(4/7) Learn and Practise

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, Sri Gaura Purnima Day
21 March 2019, evening class, part 4
Translated from Bengali

You must always remember what I have told you today. Keep in touch from time to time – come for the Math's festivals from time to time and call us to find out the news. Throughout the year, we have various activities and programmes. A thousand people come for Gaura Purnima and there is some problem with accommodation (you have to struggle), but at other times, there are not so many people – you can come to the temple and learn properly all the rules and practices. It is necessary to learn these things. Always keep in touch, then you will be able to practise Krishna consciousness. Otherwise, you take prescription from your doctor but do not buy and do not take the medicine – will your disease get cured like that? It will not. You must buy the medicine, take the medicine and keep in touch with the doctor from time to time. This is how you become cured. Gurudev is the bhava-roga doctor (he cures the material disease of the heart). You become afflicted by the disease, but if you keep in touch with your gurudev and listen to the advice he gives, then your disease will gradually be removed. When you see a doctor, the doctor will tell you to come and see him again at a certain time (two times a year, for example). In the same way, we have various festivals: Janmastami, Nrisingha Chaturdasi, Gurudev's disappearance day, there is Pancham Dol festival in Hapaniya soon. I am not telling anybody to leave. If you can stay, please stay; there is no problem with that. Always remember these things.

The problem is that visaya (material world and material desires) is pulling you, 'Come with me!' That is why you have to go and serve Maya. Becoming servants and maidservants of Maya, you have to take all the beating and kicking from her, or you become griha-arami (you enjoy the comfort of your life at home). You stay at home and can sleep as much as you want on a nice bed, but you cannot do this here. Enjoying comforts and luxuries means you become deha-arami (you enjoy bodily comforts). Because of these things, we cannot practise spiritual life. I could also live like that – I could go to Kolkata and live there in comfort, but I will not do that because this is not what I am here for. I must help and give benefit to others! I must preach, and if I do not practise myself, how can I preach then? If I myself do not listen to what gurudev says, who will listen to me then? If I had not listened to my gurudev, so many people would not have come to me – because I listened to gurudev, people come to me. One man came today to me. He had wasted seventeen years! He came to me to take initiation today. He understood that he had gone astray, and seventeen years later he came to me... So, you must remember that you must practise yourself, then others will listen to you.

If you want to preach, you must practise what you preach. Practising means you must listen to what your gurudev says and live following his instruction. If you do not follow gurudev's words, nobody will listen to you. You can see that people who have university degrees, who have good jobs, who earn good money and know good culture come to this path – do you think they are crazy? They are not. They consciously come to this line. But we do not understand this. It is said in the scriptures that there is always some darkness underneath a candlelight.

You know, when you come to China, you cannot come there wearing Indian clothes, that is why Gurudev could not go there himself, but he sent a white-clad devotee (Sripad Yudhamanyu Prabhu) there. That devotee went there as an English teacher, but in-between teaching English, he told his students about Mahaprabhu, about Guru Maharaj and Gurudev. As the result of his stealthy preaching, many people gave up eating frogs, snakes, insects, etc. and came to take shelter of Gurudev. Now they come here from China. Srila Janardan Maharaj goes there from time to time – he has to wear some ordinary clothes on top, but once he comes to the preaching centre, he stays in his sannyas clothes and preaches in this way. They struggle so much to preach there, but now very nice devotees come from China. I asked one of the girls if she wanted to get married, and she told me, 'Did I come to this line to get married? There are many nice boys in China, and I could have got married to any of them, but then I would not be allowed to follow Mahaprabhu.' I liked her answer very much.

You can see Sripad Niriha Maharaj's father also. He is staying in Ekachakra now. I told him, 'I want to prepare your son for preaching,' and now when his father sees him, he says, 'Dandavat, Maharaj. How are you?' and the son also says to his father, 'Dandavat, Prabhu.' This is the right way to talk. In the same way, the husband must address his wife 'Didi', and the wife must address her husband 'Prabhu'. Everybody is servants of Krishna (Krishna-das) – nobody is your husband or wife! There is some formal gradation – all spiritual divisions are parts of the Lord's body, and brahmacharis are said to be situated higher than grihasthas, and sannyasis are said to be situated higher than brahmacharis (sannyasis are said to represent the head of the Lord). Grihasthas are formally situated lower, so they must always pay obeisances to sannyasis – they must not see who is a father and who is a son. Srila Prabhupad wrote to his brother about Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, 'Baba badha Radha. Because you see Bhaktivinod Thakur as only your father, you cannot see that he is actually Radharani's associate.' It is necessary to understand the relationship (sambandha-jnana).

Anyhow, today is Sri Phalghuni Purnima Tithi, the day when Mahaprabhu appeared. He chose this day for His advent. On this day, we must think that Mahaprabhu is going to descend – immersing ourselves in kirtan, in chanting the glories of the Lord, we must awaken ourselves to the realisation that the Lord is about to appear, that there will be chanting of the Holy Name – and there was also a lunar eclipse on this day... We must think about all these things.

Much has been said already, so let us chant some kirtan of Mahaprabhu and Gurudev now.

[His Divine Grace chants kirtans: 'Guru bada krpa kari', 'Nitai-pada-kamala', 'Kabe Sri Chaitanya more karibena daya', 'Emona durmati', 'Yasoda Nandana Krsna', 'Aruna-vasane' and the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.]

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Length: 104 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Acquire Transcendental Vision
2) Emerging from Visaya
3) Future Is Now
4) Learn and Practise
5) Scriptural Evidence of Mahaprabhu's Advent
6) Mahaprabhu's Esoteric Nature
7) Attaining the Unattainable