(10/12) Spiritual Foundation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, Festival anniversary,
4 March 2019, evening, part 10
Translated from Bengali

There are four things that we prohibit: dyuta (gambling), pana (intoxicants), striya (illicit sex), suna (slaughter).

Dyuta means gambling. There was an article in the newspapper the other day about a man from West Bengal who had won fifteen million rupees in lottery. He bought a car, built a house and a land and gave some money to his relatives. Seeing his fortune, other villagers started to buy even more lottery tickets – everybody wanted to become millionaires. Having spent much money, the man continued buying lottery tickets and spent almost two million rupees on that, but he never won anything again. In the end, he had spent all his money and now lives by begging. His wife makes bidi and he goes begging. Then you can understand yourself why we prohibit it. You can have millions of rupees, but you will still want to have more and more.

Suppose somebody drinks alcohol and you want them to stop drinking it. You can even give them two lakh rupees, but will that make them stop drinking? It will not. It is necessary to explain and speak to the person: if you drink milk and then drink alcohol, you destroy all the benefit of drinking milk. It is bad to drink alcohol. Explain it clearly again and again. It is necessary to make some social events and explain to people that it is bad to drink. But giving money to such people is no use because they will only drink more. Drinking alcohol is intoxication, and it includes smoking, taking drugs and even drinking tea.

The third thing is illegal sex. Suppose a man has a wife, but he goes and mixes with another lady; or a lady has a husband, but she mixes with another man. Just as gambling, such free mixing disrupts family life.

The fourth prohibition is slaughter, killing other jiva souls. Do not kill any living entities. Everything is created by the Lord, for the Lord, so do not encroach on that.

You should follow this and mould yourself according to these rules.

[Some of the audience is seen to be walking out] Do not leave, you can all take prasad. It is not a problem. They have cooked for everybody, do not let it go to waste. I knew that people would come for the class, so I told them to cook for everybody. So, stay and take prasad. This is the Lord's prasad. You can go home and eat there, but what you eat at home is not prasad. When you offer bhog to the Lord, then you get prasad. Come tomorrow also in the afternoon, everybody will get prasad, too. The day after tomorrow is a big festival also – everybody will come here.

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Length: 56 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Pure Hearts' Kirtan
2) Worship of Lord Siva
3) Proper Worship Comes from Proper Identification
4) Know Thyself
5) Pivoted Life
6) Short-Lived and Short-Sighted
7) Do Not Cheat Yourself
8) Devotional Service
9) Temple Is Not Made of Bricks
10) Spiritual Foundation
11) Stray Souls
12) Embrace Sheltered Life