(7/10) Surrender Comes First

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
23 February 2019, evening, part 7
Translated from Bengali

Coming to this line to serve the Lord, you can give up everything, but you cannot give up Him (paramartha). Artha (money, wealth) can sometimes turn into anartha (an evil, undesirable thing), but if artha is used for the service to Lord Govinda, then it becomes paramartha (greatest spiritual wealth) – there are no anarthas in that. Always remember this.

Being covered with anarthas, you must always chant Nitai-Gaura's Names, then you will – Nityananda Prabhu will be merciful to you. Always call out to Them, 'Nitai Gaura Hari bol!' And this is not the same as going to people's houses, saying, 'Jay Nitai, Jay Gaura' and robbing them. People say, 'Jay Nitai' and think to themselves, 'Give me money.' If anybody rich comes to Nityananda Prabhu's holy dham, they always come to them and ask, 'Jay Nitai. Give money.' There are such 'sadhus' in this world who impose a tax on people, but Gaudiya Math's sadhus never do that. In this world, government imposes a tax on land, on property, but neither genuine gurus, nor Vaishnavs, nor God ever impose any tax on devotees.

Lord Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 'Even if My devotees are utterly poor and cannot give Me anything, if they serve Me sincerely with only a drop of Ganges water and a Tulasi leaf – I become sold to them! I cannot repay My debt to them – I cannot give them anything in return, so I give them Myself.'

We can give so many things to the Lord, but first of all we must give ourselves. We must become surrendered souls.

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

sad-anga saranagati haibe yahara
tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

'Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in the six-fold way.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must become such surrendered souls – surrendered in all six ways. We chant in kirtan: 'Chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi (ছয় বেগ দমি' ছয় দোষ শোধি). O Vaishnav Thakur! Please subjugate my six urges (speech, mind, anger, tongue, stomach, genitals) and rectify my six defects (greed, doing what is unfavourable to devotion, idle talks, attachment to inferior rules, material association, fickle-mindedness).' How will all our diseases go away? On the one hand, by always taking prasad; and on the other hand, by controlling yourself (by controlling your tongue, etc.). But the problem is that we cannot give up small, trifle things...

We cannot cheat and swindle people – we cannot say, 'Eat whatever you want, just come and take initiation from me.' We cannot say such things to anybody. When you do a fire sacrifice, you know that you must put ghee, but if you put a spoonful of ghee and then a spoonful of water, no fire sacrifice can be made like that (the fire will not burn). In the same way, you must follow that which is favourable to devotion and you must reject that which is not favourable to devotion. That is why we tell everyone not to do four things: no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no slaughter.

I have read recently in the newspaper that one man had won millions of rupees in lottery, but then he spent all that money on a new house, car, jewellery, etc. and kept buying more lottery tickets. After that, the money finished and he started selling everything – his house, car, his wife's jewellery, everything. This is what happens when people gamble. People blame it on the government. But what is their fault? They get tax and profit from it – why will they ban lottery? But you have a brain. Why do you have to be so greedy for money? Only try to procure whatever is necessary for you to keep your body and soul together and serve the Lord – this is your duty. Even if you have a three-storey house or a hundred-storey house, what will you do with it? You cannot take it with you. You come naked and you have to leave naked – you will not take anything from this world with you.

গর্দ্দভের মত আমি করি পরিশ্রম ।
কার লাগি' এত করি না ঘুচিল ভ্রম ॥

gardabhera mata ami kari parisrama
kara lagi' eta kari, na ghuchila bhrama

'I toil laboriously like a donkey. For whom am I doing this? Still my illusion has not been dispelled.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

What for are you running here and there so much? What for are you craving so many things? That is why we say that you must not gamble – do not play cards, dice, lottery, chess, etc. Do not take any intoxicants (tobacco, cigarettes, bidi, tea, etc.). These things spoil your health and make your mind restless – if you take intoxicants, they make your mind go in a wrong direction and make you do wrong things. Stop illicit sex. You can understand yourself that having too much attachment to your own wife and mixing freely with other ladies are both bad. And the fourth thing is slaughter – this is what you are all afraid of most, 'Oh, if I take initiation in Gaudiya Math or from this Maharaj, I will not be able to to eat fish and meat, I will not be able to enjoy. What will I do if I take initiation here? It is better to take initiation from those who allow to eat fish and meat.' This is useless. Taking initiation from such places and worshipping Maya (practising Maya consciousness) are one and the same. Such initiation can never save you from this material world. 200% guarantee.

So, we cannot cheat people. We cannot say, 'Do whatever you want.' Just as a good doctor does not think about his patient's money but thinks how to help the patient get cured from a disease; in the same way, a genuine guru always thinks about the benefit of his disciple, 'How can this disciple be saved from this material world and taken to the Lord's abode?' Bogus gurus (karmi-gurus, jnani-gurus, yogi-gurus, etc.) always think, 'How can I get more money from people? Where shall I go to get my hundred rupees today?' There are many such vitta-harankari gurus in this world (those who come to rob you of your wealth and money), but there are very few santap-harankari gurus (spiritual teachers who come to 'rob' you of your material agony). So, if you are looking for a shortcut (looking for places where you can do anything you want), you will not get anything there. If you cannot give up trifle things, you can never get any great benefit.

Until and unless you surrender to the Lord, all these things will not enter your ears...

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Size: 40 Mb
Length: 82 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Oblivious Existence
2) Practise Hari-Kirtan
3) Your Deepest Need
4) Engage Yourself in Sankirtan
5) Bhakta-Abhiman and Bhakta-Bhav
6) Deadly Dearth
7) Surrender Comes First
8) Wasted Time, Wasted Life
9) Managers' Mania
10) Remember, Love and Serve the Lord