(3/9) Our Preaching and Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Midnapore, 23 April 2019, evening, part 3
Translated from Bengali

We do not preach that you must become a servant of Krishna – we preach that you must become a servant of Krishna's devotees. Remember this. Service to devotees is the main thing. Krishna Himself said, 'If somebody says that they are My devotee (if they preach that they have become My devotee), I do not consider them My devotee, and I do not like them so much. But if somebody becomes a devotee of My devotee, I like them much more.' This is our preaching. We want to become devotees of Mahaprabhu.

Mahaprabhu told Sriman Nityananda Prabhu, 'Preach about Krishna,' but Sriman Nityananda Prabhu did not do it. He thought, 'If I preach about Krishna to people, they will say that, "Oh, Krishna is a thief!", "Oh, Krishna stole butter!", "Krishna did this!", "Krishna did that!"' It is true – Krishna is a thief, but what did He steal? He steals our hearts. Krishna is the thief of vraja-gopis', vraja-basis' and all the devotees' hearts – they do not know anything except Krishna, they cannot even think about anything except Krishna. It is this Krishna who appeared in this Age of Kali as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna.

Coming as a devotee, Krishna came to teach by His own example what is devotion. If somebody preaches but does not practise themselves and if somebody practises but does not preach, both are wrong. 'Achara-prachara Namera adhikarya (আচার-প্রচার নামের অধিকার্য্য): one earns the right to chant the Holy Name by practising and preaching.'

আপনে আচরে কেহ, না করে প্রচার ।
প্রচার করেন কেহ, না করেন আচার ॥
'আচার', 'প্রচার'—নামের করহ 'দুই' কার্য্য ।
তুমি—সর্ব্ব-গুরু, তুমি—জগতের আর্য্য ॥

apane achare keha, na kare prachara
prachara karena keha, na karena achara
'achara', 'prachara',—namera karaha 'dui' karya
tumi—sarva-guru, tumi—jagatera arya

[Srila Sanatan Goswami said to Srila Haridas Thakur,] 'Some practise but do not preach, some preach but do not practise. Both practising and preaching are part of chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. Therefore, you are the spiritual master of the entire world, you are the most venerable person in the world.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.102-103)

Mahaprabhu Himself declared:

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.'

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, 3.4.126)

There is no other way in this Age of Kali except for chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. Mahaprabhu told:

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

'Whether you are lying down, eating or waking up, incessantly think about Krishna and chant the Name of Krishna with your mouth.'

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.28.28)

হরের্নাম হরের্নাম হরের্নামৈব কেবলম্ ।
কলৌ নাস্ত্যেব নাস্ত্যেব নাস্ত্যেব গতিরন্যথা ॥

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

'Chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name – there is no other way, no other way, no other way.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.7.76)

There is no other way in the Age of Kali except chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. We must realise that we do not have time. How long are we going to be in this world? None of us can be sure about it. It can be seven minutes more, seven days or ten years more. You think, 'Oh, I still have much time!' But what will become of you in the future? You feel, 'This is my house', 'This is my room' – you live thinking that you are surrounded by things that belong to you, but where will all that go when it is time for you to leave?

শ্মশানে শরীর মম পড়িয়া রহিবে ।
বিহঙ্গ পতঙ্গ তায় বিহার করিবে ॥

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
bihanga patanga taya bihara karibe

'My body will be left at a crematorium, and birds and insects will heartily enjoy it.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

All your money, wealth, cars, houses, jobs – where will all that be?

কোথায় ছিলাম হেথায় এলাম
কোথায় যাব ভাবি নাই
কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kothay chhilam hethay elam
kothay yabo bhavi nai
kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

'Where was I? Where have I come? And where will I go after that? It never crosses my mind. Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?'

Even now we still do not get it. How many times I have explained it to you! It seems that you are all awake, but you are just sleepwalking. When somebody is sleeping, you can call them and they will wake up. But if somebody is sleepwalking, you can call them a hundred times but they will not hear you. We are all like that, that is why we cannot understand anything. Merciful sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs go door to door, begging us, 'Krsna bala, sange chala, ei matra bhiksa chai (কৃষ্ণ বল, সঙ্গে চল, এই মাত্র ভিক্ষা চাই). I am begging you for one thing only – come with Me and chant the Holy Name of Krishna!'

This is something we must always remember.

We forgot the Lord and forgot the relationship that we have with the Lord. We are all souls. When your soul leaves the body, your family (parents, wife or husband, children, etc.) will cry over it, 'Please do not leave!' but your soul that has left will be already gone – it will go answering the Lord's call. Depending on your fortune, either Yamaduts or Vishnuduts will come after you and take you away. Even knowing all this, we still do not want to chant the Holy Name...

We must serve the Lord genuinely, with faith, with heart and soul. If we can pass our days like this for as long as we are alive – if we can always chant, 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare' – and if we can leave this body serving the Lord, then we can attain the supreme benefit: we can reach our own home (the domain of the Lord). We must have this kind of firm determination and unswerving focus in our lives. We must learn and realise that we have got this human birth to live in surrender to the Lord. This is what we forget.

Actually, we cannot understand these things because we cannot give up trifle things. Because we cannot give up fish, meat, onion, garlic, lentils, we cannot take shelter at the holy feet of a genuine guru. I have told you this example so many times. Suppose you come to a doctor and it turns out that you have diabetes. If the doctor loves you, he will never give you permission to eat sweets; but if the doctor does not love you (if he only loves your money), then he will allow you to eat anything and everything because he will think, 'Oh, if this man dies, what loss is it to me? But if I tell him not to eat sweets, he will go to another place, and I will lose my income.' Just as there are such bogus doctors in this world who cheat both themselves and others, there are also bogus gurus in this world. Such gurus are after your money and things – a genuine guru does not need your money or things. Genuine gurus want you to come to this path, practise Krishna consciousness, and think about the Lord.

— : • : —

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Length: 81 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Whose Servant Are You?
2) Preaching Expansion
3) Our Preaching and Life
4) Genuine Worship
5) Give Your Heart
6) Use Your Time Wisely
7) God Exists for Those Who Have Devotion
8) Service Enthusiasm
9) Awkward Excuses