(4/15) Help Yourself and Others

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, Sri Jagannath Misra Anandotsav
22 March 2019, morning class, part 4
Translated from Bengali

Gurudev always loved foreign devotees very much, but at the same time I cannot ignore you all. I go house to house, visiting you all. If you invite me to your place, I will come, but I will not come there to eat – I can come with a few devotees to give something to people, to help people. You may be alone in your village, but if you can invite fifty or a hundred people to a programme, saying, 'Maharaj will come from the temple, please come to my house for the programme,' then I can come and speak some Hari-katha, and through that some people can come to this line.

করিতেছ উপকার, যাতে পর উপকার,
লভে জীব শ্রীকৃষ্ণ-সেবায়

karitechchha upakara, yate para upakara,
labhe jiva sri-krsna-sevaya

'You are helping others, and through your help, other souls get a chance to serve Lord Krishna.'

(Acharya Vandana)

When you arrange vaishnav-seva, you bring benefit not only to yourself but also to others because people can come to your house, hear a class and kirtan and come to the path that can take them to the Lord (they can come to practise Krishna consciousness). And then you will not have to hear anybody in your neighbourhood criticise you that you have suddenly become a sadhu, and so on – they will see what it is about and will also come to this line. You can see how many people took initiation yesterday – they have been coming to the temple, listening to Hari-katha, looking at what we do, and they have taken initiation, taken shelter in this line (they promised to be vegetarians, to fast on ekadasi, and so on). So, if you invite people to your house and arrange programmes, I will try to come to each and every one of you. Do not worry where I will stay; it is not necessary to make any big building for me. The only two things I need are a chair (I cannot sit on the ground, so if you can get some plastic chair, that is sufficient) and a microphone (you can hire it for one and a half or two–three hours). If you can allow me to speak about the Lord to people, then you will be doing great help to others. This is my request to you all. Try to do this village to village. Mahaprabhu said:

পৃথিবীতে যত আছে নগরাদি গ্রাম ।
সর্ব্বত্র প্রচার হইবে মোর নাম ॥

prthivite yata achhe nagaradi grama
sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

'My Name will be spread in every town and village of the world.'

You know, I once went for preaching in some village near Midnapore, and the people there told me, 'Oh, we have never even heard of Mahaprabhu.' I still remember it. I thought at that time, 'They are right here in West Bengal, near Nadia, where Nimai appeared, but these people say that they have never even heard of Mahaprabhu!' But you can see devotees sitting here – do you know where they have come from? It is morning here now, but in their countries it is evening; and there, they are observing Mahaprabhu's appearance day right now – they are dancing, chanting and celebrating now, just as we did last night. In some places, it is midnight now, and in some places it is already morning of the next day. So, Mahaprabhu's appearance day is celebrated during one–two days throughout the world. It is not like we observed it yesterday, and that is it. No. His appearance is celebrated throughout the world during several days.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 52 Mb
Length: 108 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Take Prasad
2) Stay Focused
3) Remember Your Service
4) Help Yourself and Others
5) Avoid Offences to Service
6) Avoid Offences to Holy Name
7) Avoid Offences to Vaishnavs
8) Avoid Offences to Holy Dham (Part 1)
9) Avoid Offences to Holy Dham (Part 2)
10) Avoid Kali's Places
11) Devotional Strictures
12) Devotional Strictures
13) Rejoice!
14) Outstanding Happening
15) Wholesome Vision