(6/7) Sole Sustenance: Sravanam, Kirtanam and Smaranam

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Two
18 March 2019, evening class, part 6
Translated from Bengali

So, we are going for the parikrama tomorrow, too. Everybody must come with us. Do not stay here and sit in the room. The day after tomorrow, the parikrama will be short – we will return by ten o'clock in the morning. You will not have to worry that day, you can take full rest – if we come at ten, you can sleep so much after that. You can take prasad and go to sleep, but you must come in the evening to hear Hari-katha. It will be Gaura Purnima Adhivas, so it is necessary to hear Hari-katha in the evening. It is Gaura Purnima – there is no 'dol purnima' anymore! ['Dol purnima' is a festival of spring, celebrated widely among common people.]

On the day of Gaura Purnima, please do not go outside. Stay here, hear about the Lord. If you go outside, people will throw colours at you. So, please do not go outside – stay here, hear about the Lord, chant the Holy Name. There will be parayan (continuous reading, from beginning to end) of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. There will be classes and kirtans a few times throughout the day. The more you hear, the more benefit you receive.

Always live practising in this way. Listen to what your guru and Vaishnavs say and try to keep it in your hearts. Sannyasis speak such nice, beautiful things – when you go to your homes, where will you hear all this? You must always remember this. I will not make you struggle any longer for today, so please go have prasad and take a good rest. But the problem is that when the time comes to sleep, you start talking so much! You talk and talk and lose energy as the result, that is why you do not get energy to chant the Holy Name after that. You may wonder how I sing the whole day. You can see for yourself – do I speak nonsense (gossip and discuss all kinds of things, material news and matters)? I do not. It is very rare that you will hear me talk about such things.

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

'Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself and give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236–237)

These are Mahaprabhu's teachings. He taught this to Srila Raghunath Das Goswami as well as all of us. Do not discuss material things, do not listen to material things. The less you can speak, the better. The more you speak, the more wrong you do because when you talk a lot, it means you are talking nonsense. Always speak little. Instead, always chant the Holy Name – may our tongues be always taking Krishna's Name. Srila Haridas Thakur said, 'I want to chant Your Name with my mouth, I want to see Your lotus face with my eyes, and I want to hold Your holy lotus feet to my chest.' This is how Srila Haridas Thakur left his body... You must read about his withdrawal pastime. When we go to Puri, we always speak about it.

We have recently published Sri Puri Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala about the glories of the holy abode of Lord Jagannath. Read this book. Take this book with you to your home. You must definitely read books! If you read and read gurudev's books, you can get his association. All these books contain Hari-katha. Srila Sridhar Maharaj has a nice small book called Sri Bhakti Raksak Hari-kathamrita, Gurudev has a book called Bhakti-kalpa-vriksa as well as Rochanamrita. We also have kirtan books – you can buy a pocket-size kirtan book and chant kirtans at home. Tell me, why can you not chant kirtan? Shall I tell you why? When I chant kirtan, you cannot chant after me. Do you know why? Because you do not practise at home. Even when the arati is going on, you cannot chant with everyone. Srila Sridhar Maharaj composed one of the arati songs we sing:

জয় শচীনন্দন, সুর-মুনিবন্দন,
ভবভয়-খণ্ডন জয় হে ।

jaya sachi-nandana, sura-muni-vandana,
bhava-bhaya-khandana jaya he

'All glory to Sri Sachi-nandan, who is worshipped by demigods and sages! All glory to He who destroys all fear of material existence!'

We sing it in the morning and at noon. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote Mahaprabhu's arati ('Kiba jaya jaya Gaurachandera aratika sobha') – we sing it in the evening. You cannot sing these songs... You do not know the Tulasi parikrama kirtan... Why? Because you do not practise. The nine kinds, or limbs, of devotion are sravanam (hearing about the Lord), kirtanam (chanting the Lord's Name and glories), smaranam (remembering the Lord), pada-sevanam (serving the Lord's lotus feet), archanam (worshipping the Lord's Deity), vandanam (offering obeisances and prayers to the Lord), dasyam (serving the Lord as a servant), sakhyam (serving the Lord as a friend), atma-nivedanam (submitting yourself to the Lord). You do not practise this... You can buy small pocket-size kirtan books and keep them in your breast pocket.

Is what I am saying true or not? None of you is practising! You do not chant kirtans. I have told you many times: chant five kirtans in the morning and five kirtans in the evening. I also chanted only five or six kirtans today (I chanted one extra kirtan at the end). I tell you to chant only five kirtans, but you do not do it. You do not chant in the morning and in the evening, you do not think about the Lord! 'Kirtana prabhave smarana haibe (কীর্ত্তন-প্রভাবে স্মরণ হইবে): chanting (kirtan) arouses remembrance (smaran)' ('Vaishnav Ke?'). If you do not chant the kirtan of the Lord (do not chant about the Lord's glories), will you be able to remember the Lord? When we chant kirtan, we can remember the Lord at this time. When we chant, 'Jaya Yasomati-nandana', we are remembering Krishna's beauty – we are thinking about what Krishna looks like, what Vrindavan is like, we have the darshan of various temples and Deities of Krishna. When we chant, 'Jaya Sachinandana', we are thinking about Gaura's beauty. When we chant about Nityananda Prabhu, we can remember Ekachakra temple and this temple here (in Nrisingha Palli) also – you can see Gaura and Nitai on the left side. But you do not chant kirtans, do not practise...

That is why we say that you should chant the Holy Name even when you sit in the bathroom passing stool. Everybody says that we have two hands (hata, হাত), but we actually have one more hand  – excuses (ajuhata, অজুহাত)...

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 28.5 Mb
Length: 56 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Future Vision
2) Happiness amidst Sadness
3) Smooth Parikrama Day
4) Chad Kazi Purified
5) Meaning of Vaishnav-Seva
6) Sole Sustenance: Sravanam, Kirtanam and Smaranam
7) Sincerity vs. Excuses