(5/6) Beware Imitation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
27 February 2019, afternoon, part 5
Translated from Bengali

In our days, there are all these aul, baul, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, saki, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosani, atibari, chudadhari, gauranga-nagari. All these bogus movements have spread around, teaching people wrong things. They come and say, 'Eat whatever your soul pleases.' It is necessary to understand that such people simply cheat others – they do guru business and steer everyone down a wrong path. They will go to hell themselves and take others with them. Therefore, practise real Krishna consciousness: worship the Lord, worship Nitai-Gaura; follow the conception of our guru-varga – the conception that was established by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad and maintained by our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj and our Gurupadpadma Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. They preached the conception of Sri Rupa-Raghunath; we must follow in their footsteps and continue preaching their conception.

Do not be discouraged. Whatever people say, let them say whatever they want. You must have determination, 'I will chant the Holy Name, I will chant kirtan, I will chant Lord Krishna's Names and glories, and I will try to bring my friends and near and dear ones to this line, too. I will speak about Krishna consciousness to them – they will not listen, they will not want all this, they do not know and do not understand anything, whatever, but I must give them some benefit.' We must think about others. This is jive daya (kindness to other living entities) – we must think about others' benefit and welfare.

If you keep trying to serve other living entities, both their souls and your soul will get benefit. If you can bring to this path even one soul who has turned away from the Lord, you will get benefit too. That is why Srila Prabhupad said that if you keep trying to serve living entities, your soul will attain benefit. What does it mean to serve others? To give people ten rupees or buy medicine or clothes for them? No. If you can bring a single averse soul (bahirmukha jiva) to Sri Gurupadpadma's holy feet and encourage them to take shelter at the holy feet of Sri Gurupadpadma, this is real service (jiva-seva). This is what Srila Prabhupad taught us about service to other souls.

Outside people from other missions, particularly that which Srila Prabhupad called a 'chicken' mission (murgi mission), say that service to others means distributing medicine, clothes or blankets among the poor and needy. They think that this is jiva-seva, and all the goats, cows, chickens and sheep are not souls, so they kill and eat them. They advocate for education, but is there any guarantee that when you educate people they do not become dacoits? Is there any guarantee that the person you take so much trouble to educate will become a good person? It often happens that people get education and then end up making bombs and killing people. Is that not harmful for the world? The gift that Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave in this world is not like that. He never said that you must not study, but the problem is that other missions give priority to education and forget the real thing. That is why people end up thinking that religion is the cause of downfall. I wrote about this in the new book that is coming out soon (Guidance 3). The religion that Srila Prabhupad spoke about is not the cause of any downfall – those who are truly intelligent will serve their own souls and other souls and try to come to Paramatma; this is how they always live – they do not live fighting over food, clothes and other things.

Many people talk about 'guru-seva' (service to the guru) but they only use it as a pretext to enjoy. Even devotees can pretend – they can fake devotion, they can fake taking initiation. Such people see their guru's property as objects for their own enjoyment. There are such outside people, and there are such sadhus also – they come to the temple of their guru thinking, 'I will live and enjoy here.' This is how people become guru-bhogi (exploiters of the guru) and guru-tyagi (renouncers of the guru) People do not think, 'I want to serve the temple'; instead, they think, 'I will enjoy at the temple.' This is how we start exploiting our guru. Remember these things.

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Length: 31 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Beyond Superficial Reverence
2) Your Faith and Priorities
3) Burning Your Boats
4) Coming Unstuck
5) Beware Imitation
6) Daily Grind or Daily Gain?