(6) Sincere Seeking

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 5 April 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

We must chant the Holy Name without offences. If you chant the Holy Name with offences during the whole year, or even during ten millions lifetimes, you will not come to the Lord like that. The solution to this is to chant the Holy Names of Gaura and Nityananda.

‘কৃষ্ণনাম’ করে অপরাধের বিচার ।
কৃষ্ণ বলিলে অপরাধীর না হয় বিকার ॥

‘krsna-nama’ kare aparadhera vichara
krsna balile aparadhira na haya vikara

‘The Holy Name of Krishna considers offences: when one who commits ten offences of the Holy Name takes the Name of Krishna, it produces no transformation in them.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.24)

The Holy Name judges whether one is an offender and if it sees that the person is an offender, it does not come to their mouth. You can hear sahajiyas chant asta-prahar kirtan, this kirtan, that kirtan – all this is nama-aparadha (offences to the Holy Name). They forget everything and think that they have already got the Lord. Mirabai was like that. She said, 'I have got the treasure of love for Krishna!' But Mahaprabhu said, 'I have not got any Krishna-prema whatsoever.'

'I have got Krishna!' – does one ever say such things? When Srila Prabhupad was at Radha Kunda, he spoke about Prahlad Maharaj there. Even the gopis of Vraja, who are the highest, the dearmost devotees of Lord Krishna, said, 'We do not have the kind of devotion that Prahlad Maharaj has.' If somebody says, 'I have become a devotee of Krishna, I know everything, I have understood everything,' they have nothing. But if somebody says, 'I am nothing. I do not know or understand anything. I have no quality or qualification' – if they say this from their heart, not just making a show or repeating these words like a parrot – then they have got something real. Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami said,

জগাই মাধাই হৈতে মুঞি সে পাপিষ্ঠ ।
পুরীশের কীট হৈতে মুঞি সে লঘিষ্ঠ ॥

jagai madhai haite muni se papistha
purisera kita haite muni se laghistha

‘I am more sinful than Jagai and Madhai and lower than worms in stool.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.5.205)

We learn these words by heart and repeat them – are we saying them from our hearts? Do we ever think that we are great sinners? If somebody says to us, 'Hey, you, sinner! You are a rascal!' we get all angry and want to hit the person for this. That is our situation, but externally we say with our mouths, 'I am more sinful than Jagai and Madhai.' Srila Prabhupad said also: if somebody says, 'Do not say jay to me! Do not do it!' it means that they are saying, 'Give me more jay!'

You must read these things...

চৈতন্য-নিত্যানন্দে নাহি এসব বিচার ।
নাম লৈতে প্রেম দেন, বহে অশ্রুধার ॥

chaitanya-nityanande nahi esaba vichara
nama laite prema dena, bahe asrudhara

'There is no such consideration when it comes to Chaitanya and Nityananda. When one takes Their Names, They grant them divine love and torrents of tears start flowing from their eyes.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.31)

The Holy Name judges whether one is an offender or not, but there can be no offence in chanting the Holy Names of Gaura and Nityananda. So, it is not possible to chant Krishna-kirtan if you are an offender. Even if you chant the Holy Name of Krishna like that for millions of lives, you will never get the treasure of Lord Krishna's holy lotus feet or divine love for Him. But there is no such consideration of offences in chanting Gaura-Nityananda's Names, so we must chant Their Names!

Read this book, there are very nice things written in it. It is necessary to read nicely. When I cannot sleep at night, I read books until eleven or twelve at night. You can always see many books at my bed. Sometimes, I can wake up in the middle of the night and see that the light and the fan are on and there is a book lying squashed next to me. I do not even know when I fall asleep. It is necessary to have a habit of reading books, and you must apply what you read in your lives. It is necessary to read more and to study. If you do not study, you will not get anything. The more you study, the better it is for you, but nowadays people forget how to study...

You cannot only dress as a sadhu – it is necessary to become a sadhu. There are many people in this world who dress as sadhus, but it is very hard to become one. Do you understand it? It is very hard to become a sadhu.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।
গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

‘gorara ami, gorara ami’ mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara laile phala phale

‘Just saying, “I am Gora’s! I am Gora’s!” will not do. Only when you follow Gora’s practice and Gora’s conception will you get the proper result.’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

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