(9/9) Build Good Habits

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
19 March 2019, part 9
Translated from Bengali

So, much has been said today. You must listen to what is being said nicely. Tomorrow is the adhivas day, so you can all assemble here at four in the afternoon. We will come back from the parikrama by ten o'clock – you can take prasad and go to rest. Wake up at four o'clock and come here. The Lordships will wake up at four, and you also wake up at four. You must all come for the parikrama. We spend so much money on arranging everything. You can see that when we all go wearing white caps, everybody on the street take out their phones to take a picture. If we did not wear caps, then how will we know who is going and from which group? It is necessary to use brain (intelligence) in such matters.

[An indistinct comment from a devotee, ending with, 'Everybody is sleeping'] Yes, they are sleeping! When it is time to eat, they will come. 'Ara kota kal ghumaibe maya-pisachira kole (আর কত কাল ঘুমাইবে মায়া পিশাচীর কোলে). How much longer are you going to sleep on the lap of this witch Maya?'

পিশাচী পাইলে যেন মতিচ্ছন্ন হয় ।
মায়াগ্রস্ত জীবের হয় সে ভাব উদয় ॥

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya
maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

'Those who are possessed by a ghost become delirious, and the same condition arises in those who are seized by Maya, illusion.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

It is necessary to practise. We chant in one of the kirtans:

শৈশব-যৌবনে, জড়সুখ-সঙ্গে,
অভ্যাস হইল মন্দ ।

saisava-yauvane, jada-sukha-sange,
abhyasa haila manda

'In my childhood and youth, I always indulged in material happiness and I have become habituated to bad things.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When we were young, we acquired so many bad habits, that is why we have many bad habits now: we cannot chant kirtan, we cannot talk about the Lord, we feel sleepy most of the time. Why do we get sleepy? Because you have not waken up! You do not do service all the time...

When you stay at the temple, you must wake up for mangal-arati. But if you live at home and there is no mangal-arati, you do not wake up early (you wake up at six–seven or later), then how will you wake up for mangal-arati? For example, after we offer bhoga at noon, we go to rest; then it is necessary to wake up the Deities at four o'clock, and it is necessary to prepare some fruit for Their offering. Those who do this become habituated to it. When we get some free time, what do we do? Chant the Holy Name, chant some kirtans. In the evening, we must do arati again, chant kirtans and offer bhoga to the Deities. If you do all this at home eternally, every day, all your bad habits will go away, and you will be able to dance, to chant.

You can see young boys and girls who sit all the time at home, eat a lot and become fat. They get so fat that even a rikshaw does not want to take them. They do not do any hard work, they do not walk. But we have been working hard since childhood. I have been staying at the temple for twenty-eight years now [as of 2019], and I have been practising all this time, so my habits have become firm – I cannot change my habits now. I do not live like others... Those who stay with me know it. They always become tired, but I can start off from Kolkata at four o'clock, go to our temple in Kalna, to another temple in Bardhaman, then go to Nabadwip to deal with some matters, then come to Nrisingha Palli to take prasad, after that go to Krishnanagar, and from Krishnanagar return to Kolkata. I travel like that place to place almost all the time. I do not have any problem because I am used to it. My voice was broken after the parikrama, but I gargled with some salt water, took a shower and came here downstairs (my voice is all right). I told ***, 'Your voice is not broken, so you can chant the kirtans and arati.' You can do everything this way, maintain the normal schedule. You must give at least one–two hours to various services...

Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami did service for twenty-two and a half hours every day and spent only one and a half hours on eating, sleeping and bathroom. You can understand how they served! But we are just the opposite – we sleep for twenty-two and a half hours and do some work for one and a half hours...

When it is time to offer bhoga, you feel hungry, so you offer bhoga quickly thinking that it will be yours in two minutes. You offer something quickly, wait for two minutes and take the offering back – you do think, 'It is fine, the Lord has taken it, it is not necessary to wait!' This is the mood of people, so we end up in this situation. It is very unfortunate. The other day, a pujari was going to offer bhoga to the Deities and on his way he came to me and said, 'Maharaj, will this amount be enough? Will I not feel hungry?'

'Are you not taking it to offer to the Deities?' I asked.

'Yes, I am!'

'So, you are taking it to the Lord, seeing it as your food?! If you offer like that, this is not bhoga. You could have told me after you take prasad, "Maharaj, I am still hungry. How can we manage with so little?" And I would have told you, "If you feed the Lord with this amount thinking that it is enough, then you can also eat this amount."'

They do not have faith! They do not have faith that the Lord eats.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

'Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

Faith is the main thing.

Anyhow, much has been said. We will meet again tomorrow in the morning. Now go and take prasad, everything is ready.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

[His Divine Grace chants 'Hari Haraye Nama Krsna', recites Jaya Dhvani and concludes the class.]

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Main Guru of Our Line
2) Madhavendra Puri Meets Gopal
3) Answering the Call
4) Remembering Chapahati
5) Modadrumdwip's Ardent Brahman
6) Esoteric Glory of Modadrumdwip
7) Madhavendra Puri's Pastimes in Odisha
8) Be Unwandering and Unwavering
9) Build Good Habits