I stopped. And when it comes to the Gaura Purnima festival time, I cannot sleep the whole day – I hardly get any sleep during that time because I go to bed very late and I have to wake early to see to everything. Then, fear – the more you fear, the more fear you will feel. You must rely on the Lord – what is there to be afraid of then? As soon as we do not have anybody above us, all the enemies will attack us. Our enemies are within us: lust (kama), anger (krodha), greed (lobha), illusion (moha), madness (mada), envy (matsarya).

Anger is one of the worst enemies – out of anger, out of greed for money people even kill each other. Even when a boy says that he loves a girl, this is not love – this is lust. A boy loves a girl, but the girl rejects him, 'No, I do not want to have anything to do with you,' and the boy kills her – is this what you call love? If he loved her, how could he kill her? This is only lust – he wants something and when he cannot get it, he kills the person. This is the Age of Kali (age of quarrel). 'Moha' (illusion) means attachment and fondness to the illusory environment – all attachment and fondness must be towards Lord Krishna's devotees. 'Mada' (conceit, maddness) means ego: somebody is very proud of their beauty, somebody is very proud of their talents, somebody is very proud of their wealth, etc. There are many things people are proud of in this world. Somebody is proud of their fame. Somebody used to be a simple farmer, but now they have become a minister and they become very proud of it. And 'matsarya' means envy. You see that somebody has a lot of money and you think that they have got it in some bad way. This is jealousy. Somebody is doing well, but you cannot tolerate it. There are such people. All these desires, all these things are there inside us: rupa (eye-enjoyment), rasa (tongue-enjoyemnt), gandha (nose-enjoyment), sabda (ear-enjoyment), sparsa (tactile enjoyment). And our naughty minds always pull us in different ways...

So, (4) is violence towards other souls. Do not kill any jiva souls. 'Sarva-jive krsna-adhisthan (সর্ব্বজীবে কৃষ্ণ-অধিষ্ঠান). Krishna is present in all jiva souls' (Gitavali). God lives in all living entities, so do not kill any souls for your own pleasure or enjoyment. Sadhus never do this. For example, they are cooking rice and other things here today, but who are they doing it for? For Gopal, for Lord Govinda. When you cut rice paddy, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach or anything else, you are killing the jiva soul living in the plant. Everything in this world exists for the Lord. So, if you cut some plant for the Lord – to offer the vegetable or rice to the Lord – then you can do it.

There are also things that cannot be offered to the Lord. Fish, meat, eggs, onion, garlic and lentils (masoori dal). Do not eat and do not cook these things, it is a sin. If your family are not initiated, you must try to be clever and make your own arrangements secretly. When you go shopping, buy fruit, dal, etc. and cook it, put it on a plate with some Tulasi leaves and offer it to a picture of Deities. Then, give that prasad to the family members who still eat fish, meat, etc. When they take prasad, their craving for meat, fish, etc. will slowly go away. Do this and you will see that gradually – after one, two or more years – they will give it up, too. You will see that the Lord will arrange for them to give up meat, alcohol, etc. Always remember this. You must always take prasad. It can be hard at first because you will not have taste for it; but always take prasad, and the taste will come.

Follow these rules, then you will be able to genuinely chant the Holy Name. I will not chant on your beads. [His Divine Grace proceeds to give initiation to the fortunate soul.]

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 8 Mb
Length: 16 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Welcome to Krishna's Family
2) Basic Rules and Regulations