(12) Open Book

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Deities' Manifestation Anniversary festival, Siliguri, 1 May 2019, morning, part 12
Translated from Bengali

Listen to the class carefully, otherwise you will feel even hungrier. The hungrier you get, the more rice you will eat, but remember that you will still need to eat in the evening, so it is no use taking ten times more rice. I will give a class in the evening, so you can come and eat. If there is no rice left, they will cook it again. By the mercy of my Lord, there is no lack of anything. The Lord does not keep me wanting anything.

Everybody says, 'Oh, Maharaj has a lot of money. He is a millionaire!' I am not! I have nothing. All I have is a simple stick, my danda. And, perhaps, two–three mobile phones in my pocket. Do you know what my expenses are? Petrol. I spent a hundred thousand rupees a month on petrol. This is my only expense. I do not have any expenses for my body. I spend three–six thousand rupees on petrol each day. I take this money from my pocket. When I go to give class at some programme, some people come and give me pranami – that usually covers this expense, so I do not worry about it.

When some bad thoughts or anarthas come to your mind, what should you do? Many people say, 'Maharaj, when I chant the Holy Name, all kinds of nonsense thoughts keep coming to my mind – I keep thinking about my family, about my life...' I wrote what you should do in this situation. When you chant the Holy Name on your beads, you should chant loudly. Chanting the Holy Name is not about counting the beads and chanting in your mind – if you chant the prescribed number of rounds loudly, all your anarthas (unwanted habits and elements) will go away. If you do that, then all your bad thoughts, all Maya will flee from you.

'If you loudly chant the prescribed number of rounds of the Holy Name of Krishna, unwanted habits and qualities will go away, and all materialism, etc. will run away—even those who are averse to the Lord, the outside people will not be able to avert it then' (Guidance 3).

So, if bad thoughts come to your minds (if you keep thinking about your children and other matters), chant loudly, 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!' When I have my phones with me, I always get calls and always think about this or that, but when I do parikrama at Gaura Purnima time, I chant kirtan the whole day and do not even think about my three phones. No external thoughts. If you chant loudly, then you will have no problem whatsoever.

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