(2) Know Your Place

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, evening, 13 April 2019, part 2
Translated from Bengali

So, you must always think about your spiritual life, about how you can practise Krishna consciousness and serve the Lord, serve your guru and Vaishnavs. When it comes to God, we must think, 'He is my own.' God is the centre of our lives – we are all members of His family. We have left Maya's family and want to become members of Krishna's family. We have lived all our lives as members of Maya's family – were born as her family members; but we must jump into Krishna's family. ‘Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi’ anachara (করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার). Leave your sinful behaviour and dedicate your life to Krishna.’ We must leave all unwanted habits. We often speak about what those bad habits or elements are, and they must be given up.

We come to serve the Lord, and Lord Siva is a great Vaishnav – he always chants Lord Krishna's glories with his five mouths. But as for us, instead of serving Lord Siva, we dress ourselves as Sivas. You can see during the Gajan festival that many people dress themselves as Siva. When I went to Kolkata the other day to buy a chamara, I saw people buying wigs, dreadlocks and other attributes of Lord Siva. People spend money on enjoyment. This is not worship of Lord Siva. We must come to Lord Siva to pray to him, 'O Lord Siva, you are a great Vaishnav, you were able to join Lord Krishna's rasa-lila, so please give this right to me, too, so that I could serve gopis, so that I could serve Lord Krishna under their guidance.'

কৃষ্ণ সে তোমার, কৃষ্ণ দিতে পার,
তোমার শকতি আছে ।
আমি ত’ কাঙ্গাল, ‘কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ’ বলি’,
ধাই তব পাছে পাছে ॥

krsna se tomara, krsna dite para,
tomara sakati achhe
ami ta’ kangala, ‘krsna krsna’ bali’,
dhai tava pachhe pachhe

‘Krishna is yours, so you have the power to give Him. I am very poor – calling out, “Krishna! Krishna!” I am running behind you.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It said in the scriptures, 'Vaisnavanam yatha Sambhuh: Lord Siva is the highest Vaishnav.' But when people come to worship him, they sacrifice goats. They do it so that they can eat that meat themselves after that. It is Kali-yuga, an age of strife. Lord Siva does not want all this.

One of Lord Siva's names is Nilakantha because he drank and digested poison (after which his neck turned blue). He can do so much, but people merely dress as make-believe Sivas. It is not our duty to engage in all this. On the day of dol-purnima, people throw and smear colourful dyes on each other, but we can only offer some of that dye at the holy lotus feet of the Lord, nothing else. We do not have the right to play with those dyes.

People sometimes ask, 'You sing in the kirtan: "Tambula rasala ane tambula masala. Then, Krishna-chandra is given some juicy and spicy betels." If you can offer spicy betel (paan) to Krishna, why cannot you take it? It is prasad!' I replied, 'I have no right to take it.' We do not have the right to take all kinds of prasad. You know, they offer ganja (marijuana) and datura fruit to Lord Siva as bhoga – can you eat it? You cannot (datura is poisonous). Lord Siva has the right to take it, but we do not. Lord Siva has the right to take ganja, but we cannot do it (ganja is an intoxicant). Always remember this.

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